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A's set to introduce shortstop Nakajima today
Japanese shortstop agrees to two-year contract with third-year option
By Jane Lee / 12/18/12 12:50 PM ET
The A's are scheduled to welcome a "special guest" to the Oakland Coliseum by way of a media conference that will air live on MLB.com on Tuesday at 2 p.m. PT, and MLB.com has learned that it is Japanese shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima who will be joining general manager Billy Beane at the podium.
On Tuesday, prior to the news conference, the A's announced that they have agreed with Nakajima on a two-year deal that includes an option for 2015. The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that the deal is worth $6.5 million, with the third option year worth $5.5 million.
It was discovered early Monday morning that the A's top shortstop target, Stephen Drew, was off the board when news of his signing with Boston circulated. Mere hours later, Oakland reeled in the next-best free-agent choice in Nakajima, who figures to be the A's answer at shortstop until 2012 first-round Draft pick Addison Russell is deemed big league ready.
Nakajima enjoyed a successful 2012 campaign with the Seibu Lions in Japan, where he finished with a line of .311/.382/.451, to go along with 13 home runs. Since 2007, the infielder has averaged 20.5 homers per 162 games, along with a .310 average and .381 on-base percentage. Furthermore, he boasts above-average defensive skills, though it remains to be seen how those translate to the Majors.
The 30-year-old shortstop was in negotiations with the Yankees last winter, after New York won posting rights to him. But the Yankees failed to sign Nakajima, who wasn't so much interested in salary figures as he was playing time, which wasn't offered to him on an everyday basis -- factors that figured to be in play this time around, too. The A's promised him just that, with utility infielders Adam Rosales and Andy Parrino their only other in-house options.
With Nakajima on board, the A's have seemingly taken care of their short to-do list this winter, as it appears any other signings before camp opens will be for depth purposes.


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It has been brought to my attention that the residents on the roads that we are annexing into the city seem to think they will be in the City of Owenton. That is not true. The only ones that we can bring in without a vote are the businesses.
We have had the original boundary of the city resurveyed because there were some question as to where the actual lines were. It seems that there is more property in the city than we thought.
The reason we are annexing all the roads is for future economic development. If we don't grow, we will not exist.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Problem with Hexablock (T-junction)...
Problem with Hexablock (T-junction)...Posted by Yohann Eude at February 19. 2013
I read the doc and I thought that the associations between vertex edge and quadrangle of the model and the geometry are implicit for simple geometric as cylinders and T-junction. When I computed the mesh of my T-junction, I can note that all edges are Ok but not for the T-junction close to the main cylinder (see the attachment). In the picture we can remark that some edges don't follow the surface of the main cylinder... This problem exist only when the second cylinder don't go through the main pipe.
Do you have an idea to solve this problem?
I tried to do a quadrangle association and it seems to be ok for the meshing of surfaces but not for the edges... I don't know how I can do a edge association in this area because there is no lines in this area in the geometry...
Thank you again for your help
Re: Problem with Hexablock (T-junction)...Posted by Yohann Eude at February 19. 2013
So, I solved the problem manually. I created the necessary edges in the geom module and I did the edges and quadrangle associations in the HexaBlock module in the area of the T-Junction.
Now, the mesh follows the surface but there is a strange deformation close to edges created by Hexablock.
I hope that this problem will be solved in the future version of salome.
picture 1/2
Re: Problem with Hexablock (T-junction)...Posted by Kloss Francis at March 06. 2013
Hello Yohann,
I have reviewed your case and you are right there is a problem.
This is a bug in the case of T-junction.
This bug will be fixed for the next
SALOME version 6.7 provided that day in June 2013.
Francis Kloss
Re: Problem with Hexablock (T-junction)...Posted by Yohann Eude at July 01. 2013
Hello Francis,
I just tested the module Hexablock from the new version of salome 7.2 and I observed that the module is more fluid and robust on this new version. However, I observe again a problem for the volume meshing of a T-Junction with the "make cylinders" tool. The mesh obtained is different from the version 6.6 but still bad... There is a very high concentration of nodes on the wall in the T area and the surface doesn't follow the boundaries surface.
You will find in attachment the Hexablock xml of the case. Is there a solution to solve this problem?
Thx again for your help.
Yohann EUDE


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Reviews for Tale of Despereaux
by Kate DiCamillo
School Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Gr 3 Up-In this delightful novel, a tiny mouse risks all to save the princess he loves from the clutches of a devious rat and a slow-witted serving girl. With memorable characters, brief chapters, and inventive plot twists, this fast-paced romp is perfect for reading alone or sharing aloud. Winner of the 2004 Newbery Medal. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
School Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Gr 3 Up-A charming story of unlikely heroes whose destinies entwine to bring about a joyful resolution. Foremost is Despereaux, a diminutive mouse who, as depicted in Ering's pencil drawings, is one of the most endearing of his ilk ever to appear in children's books. His mother, who is French, declares him to be "such the disappointment" at his birth and the rest of his family seems to agree that he is very odd: his ears are too big and his eyes open far too soon and they all expect him to die quickly. Of course, he doesn't. Then there is the human Princess Pea, with whom Despereaux falls deeply (one might say desperately) in love. She appreciates him despite her father's prejudice against rodents. Next is Roscuro, a rat with an uncharacteristic love of light and soup. Both these predilections get him into trouble. And finally, there is Miggery Sow, a peasant girl so dim that she believes she can become a princess. With a masterful hand, DiCamillo weaves four story lines together in a witty, suspenseful narrative that begs to be read aloud. In her authorial asides, she hearkens back to literary traditions as old as those used by Henry Fielding. In her observations of the political machinations and follies of rodent and human societies, she reminds adult readers of George Orwell. But the unpredictable twists of plot, the fanciful characterizations, and the sweetness of tone are DiCamillo's own. This expanded fairy tale is entertaining, heartening, and, above all, great fun.-Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Public Library, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
The author of Because of Winn-Dixie and The Tiger Rising here shifts gears, demonstrating her versatility while once again proving her genius for mining the universal themes of childhood. Her third novel calls to mind Henry Fielding's Tom Jones; DiCamillo's omniscient narrator assumes a similarly irreverent yet compassionate tone and also addresses readers directly. Despereaux, the diminutive mouse hero ("The last mouse born to his parents and the only one of his litter to be born alive"), cares not a whit for such mundane matters as scurrying or nibbling, and disappoints his family at every turn. When his sister tries to teach him to devour a book, for example ("This glue, here, is tasty, and the paper edges are crunchy and yummy, like so"), Despereaux discovers instead "a delicious and wonderful phrase: Once upon a time"-a discovery that will change his life. The author introduces all of the elements of the subtitle, masterfully linking them without overlap. A key factor unmentioned in the subtitle is a villainous rat, Chiaroscuro (dwelling in the darkness of the Princess's dungeon, but drawn to the light). Ering (The Story of Frog Belly Rat Bone) brings an understated drama to the black-and-white illustrations that punctuate each chapter. His artwork conveys a respect for the characters even as they emit the wry humor of the narrator's voice. The teller of the tale roots for the hero and thus aligns himself with the audience: "Reader, you must know that an interesting fate (sometimes involving rats, sometimes not) awaits almost everyone, mouse or man, who does not conform." In addition to these life lessons, the narrator also savors a pointer or two about language (after the use of the word "perfidy," the narrator asks, "Reader, do you know what `perfidy' means? I have a feeling you do, based on the little scene that has just unfolded here. But you should look up the word in your dictionary, just to be sure"). Reader, I will let you imagine, for now, how these witticisms of our omniscient narrator come into play; but I must tell you, you are in for a treat. Ages 7-12. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.
Gr. 3-6. Forgiveness, light, love, and soup. These essential ingredients combine into a tale that is as soul stirring as it is delicious. Despereaux, a tiny mouse with huge ears, is the bane of his family's existence. He has fallen in love with the young princess who lives in the castle where he resides and, having read of knights and their ladies, vows to honor her. But his unmouselike behavior gets him banished to the dungeon, where a swarm of rats kill whoever falls into their clutches. Another story strand revolves around Miggery, traded into service by her father, who got a tablecloth in return. Mig's desire to be a princess, a rat's yen for soup (a food banished from the kingdom after a rat fell in a bowl and killed the queen), and Despereaux's quest to save his princess after she is kidnapped climax in a classic fairy tale, rich and satisfying. Part of the charm comes from DiCamillo's deceptively simple style and short chapters in which the author addresses the reader: Do you think rats do not have hearts? Wrong. All living things have a heart. And as with the best stories, there are important messages tucked in here and there, so subtly that children who are carried away by the words won't realize they have been uplifted until much later. Ering's soft pencil illustrations reflect the story's charm. --Ilene Cooper Copyright 2003 Booklist


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Supreme Commander puts gamers in control of one of three factions fighting to control the future of mankind. Adding to the expansive Supreme Commander universe, the Xbox 360 edition will feature exclusive new units, updated maps and new multiplayer modes, and gamers will be able to take the fight online against players from around the world via Xbox Live®. In addition, a revised, console-specific control interface and HUD will give gamers unprecedented strategic power over their armies.
Supreme Commander allows gamers to take control of one of three factions—the Cybran Nation, Aeon Illuminate or United Earth Federation—and help their chosen faction win the Infinite War once and for all. Each faction has its own goals, experimental units and back-story that leads them to the game's thrilling climax. Battles rage over land, sea and air, and the command and control system puts the gamer in charge of every aspect of the fight, engaging in titanic land, air and naval battles. The revolutionary strategic zoom gives the player the flexibility to control battle groups from a less detailed overhead map view, or zoom right down to ground level, where they can issue orders to single units. The game can handle a vast number of units on screen, and players will need every single one to take down enormous experimental units that can change the tide of battle.
Xbox 360 gamers will experience the Infinite War with full support for HD and surround sound in spring/summer 2008.
More articles about Supreme Commander


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After attending Central Michigan University's home opener Saturday against New Hampshire, Pat Yarber is one step closer to accomplishing his dream.
Yarber, who lives Nashville, Tenn., has spent the last three decades attending college football games in every NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly known as Division 1-A) stadium.
By the end of this year, Yarber will have attended a home game in each of the current 125 FBS stadiums.
Yarber is accomplishing all of this while being legally blind. For 45 of his 53 years of age, he has lived with the eye disease retinitis pigmentosa, a condition that has caused Yarber to lose 80 percent of his vision.
"The retinitis pigmentosa has caused me to lose my peripheral vision, and the macular degeneration has caused the loss of my central vision," he said. "The RP started when I was 8, so it's been a gradual thing, and that was an inherited gene from my mom. There are two million people that have this in the world, and one million of those people live in the U.S. It's been a 45-year process. I've had night blindness, which is another side effect of the condition, but I drove during the daytime until 1997.
"It's really gotten worse though over the last couple years. My depth perception is roughly 20/200 to 20/300. There are no corrective lenses to help with what I have. I've taken a Vitamin A pill, which was designed by a doctor at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), for the last 20 years and I think that has allowed me to have some type of vision still. I know some people younger than me that have been blind long ago. Every day I get up and see daylight coming through the window, and I'm thankful for that and the vision that I have."
Yarber's passion for college football began 34 years ago when a high school friend received a scholarship to Vanderbilt University.
"A friend of mine, Mike Woodard, who was in my homeroom back in high school after I had moved from Michigan, received a scholarship to kick at Vanderbilt, and he kicked at Vanderbilt for all four years. I had listened to the Vanderbilt games on the radio before, but when he got the scholarship, I became really interested just to follow him," Yarber said. "I went to my first home game in 1979 and my first road trip in 1980 to Alabama. Pretty much my first eight or 10 years, it was just Vanderbilt home and away games, and then I thought that on weeks that I wasn't going to a Vandy game or if they weren't at home, I would go to some other places."
It wasn't until recently that Yarber realized just how far he had traveled to watch his favorite sport.
"I started out by going to maybe two or three other places a year. Then, five or six years ago, I started counting and figured out that I had been to half or two-thirds of all Division I stadiums. At that point, I figured I'm this close, so why not see them all," he said.
Each trip for Yarber is a precious one.
"Every trip I take, I wonder if this is going to be the last one. I could wake up tomorrow blind, but I don't think about that or dwell on that because no one is guaranteed tomorrow," Yarber said. "I'm just enjoying life and enjoying being able to continue to attend college football games."
Yarber, who grew up in Detroit, attended 11 games last fall, a lengthy journey he says.
"Those 11 games last season were a lot," he joked. "This year though, when I go to Idaho on Nov. 9, I'll be caught up for the first time ever. That will be my 125th school that I've attended out of the current 125 Division I schools."
Yarber opened the season last week at East Carolina and will attend games this fall at the University at Buffalo, Massachusetts, San Diego State, Georgia State and Idaho.
Because of his sight problems, Yarber retired in 2011 after working at Buffaloe & Associates, PLC., a legal collections agency in Nashville.
"Working with the computers all day long just put too much of a strain on my eyes," he said. "My left eye is so weak, that looking at the computer screen put too much of a strain on my eyes. Unfortunately, retirement hasn't changed that. As soon as I get up and daylight touches my eyes, they get out of focus...I knew that the last couple years that I was getting close to retiring, so I socked away my travel fund because I knew I wanted to finish out my college trips. I still stay pretty busy though. I'm hoping to find some kind of a part-time job that will help keep my busy and out of the house."
Yarber's favorite stadiums to catch a game in order are: Vanderbilt, Michigan, Notre Dame, Michigan State, Tennessee, USC, UCLA, Penn State, Alabama and Florida.
He still finds the time as well in between his college football quest and Vanderbilt men's basketball home games to return to his home state and cheer on the Tigers and Red Wings too.
"I've attended eight games at Comerica Park this summer and they've won all eight times," he said. "I also travel back up occasionally on the weekends during the year and take in a few games at Joe Louis."
On top of being a season-ticket holder for both Vanderbilt football and men's basketball, Yarber holds season tickets for the Nashville Predators, and estimates that he has taken in over 800 NHL games over the years. Yarber has also attended a Super Bowl, a Stanley Cup Final game and a World Series game at Comerica Park in 2006.
The next stop on Yarber's list of stadiums to see is the University at Buffalo, where he'll watch the Bulls take on Stony Brook on Sept. 14. Yarber plans to spend Sunday night in Buffalo as well as for the chance to see the Buffalo Bills host the Carolina Panthers.
"I used to go to see all the NFL teams when they played in their old stadiums, but like Major League Baseball, the NFL teams have built new stadiums. I've probably been to two-thirds of the new NFL stadiums though, but that's not as much of a goal for me as the college goal because I've done the college thing for so long, and I find college football much more exciting than the NFL," he said. "There's just something about a college football game on a fall afternoon."


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The San Jose Sharks' fast start to the season is getting further and further away in the rearview mirror.
The Sharks try to avoid a fourth straight defeat on Saturday as they play host to the Phoenix Coyotes.
San Jose won each of its first seven games this season and averaged 4.1 goals per game over that span. The season-opening win streak ended with a 2-1 shootout loss to the Nashville Predators last Saturday before consecutive defeats to Anaheim and Chicago.
After getting held to just one goal versus the Ducks, the Sharks scored three times in the first period of Tuesday's meeting with the Blackhawks. However, Chicago matched the goal output in the first and scored in the second and third frames as well to hand San Jose a 5-3 loss.
Michal Handzus and Tommy Wingels each had a goal and an assist and Joe Pavelski added a goal in defeat. Antti Niemi allowed four goals on 30 shots.
San Jose defenseman Andrew Desjardins was hit with a 10 minute match penalty in the second period for a hit on Jamal Mayers and also got five minutes for fighting Chicago's Duncan Keith, who was handed two minors, a major and a game misconduct.
Desjardins was penalized for a supposed hit to the head, but the match penalty was rescinded by the NHL on Wednesday after it was deemed he did not make contact with Mayers' head. That means there will be no further discipline towards Desjardins, but that didn't help the Sharks any in Tuesday's loss.
"It was a terrible call," Sharks head coach Todd McLellan said after the game. "I don't know if we're going to come back or not but at that point we're still in the game and we should have been on a four-minute power play. That's a good hockey hit, but the linesman called it. No one else saw it."
The Coyotes had won the first two of a three-game homestand before suffering a 6-2 setback to the Blackhawks on Thursday. It was the first time that Phoenix's Raffi Torres faced Chicago since his illegal hit to Marian Hossa's head in last season's playoffs that led to a 21-game suspension.
Torres scored on Thursday and Martin Hanzal added a goal, but Mike Smith yielded six goals on 22 shots before getting pulled in the second period. Jason LaBarbera turned away all 11 shots faced in relief.
"It was a good slap in the face right here," Phoenix coach Dave Tippett said. "We just went out there and we just got kicked. If we don't recognize that, then we've got bigger problems than I think we have got."
The Coyotes now play three straight and six of their next eight on the road.
Phoenix has lost 12 of its past 17 versus the Sharks, including a 5-3 setback in San Jose on Jan. 24. Patrick Marleau scored two of the Sharks' four third- period goals, while Joe Thornton had an empty-net tally and three assists.
LaBarbera, starting in place of an injured Smith, stopped 30 shots. Smith missed the game with a groin injury.
It was Phoenix's eighth loss in its last nine trips to San Jose.


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|Almond Joy Popcorn. Vegan. Easy. Yummy.
|Popcorn leftover from last year in the container. Fresh popcorn in the bag.
|I heart my air popper.
|This Almond Joy-inspired popcorn did not last very long.
Almond Joy Popcorn [vegan]
- 6 cups air-popped popcorn
- 1 cup vegan dark chocolate chips
- 1 tsp coconut oil
- 1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted
- 1/2 cup flaked, unsweetened coconut
- Pinch salt
Line a large cookie or jelly roll pan with parchment paper for a less-messy cleanup. Spread popped popcorn atop the parchment.
Melt together the chocolate chips and the oil in a glass bowl in the microwave at 50% power [or use a double-boiler]. Stir in the remaining ingredients and drizzle atop the popcorn.
While chocolate is still melted, take a large spoon or spatula and gently toss the popcorn to ensure even coverage.
Place in refrigerator for 30 minutes to quicken the set-up process.
|Wasn't that easy? Enjoy.


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Latest Features
Bolt Prospects 2009 NHL Entry Draft Supplemental Rankings
With two weeks now passed since a very successful 2009 NHL Entry Draft and an equally successful Young Guns prospect camp, Bolt Prospects has released a supplemental update to its 2008-2009 Final Rankings. The rankings primarily reflect the addition of the team's recent draftees, as well as recent contractual moves by the team and its prospects. As always, the following rules determine which prospects are eligible for the rankings: any skater under the age of 24 on opening night of the 2008-2009 season with fewer than 41 NHL games in a single season or 82 career NHL games is considered a prospect by our site's criteria. For goaltenders, any netminder with less than 30 NHL decisions in a single season or less than 41 career NHL decisions is considered a prospect. NCAA prospects are exempt from the 24 years of age rule up until one year after their graduation. With the legal disclaimers out of the way, here are the rankings:
1.) D Victor Hedman, MODO (SWE)
Projected 2009-2010 Club: Tampa Bay (NHL)
Hedman becomes the fifth player in Bolt Prospects' four full seasons of operation to hold down the number one spot in the rankings. It was a no-brainer, considering Hedman is likely the most talented defenseman the team has ever drafted and looks like a lock to be a number one defenseman in the NHL. The question is not whether Victor will be a good player, but rather whether he can reach his maximum potential and become a great player. We expect Hedman to start on the third pair with Tampa Bay this season and hopefully move into the club's top four by the end of the season.
2.) D Matt Lashoff, Tampa Bay (NHL)
Projected 2009-2010 Club: Tampa Bay (NHL)
Matt Lashoff moves down a spot to make way for Hedman on the rankings. We still love Lashoff's skating ability and puck skills, but we are admittedly worried he may be a victim of the numbers game with so many defensemen currently under contract with the team. If he stays with the Lightning, Lashoff is capable of putting up a 30 point season next year. Lashoff is waiver eligible and likely can't be sent to Norfolk of the AHL without being taken by another team.
3.) RW Steve Downie, Norfolk (AHL)
Projected 2009-2010 Club: Tampa Bay (NHL)
Bolt Prospects is down on Downie after his suspension for slashing an official that cost him the final month of his season. The expectation is that he will do something else stupid over the course of the coming season. If he keeps his head, though, there's an open spot on Vincent Lecavalier's line that's begging for a speedy playmaker like Downie to fill it.
4.) D Ty Wishart, Norfolk (AHL)
Projected 2009-2010 Club: Norfolk (AHL)
We still have no doubts Wishart is going to be an NHL defenseman. He's incredibly calm in his own end and should have a long career as a shutdown defender in the league. This is an important season coming up, though, because Wishart needs to show the offensive upside he didn't display in his rookie year with Norfolk last season.
5.) RW Carter Ashton, Lethbridge (WHL)
Projected 2009-2010 Club: Lethbridge (WHL)
We see Carter as a power forward project who is just beginning to scratch the surface of his potential. He potted 30 goals last season with Lethbridge playing a very simple meat and potatoes style of game. This year, we expect him to go back to junior and start to add some spice to the menu. If he can develop his playmaking skills and learn to use his big shot more on the power play and from the top of the circles, he could be a special type of player.
6.) RW Richard Panik, Trinec (CZE)
Projected 2009-2010 Club: Windsor (OHL)
Remember Bob Boughner? He may soon become the Lightning's best friend if he can get Richard Panik to straighten up and play to his potential as a Marian Hossa type forward. At this time last year Panik was considered the 7th best prospect in his draft class by THN, but a year marred by questions about his attitude, poor conditioning, and injuries dropped Panik down to a late second round pick. It could be the Lightning's gain, though, if Boughner, who is the Head Coach of Windsor of the OHL, can get his Slovakian import to play honest all-around hockey for one of the CHL's premier junior clubs.
7.) LW/C Dana Tyrell, Prince George (WHL)
Projected 2009-2010 Club: Norfolk (AHL)
Great news: Tyrell's season ending knee surgery didn't affect his world class speed and acceleration. In fact, the Lightning's coaching staff believes that the rehab following the surgery forced Tyrell to condition his body like a pro and he may be in better condition to start pro hockey now than he would've been if he hadn't gotten hurt. Tyrell is going to be counted on right away to provide spark and offense to a Norfolk club in desperate need of those qualities.
8.) LW Johan Harju, Lulea (SWE)
Projected 2009-2010 Club: Dynamo Moscow (RUS)
Harju bolted to Russia for a cool, tax free payday of roughly $1 million dollars. However, GM Brian Lawton has already stated the team will make it a priority to sign Harju next offseason and Harju still says the NHL is his life's dream. Had he come over this season, we suspect he'd have made the club easily. As it is, he's still a pure sniper who is probably the most NHL ready of all the team's forward prospects not named Downie or Szczechura.
9.) G Dustin Tokarski, Spokane (WHL)
Projected 2009-2010 Club: Norfolk (AHL)
The Lightning love Dustin Tokarski. Bolt Prospects loves Dustin Tokarski. In fact, some on our staff think Tokarski can become Norfolk's starting goaltender by Christmas, despite being a rookie to the pro game.
10.) G Riku Helenius, Norfolk (AHL)
Projected 2009-2010 Club: Norfolk (AHL)
Helenius will start the year as the starting netminder for Norfolk in the AHL, but will be pushed hard for Tokarski. Here's hoping that Tick can help bring out the best in Helenius, who currently sits as the Lightning's number three netminder on the depth chart, which means he'll likely see at least a couple of games of action with the big club this season.
11.) LW Alex Hutchings, Barie (OHL)
Projected 2009-2010 Club: Barie (OHL)
We're still deciding whether to adopt Hutchings or Johan Harju as Bolt Prospects official mascot this season. What we are certain of, though, is that the Lightning committed grand theft larceny in picking off Hutchings in the fourth round of the draft. We expect Hutchings to be one of the OHL's leading scorers this season, and that a lot of teams are going to be kicking themselves repeatedly for passing on the diminutive sparkplug. Hutchings has drawn comparisons to Mike Richards, Brian Gionta, Chris Kunitz, and Chuck Kobasew. Common denominator: all good NHL players.
12.) C Paul Szczechura, Tampa Bay (NHL)
Projected 2009-2010 Club: Tampa Bay (NHL)
We're not sure which Paul Szczechura we're going to get this coming season, so we're putting the undrafted gem at twelve on the rankings. When he's healthy and in shape, Szczechura brings speed and offensive spark to the Lightning's lower lines. When he's dinged and out of shape, he's not so much. We want the good Szczechura.
13.) C Mitch Fadden, Tri-City (WHL)
Projected 2009-2010 Club: Norfolk (AHL)
Darren Rumble: you're up. Your mission is to turn Mitch Fadden from a one-dimensional offensive star in junior into a bona fide NHL player. Athletically, Fadden's got the ability. He's got speed, great hands, and great offensive hockey sense. The puck follows him around the offensive zone like he's got a magnet in his pocket. However, it takes more than flash to make the bigs, and Fadden's never shown much concern for competing in the corners or backchecking. That's where Darren Rumble has to be on his A-game this year in Norfolk in making sure that Fadden understands what it takes to make the next step in his career.
14.) RW Martins Karsums, Tampa Bay (NHL)
Projected 2009-2010 Club: Tampa Bay (NHL)
Brian Lawton loves Martins Karsums and thinks the speedy Latvian could be a scoring line option for the Lightning this season. We at Bolt Prospects see shades of Ryan Johnson, only smaller and without the ability to win faceoffs. We'll see who's right in due time.
15.) D Vladimir Mihalik, Norfolk (AHL)
Projected 2009-2010 Club: Norfolk (AHL)
Vladimir Mihalik enters his third pro season with one last chance to prove he can be an NHL player. Mihalik floundered last season while the Lightning loaded up on defensive prospects like Matt Lashoff and Ty Wishart. Now, with Victor Hedman in the fold, Mihalik has been pushed so far down the depth chart he's becoming an afterthought in the organization. It's hard to believe, because at 6'7" all Mihalik has to do is play responsible positionally and use his size for leverage and he'll be a shutdown defender in the league. But, Mihalik's positioning has been erratic, his footwork is problemmatic, and he seems deathly allergic of physical contact. Without rapid improvement, he'll soon be another organization's project.
16.) LW/C Alex Killorn, Harvard (ECACHL)
Projected 2009-2010 Club: Harvard (ECACHL)
Lightning fans got a look at The Secret Weapon at the Young Guns camp and he once again showed that he is the stealth prospect in the organization. He's got great speed, great hockey sense, and lots of intangibles that add up to an NHL player. We expect Killorn to play a couple of more seasons for Harvard and then the Lightning will come hot and heavy to sign the best prospect no one talks about.
17.) LW Radek Smolenak, Norfolk (AHL)
Projected 2009-2010 Club: Nizhnekamsk (RUS)
Radek Smolenak is a dummy. There, we said it. With an abundance of spots open in Tampa Bay and the team in desperate need of a remodeling on its lower lines, Smolenak decided to chase tax free money in Russia instead. He'll be playing in the middle of nowhere for Nizhnekamsk, while the Lightning's newly drafted trio of Carter, Panik, and Hutchings quietly gains experience and passes him on the depth chart. Smart move, big guy. Hope the rubles were worth it.
18.) D Kevin Quick, Norfolk (AHL)
Projected 2009-2010 Club: Norfolk (AHL)
Kevin Quick is probably undervalued on our rankings, but we're waiting for one thing to start moving Quick back up the charts: production. There's no denying the upside. Quick's skating is outstanding and when he wants to be, he's assertive and exciting with the puck, but he had just 9 points for Norfolk last season. The opportunity is there for Quick to become a power play fixture in Norfolk. We want to see him seize it.
19.) C/RW Blair Jones, Norfolk (AHL)
Projected 2009-2010 Club: Norfolk (AHL)
Jones received a qualifying offer from the Lightning, meaning the big center will likely see his fourth professional season with the organization. With a good camp, he might have a chance to make the team considering Johan Harju and Radek Smolenak's defection to the former USSR. He has good size, a big shot, and he's good on the forecheck when he wants to be. If he ever develops consistency, he can be an NHL player. However, entering his fourth season of pro hockey, he still hasn't put it all together.
20.) LW Luca Cunti, Rimouski (QMJHL)
Projected 2009-2010 Club: Rimouski (QMJHL)
How does a guy with world class wheels go unsigned and fall all the way to twenty on our rankings? Well, that happens if you play the game with less edge than the Snuggle bear, and that's the problem we have with Luca Cunti. His skating is supernatural, and he has great playmaking ability for a guy who was labeled a selfish player prior to being drafted. But, God almighty, it's not badminton. At least lean on someone, Luca!
21.) C James Wright, Vancouver (WHL)
Projected 2009-2010 Club: Vancouver (WHL)
It's a contract year for James Wright. The former first round WHL Bantam Pick hasn't been much more than a role player so far in his junior career. He was moved to a scoring line in the Spokane series last year and responded with good offensive production with Thrasher's pick Evander Kane. With Kane likely in Atlanta this fall, Vancouver is counting on Wright next year. He needs to step up and show more if the Lightning are going to sign him next summer.
22.) RW Juraj Simek, Norfolk (AHL)
Projected 2009-2010 Club: Norfolk (AHL)
Simek has good speed and does a little bit of everything reasonably well for Norfolk in the AHL. But, we still wonder if there's enough there to call Simek an NHL prospect as he enters the final year of his entry-level contract.
23.) D Mark Barberio, Moncton (QMJHL)
Projected 2009-2010 Club: Moncton (QMJHL)
Like Wright, it's a contract season for Mark Barberio. On shear numbers, you'd think Barberio would be a lock to be signed, but he seems to disappear for long stretches and his defensive game lacks consistency. Barberio needs to chase away those knocks if he's going to be signed next summer.
24.) LW Lauri Tukonen, Rauma (FIN)
Projected 2009-2010 Club: Norfolk (AHL)
We still think it likely that Tukonen will find his way to Norfolk this season. The former Kings first round pick was a bust in his first tour of duty in North America. We doubt the second time will be the charm, but we'd be very happy to be proven wrong.
25.) RW/C Matt Marshall, Vermont (HEAST)
Projected 2009-2010 Club: Vermont (HEAST)
Speedster Matt Marshall still holds down the final spot on our rankings despite a strong challege from recent draftees Zador, Janus, and Gotovets. Marshall's got world class speed and, unlike Cunti, he will lay the wood to an opponent in the corners. This will be the first season for Marshall to get significant ice time at the NCAA level, so we'll finally get to see if his speed and work ethic translate to rising in the rankings.
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Try 16GB SDHC, available now for $50, delivered. [newegg.com]
One for the OS and apps, one for the data. Need more? Put the other ones in your pocket.
I guarantee that the SDHC card you mention will not push any really reasonable speed.
I bought this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820208418 [newegg.com]
Then I went to Addonics web site and ordered a CF to IDE adapter. Well, at first I ordered one on ebay. Turned out it didn't fully support DMA...??? Like they didn't complete all the traces properly... anyways, for 70$ or so total, I have a diskless machine in my garage that boots Ubuntu and plays music; no more whiney 80gb hard drive there.
I think Linux reported hdparm stats of 25 to 30MB per second. Not too shabby; since the PC is only a 900 mhz athlon, I really can't tell if the CF is a limiting factor in speed. It feels just as snappy as when I had the original hard disk in; it probably boots a bit faster but I generally just turn it on and don't watch over it...
That was just the cheapest one today. There are dozens there and one will suit. I didn't have time to construct the capacity/price/performance grid and still get a first post. Sorry.
If you need more than 16GB of OS and apps, you don't need a laptop really. Or if you do you're a power user with unusual needs - you're not in the "most people" zone where the price/performance sweet spot is. About 4GB is an XP install with Office, for 8GB you can have Ubuntu and a few hundred of your favorite free apps. If your system image is >12GB, you have other issues and you should expect to pay more. 16GB for OS & apps, 16GB for data is plenty for almost anybody.
Not all SDHC->IDE or SDHC->PCMCIA or SDHC->SATA converters support booting, but most do and most SDHC adapters installed in laptops do support it. You can always try it. The ones that do are quite proud of the fact and so it won't be hard to tell which is which. The performance on these things can be quite fine. I don't know why they don't just put a socket for these things on a desktop motherboard. You have to buy the embedded motherboard for that.
"16GB for data is plenty for almost anybody."
Hahaha oh wow
Yeah, actually it is. And if it isn't, you can just swap out one for another. Or you could store your hundreds of hours of anime you only watch once a year on a big ol' external HDD. Heck, you could probably just let it live in the BitTorrent cloud where you got it all in the first place; it's not like you'll never have broadband again.
Then burn it to DVD. The point is that if you need more than 16 gb of data storage you're either being really lazy or doing things that put you well outside the needs of a normal user.
Given the number of
Let's see.
For a 1TB hard drive you would need 200+ DVDs.
1TB drive is $150, 200 DVDs would be about $120.
I think I'd rather just spend the extra $30 and get the hard drive since it's much faster, takes less physical space, is rewritable and I don't have to go digging around stacks of discs.
People who say that 16GB is enough are naive. It might be enough *for you*, but your needs don't represent everyone else's needs. For example, I own enough CDs to fill 30GB worth of space in MP3 compressed format. I own en
Windows XP takes 4-5GB (while Vista takes about 15GB). Do you see where this is going?
Yes, I do. Do you?
People who say that 16GB is enough are naive. It might be enough *for you*, but your needs don't represent everyone else's needs. For example, I own enough CDs to fill 30GB worth of space in MP3 compressed format. I own enough DVDs to fill 100GB if I compress each film down to only 1GB each. I work with image files that take 200-300MB for each master copy. I work with audio projects that take 500-1000MB each. The average size of a modern game is 5-10GB. Windows XP takes 4-5GB (while Vista takes about 15GB). Do you see where this is going? So no, 16GB is FAR from enough space.
And you need to carry all that around on a laptop at all times?
i have a hard time finding blank DVDs that last more than a 3-4 years. and backing up hundreds of gigabytes of files onto DVDs tends to ruin your DVD burner pretty fast. not to mention it's a lot easier to lose/damage data stored in hundreds of separate DVD's than a couple of harddrives.
it's pretty presumptuous to think that every one has the same needs/preferences as you.
it's pretty presumptuous to think that every one has the same needs/preferences as you.
I've been called presumptuous before. It doesn't bother me. That's the price I have to pay to school people on how stuff works. The thing is, I didn't say this would suit everybody. I said it would suit most everybody. The difference is that the people whose needs exceed the usual should expect to pay more. In this case, they should expect to exit the sweet spot and pay a lot more for the bleeding edge. To them it's
or you could just use one of these:
http://www.photofast.tw/eng/SSD_CR9000.html [photofast.tw]
I've got a 30GB disk that's about full, with almost no music on it. A few years ago, disks jumped rapidly from 1GB to 2GB to 10GB then 30GB, so I've had enough space for quite a while, but I've finally caught up with Moore's Law.
My work laptop uses MS Windows, Office, and Outlook. My current Outlook PST file is ~2GB for the past year, and I've got a total of about 10GB including older mail - I've found that really valuable, though bloated. And there's all that Powerpoint bloated material from training
16GB is woefully inadequate for anything but a netbook or a phone
Even then 16gb is inadequate.
The world is moving to digitized video (netflix, tivo, etc). You are looking at a gig an hour for standard diff and probably 3-5 gigs an hour for hi-def. Within a year or so, I promise your phone will be able to play 1080i hi-def content at native resolution.
And the "OMG Bloatware we should all be using hand-rolled for-loops in C" people can step back into their timewarp from 1970. We have fast machines now and pulling off human friendly UI effects like that on the iPhone ain'
We have fast machines now and pulling off human friendly UI effects like that on the iPhone ain't cheap.
Actually, the iPhone is a fairly low power device and its effects and then some are no problem. It does not have 32GB of storage. Compiz is far more capable even than Vista's desktop and lovely but if you're wedded to the Jobs & Gates platforms, you can't have it. Not yours. Sorry. Maybe next decade when Microsoft and their vassals have thoroughly embraced "compatibility".
Wasn't trying to cramp your style; just wanted to point out that while my solution for cost per gigabyte was much higher, it will result in a more hard drive-ish experience for the end user than buying the cheapest SD card that you can find at a given capacity. This is actually the reason I did a whole lotta googlin' and a whole lotta reading on what others had gone through in doing a project such as this.
I can truly see myself picking up an SSD once the 64GB drives hit around 100$. Why? Well, the speed
This is actually the reason I did a whole lotta googlin' and a whole lotta reading on what others had gone through in doing a project such as this.
I do this on a regular basis. For home desktops on LAN I like low power units that PXE boot to LTSP for a Myth or Ubuntu desktop. I've given up on fan noise -- it ruins the computing experience for me these days. Notebooks I'm going with 30GB IDE drives this year because they came with them, but will probably bump that to 320GB before Christmas for magnetic me
Turned out it didn't fully support DMA...??? Like they didn't complete all the traces properly...
This problem is rampant in many flash card models and brands - even ones that claim to support DMA or UDMA. Search around on the interweb using your Napster machine and you'll see many others with the same issues.
After trying a Transcend 4GB 133x that would only work in PIO mode, I got my hands on a Ridata 4GB 266x that *does* work in DMA. So if anyone is considering that card, maybe that's a good sign.
Mechanical challenges turned out to be not the only ones waiting for me when I worked on connecting the CF cards to the camera. These cards were hanging when the CPU tried to read them using DMA mode (and the card identified itself as supporting DMA mode). I tried to find the problem, and used all the tools I had. I added a bunch of printk's to the driver source, tried different speed settings for the DMA, and finally used an oscilloscope to spy on the signals between the CF card and the CPU. What I found was that the card did actually send the data using DMA mode, but always only for two "sectors" (1024 bytes total), regardless of the number of blocks to transfer written to the corresponding register. Then it silently hung, without activating an IRQ line, even if it was asked to transfer just a single block. And the CPU was relying on that interrupt to continue with the processing of the data read from the CF card. Careful examination of the data on the IDE bus did not reveal any problems (I was expecting something specific to the ETRAX). The same CF card with the DMA mode disabled in the driver worked fine (but slower, of course), as did the IDE hard drive (or SATA through the bridge) with DMA enabled. Googling the issue showed that I'm not the first to have problems with CF cards and DMA. The driver itself had a blacklist for some of the devices that caused problems. -- http://linuxdevices.com/articles/AT5102023409.html [linuxdevices.com]
Networking makes the 16GB local drives plenty big enough. If the network is completely transparent, with automatic network drives available for the less frequently used files. That kind of local caching should be automatic, and the Gb ethernet a hassle-free bottleneck (no "login", etc).
Then 16GB for $50 means that SSD has fully arrived. Even if the SSD vendors still want $200 for whatever they'll try to sell you.
Which means that really, now, it's a UI and software problem to solve. The HW is ready. Isn't th
It really depends on what you want from your laptop. If you want tons of storage and a good performance-to-price ratio, then you'll be going for a more traditional drive with moving platters/heads. If you want something like, say, battery life, then you'll be going for an SSD. There's a reason those new Dells which boast 19h of battery life have SSD's instead of traditional storage. No moving parts = much lower energy consumption.
There's a reason those new Dells which boast 19h of battery life have SSD's
No, the new Dells that are boasting that have a battery pack option that is the same size as the bottom of the laptop. Think of one of those laptop cooler pads except 15 pounds of battery instead of a couple of fans inside.
Think of one of those laptop cooler pads except 15 pounds of battery instead of a couple of fans inside.
Imagine the explosion you can get out of that!
The high end ones have scored metal cases too to produce handgrenade style shrapnel.
SHHH! if we cant convince rich idiots to buy these things en masse we dont have to wait as long before they are useful.
If you buy a cheap piece of shit laptop, then I wouldn't expect you to fork over for a premium. They don't carry these at Wal-Mart.
I'm looking forward to SSD's after suffering two head crashes in the last few years (and none in the preceding 20). Silence and possibly improved energy efficiency are just icing on the cake.
Finally, long sequential reads being the norm? I disagree. Look at any Linux/BSD/Mac OS X system. The OS is made up of a bajillion little files. Applications are made of of lots of files, li
Why the hell are SSDs so slow? I've never understood this, its not like in an HD where you can't add more read heads because there isn't enough physical space to do so, or because they can't move fast enough with the additional weight. In an SSD you should be able to put as many chips in parallel to make your read and write speeds whatever the hell you want, 1TBps, no problem. You would think SSDs should be able to saturate a SATA/Fibre/PCIE bus instantly? What gives?
Many of the modern SSD's *DO* saturate the bus. The Memoright GT and other SLC flash drives easily push 120-130 meg/sec over sata 150. The key is that the 'cheaper' MLC based drives have horrible write speed, especially when writing bunches of small files. Most users think this won't bother them, until they realize outlook does exactly the same thing when accessing its PST.
The thing I don't get is why so many people think SSD's are slow. Even MLC based first generation samsung PATA SSD's obliterate even the fastest laptop hard disks in all areas except for the aforementioned small writes.
From my own desktop testing, a single Memoright GT completely owns the pair of raid-0 74 gig raptors it replaced.
I have a GT in my vaio, and it is the best 2K I dropped since god knows when.
The first generation SSDs were crap. All the new SSDs are pretty much good to go because the issues were mostly with the software and memory utility algorithms, and not with the physical SSD memory architecture.
The thing I don't get is why so many people think SSD's are slow.
Mac Air and other vendors that had made SSDs optional unfortunately went with the crappy SSDs, and a lot of people who dropped serious cash for them were severely disappointed. And so there was a backlash.
craptops I don't see going SSD for a long time.
ordinary decent laptops I see offering SSD as an option but I don't see it being popular in the near future.
Ultraportables on the other hand are already going ssd in many cases. Tiny hard drives tend to have terrible performance and a 2.5 inch 9.5mm high drive is pretty big for an ultraportable (though some ultraportables do use them).
People who want to know and those who have to know to make their work better will take the arrows and learn early and figure out how best to use them
That is just the way it always is.
I will get one/them, hammer them and know what I can do early on.
Complexity, power, heat, and failure from kinetic shock. These are either reduced or zero with a flash device.
If you're looking for non-mobile, or a large storage application, then the disk makes sense.
The comment about sequential reads causing the SSD to lose on performance compared with magnetic drives caught my attention. Isn't this highly dependent on the filesystem you use and its strategy for block allocation ?
Wouldn't it be possible to design the block allocation algorithm to favour SSDs the same way previous generations of filesystems tried to put the next block on the disk to be the one under the head at the current moment (or whatever it was they did) ?
Afaict with SSDs the performance is pretty much constant no matter what the read order. With HDDs sequential reads are much faster than random reads.
So SSDs lose in continuous throughput tests.
right now file systems are made in such a way as to maximize reads that are sequential. It is possible that without these, now unneeded, optimizations ssd could run faster.
Using another filesystem with more 'fragmentation' wont boost SSD performance.
I cant think of any way you can make a FS for SSDs faster than the ones optimised for hard drives.
NTFS would get a massive speed boost though.
But thats just because it sucks.
Isn't this highly dependent on the filesystem you use and its strategy for block allocation ?
Yes, but...
Wouldn't it be possible to design the block allocation algorithm to favour SSDs...
Well, fragmentation isn't the answer. That seems to be what you're suggesting...
See, fragmentation introduces problems of its own -- for example, simple overhead of block allocation. If you've got a bunch of blocks that are sequential -- say, block 123, 124, 125, 126, and 127 -- you can say that a file is in an extent, from block 123-127. If, however, your file is stored in blocks 123, 259, 312, 567, and 964, you're going to have to store all of those addresses -- which means you're spending 250%
IDE media already lies to the controller about where the content is on the drive to compensate for densities beyond the original design and bad sectors. There's no good reason for your SSD to come perfectly honest about that either.
That handles bad sectors, wear levelling, bad block failover, and a number of other issues.
Now, about bandwidth. Solid State Drives are by definition, solid state. The way solid state devices work is that they are accessed and give up their data in real time. It takes a few
You're neglecting the fact that more data lines take more power and add expense and difficultly in packaging (expense).
No, I'm not. To access the same amount of data in the same amount of time requires the same amount of power. My suggestion does increase the possible net power over time based on an increase in performance. Did you hear? Users expect that. It's... predictable and linear.
More wires means they need more space, which means the wires have to be longer. Longer wires use more power as plain resistance, and also being more susceptibe to noise they need more power for the same s/n ratio.
IDE media already lies to the controller about where the content is on the drive to compensate for densities beyond the original design and bad sectors.
Bad sectors can be handled in software, but that's a valid point. The rest of it is legacy crap.
There's no good reason for your SSD to come perfectly honest about that either.
Is there a reason for it not to?
I'd say, the reason for it to be honest is, you can always use things like a BIOS and drivers to add the same functionality back in with software -- to lie to an OS which doesn't know better. But if you don't provide that kind of direct access, you also prevent any optimization by an OS that knows what it's doing.
Kind of like, say, a video driver. No reason to speak OpenGL at the s
Indeed -- though remember that the interface, too, costs money. So faster media will cost you more.
No, this is a myth. Production efficiencies make the engineering effectively free. Faster media costs more because you can charge more for faster media. That's all.
Problem is, of course, that the OS probably isn't ready for "all of it".
That's easy enough to fix. You just patch the OS. It shouldn't take more than a few days if you have the source. Not having the source makes the question more problematic
There's no good reason for your SSD to come perfectly honest about that either.
Is there a reason for it not to?
How about providing a consistent interface to the software driver? Do you *really* want solid state disks that all require a different driver? Sort of like current video hardware, which is plagued by buggy drivers, missing specs of the chip, missing open source drivers...
I'd much rather have a standard interface, so that when I buy a disk, I know it'll work.
So you're suggesting more wires? Not only they'd use more power, but most importantly they take up valuable real estate on the silicon chip. And with longer distances you also have to run at lower clock frequency.
So it is actually a limit of the technology, and a very physical limit inherent of all electronic matrix-like components, including such mundane things as keyboards.
So it is actually a limit of the technology,
At the silicon level we're talking about wires that are maybe 45nm wide by perhaps 500nm long. We can afford the space they take up and the time it takes a charge to traverse them relative to the alternative we're talking about, which is a spinning physical disk with magnetic pattern on it read by a physical head that must overcome inertia to move back and forth.
Time to burn some Karma...
On a "News for Nerds" site, moderators should understand the sources of disk latency. Rotating Hard Drives have latency from the time it takes to move the head across the platter, and for the platter to rotate under the head. SSDs do not have these sources of latency.
One of the big problems is that current flash is just slow on writes. Some of them don't do DMA properly. If there are problems with block sizes, this can be adjusted easily. But the underlying technology has to improve, or manufacturers need to build SSDs with more parallelism and better features. Perhaps very parallel SSD architectures might need filesystems optimized for large block sizes.
One of the big potential benefits of flash is reliability. Imagine highly modular flash drives for servers with hardware RAID 5? Instead of a disk failure, you get a notification that a module needs replacing. In fact, you could build versions with an extra slot for a failover spare in-place!
Also, with wear leveling, there's the potential for hard drives that can warn you several days before they fail!
Well, I use Linux/Windows as my servers, and use a Mac mini/G5 as my development environment, and even though I do now own an SSD laptop I know it makes sense.
Uses less power and can be dropped. My laptop is a macbook (not pro) and I know it is overkill with what I do with it, so a macbook AIR would be just the right thing to do if it had the correct pricing with SSD. But it doesn't, at least not for me.
No optical drive, limited HDD? I do not really care. For my visits to clients (of web projects) could be done on a 5 year old crap (if it wasn't windows and had a battery live of 10 minutes) so for me an AIR would be just fine.
Ohh... does it makes sense on WINTEL? Do not know how Vista runs on an SSD and if you have any space on a 64GIG drive after installing VISTA. Not flaming, I really do not know.
I know, that if I had to travel more I would get an AIR with SSD, and it would perfectly satisfy my multimedia needs (just grab those 4-5 movies to HDD for the flight and you are set).
Just my 2c, but I am a (mostly web) developer, so all you sales people and myltimedia freaks might have a different viewpoint about the whole fuss.......
Ohh... does it makes sense on WINTEL? Do not know how Vista runs on an SSD and if you have any space on a 64GIG drive after installing VISTA. Not flaming, I really do not know.
For what it's worth I got Vista installed on a 40 gig laptop.
As for the ideal laptop, why not an eee PC? Screen to small? The Mac Air seems way too big for there to be any point IMO, but if you need a big screen and can't use projectors then a big screen light weight laptop might be something.
I think people are willing to pay a premium for extended battery life. If I can use my device more, it has more utility.
Bah. I can still remember the first time I dropped my laptop. It was in an airport security line.
I had one of those foam laptop protector thingies with the Velcro flap (on the short side. this is important), but it didn't have a strap, so I put it in my carry-on, a messenger bag with the opening on the long side. (so you can see the bag opening mismatch error already developing.)
For some reason, the group I was traveling with (a bunch of people I had no business believing had had more travel experience
It will be easy to sell the concept of SSD to pretty much anyone, particularly for a laptop. Here is the short list:
- Faster Reads
- Potentially faster to wake up from sleep
- More durable
- Less chance of sudden and complete data loss (e.g. A smaller portion of the drive would fail instead of a complete drive failure as with a magnetic disk)
- Consumes less power
- Quieter
- Cooler (also a power saving feature due to less fan running time)
SSD drives are very cool pieces of technology and I for one can't wait to be able to buy a superthin laptop with no magnetic disk.
What about weight? Do SSD drives weigh less than the normal types today? Or is it about the same?
I thought many of those hyped benefits haven't panned out, or are taken out of proportion. Power consumption even on a good drive isn't significantly lot lower, the real-world speed generally isn't there yet, and the noise? I think first you'll need to deal with CPU power consumption. Notebook hard drives consume 1-2 watts of power, standard notebook CPUs go for 30W. Then there's the fan that's needed to cool the CPU. I personally don't need silent, and I am not really bothered by the noise a good comp
I'm typing this on an ASUS eeePC 901. It gets quite a bit better battery life than the comparable MSI Wind, mostly because it uses an SSD drive.
How is that possibly a good comparison? There are many possible variables. The screens are different, the batteries are different, and who knows how many other differences there may be on the board, in the power regulators and what not, even if it might use the same CPU. You need to try both kinds of drives in the same system.
Okay. I don't know much about SSDs, but one thing I've heard tossed around in the past was limited writes. Does this present a concern? Are there certain usages that may involve abnormal amount of write cycles such that you'd have to worry about the limited writes?
Last I looked 7200 RPM SATA drives easily perform above 20 GB/s real world usage.
The fastest SSDs are around 15 GB/s real world.
This isn't a huge difference, but the cheap SDHCs are about 4GB/s.
Cheap hard drives are still way faster than cheap SDHCs.
Still, the claim that SSDs aren't ready for prime time is the same as saying Linux isn't ready for the desktop. Both are fallacies. Sure, SDHCs don't maker sense everywhere as a a solution.
I have no real need for a 300 GB d
I can verify that Openoffice starts much faster on my little eee PC than on my Desktop machine with 75 MB/S 7200 RPM WD7500AACS. Or any other desktop I have used for that matter.
It is not just Openoffice of course, but Openoffice being a big pig of an application makes a nice example.
Maybe its just me, but I fully expect 128GB SSD to go for much less than $200 by the end of 2010.
How much HDD space will you be able to buy by that time for $200? I'd say easily 10-15x capacity.
I feel like TFA is trying to set you up to accept higher prices on the hardware for a longer period of time.
SSD is merging onto the superhighway that is Moore's Law for HDD and I can't see settling for lower capacity and higher prices for more than another year or so.
I think you're overly optimistic. The current plants can only produce so much. If at a particular price they can sell their entire inventory, then there's no reason to cut prices below that, even if they could do so and still earn a decent profit.
Or is it a fantasy?
Your confidence in vaporware is disturbing and will be your downfall. Currently SLOW 32 GB SDHCs are selling at > $200. In two years (2010) we ***might*** see 128 GB SDHCs at ~ $300 capable of 8 GB/s throughput.
Also, the industry needs to effectively communicate why consumers or enterprise users should pay more for less storage," says Joseph Unsworth, an analyst at Gartner Inc.
Seriously, solid state electronics, even after years and years of being around them as an early 80's baby, still just seems like magic to me. I can't wait to get rid of every little motor whine in my computing world, even if it's another 10 years, that will be a happy day to have a powerful computer without any moving parts.
Go on ebay and buy yourself an apple II
My familys three eeepc and the one i have at work would be utter pain if they had spinning disks and not SSD. Cheap laptop drives is terrible when it comes to sequential reads but even worse at access times.
Ubuntu runs faster in some areas on the eee than on my brand spanking new desktop.
What i long for is faster speeds and more write cycles. Servers is what i think would benefit the most from SSD and thats where i suspect it will take off soon.
Also, the industry needs to effectively communicate why consumers or enterprise users should pay more for less storage
For the consumers, or average Joe, there is no reason to pay more for less storage.
The trade off is reliability. For 99%, if not more of the people using pc's today, a generic 120gb hd does the job just fine. On my desktop, I've never had any of the 3 hard drives fail in the last 12 years that I've been using them, or any time before that for that matter.
From a fundamental electronics standpoint, SSD is amazing. It's what I dreamed of making in the early 80's when I was first turned on to electronics by ham radio and Apple
As TFA states, it's not practical for now other than USB drives, which is fine. I just hope the development of these devices continue to recieve funding, because in the long run, it will be a boon to the PC industry.
I think you need to get to 128GB for around $200
Right. By the time the drives get to that price/capacity, SATA will be down to, what, 750g-1tb 2.5" drives for 50$-100$? Less?
From everything I've gathered, the only major benefit to an SSD is that I won't swear as much when I accidentally drop my laptop while it's running. That and given the alleged longevity, they'd make a great drop-in replacement for laptops that are notoriously painful to perform user maintenance on, like the 12" Powerbook G4 (ever try
One good reason for SSD would be the negative effects on
using hard drives at high altitudes.
They are not well documented either.
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6035_102-0.html?forumID=59&threadID=243684&messageID=2625001&tag=forums06;posts#2625001 [cnet.com]
What I'd want:
Fanless processor
Fanless motherboard
- HW acceleration of H.264/VC1/MPEG2
- HDMI out with LPCM
- GigE to file server
Small SSD
Fanless case/PSU
The pieces are coming togeter but it's not quite there.... I guess it matters what you want, SSDs aren't unreasonably expensive if you're looking for something else than $/GB. For that, nothing will beat a TB+ size regular HDD...
Not that it's not at least as post-worthy as half the other content on
Oh well. As I said, still better than the average story, I probably shouldn't complain.
As a ff/paramedic the laptops we use (both truck-mounted and toughbooks) get quite a bit of abuse... though the Solid state drives are smaller, we store all patient information on a server as the report is finished, so we really don't need that much space anyway. most failures are from HDDs.
solid state gets the rating of 'firefighter proof'
e-credibility: the non-guaranteeable likelihood that the electronic data you're seeing is genuine rather than somebody's made-up crap. - Karl Lehenbauer


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Hundreds of the country's best young cross-country skiers wrapped up the Junior Olympics with a ceremony in Truckee on Saturday.
Taking part in anything that exclusive is an honor all in itself, but going for the gold in front of a crowd right nearby where you live makes it all the more special.
"Most of the people I knew," said Andrew Cobourn from Minden. "But occasionally someone would be like 'Go Andrew,' and I'm like 'I don't know you,'" he said laughing.
But that's how it goes when you compete in a national competition near your hometown. While some athletes came from as far away as Alaska, 15-year-old Cobourn and 17-year-old Camille Stover from Reno enjoyed some home cooking at this year's ski championships in Soda Springs.
"It's really nice not having to travel or fly far away and to be able to have my friends and family watch since it's so close to home,"said Stover. "It's really been neat."
The combination of Stover from Reno High and Cobourn from Carson Valley Middle School propelled their Far West Nordic squad into sixth place; one of the best finishes in team history.
In addition to helping out the team, the duo also helped out each other.
"We deal with the same difficulty of not being with the team all the time," said Stover. "It's really cool to be able to have somebody from northern Nevada with you too."
And it makes doing what you love in a national competition even easier.
"It's amazing," said Cobourn. "Skiing is one of my favorite things to do and doing it with kids from all over the place is pretty awesome."
The Junior Olympic Ski Championships came to Soda Springs for the first time since 2005.
This was Cobourn's second time competing and Stover's first.
Both skiers hope to do it all over again next winter.


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School is great. I can have my writing judged by peers whom I respect but don't have to see every day.
It's not a schools fault that you let yourself become brainwashed. If you fall into being brainwashed so easily, you aren't ready for school
-Vega- wrote:
You go to school to get programmed into believing nonsense. The only good thing I learned in school is math and typing.
Wow that is just the most idiotic statement of the century!
it's not like the school systems are teaching us lies.. unless WWII didn't happen, or that chemistry and physics is all B.S.
knowing how the earth works from geography is nonesense? balls to that.
maybe you went to some messed up schools, but the Canadian school system does not teach anything not worth while
Once you get to university, school is a hell hole. And I'm dyiiiiinnng guuuuys!
Just can't wait to get it over with. I'm getting a bachelor's degree and ending it there. Master's my ass.
High school is the worst. I feel like I'm trapped in a prison with people I can't get along with and being force-fed information that is extremely uninteresting and useless to the real world. The only things I will miss after I graduate from this hell hole are the fond memories I have made with a few pals in school and in the track team.
soooooooo boring only good thing is i get to see my friends
Hey :D
School was all right. Didn't really like the projects where you had to talk to the class about something.
Sing sweet.....
Aside from it being my time for hanging out with friends, I hate school.
On to another day
killerpanda3 wrote:
Aside from it being my time for hanging out with friends, I hate school.
Without school your friendship would break up within weeks. Welcome to life.
ursae wrote:
killerpanda3 wrote:
Aside from it being my time for hanging out with friends, I hate school.
Without school your friendship would break up within weeks. Welcome to life.
Yeah I'd probably fall out of communication with a good amount of people, but there's a slim chance of that happening with my close friends, so there's no major loss. We may be hermits that don't get out much, but we still talk a lot online and have small get togethers here and there
On to another day
Why does no one talk to me ;(
well i go to uni now and at the moment.... i just can't be fucked going haha
I loved high school up until this year, my senior year, because everyone sucks now and I'm tired of my town and things have just gotten rough in general. I dread getting out of bed on school mornings. I'm ready to go to college
Be excellent to each other
Sometimes. I've learned some pretty interesting things, that can benefit me, I suppose. I'm pretty sure I'm aiming towards fine arts for college, so I'm looking forward to college courses! I'm considering taking classes that get me college credits while in high school. They're hard, but for sure worth it.
As for the things I hate... I hate math. I could never get the hang of it. I pay attention, and work hard, but, I'm not good at processing it all in my head. So I struggle a lot in that. And sometimes science depending on the subject or curriculum.
NEW ACCOUNT: galaxiias
School's okay plus I almost never get homework, but I HATE Literacy class. I still don't know what that class is about and I feel dumber just being there..
I'll never get tired of watching Gurren Lagann. X3


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Never Had Colonoscopy Makes Risk Higher?
Dear OncoLink "Ask The Experts,"
My mother has never had a colonoscopy and she is 58 years old. I understand she should have had one at age 50. Does this put her at higher risk to develop colon cancer?
David Metz, MD, Professor of Gastroenterology at Penn Medicine , responds:
Her risk for colorectal cancer is not higher because she has not had a colonoscopy per se as this is an innate risk. However, if she has polyps they are likely more advanced at age 58 than age 50 and are more likely to be "on the road to cancer". We generally recommend screening for average risk individuals to start at age 50 because this is the age at which the incidence of cancer starts rising. Remember that the aim of screening is to detect precancerous lesions that can be removed before cancer develops.
This question and answer was part of the OncoLink Brown Bag Chat Series. See the full transcript of Advances in Colorectal Cancer Screening.


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2-02-2016 - 2-02-2016
This is an All Day event
Location: Cinema 6 Theater in Breckenridge
Show times are 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
$5 movie and FREE 44 oz. popcorn with beverage purchase!
You have a few options from this point. The first and most recommended option would be to download one of the browsers below. If that is not possible, the second suggestion would be to update your current browser, you can follow the update link below for that. Otherwise, the site will still function in its current state, but in a limited capacity.


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Sun's .NET Effectby Rael Dornfest
The tone for Sun's Monday rally, "The Net Effect: To Services and Beyond," was already well set before anyone took their seats. A handout entitled "Humble (Cow)Pie: 15 Questions that Microsoft asked Sun" read:
We are enormously flattered by Microsoft's .NET. After all, it's recognition of a vision that we've had since Scott first uttered the phrases, "The Network is The Computer(TM)" in the late 1980s; and "the service-driven network" in 1996.
And so began Sun's non-reaction to Microsoft's .NET Web services initiatives. Taking the stage in a packed press/industry analyst rally in San Francisco, Sun Chief Executive Scott McNealy reminded us that Net services are what Sun has been doing all along -- it's all they know how to do.
The assumptions underlying Sun ONE (Open Net Environment) are:
- Scalability -- the design center is billions; we're not talking local area network here
- Webtone -- the reliability of your Net connection is as expected as dial-tone on your telephone
- Openness -- integratability and extensibility using open Web standards
The idea is to get all your various devices on the Net and talking to one-another all the time in a reliable, open architecture.
"Not Yet"
While Microsoft plans its .NET rollout over the next few years, McNealy spoke to the existence of technologies by Sun and friends that already enables Web services. The platform is Solaris; the services are EJBs, and iPlant Integration, Application, and Web servers; policy and process are the stuff of (LDAP) directories; and sitting on top of this foundation are "Smart" Web Services powered by the Sun ONE Webtop and others.
"Integrateable, Not Integrated"
While Microsoft's focus is on integrated solutions, Sun describes its solutions as "an integrateable stack of software" used to build smart network-based services. Of course they'll be glad to supply you with a full solution, but you can also pick and choose what suits your purposes. McNealy compared this with the Microsoft model where you "pick one, you get a whole bunch of others; it's not integrateable, it's welded shut."
"Every component of this Sun ONE architecture is interconnected by open, publically available, Web-adopted protocols" -- meaning the usual suspects: XML, UDDI, SOAP, LDAP, WDSL, et al, were all given a brief "magic happens here" mention.
The Webtop
The Webtop plays a prominent role in the user's view of the Sun ONE vision, allowing productivity sofware and other services without need of complex installation, constant maintenance, and interoperability issues. A personal portal taking into account the user's particular needs and tasks-at-hand provide a common yet adaptive interface to Net services from the Web browser, thin client, Palm Pilot or cellphone. I must say I was rather impressed by a simple demonstration of a document viewed within a full-scale word processor as browser plugin, then as a simple HTML page, and again in a lightweight Palm application delivered over modem connection.
A final theme running through McNealy's spiel was that of focus. Sun is "happy being an infrastructure systems supplier." No web site (a reference to MSN), set-top boxes, game machines, and certainly no competing with their customers.
The day concluded with break-out sessions, Q&A, and cocktail party cum product showcase. All in all, the event was as expected: 70% infomercial, 20% Microsoft bashing, and 10% solid infrastructure overview.
Rael Dornfest is Founder and CEO of Portland, Oregon-based Values of n. Rael leads the Values of n charge with passion, unearthly creativity, and a repertoire of puns and jokes some of which are actually good. Prior to founding Values of n, he was O'Reilly's Chief Technical Officer, program chair for the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference (which he continues to chair), series editor of the bestselling Hacks book series, and instigator of O'Reilly's Rough Cuts early access program. He built Meerkat, the first web-based feed aggregator, was champion and co-author of the RSS 1.0 specification, and has written and contributed to six O'Reilly books. Rael's programmatic pride and joy is the nimble, open source blogging application Blosxom, the principles of which you'll find in the Values of n philosophy and embodied in Stikkit: Little yellow notes that think.
Discuss this article in the O'Reilly Network General Forum.
Return to OpenP2P.com.


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Thousands of eyes will be scanning local skies this weekend. The annual Gulf Coast Salute at Tyndall Air Force Base was set to get off the ground Saturday.
Thousands of eyes were scanning local skies this weekend. This year's salute pays tribute to all of the military's branches. All five will be represented with the Navy's Blue Angels headlining the event.
"We've invited the Navy's Blue Angels, and we also have the U.S. Coast Guard rescue team. We have F-15s of course from the Air Force, with a couple of others like the F/A 22 Raptor fly-by, and the Army represented by the Black Daggers," Major Joel Carey says.
The next two days may be your only chance to catch an up-close glimpse of all of the military's branches in action together. The Gulf Coast Salute kicked off Saturday at 8 a.m., but planes were already on display Friday for the families of military men and women.
As the Army, Navy, Marines, and U.S. Coast Guard descended upon the Air Force base the typical rivalry among the branches seemed to dissolve.
"When we're at war we're all one team, so when we come back here it's fun to give each other a hard time and joke, but when it comes down to actually doing our job we're all really on the same team despite what we talk about when we're on the ground," Captain Brian Laidlaw says.
And on the ground is where you will find most of the action. You can explore old and new fighter planes, and even take a simulated ride in an F-16. Organizers say it's the military's way of saying thank you for all your support.
"Day in and day out everybody out here is incredibly proud for what they do, but we don't do that alone. It's part of the support we get from the local community. We wanted to open our doors, and show a little bit about what we do," Major Carey says.
The Gulf Coast Salute is free and open to the public. Gates open at 8 a.m. in the morning and close at 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.


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Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has criticised Chelsea for their public allegations against referee Mark Clattenburg.
The Gunners manager said he prefers to deal with issues internally, and hit out at Chelsea's decision to go public with 'little proof'.
Chelsea have formally accused Clattenburg of racially abusing John Obi Mikel during Sunday's 3-2 defeat to Manchester United.
But Wenger criticised the Stamford Bridge side for the way they have approached the issue.
"I believe one of the best things in sport is it's a battle when it is on," said Wenger in the Daily Mail. "You can sort out the problems you had, especially in England, internally. If it comes to making the lawyers rich I'm not a fan of it.
"One of the great things in sports as well is tolerance, forgiveness and explanation internally and I think it should stay like that.
"It can happen that a referee doesn't behave well, I do not say they are angels, but it is always better to sort it out in the room.
"I didn't follow the whole [Chelsea] story completely [but] my opinion is just when I didn't behave well I have an explanation with the referee at the end of the game or another day, rather than going public with little proof.
"I'm not in favour of making these things public."
Arsenal face Manchester United at Old Trafford on Saturday. The Gunners have already faced Chelsea once this season, losing 2-1 at home to the Blues, but Wenger will be hoping for a more positive result against a side they will be looking to compete with come the end of the season.
The Gunners scored seven in the week as they beat Reading 7-5 in remarkable fashion in the Capital One Cup.
And Chelsea were involved in a classic of their own, eventually beating United 5-4 after extra time. The Stamford Bridge side fell behind three times during the match, but came on strong in extra time, with goals from Ramires and Danny Sturridge enough to give them the win.
Do YOU want to write for GiveMeSport? Get started today by signing-up and submitting an article HERE: https://www.givemesport.com/writeforgms


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National Championship LiveBlogPosted by rtmsf on April 7th, 2008
We kinda suck at this, but what the hell, it is the national title game after all. So here goes it…
Pregame – we kinda enjoyed Bill Self's little pregame speech there. It wasn't Vince Lombardi or even Norman Dale, but the point he made about tonight being a night the players will remember for the rest of their lives was a good one. We also enjoyed seeing the Memphis warmups stating "March is a Brotherhood" thing – first time we've seen those (apologies to MU fans everywhere). The KU fans are ready to explode – they've been waiting for tonight for twenty years. As an elite program, they need that validation another championship brings – whereas the Memphis fans want it. Fwiw, Memphis definitely looks looser through warmups.
18:15 – wow, who had Joey Dorsey at +1200 for the first basket prop?!?! Arthur was short on his first attempt and Rush missed a FT – are they tight? Sloppy so far – already four turnovers… KANSAS IS TIGHT.
15:36 – that stat CBS threw up is telling – these teams really are mirror images of each other. Another KU turnover, but Memphis isn't looking much better on offense. Derrick Rose AND 1… Robinson is a great defender but he's going to have his hands full tonight. Memphis is so far doing to KU on defense what KU did to UNC the other night – absolutely getting their hands on everything. Blocking a Rush three – are you kidding?
14:53 – KU down 9-5 isn't too terrible yet; we think that they'll settle down and start going inside soon. Packer takes credit for something he really hadn't said yet (Collins to Kaun backscreen).
13:40 – 71% in the Tourney from the line is amazing for this team. Does that mean Shaq just needs to concentrate more also? Packer busily making up words – nondefensible.
12:17 – guess Billy meant the second one:
No results found for nondefensible.
Did you mean indefensible (in dictionary) or Non-diffuse nebulae (in encyclopedia)?
12:05 – 2 on Taggart and 2 on Dozier – well, that was predictable. KU has recovered nicely from its opening nerves, going inside the last several possessions. That's where they'll win or lose this game.
9:42 – great kickout to Chalmers for a wide open 3. Memphis has to know they're not going to win this game with their inside people. Rose and CDR have to get going. Right now Kansas looks in great shape.
9:11 – Saturday hero Aldrich comes in and immediately makes two mistakes. Lucky for him, Chalmers stole it back and got two. Big momentum-changer there.
7:50 – we loved Rose not going 1-on-4 there and finding the open Anderson for three. That's maturity in a point guard. Another 3 for Dozier keeps it close.
7:22 – wow, Roy with the olive branch there. Guess he wants to be loved at both schools after all. Memphis with a nice 11-2 run here to stay in this game. This game is starting to have the earmark of being a fantastic one.
4:44 – CDR's game reminds us a lot of Tayshaun Prince. It's awkward, kinda ugly, but completely effective. Already with 13 pts, KU is going to have to figure out how to handle this guy.
3:50 – KU is hitting 60% and is still tied. That can't be a great sign for Self at this point.
2:31 – not sure how that was a block on Dorsey there, but it means Dorsey has 2 to go along with his frontcourt mates. KU is much faster to the loose balls right now.
1:02 – before that foul, Arthur was playing great. 10/4 already for him. Packer's point about their big men getting tired appears to be the case – KU almost has as many offensive rebounds (6) as Memphis does total rebounds (9) at this point. This is a key last minute and Calipari knows it – Memphis is playing tired and he doesn't want to go into the locker room down 8 or even 10 after playing mostly even this half.
0:32 – a near turnover for Rose leading to a rushed brick – Rose doesn't look comfortable, but we're not buying the illness thing (gummy bears don't make you that sick). We think Nantz is on to something with his comment that Sherron Collins has gotten into his head a little bit. Will he take the challenge in the second half?
Halftime – who had the under 146 tonight – that's looking like a LOCK right now. Unless Derrick Rose takes over this second half, we're not sure how Memphis can win this game given what we've seen thus far. Kansas can get points almost any time it wants by going inside – so long as the Jayhawks don't forget to do that, they should be able to avoid any major scoring droughts. They had 8 turnovers, but at least half of those were in the first five minutes and were probably due to jitters. And they're playing fantastic defense on everyone on Memphis, with the possible exception of CDR (5-8 for 13 pts). But CDR cannot beat Memphis by himself. Ultimately, it's going to come down to Rose. If he steps up his game in the second half, Memphis has a shot to win; without him playing to his abilities, however, this game is already over (h/t to Billy Packer). Still, we really like Kansas to win this game and the title (same as earlier today).
19:33 – Rose with a great move to start the half, leading to a dunk. He's gonna have to do plenty of that. Quick three for Anderson – tie game. Chalmers FTs and Anderson And1… Memphis appears a lot more aggressive than Kansas right now.
15:15 – Now the Kansas D is swarming again, but here's Rose with a lob to Dorsey to counter. Foul on Dorsey for his third. Kansas has to keep going inside on nearly every possession. If they do, they could have every Memphis big in foul trouble by the 8-min mark.
14:00 – As much as we're harping on Kansas going inside, they're only 1-7 from three so far. Packer noted that they didn't shoot well from 3 in their losses this year. They're going to have to hit a few (~4) of these looks to win this game. Wow, the rim was unkind to both teams on what appeared to be sure twos there.
11:35 – 0-2 for Anderson from the line – is this the close game where it finally bites Memphis? CDR with another one of those Tayshaun-esque one-handers. We love this kid. Rose with his first bucket of the second half… wow, these Ds are fantastic. There are no uncontested passes at either end.
9:31 – what kind of offense was that – KU ran the weave through six passes, and finally Chalmers stuck a 15-footer. Here comes Rose with his strength – another basket. KU misses another three – 1-8 isn't going to get it done, Jayhawks.
8:08 – Kansas switches defense and immediately gives up an And1 to Dozier. Another brick from the line, though (now 4-7). Not sure we like this defensive strategy by Kansas here – CDR wasn't killing them this half, so why change up the D? Now you give a guy like Rose open looks to start getting it going. This may have been a disastrous decision by Self. Can someone explain that???
6:19 – Rose is starting to show signs of feeling it. Kansas can't seem to find the openings anymore. Another missed 3 from Collins – still only 1-9 from outside. KU is starting to look really tight offensively. Scoreboard watching? Why are they not going inside anymore???
5:10 – WOW – what a finish! Rose is taking over this game!!
3:57 – Sherron Collins with some brass ones on that move. And Rose throws one off the glass for three. Ridiculous. A 13-2 stretch led by Rose has effectively put Kansas away in this game. They already look defeated out there.
2:22 – Rose's ridiculous shot was only a two, but somehow we knew that it was going in when he shot it. Wow, Rush babied that one when he should have dunked it. This team is TIGHT right now. We're not sure they have enough left to make one more run. Self changing defenses again (1-2-2 zone), let's see how this one works out. Rose very nearly hit another desperation long-range jumper there.
1:54 – KU is starting the fouling strategy (2-2 FTs). It's probably too little too late here. KU just isn't getting anything out of its offense, and hasn't for about the last ten minutes. Arthur hit an 18-footer, which is not really what they needed there.
1:44 – HUGE steal and three for Kansas there. Only down four now. If the fouling strategy starts working, this could get interesting…
1:23 – 4-4 FTs for Memphis since the fouling strategy started. And Dorsey fouls out 25 feet from the basket on a hedge. Pretty stupid play, actually.
1:15 – Chalmers gets both, and CDR is fouled again. He MISSES. Interesting! Arthur down to 2… now they don't have to foul….
44.0 – gotta believe Rose is the man here to make something happen. Shot clock different is 25 so KU will have plenty of time… VERY dangerous play there by Rose. What was Collins DOING there?!?!!?
14.0 – he misses BOTH and KU is killing themselves by not getting the rebound! Unbelievable! Then CDR slammed the ball to the ground – another extremely dangerous play – after the foul. Jumping back a bit, Packer was all over Memphis for not pulling the ball out on CDR's drive, but we can't believe that 5'11 Sherron Collins thought it was a good idea to go 1-on-3 against the Memphis shotblockers there.
10.8 – Memphis has missed FOUR in a row!!!!!!!
OT – What an amazing sequence there. Collins almost pulled a Trajan Langdon by dribbling himself into falling down, but he managed to just be awkward enough to give Chalmers an slight opening, where he drilled it fading slightly away. What an unbelievable finish! Last OT – 1997 and what, 1989 before that one??
4:21 – KU's first lead since they effectively starting choking it away. Is Memphis feeling the pressure now? Sure looks like it. If KU wins this game, Memphis fans will never get over missing four of the last five FTs to give Kansas a sliver of hope.
3:38 – where has that been (lob dunk)?? Without Dorsey, Memphis must rely on offense from Rose, and instead Anderson bricks a three.
2:32 – After another inside score from KU, Calipari calls timeout and looks like a guy who just lost the national championship. KU has ALL the momentum here. Rose is going to have to try to use his talent to put this team on his shoulders, b/c they're reeling right now.
1:48 – good stop there by Memphis. They're not out of this game yet, but Rose is going to have to do something.
1:00 – two misses by KU and a putback followed by a leakout where it appeared that Brandon Rush's knee gave out a little bit (scary), then an ENORMOUS three by CDR to cut it to one possession. Kansas is still in control of this game, because they'll hit their FTs under pressure (we think).
45.1 – not sure why you foul Collins there. He's a good FT shooter, and KU is stroking them (last 11 from the line). He got both with no problem whatsoever.
29.9 – hahahaha, as soon as we're thinking it's over, one of these teams does something completely stupid, like oh we dunno, slipping and falling out of bounds to give Memphis life.
12.8 – another miss by CDR, and now we're starting to hear the haunting sounds of Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk… this is Kansas' game to lose now. They make FTs and they're the champs. Memphis' lack of FT acumen makes them the chumps.
FINAL – Kansas is the 2008 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS – what an UNBELIEVABLE comeback thanks to the Memphis free throws! And Nantz gives us his obligatory "Rock, Chalk, Championship" phrase. Thanks, Jim. We don't remember the F4 having fireworks before – or are all the Memphis fans erupting in random acts of gunfire?
Postgame – we're not sure what to say here. This game reminded us a little bit of Arizona's comeback against Kentucky in the last OT game in 1997, but we can't remember a national championship game decided by four missed FTs in the final minute. Self won this game with his strategy of fouling at the end, but we still believe he made a mistake by changing up the defenses that were working in the mid-second half. For the two of you that were reading along, thanks for indulging us… More later…


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Reginald Jerome Vanderbilt
Reginald Jerome Vanderbilt, 30, departed Saturday Aug. 17, 2013. Funeral services were to be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 24 at Myers & Smith Funeral Home Chapel. Burial will be at Mount Olive Memorial Park. He was born on July 21, 1983, in Big Spring Texas to Rosie Vanderbilt-Francis. He attended San Angelo and Big Spring schools. He was a member of New Life Ministries COGIC. His loving, funny, happy personality will be truly missed by all who knew him. He loved children, playing musical instruments, singing and spending time with his family and friends.He leaves to cherish his memories his children, Jaborien and Jalea Cook Vanderbilt; his parents, Rosie Vanderbilt-Francis, Timothy Weatherspoon of Midland, Elder Jerome and Bethine McNally of Big Spring; his brothers, Bryson Vanderbilt, Quentin Vanderbilt and Hezekiah McNally, all of Big Spring and O'Keith Weatherspoon of San Angelo; his sisters, Natasha Vanderbilt of Big Spring, Rosemary Ballard of Houston, La'Quinta Weatherspoon of Arlington and Tammy Weatherspoon and Narda Weatherspoon of Carrolton, Texas; his grandmothers, Gwendolyn Vanderbilt of Big Spring, Sarah Jones and Dorothy McNally of San Angelo; and several family members.Arrangements are by Myers & Smith Funeral Home. Please pay your respects online at www.myersandsmith.com Paid obituary


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Minnesota Timberwolves guard Ricky Rubio has now been cleared to participate in full-contact practices, the team announced on Wednesday.
Rubio had surgery to reconstruct the anterior cruciate and lateral collateral ligaments in his left knee, which were torn in the final 16 seconds of a March 9 contest against the Los Angeles Lakers and has been sidelined ever since.
After receiving clearance by the doctor who performed his surgery, Dr. Richard Steadman, Rubio will now be able to practice with the team without any limitations.
Rubio enjoyed a stellar rookie campaign in 2011-12 before going down with the injury, appearing in 42 games and averaged 10.6 points, 8.2 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 2.2 steals.


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Originally published on October 15, 2012 6:46 pm
Japan's Softbank has announced it will spend $20 billion to take a majority stake in Sprint-Nextel. The deal will provide Sprint, the third largest carrier in the U.S. market, with some much needed cash. It also gives Softbank the opening it's been looking for to break into the U.S. market.


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CN describes four key tenets to the plan including investing to improve network capacity and resilience; proactively managing car supply and more efficiently managing the use of power; more winter equipment with better processes and additional people available, manned with a rigorous response plan.
CN's route between Edmonton, BC, and Winnipeg, MB, has undergone CA$100 million (US$95.96 million) in capacity upgrades including increased yard capacity at Symington Yard, new sections of double-track, additional long sidings and significant work on CN's Prairie Line, which runs parallel to the mainline and provides a detour route.
CN has also performed new switch upgrades with enhanced snow features, such as the "Ice Free Switch," for Kirk Yard, Mac Yard and Symington Yard, increased the amount of snow fighting equipment across the network, added backup generators and added lifting equipment at key network locations.
For more information on CN's winter preparedness and to obtain a WinterREADY checklist, visit www.cn.ca.