New Butterfly Images on YouTube

Some of my earlier Butterflies made it to YouTube. From the clip you can see under which conditions the pictures have been taken: it was quite windy and the subject was moving in an unpredictable way. Still it’s a nice lot of Butterfly Images.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbVWtNXCNz4

The EXIF data are roughly the same for all butterfly images:

butterflysettings

EXIF Butterfly

As you can see, the pics have been taken with a credit card size point and shoot cam (the c-lux 3 is the smallest Leica available and it has the merit to fit into any pocket). The shots were difficult due to the wind conditions. Towards the end of the YouTube clip I inserted a few seconds of footage shot with the same cam to demonstrate how the subject was moving in an unpredictable way.

The quality of the images are surprising namely when you look at the HD version in full screen mode on YouTube. The wing span of the Butterfly is about 5 cm (2 inches) and yet, the large sizes are still pretty impressive.

No corrections have been applied, just some cropping for reasons of loading time.

Enjoy.

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

Semiomantics XO Flash Header Accordion

Based on the recent May Seminar, Semiomantics has created a special header for Semiomantics XO featuring a bold accordion which comes in two styles.

Flash Accordion for Semiomantics XO style 1

accordion1

Semiomantics Flash Header Accordion

The Accordion holds 6 images which can be linked to any URL. The tabs are dimmed except when activated by hovering or clicking; then the image opens and lightens up. A previousely displaied image would at this point dim down to dark gray.

All colors and effects can be configured.The bold style typical for yorgo design can of course be changed to your likes.

Flash Accordion for Semiomantics XO style 2

The second version offers a decorative preview depending of course on the images loaded:

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Flash Accordion for Semiomantics XO style 2

When hovering the previews close and the very bold titles remain visible while the selected image opens:

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Flash Accordion for Semiomantics XO style 2a

The accordion holds images or videos (swf).

A live example is running on the Evolution site.

The XO Accordion header will be available shortly.

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

Facebook Marketing

Facebook is built by over 200 million subscribers. Many of them use the site daily as a means to communicate, network as well as to market products and services.

Facebook has become a must for anyone who builds a business online, equal to Google.

Various Facebook applications allow users to take advantage of advanced publishing features, however not many of the proposed solutions are efficient or have a real impact on business development.

YORGOO in collaboration with Semiomantics and Ycademy, is ready to release it’s Facebook Marketing tools later this month; at the same time a line of new, Facebook focused customer products by Semiomantics will be released. Semiomantics and YorgoMedia Solutions for Facebook users will provide high end Facebook development as well as quick low cost load and go solution.

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Control your Facebook

Facebook Pull Marketing

As a business owner, for example as a shop or a restaurant owner, you cannot spend your day sitting in Facebook and chatting your way through the day. Your business is to run your restaurant or your shop or to provide your services to your customers.

It is therefore the goal to use Facebook similar to Google as a passive pull marketing environment.

Facebook Marketing Strategies

Similar to Google and Search Engine Marketing, there are two axes of development:

1. Facebook Optimization to profit from organic high visibility

The strategy consists in building strong optimized Facebook assets which reach high visibility inside and outside Facebook, namely on the Bing and Google Search engines.

2. Facebook Advertising

Similar to successful Google strategies, Facebook Marketing can focus on the use of Facebook Ads and pay for each single click.

The two strategies can go hand in hand and be added to a professional Facebook full-timer’s presence on the site and daily conversations.

Facebook Marketing with YORGOO

During this month of June, YORGOO will focus it’s calls and site development on Facebook, Facebook authority building and marketing.

Facebook Marketing Ycademy

Ycademy will focus it’s calls and the June Seminar on building products for online Marketers. The flagship will be technology based on a new Semiomantics development specifically designed for Facebook. During the Ycademy June Seminar we will build with participants an optimized site which integrates with Facebook and which will reduce or replace costly pay per click ads.

The combination of Semiomantics Frameworks with Semiomantics Best FB sites is the most powerful passive marketing equaled by none.

More about the seminar shortly.

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Photoshop CS5 and 3D

Photoshop CS5 provides some important improvements, amongst them a more developed 3D design engine.

Here a quick sample of what can be done with just a few mouse-clicks:

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Sample 3D in Photoshop

Join us for a relaxed Ycademy Photoshop 3D intro session next Monday at 9 pm London time at yorGOtalk.

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

Jean Francois Rauzier

Hyper Photography

French artist and by now photographer Jean Francois Rauzier has created the term of Hyperphoto to define his creations where large photos are composed of 600 to over 3000 high resolution detail images.

The results are smashing as is Rauzier’s success. The surreal pieces are combining technology, art and photography. The individual shots are typically telephotos which are then stitched together to a huge collage.

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J F Rauzier's Hyperphoto

When zooming in, the details become visible:

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J F Rauzier's Hyperphoto Detail

Have a look at the original HERE.

The astonishing stitching work is done with Photoshop; the same applies to the replacement of the sky.

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

Banner Rotator for Semiomantics

I know, you have seen them all and there is nothing exciting about banner rotators … until you see the new Component we use in Semiomantics scripts:

This rotator can be customized for sidebars, posts, pages, headers, footers … you name it.

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

Flash Gallery a Gogo

Yet another Gallery worth while talking about, but first just admire: yes, it’s a Gene special!

Have a look at the full screen version here.

We will talk about this Gallery at tonight’s call at YorgoTalk.

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

Semiomantics Flash Components for Ycademy May Seminar

The upcoming Ycademy Seminar is focusing on Flash, Flash Components and user experience enhanced by Flash. The Seminar is designed for Website Designers and Developers, who want to take their skills to the next level. Find out more from HERE.

Flash Components by Semiomantics

Flash is releasing a plethora of flash components this month. While they are originally designed to be used namely with Semiomantics XO and News Cast scripts, they can be used on any website. Check it out in the Semiomantics Shop later this month.

Ycademy Seminar Participants will be introduced to the use of one of the most exciting components. It’s the unique Semiomantics Accordion which in fact is more than just an accordion; it’s also a sideshow, a menu, a slider … most anything you want to make out of it.

Now this is something: you can even test the sideshow by clicking on the button at the bottom right.

The Semiomantics Accordion is probably the best out there since its development is based on the second best :-).

As you see, you can load it vertically or horizontally,  you can modify the number of images, even the effects and much, much more. You see an autoplay version and you can play with the mouse on the images … just try and find out what this script jewel can do for you.

Join tonight’s Call at YorgoTalk to find out more about the Ycademy May Seminar.

PS: The Semiomantics Accordion is included in the Seminar ticket price:-).

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

YORGOO Calls and Ycademy Seminars

We have set up a new conferencing facility returning to Microsoft’s Live Meeting. While I preferred the Adobe Conferencing, we could not upgrade to a full-featured version since Adobe does not provide a purchase option for residents in Greece (the only Euro-zone country). Worse, they don’t even reply to support tickets.

So we are back with Microsoft Live Meeting which we will need to configure and set up.

As from tonight the calls will be accessible from yorgotalk.com as usual.

Thanks for your patience.

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

Ycademy Seminar May 29-30, 2010

The use of Flash components in Web Design is popular and increasingly requested by customers. Flash is used to enhance the user experience by adding dynamic content, media and interactivity to a website.

Goals

The Ycademy Seminar will focus on understanding flash basics and Flash Editors and Converters for the purpose of manipulating flash components and to build them into web sites.

Topics and Workshops

1. Introduction to Flash and its use in modern web and media design

2. Flash Pro

The basic features of Adobe Flash Pro CS4 or 5 and Workshop: Symbols, Graphics, Actions – Workshops

3. Flash Components

Basics and Workshop: add a flash component to Semiomantics XO.

4. Flash Template Editing

Basics and Workshop: Edit Semiomantics Evolution.

5. PowerPoint to Flash Conversion

Workshop: automate the conversion using a PowerPoint plug-in and embed the result in a blog post.

6. Flash Site Builder

Workshop: After the intro builder, let’s expand the exercise to build a flash website.

Prerequisites:

Flash Pro CS4 or CS5

Materials

All materials, scripts and literature are included.

Price

Tickets: $80

Ycademy Pros: $25  (the Discount code will be sent to you)

Please Register from HERE

After registration, contact Bianca (bianca -at- ycademy.com) to get download links for the course materials as they become available.

Information:

Join our call tonight to get more details.

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

Embed PowerPoint in Flash

While we are focusing on Flash these days, we are also interested in tools which can make our life easier, namely PowerPoint to Flash converters.

Ycademy May Seminar Participants will be playing with an advanced PowerPoint to Flash converter. The below sample is how a light and relatively low quality Flash PowerPoint looks like.

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

Windows 64-bit for Ycademy Pros

What is the practical advantage of the 64-bit version of Windows for Ycademy Pros? The answer is partially in the Question as Ycademy Pros make use of many graphic and media related programs.

So, let’s start over again:

Which advantages does the 64-bit version of Windows provide anyway?

The term 32-bit or 64-bit refer to the way the processor handles information: the 64-bit system handles packs of 64 bits (0s and 1s) compared to 32 bits on a 32-bit system. Also and most importantly, the 64-bit system manages large amounts of Random Access Memory (RAM) more efficiently.

The Windows 7 32-bit version is limited to managing about 3 GB of Ram, while the 64-bit version can manage and make use of up to 192 GB of RAM. The advantages of the 64-bit versions are not really noticeable if you don’t run a System with a large amount of RAM, typically as from 4 GB on upwards.

win

Windows Easy Transfer

What do you need large amounts of  RAM for?

Memory is needed to process data and lots of memory is necessary to process data  much faster. If you us multiple programs and processes at the same time, namely image and video editing programs, you will need quite a bit of RAM to run and use modern editing programs efficiently.

The rendering of images and video clips with Photoshop, After Effects, Media Encoder or such like are typical examples. Also your machine needs loads of RAM to display streaming media instantly.

In other terms: if you use your computer just to check and send emails and to chat on Facebook, you do not need a 64-bit system.

Windows 64-bit for Ycademy Pros

The Ycademy Educational Programs are helping to make use of the latest technology pertaining to media production and editing. Our recent seminars focusing on image editing, Digital Photography, and Flash this month and the use of complex editing programs have tested some of the limits of our computers. The trend to faster computers seems to stimulate program developers to build software which needs more memory to run smoothly; this is not only true in gaming, but also in as much as media programs are concerned. Adobe’s recent release of CS5 sends clear signals: After Effects and Premier Pro are only released as 64-bit versions and cannot be installed on 32-bit Windows.

It makes therefore sense for Ycademy Pros to upgrade their systems and to run 64-bit Windows and in as much as possible 64-bit applications and programs.

Some of the problems encountered

While most recent computers are capable to run 64-bit Operating Systems, many applications and programs do not yet provide 64 bit versions. Interestingly Internet Explorer comes in 2 versions when installing on Windows 7 64-bit.

IE 8 64 bit however cannot integrate some of the popular tool bars, such as Roboform.

Also you may encounter problems when trying to import data from your mail client. To make the transition an easier task, you may use Windows Easy Transfer (go Start and Search for ‘Easy Transfer’). Read more about Easy Transfer.

If you are using old hardware, check the manufacturer’s site for 64 bit drivers.

Read also Gizmodo about this topic.

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

A Rose for Mothers Day

He is growing up and starting to do things the men way :-)! On Mothers Day, early in the morning, YorgoMan went to the neighbor’s garden to fetch a rose. Brilliant idea I thought and I was delighted when I found out that he had asked the neighbor if he could cut the flower:-).

Yesterday he thought of taking a pic of the plant so it can serve for future Mothers Days and virtual communication.

Enjoy!

rose1

Rose 1

rose3

Rose 2

rose4

Rose 3

The above pics are as taken by the cam without any filtering or Photoshoping. As you can see, YorgoMan has followed our Photo sessions.

PS: You may pinch these pics if you like them or leave a comment and a mail address if you want the full size files.

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

Flash Ycademy Workshop: The Bone Tool

Today’s Flash Workshop will finish with yesterday’s bouncing ball, by adding a replay button. Thereafter we will have a closer look at the bone tool, which serves to animate shapes, images … cartoons. Now this is where the fun starts with Flash: draw a character, give him a skeleton and make him dance!

We will learn to produce animated characters similar to the below:

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

Create your First Flash Document Tonight

At tonight’s Ycademy Flash Workshop we will finish the intro to Flash and create a first animated Flash Document.

We will continue working with the Live Conference tonight; please login from HERE.

We will create step by step a similar flash as above tonight.

Download the above sample files from HERE.

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

New Ycademy Conferencing Facility

Ycademy and YORGOO are moving on to a new Conferencing Facility, abandoning Windows Live Meeting from Microsoft to test Adobe’s ConnectPro. One of the immediate advantages is the immediate access for participants and guests – no download required.

yphone4A2

YorgoMan Communication 2001

Join tonight’s session to see the on-board features which will make our conference more user-friendly and  provide a better learning and communication experience. Log in from yorGOtalk as usual.

It  seems to me that ConnectPro requires less bandwidth, making access easier for users with low speed connections.

We will test different configurations during this week to provide the best possible service. Check it out and share with us your first impressions.

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

Flash Workshops by Ycademy: Is the Time Right?

The Ycademy Flash Workshops starting Monday, May 10, 2010 will provide all participants with the unique opportunity to acquire basic and advanced knowledge of Flash.  Is the Time right for you to move on and to take your web site development and web design capabilities to the next level?

Ycademy Evolution

For years Ycademy has helped people to develop online skills, covering from Computer to Marketing and to Website Development and Hosting knowledge. Converting knowledge to profit and editing to successful publishing remains our goal.

In fact, Ycademy has started as an online learning center for YORGOO Subscribers, where newbies and advanced online Marketers have met and then continued to interact to build mutually beneficial relationships.

Today, Ycademy Pros have acquired a high level of know-how and can be proud to develop for their customers some of the best performing websites on the entire internet also due to the high performance semantic publishing frameworks from Semiomantics. Time has come to take advantages of more media focused publishing methods. For this reason we enter a new educational cycle starting with Flash, to move on to video clip and animated 3 D production and to the development of Applications for Desktop and Mobile Devices.

If Semiomantics calls its latest script ‘Evolution’, it is because Evolution is the first 100% Flash Framework tuned by Semiomantics and because Flash constitutes a necessary evolution to access advanced online publishing technologies. Accordingly we call the new Ycademy Cycle ‘Evolution’ as well.

What’s the Excitement all about?

It’s about being able to explore new horizons together and to share knowledge for the benefit of the entire team and ultimately of our customers. Moving to advanced editing enables us finally to express our creativity in new ways and to build rich and interactive content, making our publications more interesting.

In view of our upcoming new business project for which we seek the support and sponsorship of Microsoft, our traditional battle-cry is more true than ever:

Together we are unbeatable!

PS: The above Flash Clock will be our first little Flash project this coming week.

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

Adobe Flash Workshops and Seminar by Ycademy

A  new important Ycademy development cycle will start next week: Adobe Flash will be the focus for the next 3 weeks and beyond as the case may be.

The Ycademy May Seminar, which will take place on May 29 and 30, 2010 will concentrate on practical flash application and template modification accessible to people who have followed the flash cycle as well as for participants who have no clue about flash coding: we will work along two parallel workflows, one focused on flash editing, the second on xml editing.

Photo Yorgo Nestoridis

Flash Animated Photo Album

Here is our ambitious educational plan:

Week 1: Introduction and Graphics Creation and Animation

Week 2: Action Script 3.0, Flash Audio and Flash Video

Week 3: Interactive Flash, Project Editing and Publishing

The Great Ycademy Flash Seminar

The Program of the Seminar will be released shortly, however we already know that the Seminar will focus on productivity and using Flash to increase our service level for the benefit of our customers. Namely we will develop and implement flash based products and add them to our product range.

Pre-requisites

This cycle is for participants who have Flash CS4 or CS5 installed or who will install it shortly. The Trial Version available at Adobe will do for the time of the cycle. Please contact Bianca for more information and the best way of equipping your computer with the software.

It is recommended to follow all daily calls as from Monday, May 10, 2010 to acquire the basics; the calls will be recorded. Recordings are available for free to Ycademy Pros, and they are included in the Seminar ticket available shortly.

The Ycademy Flash Cycle is accessible to beginners and there is no need to have any special knowledge. Basic Photoshop knowledge is an asset but not necessary.

Note

The Ycademy Flash Cycle is the most Cost and Time effective way to take our online Web Design and Site Development business to the next level. Join Ycademy Pro and take advantage of permanent updates and cutting edge of technology made available to interested ordinary people wanting to do extraordinary things.

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

Digital Portrait Photography Workshop

After the Tuesday session we will continue tonight to deal with Digital Portrait Photography.

After a quick flash-back on How to shoot Portraits, we will deal with post editing portraits in Photoshop.

The workshop will follow a step by step workflow for quick editing and then look into more detailed post editing with Photoshop.

yi2bw2

YorgoMan and JonnyBoy

Here some literature for reference:

Download

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

Digital Portrait Photography Ycademy

A specialty in Digital Photography is Portrait Photography. After our Digital Photography Seminar in April we will deal this week with Digital Portrait Photography at our daily calls at 8 pm London Time at yorGOtalk.

One of the most interesting subjects in Photography is the human being and thee are basically two approaches of picturing people and they depend on the main question:

What’s the Story behind a Digital Portrait

In other terms: what is the result you want to achieve, the story you want to tell, the moment you want to ban. A good photographer is a great story teller. And here is the point: you can write a comedy or a drama, neutral descriptions or flattering phrases.

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Digital Portrait Photography 1

In photography it’s the same as in music: a great theme can be declined as Rap, Hip Hopp, Blues, Rock, R & B and so on.

At our calls, we will look at some options as listed below.

Portrait Photography option 1

You want to capture a face, a story engraved into a face by life. The means: work with sharper contrasts, harder light and so on to enhance the details of the expression, skin, texture. Emphasize nature.

Portrait Photography option 2

You want to provide a favorable look, a flattering picture; your goal is to become the preferred son in law of your mother in law. Work with the powder box, softening, soft light and soft shadows. Strip off a few pounds and make the skin smooth by applying the baby bum filter :-). Wedding photography is using many of the same techniques we use here, just that there you may add  even more glow and glitter.

greekface

Digital Portrait Photography 2

Portrait Photography option 3

You need a formal portrait, for example for a CV or Business related picture. The work starts with dressing up the subject and choosing the right pose. Get the best out of the subject and do only minor retouching, in any case your post editing should not exaggerate the enhancements to the point where even a mother would not recognize her son.

Portrait Photography option 4

Children and Pets. The main problem is that you need to keep them in front of your lens; the best recipe is to keep them busy instead of keeping them still for 10 minutes with a ‘Cheese’ burned into their face and a Colgate smile as if you had glued their mouth angles to their ears. Just keep them busy and … shoot.

Portraiture and Lighting

There are three main technical tools involved in the production of a good portrait.

First, the Light! Even with an average or low-end cam you can shoot for a decent result for as long as your light is right.

Second: a good Photo Editing program for your post editing tasks.

Third, a camera, whereas the two above mentioned tools will compensate for a big deal of your cam’s eventual shortfalls.

Mephisto

Digital Portrait Photography 3

The most important Elements

The most important elements are: your Subject and YOU or rather: You and your Subject and the way you perceive it, and the way you translate your perception into a portrait. A portrait is successful when people who know the subject say: this is exactly the way he or she is. Or, under option 2 if your mother in law thinks you are a great photographer or when your just married couple and their families go WOW on your shots.

In other words: you must read the subject and you must be aware of the goal you want to achieve. Based on your reading and goal you plan your Portrait and you start imagining the lighting, the angle, the pose, the camera settings and so on. It’s a mental process which leads to the actual shooting.

More at tonight’s call.

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.