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No matter an outsourcing contract's size, governance is an inside job
No matter how big the outsourcing contract, accountability should be an inside job. CIO Linda Jojo explains why outsourcing is all about governance.
When Linda Jojo joined Energy Future Holdings Corp. as CIO in 2008, the Dallas-based electric utility was four years into a 10-year outsourcing contract with global IT service provider Capgemini. The massive, $3.5 billion deal included many back-office functions and 100% of IT operations. "Even the CIO had moved off," along with 2,600 other employees, she said. On the balance sheet, the deal was a great success. The Monday after the outsourcing contract went into effect, the troubled utility's costs decreased by 11% and its stock price soared. For the 9,000 employees working with technology, however, the gains were not so obvious.
"There was not a thought about how to govern the IT contract. There was no concept in the deal about how to improve IT service to the business," Jojo told an audience of IT leaders at the recent Forrester IT Forum in Las Vegas.
Jojo's mandate was to build a new IT organization from scratch. In 2007, Energy Future Holdings, then known as TXU, had been sold for $45 billion -- at that time it was the largest leveraged buyout in history -- and its new owners decided that the outsourcing contract should be terminated. The challenge facing Jojo was how to structure an IT organization that not only provided reliable, high-quality IT services at a reasonable cost, but also functioned as a strategic partner to a business that was undergoing rapid change. "The good news was that it was a nice time to be hiring," she said.
Hiring IT employees for the future
In fact, one of the CIO's biggest challenges is deciding whom to hire and which IT skills should be nurtured internally, according to Marc Cecere, a principal analyst at Forrester Research Inc. who spoke about the IT organization of tomorrow at the IT Forum. With the rise of tech-savvy employees who increasingly self-provision the technology they need to do their jobs, IT departments will focus on consulting and guiding technology decisions rather than on controlling IT, he said. Internal IT departments will need plenty of solutions and data integration architects; a strong sourcing discipline that infuses all technology purchases, including those made by the business; and project managers who can oversee numerous projects rather than running one from start to finish.
Outsourcing Contracts 2.0: Never outsource accountability
Jojo's first decision didn't require much crystal-ball-gazing: IT had to take responsibility for IT. A total of four IT employees had been left on-premises in the Capgemini deal, and there was no one internally who felt accountable for IT operations. "When anything went wrong, it was always Capgemini's fault," she said. The outsourcing contract missed the mark on another level as well: The deal predated the proliferation of smart meters, the real-time usage-data-gathering technology that has changed the electric utility industry fundamentally. With 3 million of these intellectual-property devices, Energy Future Holdings soon would be collecting 3,000 times more data than in the past; but IT lacked a strategy for turning this data into valuable information.
"This contract never contemplated anything like this -- a whole different, IT-centric energy world," Jojo said.
There was not a thought about how to govern the IT contract. There was no concept in the deal about how to improve IT service to the business.
Linda Jojo, CIO, Energy Future Holdings Corp.
Where to start? Jojo began by defining the scope of the services IT would provide to the business, relying on such frameworks as ITIL and COBIT to come up with some half-dozen categories, she said. She and her team hashed out which services should be centralized and which could be decentralized. In general, "the closer we got to the business units, the more decentralized it was," she said.
The company still needed a sourcing strategy. The business had experienced the pitfalls of a single-vendor outsourcing contract -- at least, one that was not governed well. Jojo knew she wanted multisourcing, but IT needed to determine what to keep in-house and what to outsource. The IT department decided that with the exception of governance, project management, architecture and strategy, everything else would "default to outsourced, and people had to fight to get it back in," she said.
One of Jojo's hard-and-fast rules under the new arrangement is that IT never blames an outsourcing partner in a business meeting: "We hired them. We're responsible," she said. Another factor in making the outsourcing contracts work was insisting on a "wing-to-wing service-level agreement," or end-to-end SLA, that all vendors are measured on in addition to the individual set of SLAs related to their respective contracts. She ended up with five partners, including Capgemini "now doing a terrific job on legacy" systems.
Thomas Young, partner and managing director for CIO Services-Infrastructure at Stamford, Conn.-based sourcing advisory firm TPI Inc., said that end-to-end SLAs, a rarity in his experience, require sophisticated governance. "It is the holy grail of outsourcing contracts," he said, and requires that CIOs be able to do root-cause analysis and "fairly adjudicate when problems arise." He advises CIOs to hold off on exacting penalties initially, so that vendors understand the aim of the end-to-end SLA is to optimize a process, not single out anyone for blame.
Making an outsourcing contract work: It's all about governance
Managing a complex, multisourced environment is a "big challenge," Jojo told the audience of IT leaders. "It's all about governance," she said. To that end, she does the following:
- Holds formal monthly reviews with business partners and outsourcing partners, whether there "is a problem or not."
- Periodically reviews her service providers' SLAs with the business units, "so we have a rich conversation when we go back to the providers."
- Meets monthly with each of the business units on strategy.
The decision about what to outsource and what is insourced is reviewed annually. "The biggest place we made a change has been in application support," Jojo said, noting that 25 roles related to the call center, SAP and some key electricity-control systems have been brought in-house in the last six months.
Outsourcing contracts drive business value
Today Energy Future Holdings' internal IT team numbers about 300 employees, including 50 people "we found hiding in the business," Jojo said. Her five outsourcing partners employ another 1,200 to 1,500 people.
Rebuilding IT has had its bumps, Jojo said, including a horrific data center crash a couple of years ago that was caused in part by the facility being closed to view from 2004 to 2008, and specifically by an electrical component that had not been tested in 12 years. The company now runs a private cloud, which shared services provisioned to the business units. During most of 2010, "we were just trying to outrun a lot of risk."
The good news is that in the process of improving IT services through well-governed outsourcing contracts and a beefed up internal IT team, IT is "moving up the chain in the organization" and now has "that proverbial seat at the table to drive some really important changes," Jojo said. This includes weighing in on where to build new nuclear power plants, how to bring more wind generation to the company's portfolio and using data analytics to improve profitability. "We weren't doing any of that in 2008," she said.
Let us know what you think about the story; email Linda Tucci, Senior News Writer.


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Thorsten1 brauchte ein neues Logo Design und hat einen Wettbewerb auf 99designs gestartet.
Aus 215 Designs von 33 Designern wurde eine Gewinner gewählt.
space 2 scale
I am a serial entrepreneur and marketer. Space 2 scale is my new venture combining my love of all things marketing and my 20+ years experience in starting and growing businesses. I already have a few clients and my vision is to grow this consulting business into my legacy over the next 25 years -- helping many small business owners to become much larger business owners.
My services put businesses on a path towards scalability -- leading to freedom for the entrepreneur and/or growth of the business. I accomplish this through a series of structured conversations – building upon a venture's unique opportunities, strengths and trajectory.
My strength is that I comprehensively understand business issues because I have, as the saying goes, been there, done that. Once I understand the business, I and the founder 'huddle' to understand, define and communicate the business' brand.
Company founders and CEOs of businesses with revenue between $3-10MM. Basically, I target business owners who's main reason they work in the business they started or took over from their families or partners is that they are the only ones who know what to do and how to do it. Yet, either because of training or specialty (or because they cannot afford a full time VP of Marketing) they have yet to figure out how to scale it...that is, remove themselves form micromanaging the day-to-day, thus giving the business room to grow or "space 2 scale" as it were.
I am looking for a logo that sets the tone and captures the overall feeling our clients experience as defined below – and passes over visually communicating literal specifics such as "consulting". Must be reproducible in a variety of media (business cards, embroidery, online, etc.).
> Brand Name & Tagline
Space 2 Scale
Brand. Expand. Take Your Stand.™
> Internal Brand Statement
A genuine business is meant to scale. We help company founders realize their business' scale potential and thereby escalate their freedom, prosperity and impact.
> Client Impressions
> Colors
Bright Yellow (dominant) to communicates Clarity, Prescience, and the practical application of Wisdom.
Blue (subordinate) to communicate Fidelity, Integrity (sky), Comprehensive, Steadfast (deep) as well as clear thoughts.
White (accent/background) to communicate Clarity and Fidelity
Comprehensive brand bible attached for clarification of any of the above.
Feel free to design a logo and a font like WWF or Lufthansa...or just a font like Fedex or Subway. Most important, I need a LARGE COMPANY FEEL.
The files we will require are:
Print file format - .ai (CMYK)
Web file format - .jpg and layered .psd (RGB)
Please do not use any stock images or clip art in the logo.
Finden Sie heraus, wie ein Designwettbewerb funktioniert, oder lernen Sie mehr über unsere Logo-Design-Angebote.

subset: commoncrawl


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01 Miebach Whitepaper - Selecting …
Selecting the ideal location for a logistics center – much more than simply using tools!
During the past few years many companies have focused on using tools for modelling their network issues. What all projects have in common is the object of determining the optimal location and number of sites as well as the distribution of inventory within the network in order to meet market service expectations at minimum costs.
In how far can software tools support the selection of the ideal location? What are tools capable of? These questions will be answered in the Miebach whitepaper "Selecting the ideal location for a logistics center - much more than simply using tools!" written by Dr. Klaus-Peter Jung.
Further Publications
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01 Miebach Whitepaper compact
Corona and Logistics - A Practical Call for Action
Corona and Logistics — why you must act now!
You are a manager or business leader in the field of supply chain and logistics. You have already experienced the first effects of the Corona-outbreak such as
- Delays in shipments and longer inbound lead times
- Cancelled shipments of goods that are sourced from heavily impacted areas
- Additional paperwork to document the safety of your goods for certain export destinations
- Increased demand for certain goods triggered by panic buying
But that is only the beginning
- It will also come to your work-floor.
- It will also affect your people.
With everything you have been reading, you are wondering which decisions and actions you need to take. We will make a simple and clear recommendation, based on the latest available scientific data.
So, this is a call for action. There are simple measures that will make a life-saving impact. The earlier you impose heavy measures, the less time you need to keep them, the easier and quicker it will be to recover to steady operations.
The Miebach team wishes you all the best and a clear mind for your decision-taking in these challenging times!
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01 Miebach_White_Paper_Digital_Tw …
The Digital Twin in Intralogistics: Increase Planning Accuracy, Leverage Investments
Digital Twin for dynamic adaptations and optimizations
The complexity of logistics systems is a constant and ongoing challenge in supply chain management. Planning by means of simulation is an integrated approach to secure important decisions in the design of highly dynamic plants and networks. The implementation of a digital twin has become a key technology in the course of digitalizing the supply chain.
Thus, the digital twin enhances the spectrum of simulation by linking real, sensor-based data with the physical asset. The data generated not only supports process managers throughout the planning and implementation phase, but also enables dynamic adjustments and optimization in operations.
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01 Miebach_White_Paper_compact_SC …
How can companies avoid a coronavirus supply chain "drama"?
The coronavirus COVID-19 is having a dramatic and negative impact on global production in almost all industries - from automotive, electronics and consumer goods. Many factories in China are closed due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and the Chinese New Year, and workers cannot or can only return to their factories late due to transport restrictions.
And also due to the spread of the virus in Italy, European supply chains with locations in the affected area can no longer fulfill their tasks, or only to a limited extent.
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01 Miebach Whitepaper compact …
Supply Chain Management: Strategic and operational turnaround for automotive suppliers
Automotive supply chain improvements in three steps:
Step 1: Getting full transparency: Miebach ensures full transparency for a strategic self-assessment
Step 2: Streamlining the set-up: Miebach streamlines the current set-up for the first turnaround steps
Step 3: Planning the new blueprint: Miebach plans a reliable and realistic future blueprint
Miebach Consultants have been successfully designing automotive supply chains for 47 years. We have extensive experience with operational issues in the automotive industry.
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01 Miebach Whitepaper …
Digitalising the Supply Chain: Major Foundations for Success
Today's B2B and B2C purchasing habits and market dynamics are forcing companies to make major changes to their supply chains, since traditional management models clearly neglect the variety of transparent information to which omnichannel customers are accustomed to.
In this article, Pank Bedaux, Partner at Miebach Consulting, reflects on how the supply chain has developed and on how the digitalisation changes still pending should be tackled.
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01 Miebach Whitepaper Cost …
Cost savings through logistics optimization
In day-to-day consulting, there are two main drivers for logistics optimization projects: Cost saving and service improvement. As a rule, the optimum solution is somewhere between these two requirements. It is worthwhile to consider the internal logistics as well as at the logistics chain outside the facility. What optimization measures can be implemented and where is the greatest potential for savings?
To give an overview of possible approaches, you will find some suggestions in this whitepaper.
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01 Miebach Whitepaper AI in …
AI in Supply Chain Management
Costs for Artificial Intelligence (AI) have dropped in the last decades. With the current computer technology, available methods (including: source code) and the various data sets available
in companies and public/social plattforms, almost every company could apply AI to achieve a benefit. Prediction (= AI) is applied in more and more applications – from traditional stock
management and sales forecast to all corners of your life – from sleep quality monitoring to heartrate data collection and analysis with your fitness tracking watch.
Artificial intelligence doesn't really bring intelligence as long as AI is not in the deciding role – but it is a quantum leap in prediction methodologies fighting uncertainty in all processes.
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01 Miebach Whitepaper Compact SCM …
Cost Optimization Potentials within Operational Due Diligence
We as Miebach Consultants are often asked to analyze Supply Chains as part of Operational Due Diligence in M&A projects. We have systematically analyzed P&Ls for over 45 years and what we see is a growing importance of supply chains which today are generating more than 50 % of overall costs. For financing companies like private equity funds it is therefore quite important to get a quick and accurate view on these costs.
Change Management: Frequently transformations fail - is it really a staff problem?
Yes! It's a staff reason, but it's not their fault. A 2006 study by Harvard Business Review found that 66% of change initiatives fail to achieve their desired business outcomes.
Why is change so difficult? Three most common obstacles to change are: employee resistance, communication breakdown and staff turnover during transition – all due to uncertainty, fear, distrust, etc. It's your responsibility and opportunity as a leader to smooth these obstacles - change management is the right approach.
Find out more about Change Management in this Miebach Whitepaper compact by Dirk Friebel and Jasmin Greulich.
Optimization of Supply Chains for Corporate Recovery
How can companies optimize their supply chains for corporate recovery? A strategic restructuring plan defining future supplier structures, products, services, sales plans and geographical footprints is necessary. The "Greenfield" approach of Miebach Consulting leads to an optimal supply chain setup - working perfectly as clear direction for the next years.
To bring it to real life and to realize direct savings, a step-by-step implementation plan for the transformation needs to be developed - always balancing the trade-off of cost savings vs. investments, restructuring cost / one-offs.
Read more about Corporate Recovery in this Miebach whitepaper compact.
Sales and operations planning for fashion starts with trend forecasting applying AI
A successful business year of a fashion company can be made by just one successful hit style (e.g. Shoes style). Existing / current trend identification approaches are often driven manually. Artificial intelligence (AI) and webcrawling will improve the fashion company's hit-rate of innovations.
Knowing the trendsetter and measuring / rating the influence of them (influencers, blogs, celebrities, brands) is the first step. Then permanent observations by web-crawling and a weighted evaluation leads to identification of new trends before the competition "wakes up"!
Physical Supply Chain Management Supply comes into game when the new products have to be brought to the market within short time (max. 2 weeks). At the end of the day nets ales and EBIT of the fashion company will be boosted. Artificial intelligence can make the fashion company innovate faster.
Miebach Consultants are successfully applying innovative approaches in supply chains since 45 years. Get in touch with us if you want to discuss your current challenges
The fast-changing landscape of supply chain and logistics technologies and solutions
Global FMCG 2020 Study - Overview of trends and projects in pipeline for short term implementation
Changes in consumer behavior, blurring value chain roles and omnichannel trends, combined with the megatrend of digitization and the internet of things are putting pressure on supply chains today. What are relevant supply chain potentials for companies due to present and future changes in the worldwide market? Which concepts could be an enabler towards an agile, responsive, but also efficient and controllable supply chain today and in future? In the first quarter of 2019 Miebach Consulting, in collaboration with GS1 Germany, has conducted a global study in order to answer these questions and to evaluate the most relevant challenges and trends for supply chain organizations within the consumer goods industries.
The results of this global study will be presented to you in this report. The complete study report in English can be requested free of charge using the form or by e-mail to Ellen Wood (email@example.com) or GS1 Germany, Sarah Leick (firstname.lastname@example.com), stating the contact details.
Published in CHEManager Distribution & Logistics 2019
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01 Logistics Performance Is a …
Published in CHEManager Distribution & Logistics …
Logistics Performance is a Driver of the Corporate Performance!
Miebach Consulting Study Reveals new Trends in Chemical Logistics
For many years, the chemical industry was asleep regarding logistics. Although logistics costs played a significant role for many chemical companies, in many cases they were seen as an optimization field only to a limited extent. The focus was too much on production and capital-intensive plants; logistics, on the other hand, had to function at the end of the value chain. The ability to influence logistics costs and the importance of logistics for service and flexibility were often rated as low.
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01 Supply Chain Management - …
Supply Chain Managment - Opportunities by digitalization
Digitalization is disrupting outdated models while at the same time pushing and driving new business models. As long as goods are moved physically, logistics is the enabler of these new business models. Below you will find an overview of digitalization, platforms and artificial intelligence methods along the supply chain.
Preview: Initial lessons learned from the global GS1 and Miebach study on the relevance and adoption of innovative solutions in FMCG
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01 Supply Chain Management 2020 …
Preview: Initial lessons learned from the global …
Supply Chain Management 2020 in Consumer Goods
Preview: Initial lessons learned from the global GS1 and Miebach study on the relevance and adoption of innovative solutions in FMCG
Study can be obtained from Ralf Hoffmann
Benchmark Study Consumer Goods - with Focus on the Cosmetics Industry
Do market changes require the restructuring of the supply chain?
Retail is changing. The influence of e-commerce has continued to grow in recent years. Companies from all sectors have to react to this and adapt their distribution structure. How do consumer goods companies meet market requirements in terms of logistics? Do they adapt the supply chain structure in order to (better) fulfill certain service goals, for example?
The benchmark study conducted by Miebach Consulting in the consumer goods industry, with a focus on the cosmetics industry, reflects the current state of distribution structures and provides insights into the development of networks and applied design principles. In addition, the results point to conversion processes in the coming years - and thus provide important information for the company's own supply chain planning.
Miebach surveyed 20 consumer goods companies of different sizes. The focus of the survey was on the network structure, the supply chain related Key Performance Indicators (KPI), the special requirements of each region, their degree of orientation towards e-commerce, and ownership. A further focus was on identifying the warehouse locations.
The complete study report in English language can be requested free of charge using the form or by e-mail to Ralf Hoffmann (firstname.lastname@example.com), stating the contact details.
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01 New distribution center & …
New distribution center & logistics park for Binzagr Company
Located 120 kilometers north of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia the King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) is growing, adjacent to a fully equipped and functioning modern Port (King Abdullah Port – "KAP") facility and with a future link to the rail network across the Kingdom.
According to the Kingdom's "Vision 2030", the new city on the Red Sea is planned to develop into a metropolis of 2 million inhabitants for the time after the oil era and serve as an economic center and logistics hub. A total of 100 billion US dollars has been estimated for the mega-project announced in 2005 by the former King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud.
In the King Abdullah Economic City, a new distribution/logistics park, is being built for the Binzagr Company, which will also benefit from the port, rail infrastructure and the new regulations for the special economic zones.
Published in Pharma Horizon - vol. 2(3)/2018
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01 The efficient planning of …
Published in Pharma Horizon - vol. 2(3)/2018
The efficient planning of temperature-controlled storage for pharmaceutical products
Unlike the planning of conventional warehouses, additional criteria must be considered for storage and material flow planning in pharmaceutical companies. All areas must be qualified from the very start of planning - including the areas of climate control, documentation of storage conditions (e.g. monitoring system), as well as entrance and access control, and particularly for material flow changes in the production area.
The following article examines the success factors for efficient and successful warehouse planning in climate-controlled areas for the pharmaceutical industry.
Study can be obtained from Ralf Hoffmann
Miebach study 2018: Mergers & Acquisitions in the German logistics industry
The importance of company acquisitions is increasing among logistics service providers, but very few companies have created the organizational conditions to deal with the topic in a structured way. This conclusion is the result of a survey conducted in May and June of German financial investors and logistics service providers on mergers & acquisitions by the consulting firm Miebach Consulting in cooperation with DVZ.
"More and more companies recognize that M&A is a strategic tool for actively shaping growth opportunities. Nevertheless, it must be noted that there are only a few companies with an institutionalized M&A approach. If M&A is really to become part of the corporate strategy, the companies have to make significant progress" - says Dr. Klaus-Peter Jung, Member of the Management Board, Miebach Consulting.
The complete study report in German language can be requested free of charge using the form or by e-mail to Ralf Hoffmann (firstname.lastname@example.com), stating the contact details.
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01 2018_CI_Whitepaper_ENG
Continuous Improvement: Your Journey from Junior Varsity to Pro Level
Just as there are varying levels of athletic and sporting activities in the US such as recreational, junior varsity, varsity, collegiate, and professional; so too are there levels of continuous improvement concepts, implementations, and cultures within our organizations. All-time great athletes such as Tom Brady, Mia Hamm, Michael Jordan, and Lisa Leslie didn't start their careers at the highest levels of their game. They began like many other professionals do: by starting off at either young ages or at beginner levels and growing their craft and skillset over time.
This isn't news to anyone, yet when we approach our own continuous improvement journeys within our companies, often we immediately jump into very complex projects such as implementation of a Kanban system, or rolling out a Toyota Production System (TPS) based initiative, introduction of six sigma projects, or a full-blown launch of a Total Quality Management (TQM) system, without first having built some of the very beginning levels of continuous improvement and coaching into our culture.
There are a few significant elements of continuous improvement that will help a novice manager buildup their "junior varsity team" into a more professional continuous improvement organization, and that is the focus of this whitepaper.
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01 Miebach Whitepaper The …
The Potential of Digitalization in Logistics and Production
Industry 4.0 – for companies there's just no escaping it. Some have tried going on the offensive, others have tried watching and waiting, and yet others have even tried rejection, but no one can ignore it.
The term "Industry 4.0" refers to the networking of people, systems, and objects in real time within self-organized and optimized value chains. With "Industry 4.0" having lost ist luster, the term "digitalization" is increasingly replacing it. Digitalization describes the transformation of analog processes to digital ones. Digital technologies are omnipresent: at work, at home, and on the go in purses and pants pockets. There's more to digitalization that just digitalized photos or DVDs replacing VHS, though. The following pages offer insight into the world of opportunities opened up by the use of digital technologies in logistics and production.
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01 Miebach Whitepaper Integrated …
Integrated inventory optimization for the Consumer Goods industry
Volatile markets, shorter product life cycles, and the predictability of customer needs have a very direct impact on planning accuracy and delivering capacity in companies.
Changes to customer and demand structures, often combined with shifts between the distribution channels and consolidation of the competition, pose additional challenges for the configuration of the supply chain. There continues to be increasing pressure to constantly improve the value chain, and thus also the logistical network, as a sales and differentiation feature. Anyone wanting to gain a competitive advantage in the market with quick delivery times, high availability of products, and maximum flexibility has to achieve this while also keeping costs as low as possible. This is what allows companies to maintain their profitability over the long run.
Simultaneous production, inventory, and transport management has the ability to unleash significant potential for more efficient resource use, especially in the field of Consumer Goods. Optimization that is limited to location- or function-related aspects will indeed bring about immediate improvements, but will never result in optimization of the entire system.
This whitepaper highlights the essential factors that must be considered for integrated optimization and outlines the procedure for successful project work.
Great Britain is leaving the EU – at least that much has been decided. But how will Brexit affect logistics and supply chain management?
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01 Miebach Whitepaper Brexit and …
Great Britain is leaving the EU – at least that …
Brexit and Logistics: Wait and See or Be Proactive?
Great Britain is leaving the EU - at least that much has been decided. But how will Brexit affect logistics and supply chain management?
Europe will soon be a little bit smaller. No one is quite sure how this will play out yet. There will be consequences - that much is sure. What challenges will crop up in logistics and what should the people in charge be doing?
The entire political debate surrounding Great Britain's exit from the European Union has been plagued by uncertainty. In addition to the uncertain outcome of negotiations between Great Britain and the EU, the presumed aftermath of the negotiated terms also remains unclear. At the same time, less than a year remains to make vital decisions - and that's before implementation even starts.
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01 The Urban Distribution of …
The Urban Distribution of Goods: Challenges and Solutions
In a world where the purchases made online steadily increases and consumers are becoming more demanding in terms of speed and flexibility of service, the urban last mile distribution of goods is a service that gains more relevance every day within the supply chain.
However, national governments - and even more so the municipal administrations - have begun to take restrictive measures for delivery vehicles' access to urban centers, especially in major metropolitan areas, with the aim to avoid congestion and protect the environment.
The two trends are clearly conflicting and require a profound change in the urban distribution model. In this publication we will analyze which are the main challenges of the current model and which solutions are appearing on the horizon.
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01 Miebach_Whitepaper_Logistikaud …
Logistics Audit - Identifying Fields of Action to Optimize Service, Quality and Costs
The logistics audit analyzes and optimizes step-by-step the company's overall performance on the different operative levels and increases the efficiency of the operating processes.
This white paper provides insight into how potentials are identified in a logistics audit and how implementation measures can be planned.
In summer 2017, the EHI Retail Institute carried out a survey on leading retail companies in German speaking countries to further explain the opportunities and challenges of the usage of robotics in retail - both in intralogistics and at the point of sale.
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01 EHI Whitepaper Robotics4Retail …
In summer 2017, the EHI Retail Institute carried …
Whitepaper "Robotics4Retail" about the usage of robotics in consumer goods retailing (in German)
The increasing competitive pressure, the improved technical possibilities due to digitization but also the need to make work easier for the employees both in logistics and at the point of sale as well as the partly limited availability of staff are the reasons why automation and robotics have been getting more attention in consumer goods retailing in recent years.
In summer 2017, the EHI Retail Institute carried out a survey on leading retail companies in German speaking countries to further explain the opportunities and challenges of the usage of robotics in retail - both in intralogistics and at the point of sale. The results are demonstrated in the EHI whitepaper (available in German language). Miebach Consulting supports this project within the "Robotics for Retail (R4R)" initative as a cooperation partner.
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01 Miebach Whitepaper: Managing …
Managing Digital Processes in Supply Chains: The 5 Principal Tasks
With the technology dependency rapidly increasing in business activities and the customers demanding close to immediate responses; having a technical disruption even for a short period of time, has only negative connotations.
The interconnection among the different technologies must be understood, documented, and monitored so that the information flows and the processes perform as expected. Who is responsible for this? A Data Governance Committee that understands not only the technology, but also the processes and the users.
Study can be obtained from Ralf Hoffmann
Miebach's nearshoring study shows: the production is being relocated closer to the industrialized countries
In today's globalized world of business, the ever-increasing requirements of customers regarding products and services has led to a new trend - nearshoring, which allows the companies to respond to customer needs with shorter delivery times and greater flexibility. Miebach Consulting has conducted an international study on this topic to determine how supply chains are affected by current and future shoring strategies, to evaluate the factors for shoring decisions and to show what shoring trends companies expect in the future.
One of the main conclusions of the study is that an increasing amount of companies (51 % of the participants) are producing in closer proximity to their markets instead of moving the production abroad. The study also shows that this percentage is going to increase even more, since 26 % of the participating companies believe that nearshoring is a trend that is going to have a very high or high relevance in a near future, above the offshoring and the onshoring or local production (22 % and 17 %, respectively). See figure 1.
Asked more in detail about which localization strategy they would choose and where they would like to implement it in the future, respondents pointed out that in Europe the preferred strategy will be nearshoring (69%), in America Onshoring will strengthen (43%), while offshoring is still a major trend in Asian countries (67%). See figure 2.
"Modern production processes ensure a stronger focus on customers and can be a competitive advantage given the right location strategy. This is where Near- and Onshoring become more important for companies. Especially the population within the major economic regions can benefit from job creation due to production in proximity to markets." - Bernd Müller-Dauppert, Member of the Management Board, Miebach Consulting GmbH.
The study participants expect an increase in supply chain complexity due to Near- and Onshoring trends. The process of choosing an optimal shoring strategy and subsequently selecting the ideal location therefore requires an integrated consideration of both supply chain and production networks.
In all, 127 companies from various sectors took part in the study. Around 1/3 of participants are from North and South America and 2/3 are from Europe.
The complete study brochure can be obtained for free from Miebach Consulting using the form or by e-mail to Ralf Hoffmann (firstname.lastname@example.com), stating the contact details.
A blog article dealing with the nearshoring trend from the perspective of logistics service providers you will find here.
All Downloads
01 Miebach Whitepaper 4PL
4PL – Revival, Fad or Mirage?
The term 4th Party Logistics Service Providers - or 4PL for short - repeatedly comes up in public discussion. Already during the 90's many postulated the success of the concept but this was far away from reality. Comparing the publications, talks and other PR related activities at that time to the number of projects actually implemented it seems that the 4PL euphoria has been more marketing hype than an actual trend.
Long forgotten, the concept is now being revived - 4PL is back in the public debate. But what is this all about, why is this issue being taken up, which players are important and for which kind of industrial and retail customers could this approach be interesting? The following pages give answers to these questions.
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01 The unstoppable evolution …
The unstoppable evolution towards collaborative supply chains
The strength of a businesses internal Supply Chain capability is a result of the need to adapt to ever changing market expectations. To cope with today's exponential rate of change an increasing number of businesses are relying on external expertise to innovate and exploit supply chain opportunities. Miebach Consulting believes that collaboration is becoming an indispensable component of leading edge supply chains and the factors that need to be addressed to ensure success.
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01 Miebach Whitepaper Robotic
Robots in picking logistics
This whitepaper gives an insight into current limitations and possibilities of robots in logistics, as well as answers and additional suggestions on the current state of robot-based automation, the feasibility of applications and their opportunities.
All Videos
Miebach Services at a glance
Miebach services at a glance
The video gives a short overview of Miebach services and industry expertise.
For further information about the video please contact Ralf Hoffmann (firstname.lastname@example.com).
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01 Service Paper M&A Support
M&A-support for logistics-affine companies as well as financial investors
Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) are playing an increasingly important role in the logistics environment. Both strategists and financial investors endeavor to acquire logistics services providers, logistics IT companies and logistics equipment manufacturers – and normally seek external support for this purpose.
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01 Service Paper Business …
Business development for logistics services providers
The strategic development of a company is a challenge for many logistics services providers, and previous methods only lead to insufficient solutions. While during the 90s and 2000s the focus was to successfully establish new businesses, it has now changed to attracting new business opportunities. This change is challenging the whole industry.
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01 EBook-10-Tips-SCD-LLamasoft-Mi …
Supply Chain Design Tips E-Book
Miebach's participation at the 2016 LLamasoft Summercon Conference included a session on Ideal Supply Chain Design presented by Nick Banich. The response from the presentation was very positive, and in consequence we have collaborated with LLamasoft to create an E-Book on the topic to be made available to those who were not in attendance.
"The idea of the '10 Pillars of Supply Chain Design' was to share the very high-level strategy that we ourselves employ when beginning a project of this nature for a client," explained Nick, Miebach partner in the US. "By sharing this information with other supply chain professionals, Miebach and LLamasoft can show the value of our respective roles within a design project for our clients. Between our expertise and the comprehensive Supply Chain Guru software, network designs are able to achieve a greater positive impact for the client's overall business plan."
Miebach's LLamasoft Center of Excellence supports both owners and non-owners of the software across the full spectrum of supply chain design and transformation.
Study can be obtained from Ralf Hoffmann
Challenges ahead! Miebach pharma study 2016 reveals supply chain trends
The study brochure about the new Miebach pharma survey 2016 with 256 participants is now available. The results show: The pharmaceutical industry is giving its supply chain and logistics a much greater importance than in the past. The top subjects in the pharmaceutical logistics are end-to-end supply chain visibility and optimizing the distribution networks. The increasing volume of refrigerated and frozen products and serialization of product codes are further challenges supply chain managers are facing.
"Our European study clearly shows that most pharmaceutical companies see the European market as a whole region, while national borders are becoming less important, except for specific legislation or distribution channels" - says Martin Eckert, Global Pharma Expert & Director, Miebach Consulting. Optimization of the distribution network has grown very much in importance (from 76 % to 86 %). The initiatives are aiming to transform many national networks into one more efficient and transparent European network, alongside with other many issues.
Topics like improving supplier management (86 %), end-to-end supply chain visibility (93 %), improving forecasting accuracy (84 %) and track & trace (82 %) are some of the most significant issues for the management, very much in line with the previous Miebach pharma study from 2012. Optimization through automation (64 %), outsourcing (62 %) and constructing new warehouses compliant with GxP guidelines (54 %) are also important topics.
The full study report including derived recommendations for action (available in English, German and Spanish language) can be obtained free of charge using the form or by e-mail to Ralf Hoffmann (email@example.com), stating the contact details.
Deutsche Version: Distribution als Schlüsselfaktor
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01 Deutsche Version: Distribution …
Deutsche Version: Distribution als Schlüsselfaktor
02 English version: distribution …
English version: distribution as a key factor
03 Francais: La Distribution, un …
Francais: La Distribution, un factuer cle
Distribution as a Key Factor
Veröffentlicht in der Logistik-Fachzeitschrift International Transport Journal
Interview mit Bernd Müller-Dauppert über Herausforderungen und Chancen für Unternehmen in Asien-Pazifik
English version: Supply Chain increases the availability of goods
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01 English version: Supply Chain …
English version: Supply Chain increases the …
02 Turkish version: Supply Chain …
Turkish version: Supply Chain increases the …
Supply Chain increases the Availability of Goods
Published in the Logistics Magazine f+h 01/2016
Case Study about Supply Chain Transformation (pdf see download area).
Link to the English version: https://keosk.3dz.com/apps/#/html5/mag/Hlo1K5ArYgLkC/page/18
Link to the Turkish version: https://keosk.3dz.com/apps/#/html5/mag/2OXmhhGD3rREt/page/22
Study can be obtained from Ralf Hoffmann
Miebach Study "Distribution to Asia Pacific: Increasing service levels characterize the regions of growth"
The heterogeneous Asian-Pacific area increasingly gains importance as a market, with China being the top-performer. The results of the current Miebach Study - Distribution to Asia-Pacific, with more than 126 participants, indicates that 20 % of the surveyed companies already earn more than 15 % of their total turnover in this area.
"All signs point to expansion in Asia-Pacific, although companies will have to adjust their delivery time and service level to European standards", said Bernd Müller-Dauppert, member of the executive board of Miebach Consulting GmbH.
More than 75 % of participants expect an increase in delivery time requirements. As of right now, more than half of the exporting companies have to supply customers within 14 days; almost a quarter within three days. Two thirds of the participants additionally expect an increase in competition, which will result in an even higher service demand. To fulfill delivery time requirements, three quarters of companies pursue a supply chain strategy precisely for Asia-Pacific. Especially the strategic importance of agility and flexibility in the region is assessed highly, followed by the CPFR-concept (Continuous Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment) as well as supply chain transparency. Further important topics for Asian-pacific companies are supply chain differentiation by customer demands as well as the use of current IT-systems.
A majority of companies (41 %) distribute their products in all five Asia- Pacific regions and almost a quarter within four regions. Exporting companies with local production have on average eleven mainly self-owned warehouses in Asia-Pacific. Only a small number of companies consider developed countries like Australia/ New Zealand and Japan/ South-Korea as attractive production locations. That indicates that companies are following consumer markets: Higher saturated markets have higher customer demands – therefore, a customer proximity is required.
Background of the Study:
Miebach Consulting conducted a survey in June and July 2015 about distribution to Asia-Pacific. An online survey was used as research method, which was sent to companies from different industries. The survey was analyzed completely anonymously.
The complete study report in English language can be requested free of charge using the form or by e-mail to Ralf Hoffmann (firstname.lastname@example.com), stating the contact details.
Article of Dr. Joachim Miebach about "science fiction or oncoming reality?"
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01 Article science fiction or …
Article of Dr. Joachim Miebach about "science …
Science Fiction or oncoming reality?
The article deals with three technological trends, which might revolutionize the world and have a major impact on supply chains: 3D, printing, robots and drones.


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VICTORIA — The anglers who return every year for the herring run in the Gorge will be fishing off a familiar bridge again next spring.
The Craigflower Bridge crosses the shallow tidal saltwater stream a few kilometres up from the Victoria harbour. The low two-lane span achieved notoriety 15 years ago, when in a case that shocked the nation, teenagers who gathered for a drinking party under its western end savagely turned on 14-year-old Reena Virk, then followed her across to the beach on the other side where she was beaten and drowned.
The memorial that marked that disturbing episode is long gone and attention has turned again to the natural features that have drawn people to this narrows for thousands of years, long before cars took over cities and needed a way to cross. Anglers have fished off bridges here since the late 1800s. Middens on both sides attest to the use by first nations long before that.
The current version of the bridge is 78 years old. It was slated for replacement with a new fisherman-friendly bridge this summer but got a reprieve because the municipalities it connects, Saanich and View Royal, couldn't get their ducks in a row in time to start construction in the brief window between the herring in the spring and the salmon in the fall.
They had the funding lined up — $10 million in gas tax from Ottawa – but environmental approvals were taking longer than expected.
The issue wasn't ducks, but oysters, although it could have been any one of a number of wild creatures. The environmental assessment looked for birds nesting in trees on the approaches, fish and the creatures that live on the bridge itself and the bottom.
"You do the study and find out what's out there that's of concern," says Jim Hemstock, manager of capital works for Saanich.
What they found was a bounty of oysters and not just any oysters, but the relatively rare native species, Olympia oysters, that have been over-fished and then elbowed aside on most of the coast by the larger Japanese variety that was imported for oyster farming and has since taken over.
The Gorge is one of the few places left on the coast where there is a relatively healthy population of the native species. A survey this year found they were particularly abundant between the wooden pilings of the old bridge.
Since European settlers arrived, the Gorge has undergone two transformations. The first was to introduce industrial pollutants and sewage that ended its role as the local recreation centre, where swimming and diving competitions were regularly held until the mid-1920s.
Then in the last couple of decades, it has been cleaned up again, through the efforts of local volunteers who fished out truckloads of junk that been thrown into the water over the years and through improvements in municipal sewage systems.
Next weekend the Gorge Waterway Initiative will hold its first Swimfest to re-introduce people to swimming in the Gorge.
Joachim Carolsfeld, with the Victoria-based World Fisheries Trust, led the oyster study and is helping design features of the new bridge to make it more oyster friendly.
Carolsfeld says while the cleaner water may play a role in the success of native oysters here, it may not be a positive one.
"It's hard to say whether the oysters do better in dirty or clean water ... Hopefully the oysters don't disappear from the Gorge now that it's clean."
Meanwhile, the bridge builders are being required to go to extreme lengths to protect them. When they were just drilling soil samples, they had to first clear the sea bed where the drill would go through.
"Even though it was a small number of oysters that would have been crushed by the drill bit, the law says you can't harm them so we had a diver go down and relocate those few," Hemstock says.
When it comes to the actual construction, all of the oysters in the way have to be moved. That's not just a matter of scooping them up and tossing them in again somewhere else. They have to be picked up individually and then placed in a good spot the right way up.
"It's a fairly bid deal," says Hemstock. "You have a diver. A diver has to have a helper for safety. You have to have a tender, so you've got three guys there, all fairly well paid, moving oysters."
The cost of relocating the oysters is as yet uncertain but significant. "I think it will be in the order of tens of thousands," says Hemstock."It's going to take several days and these moves are not cheap."


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Inspired by our Bristolmetrics series, commenter Carrie Hunt and the Spoonerisms did some Torontometrics in last night's DUAN, and it sounds like our neighbors to the north are pretty into this "hockey" thing. What, no clamorous blowhards trolling easily agitated morons? How can you tell the clowns from the frauds?!
I'm Canadian, and I've always thought that the ongoing Bristolmetrics/ESPN stories present some weird, alternate, confusing universe - a bitter universe, revolving around a black hole of Lebron, Tebow and shouting matches - far removed from the concept I know as "sports media". So I pulled out a notepad and decided to run some Torontometrics, a look at the stats behind the edition of TSN's Sportscentre that ran immediately after the end of the NBA Finals, just to give you an idea of how the other side consumes sports. (If you're unfamiliar, TSN is Canada's national sports network and shares a lot of ESPN content, and all of the Sportscentre graphics/sound cues would be familiar to ESPN viewers, but I'm sure you'd be mindfucked by the content, like biting into what you think is a familiar apple and having it taste like beef jerky.)
Breakdown of most of the show before I stopped keeping track:
NBA: first 3 minutes of the broadcast
Euro 2012: 2 minutes
NHL Draft: 10 minutes, with a 4-man panel live from Pittsburgh
(Ad break)
CFL preseason action: 2 minutes
NHL season schedule announced: 2 minutes
MLB: 2 minutes
(Ad break)
NHL Draft: 8 minutes
(Ad break, and I'll stop keeping track at this point, but spoilers: it promises to be almost entirely about hockey from here on in, and the Top 10 later on promises to be about memorable NHL Drafts)
Lebron was mentioned 13 times. Wade was mentioned 3 times. Durant, twice.
Nail Yakupov, at least 25 times, before I stopped counting the mentions for minor league hockey players. Rick Nash was mentioned more times than every Thunder player combined, and he didn't even DO anything this week.
So that's what Sportscentre is like in Canada, immediately after Lebron wins an NBA title, do with this information what you choose.


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Contribute to ReadWriteThink / RSS / FAQs / Site Demonstrations / Contact Us / About Us
Home › Classroom Resources › Mobile Apps
Mobile App
Trading Cards
Lessons That Use This Mobile App
Related Classroom & Professional Development Resources
ReadWriteThink's Trading Cards app allows kids and teens a unique way to share their understanding of various topics, to build study aids for school, or to create their own fictional world of characters.
Create trading cards for any number of categories, including:
- Fictional person
- Real person
- Fictional place
- Real place
- Object
- Event
- Vocabulary word
Each category has specific guiding questions for creating a dynamic, information-rich trading card. Summarizing skills are critical as they drill down to the most important information to fit on the card. In addition, they become aware of writing for an audience because they can share their cards with others.
Part of the appeal of trading cards is being able to sort them into collections. Have kids and teens build a collection of cards for characters from their favorite book, landmarks in their favorite city, events from a period in history they find interesting, or vocabulary words by school subject.
- Multi-user card storage
- Management of users by deleting and restoring within 2 weeks
- 7 card categories, each with a targeted set of guiding questions that cover key information
- Ability to add and edit an image from your device's camera or photo library
- 12 card designs for styling cards
- Helpful how-to information on each screen
- Ability to create collections of completed cards
- Auto-saving of cards as they are created
- Viewing of finished card for proofreading
- Ability to save card to photos
- Ability to print card on a wireless printer
- Ability to send card by e-mail
Trading Cards is an educational app for all ages that adds creativity and fun to the learning process. If you have ideas for educational uses for this app in school or at home, please Contact Us.
Privacy: Your trading cards are private unless you decide to share them by e-mail. ReadWriteThink.org does not store any personal information from this app.
ReadWriteThinks Trading Cards app allows kids and teens a unique way to share their understanding of various topics, to build study aids for school, or to create their own fictional world of characters.
Splash screen for Trading Cards
Create a username to complete, save, and share your trading cards!
Type your card topic and choose a card type to get started.
Guiding questions help you complete the card about your topic.
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Lessons That Use This Mobile App
Grades 2 – 5 | Lesson Plan | Minilesson
Bringing Economic Vocabulary to Life Through Video Posters
Imagine if vocabulary could come alive with the click of a button! Students create video posters to demonstrate knowledge of new economics vocabulary.
Related Classroom & Professional Development Resources
Grades 7 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Picture This: Student Created Online Vocabulary Flashcards
Let the students be the vocabulary experts! Prior to whole class instruction, students create online flashcards and teach the class the new vocabulary.
Grades 6 – 9 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Poppin' Fun with Physical and Chemical Changes
Students will enjoy learning about physical and chemical changes as they turn their own photos into a narrated video using the iPad app SonicPics to illustrate (and eat) their results from a popcorn lab.
Grades 6 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Highlighting Out-of-School Language Expertise with Pop Culture Dictionaries
Students compose dictionary entries for words and phrases from pop culture texts (e.g., television shows, movies, lyrics, YouTube videos), connecting their definitions to their personal use of the terms.
Grades 3 – 12 | Student Interactive | Organizing & Summarizing
This tool provides a fun and useful way to explore a variety of topics such as a character in a book, a person or place from history, or even a physical object. An excellent tool to for summarizing or as a prewriting exercise for original stories.
Grades K – 8 | Professional Library | Book
Trading Cards to Comic Strips: Popular Culture Texts and Literacy Learning in Grades K-8
This resource shows how to use television, movies, video games, music, magazines, and other media to motivate students and enhance literacy learning.
Grades 1 – 5 | Professional Library | Journal
eVoc Strategies: 10 Ways to Use Technology to Build Vocabulary
Drawing on research-based principles of vocabulary instruction and multimedia learning, this article presents 10 eVoc strategies that use free digital tools and Internet resources to evoke students' engaged vocabulary learning.
Grades 1 – 3, 5 | Professional Library | Journal
Exploring the Use of the iPad for Literacy Learning
The goal of this investigation was to explore how a fourth grade teacher could integrate iPads into her literacy instruction to simultaneously teach print-based and digital literacy goals.
Related Parent & Afterschool Resources
Grades K – 3 | Tip & How-To
Talk it Up! Expanding a Child's Vocabulary
One way to help early readers begin to make sense of what they're reading is to help them build their vocabulary. In this Tip, learn how to ask questions and have conversations with a child to integrate new words into his/her vocabulary.


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"Animals aren't wild, they're just free." Everytime I read this quote, I go back to reminiscing my experience at the Woburn Safari Park on the outskirts of London.
The Woburn Safari Park is located on Bedfordshire Parkland and is 300 acres huge. You can start with a road safari, then walk around and enjoy a ton of leisure activities. You start off at the entrance with a map which shows you which animals are located where. It's a huge jungle with pathways for the car to move around. You can spot Zebras, Horses, Bisons, Tigers, Lions, Bears, Giraffes, Elephants, Deer, Rhinos, Antelopes, Wolves, Bongos, Macaques, Monkeys and so many more!
Once you're done with the car safari, you can set out on foot and interact with some of the friendly and some playful four legged buddies. The mongoose, meerkats, lemurs and porcupines will make you feel like a part of the Madagascar movie. We were right in time for their meal time so we could actually watch them being fed and running around playfully.
There is a Sea Lion Cove which is the indoor demonstration pool and is home to Californian Sea Lions. You can check the events schedule and catch a 3d movie about the sea lions. You can even catch an owl show called the Birds of Prey demonstration as per the timetable. And if you like bird watching (literally), you could take a walk into the Rainbow Landing, buy your pot of nectar, keep your camera ready and wait for the birds to land on you for their food. The lories and lorikeets – brightly feathered parrots will be hovering over and on you for the nectar.
My absolute favourite section of the foot safari was strolling through the Australian Walkabout. The Australian Walkabout is home to Greater Rhea and Red Necked Wallabies which belong to the kangaroo family. Imagine walking around with these lovelies hopping around you.
There is a lot more to do here, you can enjoy the shows, dine at the cafe or just spend time walking around the lush park. The key is to start early so you have enough time to spend here.
Venue: Woburn Safari Park
Milton Keynes, Bedfordshire
Buy Tickets Here: Tickets
Getting to Woburn Safari Park: Woburn Safari Park is approximately one hour's drive from London, Oxford, Cambridge and Birmingham and is only accessible by car.
Below are the postcodes directing you to your closest entrance:
From J13 of the M1 – Follow signs to Woburn Safari Park. Use the postcode MK17 9QN, for the entrance gate on High Street in Ridgmont.
From the A5 – Follow signs to Woburn village, Woburn Safari Park is signposted. Use the postcode MK43 0XB for your sat nav, for directions to the entrance gate on Turnpike Road, Husborne Crawley. (source: official website)


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Shipping Weight: 1 lb. [More...]
Shipping [More...]
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When all hell breaks loose, what eye protection will you be wearing?
Liquid's [More...]
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This hard case is shaped like a horse shoe, and will hold two pairs of Liquid Eyewear. [More...]


text:
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An adviser is available to help you. You can also place your order by phone, where we can advise you on the cut or size of your product.
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This section allows you to get an immediate answer to our most frequently asked questions.


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Marathon nurse tells of gore beyond anything she'd seen
- Alix Coletta was a volunteer nurse at the marathon
- She was tending to a runner when the first bomb went off
- Says she felt a %22rumble%22 in her chest
Alix Coletta graduated from nursing school less than a year ago. She had never seen the horrible sights she was about to see when the bombs went off at the Boston Marathon on Monday.
Coletta, 25, a volunteer at the race, was inside the big medical tent past the finish line at Boylston and Dartmouth streets when the first explosion sounded.
"I was kneeling down over a runner on a cot who was a little hypothermic when I heard the first bomb go off," recalls Coletta, who grew up in Johnston, R.I., and now lives in Quincy, Mass. "It produced a rumble in my chest and shook my chest."
Coletta says the blast "sounded like a bolt of lightning striking the ground." She thought the sound might have been caused by a "huge car accident" or a loudspeaker that had blown.
When she heard the second bomb blast, "I knew something was wrong, and I ran to the front of the tent."
Three people carried in a woman. One of her legs was blown off. Someone was holding it.
The woman was "dripping blood all over" and "wailing in pain," Coletta says.
"I have never seen anything like that," she says. "I will always remember that."
Coletta says she was stunned and couldn't move at first, "just looking around and trying to figure out what was going on." She saw many people with blood on their faces and limbs.
Then she began tending to the injured.
"When people came in, we used coats, belts, anything we could to stop the bleeding," she says.
One woman had a life-threatening injury to her heel, bleeding profusely from an artery, Coletta says.
"Debris from the blast must have also hit her in the mouth, because her lips were also bleeding."
A man's belt was used on the woman's thigh to stop the bleeding, and Coletta dressed the heel wound.
She assisted another woman with a broken leg who had a tibia bone sticking through the skin. Coletta says she held the wounded leg while waiting for EMS personnel to come with a splint.
It was the first time she had ever seen a bone sticking out of someone's skin, she says.
Coletta also tended to a young man with two broken legs who was "crying a bit and in shock." He was shaking and blankets were put around him.
"It looked like he had lost a lot of blood and something had crushed his ribs," she says. "He had indentations in his chest.'
Coletta says she tried to comfort him and held his hand.
She assisted at least two other people with less serious injuries — one bleeding from an arm injury and one with a facial injury.
Medical workers set up a morgue in the back of the tent where, two hours earlier, Coletta had a pleasant lunch with nursing colleagues.
She says an adult who died in the bombing was on a cot, covered by a sheet.
"It absolutely had an effect on me," Coletta says. "It froze me. I didn't know whether to go over to the person or get back to assisting others."
She wonders whether the body was a person who had been in cardiac arrest, carried on a stretcher as EMS workers pounded on the chest.
Coletta doesn't yet know how to put the traumatic day in perspective.
"What happened hasn't quite settled in yet," she says. "It's the surrealness — that unbelievable, oh-my-God, was-I-really-there-helping-everyone feeling. There is disbelief, but you know it was real."
Many have said first responders like Coletta are heroes.
"I don't like calling myself a hero," she says. "I was just doing what everyone else was doing there."
Coletta works at the Bay Path Rehabilitation & Nursing Center in Duxbury, Mass. She disregarded her boss's advice to take a day off Tuesday. She worked a full 7 a.m.-3 p.m. shift the day after the bombing.
"It was another way for me to keep coping," she says.
In one sense, the traumatic events at the Boston Marathon have had a positive effect on Coletta.
"I absolutely feel now I am in the right profession," she says. "As horrific as Monday's experience was, it strengthened my resolve and compassion for being in the nursing profession. I realize it is the profession I want to be in."
Coletta, who as a nursing student also volunteered at last year's Boston Marathon, says she will offer her services again.
"I definitely will return to the marathon next year," she says. "I am not going to live in fear."


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|"Are you a wizard or not?"
The title of this article is conjectural. Although it is based on canonical information, the actual name is a conjecture and may be supplanted at any time by additional information released from canonical sources. If this occurs, please move this page to the appropriate title.
- "Behind the church, row upon row of snowy tombstones protruded from a blanket of pale blue that was flecked with dazzling red, gold, and green wherever the reflections from the stained glass hit the snow."
- —Description.[src]
This graveyard was located in Godric's Hallow, next to the Parish Church of St. Clementine. It was the home of the graves of many former residents of the village, both Muggles and wizardkind, including members of such prominent families as the Peverells, the Potters, and the Dumbledores.
Early history
- "The graveyard is full of the names of ancient magical families, and this accounts, no doubt, for the stories of hauntings that have dogged the little church beside it for many centuries."
- —Bathilda Bagshot, A History of Magic.[src]
It is unknown, with certainty, when the graveyard was founded, however, it appears that it was already in existance by 1291, as Ignotus Peverell, who died in that year, is buried in there.
Many people, both wizards and Muggles, would be buried in the graveyard over the centuries, including people such as Kendra and Ariana Dumbledore, a member of the Abbott family, and James and Lily Potter.
- Harry Potter: "I've been thinking. I — I want to go to Godric's Hollow."
- Hermione Granger: "Yes. Yes, I've been wondering that too. I really think we'll have to."
- — Harry Potter and Hermione Granger decide to visit Godric's Hallow.[src]
On 24 December, 1997, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger visited Godric's Hallow as part of their search for Horcruxes. On their way to try and locate Bathilda Bagshot, they passed this graveyard and decided to take a detour to visit the grave of Harry's parents. During their search for it, they discovered other graves, including Ignotus Peverell's, which showed them another use of a symbol they would later learn was associated with the Deathly Hallows, and the Dumbledores', which confirmed what they had read in The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore about the Dumbledores having lived in the village. After finding the Potters' grave, Harry began to cry, and Hermione conjured some flowers to place at the grave. The two then made their way to leave, only pausing once to ascertain if someone was watching them.
Known burials
- Abbott
- Ariana Dumbledore
- Kendra Dumbledore
- H. Knighton
- Ignotus Peverell
- James Potter
- Lily Potter
- D. Williams
- M. Kenton
- Elsbeth M.
- Dinah Stevenson
- John Stevenson
- Edwin Booth
- Julie Parkes
- Peter G.
Behind the scenes
- In the novel Harry and Hermione came to this graveyard disguised as an old couple, however in the video game as well as the LEGO game they visit the graveyard as themselves, though Hermione liked the idea of using Polyjuice Potion.


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Second Law of Thermodynamics
The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that heat can never flow from a cold body to a warmer one. An equivalent definition is that the entropy of an isolated system cannot decrease.[1]
Because there are no perfectly closed systems, the Second Law of Thermodynamics holds that everything becomes more disordered over time, in the absence of intelligent intervention.
According to this law, it is impossible to build a perpetual motion machine because increasingly entropy will inevitably derail the machine.
The Second Law of Thermodynamics does not disprove the atheistic Theory of Evolution as the earth is not a closed system.
Creation Ministries International on the second law of thermodynamics and evolution
See also: Creation Ministries International on the second law of thermodynamics and evolution
Creation Ministries International has a great wealth of information on why the second law of thermodynamics is incompatible with the evolutionary paradigm.
Some of their key resources on this matter are:
The three forms of the Second Law of Thermodynamics
There are three different types of systems that the Second Law of Thermodynamics can apply to:
- Isolated system - Does not exchange matter or energy with its surroundings
- Closed system - Exchanges energy, but not matter, with its surroundings
- Open system - Exchanges both matter and energy with its surroundings
A simplification caused by misinterpretation says: disorder will increase within a closed system.
Actually entropy is a little more abstract and the second law of thermodynamics means something like this: the universe will always become increasingly uniform, that is: heat will spread until the entire universe has the temperature and energy level (in a closed system heat will always spread from a place where there is a lot of heat to a place where there is less until balance is achieved), forces will continue to work until a universal balance has been achieved.
In this final state the universe is one uniform space where nothing happens and no work (moving something) can be done since there are no above average concentrations of energy left. This state is called maximum entropy and is said to be in perfect disorder (although intuitively its uniformity would seem to be a state of perfect order) because it has become impossible to determine what happened in the past. i.e. There are an infinite number of ways (histories of the universe) maximum entropy could have been reached.
Entropy and disorder
In this context "increasing disorder" means "that which happens if you let nature take its course". Imagine your old room at your parent's house. Remember how easy it was to let the room turn into a uniform mess (disorder) and remember how hard it was to clean it up until it fit a specific, non-uniform design (order). Not cleaning up would always result in an increase of entropy in your room!
Now, in nature there is no one to clean up the universe, only chances. The chance of something becoming orderly is a lot smaller than the chance of something becoming disorderly (since there are far more possible disorderly states to choose from).
Alternatively one could think of how difficult it is to construct a house of cards, while almost everything that happens in nature will result in its collapse.
On a universal scale a tidy room would be a universe which has pockets of above average concentrations of energy (remember that E=mc^2 so this includes matter as well.) A messy room would be a universe in which all energy is equally spread out.
The flow of energy (by heat exchange) to places with lower concentrations is called the "heat flow".
The often heard argument that this law disproves an eternal universe is true, since in that case maximum entropy would have been reached already. A counter-argument to this would be to suggest that the universe is still in the process of approaching maximum entropy.
Liberal abuse of the second law of thermodynamics
It has become common in recent years for environmentalists to claim that the second law of thermodynamics implies limits to economic growth. Their reasoning is that because free energy in resources such as oil decreases with time, then economic growth can only be finite. However, this simplistic liberal reasoning ignores the non-zero sum nature of free market economics, whereby improvements in technology deliver gains for all at no further cost. Indeed one of the most vital economic goods, knowledge, can be said to be free from thermodynamic limitations entirely.[2] Liberals also vastly exaggerate the limitations that natural resources impose on human economies. Some estimate that the Earth can harbor 100 billion people. God Himself gives His explicit assurance that the Earth will be generous as long as the human race exists in Genesis: "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." (Gen. 1:28, KJV)
Reversibility and Irreversibility
Reversibility is a theoretical concept related to the Second Law of Thermodynamics. A process is reversible if the net heat and work exchange between the system and the surroundings is zero for the process running forwards and in reverse. This means the process does not generate entropy. In reality, no process is completely reversible. Irreversibility is a quantity sometimes called "lost work" and is equal to the difference between a process' actual work and reversible work. Irreversibility is also equal to a process' entropy generation multiplied by a reference temperature.
- ↑ "Another way of stating the second law then is: 'The universe hvgggsee the second law all about us. We have to work hard to straighten a room, but left to itself it becomes a mess again very quickly and very easily. Even if we never enter it, it becomes dusty and musty. How difficult to maintain houses, and machinery, and our bodies in perfect working order: how easy to let them deteriorate. In fact, all we have to do is nothing, and everything deteriorates, collapses, breaks down, wears out, all by itself -- and that is what the second law is all about." Isaac Asimov, Smithsonian Institute Journal, June 1970, p. 6
- ↑ [1] Discover Institute cofounder and futurist George F. Gilder put it eloquently as follows: Gone is the view of a thermodynamic world economy, dominated by "natural resources" being turned to entropy and waste by human extraction and use. Once seen as a physical system tending toward exhaustion and decline, the world economy has clearly emerged as an intellectual system driven by knowledge.


text:
Don't break your budget
East ways to avoid overspending
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Last year, Americans spent $4.3 trillion on retail purchases alone, and this is the season most of us overspend! So how can you avoid paying over-the-odds next time you go out?
The first scenario to look out for is trying to dodge the crowds. A study from the Journal of Consumer Research found that when surrounded by groups of people, you are less likely to buy unnecessary items.
Next is when you are reminded of the time. A Stanford study found people were more likely to spend 51 percent more on lemonade if they were told to spend some time while enjoying it. The researchers concluded you are more likely to overspend when you think you're paying for an experience.
Third is when you're buying an embarrassing item. According to a Journal of Consumer Research study, 80 percent of people buy something extra with their embarrassing item to distract from it. Avoid it by buying embarrassing items online.
Another time you overspend is when you've just opened another bank account. Researchers found people who have their money spread across a few accounts tend to justify purchases easier.
Copyright 2013 by Ivanhoe Broadcast News and News4Jax.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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earthbuzz necesitaba un nuevo diseño de botón o icono y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 57 diseños de 21 diseñadores freelance.
We are building a 3D iPhone application that integrates location data, current weather conditions and satellite imagery and we are looking for an innovative design for the main button bar of our app.
We are expecting our application to be usable by any iPhone user who is interested in getting up to date weather information from what is going to be the best weather application on iPhone.
Design of 6 'simple' icons that can be used as line art (or subtle grey scale) in an application button bar (they can have subtle embossing), similar to the white line on black background that are used in many iphone applications sitting atop the black semi-ttransparent button bar.
* Info icon - will bring up help and information
* Cloud icon (we are happy with the style of the one in the attached rough - it can be improved upon although this is optional)
* City icon - icon to indicate cities i.e. skyscrapers
* Grid icon - (for a latitude longitude grid of the earth)
* Search icon - magnifying glass or similar
* Satellite icon - simple line art representation of a satellite
The rough button bar contains an example of the resulting size of the (first four) icons. The line thickness of the 'clouds' icon, which is the one we don't mind to keep should serve as reference for line thickness (inner lines and detail can be thinner if it looks okay - also use of greyscale is an option).
The icons should be provided as adobe illustrator CS4 vector art. Sample file will be attached (with rough versions of the icons) and a rough of the resulting button bar.
Consideration should be made of 'alpha' i.e. for when they are rasterized in photoshop - so they can be easily overlaid on the button bar.


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Difference between revisions of "Archiso"
m (Removed bullets. Is the section "Setup (manual way)" needed any longer?)
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|Line 168:
# Copy files over to home
# Copy files over to home
su -c "cp -r /etc/skel/.[a-zA-Z0-9]* /home/'''youruser'''/" '''youruser'''
su -c "cp -r /etc/skel/.[a-zA-Z0-9]* /home/'''youruser'''/" '''youruser'''
=== aitab ===
=== aitab ===
|Line 201:
|Line 189:
=== Boot Loader ===
=== Boot Loader ===
The default file should work fine, so you should not need to touch it.
The default file should work fine, so you should not need to touch it.
Due to the modular nature of isolinux, you are able to use lots of addons since all *.c32 files are copied and available to you. Take a look at the [http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/SYSLINUX official syslinux site] and the [http://projects.archlinux.org/archiso.git/tree/configs/syslinux-iso/boot-files archiso git repo]. Using said addons, it is possible to make visually attractive and complex menus. See [http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/Comboot/menu.c32 here].
Due to the modular nature of isolinux, you are able to use lots of addons since all *.c32 files are copied and available to you. Take a look at the [http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/SYSLINUX official syslinux site] and the [http://projects.archlinux.org/archiso.git/tree/configs/syslinux-iso/boot-files archiso git repo]. Using said addons, it is possible to make visually attractive and complex menus. See [http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/Comboot/menu.c32 here].
Revision as of 19:12, 5 April 2012
Archiso is a small set of bash scripts that is capable of building fully functional Arch Linux based live CD and USB images. It is a very generic tool, so it could potentially be used to generate anything from rescue systems, install disks, to special interest live CD/DVD/USB systems, and who knows what else. Simply put, if it involves Arch on a shiny coaster, it can do it. The heart and soul of Archiso is mkarchiso. All of its options are documented in its usage output, so its direct usage wont be covered here. Instead, this wiki article will act as a guide for rolling your own live mediums in no time!
Before we begin, we need to grab the archiso scripts which carry out the beef of the work for us. You can get archiso from Git (recommended) or from aur. We also need a few packages which archiso relies on; the following commands take care of this for us:
# pacman -S make git libisoburn squashfs-tools rsync --needed # git clone git://projects.archlinux.org/archiso.git # make -C archiso/archiso install
Create a directory to work within, this is where all the modifications to the live image will take place: ~/archlive should do fine.
$ mkdir ~/archlive
The archiso scripts that were installed to the host system earlier now need to be copied over into the newly created directory you will be working within. Archiso comes with two "profiles": releng, and baseline. If you wish to create a fully customised live version of Arch Linux, pre-installed with all your favourite programs and configurations, use "releng". If you just want to create the most basic live media, with no pre-installed packages and minimalistic configurations, then use "baseline".
So, depending on your needs, execute the following, replacing 'PROFILE' with either releng or baseline.
# cp -r /usr/share/archiso/configs/PROFILE/ ~/archlive
If you are using the 'releng' profile to make a fully customised image, then you can proceed onto Archiso#Configure_our_live_medium.
If you are using the 'baseline' profile to create a bare bones, installation image, then you won't be needing to do any customisations and can proceed onto Archiso#Build_the_ISO
Setup (manual way)
If you have already completed the setup the 'automatic' way, using the steps above, then you do not need to read this section. Setup a base filesystem
# mkarchiso init
Install other packages (optional)
# mkarchiso -p "pkg1 pkg2 pkg3 ... pkgN" install
At this point, customize anything what you want in root-image, then exit when done.
# mkarchiso-r "bash" run
Setup initramfs image. Copy needed hooks to root-image
# cp /lib/initcpio/hooks/archiso work/root-image/lib/initcpio/hooks # cp /lib/initcpio/install/archiso work/root-image/lib/initcpio/install
Create a config for mkinitcpio work/root-image/etc/mkinitcpio-archiso.conf
HOOKS="base udev archiso pata scsi sata usb fw filesystems usbinput" COMPRESSION="xz"
Create a folder named as your PC's architecture, and generate the initramfs image:
# mkdir work/root-image/boot/i686 # mkarchiso -r "mkinitcpio -c /etc/mkinitcpio-archiso.conf -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux -g /boot/i686/archiso.img" run
Move kernel/initramfs to boot/
# mkdir -p work/iso/arch/boot/i686 # mv work/root-image/boot/vmlinuz-linux work/iso/arch/boot/i686/vmlinuz # mv work/root-image/boot/i686/archiso.img work/iso/arch/boot/i686/archiso.img
Setup syslinux
Create a directory for it.
# mkdir -p work/iso/arch/boot/syslinux
Create a work/iso/arch/boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg file.
DEFAULT menu.c32 PROMPT 0 MENU TITLE Arch Linux TIMEOUT 300 LABEL arch MENU LABEL Arch Linux LINUX /arch/boot/i686/vmlinuz INITRD /arch/boot/i686/archiso.img APPEND archisolabel=MY_ARCH ONTIMEOUT arch
Copy menu.c32 needed by previous config.
# cp work/root-image/usr/lib/syslinux/menu.c32 work/iso/arch/boot/syslinux/
Setup isolinux (optional, only needed for booteable iso)
# mkdir work/iso/isolinux # cp work/root-image/usr/lib/syslinux/isolinux.bin work/iso/isolinux/ # cp work/root-image/usr/lib/syslinux/isohdpfx.bin work/iso/isolinux/
Create a work/iso/isolinux/isolinux.cfg
DEFAULT loadconfig LABEL loadconfig CONFIG /arch/boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg APPEND /arch/boot/syslinux/
Create an work/iso/arch/aitab file.
# <img> <mnt> <arch> <sfs_comp> <fs_type> <fs_size> root-image / i686 xz ext4 50%
Build all filesystem images specified in aitab (.fs .fs.sfs .sfs)
# mkarchiso prepare
Generate an ISO 9660 with "El Torito" boot image (optional)
# mkarchiso -L "MY_ARCH" iso "my-arch.iso"
Configure our live medium
This section details configuring the image you will be creating, allowing you to define the packages and configurations you want your live image to contain.
Change into the directory we created earlier (~/archlive/releng/ if you have been following this guide), you will see a number of files and directories; we are only concerned with a few of these, mainly: packages.* - this is where you list, line by line, the packages you want to have installed, and the root-image directory - this directory acts as an overlay and it is where you make all the customisations.
Installing packages
You will want to create a list of packages you want installed on your live CD system. A file full of package names, one-per-line, is the format for this. This is great for special interest live CDs, just specify packages you want and bake the image. Edit the packages.i686, or packages.x86_64 file depending on whether you are create a 32bit, or 64bit image, respectively.
Adding a user
There are two methods to creating a user: either by adding the relevant useradd command to rc.local, or by copying over (and modifying) /etc/shadow, /etc/passwd, and /etc/group. The latter method shall be discussed here.
Copy your /etc/shadow, /etc/passwd, and /etc/group from your host system to the /etc/ directory where you now working (which should be ~/archlive/releng/root-image/etc) e.g.
# cp /etc/{shadow,passwd,group} ~/archlive/releng/root-image/etc/
Adding files to image
The root-image directory acts as an overlay, think of it as root directory '/' on your current system, so any files you place within this directory will be copied over on boot-up.
So if you have a set of iptables scripts on your current system you want to be used on you live image, copy them over as such:
# cp -r /etc/iptables ~/archlive/releng/root-image/etc
Placing files in the users home directory is a little different. Do not place them within root-image/home, but instead create a skel directory within root-image/ and place them there. We will then add the relevant commands to the rc.local we are going to create to copy them over on boot and sort out the permissions.
First, create the skel directory; making sure you are within ~/archlive/releng/root-image/etc directory (if this is where you are working from):
# cd ~/archlive/releng/root-image/etc && mkdir skel
Now copy the 'home' files to the skel directory, again doing everything as root! e.g for .bashrc.
# cp ~/.bashrc ~/archlive/releng/root-image/etc/skel/
Inside the root-image/etc/ directory, create the rc.local file, and make sure you make it executable:
# cd ~/archlive/releng/root-image/etc && touch rc.local && chmod +x rc.local
Now add the all of following to rc.local, replacing 'youruser' with the user you specified earlier.
# Create the user directory for live session if [ ! -d /home/youruser ]; then mkdir /home/youruser && chown youruser /home/youruser fi # Copy files over to home su -c "cp -r /etc/skel/.[a-zA-Z0-9]* /home/youruser/" youruser
The default file should work fine, so you should not need to touch it.
The aitab file holds information about the filesystems images that must be created by mkarchiso and mounted at initramfs stage from the archiso hook. It consists of some fields which define the behaviour of images.
# <img> <mnt> <arch> <sfs_comp> <fs_type> <fs_size>
- <img>
- Image name without extension (.fs .fs.sfs .sfs).
- <mnt>
- Mount point.
- <arch>
- Architecture { i686 | x86_64 | any }.
- <sfs_comp>
- SquashFS compression type { gzip | lzo | xz }. A special value of "none" denotes no usage of SquashFS.
- <fs_type>
- Set the filesystem type of the image { ext4 | ext3 | ext2 | xfs }. A special value of "none" denotes no usage of a filesystem. In that case all files are pushed directly to SquashFS filesystem.
- <fs_size>
- An absolute value of file system image size in MiB (example: 100, 1000, 4096, etc) A relative value of file system free space [in percent] {1%..99%} (example 50%, 10%, 7%). This is an estimation, and calculated in a simple way. Space used + 10% (estimated for metadata overhead) + desired %
Boot Loader
The default file should work fine, so you should not need to touch it.
Due to the modular nature of isolinux, you are able to use lots of addons since all *.c32 files are copied and available to you. Take a look at the official syslinux site and the archiso git repo. Using said addons, it is possible to make visually attractive and complex menus. See here.
Finishing the root-image
Some tips that will not be covered in this article because there are other articles on this wiki that already do, but please feel free to add them here.
- Configure an inittab to start into X at boot time
- Configure the hosts file
- Configure rc.conf (no fancy modules required here)
- Configure sudoers
- Configure rc.local
- Put additional artworks onto the medium
- Put arbitrary binary stuff into opt/
Build the ISO
Now you are ready to turn your files into the .iso which you can then burn to CD or USB: Inside the directory you are working with, either ~/archlive/releng, or ~/archlive/baseline, execute:
# ./build.sh -v build single netinstall
You can replace 'netinstall' with 'core' if you wish; however, doing so will cache all of the packages pacman downloads into the iso file, which will vastly inrease it's size.
The script will now download and install the packages you specified to work/*/root-image, create the kernel and init images, apply your customizations and finally build the iso into out/.
You can now dd the iso file onto a USB using dd, an example of which:
# dd if=~/archlive/releng/out/*.iso of=/dev/sdx
You will have to adjust accordingly, and make sure you choose the right output file! A simple mistake here will destory data on your harddisk.


text:
People are fascinated by organized crime. If that weren't true, there wouldn't be so many movies, TV shows and books about it. But in most mainstream portrayals, the mob plies its trade in traditional ways: controlling gambling, prostitution, protection, extortion or loan-sharking.
Recent developments prove that the mafia has evolved and infiltrated industries that don't bring Al Capone to mind. Case in point: Italian law enforcement has recently uncovered deep links between the Cosa Nostra and wind and solar power companies, seizing around 30 percent of the wind farms built in Sicily and freezing more than $2 billion in various assets. A dozen crime bosses have been carted off in handcuffs, along with corrupt officials and business people. But is that the end of the story?
It's doubtful. This recent sting operation is similar to a 2010 police operation that involved the seizing of over 40 companies, hundreds of parcels of land, buildings, factories, bank accounts, stocks, cars and yachts from Sicilian businessman Vito Nicastri, 54, also known as "Lord of the Wind" because of his investments in alternative energy businesses, mostly wind farms and solar panel factories. History often repeats itself, so don't be surprised if a similar bust takes place in a few years.
So what draws the Mafia to renewable energy? Is the mob really going green?
Maybe, but it's more likely that certain individuals are looking for the same kind of green they've always sought — the green of dollar bills.
The first factor explaining the mob's possible involvement is geography: Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean, which lies just to the southwest of Italy, is the home base of the Italian Mafia and also happens to be a very windy and sunny place, ideal for wind and solar energy. The second factor is that Italy, like Spain and Germany, has given out generous renewable energy subsidies in the past decade, trying to kick-start the clean energy industry. These returns have been so attractive that they have drawn in honest entrepreneurs in addition to catching the mob's eye. And finally, the Mafia likely chose renewable energy because it is a legitimate business that will be around for the long term. It's the same reason why the mob buys supermarkets and other "clean" businesses. It's a vehicle for laundering dirty money, but it's also one way a mobster can someday retire and pass as a legitimate business person without having to constantly look over his shoulder.
Sicily is in the spotlight right now, but renewable energy projects in other regions of Italy, like Sardinia and Apulia, are also under investigation, in addition to other countries. The Kroll consulting group, which specializes in risk mitigation worldwide, has detected a significant increase in the number of cases since 2007 involving fraud and corruption in the wind energy sector, primarily in Italy and Spain, but also in Bulgaria, Romania and other parts of central and eastern Europe, and even as far as the Canary Islands off the coast of West Africa. It wouldn't be surprising if the mob had infiltrated other "green" industries around the world. In fact, organized crime has been linked to illegal logging in the tropics.
If history is any guide to organized crime, what we see is likely just the tip of the iceberg.
Related renewable energy stories on MNN:
- Top 10 countries using solar [Infographic]
- DIY solar panels with damaged solar cells
- 20 amazing wind farm photos


text:
AaronD wrote:I should be there. Tentative yes.
Bluesecrets wrote:I am not sure we got a picture of the dinner this year as well a few of us decided to be fashionably late...and looked swank while doing so. A good time was had by all! Thanks for organizing it again Caylin.
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