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Agile, Architecture and the 5am Production Problem
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I love the first line of the Agile Manifesto: "We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it." It captures the collective, collaborative journey that many of us have been on. Agile methods are evolving as we learn and discover. Most importantly, we have created these methods through the rough-and-tumble of real work. The practices we employ were not invented in sterile academic isolation, but in the muddy trenches of the working developer.
Agile methods tell us a lot about how to build software that meets its requirements and still changes easily over time. Probably the most influential technique to emerge is unit testing. Unit testing emphasizes isolation of the unit under test. Interfaces, with their perennially controversial mocks, stubs, and fakes, provide clean separation of each unit being tested.?
The trouble is that problems emerge in the white spaces between units. It exists in the connections—and gaps—between the boxes on the diagram, between the units that get tested. This is hardly news. The entire practice of functional testing exists precisely because an assembly of well-functioning units is not necessarily well-functioning as a whole.
Functional testing falls short, however, when you want to build software to survive the real world. Functional testing can only tell you what happens when all parts of the system are behaving within specification. True, you can coerce a system or subsystem into returning an error response, but that error will still be within the protocol! If you're calling a method on a remote EJB that either returns "true" or "false" or it throws an exception, that's all it will do. No amount of functional testing will make that method return "purple". Nor will any functional test case force that method to hang forever, or return one byte per second.
One of my recurring themes in "Release It" is that every call to another system, without exception, will someday try to kill your application. It usually comes from behavior outside the specification. When that happens, you must be able to peel back the layers of abstraction, tear apart the constructed fictions of "concurrent users", "sessions", and even "connections", and get at what's really happening.
I'll tell you a story about a vexing problem that could not be explained or solved up at Layer 7. Getting to the bottom of it took us right down to the wire and back again.
The 5 a.m. Problem
Software has to pass QA before you release it, but it lives and dies in production. Actually, it dies in production all too often. That's where I come in. I don't have a limp or a Vicodin habit, but other than that, I'm like Dr. Gregory House. When high-volume, transactional systems die, I get the strange cases that don't make sense. You won't see these cases on TV, but then again, I don't have Hugh Laurie's sexy misanthropic sneer, either.
House usually assumes the problem is either drugs or an infection, until some symptom points elsewhere. My first suspect is always an integration point. I've seen integration points cause more failures than anything else, and that includes shoddy coding. I contend that, sooner or later, every integration point in your system will fail somehow. It might refuse connections or return a partial response. It might answer with HTML when you're expecting XML. It might get really, really slow. And sometimes, it just won't answer at all.
I consider database calls as just a special case of an integration point. Databases are enormously complex, yet most developers just expect them to behave well. They take it for granted when the database chugs away, accepting any kind of Byzantine SQL you throw at it, returning tidy result sets. Most of the time, they give much thought to what goes on beneath the neat abstraction of a SQLConnection.
Don't be lulled into a false sense of security. Any call to a database can hang. I'm not just talking about inserts and updates that can deadlock. I'm not just talking about stored procedures. I saw a case where queries to a read-only database---one that nobody was even allowed to update---caused a recurring pattern of failure.
Get the Crash Cart! This Website Just Flatlined.
Downtime at the same time every day.
One of the sites I launched developed this very nasty pattern of hanging completely at almost exactly 5 a.m. every day. This was running on around thirty different instances, so something was happening to make all thirty different application server instances hang within a five-minute window (the resolution of our URL pinger). Restarting the application servers always cleared it up, so there was some transient effect that tipped the site over at that time. Unfortunately, that was just when traffic started to ramp up for the day. From midnight to 5 a.m., there were only about 100 transactions per hour of interest, but the numbers ramped up quickly once the East Coast started to come online (one hour ahead of us Central Time folks). Restarting all the application servers just as people started to hit the site in earnest was what you'd call a suboptimal approach.
On the third day this occurred, I took thread dumps from one of the afflicted application servers. The instance was up and running, but all request-handling threads were blocked inside the Oracle JDBC library, specifically inside of OCI calls. (We were using the thick-client driver for its superior failover features.) In fact, once I eliminated the threads that were just blocked trying to enter a synchronized method, it looked as if the active threads were all in low-level socket read or write calls.
The next step was tcpdump and ethereal. (Ethereal is now called Wireshark.) The odd thing was how little that showed. A handful of packets were being sent from the application servers to the database servers, but with no replies. Also nothing was coming from the database to the application servers. Yet, monitoring showed that the database was alive and healthy. There were no blocking locks, the run queue was at zero, and the I/O rates were trivial.
Packet Capture
From abstract to concrete.
Abstractions provide great conciseness of expression. We can go much faster when we talk about fetching a document from a URL than if we have to discuss the tedious details of connection setup, packet framing, acknowledgments, receive windows, and so on. With every abstraction, however, there comes a time when you must peel the onion, shed some tears, and see what's really going on---usually when something is going wrong. Whether for problem diagnosis or performance tuning, packet capture tools are the only way to understand what is really happening on the network.
tcpdump is a common UNIX tool for capturing packets from a network interface. Running it in "promiscuous" mode instructs the network interface card (NIC) to receive all packets that cross its wire---even those addressed to other computers. In a data center, the NIC is almost certainly connected to a switch port that is assigned to a virtual LAN [VLAN]. In that case, the switch guarantees that the NIC receives packets bound for addresses only in that VLAN. This is an important security measure, because it prevents bad guys from doing exactly what we're doing: sniffing the wire to look for "interesting" bits of information. Wireshark is a combination sniffer and protocol analyzer. It can sniff packets on the wire, as tcpdump does. Wireshark goes farther, though, by unpacking the packets for us. Through its history, Wireshark has experienced some security flaws---some trivial, some serious. At one point, a specially crafted packet sent across the wire (by a piece of malware on a compromised desktop machine, for example) could trigger a buffer overflow and execute arbitrary code of the attacker's choice. Since Wireshark must run as root to put the NIC into promiscuous mode---as any packet capture utility must---that exploit allowed the attacker to gain root access on a network administrator's machine.
In addition to the security issues, Wireshark is a big, heavy GUI program. On UNIX, it requires a bunch of X libraries, which might not even be installed on a headless system. On any host, it takes up a lot of RAM and CPU cycles to parse and display the packets. That is a burden that should not be on the production servers. For these reasons, it is best to capture packets noninteractively using tcpdump and then move the capture file to a nonproduction environment for analysis.
The screenshot below shows a capture from my home network. The first packet shows an address routing protocol (ARP) request. This happens to be a question from my wireless bridge to my cable modem. The next packet was a surprise: an HTTP query to Google, asking for a URL called /safebrowsing/lookup with some query parameters. The next two packets show a DNS query and response, for the "michaelnygard.dyndns.org" hostname. Packets five, six, and seven are the three-phase handshake for a TCP connection setup. We can trace the entire conversation between my web browser and server. Note that the pane below the packet trace shows the layers of encapsulation that the TCP/IP stack created around the HTTP request in the second packet. The outermost frame is an Ethernet packet. The Ethernet packet contains an IP packet, which in turn contains a TCP packet. Finally, the payload of the TCP packet is an HTTP request. The exact bytes of the entire packet appear in the third pane.
I strongly recommend keeping a copy of Kozierok's "The TCP/IP Guide" or W. Richard Steven's "TCP/IP Illustrated" open beside you for this type of activity!
Repetition and Paranoia
Understanding the root cause behind the crashes
By this time, we had to restart the application servers. Our first priority is restoring service. We do data collection when we can, but not at the risk of breaking an SLA. Any deeper investigation would have to wait until it happened again. None of us doubted that it would happen again.
Sure enough, the pattern repeated itself the next morning. Application servers locked up tight as a drum, with the threads inside the JDBC driver. This time, I was able to look at traffic on the databases' network. Zilch. Nothing at all. The utter absence of traffic on that side of the firewall was like Sherlock Holmes' dog that didn't bark in the night---the absence of activity was the biggest clue. I had a hypothesis. Quick decompilation of the application server's resource pool class confirmed that my hypothesis was plausible.
I said before that socket connections are an abstraction. They exist only as objects in the memory of the computers at the endpoints. Once established, a TCP connection can exist for days without a single packet being sent by either side. As long as both computers have that socket state in memory, the "connection" is still valid. Routes can change, and physical links can be severed and reconnected. It doesn't matter; the "connection" persists as long as the two computers at the endpoints think it does.
There was a time when that all worked beautifully well. These days, a bunch of paranoid little bastions have broken the philosophy and implementation of the whole Net. I'm talking about firewalls, of course.
A firewall is nothing but a specialized router. It routes packets from one set of physical ports to another. Inside each firewall, a set of access control lists define the rules about which connections it will allow. The rules say such things as "connections originating from 192.0.2.0/24 to 192.168.1.199 port 80 are allowed." When the firewall sees an incoming SYN packet, it checks it against its rule base. The packet might be allowed (routed to the destination network), rejected (TCP reset packet sent back to origin), or ignored (dropped on the floor with no response at all). If the connection is allowed, then the firewall makes an entry in its own internal table that says something like "192.0.2.98:32770 is connected to 192.168.1.199:80." Then all future packets, in either direction, that match the endpoints of the connection are routed between the firewall's networks.
So far, so good. How is this related to my 5 a.m. wake-up calls?
The key is that table of established connections inside the firewall. It's finite. Therefore, it does not allow infinite duration connections, even though TCP itself does allow them. Along with the endpoints of the connection, the firewall also keeps a "last packet" time. If too much time elapses without a packet on a connection, the firewall assumes that the endpoints are dead or gone. It just drops the connection from its table. But, TCP was never designed for that kind of intelligent device in the middle of a connection. There's no way for a third party to tell the endpoints that their connection is being torn down. The endpoints assume their connection is valid for an indefinite length of time, even if no packets are crossing the wire.
After that point, any attempt to read or write from the socket on either end does not result in a TCP reset or an error due to a half-open socket. Instead, the TCP/IP stack sends the packet, waits for an ACK, doesn't get one, and retransmits. The faithful stack tries and tries to reestablish contact, and that firewall just keeps dropping the packets on the floor, without so much as an "ICMP destination unreachable" message. (That could let bad guys probe for active connections by spoofing source addresses.) My Linux system, running on a 2.6 series kernel, has its tcp_retries2 set to the default value of 15, which results in a twenty-minute timeout before the TCP/IP stack informs the socket library that the connection is broken. The HP-UX servers we were using at the time had a thirty-minute timeout. That application's one-line call to write to a socket could block for thirty minutes! The situation for reading from the socket is even worse. It could block forever.
When I decompiled the resource pool class, I saw that it used a last-in, first-out strategy. During the slow overnight times, traffic volume was light enough that one single database connection would get checked out of the pool, used, and checked back in. Then the next request would get the same connection, leaving the thirty-nine others to sit idle until traffic started to ramp up. They were idle well over the one-hour idle connection timeout configured into the firewall.
Once traffic started to ramp up, those thirty-nine connections per application server would get locked up immediately. Even if the one connection was still being used to serve pages, sooner or later it would be checked out by a thread that ended up blocked on a connection from one of the other pools. Then the one good connection would be held by a blocked thread. Total site hang.
Dead Connection Walking
Finding a solution
Once we understood all the links in that chain of failure, we had to find a solution. The resource pool has the ability to test JDBC connections for validity before checking them out. It checked validity by executing a SQL query like SELECT SYSDATE FROM DUAL. Well, that would just make the request-handling thread hang anyway. We could also have the pool keep track of the idle time of the JDBC connection and discard any that were older than one hour. Unfortunately, that involves sending a packet to the database server to tell it that the session is being torn down. Hang.
We were starting to look at some really hairy complexities, such as creating a "reaper" thread to find connections that were close to getting too old and tearing them down before they timed out. Fortunately, a sharp DBA recalled just the thing. Oracle has a feature called dead connection detection that you can enable to discover when clients have crashed. When enabled, the database server sends a ping packet to the client at some periodic interval. If the client responds, then the database knows it is still alive. If the client fails to respond after a few retries, the database server assumes the client has crashed and frees up all the resources held by that connection.
We weren't that worried about the client crashing, but the ping packet itself would be enough to reset the firewall's "last packet" time for the connection, keeping the connection alive. Dead connection detection kept the connection alive, which let me sleep through the night.
Lesson Learned ?
We would never have written a unit test to simulate a database call hanging indefinitely inside the TCP/IP protocol itself. Why would you? Worse, there are an unlimited number of ways for fallible networks, servers, and applications to generate these "out of spec" failures. So what can we do? Is there a missing practice in the agile world? Is there some testing technique or coding practice that we can employ to avoid this type of failure?
At one time, no one would have envisioned programmers testing their own code. Twenty years ago, the very idea was laughable. Today, it is expected... sometimes demanded. A growing number of us even define "legacy code" by Michael Feather's definition: code without unit tests. Perhaps someone will invent a testing technique to ward off the myriad failures that can bubble up when foundational abstractions misbehave.
Until then, I contend that we need to consider the architecture, even in agile projects, and guard ourselves against it. We must apply design patterns for resilience, just as we apply them for functionality. I have created a set of such "Stability Patterns" in "Release It". I hope these are just the beginning.
About the author
Michael strives to raise the bar and ease the pain for developers across the country. He shares his passion and energy for improvement with everyone he meets, sometimes even with their permission. Michael has spent the better part of 20 years learning what it means to be a professional programmer who cares about art, quality, and craft. Michael has been a professional programmer and architect for nearly 20 years. During that time, he has delivered running systems to the U. S. Government, the military, banking, finance, agriculture, and retail industries. More often than not, Michael has lived with the systems he built. This experience with the real world of operations changed his views about software architecture and development forever.
Most recently, Michael wrote "Release It! Design and Deploy Production-Ready Software", a book that realizes many of his thoughts about building software that does more than just pass QA, it survives the real world. After its release, the book was Amazon's #1 "Hot New Release" in the Software Design category for over a month. Michael previously wrote numerous articles and editorials, spoke at Comdex, and co-authored one of the early Java books.
Adapted with permission from Release It! Design and Deploy Production-Ready Software, by Michael T. Nygard
Copyright 2007 Michael T. Nygard, published by the Pragmatic Bookshelf, ISBN 0-9787392-1-3.
Book available in paper and PDF from www.PragmaticProgrammer.com
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Just enough design up front
Arnon Rotem-Gal-Oz
Happend to me too
Erik Pischel
nice article. The same once happened to me, too. See www.epischel.de/wordpress/?p=45. I agree with you that most failure points in the field are integration issues - in particular when practicing TDD. In most cases you would try to mock up external systems. And even if you use the real one, you probably won't test in your production environment.
In an other, much bigger project, the first failure during load-testing was (against all odds) a network switch that failed under heavy network load only. Should we take that into account when developing software? When human lifes depend on it - yes. But otherwise?
Re: Just enough design up front
Julian Browne
Is agile Silver bullet?
Renat Zubairov
I would agree that integration problems are tend to be very complex once and not possible to handle in "Unit" testing environments, but as usual very important aspect of agile development is forgotten - and this aspect is "evolution".
We can't fix/test/predict integration problems with our unit test wherever methodology we were using. It is indeed very complex/impossible to create a fake interfaces that will match 100% interfaces of the integration point, but what we can do with Agile/TDD/XP/(put your agile method here) is to make system evolution simple!
I would never assume that TDD will replace normal functional testing and will solve 100% of problems system will have in the production environment, but I strongly beleve that high unit test coverage, big number of automated end2end functional tests will help us to deliver new functionality faster without worring about broken existing functionality.
We also have allot of discussions in our company about value of automated unit/functional testing and only one conclusion is feasible for me - all automation tests are by nature regression tests.
Re: Just enough design up front
Arnon Rotem-Gal-Oz
1. Set the first one or two iterations as architectural ones. Some of the work in these iterations is to spike technological and architectural risk. Nevertheless most of architectural iterations are still about delivering business value and user stories. The difference is that the prioritization of the requirements is also done based on technical risks and not just business ones. By the way, when you write quality attribute requirements as scenarios makes them usable as user stories helps customers understand their business value.
2. Try to think about prior experience to produce the baseline architecture
3. One of the quality attributes that you should bring into the table is flexibility - but be weary of putting too much effort into building this flexibility in
4. Don't try to implement architectural components thoroughly - it is enough to run a thin thread through them and expand then when the need arise. Sometimes it is even enough just to identify them as possible future extensions.
5. Try to postpone architectural decisions to the last responsible moment. However, when that moment comes -make the decision. try to validate the architectural decisions by spiking them out before you introduce them into the project
Here is the correct link to the post I made on quality attributes - the link my first message is broken.
Re: Is agile Silver bullet?
Michael Nygard
So, this isn't so much meant to complain that there was a problem we didn't find through unit testing as it is meant to draw a parallel.
We (using the "royal we" for a moment) invented and adopted unit testing to solve our own problem of producing buggy code. Here, I see a similar problem.
I often here XPers say there should be no architecture up front, that it should all emerge through the practices. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there are the Zachman framework types that want to define the world before any projects can begin. Even on the most pragmatic of agile teams, there's still a kind of connotation that some of amount of up-front architecture is probably necessary, but it's a compromise---a necessary evil.
That leaves us wide open to this kind of problem, and myriad others that I've seen. Failures in the white space. Cracks originate in the gaps between boxes.
Is there something analogous we could invent to address architecture issues while remaining consistent with agile values?
Re: Is agile Silver bullet?
Arnon Rotem-Gal-Oz
Is there something analogous we could invent to address architecture issues while remaining consistent with agile values?
As I said above - I think this can be handled within the practices of agile development. if you express architectural constrains as user stories - by demonstrating how the concern is manifested in the application. You can then prioritize and handle it like other user stories (you can look at an architect as a type of a technical product owner).
Re: Is agile Silver bullet?
Amr Elssamadisy
But, with respects to this particular example (in the article), I'm not sure it has anything to do with Agile or TDD at all. Production problems happen - Agile or not.
The fair question to ask would be 'could I have avoided this problem?' And if your answer is yes, that you could have foretold this problem, the next question would be 'with what accuracy?'
By and large, we in the technical community are TERRIBLE fortune-tellers. You will miss things. But if you try to foresee all, you will over-design, over-complicate, and increase your code debt.
I think the question should be stated differently - 'What kinds of architectures evolve?' If TDD (via refactoring) is a local improvement - isn't this analogous to a steepest-decent algorithm for design? We know that steepest-decent gets stuck in local minima. Does TDD really give us a good architecture? Does it give us good-enough architecture? Or does the local nature of TDD preclude evolving towards an acceptable architecture?
Architecture & Agile
Stefan Tilkov
Re: Architecture & Agile
Arnon Rotem-Gal-Oz
I'm puzzled -- is there really an Agile school of thought that says "architecture" is something bad?
I think that for many YAGNI is just that
Re: Architecture & Agile
Amr Elssamadisy
Actually, YAGNI says no fortune-telling because we tend to be wrong more than we tend to be right. You are within YAGNI if you have an architecture in mind and then wait to evolve it in that direction when the requirements ask for it.
This is very similar to Real Options (www.infoq.com/articles/real-options-enhance-agi... )or the interview with Erich Gamma last year (www.artima.com/lejava/articles/designprinciples... ) where he described how the eclipse team refactors to patterns. Which, of course, brings up Joshua Kerievsky's Refactoring to Patterns work ( www.industriallogic.com/xp/refactoring/).
Production mindset
Robert Merrill
When I heard of refactoring, I remember thinking, "Now I know what architecture is. It's the stuff that's hard to refactor!" I guess that's the art of "just-enough" or delaying decisions--knowing when you have to make them. There are some decisions that do have to be made earlier.
One agile value is "don't throw stuff over the wall." I've almost always had to support what I wrote, and that forces a production mindset. I don't want the phone to ring at 5 AM, and if it does, I want the problem to be obvious. So I build in monitoring and logging functionality from the start. I guess I could cover proper behavior of logs and monitors with unit tests. Find a copy of "Writing Solid Code." It's 10 years old, and C-centric, but I learned a ton from that book.
Another agile value is "test early and often," and I guess that can include load testing. I like to try and build the simplest-possible feature that spanned all of the components in the architecture, and load test that. If you log and graph CPU, memory, network, and disk I/O on all components, you will begin to see patterns. As you test, monitor various system components and graph the output. You will start to see patterns long before flames start shooting out. If you have underpowered hardware, all the better. You're trying to see where and how the software breaks.
Robert Merrill
Re: Architecture & Agile
Stefan Tilkov
Re: Architecture & Agile
Arnon Rotem-Gal-Oz
No test environment?
Angus McDonald
Saying that you CAN'T test your production architecture because you don't bother to is not a good enough answer. There are some things you cannot test effectively, but firewall rules should definitely be the same. Where do Agile Development methodologies recommend that functional testing be done in an environment that does not mimic production?
Having said that, I admire your skill at finding the problem, and this is a good write-up of how to do this sort of low-level packet sniffing.
Re: No test environment?
Michael Nygard
You make a great point, and one that I address in the book. One of my major themes is getting grounded and connecting with the actual deployment environment. It's the only way to have true confidence in what you deliver.
Most companies will not build exact replicas for their test environments, though. They choose to save a bit of money by eliminating expensive network components like firewalls and hardware load balancers. This is a penny-wise, pound-foolish decision. Whatever money they save on network equipment will surely be lost in production outages. Nevertheless, budgetecture happens, particularly in QA.
Sometimes, it's not as much a budget issue as it is a knowledge gap. Development may not know what the enterprise network will be, particularly if development is outsourced. Other times, the network architecture changes late in the game. I've heard, "We can't disrupt the QA environment now! We're too busy getting ready for release to lose a day while you change the network." Of course, what happens then when it does hit the real network?
Anyway, I always fight to have the QA network match the production network. About 50% of the time, I win that fight.
-Michael Nygard
Re: No test environment?
Amr Elssamadisy
Problem vs. Architecture, Agile
Wayne Mack
An underlying concept in Agile is that not everything can be forseen. I am not sure what could have predicted this problem nor discovered it quicker than actually fielding the software. It is only by fielding quickly that we can discover what we don't know.
Re: Problem vs. Architecture, Agile
Jim Standley
What Agile doesn't do is try to design and build it before doing any other coding, which often involves trying to predict every darned thing the application(s) will ever need. Just build enough to support today's needs, be mentally and technically prepared to add or change or remove bits as the app evolves.
To the original post - this was a fascinating story. That detective work would be beyond me and the project teams I know in my company. We do some "unplug the network cable" testing for failures, but this situation would have been way hard to predict and test for.
Re: No test environment?
Oso Rojo
Re: No test environment?
Michael Nygard
My purpose here is certainly not to bash Agile. I've been a proponent and practitioner since before the moniker existed. I was doing unit testing, pairing, refactoring, and short iterations back when it was all just called "XP" or, more generally, lightweight methods. Several years back, I even quit my job to start a company explicitly built on agile methods. More recently, I spent an intense year in a fully agile Scrum/XP project. In the first 8 months, we delivered what the client had failed to deliver over the previous 2 1/2 years. In the next 4 months of my time on that project, we did six additional releases.
I'm speaking from within the Agile community, not from outside of it.
I can see that several people have misread my intention. I blame myself, as the author, for not being clear enough. I will try to make myself more clear here in the comments.
I don't attribute the failure here to a "failure of agile". Nor do I expect that agile methods, as formulated today, should have prevented this problem.
What I am presenting is a problem that has two very difficult characteristics:
- It's virtually impossible to predict.
- It only occurs in the actual production environment.
I'm drawing an analogy to unit testing. In days past, people thought it was impossible to test software within the development environment. Testing was done in a test lab, by testers, using testing tools. We have rewritten those rules. We now understand that unit testing won't catch every bug, but it sure catches a lot of them. (And, yes, unit testing also motivated changes in the way we design the code itself. We don't mind that much, since the design changes needed for unit testing are all "virtues" that we endorse anyway: decoupling, isolation, single-responsibility, and so on.)
Furthermore, we use automation to solve problems once and keep them solved. So, once a bug is discovered, we write a test to verify the bug. Once we fix the bug, the test acts as a barrier to keep the bug from re-emerging. We use our suite of automated tests to "nail down" the functionality. (And, they allow us to retain existing value while incrementally adding more value.)
As a practice, automated unit testing supports many positive virtues. We don't expect it to prevent or solve every problem. There are known challenges---areas that work, sort of, but not very well---mostly around databases and GUIs. Despite those challenges, I would never give up unit testing.
My point in this piece is to ask a question, not to bash anyone or anything. Can we think of a practice, consistent with agile values, that would advance architecture work the same way that unit testing has advanced coding? I am asking this question by using a specific example of a general class of problems to illustrate a difficult, costly situation that I would like to have avoided rather than solved.
I'm asking this question because I see a need for more connection to the actual deployment environment: filesystems, servers, networks, databases, etc. There are times and places for isolation, but we cannot always be isolated from the deployment environment. By the way, this "disconnectedness" is not unique to agile developers. I suspect that the best solution to disconnectedness will come from the agile community. The Ivory Tower architects have already had their whack at it---and they responded with even larger diagrams that got further disconnected from the real environment.
I very much want to avoid problems like this one, but I've got a hundred stories like this. Some come from agile projects, most come from non-agile projects. Some come from projects with heavy "big architecture up front", some come from projects with incrementally developed architecture. I'm certainly not blaming "agile" for these problems. I'm looking for a solution to them, and for that solution, I'm asking the agile community if we can find a practice that fits our values: incremental, automated, expressive, "just-in-time", self-describing, executable documentation, and enabling.
Like software testing, traditional (heavy) approaches to architecture have not moved the needle on the quality gauge. Let's see if there's a way to do for architecture what unit testing did for software quality.
Hope this helps clarify my intentions.
Re: No test environment? (Preventing Failures)
Wayne Mack
Yes, we should do the best we can do in testing given real world constraints. The value, though, we get from agile development is risk reduction through reduction in costs sunk in an absolute failure. By having multiple, iterative releases, a failed iteration can be rolled back with only the sunk costs of 2-4 weeks of effort, however, we must plan for and be prepared to rollback.
Iterative development moves us past the risks of all-or-nothing one-shot project development. The way to address the risks of unknowns is to push them to the front of the queue and force them to arise as soon as possible. There is no way to plan to avoid the unknown, one can only force it to arise as early as possible allowing time to recover from it.
How would upfront architectural design have prevented this problem
Steven Gordon
What I do not see is how doing upfront architectural design would have prevented this from occurring (except armed with 20/20 hindsight).
It seems to me that the same problem could easily have occurred in a waterfall project. The lack of unit tests and functional tests (and likely code bloat to handle dozens of other potential problems that never do happen in production) in most waterfall projects would have made the set of possible causes orders of magnitude larger. Being less sure that each unit was working correctly and that the system works correctly under normal conditions, discovering the root cause would have been much more difficult.
Furthermore, once a fix was determined, establishing that the fix did not break anything else would have also been much more difficult without all those automated unit and functional tests.
I do not even see how doing a few iterations of architectural spikes at the beginning of the project would have prevented this anomoly. In my experience, making sure the first story really goes end-to-end forces a slice of each architectural component to be implemented. This gives us the best of both worlds - validating everyone's understanding of the requirements as well as laying out and testing the architectural approach.
Steven Gordon
Re: How would upfront architectural design have prevented this problem
xiao li
Patterns in methodologies
Wayne Martin
If all methodologies strive for predictable outcomes, and if patterns that worked before are trusted more than unfamiliar patterns, can we arrive at this generalized principle that all software development projects will apply patterns (architectural, methodological, testing practice, and coding practice) based on the dominant makeup of the team and little else?
I believe this to be true. Given a brilliant technologist with incredible people skills and lots of self confidence vs. a more junior technologist with less self confidence but a better solution, which will a business person choose to listen to? How will a business person make budget decisions? Who will they trust their reputation to?
In IT, more than any other industry, people are the dominant success factor. Agile development recognizes this. Traditional waterfall recognizes it much less. The false concept of man-months recognizes it not at all.
In fifteen years, I've never seen a project that failed for purely technical reasons. Political? ROI? Bad management? Yes. If, by failure, we mean over budget and late, we can always tie the failures back to our inability to estimate accurately the coding effort of a feature more than a few weeks out.
Why? There is a cliche`: "In the time it took to figure out the requirements and write up the spec, I could have coded the feature." I believe this is the seed that germinated into short iterations in all the modern methodologies. It also speaks to our inability to estimate effort without knowing all the details.
Once you 'know the details', the code flies out of your head and onto the screen. Except for those pesky parts where surprising new details are discovered. We'll save that for the next iteration :-)
Nice to read your writing again, Mike.
On a pragmatic note, I don't think the team and methodology exists that can accomplish what you suggest; namely, covering all production scenarios. Based on my aerospace manufacturing experiences, all design refinement is based on feedback loops from production experience.
Where to place the fuel tanks is influenced by what the intended top speed of the aircraft should be, which influences the material of the tanks, which influences their shape and manufacturing method, which influences the type of fuel sensor, which influences which side of the fuel tank its mounted on, which influences where to place the tanks...
Warm regards,
Wayne Martin


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Perfect storm of crazy begins this weekend
October 29, 2014 There's a lot going on this weekend, and it may seem like worlds are colliding as we shift our lifestyle to adapt to a new season. more »»
Bluegrass Jam a great match for Lake Placid
October 24, 2014 We're excited that the state Olympic Regional Development Authority is re-entering the music business with the Lake Placid Bluegrass Jam this Saturday in the Olympic Center's 1932 Rink. more »»
Henry's Woods a safe place to spend time
October 24, 2014 A dog-on-dog attack we reported on recently shouldn't dissuade you from visiting the recreational trails at Henry's Woods, with or without a canine companion. Such incidents are extremely rare. more »»
Advocate leaves out the best part
October 17, 2014 An op-ed in the Oct. 7 New York Times highlighted an enduring movement to stop a land swap in the Adirondacks between the state and NYCO Minerals, which wants to expand its mining for wollastonite. more »»
Support local cheese makers on first Essex County tour
October 10, 2014 Agricultural regions across the country — most notably next door in the state of Vermont — long ago created tours, festivals and trails to celebrate their crops and hand-crafted food and drink... more »»
Paper to highlight school nutrition
October 2, 2014 As educators, farmers and government agencies promote National Farm to School Month in October, the Lake Placid News will be launching a series on school nutrition to explore what local schools are... more »»
Let's match the Scots in this year's voter registration
September 25, 2014 The spirit of democracy has rarely enjoyed such a victory as it did in Scotland this week. more »»
Please take the shopping surveys
September 18, 2014 Having data about Lake Placid's retail shopping situation — the pros, cons and challenges — will be a valuable resource for municipal leaders, economic development planners and, most importantly,... more »»
Rocky transition for NY education
September 11, 2014 The state recently announced the math and English language arts results for students in grades 3 to 8. more »»
Waterskiing on Mirror Lake not compatible with vision for village
September 4, 2014 It's tough to turn down business, but that's what we're asking the Lake Placid Village Board of Trustees to do as they face re-issuing a permit for next year's Eastern Region Water Ski Championship... more »»
Let's walk out of the darkness for suicide prevention
August 28, 2014 One wonders how a person who appears to be so happy and excited about life, like comedian Robin Williams, would commit suicide. more »»
Support another kind of ski event
August 21, 2014 We are itching to comment on the recent waterskiing tournament on Mirror Lake and are formulating our opinion on whether the event should be held again; however, a more timely ski event has caught... more »»
Run the Colors for the LPCA
August 15, 2014 We love the closing line in Steve Lester's Lake Placid Sinfonietta review this week in which he summed up the 2014 season and looked toward the following yea. more »»
Two hazardous waste days are better than none
August 7, 2014 We wonder how many local residents knew about the big, once-a-year event last Saturday — no, not the rugby or waterski tournaments. more »»
Cherish these summer days
August 7, 2014 No doubt — it's busy. more »»
Final push needed for Lake Placid band shell project
July 31, 2014 Public parks often become centerpieces for communities, and those with band shells tend to become magnets for people looking to gather, listen to some music and have a good time. more »»
First on the scene, first to deserve our gratitude
July 25, 2014 It is hard to believe, when you have a picture-perfect day in the Adirondacks, that anything can possibly go wrong. more »»
Green groups waste taxpayer money with their lawsuits
July 17, 2014 Almost immediately after a state appeals court tossed a lawsuit that had stalled a Tupper Lake resort for 16 months, Protect the Adirondacks was back with another similar suit to block another big... more »»
Look for more school news on these pages in the near future
July 10, 2014 The tourism industry may be the economic engine of Lake Placid — the lure being the great outdoors — and this village may have the drive and inspiration of an Olympic champion, but the heart and sou... more »»
Tips for keeping pets safe during summer heat
July 3, 2014 We see it too often — dogs being left in parked vehicles during hot weather — and it makes our blood boil because many times it leads to the death of a dog. more »»
News, Blogs & Events Web

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Kim Andelkovic 8/28/2012 10:53:01 PMCongrats on your wonderful finalist Helen......best of luck in the next round :-) #1483098
Arthur Bohlmann 8/29/2012 8:13:57 AMCongratz! Oustnding image! #10296026
David M. Montero 8/30/2012 5:35:39 PMGreat presentation. Congratulations on your Finalist selection Helen! #10300244
Kim Andelkovic 8/31/2012 7:37:26 PMCongrats on getting GOLD Helen......WTG whooo hooo
Helen Dittrich 8/31/2012 10:24:02 PMThankyou..what a surprise..lol :)
Diane Dupuis 9/1/2012 9:12:43 AMfabulous!!! congrats!! #10303616
JO ANN CLEVELAND 9/1/2012 2:47:12 PMCongratulations on this fantastic 2nd Place Gold Winner Helen!
jo ann c. #10304198
Carla Capra 9/1/2012 7:25:35 PMGirlie.....Fabulous winner.
Cindy Bendush 9/2/2012 10:57:22 PMCool use of color! Congratulations on your win! #10306100
David M. Montero 9/9/2012 4:48:33 PMCongratulations on your fantastic win Helen! #10316011
Helen Dittrich 9/9/2012 10:07:58 PMThankyou all for your comments, very much appreciated :)
Usman M. Bajwa 9/13/2012 3:32:26 AMHuge CONGRATZ on this stunning Second Place Gold, Helen!!!
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While some people want Ashland to be a leader in sustainable building, city of Ashland Building Official Mike Broomfield wants to make it easier for all of Oregon to join in the green movement.
Broomfield has been sharing his knowledge of sustainable building as Oregon works to add green provisions to state building codes.
"Let's be as involved as we can in developing state green standards," he said. "It's not a contest to see who can be greenest. We want to conserve resources statewide."
State building codes are the rules that govern how buildings are constructed. Ashland is required to adopt state codes, but can add on some of its own rules and use alternative rules in some cases.
For years, many people have had concerns that state building codes aren't environmentally friendly. For example, the plumbing code was viewed as too restrictive when it came to using "gray water," Broomfield said.
Gray water is water that has already been used for purposes such as washing.
The state now allows people to reuse gray water for non-potable uses such as flushing toilets. To help the public, the city of Ashland publishes information about alternate methods allowed by the state on the city's Web site, Broomfield said.
Ashland was a leader long ago when it adopted a solar access code locally that bans new buildings from casting such big shadows on existing properties that access to the sun is blocked.
"I'm trying very hard to have that be part of the state's new solar building code," Broomfield said.
Ashland is also ahead of the state because it has a local demolition ordinance that governs the demolition of buildings. The state has no demolition code, he said.
People who want to tear down buildings in Ashland must show the project meets various criteria. If they have certain amounts of materials, such as lumber, steel or concrete, they must show how the material will be reused or recycled, Broomfield said.
Ashland has not only added on its own green building rules, sometimes it borrows from alternate codes when those prove to be more environmentally friendly. Provisions from the International Existing Building Code adopted here allow architects to use historic materials from buildings, such as bricks.
The Oregon code doesn't allow use of such material, although the state does allow some choice when it comes to picking methods from the state code or the international code, Broomfield said.
Another aspect of the international code used in Ashland allows historic buildings to meet requirements for second floor alternate exiting by providing fire escapes, he said.
"It gives us some better tools when dealing with historic buildings. Keeping historic buildings intact is part of sustainability," Broomfield said.
For builders, keeping track of existing codes and changing requirements can be daunting. To help them, Broomfield answers their questions and regularly invites code experts to Ashland to give presentations.
Those efforts, combined with his work to help develop new state codes, recently netted Broomfield the Oregon Building Official Association's 2008-2009 award for Outstanding Service.
"I think this exemplifies the respect for Mike's efforts, dedication and leadership on local and state-wide building issues," Ashland Community Development Director Bill Molnar said in a statement.
Broomfield got the same service award for 2000-2001, and also won the 1994 Oregon Building Official of the Year Award, among other accolades.
With more than 20 years of experience with the city of Ashland under his belt, Broomfield said he is a strong believer in having Ashland be involved with the development of state codes.
"To me, it's exciting. I still have passion for doing it," he said.
Staff writer Vickie Aldous can be reached at 479-8199 or email@example.com.
City employee promotes green building
While some people want Ashland to be a leader in sustainable building, city of Ashland Building Official Mike Broomfield wants to make it easier for all of Oregon to join in the green movement.


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The Roland Aira Has Landed
The Roland Aira Has Landed
It's been the source of much speculation over the last few months however the Aira series has finally been announced by Roland. We already had an inkling that the classic TB-303, 808 and 909 models would be involved and likely emulated in some way. What we didn't bank on was just how much of a breath of fresh Aira these awesome new synths and drum machines would be. No slavish recreation the Aira's have all been made for the modern generation of programmers, performers, controller freaks and bass bin wobblers.
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Roland Aira TB-3 Touch Bassline Synth
There's nothing quite like that screaming resonance of a 303 -18dB/octave low pass filter. That's why Roland have gone to incredible lengths recreating the precise sound of the 80's original. Developing their own Analogue Circuit Behaviour technology to ensure the TB-3 comes complete with all the hardcore distortion, acid squelch and sweet bubbling basslines. Hands On With The Touch Pad…
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Roland Aira System 1 Plug Out Synthesizer
The System 1 synth boasts new Analogue Circuit Behaviour Technology which has been used to produce an incredible selection of classic to modern day synthesizer tones and if that's not enough the System 1 can also control and host plug-ins of classic Roland synthesizers. One plug-in that we're excited to see is the upcoming SH-101 soft synth and Roland state…
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Roland Aira VT-3 Voice Transformer Effects Processor
Part of the Roland Aira series, the VT-3 Voice Transformer is designed to be played live and make some noise. It can subtly bolster your vocals with pitch correction and reverb then let rip with a full on megaphone effect or vocoder. Ready To Play Live All the controls to do this are right at hand with well lit controls…
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Fullsize Titflash Display
U Like?'s Age: 48 - 54 years
Hard nipples
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Unfortunately U like? does not run a photo blog and guestbook at our free VCity Adult Amateur Community
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Pure Wool Worsted is a machine washable, worsted weight yarn composed of 100% wool. Its expansive range of colorways, from soft neutrals to brights and moody darks, is sure to impress the most discerning of knitters, making this versatile yarn a go-to for a wide range of projects!
Berroco Modern Cotton Yarn is a similar yarn: machine wash, worsted (19-20 sts/4 in), 5 sts / inch, 100 gram, on size 7 US needles, and 209 yards. You may also like Plymouth Yarn Gina Yarn, which is another similar yarn: 100% wool, worsted (19-20 sts/4 in), 5 sts / inch, 100% wool, and on size 7 US needles.
What about yarn that have the same look and feel? Find more yarn that is organic fiber and ethically sourced, and a smooth / uniform texture.
You may enjoy taking a look at the Rowan Pure Wool Worsted Superwash Wildflowers Cap, Rowan Pure Wool Superwash Worsted Flaum Cardigan, Rowan Pure Wool Worsted Superwash Lo Cardigan, and Rowan Pure Wool Worsted Superwash Nelson Pullover kits all using Rowan Pure Wool Superwash Worsted Yarn.
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During the 2012-2013 academic year, Barry University biology students put their scholarship skills on national display while presenting their research to biology scholars, scientists and students across the country.
In November, Barry biology students Precious De Verteuil, Nicole Lopez and Talia Guardia traveled to San Jose, Calif., to present at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students – the largest, professional conference for minority students pursuing advance training in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). During the conference, more than 1,500 students participate in poster and oral presentations in 12 disciplines in the biomedical and behavioral sciences, including mathematics.
"I was excited to present at ABRCMS, because it was the biggest conference I had ever attended," said Lopez, a senior in Barry's Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) U*STAR Program. "It was truly a great experience to be able to interact with people from all around the nation who are pursuing the same dreams that I am."
In December, Barry biology students set out for another West Coast conference – the annual meeting of The American Society for Cell Biology in San Francisco.
"It was a valuable experience because not only did I present my findings, but I also had the opportunity to network with many great scientists and researchers and to see the new research tools in the market," said Daphne Petit-Homme, a senior in Barry's Biology (BS) Pre-Professional program.
Jovans Lorquet, a junior in Barry's Biology (BS) Pre-Professional program, funded by NIH-sponsored Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement (RISE) Program, also presented at the ASCB conference with Barry Physical Sciences student Sue Ann Flores and Barry Associate Professor of Biology Dr. Leticia Vega. Their paper "Identification and characterization of synthetic interactions between cdc13-1 and yKU80 mutant alleles on yeast telomeres" was awarded second place in the undergraduate poster presentation.
"I gained more experience when it comes for me to present in the future, and I have also learned many new concepts from looking at other people's posters and also from going to the talks during the meeting," Lorquet said.
In February, Barry biology and MARC U*STAR alumnus Alec Davila represented Barry on the East Coast at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston.
"Throughout the day, I learned a vast amount of information about other research projects, which was helpful to my recent studies at Barry," Davila said. "Being able to correlate other research projects to my own brought about new ideas, which helped further advance my project."
Faculty of Barry's biology program play a hands-on role in helping Barry students learn the research process, said Laura Mudd, Ph.D., professor and chair of Barry's undergraduate biology program. Faculty work with students on developing methods to answer scientific questions; developing protocols; showing them how to use equipment; ensuring that experiments are properly controlled and that proper safety precautions are taken; ensuring that research is in compliance with federal environmental laws; and helping students prepare posters and practice oral presentations of their work for conferences.
"Barry's biology department prepared me to the greatest of its ability to allow me to choose a career as a physician-scientist," Davila said. "Obtaining my bachelor's degree in biology was no easy task, but the mentorship and support I received throughout my years was astonishing. My experiences at Barry have strengthened my appreciation of science and have allowed me to become a stronger individual."
For more information about Barry's undergraduate biology program, visit https://www.barry.edu/biology/


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There will be a community breakfast in the Good Hope United Methodist Church fellowship hall from 7:30 to 10 a.m. April 6. This is free and everyone is welcome.
There will be a community breakfast in the Good Hope United Methodist Church fellowship hall from 7:30 to 10 a.m. April 6. This is free and everyone is welcome.
The United Methodist Men will meet at 7 a.m. Sunday in the church fellowship hall for their monthly breakfast meeting.
There will be a chicken pie lunch in the fellowship hall Sunday.
A dinner and fashion show will be sponsored by the United Methodist Women at 6:30 p.m. April 8 in the church fellowship hall. Guest speaker will be Kim Knight. A meal will be served. Bring a new or gently used clothing item for the family shelter in Lexington.
Revival services begin at Good Hope at 7 p.m. April 14 and will continue through April 17. There will be a different speaker each night.
The adult choir presented an Easter cantata March 24 titled "In Christ Alone," directed by Doug Floyd and accompanied on the piano by Roger Horton. Ken Drum narrated and Keith Vestal and Brenda Spach were soloists.
Children's message at Good Hope has been presented by Rodney Walser, Beverly Berrier, Chris Bennett, Sara Brown, Diana Crotts and Hailey Hartley.
Special music has been presented by Craig Bennett and Chris Bennett.
Church will welcome guest ministers
Reedy Creek Baptist will have several different pastors speaking on Wednesday and Sunday nights in April rather than holding a spring revival.
Youth Sunday will be observed on May 5. Various young people will be teaching classes and serving in other capacities. Brandon Miller will be the speaker Sunday morning and T.W. Bailey with Union Grove Baptist Church will be the speaker for evening service. Please support these young people.
Mark your calendars for June 9-13 for Vacation Bible School at Reedy Creek Baptist Church.
C.A. Hartman was guest speaker for the Wednesday night service March 20. He presented an update on the work and progress of the Gideon's. A special offering was taken to help with expenses and the placing of Bibles in various places as an outreach mission.
Special music at Reedy Creek has been by a quartet composed of Charles Fishel, Brian Beane, Gary Miller, and Mike Conrad; also Karan Miller; Jerry White; and Sharon Pierce.
New business opens in area
A new business in the area is JB's Grill at 3778 N. Highway 150 in Reedy Creek. They are open 6 a.m. - 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. - 10 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. on Sunday. You can dine in or take out. Phone is 787-4441.
Spring break for school kids continues through April 5. Report cards go home April 12.
Prayers are needed
Get well wishes go to Joanne Barney, Darrell Beck, Chris Briggs, Greg Burkhart, Bobby Carter, Janet Church, Ethel Craver, Mary Lee Crussell, Jimmy Davis, Madalyn Davis, Russ Essick, Lester Goforth, Ruby Goforth, Terry Hines, Sadie Hulsey, Joanne Leonard, LeVonne Leonard, Myra Leonard, Mary Lee Miller, Gladys Owens, Johnnie Shutt, Jerry Sink, Mary Ann Sink, Nancy E. Sink, Dale Sluder, Virginia Smith, Betty Thomason, Paul Tilley, Betsy Walser and Ruth Walser.
Sympathy goes to the family and friends of Betty Leonard, who died March 20; and to the family and friends of Bill Hartman of Highway 150, who died March 24. Also sympathy to the family and friends of Rebron Reid of Highway 150, who died March 26; and to the family and friends of Josephine Taft, who died recently.


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Sioux Falls Skyforce Regroup In Reno
Over a span of four consecutive quarters spread across two games the Sioux Falls Skyforce cumulative output was 58 points. The next fact to ponder: over 22 consecutive minutes of game action bridging the last ten minutes in Santa Cruz and the first stanza in Reno, Sioux Falls was outscored by 44 points. Thus to rally for a 113-110 road victory over the Reno Bighorns on Saturday night is nothing short of astounding. It might have also saved their season.
The goal has always been the NBA Development League playoffs ever since coach Joel Abelson was brought on board to lead the team. Changes were made to keep a stocked roster that could compete with any team in the league. Including a tough loss in Tulsa just over a week ago, Sioux Falls (22-18) had dropped a total of four straight and six out of their last seven. A 35-14 hole on the road in Reno (13-24) to start the contest left the impression that struggles would continue. Although the body of work for Reno reveals a struggling squad that had dropped five straight coming into the contest.
A 29-point second quarter emboldened Sioux Falls offensively while the half time deficit was still solidly seventeen in Reno's favor. Demetris Nichols found the stroke in the third quarter scoring 16 of his game-high 31 points to draw the Skyforce to within thirteen points at the end of three periods. Nine straight points in the middle of the fourth quarter closed the gap to four and the momentum carried the Skyforce to the lead for the first time in the game with a three-point play by James Mays with 1:30 left. Final points of the night came on a three pointer by Andre Barrett with 1.2 seconds to go which sealed the win.
Beyond the 31 points from Nichols, the forward from Syracuse grabbed 10 rebounds. Mays and Barrett scored 15 each to lead the effort. For Reno, Samardo Samuels scored 28 points followed by Ronald Dupree with 25 and Dar Tucker with 21. Next for the Skyforce is a two-game set with the Iowa Energy in Des Moines the following Friday and Saturday with Reno back on the home court Sunday with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.


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To find accessories for other Motorola phones please see our Motorola Phone Accessories page.


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Open outsourcing
From ArticleWorld
The debate on open outsourcing points to critical issues in the spread of a knowledge economy or elements of it. Open code software is considered a way to foster intelligent, innovative and consumer-friendly use of Information and Communications Technology by doing away with big license fees and allowing tailor-made solutions by tweaking existing products. But there are challenges that arise from these same qualitites: poor standards and documentation, feature creep, complexities in licensing specific solutions. There is also a perception that open source isn't economically viable and is essentially a feel-good volunteer movement effected by people with time and money to spend. Open outsourcing addresses these technical and socioeconomic problems by allowing a vast bank of programmers from around the world, some with few resources but with skill to provide specific, directed solutions to companies using open source software. Programmers are remunerated, companies can use open source more productively, and the software is constantly reviewed.
Benefits of open outsourcing
Open outsourcing is especially beneficial on the user end for companies and individuals who have no technical expertise but need a certain solution or application to promote or make their business more efficient. They can't afford an IT department or even a specialist full-time, so freelance programmers, who could be based anywhere, can work on a contract basis to provide the solutions the company needs. Freelance programmers could have a broad base of experience to draw on, and perhaps even a readymade solution developed previously, or a bug fix used elsewhere. This benefits both the customer and the code, because directed custom-made development helps determine the current state of the software. There is no need for expensive and time-consuming documentation processes each time around, because the programmer can determine functionality by studying the code or is already experienced with it.
The single largest problem with open outsourcing is the tangle of licensing issues and legislation if the solutions being developed are for resale, or part of products that are themselves licensed or proprietary.
Socioeconomic arguments
Outsourcing elicits strong opinions, but open outsourcing is a remarkable example of how programmers from third world countries, for example, can contribute to R&D in developed countries' knowledge economy, while all consumers, especially small or non-technical ones or again, those from developing countries, can have cheap access to custom-made solutions that improve their business, contributing to the economy at large.


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In a word or phrase, what does leadership mean to you? Leadership to me means to be a good, respectful role model.
Why did you join the program? I joined the program because I want to change people's lives and gain an experience that others may not have a chance to have.
What have you gained from the program? I hope to gain information, respectfulness, public speaking and communication skills.
What is your favorite part of the program? My favorite part of the program is being able to make a change in people's lives.


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December 1, 2017, 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Interested in crocheting, knitting, cross stitching, embroidering or sewing? Share techniques, tips, and experiences with fellow stitchers while working on projects. All skill levels are welcome.
December 1, 2017, 11:00 AM - 11:20 AM
For children from birth to 24 months with their caregiver. Enjoy music, board books, bubbles, and bouncing!
View all calendars is the default. Choose Select a Calendar to view a specific calendar.


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Monthly Archives: June 2018
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The following are some valuable casino gambling tips on two games I have chosen to review. Blackjack and the game of slot machines. I will expose six separate pointers for each game so you can increase your winnings and have … Continue reading
E-Van on the Road: StreetScooter Has Street Smarts
The move towards electric delivery vehicles took a step closer last month with the unveiling of an e-van, produced in collaboration by Ford and Deutsche Post DHL Group, in the German city of Cologne. The launch of the StreetScooter WORK … Continue reading
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Actual cheating in casino gambling is prohibited. Of course, you couldn't expect casino operators to just watch as cheating players walk away with their money. Still, let us explore the ways in which players have tried to cheat in casinos. … Continue reading
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Although we live in the digital age, there are still a lot of organizations that are weary about making the transition to using digital and mobile solutions to help run their businesses. Many of these organization are still relying on … Continue reading
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As casinos are being built around the world due to their ease of generating income for the various governments of different countries, more and more innocent victims to gambling are getting caught in the tangle of endless web of problem … Continue reading
Adhesive Vinyl Instead of Yupo For Your Alcohol Ink Art
Adhesive Vinyl Instead Of Yupo For Your Alcohol Ink Art: Alcohol inks have been my obsession for the last few months because there are SO many projects you can do with them. They are a bit more expensive than say … Continue reading
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Online casino gambling is something that you can have a lot of reasons to try. Even if you have never gambled before, online gambling is the wave of the future. You will be able to learn all that you need … Continue reading
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If you wish to outsource your business process then you must hire the best of the call centre to do the job for you. The excellence of a call centre depends on the qualities of the agents as because they … Continue reading
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Wed Jul 29 1998 12:00: I thought Powerball was like paintball.
Man, what a lot of crap I have to do. I have to fix my landlord's modem, I have to start looking for a new place to live, I have to do Darius' online store, I have to do Segfault stuff, and I have to do physics stuff. Bleah I say.
Actually I guess the Segfault stuff doesn't count as "crap". I'd be nice to Darius and say his store doesn't count as crap either, but quite frankly I don't really care about online gaming stores. I'm just doing it because he's my friend, and also he's paying me.


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|December 17, 2012, 07:58 PM
Junior Member
Join Date: May 1, 2005
Posts: 10
Need suggestions for defense gun for my wife
We have been looking at various guns but are not sure what would be best for her. Personally I think a shotgun would be best, but the ones I have tend to be a bit much for her length, and recoil wise. She is legally blind but she does have some sight and can see and read with her right eye with glasses, although she has trouble with small detail.
I have tried her with my 12 ga shotgun and my .357 Ruger and they are a bit much for her to handle well. I need something small, short, light weight, light recoil, but able to just be point shot since careful aiming is out. She has said she wants something for protection when I am not around, and getting older, if I kick the bucket she needs some sort of protection when I am gone.
Any suggestions would be appreciated...
|December 18, 2012, 06:29 AM
Join Date: December 17, 2012
Posts: 21
Obviously a pistol is needed if she wants to carry, but that may be a problem given eyesight problems. As for home defense is do believe that shotguns are the best choice in most situations. Did she try any lighter load shells? I know that target rounds won't have near the effect of buck, but I think it should serve nicely in a home. As to the recoil, if you have the cash there are many with really nice but stocks available. Otherwise, I am reminded that quite a few cases of successful self defense involved a 22, rifle or pistol. It seems to be more than enough to scare off intruders, and still wounds quite handily in the confines of a home. If she really has allot of trouble handling anything bigger, it's something to consider. Or a 20 Guage for that matter.
|December 18, 2012, 07:23 AM
Join Date: December 15, 2012
Location: WI
Posts: 42
You may want to look into a youth model 20 gauge. I know Rem 870 youths run around $300 or so. Otherwise if you want to stick to a handgun; I'd say a a full size semi auto in 9mm would serve well. Ammo is relatively affordable, and the recoil is very manageable. If it comes down to recoil and ability to operate a lighter slide, I'd say look at a Sig P238. They are very soft shooting, and have a very light op spring.
|December 18, 2012, 07:34 AM
Senior Member
Join Date: April 19, 2012
Posts: 479
id go with a pistol.. works well for home defense, and you can carry... definitely a lot easier to grab in the middle of the night than a shotgun as only one hand is needed... and a compact .38 special or .380 would do fine
one i like, and would use for deep concealability and would be quite appropriate for a smaller female, would be the ruger LCR .380 +P
|December 18, 2012, 09:49 AM
Senior Member
Join Date: August 28, 2008
Location: Near Fairbanks Alaska
Posts: 819
You might both want to visit Kathy, over at the Cornered Cat. She has the best web site for the
ladies and firearms/self protection.
|December 18, 2012, 10:42 AM
Junior Member
Join Date: May 1, 2005
Posts: 10
Cool thanks for the information... Will check out your suggestions...
|December 18, 2012, 10:52 AM
Senior Member
Join Date: June 5, 2006
Location: Alabama
Posts: 209
I tried everything I have with my wife, but with weak hands she could not rack the slide on semi-auto pistols and recoil was too much for her. She also did not care for reloading magazines. Not even a Beretta 21A .25acp worked even though easy to load with the tip up barrel.
But the new Ruger LCR .22 LR revolver suited her very much. She can shoot it well, trigger pull is less than the SP101 and reloading is easy for her. Recoil is minimum.
Maybe not the best SD but with 8 rounds up close it should do the job. Nobody wants to get shot, not even with a .22
Just something to consider.
|December 19, 2012, 07:07 PM
Senior Member
Join Date: November 29, 2007
Location: Everett, WA
Posts: 6,088
A semi-auto shotgun would be an option. Less felt recoil and no need to pump the gun. It can be left ready to use.
If weight is a consideration a somewhat lighter gun can be used. You also might consider a lighter gauge than 12.
When you pick a home defense weapon you have to consider the tactics appropriate for that weapon and for the person using that weapon. A shotgun might not be the best choice for room clearing and someone that has problems holding a heavy weapon also might not be able to clear rooms regardless of weapon.
Where a shotgun is superior is in static places, a safe room or some type of bunker situation. That might also be a better tactic for someone that isn't that strong.
So while a weak person might not be able to comfortably tote a heavy shotgun around they could rest the gun on a bed or dresser, keeping an area covered.
|December 19, 2012, 08:29 PM
Senior Member
Join Date: March 3, 2011
Location: Vernon AZ
Posts: 1,195
to me her vision problems are a major consideration. Can she see a laser dot at the defensive distance she would be firing. If she can then I would recommend a laser or a flashlight which is centered at that distance.
As far as the weapon is concerned 20 gauge youth shotgun might be a good choice. If the 20 is to heavy then you might consider a 410. At close range it performs very well with buck or slug.
pistol wise a quality 32 or 380 with the suggested sitting systems.
If that fails, then a ruger 22 auto with the short barrel and fixed sites would be my last choice. A friend of mine who was undercover with the Chicag PD carried and employed a 22 to good effect in the early 70s.
|December 20, 2012, 12:03 AM
Senior Member
Join Date: May 23, 2009
Location: Nevada
Posts: 644
My husband and I have a Mossberg 500 that serves as our main home defense weapon. We equipped it with a Knox SpecOps adjustable recoil-absorbing stock because I was getting bruises when I shot it at the range and found the long stock difficult to manage. (My arms are a bit shorter than average for somebody who is 5'7".) I don't enjoy shooting it; I have limited tolerance for noise and the thing is *LOUD*. But I can shoot it reasonably well out to about 15 yards, and the limitation is my vision, not my ability to control the gun.
I can shoot the baby/concealable semiautomatics -- such as the Ruger LCP, the Rohrbach R9, any of the Kahr line -- but I don't enjoy it at all. They're *painful* to handle, IMHO. Most people enjoy shooting larger guns more: the weight reduces recoil considerably.
If you have any ranges in your area that have guns for rent to be shot at the range, or if you have some friends who have guns and would be willing to help with a research project, why not take her shooting to the range? Have a bunch of possible carry guns of all types there, and let her try them all. Then she can tell you which one feels best. :-)
|December 20, 2012, 12:09 AM
Senior Member
Join Date: May 23, 2009
Location: Nevada
Posts: 644
As before, though, don't just take my word for it. *Try things out* and let her make the decision. (BTW, PM me if you live anywhere near northern Nevada. I'd be delighted to talk to your wife about this issue.)
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Opening Sequence
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Israeli defense minister quits over Gaza truce
Mid-priced Chinese phones threaten iPhone growth
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Closing Sequence


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WASHINGTON -- Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren said that Claude Giroux has a concussion and will be out indefinitely.
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Bryzgalov To Start
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(Sylvia vs. Sims @ Superbrawl 38, 12/12/04. You had me at that intro music.)
According to Wes Sims's manager Ken Pavia, the A-Hole Show will try to follow up his paycheck-collection at Strikeforce: Miami by taking on Tim Sylvia at an Adrenaline MMA event in Youngstown, Ohio, on March 20th. The bout will be held under special rules, in which spectators will be allowed to throw peanuts at the fighters during the match. Just kidding, but with both men drifting near the low points of their careers, it's hard to look at this meeting as anything but a freak show — even if it'll surely be sold as a grudge match between two extremely
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Southwest Airlines planes began departing their gates late Friday, more than two hours after a companywide computer glitch caused flights to be grounded throughout the western United States.
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Only Us
- by ForeverXX
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- Published: 2 Sep 2012
- Updated: 30 Sep 2012
- Status: In Progress
Summer Bails isn't a big fan of One Direction. But when she goes to their concert with her sister, her whole world changes. She dosen't know who to choose. Who will be there in the end and how her decisions lead her life somewhere else! She Doesn't know who her hearts wants? Will everything happen like she wanted?
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