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The Star, Malaysia
written by Prak Chan Thul, Reuters
Thursday May 16, 2013
PHNOM PENH - Three people were killed when the ceiling of a warehouse fell in at a shoe factory in Cambodia, a government minister said on Thursday, adding to concern about safety standards at Asian factories producing clothes cheaply for Western consumers.
Cambodia has seen a rush of investment in recent years, especially into the shoe and garment sector, with Western and Asian firms attracted by its low-cost labour. The International Monetary Fund says garments account for about 80 percent of the Southeast Asian country's exports.
Ith Sam Heng, minister of social affairs, told Reuters another six people had been injured in the incident at the plant in the Kong Pisei district of Kampong Speu province, 50 km (30 miles) west of the capital, Phnom Penh.
"We will investigate the case and we will take measures against those involved," he said, meaning anyone who might be held responsible for poor safety standards.
He said no one remained trapped inside the building.
Earlier, a trade union member at the factory had said six people had died in the collapse, which happened at around 7 a.m. (2400 GMT on Wednesday)
The shoe factory, owned by Wing Star Shoes Co Ltd, a Taiwan company, employed about 7,000 people but only about 100 worked in the single-storey warehouse, according to staff.
Work at the plant stopped after the accident.
A Reuters reporter saw footwear bearing the name "Asics" scattered around the damaged warehouse, where a bulldozer was clearing away rubble.
A spokeswoman for Japanese sportswear maker Asics Corp said the factory made running shoes for it. "Our prayers go out to the families of those who have died," she said.
Asics relies on sports shoes for about two-thirds of its sales, which amounted to 57.33 billion yen ($560 million) company-wide in the year to March 31, 2013.
A series of deadly incidents at factories in Bangladesh, the world's biggest exporter of clothing after China, has focused global attention on safety standards in the booming garment industry there.
An eight-storey complex of factories housing garment manufacturers collapsed in Bangladesh on April 24, killing more than 1,100 people. That has sparked campaigns in the West to improve safety conditions at plants in the country supplying Western brand names.
Strikes over pay and poor working conditions are common in the sector in Cambodia, also home to numerous factories producing clothing cheaply for Western retailers.
Ngeth Phat, 29, who was among those rescued on Thursday, said Wing Star had been open for little more than a year but there had already been two strikes by workers over poor working conditions and low wages she put at $80 a month.
"After I got into work, bits of brick dropped on me, and about 10 minutes later the whole ceiling collapsed. It was completely dark and I was under other people," she told Reuters from a hospital bed in Phnom Penh.
Ou Sam Oun, the governor of Kampong Speu province, said the factory would provide compensation of $5,000 to the families of the people who had died and $1,000 each to workers who were injured.
($1 = 102.4250 yen)


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Will evil never learn? Sure, maybe this time you've got wyverns and soulsuckers, but that doesn't mean you will prevail. Because we've got lightning masters and doomhammers. So come on, it's not even going to be a fair fight! Use your wide variety of troops strategically to fight wave after wave of monsters in Incursion, a tower defense game from Booblyc. It's up to you to cleanse the land of this ominous threat!
Imagine Kingdom Rush, but with only barracks to place, and you've got an idea of what to expect from Incursion. These barracks, however, are fully customizable. Use your mouse to place a tower and you'll have three basic types of units at your command: soldiers, archers, and wizards. Up to three units can reside in each of your towers. Any three. It doesn't have to be all of one type. If it suits your strategy to have two wizards and one soldier, go for it! You don't have to fill each barracks, but once you do, you can begin to upgrade the troops housed there. As you progress, an upgrade tree becomes available, giving you even more customization for your strategy. Your wizards can slow enemies or use chain lightning, for example, or archers can upgrade to mortars with splash damage. You earn gems for each level you pass, which allows you to upgrade your army's general stats such as attack range and cost to train.
It's important to select a waylay point for your troops to gather. The nice thing is it doesn't have to be on the road. So you can stick your archers in a beautiful meadow and let them spray their arrows onto the enemies from afar. You can always move the point as strategy demands. There are six different spells that randomly drop from enemies, ranging from freezing the enemy in place to lighting them on fire. These can be very helpful in a pinch, so use them wisely. Each is assigned a hotkey, or you can click them with your mouse.
It's impossible not to compare Incursion to Kingdom Rush, where Booblyc obviously drew inspiration. The look and feel is very similar, as well as the gameplay. That's not to say it's a complete clone. It's a refreshing change to have a bit more micromanagement in a tower defense game. At the same time, it's not so much management that it bogs the game down. The upgrades are extensive, and it's often not the best strategy to upgrade all your units all the way. This gives you numerous combinations to try and many possibly ways to beat a level. While not as hopelessly addicting as Kingdom Rush, Incursion is nevertheless a stellar game that will suck minutes if not hours of your afternoon away.

subset: commoncrawl


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ATEM Used for Live Switching at Sell Out Jessie J Concert
The concert was set against the dramatic and iconic backdrop of Alnwick Castle, built in AD 1096, where Jessie J performed some of her greatest hits, including "Do it Like a Dude" and "Price Tag", to a capacity crowd of 12,500 fans.
Blackmagic Design's ATEM 2 M/E Production Switcher and ATEM 1 M/E Broadcast Panel was used to switch between four CanonXF305 camera feeds and broadcast the performance live in HD to a 13 square meter plasma screen. At the center of the operation was Blackmagic Design's Compact Videohub, responsible for routing all video signals and feeds to and from the nearby OB van, while a pair of SmartView Duo SDI rack mounted monitors were used for viewing the cameras video output.
Managing Director of VME, Dion Davie sets the scene of the concert, "British weather can be unpredictable at the best of times and on this particular occasion it didn't disappoint. It was a total washout and that can be a nightmare when managing outdoor AV installations. That said, with such a relatively small set up, it was easy enough to manage as everything was compact, and most importantly dry, inside our van. Our only real drama was having the van towed out of nine inches of mud in the early hours of the morning."
Dion explains why a Blackmagic Design workflow was chosen: "We decided to build an OB truck that was unique and compact, as there aren't many on the market that are built around an entirely HD workflow. It was a niche in the market, so we seized the opportunity. The decision to implement Blackmagic products was easy; the products are affordable, high quality and reliable, and Blackmagic is used by some of the biggest names in the business."
Dion continues, "Now that we've tried and tested quite a few Blackmagic products, we are really excited to start implementing new ones, such as Teranex and the HyperDeck Studio Pro. We look forward to what Blackmagic does next!"
VME has more than 20 years of experience in providing solutions to international broadcasters, such as SKY News, outdoor festivals, including Wakestock, and producing sporting events, such as the Barclay's Premiership Football 20th Year Anniversary Special in London.
About Blackmagic Design
Blackmagic Design creates the world's highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and film restoration software for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design's DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability, while the company's Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including stereoscopic 3D and 4K workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore, and Australia.


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Here are a couple more SSMS tricks I've stumbled upon recently. Both involve the functionality of registered servers. If you really only deal with 1 or 2 servers in your environment, these probably won't help you out much. But for those of us who have to deal with a large number of servers, this can be a real time saver. First, for anyone unfamiliar with Registered servers, you get to the option by going to the view menu and can then add individual servers as 'registered' servers which you can easily get back to, complete with login information. You can then add these individual server registrations to 'groups'. (The move options are under tasks when you right click on a server.)
The first trick is using these registered server groups to open up connections to all the servers you have to deal with constantly. I use this to keep them ordered in my SSMS Object Explorer so that I know right where to go to get to each one and I don't have to waste time looking through a long list of servers each time to find a server or see if I already have a connection to it via OE. If you right click on the Object Explorer Group, one of the options is Object Explorer. This will open up a connection to each server in the group (in order).
The second is using these registered server groups to execute a piece of code on all servers simultaneously. When you right click on a group and choose New Query, a new window will open up and you'll notice the status bar is now pink and <multiple> is used for the Server Name. This is limited in many instances because the databases need to exist on all servers with the same names or it won't work properly, but it is still quite useful on occasion. I use it most often for creating linked servers, creating/altering jobs or collecting general system information. It could also be great if you had a 'Utility' database on every server containing things like a Tally table or utility functions.


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Alter Bridge Planning New Album + World Tour for 2013
Guitar great Mark Tremonti may have spent a good amount of 2012 engrossed in supporting his first solo album, but it looks like 2013 is all systems go for Alter Bridge.
According to a tweet posted by Tremonti yesterday (Dec. 11), the Alter Bridge brain trust of singer Myles Kennedy, drummer Scott 'Flip' Phillips and Tremonti met up with their management in sunny Florida to plan the immediate future of the band. Although specific details were not disclosed, AlterBridge.com has confirmed that the band's 2013 schedule includes a new album and a world tour.
"Had a meeting today with Myles, Flip, our managers and myself. Starting to plan 2013!," tweeted Tremonti, giving fans lots to be excited about. The only member seemingly missing was bassist Brian Marshall, who also had to duck out of touring with Tremonti earlier in the year citing personal reasons.
The news probably comes as a relief to Alter Bridge fans, providing confirmation that the band is alive and well. With frontman Myles Kennedy currently out on tour providing vocals for Slash while Tremonti tours Europe through February with his solo side project, it's been a busy time for everyone juggling multiple creative endeavors.
Alter Bridge's last studio offering was their third album, 2010's 'AB III.' Tremonti has also been working on a new album with his longtime band Creed.


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When Greg Tracy isn't flipping cars for Hot Wheels, or busy on a Hollywood set doing stunts for filmmakers, you can find him racing to the clouds on two wheels and dominating the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. A six-time winner at Pikes Peak, Tracy can attribute more than a few of those wins to his time on the mountain with the Spider Grips Ducati team. But for 2013, Tracy will take on a new venture and race an electric bike with Canada's Amarok Racing.
The announcement is a surprising one, considering that the last we heard from Greg, he was leaning towards a four-wheeled excursion up the mountain, if even competing at all. With high-altitude courses like Pikes Peak playing to the advantages of an electric motorcycle though, and Tracy's formidable knowledge of the course's now-paved 156 turns, the Amarok entry has the potential to top Chip Yates's mark as the fastest electric motorcycle up Pikes Peak.


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At the end of September of 2010, our oldest son Matthew phoned us from his university up in Bellingham to say that he had been quite sick and had been to the emergency room twice. They had ruled out various things, but he still wasn't feeling well. We decided to go up and get him, and thus began the most difficult three weeks of our lives. What initially masked itself as a severe case of pneumonia, was in fact a virulent form of strep that attacked his bi-cuspid aortic heart valve, which necessitated valve replacement surgery. But when they actually went in, they found the damage was far more extensive than they thought. And while Matthew survived the surgery (mostly due to his youth), he never regained consciousness. He spent the last week of his life in a coma, before he died on October 22.
In closing out The Book Nosher, I wanted to have my final post be about a special book. The book I have chosen to write about is a picture book that is for both adults and children. It was given to me by a dear friend who has been a NICU nurse for the last 30 years, in the same hospital that Matthew died. She deals with life and death situations on a day to day basis. Tear Soup by Pat Schwiebert and Chuck DeKlyen deals with the subject of grief in a way that few "adult" books do. It's a wise book that gently explains how different people grieve in different ways.
In the story, Grandy has lost someone (unnamed) very dear to her and sets about preparing tear soup. "Grandy winced when she took a sip of the broth. All she could taste was salt from her teardrops. It tasted bitter, but she knew this was where she had to start." The book goes on as Grandy goes through the difficult stages of grief, always at her own pace, not someone else's. For me, this book summed up so many of the complex feelings that surround grief. It spoke to me when I first read it many months ago, and it continues to speak to me now. While I don't think this is a book for very young children, I do think that school-aged children would find it very helpful if dealing with a significant loss. The pictures are quite lovely, and the words very meaningful. Here's a sample from the last page as Grandy explains what she's learned from making her tear soup:
"I've learned that grief, like a pot of soup, changes the longer it simmers and the more things you put into it. I've learned that sometimes people say unkind things, but they really don't mean to hurt you. And most importantly, I've learned that there is something down deep within all of us ready to help us survive the things we think we can't survive."
Wise words indeed.
Thank you to all of you who read The Book Nosher. I still think children's books are the best!


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As a session player in London in the 1960s, it is estimated that Sullivan played on over 1,000 top-ten records
Big Jim Sullivan was not a household name, but his impact on the world of popular music cannot be overstated. As a session player in London in the 1960s, it is estimated that Sullivan played on over 1,000 top-ten records with such noted acts as Tom Jones, P.J. Proby, Marianne Faithful, Cilla Black, Shirley Bassey, Dusty Springfield, David Bowie, The Small Faces, Donovan, and George Harrison to name but a few. He was also a major influence on many of the iconic British guitarists of the era, including Ritchie Blackmore and Jimmy Page.
Born on Valentine's Day in 1941 in Middlesex, England as James George Tomkins, he began learning to play the guitar at the age of 14. A mere two years after picking up the instrument, he was approached by a young Ritchie Blackmore to teach him how to play. "I first met Jim Sullivan in 1958, he was introduced to me by my sister-in-law's brother. We both lived in the same area: in Middlesex, Cranford. He was playing with Marty Wilde And The Wildcats. He showed me another level of playing. He was probably the most advanced guitarist in the London area," Blackmore told Classic Rock Magazine.
Sullivan began his professional music career at the age of eighteen as the guitarist in a group called The Wildcats fronted by a fellow named Marty Wilde. From there he was booked by English music impresario Larry Parnes to back up rock and roll legend Eddie Cochran on his first tour of the U.K. It was from this tour that large numbers of people would first be exposed to Big Jim, including a number of aspiring guitarists who would take notice of his playing ability, as Jim himself would later describe, "It wasn't 'til later that I realized the historical value of us playing with Eddie. It really opened up a whole new field of playing. We'd no longer sit down copying records. People were copying what we were doing," he told Classic Rock Magazine in 2011.
Noted producer Jack Good introduced Sullivan to studio work in 1960. In the 1960s in London there were two guitarists who dominated the session scene one was "Little" Jim Page of latter day Led Zeppelin fame, and the other was Big Jim. If a producer needed someone to come in and fill in on guitar duties for a given track, it was one of these two men that they called. "Big Jim Sullivan—who was really brilliant—and I were the only guitarists doing those sessions." Page recounted in a 1977 interview. Of Jimmy Page, Sullivan would speak glowingly of their in-studio relationship, "We got on well on sessions, sometimes I would play lead and some times Jimmy. I used to do most of the country solos and he the rock ones. We would change over sometimes and I would be the rocker. We also did a lot of folk sessions together."
In addition to his prolific resume, Sullivan was also a pioneer in the use of guitar gear. He was alleged to be the owner of the first Gibson Les Paul purchased in England: a 1955 Goldtop. He was also said to be the first to use a wah pedal, as well as the first to utilize a fuzz effect on the P.J. Proby track "Hold Me" in 1964. Proby told me in a recent interview, "Big Jim Sullivan was the most sought after lead guitar player in England so he was on everybody but everybody's sessions."
By the end of his career in the studio, Sullivan would play on over 1,000 records that would enter the top ten in the U.K. charts. Fifty-five of those top ten hits would reach number one. Sullivan would later remark about the voluminous output, "We were doing three sessions a day, day in and day out. I never had a Christmas at home for about 10 years. I also never had a holiday for years. Everyday was like a holiday, always something new always something different."
In addition to all of his session work, Sullivan would also release three albums under his own name between 1967 and 1974. In 1969, Sullivan took a leave of absence from the studio and joined crooner Tom Jones for his long-term stint in Las Vegas. It was here that Sullivan would also develop a relationship with the "King of Rock and Roll", Elvis Presley. In his later years Jim formed a number of bands and continued to play music for audiences across the world. He even ran his own record label for a time known as Retreat Records.
Big Jim Sullivan was truly a unique figure. So many musicians and artists get into the industry for the fame and the adoration. Sullivan did what he did for the pure love of playing music. From the time he was sixteen until his passing, he continued to play and push the limits of what he played and what he could play. As he noted on his website, "I like to work with artists who are as wide in their musical taste as I am. It gives the listener a good workout, to listen to the music, the same as it does us to play it. My whole life is geared to play guitar. I play what I want when I want and I hope the listener gets as much pleasure listening to the music as I get playing it."


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Genuine enlightenment for all modern cameras. Thanks to its maximum guide number 52 for ISO 100, the Metz mecablitz 52 AF-1 has more than enough power to cope with any shot – the horizontally swivelling and vertically tilting reflector ensures optimal lighting control. Any subject can be professionally set off to best advantage with the help of the integrated diff user for wide angle shots, and the white reflector card. The fully automatic motorised zoom can adjust lighting angles to precisely suit the focal length of the lens. And even wireless flash – whether in TTL or servo mode – is mastered to perfection by the Metz mecablitz 52 AF-1. Even in low light, the powerful autofocus metering flash can achieve razor-sharp images – and the modelling light makes it possible to evaluate light and shade on the subject prior to shooting. What's more, it holds its own in terms of ease of operation too.
The Metz mecablitz 52 AF-1 is the fi rst compact flash unit in the world to be equipped with an illuminated touchscreen display which can be swivelled through 90° – particularly practical for portrait shots. A free soft ware update is available via the USB interface at any time.
The innovative compact flash is available in 5 versions for Canon, Nikon, Sony, Olympus/Panasonic and Pentax.
The use of the product is intended for the illumination of photo shootings. It is not suitable for domestic room illumination.
Canon version
Nikon version
Olympus / Panasonic / Leica version
Pentax version
Sony version
**Master and slave mod


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Need to see a doctor? You may have to wait.
A survey of physician practices in 15 metropolitan areas across the country, which was taken before the health law expanded coverage, found that the average wait time for a new patient to see a physician in five medical specialties was 18.5 days. The longest waits were in Boston, where patients wait an average of 72 days to see a dermatologist and 66 days to see a family doctor. The shortest were in Dallas, where the average wait time is 10.2 days for all specialties, and just 5 days to see a family doctor.
"We have too few providers, which is creating a significant access problem," says Travis Singleton, senior vice president of Merritt Hawkins in Texas, which conducted the survey. The health care and physician search consulting firm spoke with 1,399 medical offices between June and November 2013 in five different areas of specialization: cardiology, dermatology, obstetrics/gynecology, orthopedic surgery and family practice. Researchers called the practices and asked for the first available appointments for new patients needing routine care, such as a heart check up or a well-woman visit.
The good news is that wait times actually decreased slightly, down from an average of 20.4 days when the survey was last conducted in 2009, and down from 20.9 days in 2004. Singleton attributes the slight improvement to practices employing more midlevel providers like nurse practitioners, better health care IT to help with scheduling and an increase in the number of urgent care centers.
Even Boston, which has eye-popping wait times, has gotten better. The city's average wait time dropped from nearly 50 days in 2009 to 45.4 days in 2013. That nearly brings it closer to its of about 39 days in 2004 before Massachusetts adopted its version of health care reform.
The bad news is that fewer doctors are accepting Medicaid: An average of 45.7 percent of physicians surveyed take Medicaid coverage, down from 55.4 percent in 2009. Acceptance rates varied widely, however, ranging from 73 percent in Boston to 23 percent in Dallas. An average of 76 percent of physicians surveyed accept Medicare.
The rates of Medicaid acceptance are likely to prove problematic as more and more Americans sign up for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. "At the end of the day, it doesn't matter how many physicians you have," says Singleton. "If no one will take your insurance, you're going to end in the same place, and that's probably the ER." And with more patients covered both by Medicaid and private insurance, he says, wait times are likely to get worse.
But Ken Hertz of the MGMA Health Care Consulting Group, which consults with physician practices, says wait times don't always increase in proportion to patient volume. As plan deductibles and copays have gone up in recent years, patient volume in outpatient settings have actually declined, he says.
And long wait times can be attributed to many things other than patient volume, he adds, including operators not understanding the scheduling system. "Most practices are working diligently to see patients and see them in a timely manner, but there are a lot of moving parts," he says.
"The successful practices will figure out new ways and approaches to shortening wait times. This isn't going to be acceptable" in the long term, says Hertz.
This post was updated to correct information in the graph about Boston's overall wait times. The current wait averages 45.4 days, while it was nearly 50 days in 2009 and 39 days in 2004.


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Happy 6th Anniversary Bushwhackia!
Your friends in the Commons event area are up to something--and they need your help!Be warned, this post contains SPOILERS for the event! You may want to play the first couple days of the event before reading these details!
The developers of Bush Whacker 2 are running the turn-in stations. Over the course of the event, you can find Typo Reports, Bug Reports and Suggestions in the bushes to turn in for event progress. Can you flood the poor developers with enough to earn the 100% Mosaic Piece?
Four daily quests will help you gain progress as well, starting with the quest for Gnome parts. The developer gnome quest has been updated with 8 more gnomes. Each completion will award you a random developer gnome and there are now 16 of us to collect. Note, if this is your first time doing the event, you'll get 2 gnomes per turn in.
Later on, there will be a daily quest to test your Bush Whacker knowledge with trivia questions, plus the return of Linus (from Halloween) who will have a sweet reward and of course, 6 years of whacking bushes has taken its tole, so it's best if you help to replant.
Do you have a favourite outfit from among the all the Custom Items over the years? Well, you can now show them off! Once you build the Costume Contest area, you can enter your favourite outfit and vote. New winners will be chosen daily, and will get a small treat.
Familiar friends, like Nate and Kaine, will also have quests as the event goes one.
New for 2018: We've added 2 new quests that will show up during the event, and in one you'll be helping out artist Georgia!
And what is an anniversary without cake? Not a very good one! A souvenir cake will appear on Wednesday April 18 at Noon PDT and be available to interact with until Monday April 23rd at Noon PDT.
Event Achievements -- POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT
There are a total of ELEVEN possible achievements to earn in the Anniversary event.Returning for 2018
Surprise!? - Help set up your own surprise party (Finish the set up and last-minute set up tasks.)
Support Ticket - Do a turn-in at each turn-in station.
Papers, Please - Do 50 turn-ins at each turn-in station.
Know Your Stuff - Complete the Trivia Daily Quest 5 times.
Lookin' Sharp - Enter the costume contest.
Best Buddies - Complete the event quests for Kaine and Nate. Fashion Critic - Vote 50 times in the Costume Contest!
New for 2018 Anniversary Mementos - Purchase all the 2018 Anniversary Event items.*
Gnomevelopers - Earn all 8 developer gnomes from the 2016 Anniversary Event.
Gnomevelopers 2 - Earn all 16 developer gnomes from the 2018 Anniversary Event.
If you spend Bush Bucks on the items from the previous event, you can earn this achievement.
- Celebrate Good Times - Buy all the 4th Anniversary Event store items.
*The Mini Golf piece isn't required to complete the Anniversary Momentos achievement.
Post your plans for the next year of adventuring with Bush Whacker 2 on the forums!
The event will run until Friday April 27th at Noon PDT!
Frequently Asked Questions
- Which developer gnomes are available?
There are now SIXTEEN developer gnomes available. You can collect one at random each time you do the Gnome Parts daily quest. Note, if this is your first time doing the event, you'll get 2 gnomes per turn in. - Why do I want to help Linus daily?
The more times you help him, the better your reward at the end of the event. His quest can be reset with the VIP power to reset daily quests. - Will this event repeat next year?
Good question! We'll tell you next year! - How does the Costume contest work?
You can enter the contest once per day. Once you've entered you cannot change your entry, so choose wisely. Throughout the day players can vote on other entries much like the screenshot contests from Halloween and the Spring Garden events. At midnight, the top 5 rated entries win, and a new contest begins! Winners get a unique title and an energy pack, but cannot enter the contest again for 3 days. - What adds to my event progress?
Doing turn-ins at the 3 stations and completing quests for the NPCs in the area. - How can I find the turn-in station items?
Just keep whacking bushes and critters. The Holiday Item Runes and Pets will help attract them as well or you can use a VIP Voucher or Token on the Event Drops boon. - Do I have to ask my friends to help with the turn-in stations?
No, you don't have to. They just allow you to gain event progress faster. - When will the last quest unlock?
The last event quest will unlock on April 24th. - Do I have to do the achievements?
No. Completing the goals for the achievements is totally optional. You get either a large energy pack or a title for your character from them, no event progress. - Where can I see all the achievements available and how to get them?
Either on the holiday dialog, the achievements dialog, or on the blog.


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Heavy Duty Lockout Hasp
Available in 1 inch and 3 inch tall openings
Recommended Accessories
Product Information
Master Lock Part# 418, 419. The heavy duty lockout hasp is the strongest hasp we carry. Made from heavy duty steel, this hasp is pry-proof and available in a 1" (25 mm) or 3-1/8" x 1" (79 x 25 mm) inside jaw size. The dimensions of the 1" model are 2-3/8" x 3-1/4" (60 x 82 mm), and 2-3/8" x 6-7/8" (60 x 175 mm) for the 3" model. The 1" model can hold up to 4 padlocks and the 3" model can hold up to 8 padlocks.
- Material
- Heavy duty pry-proof steel.
- Benefits
- Keeps equipment inoperative while repairs or adjustments are being made.
- Lockout by multiple workers at each lockout point.
- Lockout Function
- Control cannot be turned on until last worker's safety padlock is removed from hasp.
- OSHA 1910.147(b) Compliance
- Capable of being locked out. An energy isolating device is capable of being locked out if it has a hasp or other means of attachment to which, or through which, a lock can be affixed, or it has a locking mechanism built into it. Other energy isolating devices are capable of being locked out, if lockout can be achieved without the need to dismantle, rebuild, or replace the energy isolating device or permanently alter its energy control capability.


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Firstly let me introduce the Olive............When I look at the gnarled old olive trees and think of how many years (hundreds in some cases) they ve been witness to change, to what was waged, won and lost, to the generations that have come and gone, enduring a constant battering by the elements, withstanding both good and bad times.....well.....i'm in awe that they continue to stand senitial over the ancient land and remain so resilient.
Seeing them stand proud and upright ( well almost) and beautiful with their roots ever more deeply entrenched, regardless, sets a fine example of victory over adversity, and it helps me to keep a sense of perspective. Any problems I may have suddenly pale in significance, by comparison. Peace and hope Reign once more.If life gives you lemons......make lemonade........Just a thought.......
Well our adventures last year took us to the home of the delightfully charming mostly amusing but darn right hospitable Ferdie and Judy, a lush garden villa set on the outskirts of the town oozing with colour and ripeness all abundance of self propagated flowering specimens complete dare I say with a Mulberry Bush, an English nursery rhyme tale of dance and worship, sadly we did nt all prance round it but Baba the heartfelt family poggles (my own word for dog!!) finds it a great place for an afternoon snooze.
Ferdie and Judy's hospitality is legendary, eating some truly epic meals (I'm terribly sorry Bacchus but the Pakistani Curry hails the highest notes of palatable pleasure giving far presidency over pizza any day) though Ferdie your pizza still are the best in town :-)
But most importantly our adventure began seeing how first hand this green elixir is made from their own collection of Olive trees.
Before we started though Judy copiously made the tea and Ferdie began to unfold instructions as to events contained within the three day procedure.........
We all layed nets down all around the trees that we would work on, and each tree varying in size and vigour, we would tease our hand held rakes, which looked reminiscent of giant afro combs, we frizzed the leaves vigorously as the olives popped to the ground. As we danced around as they fell with green precious applaud, we fondly reencountered stories of days of summer, picking strawberries in local farmers fields back in England and of course what Judy might cook-up for lunch!!!!
Once each tree had been lovingly manicured and the olives sank into the net like a Trapani's fishermans bounty catch of sardines, we gathered the hoard and hailed them carefully hand by hand into the brown sacks......and once tree had had its precious harvest and the sack had been collected up they are ready for milling....so all hands back on deck and after three long days later, we proceeded to the local Olificia where they go through there ultimate spotlight transformation.
The mill is just down the road, so we all piled into Ferdies Renault Estate and trundled down the wriggly road to the town olive mill for the show. We were all quite nervous, for we had become affectionate friends with each and every olive and wanted to tell the 'Olive Fairy' to sprinkle tender loving care upon their green delectableness.
First they are thoroughly washed and crushed to produce a paste. Olives contain both oil and water, and the paste is slowly mixed up to allow the oil to come to the surface and separated from the water. The temperature of the paste is always kept below 27 degrees, a process called 'Cold Pressing', So if you ve ever wondered what that meant, know you know.!!! ;-) It results in a lower yield of oil per kilo but retains a superiority.
It's a very satisfying moment when you see this beautiful, fresh green oil pouring into a vat, and it smells absolutely glorious by the way, and it was quite a emotional outburst complete with standing innovation of a production well orchestrated........so with emotions on high it was back into the Renault with the loot and back to the casa for a serious taste test.
The finished oil, is a deliciously creamy and peppery hue, with a clean, grassy aroma.We all felt very proud to have played our own little parts in the miraculous 'Cianciana Olive Harvest Festival, and the creation of this exceptional oil, and from now on every time we have a secret supply of the green eleir with everlasting memories.Our grateful thanks to the lovely Ferdie and Judy and dearest Baba, for letting us help.......with the Grace of God we'll be back this year to top up that vat .....xxx Enjoy xx We


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Instagram is copying Snapchat's Memories feature and going a step further, letting you create a permanent home to show off formerly ephemeral content. Rolling out globally today on iOS and Android, Instagram Stories will now automatically Archive your Stories to a private part of your profile when they disappear 24 hours after being posted.
You'll then be able to create Stories Highlights, which are named collections of your past Stories that show up in a new horizontal bar across the top of your profile. You could make Highlights of a specific vacation, all your selfies, or the cutest dogs you've seen, while brands will surely use it to highlight different product lines and ad campaigns.
"As more and more people adopt Stories, we realized that the profile has become less and less representative of you and your life" an Instagram spokesperson tells me. "And yet the profile is one of the top destinations on Instagram – it's a powerful space for self-expression and feeling closer to others. But up until now there was no way to keep your favorite stories or add them to your profile – we wanted to fix that."
There are three important value-adds to these features
Save Your Work – Archive and Highlights could make investing time in creating Stories feel less wasteful. It might have seemed silly going through the work of shooting Stories and jazzing them up with captions and stickers if they'd disappear the next day. This could make Stories appeal to older demographics whose friends might not be so addicted to Instagram that they open to watch Stories every single day. Highlights will surely be well utilized by brands who pour resources into shooting Stories, and now can create product or campaign specific collections.
Preserve Your Storage – Now you won't have to worry about expending your phone's storage space by downloading your old Stories. Instead, Instagram will save them in the cloud, where you can privately view, publicly share, or re-download them later. For younger users on older phones with limited space, that could be a life saver.
Expressing Your Identity – Instagram has never before let you share without that content being visible on the homescreen to your followers. That meant it could feel like you were spamming friends if you wanted to share niche content, deterring content creation. Stories Highlights will let you exhibit the different angles of yourself. You could create a Highlight of just your cat, your food, your favorite art, or your professional life.
TechCrunch broke the news of Instagram launching an Archive feature for your permanent feed posts in December which was designed to let people temporarily or permanently hide their past feed posts in order to deter people from impulsively deleting content they later want back.
Instagram Stories Archive and Highlights one-up Snapchat Memories, which only lets your repost old clips to your current Story. There's still no permanent content on your Snapchat profile. Rather than forcing ephemerality, Instagram is making it optional to appeal to a wider audience. It's a similar choice to YouTube with its new Stories product Reels, which also don't expire after 24 hours.
Archive so you never lose your Stories
Archive will be activated automatically for everyone soon, and you'll get a notification when it opens to you with the option to turn it off. Stories clips are saved in the same quality you uploaded them at. You can find the Archive on your Profile and switch between the Stories Archive and Posts Archive. Archived posts appear in reverse chronological order with date stamps for clarity. You can't download your entire Archive at once, but instead will have to download individual clips. Archived posts can be reshared to Highlights, Direct Messages, the feed, or downloaded and then pushed to your current Story.
Users were often already downloading their Stories before they expired, but often might forget, causing them to lose their content. Now they don't have to think about it.
Highlight your quirks or your products
To create a Highlight, tap New on the left side of your profile, choose Stories from your archive, choose a cover image for the Highlight, and name it. That Highlight will appear as a Stories-style bubble atop the profile and play like one big Story when tapped by one of your followers. They'll remain visible unless you delete them, and you can remove clips but not reorder them.
You can add up to 100 photos or videos to a Story Highlight, and there's no limit to how many Highlights you can create. Similarly, if you add more than 100 clips to your current Story, the first one will be removed and added to your Archive. And if you don't want any trace of your old Stories available privately to you, you can opt out and turn off Stories Archive.
Together, these features could further encourage Instagram Stories' 300 million users to post more about a wider variety of content, knowing it doesn't have to disappear.


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Senate advances bill that would cement NSA's bulk collection powers
In a closed session, the US Senate Intelligence Committee approved draft legislation that would codify into law the NSA's bulk collection of domestic telephone metadata.
The bill, sponsored by committee chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), cements bulk phone metadata
collection into the business records provision (Section 215) of
the Patriot Act, strengthening NSA surveillance legality allowed
under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
"The NSA call-records program is legal and subject to extensive congressional and judicial oversight," Feinstein said in a statement. "I believe it contributes to our national security. But more can and should be done to increase transparency and build public support for privacy protections in place."
The committee's 11-4 vote for passage of the FISA Improvements Act runs counter to legislation introduced by the chairmen of the House and Senate judiciary committees this week. Among other attributes, that legislation - the USA FREEDOM Act - would "end bulk collection under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, in light of the massive intrusion on Americans' privacy and the lack of evidence of its effectiveness."
Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-OH), chair of the House Judiciary Committee and co-author of the Patriot Act 12 years ago, has previously said that after Congress amended in 2006 the Patriot Act to authorize broad, secret warrants for most any type of "tangible" records, both the Bush and Obama administrations have misinterpreted the law's power to allow bulk collection of all phone call records in and out of the United States.
Feinstein's bill further authorizes such an interpretation into law, which would thwart current legal challenges to the program under those grounds. Though constitutional challenges could still be considered.
The legislation demands for the first time that when the government queries the metadata database, it has to have "reasonable, articulable suspicion" of terrorism against the targets. The NSA claims it has followed that guideline thus far.
Critics of Feinstein's bill in and out of the Senate said it does not go far enough to protect Americans' privacy and security rights.
"The NSA's ongoing, invasive surveillance of Americans' private information does not respect our constitutional values and needs fundamental reform - not incidental changes," Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO), who voted against the bill in committee, said in a statement on Thursday. "Unfortunately, the bill passed by the Senate Intelligence Committee does not go far enough to address the NSA's overreaching domestic surveillance programs."
An aspect of the bill expands the NSA's power in another way, allowing the agency to continue targeting the cell phones of "roamers," or foreigners who enter the United States, for up to 72 hours - a practice that requires a warrant. An internal NSA audit provided by classified documents from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden found the agency often ignored the requirement.
"This says bulk collection of American records can continue. It especially ensures and approves bulk collection despite the fact that it's under shaky legal footing," Elizabeth Goitein, a director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, told Wired.
In June, revelations made possible by Snowden showed that a classified court opinion required telecom giant Verizon to provide the NSA with, among other data, phone numbers of both parties involved in all calls made by millions of Americans.
Feinstein's bill would also require that the NSA director and inspector general be subject to Senate confirmation. In addition, it says that metadata can be kept for up to five years, and searches of data over three years old have to be approved by the US attorney general. The NSA must also supply the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which approves surveillance warrants, with a record of searches.
The bill also calls for the NSA to publicly release an annual report of the number of database inquiries made, as well as the number of times those searches led to an FBI investigation.
Senate floor debate is the next step for Feinstein's bill, though no date has been set. Sensenbrenner's bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), has not received a hearing date in either legislative chamber.
"The Feinstein bill is terrible and would make things worse. I think the Leahy-Sensenbrenner bill begins to address some of the problems" with the NSA, director of civil liberties at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, Jennifer Granick, told The Huffington Post.


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Queen to visit Chatsworth on Thursday
They will visit Derbyshire knitwear firm John Smedley Ltd in Lea Mills to mark its 230th anniversary before travelling on to Chatsworth House.
Chatsworth House grounds and car parks will be open to the public as usual.
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdBut visitors wishing to see the Queen are advised to park at Chatsworth no later than 11am.
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh will be welcomed to the estate by the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire and are planning to acknowledge crowds in the grounds.
A reception will be held in Chatsworth's Painted Hall for 80 local voluntary workers and charity organisers, hosted by the Lord-Lieutenant of Derbyshire, Mr William Tucker and his wife.
Both will accompany the Royal couple throughout the visit.
Later there will a private luncheon at Chatsworth House.
In Matlock, crowds are encouraged to join local schoolchildren and line the streets from around 10am as the Royal party travel by car from Matlock to Lea Bridge.
Users of the A6 are urged to steer clear between 10am and 12 noon and parking will be banned on Chatsworth Road, Rowsley.
Matlock station car park will be closed until after the Royal car's departure.


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Supplier Responsibility
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We hold ourselves and our suppliers to the highest standard when it comes to human rights, environmental protections, and responsible business practices in our supply chain. Together with our partners, we go above and beyond accepted industry practices to improve the lives of our suppliers' employees while conserving the earth's resources for generations to come. And we share our vision, processes, and results openly — because we believe transparency keeps us accountable to ourselves and the world, while allowing others to learn and benefit from our experience.
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8:58 a.m., 3/5/2024
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Indulge someone special with a GODIVA 8-piece box of assorted chocolates presented in our iconic gold gift box.
* Our shipping system monitors the temperatures where your package is being delivered to ensure your gift arrives in perfect condition, no matter the weather. We tuck our elegant gift boxes inside crisp, Godiva tissue paper to create the perfect gifting experience.
* Allergen information: Contains or may contain milk, soy, hazelnut, wheat (gluten), macadamia nuts, cashew nuts, pecan walnuts and almond. May contain eggs and sesame.


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Interior of Ganymede
The diagram to the left shows a cutaway of the possible interior structure of Ganymede, based on recent measurements by the Galileo spacecraft. It shows a small core of metal, overlain with some rocky material, overlain still further with ice of various phases. Further measurements by Galileo suggest that, in addition, Ganymede may have a thin, salty-slushy layer near the surface, where electric currents are found. Ice cannot support electric current, but water can. (That is why people dont put electric appliances into the bathtub!) An instrument on the spacecraft that is sensitive to current measured something that, like on Ganymede, suggested a watery layer was present on Callisto and Europa as well.
When the Galileo spacecraft flew by Ganymede, to everyone's surprise it measured a very strong magnetic field for the first time near any moon! This provides further evidence that Ganymede is not completely frozen, but has a warm iron core. Over its history, Ganymede may have gone through a late period of warming, rather like Mars, and experienced some icy surface tectonism as a result.


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The second Hong Kong data center will service strong demand from the banking and financial market participants and the expansion of cloud and IT service providers
Foster City, CA and Hong Kong – August 30, 2010 – Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX, news, filings), a provider of global data center services, today announced plans to build its second International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data center, HK2, in Hong Kong. The new $63 million HK2 IBX data center will provide total capacity for more than 1,450 cabinet equivalents. Targeted for opening in the third quarter of 2011, the $20 million first phase of the HK2 IBX center will offer an initial 450 cabinet equivalents. The expansion enables Equinix to continue serving the Hong Kong market with business exchange services for global enterprises, banking and financial companies, and cloud and IT service providers.
The Hong Kong market is one of the largest concentrations of banking and financial companies in the region. Located near the existing HK1 IBX data center in the western part of the New Territories region, the HK2 facility will have direct fiber connection with the HK1 IBX data center. This connectivity enables prospective customers at HK2 to enjoy close proximity and direct access to the financial ecosystems, including trading venues, buy and sell side firms, market data providers, technology providers and financial networks, at the HK1 IBX data center. The new IBX data center will also feature highly reliable data center services and operations, offering availability, scalability and low latency connectivity to a wide range of networks available at the HK1 IBX data center. These services are especially important to cloud and IT service providers looking to optimize business exchange and increase end-user satisfaction.
"Companies seek to deploy mission critical applications within a well-connected, carrier-neutral data center operator with a presence around the world," said Steve Smith, CEO and President of Equinix. "Equinix's global platform provides state-of-the-art colocation and reliable interconnection services across 35 markets. Our customers can choose from top network providers and connect with partners in market ecosystems to optimize business performance."
"Hong Kong is a critical data center market for global customers. For the past two years, Equinix has been expanding its HK1 IBX data center to meet increasing demand, which is currently operating at more than 70 percent utilization. The HK2 expansion will help service ongoing customer demand, further demonstrating Equinix's commitment and confidence in the Hong Kong market," said Jonathan Leung, managing director, Equinix Greater China.
The HK2 is the fourth in a series of recently announced IBX data center expansions in the Asia Pacific region. Equinix has recently announced the expansion of SY3 data center in Sydney, the third phase expansion of the existing SG2 center in Singapore, and launched a new market in Shanghai with its partnership with Shanghai Data Solutions (SDS).
About Equinix
Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ: EQIX) provides global data center services that ensure the vitality of the information-driven world. Global enterprises, cloud, content and financial companies, and more than 595 network service providers rely on Equinix. The company operates 90 International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers across 35 markets in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. Learn more at http://www.equinix.com.
Press Contacts
Equinix Media Contact (Global)
Joan Powell
Equinix, Inc.
(650) 513-7098
Equinix Media Contact (Asia-Pacific)
Emma Jenkins
LEWIS Public Relations
+ (852) 3965 3329
Equinix Media Contact (Asia-Pacific)
Angela Ko
Equinix Asia-Pacific
+ (852) 2970 7731
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from expectations discussed in such forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such differences include, but are not limited to, the challenges of acquiring, operating and constructing IBX centers and developing, deploying and delivering Equinix services; unanticipated costs or difficulties relating to the integration of companies we have acquired or will acquire into Equinix; a failure to receive significant revenue from customers in recently built out or acquired data centers; failure to complete any financing arrangements contemplated from time to time; competition from existing and new competitors; the ability to generate sufficient cash flow or otherwise obtain funds to repay new or outstanding indebtedness; the loss or decline in business from our key customers; and other risks described from time to time in Equinix's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In particular, see Equinix's recent quarterly and annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which are available upon request from Equinix. Equinix does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.
Equinix and IBX are registered trademarks of Equinix, Inc. International Business Exchange is a trademark of Equinix, Inc.
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The World of POV-Ray
currently hosts:
POV-Ray Objects Collection
POV-Ray Book Project
Unofficial optimized Linux POV-Ray binaries
AA methods test for POV-Ray
C++ Ray-Tracer Project
JBenchX Java Benchmarking Framework
22.01.2003: You can now
get the latest development code
of the raytracer from the cvs server!
13.12.2002: Switching to new hardware for the povworld.org server is successfully done. Some URLs have been reorganized. E.g. there is now an index page (this one) which lists all of the things on this domain. To link directly to the POV-Ray Objects Collection use the address objects.povworld.org.


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Monday, June 25, 2007
Fee fie Foo done
It was an interesting event, pretty much as described, a self-organized, somewhat chaotic blend of "people who're doing interesting works in fields such as web services, data visualization and search, open source programming, computer security, hardware hacking, GPS, alternative energy, and all manner of emerging technologies" who sat down to chat, debate, "share their works-in-progress, show off the latest tech toys and hardware hacks, and tackle challenging problems together."
Most incredible was the diverse group of attendees, ranging from university professors to tech gurus to venture capitalists to goofy little startups. In addition to the various tech celebrities -- Larry Page, Caterina Fake, Paul Graham, Ray Ozzie, Kevin Rose, to name just a few -- there were even folks such as Wes Boyd, founder of MoveOn.org.
Part of the experience is the opportunity to bump into random people and explore various ideas. Joe McCarthy and I discussed innovation at startups versus innovation in research groups. I talked to Paul Kedrosky about trying to use information on the web for hedge funds. I had an extended discussion with Wes Boyd about the future of journalism. Steve Yegge convinced me not to hate Javascript quite so much. Udi Manber and I discussed his departure from A9. Nat Torkington and I talked about environmental and energy policy. Mark Atwood and I argued about the short-term prospects for utility computing. And, there were many more casual conversations on many more topics.
It was good to see old friends and colleagues. Amazon and ex-Amazon.com folks included Russell Dicker, Kim Rachmeler, H.B. Siegel, Shel Kaphan, Udi Manber, DeWitt Clinton, Peter Vosshall, Chris Brown, and Steve Yegge. I finally got a chance to meet Paul Kedrosky, Garrett Camp, Doug Cutting, Bradley Horowitz, Greg Stein, Marti Hearst, Om Malik, Stewart Butterfield, Matt Cutts, Nat Torkington, Artur Bergman, Luis von Ahn, and Don MacAskill face-to-face. It also was good to see Danny Sullivan, Tim O'Reilly, Peter Norvig, John Battelle, Niall Kennedy, Mez Naam, Jed Harris, and Brian Aker again.
The many talks, most of which take the form of a discussion rather than a lecture, were remarkable as well. Sadly, there were often three or four talks in the same time slot I wanted to attend -- so much to see, so little time -- but I was able to attend and enjoy many.
For example, Mez Naam gave a fun, SciFi-like talk on what happens as 3D printers become cheaper, smaller, higher quality, and widely adopted for manufacturing. In the near term, we may see some goods reduced to information -- all you need is the blueprint for what to print to make your very own iPhone -- which could cause serious disruptions in some industries and much confusion for intellectual property laws. In the much more speculative longer term, Mez asked, what might happen if people can create drugs, even pathogens, at their desktop with cheap hardware?
Researchers Marti Hearst, Martin Wattenberg, Fernanda Viegas, Jeffrey Heer talked about data visualization, focusing on demos of Many Eyes and Sense.us. The talk explored how easy data visualization and sharing tools help people collaborate and learn from data. A very cool idea was the ability not only to comment on the graphs, but also draw on the graphs and refer to other graphs, facilitating discussion and exploration. Marti Hearst also briefly discussed tag clouds, ending with the thought-provoking conclusion that tag clouds are intended not as a particularly useful method of conveying and summarizing information, but as a means of socializing among people.
Researcher Andrea Thomaz from the MIT Media Lab showed off videos of Leonardo, a robot designed with gestures that naturally appeal to and are easily interpreted by people.
Researcher Neil Halelamien from CalTech discussed how placing a rapidly fluctuating magnetic field at the back of someone's head can stimulate neurons on the surface of the brain and create some unusual (and temporary) visual effects involving replay of images just seen.
I sat in on a conversation with Stephen Hsu and several other folks working on computer security that came to the rather dismal conclusion that not only can we expect severe, large scale botnet attacks in the near future, but also we can expect a future where most computers have some low level of infection by malware (much like the human body has a continuous, low-level infection by viruses and bacteria). Some of our discussion is similar to what appeared yesterday in the NYT, "When Computers Attack", which quotes one of the Foo campers, Ross Stapleton-Gray, at one point.
There was a discussion of the book Paradox of Choice -- which argues that more choice can make it difficult to take action and that overoptimizing choices makes people unhappy -- led by H.B. Siegel and including Flickr founders Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield. The discussion focused mostly on personal experiences, but some interesting meta questions about the economic rationality of optimization -- cost of time for gathering information versus the cost of a (usually only moderately) sub-optimal choice -- were also raised.
Toby Segaran lead a discussion about wisdom of the crowds and hive mind that, at one point, dived into fun questions of whether hive mind communities suffer from tyranny of the majority and end up fracturing at a certain size. Digg came up several times as an example of wisdom of the crowds, tyranny of the majority, and a hive mind that might fracture.
Peter Norvig gave a great version of his talk on the advantages of big data for solving many types of machine learning problems. The machine translation examples are particularly compelling. If you want to check it out, the talk was similar, though not identical, to some of Peter's talks I linked to in an older post.
Finally, I very much enjoyed a session with Erick Wilhelm, Dennis Cramey, and Will Carter talking about location-aware gaming. The basic idea is to have the virtual game world overlap with the real world. Initially, this has taken the form of games where the real world is used for navigation -- moving in the real-world moves you in the virtual world, but the virtual world is otherwise separated from the real-world -- but there was some fun talk about how the worlds could be blended further. What I would really like to see here is a game where you are essentially someone different in the real world (e.g. a secret agent) and interact with others in the game through your device and through the real world (tasks, information drops, puzzles). It would be like the cell phone is your access into a different persona, but that persona exists both in the real and virtual world.
In all, a very interesting and unusual experience. I am still not sure how I managed to get invited, but it was great to get a chance to go.
6 comments:
Great meeting you Greg. Foo Camp indeed rocked.
- June 25, 2007 at 11:01 PM
Joe McCarthy and I discussed innovation at startups versus innovation in research groups.
I'd be interested in hearing a little more about the various pros and cons of each that you two were able to enumerate.
Pater Norvig
Is this Peter's dad? ;-)
Jeffrey Heer talked about data visualization, focusing on demos of Many Eyes and Sense.us.
Yeah, I saw this presentation at CHI '07. Very interesting stuff. Love the notion of exploratory search. - June 26, 2007 at 8:51 AM
- Greg Linden said...
Doh! Thanks for the spelling correction, Jeremy. Fixed!
As for the conversation I got to have with Joe McCarthy about startups versus research groups, there were two main threads.
The first was that being unfamiliar with previous work sometimes may be an advantage. The concern is that reading previous work can force a particular way of framing a problem and a certain set of core assumptions, all unconsciously, and prevent adequate exploration. In some sense, the argument is that not knowing what you should and shouldn't be able to do may be useful for creativity. By the way, I am not sure I agree with this point of view -- it strikes me as too close to ignorance is bliss -- but I think it is a very interesting debate to have.
The second was that startups (if defined broadly to include Facebook, My Space, Digg, and even Google) have access to very large data sets that are unavailable to academic researchers. Tying into Peter Norvig's common theme, big data may result in more progress on some types of problems than better algorithms, so the lack of the data in research labs may hamper their ability to innovate in some areas.
There was also a much smaller thread at the beginning talking about different time horizons for startups and research labs and the impact that might have. - June 26, 2007 at 9:10 AM
w/r/t "ignorance is bliss", I think both sides are not incorrect. In my own experience doing music information retrieval for many years, I worked with a diverse team of computer scientists, digital signal processing engineers, and musicologists. Though I do have some rudimentary musical knowledge, I am not a musicologist myself, by any stretch of the imagination.
As a result, much of my ignorance about music theory led me to try music search approaches that the theorists considered "silly" and that shouldn't be attempted. Well, many of those ideas ended up working quite well. So not having those pre-conceived, domain specific barriers to my thought process was an advantage in that situation.
On the other hand, imagine a text-IR educated venture capitalist who is being approached with the idea for a startup that does "personalized stemming". Generic stemming algorithms may conflate "car" and "cars", but not "new" and "news". "Our idea," this startup might say, "is to personalize these stemming algorithms, so maybe for you, "car" and "cars" do not conflate, whereas for me, "new" and "news" do conflate. At that point, the VC should probably reject the startup's funding request.
Why? Because over 30 years of researchers, both in academia and industry, have experience showing that, on average, stemming does not improve retrieval performance. So how does the startup really expect personalized stemming to do that much better? Is there really someone out there that needs to conflate "new" and "news"?
While ignorance does not guarantee that the musically-naive algorithm designer will succeed, nor that the stemming-naive startuper will fail, what it boils down to (IMHO) is different types of ignorance. In the former case, some silly ideas had never been tried and their validity, despite sounding silly to a less naive expert, was unknown. In the latter case, some non-silly ideas had been tried over and over and found not to work. I think it is much more dangerous to be ignorant of the latter than the former.
But certainly it sounds like you had some great conversations there. Thanks for sharing! - June 26, 2007 at 6:06 PM
"some interesting meta questions about the economic rationality of optimization -- cost of time for gathering information versus the cost of a (usually only moderately) sub-optimal choice"
Sounds like optimizing optimization effort :-) - June 27, 2007 at 2:47 PM
On the Peter Norvig talk: there's a version on Youtube (Google Developer Day):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU8DcBF-qo4 - June 27, 2007 at 3:28 PM


text:
Ah, the last breathes of winter… It's getting warmer, so the life's good, and that's exactly the attitude that boosts our strive to get a few more ideas through to the next release. One such idea is the improvement of the Photos plugin – a real essential toy in the arsenal of any serious social site. Our goal here is to fix all the obvious bugs and add some exciting options to make users happier.
As you know, at present the plugin operates by means of either basic uploader, or through flash upload. And frankly, both are dated. The flash one cannot be customized in css/html, and requires an additional plugin in the browser. Sometimes this leads to unnecessary confusion, and that's what we want to eliminate.
The solution – a photo uploader that uses native browser capabilities and doesn't require additional browser extensions. Also, it's easily customizable in css/html, maintains drag'n'drop interface, and allows quick editing at the very first step (rotate, hashtags, album name, etc.)
One of the things we learned with the old system is that most users find comments under pictures inconvenient. When the page is scrolled down for more comments, the picture itself gets out of sight, and is basically "lost."
An easy solution to prevent this is to move comments and description to the right side of the picture. That's the trend across the industry anyway, and seems to be the right approach for us. Still, we are leaving the old system as an available option as well, so you can choose what's working better for you.
We've also decided to play with the visual presentation of the photo list, which was kind of boring (being strictly square and all). The addition of a Pinterest-like mode should spice things up a bit, don't you think?
There are no search options for photos in Oxwall right now, which isn't handy, since users resort to tags when they are looking for something. We'll change that by making it possible to search by descriptions, usernames and hash tags.
So that's the gist of things to come. But there's even more interface stuff that we are tinkering with right now. Liking and varying privacy settings for different photo albums are on the plate too, and will be ready to be served with Oxwall 1.6.1, or soon thereafter.
Keep reading our Dev Diary guys, and learn what else keeps us busy.


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Thursday 03/28/2013
Clemson, SC –
Kyle Farmer, Hunter Cole, and Jared Walsh all hit home runs to lead Georgia to a 5-3 win over Clemson in front of 5,156 fans at a chilly Doug Kingsmore Stadium on Wednesday night. The Bulldogs, who snapped their nine-game losing streak, improved to 9-17 on the season. The Tigers, who split the home-and-home midweek series 1-1, dropped to 16-9 in 2013.
Georgia scored two runs on Farmer's two-run homer in the first inning and never relinquished its lead. The Tigers scored one run in the third, sixth, and ninth innings and had the potential tying run on first base in the ninth, but they fell short.
Ross Ripple (1-0), the second of five Bulldog pitchers, earned the win in 3.1 innings pitched. He gave up just one hit, one run, and three walks with three strikeouts. Walsh recorded his third save of the season despite allowing one hit, one run, and two walks with one strikeout in the ninth inning.
Tiger starter Brody Koerner (0-1) suffered the loss, as he yielded three hits, two runs, and one walk with three strikeouts in 4.0 innings pitched.
The Bulldogs took the game's first lead in the first inning. Nelson Ward led off with a triple to right-center but was erased at home on Cole's fielder's choice. Two batters later with two outs, Farmer belted a wind-aided, two-run homer that just cleared the left-field fence, his first long ball of the season.
In the third inning, Tyler Krieger and Tyler Slaton drew one-out walks, then Steven Duggar grounded a single through the right side to score Krieger and advance Slaton to third. But Steve Wilkerson grounded into a 1-6-3 double play to end the inning, as Wilkerson was called out in a close play at first base to keep Georgia ahead 2-1.
Cole led off the top of the sixth inning with a towering flyball to left field that the wind carried over the fence for a home run, his third long ball of the season.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Garrett Boulware reached on a two-out, infield single and Shane Kennedy walked. Jon McGibbon followed with a single up the middle to score Boulware.
The Bulldogs responded with a run in the seventh inning thanks in large part to a costly Tiger miscue. Ward reached on a two-out, infield single and went to third on Cole's bloop single to left-center. Ward then scored prior to a 1-2 pitch on a balk by Clate Schmidt, upping Georgia's lead to 4-2.
In the eighth inning, Walsh belted a solo homer to right field that just cleared the fence, his second long ball of the year.
McGibbon led off the ninth inning with a five-pitch walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch. After the next two Tigers grounded out, Krieger grounded a double over the first-base bag to score McGibbon. Slaton walked to put the potential tying run on first base, but Duggar struck out to end the game.
Cole went 2-for-5 with a homer, two runs, and one steal. Ward also had two hits for the Bulldogs, who totaled seven hits in the game.
Seven different Tigers had one hit apiece. Slaton, Wilkerson, and Krieger each hit one double. The Tigers put 14 batters on base to Georgia's 12, but Clemson only managed three runs.
Clemson will travel to Chapel Hill, NC to take on #1 North Carolina in a three-game series starting Saturday at 6:00 PM.
March 1, 2024
February 29, 2024
February 27, 2024
February 26, 2024


text:
Rule #1 - Be Patient - Rule #2 - Don't ask when, if you don't contribute - Rule #3 - You have coding skills - LinuxMCE's small brother is available: http://www.agocontrol.com
some progress on the ago control side. We've settled onto a MVC approach via ember js and jquery. It also supports templates and other nice things. Gumby is used for the appearance. Communication is done viai JSON-RPC. Getting the inventory (aka device list and stuff™), sending commands and receiving live status updates works fine so far. Still a lot of work to do but hey this is brand new, very hot, and will receive a lot love over the next weeks and months.
afaict yes
An error occured in a template/opt/agocontrol/admin/agoadmin.py:231 default inventory = discover()/opt/agocontrol/admin/agoadmin.py:79 discover if message.content:
maybe you can provide a more detailed bug report, e.g. what exactly you're doing. Are there any messages in syslog? Adding devices to rooms works fine (we've no other reports that indicate otherwise). But for the records, this is the old web admin written in cherrypy. The new interface is served via agorpc on port 8008. Just make sure to install the latest package.


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Welcome to 42nd Street Photo, Login or Create new account
Retail Hours: Mon- Thur 10:00am - 7:pm / Friday/Sunday 10:00am - 5:00pm Saturday: Closed. 1-212-594-6565
- Item #
- 104973
- Suggested Retail:
- $1,509.00
- Our Price:
- $1,079.00
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- $430.00
- Condition
- Brand New
- Availability:
- In Stock Ships Within 24-48 Hrs.
Available Accessories
Available Kits
Starter Lens Accessory Package - 5A Item # 106228
- Precision UV Filter For Lens ( Coated )
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Basic Lens Accessory Package - 5B Item # 106229
- Precision Three Piece Filter Kit ( Coated )
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- Lens Cap Keeper
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Only: $169.99 -
Executive Lens Accessory Package - 5C Item # 106230
- Precision UV Filter ( Multi-Coated )
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Only: $229.99 -
Pro Shooter Lens Accessory Package - 5D Item # 106231
- Precision Three Piece Filter Kit ( Multi-Coated )
- Digital Concept Lens Cleaning Kit
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- Table Top Tripod 6"
- Three Year Extended Lens Warranty
Only: $299.99
- Front & Rear Lens Cap
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Brand New Factory Fresh Import Model
This Sigma 50-500mm f/4.5-6.3 DG OS HSM APO Lens is for digital SLR cameras with a Nikon lens mount. The lens has a standard to ultra telephoto zoom range that is ideal for nature, wildlife, or sports photography. The range translates into an equivalent 75-750mm when used with digital SLR cameras with an APS size chip. The lens is also compatible with full frame cameras. You can even increase you telephoto range by using the Sigma APO teleconverters.
The OS (Optical Stabilizer) system minimizes image blur caused by camera shake, and offers the equivalent of shooting at a shutter speed 3-4 stops faster. This allows handheld telephoto zoom shooting even in poorly lit conditions.
The use of the OS (Optical Stabilizer) system, HSM (Hyper Sonic Motor), APO apochromatic design, four elements of SLD (Special Low Dispersion) glass, and multicoated optics all enable this lens to provide a high level of performance throughout its entire zoom range. A rear focus system ensures quick, convenient manual focus and a non-rotating front barrel.
The improved DG lens design corrects for various aberrations. This lens is specially coated to get the best color balance, while cutting down on ghosting caused by reflections from the digital image sensor. The lens provides the utmost correction against lateral chromatic aberration, which is a serious problem for digital SLR cameras.
Note! If the camera body does not support the HSM motor, auto focus will not work.
- • Designed for use with full frame digital SLR cameras. May also be used with smaller APS-C size sensors with a corresponding effective increase in focal length to about 75 to 750mm with most cameras.
- • Standard to ultra telephoto zoom range makes this the perfect to carry when you only have room for one lens.
- • The OS system uses two sensors inside the lens to detect vertical and horizontal movement of the camera. It works by moving an optical image stabilizing lens group, to effectively compensate for camera shake. It automatically detects movement of the camera and compensates for camera shake when shooting a moving subject such as motor sports.
- • The HSM (Hyper Sonic Motor) system ensures quiet and high-speed auto focusing with full time manual focus override.
- • Four Special Low Dispersion (SLD) elements provide excellent correction for chromatic aberration.
- • The improved DG lens design corrects for various aberrations.
- • Super Multi Layer (SML) coating reduces ghost and flare.
Why buy from us?
We are proud to offer the outstanding
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Large Inventory Our excellent supplier relationships, coupled with technologically advanced super-efficient systems ensure that we usually have the products you want IN STOCK so that you can get what you want when you want it. Our super-fast turn around time is such that most orders are processed and shipped within 24-48 hours, and often a lot quicker. Low Low Prices Why pay more when you can get the same for less? Due to our large sales volume, we are able to pass our quantity buying prices on to you. When you purchase from us, you can rest assured that you are getting factory fresh merchandise with A Warranty at the lowest legitimate price. Impeccable Service We strive to ensure all of our customers receive the highest of service. We listen to your feedback and do what we can to tailor our service to your needs. Safe Transactions Ordering with 42nd Street Photo is safe, easy & fun. We assure that every transaction you make with us is 100% secure. In addition to using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protection technology and a VeriSign Secure Server ID, we are also checked daily by an independant security company called ScanAlert. You can also be assured that your name and confidential information will never be distributed, sold, or rented. |


text:
(visited by Luca Giampieri, Maurizio Giampieri, Maurizio Mugianesi, Emilio Sbrozzi, Khalid Khalifa, Mansour Muhammad Senoussy, Abdallah Khalifa Senoussy and Hani Salah)
28-Mar-2004 -- Coming from 24N 26E and the Gilf Kabīr out in the Great Sand Sea. Four Italians guided by Khalid Khalifa, an absolutely reliable guide based in Baḥariyya. Our Toyota had a differential broken, but he and his guys were able to fix it and let us go on. Many hours at the wheel, you've plenty of time to think how small are we in front of all this and it's the pace of your car that sets at that of your soul. No rush, no improvisation. You depend on yourself, and, even travelling with friends, somehow you are alone.
Now the way points to Farāfira oasis. Eventually a dark line crossing the horizon will tell us that the road is approaching, and some of us would like to U-turn and start way back. Bye-bye dunes, bye-bye freedom.


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text:
by Benjamin Snyder
IS MILOS RAONIC THE READ DEAL? OR FRANK DANCEVIC, VERSION 2.0? Move aside Greg Rusedski, there's a new (and real) Canadian hotshot in town. No, not you Frank Dancevic. You've already had your fifteen minutes. Well, okay, try most of 2007. But, apparently there's only room enough for one top Canuck at a time. Now, we're talking the big-serving, big-sized, giant-killer Milos Raonic, whose recent charge through the top-tier of the ATP tour has many talking, including Greg on his Twitter :
But before we get all hot and bothered by Milos the Great, let's not forget Dancevic's 15 minutes of fame. Is Raonic bound for a similar destiny? To find out, here's a breakdown of the games, the fashions, and the Canadian quirks of the two.
Similarity number one: both Frank and Milos have failed to pass the first round at the U.S. Open. While Frank has lost in the qualifying the last couple years, Milos succumbed to Carsten Ball in 2010's first round. Of course, with the way Milos is playing, that dismal record should soon be a thing of the past. For Frank: not so much.
Going along with Milos' big results, we have our first key difference: the young Canadian gun has actually won an ATP title. Taking out Fernando Verdasco at the SAP Open, he got what eluded Dancevic on two separate occasions: a tour victory. Take that, Anna Kournikova! Not to mention there's that surprise run to the Aussie Open fourth round versus Dancevic's second round in '07. Another difference: Milos is set to crack the top 50 after a recent semifinal showing at Memphis, besting Frankie's career-high of 65 from 2007.
Read more on Milos and Frank (and see Frank flexing some bicep) after the cut.
Both boys are big servers. Yup, Frank shares the same weapon as Raonic, blasting aces, like in his run to the AEGON International final in 2009. Regardless, itís safe to say that what Frank can do, Milos can do better. At 6-foot-5, Milos doesn't mess around, regularly hitting booming serves, including one at 149 MPHs in his victory over Fernando. | See one for yourself
While Milos might look like a poor man's Taylor Dent (he certainly doesn't play like one, though) the now 26-year-old Dancevic is still rocking those curly brown locks and Clement-inspired bandanas. Props to Milos' team for actually fitting him into some good Lacoste choices; nothing wrong with a good-looking polo.
Can anything really beat a shirtless Franky? You've got some work to do, oh Milos. (AP photo)
What about this whole maple syrup and hockey thing? Oh right right, they're Canadians. Both currently reside in Ontario with Milos in Thornhill — although he was born in Montenegro — while Frank still lives in his hometown of Niagra Falls. And while Milos is getting all the media attention these days, here's a profile about Frank from the 2009 Rogers Cup. Because hey, dude is ranked 204th in the world (and looks good shirtless). And, as Milos has proved, you never know when they might make a run for the top… again.
(TOP: composite photos via getty; illustration by erwin ong)


text:
11.41: Nerve Impulse
- Page ID
- 14344
What do nerve cells look like?
Note that like most other cells, these nerve cells have a nucleus. They also have other organelles. However, the long, threadlike extensions of the nerve cells are unique. This is where the nerve impulses are transmitted.
Neurons and Nerve Impulses
The nervous system is made up of nerves. A nerve is a bundle of nerve cells. A nerve cell that carries messages is called a neuron (Figure below). The messages carried by neurons are called nerve impulses. Nerve impulses can travel very quickly because they are electrical impulses.
Think about flipping on a light switch when you enter a room. When you flip the switch, the electricity flows to the light through wires inside the walls. The electricity may have to travel many meters to reach the light, but the light still comes on as soon as you flip the switch. Nerve impulses travel just as fast through the network of nerves inside the body.
What Does a Neuron Look Like?
A neuron has a special shape that lets it pass signals from one cell to another. A neuron has three main parts (Figure above):
- The cell body.
- Many dendrites.
- One axon.
The cell body contains the nucleus and other organelles. Dendrites and axons connect to the cell body, similar to rays coming off of the sun. Dendrites receive nerve impulses from other cells. Axons pass the nerve impulses on to other cells. A single neuron may have thousands of dendrites, so it can communicate with thousands of other cells but only one axon. The axon is covered with a myelin sheath, a fatty layer that insulates the axon and allows the electrical signal to travel much more quickly. The node of Ranvier is any gap within the myelin sheath exposing the axon, and it allows even faster transmission of a signal.
Types of Neurons
Neurons are usually classified based on the role they play in the body. Two main types of neurons are sensory neurons and motor neurons.
- Sensory neurons carry nerve impulses from sense organs and internal organs to the central nervous system.
- Motor neurons carry nerve impulses from the central nervous system to organs, glands, and muscles—the opposite direction.
Both types of neurons work together. Sensory neurons carry information about the environment found inside or outside of the body to the central nervous system. The central nervous system uses the information to send messages through motor neurons to tell the body how to respond to the information.
The Synapse
The place where the axon of one neuron meets the dendrite of another is called a synapse. Synapses are also found between neurons and other types of cells, such as muscle cells. The axon of the sending neuron does not actually touch the dendrite of the receiving neuron. There is a tiny gap between them, the synaptic cleft (Figure below).
The following steps describe what happens when a nerve impulse reaches the end of an axon.
- When a nerve impulse reaches the end of an axon, the axon releases chemicals called neurotransmitters.
- Neurotransmitters travel across the synapse between the axon and the dendrite of the next neuron.
- Neurotransmitters bind to the membrane of the dendrite.
- The binding allows the nerve impulse to travel through the receiving neuron.
Did you ever watch a relay race? After the first runner races, he or she passes the baton to the next runner, who takes over. Neurons are a little like relay runners. Instead of a baton, they pass neurotransmitters to the next neuron. Examples of neurotransmitters are chemicals such as serotonin, dopamine, and adrenaline.
You can watch an animation of nerve impulses and neurotransmitters at http://www.mind.ilstu.edu/curriculum/neurons_intro/neurons_intro.php.
Some people have low levels of the neurotransmitter called serotonin in their brain. Scientists think that this is one cause of depression. Medications called antidepressants help bring serotonin levels back to normal. For many people with depression, antidepressants control the symptoms of their depression and help them lead happy, productive lives.
- Neurons, or nerve cells that carry nerve impulses, are made up of the cell body, the axon, and several dendrites.
- Signals move across the synapse, the place where the axon of one neuron meets the dendrite of another, using chemicals called neurotransmitters.
Explore More
Use the resource below to answer the questions that follow.
- Neuroscience For Kids at http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/cells.html
- What are the three types of neurons?
- What neurons are most abundant in the central nervous system?
- What is the function of sensory neurons?
- What is the function of motor neurons?
- What is the role of interneurons?
- Describe a neuron and identify its three main parts.
- Distinguish between dendrites and the axon.
- Distinguish between sensory and motor neurons.
- Explain how one neuron transmits a nerve impulse to another neuron.


text:
Fan TV is a moonshot to fix the TV experience
Fan TV is the latest box promises to unify cable TV, streaming video and movies, but it faces an uphill battle to get cable companies on board.
Television must be broken, because everyone's trying to fix it.
Fanhattan joined the long list of companies set on "simplifying the TV experience," with its announcement of Fan TV, a small streaming box designed to integrate cable TV, streaming video and DVR recordings through a single interface. The pebblelike box was designed by Yves Behar and includes a buttonless, touch remote that lets you swipe your way through your content.
If the box looks good, the user interface looks even better. The company released several sleek screenshots that are certainly prettier than anything your cable company can offer, while also offering options to watch content on streaming services like Hulu Plus and Redbox Instant. The polished interface and cross-platform capabilities shouldn't be surprising to anyone who has played with Fanhattan's iOS app, which offers a similar ability to search among many online streaming services.
But how does it work?
Fan TV sounds great, but it's hardly the first solution aimed at uniting your TV, streaming video, and movies into a single box.
It's the same territory that's been tackled, with decidedly mixed success, by Google TV, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii U, and Boxee Cloud DVR, not to mention the upcoming Xbox One. What none of these devices (with the exception of TiVo) has been able to do is get the support of cable companies for the deep integration that would make the longed-for "ultimate TV box" possible. Essentially Fan TV is betting it can pull of the kinds of deals that have eluded Google, Microsoft, and the other tech giants trying to rule the living room experience.
In fact, Fan TV is making an even riskier bet than most players in the field. Rather than using an HDMI input -- like Google TV or the Xbox One -- Fanhattan claims, "Fan TV will replace the need for a separate cable box, DVR and streaming device." That seems to indicate Fan TV will stream content straight from cable providers, which have been largely resistant to that kind of technology. (With some exceptions.) If those deals don't happen, Fan TV will be little more than a me-too streaming box, with no other method of integrating cable TV content. Until there are more details and partnerships announced, it's hard to take Fan TV as more than a neat demo.
Fan TV is scheduled to launch "later this year," but pricing has not been announced. The big question will be whether it's a single fee for the box or if Fan TV's will require a monthly subscription, like many similar devices already do.


text:
Our Architecture team is proposing a framework that would see our SQL queries moved from coded strings within our applications, into a file based system where we would invoke them with function calls. Our application makes heavy use of SQL queries ranging from the mundane, to very complex. This is a .NET solution.
The idea is that each query would be written to text files, and we would be able to tag fields, joins, and conditions with attributes. When calling our SQL functions, we could pass arguments to toggle these attributes on/off based on our business logic, allowing for only the portions of the SQL we need to be executed.
Although I like the idea of abstracting away our SQL, I am skeptical that this system will result in any tangible benefits. The major driver of this is our past experience where many coders created some massively bungled dynamic SQL functions which were impossible to understand. The idea is that this will make it easier to define your queries, will make all queries more easily testable, and clearly define the business logic involved. I am unsure if this will survive the test of reality.
I'd like to get some feedback on the pros/cons of this approach.
Also, before anyone suggests it, the Entity Framework was rejected due to questionable support from our database provider (Teradata).