Memory Effect in Lithium-based batteries

First of all it’s necessary to unfold a myth that persists in many people’s head.
The battery memory effect.

In lithium-based batteries this is in fact a myth, it only applies to older Nickle-based batteries. So fully discharging and charging the battery is completely useless and even harmful as we will see below.

The modern lithium battery can be charged regardless of its current percentage, given that it has absolutely no negative effect in its performance.

Should I remove the laptop battery when A/C is plugged in?

Many laptop users have this question and we will answer it right now:
The answer is: YES and NO, it depends on the situation.

Having a battery fully charged and the laptop plugged in is not harmful, because as soon as the charge level reaches 100% the battery stops receiving charging energy and this energy is bypassed directly to the power supply system of the laptop.

However there’s a disadvantage in keeping the battery in its socket when the laptop is plugged in, but only if it’s currently suffering from excessive heating caused by the laptop hardware.

So:

- In a normal usage, if the laptop doesn’t get too hot (CPU and Hard Disk around 40ºC to 50ºC) the battery should remain in the laptop socket;

- In an intensive usage which leads to a large amount of heat produced (i.e. Games, temperatures above 60ºC) the battery should be removed from the socket in order to prevent unwanted heating.

The heat, among the fact that it has 100% of charge, is the great enemy of the lithium battery and not the plug, as many might think so.

Laptop battery discharges

Full battery discharges (until laptop power shutdown, 0%) should be avoided, because this stresses the battery a lot and can even damage it. It’s recommended to perform partial discharges to capacity levels of 20~30% and frequent charges, instead of performing a full discharging followed by a full charging.

Laptop batteries contain a capacity gauge that allows us to know the exact amount of energy stored. However, due to the charging/discharging cycles, this sensor tends to be inaccurate overtime.

Some laptops include in their BIOS, tools to recalibrate this battery gauge, which is nothing more than a full discharge followed by a full charge.
So to calibrate the gauge, it should be performed, in every 30 discharge cycles, a full discharge non-stop , followed by a also, non-stop, full charge.

An inaccurate gauge can lead to the fact that the the battery capacity values are are wrong. The battery may report that it still has 10% of capacity when in fact it has a much lower value, and this causes the computer to shutdown unexpectedly.

Discharge (or charge) cycles consist of using all that battery charge (100%) but not necessarily all at once.
For example, you can use the laptop for some minutes in a day, using half its capacity e then fully charge it. If you did the same thing in the next day, it would be counted a discharge cycle and not two, so it may take several days until a full discharge cycle is completed.

How to perform a calibration (full discharge) of a laptop battery?

The most adequate method to do a full discharge (100% to a minimum of 3%) consists of the following procedure:

1. Fully charge the battery to its maximum capacity (100%);
2. Let the battery “rest” fully charged for 2 hours or more in order to cool down from the charging process. You may use the computer normally within this period;
3. Unplug the power cord and set the computer to hibernate automatically at the minimum percentage possible as described by the image sequence below;
        
4. Leave the computer discharging, non-stop, until it hibernates itself. You may use the computer normally within this period;
5. When the computer shuts down completely, let it stay in the hibernation state for 5 hours or even more;
6. Plug the computer to the A/C power to perform a full charge non-stop until its maximum capacity (100%). You may use the computer normally within this period.

After the calibration process, the reported wear level is usually higher than before. This is natural, since it now reports the true current capacity that the battery has to hold charge. Lithium Ion batteries have a limit amount of discharge cycles (generally 200 to 300 cycles) and they will retain less capacity over time.

Many people tend to think “If calibrating gives higher wear level, then it’s a bad thing”. This is wrong, because like said, the calibration is meant to have your battery report the true capacity it can hold, and it’s meant to avoid surprises like, for example, being in the middle of a presentation and suddenly the computer shuts down at 30% of charge.

Prolonged laptop battery storage

To store a battery for long periods of time, its charge capacity should be around 40% and it should be stored in a place as fresh and dry as possible. A fridge can be used (0ºC  – 10ºC), but only if the battery stays isolated from any humidity.
One must say again that the battery’s worst enemy is the heat, so leaving the laptop in the car in a hot summer day is half way to kill the battery.

Purchasing a replacement laptop battery

If you intend to purchase another battery, it’s recommended that you do it only when the current battery is very degraded. If it’s not the case, the non usage of a battery leads to its degradation.

If a spare battery is purchased and won’t be used for a long time, the above storage method should be used.
Besides that, when purchasing a battery you must pay attention to the manufacturing date.

 

 

[Via: BatteryCare]

Battery Care, Laptop Battery, Tips

This was the fourth day of our five days together, and we were swirling in chaos. There were almost thirty of us in a small room as part of Ann Bradney’s leadership workshop I wrote about last week.

Sara* was on the floor, cradling the arm and leg she had broken several months earlier, feeling broken herself, crying as she thought about her son who died five years ago. A few feet away from her, Angelo stood with his hands on his chest, also crying, immersed in his experience of alienation from his mother. Across the room, Zoe was huddled with her sister, Chloe, as they felt the pain of losing their own mother and confronted their fear of losing each other.

As I looked around the room, I saw two or three other people scattered about, each struggling with deep emotions of loss, fear, anger, and sadness. The noise was disorienting. People were crying, laughing, shouting, hugging, and comforting each other, all at the same time. It was completely out of control.

Just like life itself.

We were a microcosm of the world and of every organization I’ve ever known. Not just the pain, though that certainly exists wherever we’re brave enough to look, but the multiplicity of activity. The variety of individuals and groups, each occupied, engulfed even, by their own concerns, needs, and desires.

To top it off, we had only one established leader, Ann, to manage the mayhem. It was an impossible job. She couldn’t be in seven places at once. She couldn’t support each of the people who needed her. She had set herself up to fail.

Which, it eventually dawned on me, was her plan all along.

Ann didn’t just let the chaos happen by accident. She welcomed it. Because the perfect ingredient to draw out leadership is exactly the one most of us, including leaders, fight so hard to avoid: overwhelm.

Leaders like to be in control. I know that’s true for me. I want things to turn out right and I feel — often mistakenly — that if I have control over them, they will.

But here’s the thing: the more control I have over something, the less room there is for other people to step into their own leadership. If Ann didn’t need the help, many of us would have sat back watching, happy to let her lead.

When I took a bird’s eye view of the room, I saw that there were only six, maybe seven, people who needed help at that moment. The rest of us, close to twenty, were in a physical, psychological, and emotional place where we could offer help.

But it’s hard to offer help, to step into your own leadership. It requires tremendous courage. You have to risk being wrong, overstepping your bounds, and standing alone.

Which is why we needed a nudge.

So Ann created a situation that she couldn’t possibly handle by herself, and people stepped up. One participant, Janice, went over to Zoe and Chloe, the two sisters, and spoke softly to them. Another participant, Holly, sat next to Sara, who was mourning the loss of her son and held her. And I went over to Angelo, who looked up at me for a moment and then fell into my arms crying.

It’s not that Janice, Holly, and I were the leaders in the workshop. The day before, it was me who was crying, and Angelo who did the comforting. But on this day, in this moment, we were in a position to reach out.

Designing chaos into a process is the antithesis of what most leaders do. Usually, we try to focus on one thing at a time. One objective, one concept, one conversation, one task.

But in real life, in real organizations, nothing happens one thing at a time. And no one can be on top of it all. At one point, one of the participants accused Ann of allowing too much bedlam. Ann’s response was swift and emphatic:

“No. People want to make the leader the one who sees and knows everything. I am just a human being. I can’t see everything. I can’t know everything. I make mistakes. When you make me more than human, you can bring me down while refusing to take responsibility or any risk. Step into your leadership now.”

But wait a second. It sounds great but what if everyone in an organization stepped into their own leadership? What if everyone followed his own impulse? Wouldn’t that lead to anarchy?

Maybe. It depends on the strength of their organization’s container. How clear is the mission of the organization? The vision? The values? The culture? If we know what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, what’s important to us, and how we operate, then there will be trust, focused action, and abundant, unified leadership. If not, there will be anarchy.

But if the container isn’t strong, there will be anarchy anyway. Because, no matter how much leaders would like to, they just can’t control everything. And trying to control the uncontrollable just makes things worse. People check out. They feel no ownership. They work the minimum. And things fall through the cracks.

Here’s the hard part: leading without controlling. Stepping into your own leadership while leaving space for others to step into theirs as well.

If you find yourself still wanting to control it all, try saying “yes” to everything until you’re overwhelmed and can’t possibly deliver. So overwhelmed that, like Ann, you will fail to be on top of it all.

If that happens, then, like Ann, you will grow leaders around you. Your failure will prevent others from making you more than human. It will encourage them to take responsibility and risks. To step into their own leadership.

And if, on a particular day, you feel good, grounded, and strong, with a little extra energy, then look around for someone else who is overwhelmed and reach out to help. Take the risk to lead.
*Names have been changed

About the Author

Peter Bregman speaks, writes, and consults on leadership. He is the CEO of Bregman Partners, Inc., a global management consulting firm, and the author of Point B: A Short Guide To Leading a Big Change.

(Via HBR)

Business, Career advice, Communication, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Leadership development, Managing yourself, Tips

Business, Communication, Leadership, Leadership development, Managing yourself, Presentations, Tips

Facebook advertising holds tremendous promise for marketers looking to reach targeted audiences online. Nowhere else do people willingly share such specific information about themselves – enabling marketers to target ads and evaluate performance based on details about consumers such as their age, interests, employers, location and even friends and relationships.

Facebook advertising, however, is still relatively new, and advertisers are only beginning to experiment with Facebook ads. Even digital marketing experts, familiar with advanced targeting techniques in paid search and display advertising, are just now figuring out how to effectively run advertising programs on Facebook.

To get your ads noticed by Facebook users, you’ll need to tailor your ads to work within the Facebook experience. Facebook users spend an inordinate amount of time –- more than any other website — on the social network. They interact with friends, share information and connect with their favorite causes; however, despite all their actions, people aren’t searching for products or services. That’s why carefully selecting images, modifying calls-to-action and subtly changing messaging to reach Facebook users is important for success in this channel.

Here are a few insider tricks you can use to take your Facebook targeting and ad performance to the next level.

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1. Remember the User Experience

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Many marketers dive right into Facebook ads expecting to drive traffic from Facebook directly to their site, just as in paid search. While this may work for some, tailoring the experience to Facebook users typically delivers better results. Using Custom Pages or Applications on Facebook to capture traffic allows you to keep users within Facebook for a consistent browsing experience, resulting in lower bounce rates. Custom Pages, as part of your Facebook Page, make it easy for consumers to “Like” your product or brand. For every user who Likes your page, you can remarket to them over time with status updates about deals or upcoming events.

Facebook Apps, on the other hand, provide the marketer with more control over the user experience, as well as the ability to gather detailed demographic data from user profiles. If converting traffic outside of Facebook is a requirement for you, consider tailoring your landing pages to social users. This could include writing different ad copy, the inclusion of Like and sharing buttons on your site and presenting user-generated content such as videos or reviews, as opposed to product information, for Facebook users arriving at your landing page.

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2. Use Root Analysis to Expand Targeting

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Facebook users can list any terms they want to define their likes and interests, so in order to target a full audience of potential customers, you may have to do some investigating for those terms and phrases that go beyond your general keyword search. For example, using the targeting parameter “camping,” your ad will not reach users who have listed “camping in the mountains” or “tent camping” on their profile.

Root analysis is a useful way to discover people’s likes and interests on Facebook to expand your audience and drive more conversions. Simply start with a root word and expand your targeting to include related interests. You can do this by typing the root word into Facebook’s “Likes & Interests” targeting settings and then typing a single letter to find related terms. Using the camping example, entering “camping i” results in a list that includes “camping in California” and “I love camping.” Adding these unique terms to your targeting criteria expands your audience, helping to discover additional valuable consumers and improve ROI.

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3. Segment Your Ads

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With 500 million users on Facebook, there are probably plenty of consumers that you want to reach with your ads. However, not all Facebook users are created equal. Breaking out your audiences to understand the value of each segment, and then adjusting your bids accordingly, will help you optimize your Facebook budget.

Dividing audiences by age, location, and gender should help you find the segments most likely to convert, making each segment more valuable to you. As you measure the performance variance between your segmented advertisements, you can adjust your bids to improve the overall ROI for your Facebook ad campaigns.

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4. Prevent Ad Blindness

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People use Facebook to interact with friends, share their photos and play games, not to look for products and services. Your ads need to grab their attention. Facebook users are inundated with content and typically scan images and text quickly, but there are tricks to modify creative to minimize ad blindness and increase click-through rates. The most successful ads include colorful, engaging images — and of course, a compelling and relevant offer. Adding borders to your photos in colors like orange or yellow, which contrast with the blue and white Facebook interface, is a simple way to pull the user’s eyes in your ad’s direction.

Make sure to test early and often here, as the results will surprise you. The most-clicked ads are not necessarily the most aesthetically pleasing; they are often the ones that stand out on the page. Also, because ads can be served to the same users multiple times, it doesn’t take long for users to completely tune out repeat ads, so you have to keep your approach creative and fresh. Rotating images and headline copy as performance drops over time can help boost click-through rates.

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Conclusion

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By using the tips above to target and optimize your advertisements, you should have a head start in Facebook marketing. More importantly, by building competencies in this new channel, you can build sustainable advantage over the competition through superior targeting and optimization.

Taking a wait-and-see approach may be the safe route, but now is the time to begin. The Facebook advertiser base is still relatively small in comparison to the Facebook audience. As a result, costs-per-click rates remain lower than paid search and other channels. As advertisers continue to shift dollars to Facebook, costs will rise, and advertisers that have managed to build a fan base early will be better positioned to reap dividends from their investment.

What tips can you offer? What has worked with your own advertising experience on Facebook? Do you also zone out uninspired ads? Let us know in the comments below.

[Via Mashable]

Ad, Advertising, Business, Facebook, List, Lists, Marketing, ROI, small business, social media marketing, Tips

The market is awash with advice from Social Media Gurus.  I remember the 1980’s when the PC was becoming available to the masses and I was told ‘where there is mystery there is margin.’ Beware, advice is often given as facts, but it is always ‘opinion.’

There are a lot of people trying to profit from giving advice now. The first thing I want to say here is, this is my advice and my opinion – take it as such, but find those who you can trust.

Before you take any advice and spend money take a look at the person who is giving it. Are they ‘connected’, do they have excellent social media presence and what is their track record? Most importantly, are they a role model for you? A barrow boy at a market stall could show you how to sell, but would that be the way you would want to behave? The online world is much more than a ‘sales channel’. All the time you are creating your reputation and you are either attracting or repelling ‘followers.’

In this post I would like to encourage you to learn to have a Digital Mindset, enter the Digital world with the right mindset.

Here are 5 tips for achieving this:

1. Know yourself

To begin with, do you ‘know yourself’ what your value as a person is to others? There is a clue in the word ‘Know’ and that is know-ledge. Online you are sharing your know-ledge. You are not seeking sales. Through sharing your knowledge with others you will become ‘known.’

2. Understand the difference between broadcast and building trust

The online world gives you two diverse and curiously linked opportunities. One is to ‘broadcast’ your message through Social Media, the other is to build trust through Social Networking. Most sites now allow you to do both. Ecademy allows you to write a Blog in a public place within the community where many random people will pass by and see it. They will view it and if they like it they might stop and start a conversation on it by commenting. At this point you are now social networking. YouTube, Flickr, SlideShare, most ‘Social Media sites allow you to do this. Don’t forget to talk: being a Broadcaster will not serve you if you only do this.

3. Release yourself online – be ‘ORS’

Be yourself online and be the best you can be. I like to use the phrase ‘Open, Random and Supportive’ as I believe this is what we are like when we are being a friend.  If we are ‘Closed, Selective and Controlling’, we are showing an old approach to business, targeted and in it only for yourself.

4. Notice and Share

When you read good stuff you are noticing it and consuming it for yourself. Start sharing it too and most sites allow you to share on FaceBook, Twitter, Ecademy, LinkedIn. This requires you to set up the ‘feeds’ Twitter is a great place to start, make sure you link your content into Twitter as it is so easy for others to then ‘notice and share’ what you are writing and thinking.

5. Create daily habits

Finally, don’t do this social media stuff only when you feel like it: start creating daily habits that enable you to do it more often. Make sure you have set up the technology so it is easy to do and then do it through a Smartphone while you are on the move.  I hate to be tied to a PC, as do most people. Go out and service your clients and at the same time support your network of friends online.

Business, facebook fan page, Marketing, Online Marketing, small business, Social Media, social media marketing, Tips

Two things need to happen to create a success formula:

1.  YOU need to know your skills
2.  You need to link up with OTHERS with the skills to provide what you lack

No matter how excellent you are at what YOU do – it is the things that you don’t do/can’t do well enough that give your competitors an advantage which could threaten your future success.

Tough talk then?

Here’s a basic walk through some of the combination of skills a business owner needs (one way or another: own or outsourced):

• Leadership, strategy & planning
• Communications, people management & motivation
• Financial planning, forecasting, budgeting, cash flow, accounting & money management
• Customer service & customer care skills
• Hiring (and firing) & HR
• Research, legislation & legals
• Sales, marketing & PR
• Social media: creation & use of

It’s quite a list then and as a solopreneur or owner of a Small Business you are unlikely to be skilled in all of these areas!  To make a success at what you do and earn your living from, it is important to have a realistic understanding of your personal strengths.

Strengths are activities/tasks you are good at and enjoy.

Your weak spots are those activities/tasks you find a challenge and don’t enjoy.

This level of self awareness is vital for your future success and quite often your business is only as strong as the strongest aspect of your weak spots!

Your weak spots are simply lesser strengths, not negatives.

To be successful you need to play more to your strengths.

Food for thought?  If this hit a nerve it’s time you audited what your strengths are .. for starters.

[Via EBA]

Business, Career advice, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Managing yourself, Success, Tips

Imagine this.  You’re strictly on a deadline and enjoying the creative process and in the flow but you keep getting interrupted either by phone, twitter, email and colleagues popping into your office, or by family demands.  Sometimes our colleagues don’t realise they are interrupting us as we ‘look’ open to converse.  It can be terribly hard to regain quite the same creative focus as interruptions do leach time.

Try these tips to see how you can keep your concentration and manage interruptions differently:

• Have someone answer your calls, including your mobile, and take messages for you and then you can call back when you have completed your important tasks .  If you are a solopreneur then you might consider a call answering service which gives a professional image too.
• Spread the word to colleagues that you would prefer not to be interrupted for a specific period – set your boundaries and people will respect that and learn an important personal time management skill from you.
• Keep a tidy and organised appointments diary and avoid unscheduled meetings – unless the request comes a time when you can do the meeting of course — only you will know if the unplanned meeting is very necessary for that time or if you welcome the distraction!
• Close your office door, turn off your email and social media dashboards so that you can really concentrate.  Chances are when you exert this kind of personal discipline you will get through the task quicker and more efficiently.
• Make sure you have everything you need right with you before you commence your ‘non interuptus’ period! The right files, as example, close to hand.  “Prepare or prepare to fail.”
  
• Manage your mindset to do the tasks which require your total concentration at the peak times when  you flow creatively.  Become self aware enough to recognise when your peak creative flow actually is! There is little point in setting time aside for the task if mentally you are off beam!
• Keep a handle on procrastination and dwelling on what else you HAVE to do (the busyness syndrome) can interrupt what you are actually working on and affect the quality.
• Decide the length of time you will be uninterrupted and stick to your guns! If you finish the task(s) earlier than scheduled, that’s a bonus and it’s time to take a break from your desk.
• Be ruthless. Today is not a rehearsal for tomorrow and we will never have this time again.  Make the most of your working hours by being as time efficient and productive as possible!

The fact is that subsconsciously we will always gravitate towards tasks and activities we enjoy so help yourself to create ‘enjoyment’ of doing the ‘tricky sticky less favourite tasks’ by creating a supportive environment for yourself.  Work to music?

Do you have a favourite time management tip that works for you?  Please let us know.

[Via EBA]

Business, Concentration, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Managing yourself, Office, Time management, Tips