A 24/7 Tool for Learning Anywhere Anytime :: Flash card for learning

Today the whole world faces and recognises the enormous force of information streaming via TV/cable, Internet, MP3, IPOD, radio, books, magazines, newspapers, smart cell phones, and handheld devices. People live in society of access to everything via the access to web pages and information searches such as google.

So how do we combat Information Overload? The answer is we change the way the message is delivered! How do we change the message delivery system? By Chunking - that is grouping larger bodies of information into smaller, meaningful segments which has certain advantages.

This article describes flash cards in terms of transferring content to pocket-sized cards as well as access to cards by mobile phone along with making own personal mobile flash card system.

Flash cards for learning
By definition Flash Cards are fast reading, pocket sized deck of cards that enable individuals, public and private enterprises to quickly tap into the best minds on business, professional development, communications, sales and marketing and host of other important content topics in work, occupation, organisation and or business. Flash Cards change the way the message and medium is traditionally delivered to one using innovative technological mobility tools in the communication age. It provides persons or enterprises to have ready access to information or serve as a learning tool for capacity building to raise their level of competence to perform tasks.

By chunking these flash cards can provide a learning platform for content dissemination that meets the needs of institutions – individual and companies alike.

Flash card application for bringing solution to learning

Flash Cards assist knowledge workers and learners to grasp main concepts without exhausting them with extraneous details.

Key ideas and important insights are extracted from CONTENT (published books, information material etc) and placed onto pocket-sized cards with benefits of saving learning time and helping learner grasp main concepts without exhausting them with extraneous details. Flash Card application enhances the skills and capabilities of organisations to access knowledge and information easily.

Best selling books (professional, business, wealth, sales, and personal development) with approval of authors and publishers are transferred onto physical reading cards and accessed them by mobile phone/PDA platform or by computer desktop/laptop delivery with user testing capabilities.

Flash cards make it practical that content needs to be learned, retained and delivered with real time access.

Flash card specifications
Flash cards fast reading pocket sized cards are presented with font colors and on the backside of each card there are motivations and quotations, and inspiring messages.

It's packed with the actual methods, strategies and techniques needed at the workplace or study environment. It allows the users to easily pull out a different card each day to read as daily business building subject matter.

The innovative applications for Flash cards:

1. Pocket size cards printed and delivered with the capability of mobile access using PDA, desktop, laptop and mobile smart phones
2. Twenty tools for individual and/or in groups for training situation exercises within the programme
3. Library of titles (250) available depending on number 25, 100, or 250 titles.

Access to professional books enables one to quickly tap into the best minds on business, management, professional development, and communication, sales and marketing and host of other topics important in the workforce or organisation.

Each title deck contains key ideas and important insights extracted from existing book or pre set content. There is a library of over 250 books available in flash card format that can be used by trainers; incorporated into corporate and government training activities, and as an individual training tool. Each plastic card is black, red and yellow colors with face card telling the reader an important component of the book with around 28+ cards per deck.

Experts hired to develop 20 ways and exercises on how to use flash cards. Each exercise has a unique way of learning content from a book, used individually or used in organisation by grounds or instruction.

The key features and benefits of mobile applications for Flash cards
1. Portability - The ability for learners to carry flash cards with/or mobile device within a learning environment or to different learning environments with ease.
"Over 50% of all employees spend up to half of their time outside the office." Statistics from Empowering Technologies Incorporated cited by Keegan (2003)
2. Social Interactivity - Sharing and collaboration between learners.
"The role of trainer changes from transferring knowledge to individual learners to a facilitator helping learners work together in the construction of their own knowledge." (Harasim, 1990)
3. Context Sensitivity - The ability of learners to gather and respond to real or simulated data unique to the current location, environment, and time using flash card content.
"Engages learners in the learning process and provides for immediate reflection of the effect of their actions on the system as a whole." (Harasim, 1992)
4. Connectivity - Learners are always connected to a shared mobile network for the purposes of data submission, data retrieval, and communication.

Author books are now available on mobile platform with ready access on smart phones, PDA, desktop/laptop or iPOD and can be saved onto personal hard drive.

Examples of Flash card applications including mobile access

1. Education Learning - access to professional books where each deck of cards contains key ideas and important insights extracted from a best selling book that will enhance training of government and enterprise staff and trainer resources
2. Human Resource Management – mobile delivered books and content can be displayed along with types of study aides such as Checklists, Reference Tools and Self Assessments, Tests and Quizzes, Refresher Tools, In Class Pre Test Preparation, and Best Practices.
3. Communications and Training – using mobile media audio, and video with superimposing instructors on top of power point slides, documents or graphics, real live training can be reproduced and integrated into Flash cards.
4. Making own mobile flash cards

StudyCell, a company dedicated to making educational software for cell phones operates mobile flash card system which offers pre-made mobile flash card decks for studying a variety of subjects (languages, math, history, etc.), in addition to its patent pending system for creating individualised flash cards on the StudyCell Web site for download to students' cell phones. Once created, these individualised "make your own" flash cards can be shared with other students and teachers.

Flash cards can serve as a advertising or marketing tool that can be used as quick reference, reminder and reinforcement learning and operating tool or buy them for the office, co-workers – trainers and educators, and they also can be used in trade shows/exhibitions or provide clients as an important product tool as a custom message that the institution wants to deliver.

http://www.digitallearning.in/articles/article-details.asp?articleid=962&typ=Regular%20Features

The iPod's receptionist

Well the iPod is popular and every company wants to hook up with the pod, so you have options ranging from the itrip to a DJ console which synchronises with the iPod. But as they say in advertising "wait there's more". Meet the Mavizen MobiBlu. What's so special about it you ask? It looks like a regular iPod radio remote you say. Well I agree it is all that, but it's a lot more too.

In fact, the MobiBlu is what I would call the receptionist of the iPod. It takes calls from your bluetooth 2.0 enabled cellphone and forwards it through bluetooth to your iPod, so you can listen to music and switch to a meaningless conversation with just the touch of a button. Alright, here's the skinny on the MobiBlu. The package sports a clip-on remote control, a 24 inch cord that attaches to the iPod's (4G and above) and a USB adaptor for firmware updates.

All you have to do is connect the MyBlu to your iPod, pair the two by pressing the play pause and bluetooth buttons, turn on the bluetooth option on your cellphone, enter the pass code 0000 and voila...want voice dialling and you've got it. Want a Last Number Redial Option and you've got that too. Want Pamela Anderson's cellphone number, well we don't have that yet but some other features of the myblu do merit a stare, for instance a callback option through the pod for up to 9 received calls and ofcourse instant switching from the jarring music on your iPod to the more haemmoraged variety available on FM stations.

Before we scare you with the details, let's quickly round up the good points shall we. First up, the call quality on this thing is clear. The radio doesn't disappoint with its tuneful performance either, the redial option and the voice dial option work for me, since I don't have to take my mobile out again and again.

The setup is simple and requires you to have the IQ of roughly an anthropoid to operate it. And speaking of plus sizes, this piece has got some big problems on its hand. It is not battery powered, it does suck battery from the iPod though. It's FM functions are fool-proof. It doesn't display the name of the stations. It's perfect if you Pod But the price of Rs 4,490 makes it flawed.

So, what's the verdict? Well, high marks for innovativeness and usability but not for price, especially when it's available in the US for USD 90 (Rs 3,690).

http://news.moneycontrol.com/mccode/news/article/news_article.php?autono=279638

The Ultimate Guide to Video iPod by Ian Richardson

Well, let’s see. There are so many options squeezed into one slim, 2.5” LCD screen media center that it’s going to take a lot of time going over each one of them. So let’s do take it one at a time, shall we? This guide is going to take over all the options you’ve got and how to convert absolutely anything and everything – DVDs, TiVo video, messy AVIs, muxed MPEGs and more to iPod compatible video – all within OS X. And along the way, we’ll teach you a couple of iPod tips and tricks, too!

Handling Those Nasty Scratches

When you take your iPod out of the box, your first order of business should be to protect your investment. You don’t want any of those nasty scratches from appearing on your precious media box, do you? It’s a complete eye soar and one you can completely avoid.

The good thing about this new iPod is that its design is slightly different from that of the nano, which according to most users scratch easily. The new iPod has better chassis and doubled-layered, probably to protect the LCD monitor. But if you want to make sure that your iPod doesn’t show any scratches, most users recommend plastic cases, such as The Invisible Shield. If not, you can always get the white model, instead of the black one.

What Videos Can You Play?

Let us briefly go over the kinds of videos that your new iPod can support. According to Apple’s website, the video specifications of the new iPod are the following:

• H.264 video: up to 768 Kbps, 320 x 240, 30 frames per sec, Baseline Profile up to Level 1.3 with AAC-LC up to 160 Kbps, 48 Khz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats.

• MPEG-4 video: up to 2.5 mbps, 480 x 480, 30 frames per sec, Simple Profile with AAC-LC up to 160 Kbps, 48 Khz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats.

For the newbies, this might all sound a little too confusing. What’s with all the numbers? Don’t worry because chances are you only need to remember a few of those for you to get the most out of your new iPod.

First, let’s start with H.264 video. The highest video bitrate with the H.264 codec is 768 kilobits per second. The biggest picture size for your H.264 movie is 320 pixels wide by 240 pixels high, which is incidentally the exact dimension of your iPod’s screen. Your iPod can play H.364 video at framerates up to 30 frames per second. Every one of the applications that we’ll be using encodes with the Baseline Profile. Your audio needs to be encoded as AAC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48 KHz, and it can be in either stereo or mono. As long as you follow all the guidelines, your movie can even be a QuickTime movie or an MPEG-4 movie file.

The other option you have is the MPEG-4 video, which supports a much higher bitrate than H.264 video – 2500 kilobits per second. Using higher bitrates will also create larger files, which means that you’ll have less space for additional songs and movies, but more segments of your favorite movie. The biggest picture size for your MPEG-4 video is 480 pixels wide by 480 pixels high – three times as many pixels than your iPod’s screen in capable of displaying. Your iPod will shrink the picture proportionally so that everything fits on the screen. Again, the iPod can play videos up to 30 frames per second and your audio and file format options are the same as H.264 video.

So Which One is Better – H.264 or MPEG-4?

Well, that’s a tough question really as each format has their ups and downs. Arguably, H.264 is preferable considering how it offers high quality and a file size that is much smaller compared to MPEG-4. When it comes to picture quality, however, both formats are comparable, especially when encoded at the higher supported video settings.

As for speed of encoding, most people agree that H.264 video takes longer than standard MPEG-4. Take for example a two-hour movie. When you convert that to iPod using H.264 codec, the process could take considerably longer (especially with QuickTime Pro’s pokey Export: Movie to iPod video option).

Where to Download Videos for Your iPod

If you’re tired ripping movies from your DVD collection or you’ve used up all your movie files in your computer, then it’s probably time for you to look for other sources of iPod compatible videos. Below are some good sites that offer iPod video files that are both free and legal!

• ChannelFrederator.com – If you like to watch short animations while taking a breather, this is the place to look in.

• PodGuide.tv – It’s not called “PodGuide” for nothing.

• Channel 101 and Channel 102 – Brilliant downloadable shows are up on offer.

• The iTunes Music Store’s podcast section – One of the best things about the new iPod is that Apple has bundled it with their updates on iTunes. Now, you can download loads of free videos from the store for your daily dose of iPod-casting.

• Apple iTunes – Sometimes you just have to go to the source of the source to find what you’re looking for.

• Archive.org – This site is great for old videos and movies.

Watch iPod Videos on Your TV

Say what?! Yep, it’s true. And for some users who prefer widescreen as opposed to pocket-TV, this is the best thing about the new iPod. Now, outputting your iPod videos to any TV is easy. Just use a special video cable (and it doesn’t even be the one sold by Apple), output it through your iPod’s headphone jack, and voila! You’re a couch potato, baby!

If you’re more interested in watching videos on your TV, you may want to go with the MPEG-4 format since it can support the bigger 480 x 480 picture size. When you encode widescreen movies and output them to a TV, the pixel limit is usually 230,400 pixels. So when these larger images are displayed on your TV, you’ll get to see all those extra pixels.

Okay So You Can Watch Videos on TV, Big Deal…What About My Other Videos?

When you download video files from the web or file sharing networks, some of these files may not be marked as iPod compatible. Does that mean you can’t play them on your iPod? Well, the good news is that it’s easy enough to find out.

Tip #1 – Open iTunes

The easiest and less time-consuming way to determine whether a video is iPod-supported or not is to simply open iTunes with your iPod connected. Afterwards, drop the video file directly into your iPod’s library. If the video is copied into your iPod, it means it’s compatible. If it’s not, then your iPod won’t be able to play it.

To copy the video to your iPod, just select Manually manage songs and playlists in the iPod tab of your iTunes preferences.

Tip #2 – Add Video to the iTunes Library

The other way of finding out if your video files are iPod compatible is to add your video to your iTunes library. Just right lick the video and select Convert Selection to iPod. You will receive an alert from iTunes on your screen, telling you if your video is already compatible. If it’s not, your movie will be converted to a compatible H.264 video for you.

We should probably mention that you don’t really need to add videos to your iTunes Library in order to add them to your iPod. Just drag and drop videos from the Finder straight onto your iPod in iTunes. Again, make sure you’ve enabled the manually manage option.

You can also add songs and videos to your iPod’s library from any computer that has iTunes. Just make sure that you’ve enabled the manually manage option in iTunes. If your iPod was originally formatted on a PC, you can add files from both PCs and Macs. However, if you have a Mac-formatted iPod, you’ll only be able to add files from other Macs.

Tip #3 – Open the file in QuickTime

Alternatively, you can also find out if your video is iPod compatible if you open the file in QuickTime. Next, Select Window: Show Movie Info. In most cases, your video should be iPod-ready if the format is H.264 or MPEG-4, the audio is ACC, and the size of your video is 320 x 240 (or smaller) for H.264 or 480 x 480 (or smaller) for MPEG-4. Also, look at the data rate and make sure it’s not over 900 kbits/sec for H.264 or 2600 kbits/sec for MPEG-4.

In most cases, the bitrate reported by QuickTime would include the video stream and the audio stream (normally 128 kbits/sec) so don’t wonder if the video is shown to have a higher bitrate.

I have a lot more information available at me website, be sure to click by and have a look.

Thanks for reading and I hope you find this information useful.

http://articles.sakshay.in/Article/14629.html

iPods and the Weakest Link in the Hiring Chain

Improving your process might start with hiring managers

I've been advocating the use of the iPod as a metaphor for better hiring practices. If you have an iPod, you know that it's much more than a music player. It's a complete, integrated music system. You can quickly download music and podcasts, burn CDs, and plug it into your car, home music system or Bose speaker set. You don't even have to read the instructions to do any of this stuff and get great music anytime, anywhere.

By comparison, most hiring processes resemble a group of independent activities that no one even thought about integrating. IT provides minimal support to the candidate tracking system, which only loosely ties to the HRIS. Managers, recruiters, and other interviewers assess candidates using different criteria, and many aren't very good at it anyway. In many companies, the selection process is less intense than the expense reimbursement policy. Competencies and behavior models are often in conflict, and they don't tie to the real performance requirements of the job anyway.

To make matters worse, candidates are treated as commodities, not potential future employees. This is apparent with poorly written advertising, difficulty in finding and applying for jobs, and a minimalist approach to candidate customer service when they do finally get involved. So if you're not finding enough top candidates, collectively this is probably the reason. No wonder third-party recruiters are having a field day.

If you were to prioritize every single hiring issue you have, and develop a project plan that would result in a completely integrated system in the next 12 months, where would you start first?

My vote is with hiring managers. They are the weakest link in the chain. We just completed our Recruiting and Hiring Challenges 2005 Survey (http://www.zoomerang.co

http://www.ere.net/articles/db/DE3F21B4433642F2AFE70B8ED1082A78.asp

iPods and the Weakest Link in the Hiring Chain

Improving your process might start with hiring managers

I've been advocating the use of the iPod as a metaphor for better hiring practices. If you have an iPod, you know that it's much more than a music player. It's a complete, integrated music system. You can quickly download music and podcasts, burn CDs, and plug it into your car, home music system or Bose speaker set. You don't even have to read the instructions to do any of this stuff and get great music anytime, anywhere.

By comparison, most hiring processes resemble a group of independent activities that no one even thought about integrating. IT provides minimal support to the candidate tracking system, which only loosely ties to the HRIS. Managers, recruiters, and other interviewers assess candidates using different criteria, and many aren't very good at it anyway. In many companies, the selection process is less intense than the expense reimbursement policy. Competencies and behavior models are often in conflict, and they don't tie to the real performance requirements of the job anyway.

To make matters worse, candidates are treated as commodities, not potential future employees. This is apparent with poorly written advertising, difficulty in finding and applying for jobs, and a minimalist approach to candidate customer service when they do finally get involved. So if you're not finding enough top candidates, collectively this is probably the reason. No wonder third-party recruiters are having a field day.

If you were to prioritize every single hiring issue you have, and develop a project plan that would result in a completely integrated system in the next 12 months, where would you start first?

My vote is with hiring managers. They are the weakest link in the chain. We just completed our Recruiting and Hiring Challenges 2005 Survey (http://www.zoomerang.co

http://www.ere.net/articles/db/DE3F21B4433642F2AFE70B8ED1082A78.asp

Sourcing in the Sweet Spot

What Apple's iPod system can teach you about sourcing

As I've mentioned in other articles, the iPod offers a great model for sourcing and recruiting. Three things stand out:

1. It's a system. The iPod is a fully integrated information system — not simply a standalone music player. In comparison, most corporate recruiting departments resemble a hodgepodge of different technologies, tools, competing processes, and poorly linked information channels.

2. It's strategic. Healthy businesses grow and change when strategy drives tactics. The iPod has metamorphosed Apple Computer. When tactics and processes drive strategy, companies languish and so does sourcing. Too many recruiting departments are driven by tactics, bureaucracy, and processes. For example, why do we still post boring job descriptions online?

3. It's customer- and market-driven. The iPod is compelling, easy to buy, simple to use — and fun. The sourcing processes at most companies treat potential employees as vendors. The processes are impersonal; jobs are hard to find; the marketing copy (a.k.a. the job description) is boring and exclusionary; the application process is demeaning; and the interviewing process is unprofessional.

To start addressing this imbalance, it's important to better understand the buying behavior of the people you want to attract. Then you can develop sourcing strategies and campaigns that target these people and address their needs. This is what being market and customer-driven means.

In my article The Sourcing Sweet Spot, four broad candidate pools were described. These had to do with how aggressive candidates were in seeking new jobs, what motivated them to look, and the quality of the candidates in each pool. Here's the quick take:

* Active candidates: This pool represents about 15% of the labor force. These are candidates who are actively looking full time. By definition, they need another job — either because they don't have one, or because the one they have is inferior. While there are some good candidates in this pool, the best are underrepresented. Most companies by default market to this pool.

* Less active candidates: This pool represents candidates on the margin. People in this group sometimes feel underemployed, underappreciated, or overworked. By definition they are fully employed, but on a bad day they might look for another job. The total size of this pool is about 15% to 20% of the labor force, and the best people are overrepresented in this pool. This is a big segment of the sourcing sweet spot, and you need to redesign your front- and back-end sourcing processes to market to it.

* Semi-passive candidates: These people are fully employed, but are open to being called to consider a better career opportunity. The best people are fully represented in this pool. However, the pool is huge, about 35% of the labor force. So who you call and what you say is key to success here.

* Passive candidates: These people don't want another job, so don't bother unless you can't find a strong person using less costly sourcing techniques. Passive candidates will only move for a combination of a far better job, a much stronger career opportunity, and a much richer compensation package. This pool represents the rest of the labor force, about 30% to 35%.

A comprehensive sourcing strategy in combination with a workforce plan is the lesson of the iPod. This needs to define the channels you'll use by job type, the development of advertising programs that meet the needs of those in the sweet spot, how the recruiting team will be organized, and the role hiring managers need to play.

Here are some sourcing channel ideas you might want to consider as part of increasing your effectiveness sourcing in the sweet spot.

Job Board Advertising

The key to success here is compelling ads that are easy to find, combined with an easy application process. This will capture the interest of less active candidates, who might only look for an hour or so every other month. Search engine optimization techniques need to be combined with web analytics to ensure that the best people find your ads and that the application process is designed to minimize the opt-out ratios. To quickly see how well you're doing here, put some of the keywords a top candidate would use to find a job into Yahoo! Search. If your jobs don't show up, you're not sourcing in the sweet spot.

Back-end processing is equally important here. You must be able to call the best people within 24 hours. This means that your candidate search engine must be able to separate the best from the rest, and your recruiters must be competent when calling. Of course, when they call, recruiters must get more referrals if the candidate is not a direct fit or if you have multiple openings. Equally important: The whole recruiting team must be doing this, not just a few.

Most companies complain that their job board advertising programs don't work too well. The reality is that most don't use this important channel to its fullest extent.

Semi-Passive Candidate Sourcing

There are a number of front-end keys to successfully sourcing and recruiting top people in this pool. First is having a compelling opportunity to offer. Top performers want not only a better job but also a better long-term career opportunity. Using a performance profile that clearly spells out the challenges and opportunities in the job is the key to success here. Getting names of hot candidates is next.

However, the most important part of this whole process is calling these people up, qualifying them, recruiting them, and getting more referrals. We'll leave this part to future articles, so for now let me just present a few important name-generating techniques:

* Employee referral programs. Ask your best people for the names of the best people they've worked with in the past. Then call and recruit these people and get more referrals. If you're not a phone wizard, then use Jobster. This is the next best thing — as long as you have a compelling job to describe in your email link. Without this, Jobster is just another wasted tool.

* Online tools. My favorites are ZoomInfo and LinkedIn. These are all you need to hire anyone — if you can get the person on the phone and get referrals. There are other social networking tools in this group, like Jigsaw, that should also be considered. If you have a great job, LinkedIn's new job referral system is worth evaluating. ZoomInfo has just released an email blaster, which is also pretty neat.

* Internet data-mining. Getting names this way is the stuff that made Shally Steckerl famous. You'll get some great names, but to make the techniques work, be prepared for extensive phone calling. Sometimes just getting the person on the phone is the challenge. Once on the phone, you must engage with the person and get pre-qualified referrals. This is the key to cold calling a list of names. You don't need to ever call everyone on the list. You must be able to get referrals and then work only those referrals that are "A" players. This way, you can restrict your phone calls to top tier people.

* Non-Internet name generating techniques. There are probably more great candidates not listed on the Internet than those who are. Getting these names requires a host of clever techniques, including competitive intelligence and advanced networking. I'll leave these techniques for future articles, but the point for now is that these techniques should be considered in combination with Internet data-mining.

If you want to hire more semi-passive candidates, you need to be great on the phone, be great at getting referrals, and have a truly compelling job to offer. Without these capabilities in place, it's best to restrict your in-house sourcing to a dramatic overhaul of your online and career website advertising programs and to enhancing your employee referral programs using tools like Jobster.

If you do have great jobs but don't have the in-house capability to target these semi-passive candidates, you might want to consider the use of recruiter networks like Hireability.com. Hireability.com offers a quick, low-cost way to obtain pre-qualified semi-passive candidates within days. There's no cost to check it out, and the fee is half of a typical contingency search.

Sourcing in the sweet spot is where the action is these days. Not only do you need to be there, but you also need to do it well. It starts with a sourcing strategy that's customer driven. This converts to a tactical plan based on the use of a series of sourcing channels that are designed to optimize candidate quality and time to hire. Higher cost options should only be used if quality declines. This way, you can get the best people at the lowest cost.

As part of all this, don't ignore the customer experience. Make sure the user interface is fun, compelling, and easy to use. Go out and get an iPod to put this all into proper perspective. In the long run, it will be the best sourcing investment you've every made.

http://www.ere.net/articles/db/00362D461F4B4F81A50736B2AF96DA03.asp

Vinyl Records Into your iPod

It was almost three years ago when I first wrote this "How To," and now, with the newly released Toast 7 and the updated CD Spin Doctor, it's time to re-examine how to convert your old records into digital recordings. The extra good news is that if you are placing your digital data into an iPod, there are fewer steps and there are a few fringe benefits (explained later). If you are placing your digital music onto CDs, the process is pretty much the same, but with a few less pitfalls than before.

There are many people like me with hundreds of vinyl albums with which we can't part but seldom play because we like the convenience of CDs and iPods. Either we are faced with the reality that The Best of Peter & Gordon is not likely to be converted into a CD by Capitol Records and/or since we already purchased the album once, why should we purchase the album/CD a 2nd time?

The good news is that you can convert your albums to digital music for CDs and iPods. The "also" good news is that it's not all that difficult to do, but the important thing to be aware of is that it does take a bit of time (about an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half per album) and there are really few steps that can be skipped. It's not an automatic process. Not difficult, but not automatic.

Throughout this "How To," I refer to CD Spin Doctor 3. With the exception of sending completed tunes to iTunes and the use of an equalizer, all other operations can equally be done with CD Spin Doctor 2 (CD Spin Doctor 2 can be used with a G3 and earlier versions of the Mac OS).

I've prepared a 12 step process for the conversion, and if you follow the process you should be listening to your ol' favorites on your iPod or CD Walkman in no timeówell about an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half to be more exact, but a bit less time if you are moving the songs onto an iPod.

To follow these instructions, you will need some or all of the following materials/software/hardware to do this:

* A Macintosh computer, G4 or G5 running Mac OS X v10.3.9 (Panther) or Mac OS X v10.4.x (Tiger)
* Toast 7 (bundled with the new CD Spin Doctor version 3 and Discus version 3) or CD Spin Doctor 3 standalone version
* A CD burner (either the one on the computer or external, whichever)
* An iPod, and/or a CD player
* iTunes
* A phonograph
* Headphones (preferably headphones, not buds, and preferably those that can cover the ears or fill the ear tunnel--do what you can, but don't go crazy on this. However, using the external speakers is not recommended (and if you use the speakers from a Mac tower, you are wasting your time).

But, before we begin, here's a small list of definitions:

* Album (or record): large pieces of flat, round (usually black) pieces of plastic, 12 inches in diameter with a small hole in the middle. Required a phonograph (see below) to play. There never was a phono-walkman, and these cannot be played in a moving automobile.
* CD: Compact Disc. An object that can hold music that can be played on a CD player. One of the objectives of this whole article.
* CD-R: Compact Disc-Recordable. You can record onto this type of CD one timeóyou cannot erase what you've done.
* CD-RW: Compact Disc-Read/Write. You can write onto this type of CD, erase, and write again. Not all CD players can read the information on these types of CDs.
* iPod: A small device (that keeps on getting smaller) that can play an amazing number of songs and has changed the entire recording industry almost single-handedly. (Not to mention, it has also saved Apple's butt.)
* Phonograph player: A device to play Albums. It had an arm that swung over, and physically touched the album as it rotated (see above) with a diamond "needle" and sensed the irregularities of a channel dug into a spiral grove pattern. The "needle" converted these irregularities into sound via an amplifier and sound system. They were limited to playing on flat, non-moving surfaces and had to be placed far from active dancing to prevent the needle from bouncing all over the album's grooves.

Now, once you have all these items, you can proceed. Here are the steps:

1. Select your music
2. Get the music into the computer
3. Open each track (side) in Spin Doctor
4. Set the filters to remove hissing and pops and apply the filters
5. Set the tracks
6. Name the tracks
7. (a) Send the tracks to iTunes or (b) Send the tracks to Toast
8. Turn the .aiff files into MP3 files (optional)
9. Send the names to Discus RE
10. Burn the CD
11. Print the labels
12. Enjoy the music as you assemble your Jewel Box

(1) Select Your Music

I hate to tell you this, but not every album you have is precious. That's probably why not every album you have (unless your collection were only Beatles albums) have already been converted into a CD. Considering that this process is not automatic and will require you to invest some of your time and energy, be judicious. Select with care and love. I'd be the last person to say that your music isn't (or wasn't) any good, but I will say that since you are older now your music tastes are likely to have changed.

(2) Get your music into your computer

This is probably the most challenging part of the whole process. The easiest way to do this is to take your phonograph and set it near your computer. So near that you can plug the adapter cable that may or may not have came with your copy of Toast: the red and white phono jacks go into the phonograph and the 1/8 inch stereo plug into your Mac. (If you didn't get one of these with your copy of Toast, you can obtain one from most stereo/radio stores for between $5-$10). For me, this direct plug-in approach is neither desirable nor practical. I do not want to disassemble my stereo system every time I want to record an album. That's why I eventually elected to purchase a separate CD burner that I can attach to my stereo system. While I do not expect anyone else to follow this approach, it was the most practical for me.

If you are going to plug your phonograph into your computer, you will need CD Spin Doctor 3 (SD3), software that is bundled with Toast 7. When you first open Spin Doctor, the default opening selection will ask if you want to "Import audio into CD Spin Doctoróclick "Continue." If you plan on leaving your computer alone while the album is recording (such as getting a bite to eat), you can have Spin Doctor automatically stop recording after a defined amount of time. Curiously, you have to select the playing of the music through your computers speakers (as opposed to this being a default). Click on the arrow for Input Settings and you have access to the Input Volume. To see if you are over-impeding the music, look at the upper right corner of the sheet where you see a "mic" icon. To the right of that icon, the little bubbles will show the percent of volume for both tracks (left and right). If you see the lights always filled all the way across (peakingóthat's when it's over-impeding), you have the input volume too loud. Try to keep them about 75% on loud music and never peaking on the loudest parts. Over-impeding is when the high volume of a song is so high it cannot be dealt with by the recording. So if you set the input volume too high during the soft sounds, when very loud sounds are played there is a flattening-out of the sound. This is the first place your headphones come into play: put them on and listen to a known "loud" section of your record. Adjust the volume to the point where the volume is loud but not flattening out. [Remember, adjusting the volume on your computer doesn't effect the sound or volume of the recording.] If you are not sure what bad sound is like, jam the input volume as loud as you can and see if the music sounds bad (not poorly, but bad). If it does, drop the volume down. Once the volume is set, start the record and press the record button.

Among the changes in CD SD3 is that you do not have to have an active phonograph plugged into the computer as a sound source to be able to access the various options for sound input. As can be seen below, you can import at either CD Quality (44100 Hz), DVD (48000 Hz), or a variety of lesser quality input levels. Perhaps more importantly, for input you can either use the Built-in Audio or Soundflower (both 2ch and 16ch). Soundflower is a system extension that allows applications to pass audio to other applications.

While this approach is direct, less expensive, and saves time, I find it easier to use a separate CD burner on our stereo system.

Just so you know the details, I have a Phillips CDR 785 (which is no longer made). The good thing about these type of CD burners is that you can easily make copies of CDs and you can burn any analog signal running through your stereo signal into a CD. But there are a few catches: (aside from the extra cost for purchasing this unit): have you ever seen specific CD-Rs sold as Music CD-R or Music CD-RW? You probably also noticed that these are more expensive than the standard CD-R and CD-RW you purchase for your computer. The reason is that these have a special code burnt into the CD to let the CD burners such as my Phillips know that these are Music CD-Rs and Music CD-RWs. These CDs cost more because the extra costs goes to ASCAP, BMI, and other music royalty organizations (the thought is if you are using these CDs you are burning music CDs so let's have you pay the royalties up front). If you try to use a computer CD-R, you will be told that the disk is a "Wrong Disk."

Since you plan on burning CDs of albums you already own, there should be no concern of violating copyright laws. So, if you plan on using a burner such as the one I have, you might want to obtain the Music CD-RW as these can be used over and over.

Following the instructions for your CD Burner, burn your album(s) onto the CD-RW. As a point of interest, many older albums only hold about 25-35 minutes of music. As such, I usually record two albums at a time onto the CD-RW. Once you have completed recording your music, you can then simply drag the 2, 3, or 4 tracks of music into your computer.

Why 2 or 4 tracks of music when each side of an album contains multiple songs? Whether you choose to burn the information directly into your computer or into a CD burner attached to your stereo system, the separate tracks on the album will not become separate tracks in the music you just burnt. The reason is that to create separate tracks, the CD burner, or the computer must hear gaps of no music and/or noise. By definition, all the snaps and hissing on the album is just too much noise to be considered silent and as such, each side of your album will be considered as one track. So, one album will result in 2 tracks, two albums will provide 4 tracks. This will be dealt with later, so don't worry.
(3) Open each track (side) in Spin Doctor

[For reasons I'll explain in the section where you send the music off to Toast, it is easier to fix the music in reverse track order. That is, if there are two sides to an album and if you are going to send your music to a CD and not your iPod, do the second side first before the first side. If your music will stay in iTunes and/or your iPod, it doesn't make a difference.]

As mentioned, one of the programs bundled with Toast is CD Spin Doctor 3. This program has had some nice updates since Toast 6. However, just like CD SD 2, you can open .aiff files directly as opposed to CD SD 1 where you needed to convert them into something like a "Sonic aiff" file (in Peak) and then open the track into Spin Doctor.

As you open an album's sound file into CD Spin Doctor 3, the file is converted into a waveform for a full visual presentation. This process takes about 30 seconds to 2 minutes depending on the speed of your computer, and the full sound file will appear as shown below. There are two files for stereo recordings, one for monoral. As the wave form expands farther from the "x" axis (along the "y" axis) the louder the sound. A flatter wave is lesser volume.

Just below the waveform(s), on the left side, is a slider that lets you expand and contract the waveform. This is just like zooming in and out of the wave form. In the middle of the screen are the start, stop and fast forward/rewind controls that let you listen to the recording. When you click on the start button (the right facing arrow), a line progresses along the waveform. Where the line progresses is the place in the wave form where you are listening. If you click anywhere on the timeline above the waveform, the "listen-line" will jump to that location. This is handy when you are fine-tuning the filters.
(4) Set the filters to remove hissing and pops and apply the filters

Spin Doctor's greatest strength, and perhaps its best reason for its existence, are the Spin Doctor's filters. Using these filters, one can easily remove the hissing, snapping, and popping noises that vinyl is known and loved or hated for. It is because of these noises that a CD burner cannot "hear" nothing between tracks to automatically create the tracks for the CD.

If you click on the equalizer-like button on the top right of the screen, the filter control screen slides out.

The big and obvious new addition here is something that I complained about that CD SD 2 was lacking: a real equalizer. Now, with version 3, a 10-band equalizer helps to fill the empty space on this sheet. As nice an addition as this is, I still have complaints (hey, I'm a reviewer). I would also have liked some numbers associated with each band, but, more importantly, the ability to save various settings for re-use. If you have any questions on how to play with an equalizer, open iTunes and open iTunes' equalizer. Apple provides a bunch of "pre-sets" that can help guide you towards what kind of settings are good for any given music type. Some pre-set settings I would like to see would be those to enhance certain types of recordings such as those from the 30s and 40s. By the way, if you go to the Help menu for assistance and call up "Filters," you will see the image of CS SD2. In other words, as far as the equalizer is concerned, there is no support whatsoever.

The other two filters are divided as "Noise Reducer" and "Sound Enhancer." There is no change on these from previous versions. The good news is that these controls are very effective, the bad news is that the process is too "magical." This is most evident with the Sound Enhancer that has three controls: Exciter, Wideness and Sub-Bass. Excuse me, but what in the devil does "Exciter" really mean? What is "Wideness" really doing? The good news is that these are now complimented with the equalizer.

That notwithstanding, these two filters do a good job. However, the end result will be up to you. That's the real reason you have the headphones; you have to tinker with the sound to a point where you like the result. Keep in mind that the more you increase the Noise Reducer sliders, the more you will be reducing the crispness of the sound. Therefore, do Noise Reduction before applying the Sound Enhancers.

One of the very good options with CD Spin Doctor is that you can create a copy of your music with the applied filters and leave your original alone. This is done by checking the "Create copy before applying." The default has this checked. This is good, so just leave it. Just like digital images, do not remove your original sound files until you are absolutely sure you like the results. Remember, if after you set the filters, set the tracks and burn the CD if you don't like the results you do not want to have to re-burn the original music if you don't have to. This step can take some time to finish, but is entirely processor dependent. If you have an older computer, you may want to have a newspaper handy.

One big warning on using these filters; the idea is you want to set the filters and apply them. When you apply the filter, you should be making a copy of the file with the effects of the filters as part of the sound. The process takes several minutes (depending on the speed of your processor) and once completed, you must listen to some of the music to verify that what you have is what you wanted. The big warning is that I found the quality of the sound changed after I applied the filter from when I was just testing before applying the filter. Typically, I found the music overimpeeded (flattening out during louder peaks of the music). This is why it is important to apply the filters to a copy of the music, not the originals. As such, it was easy to go back to the originals, tweak the filters down a bit and run the process over again. On one occasion it took me several tries to get the sounds to a level I was pleased with.
(5) Set (identify) the tracks

One of the big changes in version 3 is that, previously, if you set the tracks before applying the filters, you'd lose your tracks. Now, it doesn't make a difference. You can do step 4 or 5 in either order.

Either way, now or before the previous step, you need to set your tracks. There is an option with CD Spin Doctor for the software to self-find the tracks (the "magic wand"-like button to the left of the Trash Can on the top seen in the image below), but its success depends that there be no sound between tracks and, as stated, you do not have that luxury with records.

Fortunately, it's relatively easy to set the tracks in CD Spin Doctor. Below, you can see an album's .aiff sound file for one side of the album opened up in CD SD 3.

[In the image below, you see two pairs of a sound wave file. The pair on top (running horizontal) show the entire sound file. If the sound file is 2 or 200 minutes, the entire thing fills up the top window. The small blue rectangle in this window represents the sound file on view on the lower sound file window where you are "zoomed in." In the lower "zoomed in" window, you can see a red "track" being dragged out almost to the end of the song (where the sound wave flattens out). By placing the end of one track just at the end of the song's sound and the next track just at the beginning of the next song, you can avoid saving any of the record's hiss from between songs.]

Below Apple's three dots, there are two options for "Track Mode." Nothing I could do helped me determine the difference between these two settings. And as the Help file is the same for version 2, it could also provide no assistance. Ignore these options. The Auto Define button is only relevant if you have recorded a CD so CD SD3 can auto define the gaps between tracks. If you recorded an album, there are no silent regions between tracks, and you have to do this manually.

First, you magnify the waveform by sliding the size slider seen below the wave form on the left (just below the red rectangle, between the magnifying glass and the "-" and "+"). As you zoom into the wave form, it's easier to see flat sections of the wave form. These are the beginnings and endings of tracks. By mousing down on one of these sections and dragging right or left, you create the track region. If you start to play the music (by clicking on the Play button), you can verify that the tracks start and/or end at the appropriate place. Remember, some music has very subtle fade-ins or fade-outs and you probably do not want to split those off or onto the wrong track.

Once you've done this for all the tracks and labeled the tracks, CD Spin Doctor will look something like the image below. [Note that I've clicked a check box called "Fit" (above the track names). This forces the entire sound file to fit in the lower window providing no zooming of the file.]

If you miss-apply a track, you can remove it by mousing down on the track to make it active and click on the "Delete" key. That track will disappear in a puff of smoke, just like when you drag an icon out of your Dock in OS X. Rather cool.

Notice how each track will have its own color. This is very handy for determining, and fine-tuning, when one track stops and the next one starts. Also observe on the bottom half that CD Spin Doctor shows you the time when each track stops and starts. This is very handy if the music never really stops between tracks and you want to make sure you are not going to overlap the tracks and/or skip a beat of music. As you can see in the above image, these tracks are already named. The next step explains how to name the tracks.
(6) Name the tracks

Have your album by your side here; simply double-click on the "untitled-track" under the "Name" region in the window and type in the name of the song. If you click on the Tab key, you will automatically be transferred to the next song below, ready to type the next name. If you hit the Return key, the name field will be set. Be sure after you enter in the last name to either press the Return key or click the mouse button off to the side to set the last name.
(7a) Send the tracks to iTunes

This is the second big change with the new Spin Doctor (the Equalizer that was discussed in Step 4 was the first). From the File menu, you select Send to iTunes, or click on the iTunes icon on the upper right) and the following sheet drops down from the top of the window. From here you can set the Artist's Name and the Album Title. You can also set how the tracks will be encoded into iTunes (the three choices are Apple Lossless, MP3 and AAC). If you have not applied any filters, you can do that as part of the process of moving the files into iTunes, but I strongly recommend you do not do use this option. As explained in Step 5, I found discrepancies from how the tracks sounded before the filtering was formally applied and how the tracks sounded after the filters had been applied.

One of the supremely wonderful things about the window below is that you can pre-set your songs with the name of the artist and the album. Before version 3, after transferring your songs to Toast and onto a CD, then from the CD to iTunes, none of the artist or album names ever existed, and the names of the songs were always lost. This required you to replace all the data in iTunes, which was tedious.

Sadly, there is one bug when you send the files off to iTunes; all the tracks will arrange themselves in alphabetical order, not the original order of the songs on the album. While this is not a problem if you always shuffle your songs, there is no way you can listen to an album like Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band out of the proper order. It's just wrong. Fortunately, there is one easy way around this, but it does add a small step here. Once you have the songs in iTunes, click on each song of the album and either go to the File menu and select "Get Info" or simply tap "Command-i" on your keyboard and this will bring up a new window for information on that song.

As you can see in the image below, click on the "Info" tab, and on the right hand side there is a place where you can manually add the track number of the total tracks for that album. After you have entered this data, the songs will appear in their proper order if you sort your songs by either artist or album. Since this problem doesn't occur when you send songs to Toast, only iTunes, hopefully this bug will be corrected in a future update.

(7b) Send the Active Tracks to Toast

On the top right of the CD Spin Doctor window, there is a little button/icon with an orange arrow pointing to the Toast icon. If you click on this, all your tracks will be sent off directly to Toast. If Toast is not open, this action will automatically start Toast.

Early in this article, I mentioned that you want to work on the album sides in reverse order (side 2 and then side 1). This is because CD Spin Doctor sends the songs over and places them at the top of the list. So, if you did the first side first, after sending the second side over, the second side's songs would be placed before the first sides songs. If you do create the sides in the wrong order, this is not really a big deal because, in Toast, you can easily drag songs up and down to either re-create the order on the album or play record promoter and place the songs in the order you felt they should have been in the first place.

(8) Add songs from iTunes

While you can no longer use Toast to burn CDs from songs you have downloaded from the iTunes store, you can burn as many CDs as you want from music you recorded yourself (see steps 1-7) or from commercially recorded CDs. New in Toast 7 is a Media tab in the side-panel on Toast. From here you can access your iTunes library and drag files directly into the "about to be recorded" CD and Burn.

The other aspect to consider here is that if you want to burn an MP3 CD, Enhanced Audio CD, or Music DVD, you will need to get the files in another format other than the .aiff format used for standard audio CDs (and Spin Doctor). Thus, after working the songs over in Spin Doctor, you can send them off to iTunes and turn them into MP3, Apple Lossless, or AAC files for burning onto the various Toast options.

OK, why would you want to do this? Simple, it space. A 19.3 MB .aiff file is 2.1 MB when saved as an MP3. A 93.1 MB music file is compressed down to a 10.5 MB. If you are planning on placing these files on a CD, you have 640 (or 700) MB of space and you can fill that up with (say) about 30 songs or about 300 songs. Your choice.

[If you already have some .aiff songs in iTunes, it is simple to convert them into an MP3 (or other) format, open iTunes and open up Preferences. Select the "Advanced" tab and on the top of the window will be three sub-tabs: General, Importing and Burning. In the Importing sub-tab, look for the option called "Import Using:" and select what format you'd like to convert the song to from the drop-down menu. The three check mark selections below are optional, and since what you will be doing will be done on (and in) your computer (not from a CD), you do not need to check the last "error correction" item. Then, after you close the Preferences, be sure to select all the songs you want to convert (click, click-drag, Shift-click, or Command-click) go to the Advanced menu and select "Convert Selection to xxx"). (Here, the xxx refers to whatever format you selected in the Preferences.)

After you finish the conversion, you will now have two versions of the same song: the original .aiff and the new format. The catch here is that there are no apparent differences between the two versions. The best, and safest thing to do now is in iTunes; do a right-click or Control-click on any of the songs of which you changed the format, and select "Show Song File." When you do that, the Finder will come to the front, and the folder that contains that song will be displayed showing you that song file highlighted. Make sure you are in List View so you can see the file sizes. At this point, you can delete all the .aiff files as they will be obvious since they will be much larger in size.]

Now that you've found them, you can drag all these MP3 sound files into Toast, but this time you can select the CD to be an MP3 CD or even a Music DVD. To do this, look at the upper left side of Toast's window when the Audio tab is selected.

If you click on the blue arrowhead just to the left of Audio CD, a sheet will expand from the left of the window showing the various options available. Select the Advanced button and you can see an MP3, Music DVD and enhance Audio CD selections. Once that is selected, you can drag all the MP3s you can fill onto one CD, drag up and down to set the order and have a high-ho time playing DJ.

(9) Send the names to Discus RE

One of the severe limitations to creating music CDs is that even though you may have the names of the songs placed in Toast, after you burn the CD and replace the CD back into your computer, all of those typed in names will be gone. That's one of the reasons why direct import from Spin Doctor to iTunes is such an added benefit. In the past, when you created the CD, then tried to add the songs to iTunes, you'd have to re-enter the song names all over again. When you insert a commercial CD into your computer, the song names, album cover, etc. are all brought up via the web utilizing Gracenote. CDs you make are not likely to have access to Gracenote and therefore will come up as untitled songs.

One of the options you do have is to transfer all the song names onto your CD jewel box cover. Again, Toast comes bundled with software to help you. One of the other bundled software items is Discus RE (now at version 3). Open this program.

Once opened, you are presented with a screen for you to select which part of the CD art you want to work on.

I'd suggest that you create either the Jewel Case Base or the Folding Booklet.

The reasons why I'm going to pass on the CD/DVD and the Jewel Case Lid are different. First off, if you do not have an ink jet printer that can print on CDs or DVDs, you would need to purchase a CD label kit (like Stomper) and this article is not focusing on that. Secondly, these are glue labels you need to place onto your CD. If you ever consider placing your CDs in your car, I am not sure that the glue on these CD labels are up to heat temperatures of over 120?. That is, I'd hate to see what happens when you have a CD in your car's CD player that's been sitting in the hot sun when you try to eject it from your car's CD. I have to say that I've never tried this and I do not know if this is in fact a problem. I just don't know, but I do not want to personally find out that it isn't a good idea. As such, I have no problems just taking a marking pen and writing whatever I need to onto the CD to properly identify what's on the CD. Yes, this is not as pretty and clever as creating great works of art, but when push comes to shove, I do not want to experiment on my car equipment. However, if you have an inkjet printer that can print directly on CDs, have fun. One of the new features in Discus 3 is you can select from a wide variety of printer's layouts, so your CD will be printed properly. Again, you are covered either way.

[I have heard some concerns about using marking pens on CDs, specifically the solvent from the pen will "leak" to the other side wreaking havoc with whatever you burnt. The solvent in just about all "indelible" marking pens is alcohol. Simply put, alcohol cannot effect CDs. If you've had a bad experience, it was something else, not the pen.]

My warning on Jewel Case Lids is only that you shouldn't use regular paper; they can too easily slip out, and are therefore useless. However, since I last wrote this article, Avery and other printing stock companies have added cardboard jewel box stock to properly print on your inkjet. This means that unlike printing on standard paper, the results will not fly out of your CD's jewel box every time you open the lid.

Whether you are printing onto the CD itself or creating jewel box art and information. It is very easy to suck the information out of iTunes, Toast, Jam, or other projects. After you send the songs to Toast, in Discus you go to the Import menu and select the first option:

Once you select whatever option is best from the Import menu, you will be presented with a window asking what information you want placed on your label. I usually select "Track number," "Name," and "Time." Then, appearing on the label are all your track names. Keep in mind that Discus does not use Apple's Quartz drawing capabilities, and what you have there will probably not look very good. Don't worry, you will be printing this and it will look fine.

Also, expect that the default font is not right, and the size is wrong. For track names, I'd suggest a font size of 10-12 points, and this can be controlled by clicking on the small dot. As you drag your mouse toward the small dot, you will see your current font size as a popup window. As you can see in the image below, you can control the size, kerning and leading of all text. Not too shabby. If you have too many titles to fit on one block, you can cut the titles that extend beyond where they should, and then click on the New button to bring up a new text region. Pass the remaining group and click OK to land this block on the window. Move (by dragging) and size them as needed.

Once you have the titles all settled, you can click on the New button and a new text window will show up. Here you can type the title of your CD, and, once you click OK, you can then rotate the text to fit in the fold-up region to the right and/or left of the titles. Provide color, size, fancy fonts, whatever you feel motivated to create.

When you print this, folding and cutting lines are provided to guide your work. If you pry out the back of plastic jewel case (the black part), you can fit this on the back of your jewel case and replace the back of the case. The good thing about this is that standard weight paper is fine for here and will not fall out.

The other option, especially handy if you are doing MP3 CDs, is to use the Folding Booklet as this has more "territory" upon which to write all the song names. As far as any artwork, photos and other embellishments, again, you are on your own.
(10) Burn the CD

Once you have all your tracks ready to go, you are ready to burn your CD. On the bottom right of the Toast window is a big red button. If you click on that you will be asked to place a blank CD-R in your CD burner, and you will be asked to select a burning speed. Toast is now pretty smart, and you can easily select the "Best" speed. Toast will work with your CD burner and get the CD burnt in a reasonable amount of time. You can override this with a selected speed, but for a long time this has not been all that necessary.
(11) Print the labels

While the CD is being burnt by Toast, it is a good time to print out your labels. Once printed, I'd recommend that you do any folding using the hairline folding guides before you cut out the labels using those hairline guides. Once you've cut the label out, the guides are gone and you have no guidance for any subsequent folding.
(12) Enjoy the music as you assemble your Jewel Box

It's probable that by now your CD has completed its burning process and the chime from Toast has alerted you to the fact that it's time to eject your new CD. If you eject the CD and shove it back into your computer, or place it in a CD player, you can now sit back and enjoy your new CD while assembling your jewel box with your new labels.

If you elected to convert your songs into MP3s, AACs or Apple Lossless and placed them on your iPod, you've obviously skipped steps 7b through 12 and you are already on your next album.

My one last suggestion is that you take your original recordingsóbefore using the filtersóand burn them onto a CD for future "what if" use. My thought here is similar to your digital photos: you take them out of your camera, and if you alter them in Photoshop, iPhoto, whatever, you no longer have the originals to work with. If you learn a new Photoshop trick, apply this to your original image, and next week you learn an even better trick to do the same thing, you no longer have the original image to work with. It's gone. The same applies here. If the next version of CD Spin Doctor has a great new enhancement, you will have to re-record your albums from scratch because you tossed your original .aiff files. Similarly, if you like doing this, you may want to purchase one of the professional level sound enhancers and re-do the albums. If you toss the original recordings, you have to record them again. You don't have to do this, but it's a thought.

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What's Next? The Emergence of Hiring Management Systems

How quickly some things change! The idea of a Walkman sounds positively archaic in today's iPod world. Your kids (or interns) probably have no idea what an LP is, but say "MP3" and the know immediately what you're talking about.

So perhaps we can all take some comfort in that fact that, even in our ever-changing world, there are still some terms that have tremendous staying power. In golf, a driver is still called a wood, even though these days it's often 100% titanium. Coke is still Coke a century later, even if it's now available in more varieties than its inventor, John Pemberton, ever dreamed of.

And the system you use at work to manage your hiring process — it's still an applicant tracking system. Or is it?

It's interesting to see that the term applicant tracking system has enjoyed tremendous staying power since the 1980s, even while customer requirements and system capabilities have continuously evolved. It's not that the term isn't an accurate description of the raw purpose of the tool. On the contrary, Applicant Tracking System gets right to the primary purpose of these tools: tracking applicants from the point of application to the point of hire. The problem is that as tools and processes have evolved, it has become a limiting term that no longer accurately portrays the value of the tool's potential — or our needs as recruiters in 2004.

Technology has ushered in new ways of thinking about and executing on talent attraction, selection, and acquisition. Applicants can be processed more efficiently and with greater care. Candidate relationship management, once reserved for top-tier professional applicants, can be realized across every level of job seeker. Proprietary talent communities provide companies with opportunities for targeted marketing and can ultimately reduce time to fill and cost per hire while increasing the value of the employment brand. These benefits provide a foundation for talent management to be in play at a broad and individual level.

Don't be mistaken. If the biggest pain point in your recruiting process today is that you have no way to track applicants electronically, an applicant tracking system may be exactly the relief you're looking for. If, however, your recruiting challenges are even just a little more complex, applicant tracking almost certainly understates your needs.

For example, applicant tracking isn't about helping to brand your company as an employer of choice. It does not focus on providing a great experience to candidates on your corporate website when they apply for your jobs. It emphasizes administrative processes (e.g., tracking applicants) over process improvement (e.g., automatically screening candidates for their fit with a specific job). It doesn't speak to providing integrated tools to enhance the efficiency of your recruiters, such as job libraries, correspondence templates, recruiter-to-recruiter communication tools, and reporting modules.

In short, a decent applicant tracking system will certainly help you track applicants; it's just not likely to help you win the best ones, collect the most useful data, or deliver the level of efficiency to your recruiting process that most of us need. And with smaller teams and more limited resources, we need these things now more than ever before.

So, what's better? Well, it may be no match for the cool factor of iPod, but hiring management system isn't bad. It's certainly much more descriptive of the requirements many corporate recruiters share today, in a world that's a little more complex than the days when tracking applicants electronically was truly a differentiator.

If applicant tracking has evolved to become something of a commodity, hiring management is still very much a differentiator in corporate America. Hiring management systems facilitate a more complete story of the power and flexibility offered by technology as a differentiator to leverage expectations, performance, and process.

Let's explore a few of the differences between hiring management and applicant tracking, with a goal of helping you to decide where your organization is heading and which approach is the best fit for you.

For most recruiters, a basic applicant tracking system, even if it starts as an Excel spreadsheet or Access database, is a key to survival and certainly to efficiency. If anything, the urgency to implement even a basic system has only increased in the past few years, as the Internet has made it so easy for candidates to apply for jobs. If you don't have an automated way to capture and search for candidate information, your job is going to be defined by performing administrative tasks that consume a significant portion of your available time — time that could almost certainly be better spent on higher-level activities. The good news is that if you're just getting started with applicant tracking, there are many good systems available today to fit almost any budget.

Hiring management picks up where applicant tracking left off. Tracking your applicants efficiently is no longer a self-sustaining hiring process, and you will inevitably start focusing on the following areas to raise your recruiting process to the next level:

* Tight integration between the hiring management system and corporate recruitment site. This is key, because it is the basis for ensuring a consistent and positive job seeker experience. It's also the most visible aspect of the online employment brand interface. The hiring management system needs to support the integrity of the company's brand first and foremost, which, depending on the company, plays out at varying levels of complexity. An intuitive, flexible interface, supported by data capture, provides insight into the job seeker and drives the overall effectiveness of the system.

* Engaging above-average talent by providing a streamlined and user-friendly online application process — one that candidates tell you is better than your competitors'.

* The ability to seamlessly pre-screen candidates by asking job-specific questions in addition to collecting their resumes. This component should also add value to the applicant's experience while supporting recruiter productivity. If done well, a thoughtful approach integrated into your hiring management system can serve as a self-screen or job preview.

* The ability at a glance, to see how a candidate fits with the job he or she has applied for. You should be able to accomplish this individually and in comparison with all other applicants.

* Making it easy for your recruiters to communicate and build relationships with candidates throughout the recruiting process.

* Additional recruiter productivity enhancement tools.

* The ability to extract data from your system to make decisions that support continuously improving your recruiting and talent attraction process.

So where are you heading? If any of the above areas are priorities for your organization, then you're already focusing on hiring management, the next stop in the evolution of the applicant tracking paradigm.

Changing the perspective to hiring management also supports moving the technology from a commodity to a competitive advantage. Functionality that once was only accessible to a few at the high end is now within reach to any company with a desire to leverage the technology. Now's a great time to define your needs through the hiring management lens and explore the alternatives.

Note: Gary Alpert contributed to this article. Gary is the CEO of WetFeet Inc., a recruitment services firm that conducts ongoing research on trends and best practices in recruitment and works with companies nationally on a variety of recruitment issues, from technology to college recruiting and employer branding.

http://www.ere.net/articles/db/832A28A13B6B47E0AF4E2D03E4B5838D.asp

Recruiting Lessons from the iPod

Why is the iPod such a phenomenon?

It's not because it looks neat or works well. Those things are just a small part of it. The real reason it's such a phenomenon is that it's more than a music player, it's a music system. In fact, it's a music business system far larger than itself. Get this: 4.8 million iPods were sold in the fourth quarter of 2004 alone. At this rate, soon everyone in the world will soon have one.

There are business, management, and especially recruiting lessons to be learned from the success of the iPod.

By being more than a music player, iPod has single-handedly changed the competitive landscape for both the music and the consumer electronics industries. Right now you can plug your iPod into your car, laptop, or your home theater system and find and play any music you want anytime, anywhere. As a result of the iPod, in a few years CDs and CD players will cease to exist.

Being more than a music player is the lesson to be learned here. Being a music system is why the iPod has been so wildly successful. Recruiters and recruiting tools need to be more than recruiters and recruiting tools, too. They have to be iPod-like.

Here's the definition of a business system from Word.net: "A group of independent but interrelated elements comprising a unified whole; example — 'a vast system of production and distribution and consumption keep the country going.'"

In the world of recruiters and recruiting, there is little interdependence similar to the iPod. There is no business system for recruiting. This is actually pretty shocking. Recruiters are all different, and they all use different sourcing, selection, and recruiting techniques. Managers are all different, and they all use different techniques for writing job descriptions, and interviewing and selecting candidates. Recruiting IT systems are different, and they're not too well integrated with the hiring process they're supposed to manage.

This lack of an interrelated whole is why just about every single hiring and recruiting initiative fails to meet expectations. It's why behavioral interviewing training programs don't work too well. It's why applicant tracking systems fall short. It's why the war for talent is still being fought.

Here are two examples of how recruiting managers and recruiters can use the iPod as a metaphor to become better managers and recruiters. The first one has to do with how to buy (or sell) recruiting software; the other with how to use the interview as part of a recruiting system and not just as an assessment tool.

Buying Recruiting Software

Buying or selling specialized recruiting software is narrow thinking. Selling a system-level solution is the key to making software work. This is the lesson of the iPod.

For example, as most of you know, name-generating software to find passive candidates is the new buzz. This could be using products that auto-scour the Internet to find passive candidates or using some type of social networking tool to get names from names.

Buying (or selling) something like this is a no-brainer for third-party retained recruiters, but a non-starter for their corporate counterparts. Names of passive candidates are the raw material of third-party recruiters, but useless for corporate recruiters unless an iPod-like business system solution is provided.

For name-generating software to work in the corporate market, the recruiting team must be reorganized; the product itself must be combined with automated techniques to contact the person; it must be integrated with the applicant tracking system; and specialized recruiter training should be provided. On a larger scale, every aspect of the corporate hiring process must be redesigned to handle passive candidates.

This is why a software-only, non-system solution won't work. Instead, software like this must be part of a interrelated business system consisting of the right people, the right processes, the right technology, and the right organizational structure. Evaluate your company's hiring system from this perspective. Does it resemble an iPod, or is it just a disconnected collection of CDs and MP3 players?

Interview as Part of a Recruiting System

Now let's consider the interview as part of a recruiting system rather than just a means to assess candidate competency. An interview must accomplish a number of objectives. In order of importance, here's my list of the real purpose of the interview:

1. Recruit top passive candidates.
2. Reduce interviewer bias and emotions.
3. Clearly explain jobs to create an "opportunity gap."
4. Assess candidate competency and motivation for the real job.
5. Reduce candidate nervousness.
6. Train candidates to give real information, not pre-scripted babble.
7. Negotiate a potential offer.
8. Demonstrate the professionalism and high standards of the company to every candidate.

When you consider the interview as part of a complete, iPod-like recruiting system rather than just a tool to assess competency, everything about how you conduct it changes. For one thing, you wouldn't ask a bunch of boring behavioral questions. For another you wouldn't be unprepared when you conduct it. You also wouldn't permit a person who hasn't been trained to interview a person and make some type of superficial judgment.

As you know, I like to ask candidates to describe their most significant accomplishments in great detail. This allows me to understand the type of work they've done and where they've excelled. By looking at the trend line of these accomplishments over time, you can observe consistency and growth. By comparing this information to the actual needs of the job, you can accurately assess job fit.

Here are two articles you can read to get you up to speed on this performance-based interviewing approach:

* The Best Interview Question of All Time
* Using the Two-Question Interview to Assess Executive Potential

Converting this type of performance-based interview into a recruiting system is the real key to its effectiveness. Here are some simple things you can do on your next interview to see the impact for yourself.

Rather than just ask the candidate to describe his or her most significant accomplishment, add this type of introduction:

One of our most important company initiatives is the launch of our new music system controller. As the lead software developer, you'd be involved in insuring the hardware and software integration of the main module. Can you please tell me about a major project you've handled where you had this type of lead responsibility?

This type of lead-in ties the importance of the job to a major company project. It makes the job more than just a software developer: it makes it strategic. Relating the job this way to a bigger project is referred to as job branding.

This recruiting introduction also includes a pull-towards question. It establishes a target that the candidate needs to reach in order for the person to be considered qualified. As a result, candidates tend to talk more in an attempt to sell the interviewer, rather than the interviewer having to sell the candidate.

The question itself creates an "opportunity gap." This is the difference between the candidate's current job and the opportunity represented by the new job. The bigger the opportunity gap, the less the candidate will need in terms of compensation. Creating an opportunity gap this way is far better than telling the candidate how great the job is. A pull-towards question like this is a simple way to modify the interview to make it accomplish multiple objectives.

The push-away is an even more effective approach. Try this after you learn a little about the candidate:

The person in this lead software development role will be interfacing with our top product marketing people and a few of our key customers. I'm a little concerned about your background in this regard. It seems that most of the people you've worked with in the past have been other developers or those in quality and operations. This job would really expose you to the new product phase of our business. Why don't you tell me about something you've accomplished where you've had to deal with these types of people?

Be careful when using this recruiting technique, and don't overdo it. However, by challenging the candidate this way you can create an even bigger opportunity gap. Candidates then have to defend their past experience and sell you even more. Of course, preparation is the key here. You must know the job and how to ask performance-based questions.

One cardinal rule of recruiting is to make the candidate earn the job. Never give it away. Using this type of pull-and-push questioning technique is how you convert a simple interviewing question into an iPod-like recruiting system.

The lesson to be learned from the iPod is to look at everything you do from a system level perspective. Interdependence is the key to success. Technology, process, people and organization must come together in order to make hiring top talent a systematic business process. Don't look at independent solutions. They have never worked, and never will. That's why we're still fighting the war for talent.

Now, if you want a glimpse at the future of creating a system for networking, go to the iMix section of iTunes. I just downloaded The Door's "Break on Through" on a Rock Classic iMix. You might want to listen to this one for some inspiration and other ideas on how to become a better recruiter.

[Note: If you want to learn more about recruiting systems, you might want to take our Recruiter 10-Factor Evaluation. This quick online self-evaluation will allow you to rank yourself on the ten most important recruiter competencies. Collectively they convert individual recruiting skills into a recruiting system. If you want to become a better recruiter, check out our new online Recruiter Boot Camp. This is where you'll get a chance to really learn how to put these ten core skills into practice.]

http://www.ere.net/articles/db/93BB4CA202BA418AAF0787DBAB56DE94.asp

The future of food fabrication, intellectual property and seeds

Sometime in the future, science is going to deliver to us desktop food fabrication equipment. These machines, which I'll call "FoodFabs," will be able to manufacture food items at the touch of a button on your desktop or countertop. It might have the size and shape of a microwave, but instead of punching in the time that you want, you punch in the food item you want. There was a glimpse of this technology in the movie The Fifth Element, in which leading lady Milla Jovovich approaches a machine, yells, "Chicken," and gets an instant roasted chicken.

FoodFabs sound handy, but given what we know today about corporations, intellectual property and the desire of such companies to control and profit from the behavior of consumers, let's take a realistic look at what these FoodFabs would really mean for consumers.

Let's start with the most obvious point of all, which is that no FoodFab will be able to operate independently. In order to protect the public, FoodFabs will need to be prevented from spontaneously manufacturing dangerous substances such as poisons or explosives. FoodFabs will have to be networked into a central database or clearinghouse, which will keep track of what FoodFabs are manufacturing, and either approve or deny each food fabrication request. For example, if some guy sitting in his kitchen selects a recipe for C-4 explosives, the FoodFab would say, "No! I can't manufacture that."

Controlling the intellectual property
There's actually an even more fundamental reason for these devices to be networked to a central clearinghouse database: Digital Rights Management (DRM). Of course, that's a phrase borrowed from today's music industry, but here's how it applies to desktop food fabricators: Every food item you select in the Food Fabricator will be based on a molecular recipe assembled by some corporation (Monsanto, probably, if it still exists in the future). Of course, that company will own the rights to that food item. When you want to create a batch of apples, vegetables or chicken, you're going to have to pay a fee to the company that owns the rights to that food.

"Now wait a minute," you might say. "How can a company own the rights to foods that occur in nature? How can they make me pay for that food when I can go out and get it for free?"

This is where the future gets rather messy, because we're now talking about intellectual property. Rewind to the present day, and take a look at the actions of our favorite corporate company, Monsanto. Monsanto is suing farmers for saving seeds and planting crops from those seeds. Why is Monsanto doing this? Because these are genetically modified crops that were created by Monsanto. When these farmers save seeds from one generation to the next, which of course is a practice that has taken place throughout the history of civilization, Monsanto sues these farmers and prevents them from saving those seeds.

The idea, from Monsanto's point of view, is that it wants to force farmers to buy these genetically modified seeds with each successive generation. So, now it is indeed illegal to save these seeds, and if you don't play ball with the company that claims to own them, you're going to find yourself in court, or even in jail. Tennessee farmer Ken Ralph was sued by Monsanto and was ultimately sentenced to eight months in prison for lying about a truckload of cottonseed.

Think about that. Here was a farmer who was just trying to save seeds from one crop generation to the next. This is a practice that has been carried out by generations of farmers for as long as we can remember, going back to the roots of modern civilization in the Middle East. And this farmer has been imprisoned for practicing this age-old custom. The only reason for this is because the corporation needs to protect its profits.

Can corporations really own nature?
You might say, "This is unnatural. This is exploitation of nature for corporate profits." I would respond that you are absolutely correct. That is exactly what it is. When you start assigning intellectual property ownership to things that exist in nature, you get into some rather complex ethical quagmires from which our society may never emerge unscathed.

Now fast forward back to the future, where we have desktop food fabricators. You can see that it will be companies like Monsanto who will own the molecular recipes for all the food items you want to eat. This means that if you, as a human being, want to feed your family, you're going to have to pay Monsanto or some other company that owns the rights to these items.

Frankly, big business couldn't dream up a better situation, because what it really wants to do is extract a certain percentage of productivity, or economic output, from each and every individual on the planet in one way or another. Today, the oil industry has done that quite effectively, and you can bet that even with the advent of hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles, it's going to find a way to keep people tied into the power grid.

Speaking of the power grid in a different context, power companies generally don't like people to go off the grid. There's not much incentive for power companies to encourage people to set up their own solar systems, or have residential fuel cell systems, because power companies then cannot extract monthly fees from those individuals or businesses.

You see, big business is all about extracting recurring fees from the working people. That's how we keep big business rich and working people poor. It is being done quite effectively right now, here in the United States and around the world.

One thing they know for sure is that people need food, and they need it every single day. One way to extract even more revenues from people is to control the intellectual property of the food they are consuming.

Personally, I think allowing corporations to own the rights to food creation would be a gross violation of nature and basic human rights. But then again, we live in a free enterprise society, and you can very easily argue that if there is no economic incentive for a company to create these food fabrication formulas, then who would bother doing so?

I would say that there are plenty of universities and open source communities passionate about food and nutrition who would be more than willing to create these recipes and just give them away to people. This is what I call the open source food fabrication movement, which will undoubtedly unfold someday and attempt to challenge the centralized, controlled food fabrication giants. You can bet this court battle will happen someday, because the food fabrication corporations will not want this open source system to exist. It will be similar to the battle today between Microsoft and Linux, in which the open source community has created a fantastic operating system without the promise of financial compensation. They've done it because they're a group of smart people who want to do something productive and interesting under a freely shared goodwill system.

Our broken patent laws
However, the biggest issue that I have is with the idea that our current patent system assigns intellectual ownership over things that were technically invented by nature, not man. For example, companies are granted patents on seeds created by nature. Basmati rice was briefly owned by a company in the United States, which then went out of its way to sue farmers in Southeast Asia for growing this rice, but thankfully the Indian government was successful in challenging the company's ownership over this seed.

Similarly, companies have been given patent ownership over sequences of the human genome. Imagine that! You're walking around with a genetic sequence in every cell in your body, thinking, "Hey, I own my own body." But, no! The U.S. patent office says you don't own your own genetic code; rather, all these various companies own it.

Technically speaking, if you choose to have children, you are in violation of international patent laws, because now you have replicated these gene sequences without paying royalties to the "owners" of these gene sequences. All of this may sound a bit outlandish to you, but this, in fact, is the law as it stands today. This is not conjecture. This is scientific fact. There are companies probing the human genome, finding interesting sequences, and then applying for, and being awarded, patents on them.

In fact, merely scratching your skin results in multiple patent violations because your body duplicates patented DNA sequences to repair the damage to your skin. Every one of us it a walking intellectual property pirate, guilty of crimes against U.S. corporations by merely living.

If food and the human genome can be patented, what else is up for grabs?
Returning to the food fabrication equipment, let's assume that some company patents not just the chicken recipe, but also the molecular configuration of vitamin D, for example. They say that anyone who uses the machine to create a food item containing vitamin D must pay a royalty to them.

Given the way that patent laws are written today, it probably wouldn't be very difficult for them to claim a patent on vitamin D if it were used in the food fabrication device, because they could claim a patent on not just the molecule itself, but also the process of assembling the molecule at the nano scale. All of a sudden, you've got a situation where people who can afford to be healthy, and who can afford to pay for nutrition through these various royalties, are going to get that nutrition and be healthy. But then you have economically challenged families that are not going to be able to afford the vitamin D, or vitamin B, or minerals and so on. They’re going to be eating food that's made without these vitamins because it's cheaper.

At such a point, you'll have a big company, the futuristic Monsanto if you will, saying, "If you want to be healthy, you've got to pay up." The upshot of all this is that big business is going to be telling humanity that it doesn't have the right to be healthy unless it pays for it.

This situation will stand as a heinous violation of human rights and nature. Human beings evolved in a natural environment in which they had access to fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, grasses and animals. These were all available free of charge as long as a person was willing to expend the effort and time necessary to gather such items. Nature offered them freely. Nature didn't charge you for creating vitamins and minerals. The plants and soils provided these on their own, naturally.

Plants create seeds naturally, and these seeds are freely available to humans, birds, insects and any other creature that wants to use those seeds. This is the natural order of things. Through technology combined with corporate greed, we're going to see a global effort to separate human beings from nature. Humans will then be effectively charged for gaining access to these natural benefits. It's the commercialization of nature.

Corporate-controlled consumers
As I have said before in other essays, if pharmaceutical companies could figure out a way to block sunlight from reaching the planet, then bottle up some sunlight and sell it as a healing drug, I have no doubt that they would do so. It would be the most potent and profitable healing substance you could prescribe to a human being. The only reason sunlight isn't promoted today is because it is freely available and no one has figured out a way to prevent everyone from getting their own natural sunlight.

With the food fabrication scenario, however, it would be very easy to prevent people from growing their own food. In fact, it may eventually turn out that food fabricators are the only way people can get food due to destruction of the environment through radiation, depletion of soils, global dimming, the overuse of pesticides, lack of water and so on. Farming may actually become such a high-cost endeavor that it becomes cheaper to build these foods on a nanotechnology scale. At that point, the companies that own the technology and the intellectual property will control the masses. Rent the old movie, "Soylent Green" to get an interesting look at the potential social dynamics.

Intellectual property failures are here right now
In practical terms, this is nothing to be overly concerned with today. Food fabricators are in the far future. It may be a hundred years or more before such items actually exist. But what is a concern is the way our intellectual property laws are written today, and what we're already seeing in terms of patenting the human genome and genetically modified seeds by companies like Monsanto. We're seeing farmers being fined millions of dollars, or even thrown in jail, for saving seeds, which is a practice as natural as peeing in the woods.

Of course, today the FDA and the pharmaceutical industry are diligently campaigning to limit access to nutritional supplements, herbs and functional foods. This is very much an attempt to separate people from nature, so that they are forced to operate under the system of controlled and "standardized" prescription drugs and medications that generate profits for pharmaceutical companies.

The future may not be so bright after all
It's a common oversight, I think, to talk about the future in rosy terms, and talk about how all of this great, new technology is going to appear. I myself may be guilty of doing that from time to time. I am fascinated by robotics, clean energy, molecular technologies and gene therapy. But I am also a realist, which means I understand that every technology is going to have a price tag attached to it. If the company inventing and marketing that technology can find a way to make sure that you have to keep paying for it over and over again, you can bet they're going to do that, because that's how business works. That's what creates profits for corporations.

The oil companies know that, and the soft drink companies know that. Beverage manufacturers know that caffeine makes their products sell on a repeated basis to the same consumers because of its addictive qualities. In the future, food fabrication manufacturers are certainly going to try to leverage the same principles to generate recurring revenue from their technology. It may end up much like the way inkjet printers are sold today, where the food fabrication machine itself is very cheap, but it's the recipes that you pay for over and over again, just like buying overpriced inkjet cartridges for your printer.

Hopefully, we would have a situation in which two or three recipe-producing companies would compete for your business so there would be some healthy competition. One company offers you a chicken casserole recipe for $2, another company offers you chicken casserole with superfood elements and extra vitamin and mineral content, including phytonutrients and perhaps some anticancer compounds, for only $2.05. Which one would you go with? Well, I'd pay the extra nickel and get the health benefits. If we can create an environment in which we have that kind of competition, then perhaps this won't be such a long-term concern, because chances are that creating food in the FoodFab is going to be much cheaper than going out and buying it or growing it yourself.

Even if the chemical composition of foods can be fabricated, their energy cannot
One final thought on all of this, though, is that even if these food fabricators duplicate the molecular structure of natural foods with 100 percent accuracy, they will still lack a certain quality. Can you guess what that is? It's the living energy of foods.

When you consume a carrot that has been pulled out of the ground, that carrot was once a living, breathing being. Every plant is alive. Every seed is imbued with qualities of life, and when you eat raw fruits, vegetables or nuts, you ingest more than just their chemical constituents. You also ingest the homeopathy of plants, or what I also call vibrational nutrition.

I very much doubt that food fabrication is going to be able to duplicate this energetic component of foods. That means those individuals who are willing to buy food "the old fashioned way," by getting physical food from a farmers coop, bringing it home, cooking and eating it, are going to get much better nutrition than people who make food in their desktop FoodFabs. A plant, you see, is more than its chemical constituents.

For many years following the introduction of FoodFab technology, scientists won't know why FoodFab customers are suffering from various diseases and disorders. They'll be mystified, because they'll think that people are getting all the same nutrients. "It's exactly the same," they'll say. "On a molecular and chemical basis, these two foods are identical, yet one person is healthier than the other. Why is that?" It might then be another hundred years before they finally figure out that there's more to plants than just their chemicals -- that reductionism is a distortion of reality, that energy matters and that vibrational medicine is real.

There's no replacement for growing your own food
That's why if these food fabricators were invented next year, and everyone in the world bought one and began generating their food that way, I would still grow my own garden. I would still visit that garden every day and eat something from it in its raw, natural, living state. That's what I do today. Although there's plenty of produce available down the street at the grocery store, I still want the live food because I understand that there is a quality difference in live food versus manufactured food. That quality difference is not at all understood by modern scientists or even most nutritionists.

In terms of food, our collective future could be very interesting. That is, if we don't kill ourselves first with the destruction of our natural environment. If mankind is still around in a hundred years, I'm certain we'll have food fabrication machines. Just be prepared to pull out your wallet (or, should I say, your embedded radio frequency tag) in order to pay for what you're going to be eating at that time, because you can bet there's going to be some mega corporation behind the scenes demanding payment if you want to eat.

About author

Mike Adams is a natural health author and technology pioneer with a passion for sharing empowering information to help improve personal and planetary health He has authored and published thousands of articles, interviews, consumers guies, and books on topics like health and the environment, impacting the lives of millions of readers around the world who are experiencing phenomenal health benefits from reading his articles. Adams is a trusted, independent journalist who receives no money or promotional fees whatsoever to write about other companies' products. In 2007, Adams launched EcoLEDs, a maker of super bright LED light bulbs that are 1000% more energy efficient than incandescent lights. He's also the founder and CEO of a well known email mail merge software developer whose software, 'Email Marketing Director,' currently runs the NewsTarget email subscriptions. Adams also serves as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a non-profit consumer protection group, and enjoys outdoor activities, nature photography, Pilates and adult gymnastics.