Rajasthan - The Historical Destination

Rajasthan is a vast state that stretches over 342,000 sq. km. The Aravalli Range bisects the state that runs diagonally from the northeast to the southwest. The main river that runs through Rajasthan is the Chambal. The Thar Desert, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Bikaner, etc are the bustling places of Rajasthan. Jaipur is the capital of this state. Rajasthan possesses opulent palaces and historic sights. Here in this state, tradition and modernity run side by side. There are many enticing places that has attracted the tourists, since time immortal. The natural treasures and the historical legacies of Rajasthan has been the real charm of attraction for the tourists throughout the entire globe. The splendour of the place justifies it as a real part of Incredible India.

Many brave kings ruled over Rajasthan, which narrates amazing legends of bravery. While exploring in different parts of Rajasthan, you can witness magnificent forts and Palaces. These forts and palaces are the legacies of ancient India. The tourists can find numerous forts in Udaipur, Jodhpur and Jaipur. A parallel range of hills runs along Jaipur. There are many fascinating places that can be admired in the Jaipur district. The Jal Mahal is one of them. This was built in the mid of the 18th century by Madho Singh-I. The tourists can view a variety of water birds here. The terraced garden that is enclosed by arched passages adds feathers of beauty to the Jal Mahal. One can also witness the Jantar Mantar. It is described as a realistic and logical landscape with 16 instruments, resembling a giant sculptural composition. Some of the instruments are used to forecast the weather condition.

The travelers can visit the Pushkar valley, which is only 14 km from Ajmer. It is famous for the Pushkar Dham, a well known Hindu pilgrimage place. The Pushkar Lake is a famous lake for the Hindus. Many devotees used to come to take a dip in the lake. The devotees believe that by taking a bath in the Lake they will get rid of the sin that they had committed throughout the lifetime. There are many fascinating temples in the Pushkar valley that have never failed to allure the travelers, since time immortal.

Many tourists from all over the world come to visit the state of Rajasthan during the India tour. Also, there are many heritage hotels that ensure a comfortable stay in this state. Many Palaces have turned into heritage hotels that provide modern amenities to the tourists during their stay in the Palace.

The History & Legacy of Welsh Gold

Welsh gold is a rare and precious form of gold which is becoming scarcer by the day. There are only 3 mines in the world that have extracted Welsh gold. Clogau gold mine is one of those 3 mines that supplies this one of a kind metal. This mine is situated in North Wales in the Snowdonia mountain ranges. Welsh gold has a unique aspect than other sources of gold because it is has minerals of copper giving it a pinkish hue. Many of the gold mines have either shut down or been turned into tourist attractions because there is very little gold left. Throughout the years several members of the royal family have sought out Clogau gold to use in wedding rings.

As far back as 1923, The Duke of York had 2 rings made out of a single Clogau gold nugget when he married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyn. Lady Elizabeth's daughter who is now Queen Elizabeth II, also used this gold for her wedding ring. Thereafter using Clogau gold in weddings rings became the royal family tradition. Princess Margaret, Princess Diana, Prince Charles were some of the royal family members who followed suit. Queen Elizabeth II was gifted a kilogram of pure Welsh gold on her 60th birthday. Many celebrities have also been enamored by the uniqueness of this precious metal. In 2000, when Michael Douglas married Catherine Zeta Jones he bought her a Welsh gold wedding ring.

Because pure Welsh gold is so expensive to buy, it is often mixed in with regular gold so people have a touch of it in every piece. This is also how Clogau gold jewellery is manufactured. Most of the gold production from Clogau mine took place during the gold rush of 1862. Clogau mine continued provided a steady source of Welsh gold until 1911. During this period alone, Clogau mine provided 2,442 kilograms of gold. Since then it was reopened for small scale mining operations but they did not sustain because it became too dangerous and costly. There were plans to open the mine as a tourist attraction but even that was impossible because it was too treacherous. There are varying predictions of when the supply of this precious metal will cease to exist.

Because it is prized and valued so highly, each piece of Clogau gold comes with a certificate of authenticity. Most of the Welsh jewellery designs are inspired by Welsh symbols, landscapes and the language. The Sessile oak tree lives for approximately 300 to 500 years and is the national tree of Wales. Because the people of Wales consider this a symbol of their heritage, you will find the sessile oak acorns and leaves in a number of Clogau gold jewellery designs. The Welsh dragon and a number of celtic weaves are also other heavily used designs incorporated into this kind of gold. Popular Welsh phrases such as "Cariad" and "Am Byth" are inscribed on pieces of Welsh gold jewellery. "Cariad" is the Welsh term for love or sweetheart whereas "Am Byth" means forever.

West Virginia: A Blend of Culture, Art, And Natural Beauties

Enjoy the Endless Fun Events and Activities: Being bordered by five other states, West Virginia is situated in the Appalachian and southeastern region of the United States. This state was formed by breaking away from another state named Virginia during the American Civil War. This is the only state that formed by splitting from a Confederate state and one of only two states that was shaped during the Civil War. In this sense, this state has some interesting historical value. This state is important for its historical coal mining and logging industries, prosperous labor and political history, and diverse ecology and mountainous settings. It is one of the aspired tourist spots with its endless beautiful green forest coverings, rugged mountainous areas, beautiful landscapes, and year-long outdoor activities. The azure blue sky and the green-carpeted earth surface have made it a place that can offer endless fun events and activities. Museums, art centers, shopping malls, restaurants, parks, as well as wonderful natural scenarios have contributed to its touristic centralization.

Array of Cultural, Artistic, and Historical Legacy: One of the main attractions of West Virginia lies in the way it displays its cultural, artistic, and historical legacy. The city Charleston is a place where several art and cultural centers are to be found. These centers have been playing the role of flaunting the best of West Virginian cultures and arts. The West Virginia Cultural Center is situated in this city. This center houses the West Virginia State Museum and showcases the historical legacy by conserving the historical records, archives, and a library completely dedicated to history of the state. It has a gift shop for the visitors and holds a venue for arranging cultural events, performances, and other related programs. The Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences is another venue, which presents the province's cultural legacy. This comparatively modern, three level complex has been established for bringing the enterprises of sciences, performing arts, and visual arts under one single roof. There are thirteen monuments, statues, and memorials built-in the Capitol Complex's grounds for honoring the renowned West Virginians for their great contributions to the state. For celebrating festival, people can join West Virginia Black Walnut Festival. This festival is held annually and is appealing to everybody. Agricultural products, canned goods, flowers, everything is exhibited in this outstanding celebration. The true colors of the province can be found from these celebrations and cultural and historical representations.

Magnificent Landscape Beauty: The landscape beauty of West Virginia is also a thing of great tourist attraction. For enjoying the diversity of geographical splendor, tourists can visit the Potomac Highlands situated in the eastern part of the state. Here is situated the Tygart Valley which serves a scenic ride of the whole area through the railroad. Here is also the historic depot and rail yard that appease the touristic interest. Here is the Seneca Rocks, which is a Mecca for open-air sports buffs. There are several trails that offer hiking, horseback riding, biking, etc. There are also picnic areas and opportunities of watching wildlife. The Canaan Valley has parks and ski resorts and has all the arrangements for the tourists to try all kinds of natural sports. Big Mountain Country is another interesting place that offers sights of steam-powered railroads, observatories related to astronomy, and most of the outdoor sports and activities. In fact, West Virginia is a gold mine for tourists. He, who is really enthusiastic, can find out the treasures it has to offer.

Affects of Service Oriented Architectures and Web2.0 Phenomenon: Evolution or Disruptive Innovation

Wikipedia / O'Reiley defines Web 2.0 as the "second generation of Internet-based services" and while it is technically correct, it does little to communicate the significance of said advances. As used by its proponents, the phrase "Web 2.0" refers to one or more of the following:

• The transition of web-sites from isolated information silos to sources of content and functionality, thus becoming computing platforms serving web applications to end-users
• A social phenomenon embracing an approach to generating and distributing Web content itself, characterized by open communication, decentralization of authority, freedom to share and re-use, and "the market as a conversation"
• A more organized and categorized content
• A shift in economic value of the Web, possibly surpassing that of the dot com boom of the late 1990s
• A marketing-term used to differentiate new web-based firms from those of the dot-com boom, which (due to the bust) subsequently appeared discredited
• The resurgence of excitement around the implications of innovative web-applications and services that gained a lot of momentum around mid-2005

In the opening talk of the first Web 2.0 conference, Tim O'Reilly and John Battelle summarized key principles they believed characterized Web 2.0 applications

• the Web as a platform
• data as the driving force
• network effects created by an architecture of participation
• innovation in assembly of systems and sites composed by pulling together features from distributed, independent developers (a kind of "open source" development)
• lightweight business models enabled by content and service syndication
• the end of the software adoption cycle ("the perpetual beta")
• software above the level of a single device, leveraging the power of The Long Tail.

Let's take a quick look at one of the representatives of Web2.0 applications, LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a professional (social) networking platform that allows professionals to connect with each other in search of common connections, joint projects, business opportunities, etc. LinkedIn is a web-based application. The value of the service is extremely dependent on participation and the service is powered by the data that its members provide about themselves and their services. The business model is subscriptions, advertising and marketplace driven and the company provides only one product. Other applications representative of Web 2.0 include:

• Google AdSense - Monetization of content

• MySpace, LinkedIn - social and professional networking
• BitTorrent - peer-to-peear content distribution
• WIKI - user driven content management
• del.icio.us - bookmark sharing
• Blogger, Typepad, WordPress - content generation
• Digg - content syndication
• SalesForce.com - move of enterprise applications to the web
• Writely and Online Spreadsheets - web-based office applications

Innovations Service Oriented Architecture Service Oriented Architecture is one of the principal components of Web2.0 world and is the thinking behind some of the most innovative Web2.0 applications. In computing, the term service-oriented architecture (SOA) expresses a perspective of software architecture that defines the use of loosely coupled software services to support the requirements of the business processes and software users. In an SOA environment, resources on a network are made available as independent services that can be accessed without knowledge of their underlying platform implementation.( Barry, Douglas K., 2003. Web Services and Service-Oriented Architectures)

The convergence of SOA and Web 2.0, two highly interrelated trends that are very focused on:

1. connecting people and systems together easily,
2. making software and data available for reuse via services, and
3. building new value upon the foundation of existing information resources and IT assets.

At the core of Service Oriented Architecture is the ability of one application to be built on the top of another application (service) and possesses the following characteristics:

• - interface abstraction
• - leverage of the existing systems in building new ones
• - ease of extending the functionality through "mashups"
• - an elegant implementation of data, logic and interface independence

Situational Software

Situational Software is a term for Rapid Software Development by non-programmers solving a particular business problem. Situational software allows for building such components/application as registration interface, task list, workflow and other functions without knowing any computer language syntax. This is a powerful new development as it exponentially extends the number of users who can develop their own application logic thus lowering the need for IT resources every and providing business functions with a much quicker way to accomplish their goals.

Mashups

One of the most consistent trends on the Internet is the rise of open APIs and the applications built on top of them, known as mashups. Programmable Web currently lists over 300 APIs that can be used for everything from building Web sites on top of Google Maps to using Amazon's powerful infrastructure APIs for storage and cluster computing. The underlying trend: The desire to easily remix the vast pool of high value data and services on the Web today into useful new solutions, at home and in the enterprise.

Mashups provide a way to combine several existing services with a new User Interface and possibly new logic to create a new application. Examples of mashups are services build on Google Maps, RSS news feeds, Stock information, etc.

RSS

Real Simple Syndication (RSS) exposes the data behind a particular news or data source in order to be syndicated by other applications or services. RSS has become incredibly popular in the last few years with nearly every news or information source exposing their content as RSS. This type of content packaging allows the content provider to easily get their wares outside of the immediate readership group and provides an inexpensive marketing mechanism.

Social Networks

Social Networking represents a modern trend in maintaining and developing personal and business relationships. Internet services like MySpace, Classmates.com, LinkedIn, Ecademy are redefining how people go about staying connected and looking for new connections. Proliferation of the social networking sites with increasing specialization tells a story about the acceptance of the concept.

Collaboration

Practically all the applications in the Web2.0 category are taking advantage of collaborative properties offered by the centralized data storage. Some of the most notable implications of this trend is the ability to "associate on the fly" instead of having rigid, pre-determined groups, ability to share and version control documents accessible to groups of people, and finally, ability to assign tasks to the group members related to projects or documents.

Asynchronous Communication (AJAX)

One thing that characterizes Web2.0 class of applications is the fact that they are easier to use then previous generation of applications and start behaving in ways similar to desktop software. One of the difficulties that web-based applications had to face was the "stateful" nature of internet applications. In other words, the page had to be reloaded every time there was a new query to the database. This experience fit well with transactional applications that didn't require a lot of user interaction, but prevented introduction of more complex applications where user interaction was key.

This is now changes with a new paradigm in web-based development, known as AJAX. AJAX is a methodology and technology to enable asynchronous data exchange with the server without requiring page reloads. This approach results in significant speed and usability improvements found in a lot of Web 2.0 applications.

Office 2.0

Office 2.0 applications represent the well known class of applications for word processing, spreadsheets, calendaring, email and collaboration shifted to the instead or in addition to being installed on the personal computers.

Office 2.0 represents freedom from the tyranny of installing software and updates, remembering where you keep your data and your programs (it's all in the cloud with Office 2.0), and dealing with pesky things like admin rights, software versions, virus scanning, and more. Though browser-based software still has its limitations (like what happens when the server is down or you don't have a connection), it's increasingly clear that the network is going to become the pre-eminent location for most meaningful business software, if it hasn't happened already. (Dion Hinchcliffe, Blog)

Web 2.0 in the Enterprise Enterprise computing is far more complex than personal computing. It includes legacy environments, innumerable vendors, mismatched data sources, stringent regulations and far flung users. While Web 2.0 can deliver genuine advantages for both business users and consumers, the real "Enterprise 2.0" will encompass a far broader and more complex vision. (M.R. Rangaswami, The Birth of Enterprise 2.0)

One company that's leveraging the SOA in the enterprise to the fullest is San Francisco based Salesforce.com. Salesforce.com has recently announced it's Apex platform basically providing IT departments with ready to use platform for building logic and tying to legacy systems with seamless integration with it's Customer Relationship Management functionality as well as any other partner driven applications.

Impact of Web 2.0 and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

The impact of Web2.0 and SOA is going to be very significant on a variety of industries.

With the advent of Service Oriented Architecture, Situational Software and Mashups, creation of applications is becoming faster, cheaper and available to a much wider audience. This phenomenon has a potential to reduce the specialized IT workforce required to churn out often redundant, lower-level code and bring the emphasis on creating business logic by those who possess immediate domain expertise.

Acceptance of Service Oriented Architecture inside the enterprise is allowing said enterprise to deploy software solutions much quicker, thus providing a competitive and productivity advantage. With this come shorter IT development cycles and more creativity in developing and utilizing applications. It's likely that the days of huge, monolithic ERP software applications are counted as each department is striving to deploy what's best for its needs without being stuck with a global roll-out which can take years to accomplish.

New web-based office applications such as Google Calendar, Writely, on-line spreadsheets and on-line Wiki's are making it possible for the user to enjoy much the same benefits brought to them by current Microsoft Office applications, for free or at a much lesser price, while providing an extra layer of functionality through collaboration. This trend will allow more and more underprivileged societies to participate in digital economies and will provide an extension to the office application for those wishing to collaborate.

Blogs (RSS) are providing a way for everyday people, specialists and companies to distribute information without needing to be associated with a news source. Whether done for marketing, public relations or fun, blogs are becoming a great mechanism for knowledge management and dissemination changing the way people go about getting information to improve their lives, careers, businesses, etc...

Because of the shift of access control and storage to the network, the services provided by the client operating system are going to become less relevant. With the advent of SOA applications, the client operating system is being reduced to supporting the browser and networking functions. The browser on the other hand is going to undergo continuous enhancement process improving its support for browser-based programming, asynchronous communications and Javascript processing.

This brings us back to the main question of this paper, namely "is Software Oriented Architecture a natural continuation of the existing technologies with minimal effect on the underlying industries or does it represent a disruptive innovation".

Disruptive Innovation

Clayton Christensen defines disruptive innovation or disruptive technology as a technological innovation, product, or service that eventually overturns the existing dominant technology or product in the market. A new-market disruptive innovation is often aimed at non-consumption, whereas a lower-end disruptive innovation is aimed at mainstream customers who were ignored by established companies. Sometimes, a disruptive technology comes to dominate an existing market by either filling a role in a new market that the older technology could not fill, or by successively moving up-market through performance improvements until finally displacing the market incumbents"

If we were to look at the innovations that Web2.0 and Service Oriented Architectures are introducing and apply the definition above to gauge the disruptiveness factor, we would find that most of the innovations listed here indeed qualify as disruptive:

New Technology/Product

Old Technology/Product

Disruptive?

On what basis?

Wikipedia

Traditional or Software Encyclopedias

Yes

Cost, Easier to use, universally accessible

Online Word Processors & Spreadsheets

Microsoft Office

Yes

Cost, adds new area of functionality (collaboration)

Wikis

Microsoft SharePoint; Web sites

Yes

Cost, adds new area of functionality (content management)

Online CRMs

Oracle, SAP

Yes

Cost, available to users who weren't served before

Blogs

Newspapers

Yes

Cost, fill role old technology couldn't fill

Social and Business Networking Applications

New market

Yes

New, fills the role old technology couldn't fill

Situational Software

IT departments, small consultants

Yes

Cost, fills the role old technology couldn't fill

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Traditional Software Applications

Yes

Fills the role old technology couldn't fill

Peer-to-peer Lending

Banks and Credit Cards

Yes

Cheaper, more convenient

Examples:

With Wikipedia is rapidly gaining popularity, and while the opponents argue about the accuracy of information on this open source information resource, it's definitely eating fast into traditional and software encyclopedia market.

(Traffic statistics in reach per million internet users, Alexa)

Online calendars, word processors and spreadsheets eliminate the cost of having to purchase Microsoft Office applications, while providing collaboration capability not found in lower-end office applications.

(Online Calendar Application from Google)

Salesforce.com, a web-based CRM/ERP solution offering quick deployment options to corporations in addition to a much palatable pricing when compared to the traditional stalwarts like Oracle and SAP, has signed up over 100,000 corporate customers in less then 5 years on the market.

Conclusion Web2.0 and Service Oriented Architectures are having a tremendous effect on the world around us, specifically how we collaborate, how we communicate and how we innovate.

Web2.0 is changing the way software is designed and developed. Gone are the carefully planned software cycles. After the first version of the software is opened to public, the functionality grows continually in short incremental updates and the value grows proportionately to the usage.

What's even more important, however, is that they are becoming a threat to a lot of established firms and technologies. The largest end-user operating system vendor Microsoft is under a threat as a lot of its Windows system services become unnecessary due to the tasks being transferred to the network layer. Media reporting has to reinvent itself to compete with a cheaper albeit less dependable source of news, the bloggers. Software development organizations are facing a threat from new breed of service based applications. Large software powerhouses, like Oracle and SAP, are under siege from the new entrants into the ERP space with the most well-known of them, Salesforce.com, reinventing the business models and proving to be extremely effective at winning the market share away from the traditional ERP vendors.

SOA applications in general have a tremendous capacity to change the landscape of many industries through changes in the product development lifecycles, harnessing innovation and introduction of the new business models.

The large incumbent software companies and media conglomerates are understanding the threats and opportunities provided by the SAO/Web2.0 generation of products and services as evidenced by a few high-profile acquisitions (Siebel by Oracle, MySpace by Newscorp, JotSpot by Google) and in-house development of competing SAO applications (Microsoft Office Live, SAP hosted services) The question remains whether the incumbents are flexible enough in their business models to be able to embrace the SAO movement or will the new entrants be able to capture large markets with the new SAO/Web2.0 technologies. Bibliography:

Leveraging the convergence of IT and the next generation of the Web, Dion Hinchcliffe

The Birth of Enterprise 2.0, M.R. Rangaswami

Paul Graham (November 2005). Web 2.0. Retrieved on 2006-08-02.

Tim O'Reilly (2006-07-17). Levels of the Game: The Hierarchy of Web 2.0 Applications. O'Reilly radar. Retrieved on 2006-08-08.

Jürgen Schiller García (2006-09-21). Web 2.0 Buzz Time bar. Retrieved on 2006-10-29.

Jeffrey Zeldman (2006-01-16). Web 3.0. A List Apart. Retrieved on 2006-05-27.

Tim O'Reilly (2005-09-30). What Is Web 2.0. O'Reilly Network. Retrieved on 2006-08-06.

Dion Hinchcliffe (2006-04-02). The State of Web 2.0. Web Services Journal. Retrieved on 2006-08-06.

Tim O'Reilly (2002-06-18). Amazon Web Services API. O'Reilly Network. Retrieved on 2006-05-27.

O'Reilly and CMP Exercise Trademark on 'Web 2.0'. Slashdot (2006-05-26). Retrieved on 2006-05-27.

Nathan Torkington (2006-05-26). O'Reilly's coverage of Web 2.0 as a service mark. O'Reilly Radar. Retrieved on 2006-06-01.

Tim O"Reilly. 9-30-2005. Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software.

Barry, Douglas K. (2003). Web Services and Service-Oriented Architectures: The Savvy Manager's Guide

Greek Architecture

Architecture in ancient Greece was usually done with wood or mud-bricks, so their ground plans are the only evidence of their existence. Greeks established most of the most enduring themes, attitudes, and forms of western culture. Architecture is one of the Greek legacies that the western civilization has inherited, as Greece established many of the structural elements, decorative motifs, and building types still used in architecture today.

The two main styles of Greek architecture are doric and ionic. The doric style is much more disciplined and austere, whereas the ionic style is more relaxed and decorative. There was a strong emphasis in building temples for the Greek mythological gods and goddesses. But, there were also well known public buildings like the Parthenon.

Building materials used were limestone and some native stones. Highly expensive marble was used mainly for sculptural decoration found in grand buildings of the classical period. The roofs of their buildings were made up of timber beams covered with overlapping terracotta or occasionally marble tiles.

The structure of ancient Greek architecture consists of a basic cube or rectangle, flanked by colonnades, and a long sequence of columns. Building will have a pronao or a portico that open up to a large open court peristyle. Greeks used very little of the principles of the masonary arch, individual blocks bound together by mortar. The front end of the roof has flat triangular shaped structure, the pediment which is usually filled with scultural decoration.

Temples are the best known form of Greek architecture. The altar of the temple was usually found in the sacred fane, an enclosure, in front of the temple. The inner building of the temple, cella, served mainly as the storage room. The other common public builds of the Greek architecture are gymnasiums, the palaestra, and theatres.

In ancient Greece, architects were hardly treated as valuable master craftsmen, unlike today where the architects are closely associated with the work they produce. And moreover, architecture was not seen as an art form, as it is in modern times.

Low Maintenance Organic Landscaping Using Blueberry Plants

Introduction
You have always wanted a great looking landscape to brighten the yard. But who has time to spend every free minute caring for the yard? With some planning and a little know how it is easy to cut down on the drudgery of yard work. Having an easy care landscape means you must develop a realistic plan. Trees and shrubs give substance to a landscape and flowers provide excitement and surprise. You can enjoy the fruits of near effortless edibles including blueberries and strawberries. Blueberries are a low maintenance plant. They have few pest and are native to North America. They require a soil pH of 4.6 to 5.1.

Take a look at your landscape
Knowing the physical characteristics of your site, the soil, climate, topography, and exposure is a vital part creating and maintaining a low maintenance landscape. Choose well adapted plants to design a functional, attractive layout for your yard.

Some factors like climate you have no control over and it affects your whole yard. Other factors you have some control over, Like the amount of shade which can differ widely in different parts of the yard. Growing plants can be a breeze if you have deep, fertile soil rich in organic matter. But even if you don't (very few of us do) you can still have a productive low maintenance yard. You can decide to improve your soil by adding organic matter or using raised beds and adjusting the soil pH if needed. You can also look for plants that are adapted to your soils existing conditions. Raised beds can provide ideal growing conditions for a variety of vegetables, bushes, and flowers. Where the soil has poor drainage raised beds can solve that problem.

Test your soil. Your local extension service can provide a test for a sample you supply. Test results will tell you the soils fertility, pH, and organic matter content. Getting your soil in shape before planting will go a long way toward promoting healthy, trouble-free plants in the future.

Reduce maintenance on tough to mow slopes by replacing turf with a mixture of low care flowers and shrubs such as low growing easy maintenance blueberry bushes and using a mowing strip. For example, North Country blueberry plants grows 18 to 24 inches tall or North blue blueberry plants that grows to a height of 20-30 inches could be good selections.

Lawns
Reduce mowing chores by replacing some of the lawn with shrubs, trees or ground cover. Eliminate grass growing under or along fences and walls and low branching trees. The kind of grass you grow has a lot to do with how much maintenance it requires. There are grasses that do not grow tall and thus require minimal mowing.

For example, No mow grass ultra low maintenance grass. Eliminate hours of lawn mowing and lawn maintenance each month with Pearl's Premium grass. Pearl's Premium grows slowly above ground. Below ground, it can put down 12" roots, tapping into naturally occurring moisture and nutrients. This type of grass will reduce watering requirements and a lot of mowing. Mow only when it needs it not on a regular weekly or bi-weekly schedule.

End edging forever- For the busy person trees, shrubs and flower beds can quickly turn into a night mare. The shaggy edges that form between planting and the lawn area can give any area an unkempt look and be a real pain to trim. Mowing strips are the solution. A mowing strip is a flat band of brick or flat rock that sits flush with the soil surface and you just mow over the area eliminating the need for the hand or string trimmers to cut the grass at the edge of the of the bed. You just let one wheel ride on the strip and the other on the lawn.

Ground cover
Utilizing ground cover can help to change a bare or dull part of your yard into a beautiful, low maintenance show area. Low growing ground cover plants can serve you well in some areas. For example in our yard we had a rock area that we could not mow and looked ugly. We let low growing ground cover plants grow over this area to transform it into a beautiful area that required essentially no care. You might consider RUBY CARPET a ground cover blueberry plant. The height of the ruby Carpet plants grow to be 4 to 6 inches at maturity and spread outward to create the Red Carpet. Ruby Carpet is selected for form, color and resistance to dryer soil conditions than most blueberry plants.

Blueberries make a beautiful delicious Landscape
When planting blueberries as part of your landscape you should consider combining them with other plants that thrive in acid soil such as azaleas, rhododendrons and camellias. The following are some example of plants you can consider.

Legacy blueberry plants grows 4 to 5 feet tall and can create 4 seasons of interest in your landscape. Spring brings white flowers that develop into shiny green fruit which turn bright blue in the summer. Smooth, glossy-green leaves look attractive all spring & summer in the fall they produce beautiful orange-red leaves.
Sunshine blue is a short plant that is very suitable for growing in a landscape or in containers.
Ornablue grows about 3 feet tall and is considered to be the best ornamental of its size and stature.
North Country grows 18 to 24 inches tall and is an outstanding blueberry plant for landscapes and container growing.
North blue, grows to a height of 20-30 inches. It is good for landscapes and container growing. It's large glossy, dark green leaves turn dark red in the fall making it of good ornamental value.
Patriot grows 3 to 5 feet tall and is also an excellent container and landscape variety. It is also a very good producer of fruit.
For tall hedges you want to use for privacy use the faster growing, upright varieties such as Jersey, or Ozark Blue. To make solid hedges or screens, place plants 2½ to 3' apart.
Rabbiteyes grow tall so they can make excellent plants for areas you want to screen off for privacy. Tifblue is considered among best rabbiteyes.
Blueberry plants grow slowly, and grow about a half-foot a year on mature branches. The plants are multi-stemmed with new shoots often developing from the base.

Eatable landscaping
Recently edible landscaping has received more attention. Part of the reason is because of the well documented health benefits and another is because of the economics of growing your own fruit and vegetables. Raised beds can provide an excellent controllable space to grow blueberry bushes and vegetables. Anyone who has eaten really fresh produce knows a food-producing garden is worth the effort. It is surprising that it hasn't caught on earlier. It's such a brilliant way of taking advantage of the little bit of land that many of us have but usually use strictly for ornamentals. Blueberries make a beautiful delicious Landscape. Blueberry plants can serve as ornamentals while also being grown as a food source.

Border plantings and along Walkways
You can plant shrubs along the borders of your property that can serve several purposes. Serve for privacy, eliminate grass growing under or along fences and the related mowing problems, serve as perimeter border to define your property boundaries while at the same time beautifying you landscape. If you use eatable bushes such as blueberry bushes you are can grow blueberries for your health and enjoyment. Ornablue blueberry plant can serve this purpose well and is considered to be the best ornamental varieties of its size and stature.

Border plantings along walkways or surrounding a planting bed can work well, choose Sunshineblue, Ornablue or Northcountry. These can be planted along with dwarf rhododendrons or compact azaleas. All three of these blueberry bushes will grow well in Kentucky. Ornablue is considered to be the best ornamental variety of its size and stature. Northcountry will grow well all the way up to growing zone 3. The Sunshine blue blueberries we planted on our properties in Kentucky and Tennessee have turned out to be pretty much evergreen bushes the year around. Rhododendrons and azaleas can be planted along with blueberry plants to blend into borders or serve as a prickly hedge.

Choosing Blueberry Plants to grow
Purchase your plants state-inspected reliable nursery. Bare root plants are usually sold by most nurseries unless you pick the plants up at the nursery. you obtain plants to be planted in the spring or fall. What is important is to plant them when they're dormant, either well before or well after they start new growth of leaves, blossoms and berries.

Usually two-year-old potted or bare-root plants are sold by nurseries and are your best purchase. Older plants may give you a harvest sooner, but they are generally not cost-effective because of their added expense and can be harder to establish. Younger plants need to be grown under nursery conditions before they can be planted in the field.

Xbox 360 - Definitely A Different Gaming Console

It just happens like clockwork - one company sees the market, makes a best selling gaming console, and others follow suit. While Microsoft Xbox 360 may not be able to claim to be a pioneer over its competitors - Nintendo, Microsoft, and the-then viable Sega - there could be no doubt that the gaming industry would have been a much different landscape without the Xbox.

The Xbox's hardware resembles more of a personal computer than a traditional gaming console, and it's not that big of a mystery considering that the Xbox itself is based on common personal computer hardware architecture.

First, to clarify: the Microsoft Xbox 360 is not the same as the just the Microsoft Xbox as both consoles have different hardware architectures. The original Xbox console was discontinued in late 2006, just in time for the 360 to take up its slack as early as May 2005. The original Xbox was the first video game console to use an internal hard disk for saving game progress and content download from the Xbox Live, an online service accessible to Xbox players where they can download update patches, media and other content, legacy, homebrew and paid downloadable games and most importantly, the technology to allow players to play with as well as against each other online.

This online service is probably one of Microsoft's most important legacy to the console industry: the ability for players to compete online was something that had opened a whole new floodgate in the console gaming community, and general reception was very well received. And although the concept had been replicated, it was the Xbox that had set the standard for all gaming consoles to follow.

The aurally sensitive might also note that the Xbox was one of the first to use Dolby Interactive Encoding technology, which meshed very well with the multimedia capability of the Xbox (being able to play DVD's as well as other popular formats such as MPEG-2, MPEG-4, WMV). It also pioneered the "breakaway cables" safety feature to prevent the console from being accidentally pulled by its controller and come toppling down the floor.

Even the Xbox 360 itself has undergone several editions, with its current incarnation called the Microsoft Xbox 360 S, although commercially it's still being marketed as just plain moniker "Microsoft Xbox 360".

The Xbox 360 marks noticeable improvements from its Xbox predecessor, most noticeably with more powerful processors and exponentially larger hard disk capacities with every version, but the really noticeable changes come from the inclusion of the wireless controller on their 2007 pro versions and above, and the much anticipated recent release of the Kinect accessory add-on just late 2010.

The Kinect was supposedly Microsoft's answer to Nintendo's Wii. Like the Wii, the Kinect enables the player to interface with the 360 and its games with motion sensitive gestures. Unlike the Wii, the Kinect can also read spoken commands, as well as recognize certain objects and images, and the whole Kinect supposedly more sensitive to motion than the Wii.