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Runway project could mean new culvert for Lakeshore Dr.
The video was the clincher.
It was barely a minute-long clip, but the scene of a submerged Lakeshore Drive with water rushing over it effectively illustrated how ineffective the Buckeye Brook culvert can be.
Yet some members of the City Council had reservations about the Rhode Island Airport Corporation's (RIAC) offer to replace the culvert at no cost to the city.
Ward 9 Councilman Steve Merolla was cautious. He pointed out that RIAC's request to list the culvert's replacement as part of a program to offset wetlands lost from improved runway safety areas failed to include drawings as indicated. He likened the situation to other instances where RIAC had not fully disclosed what it was doing at the airport.
And, although he acknowledged he is new to the council and does not have the history of working with RIAC, Ward 5 Councilman Edgar Ladouceur raised issues, too.
"It's odd that the property owner would grant [permission] without seeing the drawings. Do we actually have plans?" Merolla asked.
Peter Frazier, legal counsel for RIAC, explained that the city's consent is needed for RIAC to move ahead with its wetlands application with the Department of Environmental Management (DEM). The plan calls for the extension of the safety area at both ends of Runway 16-34. EMAS, or engineered mass arresting system, a roll-off area of concrete blocks engineered to crush under the weight of an aircraft to slow it down, will be used at both ends of the runway. The work on the end of the runway closest to Post Road is scheduled first, with the east end near Buckeye Brook scheduled for next year.
To offset the 2.6 acres of wetlands affected, RIAC is proposing a mitigation program that would reform some former fill near the brook, thereby extending the wetlands, and the installation of a new and larger Lakeshore Drive culvert. The three existing 30-inch pipes would be replaced with a system four times larger, said Frazier. The projected $600,000 cost of the project would be borne by RIAC.
Frazier stressed that by granting RIAC permission to include the city culvert on the application, the city wasn't losing its rights to question or contest the application when considered by DEM.
"This is a good example of putting the olive branch out to the legislative body," Ward 7 Councilman Charles "CJ" Donovan said.
Ward 3 Councilwoman Camille Vella Wilkinson agreed. She said RIAC went "the extra mile," and in response to Merolla's reference to a prior strained relationship with RIAC, said, "that is in the past and this is a new day."
But Ladouceur had concerns. He asked about federal funding of the project and whether that might somehow affect the city. There were also questions about maintenance and had the city solicitor been consulted.
"I've been on top of this and I've been following up with [city] planning," Vella-Wilkinson fired back.
Referencing an earlier action allowing two cuts in a recently repaved road so a handicapped veteran could replace his costly oil-heating system with natural gas, a request made by Merolla and supported by Ladouceur, Vella-Wilkinson said an enlarged culvert would improve conditions for hundreds of people. Lakeshore Drive is the only access and egress to the neighborhood sandwiched between the airport and Warwick Pond.
"What do we do?" she asked. "The city doesn't have that kind of money. This is a safety and quality of life issue to the residents of Ward 3."
"At the point we have the application, that's when we can object and we have the opportunity to vote," observed Ward 4 Councilman Joseph Solomon.
Vella-Wilkinson said she is "very passionate" about the issue and had sought to address the Lakeshore Drive flooding for a long time.
Her plea was heard. By a vote of 9-0, the council agreed to grant RIAC permission to include the culvert as part of its application.
Assuming approval of the project, Frazier said one lane of passage would be kept open at all times during construction. The work would most likely be done next July, following the spring herring run.
"He likened the situation to other instances where RIAC had not fully disclosed what it was doing at the airport. "
And that list of "other instances" goes on and on...yet city council just rolled over and took it when RIAC squeezed their balls a little.
"By a vote of 9-0, the council agreed to grant RIAC permission to include the culvert as part of its application. "
What a surprise...


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In a playground filled with gleeful shouts, you approach a group of children. Suddenly, your vision turns blurry and pixelated. The echoing screams become raucous.
It's the experience of sensory overload, according to a new game called Auti-Sim. The simulation, created by a three-member team at the Vancouver Hacking Health hackathon, aims to raise awareness of the challenges of hypersensitivity disorder and help people understand how it can lead to isolation.
The closer you get to loud and active children, the more overwhelming the situation becomes. As you move toward quieter areas, the strain tapers off.
Read more at: http://mashable.com/2013/03/07/auti-sim/
Via Natalie Stewart

subset: commoncrawl


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The first "Occupy the Gorge" movement camp-out was scheduled to come to a close Friday with a clean-up gathering at the Mosier event site where numerous tents had filled an open lot along the main street of town. However, the group is far from finished in their work.
According to Corie Lahr, Mosier resident and event organizer, the "Occupy the Gorge - Mosier" event attracted the attention of regional and national media to the results of financial debacles on Wall Street within rural areas.
"Rural communities have been hit harder than anyone by the policies the 'Occupy' movement has formed to fight," said Lahr, in an online article recently featured on the national "Occupy Wall Street" website.
According to Lahr, one additional "action" is planned for the group.
On Saturday from 3-4 p.m., an organized rally against the proposed 30,000-square-foot Walmart expansion is planned for the entrance to Hood River's City Hall.
Entitled "You are Not Above the Law," the rally seeks to encourage the city to oppose the expansion.
When asked how this opposition coincides with the "Occupy" message, Lahr said, "We want to keep people's voices alive in the Gorge and stop abuses by corporate entities.
"Walmart is one of the largest corporations in the world. We don't think this expansion fits with a vision for localized economies. Why should we allow Walmart to avoid local zoning laws ... do something illegal? This is a corporation whose profits do not even return to our community."
Through a coordinated outreach effort to meet the Nov. 8 deadline, "Occupy the Gorge" succeeded in adding 25 signatures from local residents to letters submitted to the city planning commission, expressing opposition to the proposed expansion.
"We have the possibility, as a small community, to create sustainable local economies and good jobs," said Lahr.
"We have a lot of employed folks with "Occupy the Gorge" who are just having difficulty making ends meet. When people say 'just get a job,' I say, what jobs?
"Rejecting low-wage job employers, and interests of businesses who want to export our jobs overseas, is critical," she said. "We want to keep good jobs here and we are taking action to support that."
According to Lahr, allowing Walmart to expand its grocery department is also a concern for local jobs.
"It will hurt our farmers markets, our farm stands, ... Rosauers and Safeway, who will be at a disadvantage trying to compete against their buying power and overseas product imports ... Both local grocery stores pay better wages and benefits."
By way of additional political action, the group posted a handwritten whiteboard signed with 35 "Occupy" signatures on site in Mosier. The group challenged Senator Ron Wyden (D - Ore.) with the following request:
"We strongly urge you to join Senator Merkley in opposing the Supreme Court ruling that grants corporate entities the rights of persons. Encourage legislative change to restore the power to the citizenry - and out of the hands of corporations."
Small communities around the country appeared to resonate with the Mosier residents' concerns, courtesy of an effective "Occupy Wall Street" web-post.
As far away as Gambier, Ohio (pop. 1,871) signs in support of the "Occupy Mosier" action could be seen posted along the small mid-western town's streets.
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TWO parties are showing interest in a landmark Port Fairy property that was passed in at auction on Saturday.
Bidding for Oscars Waterfront Boutique Hotel opened on a vendor's bid of $2.5 million, but failed to attract any offers from the 100-plus strong crowd.
The seven-bedroom hotel on the Moyne River was offered by hockingstuart, South Yarra, and Stockdale and Leggo of Port Fairy.
Stockdale and Leggo director Michael Hearn said the property attracted good interest before the auction, with information sent out statewide and nationally.
Mr Hearn said one party from Port Fairy and another from outside the district had expressed interest after the auction.
"We're yet to achieve a result," he said.
"Certainly with a property like this it's usual that the parties are doing their due diligence."
He was optimistic that a sale would eventuate from one of the parties: "The right noises are being made."
Mr Hearn said there was no doubt an auction — rarely held in the coastal town — was the right selling style for Oscars.
"It brings it to a head and you'd only do it with a specific property."
The hotel is on a 966-square-metre block close to the wharf, opposite the yachting marina and just a block from the town centre. It features a large drawing room, separate dining room, kitchen, huge wine cellar, five first-floor bedrooms, all with their own en suites, a separate rear building with two more bedroom suites and a double garage.
Mr Hearn said there was no question the top end of the property market across Australia had slowed, but Oscars had special appeal because it featured on every postcard and picture book depicting the picturesque Moyne River.
It was also in a town that had now achieved status as the world's most livable community with a population of under 20,000.


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Seeking to Provide Higher Quality Patient-Centered Out-of-Hospital Care and Helping to Prevent Emergencies Before They Begin
Enabling Legislation Passed in 2017: Wisconsin Act 66 – 2017
For more information
Contact Us
We are looking to encourage each of the existing 18 regions in NYS to hold "interest" meetings to recruit new members and organize efforts around making community paramedicine a reality in our state. Whether or not you are affiliated with the local REMAC/REMSCO, consider putting together a meeting at the local hospital, EMS station, or even at a town hall or community center.
The NY Mobile Integrated Healthcare Association will be happy to send a representative, presentation materials and handouts, or to simply help promote the meeting as best as possible.
Just contact us
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The Indelible Mark of a Mother's Prayer Training
J. C. Ryle:
Prayer is, of all habits, the one which we recollect the longest. Many a grey-headed man could tell you how his mother used to make him pray in the days of his childhood. Other things have passed away from his mind perhaps. The church where he was taken to worship, the minister whom he heard preach, the companions who used to play with him — all these, it may be, have passed from his memory, and left no mark behind. But you will often find it is far different with his first prayers. He will often be able to tell you where he knelt, and what he was taught to say, and even how his mother looked all the while. It will come up as fresh before his mind's eye as if it was but yesterday.
J. C. Ryle, The Upper Room, chapter 16.
Recent posts from "They Still Speak" —
- Where There's a Praying Mother, There's Always Hope (J. C. Ryle)
- Christianity Without Discipleship Is Christianity Without Christ (Bonhoeffer)
- What Is Essential to Being a Christian? (Jonathan Edwards)


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Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation
February 20, 2014
Lachlan Taylor
(510) 622-3959
CHSWC Releases 2013 Annual Report on California's Health and Safety
and Workers' Compensation Systems
OAKLAND —The Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation (CHSWC) has released its nineteenth Annual Report for 2013. The 2013 Annual Report presents information about the health and safety and workers' compensation systems in California and makes recommendations to improve their operations
The 2013 Annual Report includes CHSWC's recommendations for legislative and administrative changes for the benefit of California's workers and employers:
- Examine the system in light the passage of Senate Bill (SB) 863.
- Evaluate the impact of the changes both on an individual provision-by-provision basis and in combination on: medical necessity determinations; medical provider networks; appropriate fees for medical and other services; medical evaluations; and timely payment for medical and other services.
- Evaluate the impact of the new provisions on cost, quality and access of injured workers to appropriate and timely medical care, and address areas of potential concern.
- Evaluate reports and forms required by the Division of Workers' Compensation (DWC) as part of managing injured workers' treatment.
- Develop with DWC a Copy Service Fee Schedule taking into consideration the Copy Service Fee Schedule study as well as public comments and suggestions.
- Conduct a study of the operation and potential improvements of the Qualified Medical Evaluator (QME) process.
- Continue to improve the reporting of employers' coverage for workers' compensation so that coverage information is accurate.
- Continue to support the collection and analysis of transaction-level data from insurers by the Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau (WCIRB) to ensure predictability, transparency, incentives and California Department of Insurance (CDI) oversight of the insurance industry.
- Evaluate the administrative and overhead cost of delivering occupational medical care under workers' compensation insurance.
- Continue to support training and outreach about health and safety in order to prevent illness and injury on the job and consequently preserve worker earnings and control employer workers' compensation costs.
- Examine the integration of care and coordination of benefits in light of the Affordable Care Act and Medicare's secondary payer rules.
CHSWC, created by the workers' compensation reform legislation of 1993, is charged with examining the health and safety and workers' compensation systems in California and recommending administrative or legislative modifications to improve their operations.
Information about CHSWC and the 2013 Annual Report is available on the CHSWC website. Information may also be obtained by writing to the Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation, 1515 Clay Street, 17th Floor, Oakland, CA 94612; by calling (510) 622-3959; by faxing a request to (510) 622-3265; or by email to firstname.lastname@example.com.
Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation (CHSWC)
Quick Links
- CHSWC research reports
- Current CHSWC Annual Report of programs and data
- Guidebook for Injured Workers
- Guides about filing workers' comp claims
- Carve-Out/Alternative Dispute Resolution
- Young workers and workers' compensation
- Meetings, information bulletins and subscribtions to CHSWC
- Frequently asked questions about workers' comp for employers


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301 Market St., Suite 2
Scott Rosevear has been with Development & Alumni Relations since June 1999. As vice president for development and alumni relations, Rosevear is responsible for all fundraising efforts, from strategy to results; relationships with alumni, parents, volunteers, corporations and foundations; career services for students and alumni; prospect research and management; advancement information services; gift processing; and managing the University's comprehensive fundraising campaign.
Prior to coming to Bucknell, Rosevear worked at The University of Michigan (as a Graduate Assistant - Development Officer, Office of Academic Outreach, Graduate Assistant, Office of Annual Giving, Graduate Research Assistant, School of Education) and as a senior real estate investment analyst for Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company.
Rosevear received his B.A. from Michigan State University and his Ph.D., M.A. from the University of Michigan.
The following links are virtual breadcrumbs marking the 27 most recent pages you have visited in Bucknell.edu. If you want to remember a specific page forever click the pin in the top right corner and we will be sure not to replace it. Close this message.


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All 1 entries tagged Tunnelling
No other Warwick Blogs use the tag Tunnelling on entries | View entries tagged Tunnelling at Technorati | There are no images tagged Tunnelling on this blog
October 28, 2011
Tunnelling MSc
New students starting the Warwick MSc in Tunnelling & Underground Space have now had a few weeks in which to explore the Library's resources. The session in the Library at the start of term focused on databases such as Web of Science and EI Engineering Village but also on resources such as the Construction Information Service, OHSIS (Occupational Health and Safety information Service), British Standards, ScienceDirect and the ICE E-book collection. I hope all these are proving useful.
Students needing additional help with using these resources, or with finding information in general, are very welcome to contact me for follow-up sessions.
This photo shows the Eupalinos Tunnel, a very early example of a tunnel aqueduct, cut through a hillside on the Greek island of Samos in the 6th century BC - an interesting reminder of the challenges faced by engineers then. Teams started digging from both sides of the hillside and met in the middle, although various theories have been put forward as to quite how they managed this. The tunnel is 1036 metres in length.


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AMD warns on revenue, stock falls
Shares of No. 2 chipmaker fall nearly 2 percent after company says it's unlikely to meet previous first-quarter revenue guidance of $1.6 to $1.7 billion.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Advanced Micro Devices, the world's second-largest chipmaker, warned Monday that it is unlikely to meet its previously estimated revenue guidance of $1.6 to $1.7 billion for the first quarter.
Shares of AMD (up $0.28 to $14.23, Charts) fell 1.6 percent in trading Monday.
The announcement comes more than a month after AMD reported that earnings were down substantially in the fourth quarter of 2006, as the company's chip price war with Intel took a toll on its profits. (Full story)
The company's weakness in the fourth quarter was due to a loss of some business with computer resellers, CEO Hector Ruiz told analysts at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference on Monday.
AMD, said Ruiz, had experienced so much growth in sales from Dell (Charts) and other computer manufactures, or Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), that it had neglected resale customers.
"We saw a fairly dramatic shift [toward] most of our growth coming from OEM, and we had a hard time getting the mix [between resellers] and OEM right," he said. "We need to fix the challenge we created in the fourth quarter with our [computer resale] partners."
But Ruiz sought to reassure investors, telling conference attendees that he expects the revenue decline to be an isolated event.
Without providing specifics, Ruiz said the company is addressing the resale customer problem now. He also reaffirmed AMD's long-term gross margin guidance of 50 percent.
In January, Intel announced fourth-quarter earnings that were 39 percent lower than the year-ago period. (Full story)
Shares of Intel (Charts) closed at $19.22 on Friday.


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Is PC Optimizer Pro the Best Registry Cleaner?
You're about to find out...
Finding an effective registry cleaner online shouldn't be a hard job, but with 1000's of registry cleaners available online it can be almost impossible to find a good reliable registry cleaner that really work. so here are the top 5 registry cleaners you should consider:


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Tesla Motors said it would sell the big battery version of its Model S electric sports sedan in China for about $121,000. While that's an eye-popping number to American car shoppers, it actually represents a restrained, strategic approach for the Palo Alto automaker.
The starting price of the Model S with the 85 kWh battery pack will be $81,070 — the same as in the U.S. About $36,000 in Chinese tariffs and taxes, and another $4,000 to ship the car across the Pacific Ocean make up the rest.
Tesla also sells a smaller, less expensive version in the U.S.. But the big battery version gives the car a range of about 265 miles per charge and is the automakers' more popular choice.
"This pricing structure is something of a risk for Tesla, but we want to do the right thing for Chinese consumers," the company said in a statement Thursday. "If we were to follow standard industry practice, we could get away with charging twice as much for the Model S in China as we do in the U.S."
Chinese officials, however, have criticized foreign companies of gouging, especially when it comes to luxury or lifestyle goods.
Mercedes-Benz, for example, prices its top cars at about double what they sell for in the U.S.
"We want to treat our Chinese customers just as well as we'd treat customers in any other country," Tesla said.
It also is smart business.
China is the biggest, and fastest growing, auto market in the world.
Car companies sold nearly 22 million vehicles in China last year, a 14% gain, according to forecasting firm LMC Automotive. That compares with the U.S., the second best car market globally, where automakers sold 15.6 million vehicles, a nearly 8% gain.
Tesla already is experiencing strong demand for its luxury electric car in the U.S. and Europe, said Elaine Kwei, an analyst at Jefferies Group, the investment house.
The automaker sold 22,450 cars last year, about 1,000 more than expected as it ramped up manufacturing at its factory in Fremont, Calif.
"Although the company declined to break out international sales, we estimate roughly 2,000-2,500 were delivered outside of the U.S.," Kwei said.
Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk has said the company will launch sales of its Model X, an electric SUV, later this year and plans a third-generation electric car, which will start at about $35,000 within three years.
Next big auto battle is aluminum vs. steel
Editors picks of the Detroit Auto Show, (and a miss!)
Chevy Spark tops Honda, Toyota, Ford in small car crash tests
Follow me on Twitter (@LATimesJerry), Facebook and Google+.


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There's probably not a West Dundee post office customer that Sue Teas or Gary Steinmann does not know.
Together they have been working as either postal carrier or clerk for a total of 69 years.
They have taken and weighed boxes, oversized envelopes and letters, for Steinmann since the 1970s and for Teas since the 1980s. Decades of Christmas delivery rushes and income tax seasons have come and gone with them being behind the counter or a carrier bag.
Those days are coming to an end, though, for the pair. Teas and Steinmann will retire at the end of this month. With them, they will take memories of smiles and stories from customers and friendly and excitable dogs.
"I started in 1975 as a carrier when the post office was still in downtown West Dundee," Steinmann said. "Stamps were 13 cents before computers, emails and direct (bank) deposits. There was a lot more mail to be delivered back then."
He knew every dog on his route, every street and most of the names of the residents.
"Oh yes, I knew the dogs that were friendly. I would bring treats for them with me," he said. "I also knew the dogs to watch out for. I'm an animal lover. They needed to get used to me."
Teas started in 1984, after postal employees moved into their new Route 31 building. Then, stamps were more expensive, but the Internet still had not made its dent into the volume of mail that was being delivered six days a week.
She was not a carrier, but she knew the struggles of those who walked the tree-lined streets of the 60118 ZIP code for East and West Dundee and Sleepy Hollow.
"People don't realize how hard carrying that bag is on the body," she said. "When it's full, it can weigh 50 pounds. Walking up and down on those streets is hard on the carriers' backs and legs. I've always worked the desk, and I've always enjoyed my job because I work with the customers."
After 10 years, Steinmann came in from the streets and began working at the desk, too. After taking countless letters and packages, he has become an expert on ZIP codes and what part of the country or world they are going to.
"When I started, the mail was hand sorted; now, it's all done with automation," said Steinmann, who grew up in West Dundee but now resides in Elgin. "After working here a while, we all get to know the regular customers."
"Being a postal clerk is like being a bartender in a lot of ways," said Teas, an Elgin resident. "They tell us funny stuff and personal stuff. They tell us about weddings and birthdays. Some of the stuff is sad. Some of the stories are sad.
"Through the years, I have made a lot close friends with the customers. There's a lot of really nice people here in Dundee."
Those people, she says, she will miss the most. The long, unpredictable hours she won't miss.
When employees start working for the post office, their days start at 5 a.m. and end at 6 p.m. Part-timers have a three-to-four-hour break during the day, but their schedules are not consistent. One day, they deliver mail after they sort it; the next day they sort it and work the customer desk.
Put all that together, and a career is made in the U.S. Postal Service.
"Delivering and sorting the mail isn't just a job," Steinmann said. "People depend on us. They learn to know when to listen for their mailboxes to open and close. They wait for those letters to tell them if they received the job promotion, a check or something they have been waiting for."
The retirement of Steinmann and Teas will be a loss not only for regular postal customers, but for the West Dundee post office, said Postmaster Jacqueline Kousoulas.
With them leaving and having two other employees on extended leave, the post office will have to continue with a smaller staff.
"Both Gary and Sue will be missed. They have been such an important part of the office. They have added a quality of service that will be hard to replace," Kousoulas said.


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... or more likely, pick up the $99.99 60GB Live Starter Pack for Xbox 360.
Or (in an even more likely scenario if you're reading Slashdot) you will opt to do it yourself [pcworld.com] to get twice that storage for a little over half the cost [newegg.com]. This is, of course, assuming that locking out "unauthorized storage" does not also target in some crazy way locking out hard drives.
Exactly. Consoles have always been a locked down device versus the openness of PC. I dont know why people are surprised when this kind of stuff happens.
The minor exception being that for the most part, you can't run what you want on said external memory cards... there is potentially executable code stored on MS memory cards, hence why MS is being paranoid with it.
Excuse me?
Some consoles actually are a fair bit more open than others. [playstation.com]
Of course. Replace something from Microsoft by something from Microsoft.
How clever of you. I guess.
You're right about the OS for gaming (but the less honest guys can probably find a pirated XP Corporate Edition).
The hardware, however, is NOT controlled by Microsoft.
My own PC is still mostly running Windows, but I fully expect that Microsoft will some day piss me off enough that Windows gets kicked from the HD. At that point I'll have to give up some games that don't (yet) run under WINE but otherwise I'll be fine. You don't have that sort of freedom with a console.
You're right about the OS for gaming (but the less honest guys can probably find a pirated XP Corporate Edition).
That still doesn't solve the problem. You actually have to buy games on alternative OSes so that game developers target them more often. If you just pirate Windows, you are still enforcing the "Windows for Gaming Platform" because developers will continue to make games for Windows. Other people around the world will see this and continue to buy Windows, thus keeping the circle alive.
Isn't that exactly what they're doing here? Locking out unauthorized storage.
For that matter I dont know why anyone would buy the Arcade version. If you're already putting that kind of money for it, you might just put the little extra and get the version that has all the features. (and before someone starts ranting about "you shouldn't pay for extra features", look at it the other way around - the best version is the standard version, if you get anything below it you dont get all the features)
My four year old X360 died two months ago. Not a Red Ring Of Death, it went completely inert. No light at all. Swapping the power brick with a couple borrowed ones confirmed the unit failure. I had upgraded it to a 120G official MS hard drive a year ago.
I bought the arcade unit because [1] I could just plug the old hard drive into it and [2] as far as I could determine it was the model with the latest, greatest chip set that had all known issues solved. Works great.
I always thought one of the arguments for going console was that this was never going to be an issue?
He's referring to slight redesigns (and a smaller fab process) that makes the box run cooler and significantly reduces most of the RRoD failures. It still functions in the same way as the older devices.
What you're referring to is not having to upgrade components, I think. A 360 is a 360 is a 360, and you don't have to check to make sure that yours has the right graphics card in order to know that a particular game will work on it. You need the right peripherals, of course, and if Project Natal takes off,
Isn't that exactly what they're doing here? Locking out unauthorized storage.
I understand what you're saying but I do not know how they would do this. I'm not a hardware guy but what I do know of firmware is that if you're making this drive look like the correct corresponding WD1200BEV drive [ivancover.com] firmware-wise
making this drive look like the correct corresponding WD1200BEV drive firmware-wise
Take the serial number of the drive, sign it with Microsoft private key and put the signed text into the MBR or somewhere else where it will be not touched by the filesystem. Anyone with the Microsoft public key (and certainly any Xbox) can verify who signed the drive.
Anyone considering this would do well to note that the product number of the drive you linked and the drive needed for this hack are NOT THE SAME and you will fail if you use the model that ends in BEVT. The BEVS version is no longer produced, hard to find, and has an inflated price as a result of this known procedure.
WHOA THERE COWBOY!!! Anyone considering this would do well to note that the product number of the drive you linked and the drive needed for this hack are NOT THE SAME and you will fail if you use the model that ends in BEVT. The BEVS version is no longer produced, hard to find, and has an inflated price as a result of this known procedure.
That's really interesting considering the reviews (several) to the right of the Newegg BEVT product read:
xbox 360
white Reviewed By: Nick on 9/2/2009
Rating + 5
Tech Level Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 week to 1 month
This user purchased this item from Newegg
Pros: Purchased this device to upgrade the capacity of my 360. I now have a 120GB 360 drive for a fraction the cost of a ms one.
Cons: none
Other Thoughts: You must be experienced with computers to use this drive for the 360. (Not just plug
They ship with different brands of drives right now, western digital ones are the only ones that can currently have their firmware spoofed and security sector rewritten with an all-in-one tool (HddHackr). As of version 1.00 it supports:
- WD Scorpio Series BEVS/BEAS
- WD Scorpio Blue Series BEVS/BEVT
- WD Scorpio Black Series BEKT/BJKT
- WD VelociRaptor Series
I just bought a BEKT so I can have a nice 7200 rpm drive assuming they aren't about
This is, of course, assuming that locking out "unauthorized storage" does not also target in some crazy way locking out hard drives.
You know the old saying about what happens when you ASSUME, right?
Unless it's an official licensed XBOX device, by definition its an "unauthorized storage" device. Therefore these hard drives that you suggest buying from Newegg will also be locked out when this new update arrives.
Isn't locking competitors out of the game sort of like Harley Davidson and their requirement to use only HD oil in order not to void the warranties of the new motorcycles? I believe they lost a lawsuit in the mid 1980's over that and ended up having to supply all warrantied locked purchasers with of their HD oil until they changes the warranty clause. I know MS isn't doing a warranty thing here bit the principle seems to be the same.
Check out 2302 sections C of the Magnusson-Moss Act. [cornell.edu] I'm sort of thinking
Check out 2302 sections C of the Magnusson-Moss Act. I'm sort of thinking that altering the device to accept competitors devices should be completely legal and still maintain a warranty if the interfaces are the same.
The act says that Microsoft can't deny you warranty protection. It doesn't say that they can't make the device refuse to take non-certified accessories. Sega v. Accolade says that it's legal for manufacturers of compatible devices to take necessary steps to make the console believe their devices are certified, and so on.
But that $50 price may double over the next few years, according to financial analysts. [...] "I doubt that MS would start raising the price of XBL, they have to compete against the PSN which is free and has all the same features. What ever you may think of MS they are not stupid," said another.
I personally doubt MS will increase the cost given they keep adding marketing features to the dashboard. I think they're more likely to look for added revenue via paid marketing and other 'premium downloads' type marketing much like we're beginning to see (such as the the "avatar marketplace").
Indeed. A 512 MB card shouldn't cost more than $5 right now, while a 2G card should be under $20. They're nickel and diming their customers in the wrong places. If I could buy a nice 100 GB hard disk for $50, I would not only spring for that, but also download far more content - which in turn would drive up my perceived value of the system.
Instead, I'm getting the impression that I'm being fleeced every time I want to do something useful. Maybe that PS3 isn't such a bad idea after all.
Gotta love MS, always two steps behind when they crib their strategy from elsewhere (in this case the big box stores that love overpriced accessories).
Marking the hell out of cheap commodity accessories stopped being [nytimes.com] a viable business [compusa.com] model a few years ago.
Here's hoping that extended warranty scams and increased online competition force some sense into the big boxes at some point, but the writing's on the wall.
Amazon's already trialing same-day shipping in major markets. Other etailers won't be far behind.
What they should be doing is selling storage for the inflated prices but including download credits for a good chunk of the purchase price of the storage. Charging $99.99 for the 60G product would seem more reasonable if it came with a ~$75 code that could be used to purchase downloads since it would lower the apparent cost of the physical object to $24.99 while not lowering MS's profit on the product by all that much.
It would have the added benefit of getting people in the habit of purchasing downloads.
[Disclaimer: I do not work for/near the xbox team or have any non-public knowledge about what they do or why they do it]
I'd guess the issue is about control of the content and experience.
Once you make it really easy for people to move data in and out of the "closed system" of the console and the playground of the PC, certain types of attacks become possible, and other types of attacks become much, much easier. You might rightly say that that horse has left the barn, but i think it's an issue of bar-setting
I agree wholeheartedly and have an anecdote to boot.
I have an Xbox 360. I copied Mass Effect onto the Xbox 360 so that it would load and run faster. I then proceeded to 'rent' a movie (Troy) in HD. It took around 30 minutes to be able to get Xbox to accept one of my credit cards (incidentally no feedback was ever given as to why it was rejecting them). Finally, the Xbox accepted a credit card I rented the movie and it refused to download because I lacked space. So I started deleting all the "little" games a
I find Microsoft's willingness to squeeze for storage interesting in two respects: One, it suggests a very high level of optimism about their position in the market. Two, it suggests that they don't much care about, or aren't making much money from, downloadable offerings for the Xbox(or that they view those offerings as being extremely compelling and likely to drive consumer behavior).
See, I think the exact opposite.
I think they see downloadable offerings as almost their entire future, and I think this activity is not centered around squeezing people for storage, but about maintaining control over storage options, to make sure every storage option has DRM support deep in their bones.
Microsoft does want everyone to have humungous hard drives. They just want to make sure that those hard drives are theirs, so they can build DRM into the storage at multiple levels, to prevent piracy of the downloaded content. Otherwise the level of piracy might approach that on the PC, and, well, better to go out of business than to tolerate that.
If they want everyone to have humungous hard drives, why the hell aren't they providing them at some sort of reasonable cost? (Or at all!)
It's shit like this that makes me unlikely to ever own a console. Yeah, I have to deal with all sorts of stupid hardware things in Windows.
Like why the hell is Fallout 3's radio music stuttering? No, I've already googled it and found the reason, I just can't seem to fix the stupid problem...apparently, Vista's mp3 decoder is crap or something, and I'm sure there's a rea
Locking out the competitor's product should be illegal. If you can't compete because your product is overpriced, you shouldn't be propped up. Yes that may mean that people have to pay the true cost of a console or printer or other device, as it isn't subsidised by content/ink etc. It's called honesty. Manufacturers should try it some time.
If you don't want to be updated, don't connect to the online service.
Yep. I'll just go buy a console designed to be online where the best games require the online service, and then not connect to the service. Sounds reasonable to me.
You can buy 60GB for $99 or "stick it to the man" by paying $29 for a 2GB third party device?
Two things.
We are talking about flash vs flash not flash vs Magnetic Disk Hard Drives.
Unauthorized as in non-Microsoft or not Microsoft approved?
If they lock out even 3rd party devices, aren't they jumping straight into "abusive monopoly" territory?
But still, that would mean disabling customer hardware that previously worked... It still smells like a class-action lawsuit to me.
This is the same Datel that Nintendo tried to pull this stunt with 16 or 17 years ago. As you can see, Datel won that one.
But Apple blocking the Pre from working with iTunes isn't bad?
Point of Order: Apple blocked the Pre from falsifying its USB device address/ID to get that compatibility.
While this situation is c
Apple isn't blocking the Pre from working with iTunes. Apple is blocking the Pre from working with iTunes by pretending it's an iPod. If Palm had used supported APIs (say, by letting you create a "Palm Pre" playlist and then reading the songs from that playlist to sync to the Pre) there wouldn't be a problem. Palm cheaped out to avoid having to write their own sync application (which is crazy, because they made the best handheld sync I've ever used) and used a hack instead.
People expect publishers to lock o
The drive-less Xbox 360 Arcade unit is cheap ($199) but to realistically use it, you'll need to buy a "Memory Unit" (basically a proprietary USB stick) or an Xbox hard drive.... A 512 MB Microsoft branded Memory Unit goes for $29.99 at BestBuy.com.
The current version of the Arcade comes with 512M internal memory, so throw this whole statement out the window.
This will kill them in the battle against the PS3. Sony make it so easy, for a start every PS3 comes with a hard drive, so games developers can assume that there is bulk persistent storage there and take advantage of it. You can also use USB mass storage devices. You can also upgrade the internal hard drive with undoing just a couple of screws, and it's all supported.
Sony have an easy way for you to back up your PS3 to an external USB hard drive, you then insert any laptop hard drive (I went with a 7.2k one and some things are noticeably faster) and you then restore your system onto the new hard drive. All without paying Sony an extra cent.
This is the wave of the future with all devices.
You don't need to upgrade it yourself, let Microsoft give you storage, for a "small monthly fee".
Next will be, you don't need to "own" a PC, or software, rent it, for a couple of "small monthly fees"
Let someone else manage your data, for a small monthly fee.
Let someone else update your programs, for a small monthly fee.
Let someone else manage the hardware, for a small monthly fee.
You will pay your "small monthly fees" and you will get NO WARRANTY, NO FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NO RECOURSE, NO REFUNDS, and NO SECURITY.
Most of the caps text is taken from the license agreement from most 'online only' software.
Think it won't work? It already does.
You don't "own" your cellphone, SIM card, or it's data. You simply rent it, for a "small monthly fee".
Good luck selling any of it, getting a decent warranty, or being able to cancel your contract.
Small Monthly Fees, get used to paying them , for everything.
We're still evil!
The rich get rich, and the poor get poorer. The haves get more, the have-nots die.


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The mathematician is reported to have said "I have all I want".... speaking through the closed door of his flat.He also turned down the Fields Medal:
"I'm not interested in money or fame," he is quoted to have said at the time.
"I don't want to be on display like an animal in a zoo. I'm not a hero of mathematics. I'm not even that successful; that is why I don't want to have everybody looking at me."He seems to be so wrong, but he is so much smarter than we are. Should we not absorb his opinion with awe and respect?


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Most of us who have owned them understand that, at some point, a vintage Corvette is going to be a project car. What Vince Gabrunas could not have expected when he bought his '74 Stingray was how fast that would happen. A mere three weeks after purchasing the small-block coupe, he was sitting in a Burger King drive-through when an agitated customer ahead of him gunned his Nova in Reverse, driving its trailer hitch completely through the front end of the Corvette. As the line from Tolkien goes, "And so it begins."
This shark, however, wasn't headed for a code-correct restoration. As a member of the Boone Trail Corvette Club (www.boonetrailcc.com), Gabrunas counted among his friends and mentors a gentleman named Bill Rush, who inspired him to start autocrossing the car. Unlike many Corvettes that see weekend track use, though, this one actually looks the part.
Having been inspired by the outrageous Greenwood racers, the styling cues Gabrunas added are obvious from the outside of the car: Daytona-style fender louvers and a low air dam both hint at high speeds, as do the inset Hella headlights that replaced the standard flip-up lights. An architectural designer, Gabrunas modified the headlamp boxes to hold the much-improved lights, and even custom- fabricated their Lexan covers. In fact, he made virtually every modification to the car himself, with the exception of shooting the purple paint in which the Corvette is clad.
Until recently, the general practice of warfare was of pillage, in which the victors appropriated things they found useful from those they had conquered. Perhaps taking this view of things will make it easier to accept the fact that this Corvette's Violet Blue paint came from Porsche. Available for only one year--1991--the striking color is broken above the front wheels, where broad metallic-black hash marks, reminiscent of Grand Sport stripes, cover the louvers and spill over onto the outboard side of the high fenders. Fore and aft C5 crossed flags replace the older chrome emblems on both the car's nose and gas cap, and the "RAC3R" vanity plate makes Gabrunas' intentions clear for those who may have missed the subtleties of Stingray design.
Even looking at the car from the rear, from the '82-style fascia that was installed when Gabrunas bought it, you can see there's little that hasn't been changed. Bright LED taillights sourced from a semitruck added a little extra safety margin, as did the high-mount third brake light he wired in above the rear window. The rear window itself, originally the turbulence-enhancing fixed unit that came standard on the '74 Corvette, was replaced with the more T-top--friendly removable one found in '72 and earlier cars. This change, Gabrunas says, was simpler than expected: It took longer to scrape the sealant off the old back glass than it did to install the new one.
Inside, the complete dash was replaced by one Gabrunas custom-fabricated and overlaid with actual carbon fiber in purple. White-faced Auto Meter Phantom gauges, meanwhile, displaced the dim stock ones. Similarly, the factory seats went away, supplanted by a pair that offered more support and came from a '94 Saturn sedan. (The coupe buckets apparently weren't as comfortable.)
But so far, most of this is cosmetic. The five-point RJS racing harness, however, not so much. A critical racing modification--you can't feel what the car is doing if you can't stay in one place in it--the harness is mounted to a transverse bar Gabrunas designed and had a friend weld up. It's one of two: The other bar is concealed beneath the dash and, like the dual purposes served by the rear bar, helps stiffen up the chassis. A front shock-tower brace similarly limits deflection in the front suspension, which has been fully rebuilt with heavy-duty upper control arms from Vette Brakes & Products (VB&P). VB&P also contributed a lightweight transverse leaf spring, which takes the place of the customary steel coil springs. QA1 shocks all around help keep the 255 g-Force Sports from BFGoodrich planted firmly on the pavement, and a Steeroids rack-and-pinion steering upgrade keeps the 17-inch Ion wheels pointed in the direction the car needs to go.
Nor has the rear suspension been neglected. Gabrunas used Heim-jointed Smart Struts from VB&P as an upgrade for the factory camber rods, which rely on a somewhat crude eccentric mount in order to maintain alignment. Heavier sway bars (1-1/8-inch front, 3/4-inch rear) were also installed in both positions. A dual-mount composite monospring superseded the multi-leaf rear steel spring--at least it did until recently giving way in a shower of sparks during an 1,800-mile road trip from Troy, Missouri, down to Pensacola, Florida, where members of the Boone Trail club went to meet the Blue Angels. (For a photo of that meeting, showing Gabrunas' car on the tarmac with the Angels, see the Nov. '10 issue of VETTE). Fortunately, there was no major damage. Gabrunas sourced a new composite unit, but when I saw the Corvette at Mid America's Corvette Funfest last September, it was getting from Point A to Point B on a steel spring.
Motivation for this comprehensively modified package comes from a GM Performance Parts 350 rated at 290 horses and backed up to a Turbo-400 into which a previous owner may or may not have installed a shift kit. An Edelbrock Performer intake manifold and a K&N air filter/lid combo let the 350 breathe a little easier, as does a set of shorty Patriot headers. The trans benefits from a cooler as well as a fluid-temp gauge located in the center console.
While we've all been spoiled into expecting more power from a Corvette, now's a good time to mention that near the end of its life, the C3's mighty LS5 454 only produced about 270 gross horsepower, putting it about 20 behind this crate engine. Besides, raw power isn't the deciding factor in autocross; the ability to control the car is. Ask a fellow Boone Trail member who drives a C6 Z06--and who's been beaten by a certain purple small-block '74.
Things are meant to be used, and this Stingray gets used as it should--both dodging cones and on the street, as evidenced by the long road trip to the Sunshine State. But it also serves another purpose for which Corvettes are often used: paying tribute to those who have passed.
On the rear fascia is affixed a decal memorializing Bill Rush, the longtime Boone Trail club member who originally inspired Gabrunas to begin racing. Rush had planned on joining Gabrunas and the others for the long trip to Pensacola, but succumbed to cancer shortly before the trip. The purple '74, with the memorial decal attached, followed behind the family in the procession and led 20 Corvettes the 40 miles from the funeral home to Rush's military funeral outside of St. Louis.
No doubt this Stingray is eye catching and fun to drive, but it's also a reminder of greater things--of the value of putting your own hard work into something, of enjoying what you have, and of celebrating those who take the journey with us.


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July 16, 2013 > The Bookworm: "Attention All Passengers" by William J. McGee
You haven't gained weight.Not an ounce. That's what you were thinking as you looked at the airplane seat to which you'd been assigned. You hadn't gained weight, so the only explanation was that the seat was made for first-graders. If you could've gotten your knees out from under your chin and pulled the tray-table down without committing Hara Kiri, you might've even been comfortable.You thought you'd save a few bucks by booking the flight yourself, on an airline you're not used to flying. Was that a mistake? For an answer, grab "Attention All Passengers" by William J. McGee, and strap yourself in...You have an important event that you absolutely can't miss, and it's in another corner of the country. So, like a smart consumer, you went online, found a flight, and booked your trip. It probably wouldn't surprise you to know that ticket costs vary, depending on time and location of purchase. What you might not realize, though, is that where you got your ticket and how much you paid determines the customer service (or lack thereof) that you'll get (or won't).Wasn't flying supposed to be enjoyable?Yes, there was a time, says McGee, when "flying was fun." You got on the plane without having to near-undress. Luggage went along, fee-free. Yes, it was a rare treat, it could be very expensive for the average Joe, but it was an exciting pleasure.And then came deregulation.McGee says it was assumed that airlines would regulate themselves but that didn't happen and it made things worse for consumers. Load factors are now at "theoretical maximum," so airlines impose ancillary fees to create revenue. They also overbook - something no other business does - and who you book with may not be who you fly with. Seats are jammed together with mere inches left for "comfort."But those are just annoyances, compared to deregulation's effects on safety. Airlines are reluctant to ban unrestrained "lap babies." Cabin doors are reinforced, but sometimes not very well. Food is rarely inspected, we aren't informed enough on emergency survival techniques, and airplanes are frighteningly accessible to people without clearance. What's worse: plane maintenance is usually outsourced, often overseas.For twenty-seven years, author William McGee spent working "in and around aviation," and when he started this book, he vowed to his mother that he'd make it "good."He kept his promise."Attention All Passengers" is eye-opening, irritating, and downright disturbing, despite that flying is, statistically, safer than other modes of travel. McGee had access to experts, officials, and government agencies in the researching of this book, which gives it an air of authority without sensationalism; that, and the extremely useful hints on individual safety make this an invaluable read for any traveler.If planning a business or pleasure trip gives you personal turbulence, this won't soothe your fears one bit. But if the sky's the limit for your travel plans and you want to take a good book along with you, I think "Attention All Passengers" is just the ticket.c.2012, Harper $26.99 / $29.99 Canada354 pages, includes index


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David Villa will be allowed to leave Barcelona in January, and will be available for £15 million with Tottenham and Liverpool among the clubs interested in the striker, according Marca.
The Spanish newspaper also reports that the former Valencia forward will be allowed to leave for £10 million in the summer if he cannot complete a move away from the Nou Camp in the winter window.
Villa has fallen out of favour at the Nou Camp and hasn't completed a full 90 minutes since returning from breaking his leg in the Club World Cup final last year.
According to Marca, Villa is unhappy with his lack of chances and sees his future away from Barcelona. The £40 million signing in 2009 is said to open to move in January, with Spurs and Liverpool said to be amongst a host of clubs vying for his signature.
Both Tottenham and Liverpool look short of options in attack and could be ready to make a move for the 31-year-old in January or at the end of the season.
Liverpool appear close to landing Chelsea forward Daniel Sturridge but could still look to add options in attack in January given that Luis Suarez and the injured Fabio Borini represent their only options up front.
Tottenham meanwhile have only Jermain Defoe and Emmanuel Adebayor to lead the line at White Hart Lane, with the Togolese striker currently struggling with injury.
Both Spurs and Liverpool could move to sign Villa in the new year or at the end of the current campaign, although his high wages could prove prohibitive for both clubs.
Do YOU want to write for GiveMeSport? Get started today by signing-up and submitting an article HERE: https://www.givemesport.com/writeforgms


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Welcome to my Young Adult Faeries & Fantasy Giveaway Hop, hosted by I Am A Reader, Not A Writer and co-hosted by Gabrielle from The Mod Podge Bookshelf. This hop runs from January 8th to 14th 2013, and you can win lots of new reads. Click here for a complete list of blogs participating in the hop.
I am giving away an ARC of Sean Cummings' Poltergeeks.
About the book:
15-year-old Julie Richardson is about to learn that being the daughter of a witch isn't all it's cracked up to be. When she and her best friend, Marcus, witness an elderly lady jettisoned out the front door of her home, it's pretty obvious to Julie there's a supernatural connection.
In fact, there's a whisper of menace behind increasing levels of poltergeist activity all over town. After a large-scale paranormal assault on Julie's high school, her mother falls victim to the spell Endless Night. Now it's a race against time to find out who is responsible or Julie won't just lose her mother's soul, she'll lose her mother's life.
Entering is easy! Just fill out the widget below. Earn extra entries for following! US addresses only, please.


text: Ideal for drummers, keyboard players or anyone requiring hands-free operation Comfortable, unobtrusive headband design with side-of-mouth pickup Belt-mounted power module operates on battery or phantom power 3' (0.9 m) cable permanently attached between microphone and power module Also available as:ATM73ac -- less power module; 55" (1.4 m) cable, unterminated;ATM73cW -- less power module; 55" (1.4 m) cable terminated with locking 4-pin connector for A-T UniPak™ wireless systems ATM73a Specifications Element Phantom Power Requirements Condenser 9 - 52V, 2 mA typical Polar Pattern Battery Type Cardioid 1.5V AA/UM3 Frequency Response Battery Current/Life 60 - 15,000 Hz 1 mA/1000 hours typical Open Circuit Sensitivity Switch -56 dB (1.5 mV) re 1V at 1 Pa Off/on-flat/on-roll-off Impedance Low Frequency Roll-off 200 ohms 150 Hz, 6 dB per octave Maximum Input Sound Level Weight 135 dB SPL, 1 kHz at 1% T.H.D. 1.1 oz (31 g) Signal to Noise Ratio Power Module 60 dB, 1 kHz at 1 Pa In-line Dynamic Range (Typical) Output Connector 101 dB, 1 kHz at Max. SPL XLRM-type (power module) Accessories Furnished: Windscreen; AT8530 power module (attached); battery


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Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 2nd Aug 2013 18:10 UTC, submitted by dylansmrjones
From ZDnet:
Fancy running iWork on Linux? It may one day be possible courtesy of a project to get Apple OS X programs running on Linux-based operating systems.
Similar to how Wine allows Windows applications to run in Linux OS, the Darling project is trying to build a software compatibility layer to run OS X apps.
I obviously doubt the attainability of the project's goals, but this will be a fantastic coding experience for the programmers involved.
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RE: Comment by Stephen!
by jeffb on Sat 3rd Aug 2013 10:42 UTC in reply to "Comment by Stephen!"
"Fancy running iWork on Linux?
Since it doesn't have the dominance of Microsoft Office, does iWork have any particular advantage over just running Open Office or Libre Office on Linux? "
It isn't really a competitor for Microsoft Office. Pages and Keynote genuinely make much heavier use of templates. Documents look good but are more constrained in their look and feel. Keynote is more or less on par with Powerpoint features wise, but Pages isn't close to the depth of features of Word.
Numbers is even more different. From a spreadsheet perspective it follows the philosophy of Lotus Improv (today Quantrix) not Lotus 1-2-3. Again layout and aesthetics are but functions are definable and not all cells are equal. The paradigm encourages modeling while Number's limitation encourage manipulation of small amounts of data.


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Capitalist Peace Theory: A Critical Appraisal
Gerald Schneider
Capitalist peace theory (CPT) has gained considerable attention in international relations theory and the conflict literature. Its proponents maintain that a capitalist organization of an economy pacifies states internally and externally. They portray CPT either as a complement or as a substitute to other liberal explanations such as the democratic peace thesis. They, however, disagree about the facet of capitalism that is supposed to reduce the risk of political violence. Key contributions have identified three main drivers of the capitalist peace phenomenon: the fiscal constraints that a laissez-faire regimen puts on potentially aggressive governments, the mollifying norms that a capitalist organization creates; and the increased ability of capitalist governments to signal their intentions effectively in a confrontation with an adversary. Defining capitalism narrowly through the freedom entrepreneurs enjoy domestically, this article evaluates the key causal mechanisms and empirical evidence that have been advanced in support of these competing claims. The article argues that CPT needs to be based on a narrow definition of capitalism and that it should scrutinize motives and constraints of the main actors more deeply. Future contributions to the CPT literature should also pay close attention to classic theories of capitalism, which all considered individual risk taking and the dramatic changes between booms and busts to be key constitutive features of this form of economic governance. Finally, empirical tests of the proposed causal mechanism should rely on data sets in which capitalists appear as actors and not as "structures." If the literature takes these objections seriously, CPT could establish itself as central theory of peace and war in two respects. First, it could serve as an antidote to the theory of imperialism and other "critical" approaches that see in capitalism a source of conflict rather than of peace. Second, it could become an important complement to commercial liberalism that stresses the external openness rather than the internal freedoms as an economic cause of peace and that particularly sees trade and foreign direct investment as pacifying forces.
Comparative and International Political Economy and the Global Financial Crisis
Alison Johnston
The 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and subsequent European Debt Crisis had wide-sweeping consequences for global economic and political stability. Yet while these twin crises have prompted soul searching within the economics profession, international political economy (IPE) has been relatively ineffective in accounting for variation in crisis exposure across the developed world. The GFC and European Debt Crisis present the opportunity to link IPE and comparative political economy (CPE) together in the study of international economic and financial turmoil. While the GFC was prompted by the inter-connectedness of global financial markets, its instigators were largely domestic in nature and were reflective of negative externalities that stemmed from unsustainable national policies, especially those related to financial regulation and household debt accumulation. Many in IPE take an "outward looking in" approach to the examination of international economic developments and domestic politics; analysis rests on how the former impacts the latter. The GFC and European Debt Crisis, however, demonstrate the importance of a (CPE-based) "inward looking out" approach, analyzing how unique policy and political features (and failures) of individual nation states can unleash economic and financial instability at the global level amidst deepened economic and financial integration. IPE not only needs to grant greater attention to variation in domestic politics and policies in a time of closely integrated financial markets, but also should acknowledge the impact of a wider array of actors beyond banks and financial institutions (specifically more domestically rooted actors like households) on cross-national variation in the consumption of foreign credit.
Economic Incentives as Weapons of War
Katherine Barbieri
International relations scholars tend to differentiate between a state's use of military and economic instruments of power and also between rewards and punishments. In conflict scenarios, leaders are typically depicted as facing a choice between using military versus economic forms of punishment to achieve desired political outcomes. The role of economic rewards is seldom analyzed within the context of adversarial relations or within combat operations. The U.S. military has used money in combat and noncombat operations to influence actors and shape the operational environment in a manner favorable to the troops. There has been some attention devoted to the military's noncombatant role and to efforts to win hearts and minds. Little attention has been devoted to the use of money in kinetic operations. The military's use of money in its operations, including counterinsurgency and stability operations, provides insight for international relations scholars interested in when economic inducements may be effective within adversarial relations or conflict situations. It represents a form of targeted sanctions, in the sense of applying positive inducements selectively at the micro level, to achieve macro-level objectives. The U.S. military has relied on a growing body of empirical research in persuasion science to inform its operations. The case and findings from persuasion science could contribute to understanding the problems and possibilities of harnessing the power of money to achieve political outcomes.
Emerging Powers in Foreign Policy
Leslie Wehner
Emerging powers are usually referred to as states whose increasing material capacities and status-seeking strategies may potentially have an impact on the international system and also affect the dominant position of the hegemonic powers therein. The rising of new powers is a recurrent phenomenon in international relations. When talking about emerging powers, scholars associate the words with the so-called BRICS states: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The emergence of BRICS, and especially of China, poses the question of whether the rising process is a peaceful one. Realism, institutionalism, and constructivism have all dealt with the possible systemic impacts of the BRICS states. BRICS nations seem to be reformist rather than disruptive, meaning that they are pushing for the better representation of their self-perceived new status in multilateral institutions rather than challenging the current system per se. In terms of foreign policy, BRICS states interact with well-established powers such as the United States and European ones—herein they display balancing or bandwagoning strategies, as they do also toward each other. Moreover, well-established powers either accommodate or contest the rising process and status claims of these emerging powers. However, BRICS states are also regional powers. Regional peers contest the rising processes of BRICS and particularly claims to global powerhood.
While BRICS can be seen as striving for the reform of multilateral institutions, the traditional view of BRICS as a homogenous force, comprising countries with similar interests, is sometimes misleading. Even though BRICS states have their own institution with a new bank, they also pursue different interests within traditional institutions. Therefore, the existing literature on BRICS is tilted toward systemic and institutional concerns. Although works taking into consideration the interplay between the domestic and international levels in foreign policy analysis do exist, they are not necessarily related to emerging processes and rarely go beyond foreign economic policy issues. People, leaders, and governmental institutions are decision makers or are part of the decision-making process in foreign policy, and thus they form perceptions and act according to how the rising process of the state is unfolding. An integration of the systemic, state, and personal levels captures the essence of the foreign policies of BRICS states in the context of rising and can take into consideration the ups and downs and stalemates of rising-process trajectories in international politics.
The Eurozone Crises
Kurt Hübner
Even the most critical observers of the creation of the euro found some nice words on the occasion of its 10th anniversary. And yet it needed only a marginal event like the announcement of the newly elected Greek government that the previously stated public debt ratio was gravely miscalculated to move the euro into a critical crisis zone. Swiftly the attention of private credit markets turned to more member states of the eurozone, only to eventually detect that financial stability of banks did not meet sustainability indicators.
What is often labeled as "eurozone crisis" is better understood by a political-economic forensic analysis that rather speaks of eurozone crises. First, the causes for financial and then sovereign debt crises of Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland (to name only the most prominent) differ fundamentally. They were triggered by the same events but caused by differing factors. Second, it is a crisis of economic governance, and thus an institutional crisis that needs fundamental institutional changes. Third, it is a crisis of political leadership.
The overlapping character as well as the interplay of those three dimensions hampers a proper understanding of the dynamics of the processes that started in 2010. By differentiating between national crisis causes, triggering mechanisms, policy responses, and multi-level crises management, we suggest a comprehensive analytical framework that may guide current as well as future research in the operating of an incomplete currency union.
The Expansion of Economic Freedom and the Capitalist Peace
Erich Weede
On the one hand, the idea of a capitalist peace is a set of loosely integrated, but testable propositions. On the other hand it is part of a wider, libertarian philosophy of life. The spirit of this wider conception is best expressed by a quote from a pioneer of quantitative international politics, in 1981 Rummel wrote, "If you want peace, then minimize the power of government." Although there has been a proliferation of variables assessing capitalism and economic interdependence—from economic freedom via contract intensity to the avoidance of state ownership or protectionism—the most frequently analyzed proposition about the capitalist peace says that trade makes military conflict and war less likely. By and large, the evidence supports this proposition in dyadic designs as well as in monadic designs. This cross-design validity of the proposition is important, because it distinguishes the peace by trade proposition from the democratic peace proposition. Most researchers agree that war is extremely unlikely in dyads where both nations are democracies. But only a minority contends that democracies are less frequently involved in military conflict than other states. The dyadic and the monadic findings are compatible because military conflict looks even more likely between an autocracy and a democracy than between two autocracies. Whereas the democratic peace is limited in application, the pacifying impact of trade or economic interdependence is more general. Moreover, the democratic peace may be embedded in a wider economic or capitalist peace. There is strong evidence that democracy rests on a foundation of capitalism or economic freedom and the prosperity that has been gained only by capitalism or some degree of economic freedom. Moreover, economic freedom and prosperity contribute to the avoidance of civil war. Better still: Economic freedom does not only promote economic growth and prosperity among those nations where people enjoy economic freedom, but the economic freedom of rich countries provides poor countries with the advantages of backwardness and catch-up opportunities.
Capitalist peace theory evolves. It has been suggested that the pacifying impact of trade rests on the expectation that trade, or access to resources and markets, will continue. This suggestion requires a new look at economic sanctions, too. By interfering with trade, sanctions must undermine the expectation of future benefits of trade and globally interconnected markets. Given the rareness of evidence in favor of the effectiveness of economic sanctions in eliminating undesirable policies of other nations, a capitalist peace perspective implies the recommendation to use sanctions much less frequently than politicians do. They are likely to eliminate a pacifying factor when it is most urgently needed.
The wider or visionary perspective on the capitalist peace is useful not only in connecting it with the issue of sanctions, but also in demonstrating the inherent limitations of capitalism as a tool to achieve peace. From a static perspective, capitalism, economic freedom, or trade may exert some pacifying impact, as argued above. But capitalism is a dynamic economic order. It is about "creative destruction". Capitalism is not egalitarian. Nations grow at different speeds. They rise and decline. Capitalism and unequal economic growth upset pecking orders and contribute to power transitions that are related to risks of war, especially great power war. Whether the contribution of capitalism to power transitions—or its pacifying impact prevails—cannot be judged with much confidence.
Fiscal Politics
Mark Hallerberg
The topic of fiscal politics includes taxation and spending, budget balances and debt levels, and crises and the politics of austerity. The discussion often focuses on how some variable—such as the international environment, or political institutions—constrains "politics" in this realm. Almost omnipresent concerns about endogeneity run through this research. While this is a "big" policy area that deserves study, tracing causation is difficult.
How Did American International Political Economy Become Reductionist? A Historiography of a Discipline
W. Kindred Winecoff
First-wave international political economy (IPE) was preoccupied with the "complex interdependencies" within a world system that (it believed) was rapidly devolving following the 1971 collapse of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates. The original IPE scholars were more dedicated to theorizing about the emergence and evolution of global systems than any strict methodology. As IPE developed, it began to emphasize the possibility that institutions could promote cooperation in an anarchic environment, so IPE scholarship increasingly studied the conditions under which these institutions might emerge.
Second-wave IPE scholars began to focus on the domestic "level of analysis" for explanatory power, and in particular analyzed the role of domestic political institutions in promoting global economic cooperation (or conflict). They also employed a "second-image reversed" paradigm in which the international system was treated as an explanatory variable that influenced the domestic policymaking process.
In opening up the "black box" of domestic politics, in particular as it pertained to foreign economic policy, the "American school" of IPE thoroughly explored the terrain with regression-based statistical models that assume observational independence. As a result, complex interdependencies in the global system were increasingly ignored. Over time the analytical focus progressively shifted to micro-level units—firms and individuals, whenever possible—using neoclassical economic theory as its logical underpinning (with complications for political factors). This third wave of IPE, "open economy politics," has been criticized in the post-crisis period for its narrow focus, rigid methodology, and lack of systemic theory. Leading scholars have called modern IPE "boring," "deplorable," "myopic," and "reductionist," among other epithets.
A "fourth-wave" of IPE must retain its strong commitment to empiricism while re-integrating systemic processes into its analysis. A new class of complex statistical models is capable of incorporating interdependencies as well as domestic- and individual-level processes into a common framework. This will allow scholars to model the global political economy as an interdependent system consisting of multiple strata.
Immigration and International Political Economy
Margaret E. Peters
Immigration has largely been neglected as part of the study of International Political Economy (IPE) until recently. Currently, IPE scholars have focused on two questions regarding immigration: what explains variation in public opinion on immigration and what explains variation in immigration policy.
The scholarship on public opinion on immigration has largely been divided into two camps, those who argue that economic factors drive opinion and those who argue that cultural factors are the driver. Those who study the role economic factors have played in shaping opinion on immigration often start with the Stolper-Samuelson theorem. The Stolper-Samuelson theorem shows that while immigration increases the overall size of the economy, it has different distributional effects. Immigration increases the size of the labor pool and, thus, should increase the returns to capital while decreasing wages. As such, those who derive most of their income from capital should favor immigration while those who derive most of their income from wages should oppose immigration. Additionally, the Stolper-Samuelson model shows that openness to trade should have the same effects as open immigration; thus, people should oppose or favor both trade and immigration. Early scholarship examined these predictions and found that opposition to immigration was much higher than opposition to trade and that those who derive much of their income from capital also oppose immigration at high rates. In response, one set of scholars focused on the additional costs that immigration, but not trade, brings. Immigrants, unlike goods, may place a burden on the social welfare system and thus, opposition to immigration especially by the wealthy may be driven by these costs. Other scholars noted that immigrants work in many industries that are unaffected by trade—most notably the service sector—and this may explain opposition to immigration. Finally, a third group has argued that opposition to immigration is largely driven by cultural concerns and xenophobia. Currently, this debate continues with both sides examining more nuanced survey data.
Scholarship on immigration policy has similar divides. Immigration policy has become more restrictive since the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when most countries had very few restrictions on immigration. To explain these restrictions, one school of scholars has argued that labor unions oppose immigration, as it hurts the wages of their members. As unions gain strength, immigration should become more restricted. Others focus on the rise of the welfare state, arguing that immigration has been restricted to keep costs low. A third group has argued that greater political rights in the early and mid-20th century for the generally xenophobic working class has led to the restrictions. Finally, new scholarship argues that increased globalization—in the form of increased trade and increased foreign direct investment—has sapped business support for immigration, which has allowed anti-immigrant groups to have more say. Using a wealth of newly collected data, scholars are testing these different theories.
Institutions and the Global Political Economy
Lisa L. Martin
In a comparison of today's global political economy with that of the last great era of globalization, the late nineteenth century, the most prominent distinction is be the high degree of institutionalization in today's system. While the nineteenth-century system did have some important international institutions—in particular the gold standard and an emerging network of trade agreements—it had nothing like the scope and depth of today's powerful international economic institutions. We cannot understand the functioning of today's global political economy without understanding the sources and consequences of these institutions. Why were international organizations (IOs) such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) or International Monetary Fund (IMF) created? How have they gained so much influence? What difference do they make for the functioning of the global economy and the well-being of individuals around the world?
In large part, understanding IOs requires a focus on the tension between the use of power, and rules that are intended to constrain the use of power. IOs are rules-based creatures. They create and embody rules for gaining membership, for how members should behave, for monitoring, for punishment if members renege on their commitments, etc. However, these rules-based bodies exist in the anarchical international system, in which there is no authority above states, and states continue to exercise power when it is in their self-interest to do so. While states create and join IOs in order to make behavior more rule-bound and predictable, the rules themselves reflect the global distribution of power at the time of their creation; and they only constrain to the extent that states find that the benefits of constraint exceed the costs of the loss of autonomy.
The tension between rules and power shapes the ways in which international institutions function, and therefore the impact that they have on the global economy. For all their faults, international economic institutions have proven themselves to be an indispensable part of the modern global political economy, and their study represents an especially vibrant research agenda.
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BRYAN, Ohio — Andre Cassagnes, inventor of the Etch A Sketch that generations of children drew on, shook up, and started over, has died in France, the toy's maker said Saturday.
Mr. Cassagnes died Jan. 16 in a Paris suburb at age 86, said the Ohio Art Co., based in Bryan in northwest Ohio. The cause was not disclosed.
Then an electrical technician, Mr. Cassagnes came upon the Etch A Sketch idea in the late 1950s when he peeled a translucent decal from a light switch plate and found pencil mark images transferred to the opposite face, the Toy Industry Association said.
Ohio Art saw his invention at the Nuremberg Toy Fair in 1959. The toy, with its gray screen, red frame, and two white knobs that are twisted back and forth to create drawings, was launched in 1960 and became the top seller that holiday season. More than 100 million have been sold worldwide since.
It got a big jump in sales after Etch A Sketch was featured in the first two ''Toy Story'' movies. Ohio Art also capitalized on a much-publicized gaffe during last year's presidential election by a Mitt Romney aide, who was asked about his candidate's views during the primary season versus the general election. The aide likened the campaign to an Etch A Sketch: ''You can kind of shake it up and we start all over again.''
Democrats and Republicans seized on the remark as evidence that Romney was willing to change his positions for political gain. And Ohio Art seized on the publicity, creating a politically themed ad campaign and manufacturing blue versions of the famously red toy.
The toys were made in Ohio until 2000, when the firm moved production to China.


text:
Hello all. I'm looking for the appropriate way to chain/link rewrite rules from one directory to another. So, suppose I have the following directory structure:
I would like to place a rewrite rule in /home/jon/public_html/.htaccess which rewrites URLS to load from /home/jon/public_html/some_directory. From there, I need the request to also be handled by any rewrite rules that happen to appear in /home/jon/public_html/some_directory/.htaccess.
Currently, /home/jon/public_html/.htaccess looks something like this:
# SymLinks needs to be on ...
Options +FollowSymLinks
# Turn rewriting on ...
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /~jon
# Rewrite us into the correct directory.
# Change this as necessary.
RewriteRule ^(.+)$ some_directory/$1 [QSA]
And /home/jon/public_html/some_directory/.htaccess looks something like this:
# URL Rewriting
RewriteEngine On
# set this to your project's visible directory
RewriteBase /~jon/some_directory
# add a line like this for every directory you wish to be
# served/parsed directory (not via index.php)
RewriteRule ^images/ - [L,QSA]
# all (most) pages should be served via index.php.
RewriteRule ^$ index.php [L,QSA]
RewriteRule ^/$ index.php [L,QSA]
RewriteRule ^(.+)/$ index.php?page=$1/index [L,QSA]
RewriteRule ^/([^.]+)$ index.php?page=$1 [L,QSA]
RewriteRule ^/(.+)\.([^.]*)$ index.php?page=$1&theme=$2 [L,QSA]
Currently, when I make a request like http://localhost/~jon/something, I get a 404 like this:
The requested URL /~jon/some_directory/something was not found on this server.
So, it's clear that the rewrite rules in /home/jon/public_html/some_directory/.htaccess aren't taking effect. Should by RewriteBase be different for that file? Or, is there a trick I need here to get this working?
I got a solution that fits my particular problem, bypassing the need for the request to be handled by multiple sets of rewrite rules. However, I think it would still be useful to know why my requests were not being processed by both sets of rules ...
... Anyone?


text:
|2011-09-05, 02:37
|Link #1
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Edinburgh
Age: 36
Dragon Quest X (Wii, Wii U and now PC!)
Full japanese title: Dragon Quest X Mezameshi Itsutsu no Shuzoku Online
Release date: some time in 2012
Homepage: http://www.dqx.jp/
At today's Dragon Quest Conference (05/09/2011) it was confimred by SquareEnix, that two versions of the game will appear, on the Wii and Wii U. The game itself will be an Online game, and the games will be cross-platform, so you would be able to play against gamers on the Wii or Wii U. For the first time in the series history, the game will be handled by SE, or Enix, internally.
Further readings reading the Conference:
andriasang.com "DQX HP opens"
andriasang.com "DQX for Wii and Wii U"
andriasang.com "DQX usage fees?"
andriasang.com "OMG it is a screenshot"
Interesting facts is about the Wii version. It will come as Wii disc together with USB Memory thing. The wii version will support usb keyboards. I can only assume the USB memory is used for cache and dlc, you wonder why no on else has done it before, if cache via USB memory it possible.
No port begging please!
Last edited by Sides; 2013-06-22 at 12:40. Reason: PC version announced
|2011-09-05, 03:34
|Link #2
Beautiful fighter.
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: England, UK
Age: 31
I really can't say i'm surprised DQX will be online after how successful DQIX was. I have faith that the Dragon Quest X will stay faithful to the franchise, even being a full online version, so i'm all for this happening.
Which version will i most likely play? Hard to say yet. I haven't full decided if i'm buying a Wii U on launch, so it all comes down to that decision.
As for the usage fees, it's expected. Just hoping it's not going to be something expensive.
|2011-09-05, 12:35
|Link #4
Beautiful fighter.
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: England, UK
Age: 31
Online Connection Required to Play All of Dragon Quest X
Like DQIX, the game can be played without adventuring around with online team mates. Even though it can be done, i wouldn't recommend it. DQIX wasn't nearly as good without playing along side online players, and i have a feeling it'll be the same here.
Also an internet connection is needed to play the game, though i'm sure most Wii owners who'd want to play this game will have their console online anyway.
|2011-09-05, 12:41
|Link #5
new to gunpla
Join Date: Dec 2008
Edit: To be perfectly honest I prefer something similiar to Dragon Quest 8. (man that was my all time favourite)
|2011-09-05, 13:28
|Link #6
User of the "Fast Draw"
|2011-09-05, 14:47
|Link #8
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Edinburgh
Age: 36
Think we should wait and see how the online system works. I cannot imagine that you have to pay for online subscription, if you are playing only the solo mode. For what we all know at the moment, it could be a SE testing their own DRM system for upcoming titles.
As long it has a solo mode, i don't care.
|2011-09-05, 14:53
|Link #9
Lets be reality
Join Date: May 2007
I will say this, Square have lost their marbles if they think DQ9's multilayer is going to transition into an online subscription MMO... look @ the difference between Monster Hunter Tri and Monster Hunter 3 Portable.. and Tri wasn't subscription based...
|2011-09-05, 15:21
|Link #10
I don't know if anyone has played FFXI, but I've never found a more cumbersome way of handling and online game than Playonline, which has just recently mercifully been transferred to something called a Square Enix account, which is browser based and pretty self explanatory and cuts down the hassle of Playonline by a good 50% at least.
But yeah....wow...Playonline, where to even start. First it forces a username on you that is a random assortment of letters and numbers that you damn well better write down cause you're never going to remember it by memory. then it has you make a password, but god forbid if you forget it, because before the SE Account there was no way you could recover it other than calling Square Enix and asking them to reset it, which was a huge hassle. Then there's the copy protection which was frankly overkill and just resulted in a 20 minutes sign up session for me. Then after finally finishing all that you have to enter your credit card, which it takes a bit of money out of to test before validating for some reason. Then you have to sit and wait for the client to update, and all of the other various updates to the games you are playing, which can take upwards of 3 hours. Then FINALLY once all that is said and done you can log in and register your content ID and various game purchases, which all need to be done seperately and involve another registration process in the content ID's case and entering CD-Keys in registering your expansions for FFXI.
Then finally once all that is said and done, you can login with all your stuff and get to playing...probably 5 hours after you first installed everything. Worst online experience of my life, and it's a miracle that I stuck with the game after that. That's just a worse case scenario of course, but given how poorly FFXIV has been handled so far (and I'd call it an improvement over early FFXI with Playonline) I'm not sure folks can expect much better. Though maybe the Square Enix account thing will cut down even further on the hassle for DQ Online, who knows.
|2011-09-05, 16:06
|Link #11
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Edinburgh
Age: 36
|2011-09-05, 21:35
|Link #12
Hey dudes, did yah hear the latest news? It's also gonna get an NES release
Time to dust off the good ol' famicom
|2011-09-06, 03:06
|Link #13
Lets be reality
Join Date: May 2007
What they've ignored is that...
1/ The Wii hasn't exactly been a console that has promoted "online" playing, friends codes, what garbage.
2/ A subscription based MMO isn't exactly the same as selling a single player game, Square should know that after FF11 and FF14. The later one being an embarrassing flop for SquareEnix.
3/ DQIX multiplayer was a hit because it was portable, as everyone should know portables > consoles in Japan. The PSP would've outsold the PS2 if the Vita was being introduced a year later... think about that for a moment.
4/ Capcom already saw the massive difference in reception of a home and portable version of Monster Hunter. We're talking of a difference of nearly 3 million... not to mention that a proper MH MMO didn't exactly set Japan on fire... Sure MH isn't DQ (but it's not far off anymore..) and it was on Xbox360... but if DQ8 was released on the original Xbox instead of the PS2 i'm sure it would've sold more...
5/ The DQ fanbase, are they the type to get excited over an MMO? Playing DQIX multiplayer while catching the train to school/work is a "little" different from investing hours a day for months on end @ home playing an MMO.
It's still going to sell a lot, heck the name alone means a lot of people will buy this without even knowing it's an MMO... but it's not going to be the killer app the Wii U needed in Japan and it's not going to do shit outside of Japan either.
Getting a proper Monster Hunter game on the 3DS will mean more for Nintendo than this will. Likewise if SquareEnix made a DQ9.5/side story game that played like a typical DQ game for the Vita/PSP.
Also this is going to be the first DQ game devolved internally by SquareEnix, lets hope it's not a disaster like their previous MMO in FF14... what a waste of a mainline number that was... Versus XIII deserves to be called 14 over that pos.
|2011-09-06, 03:25
|Link #14
Beautiful fighter.
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: England, UK
Age: 31
Oh man, i'm so playing this version.
New information here saying that the game will require separate payments to play online. Looks like if you just want to adventure around by yourself, then you won't have to pay anything.
Next months issue of V Jump promises to have a lot more information on the game.
|2011-09-06, 13:11
|Link #15
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Edinburgh
Age: 36
|2011-09-06, 14:05
|Link #17
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2009
Obviously, Nintendo, Square Enix, and Armor Project want DQX to reach millions of gamers. However, I think they've also considered FFXI's (Square originally aimed for millions of players too. It didn't happen, but the semi-sizable fanbase and insane longevity made it a money making machine regardless) ability to co-exist with offline installments at no cost to franchise popularity.
In short, they probably don't see any long term risk even if the game doesn't perform as well as they hope. If they hit expectations half way (decent sized userbase that gets hooked on the game across several years), they can still call it big hit while preparing to roll out the next single-player installment.
Square Enix/Nintendo either expected the Wii life-cycle to last longer or are confident in their ability to make the game popular across succeeding platforms.
Makes me think that they were already building the team and plans for DQX while they created IX.
In theory, FFXIV was supposed to be the MMORPG that handled the overseas side of things.
|2011-09-10, 19:19
|Link #18
Bishoujo Game Enthusiast
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Belgium
Age: 32
|2011-09-11, 04:07
|Link #20
Beautiful fighter.
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: England, UK
Age: 31
|dqx, dragon quest x, pc/windows, wii/wiiu, yuji hori
|Thread Tools


text:
When's the draft? We should start like....now.
This thread will be for the rules of the draft and discussion of the draft as it progresses.
- Do not discuss picks that have not been made or players that have not been picked in this thread! Only discuss picks that have already been made or players that have already been picked.
- This is a full 7 round mock draft. You have a maximum of 2 hours to make your pick when you are on the clock so check these forums often. If you have not made your pick after the 2 hour limit someone else will make the pick for you. (The person making the pick will try to make a sensible pick for the team.)
- If you think there is a chance you will not be around when one of your picks comes due make sure you pm another person on the forums with a list of players you would like. If you don't send someone a list and you take longer than 2 hours you are SOL.
- The draft clock will be in effect from 9 am eastern to 10 pm eastern each day. Though you can still make picks anytime if it is your turn. There will not be a 2 hour clock on Easter Sunday but if people want to pick that day they can still do so.
- As soon as you make a pick, notify the next person on the draft list via pm that they are up next and on the clock.
- I once again encourage people to pick up my mock draft creator spreadsheet as it makes it much easier to follow the draft and know who has been picked. If you mistakenly pick a player who has already been picked then leave the site you are still subject to the 2 hour clock.
- We will commence the draft today (Monday, March 29th). We will be a little forgiving regarding the 2 hour clock to start since we have decided to start earlier than what I listed in a previous message.
Last edited by Beerfish; 03-29-2010 at 11:33 AM.
When's the draft? We should start like....now.
Last edited by SenorGato; 03-29-2010 at 11:07 AM.
Yes we are going to start right now, but have to give a little leeway to start as we are starting earlier than I first stated and on short notice.
SG3 is up and has been pm'd that it is his pick.
Last edited by Beerfish; 03-29-2010 at 12:24 PM.
Still hoping that one of the mods can sticky this thread for discussion and the big board thread as well. As has been stated no discussion in the big board thread. (Since I'm not a moderator I have no power to delete threads.)
Shouldn't we have a seperate drafting thread?
The big board thread is getting pretty filled with each teams list of picks already.
Would anyone with two teams like to give one of their teams to gangGreeninsider? If so let me know and I'll add him and make the proper changes to the big board.
I am assuming control of the St. Louis Rams for now. I think SG3 was under the impression that this was just a one round mock and he never responded to my posts in the other thread in this regard. I will relinquish control if he shows up or if another person is around sooner than later that wants to take the Rams.
alright, we're off and running.
..it was the right pick for STL, no question.
That Bradford pick was tough.
Real shot in the dark
who goes thirty hours without a dose of JI?? thats it.. i'm picking for DET in an hour.
beat me to it venom.. but the pick was same
No brainer of all no brainers....