In the past, better photography could be achieved using a hulking great digital SLR camera, with a range of different lenses.

Today, you needn’t lug all that gear around. Compact cameras with large image sensors and interchangeable lenses are almost able to match the quality of a DSLR, with a significant reduction in size and weight.

Faster performance

Compromises are often made in terms of usability and handling, but the latest generation of interchangeable-lens cameras is able to focus and shoot as fast as – or even faster than – a full-sized digital SLR. Powerful processing engines allow for faster capture, while more shots per second equate to more chances to capture that precise moment.

A better camera needn’t be more difficult to use than a standard compact. The models we used retain ease of use, including features such as selectable scene modes, built-in help guides and in-camera editing.

The ability to control depth of field is a particularly desirable capability of these cameras. This lets you shoot a portrait with a sharp, clear subject and a soft background. The effect is difficult to achieve using a compact camera, but with the right lens it’s easy on a camera fitted with a larger sensor.

Digital SLR vs mirrorless

Mirrorless cameras are quieter to use than digital SLRs because there’s no mechanical shifting of the mirror before each shot. A digital SLR instead has an optical viewfinder, but the camera’s body and lenses are considerably bulkier and heavier.

This isn’t ideal for portability, although it can make for more comfortable handling of the camera during shooting. A bigger body also means more room for buttons and a larger battery.

Lenses

A compact camera’s lens is often specified simply in terms of the zoom range available: wide-angle for group shots and telephoto for bringing distant objects closer.

While a single lens that offers both these extremes is versatile, one designed specifically for the type of photo you want to take enables far superior quality, scope for a range of apertures and much reduced size and weight.

Specialist lenses are available for shooting close-ups, portraits and landscapes.

Extreme telephoto lenses are ideal for distant shooting, while ultra-wide-angle lenses capture as much as possible in a confined space and can create dynamic, deliberately distorted images.

Lens mounts

A full-size digital SLR lens mount is compatible with a huge range of lenses, so you don’t need to rely on those created specifically for your camera model. There’s also a thriving secondhand market for Canon and Nikon lenses, which can help you significantly reduce your costs.

However, newer system cameras have their own proprietary mounts. This limits your choice of lenses to those designed specifically for your camera model. Other lenses may work with the aid of an adaptor, but often with reduced functionality.

Conclusion

The digital SLR format (DSLR) is well established as the de facto standard for enthusiasts and most professionals, but newer interchangeable-lens models can offer the ease of use of a compact with vastly superior flexibility, performance and image guality – even if you never change the lens.

An entry-level digital SLR will transform the look of your pictures. Stepping up to the next model in the range will likely add more speed and useful extra features, such as a fold-out screen.

For example: Canon’s EOS E600D and Nikon’s D5100 are excellent digital SLRs that deliver one of  the best image quality.

The Nikon has the edge in performance and features for beginners, while the Canon is better suited to enthusiasts with more control over video.

If you don’t want the bulk of an DSLR, a large-sensor compact with interchangeable lenses will deliver almost the same level of image quality in a much smaller and lighter body.

Crucially, the lenses are also smaller and lighter. And gone are the days when an interchangeable-lens compact meant an automatic compromise on speed.

Cameras can vary greatly in terms of usability, especially when manufacturers are forced to make compromises for the sake of size.  Larger image sensors tend to mean better light sensitivity, reduced noise and the ability to maintain usable image quality at higher ISO settings.

General recommendation for the average hard gainer is to use about 6-8 exercises per workout early on in a cycle (for example: four major movements and two accessory ones), while training twice a week but using a different set of exercises each session.

Then, and only if necessary, reduce the number of exercises during the very final stage of the cycle. But if you can keep gaining on all the exercises without having to cut back on any of them, do so.

The cutting back on volume of weekly training can be done in at least three ways:

• Reduce the number of exercises in your training program.

• Do the same number of exercises and training days, but spread the exercises out more, e.g., train some exercises alternate weeks instead of each week.

• Do the same number of exercises and training days, but do fewer sets per exercise.

For most hard gainers for most of the time, training twice a week is probably more productive than three times, even if different exercises are done on each of the three workouts.

Working out with weights more than three times a week is training suicide for most people, and even “just” three weight-training days is too much for many hard gainers.

But you may want to experiment with weight-training three times a week but make the middle session an accessory day only. Then focus on just the major movements on your other weight training days.

Many hard gainers are not average in their “hardgainingness,” but are genetically disadvantaged and may, at least temporarily, need no more than six exercises spread over two workouts each week to start a cycle with.

Some people have consistently trained long enough on abbreviated routines that they have become very big and strong. They have become so big and strong that no one would ever believe these trainees could possibly have been hard gainers.

And some better-than-average gainers have trained like genuine hard gainers should, and have achieved awesome levels of muscle and might. Learn the great lesson: abbreviate and grow.

Training frequency

Most people weight train too frequently and do not provide enough time for their bodies to grow stronger and bigger. Thus they fail to progress; and in addition they accumulate wear-and-tear injuries because their bodies are being worn down.

The relatively low frequency of training recommended on this article refers only to weight training. If you do cardiorespiratory work on non-weights days, you would have a total of four or five training days each week, but only the weight-training days would be the tough ones.

Intensive weight training is very demanding – much more demanding than most people realize.

The publicity of the astonishing gains that the super-responsive elite have achieved from their high-volume and very frequent training has blinded people to just how very severe the demands of intensive weight training are upon drug-free and genetically typical trainees.

The more progressive workouts you put in, the faster your overall progress will be.

Not training as often as conventional training recommends is in no way a measure of lack of dedication to training. It is a dedication to results that counts most, not a dedication to mere gym attendance.

Once you get the full measure of your body’s real need for recovery time, you can keep gaining for season after season without a break or even any cycling of training intensity.

You can even keep a cycle going for over a year without needing to change your program. That is over fifty consecutive weeks of poundage gains from the same program. They will not be big weekly gains, but you can do it safely and without having to kill yourself every workout.

You need to find the right training regularity but without working out on such a rigid schedule that you train when you are not fully recovered.

If you normally weight train on Mondays and Thursdays, and your Monday workout in a given week went very well and you really delivered some effort, you would naturally feel fatigued on Tuesday and Wednesday.

If you had an unusually heavy work schedule on those two days, or if there was a family crisis that devastated your sleep on those two nights, you would not be fully rested for Thursday’s workout.

So postpone that workout a day or two, until you are fully rested. Do not weight train if you are still dragging your feet from the previous workout.

Rescheduling of exercise sessions should be the exception, not the rule.

Do not confuse this sort of rational rescheduling of weight-training workouts with laziness and lack of dedication.

You should be dedicated to getting optimum results from your training. Results from your weight training come from using progressive poundages.

To achieve progressive training poundages you must rest between workouts long enough to recover from the impact of each workout, and then rest a bit longer so that your body can build a bit of extra strength and muscle(overcompensate).

If you find you often need to reschedule an exercise session due to fatigue, you need to redesign your program so that you are not overtraining and/or under-recovering.

Successful weight training is about stringing together as many progressive workouts as possible.

Major categories encompassing widely deployed solutions include firewalls, antivirus software, and intrusion detection systems.

Security attacks use various methods to exploit the vulnerabilities of networked systems and their users. Since they are closely related to each other, attack methods can be classified by the underlying vulnerabilities: software, physical (hardware), communication, and psychological/social.

Firewalls

Firewalls inspect network traffic passing through them and filter suspicious packets, usually based on a rule-set analyzing their properties. By regulating the incoming and outgoing traffic, firewalls maintain separated trust zones in and between networks.

While simple firewall variants use basic packet properties such as source/destination address and port number, more sophisticated ones investigate packet types and even content for filtering decisions. Firewalls can be implemented in software or on dedicated hardware.

Intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDPSs)

IDPSs aim to detect and prevent attacks directed at networked systems. They consist of sensors which observe security events, a console to communicate with system admins, and a decision engine to generate alerts or take responsive actions.

IDPSs can be network based, monitoring network traffic, or host based, to monitor operating system behavior, or application based, to monitor individual applications for signs of intrusions.

While passive IDPS variants, also known as intrusion detection systems (IDSs), only generate alerts the active versions react to detected attacks by, for example, reconfiguring the system or filtering malicious packets and malware. An IDPS can be implemented in software or dedicated hardware and deployed in combination with firewalls.

Antivirus software

Antivirus software is a widely adopted security solution that identifies and removes all kinds of malware including viruses on a computer.

Such software scans storage medium and memory for signs of malware in regular intervals and removes them. Since the detection process involves recognition of malware characteristics (signatures) and these change with each version (generation) of malware, the signature database the antivirus software often relies on needs to be updated regularly.

This makes antivirus software one of the earliest examples of security services.

Julius Caesar was only 1.67 metres tall, and Alexander the Great wasn’t physically a big man, but history remembers them as giant warriors. One might ask why history remembers these lean people as giants.

The answer lies somewhere between the ways these people lived, and how adamantly they followed their convictions. There’s a lot to learn from ancient warriors.

To understand what made these people live as they did, you need to get acquainted with their priorities. What were their aesthetic and moral concepts of beauty and ugliness?

What did courage and cowardice mean to them? How did they relate to subjects such as health and sickness? And, especially, what were their attitudes toward pain, pleasure, deprivation, and compensation?

They traveled a lot

Romans devoured space. They spent most of their lives outdoors. They traveled the length and breadth of Latium, Italy, and the provinces (the regions that were conquered by the Romans, such as Gaul, North Africa, and Palestine) as soldiers, magistrates, or freed men entrusted with their patron’s business.

“On the move,” they had to be constantly alert and able to adapt to different foods, weather conditions, and especially to times of deprivation.

It was essential for nomadic people to maintain a practical diet, which could keep them moving from one place to another. They were, therefore, geared towards accessible seasonal fresh food, as well as using natural preservation methods for their food supply.

As you’ll soon see, diet and food supply played quite a large role in their lives. Maintaining a healthy food supply required special strategies. These strategies influenced almost every aspect of their lives, including how they planned war campaigns.

You are what you eat

Physical appearance was crucial to all Romans. They conducted business face-to-face. Army commanders had to stand before their soldiers and demonstrate physical and rhetorical authority. A positive self-image was an essential factor that could never be taken for granted.

Roman awareness of self was derived from the way others looked at them. Their virtues and vices were an open book, and were manifest in their style of dress, tone of voice, and choice of body movements.

They were forever on stage, but always played themselves. Judged by their physical appearance, those who neglected it were no longer respected as citizens or men. To look at a man was to know the truth about him.

The famous censor, Cato, wore a close-fitting toga. When giving speeches, he did so with deliberate delivery, few gestures, and careful steps. Thus he would exemplify his political program: austerity and restraint.

Roman people had a very strict, aesthetic concept of physical appearance. They had their own unique style, which they called cultus.

Cultus involved body washing, hairstyling, beard trimming and, especially, eating adequately. To suspend one’s body cultus demonstrated self-neglect. Gluttony was considered a disgrace, and obesity a humiliating weakness.

Censors debarred obese cavalrymen from the army. In order to look lean, Romans had to maintain a special diet.

Attention paid to physical appearance was evident among Spartan warriors, too. According to Plutarch, Spartans kept their hair long, as they believed that long hair made a strong man look handsome.

A shaved head was a sign of defeat and failure. A “skinhead” was a loser. Greeks idealized physical appearance and class. This is apparent when one looks at the way their artists portrayed Olympian athletes, heroes, and gods in paintings and sculpture.

The ancient Greeks had a common saying: “Tell me what you eat, with whom and how, and I will tell you who you are!”

The first and most important technique for protecting your privacy is to pick service providers who respect your privacy.

Here are some things to consider when you choose an ISP.

• Unless you take special measures to obscure the content and destinations of your Internet usage, your ISP can monitor every single web page that you visit, every email message that you send, every email message that you receive, and many other things about your Internet usage.

• If you have a dialup ISP, your ISP can also infer when you are at home, when you go on vacation, and other aspects of your schedule.

• If you check your email from work, your ISP can learn where you work.

• Many ISPs routinely monitor the actions of their subscribers for the purposes of testing equipment, learning about their user population, or collecting per-user demographics.

• Some ISPs will monitor the web sites that you visit and sell this information for the purpose of increasing their revenue. In some cases, the ISPs clearly state this policy and, in fact, use the sale of the data as a way of subsidizing the cost of Internet access. Other ISPs silently engage in this practice.

• Equipment is now on the market that allows ISPs to monitor the advertisements that are downloaded to your computer and, in some cases, replace the advertisements with different ones. This equipment is also capable of generating detailed user-level statistics.

• Some ISPs have strict policies regarding which employees have access to user data and how that data must be protected. Other ISPs have no policies at all.

• Many policies that are in use basically say “we can monitor anything that we want.” However, not all ISPs that have these policies actually monitor their users.

Within recent years most ISPs have written “privacy policies” that broadly outline the ISP’s commitment (or lack thereof) to protecting their users privacy.

Unfortunately, the ISPs that lack a strong commitment can frequently obscure what they are doing by using carefully-drafted language.

For example, an ISP can say that it will protect your personal information “to the full extent mandated under the law,” safe in the knowledge that the law mandates no real protection. Other ISPs simply write no privacy policy at all.

Since the dawn of civilization, men have competed with each other for the best mate in order to produce the best offspring and carry their genes into future generations.

Being unable to perform sexually or impregnate a woman was considered a humiliating weakness.

Like animal predators, human alpha males who were leaders of their pack (group) were proud to inseminate more women than the other males. The primal instinct to multiply and expand territory drove males to “conquer” as many females as possible, and the best looking among them.

According to researches, men used all their senses to select a mate. There is a primal code of health and beauty engraved in a womans body, which attracts men.

This physical code includes visual stimulators such as a woman’s curves: her breasts, hips, thighs, and butt. Ancient goddesses of fertility were depicted as all “bust and butt”. A well-rounded woman was a visual indication of fertility and motherhood.

Other sensual stimulations that affected attraction, such as smell (body odor and breath) and touch (smooth skin, as opposed to dry skin) were also indicators of a woman’s health.

For example, having bad breath or body odor was thought to be a sign of disease, and therefore these women were considered unappealing as mates and future mothers.

Women were aware of this “physical code of attractiveness” and so they would enhance their cleavage, use lotions to soften and moisturize their skin, and use perfumes and other concoctions made from herbs and flowers to improve their breath and body odor.

Men possessed their own “code of attractiveness”. Females were attracted to the strongest and most dominant males. A strong man could protect and provide more for them and their children.

The prime “physical” code regarding a mans appeal and level of attractiveness to women was a powerful, muscular, healthy look. Other masculine qualities, such as being aggressive enough to fight and dominate other males (leadership) were also considered powerful and attractive to women.

Male genitals were regarded as a symbol of power. Ancient weapons of war, such as spears and swords, had symbolic phallic connotations. The term “weapon” remains today a slang expression that refers to a man’s penis.

The main point is that instinct has always attracted men and women to each other sexually. And further, this instinct is based on a primal code of sensual (aesthetic) attraction. We assume that this primal, instinctual code is still within us, although the rules of the game have changed.

Men no longer need to be physically manly (masculine and hard) in order to be successful in life, or with women, and women don’t need to be voluptuous to be considered attractive.

As a matter of fact, many men today find women who have a lean and firm look to be most attractive, and many women today are attracted to men who look soft and out-of-shape.

The question is whether these changes in physical codes of attraction, in both men and women today, have had an effect on potency and fertility.

Modern society has created new standards for success. Thousands of years ago, it was necessary for a man and his family’s survival that he be physically powerful. Possessing a combination of intelligence, masculinity, and potency was the standard of success.

In biblical times, and later on, kings, rulers, and leaders were often involved in physical fights or duels. Bravery was an adored virtue and chivairy was an inherent part of a man’s life.

Today, most men no longer need physical power as a means to survive, and being physically brave isn’t required to succeed. Money and wealth now seem to be the most predominant parameters for power.

Today, if a man has money and accumulated wealth but is not a “physical specimen,” a large number of women overlook this, and are still happy to hook up. It seems as though having a “big pocket” has taken the place of having a “big phallus.”

There are many men who are out-of-shape and don’t seem to care about their physical appearance. They suffer from ailments such as high blood pressure, chronic constipation, and obesity, yet they continue abusing themselves with bad diets and excessive drinking.

In spite of this, these men are successful in modern society because they’re smart enough to make loads of money. The society we live in today no longer emphasizes or encourages the use of some of our most primal instincts in order to survive or thrive. I would even go further by saying that we live in an environment that emasculates men.

We do, however still adore athletes for their physical performance and masculine, muscular look. And we also greatly admire and respect artists, scientists, and other creative types for their creative power and powerful minds.

I believe it’s this primal instinct which lies within us all that still attracts us to both physical and mental power, even though the emphasis and importance placed on physical prowess has so diminished.

What the future holds for football’s most popular interactive franchise?

Football manager

Taking players one step closer to the dug out, FIFA 14 is set to improve on almost every aspect of Ultimate Team and Manager modes.

Alongside the behind the scenes tweaks, gamers should expect a new global scouting network that allows you to scout players with specific attributes instead of high skill points – as any good manager knows, big numbers on paper don’t always translate to on the pitch performance.

New design

Aside from the usual update of player rosters, stadiums and clubs, FIFA 14 seems to improving on every aspect of design from FIFA 13 – still, will it be enough to fend off Pro Evolution Soccer’s Fox Engine counter attack?

Sadly, we won’t know the answer to that until later this year.

New engine

It seems like the FIFA titles won almost every yearly derby, pulling football fans away from rival Pro Evolution Soccer with mechanics that happily merged FIFA’s arcade feel with precision control. EA Sports has been and it is on a mission of self-improvement , taking baby steps towards perfection.

Let’s not forget about the new engine, Ignite - sadly for PC gamers will only be available on next generation consoles: Xbox One and PS4.

Without a sufficient supply of carbs, you may feel anxious, dizzy, lethargic, or depressed. A mixed fuel works by activating different pleasure sensors in your brain. When there aren’t enough carbs in the fuel, you may feel deprived and develop sugar cravings, which may in turn lead to compulsive bingeing.

Stress Blockers

Carbohydrates block cortisol (the stress hormone). The insulin hormone is a major cortisol blocker.

That’s one of the reasons people under stress tend to eat carbohydrate-rich foods.

Moreover, without carbs, you may not be able to produce enough serotonin. Serotonin is a protein neurotransmitter in the brain, essential for feeling calm, relaxed, and happy.

Anti-aging

Serotonin is also the building block of the hormone melatonin. Without enough melatonin, you may suffer from sleep disorders and “chronic jet lag.”

Melatonin is a powerful antioxidant hormone, and is believed to possess some anticancerous and anti-aging properties. The older you get, the less melatonin is produced.

Keeping your melatonin levels high, if nothing else, may help keep you young.

Clean Body Fuel

Carbohydrates are the cleanest fuel for energy. Your body breaks carbs into energy without any toxic byproducts.

Conversely, when your body is forced to break protein and fat into energy, there will be toxic by products, such as ammonia, nitrates, free radicals or oxidized fatty acids – which will tax your system. Carbs are the most efficient fuel for energy.

They metabolize faster than proteins and fats. By rapidly replenishing depleted glycogen reserves in muscle tissues and the liver, carbs spare muscle breakdown.

Metabolic Controllers

A daily supply of complex carbs will keep your thyroid level up. A healthy thyroid controls your body temperature, and keeps your metabolism intact.

Conclusion

You can imagine how chronic deprivation of carbohydrates in the long run may have some negative effects on your body and mind. Chronic carb-depletion, for prolonged periods of time, may eventually compromise your mood, your ability to relax, your metabolism, and may even accelerate the aging process.

It probably sounds old-fashioned to recommend that people go back to eating carbs, especially today when low-carb diets are the darling of the media, as well as many celebrities, fashion models, and diet gurus.

Different people have different needs. Competitive athletes and those involved in daily physical activities will need more carbs than a sedentary person needs.

Professional athletes who train twice a day, for example, may need to eat small snacks of carbs during the day. People who burn thousands of calories during the day need to replenish their empty glycogen reserves to avoid muscle catabolism.

You should consume complex carbohydrates, preferably from whole foods such as: rice, barley, oats, corn, potatoes, and yams.

Sugar and other processed simple carbs should be minimized. They may have devastating effects on your body by overstimulating insulin, and may result in insulin insensitivity, food cravings, mood swings, and fat gain.

The moon-like glow (or schiller) that lends moonstones their characteristic beauty is caused by the optical phenomenon known as adularescence. This is a result of the intergrowth of two different types of feldspar, typically orthoclase and albite, with different refractive indexes.

During formation, as the mineral cools, thin, stacked, alternating layers are created – it is the scattering of light off these layers that produces the “inner light” effect.

Lets’s talk about the magic of the moonstone: once cut and polished, these stones produce a marvellous play of shimmering light. Cool and smooth to the touch when polished, these greyish marvels do indeed seem to glow like the moon.

If you’re afraid of werewolves during a full moon, or you’re just generally superstitious, then the moonstone may well be your answer…

With a mining industry more than 2,500 years old, Sri Lanka has been known since antiquity as Rathna Deepa, the “Island of Gems”.

It is home to around 70 gem varieties out of the more than 200 in the world, providing income to hundreds of thousands of people each mining season. According to the country’s National Gem and Jewellery Authority, the potential export market is fast approaching a US$1 billion industry.

Name source: From its resemblance to the moon and its association with moon goddesses from ancient times

Other names: Girasol, Fish-Eye, Wolf’s-Eye, Ceylonese Opal, Water Opal

Folkloric aliases: No Tears (Asian), Aphroselene (Greek), Travellers Stone, Stone of Love, Stone of Wishes and Intuition (peach moonstone)

Main constituent: Orthoclase feldspar (also called adularia)

Other constituents: Oligoclase feldspar, albite feldspar

Colour: From colourless to bluish-white; also silvery grey, green, orange, peach and yellow Significant occurrences Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma)

Other occurrences: India, Madagascar, Germany, Tanzania, Brazil, US, Mexico

But there’s a catch. Only films and photos are set to run at 3280x2160p. In an interview shortly after PlayStation 4′s New York reveal, president of Sony Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida confirmed, ”PS4 supports 4k output, but only for photos and videos – not games.”

That’s not to say super-HD gaming will never happen. For now a console may not be able to natively run games in the high-resolution format, but nothing is stopping later models. And, in theory, enthusiasts may also be able to run multiple PS4s over multiple screens to achieve 4k. With

Sony pushing hard for the format, demonstrated by the show-stopping unveiling of its world’s first 84″ (inches) 4k TV at January’s Consumer Electronics Show, you can’t imagine it would ignore PS4.

Screenshot from Titanic film in ultra-hd resolution

Dealing with downloads

There are practical issues to work around. A single movie is upwards of 100GB (compared with around 6GB for today’s films), so gamers used to instant access could be looking at long downloads – and possibly smashing their IP’s usage limit in the process.

However, Sony Electronics president Phil Molyneux said in February these were “challenges that we have to work through… We’ve got some very good ideas that will make that a comfortable consumer experience.”

Ideas, you can assume, that include the likes of better compression, streaming downloads, and magic boxes like Broadcom’s gateway chip, which takes 4k video and squeezes it on to your HDTV.

So when’s the right time to invest in a 4k TV?

Unless you’re swimming in gold bullion or get your chauffeur to fly you to work in a diamond helicopter, we’d wait a while – the costs involved are currently a tad steep.

Sony’s arms race with other TV manufactures such as Panasonic, though, could help the price plummet. And while only movies and holiday snaps of you smashed with your mates in Faliraki are planned to output in glorious 4k, games will surely factor in at some point in PS4′s lifespan.