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Criminology/Criminal Justiceufv.ca/criminology
Once a student has completed 90 credits (approximately three full years of study) of coursework with a minimum 3.33 GPA in all courses required for program completion and a minimum of a B+ in each of CRIM 220, CRIM 320, and CRIM 310, they are eligible to apply for entry into the Criminal Justice Honours program.
Interested students are encouraged to seek out information and advice on the honours program from the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice faculty and/or Program Advisor as early as possible in their coursework, and to apply to the honours program at the earliest possible entry date.
Applications must be received by May 15 for a September start date, or September 15 for a January start date for honours studies.
Students will need to provide the following to the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice Program Advisor:
The School of Criminology and Criminal Justice Honours Program Committee will review applications and assign accepted students to an appropriate School of Criminology and Criminal Justice faculty supervisor based on their research interests and faculty availability. Students are encouraged to speak to potential faculty supervisors in advance of applying to the honours program and should indicate on their application form if a particular faculty member has agreed to supervise them, pending the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice Honours Program Committee approval.
In addition to completing the requirements for the Bachelor of Arts (Criminal Justice) degree, honours students must complete an additional 10 upper-level credits, consisting of CRIM 490 and CRIM 491. These courses are primarily student-driven, though the student and faculty advisor are expected to meet on a regular basis throughout the semester. During these courses, the student will design and complete a research project. See the course descriptions for further details.
Students will be required to take CRIM 490 (Honours Thesis Development) in the first semester of the final year, and CRIM 491 (Honours Project) in the second semester of the final year.
Prior to enrolling in CRIM 491 (Honours Project), each honours student will need to meet with their honours supervisor to assess their progress in the program and ensure preparedness for data collection. At this time, the student should submit an updated transcript to their supervisor for review. The student must maintain a CGPA of at least 3.33 in their final year of study, with a CGPA of 3.33 for CRIM 490 and CRIM 491, in order for an honours designation to be awarded.
In addition to meeting the requirements for a Bachelor of Arts (Criminal Justice) degree, successful completion of a research project is required prior to graduation with an honours designation. The honours research project, which will be developed in consultation with a faculty supervisor, will demonstrate a student's skill and knowledge in a given area of criminology and criminal justice. The research project will be designed during CRIM 490 and carried out in the subsequent semester in CRIM 491.
Each honours student will then be required to present the findings of their research at a professional or university conference or in another academic venue (e.g. in an undergraduate or graduate Criminology and Criminal Justice course). Alternative presentation arrangements may be made in consultation with the honours supervisor and the Honours Program Committee.
The student will receive a letter grade, recommended by their supervisor, for each of CRIM 490 and CRIM 491 based on their successful design and completion of a research project. The Honours Program Committee will choose whether or not to accept these grades based on a review of the students research work. A minimum CGPA of 3.33 in CRIM 490 and CRIM 491 must be met to graduate with an honours designation.
For complete details on courses see the course descriptions section.


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Initiative and Motivationmotivation, inspiration and 3 more...
* * *
I'm writing this entry to talk about something I'm sure a lot of writers struggle with -- namely, finding the initiative and motivation to write. (Incidentally, authoring this entry is part of my attempt to find both.)
For over a year now, a plan to write a novel has been fermenting in my mind. I told myself at the beginning of this year that I would plan it and write it. As of this writing, I have done neither. Admittedly, my lack of progress is mainly due to procrastination; however, I probably would not be procrastinating if I had the motivation to write something and the determination to follow through.
Of course, a diagnosis is only half the battle. Where can I find a cure?
The most obvious panacea is writing to provide a message. I don't necessarily mean morals in the style of Aesop or Ayn Rand, namely, blatant and spelled out for the reader; I also mean messages like a warning about dystopia (George Orwell, 1984), the allure of evil (J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings), what we're likely to find in the universe (Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey), etc. If you understand your message well, it can provide a skeleton framework for your story and, if you're lucky, inspiration.
But messages don't always work. Maybe you're too leery of being heavy-handed; maybe there are a few different messages that could or could not work, but you can't select one just yet; or, most likely, maybe your mind hasn't paired a message with a plot. What do you do?
The second cure I know for lack of writing initiative and motivation is adopting a habit of writing. This might seem contradictory at first -- how can you habituate writing if you can't write? -- but think about riding a bicycle, or swimming, or even math: You couldn't do it at first, but you learned. You can't write anything if you don't try to write anything, so write something.
A third option is to make writing into a challenge. Some people are motivated by deadlines; though I don't find them particularly inspiring, they can spur writing, especially in the case of a contest. Other people may write stories to incorporate new words into their vocabularies, try out another writing style, etc.
The fourth and final thing I can think of is to write whenever you feel emotionally charged. I find writing an excellent means of catharsis. If you feel particularly happy, sad, angry, whatever, try to translate your emotions into words.
Okay, this isn't a great blog entry, but I figured I should take advantage of having Premier perks and write another rant after such a long hiatus from written ramblings. Now I just have to see if writing the above inspired me at all...

subset: commoncrawl


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Diane Kaufman
Diane works in oils on canvas painting portraits of a kind, though more about substance than visual likeness. De Kooning said Flesh is what oil was invented for. I look to the work of Auerbach, Freud, Bacon, deKooning and Soutine as my major influences.
The accidental things that happen in their execution seem to have some resonance with those elements in chance of birth that go to shape every individual. Kaufman asks why we invest such meaning in the configuration of a face.
Previous Exhibitions include Ashley Gallery, Philadelphia, Affordable Art, New York, Quantum Contemporary Art, Luscious Conceptions, as well as various group exhibitions in London and South East with works owned in private collections in Britain, France, USA and Australia.


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Why Liz Cheney is no sure thing
She can count on the deep pockets and influential media platforms of her father's friends in Washington.
As for winning over Wyoming voters — well, Liz Cheney will have her work cut out for her.
Story Continued Below
The former vice president's daughter set tongues wagging Tuesday when she announced she will challenge incumbent Sen. Mike Enzi in a Republican primary, setting the stage for the marquee intraparty battle of 2014.
Here are POLITICO's five reasons why Cheney is far from assured of becoming a U.S. senator come 2015, despite the significant advantages she'll bring, based on interviews with nearly a dozen Wyoming political sources.
( Also on POLITICO: Liz Cheney to challenge GOP senator)
The carpetbagger tag
Cheney spent time in the state as a child when her father relocated from D.C. to run for Congress. And her family first arrived in the state in 1852, she noted in her campaign launch video. But Cheney relocated her own family from McLean, Va., to the state of 576,000 only last year.
"She will out-raise him by factors of 10 or more, and he will still win because Wyoming is grass-roots, retail campaigning," said Cynthia Lummis, the state's sole House member, who backs Enzi. "It's talking to people face to face. It's not about who has the best consultants and the shiniest ads and the best pollsters. It's about everyday retail politics."
Several operatives noted that Cheney lacks a geographic base. She moved to Jackson Hole, which is in the state's most Democratic county. The Cheney family lived in Casper when she was a kid, but they've not had a presence there for a long time.
( Also on POLITICO: 10 fiery quotes from Liz Cheney)
Enzi has spent the Past 18 years traveling the state and going to town hall meetings. Neutral observers say he is very different from former Sen. Dick Lugar, who lost a GOP primary in Indiana last year in part because of revelations that he stayed at hotels when he traveled back to the state.
The News Record newspaper in Gillette, a town that Enzi served as mayor in the 1970s, recently published an editorial saying, "We have a Republican Senator — and he has lived, worked in Wyoming."
"Hey, Liz Cheney: If you want to run for U.S. Senate, try it from Virginia or some other state," the publisher wrote.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul was more barbed.
"When I heard Liz Cheney was running for Senate, I wondered if she was running in her home state of Virginia," Paul said in a preview of what's to come.
( Also on POLITICO: Paul mocks Liz Cheney's Senate bid)
No firing offense
Enzi has one of the more conservative voting records in the Senate, unlike other Republicans who have been toppled such as Utah's Bob Bennett (who lost in a convention, not a primary). Enzi has told reporters that Cheney might attack him for pushing legislation to let states collect sales tax on Internet purchases. But that's not exactly going to be a key issue for many voters.
"You can always pick out a vote or two, but he has a voting record that reflects the state," said James King, chairman of the political science department at the University of Wyoming.
Cheney did not mention her opponent by name in a six-minute announcement video posted to YouTube. She instead focused her attack on President Barack Obama, who won only 28 percent of the vote last November.
"I'm running because I believe it is necessary for a new generation of leaders to step up to the plate," she said. "We can't continue business as usual in Washington. … I will never compromise when our freedom is at stake."
But Obama is not on the ballot, and Enzi is by no means a White House ally. He was reelected in 2008 with 76 percent of the vote.


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Mathazzar brauchte ein neues Website Design und hat einen Wettbewerb auf 99designs gestartet.
Aus 48 Designs von 11 Designern wurde eine Gewinner gewählt.
Mathazzar Studios is a personal company for independent media composer Marius Masalar — that's me! I specialize in writing high-quality soundtracks for video games and films.
As an emerging composer, marketing is my biggest tool for furthering myself in the industry, and that's where you come in. I'm looking to put up a website to showcase my music and serve as a one-stop landing place for anyone and everyone interested in my work.
For this contest, I need creative designers with a strong artistic sense to put together a homepage and a portfolio page for me. NO CODING. Web 2.0-savvy, professional but eye-catching and memorable. I want something that you, as a designer, would be proud to have in your portfolio.
Mathazzar Studios
Mathazzar Studios is a personal company for independent media composer Marius Masalar — that's me! I specialize in writing high-quality soundtracks for video games and films.
As you've gathered, I'm looking for a website. No coding, just the design itself, so PSDs. Essentially, this site not only needs to represent me, but also needs to stand out from the crowd and give potential employers confidence in my professional abilities, without sacrificing approachability and a certain sense of casualness.
I'm not picky about colours, though I had a fairly dark colour scheme envisioned. Not sombre, but not bright. I'm open to bright colour schemes if you can make it work though, you're the visual artist! One thing I am fairly picky about is typography. I realize that there are technical restrictions with respect to what fonts can be used for body copy, but please try to avoid standard typefaces wherever it is possible. I don't mean use crazy fonts, but stretch your collection a bit, find tasteful and attractive alternatives to the standards — that kind of subtle attention to detail is what I'm all about.
Here's an example of a competitor's site, for reference:
What I like is the general layout and colour scheme, with brighter colours used sparingly to highlight focal points. I also like that the portfolio is prominently placed even on the homepage, with a link to the full portfolio — makes sure the work is the focus. The name of the company and its logo is also hard to miss, and that's another bonus. I don't like the excessive Flash use or the fairly standardized template design.
Which brings me to my last point, if a blatantly template-based layout can be avoided without sacrificing ease of interaction or information retrieval, that would be great. If not, that's fine too, just make sure to do something special with the standard layout whether in terms of colour or sizing and placement of elements.
Basically, I would like you to be proud of the design; create something that really shows off your skills in tasteful and professional design work that's creative and effective. I'm an artist too, after all, I know how nice it is to be given some freedom to express a theme as I see fit, so I don't want to hamper you too much as long as it the end result is something that does a fantastic job of marketing my work. :)
And, it goes without saying, if you really impress me with your work, I'll know exactly who to go to for all my future expansion needs and other web projects — and you can remember me the next time you need music or general audio work done for something.
- Homepage & Portfolio page designs, no coding
- Homepage should include latest blog posts and a selection from the Portfolio
- Portfolio should be easy to navigate and make use of an embedded Flash player (just something to consider for the design) to play music and the occasional video sample from various projects
- Tasteful use of non-standard typography, where possible — headings, etc
- Clear, easy-to-navigate layout that's attractive and highlights key information without being annoying or tiring too look at
- I have a soft spot for the kind of art style present in the Samorost, Machinarium, Under One's Wing game series, the posters for some Cirque du Soleil shows (Kooza, for example), Patapon especially, and other vaguely fantasy-grunge, steampunk style examples. Don't feel as though you're required to incorporate these elements, but I mention them in case you find a way to since they're examples of the artistic style that I admire
- Adjectives to describe the site: innovative, creative, intriguing, impressive, memorable, professional, approachable, clever, unique, functional
- To be delivered: layered PSD file(s)
- Blatant overuse of musical elements. Yes, I write music, but I don't want my visitors to choke on treble clefs and eighth notes, it's just tacky and unnecessary. Some musical elements are fine, but don't go overboard
- Cookie-cutter designs make me itchy. Please don't make me itchy. If you can take the design principles that make those standard layouts work and adapt them to reflect your own creative interpretation of me and my work, then you've got exactly what I'm looking for
- Coding. I've got that covered already, so you can just focus on the creative and fun bit: the design!
- Glossy crap. I know Web 2.0 has this tendency to have everything look like it's had a team of munchkins spend a century buffing it, but I can do without the excessive glow and shine to everything. Some reflection and glossiness is fine, but please use it in moderation.


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These games teach valuable skills and have a high fun and educational rating.
Your child gains familiarity reading and analyzing graphically represented quantitative data by helping a zookeeper keep track of his animals.
Your child learns about Pavlov's dog experiment by training their dog to drool on demand.
Zoodles 11.8.7 Copyright (c) 2014 Inquisitive Minds, Inc. All rights reserved.


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Geneva occupies a key position as a centre of security political activities, remembered for many meetings and achievements of historic significance. The city has been the venue for several negotiations leading to the conclusion of conventions that are important from the point of view of international security policy, such as the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC), the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). The city has also hosted many bilateral and multilateral peace conferences and arms control talks between the great powers. As part of the formulation of international humanitarian law, the rules of warfare have been negotiated in Geneva.
The disarmament section of the Permanent Mission is responsible for Finland's representation in the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva (CD), which convenes annually for three separate sessions. The sector is also, in cooperation with the Finnish delegations, in charge of arrangements related to other arms control meetings in Geneva:
Furthermore, the disarmament sector takes part in the meetings of the First Committee of the UN General Assembly, which is responsible for disarmament and security, the UN Disarmament Commission (UNDC) and the Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), convening in New York, and in disarmament negotiations and projects concerning small arms and light weapons.
The CD sector takes care of contacts and dialogue with the intergovernmental disarmament organisations, NGOs and security political research institutes that are based in Geneva, the most important of which are the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) and three centres set up by Switzerland:
Updated 9/27/2010


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Set up conversion tracking
With Google Ads conversion tracking, you can see how effectively your ad clicks lead to valuable customer activity, such as website purchases, phone calls, app downloads, newsletter sign-ups, and more. Depending on the type of conversion you're tracking, the setup process is different, so the first step in setting up conversion tracking is choosing a conversion source, or where your conversions come from.
In this article, we'll talk about the different conversion sources, and then you can follow the instructions for the kind of conversion tracking you want to set up.
Before you begin
If you want to learn more about the benefits of conversion tracking and how it works, see our article About conversion tracking.
Conversion tracking in Google Ads
Choose a conversion source
Conversion tracking helps you see when your ads lead to conversions from the following sources. Click the links for instructions on how to set up the kind of conversions you want to track.
What it means: Track when a customer completes an action on your website. This could be, for example, making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, clicking a button, or any other valuable action a customer can take on your website.
What it means: Track when a customer installs your app or completes an in-app action, such as a purchase. Learn more about mobile app conversion tracking.
What it means: Track when a customer calls you from a phone number in your ads or from a phone number on your website, or when they click your phone number on your mobile website. Learn more about phone call conversion tracking.
- Track calls from ads
- Track calls to a phone number on your website
- Track phone number clicks on a mobile website
What it means: Track when an ad click leads to a conversion in the offline world, such as a sale in your office or over the phone. To do this, you'll import your conversions into Google Ads by uploading a file or transmitting data through our API.
Tip: Track multiple kinds of conversions
Do you want to track multiple kinds of conversions from the list above? Just set up a different conversion action for each type of conversion you want to track. For example, you can set up one conversion action to track purchases on your website, and another to track calls from your ads.
You can also set up multiple conversion actions for each conversion source. For example, say you want to track two different actions on your website: purchases and newsletter sign-ups. You'd set up two conversion actions: one for the purchases and one for sign-ups.
If you're tracking multiple conversion actions, you might want to use the "Include in 'Conversions'" setting to choose which conversions to include in your "Conversions" reporting column. Learn more


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Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Pliskova Prep
Posted by Chris Oddo at 2:43 PM 25 comments
Saturday, March 8, 2014
Video: Rosol Pegs Murray with a Smash
Andy Murray is through to third round of the BNP Paribas Open after defeating Lukas Rosol, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. But it wasn't a halcyon day for Murray, as he dropped the opener to the upset-minded Czech, and took a smash to the armour in the third set. Of course you want to see the smash, right? Well, here it is. Pretty innocent I guess, but when you take into account that Rosol had the whole court in either direction to place that smash, it makes you wonder: Is Lukas Rosol a mean-hearted guy? Since I don't pass judgement, I'll let you decide after watching the vid>>>
Posted by Chris Oddo at 3:39 PM 3 comments
Labels: andy murray, Lukas rosol
Video: Ana Ivanovic Works the Crowd at Indian Wells
Ana Ivanovic is through to the third round of the BNP Paribas Open after scraping by up-and-coming Elina Svitolina, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6(1). Check out Ana working the crowd after winning a rapid fire exhange at the net to earn herself five match points. Classic stuff from the former Indian Wells champion. The double fist pump with a hip thrust thrown in is a nice touch... Ivanovic will get the Tomljanovic-Stephens winner in the round of 16. See the women's draw Here.
Posted by Chris Oddo at 2:23 PM 1 comments
Labels: Ana Ivanovic
Video: Istomin Gets Ripped off in Indian Wells
How in the world does Dennis Istomin not get this point? Answer me. The question, jerk!
Posted by Chris Oddo at 2:10 PM 1 comments
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Bryan Bros Kick of '14 with a Win
Mike and Bob Bryan went 70-13 last year with 11 titles, and they came just two matches short of winning the calendar-year Grand Slam at the US Open. So, what can the 35-year-olds do for an encore in 2014? We gonna see, no? The Bryans, who are 57-8 with six Australian Open titles under their belts, got their Melbourne prep underway with a first-round victory over Lukas Kubot and Robert Lindstedt in Sydney on Monday.
Post by Bryan Brothers.
Posted by Chris Oddo at 9:11 AM 2 comments
Labels: Bryan Brothers
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Mission Control Center
The shuttle and station crews will spend today continuing to set up and test the newly attached Quest station airlock, troubleshooting a suspected leaky ventilation valve, and preparing for the mission's second and third space walks, planned for Tuesday and Thursday evening.
Mission Specialist Janet Kavandi will assist Expedition Two Flight Engineer Jim Voss in troubleshooting the suspected leak in an Intermodule Ventilation (IMV) assembly. The IMV Assembly, a series of fans and valves that circulate air between station modules, connects the Quest airlock to the station's environmental control and life support system. The two astronauts will examine the valve seals for any debris or damage and determine if the valve will have to be replaced. Should replacement be necessary, a spare valve is available aboard the station.
Meanwhile, Atlantis Commander Steve Lindsey and Expedition Two Flight Engineer Susan Helms will test oxygen lines between the station and the airlock. The lines will be used during future shuttle missions to replenish the airlock's high-pressure oxygen tanks with shuttle-supplied oxygen.
The Atlantis crew was awakened for its sixth day in space at 4:19 p.m. today by the song "Nobody Does it Better" performed by Carly Simon, played by Mission Control for Mission Specialist Jim Reilly. The International Space Station crew of Commander Yury Usachev, Voss and Helms is in its 131st day in space.
Atlantis' space walkers Mike Gernhardt and Jim Reilly will spend today preparing for their two remaining space walks. They will review plans and set up equipment in both Atlantis' airlock and the station airlock. The second spacewalk, to begin Tuesday evening, will originate from Atlantis while the third spacewalk, to begin Thursday, will be the first to originate from the station's new Quest airlock. Both of the remaining space walks will focus on the installation of high-pressure oxygen and nitrogen tanks on the exterior of the Quest airlock.
Lindsey, Atlantis' Pilot Charlie Hobaugh and Usachev will take a break from their work at 11:34 p.m. CDT for a 20-minute interview by news reporters from CBS, Space.com and KNBC-TV of Los Angeles.
The next mission status report will be issued about 6 a.m. Tuesday or as events warrant.
NASA Johnson Space Center Mission Status Reports and other information are available automatically by sending an Internet electronic mail message to firstname.lastname@example.com. In the body of the message (not the subject line) users should type "subscribe hsfnews" (no quotes). This will add the e-mail address that sent the subscribe message to the news release distribution list. The system will reply with a confirmation via e-mail of each subscription. Once you have subscribed you will receive future news releases via e-mail.


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Q: I'd like to participate. How do I begin?
Q: Other than writing code, how can I contribute?
Q: What's a good bug for a newcomer to tackle?
Q: What is a bug or issue with debian-installer-utils that you've been putting off, neglecting, or just plain avoiding?
About debian-installer-utils
No one has described this project yet. To describe the project, add it to your profile.
People who want to help (none listed yet)
Registered contributors (1)
- Joey Hess joey projects: xtris, xbl, sparkline-php, snowdrop, nestra, dgen, electric-fence, buici-clock, metastore, ixp4xx-microcode and 105 more userdevfs, usb-discover, upslug2, udpkg, tzsetup, timedate, ticker, tasksel, satutils, rootskel, preseed, pkgsel, partman-xfs, partman-reiserfs, partman-lvm, partman-basicfilesystems, partman-base, partman-auto-lvm, partman-auto-crypto, partman-auto, partitioner, palo-installer, os-prober, nslu2-utils, netcfg, net-retriever, mpdtoys, mountmedia, mountfloppy, ikiwiki-simon, moreutils, media-retriever, Test, joeyh, mdcfg, joeyh.github.com, Debian win32-loader, main-menu, lowmem, localechooser, linux-kernel-di-s390-2.6, linux-kernel-di-mipsel-2.6, linux-kernel-di-mips-2.6, linux-kernel-di-i386-2.6, linux-kernel-di-hppa-2.6, linux-kernel-di-armel-2.6, linux-kernel-di-amd64-2.6, linux-kernel-di-alpha-2.6, lilo-installer, libvorbis-perl, libtime-human-perl, libtest-object-perl, libterm-slang-perl, libtemplate-plugin-textile2-perl, libsys-utmp-perl, liblocale-subcountry-perl, liblingua-en-words2nums-perl, libdevel-profile-perl, libdebian-installer, libdatetime-astro-sunrise-perl, libcoy-perl, libconvert-binhex-perl, libclass-default-perl, kernel-wedge, kbd-chooser, iso-scan, installation-report, installation-locale, installation-guide, Git, pristine-tar, live-installer, debian-cd, hw-detect, mr, mooix, grub-installer, jetring, floppy-retriever, Lingua::EN::Words2Nums, flash-kernel, finish-install, pdmenu, sleepd, filters, wmbattery, etckeeper, dpkg-repack, ikiwiki, devscripts, debootstrap, debian-installer-utils, debian-installer, debhelper, debconf, clock-setup, choose-mirror, cdebconf, bterm-unifont, big-cursor, base-installer, apt-setup, anna, Debian GNU/Linux, alien
Volunteer opportunities, etc.
No volunteer opportunities in debian-installer-utils indexed here yet. Add a bug tracker.
No one on OpenHatch has signed up as a mentor for debian-installer-utils. Can you? Add the tag.You can embed the "I want to help" button on your website. (More about this.)


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With dignity
35395, Children's Songbook, The Gospel, The Eleventh Article of Faith, 130
We claim the priv'lege of worshiping Almighty God
according to the dictates of our own conscience,
and allow all men the same priv'lege,
let them worship how, where, or what they may.
Words: Joseph Smith, 1805-1844
Music: Vanja Y. Watkins, b. 1938. © 1978 IRI


text:
The game you are trying to view has ceased development and consequently been archived. If you are a member of this game, can demonstrate that it is being actively developed and will be able to keep this profile up to date with the latest news, images, videos and downloads, please contact us with all details and we will consider its re-activation.
It is the year 2198 and humanity has by now established permanent settlements on the Moon and on Mars. Ever looking to expand, it is no surprise that we now look towards the next frontier - the Asteroid Belt. And so here we are, the first humans ready to venture beyond the orbit of Mars. They call us Belters, but we call ourselves space entrepreneurs. Our greatest challenge yet is about to begin, as we embark on a mission to build a fully self-sufficient asteroid base deep in the heart of the Asteroid Belt.
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So, this is not happening immediately, or really any time soon, but in a few years (probably 3 at the most), I will probably be moving to Japan. I know this seems way in advance, but I am the kind of person who likes to have the next 10 years outlined. I am an English major, and until recently I was planning on getting my teaching degree in English. However, due to financial reasons, I changed that plan and added Japanese as a second major, while dropping the Pre-Education. It was a major change for me, as I've had the whole "going-to-be-a-teacher" persona for the past 6 years. However, I also love the Japanese language and anything related to Japan (mostly anyway), so I'm content with my decision. Someday soon, after we've saved enough money and such, my boyfriend (Justin) and I plan to move to Japan for a few years, probably between 3 to 5 years. Justin is also a Japanese major, and looking to go into translation work in the video game industry. We both want to be there to help secure jobs and become fluent. Neither of us is quite fluent yet, although I am better at the language than my boyfriend. I have stayed in Japan on a 4 month study abroad trip, and I taught English during that time. So I think that will be what I want to do when I am living there. (You don't really need a teaching degree for this.)
However, the problem is I have no idea where we should move, or how we should prepare for such a move. Justin should get a job where he can speak English, at least at first, until he gets more comfortable with the language. I don't know what kind of job that would be, or where he would find it. We also have cats that would have to come with us (non-negotiable), and I've heard it's quite expensive. Beside the expense, I don't even know how to get pets on a plane and across oceans.
So...I guess I am asking the JustBento community the following things:
-Are there any cities in Japan that are particularly friendly toward foreigners? Are there jobs available where you can speak English and be understood? I don't really want to live in Tokyo, but I am fine with Kyoto (<3), Osaka, etc. Do more rural areas have opportunities for foreigners? Because I'd love to live in Akita, which is where I studied abroad.
-What is the housing market like in Japan? (Not to buy, but to rent?) We need room for two cats. How does pricing work? Are all big cities expensive and small the way Tokyo is?
-Any tips for living in Japan as a foreigner?
-Have you ever moved to another country with pets? What is the process like, and how much did it cost? I heard Japan quarantines the pets for a while.
-We don't want to stay in Japan forever. Justin's work will probably have him working Stateside eventually. Any tips on putting a Japanese degree to use in the States? Or an English degree for that matter? (lol)
-Encouraging thoughts about making big changes (like switching your major) and steering your life into an entirely unforeseen direction?
It's fine if no one can really answer these questions. I am just throwing them out there to see if anyone has any advice. I don't really want to pester Maki about it, due to her condition, but I'd welcome her advice if she reads this. I know it seems like I'm jumping the gun, but I'm close to graduating, and I need a plan or else I will go crazy. Even if my plans change, they need to be there for me to have the motivation and momentum to make something out of my life. Changing my major was a huge leap of faith for me. I would love the comfort of a nice plan to prove that it was a good idea.
Thank you in advance!
Onaka ga suiteiru!
Oh also, Justin and I are planning on getting married before we move. So pretty much I feel like "Ahhh! All of a sudden my life is happening! What do I do?" >.<
The only bit I can possibly help with is the moving with pets. When I was young I lived in Texas, however I am actually Icelandic. So when I was about 10 we moved back to Iceland and we had a cat that I absolutely would not allow to be left behind. In fact, I'm pretty sure I asked that if I never again got a christmas present or a birthday present, could we take her home with us. My parents at that point were like, well, we can't leave the cat behind now...
However, it was quite difficult to get her home. For one thing, she had to be in quarantine in Iceland for 2 months, once she arrived there. But there was also a que to get into the quarantine area, so we actually had to leave her for several months in the states with family there, before they could ship her over to us.
We did have to fly her from Texas to Pennsylvania ourselves as that is where the family that looked after her for us were. We had a cage for here that could actually fit under an airline seat, so we could have her with us the whole flight.
Hope this helps a bit, you can start planning it ahead of time, not like we did ;) :P
Neither of you are married to a Japanese person nor are you likely to have jobs that come with pre-approved visas before arriving in Japan - which might mean you'd need to go on visitors' visas and hop over periodically to Korea to extend them.
Add to this the fact that your cats live in the USA in a region that will possibly have had a case of rabies in the past two years http://www.iatatravelcentre.com/JP-Japan-customs-currency-airport-tax-re... (information in link now out-dated, see Maki's contribution)
which means 6 months of quarantine for the cats in Japan.
It doesn't add up and I can't see how immigration will be OK with allowing you in on a visitors visa (where you effectively declare that you won't be visiting for more than 3 or 6 months) whilst you're also applying for long term quarantine.
Is Bolder, Colorado exempt from the quarantine conditions?
All the Americans I've known who brought pets to the UK had to have their animals in quarantine for 6 months - it cost a fortune and was very hard on pets and owners. The system in Japan seems similar to the one used in England (EDIT - the UK's status also changed on the 1st Jan 2012).
New Zealand has pretty strict quarantine conditions for animals of all sorts, and I think there is some scheme whereby you can, depending on where you are coming from, have your animals in a sort of house-arrest type of quarantine in an approved facility for the quarantine period before you leave. You can go and visit the animals during that time, and they can then travel at the same time you do and come out of quarantine when they arrive. It's a bit easier than the old fashioned strict no contact quarantine for months after arrival, but still not easy. It's a good portion of a cat's lifetime. Not really very fair on it.
My blog is Food and Shoes
The IATA page that Loretta pointed to seems to be out of date. As of January 1, the US is not one of the 'designated areas' that require a long quarantine period. Here is the official government page that details what you have to do for dogs and cats: http://www.maff.go.jp/aqs/english/animal/dog/import-other.html (in English). It seems that if you do the preliminary steps (vaccinations, microchip, blood test) your pets may only require a 12 hour quarantine. However, as Loretta said, you really need to be sure your human situation in Japan will be solid before even thinking about moving your pets along with you.
I would strongly suggest trying to line up jobs beforehand, even if it means both of you get English teaching jobs, at least initially. (ETA: an English teaching job can lead to other opportunities - and at least it gets you in the country legally, with a job.) Working illegally in Japan is really not a good idea. (Actually, it's not a good idea for the U.S. either.) If you somehow get caught you may never be allowed back in. That being said, it's certainly not impossible to find a job, even if you are not married to a Japanese citizen. Try perusing a site like http://www.gaijinpot.com/ for example to see what's out there.
As far as where to live - well, if you don't speak any Japanese at all, Tokyo or Yokohama would be the most low-stress places to be, but if you don't want to be in an urban area you can still get by with some very basic Japanese for a while. But again, many people move to Japan without a lot of Japanese knowledge and get teaching positions in small towns or rural areas and do OK. I guess it all depends on your sense of adventure, and willingness to learn and adapt.
The Big Onigiri.
- Wherever you go, there you are. -
We were both actually thinking of getting teaching jobs. I actually taught an English class as a Saturday baito while I was there studying abroad, so I know I like it. Of course, that will be through a program which, from my understanding, usually sets up your visas and such for you. We were definitely going to have everything set up--jobs and living situation and such--before we left for good. We would never work there illegally. If the quarantine thing for our cats is just a couple days, or even a couple of weeks, I'm okay with it, but 6 months like some other people are saying is so long!
Justin and I are not completely green in Japanese. By the time we are both graduated we'll have finished 6 semesters, and we were both in Japan for 4 months, during which our Japanese improved a lot. I can hold a decent conversation, direct taxis, etc. There is just a lot of vocabulary I haven't gotten around to learning. I have the basic structures of the language down though, and a lot of the phrases I picked up from my roommates and friends in Japan. But Justin is not as good as I am, though he can manage. I just want him to be able to get used to speaking Japanese before he's plunged into an all-Japanese speaking work environment. Even if it's just a part-time thing for a little bit. An English-teaching job might be best for him, too.
I should also add that I know you can get a job there without being a citizen, because Justin's brother lives and works in Kyoto for a video game company, and has been for the past 3 years or so. He's on a work visa.
Thanks Maki for picking up on the outdated link I submitted (I've also noted that any fantasies I might have had about owning a dog which could be brought to Japan will need to be revised now that the UK's status has changed).
The immediate problem seems to be on which visa you'll be entering on.
Generally you're required to enter Japan with a return ticket unless you have one of the following visas:
So even if you can satisfy the quarantine requirements and avoid a long spell of isolation for your cats, those cats will need to have return tickets also.
Now, plenty of people do bend the rules, they go to Japan without visas, find jobs which enable them to acquire visas, find ways of extending their stays, but almost all of these scenarios involve leaving Japan for short periods.
(here's a cautionary story showing what can happen when it all goes wrong http://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2012/01/japans-immigration-control note the part about the short sleepless visit to Seoul which gives a big clue about what kind of visa the man who called Tokyo 'home' actually had).
I discussed this with my Japanese born husband who returned to Japan to live for 5 years having attended school and University in the UK. He began by teaching English over the phone under a forced English pseudonym so as not to ruin the illusion that he was a handsome blue eyed blonde instructor. Then he got to leave and pursue his chosen career. Phone teaching seems to be a default option for those who want to work in Japan with faces and racial characteristics that don't fit into the accepted pigeonholes of the "genki gaijin" English teacher.
His view was that, outside of English teaching, opportunities to work solely in English tended to be in niches and industries with unsavory associations. In other words, the majority of those who work without having to use Japanese do so illegally, one way or another.
For the few legitimate roles available there is also a lot of competition as these are dream jobs for those in Japan on spouse visas. And there are enough people with this or a similar status for companies to recruit from this 'pot' without going through the tedious and expensive business of acquiring a visa. And also, there's no guarantee that if you do get a job and a visa is applied for that it will actually be granted (as happened to me when I hoped to be in Japan longer so I could support my then boyfriend through his mother's illness and bereavement).
My view is that you'll need to understand what is required to be able to move your cats there.
You'll also need to figure out a way of obtaining some kind of visa before you go.
Although many people just get flights to Japan and find jobs and opportunities once they are there, the cats will make many of the usual options difficult (having brought cats in would you be allowed to leave Japan for a visa extension trip without them? Who would be taking responsibility for them in your absence? What if you weren't allowed back into the country?)
What I mean is that the cats may force you to have to stick rigidly to the law regarding your immigration status. The reality is that a great deal of the people who arrived without appropriate visas in Japan have bent (if not actually broken) the regulations as far as they'll go in order to stay there.
The source of that Economist story (which is not actually a formal report they fact checked, just something that appeared on their blog) has been widely disputed for what it's worth. See http://www.japanprobe.com/2012/01/20/christopher-johnson-under-fire-for-...
The Japan probe article confirms my own suspicions about his visa status. A LOT of people seem to get away with extending stays that are made contrary to government advice and regulations and there's a lot in expat forums and websites with how to go about doing this with details about runs to and from neighbouring countries such as Korea and other techniques.
I don't trust Mr Johnson's account of what happened nor his explanations about why he was 'targetted', but I do believe that something along these lines did actually happen to him and it's worthwhile remembering this outcome when considering how far one wishes to bend the immigration laws.
Stay on the right side of the law and the story should remain completely irrelevant.
I commented on Quora about this a bit - I agree with you about the reasons why he was detained, if he indeed was ( http://www.quora.com/Japan/Are-there-any-reasons-to-believe-that-parts-o... )
In any case, you don't want to mess with things like visa status if you want to stay out of trouble - to keep it on topic ^_^ And this applies to *any* country.
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text:
Brown Announces Results of Operation Watchdog to Keep Tabs on Hundreds of Registered Sex Offenders in San Diego
SAN DIEGO -- Attorney General Edmund G. Brown, Jr. announced today the successful completion of "Operation Watchdog," an unprecedented law enforcement sweep to verify that 300 registered sex offenders in San Diego are obeying the law and living at the address they have reported to authorities. Nine arrests were made.
"Because of sex offenders' propensity to reoffend, keeping tabs on them is crucial to protecting the public," Brown said. "As in many things, the price of safety is constant vigilance, and my office is committed to providing that."
Led by David Collazo, a special agent supervisor in Brown's office, Operation Watchdog involved more than 100 state, federal and local law enforcement officers, who fanned out over San Diego County yesterday to check on more than 300 registered sex offenders. Five of the 26 task force teams took along specially trained dogs to check for illegal drugs and guns.
Some 4,600 registered sex offenders live in San Diego.
Sex offenders on probation or parole were searched. The others were questioned to make sure they were complying with all state laws, including living at the same address they provided to law enforcement authorities. Arrests were made for parole and probation violations and possession of drug paraphernalia and guns.
As Operation Watchdog began yesterday morning, the Attorney General visited the command center and was briefed. Besides its enforcement function, the Attorney General's office maintains a website at http://meganslaw.ca.gov/ that lists the locations of 63,000 sex offenders in the state, along with other pertinent information.
The SAFE (Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement) task force that conducted the operation was formed nearly a decade ago to reduce the number of sex crimes in San Diego County and apprehend the perpetrators of those crimes. SAFE assists in criminal investigations such as the case of convicted sex offender John Albert Gardner III, who was sentenced to life in prison earlier this year for the 2009 rape and murder of 14-year-old Amber Dubois and the February 2010 rape and murder of 17-year-old Chelsea King. Gardner had lied to authorities about his residence, listing Riverside County instead of San Diego.
Yesterday's sweep was the first such large-scale effort, although SAFE conducts hundreds of face-to-face interviews with sex offenders each year to make sure they are in compliance with the law.


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Nature's Art
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Find accommodations in Irvington with the hotel list provided below. Search for cheap and discounted hotel and motel rates in or close to Irvington, KY for your personal leisure or group travel. Discover the most popular Irvington, Kentucky hotel and motel rooms. Browse the Irvington area hotels to find the perfect lodging! Please use the provided map of the Irvington hotels.
The Irvington center is about 14 miles southwest of Squire Boone Caverns and 22 miles west of Knob Creek Gun Range.
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Dec 30 2016, 10:29 PM
UtterAccess Editor
Posts: 9,953
Joined: 7-December 09
From: Staten Island, NY, USA
Hi Jon - no fear, I have an explanation for everything
GetPendingUpdateCount()... given the context of this thread, no, I wouldn't expect anyone to know what it means - it means nothing on its own. It's just a name I pulled out of my head because I wrapped up a data sync feature this morning and the subject was near the surface. But... if you're working in a form that - say - is supposed to import data from an external source, and that external source data gets pulled into a staging table, and the form displays three top level metrics: number of pending updates, number of pending removals and number of pending additions... This is high level stuff, not code-level. That's what the form does, that's a primary task of this feature (that along with some detail info on what's getting imported, flagging rows as approved or not). Then, within the context of that form (e.g., you're working on that feature, you're programming in that code module), then GetPendingUpdateCount() would make much more sense. Given a context, the name shouldn't need any further explanation. Bear in mind that everything we do, everything we work on, is within some sort of context, and that context is generally very easy to get. While we're "in the thick of it" developing for that particular feature, we're hip deep in the context and "just know", just like that (insert snapping finger sound), exactly what GetPendingUpdateCount() means. In the most extreme case, let's pretend you just happen to land at that procedure by accident, without any context whatsoever. Even then, the basic context should be very easy to obtain, simply by looking at the name of the module. That'll at least give a rough idea of where you are, and if you just happen to be there by accident with no context and maybe it's a slight bit vague by looking at the module/form name... in that case, you're certainly not there to do any actual work anyway, so it really doesn't matter either way - you either have the map open or you don't, so to speak.
So no, the name GetPendingUpdateCount() doesn't mean anything within the context of this thread, but if you were to run into that "in the wild" (and if the rest of the code were well structured), the name should need no further information - especially if it happens to be sitting right between the GetPendingAdditionsCount() and GetPendingRemovalsCount() functions.
Very obvious in context, and I am purposely stressing the concept of context here because I think it's a fundamental concept that gets very little lip service but means very, very much in terms of how we "interact" with our codebase (more on this in a bit).
Let's switch to global variables. Personally, I hate them, don't ever use them, haven't in years. Why? They have no context. Because if I see a variable name that I don't recognize within the scope of my context, I have to break my train of thought and go find it. I hate that, because we're ridiculously more productive if our minds can work without breaking a smooth train of thought.
What to do instead? Put it in a property wrapper and call it via two-part naming. So simple, so effective. Instead of seeing glngCurrUserID (which, btw, my brain now needs to strip off the "glng" part and fill out "Curr" to "Current") - instead of seeing that, if I were to instead see Session.CurrentUserID, I have context. Right there, in two little programming words, I have the complete context of what this value is, where it's coming from, and - inherent to whatever "feature context" I'm working from, I will know how it will be used and applied. glngCurrUserID I have to think about - I have to stop my train of thought - even for half a second - and actually interpret it. Session.CurrentUserID is so obvious that I my train of thought doesn't even stumble (consider that difference in a whole procedure's worth of less-than-semantic-naming). Given how strongly I feel about such a little change, one might imagine what I think about having to go read a comment somewhere (at the source of the variable, I'm sure - a wooooorld away from where my mind is when I need, contextually speaking ).
I understand that Session.CurrentUserID is a pretty generic and obvious example, but this concept applies across the board and I'm at lack of a more obscure example to better demonstrate at the moment... sorry.
I mentioned two-part naming there. At the start of this thread I thought it might come down to the topic of naming conventions, and I was really trying to not to bring it there, but here we are anyway. Two part naming: ModuleName.ProcedureName. What does that possibly have to do with comments and/or lack thereof?
When you're in the zone, and you're working with a "zone-enabling-project", you're in the zone and the project is enabling that zone because you have what you need well laid out and it's easy to find and understand and so on and so forth. If a project treats you that well, it's probably got some really nice naming conventions in play. Primarily through it's naming conventions and code architecture/structure, it's enabled you to fall into a context and stay within that context completely: that's the foundation of the true "zone" - when you are so completely immersed within your context that you don't even have to think about it - AND - that there's no requirement to look outside of your context, because that breaks the whole zone-context-primeproduction thing. As soon as you have to leave your "zone context" to go get something else from outside, your zone context falls apart a little and is a little less stable when you try to get it back. Do it more than a little bit and it falls apart completely.
If I have to read a comment, I'm most likely being tossed out of my zone context because I have to stop "semantic-think" to read and understand it (where in most cases, I could have instead just let the context and conventions do their job and would have never had to look outside). If I have to go find the source of a global variable and read the comment there, I'm way gone from my zone and productivity can suffer significantly (or rather, I'm then working at the same level as most other people instead of where I'd really prefer to be).
So let's go back to global variables again. Consider this:
Let's pretend two things: 1) you know that App is a module whose purpose is to hold application settings and properties, and 2) you're "in the zone" working through this whatever, and you come across the variable name in code.
In the first case, a lone BEFilepath (with no local variable named accordingly) is apt to make me have to stop and think. Where's that from? It's a global, right? I should double check that, [censored] - now I have to leave my zone for a minute, and 40% of my "zone" is missing (if I can find it my BEfilepath def quickly - within a second or two) when I get back.
If I see App.BEFilepath, I can keep moving on because I know without having to think about it, exactly what it is. Those four little characters (App.) may very well have just saved me half an hour or more of "zone time" because I didn't have to go looking for the definition to confirm my suspicion about what it is (let alone find out what it's supposed to be).
So, if I have a comment, and I have to read it, it's even worse than the original BEFilepath. Again for lack of a better example, let's pretend we now have three things:
'Some comment that explains what this variable is
Now instead of going just from bad (BEFilepath) to good (App.BEFilepath), we're adding in a comment, which is even more stuff that takes me away from what I really want to be doing, so it's even worse than the original because I need to switch gears in my head to read about this variable.
Here's the bottom line: if I needed to read that comment, I've got issues elsewhere because the code doesn't support me. If I didn't need to read that comment...? The comment is garbage and should be removed.
This is all about various practices that come together to support a contextual mental environment in which we do our work. It's not just about comments (or not comments), but having comments is an indicator that other things could be in play that would negate the need for comments, and when all of these ridiculous, subtle things come together and we can work without comments in the code, we've reached a pretty phenomenal point in how well we can work and how the codebase actually supports us.
There's projects that I have where it's like I don't even have to think about anything. If I need to change something, I find my starting point and it's like jumping into a flowing river: I just ride the current until I see what I need. This is awesome. Then there's projects where I open it up and sigh and decide if I should refill my coffee before I have to start wading through this mess to find what I need. One of these two projects will inherently be much more saturated with comments than the other (as if the developer (read: me, years ago, likely) felt the need to make up for lack of excellent naming and structured code by putting bandaids over it with comments).
I actually wrote about naming conventions (specifically that two-part module naming that I mentioned) a while back, here: http://www.dymeng.com/techblog/module-naming/
This article goes into the cognitive side of programming and attempts to explain (with some levity) how subtly important it can be to implement these tiny little practices that can have profound differences in how we work with code.
Good lord I've gone on far enough with that... (I'll offer a slow clap here for anyone still bothering to read this)
Regarding segmented code... I do agree with you, and I think I probably wouldn't have segmented that particular chunk from Anders' snippet, but it is at the point where I'd give it a wary eye and think if I have to add much else to you, you're getting split up. The reason here goes back to context and how many things a person can carry in their heads at once (the link on Module Naming from above goes into the reasons - it's the same concept). And I don't necessarily think that the comments within that snippet are terrible and should be banished. If that's the extend of someone's overzealous use of comments (ha!), that's perfectly fine with me given how much better it is than what I usually see.
With that said, a fairly common recurring pattern for complex tasks is that there exists a module with a single public procedure, and that procedure's purpose is simple to call a number of other, smaller procedures in sequence to perform the ultimate task. Anders' code is beginning to shape into that pattern, but not to the point yet where I would feel any burning desire to refactor it accordingly.
And finally, regard shocks. I have no idea what a shock is. But... BUT! This is business-related knowledge, and as such I would expect that the explanation for this (in terms of business use) would be elsewhere than within the code that calculates it. I would also expect that, being a (likely) custom calculation of some sort, it would attempt to be handled at a single re-usable point within the codebase (in it's own context, dare I use the word again), and at that single point, I would find a comment explaining the technical aspect of the calculation to be acceptable. I would prefer to see a single line comment that says "refer to document X.Y.Z for detail", but with a lack of robust documentation, comments would be acceptable per my OCD on the matter. (and further note that I would expect that if I were in charge of this codebase, this is something I'd likely have to learn fairly quickly, and then I would know what a shock is and have no specific need for the comment anymore anyway - that'd be my guess based on other industry specific concepts, anyway - as long as there's a path to the knowledge: single line comments with links to reference get a thumbs up from me).
For the record, I just checked a few of my cleaner, greenfield VBA projects from the past few years (older projects do not apply ), and the comment percentages range from 12 to 28%. The greater majority of those comments are from drop-in modules (Lebans', for example, would often comment tons of stuff as documentation to other developers) and not really what I consider to be "working code" in the sense that they're things I'm apt to be programming in the middle of (one example, a class module for a message/notification builder to do the little OS/tray popup thing, has well over 50% comments). I'd guess that as far as code that I write that is not drop-in style "peripheral" code and that is specific to the core functionality of the application (and not counting the three visual indicator lines for my proc anatomy mentioned in a previous thread), I'm probably somewhere around 5% or less.
Dec 30 2016, 10:59 PM
UtterAccess Editor
Posts: 9,953
Joined: 7-December 09
From: Staten Island, NY, USA
It occurs to me that every time I'm writing code and I put go to put a comment in the body of that code, I stop and think wait, do I actually need a comment here?, and most times there's something else I can change that will negate the need for that comment.
Also, I tend to go through cycles. The initial code, up to the "working point" is generally commented. Then I refactor, and it's during that refactoring that I clean things up to the point where comments are no longer required (that's a good indication that the code is refactored sufficiently).
Also... some languages (namely SQL) tend to have a lot more comments. One of my major pet peeves about working with Access/JET/ACE SQL is that I'm unable to store comments in the query. This is mainly attributed to the fact that the language syntax doesn't allow for semantics as well as other languages though.
Dec 31 2016, 09:28 AM
Posts: 558
Joined: 26-May 15
From: The middle of Germany
(or, maybe just file this under Unpopular Opinions )
Quite to the contrary! Your comments made my heart sing. - And thumbs up to all of you contributing here. This is the most interesting thread Ive seen in any forum for quite a long time!
I strive for 0% comments and I guess my actual rate of comment lines is around the 3% mark. When I feel the need to write a comment, I usually feel I failed making my code readable and understandable enough without comments. However, sometimes I just cant figure out how to put that right.
The only valid reason for comments I allow myself is, when there is something quirky going on on the business side of the requirements, which I feel needs mentioning in the code, because otherwise the code will not be comprehensible.
Writing readable (without the need for comments) and solid code is the rationale behind my Better VBA video series, but it is still in its infancy, so there is probably not much of interest for you covered there yet.
I dont appreciate comments regarding who changed what, why, and when because I use source code control in all my projects and the who and when will be automatically tracked by SCC. The what can be easily deducted by comparing the previous version of the code with the current one using a diff tool. Only the why needs to be manually entered as check-in-comment. That comment is clearly linked to the actual version of the module and its state it applies to, so there will not be any obsolete comments lingering around from ancient times cluttering the code. - Small drawback: You need to look at the scc-history of the module to see this comment.
absence of reliable source control for Access
That is something I disagree with obviously. Among other musings about this topic there is this article on SCC for Access in which I mention several options. (Disclosure: one of them is my own commercial product)
They are all, including my own, not perfect yet. Still, I use SCC for Access my projects for more than 10 years now and I think it is absolutely worth the little extra effort.
IIRC I got some feedback from some of you already at other places. Still, Im very interested in reasons why you consider the existing solutions for SCC with Access to be insufficient. Especially the "not reliable" remark is something I have difficulties to comprehend.
Well, ok, enough of these shameless plugs ;-)
For VBA, testing frameworks are about as readily available as SCC tools (ok, even less so).
Well, there are some available, like AccUnit, which looks very promising, but I have not tried it yet.
I actually wrote my own tool for unit testing access projects years ago and used it in a couple of smaller projects. I wasnt really content with its handling and usability though and hence abandoned it a long time ago.
I recently used a modified version of accessUnit (sorry, German only) quite successfully in a bigger project. - I guess, I should publish my extensions to this tool some time. With those enhancements it is pretty usable, I think.
The main problem with automated testing and Access is not the availability of tools, but the fact that one of the core RAD features of Access is to directly glue the user interface to the database. - Unfortunately, both, UI and data, are very hard to test.
So you either have a very, very hard time to use automated tests with Access or you need to create a layer of intermediate logic between UI and DB that allows for easy testing. But in that process you lose, at least partially, one of the main advantages of using Access in the first place.
I wish you all a Happy New Year!
Dec 31 2016, 11:15 AM
UA Admin
Posts: 34,697
Joined: 20-June 02
From: Newcastle, WA
I think we're talking past one another to a certain extent.
If YOUR consulting business includes projects for large clients, or for your own organization, all of which have a budget for all of the tools you need, and all of the documentation you want, then it would be reasonable to obtain and use things like Source Control tools.
If you are taking on a $5,000 project with an existing Access application for a three person customer shop, it's hard to insist that they should provide those tools for you before you take the project. I'd rather take on such a project with some appropriate comments embedded, than fly in blind, but then, that's been my experience over the years. Or, perhaps, you can afford to turn away such work unless they agree to supply you with a budget for documentation and all the tools you want?
In other words, it is clearly a case, IMO, that one size does not fit all.
Having learned that you provide a source control tool, I guess we can consider that for future use. Thanks. Good to know that.
Dec 31 2016, 11:40 AM
Posts: 918
Joined: 26-January 14
From: London, UK
Hi George. Note that the most popular source control systems are free to use (Git, Subversion), so budget alone does not need to be the deciding factor.
Dec 31 2016, 11:49 AM
UA Admin
Posts: 34,697
Joined: 20-June 02
From: Newcastle, WA
That's a good point, too.
I've discussed various approaches to Source Control with clients over the years. Most of them who are not deeply involved in software development themselves tend to be reluctant to delve into it, though. And that's just a fact of life with smaller consulting clients.
I wonder, too, how well does Git handle Access? I use it with .net projects, but have never tried to do so with Access.
Dec 31 2016, 11:53 AM
UtterAccess Editor
Posts: 9,953
Joined: 7-December 09
From: Staten Island, NY, USA
Access is a terrible at being source controlled: the entire project is packaged into a single binary file, which is pretty much useless as far as source control goes.
Sure, you can check in the whole file and keep some historic notes on it, but that's about the best you'll get out of SCC for Access.
I've spend a lot of hours writing a utility to split an Access project to completely text-based files for better source control (and to rebuild a project from said files, which ultimately supports parallel development on Access). It's not a fun task in the least bit.
Jan 2 2017, 05:01 AM
Posts: 4,030
Joined: 19-October 10
Hi guys,
Happy New Year!!
So to continue this conversation. I fully agree that when you fully understand an application and the naming conventions are awesome and the code well written comments aren't really needed too much. However, put yourself in the context of having an application you have never touched before develops an error, the person who wrote the application has left and no-one knows how it works and they want you to fix it.
I have a few choices,
1. Learn the tool, spend a few hours reading the supporting documentation about what the tool does to become familiar with it, then try to look at the code and use the context I've now learned to understand the code. The problem with this is that I now have to spend hours learning context and even then, the context might not help if the code is badly written with poor naming conventions, in the real life example it is written badly so likely all my context research will be of limited use and I'll still need to go to option 2.
2. Step through the code line by line and work out what each of it is doing. Now this is also learning the context but in a different way, rather than reading external documentation I read procedures, work out what they do and slowly build my context.
3. Read code comments, with the kind of error handling I insist on I can narrow down errors to the specific procedure and line, comments can give me the context of what that procedure is supposed to do and combined with a useful error message I can sometimes narrow down the issue instantly and resolve it. I can then forget about this tool and never waste time learning the context of a tool that is badly designed and really something I don't want to be a part of because the more I see of it the more I'd want to correct it.
In the ideal world, where quality is assured your approach makes sense and is great. Unfortunately I have to work either with developers who are less skilled and wouldn't understand some of the code written or write bad code themselves which I then need to understand.
In terms of external documentation aswell, in my experience its been very easy to let that get out of date versus code comments. With code comments you can change them in the moment as the code changes, external documents often are an afterthought and go out of sync. I like my external documentation to explain the purpose of a tool and any important business concepts and include a userguide. The code then deals with the specifics of any particular task.
I have found this method to be effective. It perhaps also depends on how you scan code, I look out for the green lines and can skip down filtering out the code lines unless I am at a chunk that is relevant. It sounds like you find the green lines distracting? I guess you could always change the font colors in a commented project so they match the background!!!
Jan 2 2017, 09:43 AM
UtterAccess Editor
Posts: 9,953
Joined: 7-December 09
From: Staten Island, NY, USA
We agree on some points
For a good project, comments should generally not be required. This makes the assumption that there's a higher level documentation system and that the developer has been at least lightly briefed on the task with sufficient background information for the task. With a well managed project, a developer should not start working with actual code until the context programming task - including why and how (at a slightly higher-than-code level) - are fully established. This should come from somewhere other than the code itself: good documentation, good prepping of the developer to the task on hand.
This of course is in a perfect world, and while it would be nice that all projects are like this, it's certainly not the case in the real world.
To get off topic a hair: the level of failed software projects in our industry is insane. Depending on which reports you read, you can pull numbers such as 65% of all software/IT undertakes are ultimately considered failures (I've actually seen some reports cite numbers in the 70% range)... this is crazy to me: imagine any other industry with such a terrible rate of success... imagine 50% of construction projects as failures (and don't worry about that elevator going up to the 99th floor!). The reasons for these dismal rates are many, but a very large portion of that stems from project management and communication: relatively little of it is in software construction itself (where it is in software construction, it tends to be spread among the maintainability and extensibility aspects (and to a somewhat lesser degree, scalability)).
In any case, given an industry where more than half of project undertakings are failures, it's reasonable (though not heartwarming) to imagine that out of the successful ones, painfully few enough are actually, really GOOD projects.
So, the amount of times that I can rely on things being in place well enough for me not to have to rely on code comments is not very high. (I tend to wonder how many developers have worked through their career without having actually been on a superb project)
With that said, I'll happily agree that given a less-than-stellar project, code comments can be of use for the various reasons described throughout the thread.
I do, however, feel that we should set our goals to perfection and work to achieve that, as opposed to using less-than-best practices and calling it good (granted, "perfection" is extremely difficult to obtain and can take years of personal process defining, while during that meantime we may well have to use less than best practices or accept less than perfect results, which is fine, as long as we're knowing and working towards improving towards that end goal). This is my drive when I make statements such as "comments are bad". Not that we should never have to deal with them and not that it shouldn't be part of our day in day out stuff as programmers (and not even that they aren't helpful), but that we should be striving to reach a level of mastery of our craft that allows us to get away from them.
(In a thread a few months back (I think), we (Jon and I) and another member had a similar style discussion concerning querying/reporting where I made a controversial statement along the lines of "you should never have to ______ (whatever _____ was, I don't recall anymore), and this was very much the same thing... like comments: it's out there, we have to deal with it, but it should be our end-goal to have such a system where we don't have to deal with it anymore, because at that point we've reached the apex of true software development quality).
In the meantime, comments can help get the job done
(and Happy New Year to all as well!)
Jan 3 2017, 03:15 PM
Posts: 558
Joined: 26-May 15
From: The middle of Germany
If YOUR consulting business includes projects for large clients, or for your own organization, all of which have a budget for all of the tools you need, and all of the documentation you want, then it would be reasonable to obtain and use things like Source Control tools.
If you are taking on a $5,000 project with an existing Access application for a three person customer shop, it's hard to insist that they should provide those tools for you before you take the project.
I've discussed various approaches to Source Control with clients over the years. Most of them who are not deeply involved in software development themselves tend to be reluctant to delve into it, though. And that's just a fact of life with smaller consulting clients.
George, thank you very much for these comments. Looking at your objections per se they are sensible, valid, and a strong argument against SCC in smaller projects.
However, I use a totally different approach to introduce source code control at my clients and, if I havent misunderstood the objections, this approach might weaken their argument.
When I started to write this answer earlier, it got pretty long, so I turned it into a blog post. I reduced my answer here to a shorter summary:
I do not talk to clients about source code control at all. (Unless they got developers employed themselves, who are going to work with me on the project at hand.)
Ive got all the required tools licensed to my name. So I do not need to discuss licensing with the client. If I work on a project from my office then the client will never be in contact with SCC in any way.
If Im required to work at the clients location I only request permission to install local/client tools on their dev computer and to access my (SCC)-server via the internet. Most source code control systems can have their backend installed in the cloud. So there is no need for installation of the full system at the clients site.
Now, lets look at actual cost.
I use Sourcegear Vault for version control. Assuming you are a small dev shop with 5 users, the initial licensing cost of Vault will set you back $1,700 with another $450 on top for a 5 user Ivercy license. Sure, if you now look at the profit from a $5,000 project, the cost of using SCC is ridiculous.
But its you, the dev shop licensing the SCC software. You will have another project and another after that. If you break down the cost over a longer time youll arrive at a price of ~$10 per user per month, even if you pay for (optional!) support and upgrades for both products.
There are other source code control systems around like MS TFS Express Edition or the already mentioned Subversion and Git, which are available free of charge. For Access integration there are some open source tools available as well or, as Jack mentioned, you can roll your own.
So, you can use SCC without spending a penny.
There is one very valid point in your objections, which I overlooked until now.
If you are responsible for the project long term and/or you do not care much about the time after, then all the above is IMO a valid argument for rather using SCC instead of including history-information in the comments.
But, if you care for the maintainability of the project after you left it, you might be right involving the client more into the process.
Unfortunately there is no usable data-exchange format for SCC-History between different SCC-Systems. So if you are using your own SCC-System and deliver only the completed solution to the client, as I suggested, the client will not have the history of the project available. Any developer working on that later will have to do so without it.
Is this a valid reason to not use SCC? - No, I dont think so. The benefits of source code control are still overwhelming in my opinion.
Is it a reason to include more comments in your code? - Maybe yes. A good solution in my view would be some tool that automatically includes information from the scc-system into the code comments, to hand over that version of the code to the client. (In addition to the lean version.)
Jan 4 2017, 12:00 PM
UtterAccess Editor
Posts: 9,953
Joined: 7-December 09
From: Staten Island, NY, USA
Source control is one of those things where if you're self-taught or hadn't used it to start, you start using it and wonder how you ever managed to live without it. It's the single best non-programming programming practice ever to come about, IMO, and I couldn't imagine doing a project without it. And aside from the initial learning curve, it costs near to zero overhead to implement into your standard process (in fact, due to the inherent backups it makes, I might even argue that it saves you time from a non-source controlled method). In services: git is free, github is free for public use and bitbucket is free for private repositories up to X users or so. The only thing you have to invest is the time to learn the basics and settle into a good git workflow.
Except for Access, that is.
Access has never been well-controlled in terms of source control. The official solutions that there used to be are dropped, and 3rd party/open source solutions either don't cover everything they should, or they don't cover older versions, or there's some other issue with them that makes them less-than-idea to use (even the good ones feel like trying to pin a flower on a bear, at least compared to real source control). Phil has his own that he sells as a product (though I much prefer a CLI-base without cluttering up the UI). I've rolled my own, but it requires a lot of configuration depending on version and various characteristics of the project and doesn't have support for older versions without putting more time into it.
I know very few people who routinely use source control with Access. On the flip side, I know very few people who don't use source control outside of Access.
Oh well, that's how it goes...
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Verification & Validation of Models and Analyses
29 - 30 April 2015, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
V&V Course Description (pdf)
Engineering simulation plays an increasing role in industry's search for competitiveness and technology based innovation at any stage of the design, qualification and certification of their products. Key decisions and product qualification/certification increasingly rely on virtual tests and digital simulation, creating a major paradigm shift in which the objective of physical tests is progressively moving from a demonstration of compliance to a reference for analysis validation. This trend in industry is shown through adoption of new terms such as « realistic simulation » and « virtual testing ». This situation creates new responsibility for the engineer to guarantee the required confidence level.
This new approach requires secured processes for the verification and validation of models and analyses bringing evidence of their predictive capability. In particular, programme managers now require formal evidence on "simulation fit for purpose" on which they can build confidence and take decisions. In addition, the increasing situation for extended enterprise creates new constraints to guarantee safe and robust analysis processes.
At the same time, and due to the economic pressure, V&V activities are frequently seen as an additional cost that can easily be reduced and even fully cut, thus underestimating the induced risks. In addition, V&V is not easy to implement because of the diversity of involved persons: managers, simulation experts, test specialists, software developers and quality controllers, software vendors…
Course objectives and benefits
This Master Class is especially dedicated to V&V methodologies for numerical simulation in Engineering. Participants will:
- Develop their knowledge in V&V including fundamental concepts, most recent methodologies and contents of existing standards.
- Understand essential links between the product validation/certification and simulation V&V.
- Learn how to plan and prioritize simulation V&V including physical tests programs.
- Understand validation test issues and improve synergy between virtual and physical tests in the context of validation.
- Learn how to build business cases allowing for justification of V&V plans.
- Understand simulation V&V organisation and management issues and best practices
- Learn how to implement reporting to bring visibility and confidence to all managers concerned with simulation outcomes.
- Be able to adapt or tailor the course methodologies to their specific industrial context, and further improve their V&V processes and plans.
Who should attend?
- Primarily, engineers and senior analysts in charge of simulation activities or preparing to take new responsibility in the management of simulation, especially with regard to V&V responsibility
- Managers in charge of engineering simulation teams and willing to improve their knowledge in V&V and in the relevant processes
- And also programme/project managers who need to make critical decisions based on engineering simulation results and wish to increase their understanding and visibility of the required V&V activities
Participants should have a few years of experience in engineering simulation for the design and development of industrial products.
Course context
All industry sectors confronted with numerical simulation V&V are concerned with this course. It is established on the solid knowledge of the tutors and the vision they have developed from their rich industrial experience, mainly within the aerospace and nuclear energy sectors and is primarily illustrated by FEA/Structure Analysis examples. The course is therefore of greatest interest to engineers involved in this technical domain, but will also appeal to engineers from other simulation domains because most of the V&V methodologies which are presented are generic in nature.
The course is neutral and independent of any particular software solution.
We limit the number of participants to a small group to facilitate dialog and exchanges between participants.
2 day Master Class Program
1. Introduction
- Industrial context and stakes
- Scope of numerical simulation in engineering
- Simulation in the product lifecycle
2. Validation, qualification & certification of industrial products
- Fundamentals on product V&V, qualification and certification
- Validation in Systems Engineering, hierarchical validation approach
- Introduction to new technologies and TRL
- Regulations and certification in aeronautics
3. V&V and simulation management
- Present context: PLM, SDM, CAD/CAE…
- Introduction to simulation capability management
- Simulation V&V and competence management
- Scope and complexity of simulation management
4. V&V fundamentals and Standards
- Fundamentals
− Verification
− Validation and uncertainty quantification
− Predictive maturity
− V&V processes
- Standards
− Short history of standardization in V&V
− Main standards: ASME, AIAA, NASA…
5. Code verification
- Error typology
- Verification of algorithms
- Quality assurance for software: methodologies for SW development, regression tests, exact and manufactured solutions…
6. Verification of analyses
- A priori verifications: formal aspects, check-lists.
- A posteriori verifications: space and time discretization errors, improvement of results.
- Example of verification check-list
7. Validation and simulation / test synergy
- Validation process and hierarchical planning
- Simulation / testing collaboration
− Specificities and difficulties of validation tests
− Prerequisites for successful validation tests
− Test uncertainties
- Accuracy assessment: deterministic and statistical validation metrics…
- Predictive capability in the application domain: main attributes and how to assess it?
- Industrial examples
8. Realistic Simulation
- HPC infrastructure trends: new architectures.
- New discretization techniques
- Solver improvements, multi-physics, multi-scale, optimization…
- Realistic visualization: issues and benefits.
- Impact on V&V plans
9. Simulation Uncertainty Quantification (UQ)
- Typology: random, epistemic uncertainties
- Maturity of existing uncertainty quantification methodologies: Monte Carlo, Latin hypercube, response surfaces, polynomial chaos, "Lack of knowledge" theory, theory of evidence…
- Sensitivity analysis, robustness (key parameters identification…)
- Academic and industrial examples, methodologies and tools
- UQ best practises
10. V&V Implementation strategies
- Responsibilities of V&V process actors
- Implementation issues and obstacles
- Industrial justification: V&V business case, costs, benefits…
- Best practises: planning and prioritization, reporting to programme management, organization.
11. Simulation V&V in the nuclear energy sector:
regulations, V&V processes
12. Course outcomes and conclusion
Event Type: Course
Location: Amsterdam The Netherlands
Date: April 29, 2015
NH Amsterdam Barbizon Palace
Prins Hendrikkade, 59-72,
1012AD Amsterdam - Niederlande
Hotel Accommodation
We have blocked rooms at a discounted rate for course delegates until 24 March.
For reservation please contact the hotel at tel: +800 0115 0116, e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com or use the booking link below. Please refer to your booking with the following keyword: "NAFEMS". Accommodation costs are not included in course fees.
Please book your hotel room by yourself using following here.
Standard room:
April 28th 2015: € 159,- per room per night April
29th 2015: € 143,- per room per night City tax: 5% of the room rate per room, per night (included in the rate shown on the web link)
*Please note that breakfast (€ 24,90 per person per day) is not included in the rate mentioned above.
Course Fee
Non NAFEMS members:
1.950 Euro / person*
NAFEMS member:
1.560 Euro / person*
Proceedings, lunch, coffee breaks and certificate included.
* plus VAT if applicable.
Course Duration
Both days 9:00 - 17:00
In-house Course
This course can be booked as in-house course. Please request a quote.
Cancellation Policy
Up to 3 weeks before course starts:
free of charge;
up to one week before: 50 %;
later and no show: 100 %.
Cancellation of a seminar
If not enough participants we keep the right to cancel the course one week before. The course can be canceled also in case of disease of the speakers or force majeure. In these cases the course fees will be returned.
Organisation / Contact
Deutschland, Österreich, Schweiz GmbH
Osterham 23, D-83233 Bernau am Chiemsee
Tel. +49 (0) 80 51 - 96 59 3 49,
Fax +49 (0) 80 51 - 96 74 3 37
e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
This course is tutored by Jean-Francois IMBERT and Philippe PASQUET, high-level simulation professionals both benefiting from a long academic and industrial experience gained from leading companies. Their skills extend from numerical methods to solving industrial problems, especially in aerospace and nuclear area, and to analysis management. V&V is one their key expertise, reason for which they have been asked for help by major European companies. They are recognized as ones of the leading figures in the engineering analysis community in France.
Jean-François IMBERT
Jean-Francois IMBERT has 40+ years experience in Structures Engineering, CAE/ numerical simulation, mostly in the aeronautical and aerospace sectors where he exercised both operational, expert and management responsibilities. All along his career, he ensured the development and implementation of innovative numerical simulation capabilities in industrial contexts, mostly in Structure Analysis. In his successive responsibilities, he accumulated a unique and broad experience in simulation management and the multiple features of V&V, including validation tests and analysis /test synergy. Furthermore he has a long practice of engineering education both in academic institutions and professional seminars.
Philippe PASQUET
With 40+ years of dense experience in engineering simulation, Philippe Pasquet has covered the full range of technical responsibility in this domain, both with research institutes and various consulting firms and software houses: development of software, development of methods, advanced studies, team management, scientific and technical management … Powered by his passion for pedagogy and simulation technology, he gives since many years conferences and talks at high level towards efficient use and good practices of simulation in the industry, motivating students and engineers for those fascinating engineering simulation Jobs.


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BFG Tech NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS OC 320MB Review
A new lower priced 8800
Since the launch of the GeForce 8800 line by NVIDIA in November of last year, it has been sitting on the performance crown quite comfortably with both the GTX and GTS models beating out the very top of the competing ATI graphics cards. But with the 8800 GTS cards selling for at least $390 for even the cheapest models, there is a noticeable gap in features and performance in the NVIDIA product lineup. NVIDIA is attempting to address this very gap with the new 320MB model of the 8800 GTS that features an expected MSRP of $299-329. Even better? This card is available today from several board vendors in both reference and overclocked speeds!
NVIDIA's new 8800 GTS 320MB
The new GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB card has identical specifications to the existing GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB card, but with half the memory. Doesn't get more cut and dry. For those interested in the quick refresher, here is some info about the 8800 GTS card compared to the 8800 GTX flagship card from our previous 8800 GTS review:
Note: the new 8800 GTS 320MB models only have 320MB of memory, not 640MB as shown in this slide
The 8800 GTS sports a 500 MHz core clock and 1.2 GHz shader processor clock on 96 SPs. In comparison to the GTX model, which has 128 SPs running at 1.35 GHz and a 575 MHz core clock, the GTS is definitely a step down in speed, but users looking for a price to performance metric in their range are probably still going to be pleased. The memory system runs at 800 MHz with
640MB 320MB of GDDR3; the 8800 GTS features one fewer ROP which converts to a 320-bit wide memory bus. Just as we saw in the 384-bit wide 768MB configuration on the 8800 GTX, the numbers are a bit odd compared to the usual standards, but in almost all cases, more memory is better.
The card still supports dual dual-link DVI output and HDTV output as well. HDCP support is included on the GPU as well but the board vendors are required to implement a seperate CryptoROM for full support -- luckily for us BFG has included it!


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BEAUTY OP-ED | French women and skincare
I read so much stuff online that my eyes start to cross by the end of the day. Today I found a fun little bit of copy about the differences between French women and American women when it comes to their respective attitudes towards beauty and skincare.
Thought I'd share.
Sure, we're all individuals and generalizations are, on such a level (French vs. American, etc.), often wildly off base. But... but... macro-trends exist or we wouldn't hire consultants and marketing strategists to figure out how to position products and brands in a market, would we? And those (macro) markets are AMERICA and FRANCE, for example, as a whole, not, say, individual zip codes. So, via a meandering explanation, I bring you a few seconds of very-general-but-probably-somewhat-true French beauty voyeurism:
"According to WWD, Estee Lauder found European women to be "active and pragmatic":
'She considers aging as a natural process and doesn't identify a specific problem linked to her skin," said Raffaella Cornaggia, [Estee Lauder's regional marketing director]. "She is not obsessed by beauty or by wrinkles. However, when she begins to notice certain changes in her skin, she wishes to delay them. She favors simplicity in her skin care, as well. In short, she seeks a complete solution.'
The comment about a complete solution in one product reminded me of an interview with a New York dermatologist that I read. (Probably in The New York Times.) The doctor said she requested the new patient to bring in the skin care products she was currently using. The new patient arrived at the doctor's office toting 43 different products. Chic French women are known for having a variety of skin care products. But they would be unlikely to have 43. With their small living quarters and often antiquated bathrooms with little storage, a complete solution product in one jar is very compelling. And French women like keeping chic simple."
[via Anne Barone]
Another writer who does a very sweet job of comparing the way New York vs. Parisian women, in particular, compare is Garance Dore. Her blog post on New York Skinny vs. Paris Skinny is a must-read for those who exist or circulate within those particular microcosms or have a fascination with either/both of them (*cough* raises her hand).
How many products do you use a day? Do you fall into the French or American camp when it comes to views on beauty and contents of your bathroom cabinet?