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Thoughts About Push Presents

I first heard about push presents in an advertising campaign. Of course, like most women I liked the idea of my husband showing me he appreciated what I’d gone through with pregnancy and labor. I started to research more about the idea. What I found surprised me. There is almost as much resistance to the custom as there are supporters. Many opponents felt that the baby should be gift enough and that women who desired push presents were being ridiculous, entitlistic, and greedy. This caused me to reexamine my own motives. Did I want a push present for the sake of the gift?

No. I like the idea of a push present far more than the actual gift itself. I’m willing to bet many women feel the same way. I want my husband to appreciate what I did the same way he wants me to appreciate when he accomplishes something difficult. The gift is secondary to that. Sure jewelry or flowers are nice and sure the gift makes a great heirloom to pass down to your new child, but most of all I want my husband’s appreciation and support.

Although in some families it is a tradition to give a push present, there is no universal etiquette for the custom. The new father purchases a gift of some sort, typically jewelry, for the new mother after the baby is born as a thank you for “pushing” his baby out. The custom is common in India where gold is the usual gift and in England where eternity bands are popular.

American celebrities seem to have caught on to the trend as well. For example, Tori Spelling’s husband Dean McDurmott gave her a fifteen hundred dollar diaper bag when their son Liam was born. Gwyneth Paltrow received a “mama” pendent necklace, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kate Hudson got gold charm bracelets, while Jennifer Gardner was the recipient of a gold necklace with a diamond initial charm.

What do you think of the idea of a push present? Is it too greedy for woman to want her husband to get her a gift? What about the idea that it is an heirloom you can pass down to your child? Is occasionally helping with the baby enough of a gift? Wouldn’t it be nice for a new dad to show his appreciation to the new mom in a tangible way?

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USB – Past, Present & Future

USB – or Universal Serial Bus technology has become a widespread, simple, cheap way of connecting all kinds of devices. Its popularity has come about extremely quickly as the history of USB only stretches back to the mid-1990s. This article gives an overview of USB technology, its history and its future.

History:

USB technology was developed in order to present a standard means by which devices, particularly computer-related devices, could interconnect and communicate. It was created by a collaboration of Intel, Compaq, Microsoft, Digital, IBM, and Northern Telecom. In the early days of the IBM PC, there were a myriad of connections for different types of devices including, AT, serial, parallel, joystick, SCSI & PS/2. None of these ports were compatible with each other & each served essentially the same function. Enter USB. Not only did USB give one interface, it provided power for some devices and it enabled users to plug a large number of devices into one machine.

Pre-releases of the USB standard came in 1994 with the final USB 1.0 specification being released to market in November 1995. The standard was improved upon in September 1998 with USB 1.1 which many of the problems identified in the original standard were fixed.

USB could work at 1.5 or 12 mbps but with competition from Firewire & with technology placing greater demands on bandwidth, USB 2.0 released in August 2000, could handle speeds of 480mbps.

Adoption:

All connectors face an adoption problem and USB was no different. There is only a market for a device that is interconnectable if there are other devices in the market that it can connect to. These network effect can hamper the adoption of every device (if you are the only person with a telephone, it’s not much use but if you’re one of millions with the same, standardised system, the increased market for the standard makes it more affordable and more appealing to others).

USB was given a real boost by the iMac which offered USB ports only & no legacy option. This meant that there was a market where USB could gain a foothold.

The Present:

USB devices perform many functions extremely well. Devices can be hot-swapped – that is they could be connected & disconnected without it being necessary to reboot a PC. Devices from many thousands of manufacturers can intercommunicate, many devices can be installed without a specific device driver, some devices can be connected to computers without the need for an external power supply and others can recharge by being connected via a USB device.

USB connectors are robust in that they do not rely on pins that are easy to bend or break. USB cables are designed so that static electricity is discharged before a connection is made making the standard more durable.

The connections are extremely usable & it is easy to connect USB devices or to realise that you have the wrong end of the cable. By design, the cables are easy to attach & remove – there is no need for screws – meaning that they are easily accessible by all.

Future:

The future for USB is the USB 3.0 standard that will work at 4.8 gbps, ten times the current rate. This new standard will only be backwards-compatible with USB 2.0 but will include some power conservation features. Increased speed & better power consumption will help USB compete with the other standards on the market including Firewire 800 & eSATA.

To put the performance of the new USB standard into perspective, currently, it would take 15 minutes to copy a 27gb high definition film; the new standard will mean that this can be accomplished in 70 seconds.

The USB standard is extremely usable and durable & it has massive popularity. Many mobile ‘phones have a USB connection & USB Flash drives make the transfer of large amounts of data an extremely simple process. A subculture of USB gadgets has sprung up in recent years with weird & wacky devices like USB fridges, vacuums, toasters, slippers & back massagers all hitting the market to massive amounts of interest and varying degrees of success. It is interesting that whilst it was the brainchild of a number of companies including Microsoft & Intel it was Apple that gave USB its popularity. Windows machines did not deal well with USB even as late as Windows 98 but the iMac showed how USB devices could be used to give a great deal of variety through extreme simplicity.

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Public Speaking: How to Deliver Your Presentation Without Using Notes

Imagine walking on into a room to give an important public speaking presentation with your hands totally free. No notes, no loose papers – just a pleasant smile and a confident stride. Your audience would be impressed as soon as you stepped onto the platform and took the microphone. You would instantly have credibility among the members of the audience.

With a little public speaking know-how and intensive practice, you can deliver your presentation without using notes. The trick is to learn your material applying a technique called bits. A bit is a slice of material so closely related that it naturally flows from one point to the next. It lets you easily remember the points and deliver the material without notes. You may be surprised to learn that public speakers don’t memorize long speeches. They use bits to learn their speech and then memorize a few key words to trigger their thoughts.

Another advantage of using bits is you don’t have to carve out long blocks of time to practice your entire speech. You can use little short chunks of time to practice one bit, learn it well and then move on to another bit. Practice each bit repeatedly until you know it backwards and forwards. By the time the day of the event rolls around, you will have learned your entire speech.

In addition to making it easier for you to learn the parts of your speech, bits work especially well when giving a humorous presentation. They allow you to fire off funny stories back-to-back, with each one funnier than the one before. Test your humorous stories before you use them and rate them according to how much laughter you expect them to bring. Tell the least funny story first and then end with the funniest joke to build the intensity of laughter to its highest level.

One of the best things about using bits is that since you aren’t encumbered by notes, you can get much closer to your audience. Anytime you can walk out into your audience, you build rapport and increase your connection with them. That makes it more fun for them and for you.

Leave the notes at home. Your audience will be convinced you are an expert and head to the back of the room to buy your books and DVDs.

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