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Photographer Rosyth Fife Cain
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e-mail:- Matt Cain
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2014 Societies Convention and Trade Show at The Hilton London Metropole Hotel ...
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Wedding Trivia:The tradition of a wedding cake comes from ancient Rome, where revelers broke a loaf of bread over a bride's head for fertility's sake.
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SWPP & BPPA -email@example.comCopyright © 2006-2012 SWPP. All rights reserved. - 01/12/2012 22:56:09 |
University Centre recruiting Chairs to lead world-changing research
21 November 2012
The University of Sydney has launched an international recruitment campaign for 10 new chair and professorial positions to spearhead its unique cross disciplinary research into obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
These new positions will all be based in the Charles Perkins Centre, named after a visionary Australian and University of Sydney graduate, Dr Charles Perkins, the first Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander man to graduate from an Australian university in 1966.
The generosity of donors to the University of Sydney has made it possible to appoint this record number of chairs. Over the last three years, the Charles Perkins Centre has received a total of $27 million in gifts to develop innovative solutions to the complex issues arising from obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, which account for half the deaths in this country.
Four of these chairs have been funded by the proceeds of the sale of the 1935 painting by Pablo Picasso, Jeune fille endormie, which fetched $19.8 million last year at Christie's in London. An anonymous donor gave the painting to the University on the understanding these new chair positions will be named in honour of the late Leonard Paul Ullmann who was an award-winning teacher, master clinician, advocate for evidence-based practices in social and behavioural sciences and lover of art.
Three Leonard P Ullmann Chairs are being advertised and a fourth is currently under negotiation. Another chair position has been funded by the Australian Diabetes Council and will be named the Australian Diabetes Council Chair in Diabetes.
The positions span a wide number of research disciplines, namely:
- Leonard P Ullmann Chair in Metabolic Systems Biology
- Leonard P Ullmann Chair in Obesity Science
- Leonard P Ullmann Chair in Psychology
- Janet Dora Hine Chair in Politics, Governance and Ethics
- Australian Diabetes Council Chair in Diabetes
- Professor of Nursing
- Professor of Medicines Use and Health Outcomes
- Professor of Health Economics
- Professor of Physiotherapy
- Professor of Health, Exercise and Physical Activity
Academic Director of the Charles Perkins Centre, Professor Steve Simpson said the centre is searching for outstanding, collaborative and visionary researchers to help drive its mission of easing the burden of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, not just in Australia, but worldwide.
"These metabolic diseases are among the leading causes of mortality, disability and reduced quality of life in Australia and are an increasing problem worldwide," he said.
"At the Charles Perkins Centre, we are building a new understanding of these metabolic conditions. Our work is linked to research themes which range from nutrition to physical activity, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and the politics, governance and ethics of health.
"We are not the first to attempt to solve these problems - by a long way - so why have others not succeeded, and why should we expect to do any better? The vast majority of other initiatives worldwide have focused on obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease as medical conditions, concentrating on their complex biology at the levels of genes, cells and organs. These remain important subjects for research - and there is still a great deal to be learned - but the causes and consequences of these diseases are much more complicated than can be explained by biology alone.
"We need to understand how our biology interacts with our environment - how our risks of disease are affected by our psychological makeup, social factors, education, cultural norms, economic pressures, the built environment, agricultural practices, the food industry, information technology, the media, history, and the prevailing political climate.
"How, then, can we succeed? The answer is by bringing together the best minds to work across disciplines - not just from the medical sciences, but also from the arts and social sciences, architecture, business studies, education and social work, engineering and information technology, the health professions, and the physical, life and environmental sciences.
"More than this, we will engage and work closely with communities, government agencies, the health and education systems, urban planners, legislators and policy makers, charities and non-governmental organisations, agriculture, and the private sector," Professor Simpson said.
At the heart of the centre will be a state-of-the-art $385 million building - its Village Green. The new building has been designed to encourage and support collaborations, support "wet", "dry" and clinical research and enable education to adapt and flourish through fostering new ways of thinking and challenging the way the University thinks about the provision of infrastructure and services.
"This will be the largest research building in New South Wales and one of the largest in Australia," Professor Simpson said.
The new building is scheduled for occupancy in early 2014 and will integrate researchers across the University with Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (RPAH). By virtue of its location at the boundary between the University and the RPAH, the new building is well placed to facilitate collaboration between groups from the Faculties of Medicine, Science, Pharmacy, Nursing, Health Sciences, Veterinary Science, Agriculture, and groups from Sydney Local Health District (SLHD) including RPAH.
Since July 2008, the University has seen an increase in philanthropic gifts, raising over $220 million from nearly 21,000 individual donations. In 2011 the University of Sydney raised $79.4 million in philanthropy, a new national record in higher education, with a 33 percent increase in the number of annual donors from the previous year.
For more information about philanthropy visit sydney.edu.au/supportsydney
For further information about the available positions and details on how to apply, visit sydney.edu.au/perkins-careers
|Follow University of Sydney Media on Twitter|
Media enquiries: Andrew Potter, 02 9351 4138, 0414 998 521, firstname.lastname@example.org |
||Joseph and David Henriques, Esquires of the U.S.A. Abraham and David Quixano Henriques, Merchants of London. Alexander Roper of London, chemist. Witnesses Solomon Boneto and Benjamin Alberga Sr. and J.A. Delapenha. In a codicil he mentions his ‘apprentice Betsy her mulatto sons (see notes) .
||Samuel Mendes, Joseph and David Henriques, Abraham and David Quixano Henriques.
||The names of the “apprentices” are difficult to read but seem to include: Betsey and her Mulatto sons William and George Cesar?. Edwin, Eliza, ??? Figelia? William, Yuell? Peter, Evelina, Sarah Ann Green, Mary Muras? and her daughter Rachel? alias Matilda Fuller, and Betsey…. of Slave records on Ancestry give:
Slaves return 1820 owner David Pereira Mendes William ‘mulatto’ 1year (or 17 years?)birth of Betsy’ (Betsy was mother) Slaves return 1823 owner David Pereira Mendes George ‘Mulatto’ 22 mths ‘by birth of Betsy’ (Betsy was mother) Slaves – Return of Kingston 1826 owner David Pereira Mendes: Adam 13yrs son of Princess Princess 52yrs mther of Adam Jane 18 daughter of Juliet Sarah ‘mulatto’ 2yrs daughter of Betsy Nancy alias Eliza Grant 30yrs Slaves Return of 1817 owner Jacob Pereira Murmus 4yrs son of Betsy Francis son 12yrs son of Betsy Clara 7yrs dau of Betsy
|NA Cat Ref |
Lean Startup: It’s Not Just Technology, Lives are at Stake (Keynote)
November 22, 2012 2 Comments
I am in Belgrade today, where I was invited to give the Keynote address at the first Serbian ICT conference on Technology and Entrepreneurship. Its nice to be back in Belgrade, and great to see the growing technology sector here. The degree of innovation and entrepreneurship is impressive, and I’ve had some great conversations with people.
Understanding Your Customer
I was invited to talk about Lean Startup, Agile Development and Lean Product Development.
One thing I did in preparation for this conference was try to understand the attendees better. Basically, I wanted to treat my talk as a product, and the conference participants as my customers. I saw Jason Little do something similar at LESS 2012 last week in Estonia, using Twitter, and thought the ideas was cool.
I wanted to know some things about them, so I could tailor my talk to match their background and interests. I created a short survey using Survey Monkey, and asked the conference organisers to distribute the survey URL to all registered participants. Then, the morning of the conference, before I left my hotel room, I took a snapshot of the survey data and made some changes to the slides in my talk. I’m glad I did it. It was an interesting experiment for me, and something I would like to tweak and try again at future conferences. I’ve been getting some great feedback on the talk, and I’m sure that’s at least partly related to taking the time to understand the participants better.
The full survey results are in the slide deck. This one in particular helped me choose the appropriate clothes to wear (a few more CEOs and Execs and I would have had to put on a tie ):
And this one told me a lot about where they are coming from:
About the title
I took inspiration for the title from the famous Bill Shankly quote when talking about football:
“Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.“
Those of us who are passionate about technology and creating great teams and organisations, can relate to this. The separation between work and life starts to become blurred, because, if we are successful, our work is an enjoyable, fun, an enriching experience. There’s too much at stake for it to be otherwise. Jurgen Appelo has been writing lately about a similar theme. One of the messages of my keynote is that life is too short, and time too precious, to waste on something that you don’t enjoy and that is not having some positive impact in the world. Hence the title.
I knew from my survey that I could spend less time focusing on the basics of Lean Startup, Agile and Lean. That left me free to explore some topics in more depth.
This is what the survey revealed about the participant’s areas of interest:
The main themes of my talk today were:
- Overcoming challenges, and not blaming “macroeconomic conditions beyond our control”
- Myths of Product Development
- Lean Startup, Agile, Lean Product Development
- The importance of an Agile Mindset; Being Agile
- Minimum Viable Product
- The Fastest Learner Wins
- Customer Development
- Business Model Canvas
- Lean Canvas
- Perspectives on organisations as you grow and scale
- Technical Debt
- Portfolio Thinking
- Value Streams
- Waste, Value, Quality, Flow
- Lean Thinking and A3
- Creativity; Innovation; Fostering Innovation
That’s a lot of things to touch on in 75 minutes, plus there was a video and a couple of songs, but it seemed to go down well and feedback was positive. I’ve been working more and more on incorporating stories into my talks, and relying more on visual images and much less on bullet points.
I wanted to emphasise the roll of Lean and Agile, not as ends in themselves, but as means to a better end. A means to creating great products and services that touch people’s lives. And, of course, creating a Lean organisation or fostering an agile mindset is a challenge.
We invest our lives and our lifetimes in the companies and ventures we get involved with. Life is short and time is precious, so let’s make sure its worth it.
The slide deck is available from my Slideshare account here:
Side note about SlideShare: My original slides had a black gradient background (and looked pretty cool, if I do say so myself!). When I uploaded them, SlideShare replaced the background with a white one. I could not find a way to get around this (in the limited time I had to try) so I created a version with white background, and tweaked some of the text appropriately. I would be grateful to hear if you know of a way to fix this in SlideShare. On the plus side, now I have two versions for different lighting environments. |
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This is a great song. First tab, enjoy. There's some picking in the song, listen to it as you play and it'll catch on easily. Standard tuning, capo 4. All chords relative to capo. ---- Ballad of Wendy Baker: Intro: G G D Am Em I'm so quiet today C G D / Dsus4 I don't feel like me G D Am Em Someone took your smile away C G C D Now it's gone and I can't see C G C G No one loves til it's gone G D Am Em I'm the one who likes change C G D / Dsus4 But I feel taken by surprise G D Am Em Let me rewind the things I say C G C D That make it rain inside your eyes C Em Am I keep missing you C G C G But my heart knows it's through F#m Bm C G C G Don't wake up I'm here Am Em Cm To keep you from the storm F#m Bm C G C G I'll soak up your fear Am Em Cm And keep your body warm C Em Am I keep missing you C G C G But my heart knows it's through F#m Bm C G C G Don't wake up I'm here Am Em Cm To keep you from the storm F#m Bm C G C G I'll soak up your fear Am Em C G C G And keep your body warm C Em Am I keep missing you C Em Am But my heart knows it's through C Em Am Nothing to hold onto C G Em Cm end on G My heart knows its through |
Of all the startups that Ron accumulated throughout his career, which was the most important to him? As he has said many times, it would be his family, his wife, Karen, his son Jaxon and his daughter, Lexi. Today, on the final broadcast of American Entrepreneur Radio, we revisit the first shows after the births of Jaxon and Lexi, where we can hear the real thoughts of a successful entrepreneur facing his biggest challenge yet: being a worthy father to his children. Finally, we end it where it all began, with a rebroadcast of his very first show, originally airing June 20, 1999. Plus, members of the American Entrepreneur Radio staff, as well as a surprise guest at the end of the show, share their thoughts about the end of American Entrepreneur Radio.
Practical Business Advice from a 12-Time Entrepreneur
Ron Morris puts over forty years of entrepreneurial experience to work answering your business questions, solving your business problems, and bringing you all the latest insights from interviews with entrepreneurs and business owners from around the world.
Changing the Culture of Health
Each Saturday on “The Business of Health,” Dr. Will Clower takes a look a the health and wellness issues making headlines, and assesses the impact these stories have on the health of individual consumers, and the bottom lines of the companies that employ these individuals.
American Entrepreneur Radio host Mark Laskow anchors the final live episode of the radio program, as he talks with three business leaders and good friends of the program, Bob Boyle of JA Sauer Heating and Cooling Company, Lou Stanasolovich of Legend Financial Advisors, and Ken Komoroski of Fulbright and Jaworski, about what lies ahead for business, the economy, and the economic development that is the Marcellus Shale.
American Entrepreneur staff members Brian McMahon, Andrew Rossi, Darryl Grandy and others join host Mike Kauffelt and show callers and listeners in celebrating the life and legacy of the late Ron Morris. They share stories and the lessons they learned from their experiences in working with, learning from, and listening to The American Entrepreneur and Ron Morris.
Range Resources, a great supporter and friend of the show, recently submitted the ad below for print in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. This is probably one of the most succinct yet thorough descriptions of Ron and what he stood for.
Thank you Range for helping us to continue Ron's legacy!
Ron Morris talks with Jim Rudolph, CEO of Rita’s Italian Ice, and former Franchise developer of the Wendy’s franchise within Western Pennsylvania.
Also, we talk with Robert Rosenberg, the longtime CEO of Dunkin Donuts, and the man who transformed the iconic brand from a family-run local dining establishment to the global powerhouse franchise it is today.
And finally, Ron talks with Varol Ablak, the CEO of Vocelli Pizza, about the remarkable family story of Vocelli Pizza, and the tactics that Varol employs to this day to expand the company's footprint, and to ensure that the Vocelli name is on the forefront of the minds of the consumer who faces a glut of choices when it comes time to order out. |
Jeff Jarvis responds to ABC’s recent story on U.S. Olympic uniforms being made overseas:
I want a “Made in America” audit of ABC News. This is a serious request. ABC News, please tell us:
Where are your studio and field cameras made? In America?
Where are your monitors made? In America?
Where are Diane Sawyer’s outfits made? Where are her shoes made? Where is her makeup made? In America? |
In this essay, Frederick examines the question of whether computer-mediated communication is truly a democratic utopia where feminist values can flourish. By studying data from 2 newsgroups, alt.feminism and soc.feminism, she demonstrates that discrimination and exclusion/hostility can continue to occur, even in a supposedly inclusive and politically feminist context. She concentrates on the ethos of the newsgroups as the basis for constructing either a welcoming or distancing communication arena. My interest in this article stems from this notion of ethos because I think that it a highly influencing factor which combines with inherent linguistic features of women's speech to produce a speech community. I believe that any future discussions of the social structure of online communication must address ethos as well as linguistic differences in order to prevent factionalization or balkanization of men and women online, much as one might approach a dialog about multiculturalism and the internet. |
Whether you need directions to Rob’s tent in the Red Lot or want to provide us with some information on a topic, or maybe you just want to express your disgust for us, please drop us a line or two. We promise to promptly reply, unless of course it’s after a UK loss. In such cases, give us a few days. Nevertheless, we look forward to your emails.
Ryan / email@example.com
Rob / firstname.lastname@example.org |
So you think being a rock star is all about the freedom to break every rule in music, and just let your creative side do its thing? Sure, that might be part of it. But in order to do this, you need to actually learn the rules before you can break them – and yes, that means scales and other “boring” exercises. Read on for advice from New York teacher Brett D…
A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I was just like you; a budding musician daydreaming of rock stardom. Instead of sitting at the piano, or grabbing my guitar and practicing; I would daydream of ripping out soaring solos that would send Jimmy Page back to California. When any teacher would say to me, “Brett, practice your scales, learn your etudes,” I would respectfully respond, “We must have a misunderstanding, I WANNA ROCK!”
So how come every time I tried to sing with passion and grit like Freddy Mercury, slam those keys with the ferocity of the Piano Man himself, or shred faster than a cheese grater like Slash, it just wasn’t working? I went to my teacher and I said, “Excuse me, sir, I don’t understand. I’ve grown my hair down to my mid-back, I’ve ripped my jeans, and I scrunch my face real tight when I play. Why aren’t I rocking?” As he scanned my head for new species of insects, he said, “My boy, you have to learn the rules first before you can break them.”
So let’s go back to seventh grade band class. Things were going great, until my band teacher said to me, “Brett, you are playing an 8 bar solo on Jingle Bell Rock at the Christmas concert tonight.” My developing Adam’s apple fell to my stomach. I wept, I cried, I begged God to send Freddy Mercury to take my place. But alas, my prayers went unanswered. My band teacher detected my insurmountable panic, and quickly came to my rescue, as he often did. He showed me a simple seven-note progressions. He said, “Brett, play these notes up and down and then pick and choose a few, you will get through unscathed.”
Seven notes huh? Well, that’s not so bad. I don’t want to toot my own horn, but let’s just say those jingle bells had never rocked so hard in the history of Fredericksburg Middle School jazz band concerts.
So often we artists are so ready to blow down the walls of the Bastille with our revolutionary ideas, while we look at structure as creativity’s nemesis. Oh how I pity those poor fools. They will end up like middle school Brett could have; working a desk job with a head full of lice. You see, structure opens us up to a world of creativity that we could never reach on our own. All the great innovators of rock ‘n roll learned the rules first, and then broke them in such creative ways that it earned them a seat in the Olympus of Rock.
Put Billy Joel and Mozart in the same room with a piano and a book of etudes, and I’d put my money on the Piano Man. Freddy Mercury didn’t name his magnum opus “Bohemian Rhapsody” for nothing; it is a rock ‘n roll homage to Liszt! These guys knew the rules of the game better than anyone else, and it allowed them to become the rock stars we admire today. I’m not saying we need to look at music as sets of boring, mathematical exercises. Music is romantic, it’s poetic, and it’s art. However, it is also a game, and with every game comes rules. Learn them first, and only then can you break them.
Brett D. teaches guitar, piano, singing, Broadway singing, music performance, music theory, songwriting, and acting lessons in New York, NY. Brett joined the TakeLessons team in September 2012, after receiving his Bachelor’s in Theater/Voice from New York University. Find out more about Brett, or search for a teacher near you!
Photo by blikeng. |
Kevin is available for freelance and employment
Kevin Burns is a Chicago-based Sound Designer and Mixer. He recently earned a BFA in Post-production Audio from Columbia College Chicago. Born and raised in Chicago, he plans to move to L.A. in the coming year. Kevin always strives to create sound design that pleases the client and the audience. When not working on sound projects, he likes to experiment with graphic design and motion graphics.
Other Skills include: ADR and Foley, Motion Graphics, PhotoShop, Editing, Adobe Illustrator |
Posted: Wed May 09, 2012 1:46 pm
Post subject: Really shouldnt have bought another one..
So Ive gone and bought another pg test but I'm not due on for another 5 days.. really eager to do the test as I am desperate for a wee and desperate to find out whether I'm actually pregnant. I know its too early but I just wanna know!!! I'm like a kid at christmas! Does anyone else give into temptation or is it just me?? There must be another way to know if your pregnant other than a pg test..
Posted: Wed May 09, 2012 4:07 pm
yep i give in lol!
I bought a pack of 2 tests and used one 4 days before i was due, BFN. i was gonna save the other one until i really needed it but then gave in and took it on the day i was due on and still a BFN lol. i'm 9 days late so far (but since i've had Millie my periods have been all over the place) and i really wanna take another one as i've had so many symptoms but 1. i have no money til the end of the month and 2. knowing my luck i'd take one and then come on later that day lol with Millie i didn't get a positive until 4 days after AF was due
Posted: Wed May 09, 2012 11:00 pm
Oh noooo I'm so sorry!! I really hope you get a bfp soon. Its gutting when that happens. Me and my OH arent exactly trying as such but will still be a little gutted if I come on. Ive said if I come on I'm going to sit in, watch chick flicks and eat tons of ice cream! Hope your not feeling too down hun xx |
Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 10:31 pm
Post subject: Methotrexate???
I am 7 weeks and have had bleeding and pain to right side for a few days. Dr confirmed an ectopic today after scans and blood tests. They have recommended I have Methotrexate tomorrow but after reading up on it an scared as people seem to have really horrible side effects (not to mention not being able to ttc again for at least 3 mths!) Has anyone had Methotrexate? Is it as bad I it sounds?
Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2013 3:04 pm
Hi Ems sorry youre going through this, Ive suffered an ectopic myself. Unfortunately for me treatment was to late and my ectopic ruptured and I lost my tube, I have no experience of the drug treatment but I know 100% I would have rather had that any day of the week and wait 3 months to try and still have my tube than end up losing a tube altogether like I did. I guess this reply is a little late now and hopefully youve gone for the methotrexate . Best of luck to you (in the circumstances) x
Ttc since December 2007!
Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2013 8:26 pm
Hi Nutty1 thank-you for your reply its not to late as it happens they rescanned me today and have said I can have another hcg test tomorrow 1st before making the decision and the pain is not getting any worse. My levels were low and only rising very slightly so if they start to drop they are gonna let me go for conservative management and monitor me regularly to see if it drops itself. I have decided to go for the drug though if its still rising its not worth taking the risk.
Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2013 8:44 pm
When I was in hospital my levels dropped by over half in 48 hrs so they sent me home and said I was probably having a miscarriage then the next day I ended up in emergency surgery. I think youre definately doing the right thing going for the drug treatment like you say its just not worth the risk. The day before my rupture the pain had actually subsided so time is of the esscence, it really bugs me how the nhs deal with ectopics a lot of the time they dont act quick enough.
Ttc since December 2007!
Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2013 11:10 pm
Hey hun sorry to hear .. I had the methotrexate injection ... they advise you not to have unprotected sex as if you do become pregnant it can lead to complications ..
My levels had risen and then stopped rising they made the decision to inject as surgery wasnt a good idea at the time
.if you need anymore advice please talk to someone ok dont sit n stew ... I did andd it nearly cost me marriage please dknt suffer in silence ... |
It not often that a company reports record profits and revenue and gets hammered for its performance. Apple today said that it had generated $10.944 billion in operating income, versus $8.710 billion the year before. Revenue, too, increased to $35.966 billion, a 27 percent increase.
But Apple said it sold 14 million iPads in the quarter, and while that number is also up, it leaves the company short of the 100 million mark Tim Cook said the company achieved when it rolled out the iPad mini. Obviously the Apple CEO was counting sales already achieved in this quarter.
Q4 is not a particularly great quarter for Apple's tablet sales as it follows the launch that occurs in Q3. But this is the first Q4 where iPad sales are actually below the previous quarter, a troubling sign.
Sales may have been impacted by the launch of new Kindles, or it may be a sign that the market is maturing. It may also serve to explain why Apple chose to refresh the iPad this quarter rather than wait until after the holidays.
iPhone sales, though, are a bright spot, with sales of 26.9 million units, a 58 percent growth over the prior year. Not surprisingly, iPod sales are down 19 percent, as many users are phasing out use of the device in favor of their smartphones.
Mac sales only grew 1 percent, though one should be reminded that many PC makers are seeing declines in sales overall. Nonetheless, the slow pace of growth here has to be disappointing as Apple has been steadily taking market share in this area.
Unlike Amazon, Apple's guidance is pretty precise: "Looking ahead to the first fiscal quarter of 2013, we expect revenue of about $52 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $11.75," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO in the company's earning statement.
Apple cash currently stands at $121.3 billion. |
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Litriocht did it again. I ordered some books on 29 Iúil 2009 which were shipped the next day. The package arrived 05 Lúnasa 2009 For the six books that I ordered the cost in euros was €64.25 and shipping to California USA was €15.30 for a total of €79.55 This came to $106...
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Aaron Schmidt’s new column at Library Journal offers a twist on convening the “Web Site Redesign Committee” I chaired for 3 years at SJCPL:
Website redesign projects take a long time, often more than a year. During that time, a lack of visible progress can lower staff morale and leave users with a stagnant, unimproved site for months at a time. Likewise, maintaining a current site and building a new one divides efforts. By contrast, small iterative changes can boost staff morale with frequent, demonstrable (if small) victories. Think of it this way: if you make a dozen modest changes—one a month for a year—you could easily end up with a site that’s better by leaps and bounds than what you’d be able to design from scratch in the same interval.
Now think of it from the user’s perspective: imagine getting in your car and finding the steering wheel has been moved to the back seat and over to the opposite side of the car. Moreover, the accelerator and brake pedals have been reversed. You’d certainly be confused, and the car would be difficult to operate, to say the least. Website redesign projects, even if they result in a technically improved website, are likely to affect adversely the heaviest users of your site. Consider the inevitable outcry that follows any change to the Facebook interface. Momentum plays a big part in usability, and people adapt to designs even if they’re less than ideal. Forcing them into an entirely new environment is jarring no matter how friendly the result. Fortunately, small iterative change spreads out the cognitive load required to learn new things on a site. |
Jai loses his sleep because of Nayanthara
It is understood that ‘Subramaniapuram’ Jai has lost his sleep because of Nayanthara. For the first time Jai is going to pair with Nayanthara. Though Arya is donning the lead role, Jai’s role is also equivalent to that of the hero. There is duet and romantic sequences for Jai with Nayanthara.
So Jai is very much confused that how he can romance with Nayan. The senior actors have advised him that there will be no problem in acting with Nayanthara. Since Arya is busy with Erandam Ulagam, it has been decided to shoot the sequences pertaining to Jai and Nayanthara during the month of October. |
Last night at his annual pre-GRAMMY party, Clive Davis honored his friend, Whitney Houston. The music exec, whose new book about his career, The Soundtrack of My Life, comes out February 19, played a rarely […]
It seems this publication doesn’t know a thing about Kelly Clarkson.
The couple says fans can expect to hear at least one duet on each of their upcoming albums.
The ‘American Idol’ alum will be joined by Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, Jordin Sparks and much more!
Jason Mraz, Christina Aguilera, Dave Matthews also lend their voice to the 25th anniversary of the charity series.
The combination of Beyonce and Clint Eastwood seemed to good to be true and now it is. Vote below for who you think should replace her.
Jordin discusses singing Whitney’s song on set while Mariah wrote her new single after learning of Whitney’s death.
The AI alum reveals why she thinks Mariah will be a great judge.
The singer reveals being a “ball of nerves” while watching the film in it’s entirety.
In the new trailer for the film ‘Sparkle,’ Cee Lo Green’s powerful voice anchors a clip that is as soulful as it is heartfelt. Indeed, the early preview of the dramatic film, due in theaters August 17, is packed with intrigue and great sounds. |
For the first time in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Miami Heat are down in their series against the Boston Celtics. Miami dropped Game 5 94-90 on Tuesday night, as the Celtics made a big push in the third quarter and down the stretch to take a 3-2 lead.
Miami struggled on the offensive end in the first half but LeBron James kept the Heat ahead, scoring 18 of his 30 points in the first half. In addition to the 30 points, James also grabbed 13 rebounds. Dwyane Wade had a quiet first half but led Miami on a 9-0 run in the second, finishing with 27 points on 10 of 22 from the floor. But there was little else happening for the Heat on the offensive end -- Chris Bosh provided a huge spark off the bench in the first half, scoring nine points and grabbing six boards but he would not score again in his first game back since straining an abdominal muscle.
Kevin Garnett carried Boston through a poor shooting night, scoring 26 points, grabbing 11 boards, and completely altering the game on defense in the paint. Boston then hit some huge shots and got the bounces down the stretch. Even Mickael Pietrus got in on the act, hitting two big shots. But the real dagger came from Paul Pierce, who was awful all night but rose up to knock in a three to give Boston a four-point lead with 50 seconds to go.
On the brink of elimination, the series now returns to TD Garden in Boston for Game 6 on Thursday night.
Stick with this StoryStream for news and updates throughout the Eastern Conference Finals. For more analysis and discussion on the Heat, visit Peninsula Is Mightier. Visit CelticsBlog and SB Nation Boston for the opponent's perspective during the series. For all your Conference Finals analysis, visit SB Nation's NBA hub. |
All-in-One Zoom Lenses (Di III Lenses) Exclusively for mirror-less single-lens cameras
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Light, small, high magnification. High quality and high magnification zoom.
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In 1962 President John F. Kennedy’s administration narrowly averted possible nuclear war with the USSR, when CIA operatives spotted Soviet surface-to-surface missiles in Cuba, after a six-week gap in intelligence-gathering flights.
In their forthcoming book Blind over Cuba: The Photo Gap and the Missile Crisis, co-authors David Barrett and Max Holland make the case that the affair was a close call stemming directly from a decision made in a climate of deep distrust between key administration officials and the intelligence community.
Using recently declassified documents, secondary materials, and interviews with several key participants, the authors weave a story of intra-agency conflict, suspicion, and discord that undermined intelligence-gathering, adversely affected internal postmortems conducted after the crisis peaked, and resulted in keeping Congress and the public in the dark about what really happened.
We asked Barrett, a professor of political science at Villanova University, to discuss the actual series of events and what might have happened had the CIA not detected Soviet missiles on Cuba.
The Actual Sequence of Events . . .
“Some months after the Cuban Missile Crisis, an angry member of the Armed Services Committee of the House of Representatives criticized leaders of the Kennedy administration for having let weeks go by in September and early October 1962, without detecting Soviet construction of missile sites in Cuba. It was an intelligence failure as serious as the U.S. ignorance that preceded the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, he said.
Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara aggressively denied that there had been an American intelligence failure or ineptitude with regard to Cuba in late summer 1962. McNamara and others persuaded most observers the administration’s performance in the lead-up to the Crisis had been almost flawless, but the legislator was right: The CIA had not sent a U-2 spy aircraft over western Cuba for about a six week period.
There were varying reasons for this, but the most important was that the Kennedy administration did not wish to have a U-2 “incident.” Sending that aircraft over Cuba raised the possibility that Soviet surface-to-air missiles might shoot one down. Since it was arguably against international law for the U.S. to send spy aircrafts over another country, should one be shot down, there would probably be the same sort of uproar as happened in May 1960, when the Soviet Union shot down an American U-2 flying over its territory.
Furthermore, most State Department and CIA authorities did not believe that the USSR would put nuclear-armed missiles into Cuba that could strike the U.S. Therefore, the CIA was told, in effect, not even to request permission to send U-2s over western Cuba. This, at a time when there were growing numbers of reports from Cuban exiles and other sources about suspicious Soviet equipment being brought into the country.As we now know, the Soviets WERE constructing missile sites on what CIA deputy director Richard Helms would call “the business end of Cuba,” i.e., the western end, in the summer/autumn of 1962. Fortunately, by mid-October, the CIA’s director, John McCone, succeeded in persuading President John F. Kennedy to authorize one U-2 flight over that part of Cuba and so it was that Agency representatives could authoritatively inform JFK on October 16th that the construction was underway.The CIA had faced White House and State Department resistance for many weeks about this U-2 matter."
What Could Have Happened . . .
“What if McCone had not succeeded in persuading the President that the U.S. needed to step up aerial surveillance of Cuba in mid-October? What if a few more weeks had passed without that crucial October 14 U-2 flight and its definitive photography of Soviet missile site construction?
Remember to check out Blind over Cuba: The Photo Gap and the Missile Crisis, which is being published this fall!If McCone had been told “no” in the second week of October, perhaps it would have taken more human intelligence, trickling in from Cuba, about such Soviet activity before the President would have approved a risky U-2 flight.The problem JFK would have faced then is that there would have been a significant number of operational medium-range missile launch sites. Those nuclear-equipped missiles could have hit the southern part of the U.S. Meanwhile, the Soviets would also have progressed further in construction of intermediate missile sites; such missiles could have hit most of the continental United States.If JFK had not learned about Soviet nuclear-armed missiles until, say, November 1st, what would the U.S. have done?There is no definitive answer to that question, but I think it’s fair to say that the President would have been under enormous pressure to authorize—quickly--a huge U.S. air strike against Cuba, followed by an American invasion. One thing which discovery of the missile sites in mid-October gave JFK was some time to negotiate effectively with the Soviet Union during the “Thirteen Days” of the crisis. I don’t think there would have been such a luxury if numerous operational missiles were discovered a couple weeks later.No wonder President Kennedy felt great admiration and gratitude toward those at the CIA (with its photo interpreters) and the Air Force (which piloted the key U-2 flight). The intelligence he received on October 16th was invaluable. I think he knew that if that intelligence had not come until some weeks later, there would have been a much greater chance of nuclear war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.” |
The full bodied gravy sets the lam mee apart from others ciplak imitation. Bursting with flavour made out of chicken and prawn stock, the thick gravy coats every strands of noodle and garnished with some shreaded steamed chicken and shelled prawns. For added kick, throw in some of their hot and fiery chilli sauce.
Their meatballs are also well known. Its not your usual run of the mill type, as its fully homemade unique to May King's family. Its a combination of pork, fish and cuttlefish. It really has a chewy texture bursting with the saltiness of the dried cuttlefish..its really a match made in heaven.
For non Lum Mee lovers , their curry laksa is also worth trying. And dont forget the fried foochok and dumplings .
Its located in Damansara Uptown. Same row as Izzi's restaurant.
From LDP towards Kepong area slow down after you see the Damansara Police Station. Take a left turn just before the BHP Petrol station on your left. Turn left again to get to the row of shops behind . Drive straight and Living Food would be on your left.
67 , Jalan SS21/37, Damansara Utama , PJ
Tel : 03-77274126
Other reviews : KY Speaks, Wai Sikkai , Jules Eating Guide to Malaysia |
Taking responsibility for ourselves includes, in large part, what we put into our selves. Growing up in Southern Louisiana, I was exposed to many delicious cultural dishes that, as it turns out, were not necessarily all that healthy [bummer]. I mean, who knew that spinach could be eaten in ways other than in a casserole smothered with cheese and topped with bread crumbs? Go figure.
The further I got from my roots the more aware I became of how important it is to include fresh raw foods [hello carrots, greens, sprouts and fruit] into our daily diets. Once I got on track with how to eat, the re-parenting and re-culturing of my taste buds began! I was on a mission at that time to learn as much as possible about the truth behind what our bodies need daily for optimal health. I became certified and started working one-on-one as a fitness coach, and soon after became certified in nutrition.
One thing I learned during this time was that it’s important to give our bodies the vitamins and minerals it needs daily. When we don’t, our bodies take the these vitamins and nutrients from it’s reserves inside us, if we have any. If we don’t, and the longer this goes on, we run the risk of developing vitamin or mineral deficiencies. Not getting daily fruits and veggies also under serves our digestive system, which relies heavily on the enzymes in veggies and fruits to move things along and out of us on a consistent basis. One of the absolute most important parts of our bodies to keep ‘in shape’ is our digestion, specifically our large intestine.
In a country as rich as the United States, so many people are walking around malnourished and with tons of low nutrient food blocking up their colons. Because of my awareness of the body-food connection, I can literally see when someone has a dysfunctional digestive system. I believe this is based purely on a lack of education about How-To eat. We are first exposed to food as children at home, and more often than not, the food we are taught to eat or are given is not going to be what we’ll need to be thriving healthy adults. That is a big conversation, and one that I will address here, but for today I wanted to reach out to you with a few great ideas on How-To get your fruits & veggies into your day:
IN THE MORNING
Before we eat anything in the morning, we need to go about re-hydrating our digestive system, which has been without water for anywhere from 6-9 hours. The best way to do this is to squeeze the juice from 1/2 a lemon into a cup of warm water.
After this, another round of warm water is a great idea, especially in the form of a Detox or Decaf Green tea.
Finally, the morning is an excellent time to have as many fruits as you like, so you’ll have an opportunity to use the fruit sugar for fuel.
Adding fruit to a smoothie, bowl of low carb high fiber cereal, or simply as a plate of fresh local in season fruit is ideal in the morning.
My favorite Smoothie goes like this: coconut juice or filtered water, un-sweetened acai berry pure, 1/2 bananna, shredded coconut, frozen organic berries, spirulina, goji berries, and sprouted almonds or raw almond butter, cinnamon and a splash of vanilla extract and a tablespoon of flax seed oil. Delish!
Lunch time is a great opportunity to have a huge raw veggie juice with your meal. Here’s my personal favorite mix of veggies that I came up with that tastes great to me and is also full of vitamins and minerals. My Veggie Juice: Cucumber, celery, a large carrot, a small piece of red beet, ginger, lemon, and a handful of kale.
If you want to hang with the Queen of the juice & smoothie conversation – check out my friend, and someone I deeply admire, Kris Carr and her blog post all about juicing and smoothies. She recommends the best ingredients to use to keep your drink low sugar: cucumber, celery, leafy greens like kale or collard greens, carrot, green apples, pears.
low sugar fruits, like berries [ I keep frozen organic berry medley in house. let defrost and mix in a bowl with trail mix for a snack ]
green apples with all natural almond nut butter
sprouted almonds [ another dear girlfriend of mine will tell you How-To create fantastic raw almond snacks here ]
raw veggie bowl: cut up carrots, celery, radish are super
tasty rubbed in a little extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt to taste
I follow the same rule for Lunch and Dinner as far as how much color I like to have on my plate. By color I mean veggies that are still in their natural state, either raw or lightly steamed or cooked [ remember to lightly cook veggies, don't kill them by cooking them till they change color]. If you commit to having raw veggies or lightly cooked veggies for at least 50% of your meal, the rest of your meal can be dictated by your own dietary needs or preferences.
Since I know that the darker the green the healthier the bite I use kale, arugula and spinach for my salads. While I do enjoy food and eating savory things, I also see food as something that’s main purpose is to serve the cells of my body. So with that, I often create salads that will get straight to work in my system rather than slowing them down with all the popular things we find in salads today. Here’s an example of my current ‘no frills’ favorite healthy salad:
Diced celery /and or any other raw veggies you have and love
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Dashes of Cayenne Pepper and Sea Salt to taste
Delish! Trust me it is – TRY IT – and even if you suffer through it the first time, your body will actually begin to crave this exact recipe since everything in it is so easily absorbed by your body.
Hope you’ve found some ideas and inspiration here to keep on track with the fruits and veggies. What we put into our systems has so much to do with our energy levels, emotional levels and mental focus. That’s why eating with awareness is a key part of being fully responsible for your self.
I’d love to hear from you. Comment below to lemme know what you do to keep getting those fruits and veggies into YOU on a daily basis. Also, stay tuned to the programs that will be launching in 2011 – as nutrition will be incorporated into all my teachings and conversations! |
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TangoCMS Security Announcements (TSA's) shall be made as soon as we can release details about the issue, commonly with a new version release before the announcement has been made (this allows people to upgrade their installation first).
For obvious reasons, we wont always be able to give detailed information on security issues to everyone, however if you wish to have more details - please contact us explaining your situation.
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This allows us to evaluate and fix the issue, prepare a release and security announcement (credit will be given to you within the announcement). |
Raw Raspberry Cashew Dreamcake
June has been a busy month.
It started with a trip to Vancouver (where I was so happy to meet up with Ashley!).
Next, there was the bike ride of the century. Or 3.6 (metric) centuries.
Then, the following weekend, there was the move. From separate apartments to a single house. Combining of lives. Living out of boxes and boxes.
The weekend after the move also happened to be my birthday. Apparently, turning 30 is a big deal. Not just any birthday.
Thus, our new home, bricks and mortar only, housed my birthday bash. A small gathering of both immediate families.
My mom was the host, though. She transplanted most of the food, serving dishes and even flowers from her backyard in Ottawa, as we are still unpacking boxes. I can work in my kitchen, but it is not up to its full capacity just yet (where is my second set of measuring spoons?? Or the bicycle chain lube?- not that I need that in the kitchen, btw).
My mom came up with a delicious menu, catering to my “vegan on steroids” diet, as she puts it. I know she is cooking out of her own comfort zone, but she was easily able to combine my bean and grain dishes with meat and dairy-dishes for everyone else.
While Rob and I contributed baklava as a late Father’s day gift for the shindig, since it was for my Dad, I opted not to try a vegan recipe. I went with his favourite Turkish baklava recipe, complete with a pistachio-only filling.
I couldn’t back out of a birthday cake, though. I knew what I wanted: a vegan cheesecake. I have gushed over ones I have eaten at restaurants in town, but had yet to try making it at home. I picked out a recipe and my mom, thankfully, obliged. Her closest Loblaws actually carried all of the ingredients once she started to look (although they were more expensive than what I pay from natural food stores in Toronto, so I will have to hook her up next time). She made it the night before, froze it overnight, and brought it to Toronto in a cooler. Her only change to the recipe was using a 9″ springform pan, but that didn’t change how great it tasted!
Just as I had hoped, this was a delicious cake. Silky, creamy and smooth with a strong burst of raspberry in the cake. This doesn’t taste like cheesecake, but it has a similar consistency. It is not as heavy. Light and fruity. Smooth and creamy. A dreamcake. It needs its own name because it is a shame to even compare it to cheesecake. If you didn’t tell people it was vegan, all they would know is that they were eating a delicious cake. It took longer than half an hour to thaw, but we ate it chilled anyhow. Personally, I preferred it straight from the fridge, when it was more creamy. Thankfully the baklava was a hit, which meant there was more leftover birthday cake for me!!
The great thing about this cake? Once you have the ingredients, soak your cashews, you just whip everything in your food processor. No oven required. Freezer space necessary, though.
Raw Raspberry Cashew Dreamcake
Adapted from My New Roots
1/2 cup raw almonds (pecan or walnuts will also work)
1/2 cup soft Medjool dates
1/4 tsp sea salt
1.5 cups raw cashews, soaked for at least 5 hours, overnight is best
juice of 2 lemons
the seeds of 1 whole vanilla bean (or 1 tsp alcohol-free vanilla extract)
1/3 cup raw coconut oil, melted
1/3 cup agave nectar (or honey if not vegan)
1 cup raspberries (thaw completely if using frozen)
1. Place nuts and dates in a food processor with sea salt and pulse to chop until they are to your desired fineness (process a finer crust longer than a chunky one). Test the crust by spooning out a small amount of mixture and rolling it in your hands. If the ingredients hold together, your crust is perfect. Scoop out crust mixture in a 7” spring-form pan (if you don’t have a spring-form pan, use a pie plate lined with saran wrap — Note: I used a 9″ pan which is why mine is more flat), and press firmly, making sure that the edges are well packed and that the base is relatively even throughout. Rinse food processor well.
2. Warm coconut oil and agave nectar in a small saucepan on low heat until liquid. Whisk to combine.
3. In the most powerful food processor / blender you own (you decide which one has the most torque) place all filling ingredients (except raspberries) and blend on high until very smooth (this make take a couple minutes so be patient). If you have a Vita-Mix, absolutely use it.
4. Pour about 2/3 (just eyeball it, you can’t make a mistake!) of the mixture out onto the crust and smooth with a spatula. Add the raspberries to the remaining filling and blend on high until smooth. Pour onto the first layer of filling. Place in freezer until solid.
5. To serve, remove from freezer at least an hour prior to eating. Run a smooth, sharp knife under hot water and cut into slices. Serve on its own, or with fresh fruit. Store leftovers in the freezer if it will be a while until you eat it, but if you will eat it the following day, the fridge is great! (what leftovers?) |
Rice porridge or puddings are common in almost all the cuisines.Normally we say porridge when it has oats and when rice is cooked in milk we say its pudding .Or simply payasam in South India or kheer in North India. You can even check out the cinnamony porridge that I made Portuguese style here.When I checked out the beautiful blog AmericanWomenDon't get Fat (Interesting Name ) that I am paired with in this months Taste & Create by Nicole,Swedish Rice Porridge was the first thing that I tried out. Being used to payasam/kheer I knew this was almost same and it turned out as hearty as it can be. Only change I made was the use of demerara sugar instead of brown sugar.The entire porridge can be tried in the microwave as well.
Butter: 2 tsp
Rice: 1/4 cup
Water: 3/4 -1 cup (as needed to cook the rice)
Cinnamon Stick: 2 inch
Milk: 1/2 -1 cup
Demerara Sugar: 2 tbsp + a per taste
Apple : chopped : 1 small
Vanilla: 1/2 tsp
Melt butter in a heavy pan and add water,rice and cinnamon to it.I added rice first and let the grains coat with butter.The butter will also prevent the rice from burning.Cook till rice is done and most of the liquid has evaporated.
Add milk,apples,brown sugar/demerara sugar and raisins and bring to a boil.Reduce and then let it simmer till it thickens and reaches a porridge state.
Remove from heat and remove the cinnamon stick and then stir in vanilla. Serve hot/warm as a breakfast or even a dessert. |
***PERMISSION TO FORWARD***
Yellow Rose Romance Writers is proud to launch online workshops for the first time! All workshops are $15 for Yellow Rose members and $25 for non-Yellow Rose members.
In March, Eliza Knight will present A Noble's Life In Medieval Times. This is a 4 week course. To register, go http://yellowroserwa.com/workshops.php and fill in the form. We accept PayPal and check/money order. Registration deadline is February 28, 2009.
Life in medieval times was so much different than the way we live today. When readers sit down with their favorite medieval historical romance, they are taken away to another time and place. For most readers, this is where they learn about medieval times, and it is the duty of the author to be as authentic as possible. That being said, you don't want your book to be a history lecture either, but to just flavor it enough.
This workshop will teach you how people, particularly nobles, lived in medieval times, in order for you to be truer to the era you write about. This is an open discussion workshop, questions and comments are welcome and encouraged. The lessons will be presented as follows:
Lesson One: The Medieval Castle
Lesson Two: Medieval Entertainments
Lesson Three: Day in the Life of a Medieval Lord and Lady
Lesson Four: Medieval Medicine
Lesson Five: Medieval Clothes
Eliza Knight is the author of multiple steamy Regency and erotic Highlander time travel romance novellas published by The Wild Rose Press. She is a freelance copy editor, Newsletter Editor for Hearts Through History Romance Writers, and President of the Celtic Hearts Romance Writers signature chapter of the RWA. She also volunteers her time as moderator of a critique group and contest coordinator. Eliza is the author of the award-winning blog, History Undressed and has published numerous articles in various newsletters. She presents workshops on history, researching techniques and writing craft, to writing groups online. While not writing, reading or researching, she is chasing after her two--soon to be three--children and living with her own knight in shining armor. For more information on Eliza, please visit her website at, www.elizaknight.com, and www.historyundressed.blogspot.com. |
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Tattoos By Joao Bosco
Family Business Tattoo
TAM Blog 2013 Picture Gallery
This entry was posted on March 8, 2013 by Tattoo Artist Magazine. It was filed under tattoo artist magazine and was tagged with tattoos, tattooing, tattoo, tattoo artist magazine, photos, pics, pictures, TAM, tattooer, tattoo artist magazine blog, TAM BLOG, TAMBLOG, london, joao bosco, family business tattoo.
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April 30, 2011
Caleb visits VT, PSU
Arguably the state's top recruit made the trip last Saturday to Virginia Tech. Midlothian (Va.) Clover Hill athlete Joel Caleb stopped through Blacksburg, followed by a trip to Penn State on Friday of this week. The 6-foot-3, 200-pounder broke down both visits inside.
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Lucknow, May 11 (IANS) The Uttar Pradesh government has removed Saharanpur Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police Satish Kumar Mathur for his “uncharitable remarks” to a man whose daughter had eloped.
The move late Thursday came hours after Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said he was amazed that “officials of such stature and at such senior field posts do not understand the seriousness of their job and the responsibility that comes with it”.
Mathur was caught on camera telling a complainant that he should kill either the girl or himself out of shame. The statement was taken as supporting honour killing.
The senior officer has now been attached to the director general of police (DGP) headquarters in Lucknow and is unlikely to be given a field posting in the near future, officials said.
His remark was beamed on national television, prompting the National Commission for Women (NCW) to call for his resignation for advocating and promoting honour killing.
The state government also removed another police officer, Sant Kabeer Nagar police superintendent Dharmendra Singh, for his comment that he was tired of catching women.
At a recent meeting with officials, the police officer had said that he was in a fix whether to run after eloped girls to bring them back home or to arrest criminals and robbers. His remarks were reported to senior officials in the government, after which the top officers cracked the whip Thursday. |
Origin: Shan Lin Shi
Elevation: 1500 meters
Cultivar: Luanze (qingxin) Oolong
Hand harvested on April 25, 2011
Process: charcoal medium roast
This High Moutain Hung Shui Oolong is best brewed after it had time to rest after its roasting. In the past, before trains and planes, this helped preserved the freshness of the leaves until they arrived (by boat, horse carriage...) to the customer. Now, they arrive vacuum packed within days of ordering and without having really rested. When the foil is opened, the fragrance of young roasted Oolong is much less pleasant than that of a fresh High Mountain Oolong.
Teaparker's storage book, confirmed by my experiments, showed that a good jar is key to good Hung Shui. Unfortunately, industrial porcelain doesn't improve the tea very much (that's why I stopped selling those jars when I realized this). Antique porcelain jars can have excellent results, but are difficult to find and quickly expensive. That's why I have worked with David Louveau, Michel François and Petr Novak to produce traditionally made tea jars.
What is truly magic and amazing is that just a few minutes inside such a jar will change the fragrance of the tea, and, ultimately, even its taste! The plastic, unnatural smell goes away very quickly and a sweet, refined fragrance appears. Teaparker likens this effect to a wine decanter: a young red wine will open up much faster after being poured in a decanter.
Petr Novak sent me some cups and 3 jars in early 2010. This gave me the opportunity to test which clay and glaze reacted best with tea. Later, he sent more different jars and one made with the same clay, glaze that I liked best, and with this simple shape: roundish with a single cover on top. And since this jar had the best results, I asked him to make more.
The clay is technical porcelain (not 100% pure, but more natural). Petr has thrown and trimmed these jars by hand on the wheel. After a first bisque fire in electric kiln to 1000°C, Petr glazed the outside and the inside with Czech soda feldspar with a small amount of white clayand. Then he fired the jars in a wood kiln for 20 hours to around 1300°C.
The inside of the cover lets appear unglazed portions. It's a good place to see what the clay is made of. Notice the small impurities.
Made in June 2011, I have already washed them once. However, I recommend that you do it again after you receive one: immerse in clean water, wipe the surface with a clean cloth and let the uncovered jar dry under the sun.
(The problem with most -all?- industrial porcelain jars is that even if you clean it well, it will continue to have an unnatural smell inside.)
The jar fits approximately 150 grams of rolled Oolong. (More or less, since each of this handmade jars is a little bit different). The price of such a jar by Petr Novak is the same as Michel François' jar in my current list. And, it includes a well padded cloth with belt to protect the jar like seen below!
Petr also made some matching, big 10 cl cups (for thirsty drinkers!) with the same clay, glaze and process.
The tea tastes well balanced and mellow from this cup. The color is darker than in the ivory white cup, as the glaze is a little darker and the cup is deeper. It's not a small gongfu cha cup, but one that would well suit a little bit more casual drinking style.
It weighs approximately 100 grams and costs the same price as a white porcelain competition set in my selection.
So, how does this Hung Shui Oolong perform after being subjected to a short stay in Petr's jar?
The dry leaf fragrance in the jar smells like a light, but powerful bouquet of spring flowers. This natural smell doesn't irritate the nose (like artificial flavors do) but stimulates the palate and makes me salivate. It's so pure and refined!
The brew is golden and clear. It tastes smooth, lively and sweet. The aftertaste is so fine. Is this divine liquid still tea, or is it the kiss from Shan Lin Shi?
Advice: to use a jar as a 'decanter' instead of as a permanent jar helps to make a more efficient use of it. For most tea fans, including me, it's just not possible to purchase a jar for each roasted Oolong we keep. However, with just one good jar, you can refine all the roasted Oolongs you'll drink, if you use it as a decanter! Just make sure to clean and air it after each tea. (And once you see its use, you'll want to start to store for a longer time...) |
As the Republican nomination movement started to unfold, I looked at each candidate. Bachmann, Romney, Paul, Perry, Cain, Gingrich, Huntsman, Santorum, each had their strengths but there was something missing. I was looking for another Reagan, someone who could inspire. It wasn’t until I attended an Occupy Wall Street event that something began to change in me. I began to think of the 99%, the idea of “We the People” and I realized we are ALL the people. The conservative candidates began to look like they were only preaching to a particular constituency and I began to realize that only one candidate was actually trying to do something for all of the “We the People”. And that candidate was already in the White House and his name was Barack Obama. He was the one with the strong family, the true Christian values, the one that could serve and protect, “We the People”. And he has a record of trying to work with all constituencies when Republicans and Democrats were only concerned with their own elections.
I found the Tea Party for Obama and it all made sense. The Tea Party could stand for values and not have to hate Obama. They could support less government but not be afraid of helping their brothers and sisters through governmental enterprises and that is still compatible with the Gospel of Jesus. And the Tea Party can still change the world…with Obama. |
New submitter h2okies writes "CNET's News.com reports that the IEEE will start today to form the new standards for Ethernet and data transfer. 'The standard, to be produced by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, will likely reach data-transfer speeds between 400 gigabits per second and 1 terabit per second. For comparison, that latter speed would be enough to copy 20 full-length Blu-ray movies in a second.' The IEEE also reports on how the speed needs of the internet continue to double every year. Of what consequence will this new standard be if the last mile is still stuck on beep & creep?" |
Updated 18 May, 2013, 11:32 am IST
Day 11 of Game4u's 12 Days of Christmas sale brings Medal of Honor: Warfighter for Rs 899
| by Shunal Doke |
Game4u's 12 Days of Christmas sale is now on the last stretch, with today's game being EA's modern military shooter—Medal of Honor: Warfighter. The game is priced at Rs 899 instead of Rs 1,499, giving it a 40 percent discount.
Tags: Medal of Honor: Warfighter , Medal of Honor , MoH , Warfighter , Mass Effect 3 , Mass Effect , Hitman: Absolution , Hitman: Absolution Professional Edition , Square Enix , IO Interactive , Plants vs Zombies , PvZ , Deus Ex: Human Revolution , DE:HR , Deus Ex , DE , Square Enix , Game4u , Game4u Online , Game4u Service , Game4u Digital Distribution , Digital Distribution , Digital Distribution of Games , Gaming , Games , PC Gaming , PC Games , Game4u PC Games , Game4u PC Gaming , downloads4u , downloads4u Games , downloads4u digital distribution , Christmas Sale , Christmas Game Sale , Game Sale , 12 Days of Christmas Sale
The combination of supreme hardware, class-leading software and the guarantee of getting timely upda...
Leaked Images, Availability, Pricing,
A ton of games in March so that we don't get bored till August...
By Shunal Doke
Can't run long distances? Do you dread trolley rides? Need more coins
The latest craze in the mobile gaming arena is the ‘runner’ style of...
By Shayne Rana
Sat May 18, 12:30:04
Sat May 18, 12:14:23
Sat May 18, 12:00:39 |
Updated 18 May, 2013, 11:32 am IST
When Microsoft Corp
In the early days of the Apple iPad, argument raged about whether the device could succeed without a traditional keyboard--a question the gadget's subsequent popularity seemingly settled. But the iPad's "virtual" keyboard, which senses the heat of a finger on the glass screen, is considered by most users to be unsuitable for extensive typing.
Before the iPad, the debate centered on whether the free-form stylus was the best tool for telling a computer what to do. Apple's Newton, the original personal digital device, used a stylus, as did previous Microsoft entries in the tablet arena. But stylus solutions have since fallen out of favor.
Recently, the conversation has shifted to contact-less interfaces, including voice-commands, a concept that Apple's own Siri brought to the fore, and gesture-recognition, as demonstrated in gaming by Microsoft's own Kinect.
Researchers are now even experimenting with computers that respond directly to electrical signals from the brain. Eventually one might only need to think of what the computer should do to make it happen.
Does more than just protect the screen
In the meantime, though, Microsoft is betting that an improved version of the tried-and-true will be enough to make a difference.
The Touch Cover technology was developed at Microsoft by a researcher named Stevie Bathiche, according to Panos Panay, leader of the team that created the Microsoft Surface.
Executives showed off two keyboard models on Monday. The Touch Cover features an ultrathin design of 3 millimeters, without mechanical keys. A second, called the Type Cover, is 2 millimeters thicker and includes mechanical keys.
Both operate using the same multi-touch digitizer, which Microsoft said is 10 times faster than any keyboard in use today. The Touch Cover uses pressure-sensitivity to detect when a user is trying to input keystrokes, as opposed to simply resting fingertips on the home row.
"It knows the grams of force coming off my fingertips," Panay said as he demonstrated the product.
The keyboard clings magnetically to the Surface and can remain attached as a cover. It can be folded back while still connected, and its internal accelerometer turns it off while in the closed or folded-back position.
Rick Sherlund, an analyst with Nomura Securities, said the keyboard could be a critical feature for people who use the tablet not just for reading or viewing or browsing the Web, but for creating spreadsheets or documents or other types of written content.
"Is Microsoft going to beat Apple with a sexier tablet? I don't think so," Sherlund said. But he added: "You're going to want a keyboard with anything related to Windows."
Tags: Microsoft Surface , Surface tablet , Surface announced , Surface , Microsoft Surface details , Microsoft Surface features , Microsoft Surface specs , Microsoft surface specifications , Microsoft Surface tablets announced , Microsoft Surface tablet announced , Microsoft Surface Windows RT , Microsoft Surface Windows 8 , Microsoft Surface cover , Microsoft Surface price , Micorsoft Surface price in India , Steve Ballmer , Stephen Sinofsky , Surface tablet Keyboard , Surface Tablet Touch Cover.Touch Cover Keys
17 May, 2013, 02:04 PM
15 May, 2013, 05:23 PM
15 May, 2013, 03:19 PM
Some of the more notable tablet launches in the month of April are what...
By Shayne Rana
After having launched the Google Nexus 7 tablet in India, Asus has now...
By Shayne Rana
Today you will find several large screen tablets – ranging from 8 to 10...
Sat May 18, 12:30:04
Sat May 18, 12:14:23
Sat May 18, 12:00:39 |
This is just a suggestion, as I don't see anything about this in the 4.2 feature development schedules.
Since there was all the bad press on the KDE clock, and it's relative unimportance on release 4.0, I suppose any further development was dropped. Also in consideration of this I resolved not to mention it until some of the other more critical features were further along in development.
The computer clock, because of internal synchronizations, probably needs to be 24 hour, but the screen user visual digital clock doesn't. So is it possible to have a 12 hour AM/PM visual digital clock selection, as well as the 24 hour? With the AM/PM designation displayed?
Regards, Tom McLernon |
XM and Sirius have confirmed their merger plans. The companies have a combined 14 million subscribers. The merger depends on shareholders’ consent, as well as approval by antitrust agencies and the FCC. I can’t imagine there’ll be a hold-up on this — despite the creation of a “monopoly” on satellite radio programming.
As wifi starts to heat up (and eventually lace the country), that will open up access to Internet radio stations to broadcast to a much larger audience. The satellite monopoly won’t matter at that point. Right now with Sprint and Verizon Broadband mobile services, if a hardware device existed, you could plug your wireless broadband card into your car stereo and connect to your favorite Internet radio stations and podcasts. Aside from the Howard Stern fans — who will need XM / Sirius at that point?
Internet radio stations being broadcasted to vehicles via broadband cell providers will help those stations with profitability — and think of the kick that it could give Google’s radio / audio advertising initiatives.
Editor’s Note: Post written by Steve Poland, whose blog Techquila Shots brainstorms web start-up ideas. |
LookStat, an analytics platform for photographers that sell their work online in micro-stock marketplaces, has closed a $500,000 Series A funding round led by Founders Co-op.
Lookstat is a tool for photographers that allows them to track their earnings across online stock photography sites like iStockphoto, Shutterstock, and Dreamstime, with support for Fotolia, 123rf, and Stockxpert coming in the near future. The site can automatically identify when the same image is being sold at multiple sites, and can aggregate all sales for that image into one place. Lookstat is also currently tested a workflow platform designed to help photographs distribute their content.
While the site is currently free, it will eventually begin to charge a subscription free, though it will likely remain free for any photographers who earn less than $100/month.
While LookStat may be addressing a niche market, it’s one that is growing steadily. In February we saw Fotolia reach one million registered members, with 1.5 million paid downloads a month (Comscore currently reports that they have over 2.8 million unique visitors). Competitor iStockphoto, which was purchased by Getty Images in 2006, gets over 4.8 million monthly visitors. |
Well, that just happened.
Today at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York City, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz took the stage for a fireside chat with our own Michael Arrington. It took about 15 minutes, but Mike got her to tell him to “fuck off.”
That’s not all she had to say. When Mike pressed her about Yahoo outsourcing the social graph to Facebook. Bartz admitted that if she could own it (as Facebook does), she’d love to. “Oh, I’d love to own it — shit, why not?,” she said. She said also that “I’d love to be Queen Poobah – but I’m not.”
Update: And here’s the video (or it’s at the bottom).
Below find my live notes (paraphrased):
MA: So how the fuck are you?
CB: Is that all you got?
MA: So my last two posts were critical.
CB: Were they?
MA: You don’t read TechCrunch? I can show you how. It’s weird, I talked to you backstage, you’re a human being. You took the time to talk to us.
Okay let’s go. What is Yahoo?
CB: (her mic cuts off) What is Yahoo? Yahoo is a company that is very strong in content. It’s moving towards the web of one. We have 32,000 variations on our front page module. We serve a million of those a day. It’s all customized. Our click-through rate went up twice since we started customizing this. People come to check the things they like. “You can just get it together.” Yahoo is one site people always stop at.
MA: You had two pieces of news. One is a partnership with Match.com. Why abandon personals?
CB: It wasn’t in the sweet spot of what we do. It was the same with HotJobs. It’s just not about in line with we do anymore. I was trying to think about if I should fly with the volcano cloud, I checked the AP, it was 17 hours old info. We need live content feeds.
MA: Are there any other of the big Yahoo properties you’re killing?
CB: No. We’re focused now.
MA: What was the other one?
CB: We had an announcement with Nokia. Co-branded.
MA: How important is mobile to Yahoo going forward?
CB: We’re on 37 million of the 82 million mobile devices in the US. We have half the US market. People don’t think that’s true, but it is. And we’re huge in the emerging world. It was important to get to the dominant partner outside the market.
MA: So is the focus not on the smartphones?
CB: We still do them too. We have an iPhone app, for example. We have alliances with 100 OEMs. We’re on 2,300 different handsets. I have a BlackBerry and an iPhone.
MA: No Android?
MA: Let’s talk about the product perspective. You’ve made some changes and there have been departures. The new blood is Blake Irving. Does he run product at Yahoo now?
MA: Is there a product Czar? Does he answer to you? Think about how Steve Jobs acts, he’s in charge. Is that Blake?
CB: You can’t find anyone like a VP that compares to Steve Jobs so that’s not fair. Blake reports to me — under him there are three segments. We have one of the largest private clouds in the world. We serve 10 billion ads a day — that’s a huge technical effort. There’s no one strategy at Yahoo. We do a lot of things.
CB: We know that men have banner blindness but will look at them in certain areas. Women will look at them in other areas. Men are odd.
MA: What about the iPad?
CB: With the iPad, Apple is a hardware and software company. It’s an evolution — not revolution. These days if you’re not coming out with some device, you’re not innovating, apparently. But that’s not true. There’s a soul to our product. Absent Steve Jobs, who’s the product soul in big companies? It’s a lot of people who have to do it.
MA: You ever hear the saying, “a camel is a horse designed by committee”?
CB: That’s true but you implement with several people. I can imagine that a lot of concepts are brought to Jobs too — there are people involved. It’s naive to think there’s not.
MA: Why Blake? He was a professor at Pepperdine. Before that he was at Microsoft.
CB: Well he was taking a two year break from Microsoft.
MA: Fair enough. How important is social to Yahoo?
CB: Back when social had a broad definition, you could almost say that Yahoo Finance chat was the first social product. We have a million comments a day now. We had 85,000 comments on day one at Yahoo News. And we’re merging in some of the big products like Twitter, etc. We’re doing some new cool things with Mail next month too. It’s about finding out the new things about people.
MA: Facebook would say the social graph is key. Is that important to you? Are you comfortable not owning that?
CB: I don’t know if anyone really owns it. They share it with partners. It’s just about getting the information. Building a better user experience.
“Oh, I’d love to own it — shit, why not?” “I’d love to be Queen Poobah — but I’m not.” (reference to Grand Poo-Bah from Gilbert & Sullivan’s “The Mikado“?)
MA: In 2008 you said Jerry Yang first approached you about the job. You said you weren’t the right person for the job. Are you now?
CB: I’m one of many. Many people could do this job. There’s no one special person for any job. That’s the beauty of it.
MA: You’ve asked bloggers to tone down some of the critiques and advice. But you made a statement earlier this year that Google has some problems.
CB: Did you see the interview? I said Google needs to grow a Yahoo every year — just go into a lot of businesses. They have to be a 20% grower. It’s not so bad to say.
MA: You said they were so reliant on search advertising.
CB: Is that wrong?
MA: No but you said it’s not a good trick to have.
CB: I would love to have that! Like the social graph. What I said has to be true. I’m just saying they need to grow a company the size of us every year. They have to do other things.
MA: Are you being a hypocrite by giving them advice when you say you don’t want advice?
CB: I gave them my opinion. You do that all the time. “I’ve never had a bong in my life if that means anything to you.”
MA: Is your pitch kind of BS though?
CB: Steve Jobs came back to Apple in 1997 — the iPod came out 4 years later. 3 years after that is the first time his market cap grew. It took 7 years. I’ve been here a few months. Give me a break. You are involved in a very tiny company.
MA: Very tiny.
CB: It probably takes you a long time just to convince yourself what to do. “So fuck off!”
MA: Are you a search company or not?
CB: Half of our revenue is from search. The fact that you can crawl the web is a commodity. We’re about search, but we’re not a search company. We do a lot of things.
Yahoo was founded in 1994 by Stanford Ph.D. students David Filo and Jerry Yang. It has since evolved into a major internet brand with search, content verticals, and other web services. Yahoo! Inc. (Yahoo!), incorporated in 1995, is a global Internet brand. To users, the Company provides owned and operated online properties and services (Yahoo! Properties, Offerings, or Owned and Operated sites). Yahoo! also extends its marketing platform and access to Internet users beyond Yahoo! Properties through its distribution network...
NOKIA is a Finnish multinational communications corporation. It is primarily engaged in the manufacturing of mobile devices and in converging Internet and communications industries. They make a wide range of mobile devices with services and software that enable people to experience music, navigation, video, television, imaging, games, business mobility and more. Nokia is the owner of Symbian operation system and partially owns MeeGo operating system.
On January 13th, 2009, Carol Bartz was named CEO of Yahoo, succeeding outgoing CEO & Founder Jerry Yang, and she held this position until September 6, 2011. Prior to joining Yahoo as CEO, Carol Bartz was executive chairman of the board of Autodesk, Inc. Bartz was chairman, president and CEO of Autodesk for 14 years and stepped down in April 2006. During her tenure, the company diversified its product line and grew revenues from $285 million to $1.523 billion in... |
Klhip’s goal was noble: To make a better nail clipper. I’m down with that. But I don’t care if the nail clippers are made out of Zeus’s teeth, nail clippers should not be $50 even if they are the best ones on earth.
The trick here is that some US-based company threw-out the convential nail clipper designed and came up with this instead. The nail clippings stay within the clipper instead of shooting across the room and they are said to cut a nail so clean that filing is not necessary. But it’s $50. That’s $50 more than I’ve ever spent on nail clippers. Your call, trust fund baby. [Klhip via Gadget Lab] |
Technically speaking, the iPhone 5 is already jailbroken. You’re just not allowed to have it yet. The reason for this is because one of the bugs that contributes to a functional jailbreak is so good, that the hackers who discovered it would rather hang on to it while looking for another to replace it, instead of releasing it out into the wild where Apple could learn of the exploit, and patch it. Plus, iOS 6.1 is on the horizon, so they definitely don’t want to release the bug before then.
David Wang (@Planetbeing), one of the half a dozen hackers working on the jailbreak for the latest iPhone announced this news on Reddit not too long ago. “The fact is, I have an untethered iOS 6.0.2 JB running on my iPhone 5 right now,” he wrote.
“This vulnerability is nice because it lets us see what’s going on,” Wang tells me. “We need to be able to look at the code we’re trying to change – get a dump of it. Otherwise, we’re basically working on things in the dark.”
The worst case scenario here is that the hackers have to “burn” their current exploit – this great bug they have – in order to get a jailbreak into the hands of the public. They just don’t want to do that yet. Besides, the fact that there were four bugs discovered on the iPhone 5 at the time of that Reddit post was promising. That leaves hope that they’ll be able to find a few more. And so far, progress on that front looks good.
So will end users ever be able to jailbreak the iPhone 5, then? Yes, Wang says. This year? Well, he sure hopes so. At least before the next iPhone comes out.
Finding exploits isn’t like building an app or website where every day, you would see progress. Instead, bug hunting is like panning for gold. And there might not be any gold to be found.
For those unfamiliar with jailbreaking, or why anyone would want to go to such efforts to have control over their phone, the activity originally became popular because it allowed users to add applications and features Apple didn’t approve. Users could turn their phones into a Wi-Fi hotspot, install custom themes, make the device’s settings and controls more accessible, override Apple’s default restrictions, and more. Some users even unlocked their phones to run on unapproved cellular networks.
In the old days, jailbreakers were more competitive, organizing themselves into “teams” like the iPhone Dev Team and the Chronic team. A few rogue developers even operated independently. Hackers competed against and surprised each other – and jailbreaking users, too – with their releases.
Now the jailbreaking vibe feels different. The individuals involved are generally working together and sharing knowledge when appropriate. The competitiveness has been dialed down. Each person works on their own piece. Everyone commits their piece to the same GitHub repo, and the code from there will then be turned into a user-facing jailbreaking tool.
And it’s not always the same people who work on each device’s jailbreak these days, Wang explains. It’s whoever has the time and energy. “Over time, the teams have broken down a bit,” he says. “The team structure doesn’t really work. It promotes rivalries and you can’t work with who you want. What we have now is better – we work with each other and share knowledge, but it’s kind of compartmentalized. Instead of sharing it with a whole team, we just share with an individual what we think they need to know.”
Call it a kinder and gentler hacking scene, perhaps.
This time around, work on the latest iPhone jailbreak has been delayed a bit, but not only because of the hardened iOS 6 operating system, but because of other demands on jailbreakers’ time. Like their day jobs. Wang has a full-time day job in a different field. Another of the iPhone 5′s hackers, @Pod2G, has been busy working on his own iOS app, for instance.
There are other things that slow down the process between finding the bugs and releasing the jailbreak tool: for example, finding the differences in the code between the different devices and testing procedures. When the jailbreak is done, it can also be challenging to find someone who’s savvy enough to test it, but who won’t leak it publicly. “It can take a couple of days, or a couple of weeks sometime,” says Wang.
It wasn’t always this hard.
In the past, jailbreakers were able to find bugs in the bootrom, the first significant code that runs on the iPhone, and they were in. They would have full control over that phone for as long as that device existed, no matter what version of iOS was running. But now, devs can’t even access the bootrom.
“The bootrom has been getting smaller and smaller, but we can’t even get a dump of it right now. Even if we get code controlling the entire phone running, like we do, we can’t see the bootrom. And if we can’t dump it, we can’t look for code and mistakes very easily,” Wang says. The reason for this is because today, when the iPhone 5 boots up fully, it now hides the bootrom. This has been the case since “Limera1n” took advantage of an undisclosed bootrom exploit on the iPhone 4 (and earlier devices), which Apple has since fixed.
Did Apple patch the bootrom only because of jailbreaking?
“It sure seems like it, because who else would care about reading the bootrom? You can’t really get a virus on your phone by reading the bootrom,” Wang says.
Today, with no bootrom bug available, hackers now need to find a lot more bugs to have a complete jailbreak solution for users. You need the code injection bug (which puts the code on the operating system), and something that increases the privilege level of that code so it can change things on the operating system on the phone. This bug can sometimes be the same as the code-injection bug.
Then you need a kernel injection bug, which gives you unrestricted access to the operating system and tells the kernel to stop checking for code signatures. And more recently, because of iOS 6, you need something to address kernel ASLR (address space layout randomization), which moves the kernel around in memory.
Apple doesn’t let the jailbreakers see where the kernel is in memory, to prevent exactly what they’re trying to do, says Wang. So you need to find a bug that can get around kernel ASLR, too, and it might be the same bug as the one that increases the privilege level of code or the kernel injection bug.
And then you need to find an untether bug so the jailbreak runs whenever and wherever the iPhone boots up.
Yes, that’s a lot of bugs.
But to fully understand how iPhone jailbreaking has gotten more difficult over the years, you have to have a sense of history. You have to understand what’s it’s been like and how that has changed.
When the iPhone 3G came out, a jailbreak tool called PwnageTool emerged. It was based on a bootrom exploit that allowed the iPhone’s hackers to change out the software on the device. Basically, it’s like changing software out on a computer – for example, you have a computer that runs Windows, and you install Linux on it. In terms of jailbreaking an iPhone, this is pretty powerful access.
Later, when the iPhone 3GS came out, the key bug that allowed the developers this level of access was still there. Well, at least until sometime around halfway through the iPhone 3GS’s cycle when Apple decided to shut down manufacturing temporarily to address the problem. After production resumed, there was a new bootrom in place and the bug was gone.
“Certainly their motivation was that there was a bug and they wanted it to be fixed,” says Jay Freeman, who created the jailbreak “app store” known as Cydia – which users install after their phone is jailbroken. “But exactly why they considered that bug more important to fix than any other bug they’ve not fixed, I don’t really know…We’ve never had a better exploit than that.”
But that didn’t prevent the hackers from looking for other means to break into the iPhone’s code.
Immediately after Apple patched the one bootrom bug, jailbreakers were able to discover other bootrom bugs, but only those that could change the software temporarily. To continue the Windows analogy, this would be like booting up a computer from a CD, USB or floppy disk – you’re not really installing the software from scratch here.
On an iPhone, that means the jailbreaks could temporarily boot the phone up with a new kernel that doesn’t protect the phone’s software, mount the hard drive of the device and change the software on the iPhone to do different things – that is, run all those jailbreak apps that modify how the iPhone behaves.
But the kernel is still protected, because the bootrom was not modified or damaged, which means the next time the phone is booted, the jailbreak is undone. This is what’s called a “tethered” jailbreak, referring to the fact that the phone has to be plugged in to a computer when the jailbreak is performed and then each time the phone is rebooted. By the time the iPhone 4 came out, jailbreakers had to find a bug in a program running on the phone normally that they could use to access a bug in the kernel, which they could then use to modify the kernel. This would allow them to modify other software on the phone.
A famous example of this was the JailbreakMe website, which a jailbreaker known as @comex (aka Nicholas Allegra) discovered. This method used a bug in the web browser that could crash the browser and take control of it, in order to then get arbitrary code running in the kernel.
“Comex was just ludicrous,” Freeman says. “He found so many exploits in all sorts of things.”
(Comex was later hired by Apple, but we’ve heard he wasn’t working on anti-jailbreak measures while there. Wang tells us that users waiting for jailbreaks shouldn’t be significantly worried about Apple hiring from the jailbreaking community, either.)
The big next step was to make this jailbreak “untethered” – a device that can boot up directly to the jailbreak. This requires leaving some kind of code around that will cause the software to trip up upon boot, de-securing the device along the way. In the absence of a bootrom bug, like the one found on the iPhone 3G or 3GS, this was the best way for some time to achieve an untethered jailbreak.
Every time a new iPhone came out, the search for bugs begins anew. As was the case when the iPhone 4 came out.
On a memorable day – 10-10-10 – some members of the jailbreaking community were ready to release a tool called SHAtter, but before they did another hacker known as Geohot came out of nowhere with his Limera1n exploit for the iPhone 4 and iPad. Others, including @Pod2G, @Comex and @i0n1c, then worked to find untethers for that jailbreak.
Limera1n was important because, unlike the JailbreakMe webpage, which takes advantage of easily patchable software running on the phone (the browser), a bootrom exploit lasts for the entire life of that device.
“In order to upgrade the bootrom, you have to throw out your phone and get a new one…so [Apple] can’t ever upgrade Limera1n,” Freeman explains. “Limera1n is stuck on every device that ever shipped that had that bug.” The exception is if Apple goes out of its way to stop production, like it did with the 3GS, to fix the bug.
The cat-and-mouse game between Apple and the jailbreaking community continued when the iPhone 4S came out. The exploit that Limera1n used was gone. That sent the hackers back to looking for what they call “userland” exploits – those bugs in the software (like the browser, as with JailbreakMe), which, when identified and used to develop a jailbreaking tool, are then likely to be patched by Apple in the very next firmware upgrade, e.g. iOS 4, iOS 5, iOS 6 and its minor releases. Hackers refer to this as “burning” the exploit, as it can never be used again after that point, since Apple always patches them.
Corona was the name of the userland exploit that allowed a jailbreak for the iPhone 4S, running iOS 5.0 and 5.01. Then Apple released iOS 5.1 and the bug was gone. So hackers created yet another jailbreaking tool, absinthe, that worked on iOS 5.1 and 5.1.1. Apple released iOS 6 and the bugs were gone again.
“iOS 6 has had significant security improvements. And iOS 6.1 also has even more improvements,” says Wang. “One of the things we’re having trouble with [on the iPhone 5] is the initial injection,” he explains.
Now remember that the iPhone 4 is not affected by all these iOS releases. Because Limera1n uses an unpatched bootrom exploit, it doesn’t matter what version of iOS runs on that device. It can be jailbroken. This, of course, raises the question: If bootrom exploits are that powerful, why don’t the hackers just look for them?
The answer is it’s not that simple.
“Finding bootrom exploits is more difficult only because there is much less software. We talk about this thing called an attack surface,” says Freeman. He likens it to the way a very large army wearing lots of battle armor probably has a break in it somewhere that you can poke a sword through. Meanwhile, a small army would be more likely to be protected fully. The only thing a bootrom does is verifies the other software, and it talks over USB. There’s not a lot of code in there.
Most of the bootrom bugs have been found in the USB setup code. Most of those bugs have been fixed.
However, in the iPhone 5, Apple added a Lightning connector, so there’s now a chance that there is a bug in the new bootrom – if hackers were to find a way to peek in there, which as noted above, they currently can’t.
So for now, it’s about finding non-bootrom bugs. And it’s been tougher to do so lately. There isn’t a good jailbreak for the iPhone 4 or iPod 4, only a tethered one. There’s no publicly available jailbreak for iOS 6 on the iPhone 4S or iPhone 5.
It’s hard to always know what’s going on with the current jailbreak. When jailbreak developers and other hackers are teasing their progress on Twitter, they’re sometimes showing off some of those so-called userland bugs in action. Maybe they show Cydia, Freeman’s app store for the jailbreaking community, running on their device. But Freeman clarifies that these teases are often only partial jailbreaks – Cydia is installed, but the apps that let you have all the fun wouldn’t necessarily work. Other times, they’ve used Apple’s own developer tools, which allow Apple’s paying developers to install their own code on the phone. Seeing a device running Cydia, in other words, is not proof that a jailbreak for you, the user, is ready.
Sometimes, however, it is a hint at progress.
“It’s a little bit like dealing with magicians. You might know how somebody’s trick works, but it’s their trick,” says Freeman. “A lot of the hacking community has that same kind of vibe to it. Somebody has managed to figure out how to do something weird.” Instead of hacking your brain, as magicians do, they’ve hacked a phone, he says.
For example, the recent demonstrations by @chpwn and @phoenixdev were totally legitimate, but they did not have kernel patches and so were not “complete” enough to do most of the things that people expect a jailbroken device to do, says Freeman. “They were only half-jailbroken.”
The trick is knowing which jailbreak developers you can trust. While it’s possible there’s still a chance someone will come out of nowhere, like Comex did back in the day, it’s a better bet that future jailbreaks come from those who have been consistently working on jailbreaking Apple’s devices over the years.
But when the iPhone 5 jailbreak arrives, the bigger question may be whether it will again draw a significant number of users, as it had in years past. Freeman says that, based on data over the past two months, he has seen 22,780,029 devices running Cydia, to give you an idea of scale. But of course, this includes more than iPhones – it counts iPads and the iPod touch, as well. Plenty of users still have iPhone 4′s and 4S’s too, it should be noted.
Freeman says that in between the releases of jailbreaking tools, Cydia installs begins trending downwards, but when the next big jailbreak tool is goes out, the number of Cydia installs has always been more than the time before.
“Every time we release jailbreak, we get a massive spike of renewed interest, during which time people furiously are upgrading, jailbreaking, browsing packages, and purchasing products,” Freeman says. “They are seriously active users; that spike is so large that the rate it falls over time swamps the rate of organic user accumulation, so the overall usage of jailbreaking is always going down.”
In these quiet periods, though, there’s room for doubt that anyone still wants to jailbreak their phone. After all, Apple has addressed a lot of the things jailbreakers were after: It now has a drop-down notifications window and lets you put a wallpaper on the lock screen, for example. FaceTime on AT&T works over 3G/4G now. The iPhone is coming to T-Mobile, so you won’t need to jailbreak, then use an unlocking tool to make the phone compatible on T-Mobile. You can even buy unlocked phones, and it’s easier to just pay for a Wi-Fi hotspot feature with your carrier than it is to jailbreak and install software to make one work.
And for naughtier users, the app piracy community Hackulous recently shut down, citing lack of user interest. “Our community has become stagnant,” its creators said.
Freeman doesn’t think the lack of a jailbreak for the iPhone 5 is the main reason for the recent disinterest. It’s the type of jailbreaks that have been available lately for the most popular devices.
“We have to look at iOS 6: we don’t have a ‘good’ jailbreak for iOS 6 on the iPhone 4 or iPod 4 (as it is tethered),” he says, “and we have no jailbreak for iOS 6 on any of the newer devices, including last year’s iPhone 4S.”
“We all think that the popularity of jailbreaks is going down because of all the improvements Apple has made, but it seems to be still pretty popular,” Wang notes, however. And the fact that his Reddit post blew up, is also promising.
He admits that those working on the jailbreaks may not communicate with users as often as they did in the past.
“I don’t maybe make as much of an effort as maybe I should, because in a way, it’s always kind of hopeless. There’s always people who don’t read, or choose to misinterpret what you say,” he says. “It’s so difficult to not be misunderstood. Sometimes you don’t even want to bother trying.”
Made some nice progress today with @pod2g. I think I'll try to reward myself with a nap. :)—
(@planetbeing) January 19, 2013
. @planetbeing oh yeah! 2 new vulnerabilities in a day, chance was with us. But we still miss that initial code execution for a public jb :/—
(@pod2g) January 19, 2013
The iPhone 5 jailbreak, however it comes to be, could breathe new life into the jailbreaking scene and into a community which even grew large enough to have its own convention. And it will also answer the question as to whether all those millions of users are still interested in taking the plunge and jailbreaking their phones, or whether they’ve become comfortable enough with the status quo in these many months without a usable, untethered jailbreak on hand.
Wang, of course, and others like him, never had to take time off from using a jailbroken device. “My iPhone is always jailbroken,” he said.
And maybe one day soon, your iPhone can be jailbroken again, too. |
Oracle is buying Nimbula, the cloud OS startup started by some of the original creators of Amazon Web Services (AWS). But contrary to the reactionary hype, the purchase is for the team and the company’s technology and not as a means to join OpenStack, the open cloud organization that Nimbula participates in as a member.
It does make good headlines or tweets for that matter, to say that the eye of Sauron is upon OpenStack with the news today of Oracle’e acquisition.
The Eye of Sauron Turns Upon OpenStack. Oracle responds by acquiring Nimbula monk.ly/ZIzt8n
— monkchips (@monkchips) March 13, 2013
Update: James Governor followed up: “Many failed to understand the Sauron tweet, Oracle is responding to the Unblinking IBM. not a value judgement on evil but focus”
Anyway, it still makes for a timely tweet.
By proxy, Oracle will have a place set for it at the OpenStack table. They’ll look across at other enterprise giants, such as VMware, which also by proxy joined OpenStack when it acquired Nicira. HP, Dell and IBM are members of OpenStack, as well.
More so, Oracle really could use the Nimbula technology and the people who created it. Nimbula was founded by the developers of Amazon EC2. With people like that on your team it makes more sense that Oracle has thoughts about changing its strategy to focus om building something in the likeness of AWS.
Oracle cares more about building its own infrastructure. I am sure Larry and his gang will use OpenStack when it makes sense. But as a secret ploy to join the foundation and take over Middle Earth?
Nimbula, the cloud OS company, delivers a new class of cloud infrastructure software enabling enterprises and service providers to build private, public or hybrid clouds. Nimbula Director, Nimbula’s flagship product, is scalable, highly automated, easy to use and provides complete control over your cloud. Nimbula is a software company founded by Chris Pinkham and Willem van Biljon, the team that developed the industry-leading Amazon EC2, and is backed by a solid team of leading investors, including Accel Partners and...
Oracle is an enterprise IT company with a specialty in database management systems.
Amazon Web Services, LLC offers Web services that allow users to build businesses. Its Web services are self-contained functions that can be published and invoked across the Web using XML-based protocols. It offers functions for directly accessing Amazon’s technology platform and product data ranging from retrieving information on set of products to adding an item to a shopping cart. It offers Amazon Associates Web Service that exposes Amazon’s product data and e-commerce functionality; Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, a Web... |
Till now you used to go to Mozilla website and download latest Firefox version according to your system configuration you’re using which can be installed even offline without any problems. Now Mozilla wants to offer web-based installer from the time when they offer 64-bit version because these stub installers eliminate user decision to choose x86 or x64 version before the download.
Web installer for Firefox is a small setup file that downloads requires components from Mozilla servers and installs Firefox onto your computer. Web based installer requires internet connection and they always install latest version.
Check the screenshots below which shows Firefox install process with web/stub installer.
This is how Firefox install happens with stub installer when user clicks download button on Mozilla website. User clicks the download button, small Firefox setup. exe file will be downloaded and saved to users’ Computer.
Which on running shows dialog window to install Firefox button with options and install, cancel buttons. Once you click on install button download starts it can’t be stopped or cancelled meanwhile Firefox download or install progress shown on the window. Web installer installs only required components and eliminates unneeded ones and also checks whether you’re using 32-bit 0r 64-bit & installs right version for your computer.
With full offline installers you may end up installing older version with vulnerabilities where stub installer always installs latest safe & secured version with new features.
Chrome too offers web installer
Yes Chrome is offering web-installer too which installs Google update process which periodically checks and installs updates, and let me tell you one disadvantage with Chrome offline installer it doesn’t install Google update process so you won’t be protected with latest updates.
What’s your take on Firefox web installer? share with us in comments. |
I’ve spent a lot of time here deconstructing and criticizing the proposals set forth by the Free Press, the radical media “reformista” group founded by the prolific Marxist media theorist Robert McChesney. I have been trying to shine more light on their proposals and activities because I believe they are antithetical to freedom of speech and a free society. That’s because, as media scholar Ben Compaine has noted, “What the hard core reformistas really want, it seems, is not diversity or an open debate but a media that promotes their own vision of society and the world.” That’s exactly right and, more specifically, as I argued in my 2005 Media Myths book, the media reformistas want to impose this control by taking the fantasy that “the public owns the [broadcast] airwaves” and extending it to ALL media platforms and outlets. In other words, McChesney and the Free Press want an UnFree Press. To cast things in neo-Marxist terms that they could appreciate, they want to take control of the information means of production. And it begins, McChesney argues, by all of us having to give up this “sort of religious attachment to the idea of a ‘free-press’” from which we all suffer.
Some people accuse me of “red-baiting” or “McCarthyite” tactics when I use the “M-word” (Marxism) or the “S-Word” (socialism) to describe McChesney, the Free Press, and the movement they have spawned. But these are labels with real meaning and ones that McChesney himself embraces in his work. In his 1999 book Rich Media, Poor Media, he says that “Media reform cannot win without widespread support and such support needs to be organized as part of a broad anti-corporate, pro-democracy movement.” He casts everything in “social justice” terms and speaks of the need “to rip the veil off [corporate] power, and to work so that social decision making and power may be made as enlightened and as egalitarian as possible.” What exactly would all that mean in practice for media? In his 2002 book Our Media, Not Theirs: The Democratic Struggle against Corporate Media with John Nichols of The Nation, McChesney argues that media reform efforts must begin with “the need to promote an understanding of the urgency to assert public control over the media.” They go on to state that, “Our claim is simply that the media system produces vastly less of quality than it would if corporate and commercial pressures were lessened.”
If you want additional proof of his intentions, then I encourage you to read this lengthy interview with McChesney that appears in the new edition of The Bullet, an online newsletter produced by the Canada-based “Socialist Project.” (If you ask me, there’s something strangely appropriate about a socialist newsletter named “The Bullet” in light of the millions of people who died while living under socialist tyranny!) Anyway, let’s ignore that and focus on what neo-Marxist media reform entails according to McChesney. Because never before has he laid his cards on the table as clearly as he does in this interview.
The “Struggle” for “Media Democracy”
In the interview, as in all his work, McChesney speaks repeatedly about the Marxist concept of “struggles,” which usually refers to class struggles and worker struggles. But McChesney’s work focuses on “media democracy struggles” as part of an overall struggle for “social justice.” He says:
Instead of waiting for the revolution to happen, we learned that unless you make significant changes in the media, it will be vastly more difficult to have a revolution. While the media is not the single most important issue in the world, it is one of the core issues that any successful Left project needs to integrate into its strategic program.
In other words, media reform is part of The Big Struggle. The Big Struggle is the effort to overthrow free-market capitalism. And the struggle for “media democracy” is crucial to that, you see, because we are all just pawns whose minds are being manipulated by some far-off corporate puppet-masters in New York and L.A., who are, of course, just feeding us nothing but pro-capitalist propaganda 24/7. Thus, we have to burn the village to save it, McChesney says:
Many say that corporate journalism, based on profit maximization, best serves a free and democratic society. The position is incorrect. The connection of capitalism to journalism, which has always been fraught with problems, has always been unstable. The relationship between capitalism, journalism, and democracy has never been a sure thing. In the U.S, the notion that capitalism is the natural steward of journalism and should be left alone to provide for a free and self-governing society refers to a period that began during the 19th century. This period ended when owners realized they could make a lot of money by turning journalism into big business. Corporations are not in a position to generate and pay for quality journalism. The news is not a commercial product. It is a public good, necessary for a self-governing society.
In other words, down with private media! McChesney basically declares that the entire history of private media in America to be one gigantic case of market failure and must be abandoned.
Subsidies to “Save Journalism”
But what’s going to replace private media once McChesney and his media reformistas have moved the regulatory wrecking ball in? In a nutshell, he wants massive state subsidization of the media:
Once we accept this [the supposed "public goods" nature of all media], we can talk about the kind of media policies and subsidies we want. What are the best ones? How should they be implemented? We are now trying to answer those questions and organize around them.
Herein lies one of the great ironies of McChesney’s work: He spends a great deal of time arguing that the entire history of American media has basically been one big government-created construct (monopolies, entry barriers, subsidies, etc), only to turn around and advocate massive state intervention and subsidies as a solution! McChesney plays revisionist historian and even tries to paint Jefferson and Madison as media socialists because postal rates from the founding period on down have been reduced for print media mailings. Somehow, McChesney reads this to mean that “the U.S. state has always played a direct and indirect role in facilitating and legitimizing the corporate media system.” Which is rubbish. The idea that postal subsidies have created “the corporate media system” is preposterous. McChesney is on stronger ground in arguing the state has occasionally helped foster and then protect monopolies, but that is a function of the very “public utility” regulatory regime that McChesney favors! [More on this point down below.]
Meanwhile, in true Rahm Emanual-ian “you-never-want-a-crisis-to-go-to-waste” fashion, the Free Press has started a new project to “Save the News” and move America “Toward a National Journalism Strategy” by endorsing a lot of the same regulations, subsidies, and tax credits that McChesney and John Nichols recently advocated in their Nation magazine essay, “The Death and Life of Great American Newspapers.” As I noted in my City Journal response to that essay back in March, you can file this all under “socializing media in order to save it,” complete with Soviet-style 5-year plans dictated by some faceless elite inside a Beltway bureaucracy. Oh, and there’s the little matter of $60 billion price tag that taxpayers will be left footing. (But hey, what’s another $60 billion these days?) Even Free Press favorite Dan Rather is on board with his plan to have President Obama give us “The News America Needs” by “form[ing] a commission to address the perilous state of America’s news media.” Perhaps once the car commission folks get done driving the U.S. auto industry into the ground they can shift gears, so to speak, and see what they can do to steer journalism onto a supposedly better path.
Down with Advertising
If McChesney and Free Press don’t succeed in destroying private media with their regulatory plans, there’s always Plan B… bleed free market media operators and Internet companies dry by taking away their mother’s milk, advertising. McChesney argues that “the Internet is increasingly hyper-commercialized” and it is “open[ing] our entire lives to 24/7 injections of advertising messages.” Thus, wouldn’t you know it, yet another “struggle” is in order!
We need to organize against hyper-commercialism. This is an easy-sell for the Left. We understand that advertising is not something done by all people equally, but rather, done by a very small group of people working on behalf of multinational corporations. Advertising is commercial propaganda… Advertising is the voice of capital. We need to do whatever we can to limit capitalist propaganda, regulate it, minimize it, and perhaps even eliminate it. The fight against hyper-commercialism becomes especially pronounced in the era of digital communications. [...] There is a fundamental crisis when you are in a world that is entirely commercial, in terms of the integrity of speech and thought. We are at the tipping point and we need to struggle directly against it.
Struggle, struggle, struggle!
Of course, McChesney will have plenty of allies in this particular struggle as Washington continues to wage a war against advertising of all sorts. Of course, there really is no free lunch in this world and something will have to pay for serious news-gathering (and entertainment, for that matter). Of course, McChesney and his Free Press allies will, no doubt, respond that still more subsidies are in order! There is, apparently, always someone else in their world to whom the buck can be passed. [But I wonder: Who would be left to pay all the taxes needed to support public media if McChesney's "struggle" to overthrow The Man succeeds??]
Net neutrality & Infrastructure Nationalization
And don’t for one minute think that McChesney and Free Press are only out for the old media operators. They’re out for private broadband and Internet players as well.
When speaking about the centrality of Net neutrality regulation to this “struggle” and coming “revolution,” McChesney does a nice job reminding some of us why we have been so concerned about politicizing a debate over network engineering when he says: “What we want to have in the U.S. and in every society is an Internet that is not private property, but a public utility.” Ah yes, because public utilities have been soooo efficient and innovative in other contexts! Please.
In advocating increased regulation or state-ownership of communications networks or broadband companies and connections, McChesney seems utterly oblivious to the fact that the very state power he advocates on one hand is the same state power that private parties can corrupt on the other. He says, for example, that “Our struggle to make the Internet into a public utility conflicts with the interests of telephone and cable firms,” because “Their power rests upon their ability to successfully buy off politicians.” How does he not see the contradiction? He’s certainly right to fear that public officials can be co-opted by private interests. (Read up on your public choice theory, buddy!) But I suppose McChesney believes that his perfect socialist state will be immune to these pressures because it will be run by enlightened, public-minded philosopher kings… you know… like himself. But that’s nonsense. See my old essay on the fantasy of “Building a Better Bureaucrat” or Tim Lee’s old essay on “Real Regulators” for more details on why it never works out that way in practice. Or, better yet, since I know he would never read anything I penned on the subject, I encourage McChesney to take a hard look at the definitive 2-volume Economics of Regulation by a far more experienced progressive Democrat, Professor Alfred E. Kahn. In Kahn’s masterwork, you will find the following words of wisdom (and caution) from someone who spent a lifetime studying these issues:
When a commission is responsible for the performance of an industry, it is under never completely escapable pressure to protect the health of the companies it regulates, to assure a desirable performance by relying on those monopolistic chosen instruments and its own controls rather than on the unplanned and unplannable forces of competition. [...] Responsible for the continued provision and improvement of service, [the regulatory commission] comes increasingly and understandably to identify the interest of the public with that of the existing companies on whom it must rely to deliver goods.
McChesney makes one final point about Net neutrality that is worth highlighting. When asked whether he had any reservations about making short-term alliances with new media companies or Internet operators such as Google, eBay, Amazon, and Microsoft in the push for Net neutrality regulations, McChesney says: “Absolutely.. But I’ve learned, by participating in over a decade of specific media struggles, that when you are in the short-term and you are fighting to win, sometimes you make tactical alliances.” Nonetheless, he notes, “the ultimate goal is to get rid of the media capitalists in the phone and cable companies and to divest them from control.” And, so, the ends justify the means in terms of striking short-term alliances with those evil, blood-sucking capitalists. I hope the folks at Google, eBay, Amazon, and Microsoft are reading McChesney’s radical thinking on communications policy and realize that he and his Free Press reformistas will eventually turn their sights on them just as soon as they are finished socializing the infrastructure layer of the Internet.
Conclusion: Against Media Tyranny
In a very strange sense, I admire Robert McChesney. He is a man of principle. And he isn’t ashamed to advocate his principles publicly (whereas some of his Free Press disciples do a very nice job disguising their true intentions).
That being said, McChesney’s principles are dangerous ones. Very dangerous. They are antithetical to a free society, freedom of speech, and technological progress. At its core, as I noted in my old essay, “Your Soapbox is My Soapbox,” the repugnant morality behind this “media access” movement is that nothing is truly yours. “Media democracy” means everything is up for grabs. Here’s how I put it in that old “soapbox” essay:
Imagine you built a platform in your backyard for the purpose of informing or entertaining your friends of neighbors. Now further imagine that you are actually fairly good at what you do and manage to attract and retain a large audience. Then one day, a few hecklers come to hear you speak on your platform. They shout about how it’s unfair that you have attracted so many people to hear you speak on your soapbox and they demand access to your platform for a certain amount of time each day. They rationalize this by arguing that it is THEIR rights as listeners that are really important, not YOUR rights as a speaker or the owner of the soapbox. That sort of scenario could never happen in America, right? Sadly, it’s been the way media law has operated for several decades in this country. This twisted “media access” philosophy has been employed by federal lawmakers and numerous special interest groups to justify extensive and massively unjust regime of media regulation and speech redistributionism. And it’s still at work today.
Indeed, McChesney has taken this old “media access” movement that Jerome Barron, Owen Fiss, Cass Sunstein and others pioneered long ago, and advanced it to a whole new level, and to its logical conclusion. The aim is not just to co-opt someone else’s soapbox; it is to smash their soapbox into pieces. It is to tear the very fabric of the First Amendment into shreds and rebuild “media democracy” around the principles not of true freedom, but of state servitude. You only have as much freedom to engage in speech, reporting, or entertaining as your media overlords will allow. And God help you if any of it proves popular because then they will really want to crush you like an ant!
I’ll close this rant the same way I concluded my earlier “soapbox” rant:
This arrogant, elitist, anti-property, anti-freedom ethic is what drives the media access movement and makes it so morally repugnant. Freedom doesn’t begin by fettering the press with more chains, it begins by removing those that already exist and then erecting a firm wall between State and Press. The media access crowd has succeeded in breaching that wall with seven decades of misguided and unjust regulation of the press. The movement back toward a truly free press begins by understanding the error in their thinking, rejecting that reasoning, and then embracing, once again, the original vision of the First Amendment as a bulwark against government control of speech and the press. |
All iPad owning Star Trek fans are going to love this cool app on iTunes, it is the Official Star Trek PADD or Personal Access Display Device! It combines Star Trek Next Generation graphics with the iPad and it works so well that it could actually be a prop from the Star Trek TNG series or movie sets! There is a wealth of information available at the user’s fingertips such as TV series information, including aliens, ships, places, technology, and episode guide, “Make It So!”
These are the details for the excellent Star Trek PADD for the iPad;
The Official Star Trek PADD (Personal Access Display Device) immerses fans in a rich interactive database of Star Trek information and images with an authentic reproduction of the LCARS style interface introduced in the Star Trek: The Next Generation series. The official Star Trek PADD app database does not include all information within the Star Trek Universe. We will continue to update the database as information becomes available.
Priced at £2.99 in the UK and $4.99 in the US |
Microsoft BizTalk Server 2002 - Introducing Microsoft BizTalk Server 2002
Integrating your company's internal applications has traditionally been difficult. Integrating them with external customers and suppliers has been even harder. But with Microsoft® BizTalk™ Server 2002, you can address all of your integration challenges from the enterprise to the Internet. The following illustration gives one example of orchestrating your business from internal applications to cross-company business processes.
A member of the Microsoft® .NET Enterprise Server family of products, BizTalk Server 2002 unites enterprise application integration (EAI) and business-to-business (B2B) integration. Whether your company is an e-commerce supplier, distributor, or aggregator, BizTalk Server helps you orchestrate your business—all of it—from internal applications to cross-company business processes.
BizTalk Server helps you to integrate
Your interest in BizTalk Server indicates that you are involved in integration at some level. Maybe you are responsible for integrating your company's fulfillment system with other internal applications. Perhaps you have been mandated with integrating your newer Web-facing commerce systems with your back-end manufacturing and distribution systems. Or maybe your task is devising a way to use the Internet to integrate your business processes with those of key suppliers and distributors.
With strong support for XML, HTTP, HTTPS, SMTP, SSL, S/MIME, and x509v3 certificates, BizTalk Server is a powerful example of applying Internet-standard technologies to solve your integration issues.
About this Introduction
This Introduction provides a high-level view of BizTalk Server 2002. It contains illustrations, links, and definitions to help you better understand how you can use BizTalk Server to solve the unique e-commerce issues that face your company or organization.
The following topics are covered in this section: |
Published: March 18, 2008
- Windows Vista SP1 is available in English, French, German, Spanish, and Japanese. Other languages will be made available soon.
- Microsoft strongly recommends using
Windows Update to download and install Windows Vista SP1 on single PCs:
- The download size from Windows Update of Windows Vista SP1 for x86 is 65 MB (compared to 450 MB from the Microsoft Download Center).
- The download size from Windows Update of Windows Vista SP1 for x64 is 125 MB (compared to 745 MB from the Microsoft Download Center).
- Windows Update will recognize PCs with known problematic drivers and postpone downloading Windows Vista SP1 until the PC has updated drivers or other applicable updates. Using Windows Update will help ensure you have the most trouble-free update experience possible.
- Some Windows Vista users may encounter an issue with a small set of hardware devices that may not function properly after updating a Windows Vista PC to Windows Vista SP1. This is an issue with the way the device drivers were re-installed during the Windows Vista SP1 update process, not with the drivers themselves—these drivers worked on Windows Vista RTM and they work on Windows Vista SP1. This problem is typically corrected by simply uninstalling and reinstalling the driver. We are working with the manufacturers of these devices to get the known problematic drivers and their install programs updated, and also on other solutions we can use to ensure a smooth customer experience when updating to Windows Vista SP1 using Windows Update. For new PCs provisioned with Windows Vista SP1, this is not an issue.
- If you choose to install Windows Vista SP1 via the standalone installer available on the Microsoft Download Center, Microsoft advises that you first visit Windows Update and install all optional drivers. Read Knowledge Base Articles 948187 and 948343 for more information.
- If you have a prior version of the Windows Vista SP1 beta installed, you must uninstall it prior to installing the final version. Use the Control Panel applet "Programs and Features" and select "View installed updates" from the top left of the task pane. Under Windows, look for "Service Pack for Windows ( KB936330). |
Procera Networks signs contracts with Orange Switzerland and North American DSL operator
Feb 28, 2013 (M2 EQUITYBITES via COMTEX) --
Intelligent policy enforcement company Procera Networks Inc (NASDAQ:PKT) has entered into a multi-year contract with Orange Switzerland, the company said today.
The initial order with the Swiss mobile operator includes Procera's leading edge Intelligent Policy Enforcement solutions, specifically the PL8820, PacketLogic Intelligence Center (PIC) and the PacketLogic Subscriber Manager (PSM). These will be deployed throughout its network, replacing an existing solution, and will be used by Orange to offer high value subscriber services.
Financial details were not revealed, but Procera expects to recognise most of the revenue related to this order in the first half of 2013.
Separately, Procera announced today that it has agreed an initial order with a top-five North American DSL operator. The unnamed carrier will make use of Procera's Intelligent Policy Enforcement systems to support detailed subscriber-aware traffic analysis and reporting across its fixed-line broadband network and for sophisticated network and subscriber analytics across its deployment footprint.
Revenue from this order was recognised by Procera in the fourth quarter of 2012.
Comments on this story may be sent to firstname.lastname@example.org
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accells Wins Top 50 Innovator Award at Venture Summit West with Mobile ID for Smart Authentication
(PR Web Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Seattle, Washington (PRWEB) February 20, 2013
accells technologies, a leading cybersecurity innovator of Mobile ID and Smart Authentication services, won the Top Innovator Award in the Technology Section at the Venture Summit West 2013 in Mountain View, CA on February 13, 2013. accells was singled out as the best presentation among the 50 Top Technology Innovators in its section.
The Venture Summit West is the premier industry gathering connecting venture capitalists, corporate VCs, angel investors, technology transfer professionals, senior executives of early stage and emerging growth companies, university researchers, incubators and premier service providers.
accells stands alone in providing comprehensive mobile transaction security. accells moves authentication beyond passwords, enables smarter, more adaptive security than tokens, and enables broader use than just protecting access. Via one secure mobile app, accells enables people to use their smartphone as a mobile ID for smart authentication to any cloud, web, VPN, or mobile service in any context - online, mobile, call center, or at the POS.
“We are honored by this recognition in the investor community“, said accells CEO Eckhard Ortwein. “The shelf life of existing authentication methods has expired, and investors appreciate our new, disruptive and patented authentication solution.”
For businesses, accells provides multi-factor authentication via a smartphone for a portfolio of pre-integrated cloud-services and VPNs.
accells goes to market with B2B service providers in the identity, mobile device management and infrastructure space as well as with B2C service providers in banking, payments, gaming and telco industries.
accells’ core intellectual property securing mobile transactions and data-access is already patented in the USA, with multiple additional patents pending.
accells technologies is a leading cybersecurity innovator of mobile ID and smart authentication services, addressing the lack of security inherent in user-managed passwords and the significant limitations of token/one-time-password based solutions.
Via one secure mobile app, accells enables people to use their smartphone as a mobile ID for smart identification and access to any cloud, web, VPN, social media or mobile service in any context - online, mobile, call center, or at the POS.
accells delivers a usability that people love, smart adaptive authentication, low total cost of ownership, applicability beyond securing access, and seamless protection of mobile transactions against phishing and trojans. accells secures remote access, cloud service access and single sign-on use cases against cyber threats. Beyond access, accells enables easy identification, transaction verification, smart SSO, approval and secure sharing workflows as well as secure data capture and feedback.
For more information, visit http://www.accells.com and follow us on Twitter: @accells and http://www.Facebook.com/accells
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/accells-wins-award/two-factor-authentication/prweb10448333.htm
(c) 2013 PRWEB.COM Newswire
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Beyonce is here in Brazil and everyone is talking about it – I must confess I’m not a fan, powerful voice and all. Even though I don’t like her songs, I found the music in “Ego” pretty interesting, but she had to go and ruin it with silly lyrics.
She should learn from Donna Hay: you get something great, like a lemon tart, and make it even better, by adding a crackly caramel crust. :)
Tangy lemon tartlets with a burnt sugar crust
from Donna Hay magazine
2 cups + 2 tablespoons (300g) all purpose flour
2/3 cup + ½ tablespoon (157g) unsalted butter, cold and chopped
2 tablespoons caster sugar
2 teaspoons iced water
½ cup (120ml) heavy cream
¼ cup (50g) caster sugar
¼ cup (60ml) lemon juice
finely grated zest of 2 large lemons
2 tablespoons caster sugar, extra
Place the flour, butter and sugar in a food processor and process until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the water a little at a time and process until a dough forms. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface until 3mm thick. Butter a 20cm (8in) round fluted tart pan and line it with the pastry. Trim, prick the dough with a fork and refrigerate for 30 minutes – in the meantime, preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.
Line the pastry with baking paper, fill with baking weights or dried beans and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the weights/beans and the paper and bake for a further 8-10 minutes or until golden.
Reduce the oven to 140°C/285°F. Place the cream, eggs, sugar, lemon juice and zest in a bowl and whisk to combine. Pour the mixture into the tart shell and bake for 30 minutes or until just set. Allow to cool completely. Sprinkle the extra sugar over the lemon filling and use a kitchen torch to caramelize the sugar topping.
Serves 8 – I halved the recipe above, used 6x11cm rectangular tart pans and got 5 tartlets |
There are many unique things about Apple, Inc. And one of the oddest of all is the degree to which straightforward reporting about the company’s activities has been drowned out in recent years by a surging sea of rumor, speculation, prediction, and–increasingly—wishful thinking. Everybody, it seems, wants to spoil the surprise of Apple product launches by revealing the secrets which the company works so very hard to keep. But a remarkable percentage of the these soothsayers are just plain terrible at their chosen profession. They’ve become the Gang That Couldn’t Predict Straight.
As the quality of Apple scuttlebutt has nosedived, I’ve become more interested in the culture of Apple rumors than in most of the rumors themselves. With this article, I’m beginning a series on the Apple Rumor Game. And it makes sense to begin with a no-nonsense guide to judging those rumors as they crop up.
Is it possible for an educated Apple fan to figure out which product gossip is worth paying attention to, and which is is a waste of perfectly good brain cells? Yup, by simply divvying up the “evidence” that such gossip is based on into the obviously specious, the questionable, the possibly plausible, and the fairly solid.
I’m not writing this piece because I’m particularly good at gauging the veracity of Apple rumors or making Apple predictions of my own. My track record is iffy at best, and sometimes I avoid the whole matter by simply refusing to make any guesses about what the company’s got up its sleeve. I’m compiling the analysis below as much for my benefit as for yours–if all I do is remember everything I outline here, I’m more likely to speak with uncanny accuracy about Apple rumors in the future than if I rely on instinct.
So let’s consider the tea leaves that are most often used as evidence of Macs, iPods, and iPhones to come, shall we?
Tea Leaves You Can Safely Ignore
“Leaked Ads.” I’ve never seen an Apple product that was outed by advertising, with the possible exception of instances in which spy photos of Apple banners at Macworld lead smart observers to make intelligent guesses. Any other ad you see for an unreleased Apple product is a fake, and while the best ones are a lot of fun, they’re useless as indicators of what Apple is working on. If they had any value, we’d all be carrying the phone shown below in our pockets:
Photorealistic renderings and other concept art. Such as the touchscreen iPod below. Same deal as with ads: Very entertaining and very meaningless. Apple presumably has mockups of unreleased gadgets lurking somewhere in Cupertino, but it manages to keep them under wraps. I think almost all of us get that by now.
Patents. Apple patents are a blast to rummage through, and provide some insight into ideas that the company has fiddled with in its labs, at least–like the bizarre 1990s Frankenstein of an office machine below. But they’re hopeless when it comes to figuring out what products might show up at the Apple Store. There are just too many concepts that never lead anywhere, or take a long time to amount to anything, or emerge in a form which is impossible to divine from the patent in question.
Another problem with treating Apple patents as as a guide to upcoming Apple products: The company is good at filing those patents that might tell you something when it’s too late for rumormongers to get any use out of them. The images below are from a patent it filed just a few days before it introduced a particular product at Macworld Expo San Francisco in January 2007, and therefore didn’t show up in patent searches until there was nothing top-secret about them:
Tea Leaves That Are Inherently Questionable
Anything predicted by analysts–and it doesn’t really matter how confident they sound. As a group, they just have too a lousy track record, and a nasty habit of presenting their guesses as something other than guesses. (How come? I plan to tackle that question in a future story.) Whether or not an article reporting on an analyst’s predictions is willing to take them seriously is irrelevant.
Many, many stories that state that Apple will do something. The kind that use telltale phrases like “has learned.” There are just too many Apple sites that are willing to present possibilities (and sometimes impossibilities) as realities.
Stories that involve Apple responding instantly to current trends. In its own strange, unexpected way, Apple is a conservative outfit, one that is often among the last to jump on a bandwagon. (It’s a smart strategy, given that so many tech bandwagons promptly march down dead ends.) The original iPod Shuffle didn’t show up until the market for very basic flash-based MP3 players was already seemingly saturated, and the Mac Mini came years after Windows desktops had gotten dirt cheap. So given that the whole netbook fad is scarcely over a year old, it was less than likely that Macworld would respond at last month’s Macworld Expo.
Stories that involve Apple slashing prices to go after market share. It’s not that Apple never lowers prices to move more product–but pundits knowingly say it’s going to happen far more than it really does.
Anything that involves Apple releasing an array of major new products all at once. As Macworld Expo approaches, Apple fans often have visions of jam-packed keynotes dancing in their heads–an iPhone Nano and a new Mac Mini and a new iMac and a touchscreen Mac and new software. In reality, Apple’s resources are far from unlimited, and it’s rare for it to release more than one true biggie at a time. Even rumors involving two significant products arriving simultaneously usually turn out to be fiction. Remember, Steve Jobs is famous for pretending that minor products are an event’s big news so that the one truly major product can be his “one more thing.” He does that at least in part because he has to.
Rumors where the math and/or basic logic don’t seem to add up. For several reasons, I was instantly skeptical about a December rumor that Wal-Mart would sell a $99 iPhone. I was right. Then again, in December, 2007 I was equally skeptical that it would sell a flash-based subnotebook. In January, it released the MacBook Air, with flash as a pricey option. (At least I prefaced my doubt by saying it was dumb to try to figure out what Apple would or wouldn’t do.)
Poorly-sourced, unlikely-sounding news from unlikely sources. I’m not saying that a publication like the UK’s Daily Mail declares that Apple is about to release an iPhone Nano with a display on the front and touch-wheel control on the back, it’s far safer to assume it’s wrong than to believe it. |
Culling the latest technology news across the globe. From ideas that are bound to innovate, to ideas already making waves. Look into products and concepts, tips and the latest changes in various industries and fields. Be inspired by these science and technology breakthroughs.
Also check out the Telecom Inventory
and the Resources Inventory |
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There are so many start up drug testing companies nowadays that offers different services. But do they have the accreditation from the US government? Most of the stat ups companies of course wanted to give the best possible service, but are their resources enough so that they can give the services to their customers? If you want to start a drug testing facility, then you must buy the equipment from the most trusted store which sells not only durable and accurate drug testing equipment, but also certified clia waived test. This is one criteria that should be consider when buying a drug testing equipment since government authorities require clia waived test. I am not that well versed with this concept so you may want to read more of it from other sources. So whenever you need drug testing equipment make sure that you buy devices only from trusted suppliers across the country.
When starting business choose the best supplier for your equipment
December 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment |
Gov 2.0: Tim O'Reilly Argues for a Left-Right, Do-More-With-Less, Synthesis
BY Micah L. Sifry | Tuesday, September 8 2009
Gov 2.0 must mean more than government agencies using social media, said Tim O'Reilly, at this morning's opening of the day-long Gov 2.0 Expo at the DC Convention Center. Some 250-300 people have gathered early this rainy day to try to figure out what that might involve. While Tim says he's here to learn (and god knows, being a conference organizer means you get to talk to all kinds of interesting people and hear about fascinating and creative projects early on), his opening keynote this morning offered some very useful gleanings, and also some hints of what the ideology of Gov 2.0 might be.
As readers of this blog know, I believe people empowered by new communications technologies can make our government more open, participatory and collaborative--and god knows there's a lot of room for improvement over the system we have now. It's great that Tim O'Reilly is focusing his formidable brain and organization to help us think more deeply about these topics. At the same time, I worry about what my friend Chris Nolan long ago referred to as "progressive libertarian" thinking, which seems progressive but often is more driven by bottom-line ROI measures that can leave many people out. Here are my rushed notes, with comments from me are in italics.
* Government has always been a locus of collective action, a way of getting people to do things together, he argues. He cites Benjamin Franklin's "we must all hang together or we will surely hang separately" quote, and Jefferson on subdividing power down the level of the people who are closest to the problems they are trying to deal with. (Someone should send Tim a copy of David Post's great new book, In Search of Jefferson's Moose, which really develops this theme beautifully.). He then gives us a bunch of examples of successful web 2.0 companies, like Google and Amazon, who each in their own way have used technology to create a new kind of collective action, brilliantly harnessing user self-service contributions to improving content (search, book and product reviews).
It's true that aggregating user-generated content is a brilliant business model. But is the aggregation of individual search choices and ratings of purchases, the same thing as "collective action"? Have "we" chosen to do anything, have we deliberated and decided when an algorithm magically shows us an aggregated result? On the other hand, what is majority vote but an algorithm, albeit a very blunt one, for aggregating and enforcing group preferences?
* Customer self-service should be seen is a bridge between the Democratic view of providing more government services to the public, and the Republican view of needing smaller government, Tim argues, because it makes it possible to do more with less. He cites Craigslist as the model for this: one of the top trafficked sites on the web with only 30 employees.
There's no question in my mind that he's right about this, more participatory/collaborative and open government can also be smaller and more efficient, in some arenas. Imagine asking the people of a city to go out one day and document all the potholes, broken lamp-posts, dead trees, etc, that need to be taken care of--rather than paying government employees to drive around checking on the same problems. But can we expand this model to more knotty questions of policy debate and the drafting of laws and regulations?
* The "vending machine model" of government doesn't make sense any more. Putting in taxes and getting out services doesn't scale well. We need to do more, in response, than shake the vending machine! (Hear, hear!) Tim's response is that government should think like a platform or a web service: "Government should provide fundamental services on which we, the people (also known as the market) can build applications." Tim cites the GPS system, which was originally built for military use, as an example. By opening up that data, whole industries have been built for civilian purposes. (He notes that government data shouldn't be licensed to private companies, however).
This is all well and good for certain kinds of government services, especially ones that revolve around data and publicly-developed information. But while the "vending machine" analogy captures part of what is wrong with Big Government, the GPS-open data example doesn't quite fix all that ails us. Yes, we need public data to be open, web-accessible and as real-time as possible. (I was at the meeting with Tim where thirty open government advocates hammered out the 8 principles of open government data.) But I worry about Tim's conflation of "the People" with "the Market," though I freely admit that he may only be thinking in terms of government web services. There are too many examples of market failure (hello, Alan Greenspan?) for us to simply trust that a free market will take care of the people. Think of providing for the common defense, for public health, for clean air and water, for starters. And let's not forget how often the "Market" purchases advantages from government, by using campaign contributions and lobbying to get disproportionate access to power. Surely we still need some kind of hybrid solution.
* So what might Gov 2.0 look like in the future? People doing things together to fix stuff themselves, with government solely as the convener? DIY on a civic scale, as Tim wrote recently? Or do-it-ourselves, via services like Meetup, as its founder Scott Heiferman argued back? This is the vision Tim is wrestling with. He tells the now familiar story of a group of merchants in a rural part of Hawaii who repaired a vital road that the state didn't have the money to fix as an example of what he envisions.
Do-it-yourself government, even do-it-ourselves government, sounds really intriguing but also leaves me with some worries. What's the difference between this model and vigilante government, or a "privatopia" model where wealthy citizens withdraw (even further than they already have) from the shared burdens of being one country and roll up their moats? To go back to Hawaii, how does Tim know that road will be open to all? How does this model of do-it-ourselves government ensure equality of access? To be sure, those merchants want customers to come on that road to shop at their stores, but what about other travelers?
To be continued... |
vargis14 wrote:Yep its The OPs project car. I for one hand have been fixing cars at least 8 hrs a day since 1986 and i do not want any project cars thank you very much.
But being from North america i think the OP's car is kinda neat....the last inline 6 cylinder i have seen from ford in the states was in a 80 something pickup. Plus i hate fords...but the I-6 peaked my interests.
BTW how much HP and torque did those things put out new?? Also when did down under cars loose there Balls err i mean HP and torque fall off. Was it 1972-73 like in the united states when they bolted on air pumps and inefficient catalytic converters along with dropping compression ratios into the 8-1 area so engine would not produce as much NOX??
My particular car is 162KW @ 4900 RPM and 361Nm @ 3000 rpm when new.
The Inline 6 is still in the new Falcon, its going to be killed in 2016 though, most likely going to have the 3.5L Ecoboost V6 you have in your F150.
70s/80s/90s for V8s in Australia, when our 302/351 Cleveland copped emissions regulations it went down hill, it was only putting out 149KW in 351 form in the XE Falcon, then Ford canned the V8 in 1982 with the XE Falcon and persisted with the I6 instead.
Ford USA did a short run of Cleveland V8s in the early 70s, Australia had them from 1971 to 1982.
Then in 1992 the V8 came back as an imported 5L Windsor in the EB Falcon, the same engine thats in the 90s Mustangs from 1992 to 2002, but they're crap, the Inline 6 makes 164KW in XR6/Fairmont Ghia spec, the V8 makes 175KW but its a lot heavier, so its slower, and they're harder to get power out of, the block is weak, once you start pushing over 300hp, they tend to split, everything is expensive compared to the Inline 6, from engine rebuild kits to heads/exhaust etc.
Synchromesh wrote:Nice thread but I don't get it. What's the point of spending all this money to refresh a mid-90s milquetoast sedan that's has maybe another 50K miles left in it? I could understand something rare and enthusiast but this is basically a typical grandpa-mobile.
Originally I had my eyes on an E32 7 series BMW, but parts are way too costly and pretty much with the amount of electrics they have, if something plays up, even though I'm an auto electrician, if I need to replace a computer module, its going to cost in the 4 figure range, rather than ring up the wrecker down the road and get a body control module from one of the 50,000,000 E series Falcons they have sitting down there. This particular series of Falcon was Ford Australia's top selling model, so you can pretty much go down to the super market and buy parts for it, lol.
I'd loved an 80s Ford F series or 90s Silverado, but they are just too expensive here, 90s Silverados/Sierras are still asking for $20K plus here, 80s F100s/F250s are all rusty and crap, and still over $10K.
Plus this Inline 6 is very easy to get more power out of it.
Its also satisfying turning spanners on your own cars.
50K miles? I worked on an AU Falcon with 960,000km on the clock, ex taxi on its original engine a few months ago for an electrical problem, these things can typically do 1,000,000km before its new engine time as long as its been maintained, there is a good reason the Falcon is used as a taxi here in Australia.
They don't generally have engine problems, as they're basic engines, these particular series EA-L will blow head gaskets if you don't change the coolant at the specified intervals, or if you run it dry it will blow it right away. They have an issue with the high pressure power steering line as the part that goes into the back of the pump moves about, and eventually it leaks, which leaks right into the alternator, which eats away the slip rings and brushes in the alternator, as you can see in my photos, but Repco has released a revised hose which fixed the problem.
Things like accessories, belts, will go like on any car after time.
With those low mount turbo kits they sit just under the K frame, so you'd have to pretty much fully compress the suspension to damage it, or hit a rock/animal. You can get ones that mount in the engine bay, but that low mount one is the latest in E series Falcon aftermarket goodies. |
SA wrote:If they are large enough that they are taking a noticeable amount of time, then I am certain that you will find a way to parallelize them
Dude, when you say things like that we have to wonder if you even understand what the word "parallelize" means. Not every problem is parallelizable. The classic analogy is that bearing a child takes 9 months, no matter how many women you have. It is not impossible, or even all that unlikely, to have a bunch of dependent calculations. Thus not every problem can be split up and run concurrently.
SA wrote:Google Chromium is an excellent example of this, where putting each page into its own separate process parallelized webpages rendering in a tabbed web browser, which was slow with the single renderer thread approach Firefox took.
That's a "problem" that's obviously parallelizable because it is composed of indepedent tasks. Each webpage doesn't have any dependency on any other webpage. That's not finding concurrency within a problem, that's just having a bunch of different problems to begin with.
And if it was strictly a performance question they would have just threaded it, the primary reason behind the process per window/tab concept was the security model that comes with processes.
SA wrote: I doubt that everything you run is one massive problem that cannot be broken into separate threads and if it can, you can likely put it into a SIMD programming model.
the one speaking in absurd absolutes here, not us. NO ONE has claimed that everything isn't parallelizable. They are just claiming that some things aren't, and they can't handwave that away.
SA wrote:Regardless, everyone, everywhere agrees that the single threaded programming model is a dead-end in terms of performance.
The performance increases have slowed down, this is true, but single-thread performance still matters and will continue to matter. If it DIDN'T matter, you'd see ICs with 16 in-order cores taking the world by storm. I don't see that, do you?
This ridiculous faith you have in the notion that every problem can be parallelized is just, well, absurd. It plainly isn't true. It's also more complicated than that, because even if most
of your problem is parallelizable, there is still a hard limit to how much performance you can gain by throwing parallel execution at it. Guess what the limit is? Oh, right, the amount of time your program takes in the parts that aren't parallelizable. You are only asymptotically approaching it by adding more and more parallel execution! In other words, even in a world with "free" parallelization hardware(instantaneously fast Tesla's for everyone!), singlethreaded performance will always matter. In fact, such a world would make single-threaded performance the DETERMINING factor! It will still matter!
It will always matter!
What I am referring to is known as Amdahl's law. Ubergerbil wrote a great
post about this some years back.viewtopic.php?f=2&t=44090&hilit=amdahl
SA wrote: Any business that cannot parallelize its critical software applications will be killed by those that can, in which case, the strength of a single processing unit does not matter so long as you have a sufficiently large number of them.
That maybe true if performance is extremely important to your product and you're leaving possible concurrency on the table that your competitors are picking up, but it's not true if you product is designed to deal with problems that inherently cannot be parallelized well.
And, again, if the strength of a single "processing unit" didn't matter, why don't we see ICs with umpteen in-order cores dominating the market?
SA wrote:I think you are ignoring the point being that if I can make a decent argument for them being unnecessary, then their actual performance is not really something that should be a concern for people.
If anyone is "ignoring" your point, that's because your "point" is a fantasy. You're not making a decent argument that they're unnecessary, you're just waving your hand and saying
It's like starting a mathematical proof with a priori definition for the division of zero and then "proving" a whole host of mathematical concepts. Yes, you can do some pretty groundbreaking things once you do that (1 can now equal 2, AWESOME!). It's just that, well, you know, we're not really impressed. Saying we should just ignore your first statemnt and concentrate on your later work because it's so incredible is missing the point.
SA wrote:In computer hardware, floating point units are logical units that take data inputs and a input and produce a data output according to those inputs, with a mapping from inputs to outputs that corresponds to the IEEE754 standard.
Not that I fully understand what the heck you even mean, but the IEEE754 is a bit more than just "how do I perform operations on floats of like precision." There are subtle, but incredibly important matters like "how do I do operations between floats of differing precisions" and "how do I handle exceptions." There are rounding modes, FMAs, subnormals, lions, tigers and bears! Not-so-incidentally, those kinds of things are actually the complex parts of the standard that take up the majority of its text.
SA wrote:If your statements are correct in saying that GPUs are floating point units, then block diagrams of GPUs contradict your statements by failing to adhere to the definition of a floating point unit. Here is a block diagram for a recent GPU:
Here's what Scott prefaced that diagram with:
Scott Wasson wrote: Images like the one below may not mean much divorced from context
He's only more right when they are used in the WRONG context.
SA wrote:Since what you say contradicts the definition of a floating point unit, what do you consider a floating point unit to be?
Logic that is intended to deal with Floats?
SA wrote:By the way, as a side note, page 106 of Nvidia's CUDA programming guide states that integer types are supported, which means that you can do integer operations on Nvidia's GPUs:
Do all of them handle them natively through, or just Fermi? Because the fact that a programming framework
can use them doesn't exactly mean a whole lot by itself, you know?
And, in respect to Fermi, it's perhaps more of a vector processor than a straight FPU, which JBI covered by saying "specialized" and "highly parallel." So, what do you think you are showing?
SA wrote:Emulation is usually used in reference to simulating a full machine.
News to me. When people are talking about FPUs and embedded processors, they're usually talking about software emulation, kernel emulation or how the processor can emulate having a FPU through microcode that just uses its ALU. In all cases, you're not simulating the "full machine" and in software emulation, you're not even simulating instructions at all.
SA wrote:When I realized your misuse of terminology, I edited my post to compensate for it.
Just because he uses a word in a context you're unfamiliar with doesn't mean he's
wrong. It's just your raging absolutism leading you into silliness again.
Just because you think you have really cool, nicely defined and easily understood box doesn't mean you can suddenly stuff the entire world into it. And your box sucks anyway. Stop telling us what you *think* you've learned in class and actually pay more attention. This isn't just real world versus the academy because you regularly
get the theory wrong too. |
Krynn72 wrote:So you can do a full install with the Upgrade version, as long as you enter the key from the win8 system builder copy during install? I know you explained it, but I'm not sure I follow.
Captain Ned wrote:Ryu Connor wrote:We toast a beer to your brave adventure early adopter.
How do you tell the pioneers?
They're the ones with arrows in their backs.
drfish wrote:I'll just use my OEM key on another system.
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest |
Mononono is an advised solution to prevent Mono from cropping up in a system. If you are using Gentoo, just add the line
dev-lang/mono to the file
/etc/portage/package.mask and add "
-mono" to your USE flags in
For Arch Linux, add
libgdiplus to the
IgnorePkg section of
/etc/pacman.conf. You will get the following message when installing the group
gnome-extra: "Do you want to skip the above package(s) for this upgrade?" Just say yes and anything depending on Mono won't be installed.
The following are vectors of Mono infection, according to Wikipedia, which attempt to replace legitimate applications and need to be removed:
Finding and Removing Mono-based Software
The following are programs that use the Mono application programming interface|API and C# instead of Java, Python or other open architectures.
|Task||Recommended application or solution||Mono intrusion vector||Criticism|
|Development||Anjuta, KDevelop, Eclipse, Java, QtCreator, Parrot, PHP, etc.||aped in mono by MonoDevelop|
|Multimedia||Rhythmbox (GTK/GNOME), Amarok (Qt/KDE), Exaile (GTK/GNOME), XMMS2, etc.||aped in mono by Muine|
|Multimedia||Rhythmbox (GTK/GNOME), Amarok (Qt/KDE), Clementine, Totem (GTK/GNOME), Exaile (GTK/GNOME), Songbird (XUL), VLC, etc.|| aped in mono by Banshee
It is the default player in Ubuntu, with a bad interface, it is sponsored by Novell and because this Banshee uses a very permissive licence -- not sufficient to protect multimedia contents and not good to protect the project against patents.
|Torrent||Transmission (GTK/GNOME), Deluge (GTK/GNOME), KTorrent (Qt/KDE), etc.||aped in mono by Monsoon||
Monsoon is a bittorrent client which uses monotorrent library. Mono people can try to include Monsoon as part of a default GNOME installation. Mono promoter; OpenSUSE already includes monsoon and Banshee in its GNOME installations.
Monsoon and monotorrent use the MIT/X11 licence. It's not good for GNU/Linux to promote licences with weak copyleft; instead use GNU GPLv3 or copyleft licenses. And MIT/X11 is not good for protecting projects against software patents.
|Rendering||(Panda3D)||aped in mono by Unity|
|Note-taking||Gnote (GTK/GNOME), zim, knotes (Qt/KDE), Basket, Getting Things GNOME, etc.||aped in mono by Tomboy|| The sad thing is that Tomboy included by default in a lot of GNU/Linux distributions. Gtk-sharp has a lot of packages, while other bindings have nothing. This causes API Domination controlled mainly by an abusive monopolist, Microsoft.
|Virtual worlds||Cobalt||aped in mono by libsecondlife|
|Passwords||Password Gorilla.||aped in mono by KeePass 2|
|Photo management||gThumb (GTK/GNOME), jBrout, digiKam (Qt/KDE), Solang,Gwenview, kornelix Fotoxx, Shotwell, etc.||aped in mono by F-Spot|
|Launcher||Avant Window Navigator , Launchy, Katapult (Qt/KDE), Deskbar, etc.||aped in mono by GNOME Do, Docky|
|Video||Avidemux, Kino, LiVES.||aped in mono by Diva|
|Feeds/RSS||Liferea (GTK/GNOME), Akregator (Qt/KDE), Thunderbird, RSSOwl, etc.||aped in mono by Blam!|
|Search||Strigi, Tracker, Recoll,Pinot, etc.||aped in mono by Beagle|
|IM||Pidgin, Kopete||aped in mono by Galaxium|
|IRC||Konversation, Quassel IRC (Qt/KDE), XChat (GTK/GNOME)||aped in mono by Smuxi||
Although it's free GNU software, it promotes C# development instead of Java.
|Docks||Cairo-Dock||aped in mono by Docky| |
By Lindsay McCormack, Editorial Intern
Photo by credit: Edwin Martinez
Did you catch Roland Legiardi-Laura’s documentary, To Be Heard,last weekend? It aired on local PBS stations several times throughout the weekend and was well worth watching.
It tells a story that is both grim and hopeful. It follows three teens who hope to escape their poverty-stricken lives in the Bronx. They want to go to college and see more of the world. They want to stay out of prison and away from harm. The teenagers in this film are stunningly talented poets.
Anthony, Karina, and Pearl are high school juniors, all facing complex issues at school and at home. In poetry class, the three expose their innermost thoughts and emotions to their classmates on a daily basis.
Pearl, who struggles with obesity and body image, dreams both to overcome these societal pressures and to go to Sarah Lawrence College in New York. In the film, we watch her find confidence and see herself in a new light. One particularly striking scene takes place at Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. In the same woods where Henry Thoreau lived and wrote, Pearl stands among the trees and stretches her arms in all directions. She makes way for the sun, allowing herself to take up space and feel free in her own skin.
Anthony, who struggles to stay out of jail, is perhaps the most talented and volatile of this group. Though his mouth is quick to get him in trouble with school authorities, he becomes someone else when he recites poetry. His words aren’t necessarily cleaner when he’s speaking poetry, but there’s meaning behind them—he is a rapper without the bass or the kick-drum. Performing on stage before a screaming audience, words pour from him effortlessly, his arms pulsing and pumping before him like a conductor. His nervous energy practically leaps from through the screen.
Karina, Anthony’s girlfriend during part of the film, struggles with realities that many young girls can relate to: a painful relationship with her mother and pressure to act as a parent to her younger siblings. She not only takes on this challenge at home—we see her loving and gentle nature with her little siblings—but she transforms these difficulties into a fiery poetic energy. She makes art out of her teenage exhaustion. She has the teachers, friends, and talent that allow her to channel something very rare and compelling.
Though the relationship between Karina and Anthony is not the main focus of the film—nothing can overshadow the poetry that the rest of the story revolves around—it is refreshing to see a genuine, loving relationship between two young people. With all of the Ronnie-and-Sam-esque crap thrown at us every day, here is a young romance that is beautiful and genuinely dramatic.
This is not just another documentary about poverty and suffering. This film is about being young and trying to find your own voice. It is about what great teachers can do, and the talent we must recognize in each other and ourselves. For this movie-goer, Legiardi-Laura’s 2011 documentary To Be Heard is pure poetry.
For more information about the film, see www.tobeheard.org; Click here to find local listings for upcoming broadcasts. To arrange for a screening, or learn more about the launch of the world’s first mobile/online poetry community for youth, email: email@example.com or visit: http://www.facebook.com/powerpoetry. |
Enhanced extension tubes include a compression ring and 48mm filter threads. Extension tubes are placed in the end of a drawtube to extend the current length of the drawtube. If you have replaced a focuser with a low-profile model, an extension tube may be required to reach focus. The Enhanced Extension Tubes from Jims Mobile include a compression ring for holding eyepieces and accessories without scratching the equipment. The adjusting screw presses against the ring which tightens around the eyepiece or accessory.
|Manufacturer||Jims Mobile, Inc. (JMI)| |
Here are some of the TV on DVD options available this Tuesday.
- The Batman (Season 5)
- Cannon (Season 1, Vol. 1)
- Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan (Season 3)
- Fastlane (Complete Series)
- I Dream of Jeannie (Season 5)
- Jake and the Fatman (Season 1, Vol. 1)
- Monk (Season 6)
- Psych (Season 2)
- Soul Food (Final Season)
Read More | Amazon
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Frito Lay is missing out on a golden social media opportunity. As reported on yumsugar.com, the chip maker is caving to “loud” complaints from a few thousand secret snackers, a not-so-negative Facebook page and a big feature story about it all in the Wall Street Journal by ditching the 100 percent compostable packaging for five of its six “Sun Chips” flavors, effective like, now.
Apparently the crinkle noise on these bags is just unbearable for some folks…but who manhandles their chip bags like this lady? Just take out the chip…and munch. That’s all.
I must agree with BenHur76008 who so eloquently states in his response to the video:
buy other chips then you crybaby. It’s sad you feel the need to complain about it. Its a f$#%ing chip bag, nothing else more can be said.
Frito Lay is a massive company. Certainly corporate could come up with a great way to promote the issue and deal with it publicly. The bag’s greater good, frankly, is more important than whiny customers making a stink out of noise — especially right now when the Green movement is in full force.
There was no social media crisis, yet. Funny enough, a social media crisis could end up saving the eco-friendly bag. But I ultimately think Frito Lay missed out. Take this issue to social media, run with it and lead the online conversation. Why not poll the fans, focus groups, the entire country for that matter and create a debate over the bag?
Pure speculation, but perhaps nixing the packaging has nothing to do with the bag noise at all. Could it be that the bag put too much strain on Frito Lay’s bottom line? Then this baglash would be the perfect diversion… |
The Riverside County Board of Supervisors agreed to salary hikes for county employees recently, in exchange for changes to the pension system.
The supervisors approved the granting of more than $730 million in raises over four years, according to a story published by the Press-Enterprise.
However, in order to make this happen, new hires will now receive less in pension benefits – and current employees will have to pay more toward their retirement funds, the P-E reported.
The county – which still closes its offices on Fridays in a money-saving move instituted when the country plunged into a recession – has lost $230 million in tax revenue since 2007, according to published reports.
This year, the county has laid off 229 employees in an effort to balance the 2013 fiscal budget and has not ruled out the possibility of more layoffs in future, the P-E reported.
The county’s pension system now owes $4.7 billion to current and future retirees and lists assets worth $4.2 billion -- already running at a deficit -- published reports stated.
According to the newspaper report, UCLA Prof. David Lewin said pension reforms to counter pay raises are usually done in times of economic prosperity, not when a county is cash strapped.
The P-E reported that Barbara Olivier, the county’s human resources director, said it was a challenge to achieve pension reform because it is illegal for a county to remove an employee benefit already in place. |
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"What did he do? All he did was score!" - John Ward
"Bravely taking to his feet, he beat a very brave retreat." Sir Robin's Minstrels.
How about Hope is Nowhere?
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To get started, pleaseupload a photo or avatar for yourself (if you haven’t already.) Whether it's of you, your dog, or your racquet it doesn't matter, but it helps people remember you. You can also personalize Your Page with pictures, links, RSS feeds, colors and more here.
Thanks to everyone inviting their friends, we now have over 10,000 members and we're growing by 100 new members a day. Invite yours too!
I'm about a 3 - 3.5, and am available at odd days mid-week. Shenley park is closest, but I'm open to other courts as well. I'll be available for a game on Wednesday or Thursday. Let me know.
I just recently moved to the area, and I too am looking for hitting partners. I'm 3.5, and I've taught a bit as well when I lived in Pittsburgh. Let me know if you want to set something up! |
"Tim, I live on the Westside close to the Cheviot Hills courts and I am looking for other tennis players. I play at level 3.5. I work regular business hours, so evenings or early mornings are best for me. Hope to hear from you soon."
"Hey Tracey (or anyone really), sorry for the last minute msg, but I just became free to hit tonight.
Let me know if you want to play, your time is fine. You can email me at firstname.lastname@example.org
"I followed my email update to see if someone was crazy enough to want to play this early in the morning. Or they perhaps knew of some magical lighted courts in West LA.
I can't make it on those dates, but would be interested later as 3-3.5…"
Random things about me (hobbies, occupation, tennis history, favorite band, etc.):
This info is out of date! I got hitched & moved to NYC. Now have 0 hitting partners/friends except my wife who doesn't dig it.
I casually play for enjoyment only, but enjoy competitive spirits. I thought I would give this a shot since I've accumulated a total of 2 hitting partners in 2 years in LA. I work full-time so I can only play at night & weekends.
I used to play a lot ~ 3.5-4.0. Then I moved to LA and started my career. Now my lungs feel like they might be the size of a couple pears.
My game: serve is weak; footwork is sluggish; backhand is inconsistent; forehand is top-spinny ...
(had to keep the parrellism) ;) But seriously, I have some trouble toning down the top-spin on my forehand so I can understand if that can be annoying to some players.
The "I'm a:" section reminded me of my old days as a NCAA team manager (does not equate to skill) and as a racquet stringer. I no longer keep my machine in LA, so I can't help there. But I'd be happy to share my opinion about strings, racquets and equipment.
I AM NOT HERE TO DATE. Seems like that's a common theme here. Hitting partners & friends welcome though.
My tennis skill (please check your NTRP if you know it):
Tim, I live on the Westside close to the Cheviot Hills courts and I am looking for other tennis players. I play at level 3.5. I work regular business hours, so evenings or early mornings are best for me. Hope to hear from you soon. |
Mixed feelings 'cause it is a publicly viewable board, but my post might have saved the thread with causing more of an "awww" than a feminist uprising. LOL! But I'll decide by about the same time tomorrow night on this one, if I still feel okay with the thread or just leave it here. Everybody already knows that in a discussion board setting that the views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the website owner or owners, or one would hope that's fairly clear 'cause it's a place for public gathering and public input within the spectrum of allowed topics.
And a humor board's going to open the door to a bit of "uh-oh" unless we're going to be so iron fisted around here about a humor board. With the obvious exception of obvious crudity, it's been my experience that that's the least moderated board, and will likely continue to be so. Might bring in some new members just wanting to comment on this particular thread. LOL! And with some of the really excessive demensions of sovereignty that some UR folks have given, I can hear the nonsense now:
"You know, when God gave my wife tongue cancer, that was the quietest 6 months of my life! I was sooo thankful!!"
Or something like that, that you'd just want to shackle someone to the wall and break all of the China in the house over their head over a quip like that. LOL! A wife is someone precious in a guy's life and should never be mocked. Amazing to me when some guys will say that they can't trust any of their wife's decisions! They ought to know, since they chose to marry them!! In a situation like that, that hubby was her first big mistake obviously! I mean, he sure thought she was perfect back in the day, didn't he? Amazing how many guys that first meet a girl that they particularly fancy: they're hoping, praying, and about to the point of begging sometimes that that girl would have time for talking to them. Well, she believed him that she was that special in his eyes. And now what does she get these many years later with him just ignoring what she has to say? Just grieves the Holy Spirit when a woman is stuck in that position years later.
If He'd only been allowed to arrange the marriage, it might have still had this or that to steer through and around and to work together intensely on resolving peacefully and in the best interests of the plan of God and of the relationship, but when He wanted the relationship between them, He's a whole lot quicker with riding His Revelation 19 white horse into the situation to save the day -- if they'll simply stay on the Written Word, keep every care cast upon Him, refuse to be offended, and allow a doubt or two about their own infallibility -- instead of insisting all of the time that it's the other person that's needing to doubt their infallibility rather than themselves. So, I guess if there's a male version, and particularly a Christian male version of a feminist then I are one.
Sometimes on a ministry set of boards it won't necessarily be about "appropriate vs. inappropriate" just as that isn't always the case with any other area of life, whether a type of medicinal treatment, cleansing of the body, relationships, or whatever. But it'll be a matter of timing, for when something is particularly striking and says something to someone. And obviously only the Holy Spirit can cause it to really make that kind of entrance when a person or two needed to see that, and sometimes it might only be for a person or two even if a thousand others are offended at it being uncouth or whatever. The Holy Spirit is quite the stately gentleman, but He's also the One that'll be yelling at Yankee Stadium in front of everybody that He loves someone, like in the closing chapters of the movie "Anger Management".
And how would every knee not bow and every tongue not confess when He's got destined appointments with each individual where He'll do just that kind of thing, as predetermined by His Written Word that's already gone forth, both in Written form and what He said when He said it in releasing it, since sound, and particularly His Sound, never goes away?
Yeah, I'll restore it to the boards 'cause it's an example of HOW NOT TO TREAT a woman, because it betrays the animalistic nature of that kind of treatment of a woman who's got every right to be heard all of the days of her life, barring the rarest exceptions of infirmity or blatant rebellion to God. |
Samsung President JK Shin described the Galaxy S4 as "PEOPLE-INSPIRED INNOVATION".
At first glance, you will be deceived and say that S4 is the same as the S3 but when you look closely, you will see the physical differences with the phones. I gathered here some of the specifications of these two phones to emphasize their differences and innovations.
S3 Versus S4
- 1280x720 pixels, 4.8 inches
- HD Super AMOLED
- 1080 x 1920 pixels, 5.0 inches
- HD Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen
- 16/ 32GB User memory (64GB available
- soon) ＋ microSD slot (up to 64GB)
- Card slot microSD, up to 64 GB
- Internal 16/32/64 GB storage, 2 GB RAM
- Main(Rear): 8 Mega pixel Auto Focus camera with flash & Zero Shutter Lag, BSI
- Sub (Front): 1.9 Mega pixel camera, HD recording @30fps with Zero Shutter Lag, BSI
- 13 MP, 4128 x 3096 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
- Dual Shot, Simultaneous HD video and image recording, geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, image stabilization, HDR
- Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
- Android OS, v4.2.2 (Jelly Bean)
- The S4 is 20% longer battery life than the S3 at 2,600 mAh
- S4 is thinner than S3.
S4 Touchless Gestures
Let say, you are eating greasy food with your fingers and your phone rings; with the use of Air Gestures you can answer your call by just waving of your hand on the phone. And also allows the user to view messages by simply hovering a finger over the icons on the scree. Great it! Isn't it? There are still things and functions that the S4 has,but it's your turn to discover it. |
A Californian worries for weeks before visiting the DMV...fretting about when to squeeze in the trip and knowing that beyond any doubt...there is a miserable time waiting for them at the hands of a government bureau fraught with red tape. I think that is why everyone I know waits until the last minute to deal with anything that deals with the place even though it really holds our most dear possession in a sense...our privilege to drive.
I was fortunate since I was not waiting until the last minute but instead attending to my license renewal which is coming up soon but not today or this month even. I could drag my feet and relax in here.
I walked in and there was a smiling Joel. I know, what is wrong with me? The guy is everywhere. And the hard part is that we always seem to have such a nice time even though we are not a thing anymore. And I am getting geared up to move...there is no chance this is going anywhere...right?
But he was there easy laugh and all. I worked my way through the lines of bureaucracy with a smile and a companion as I found out that my driving record is spotless as usual...my car is not in the CA system since it was purchased in Oregon and I made an appointment to take another written test to drive with plenty of time in case I fail to retake the thing.
Usually the room is heavy with anxious people getting ready to part with the ungodly sums us Californians shell out to drive on our roads and pay our officers to ticket us.
Today, though I was tired and overworked on schoolwork and other things...I felt somewhat serene. It could have been sitting next to a guy with a cute smile or it could have been the sheer scope of good things that seems to be dazzling the corners of my vision...but even one of the darker experiences of any Californian's life...a visit to the DMV...seemed...I don't know, fun.
There, I said it. I had fun at the DMV. The guy behind the counter was funny, handsome and nice too. He had remembered me at my supermarket checker job from a few months ago and he was really helpful.
I had to admit it was just really nice to be there. |
The Apostle Paul wrote in the books of Romans that God has revealed Himself to every man. He teaches us that this knowledge is a result of creation and conscience. Because of this, every man is without excuse. (Rom. 1:18-20) Man’s rejection of God’s existence is not because there isn’t sufficient evidence. Rather, it is because he chooses to suppresses the evidence which exists.
Why would man suppress the witness of God’s existence through the voice of creation and conscience? Because man wants to justify his immorality and sin, and the only way to quiet his innate knowledge and conviction of his sin requires drowning his conscience. This can happen in several ways, however, I want to discuss something different in this post.
Christopher Hitchens died of esophageal cancer this week at the age of 62 in Houston, TX. Hitchens was one of the militant atheists who brazenly spoke against Christianity and those who believe it. He has become the hero and idol of thousands who use his caustic arguments for rejecting the Gospel. However, as certain as he spoke about his rejection of belief in God, in a rare moment of personal candor, we get to see the truth that, in the midst of his rejection, he could not fully suppress the innate knowledge which resides in every man.
Watch this clip of Christopher Hitchens and you will see and hear that a man’s conscience, regardless of what he says, is ultimately on the side of truth!
Did you hear it? Even Christopher could not make himself rid the truth of God’s existence from the world even if he had the chance to. Let us faithfully speak the “truth in love” to all men, even the hostile ones…their conscience is on our side.
What about Christopher? Where is he now? Heaven or Hell? I can’t answer that as I do not know what happened those final minutes of his life, but if he held to his God hating proclamations, he is in hell. However, one thing I know with certainty… Christopher and every other man is without excuse! |
If we have stock in our Oklahoma facility stock status will show a number. If stock status says "See shipping info. tab" then we do not have sufficient stock level in our main warehouse. However, we have access to over 20 distribution warehouses across the country, with our main suppliers delivering shipments to us the next business day. In the event that you order an item that we are out of stock, we make every attempt to bring in your item the next business day for reshipment. This will normally only delay your order by 1-2 business days. If we can't supply the item because our vendors are also out of stock we will contact you by phone or email.
If stock level shows to be less that what you require, please order as many items as you need and we can normally fill the order within a few days or will contact you if sufficient stock is not available from our suppliers
We stock the most popular fast moving engines, but often we can't keep up with demand or have them arriving daily for reshipment. For many brands, we can ship direct from the manufacturers warehouse to you, this will speed shipment time. We will contact you if there is a supply issue, otherwise you can expect you engine to arrive in 2-7 business days depending on your location. We do not ship to Alaska or Hawaii.
Do you need a commercial address for engine delivery?
This is how it works:
Engines showing stock level of 1 or more: No commercial address needed.
Engines not in stock in our Oklahoma warehouse as follows:
Honda: No commercial address needed. Shipped UPS or Fedex Ground
Briggs & Stratton: No commercial address needed. Shipped UPS or Fedex Ground. Except 3-cylinder or 30hp and larger Vanguard.
Kawasaki: Commercial address required for truckline shipment, except small frame engines below 7 hp.
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Commercial Address Required: This means we can't ship to your home, home based business, church, farm, school, prison or any other facility with limited access. The business needs to be open normal business hours Monday - Friday. Truckline shipments normally take 2-5 business days depending on your location. They do not call in advance since there should always be someone at the place of business. Examples are:
- Lumber Yard
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- Shipping Warehouse
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If you are not able to locate a commercial shipping address, please give us a call and we may be able to arrange shipment to a truckline dock in your area.
Note: Please provide a shipping address that is valid for USPS OR UPS. If orders are small and light, we normally use USPS Priority Mail for faster service times. If over 3-5 lbs, we would normally use UPS or Fedex. Also note: In the event we do not have sufficient stock, or our inventory level was wrong, we will bring in extra inventory to reship your order the next business day. We may also choose to ship large orders from multiple warehouses to speed up delivery time.
******* Due to Factory & Vendor territories and EPA laws, we do not ship to Alaska, Hawaii or any country outside the US. These orders will be cancelled and refund issued. |
|visits||member for||2 years, 7 months|
|seen||May 7 at 6:07|
I'm Jonathan Rascher, a computer science student at North Central College. I stop by occasionally to ask questions, and to answer them when I'm able.
|bio||website||bcat.name||visits||member for||2 years, 7 months|
|location||United States||seen||May 7 at 6:07| |
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Q. What would you say about the check swing call?
MICHAEL YOUNG: You know what, it was 2 2, threw a good slider, kind of bit out of the zone at the last minute, I checked, if he had rung me up, I would have walked back to the dugout and focused on defense like I usually do. I got the call in my favor and just tried to lock in on the strike zone at that point.
Q. After that call did you see the pitcher lose his concentration at that point because of everybody jawing against the umpire?
MICHAEL YOUNG: I doubt it. I mean, he's a good pitcher, they have a good team. They had the best record in the league, so I doubt that's a characteristic of their team. Either way, that's really not my business. My business is my playing, focusing on what I have to do at that point in order to help the team win.
Q. Two games and six or eight guys have already come up really big. How confident are you right now in your teammates?
MICHAEL YOUNG: My teammates have done great. I just think that we've had a great mentality these first two games. We're really not thinking about some huge, grand picture here. We empty the tank for the game we're playing that day. We emptied the tank today for Game 2; we're going to empty the tank for Game 3. We just push them all in and play as hard as we can.
Our pitching has been great. Cliff and C.J. did great, and our bullpen was awesome today. We got in a bit of a jam in the 7th, and they got out of it. So my teammates have been great.
I imagine when you get in the post season play that the good teams are the ones that have complete, total team efforts, and that's what we're getting right now.
Q. What do you think when you see Josh Hamilton making diving catches and running into the wall and doing all that stuff?
MICHAEL YOUNG: I hope he catches every one of them. The injury stuff is on the back burner now. I'm pretty sure everyone is going to go no matter what at this point.
Like I said, when I say we're going to empty the tank for every game, we're going to do that. If we're a little banged up or a little hurt, we're pushing them in and we're going. We're playing too talented a team to sit there and relax or say this guy is banged up or he doesn't play or this guy is banged up, he gets pulled out. That's not going to happen. We're going to go all out every pitch, every inning, every game, regardless of what might happen to us physically.
Q. What was the home run pitch and what was location, and also, how gratifying is it for you to finally get to the post season and have a big hit in Game 2?
MICHAEL YOUNG: It was a fastball, a sinker that stayed up a little bit. At that point I wasn't thinking about doing anything too big. I was thinking about focusing on the strike zone, wasn't thinking about doing too much, just trying to put the barrel on the ball, stay as short as I possibly could.
But for me personally, I mean, this personal stuff goes out the window. It's always nice to contribute and nice to play well. We're competitors, we want to do our jobs well. But at the end of the day the W is what every team is searching for, regardless of how it comes, you get the win, that's what we're searching for. I feel no different today than I did yesterday.
Yesterday I went 0 for 4, but I feel no different today than I did yesterday. The win is what our team is searching for right now.
ALDS Game 2 postgame interview: Washington
Q. Can you talk a little bit about the way C.J. pitched and then the position that you guys find yourselves in for the first time in the franchise history?
RON WASHINGTON: Well, you know, he really showed maturity out there today. He stayed within himself, he used all his pitches. He went around the strike zone with it. He never really got shaken. You know, he bent a little bit, but he didn't break, and that's exactly what we needed. We needed him to go out there and give us a good outing, and he did.
You know, being up 2 0 is huge, especially winning two on the road. But we still haven't accomplished anything yet. Our goal is to get as far as we possibly can, and we're just going to take it back to Texas and come out and try to play as hard as we can again, and after nine innings see if we've got the lead and got the win.
But nothing is won yet. We've still got to go out there and play baseball. That's a very resilient team over there. They're not going to lay down, but we aren't, either. So it's nice to be going home.
Q. The last time you were in here and you got swept, you said it would be a different result the next time you come in. I mean, is it some sort of prophecy that you knew something nobody else did?
RON WASHINGTON: No, I just know my ballclub. We had the first game won, and things just fell apart there, and the momentum shifted. We're very confident in our ability to go out there and play baseball. It's not always the best team that wins, it's the team that plays the best, and for two games we played pretty good baseball. Right now that's all it is, two games. But I know my team, and we weren't healthy. I wasn't making any excuses, I was just making a fact.
It's the first time in a long time we've had all the guys together. Yesterday one group of guys picked us up and today another group picked us up. That's what our lineup is all about. But more than anything it happened on the mound. Cliff Lee gave us a great outing, C.J. gave us a great outing, Ollie came in and finished it all off, so that's what it's all about.
Q. Can you talk about what you saw on Michael's check swing?
RON WASHINGTON: You know, the umpire said he didn't swing. If he would have said he swung, I don't think we would have argued about that, either. It was a judgment call, and those things happen in baseball. Sometimes they work in your favor and sometimes they don't. They worked in our favor today.
ALDS Game 2 postgame interview: Wilson
Q. C.J., how many hitters in that lineup would you say that you're actually concerned about when you're pitching?
C.J. WILSON: All of them. I mean, every guy in that lineup, even guys that get switched in at the last minute on the roster I'm concerned about. I mean, obviously you don't just you don't take a breather and just throw the ball down the middle. I'm out there trying to make a pitch every single time, trying to be perfect. That's just what it's all about.
Watching Cliff yesterday and watching Roy Halladay last night, I had some inspiration, so it was pretty fun. But with guys like Crawford, Bartlett getting on base, that has a little bit of a factor, as well, got to go from the slide step, prevent the stolen base and all that. But I was lucky to come up with some really big pitches in situations where there was guys on base and the game was tight, especially early, getting Longoria out with a guy on base and all that stuff.
Q. Aside from the inspiration you got from watching Lee, what were a couple of things that you learned in watching the way that he approached their lineup that you were able to really use today?
C.J. WILSON: Well, some of that is proprietary technology that I'm not allowed to share because it's team secrets. No, Cliff is a better version of me. He throws a little bit harder, he's a little bit taller, has a little bit smaller waist, so I try to follow his lead on a lot of stuff. I just watched him kind of work in and out with his fastball, and from there I was able to see which guys maybe it was necessary to go in on and which guys it wasn't, and that had a big factor today.
Obviously I made a mistake in with Bartlett, I hit him, but I'm trying to throw that ball pretty much where I did, he just leaned into it.
Cliff is the perfect guy for me to stream off of because he doesn't walk anybody and that's really my weakness is I put guys on base unnecessarily. I have good stuff so I can challenge guys the way he does, but it's something you get more and more comfortable with that as you see somebody that has pretty much the same stuff as you do it right in front of you, so that was the big thing.
Q. Can you talk about the last at bat and what you were trying to do?
C.J. WILSON: Yeah, I mean, right there I had a couple of bats against them earlier. The bat where I walked him, I threw the pitch almost where I wanted to if I threw the pitch right where I wanted to it's for sure a strike out looking. I had that finishing sequence in my head.
It's like when you play chess, you sort of remember what moves set up other moves, and I had that in the back of my head knowing, okay, I'm going to hit my spot this time. I'm not going to try to do too much. Last time I tried to throw a sinker and it kind of cut, and that time I just threw a four seamer straight away. I brought Treanor out to the mound because I was like I haven't thrown him a four seamer the whole at bat. I'm like screw it, we're just going with that. We're just going to go right there.
I had thrown him some curve balls that he swung and missed on, I'd thrown him some cutters that he had fouled off, throw him some sinkers that he fouled off and stuff, and changes that I'd missed with. So I was like, you know, I'll throw him the one thing the most simple, elegant solution to this whole thing is just boom, strike right there. If he hits it, he hits it, but I'm definitely not walking him this time. I'm throwing him a strike, and that's what happened.
Q. About Michael Young, he played a lot of games waiting to get here. Can you describe a little bit about how you and maybe some of your teammates felt in seeing him get that three run homer?
C.J. WILSON: Well, I'm not in the dugout during our offensive stuff, I'm kind of in the back just trying to zone in, trying to relax and stuff. But I heard some controversy, I heard the fans kind of boo or whatever and then the next thing I heard was a whack, and our dugout went crazy. I saw it on replay.
But the thing is about Mike, like he's trying really hard, so we could tell if he had struck out or whatever yesterday, it's like he's like, man, I'm here, I'm in the playoffs, what I've always wanted, what I've wanted with this team. Because the thing is Mike is our backbone. We've built our team around him for the last couple years, actually the past ten years, I guess, if you really think about it, past ten seasons.
And in that 1,500 games or whatever it was, that's him playing 150 or 160 games every year. He's our Derek Jeter or our Cal Ripken or whatever, that's our guy. We rely on him for all sorts of stuff. But he's got tremendous work ethic and we knew it was just a matter of time before he came up big on offense, because he'd made some really great plays on defense already.
So I was excited obviously because to have that cushion is huge, but our offense just has weapons 1 through 9 and even guys on the bench. We have guys on the bench that can come up and hit a home run or steal a base or whatever. We've been watching it for the last couple years. We watched these guys develop and watched these guys zone in, and Mike is just absolutely like I said, I mean, he's the captain, the backbone, everything. To see him succeed in that situation, in a huge situation for us as a team, is awesome. Individually, like everybody has that extra little fist pump inside, you know, just that relief of, okay, Mike got his hit, Mike drove us runs in or whatever. Now anything is possible. That's kind of the way we look at it.
Q. Talk about the difference for this team between last year and this year in terms of its bent, not break, results.
C.J. WILSON: Well, I think the pieces that we've exchanged, bringing in Vlady and bringing in Darren Oliver, having that veteran presence out there, it keeps everybody calm because we know that we can count on these guys to come up and influence the other team, influence the game.
And when there's trouble going on, I think a lot of us have experienced that. Like when you first come into the league, you fail. You come up there and maybe you succeed, maybe you fail. But then you kind of get an idea of what it takes for you to succeed, whether it's like maybe certain lefties are going to be cheating on your breaking ball or whatever. And as you go along, you get used to pitching with guys on base, you get used to pitching out of jams, and the only way to do that is just to be thrown into the fire. Last year a lot of guys got thrown into the fire. For the last couple of years, I was thrown into the fire in the bullpen.
So now when there's a guy on base or whatever, I'm like, you know, I've gotten out of this before. I've struck my way out of bases loaded, no outs, I've done whatever I've had to do in extreme situations. And also yielded to the bullpen and trusted that O'Day and Ollie and guys like that are going to come in and clean up my mess, which they did, so it's awesome.
I think it's kind of a hive mind. We have 25 guys on the team and everybody is in focus and they're going after every pitch. It's crazy. It's the energy, I've never been around anything like it, and it's just that much better than it was last year.
Q. How would you describe the mood of your team right now being up 2-0 and heading home?
C.J. WILSON: Very positive, very confident. We play well at home. I don't know if we're going to be wearing the red jerseys or the white jerseys or whatever, but everybody is happy. It's like once the seal breaks and we get that first hit, we get that first run, you see the energy just spike in the clubhouse. Everybody is doing the claw and we're all having fun. This is the most fun a lot of us have ever had playing on the team before. It's just a great group of guys, and that's the big thing. We are all pulling for each other, so it's just very positive.
Q. Did you learn anything watching Cliff Lee pitch yesterday about the Rays' batters and how did that affect you today?
C.J. WILSON: Cliff is great with throwing his fastball for strikes. He's great at getting ahead in the count, he's great at working both sides of the plate. The thing I try to draft on him is figuring out which guys he's going to go in on, which guys I can go in on because of that.
Some guys you have to keep more honest than others. Some guys are going to go up there and really just sort of cheat, so you've just got to kind of figure out - because him and I are so similar in terms of the package, the fastball is pretty similar, the sinker is pretty similar, everything is close enough that I can just sort of monkey see, monkey do on his success. And if a guy gets a hit off him, I can be like, well, I'm not going to do that. So that's pretty much how it goes.
This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs. |
They also keep you healthy inside... Especially when it comes to cholesterol levels.
They actually increase or decrease your risk for heart disease.
Dr. Jeff swanson with united regional says there are three different choleserol levels you need to know and discuss with your doctor.
H-d-l's are good.... they keep cholesterol out of your circulation and keep your blood vessels free of plaque....
So you want this level to be higher.
L-d-l's on the other hand -- raise your risk of heart attack and stroke
You want to have a low l-d-l level.
And finally -- triglycerides increase your risk for heart disease.
They're raised if you have problems with obesity, blood sugar, if you eat proccessed foods that will increase your triglyceride levels.
Dr. Swanson says knowing your levels and working with your doctor is important...
A healthy adult should have an l-d-l level of less than 160...
If you have high blood pressure -- doctor's typically want those levels less than 130...
And if you're diabetic -- dr. Swanson tells his patients to aim for less than 100.
So how do you achieve your goals?
Dr. Swanson says the first steps are eating right and exercise.
They work hand in hand. If you exercise more you'll increase hdl and lower ldl levels.
But if you can't reach your goals that way...
Your doctor may consider medication.
A lot of times you're fighting genetics. If mom and dad had bad hdls and high ldls and heart attacks in their 40's and 50's diet and exercise may not give you the best recovery from your risks. In that case we may to add medicines in those groups.
And dr. Swanson says smokers need to quit.
That's probably the worse thing that we've invented as humans is smoking. It damages your blood vessels directly and changes your cholesterol and triglycerides to where it raises your risks.
So know your numbers and set goals with your doctors to keep your cholesterol where it needs to be. |
A 30th District Court jury found Ronnie Dabney guilty of manufacturing a controlled substance, more than 400 grams.
He'll serve 30 years in prison for that charge.
Dabney skipped out on the last day of his trial last month.
He took the stand today and told attorneys that he didn't show up because he thought he had already been found guilty and he wanted to go to the lake with his dogs.
When he didn't show up for court, a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Wichita County sheriff's deputies say they eventually found him hiding under some trees at Holliday Creek, near the Flying J Truck Stop in the 23-hundred block of Jacksboro Highway.
Three other men were arrested for hindering his arrest. |
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This is an astonishing book. It is astonishing on several levels: as a worm’s-eye view of the “undercity” of one of the world’s largest metropolises; as an intensely reported, deeply felt account of the lives, hopes and fears of people traditionally excluded from literate narratives; as a story that truly hasn’t been told before, at least not about India and not by a foreigner. But most of all, it is astonishing that it exists at all.
Katherine Boo, a New Yorker staff writer who won a Pulitzer Prize while working at The Washington Post, spent three years and four months (from November 2007 to March 2011) following the lives of some of Mumbai’s most deprived citizens, the dirt-poor residents of a squatter slum on the periphery of its international airport. Annawadi, in the shadow of luxury hotels, is “a bitty slum popped up in the biggest city of a country that holds one third of the planet’s poor.” Built on swampy land abutting a sewage lake, it is home to a motley collection of marginal Indians desperate to make a living out of the detritus of the city’s economic boom.
These are the footnotes to the success story of what was briefly called “Shining India,” the poor people who are usually, in other accounts, treated as a collectivity, the object of economists’ analyses, politicians’ promises and ideologues’ outrage. In “Behind the Beautiful Forevers,” Boo humanizes them as individuals with their own stories to tell. Overcoming the obstacles to effective reporting posed by her class, gender, ethnicity and language, Boo follows their lives and experiences in an effort to understand the problems of poverty from the bottom up. The result is a searing account, in effective and racy prose, that reads like a thrilling novel but packs a punch Sinclair Lewis might have envied.
The narrative teems with larger-than-life figures to whom Boo instantly draws you: Abdul, a Muslim teen with a single-minded talent for scavenging recyclable garbage, which “had bestowed on his family an income few residents of Annawadi had ever known”; Asha, who uses political and police connections to climb out of poverty while raising her beautiful daughter, Manju, the slum’s “only college-going girl,” to escape the life of compromises she has led; Fatima, a one-legged neighbor of Abdul’s family, prone to violent rages; Kalu, a boy with the spunk to steal the scrap he then sells to Abdul; and Sunil, a smelly and nerveless ragamuffin with a head for heights.
Their stories unfold as Annawadi comes to vivid life, accompanied by a host of lesser but equally indelible characters — the dying man trying to raise money for the operation that might save him, the policewoman seeking to extort money in return for tailoring her case files, the passionate teacher at a juvenile detention center, the young woman who swallows rat poison because “this was one decision about her life she got to make.” And then there’s Abdul’s father, who “had developed an irritating habit of talking about the future as if it were a bus” that one could run after, even if one kept missing it. The raw pathos to the stories of the characters in “Behind the Beautiful Forevers” is of the kind usually found in great fiction, except that, as Boo confirms, they are all real, down to their names.
So is Annawadi, with its noxious sights and smells, its mounds of refuse and lean-to hovels, its fetid garbage that is almost a living presence in this book. Boo, who has an Indian husband, has not just lived with its people and gotten to know them; she has penetrated the dynamics of their relationships, acquired insights into their psyches, breathed the polluted air that suffuses their fears. Her empathy for the slum-dwellers, striving against impossible odds to earn enough for “the full enjoy” they can only dream about, is total. She reports their hopes, their diversions, their vices and their shocking deaths with the matter-of-factness that comes to those inured to suffering.
Boo keeps herself entirely out of the narrative until an author’s note at the end, which gives her account an intimacy and immediacy that are unchallengeable. Her research is meticulous and worthy of the most demanding sociologist; her understanding of “India, a land of few safe assumptions,” is impossible to quarrel with, since the book is devoid of the commonplace errors about the country that litter most Western attempts to understand its complexities.So when Boo writes in graphic detail about corruption and police abuse, she does so through the eyes of the poor people who are so often reduced to statistics in well-meaning human rights documents and development paradigms. She writes movingly of “a system in which the most wretched tried to punish the slightly less wretched by turning to a justice system so malign it sank them all.” Sometimes her justified indignation, coupled with her talent for the telling metaphor, can lead her to stylistic excess: “The Indian criminal justice system was a market like garbage,” she writes. “Innocence and guilt could be bought and sold like a kilo of polyurethane bags.”
But indeed, as Boo points out, the corruption that elite Indians see as an obstacle to India’s progress appears to the slum-dwellers as an aspect of “the distribution of opportunity in a fast-changing country that they loved.”
Otherwise, they are assailed by the arbitrariness of life: “In Annawadi, fortunes derived not just from what people did, or how well they did it, but from the accidents and catastrophes they avoided. A decent life was the train that hadn’t hit you, the slumlord you hadn’t offended, the malaria you hadn’t caught.” In this sordid drama, the poor are too busy fighting each other for the scraps: “The poor took down one another, and the world’s great, unequal cities soldiered on in relative peace.”
This is not a reassuring message for those of us in India striving to change the country. Boo’s last sentence asks a haunting question: “If the house is crooked and crumbling, and the land on which it sits uneven, is it possible to make anything lie straight?” It is a question that Indians try to answer every day as we build our country, and Boo has earned the right to ask it, too.
Name of Source: Wall Street Journal |
For years I’ve been wanting to go to San Francisco. Not to see Alcatraz, the waterfront or the Golden Gate Bridge, but rather to eat at the hidden foodie heaven Mission Chinese Food.
I first heard of Mission Chinese Food via Anthony Bourdain on his series No Reservations. Originating as a pop-up inside San Fran’s Lung Shan restaurant (an old school joint in the city’s Mission district), the earliest form of Mission Chinese Food was Mission Street Food, run by husband and wife team Anthony Myint and Karen Leibowitz. Soon chef Danny Bowien came into the picture and not long after, Mission Chinese Food was born.
Based on re-imagined renditions of “Americanized Oriental food” the dishes served at Mission Chinese Food quickly became a hit. Danny Bowien quickly moed up the food ranks, winning multiple accolades across the city’s food scene.
Luckily for me, I did not have to wait for a trip to San Francisco to sample some of Bowien’s Oriental food genius: the NYC location of Mission Chinese Food opened late this summer to much excitement and fanfare and making my way to the Lower East Side became my personal mission.
Last week, that day finally came. Below my experience in pictures:
Go hungry, leave happy :)
Mission Chinese Food, 154 Orchard Street, 212 529 8800, lunch 12- 3:30 PM, dinner 5:30 PM- 12 AM, closed Wed, email email@example.com for reservations. |
(Denton, TX) 24-year-old fashion enthusiast, feminist, and twin. more
Enthousiaste de la mode, féministe, et jumelle qui a 24 ans. plus
My boyfriend Brett and I decided to forgo the typical spring break vacations here in Texas (South Padre Island or SXSW), and decided to head as far West as we could without actually leaving the state. Our destination: the small …
All content and images are © Laure unless otherwise noted. No part of this site may be reproduced without express permission. Layout design © Catherine at See Creatures. |
If you missed the first part of the saga, it's here.
In Which We Grapple with Continental Purl
As you might expect of one who has cut people open, rearranged their insides, and stitched them up again (without killing them), Willibald has steady nerves and nimble fingers. Teaching him the long-tail cast on and the knit stitch was as easy as Britney Spears just before last call.
I got him started on a garter stitch scarf in alternating blocks of gray and gray. After pulling back his work twice he sped forth, jumping right over the color change without a hitch. His first block or so showed the variations in tension that we all deal with at the beginning, leading him to insist the scarf was not a scarf, but an "irregular polygon." But he persevered, and when the scarf had reached about half its length we began to discuss his next move.
Slippers were briefly considered, but he liked the idea of knitting a hat to go with the scarf. And so I pulled out the old reliable London Beanie. It has stripes to give it a bit of interest, and the tight, short fit means it moves quickly.
"All we need to do," I said, "is teach you to purl. That way you can do the ribbing at the bottom."
"Is it difficult?" he asked.
"A little fidgety at first," I said. "But with some practice it becomes second nature."
So we sat down cozily with two cups of green tea and soft music, and picked up our needles. Half an hour later, Willibald was eyeing me with the sort of beady-eyed hatred normally reserved for ex-boyfriends who sleep with your sister. (Or brother.)
"I don't like purling," hissed Willibald through clenched teeth.
"I can see that," I said. "But you just need to keep trying, and it will click for you. I promise."
"Do I have to purl?" he said.
"Well, strictly speaking, no. But it'll keep you from doing a lot of cool things if you can't."
"This doesn't work," he said. "There has to be a better way."
"Well, it's been done like this for at least a couple of centuries, so it has been proven to work. But if you can figure out an alternative, please make sure you let me know."
"Don't take that tone with me."
"You need to relax."
"I am relaxed."
"Dude, you just bent a steel needle in half."
"I have extremely muscular fingers."
"I think we're done for tonight."
What will happen next? Will Willibald ever learn to purl? Will Franklin strangle him with a 24" Addi Turbo and bury him under a pile of stashed Rowan? And what about Naomi?
A Little More About the New Wheel
Nothing magnifies joy like sharing it with others, and so I was delighted at the response to the new arrival in our house. There were a couple of questions, so let's take a minute and answer them.
Szarka asked whether the crank hole (giggle) in the drive shaft (giggle) was elongated from wear and whether this interfered with operation as it does on her wheel. I took a look, and the hole is as it was made - no distortion. It operates perfectly, although before I could get the drive wheel to rotate consistently in one direction I did have to treadle quite a bit to get a feel for how much force and frequency (giggle giggle) to use.
Ted asked if the wheel is tiny, and suggested that it might be designed for flax. Sharp eye, Ted, just as I'd expect. The wheel is quite small (though not miniature) which I like because when I sit at it I look like a basketball player. It also has a distaff, and the flyer hooks are placed so as to encourage spinning Z—or it is S? Whichever is the opposite of the usual direction for wool. The orifice, though, is no smaller than the orifice on my Ashford. (Heh heh. Big orifice.)
Heather asked for a closer shot of the inlay (yes, it's inlay) on the bench. Here you are.
Odd, isn't it? The top bit is obviously a shield. There's more inlay around the rim (giggle, snort) of the table. If anybody reading this has similar marks on their wheel, needless to say I'd love to hear from you.
There were questions about, and suggestions for, names. I don't know that I'll name it. I used to be a namer of inanimate objects. My computer in college was called Fanny. But when your sock yarn starts to talk to you and impinge on the hospitality of friends, it sort of kills the thrill. |
Just as a happy sidenote, as I was looking (unsuccessfully) to put the old PG-13 entrance rap as a tribute here, do you realize that if you google search "faarooq so hit your knees and start praying" that the first three links are to either the W or to one of CRZ's old recaps?
As a personal rememebrance I remember watching Ron Simmons when he was greener than freshly cut grass and working in Florida after leaving the USFL. They booked him to protect him back then, since after Luger and Windham left they were grooming him to be the #1 babyface in the territory, but the territory was bought out by Crockett before that could happen.
Also, the one thing I remember most about seeing him at the MBCC when I was a kid was he blew something in the ring and I heard the loudest deepest voice I've ever heard just bellow out GOD...DAMN!! Which in wrestling mythology has to be right up there with Austin's KotR 96 promo as a legend being born.
Originally posted by BWTApparently Faarooq's release was due to a drug problem, just the nature of the business i guess.
From where did you hear that?
I heard this too. I was out walking my dog, and Bret Hart came up and told me.
ANYWAY, I have a DVD from WRESTLING CLASSICS which shows a bunch of old FLorida area footage from the Mike Graham promotion, and they were showing Ron and some other football reject working out, and playing ball and stuff like that. Pretty interesting.
Kinda strange that Faarooq is the one considered having a drinking partner while his partner is the one rumored and reported to cause a scene everytime they have a long plane ride.
One thing I always like about Faarooq is the delivery of his lines just like we saw in the last Smackdown he was very good at it.
smark/net attack wienerville advisory stays at BLUE alert - Guarded (With Benoit & Eddie being World & WWE champions you'd expect the alert to be Green but couldn't do it due to Trish heel turn & brands re-draft)- 3/16
Honors for Smartest thing ever written, 5th Horseman "When Victoria, Trish, Molly, and Lilian were in the ring.. I commented to my friends that all of the 4 ladies in the ring were hotter than the all 4 that are fighting over who is the hottest in the WWE"
A year or so ago, Simmons was slated to become an agent, which would have made him part of management. Now, that option has been shut down. The word I have gotten was that he allegedly acted inappropriately towards Stephanie McMahon at the post WrestleMania party last weekend and that was the final straw for him. The APA way of life is supposed to be a gimmick, not a shoot.
HA HA HA! This just got a whole lot more interesting and I like Farooq a lot more now. DAMN!
Recognize and Respect® "The One Who's 2 Legit 2 Quit", Currently being "ignored" by 12 people, The Motha Fackin Immoral One!
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The word I have gotten was that he allegedly acted inappropriately towards Stephanie McMahon at the post WrestleMania party last weekend and that was the final straw for him. The APA way of life is supposed to be a gimmick, not a shoot
I read this and I think of Simmons talking shit to Stephanie and HHH being afraid to say anything. Somehow Simmons seems like one guy you dont want to mess with after hes had a few.
Well, well, well. If it isn't the serious, elusive, Leroy Green. I've been waiting a long time for this Leroy. I am sick and tired of hearing these bullshit Superman stories about the wassa legendary Bruce Leroy catching bullets with his teeth. Catches bullets with his teeth? Nigga please.
Heard Meltzer on the Law radio show and he said all the twitter references were probably Lagana's doing as he's obsessed with twitter. Meltzer did say he would need to have it cleared with Bischoff or Dixie though. |
What this post is not is a discussion of how to determine influence. I’m going to leave that to my dear friend and brilliant scientist, Dr. Michael Wu, the Chief Scientist at Lithium. He, far better than Klout, PeerIndex and any of the other so-called influence indices, knows how to look at and determine the nature and value of actual influence, not engagement masked as influence.
However, what this is going to be is a series of posts that will provide whoever reads it with the rudiments of how to deal with and think about influencers and the basics around building an influencer/analyst program. Personally, I live in the world of enterprise software, especially CRM influencers. But it generally applies to anyone who needs to reach individual industry influencers. I’m guessing 3-4 posts all in all should cover what I need to. I’ll turn it into a freely downloadable book/guide when I’m done.
To set expectations, you won’t come out of this with a full-blown influencer program, just the basics. But you will have an idea of why you might consider one, what the dos and don’ts are when it comes to dealing with influencers and an understanding of the “types” of influencers. Plus the kinds of instruments you need (besides calipers) to deal with influencers and some of the reasons why.
This series will be organized around questions as “chapters.”
- Chapter 1 – The intro and what types of influencers you might be dealing with – with some names of those.
- Chapter 2 – what are the dos and don’ts of influencer relations. Is there an influencer community? What
- Chapter 3 –Who should I consider engaging and why? The rudiments of an influencer program.
- Chapter 4 – an update on the Who I Follow on More Than Friday post I did on Influencers a couple of years back.
I can’t tell you with any certainty when these posts are going to come out, only that they will and will be done before the year ends. And that it will be converted into a freely downloadable book.
So, let’s kick it off.
Let Me Tell You A Story…What I Mean By Bad
I want to start off by reading something to you. As some of you know, in a given week, I get between 30-50 requests for:
- Demos to me of some sort of software
- Interviews with some company’s senior execs based on a press release that I’ve been sent which may or may not have something to do with my world, but most certainly has to do with PR team outreach quotas.
- A story pitch in my capacity as a ZDNet blogger (these are the most irritating as we will see in one of the next two or three posts)
Because I want to have a life, plus, the PR requests are as often as not irritatingly thoughtless – again more on that later – the bulk of them get rejected or remain unanswered – which doesn’t mean that I don’t look at them. But it does mean I might not get far enough into them that I even know the name of the company they are supposedly pitching for.
Occasionally, there is one that is SO bad, so blatantly horrid, that it deserves some press – without trying to embarrass the individual that wrote it. I got this email in August 2009 and I’ve kept it as the benchmark for bad. This is the industry standard for “never do this, PR pro.” Let me read some of this to you:
“Dear Paul –
I just discovered your blog and I want to say how much I appreciate your insights. You are teaching people to want what we offer.
As I read people who dream about CRM-TNG I don’t see any evidence that anyone (other than my company) is addressing the impossibility of bridging gaps from 1.0 to 2.0 without getting a handle on how people discover, propagate and analyze their own, company-specific best practices….
(The person then goes on to describe their product which I will leave out here because a. it would give away who and what they do b. it isn’t that great in any case and c. there is no way I’m helping this person get exposure)
…We have a demo on our site that introduces some basic concepts, however I think the best use of your time is to work through a webinar with me. You’ll see the latest version as you fire all your toughest questions at me.” (He then closes the email)
I have to presume you see what’s wrong with this email, right? What’s right with it?
Its got to be – and I still marvel over this to this day – the most arrogant PR pitch I’ve ever gotten and as we’ll talk about, I’ve gotten (and I can speak for my bruthas and sistahs in the analyst/influencer/journalist world here, I think), more than my share.
Let’s briefly dissect this, since it is incredibly instructive on what not to do and, to me at least, still remains a source of open-mouthed, wide-eyed wonder.
- The first paragraph pretty much tells me my value is that I spend my time telling people things that sell his company. (My intent exactly the pitch purveyor says sardonically.). What is amazing is that he doesn’t see that this isn’t right.
- The second paragraph pretty much relegates all other companies to the dung heap.
- The final paragraph from this person who has never spoken to me at all tells me the best use of my time. I’m glad this person knows that. Thank god one of us does.
This is easily the best and classic example of someone who will end up on the lowest possible place on the rungs of influencer hell. The arrogance is a complete turnoff because it presumes something that this person doesn’t have – a say in the life of the analyst/influencer in any way without any relationship whatever.
That said, I don’t want to get into that part of it yet. I just thought that this is such an egregiously bad example I would air it so you can see it and then you’d know, in your heart of hearts, that you would NEVER do anything like that. Right?
Whew. Okay. Now that this is out of my system, lets devote this post to two things:
- Why do you even need to bother with influencers? Why should you care? Should you care?
- What types of influencers are there, given the 21st century’s shifting business landscape
The answer to this is kind of sad in a way. Its “because you have to.” To be blunt, there is a game that has to be played. That game goes to the heart of influencer relations. They are people who can impact:
- The purchasing decision of a prospect
- The thinking of an entire industry (vertical, horizontal)
- The mindshare that a company will have which indirectly influences the purchasing decisions of a prospect
- Institutional and individual investors – e.g. large possible and existing shareholders and those considering investment
While I make a lot of my living that way, it’s a bit stupid that someone’s opinion, albeit informed, can have enough of an impact on a company’s future to be worrisome to a company.
But it can. So you have to. Engage with influencers one-way or the other, I mean.
What Should You Consider When Engaging An Influencer?
Good question – and, with the growth of digital media, and attempts out of desperation as often as not, to redefine or at least come up with a meaningful definition of what an influencer is, not as simple an answer as it used to be.
Question #1: What Kinds of Influencers are Out There?
The influencer landscape is getting increasingly confusing, especially with the rise of the independent influencers as a force – for good or evil is something that you have to decide. In the CRM/Social world, aside from the digital brand influencers like Chris Brogan or Gary Vaynerchuk, who we won’t cover here, there are a significant number of variations on the theme, depending on how granular you want to get, how sophisticated a program you want to have and how much you give a crap in the first place. I’ll give you some idea of what the categories of influencer are, describe them and give you a few leading examples of who excels in those categories.
Just to be clear, none of this is so neat that you can tie it in a bow. There are multiple overlaps – while I put someone in one category, they are also part of or could be part of another. For example, Mike Fauscette, who runs IDC’s Enterprise Applications practice is part of the institutional group, but is typically thought of by other influencers as an independent due to his thought processes and his spirit. It can get complicated. And, the reason that matters to you is that you have to deal with behaviors and psychologies, not just categories. Here is the single most important piece of advice I’m ever going to give you when it comes to this kind of work.
Know who the influencer is, not just what s/he is.
Look, what you do with this information is up to you. I don’t care. I’m just the messenger. I thought it would be helpful. I hope it is.
These are the longest established beasts of the industry. Gartner Group is the $1 billion, 800-pound gorilla, with Forrester Group and IDC the next two in line. There are multiple other organizations like Aberdeen Group, Nucleus Research, Yankee Group etc. all of whom provide similar sets of services ranging from market research to consultative. From the standpoint of influence, which is what we want to cover, there are several things that you have to consider. First, customers call these companies to find out whether or not your company is a good enough vendor to be on the list. Second, their varying technology ratings, ranging from the famous or infamous (depending on where you place) Gartner Magic Quadrant to the Forrester Wave, has a big impact on customers, whether you like the results or not.
In recent years, the institutionals stranglehold on influence has been diminished though they still reign as the most influential category. There are a number of reasons for their wane.
- The locus of power is shifting to individuals, be they at the large firms like Gartner or solo practitioners. Some of that can be attributed to the tenor of the times because peer trust has become the dominant form of trust when it comes to expertise and influence. In what is something of an analogy, the same way now that in many companies, the salesperson who sold the products to someone is expected to be the account manager for all things including service – by the customer – even if the company isn’t set up that way – is the same way that influencers are now looked at. “I trust Michael Maoz, not Gartner per se.” I trust Kate Leggett, not Forrester, per se.” On the other hand, some of the reason for the individual influencer trust is simply a matter of TCO. The larger institutions are considerably more expensive than the independents. I’m not speaking to the quality of the work because, like anything else, that’s a matter of individuals. But the options especially when the price is factored in are greater than ever, and companies are taking them up. The law of diminishing returns can sometimes set in – regardless of the brilliance of the institutional influencer’s work. It can simply cost too much.
- The kinds of expertise needed are broader than ever and no one institution can cover all of them so it often is a matter of going where the expert you need is – the best of breed approach. There is no reason to do things all Gartner, all Forrester, or all any group or individual. Go to the expertise not the company is becoming more the norm than it has been.
- The organizational structure of the larger companies has been much slower to change with the times. They have baggage. That doesn’t make them bad or good. Again, that’s the purview of the individual analyst/influencer. But that baggage can make dealing with them slow, rigid and frustrating some times.
This is not to say, don’t deal with the institutionals. Some of the best analysts and most influential people in the customer-facing world reside there. Some examples of the greats.
Michael Maoz (Gartner Group) – Michael might be the best analyst in the CRM world. He is certainly one of the most highly regarded. He is honest, forthright, and tells you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear or, for that matter, what Gartner wants you to hear. His advice is, even if it is brutal at times, (delivered with good humor though), right.
Ed Thompson (Gartner Group) – Ed is one of the stars in the customer experience firmament and Gartner’s best speaker. He is the only speaker to consistently kick my ass in speaker-ranked events. J. He has a strong CRM knowledge. HQed in Europe, he is in demand a great deal as a speaker and consulting analyst – when it comes to the customer journey. Count on the dude.
Mike Fauscette (IDC) – Mike runs the IDC Enterprise Applications Practice and has a great big picture perspective that gives his customers a way of tying what they do to the market as it moves – a gift. An independent spirit in an institutional role, he is known for his creative way of reconfiguring the business universe you thought was the one to the one it really is
Kate Leggett (Forrester Group) – Kate, who has real world practitioner and vendor experience is known for her work at Forrester in the customer service area. Where she stands out is her ability to craft the multi-channel strategies which treat social as a component, not a gift from the gods. She is also well regarded among all the other analysts and often is grouped with the independents.
Bill Band (Forrester Group) – Bill leads the CRM practice at Forrester and does strong work when it comes to the nitty gritty of CRM. Because he has a consulting background, he is able to delve deeper than most analysts in helping companies define programs, not just strategies. Something a bit rare in the world of market research – which, incidentally, he does very well.
Let me reiterate. This is by no means even vaguely approaching what is an exhaustive list (duh!). There are other excellent institutional analysts like Ian Jacobs at Datamonitor/Ovum; Mary Wardley at IDC, Sheryl Kingstone at Yankee Group and Martin Schneider at the 451 Group to name a few more. I just don’t have the time to lay them all out.
The boutiques are essentially the intermediate answer to the institutionals. They are often ex-institutional analysts who found the larger companies stifling for one reason or another so they took their already considerable influence with them and formed a small firm. Interestingly, this goes to the heart of what I said earlier. In the case of many of the influencers, the customers they have travel with them – and have no qualms abandoning the companies that the influencers left and joining the new firms. At the heart of this is still, regardless of where you are, the trust in the individual influencer, not the firms that housed them.
The boutiques are rooted in sound methodologies, usually modified versions of the approaches that the founders learned at their original companies. But the boutiques are tougher to type because their business models and purposes are vastly different; none of them necessarily even compete. But what they have in common is that they are, for the most part, less pricey than the institutionals.
To determine how to deal with them requires some serious research on your part. That’s because the services that they offer vary as widely as the boutique firms that exist. For example, Altimeter Group provides consultative and thought leadership services; Constellation Research is more research focused, than consultative with a strong thought leadership service component; Dachis Group seems to be migrating to a combination of consultative services and products. It goes on and on.
Do NOT underestimate their influence. Some of them like Ray Wang of Constellation Research and in a very different way, Brian Solis of Altimeter Group are among the most influential analysts/thought leaders in the business world.
Since this is a piece on influencer relations, I would be remiss if I don’t mention some representative standouts when it comes to boutique influencers.
Ray Wang (Constellation Research) – Ray is a former Forrester analyst who created Constellation Research, focused on market research (as opposed to consultative work) by the seat of his pants in 2011 and has made it into a real success. Some of that is due to Ray’s seriously huge influence and his quality as an analyst and market researcher. Some of it is due to the quality of his partners and principals. His personal focus is more enterprise than pure CRM but he is also seen as a leader in Social CRM. Among his many accomplishments – Analyst of the Year for the Institute for Industry Analyst Relations (IIAR) in 2009..
Brian Solis (Altimeter Group) – Brian going to Altimeter Group, founded by Groundswell co-author Charlene Li, was a huge coup for Altimeter Group. Brian literally rewrote the rules of public relations during the early part of the 21st century and the use of social tools in the agency world is largely due to the strategies he developed early on. He has migrated successfully to the larger world of social business and the enterprise and is a leading speaker and thinker there too. Interesting thing about Brian is that even though he is occupies rarified air (take a look at the forewords to his books. Here is a review of his latest, “The End of Business as Usual”), he is among the kindest people I have ever met.
Dion Hinchcliffe (Dachis Group) – Even when he ran his own boutique firm, Dion was a leading light in the world of enterprise collaboration a.k.a. E20. He has since become one of the leading proponents of social business – that unique combination of E20 and social CRM (to simplify it). He is known for his ability to develop a fully fleshed out strategic picture of both the business end and the technology components of that business end in a social business. Some of the best blog posts I’ve ever read for their content and completeness. He is highly respected for good reason. A recent author, get his (and Peter Kim’s) book, “Social Business By Design”
Laurie McCabe (SMB Group) – Laurie is one of the few true small business CRM thought leaders. She might be the only one who isn’t independent. Her market research has been exceptionally strong along with her technology product knowledge and there are few who excel more than her in these areas. Helluva nice person, too.
Again, there are others in this category – Susan Scrupski, also of Dachis; Jeremiah Owyang at Altimeter Group; Anneke Seley founder of Reality Works Group, among several others. This post would be 20,000 words rather than the 6600+ it is if I went into the entire list of excellent influencers in the categories I’m squeezing them into.
This has been the area that has seen the greatest increase in “power” over the last few years. I would suspect the reasons are that there has been (see above) a shift in who and how we trust with 65% of the respondents in 2012’s Edelman Trust Barometer saying that “a person like me” is their most trusted source – meaning an individual that they perceive to have similar interests. That level of trust invested is much easier with an individual than a company – any day of the week. Plus the independents are free of the constraints of the other categories of vendors and thus are able to write more, attend more events, keep their visibility high – without worrying about who they are accountable to for billable hours.
The trust in the independents has grown also, in part, because the advice that they’ve given to their vendor clients has been sound. They have often been around for years in the industry and have grown up with their clients and have grown up as the industry itself matured. They are trusted because they’ve been tested over time – often having come from the practitioners or the vendors themselves.
With the growth of Social CRM and social media usage, there has been an outgrowth of an entire new generation of business influencers who have been outspoken, intelligent and more often than not, right. They have also been “inducted” into the more established influencer circles (more on how all this works in a future post. But trust me, mentoring the younger influencers is something that goes on all the time by the older influencers. However, there is a bit of a dark side to this too. More on this in that future post). When it comes to price, their overhead is not that high so therefore they are the least pricey of all, but there is no consistency in how they charge either. Each to his own.
Here are some of the independent stars.
These are the ones who have been around the block a few times. More than a few times. Have run at least a marathon’s worth of trips around the block. At it for a while with their reputations and practices well established, they are in demand constantly for one thing or another. They need to be tracked if not engaged. Or engaged. Get to know them.
Me – My ego demanded my inclusion – and who am I to ever deny my ego? So I included me.
Esteban Kolsky – Esteban is a seasoned influencer with a strong focus on customer service. He is a former Gartner analyst with formidable research skills and a wide influence net. He is trusted by the industry and the influencers alike. Read his two page notes and you’ll see what I mean. A member of the Enterprise Irregulars (this will be meaningful later)
Denis Pombriant – Denis is unique, the only influencer of any “type” who sees the macroeconomic and social issues that often envelop the things going on in the enterprise software industry. A long time analyst, business development and market research guy, who headed up Aberdeen’s CRM Practice until shortly after the millennium turned. A member of the Enterprise Irregulars.
Brent Leary – I’d love to leave it as he and I being the CRM Playaz, but there is much more to Brent than that. He is arguably the leading authority on small business CRM and his influence runs to both the CRM and the small business (even when non-CRM) world. He is a specialist not just on Social CRM but also on music, but that’s a story for another day.
Vinnie Mirchandani – Vinnie is also a former Gartner analyst who is an eminence grise in the world of enterprise software. He is widely read, highly trusted and well liked in the technology industry. His scope is beyond just technology though. He watches and comments on innovation with his blogs deal architect, and New Florence: New Renaissance and his books, The New Polymath and his just released “The New Technology Elite.” A member of the Enterprise Irregulars.
Josh Greenbaum - Josh has been an influencer and an analyst for 25 years, though if you saw him, you’d think that meant he started when he was 8. He is one of the toughest and fairest of the influencers, with a very deep and knowledgeable analysis of the nitty gritty of the technology industry, at a level I can only imagine. He can frighten vendors with the dead on accuracy of his analysis and his very tough questions but they know he’s always fair.
These are the younger set, who have just become players in the influencer world. Companies that are smart will start courting them now as they grow into their role as the now impending new generation of influencers, analysts, and consultants. The earlier you meet them, the better for you.
Brian Vellmure – Brian is becoming increasingly visible to the technology vendors, having been known to the practitioner community for a little while now. He is now being recognized as one of the up and coming thought leaders especially when it comes to all things Social CRM. Key to Brian? He gets the technology and the strategic reasons for it.
Mark Tamis – Mark is making his mark in Europe. Paris based, Mark is being seen as someone who can move companies to adopt social and CRM technologies. That’s not surprising since he’s been in technology for years – with major stints at BEA and Oracle. Guy is smart, really smart, and yet manages to stay a good person despite the brains. Read this man’s posts and hear this man frequently at industry conferences. Lots do.
Silvana Buljan – Silvana isn’t truly an up and coming star – she has been a star in Southern Europe for a long time. One of the foremost authorities on change management, this founder of the Buljan Associates consultancy is becoming known well beyond Southern Europe. Watch for her scheduled appearance at CRM Evolution 2012. Change management is one of the most undervalued areas in building a customer-centric company, yet the most important. Silvana is one of the few that knows it and knows how to make sure the world does it.
Again, we’re into the granular world. Vendor influencers are a tricky category. The reason is that there are two types of vendor influencers – those with only a little or no agenda who have strong independent credentials, mostly established prior to their joining the vendor, and those with a more concrete agenda who are not pure of motive but have enough independent chutzpah and are universal enough thinkers to garner the respect of the industry and customers to begin with. We’ll call the former Type A and the latter Type B. Not at all related to their psychological profiles.
Type A – Little Agenda
With one notable exception these tend to be the former external influencers who, even upon joining vendors, didn’t lose their credibility or their caché.
Chris Bucholtz – Chris is currently the editor-in-chief of CRM Outsiders and resident thought leader at SugarCRM. He comes to SugarCRM from InsideCRM where he established himself as a significant thought leader in his own right. Even while working for a vendor, Chris maintains his independence and is trusted by the industry for his cogent pieces on the nuances, the concepts and the benefits provided by Social CRM. He is a mensch.
Michael Wu – He is another one of the exceptions to the rule. He is homegrown – meaning he wasn’t an influencer prior to his stint as Principal Scientist of Lithium. He has zero agenda, being pure of heart and a pure scientist. His work on influence, gamification, smart data (rather than big data) is superlative, groundbreaking stuff.
Sameer Patel – Sameer is a veteran. Even though now he runs collaboration as a GVP at SAP, for years, Sameer has been one of the most important influencers in the enterprise 2.0 world. Thing about Sameer though, is that he gets the convergence between Social CRM and Enterprise 2.0 – one of the few. His work at SAP, though relatively new, has hand no impact on his status as an independent influencer. That’s a good thing.
Mitch Lieberman – Mitch is one of these amazing influencers who has managed to stay an influencer despite spending a significant amount of time at vendors to begin with such as VP of SugarCRM and currently a Vice-President at Sword-Ciboodle. But this hasn’t silenced his voice at all. Highly respected fella.
Jeff Nolan – Jeff actually was an insider prior to his stint at Get Satisfaction. He’s managed to retain that status. He (along with CEO Wendy Lea) is also the major spokesperson for the company and yet remains he is dialed into an incredible number of significant networks. An unbelievably knowledgeable guy, he has a sharp analytical mind and is definitely one of the most influential guys in the industry as well as one of the kindest ones.
Type B – A More Significant Agenda
These guys tend to be people who have gone beyond their leadership position at a specific vendor. They have established enough independent credibility to stand out even though they are typically responsible for their corporate agendas. These guys might have been independent prior to their “vendorhood” Jeff Nolan at Get Satisfaction or they became influential while at the vendor – Anthony Lye of Oracle; Laurence Buchanan formerly of Capgemini.
Anthony Lye – Anthony runs the Oracle CRM global practice and has a huge corporate portfolio with the most recent acquisitions of Endeca, InQuira, ATG, and RightNow all under his purview. Clearly, he has an Oracle agenda, but he also is a highly respected industry veteran who has understood the twists, turns, and trends in the CRM world, and has been willing to present his thinking on them without selling. We all think a lot of him as a truly independent mind, regardless of the required agenda.
Laurence Buchanan – Laurence recently left Capgemini EMEA and went to the management services group at Ernst & Young Advisory as a Director in the Customer Centre of Excellence for the EMEA region focused on Digital Transformation, Social Business and CRM. This was a coup for Ernst & Young, because Laurence has firmly established himself as an independent influencer despite his required corporate agendas. He has been a leading voice for social CRM, customer experience and has a vast knowledge of the technology landscape. He is firmly on the cutting edge of social business though, as a wise person, knows that traditional channels are still part of the equation. He is also a helluva writer and speaker.
This one is perhaps the most ironic. I’m a J-school graduate (that would be journalism school). I’ve had multiple jobs in journalism ranging from a low paid proofreader to a low paid managing editor. But the one thing that I learned in journalism school – aside from spell names right, which I do less frequently as I get older – is that we should write unbiased pieces. Does anyone whatsoever believe that’s true? Not me. All pieces are a matter of opinion up to and including the selection of what pieces make it into a publication and which ones don’t.
So why is it that we think that journalists aren’t influencers? They are – obviously so, if you think about it for a brief moment. What we have to look at when it comes to the CRM/Social world is not whether journalists are influential – they are – but which journalists are the most influential. The reality is that there are key publications and key writers whose primary profession is something in the journalist world from writer to editor to publisher that influence buyers and our industry.
David Myron – David is the editor in chief of CRM Magazine and someone who is greatly respected throughout the entire industry. He tends to operate behind the scenes but his opinions when he states them – matter. He has a VAST knowledge of not only who is who and what is what in CRM but also how it works. He chooses to be an editor/journalist; he could be a consultant/analyst if he wanted. Just a really nice guy, too.
Ginger Conlon – What can I say about Ginger? As editor-in-chief of 1to1 Media, she is a long-standing insider in the CRM and now social world with a great deal of clout with a “c.” Aside from being a superb and exceptionally bright journalist, she is someone who has a lot of experience in seeing how the pieces work in CRM so she is able to provide a cogent viewpoint on how the world views CRM.
Barney Beal – Barney, the News Director of TechTarget’s SearchCRM has made it into the widely read property it is now. Barney’s power is not only in his knowledgeable writing on CRM but in how he constructs the SearchCRM. He makes sure that we all understand how it works, why its here, and what it is and is highly influential in the way that he frames that.
Chuck Schaefer – Chuck, the owner of Vantive Media, which owns CRMSearch, the new kid on the block, is actually not a new kid on the block himself – though I don’t mean to say he’s old. He was former CEO of Aplicor and has recently become a thought leader in his own right with his cogent opinions as expressed on the CRMSearch site. People listen to this man – and he is a genuinely good-hearted human being, which makes listening to him a pleasure.
Gerhard Gschwandtner – Gerhard is the founder and CEO of Selling Power and is one of the most influential guys in the sales world. Among the keys to his influence is his stewardship of the Sales 2.0 Conference, which is the crucible for contemporary thinking on sales and the place where one goes to see the leading minds. He seems to follow the influential journalist pattern right down the center because he, too, is a truly nice person.
Gary Lemke – Gary, a long time industry veteran, has been the long time editor of CRM Advocate, a voice for the customer that has been around for more than a decade. A media influencer who takes a reasoned and sometimes provocative approach to industry thinking, he is highly respected among his peers and the customers who read him.
Neil Davey - the man behind UK-based Sift Media's Mycustomer.com, Neil commands enormous respect among the influencers themselves and the general "in the know" CRM community because of the quality level of his content; the contemporary nature of the site and the honestly of his editorial outlook. He is someone who is paid attention to especially in Europe and increasingly in the U.S.
Influencers Who Influence Influencers
This is arguably the most interesting and the least known of all of the kinds of influencers out there. These are the people who the more public influencers will often sit at the feet of. They are people who typically only write occasionally but they are never invisible. They are highly experienced and trusted by the people that group of people who I’m describing in all the other areas. I would be in touch with these folks if I were you. Seriously.
Bruce Culbert – I need to come clean here. Bruce is one of my best friends and a business partner of mine in BPT Partners. I only say this so you can’t throw it at me – it actually has no bearing on why I am explaining who an influencer who influences influencers is. Bruce is the man who created e-business at IBM, ran Bearing Points global supply chain and CRM practices simultaneously and then ran professional services at salesforce.com for awhile. He is someone that we all know and all listen to because of his experience and his good heart – thus the wisdom dispensed and mentoring he does is truly valuable. He is the epitome of the kind of person I mean. You won’t find a lot of writing from him, though there is some, but you will find universal respect.
Louis Columbus – Louis is perhaps the most prolific writer of this lot – and a really good one. He works for Cincom Systems, so you could squeeze him into the vendor influencer category too, and that exposes the artifice involved in squeezing people into categories. Louis is constantly developing themes on the customer experience and the technology side of the equation. But where is truly influential is in the relationships he has with the influencers he knows. He is one of those people that influencers simply trust – so his considered opinion matters. That is powerful stuff. Which he always delivers with a grin.
Michael Thomas – Michael works for Microsoft. Michael is the president of the CRM Association. Michael truly gets Social CRM. Michael is really smart. Michael is a genuinely good human being with kind words for everyone. Michael is someone that we all are willing to pay heed to when he speaks. Nuff said.
Others: Ryan Zuk, CRM Analyst Relations, Sage Software; Derek Grant, Senior Vice President, Business Development, Pardot - there is a particular story to tell about why these two are here. Let’s just say, we’d have little or nothing to do with their companies if it weren’t for them – making them an interesting kind of influence the influence, but one that a. belongs in this category; and b. shows you how complicated this whole thing can get. If you want to know more details on this, ping me on Twitter @pgreenbe or email me at mailto:firstname.lastname@example.org.
Finally, for the purposes of this post anyway, there is one other thing to consider – the influencers “secret societies.” They aren’t really that but I love the intrigue implied in the idea. But they are organized communities of influencers who speak often on Google Groups or the Skype IM channels and they consistent of either people from multiple backgrounds, institutions and venues or a single venue who communicate as a community on the backchannel. But they reflect two fundamentals that are important to know when it comes to the “secrets” of influencers.
- They are incredibly knowledgeable people. Perhaps some of the most experienced, powerful and brilliant minds in the industry. Customers, other influencers, vendors, investors all confer with and listen to them.
- They (we) gossip. That sounds hilariously funny because it can be the same kind of snarky gossip that you would hear on TMZ, as well as the more topical and intellectual kind, but it isn’t actually funny at all. Its important that you get this one.. These groups are social networks that are made of people who enjoy their participation in them because they are trusted sources. Meaning if you do something as, lets say, a vendor, either good or bad, it will be known to more than just you because whoever you “did” it to, will speak about it among their friends – just like you would. The reality is - an injury to one is an injury to all at least an injury broadcast to all – and it will be broadcast As a disclaimer, if it’s under non-disclosure either formally or informally (meaning someone asked them not to say anything), nothing will be said – these are the most honorable professionals I’ve ever had the pleasure of dealing with and who you will ever meet. But anything that’s not under either formal or informal NDA is in the category of “possible fair game” and it often will be socialized. So be smart and understand who and what you’re dealing with and you can’t go wrong. If you just understand what you’re dealing with, you can go wrong.
Enterprise Irregulars – this is the “Skull and Bones” of enterprise software – probably the most influential organization in this world of influencers. A mix of independent analysts, a few vendor representatives and an eclectic few others, it is an unmatched aggregation of highly experienced industry veterans. They communicate in a back channel regularly, they have a website that aggregates their various writings and kind of gives you an idea of who some of the members are (hint: look at the blog roll). The total years of experience in this group probably would if strung serially start at the Cretaceous. It is an intelligent, formidable body and deep in its knowledge of the industry it stems from.
Accidental Social CRM Community – Also self-labeled the A.C., this is a group of quasi-organized, somewhat younger influencers in the Social CRM world. A multi-continental group, the group is comprised of many of the leading Social CRM thinkers. They are a mix of independents and there are fair amounts that are from the larger consulting/systems integrator firms. No vendors in this group. They are not as well established as the Enterprise Irregulars but the quality of discussion, while different, is every bit as good as the EIs. There is some overlap between members of both groups. This is an organization to be mindful of if influencer/analyst relations are your game.
It should be noted that a number of the existing analyst institutions have back channels that have been formally created for their own analysts, advisory board members etc. to have discussions and collaborate. The tools used are typically Skype, Google Groups, Yammer on occasion and rarely an internal community or wiki-like collaboration space.
My reason for mentioning this isn’t only to identify a couple of the groups that exist out there but to reinforce the point that we all talk. A lot. And in ways that are classically social – meaning networks of people communicating 1 to many and many to many. A lot. All the time. 24X7.
My reason to “type” influencers isn’t to put any one in a box. The irony of all of this is that, regardless of the institutional dynamics that might be inherent among the social networks involved in this, it still means you are dealing with human beings who have different skills sets, different contexts that they operate in, different approaches, different agendas and different experience. Each of them and several of them may be suited for what you have to do. The types I mention here are loosely fitting and there are always exceptions and some who don’t really fit the mold.
The other thing to understand, which I will get into in a future post, is that there is an actual CRM/Social CRM community that consists of vendors, influencers, customers, that know each other, see each other a lot and are quite friendly, despite some internecine battles here and there. They are not formally anything but they fit the criteria of a neighborhood pretty well. I’ll get into more details about what the dynamics of this are in a future post. Though don’t expect a tell all. This isn’t a gossip piece. This is a “how to deal with influencers” piece that I’m writing as much for self-interest as for yours.
So what’s the key lesson here?
- Do your homework: understand who they are, not just what they are. That means learn something about them as actual human beings, not just influencers. More in that post that will also cover the community.
- The individual influencer is the one that matters, not the firm they represent.
- But you can’t ignore the institutional dynamics.
- Choose their abilities according to your needs. Not their organization or their reputation.
- Remember, influencers, like all other human beings of any “type”, talk. So realize that you may not just be talking to one person, even if you are. This is to your advantage or disadvantage, because, like anything else, it depends on what you say.
Okay, next up sometime….whenever, Chapter 2. Hope this is a useful start to you. |
June 10 and 11th this year marked the third annual convention of Minor Music: a great event that exposes youths in music to…well…more music. It teams up mentors and protegees, offers open jams and clinics, and it’s just an absolute great time.
Can I just say it was a a penultimate fantastic time this year?
My Ogle Me Some this week is Molly Thomason who I snapped from my little seat in the eighth row. I’m impressed she came out so clear although I had to wait till she was fairly still in the lighting so I wouldn’t blur the heck out of her because my shutter speed was so slow. I think the shot suffers, but the blue light is cool.
I’m pasting in a video from the concert where she’s doing her hit All Down the Highway. Did you realize this little songbird is under 18? Wow. Check out her website for details |
The loss of her hands hasn’t slowed Brandy Duhon’s determination to succeed
Brandy Duhon is accustomed to stares. She’s received them for more than half of her life.
Children are uninhibited about it, gazing long and hard and trying to understand. Adults may be more careful, looking if they think Duhon won’t notice, averting their eyes if they think she might. Either way, she takes no offense.
“It’s who I am,” Duhon said. “I guess I’ve accepted that.”
Even at the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine, where, as a fourth-year student, Duhon, 30, is a familiar face, people can’t help themselves. Erika Fauth, also in her fourth year of vet school, teamed with Duhon last year in performing surgery on a dog in heat, a condition that complicated the procedure.
“All the professors would kind of walk by, like, ‘She’s actually doing this,’” Fauth said. “People you could tell were kind of skeptical beforehand could see her do all the stuff — placing catheters and doing anesthesia. I think that’s when it hit home for most people that she’s going to be just fine when they saw her do surgery.”
She did the operation without using hands. Duhon wasn’t showing off. She has none.
With arms that end a few inches below the elbow — not her only physical limitations, but the most significant — Duhon has not only survived as a veterinary student, but has thrived. She won the Outstanding Student Award for the Class of 2013 in the spring. Her grades are among the best in her class. She performs her tasks mostly without prosthetics, mostly without assistance and entirely without self-pity.
“I don’t want to make it seem that I didn’t have a down day, because some days are down, and some days I get aggravated,” Duhon said. “But those days are very few and far between. I think I’m just very thankful.”
‘I’m going to show him’
Growing up in Duson, Duhon was 13 when, in 1995, she thought she had the flu. Her throat was sore, her neck and back were stiff. Her mother, Melandia Langley, brought her Gatorade to keep her hydrated.
“She noticed that I started to have bruising on my wrist and asked if me and my sister had been wrestling,” Duhon said. “No, I didn’t do that. She also noticed that I had another bruise on my upper thigh. She just couldn’t understand where that was coming from.”
Duhon continued to feel worse, and the unexplained bruises kept appearing, so her mother and stepfather, Bobby Langley, took her to American Legion Hospital in Crowley. On the way, Duhon couldn’t hold her head up, so her mother held it for her. When they arrived at the hospital, she couldn’t pick up her feet to walk, and she was black and blue all over.
“The doctor asked my mom if I was allergic to penicillin,” Duhon said. “She said she didn’t know, and he said either she’s going to die from the penicillin or she’s going to die from this. It was rough.
“I can still remember laying on the table and the smell of my mother’s shirt from her grabbing me to turn me on my side for him to do a spinal tap, and my whole back turning black from where her hands were. That’s something you don’t forget.”
Doctors were perplexed. Her spinal fluid was clear. They sent her to Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center in Lafayette, where it took two days to discover that Duhon had meningococcal meningitis, which stayed in her bloodstream instead of her spinal fluid.
The disease cut off blood flow to Duhon’s extremities, leading to gangrene in her hands and one of her feet. It required the amputation of both hands and her right heel. Langley later told Duhon that doctors wanted to amputate the leg, but she convinced them to hold off. She underwent more operations in New Orleans before being released in October.
Along the way, the medical staff began to see glimpses of the determination that would reward Duhon as an adult.
Because meningitis can attack the brain, a psychiatrist was brought in to check Duhon. Dealing with post-operative pain, she was in no mood for it.
“When he came in I said, ‘Can I ask you a question before you start?’” Duhon said. “He said, ‘Sure.’ I asked him, ‘Do pigs sweat?’
“He kind of looked at me. I said, ‘Do they? Do pigs sweat?’ He said, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘No, they don’t. That’s why they lay in mud. So, I’m fine. You can go.’
“He walked out of the room and said, ‘She’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with her brain.’”
Duhon determined to reject all accommodations to her situation.
“They wanted her to do therapy for the legs and she said, ‘I don’t need therapy,’” Melandia Langley said. “She got up out of the wheelchair and walked. ‘I’m going to be just fine. I do my therapy at home, but I don’t need a wheelchair.’”
The next step was braces, but they chafed her leg. A doctor told her she could not walk barefoot in the grass. Duhon didn’t like being told what she couldn’t do.
“She said, ‘I’m going to show him,’” Langley said. “On one of our appointments … she took her shoes off. She walked into the doctor’s office and said, ‘I guess I am going to walk in the grass again.’”
“There were a bunch of things I was never supposed to do,” Duhon said. “To this day, I don’t wear braces. I constantly walk barefooted. I wear flip-flops.”
This resolve exacts a price. The interruption in blood flow destroyed the cartilage in her left ankle, so bone meets bone. To walk, she must canter her hips, which causes other aches and pains. She is undeterred.
“I just take some Advil and keep on truckin’,” Duhon said.
No Plan B
Duhon graduated from North Vermilion High School in 2000, then enrolled at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette to pursue a science degree. She took a job at a local health club, where she met Dr. Renee Poirrier of Acadiana Veterinary Clinic. Duhon initially thought she wanted to pursue anesthesiology or forensics, but was now thinking about being a veterinarian. She mentioned that to Poirrier.
“She never blinked an eye,” Duhon said. “She said, ‘My clinic is right down the street. Why don’t you come on in? We can see what you want to do and go from there.’”
Duhon started by coming in and observing, then was hired as a receptionist, then became a veterinary technician. One of the few concessions to her condition is that she needed help removing cats from kennels. Because her arms are so short, she wasn’t comfortable sticking her face into a kennel to retrieve a frightened cat.
“We just let Brandy figure out how she was going to do things,” Poirrier said. “She does things differently than the rest of us, and she figures out her own way. We said, ‘OK, these are the tasks we want you to do, and you just figure out how you’re going to do them.’ That’s what she did.
“There wasn’t anything that I can think of that she tried to do that she didn’t eventually tackle. She was able to pull up injections, give injections, she monitored surgery. She did everything a regular tech would do. She does it a little bit differently, but does it very efficiently and works well. And super intelligent.”
After getting her degree from ULL, Duhon applied to enroll at the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine. She was turned down. She applied again the next two years. Same result.
“I remember when she interviewed for a position here in the school, and I can remember faculty saying at that time, ‘Why are we even admitting her because there’s no way she would ever be able to do what a veterinarian needs to do?’” said Dr. Joe Taboada, the school’s associate dean of students. “I think in each year of the curriculum there have been people who taught in that year that had that exact same response. They looked at her and because they couldn’t see how what they did could be done without using hands, they assumed that it couldn’t be done.”
At Poirrier’s suggestion, Duhon had a video made of her doing the work of a veterinary technician and sent it to LSU. She was finally admitted.
If LSU had said no again?
“There was no Plan B,” Duhon said. “I’d have applied until I’d gotten in.”
‘Nothing stopped her’
Fauth first saw Duhon at student orientation. It included a leadership and team-building exercise, building boats out of cardboard boxes and sailing them across a pool.
“She fit right in,” Fauth said. “She was doing everything. Nothing stopped her. I was impressed by that.”
Fauth was not the last at the vet school to be amazed not only by how Duhon overcomes her physical limitations, but her spirit and personality. In her first year, she told everyone to ask her any question they had about her condition. Asked by the administration what accommodations she needed, her primary request was to change some doorknobs from round to levers — not because she couldn’t open them, but it was difficult to do so while carrying a load of books.
“All my classmates were, like, ‘Thank God you’ve got those changed,’” she said. “So, I wasn’t the only one having fits with the doorknobs.
“I could have been left with less than what I have. I have my elbows, and I can drive a car. I can peel crawfish. I can do surgery. I can put in a catheter. I can give vaccinations. There’s not one thing I can’t do.”
“I can’t put my hair in a ponytail, so my friends do,” she said. “I could be so worse.
“I don’t see myself as having a disability. I really don’t. A lot of times I forget. When I see a home video, I’m, like, ‘Oh, my God, I look so weird.’ But it’s because I forget. I don’t realize that a lot of my friends forget it, too. They say, ‘Once we hang around you for a while we forget.’”
Except when Duhon reminds them.
“When we go to a restaurant and we have a big group of people and somebody orders chicken fingers, she will be, like, ‘Why does it always have to be about the fingers?’ and make everybody laugh,” Fauth said. “The waitress is, like, ‘Oh, my God,’ and gets really bashful, but that’s how she is. It’s always a joke. She’s really good-spirited about it. She just likes to have fun.”
Her attitude, Taboada said, will continue to serve her well when she moves into full-time practice. Acadiana Veterinary Clinic clients who met Duhon as a technician continue to ask about her and when she will graduate, Poirrier said.
Duhon credits the support of her family — including father David Duhon and stepmother Chris Duhon — and her longtime boyfriend, Joe Del Diaz, for instilling that attitude and helping make her career dream close to a reality.
The diploma she plans to receive next May will indicate what she has learned. Others testify to what she has taught.
“Whenever I complain about things, I think twice,” Fauth said. “Really, I have nothing to complain about. I should be very grateful for what I have. … She is doing what she wants to do in life, and with her disability, and it does not matter. She’s going to get there.” |
New Orleans — Major national companies setting up shop in the metro New Orleans area is hardly news. Major national companies setting up shop in New Orleans proper? That’s a different story. It’s also what happened several times in 2012.
With the city luring organizations such as GE Capital and Costco and the expansion of several existing businesses in the past year, local business leaders believe New Orleans is laying the groundwork for a new wave of economic development — something they hope will diversify the economy and provide a brighter future for the cash-strapped city.
Aimee Quirk, Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s economic adviser, said the city has several things going for it now that it hasn’t previously: a young, entrepreneurial workforce that came here after Hurricane Katrina, better collaboration between the public and private sectors and a more aggressive attitude toward attracting and retaining business.
“We are on a path. We’ve got great alignment with the public-private sector,” Quirk said. “We are all on a course with a shared vision that makes us very powerful.”
Rod Miller, president and CEO of the New Orleans Business Alliance, the city’s official economic development organization, said a shift in the city’s business climate came in after Katrina.
“Katrina was an eye opener,” he said. “It put us in a spotlight and highlighted our flaws.”
A desire among business leaders to reinvigorate a somewhat stagnant economy based largely on the tourism industry helped spur change, Miller said. Meanwhile, young people who came to town after the August 2005 storm brought with them an entrepreneurial spirit.
That, Miller said, created a pool of potential talent for companies that began to look more seriously at the city as new economic incentives were launched in an effort to attract them.
But is New Orleans just riding a post-Katrina wave of outsiders interested in the rebuilding, which in many cases is coming to an end?
Quirk doesn’t think so. Noting that the city is nearly 10 years out from the storm, the trend seems to be that business here has changed, she said.
Knowing that recent companies moving to the city provide a sense of momentum, the city and business alliance are now in the midst of preparing to launch a strategic plan that will focus on five specific areas that mix high-paying jobs with more plentiful modest jobs:
- Advanced manufacturing.
- BioInnovation and health services.
- Creative digital media.
- Sustainable, or environmental, industries.
- Transportation, trade and logistics.
Michael Hecht, president and CEO of Greater New Orleans Inc., an economic development alliance that serves a 10-parish area in southeast Louisiana, said that the strategic plan sends a message to the country that New Orleans has gotten serious about its economy.
“The new New Orleans is different in real and positive ways from the previous incarnation,” Hecht said. “Given that the No. 1 enemy of business is uncertainty, these measures create a structure and plan and framework ... for the community,” Hecht said.
While there has been much work done behind the scenes to foster a new attitude toward business in New Orleans, a stigma of a corrupt city with a high crime rate, failing schools and little to offer as a return on investment might be a bit of a hindrance, according to one economist.
“We still have a perception problem,” said Janet Speyrer, associate dean of research and professor of economics at UNO.
The reality is simple, Speyrer said: to truly turn the corner, New Orleans will need to ensure that multiple new high-wage businesses continue to relocate here, showing that it is a new city.
While New Orleans landing something such as Costco can create new jobs, they are lower wage, and the store isn’t an automatic boon to the local economy since, she said, it can often just make consumer shift spending from one business to another, rather than spending more money. And while companies such as GE are also great additions, its workforce of about 300 people can’t quite boost a city’s entire economy.
Quirk said the city realizes that it needs to keep courting those types of enterprises to make a real difference, which is why it has developed the five-point strategic plan. She also pointed out that efforts to grow retail in the city and improve quality of life have been successful in 2012 with the construction of the Mid-City Market and Algiers Plaza, two shopping centers with various outlets in their respective namesake neighborhoods.
In 2013, a proposed new shopping center in South Claiborne Avenue Central City will go before the City Council in hopes of allowing ground breaking in the not-too-distant future. Officials also hope to see some action taken on a proposed outlet mall at the site of the former Six Flags theme park in eastern New Orleans.
In the meantime, Quirk said, growth often “begets more growth and wealth creation throughout the city.”
Hecht said that ongoing discussions with businesses interested in the city could prove to be yet another nail in the coffin of the city’s past profile if new deals are finalized this year.
“What I believe is we are two or three major companies away from New Orleans hitting critical mass in terms of being a tech hub,” Hecht said. “We have companies now like Gameloft and GE. Two or three more and I think we’ll turn the corner and be mentioned in the same sentences as Austin and Seattle.”
While there have been recent victories in on the business front, Quirk admits it will take some time for residents to experience effects of the recent efforts to revive the economy.
“It’s all incremental,” Miller said. |
This home will adapt as family grows
Intelligent life form
The minimalism of the exterior extends throughout the house, allowing the occupants to enjoy the space.
Here's a profound opening statement: Things change. As bumper sticker philosophy goes you can't get a deeper truism than that.
Life keeps revolving and needs to evolve accordingly; the tracks we found ourselves once walking can diverge and surprise. The constant seems to be the capricious.
Enter architecture. While life swirls around us, home is the greatest escape. It provides a haven from the rigours and an explanation of who we are.
Our homes don't simply reflect us but shape themselves around us. They grow, expand, transform and settle, just as we do.
So when you find a home that starts its life as the very articulation of these principles, you know you've found something special indeed.
Jolyon and Jayne Good's house in Sandringham is a breathtaking example of how the blank can be beautiful and how a brand spanking new home can reflect personality and mood and anticipate the stages of family life with remarkable design clarity.
The Goods and their two children wanted a family home that could move through the years with them but that wouldn't take forever for them to put their stamp on.
This stunning interpretation of that brief, which also included a basic set of needs such as two living areas, four bedrooms and a study, was imagined by designer Matthew Smith of Crone Partners and built by Jolyon Good himself.
What presents to the street is a gorgeous, somewhat diaphanous box, where the smoky glass facade is all urbane sophistication, while underneath raw concrete anchors the construction to the ground before a carpet of grassy wildflowers beautifully modulates the whole.
Over to the side a semi-subterranean garage is completely out of sight from the street and here the real story begins.
''We didn't want to see the garage, or a garage door,'' Mr Good says. ''We just wanted to see the house with nothing taking away from the look.''
Smith took this idea and drew it from the driveway and garage through the whole house, so the utilitarian items, such as appliances, bathroom fixtures and equipment, are concealed within the clean, straight lines.
''Everything here aligns with something else,'' Smith says. ''The geometry is very important. So while this is essentially a piece of minimalist architecture, it's also highly detailed.''
That is something of an understatement. The house has a brilliant functionality gained mostly from the unfolding series of rectangles that make up its footprint and create different zones.
The bedrooms sit to the front and are incredibly, surprisingly bright given their dark glass frontage to the south-facing street. Light positively floods through this place and gives the pared-back surfaces a warmth that might otherwise be missing.
There are also excellent lines of sight throughout. The massive pivoting timber entry door gives you an eyeful of that wide bedroom corridor before the house jags to the north down a beautiful central spine that opens to the living rooms and back entertainment spaces.
What is most striking here is that the flat, elemental nature of the materials - timber, glass, stone - have an effortless style despite their cool austerity; the white and grey palettes of the stone floors and bluestone fireplace column combine seamlessly to produce a sharp modern elegance.
All areas can be closed off from each other so, essentially, the house can be configured in a number of ways.
''Our idea here is that these spaces are adaptive. They are different forms depending on functionality or requirement or simply mood,'' Smith says. ''Everything is conscious of a family growing, of a changing family shape or need.''
The final pavilion at the back contains one of the sleekest kitchens you'll see, another family area and a massive wall of north-facing windows that give onto the outdoor entertainment space, pool and grassy back garden.
''It had to be straight, functional and practical too,'' Mrs Good says. ''It ticked all the boxes,'' Mr Good agrees. ''It works extremely well and easily.''
Upstairs, cantilevered over the ground floor, the parents' retreat contains a stunning bedroom, bathroom and private terrace.
Louvre windows that encase this upper level like a second skin can change the look of the entire house and serve to regulate internal temperatures.
This will be a home for the ages, precisely because its basic premise of utility within a seemingly blank form engages the mind as well as the heart and soul of the ever-changing modern family. |
Bartley gets the call from Nashville
The Nashville Predators announced today that the club has recalled defenseman Victor Bartley the Milwaukee Admirals.
Bartley becomes the 24th participant in the 2013 Dunkin' Donuts AHL All-Star Classic to be recalled to the National Hockey League since the event was held in Providence Jan. 27-28. He leads Milwaukee defensemen in points with 26 (7g, 19a) in 54 games this season.
As a rookie in 2011-12, the 6-foot, 212-pound native of Maple Ridge, B.C., tied for 10th among American Hockey League defensemen -- and ranked second among AHL rookie defensemen -- in points (39) after signing as a free agent with the Predators on May 24, 2011.
Bartley has yet to appear in an NHL game.
- Crunch cruise into conference finals
- Griffins push Marlies to the brink
- Penguins stay alive with 3-1 win
- Tatar takes the lead as Griffins press on
- Arcobello leading Barons' Calder Cup charge
- French not returning to Bears
- AHL Morning Skate: May 17
- Barons roll into Western Conference Finals |
see more of my work @ the 2013 Sydney Bridal Spectacular, Luna Park, May 4 & 5.
@ The 2013 Sydney Bridal Expo April 6 & 7.
Package available to all those visitors that scanned their details on the weekend.
Any bookings taken as a result of your visit to my stand, 75B at the Sydney Bridal Expo this weekend will bring a bonus!
1 x consultation @ your home (up to two hours)
Email consultations throughout the process
Framing up to $500
Delivery of finished art work along with
2 x high quality A4 reproductions
STAY TUNED THIS YEAR AS I REGULARLY UPDATE THE PROCESS OF PAINTING JUDGE GREG WOODS FOR THE 2014 ARCHIBALD PRIZE!
Sit with Michelle and share your wedding photographs, memorabilia and stories from the day, then let her go back to her studio to create a life time memory of the special event.
Come join me on the 6th & 7th of April at the Sydney Bridal Expo.
I will be exhibiting my portraiture work of “Happy Couples!”
To see some of these portraits, go to the ‘Portraiture” page.
Hey Guys & Gals - Check out my new page for Michelle Kinnane Portraiture. The perfect gift or memory for that special day xx
Summer holiday workshops for junior artists!
7th, 8th & 9th January, 2012
Details on “Junior Artist’s Workshops” page
MAKE SURE YOU CHECK OUT ALL THAT’S GOING ON IN THE ART SPACE @ www.facebook.com/theartspacepearlbeach
and be sure to click “like”
see you there! |
BUT HOW CAN I MISS THE FINAL CHAPTER!
Like many obsessed Harry Potter fans out there, I’ve been watching all the movies over again in preparation for the epic 8th and final installment this month. My girlfriend had yet to see any of them and it’s been great to watch the 7 films with someone who had only read the first book.
I’m actually a little jealous of that. Waiting years in between movies is tough when you are a fan but new fans can discover the series without the excruciating wait now. It’s like someone discovering Lost right now without having to ponder all the mysteries over the summer months in between seasons.
When Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is released it will be the first film she will see in theaters… Then it hit me… It will be mine as well! How have I never seen a Harry Potter movie on the big screen? Admittedly, I’ve never read the books. I’m a Harry Potter: The Movie fan. I discovered this story one movie at a time. Each time a new film was released, the series got better. I honestly think if I ranked the films it would probably be in order of release.
When the first film emerged, I wasn’t really that interested in it. I ended up skipping it completely. It wasn’t the second was released on video that I discovered the series. I remember renting them together. I watched them back to back with my family and I was extremely disappointed that I had to wait to see The Prisoner of Azkaban. Except I didn’t see it in theaters either.
For some reason, this series has always been a ‘wait for video’ franchise for me. That’s kind of unacceptable isn’t it? What kind of a die hard Harry Potter fan consciously skips the theatrical release and waits EVEN LONGER to find out what happens? (That’s actually the one advantage I have over fans of the books. I really don’t have any clue how this whole thing ends. I’m sure Harry Potter triumphs in the end but how and at what cost are a mystery.)
… There’s no sense lingering on the past now. One by one the films were released and I became a bigger and bigger fan of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry. I can’t think of a better way to say goodbye than clearing my schedule for the incredible climax to one of the biggest franchise of all time across ANY medium.
Truthfully, it kind of makes me sad. I’ve complained about the long wait in between films like many others but what will we all do when there aren’t any new films on the horizon? All of the sudden, the long waits make sense. It’s the anticipation of events like this that makes me a die hard film fan… I can’t shake it. How can I call myself a die hard fan when I’ve never waited in line to see the film AT THE MOVIES!?
I like to think I’ve saved the best for last. How can I miss this? It’s not everyday, a hugely successful 8 film franchise comes to an end. It will be a bitter sweet farewell to characters we’ve come to love and a world we never saw coming.
Once my video collection is complete, it will be pretty amazing to start from the beginning again and watch the series from start to finish. I think I may always regret missing all but one on the silver screen. Still, it’s been one hell of a ride… At home… |
Toyota Adds 2010 Lexus RX To Floor Mat Recall List
2010 Lexus RX added to potential floor mat interference campaign
TORRANCE, Calif. (June 29, 2012) -- Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A., Inc., today announced that it has amended its recall from late 2009, adding two models to address the potential for unsecured or incompatible floor mat entrapment of the accelerator pedal. The models added are:
• 2010 RX 350 (approximately 131,800 vehicles) and
• 2010 RX 450h (approximately 22,200 vehicles)
Owners of the involved vehicles will receive a safety recall notification by first class mail in early August 2012. Lexus dealers will remedy the involved vehicles at no cost to the customers. |
On Tuesday nights at D4D, dogs and their potential handlers test the waters with one another. People are focused and hopeful as they learn how to handle a dog and what to expect in public when accompanied by a service dog. Meanwhile, staff members are on the lookout for a special connection. “Many people are eager to be partnered with one of our dogs,” says director Carol Edwards. “But we don’t make placements according to a waiting list; instead, we pair up dogs and people when we see a special chemistry at work.” Once a match has been made, the dog and his handler work as a leashed-together pair 24 hours a day for up to two months. During this “umbilical period,” the dog learns to connect his person’s hypoglycemic scent with a reward. Reynolds explains, “It’s almost as if they are saying, I smell the scent. I’m going to let you know that I smell the scent, and then I’ll get treats!
At first, Harris didn’t believe that a dog could detect low blood sugar, but her skepticism vanished when she worked at a camp for diabetic children and accompanied a D4D dog on his midnight rounds. She became a believer when she watched the dog alert his handler to a sleeping child whose blood sugar reading was in the low 30s.
Just three weeks before the momentous night—the night when she didn’t wake up freezing in sweat-soaked linens—Harris brought Destiny home. Instead of ravenously raiding the refrigerator and experiencing the disorientation and emotional rollercoaster that accompanies midnight hypoglycemia, she simply lay in bed and drank a glass of juice. “It’s the best low I’ve ever had,” she confesses with a smile.
These days, Destiny accompanies Harris everywhere, wearing the blue vest that identifies her as a medical-alert service dog. Destiny’s presence in the car eliminates Harris’s concern about going low while driving, and in the classroom, Destiny sits by Harris’s side and gives her enough warning that she can grab a healthy snack without missing a moment of instruction. And at night, this faithful companion frees Harris to sleep soundly without the risks and fears of nighttime hypoglycemia.
The work at D4D holds promise for hundreds of thousands of Type 1 diabetics. For Mark and the other tireless volunteers at D4D, the bottom line is that these dogs relieve people of the fear of hypoglycemia, and they save lives. Most rewarding are the phone calls from parents who say, “The dog woke me up last night, and my child’s blood glucose was 40.”
Harris grew up with Lab mixes, and initially she looked forward to building a special relationship with her new dog; then she realized exactly how special that relationship would be: “When I first received Destiny, I was so excited to be able to care for a dog. This is really cool!
I thought to myself. She depends on me for fun, for play, for food, for a good walk. But when she started to alert on me, it really struck home: I am the one who depends on her to literally save my life.” No glucose meter in the world can measure the depth of that bond.
Originally published as “An Immeasurable Bond.” |
I've been criticised for having "become very conservative". But I'm not sure that's what I am, for many views I'd share with "the left", aka liberals (in the American sense). So I thought I'd do a list of those things which determine one's politics.
For every Yes count zero. For every Don't Know count One. For every No count Two. The lower the number, the more liberal you are.
Based on US criteria, where "liberal" = left-wing and/or Democrat.
"Don't know" also includes "Don't fully agree with". Eg, "Globalism is not a good thing"; you might think that there are aspects which are beneficial, but also aspects which are troublesome, hence a count of One.
A score of Zero will be an out and out liberal, tending to "hard left". A score of 64 will be an out and out conservative, tending to "hard right". A score of 32 will be a willy-wishy wonka. My own score is.... hmmm, let me see know, got it... 37. So I guess that does make me to the right of centre, though not at the hard right end...
Are you in favour of (or do you agree with the statement) --
1. Gun control.
2. Abortion rights.
3. Iraq war was wrong (of having invaded Iraq in the first place; you may now think that since we are in there now, best make as good a job of it as possible).
4. Afghanistan: ditto per Iraq
5. The theory of Natural Selection
6. Stronger focus on education provided by the state
7. Islam: as a "Religion of Peace". i.e. don't criticize it, for all religions have their crazies. IOW, you think the phenomenon of "Islamophobia" exists and ought to be fought and resisted.
8. Sarah Palin is an ignorant nutter
9. The Tea Party is a bunch of ignorant nutters
10. Glen Beck is an ignorant nutter
11. Keith Olbermann is great, speaks truth to power and whips it up to ignorant nutters
12. Palestinians are the underdog. They are being persecuted by the Israelis/Jews
13. Zionism is the same as racism
14. Israel pursues a policy of apartheid
15. The US is to blame, at least partly, for the attacks on it of 911
16. Today's terrorism has more to do with poverty and grievances (eg, Palestine, US foreign policy), than with any religious motivation.
17. All religions are basically the same (for better or worse).
18. All cultures are basically the same and deserving of respect.
19. The Danish cartoons of 2005 were simply an unnecessary provocation and not a freedom of speech issue.
20. Geert Wilders, the Dutch anti-Islam politician, is a right-wing bigot/racist (aka "an ignorant nutter")
21. Mark Steyn is an ignorant nutter.
22. Man made climate change is real and a huge threat to the world.
23. Unions are a force for good in the economy. Governments should legislate to increase their bargaining power.
24. Bosses should not have complete freedom to hire and fire at will.
25. Globalism is not a good thing.
26. Capitalism is not a good thing.
27. We should strive for a more egalitarian society, such through Market Socialism.
28. The rich should be taxed more
29. The Stimulus package of 08-09 was necessary; more stimulus is needed.
30. Don't ask, don't tell was a bad policy and its repeal was a good thing.
31. I believe in Gay Rights
32. Less should be spent on the Military and more on social programs (eg education) |
Cynthia is feeling crabby…I heard a rumor that many cosmetic products use crab shells as an ingredient. This sounds a little bit ridiculous to me but if it’s true I wonder why it’s so hush-hush. Is it because the cosmetic companies are worried that the animal-rights activists will find out?
The Right Brain responds:
Actually, Cynthia, crab shells are a legitimate ingredient in many cosmetics.
What is Chitin?
You’ll never see “crab shells” listed as an ingredient. Instead you’ll see some version of a chemical called “chitin.” Chitin is a polysaccharide which means it’s sort of like cellulose and it comes from the exoskeletons of crustaceans, insects and even arachnids. When you realize this stuff could come from scorpions suddenly crab shells don’t sound so bad.
Chitin was “discovered” in 1811 by Professor Henri Braconnott. He found it, in all places, in the cell walls of mushrooms. I’m guessing that it’s too expensive to get significant amounts of high-quality chitin from mushrooms hence the use of crustacean shells. That’s much more cost effective since these shells are a by product of the animals we use for food (crabs as well as shrimp and lobsters.)
One of earliest applications for chitin was in preparing wound dressings where its moisture retention properties speed the healing of burns. Today it’s found in a variety of products including diapers, feminine napkins, and tampons. (Since these aren’t cosmetics they don’t have to provide an ingredient list.) It’s also an additive in many dietary supplements and, of course, it’s used in cosmetics or else we wouldn’t be writing about it.
What does Chitin do in cosmetics?
It has been demonstrated that the addition of certain chitin derivatives significantly improves the skin hydrating properties of facial masks. In addition, chitin is used in hairsprays to increase combability, stiffness and curl retention. It can even help stabilize emulsions by reducing oil and water separation. Look for it on the ingredient list as either chitin or “chitosan.”
While it’s no secret that many products may contain ingredients derived from crustations I don’t think it would be a particularly wise marketing move for products to exclaim “Hey, I’ve got crabs!” Maybe that’s why the animal rights groups haven’t made much of a fuss about this ingredient. Somehow marine-derived ingredients seem to get a pass from the animal rights folks (with shark liver oil being a notable exception.)
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To assist Main Street, Reich proposes the following:
Congress and the Obama administration should give homeowners the right to go to a bankruptcy judge and have their mortgages modified.I would also like to see a real program that targets lending for small businesses during this crisis. Goldman has set "up a crudely conceived $500 million PR program to help Main Street." But a "PR program" is hardly one that will be most beneficial to small businesses, although I'm sure likely recipients would not turn it down. Small businesses are really hurting.
And while they're at it, resurrect the Glass-Steagall Act that used to separate investment from commercial banking, so Wall Street can't continue to use other people's money to gamble.
Finally, before Goldman hands out $17 billion in bonuses, claw back the $13 billion Goldman took from AIG and the rest of us and add it to the pool of money going for mortgage relief.
Might Reich's proposal work better in relief for Main Street? |
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