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This article is dated oct 8. I had assumed it would be more recent.
Obligatory: You must be new here...
In other news, it's still a relevant and current event; Just because something's a month old doesn't mean it might as well have been written on stone tablets. I know the iThingie generation has the attention span of... oh who am I kidding, they didn't even finish reading the summary let alone the comments.
Girl - you write some pretty smart, insightful comments from time to time. But your logic is missing a few cogs here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon's_razor [wikipedia.org]
I recall a study from several years ago (10 years? possibly) that showed the probability of failure increased with the size (budget) of the project. Above about $5 million in then-dollars the probability was near 100%. As I recall failure was defined as either technical failure, or budget overruns going so high the project was cancelled. Of course, I have no citation. That would be too easy.
However, I did search for "Probability of Software Project Failure", and got some fascinating results. This is one of them: Statistics over IT projects failure rate [it-cortex.com] - a summary review of several of the most definitive studies over the last 20 years. And this one: Healthcare.gov website 'didn't have a chance in hell' [computerworld.com] notes that:
The Standish Group, which has a database of some 50,000 development projects, looked at the outcomes of multimillion dollar development projects and ran the numbers for Computerworld.
Of 3,555 projects from 2003 to 2012 that had labor costs of at least $10 million, only 6.4% were successful. The Standish data showed that 52% of the large projects were "challenged," meaning they were over budget, behind schedule or didn't meet user expectations. The remaining 41.4% were failures -- they were either abandoned or started anew from scratch.
And I suppose this: £12bn NHS computer system is scrapped... and it's all YOUR money that Labour poured down the drain [dailymail.co.uk] fits into this model pretty well. (Regardless of one's opinion about the Daily Mail.)
Doesn't it strike anyone as odd that the Govt can design and implement a billion+ dollar data storage center for the NSA but can't deploy a website to allow people to sign up for insurance?
Who says the storage center is implemented well?
It's probably a lot more well-implemented since those that are permitted to do that work at least need to pass some security checks. This means that it's not just any cheap labor that can be employed to do that work.
But for a lot of work the cheapest bidder is mandated by law.
Eh.. cheap bidder, high bidder, both are going to scrimp. You have to make your requirements clear and stick to them and have good oversight. I don't think that's what happened with the health care web site, though. There just wasn't enough time to do it right. I'm not sure they had enough time to understand the requirements.
Regardless, there's no evidence either way on the data center. They might have great system. They might have a mediocre system propped by insane hardware investment. They might h
But for a lot of work the cheapest bidder is mandated by law.
Yes, because otherwise we'd simply be wasting even more money for the same poor quality. Either the government needs to develop things like healthcare.gov in-house, with government employees, or it needs to leave it entirely to the market. Outsourcing such things doesn't work; it just amounts to massive corruption followed by massive blame shifting.
The NSA's new data-storage center in Utah has suffered a series of mysterious meltdowns in the past year.
Officials told [wsj.com] the Wall Street Journal that 10 fiery explosions, known as arc-fault failures, have ripped apart machinery, melted metal and destroyed circuits. The repeated meltdowns have delayed the opening of the one-million square foot facility by 12 months.
But the Anonymous GP may be right suspecting, the failure is deliberate... Obama's personal favorite healthcare model
Maybe it's the fault of libertarians that seem to make up a significant percentage of the tech demographic; wanting to kill the Affordable Healthcare Act. Or tea party programmers wanting the same thing who managed to get on the project. Come on man! Think of some more conspiracies!! Lovin' it.
Of course it couldn't be the incompetence of contracting companies that seem to make a living because they have or aim to have some sort of inside track [washingtonpost.com] in Washington rather than the chops to do the actual thing that needs doing. Of course that would never happen in Washington or any other political capital [www.cbc.ca]. I'm not saying the way the primary contractor, Quebec company CGI, does business in any way follows recent [thestar.com] Quebec business [financialpost.com] practices [slashdot.org]. They are probably a well above board and good honest corporate citizen (although according to the Washington Post article above they did screw up another medical system based project). I'm just saying that if Quebec ever did separate from Canada, as it is now, they'd have to think up some other adjective to describe it. It's too cold to grow bananas there.
Frankly (and personally) though, I wouldn't trust any company to government contracts with stated aims published in their profiles like: "The ultimate aim is to establish relations so intimate with the client that decoupling becomes almost impossible," (see Washington Post article). Especially not from Quebec.
Who says the storage center is implemented well?
Angela Merkel
Doesn't it strike anyone as odd that the Govt can design and implement a billion+ dollar data storage center for the NSA but can't deploy a website to allow people to sign up for insurance?
At least we can be comforted by the fact that the NSA data center is likely operated at the same levels of efficiency and competency.
Doesn't it strike anyone as odd that the Govt can design and implement a billion+ dollar data storage center for the NSA but can't deploy a website to allow people to sign up for insurance?
That's because one was designed by a bunch of guys on a mission, with an exceptionally strong feeling of patriotism and righteousness with practically no oversight by congress. The other was done by the lowest bidders (largely not even American citizens), built on a framework that was made practically impossible to implement by a meddlesome and conflicted congress.
Doesn't it strike anyone as odd that the Govt can design and implement a billion+ dollar data storage center for the NSA but can't deploy a website to allow people to sign up for insurance?
Nope. Because it is always possible to spend MORE money on a project in an attempt to get X results.
The trick is to get X results with the lowest cost. Someone who spends $1,000 on a loaf of bread may not be the best person so send grocery shopping. And that loaf of bread may not be worth $1,000. And when the project was
For example, the TSA has a huge annual budget. Yet they've never caught a single terrorist.
The purpose of the TSA is to get Americans (even more) used to the idea that government agents can search you whenever they deem it necessary, without a warrant. Sure, a long time ago some old white men wrote a 4th Amendment saying they can't do that, yeah sure, but by stepping into the airport you automatically agreed to waive your inalienable right, EULA-style. So you see it's all legitimate and there's nothing to see here.
The Govt can't design and implement a billion+ dollar data storage center. It can hire people to do it for them. Badly.
http://storageservers.wordpress.com/2013/10/08/nsa-prism-data-center-stops-working-due-to-electrical-problems/ [wordpress.com]
I bet that the requirements document for that data storage centre was considerably shorter than the requirements for healthcare.gov, and there was probably more input from the people tasked with building it into how long it would take and what was a reasonable deadline.
It's about profit model.
The problems that were reported as "problems with the website" were either standard IT issues (no excuse, but no need to exaggerate) solvable with routine IT engineering work or they were problems inherent in the profit model of the insurance companies.
Health care is like clean water, plumbing, or roads...it is something virtually every American would want or need.
The very definition of government is to group our resources...and any time humans group for any reason...it is to somehow
It was slow to load, I couldn't sign up, my browser hung waiting on lost connections with the too many other files it was trying to download and there seem to be server sync problems with the back end databases.
In other words it acts like PayPal, Google, Facebook and Slashdot.
Not "systematic."
"free market principles" won't help here. On the contrary, just think of the money that would go into actual health care if the government came in guns-ablaze and forcefully said "no, United Health Care, you can't treat your customers like the deepest turd of a batch of untreated sewer sludge [consumeraffairs.com]", or "no, big drugmaker, you can't throw millions of dollars on advertising niche products like fucking Restasis all over primetime tv instead of putting the money toward cutting the costs of life-saving meds".
Those are two cases where I'd actually be elated to see the NSA and TSA put into use: snoop on the moneyed fuckers involved and No-Fly 'em as soon as it's clear they want to take anything that resembles a business trip to plan their next splurge.
Regardless of "what went wrong", you know that the higher ups will just fire some peons, give themselves some big bonuses, and call it a day.
But the BIGGER question I don't see anybody asking, is why is there no apparent fall back or concession to delay requirements due to the problems? ANY significantly complicated computer system can reasonably be expected to encounter problems at deployment. And despite what the talking, drooling, blathering heads on TV seem to think, it is simply IMPOSSIBLE to test a system like this 100.000000000000% against real world scenarios. There will be glitches, there will be people who can't use the systems, there will be all sorts of "people problems" that no technology can fix. They should have been ready with other non webby ways to get people taken care of, and prepared to delay the needs for all of this if they could not get everyone taken care of in time.
It's hard enough to work with one spotty vendor, let alone 55. That number, 55, represents somewhere between 55 and 55-squared lines of possibly iffy communication between possibly iffy organizations. When I first heard that healthcare.gov had 55 contractors working on it, I was surprised that the damn thing ran at all.
it's simple: they didn't do enough testing and bug fixing. there should have been at least 6 months of testing and debugging to get this system working well. the information i found was that 248 people were able to sign up on the first day. so it works... kind of. there were bugs like spouses sometimes ending up being filed as children.
it's obviously a complex system but i take the 80m lines of code number with a grain of salt because i'm sure that includes all the libraries they (re)used too and maybe even an entire JVM. as such, it's probably all in house crap for each and every contractor, 55 if i remember correctly. there was obviously lazy coding involved to get that much bloat. there could be a swath of libs included that arent even used but were thrown in there "just in case i need it".
i hope the companies helping them gut the use of most proprietary libs because they are an easy way to get terrible bugs and gaping security holes. i also hope they move to a unified OO language to get a handle on this feral system. however, if i find out that google convinced them to rewrote it all in Go, i'll just cry.
Typical of what happens when an organization is too used to spending other people's money. It's ike a 16yo girl's runaway spending habits with daddy's credit card...and she's got him by the balls, too, along with her mother.
The number of large failed private sector IT projects makes this look like a drop in the bucket.
First and worst, politicians were involved. Everything else pretty much is a cascade effect off that.
Second, cronyism.
Third, you had a bunch of non-technical people setting up moving goalposts for the technical people to hit, with regard to the technical specs of the site.
Fourth, distinct lack of firm, single-message communication to the technical teams with regards to whether the project was or was not going forward.
I could go on and on about all the fuckups with regard to this. But I'd just piss off a bunch of people who aren't worth my time.
What went wrong is we created a system which requires extensive paperwork for insurance. It should have been a web form that asks "Are you a US citizen?" and if you answer yes, it says "OK, you're covered."
You can make the system (not just the web site) even more efficient by eliminating that question and simply serving static HTML.
Quote 1: "A complex system that works is found to have invariably evolved from a simple system that worked. . .
Quote 2: "In architecting a new [software] program all the serious mistakes are made in the first day." (Martin, 1988, cited in Maier & Rechtin, The Art of Systems Architecting (3rd ed.), p. 399)
Quote 3: "Indeed, when asked why so many IT projects go wrong in spite of all we know, one could simply cite the seven deadly sins: avarice, sloth, envy, gluttony, wrath, lust, and pride. It is as good an answer as any and more accurate than most." (me, testifying before the Subcommittee on Government Management, Information, and Technology Hearing, US House of Representatives, June 22, 1998)
My pre- and post-launch analysis of the Healthcare.gov website can be found here [andstillipersist.com].
What went wrong? Government.
The ACA has some great theory behind it. Assuming that the federal government will be able to operate and maintain a system like this in a cost effective fashion is lunacy. It as bound to fail.
Also don't tell me it was Republican "starve the beast" strategy. The ACA was fully funded and largely untouchable. By any reasonable standard the roughly $400m spent on implementing this was incredibly excessive. If a private company had wanted to build this system for profit, it would have been done for under $100m. The big mistake of the ACA was that it did not allow for the creation of privately run and owned exchanges.
Use your special system architecture x-ray vision, folks. This is not simple, stand-alone site like Slashdot that just has to do some database queries and generate some XML, then uses JQuery or something to asynchronously load some advertising into a DIV. This is a system that must orchestrate a complex *synchronous* process involving servers that belong to outside organizations.
Case in point; the system requirements say that the site must exclude illegal immigrants, so the system has to request and obtain proof of your status from Homeland Security's servers before it can proceed. Also, instead of issuing the same subsidy to everyone, the law specifies and income dependent, means-tested subsidy, which means the system ALSO has to check your claims against the IRS's computers before continuing. That's before it actually gets to obtaining the marketplace data.
So the most complex aspect of this system is essentially untestable short of a near-full scale roll-out. Hey, IRS, can I try hosing down your servers with JMeter? Even if you could orchestrate the non-functional testing you'd want to do, you won't know how the system works until it's handling real data. It's not like you can shove a test load equivalent to a thousand applications per hour, then another equivalent to ten-thousand, then draw a straight line that will tell you how the system will perform with twenty-thousand. There are some serious discontinuities in performance lurking, and the actual data submitted is likely to change things.
I think if I were in charge of this, the extreme difficulty of realistic non-functional testing might have led me to isolate some of the data interchange into a post-processing step. That is, I'd let people apply and take them at their word about their immigration status and income, then tell them to check back in a day while we confirm the data they submitted. It's more bureaucratic, but a big part of user experience is predictability. If someone knows they can complete their application in half an hour and come back 24 hours later for confirmation, it's not so bad. But if the system is designed to give them the expectation that they can finish in a half hour, but sometimes takes so long their sessions expire, that's a disaster.
If you suspect a man, don't employ him.


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The Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell, has apologised to "those who have suffered at the hands of fellow Christians" in his first Christmas message since the federal government announced a royal commission on child sex abuse.
Cardinal Pell, who said last month that the royal commission would help decipher real claims from "significant exaggeration", did not address the sex abuse claims directly, but said he felt the "shock and shame across the community at these revelations of wrongdoing and crimes".
"My heart will go out to all those who cannot find peace at this time, especially those who have suffered at the hands of fellow Christians; Christian officials, priests'' and teachers, he said.
"I am deeply sorry this has happened. It is completely contrary to Christ's teachings.''
Cardinal Pell has defended the church's handling of paedophilia in its ranks and its rules exempting priests from having to report admissions of sexual abuse made in Confession.
In his Christmas message, he said people needed faith "in God's goodness and love to cope with these disasters, to help those who have been hurt".
"The light of Christ shines through this darkness … It offers strength and healing to every person who suffers," Cardinal Pell said.
The Uniting Church's Reverend Brian Brown, moderator for the Synod of NSW and the ACT, used his Christmas message to lay down a political manifesto, including a reduction in Australia's order of new submarines from 12 to nine.
The $9 billion saved should be reinvested in education, health and housing, Dr Brown said.
He called for a change of course in a world "hell-bent on slow cooking itself", a reference to global warming, and intent on "fracking the bedrock of civil, respectful society" - an oblique nod to coal seam gas mining.
Dr Brown lamented figures showing that 80 per cent of housing services had "no room at the inn" and were unable to meet demand.
In a wish list, he called for the withdrawal of $12 billion in subsidies and incentives to fossil fuels and the introduction of a "humane system" of processing asylum seekers.
He also urged the NSW government to resist pressure to expand Boxing Day trading to ensure retail workers had two days off over Christmas.
The reward, he said, would be "a healthy planet and community, along with the joy of knowing that we are living ethically - doing to others as we would have them do to us".
The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen, described Christmas as a time for reconciliation with God, neighbours and indigenous Australians.
Dr Jensen said Christmas also posed an opportunity for people to reconcile fractured relationships.
"Christmas is a great time to fix up the feuds and quarrels and hatreds which divide us. Sometimes we need to make good the fault, to pay back, to apologise, to repair, to mend," he said.
"Sometimes, justice means that we take the hurt on ourselves and simply forgive the other person without demanding recompense."

subset: commoncrawl


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Embedded CSS Framework Blueprint ?
Posted 27 April 2012 - 06:04 AM
Posted 11 May 2012 - 06:52 PM
Posted 12 May 2012 - 01:36 AM
Blueprint, 960, bootstrap -> tomorrow
Each have had a share of time jn the spot light.
Today, bootstrap has a huge following because of RAD. Slap in a CSS framework because it works and then tweak it when hits and usage are high enough to support proper UI development.
Most projects are on timeframe and a budget. Bootstrap falls into place because it's "twitter" supported and a design/theme that people are hooked on at the moment. XP and OSX had there share of theme/design popularity at the time too. Lol so did groupon.
Going into the numbers arguement. Git forks are misleading. If your project is RAD based and you are using git you'll obviously fork bootstrap so that you have easy "bookmark" access.
Forks and code submission are not the same thing.
I've taken several looks at bootstrap and I always walk away. The design also makes me feel locked in to a twitter look:( I've gone through about 20-30 CSS frameworks and never can seem to like just "1".
I still need to look at foundation in detail. I just checked yaml and don't like the naming, the license nor how it doesn't work on my iPhone.
I'm going to side with jacmoe's arguement for:
1- Separation out of the core and for it being an extension
2- create a Yii based version
1.) because I like choice
2.) although Yii should focus on the core I think that a few members could form a sub set of Yii and focus on a CSS framework that could stand up against other frameworks and actually fit better into the core directly and yet still be a general purpose download like bootstrap
As a reference, I built a CSS framework using several components from different projects. When I came across bootstrap and almost cried! Hours upon hours of research and building were lost until I looked at what bootstrap looked like under the hood. Phew a sigh of relief! I'm not a guru nor can I say my code is good but bootstrap would have required a similar amount of work to fit my needs!
I'm also against using jquery to "cheat" CSS. Because its added overhead.
The question I have, is there a real interest in building both side os this? The code side and a default theme that designers would be willing to work with?
Posted 12 May 2012 - 05:05 AM
SapporoGuy, on 12 May 2012 - 01:36 AM, said:
You need a default template for pages generated by gii etc. So you need a template into the core. And the current Blueprint-based template is ugly.
Actually the best alternatives seem to be:
*) Bootstrap 2
*) Reinventing the wheel
Posted 12 May 2012 - 07:30 AM
Fork on github
Follow phundament on Twitter
DevSystem: Mac OS X 10.7 - PHP 5.3 - Apache2 - Yii 1.1 / trunk - Firefox or Safari
Posted 12 May 2012 - 11:04 AM
Wow! I admire your enthusiasm and support for bootstrap!
I never said you don't need a template. I said you don't need a CSS framework.
The current demo design is just that a demo. However since you feel it is ugly why don't you provide several alternative designs? We all could then vote on 2 or 3 to choose
This would:
1.) prove that bootstrap is better
2.) help those of us with bad design skills
3.) allow Yii to have alternative choices for the user to start off with like WP does
I don't see were reinventing the wheel comes from. I'm more than willing to share my "CSS framework" which includes a simpler naming convention for buttons, easier to notice error messaging for forms and some other goodies out of the box. Of course it is based on html5boiler plate and 1140grid which provides mobile friendly margins which many css frameworks don't! Only problem is that it is a beta and doesnt provide some of the extras that bootstrap took from the jquery CSS framework.
Now if you will provide a design that bootstrap is willing to showcase along with Yii's name on their site; I'll support your cause 100%
By getting showcased at bootstrap will be a huge benefit for Yii that out weighs the opinions of us who don't find bootstrap as a better alternative!
Actually, do you have any designs based on bootstrap?
Posted 12 May 2012 - 01:00 PM
SapporoGuy, on 12 May 2012 - 11:04 AM, said:
Wow! I admire your enthusiasm and support for bootstrap!
Reinventing the wheel is fine too, until I'm not the guy who have to reinvent it and the wheel quality is at least good as the quality of Bootstrap 2.
This would:
1.) prove that bootstrap is better
2.) help those of us with bad design skills
3.) allow Yii to have alternative choices for the user to start off with like WP does
By getting showcased at bootstrap will be a huge benefit for Yii that out weighs the opinions of us who don't find bootstrap as a better alternative!
Yii uses so many components etc. so that if you build a template, you implicitly build something which is a CSS framework if it is correctly structured or garbage if it isn't correctly structured.
Just replace the current components with the equivalent Bootstrap 2 components. I won't provide any demo as my time is limited and this is why I use frameworks built by others (Yii and so on).
If you want a demo: http://www.yiiframew...sion/bootstrap/
If you want to share your work, we can see if it fits the purpose.
Posted 12 May 2012 - 05:26 PM
SapporoGuy, on 12 May 2012 - 11:04 AM, said:
I got one...
In fact, the designer was just told, please use a 12 column 940px-grid and these are our first steps with yii-bootstrap and Phundament 3.
But it works very very well and Bootstrap is very easy to customize.
PS: Just kick out the black header bar
Attached File(s)
Bildschirmfoto 2012-05-13 um 00.02.18.png (912.81K)
Number of downloads: 54
Fork on github
Follow phundament on Twitter
DevSystem: Mac OS X 10.7 - PHP 5.3 - Apache2 - Yii 1.1 / trunk - Firefox or Safari
Posted 12 May 2012 - 05:50 PM
Or maybe something a bit more modern, like the 1140px responsive grid?
Just because some guy from Twitter released Bootstrap doesn't make it a quality css framework IMO.
Blueprint is actually a saner choice because it doesn't try and be more than just a grid with some sane css reset thrown in.
Pair that with Sass/Compass, and it has everything you need.
I was pimping Foundation - as you probably know - but I am growing tired of the whole debate..
It's like Jehovah's Witnesses, Git Evangelists, RoR Preachers..
Look beyond the pretty packaging and you realize how easy it is to integrate your own chosen set of jQuery plugins with whatever framework you opt for.
Posted 12 May 2012 - 07:56 PM
Nice design!
Yii really could use a few designs like that out of the box!
@ekerazha + bootstrap
Have you even looked at what is inside bootstrap?
Tried it on your phone? Even some of the showcase sites? Most of the sites I checked out don't even consider a 10pixel margin so letters get cut off and reading is pain, one reason I won't use bing!
I've literally gone through 15 CSS frameworks. Many I just but into the trash because they were half baked. 960, blueprint, bootstrap and possibly foundation (I haven't opened up the CSS yet) are pretty decent. However, reading your arguments for bootstrap you still will be missing features.
If you're interested, checkout sakuracart on git hub and you'll see what I've done. It's still a work in progress and I'd say the CSS part of is relatively on par with bootstrap for fancy boxes and dropdowns. Dig deep and you'll find a same form check and error outputs that bootstrap just does like normally and are not user intuitive. I still need to add in the cool push / pull features of blueprint that are handy at times.
@ bootstrap
If they're willing to feature And advertise Yii, I'll back and support the decision to move to bootstrap.
Posted 13 May 2012 - 01:08 AM
Sorry, there's nothing you can teach me about CSS, CSS frameworks etc. I follow this world since 15 years.
Posted 13 May 2012 - 01:58 AM
I'm just very curious,, as in specifics and not opinions,why bootstrap is the way to go.
Posted 13 May 2012 - 02:32 AM
Posted 13 May 2012 - 02:40 AM
I'm "not" trying ... Sorry!!!!!
Posted 13 May 2012 - 04:00 AM
Posted 13 May 2012 - 06:01 AM
Something is majorly wrong here!
Why am I being forced into a CSS Framework to begin with?
What happens when I decide that I like something else better the next week?
Why is jquery even part of Yii?
I read 4 reasonably good solutions in the first link
I also read a lot of use XYZ and just switch out if you don't like it. This is wrong, you can't without basically redoing everything that XYZ did. This is lock in.
I'm on my phone so I'm NOT going to quote who said what.
Basically this made the most sense:
1.) unify all HTML under 1 umbrella incorporating "semantic" CSS naming convention
2.) jquery should be in a 3rd party/vendor location, it changes like every few months
3.) "Portlets", so that code can be broken down into manageable units
4.) each unit should be able to call the necessary J-love when needed. On the admin speed optimization is not necessarily that important
5.) mobile friendly, which means that the HTML is already a simple drop in piece that plays well in any area of a "grid" you put it.
6.) possible select function in the console when building an app to indicate what "CSS framework" you're using.
I agree that the admin UI and GUI needs Aamer "beatification" but not at the expense of having to be locked into what I hate horrible naming convention, ie xyz-gohere-upper2-randomword-123! Which is a major pet peeve I have with bootstrap andante others. Why can't they use simple sounding "semantically" understand names like, class = button right enter, or class = button error? Yeah, I like chaing my CSS
I'm also why isn't jquery's theme not being used? It already is a CSS framework, albeit minus the grid.
I don't like jquery mobile! It just adds a whole new layer of
Pain to learn plus if not implemented completely and correctly you end with some cray navigation that becomes a nightmare!
Yii should allow flexibility for the theme but yet enforce a coherent and stable HTML base. Much like it does for php and MySQL. Which is why I'm in favor of the HTML that is autogenerated should come out as simple as possible so that I can theme it by just dropping in admin.css.
Should Yii come with a handsome and good looking theme? Doh! Of course!
Should I have to learn somebody else's CSS naming conventions? Not really. I'd live to say no but that is impossible since you still need a naming system for xyz grid location and xyz widget/portlet.
Hmmm, does anybody have a good idea for how things should be named "semantically"? I'm still arguing with myself and end up in a corner trapped because I want flexibility yet realize that something needs to be decided which means I loose flexibility ugh!
Posted 13 May 2012 - 10:25 AM
How about using semantic.gs then?
It's powered by LESS/SCSS and can ship with Yii precompiled.
It is a grid, it's semantic (because of LESS/SCSS) and does not carry any additional garbage.
Another option is to simply keep Blueprint, but ship a precompiled Sass/Compass generated stylesheet.
That way we don't have to worry about replacing anything, we can ship a semantic css stylesheet with Yii, and everyone can easily swap it out for their favorite css framework.
Isn't that going to be a win-win?
Design has little to do with what css framework you pick.
The argument in favor of semantic.gs is that it has support for both Less and Sass.
Which is a good thing.
Bootstrap supports Less, Foundation supports Sass.
Semantic Grid System supports both. (It wins!)
Posted 13 May 2012 - 11:25 AM
Blueprint is obsolete
Posted 13 May 2012 - 11:27 AM
ekerazha, on 13 May 2012 - 11:25 AM, said:
Exactly. That's the whole point.
Posted 13 May 2012 - 11:30 AM
jacmoe, on 13 May 2012 - 11:27 AM, said:
So your idea is to show raw html items (lists instead of menus etc.) wrapped into a semantic.gs grid?


text:
Guests can enjoy all their favorite park attractions by day and then hang out for a whole new park after dark.
The new DJ-hosted nighttime killer-whale show, "Shamu's Celebration: Light Up the Night," will have guests dancing and cheering through the night. Silly sea lions and mischievous otters will have visitors laughing with delight as the animals wreak havoc onstage at "Sea Lions Tonite."
Then, as the evening comes to a crescendo, SeaWorld's new fireworks display, "Celebrate the Wonder," will light up the night's sky. The marine park's summertime extravaganza is in high gear and continues June 7-8, June 14-Aug. 17, Aug. 23-24, and Aug. 30–Sept. 1.
Guests can purchase a SeaWorld one-year membership, which allows repeat admission for an entire year, plus free parking and discounts on food and merchandise. The membership cost is $145 for all ages.
During "Summer Nights at SeaWorld," guests may also enjoy the park's new fireworks display, "Celebrate the Wonder," which caps off an evening full of nighttime animal shows, plus the park's 320-foot Skytower Flag of Lights, which is decked out in red, white and blue lights from dusk to midnight through Sept. 1.
Fireworks display times in the summer vary according to park hours.
For park hours, show schedules or to purchase tickets to skip the ticket line at the park, visit SeaWorldSanDiego.com, or call (800) 257-4268.


text:
Brian Frons: "We want the fans to know that we remain committed to ALL MY CHILDREN, ONE LIFE TO LIVE and GENERLA HOSPITAL and that this in no way impacts their future. These soaps were on the air 30 to 40 years before SOAPnet came along and they will continue long after SOAPnet ends. This is not about SOAPnet doing badly. It's about a bigger opportunity for the Disney Company.
"I think [all three ABC soaps] all doing a good job of making themselves contemporary and relevant. GH is in a terrific place right now. I love the youthful vitality of OLTL as we drive into the summer. And AMC is getting back to where it's supposed to be, thanks to [new head writers] Donna Swajeski and Dave Kreizman and [executive producer] Julie Carruthers. I feel good about the future. AMC's move to L.A. saved 20 percent on the budget and it looks better than ever. It's not money that came off the screen. If we can continue to be that smart every day on all three soaps then there's no reason they won't survive far into the future."
INTERVIEW: ATWT's Vanessa Ray (Teri)
"When I got the soap, I remember thinking, 'What Broadway show could I do and still do this [day] job?' I was thinking Nessarose in Wicked. And I said to Ali [Case], 'I could never do Hair because you're on stage the entire time!'" Little did Ray know that she would soon be juggling the soap, Hair and a juicy prime-time part in Damages.
AS THE WORLD TURNS star Jon Lindstrom on the end of the show
"The atmosphere on the set is actually pretty good," he reports. "I don't think it's always been good; it's kind of gone back-and-forth from despair to excitement about the unknown. Now, I think everyone has just accepted that this is the way it's going and we don't have any choice, so let's just move on and make the most of it."
Kylie Minogue invited back to NEIGHBOURS
The show's executive producer Susan Bower told the official NEIGHBOURS website yesterday: "Kylie can arrive in a Mini, in a hot-air balloon or even parachute. Any way she desires, we would welcome her with open arms".
ABC affiliates want 10 p.m. hits
Some 175 stations were on hand at the ABC affiliates meeting this in Los Angeles, where they vowed to work with the network on such issues as keeping free, over-the-air TV viable, halting the migration of big-ticket sports to cable and filling the 10 p.m. with promising new shows.


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CAIRO — Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood staged an anti-Israel rally in Cairo on Friday, the first such protest by the main backers of President Mohammed Morsi since they rose to prominence in the wake of the country's 2011 uprising.
Emerging from weekly services at Al-Azhar mosque — the centuries-old seat of Sunni Muslim learning — demonstrators chanted ''the people want the destruction of Israel'' in protest of recent Israeli airstrikes in Syria and the detention of a Palestinian Muslim cleric. At one point, leading Brotherhood member Mohammed el-Beltagy shouted: ''We will repeat it over and over, Israel is our enemy.'' Others echoed the call, and one organizer whipped up the crowd in a chant urging the army to launch a war against Israel to ''liberate Palestine . . . from the sons of monkeys and pigs.''
Since the revolt that deposed Hosni Mubarak, the Brotherhood has largely avoided showing enmity to the West or Israel. Morsi himself has repeatedly stressed commitment to Egypt's peace treaty with Israel, and won US praise by brokering a cease-fire between Palestinian Hamas militants and the Jewish state. But both the Islamist president and his group have had a hard time melding their longtime anti-Jewish stance with new responsibilities since coming to power.
Associated Press


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Neil Young Tickets
This musician rocks harder in his sixties than some do in their twenties, always putting on a quality show for those that are lucky enough to get their hands on Neil Young tickets, and his 2015 concert tour certainly won't be any exception. Lyrics about North American legends and myths, accompanied by this signature guitar style and distinct voice, create a show that is second to none in the music industry. And although many have attempted to emulate him, no one has ever duplicated the wonder you see at a Neil Young concert.
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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Dec. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- IRIDEX Corporation (Nasdaq: IRIX) announced today the preliminary results of its tender offer to purchase up to 487,500 shares of its common stock at a purchase price of $4.10 per share, which expired at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on Friday, December 7, 2012. Based on the preliminary count by Computershare Inc., the depositary for the tender offer, an aggregate of 1,447,141 shares of common stock were properly tendered and not withdrawn, including 14,060 shares that were tendered through notice of guaranteed delivery. Accordingly, IRIDEX expects to accept for purchase an aggregate of 487,500 shares of its common stock at a purchase price of $4.10 per share.These shares represent approximately 5.5 percent of IRIDEX's currently issued and outstanding shares of common stock.
Because the tender offer was oversubscribed, the number of shares that IRIDEX will purchase from each tendering stockholder will be pro-rated. Based upon the preliminary count by the depositary, IRIDEX estimated that the pro-ration factor will be approximately 33.6%, assuming all shares tendered through notice of guaranteed delivery procedures are properly delivered, or approximately 34%, excluding all shares tendered pursuant to guaranteed delivery procedures. The number of shares properly tendered and not withdrawn and the pro-ration factor are preliminary and are subject to: confirmation by the depositary of the proper delivery of the shares properly tendered and not withdrawn and the impact of odd-lot tenders. The actual number of shares properly tendered and not withdrawn and the pro-ration factor will be announced following the completion of the confirmation process. Payment for the shares accepted for purchase and return of all other shares tendered will occur promptly thereafter. Payment for shares will be made in cash, without interest.
The tender offer was made pursuant to an Offer to Purchase, dated November 7, 2012, as amended by Amendment No. 1 to the Offer to Purchase, dated November 13, 2012, and Letter of Transmittal, dated November 7, 2012, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The information agents are The Proxy Advisory Group, LLC and Allen & Caron Inc., and the depositary is Computershare Inc. For questions and information, please call the information agents toll-free at (888) 740-7130.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, as defined under the federal securities laws. These forward-looking statements include statements regarding IRIDEX's expectation regarding the number of shares to be purchased, the pro-ration factor and the completion of the tender offer and payment for the shares. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause the actual number of shares to be purchased, the pro-ration factor and the timing for the completion of the tender offer and payment for the shares to differ materially and adversely from the number expressed in the forward-looking statements in this press release. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as to IRIDEX's expectations as of the date hereof. IRIDEX undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements as a result of events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
|SOURCE IRIDEX Corporation
Copyright©2012 PR Newswire.
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Luke Messner Meets with Ohio House of Representatives and Senate Members for Discussion of Current Events
April 13, 2010
Luke Messner, a sophomore political science and philosophy major, had the opportunity to meet with Mr. John Boccieri of the Ohio House of Representatives and Mr. Robert F. Hagan of the Ohio Senate to discuss issues pertinent to the state of Ohio and it's citizens in Columbus this past Friday.
Messner also had the opportunity to hear from other members of Congress at a luncheon and was able to observe a session of the Ohio Senate.
'With the recent elections completed, there was no shortage of discussion at the Statehouse,' said Messner. ''Bringing Life Back to the Economy of Ohio,' 'Affordable Health Insurance,' 'Minimum Wage' and 'Alternative Fuel Sources' were topics of discussion throughout the day.'
While in Columbus, Messner gained valuable insight into the current situation of Ohio and what strategies can improve its condition. 'It is easy to simply blame the leaders of our state for any mistakes that happen, while I feel that there is a certain amount of initiative that needs to be taken by the citizens,' said Messner. 'We have the ability to make the most out of every situation and as a whole, work to make Ohio thrive once again.'
Messner, who plans to attend law school, also learned how these public officials balance time between work, community and family.
Advice Messner gained from the visit is the potential experience one can gain from an internship. 'They continually stressed the importance of internships and the overall experience which will help set you above your competition.'
Messner, who also had the opportunity to travel and work in South Africa this past summer, also realizes the importance of public service in our society. 'Last year's introduction of The Center for Public Service by Dr. Jack DeSario, professor of political science, had a great deal of influence on my desire to become involved in public service,' said Messner. 'My level of awareness has dramatically increased as I realize how much I have taken for granted in my own life as well as areas of need that exist in our country.'
Messner, who hopes to become involved in politics on a state or national level, believed this program was a great opportunity of which to participate. 'While I gained valuable information and personal words of wisdom,' said Messner, 'I also came out of the event with valuable contacts. For anyone interested in a career in public service or curious as to how the Ohio legislation process takes place, this opportunity should not be passed up.'


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Story highlights
- Eat24 website is "breaking up" with Facebook, which is firing back
- Food-delivery site says Facebook's algorithm minimizes its posts
- Facebook rep: Users want to see more important content
- Facebook has encouraged businesses to pay for advertising
A food-delivery website is parting ways with Facebook in a snarky "breakup" letter. And Facebook, like spurned lovers through the ages, is telling the cheeky startup not to let the door hit it on the way out.
Eat24, based in San Bruno, California, lets users enter their address to find restaurants that will deliver to them. They then select a restaurant and order online.
The site has more than 70,000 "likes" on Facebook. But last week, it announced it just wasn't that into the social media giant anymore.
"Dear Facebook, Hey. It's Eat24. Look, we need to talk," read a post on the Eat24 blog. "This isn't easy to say since we've been together so long, but we need to break up. We'd love to say 'It's not you, it's us' but it's totally you. Not to be rude, but you aren't the smart, funny social network we fell in love with several years back. You've changed. A lot."
The problem? Eat24 says Facebook's algorithm that decides which posts users see in their feeds is unfair and rewards page owners who pay to have their posts promoted.
"It makes us think all you care about is money," the letter reads. "Why should we have to wade through a dozen promoted posts about how to lose belly fat (are you trying to tell us something?) and requests for Candy Crush (NO! Just no.) and suggesting we like our arch nemesis' page (seriously, WTF) before we can finally find the perfect Doge meme? It really seems like you've lost your way and have become nothing more than an ad platform."
The letter says Eat24 will delete its page at midnight Monday.
In an uncharacteristically direct response, Brandon McCormick, Facebook's communications director, replied to the post in which the company shared the letter -- perhaps ironically -- on Facebook.
"I was bummed to read your letter," he wrote. "The world is so much more complicated than when we first met -- it has changed. And we used to love your jokes about tacquitos and 420 but now they don't seem so funny."
The irreverent 5-year-old site, which has bragged about its decision to advertise on porn websites and joked about its TV ads that (allegedly accidentally) showed a bear's penis, mostly posted Web memes and pictures of food on its Facebook page. And the "breakup letter" included a joke about making a decision because "it was 4:20 at the time." That's a reference to a term that's become code for the best time to smoke marijuana.
Facebook has defended its algorithm, which features some posts prominently while downplaying others. While many users say they want to see every post from their friends and all the pages they've liked, Facebook argues that would create an overwhelming flood of lower-quality content.
In his response to Eat24, Facebook's McCormick didn't address the promoted-post issue but suggested users prefer to see news from friends over companies' marketing pitches.
"There is some serious stuff happening in the world and one of my best friends just had a baby and another one just took the best photo of his homemade cupcakes and what we have come to realize is people care about those things more than sushi porn," McCormick said. "So we are sorry that we have to part this way because we think we could still be friends -- really we do. But we totally respect you if you need some space."
Facebook appears to have made a concerted effort to limit how much content users see from companies' pages. A recent study found that companies' posts reached 6% of their followers in February, down from 12% in October. "Like many mediums, if businesses want to make sure that people see their content, the best strategy is, and always has been, paid advertising," a spokeswoman told Time.
In its letter, Eat24, which is available exclusively in the United States, says it previously paid Facebook to promote some of its posts and saw its follower count swell with users from other countries.
It said the company plans to continue its social media activities on other sites and apps.
"Not to hit below the belt, but we have a lot more fun when we hang out with Twitter and Instagram," the letter reads. "They don't have weird algorithms, which means all of our besties get to see everything we post."
Instagram, of course, has been owned by Facebook since 2012.
Ironically, Eat24's breakup letter appears to be, far and away, its most popular post on the site.
As of Monday morning, it had more than 2,200 "likes" and had been shared nearly 1,000 times. Its other most recent posts ranged in "likes" from a dozen or so up to about 180.
Most of the comments were supportive, even when some fans sensed an ulterior motive.
"I know this is a PR stunt, but this is my favorite PR stunt," one user wrote. "As always -- brilliant, guys."
The company's reply: "No comment, except thank you."


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Saturday, February 13, 2010
Surname Saturday - VAN WOERT - Keeping Track - Part 2
This is a way to keep everybody in your direct lines straight, meaning in the correct direct line surname sequence. My list is in alphabetical order with the oldest family line being first. For example, I have six people by the name of Daniels, my six Stephen Daniels to be exact. How am I going to remember who was married to whom, and the dates. It was while working on his line that I decided to devise this list. At that time, I didn't have a laptop to bring to the library, so it was either rely on my memory, print out scads of family group sheets, or bring a one page printout of a Word document. To print out my entire listing runs 52 pages (done in 2003), so I would simply cut and page, and carry just a few pages.
I thought it appropriate to use the example of my Van Woert line for Surname Saturday, since I just connected with a new cousin this week. He found me, the day I posted cemetery pictures for our family on Tuesday Tombstone! Both our lines left Oneonta, New York and settled in Battle Creek, Michigan.
This method is great for when you are looking at books with genealogies (family histories). If you were in the section that that began with "V" in a library and found a book on Van Woert, check out the index to see if you have any of the names below. (At the bottom, is the copy I gave the students.)
VAN WOERT (all have the surname of Van Woert)
Teunis Jacobsesn (Abt. 1634--) married April 19, 1650 Sara Denys (Abt. 1629--)
Jacob Teunisse (1651-July 18, 1730) married Annatje Lookerman (--July 31, 1742)
Jacob (Bapt. Oct. 30, 1698-1765) married Oct. 17, 1723 Hendrikje Ooothout (Bapt. April 9, 1699-April 21, 1764)
Jacob (Bapt. Jan. 8, 1723/24--) married Elizabeth Fort (Bapt. April 23, 1727-May 30, 1756)
Jacob (July 7, 1754-June 27, 1843) married March 30, 1777 Sarah Van Ness (Bapt. March 15, 1754-April 22, 1832)
John (Dec. 21, 1781-Jan. 5, 1870) married Lany / Magdalane Young (May 31, 1784-March 31, 1849) Also married Nancy Hess Scrambling (1781-April 1873)
Sarah (Aug. 17, 1813-Feb. 18, 1863) married Jacob Scrambling (1810 – April 9, 1886)
4 comments:
- Wendy said...
I alphabetize all records and indexes. It makes life easier for me. I know some folks go by town, dates, etc. You are so organized!
Shared lines? I'm sure there are many more than this, but from your post yesterday I saw:
William Ballard & Grace Berwick
Andrew Peters & Grace Beamsley
Thomas Chandler & Mary Peters
I'm sure that is just for starters!
- February 13, 2010 at 7:07 PM
- Barbara Poole said...
Wendy, I think I share more ancestry with you than anybody. Any time you want to see my group sheets, let me know. Maybe I should have sent you my entire list of 52 pages!
- February 14, 2010 at 7:22 AM
- Wendy said...
LOL - You can also see my family tree through my blog. It is posted to Rootsweb and I'm sure you will find even more shared ancestors!
I would love to see your group sheets.
- February 14, 2010 at 9:04 PM
- Barbara Poole said...
I found it Wendy, and it is saved. It will take a while to go through it, but I do look forward to it. Thanks. Let me know what you want to see, and you will need to email me for it.
- February 14, 2010 at 9:18 PM


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South Ireland: Waterford To The Ring Of Kerry
series: Rick Steves' Europe
air date: 8/13/13 3:30 AM
We find the story of Ireland strewn along its fascinating south coast: Waterford's much-loved crystal factory; the Kennedy family homestead; the Dunbrody famine ship; and Kinsale's star-shaped fortresses. After learning why locals don't kiss the Blarney Stone, we savor the scenic charms of the Emerald Isle-driving the Ring of Kerry.
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EZpay, our complimentary monthly payment service that splits up your total into 12 easy payments. All the fun you can handle at an easy-to-handle price. EZpay offers low monthly payments for pass memberships with no down payment, plus it includes our EZpay Price Lock Guarantee. Credit card holder must be present to redeem EZpay vouchers. See EZpay Terms and Conditions for complete details.
» Purchase an Pass Membership online with EZPay today!
Q: What is EZpay?
A: EZpay is a simple, convenient monthly payment program designed to make pass membership fit easily into your budget.
Q: How does your EZPay Price Lock Guarantee work? Does this mean I can keep my monthly rate even if the Pass prices go up next year?
A: Our EZpay Price Lock Guarantee is a great deal, and another way of rewarding our loyal Pass Members. Once your initial EZPay contract term is complete, we'll guarantee that your current monthly rate will stay fixed for up to sixty months (5 years) for as long as you keep your Pass active and in good standing - even if Pass prices go up. In fact, you can keep it locked for up to sixty months (5 years), and still cancel any time after your initial EZpay contract term is complete.
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Barry Coates wishes he didn't have to sit in front of a congressional hearing and detail painful personal health details.
However, he feels a strong obligation to make the Veterans Administration own up to problems with its medical treatment of people who sacrificed so much for their country.
Coates plans to be in Washington Wednesday to tell the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs his sad story. He can only hope it'll lead to changes that prevent other veterans from going through similar ordeals.
"I'm not doing it for myself," said Coates, 44, who has battled colorectal, liver and lung cancer over the past two years. "I want to be the voice for all the vets who have suffered through this, and for the ones who died and their loved ones."
The hearing will rehash the massive backlog in diagnosis and treatment of colorectal concerns at Dorn VA Medical Center in 2011-2012. A Veterans Administration inspector general's report released in September found backlogs of as many as 4,000 patients prompted months of delays in diagnosis and treatment. Those delays were linked to 52 cases of cancer and at least six deaths.
Dorn officials at the time blamed staffing and funding, though the inspector general said only about $200,000 of $1 million in funds designated to reduce the backlog had been spent on that issue. In the past year, increased staffing and clinical changes have wiped out the backlog, according to current Dorn officials.
Coates hopes the Dorn colorectal problems have been solved, but he plans to keep publicizing his plight if only to shame VA leaders into putting more resources into caring for service members. His testimony, and comments from others about the Dorn situation, will be aired in the latest in a serious of hearings called by Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla. Miller has especially been focused on what he perceives as stonewalling by VA officials on information about the problems, and on the lack of punishment for the upper management at problem facilities.
"In order to provide real closure for those struck by these heartbreaking preventable deaths, VA needs to hold fully accountable the employees who allowed patients to slip through the cracks," Miller said.
Coates ended up with a nine-month gap between his first visit to a VA physician with serious symptoms until the life-threatening conditions were properly diagnosed. About half of that delay was directly related to the Dorn backlog.
Coates has been on military disability since suffering severe lower back injuries near the end of Army boot camp in 1991. In January 2011, he went to a VA clinic near his home in Rock Hill because he was experiencing severe rectal pain. He says he specifically asked the physician if he needed a colonoscopy.
Instead, he was given medicine for pain and constipation. The problems persisted, and Coates returned to the clinic in March. Same diagnosis, same medication, same lack of results.
In July, he moved to McBee and his case was transferred to a VA clinic in Florence. His doctor there wondered why he hadn't been set up to see a gastroenterologist, and Coates was set up for an appointment at Dorn. He couldn't be fit in for an appointment until September.
Even though he had been in pain for nine months by September, the gastroenterologist at Dorn decided to wait to see if new medication would help. Finally, in October, the gastroenterologist at Dorn agreed Coates needed a colonoscopy, Coates said.
But because of the colonoscopy backlog at Dorn, all but the most serious cases faced a five-month wait. Coates was put on a list to call if an opening came up unexpectedly, and he was fortunate to get a colonoscopy on Dec. 9. It was way too late.
"They showed me the picture of the tumor, and it was as big as a fist," Coates said. "They said they were pretty sure it was stage four colorectal cancer, and it had spread to the liver and lungs."
His oncologist later told him if the colonoscopy had been done earlier, Coates might still have had early stages of colorectal cancer, but it likely wouldn't have spread to his liver and lungs.
Dr. March Seabrook, a gastroenterologist in Columbia with no ties to Dorn, said inspector general's report indicates a series of errors resulting from bad communications to lack of personnel. In his view, those problems grow out of a massive organization that does a poor job of prioritizing.
"If I have somebody that I'm worried about, I have the control, and I can say I want to see this person (for a colonoscopy) tomorrow or next week," Seabrook said.
Somebody who is 50 years old and has indicated no problems goes to the back of the consult list. Somebody 54 with rectal bleeding gets in the front, Seabrook said.
At Dorn, Coates was slotted in the waiting line much like anyone else.
Surgeries and chemotherapy have kept Coates' cancer at bay, but he spends most of his time going back and forth to medical appointments and procedures. His most recent oncology checkup indicated he has no colorectal cancer, but small spots are growing on his lungs and liver.
"The reason I'm still here today is the Lord himself," Coates said. "If you looked at me, you couldn't see I'm sick."
Coates said he filed formal complaints against the VA and was awarded $150,000 for pain and suffering, but nothing for the loss in quality of life if the cancer had been found earlier. He could have appealed to get more money, but he was told the delay for an appeal to work through the system could been a year or two and might not be successful.
"The government is that way," Coates said. "They done wrong, and they know they done wrong. We're talking about a life here."
Instead of appealing the ruling, he is focusing on fighting cancer and spending time with his wife, five children and four grandchildren. He sees his survival this long as an indication of a higher calling. That's why he's taking his message all the way to Congress.
"If you're serving in the military now, how does this make them feel?" he said. "The VA is supposed to be there to help veterans."


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WASHINGTON -- Kitchen and bathroom renovations top the list of improvements for increasing the value of a home. But this labor-intensive remodeling can get expensive. Even without changing room layouts, the simple job of replacing finishes and fixtures can cost more than the price of a new car.
What builders call "pull and replace" remodeling can run about $12,000 to $22,000 for the average 5-by-7-foot bathroom and $29,000 to $52,000 for a 12-by-12-foot kitchen, estimates Rick Matus of Bethesda, Md.-based Case Design/Remodeling Inc. "As soon as you start moving plumbing, electrical wiring and walls, the costs go up substantially from there," he says.
Budget-minded homeowners are finding cheaper solutions in the $10,000 to $20,000 range by making do with existing appliances and fixtures, refinishing kitchen cabinets and shopping for bargains. Suppliers and builders, in turn, are responding to the recession-driven demand for cost-conscious kitchen and bath remodeling with package deals aimed at guaranteeing the costs of materials and labor.
"At first, there was no way I was going to spend $18,000 to $25,000 to remodel a bathroom," says Vienna, Va., homeowner Hannah Laufe, an attorney. "But to get what we wanted, my research showed that was the amount we needed to spend."
Laufe and husband Richard Miller, a teacher, decided to renovate the outdated and worn master bathroom in their 1960s rambler. "Everything was pink, the medicine cabinet was rusty and the faucets didn't work as well as they should," Laufe says.
The couple tapped Case to remodel the space based on the firm's new renovation program, called the 2012 Bath Collection, launched in January. For $13,000 to $25,000, the company will demolish an existing space, remove lead paint if necessary, and install backer board and tile. New plumbing fixtures, vanity, towel bars, lighting and painting are included in the price. "It saves the headache of shopping different sources," Matus says. He says Case is now considering similar package deals for kitchens.
Laufe and Miller had a choice of designs in contemporary, traditional and transitional styles, but within a narrow range of products. They chose a stained maple vanity with a granite countertop, a glass door for the shower, and marble-look-alike porcelain tile on the floor and shower stall, spending about $20,000 on the project. "It took less than two weeks to complete," Laufe says.
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Management consultant Cope Willis and wife Sophie, who works for an educational software company, spent about $9,000 to partially remodel their pink bathroom. They kept the existing toilet and pedestal sink, and hired a local handyman to install a new bathtub and finishes. "We worked within the existing constraints of the bathroom to keep costs down," Cope Willis says.
New subway-style tile around the tub, marble tiles on the floor and beadboard wainscoting create what Willis calls "a clean, traditional look" in keeping with the architectural character of the couple's 1938 Colonial in Washington.
Most of the renovation dollars were spent on the installation -- about $6,000. Budgeting that amount is realistic, according to several experts who say labor accounts for about 60 to 70 percent of bathroom remodeling costs.
"To save money, do as much as you can, like installing the toilet and doing the painting," says Dominic Piccininni, senior director in merchandising for Home Depot, which offers free DIY workshops on bathroom repairs.
Matus recommends using leftover remnants of granite for vanity tops instead of ordering an entire slab.
"But don't scrimp on faucets," he says. "The big box stores typically sell faucets with plastic cartridges, not metal, that don't last very long. You don't want a leaky faucet after two years."
Applying large tiles on floors and walls is another way to save money. "With 12-inch-by-12-inch tiles, you have less grout lines and labor costs, and they can make a room appear larger," says Mina Fies, chief executive of Synergy Design & Construction in Reston, Va. "You can also save money by not taking the tile to the ceiling around the tub or shower."
Instead of replacing a tub or a shower stall, Piccininni recommends installing glass doors to create a fresh look and reduce costs. "If your plumbing is all good, you could do your whole bathroom yourself with a new shower head, toilet, vanity, sink and light fixture for under $1,000," he says.
But even an experienced DIYer may not have the expertise to update a bathroom in an older home. "If the house has galvanized water pipes that are in bad shape and need to be changed to copper, that will require plumbing skills," says architect Bruce Wentworth of the Wentworth Studio in Chevy Chase, Md. "If the house does not have ground fault interrupted outlets, it requires electrical skills."
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Kitchen remodeling costs less when major fixtures are swapped out rather than moved to new locations. For a typical kitchen, about 12-by-12 feet, a budget of about $13,000 will allow a builder to install new countertops, backsplash, sink and faucet, decorative hardware and lighting, according to Matus.
But it won't pay for cabinets or appliances, he says. "Plan to spend another $16,000 on cabinets and $7,500 appliances for an average kitchen."
Few kitchen designers will consider a makeover for less than $20,000. But Savena Doychinov, of Design Studio International in Falls Church, Va., is trying to make that budget work in a condo kitchen by leaving the refrigerator and flooring in place and using stock rather than custom cabinets. Even in small kitchens, costs can escalate when specialized appliances are needed to fit a confined space. "A narrow range or a shallow refrigerator can cost more than standard sizes," Doychinov says.
The cheapest and easiest part of a kitchen overhaul, the designer says, is changing the countertops. She recommends plastic laminates over granite to save costs. "They have come a long way in design," she says. "They now look like stone and are very durable. Down the road, when you have the money, you can replace them with granite."
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Experts agree that the biggest expense in remodeling a kitchen -- about 35 percent of the overall renovation costs -- is replacing storage with new cabinets and drawers. "If you use ready-made (open) shelves such as the ones offered by Restoration Hardware and Pottery Barn," Doychinov says, "you can save money but probably no more than about 30 to 40 percent of the cost of new cheap wall cabinets."
To reduce costs, Maryland homeowners Sherry and Joe Warsaw hired carpenter Mike Van Meer of Van-Walker Woodworking to replace the doors of their 1990s-era kitchen cabinets with more contemporary designs in a white oak veneer.
"The cabinets were in good shape except for their hinges and faded color. Buying all new cabinets would have cost us three times as much as the new doors," Sherry Warsaw says. "We also needed the changes to make room for a new wall oven and two dishwashers."
The retired couple spent about $11,000 for the woodworking.
Van Meer points out that replacing or refacing doors is easiest and most cost-effective for frameless cabinets, commonly called European-style, as those in the Warsaws' kitchen. The doors are sized so they fit over and conceal the edges of the cabinet box. "You can just replace the door and the hardware," says Van Meer.
More standard American cabinets feature a frame around the opening of the box that is used to secure the door to the cabinet. Because this frame is visible, it has to be refaced along with the door.
Don't have the money to replace or reface old cabinets? Van Meer recommends buying new door handles. "Little things like changing the hardware can give you a new look."


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A 17-year-old Novato boy was arraigned on felony DUI charges Friday for an alleged drunken wreck in his mother's car with five other San Marin High School students aboard.
The lanky defendant, dressed in orange jail clothes, appeared in court at Juvenile Hall while his mother and grandfather watched in the audience. The defendant is facing two DUI-related counts with injuries and a potential nine-year sentence, although juvenile cases have a wide range of penalty outcomes.
The teenager is also charged with an infraction for violating the terms of his provisional driver's license by driving with minor passengers and driving between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.
As the defendant kept his face lowered, Deputy Public Defender Beth Wissing-Healy denied the allegations on his behalf and asked Judge Terrence Boren to release him on home detention.
The teen's mother, sobbing, assured the judge that the family could provide adequate supervision.
"If (he's) allowed to come home, myself and my family will help make sure that he's watched and we'll do what we need to do," she said.
Authorities expressed skepticism. Probation official Janene Connor said the boy was already on diversion for an alcohol possession violation just a few months ago.
Prosecutor Ron Ravani said the suspect's preliminary alcohol reading was .096 percent — the legal driving limit for adults is .08 percent — more than an hour after the crash. The teen is also suspected of using marijuana before driving.
Ravani also noted that the teenager, by his own admission, was speeding through a residential neighborhood when he crashed early Tuesday morning.
"This was extremely dangerous conduct," Ravani said. "Innocent people in their homes were endangered."
Judge Boren said "it was more good luck than good planning" that the injuries were not worse. He ordered the boy detained, but granted the probation department the authority to decide whether to give him home detention.
Kevin Lynch, director of juvenile services for the Marin County Probation Department, said he could not comment on whether the teen will get home detention because juvenile cases are confidential.
The teenager returns to court next week for further proceedings.
The defendant, a senior at San Marin, was at the wheel of his mother's Mitsubishi Endeavor SUV when it crashed at 12:30 a.m. Tuesday in western Novato, police said.
The vehicle was traveling at 60 to 80 mph when it went through the T-intersection of Sutro Avenue at Vineyard Road, struck a fire hydrant and a tree, and went into a ditch, the California Highway Patrol reported.
The SUV was carrying two other boys and three girls, all 17-year-old San Marin students, the CHP said. A girl suffered a broken jaw and dislodged teeth, a boy suffered a head wound, and the others reported minor injuries.
Lorna Brindley, who lives two doors from the intersection, said she was working on her computer when she heard "a girl's high-pitched scream" followed by a loud impact. Brindley and other neighbors ran from their homes to see what happened and found dazed young people climbing up the bank.
"It was really scary," she said. "The water was shooting up. The car was down in the ditch. Half the people who went out there were like, 'Where's my kid?'"
She said the driver seemed "calm and collected" and admitted to driving the vehicle.
The CHP is still investigating where the students were drinking, whether parents were present and how the teens got the alcohol, said CHP Officer Eric Hohmeister.
Police thus far have not requested charges against the other teens in the car.
Contact Gary Klien via email at email@example.com


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Hi there,
I've have been asked by someone to do a directory website for them. I do quite a bit with Wordpress and Joomla but this is something new to me. I'm looking for a bit of guidance if you wouldn't mind pointing me in the right direction. I hope I'm not asking too much. Firstly I'll give you an overview of what is required for the website.
Basically, this site will be a business directory. Every business will be assigned to a category. The most important part of this site is that there will be a directory that is searchable by the users of the website. So if I log onto the site and go to the business directory I want to be able to search by category and alphabetically by business name. There should also be a search box.
As well as the directory the businesses should be able to register on the website in order to join the network. Once registered the user should be able to contribute to a blog on the site (and possible be able to amend their own listing). Also, I want to be able to protect some of the pages on the site from non members. So if a non member clicks on one of these pages then they are required to log in to be able to access the content.
So I'm more than likely going to use Wordpress as Joomla can be quite difficult to amend with regards to css, etc..
Should I start looking for plugins? Does anyone know of any good directory plugins that would give me what I require for the directory, so that I can search by category, etc? I presume each business would be it's own separate post and then that post would be assigned to a category?
Or should I go with something like DirectoryPress (www.directorypress.net)? Has anyone every heard of or used this company?
Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated. Cheers


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Enhanced Listing and Logo in the Exhibition Guide
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Ad in the Exhibition Guide
Advertise in the official publication of SIGGRAPH 2009. Delivered directly to the top buyers, the Exhibition Guide is the perfect vehicle to deliver your message at the Conference and for the long term.
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Ad in the Conference Locator
The Conference Locator is the wildly popular pocket program that all attendees refer to throughout SIGGRAPH 2009. It is widely distributed and includes conference information, daily schedules, maps of the local area, and exhibitor lists including booth numbers.
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Listen to some of the city's finest music, then download the entire album for $9.99. Proceeds from album sales go to support the Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp.
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A Senior Citizen Who is Madly in Love with the Bachelor and a Woman on Horseback
Mark the Beginning of Ben's Journey to Find His Soul Mate
This Season's Highlights Include Private Concerts by Platinum Recording Artist Matt Nathanson and Country Music Superstar Clay Walker, Romantic Trips to Puerto Rico, Panama and Belize, plus
A Spectacular Trip to Switzerland for Seductive Overnight Dates and the Emotional Finale
Millions of viewers were shocked, along with Ben Flajnik (pronounced Flannick), 29, the handsome winemaker from Sonoma, when, after summoning the courage to get down on one knee and offer his heartfelt proposal to Bachelorette Ashley Hebert, she rejected him, sending him off heartbroken and angry. But Ben isn't giving up. He is back as the Bachelor and ready to risk it all again for another chance at love. He begins the search for his soul mate, choosing from among 25 beautiful bachelorettes, when "The Bachelor" premieres MONDAY, JANUARY 2 (8:00-10:01 p.m., ET) , on the ABC Television Network. This will be the 16th season of ABC's hit romance reality series.
In "Episode 1601," Ben returns to the mansion for the first big cocktail party. He explains to Chris Harrison that, as painful as his experience was last season, he has no regrets. When Ben began his journey with Ashley, he was emotionally shut down due to his grief over his father's death. Ultimately, he was able to open himself up again to love. Because of that journey, he is a different man and ready to try and find love again.
As the limos pull up, Ben is overwhelmed by how excited these beautiful women are to meet him. An attractive young law student informs Ben that he's been found guilty - of being sexy! A germ-conscious epidemiologist sanitizes both herself and Ben, and then promptly steals the season's first kiss. But nothing can prepare Ben for the moment the limo door opens and a senior citizen steps out. Who is this mysterious septuagenarian, and why is she confessing that she is madly in love with him? And just when it seems he has seen it all, a horse trots up with the last bachelorette in the saddle.
Once inside the mansion, the competition for Ben's attention heats up. An easy-going woman and a sweet divorcee both make an early play for the Bachelor, while the sexy equestrian proves she is equally as charming without the horse. But Ben's older admirer advises him that he needs a family-oriented woman. The pressure mounts when Chris brings out the "first impression" rose, as one woman after another attempts to win Ben's heart and the rose. One athletic woman corners Ben for a quick soccer game; a sassy personal trainer demands he do pushups; a gorgeous model seduces him and a charming scholar demonstrates her "gangsta" side by performing a rap she wrote just for him. But drama erupts when the pressure proves to be too much for one sensitive young woman. Another outgoing bachelorette seems like she might be more interested in one of the other women than in Ben. Gossip flies and the conflict escalates, leaving one woman in uncontrollable tears.
After Ben awards one vivacious beauty the "first impression" rose, he thanks the bachelorettes for calming his nerves. He regretfully must send seven women home, leaving 18 to begin an extraordinary adventure with him.
A list of the bachelorettes will be released shortly.
Romantic and adventurous dates will reach new heights this season, testing the ladies' perseverance in pursuing their romantic objective, along with fun, exciting and exotic dates that will elicit real and raw passions. For the first group date, Ben and 12 of the women audition for and act in a theater production completely run by children. After showing the ladies his hometown of Sonoma, Ben brings the remaining women to his second home, beautiful San Francisco, where one nervous bachelorette struggles to overcome her worst fear when she and Ben scale San Francisco's Bay Bridge. And the daring Bachelor even invites some of the women to ski down the city's rolling streets. One lucky lady is taken on a VIP tour of Ben's San Francisco, which ends with a private romantic concert by platinum recording artist Matt Nathanson at historic City Hall. The pristine mountains of Park City, Utah, are the backdrop for a private concert with country music superstar Clay Walker. A competitive day of fly fishing in a quiet Utah valley forces the women out of their comfort zone. The remaining bachelorettes break out their sun tan lotion and bikinis when Ben whisks them away to tropical Vieques, Puerto Rico, where sparks fly when one sexy woman goes moonlight skinny-dipping with the Bachelor. An exciting trip to the Central American country of Panama leads to a boat ride deep into the Panamanian jungle, where Ben and a group of women spend the day with a local tribe. Then it's on to the lush tropical paradise of Belize. One nervous bachelorette jumps from a helicopter into Belize's famous Great Blue Hole. A fun-filled catamaran adventure turns to panic when the women discover they are going swimming with sharks. Finally, after spending passionate weeks in the hot tropics, Ben brings his final three women to Switzerland for a dramatic change of scenery for the exotic dates and the finale. Despite the storybook setting, Ben starts to question his decisions. Will he miss his chance for a happy ending again?
As in the past, women will continue to be eliminated each week, but if at any point along the way a woman should decide that she's no longer interested in the Bachelor, she can reject his invitation to continue dating. Some lucky women will meet his family, and he will visit their hometowns for a slice of their lives in an effort to determine the woman with whom he is most compatible.
Hosted by Chris Harrison, "The Bachelor" is a production of Next Entertainment in association with Warner Horizon Television. Mike Fleiss and Martin Hilton are the executive producers.
This episode of "The Bachelor" will be available on ABC.com the day after airing on the network for users to watch online. For more information on "The Bachelor" visit ABC.com.
"The Bachelor" is broadcast in 720 Progressive (720P), ABC's selected HDTV format, with stereo sound. A parental guideline will be assigned closer to the airdate.


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Alright, here's the situation: I have an Asus EeePC 901 netbook, which I use mostly for surfing the web, but also want to use for other things like playing games (Just basic games to keep me distracted when I'm on holiday away from my main PC) and what have you.
Right now I have Crunchbang Linux installed on the system, it's a nice lightweight distro, and there was an easy enough tutorial on how to set up the partitions specifically for my EeePC, using the 4GB partition to install the operating system itself, and the 16GB partition as the /home directory.
Now, here's where I run into issues: Whenever I install something through the package manager, it always installs into the partition where I installed the distro itself, rather than into the home directory. This means that comparatively massive 16GB of space isn't getting used, while the distro's partition is getting clogged up with my programs.
I'm probably missing something really obvious here, but how do I tell my package manager to install programs into the /home directory instead?


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NH Senate Roundup: Marijuana penalties to remain the same in Granite StateBy GARRY RAYNO
State House Bureau
April 17. 2014 10:34PM
CONCORD — Criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of marijuana will not change, after the Senate refused to consider a House-passed bill.
Under House Bill 1625, the penalty for having an ounce or less of marijuana or hashish would have been the same as a traffic ticket, and it would have lowered the penalties for growing less than six marijuana plants.
The bill passed the House by a better than two-to-one margin, but the Senate refused to accept the bill. It had killed a nearly identical bill last session.
House Bill 1625 was one of four bills the Senate refused to accept from the House because they were killed by senators last year.
Also killed was House Bill 1577, which would allow a process used in others states called "liquid cremation" that supporters say is more environmentally friendly and less expensive than traditional cremation. Opponents say it amounts to flushing a loved one down the toilet.
House Bill 1457, which would establish a study committee to review the state's sex offender registry, was rejected.
Also, House Bill 544 would have had the state expand Medicaid eligibility, but is not needed now that both the House and Senate approved and the governor signed Senate Bill 413, which establishes the state three-year program.
Budget surplus
The Senate killed House Bill 1411 that would have used $7 million of the $15 million from fiscal year 2013 to reduce across-the-board budget cuts at the Health and Human Services Department.
While the House voted to give the agency $7 million and put the remaining money into the rainy day fund, the Senate has continually insisted all the money go into the state savings account.
"The recent court ruling on the MET (Medicaid Enhancement Tax) alone should provide all the reason we need as to why the state must strengthen its reserve fund balance," said Senate Finance Committee Chair Jeanie Forrester, R-Meredith. "As stewards of the taxpayers' dollars, a vote to spend this modest surplus at a time of significant budgetary uncertainly is completely irresponsible."
The Senate killed the bill on a vote of 15-9. The House has yet to vote on Senate Bill 415, which puts the entire surplus into the rainy day fund.
The Senate approved House Bill 1125, which repeals the crime of adultery and sends the bill to the governor's desk.
Currently, adultery is misdemeanor, but has not been enforced for many years.
The bill would remove the penalty from the criminal code.
Earned time
The Senate passed a plan to allow the state corrections commissioner to grant "earned time credits" to prisoners who participate in educational and rehabilitation programs.
Under House Bill 649, a prisoner can receive a reduction of up to 60 days for vocational, mental health, or "Family Connections" programming.
Under the Senate version of the bill, the program would only be available to "least restricted inmates."
The bill has to go back to the House because of the Senate changes.
No license
Someone driving without a license will face a criminal charge under a bill approved by the Senate and sent to the governor.
House Bill 1135 would make it a misdemeanor instead of a violation for driving without a license. Currently, someone charged with driving after his or her license has been suspended or revoked is charged with misdemeanor, but if the person never had a license the charge is a violation, the same as a speeding ticket.
Last September, Darriean Hess, then 20, of Seabrook, crossed the center line of Route 1A on Neil R. Underwood Memorial Bridge in Hampton and hit four bicyclists from the tri-State Seacoast Century ride. Elise Bouchard, 52, of Danvers, Mass. and Pamela Wells, 60, of South Hamilton, Mass. were killed in the accident, and Uwe Uhmeyer, 60, of Essex, Mass. and Margo Heigh, 54, of Danvers, were injured.
Hess had been stopped several hours earlier that morning for driving without a license, but was given a summons and released.
Crime Business Energy Education Health General News Transportation


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Aspose.Cells is a Java component for spreadsheet reporting without using Microsoft Excel. Other features include creating spreadsheets, opening encrypted Excel files, macros, VBA, Unicode, formula settings, pivot tables, and importing data from JDBC ResultSet. CSV, SpreadsheetML, PDF, ODS, and all file formats from Excel 97 to Excel 2007 are supported. It supports all advanced features of data management, formatting, worksheet, charting, and graphics.
Aspose.Imaging for .NET is an image processing and manipulation component which allows developers to create, edit, draw, or convert images in their .NET application. It allows developers to convert image files to PSD, BMP, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and GIF formats. A set of pens, brushes, and fonts can be used to draw images or add new elements and text to existing images. Aspose.Imaging for .NET works well with both Web and Windows applications. It supports the Silverlight platform.
Aspose.Pdf is a .NET PDF component to write PDF documents without using Adobe Acrobat. It supports form field creation, document, text and page properties, color space, text, heading, and attachment settings. It lets you create PDF documents by using its API with XML templates and XSL-FO files. It also converts HTML, XSL-FO, and MS Word to PDF. Other features include image formats and security features, hyperlinks, the ability to add footnotes, automatic fitting to content in a table, decimal Tab stops, HTML tags, and keeping paragraphs together when breaking pages.
Aspose.Words is a word processing component that makes it possible for .NET applications to read, write, and modify Word documents without using Microsoft Word. Other useful features include document creation, content and formatting manipulation, mail merge abilities, reporting features, and support for DOCX, DOC, WordprocessingML, HTML, XHTML, TXT, and PDF formats (requires Aspose.Pdf). It supports both 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems.
Aspose.Email for .NET is a set of components allowing developers to easily implement email functionality within their ASP.NET Web applications, Web services, and Windows applications. It supports the Outlook PST, EML, MSG, and MHT formats. It allows developers to work with SMTP, POP, FTP, and MS Exchange servers. It supports mail merge, iCalendar, customized header and body, header information, embedded files, Twitter, and much more. It makes it easy to work with HTML or plain text email messages and their attachments.
Aspose.Pdf for Reporting Services makes it possible to generate PDF reports from Microsoft SQL Server 2000 & 2005 Reporting Services. It supports advanced features like adding PDF bookmarks, using HTML tags, XMP metadata, custom embedded fonts, and rendering watermarks for pages. It can also convert all RDL report features including sections, images, charts, tables, matrices, headers, and footers to PDF. It also enables you to create PDF documents on the server without using Adobe PDF Library SDK.
Aspose.Diagram is a class library for working with MS Visio files. It is a pure .NET alternative for MS Visio Object Model. It enables developers to work with VSD and VDX files on ASP.NET Web applications, Web services, and desktop applications. It makes use of the advanced functionality of Visio's services to manipulate Visio documents on a server. A developer can open files and manipulate the elements of the diagram, from lines and fills to more complex elements, and then export to native Visio formats or XML.
Aspose.Cells for Reporting Services allows you to export native Excel reports in Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services. Unlike the built-in renderer for Excel based reports, Aspose.Cells for Reporting Services provides an extended feature set and allows RDL reports to be converted to: Excel 97-2003 binary XLS format, SpreadsheetML, or the Excel2007 XLSX format. With the Aspose.Cells Report Designer tool, users can design and deliver reports into MS Excel directly without using Visual Studio IDE.
Aspose.Slides is a .NET component to read, write, and modify a PowerPoint document without using MS PowerPoint. It supports files from PowerPoint versions from 97-2007 and all three PowerPoint formats: PPT, POT, and PPS. It lets you create, access, copy, clone, edit, and delete slides in your presentations. It can save PowerPoint slides into PDF format and also save presentations in SVG format, Streams or Images.
A cloud storage toolkit.
A Web server log analyzer and interactive viewer.