"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."

Margaret Mead
American anthropologist

Make Your Vista Faster

Windows 7- with its commendable performance improvement- may be on the horizon. But for now, most of us have to live with Windows Vista, which can make even the fastest computer seem slow.
But you don't have to put up with Vista's sluggishness without a fight. In fact, most of what ails Vista when it comes to performance can be remedied by adjusting some settings and eliminating some features. And the good news: The whole process need not take more than half an hour. Afterwards, you will be rewarded a computer that feels a lot faster.

TURN OFF WINDOWS ANIMATION.

Vista went overboard with Windows animation-the almost slow-motion visual effect that occurs when minimize or maximize an application. Whether you think the animation is cool or not, it's indisputable that it slows you down- or at least it seems to. Luckily, turning off Windows animation is possible, and doing so will not affect other types of interface animation that you may enjoy in Vista. With Window animation off, your computer will seem snappier, as applications and other windows pop into view- and disappear from view- with little fanfare.

Open the Windows Control Panel, Click System and Maintenance, Performance information and Tools, Advanced Tools from the task pane at the left, and then click "Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows". A user account control dialog box will prompt you, and you should click continue. The performance Option dialog box will open.
On the Visual Effect tab of the Performance Options dialog box, you have four choices: "Let Windows choose what's best for my computer","Adjust for best appearance”, “Adjust for best performance", and "Custom". "Custom" is followed by a list of individual check boxes that allows you to determine exactly which visual effect you would like to turn on or off.

To start, click "Custom", and then remove the check mark next to the "Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing". De-activating that option will make your application and other windows snap into and out of view immediately rather than gradually. Changing this setting alone may be enough to make Vista feel snappier for you, and you could stop there and see how you like the change.

If you want to get rid of all of Vista's fancy- but resource zapping- visual niceties, you can revisit the Performance Option dialog box and turn off a few more of the effects. Ones you might want to focus on are "Fade or slide menus into view," "Fade out menu items after clicking", and "Enable transparent glass".

Removing the "glass" effect essentially actives the headline features of Vista's Aero technology, which makes window borders semi-transparent, allowing you to see what's behind them. If you are working on an underpowered or a really old machine and want to configure Vista's interface so that it uses minimum of system resources, simply select the "Adjust for best performance" option. Doing so will remove virtually all of Vista's interface enhancements, but it will reduce the load on your computer.

TURN OFF UAC

User account control (UAC) is supposed to keep you safe from malicious software. But the penalty is that at every turn, you're prompted to provide windows permission to out some action- from deleting files to installing applications- that you specifically requested. It is an annoyance. you probably lived fine without UAC for many years. Plus you also likely run antivirus or anti-spyware software that keeps a look out for a possible harm. When why not just turn UAC off?

It's easy enough to do. Open the control panel, and click User Accounts and Family Safety. Then click User Accounts. From the Resulting User Accounts screen, click "Turn User Account Control on or off". On the next screen, remove the check mark from the box labeled "Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer". Click OK. You will have to restart your computer, but once you do, those annoying UAC prompts will be gone.

DISABLE INDEXING

Vista's real-time search features requires that the index of the contents of your hard drive be created and constantly updated. That constant updating occurs in the background, and it will slow down Vista's overall performance, especially on a slower machine. You may not even need or want the type of indexing that Vista does. The downside of Vista's new search facility is that it will return results from the last completed index rather than the actual files stored in your hard drive. If you updated files since the last index was created, Vista may not find what you're looking for, as it will be using outdated index information.

Whether you like Vista's new indexing feature or not, you optimize the way it works or disable it altogether. Open the vista Control Panel, and click System and maintenance, followed by Indexing Option. In the resulting Indexing Option dialog box, you can control which drives and folders get indexed by clicking the modify button. Click Advanced to specify which file types are indexed. Limiting the drives, folders, and files types that are indexed will reduce the amount of time that Vista spends indexing, and it will therefore reduce the overhead required by the indexing feature and consequently speed up your computer.

Making the few interface and operational tweaks here typically allows Vista to perform on a par with Windows XP. And for now, while the world waits for the even snappier Windows 7, that is probably good enough.

Weight gain and Pregnancy

Weight gain during pregnancy can be a worrying factor. It is important for the baby that the mother eats a nutritious diet and is guided by her doctor. Ideally, a woman should eat a healthy, balanced diet in preparation six months before she conceives. A healthy, balanced diet during pregnancy is also most important. A low-calorie diet during pregnancy can stunt the way a baby grows, affecting the child's future development.

Some celebrities pride themselves upon how little weight they put on during pregnancy but according to recent studies low birth weight babies can have problems with weight gain later on life. Pregnancy is a good time to read books and learn about healthy nutrition for children. It is only natural to gain weight during and after pregnancy. During this tiring time that women should be pampered and looked after- it is precious baby bonding time and they should not have the pressure to lose weight immediately.

Dieting and vigorous exercise can have a detrimental effect on conceiving. If you are badly off nutritionally, you will have difficulty getting pregnant. Pregnancy is not a time to eat as much as you like, but a time to eat for two only in terms of quality, so that the baby gets all the nutrients it needs, ensuring that both mother and baby are healthy. If you feel hungry it is because your baby is sending signals that it needs extra calories.