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|This week's very green CSA share, clockwise from bag: baby arugula, cilantro, dill, butter lettuce, scallions, green garlic, spinach and collard greens.
Viva Vegan by Terry Hope Romero. It's one of my all-time favorites. Then knowing there was no way in hell I could use the rest up of the gargantuan cilantro bunch before it turned slimy, I chopped it up and froze it in ice-cube trays.
Veganomicon with a few adjustments. I didn't have chard so I substituted my gorgeous bunch of CSA spinach. I also used brown jasmine rice instead of basmati because it's what I happened to have on hand. This recipe is delicious – reminds me of a kicked-up version of Dolmades filling. I am certain I never would have tried it had the dill not been imposed on me, but I bookmarked this to make again. There's something to be said for stepping out of your comfort zone.
|Green garlic – immature garlic before the bulb forms
|Slow-Cooked Collards with Green Garlic and Scallions
slow-cooked collards with green garlic and scallions
- 1 T olive oil
- 1/4-1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, optional
- Salt, to taste
- 2 1/2 cups of a combination of green garlic and scallions, sliced 1/8-1/4 inch thick
- 1 bunch of collard greens, about 9 large leaves, destalked and cut into slivers
- 1/2 cup vegetable broth
|Island-style Sweet Potatoes
island-inspired sweet potatoes
To me, sweet potatoes scream Thanksgiving. Nevertheless, I received a large batch in my last CSA share and was wracking my brain on how to make them taste less autumnal. I thought back to all of my trips to the Caribbean, where sweet potatoes grow year round, and this inspired me to add some coconut oil, coconut flakes and a tiny pinch of cinnamon. Voilà! Summery sweet potatoes. Amazingly, these little orange wonders taste divine served atop the collards.
Serves 2
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a small bowl, mix the oil, agave nectar, salt, and cinnamon. Stir in the sweet potatoes and coconut. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes or until soft.
|Use coconut flakes if you can get them for more concentrated hit of tropical creaminess


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Kaspars Daugavins is nicknamed "Doggy" or "Dog Man" but he's built like a hydrant.
It's his build and his ability to play numerous roles more than his different monikers that made him appealing to Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli on the waiver wire last week.
The 6-foot, 205-pound Daugavins made his Bruins debut Thursday night in the win against New Jersey at TD Garden. He was again on a line with Rich Peverley and Jay Pandolfo during his first Bruins practice Friday at Ristuccia Arena.
While he only produced one goal in 19 games with Ottawa this season, Daugavins is hoping to provide Boston with more than just intangibles from the third line or wherever coach Claude Julien puts the native of Latvia.
"I played before in my career in any other situations. In junior, I scored 40 goals. So I know how to play some offense," said Daugavins, who produced 19-35-54 totals with AHL Binghamton when the Sens won the Calder Cup. "As long as you have trust in me and get some confidence you can do it too. In Binghamton, in the Calder Cup run, I played on top two lines, so like you had to do some damage on offense too to win the Cup. I know how to do it, it's just a matter of what coach wants me to do. If he wants me to play a defensive role, I'm going to do that. If there's going to be a chance to play more offense, I'll try to do that too. You never forget about defense though."
Daugavins was just getting his feet wet Thursday and getting into the groove when he made a turnover in the third period that could've cost Boston. The Bruins extinguished New Jersey's threat en route to a 1-0 victory, but Daugavins was hard on himself after the play and even the next day.
"Obviously, I turned it over on the far blue line. I didn't see the guy jump out of the bench," he explained. "Like I got by the first guy and I thought I was going to have some open ice to skate in. All of a sudden there's another guy there. And it's five, six minutes left in the period, you're up 1-0, you don't want to make any turnovers, especially trying to do first impression about yourself. So obviously I made a mistake, tried to get it back and try to get better every day, you know?"
Daugavins is good friends with countryman and former Bruins farmhand Martins Karsums, whose claim to fame in Boston lore was being part of the package that brought Mark Recchi from Tampa Bay in a trade. Karsums and Daugavins played together with Riga of the KHL during the lockout.
While Karsums is famous for being dealt out of Boston, Daugavins is hoping to make his name in the Hub. Hopefully, he lights the lamp a few times so he can unleash his trademark bark, which started when "Dog Man" was on his way to winning the Calder Cup in Binghamton. He even barked after his lone goal this season, which was against the Bruins.
An owner of two dogs back home, including a lab, Daugavins is hoping he'll be off the leash in Boston and able to make the Bruins into top dogs.
"For sure, it was a little tough there [in Ottawa], you play a few good games and then right away after that you're scratched. So it was tough mentally but you just have to keep working and maybe some good breaks happen for you," he said. "That's what happened. Boston picked me up and hopefully I get a chance to prove that I can play in this league and do some help here."

subset: commoncrawl


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My TV already has a digital filter. Its called the off switch.
I think that might be more accurately described as a binary filter.
Think of what he is using to operate the switch, buddy.
Think of what he is using to operate the switch, buddy.
I'd rather not. And don't call me buddy, pal.
My TV already has a digital filter. Its called the off switch.
So when you get angry, do you flip it off?
Not so much annoying as vaguely scary. I keep looking over my shoulder for attacking wasps.
Am I the only...person who doesn't find the noise annoying? (Just curious.)
No, you're not, I'm in the same position. I'm not watching BTW
Talk about cultural intolerance...
Oh, but starting your answer in the title, however, IS definitely annoying
The people bothered most by the noise is the players. They've been the ones complaining loudest. Those of us in the stands or living rooms can stuff plugs in our ears, but the soccer players can not. They say they can't hear the refs yelling-out calls, or directions from coaches. It's disrupting the game.
Wait, that's all I have to do to regain my status as a colonial power?
I never knew it would be so easy.
if the BBC and others are going to start filtering them, we get the best of both worlds
Except we don't. The players are unable to communicate on the pitch in any way, leading to the worst standard of play. As players cannot be warned when somebody is behind them, they just play safe and hoof the ball up the pitch just in case. The world's top players are being made to look like talentless hacks in dull low-scoring games. This may well go on to be the worst World Cup, and after this the Champions League finals may go on to eclipse the World Cup finals.
Definitely - this has been REALLY noticeable in most of the matches I have watched. There have been a bunch of instances already where defenders miscommunicated so badly they gave up some really strange scoring chances. It made them and the general play of the match sometimes look completely confused and amateurish, until you realized that they just couldn't hear anything their teammates or goalkeeper was yelling at them...
1. Cricket bat.
2. Hearing Aid.
3. Petrol funnel.
4. Water sprayer. (force trumpet side down into water)
5. Drinking funnel. Nuff said.
6. 4G mobile communication
7. Walking stick,
8. Light saber. (Just insert a torch) as seen on Starwars...
9. Jousting Stick (simply insert one into another.)
10. And of coarse... supporting any team/thing you like...
Me and my friend made a Puredata patch (http://puredata.info) to filter the vuvuzela sound. You have the ability to choose the sound also, making it more dynamic.
check it at http://joaomartins.entropiadesign.org/2010/06/15/vuvuzela-filter-a-puredata-approach/
When the World Cup started, I thought of playing around with notch filters to remove the noise, but the whole thing just reeked of effort. The human brain is actually pretty good at filtering out noise if you give it a chance. Just watch the games and don't worry about the vuvuzelas and before long you won't even notice them. I don't. It's a lot like what happens when you live next to a highway.
The human brain is actually pretty good at filtering out noise if you give it a chance.
Well, that and progressive hearing loss.
My brain filtered it out after about 30 seconds. I actually think it's slightly less annoying than the background cheering during a typical NFL game.
after listening to the "before" and "after" application of the notch filter, I quickly noticed that when you removed the vuvu's, you ended up with a slightly quieter, equally annoying general sound of the crowd.
The announcer really wasn't any easier to understand when the vuvus were removed. The audio's average level was just a little lower. (which did make it slightly easier on the ears)
Not much of an improvement. I can't imagine them banning vuvus would have much of an impact on the game -- for example,
I can't imagine them banning vuvus would have much of an impact on the game -- for example, the crowd noise itself would be almost equally effective at preventing the players from communicating
Actually, it is much worse than normal crowd noise - they have already shown that a vuduzela can generate 125dB from 1m. 40,000 of those things can most definitely cause a level of hearing damage that normal cheering cannot.
I was in one of the louder indoor arenas (the HP Pavilion in San Jose) when it got over 105dB in the NHL playoffs - that was enough to cause my eardrums to literally start clipping, and a bit of pain after a while. I couldn't imagine 125+ dB for almost 2 hours straight...
Chatroulette and sports broadcasters all trying to filter out the horn on the same day?
I wrote up a blog post about using Sound eXchange (sox) to filter the sound here: http://www.russellbeattie.com/blog/linux-command-line-streaming-vuvuzela-filter [russellbeattie.com] , but the short version is this:
rec -d vol
or from a response to my post here: http://www.yusufk.za.net/?p=520 [za.net]
rec -d | play -d vol 0.9 bandreject 116.56 3.4q bandreject 233.12 3.4q bandreject 466.24 3.4q bandreject 932.48 3.4q bandreject 1864 3.4q
After testing, I feel the parameters could be tweaked a bit more - but these definitely make a difference.
Call me when it works on Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh.
My TV has a control labeled 'Brightness', but it didn't seem to help...
An earlier poster wrote:
I've seen a lot of comments around the Internet insinuating that if you hate the sound of vuvuzelas, then you're a colonial racist who hates South African culture.
The funny thing is that the vuvuzelas are a recent introduction into South African culture. They are not only post-Colonial, they are post-Apartheid.
The maker of the horns admits that the prototype came from the USA... http://www.boogieblast.co.za/vuvuzela.htm [boogieblast.co.za]
and this has been known in wider soccer circles for at least a year... http://www.footballiscominghome.net/the-hosts/the-vuvuzela/ [footballiscominghome.net]
and while the plastic horns have been around since the late 90s in South Africa... http://www.southafrica.info/2010/vuvuzela.htm [southafrica.info]
the current mass-producer only started up in 2001... http://www.vuvuzelas.com/about.html [vuvuzelas.com]
Additionally, there's the blaringly obvious notion that the vuvuzela looks nothing like the kudu horn it allegedly comes from and looks everything like a cheap rip-off of the sort of long thin horns you see draped with flags playing fanfares when kings enter in films set in the middle ages, but I suppose it's expecting a lot for everyone to think critically. Last time I checked, kudu horns didn't have embouchures, either, which is what allows the plastic horn blowers to last all game.
I wonder how long before half of what one sees and hears in supposedly "live" TV has been digitally massaged in some manner.
You could take out ugly buildings to make a scene more aesthetically pleasing, notch out one particular persons voice, or remove an 'annoying' five seconds of tape.
This subtle dichotomy between actual real life and tv "real life" could widen to the point of audiences being fed the "Leave it to Beaver" version of the real. We're generally already pissed off enough that our lives don't match the fake TV shows but this could bring a whole new level of cognitive dissonance, since these are supposedly "live" evens.
The horns are there, in the stadium. They may be annoying but they are part of the event. I guess if it turns cloudy, perhaps they can photoshop in some blue sky...
You'll have 15,000 fans all blowing Didgeridoos.
Thus spake the master programmer: "When a program is being tested, it is too late to make design changes." -- Geoffrey James, "The Tao of Programming"


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Highest paid teachers in the US
See the estimated average salary of teachers in public schools for the 2012-13 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. We compiled a list of the top 20 states in the country.
By Carrie Taylor
on January 21, 2014 11:22 AM
Photo: Provided By The School At St. George Place Elementary School


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The bad news just keeps piling on at J.C. Penney Co. The chain reported a third-quarter loss of 56 cents per share, or $123 million, on revenue that plunged 26 percent in the latest sign that customers are not happy the retailer ditched hundreds of coupons and big sales it offered each year in favor of everyday low pricing. It is the third consecutive quarter of losses and steep sales declines that Plano, Texas-based Penney has reported since the change. The results underscore the challenges chief executive Ron Johnson faces as he attempts to change the way people shop. The year-ago loss was $143 million, or 67 cents per share.
Market Movers


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My lunch is such a dolt sometimes.
My lunch is such a dolt sometimes.
From now on I'm gonna shake the box really hard before I open it or I'll never eat again.
I'm glad Gromit is made of CHEESE because otherwise I would have had to call shenanigans.
It's not too much of a stretch to imagine that Spongebob is actually made of eggs.
Will this lunch fall to neglect as quickly as our Tomagotchis did back in the day?


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Be on TV
Tuesday 2nd October 2012
Venue: Envision TV LTD
Category: Film
One Liner: get on tv
Price Info: free
Time Info: TBC
What Envision TV – Cambridgeshire community television does best is help people make their own tv programmes. We do this by providing friends with access to our equipment and facilities at no cost.
Friends of Envision TV are allowed to use equipment and facilities free of charge, as long as the interest is to help produce programming for the community.
Maybe you could join or start Production group producing programming based on your own interests, ranging from political issues to community events, comedy, factual or a sitcom. Starting or joining a production group is a great way to get involved with ongoing productions on Envision TV, which will help bring community programming content to the airwaves of Cambridgeshire.
Envision TV will accept program submissions as either "single" or "series" type programs. Single programs are one-shot, stand alone programs that are scheduled according to timeslot availability. Series are a number of episodes of the same program that will be broadcast in a fixed timeslot across many weeks or months. Any Cambridgeshire resident can submit a program idea free of charge.
We also have access to a large range of video and audio equipment and offer free training and advice workshops every Wednesday at our offices from 10am – 4pm
If you would like to get involved you can by calling freephone: 0330 660 045
or email : email@example.com
Error Reporting: Contact thecambridgetimetrav, the publisher of this event.


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South Loop traffic a mess after crash near Old Galveston Road
Updated 12:12 pm, Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Wednesday got tough for some motorists as crashes slowed area freeways.
The South Loop near Old Galveston Road was jammed after a crash about 11:30 a.m.
A few hours earlier portions of Interstate 45 in north Houston were temporarily shutdown after a three-vehicle crash, according to Houston Transtar.
The wreck happened about 9 a.m. on the northbound North Freeway near Cavalcade. The northbound lanes were temporarily blocked while crews cleared the scene. The lanes were later reopened.
Earlier a stalled big-rig about 7:30 a.m. made headaches for drivers on the westbound East Freeway near Normandy. One lane was temporarily blocked and traffic began to pile up.
The East Freeway also was snarled by a single-vehicle wreck about 6:15 a.m. temporarily blocked two westbound lanes near Lockwood. The lanes were later reopened.


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More than half a million U.S. children are now believed to have lead poisoning, roughly twice the previous high estimate, health officials reported Thursday. The increase is the result of the government last year lowering the threshold for lead poisoning, so now more children are considered at risk.
Too much lead can harm developing brains and can mean a lower IQ. Lead poisoning used to be a much larger concern in the United States, but has declined significantly as lead was removed from paint and gasoline and other sources.
The new number translates to about 1 in 38 young children. That estimate suggests a need for more testing and preventive measures, some experts said, but budget cuts last year eliminated federal grant funding for such programs.
Those cuts represent "an abandonment of children," said David Rosner, a Columbia University public health historian who writes books about lead poisoning.
"We've been acting like the problem was solved and this was a thing of the past," he added.


text:
Please note: You are viewing an archived Bucknell University news story. It is possible that information found on this page has become outdated or inaccurate, and links and images contained within are not guaranteed to function correctly.
LEWISBURG, Pa. — The Weis Center at Bucknell University will present Jazz at Lincoln Center's Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra with Arturo O'Farrill Friday, March 2, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25.
Jazz at Lincoln Center's acclaimed Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra was created by pianist Arturo O'Farrill at the urging of Wynton Marsalis, artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, to continue the innovations of musicians like Mario Bauza, Machito and O'Farrill's late father.
Winner of the 2003 Latin Jazz USA Outstanding Achievement Award, O'Farrill has played piano with Dizzy Gillespie, The Fort Apache Band, Wynton Marsalis and Harry Belafonte, among many others.
In 1995 he agreed to direct the band that preserved much of his father's music, Chico O'Farrill's Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, in residence at Birdland.
Grammy nomination
O'Farrill has appeared on numerous records including the Grammy-nominated Heart of a Legend, Carambola, and the soundtrack to the critically acclaimed movie "Calle 54."
When O'Farrill's orchestra played in California, Don Heckman of The Los Angeles Times said, "Rhythmic energy was bursting in all directions at the Hollywood Bowl!"
Tickets for Weis Center performances are available in person from the Campus Box Office by calling 570-577-1000 or online at http://www.bucknell.edu/boxoffice/. The box office in the Weis Center also opens one hour prior to performances.
This performance has been made possible in part by a generous contribution from Nancy and Sam Craig. The 2006-07 season of Weis Center Events is generously supported by grants from the Bucknell University Association for the Arts and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Council on the Arts in conjunction with the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. Additional support for the series is provided by numerous and generous private donors including members of the Weis Center Green Room Circle and Green Room Board.
J@LC's Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra with Arturo O'Farrill (photo by John Abbott)
Posted Feb. 23, 2007
The following links are virtual breadcrumbs marking the 27 most recent pages you have visited in Bucknell.edu. If you want to remember a specific page forever click the pin in the top right corner and we will be sure not to replace it. Close this message.


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'Held without a shot in his first three games of the season, Eric Lindros had a pair of power-play goals 26 seconds apart late in the first period to give New York a 2-0 lead. Both goals came while the Sabres were down two men after Rob Ray was assessed a double-minor for elbowing and picked up an additional penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.'
You are here: Home / SabresBeat / Buffalo 4, NY Rangers 4 (OT)


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Columbia Gorge Community College welcomes generous holiday "giving" to ensure its grant match challenge goal.
Around the holidays, it's no secret that nonprofit organizations worldwide rally for end-of-year donations. But critical needs must also be met in the Columbia Gorge region, including scholarships for student education. That's why Columbia Gorge Community College hasn't stopped its own plea for contributions to the CGCC Foundation endowment match challenge.
Thanks to a U.S. Department of Education Title III grant awarded to the college several years ago, CGCC Foundation has been spotlighting the benefits of investing in this perpetual "lifeline" for future student scholarships. With the grant challenge, contributions to the foundation endowment fund receive a dollar-for-dollar match up to $200,000 until the grant expires, Sept. 30, 2015.
Thanks to this unique aspect to the grant, any gifts to the endowment fund will essentially be doubled, making this an incredibly effective, sustainable financial avenue for rewarding and reinforcing positive student achievement in the future.
"The spirit of giving is undoubtedly alive in our region, considering we've already received over $120,000 in contributions and a recent, generous gift for an additional $12,000," said Carina Schmidt, the foundation board's chair and a member of the local community.
"But while we're a little over halfway there in terms of meeting our goal, the pace and levels of giving must pick up if we're to maximize this special grant's potential. So with the holidays and year's end upon us, we're asking community members to contribute to this foundation, specifically this time-sensitive grant."
While the CGCC Foundation has been encouraging community members to contribute to this grant match challenge, it's also been noting a boost in scholarship need. Scholarship applications have increased over the past few years. Between 2012 and 2013, the college's foundation awarded $132,000 in scholarship support to 104 students. Students benefit from financial relief for tuition and, in some cases, books and/or fees.
However, the perk for endowment contributors is supporting students in many ways, knowing this tax-deductible gift builds the fund's principal, which remains untouched while the interest earned will be used to support scholarships over the long term.
"In a sense, this is an evergreen gift, or one that lasts forever," said Dr. Frank Toda, who is both CGCC's president and a member of the CGCC foundation board. "Once given, the money will go on to serve students today and in the years to come. Clearly, the more principal we have in this fund, the more interest we can earn and the more support we can provide to those students who so deserve it."
Multiple, flexible options are available for giving to the endowment. To learn more or for specifics on the federal grant match challenge, visit gorgefoundation.org.
About Columbia Gorge Community College Foundation
The CGCC Foundation mission is to build dreams and transform lives by cultivating respectful relationships that promote lifelong learning.
The foundation was established in 1979 to advance and promote the interests and the development of Columbia Gorge Community College, its students and the community. It is an Oregon nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, and donations to the foundation are tax-deductible as allowed by law.
To achieve the foundation's mission, the foundation board and its staff solicit and administer charitable donations from individuals, organizations, and businesses.
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text: Brett Tomko made the start for Louisville with mixed results. He went three innings, giving up four hits, two walks and three runs. The Bats have been pretty much silent on offense so far. Costanzo with a single and a double. Gregorius, Valaika and Felix Perez with singles. Perez now hitting .280 on the season. Louisville trails 4 zip in the 8th.


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2:37 PM, Dec 31, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPER
A Democratic member of Congress is moving to block President Barack Obama's congressional pay increase. The move, led by John Barrow of Georgia, is to prevent the pay increase that Obama issued through an executive order from going into effect.
"At a time when American families face real hardship, it would be irresponsible to allow Congressional pay to increase," says Barrow in a statement. "Too many families face uncertainty in the New Year for Congress to get a bonus. Folks expect us to be looking out for them, not ourselves, and we should be working to lower taxes, cut spending, and get our nation's debt under control. Congress should get to work, and I urge the House leadership to do anything and everything possible to stop this pay increase for Members of Congress right away."
Barrow's office explains: "The Executive Order called for a pay increase for Members of Congress and other elected officials of 0.5 percent after March 27, 2013. During tonight's votes, Congressman Barrow will urge his colleagues to sign his letter to House Leadership urging them to bring legislation to the floor to block the pay increase."
Read More>http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/...se_692451.html


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A smart home is all about increasing the control you have over the day-to-day running of your home. At B&Q we have everything you need to get your home up and running.
Create the perfect lighting in your living spaces with our selection of ceiling lights
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Discover the latest LED indoor lights, including stylish ceiling lights and strip lighting
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Cabinet lighting adds an ambience to your kitchen and allows task lighting in key areas
A smart home is all about increasing the control you have over the day-to-day running of your home. At B&Q we have everything you need to get your home up and running.
Fitting a standard single pendant light fitting near the centre of the ceiling probably sounds easier than the task itself, so here's our handy guide to make your vision a reality.
Add the finishing touches to your room with the right lighting. From ornate ceiling lights and chandeliers for your dining room or living room to relaxing bathroom lighting and LED bulbs to help you unwind, here at B&Q we have a wide selection of lights and light bulbs to suit your needs and style. Transform any room with unique LED lighting, lamp shades and even ceiling lights, and breathe new life into your space with a floor lamp or table lamp.


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The executive chef of dine by Peter Gordon at SkyCity answers your cuisine questions.
- Joan and Peter Minchin
Your question is interesting because although the browning of meat does add extra flavour, it doesn't actually make the meat stew any juicier. In many ways it's an urban myth that browning meat will make a better meal, but even with all the evidence laid out in front of me, I still do it.
I watched a cooking show once, many years ago, and in it the presenter cooked several pieces of meat, weighing them before and after cooking. It obviously made sense that the heaviest piece at the end of cooking would be the juiciest as the extra weight would come from the moisture trapped inside the steak. The first steak was cooked at low heat, fairly briefly, and then baked at around 90C. The last steak (and there were three in between) was seared in a fiercely hot pan until caramelised on both sides, then roasted at 180C until cooked. All steaks were rested for 5 minutes before slicing (essential in keeping as many juices inside the meat as possible) and then we were shown the meat being weighed and sliced. The last cooked steak was the lightest, and the first cooked the heaviest. What this proved was that although we think searing meat will make it juicier - it doesn't do that at all.
I'm not sure if you've been following the trend of sous vide cooking, whereby meat, fish and vegetables - and a slightly now-boring plethora of eggs poached for many hours at a particularly low temperature (I'll admit, in reality I love an egg fried in huge amounts of olive oil and butter until it is crispy) - are cooked under vacuum at lowish temperatures for extended periods of time, before being served to diners. This style of cooking is one of many kitchen trends globally, and in many ways it achieves what it sets out to do - keeping food juicy and moist. But where it falls down is the meat just doesn't taste as good as something off the grill or barbecue. Steamed meat just isn't always that appealing.
However, what you can do with a piece of sous-vide cooked meat (and even that from a steamer) is to colour the meat once it has been cooked. Pop it in a hot pan with some lovely olive oil, duck fat or butter, which suddenly brings the two best characteristics of these differing cooking styles together. You end up with something melt-in-the-mouth juicy as well as being caramelised and a little crunchy.
So, to get back to your question - if you have the time and can be bothered, cook half a casserole by patting dry and frying the meat and onions before adding all the other goodies, and in another pot just place everything in together without browning the meat, onions or garlic and otherwise make it the same. Cook for the same amount of time until tender, and taste and compare the finished dishes. They'll be quite different and I bet you'll prefer the browned one, even if the meat is a little tighter in texture. I think our palates simply appreciate the effect flames and high heat give to a meal when compared to something gently poached. Either way, always cook stews with enough moisture to cover the ingredients and cook until tender - an undercooked casserole is not a pleasant thing.
* To ask Peter a question, click on the Email Peter link below.


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Monday, March 12, 2012
Over the past two months, trainer Jamie Ness and jockey Leandro Goncalves have combined for 29 victories from 61 starters at Tampa Bay Downs, an astounding 47.5 percent rate.
The only trainer-jockey combination to approach that level of success in North America since Jan. 1, from a comparable number of starters, is that of trainer Mike Chambers and rider Anne Von Rosen, who are 21-for-47 (almost 45 percent) over the same period at Turf Paradise in Arizona.
Ness also is headed toward eclipsing the track record of 68 victories he established during the 2007-08 meeting.
With two victories Sunday and five over the past four racing days, trainer Bernell Rhone has moved into fourth place with 17 victories from only 61 starters. Both victories Sunday came with son-in-law Dean Butler in the irons, the first aboard She's On Her Way in the first race for Rhone'swife Cindy.
Rhone has won five races from six starters during his recent hot streak, posting at least one victory per card.
Tied for fifth in the trainer standings with 16 victories apiece are Jane Cibelli, Leigh Delacour and Kathleen O'Connell.
Goncalves has built a substantial lead in his quest for his first Tampa Bay Downs riding title. He has 73 victories from 314 mounts, 25 more triumphs than 2010-11 meet champion Ronnie Allen, Jr., who rode three winners on Sunday's card.
Allen and Goncalves dead-heated for first in Sunday's eighth race: Allen on 4-year-old filly Standing By for trainer Eduardo Caramori and Goncalves on 4-year-old filly Emma's Kiss for (who else?) Ness.
Angel Serpa is third in the jockey race with 40 victories, followed by Rosemary Homeister, Jr. with 39 and Pablo Morales with 35. Danny Coa (31), Mark Guidry (25), Fernando De La Cruz (20), Ricardo Feliciano (20) and Scott Spieth (20) round out the top 10.
Erik Barbaran leads the apprentice jockey standings with nine victories, one more than Eddie Jurado.
Midwest Thoroughbreds, Inc., the 2011 Eclipse Award runner-up outfit which employs Ness exclusively at Tampa Bay Downs, leads the owner standings with 54 victories. Blue Top Holding Stables, operated by Juan Matos, is next with nine, followed by Lloyd Lockhart with eight; Dennis Ward with seven; and Bruno Schickedanz, Pyrite Stables (Dr. D.W. Frazier), Maureen Hyland and Move Horse, Inc. (Mark Passley) with six each.
The Midwest-owned and Ness-trained 7-year-old mare Kitty City is the leading horse by wins this meeting, with a perfect 5-for-5 record in claiming competition. The Illinois-bred daughter of Salt Lake-Holy Kitten, by Forest Wildcat, has climbed from the $5,000 claiming level to $16,000 since the start of the meet and is 12-for-42 lifetime.
Two other Midwest/Ness horses are 4-for-5 at the meeting. Stumbling Block, a 9-year-old Illinois-bred gelding, just missed joining Kitty City atop the equine meet standings Saturday, losing the fourth race by a nose on the turf to Slew City Storm.
Rich Hero, a 7-year-old son of Maria's Mon, earned his fourth victory of the meeting from five starts March 2 in a six-furlong starter allowance.
The winner of Saturday's Grade II, $350,000 Tampa Bay Derby, John Oxley's 3-year-old Prospective, is the top money-earning horse this season at Tampa Bay Downs. First-place money of $210,000 raised his track earnings to $280,000.
Prospective – who won the $100,000 Pasco Stakes on Jan. 14 – is one of three multiple-stakes winners at the current meeting. The others are Martin Schwartz's 5-year-old turf mare Zagora, who won the Grade III Endeavour Stakes and the Grade III Hillsborough Stakes; and Robert Gerczak's 5-year-old gelding Action Andy, who won the Pelican Stakes and Super Stakes.
It's Me Mom, a 4-year-old filly owned by Thomas and Jean Bosch, won the Minaret Stakes locally Dec. 31 and captured the Florida Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Sprint at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 28.
Live racing resumes at Tampa Bay Downs on Wednesday with a first-race post time of 12:25 p.m. The track is open daily for simulcast wagering, no-limits poker action in The Silks Poker Room and golf fun and instruction at the Downs Golf Practice Facility.
Read more articles in the Tampa Bay Downs category.


text:
OLPC Set To Dump x86 For Arm Chips In XO 2
I'm sorry, I thought ARM is an acronym for Advanced RISC Machine (formerly Acorn RISC Machine) [wikipedia.org]. Why am I seeing it used as "Arm"?
Or is there something I don't know about the processing power of two of my appendages?
Or is there something I don't know about the processing power of two of my appendages?
Slashdot, I'd like you to meet Blue and Cray.
I hear your fore arm is pretty powerful.
I hear your fore arm is pretty powerful.
A wise old mariner with powerful fore arms once said: "I yam what I yam."
Four ARMS? Were they arranged in a beowulf cluster?
+1, Pedantic
Well I happen to know for a fact that in many languages, if you can say it out loud as a word, it should be spelled with only the initial letter capitalised. English is however to bloated to find such well-defined rules.
While technically an acronym, it's been around long enough to lose the all caps in many minds. Especially with plays like StrongARM.
I'm uninitiated at the arts of ARM, and am too lazy to look it up.
It would mean no Windows. ARM is not an x86 architecture.
Windows CE runs on ARM [arm.com]. Granted, CE doesn't have the level of application support you'll find in other versions of Windows though.
The level of support?
It flat out won't run x86 code.
Whereas debian and other linuxes have full distros aimed at ARM.
I believe the iPhone runs on ARM. They should switch to iPhone OS. Unfortunately the version of Linux on the XO is sort of retarded. I got one to develop programs for and absolutely hate the XO desktop. It's really poorly designed IMO. Apple probably wouldn't license the iPhone OS to them though. So maybe a Linux distro with a more iPhone-like experience?
The XO hardware is pretty good but the software needs some serious work. It just feels experimental and poorly thought out.
From TFA
"Like many, we are urging Microsoft to make Windows -- not Windows Mobile -- available on the Arm. This is a complex question for them," Negroponte said.
OLPC is in talks with Microsoft to develop a version of a full Windows OS for XO-2, Negroponte said. The XO-2 is still 18 months away from release, so "a lot can change with regard to Microsoft and Arm," Negroponte said.
I don't really see this working. Windows has run on Risc before of course, but almost no one ported their applications to any of the Risc platforms. And a top of the line Arm (a Snapdragon or Cortex A8) is still less powerful than a bottom of the line x86 (Intel Atom), so it's not like you can run x86 binaries at an acceptable speed through emulation, like Dec tried with FX!32 on the Alpha.
The whole excuse people use for running Windows is it runs their applications. Seeing as how they're all for x86, porting Windows itself is only 1% of the issue.
That should only be the case for native applications.
For pure
I've seen surprisingly few pure
"Even Windows 7 potentially has some DOS 1.0 code..."
What? You realize that Windows 7 lineage traces to Windows NT which ran on non-x86 processors, right? No DOS code.
I guess if by "potentially" you meant zero potential then that's right.
I suppose it depends on whether any of the vm86 mode in Windows 9x made it into Win2k and beyond.
If any of the 16-bit ASM code behind the various int 21h DOS calls was retained in the real-mode emulation layer then one could say modern Windows still has DOS code still in it.
They could always "leverage" Open Source. WINE and qemu should do the job
Microsoft Windows [Version 5.2.3790]
(C) Copyright 1985-2003 Microsoft Corp.
C:\>where command.com
C:\>file c:\windows\system32\command.com
c:\windows\system32\command.com; DOS executable (COM)
That's Server 2003, which is the most recent version I've got handy. The assertion that there's some legacy code in Windows 7 somewhere is a reasonable one.
MS-DOS 1.0 was released in '81 and work on the OS2/NT project started in '85. Are you telling me that you are completely sure that none of the code from one project was recycled into a project that was started four years later?
If anything, I'd be willing to bet that if they shared any coders, there's got to be some recycling on some level, no matter how unimportant. Avoiding reinvention of the wheel is not a new concept.
I personally don't care one way or another, it's just that you seem to be awfully arro
Um no.
ARMv4 lacks the FPU. The newer Marvell chips certainly have FPUs now. ARM is great!
I may be kind of cynical, but it seems ot me the OLPC project is now saying they recognize a lower power, less expensive processor would be a major benefit to their stated goals...but they can't (or really don't want to) adopt it anyway unless Microsoft® gives them the "okay", since they've effectively abandoned already-capable-of-running-on-ARM Linux for Microsoft.
I would think the new marvell sheeva chips are pretty close. They run in the 1.2-1.6 GHz range.
I hate Windows CE devices too. They are hard to use and developing for them feels like they are a bastard step child. Most programs aren't available for them and when they are they also feel like crappy stripped down versions that don't work well.
I'm currently working on moving a major project from WinCE based devices to iPhone based devices. Much cheaper to build on and a better user experience.
I don't understand Mr Negroponte. His natural allies would be the geeks moving the wheels of Linux.
The project would save substantial amounts of money and would provide a flexible, extensible machine for children to wander and learn.
In Windows you are straight-jacked to do whatever the licenses you are given allow you to do, and you have to pay for the privilege and enjoy it. It is like paying for a bad tempered dominatrix
Why would you want to run x86 binaries? Most x86 programs are so unoptimized, that if you actually looked at the code, it'd make your eyes bleed. (figuratively, of course)
One advantage of ARM CPUs is a lot of software to run on them still has to be made or ported. Since only the most committed (and skilled?) developers are doing that at this stage, my hope is ARM software will have a more efficient baseline.
Considering how far most Windows apps have slid, this isn't unreasonable or difficult.
The OLPC project is dying. Four years ago, you didn't have the netbooks. Now you do.
Shifting to ARM will simply ensure the death of the OLPC project, because being able to run real windows is an underappreciated benefit of x86.
Shifting to ARM will simply ensure the death of the OLPC project, because being able to run real windows is an underappreciated benefit of x86.
Or for that matter, being able to run OS X. For example, by all accounts the Dell Mini 9 can be turned into an excellent low-cost Hackintosh.
But you are correct about the effect of the netbook market on the OLPC project. The OLPC was a visionary idea, but visionaries rarely outlast the revolutions they help create.
I'm pretty sure the scope of the OLPC is not for commercial use. Why would anyone care if it runs Windows? It's a computer. It's better than nothing.
Shifting to ARM will simply ensure the death of the OLPC project
Personally, I'd leap at the opportunity to buy a decent n(et|ote)book with an ARM inside it. But maybe that's just me.
because being able to run real windows is an underappreciated benefit of x86.
The only big benefit of Windows is that it runs enterprise apps and/or that it's what you're used to. OLPC is not aimed at enterprises or at people with existing experience of computers, so why would OLPC users care about having Windows?
What would stop Microsoft from deliberately crippling the OS (and making it practically useless as a result) like they did with the starter editions of XP and Vista?
Nothing at all. What's the incentive for people to use an OS from an manufacturer who deems them worthy of crapware?
Nothing at all. What's the incentive for people to use an OS from an manufacturer who deems them worthy of crapware?
My answer was laziness, which isn't really an incentive, per se. I'll change my vote to masochism.
You know there is something called debian which runs on all sorts of architectures. And this debian resembles ubuntu somewhat
It work great. I run it on an nslu2.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSLU2 [wikipedia.org]
How much power saving are we talking about here? It seems to me the LCD panel/backlight are by far the biggest consumer of battery power.
It seems to me the LCD panel/backlight are by far the biggest consumer of battery power.
Don't forget that the XO screen has a monochrome no-backlight (reflective) mode.
How much power saving are we talking about here?
Probably not too much since the Geode uses about
Microsoft wouldn't need to artificially limit an ARM port of Windows to only allow three applications to run at a time, since there would only be about three applications available for the platform.
This is basically a weakness of proprietary software in general...
We've had x86_64 for what, 6 years now? Windows XP got ported pretty fast, but driver support is still awful since most hardware vendors haven't bothered to port their drivers. And true 64-bit app support is even worse.
On the other hand, the Linux kernel got ported to x86_64 shortly before the physical processors were actually available. I was running a full-blown Debian distro on it a couple months later. All the apps were open-source and the kernel makes great efforts to design device drivers for portability, and so for distro maintainers it was largely a matter of just recompiling the packages.
What lags behind in 64-bit support under Linux? Surprise, surprise, it's closed-source stuff like Flash and video drivers.
Closed-source software develops a massive amount of inertia against architecture changes. With open-source, as soon as one developer decides to recompile for the new architecture, maybe tweaks the code a bit, you're off and running.
Flash Player 10 for x86-64 Linux:
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer10/releasenotes_64bit.html [adobe.com]
I remember clearly that
Since it is a well-known fact that Apple has had OS X working on an ARM architecture in the iPhone and iPod Touch for nearly 2 years now, it would seem a no-brainer at this point for OLPC to take Apple up on their offer.
...oh yeah, nevermind.
"Like many, we are urging Microsoft to make Windows -- not Windows Mobile -- available on the Arm. This is a complex question for them," Negroponte said. OLPC is in talks with Microsoft to develop a version of a full Windows OS for XO-2, Negroponte said. The XO-2 is still 18 months away from release, so "a lot can change with regard to Microsoft and Arm," Negroponte said.
They jettisoned Sugar, and they keep courting Microsoft. So sad. I wish the article would have explored the "open source" hardware concept. No idea what the heck that means from the article or for OLPC:
OLPC can't implement all its ideas in XO-2, so it ultimately wants to "open source" the hardware design to other PC makers for use in building devices, McNierney said. He hopes that opening up the hardware design will spur the development of a "rich family of devices" that accelerate the adoption of the XO-2 technology.
They jettisoned Sugar, and they keep courting Microsoft. So sad. I wish the article would have explored the "open source" hardware concept. No idea what the heck that means from the article or for OLPC:
If OLPC is considering truly open source hardware... why are they only considering ARM as an alternative architecture? How about MIPS?
There are a bunch of patents on the ARM architecture [wikipedia.org] and ARM has been quite aggressive [cnn.com] at shutting down open-source reimplementations in the embryonic stage.
MIPS has several open-source implementations (a good guide to them here [jopwiki.com]) which can actually run on real hardware in FPGAs. I've tried 'em. There are a couple patents on the instruction set which are expiring soon, but
The fact that AMD is not planning a successor to the Geode [engadget.com] processor used in the XO-1 probably influenced this decision, at least in part. In 18 months, there may not be any Geodes remaining.
Well, they could switch to the Intel Atom chip. But the ARM makes more sense. The only reason I can see for using an x86 chip is binary compatibility, and it's not like that's a big issue for a project that's so thoroughly open source. I never quite understood why they went with the Geode in the first place. Because Quanta gave them a good price on the motherboards?
Why make a new Geode? They have Imageon, Sempron, Turion, and Conesus (part of the Yukon platform). They just sold off their small device graphics chips division to Qualcomm.
AMD holds a large position in their very recently spun off GlobalFoundries, which is likely to be competitive to fabricate some ARM-based chips and other things AMD doesn't itself design.
I'd say their bases are pretty well covered without the Geode.
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/274414/amd_sees_no_geode_chip_replacement_sight [idg.com.au]
"There are no plans for a follow-on product to today's available AMD Geode LX products, but we expect to make this very successful processor available to customers as long as the market demands," said Phil Hughes, an AMD spokesman.
The chip is too old for further development, said Dean McCarron, president for Mercury Research. Chip designs and manufacturing processes have improved since it was first introduced.
Sums it up nicely. They'll still make them as long as there is a demand, but no more architecture improvements.
If they want a drop in replacement, they'll have to contact VIA. Please ignore the price.
OLPC is in talks with Microsoft to develop a version of a full Windows OS for XO-2, Negroponte said.
So you'd get all of the disadvantages of Windows, while simultaneously loosing the only real advantage it has, plentiful software. Smart.
Yeah, this seems like the worst of all worlds.
Anybody remember Windows NT for the Alpha, MIPS, or PPC? No. Me neither.
No one bought them because there was no support. Closed-source vendors never want to port their software to new architectures, even very similar ones.
Open-source projects developed at least TWO pretty decent reimplementations of Adobe Flash (SWFDEC and Gnash), a moving target, before Adobe got around to a beta for the 64-bit version of its closed source Flash. Lame!
I do not think Microsoft will work on an ARM port, even something that translates x86 to ARM because the ARM processor is likely to be way too slow for this.
Nintendo DS runs on an ARM architecture. Maybe now we can run those games at full speed on another device? Certainly now with an emulator on this device there would be less translation and more instruction passing. Great!
Same goes for any other ARM-based processor device and emulation.
Wine will not run on this and neither will Windows. I am so fine with
Always leave room to add an explanation if it doesn't work out.


text:
Pac-Man played sound on the Google homepage, wasn't that done in JavaScript?
No, that was Flash, and it caused lots of ire, particularly in combination with Firefox plugin that loaded the Google homepage in the background. I hope there'll be a sound=off option, because I still remember the 90s and web pages with MIDI sounds.
Humorously, I actually thought the game was silent when I first viewed it. Once again, ClickToFlash delivers an improved user experience.
It was done via Flash.
http://www.google.com/pacman/ [google.com]
From what I've read, there was an off-screen flash helper playing the audio, and I'm not surprised. It's nigh impossible to get reliable audio with JavaScript only. People have been doing some experiments with stuffing data urls into , , and tags for a while now (heck, I've been doing it since last fall) in order to programmatically generate audio, but it generally suffers from performance issues and various glitches for a while now. You can mostly pull it off only if you stick with MIDI or you use Flash
have been doing some experiments with stuffing data urls into , , and tags for a while now
was meant to be
have been doing some experiments with stuffing data urls into <bgsound>, <embed>, <object>, and <audio> tags for a while now
Have you published your experiments anywhere? I have done some experiments with the audio tag and have been disappointed with the way it handles short programatically triggered sounds. It works (baring bug, like in Chrome) but I would love to see a better way.
Have you published your experiments anywhere?
I talked about them a little bit at the December BayJax Meetup, and I've been meaning to turn that presentation into a web page since then, but I haven't.
However... I've also been meaning to create an audio-focused JavaScript mailing list so that when I do put it up, I'd have somewhere to announce it. And thanks to your comment, I just got off my butt and created the js-audio Google Group.
http://groups.google.com/group/js-audio [google.com]
I'd love to have you or anyone el
There is no Flash involved here, you read wrong. I wonder why you got modded up.
There is no Flash involved here, you read wrong.
In the topic of the linked article, or in Google's Pac-man?
I wonder why you got modded up.
Possibly because even if it turns out what I've read about GPac is incorrect, most of what I've written besides is correct.
You mean annoying like people who put their comments between <code> tags?
Goddamn it, why don't I ever have mod points when I need them?
IE9 will have Canvas
Last thing we need is an "on Hover" Javascript ad, you mouse over, and audio gets maximized "FIND YOUR MATCH @ ADULTFINDER.COM!"
> Until IE implements even half these features...
Or until IE is dead...
IE is already dead as far as developers should be concerned. Pages will work well enough that IE users can still limp along, if need be.
awesome, you could do that in Flash 5 years ago.
The difference is that we want flash to die horribly for a number of reasons.
With no way to fine-tune who is allowed sound and who isn't.
With a browser implementation of an open standard, it would be easy to add features such as muting a page's audio when (*gasp*) it's not in the foreground tab. Besides, there will no doubt be plenty of ways to turn off audio, partially or completely. And plug-ins like greasemonkey work great to hack around website JS features, while you can't do anything with Flash SWF blobs other than turn them on and off.
awesome, you could do that in Flash 5 years ago.
awesome, you could do that in a Win32 app 15 years ago.
awesome, you could do that in a Win32 app 15 years ago.
You have to be a member of the Administrators group to install a native app. You do not have to be a member of the Administrators group to run a Flash object, a JavaScript program, or a Java applet, because the web developer can safely assume that every PC already has players for one or more of these.
A music visualizer needs to be installed? When did Windows prevent normal users from just running executables?
When did Windows prevent normal users from just running executables?
Software Restriction Policies [microsoft.com] started in Windows XP. This is similar to the UNIX feature of mounting
even text-to-speech, all in JavaScript!
WooHoo! I'm gonna have hidden fields in my web pages so this "text to speech" will say one thing while the text on the screen will say another!
the future os is the browser
the future os programming language is javascript
You need to put "enjoy" in quotes.
See, the future will turn out to be just as good as today.
The future sucks badly.
Hopefully, the world will end in 2012.
the future os is the browser
the future os programming language is javascript
I don't buy it. It's too inherently limited to replace any large class of regular applications.
I fully expect the web-app trend will be just that... every bit as short-lived as every other stupid trend. This time it's Flash and Javascript. Last time it was Java Applets. Next time... who knows?
and why in this case is it "not to be done"?
...that was needed to be able to actually make a decent 3D game in JavaScript. Sure, I'd prefer OpenAL bindings, but this'll work.
WebGL is hardware-accelerated video. Audio benefits from hardware acceleration, but doesn't need it. It does, however, need some amount of software control, something more than "Play this file at roughly this time."
Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.


text:
814: Diode
Title text: And the worst part is you won't apologize.
A diode is an electronic component that, to put it simply, blocks current traveling in one direction, but allows current going the other way. Diodes are a common component of digital circuits, such as those found in a computer. The end that rejects incoming current is marked with a line or band of paint.
The comic is describing a common frustration in relationships. Sometimes one party in a relationship will feel that the other isn't listening to them, even though they themselves are being as open as possible. This is analogous to the function of a diode, which the comic indicates by literally introducing a diode into the dialogue. The diode introduced has the banded end being held by Cueball. This means his "negative energy" is blocked by the diode, while Megan's flows through to him. This means she never receives his emotional pain, so does not feel she did anything wrong. The title text simply further illustrates the point: Megan didn't perceive Cueball's apology, due to it being blocked by the diode, so she berates Cueball for not apologizing.
- [Cueball is talking to Megan. Megan holds up a diode.]
- Cueball: We need to talk.
- Megan: Okay, but first hold the end of this diode.
- [They hold the diode.]
- Cueball: You hurt my feelings yesterday.
- Megan: You embarrassed me with my family last weekend.
- [They are still holding the diode between them.]
- Cueball: I'm sorry.
add a comment! ⋅ add a topic (use sparingly)! ⋅ refresh comments!
...but watch out for that knee if it's a Zenor diode! 126.96.36.199 00:39, 3 May 2013 (UTC)
"Zener", not "Zenor" 126.96.36.199 12:59, 23 November 2013 (UTC)
If cueball's words are indeed negative, they will pass trough the diode... But he still wo'nt appologize asuming an apology is positive. -22.214.171.124 15:44, 20 May 2014 (UTC)


text:
Discussion in 'The Bar' started by Harry Gibbs, Nov 8, 2012.
he hired AG as a driver for the night
He mad yo.
did ag show up late because he was polishing off a doobie before hitting the road?
that fucker is mad.
Reptile people. The true power elites. Fuck you, Krauthammer!
who dat?
Ol Chuck Krauthammer and Brit Hume tag team mad bitches.
First he was ass raping some crack whore then sparking up before going to work.
Someone obviously farted.
I was listening to Mark Levin earlier, and that angry fucker is all pissed off at this motherfucker right here.
i could beat charles krauthammer with one hand tied behind david corn's back.


text:
The head of Nasa has hailed a "new era" in exploration after the launch of the first cargo delivery to the space station by a private company.
The Falcon rocket, topped by an unmanned Dragon freight capsule, lifted clear of its Florida pad at 03:44 EDT (07:44 GMT; 08:44 BST).
The launch system has been built by California-based firm SpaceX.
The initial climb to an altitude some 340km above the Earth lasted a little under 10 minutes.
Within moments of being ejected, Dragon opened its solar panels.
It also unpacked its navigation equipment.
Nasa's administrator Charles Bolden said: "Today marks the beginning of a new era in exploration... The significance of this day cannot be overstated; a private company has launched a spacecraft to the International Space Station that will attempt to dock there for the first time.
"And while there is a lot of work ahead to successfully complete this mission, we are certainly off to good start."
It will take a couple of days to reach the station. The plan currently is for the vessel to demonstrate its guidance, control and communications systems on Thursday, at a distance of 2.5km from the International Space Station (ISS).
I personally find it good to see that the private sector is starting to take an interest in space; maybe this will help us on the path to colonization on other planets.
However, after reading Dan Brown's Deception Point, I am kinda afraid that they'll, like other major corporations in certain fields, use the stuff to monopolize space and turn it into an advertising campaign land (highest bidder).


text:
War of the Ring (2009 book)
|The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game: Rulebook
|Games Workshop
|(Early) 2009
The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game: War of the Ring is a rulebook for Games Workshop's LOTRSBG. It provides an expansion to the original game rules published in The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game: Rulebook.
From the publisher
War Of The Ring
As the Third Age draws to a close, Middle-earth is ravaged by the War of The Ring. Great battles are fought across the lands as Sauron's fell armies invade from Mordor to bring the Dark Lord's dominion to all.
This 328-page rules manual for War of The Ring is packed with inspiring pictures, both standard and historical scenarios, hobby advice, extensive profiles and army organisation for every model in the range, and all the rules you'll need to play out massive legendary battles in Middle-earth. This is the ultimate guide and essential purchase for playing games of War of The Ring.


text:
Cedar Falls - The Spirit Lake boys basketball team cruised to an easy 53-22 victory over Valley Lutheran of Cedar Falls on Saturday.
Paul Brown was 7-for-10 from the field including 3-for-4 from 3-point range as he led the Indians with 17 points and nine assists. Tyler Alger finished with 12 points, including 4-for-8 from 3-point range Alec Henrickson was 3-for-6 from three-point range as he finished with nine points. Zach Arneson chipped in six points while Alex Pringnitz had five and Austin Folsom and Trevor Smith each had two. Pringnitz and Cole Thate each had seven rebounds.
Spirit Lake led 21-8 after one quarter, 34-14 at halftime and 49-20 after three quarters.
Spirit Lake (2-0 overall) opens Lakes Conference play at home against LeMars this evening.


text:
Did you read today's front page stories & breaking news?
Today's Top SOA Links
From the Wires
Milbank Selects ThingWorx to Power Its Next-Generation Energy Management Solutions
By: Business Wire
Feb. 7, 2013 06:02 AM
ThingWorx™ announced today that Milbank, a leading developer and manufacturer of electrical devices and energy and power management solutions for the residential, commercial, industrial, utility, and transportation sectors, has selected ThingWorx to power its next generation PowerGen™ renewable energy product platform.
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"ThingWorx's rapid application development environment and flexible platform allow us to extend our PowerGen solutions in ways that provide the greatest benefits and value for our end users," stated Chris Buelow, Milbank's PowerGen general manager. "ThingWorx provided us the speed we needed to develop crucial, robust role-based user interfaces."
In addition to the ThingWorx rapid application development tools, Milbank's PowerGen solution leverages ThingWorx's powerful analytics and search capabilities to further expand the core reporting capabilities offered through its proprietary online interface. Milbank will also use ThingWorx's patented AlwaysOn connectivity for remote service capabilities, creating additional reliability and optimization.
"Milbank's solutions represent the latest in innovation for smart buildings and homes, and we are pleased to be selected by them to power their PowerGen line," stated Russ Fadel, CEO and Co-Founder of ThingWorx. "By certifying their solutions as ThingWorx Ready, Milbank is able to offer completely integrated solutions that take advantage of the latest in technology innovations and further extends the 5X to 10X development efficiency advantage that a ThingWorx-based solution offers."
About Milbank
Milbank builds solutions that move power for the residential, commercial, industrial, utility and transportation sectors. Milbank combines more than 85 years of expertise in electrical product development with a commitment to advance and globally implement sustainable, integrated power solutions. Milbank's portfolio includes electric metering systems, PowerGen™ wind and solar solutions, EVSE and portable power. A third-generation, family-owned business, Milbank is headquartered in Kansas City, Mo. For more information, please visit www.milbankworks.com or follow us on Twitter at @MilbankWorks.
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text:
As the title says..."what's your favourite question to ask a theist"?
You may have many favourites...I would like to hear from you guys about yours.
I have a personal favourite which I often use when they start spouting their spew that GOD wrote the bible at the beginning of time, he created everything....
"OK. If GOD wrote the BIBLE at the beginning of time like you say...some 14.5 BILLION, that's BILLION years ago, What language was it written in?"
Most theists I know don't even know what language JESUS spoke. It's sad really.
Another of my favourites is this one...
"Why did it take GOD 10 BILLION years to make the planet EARTH and then a further 4.5 BILLION years to make MAN?"
There's always a spewy reply of some sort or another which usually gets my goat and the theist is appalled at my outburst of laughter.
So come on you guys....let 'em have it....share your ammo with us.
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Don't you find talking face to face with non theists laborious?
I certainly do when the conversation turns to god and why I don't believe.
My smiling or laughing face has a general ill effect. One which I cannot help.
I need to get out of the discussion as quick as I can when I find myself at the mercy of the brainwashed.
Usually they'll start with the good one..."I'm not going to try to preach to you but...." and then the drooling starts.
I usually can stomach a couple of minutes, then I'm all in with the "you're not really serious are you?. I mean really have you taken a minute to think?"
I had a perfect example the other day.
I have done some roof work for an old lady who has been let down by a contractor to stop her leaking roof.
Twice I have been back to fix parts of the property aside from what I had originally done.
After the recent hurricane I go back and out of the blue the lady asks me if I'm atheist or what denomination? To which I quickly reply that I'm atheist.
She continues to tell me how real god is and this and that.
I confirm that he is not fixing her roof issues. I am. She doesn't get it.
There's no swaying the theist. They have to find out for themselves.
I have so many stories from my experience with a local retired minister.
One time she asked me to come over and fix a phone speeker system that was not loud enough. I looked the system over, it seemed to be working, but it was not loud enough. Talking with the minister it became rather obvious that she needed hearing aides! We talked about this possibility, but she kept coming back with, 'God will cure me, I will just pray on it!' I suggested that hearing aides could be considered, 'God's work', getting money for them could be considered 'prayer answered'! I guess my message sunk in, she showed up with aides a few weeks latter.
Sadly, they seem so focused upon their religion, that they can' use their minds for the simple obvious solutions that are right in front of their face!
I might be over generalizing, but there does seem to be a tendency!
Why did she call you in the first place, instead of praying for the speaker system to self-repair/?
Hey, if parting a sea is no big deal, not to mention creating a universe, what's a speaker system?
'God's' vanity is ok, yours is not I guess?
Damn, I have a whole list of hardware and supplies, I would like to have, but Nooo...
So all children from the moment of birth should be put out of their misery. It takes years for them to grow up and accept Jesus. Until then they are sinners.
So what you are saying is that once again god made us sick, and then hates us because he fucked up? How can a perfect being make mistakes of this magnitude?
Also, the simple fact that you even want to try and justify murder of children makes me sick.
The death of children is very sad. But we are sinners and sinful from birth, enemies of God. God punished all of Egypt with the death of their firstborn, even the cattle. And who are we to say how God should deal with his enemies.
Didn't god harden Pharaoh's heart so that he would have an excuse to murder the children? If he can harden his heart, why not soften it and make sure the Jews would be free?
Who are we to say how god should deal with his enemies? Apparently we are a lot more loving, caring, compassionate, understanding and sane, if this is how he handles his business.
Can you honestly look at the condition of the world and the human race and declare that this god of yours is a godof justice? No way.
A question I like to ask to all creationists: "How can you imagine an independent Chihuahua living in the nature?"
Oh I love that one. I pictured Princess, the vicious Chihuahua monster who hates me passionately, surviving in the wild. I love dogs, but Princess is a deranged pseudo-alpha female wolf-bitch wannabe with some kind of selective Napolean complex. In the wild, she would have nobody to bring her food to her cushy little bed like her humans do now.
I'll be seeing Princess in a few minutes. I'm going to taunt her with , "You're no wolf. I know wolves - and you're not one. God, out of spite and hatred for the world, created the vicious, loathsome beast that you are. Why? I don't know."
There was no original dog. They evolved from wolves. Genetic mutation is not "always bad". That is a christian idea of evolution.
@Paul McKinney
The mutation that gives those of recent African decent an increased immunity to malaria is 'good', in my opinion at least. The mutation that gives Ashkenazi Jews an increase immunity to tuberculosis is 'good', in my opinion. The various mutations that allow extremophiles to live in extreme environments are good for them - don't you think. Did you need some more specific examples?


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Do they really need an in-depth analysis for something that bloody simple?
Yeah sure, you can beat the iPad if you offer similar features and sell it for $100--no shit. How is that in ANY way analogous too offering your pad for $50-$100 cheaper than an iPad? Oooh, let's all run out an buy the Amazon maxiPad because it's $650 instead of the iPad's $700!! Unless you're prepared to absolutely bleed money on every maxiPad sale, you're not going to soak up even a single percentage point of the iPad's market dominance.
Absolutely. There is no tablet in the world worth over $200. That even includes the asus transformer 32GB with the dock. These devices are just not worth it - limited functionality for a premium? Of course it's not selling.
It clearly is worth it for millions of people; so that's not the reason that the HP tablet failed.
Fixed that for you.
The customers for iPad don't know about or care about tablets (even if some vendors are deluded into thinking they are the same thing because the specs are comparable).
Absolutely. There is no tablet in the world worth over $200. That even includes the asus transformer 32GB with the dock. These devices are just not worth it - limited functionality for a premium? Of course it's not selling.
I agree. Given even Apple's numbers, tablets aren't the revolution they've been made out to be. We've seen tons of tablets from various manufactures, some are both cheaper and better than Apples offering, yet they're not really selling in great quantity.
I couldn't agree more.
I expect one of two things to happen to the tablet market: 1) Prices will stabilize at around $200 for the high-end models $150 for the average, $75 on the low end and they'll become a common household item. 2) In a few years we'll h
Isn't that what they do with video game systems? Sell the unit at either cost, or a loss, and make up for it by a percentage of the games sold.. (or apps bought)
I agree. I loved playing with the iPad in the Apple Store...but I just can't pony up $500+ for it. Not when I could get a decent to good laptop for that price.
Maybe the ipad makes more sense if you don't have a laptop or have some reason to not carry one around...
Maybe the ipad makes more sense if you don't have a laptop or have some reason to not carry one around...
Actually my iPad *is* my reason for not carrying my laptop around.
I've has my Galaxy Tab 10.1 for a couple of months. Before that I had a Nook Color that I rooted. I started with the NC because I wasn't sure if I would have a use for a tablet, and the NC was half the price of the Tab.
There's no doubt these are primarily consumption devices; although they can be used for creation, that's not their strength and the more creative work you do on them the less fun it gets. What surprised me was just how much of my ordinary computer use was consumptive, and that now it's easier to squeeze in a bit of consumption here and there without resorting to a full computer. Instant on, super-long battery life, and an OS that's simplified make a huge difference.
As much as I was surprised how much I now do on my Tab (so much so that my regular computer gets dusty), imagine what it's like for people that really do want a computer "appliance". Apple created an entire market of consumers out of people who previously weren't consumers: people who didn't want the hassle of [another] computer. This is part of the magic of the iPad, and why nearly 30 million have been sold. The TouchPad's demise doesn't tell us much about the tablet market overall except that the TouchPad wasn't what people wanted compared to an iPad. Android has similar market-share (and mind-share) problems, only differing in degree.
Google should be throwing money at devs to write Android tablet apps if they want to catch up to Apple, our even just stay in the game. Otherwise they risk being marginalized, and if that happens on the tablet side it may leak over to the phone side.
Problem is, that good $500 laptop may be made by HP, and they are going to stop making laptops!
The ultra-cheap laptop is something we gotten used to, but truth be told: most of these are made like throw away toys and sold at extremely low profit margins hoping to sell so high volumes that it is worth your time. The introduction of the iPad has made too many stop buying laptops, enough to mess up with the low-profit-margin models and to force HP out of the race.
HP's exit MAY leave room for other companies to
No, they don't need an in-depth analysis for that, duh.
What they do need an in-depth analysis for is mainly answering two questions:
1) Is there a way to make enough money off of other stuff to use the hardware as a loss-leader, and if so, how much of a loss-leader can they afford? In Amazon's case, perhaps they can afford to sell the hardware at a substantial discount--yes, perhaps even $99--if, for example, they have an iTunes-like store in which they can make gobs of money to cover the cost of manufactur
I don't think a loss-leader hardware platform is going to work at this point, unless it's so cheap it's practically free ( $50), or the supplied software is absolutely fantastic and locked to the hardware.
I don't think the touchpads would have flown off the shelves as fast if they couldn't have other software loaded on them. With no support from HP, no one is going to buy something with no support, no upgrades, no bug fixes, unless they're pretty confident they can put something else on it fairly easily.
I don't think such a system would sell well at all, especially outside of the geek market. One of the reasons a lot of people like tablets is that they take a lot of the hard work out of computers. Need a new app? Go to the store, select and buy it, and the system takes care of the rest. No installing needed on your part. Same thing with OS updates. In most cases, they're either OTA or just need to be plugged into the computer. You don't actually have to do it.
Compare it to if your idea takes off: Now the u
I think you missed the point. The key is breaking into the market in a big enough way to be seen as a viable alternative. If HP had planned the popularity of the Touchpad, just to get the public using WebOS, it would be seen as a brilliant move since many people who have tried the Touchpad have been surprised at how much they enjoy using it. Picture if HP decided to stay in the device business after this "fire sale", and in another six months released a new and better version. For $300 or $350, p
Other companies price their tables "competitively" because they're playing Apple's high-priced game. There's an automatic association of a high-priced item with class and luxury. They're afraid that by pricing too low, it's going to cost their brand association with luxury goods, when in fact, they don't and probably will never have the brand association with luxury goods in the first place.
What they don't understand is that nobody is better at being Apple than Apple. If they want to win, they need to start
Unless you're prepared to absolutely bleed money on every maxiPad sale, you're not going to soak up even a single percentage point of the iPad's market dominance.
Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101 Tablet - Black 16GB, Android 3.0 OS, 10.1" LED Touchscreen, 1280x800, 9.5 Hours - MPN: TF101A1 See Product Details $386.00 - $449.00
http://electronics.pricegrabber.com/tablets-e-readers/Asus-Eee-Pad-Transformer-TF101-Black/m873405665.html [pricegrabber.com]
The Transformer is the strongest selling Android tablet by a reasonable margin, and Asus has set a goal of shipping 4-4.5 million tablets in the second half of the year, based on reported contract orders.
iPad 2 sales figures are in thi
It's obvious that if you offer a tablet with similar features to an iPad but substantially cheaper, even if it lacks in some areas (such as apps or polish), people will buy it. It doesn't take a genius to realize that. Thats pretty much what's happening with the iPhone and Android phones already. The question that interests me more is whether a worse tablet (worse specs) at a substantially reduced price point will sell well.
> Thats pretty much what's happening with the iPhone and Android phones already.
Not quite.
What's happening with the iPhone and Android phones is that Apple is getting it's clocked cleaned. Android phones and iPhones are both equally subsidized but both are cheap enough that they represent impulse purchases. At the "impulse buy" point, Apple loses it's hype advantage. More people are willing to take risks. Apple exploited this themselves with the iPad. They dropped the tablet price from $2000 to $600.
They have 50% of all the profit in the smartphone industry. They are printing money. How does that equate with getting their clock cleaned?
Certainly there are android phones at the same price point as the iphone, except that the most popular android phones are the cheap ones which usually either have zero upfront cost or no contract. So in reality the situation is more similar to what I suggested: Android is the cheap alternative to the iPhone.
Hmmm, if having the 2 top selling phones in the US is considered having their "clocked cleaned"....
I have a better theory, look at the number 3 phone sold in the US and you will notice its the Evo 4G, a Sprint phone. The clue there? Sprint users have no access to the iPhone. It seems they will this October, though.
What Apple's rivals should do is not just learn a lesson. They should leverage the TouchPad. Get Android working on the TouchPad which just sold hundreds of thousands of units, and keep building the Android app userbase.
Apple has had the advantage of leveraging what was originally the iPod consumer base into a mature ecosystem which has turned out to be one of the iPad's main advantages over its would-be rivals. Here's a golden opportunity for Apple's rivals to influence the future purchasing decisions of hundreds of thousands of consumers.
> Get Android working on the TouchPad
You mean 2.3 which is open sourced and available? The 2.x branch is incredibly shitty for tablets and wont give you access to the market or any of the google apps.
If anyone does this, they have to use Honeycomb, its light years ahead of 2.x in regards to tablets. People want a proper tablet not a giant phone.
Im so sick of half-assed 2.x tablets hurting Android's reputation. Thankfully, only tinkerers will enjoy the suckitude of 2.x tablets.
Since you are ignoring all the component and manufacturating costs that it actually takes to make these things--what the hell? why not go all the way.
What does the component and manufacturing of a tablet cost, in relation to a laptop? I would expect tablets to be similar, if not less expensive, to produce. (Ignoring R&D costs of course, but you can make that up with high volume and low margins.)
The fact is that big conservative businesses rarely branch out into risky new technologies unless the margins are high and the margins for their existing products are nearing the end of a race to the bottom. Desktops hit the bottom, so they rushed to laptop
"What we lose on an individual unit, we'll make up in volume."
While contemplating a "pack light" trip to Europe I am starting to reconsider the idea of a 7" tablet. It seems to be big enough to be a significant improvement over a phone while not being quite as huge as an iPad or similarly sized devices.
On the other hand it does exactly the same as any decent smartphone, but is much harder to put into most pockets. And you'll very probably need a phone anyway.
I usually take my iPhone, the Apple BT keyboard and a glif [theglif.com]. The keyboard makes a world of a difference when writing more than just short texts, it's very light and small and you don't need to carry it all the time.
I've done something similar to that.
I've separated out both my phone and my phone plans.
I now carry around a 7" tablet, the original Galaxy Tab, which is a dream of a mobile Internet device. It's big enough to pretty much completely defuse any desire I have to carry around a laptop, while still weighing less than a pound and being totally portable. I then buy a data-only connection on this for only $25 a month from AT&T ($15 a month is also available if you don't use much data), and I have a web and app
That's like saying we shouldn't be talking about a $15k car because nothing can come close to an M5. There's plenty of room for cheaper tablets. A lower quality LCD, Android OS, enough juice to get the whole thing running. The Nook Color retails for $250 and people have loaded Android on it and it has passable performance for simple browsing and email.
Not the same spec.
When it was first announced, I was delighted. The detachable keyboard made it the perfect combination of tablet and netbook for me.
When it went on sale, there was no mention of it's mobile capabilities. Dual band, quad band, locked? No problem I thought, I'll go down to the local JB store and have a fondle, the spec will be on the box.
No, it wasn't. This wonderful device, thoughtfully designed to fit ALL my needs is WiFi only.
So, after I confirmed there was no 3G model coming, I bought a X
$100 is the right price point for an adequate tablet with Wifi or 3g. At $700, any pad is a bad joke, especially when a netbook is $300 and $150 readers can be rooted and made to function as tablets. $100 seems too low? Remember what laptops used to cost? Manufacturers will just have to get over it. The high margin time window just gets shorter and shorter.
Remember what laptops used to cost? Manufacturers will just have to get over it. The high margin time window just gets shorter and shorter.
laptops didn't get cheaper just because manufacturers dropped their margins. The technology got better, faster, and cheaper. In this case, HP decided to take a product that wasn't selling and sell it at a big loss. It's neat that people have snapped them up, but there's no business model here-- not unless these tablets can be sold as loss-leaders for some other expensive product.
The TouchPard cost $328 in parts and labor, and that's ONLY parts and labor. There's also the small matter of trying to recoup the $1.2 BILLION HP spent acquiring Palm and WebOS.
I'd like an "adequate" hybrid car for $2,500 too, but I don't think I'm going to get one...
A tablet is a luxury item. I can't justify spending $600 or $800 (or whatever they cost) on a tablet when I can buy a laptop or build my own desktop for something in the $300-400 range.
Go to the local salvation army or good will, you can get a desktop for $25.
At some point, almost anything is a luxury item. (Your $300 machine vs. the used $25 machine, why pay more for the luxury of something new?)
The question isn't whether $500+ for a tablet is feasible in the market--it has been 100% proven that this is a feasible price point because Apple is selling tens of millions of iPads. The question is why can't anyone else replicate what Apple is doing with tablets?
I think part of the problem is that Apple has an even larger headstart on tablets than they had on smartphones. It also seems that the 'ecosystem' is an even more important differentiater for tablets than for smartphones. I expect Android tablets
I think part of the problem is that Apple has an even larger headstart on tablets than they had on smartphones.
Why? I think that the introduction of the iPhone shook the phone industry to it's core and largely took them by surprise. I don't think that the Nokias and Motorolas of this world really would have thought that a PC/laptop maker like Apple would have been a serious competitor, especially after the ROKR, if you had asked them before the 9th of January 2007.
After that date all phone manufactures all of a sudden were scrambling to make something similar as they realised that Apple didn't just make a phone like
Selling a product at a loss doesn't help unless you have some other revenue stream.
Console makers get away with it because they license developers. Besides, the production cycle on a console is long enough to actually put them into the black over the long run.
Cellular companies get away with it because customers are locked into a contract, and have to pay a large sum to get out of it.
Tablet makers though? I guess Apple has their app store and other developers can do the same, but most they would have to sell a lot of apps to make up the difference (since most apps are significantly cheaper than most console games, if you're using that model). The service model may work, but I honestly don't know how many people are going to be willing to pay for yet another internet connection. After all, the people who buy tablets are likely already paying for home internet and cellular internet service.
News at 11!
Seriously though, all it really shows is that $99 is past the impulse buy threshold for a quality tablet. Duh.
The same pattern keeps appearing. iPhone vs Android a few years ago and then an oddball player called the Pre came along which never drew in a lot of developers and never had the level of apps Android and iPhone enjoy. Pre failed. WebOS was later put on what was priced as essentially a feature phone, the Pixi.
Now, we're playing this game again. iPad vs Honeycomb Tablets and then WebOS appears again. Not a lot of interest, still no developers, still no apps, and HP just decided to call it quits when their forecasts said this thing was going to be another Pre.
In operating systems there tends to be a natural monopoly and natural duopolies because of the scales involved and because people really don't crave that much choice. This is yet another example of this reality.
Most likely, someone will released some half-assed 2.3 ROM for this tablet and it'll suck. Shame google isn't releasing 3.2 for this thing via a side-channel. Honeycomb really is on par with ipad and makes for incredible experience.
In operating systems there tends to be a natural monopoly and natural duopolies because of the scales involved and because people really don't crave that much choice. This is yet another example of this reality.
There is no "natural monopoly" or "natural duopoly" in the OS space. There is monopolistic and anti-competitive actions that make it very hard for 3rd party options to survive. Which is the goal of Apple and MS, since they have the desktop space to themselves and they want the exact same situation in
In operating systems there tends to be a natural monopoly and natural duopolies because of the scales involved and because people really don't crave that much choice. This is yet another example of this reality.
There is no "natural monopoly" or "natural duopoly" in the OS space. There is monopolistic and anti-competitive actions that make it very hard for 3rd party options to survive. Which is the goal of Apple and MS, since they have the desktop space to themselves and they want the exact same situation in the mobile space. This is not an example of a "natural duopoly" coming to fruition, but rather that HP could not compete on the business end of things.
This is too simple. Of course only a limited number of different systems will gain broad third-party support, just because it's too expensive to support more than one or two systems. This tends to push under fringe systems and they drown very quickly then.
How many options should app developers have to support? Three, four, five versions of their apps? For systems that look very much as if they might vanish into nothing a year later?
And of course Apple (or MS or Google) try to be one of those you can't ignor
I don't think you're right. I think it's a very real effect that most hardware and software companies only cater to the top1-3 players in the market. For Desktop OSses that's Windows, even OSX is lagging far behind in available software and hardware with Linux a distant third. On the smartphone iOS is number one, with Android being nearly supported as well and Windows and Symbian tied for a distant third place.
It's the law of diminishing returns for hardware and software developers. At some point it's not w
I personally feel that tablets are just too expensive right now.
They are, basically, smartphones - the phone + a bigger screen. Now I'm not totally dissing this design. There have been times when reading something or wanting to show something to others that I would have loved for my phone to have a bigger screen. However, I already have my phone.
Buying a tablet is an additional cost on top of the phone. It's not like just because I'm willing to pay 200 + contract for a phone I'd be willing to pay the same a
Buying a tablet is an additional cost on top of the phone. It's not like just because I'm willing to pay 200 + contract for a phone I'd be willing to pay the same amount for a tablet, because I actually "need" the phone. I'm not going to decide whether to buy a tablet or a phone, because the phone is much more necessary. Since their functions overlap, the tablet is a completely extra luxury device.
Yes, very much like an extra pair of shoes.
The reason this doesn't effect Apple is... well do I really have to say it? Apple users are used to overpaying for stuff.
Like people owning more than one pair of shoes? Or a car *and* a bike?
Of course a tablet is luxury. But then even a smartphone is luxury and most other things you buy anyway.
What? You're comparing a tablet to shoes??? Shoes wear out and different types of shoes are needed for different occasions. You need a nice pair of shoes so you look professional, you need a tore up pair so you don't ruin the nice ones doing yard work, you need boots for rain/snow/mud, you need work shoes if you work construction or another job that requires a specific type of shoe.
And I can't think of a single person I know who owns more than one car that doesn't actually need more than one car. I have two
This is the same reason Verizon still exists and, until recently, why people put up with sub-par phones. Simply put, the phones were cheap or free, and people put up with the higher usage costs (say, akin to fewer apps/less usability) because of the diminished up-front cost.
If tablets were to segment as PCs did in the early 90s and offer "cheap" variants (eg. a tablet with 4G of storage and half as much RAM, maybe), maybe with cheaper displays, they would be adopted quite quickly, I think.
Somewhat agree, but ram is dirt cheap right now and the cost of storage options in these devices is being kept artificially high by marketing rather than by parts costs. Make cheaper tablets, but with storage that more properly reflects how cheap 64 bits of flash truly is, and you might have something.
This is where Apple is vulnerable -- a significant part of their profit margin depends on people's perception that buying a device with 16 additional gigabytes should cost $110 more, and it just isn't true an
... but I make up for it in volume.
Lower the price! Lower the damned price. You have to be a boutique item to charge boutique prices, and the Android tablets aren't, yet, and may never be. As long as they try to go toe-to-toe with Apple on profit margins, they're only going to appeal to people who absolutely wouldn't own an Apple product but still need some kind of tablet device. Oh, as they fail one by one they'll come up with a variety of excuses, but the real reason is that the devices are too expensive for what the public perceives t
What HP's TouchPad Fire Sale Teaches iPad Rivals?
Give up now, and sell your remaining stock at $99 a shot.
This article makes the typical geek mistake of assuming that Android tablets are failing due to some technical reason such as "not enough apps". This assumes customers are making perfectly rational choices and are looking at things such as "app selection" when they "buy a tablet."
Right now there is not even a "tablet" market. There is an "iPad market." That is it. I was in the DFW airport with a friend. A bunch of non-Apple gizmos were on display in a locked case. One was a tablet. "What's that?" she asked.
The number is actually closer to 20:1, based on figures from last month [daringfireball.net]. Shipments may be going out 8:1 in favor of the iPad, but sales, at least prior to the TouchPad's fire sale, were closer to 20:1 in favor of the iPad. The difficulty is that the manufacturers, Apple excluded, are primarily offering units shipped in their quarterly reports, rather than units sold, so you have to do some calculations to put together the various figures.
HP just unwittingly and probably unwillingly just handed the game to Android.
While the sell off of $99 tablets is certainly going to hurt Samsung, etc in the pocketbooks in terms of lost sales, the fact is almost all the people who bought the Touchpads are going to install Android on them.
In a blink of an eye, the Android tablet market just grew by over a million units sold.
Evolution is a million line computer program falling into place by accident.


text: Asterboid is an Arcade Side-Shooter game made by 1W Games (Yohan and Victor). This game is made in 1 Week and if you enjoy. Please follow this project if you want more Arcade games from us! Donation is Optional (We will make better games and make us have a homepage).


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Kemp named grand marshal for MLK parade
By Ken Gurnick /01/17/13 11:25 PM ET
LOS ANGELES -- Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp will serve as celebrity grand marshal for the 28th annual Kingdom Day Parade in recognition of Martin Luther King Day. The parade will be held Saturday in South Los Angeles.
Kemp, currently rehabilitating from October shoulder surgery, will be joined by Dodgers alumni Bobby Castillo, Tommy Davis, Al "The Bull" Ferrara, "Sweet" Lou Johnson, Lee Lacy, Kenny Landreaux, Tim Leary, Wes Parker, Dennis Powell, Derrel Thomas and Maury Wills, who will be riding in the Dodgers firetruck.
The Dodgers are a sponsor of the parade, whose theme will be "His Dream Will Never Die." The parade starts at 10:30 a.m. PT from the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Western Avenue and will be televised live locally on KABC-TV Channel 7.
Kemp's involvement in the Los Angeles community dates back to 2007 and includes a Dodgers Dreamfield dedication in Compton, Christmas visits to Sweet Alice in Watts and the City of Hope Hospital in Duarte, and the establishment of Kemp's Kids in 2008, hosting children at Dodger Stadium.
He has raised more than $400,000 for families affected by autism at his annual Spring Training fundraiser and participated for several years in the Dodgers' annual Community Caravan and Dodgers Dream Foundation Bowling Extravaganza.
With teammate Clayton Kershaw, Kemp was honored by the Negro Leagues Museum last January with a Legacy Award.


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One Eye Open
There are remarkably few brands that can accommodate a zombie-themed collection…so it's probably best to give the more Romero-esque designs their own label.
Rogues Gallery's Alex Carlton has apparently been nursing an appreciation for the undead for quite some time. Carlton just debuted Never Sleep as a sister brand to Rogues Gallery with a less nautical, more brain-seeking vibe. And for the more subtle aficionados, there's a whole string of blazers and jackets in an undead-friendly black.