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Original URL: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/28/boot_to_gecko_mozilla_europe_president/
Crazy Geckos: Nitot on Mozilla's post-Firefox mobile crusade
Open-source handset versus Android and Apple
Posted in Software, 28th May 2012 13:33 GMT
First came the BlackBerry, bringing the smartphones for suits perfected by RIM to consumers. Next came the iPhone, which quickly hoovered up 23 per cent of the market. But the iPhone came at a price: the freedom of users and coders. It is tightly controlled by Apple, as Adobe quickly found to its cost with Flash.
Next up was Android. In just four years, Android exploited consumers' desire to poke and stroke their phones to become the world's most popular smartphone OS – burying the iPhone – with 59 per cent of the market.
Android had a plus: freedom of choice for both coder and consumer thanks to an open-source code base.
Honeycomb changed things: the Android code was yanked back inside the Googleplex as Mountain View asserted control over builds and contributions.
Since Honeycomb, contributions have only been possible after release – producing a kind of "tah-dah!" open source: here's the code we made earlier.
But that is no longer a problem for coders; now that Google owns a mobile handset business it's a problem for handset-makers. This is because Google not only has the inside track on what goes into future versions of Android, it also has the handset business, so it can also push out phones ahead of partners like the successful Samsung.
Nitot: web safe on the desktop
Meanwhile, Android has fragmented. Becoming big had a price, as it has been stretched and bent to fit devices with a fiendish variety of screens, chips, cameras and networking. This makes it very hard for developers to build one version of their app that runs everywhere.
This is exactly what happened to Java on handsets, which paved the way for Apple's iPhone and... well, you can see where this is headed.
If only there were a smartphone operating system choice which was open source, not tied to one single commercial operation and which used web technologies already established, rather than tailored to the unique needs of the phone.
Now, there is just such as OS – or at least the promise of one – and it comes from the Mozilla Foundation. Mozilla earlier this year unveiled Boot to Gecko (B2G), a Linux-based operating system that runs HTML5 web apps using the Gecko open-source layout engine used in Firefox, which opens up the phone's onboard systems such as the accelerometer or dialer to the web. It doesn't keep them in reserve for use by native apps or force them through some middle-man software code like Phonegap or Appcelerator's Titanium. B2G's Linux drivers allow HTML5 code to talk directly to the phone's dialer and accelerometer. Currently B2G runs on Qualcomm ARM and Samsung Galaxy SII and the Nexus. Handset makes and carriers get to customise the interface, too.
Mozilla Europe president Tristan Nitot is bullish about the concept. "Mobility is the key for the web but also for Mozilla," Nitot told us in an a recent interview at Mozilla's offices in London.
It is key for the web because mobility is the next battleground for openness and innovation on the web. And it's key for Mozilla because it is an ideology committed to a free and open internet, where developers and consumers have choices.
I'd argue, however, that B2G is key to Mozilla for another very important reason: Mozilla needs to get beyond Firefox, which made the group's name and which now seems to have been eclipsed by Google's Chrome in the battle to challenge Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
Mozilla has other projects such as Thunderbird and SeaMonkey also on the go, but it's Firefox that saw Mozilla cross the chasm of recognition to become a real force online, with articles abounding on how Mozilla is the "alternative" to Microsoft.
Nitot told me that he – and Mozilla – see mobility as history repeating itself. presenting an opportunity to liberate people from the dominant giants and deliver something that shakes up the status quo, forcing incumbents to change and innovate. When Mozilla released Firefox in November 2004, it re-energised an ossified browser market that had been dominated by Internet Explorer and it came as Microsoft declared grandly that no more could be done on browser development and that IE would in future be subsumed into Windows. Apparently, a browser that was not standards-compatible and forced the world to view the web though Microsoft's eyes was the pinnacle of evolution. Five years on, Firefox was growing at 40 per cent per year, adding more than 20 million active users as IE began to lose its grip as number one.
"As a citizen of the internet it is extremely scary in that I bought this device and I want to run the software I want. I don't understand why somebody in beautiful California can tell me what I can and can't run on this device." – Mozilla Europe President Tristan Nitot
"On the desktop the web is here to stay; the picture of browsers is healthy," Nitot said. Mobility is a game in play. "Mobility is a very different story because you have in your pocket a device that's a computer and you have no control over it. Whether you turn it on or off, the operating system... you don't know how it's done [and] depending on the brand you cannot run certain types of applications because the company that controls the app store doesn't let you run them.
"As a citizen of the internet it is extremely scary in that I bought this device and I want to run the software I want. I don't understand why somebody in beautiful California can tell me what I can and can't run on this device."
He refers not just to the fact you must build native apps, but also to the puritanism and myopic adjudications of the Golden State's app-store police that empowers the smartphone makers as censors.
All very idealistic, but there are hurdles.
Google's Android is the poster child for Linux on mobile but the phone biz is a cruel and hard place for open source. There are rules you must obey; ignore them and you get crushed or ignored into oblivion.
Obey the rules
Google's first foray into Android was shot down by the industry: it sold its first Nexus handset direct, cutting out the middleman and upsetting the telcos with which it was now competing. Google was soon forced to end direct sales. Remember the Neo FreeRunner in 2008? It was an open-source and Linux effort developed by the OpenMoko project under a GPL licence and was supposed to be manufactured by First International Computer. It was an idealist's dream, but apart from a few open-source diehards at the odd tech show nobody uses it and FIC doesn't seem to now be selling FreeRunner phones.
Mozilla is obeying the first rule of mobile: work with the telco big boys.
Chris Heilmann, principal evangelist at Mozilla for HTML5 and open web, told The Reg: "We don't sell the phone, we partner with those who know how to get the phone into people's hands. The main idea of B2G is it's so lightweight with only a Linux core with Firefox on top. For telcos it will be interesting to put them into markets where people can't afford smartphones. In the past every open-source phone tried to interrupt the US, European market – or Finnish market, in Neo's case."
Cut the Rope: Microsoft demonstrates its conversion to HTML5
Mozilla doesn't want you hacking your phone with B2G and upsetting the carriers, either. Heilmann warns that installing B2G on a phone today will break your phone and erase the existing copy of Android. Jailbreaking is not Mozilla's chosen path. "It's not made for that. We want to partner with people who know how to get phones out there and convince them HTML5 is the opportunity of the future rather than saying install it on your phone and show off because it's cool," Heilmann says.
Another challenge is whether B2G can match the iPhone or Android phones on performance. The rule on consumer devices is hard: get it right first time or go home. B2G handsets can't afford inferior performance.
B2G is working on performance by using hardware-accelerated 3D with WebGL, the JavaScript API for rendering 3D interactive graphics. It is hoped that, combined with a faster Firefox, HTML5 apps – games especially – will be as good as or better than native apps on iPhone or Android.
"A web game that doesn't run in 50 frames per second – that will feel sluggish... their [people's] Facebook app should perform as well as an iPad app and they only way we can do that is by juicing up the JavaScript engine and talking to the hardware teams using the acceleration that's out there," Heilmann says.
Hardware acceleration helps prolong battery life, too. Graphics performance is delivered using a graphics processor rather than the phone's CPU, which would drain the battery and mean the phone would need a lot of re-charging.
The payoff for developers on WebGL is that it's open, and thus takes the hard work out of writing HTML5 apps for different devices. "We have an even starting ground rather than having to find out what browser does what in the DOM (document object model)," Heilmann said.
The technology and the philosophy sound simple, but politics isn't and the telco business is very political. Apple and Google have billions in the bank to fund R&D and buy industry influence. Mozilla, by contrast, is a non-profit.
Mozilla says it can exert influence and lead by example. However, I think Mozilla's idealism will have to suit the self interest of partners, who will certainly find a way to help B2G suit their commercial goals.
On leadership, Mozilla believes its track record speaks for itself: with Firefox having forced Microsoft to re-start IE development and, recently, getting Google, Microsoft and others to follow its lead on Do-Not-Track in the browser. The Do-Not-Track project stops websites using your browser's history to track you around the web and keep serving you ads. Microsoft and Google have a foot each in the ads camp, running large ad-serving networks and partnering with ad-serving companies – meaning they were reluctant to back the kind of DNT that Mozilla introduced in Firefox 4 last year.
Power of a browser
Much of Mozilla's ability to exert influence has come from Firefox; however, that influence must be in question now the baton of growth has passed to Google's Chrome, which launched in 2008 and which now, according to some analysts, takes up 32 per cent of the market and has pushed IER out of the way to gain thenumber one spot. Firefox is stuck on around a quarter of the web and isn't growing.
Doesn't this reduce Mozilla's leverage on mobile?
Nitot expects growth to resume with the rapid release cycles introduced last year for Firefox and a re-architecting that reduced memory consumption to help Firefox lose its memory hog. "It's not perfect but we are cranking new stuff and people see that arriving on their desktops and it takes time for them to change their minds," Nitot says.
Adobe's Flash was Jobs' first iPhone victim
Nitot says: "If we have a market share that's big enough to be significant and put pressure on the competition – that's what I want. If we are big enough to put pressure on the others and have a good, healthy web, it's all right," he says. "Even a third place wouldn't be terrible."
On the subject of going up against moneybags Google and Apple, Mozilla is in a tricky – some might argue a "compromised" – position. Google is Mozilla's biggest financial backer, providing at least 86 per cent of its revenue: $300m, based on a 2010 financial statement. The pair renewed a deal last year that made Google the default search provider to Firefox. The deal sees Mozilla get a slice of search-ads related revenue from the Chocolate Factory.
Mozilla insists its search partner doesn't influence how it builds software. And, certainly, there have been ruptions between the pair. For example, when Google's former chief executive Eric Schmidt's lip was at its famous unbuttoned best in 2009, when he said that only people with "something to hide" wanted anonymity and privacy on the web. Soon after that, one of Mozilla's top developers started advising Firefox users to use Microsoft's Bing.
But it's obviously unhealthy to rely on one single source of income or a big financier. Especially if it is the web's largest ads engine. Especially not when your new phone undermines both the ads giant's handset and app store – using HTML5, B2G won't swallow apps from Google's Android marketplace. Instead, the idea is that you consume ordinary HTML5 apps that run in existing browsers. Even apps from Microsoft, such as the HTJL5 re-write of Cut the Rope that Redmond oversaw simply to prove the HTML5 credentials of IE9.
Nitot admits to ongoing discussions about finding sources of fresh funding but told me he has nothing new to announce. Meantime, there's no actual plan in place about how to make any money off B2G should actually follow the Firefox wave and take off. This really is the classic open-source school of "build it and they will come". Market now, monetise later.
According to Nitot, this is nothing new and a solution will present itself: he reminds me that he started Mozilla Europe nearly a decade ago ago from his apartment in Paris working with colleagues without getting paid. "As we enter a very different market with B2G there are things in to be invented there – but I don't know what, to be very candid.
"I started Mozilla Europe nine years ago and for first six months I was scratching my head on how I could make money and I couldn't find a natural answer. I tried training, fees, custom builds and one day I woke up and realized 'I'm wasting my time with that. Let's make a good product and convince millions of people to use Firefox and the rest will follow'.
"With B2G if we have really good product - and it's a strong focus in the Mozilla culture to have something that's delightful to use - the rest will follow."
Apple's Steve Jobs saw the money and implemented restrictions for the iPhone which he didn't, and that Apple now can't, apply retrospectively to the Mac.
If B2G is the new Firefox, then Mozilla and the open web stand a chance on mobile. Ideals are a luxury in the fast-paced world of money and power: the iPhone has only been with us since 2007 yet has 23 per cent of the smartphone market. Android booted in 2008 and has 59 per cent. Samsung is top of the Android pile. Last year, devices outsold PCs for the first time, generating billions of dollars for their makers and owners.
The other factor that might help B2G is the commercial interests of carriers and handset makers. An open alternative such as BSG would suit companies, letting them deliver branded versions of phones tailored with services they want. Importantly, it could overcome one of the biggest stumbling blocks for such companies: the app store. Sure we can all throw them up, but populating them is another proposition entirely. Using a model that uses pre-existing HTML apps could prove one way around this.
B2G has early support. Spanish carrier Telefonica plans to deliver B2G handsets in Brazil this year. Nitot says Telefonica is interested because B2G lets it deliver a smartphone at feature-phone prices.
The twist is, carriers and handset makers actually do crave the kind of power and control enjoyed by Apple with a closed market and development model. Apple's Steve Jobs saw the money and implemented restrictions for the iPhone which he didn't, and that Apple now can't, apply retrospectively to the Mac.
Mozilla will have to hope idealism wins out, and feeds into a belief that a web that's open to all pays better than a web that locks you in.
"When we launched Firefox I had a colleague of mine saying to the press here in the UK we'd be at 10 per cent market share by the middle of next year, I wanted to stop him. I wanted to say it's crazy, but we did. Now we are doing Boot to Gecko. These are crazy challenges, but it's in the nature of Mozilla to do crazy things that nobody thinks we would succeed at," Nitot says. ®


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Thus you want a camera with digital image stabilization, as good wideangle as possible and at least 5 megapixels. Last time I did the round up (a few months ago) there were surprisingly few cameras that met these conditions - mostly because most of what is on the shelves in "Best Buy" (not best for at least several years) does not have any wideangle whatsoever.
My purchase was Panasonic Lumix LX-2 [dpreview.com] which, at the time, was not available in any store in Boston so I had to order it from Vahns. I was not disappointed and even found the movie mode to be useful - it has a higher resolution than my camcorder (which is NTSC like) and, best of all, the movie files are mpeg4 encoded and play readily on my Kubuntu systems.
Anything with more than 5 megapixels needs digital image stabilization - otherwise your extra resolution will be smeared out by natural shaking of your hands (or even your tripod - but this takes effect later).
A solution for the traveler is explained here [metacafe.com] You can also make a bipod or a trypod as explained in this image [travelvice.com]
I use 12Mp Nikon D2x and on sort focal lengths, all my lenses are of the non Images Stabilised type and I get perfectly sharp images with
I would like to say this is absolute bull. How on earth does the image resolution have anything to do with sharpness etc of the image? IMHO, nothing at all. I use 12Mp Nikon D2x and on sort focal lengths, all my lenses are of the non Images Stabilised type and I get perfectly sharp images with it handheld.
It is really quite simple - when you tilt camera by a certain angle the image would shift by 1 pixel. For two cameras covering the same scene the one with more pixels will have the smaller angle. Thus for the extra pixels to actually make a difference you need the camera to move less than that angle during the exposure.
To test this put a thin black hair on a letter or A4 size piece of paper and take an image. Ideally it should be 1 pixel wide, but 3 antialiased pixels is probably to be expected with todays cameras. If you see more than 5 pixels the camera was shaking too much relative to the object and the same quality could be achieved with a sensor of 1/2 resolution (and thus 1/4 of megapixels).
As for your shots, yes I can easily believe that with large wideangle (corresponding to 0.5 zoom) you can make use of 10 MP without stabilization. However, none of pocket sized cameras have lenses that can do that - and I find the ability to have the camera always with me quite useful.
Anything with more than 5 megapixels needs digital image stabilization - otherwise your extra resolution will be smeared out by natural shaking of your hands (or even your tripod - but this takes effect later).
Although image stabilisation is great and desirable it has nothing to do with the number of pixels.
Similarly large "tele" zoom is useless - if you zoomed in 10x closer to your subject you have 10 times the effect of shaking (and thus need a good tripod or very short exposure time).
A large telezoom is very desirable and indeed is increasing the chances of 'shake'.
But just because it's available on your camera doesn't mean you have to use it even in adverse light, after all it's a zoom...
Good wideangle on the other hand is great - not only you can get more of the scene in a small room but it also reduces the effect of shaking.
A valuable advice.
The majority of cameras have a 35 mm (equivalent) wide angel setting but 28 mm. would be much better for indoor and landscape photography.
One of the compact cameras with a good len
The ideal solution is to simply find a job that allows you to stay in your basement. I hear that people that have mastered this art seem to have congregated at some website that combines the '/' and '.' characters.
A towel and a copy of your HHGTTG,
And maybe a hammer to whack Marvin with. If he's going to be so depressed all the time, might as well give him a reason to be.
Second this. I got one of these after getting sick of carting my full size laptop around in a backpack for emergency work. Its tiny, light, comes with a nice distro of Xandros which just works (tm), and I plug it straight into my 3G phone for internet anywhere. Great battery life. Goes up to 1024 x 768 so great for web-based demos through client projectors. Starts up in 20 seconds. Open Office for document work (though personally I use google docs).
Best of all its cheap, and I don't keep any data on it (s
And it truly is a "lap"top, "knee"top even, as I'm typing this on my eee in m
Can you buff out your carrying strength with some kind action? You know, like weights or something? Or maybe just put it in your bag of holding.but dSLRs are too heavy for my needs and carrying strength
I got myself a used HP nc4010 [hp.com] for cheap. I maxed out its RAM, put a big HDD in it, installed the 802.11g wireless board, and got the optional travel battery. To cap it off I got a mini bluetooth mouse, and its been great. I can dual boot it to windows or gentoo and it runs just dandy. It can even play WoW at about 7fps. Total investment was about $500. Its small and light even with the extra battery.
You could probably do as well with something similar, I've read that the IBM ultra-portables are pretty nice also.
cell phone: Don't ask me. Find someone who really cares about the different models. You'd probably be best with a combined phone/GPS rather than having two separate units.
Camera: If you tend
Do you really need to go?
I gave up plane travel years ago.
GSM quad band phone - communications and 3G connectivity. WiFi for non-cell 'net access. VGA screen so browsing is actually usable. MicroSD cards so you can have several 4 GB cards to store pretty much anything. Built-in camera. Windows Mobile Pro so you can read/edit Word docs, use PDF readers, etc. GPS so you don't get lost. And the keyboard for when you need to type for more than a few minutes.
You'll get all the media player capabi
First, you don't need your music. You simply want it.
Second, anything you return to the USA with may be taken at the border and searched, including computers and storage devices. Be aware of the information you're traveling with, and where it's backed up otherwise.
Thirdly, don't take anything you can't afford to lose. The USA are not the only border guards you'll face, along with all the other predators out looking to take advantage of the richly equipped foreign traveler.
The best tech to take with you is a homebuilt mod (it's not that difficult to make) to let you run your PDA, phone, camera, or whatever using standard AA batteries that can be bought at any kiosk or supermarket. Trust me, when you travel, even if you carry 4-5 or more batteries for each device with you, at some point you will find yourself with no power for your device and no power socket to recharge it.
For the curious, the reason I had two iPods is that I took my 40 gigabyte hard-drive based model that has my complete library, for listening to music in the hotel, and my Nano for listening to audio books and podcasts in the hotel and on the go. The flash-based players are better for the latter, because they are more response if you miss something and need to skip back a few seconds.
If I were doing that trip again now, I'd probably buy a Kindle. That would be perfect for a train trip.
If you are going to remote places, you should check out a Solio Charger [solio.com], which will charge your gadgets (at least, the phone, camera and other small stuff) using the sun.
My mother-in-law got me one for Xmas, and it is quite cool.
...there can be no public or private virtue unless the foundation of action is the practice of truth. - George Jacob Holyoake

subset: commoncrawl


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First-Gen Xbox 360 Games Single-Threaded? 158
Scott Gualco wrote to mention a report at The Inquirer indicating that, despite the 360 itself being capable of multi-threading, first generation 360 titles will be single-threaded. From the article: "Every new machine has a nasty first set of games as the programmers work up to speed on the hardware. In this case, the up side is that there is about 6x the CPU power available and coming to a console near you in the second generation of games. The scary part is that everyone tells me that the PS3 is harder to program for than the Xbox360, and the tools are nowhere near the quality of Microsoft's. That means that even with an extra six months of design time, the initial PS3 games may be worse." Commentary available at Joystiq.


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The guys who identify talent for professional football teams and put their suggestions in front of the head coach and general manager are not the guys who get their names on the covers of magazines.
They are the guys, however, who get their teams on the covers of magazines.
Whether the players are found at the NFL Scouting Combine or on film of their college careers, or on flashes they show with other team, the assessment of those players is what makes the real difference in organizations.
The Eagles director of player personnel is a man named Ryan Grigson and, more than likely, you have never heard of him. He was promoted to this job by new general manager Howie Roseman not long after the 2009 season, and was in place for the 2010 draft, along with a new director of pro personnel and a new college scouting chief. All of those guys are qualified and all, including Roseman, work hard to get the right players on the roster.
There are other considerations, of course. Finding a gem in the lower rounds of the draft or by signing undrafted players as free agents can be a very cost-effective way to put together a team. That's always welcome.
Although the Eagles had a lot of injuries and many bench players were forced into larger roles than expected, the team that finished the season against the Packers simply wasn't that talented. If you consider Andy Reid the CEO of the football operation, that is his fault, which was the subject of a column earlier this week.
Against the Packers, 10 of the 22 starters came into the league either as 7th-round draft picks or as undrafted free agents. That seems high and you can make the observation that perhaps the Eagles spent too much time picking the low-hanging fruit. I tried to make that point in one of those Noah Coslov hostage videos.
Look specifically at the defense (and I included Joselio Hanson as a starter because the Eagles play a nickel as their base defense more often than not). Among the group that played against the Packers, Juqua Parker, Quintin Mikell, Hanson, Dmitri Patterson and Antonio Dixon were undrafted free agents and Jamar Chaney, Kurt Coleman and Moise Fokou were 7th-round picks. That's 8 of 11 starters. Too many.
It's no wonder the Eagles' defense allowed the most points of any defense in the Andy Reid era. You can scream about Sean McDermott all you like. He didn't have any talent to work with by the end. It's almost a miracle the team got as far as it did. Was it a successful season? In this video, Marcus Hayes seems to think so. I'm not as sure.
I do think it's obvious the Eagles have to do a better job of making sure the depth on the roster is not just comprised of low-budget fill-ins. That might mean some hard decisions at the top of the roster if the salary-cap money is going to be spread around, but it will also mean the team doesn't end up relying on a bunch of guys who sneaked into the league by the back door.


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More than Half of Local Health Departments Cut Services in First Half of 2011
Contact Becky Wexler
More than Half of Local Health Departments Cut Services in First Half of 2011
New survey confirms budget cuts and job losses continue to undermine local public health departments
Washington, DC (October 4, 2011) – According to the results of a new survey released by the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), from July 2010 to June 2011, more than half (55 percent) of all local health departments reduced or eliminated at least one program, with services for mothers and children among the hardest hit. Other areas experiencing significant reductions included those designed to protect Americans and keep them safe, including emergency preparedness, immunizations, chronic disease screening, and personal health services such as home health care and mental health services.
Job loss continues. From January-June 2011, more than four out of every 10 (43 percent) local health departments lost at least one employee, as they collectively shed 5,400 jobs. Factoring in reduced hours and mandatory furloughs brought the percentage of local health departments experiencing some type of negative job impact to 52 percent, equal to the percentage of local health departments reporting negative job impact during the full year prior (2010). Since 2008, local health departments have lost a total of 34,400 out of a total 155,000 jobs due to layoffs and attrition.
"Local health departments have been operating on leaner budgets and fewer staff since 2008," said Robert M. Pestronk, NACCHO's executive director. "Fewer staff means a loss of key protections for you and me. But with the loss also comes resourcefulness and innovating ways to make the most of the staff and funding that remain."
For example, in response to losing millions in their budget and eliminating 20 staff positions, Coconino Public Health Services District in Arizona took advantage of a recently-passed statute and became its own tax district in 2010. The health department now has a dedicated, stable funding source and health officials can target funding at local priorities.
The Huron County Health District in Ohio has implemented a series of efficiencies, including inventory management, resource allocation, and new financial tracking systems as they work to revamp their programs and services to be more self sustaining. Employees are conceiving new ways to conserve resources while still meeting community needs.
Learn more about the Local Health Departments Job Losses and Program Cuts: Findings from July 2011 Survey at www.naccho.org/jobloss.
Follow news about budget cuts and job losses in local health departments across the country at www.naccho.org/newsmap.
About the National Association of County and City Health Officials


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The Institute communicates its scientific and educational information in a number of ways. One major outlet is peer-reviewed publications and reports. Cary Institute staff regularly publish in the best-rated journals in their respective fields.
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Ecological engineering and the sustainable redesign imperative", in L. Garnier (ed.). Between Man and Nature: Making the Relationship Last, 2008, p. 138-139., "


text: Carbine Studios doesn't mince words when talking about their mission statement. It's right there on their website: "We're Carbine Studios--a developer formed by a bunch of gamers looking to make the Next Great MMO." It's a studio out to fix seemingly every niggling problem the MMO genre has had since the beginning of time. They want to fix the lack of interactivity; the endgame problems that plague seemingly every MMO, and the way the content is actually delivered. Their first project, WildStar, is one big clearinghouse for ideas from people who have worked on everything from Ultima Online to Dark Age of Camelot to World of Warcraft. It's an MMO that wants to be all things to all people, crazy as that sounds. focalbox Like World of Warcraft, Carbine wants to have massive 40-man raids and huge dungeons; like Dark Age of Camelot, they want great PVP, and like Star Wars Galaxies, they want to cater to crafters, settlers, and explorers. So much is going on that it feels as if the whole idea could end up simply shaking apart; or worse, feeling boring and under-developed. All of those elements, however, are part of a broader mission to craft an MMO that has tons to do, but also doesn't force a player down any one path. Content director Mike Donatelli, who has worked on Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer Online, describes it like this: "I'll play another MMO, do the story, finish up, have some fun, and look back on it as a discreet chunk of time. Here it's like you'll be in an area and doing a quest, then you'll be doing a challenge, then you kind of run off into a tangent, but that tangent also dovetails into what you're doing." He continues: "It all feels very 'gamey,' but we embrace the hell out of gamey. We love gameplay. Gameplay is king. It's just fun, right? We should just keep making games that are fun and not focusing on what we're going to force people into doing." That approach--the freedom to explore and do what you want--is coded into the story itself. WildStar is set on a wild, unexplored planet that is just being settled by competing factions. Essentially, players are being plopped down on the frontier and told to have at it. It's pretty much a complete 180 from Star Wars: The Old Republic, where everything is subordinate to the story. In fact, up until the endgame, WildStar doesn't figure to focus much on story at all. "We only start the story at cap," Donatelli says. "You will get little bits and pieces. But only when you hit cap do you get the full story. It was deliberate. We want something to look forward to." In the meantime, you will find yourself completing a variety of quest chains that are built to be completed in around two hours. Donatelli likens it to an episode of the A-Team: "At the end of this playthrough, I rescued a town, saved someone, and now I'm done. It keeps people from being confused when logging in." For those who don't mind exploring a little bit though, there's much more. Wander to another part of the map, and you're apt to trigger another quest chain if you're at the right level. If you're an Explorer, one of several sub-specialties, you can uncover hidden caves or climb to the top of a mountain and plant a flag. If you're a Soldier, you can just hang out and kill monsters. That's where the promise of being 'all things to all players' starts to come into focus. One of the direct results of this approach is that WildStar is almost constantly peppering you with content. Wander around for a bit, and you might find a skull that can be plopped on a pile for a zone-wide buff. Wander around a bit more, and you might randomly be asked to shoot down a hovercopter with a bazooka. Quests come in seemingly every few seconds, and they can be completed just as quickly. The long travel times and gaps between quests that sometimes plague other MMOs are so far virtually non-existent in WildStar. Above all, Donatelli wants players to feel like they're free to do whatever they want: "Some MMOs are built around the idea that you have to play X-number of hours. We've locked you into a path. We've measured it, and tested it, and you can't go faster than this. We took the barriers out, because we'd be foolish to turn around and say that it's going to take anyone 300 hours to get through this game. You can never count on what a player will do. Players are smart. They're going to work around your artificial blocks." And for those who do work around those blocks? Donatelli says the idea is to reward players who hit the level cap with new gameplay modes--think large-scale PVP--and a substantial storyline. Carbine also plans regular monthly events, many of which are being developed right now, and weekly content drops. Of course, every MMORPG developer promises an endless amount of content, but it feels like there's a special urgency over at Carbine to make sure that people don't run out of things to do in WildStar. They make comparisons to China, where free-to-play MMORPGs are king, and content updates have to be almost constant in order to satisfy voracious fans. They know that as soon as people run out of things to do, they will be gone, never to return. Crazy as it seems to try and reach out and appeal to every single type of MMO fan (Carbine even hits the furry demographic with the bunny-like Aurins), it feels almost necessary given the scope of the content that WildStar is trying to deliver. A narrower focus risks narrowing the content too, and potentially boring a subset of players who don't want to go on raids, but definitely want to collect things and build houses. And to its credit, Carbine is making it easy on itself by building a platform early on that will allow them to modify their world almost on the fly, which should allow them to get new content to the masses almost on the fly. All told, it's an ambitious project that holds a lot of promise. Maybe Carbine won't make "the next great MMO," but given all the talent and intelligent ideas behind WildStar, it should at least be a fun one. It is expected to launch sometime this year. Click for all new WildStar images


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Hi I really need help with this issue because I'm pulling my hair out on this one.
I'm running on Wordpress 3.1.1. Atahualpa 3.6.4
I want to show 2 posts on my home page and at least 10 post excerpts on multi posts pages.
I've set the number of post to show on the home page to 2 from "WP Settings -> Reading".
When I do this, I found that every other page that are suppose to have multiple post shows max 2 post. Tag pages, category pages, monthly archives, search results. Every supposed multi post page shows at most 2 posts.
So I went back to fiddle with "WP Settings -> Reading" and found when I change the number of post to show, every multi page post follows.
I've tried using custom menu and it does not work. And I've tried creating archives page from the Atahualpa theme options and it does not work. And I cannot find the line on query_posts in the coding.......
Nothing seems to work. Every multi post page follows what I set on "WP Settings -> Reading".
I want to show 2 posts on my home page and at least 10 or all posts excerpts on multi posts pages.
Will the good people here pls pls help with a solution. I have a feeling that it is a quick fix. Just that I'm too blur to see it.


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Sophisticated Asterisk Development with Adhearsionby Jay Phillips
Editor's Note: Jay Phillips is the creator of Adhearsion and has written a section about the open source Ruby framework for the upcoming second edition of Asterisk: The Future of Telephony. We're proud to present this expanded excerpt of Jay's material here on ETel. The newly updated version of O'Reilly's best-selling Asterisk book is available now as a Rough Cut.
As Asterisk has matured, both in technological innovation and in appealing to the masses, the subject of programming complex, enterprise-grade logic with Asterisk alone remains unsolved. The web interface in version 1.4 constitutes an enormous leap forward for the deployment of Asterisk in small businesses where the usage pattern is predictable. Small businesses need an easily managed PBX that reduces monthly phone costs, and Asterisk fits the ticket well.
Beyond the predictable, however, the GUI and even Asterisk's internal extensions.conf and AEL grammars break down. They commonly do not account for the sophisticated uses to which the rest of the software industry has grown accustomed. Having a relatively limited toolbox of functions and little development pattern optimization, these grammars remind us of the embedded assembler languages beyond which most server software developers have matured.
Common pain-points in Asterisk dial plan authoring include:
- Conditional looping and branching
- Variables
- Complex data structures
- Database/LDAP integration
- Use of third-party libraries
- Exchanging and distributing VoIP functionality
- Extending the configuration languages
- Poor error handling
- Poor date and time handling
- Pattern matching
- Usage consistency
- Source code organization
Supporting higher-level concepts implies the use of a language both with internal support for these criteria and an extensive existing code base with which applications can be written. Aiming to solve this issue, Adhearsion arose with a new approach.
Asterisk Development with Adhearsion
Adhearsion is an open source (LGPL) framework that, in simplest terms, improves Asterisk development. It rests above an Asterisk system, handling parts or all of the dial plan and, in a few unique ways, manages access to Asterisk with several improved interfaces. Because it runs as a separate daemon process and integrates through the already present Gateway (AGI) and Manager (AMI) interfaces, configuring a context to use Adhearsion is as simple as adding a few lines to your dial plan or adding a user to manager.conf.
Adhearsion primarily uses the highly dynamic, object-oriented Ruby programming language with optional support for other languages such as C or Java. In the VoIP world, many things simply do exist as conceptual objects, making object-oriented programming here particularly comfortable. Scripting languages per se also improve developer productivity by removing tedium such as recompiling, memory management, strict data types, and other extraneous formalities. Those familiar with Python, Perl, or other scripting languages should have no trouble picking up another similar scripting language like Ruby.
Installing Adhearsion
Ruby software is generally installed through Ruby's package manager, an analog to Linux package managers but for the Ruby platform exclusively. Adhearsion exists as a gem in the standard RubyGems trove so, with Ruby and RubyGems installed, Adhearsion is only one install command away.
Installing Ruby/RubyGems on AsteriskNOW
AsteriskNOW comes standard with Ruby but not RubyGems (for support reasons). Thankfully, RubyGems can be easily installed from the Ruby rPath trove with the following command:
conary update rubygems=ruby.rpath.org@rpl:devel
source /etc/profile
Installing Ruby/RubyGems on Linux
Most Linux distributions' package managers host a Ruby package, though some oddly do not have RubyGems. With your respective distro's preferred software management application, install Ruby 1.8.5 or later and RubyGems if available. If RubyGems is not available, it can be easily downloaded and installed from http://rubyforge.org/projects/rubygems.
Installing Ruby/RubyGems on Mac OS X
Ruby actually ships standard with OS X, but you will need to upgrade it and install RubyGems from MacPorts, an OS X package manager. With MacPorts installed (available from http://www.macports.org if you do not already have it) you can install Ruby and RubyGems with the following command:
sudo port install ruby rb-rubygems
You may also need to add
/opt/local/bin to your PATH variable in


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Like brother Bryan, Taylor Fletcher keeps improving every year. After a strong 2011 season, Taylor stepped it up again in 2012 with six Continental Cup podiums in seven races, multiple points-scoring World Cups and a career best 14th on the 2013 World Championships course in Italy. Already known as one of the strongest cross country skiers on the Team, Taylor continued to improve his jumping in 2012. His pathway to the Team came after two seasons of solid finishes at the U.S. Championships, and a top 15 finish at World Juniors, joining brother Bryan on the Team and then earning a spot on the 2010 Olympic Team where he competed in both nordic combined and ski jumping.
Name: Taylor William FletcherSport: Nordic combinedHometown: Steamboat Springs, COCurrent Location: Park City, UtahSchool: Westminster CollegeHow/when did you decide you wanted to compete: When I was born, it was the sport to do in my hometown. I felt like I was pretty good at it, and things are getting there!Biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Bing a part of the Olympic team and World Championship team.Goals for next season: Medals at world championships and World Cup podiums.Favorite snow destination: Oslo, Norway is the birthplace of my sport! People really care for it there!Favorite non-snow destination: Courchevel, France. Amazing biking and fun jump hills, and tasty cheese!If you weren't a professional athlete what would you be: Hard to say! Most likely a student!Time you've been most scared in your life: Hard to say, I do get scared easy, but nothing stands out. I was the most nervous when I competed in the Vancouver Olympics!What you do you when you are not training or competing: I am mostly sleeping to recover from training and competitions, But hanging out with friends is good time!Biggest vice: Probably eating! That or sleeping.Biggest pet peeve: Loud eating! I can't stand it, please chew with your mouth closed!Advice to others who want to follow in your footsteps: Give it a try. If you like it do the work, things will pay off and you'll have a great time!


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I think she would have a really close relationship with Rose. Rose loves her so much. I also think Rose gets a bad rep for not caring if Bella died. Remember that is Edward's perspective. The fact that Rose would stop him from forcing Bella into an abortion equates to her only caring about the baby to him. It doesn't mean that was all that she felt.
I also think Renesmee would want a close relationship with Edward because most little girls long for a caring relationship with their Daddy's. I just assume having a Dad who can read your mind would be a little awkward once you hit puberty.
She gave Alice headaches before she was born? I don't think they will be very close if that's the case. Obviously Alice loves her but how could she be close to someone who makes her feel bad. She was close to Jacob but only because he made her Nessie induced headaches go away, right?
I don't remember SM explaining how the half vampire/half humans affect Alice after birth. Do they just make it so she is blind like the wolves or do they make her head hurt. Either way doesn't it seem like Alice would get sick of feeling bad surrounded by wolves and Nessie?


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Residents have gotten their first glimpse at the new grocery store that will occupy the long vacant Dominick's in downtown Rolling Meadows, and most are happy with what they see.
Representatives from Clark Street Development and Uncle Joe's Tuscan Fresh Market, which will anchor the shopping center, presented their plan to neighbors at a community meeting Thursday night.
Construction on the shopping center, to be renamed Meadows Marketplace, is expected to start mid-May so the grocery store can meet an Oct. 1 open date, said Fritz Duda, principal with Clark Street.
That construction will involve redoing the parking lot, lighting and landscaping -- all of which were abandoned for nearly nine years. Major facade improvements will put the entire center in brick.
There will also be an indoor loading dock for trucks to deliver in all weather and eliminate noise for neighbors, developers said.
"I think it's a great fit," owner Louis Ruffalo said. "We're a real neighborhood grocery store, we want to see our customers every day and be on a first-name basis with them."
Nat Caputo, who is related to the Caputo family's line of grocery stores, is also involved in the project, but was not at Thursday's meeting.
Ruffalo said the major draw at Uncle Joe's will be the produce section -- which will be delivered fresh seven days a week. But he said it will also be a full-service store.
"We're here for the long haul, we want to dig our roots deep in Rolling Meadows and be involved in this community," he said.
Neighbors responded positively, many thanking developers after the meeting for coming to the community.
Longtime resident Rich Rehner said he hoped this would be the beginning of a larger revitalization for Rolling Meadows.
"I think this could be a showcase of a downtown area," Rehner said. "Hopefully it spreads down Kirchoff Road."
Clark Street Development also is looking to develop a small parcel closer to Kirchoff Road that could be a fast-food restaurant or a bank, Duda said.
There are also several smaller storefronts in the shopping center to be filled.
"We are just starting to market the rest of the center and that's what we hope to accomplish in the next six months," Duda said.
In March, developers will appear before a variety of city commissions and the city council for approvals, before starting construction.
Last September, Peter Eisenberg, a Clark Street principal, said the redevelopment is expected to cost about $4.5 million.
The Rolling Meadows City Council has agreed to give the developer approximately $700,000 in tax increment financing money.


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Greenpeace challenges luxury fashion brands
Member since February 13, 2013
- 8 Posts
Greenpeace challenges luxury fashion brands to clean up thei...
When it comes to fashion many consider multi-million dollar brands like Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Chanel and Hermès. Greenpeace threw down the gauntlet to these major luxury fashion brands, challenging these companies with questions about their supply chains. They refused to take part in this survey, denying the public transparent information. What could they have to hide?
To make your voice heard, join the Fashion Duel at: www.thefashionduel.com.


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Tropical Nights Riviera Maya
- Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya
- Carretera Cancun-Chetumal KM 72, Riviera Maya, Quintana Roo Mexico
Additional Information
The inaugural country music adventure Tropical Nights in Riviera Maya, Mexico will include performances and exclusive opportunities to hang with some of country's biggest stars — Dierks Bentley, Brantley Gilbert, Billy Currington and Jana Kramer.
The getaway begins Feb. 23, 2014 and runs through Feb. 27, with each artist headlining a separate night. In addition to the music, fans will be able to take advantage of excursions with the artists, VIP upgrades, golf, spa packages and much, much more. It's all happening at the brand new Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya, an oceanside resort with 12 world-class restaurants, 10 bars, six swimming pools and a designer golf course near Cancun, Mexico.
Visit the Tropical Nights website for more information about this amazing Taste of Country event, and follow onFacebook to stay up to date on ticket announcements and added bonuses.
Bentley, Gilbert, Currington and Kramer will all come armed with new music as well. 'I Hold On' is Bentley's first single from the upcoming 'Riser' album, while 'Hey Girl' is the new song from Currington's 'We Are Tonight' album, available Sept. 17. Gilbert is currently in studio writing and recording the follow-up to the critically acclaimed, game-changing album 'Halfway to Heaven.' Kramer is also working on new music to follow up her self-titled debut.
Want to go to Tropical Nights 2014? Packages go on sale Thursday, Sept. 26 at 12PM ET. Find Tropical Nights on Twitter at @TropNights and check back for more details on vacation packages.


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Born: 1937, Debrecen, Hungary
Describes living on a kibbutz and dealing with language barriers [Interview: 1995]
Rifka was raised in a religious family in Debrecen. In the early 1940s, her family moved to Cluj (Kolozsvar) in Northern Transylvania, annexed to Hungary from Romania in 1940. In 1944, she and her family were forced to leave their house in Cluj. They were rounded up by Hungarian troops helping the Nazis and taken to a brick factory where they stayed for a month. In June 1944, Rifka was transported to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Eight months later she was transported to Switzerland. She sailed to Palestine in September 1945. She was sent to a kibbutz upon arrival, rejoining her mother in Haifa three years later. Her brother joined the navy. Rifka immigrated to the United States in 1958.
Copyright © United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC


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Bluetooth is a wireless communication standard that can connect devices over a range of 30 feet. While we are all familiar with connecting our cell phones to a Bluetooth headset (like my new Jabra BT5020), there are numerous other peripherals that use Bluetooth to eliminate wires.
Add Bluetooth
To start, you need to have a Bluetooth transmitter on your computer. Embedded Bluetooth cards are becoming very popular in laptop computers. If you are purchasing a new laptop, make sure that it includes a Bluetooth card.
For those who need to add Bluetooth to an existing laptop or desktop, it is very simple. Several companies offer Bluetooth adapters ranging in price from $20 to $50. These adapters usually connect via USB and look much like a flash memory drive.
A unique Bluetooth adapter is the Kensington Micro Bluetooth Adapter. It is the size of a penny and when plugged into a USB port, sticks out less than a quarter of an inch. This allows you to connect the device and not have to remove it to put your laptop away.
Ways to Use Bluetooth
Wireless keyboards and mice that use RF wireless technology have limited range and can be fussy. Switching to a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse will give you more stability and range. Many of these devices come with their own Bluetooth adapter, so you won?t need to purchase an additional device. The Logitech diNovo Edge is the most advanced Bluetooth keyboard to date.
Use your cell phone as a mobile broadband modem to take advantage of the benefits of becoming a truly mobile real estate agent without the additional expense of purchasing a dedicated mobile broadband card.
Take advantage of VOIP telephone services, such as Skype, to save money on your phone bill. VOIP services are gaining in popularity, but it is very inconvenient to be tethered to your computer. With a Bluetooth headset, you can venture up to 30 feet from your computer while on the phone. You can use the same Bluetooth headset that you use for your cell phone, or get a dedicated VOIP handset like the Kensington Internet Phone. This handset folds up to slide into your laptop?s PCMCIA slot for storage and battery charging.
Synchronize your cell phone data. Why plug in your smartphone when you could sync your contacts, calendar, tasks and notes with your computer using Bluetooth. With the appropriate software, many standard cell phones can be synced with a computer. That way, you don?t have to worry about losing your data. It also makes loading contacts into your phone a lot easier.
Transfer photos from your cell phone to your computer. Many cell phone providers charge you to email photos from your phone. Instead of emailing them to get them to your computer, transfer them via Bluetooth.
Print wirelessly to mobile printers equipped with Bluetooth. The HP Deskjet 460wbt Mobile Printer makes printing contracts, presentations, and tours from anywhere a breeze.
Listen to music and movies without wires. The Motorola MOTOROKR S9 Bluetooth Stereo Headphones provide quality sound and double as a cell phone headset.
How are you using Bluetooth Wireless Technology to improve your real estate business?


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By Don Davis
Trying to control dangerous synthetic drugs is a lot like playing the old carnival game whack-a-mole.
In the game, every time a player uses a mallet to whack a mole sticking its head out of one hole, another mole pops up in another hole, Executive Director Cody Wiberg of the Minnesota Pharmacy Board told a state House committee Tuesday. In the serious game of synthetic drugs, also called designer drugs, when a drug becomes illegal by a new law or government rule, drug makers can make a tiny change to make it legal again.
"As fast as they tweak a molecule, we are going to have to tweak the law and the rules," said Wiberg, who lives in Red Wing.
Wiberg testified to a five-member committee created to provide fellow lawmakers with solutions to the expanding synthetic drug problem. Chairman Erik Simonson, DFL-Duluth, said he hopes to have a plan ready by the time legislators return to work Feb. 25.
Testifiers told the committee that synthetic drugs are not like their traditional illegal counterparts.
"There have been reports of all types of medical problems with these drugs that you typically don't see with regular marijuana," Wiberg said about what is called synthetic marijuana, sold by names such as K2, Scooby Snack, King Kong, Yukatan Fire and Spice Gold.
Brian Marquart, statewide law enforcement task forces coordinator, told the committee that synthetic drug use is increasing across the state. He said teens and young adults especially are affected.
Deaths attributed to designer drugs have been reported in a Twin Cities suburb, western Minnesota and eastern North Dakota.
The state has changed laws in recent years in an attempt to make designer drugs illegal, but more is needed, the committee heard.
"We're better off than we were in July of 2011," Assistant St. Louis County Attorney Jon Holets said.
His office is conducting two criminal cases against people connected with Last Place on Earth, accused of selling illegal designer drugs. The downtown business is a "major and visible source" of Duluth synthetic drugs, he said.
In other areas, synthetic drugs are sold on the street like traditional illegal drugs.
Marquart said a Moorhead city ordinance slowed sales in stores there and he encouraged other cities to take like action.
Committee members agreed with testifiers that Minnesotans need to learn more about designer drugs. Rep. Kathy Lohmer, R-Stillwater, said the committee also needs to teach fellow lawmakers why it is important to crack down on the drugs.
"These drugs often are synthesized by people who don't know what they are doing…" Wiberg said. "So users of these drugs don't know what they are getting."
He said that taking the drugs is "like Russian roulette." Synthetic drug users may experience no problems for some time, then get a bad batch and face serious health issues.
"There is a real misunderstanding out there," Simonson said, because synthetic marijuana is not at all like plant-based marijuana.
"They are far, far more dangerous," he said about synthetic versions, which often are more potent than other drugs.
Besides synthetic marijuana, designer drugs are sold as "bath salts," under names like blue silk, cosmic blast, ivory soft and bliss. Also available are LSD-type hallucinogenic drugs.
Symptoms vary greatly among types of drugs and among batches of drugs, testifiers told lawmakers.
Many of the drugs are available via the Internet, some are sold in stores and some on the street. In many cases, users are told they are legal, and some prosecutors say they have a hard time proving the drugs are illegal.
Simonson's goal is to come up with a bill that will make that task easier.
"We are trying to pull out all the stops," Rep. Dan Schoen, DFL-St. Paul Park, said.


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Photo Source: nina's clicks' photostream on Flickr
Ahhhhhhhhh. It's do-over time. What's the best way to put a fresh spin on 2012?
Try the water method, a surprisingly powerful exercise to help you get a grip on your priorities—in five minutes.
You need: 5 cups or glasses + 4 strips of paper
Set up: Fill one glass with water. Line up the other four glasses.
Each glass represents a top priority for 2012: i.e. an area you most want to improve (your spending, your health, etc.).
- Write each goal on a strip of paper and place it in front of each glass.
- Take the full glass and pour water into each empty glass based on how much of your time, money and resources you're currently putting toward those goals.
- Now redistribute the water. Pour from one glass to the next to reflect how much energy you intend to put toward each goal this year.
The main question to ask yourself now: How will you allocate your money and time in 2012 to best reach your goals?
Refresh. Which habits or priorities do you want to change this year?


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IT Computer Systems Administrator
Department: Information Technology (IT)
Reports to: Coordinator of Information Technology
Salary Track: I-J
FLSA Status: Exempt
Responsibilities include installation, configuration management, integration, maintenance, performance management, data management, security management, failure analysis and recovery. Primary support of OPAC terminals, public PC's, printers, and other hardware used by library customers. Enforce network security standards and document baseline system requirements. Interface with Network Administrator to ensure appropriate resolution during system outages or hardware failures. Configure, maintain, and support the district's proxy server to allow patrons remote access to the library's electronic resources.
1. Perform preventive maintenance and improvements to Maintain smooth operation of public access computer systems.
2. Maintain administrator and service accounts, maintain system documentation, tuning system performance, installing system wide software and allocate PC storage space in support of public access PCs and OPACs.
3. Make recommendations for public computer hardware and software.
4. Coordinate installation and provide support to library staff as it relates to public computer use.
5. Troubleshoot program and equipment difficulties on public equipment; correct or repair problems as requested.
6. Develop procedures and standards to ensure that District security, privacy, and public access policies are enforced.
7. Configure, maintain, and support the district's proxy server to allow patrons remote access to the library's electronic resources, including making changes to the proxy configuration to compensate for electronic product subscription changes, and software changes within the products.
8. Drives Districts van to multiple locations; lifts and stacks IT equipment weighing up to 75 pounds; and accesses and connects cables/plugs on the floor, under desks, behind furniture, etc. as needed.
1. Work with Network Administrator to provide secure, efficient use of District equipment and software.
2. Attend and participate in seminars, training and professional groups; stay abreast of new trends and developments in the field of computer programming.
3. Provide backup support to other staff members with respect to the district's Internet/Intranet website(s) as needed.
4. Perform other duties as assigned.
Desktop and laptop computers, printers, and other computer and electronic equipment used for District communications; electronic and network diagnostic and repair tools; diagnostic, performance, and security software programs; and District delivery van.
Must have strong communication skills and the ability to work independently or as part of a team. Must have extensive experience in supporting Microsoft operating systems environment and hold a BA/BS in a related field. (Under exceptional circumstances, relevant experience, certification or training may be substituted for degree requirement.) Must have experience in kiosk, public access, and/or education environments. Extensive knowledge of security, user control, and imaging software required. Help desk and other direct user support experience recommended. Knowledge of HTML, CSS, XML/RSS recommended. Help desk and other direct user support experience recommended. Experience in researching and resolving obscure technical problems also recommended.
(Revision proposed 1/12/09)


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Please note: You are viewing an archived Bucknell University news story. It is possible that information found on this page has become outdated or inaccurate, and links and images contained within are not guaranteed to function correctly.
LEWISBURG, Pa. — O.A.R. will perform in concert at Bucknell University on Saturday, Nov. 15, at 8 p.m. in Sojka Pavilion. Virginia Coalition is the opening act. Doors open at 7 p.m.; the concert begins at 8 p.m.
Tickets for the performance, part of the Campus Consciousness Tour, are $30. For advance tickets, visit www.bucknell.edu/BoxOffice.
Tickets are available in person from the Campus Box Office in the Weis Center lobby Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; in the Elaine Langone Center Box Office, located in the Bookstore Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; or by calling 570-577-1000.
American rock band
Of a Revolution, better known as O.A.R., is an American rock band founded in 1996 that has become a hit among college students, with songs relating to the band members' personal lives at The Ohio State University and growing up in Rockville, Md.
The band performs the theme song for the ABC show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." During a two-hour special that aired, they provided a street-side concert, including a live performance of "So Much," the Extreme Makeover Home Edition theme, in front of the newly redesigned Los Angeles Free Clinic.
On Jan. 14, 2006, O.A.R. performed for some 18,000 fans at a sold out Madison Square Garden, which earned them a review in The New York Times. That same year, the band performed at the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Pittsburgh during All-Star Sunday, and at a rally to benefit Darfur in Central Park.
Their music videos "Love and Memories" and "Lay Down" have been featured on VH1 and MTV, and they played three nights at the Gorge with the Dave Matthews Band. For more information or to hear music samples, visit www.ofarevolution.com/.
Virginia Coalition
Virginia Coalition is a rock band from Alexandria, Va. The members met in the early 1990s through their music class at T. C. Williams High School. Referred to as VACO by fans, the band released their first album, "The Colors of The Sound," in 1998. For more information or to hear music samples, visit www.virginiacoalition.com/band.php.
Contact: Division of Communications
The following links are virtual breadcrumbs marking the 27 most recent pages you have visited in Bucknell.edu. If you want to remember a specific page forever click the pin in the top right corner and we will be sure not to replace it. Close this message.


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Top 10 Ways To Conserve Water
Last Updated on Wednesday, 12 November 2014 16:46
According to the Handbook of Water Use and Conservation by Amy Vickers, the average indoor water use in a nonconserving North American single-family home is 69.3 gallons per capita per day. Compare this to 45.2 gallons per capita per day in a conserving home, and you can see how conservation measures and devices really add up!
What are you waiting for? Start implementing these easy water conservation tips for residents or businesses.
Fix the Drip
A dripping faucet can easily waste 3 gallons of water a day! It is worth taking the time to change the washers on your sinks and showers to prevent dripping. Your water bill will appreciate it!
Look for Leaks
Up to 15% of toilets in U.S. homes are estimated to leak - does yours? A leaking toilet can use several gallons of water a day, so it is worth checking. Use free toilet tank dye tablets from the City of Pullman or put a couple drops of food coloring in the toilet tank reservoir, wait 20 minutes, and if dye has showed up in the toilet bowl you know there is a leak that needs to be fixed. (last one link to www.doityourself.com/stry/h2repairtoilet)
Be a Detective
Another way to look for leaks is to read the house water meter before and after a two hour period when no water is being used. If the meter does not read exactly the same, there is a leak.
New Fixtures Are Key
Low-flow showerheads, low volume toilets, aerators, and water-efficient dishwashers and clothes washing machines can save a lot of water and money. When shopping for new appliances, consider the long-term benefits of an Energy Star certified model.
Instigate a Lawn Makeover
See Pullman's water-friendly landscaping page for ideas on how to select plants and irrigate efficiently. One easy way to minimize water runoff and slow evaporation is to put a layer of mulch around trees and plants.
Be Toilet Smart
The toilet is the biggest water user indoors; every time you flush your toilet, gallons of water go down the drain. Avoid using your toilet to flush a cigarette, tissue, or other trash.
Insulate Water Pipes
It's easy and inexpensive to insulate your water pipes with pre-slit foam pipe insulation. You'll spend less time waiting for the hot water to heat up, thereby saving water!
Step Away From the Hose
Instead of using the water hose to clean your driveway, use a broom.
Full Loads
Dishwashers and clothes washers should be fully loaded for optimum water conservation. For partial clothing loads, adjust water levels to match the size of the load.
Cover Up The Pool
By using a pool cover, you'll save thousands of gallons of water from evaporation and will prevent vegetation and insects from getting into the water.


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USFWS National Digital Library
U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Florida Manatee
Recovery Plan, 3rd Revision
Frequently Asked Questions
(updated October 30, 2001)
Q1: What is a recovery plan?
A1: A recovery plan is required for all listed species under the Endangered Species Act and provides
information on the management and research activities related to recovery of an endangered or
threatened species. Information included provides a framework for actions by the Service and its
partners to take toward protecting a federally-listed species and its habitat with a goal of recovering
that species to a point its population is self-sustaining and no longer needs protection under the
Endangered Species Act (ESA). The actions and guidelines are non-regulatory in nature and provide
a means to achieve recovery criteria, as well as, address current and potential threats to a listed
Q2: What is the Manatee Recovery Plan's history?
A2: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) developed the initial recovery plan for West Indian
manatee in 1980. This plan focused primarily on manatees in Florida, but included Antillean
manatees in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In 1986, the FWS adopted a separate recovery
plan for manatees in Puerto Rico.
To reflect new information and planning needs for manatees in Florida, the FWS revised the original
plan in 1989 and focused exclusively on the Florida manatee. This first revision covered a 5-year
planning period ending in 1994. The FWS revised and updated the plan again in 1996, which again
covered a 5-year planning period ending in 2000.
In 1999, the FWS initiated the process to revise the plan for a third time. An 18-member recovery
team, made up of both public and private groups that have an interest in manatee recovery and/or
could be affected by proposed recovery actions, was established to assist the Service in drafting this
Comments and information received during the public comment period on the first draft revision,
released in November 2000, resulted in changes to the recovery criteria section of the plan. As a
result, the Service felt it appropriate to release a second draft revision (July 2001) for public comment
prior to finalizing the plan.
Q3: Why is the plan being revised?
A3: The Service regularly reviews recovery plans to ensure the most current information is being
considered in our actions to recover federally-listed species.
Q4: How does the 3rd revision differ from its predecessor?
A4: In this revision to the manatee recovery plan, the Service recognizes that significant progress
has been made towards recovery and that the species may warrant reclassification to threatened
status, if recovery criteria are met and threats are reduced or removed. Additionally, great care has
been taken in this revision to provide what the Service believes are "objective measurable criteria"
which, when met, would result in a determination that the species be removed from the list of
threatened and endangered species. These criteria set benchmarks for standard population
demographics such as survival and growth rate, that are a means to evaluate the success of
conservation measures to reduce or remove existing and long-term threats to recovery. The
recovery criteria specifically relate to the threats identified in the Endangered Species Act's (ESA)
five (5) listing factors.
Q5: Who developed the recovery plan?
A5: The Service is responsible for developing recovery plans for all federally-listed species, except
those under the jurisdiction of the National Marine Fisheries Service. In the case of the Florida
manatee, the Service created an 18-member recovery team, made up of the both public and private
groups that have an interest in manatee recovery and/or could be affected by proposed recovery
actions, to assist the Service in drafting this revision. The recovery team assisted the Service by
locating and evaluating current manatee research and management efforts and providing the Service
with its findings and recommendations.
Q6: Does the general public have input to the plan's recovery criteria or proposed action
A6: Yes, we sought public input and comment on the plan. In fact, information received during the
public comment periods, of which there were two, was instrumental in assisting the Service in
developing this third revision.
Q7 - How many comments were received?
A7 - The Service received close to 3,000 comments during the two public comment periods.
Comments were received from various conservation organizations, Federal, State and local
agencies, industry groups, conservation groups, citizen organizations, scientists, private citizens, and
as a result of email "action alerts".
Q8: When will there be enough manatees to reclassify or remove the species from the
Endangered Species List?
A8: The Service recognizes that significant progress has been made towards recovery and that the
status of the species may warrant reclassification to threatened status, if recovery criteria are met
and threats are reduced or removed. The focus should not be on how many manatees there are, but
on whether or not threats to the species' existence are being reduced. Even under the best
circumstances, complete recovery of this species is difficult to predict. Resolving long-term threats
may take many years.
Q9: Is there enough habitat to support the current and future manatee populations?
A9: Current levels of seagrass and other aquatic vegetation (which provide food for manatees) seem
to be sufficient for survival of the species. However, the Plan recommends identification and
protection of important feeding areas near wintering sites. This will allow manatees places to feed in
the winter without risking overexposure to the cold.
Q10: How does the Plan address the overall manatee population?
A10: The Plan divides the overall population of Florida manatees into four subpopulations or regions.
It recommends all four regions to be secure in order for the species to be completely removed from
the list of threatened and endangered species. Presently, manatees that spend most of their time in
the Upper St. Johns River and Northwest Peninsular Florida are doing very well. Less is known
about the larger subpopulations along the Atlantic Coast and Southwest Florida. Scientists hope to
have a better idea about manatee status in these areas next year (2002).
Q11: How has the Service addressed the concern that we ignored our own scientific advisory
group's recommendations for demographic recovery criteria?
A11: In fact, the Service accepted virtually all of the scientists' recommendations for recovery. The
Service adopted their recommendations to consider the overall population as four subpopulations,
establishing recovery goals for each. The Service accepted the scientists' recommendations not to
set a population goal for recovery, instead developing demographic criteria to gauge success and
health of the population. The Service accepted the scientists' recommendations to monitor adult
survival, reproduction, and population growth and that these rates reflect a stable or increasing
population with statistical confidence. The Service did not include in our recovery criteria the
scientists' recommendations for demographic targets (ie: 94% survival and a 4% population growth)
as those numbers currently are not supported in the published literature. However, the Service has
left the door open to update the recovery criteria if scientific studies indicate that other survival,
reproduction, or population growth rates or other population indices are more appropriate for
demographic recovery criteria.
Q12: What is being done to address the warm water needs for wintering manatees?
A12: This revision to the plan recommends protection of flows at key natural springs and other warm
water sources. It also recommends a careful evaluation of those areas where manatees have
become dependent on power plant discharges.
Q13 - What is being done to address watercraft-related manatee mortality?
A13 - This revision to the plan recommends establishment and adequate enforcement of manatee
protection areas, including refuges (speed zones) and sanctuaries, as a way to address near term
needs. In addition to manatee protection areas and enforcement, the plan recommends additional
conservation measures, such as boater education and county manatee protection plans, to meet
long term recovery goals.
Q14: Is the recovery plan part of the Service's other regulatory efforts, such as manatee
refuges and sanctuaries?
A14: The recovery plan is non-regulatory in nature and serves as the primary guiding document for
the Service and its partners in managing efforts to recover the Florida manatee. While the regulatory
actions the Service may pursue are independent of the recovery plan, they do serve as a
management tool in implementing the actions set forth in the Plan.
Q15: Where can I find more information or get on your contact list for information on future
actions related manatees?
A15: Visit our web site at http://northflorida.fws.gov or call us at 904-232-2580 x109 to be added the
contact list or to request more information.
Click tabs to swap between content that is broken into logical sections.


text:
08.10.05Air Products: William J. Cantwell has
been named to the newly created position
of vice president, supply chain.
Previously he was vice president,
process management.
John Marsland has been named
vice president, corporate development
office, responsible for strategic planning,
mergers and acquisitions, commercial
development, innovation and
business development, and venture
investments. He had been director,
business development.
Glenn E. Beck has been named vice
president, global information technology.
He replaces Joseph H. McMakin,
who has retired after 28 years with
the company


text:
I know that not every comparison involving the Nazis is invalid, but does this strike anyone else as being more than a bit reductio ad Hitlerum?
Yes, a bit hypocritical to just lay the blame at IBM's feet too. The US has a long history of doing business with criminal regimes from banana republics, to the nazi's, to apartheid South Africa, to regimes like Saudi Arabia today.
While this is true to be fair the ones doing business with the Nazis were the German branch and from what I understand in Hitler's Germany you did what you were told or enjoy your nice trip to the concentration camp. His regime weren't real tolerant of being told no, just look at how the German commanders captured (and secretly recorded0 by the Brits were all in agreement that attacking Russia was a majorly BAD idea, but none had the guts to walk up to the Fuhrer and tell him that.
As for TFA, frankly he is full of shit. Sure you may be able to say technically the first home computer that could be called personal wasn't an IBM, but does anyone run 6502 MOSFET chips anymore? Of course not because IBM PC compatible is the standard PERIOD. Hell even Apple now is IBM PC compatible.
As someone who lived through that time allow me to say thank you IBM, thank you for the 5150 [wikipedia.org] and for being stupid enough to publish specs for everything back then which made building add ons easy. today it would be proprietary as hell and innovation would be right out the window, but thanks to IBM we don't have to throw everything out when we want to upgrade for performance. Folks seem to forget that before the 5150 NOTHING worked together, nothing talked to each other, the drives for A wouldn't work on B, hell even computers by the same company often had incompatible peripherals. As someone who had a Trash80 and a VIC20 frankly it was a royal PITA.
Now thanks to IBM you can buy AMD, Intel or Via, add more RAM or even a new box from a different OEM, it really doesn't matter as it all "just works". Thanks to the hardware being open we were able to route around the douches, like Compaq and their "special RAM", and now it doesn't matter what hardware or even OS you get, your printer still plugs in, you don't need IRQs or futzing or hoping you have the right slots, it all is basically compatible. And frankly that is a GOOD thing. Now if we could only get the same thing in the mobile space, to where laptops had standard motherboards like ATX and mATX, to where we could easily repair or upgrade that would be heaven. Sadly it looks like proprietary in a box will stay in mobile land, which means designed for the dump since third parties can't make cheap parts. Damned shame but thank you IBM for at least giving us one platform that is easy to deal with.
The "German branch" of IBM? Buddy, there are no "branches" in a megacorporation. You do what the head honchos at the main corporate headquarters say, or you're out of a job. Look, I know that IBM wasn't the only company to do business with the Nazis, but IBM had more inside information on the goals of the Nazis than anyone else. Tracking and segregating the Jewish population is directly credited to IBM, and quite properly so. The Nazis TOLD IBM what they wanted, and IBM delivered. There is very little waffle-room left to IBM. Maybe they didn't completely understand the ultimate goal, but they most definitely understood the intermediate goals.
Does that mean Henry Ford invented the automobile?
Sure you may be able to say technically the first home computer that could be called personal wasn't an IBM, but does anyone run 6502 MOSFET chips anymore?
Of course not, any more than anybody runs Intel 8088 chips anymore, uses an ISA expansion bus, Shugart disc interfaces etc. I even believe that modern systems can have more than 640K of RAM...
The 6502 might not have had any official surviving children (ISTR there was a 16-bit variant used in the Apple II GS), but its pretty well documented that it was a major influence [wikipedia.org] on the design of the ARM.
Hell even Apple now is IBM PC compatible.
No, Apple uses chips based on the modern x86-32 and x86-64 architectures. I don't think the fact that these have legacy backwards-compatibility with the 8088 was a major influence on Apple's decision to switch. That has more to do with IBM and Motorola's failure to manufacture a mobile version of the PPC G5, at a time when Apple was doing rather well with non-Intel based machines...
As someone who lived through that time
You must have been very, very drunk, because you don't remember it very well.
Folks seem to forget that before the 5150 NOTHING worked together, [snip] As someone who had a Trash80 and a VIC20
Which is why, pre-PC, serious commercial microcomputer users tended to use one of the many CP/M-based systems rather than VIC20s, to the extent that there were even kludges available to run CP/M on Trash-80s and Apple IIs (the latter requiring a Z80 system on an expansion card). This is what IBM-lovers like to airbrush out of history because the "revolutionary" IBM PC was really just a "me too" CP/M-86 machine (MS-DOS/PC-DOS being, effectively, a clone of CP/M).
Now thanks to the failure of the IBM PS/2 and MicroChannel architecture you can buy...
There, put that right for you.
your printer still plugs in,
Nice to know that IBM invented the Centronics and RS232 interfaces, and that anybody who remembers using those on non-IBM computers is delusional.
you don't need IRQs or futzing or hoping you have the right slots
You seem to think IBM invented the PCI bus. They didn't - the original ISA bus had "IRQs or futzing or hoping you have the right slots" up the wazzoo.
Now if we could only get the same thing in the mobile space, to where laptops had standard motherboards like ATX and mATX
If only people didn't want their mobiles to be slim, and light, and, well, mobile...
You seem to think IBM invented the PCI bus. They didn't - the original ISA bus had "IRQs or futzing or hoping you have the right slots" up the wazzoo.
Indeed, IBM actually went the opposite direction with the PS/2, and you had to have configuration floppies to install MCA cards even for use under DOS. The only cool thing about the hardware I messed with while working for the county of santa cruz HRA as a youngun was the PS/2 model 70, I'd mess with one of those even today. Probably no point though. When I was leaving we were just getting 486SLC PS/Valuepoints... I mean, seriously?
A little bit.
I'm not exactly IBM's biggest fan (having to hammer on 370-series mainframes made me quite the IBM-hater for awhile), but to say that IBM automated the Nazis would be akin to saying that {insert item here} helped to {insert what that item does} the Nazis.
I mean, I'm pretty sure that WWII Germany had light bulbs, motion pictures, aircraft, NCR calculators (the old mechanical kind), and lots of other things pioneered by American individuals and companies. I'm also willing to bet that many of them were used directly in facilitating the Holocaust as well.
Hell, Henry Ford was an open admirer of Hitler's policies before (and even in the pre-US stages of) WWII, and an unabashed anti-semite... does that make the Ford Mustang a Nazimobile?
But yeah, basically, TFA is a Godwin.
Uh... but IBM actually did do a lot of contracting for the Nazis.
They weren't just Nazi sympathizers, they didn't just make general-purpose tools and end up having the Nazis use them, they worked with them extensively in a strategic alliance. They talked to them about what they wanted to get done, they helped them do it efficiently, and they put effort into hiding their role.
In particular, they were instrumental in accomplishing the identification of members of targeted ethnic groups, while being fully aware of the Nazi party's intent to persecute them. They provided the information infrastructure necessary to round up all of the jews and gypsies, knowing at the very least that they were to be rounded up.
In particular, they were instrumental in accomplishing the identification of members of targeted ethnic groups, while being fully aware of the Nazi party's intent to persecute them. They provided the information infrastructure necessary to round up all of the jews and gypsies, knowing at the very least that they were to be rounded up.
Exactly! It was a now-classic consulting scenario: the business (e.g, Nazi Germany) buys a big shiny piece of hardware, and with it they get some IBM consultants to customize it. The business comes up with its business rules, e.g, every generation the Jewishness halves if a Jew marries a non-Jew, anyone who is at least 1/64th Jewish is considered a Jew, and here's some census data that says who has claimed to be a Jew up until the current moment who has married whom (gotta ferret out those crypto-Jews, sneaky though they are), and we want names and addresses out of it. Then the consultants go hmm okay that'll be $lots and implement the system.
It would have absolutely impossible for IBM's consultant programmers to have worked on this project without realizing that Hitler would be using this information to round up citizens based on their ethnicity. I can totally accept that the consultants didn't realize that the Jews would be killed (it's hard to believe that people are going to die as a result of your work, honestly), but there was no way for them to have done this without realizing that, you know, the names and addresses are popping out of our tabulating machine and going straight to the Gestapo who all run out waving truncheons.
The truth about lulz : Edwin Black, an author holed up in his basement, spending years and years researching the details for a book, reading thousands of documents and talking with hundreds of people, will achieve far more lulz, in the long run, than hacking a website.
Black's book came out circa 2001. That is 10 years ago, and people still talk about it. And we still wait for IBM to open their archives.
Meanwhile the fact that IBM machines were used in the development of a weapon that could kill about 140,000 people [hiroshima.jp] at once is uncontroversial.
I.E. einstein's letter to roosevelt.
IBM's involvement with various questionable rulers in the 20s and 30s was not done as an act of warfare, it was done for pure profit motive.
Killed a lot fewer people. 12 million killed in death camps vs. a couple hundred thousand by the two bombs. But then, nobody seems to cry about the fire bombing of Japanese cities, which killed far more people, mostly civilians.
Besides, with the atomic bombs, it's not so simple. I think the deciding factor was that only 1.2% of soldiers at Iwo Jima surrendered, the rest fought to their deaths in a bitter battle, in the name of their emperor. If it came to that on the Japanese islands, the country and people of Japan probably wouldn't exist as we know it today if an invasion was required to secure an end to the war.
And he didn't rape any Swedish women.
"Press hard, you are making 6 million copies."
Naw; Godwin's Law concerns *comparisons* to Hitler and Nazis. If you're *actually talking about them for a reason*, it trips out, to avoid a recursive black hole in the fabric of the Universe.
And to reply to Cringley's comments on identity theft, if everyone put their foot down and *forced service providers to stop using unchangeable, researchable authenticators like SSNs and Maiden names, all of that problem would dry up in a heart beat.
It has the all the main personal computing features we associate with pre-Macintosh/Lisa systems, like a keyboard, CRT, local storage and user programmability. It probably predates the systems you sold by a year or two.
http://oldcomputers.net/ibm5100.html [oldcomputers.net]
From History Of Computing Project [thocp.net]: "The company established what was then called the Entry Systems Division, located in Boca Raton, Florida, to develop the new system. This small group consisted of 12 engineers and designers under the direction of Don Estridge; the team's chief designer was Lewis Eggebrecht. The division developed IBM's first real PC. (IBM considered the 5100 system, developed in 1975, to be an intelligent programmable terminal rather than a genuine computer, even though it truly was a computer.)"
And $20,000 is hardly "personal", the Lisa was half that 10 years later and still spectacularly bombed.
That particular price point for the 5100 was set by the marketing department, because they didn't want it to compete against their mainframe business. It could have been sold for substantially less, and did include a number of features that was well ahead of its time.
Simply put, it was never given the chance to actually be a real product because IBM didn't want it to be something an ordinary consumer could ever possibly purchase. About the only people permitted to even buy this computer were existing customers of IBM mainframes.
When the PCjr came out, they had a similar problem where the "low-cost alternative" was in many ways technically superior to the higher end mainstream computer system. So instead, IBM expended deliberate engineering effort to downgrade and cripple yet another product instead of simply letting the superior technology take root. Typical for IBM.
Xerox Alto [wikipedia.org]. 1973.
The Alto was just a prototype.
Even if you ignore the Altair, and require a personal computer to be something with a keyboard and monitor, the Apple I and Apple II were out before the IBM PC (and far superior).
Not for office work.
Why do you think Microsoft's Z80 CP/M Softcard sold so well?
The Apple II has a 40 column display and NTSC or PAL output.
The Apple II keyboard - sans keypad - was awkwardly integrated into the hard shell case.
The IBM was keyboard perfection:
Byte magazine in the fall of 1981 went so far as to state that the keyboard was 50% of the reason to buy an IBM PC.
IBM Personal Computer [wikipedia.org]
The IBM was keyboard perfection:
Byte magazine in the fall of 1981 went so far as to state that the keyboard was 50% of the reason to buy an IBM PC.
IBM Personal Computer [wikipedia.org]
The original keyboard for the IBM PC was a pure piece of garbage. As a matter of fact, one of the early accessories that many PC buyers purchased was a keyboard from 3rd party developers, where important keys like the "enter key" was enlarged, along with the shift keys and a spacebar that actually felt right.
Re-read that article again, to realize how many people hated the thing. I hated it and told my professors at the time.... where they cringed in disbelief that IBM could produce such a piece of crap. One of the regular features in Jerry Pournelle's Chaos Mannor column was a review of a new keyboards to replace that piece of junk.
As if to add insult to injury, the PCjr decided to downgrade even this horrible keyboard that IBM made with something even worse. It was so awful that the CEO of IBM decided to apologize and sent a new keyboard to every customer of that computer which had registered with a warranty card. Surprisingly, this "replacement" keyboard for the PCjr was even superior to that horrible IBM PC keyboard.
It seems to me that it's pretty clear that the speaker in the video is saying that that IBM invented the Personal Computer (upper case), not the personal computer, lower case. When you watch the video, the screen is showing the case where it says "IBM Personal Computer". And I think that's worth talking about, since the majority of toeday's personal computers (both windows & mac) can trace its roots back to this architecture.
S-110 Bus systems
Radio Shack TRS-80.
Apple I
These were all the first personal computers. IBM had nothing to do with any of it.
IBM's only claim to fame is that their hardware specs allowed others to make similar systems.. so the "IBM PC" became manufacturable by many companies... and as a result... it beat out the proprietary hardware guys.
IBM has invented many things, but the personal computer is nothing they invented.
Also: Altair 8080, Altair 680, Imsai 8080, SWTPC 6800 and NS SC/MP were all well before Apple, Commodore, Atari, TI.
All those others were "me too, me too!" companies.
I'm surprised that no one (not even IBM) has mentioned the IBM 5100 [oldcomputers.net]
By no means is it the first Personal Computer, but it is IBM's first PC. and its arguably the first portable computer as well.
The early IBM machines were more mini computers rather than personal computers. Tandy also had a number of computer in this class. In school a hobby was going through computer catalogs, and these machines were not marketed as a computer for a individual users, rather it was a shared resource
IBM entered the market in 1980 along with many other players. Like Apple who established the GUI as a viable technology, IBM established the computer as a viable tool for the individual worker. I think It took IBM to do this because they controlled the typewriter market, and it would have been hard for a third party to displace this market. However, as IBM apparently saw the writing on the wall, rather than do what some do and continue to make buggy whips, they innovated.
Nonsense. All IBM did was provide a brand name that was palatable to corporations.
Proud Italian Americans tend to say, that once Columbus discovered America, it stayed discovered.
But that's not a good analogy for IBM's contribution to the PC. The fact is that the PC was already there, and had a decent market, and was starting to make dramatic inroads into small and medium businesses thanks to the PC's first killer-app VisiCalc (the first spreadsheet program). This program first ran on the AppleII and propelled Apple from a small (actually fairly dominant) enthusiast company to Silicon Valley's latest wunderkind. This was well before IBM got into the marketplace. But everyone knew they would, considering the surge, and the rapidly expanding business market. The thing was that at the time, IBM's entry was met with quite a bit of disappointment. We were all expecting great things, but that was decidedly not what the 1st IBM PC was. A run of the mill CPU married to an also-ran OS. Not a step forward so much as a step sideways. Also a significant departure was that none of this stuff was actually developed by IBM, but by Intel, and an unknown snot-nosed kid with a bad haircut, who's mom was on IBM's board at the time. And yet, it was destined to become a huge thing. The technology decision makers in business were certainly no more savvy then than they are now. Why did it take off? "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM" was what was often said.
So, as it turns out, the singular thing that IBM contributed to the PC was its logo.
Nobody "invented" the personal computer.
No one user wrote me. I'm worth millions of their man-years.
The answer is murky and it depends upon how you define a personal computer. If you're talking about computers in the home, then it was probably the Apple/Commodore/Tandy triad who deserves credit. If you are talking about a standalone desktop computer, it looks like the IBM 5100 is a runner (1975). Then, of course, there are all of the people who include hobbiest machines.
Or if you count those funky HP programmable mega-calculators from the mid 70's.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_9800_series_desktop_computers [wikipedia.org]
Hey, it fits on a desktop
And a single line display (?) would have made for a mighty exciting game of pong!
I had the chance to play with a couple of 9845s in college in the early 80s, and they were definitely superior to the original PC. Their tape drives might have been a bit slower, but not enough to make a difference (maybe 2s to save a file vs. 1s). And their display and graphics library were far superior, not to mention the fact that the ones I used had a bit-mapped thermal printer that could print anything on the display. To get anything comparable on a PC was practically impossible ($-wise) until the Epson came out with the MX-80 (which still couldn't print to the same resolution as the 9845-B).
During a speech at work about 10 years ago, my boss started talking about innovation and how one day, out of their garage, two young engineers invented the IBM personal computer. I then corrected him but he just brushed us off. I lost all respect for this fella and transferred to another department. I still love to point out his mistake.
IBM *did* invent a few other things:
Magnetic Hard Drive
Reduced Operating Instruction Set architecture
Transistorized DRAM
Relational databases
Virtual machine operating systems
DES encryption
Scanning tunneling microscope
To name a tiny fraction. So, they do have some bragging rights.
The Scelbi Mark 8H, 1974. 8008 processor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCELBI [wikipedia.org]
"Mach was the greatest intellectual fraud in the last ten years." "What about X?" "I said `intellectual'." ;login, 9/1990