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A Novel
The Kitchen House
A Novel
Orphaned during her passage from Ireland, young, white Lavinia arrives on the steps of the kitchen house and is placed, as an indentured servant, under the care of Belle, the master's illegitimate slave daughter. Lavinia learns to cook, clean, and serve food, while guided by the quiet strength and love of her new family.
In time, Lavinia is accepted into the world of the big house, caring for the master's opium-addicted wife and befriending his dangerous yet protective son. She attempts to straddle the worlds of the kitchen and big house, but her skin color will forever set her apart from Belle and the other slaves.
Through the unique eyes of Lavinia and Belle, Grissom's debut novel unfolds in a heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful story of class, race, dignity, deep-buried secrets, and familial bonds.
- Touchstone |
- 384 pages |
- February 2010
Browse Related Books
Hear an Excerpt
Reading Group Guide
For Discussion
1. Why do you think the author chose to tell the story through two narrators? How are Lavinia's observations and judgments different from Belle's? Does this story belong to one more than the other? If you could choose another character to narrate the novel, who would it be?
2. One of the novel's themes is history repeating itself. Another theme is isolation. Select scenes from The Kitchen House that depict each theme and discuss. Are there scenes in which the two themes intersect?
3. "Mae knows that her eldest daughter consorts with my husband. . . Almost from the beginning, I suspected their secrets" (page 107). Why does the captain keep Belle's true identity a secret from his wife and children? Do you think the truth would have been a relief to his family or torn them further apart? At what point does keeping this secret turn tragic?
4. Discuss the significance of birds and bird nests in the novel. What or who do they symbolize? What other symbols support the novel?
5. &# see more


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Welcome to Marie's Mediterraneo Kastelorizo…a fabulous waterfront boutique hotel, located on the southeastern most edge of Greece, on the picturesque little island of Kastelorizo.
Kastelorizo (or Megisti as it is called in Greek) is arguably, one of Greece's best kept secrets. Although this apparently hasn't stopped Eric Clapton, Tom Hanks and David Gilmour from being besotten by its charms.
Its impossibly blue harbour lined with a colourful array of old Ottoman-style houses entices you to linger
and soak in the island's magic.
Just 2 miles away the Turkish coastline, Kastelorizo is at a point where Europe ends and Asia begins.
Making the food, flavours and life of Megisti, a beautiful marriage of Turkish and Greek influences.
The temptation to stay is simply divine...

subset: commoncrawl


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I told him I wanted something extremely loud, borderline obnoxious, and to include checkered flag and to use his imagination. He nailed it! He's a dealer for the company that makes the body so I just had him order it and when he finished his magic, he shipped it to me
He did what you wanted, your pleased and that's all that maters.
I went to his sight and he has done some very nice work.
"enjoy your ride"
started another paint job on a 55 chevy body
Hi just ordered some parts for slash 4x4 and the same day I broke my rotor in vxl-3s motor. I am very disappointed because it is my second rotor that broke.
But i will wait until end of summer and i will get the new rotor for now i have a buggy to drive
I hooked up my bec,put a savox servo..changed shockoil and put associated 13mm springs on my lcg platinum... Had it since december never driven, work keeps getting in the way lol
Drive it.Break it.ebuild it.
Got a 3s lipo
Mmp and 2400 motor
CC 10 amp BEC
Sway bar kit
Traxxas LCG conversion kit
Battery expansion kit
Think that's all I bought..
Slash 2wd, Slash 4x4, 30th digger, Rustler VXL
ran my slashes till the battery stop lol and finished the 55 chevy no decals yet
did a small bash session at the college just for some footage dropped the link in the videos section http://youtu.be/sFQVUp4w2jM
Finally got my lcg platinum built, and got to drive it...wow. This thing is fun.only took since december to build.lol
Drive it.Break it.ebuild it.
I mounted my first truck on my slash. The tires probably look strange but its because I built it from scratch into a 1/8th scale buggy. I'll probably get some mashers later.
Rally GT8 4x4 in progress.
FLM Rustler
I toasted my backup motor. so now i have 2 bad Velineon 3500 motors
Painted my first SC body today, got so excited I forgot to put on the window masks. Then I ran out of paint so it has a couple of light spots on it. Oh well, lessons learned; don't rush and make sure you have enough paint. Pics to follow once all of the stickers are placed. Can't really see the light spots unless you hold it to the light.
I ordered a V2 mamba monster to replace my V1 that is acting up.
Rustler,Slash 4X4, 1/10 Rally
Removed the rear passenger side xo-1 axle since I broke the halfshaft at the pin at the diff side.
ERBE, ERBE, Summit, Slash 4X4, Bandit,
Had a close look at the damage i made today.
Even the front drive hub was damaged.
Driveshaft bent
Chassis broken in 2 parts
bulk head in 2 parts
Have ordered parts now, hope i selected the correct chassis
They ship them tomorrow and Tuesday i normally get the parts, so Tuesday evening it should be back on the road again.
Part list:
1 x Traxxas 7422 Chassis 1/10 Rally VXL (TRX 7422)
1 x Traxxas 7430 Bulkhead Front 1/10 Rally VXL (TRX 7430)
1 x Traxxas 6855 Driveshaft Center Aluminum Slash 4x4 (TRX 6855)
1 x Traxxas 6888X Front Hardened Steel Drive Hub Slash 4x4 (TRX 6888X)
Was about to jump, so i had good speed, and somehow something happend and it went into the wall.
In the beginning of the video you can see the wall (at the door) and about 40 sec into the clip is where i jump. Its not a Slash in this clip.
Oh well, more parts in the store...
I mounted up a new set of AKA cityblock tires and received my new viper VTX8's.
My slash in is one piece again!
Working like before.
Cleaned it also, so it looks like it's new.
Just received my Mamba monster V2 today, so I will be launching my slash this weekend.
Rustler,Slash 4X4, 1/10 Rally
mounted some new badlands on bead-locs and trenchers on jc tense
I got a Mamba Monster 2 2200KV setup yesterday. 1st i tried it with a 19/40 gear setup M1 and it was fun, today im trying out my speed gear set a 24/36 and good god is this thing fast. im still running a 3c battery and havent even pushed it yet. its definitely a handful now. Im gunna try a stampede receiver box and see if i can get it to fit in the front, im just waiting for it to come in.
The 24 Pinion barely fits but it does without modification
The 36 spur is the same OD as the Revo clutch
Mamba 2
Still 3s, im gunna buy, or make, a series connector and try a 6s, so this thing can really fly
Last edited by v8sten; 06-29-2013 at 11:57 AM.
Do you know how fast (speeds) you have gone with the current gearing on 3s?
Are you running it with the body on?
"enjoy your ride"
with the 19/40 it calculated out to just above 50 and that seemed about right. with the 24/36 setup it calculates to just above 70mph. i havent stretched its legs out yet, but this thing scoots. ill gps it when i get more room. yes im running it with the body on. it parachutes but id rather have it on for protection. im gunna drill some holes in it later today
Last edited by v8sten; 06-29-2013 at 01:04 PM.
Drilling some holes in the body really helped me on speed runs. You may need to add some weight to the front also...
Adding the GPS up front may just do the trick or at least help some keeping the front down....
"enjoy your ride"
Got around to replacing the bad bearing (no "spare" screws after I'd put it together, so I think I did it right!), noticed I'd done something wrong with the screws when I put the sway bar back in on the chassis (whitened, split plastic), but I'm not about to buy another chassis just for that. It's still runnin' great, other than the battery is scraping on something on the inside of the compartment and peeling away at the plastic (and, in one little spot, the battery itself), so I'm looking around the house for something to use and make it a more snug fit.
I have never (until now) seen a clutch plate warp like that..... Definitely did a number on that clutch.
"enjoy your ride"
Last night I replaced the bent center driveshaft,and installed my RPM front bumper and front arms.
I think I might have a front diff issue though...making some noise.
Might have damaged it when the driveshaft got bent.
"Dude,I almost had you"
R.I.P Paul Walker
Last night I had a little run in with a parked semi truck tire. the truck was on the roof prolly cruising around 40+ mph. it broke a proline power stroke shock, so i put the stockers on the front for now. i also added a little more than 3/4 lbs to the nose. it seemed to help it out on a 3s. it only lifts the front about an inch, now on a 6s it still gets on the wheelie bars but its reacts slower. before it was instant backflip, now its controllable wheelie. I also taped up the batteries for a little more protection and added more velcro to hold them in place.
Last edited by v8sten; 06-30-2013 at 05:07 PM.
Got some proper truck wheels and tires today.
Rally GT8 4x4 in progress.
FLM Rustler
Looks real nice.... Very clean and sanitary.
I have the Badlands on my Slash and really hook up on our dirt track at the house.
Are those Desperado wheels?
"enjoy your ride"
ill prolly need to do that at a later date
Those HR diff cups look sweet!!!!!
"enjoy your ride"
Glad to see my thread still going strong. . As for me I'll post on my son's behalf.. ordered a tekin pro4 and gen2 rs esc for em
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Xparent BlueTapatalk 2
Whatever I just said.. I'm probably wrong..
Went bashing the slashes on the track for about 3 hours today, ran 2s, 3s, and 4s on her.
destroyed the center drive bearing, lost an upper rear shock screw, and the left rear axle carrier came off of the a-arm due to the screw pin backing out.
My Slash 4x4 is currently in SC form instead of the True Scale Raptor truck,
after todays 3 hour session,
Oh, and we put some Summit bumpers on my friends Slash 4x4 the other night,
ERBE, ERBE, Summit, Slash 4X4, Bandit,


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2008 Football
Bluffton vs. Kalamazoo Preview
Bluffton University vs. Kalamazoo College
The Matchup
When: Saturday, September 27, 2008 at 1:30 p.m.
Where: Bluffton, Ohio - Salzman Stadium
On the Radio: Listen live to Bluffton University football on WDOH 107.1 FM.
The Bluffton University football team makes its 2008 home debut against Kalamazoo College, the Beavers' third consecutive contest against an opponent from the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association. Following the matchup with the Hornets, Bluffton will host Mt. St. Joseph during the 2008 Homecoming weekend on Oct. 4 in Salzman Stadium at 1:30 p.m.
The Coaches
Head Coach Tyson Veidt made his debut on the Bluffton sidelines three weeks ago in the Beavers' 2008 opener at Alma College. Despite taking over the reins just eight short months ago, Veidt and his staff at Bluffton currently have 53 first-year players on the squad. Veidt comes to Bluffton after assistant coaching stints at West Virginia and Indiana. Most recently he was the defensive coordinator for Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa. New additions to the Bluffton coaching staff are Chris Krieg, Bo White, Jason Diller and Brian Hefner. Returning to the Beavers are Denny Phillips, Lou Stokes, Bryan Lloyd and Bill Fisher.
Jamie Zorbo was named head football coach at Kalamazoo College on Dec. 4, 2007. He is the 25th head football coach in school history and a 2000 graduate of the College. Zorbo first came to Kalamazoo as a student in 1996 after graduating from Battle Creek Lakeview High School. He was a four-year letter winner for the Hornets as a defensive end, and graduated in 2000 with a bachelor's degree in chemistry. Following graduation, Zorbo remained at Kalamazoo as an assistant coach for six seasons while working on a master's in business administration degree at Western Michigan University, which he completed in 2004. Zorbo moved on to DePauw University (Greencastle, Ind.) in 2006 where he coached the linebackers for two seasons, and most recently was the assistant defensive coordinator, special teams coordinator, and strength and conditioning coach.
Bluffton-Kalamazoo Series History
Bluffton and Kalamazoo are set to square off for the seventh time and third consecutive season on Saturday, Sept. 27. Bluffton holds a 3-2-1 advantage in the series which dates back to 1935. The Beavers had won three straight contests against the Hornets, including a 17-14 victory two years ago in Salzman Stadium, before Kalamazoo pulled out a 37-19 win a year ago.
Last week's contests
The Bluffton University football team took a 7-3 lead over the Adrian College Bulldogs midway through the second quarter, but the home team responded with 27 unanswered points during a 15-minute span to keep the Beavers winless on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2008.
The Beavers put their first points of the year on the scoreboard when Dylan Moore picked off Mike McGee at the Adrian 27-yard line and took it to the house for a 7-3 Bluffton lead at the 9:40 mark of the second quarter.
A 35-yard return by Joseph Beeler gave Adrian great field position to start its next drive. The Bulldogs kept it on the ground and moved it to the two-yard line, but another Adrian fumble gave Bluffton the ball back. A three-play drive that netted no yards forced a Jonathan Thompson put from deep in the end zone.
Adrian again took possession in Bluffton territory and needed only one play, a 43-yard Jomar Jackson touchdown run, to reclaim the lead from the Beavers. A 26-yard strike from Miller to junior wideout Dan Chipka moved the chains following the Adrian score, but Brad Smagala interception three plays later set the Bulldogs up for their second score in the final 3:15 of the half, an eight-yard Jackson scamper into the end zone.
Bluffton gained 127 yards passing on 15-of-33 passing, but a loss of 16 yards on 30 rushes kept the Beavers' offense from moving the ball efficiently. Adrian totaled 365 yards, with 249 coming on the Bulldogs 44 rushing attempts. The home team picked up 20 first downs compared to seven for Bluffton. The Beavers were 5-of-19 on third downs after going 0-of-12 in the season opener at Alma. Adrian converted on 4-of-6 chances in the red zone.
Steve Sealscott paced the Bluffton defense with nine tackles, a forced fumble and one breakup. Aaron Jenkins finished with seven tackles. Dylan Moore and Oscar Vazquez-Dyer both had pickoffs for the visitors. Moore returned his for a touchdown while Vazquez-Dyer took one back 45 yards late in the game. Junior Jordan Achterman had both of Bluffton's sacks against the Bulldogs.
Manchester 42, Kalamazoo 21
The Kalamazoo College football team lost 42-21 at home to Manchester (Ind.) College on Saturday, Sept. 20. Manchester scored touchdowns on its first three drives and held a 27-14 lead at halftime. Kalamazoo cut the lead to 27-21 early in the third quarter, but Manchester quickly made it 35-21 and then 42-21 early in the fourth quarter.
Brandon Luczak connected with Jimmy Semelsberger on a 22-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter and a 16-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter. Robbie Carollo had a one-yard rushing touchdown in the third quarter.
Brandon Luczak passed for 238 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. Jimmy Semelsberger led Kalamazoo with 107 receiving yards on eight catches. Josh Mrozowski had 87 yards receiving on six catches. Brandon Baity had 45 yards on six catches. Ryan Bizzis had three catches for 30 yards.
Brandon Foutz and Steve Charon led the defense with 12 tackles each. Shane Nolan had 10 tackles.
Manchester's Caleb Grimes was 18-of-26 passing for 206 yards with two touchdowns. Grimes also rushed for 150 yards on 20 carries with two touchdowns. Brandon Wells rushed for 91 yards on 20 carries with two scores. Adam Schell had 65 yards on 10 carries.
Leading the Beavers
Greg Mason leads the Beavers with 59 yards rushing on 31 carries. Greg also has five receptions for 15 yards receiving. Junior quarterback Brock Miller has completed 22 of 49 passes for a total of 164 yards. Junior Curtis Griffin has four catches for a total of 33 yards this season.
Freshman Steven Sealscott has paced the Bluffton defense with 14 tackles, including nine solos and a forced fumble. Geoff Yost and Aaron Jenkins both have 10 stops while senior Kyle Rode has 2 TFL's and a sack. Dylan Moore has Bluffton's only touchdown of the season, a 27-yard interception return against Adrian.
Next up for the Beavers and Hornets
Bluffton will host HCAC power Mt. St. Joseph in the Beavers' 2008 Homecoming contest on Saturday, Oct. 4. Kickoff at Salzman Stadium is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Kalamazoo opens MIAA action when it travels to Adrian for a clash with the Bulldogs on Sat., Oct. 4, at 7 p.m.


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This project is named for hip-shaking sexbomb, Anne-Margret, who rocked both Elvis and the world, in Viva Las Vegas! When her gorgeous legs weren't on display she rocked opaque tights for two entire dance sequences!! That's MOXY!!
The Facts | Viva Las Vegas Challenge
Fabric | Stretch Rayon Blend Suiting :: $2.39 a yard. It's awesome. It looks like brushed denim. I'm glad I bought so much!
Patterns | A combo of two vintage (Vogue 1128 & Butterick 3530) patterns from the swap that has contributed most to my sewing, the Sew Weekly NYC meet-up.
Year | Both patterns are from the 1960s, I believe.
Notions | Thread and a zip from a huge stash that my grandmother gave me.
Time to complete | It's hard to say….I cut this and another project out one evening. Then started, and finished project one (a DISASTER of EPIC proportions) before I started the bodice of this one and got interrupted by the Insectpalooza being held in my apartment. I nearly called the whole thing off.
First worn | For silly apartment photos. This thing is way body conscious. I wasn't up for outdoor photos.
Wear again? | Yes, but on a really hot day when I won't care how revealing it feels.
Total price | About $5 bucks, I guess.
*sigh* This challenge was not without its….challenges. I am not a gambler. I am non competitive by nature (and nurture) and I have no stomach for losing money. But, we were supposed to be inspired by VEGAS, BABY!! So, I rolled the metaphorical dice, and cut out two risky projects.
I started and finished this dress before I realized what a bad choice it was. My body needs back waist darts on a garment and more hip room than this one afforded. And the upper back of sheath type fits are always terrible on me, this one was no exception. This thing looks so bad on, I won't even put a photo of myself in it on the internet . In fact, I didn't even take a photo. The fabric was dead cheap, but I feel like I lost a ton at the Blackjack table of sewing.
On to project two.
I've already had (MUCH!!) success with Butterick 3530. So I knew the shorts were a go. I added a bit more wiggle room this time by cutting slightly larger than the pattern piece. This is try two for Vogue 1128. I added extra width to the bodice last time and it was comically massive. Dolly Parton could have filled it out, lol. This time, I folded out the middle a bit. The darts aligned perfectly with my body, but the bodice was now a bit narrow and didn't want to match up with the width of the shorts. I compensated by adding strips of fabric to the center back where I had relocated the zipper. I wish I had moved the shorts zip to the side instead, there is some puckering on the lower part of it as it sits now. I could do with a bit of sway back adjusting, too. But, in an effort to avoid any crotch shortness issues, I thought I should err on the side of too much lengthwise ease. If I make this again, which I am considering, I would lengthen the bodice and lower the waistline of the shorts, too.
Overall, I am pretty pleased with the result. My husband certainly liked it. :o) I'm glad I rolled the dice on bad project choices. And pattern mash-up experiments. And tricky fit. And loss of morale. I didn't let the house win when bugs tried to take over my sewing room. The dealer spun the roulette wheel and my number came up! Cheers (with water, sorry Oona) to that!
PS- Sometimes, the house still sneaks in a jab. Check out this zipper job.
Can't see the problem?? Take a closer look.
More pics here


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byRick Whiting on
No matter where data resides, whether it's in the cloud, virtualized or on-premise, it's got to be protected while ensuring that the right people have access to the right data. RSA, an EMC company, has been a leader in the critical area of authentication. This year, RSA swept the network security category.
Shawn Pearson (center), RSA senior director of channels and inside sales, accepts the ARC awards from CRN's Jennifer Follett and Chad Berndtson.


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The lights are on
My favorite book series is The Maze Runner Series.
I definitely prefer standalone books to series books, but my favorite series are prob the Strain Trilogy or Millennium Trilogy.
Maybe Harry potter or Percy Jackson.
Harry Potter.
The Lord of the rings.
The Lord of the Rings.
harry potter definately :-)
I like the Harry Potter series and A Song of Ice and Fire. Really enjoying The Wheel of Time right now.
my favorite serires is series of unfortunate events, my favorite book is the tea rose.
Lord of the Rings by a mile. Harry Potter was very long.
I haven't finished even the first book, but I feel like Game of Thrones is going to end up being my favorite series.
Ciao for now.
Mine has to be Harry Potter. I really enjoy the Sword of Truth series but I only got though book 4 (they are SO long)and there are a ton of them. IF we were talking comics, I really like the Ultimate X-Men series.
Since the progress of fight has been put in position there has basically been large numbers and an incredible number of people
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Torna in cima
Harry Potter of course :). I still have not read the Lord of the Rings trilogy though...
I must say, I really enjoyed the Theodore Boone series from John Grisham.


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Julie Samuels and Mark Geragos
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Show Summary
Adam opens the show talking about the important issue of fighting back against patent trolls. He also chats about a moment of closure he received when he talked with a neighbor who had special needs. Bald Bryan then reviews the film 'The Heat' in this week's Baldywood, and Adam plays a clip from 'Ace on the House' where his buddy Snake details getting hit with a chain.
Julie Samuels is in studio next, and she explains the growing problem of patent trolls. They discuss how it pertains to podcasting, the importance of awareness, and what Adam can expect in the fight. Next up, Mark Geragos calls in and Adam talks with him about the Zimmerman trial. As the show wraps up, Alison reads a news story about Jessica Simpson's baby and Adam tells another amazing Snake story.
For more information, please visit http://Eff.org/SavePodcasting. You can also follow Julie on Twitter @JuliePSamuels
Superfan Sidebar
Click Here for Superfan Giovanni's recap and commentary on today's episode.
For more, go to AdamCarolla.com/Gio.
Show Credits
Producers: Mike August, Mike Lynch, and Mike Dawson
Co-Producers: Gary Smith, Chris Laxamana, Matt Fondiler and Jeff Fox
Newsgirl: Alison Rosen
Sound Effects: Bryan Bishop
Image Gallery
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Student Leadership Academy
- Academy members selected by a scholarship review committee
- May be a new or returning student
- Must have a 2.5 G.P.A. or higher
- Must be in good standing (i.e. not on academic or social probation)
- Enrolled for at least six credits (fall and spring semesters)
- Must meet assigned academy requirements
- Participate in a series of four leadership courses designed for academy members (8 credits)
- Serve on and observe campus councils and committees to: represent student ideas, interests, opinions and concerns to the LCC administration, Board of Trustees, faculty/staff and students. Inform students of college policies, programs and services.
- Participate in community and service learning projects which will instill and inspire a positive sense of servant leadership
Time Commitment
- A minimum of 30 hours of approved volunteer service each semester
Educational Expense Scholarship Award
- $1685 for each of four semesters
- $471 for one summer semester
For more information on the Student Leadership Academy please contact Student Life at (517) 483-1285, or stop by Room 2202 of the Gannon Building.
Student Life Office
Gannon Building, Room 2202
Phone: (517) 483-1285
Additional contact information »


text:
(SportsNetwork.com) - Alex Ovechkin reached an impressive career milestone in a road win on Friday and he'll try to lead the Washington Capitals to a second straight victory when they host the New Jersey Devils in Saturday's clash at Verizon Center.
Washington had lost two of three heading into Friday's away game against the Carolina Hurricanes, but the Capitals earned a 4-2 decision by going 3-for-4 on the power play.
The only goal that didn't come on the man advantage for the Caps on Friday was Ovechkin's empty-netter with 25 seconds left. The insurance tally was the 400th goal of Ovechkin's career and the Russian sniper became the sixth- fastest to reach that mark in NHL history. Ovechkin was playing in his 634th NHL game, meaning only Wayne Gretzky (436 games), Mike Bossy (506 games), Mario Lemieux (508 games), Brett Hull (520 games) and Jari Kurri (608 games) reached the 400-goal mark quicker.
Ovechkin is leading the NHL with 29 goals this season and he has recorded 13 markers and 34 points in 29 career games against the Devils.
Nicklas Backstrom collected four assists for the Capitals, who got a 39-save performance from Philipp Grubauer. Marcus Johansson, John Carlson and Troy Brouwer all scored power-play goals in Friday's win.
"We did some good things to earn the power plays and that can't get overlooked," said Washington head coach Adam Oates. "Yeah, we lived off the power play, but we also had zone time to earn those power plays."
Washington is ranked second in the NHL in power-play efficiency, scoring on 26.3 percent of its opportunities with the man advantage. Only Pittsburgh (26.8 percent) has a better power-play unit this season.
This evening's matchup is the first of four scheduled meetings between the Devils and Capitals this season. It's also the first encounter for the teams as members of the Metropolitan Division, which was created for this season's realignment plan.
The Devils won two of three against Washington last season, but the Caps took the last encounter by a 5-1 score when the clubs met in D.C. on Feb. 23. New Jersey has taken six of the last 10 overall encounters in this series, but the Capitals have won four of seven and five of the last nine at the Verizon Center.
New Jersey had a two-game win streak snapped on Friday, as it lost a 3-2 overtime decision against the visiting Anaheim Ducks. Kyle Palmieri, who grew up in New Jersey, potted the game-winner 2:37 into overtime to lift the Ducks to the close win at Prudential Center.
Andy Greene and Michael Ryder scored a goal apiece for the Devils, while Cory Schneider allowed all three goals on 24 shots in the loss.
"We wanted that second point, we really did," Greene said. "We have to forget about it now and just get ready for Washington tomorrow."
New Jersey has struggled on the road this season, going 7-10-3 away from the Garden State. Washington, meanwhile, has a stout 12-7-0 mark in D.C.
Devils forward Damien Brunner suffered a right knee injury in Friday's loss and is questionable for tonight's game.


text:
Carol A Recker-Hughes, PT, PhD, MA
Current Appointments
- Associate Professor of CHP-Physical Therapy
- Vice Chair
Hospital Campus
- Downtown
Education & Fellowships
- BS: SUNY Upstate Medical Center, Physical Therapy
- MS: New York University, Kinesiology
- PhD: Syracuse University, 2008
Education Interests
Creating and promoting the use of authentic experiences to strengthen the professional development of students and of clinical instructors. Teaching areas of focus: professional behaviors, clinical decision making, clinical education courses with emphasis on CI-student teaching and learning.
Research Interests
Use of the Standardized Patient Examinations to promote the professional development of DPT students and of CIs' teaching skills, Identification and understanding the needs and perspectives of CIs, CCCEs and Directors'/Managers of Clinical Sites.
- American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), Appointed Member Of Scholarship Committee For The Education Section
Web Resources
Link to PubMed (Opens new window. Close the PubMed window to return to this page.)
Faculty Profile Shortcut: http://www.upstate.edu/faculty/reckerhc
Emeritus Faculty
- Jan Coy, PT, DPT
- Pamela Gramet, PT, PhD
- Susan Miller, PT, DPT, MS
- Ron Seymour, PT, PhD


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Welcome. This site primarily is concerned with coaching ultimate and ultimate strategy, but over the years we've discussed just about anything involving running after a piece of plastic.
Thursday, May 26, 2005
History Question
It seems like most of the top open teams have adopted the O/D split, while the elite women's teams, at least the ones around here (Ozone, Backhoe) have resisted the split. Any ideas on why this is? Is this trend changing? Are the west coast women's teams going to O/D split? Are any open teams considering making the switch back?
9 comments:
- parinella said...
The year was ... nah.
Platooning (lefty-righty) in baseball started sometime in the early 1900s. Lately, I think some teams do advanced platooning (groundball/flyball matchups, weaker fielders when a strikeout pitcher is on the mound). Football had a gradual trend away from two-way players, with the last full-time one being Chuck Bednarik in 1960 (at least in pros; in high school, you have kids who play the whole game).
As far back as I can remember, there was some level of platooning in ultimate, but it was confined more to one-dimensional players. There are two questions here: when did good all-around players begin playing exclusively (or nearly so) on either O or D, and when did teams start having distinct O and D squads? (And a related distinction is when it started and when it became common?)
NYNY in 1991 ran the same four-person play every time just about. It came as a surprise to me when I noticed this on a film, but it seemed to be common knowledge to the Titanic guys whom we Earth Atomizer guys had just merged with. I remember Mike O'Dowd being the D handler on Windy City in 1991.
We've had O/D squads since at least 1992, but I think they became stricter when we went to the 25-man roster in 1999 (or maybe I just got older and they stopped playing me on D so that's what I noticed). If you have only 18 guys who can play, you can't afford to have strict O/D, which is one reason I suspect that the women don't platoon as strictly (although they're hurting themselves if they don't do it some).
I think the optimal roster size might indeed be 17-19, if they're all healthy and can attend and play at every practice. With a larger roster, you play the 25th best guy instead of the 17th best guy or the 7th best guy some of the time, and you probably sacrifice more in quality than you get back in freshness. The best size depends on how sharp the dropoff is, what level of competition the team will face, how healthy everyone is, how much duplication of talent there is, etc.
- 26 May, 2005
I was determined to implement "platooning" this past season on the UMich women's team. Martha (my co-coach) and I had some long talks about it with Ricky (of BAT and MagnUM coach). We thought we had a good grip on how to implement it. We were also blessed with a very deep team this year so we did not have drop-off issues.
In the end, we mostly scrapped it for a couple of reasons-
1) In women's college ultimate (and to a certain extent in the club game even at the highest levels), there are still a decent number of turnovers. Enough so that after a while, many points are not strictly O or D anymore. Specialization just isn't useful.
2) The players didn't like it. They didn't like being in for a point and then being subbed wholesale. They had a hard time turning their game on and off so often. They didn't like being defined (confined?) as O or D players. It was especially painful in strong upwind/downwind games. The O line had monster long points going upwind but would inevitably have an unlucky turn and get scored on. Even though I told them they did very well, not scoring was hurting their confidence.
We ended up with a sort of hybrid system. We have certain handler combinations that we like together and in certain conditions. And same with the receiver combos. And we had certain lines that we would put in for particular D schemes- person or zone. And we would definitely leave lines in for a good number of points so that they could establish their flow and, when applicable, play both upwind and downwind. We started scoring a lot more upwinders.
In retrospect, I also think it's a good thing when developing new players to not limit them immediately. I've seen so many player development trajectories that I never could have predicted. Maybe my predictive skills are very bad. But I'd like to think that given a freer environment with more opportunites, you end up creating a more complete player.
Anyway, I realize that the original poster was asking about the history of such strategy in the open elite game and so this is rather off topic. It's more of counter example showing that what works well for one group may need to be modified before it can work for another group.
- 27 May, 2005
To follow up on Miriam's post, but from a college open perpective:
The amount of platooning depends on the team you have in any given season. If you have a deep team with players who have well-defined skill sets, you will have O/D teams. If you have a team that is more top-heavy, you'll have more players playing both ways.
My biggest thing is that I don't like having my offensive handlers play both ways. In a big game, they'll be playing more points, and if they're tired, the offense just wilts. If they stay fresh, the disc doesn't stop moving. We NEED to score easy offensive points. If they just busted their asses for a long d-point, we may need to waste a TO.
And, in college open, just like in women's college, there are likely going to be 2-3 two-way players on most (all?) teams. Not to say they play every point, but that they play 3 out of 4 or so.
"In college, everyone can play defense."
- 27 May, 2005
- gcooke said...
Continuing with the college theme.
I haven't seen many women's college teams that can platoon. I coach Wellesley College, and I just don't have the depth to platoon. In fact, I had trouble in that I needed to run my D line with 3 handlers too much of the time. I tried some 2 thrower/5 runner D lines, but they would struggle against zone if they got the turn. We started working on a 2 handler zone set so that we could run a 2 handler D line.
We lost a top Amherst high prospect to our waitlist, and she decided to go to......UMich! So, Miriam, enjoy working with Emily B....you will not want to sit her often!
- 28 May, 2005
- aj said...
I guess the impetus of the post was that I've been thinking about instituting it with the Emory women this year.
In the past, we definitely have not had the depth to do it and honestly I'm not sure that we'll have the depth to run full O and D teams this coming year either. That being said, I still think I'm going to give it a try. I think it could be a painful transition initially, but in the long term I think it actually builds depth because we're going to be putting more players in positions where they have to contribute in order for us to succeed. I still have a relatively young team (of my 15 returners, 14 of them will return again the year after next) and I am hopeful that any growing pains this next year will be rewarded with increased depth in future years. I guess in my mind, mass platooning is just a superior strategy and it seems like the first teams to do it will have an advantage while other teams scramble to catch up. It's also possible that the number of turnovers in the college women's game make the strategy less sound – if you're going to score an equal number of your points on offense and defense it doesn't make much sense to make your d team twice as big as your O team. The stats I have from our games, still suggest that the receiving team scores a higher percentage than the pulling team. Perhaps the O/D split goes hand in hand with a possession offensive based strategy? Anyway, we'll see how it goes – if I get fired I'll be sure to let you guys know.
- 31 May, 2005
- gcooke said...
"Perhaps the O/D split goes hand in hand with a possession offensive based strategy?"
Interesting. I am really rpoud of the way my girls (again, Wellesley) are adamant in wanting to develop a possession based O, and not huck and play D. I do agree with AJ that if my team were to develop more confidence in their ability to maintain possession that there would be more opportunities to platoon.
We are like Emory in that we are in year two of rebuilding, and I have to say that it was great to have a few players develop skills like accurate long throws and backhand break marks. This to me had a great impact on our options and ability to maintain possession.
- 31 May, 2005
Hi George-
We are indeed excited that Emily is coming to Michigan. She visited this past Spring.
- 02 June, 2005
Are you talking about Ebay? Emily Beecher? Wow. That's more than a pick-up. After seeing her play with Amherst this spring (I helped with the Paideia girls), I would put her on my club women's team.
- 02 June, 2005
I'm sorry. That wasn't very "blogging" of me, so I'm going to change to the topic at hand, which is something that I have wrestled with: whether a women's club team should implement O and D teams (at least to a small degree). I don't know whether some of the bigger names in women's club (Fury, Godiva, Riot) do it. It's never really on my mind when we are playing one of those teams, but maybe I should pay attention.
I think a team like Ozone could do well with it (at least on a small scale), like certain handlers only in on O to preserve them for making good decisions and ready for quick movements on the field. Would it kill the confidence of newer, less experienced players if they were relegated to the D team until they become more comfortable on the club scene? All of this has started me thinking....
- 02 June, 2005


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After choosing to not reinstate the principal position held currently by Jeremy Keesee in fiscal year 2014 during the January meeting, community members were in attendance during Wednesday's Odell Grade School District #435 Board of Education meeting.
The community members wanted to weigh in their opinions and find out what other positions or programs would be discontinued in the next fiscal year.
These cuts, which Superintendent Mark Hettmansberger said are due in large part to a reduction in state funding, are also going to include a special education position. Hettmansberger said the annual release of all classroom aides was also in place and those positions will be filled as needed.
"As a small district, we feel like we are a family here and losing employees is not something that benefits anybody," said Hettmansberger. "These decisions are also difficult in that it's not truly what is best for kids and that is why we are here, to do what is best for kids. It's a really difficult conversation to have."
At the January meeting Hettmansberger said he proposed to the board all the ways in which costs could be salvaged. He said to be fair, all the potential cuts had to be thoroughly looked at by the board in order to come up with the best possible solution for all parties involved.
"Our obligation is to look at everything and find potential places where we could save money," said Hettmansberger. "People heard what we were discussing and some were obviously a little upset. Everything has to be on the table at this point, but not everything is going to be cut. The one comfort in it all, is knowing that these proceedings are not the views of one person, but the conclusion of a collective of people. We believe the cuts that we have made are the least detrimental cuts we could have made."
In regard to the process, Hettmansberger expressed his frustration in the fact that the state has requirements regarding when cuts have to be made, but only suggested indications of what the next year's budget will provide.
"We have to almost play a guessing game as to what is going to take place and plan proactively as opposed to reactively," said Hettmansberger. "We would love to be able to bring that position back at some point, at this time it doesn't look like that is possible, but we would love to bring these positions back in the future."
Faculty positions removed due to funding cuts
After choosing to not reinstate the principal position held currently by Jeremy Keesee in fiscal year 2014 during the January meeting, community members were in attendance during Wednesday's Odell Grade School District #435 Board of Education meeting.


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The Last Tough Customer - The Tough Customers realize it's time to quit bullying and set out to find a new hobby - but can Molly ever truly change her ways? Brain's Chess Mess - Brain starts a chess club at school to improve his game and beat Los Dedos, the local chess master. Who knew the best player in the club would be...Rattles?!?
Visit the Website: http://pbskids.org/arthur
Episode #1606 / Length: 28 minutes


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According to the club's website, an out of competition drug test by the Football Association discovered traces of a banned substance in his sample.
A statement by the Blades reads: "The player has informed the club that he engaged in no wrongdoing involving any banned substance.
"Established policy in these circumstances requires that the club temporarily suspend the player pending further findings.
"The club has taken this step without prejudice to the player's claim of no wrongdoing. The club will offer no further comment at this stage."
The 23-year-old Bootle-born player has spent two seasons at Bramall Lane having signed from Oldham in the summer of 2013.
He started his career at Everton where he made his senior debut at the age of 16 in a Premier League match in August 2008, coming on as a second half substitute against Blackburn.
A PFA statement reads: "The PFA notes the charge levied against Jose Baxter of Sheffield United regarding an alleged anti-doping violation.
"We are providing our full support at this difficult time but will make no further comment as the matter is subject to the appropriate processes."
And another player to fail a drug test is Wolves keeper Aaron McCarey who, according to the club's website, "is now subject to an immediate FA suspension from all competitive forms of football."
Wolves report that the 23-year-old Irishman failed a test for a non-performance enhancing substance.
The statement adds that "McCarey strenuously denies deliberately taking any banned substance. The club is extremely disappointed and concerned that one of its players has failed a drugs test.
"Neither the player nor the club will be making any further comment whilst the FA investigation is underway and not until the matter has been fully concluded."


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Charlotte High completed its improbable sweep through the Sarasota Classic and clinched the Red Bracket championship by snapping Eagle's View Academy's seven-game win streak.
The Tarpons secured the 4-2 victory Thursday only after catcher Geoffrey Saine tagged out Khalil Searcy for the game's final out after pitcher Dillon McDermott fielded a chopper toward the mound with the bases loaded and flipped the ball to Saine.
"In dramatic fashion," said Charlotte coach Dan Flaherty. "The guy slid in hard, Geoff did a great job holding onto the ball. Enough said, game over."
"Bang-bang play and it went Charlotte's way today," said Eagle's View coach Terrance Freeman, who played for Manatee Community College in 1994-95.
Viera won the Blue Bracket title with a 2-1 victory over Ponte Vedra on Thursday night at Sarasota High.
The Tarpons (8-8), who compete in FHSAA Class 7A-District 11 with the likes of Venice and Sarasota, came into the tournament with "a deceiving 4-8 record," Flaherty said.
"It's huge," Flaherty said. "This is traditionally one of the best tournaments in a country, for all I know. We came here ready to play, focused every day and these guys did a great job. Hats off to my players."
Sophomore right-hander Chris Holland went 61/3 innings and scattered six hits, two runs, both earned, with two strikeouts and one walk.
Holland also went 2-for-2 and scored two runs.
David Fetkenher was 1-for-3 with an RBI.
Brandon Murphy and Nick Newman, who also scored two runs, were both 1-for-3.
McDermott allowed one hit.
Tucker Davis' two-run double in the fourth inning was the only scoring done by Eagle's View (13-7), a 3A team from Jacksonville.
The Tarpons' first two runs scored in the first when Eagle's View center fielder Rhett Criswell misplayed a fly ball by Fetkenher in the first, plating Holland and Newman.
The Tarpons, however, did not leave unscathed.
Senior second baseman Chaz Richards suffered a shoulder injury diving for a ground ball in the fourth and left the game. Flaherty said Richards will be evaluated by the training staff today.
Justin Greenaway's two-run single highlighted a five-run fifth inning that catapulted Lakewood Ranch (9-8) third place in the Red Bracket.
Sophomore right-hander Scott Scout tossed a four-hitter, striking out four and walking two.
Colton Chupp and Shane Zipperer (RBI) each had two hits. Brenden Lewellen and Garett Schultz each had one RBI.
Nick Agosto collected three hits, including a double, and Grady Wells had a pair of hits for the Pirates (6-12), who scored all four of their runs in the fifth.
Donovan Petrey took the loss.
Derrick Cozzette's squeeze bunt in the third inning scored Myles Straw with the game's only run as Braden River (6-12) salvaged its lone tournament victory in their third one-run game.
Senior right-hander Brooks Norton went four innings and picked up the win. Bobby Henderson finished to get the save.
Dylan Lee's double was the only extra-base hit for the Pirates, who had only three hits.
Palmetto senior right-hander John Collins tossed a three-hitter, throwing only 60 pitches, and struck out three.
Brett Vedder was 2-for-3 for the Tigers (7-9), who left five men on base in scoring position and had a runner thrown out at the plate in the third.
"Braden River did what it was supposed to do," said Palmetto coach Phil Olson. "Throw strikes and let the defense work for them."
Devin Pellien threw a four-hitter and the Hurricanes beat North Port to win their third straight after losing nine in a row.
Daniel Kerwin was 2-for-3 with an RBI. Manny Rodriguez added an RBI for the Hurricanes (5-13).
"This is good for our guys to put us in the right direction headed for the stretch run of the season," Manatee coach Dwayne Strong said.
North Port (8-10) did not advance a runner to third base the entire game and the Bobcats gave up a pair of runs on an error in the first inning.
"It was not a good performance," said North Port coach Rob Rowe, whose team went 1-3 in the tournament.
Entering the tournament with one loss, the Rams fell for the second straight day in the third-place game of the Blue Bracket.
Riverview committed three costly errors that helped Pine Crest move into the lead. Jared Pruitt went 3-for-3 with three doubles. Sean Labsan went 2-for-3 for Riverview (14-3).
Catcher Brandon Chapman was 3-for-3 and knocked in five runs.
Tyler Leonard and Evan Mendoza combined on a one-hit. Dylan White, Jason Sierra, Mason Dancer and Mendoza all had two hits for the Sailors (12-4), which finished 3-1 in the Blue Bracket.
The Cougars scored one in the fourth inning and three in the fifth to get even, but allowed three runs in the seventh.
Thursday Results
Blue Championship
Viera 2 Ponte Vedra 1
Red Championship
Charlotte 4 Eagle's View Academy 2
Final Placings:
Blue Bracket
1. Viera
2. Ponte Vedra
3. Pine Crest
4. Riverview
Red Bracket
1. Charlotte
2. Eagle's View Academy
Coral Glades 8 Dade Christian 0
Barron Collier 4 Hernando 2
Boca Raton 7 Cardinal Mooney 4
Pine Crest 5 Riverview 2
Gulliver Prep 6 Okeechobee 5
Sarasota 10 Tampa Catholic 0
Manatee 3 North Port 1
Lakewood Ranch 7 Port Charlotte 4
Braden River 1 Palmetto 0


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In a clash of top teams in their class Tuesday night #7 in class 3A Mid-Prairie's second half rally fell short in a loss to Class 2A West Branch 48-42. In a game heard on KCII West Branch built an early lead on easy baskets and first half Mid-Prairie turnovers taking a 24-14 advantage into the halftime break. Out of halftime Mid-Prairie looked primed to repeat last year's big second half comeback that ended with a win on the road against the Bears, opening the half on an 13-3 run to tie the game. Mid-Prairie would force a tie three times in the second half but the Hawks were never able to wrestle away the lead. West Branch stepped to the line in the final minute and knocked down five of six pressure free throws to put the game out of reach. Mid-Prairie was led by Mariah Swartzentruber who had a breakout game with 13 points. The Bears were led by unsung hero Ashley Finnegan who posted 17 points, well above her seven point per game average. Following the game Head Coach Marc Pennington talked about his team's effort and the difference in the game
"The first half we had three steals and five deflections and the second half we had 11 steals and 13 deflections, and I think that shows you how active we were, we were just much more aggressive, and when you fall behind that much especially against a good team you you have to spend so much energy to get back into the game, and we had chances and I thought if we could just get the lead we had the chance to put them away," Pennington said. "Give them credit, they had big time offensive rebounds, we weren't physical enough, missed too many free throws and that was just the story of the game."
With the loss Mid-Prairie is now 2-1 on the year and 1-1 in the Cedar Valley Conference. Mid-Prairie will next be in action Friday night at Iowa City Regina, you can hear that game live on KCIIradio.com with pregame at 5:30 and tipoff at 6. The game will also be delayed broadcast following the Washington game.


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This year marks the 15th anniversary of "The Big Lebowski," a film that baffled critics and audiences but has spawned perhaps the most loyal cult following of any movie released in recent years.
The epicenter of Lebowksi re-evaluation is Louisville, Kentucky, home of the inaugural Lebowski Fest, a celebration that has brought fans of "The Dude," as he's known, together for the last dozen years, and has been replicated across the country.
Joseph Lord from Here & Now contributing station WFPL went to the 12th annual Lebowski Fest in Louisville this weekend to find out what it is exactly that inspires the fans' devotion.
- Joseph Lord, online managing editor for WFPL in Louisville, Kentucky. He tweets @joseph_lord.
This year marks the 15th anniversary of "The Big Lebowski," the film that baffled critics and audiences but has a huge and loyal cult following. Quick, name a line: Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man. The epicenter of Lebowski re-evaluation is Louisville, Kentucky, home of the Lebowski Fest, which has brought fans of The Dude together for the last dozen years and has been replicated across the country.
Joseph Lord from HERE AND NOW contributing station WFPL went to this weekend's Lebowski Fest in Louisville to find out what it is that inspires this devotion.
JOSEPH LORD, BYLINE: Outside the discrete bowling alley, a line runs the length of the building. The crowd looks awfully odd. Several men dressed alike with long hair and goatees, women wearing Viking helmets, others wearing bikinis. And then there's the man with a megaphone.
WILL RUSSELL: We actually have a little (unintelligible) on the way, so everybody can (unintelligible). So have fun, you guys. Thanks for coming.
LORD: Out of context, the scene would fit right into its inspiration, the 1998 movie, "The Big Lebowski." It's hard to describe, but in short, Jeff Bridges plays a middle-aged hippie called The Dude. When men break into his house and urinate on his rug, The Dude goes on a wild adventure. He's mistaken for a millionaire who is also named Lebowski. Then he's asked to deliver a ransom for the other Lebowski's kidnapped wife. In his travels, he encounters an ever-increasing cast of strange characters.
JEFF BRIDGES: (as The Dude) You know, this could be a lot more complex. I mean, it's not just - it might not be just such a simple, you know?
DAVID HUDDLESTON: (as The Big Lebowski) What in God's holy name are you blathering about?
LORD: When it was released, "The Big Lebowski" was considered a flop, especially since it came from critical darlings Joel and Ethan Coen, who had previously won the best original screenplay Academy Award for "Fargo."
RUSSELL: Even I when I first saw it, I didn't dislike it, but I was kind of indifferent to it. Certainly didn't have an inkling that one day I would start a fan festival celebrating it. But, yeah, I ended up catching it a few more times, and on the third time, I just completely fell in love with it.
LORD: That's Will Russell, the man with the megaphone. Russell and a group of friends started Lebowski Fest in 2002 after realizing they could converse largely through quotes from the movie. The first festival drew a larger than expected crowd and since then they've put on Lebowski Fest across the U.S.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: The old man told me to take any rug in the house.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: The Dude advice.
LORD: There's just something about "The Big Lebowski" that inspires hundreds of people to drive for hours, dress in costume, answer obscure trivia, and like The Dude and his friends, bowl. Scoop Dale(ph) came to Louisville from Cleveland for the fest. He's seen the movie more than 100 times.
SCOOP DALE: After you've watched it, you realize not a lot happens, but you want to watch it again. And the second time you watch it, the third, the fourth, the fifth, you keep seeing more and more things, not just hidden in the script but visual jokes and layers upon layers.
SARAH LANDLE: It just has like infinite dividends.
LORD: Sarah Landle(ph) bowls or, as they say here, throws rocks. While wearing a bowling pin headdress, she says she realizes this is a strange way to spend a Saturday night, but she loves the movie that much.
LANDLE: It's weird because it doesn't have a plot, but simultaneously, like, you get more out of it, to where it seems like it has a rich, thick plot each time.
LORD: The celebration doesn't have the official backing from the Coens, and Russell had never spoken to either of the filmmakers until shortly before this year's festival when Joel Coen and his wife, actress Frances McDormand, passed through Louisville.
RUSSELL: And, Joel, you know, it was interesting because he did seem genuinely like kind of intrigued by like who is this person? Like who is this guy that started this weird festival about my movie, you know? They seemed genuinely interested in meeting me, which was really nice.
LORD: And Coen gave an autograph that reflected some surprise at the festival's existence and endurance.
RUSSELL: It's the 12th annual Lebowski Fest poster, and it says: Will, a dozen years is too long, Joel Coen.
LORD: Russell doesn't have any plans to stop staging Lebowski Fest, and the fans just keep coming. They see something in the movie and in the characters. At the bowling alley, people take photos of Steve Lewis(ph), who came to Louisville from Chino, California. He's wearing a tan Safari vest like Walter, The Dude's militant best friend, played by John Goodman.
STEVE LEWIS: Everybody always kind of - they can associate themselves with somebody from the movie. Like some people, you know, my brother's a way more Dude than me. And then I have a couple of little friends. They're little Donny, but I'm Walter, like, I'm a little abrasive. I'm a little loud. I'm like, I'm Walter. And you could kind of just dig into one of the characters, and you just live that character and it's just like, that's me.
LORD: To paraphrase the movie, it ties the fans together. For HERE AND NOW, I'm Joseph Lord in Louisville.
YOUNG: And fans of The Dude know that this is "Lujon" by Henry Mancini, and it's not a mistake. It's part of the soundtrack for "The Big Lebowski" film, which was sort of a Coen brothers mix tape.
And we've got some pictures, by the way, of some of these Dude look-alikes at hereandnow.org. I guess maybe you'd call them El Duderino or His Dudeness.
YOUNG: No, you wouldn't. I don't think so.
HOBSON: Maybe not. From NPR and WBUR Boston, I'm Jeremy Hobson.
YOUNG: I'm Robin Young. This is HERE AND NOW. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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Dawna is being edited to look like she wasn't really listening - no eye contact with James
Dawna is being edited to look like she wasn't really listening - no eye contact with James
James is rattling off a bunch of info that Dawna is supposed to absorb instantly without notes. For most of us that is unrealistic. If he's so organized and wonderful, why didn't he have a report prepared for his part of the project?
Now to look up some of these people. Amanda's the chick who was useless along with Ryan on the Tassimo task and tried to get Marcela booted. Sarah and Carrie ran the disastrous Tide To Go task.
Is it possible to be a "winner" with an event that contains a circus element? I mean a charity event that relies on poor animals that parade around like slaves...
"Feel the sky blanket you/ With gems and rhinestones/ See the path cut by the moon/ For you to walk on" - EV
Raising 1 mil for The Boys & Girls Club? I don't see that happening.
Carrie, get over it. You're looking petty. This is the first time I've ever seen this on any Apprentice.
I see Howie is up to his same old self.
Tide to Go! YIKES! They're all back? Were all of them on the same team? I know Bethany was on that task and so was Jim.


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Since when have OS designers optimised their code to milk every cycle from the available CPUs? They haven't, they just wait for hardware to get faster to keep up with the code.
Google? I'm a big Google fan (and despite the rest of my comment, also a big Android fan and totally love my Nexus One).. but if Google was so hardcore into efficiency, why the hell did they develop a new runtime for their Android that's based on Java?
Google didn't seem like the best company to praise for efficiency. I would have picked some sort of video game company like id Software (yeah, I realize this an apples and oranges comparison though).
... but if Google was so hardcore into efficiency, why the hell did they develop a new runtime for their Android that's based on Java?
Because the Java gets executed on the user's hardware. Google cares about efficiency insofar as it affects their own hardware requirements.
Why Java for Android? This is a good question. There are several reasons (that the Android team have discussed).
One is that ARM native code is bigger, size-wise, than Dalvik VM bytecode. So it takes up more memory. Unlike the iPhone, Android was designed from the start to multi-task between lots of different (user installed) apps. It's quite feasible to rapidly switch between apps with no delay on Android, and that means keeping multiple running programs in RAM simultaneously. So trading off some CPU time for memory is potentially a good design. Now that said, Java has some design issues that make it more profligate with heap memory than it maybe needs to be (eg utf16 for strings) so I don't have a good feel for whether the savings are cancelled out or not, but it's a justification given by the Android team.
Another is that Java is dramatically easier to program than a C-like language. I mean, incredibly monstrously easier. One problem with languages like C++ or Objective-C is that lots of people think they understand them but very few programmers really do. Case in point - I have an Apple-mad friend who ironically programs C# servers on Windows for his day job. But he figured he'd learn iPad development. I warned him that unmanaged development was a PITA but he wasn't convinced, so I showed him a page that discussed reference counting in ObjC (retain/release). He read it and said "well that seems simple enough" - doh. Another one bites the dust. I walked him through cycle leaks, ref leaks on error paths (no smart pointers in objc!), and some basic thread safety issues. By the end he realized that what looked simple really wasn't at all.
By going with Java, Android devs skip that pain. I'm fluent in C++ and Java, and have used both regularly in the past year. Java is reliably easier to write correct code in. I don't think it's unreasonable to base your OS on it. Microsoft has moved a lot of Windows development to
Fortunately, being based on Java doesn't mean Android is inherently inefficient. Large parts of the runtime are written in C++, and you can write parts of your own app in native code too (eg for 3D graphics). You need to use Java to use most of the OS APIs but you really shouldn't be experiencing perf problems with things like gui layout - if you are, that's a hint you need to simplify your app rather than try to micro-optimize.
One is that ARM native code is bigger, size-wise, than Dalvik VM bytecode.
Citation needed. Dalvik is better than baseline Java bytecode, agreed. But so is ARM native code. [http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=377837&dl=GUIDE&coll=GUIDE&CFID=82959920&CFTOKEN=24064384 - "[...] the code efficiency of Java turns out to be inferior to that of ARM Thumb"]. I can find no direct comparison of ARM Thumb and Dalvik, so I can't tell you which produces the smaller code size.
So it takes up more memory.
Even if your first statement is true, this doesn't necessarily follow. VMs add overhead, usually using up somewhat more runtime memory to execute, particularly if a JIT is used (the current version of Dalvik doesn't have one, but the next one apparently will).
Since when have OS designers optimised their code to milk every cycle from the available CPUs?
This isn't just an OS-level problem. It's a failure among programmers of all sorts.
I've been involved in software development since the late 1970s, and for the start I've heard the argument "We don't have to worry about code speed or size, because today's machines are so fast and have so much memory. This was just as common back when machines were 1,000 times slower and had 10,000 times less memory than today.
It's the reason for Henry Petroski's famous remark that "The most amazing achievement of the computer software industry is its continuing cancellation of the steady and staggering gains made by the computer hardware industry."
Programmers respond to faster cpu speed and more memory by making their software use more cpu cycles and more memory. They always have, and there's no sign that this is going to change. Being efficient is hard, and you don't get rewarded for it, because managers can't measure it. So it's better to add flashy eye candy and more features, which people can see.
If we want efficient code, we have to figure out ways to reward the programmers that write it. I don't see any sign that people anywhere are interested in doing this. Anyone have suggestions for how it might be done?
Maybe it's not a question of whether the code is efficient. Maybe it's a question of how much you're asking the code to do. It's no surprise that hardware struggles to make gains against performance demands when software developers are adding on nonsense like compositing window managers and sidebar widgets. I'm enjoying Moore's law without any cancellation.. just run a sane environment. Qt or GTK, not both, if youre running an X desktop. Nothing other than IM in the system tray. No "upgrade fever" that makes people itch for Windows Media Player 14 when older versions work fine and mplayer and winamp work better.
If we want efficient code, we have to figure out ways to reward the programmers that write it. I don't see any sign that people anywhere are interested in doing this. Anyone have suggestions for how it might be done?
It's happening, from a source people didn't expect: portable devices. Battery life is becoming a primary feature of portable devices, and a large fraction of that comes from software efficiency. Take your average cell phone: it's probably got a half dozen cores running in it. One in the wifi, one in the baseband, maybe one doing voice codec, another doing audio decode, one (or more) doing video decode and/or 3d, and some others hiding away doing odds and ends.
The portable devices industry has been doing multi-core for ages. It's how your average cell phone manages immense power savings: you can power on/off those cores as necessary, switch their frequencies, and so on. They have engineers who understand how to do this. They're rewarded for getting it right: the reward is it lives on battery longer, and it's measurable.
Yes, you can get lazy and say 'next generation CPUs will be more efficient', but you'll be beaten by your competitors for battery life. Or, you fit a bigger battery and you lose in form factor.
The world is going mobile, and that'll be the push we need to get software efficient again.
It's not a failure among programmers at all - it's a business decision. The main reason software is less efficient is the costs are so heavily tilted toward software development instead of hardware. For the vast majority of business applications companies are using generalized frameworks to trade CPU cycles and memory for development time.
Even in terms of development style, it just isn't worth it to optimize your code if it's going to substantially increase development time. People are expensive. Time
ya but those cases, as he reasonably explains, tend to get specialized development (say scientific computing), or separate processes, or while he doesn't explain it, a lot of server stuff is embarrassingly (or close to) parallel.
I can sort of see them not having a multi-processor OS just waiting for the consumer desktop- server processors are basically cache with some processor attached, whereas desktop processors are architected differently, and who knew for sure what the mutlicore world would look like in
It doesn't sound easily backwards compatible (but I might be wrong there), and there's a certain simplicity to 'reserve one core for the OS, application developers can manage the rest of them themselves' sort of model like consoles.
Those curious about what life would be like with application developers managing system resources, should try firing up an old copy of Windows 3.1 or MacOS and running 10 or so applications at the same time.
I can only assume TFA is an atrociously bad summary of what he's actua
Why has it taken so long for the OS designers to get with the program?
Coming up with a new OS paradigm is hard, but doable.
Coming up with a viable new OS that uses that paradigm is much harder; because even once the new OS is working perfectly, you still have to somehow make it compatible with the zillions of existing applications that people depend on. If you can't do that, your shiny new OS will be viewed as an interesting experiment for the propeller-head set, but it won't ever get the critical mass of users necessary to build up its own application base.
So far, I think Apple has had the most successful transition strategy: Come up with the great new OS, bundle the old OS with it, inside an emulator/sandbox, and after a few years, quietly deprecate (and then drop) the old OS. Repeat as necessary.
I don't know if you had to support Mac users during the years of transition, but it wasn't quite as easy as you made it sound. It was pretty smooth for such a drastic change, but I wouldn't want to repeat it any more than necessary.
Come up with the great new OS...
hang on, this "new" OS you're referring to is basically UNIX (BSD). It was invented before Windows. Sure apple has modified it and put a shiny new layer on top (that works exceptionally smoothly, mind you), but if you wanna get technical, they didn't come up with a new OS, they improved an old one.
MS did the same during the transition to 32-bit. They included a 16-bit DOS emulator and had it run transparently. They did the same for the transition to 64-bit. It was so successful and so transparent a lot of IT professionals didn't even know it was even happening in the background.
Unlike Apple though, they never removed it. Sure, it resulted in a major security hole, but it also let legacy custom business apps run far longer than they otherwise would have been able to.
I suspect if they were ever to make
developing server apps to run parallel is easy, client software is hard. Many times, the cost of syncing threads is greater than the work you get from them. So you leave it single threaded. The question is, how may you design a Framework/API that is very thread friendly while making sure everything runs in the order expected all the while making it easy for bad programmers to take advantage of it.
The biggest issue with developing async-threaded programs is logical dependencies that don't allow part to be loaded/processed before another. If from square one, you develop an app to take advantage of extra threads, it may be less efficient, but more responsive. Most programmers I talk to have issues trying to understand the interweaving logic of multi-threaded programing.
I guess it's up to MS to make a easy to use idiot-proof threaded framework for crappy programmers to use.
Well - I can tell you that Dave Probert saw his first multi-processor about 28 years ago at Burroughs corporation. It was a dual-processor B1855. I had the pleasure with working with the guy way back then. From what I recall he then went on to work at FPS systems which was an array processor that you could add onto other machines (I think vaxen...but I could be wrong there..)
Anyway - he has been around ALONG time.
'Why should you ever, with all this parallel hardware, ever be waiting for your computer?'
Because I/O is always going to be slow.
Well, with the rise of the SSD, that's no longer as much of a problem. Case in point - I built a system on the weekend with a 40GB Intel SSD. Pretty much the cheapest "known-good" SSD I could get my hands on (ie TRIM support, good controller) at AUD $172, roughly the price of a 1.5TB spinning rust store - and the system only needs 22GB including apps.
Windows boots from end of POST in about 5 seconds. 5 seconds is not even enough for the TV to turn on (it's a Media Center box). Logon is instant. App start is nigh-on instant (I've never seen Explorer appear seemingly before the Win+E key is released). This is the fastest box I've ever seen, and it's the most basic "value" processor Intel offer - the i3-530, on a cheap Asrock board with cheap RAM (true, there's a slightly cheaper "bargain basement" CPU in the G6950 or something). The whole PC cost AUD800 from a reputable supplier, and I could have bought for $650 if I'd wanted to wait in line for an hour or get abused at the cheaper places.
Now, Intel are aiming to saturate SATA-3 (600MBps) with the next generation(s) of SSD, or so I'm told. Based on what I've seen - it's achievable, at reasonable cost, and it's not only true for sequential read access. So if the IO bottleneck disappears - because the SSD can do 30K, 50K, 100K IO operations per second? Yeah, I think it's reasonable to ask why we wait for the computer.
Not that I think a redesign is necessary for the current architectures - Windows, BSD, Linux all scale nicely to at least 8 or 16 logical CPUs in the server world, so the 4, 6 or 8 on the desktop isn't a huge problem. But in 5 years when we have 32 CPUs on the desktop? Maybe. Or maybe we'll just be using the same apps that only need 1 CPU most of the time, and using the other 20 CPUs for real-time stuff (Real voice control? Motion control and recognition?)
Well, with the rise of the SSD, that's no longer as much of a problem.
Let's do some math shall we? Take a simple 4 core Nehalem running at 2.66Ghz. Let's conservatively assume that it can complete a mere *1* double precision floating point number per clock cycle, per core. So. How big is a double? 64 bits, or 8 bytes. Now, that's 2.66 billion * 4 = 10.64 BILLION doubles per second, which is 85 GB/s.
The trick to understanding computing is that all computing really *is* at its heart a throughput problem.
Do you see the asymmetry in throughput b/t the Nehalem and your SSD?
The question wasn't, "why should your CPU have to wait", it was, "why should *you* have to wait". At speeds approaching 3Gb/s, I think it's fair to say, at the person you replied to actually did say, "well, with the rise of the SSD, that's no longer as much of a problem."
The trick to understanding computing is that all computing really *is* at its heart a throughput problem.
The trick to understanding computers is to realize that all computing really is, at its heart, a human problem. It really doesn't matter if the CPU has to wait a trillion cycles in between receiving each byte of data, if the computer respon
Why should you ever, with all this parallel hardware, ever be waiting for your computer?' he asked.
Because it might be waiting for I/O.
Why should you ever, with all this parallel hardware, ever be waiting for your computer?' he asked.
Because it might be waiting for I/O.
That's no reason for the entire GUI to freeze on Windows when you insert a CD.
The problem is that most (if not all) peripheral hardware is not parallel in many senses. Hardware in today's computers is serial: You access one device, then another, then another. There are some cases (such as a few good emulators) which use muti-threaded emulation (sound in one thread, graphics in another) but fundamentally the biggest performance kill is the final IRQs that get called to process data. The structure of modern day computers must change to take advantage of multicore systems.
The Problem with Threads [berkeley.edu] (UC Berkeley's Prof Edward Lee)
How to Solve the Parallel Programming Crisis [blogspot.com]
Half a Century of Crappy Computing [blogspot.com]
The computer industry will have to wake up to reality sooner or later. We must reinvent the computer; there is no getting around this. The old paradigms from the 20th century do not work anymore because they were not designed for parallel processing.
In the 1980s there was lots of academic interest in parallel computing. Unfortunately a lot of it seemed to be driven merely by the quest for speed- once single CPUs got fast enough in the early 90s and everyone went 'whee C is good enough also objects are neat!', a whole generation of parallel language work was lost to the new&shiny.
It's depressing.
Why should you ever, with all this parallel hardware, ever be waiting for your computer?
I dunno - maybe because optimal multiprocessor scheduling is an NP-complete problem? Or because concurrent computations require coordination at certain points, which is an issue that doesn't exist with single-threaded systems, and it's therefore wishful thinking to assume you'll get linear scaling as you add more cores?
...the implementation sucks.
Why for example does Windows Explorer decide to freeze ALL network connections when a single URN isn't quickly resolved? Why is it that when my USB drive wakes up, all explorer windows freeze? If you are trying to tell me there's no way using the current abstractions to implement this I say you're mad. For that matter when a copy or move fails in Explorer, why can't I simply resume it once I've fixed whatever the problem is. You're left piecing together what has and hasn't been moved. File requests make up a good deal of what we're waiting for. It's not the bus or the drives that are usually the limitation. It's the shitty coding. I can live with a hit at startup. I can live with delays if I have to eat into swap. But I'm sick and tired of basic functionality being missing or broken.
Windows explorer sucks. It always just abandons copies after a fail - even if you're moving thousands of files over a network. Yes, you're left wondering which files did/didn't make it. It's actually easier to sometimes copy all the files you want to shift locally, then move the copy, so that you can resume after a fail. It's laughable you have to do this, however.
But it's not a concurrency issue, and neither, really, are the first 2 problems you mention. They're also down to Windows Explorer sucking.
Windows Explorer no longer kills network transfers after a failure as of Windows Vista.
Maybe some of the people complaining about Windows should stop using a version thats 9 years old (XP). Red Hat 7.2 isn't particularly great by today's standards either.
there is a option, at least as far back as xp that allows explorer windows to run as their own tasks. Why its not enabled by default i have no clue about (except that i have seen some issues with custom icons when doing so).
For that matter when a copy or move fails in Explorer, why can't I simply resume it once I've fixed whatever the problem is.
You can as of Vista.
For that matter when a copy or move fails in Explorer, why can't I simply resume it once I've fixed whatever the problem
Try TotalCopy [ranvik.net] which adds a copy/move in the right click menu; or Teracopy [codesector.com] commercial (free version available, supports Win7) complete replacement for the sucky Windows copy system.
USB/Network freezes and file copying isn't a fault of CPU cores like you say, Windows is just a sucky OS. Multicore stuff gets complicated, but this isn't going to be a panacea for Microsoft, it's another marketing opportunity.
not true, you wait because management speed tracks stuff out the door without giving developers enough time to code things properly and management ignores developer concerns in order to get something out there now that will make money at the expense of the end user, I have been coding a long time and have seen this over and over. Management doesn't care about customers or let developers code things correctly - they only care about $$$$$$$
Microsoft should go back and read some of the literature on parallel computing from 20-30 years ago. Machines with many cores are nothing new. And Microsoft could have designed for it if they hadn't been busy re-implementing a bloated version of VMS.
... for NFS to give up on a disconnected server... By the original design and the continuing default settings, the stuck processes are neither killable nor interruptible. You can reboot the whole system, but you can't kill one process.
Hurray for the OS designers!
With computers past and present -- Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, iPhone -- with "instant on", why does Windows not have this yet? This goes back to the lost decade [slashdot.org]. What has Microsoft been doing since XP was released?
iPhone isn't even slightly "instant on" - it takes at least a minute to boot an iPhone from off. What you're seeing most of the time is "screen off" mode. Unsurprisingly, switching the screen on & cranking up the CPU clock doesn't take much time. Likewise, waking my Windows box up from sleep doesn't take very long either. Comparing modern OS software running on modern hardware I see little difference in boot times, or wake time from sleep - which would indicate that if MS are being lazy then so are Appl
Why should you ever, with all this parallel hardware, ever be waiting for your computer?'
For a lot of problems, for the same reason that some guy who just married 8 brides will still have to wait for his baby.
A big problem is the event-driven model of most user interfaces. Almost anything that needs to be done is placed on a serial event queue, which is then processed one event at a time. This prevents race conditions within the GUI, but at a high cost. Both the Mac and Windows started that way, and to a considerable extent, they still work that way. So any event which takes more time than expected stalls the whole event queue. There are attempts to fix this by having "background" processing for events known to be slow, but you have to know which ones are going to be slow in advance. Intermittently slow operations, like an DNS lookup or something which infrequently requires disk I/O, tend to be bottlenecks.
Most languages still handle concurrency very badly. C and C++ are clueless about concurrency. Java and C# know a little about it. Erlang and Go take it more seriously, but are intended for server-side processing. So GUI programmers don't get much help from the language.
In particular, in C and C++, there's locking, but there's no way within the language to even talk about which locks protect which data. Thus, concurrency can't be analyzed automatically. This has become a huge mess in C/C++, as more attributes ("mutable", "volatile", per-thread storage, etc.) have been bolted on to give some hints to the compiler. There's still race condition trouble between compilers and CPUs with long look-ahead and programs with heavy concurrency.
We need better hard-compiled languages that don't punt on concurrency issues. C++ could potentially have been fixed, but the C++ committee is in denial about the problem; they're still in template la-la land, adding features few need and fewer will use correctly, rather than trying to do something about reliability issues. C# is only slightly better; Microsoft Research did some work on "Polyphonic C#" [psu.edu], but nobody seems to use that. Yes, there are lots of obscure academic languages that address concurrency. Few are used in the real world.
Game programmers have more of a clue in this area. They're used to designing software that has to keep the GUI not only updated but visually consistent, even if there are delays in getting data from some external source. Game developers think a lot about systems which look consistent at all times, and come gracefully into synchronization with outside data sources as the data catches up. Modern MMORPGs do far better at handling lag than browsers do. Game developers, though, assume they own most of the available compute resources; they're not trying to minimize CPU consumption so that other work can run. (Nor do they worry too much about not running down the battery, the other big constraint today.)
Incidentally, modern tools for hardware design know far more about timing and concurrency than anything in the programming world. It's quite possible to deal with concurrency effectively. But you pay $100,000 per year per seat for the software tools used in modern CPU design.
This has become a huge mess in C/C++, as more attributes ("mutable", "volatile", per-thread storage, etc.) have been bolted on to give some hints to the compiler.
An interesting comment overall, but what relevance does "mutable" have to multi-threaded programming? It is just a way to say that a particular field in a class is never const, even when the object itself is as a whole. There are no optimizations the compiler could possibly derive from that (in fact, if anything, it might make some optimizations non-applicable).
Same goes for "volatile", actually. It forces the code generator to avoid caching values in registers etc, and always do direct memory reads & writes on every access to a given lvalue, but this won't prevent one core from not seeing a write done by another core - you need memory barriers for that, and ISO C++ "volatile" doesn't guarantee any (nor do any existing C++ implementations).
Microsoft Research did some work on "Polyphonic C#" [psu.edu], but nobody seems to use that.
It's a research language, not intended for production use. Microsoft Research does quite a few of those - e.g. Spec# [microsoft.com] (DbC), or C-omega [microsoft.com] (this is what Polyphonic C# evolved into), or Axum [microsoft.com] (the most recent take at concurrency, Erlang-style).
Those projects are used to "cook" some idea to see if it's feasible, what approach is the best, and how it is taken by programmers. Eventually, features from those languages end up integrated into the mainstream ones - C# and VB. For example, X# became LINQ in
An interesting comment overall, but what relevance does "mutable" have to multi-threaded programming?
A "const" object can be accessed simultaneously from multiple threads without locking, other than against deletion. A "mutable const" object cannot; while it is "logically const", its internal representation may change (it might be cached or compressed) and thus requires locking.
Failure to realize this results in programs with race conditions.
Most languages still handle concurrency very badly. C and C++ are clueless about concurrency. Java and C# know a little about it. Erlang and Go take it more seriously, but are intended for server-side processing. So GUI programmers don't get much help from the language.
In particular, in C and C++, there's locking, but there's no way within the language to even talk about which locks protect which data. Thus, concurrency can't be analyzed automatically. This has become a huge mess in C/C++, as more attributes ("mutable", "volatile", per-thread storage, etc.) have been bolted on to give some hints to the compiler. There's still race condition trouble between compilers and CPUs with long look-ahead and programs with heavy concurrency.
We need better hard-compiled languages that don't punt on concurrency issues. C++ could potentially have been fixed, but the C++ committee is in denial about the problem; they're still in template la-la land, adding features few need and fewer will use correctly, rather than trying to do something about reliability issues. C# is only slightly better; Microsoft Research did some work on "Polyphonic C#" [psu.edu], but nobody seems to use that. Yes, there are lots of obscure academic languages that address concurrency. Few are used in the real world.
Ada 2005's task model is a real world, production quality approach to include concurrency in a hard-compiled language. Ada isn't exactly known for its GUI libraries (there is GtkAda), but it could be used as a foundation for an improved concurrent GUI paradigm.
This book [google.com] covers the subject quite well.
I love how Microsoft can come along in 2010 and with a straight face say it's about time they took multiprocessing seriously. Or say it's about time we started putting HTML5 features into our browser. And we're finally going to support the ISO audio video standard from 2002. And by the way, it's about time we let you know that our answer to the 2007 iPhone will be shipping in 2011. And look how great it is that we just got 10% of our platform modernized off the 2001 XP version! And our office suite is just about ready to discover that the World Wide Web exists. It's like they are in a time warp.
I know they have product managers instead of product designers, and so have to crib design from the rest of the industry, necessitating them to be years behind, but on engineering stuff like multiprocessing, you expect them to at least have read the memo from Intel in 2005 about single cores not scaling and how the future was going to be 128 core chips before you know it.
I guess when you recognize that Windows Vista was really Windows 2003 and Windows 7 is really Windows 2005 then it makes some sense. It really is time for them to start taking multiprocessing seriously.
I am so glad I stopped using their products in 1999.
The part of the article where Probert discusses the operating system becoming something like a hypervisor reminds me of the Cache Kernel from a Stanford University paper back in 1994. http://www-dsg.stanford.edu/papers/cachekernel/main.html [stanford.edu]
The way I understand it, the cache kernel in kernel mode doesn't really have built-in policy for traditional OS tasks like scheduing or resource management. It just serves as a cache for loading and unloading for things like addresses spaces and threads and making them active. The policy for working with these things comes from separate application kernels in user mode and kernel objects that are loaded by the cache kernel.
There's also a 1997 MIT paper on exokernels (http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/papers/exo-sosp97/exo-sosp97.html). The idea is separating the responsibility of management from the responsibility of protection. The exokernel knows how to protect resources and the application knows how to make them sing. In the paper, they build a webserver on this architecture and it performs very well.
Both of these papers have research operating systems that demonstate specialized "native" applications running alongside unmodified UNIX applications running on UNIX emulators. That would suggest rebuilding an operating system in one of these styles wouldn't entail throwing out all the existing software or immediately forcing a new programming model on developers who aren't ready.
Microsoft used to talk about "personalities" in NT. It had subsystems for OS/2 1.x, WIn16, and Win32 that would allow apps from OS/2 (character mode), Windows 3.1 and Windows NT running as peers on top of the NT kernel. Perhaps someday the subsystems come back, some as OS personalities running traditional apps, and some as whole applications with resource management policy in their own right. Notepad might just run on the Win32 subsystem, but Photoshop might be interested in managing its own memory as well as disk space.
The mid-90s were fun for OS research, weren't they?
What's wrong with at least some operating systems doesn't even have anything to do with multiple cores per se. They're simply designing the OS and its UI incorrectly, assigning the wrong priorities to events. No event should EVER supersede the ability of a user to interact and intercede with the operating system (and applications). Nothing should EVER happen to prevent a user being able to move the mouse, access the start menu, etc., yet this still happens in both Windows and Linux distributions. That's a fucked-up set of priorities, when the user sitting in front of the damned box - who probably paid for it - gets second billing when it comes to CPU cycles.
It doesn't matter if there's one CPU core or a hundred. It's the fundamental design priorities that are screwed up. Hell should freeze over before a user is denied the ability to interact, intercede, or override, regardless how many cores are present. Apparently hell has already frozen over and I just didn't get the memo?
Logic is the chastity belt of the mind!


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After sitting on its hands for several months, publisher Microsoft has finally shared the Forza Motorsport 4 trailer it revealed during its E3 media briefing in June. It's awfully pretty, and apparently "all in-game footage."
Turn 10's racing sim is coming exclusively to Xbox 360 on October 11 in North America, then headed to Europe on October 14, and due out in the rest of the world on October 20. Coincidentally, Microsoft is also releasing its new Xbox 360 Wireless Speed Wheel peripheral for $60 in "early October."
Forza 4 will also boast Kinect support for head tracking, voice control menu navigation, playing with cars in your virtual showroom, and, if you're feeling a bit daft, driving by pretending you're holding a steering wheel in mid-air.
BOOM video 9705


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UFLive! Presents Black Coffee FridaysSubmitted by Jennie Grace on October 26, 2012 - 1:56pm
Sunday, November 18 • 2:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Busey-Mills Reading Room
Organically grown out of companionship and a love for music, Black Coffee Fridays is an acoustic string band in the bluegrass tradition. Playing a healthy mix of original material and new arrangements of older tunes, they tie everything together with fastpaced pickin' and tight vocal harmonies.
Black Coffee Fridays features Charlie Harris on bass, Phil Alley on guitar, Sam Payne on guitar and mandolin, and Cody Jensen on mandolin and banjo.
UFLive! concerts take place on the third Sunday of most months and are made possible through the generous support of The Urbana Free Library Foundation.


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A Toledo family was able to escape unharmed from an early morning fire on Saturday, Dec. 22, which caused an estimated $20,000 damage to the home at 203 East Grace Street which they were renting.
Mike Vales - Amber Mitchell and children were able to relocate to another rental house in Toledo that morning. The family was aided by the American Red Cross Red Cross media spokesperson Tammie Pech confirmed. She wrote in an email "We cannot be specific with assistance, we typically help with things such as shelter, food, seasonal items and medical necessities."
The property was insured but the family did not carry renters insurance, Toledo Fire Chief Joe Boll said.
Article Photos
Toledo firefighters work to control a blaze as smoke pours from the Mike Vales - Amber Mitchell residence at 203 E. Grace Street shortly after 4 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 22. Damage was confined to primarily the kitchen and roof areas, but the family was forced to move out. News-Herald/John Speer
Boll said Vales was awake and smoking a cigarette at 4:10 a.m. when he smelled smoke and heard a "crackling" in the walls.
Firefighters were summoned and were able to contain the blaze to mainly the kitchen and roof area above the kitchen. The cause of the fire was listed as electrical, Boll said. The fire department was on the scene about three and one-half hours.
Boll said firefighters were able to save the family's Christmas presents.
Article Map
The rental home is reported owned by Jim Smith, rural Toledo.


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Some actors complain about being typecast. Garret Dillahunt is not one of them, and a perusal of his recent roles will explain why.
In 2004, he played squint-eyed gambler Jack McCall, assassin of Wild Bill Hickock (Keith Carradine) on the first season on HBO's Western "Deadwood."
He returned in season two (without McCall's prosthetic makeup and adding longer hair and a beard) to play Francis Wolcott, the prostitute-murdering, ultimately suicidal geologist employed by mining magnate George Hearst (Gerald McRaney).
Right after that, he played Jesus (still with the hair and the beard) in the short-lived 2006 NBC series "The Book of Daniel."
Currently Dillahunt (with short hair and no beard), stars in the USA Network series "The 4400," airing Sunday. He plays Matthew Ross, lobbyist to Jordan Collier (Billy Campbell), the tycoon leader of 4,400 people abducted from over decades and then returned not having aged but with special powers given to them by people from the future attempting to rewrite history.
Told that he obviously hasn't been pigeonholed, Dillahunt says, "Thank God, huh? That was my goal. You know, I'm just not good at playing the guys that get the girl and all that. I was just never that. I didn't buy it, and I bet no one else would, either. When I quit chasing those and just started doing the character stuff that I always loved, things went better."
While he has a long list of movie and TV guest-star credits, Dillahunt, who's in his early 40s, got his most TV attention from his roles on "Deadwood," a drama that springs partly from history and partly from the fertile imagination of creator David Milch ("Hill Street Blues," "NYPD Blue").
Currently airing its third season Sunday on HBO (after this season, it then finishes its run with two planned two-hour movies), "Deadwood," set in an 1870s mining town in the Black Hills of South Dakota, has been critically acclaimed for its rich characterization, vivid historical recreation and language that's both Shakespearean and extremely salty.
It also boasts a stellar cast, including Ian McShane, Timothy Olyphant, Powers Boothe, Kim Dickens and Brad Dourif.
Calling in from the set of the Coen Brothers' adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's "No Country for Old Men" in Santa Fe, Dillahunt says, "I guess I shouldn't say it's all because of 'Deadwood.' I should say that it's because of me, but I feel like it's all because of 'Deadwood.' That showcase really opened up a lot of doors for me.
"That job was fantastic, but in its completeness, it was sadly unusual. It was a watershed moment for me. It's funny, for someone who has done as much theater as I have, which is supposed to be an ensemble experience; I had to wait for a television show to have my greatest ensemble experience.
"It's just so fun when it all works. This is what you thought it would be when you were a dewy-eyed kid, saying, 'I want to be an actor.' This is what you thought it would be all the time."
Seeking something completely different, Dillahunt moved on to what he refers to as "the Jesus show." Despite high expectations and some controversy, "The Book of Daniel," the edgy story of an Episcopalian priest (Aidan Quinn) and his complicated family, quickly sunk under the weight of its own ambitions.
"It was a good idea," Dillahunt says, "but it got away from everybody. Somebody got scared."
The show had a few hiccups actually getting on the air, and in the meantime, Dillahunt landed a role in another Western, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," due out next year and starring Brad Pitt as James. Dillahunt is still in the movie, but not in the "peach of a role" he was originally cast for -- because "Daniel" was eventually picked up.
"I tried to get out of it," he says. "Hell, I don't care. Brad Pitt even said he'd do a guest spot on the show if they could work around me, and they just couldn't do it. I guess, because it's Jesus, I'll always have to talk about it, but it's so over."
Now he's a suit-and-tie guy on "The 4400."
"I think it's a great idea," he says of the show. "Sci-fi, Westerns, you can talk about all kinds of things without offending people. It was really the first job I'd had since 'Deadwood' that held my interest.
"I had such a mountaintop experience with 'Deadwood,' at lot of people said it's kind of ruined us, at least for a while, for other television. ... I sound like I'm one of the 'Lord or the Rings' guys."
Jordan Collier was apparently assassinated last season, but a quick cameo in the finale argued otherwise. Campbell is slated to return later this season.
"You know, obviously, what his 4400 power is," Dillahunt says. "We know he can't die."
Dillahunt can't reveal whether Ross is good or bad, or what will happen to him, except to say, "Apparently there's good future people and bad future people, and they can get a hold of anyone. How about that? Is that hint enough without saying anything?"