How to Get Better Sleep

Achieving better sleep at night will improve your memory, mood, and energy level the next day. This page has helpful tips on how to get a good night's rest. Try and improve the quality of your sleep. If you toss and turn all night, your brain is going to be negatively affected. So avoid the late-night caffeine, and if you have allergies or some other condition that affects sleep quality, see your doctor for solutions. There are also lots of inexpensive sleep aids that many people find helpful.

Here are some specific ideas on getting better sleep.

• Go easy on caffeine during the day. If you drink more than two cups of coffee or the equivalent in soda during the day, your sleep at night is likely to be affected.
• Darken your bedroom. Many people report sleeping much sounder in a very dark room. Evidently light waves are registered by the brain unconsciously, even when you are sleeping. If your brain thinks it's daytime because of a light source (even a dim one like the light on the front of a DVD player or smoke detector), it might make your sleep more restless.
  Rather than fight with all potential light sources, I use a handy little tool called asleep mask to keep my room "dark". I actually received my mask for free during a long airline flight once. You've seen these masks - they cover your eyes in front and stay on your head using two elastic bands that go around your head.
• Eliminate allergy problems. If your nose is clogged at night, your sleep is likely to be very restless. Like a lot of people, I have an allergy to all kinds of things that float in the air or live in fabric - pollen, ragweed, dust mites, you name it. The best way to defeat this that I've been able to find are flexible nose strips. These gently pull open your nostrils and allow you to breath more freely. Any grocery will have these.
• Replace that mattress! I recently replaced my old, uncomfortable waterbed mattress with a new inner-spring Spring Air mattress. It wasn't cheap, but I have never slept better in my life.
  A new mattress is an investment. You spend a fourth of your life sleeping. It makes sense to sleep on a bed that gives you a good nights rest. Those of you tossing and turning at night should think about whether your crummy mattress is the cause.
  Update: It has been a few years since I purchased that mattress, and now it is lumpy and uncomfortable. As soon as I can save enough for a new mattress, I am going to take a very close look at the adjustable Sleep Number bed.
• Listen to soothing music. In the evening and especially right before bed, play your favorite, most relaxing CDs. Relaxing the mind with music before retiring to bed is a very effective way to get better sleep.
• Try journaling before you fall asleep. Many people (including me) keep a journal to record the many interesting things that happen each day. Journaling itself is a form of memory, since it provides you with a written memory of your life's events. Journaling immediately before bed can help relax the mind in preparation for sleep.
• Crank up the mood machine. Little noises during the night, such as an airplane flying overhead or a car passing by your house, can interfere with better sleep even if you don't consciously notice it.
  An easy way to drown out such noises is by using a mood machine to create "white noise" in the background. These devices usually allow you to select from a variety of soothing noises, including rain, waterfalls, ocean waves, and so on. You can find these at any Wal-Mart.
• Take a hot shower or bath before bed. Hot water helps relax the body. Taking a hot shower or bath soon before you go to bed should help improve your ability to fall asleep and stay asleep.
• Avoid the midnight snack. Eating in the middle of the night will disturb your sleep once you go back to bed. The reason is now you have a glob of food on your stomach that you have to digest. If you must eat something, make it very light and protein-based - like a little cottage cheese or a protein powder drink.
• Talk to your doctor. If you have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep no matter what you try, then consider discussing your situation with your doctor. You might have sleep apnea or another sleep disorder. (Researchers believe that over 90 million Americans have some type of sleep-related disorder.)
• Face to the South. Here's an unusual suggestion from a visitor to this site named Namrata: "While sleeping, face your head towards the southern side. I have tried it, and it literally works in getting deep, better sleep."
• Try Yoga Breathing. Namrata also suggests a simple yoga-inspired breathing exercise to prepare your mind and body for sleep: "Before sleeping, take three deep breathes, eyes closed. This simply relaxes the brain and helps us in getting sleep."

Working on getting better sleep might actually be more important than trying to just find more time for sleep. If you absolutely cannot find more than six hours to sleep a night, it certainly makes sense to do whatever you can to get the most benefit from those six hours

Improve Your Concentration

It's an obvious step - improve your concentration to improve your memory. To concentrate simply means to focusing intensely. If you aren't focused, you won't be able to memorize new facts or recall information you memorized previously. Here's some great news: Concentration is a mental skill you can develop. There are two ways to improve your concentration:

First, increase your brain's natural ability to concentrate regardless of the environment - in other words, increasing your attention.

Second, adjust your environment to make concentrating easier. This approach is especially important when you are actively studying something new for school, work, or leisure.

Step 1: Power Up Your Brain

To improve your concentration takes a little time and effort, but it can be worth it. In my experience you can make noticeable improvement in a relatively short time.

As recent books on neuroplasticity such as Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain (by Sharon Begley) explain, the structure and function of the adult brain is not set in stone as scientists have always said. In fact, each time you learn a new skill, memorize information, or develop new habits, the neurons and connections in your brain grow and change.

This is an exciting discovery, and is further evidence that your brain's abilities - including the ability to concentrate effectively - can be changed for the better. Research shows that these changes do not occur overnight, however. You have to work at it consistently and regularly. After all, you are literally reshaping your brain!

So, where should you begin if you want to improve your concentration? Start building into your daily schedule habits that lead to increased brain power. These include:

• Mindfulness meditation. Start with five minutes in the morning and five minutes before bed, every day. A great guide if you are just getting started with meditation is Andrea Weiss' book Beginning Mindfulness. I have this book and am working through the 10 week course in mindfulness it describes. See the Mediation and Memory page for more information.
• Proper sleep. Sorry to say it, but unless you are getting sufficient restful sleep, you are not going to be as mentally focused as you could be. See the Sleep & Memory page for tips and more information.
  Here's an idea: consider upgrading your crummy old mattress. You know, the one that's so uncomfortable it makes you toss and turn all night? I recently bought a new Spring Air mattress to replace my old bad mattress and have never slept better. It wasn't cheap, but I look at it as an investment in my health (and my memory!).
• Vitamins and other supplements. I've tried a number of brain enhancement supplements and other vitamins for memory. One in particular that seemed to help me concentrate better is "Attend" by VAXA. This is a non-prescription supplement for adults who may have Adult Attention Deficit Disorder.
  I have never been diagnosed with ADD, but I found this product almost immediately improved my ability to focus. The effect is like being "in the zone", where you visually and mentally lock in on the person you are speaking to, or the material you are reading.
  I can't guarantee it will improve your concentration as much as it seemed to improve mine, but I'm a believer. The cheapest I've been able to find Attend is on Amazon.com, but you may want to shop around. You might also want to take a look at Synaptol, a supplement for concentration sold by MicroNutra.
  Second, I recommend you take a mulitivitamin each day. That way, just in case your diet is not the greatest, you can perhaps avoid a vitamin deficiency that could hurt your brain. It also doesn't hurt to supplement with Vitamin C and fish oil capsules which are good for brain health.
  One important note - always consult your doctor if you have questions about your diet or any supplements you plan to take.
• Brain games. The more you use certain skills, the more they are reinforced in the brain, research shows. So it makes sense that playing concentration games and games that require you to focus will improve your concentration ability.
  My Brain Games page has over 25 free brain games you can play anytime. Again, though, you need to be consistent. Play for at least 10 minutes each day. Have fun, and get the benefits, too.
• Eat healthier. Your brain needs the proper nutrients to allow you to focus, and your blood sugar needs to be properly regulated (the brain consumes glucose, a sugar, as its primary fuel). See the Diet & Memory page for more about this.

Step 2: Optimize Your Environment

In addition to building the habits described above into your daily routine, also adjust your environment to improve your concentration when studying.

• Create a study spot. Your brain loves routine. Create a place where all you do is study. An obvious choice is a secluded desk of some kind, but the trick is to make sure you only study in that spot. Studying in bed is a bad habit, for example, because your body is trained to want to sleep once you get into bed.
• Try green light. Here's an odd tip. Recent studies have shown that green lightimproves concentration. Install a green light bulb in the study lamp at your desk. If you think it makes a difference and helps you to concentrate better, let me know!
• Try the color red. Green light not working? Look at red instead. A study in the journal Science explains how color affects the brain. One interesting discovery: red improves concentration and memory, while blue improves creativity.
  Try these ideas when you really need to focus:
  - Set small red items out on your desk.
  - Add red to your outfit (red shirt, red accessory, etc.).
  - Hang red-themed pictures on your wall.
  - Change your computer's desktop background to red.
  You never realized your blue walls were wrecking your concentration, did you? Now you have a way to focus better whenever you want.
  Just bring out the red!
• Remove distractions. Turn off the ringer on your phone and take other steps to prevent interruptions. Don't study with the television on or with talk radio playing. Some studies have shown that soft instrumental music (no vocals) can help improve your concentration, however.
• Use Time Boxes. Set a time limit when you need to study new material. For example, let's say you want to read one chapter in a book (and remember it). Decide in advance that you can have 45 minutes to read the chapter, and 15 minutes to review it. Set a timer to keep yourself honest, then pace yourself to keep within the alotted time. This use of Time Boxes will really help you stay focused on the material.
• Stay motivated with rewards. If you see studying as drudge work, it's hard to concentrate. One way to stay motivated is to set up a reward system. Tell yourself you have to earn that hour of watching your favorite show later in the evening by first completing one hour of intense studying. That way, even if the material is dry, you have the reward to look forward to.
• Take a break every two hours. You mental energy will begin to decline after a long period of study. So every two hours or so, take a ten minute break. Walk around, eat a light snack, or just stare at the wall to relax your mind.
• Activate your Theta waves. One of the steps in the IMPACT memory technique developed in England is mental preparation. Our brains are not always in the best state of readiness for remembering new material, but it turns out you can easily change this simply by changing your breathing.
  When it's time to study or remember something new, switch your breathing pattern to be slower and deeper. Deeper and slower breathing actually changes the way your brain works, by inducing the brain's electrical pulses to switch to Theta waves.
  Theta waves normally occur in your brain in hypnogogic sleep. This is the stage of sleep when outside noises like an alarm clock can influence dreaming. It turns out being in this stage also can aid memory. A good example is the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon, when information you've been trying to think of all day suddenly comes back to you after napping or waking up from sleep.
  To activate your Theta waves, switch your breathing to your lower abdomen - in other words, start breathing deeply from your stomach. Consciously slow your rate of breathing too. After a few moments, you should feel calmer, the Theta waves should be flowing in your brain, and you should be more receptive to concentrating on new information.

Concentrating is the first step to learning anything new. It only makes sense that if you improve your concentration, your memory will improve also.

he Best Study Skills - Five Strategies You Need to Know and Use

Advice on the best study skills can be found in many books and across the web. However, these sources often gloss over certain memory-related habits that can really help you remember the material much better. On this page I describe five proven study strategies that every student should know and use to maximize their retention of the material. Much of my understanding of the best study skills comes from the book Your Memory: How It Works & How to Improve It by Dr. Kenneth Higbee.

According to Dr. Higbee, the study skills you should be using are:

1. Reduce Interference 
2. Space It Out 
3. Use Whole and Part Learning 
4. Recite It 
5. Use a Study System 

Dr. Higbee refers to these as "strategies for effective learning". Below I've explained each of these with examples. Make these five best study skills a part of every study session, and you should be able to recall the material much more easily.

Best Study Skills #1: Reduce Interference 

One cause of forgetting is something called "interference". Interference occurs when information you have learned previously interferes with (gets in the way of) new material that is similar.
Interference may cause confusion when the time comes to recall the material. The brain can mix up new information with what was learned before.
For example, suppose you met several people at a business conference last week. Then, you met several more people at a party last night. Interference may cause you to confuse the names of people at the conference with those you met at the party and vice versa.
There are several individual strategies you can employ to keep interference to a minimum:
Overlearn the Material. The better you know the material, the less likely that interference will occur. To overlearn, continue studying past the point where you can just barely recall the information.
For example, suppose you need to memorize Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, a famous speech given by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. Rather than stopping after you are able to remember the speech just once without mistakes, continue studying it further to achieve better mastery.
Research shows that overlearning strengthens memory for any material, and one of the ways it does this is by reducing possible interference.
Make It Meaningful. Another way to reduce interference is to make the information more meaningful. To best remember what you are learning, the material needs to make sense rather than just be learned by rote. Interference can still happen even with meaningful material, but it will occur less often.
Some ways you can make what you are learning more meaningful include:

1. Familiarity. The more you know about a subject the easier it is to learn new material related to it. For example, experienced chess players are able to memorize new moves more quickly than other people who are not familiar with chess.
   To my way of thinking, the principle of familiarity is one of the many benefits of being a life-long learner interested in a wide range of subjects. Something you learn today may help you learn related material some time in the future.
2. Rhymes. If you can convert the information you want to remember into a rhyme, it will be more meaningful and therefore easier to remember. You have probably heard such mnemonic rhymes as "In fourteen hundred and ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue," or "I before E, except after C."
   While it may take you a few moments to construct a rhyme for a given piece of information, you'll reap the benefit of familiarity that will help you remember the material later.
3. Patterns. In the same way that rhymes make information more meaningful, patterns do the same. Look for patterns in any material you want to learn.
   For example, when memorizing phone numbers or other long numbers, break the numbers of into memorable patterns if possible. If you need remember the number 345376388391, it helps to notice that every fourth number is a "3", as in345-376-388-391.

Minimize Intervening Activity. Interference increases as the amount of activity between study time and the time to recall the material increases. A lot of intervening mental activity especially increases the chances of interference.
If you have an exam coming up, the best way to minimize interference is to go to sleep (assuming you have studied sufficiently). While this principle is important, I realize it isn't always practical as you may need to study multiple subjects at once or have other activities you need to participate in. But it is good to keep in mind nevertheless; use it when you can.
Don't Study Similar Subjects Together. Forgetting due to interference will also increase if you try to study similar subject close together. For example, suppose you need to study biochemistry, organic chemistry, and trigonometry during the next few days. Since biochemistry and organic chemistry are somewhat similar, it would be better to study trigonometry between them to lessen possible interference.
Study Different Subjects in Different Rooms. Another proven way to reduce interference is to study in different contexts for different subjects that might interfere with one another.
For example, suppose you are taking courses in both French and Italian. To prevent confusion between these two similar languages, study French in one room and Italian in a different room. Even using two different colored inks for the two subjects when taking notes can help reduce interference.
Use Separate Study Sessions. Avoid studying all your subjects at the same time. Research shows that there is better remembering and less interference if only one subject is learned during a particular study session.
So when studying, don't skip around between English, History, Math, and so on. Instead, spend sufficient time with one subject, then study the others in separate study sessions.
Even if you don't have several days to separate your studying, it helps to take even a short break. For instance, after studying Math, get up and take a break before starting English. Get a snack or drink of water to help re-set your brain in preparation for the next subject to be studied.

Best Study Skills #2: Space It Out 

The second of the best study skills recommended by Dr. Higbee is to space out the studying for any particular subject. In other words, for best remembering it would be better to study your Math chapter in three 1-hour sessions than in a long 3-hour session. As every student knows, trying to learn all the material in one study session is called "cramming". While cramming might get you through the test the next day (or not), research shows it is a very poor way to actually learn.

In the same way that breaking up the material of several different subjects into multiple, separate study sessions enhances memory for the material, breaking up the study of a single subject does the same. However, to do this successfully requires that you budget your time. Many students fail to plan ahead in their studying, and they pay for this with poorer learning and academic performance than they are capable of.
If you want an advantage over your classmates, start studying ahead of time, and separate your studies for each subject into more than one session. There are at least three reasons why this spaced learning is better than cramming:

1. The Limits of Attention. Quite simply, there is a limit to how long you can focus on a given set of material. If you try to learn too much at once, your ability to concentrate on the material as you are learning suffers. Lack of concentration and attention leads to poor recollection of the material.
2. Consolidation During Breaks. Research suggests that your brain strengthens memories during breaks. When you try to cram everything at once, there are no significant breaks, and less consolidation of memories occurs.
3. Differing Contexts/Moods. Memory is aided by environmental context. In other words, the room you study in, the type of pen or pencil you use when studying, or even your mood can link what you learned during studying with what you can recall of the material during testing.
   Therefore, the more study sessions you have for one subject, the better the chance that your mood or some other factor will match the environment during your test time. And this can subconsciously aid memory.

Due to these three factors, the actual time required to master the material when you space out your learning is less than when cramming. However, there is a limit to the benefit of spacing. Dividing 3 hours into 18 ten-minute study sessions is not likely to be efficient.
As a rule of thumb, set shorter periods for harder subjects and longer periods for easier subjects. Also, the more mature you are or the more advanced with the subject, the longer you can probably study per session.

Best Study Skills #3: Use Whole and Part Learning 

The third of the best study skills is knowing when to break up the material. For example, if you need to study and remember a long chapter in your history book, should you try to learn everything in the chapter straight through, or study the individual chapter sections carefully one by one?
The best approach is often a combination of the two. Some options you have include:

1. Whole Method with Extra Studying for Parts. With this approach, you first use the whole method to get a good grasp of the material. In other words, read straight through everything carefully once or twice. Then you separate out the more difficult sections for extra study and reinforcement.
2. Whole-Part-Whole Method. First go straight through all the material a couple of times quickly. Then break up the material into logical parts that you study separately. At the end, go back and review everything from beginning to end. This method is particularly effective for long and difficult material.
3. Progressive Part Method. With this approach, you break up the material into sections and begin studying the first part. Then you move on to studying the second part but you study the first part again along with the second part. When studying the third part, you also review the first and second parts.
   You continue this way all through the material. This progressive learning approach helps prevent you from forgetting the material you learned at the beginning as you go along, and it also helps you organize all the material conceptually in your brain.
   In other words, it's easier to remember "the big picture" as you progress through what you are studying using this method.

Best Study Skills #4: Recite It 

The fourth of the best study skills is recitation, which means saying back to yourself the information you just learned. Every so often when studying, pause, look away from the material, and try to remember the facts of what you just learned. If you cannot, it's an indication you need to go back and re-read it.
There are various ways you can do recitation to improve your memory of the material. When studying alone, consider saying the information out loud. This is helpful mostly because it forces you to pay better attention.
How to Proceed. When starting your study session, begin by reading through the section headings of the chapter. After doing so, look away and try to recall them. If you have trouble doing this, consider linking them using the Link Method memory system.
You can use the headings as a memory aid. Recall each chapter heading, the try to explain to yourself the contents of that chapter section. If you cannot do so adequately, that's a signal you should spend more time studying that section.
Study Aids. I am a big believer in the effectiveness of flash cards for review as well. Flash cards are small, blank cards, often 3" x 5" in size (in the U.S.). I like to write each fact I want to remember on a flash card with the corresponding definition or explanation on the back. Quickly flipping through a stack of flash cards is a great way to quickly recite and test your memory for a large amount of material.
Use a Partner. Another good recitation strategy is to get with a partner and quiz each other. This is most effective when each partner has already done significant studying, of course. Not only should each partner ask for simple facts from the material, but it is especially helpful if partners make up questions for the other partner to answer.

You should spend as much time reciting as possible. Rather than re-reading the chapter over and over, recite the facts in the chapter from memory until you know them very well.

Recitation is one of the best study skills because it forces you to do several important things that aid memory. Recitation is active learning which engages more than one of your senses; it gives you feedback so you know what part of the material you need to spend more time on; and it forces you to concentrate and pay attention to the material.
Not only that, but reciting is actually good practice for exam time. Think about it; recitation is exactly what you do when being tested. During the exam, you try to recall the material as accurately as possible from memory. It makes perfect sense to practice during your study sessions what you are going to be doing on the test.

Best Study Skills #5: Use a Study System 

The fifth of the best study skills is the use of a "study system". A study system is simply a standard method of approaching the study of any material. Quite a few of these systems have been created over the years.
The oldest and best-known study system is "SQ3R". This is an acronym that stands for the steps of the system, which are Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review. Here is how to perform each step:

1. Survey. This is similar in concept to the "whole learning" mentioned above. However, instead of trying to learn the material in detail, when surveying you just want to get a grasp of the framework of the information.
   To survey the material, read the various structural parts without digging too deep. It's almost like forming an outline.
   Read the preface, table of contents, and the chapter summaries. Read all the main headings and subheadings within the chapters. Carefully examine any graphs or pictures, and read the captions. When surveying you want to study everything except the actual meat of the material.
2. Question. After completing your survey, again go through the same parts you just surveyed and ask yourself questions about each one. For example, if you are beginning to study a math chapter on the quadratic formula, ask yourself questions like "What is the quadratic formula, and why is it important?", "Is this formula useful in real life?", or "Why is it called 'quadratic'?".
   Thinking of questions keeps you focused and really engages you with the material. Even before reading the details, you will already be thinking deeply about the content.
3. Read. After surveying the framework of the material and thinking of questions related to it, it is now time to read the paragraphs and other detailed sections. Many students jump right to this step without first surveying and questioning, which makes it much harder to place the material into your memory in an orderly way.
   Read straight through everything without taking notes. Makes sure to read through the graphs, chapters summaries, etc. again as well.
   You probably want to avoid underlining as you read through the first time. The reason is that on first reading you can't really judge what is most or least important to remember. Underlining the wrong things can actually hurt your memory of the information.
4. Recite. As discussed above, reciting means to ask and answer questions about the information. Go through the chapter and read each heading and subheading. Ask yourself questions about the headings, and answer from memory without looking at the book.
   Reciting step by step through the chapter will give you a very accurate picture of how well you know the material. Experts recommend you spend at least half of your time reciting.
5. Review. The review step should take only a few minutes. The review consists of reciting your way through the material again. The more times you can review before your exam, spaced out over hours or days if possible, the better you will likely remember the material.
   
   

   Never end a reading session without reviewing the main points of what you have just read. This is one of the most important tips for remembering any material.

   
   This same idea of reviewing information from a book you are studying also applies to notes you take during lectures. Use the same SQ3R steps when studying your notes.

The SQ3R method can be used with a wide range of material, including English, History, Science, Math, and related subjects. As with most study skills, using the SQ3R method takes a bit of extra time, but in the end you save time.
By using it you remember the material faster and better. Use of study systems like SQ3R has been shown to improve reading rate, comprehension, and performance on exams.
As I mentioned above, there are other study skills you may know about, but these five - 1) reducing interference, 2) spacing it out, 3) using whole and part learning, 4) reciting, and 5) using a study system - are some of the best study skills you will ever come across.
I highly recommend that all students, regardless of their learning environment (school, work, or self-study) use and master these five best study skills. You won't regret it!

WSDL

WSDL is an XML format for describing network services as a set of endpoints operating on messages containing either document-oriented or procedure-oriented information. The operations and messages are described abstractly, and then bound to a concrete network protocol and message format to define an endpoint. Related concrete endpoints are combined into abstract endpoints (services). WSDL is extensible to allow description of endpoints and their messages regardless of what message formats or network protocols are used to communicate, however, the only bindings described in this document describe how to use WSDL in conjunction with SOAP 1.1, HTTP GET/POST, and MIME.


http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/NOTE-wsdl-20010315

Lazy Loading

What is Lazy Loading?

Guess what? Server-side render time is probably not the bottleneck of your page performance… In most cases, the front-end is the most significant contributor to page load time. Things like img tags and css images are one of the most frequent contributors to load because these assets are loaded by the browser, even if they’re not visible to the user.

But you have all this content and images on your page, you say? What are you to do?

So one technique is to use lazy loading of images and even entire portions of the DOM as users scroll down the page. By lazy loading, you free up resources such as bandwidth, available http connections, and client-cpu to render the content within the browser viewport quickly. Then, worry about additional content as the user scrolls down the page.

Maybe there’s a little delay to load the images, but better to render them later than keep your users waiting on initial load, right? Who knows? Maybe many of your users don’t even scroll down on every page load? In those cases, they will never see the content anyway… why waste resources?

Perhaps you’ll also cut your server bandwidth and free up more apache threads or reduce requests to your static content server by using lazy loading and save yourself some Dinero$.

How To Implement Lazy Loading with jQuery

So I wrote this little jQuery plugin that I hope you’ll find useful to help in your endeavor to get lazy. The premise is to use a placeholder tag with an Html Comment inside to hide content from the rendering engine. If the browser can’t see your img tags or html elements with css images, it obviously wont render them.

The trick then is to tell the browser which tags to render while the page is loading.

Here’s a quick example:

–>

Any, html css img background, whatever.  
–>

The Lazy Loader replaces the placeholder ‘pre’ tags with the text inside the HTML Comment, so the pre tags disappear as the hidden content is rendered into the DOM. This way, you don’t get a bunch of crufty markup cluttering up the DOM once the content is rendered.

If the content appears withing the browser viewport on initial load, the content in the pre tags is automatically rendered right away. Otherwise the html content within the pre tags is rendered as the user scrolls down the page.

I like to use pre tags for placeholders when I’m lazy loading because they render with 0 dimension when there’s only an html comment inside. You can use any tag you like though with your html comment inside. You can use div, li, ul, etc… not just pre tags. Be sure though not to include any white space between the tags:

not:

                               

A real Lazy Loader example – Facebook Friend List:

ORM - object-relational mapping

ORM, or object-relational mapping, is one of the tougher things to accomplish in modern, object-oriented programming languages. It involves moving away from the traditional data store paradigm: there is no (or very little) dedicated, pre-compiled code involved in reading/writing an object to/from the database or other backing store. Instead, the logic involved in accessing the backing store is determined at runtime using a combination of reflection and attributes that decorate the business objects in question. Many projects and frameworks have been created to try to address this concept, with varying degrees of success.

Entity Framework 4 vs NHibernate

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1639043/entity-framework-4-vs-nhibernate