text:
It's not lying, it's marketing and/or sales.
Agreed. I've read a lot of product white papers, and they manage to say what sounds like a whole lot, but when you read it, you find out it isn't actually saying anything much really. That doesn't account for the incorrect estimates though.
Institutions and companies as well for that matter, REALLY need to learn how to; read contracts and agreements, formulate needs and demands (preferably with help of a third party) and not to trust the seller of a product or service.
How hard can it really be? REALLY!? (If you really wanted and devoted resources to it, that is)
If you had bothered to read the source article it sounds like the University did just that. Their documentation appears solid as to failures, they had a pretty extensive list of requirements, they used real-life use cases tests for bidding companies to demo against, they documented ALL interaction with Oracle, and it looks like this was a FFP contract that Oracle may have simply underestimated. It's interesting that Oracle stated they had a similar project ongoing for another school that was going well - with FOUR times the resources being applied than this university had available but that this fact wasn't revealed to them. Oracle supposedly demonstrated an applicant management process during their demos and apparently represented this as part of their base capability - then at implementation revealed that it was 3rd party code or libraries that would have to be purchased. Gee, no vendor would ever do that right?
What it will be to a court to decide is if the issues that were run into were as a result of the university or Oracle but the university certainly seems to have documented their case well. Your conclusion that they somehow simply believed and trusted Oracle on this doesn't appear to match up with the source article - perhaps you didn't bother to read it and simply read the sparse
perhaps you didn't bother to read it and simply read the sparse
Perhaps you forgot where you were?
they documented ALL interaction with Oracle
With a bigger multimillion dollar budget to have document drones documenting everything? I'm not saying Oracle is in the right here, but I believe the article said they initially made a spec with 3200 items, which apparently became a moving target. Perhaps the school should have contemplated a bit more before biting into a massive ERP cookie provided by Oracle. Caveat Emptor.
I'm not saying Oracle is in the right here, but I believe the article said they initially made a spec with 3200 items, which apparently became a moving target.
True that the article said they made a spec with 3200 items, but the article doesn't say that spec became a moving target. MSU wasn't changing their requirements (at least, TFA doesn't say that).
It seems to suggest that the demo Oracle presented which showed that it could meet "95 percent of MSU's business requirements" out of the box:
Before it won the bid, Oracle also conducted live demonstrations of its software that used test scripts prepared by the university. One demonstration involved "a robust on-line application process for Undergraduate and Graduate Admissions
... that it falsely represented was an existing part of the base system and satisfied the University's requirements," the complaint states.
But in fact, "Oracle's ultimate implementation plan was to sell the University a third-party product called 'Embark' to satisfy those requirements, suggesting the initial 'live' demonstration was rigged," it adds. A "substantial" amount of customization was needed in the end, according to the complaint.
I've seen demos in which the vendor is claiming that the software already does the things you need it to, only to find out that what we actually got shown was an add-on component we'd have to buy, as well as a large amount of customization we'd be expected to pay for. In other words, the demo was pure bullshit, and we called them on it. It also means that the estimate they provided didn't actually include the functionality you said was mandatory
It's like being shown a car, only to find out that it doesn't really come with an engine, the transmission hasn't been done yet, and if you try to use the wipers something will catch fire.
Not saying Oracle did all of this here
Which is why it's important to maintain a relationship with a known honest vendor. It's not just to support that vendor per se, but also to minimize the risk involved in consulting a different vendor for future projects.
It's not surprising that people get away with these things. Management is usually not competent when it comes to discerning the BS from the truth at such a low level. They're typically too removed from the technologies involved, and too concerned with other things such as budgets and service agreements. And many people don't realize that a software demonstration is not necessarily indicative of the cabilities of the core product, but of the potential of the core product. Ensuring that the potential featured becomes a capability is a part of the contract negotiation process.
That's why it's important to have actual senior developers, or low-level managers, involved in the process. People who work with software will be able to tell what the software can conceivably do, and what it cannot do, especially within a given timeframe.
Not that I'm saying MSU is in the wrong here. But the lack of general expertise in the area makes them susceptible to such fraudulant practices. It's like walking around with your purse hanging in the back and the zipper open, with the wallet on top.
Not that I'm saying MSU is in the wrong here. But the lack of general expertise in the area makes them susceptible to such fraudulant practices
I will be curious to see how this plays out
If Oracle really did lie to them and try to play a shell game whereby they expected the university to pay extra for functionality they were promised was already there
As I've said elsewhere in this thread, I once worked with one a project with some Oracle software which didn't do half of what they claimed it did. I certainly believe the university was sold a bill of goods, only to have Oracle turn around and say "well, it doesn't really do that, this part is an add on you have to buy, and we really have no idea how to do this part, but if you wait for the next revision we're sure we can figure it out".
Sadly, I've seen software sold with half truths and bald-faced lies before. Why it hasn't led more of them into court, I will never understand.
Heaven or Hell - that was the demo [interstel.net].
That's why you have lawyers on retainer to hand these to for review before signing anything. They either hand it back to you and say "looks good" or they tear it up and toss it in their bin and say "we need to talk".
Any decent lawyer can spot BS in a contract. Longer contracts just take longer to examine, they don't add a lot of risk of missing something if the lawyer is any good.
I think it's safe to assume that a university has and uses intelligent lawyers and that they have a case. But time will tell.
It is way less about spotting BS in a contract, than it is about two other things:
(a) anticipating eventual outcomes. Sometimes you need to hire multiple experts just to anticipate all the crap that can go wrong, so that you can provide for it in the contract; and
(b) getting the client to a point where the client will walk away if it doesn't get what it wants. Sometimes clients get seduced by particular vendors and it is very hard to explain in non-legalese how the contract could end up leaving them high
It's not lying, it's marketing and/or sales.
Right. Just like how the universities tell everyone how much better their lives will be, if we all just go $60,000 in debt and sign up for classes.
I find it ironic that the institutions that aggressively market themselves, seem to be highly susceptible to the marketing of like institutions.
That said, if Oracle did indeed promise, under contract, to complete project X for Y amount of money, and it's not complete, then good for Montclair. Get the funds back, or make Oracle finish the job. Otherwise, it'll be the students or the taxpayers paying for it, at some point, after the risk transfer process trickles down.
A four-year degree at an in-state school should not cost more than $15-20,000 including fees. If you went $60k into debt for school, consider that a $40-45k math lesson. Teach your kids that one at home so they don't have to pay for it again.
A four-year degree at an in-state school should not cost more than $15-20,000 including fees. If you went $60k into debt for school, consider that a $40-45k math lesson. Teach your kids that one at home so they don't have to pay for it again.
Bingo. My sister went to a private university (local) all the way to grad school for a STEM degree, and she piled no more than $45K (again, in a private school.) I went to grad school in a in-state university, and my total debt was about $25K. My other sisters went also to in-state schools (biomed, fine-arts, PT) and none racked that much of debt either. The only person I know that justifiably had like $60K in debt was this guy who went to grad school in PT with a lot of specialized training. Medical and law students would be the other camp in which I could see a justification for such an amount of student loan debt.
OTH, people getting into $60K for a degree in History or Social Science is just absolutely retarded. I could understand that debt in those degrees if the student 1) goes to a private Ivy League school, and 2) go all the way for a Ph.D. But for a B.A in those fields?
I mean seriously, I see these shows and interviews with people being burdened with $60K, $80K even $100K and not having a job or a job that pays well to get rid of that debt, and when they get asked what degree they have, we don't hear STEM or law or medicine, we don't hear post-grad education. We hear 4-year degrees in History or Social Sciences. WTF? WTF? WTF??????
Yeah, universities keep racking up the cost of education, but let's not delude ourselves into blaming these institutions when people rack up student loans on 4-year degrees with no market value. There is a difference between a freshman entering school and not knowing what to study, and that same person cruising around for the next 4 years without ever thinking "shit, how is my education going to get me a job with which to repay by debt?" Living life in cruise control is a stupid and costly way of doing things.
Medical and law students would be the other camp in which I could see a justification for such an amount of student loan debt.
Law school is not worth it. Many recent law graduates are regretting their decision (and their debt) because the legal market dove just as much if not more than the housing market. There aren't jobs. If you want to have >$100,00 of loan debt and work as an insurance agent, go to law school.
In summary, if you are thinking about law school, RUN! RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN!!! If you are in your first year of law school, and you aren't in a top 10 institution or in the top 10% of your class, cut your losses and RUN! RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN!!! Student debt can't be discharged in bankruptcy! You will be SCREWED if you stay in!!!!
Just got your law degree, huh?
Yes because an 18 year old out of high school understands all that you just said and not that college = high paying job. I'll get off your lawn now...
OTH, people getting into $60K for a degree in History or Social Science is just absolutely retarded. I could understand that debt in those degrees if the student 1) goes to a private Ivy League school, and 2) go all the way for a Ph.D. But for a B.A in those fields?
Both of your points are misguided.
1) Ivy League schools are the best in the country for avoiding debt. The Ivies I know stopped including student loans as part of financial aid. They replaced them with grants. Furthermore, comparing the financial aid offered by an Ivy to the same package offered to the same student at a non-Ivy private school, the Ivies tend to be much more generous. I went to an Ivy before they eliminated student loans, but even then they had a max loan amount of about $20k for 4 years.
2) PhD programs, even in history and other social sciences, don't involve debt. The department pays the student, not the other way around.
A student who goes to an Ivy League school for a history degree and then gets a PhD in the field will have no education-related debt whatsoever.
I guess it depends on what we're including in the cost. I went to Illinois State in the early 2000s, an in-state school and not a top-end one. All told it cost me in the area of $10,000 a year, which included the tuition and the various fees, and housing. Looking at the webpage for the current rates*, it looks like about $18,500 for tuition + board (I'm honestly shocked, wow). The breakdown is about $10k tuition + $8k housing.
Obviously if you take housing out, that fee would drop substantially -- but that is a limited opportunity for people who happen to go to a school close enough to commute to. Otherwise the choice is living in an apartment nearby and you're just shifting the housing cost into somebody else's pocket; it's still an expense of attending school.
By comparison, looking at the University of Illinois website right now (which is a good school) tuition/fees run $13,658 for residents, which does not include housing. For a room you share with somebody else and a meal plan, tack on another $9,714 a year for a total of $23,372. Per year.
None of these numbers include books or doing anything other than marching from class to class and back to your dorm with an occasional stop to eat (not that I advocate putting anything else into your debt), by the way. So they are all I'd say around $1,000 a year low for books alone. (And incidentally the stat I was given when I started college was that only something like 20% of students would actually complete their degree in four years.)
I'm sure that location affects things somewhat (Illinois is not a cheap state and I'm sure something like South Dakota would be cheaper), but perhaps the disconnect hinges on "debt." I think it's pretty easily demonstrable that the cost of these educations can very easily reach and exceed $60,000 over a four-year period without going to Harvard or Yale or any such. Whether or not you go into that much debt depends on a lot of things, chief among them whether or not you are also working while you attend college and how much, how much various financial aid you manage to accrue, and of course if you spend a lot of time going out and partying or anything that like that eats into your money and prompts you to let more of the other monies come from debt instead of income.
I'm perfectly willing to assume that prices may be a lot cheaper elsewhere, but unless you attend Bumblefuck Egypt School of Whatever as an in-state student living at home, or are trying to compare the costs of a 1970 education to todays (just look at the comparison from early 2000s to now!), I have an extremely hard time believing something like 15-20k for an entire four year degree is within the realm of feasibility. If you're paying nothing but tuition, yeah, maybe.
There is a difference between a freshman entering school and not knowing what to study, and that same person cruising around for the next 4 years without ever thinking "shit, how is my education going to get me a job with which to repay by debt?"
I don't disagree, but at the same time most colleges are just fucking terrible at teaching you skills needed to get and do well in a job; their reward primarily is the piece of paper at the end and possibly some connections you make in the interim, not what you are actually taught. When this is brought up to people we tend to be told that university isn't job training, it's about getting an education, and that people who want that should go attend a vocational school. There is a disconnect there. People should go tens of thousands into debt to "upgrade" to a four-year degree that doesn't teach them things they're going to use in their job, but still need to make sure they choose a degree that is going to get them a job? It's not logically impossible, but it is clear evidence of a problem (that universities are happy to exploit).
* Here's a good one, and a great example of another problem. I used their "cost estimator" and told them I
Tuition and fees? In 2011-12, public four-year colleges charge, on average, $8,244 in tuition and fees for in-state students. Per year
Books? which at four-year public colleges in 2011-12 is $1,168 per year
You mean you have to LIVE too? The national average in 2011-12 for four-year public college students who live on campus is $2,066 (off campus $1,082) These are expenses that a college student has to pay that a non-student doesn't. Per year
Average cost of a four-year degree at an in-state school for someone living off-campus?
(8244+1168+1082)*4 = $41,976
Did you skip the math classes?
Citation: http://www.collegeboard.com/student/pay/add-it-up/4494.html
I'd like to know in what year you managed to complete four years of college for 15 to 20 thousand dollars. That much money wouldn't have paid for basic tuition in several decades. And, that's assuming that your mom and dad lived so close to the university that you could live at home and commute.
http://web.saumag.edu/international/tuition-scholarships/cost/ [saumag.edu]
At SAU, which is your typical "in-state school", 4 years of education is going to cost about $60k. That doesn't include books, of course, or snacks, or any damned thing, except the tuition. Projects, supplies, transportation, a night out once in awhile, toothpaste and soap are all additional.
Maybe you're referring to a vocational / agricultural education, in a local community college? Yeah, you can get by for a whole lot less,
Dont know where you get your numbers from.
USA Today: In 2009-10, average published tuition and fees for in-state students at public flagship universities in the U.S. are $8,353, compared to $7,797 at all public doctorate-granting universities and $7,020 at all public four-year institutions:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-10-20-college-costs_N.htm [usatoday.com]
Annual in-state commuter student tuition at state schools in my area
Delaware - about 11,500. http://www.udel.edu/admissions/finance/ [udel.edu]
NJ Rutgers - $12,755
I find it ironic that the institutions that aggressively market themselves, seem to be highly susceptible to the marketing of like institutions.
My theory there is that they believe the shit they are feeding customers. Since in their minds they aren't lying, they don't think other companies are either.
I would like to know a little more about how the project developed before forming an opinion.
My experience with public organizations is that higher-ups in the administration are all for it ready to take merit, until they realize how much work it does take. They organize a functional group including only the bosses, who happen to(*):
Predictable response from Slashdot:
"Stupid sales/marketing drones. It's Oracle, of course. They should've asked technical support, then they'd get the real answer. These things always take five times as much money as the salesman says."
In January 2012 there will be a story on some major project with high visibility that is suffering cost overruns. Slashdot will respond.
"How can it take so long? That's what you get for hiring Lockheed (or whomever). Here's the solution, it'd take three weeks and cost a tenth
But is it a predictable response because it true?
So you agree that the mostly technical Slashdot community consistently points out the ineptitudes of non-technical managers?
It's not lying, it's marketing and/or sales.
It's voiding a contract.
Happens all the time. Not only one IT projects. This is where you need to write into the contract the clause - "failure to meet agreed upon time and goals will be paid for by the contractor to completion"
Going over budget on public sector contracts has at least a century of tradition behind it.
I thought the way this was managed these days was with contractual incentives.
The seller wants $100 dollars for a project. The buyer wants to pay $50 dollars for the project.
Normally, the buyer and the seller would negotiate some price, say $75, with generally no timing.
Now what seems common is that the buyer negotiates to pay $75 with completion guaranteed on some date. The buyer also negotiates incentives and penalties -- if the project is done earlier, there's some extra money for early completion, and for every N units of time the project is late, the buy deducts money.
The early completion bonus is capped to mitigate sloppy work as well as to keep the agreed completion date realistic, and the project actually has to function right, with the bonus sacrificed for problems that crop up.
They do this with highway projects -- I lived blocks from a billion dollar freeway project and it was amazing to see it done about a month early -- the vendor got a bonus.
Seriously... what did they expect?
People and organizations have to learn the hard way... on an individual basis. Oracle is everywhere and is quite visible. People who don't understand make some presumptions and follow the "nobody ever got fired for buying...[usually Microsoft, but in this case Oracle]" notion and try to make the safest decision possible.
My first knowledge of Oracle's personality came to me when I learned they price their software based on the performance of the hardware you are running it on. So the more expensive the hardware you run, the more expensive Oracle's software becomes. Something strikes me as terribly wrong with that model. (And yes, I know other vendors do this too... still strikes me as wrong. If you want to upgrade your hardware, suddenly you are in violation of your software license?) Once I learned they were willing to exploit [tax?] people and businesses who are able to spend more or require better, I learned all I needed to know about Oracle and their mindset. They don't price and value their product on their own merits, but on the merits of who, how and where it is to be used. If McDonald's operated this way, the results would be interesting wouldn't they.
You should have seen Oracle's pricing in the mid-late 1990s. I always feel like comparatively they are giving it away.
They don't price and value their product on their own merits, but on the merits of who, how and where it is to be used. If McDonald's operated this way, the results would be interesting wouldn't they.
No, you are confused. Noboby in their right mind prices their products based on their own merits. You price your products based on what the market will bear and pocket the profit. Economics 101.
They don't price and value their product on their own merits, but on the merits of who, how and where it is to be used. If McDonald's operated this way, the results would be interesting wouldn't they.
No, you are confused. Noboby in their right mind prices their products based on their own merits. You price your products based on what the market will bear and pocket the profit. Economics 101.
A little history for you first.
The Quakers in the 1800s developed a reputation for fair dealing. They did a couple things in their business transactions that were unusual, and widely regarded as equitable -- 1) they set a price and that was the price, no haggling or shystering; and 2) that price was based on a reasoned estimate of the value of the time and materials that went into the product or service being sold. They made a living in their fair dealings, and did well by themselves. This is a large part of the reason that "Quaker" became a favorable brand image in the US, such as Quaker State Oil, or Quaker Oats, complete with a smiling picture of a man in Quaker clothing as part of the label.
There's a difference between making a living, and making a killing. US-style business anymore seems much more about killing, and as we're discovering with the state of the economy these days, it's awful hard to make a living this way. Many others have described how mass greed ultimately destroys value, and consistent overpricing to ensure profit -- not just to cover costs and a bit extra for room to grow, but instead deliberate excess as part of the dream of getting something for nothing -- is sucking the value out of everything around us. It's wholly unsustainable.
But it seems that's taught in the higher-level classes, not at the 101 level. I'm guessing many of the movers and shakers in the US economy never got that far in their studies.
PeopleSoft (before Oracle bought them) had an even more draconian pricing model. It was based on total gross revenues. They even require specific documentation and audits of your income. This sounds so much like an organized crime racket I'm stunned they got so large doing it.
"Okay, so how much with this great ERP system cost."
"That depends. How much do you make?"
Microsoft currently charges about $10,000 per processor for SQL Server. They've had this pricing model for over a decade and still companies shell out the cash. Always amazes me.
What did Montclair expect? Let's see: Legally binding contract. Contract not met. Customer sues for breach of contract.
Seems to me that Montclair has the upper hand here. It all falls on the conditions of the contract.
We are running a SAM project here (software asset management) and Oracle is one of our biggest offenders. They have the most weird, complex, and obnoxious licensing terms in their contracts, but the problem is we USE IT A LOT. I'd happily suggest people to swap off, but since I'm far from a DBA my word carries no weight, and even if it did, there's a lot of politics in play that keep it planted firmly.
I am hoping that after the discovery of this project and seeing how much money we piss away on Oracle (needlessly), that people's eyes will open. This behavior really is just much of the same from this company.
The code has nothing to do with it. Right now Oracle could send its entire codebase to the university yet it would not serve them (they would have to hire people, train them, and do the project)
That said, having been in a lot of projects in public administration, I agree that involment is the key. A lots of higher-ups feel themselves "safe" and think that they have all the time of the world to make up his mind about what they want (and even better, many of them think that they know the entire university and
Pray you do not anger Him further.
Ellison will rock up to court, invite the judge and jury to party hard on one of his many yachts and justice will be serviced.
Any company/university who believes the sales guys, without doing their own evaluation of the software, deserves to waste millions and millions to implement the software. In my 15 years I've seen this happen more often then not. Ya, it sucks, but let the technical people choose products and negotiate with the vendor instead of the management and lawyers talking to sales guys. You end up with parties that don't really understand the software (sales guys) talking to the upper management and lawyers who have no concept of the work it's going to take to implement. Doomed to fail. Every time.
This isn't just the sales guys, even from TFS, this is an initial contract that had to have been breached by at least one party, and Oracle is now requiring millions of dollars to fix the issue caused by the breach. The university is claiming the breach was by Oracle, and therefore the university should not have to pay.
Yep. I wonder how many actual programmers were consulted over Oracles numbers for "the amount of customization that would be required, and the amount of 'time, resources, and personnel that the University would have to devote".
A simple "Do these numbers seem reasonable?" might have saved them this embarrassment.
(Assuming they listen to the answer)
You're an idiot.
"without doing their own evaluation of the software,"
they did that.
", deserves to waste millions and millions to implement the software"
no one deserves to be taken advantage of.
" In my 15 years I've seen this happen more often then not."
N00b. Did you sue?
" but let the technical people choose products and negotiate with the vendor instead of the management and lawyers talking to sales guys.
yes, because IT is just FANTASTIC at getting deal and dealing with contracts~
"You end up with parties t
Of course, we're only hearing 1 side of this. I can easily imagine how this could come to be:
Oracle gives a quote that requires the University do things Oracle's way, on Oracle's timeline. University doesn't. Oracle then quotes a price to fix all the University's mistakes.
I can't for a minute imagine that Oracle wrote a contract for a fixed price that didn't outline exactly what the duties of each side were, and exactly what was covered.
However, I also can't imagine a University engaging in frivolous lawsuits.
It should be interesting to see what the facts are, and how this plays out.
Having gone to college and seeing how bad they tend to screw things up, I could easily see this being the case. Of course, I went to a state school where you get the double whammy of crappy administration PLUS crappy government requirements. Because microbiology and astronomy totally helped my network admin degree.
Because microbiology and astronomy totally helped my network admin degree.Because microbiology and astronomy totally helped my network admin degree.
If you wanted a vocational degree, you should have gone to a vo-tech school
Half credit. You can learn microbiology and astronomy at no cost to yourself. Also, you can learn IT without having to go to a vo-tech school (I myself dropped out of high school to do IT, and haven't made below $100K/yr for 10 of my 12 working years.
If anything, vocational schools are more valuable, as you're going to be paid more to do a job that can't be outsourced (HVAC, electrician, plumbing, mechanic) vs a job you'd get with a four year degree that can be outsourced to $new_lowest_wage_english_speakin
Hate to break the news for you, but university is the new vocational school.
Of course, we're only hearing 1 side of this. I can easily imagine how this could come to be:
Oracle gives a quote that requires the University do things Oracle's way, on Oracle's timeline. University doesn't. Oracle then quotes a price to fix all the University's mistakes.
I can't for a minute imagine that Oracle wrote a contract for a fixed price that didn't outline exactly what the duties of each side were, and exactly what was covered.
However, I also can't imagine a University engaging in frivolous lawsuits.
It should be interesting to see what the facts are, and how this plays out.
Nail on the head. It worth noting that ERP projects are extremely difficult to implement and involve basically ripping up the whole entire infrastructure of an organisation and starting again. As well as being very costly and take years to get up and running. Half the time they aren't even worth the hit you take getting it up and running. When everything goes smooth and actually works, it's fantastic your organisation can make strategic decisions quickly and effectively, data becomes transparent across the organisation and systems become integrated. The problem is, this sort of situation that the university is now, is far to common.
Pracle sells a product that is "capable" of anything the buyer wants. The trick is, it costs more money to make that capability into a functionality. They sell software and customization, with the base software nearly incapable of doing anything. And they try to avoid trining your people on how to customize it, they want to charge for it if possible. This is how Oracle and SAP and any other large services provider really makes their "software" money.
I sell you a copy of the
dunno, tfa has this from oracle: ""When issues arose during the course of the project, it became clear that MSU's leadership did not adequately understand the technology and the steps necessary to complete the project," it stated. "Instead of cooperating with Oracle and resolving issues through discussions and collaboration, MSU's project leadership, motivated by their own agenda and fearful of being blamed for delays, escalated manageable differences into major disputes.""
after that there's stuff like orac
There are probably three sides...Oracle, the nitwits who bought the system, and the administrators who are pissed at both of them.
I can imagine Oracle screwed this up. If you have ever heard the asinine things that they require you to do, but remain willfully undocumented because they make no sense, it would not appear surprising.
"Instead of cooperating with Oracle and resolving issues through discussions and collaboration, MSU's project leadership, motivated by their own agenda and fearful of being blamed for delays, escalated manageable differences into major disputes."
This certainly reads like code for "We promised more than we could deliver. Instead of giving us more money as we demanded, the university decided to try to force us to deliver on our promises."
Isn't this standard for their Peoplesoft product? We went through hell with it where I work years ago. Cost around 20 million more than it should have.
I worked on a project several years ago involving some collaborative software from Oracle.
The software was not mature enough to be out of beta, definitely not mature enough to be sold to customers, and in the end required vast amounts of resources over and above what we were told it would.
In effect, they were selling snake oil, and they knew it. And, they wanted more money to deliver.
Not saying this is in any way similar to what is happening at this university, but I know first hand Oracle isn't above selling you a product they haven't finished writing yet. In fact, I think it's part of their business model.
As one of the guys responsible for delivering on salesweasels' promises, I fully support customers being given a realistic appraisal of the time, effort and cost required to get them up and running.
As one of the guys responsible for delivering on salesweasels' promises,
It's ok, you're allowed to say "Engineer" here. You're amongst friends.
Problem is, unless all your competitors are doing that, you'll stop winning any business and rapidly be out of a job...
Procurement processes, particularly public sector, are all biased towards lowest cost rather than honesty of cost, and box-ticking over real due dilligence, because it's more objective that way. Everyone (unless they are allready bust, or have so much business they can pick and choose - and then have hte nightmare of trying to resource it...) trys to get the deal by under quoting the base
Anyone who has worked either side in this type of project can tell you this (what Oracle is accused of) is standard operating procedure, not just for Oracle. The steps are usually:
a) Agree to virtually anything. The intent is to get the contract. A practical schedule is actually a disadvantage, as we will see later. Don't worry too much about non-delivery clauses, they will never apply.
b) Continue development until time runs out. Developers will be oddly calm as deadline approaches for reasons that will become clear later.
(The objective here is to show competency, but with no serious intention of fulfilling the contract.)
c) Miss the deadline.
d) Allow hysteria to accumulate. Blame missed deadline on unrealistic scope and/or feature creep. Encourage panic.
e) Present new proposal at higher price and tough out the fireworks. ("Go ahead and sue. We have more lawyers than you have employees.")
f) $$ Profit!
This works (usually) because the end product is often a critical replacement or enhancement to an integral part of the customer's business (eg, Billing, Customer Service) and the customer will look for the shortest path to being able to do business.
It's common for the abused customer to threaten lawsuits, exceedingly rare for them to follow through. Kudos to Montclair for having the guts to go against a major corporation. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.
Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it is too dark to read.


text:
Newcastle boss Alan Pardew hopes Papiss Cisse's fluke winner against West Brom at St James' Park can help kickstart the front man's Barclays Premier League season into life.
Cisse has failed to recreate last season's scoring exploits with just two League Cup and Europa League goals to his credit before he deflected Sammy Ameobi's shot past Ben Foster to open his league account for the new campaign.
Pardew said: "It's sometimes very difficult with strikers because Papiss has looked exactly the same in training and he certainly doesn't look short of confidence. He has been smashing them in from everywhere. But sometimes you have these runs where you don't get a goal, and that goal today will do him the world of good."
Copyright (c) PA Sport 2012, All Rights Reserved.
Do YOU want to write for GiveMeSport? Get started today by signing-up and submitting an article HERE: https://www.givemesport.com/writeforgms

subset: commoncrawl


text:
May Contain Spoilers
I read Neighbors while I was having my new furnace installed. I needed something quick to distract me from barking dogs and all of the clanging, banging, and other mysterious noises emanating from the basement. I find it extremely distracting to have complete strangers in my house, tearing things apart and then miraculously putting things back together. So did the dogs. Do they really know what they are doing down there?
Rena Woods is late for a meeting when CJ Riker blocks her car with his moving van. Rena can't help but find the surly Riker attractive; too bad he has a chip the size of a semi on his shoulder. This couple definitely gets off on the worst foot possible. Riker seems to take pleasure jerking her chain, and Rena can't help but respond in the most negative ways possible. She wonders why he is so nice to everyone else and so mean to her, and she wonders how he lost his leg. After receiving a death glare when she's caught staring at his prosthesis, she knows better than to ask.
This is a nice little story. At about 60 pages, the romance develops slowly, but very believably. Rena and Riker go from being enemies to reluctant friends, to jogging buddies. I enjoyed watching as their friendship blossomed because they had a lot of issues to work through first. Neither of them has much trust when it comes to romantic partners, and neither is looking for a long-term relationship. Before they realize what's happened, though, their friendship has strengthened and they are wondering if there might be more there-if they are willing to fight for it. Rena has to work especially hard at gaining Riker's trust. Since his injury, he doesn't look kindly on pity, and he's always afraid that's the first emotion he's going to gain from a new acquaintance.
Rena is struggling to get her interior design firm on the map, and I enjoyed reading about her trials with her clients. I liked her POV, and would have liked spending more time with both Riker and Rena. Maybe we can visit with them again when Josh gets to star in his own romance(fingers crossed). Because of the short length, there isn't a lot of time to analyze Riker and Rena's relationship. This makes the story less complicated than a longer work, but it didn't detract from my reading experience at all. All of the pieces to Rena and Riker's relationship fall smoothly together, after their rough start, and I liked that.
Final verdict? Neighbors worked successfully to keep me preoccupied, and prevented me from wondering why the furnace installers were making so much noise in the basement.
Grade: B
Review copy provided by publisher
From Amazon:
Rena Woods has a great life. She recently landed the contract to decorate the home of basketball wife, Cecilia Hood, her business is growing, and this contract could make her the elite decorator in St. Louis. Rena's sacrificed her personal life for her company without a single regret. When Staff Sergeant C.J. Riker moves in across the hall, Rena can't stand to be around him. He may be on the volcanic side of hot, but his attitude sucks. Riker does whatever he can to get under Rena's skin.
After a massive blow to her business sends Rena on a self-destructive binge, Riker is there to save her from doing something she might regret. Could there be more to Riker than meets the eye? And will he open up enough to Rena to tell her how he lost his leg or shut out love forever?


text:
Western blot using Rockland's anti-Mouse GM-CSF antibody shows detection of a band ~14 kDa in size corresponding to recombinant mouse GM-CSF (lane 1). Molecular weight markers are also shown (M). After transfer, the membrane was blocked overnight with 3% BSA in TBS followed by reaction with primary antibody at a 1:1,000 dilution. Detection occurred using DyLight™649 conjugated anti-Rabbit IgG (p/n 611-143-122) secondary antibody diluted 1:20,000 in blocking buffer (p/n MB-070). Image was captured using VersaDoc MP 4000 imaging system (Bio-Rad).
Rockland Immunochemicals Inc.Limerick, PA 19468E-mail: email@example.com: 800.656.7625
Fax: 484.369.8654


text:
I18N Messages and Loggingby John Mazzitelli
For many a software developer, the mere mention of a requirement to support internationalization (aka i18n) is sure to elicit groans. Writing code that is targeted towards an international audience does require some forethought, because it is not something very easily introduced into an existing piece of software. If you feel there is even a small possibility that you will need your software to support different locales and languages, it is always more prudent to internationalize your project at the start, rather than attempting to retrofit i18n into it after it has begun.
That said, what does "internationalizing" mean? It is more than just providing translations of your user interface messages into different languages. It involves dealing with different character encodings, localizing date, time, and currency formats, and other things that differ across multiple regions around the world.
While this article will not attempt to discuss all the facets of internationalization, it will cover how to more easily perform some of the tasks necessary to introduce i18n functionality by examining a new open source project called I18N Messages and Logging, or
i18nlog for short.
i18nlog allows you to incorporate internationalized messages into your Java applications by providing an API to:
- Annotate Java classes to identify your i18n messages.
- Obtain i18n messages from resource bundles in any supported locale.
- Create localized exceptions whose messages are internationalized.
- Log i18n messages using any logging framework.
- Automatically generate resource bundles in any supported locale.
- Automatically generate help/reference documentation.
Defining i18n Messages
One of the more tedious tasks involved when internationalizing your software is maintaining resource bundles. Resource bundles are properties files that contain "name=value" pairs where "name" is the resource bundle key string and "value" is the localized message string itself. It is customary to store messages in resource bundles such that there is one resource bundle per language and each bundle has an identical set of keys with their associated messages each translated into their locale's language. The name of the resource bundle file dictates which locale it is for; for example, mybundle_en.properties denotes the messages in that file are written in English, where mybundle_de.properties contain German messages.
i18nlog provides annotations to define your resource bundle messages and their key strings--used in conjunction with
i18nlog's custom Ant task, you can automatically generate your resource bundles and not have to do much to ensure consistency between your properties files and the Java code that accesses them.
@I18NMessage annotation is placed on constants that you use in place of your resource bundle key strings. Using these constants inherently forces compile-time checks; typos introduced in the code (i.e., misspelling a constant name) and usage of obsolete/deleted messages are detected at compile time. An example usage of this annotation is:
@I18NMessage( "Hello, {0}. You last visited on {1,date}" )
public static final String MSG_WELCOME = "example.welcome-msg";
The above defines one i18n message. The value of the constant defines the resource bundle key string. The value of the annotation is a translation of the actual message. You can place these annotated constants in any class or interface within your application. You can put all of them in a single class or interface (to centralize all of your message definitions in a single location), or you can place these constants in the classes where they are used.
@I18NResourceBundle annotation defines the resource bundle properties file where your messages are to be placed. This can annotate an entire class or interface, or it can annotate a specific field. If you annotate a class or interface, all
@I18NMessage annotations found in that class or interface will be stored, by default, in that resource bundle. If the annotation is on a particular constant field, it will be the bundle for that constant only. An example usage of this annotation would be:
@I18NResourceBundle( baseName = "messages",
defaultLocale = "en" )
which indicates that all associated
@I18NMessage-annotated messages will be placed in a resource bundle file named messages_en.properties. A more complete example that illustrates an interface that contains a set of i18n messages is shown below:
@I18NResourceBundle( baseName = "messages",
defaultLocale = "en" )
public interface Messages {
@I18NMessage( "Hello, {0}. You last visited on {1,date}" )
String MSG_WELCOME = "welcome-msg";
@I18NMessage( "An error occurred, please try again" )
String MSG_ERR = "error-occurred";
@I18NMessage( "The value is {0}" )
String MSG_VALUE = "value";
Retrieving i18n Messages
Now that you have defined your i18n constants, you can use the API provided by the core class in
mazz.i18n.Msg. It allows you to load messages from resource bundle properties files. It will also replace the messages' placeholders (e.g.
{1,date}) with the values passed as variable argument parameters. Although the API frees you from having to work directly with some JDK classes, you might want to read the Javadocs on
java.text.MessageFormat to get a feel for how
i18nlog does what it does, specifically how it replaces the placeholders with localized data.
Example usages of the
Msg class are as follows:
// using a static factory method to create a Msg object
// this assumes the default bundle base name of "messages"
System.out.println( Msg.createMsg( Messages.MSG_WELCOME,
date ) );
// using a constructor to create a Msg object
Msg msg = new Msg( new Msg.BundleBaseName("messages") );
try {
String hello = msg.getMsg(Messages.MSG_WELCOME, name, date );
... do something ...
catch (Exception e) {
throw new RuntimeException( msg.getMsg( Messages.MSG_ERR ) );
name and
date arguments are an example of passing an arbitrary variable arguments list--each object represents the value to replace the placeholder in its respective position (
{0} and
{1,date} respectively, based on the
Messages.MSG_WELCOME definition given earlier).
Msg object will know which locale's resource bundle to use based on its "bundle base name" and its current locale setting. The "bundle base name" is the name of the bundle file minus the locale specifier and extension (in the example above, the bundle base name is
messages). You can define the bundle base name the
Msg object will use by passing it into the
Msg constructor or one of its static factory methods (if left unspecified, the default is
messages). While the bundle base name is fixed for the lifetime of the
Msg object, you can switch the locale used by the
Msg object by calling its
setLocale() method (its default is the JVM's default locale). This is useful if you pool
Msg objects and have to switch its locale based on the user to which the object is currently assigned.
Pages: 1, 2


text:
A sad day for Jets fans. He had as good a pair of hands as anyone that has ever played. I remember looking forward to seeing him at Namaths football camp in 74 but he suddenly signed w the WFL and was bummed woulda been a HoFer had he played longer. RIP George.
RIP to a player who provided me some of my finest childhood sports fan memories. I still remember where I was when I heard on the radio that he had retired, I was shocked.
Last edited by JetsFanatic; 05-11-2013 at 08:58 AM.
Was sorry to hear that this AM... He was always a solid WR with great hands. I never knew quite why he dropped out of sight and was never at any SB III Jet's events given he was key in that game. Also, I cannot remember any other players from that team that have passed - is he the first? I know he was only 69.
A sad day for all Jet fans who was part of what firmly established the NFL as it exists today by putting the AFC on an equal footing with the NFC.
In reading the post here never realized that there were so many social security and near social security members
RIP George Sauer.... I applaud you for demonstrating through your life decisions
that one must lead their own life and not the one that others choose for you. I
am inspired by the courage you displayed in walking away from something you
did so well because your heart led you elsewhere.... Bravo to a life lived well.
sauer is just another example of how loaded that jet team was. i was too young to appreciate it all but they had some really good players, probably better than any jet team in recent history.
sauer walked away because he disliked the way the players were treated like children. he was too smart to put up with all the nfl bs. it is too bad he died at such a young age.
Other folks in the thread have already stated my sentiment. Just wanted to add my name in here as expressing my respect for Sauer and sadness at
his passing. RIP.
One of my dad's favorite players. RIP.
As much as Sauer was a free spirit he was pretty square looking and Namath had much longer hair then him.
Just about the entire team resented Namath. But it was because he got away with murder off the field AND constantly gave away games "on the field" by through poor decisions and taking unnecessary risks. Thank God Maynard was injured for SB III. Who knows what Namath would have done if he had a downfield target. That Jet team was loaded with talent and could have won more than 1 SB if Namath had matured earlier and played for his team and not for himself. And I bet if you asked Namath today, he would agree. And I'm not knocking Namath's talent. He was likely the greatest passer the game has ever seen and was as tough as they come.
BTW, every team has a different standard for stars. Anyone other than a franchise QB would have been cut if he behaved like Big Ben. And Bill Parcells cut a guy for sleeping at a meeting. When asked what he would have done if it was LT, he said "I'd wake him up." Namath was only resented because his teammates did not feel he had "earned" the star treatment by delivering wins. Heck, his teammates had to be "ordered" to vote him captain.
There's no better place to argue than in a thread designed to mark Sauer's passing? Come on, folks.


text:
A mystery in Laurel County, after a gruesome discovery was made Monday.
Someone found a decomposed body in a wooded area near the Lily community.
Police, forensic teams, and the medical examiner were at the scene to investigate Monday night.
Officials say the badly decomposed body was found inside a barrel, just off U.S. 25.
At this point, they don't know if the body belonged to a male or female.
Officials also found several shotgun shell casings and bullets in the area.
The medical examiner says some of the bone fragments found are big enough to test for DNA, to determine whose body it is.
Associated Press Story
Human bones found, body believed incinerated in barrel
LONDON, Ky. (AP) - A coroner says a number of bone fragments found in a metal barrel in the Lilly community of southern Kentucky were human.
And Kentucky Forensic Anthropologist Dr. Emily Craig said a body had been incinerated in the barrel.
Laurel County Coroner Doug Bowling says a man and his daughter were hiking in the area yesterday and became curious about the fragments and contacted the Laurel County Sheriff's Department.
Bowling says he and Craig couldn't tell if the fragments were male or female, or what the manner of death was. Craig says there were multiple small bone fragments that were in such poor condition it may be difficult to determine if they belonged to a man or woman.
Craig says a body was incinerated in the barrel and the barrel contained multiple bullets.
She said the barrel was also full of bullet holes and believes someone may have been preparing to sink the barrel in water.
Officers found a burned pickup truck within about 40 feet of the barrel and it was being processed by authorities.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)


text:
Course Number:
Credit Hours:
2 Credit Hours
Prerequsities: RCC. Disability Law examines laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disability with particular emphasis on Titles I, II, and III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, The Fair Housing Act Amendments of 1988 and Amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Substantive areas that will be covered include efforts to combat discrimination on the basis of disability in employment, housing, and education, as well as efforts to curb disability-based discrimination in the provision of health care services, in accessing places of public accommodation and by public entities. Students will explore the ways in which the law has attempted to protect individuals against disability discrimination as well as examine continued challenges individuals with disabilities encounter despite existing legal protections. The course will be an elective course in the Health Law Certificate program and in the Employment & Labor Law Concentration.Back to Course Descriptions


text:
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
Get the locks changed! I'd use the phrase, "So kind of you to take an interest", raise an eyebrow, change subject. Rinse/repeat. And change the locks!
Re-key the lock. Seriously.
Under the circumstances, I think "No" and walking away is a perfectly acceptable response.And seriously, rekey the locks and don't give your FIL a key! Letting the birthing centre know you don't want her anywhere near you is also a good idea. And make sure your husband is on the same page you are with how to handle this. If you don't set strong boundaries now, it won't stop at advice - she's likely to use that spare key, get into your house, and physically interfere with how you've got things set up ("The crib is much better in the living room!").
Page created in 0.182 seconds with 19 queries.


text:
Dropbox, the file-sharing service often serving as the poster child for consumer-friendly cloud services with a terrible security reputation commonly used by business users, is continuing a push to become more business-friendly with the addition of a single sign-on capability.
The company is also renaming its Dropbox for Teams SMB cloud storage and file-sharing service as Dropbox for Business.
Dropbox on Wednesday said it is enabling single sign-on via Active Directory or some other central identity provider as a way to provide increased security and management for businesses and their users.
[Related: Apple, Dropbox, Amazon, Google Rule U.S. Cloud Storage: Report]
Anand Subramani, a product manager at Dropbox, wrote in a blog post that single sign-on is one of the features most requested by customers.
The addition of a single sign-on feature comes after a string of moves Dropbox has recently made in order to make its service much more useful for business users.
Last month, for instance, Dropbox expanded the scope of its business from cloud file-sharing and synchronization to email by acquiring Mailbox, an iOS mobile app designed to manage emails on iPhones and iPads.
Dropbox in August implemented a two-factor authentication procedure in response to the theft of hundreds of customer email addresses after an employee's password was stolen, as well as spam caused by thefts of usernames and passwords from other sites that were used to access Dropbox accounts.
NEXT: Renaming 'Dropbox for Teams' As 'Dropbox for Business'


text:
Never miss a deal, always be up to date -
The most important events and product news
with the MUSIC STORE Newsletters!
free with orders starting at 299 € (within Greece)
The Schlagwerk Log Drum provides beginners an easy introduction to melody and rhythm. The sound of this instrument is very warm, soft and harmonious. Ideal for schools and kinder gardens. This 4 tone drum offers the appealing sound character of a major chord with a flat 7th.
SCHLAGWERK Log drum 45 041 Features: 4 Pitches: c' / e' / g' / b' Material: Padouk Dimensions: 45 x 15 x 15 cm Recommended mallets: MA 102 / MA 103
!!! 30 Day Money Back Guarantee !!!
!!! 3 Year Music Store Warranty !!!
Every month we are giving away a shopping voucher among all submitted reviewers worth 500 EURO!
Congratulations to the winner of December: Michael Rauser, Heilbronn (DE)
The winner from the previous month (November): Martin Reinert, Siegburg (DE)
You can rate this product if you like. By rating this product you will be automatically entered into our monthly shopping voucher giveaway!


text:
If that's true then I might just give it a try. I would hate to join an online rpg after people have been playing it for so long. This will give us a brand-new world to play in. Maybe after a year or two they can merge the worlds.It will no repeat will not connect to the PC version.
Yeah, I didn't know that they already had separate worlds. I just assumed that everyone would always be playing in the same world.Also, they claim that the reason why Mac and PC players can't play together is due to "technical difficulties". Sounds like bullshit to me...
I see no reason why it wouldn't operate with the current EQ servers. This isn't a new version with new protocol methods and stuff, it's a port.
So can yah help a brutha out and give proof that your not spreading FUD?
Among the crowd I ran with, it was known as DivorceQuest.
EQ: Just Say No!
1. Lower startup cost. A $60 set of three books and a handful of dice is all you really need for a group of 5 or 6 friends to start playing. (Others are available, but ya don't really need 'em.)
2. You get to actually talk to the people you are gaming with, face to face. This allows you to beat the living crap out of anybody who is being a jerk, a feature which MMORPG's sadly lack. Also, you never need to look at the fucked-up hybrid shorthand that all the shitty typists on EQ inevitably resort to. If you were never an EQ player, you have no idea how annoying it got to see "r u cleric? heal plz." every time some Iksar monk saw you carrying a hammer.
3. More room for creativity.
4. No monthly fees.
5. If you were one of those geeks who played the original D&D back when you were in Junior High School, there's the spiffy nostalgia value.
6. No spawn points, no camping, no repetitive quests, no worries about 250 other players going on the exact same "epic" quest as you at any given time.
7. The originality of the stories are limited only by the imagination of the cleverest person in your group.
Neverwinter Nights looks like it might emulate the DM-run roleplay experience fairly well in some ways, and I'm sure I will waste a little time playing it, but it can't completely replace the fun you can have with a weekly or bi-weekly gaming group. Anyway, that's just my opinion. YMMV.
*cough cough cough*
probably because a lot of those people are in broken relationships because of EQ.
a friend of mine was into EQ pretty badly and his fiance - also a close friend of mine was always complaining about his addiction. it got the point where his friends were telling her to leave him.
she stuck with him, he got out of it, and now he's already in a guild with a site for star wars galaxies.
it's a vicious circle, and I pity the poor os-x users who get stuck in it now.
sony are just opening up another percentage of the world for ruined relationships and neglected children.
way to go sony..
We have also learned several details that online game fans might be interested in -- Mac OS X EverQuest players will not be able to play against (or with) the PC players of the game, due to server incompatibilities.
"If it's not loud, it doesn't work!" -- Blank Reg, from "Max Headroom"


text:
THE number of IVF treatments in Australia has fallen for the first time in nearly 30 years, after government cuts to Medicare payments.
A senior fertility specialist at IVF Australia, Michael Chapman, said the Medicare changes had been a false economy imposed on people who desperately wanted to have children.
The number of women using IVF fell 13 per cent in the year after the caps on IVF use were introduced, a report to be released today by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare shows.
''A change in government policy that cost something in the order of $50 million resulted in 1200 children not being conceived who would have been conceived,'' Professor Chapman said.
''I don't think that saving was justified, particularly because … within three years of that child having a job at the age of 21 they would probably pay off the cost of their IVF cycle.''
The president of the Fertility Society of Australia, Mark Bowman, said the Medicare changes had increased the cost of an IVF cycle from about $1500 to $3000.
But he believed there had been at least a partial recovery in the number of women using IVF since 2011 because couples did not see it as discretionary spending.
''Eventually, particularly women understand that fertility drops significantly as time goes on and they've just got to get on and do something if they don't get pregnant on their own,'' he said.
The report also showed a continuing improvement in the success of IVF treatments, with about 24 per cent of cycles resulting in a pregnancy and 18 per cent in a live delivery.
Of the 1056 babies live born in 2010, three-quarters were full-term singletons of normal birth weight. Improvements in technology had led to a reduction in multiple embryo transfers, Professor Bowman said.
''You can maintain success rates without doing inappropriate things, particularly with regard to the number of embryos, because in fact the highest chance of a healthy baby is by making that baby a singleton, not a twin,'' he said.
Craig Glover survived non-Hodgkins lymphoma when he was a teenager, but only with the help of aggressive treatment.
In 2009, he and his wife tried to conceive a child naturally and discovered Craig had an extremely low sperm count, probably related to the treatment. The couple underwent IVF at Genea, formerly known as Sydney IVF, where it took several cycles and a miscarriage before they conceived Lucas, who is now almost 11 months old.
''The guilt side of things every time we had a failed IVF cycle, the mental strain on that side of things was absolutely horrible,'' Mr Glover, 27, said.
The Glovers needed family help to pay for the treatment and believed Medicare should offer more assistance. ''It's a huge cost and it's not something you do for fun. There should be a higher rebate from Medicare,'' Mrs Glover said.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Ageing said there had been a spike in people undergoing assisted reproductive technology in 2009 before Medicare payments were capped.
''In 2011-12 Medicare expenditure on [assisted reproductive technology] services was $231 million and ART service utilisation grew by 8 per cent from the previous financial year, which is a return to service levels prior to the capping and the ART item restructure in 2010,'' the spokeswoman said.
Australia had the most generous public subsidy of assisted reproductive technology in the world, with no restrictions on maternal age, marital status, social health issues such as weight and smoking, or the number of cycles that were payable under Medicare, the spokeswoman said.


text:
Salmon Paws contains only human-grade Wild Salmon caught in the pristine waters of Alaska. Unlike many other salmon pet treats out on the market today, our product is 100% pure salmon meat with NO bones, fillers, or yeast! We use only the finest salmon to hand-make and BAKE our salmon jerky dog and cat treats. Our love for our dogs show in every bag of Salmon Paws! ENJOY!....Your dogs will!
10% of all internet sales proceeds will go to a local no kill shelter.
Contact us for more information on our wholesale dog treats and wholesale cat treats. We sell wholesale pet treats direct to high end pet boutiques. Also contact us for a distributor in your area.


text:
Welcome to Ultimate Subaru Message Board, my lurker friend!
|Welcome to Ultimate Subaru Message Board, an unparalleled Subaru community full of the greatest Subaru gurus and modders on the planet! We offer technical information and discussion about all things Subaru, the best and most popular all wheel drive vehicles ever created.
We offer all this information for free to everyone, even lurkers like you! All we ask in return is that you sign up and give back some of what you get out - without our awesome registered users none of this would be possible! Plus, you get way more great stuff as a member! Lurk to lose, participate to WIN*!
* The joy of participation and being generally awesome constitutes winning
** Not an actual guarantee, but seriously, you probably won't regret it!
Serving the Subaru Community since May 18th, 1998!
Some new shoes for the RX!
Posted 18 March 2006 - 12:27 AM
I am thinking about getting them powder coated bronze to go with the gold on my RX but I'll have to see how they look first. Then you'll be able to see my 2 pot calipers and drilled rotors in the front:headbang:
Posted 18 March 2006 - 12:25 PM
Posted 18 March 2006 - 12:29 PM
What kind of car is that in the pic?
Posted 18 March 2006 - 12:39 PM
Oh, come on guys, the car in the pic is a mid '90's Legacy...
Posted 18 March 2006 - 01:49 PM
ok I've already talked to subaru_styles about it cause he seen them over on the rallitek forum. I'll have to roll my fenders a bit but that'll be later when I get some coilovers and such to bring the ride height of my car down. Offset is about 42mm IIRC.
Oh, come on guys, the car in the pic is a mid '90's Legacy...
42mm offset? Your going to have to do more than roll your fenders when you want to lower the car.. Remember those Konig 16s I had on my wagon? tires got tore the eff up.. and that was with my car more than an inch higher than it is now and the rear fenderwells rolled.
Posted 18 March 2006 - 03:19 PM
0 user(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users


text:
FBI Raids DETCOG Office, Director's Home
Updated 3:49 pm, Wednesday, February 5, 2014
The Deep East Texas Council of Governments (DETCOG) is currently undergoing an investigation by several federal agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Homeland Security.
Several federally marked vehicles, including three box trucks, were parked outside of the DETCOG main office, located at 210 Premiere Drive in Jasper, on Wednesday morning.
A handwritten sign taped to the main entrance of the DETCOG building indicated that the office would be closed until further notice, though sources indicate the proceedings should be complete by day's end.
Federal agents also investigated the home of Walter Diggles, executive director of DETCOG, located on Willow St. in Jasper, as well as, the Lighthouse Church of God in Christ.
"We had no prior indication of their [federal investigation agencies] interest, but DETCOG and its staff are giving their full cooperation in participating in the investigation," Mr. Diggles stated on Wednesday.
"DETCOG has complete annual audits by an outside accounting firm and our programs are under the continual scrutiny of their federal and state funding agencies".


text:
Here it is, that sweet spot before one month ends and the new bills begin. It's time to breathe a quick sigh of relief… and do the saving sweep!
Check your accounts…
Peer into your purse or wallet…
Jog over to an ATM machine…
Empty your pockets…
And whatever cash is lying around, whatever you don't absolutely need, sweep that bit of money (even a leetle bit) into your:
- Emergency fund
- Curveball account
- Down payment stash
- Private coffee can of bucks
- "This summer it's France or nothing" fund
Or, be super good—and earn our undying respect—by shoveling an extra payment toward debt or making an extra contribution toward retirement.
MP just swept up an extra $200 into her emergency fund, another $200 into her curveball fund and $250 toward her business Visa.
Amanda did the sweep this morning and added $300 to her curveball account, $100 to retirement, and organized $2.54 of loose change in her kitchen into a new cup.


text:
We are so excited about the release of Oz The Great and Powerful. Shelley's favorite movie of all times is the Wizard of Oz so when she saw this release she was thrilled! It opens in theaters on March 8, 2013 in 3D and regular.
Disney's fantastical adventure "Oz The Great and Powerful," directed by Sam Raimi, imagines the origins of L. Frank Baum's beloved wizard character. When Oscar Diggs (James Franco), a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics, is hurled away from dusty Kansas to the vibrant Land of Oz, he thinks he's hit the jackpot—fame and fortune are his for the taking—that is until he meets three witches, Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams), who are not convinced he is the great wizard everyone's been expecting.
Reluctantly drawn into the epic problems facing the Land of Oz and its inhabitants, Oscar must find out who is good and who is evil before it is too late. Putting his magical arts to use through illusion, ingenuity—and even a bit of wizardry—Oscar transforms himself not only into the great wizard but into a better man as well. "Oz The Great and Powerful" opens in U.S. theaters on March 8, 2013.
"Like" OZ THE GREAT & POWERFUL on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ozthegreatandpowerful
"Follow" OZ THE GREAT & POWERFUL on Twitter: https://twitter.com/disneyozmovie
Visit the website: http://www.disney.com/thewizard


text:
State of California Department of Justice
Attorney General Kamala D. Harris Issues Statement on Supreme Court's Ruling on the Affordable Care Act
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Contact: (916) 210-6000, email@example.com
SAN FRANCISCO -- Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today issued the following statement regarding the U.S. Supreme Court's decision on the Affordable Care Act:
"Today's decision is a historic victory for Californians, for the President, and for the country. The Affordable Care Act repairs a healthcare system badly in need of reform and ensures that every American has access to affordable health care. We never doubted the constitutionality of this law, and it is already making a difference in the lives of millions of Californians."
# # #


text:
Shopping Cart
Sign In
Contact Us
Decal Ninja
Your Nerdy Decal Paradise!
Our Products
>> Battlestar Galactica Decals
Shop Battlestar Galactica Decals
Colonial Marines Logo Vinyl Decal Battlestar Galactica
Quick Search
Advanced Search
Our Decals
Adventure Time Decals
Aliens & Predator Decals
Arcana Heart Decals
Battlestar Galactica Decals
Berserk Decals
Bionic Commando Decals
Blaster Master Decals
BlazBlue Decals
Bleach Decals
Boondock Saints Decals
Bust-A-Move Decals
Call of Duty Decals
Castlevania Decals
Chrono Trigger Decals
Code Geass Decals
Comic Decals
Command & Conquer Decals
Console Decals
Contra Decals
Cowboy Bebop Decals
Darkstalkers Decals
Dig-Dug Decals
Doctor Who Decals
Donkey Kong Decals
Double Dragon Decals
Dragon Ball Z Decals
Duck Hunt Decals
Earthbound Decals
Final Fantasy Decals
Frogger Decals
Full Metal Alchemist Decals
Funny Bumper Stickers
G.I. Joe & Cobra Decals
Galaga Decals
Ghostbusters Decals
Guilty Gear Decals
Gurren Lagann Decals
Halo Decals
Harry Potter Decals
Hell Girl Decals
Hello Kitty Decals
Hokuto No Ken Decals
iPhone Skins
Karnov Decals
Kid Icarus Decals
King of Fighters Decals
Kingdom Hearts Decals
Kirby Decals
Kung Fu Decals
Mass Effect Decals
Masters of the Universe Decals
Metal Gear Decals
Metroid Decals
Minecraft Decals
Pokemon Decals
Punch Out Decals
Puzzle Fighter Decals
Resident Evil Decals
Samurai Shodown Decals
Soul Calibur Decals
Star Trek Decals
Star Wars Decals
Super Mario Brothers Decals
The Legend of Zelda Decals
TMNT Decals
Transformers Decals
TV Decals 2000-Now
TV Decals Pre-2000
Zombie Decals
Featured Items
Terms and Conditions
About Us
Site Map
Copyright © 2010-2018 Decal Ninja. All rights reserved.


text:
No Phonetics is the way the sounds sound like
Phonoly is the way we sound them
like /c/ can sometimes sound like /k/ like in /cat/ or /cake/ & sometimes like /s/ like in /cease/
in phoenitcs you will write /cat/ as /kat/ & /cease/ as /sis/.
phoneme is the smallest uint possible like /cat/, //pre/ /sent/ (present)
phone is the sounds /s/, /d/, /r/. allophone is like in some languages you can have 2 or more sounds or the same phone or in some derivation (of tenses) you use sound 1 instead of sound 2
you can see it in japanese, where they switch between /r/ & /l/ for instance.
sorry, don;t remember the answer to the last one.
You do relaise you need to further study this from books, this is just the tip of the ice.
Hope this helps


text:
There will be no embarrassing first- round exit for the Western Conference's top-seeded team this year.
A year after a spectacular collapse to the Memphis Grizzlies in the opening round of the playoffs, the San Antonio Spurs completed a first-round sweep of the Utah Jazz with an 87-81 victory at EnergySolutions Arena Monday.
Manu Ginobili led the way with 17 points off the bench while Tony Parker and Tim Duncan contributed 11 apiece for the Spurs in an effort that was not efficient, but nonetheless was effective.
Neither team shot over 38 percent from the field, but San Antonio connected on 10-of-22 three-point tries, while Utah missed all 13 of its attempts from beyond the arc.
The victorious Spurs may have a shot at avenging their 2011 defeat, as they advance to face the winner of the Memphis/Los Angeles Clippers series. LA holds a 3-1 series lead after winning, 101-97, in overtime later Monday.
Utah's Al Jefferson paced all scorers with 26 points and 10 boards, Derrick Favors -- who replaced Josh Howard in the starting lineup for Game 4 -- finished with 16 and 10, and Paul Millsap donated 10 and 19 in the Jazz's final game of the season.
San Antonio ripped off a 12-2 run early in the fourth quarter to take its largest lead of the night at 81-60 with 6:17 to play, brining the conference semifinals within reach.
But things got ugly from there. The Spurs' reserves -- so critical to their success throughout the series -- went cold from the floor, missing their next five shots and a pair of free throws, at the same time they got sloppy, committing three turnovers and a goaltend.
The hosts took advantage, to the tune of a 19-2 run that pulled them within four at 83-79 with under a minute remaining.
But the Jazz's momentum stalled when Millsap could not handle a pass, leading to a turnover and an easy layup for Ginobili, and San Antonio survived to join Oklahoma City in the second round.
"We didn't lose our composure. That was great. We used the clock when we could. We took advantage of plays when we had to and found a way to close it out," Duncan said.
Meanwhile, the door closes on Utah's season. A year removed from missing the playoffs for the first time in five years and without legandary coach Jerry Sloan at the helm for the first time since 1989, Tyrone Corbin's team exceeded expectations in what many assumed would be a rebuilding year.
The Jazz managed to make the playoffs as the eighth seed in the Western Conference despite a young team featuring seven players under 26 years of age, including four who were NBA lottery picks within the last two seasons.
But they hit a confident and experienced Spurs team buoyed by their meteoric rise up the Western Conference standings in the final two months. San Antonio won 21 of its last 23 regular-season contests, including its final 10, as it displaced the Thunder for the West's No. 1 seed.
"I think it was a good learning experience for us, but it's tough to say after a loss," said Gordon Hayward, one of those lottery picks.
Asked about his first playoff experience, Favors added, "It was a good experience, going out there, playing against the Spurs. It was a challenge. I thought I stepped up to the plate. I had fun and overall, it was just a good experience."
San Antonio built a lead as large as 14 in the second quarter before settling on a 50-42 edge at halftime, supported by a 4-of-9 mark from beyond the arc. They scored seven unanswered points to close the third and brought a 68-58 lead into the final stanza.
Game Notes
San Antonio's bench outscored Utah's reserves 57-10...Tim Duncan's three blocks gave him 450 postseason blocks in his career, the most among active players and in franchise history...No team in NBA history has ever come back from a 3-0 series deficit...Utah is 22-25 all-time in elimination games, and was swept for the second time in a first-round playoff series...The Jazz won the battle on the boards, 57-43.


text:
Cisco's apparently going to try to simplify its sales, services and engineering organizations in the next 120 days
Faced with a nasty loss of credibility, a string of poor financial results, shrinking market share in its core business, an unwieldy and alienating bureaucracy blamed for the top executive exodus it been experiencing, and a stock price that's plunged into the toilet Cisco, once an economic bellwether, is promising to do more than simply kill off its once-popular Flip video camcorder business and lay 550 people off, an admission that its foray into the consumer segment had largely failed.
It said in a press release issued Thursday morning that it's going to a "streamlined operating model" focused on five areas, not apparently the literally 30 different directions it's been going in although it did say, come to think of it, something about "greater focus" so maybe it's not really cutting back.
These focus areas are, it said, "routing, switching, and services; collaboration; data center virtualization and cloud; video; and architectures for business transformation."
Nobody seems to know what that last one is and the Wall Street Journal criticized Cisco for not being able to explain in plain English what it's doing and Barron's complained that it needed a Kremlinologist to decrypt the jargon in the press release.
Anyway Cisco's apparently going to try to simplify its sales, services and engineering organizations in the next 120 days or by July 31 when its next fiscal year begins. Well, maybe not everything, it warned, but sales ought to be reorganized by then.
This streamlining seems to mean that:
- Field operations will be organized into three geographic regions for faster decision making and greater accountability: the Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific, Japan and Greater China still under sales chief Robert Lloyd;
- Services will follow key customer segments and delivery models still under its multi-tasking COO Gary Moore;
- Engineering, still reporting to Moore, will now be led by two-in-a-box Pankaj Patel and Padmasree Warrior and aside from the company's five focus areas there will be a dedicated Emerging Business Group under Marthin De Beer focused on "select early-phase businesses" "with continued focus on integrating the Medianet architecture for video across the company."
- Lastly, it's going to "refine" - but apparently not dismantle its hydra-headed, decision-inhibiting Council structure blamed for frustrating and running off key talent - down to three "that reinforce consistent and globally aligned customer focus and speed to market across major areas of the business: Enterprise, Service Provider and Emerging Countries. These councils will serve to further strengthen the connection between strategy and execution across functional groups. Resource allocation and profitability targets will move to the sales and engineering leadership teams which will have accountability and direct responsibility for business results."
It's unclear whether any of this means layoffs.
Cisco piped in a quote credited to Moore saying. "Cisco is focused on making a series of changes throughout the next quarter and as we enter the new fiscal year that will make it easier to work for and with Cisco, as we focus our portfolio, simplify operations and manage expenses. Our five company priorities are for a reason - they are the five drivers of the future of the network, and they define what our customers know Cisco is uniquely able to provide for their business success. The new operating model will enable Cisco to execute on the significant market opportunities of the network and empower our sales, service and engineering organizations."


text:
Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm.
The Drama Mamas roundup post with followup from letters we've featured in previous Drama Mamas columns will run in just a few more weeks. So there's still time to send us an email at email@example.com if you would to share what's happened with your situation since we last heard from you.
Dear Drama Mamas,
I started playing the game about a month after The Burning Crusade was released. I was still a kid, and gave my toon a foolish name. I know my name gets some weird responses, and when I race change to a worgen in Cataclysm, I am going to change my name.
Anyway, I play on a RP server ... which only happened because my brother (who now does not play) randomly picked it when he started. I started playing after him and thus chose the same server. My server is fairly weak when it comes to progression guilds, with only one having defeated heroic Lich King-25 (and it was after 4.0.1). For the duration of my Wrath WoW career, I was in a mid-level progression guild for my server, which got to 11/12 in ICC Regular. I was fairly disappointed, because I really want to get an achievement mount. The guild leader gave up trying to lead, and this week he joined the #2 guild on the server. He said he still plans to lead the guild I am in on his alt, but I know that is not going to work out. You can't lead a progression guild on an alt, while competing for server firsts on your main.


text:
A joint initiative between the American Immigration Council and AILA seeks to change the playing field for immigrants facing deportation.
Learn more about AILA's official statements on immigration issues.Read Now
AILA Doc. No. 09111210 | Dated November 11, 2009
WASHINGTON, DC - The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) welcomed the introduction yesterday by U.S. Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Kristin Gillibrand (D-NY), and Russ Feingold (D-WI) of The Military Families Act (S. 2757). The Military Families bill would grant lawful permanent residence status to immediate family members of active immigrant members of the military and veterans even when the sponsoring solider has lost his or her life in service.
"This bill will help hundreds of military families whose immigration status has been in limbo and who have been facing untold heartache and lengthy separations as they seek to be reunited," said LTC Margaret Stock, a member of AILA. "In a time of war, it is fitting that Congress acts to ease the stress on military families. These families are key to our military members' morale and effectiveness on the battlefield and military members' recovery when they return home from the battlefield."
Under the Military Families Act (S. 2757), the Department of Homeland Security would have the authority to adjust the status of an individual to that of lawful permanent resident if the individual is a parent, spouse, child, son or daughter of an Armed Forces member who is serving or has served honorably in an active-duty status in the military, air or naval forces of the United States or the immediate relative of an Armed Forces member who died as a result of injury or disease incurred because of his or her service. The bill would also assist the sons and daughters of Filipino World War II veterans who bravely served our country and whose immigration status has been long deferred due to numerical limitations on immigrant visas.
"The Military Families Act will help ensure that families of those that have served our country with pride and valor don't face unfair and unexpected deportation and are able to remain in this land they call home by including a path towards U.S. citizenship," said Bernard Wolsdorf, President of AILA. "The bill is appropriate as our nation celebrates Veterans Day, and more and more immigrants continue to serve in our military - risking their lives for our country. It will protect family members and allow our nation to show our appreciation for their service and sacrifice to our country.
The American Immigration Lawyers Association is the national association of immigration lawyers established to promote justice, advocate for fair and reasonable immigration law and policy, advance the quality of immigration and nationality law and practice, and enhance the professional development of its members.
Cite as AILA Doc. No. 09111210.
American Immigration Lawyers Association
1331 G Street NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20005
Copyright © 1993-2018
American Immigration Lawyers Association.


text:
"What is this even … a spaceship taking off?" a girl in the audience turns and asks as the first notes of Leverage Model's set March 8 at Burro Bar. Apt guess.
Churning, synthesized electronics flow over pounding drumroll and anxiety-inducing guitar feedback. Ready for lift off.
Our interstellar guides look like they just beamed out of some Wes Anderson flick. Hell, maybe they did. If so, the ship must have found its home planet, because this audience is a spitting image.
Shannon Fields tangos his away up and down the stage while recounting the majesty of our Wells Fargo and Bank of America buildings (with what might be sarcasm or irony — take your pick) in a voice so effects-laden it appears disembodied from his nimble frame. The drummer looks like he just punched-out of his job in IT and the guitarist wears a Roaring '20s flapper-era headband with pearly bead tassels that bounce across his bushman face. You know, quirks for quirks' sake.
"We have a moral imperative to present ourselves with the upmost decency," Fields says with businesslike candor.
Everything is offbeat, except for the tunes. Well, literally anyways.
It's an entertaining assault on the senses. Soaring falsettos lead into frenetic, jittery grooves as Fields alternates between mic and megaphone. Dance beats drive every moment. There's a lot going on, and it's surprising to see such a layered and versatile amount of textures and tones coming from just four musicians. The synthesized samples and beats are expected and welcome in the pop genre Leverage Models calls home, but there's a rock-and-roll, devil-may-care presence here, too.
Fields is energetic. One minute he's dropping tango moves with the audience, the next he's walking on any platform he can crawl on top of and the next he's rolling around on stage. He's the primary writer and driving force behind the project, and the backing band seems to perform as such. They're professional, and they deliver the tunes. Fields only occasionally stops dancing to drop nuggets of enlightenment on the audience.
"I'm not cool," Fields says. "Cool implies a sort of blasé attitude about everything … like you're not fazed by anything. I'm fazed by everything."
The main goal for the touring troubadours: Getting Jacksonville to shake that groove thing.
They were successful. There's only about 15 in the venue, and most of them are cutting up the floor. The fact that there were so few in attendance added charm. This was the in-crowd. These were the die-hards. They kept their ears to the ground and were reaping the rewards, one hip-dip and spin at a time.
After an additional song, Leverage Models concluded with Fields dancing his way to the merch table in the back of the room. The guitarist crawled his way to the mic Fields left center stage and, after a perfect moment comedic pause, a timid "peace" emitted from his beard. And that was that.


text:
The Little Rockers Band recently released the video for its new single, 'Wild Wild West.'
The video puts husband and wife duo Chris and Jessie Apple as a pair of Wild West figures as they sing their new single. Parents and kids will enjoy seeing the pair in the various situations into which they are put throughout the video. It can be viewed online now at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5_p9dAkais&feature=youtu.be.
Audiences will get to hear this song and many more from The Little Rockers Band when the band takes the stage in Bethlehem, PA on Saturday, May 3rd. That performance will be followed up the next day at The Downtown, RB. More information on The Little Rockers Band, its live shows, its upcoming new album, and more is available online at http://www.littlerockersmusic.com, http://www.facebook.com/littlerockersmusic, and http://twitter.com/2LittleRockers.
The band's new album Count Me In will be available next Tuesday, April 15th.
To keep up with the latest sports and entertainment news and reviews, go online to http://www.facebook.com/philspicks and "Like" it. Fans can always keep up with the latest sports and entertainment news and reviews in the Phil's Picks blog at https://philspicks.wordpress.com.


text:
My name is Patrick. I've been a member on other boards for a few years now and just found this one. Ive owned a few Subarus and currently have a 2002 RS with a STI hybrid swap and a 2001 Outback Limited Wagon.
Welcome to Ultimate Subaru Message Board, my lurker friend!
|Welcome to Ultimate Subaru Message Board, an unparalleled Subaru community full of the greatest Subaru gurus and modders on the planet! We offer technical information and discussion about all things Subaru, the best and most popular all wheel drive vehicles ever created.
We offer all this information for free to everyone, even lurkers like you! All we ask in return is that you sign up and give back some of what you get out - without our awesome registered users none of this would be possible! Plus, you get way more great stuff as a member! Lurk to lose, participate to WIN*!
* The joy of participation and being generally awesome constitutes winning
** Not an actual guarantee, but seriously, you probably won't regret it!
Serving the Subaru Community since May 18th, 1998!
Guest Message by DevFuse
Thumbs up from ATL
Started by rsconvert , Feb 02 2013 06:31 PM
1 reply to this topic
Posted 02 February 2013 - 06:31 PM
Posted 03 February 2013 - 01:34 PM
welcome. i'd live in Georgia if i could....probably not Atlanta proper by choice though I did for 9 years, but i dig Georgia.
0 user(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users