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Festive Presents for Men

Looking for Christmas gifts for the special guy that you know and love is a challenging task for us girls. We aren’t men so how do we know what they like? Choosing the best treat for any man can be hard work… So when it comes to the males who you are closest to (be it your father, your partner, or your brother) we sometimes need to get help in choosing their perfect Christmas gift.

If you’re a woman and you’re struggling to think of what to get the man in your life, don’t panic – I’m here to help!

To start with all men are secretly boys at heart. They love gadgets, electronic gifts, ‘guys games’ and ‘boys toys’! Digital devices and cool electronic gizmos are the most in-demand merchandise for men at Christmas. You can always find new gadgetry in stores and online and there are literally hundreds of adverts on TV offering the next best thing that guys just have to have. If you’re not worried about a budget then you will be overwhelmed with the choice in the market however, at the same time, if money’s a bit tight, you can still find a vast number of electronic and digital items to treat your man to. iPods, PlayStations, Nintendo Wii’s & Nintendo DS’s line the shelves of electric stores and warehouses. Or what about 3D TV sets? Your male friend will be amazed if you present him with this up and coming gift on Christmas morning! If your income is more modest, you can find loads of gadgets that your husband, boyfriends or father, will love! If your man loves his laptop you could get him a funky wireless mouse or keyboard set at an inexpensive price.

Another brilliant idea that will go down a treat for the many you love is a Gift Experience Day. If he’s the outdoorsy type, you could get him a day out rock climbing or paintballing. If he loves cars, you could treat him to a drive round the racetrack in an expensive super powered car. Or what about a flying lesson? Being a pilot has to be every boy’s dream! Whatever you pick it will certainly be a great day out for your man and, if you’re clever about it, you could organise it so you got a trip out to the theatre, or got to stay at a nice hotel with him as a lot of the breaks cater for 2 people! Males who love football, rugby, cricket, or any other sport, will revel in a tour around their favourite club’s ground organised by their girlfriend.

Although some of the gift experience days are pricey, you could split the cost between a group of you to ensure that your males friend gets a brilliant day out that doesn’t break your bank balance! There are literally hundreds of choices, so go online and have a look at what’s available.

Customized Christmas gifts like photo albums of the family would be a perfect seasonal treat for your Dad. There is an unlimited range of homemade gifts to choose from and the only thing stopping you is your own imagination! No matter what you create – whether it’s 100% made by you, or a personalised item in a shop (such as a mug, t-shirt or towel with a personal message or picture); a gift like this is bound to please. A bonus is that you can make it as expensive or inexpensive as you like; either way, it will look like you’ve spent a lot of time and effort choosing, making and creating your Christmas gift. Homemade gifts always make the recipient feel special!

If you want something totally off the wall, something that none of his guy friends will have, why not name a star after him? That will make him feel like a star himself and he’ll be boasting to everyone about his unique gift!

Confectioneries may be a good choice if the man you’re buying for has a sweet tooth. There are always loads of Christmas sweets, chocolates, alcoholic beverages and cakes in stores during the festive period. Everyone naturally associates women and chocolate, but lots of men love indulging in delicious, chocolaty treats too… so don’t forget them! Create a hamper of all of his favourite candies, or buy a ready made basket of Christmas food and drink. Either way, he’ll love the gift (or you might get to have a bite too!)

If you’re good in the kitchen then why not rustle up your own tasty treats for the men in your life? Bake some cakes and biscuits, create home made jams of your own recipe, or gift wrapped your own personal sweets and present them to your Dad or husband on Christmas day. They’re good fun to make and good fun to eat later! Homemade snacks like these are always a welcome gift to younger male cousins or brothers too! If you make enough they’ll last over the festive period too so it won’t be a short lived present.

Another gift idea that can be appreciated for much longer than Christmas day is a magazine subscription. If you know a gentleman who likes nothing better than kicking back after a hard day at work and lazing with a computer, car, golf or fishing magazine; then why not ensure he can carry on doing this for the whole of the next year? Most magazines offer weekly or monthly subscriptions, so you simply have to sign him up once and the voucher will last till next Christmas!

Copyright (c) 2010 Paul Evans

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The Past, Present, and Future of Computer Firewall Protection

Interestingly enough, the term “firewall” comes from a very literal place. In the 1800′s a firewall was literally a wall that was built to confine any potential fires and keep them from spreading. They were popular in urban cities and places where buildings were close together and thus were at a great risk of a fire spreading. During the industrial revolution, when cities expanded and technology flourished, it was these urban places that used the new technology the most. So in the 1980′s when computer security became an issue, it was also these urban cities that were at the most risk. The idea of confining a computer so outside disasters could not spread was based on the firewalls that were still erected in the cities. Thus, the computer firewall was born.

The first firewalls were known as “packet filter firewalls”. They worked by dividing that computer space into packets and then inspecting each packet individually. Anything incoming had to match certain rules in order to make it past a virtual wall constructed around the system. The method was slow, but effective.

Since then firewalls have advanced. Computers are more complex than ever. Almost every home in the western world has one. With so much technology available, it has always been inevitable that someone would create harmful viruses and the like, sometimes for profit and sometimes just because they can. It is just a part of human nature, unfortunately. Luckily just as there are smart people trying to destroy the system, there are other smart people trying to protect it. That is where firewalls come in. As hackers come up with more creative ways to infiltrate a system, other geniuses come up with more creative ways to stop them. In present day there are three main types of firewalls that attempt to do this.

Application Layer Firewalls: These firewalls also work on the packet system, but have become pretty advanced since the 1980′s. Application firewalls are programmed to recognize known pathogens such as Trojan horses and computer worms. There is an additional inspection layer to the packets to give them further filtering advantages.

Network Layer Firewalls: There are two sub-types of network layer firewalls; stateful and stateless. They are pretty much the same except for one major difference: stateful firewalls can be used in active sessions because they use a standard state information. Stateless firewalls are typically cheaper but also less reliable

Hardware Firewalls: The newest firewalls harkens back to the good old days of physical disaster protection. Hardware firewalls use computer hardware situated strategically in a server or computer to protect and filter information. These were invented and are manufactured by a company called Cisco. Cisco hardware firewalls are the beginning of the next generation of computer protection. They are not modeled after or resemble the old packet model in anyway. Though they are a new technology and thus have a lot of kinks to work out, they are the future of firewall protection.

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Blended Wing Body Aircraft and Futuristic Aircraft Designs of the Past and Present

Recently NASA wind tunnel testing has confirmed what many eccentric aircraft and aerospace engineers have been saying for decades. And that is blended wing body aircraft are as much as 30% more efficient due to lower co-efficients of drag. Some may think that the flying wing concept is something totally new and innovative yet in review we find drawings and prototypes that go back decades.

And well some really old stuff, dating way back to WWII and Jack Northrop. And if you really want to be tricky and call question to the efficiency of the flying wing and the earliest designs here is one, which will throw you for a loop; the Egyptians had pictures of what looked like flying winged aircraft on their walls.

So perhaps this idea is not so NEW really. Blended Wings have many concerns to. If you look at a boomerang, or watch a flat object fall it spins on the way down. And let us not forget buffeting issues with flying wings which can occur as well, especially flying in an atmosphere with micro bursts, thunder storms and near airports with lots of wake turbulence too.

Luckily we have learned so much from the flying wing days of the 50′s and 60′s and the present B-2 Bombers as well that we maybe able to really take that knowledge and do better now. For instance airliners, which are flying wings such as this mock up digitally enhanced picture of a flying wing airliner;

http://www.strangedangers.com/content/item/107063.html

A flying wing has many other neat aspects to it. That much wing sure plays well for eddy vortex lift and use. One would think that many who design these things are missing out on other cool possible aspects as well. For instance take thrust vectoring jets at just below the c.g. on top of the wings and put the aircraft into a high angle of attack 35-40 degrees and thus you have put the energy against the c.g. pushing it against the top of the wing rather than the thrust pushing it from the bottom of the wing as most designs show. You could have extremely short take off rolls and very efficient climb outs. The rates of climb would also significantly keep noise away from sensitive neighborhoods around airports.

Another issue is that people like to look out of the aircraft, so it might be wise for passenger aircraft where the passenger rode in the belly of the wing with now windows to play a Virtual or Augmented Reality on the cabin walls of the outside in giant screens, so the passengers would feel like you are sitting on the cloud and thus pleasing to the humans, as all humans seem to have a Closter phobic effect and combining that with air sickness would not be so good. Think on this.

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