They are names you see on a regular basis, but do you actually know how the founders came up with their company names?

Adobe

Founder John Warnock named his company after the Adobe Creek which ran behind his house.

Apache

Apache’s founders started out by applying patches to NCSA’s httpd demon. They name it “A Patchy” server and Apache was born.

Apple

Apple was the favourite fruit of Steve Jobs. He was 3 months late in filing a name for his company and told his colleagues he would call his company Apple Computers if they did not come up with a better name before the end of the day.  Read more... (630 words, estimated 2:31 mins reading time)

Sometimes, you need or want to learn a subject fast. There are several strategies you can employ to help you get a good overall grasp of a subject, and you might surprise yourself how quickly you can acquire new knowledge or skills. So, here are the six steps you need to help learn a subject quickly:

Information Overload
Most times when people are trying to learn something new, they go through the material slowly and logically often re-reading sections and highlighting phrases until they know the material inside and out. This approach does work well however boredom has a tendancy to strike.  Read more... (656 words, estimated 2:37 mins reading time)

A water cooler is a device which dispenses cool water to the user. There are two major types of water cooler – the bottle-less water cooler and the bottled water cooler. Bottle-less water coolers are connected into the building’s water supply; Bottled water coolers require special large bottles of water to be delivered and attached to the machine.

Water coolers sometimes have additional uses. Particularly with the bottle-less water coolers, the water cooler is also able to provide hot water as well as cold so hot beverages such as tea and coffee can be made quickly and easily without the use of a kettle.  Read more... (156 words, estimated 37 secs reading time)

Share trading is sometimes known as share dealing. Share trading is simply the buying and selling of shares on a recognised stock exchange. The Australian stock exchange is sometimes known simple as the ‘ASX’.

In theory, share trading is a simple process. To share trade, you look at lists of shares and their prices – you can find these in financial pages of newspapers or on the internet. You decide how much you are willing to pay for the shares and enter and offer. If the offer is accepted, you receive the shares and pay for them. Selling shares is just the reverse – you offer your shares at a price and wait until you get an offer. Accept the offer, receive payment and hand over your share certificates. So, in a nutshell, share trading should be simple!  Read more... (267 words, estimated 1:04 mins reading time)

Teambuilding (or ‘team building’) is the act of developing a trust between members of the team in order to improve the collective. Interacgive exercises, team assessments and group discussions are all valid team building exercises.

When contemplating a team building day, it is important to think of several factors:
- what sort of people are coming on the team building day? Does anyone have an special needs?
- how many people are coming to the teambuilding session?
- What budget is there for the teambuilding session?
- how many ’supervisors’ will I need for the team building day?
- what sort of team building activities will best suit the candidates?
- how long do I want the team building session to go on for?
- what are the goals of the team building session?
- do I want an external team to come in and do the session, or are we doing it in-house?  Read more... (640 words, estimated 2:34 mins reading time)

A quantity surveyor is a construction industry professional. A quantity surveyor is a person who manages and control the costs within construction projects.

The history of quantity surveyors goes back to the 19th century where ‘Measurers’ would prepare timetables for building projects where construction materials and labour would be quanitfied against various local builders to find the most suitable candidate. As all of the tenders were based on the same information, it was easy to distinguish between each of the prices submitted.

Most countries have a professional body for quantity surveyors and all practising quantity surveyors must have qualifications in the area as well as membership to the professional body.  Read more... (115 words, estimated 28 secs reading time)

Promotional pens are used as a marketing tool in business. Promotional pens are pens which are given away free and have the company logo emblazened on them. This way, every time the promotional pen is used, brand recognition should happen with the user. Promotional pens can also serve as a reminder, for example if they also have a telephone number on them.

Promotional pens come in a range of styles, colours and prices, so there is a huge range to choose from and there is bound to be a promotional pen which suits your needs. Most promotional pens are ballpoints, have a simple design and are made of plastic. More expensive promotional pens may be made of metal, or perhaps even a brand name, and are more robust.  Read more... (164 words, estimated 39 secs reading time)