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Scott: I had today a Q&A session with a talented young patriot of Germany. The following is its summary:
Before I answer the questions, please read my post "Waiting for Yalta-2"
Q: Do you know the guy being interviewed here? Or the program he is on?
Assuming the subtitles are accurate, this is stuff that is hardly ever talked about in Germany. With very few exceptions, Germans are blind when it comes to the issue of German national sovereignty. Or to be precise the lack thereof… But I think it is of paramount importance.
A.: Vesti is a liberal news channel/radio. However, they also try to interview normal people, politicians and journalists there.
Alexey Fenenko is an associate professor at the Faculty of World Politics of the Moscow State University. Previously, he was a leading researcher at the Institute of International Security Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2004-2013), a project coordinator at the Academic Educational Forum on International Relations and a co-editor for ˝International Trends˝ magazine (2004-2011). He has a Doctorate in the History of France (2003).
Q.: Where do these guys stand in terms of Russian public opinion? Is the "average Russian" aware of the vassalage of Germany to the Allies on "sort of legal terms"?
A.: Yes. That's the general understanding in Russia that Germany is being occupied by the US politically and militarily.
Q.: As a Russian, do you think that in the long run, Russia would be better off with an independent and unshackled Germany? I think the EU e.g. is mainly an institution to prevent a "German Reich". And when it falls, which will be soon, who knows what could happen.
A.: In August 2014, President Putin said that we can never forget the lessons of the World War II. However, German people cannot be held for thousands of years responsible for what Hitler had done. Many Germans had died fighting with fascism, also.
As we say… Putin is always right.
Russia wants to deal with an independent Germany, free from NATO and the US.
Q.: When the Empire begins to lose its grip on Germany and Europe they will simply set fire to it. They have all the charges in place. And why would Russia stop them?
A.: They would in the past, but they can't do this any longer. They might be able to create small conflicts like in Donbass. But nothing big.
Russia believes that the European Army with Germany as its leader will be instrumental in preventing any kind of "fire" coming from the US, Five Eyes and Israel.
Europe doesn't want a war in Europe. The Empire does, because they are not in Europe. The devastation of Europe in a war would solve ALL their problems.
Pay attention, those who scream against the European Army are British Nationals, Americans, and Zionists.
See, Here's Germany's Plan For The European Defense Union
The European Army as designed by Germany, France and Russia will be instrumental in squeezing NATO out of Europe and liberating Germany from American occupation.
Q.: If I were King of Germany tomorrow, would I go to Putin and ask him to support my purge? The purge that would not even be necessary if my people were not completely brainwashed?
Would I ask for Russian protection if I were to expel US troops from Germany? How else do I get them out of here? Could my army even get the job done? If I need Russia to get rid of US vassalage, would Russia really support me for the sake of my own independence?
A.: Germany has already done this. Germany has already asked Russia to support its struggle for independence from the US and NATO occupation.
This video is an interview of historian and journalist Peter Feist to the German internet channel Quer-Denken.TV.
The idea is to create a new economic and political union with free trade and open borders between Russia, and Germany, France and Italy with secure energy delivery and common markets. China and Kazakhstan have also invested politically and financially into this project. Just think about thousands of Germans who were born in Kazakhstan and lived there and moved to Germany, but never severed connections with Kazakhstan. Nazarbayev wants them to come back. You understand why…
As expected, the "new democracies," and also the UK, Sweden, Nederland, Switzerland with their governments and elites completely owned by the US are putting fight against those plans. They won't be a part of this project.
All the "terror" attacks that you have. All the "workers' " protests in France. A fascist putsch in Ukraine. So called "refugee crisis" was organized starting with the USAID and UN cutting billions of dollars for refugee camps food programs in December 2014. The demands to sign TTIP, or the second kidnapping of Europe. All these was engineered to scare Germany and France from their cooperation with Russia.
That's why Merkel is so determined to deal with "refugees" and to pay off Turkey. She just wants to pass this stage of unrest created by the Empire and to continue with a plan of squeezing the US out of Europe. She knows that an alternative is a war in Europe that the US planned to start.
The US has already lost to Russia and its allies (China, Iran, India and others) to some degree due to new supersonic missiles, that Russia says to be developing.
The truth is Russia already has them. When Russian military say that they are developing something, it means that they already have it.
Russia can hit any location in the world in 20 minutes and destroy entire countries without using nuclear weapons.
Right now, NATO knows what's coming and they are increasing their presence in Europe, to make their exit more expensive for Europe and Russia.
The US was given an ultimatum and they are bargaining right now to get more for their withdrawal from Europe.
As soon as NATO is out of Europe, Germany will get all those peace agreements and political freedoms that the US refused to give.
Watch out for Poland, the Baltics, some Balkan countries, Turkey, Ukraine and other US shills. They will be screaming and stinking up the place to high heaven.
Q.: The fact that Russia, by and large, has adhered to international law for quite some time, just means that the Russian leadership has found it more favorable to do so, than not to do so.
It does not necessarily mean anything else, or signifies respect for international institutions. ( I'm trying to say: I would rather see my people's fate in Putin's than Obama's hands, but ultimately I would like to see the German people's fate in their own hands)
Do you think that for Russia it would be a good move to invest substantial resources in German sovereignty?
A.: Yes, I believe that an independent and sovereign Germany could become an ally of Russia and one of the world's peacekeepers. Some time ago, we ceased the occupation of Germany and left. Now it's time for the US to do the same.
Q.: Do you think Germany can win sovereignty without overt Russian support?
A.: No. But, Germany has Russia's support.
Thank you for your time


text:
Joining Forces
Ogden City Water and Ogden City Fire Department join forces to inspect the City's hydrants. Residential areas of the City typically do not exceed a 500 foot radius without a hydrant. Business districts do not exceed 300 foot radius without a hydrant.Hydrant Checks
All hydrants are checked on a regular basis by city staff to verify they are in good working order. Hydrants may also be opened by staff, to allow water to flow through the pipes. Systematical opening of hydrants enhances water quality by flushing sediment from the main pipe lines, verifies the proper operation of the hydrants and valves, and ensures that the hydrant is operational in case of a fire emergency.Repairs
If a hydrant is taken out of service for repairs the Fire Department is notified so they have accurate records at all times of all working hydrants. If you see a Fire Hydrant leaking please notify Ogden City Water so that we can get it repaired as soon as possible.Flushing Hydrants
When a hydrant is opened, there will be temporary incidences of discolored water while fine sediment hydrant are flushed. There are no health hazards associated with the discolored water.If you see a crew flushing a hydrant on your street, avoid running tap water and using the washing machine or dishwasher until the flushing is done. If you see hydrant flushing crews working in the area, please treat them like any other road construction crew and drive carefully.
Useful Tips
Some things to be aware of:- After hydrant flushing, water may be discolored by fine sediment particles dislodged from the main line.
- Avoid washing laundry until water runs clear at the tap.wrench
- If pressure or volume seems low, check your faucet screens for trapped particles.
- If you see discolored water, shut off the tap and wait several minutes. Check the clarity by running cold water for a few minutes, allowing new water to work its way into your pipes. If the water is still unclear, repeat this process.
- In some cases, there may be slight discoloration for a few hours. The discoloration affects only the appearance of the water; it does not affect water quality. There are no health hazards associated with discolored water.
Additional Information
If you are still experiencing problems with water quality or pressure after a flushing event, please contact the Ogden City Utilities at 801-629-8321-
Utility Billing
Physical Address
133 W 29th Street
Ogden, UT 84401
Phone: 801-629-8321
Office Hours
Monday - Friday
8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
To Report a Utility Emergency Afterhours

subset: commoncrawl


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On the Place du Trocadéro, the old Trocadéro has been replaced by the Palais de Chaillot. The museums, especially the Musee de l'Homme, the Musée of the French Monuments, the Musée de la Marine, the Theatre and the Aquarium should be seen.
A superb vista opens on the Champ de Mars and the Eiffel Tower, on the side of the Seine. The gardens reach as far as the river bank.


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Blog Articles
Six Months Ago She Couldn't Have Done This #wvbb
I want to introduce you to Lizeth. She latched onto my Flip camera at the Special Needs Center where she is a student.
Lizeth is just like my kids — figured out the camera's buttons in about half a second. For the next half hour, she ran around recording everyone she could find, her bubbly laugh echoing around the center.
Here's a little sample of what she and I captured. (P.S. Email subscribers, don't miss it! Just click the title of this post to view the video on my blog.) (P.P.S. I'm not a practice video editor so please bear with me.)
Meet Lizeth, student at the Special Needs Center in Colomi, Bolivia
Isn't she precious?
Today, she received a new pair of shoes and two orthotic braces, one for one of her hands and one for her foot, which she was unable to set flat on the floor.
Her mother is a single mother who cares for Lizeth and another girl about Lizeth's age whose mother died. She told me that before World Vision came, the mothers of children with special needs had been unable to get any help.
When World Vision staff launched the ADP (area development project) in Colomi just a year ago, they asked the community what they thought they needed most. The Colomi community requested help for their special-needs children. (I learned later this is unusual.) World Vision's mission is to help the most vulnerable, and who is more vulnerable than these?
They took the then-fledgling Special Needs Center and with the help of community leaders, grew it into a five-day preschool-style program with both morning and afternoon classes. World Vision is also advocating for the community to the government to provide a bus to pick up the children, as many of them aren't mobile and too large to carry. The medical care, equipment, nutrition assistance, and regular classes (which includes physical therapy) has transformed the lives of both the children and their families with hope for the future.
Give hope – sponsor a child like Lizeth today.
[To read posts from my team members, check out World Vision's Bolivia blog.]


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Alaska's Redoubt Volcano 'Screamed' Before Exploding
Earthquakes can often signal an impending volcanic eruption, and sometimes before a mountain blows its lid, seismologists detect a continuous, rhythmic series of quakes known as a harmonic tremor.
One after the other, tiny temblors originate beneath a volcano, typically accompanied by a rumble that's at such a low frequency, humans would not be able to hear it. But the harmonic tremor that preceded the March 2009 eruption of Alaska's Mount Redoubt made the volcano "scream," the frequency got so high, researchers say.
A swarm of earthquakes — up to 30 per second — produced an unusually high-pitched racket at Redoubtand then an eerie silence before the peak was rocked by a series of six explosions, according to a pair of new studies.
"If you were on the volcano, you might hear a very soft, low bass rumble (just barely at the limit of human hearing) followed by about 30 seconds of silence and then the roar of the explosion," study researcher Alicia Hotovec-Ellis, a University of Washington doctoral student, explained in an email. [50 Amazing Volcano Facts]
Volcano monitoring stations around the mountain — located southwest of Anchorage in the Aleutian Islands — recorded low frequencies starting out around 1-to-5 hertz that built up to 30 hertz before the initial blast in 2009, according to the study. Anything lower than 20 hertz is considered infrasound, beyond the limits of normal human hearing.
This phenomenon has been documented at other volcanoes, but the building geological growl was always in the inaudible range. The Soufriere Hills volcano on the Caribbean island of Montserrat, for example, had a similar "scream" in the 1990s, though it only got up to a frequency of 3 hertz, said Hotovec-Ellis. That's even lower than the lowest infrasonic moans of elephants and blue whales.
Hotovec-Ellis and colleagues think that at Redoubt an unusually high number of little earthquakes caused the volcano's noisy hum. Their version of events looks like this: Magma was being pushed through a narrow, high-pressure channel into the heart of the mountain. The molten rock probably got stuck and then forced through this conduit in spurts. This friction between the channel walls and the magma resulted in small earthquakes (ranging in magnitude from about 0.5 to 1.5). As pressure built, the earthquakes occurred in a quickening sequence, up to a rate of 30 per second, and blended into a harmonic tremor. After a pause, the volcano finally blew its lid, with all that pressure is released in an eruption.
This new model is dubbed "frictional-faulting" in a study detailed in the journal Nature Geoscience. Redoubt's strange harmonic tremor is also described in the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research.
While understanding this process doesn't offer much promise for forecasting volcanic eruptions, it could give scientists a valuable glimpse inside active volcanoes, Hotovec-Ellis said.
"It might be able to give a few minutes to hours of warning before the next explosion," Hotovec-Ellis wrote in an email. "I think the main utility at this point is in better understanding what's going on inside volcanoes when they erupt."
Follow Megan Gannon on Twitter and Google+. Follow OurAmazingPlanet @OAPlanet, Facebook and Google+. Original article at LiveScience's OurAmazingPlanet.
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By Harry Baker
By Bryan G. Fry


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Hidden History: Susie King Taylor escaped slavery, became a Civil War nurse, teacher and activist
MIDWAY, Ga. (WSAV) – For some, the search for knowledge leads to unlikely places.
"I came here on this quest looking for something. But what I came looking for was looking for me, too."
That is the case for Hermina Glass-Hill, a historian and writer who has made it her mission to elevate a story she says is seldom told, that of Susie Baker King Taylor.
"Harriet Tubman I know. Sorjourner Truth. Ida B. Wells I know. But I knew nothing of this incredible Susie Baker King Taylor," said Glass-Hill.
Born into slavery in Liberty County, Taylor made her mark as a Civil War laundress, freedom fighting nurse, teacher, activist and even author of her own autobiography. These incredible feats were unheard of during a time when women and African Americans were marginalized.
"She was a survivor. She went to Savannah at the age of 6 years old and her grandmother, Dolly, who was a washerwoman between here and Savannah, had these connections. So she learned how to read at one of those secrets schools in Savannah," explained Glass-Hill.
She utilized her knowledge to teach others and by the age of 13, she escaped to freedom.
"And my interest came when I began researching the United States Colored Troops. These are runaway men from southern plantations. Free men from northern states who joined the Union Army in 1862 and fought for freedom and liberation of black people. And in that discovery, I discovered there were black women who participated and I stumbled upon her autobiography which was published in 1902 and from there, this passion just grew. Before her introduction in that book, I knew nothing of her."
Glass-Hill is now on a mission to make sure everyone knows her name. So, she's spearheading a campaign, speaking to area schools and traveling the country to bring more attention to Taylor's accomplishments.
She even left her hometown of Atlanta to take up residence in Liberty County.
"The more I read about her, the more intrigued I became and so I came down here to speak last February for Black History Month, and in coming here, my husband and I went to the Isle of Wight where she was enslaved. She mentions that in her autobiography. And I just started to walk the path that she might have taken. The more I walked, the more this spiritual presence came upon me and said you should move to Midway."
The Isle of Wight is also where Glass-Hill finds inspiration. It's where Taylor is believed to have escaped to freedom. A major turning point that ultimately lead to the liberation of others.
"Her skills in the underground schools were used during the Civil War by the Union army. And at that moment, she became a teacher of hundreds of runaway children, men, women who were illiterate. And so, if we look exponentially in terms of her influence, the hundreds of escaped slaves, runaways, who learned how to read under her tutelage, and then they are teaching their children; her influence is invaluable."
Now considered a premier scholar on Taylor's life, Glass-Hill spends much of her time on research, scouring documents, even searching through cemeteries and connecting the dots.
"I found some Bakers in this area who are potentially related to her. I found a younger brother of Susie King Taylor at the Colonial Church less than a mile away."
With every revelation, Glass-Hill says there's still mystery, but also an opportunity to learn and to grow.
"This is really about remembering. Remembering her story. Remembering the horrors of slavery and using all of this as a flashpoint for galvanizing the community around preservation of African American history, African American culture, African American cultural sights."
With the help of the local community, Glass-Hill has made a few other discoveries.
"Susie King Taylor was a member of this church. Its antecedent was Midway Temple Presbyterian Church, which was located in the cemetery across the street. She was married; I have her marriage records. I have the location of where her mother was after the Civil War."
Hermina Glass-Hill is the founder and Executive Director of the Susie King Taylor Institute and Ecology Center.
In April, 2019, they hosted the first conference in the world to honor the civil war heroine, marking the 156 anniversary of her escape for freedom.


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Advertisement |
Jennifer Marie Morrison (born April 12, 1979) is an American actress, model and film producer. She is best known for her role as Dr. Allison Cameron in House, whom she played for over five years.
Morrison was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Her father, David L. Morrison, is a retired music teacher who was named Teacher of the Year by the Illinois State Board of Education in 2003. Morrison's mother, Judy Morrison, was also a retired teacher. Morrison has two younger siblings, Julia and Daniel Morrison.
Morrison graduated from Prospect High School in 1997, where her parents also worked. She played clarinet in the school's marching band, sang in the choir and was a cheerleader with the school's pep squad. She attended Loyola University Chicago where she majored in Theatre and minored in English, graduating in 2000. She studied with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company before moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film and television.


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LOS ANGELES, Jan. 18 (UPI) — The Los Angeles County Sheriff's office says actor Robert Wagner has rejected several requests for interviews about the 1981 death of actress Natalie Wood.
The investigation into Wood's death at age 43 was reopened in 2011. An autopsy report released this month reclassified her death from accidental drowning to drowning caused by undetermined factors.
Wood, who was married to Wagner, sustained bruises on her body before she went into the water, while on a yacht trip with Wagner and their friend, actor Christopher Walken, 69.
Wagner, 82, who was interviewed by police decades ago, has not agreed to speak to investigators again despite about 10 requests that he do so, the BBC quoted Sheriff's Department Lt. John Corina as saying.
"Most of the people we've talked to were never talked to 30 years ago. We've got a lot of new information," Corina said. "All we can do is collect the facts. We're still trying to collect all the facts."
Wagner's lawyer, Blair Berk, said in a statement to the BBC Wagner has "fully cooperated over the last 30 years in the investigation of the accidental drowning of his wife in 1981."
"He has been interviewed on multiple occasions by the Los Angeles sheriff's department and answered every single question asked of him by detectives during those interviews," Berk said.
Wagner has said in the past he thinks Wood drowned either trying to tie up the yacht's dinghy, which had come loose, or attempting to take the small vessel back to shore after he and Walken got into a heated argument. Wagner has always denied any wrongdoing in his wife's death.
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI).


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Mérieux NutriSciences expands regulatory, scientific and marketing services
Total Quality Food Consultants (TQF), headquartered in Verona, Italy, provides informational and consulting services, including a digital gateway to regulatory and scientific updates, nutritional and marketing label review and consulting, product conformity review and product registration services.
TQF specializes in regulatory expertise, offering certification for 46 parameters of compliance in 147 countries for more than 100 product categories.
It also offers an on-line regulatory, scientific and marketing label translation tool applicable to 60 countries in 35 languages.
Philippe Sans, president and CEO of Mérieux NutriSciences, said the undisclosed deal supports the continued expansion of its service offering for the food and non-food industries.
"In a rapidly evolving, global regulatory framework with the continued acceleration of the international food trade, the acquisition of TQF further enhances our service offerings for our clients," he said.


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Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Walking The Plank
Sure I'm a bit disappointed. What writer doesn't want to see their baby shine, but I realize there were lots of talented entries. Heck I know several very talented writers who didn't make the cut to 500 so I'm proud to have lasted as long as I did. Hopefully, I'll learn something useful from my Publisher's Weekly review once they are released. My congrats to those who made the Top 100.
Last night I typed a rather lengthy post, but after working on it for half an hour I deleted the whole thing. What was supposed to be a humorous story about one of my trips to Oklahoma postal technical training was nothing more than a boring diatribe of nothingness. Kind of the same thing this post seems to be headed for. So, with that random theme in mind here are some random thoughts that have infected my brain in the last few days.
Camo. I don't get it. Okay I see the benefits of green camouflage clothing if you are hiking through a jungle trying to avoid taking a bullet between the eyes. Or the brown camo our military wear is desert environments. I can even buy the bow hunter who whiles away his days up in a tree stand waiting on that big buck to come by. But why anyone needs their everyday pick up to be painted like a forest is beyond me. The same goes for camo cell phone covers, spare tire covers, barbecue grills, or any of the other tree colored crap that dots the shelves these days. Come on guys, how can I poke fun of our female counterparts for their silly, unneeded notions like toilet seat covers, when everything you own looks like a tribute to MASH.
Is it possible to boldly go through life and have someone use this description of you, "He chalantly walked up and cursed William Shatner for being a nerve wracking buffoon," or must we all be doomed to a life of nonchalantly sneaking about? While on that subject can a person be flimmed without getting flammed, or flammed and not flimmed. And my postal worker background probably is to blame for this one, but if a fellow is happy, content and eager to head off to work can he be desribed as gruntled? And can someone simply be combobulated? Or must they perpetually be DISsed as well?
Not to BE outdone. Have you ever been wildered or fuddled? Yeah me neither.
48 comments:
- Janet said...
There's a blog called "Gruntled Center" written by a rather contented man. ;o)
Myself, I'm still working on being couth. - April 15, 2009 at 11:40 AM
- Rebecca said...
Hey, M*A*S*H deserves any and all tribute it gets, so don't dis the camo if it is indeed a tribute to M*A*S*H
- April 15, 2009 at 11:48 AM
- pattinase (abbott) said...
I've been witched from time to time. Or at least my husband says so.
- April 15, 2009 at 11:53 AM
- sybil law said...
I am thoroughly cornfused, much of the time.
Camo can look good, sometimes. But like you mentioned? Never. - April 15, 2009 at 12:05 PM
- Bubblewench said...
I'm so all over Plundered Booty when you get it published. And I firmly believe you will. I'll even buy a hardback! We all know amazon is just crazy this week anyway!! (ha ha)
Camo is a waste... I'm with you on that one! Who do these guys think they are? GI Joe? Bet they don't have kung fu grip!
I think I spend most of my time combobulated... maybe cause I just like the way it sounds. You crack me up Travis! - April 15, 2009 at 12:17 PM
- Angel said...
I just gotta say this, I HATE toilet seat covers. they're NASTY and harbor lots and lots of germs. eeeewwwww!
- April 15, 2009 at 12:25 PM
Ohh Traviola you are sooo funny. I am proud that you do not have camo things. If your watch was camo I would have to buy you one daily. You cannot keep up with that thing now.
- April 15, 2009 at 12:30 PM
- Laura K. Curtis said...
Whenever I see a parent walking around with a little kid in a stroller who's all decked out in camo, I wonder why s/he wants it to appear as if the kid's head is floating in midair.
Many years ago, the New Yorker (I think) had a short story featuring words like combobulated, gruntled, and chalant. I don't remember much about it except that it made me laugh much harder than most New Yorker fiction. - April 15, 2009 at 1:03 PM
- pita-woman said...
I'm totally with you on the camo-everything. I especially don't understand the women that wear camo-clothing that's in other shades like pink or blue. How often do they need to get lost in a pink forest??
- April 15, 2009 at 1:14 PM
- Unknown said...
Sorry about the book.
I guess rednecks in TN and TX are exactly the same, huh? And then they go and dress their little kids in camo, too. Hopefully none of the toddlers will ever get lost in the woods, right?
I love your last thoughts! You are so funny.
I think I'm gruntled. I mean, wouldn't DIS gruntled mean that you AREN'T gruntled?
But English was never my forte. I just speak it. - April 15, 2009 at 1:38 PM
- Terrie Farley Moran said...
Hi Travis,
I really enjoyed the portion of Plundered Booty that I read on Amazon.
Those judges must be wildered and fuddled.
Terrie - April 15, 2009 at 2:44 PM
- Corey Schwartz said...
Oh, sorry about Plundered Booty!
- April 15, 2009 at 3:17 PM
- Linda McLaughlin said...
Travis, I'm really disappointed Plundered Booty didn't make it to the final 100. I think it deserved to be there!
LOL on the camo. I don't get it either outside of the military. I guess some guys think it's macho.
Don't ask me to explain English to you, it's too discombobulating. - April 15, 2009 at 3:55 PM
- Merry Monteleone said...
Is it just me, or does fuddled sound like slang for something dirty?
Okay, maybe it's just me... and now I'm not quite sure if I have or haven't been fuddled... which I guess makes me befuddled... :-)
Sorry about Plundered Booty, Travis, but it's still awesome to have made it to the top 100 out of so many entries.
You'll get there. - April 15, 2009 at 3:56 PM
- Beth said...
It was an honor and a credit to your writing skills to have made it that far. And you can always use your placement in the contest when listing your writing credits while submitting work elsewhere. Every little (or big) thing helps!
- April 15, 2009 at 3:58 PM
- Janna Leadbetter said...
*guffaw* Great nuggets in this post!
Sorry you didn't make the next cut, but think about the accomplish you made from the outset! You should be proud.
And no. No, I've never been gruntled OR combobulated. Hmph. Maybe I should work on that. - April 15, 2009 at 4:01 PM
- PurpleClover said...
LOVE it!!
Your wildered and gruntled follower. :)
I'm appointed by your post. ;) - April 15, 2009 at 4:26 PM
- Kristen Painter said...
I happen to be wearing camo right now. Not sure what to make of that.
- April 15, 2009 at 4:41 PM
- Lana Gramlich said...
Sorry "Plundered Booty" was keel-hauled. CLEARLY the Amazon folks are a bit teched!
- April 15, 2009 at 6:59 PM
- G. B. Miller said...
Being a government just like you, I spend most of my time being a functional unit to while away the hours.
But I suppose in the long run, I'm just a little settled, a little turbed and a whole lotta nerved. - April 15, 2009 at 7:45 PM
- McKoala said...
Sorry your story didn't get any further - but it was great that it made the top 500!
- April 15, 2009 at 7:59 PM
"I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you just be whelmed?" - 10 Things I Hate About You
- April 15, 2009 at 8:03 PM
I'm with Merry on the fuddled business. It does sound a little dirty, but rather, um, comforting.
Sorry Amazon pooped out on you. It's been a bit nutty over there the past few days. - April 15, 2009 at 8:21 PM
- Charles Gramlich said...
Sorry about Plundered booty as well. Perhaps we should run up the skull and crossbones and go raiding. As long as we watch out for the Navy Seals we should be OK.
- April 15, 2009 at 10:53 PM
- Cloudia said...
Congratulations, Doofus ;-)
Aloha - April 16, 2009 at 12:18 AM
- Cloudia said...
I meant that in a whimsical way, NOT a mean way!
- April 16, 2009 at 12:19 AM
- DrillerAA said...
Did you notice that Walmart was selling those plastic Easter eggs in camo patterns this year. Yep, let's hid candy and money in these eggs and the kids will NEVER find them.
- April 16, 2009 at 7:28 AM
- Crystal Phares said...
Travis, sorry about Plundered Booty. I had my fingers crossed for you and for my critique partner. She was pretty bummed last night because she didn't make this last cut.
And camo drives me crazy. Outside of the military, do you really need it? Seriously? - April 16, 2009 at 8:20 AM
- Chris Eldin said...
I'm sorry about Plundered Booty. But you've gotten very close with this... You're on to something. Wallow a bit, then move on...
- April 16, 2009 at 9:50 AM
- AvDB said...
Making it to the five hundred is a huge accomplishment. That Publishers Weekly review is no small prize in itself. I hope it gives you everything you need to see this book on the shelf. Congratulations on a battle well fought.
- April 16, 2009 at 11:25 AM
- Annie said...
Umm what was the question again?
Sorry about the loss, but at least you tried.
Keep trying Travis! - April 16, 2009 at 11:27 AM
- Leigh Russell said...
I'd love to be combobulated!
Just came by to let you know the first book in my series is (finally) hitting the shelves in June. You can order on amazon.com NOW (if you want to). Cut Short by Leigh Russell. An invitation to my Virtual Book Launch will be coming your way... - April 16, 2009 at 1:37 PM
- alex keto said...
Actually, I can contribute something mildly relevant here.
You can indeed be gruntled. It is an old English usage to describe the noise a happy pig makes. Which explains why a disgruntled pig can be unhappy. He is not grunt with pleasure.
What makes a pig grunt with pleasure? I'll leave that up to you. - April 16, 2009 at 2:16 PM
- Deborah Elliott-Upton said...
I am one of those who had a camo painted truck. Well, actually my husband did for our business. It worked extremely well for advertising purposes. Everyone remembered seeing that cam-truck all over town. Great visual!
- April 16, 2009 at 3:13 PM
- Melanie Hooyenga said...
I want to be gruntled and combobulated!
- April 16, 2009 at 4:27 PM
- WordVixen said...
"I know you can be underwhelmed, and you can be overwhelmed. But can you ever just be whelmed?" - 10 Things I Hate About You
Oh, did you know that there's camo yarn? For when your afghan just can't be seen. (seriously, it exists)
Also, I had a dream about you and Jenn last night. Total weirdness. I was babysitting your kids. All 7 of them. The two boys AND THE 5 GIRLS! And all the girls were younger than your boys, so you know what that means- yup, prophetic dream. Get crackin'! - April 16, 2009 at 4:32 PM
- Lyzzydee said...
Sorry about Plundered Booty, I think you will get there though (even though Amazon excluded us non Americans!! glad you posted an extract on youre blog)
Camo isn't big over here, so I am grateful!!! MASH was my fave all time show, I was in lust with Alan Alda, who was at least as old as my dad!!!! - April 16, 2009 at 6:16 PM
- David Cranmer said...
Your book will be published. No doubt about that.
- April 16, 2009 at 7:40 PM
- Jerseygirl89 said...
I have always wanted to be wildered.
I agree about camo. I once saw a woman wearing a camo tube top. Ugh.
I think it's great that you made it as far as you did and I too will be buying a copy of Plundered Booty. - April 16, 2009 at 8:40 PM
- Corey Wilde said...
My mind boggled once, does that count?
- April 16, 2009 at 8:45 PM
- J. L. Krueger said...
Sorry you got planked, but us writers know the feelin'.
I'm with you on the overboard camo thing. You know some people are trying to get away from camo...those who've lived in it for months on end.
I've never been "smirched" either. - April 18, 2009 at 9:03 AM
Lord Help us and our seven kids!!!
- April 18, 2009 at 10:03 AM
- oreneta said...
Oh my goodness, my first time here and I am going to have to confess something! EEEKKKK. I am a woman who has a pair of camo pants! My kids talked me into them one day when I was too tired to fight back. Seems they are cool. I do actually wear them...at appropriate moments, as in not at work. They do have sparkly pink buttons on them, which does seem to defeat the purpose, especially the two on the back pockets. Seems they would resemble the eyes of a terrified deer, leading me to get shot...well, you know where.
OH MG. Couldn't you have posted on something else the first time I come over???
Sorry your story didn't make the top 100. - April 18, 2009 at 4:13 PM
- Barrie said...
Sorry about Plundered Booty. I can definitely not explain English--too complicated!!
- April 18, 2009 at 5:03 PM
- Wonderful World of Weiners said...
I always smile when I read your posts. THought you needed to know. I'm in a sharing mood!!
Hallie :) - April 18, 2009 at 8:02 PM
You're so funny!
- April 18, 2009 at 9:42 PM
- Jan Mader said...
I've got to get with the program....seems like I missed a good entry on Amazon. From the looks of the comments you recieved, you've got an audience anyway!
Can I still read it? Tell me where! Jan - April 18, 2009 at 11:34 PM
- Jan Mader said...
P.S. I plan to turn the writing exercises on my blog into a book someday. I love it when creative people like you leave comments!
Thanks for stopping by...come back soon.... - April 18, 2009 at 11:36 PM


text:
This report covers FreeBSD-related projects between October and December 2012. This is the last of four reports planned for 2012.
Highlights from this status report include a very successful EuroBSDCon 2012 conference and associated FreeBSD Developer Summit, both held in Warsaw, Poland. Other highlights are several projects related to the FreeBSD port to the ARM architecture, extending support for platforms, boards and CPUs, improvements to the performance of the pf(4) firewall, and a new native iSCSI target.
Thanks to all the reporters for the excellent work! This report contains 27 entries and we hope you enjoy reading it.
The deadline for submissions covering the period between January and March 2013 is April 21st, 2013.
- BHyVe
- Native iSCSI Target
- NFS Version 4
- pxe_http -- booting FreeBSD from apache
- Unprivileged install and image creation
Userland Programs
FreeBSD Team Reports
- AMD GPUs kernel-modesetting support
- Common Flash Interface (CFI) driver improvements
- SMP-Friendly pf(4)
- Unmapped I/O
- Compiler improvements for FreeBSD/ARMv6
- FreeBSD on AARCH64
- FreeBSD on BeagleBone
- FreeBSD on Raspberry Pi
Links | |
URL: https://wiki.FreeBSD.org/BHyVe | |
URL: http://www.bhyve.org/ |
Contact: Neel Natu <email@example.com>
Contact: Peter Grehan <firstname.lastname@example.com>
BHyVe is a type-2 hypervisor for FreeBSD/amd64 hosts with Intel VT-x and EPT CPU support. The bhyve project branch was merged into CURRENT on Jan 18. Work is progressing on performance, ease of use, AMD SVM support, and being able to run non-FreeBSD operating systems.
Open tasks:
- 1. Booting Linux/*BSD/Windows
- 2. Moving the codebase to a more modular design consisting of a small base and loadable modules
- 3. Various hypervisor features such as suspend/resume/live migration/sparse disk support
Native iSCSI Target
Links |
Contact: Edward Tomasz Napierała <email@example.com>
During the October-December time period, the Native iSCSI Target project progressed to the working prototype stage. Most of this time was spent writing kernel-based part, an iSCSI frontend to the CAM Target Layer. The frontend handles iSCSI Full Feature phase after ctld(8) hands off the connection. The istgt-derived code in ctld(8) was rewritten from scratch; now it's much shorter and more readable. The ctladm(8) utility gained iSCSI-specific subcommands to handle tasks such as listing iSCSI sessions or forcing disconnection. The target works correctly with the FreeBSD initiator.
NFS Version 4
Contact: Rick Macklem <email@example.com>
The NFSv4.1 client, including support for pNFS for the Files Layout only, has now been committed to head/current. Work on NFSv4.1 server support has just been started and will hopefully be ready for head/current this summer. The client side disk caching of delegated files is progressing and the code is under projects/nfsv4-packrats in the subversion repository. Someone is working on server side referrals and, as such, I hope this might make it into 10.0 as well.
pxe_http -- booting FreeBSD from apache
Links | |
svn repo of project | URL: http://svnweb.FreeBSD.org/base/user/sbruno/pxe_http_head/ |
Contact: Sean Bruno <email@example.com>
Currently works with VirtualBox VMs and Apache 2.2 port.
Open tasks:
- Lots and lots of compile warnings exist with clang and gcc. This really needs to be investigated.
- Better support for other webservers. Currently needs Apache to work.
- Needs another pass at basic documentation. Current documentation is actually quite good from the original
- Network stack needs audit. I'm not sure if the HTTP/TCP/UDP/IP code is original or based on something else.
Links | |
URL: https://wiki.FreeBSD.org/UEFI | |
URL: http://svnweb.FreeBSD.org/base/projects/uefi/ |
Contact: Benno Rice <email@example.com>
There is code in the projects/uefi branch that can build a working 64-bit loader for UEFI. This loader can load a kernel and boot to a mountroot prompt on a serial console on a system with ≤ 1GB of RAM. Full multiuser has not yet been tested. Work is progressing towards having a working syscons. The issue preventing boot on systems with > 1GB of RAM has not yet been found. UEFI-compatible boot media can be generated using in-tree tools, however there are issues with detecting the CD filesystem and using it as the load default. The 64-bit UEFI loader can load a 32-bit kernel but currently cannot hand over to it due to a lack of code to switch to 32-bit mode. Further research is required into Secure Boot.
Unprivileged install and image creation
Links |
Contact: Brooks Davis <firstname.lastname@example.com>
In order to make it easier to build releases and embedded system disk images I have been adding infrastructure to allow the install and packaging stages to the FreeBSD build progress to run without root privilege. To this end I have added two options to the toplevel build system: The -DDB_FROM_SRC option allows the install to proceed when the required set of passwd and group entires does not match the host system. The -DNO_ROOT option causes files to be installed as the running user and for metadata such as owner, group, suid bits, and file flags to be logged in a ${DESTDIR}/METALOG file.
This work required the import of NetBSD's mtree and the addition of a number of features from NetBSD to install. I have added all FreeBSD features to NetBSD's mtree and imported it as nmtree. Before FreeBSD 10.0 is released I will replace our version. I have also added all required features to install. Changes to makefs were required to parse the contents of the METALOG file.
These new features required importing new versions of the pwcache(3) and vis(3) APIs from NetBSD so those portions of libc.
In addition to modifying build infrastructure to use the new features of mtree and install. I corrected a number of cases of files being installed by programs other than install or being installed more than once. A few known instances of duplicate directories in the output exist, but the results are usable in some contexts.
I plan to MFC these changes as far back as the stable/8 branch to make it possible to build all supported releases without root privilege.
This work was sponsored by DARPA and AFRL.
Open tasks:
- Add support for -DNO_ROOT to src/release/Makefile so that releases can be built without root privilege.
- Create a tool to install partition tables and file system images in disk image files without the use of mdctl, gpart, and dd.
Userland Programs
BSD-licenced patch(1)
Links | |
Home for BSD patch (deprecated) | URL: http://code.google.com/p/bsd-patch/ |
Contact: Pedro Giffuni <firstname.lastname@example.com>
Contact: Gabor Kovesdan <email@example.com>
Contact: Xin Li <firstname.lastname@example.com>
FreeBSD has been using for a while a very old version of GNU patch that is partially under the GPLv2. The original GNU patch utility is based on an initial implementation by Larry Wall that was not actually copyleft. OpenBSD did many enhancements to an older non-copyleft version of patch, this version was later adopted and further refined by DragonFlyBSD and NetBSD but there was no centralized development of the tool and FreeBSD kept working independently. In less than a week we took the version in DragonFlyBSD and adapted the FreeBSD enhancements to make it behave nearer to the version used natively in FreeBSD. Most of the work was done by Pedro Giffuni, adapting patches from sepotvin@ and ed@, and additional contributions were done by Christoph Mallon, Gabor Kovesdan and Xin Li. As a result of this we now have a new version of patch committed in head/usr.bin/patch that you can try by using WITH_BSD_PATCH in your builds. The new patch(1) doesn't support the FreeBSD-specific -I and -S options which don't seem necessary. In GNU patch -I actually means 'ignore whitespaces' and we now support it too.
Open tasks:
- Testing. A lot more testing.
Links | |
Dev Tree | URL: http://svnweb.FreeBSD.org/base/head/usr.sbin/bsdconfig/ |
Ports Tree | URL: http://freshports.org/sysutils/bsdconfig/ |
Dev Depot | URL: http://druidbsd.sf.net/download/bsdconfig/ |
Contact: Devin Teske <email@example.com>
bsdconfig(8) is actively being developed in HEAD under the WITH_BSDCONFIG build-requirement. Snapshots are occasionally taken and made available through the ports system to make testing on 9.0-RELEASE or higher easier on the testers. Currently HEAD is far beyond the version 0.7.3 sitting in ports. Upcoming changes will push this to version 0.8 bringing in the necessary frameworks required for in-depth package management and distribution maintenance (read: one step closer to full 1.0 release).
FreeBSD Team Reports
FreeBSD Core Team
Contact: Core Team <email@example.com>
In the fourth quarter, the Core Team granted access for 7 new committers, and took 1 commit bit in for safekeeping.
The Core Team oversaw the response to the security incident in November in cooperation with the security team, port managers, and cluster administrators. For more information on the fallouts and response see the official announcement. As a result, 9.1-RELEASE was delayed until late December and was released with a limited set of binary packages. The Core Team continues to work with developers to rebuild, review, and restore the package building infrastructure along with redports/QAT.
FreeBSD Documentation Engineering
Links | |
Documentation Engineering Team Charter | URL: http://www.FreeBSD.org/internal/doceng.html |
Contact: Glen Barber <email@example.com>
Contact: Marc Fonvieille <email@example.com>
Contact: G�bor K�vesd�n <email@example.com>
Contact: Hiroki Sato <firstname.lastname@example.com>
The translations/, projects/ and user/ directories of the doc repository have been opened with the announced policies in effect. These branches are now actively used for translations work, editing the upcoming printed version of the Handbook, and some doc infrastructure improvements.
The next phase of the infrastructure improvements is in progress. It will migrate to real XML tools (with the exception of Jade) for validation and rendering. At the same time, the DocBook schema will be updated to 4.5.
After long discussions, Google Analytics has been enabled on FreeBSD.org webpages but access to statistical data has to be solicited from the Documentation Engineering Team on an individual and one time basis.
Since July, we have added two doc committers and one translator.
Open tasks:
- Help the ongoing work on printed edition of the Handbook.
- Finish the migration to XML tools.
FreeBSD Foundation
Links |
Contact: Deb Goodkin <firstname.lastname@example.com>
A strong year-end fundraising campaign led to the raising $770,000 in 2012. Thank you to everyone who made a donation to support FreeBSD!
We published our year-end newsletter that highlighted everything we did to support the FreeBSD Project and community during the second half of the year.
We were a Gold Sponsor for EuroBSDCon. We also attended the conference and developer summit. Erwin Lansing organized and chaired the Ports and Package Summit and Vendor Summit at EuroBSDCon 2012. We attended MeetBSD developer summit November 2012.
George Neville-Neil organized and the Foundation sponsored the Bay Area Vendor Summit November 2012. We were represented at LISA.
Kirk McKusick taught a tutorial and gave a keynote at EuroBSDCon 2012, and Justin Gibbs gave a talk at ZFS Day, October 2012.
We talked to DNS server software vendors and participated in discussions on our DNS implementation, specifically with regard to DNSSEC validation, at CENTR Tech September 2012 (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) and EuroBSDCon.
We visited companies to discuss their FreeBSD use and to help facilitate collaboration with the Project.
Robert Watson published ACM Queue and Communications of the ACM: A decade of OS access-control extensibility and Kirk McKusick published ACM Queue and Communications of the ACM: Disks from the Perspective of a File System.
We negotiated/supervised Foundation funded projects: porting FreeBSD to the Efika ARM platform, Capsicum Component Framework, Native iSCSI Target implementation, and EUFI.
We negotiated/supervised/funded hardware needs in FreeBSD co-location centers.
Many board members provided support for recovery efforts following the security compromise of FreeBSD.org systems in late 2012.
We completed negotiation and provided legal counsel for the new website privacy policy for the FreeBSD Project.
We are now an industrial partner in the Cambridge/Imperial/Edinburgh EPSRC REMS project on the Rigorous Engineering of Mainstream Systems.
We coordinated the Foundation's discussion of Jira/Java; conclusion, will continue to be supportive of OpenJDK and not restart proprietary JDK support.
We implemented a donor management database to help with our fundraising efforts. We also began working on automating the donation process.
We started the Faces of FreeBSD Series where we share the story of a Foundation grant recipient periodically. This allows us to spotlight people who received Foundation funding to work on development projects, run conferences, travel to conferences, and advocate for FreeBSD.
We hired two technical staff members.
Links |
Contact: David Wolfskill <firstname.lastname@example.com>
The postmaster team has expanded, with the addition of Florian Smeets (email@example.com).
We have implemented a Mailman "handler" to drop duplicate messages when both copies are sent to the same list (under both the "long" (e.g., "freebsd-current") and "short" (e.g., "current") names).
We have created several new mailing lists:
- freebsd-course: educational course on FreeBSD
- freebsd-numerics: Discussions of high quality implementation of libm functions.
- freebsd-snapshots: FreeBSD Development Snapshot Announcements
- freebsd-tcltk: FreeBSD-specific Tcl/Tk discussions
We have also removed old mailing lists:
- freebsd-binup
- freebsd-www (merged into freebsd-doc)
AMD GPUs kernel-modesetting support
Links | |
Project status on the wiki | URL: https://wiki.FreeBSD.org/AMD_GPU |
Initial TTM port | URL: http://people.FreeBSD.org/~kib/misc/ttm.1.patch |
Contact: Alexander Kabaev <firstname.lastname@example.com>
Contact: Jean-S�bastien P�dron <firstname.lastname@example.com>
Contact: Konstantin Belousov <firstname.lastname@example.com>
Jean-S�bastien P�dron started to port the AMD GPUs driver from Linux to FreeBSD 10-CURRENT in January 2013. This work is based on a previous effort by Alexander Kabaev. Konstantin Belousov provided the initial port of the TTM memory manager.
As of this writing, the driver is building but the tested device fails to attach.
Status updates will be posted to the FreeBSD wiki.
Common Flash Interface (CFI) driver improvements
Links |
Contact: Brooks Davis <firstname.lastname@example.com>
The Common Flash Interface provides a common programming interface for a wide range of NOR flash devices commonly found in embedded systems. I have developed a number of improvements to the cfi(4) device when used on Intel StrataFlash parts. Unnecessary erase cycles are now avoided, devices that require single word writes only write changed words, and multi-word writes are supported for Intel and Sharp devices. Additionally the timeout code has been reworked and no longer imposes unneeded latency on operations taking less than 100us. With all of these changes streaming write speed has improved by more than an order of magnitude. Once these changes are reviewed they will be committed to HEAD.
This work was sponsored by DARPA and AFRL.
SMP-Friendly pf(4)
Links |
Contact: Gleb Smirnoff <firstname.lastname@example.com>
The project is aimed at moving the pf(4) packet filter out of a single mutex, as well as in general improving of the FreeBSD port. The project has reached its main goal. The pf(4) is no longer covered by single mutex and contention on network stack on pf(4) is now very low. The code is production ready. The projects/pf branch had been merged to the head branch and will be available in 10.0-RELEASE.
Unmapped I/O
Links | |
The patch. | URL: http://people.FreeBSD.org/~kib/misc/unmapped.13.patch |
Contact: Jeff Roberson <firstname.lastname@example.com>
Contact: Konstantin Belousov <email@example.com>
A well-known performance problem of FreeBSD on large SMP hardware is the need to invalidate TLB for all CPUs when instantiating and destroying the VMIO buffers. Invalidation is performed by sending inter-processor interrupt broadcast, which disrupts the execution path of each CPU, and induces latency on the request itself. Since most I/O requests processing require creation of the buffers to hold the data in the kernel, TLB invalidation becomes an obstacle for I/O scalability on many-CPU machines.
The work done for flushing the TLBs is especially meaningless since most mappings created are not used for anything but copying the data from the usermode to the kernel page cache forth and back. Most architectures have already established facilities to perform such copies using much faster techniques, for instance, the direct map on amd64, or specially reserved per-CPU page frames or TLB entries on other architectures.
Jeff Roberson unified the machine-specific parts of the busdma(9), making a common set of low-level functions available on each architecture. This was committed as r246713. The end result is that the new types of the load functions can be added in the single, machine-independent place. In particular, it is easy to modify the drivers to accept the 'unmapped' bio requests, which lists the vm pages for the device dma engine, instead of the virtual address of the kernel buffer.
Konstantin Belousov developed the changes for buffer cache which allow the VMIO buffers to not map the referenced pages, and used the feature for UFS. Per-architecture pmap_copy_pages(9) methods were added to facilitate fast copying between user I/O buffers and pages of unmapped buffers. The unmapped buffers create the unmapped bio requests for the drivers, support for which was made possible by Jeff's patch.
Tests show that even on a small 4-core machine, the system time for reading files on UFS is reduced by 30%.
Open tasks:
- Test the patch, in particular, on non-x86 architectures.
The FreeBSD Japanese Documentation Project
Links | |
Japanese FreeBSD Web Page | URL: http://www.FreeBSD.org/ja/ |
The FreeBSD Japanese Documentation Project Web Page | URL: http://www.jp.FreeBSD.org/doc-jp/ |
Contact: Hiroki Sato <email@example.com>
Contact: Ryusuke Suzuki <firstname.lastname@example.com>
The ja_JP.eucJP subtree has constantly been updated since the last status report.
In FreeBSD Handbook, translation work of the "users" section has been completed. "linuxemu" and "serialcomms" were updated and subsection "Subversion mirror site" was newly added to "mirrors" section.
Open tasks:
- Further translation work of outdated documents in the ja_JP.eucJP subtree.
Compiler improvements for FreeBSD/ARMv6
Links |
Contact: Andrew Turner <email@example.com>
FreeBSD/ARM architecture is now supported by the in-tree clang compiler. ARM EABI support is now available for both clang and gcc along with the older and less documented OABI. There are several outstanding issues, once they are fixed EABI will be made default.
Open tasks:
- Test EABI builds
- Fix exception handling for EABI
- Test clang builds
- Get clang to work natively on EABI-based ARM system. Currently it works only as cross-compiler for ARM EABI.
FreeBSD on AARCH64
Links | |
URL: https://github.com/zxombie/aarch64-freebsd-sandbox | |
URL: http://www.arm.com/products/tools/models/fast-models/foundation-model.php |
Contact: Andrew Turner <email@example.com>
Work has started on porting FreeBSD to AARCH64, ARM's new 64-bit architecture, using the ARMv8 Foundation Model software. GCC and binutils have been ported to FreeBSD and work started on kernel initialization, including MMU setup.
Open tasks:
- Get the MMU working
- Get system register documentation from ARM
- Port clang AArch64 to FreeBSD
- Bring the code into a FreeBSD project branch
FreeBSD on BeagleBone
Links |
Contact: Tim Kientzle <email@example.com>
Contact: Oleksandr Tymoshenko <firstname.lastname@example.com>
Contact: Damjan Marion <email@example.com>
Contact: Brett Wynkoop <email@example.com>
FreeBSD on BeagleBone is benefiting from the general work on ARM stability being done by many people, and is proving to be a nice testbed for our ARMv7 support. All ongoing work is happening now directly in -CURRENT and we expect it to be in pretty good shape by the time 10.0 ships.
The network driver is now pretty stable; the system should be useful as a small network device.
Occasional system snapshots are being built and advertised for people to test. Ask on freebsd-arm@ if you'd like to try the newest one.
Open tasks:
- We need someone to finish the USB driver. Ask if you'd like to take this over.
- MMCSD performance is still rather poor.
- There's been discussion of how to improve the GPIO configuration and pinmux handling to simplify hardware experimentation. If we had more people to help build drivers, we could start supporting some of the BeagleBone capes.
- Mostly we just need people to use it and report any issues they encounter.
FreeBSD on Raspberry Pi
Links |
Contact: Oleksandr Tymoshenko <email@example.com>
FreeBSD is running on Raspberry Pi and supports the following peripherals:
- USB controller
- SDHC controller
- Network
- Framebuffer (HDMI and composite)
- VCHI interface
Videocore tests (OpenGL, video decoding, audio, display access) work with current VCHI driver implementation.
Open tasks:
- Add DMA mode support to USB driver. Some proof-of-concept code is done but more work required to finish it.
- Re-implement VCHI driver with more FreeBSD-friendly locking.
- Implement more drivers: SPI, PWM, audio.
FreeBSD Haskell Ports
Links | |
FreeBSD Haskell wiki page | URL: http://wiki.FreeBSD.org/Haskell |
FreeBSD Haskell ports repository | URL: https://github.com/FreeBSD-haskell/FreeBSD-haskell/ |
Contact: G�bor P�LI <firstname.lastname@example.com>
Contact: Ashish SHUKLA <email@example.com>
We are proud to announce that the FreeBSD Haskell Team has updated the Haskell Platform to 2012.4.0.0, GHC to 7.4.2 as well as updated existing ports to their latest stable versions. All Haskell ports are also updated to use new OPTIONS framework, and now, building with dynamic libraries (DYNAMIC) is on by default. GHC also uses GCC 4.6 and binutils 2.22 from ports. We also added a number of new Haskell ports, and their count in FreeBSD Ports tree is now 368.
Open tasks:
- Test GHC to work with clang/LLVM.
- Commit pending Haskell ports to the FreeBSD Ports tree.
- Add more ports to the Ports Collection.
Links | |
KDE/FreeBSD home page | URL: http://FreeBSD.kde.org |
area51 | URL: http://FreeBSD.kde.org/area51.php |
Contact: KDE FreeBSD <firstname.lastname@example.com>
The KDE/FreeBSD team have continued to improve the experience of KDE software and Qt under FreeBSD. The latest round of improvements include:
- Fix handling of Removable property in solid engine
- Fix management of backlight with UPower (requires acpi_video(4))
- Installing spell-checking dictionaries with a dependency of KDE-locale ports
The team has also made many releases and upstreamed many fixes and patches. The latest round of releases include:
- KDE SC: 4.9.2 (area51)
- PyQt: 4.9.5 (area51); SIP: 4.14 (area51)
- KDevelop: 4.4.0, 4.4.1 (area51); KDevPlatform: 1.4.0, 1.4.1 (area51)
- Calligra: 2.5.3, 2.5.4 (area51)
- CMake: 22.214.171.124
- Many smaller ports
The team is always looking for more testers and porters so please contact us at firstname.lastname@example.com and visit our home page at http://FreeBSD.kde.org.
Open tasks:
- Updating out-of-date ports, see PortScout for a list
Ports Collection
Contact: Thomas Abthorpe <firstname.lastname@example.com>
Contact: Port Management Team <firstname.lastname@example.com>
The ports tree crossed the threshold of 24,000 ports, while the PR count still is close to 1600.
In Q4 we added five new committers and took in two commit bits for safe keeping.
In the tradition of recruiting new portmgr@ at conferences, we added Bernhard Froehlich to our ranks. He is the one responsible for redports.org
Pav Lucistnik stepped down from his role on portmgr, he was one of our principles doing -exp runs and well known for sending failmails.
In the well publicised compromise, the pointyhat machines were broken into and subsequently taken down, isolated and sanitised. As a pre-emptive move redports/QAT were also taken down. Work is under way to restore the services.
Mark Linimon began a from-scratch test install on one of his own spare machines with the purpose of documenting all the missing steps from the portbuild article. While doing so, he further overhauled the codebase to both make it easier to install, and to further refactor it in light of a security review (still ongoing at time of this writing). Once this is complete, the next task will be to reinstall all existing machines from scratch.
Open tasks:
- Most ports PRs are assigned, we now need to focus on testing, committing and closing.
Links | |
URL: https://wiki.FreeBSD.org/Xfce |
Contact: <firstname.lastname@example.com>
A major update has been made to Thunar (file manager for the Xfce Desktop Environment).
1.6.x series introduce lots of improvements, most noticeably is tabs support, and the performance has been improved.
Open tasks:
- Try to fix HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security) feature in Midori with Vala 0.12.1 (works fine with Vala ≥ 0.14.x)
- Replace libxfce4gui (deprecated and not maintained by upstream) by libxfce4ui in order to enhance support for Xfce ≥ 4.10.
- Test core and plugins (panel, Thunar) with GLib ≥ 4.32 (to replace deprecated and removed functions introduced since GLib 2.30).
- Fix gtk-xfce-engine with Gtk+ ≥ 3.6.
EuroBSDcon 2012
Links | |
EuroBSDcon 2012 web site | URL: http://2012.eurobsdcon.org/ |
EuroBSDcon YouTube channel | URL: http://www.youtube.com/user/eurobsdcon |
Contact: EuroBSDcon Organizers <email@example.com>
Contact: Gabor Pali <email@example.com>
The 11th European BSD Conference took place in Warsaw, Poland at the Warsaw University of Technology with a large number of visitors. It started up with two tracks of tutorials, featuring FreeNAS, pfSense, DTrace, PF, development of NetBSD drivers, and an overall introduction to the FreeBSD operating system given by Kirk McKusick. There we also had opening and closing keynotes, supplemented with 22 talks on different topics related to FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, FreeNAS and PC-BSD: BHyVe, configuration management with puppet, improvements in the OpenBSD cryptographic framework, tuning ZFS, server load balancing in DNS, running FreeBSD on embedded systems, e.g MIPS and ARM, and challenges in identity management and authentication.
The conference also had a dedicated track presented by the attendees of the FreeBSD developer summit and open to all, where one could learn more about what is happening currently in the Project: results of Google Summer of Code 2012, architectural changes in the FreeBSD documentation tree, ILNP, advancements in package building and development of pkg(8), and a status report on the USB stack.
FreeBSD Developer Summit, Warsaw
Links | |
Home page of the summit | URL: http://wiki.FreeBSD.org/201210DevSummit |
Contact: Gabor Pali <firstname.lastname@example.com>
We had 53 FreeBSD developers and invited guests attending the FreeBSD Developer Summit organized as part of EuroBSDcon 2012 in Warsaw, Poland at the Warsaw University of Technology. This year EuroBSDcon organizers again offered us their generous support in helping with keeping the event running smooth, helping with registrations, renting the venue, and providing food for keeping attendees satisfied and happy.
The Warsaw developer summit spanned over 3 days and had 9 working groups on various topics. We improved last year's layout inherited from the Canadian summits because it has worked well earlier but could use some further refinements. On both the first and second days, we ran the working groups, ranging from the standard matters, discussing issues with the USB stack, the compiler toolchain, the Ports Collection, or the documentation to some experimental ones, e.g. arranging an operating systems course focusing on FreeBSD. In addition to this, similarly to last year, one of the working groups was about gathering vendors to present their ideas and engage in discussion with the developers on their needs from the Project. Finally, on the third day, there were a number of exciting work-in-progress reports given in a dedicated Developer Summit track at the main conference.
Photos and slides for the most of the talks are available on the home page of the summit.
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Laws, Regulations and Annotations
Business Taxes Law Guide – Revision 2024
Motor Vehicle Fuel Tax Law
Revenue and Taxation Code
Division 2. Other Taxes
Part 2. Motor Vehicle Fuel Tax Law
Chapter 1. General Provisions and Definitions1
Section 7307
7307. "Blended motor vehicle fuel." "Blended motor vehicle fuel" means any mixture of motor vehicle fuel with respect to which tax has been imposed and any other liquid on which tax has not been imposed. Blended motor vehicle fuel also means any conversion of a liquid into motor vehicle fuel. "Conversion of a liquid into motor vehicle fuel" occurs when any liquid that is not included in the definition of motor vehicle fuel and that is outside the bulk transfer/terminal system is sold as motor vehicle fuel, delivered as motor vehicle fuel, or represented to be motor vehicle fuel.
1Added by Stats. 2000, Ch. 1053 (AB 2114), operative January 1, 2002.


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During Nancy O'Dell's interview with Dear Doctor magazine, the former co-anchor of Access Hollywood and new co-anchor of Entertainment Tonight could not resist her journalistic instincts to turn the tables so that she could learn more about a baby's oral health. Here are just some of the facts she learned from the publisher of Dear Doctor about childhood tooth decay, pacifier use and what the right age is for a child's first visit to the dentist.
Many moms-to-be and parents or caregivers of young children are surprised to learn that around age 1 is the ideal time to schedule a child's first visit to the dentist. This visit is crucial because it sets the stage for the child's oral health for the rest of his or her life. It can also be quite beneficial for the parents, too, as they can be reassured that there are no problems with development and that the child's teeth appear to be growing properly. And if by chance we identify any concerns, we will discuss them with you as well as any necessary treatment strategies.
Nancy also wanted to learn more about pacifiers — specifically, if it is a good idea for parents to encourage their use. Obviously, children are born with a natural instinct for sucking, so giving a child a pacifier seems totally harmless. Pacifiers definitely have some advantages; however, if used for too long — past the age of 18 months — they can cause long-term changes in the child's developing mouth (both the teeth and the jaws).
Another problem that parents and caregivers need to be aware of is baby bottle syndrome. This is a condition that develops in children who are perpetually sucking on a baby bottle filled with sugary fluids such as formula, fruit juices, cola or any liquids containing a large amount of sugar, honey or other sweeteners. It is important to note that a mother's own breast milk or cow's milk are good choices for feeding babies, as they both contain lactose, a natural sugar that is less likely to cause decay. However, if these liquids are placed in a bottle and a child is allowed to suck on it throughout the night, they, too, can promote tooth decay. The key is to feed your child properly while avoiding all-night feedings and liquids loaded with sugar.
To read the entire Dear Doctor magazine article on Nancy O'Dell as well as to learn more about a baby's oral health, continue reading "Nancy O'Dell — A life full of smiles." Or you can contact us today to schedule an appointment so that we can conduct a thorough examination, listen to your concerns, answer your questions and discuss any necessary treatment options.