May 23, 2008

Barcelona Day Adventures

Filed under: Great Travel Tips — admin @ 6:10 pm

As any European can brag about, Barcelona in Spain is no exception with its endless history, much of it still remaining, but much more of it has been added on in the 20th century. In many people’s opinion, you fully appreciate what Catalunya ( four regions including Barcelona ) is all about if you concentrate on the newly added culture. Barcelona has been a busy city and with all the new activities that it is willing to take on, tourism has become a big part of its daily life. So, for a full-scale visit to squeeze every drop of pleasure out of it, be well prepared with your map which has a details on hotels, entertainment, and the best celebrations and latest exhibitions.

Pick one’s way in Barcelona

The place to set out from to find your first glimpse of Modernism would be to go straight to Guell Park. This natural space should really have been called Antonio Gaudi Park because it is entirely filled with this architecture’s spellbinding works. He has converted benches, balconies, walls and entire buildings into paintings. Once you have filled your camera with these delights, recharge it again for Gaudi’s highlight; the Sagrada Familia Church. Even though at first sight the Sagrada Familia has an antiquated look, it was started in 1883 and has been growing all during this century, getting special modern touch-ups and new addition.

In 1892 the Barcelona Zoo was founded. A private collection was donated to the city and as the centre of the city was in the port area called La Ciutat Vella ( beautiful city), the zoo is found in the Ciutadella Park. This fascinating place, houses more than 7,500 different types of animals. The tiny hippo pygmy or odd looking anteater is a big attraction for the wee folks and adults alike. The Barcelona Zoo takes much pride of its primates collection which at one time included and albino one. Dark grey coloured shell tortoises, pelicans and American buffalos and even a red kangaroo can be photographed up close without having to travel to distant lands. The weather in Cataluyna and especially in Barcelona is not extreme, so a casual visit to see your animal friends can be done all year round. If your travel happens to take you to this city in the warmer months, Aquarama Barcelona, the aquatic park within the zoo will add to your zoo visit. Everyone is awed by the bottlenose dolphins seen at the daily shows together with other marvellous aquatic animals. The Barcelona Zoo excellent research programme is worldly known for breeding in captivity and for preserving species in danger.

Las Ramblas promenade is the heart of the Ciutat Vella and of Barcelona

Everyone who visits this city has recognized it as one of the most lively and colourful street shows, It is a living street garden with its decorative floral patterns with one of the best food markets in the city nearby called the Boqueria . With the Olympic games in 1992, the old run-down port area was surprisingly made into the Coastal Park where the Olympic village was stationed. At the Arts Hotel, Mapfre Towers and Nova Icaria Square you can find the twin towers which easily marked the whole area where this magnificent event was held and can still be visited. Once again in 2004, this Oylmpic stadium and its ‘Cobi’ mascot saw the Olympic torch before it was sent on to the 2004 host, Greece. Also in 2004, Barcelona once again out did itself, by setting up the Barcelona Forum, welcoming traveller from all over the world.

You may be thinking that all this tourism needs a lot of special attention, especially in making travel to and from this great city a breeze. Well, they have achieved this and much more. The Barcelona Airport called The Prat is found on the outskirts but has many good public and private transport to get into the hub of the city.

Special buses for tourism leaving from the Catalunya Square included about 40 stops, one to see the Nou camp Football Stadium, home of the Barca Team. Visits to any of the monuments or attractions is a leisure event this way because you need not worry about the paying every time or having to pay attention to timetables. Many times the price of the ticket includes special discounts to get into these places, at some of the local shops and parkings. And if you are thinking about heading about 40 kilometres south to maybe the town of Sitges, a nice beach area on the costa, then there are local trains too. You have many buses right outside the terminals, the underground, taxis and many hotels offer comfortable mini-buses directly to your accomodations and to the open doors of Barcelona.

R. Carlton contributed a lot of articles to http://www.barcelona-information.com an online source of information.

Choosing Wedding Decorations - What If The Groom Begs To Differ

Filed under: Web Of Relationships — admin @ 9:17 am

Decorations at a wedding do not go unnoticed quite the opposite to say the least. Setting the scene for this special day will no doubt take a lot of careful planning. This part of the wedding is about choice, yours.

Who is behind the organizing of the wedding decorations well normally it is the bride her friends and family that make decisions on what is best suited. No doubt the bride will let the groom know of her intentions for what is best at their wedding. Grooms are usually quite happy to let his future bride take control. Heaven forbid should he beg to differ and oppose her decision before the marriage is consummated who knows it may never will (Joke)

Is your wedding going to be formal or casual? Are you seeking traditional. These factors will help you when choosing what candles, flowers etc are needed for the decorations.

Colour coordination is important take into consideration the colour chosen in the fabrics of your entourage, we can not have a clash at your bash.

On helping you decide it is a good idea to take a couple of snapshots of the chapel or venue where the reception or service is to be held. You can then visualize how you would like it decorated. This can be a good thing for some but don’t let your imagination run wild.

When to put the decorations up is a good question, at least two hours before is appropriate. Weddings are about timing so keep this in mind for the erection of the wedding decorations. The hall you have booked for the occasion may have catered for another event before yours so this will all have to be cleared away before you start on your preparations.

Remember to keep in mind the more decorations at your wedding the less space, a cluttered atmosphere full of balloons flowers ribbons and so on can spoil an image instead of enhance it.
Decorating the stage instead of the dance floor is a perfect way to give of the sign that all decorations erected was arranged and directed by common sense.

Small table centrepiece decorations instead of large are more apt, there is nothing more infuriating having to pop your head round a mass of foliage to see the guest sitting opposite.

Wedding decorations whether cheap or expensive really does not matter; it is all about display exposure. If wedding decorations are implemented with style then you have perfection

If budget is an issue speak with the wedding venue principal and ask if other weddings are to take place the same day. If so make your move and coordinate with the couple using the venue before or after you. The reason being is their selection of wedding accessories maybe ideally suited to what you had in mind for your ceremony or reception; ask them if they would consider sharing costs.

This surely is a practical move if your pocket is the one in control. Do not be embarrassed to approach the other couple on the matter as they may well be thinking the same this is no time to procrastinate.

After hours of research I found this fabulous site and hey what do you know everything you could possibly need is all here to make your wedding day special..Well worth a visit dont just take my word for it www.your-wedding-planning-help.com.

Microsoft CRM Modification - Overview for IT Specialist

Filed under: Software + More — admin @ 2:03 am

Microsoft CRM is now on the scene and it is increasing its market share, due to the Microsoft Business Solutions muscles and marketing strategy. It is tightly integrated with other Microsoft Business Solutions products such as Microsoft Great Plains, Solomon, Navision.

If you are programmer or database administrator who is asked: how do we modify Microsoft CRM - read this article and you will have the clues for further research.

1. Microsoft CRM SDK - this is software development kit with C# and partly VB.net code samples - it is supported by Microsoft Business Solutions technical support. It is based on web service calls, if you are C# .NET developer - you are excellently positioned to do this type of customizations. This is the preferred modification scenario and this should be easily upgradeable customization. VB.Net examples will be available soon.

2. Legacy SQL Data integration. This is also easy and safe. If you have SQL database, sitting on the same or linked SQL Server - you can create ASPX .Net application and simply integrate it into CRM. You can place it on the navigation bar or menu in isv.config - please refer to MS CRM SDK

3. Legacy ASP integration - this is somewhat more sophisticated. You have to deploy HTTP handler to be a middle party between CRM which is .Net based and ASP which is legacy IIS. The trick is - you have to have INI file with security settings to penetrate into MS CRM with proper credentials, calling web service.

4. Microsoft Exchange Programming. Microsoft CRM has Exchange connector - which moves CRM incoming email to MS if it has GUID in its subject. You can alter this logic (for instance - move email to CRM if it doesn’t have GUID but it is from the sender who is contact or account in MS CRM). Refer to MS Exchange SDK onsyncsave event handling. Then simply apply some MS CRM SDK programming - you need some COM+ objects creation and VB programming experience.

5. Direct SQL touch - in #4 above I described you the scenario with MS Exchange handlers - this would be ideal world if MS CRM SDK does the job. But - in real world this is not always true - you have to do direct flags correction in CRM database (like making Activity closed, moving email attachments/octet streams, etc). This is not supported by MBS technical support - but you can rescue to this technique if you have to get job done.

6. MS CRM Customization tool - this is rather end-user tool and we don’t describe it here - read the manual. We’ve described above the options to use when this tool doesn’t do the job

7. Crystal Reports - feel free to create Crystal report - tables and views structure is self explanatory. Try to avoid the temptation to create your own SQL view or stored procedure in MS CRM database, instead - create custom database and place your view and stored proc in it.

Happy modifying!

About The Author

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies - USA nationwide Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains customization company, based in Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta, and Miami and having locations in multiple states and internationally www.albaspectrum.com, he is Dexterity, SQL, VB/C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer.

akarasev@albaspectrum.com

If you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com