1. Give yourself permission to be human. When we accept emotions -- such as fear, sadness, or anxiety -- as natural, we are more likely to overcome them. Rejecting our emotions, positive or negative, leads to frustration and unhappiness.

2. Happiness lies at the intersection between pleasure and meaning. Whether at work or at home, the goal is to engage in activities that are both personally significant and enjoyable. When this is not feasible, make sure you have happiness boosters, moments throughout the week that provide you with both pleasure and meaning.

3. Keep in mind that happiness is mostly dependent on our state of mind, not on our status or the state of our bank account. Barring extreme circumstances, our level of well being is determined by what we choose to focus on (the full or the empty part of the glass) and by our interpretation of external events. For example, do we view failure as catastrophic, or do we see it as a learning opportunity?

4. Simplify! We are, generally, too busy, trying to squeeze in more and more activities into less and less time. Quantity influences quality, and we compromise on our happiness by trying to do too much.

5. Remember the mind-body connection. What we do -- or don't do -- with our bodies influences our mind. Regular exercise, adequate sleep, and healthy eating habits lead to both physical and mental health.

6. Express gratitude, whenever possible. We too often take our lives for granted. Learn to appreciate and savor the wonderful things in life, from people to food, from nature to a smile.

Advice from Tal Ben-Shahar.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5295168

“Atlas” enables you to build applications with better performance than traditional Web applications in two key aspects — responsiveness and user interface (UI). Traditional Web applications require a round trip for updating data or controls, which can result in long waits. “Atlas”, on the other hand, dramatically improves application performance by reducing the need for round trips.

In addition, since “Atlas” performs much of the processing in the client, it enables you to build a richer UI giving users a superior user experience over traditional Web applications. Not only does “Atlas” give you the power to create all the controls and features users have come to expect from a rich UI (such as drag and drop, auto-completion, mouse hovering behavior, and more), but more importantly, it enables you to build interactive, data-bound controls that allow users to sort, update, or change their view of data with few or no round trips to the server.

While ASP.NET “Atlas” is both a new package of technologies and a new approach, it is consistent with the concept of developing applications using Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX). ”Atlas” applications are cross-platform and will run with little or no change in any modern browser. Examples of “Atlas” style applications include Microsoft's Virtual Earth site, Microsoft's Outlook Web Access e-mail client, and Start.com.

Creating AJAX-based Web applications is complex and requires extensive knowledge of client script. Thus, “Atlas” is not merely another implementation of AJAX. Instead, “Atlas” extends the AJAX concept in two significant ways. First, the “Atlas” client script libraries dramatically simplify the tasks of creating rich UIs and remote procedures calls by providing you with true object-oriented APIs and components for Atlas development. Second, “Atlas” extends the AJAX concept by providing a rich, integrated server development platform in ASP.NET 2.0. The “Atlas” server components include ASP.NET Web services and server controls that enable you to take advantage of the power of ASP.NET, such as the ASP.NET profiles service, in an “Atlas” application.

Overall, "Atlas" is about simplifying AJAX development and incorporating AJAX concepts into the typical Web application development process. The ASP.NET “Atlas” package of client and server-side development tools and components is a significant evolution and enhancement of the AJAX concept. The PDC materials — the Hands-On Labs, the “Atlas” QuickStart tutorials, and the keynote addresses — will help you to discover the power of the “Atlas” concept and its potential to transform the way you build Web applications.