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1. Relax And Take A Deep Breath

Breathe deeply through your nose for a few minutes and let the tension release from your neck and shoulders. There is some evidence that tensed-up shoulders and neck can reduce blood flow to the brain. There is a lot of evidence that creativity increases when we are relaxed.

2. Examine Your Assumptions

Anytime you approach a problem, take a look at the assumptions you and others are making. Challenge them, to see what you might learn. For example, if you are trying to design a new pet store, you might challenge the idea people have to come to see the animals. Of course they have to come to see them, you assume, but upon challenging the idea, it occurs to you that you might bring the pets into people’s homes, so they can see how they’ll do there. This might even be a great sale’s technique.

3. Ask “What If” Questions

Simple questions that start with “what if” can be a powerful way to generate new and creative ideas. For example, the question “What if books were free?” could lead to a series of books that have paid advertising in them, and are given away. Many free newspapers are profitable in this way, so it is a natural thought to try it with books. The idea is to ask many “what if” questions, and let anything come to mind to be explored for a moment.

4. Assume You’ll Have A Good Idea

Make the assumption that you’ll have a good idea. This is a powerful way to stimulate your brain, and a great habit to have. I have to assume that I’ll come up with plausible examples for these techniques as I write this article, and I am convinced that this assumption keeps the ideas coming.

5. Look For Another Approach

What other ways can you approach this problem? This is a question you should be in the habit of asking yourself. Suppose you are a landlord, and you have a problem getting non-paying tenants evicted. They stay forever, and you keep trying new legal strategies. Then you ask yourself what other approaches might work, and it occurs to you that you can pay them to leave. You still make more money because you get new tenants (who pay) in more quickly. Always look for other approaches.

6. Look For Humor In The Situation

The neighbors dog barks when you’re trying to sleep, despite your many complaints. You look for the humor in the situation, and find yourself wanting to bark at your neighbor. That gives you the idea to record his own dogs barking and play the recording very loud when HE is sleeping. Humor can sometimes lead to new creative ideas and solutions, but laughing is also a great way to relax, which helps you think better.

7. Play With Other’s Ideas

Albert Einstein once said, “The secret of creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.” Most ideas are not truly “new.” Don’t be afraid to look around at how others have solved a problem. Take the creative ideas of other people and adapt them to your purposes. While trying to spot a plain suitcase among a hundred similar ones on an airport luggage carousel, I saw a suitcase that had been painted bright colors. Someone needs to steal that idea and produce a line of bright, easy-to-locate luggage.

Are we judged by our actions alone, or for our thoughts and feelings as well? A question which has bothered most of us at some point does loyalty extend to thoughts and feelings or is it limited to action alone?

When you give someone a gift you would really rather not give, do you actually get a tick for your generous action, or a cross for your negative thoughts?

When you do somebody harm but bleed inwardly as you execute it, are you bad because you caused harm or good because you felt bad while doing so?

When you told your friend you forgive her but secretly desired to wring her neck, were you good or bad?

It’s true that since nobody can really figure out your thoughts, people would generally judge you for your actions. But the point is are you really, really good when just your actions are good? Or, do you need the solid backing of pristine clean thoughts and emotions as well?

Sometimes we just cannot help our thoughts and feelings, however we may try. But actions are certainly within our control. How can you avoid hating or thinking ill of the person who harmed you intentionally? And yet you can easily mask that hatred and act as if nothing is wrong. You cannot help feeling hungry and entertaining thoughts of sinfully delicious, calorie-laden food. Yet you can hold yourself back from action on that impulse.

And if thoughts and emotions are not within our control most of the time, why should one feel guilty of them? So long as your actions are correct, should what you think or feel make you guilty? Kindness and goodness cannot always be about how you feel or thing, but about how you act… surely we are judged not for your thoughts, but for our actions, which are within our control? so then why feel guilty about any wayward thoughts?

The reason there is a gap between what you think or feel and the way you act is because of the clash of values in almost every circumstance. Those who have clear cut values are most likely to have thoughts that result in action. These people are mostly clear about what they want; are well-respected and looked up to. They are also likely to be predictable people who lead fairly predictable lives. However those who have a more flexible thoughts and actions, their thoughts and actions waver forever to suit every different circumstance.

Not all thoughts become action, though all actions emanate from some thought or feeling.

But can you change your thoughts? Do you have the same control over them as you do over your actions? There are those who say that one can control one’s thoughts if one tries hard enough. However, even though you may not be able to control all thoughts, you can certainly choose the thoughts that you wish to act upon.

And therein lies the key to the rather complicated relationship between thoughts, feelings and action…

“Watch your words. They become deeds. Watch your deeds. They become habits. Watch your habits. They become character. Character is everything.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

And by carefully choosing the thoughts we wish to act upon, we are able to establish habits and so help formulate our own character.

Visual Studio offers a powerful debugger to aid with testing and troubleshooting your applications. One of the most common uses of a debugger is to set breakpoints, which are positions in the code that, when reached, cause the program execution to pause, allowing the developer to inspect the code and state of the program. When a breakpoint is reached and the application suspended, the application is in break mode. In break mode, you, the developer, can examine and change the values of the program variables.

The simplest way to add a breakpoint to a particular line of code is to click in the margin for that line of code. Or place the cursor on that line and press F9 to toggle breakpoint. You can also disable all breakpoints and delete all breakpoints from the debug menu.

The Breakpoints window provides a list of the current breakpoints and allows you to enable or disable breakpoints, delete breakpoints, add new breakpoints, and edit the properties of existing breakpoints. To display the Breakpoints window, go to the Debug menu’s Windows submenu and select the Breakpoints option. You can also display this window by pressing Ctrl-Alt-B (Debug.Breakpoints).

Break Only on Certain Conditions

Breakpoints in Visual Studio can be configured to cause the program to enter break mode only when a particular condition holds. To add a condition to a breakpoint, view the breakpoint’s properties by selecting the breakpoint from the Breakpoints window and clicking on the Properties icon. From any of the tabs, you will find a button titled Condition. Clicking on this will display the Breakpoint Condition dialog, where you can specify the condition to be watched. You can also right click on the breakpoint on the margin and select Condition,

Control How Often to Break on a Breakpoint

Breakpoints, by default, cause the program to enter break mode whenever they are hit and their condition, if any, is met. However, you can configure a breakpoint to enter break mode based on the breakpoint’s hit count. The hit count of a breakpoint is the number of times the breakpoint has been reached and the condition, if specified, has been met. Through the Breakpoint Properties dialog box, you can indicate when a breakpoint should cause the program to enter break mode based on its hit count value.

To configure this information, open up the properties for a breakpoint and click the Hit Count button Clicking on this button will display the Breakpoint Hit Count dialog.

Now this: Mac malware is now circulating across the Net via pirated copies of Apple’s new iWorks software.

The “iServices.a” Trojan hitchhikes on iWork ’09’s installer. The installer for the Trojan horse is launched as soon as a user begins the installation of iWork, following the installer’s request of an administrator password.

Once the Mac is infected, the Trojan phones home to let daddy know it arrived safely and is awaiting further instructions. Since then, the same bit of viral nastiness — dubbed OSX.Trojan.iServices.B — has begun showing up in pirated copies of Adobe Photoshop CS4, according to Macworld.

Glass-half-full types can view this as further proof of the Mac’s success; it’s now installed in sufficient numbers to be worth the attention of botnet herders. Also: That room full of manure is sure to have a pony inside.