Auto detailing is no effortless job. Eliminating hardened dirt, tree sap, squashed bugs, and grease on vehicle exteriors usually entails hours of scrubbing and the use of harsh chemicals. Cleaning the interiors can also be an overwhelming task. Just vacuuming the carpets and upholstery will not remove coffee stains or juice spills and foul odors left by cigarette smoke, sweat, and splattered food. To manage such challenging jobs, you should be equipped with feature-rich, dependable and mobile vehicle cleaning systems.

It is straightforward to acquire high-good quality car detailing items, such as steam pressure washers and carpet cleaners. All you have to do is browse through the websites or blogs of leading distributors, take into account the attributes of merchandise they provide and decide on the ones that appear right for your needs. Here is a appear at the major classes of vehicle detailing items accessible from reputable suppliers.

High-quality Products for Cleaning Vehicle Exteriors

Just as the name suggests, steam pressure washers combine the best attributes of steam cleaners and pressure cleaners. Classic steam cleaners do feature the cleaning power of steam but do not feature the adequate pressure levels necessary for automobile detailing jobs. Conventional pressure cleaners come with extremely high-pressure levels that can seriously damage vehicle exteriors. For this reason, exceptional suppliers now offer you steam pressure washers with moderate pressure levels and wet steam cleaning power.

The greatest steam pressure cleaners developed for auto detailing applications feature pressure levels at or below 1500 psi to guarantee optimal cleaning without damaging vehicle surfaces. Super-heated steam at temperatures as high as 250ºF succeeds in dissolving the toughest dirt and grease deposits. These versatile steam-powered car detailing systems are also great for melting off snow and ice that blankets vehicles in the winter.

To allow effortless transportation, these auto wash systems come with wheeled configurations. This aspect of mobility significantly simplifies and speeds up the cleaning approach.

Employing these portable auto pressure washer merchandise does not involve adding any toxic chemicals or harsh detergents. Hot steam is all it takes to get rid of most kinds of stubborn deposits and stains from vehicle exteriors. The mobile automobile wash equipment, therefore, helps implement eco-friendly cleaning strategies. Nevertheless, for further speed and cleaning power, users can pick to inject green cleaning detergents. These green chemicals optimize cleaning power without causing any dangerous side effects on the environment, users, or even vehicle surfaces.

Sustaining Vehicle Interiors with Advanced Carpet Cleaners

Most vehicle owners regularly vacuum interiors, but rarely ever wash them. Even so, vacuuming only assists eliminate debris from carpets and upholstery. It does not clean off stains and stubborn grime. For this reason, you must attempt utilizing steam vehicle wash units created for interior detailing.

Top-grade suppliers now offer you steam automobile wash merchandise, such as heated carpet cleaners, that make use of low flow cleaning technology. With a minimal amount of water, these mobile auto wash units accomplish excellent cleaning results. Low water consumption also helps carpets to dry quicker, a requirement in the low air-flow environment of vehicle interiors. In fact, the portable carpet cleaner machines can leave carpets inside vehicles clean, dry and fresh smelling in just two hours.

These mobile car wash goods are highly durable, efficient, trustworthy and user-friendly. The advanced technologies make these car-cleaning systems unmatched in terms of performance, lowering the time required for each detailing job – a tremendous benefit for both skilled detailers and hobbyists. Employing these cleaning products will surely transform an auto detailing session into an easy and even enjoyable 1. So check out these exciting items right now and discover how easy vehicle cleaning can really be!

There are a lot of things happening in the world of education. Technology is finally making a big enough impact that teachers can feel like they are well within their right as teachers to bring things like iPads into the classroom. I know of some schools that still basically ban all new technology and they remind me a bit of ostrich with their head in the sand.

So it’s reassuring to see the following visual. As you can see below, there are now some pretty significant technology trends happening in the classroom. The guide below outlines the biggest edtech trends that you should know about. It touches on the 4 big ones of this year plus 6 more trends that we should expect to see next year.

Do you agree with the guide? It seems to be pretty well on target from where I’m sitting. What about you? What are some other trends you think should be added to this list?

BIGGEST TRENDS OF 2013

1. The usage of SMS / text messaging in the classroom
2. Enabling students with social media
3. Students can take more free online courses than ever before
4. 3D printing is coming soon to a classroom near you!

UPCOMING TRENDS OF 2014

1. Universities are finally embracing e-books
2. Counseling is going high-tech
3. Game-based learning is leveling up
4. BYOD is becoming a standard way to bring edtech into the classroom
5. More schools will be putting their resources into the cloud
6. Schools will continue to embrace open textbooks

Those are just a few of the trends we’re watching right now. There are still plenty of other big changes happening to education right now. It’s happening slowly though. Don’t get too excited now. In fact, education is notorious as an industry that takes it’s time to revolutionize. That’s because there are so many moving parts, vested interests, and a lot at stake. You don’t want to screw up a student’s future or understanding of a key concept just because you chose to embrace a few wrong trends. It’s a tough call, so do your research on all these trends!

One of the first things I do when visiting a dining establishment (at least one where you choose your own seating) is checked to find a clean and stable table. Why stable you ask because I can’t stand spending my hopefully fully pleasurable lunch or dinner experience dealing with a table that rises and falls at every change in the balance of our food.

First off, a dirty table is completely unacceptable. I know that others have dined before me, and hopefully thousands of them because the place I am eating is that good; I just don’t want to think about it. Even worse, I don’t want to see remnants of what they were eating. So for all those restaurateurs out there, please take special note to be well staffed enough to have those tables spotless right after the previous diners are done.

Along with that, make sure that whatever rag you are using to clean up includes one to dry it off. Seeing streaks of likely bacterial invested water from your quick clean up job is just about as disgusting as a dirty table.

Now on to my peeve of the day, the table that moves. I realize there is a myriad of reasons why a table can be unstable. That tile floor can’t be expected to be perfectly flat of course, and the table legs are designed to go on a flat surface. Then there is the bozo that can’t help but manhandle the table when moving around your entire middle dining area to accommodate his party of 50 friends and family. Whatever the reason may be, it just bugs me to have a table that amplifies my bad manners of putting my elbows on the table.

Yeah, I admit it, I all too often lean in on my meal with an elbow or two resting on the table. Bad habit I know, but it happens. But that aside, some tables are so imbalanced that simply removing your beverage cup can cause a shifting of the delicate balance akin to the sway of a boat at sea.

Of course, I don’t sit and stew or make a nuisance of myself by complaining about my seating arrangements. Instead of grabbing a napkin or two, fold them up to the necessary thickness, and place it under the offending leg. Most people I dine with know of my need to stability when eating, so they have made it a part of the initial sitting down routine to hold up the leg and help me get things in order. Others grin and are somewhat impressed by my McGyver like ingenuity; at least secretly inside they are.

So, I don’t like ‘em, but I have my own little solution to fix the situation. No instability while I enjoy my meal. Can’t stand it. Ugh.

A little rant the other day about shared bathroom etiquette made me remember another topic I wanted to share about the bathroom, particularly public bathrooms. I don’t want everyone to think that I have a hang-up with bathrooms, quite the opposite, I really don’t think about it much. What I do think about, though, is keeping my life at the cemetery is possible. I have mentioned before that ever since having kids, I have been sick more in my life than ever before. My health overall is fairly good, but I am much more prone to catching the “cold of the month” now that I have children. Because of that, I am very conscious about keeping my hands clean and never touching my eyes, face or mouth after having ever touched any surface or something that may not be clean.

This brings me to perhaps the most unsanitary of places, the public restroom. These dens of germ infestation are places that I will go to almost any length to avoid. Call me the camel of urination, but I’d rather hold it as long as I can to get back to a bathroom I trust instead of using a public restroom. There are those times, though, that despite proper planning and perhaps as much foresight is possible, you have no choice but to use a public restroom.

First off, I hate using any restroom that is not properly cared for. In fact, if an establishment does not care enough to maintain their bathroom facilities, I really do not have much trust in the rest of their business. This is particularly true for restaurants. As a customer, we don’t have the opportunity to tour the kitchen to see what kind of habits they have in keeping things clean and sanitary, so the restroom is really the only place we have to judge other than the table itself. Fortunately, most restaurants realize this take care.

Yet, despite their best efforts, the design of the building itself often precludes your ability to use the facilities and exit in a purely sanitary state. This is what troubles me and the point is this rant today.

Most buildings have a pretty standard layout, meaning they have their stalls, the men’s version has their urinals, and there is a sink or two for hand washing. First off, motion sensor flushing facilities are a must. The idea of grabbing a handle the flash on something that you know hundreds of people before you that very day have grabbed after having touched their nether regions is not the best visual I can think of. I admit in some cases I have chosen to use my foot or a ball of water about toilet paper to perform this task in lieu of actually touching the handle.

Moving on to the hand washing options. Again motion sensors are the best option here. Nothing good has happened since the flushing part of the routine bow for hands have touched the handles to turn on the water. Germs galore. If motion sensors are not available, I typically end up just turning the handle with my bare hands, but after washing, a paper towel is typically my choice for grabbing me to turn the water off. Why wash your hands, if when you are done you are going to grab that dirty handle to turn the water back off anyway. I trust my bathroom habits far better than those unknown people before me. Of course, this only works if they actually use paper products for drying your hands. If they use any air based and dryer, which really isn’t a bad option, this does limit your choices for turning the water off. Hopefully, you got a good combination of motion sensors along with air dryers.

Finally, the part of my rant to gets me the most out of everything to discuss a typical public restroom experience — finally leaving. In the standard layout of a bathroom, of course, it has a door. Grabbing that handle to open the door is the last thing I want to do after finally getting my hands clean and hopefully germ-free. Who knows if the person before me actually washed their hands, or, if they did, how good of a job did they do?

Back in my college days, I took a microbiology class. We, of course, had the typical lecture portion of the class, but we also had a lab portion. One of the experiments we performed was to swab any public surfaces and apply them to Petri dishes to see what kind of fungus we can grow. I am sure many of you may have heard stories like this in the past, but the short version is that some of the best fungi were grown right off of the doorknob to the classroom. I shudder to think what I might have grown at I found the door handle exiting a public restroom. I can guess the results, so it’s an experiment that I choose to avoid.

So with all that said, perhaps my favorite public bathrooms are those found in most airports. If you have traveled, you probably can visualize what I’m about to describe. These restrooms are of course designed for high-volume usage, especially when passengers are disembarking from a long flight. There are no doors, rather a mini catacomb entryway that allows you to wind your way in out of the eyes of public viewing, without ever passing through a door. Granted, this takes a little bit of room to accomplish, but it is the most sanitary of options.

So next time you have the occasion to use a public restroom, think of my little rant here and observe the steps you have to take to end up leaving with hands and sanitary enough that you feel comfortable eating with them. I really don’t consider myself a germaphobic, but I am pretty particular about having clean hands especially when I am about to begin shoving food in my mouth. Maybe this goes back to my previous rant about my semi-OCD tendencies, but I like to think it’s just common sense.

Precious stones miner Gemfields Plc has formed a joint venture to mine sapphires in Sri Lanka as part of its long-held ambition to become the De Beers of the global coloured stones market.

Gemfields already mines emeralds in Zambia and rubies in Mozambique, and this venture will allow it to complete what Chief Executive Ian Harebottle calls the “traffic light of coloured stones” – emerald, rubies and sapphires: red, green and blue.

The miner, which owns luxury jewellery brand Faberge, said on Monday it would hold a 75 percent stake in the joint venture with East West Gem Investments Ltd (EWGI), a company registered in Jersey, the Channel Islands.

The London-listed company, which produces about a fifth of the world’s rough emeralds, said it paid $400,000 to acquire 75 percent operating interests in 16 exploration licences, covering diverse minerals.

“A relatively small consideration for Gemfields, but a positive development exposing the company to a greater diversity of precious stones to market,” Investec Securities analyst Marc Elliot said.

The joint venture will also include creating a gemstone trading company, called Ratnapura Lanka Gemstones Pvt Ltd, that will focus on sourcing rough sapphires from the local market.

Sri Lanka is a key source of sapphires of all colours is known for the highly sought-after padparadscha sapphire.

Gemfields aspires to create a stable market for coloured stones and polish their image in the same way that Anglo American Plc’s De Beers unit has long championed diamonds from London’s Bond Street to China.

Gemfields’s shares were up 2 percent at 48.66 pence on the London Stock Exchange at 1030 GMT on Monday. (Reporting by Karen Rebelo in Bangalore; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier and Savio D’Souza)

“Bring Your Own Device,” or BYOD, is becoming a big trend in the workplace. More and more, employees are finding it preferable to use their own laptop, tablet and/or smartphone when it comes to accomplishing their day-to-day tasks.

That’s all well-and-good, and perfectly understandable from an employee perspective – why can’t I use the device I’m most familiar with to make it easier for me to get my job done? But BYOD does have implications beyond the device users. Fred in accounting wanting to use his Macbook while everyone else is using Dell laptops is going to cause problems for the IT staff that has to make it all work. Still, there’s value to be found in BYOD, so let’s see take a closer look at this new trend.

Device expenses. Obviously if our friend Fred in accounting is bringing his own laptop, the company doesn’t have to provide Fred with his own laptop. Just be aware that when Fred’s laptop stops working, the company may have to provide a stand-in until he gets a new one (or worse yet, will have to buy him a new one).

Network vulnerability. Different devices from different people utilize different security software and protocols. You, and more likely your IT team, will need to make sure there aren’t any gaps in network protection. It may be in the company’s best interest to invest in security software for personal devices.

Communications. As the variety of devices utilized by individuals and companies grows, there will be more demand/need for a communications platform compatible with all of those devices. Companies will be under more pressure to implement a unified communications (UC) solution. This technology is on the rise anyway, so BYOD would merely be expediting its inclusion in the workplace.

Support. If your company is utilizing Google for email and apps, or something similar that is supported externally, then BYOD probably won’t create as much of a strain on your IT department. If you’re still using Outlook and other non-cloud/web-based programs, then IT will have a much more difficult time operating at maximum efficiency.

Obviously this is just a quick overview of some of the questions companies will have to ask and answer as BYOD continues to grow in popularity. In order to know if there’s practicality and value in BYOD for your company, speak with your IT department and other employees throughout the organization. The pros – and cons – may be greater than you anticipated.

Walking away from a good idea is difficult, but it’s often just as important as creating one in the process of making a concept come to life.

The agitation that flows from a poorly conceived idea can be endless…I recently told myself that I’d create a relevant and inventive post about the backlash issues regarding the Kony 2012 campaign. A week later I’m deleting drafts, accepting that I simply won’t be writing on that topic.

I had overindulged in information about the foundation, and even reached a point where I was researching tax law and angered with each new Google alert, convinced that everyone had somehow found out my idea and stolen it. This was the nod I needed that my idea was no different than any other marketing blogger and I needed to reevaluate.

Walking away from an idea is difficult. I had created a state of personal angst that I couldn’t complete a project I had assigned myself. I found myself wishing someone had said to me that it was a poor choice, that it would simply be washed away with the flood of other bloggers pouring out similar ideas. Yet even then, if warned, would I have walked away from my own idea?

Learning to accept that what you had conceived is not the best, packing up the side notes, and saying goodbye can be one of the hardest things to do as a marketer. If you’re anything like me, there are at times, periods of grandeur where you can’t imagine the idea failing. It’s a great mark of confidence but an immediate set up for failure since you’re already convinced the concept will be hallowed by critics for ages, turning your small proposal into a best selling novel, and eventually leveraged for a high budget film.

…The Great Gatsby started out as a print ad, right?

On a personal level, this is why a team atmosphere is extremely important. We have that here at Star…a creative establishment where people can build elements, make suggestions, and when needed, nullify a long-standing idea that just isn’t going anywhere. Professionally, even in the branding process, we may divert to a line of thinking much different from where we started. At the heart of it, getting rid of ideas can be just as important in the process of making a great concept come to life.

Ultimately, I found a way to express exactly what I had aimed to say about the Kony 2012 campaign. Not every idea can be the best, and if you can’t foresee multiple outcomes other than success for your work, you should look closer before you launch. When you have skeletons in the closet, at the very least, contemplate cleaning them up. When the negative aspects of your campaign become newsworthy there is often no one to blame but yourself. It may be time for people to start considering an advertising factor similar to karma. Never expect that even the tiniest pebble can’t cause the largest wave.

For those marketers and advertisers still not sold on the power of mobile marketing and the need to engage their customers and prospects via a mobile website, a report issued by IBM showed that sales via a mobile phone/smartphone/tablet on Cyber Monday 2011 increased an incredible 192% over last year. And you can expect that number to only go higher next year.

The IBM report also showed that the number of people using their mobile phone/smartphone/tablet to just visit a retailer’s website increased 177% from last year to this year on Cyber Monday. Clearly boys and girls we are living in a mobile world, but you already knew that, right?

So riddle me, this Batman and Batgirl, why are so many retailers NOT engaging their customers and prospects via a mobile ready website?

From a post I wrote at the end of September Even More Proof Of The Importance Of Mobile Marketing And Mobile Advertising…

Accoridng to a survey conducted by Brand Anywhere and Luth Research:

51% of consumers more likely to purchase from retailers that have mobile-specific websites
4.8% of U.S. retailers have mobile-specific websites
22.8% of the top retail websites (ranked by Alexa®) have mobile-specific websites
Web retailers could increase consumer engagement by 85% with a mobile-specific website
Take out the word “Web” in that last bullet for EVERY retailer – whether they also have bricks-and-mortar locations in addition to their “regular” website, should have… operative words “should have” an optimized mobile website.

Among all Interactive Marketing platforms, Mobile Marketing is expected to grow 38% over the next five years with an estimated $8.2 billion being allocated to it by the year 2016.

That was the opening line of another post I wrote on mobile marketing, Mobile Marketing Spending To Have The Biggest Increase Over Next Five Years.

So let me see if I got this straight… Most marketers and advertisers see the need to spend money via mobile marketing, mobile advertising, etc., yet many – only 4.8% according to at least one study, do not see the need to engage consumers via a mobile website, even though the evidence is clear that more and more consumers are going online via their mobile phone/smartphone/tablet?

The Social Media Factor…

One of the other key findings I wanted to share from the IBM report is this:

“Discussions on social media sites leading up to Cyber Monday increased in volume by 115 percent compared to 2010. Top areas of discussion focused on consumers sharing tips about using price comparison websites while avoiding cyber scams.”

Again, another opportunity for brand managers, product managers, marketers and advertisers of all shapes and sizes to engage their customers and prospects… that is if these same brand managers, product managers, marketers and advertisers of all shapes and sizes were monitoring what was being said on the social media sites then capitalizing where they could to converse and actively engage folks.

The winter months can be some of the most difficult during which to consistently locate and catch bass. During this time of year, the water is cold and the metabolism of the fish is very slow. As a result, the bass do not need to eat much and will not expend much energy chasing down a meal. However, for those anglers who want to fish year-round, there are bass to be caught in the winter.

Find the Bass

Since the water temperature is so cold, bass are not likely to chase a bait that is moving quickly. As a result, the spinnerbaits and lipless crankbaits that you relied upon to find fish when the water was warmer are all but useless now. The bass will take a meal if they can get it, but they will not work too hard to get it. As a result, slow-moving lures like large plastic worms, jigs and pigs, jigging spoons and crankbaits with a slow, wide wobble are best during the winter. But since you are fishing with slow-moving lures, you need to find the bass before you begin fishing. A fishfinder is particularly helpful. Look around points, ridges and humps that are near the main creek channel. Clear-water areas also tend to produce better than stained- or dirty-water areas. Look for bait fish, too, like shad. The bass may not chase them all day long, but they will be near their food sources.

Slow Fish

A spinnerbait that zooms by a bass’s nose likely will not draw a second look from the fish, but a big jig and pig that weighs 1/2-oz. or more and is retrieved slowly along the bottom might be just the ticket. Since bass have to expend energy to eat, and since they do not have much extra energy when the water is cold in the winter, choose a large, slow-moving bait. The bass will see that it is moving slow, so it should be easy to catch, and also that it is big, so the bass does not have to eat again for a while.

Drop a Spoon

Jigging spoons can be especially productive in the winter, because bass are often found in schools. Once anglers locate those schools of bass, dropping a jigging spoon into the school and lifting up and letting it drop is a good way to entice bass to bite. Since anglers fish a jigging spoon in a vertical fashion, they also can fish very specific areas that are holding bass. The distance you raise and lower the jigging spoon is an important part of getting bass to bite. Experiment until the bass let you know which they prefer.

Temper Your Expectations

The bass angler who heads to the water in the winter and expects to catch large numbers of bass is likely to be disappointed. Most anglers who fish during the winter months consider a couple of quality bass per day to be pretty good.

When crafting information on clients’ behalf, it’s important to make sure messaging is consistent while balancing the need to keep language fresh.

Words are powerful. As a public relations professional, I use them every day for a variety of purposes. Whether I’m writing a news release or editing a bylined article, I constantly need to be aware of the words I choose. According to the late, great author Ray Bradbury, “Digression is the soul of wit.” This may be true for authors, but in communications, being succinct is key. And as a recent article asserted, there are certain words and phrases we should avoid.

When we’re crafting and disseminating information on our clients’ behalf, whether through articles, pitches, marketing material or tweets, we have to make sure messaging is consistent and reflective of the organization we’re representing. Balancing this with the need to keep language fresh and avoid repetition is always a challenge.

We’ve all been in meetings where people throw out adjectives like “revolutionary”, “innovative” and “proactive”. Some might even view them as “old friends” that provide the perfect description for an idea. Instead of succumbing to this clichéd communications jargon, take advantage of words such as streamlined, progressive and forward-looking. They allow you to convey the same idea without resigning to the old standbys.

In communications, creativity is paramount; it’s what separates one agency from another. Without distinct ideas and a fresh approach, the messages we communicate become stale and yield mediocre results. As an intelligent man once said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” So, use your words wisely.