There has been and continues to be a plethora of observational studies by different researchers in the publishing industry focused on how e-books have affected hard-copy book sales. Evidence from these studies has indicated that there is a significant and monumental shift away from hard-copy books to e-books.[1]These findings precipitate fears that hard-copy books might become more expensive in the near future as they begin to be less available.  This scenario could escalate to the point where only collectors of hard-copy books are willing to pay the high price for ownership.

The founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, made a statement in July 2010 that sales of digital books had significantly outstripped U.S. sales of hard-copy. He claimed that Amazon had sold 143 digital books for its e-reader, the Kindle, for every 100 hard-back books over the past three months. The pace of this change was unprecedented;  Amazon said that in the four weeks of June 2010, the rate of sales had reached 180 e-books for every 100 hard-backs sold. Bezos said sales of the Kindle and e-books had reached a "tipping point", with five authors including Steig Larsson, the writer of Girl with a Dragon Tattoo, and Stephenie Meyer, who penned the Twilight series, each selling more than 500,000 digital books.[2] Earlier in July 2010, Hachette said that James Patterson had sold 1.1m e-books to date.

According to a report made by Publishers Weekly, for the first quarter of 2011, e-book sales were up 159.8%; netting sales of $233.1 million. Although adult hard-cover and mass market paperback hard-copies had continued to sell, posting gains in March, all the print segments had declined for the first quarter with the nine mass market houses that report sales. Their findings revealed a 23.4% sales decline, and that children’s paper-back publishers had also declined by 24.1%.[3] E-book sales easily out-distanced mass market paperback sales in the first quarter of 2011 with mass market sales of hard-copy books falling to $123.3 million compared to e-books’ $233.1 million in sales.

According to .net sales report by the March Association of American Publishers (AAP) which collected data and statistics from 1,189 publishers, the adult e-Book sales were $282.3 million in comparison to adult hard-cover book sales which counted $229.6 million during the first quarter of 2012. During the same period in 2011, eBooks revenues were $220.4 million.[4] These reports indicate a disconcerting diminishing demand for hard-copy books.

With an ever increasing rise in the use of employment testing, certification testing and need to get a degree, I thought I would write this basic guide on how to study for exams.  Although it was originally written with the college student in mind, the fundamentals still apply to all of us in the workforce.

There are few things that strike terror into the hearts of students more than exam day, particularly if they have inadequate study skills. Perhaps these students study for hours and hours, only to discover that by exam time they've forgotten everything they've read. Below are a few study tips to help struggling students remember the information they've reviewed for their exams. 

-Use memory tricks. There are a number of memory tricks that you can use to help you remember large amounts of information. For example, the use of acronyms (such as Roy G Biv to remember the colors of the rainbow) can be very helpful. In addition, you can use visualization techniques, similes, and songs to assist you in recalling your study material.

-Don't cram. Your brain requires time to absorb facts. If you know about a test in advance, start studying right away for a little bit every day, ramping up your efforts as the exam approaches.

-Take frequent breaks while studying. It may seem counter-intuitive that spending less time studying might actually help you remember more of what you've read. But taking appropriately timed study breaks will keep your mind fresh and make sure you don't stress too much.

-Write it out. For many people, writing information down as they read it is the best way to learn it. Don't just write exactly what you read, however; by rewording the information or even drawing a picture or diagram you commit it to your memory in more than one way, allowing you to remember it easier later.

-Teach it to a friend. To remember information, you have to understand it. And in order to teach information, you need to understand it as well. Nothing tests your ability to recall facts better than teaching them to another person. Find a friend unfamiliar with your study material and teach them a lesson in the subject.

-Get plenty of sleep the night before the exam. Finally, be sure to get a good night's rest the night before you take the exam. Falling asleep at your desk will accomplish nothing. This will help you be more alert while you are taking your test, and will allow you to retain more information.

 

JAVA SCRIPT TUTORIAL – THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS

If you are looking to increase your proficiency in programming, it can make a lot of sense to invest some time into learning how to use JavaScript, or taking a Java Script tutorial.  It is one of the most popular and powerful options available today for people to use in programming different parts of their websites.  It often finds use in headers, or in interactive features displayed on pages.  It allows you to execute many different functions, such as calculation, pulling data from forms, special graphical effects, customized selections, custom security protocol and password systems, and much more.  Here are some essential points to keep in mind:

·         Java vs. JavaScript – These two languages are not the same.  Java uses completely separate files for their headers and classes, and they need compilation prior to execution.  Java is used in the creation of applets for pages.  JavaScript is much easier and simpler to learn than regular Java, and Java Script tutorials are often significantly more accessible for the average user.

·         OOP – OOP, or object oriented programming, is a specific programming technique that simplifies complicated computer programming conceptual issues.  Essentially, it lets a programmer treat whole chunks of data (defined either by users, or by the system itself), and modify or access them in specific ways.  It does this by classifying different parts of the programming into Objects, Methods, and Properties, which will be discussed more in depth in the future, in other Java Script Tutorials.

Every programming language has a mechanism to allow the programmer to create variables which hold custom data entered in by either the coder themselves or by the user of the application.

Regardless of whether you’re new to programming or not, you will have used variables and you should understand that in javascript they can hold any value such as a number or a string of text.

There is also another type of variable called an Array. Now, depending on who you talk to, some will say an array is actually an object, while others say it is a variable. Neither one is wrong but for the sake of simplicity we’ll refer to it as a variable.

Now, arrays are special because they can hold multiple values as opposed to standard variables which can only hold a single value at one time. If you can, try and imagine that your computer’s memory is made up of thousands of little boxes, and each of those boxes has an address which javascript will use to retrieve the array values when needed.