Showing posts with label articles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label articles. Show all posts

2008/11/04

The Story Of Diablo 2

Diablo 2 is the sequel to Diablo. The sequel of this game takes place after the end of the previous game where Lord of Terror Diablo was defeated. The story doesn’t end here. In Diablo 2 the hero who slew Diablo drove the demon’s soulstone into his forehead. This is an attempt to contain him, but Diablo’s evil soul is too strong and eventually it corrupts the Hero. The player now an adventurer appears in the wake of destruction caused by Diablo. He attempts to find out what is the cause of the destruction and starts with the corrupted warrior on whom the soul Diablo has complete control.

There are four acts in the game and as the player continues through each of these acts he faces the Prime Evils, all the Superpowers of Hell and learns the truth behind the corruption of the warrior’s soul. Diablo now releases two more characters called Mephisto (Lord of Hatred) and Baal (Lord of Destruction) from the soulstones. The fallen angel Izual teaches them how to corrupt others. SO the conflict arises and in the end the player eventually reaches them and slays Mephisto and Diablo. But the expansion of the game continues as the player chases the last of the Prime Evils who flees the field, Baal!

The protagonists of the Diablo 2 game include the unnamed adventurer who is the player. He arrives at a rouge to free his brothers in the aftermath of Diablo’s movements, Deckard Cain the last surviving member of Horadim Clan and Tyrael and Archangel. As the adventurer moves ahead with his mission, he becomes stronger while searching the cause of destruction.

The game Diablo 2 is more advanced than its predecessor. The characters, the settings, the story, the mystery, the evil powers, the gain of energy and the ultimate victory of good over evil make this game an epitome of addictive games.

By: Roshni Poddar

2008/10/28

Yoga: Infertility

Infertility is defined as the inability to conceive after one year of trying, or the inability to carry pregnancies to a live birth. It affects one out of six couples of childbearing age in the United States today - at least ten million people. And in a career-oriented area like Washington, where many couples postpone decisions about childbearing until professional goals have been met, the ration of one in six is probably on the conservative side. Yet it is rarely discussed, and understood even less.

For almost all couples the condition comes as a surprise. And no wonder. It seems as if the whole is on its guard against producing unwanted children. Every day 19.9 million women in this country wake up and remind themselves to take the Pill. In China, a woman with more than three children is considered an enemy of the state. In India, population experts fear the country may end up at century's close with four times as many people as it started with - up from 250 million in 1900 to one billion. The huge nation has resorted to quickie vasectomies and cash rewards at commuter train stations. Two will do posters are everywhere.

Although infertility may affect people of all social classes, the childless poor usually have neither the time nor the money to undergo a lengthy series of tests - commonly called an infertility work-up - to determine the cause of the problem. There may also be class differences in a person's willingness to endure many sacrifices so that a long-range goal can be realized. For these reasons, the inability to conceive and bear children seems to be a middle and upper middle-class problem.

The anguish of infertility will strike increasing numbers of couples in the next few years, however, as the children of the baby boom reach their late twenties and early thirties. Many who till now have postponed marriage and childbearing for their careers will turn to both to round out their lives - and find child-bearing not possible.

The men, after years of enjoying what they consider a healthy sex drive, will be shocked to learn that their sperm are too few in number or perhaps not active enough to effect a conception. The women may be given a finding of endometriosis, a condition in which parts of the uterine lining seed themselves in various places along the reproductive tract. Unknown in cultures where women marry young, it is a common finding in American women past 30. Or the women may be part of the 10.9 million who took the Pill every day whether or not previous gynecological abnormalities should have warned the physician against a prescription.

A generation ago, before the current explosion in medical technology, many couples who could not produce children were told there was nothing wrong with them: either it was all in their heads or God's will. There was also smirking ignorance on the public, the insinuation they weren't performing correctly in bed.

In fact, male impotence is the source of less than five per cent of the cases of male infertility, and the sources of impotence are extremely varied, from diabetes to perineal nerve injury to psychogenic causes.

By: Nicholas Tan

2008/10/23

Your Website Rankings : What It All Means

If you have a website, especially one for your business, chances are you’ve heard the terms “search engine optimization” and “Google PageRank” thrown around at the water cooler. And if you work with some real techy- types, maybe you’ve even heard some buzz about “algorithms”. But knowing the lingo is one thing. Understanding what it all means—quite another. The good news is you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand the basics of Google’s ranking system.

First, you need to know what Search Engine Optimization (SEO) means. SEO is the process of revising, tweaking, and ‘optimizing’ your website in order to increase its rankings on the major search engines. So how exactly does PageRank work? That’s where it gets a little technical. But stay with me…

Google rates websites in two ways: relevance and PageRank. The relevance of a website is determined when Google’s programs (known as web crawlers or spiders) “read” through the content of a website looking for certain keywords that are specific to the type of website it is. This is why the more quality, pertinent content a website has, the more relevance Google gives it.

PageRank is the second aspect of Google’s system that rates any specific website on a scale of 0-10, with 0 being the least quality and 10 being the best. So why is so much value placed on a website’s PageRank number? That’s simple - because the highest ranked sites show up first when someone does a search on Google or Yahoo.

For example, let’s say you own a business in New York City that specializes in custom kitchen designs. Someone looking for that type of service types “Kitchen Design New York City” into Google’s search engine and hits enter. The highest ranked site will show up first on the search results. And human nature tells us that most people will start clicking from the top down. Therefore, the higher your PageRank, the higher on the search results your site shows up, and the more potential business you will receive.

So we know PageRank is important, but how exactly does Google determine which sites rank the highest? There are several ways, but the most value is placed by determining how many other websites link to your site. The more inbound links to your website, the higher your ranking will be. To further narrow down the results, Google goes so far as to rate outbound links to your site based on the credibility of the site that provided it (Fittingly, they determine that site’s credibility based on its PageRank number). The higher the ranking of the site that links to yours, the more valuable it is to increasing your own PageRank number.

So what about those algorithms? Actually it’s not as technical as it sounds. Basically, Google’s PageRank system is calculated on a logarithmic scale, which simply means that there is a set formula for the difference between each level of their PageRank system. In other words, a PageRank of 1 has a specific “base” logarithm that when multiplied by a certain power or exponent brings you to the next PageRank level. Google frequently changes their base algorithms, which sometimes results in a change in PageRank for your website. The good news is, if you follow “organic” SEO practices (which means you optimize your website via natural methods, such as content building and legitimate outbound link building) your PageRank should remain stable even with algorithm changes.

Speaking of organic SEO, while there are certainly varying opinions on the topic, most reputable SEO companies agree that organic is best. Like much in life, cutting corners and trying to buck the system when it comes to SEO won’t work long term.

Now that you know a little more of the inside scoop on Google’s PageRank system, the next time you’re at the water cooler you can toss around words like Algorithms, SEO, and link building with confidence because you actually understand what it means!

By: Terri Polk