Archive for September, 2011
Swellendam, One Of South Africa’s Best Kept Secrets
September 30th, 2011 | 
Author: Article by Hetty Beekhoven
Swellendam, South Africa’s third oldest town is nestling at the foot of the Langeberg Mountains and has much to offer visitors who have an interest in history, nature, outdoor activities and art. Swellendam is ideally situated halfway between Cape Town and George and is therefore an ideal stop over for tourists. In these two hours from Cape Town to Swellendam, you will pass through unspoilt villages and towns. Take a trip back in time and stay in some of the historic homesteads and country houses in the area, which offer bed and breakfast. Rainfall is spread over the year and there is little wind and temperatures are moderate all year round
Swellendam has been an important travel centre for centuries. Early travelers and explorers traded with the Khoi-Khoi people and in 1743 the Dutch East India Company declared Swellendam a magisterial district and built the Drostdy which was completed in 1747. This Drostdy, a national monument, is the only eighteenth century Drostdy that is preserved in its original form and will give tourists a wonderful insight as to the life of the settlers.
The more adventures tourist can go on the Swellendam hike. Located in and around the Marloth Nature Reserve this hiking trail is one of the most beautiful in the Cape. There are numerous shorter routs if a six day hike is too long for you. On this trail you will see stretches of fynbos alternated with cool indigenous forest, small animals and birds. Other sections of the trail will give you the sensation of being in a peaceful and secluded wilderness. The six day hike demands a medium to high level of fitness and is therefore not recommended for the light hearted. The Marloth Nature Reserve is also one of the best birding spots in the Western Cape and therefore defiantly worth visiting.
The rare and beautiful Bontebok antelope and other small buck species can be seen at the Bontebok National Park. This park is only 6km out of Swellendam. A total of 126 different bird species have also been identified here. There is a charming caravan park on the banks of the Breede River where they also have fully equipped chalets for hire and where day visitors are welcome to swim, fish or picnic.
Other than hiking the adventurous at heart can also enjoy a day or two off river rafting. The Breede River rafting adventure is about a 2.5hour drive from Cape Town. On this adventure you will enjoy your days paddling in two-man Mohawk canoes in the tranquil waters of the Breede and your nights socializing around a campfire. The Up the Creek Camp is situated near Swellendam on a hill side overlooking the river where the accommodation is A-frame chalets or 3 ox-wagons. This accommodation includes comfortable beds with linen and Duvets. All in all, this adventure will be well worth a try and is ideal for a family to enjoy together.
Youngberry tasting can be done at the Buffeljags Dam. This cultivated wild berry was imported to South Africa in 1939 by Prof OSH Reinecke. The industry is sadly declining because of endless problems associated with wind and rain damage or to much heat, pest attacks and insufficient labor during the peak harvesting period from mid – November to early December. Today over 90% of the total annual crop of just over 600 tons is produced by farmers in the Swellendam area. On your visit to the Hermitage Liqueur Farm just 3km out of town you can sample some of the liqueur made from youngberries. Other Youngberry products are also for sale here.
Local artists like the potter Jan du Toit’s vases are famous, visit him and other artists in the town.
Other activities that Swellendam has to offer include:
* 4×4 Mountain Experience: Marloth Nature Reserve* Canoe the Breede River* Sunset Cruises on a kitted-out double-decker wooden raft* Buffeljachts Dam for Water sports* Horse Trails* White water raft the Breede River* Waterskiing* Several well-known artists have settled in Swellendam and their studios may be visited* Pop into the Sulina Faerie Sanctuary: Magical Faerie display & garden* Cruise down the Breede River on a double-decker river boat – “Pot se Vlot”* Motor glider flights
As you can see Swellendam is well worth a visit. Come and enjoy a few days of relaxation in our beautiful town while we pamper your every need.
Posted in 
Tags: 
Video shoot for the leader in Miami Tours Operators in Miami Beach
Article by Half Price Tour Tickets
Event never seen before, more than 30 segways used by pre-selected volunteers at South beach (Miami Beach), Fl for a huge promotion on the segways. Video shoot will take aprox 3 hours, and while the video shoot we will have photos too. For the best photos winner we will be giving
The video record consist in people using the segway and posing for photos while all grouped toguether, or even one by one. once the shooting is finished the best photo winner will be able to opt for a Miami Tours promotion which they will be able to pick from the legendary Miami City Tour, Miami Boat Tour, Everglades airboat ride plus wildlife show, Keywest trip tour from miami or any other bicycle or segway rental totally free.
They must take the tour/rental within a week from the video shoot and we will publishing the video very soon at our website Miami Tours Operators (segway section)
We will also upload it to youtube.com as soon as we got the the full video edited.
We have been supporting the american, tourists and locals hiring them for events, gigs or long term makerting for a wide variety of activities, so if you would like to keep updated with our specials, promotions or hiring please Fan us on facebook.com or follow us in Twitter.
Next we will disclose more information extracted from the website directly about one of the most famous activity in whole Florida: MIAMI CITY AND BOAT TOURS
Take Advantage of the most popular tour combination of all time! The legendary Miami City + Boat Tours toguether! The whole tour takes place in one single day starting in the morning and ending early in the afternoon. Don’t let anybody talk to you about Miami, after you have learned and seen by yourself all this beautiful and cultural places.
Thanks for the support.
EDI Admin, is it a Full Time Position
Article by Daniel Spivey
An EDI admin or administrator is generally responsible for the daily operations and monitoring of the EDI system within a company. This person’s title can also be EDI coordinator. This means that the EDI admin has to be familiar with EDI software, EDI communications (VAN, FTP, AS2), business processes supporting EDI internally in a company and with trading partners. The EDI admin would also need to understand basic EDI messages and the meanings associated with problems that can arise from the EDI process.
The normal duties of an EDI admin are to monitor the EDI traffic, meaning the inbound and outbound documents, contacting vendors where there are pending functional acknowledgements (997 documents). The EDI admin normally contacts these trading partners via email or telephone. In addition, an EDI admin would maintain logs of all contact information for the trading partners (names, addresses, telephone numbers, emails, etc.).
Another major duty of an EDI admin would be the testing of EDI documents when implemented with a new trading partner, and also testing all EDI transactions with new trading partners. The EDI admin would need to be familiar with EDI requirements, policies and procedures of trading partners, as this can have significant financial impact on the company. One core aspect of the EDI admin’s job is to ensure that charge-backs are avoided.
In some companies, the EDI admin’s job includes ASN barcoding, although this would normally be restricted to reviewing and approving UCC128 carton labels.
The EDI admin would normally report to an EDI manager who would oversee several EDI administrators. The number of EDI administrators would depend on the size of the organization, the EDI transaction volume and whether the EDI software was integrated with the backend ERP or accounting systems of the company. Many organizations are now integrating the EDI transactions directly into their backend systems, sometimes removing the need for employing an EDI Admin or coordinator. Generally when a company who has been transacting business using EDI decides to move to the next level and integrate their EDI, the EDI admin is moved to a more useful position within the company. In non-integrated EDI environments, the EDI admin often performs low-value data entry tasks. Often this would require some retraining of the EDI admin, but generally the effect of integrating EDI has a positive effect on the EDI admin and others in the company. Regardless, the EDI admin is an important person upon whom the major business of the company often rests. Health Care EDI
Many small businesses do not have an employee dedicated to EDI Admin. Do you need somone whose primary role is EDI Admin? The answer depends on several factors, including how dedicated to EDI Admin your business is. The EDI Admin position can be a critical one in your organization. An EDI Admin person is involved not only in managing your EDI Admin but also in selecting your EDI services. Your EDI Admin person can help you select new EDI Software and determine the best EDI Solution provider for your business. The role of the EDI Admin may or may not be shared with other IT responsibilities; regardless, your EDI Admin employee should be primarily responsible for managing your EDI, rather than for processing it.
The concept of an employee dedicated to EDI Admin may seem counter-intuitive, but it could be critical for the business. The EDI Admin employee should be responsible for maintaining and managing your EDI, not for processing it. The EDI Admin role is best viewed in the same light as your IT Admin person
Lane Leather Recliner and Glider Seats – Features and Functions
Article by Dean Forster
The Lane leather recliner is just one piece of furniture that Lane Home Furnishings offers. The company has various furniture product lines, ranging from bedroom to dining room furniture to home office furnishings. Lane was founded in 1912 and expanded into reclining chairs in 1972 following the purchase of Action Industries.
The firm offers various models of recliners in fabric and leather makes. Various designs are also available, such as high-leg and low-leg recliners to suit the height of the customer who will be using the seats. These seats are available in various styles, including First Class Recliners, EasyGlide glider recliners, ComfortLane recliners and ComfortKing for bigger and taller users. For home theater and home office use, Lane has the Leather Essentials recliners.
One of the more popular models from Lane is Crest. It is available in wall saver and rocker versions and in both fabric and leather make. According to the company, the Crest is manufactured to give utmost comfort to the user with its over-stuffed seat and rolled arms.
Another favorite among comfort-seekers is the Allure Rocker Recliner with Chase. It features a slightly flared back with padded arms and decorative stitching. The model is available in restricted leather and vinyl and in Black, Milky Way, Navy and Burgundy color. For a more sophisticated option, the company has the I-rest Chair which is suitable both for the office and for the living room. The chair has extra deep seating and plush cushions with padded arms.
The Andre Leather Essentials Recliner, on the other hand, is marketed by Lane to people who like simple but sleek designs. It is heavily padded and contoured to solve comfort problems. The Andre model features a swivel base, reclining back and an ottoman. Almost similar in features to the Andre leather recliner is the Angelo Leather Essentials. It also features a swivel base and reclining back, plus a correlating ottoman.
Lane Home Furnishings offers tips on its Web site on how to care for furniture and deal with problems such as removing stains and caring for fabric and leather. The warranty for upholstery fabrics and leathers is good for one year after the date of purchase. It also covers fabric separation and seam damage. Additional warranty is also offered for Comfort Lift Reclining Chair, which covers all electrical parts, cables, sensor strips and motors for three years from the date of purchase.
Lane Leather Recliner product lines offer a variety of options to customers looking for a reclining chair. Various models to suit different user sizes and preferences are available and a customer will likely find what he or she is looking for among the company’s products.
Alarm Monitoring for the DIYer
Article by Steve Nutt
As a DIY enthusiast you may have installed your own burglar alarm system. You probably wired up all your detectors and connected your panel to the electric – confident that if any burglars were to enter your property they would be detected and a siren would scare them off. If you want to take things one step further and have your system monitored by professional operators at an alarm monitoring center then this article is for you.
Perhaps the most difficult thing you will have to do is find a monitoring center that will deal with a DIYer directly. While there are a limited number of companies that will agree to do this, an Internet search for “DIY Alarm Monitoring” or similar should return enough results for you to find one of them.
As far as physical connections go, the only thing you need to do is connect your alarm panel to the telephone line in such a way that it is able to seize the line when it needs to dial the monitoring center. Your panel manual should provide technical instructions on how to do this.
The next step is for you to program your panel’s alarm monitoring settings. The terminology varies between different makes of alarm panel, so the following guidelines use generic terms:
In many alarm panels you have an option to “Enable Communications” and this is perhaps the single most important setting.
The next step is for you and your chosen alarm monitoring company to agree on an alarm protocol – also referred to as an alarm format. There are three groups of alarm formats – Pulse, FSK and DTMF. Unless there are very good reasons to do so, you should not choose a Pulse format as it can take up to 30 seconds for a single alarm signal to reach the alarm receiver at the Monitoring Center. The SIA format is an FSK protocol and is much faster at around 10 seconds for the first signal and around two seconds for subsequent signals, however, the most popular by far is Ademco Contact ID, which is a DTMF protocol.
Where Contact ID is selected, your alarm panel modem dials the phone number of an alarm receiver at the Monitoring Center, which answers the call and then receives a group of 16 DTMF tones over the telephone line. The protocol dictates what each of the digits mean and the Monitoring Center will have custom alarm monitoring software to decode each signal according to the protocol.
Program your panel to use the alarm protocol (format) agreed with your monitoring provider.
Program the primary and secondary receiver telephone numbers provided by your monitoring provider.
Program the Account Number allocated to you by the alarm monitoring provider as this will be used to uniquely identify your panel in the automation software system.
The above settings should be all that’s required to get your alarm panel sending signals to the receiver at the monitoring center in most cases, however, your panel may have many more options that could be important to the way you want your panel to perform in the event of a burglary. Take the time to read the manual in detail and seek the help of your monitoring provider if you are unsure of the consequences of changing any of the settings from their default values.
Thoroughly test your wiring and new settings by sending several alarm signals to the monitoring center and verify that each one was received correctly. One final piece of advice would be to program your alarm panel to send a periodic test signal at least once a month to ensure that your system is in working order.
Art Collecting as a Home Business
Article by Amy Hutton
When we think of art collectors, we generally think of wealthy sophisticates combing glamourous fine art galleries for the hottest new painter’s works. That may have been true in the past, but today there are many online art collectors who make a good living without ever visiting a brick and mortar art gallery.
Today a small movement has begun where average people are buying fine art online, holding it for a year or more, and earning a profit from resale. And what’s interesting is that almost all of these new online collectors have never had any experience with fine art beforehand. These savvy folks are buying limited edition fine art prints on canvas, printed in the expensive giclee process. Each one of these prints is so close to the original that only an expert can tell the difference.
These beautiful prints come with certificates that are signed by the artist and numbered. Once the limited edition sells out, it is common for the print to increase in value as much as 2-4 times the original price.
All an online art collector has to do is to visit a million dollar art gallery via the internet and learn about the various hot new artists, see their current offerings, and learn which artists are selling the most prints. Then with a couple clicks the online art collector can purchase a limited edition print at a 20% discount from what the print is selling for at retail. They buy a print with a 20% profit built in! No brick and mortar gallery means lower overhead.
The works of some artists sell out incredibly fast, making it easy to make a quick profit.
Where do these online art collectors sell their sold out art prints, you might ask. The biggest online galleries have built in a resale market. Three times a year the online collectors gather to buy and sell fine art that they own.
Now, nobody can guarantee how much profit a sold out print will make. But you should make a good profit if you choose wisely and the edition sells out quickly. And while you are waiting for the print to sell out, you’ll have wonderful fine art to grace your walls.
If you are looking for a fun and profitable home business, and a way to surround yourself with beautiful fine art, you should consider becoming an online art collector.