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LONDON (AP) — First-time Olympian Alex Morgan already has her defining moment: A game-winning goal in overtime that put the U.S. women's soccer team into the gold medal match.
And of all things, it came on a header, the very skill that was supposed to be a weakness in her game.
If she keeps this up, she really will outgrow her nickname.
"We came up with the name 'Baby Horse' a while back when she first came on the team," U.S. midfielder Megan Rapinoe said Tuesday. "Just so much talent. Obviously very raw, she was kind of wild.
"And now she's a beautiful stallion, I think."
That sounds about right. The lightning-fast striker brings beautiful goals to game at the formative age of 23. Long after Abby Wambach, Christie Rampone and the other vets have retired, it's a reasonable bet that Morgan will be the face of the U.S. national team.
"She's still a genetic freak, in my opinion," Wambach said. "She makes plays that you don't expect anybody to make."
When Morgan looped Heather O'Reilly's cross into the net in the 123rd minute of Monday night's 4-3 win over Canada in the semfinals, she set up one of the most tantalizing rematches of these Olympics: United States vs. Japan for the gold medal.
Japan beat the Americans in penalty kicks to win last year's World Cup, back when Morgan was still a super-sub who came off the bench in the second half and created all sorts of havoc with her speed.
Now comes the chance to ease the sting of that defeat Thursday at Wembley Stadium. Morgan knew four years ago, when she was up in the wee hours of the morning watching the U.S. games on television during the Beijing Games, that she'd be a part of this group.
"At that moment, I knew I was going to be with this team at the next Olympics," Morgan said.
She's had that vision before, and was right.
"I've wanted to be a professional athlete since I was 5 years old," she said. "I actually have a note in my mom's office that I wrote when I was 5 that said 'When I grow up, I want to be a professional athlete.' And she still has it to this day."
Casual fans — not to mention some die-hard soccer fanatics — were asking why Morgan wasn't starting when she was scoring goals at the World Cup, but coach Pia Sundhage said young striker didn't yet have a complete game, not enough to play a full 90 minutes.
A strong performance at the Olympic qualifying tournament in January propelled Morgan into the lineup, and she's justified the promotion by piling up goals and setting up Wambach during the run-up to London. The latest proof came in her game-winner, using the very technique her coach had told her wasn't her thing earlier this year.
"How good will she be in four years?" Sundhage said. "Depends on what she wants."
The goal against Canada was Morgan's third of the Olympics and her team-high 20th in 2012, joining Mia Hamm (1998), Kristine Lilly (1999) and Wambach (2007) as the only U.S. players with 20 goals in a calendar year.
U.S. women's soccer gets a lot of love during the World Cup and Olympics, but it often takes a long publicity hiatus after the Summer Games. It'll be three years before the next World Cup, and it's uncertain whether there will be yet another attempt to form a top-flight U.S. women's league anytime soon.
A marketable player like Morgan can boost the sport's profile during the down times, especially if the public has memories of game-winners on a march to the gold.
"I think maybe in the beginning people saw her as a pretty face who scores goals," Rapinoe said. "But she's so much more than that. Her game has developed so much."
Follow Joseph White on Twitter: http://twitter.com/JGWhiteAP


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Iowa Works, in conjunction with Iowa Lakes Community College and Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Corporation, is partnering to promote and offer free National Career Readiness Certification (NCRC) credentialing to Iowa residents. Information on NCRC will be available at several upcoming events. Individuals can learn more and arrange assessment times at those events and locations.
n Monday, March 11, at the Nursing & Healthcare Job Fair at Iowa Lakes Community College in Emmetsburg from 9 a.m. to noon.
n Tuesday, March 12, at the All Career Job Fair at Iowa Lakes Community College in Emmetsburg from 9:30 a.m. to noon.
n Wednesday, March 13, at the All Career Job Fair at Iowa Lakes Community College in Estherville 9:30 a.m. to noon.
Between Feb. 21 and May 31, Iowa Lakes Community College will promote a drawing for a free i-Pad for any job seeker taking the NCRC assessment at one of its campuses. Drawing to be held on or after May 31.
To assist in providing access to the NCRC, Iowa Lakes Community College has scheduled the following dates for the assessment. Those interested in taking the NCRC are asked to schedule a time to ensure that a computer will be available for the free testing.
n Friday, Feb. 22, 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Spencer campus.
n Friday, March 15, 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Estherville campus.
n Saturday, April 27, 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Spencer campus.
n Monday, May 6, 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Spirit Lake campus.
Contact Shauna Donovan at 712-336-6572 or firstname.lastname@example.com to schedule a time for an assessment.
Interested individuals will be administered three computerized credential assessments which measure world of work skills. This is part of a broader Skilled Iowa Communities initiative by Governor Terry Branstad.
The Skilled Iowa Communities Initiative will improve the job training and marketability of Iowa's workforce and drive future economic growth for the state. Similar initiatives throughout the country have changed the landscape of local economies through programs that incorporate this nationally recognized work-ready assessment system developed by ACT to measure individual workers' skills in the areas of applied mathematics, reading for information and locating information.
"The Skilled Iowa Initiative is a critical step in improving the quality of the workforce in Iowa," said Governor Terry Branstad when the initiative was announced in June of 2012.
The program uses a universal testing system that rates the skills and abilities of those in Iowa's workforce, awarding a National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC), a portable certification for the potential job seeker, upon completion of the program. The NCRC is an effective measure of foundational skills and will help businesses confidently hire workers who are right for the job. It will help businesses evaluate an individual worker's abilities, allowing for a more accurate matching of skill sets with those required by the job. There is no cost to Iowa businesses to use NCRC assessments as part of their hiring process. Additionally, there is no cost to potential job seekers (residents of Iowa) wishing to take the assessments.
To schedule an assessment time, contact Shauna Donovan at Iowa Lakes Community College at 712-336-6564 or email: firstname.lastname@example.com. To find out how this can help area business and industry identify and attract the best job applicants, contact Bob Becker at 712-262-1971 Ext. 126 or email@example.com or Joanne Follon at Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Corporation 1-800-765-1428 or email@example.com
More information about National Career Readiness Certification can also be found on line at: www.SkilledIowa.org.

subset: commoncrawl


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To get that first puck to hit the back of the twine is something that every rookie looks forward to. For two players to bust through in the same game -- a win no less -- perhaps is the ultimate satisfaction.
Cody Sol and Dylan Hood, two of the Colorado Eagles' youngest, made that breakthrough on Saturday night, scoring their first respective goals in very different ways but ultimately helping the Eagles to their second consecutive win.
And, the Eagles are out of the cellar in the Western Conference, too, after leapfrogging San Francisco with their 7-2 win at the Budweiser Events Center.
"Monkey off my back, it felt really good," said Hood, whose goal came on a beautiful 2-on-1 breakaway with Joey Sides in the first period of the game. "What makes a great team is when everybody can chip in.
"Realistically, we have three lines that can score goals and one night, one line might not be getting the bounces but another one is."
Of course, Michael Forney's hat trick didn't hurt the cause, and neither did Kyle Jones' 24-save effort, which peaked with a second-period penalty kill when he made four stellar pad saves while still entangled in a pretty close contest.
In all, it was an enjoyable night and an enjoyable weekend to be an Eagle.
Hood and Sol were all smiles afterward, but Sol had to chuckle a bit about how his goal came about.
With the Eagles (2-4-0-2) on the penalty kill 7 minutes into the second period, Sol took a puck at his own blue line and laced a wicked hard clearing shot into the opposite zone, and it bounced off a San Francisco defenseman and was mishandled by goalie Taylor Nelson. That gave the Eagles a 3-1 lead that they extended to 7-1 before a late goal by the Bulls.
"I saw it hit off a guy's back but I was going off for a (line change), and then the guys started celebrating," said Sol, a defenseman. "I was pretty excited for that first goal. It was a lucky goal, but there's no replay on the stat sheets. No matter how they come, I'll take it."
"We knew coming into this weekend we had to get four points, not just two, and ... to be able to contribute to a win like that feels great," added Hood.
They could laugh a little about it considering the Eagles only got stronger as the game went on. Colorado was on the throttle in the second frame, totaling four markers to take a 5-1 lead.
Forney had two of those scores, both coming on rebound chances given up by Nelson. He was pulled in favor of Thomas Heemskerk, but he allowed three goals as well.
Forney secured his second career hat trick in the third with a pretty wrister from the slot area, and the Eagles were scoring from close in the whole night.
"The key was we found a way to get our second and third shots," said head coach Chris Stewart. "We kept piling our way into that net, we drove the mid-ice corridor as hard as we could and showed a lot of resiliency getting to those loose pucks."
Sides had a goal and two assists, and Ray Kaunisto also got his first goal as an Eagle.
Jones made his splash in the second frame. While San Francisco (2-6-0-2) only was credited with five shots on goal, he laid across the ice to block the post on a 2-on-1 chance and deny a shot, then came up with the big saves on the penalty after Sol scored.
The Bulls went 1-for-6 on the power play, giving Colorado a stretch of killing 28 of 30 penalties over the last five games.
"I was excited about the depth that was shown throughout, all the way from the net out," Stewart said.
Adam Dunivan can be reached at 669-5050 ext. 511, at firstname.lastname@example.com or on Twitter @RHEaglesBeat.
Eagles 7, Bulls 2
At Budweiser Events Center
San Francisco 1 0 1 -- 2
Colorado 1 4 2 -- 7
Scoring summary
First Period -- 1, Colorado, Hood 1 (Sides, Nelson), 16:55. 2, San Francisco, Morrison 3 (Barlow, Belan), 17:41. Penalties-Lawrence Sf (interference on the goalkeeper), 9:34; Belan Sf (delay of game), 11:25;
Second Period -- 3, Colorado, Forney 7 (Costello, Combs), 1:11 (PP). 4, Colorado, Sol 1 (Schneekloth), 7:06 (SH). 5, Colorado, Forney 8 (Hood, Sides), 12:05. 6, Colorado, Sides 5 (Schnell, Beatty), 15:45. Penalties-Ouellet Sf (high-sticking), 0:11; Kaunisto Col (cross-checking), 6:34; Guimond Sf (misconduct), 12:05; served by Combs Col (bench - too many men), 12:53; Lawrence Sf (slashing ), 13:14; Lawrence Sf (cross-checking), 16:13;
Third Period -- 7, Colorado, Forney 9 (Combs), 3:13. 8, Colorado, Kaunisto 2 (Schneekloth, Forney), 9:54. 9, San Francisco, King 1 (Clendenning, Ouellet), 16:38 (PP). Penalties-Hood Col (slashing ), 7:01; Nelson Col (slashing ), 7:21; Schnell Col (interference on the goalkeeper), 14:51; Sol Col (slashing ), 19:42;
Shots on goal -- San Francisco 26, Colorado 36.
Power Plays -- San Francisco 1 for 6; Colorado 1 for 5.
Goalies -- SF, Nelson (17 shots-13 saves), Heemskerk (19-16); Colorado, Jones (26-24).
Attendance -- 5,289.


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There are laws against running businesses cross fields. They are called Anti-Trust laws in the USA ("trust" being an old word that approximately means monopoly).
Unfortunately the scope and enforcement of these laws is very narrow as punishing a successful company for being successful is viewed as a bad thing. Basically the only time the law will be enforced is if a monopoly power (e.g. Microsoft) in one area (e.g. operating systems) uses that power to get an unfair advantage in another area (e.g. web browsers).
(IANAL, YMMV, etc.)
Oh, you mean people that will just hand the future of the nation over to the banking industry?
why should he do that.
Yeah, whatever. You'd instead rather put *total* discretion in the hands of one man that, in the process of being elected President, accepted millions of dollars in special-interest money to get elected, and likely accepted millions before that in being elected to lower office, and then you think that somehow he won't be beholden to those interests, right? I appreciate the youthful idealism, but this is the real world we're dealing with
sadly im no longer idealistic, or can be deemed young.
buyer beware applies to elections as well as grocery shopping. if you elect caesar, you can expect a dictator. if you elect FDR, you can expect something else.
unfortunately the alternative to this is armed revolution as your constitution states, and its only legal if things REALLY get out of hand. but, things never go that out of hand, at least in appearance. they make things appear legal, so that option will be closed to yo
To claim that boeing can't compete with airbus is just willful igorance of immature stupidity. boeing continues to be the world's most successful maker of large aircraft and its newest 787 series aircraft are seen to be a huge success while Airbus's A350 project flounders and the A380 seems set to be at best a modest financial success.
In case of Microsoft that was clearly abuse of monopoly power: forcing a web browser, media player, whatnot on users by installing it directly on the computer, and making it very very hard to remove.
Though the area gets quite grey in case there was no such thing as a web browser, before it is integrated with the particular OS. Imagine Microsoft had invented the iPod and iTunes, and given everyone an iTunes application through Windows Update. Still monopoly abuse, especially if they were to be the first with such an application? It is quite easy to find arguments both ways in such a situation.
How about a bus company starting to run trains - is that cross field? If so why should it be illegal?
How about an automobile company (General Motors) using a front company (National City Lines) to rip up the light rail systems in major cities and replace them with
GMC was convicted of anti-trust violations, later reversed.
Google Trolley Conspiracy [google.com]
"Trolley Conspiracy" [evworld.com]
(make your own judgments)
You know, I don't think I would mind too much if the movie/music industry were to go the way of the buggy whip makers.
Yeah sure there are some mega-hit songs and some blockbuster movies I would have to go without, but there are other things in life. In fact it might be better for the art of music and movies as every work would have to be an indie work.
The movie/music industries need to stop thinking they are entitled to exist.
there are some mega-hit songs and some blockbuster movies I would have to go without
I have a feeling that modern "blockbuster" movies are a giant step backwards. We had much more fun when films were done with shorter budgets and more imagination. Fx are OK for a while, but they can't make a bad film good.
I can get out of the last nine months of my cable contract with Virgin
Well, I suppose deaf people spend even less in buying music. The error, as always, is assuming buying would be an option for people who download illegally.
I recently downloaded an old movie from a torrent. I would have paid, maybe $1, for that movie. It's on sale at Amazon for $14.95. If I didn't have the option of an illegal download, I simply wouldn't have watched it. There's no way I'll pay $15 for something that's worth at most $1 to me.
What truly undermines that market aren't illegal downloads. Until the industry learns how to calculate pricing according to market rules, they'll have to live with it.
[...] in some ways the free version is superior to the pay versions as they stand now: instant gratification (as compared to amazon), easier storage (as compared to a DVD), more flexible playback (as compared to iTunes), etc. [...]
You can buy the DVD to pay for the right to watch the movie, then download it. Seems completely legit to me, may not be legal but it's certainly morally right and you get the benefits you thought you were losing.
How much is a judge going to award against you when you show that for those 10's of movies on your hard drives you have DVDs telling you your licensed to view the contents?
YMMV, the law isn't this logical, IA-most-definitely-NAL
The implicit agreement of the market is something to the effect of "if you don't like the price, don't buy it". But an assumption built into "don't buy it" is that you're not going to have the same benefits as having bought it, either.
That's not entirely accurate. There's nothing in the "market rules" that prevents you from getting the same "benefits" some other way. The actual rule is that you don't deprive someone else of the use of their property without their permission. Despite the whole "IP" misno
This business of throttling traffic because of bandwidth usage is criminal in nature.
Not necessarily so. The sizing of their channels depends on a statistical model. Usually that model is right, but if for whatever reason it isn't, the customers must compete for whatever bandwidth is available...
If you rented a car to drive to your aunt's house but found that you weren't able to drive the expected speeds on all roads because of crippling by the rental company, would you sue? would you rent from them again? would you complain to the appropriate regulatory agency?
Try a different car analogy: If you took a toll road, and suddenly you encountered a traffic jam, would you ask for your money back? No, you'd just blame it on bad luck.
But despite the proliferation of licensed services, most music is still downloaded from unlicensed services
Sounds like the "licensed services" are not being allowed to deliver what people actually want.
- a problem that cannot be addressed through new models alone.
If the RIAA/IFPI/etc had bought out napster and assumed the helm instead of trying to stamp it out.. or ANY of the following p2p technologies, they could have leveraged the business models used by those p2p companies to gain revenue (E.G. ADVERTISING).
they chose not to and still refuse to do so.
Lies by omission are still lies. Keep lying to everyone, but nobody outside your payrolls is buying it.
If graphics hackers are so smart, why can't they get the bugs out of fresh paint?


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The creationists are going to have a field day with this one. Oh, it's not as though it's possible to spoil the plot for you: The trailers for Mission to Mars reveal everything but the end credits. It would be near-impossible to step foot into the theater without knowing the story, in which three astronauts discover the true origin of life on Earth. Turns out we're descendants of the red planet, nearly identical to our ancestors save for a couple of key chromosomes that separate the men from the Martians. The trailer even reveals the alien -- a luminescent variation on the almond-eyed extraterrestrial seen in nearly every modern film on the subject. The only surprise left, perhaps, is how the film failed to fill in the blanks -- because that's all it is, two hours of nothing. It only pretends to be profound; in truth, it's as empty as space itself.
What director Brian De Palma and his screenwriters have concocted isn't merely a mishmash of ideas, a pastiche of other films (better and worse) -- though it's indeed hard to sit through Mission to Mars without playing spot-the-influence. What's really going on here is a director trying desperately to reinvent himself: De Palma, who for years tried to fit into Alfred Hitchcock's hand-me-downs, finally aspires to make his deep-think, Big Statement picture, only to wind up going where better men have gone before. Sci-fi being the only genre he hasn't yet gotten his grubby mitts around and strangled, Mission to Mars is what happens when a film junkie gets his hands on millions of dollars' worth of Tinkertoys and a script written by a video-store clerk. Not only does it makes no sense -- a De Palma trademark, given that Mission: Impossible was comprehensible only when viewed backward -- but it comes up hollow, cheap and cynical. The trailer, with its stark shots of spacemen walking through all-white interiors, hints at 2001: A Space Odyssey -- ah, but if only it aimed so low. All the dope in the universe couldn't render Mission to Mars that, like, deep. It's as shallow as a wading pool. Once more, with feeling: They are us, and we are them. And? And?
It would be too simple merely to dismiss Mission to Mars as a low-rent 2001, though it certainly is that -- from the anti-gravity centrifuge to the better-living-through-alien-technology finale that ends the movie with one giant anticlimactic shrug. (We came 100 million miles for this?) When the point is worn to a dull nub -- Mission to Mars' ending is a variation on the finales found in 2001 and its pitiable sequel, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, even Star Trek: The Motion Picture -- it's damned near impossible to make it stick. De Palma and writers Jim and John Thomas and Graham Yost not only think theirs is an inventive premise, they're unwilling to even deal with its consequences -- they're arrogant cowards. The revelation almost feels tacked-on and unfinished: It takes nearly the entirety of the film to get to Mars (there is only a brief sequence set on the planet early on), and when our heroes finally do land, they seem to forget why they're there in the first place.
And it all begins so promisingly: While Buckwheat Zydeco blares on the soundtrack, a rocket blasts off, only to explode into a shower of confetti, a child's firework rendered as visual gag. Eight NASA astronauts -- among them Woody Blake (Tim Robbins) and wife Terri Fisher (Connie Nielsen), Luke Graham (Don Cheadle) and Phil Ohlmyer (Jerry O'Connell) -- have gathered at a backyard barbecue in the year 2020 to bid farewell to their families. Half are due to blast off for Mars the next day, and the rest will follow later -- all except the man "who wrote the book on Mars," Jim McConnell (Gary Sinise), whose wife, Maggie (played in videotape flashback by Kim Delaney), recently died of an unspecified illness. Jim pulled himself from the Mars mission to care for Maggie, though he still longs to go. He spent 12 years training and wants only to plant his foot on the red planet. (And thoughts of Apollo 13 dance through their heads....)
Cut to 13 months later, on Mars' surface. Luke and his fellow travelers on the Mars One encounter an anomaly on the surface, a mountain obscuring an enormous metal object. But they venture too close to the object, which apparently interprets the astronauts' radar scans as hostile (see any number of Star Trek episodes for further explanation) and sets out to destroy the travelers with an enormous sandworm right out of Dune. One astronaut even suffers an inexplicably grisly death -- inexplicable because not too much later, the alien hiding beneath this mountain, which turns out to be a giant mask of a humanoid face, is benevolent and welcoming. Why it would choose to kill its "offspring" is unfathomable.
Suddenly the exploration becomes a rescue mission: Woody, Terri, Phil and, yes, Jim are sent in the Mars Two to retrieve Luke -- though it takes them a year to get to Mars (and it feels like it), and when they do arrive, they're surprised to find him alive ("Luke, you're alive!"). Worse, when they do find Luke, looking and acting like a man spouting end-of-the-world prophesies on a Hollywood street corner, they're ready to head back to Earth -- until Jim remembers, seemingly out of nowhere, there's that danged giant mask they need to go back and investigate.
Somewhere in there is a rather ludicrous explanation about musical notes and hidden DNA codes, all of which is explained with a few random strokes on a keyboard. One longs for the awe and innocence of François Truffaut in Close Encounters, explaining the aliens' musical tones using sign language and a small, sweet smile.
De Palma, who has always been the most minor "major" director, seems terribly out of his depth here. The confines of the space capsule, in which far too much of the movie takes place, allow for none of the jagged, jittery camerawork that brings even the most moribund of his pictures to some kind of life. Snake Eyes, with its hyperkinetic intro lifted from Hitchcock's Rope, began where most movies end, and De Palma pushes his luck by once more opening a film with a protracted, apparently single-shot sequence; only instead of Nicolas Cage cruising through an Atlantic City casino, now we're stuck in drab suburbia. Then again, no one ever accused De Palma of knowing when enough is enough; he can no longer tell whom he's ripping off.
It feels as though we're watching a student-film re-enactment of 2001 (particularly the scene in which Gary Lockwood jogs around the centrifuge) or outtakes from Apollo 13. (So much trouble, so little room!) Worse, it feels as though entire space sequences have been deleted: One minute, the survivors of Mars Two are clinging to the hull of a tiny refueling capsule orbiting Mars; the next, we're informed by the mission leader (an uncredited Armin Mueller-Stahl) that a capsule has inexplicably landed on Mars and that it could only be the work of one Jim McConnell. One can only assume all the, ah, good stuff landed on the cutting-room floor, because it sure as hell didn't make it to Mars.
Opens March 10.
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series: Sid The Science Kid
air date: 6/04/13 10:30 AM
Sid wakes up to his favorite smell in the world, pancakes. But the yummy scent is quickly taken over by a different smell when baby brother Zeke and his stinky diaper enter Sid's room. At school, Sid learns how smells travel through the air and arrive inside the nose.
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text:
Submission + - HTC Delays Release of GPL'ed Linux Kernel Source (ginkel.com)
Specialist2k writes: Apparently, HTC have been busy these days signing patent deals, so that they have forgotten about the true origins of the Android operating system running on many of their mobile phones. While these phones are running a customized version of the GPL'ed Linux kernel, HTC has been unwilling to provide the corresponding source code for the HTC Desire's Linux kernel for nearly a month now. Unfortunately, HTC already have a well-known history of GPL violations with no apparent signs of any improvement.


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That was excessively pedantic. Please refer to the following excerpt from the definition of "fast" in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.
3 a
In case you've been under a rock for the past five years, the word "faster," in the sense of the italicized definition above, is commonly used to refer to higher bandwidth, because transferring data takes a comparatively short time with high bandwidth connections. For example, read the sentence, "My Internet connection at work is faster than my connection at home." If you think this is improper use of the word faster, you are deluded. It's not like the poster said the signal propogates faster.
Both of these are the exact reason (if my understanding of the technology is correct from the white papers I have read) why optical chips should be faster:
...scientists who discovered this doubt very much it will ever be useful for communication. (For one, it probably won't work across lightyears, and for two, probably the most complex method of communication you could do with it would be Morse-code type on-off communication.)
I don't mean to split particles here... (ahem) but isn't that basically the kind of digital communication we have now? Streams of ones and zeroes? If an entagled "particle" can have its "state" changed and it's "twin" - existing somewhere else - mirrors the state change, then you have a bit that can be turned on and off, right? Just checkin.
I'm fairly sure that split electrons, even theoretically, can't be used for FTL communication. Tachyons have never been observed, and no one has any idea how to create them. However, IANAPP (I am not a particle physicist).
You're quite right that latency will be a problem if we colonize other planets. The speed of light is high enough to solve almost any latency problem on this planet by laying cable, but it is already a problem with satellite connections.
Truly. I'm having fun just imagining what "photonic" bussing would look like. I see a chunk of crystal, maybe, that's bevelled in just the right way to get individual photons where they need to go, or a network of these crystals.
And that probably the least of the wierdness.
And I hope make it a little more difficult for the feds to wiretap...
If memory serves, it HAS been proven that change in one "linked" particle can simultaneously cause change instantaneously in its "twinned" particle, but if memory serves the scientists who discovered this doubt very much it will ever be useful for communication. (For one, it probably won't work across lightyears, and for two, probably the most complex method of communication you could do with it would be Morse-code type on-off communication.
Umm...last time I checked, binary was on-off, and it seems like you can do a lot with binary...
The problem with using twinned photons, IIRC, is that there really isn't any information going from one to the other. Observing one doesn't produce a change in the other, it just predicts the other's state. Think of it this way: you shoot a helium nucleus at some sort of splitter. It splits into two nuclei. You then observe one of the nuclei. If it's deutrium, you know the other is tritium, and vice versa (assuming no neutrons excaped or anything like that, I doubt you could actually split a helium nucleus like this but bear with me for the sake of argument). It's the same idea. If one of the photons turns out to have right spin, the other must have left spin and must have already had left spin. It is just a deduction based on what you already know about the system.
So i guess we should stop all research into photonics now, right?
Thanks for your drivel.
So, although a light connection would be fast in small range connections (earth based), it just won't do in long range connections.
Just some humble thoughts.
Dragon218 dun said:
Why don't they study how to implement the use of the strange proberties of split electrons...or Tachyons (faster than light particles, theoretically). As proven by the space program and Arthur C. Clark, Light just isn't fast enough anymore.
Well, unless and until someone comes up with a Theory of Everything that both meshes up with quantum mechanics and Einstein, and also allows FTL travel...I think we might be stuck with c as the speed limit for the observable universe.
If memory serves, it HAS been proven that change in one "linked" particle can simultaneously cause change instantaneously in its "twinned" particle, but if memory serves the scientists who discovered this doubt very much it will ever be useful for communication. (For one, it probably won't work across lightyears, and for two, probably the most complex method of communication you could do with it would be Morse-code type on-off communication.)
As far as tachyons go...as someone noted, firstly, assuming they exist at all nobody has any earthly idea on how to create them. (This is, in part, because nobody really knows how to make matter with negative mass--which, at least according to our understanding right now, would require something with negative mass because once one hits c unless you're massless or have negative mass you have infinite mass--wanna birth a universe, anyone?
In fact, if memory serves tachyons (at least the predicted existence of them) are what ended up doing in one of the first superstring theories (which had a solution requiring the universe to hae 26 dimensions); most of the newer superstring theory flavours (including M-theory, which is sort of a "superset of sets of superstring solutions" and factors in an 11-dimensional universe of which there are six solution sets involving 10-dimensional solutions) do not predict tachyons (weird stuff like photinos and quarkinos (supersymmetric "twins" of quarks and photons, only the photinos are the "mass" particles and quarkinos carry force), sure--weird enough stuff is predicted that at least one fellow wrote a novel called "Moonseed" of which the major part of the plot line involves VERY funky subatomic particles predicted in some flavours of superstring theory--but no tachyons) and in fact the fact the 26-dimensional flavour of superstring theory required tachyons is considered to be a fatal flaw in the theory.
Now, if you can find a way to create negative mass, I think we can maybe lick that whole FTL-communication thing. Not to mention find a way to make stable wormholes, invent FTL travel, and find out whether black holes really DO become baby universes if they don't evaporate away due to Hawking radiation
The ramification of those circuits is that we could essentially have CPU's 10-50x faster than current chips, with much lower energy consumption as well.
Anyway, this announcement strikes me as good karma for both Nanovation and MIT. One of the aspects which struck me as being highly positive is that MIT researchers will be free to publish their findings, although Nanovation will have the right to patent the devices.
The question I haven't answered for myself from the press release is whether or not the publishing of those results would allow others to develop technology without breaking the patents... Comments anyone?
The rich get rich, and the poor get poorer. The haves get more, the have-nots die.


text:
Jordan Pacheco hit the game-winning single in the bottom of the 10th inning and lifted the Colorado Rockies to a 9-8 win over the New York Mets in the second game of a double-header from Coors Field.
With two outs and runners on second and third, Pacheco hit a blooper off Greg Burke (0-1) to shallow right and brought Carlos Gonzalez home to end the game.
Pacheco and Yorvit Torrealba drove in two runs apiece, while Gonzalez, Michael Cuddyer and Chris Nelson each had an RBI for the Rockies, who won the first game of the double-header, 8-4.
Rockies starter Jeff Francis allowed eight runs -- six earned -- on nine hits and four walks over 4 1/3 innings. Rafael Betancourt (1-0) picked up the win with a scoreless 10th inning.
Marlon Byrd knocked in three runs while Ruben Tejada had two RBI for the Mets, who used eight pitchers in the game. Aaron Laffey got the start, giving up two runs on four hits and three walks in four innings.
Gonzalez drove in the first run of the game, a sacrifice fly that scored Eric Young Jr in the first inning.
The Mets tied the game in the second on a single by Tejada, scoring Lucas Duda.
In the third, Collin Cowgill scored on a bad pickoff attempt by Torrealba. With the error, Daniel Murphy, who had doubled to right, was able to advance to third. After David Wright was walked, Byrd hit a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Murphy.
Cuddyer grounded into a fielder's choice in the bottom of the inning, but plated Josh Rutledge, who drew a leadoff walk.
The Mets scored five runs in the fifth. Murphy reached first on a fielder's choice and then advanced to second on a wild pitch with Wright at the plate. Wright was then walked and both he and Murphy advanced on another wild pitch with Byrd batting. Byrd then singled to right, bringing both of them home.
After Duda was walked, Justin Turner singled, scoring Byrd. Tejada was next and he singled as well, bringing Duda home. Adam Ottavino came in to replace Francis, but walked Anthony Recker to load the bases. Jordany Valdespin was called to pinch-hit for Laffey and he hit an infield single, plating Turner for an 8-2 lead.
However, the Rockies responded with four runs in the bottom of the inning. With out, Pacheco drew a walk with the bases loaded, plating Rutledge. Nelson was next and he hit a sacrifice fly, scoring Gonzalez. Torrealba then doubled, bringing Cuddyer and Pacheco home, and cut the lead to 8-6.
In the eighth, with runners on second and third, Tejada committed a throwing error that brought Rutledge and Gonzalez home.
Gonzalez was walked with two outs in the 10th. Cuddyer made it to first on yet another error, this time by Wright. He then advanced to second on a fielder's indifference, setting up Pacheco's game-winner.
Game Notes
Tejada recorded his sixth error of the season. He had just 12 in 2012 ... Byrd has 10 RBI this season ... Wright had a stolen base, his fourth of the season ... The Rockies were 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position and left 12 men on base ... The Mets left 10 men on base ... Francis threw 93 pitches in his outing. The Rockies have yet to have a pitcher throw 100 pitches in a game since June 12 last season, the longest of any team in the majors.


text:
We have previously developed a combination therapy (CT) using anti-CD3 monoclonal antibodies together with islet-(auto)antigen immunizations that can more efficiently reverse type 1 diabetes (T1D) than either entity alone. However, clinical translation of antigen-specific therapies in general is hampered by the lack of biomarkers that could be used to optimize the modalities of antigen delivery and to predict responders from nonresponders. To support the rapid identification of candidate biomarkers, we systematically evaluated multiple variables in a mathematical disease model. The in silico predictions were validated by subsequent laboratory data in NOD mice with T1D that received anti-CD3/oral insulin CT. Our study shows that higher anti-insulin autoantibody levels at diagnosis can distinguish responders and nonresponders among recipients of CT exquisitely well. In addition, early posttreatment changes in proinflammatory cytokines were indicative of long-term remission. Coadministration of oral insulin improved and prolonged the therapeutic efficacy of anti-CD3 therapy, and long-term protection was achieved by maintaining elevated insulin-specific regulatory T cell numbers that efficiently lowered diabetogenic effector memory T cells. Our validation of preexisting autoantibodies as biomarkers to distinguish future responders from nonresponders among recipients of oral insulin provides a compelling and mechanistic rationale to more rapidly translate anti-CD3/oral insulin CT for human T1D.
- Received September 16, 2011.
- Accepted January 23, 2012.
- © 2012 by the American Diabetes Association.
Readers may use this article as long as the work is properly cited, the use is educational and not for profit, and the work is not altered. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ for details.


text:
Devil's Due
- Rated:
- R (for language and some bloody images)
- Running time:
- 89 minutes
- Synopsis:
After a mysterious, lost night on their honeymoon, a newlywed couple finds themselves dealing with an earlier-than-planned pregnancy. While recording everything for posterity, the husband begins to notice odd behavior in his wife that they initially write off to nerves, but, as the months pass, it becomes evident that the dark changes to her body and mind have a much more sinister origin.
- Release date:
- January 17, 2014
- Website:
- http://www.DevilsDueMovie.com
- Quick review:
- A newlywed couple returns from their honeymoon and discover they're going to be parents. But their child may not be human. Could it be ... Satan?


text:
Street Address:
« Back | Forward »
« Back
Season 4, Episode 3: "The Pitch." The show: "Seinfeld." The theme? Let's call it "the absence of anything."
It's actually the first half of an hour-long show that ran during the show's normal TV lifespan. It has run as a half-hour episode in syndication for the past 100 years or so.
Essentially, the "pitch" refers to Jerry and George's trying to sell NBC execs on the idea of a sitcom, to be written, in part by George, that will be "a show about nothing."
At one point, George rants at the suits: "Look, if you want to just keep on doing the same old thing, then maybe this idea is not for you. I, for one, am not going to compromise my artistic integrity!"
Which is funny, because George is no artist and he has no integrity. And never will really create something – from anything, let alone nothing.
The concept fascinates me. For, in the same way that the guy who seeks to have humility fails the moment he proclaims that he has succeeded, one who writes about nothing succeeds only after creating something.
There are times when I, as a columnist, have nothing. No column in mind. No plan. No strategy. No energy. No memory of recent interesting events. No urge to wrack my memory for meaningful childhood or young-adult experiences.
And, to boot, no time.
Not really, anyway. There's packing to be done for the trip to New York, the subject of next week's column. Yes, next week, I will write about something.
This week, though, I continue my fascination with the absence of anything.
That which many religions teach existed before creation.
Except that these same religions hold that at the time when nothing existed at all, a creator God was somehow there, pre-existent, and had been around for, like, forever. Which, for present purposes, implies – or, at least, from it I infer – that there was always something. That there was never really just nothing.
"Nothing" has been the topic of some deep, diligent philosophical study. I have no desire to research this at the present time, but I'm going out on a limb and guessing that shortly after we humans got a grip on this thing we call communication, and shortly before creating the first word games, riddles and puzzles, we started waxing about that which we understood only because of its absence. Which is, to say, nothing.
Nothing being absent, we came to appreciate anything. Or something, at any rate.
Am I making myself clear? Without looking it up, I'm saying Plato, Aristotle and Socrates all had something to say about nothing. And that they were not the first to do so.
They probably acknowledged the great minds before them who also thought about nothing.
Now, as I come to the end of my allotted verbiage, I remind you that, because I'm looking nothing up – or, rather, I'm not looking nothing up – I will not subject you to the obligatory list of nothing-synonyms, phrases that include nothing, etc.
Nothing of that sort today. So, there.
Vic Fleming is a district court judge in Little Rock, Ark., where he also teaches at the William H. Bowen School of Law. Contact him at email@example.com.
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text:
After performing my morning routine (pacman -Syu) at work I noticed eclipse started crashing alot which it hasn't been doing before. Narrowed it down to the webkitgtk2 upgrade that had occured during the last upgrade.
Downgrading (2.2.5-2 => 1.10.2-8) solved the issue, and at the moment that is the only solution I am aware of. Anyone else got any lead on this?
I'm running AwesomeWM, no gnome or KDE packages installed. This issue might not occur if you are using a more "extensive" wm.
Last edited by LiquidityC (2014-10-22 07:14:47)
This happens on Gnome too. Not sure where to report this; would a rebuild of the eclipse package fix this?
Perhaps, I'll try a rebuild through ABS and see if that fixes the issue. Not sure it will though...
EDIT: Nope, totally didn't work
Last edited by LiquidityC (2014-03-04 15:02:38)
Actually, I don't expect it as the PKGBUILD simply fetches the jar from eclipse and doesn't really compile anything
I think this one will just have to wait for a new Eclipse package. Just have to ignore the webkitgtk2 upgrade until then I guess
New eclipse package arrived today which solves this issue, so I'm marking this one as solved.
New eclipse package arrived today which solves this issue, so I'm marking this one as solved.
Upgrading to the new eclipse (extra/eclipse 4.3.2-2) didn't solve the problem still had to downgrade webkitgtk2 to solve the issue.
Spoke too soon, tested properly again and milonimrod is right.
A temporary solution is to put
into eclipse.ini.
Sounds like this could use a bug ticket
Bug report link: https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/39184
I also have this issue. I can confirm that using -Dorg.eclipse.swt.browser.DefaultType=mozilla helps.
I am starting eclipse from console like this:
eclipse -Dorg.eclipse.swt.browser.DefaultType=mozilla
and eclipse is still crashing
I am not able to find eclipse.ini, can you give me a path?
well, I am not able to downgrade webkitgtk because I have not older file in cache, can someone give me a link to download?
I am starting eclipse from console like this:
eclipse -Dorg.eclipse.swt.browser.DefaultType=mozilla
The option must be added to eclipse.ini.
"I exist" is the best myth I know..
aha, I was trying to find eclipse.ini in home directory
but it is here: /usr/share/eclipse/eclipse.ini
looks that this helped, I will see what happen in time ...
Got this error again after last system upgrade, which updated webkitgtk2 from 2.4.5-1 to 2.4.6-2
The -Dorg.eclipse.swt.browser.DefaultType=mozilla workaround seems to solve the issue.
I got it too. But in my case it was the fact that eclipse upgraded to "Luna" and that replaced my old eclipse.ini file with a new one so I had to add the workaround into the new eclipse.ini file
- well, I am running eclipse luna for a while, no problems.
- I did check eclipse.ini and it is NOT contait this workaround.
pacman -Qs webkitgtk2
local/webkitgtk2 2.4.6-3
I still have the crash issue on my machine in eclipse when hovering 'String' or any other javadoc object. Workaround mentioned above removes the issue though
Name : webkitgtk2
Version : 2.4.6-3
Description : GTK+ Web content engine library for GTK2
Architecture : x86_64
URL : http://webkitgtk.org/
Licenses : custom
Groups : None
Provides : libwebkit=2.4.6
Depends On : libxt libxslt sqlite libsoup enchant libgl geoclue2 gst-plugins-base-libs libsecret libwebp harfbuzz-icu gtk2
Optional Deps : gst-plugins-base: free media decoding [installed]
gst-plugins-good: media decoding
gst-libav: nonfree media decoding
Required By : eclipse
Optional For : gimp
Conflicts With : libwebkit
Replaces : libwebkit
Installed Size : 44561.00 KiB
Packager : Felix Yan <firstname.lastname@example.com>
Build Date : 2014-10-17T09:14:19 CEST
Install Date : 2014-10-21T08:47:47 CEST
Install Reason : Installed as a dependency for another package
Install Script : No
Validated By : Signature


text:
Karoshi is a server operating system designed for schools, providing a simple graphical interface for easy installation and maintenance of your network.
Has LDAP, a new styled web management, also you can now change the default IPs, gateways etc so that you can implement it into your current setup without the use of NAT.
I am looking for testers who can give it a good look at, you don't need to be school network administrators, though that will help, as its not the same as your average distro.


text:
Pro Dog Trainer Chad Hines Discovers New Ways To Train With D.T. Systems Super-Pro Dummy Launcher
Chad Hines of Willow Creek Kennels is one of D.T. Systems top Pro Trainers. He has developed a new training technique that has greatly increased the performance of the upland dogs he is training.
"Dummy Launchers have been used for some time in the retrieving community," says Hines. "Recently, we have been using them in our upland training as well. We have found dummy launchers to be extremely beneficial in increasing prey drive and marking ability."
In the spring of 2010 Willow Creek Kennels visited fellow Orvis endorsed training and breeding facility, Wildrose Kennels in Oxford, MS. Chad and other trainers from Willow Creek were amazed to see the British labs at Wildrose pick a bumper in a flight pen with over 80 pigeons and pheasants flying around them. This idea transpired into firing a dummy launcher in line with a flushed bird, which a pointing dog had found and pointed. Chad found with proper training, dogs will mark the dummy as if it were a downed bird.
Chad starts by giving the dog the "whoa" cue. Next, he fires a light blank without a bird present. If the dog retrieves the dummies well, this step in training will be very easy. He plays this game until the dog will retrieve the bumper in any situation. They never fire the bumper unless the dog is successful with the "whoa" cue. The fired dummy is positive reinforcement for a properly executed "whoa". This process is similar to our use of Positive Reinforcement Pigeons which strengthens our dog's "whoa" using positive reinforcement.
"Next, we transition to retrieving a dummy with a bird present. To accomplish this, we put a bird out and bring the dog in to point it." Chad says. "We then flush the bird and let the dog chase it. When the dog returns, we "whoa" them, and fire the dummy. This adds a great middle step between having no birds present to being able to walk in, flush the bird, fire the launcher in line with the bird, and our dog will mark and retrieve the dummy. This process allows us to provide a positive reinforcement retrieve on every job well done."
"The D.T. Super-Pro Dummy Launcher is the perfect tool for this training. The launcher is easy to use and sends the dummy as far as we need for any situation," says Hines. "We have shot thousands of loads through our Super-Pro launchers and they keep performing."
There is a big difference between a hand thrown bumper and a bumper fired from a launcher. The increased speed of a fired bumper stimulates prey drive. Being predators, dogs naturally will chase anything that tries to get away.
"When we first start our launcher introduction we use a light blank and fire it low creating a bouncing, rolling bumper that most pups cannot resist," says Hines. "This bounding dummy is a great way to develop retrieving and prey desire in any dog. It is very important to fire away from the dog because the dummy needs to appear to be trying to get away and not attack the dog. To increase prey drive, we create situations where birds and dummies try to escape the grasp of the dog."
Before starting to train with a dummy launcher, be sure to have a proper gun introduction for the dog and use an assistant in the beginning to distance the dog from the launcher. This will decrease the chance of having gun problems with the dog.
Chad has found he can greatly increase the marking ability of dogs using this training method. He starts with light blanks and easy marks. In all dog training, the smaller the steps taken, the faster and easier we get there. He then, slowly adds difficulty to the marks and increase the distance by using heavier charged blanks. In Willow Creek's training program, they try to replicate everything from a high-flying snow goose mark in the open to a low flying woodcock in an aspen thicket. The D.T. Super-Pro dummy launcher makes all these scenarios possible.
The innovation of the dummy launcher has greatly benefited Willow Creek's training program. Dummy launchers allow them to increase prey drive, marking ability in waterfowl and upland training, and reward our dogs positively for a job well done even when shooting birds isn't an option.
Chad says, "Dummy launchers can be great tools for training and playing with your dog—just remember to introduce your dog properly to gunfire and enjoy time spent a field with your dog."
For more information on Willow Creek's training methods, please visit their website at


text:
The plan first took took shape during February's Downing Street summit regarding racism in football, when a Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee review was held in the aftermath of the scandal involving Liverpool striker Luis Suarez and Manchester United defender Patrice Evra.
"This is a commitment on behalf of English football to ensure the game is inclusive and free of discrimination. Only by the sum of all our parts working together, will we affect further and greater change," FA chairman David Bernstein explained on the FA's official website. "This continues to be a top priority for me, as chairman of the Football Association, and I believe this action plan states our collective commitment and lays out clearly the individual actions to move forward this vital agenda."


text:
RILEY COUNTY, Kan. (WIBW) -- A Fort Riley soldier is facing rape and molestation charges stemming of an alleged incident with a child.
Specialist George Ferenz, 29, was arrested on Wednesday, October 24, 2012 at noon by Fort Riley military police on a $100,000 Riley County warrant charging him with one count of Rape, two counts of Aggravated Criminal Sodomy and two counts of Aggravated Indecent Liberties with a Child.
According to the warrant, the charges stem from an incident on October 21, 2012 in Riley County. Ferenz is alleged to have had sexual intercourse with a child under the age of 14. He is also accused of fondling and having oral sex with the child.
On Thursday, October 25, 2012, he remained confined in the Riley County Jail.
Riley County Attorney Barry Wilkerson declined to release any information on the case. He would not confirm whether the victim was a male or female or the victim's exact age. He also could not comment on whether or not the suspect and victim know each other.
Ferenz should make a first appearance at the Riley County Courthouse, Wilkerson said.
According to the 1st Infantry Division's Public Affairs Office, Ferenz is a tank crewman assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 34th Armor Regiment, 1st Armor Brigade Combat Team with the Big Red One at Fort Riley.
A booking photo of Ferenz from the Riley County Jail is not available as it is the Riley County Police Department's policy not to release mug shots.


text:
Oboro - Page 5
Naruto-Arena forces you to select 3 characters when you start a new game. This page gives you an overview of all characters available in the Naruto-Arena game. Not only can you view each character's skills, you can also discuss the characters by posting comments.
A Rain Genin in the Chuunin exams, Oboro is vindictive ninja that specializes in genjutsu. Using the various illusions that Oboro creates, he is able to hide his true self while attacking from below.Requirement to unlock: Mission: A Downpour of Illusion
Exploding Kunai
Oboro throws a kunai with an exploding tag on it dealing 15 damage to all enemies. During 'Haze Clone' this skill is improved and will cost 1 less random chakra.
Cooldown: None
Chakra required:
Classes: Chakra, Ranged, Instant
Earth Swim
Hiding in the ground, Oboro waits and then attacks one enemy from behind dealing 20 damage and stunning their physical and mental skills for 1 turn. During Haze Clones this skill is improved and targets all enemies and costs 1 random chakra less.
Cooldown: None
Chakra required:
Classes: Physical, Melee, Instant
Haze Clone
The following 3 turns 'Exploding Kunai' will cost 1 less chakra and 'Earth Swim' will affect all enemies and will cost 1 less random chakra. During this time Oboro gains 30 points of destructible defense and is invulnerable to physical and mental skills.
Cooldown: 4
Chakra required:
Classes: Mental, Instant
Oboro Hiding Tactics
This skill makes Oboro invulnerable for 1 turn.
Cooldown: 4
Chakra required:
Classes: Mental, Instant
Related subjects:
page 5,
NARUTO © 2002 MASASHI KISHIMOTO. All Rights Reserved.


text:
The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution holds a hearing this Friday on the major piece of civil justice reform legislation this Congress, the Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act, which will amend the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to discourage the filing of frivolous lawsuits. We have more on the legislation at Point of Law.
Bill McCollum, the former attorney general of Florida, argues in The Wall Street Journal for more transparency when state attorneys general hire outside legal counsel on contingency to sue people (mostly businesses) on behalf of the state. From "States and Lawyers' Fees: Transparency Needed":
Since the 2007 financial crisis, state attorneys general have stepped up consumer-protection enforcement and are well on their way to displacing federal authorities as the nation's chief consumer-protection watchdogs.
As the former attorney general of Florida, I understand both the power and potential pitfalls of the job. This increased role and the increased visibility that comes with it mean that attorneys general must (and should) work that much harder to maintain public confidence in the integrity of their office.
The Supreme Court this week denied to hear the Competitive Enterprise Institute's challenge to the 1998 tobacco settlement based on Congress' failure to approve the deal as required by the Constitution's compact clause. From CEI's news release, "Supreme Court Declines to Hear Case Challenging Tobacco Settlement":
"We regret the court's decision not to take up a case of major constitutional and policy importance," said Sam Kazman, CEI General Counsel. "The tobacco settlement imposed a massive national sales tax on cigarettes, without a single elected legislator at any level of government voting for it. This was a major power grab by state attorneys general at the expense of both citizens and our structure of government."
Former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-TN) is lobbying for the Tennessee Justice Association against Gov. Bill Haslam's legislative tort reform proposals. In the cover story for the Tennessee publication, CityView Magazine, he explains his reasoning and argues against damage caps in medical malpractice suits. We appreciated his comments about the misuse of the word "reform":
I don't know that there is a rush for tort reform but tort reform has kind of taken on an air of its own and you're either for it or against it. There is no such thing as finance reform, there is no such thing as health care reform, there is no such thing as tort reform; it is only what is in the bill. It may be reform or it may just be change and not really reform. So everybody thinks all Republicans ought be for tort reform, and that if you're not a Republican, than you should be against tort reform. I think both of those are fallacious. We ought to look at what's being proposed.
And two interviews well worth reading …
- American Lawyer, "A Conversation With Class Action Objector Ted Frank," about his Center for Class Action Fairness.
- The Daily Caller, "10 questions with 'Schools for Misrule' author Walter Olson," on Walter's new book, " Schools for Misrule: Legal Academia and an Overlawyered America ."


text:
Classification: BT10-015
Reference: NTB10-100
Date: August 23, 2010
The driver or front passenger power seat does not move forward from the full rearward position.
Synchronize the seat tracks.
If the seatback does not recline, this bulletin does not apply.
1. Operate the power seatback.
2. Start the engine, let it idle.
3. Write down radio station presets.
4. Attempt to move the incident seat forward by repeatedly pressing the seat switch.
5. Remove the seat from the vehicle.
Seat Removal When Seat Will Not Move Forward
1. Turn off the ignition, and then disconnect both battery cables, negative cable first.
2. Locate the two rivets securing the flex cable protector cover (cover) shown in Figure 1. For easier viewing only: Figure 1 shows the seat already removed.
3. Cover the seat tracks below the rivets (to keep drilled shavings from getting in the tracks).
4. Drill out these rivets with a 3/16 inch drill bit.
5. Flip up the cover, and then remove the harness and connector clips by pinching and then pushing them out (see Figure 2).
6. For driver seat: Disconnect the Inboard flex cable (I/B cable, closest to center console) at the drive motor by pulling it out.
7. Make sure the outer (black) portion of the cable is fully seated in its silver gear box (gear box).
8. Make sure the inner cable is fully seated in the gear box by pushing and twisting it at the same time.
9. Attach a suitable drill to the end of the inner cable (see Figure 4).
10. Break loose the internals of the gear box by spinning the inner cable counter clockwise.
11. Spin the inner cable clockwise at slow drill speed until the seat is near its original position.
12. Reconnect the cable to the drive motor.
13. Reconnect the battery cables, negative cable last.
14. Move the seat fore / aft as necessary to access the seat mounting bolts.
15. Go back to "Seat Removal When Seat Will not Move Forward". Observe and perform all of Step 5 (seat removal).
Seat Track Synchronization
1. Place the seat in a clean work area i.e., on fender covers on top of a work bench.
2. For driver seat: Adjust the I/B track 2.0 mm (5/64 inch) further back than the 0/B track.
3. Replace both cables only if the procedure Seat Removal When Seat Will Not Move Forward was performed.
a. Insert one end of each cable into each gear box.
b. Twist and push on the inner cable. Figure 7 and 8 show fully seated and not fully seated positions.
4. While gently bending it in the middle, insert the other end of each cable into the drive motor (no picture shown).
5. If the tracks have moved out of synchronization after cables installation, perform "SEAT TRACK SYNCHRONIZATION" Step 2 as needed.
Reinstall Flex Cable Protector Cover
1. Once synchronization is complete, if the cover was removed, install it with the two supplied rivets.
2. Install the right side rivet first (as viewed from the front of the seat), and then the left side rivet. See Figure 11.
3. Secure the harness and connector clips to the cover. See Figure 11.
Reinstall Seat
1. Reinstall the seat in the vehicle. Refer to BODY INTERIOR, SEAT of the appropriate ESM.
2. Reconnect the battery cables, negative cable last.
3. Adjust the seat to its full rearward position.
a. Press the seat switch for rearward movement 30 more times.
b. Press the seat switch for forward movement, making sure the seat moves forward when pressed the first time.
4. Verify proper power seat operation:
5. Reset/initialize all applied systems i.e., radio, power windows, clock, sunroof, etc.


text:
April 29, 2012
Congratulations to the Santa Clara Sporting 92 Boys Team for winning the U19 CYSA State Cup Championship today in Elk Grove. They also qualify for the Far West Regional Tournament that will be held June 18-24th in Pheonix, Arizona along with the Sporting 95 and Sporting 94 boys teams. This is the second state cup title for the 92 Boys Team.
Santa Clara had a short but intense State Cup tournament with one set of bracket games that went straight away to Semi-final games and the State Championship. Sporting tied their first game 1-1 against the Palo Alto 93B Blue Team, then tied Redwood Juventus Black 93 team 0-0, then beat Oakdale United 2-0 in the semis. Today's championship game was a rematch against Palo Alto, and both teams played in some pretty intense heat when the game started at 2pm in Elk Grove. Neither team could score during regulation, and the deadlock was broken when Santa Clara scored the winning golden goal in overtime.


text:
Friday, August 6, 2010
Follow Friday -- How can 3 Death Records be wrong?
6 comments:
- Ginger Smith said...
Hi Barbara, how do you distinguish between an original and a "certified?" - is that what you would call the pretty green one? copy when you order them?
- August 6, 2010 at 9:27 AM
- Barbara Poole said...
Hi Ginger, first, the original doesn't need the word certified on it. When I ordered a copy from the town, I asked for certified and they usually have a seal like the ones above or an embossed seal. Thanks for writing.
- August 6, 2010 at 4:22 PM
- Carol said...
Terrific examples of errors on death certificates! Great post!
- August 6, 2010 at 7:31 PM
- Barbara Poole said...
Thanks Carol, and perfect timing to follow your wonderful post!
- August 6, 2010 at 7:35 PM
- Heather Rojo said...
Wow, did you see Martin Holleck's blog post today. They are not on the same topic, really, but they both complement each other so well. Marriage records vs. death records. Now I really know why death records are not considered primary source material!
- August 6, 2010 at 8:20 PM
- Barbara Poole said...
Thanks Heather for your wonderful comment.
- August 7, 2010 at 6:55 AM


text:
It's not dumping if the competition (Linux) is free. They are not going to put Linux out of bussiness by undercutting linux's profit margin. It might be possible they are however dumping with regard to software support (red hat, IBM, Novell,
Even the memos from MS state MS cannot and will not compete soley on the basis of price.
The thing is their products are agile in price since they have high fixed costs and low marginal costs. Airlines are classic example of this. Airlines try to create price structures (e.g. saturday stays, advance purchase, limited kinds of seats, luggage limits,... ) so that they integrate the area under the demand curve.
Far from being unfair this is actually socially ideal. In the ideal limit people pay for something exactly what it is worth. depsite the fact that some folks pay more than others, over all nearly everyone, including the people paying the higher price, are paying LESS than they would have to pay if it was sold for a fixed price, because of the increased demand lowers the per capitia fixed costs.
I also question broad statements like " Windows is not really competitive and schools that switch save tens of millions of dollars.". Anecdotally maybe this is has happened. But it's not really clear that this is true in general. School systems are one of the most budget limited govt run orgs. They try everything to shave dollars, like fees for art supplies, to hot lunches paid for by PTO fund raisers. I find it hard to believe the schools would somehow be so blind as to over look an easy "tens of millions" if the case was clear cut.
" Windows is not really competitive and schools that switch save tens of millions of dollars. "
It's not the operating system that pays, it's the sum of platform applications and infrastructure where Microsoft makes money, coupled to the students that know nothing else but Windows. The tip of the iceberg is Windows. The cash cows are Office, SQL Server, Exchange, and the add-ons, upgrades, and other platform products.
You don't 'lose' to Linux, you lose revenue that represents lots of infrastructure, server licenses, CALs, and so on.
There are few professional organizations that can do an end-to-end Linux infrastructure for educational needs (including school administration software costs) but the list is growing, if by populism alone.
Part of Microsoft's loss is the horrible security problems of 1998-2007, as they're less than before. That damage hurt Microsoft-- coupled to support costs for the products. Macs have always been a fractional part of the educational market, and Apple's done a lot to damage their own relationships with schools-- but students love them.
Microsoft has a lot to learn about love, rather than feigning leadership.
Indeed, and consider how MUCH money on training Microsoft gets for free when public schools teach with Microsoft products.
It's not just the license. It's all the taxes you pay to train your own childs for the benefit of a private company.
I used to work at a small college. They didn't teach classes in Office applications, they taught classes in Office 2007. They taught intro to MS Word. The teachers, (who attended all sorts of MS training for free) didn't think there was a difference. They got PISSED when I suggested to students that couldn't afford office to try openoffice. MS gave our entire campus all the software we needed for less money than we gave the local bus service so students could ride the city bus at a heavy discount. This was at a 2 year college that had more technology per capita than most schools in the state. Hell, our main "Operating systems" class covered Windows 2003, 2000, and XP. The teacher got upset when the students came to me (I was network admin) and asked for Linux, so I handed them Ubuntu's live cd's... Why would we want to use something that's free, when we get to use something so valuable, for free. they thought MS was obviously a better value!
>>School systems are one of the most budget limited govt run orgs.
This is true, but there are often a lot of state or national funds available specifically for technology that don't come out of the school's (local) budget. So there are actually a lot of public schools that have more money than they really need sloshing around for computers, even if they're scrambling to pay their teachers and replace horrendously outdated textbooks.
they integrate the area under the demand curve.
Far from being unfair this is actually socially ideal. In the ideal limit people pay for something exactly what it is worth.
Ah I like to reason about this kind of things! What do we mean by "exactly what it is worth" in this case? Is it in the eyes of the buyer or the seller?
Great post, but I have to challenge this statement:
are paying LESS than they would have to pay if it was sold for a fixed price, because of the increased demand lowers the per capitia fixed costs.
No. Companies maximize profit by charging the maximum price a consumer tier will permit. It has nothing to do with saving anyone any money. The increased demand lowering fixed costs is a separate matter that also holds true, but companies simply bank on the lowered fixed costs, and do not pass it on to consumers. They may say so, but the only time companies are supposed to lower prices is when they need to be more competitive. Of course, when they raise prices they love to put it on increased costs, but we all know from the oil companies that in their case the increase in oil prices was directly proportional to their obscene level of profits.
No one should second guess the intents of any large corporation. They are required to squeeze every dime out of the consumer. The economy is built around this behavior. If a private company is charging less than it can, they are a great M&A opportunity. If it is a public company, the shareholders would not allow it. It is only a matter of time until prices are adjusted to their maximums.
It's not dumping if the competition (Linux) is free.
Last I saw, Linux wasn't free, RedHat, Novell and Canonical all sell it (plus assorted support and licensing offerings) for quite a sum. Therefore, this dumping is illegal. surely?
plus, Macs certainly aren't free, and they're also part Microsoft's of the competition.
Indeed. Linux is a kernel, not a product. The free distros cannot really be argued to compete for government contracts. Moreover, Linux's FOSS development methodology is simply based on the scientific and academic sharing in the academic world it came from. It may not even be right to argue that Linux itself CAN be a competitor, given that. It would be like claiming physics professors who give away their ideas and laser technology demo software are competing with a laser pointer manufacturer.
It's not dumping if the competition (Linux) is free.
Last I saw, Linux wasn't free, RedHat, Novell and Canonical all sell it (plus assorted support and licensing offerings) for quite a sum.
No kidding. At the university I went to the linux lab with Red Hat cost more to license than an equivalent sized XP installed lab.
Granted the linux lab was licensed as workstation installs (more expensive, but desktop didn't allow multiple users remoting in) and the windows labs were desktop install so we're not comparing apples to apples (and I vaguely remember there was some weirdness with the RedHat licensing for education that made them jump up one level further, missing options for education licensi
True for the "enterprise" versions, which usually are supposed to include some support. But it is legal to use a free Linux distribution (even if not promoted for organizations by the Linux vendor).
CentOS is even advertised as being identical to RedHat except for the name, and free for download.
There is your free competition
Saving money through fund raisers etc is seen to be low risk and a proven way to get money to flow the right way. An experiment in Linux is perceived to be a lot more risky and harder. The school's computers are often seen to be very high expense items and there is a pre
It's not dumping if the competition (Linux) is free.
That is only true with price competitors, which Linux and Windows are not. With quality competitors, dumping must be gauged by other criteria, which actually don't work too well here either.
The most "perfect" definition of dumping is selling below the marginal cost. Since the marginal cost for Windows is somewhere between a few bucks (packaging) and the marginal cost of support (moderate - a few tens of dollars at most), it is difficult to say what exact p
Schools prefer to use Windows because it's what the vast majority of their faculty and staff know, it's what the vast majority of their software runs on, and it's what students will encounter on the vast majority of computers they will use in the real world.
Being a monopoly is neither illegal nor I would argue immoral. It's what you do with your monopolistic power that makes that determination. In this context it is also important to mention that MS is the original 'give it away for free or close to free' people. This was true even way before Windows had a lock on PCs.
I would agree with the comments above about Windows being what the student will encounter and add further that this reasoning extends to the OLPC and similar products, which is why we are seeing
They have a monopoly or they gained a monopoly?
Apple and Microsoft and Unix were all small time operating systems "back in the day," right? So
Actually, UNIX used to be for anything "serious" along with VMS (Workstations, minicomputers and general server duties), not just "small time" or "server oriented".
A large part of what happened was that MS managed to gain market share by 1) Widespread piracy and 2) Being not nearly as good as the UNIX systems but also a lot cheaper. Point no. 2 is also why a lot of us who remember the days of MS-DOS, Win 2.x/3.x and other horrors may grudgingly admit that Microsoft's current operating system offerings are usable but still prefer *nix systems, because MS "won" by fighting dirty...
In actuality, Microsoft gained its monopoly using questionably dubious, but well documented, business tactics
In reality, much of the Windows is from white box computers. Computers on a budget, a pirated copy of an OS, and lots of free downloadable applications, plus an open interface.
Macs were sealed boxes with the OS pre installed for the most part with little 3rd party hardware support.
When the PC clones were all the rage, they could run Windows, but not Mac software. This is where the PC and the Window
schools prefer to use Windows because it's what the vast majority of their faculty and staff know,
A couple or so years ago, I asked a university lecturer why they used so much MS software, when the obviously had knowledge of Linux and Unix -- the reply was something like "we get it free" (or perhaps "almost free").
In this case, it is free as in beer trumping free as in speech.
A couple or so years ago, I asked a university lecturer why they used so much MS software, when the obviously had knowledge of Linux and Unix -- the reply was something like "we get it free" (or perhaps "almost free").
So they were using it because it was better ? Because they certainly wouldn't have been paying more for Linux or UNIX...
A couple or so years ago, I asked a university lecturer why they used so much MS software, when the obviously had knowledge of Linux and Unix -- the reply was something like "we get it free" (or perhaps "almost free").
Don't forget that in the early days (Windows 3 / 3.1), MS tended to turn a blind eye to copying, as it increased mindshare.
(Also, at the same time, some organisations were still on DOS, but the new machines came with Windows disks. Those installing the company setup used to keep the Windows disks, or give them away. Of course, once they had all the copies of Windows that they and their friends could possibly use, a quick re-format of the floppy disks allowed their re-use - disks were expensive)
because "teachers" really do get it nearly free... or at least not under per-pupil costs. Of course Universities pay big money in the name of "piracy" for site licensing.. but that goes under the IT or legal funds, not "teachers" funds.... see the difference.
Like the Forrester survey below this article, people use Microsoft software out of habit, not even because they like it. For most people, using even MS Word is really hard, and re-learning it is even worse. MS knows Linux or Mac is better but as long a
"Schools prefer to use Windows because it's what the vast majority of their faculty and staff know, it's what the vast majority of their software runs on, and it's what students will encounter on the vast majority of computers they will use in the real world."
I can accept points one and two but point three, "it's what students will encounter on the vast majority of computers they will use in the real world" is and always has been total utter bullshit. Whatever the students are using now will have only minor correlation to whatever they'll found in "the real world" few years from now. When I were in school it were the days of Microsoft DOS. How much does it resembles Windows Vista to Microsoft DOS except that there's "Microsoft" in the name? Is it really so much similar Windows 98 to Windows Vista than it is to current versions of Gnome or KDE upon Linux?
In fact, the reverse is truer: whatever I learnt about DOS on my school days serves me nothing on current versions of Microsoft OS and apps. On the other hand, what I learnt on my university days about NFS, X Window, DNS, SMTP, Vi... is still serving me now almost word by word about fifteen years later. And this is not per chance: Microsoft, being the principal actor and living out of selling licenses is *forced* to add new features and change the way of doing things just "to stay the same" while others, specially if not competing on selling usage licenses, can maintain whatever is already working just the same for ages.
The sad part is... as a former teacher myself, I cannot help but agree, but with one caveat:
...because the vast majority of teachers are clueless as to how to use it.
I've got a baseless and unsupportable hypothesis (based on my lack of personal experience and lack of research) that teachers are afraid of technology, because their students know it better than them. And as a result, students are not getting the exposure to tech they need.
my personal experience would support your hypothesis.
back in my high school days (nearly 10 years ago now) I took a lot of 'computers' classes, because i wanted to learn about computers. but, i didn't. instead, I learned how to use things like 'corel word perfect', some power point clone, and 'turing' a programming language so limiting, it makes BASIC seem like C by comparison.
rather than learning about building computers and general computing concepts, i was taught how to use specific and now obsolete software. those courses and that knowledge are now useless to me.
how clueless were the teachers?
this was back in 1999, so not knowing about linux was still forgivable, but the misinformation i received, was not.
over the course of 3 years and 3 different computers classes, these are the highlights:
On a test, this question came up:
how many companies sell differing operating systems:
a. 1
b. 2
c. 3
d. more than 3.
apparently, the correct answer was b, not d. silly me...
i got 150% for participation, because i taught the teacher how to use computers before she could teach the class.
i got kicked out of class for playing computer games. but the assignment was 'to write your own computer game' and i was testing my own game! she refused to believe it was mine, even after going through my code line by line.
and finally, i got suspended for 'hacking'. some random 'error' dialogues were popping up on every system every hour or so, and i disabled them on my computer.
My experience shows me that you are correct. most teachers do not understand the technology that the students are growing up with.
last year, when booting up my laptop for one of my lessons, one of my students saw my ubuntu desktop and yelled out 'that's my system, too!'
Um, I think one of the perhaps very good reasons they don't use Linux is because the teachers are clueless as to how to use it.
They won't be able to find their icons to click on because they are on the top panel instead of the bottom? The same problem with the task bar and system tray?
An easy fix for that is to set up a special teachers image that puts everything on the bottom. You can even make it an ugly blue while you are at it.
I think that moving to OSX (which doesn't have the ability to change to fit the user) would be much harder for them.
Or do you mean teachers won't be able to fix things when they break. I doubt th
Teachers are clueless on how to use windows too. Teachers shouldn't be administering the things, just using apps that they're probably going to need to be trained for anyway.
Um, I think one of the perhaps very good reasons they don't use Linux is because the teachers are clueless as to how to use it.
Um, I think that the teachers are pretty clueless as to how to use Windows, too. I'd almost go as far as saying they're pretty clueless on how to run any hardware more advanced than hamster cages, but they generally can get students to do that for them.
Not to denigrate teachers - they are fine at what they're actually trained to do (i.e., teach), but most of them are the "typical computer user" (read clueless).
Totally agree, people are interested in applications not in operating systems.
It would be incredibly interesting if some people with more experience of school education software could put together a top 10 or top 20 list of common applications which are used throughout the country.
I'm sure the majority of them aren't very complex apps, and the learning material could be easily put together (perhaps with bounties for completing modules, it'd be a nice alternative source of income for teachers).
Anyway, with the goals in hand the problem of "Most educational software is poorly written for Windows." shouldn't be an issue, it's hard for me to write educational software because I don't have kids or experience teaching them... but with the right organisation I'd be happy to oblige.
This is something of a chicken and egg problem isn't there? I don't recall Windows having any sort of natural advantage when I was in school. It was all Apple ][s, except in the business department where they had some PS/2s running MS-DOS. A couple people thought Windows was interesting, but nobody was in a hurry to switch.
All of this Windows software has developed through the traditional "network effect," and that was nurtured through programs such as Microsoft's that put Windows on many desktops throughout the 90s. That doesn't mean it can't be brought to Linux someday, though. There has to be some demand before it happens. Either that, or some open source efforts to replace the poorly-written software that you mention.
I know people might hate this idea, but Linux will never see the kinds of growth Apple and Microsoft experienced.
Why? Because most Linux types are using Linux to use Linux. Most consumers use computers to chat with text and video. They want to watch movies. They want to read email. They don't want to be computer experts and they don't use any particular OS in order to be using that OS.
Many school applications are web applications. Or Java applications.
Also, many of those applications are easy to reproduce, take for example Carnegie Learning's cognitive tutor ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_Learning [wikipedia.org] ), not only it is easy to replicate, it also has many interesting challenges from the point of view of a computer scientist. Lot of room for improvement. It is a great job for an open source project.
The only problem is marketing. Most of this solutions are actually not that great, I ha
During college, I worked as IT support for an association of special education preschools. While I did get them to adopt OpenOffice, I immediately realized that I couldn't even recommend switching to Linux, because essential programs weren't supported.
One program that comes to mind is Boardmaker, by Mayer-Johnson. It's an extremely popular tool for helping autistic children, and not a complex program at all. It wouldn't be hard for open-source devs to replicate, but there is just no interest among developers. Unfortunately, without it, few special ed teachers will ever consider using Linux.
There is certainly demand for a free alternative as well - in part because of Boardmaker's $400/license price tag. Searching for "Boardmaker linux" or something of the sort reveals that people have asked for it, but gone unanswered. Perhaps the saddest request is this:
"My 11 year old son has autism and his a communication therapist has recommended Boardmaker by Nova logistics to help him communicate. He has had a great affinity for computers since he was 4 years old. He has a Pentium III 1Ghz powered Intel D815eea computer which I built for him.
Boardmaker sells for over $500 and we live on low, fixed income. I have been told that there may be an equivalent, Linux based program. If so, can you tell me what it is and where I can get it? Thanks for your help."
There were no responses.
I have not heard of a program for autistic children, but Klaus Knopper, one of the popular Linux engineers over here in Germany (if not the most popular for Knoppix) works on Linux for blind people. His wife is blind. There might be more Linux people out there that are handicapped themsleves or have close relatives that are. That can be a very high incentive to create useful tools.
A couple of years back, Massachusetts attempted to mandate open formats in state government. ODF was to be the office piece of this and MS pulled every dirty trick in the book to reverse or subvert that up to and including pulling strings to get the people pushing for this pressured to leave.
I suggest "massachusetts odf" as better set of search terms for Google.
Groklaw has an in-depth discussion. Click their search link and look for "Peter Quinn".
HAHAHAHAHAHAhaahehheh*sniff*, good one.
Wait, were you serious? Even with all that "ribbon" crap they've been replacing the menus with?
Now that the cat is out of the bag, it's hard to see what Microsoft can do other than what they did to
I like Linux as much as the next guy ( I run it almost exclusively) But seriously how many times do I have to read M$ is doomed! DOOOMMED!
Windows is popular in schools (as is mac) because the experience is more seamless then it is in a flavour of Linux. Schools are not trying to just teach computers to kids, their trying to get them to read, write, perform arithmetical, or other tasks that are SEEN as separate from the computing experience. As soon as you have to explain to teaching staff that Gnome isn't Linux isn't GNU isn't RedHat
I think Linux would be great is schools but until you have a reasonably seamless experience your not going to get anywhere.
The arguments always come down to cost: "Linux will save you money". Sure it will. But these institutions are used to spending money to get what they think they need. Your not going to win this argument with cost benefits alone, you have to convince them that Linux will do a better job then Windows and Mac and as of right now I don't think that's an easy case to make.
I don't know about you, but my newspapers constantly have articles on how the schools have no budget and the teachers are poor and the buildings are falling apart and yadda yadda yadda.
You'd think they'd jump at a chance to save some cash, no matter how little.
I put Microsoft's continued dominance down to momentum ("everybody uses Microsoft products") and fear ("if I decide to save some cash by moving from Windows to Linux, but the migration fails, we'll be out a lot of time and money and I'll be out on the street").
When your contract with Microsoft is about to run out, just tell them you're switching to Linux. Then you can get more Microsoft products for free.
When Microsoft stops offering freebies, then switch to Linux.
Problem solved.
but that's the catch. "Freebis" like Sharepoint tie Server, AD, SQL, and Exchange together in a way that simply can't be migrated to OSS. Sure it can be replicated, but you would have to rebuild everything done before to move off it. There are dozens of other MS products that tied in a similar manner. Not bad products, but the combine products can't be got away from easily.
When you almost always win.
Check his posting history (with all his 40 sock accounts), the guy does nothing but paste links to that blog. Recent example [slashdot.org]. Look at his comments, submissions and journal entries. Aside from "M$" what you'll see are links to that blog. And surprise, it's AdSense-enabled!
I think someone just figured out:
Lame, lame lame.
it shows that nothing has changed at Microsoft in the past 20 years. There is no "new Microsoft", there is no "kinder, gentler Microsoft", and there is no "Microsoft is a friend to open source".
It's all a lie for the purpose of furthering their goal of making sure Windows is the only OS for the vast majority of the populations.
Look at what's happening across the world:
http://knowledge.oscc.org.my/newsletters/first-quarterly-e-newsletter-jan-2009/at_download/file [oscc.org.my]
the government's documented savings is US$10mil last year. And there are numerous undocumented savings, as well as followons, schools are now putting OSS in, etc etc.
I made the switch to Linux with Ubuntu because, for most things, it works just plain better than Windows. But, getting this point across to the people I work with is, well, proving rather difficult.
Why is that? Because:
1) People are gullible. The people that make decisions about purchasing first look at a glossy sales brochure or pick what they saw advertised on TV. Then they then ask "Is this okay?" Linux doesn't have any shiny brochures, we never get asked if it's okay.
2) People are terrified of change, any change. They won't admit it, but they are. It's not that Linux is still harder to use than Windows (honestly, it's the other way around now, and I've proved it to people); it's that people don't want to change, even for the better.
3) People are lazy. I had instructors DEMANDING that I dual-boot to Linux (so I used a VMware image instead) and then they went off to teach MS Office instead of Open-Office... because there's a course-pack/textbook that includes online testing and grading (so they don't have to do any work).
In short, the problem is inertia. Unfortunately, Linux is going to have to get way better than Windows before the Educational "ship" can start to make some course corrections. Dumb, fearful, lazy people have to be beaten over the head with the obvious before they will change direction.
Now, the appropriate tool to beat said people over the head with is a turn-key Linux distribution that integrates into an Active Directory domain, right out of the box. One that includes an image-casting process that allows 100s of computers to be managed (deployed, updated, etc.) from a central console (PXE boot, the works). If I had that (turn-key), I might make some progress around here... though it would still take a while.
FOSS will eventually dominate education. It is inevitable. The Linux distributions out there are making phenomenal strides towards ease-of-use and overall functionality. In most aspects, they have already bested Windows. But, it will take time to overcome the inertia in Education. Honestly, I expect the business world will actually turn first. Education, despite its best efforts, is surprisingly conservative.
Linux is pretty bad when it comes to central management.
Its possible to roll a managed solution for a mixed Windows/Linux network with authentication based on LDAP and file sharing based on NFS and SAMBA, web apps authing back to LDAP, homedirs shared by NFS with a single client image installed from USB.
But its pretty ugly, insecure and requires a hell of a lot of application-specific configuration to get it to work seamlessly.
I know this, because I am responsible for administering a school network using Linux for servers and desktops (I inherited the system after a former disgruntled sysadmin left), and it is a hell of a lot more tricky than it could be.
Everything we have pretty much works, but i'm the only one associated with the organisation who can come remotely close to knowing how stuff works or what to do when stuff breaks. At least my business model is 'recession-proof', but frankly, the people running the school are powerless, and disenfranchised, and i find it pretty difficult to articulate any actual benefits of keeping the system on Linux beyond the expense involved in switching back to Windows - this is not the picture a lot of OSS advocates paint, or the way it should be.
It's been nothing but pain setting the system up - Its a good deal for me as they're kind of stuck paying me to admin the system, but does it really have to be this complex?
I'm a huge linux geek with a lot of real world programming and admin experiences, and the bottom line is if i had to do it again for another school, i'd pass and suggest they use Windows.
Thats why Windows wins in schools.
I've got a bad feeling about this.


text:
Trinette Johnson's most pressing issue of late has been ensuring she has a place to live. She was on the verge of being evicted a few months ago.
LAKELAND | A small horseshoe hangs above the front door of the apartment Trinette Johnson shares with her daughter, Brittney, in northeastern Lakeland.
Good fortune, though, has been in short supply lately for Johnson. She has a myriad of medical ailments and has been unable to work since 1995 because of disabilities.
A squarish lump on her right upper arm attests to a fistula, a surgically created entry point used in the kidney dialysis sessions Johnson undergoes three times a week. She speaks in a husky, hoarse voice that reflects the tracheostomy she received during emergency treatment of an asthma attack.
Johnson is 39 but gives the appearance of someone considerably older.
"I'm dealing with so many issues right now," she said. "All I can do is take it one day at a time."
Perhaps Johnson's most pressing issue of late has been ensuring she has a place to live. She was on the verge of being evicted a few months ago, and she is grateful for assistance from the Newspaper With a Heart Program.
The program, now in its 44th year, assists Polk �County residents in crisis by providing temporary assistance with rent, utilities and other essential needs. The funding comes through donations from readers of The Ledger. The newspaper and its partners, United Way of Central Florida, CPS Investment Advisors and SunTrust, cover all administrative costs so that 100 percent of donations goes to services.
Johnson said Newspaper With a Heart helped cover rent payments and an electricity bill. Meeting her living expenses is a constant challenge for Johnson. She said she receives $630 a month in Supplemental Security Income through a federal program that pays benefits to disabled adults and children who have limited income and resources.
Johnson said her monthly rent of $550 eats up most of that SSI check. She also receives food stamps, she said.
Johnson's daughter, Brittney Johnson, 20, recently moved in with her mother to help out. On a recent morning, Brittney mopped the floor as her mother discussed her challenges.
Johnson said she would like to find a cheaper place to live, but her options are limited. She isn't eligible to apply for "Section 8" housing — apartments that accept government vouchers to offer tenants low rents — because she has a criminal history.
Her many ailments also keep Johnson from being able to search for a less expensive apartment. And she said she can't afford to pay the insurance on her vehicle, further restricting her search effort.
"I want to move, but I can't move right now," she said.
Johnson said she has been on kidney dialysis since 2001. She began doing sessions in Orlando, where she lived at that time, and has continued her treatment there. She said the staff of the Orlando dialysis clinic has tried without success to find a slot for her at a center in the Lakeland area.
A van takes Johnson to Orlando three days a week, leaving at 5 a.m. Her dialysis sessions last nearly four hours, and they leave her exhausted for the rest of the day.
Johnson said she also has a heart irregularity known as atrial fibrillation, and she has a stent surgically implanted in her heart. Her other medical issues include thyroid gland problems, asthma and chronic pain.
Brittney Johnson was asked about her mother's many health woes.
"It's sad," she said, "but it's life."
Trinette Johnson said she has been frustrated in the past with the negative responses she got when she contacted some local charities.
"I finally got someone to help me this year," she said. "I never ask for help unless I really, really need it."
Johnson draws comfort from the presence of Snowy, her portly but energetic Chihuahua.
Attached to the horseshoe above the door is a piece of brown paper on which Johnson wrote the first two verses of the 19th Psalm: "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge."
"All I can do is pray to God," she said.
[ Gary White can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com or 863-802-7518. ]


text: I was invited by Amanda Keeys to photograph a wedding with her in Sydney! Sarah & Mitch were married in Church in Campbelltown, followed by their reception on the top of Mt Kirra. The view was amazing, the bridal party looking fantastic and Sarah & Mitch were just so in love, and I think it shows! Congratulations guys! You can view Amanda's amazing images HERE.