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Microsoft released a study (PDF) today placing the Windows server System up against SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES). The study, conducted by Herbert Thompson of Security Innovations Inc., was paid for by Microsoft. As might be expected, almost every result from the experiment favored Microsoft, but readers were warned that the study was ultimately inconclusive due to sample size.
The sample, although too small to provide conclusive statistical comparisons, illustrates the methodology and begins to shed light on some key model differences between the platforms. A welcomed next step would be a more expansive study based on this foundational methodology with a larger sample size, additional business requirement scenarios and that looks at a wide array of platforms.
The one-year study consisted of upgrading and administrating SLES 8 and Windows Server 2000 in an e-commerce scenario. By the end of the study, the Linux system was upgraded to SLES 9 and the Microsoft system was running Windows Server 2003. Each operating system was administered by three seasoned veterans of their respective operating systems. The patching and upgrading process was conducted through the application of monthly patches with business requirement upgrades every three months.
We found that measuring reliability in a meaningful way meant understanding solution availability as systems change over time with patches and updates, new business requirements, and other environmental changes. It became clear that the key to managing reliability was to choose platforms and applications that enabled IT to be efficient and facilitated a simpler environment over time.
Each system administrator's goal was to patch and update his system without compromising security. Valid patches were ones received directly from the vendor, or from a verified third-party vendor. If a system administrator used software not directly authenticated by the vendor, then his system was marked as unsupported, which emitted a negative mark.
The results of the experiment showed that Windows had fewer dependency failures, took less time to update, had fewer patches and had zero compatibility issues. Each Windows administrator completed every task on time. The only major issue that Windows faced was frequent reboots, which was partially offset by batch updating. The rest of the issues found in the Windows Server System were minor, such as resetting database table types and configuration issues with port numbers.
As one might expect, the Linux system did not even come close to stacking up to Windows Server. The "granularity and high modularity of Linux" led each administrator down a different path when issues occurred due to the ambiguity of the problem. The Linux administrators were also portrayed as being confused when updates needed to be found, and at one point, a system was rendered useless by a GLIBC upgrade that went awry. On a positive note, once the SUSE server was upgraded to version 9, everything went back to a state of normal operation.
Overall, the study displays Microsoft as king of the server hill. The 49-page study (which I managed to read in its entirety), although claiming to be unbiased, reads like a huge piece of Microsoft propaganda. The Linux administrators were portrayed as lab monkeys at certain points, whereas the Microsoft administrators came off as drones that just went out to Windows Update for all their system needs. It's very difficult to read this study without believing that an obvious bias was in place.


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Returns & Refunds
Unfortunately we do not currently offer online or store exchanges for online orders. We can however help facilitate the re-ordering process of an item in a different size (excluding SALE items when the SALE has ended). If you think that you have purchased the wrong size and wish to exchange your item, please contact us on the chat, via email at email@example.com or on 0845 076 5545 and we will walk you through the return & re-ordering process.
Standard Returns Policy:ONLINE ORDERS CANNOT BE RETURNED TO A BOUTIQUE AND MUST BE SHIPPED BACK TO US FOLLOWING THE BELLOW INSTRUCTIONS:
You have a right to cancel your order without having to give a reason at any time before your goods are dispatched or within 14 days after delivery, such 14 day period beginning on the day after you receive the goods. Where your order comprises multiple delivery shipments, the 14 days cancellation period for the goods in your order begins on the day after you receive the delivery of the last shipment to you.
You may cancel your order free of charge by returning the item to us following the below return instructions:
1. Return your order via DPD by taking your parcel to a DPD Pickup shop. To find your nearest DPD* pickup shop visit http://www.pickup.fr/pudo/finder.sls or contact us on (0207) 078 3777 or firstname.lastname@example.com
2. Please avoid damages to and soiling of the products
3. If possible, please return the products and their accessories in their original packaging. When you don't have the original packaging anymore, please make sure that the packaging is appropriate to avoid damages during transport.
4. Please fill in the return slip that accompanied your goods. In case you lost your return slip, download it here or please contact Customer Services.
5. If you are re-using the parcel which you receive your products in, please remove the original shipping label then put the pre-paid Returns Label on the return parcel. We have sent this Returns Label together with your goods. If you have lost this Returns Label, please contact us on (0207) 078 3777 or firstname.lastname@example.com to receive a new copy.
Please note that the aforementioned cancellation procedure, which is free of charge, is not obliged. You can also use the Model withdraw form and send this together with the goods to:
Van de Velde nv
Department E-commerce Rigby & Peller UK
Lageweg 4
9260 Schellebelle
e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
In this case the return is at your expense.
If you are cancelling because of any problems with the goods, please notify us of the problem at the time of cancellation.
Following cancellation we will refund you the price paid for the cancelled order (or part of the ordered cancelled) less any collection or return charges (if any). We will also refund any standard delivery charges paid, or any amount equal to those charges if you choose to elect a more expensive delivery charge.
Your returned parcel can take up to 7 days to reach us. Once received, you will be sent a confirmation email and your refund will be processed within 48 hours.
We will refund you once your return has been processed and not later than 14 days upon receipt of your return, provided your return has been accepted. We will refund you using the same method of payment as you used to pay for your order. We reserve the right to make a deduction from the amount of the refund for loss in value of the goods returned where the goods show signs of unreasonable use. For these products unreasonable use means handling the goods beyond what is reasonable to establish the nature, characteristics and functioning of the goods, in particular if it goes beyond the sort of handling that might reasonably be allowed in a shop. We may withhold any refund until we have received the goods or you have supplied proof of return for the goods. If at the time of purchase you received a discount on the full order, this discount is divided amongst the different articles pro rata the purchase price. If you return this order (partially), also the discount (partially) shall be taken into account and actual amount paid shall be refunded.
Without limiting your cancellation rights as set out above, if you are not satisfied with a product for any reason e.g. if it is not what you ordered, it is damaged or defective, or we have delivered an incorrect quantity, please return the product to us. Once we have confirmed the product defect or other problem, we will:
° Provide a full refund for any product that is not what you ordered;
° Provide a full refund for any goods that are damaged or defective, if this is within a reasonable time following the sale; or
° At your option, repair or replace the goods at our cost (including the cost of postage) unless this would not be possible or would be disproportionally costly in the circumstances in which case we will refund to you the amount of paid for the goods in question.
We will notify you of your refund via e-mail within a reasonable period of time. We will usually process the refund due to you as soon as possible and, in any case, within 30 days of the day we confirmed you via e-mail that you were entitled to a refund for defective goods.
In case you paid via credit card, we will refund you using the same method originally used by you to pay for your purchase. In any case please provide us with your bank details: should we be unable to refund you on your used payment method, we will refund you on your bank account. If at the time of purchase you received a discount on the full order, this discount is divided amongst the different articles pro rata the purchase price. If you return this order (partially), also the discount (partially) shall be taken into account and actual amount paid shall be refunded.
If you paid for your order with an eVoucher, you will be contacted by customer services so that you can be issued with a new eVoucher.

subset: commoncrawl


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Welcome to the Boosey & Hawkes sales site for North and South America.
Boosey & Hawkes publications are exclusively distributed by Hal Leonard Corporation for the USA, Canada, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand. For sales in Australia and New Zealand please visit www.halleonard.com.au. For sales in all other territories, including Europe and Asia, please visit www.boosey.com/shop.
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Your Nagging Husband Can Save Your Life, Can the Same Thing Be Said For a Nagging Wife?
We've all heard the horror stories about the guy with the nagging wife. Yes it's true ladies, believe it or not, there are a few of you out there that like to nag. Some of you could even make a comfortable living nagging if given the opportunity.
Now I know most women will probably justify the nagging by saying their man needs or deserves to be nagged. It's for his own good.
I guess the same can be said for men too. I've never met a nagging man before, but I know they definitely exist.
Well check this out ladies, if you do have a nagging man in your life, you should consider yourself lucky.That's right, I said you're lucky!
There's now a new study out of Oxford University in London that has found having a nagging husband can actually save your life. Women with nagging husbands are 28% less likely to die from heart disease.
Married women have just as much of a chance of developing heart disease as unmarried women. The big difference however is the nagging husband. If you have one, you're more likely to survive it.
It appears you need that nag of a husband to constantly remind you to go to the doctor when something doesn't feel quite right, to take your medicine, to avoid foods your doctor has told you to avoid and so on and so forth.
Believe it or not, having that annoying husband significantly increases your chances of living longer.
Now the question becomes, does the same thing apply if you have a nagging wife?
Somehow I don't see having someone nag at you for leaving crumbs on the counter after you make a sandwich as adding years to your life, but I could be wrong.
Might be time for another study?


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After two days in the cavernous Prowein exhibition halls in Dusseldorf, I am left with a set of varied impressions.
First, the mood is much, much less gloomy than the one I encountered at tastings in London last week. The UK wine trade is suffering from the triple whammy of a) being arguably the worst-affected recession victim, b) having a currency that buys 20% less European wine than it did a year ago and c) facing a fresh duty hike in a few weeks time.
Second, there´s Bordeaux. The Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux ran a tasting here on Sunday and then headed home to ready themselves for the annual en primeur circus. If the buzz here is anything to go by, attendance will be thinner than usual - I´m certainly not going - and unless 08 prices plummet, there won´t be any buying. Several negociants are reported to be on the point of collapse and producers are openly suggesting that way Bordeaux sells its wines will have to change. As the always perceptive Thibaut Despagne said "we´re seeing the end of a 30 year era".
The busiest areas of the fair are the German halls (especially the VDP) which is not surprising, and the Austrians who have just overtaken Australia in their exports to Germany.
The Australian stands are not the cheeriest, and, according to visiting Aussie drinks writer James Wells, there´s much grumbling about the closure of the Wines of Australia European office. Sales to Germany are dropping and there is a feeling that Europe is being abandoned in favour of Asia. But since Aussie sales are growing fast there, maybe the Aussie powers-that-be feel justified in their decision to shift focus.
There´s much talk of lower alcohol wine, but no great evidence. Indeed, there are plenty of 14% plus German wines on show...
Next stops for at least some of this travelling circus are London for the London Wine Trade Fair in May and Bordeaux for the Vinexpo Fair in June. Rumours abound about the latter event which is said to have contracted from two halls to one...
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
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Testimony Before the President's Council on Bioethics: Protecting Patients' Rights
Proposed HHS regulations seek to protect provider conscience -- at the expense of patient access to care. Testimony submitted to the President's Council on Bioethics examines the harmful ramifications these regulations could have.
Editor's Note: The following is excerpted from written testimony submitted by Lois Uttley, director of the MergerWatch Project, to the President's Council on Bioethics, which is meeting Thursday and Friday of this week. Lois's testimony concerns the harmful implications of proposed Dept. of Health and Human Services regulations regarding provider conscience, and puts forward alternative regulations that would protect patients' conscience and access to care.
Recently, a great deal of public attention and public policy
has been focused on protecting the religious and ethical beliefs of health
providers. As your council discusses this issue, I urge you to consider another
imperative – protecting the rights of patients to receive accurate medical information
and needed treatment in a timely manner. In a pluralistic society such as we
have in the United States,
public policy must carefully balance the needs and rights of all affected parties.
Let's use an example to make this discussion very concrete:
A 19-year-old rape victim – let's call her Sally
— is brought to a hospital emergency department by the police. The physician
who treats her numerous injuries – Let's call him Dr. Brown — omits any
mention of the potential to prevent pregnancy from the rape by using emergency
contraception, because he does not approve of it for religious reasons. Many
hours later, Sally leaves the hospital without being informed about emergency
contraception, or offered the medication. A friend takes her back to the
college dorm where they live and Sally, exhausted, falls asleep for 24 hours. Because emergency contraception is the most effective
when taken shortly after unprotected intercourse, Sally's opportunity to
prevent pregnancy has now been greatly diminished.
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What has just happened? Is this proper medical care? What
are Sally's rights? What are Dr. Brown's? And, how should they be properly
The patient's rights
Let's start with Sally. After all, the patient is supposed to be the focus of what the health professions now refer to as "patient-centered care." According to the Institute of Medicine, "patient-centered care is defined as health care that establishes a partnership among practitioners, patients and their families (when appropriate) to ensure that decisions respect patients' wants, needs and preferences and solicit patients' input on the education and support they need to make decisions and participate in their own care."
One of the central tenets of patients' rights and
"patient-centered care" is the right to informed consent. For a patient to make
an informed decision about medical treatment, he or she must have knowledge of all
potential treatment options, and their risks and benefits. In this case, the
rape victim has not been informed about an important potential treatment option
– use of emergency contraception to prevent pregnancy. As it happens, Sally is
one of the millions of American women of reproductive age who are not aware of
EC. So, Sally has had no opportunity
to consider this option or use her own moral, ethical or religious perspectives
to decide whether she wishes to risk the chance of bearing the child of a
rapist. Further, she has had no chance to discuss with her physician the
potential medical complications of an unplanned pregnancy, in view of her existing
medical conditions, which include diabetes.
How could this violation of patients' rights be corrected? The
simplest method would be to require all hospital emergency department
personnel, including Dr. Brown, to always offer EC to rape victims who are of
reproductive age.
Physicians' rights
and responsibilities
But now, let's focus on Dr. Brown. A fundamentalist Christian,
he believes that emergency contraception is the same thing as abortion, even
though medical and scientific experts say that is untrue and the FDA has stated
unequivocally that emergency contraception prevents pregnancy and does not
cause an abortion.
Dr. Brown argues that requiring him to give emergency
contraception to Sally would violate his religious beliefs. "I shouldn't have
to give up my religious freedom in order to be a doctor," he says.
Let's pause for a moment to consider whether personal
beliefs that are unsupported by or unrelated to medical science should be
considered valid reasons why a licensed medical professional should be
permitted to refuse to provide needed medical care, especially in an emergency
situation in a facility that serves the general public. How far should we allow
Dr. Brown or one of his colleagues to go with such claims? If Dr. Brown also
believes that AIDS is a just punishment from God for perverted behavior, should
he be allowed to refuse to treat any
patients with AIDS? What if one of his colleagues believes that under Islamic
law, anyone who committed murder
should be sentenced to death? Should he be permitted to refuse to treat
suspected murderers who are brought to the emergency room for treatment of
wounds suffered in the attack? Where would we draw the line between acceptable
and unacceptable moral reasons for refusing to provide care?
In the interests of moving our analysis along, however,
let's set that issue aside and see if there is a compromise we could arrive at
that would permit Dr. Brown to refuse to give EC to Sally, while still ensuring
that she gets the medication in a timely manner. What if we just require Dr. Brown to refer
Sally to another physician or a nurse in the emergency department who could inform
her about EC and provide her the medication if she wishes to use it?
That, too, is unacceptable, Dr. Brown says, because it
requires him to cooperate in helping the patient receive treatment he finds
morally objectionable. "I cannot be implicated in any way in helping her commit
an immoral act," he states.
One could argue that Dr. Brown's professional responsibilities
to his patient should obligate him to provide Sally with at least a referral in
such a situation. But, under a proposed "Provider Conscience Regulation" issued
by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on August 26, 2008,
no entity receiving federal funding (such as the hospital where Dr. Brown works)
could require him to give Sally the medical information or referral she needs
if he claims a religious objection. To attempt do so would be to "discriminate"
against him, and could result in the loss of federal funding, according to the
rule. Not a single other physician or
nurse in the hospital could be required to step in and give Sally what she
needs, if that health professional held the same views as Dr. Brown.
Moreover, HHS has proposed a very expansive definition of the
term "assist in the performance of" to permit refusals for "participation in any activity with a reasonable connection to the
objectionable procedure, including referrals, training and other arrangements
for offending procedures." Arguably, this definition would permit a pharmacy
technician to refuse to stock emergency contraception in the hospital pharmacy,
or a hospital purchasing agent to refuse to order it. Again, we face the
question of where we should draw the line between acceptable and unacceptable
refusals. The proposed HHS rule would seem to draw no line at all, instead
allowing medical professionals and hospital personnel to use personal moral or
religious beliefs to exempt themselves from any
medical obligations to their patients.
Let's consider another alternative – requiring the hospital
to be responsible for ensuring that Sally's rights as a patient are protected.
Hospital responsibilities
Arguably, the hospital should
already be responsible for ensuring that Sally's medical needs are met. In
order to participate in the federal Medicare program, and to be reimbursed
under the Medicaid program, hospitals must adhere to "Conditions of
Participation." These conditions are meant to ensure that patients' rights are
respected and they received medically appropriate care. For example, hospitals
are required to:
"Honor a patient's right to make informed
decisions regarding his or her medical care."
"Meet the emergency needs of patients in
accordance with acceptable standards of practice."
"Have pharmaceutical services that meet the
needs of patients."
But since the Medicaid/Medicare Conditions of Participation has
not yet been enforced to require the provision of EC to rape victims, a
number of states have enacted so-called EC in the ER or Compassionate
Care for Rape Victims laws. These statutes specifically require
hospitals to offer emergency contraception to rape victims, or, at
minimum, inform rape victims about the potential to use the medication
to prevent pregnancy.
How should the hospital go about fulfilling these
responsibilities for patients like Sally? Should administrators fire Dr. Brown
and replace him with someone who will dispense EC to rape victims? No, that
would not be the preferable way of dealing with this situation, because there
are far less drastic options available.
Instead, the hospital could offer Dr. Brown a transfer out
of the ER into another unit of the hospital where he would not be expected to
dispense EC, and replace him in the ER with someone who has no objections to
EC. Such an arrangement would be an example of a "reasonable accommodation"
under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which requires employers to
reasonably accommodate an employee's religious beliefs or practices, unless doing
so places an "undue hardship" on the employer's business. This type of careful balancing
of competing rights is a hallmark of American public policy.
But, Dr. Brown might argue that he is being discriminated
against even by such a reasonable accommodation, because it removes him from
the practice of emergency medicine, which he sees as his mission in life. The
proposed HHS rule might give him ammunition to do so, because it lacks any attempt to balance his rights with the patients'
rights and the obligation of the hospital to serve its patients.
HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt, in a press conference to
release the department's proposed rule, went so far as to frame the issue this
way: ""Freedom of conscience is not to be surrendered upon issuance of a
medical degree." He told reporters, "This is about protecting the right of
a physician to practice medicine according to his or her moral compass."
Is there another solution? How about requiring the hospital
to have a routine protocol of offering EC to all rape victims, and designating
someone on each shift who does not object to EC to step in, inform the patient
about EC and offer it? This surely would be somewhat cumbersome, and would
require careful management of hospital staffing schedules. It also would
require that Dr. Brown and any other hospital emergency department personnel
who have objections to dispensing EC disclose those objections up front, so
that hospital administrators can make appropriate scheduling decisions.
Religious hospital
claims to "conscience" rights
But what if the hospital as an institution operates under a religious
doctrine that expresses grave reservations about the use of emergency
contraception? Let's put Dr. Brown and Sally in the emergency department of St.
Mary's Roman Catholic Hospital. Like other Catholic hospitals, it is governed
by the Ethical and Religious Directives
for Catholic Health Care Services (ERDs), which offer guidance about EC that has been interpreted in a variety of ways. Some
Catholic hospitals provide EC to all rape victims. Some administer a pregnancy
test, even though such a test would only be able to detect a pregnancy that was
established prior to the rape (and if the woman is already pregnant, she does
not need EC). Some require the rape victim to undergo an ovulation test. If the
test comes back positive, EC is denied because of the hypothetical possibility
that there might be a fertilized egg in existence. Still other Catholic
hospitals refuse to offer EC at all.
St. Mary's Hospital, as it
happens, is one of the Catholic hospitals that refuse to allow any dispensing
of EC. Moreover, the hospital does not permit staff to even discuss EC with
patients like Sally, citing another two of the ERDs.
Under a new state law taking effect in six months, St.
Mary's and all other hospitals in this state (including Catholic ones) will be
required to offer EC to rape victims. Dr. Gray, a colleague of Dr. Brown's in
the emergency department, is happy about the new law, because he believes it is
his professional and ethical obligation to serve the patient's medical needs,
and he wants to be able to offer EC to patients like Sally. He is upset about
what he views as the hospital's violation of his rights to use his own ethical
beliefs and his medical training in deciding how to treat patients. (The
proposed HHS regulation, it should be noted, does not seem to protect
physicians like Dr. Gray, who wish to provide
medical treatment, not refuse it, but
are stymied by institutional religious restrictions.)
St. Mary's, which opposed the new law, hopes to argue that since
it considers emergency contraception to be an abortifacient, it cannot be
compelled to obey the law. Administrators of St.
Mary's plan to cite the proposed HHS rule which, in seeking to enforce
compliance with a longstanding federal law allowing federally-funded hospitals
to refuse to perform abortions or sterilizations, seems to leave the definition
of abortion open to interpretation.
The regulation, as promulgated, dropped a definition of
abortion that had appeared in an earlier draft that had attempted to conflate
contraception with abortion by including anything
that could interfere with a fertilized egg. But, as the Washington Post
reported, supporters and critics alike agreed that the language remains broad
enough to apply to contraceptives. HHS
Secretary Leavitt, in response to reporters' questions about the proposed rule,
acknowledged that there was no definition of abortion and that some medical
providers may want to "press the definition" and make the case that some forms
of contraception are tantamount to abortion, according to the Wall Street
Does this mean that state health officials who try to
enforce the new state law at St. Mary's – in order to ensuring that all rape
victims are offered emergency contraception — might risk being found guilty of
"discrimination" against St. Mary's? Could the state lose all of its federal
health funding as a result? Is that really the outcome we should be seeking in
federal policy?
If St. Mary's were to be successful in its claim, what would
happen to rape victims who need emergency contraception? Should they be
expected to go to drugstores to buy it, even though they have just suffered a
traumatic attack, may have had their clothes torn and may have been robbed of
their purses, their money and their car keys? What if the local pharmacy also
objects to emergency contraception? The proposed HHS rule, which purports to be
about protecting health providers from having to perform abortions and
sterilizations, extends provider conscience protections to pharmacies (and
also, it should be noted to a wide variety of other health care institutions,
including nursing homes and dentists offices).
Should rape victims be expected to leave St. Mary's and go
to a different hospital, again in a traumatized state? What if St. Mary's is the only local hospital?
To hear HHS Secretary Leavitt and his colleagues tell it, the
department's regulatory might and funding power must be marshaled behind medical
professionals in this country who, they contend, are at serious risk of
retaliation, firing or being forced to surrender their medical licenses for
exercising their religious consciences. The department's introduction to its
proposed rule on provider conscience states, "There appears to be an attitude
toward the health professions that health care professionals and institutions should
be required to provide to assist in the provision of medicine or procedures to
which they object, or else risk being subjected to discrimination." The
Department's commentary, however, did not supply a single example of a health
professional who actually had been discriminated against.
Secretary Leavitt claimed at his press conference releasing
the proposed regulation that "there is nothing in this rule that would in
any way change a patient's right to
a legal procedure" and that "this regulation does not limit patient
access to health care."
But, as the story of Sally, Dr. Brown and St. Mary's
Hospital has demonstrated, that would not be the case. In fact, the proposed
HHS rule has the potential to seriously undermine the already fragile balance
between providers' rights and patients' rights in the American health care
system. It would tip the scales far over in the direction of objecting health
providers, and leave patients at risk of going without needed medical
information and care. It would allow
providers' personal moral beliefs to come before patients' rights and would take
American health care in the opposite direction from "patient-centered care."
Clearly, the proposed HHS rule should be withdrawn. It is
both unnecessary and overreaching in its broad interpretation of those existing
But I also recommend that your council consider ways in
which public policy could more strongly protect patients' rights and access to
care, without unduly burdening individual health practitioners who have moral
objections to providing certain medical services. What would be some ways of
doing this?
- Patients' right to informed consent must
be paramount. Patients must be informed of all potential treatment
options so that they are able to give fully informed consent, based on
medical recommendations and the patient's own ethical or religious
- Acute care hospitals and any other health facilities that are licensed to
serve the general public and receive patients needing emergency care must
be required to provide such care immediately. When time-sensitive emergency
care is needed — such as for rape, an ectopic pregnancy or a miscarriage
– a hospital must be required to provide it immediately on site.
- The ability of non-objecting health
practitioners to fulfill their duty to their patients must be safeguarded.
Physicians and other caregivers must be guaranteed the right to
discuss all treatment options with patients, regardless of whether those
options are permitted at the hospital or other health facility, and must
be able to assist patients in obtaining desired treatment at alternate
- When health institutions serving the
general public have treatment restrictions based on religious or ethical
principles, they should be expected to disclose those policies to patients
and individual health providers
- For non-emergency care, referrals to
alternate practitioners or facilities must be made if treatment is being
Evidence-based journalism is the foundation of democracy. Rewire.News, is devoted to evidence-based reporting on reproductive and sexual health, rights and justice and the intersections of race, environmental, immigration, and economic justice.
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Imagine the kind of restaurant that serves caviar: It has crystal and thick carpet, people in evening clothes, banquet-style seating.
The Bull & Beggar, which opens this week in the Wedge building, is not that kind of place. But it does offer $100 caviar service.
"It seems really expensive, but we're not really making much money off it," says Matt Dawes, chef and co-owner. "If I told you, you'd think it was silly. We just want to have it."
So what kind of place is it? The Bull & Beggar offers an Old World wine list and large-format dining that would satiate the Greatest Generation (pick any literary figure you like), along with contemporary snacks and small plates.
Yet to get there, you have to traverse the gravel of Payne's Way and climb onto the loading dock behind the Wedge building. It's luxury you can't help but appreciate, such is the contrast between the railroad tracks outside and the food within.
Inside, the restaurant has the high ceilings and mirrors you might expect of dining with a capital 'D,' but everything else is warm-colored wood, brick and plaster. The round tables on the ground floor (there are also a couple of tables in a lofted area) look like they came from your best friend's mom's kitchen.
There aren't many tricks here, just really classic dishes in an atmosphere that's easy to understand.
"I never really felt like I was too much of a Young Turk," Dawes says. "I don't make up new things. I feel more like a craftsperson than an inventor."
In that spirit, he's bringing back the filet mignon, which has fallen out of favor in recent years because of its low fat (and therefore, flavor) content.
But what's more, he's improving it. "We're serving it with a 2-inch pipe marrow bone with a spoon in it and Madeira sauce made from lots and lots of veal bones that also has marrow mounted into it as well," he says. "So all the flavor that you're missing in the filet mignon that you might find in a rib-eye, we're putting back on the plate."
If the filet still doesn't seem redeemable, try a bowl of periwinkles. Yes, those are the tiny snails you find on the beach, and they're mighty fun to eat. "You get a little pile of periwinkles, and they've been blanched," he says. "Then, you get a wine cork with pushpins stuck in the cork. …You take the pin and you just sort of fish them out of their shell, dip them in mayonnaise and eat them off the pin. They're just one bite."
The menu is large for a new restaurant, but Dawes and his business partner, Drew Wallace, who also co-owns The Admiral, have been working on the concept for about two years.
The menu is bold and simple yet unapologetically luxuriant. Prices fall between $3 and $100. Is that range allowed? Dawes and Wallace believe they can pull it off.
Wallace has looked after the bar at The Admiral since it opened in 2006. Dawes spent eight years at Table.
"I think we have gleaned valuable information about what Asheville diners are expectant of, tolerant of, looking for, excited about, both tourists and locals," he says. "I think a restaurant can't have a real personality unless the owners decide to actually draw some lines in the sand."


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Penn College at Wellsboro serves Northern Tier business and industry training needs, as well as noncredit personal and professional development. The campus, instituted by the College in 1983, is located in scenic North Central Pennsylvania at a temporary location in the Wellsboro Area School District.
About Penn College at Wellsboro
Courses held in Wellsboro provide upgrading, training, and development to enhance opportunities for individuals in job duties, career advancement, and personal development. Customized courses are available to business and industry for training on requested topics such as: supervisory training, conflict resolution & prevention, team building, diversity in the workplace, project management, successful meetings, and Microsoft® computer classes.
Longer-term training is available in medical assisting, practical nursing, and nursing assistant. Training for the natural gas industry on topics such as shale development and production, first aid and CPR, PEC SafeLand, programmable logic controls, rigging, and others also are held at the Wellsboro location.
Medical Assistant
- Prepare for a new career in the health services industry
- 800 hours of instruction
- Additional certifications available upon program completion
Practical Nursing
- Become a PA licensed practical nurse
- Over 1504 hours of instruction
Directions to Penn College at Wellsboro
If you are using a GPS or mapping service, use 227 Nichols Street, Wellsboro, PA 16901 for directions.
From the east (Route 15, Mansfield, etc.)
- Travel west on Route 6 to the traffic light at Main Street (Wellsboro Diner on right).
- Continue straight through the light onto Queen Street for 3 blocks.
- Slight right onto Nichols Street.
- Continue on Nichols Street for 4-tenths of a mile, ending at the school entrance.
From the west
- Travel Route 6 East / Route 287 South towards Wellsboro.
- Turn right onto Nichols Street (Steve's Beverage Center on right)
- Continue on Nichols Street for ¼ mile to the school entrance.
- Enter the driveway, passing the Wellsboro Area High School on your right and the Wellsboro Area School District Administration Building on your left.
- Turn left in the parking lot and follow to the left around the back of the Wellsboro Area School District Administration Building.
- Park and enter at the far end of the building.
- Enter the building (follow signs), left at the first hallway, first room on left (Room 001).


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To me, round 2 is far more about adjustments and that's where it's essential that role players make shots. I call it "catch and make" opportunities and these become far more critical moving forward towards the Finals. Catch and makes are defined as shots made off of passes that require no dribble and are often just ahead of defensive rotation. Think about Derek Fisher's career role and the shots John Paxon and Steve Kerr made for the Bulls at any point in the game, not just game-winners.
Stats are great during the regular season and I look towards total offense and total defense as a great barometers, but come playoff time I think stats reset, particularly from deep range. Derek Fisher is a career 37% three point shooter in the regular season, and 40% in the playoffs.
When I look at the Spurs/Clippers series the biggest difference in the two teams is the Spurs ability to make shots. Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green and the great Manu Ginobili combined for 9 three pointers many on catch/make opportunity. I think this is going to be a longer series because the Clippers do have their own catch and makers in Mo Williams, Randy Foye and Nick Young so buckle up.
The Sixers, who do a great job of playing complete basketball on defense and in transition , struggle offensively. But Jrue Holiday has been outstanding, particularly from behind the arc, some in catch and make situations. His 4 three pointers in Game 2 is why the Sixers have taken home court advantage away. That said, the Celtics have one of the all-time great catch and makers in Ray Allen, a player the Knicks are still looking for although he is battling through injuries.
Obviously, the heat are struggling without Chris Bosh. Bosh brings them a balance up front that they are clearly missing. He's also a catch/make forward who does it down the stretch or to kill opposing teams' runs. The heat were just 1-16 from deep including the Chalmers miss at the end. Obviously, Lebron's free throws were huge as was the overall play from Wade, but when the heat lost to the Knicks their catch and makers, namely Chalmers, Battier and Mike Miller, were dreadful.
Which finally brings us to the Lakers and the Thunder. Fisher is now in OKC and the Lakers haven't replaced his catch and make ability from the perimeter. Ramon Sessions is a very good point guard who has shot better, but isn't proven in the half court of big games. Steve Blake can, but it's a lot to ask. I like Goudelock, but he's a rookie and Matt Barnes and World Peace are forwards, which is fine, but you need it from the 1 and 2 positions for balance. Kobe can't do everything and catch and make situations result from him being doubled.
As far as the Thunder, Westbrook and Harden are above average, but not great, and Fisher certainly helps, but I love what Daequan Cook gives them. Dude has the green light to come in the game and knock them down, but you can expect D-Fish to make one or more big ones...Can't forget how good Sefolosha has been as well.
If the Lakers are to make it a series, heck if all these series are going to be competitive, keep an eye on the team that has knock down catch and make opportunities and who takes advantage. They are usually the players who benefit from slight openings when the stars are double teamed or draw attention with teams hoping that the shots don't fall from the perimeter.
It's a huge need for the Knicks moving forward.


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The prostate is a male reproductive gland that produces a fluid found in semen. Located below the bladder and in front of the rectum, the prostate surrounds the urethra, the tube that empties urine from the bladder.
Prostate cancer affects the prostate gland and may spread to surrounding structures. While most men with prostate cancer have no symptoms, a physician can find prostate cancer during a regular checkup, using a combination of a blood test called a PSA and a digital rectal exam (DRE).
Nearly one in six American men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime. With greater awareness, prostate cancer detection is on the rise and mortality is declining. Moreover, better treatments are allowing more men to return to active and productive lives after treatment.
Treatment Options
If you have an early diagnosis of prostate cancer, there is usually a range of treatment options. These may include conservative management, radiation therapy with external beam or radiation seeds (brachytherapy), and prostatectomy (surgical removal of the prostate). Your treatment options will depend on a number of factors, including the stage of the disease, your age and health or personal preference.


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This content has been marked as final. Show 12 replies
1. Re: Microsoft Visual C++ runtime Library error(Harry_Kopy) Sep 29, 2008 6:54 PM (in response to (Kurt_Sultana))I was getting a similar runtime error, and got rid of/disabled my Spybot program...seems to conflict...try disabling any and all anti spyware type programs and see if that helps....don't forget to turn them back on when you're done!
2. Re: Microsoft Visual C++ runtime Library error(Scott_Wolf) Oct 1, 2008 7:55 AM (in response to (Kurt_Sultana))If you receive a runtime error on the startup, or entering edit mode from the multi-track mode in Adobe Audition, there is a quick fix. This seems to be a wide spread problem across many of the applications and this applies to any software that runs into the dreaded Runtime error.
Close Adobe Audition, if it hasnt slammed shut already.
Open Windows explorer, right click start and go to explore.
At the top go to Tools/Folder option/view and make sure show hidden files and folders is selected.
Browse to this folder:
C:\Documents and Settings\[user]\Application Data\Adobe\Audition\3.0
(Insert profile name or your log on account for user)
Cut and paste all the files in this folder to a folder you create in my documents or somewhere else called AAbackup. This just preserves your files in case you ever want to go back, to broken.
Reopen Adobe Audition and go to work. It will rebuild itself in your profile and correct its own problem.
Happy audio creation!
Scott Wolf
3. Re: Microsoft Visual C++ runtime Library errorSteveG(AudioMasters) Oct 1, 2008 9:38 AM (in response to (Kurt_Sultana))>If you receive a runtime error on the startup, or entering edit mode from the multi-track mode in Adobe Audition, there is a quick fix.
I have to tell you emphatically that this does not fix the program lockup problem. If it did, we would have discovered this before it was even released.
4. Re: Microsoft Visual C++ runtime Library errorThomas Rizzo Jan 31, 2009 1:06 PM (in response to (Kurt_Sultana))Hello all. I just started getting Kurt Sultana's runtime error as described above. It's happening after I import a file into Auditon 3.0. It loads into Edit view, then when I ask it to insert into Multitrack, that's as far as it gets. If I click play or try to do anything, I get the runtime error, and that's the end of the session.
Toshiba Satellite P205D-S7438
Vista Home Premium SP1
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor TK-55 1.80 GHz
I recently installed the 3.0.1 patch
Would be so appreciative of any pointers, and also any thoughts as to do I have enough computer to really run Audition 3.0. Getting frustrating.
5. Re: Microsoft Visual C++ runtime Library error(Eric_Snodgrass) Feb 2, 2009 7:59 AM (in response to (Kurt_Sultana))Thomas, what type of file did you import? Do you get the Runtime error when opening any other file?
6. Re: Microsoft Visual C++ runtime Library errorThomas Rizzo Feb 2, 2009 10:36 AM (in response to (Kurt_Sultana))Hi Eric. This is happening now whether I import an .mp3 or a .wma file. It doesn't matter the source, either (at first I thought it might have something to do with pulling a file off a jump drive, but it happens from files stored on the hard drive,also).
Currently, the operation of importing a file into Audition is the only time I'm seeing a Runtime error. I can't seem to get it to happen doing anything else. I appreciate the difficulty of trying to diagnose something like this from afar, and I do appreciate all the help I can get.
7. Re: Microsoft Visual C++ runtime Library error(Eric_Snodgrass) Feb 2, 2009 12:14 PM (in response to (Kurt_Sultana))This is a shot in the dark, but did you check your file associations to see what programs on your machine are associated with .mp3 or .wma?
And are you doing an Import command rather than an Open command?
8. Re: Microsoft Visual C++ runtime Library errorThomas Rizzo Feb 6, 2009 3:34 PM (in response to (Kurt_Sultana))While I do appreciate the help, the situation reached a crisis level and I called Tech Support.
Turns out I needed to re-create the preferences file, as described in this document:
Scroll down to:
5. Re-create the Audition preferences file.
One thing to keep in mind: if you cannot navigate to C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Audition\3.0
youll need to get Windows to show hidden files. Tech Support can talk you through it (a Photoshop expert helped me!)
No runtime error anymoreawaiting next spanner the combination of Vista/Toshiba/Audition have in store for me!
9. Re: Microsoft Visual C++ runtime Library error(taylor_lucas) Feb 6, 2009 11:22 PM (in response to (Kurt_Sultana))Gah, you're link didn't work. PANIC PANIC PANIC. I can't even get in to finish a project. Audition shuts right down after I open it. Only the project I'm working on though.
10. Re: Microsoft Visual C++ runtime Library errorSteveG(AudioMasters) Feb 7, 2009 2:50 AM (in response to (Kurt_Sultana))>Only the project I'm working on though.
Then you have a corrupted session file causing the root software to malfunction. It's the only thing that's unique to your project that could do this.
11. Re: Microsoft Visual C++ runtime Library errorSuiteSpot Feb 7, 2009 3:22 AM (in response to (Kurt_Sultana))Steve's right so you will need to recreate that session.
This software will tell you which files were in the session but other than that and "save early and save often" you're on your own.
12. Re: Microsoft Visual C++ runtime Library errorshawnmike12 Dec 16, 2009 2:57 AM (in response to (Kurt_Sultana))
I have tryed reinstalling the software sevral times, in addition I have also tryed installing and reinstauling (all after successfull uninstulations, of corce.) on an external Hard Drive. The error is not intermitant after it appers and dose not go away, even after a reinstulation. I notice that only after a system restore and fresh copy ofinternet phone, new instulation, dose the error go's away. I have repeted this process sevral times to see if I can find a patturn. I notice that the error begins occering after one or both of the fallowing two conditions occure, wether the instulation is on my pc or on my external HDD (hard drive): 1) After downloading the therd catalog and before starting the forth catalog download within Stellarium, than closing the software fallowed by restarting windows than relaunching the software. 2) After canceling a previously started download of a catalog within Stellarium. Note: In both cases, the error dosen't always occer right away.


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Find accommodations in Elkridge with the hotel list provided below. Find cheap and discounted hotel/motel rates in or nearby Elkridge, MD for your upcoming individual or group travel. Discover the most popular Elkridge, Maryland motel and hotel rooms. Browse the Elkridge area hotels to find the perfect lodging! Please use the provided map of the Elkridge hotels. Planning a group? Lock in Elkridge Group Hotel Discounts
The Elkridge center point is about 3 miles northwest of BWI Baltimore Airport and 3 miles north of Arundel Mills Outlet Mall.
How should we direct your call?


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March 7, 2019, 2:16 pmWilson Chandler - F - Los Angeles Clippers
Wilson Chandler (quad) was able to make it through a full practice on Wednesday, but his status remains uncertain for Friday's game vs. the Thunder.
It would seem that Chandler has a better chance to return on Friday than teammate Luc Mbah a Moute, after making it through a full practice on Wednesday. We'll have a better idea on Friday if Chandler is ready to make his Clippers debut.
Source: Jovan Bruha on Twitter
Fantasy News
March 19, 2019, 1:12 amDamian Lillard - G - Trail Blazers
Damian Lillard led the Blazers to a 106-98 win over the Pacers on Monday with 30 points on 9-of-16 shooting while adding 15 assists, two rebounds, three steals, a block and four 3-pointers.
With C.J. McCollum out for the rest of the week we can expect a lot of Dame Time going forward. Lillard drained shots from all over the floor, including a 3-pointer at nearly half court, and was dishing clean dimes to his teammates in the pick-and-roll all game. He logged 40 minutes and controlled the game the entire time he was on the floor and is going to have himself a big week.
March 19, 2019, 1:09 amMaurice Harkless - F - Trail Blazers
Maurice Harkless scored 10 points on 3-of-7 shooting while adding five rebounds, two assists, two steals, two blocks and a 3-pointer on Monday.
Harkless came up big for Portland on the defensive end tonight and props to you if you streamed him. The Blazers play again on Wednesday and Sunday so it'll be hard to incorporate him as a streamer.
March 19, 2019, 1:09 amJusuf Nurkic - C - Trail Blazers
Jusuf Nurkic double-doubled on Monday before fouling out with 18 points and 11 boards to go with two assists.
He fouled out on a questionable offensive foul while setting a screen against Wesley Matthews, but was able to provide owners with a solid line before exiting Monday's game. Nurkic destroyed the offensive glass tonight for the Blazers and his high activity on that end kept the Blazers in the game when their offense was stalling. He's been a top-40 player over the past month and it looks like he's going to finish the season strong.
March 19, 2019, 1:08 amJake Layman - F - Trail Blazers
Jake Layman started on Monday, but laid an egg, scoring zero points on 0-of-5 shooting with three rebounds.
Layman drew the start, but put up a dud in the first half and didn't see much action in the second half. Rodney Hood (24 minutes with 11 points, one triple, one rebound, two assists, two steals and a block) and Seth Curry (25 minutes with 11 points, three triples, a rebound, an assist and a steal) took his minutes to close out the game but neither are attractive fantasy options.
March 19, 2019, 1:06 amRodney Hood - G - Trail Blazers
Rodney Hood started the second half on Monday and scored 11 points on 5-of-10 shooting while adding a rebound, two assists, two steals, a block and a 3-pointer.
Hood started the second half in place of Jake Layman and produced a solid line, but we're skeptical on his ability to repeat this in the Blazers' next two games. Portland has many capable options at the wing spot so replacing C.J. McCollum's (knee strain) production will be more of a committee approach.
March 19, 2019, 1:06 amMyles Turner - F/C - Indiana Pacers
Myles Turner led the Pacers in scoring on Monday with 28 points on 9-of-17 shooting while adding 10 rebounds, an assist, two steals and two 3-pointers.
Turner had the hot hand early for the Pacers tonight as he was hitting what seemed like every jump shot he took. 13 of his 28 points were scored in the first quarter and although his offense was on point, he blocked zero shots tonight. He had what looked like a clean block on Damian Lillard's 3-point attempt late in the fourth quarter which was called a foul, but the bright side is that owners only have to wait until tomorrow for Turner to swat some shots.
March 19, 2019, 1:03 amDarren Collison - G - Indiana Pacers
Darren Collison scored nine points on 3-of-8 shooting with seven assists, two steals and a 3-pointer on Monday.
Tonight snapped Collison's streak of four consecutive games scoring in double figures, but the dimes and swipes are his saving grace. He'll be better in the next one.
March 19, 2019, 1:01 amBojan Bogdanovic - F - Indiana Pacers
Bojan Bogdanovic scored 15 points on 6-of-13 shooting while adding two rebounds, two assists and three steals on Monday.
The Blazers made an extra effort to chase Bogdanovic off the 3-point line which was was why his attempts from deep were low tonight. His line could have been much uglier if he forced the issue, but he took what the defense gave him and took the Blazers off the dribble. The triples should start to roll in next game.
March 19, 2019, 1:00 amThaddeus Young - F - Indiana Pacers
Thaddeus Young scored two points on 1-of-8 shooting with 10 boards, four dimes, a steal and a block on Monday.
Young couldn't get anything going for himself offensively against the Blazers, with his lone bucket coming from a cutting layup. Luckily he was able to salvage his night by grabbing double-digit boards with defensive numbers. The Pacers get three more games this week which means you should hang onto him.
March 19, 2019, 12:32 amDeandre Ayton - Team - Phoenix Suns
Deandre Ayton delivered a huge line in Monday's 101-116 loss to the Bulls with 25 points on 12-of-17 shooting while adding 12 rebounds, three assists, three steals and three blocks.
Ayton was one of the few bright spots for the Suns, dominating on both ends of the floor. Even though he's not talked about as much as the other rookies in his class, he's more than held his own and has improved on the defensive end of the floor much faster than many expected. Ayton was already working with a high fantasy floor because of his offensive prowess and if he can consistently bring it on defense, we're looking at a potential early-round play.


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The following are updates on area Major League Baseball players.
Brandon McCarthy (Glendale native) starting pitcher, Oakland Athletics: Even though McCarthy's had his best stuff working as of late, the A's have been reluctant to push the big right-hander .
After receiving 11 days' rest following his seven-inning win over the Texas Rangers on June 7, McCarthy threw just 81 pitches against the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday, even though he had cruised through seven scoreless innings while allowing just two hits. Oakland's bullpen would complete the 3-0 shutout.
According to mlb.com, McCarthy was to be held to a pitch count of 85 for Tuesday's game by Manager Bob Melvin in an effort to avoid a flare up of the shoulder soreness McCarthy has dealt with this season. He was forced to go on the disabled list for two weeks in May because of it and McCarthy and the A's are erring on the side of caution this time.
"I'm always kind of worried about that," McCarthy told mlb.com of another potential bout of soreness. "Especially now, without this kind of extended rest, it's a fight to get through it, and we're doing everything we can. I'm confident that [Wednesday] it should be fine, I should be able to go get back on a normal routine, but I've been proven wrong a bunch of times before with it."
McCarthy struck out five and walked one on Tuesday and only allowed one runner past first base while improving to 6-3 and lowering his earned-run average to 2.54.
He picked up his sixth straight win and has a 1.96 ERA over his last seven starts.
Oakland is 34-36 for third place in the American League West Division.
Doug Slaten (Glendale Community College, 1999) relief pitcher, Pittsburgh Pirates: After tossing eight scoreless innings over his six appearances since being called up by the Pirates on May 29, Slaten was finally touched up on June 14 by the Baltimore Orioles.
In 2/3 of an inning upon relieving starter Erik Bedard with one out and runners at the corners in the fourth, Slaten gave up three earned runs on three hits, including a three-run home run by Steve Pearce that put the Pirates in a 10-0 hole en route to losing the game, 12-6.
Slaten has rebounded in his last two outings though, tossing single spotless innings in a 9-2 win over the Cleveland Indians on Saturday and a 2-1 loss to the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday. Still yet to factor in a decision, Slaten's ERA is at 2.45 with three strikeouts to five walks as Pittsburgh is 36-32 for second place in the National League Central.
Marco Estrada (Glendale Community College, 2003) starting pitcher, Milwaukee Brewers: As expected, Estrada did not come off the 15-day disabled list when he was eligible on June 8 and still continues to be sidelined with a right quadriceps injury sustained May 24.
His return may be drawing near, though, as the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported Estrada was slated to throw 75 pitches in a start Thursday for Triple-A Nashville with a return to the Brewers as early as Tuesday a possibility if all goes well.
Currently 0-3 with a 4.50 ERA, Estrada will add some much-needed pitching depth for Milwaukee (32-37 for fourth place in the National League Central), which reportedly may have to send starter Shaun Marcum (elbow) to the DL.


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IBM Suits Up Watson to Tackle Thorny Customer Service Problems
May 21, 2013 4:01 PM PT
IBM on Tuesday announced that it will offer Watson -- its artificial intelligence software package that won the Jeopardy game show -- as a customer service solution called "Watson Engagement Advisor," a cognitive computing assistant that rapidly learns, adapts and understands a company's data.
Watson's data-crunching capabilities will be offered as part of IBM's Smarter Commerce initiative for automating a business's marketing, sales, procurement, supply chain, and service functions.
It will also be delivered as a cloud service to consumers' mobile devices for self-service.
"We use automated calling solutions today," said Jim McGregor, principal analyst at Tirias Research. "Using Watson technology just takes it one step closer to an artificial intelligence model."
IBM representatives Alicia DiGennaro and Alison Meyerstein pointed TechNewsWorld to a livestream of the company's announcements and to IBM's blog post on the topic.
What's a Watson?
Watson is an artificial intelligence software package that can answer questions posed in natural language, meaning the way people speak. It was developed to answer questions on Jeopardy.
Watson was programmed in Java and C++. It includes Apache Hadoop and Apache UIMA (Unstructured Information Management Architecture), and ran on 90 IBM Power 750 servers using the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 operating system.
Watson implements IBM's DeepQA architecture, which is a massively parallel probabilistic evidence-based architecture. It relies on many experts, pervasive confidence estimation, and integration of shallow and deep knowledge.
Pervasive confidence estimation means that every component produces an answer or part of it from a different interpretation of a question and the content of the answer. An underlying confidence layer stacks and combines the scores for the best answer. Shallow and deep knowledge are integrated by balancing the use of strict and shallow semantics and leveraging loosely formed ontologies.
Watson used more than 100 different techniques for analyzing natural language, identifying sources, finding, generating, merging and ranking hypotheses, and finding and ranking evidence, to participate in Jeopardy.
It's About the Content
Content acquisition is key to using DeepQA, and for the Jeopardy challenge, sources of information ranged from encyclopedias, dictionaries , thesauri and newswire articles to literary works, databases, taxonomies and structured data sources such as dbPedia and Yago. More than 200 million structured and unstructured documents were fed into Watson for its participation in the game show.
The variety of content led to trouble when the contents of the Urban Dictionary site were fed into Watson. The site has profanity and sexual innuendo, and Watson began using those words in its responses until IBM researchers created a filter that cleaned up its responses.
DeepQA solves questions by applying its end-to-end QA subsystem on each subclue and synthesizing the final answers using a customizable answer combination.
The DeepQA architecture is applicable to other tasks.
Using Watson in Customer Service
The Watson Engagement Advisor will be delivered through the cloud and as online chat sessions.
"Watson can provide a set of solutions much more quickly than other systems, and a relatively low level of training would be needed for the [customer service representative] answering a call," Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, told TechNewsWorld. "If this were done on-line, Watson could also make suggestions about how to reword the query better and, through interaction, get the answer through iteration. This might be far more satisfying than the non-answer you might otherwise get."
"Because of its size, Watson is more of a cloud solution," Tirias Research's McGregor said.
A Threat to Siri and Google Now?
IBM is opening up Watson to developers so they can create an ecosystem of apps around the AI.
This is aimed at monetizing the technology, and "if you could integrate it with other applications like Siri, Google Now, and the plethora of other voice user interfaces and applications that will be emerging, it could be useful for mobile solutions," Tirias Research's McGregor told TechNewsWorld.
"Note that you can already ask many of these applications questions and get answers," McGregor said. "So, is Watson a competitor to these solutions or a complement?"


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Download of the Day: Wireshark 1.4.0
Our Download of the Day today is Wireshark 1.4.0 (32-bit).
Wireshark is the world's foremost network protocol analyzer, and is the de facto standard across many industries and educational institutions.
Deep inspection of hundreds of protocols, with more being added all the time
Live capture and offline analysis
Standard three-pane packet browser
Multi-platform: Runs on Windows, Linux, OS X, Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and many others
Captured network data can be browsed via a GUI, or via the TTY-mode TShark utility
The most powerful display filters in the industry
Rich VoIP analysis
Read/write many different capture file formats
Capture files compressed with gzip can be decompressed on the fly
Live data can be read from Ethernet, IEEE 802.11, PPP/HDLC, ATM, Bluetooth, USB, Token Ring, Frame Relay, FDDI, and others (depending on your platfrom)
Decryption support for many protocols, including IPsec, ISAKMP, Kerberos, SNMPv3, SSL/TLS, WEP, and WPA/WPA2
Coloring rules can be applied to the packet list for quick, intuitive analysis
Output can be exported to XML, PostScript®, CSV, or plain text
The latest version includes the following changes:
Changes in Version 1.4.0
# The following bugs have been fixed:
* Update time display in background. (Bug 1275)
* Wireshark is unresponsive when capturing from named pipes on Windows. (Bug 1759)
* Tshark returns 0 even with an invalid interface or capture filter. (Bug 4735)
# New and Updated Features
* The packet list internals have been rewritten and are now more efficient.
* Columns are easier to use. You can add a protocol field as a column by right-clicking on its packet detail item, and you can adjust some column preferences by right-clicking the column header.
* Preliminary Python scripting support has been added.
* Many memory leaks have been fixed.
* Wireshark 1.4 does not support Windows 2000. Please use Wireshark 1.2 or 1.0 on those systems.
* Packets can now be ignored (excluded from dissection), similar to the way they can be marked.
* Manual IP address resolution is now supported.
* Columns with seconds can now be displayed as hours, minutes and seconds.
* You can now set the capture buffer size on UNIX and Linux if you have libpcap 1.0.0 or greater.
* TShark no longer needs elevated privileges on UNIX or Linux to list interfaces. Only dumpcap requires privileges now.
* Wireshark and TShark can enable 802.11 monitor mode directly if you have libpcap 1.0.0 or greater.
* You can play RTP streams directly from the RTP Analysis window.
* Capinfos and editcap now respectively support time order checking and forcing.
* Wireshark now has a "jump to timestamp" command-line option.
* You can open JPEG files directly in Wireshark.
# New Protocol Support
* 3GPP Nb Interface RTP Multiplex, Access Node Control Protocol, Apple Network-MIDI Session Protocol, ARUBA encapsulated remote mirroring, Assa Abloy R3, Asynchronous Transfer Mode, B.A.T.M.A.N. Advanced Protocol, Bluetooth AMP Packet, Bluetooth OBEX, Bundle Protocol, CIP Class Generic, CIP Connection Configuration Object, CIP Connection Manager, CIP Message Router, collectd network data, Control And Provisioning of Wireless Access Points, Controller Area Network, Device Level Ring, DOCSIS Bonded Initial Ranging Message, Dropbox LAN sync Discovery Protocol, Dropbox LAN sync Protocol, DTN TCP Convergence Layer Protocol, EtherCAT Switch Link, Fibre Channel Delimiters, File Replication Service DFS-R, Gateway Load Balancing Protocol, Gigamon Header, GigE Vision Control Protocol, Git Smart Protocol, GSM over IP ip.access CCM sub-protocol, GSM over IP protocol as used by ip.access, GSM Radiotap, HI2Operations, Host Identity Protocol, HP encapsulated remote mirroring, HP NIC Teaming Heartbeat, IEC61850 Sampled Values, IEEE 1722 Protocol, InfiniBand Link, Interlink Protocol, IPv6 over IEEE 802.15.4, ISO 10035-1 OSI Connectionless Association Control Service, ISO 9548-1 OSI Connectionless Session Protocol, ISO 9576-1 OSI Connectionless Presentation Protocol, ITU-T Q.708 ISPC Analysis, Juniper Packet Mirror, Licklider Transmission Protocol, MPLS PW ATM AAL5 CPCS-SDU mode encapsulation, MPLS PW ATM Cell Header, MPLS PW ATM Control Word, MPLS PW ATM N-to-One encapsulation, no CW, MPLS PW ATM N-to-One encapsulation, with CW, MPLS PW ATM One-to-One or AAL5 PDU encapsulation, Multiple Stream Reservation Protocol, NetPerfMeter Protocol, NetScaler Trace, NexusWare C7 MTP, NSN FLIP, OMRON FINS Protocol, packetbb Protocol, Peer Network Resolution Protocol, PKIX Attribute Certificate, Pseudowire Padding, Server/Application State Protocol, Solaris IPNET, TN3270 Protocol, TN5250 Protocol, TRILL, Twisted Banana, UMTS FP Hint, UMTS MAC, UMTS Metadata, UMTS RLC, USB HID, USB HUB, UTRAN Iuh interface HNBAP signalling, UTRAN Iuh interface RUA signalling, V5.2, Vendor Specific Control Protocol, Vendor Specific Network Protocol, VMware Lab Manager, VXI-11 Asynchronous Abort, VXI-11 Core Protocol, VXI-11 Interrupt, X.411 Message Access Service, ZigBee Cluster Library
# New and Updated Capture File Support
* Accellent 5Views, ASN.1 Basic Encoding Rules, Catapult DCT2000, Daintree SNA, Endace ERF, EyeSDN, Gammu DCT3 trace, IBM iSeries, JPEG/JFIF, libpcap, Lucent/Ascend access server trace, NetScaler, PacketLogger, pcapng, Shomiti/Finisar Surveyor, Sun snoop, Symbian OS btsnoop, Visual Networks


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April 18, 2013
The annual spring dinner for the Western Pennsylvania Association of Wabash College took place on April 18. Held once again at the Allegheny HYP Club in Pittsburgh, alumni, family, and friends gathered to honor President Pat White and his wife Chris.
Following dinner and a fantastic tribute and introduction of Pat and Chris by Eriks Yanelsins '03, both took a few moments to talk about Wabash, her alumni and friends, and most importantly her students. In lieu of a traditional gift typically given to the honoree(s) at this event, the association made a monetary contribution, in the White's name, to the Montgomery County Free Clinic, which Chris White was instrumental in establishing while serving the Crawfordsville Community.
Special thanks to Lyndall Huggler '83 for handling the evenings arrangements and for serving as emcee.
Please click here for photos from the event.