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Difference between revisions of "Dell XPS M1330"
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[[Category:HOWTOs (English)]]
[[Category:HOWTOs (English)]]
Revision as of 12:41, 30 October 2009
- 1 Summary
- 2 Sound
- 3 Touchpad Synaptics
- 4 Fingerprint reader
- 5 Network
- 6 nVidia Graphics
- 7 Suspend
- 8 Hard Drive
- 9 SD Card Reader
- 10 Webcam
- 11 Sensors / Hardware info
- 12 Extra media keys
- 14 External Resources
Dell XPS M1330 works quite well out of the box with Arch and GNU/Linux in general, just like his big brother Dell XPS M1530. Here you can find (or put !) information to configure your laptop and become a mobile Archer.
Sound should now work out of the box. Just be sure to unmute all channels in alsamixer. To get the microphone working, you may have to change the digital input source (right now I have Digital Mic 1 but this could change in a new alsa version).
I suggest muting the PC speaker using alsamixer, as it makes an annoying squeak otherwise (unenabling the speaker using !snd_pcsp in the modules array of rc.conf didn't work for me).
Touchpad Synaptics
To configure the touchpad, you can refer to: Touchpad Synaptics Page.
Fingerprint reader
As of today, the device manufacturer is SGS Thomson Microelectronics (you can check with a "lsusb"). Install it using ThinkFinger.
If you can't get thinkfinger going, try fprint
Install fprint
sudo pacman -Sy fprint
Add yourself to the scanner group
sudo gpasswd -a username scanner
Enroll your finger print
sudo pam_fprint_enroll
If you want to use your fingerprint with sudo, edit the PAM config file for sudo, /etc/pam.d/sudo, as follows:
auth sufficient pam_fprint.so auth required pam_unix.so try_first_pass nullok_secure auth required pam_nologin.so
When you do something with sudo, it should ask you to swipe your finger
Ethernet Setup
the ethernet card is recognized by the kernel, simply load the network module to use it, or use a connection manager (see Wireless Setup for a list of programs)
Wireless Setup
- Intel chipset : 4965agn
This is the most common chipset, the correct wireless driver to install is iwlwifi-4965-ucode.
To get the wifi LED working, you can install compat-wireless from AUR. See this forum thread (some versions can freeze your system !).
NOTE: The wifi light works "out of the box" using the 2009.8 install disc.
Using NetworkManager makes the wireless and wired GUI connection interface in GNOME easy. It is possible to disable the annoying 'feature' whereby the Gnome Keyring keeps asking for a password at login by editing /etc/pam.d/login in addition to the other edits suggested to /etc/pam.d/gdm [1]. You can also try deleting ~/.gnome2/keyrings. This is especially useful if you don't use gdm to login, rather login straight from the shell. YMMV if you use kde or another DE.
NOTE: You may run into some trouble with the 2.6.25 Kernel: being unable to logon to any wireless network. Some people suggested using the compat-wireless package from AUR, but that didn't really help. When using the package dated 2008.05.26. the wireless card may be detected, but you may still not be able to connect. The newest version(2008.06.11.) also may not find your card, so can't even see any wireless networks. Reverting back to kernel 22.214.171.124-1 MAY help
- Nihathrael 07:53, 11 June 2008 (EDT)
NOTE: Running 2.6.25 is fine with module 'iwl4695' version 1.2.23k (according to dmesg), which is obtainable from core/iwlwifi-4965-ucode 18.104.22.168-1.
- Oblong_Cheese 09:11, 18 June 2008 (AEST)
NOTE: Running 2.6.25 is fine with module 'iwl4695' version 1.2.23k, But upgrading to iwlwifi-4965-ucode crashes the notebook. Downgrading to 188.8.131.52-1 and works fine. - User:Pix 15:56, 1 August 2008 (UTC+1)
- Intel chipset : 3945abg
The correct wireless driver to install is iwlwifi-3945-ucode.
- Broadcom chipset : bcm43xx or b43 or bcm4312
NOTE: The Broadcom 4310 chipset is unsupported by bcm43xx and b43 ( but is now supported by the official broadcom driver BCM4312, check this wiki entry - Mak 00:15, 29 November 2008 (EST)).
NOTE: For getting the Dell Wireless 1395 802.11g Mini Card to work (or any other card with the 4310 chipset), I have made a brief guide for getting this card to work. - Madhat 02:09, 2 August 2008 (EST)
NOTE: Arch 64 with Dell Wireless 1395 (Broadcom 4312 chipset): Use the bcm4312 driver referenced above, works like a charm with Arch 64. Wireless will be called eth1 instead of wlan0, so be sure to change all references of wlan0 to eth1 (like in Wicd if you're using it.) - User:greyhat.goon 13:09, 1 January 2009 (PST)
Before taking drastic measures however, ensure the transmitter switch is 'On' - it's the switch on the right-hand side of the laptop next to the slot loading DVD Drive. If this switch is 'off' then wifi won't work either.If you're unfortunate to find yourself with Arch installed and a 'switched off' bluetooth device your only solution may be to reinstall Vista and switch the module back on before re-installing Linux. You can safely delete Vista again once you have switched the module back on. Another option is to install Windows 7 or XP then re-enable the module using the Dell patch (R159805.EXE) as described here: http://codereflect.com/2009/01/17/what-you-can-do-if-your-dell-laptop-doesnt-show-bluetooth-device-after-re-installing-windows-vista/
Once you've enabled your Bluetooth module, you can then install the relevant software.
Install bluez-utils & bluez-libs from extra repository:
pacman -S bluez-utils bluez-libs
Edit /etc/conf.d/bluetooth:
DAEMON_ENABLE="true" HIDD_ENABLE="true"
Restart bluetooth service:
/etc/rc.d/bluetooth restart
A list of utilities for bluetooth managing is present in AUR database.
If the above solutions don't work, for example, your Logitech BT Travel Mouse is detected the first time only, then fails to be detected, you can try removing bluez-utils and installing blueman instead:
sudo pacman -S blueman
nVidia Graphics
For those of you with the nVidia 8400GM chipset, using the nVidia driver package works fine.
Compiz Fusion
Works just great with the nVidia chipset. You might like to tweak the nVidia Powermizer for maximum battery life. I have forced my graphics chipset to the lowest performance level and Compiz-Fusion runs satisfactorily with a little slowdown here and there. See this part of the Arch nVidia wiki for more details on how to set this up.
To have better performance with nVidia drivers, you should try "loose binding" in Compiz Fusion (bug with Geforce 8 series). If you use Fusion Icon, just right click it, then "Compiz Options"->"Loose Binding".
Template:Box Note With 180.x series of proprietary NVidia driver, suspend does not work properly, using 177.x series helps but it's slower in 2d rendering. Hibernate also works with 180.x series.
With acpi-freq running, you might notice that CPU1 is deactivated after using pm-suspend. To fix this you have to unload acpi-freq module each time pm-suspend is called.
Put this in /etc/pm/sleep.d/66dummy :
#!/bin/bash case $1 in suspend) rmmod -f acpi_cpufreq ;; resume) modprobe acpi_cpufreq ;; *) echo "somebody is calling me totally wrong." ;; esac
Then make it executable :
chmod +x /etc/pm/sleep.d/66dummy
Solution was provided by this forum topic.
Hard Drive
If your hard drive clicks regurlarly, you may suffer from this problem. To fix it, add those lines to your /etc/rc.local :
hdparm -B 254 /dev/sdX >> /dev/null
or :
hdparm -B 224 /dev/sdX >> /dev/null
(replace X in "sdX" by the letter of your drive, e.g : sda)
When resuming from a pm-suspend, you might notice that this damn hard drive is clicking again. To fix this, modify your /etc/pm/sleep.d/66dummy to put the lines above. Following the last example in previous suspend section :
case $1 in suspend) rmmod -f acpi_cpufreq ;; resume) modprobe acpi_cpufreq hdparm -B 224 /dev/sda >> /dev/null ;; *) echo "somebody is calling me totally wrong." ;; esac
If not already done, make it executable.
SD Card Reader
The device is recognized by the kernel. The Adapter module is: sdhci
The card will be availabe for mounting under the device:
If this is the case, you can try to fix / replace / install the needed hardware according the following: [2], [3], [4]
For kernels prior to 2.6.26,you have to install linux-uvc drivers to have a working webcam (works for both VGA webcam from LED display and HD webcam from CCFL display apparently) :
pacman -S linux-uvc-svn
Then you have to load corresponding modules :
modprobe usbvision modprobe uvcvideo
If you want them to be loaded at startup, put usbvision and uvcvideo in the MODULES section of /etc/rc.conf.
Sensors / Hardware info
Install i8k packages :
pacman -S i8kmon i8kutils
This will provide many useful information (temperature, fan speed, bios...) and utilities (fan monitor, bios update...). For CPU temps, use Lm sensors.
Extra media keys
- They are recognized by default with evdev so you can directly bind them.
If you use Gnome, go in System->Preferences->Keyboard Shortcuts.
The remote control should work fine too.
- If you are not using evdev you can still map those keys with xmodmap.
First you need to identify the corresponding keycodes, for instance, running xev, and map them with an ~/.Xmodmap file. Here is my ~/.Xmodmap file that you can copy (it may not work on your own machine - try xev first):
keycode 144 = XF86AudioPrev keycode 153 = XF86AudioNext keycode 160 = XF86AudioMute keycode 162 = XF86AudioPause keycode 164 = XF86AudioStop keycode 174 = XF86AudioLowerVolume keycode 176 = XF86AudioRaiseVolume keycode 222 = XF86PowerDown
You can now load the mappings with:
xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap
If you are using a lightweight window manager like Openbox or Awesome then you might want to use xbindkeys to set the mapped keys to functions like so:
"amixer set Master mute" m:0x0 + c:121 XF86AudioMute "amixer set Master 1dB+ unmute" m:0x0 + c:122 XF86AudioLowerVolume "amixer set Master 1dB+ unmute" m:0x0 + c:123 XF86AudioRaiseVolume
Now use xbindkeys -mk to get your own codes and assign functions to them and put them in .xbindkeysrc and also load xmodmap and xbindkeys in your .xinitrc:
xmodmap $HOME/.Xmodmap & xbindkeys &
If you are running XFCE, you'll notice that XF86AudioLowerVolume, XF86AudioRaiseVolume and XF86AudioMute are binded to the aumix command. So you'll need to install it:
pacman -S aumix-gtk
Or remap them to something like this "amixer sset PCM 5+" for instance.
- KDE 3.5.x/4.x.x.
First of all in KDE you can enable the multimedia keys by choosing the "Dell Laptop/notebook 6xxx/8xxx" layout in System Settings -> Regional and Language -> Keyboard Layout. Alternatively, you can disable keyboard layouts in KDE and add the following in the "InputDevice" section for your keyboard:
Option "XkbLayout" <your preferred language here, e.g., "us"> Option "XkbModel" "inspiron" Option "XkbRules" "xorg" #Option "XkbVariant" "nodeadkeys" # Variant options, if you need them
Next, you can bind the multimedia-key actions to your needs with Keyboard Shortcuts in System Settings (different places depending on KDE version), e.g., in KMix bind "Toggle Mute - Front, HDA Intel" to the mute button etc..
- In KDE 3.5.x/4.x.x I experience the multimedia keys repeat 2-4 times on each keypress.
This may apply to other DE's as well.
The problem is related to the autorepeat settings for the keyboard, as each keypress on the multimedia-keys lasts ~660ms, which is below the default keyrepeat hold-time setting.
Add the following setting to the "InputDevice" section for your keyboard:
Option "AutoRepeat" "700 20" # First time is the hold-time in ms before autorepeat starts, # second is the repeats per second. # Experiment with hold-times of ~680-700ms to find the lowest possible.
In KDE 3.5.x the autorepeat settings can be set in System Settings instead. I think the KDE 4.x.x system (needs confirmation) does not agree to the autorepeat setting in xorg.conf and you cannot set them in System Settings currently (<= 4.1.2).
In my case (KDE 4.x.x), the autorepeat still makes the auto-repeat activate when pressing the multimedia keys. I found out though, that the setting in gnome-control-center -> Keyboard -> Repeat Keys settings actually make the multimedia keys work as they should, after adjusting the Delay slider. Even on the default setting, they work, the gnome settings just have to be activated, which gnome-settings-daemon may take care of. Thus, add gnome-settings-daemon to you autostarts in KDE and you have nice auto-repeat settings and your multimedia keys actually work!
The latter feature/bug? with the gnome-control-center fixing it, lost my attention for a long while, so I hope this can help others solving this annoyance faster.
You can perform bios updates under GNU/Linux ! Just install i8kutils :
pacman -S i8kutils
Download latest bios (A15) here (.hdr file). This bios is for device ID 0x0209. You can check your device ID by installing libsmbios :
pacman -S libsmbios
and then :
You can find other bios fitting your system ID there.
Then go in the directory where you downloaded the bios and type as root :
modprobe dell_rbu
dellBiosUpdate -u -f ./bios.hdr
Reboot, stare at the white frightening screen saying "Bios update" for an endless minute. Listen to the sweet vacuum-like full speed sound of your fans just before it reboots automatically. Then observe the boot screen with Dell logo displayed much longer than usual. Sweep the sweat on your forehead. You're done !
History of BIOS Revisions
Check this thread from NoteBook Review for detailed info.
A10 : May '08
- The only enhancement I noticed with this bios is that you can now eject a CD/DVD without freezing your system (this was really a weird behaviour !). Please upgrade to A11 or A12 if you are currently using A10 !
A11 : Jun '08
- Fixing overheating issues introduced with A10 bios.
A12 : Jul '08
- Other thermal enhancements. Temperatures are lower for me but the fan is always running.
A13 : Oct '08 (removed-from-the-official-list)
- Added support for new versions of Intel CPUs.
- Added support for 8GB memory.
A14 : Nov '08
- Added enhancement for Wifi sniffer function.
A15 : Jan '09
- Enhance Fn+F8 function (probably only for Intel integrated graphics)
- Support for 8GB memory is... back!
External Resources
This page describes all of the various driver modules required to make the hardware in the XPS M1330 work.
French speaking people can also refer to these articles.


text:
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Hanneman, one of the founding members of thrash metal band Slayer, died this week at the super young age of 49—and some believe his untimely passing had something to do with a spider bite he sustained. Apparently, he almost lost his arm after the potentially fatal nip, the effects of which might be connected to his death by liver failure.
While we may never know for sure what caused Hanneman's too-soon demise, we'll gladly continue to shriek and run when confronted with a gnarly arachnid. You can never be too careful, right?
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Photo: thinkstockphoto

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text:
Justin Rogers' grasp on the Buffalo Bills' nickel cornerback job could be slipping.
"You know, he's been up and down. He played with a lot of confidence early in the season and then as of late he hasn't played with as much confidence. You can see it in his play," coach Chan Gailey said of Rogers, a second-year player out of Richmond. "He's still got, I think, the ability to do some things. I feel like sometimes his confidence wavers and that gets him in trouble. He needs to play with a great deal of confidence. I think that he can be a decent player, but he's got to go out and do it every down."
Rogers has allowed opposing quarterbacks to complete 65 percent of passes thrown at him this season and compile a quarterback rating of 92.4, according to statistics from the website profootballfocus.com.
Sunday against the Colts, Rogers was hit with a 23-yard pass interference penalty while defending Reggie Wayne and gave up a back-breaking 8-yard touchdown pass to T.Y. Hilton on third-and-goal in the third quarter of the Bills' 20-13 loss.
Given Rogers' dip in play, Gailey was asked Monday whether he'd consider rookie cornerback Ron Brooks as an option in the nickel role.
"I don't think he is. I think our first choice would be to move Leodis [McKelvin] in there before we move Brooks in there. Leodis played it in the spring and played it in preseason and showed some good things in there," Gailey said. "Brooks, missing all that time, hasn't had enough practice or even thought process in the whole thing."
Asked if that was a move he was considering for this week's game against Jacksonville, the coach offered only a cryptic "maybe."
The role of nickel cornerback in today's NFL is one of the most challenging on a defense. Offenses will increasingly shift their No. 1 receivers into the slot, especially on third down, because it's an effective way for them to get away from jams at the line of scrimmages.
"It's extremely difficult, but with it being difficult, I take that as a challenge," said the 24-year-old Rogers. "It's still a work in progress. I think I'm doing pretty good. I'm a lot further along than I was last year. In the nickel role, things are always evolving, different situations, different patterns."
Rogers gave up two completions to Wayne on Sunday, including one in the first quarter in which the Colts lined their star receiver up outside, then got him matched up with Rogers by running a shallow crossing route with the slot receiver. Rogers had pretty good coverage, but a strong throw from quarterback Andrew Luck went for a 10-yard gain.
"It's getting tougher and tougher as I see football go on [because of] people trying to match up with those guys inside," Gailey said of the slot cornerback role.
Slot receivers also have the advantage of working the entire field.
"They can go left and right. On the outside as a corner, you can use the sideline to your advantage and kind of take away part of the field. When you put a guy in the slot, he's got the whole field to work," Rogers said. "It's the emergence of the slot receiver in today's game. I just see it as a challenge and try and go out and do my best."
The AFC East is a brutal division for slot corners. New England features the preeminent slot receiver in the NFL in Wes Welker, while Miami's Davone Bess and the New York Jets' Jeremy Kerley have a combined 90 catches this year. Rogers' biggest gaffe this season came against Tennessee, when he allowed a go-ahead touchdown to the Titans' Nate Washington with 1:03 left.
"You're going against elite guys, so it's a challenge," Rogers said.
If Gailey does decide to move McKelvin back inside, it's likely Brooks would line up outside along with Stephon Gilmore. Second-year man Aaron Williams remains out of the lineup because of a knee injury.
"I'm feeling pretty good. Just waiting for my shot," said Brooks, the rookie from LSU, who saw 11 defensive snaps (15 percent) against the Colts, the first significant defensive action of his career. "As a competitor and as a person who plays the game and loves the game like I do, it's big. You've got to keep going out and fighting. "
email: email@example.com


text:
Here some tips on how to heal the last 3 encounters in MSV, including the best time to use cooldowns and which talents, glyphs and symbiosis targets are optimal for each fight. Tips for healing the first 3 bosses, along with some general advice can be found in my last post.
Spirit Kings
The Spirit Kings fight is mainly about your raid avoiding damage. The damage on this fight is low – if people are getting caught my the bosses abilities they will likely die immediately, they can't be healed through things like Annihilate, Flanking Orders or the most damaging Volley. This fight also only requires one tank.
While Qiang the Merciless is active, healing requirements are low. The whole raid will take a bit of damage from Massive Attacks, but it doesn't happen that often and doesn't hit that hard. The other damaging attacks during this phase (Annihilate and Flanking Orders) will kill anyone caught in them immediately.
When Subetai the Swift is active, you'll be doing more spot healing. People caught in the first round or two of Volley will need some quick heals (though if they get caught in the 3rd round they'll die) and those hit with Pinning Arrow will also need some heals until they are freed.
When Zian of the Endless Shadow is up, damage is low of people are properly spread out. If not, some group healing will be needed.
The healing requirements go up slightly when Meng the Demented is active – Maddening Shout can bring your whole raid fairly low on health and dps seem to like to hurt themselves with Cowardice.
Level 60 – SotF or Incarnation
I think both of these talents have their strengths on this fight. Soul of the Forest is nice while Qiang or Meng is up to heal people up more quickly with WG. However this is a movement heavy fight, so the utility of Incarnation is good too.
Level 90 – Heart of the Wild
The healing requirements on this fight are fairly low but the dps requirements are higher. This is also a long fight, so I love HotW for this. You can use this twice during the fight and put out some respectable damage on the boss.
There are a few decent choices for this. You could use it on a Shaman so you can cast Spiritwalker's Grace before you use Tranquility. If you have people who like to stand in Flanking Orders or Volleys, you could use it on a Priest for Leap of Faith. If you have a habit of standing in the bad you could use it on a Mage for Ice Block (or just stop standing in bad).
Tranquility -This is a long fight so you should be able to use Tranq 3 times. I will generally use it near the start of the fight, after Massive Attacks. When Meng is up it is great after a Maddening Shout, when your raid is low on health.If Ziang or Subetai are up, the damage will really depend on how good your raid is avoiding it, so just use it when a number of people get low.
Heart of the Wild – I like to use this at the beginning of the fight while Qiang is up, then do kitty dps. Use it again when it comes off cooldown, though if Meng is up, you may want to wait.
Ironbark – There's not really anything in this fight that makes the tank take more damage, so there's no real best time to use this. I try to use it on the tank when people are going to be moving (Flanking Orders are about to come through the raid, Pillage is about to happen, etc.)
Elegon is a really fun, and often challenging fight to heal. First, a tip for any healer or ranged – if you stand just on the outer lip of the Energy Vortex you just have to jump to clear your Overcharged stack. Once you get the positioning down, you can clear your stacks often without any downtime.
Phase 1 has spiky damage on random players throughout (from Arcing Energy), large amounts of damage that hit the whole raid (from Stability Flux and Total Annihilation) and the tank damage can also get dicey as the tanks' Overcharged stacks build up. There is also a magic effect applied to players that reduces healing taken that should be dispelled. I try to be conservative with my mana during the times when Protectors are not out and doing a ton of raid damage. When the Protectors reach 25% health, then you're going to want to start casting a lot of raid heals – get Swiftmend down under the ranged or melee group, cast WG on cooldown, spot heal with Rejuvs and Regrowths. You want to make sure that people are at safe levels of health before Total Annihilation goes off. Mushrooms can be set up pre-pull along with during downtimes and Bloomed when the Protectors die.
In phase 2, the raid damage is very predicatable. When Energy Charges die, they blow up and damage the whole raid. This is the only damage going out during this phase. Just make sure people get topped up after each Charge explosion so they can handle the next one. There isn't a whole lot of healing needed here, so I generally try to throw out a few Moonfires and Wraths in order to help get the later round of Energy Charges down.
The beginning of phase 3 has no raid damage. When the Pillars appear I will switch into cat form and help dps one of the pillars (I use cat instead of casting spells so I don't spend any mana). The raid will not start taking damage until a pillar is killed. Once that happens, you'll need to start healing the people on your side, and will need to heal the tank who is picking up Sparks.
The last phase of the fight is basically a dps race, with the entire raid taking increasing amounts of damage. This is when you need to do as much raid healing as possible and chained cooldowns come in handy.
Level 60 – Soul of the Forest
Initially I used Incarnation for this fight, but I now find that the damage patterns suit Soul of the Forest really well. Whenever a Protector is dying, you'll want to follow up a Swiftmend with a WG to get people healed up as quickly as possible. If the Protector is not out when your SM is off cooldown, follow it up with a Rejuv or a Lifebloom application on the tank to maximize the healing there. In Phase 2, try to time a SM > WG for after the round of Energy Charges die.
Level 90 – Nature's Vigil
While the damage from Heart of the Wild can be extremely handy during phase 2, the timing of the fight means that you'll likely only get to use this once. So I prefer Nature's Vigil. There are many times when the extra healing is useful and you can likely use this 3 times during the fight.
I like to use Symbiosis on a Monk or DK for this fight so I have more damage mitigation abilities.
Tranquility – You should be able to use this 3 times during the fight. You can use it while a Protector is dying during phase 1 (both before 85% and for the next phase 1), and then again during the last phase.
Nature's Vigil – Like Tranq, you should be able to use this 3 times during the fight. You can follow the same strategy for this spell as for Tranq.
Ironbark – Use this on a tank when they are tanking the boss and their Overcharged stacks are getting high.
Will of the Emperor
This is a long fight. For the most part, the raid doesn't take too much damage, but the tanks take a major beating so most of the healing should be focused on them. Keep a full stack of Lifebloom and a Rejuv on your tank along with a steady stream of direct heals. Unless the raid's doing something really wrong, I find I don't have to do a lot of raid healing aside from tossing out WGs once in a while. I also try to keep a Rejuv up on the other tank and the people on the Strengths. The only exception to this is when Titan Gas is happening. Then the raid will need a lot of healing and the tanks will be taking extra damage as well.
One thing I really like about being a Druid on this fight is that I feel our talents let us help out a lot with controlling the Rages.
Level 45 – Typhoon
Typhoon is very handy for knocking back Rages when they get too close to the ranged group. I used this ability 30 times over the course of the fight on my first kill.
Level 60 – Incarnation
Since this fight is so long, I find the utility and mana benefits that come from Incarnation outweigh the benefits of the other talents. Use ToL often (you should be able to get in 4 uses if you use it early).
Level 75 – Ursol's Vortex
This is also very handy for dealing with Rages. You should be able to use this spell every second time they spawn. Place it between the Rages and the ranged group.
Level 90 – Nature's Vigil
The extra healing output from this is very helpful for tank healing, and you should be able to use it 4 times over the course of the fight.
On this fight I'll generally go with a Monk so I can use Fortifying Brew during the Titan Gas.
Tranquility – This is best used during Titan Gas. You'll only be able to use it on every 2nd one.
Incarnation – Not much goes on at the start of the fight, so use this the first time when the bosses come out. Get LB stacks rolling on both tanks and get as many free Regrowths as possible. The 15% increased healing helps too. Use ToL whenever it's available after that.
Nature's Vigil – I recommend using this right after Incarnation each time.
Ironbark – The tanks take a beating, so make sure you're using this as much as possible. I like to put Ironbark on my tank before I start channeling Tranquility during Titan Gas. Outside of that, just time it so you can use it often. The only bad time to use it is when the boss is doing Devastating Combo, as the tank should not be taking damage then.
Happy healing!


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On his Sociological Eye on Education blog for the Hechinger Report, Aaron Pallas writes that in April 2011, Carolyn Abbott, who teaches mathematics to seventh- and eighth-graders at the Anderson School, a citywide gifted-and-talented school in Manhattan, received startling news. Her score on the NYC Department of Education's value-added measurement indicated only 32 percent of seventh-grade math teachers and 0 percent of eighth-grade math teachers scored worse than she. According to calculations, she was the worst eighth-grade math teacher in the city, where she has taught since 2007.
Here's the math: After a year in her classroom, her seventh-grade students scored at the 98th percentile of city students on the 2009 state test. As eighth-graders, they were predicted to score at the 97th percentile. Yet their actual performance was at the 89th percentile of students across the city, a shortfall -- 97th percentile to 89th percentile -- that placed Abbott near the rock bottom of 1,300 eighth-grade mathematics teachers. Anderson is an unusual school; the material on the state eighth-grade math exam is taught in the fifth or sixth grade. "I don't teach the curriculum they're being tested on," Abbott explained. "It feels like I'm being graded on somebody else's work." The math she teaches is more advanced, culminating in high-school level work and the New York State's Regents exam in Integrated Algebra. Of her students taking the Regents in January, all passed with flying colors, more than a third achieving a perfect score of 100.
This summer, the state will release a new iteration of the Teacher Data Reports. For Abbott, these will be a mere curiosity. She has decided to leave the classroom, and is entering the Ph.D. program in mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this fall.
[readon2 url="http://eyeoned.org/content/the-worst-eighth-grade-math-teacher-in-new-york-city_326/"]Read more...[/readon2]


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Swimming Pool Blog
by Mark Garcia April 22, 2014
Replacing an Above Ground Pool Liner
For above ground pools, dropping in a new liner is an easy weekend project, and a fast way to give your pool a facelift.
I like to replace my liner about every 5-10 years. Once you start to develop holes that seem to come from nowhere, it can grow into an entire season of chasing little leaks.
Or, a liner can be replaced for appearances sake, if you have rust, stains, fading or ugly patches.
If you have never replaced your own above ground pool liner - it's easy! And, you can save lots of money, sometimes doing it for a third of what pool companies may charge you.
Why pay over $900-1200 to have your liner replaced? Do it yourself, for just $300-500!
Step One: Drain the Pool
This is the step that really throws people off, if they don't have a small submersible pump. A $60 pool cover pump will work. Maybe a neighbor has a sump pump you can borrow, or you can rent one from a rental shop for about $20 per day.
Use enough hose to pump the water away from the pool a distance, just to keep it dry around and under the pool.
Step Two: Remove the Liner
Once all of the water is nearly out, use a razor knife to cut the liner at the bottom of the wall, just above the floor. Then cut the liner vertically with several cuts. Remove the faceplate screws for the skimmer and return, and place these in a safe place. Remove the liner from the track, or remove the coping clips, for overlap liners, and roll the old liner up into strips that you can remove from the pool.
With a helper, pull the floor liner piece inwards, to pool any remaining water in the center and pump it out. You can spill a few gallons, but try to get most of it pumped out, to keep the floor as dry as possible.
Step Three: Floor and Wall Prep
Inspect your walls for any rust or dust. If rusty, scrape and paint with a Rust-O-leum type paint. If your wall is rough or rusty, you should use wall foam to protect your new liner. Order a roll large enough for your pool perimeter, and a few cans of spray adhesive.
If you find any crimps or dents on your walls, you can place 2x4's on either side of the wall, and use a large hammer to smooth out the wall.
For the floor, a sand bottom will require that you trowel it smooth, to remove any footprints and uneven areas. Use a flat trowel, with rounded ends to reduce high spots and fill low spots. You can add a little bit of sand, but not too much, or a beaded liner may no longer fit properly. If you want to take an easier route, lay down Liner Guard floor padding
A cement pool floor or vermiculite bottom usually just needs to be swept clean. Any divots or cracks can be patched.
Step Four: Install the New Liner
For pools with no deck, lay the box in the middle of the pool and pull the liner out. Unfold it and open it to the width of the pool, and begin to lock the bead into the track, or pull the liner over the wall, and clip it into place. Exit the pool, and then lock the remaining liner evenly around the pool - from outside of the pool, to keep the floor smooth.
For pools with a deck, lay the liner on the deck and pull it across the pool, being careful not to snag the vinyl on anything sharp. Lock the liner in place in a few spots, and then work opposite each other until the liner is locked into the track, or pulled over the pool wall, all around the pool.
Make adjustments as necessary so that the liner is hanging straight down the walls (not twisted), and so that the liner is just barely touching the center of the pool floor, and is an inch or two above the floor near the walls. This will give it the room to stretch into shape without forming wrinkles.
Step Five: Fill the Pool
With pool liner in place, you can begin to fill the pool from the garden hose. Most hoses will add 1000 gallons in about 2 hours, so depending on your pool size, you may have to wait awhile. Continue filling until full, and then screw in the faceplates of your skimmer and return, with new gaskets. Tighten down very tightly, and use a large (#3) Philips head screwdriver to torque them until the plastic creaks and squeaks.
Connect your hoses from the pool skimmer and return to your pump and filter, and then you can cut out the vinyl piece inside of the faceplate, with your razor knife. Prime up the pump and start filtering the water! Finish up with testing and balancing your pool water, and start adding sanitizer.
Depending on how fast you can drain and refill the pool, replacing your own aboveground pool liner can be done in 1-3 days. The real 'work' of the job, steps 2, 3 and 4, should take no more than 3-6 hours of time. Not a bad investment to save $500-700!
Check out our pool liner styles, and aboveground pool liner accessories and pick a weekend! You can do this!
Thanks for Reading!
Mark Garcia


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American International Contractors, Inc.
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AICI is a design/build international construction firm specializing in US-funded Middle East and African infrastructure projects.
Marine Railway, Egypt
The Abu Qir Harbor project was valued at $11.5M. The client was the US Army Corps of Engineers.
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The King Abdullah Special Operations Training Facility in Jordan was valued at $75.5M. The client was the US Army Corps of Engineers.
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The Bucharest, Romania project was valued at $136.4M. The client was the US State Department.
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The Valletta, Malta project was valued at $87.5M. The client was the US State Department.
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US Embassy, Latvia
The Riga, Latvia project was valued at $95.1M. The client was the US State Department.
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The US embassy in Jordan was valued at $38.7M. The client was the US State Department.
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AICI has a proven track record of successfully completing a wide range of projects in various locations throughout the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Since 1974, AICI has served clients in both the public and private sectors. Its public sector clients include US government agencies such as the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC), the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and the US Department of State Bureau of Overseas Building Operations (OBO).
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AICI provides versatility in the manner in which it delivers its projects to the client, including the designbuild process and execution of the construction effort through selfperformance or management of subcontractors. This versatility enables AICI to provide its clients with quality facilities—on time and safely—at the best value for their investment.
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AICI was established in 1974, initially operating under the name of the George A. Fuller Company and then changing its name in 1989. We are headquartered in Arlington, Virginia with an international operations office in Cairo, Egypt. AICI also draws upon the significant resources of its parent company,
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Did Man Play Russian Roulette With His Dog and Lose?
Drinking moonshine was probably the most reasonable thing Russell Little did on Tuesday night. The least reasonable thing he did: put a gun to his head, and also to his dog's head, in a game of Russian Roulette.
At least that's what news reports say Little was doing on Tuesday night; it seems that some of the facts about the South Bend, Indiana man's death are in dispute. One thing's certain, though: If a Russian Roulette game did occur, the dog won.
Little's wife told police he was sitting in the backyard depressed and drinking moonshine when he took a handgun and began playing Russian roulette with the pet dog at about 9 p.m.
After a couple of empty clicks aimed at the dogs head, "She said he got tired of that, then put the gun to his own head and pulled the trigger," said Capt. Jim Andrews of the South Bend Police Department.
Though originally regarded as a homicide, Little's death is now being investigated by the South Bend Metro Homicide unit, who cite other shootings in the city in recent weeks. Meanwhile, several Internet commenters who claim to have known Little and his family—or who might even be Little's family members—tell a story quite different from what's being reported. A person going by the name "Nicole" says:
I know personally the facts in this story are FALSE. Reporters need to take care and be sure they KNOW all the facts before posting stories that could make a devestating situation even worse for the victims family. Mr. Little was NOT playing Russian roulette with his dogs, he loved his dogs...nor was he drinking 'moonshine'. He was a loving and devoted father husband, friend, AND proud dog owner. He will be sorely missed and remembered fondly.
And "Charles" says:
I did know Russ and he was a good man that was sick and his wife was trying to get help for depression but doctors said he would get over it.. You all need to back off. I wish the dog would have been shot then maybe he would have got the help he needed and not lost a friend and two kids would have not lost a dad. There is more to the story the what is being told.
To be fair, the best outcome would have involved nobody getting shot, either Little or his dog. [South Bend Tribune, WNDU. Image Sbolotova via Shutterstock.]


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The writer E. B. White famously remarked that "analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies." If that's true, an amphibian genocide took place in San Antonio this past January. Academics from around the world gathered there for the first-ever comedy symposium cosponsored by the Mind Science Foundation.
The goal wasn't to tell jokes but to assess exactly what a joke is, how it works, and what this thing called "funny" really is, in a neurological, sociological, and psychological sense. As Sean Guillory, a Dartmouth College neuroscience grad student who organized the event, says, "It's the first time a roomful of empirical humor researchers have ever gotten together!"
The first speaker at the podium, University of Western Ontario professor Rod Martin, began with a lament over the lack of comedy scholarship. He pointed out that you could fill a library with analyses of subjects like mental illness or aggression. Meanwhile, the 1,700-plus-page Handbook of Social Psychology—the preeminent reference work in its field—mentions humor once.
The crux of Martin's argument involves semantics. It takes issue with the imperfect terminology we use to describe the emotional state that humor triggers. Standardizing language would help humor studies earn the respect of related fields, like aggression research. Martin exhorted his audience to adopt his preferred word for the "pleasurable feeling, joy, gaiety of mind" that humor elicits. Happiness, elation, and even hilarity don't quite fit, to his mind. The best word, he said, is mirth.
For those curious about the physiology of humor, Helmut Karl Lackner of the Medical University of Graz, Austria, presented his research on the relationship between humor, stress, and respiration. By tracking breathing cycles and heart rates, he has determined that social anxiety makes things less funny. (Fittingly, he seemed nervous as he read his paper in halting English.) Nina Strohminger, a researcher at the University of Michigan, explained how she's been exposing test subjects to unpleasant odors. She extolled the virtues of a spray called Liquid Ass, which can be purchased at fine novelty stores everywhere. (Her conclusion: Farts make everything funnier.) The audience members take the subject of amusement very seriously, yet they couldn't help but chuckle at this.
Other speakers peppered their talks with multivariate ANOVAs and mesolimbic reward systems. Some presented research on whether people with Asperger's syndrome get jokes and how to determine the social consequences of put-downs. But as the sessions wound on, no one had addressed the underlying mechanism of comedy: What, exactly, makes things funny?
That question was the core of Peter McGraw's lecture. A lanky 41-year-old professor of marketing and psychology at the University of Colorado Boulder, McGraw thinks he has found the answer, and it starts with a tickle. "Who here doesn't like to be tickled?"
A good number of hands shot up. "Yet you laugh," he said, flashing a goofy grin. "You experience some pleasurable reaction even as you resist and say you don't like it."
If you really stop to think about it, McGraw continued, it's a complex and fascinating phenomenon. If someone touches you in certain places in a certain way, it prompts an involuntary but pleasurable physiological response. Except, of course, when it doesn't. "When does tickling cease to be funny?" McGraw asked. "When you try to tickle yourself … Or if some stranger in a trench coat tickles you." The audience cracked up. He was working the room like a stand-up comic.
Many would assert that this tickling conundrum is the perfect evidence that humor is utterly relative. There may be many types of humor, maybe as many kinds as there are variations in laughter, guffaws, hoots, and chortles. But McGraw doesn't think so. He has devised a simple, Grand Unified Theory of humor—in his words, "a parsimonious account of what makes things funny." McGraw calls it the benign violation theory, and he insists that it can explain the function of every imaginable type of humor. And not just what makes things funny, but why certain things aren't funny. "My theory also explains nervous laughter, racist or sexist jokes, and toilet humor," he told his fellow humor researchers.
Coming up with an essential description of comedy isn't just an intellectual exercise. If the BVT actually is an unerring predictor of what's funny, it could be invaluable. It could have warned Groupon that its Super Bowl ad making light of Tibetan injustices would bomb. The Love Guru could've been axed before production began. Podium banter at the Oscars could be less excruciating. If someone could crack the humor code, they could get very rich. Or at least tenure.
It's a wintry February afternoon in Boulder and a 53-year-old tech worker named Kyle fires up a joint he obtained from a medical marijuana dispensary. After smoking his medicine and waiting 15 minutes for it to take effect, Kyle opens a 10-page printed questionnaire. He sees a Photoshopped image of a man picking his nose so vigorously that his finger pokes out of his eye socket. "To what extent is this picture funny?" the survey asks, inviting Kyle to rate the picture on a scale of 0 to 5. He gives it a 3.
Kyle is one of 50 or so marijuana aficionados who have volunteered to take part in a study run by McGraw's laboratory at CU-Boulder—the Humor Research Lab, or HuRL for short. Founded in 2009, HuRL is unorthodox, to put it mildly, even for academia. But McGraw is doing serious enough work at HuRL to have earned two grants from the Marketing Science Institute, a nonprofit funded by respectable organizations like Bank of America, Pfizer, and IBM. The professor and a team of seven student researchers have been asking test subjects to gauge whether Hot Tub Time Machine is funnier if you sit close to the screen or far away. They show subjects a YouTube video of a guy driving a motorcycle into a fence over and over again to see when it ceases to be amusing.
The medical marijuana patients will help HuRL researchers answer a momentous question: Can smoking pot make things more funny? The answer may seem forehead-smackingly obvious, but according to McGraw it's impossible to know for sure without applying scientific rigor. "Your intuition often leads you astray," he says. "It's only within the lab that you can set different theories against one another." McGraw believes that the tests will ultimately prove that marijuana does in fact make broad sight gags more funny. But he needs more data before he can be certain. He's begun soliciting input from more potheads through Amazon.com's crowdsourcing marketplace, Mechanical Turk.
McGraw didn't set out to become a humorologist. His background is in marketing and consumer decisionmaking, especially the way moral transgressions and breaches of decorum affect the perceived value of things. For instance, he studied a Florida megachurch that tarnished its reputation when it tried to reward attendees with glitzy prizes. The church's promise to raffle off a Hummer H2 to some lucky congregant was met with controversy in the community—what the hell did that have to do with eternal salvation? But when McGraw related the anecdote at presentations, it prompted laughter—a holy Hummer!—rather than repulsion. This confused him.
"It had never crossed my mind that moral violations could be amusing," McGraw says. He became increasingly preoccupied with the conundrum he saw at the heart of humor: Why do people laugh at horrible things like stereotypes, embarrassment, and pain? Basically, why is Sarah Silverman funny?
Philosophers had pondered this sort of question for millennia, long before anyone thought to examine it in a lab. Plato, Aristotle, and Thomas Hobbes posited the superiority theory of humor, which states that we find the misfortune of others amusing. Sigmund Freud espoused the relief theory, which states that comedy is a way for people to release suppressed thoughts and emotions safely. Incongruity theory, associated with Immanuel Kant, suggests that jokes happen when people notice the disconnect between their expectations and the actual payoff.
But McGraw didn't find any of these explanations satisfactory. "You need to add conditions to explain particular incidents of humor, and even then they still struggle," he says. Freud is great for jokes about bodily functions. Incongruity explains Monty Python. Hobbes nails Henny Youngman. But no single theory explains all types of comedy. They also short-circuit when it comes to describing why some things aren't funny. McGraw points out that killing a loved one in a fit of rage would be incongruous, it would assert superiority, and it would release pent-up tension, but it would hardly be hilarious.
These glaringly incomplete descriptions of humor offended McGraw's need for order. His duty was clear. "A single theory provides a set of guiding principals that make the world a more organized place," he says.
McGraw and Caleb Warren, a doctoral student, presented their elegantly simple formulation in the August 2010 issue of the journal Psychological Science. Their paper, "Benign Violations: Making Immoral Behavior Funny," cited scores of philosophers, psychologists, and neuroscientists (as well as Mel Brooks and Carol Burnett). The theory they lay out: "Laughter and amusement result from violations that are simultaneously seen as benign." That is, they perceive a violation—"of personal dignity (e.g., slapstick, physical deformities), linguistic norms (e.g., unusual accents, malapropisms), social norms (e.g., eating from a sterile bedpan, strange behaviors), and even moral norms (e.g., bestiality, disrespectful behaviors)"—while simultaneously recognizing that the violation doesn't pose a threat to them or their worldview. The theory is ludicrously, vaporously simple. But extensive field tests revealed nuances, variables that determined exactly how funny a joke was perceived to be.
McGraw had his HuRL team present scenarios to hundreds of CU-Boulder students. (Some were bribed with candy bars to participate.) Multiple versions of scenarios were formulated, a few too anodyne to be amusing and some too disgusting for words. Ultimately, McGraw determined that funniness could be predicted based on how committed a person is to the norm being violated, conflicts between two salient norms, and psychological distance from the perceived violation.
The ultimate takeaway of McGraw's paper was that the evolutionary purpose of laughter and amusement is to "signal to the world that a violation is indeed OK." Building on the work of behavioral neurologist V. S. Ramachandran, McGraw believes that laughter developed as an instinctual way to signal that a threat is actually a false alarm—say, that a rustle in the bushes is the wind, not a saber-toothed tiger. "Organisms that could separate benign violations from real threats benefited greatly," McGraw says.
The professor was able to plug the BVT into every form of humor. Dirty jokes violate social norms in a benign way because the traveling salesmen and farmers' daughters that populate them are not real. Punch lines make people laugh because they gently violate the expectations that the jokes set up. The BVT also explains Sarah Silverman, McGraw says; the appalling things that come out of her mouth register as benign because she seems so oblivious to their offensiveness, and "because she's so darn cute." Even tickling, long a stumbling block for humor theorists, appears to fit. Tickling yourself can't be a violation, because you can't take yourself by surprise. Being tickled by a stranger in a trench coat isn't benign; it's creepy. Only tickling by someone you know and trust can be a benign violation.
McGraw and the HuRL team continue to test the theory even as they begin to deploy it in the real world. They've partnered with mShopper, a mobile commerce service, to see whether BVT-tested humor can make text-message product offers more compelling. They've also launched FunnyPoliceReports .com, which aggregates law enforcement dispatches that are likely to amuse readers, such as a woman who called the cops when she was sold fake cocaine.
If the website sounds sort of like FAIL Blog, that's no accident. McGraw knows Ben Huh, CEO of the Cheezburger Network, who has been using HuRL's findings to help determine what content and features have the potential to be the next big meme. The lolcats baron points to a recent post about a priest cracking down on cell phones in church after a parishioner's "Stayin' Alive" ringtone went off during a funeral. "The benign violation theory applies to that," Huh says. "I'm a guy who makes his living off of Internet humor, and McGraw's model fits really well. He's just a lot more right than anyone else."
The conference in San Antonio was the first time McGraw presented his theory to other humor researchers. His well-honed delivery gets a lot of laughs, but his theory ultimately receives the same polite applause as everything else. There are no stunned looks of amazement in the audience, no rumblings of a field torn asunder.
Maybe it's because a discipline that can't even agree on what to call the response elicited by humor isn't ready for a universal theory of humor. At this point, there's still no single way to measure it. (The International Society for Humor Studies lists 14 tests and scales for measuring humor, from the Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale to the Humorous Behavior Q-Sort Deck.)
The BVT also has its fair share of detractors. ISHS president Elliott Oring says, "I didn't see many big differences between this theory and the various formulations of incongruity theory." Victor Raskin, founder of the academic journal Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, is more blunt: "What McGraw has come up with is flawed and bullshit—what kind of a theory is that?" To his mind, the BVT is a "very loose and vague metaphor," not a functional formula like E=mc2. He's also quick to challenge McGraw's standing in the tight-knit community of scholarship: "He is not a humor researcher; he has no status."
McGraw's lecture did impress Robert Mankoff, cartoon editor at The New Yorker, who also gave a presentation in San Antonio. (Fun fact: New Yorker cartoons must endure the infamous rigors of the magazine's fact-checkers; just because a cartoon bluebird can talk doesn't mean it shouldn't resemble a genuine Sialia.) After the symposium ended, he offered to provide HuRL with thousands of caption-contest entries to examine. Mankoff says he admires McGraw's work, "and I admire him even more for having the balls to take his theory on the road as stand-up." But he also has a caveat for McGraw and other humor scientists: "All these theories are so general that they're of no use when you're trying to craft a good cartoon." He cites one that he's particularly fond of, an illustration of a Swiss Army knife featuring nothing but corkscrews. The caption reads "French Army knife." No Venn diagram, he says, has ever produced a joke like that.
It's a half hour to showtime at Denver's Paramount Theatre and McGraw is milling around in the lobby, hoping to get green-room access to the comedian Louis CK. The prof is convinced that his theory works in the lab, and he's increasingly interested in testing it in the wild. Kind words from Huh and Mankoff are fine, but the endorsement of a comedian with his own eponymous show on cable would be invaluable. CK is one of McGraw's favorites. "I am fascinated by his ability to make things funny that I wouldn't have thought could be funny," McGraw says, "how he portrays his role as a father in an unflattering way."
McGraw gets the go-ahead, and with curtain time closing in, he's soon sitting in the presence of his idol. The comedian slumps into a chair, the toll of weeks on the road apparent on his face. Knowing that he has only a few minutes, McGraw gives a nutshell version of his well-honed spiel. He lays out the BVT and describes the tickling conundrum that killed at the humor symposium. But CK cuts him off. "I don't think it's that simple," he says, directing as much attention to a preshow ham sandwich as to McGraw. "There are thousands of kinds of jokes. I just don't believe that there's one explanation."
Oof, tough room. His research dismissed, McGraw casts about for another subject of inquiry. Luckily, he'd polled fellow attendees for questions while waiting for an audience with CK. "A woman in the lobby wants to know how big your penis is," he says.
CK cracks the faintest of smiles, shakes his head. "I am not going to answer that."
"I wouldn't either," McGraw says. With a chuckle he adds, "But I've heard that if you don't answer that, it means it's small."
The silence that follows is so thick you could pound in a nail and hang a painting from it. That last remark is a violation, and it isn't benign. McGraw changes the subject again. "So, you're friends with Chris Rock?" he says. He wonders whether CK could ask Rock for seed funding, even offering to rename his facility the Chris Rock Humor Research Lab (CRoHuRL?).
"No," CK says. This time, there's no smile.
Sensing that his time is up, McGraw heads for the door. He did get one valuable takeaway: "My approach to this sort of research needs to be more professional."
When the show begins a bit later, Louis CK has shed all vestiges of his preshow reticence. It takes only a couple of jokes about slavery to get McGraw chuckling in his front-row seat. By the time the comedian describes having a bizarre dream about Gene Hackman, the professor is completely overcome. His body jerks uncontrollably as he emits a series of deep, braying laughs that end with a little nasal honk. This is full-on mirth.
The other people in the theater are also in hysterics. They don't know exactly why, and maybe it doesn't matter.
Joel Warner (email@example.com) is a staff writer for Westword.Go Back to Top. Skip To: Start of Article.


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Classic Fit Triple Stud Wool Mohair Tailored Trousers
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- Italian-made trousers in a textured Yorkshire-woven wool and mohair blend. The design features a triple-stud detail and flat front, tailored to echo traditional British suiting.
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* The Social Security program itself is race blind; the benefits it pays are a function of a worker's earnings history and family situation.
* Studies show African Americans receive modestly more in Social Security benefits for each dollar they pay in payroll taxes than whites do.
* African Americans earn 73 percent as much as whites, on average, but because of Social Security's progressive benefit structure, their average retirement benefit is about 85 percent as much as whites'.
* Social Security Administration study: Dean Leimer of the Social Security Administration reported that "the results generally support the findings of closely related previous research, confirming that… the 'Other Races' group fared better by these measures than the 'White' race group in most of the cohorts considered." Leimer found that males of "other races" received a 0.4 percent higher annual rate of return, on average, than white males, and females of other races received a 0.7 percent higher average rate of return than white females.
* African Americans benefit disproportionately from Social Security's disability and survivors benefits, since they are more likely than other workers to become disabled or die before retiring. This is reflected in Social Security statistics. African Americans constitute 11.5 percent of all workers who are covered by Social Security but 17.6 percent of Social Security disability beneficiaries. While 15 percent of all U.S. children are African American, 23 percent of the children receiving Social Security survivors benefits are.
* Nearly five million African Americans receive Social Security benefits; roughly half of them are retired workers, and the other half are either disabled workers or the spouses or children of disabled, retired, or deceased workers.
* African Americans also benefit from the fact that Social Security benefits are based on a worker's highest 35 years of earnings. (Earnings in other years are disregarded.) Because African Americans have double the unemployment rates of whites and experience longer average spells of unemployment, they have more years with no earnings than whites do, on average. By not counting some years of little or no earnings in calculating benefits, Social Security benefits African Americans.
* A major Treasury Department study of Social Security retirement and survivors benefits, based on nearly 40,000 actual earnings histories, found that African Americans' average annual rate of return was half a percentage point higher than whites'.
* A Government Accountability Office study found that, on average, non-Hispanic blacks receive nearly 10 percent more in Social Security retirement, disability, and survivors benefits for every tax dollar contributed to the program than non-Hispanic whites do.


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WORK Labs is a creative branding agency located in Richmond, Virginia. Whether we're creating an advertising campaign that will break through the clutter or bringing our own products to market, we know we are ultimately in the idea business. We publish books. We brew our own beer. We're designers, writers, strategists, professors and students. And we're all brought together by one common belief: nothing is more compelling than a smart idea, executed well.
Who Are We Talking To? (The Target)
What do we say? (The Strategy)
How do we say it? (The Creative)
Where do we say it? (The Media)
Was it Effective? (The Research)


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Choosing the best ecommerce web development firm is not an easy job. Hence we are giving you some guidelines to determine the capability of the e-commerce web development firm. These tips will help you to know whether the company is good for your business venture or not. Following these tips will help you to make a wise use of the thousands of dollars that you spend for developing a professional website for your business.
The web development firm should have the range of services that you are looking for. The web development firm that you choose should provide services like e-commerce web development & web hosting, logo design and content management. They should also give updated services for the growth of your business.Try to go through the previous works of the web development firm that you are planning to choose. You can conduct a detailed analysis of their previous works and also compare it with the works of the other leading e-commerce web development firms. If the company is a well established one, you will get these get the details from their website. Make sure that you read all the details given in their website, including the portfolios and testimonials.
Those who are planning to add an online store in to your web design should meet web developers who are experienced in creating shopping carts. They should have the required experience, along with the creativity and imagination to design online stores, so as to make it unique and special. The web design firm should also be capable of catering other e-commerce solutions like internet marketing and advertising.


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National Electrical Installation Standards (NEIS) are now available on CD-ROMs. This format offers improved convenience and functionality for consulting engineers, electrical contractors, plant/facility managers, inspectors, and others.
In addition to offering new features, the NEIS CD-ROM subscription service offers a value-priced alternative to NEIS in paper book form. Four times a year, paid subscribers will receive an updated CD-ROM, containing published NEIS, standards updates, and committee lists. Each new CD-ROM (mailed in spring, summer, fall, and winter) will contain one or more new NEIS since the previous release, an updated "standards in progress" section, and the most current NECA newsletters.
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The Dr. Pat Show: Talk Radio to Thrive By!: The Golden Motorcycle Gang - Best Selling Author and Number One Success Coach, Jack Canfield
11/17/2011 08:00 am PDT
Are you concerned that the planet is at a critical "tipping point" and time is running out? Do you believe your life purpose is to make a positive difference in the world? If so, you may be a member of The Golden Motorcycle Gang
Dr. Pat Baccili
Dr. Pat Baccili helps individuals and organizations break through their limiting Crust so they can reach their unlimited potential. Her specialty is assisting people face t...Find out more »
Jack Canfield
Jack Canfield is the CEO of Chicken Soup for the Soul Enterprises, a billion dollar empire that encompasses licensing, merchandising and publishing activities around the glo...Find out more »
Bill Gladstone
William Gladstone is a bestselling novelist"The Twelve" and with Jack Canfield "The Golden Motorcycle Gang" and literary agent for exceptional authors such as Eckhart Tolle,...Find out more »


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I seem to have hit a chord with my last installment, The Kitchen Evolution, by introducing the concept of flexibility in commercial kitchens … or the current lack thereof. I received the largest response from readers of the column to date, who wrote to me in search of more specific information, examples, and insight on the subject. Given this response, I wanted to take the time to further explore this concept of flexibility.
Current Limitations
Before one can truly understand the need for flexibility in commercial foodservice facilities, the limitations of our every day kitchen environment must first be fully understood … and this is not easily done. Most foodservice operators share a common, distinctive personality trait - a "get it done" attitude.
Nothing can stand in the way of a true operator when there is a deadline on the horizon. The main ingredient for tonight's main course didn't show up … and there are 500 guests expected in six hours? The POS system is down? No problem. They know how to improvise. They have mastered the art.
This very same personality trait, however, can sometimes be a hindrance. Because overcoming obstacles is part of an operator's every day job description, they typically do not have the luxury of taking a step back and looking at what could be. They are immersed in what is, and do not waste time dreaming of perfect scenarios. There are crises to solve and fires to put out.
I would like to encourage some of these operators - in between crises, of course - to objectively consider the typical kitchen environment for just a moment. I am not necessarily referring to the layout, but rather the components within the layout or the pieces of the puzzle - the equipment. Now, take a hard look at the equipment we currently use every day and ask a simple question … is the equipment working around you, or are you working around the equipment. My hunch is that you will find the latter to be the case more often than not.
I would argue that the current equipment commonly utilized in commercial kitchens often limits the menu, the service capabilities, and ultimately the profitability of the operation. Kitchen space is extremely valuable and needs to be used more efficiently. I recently spoke with the director of design for a major restaurant chain, and he told me that if he could simply reduce the length of his cooking line by six feet, it would open up an entire new market for his concept. The limiting factor in his mind? The equipment … hands down. He was forced to base his design on the equipment that currently exists, whether it suited his needs or not.
Though we as an industry accept the current equipment options as a given, I firmly believe that there are pieces of equipment, even categories of equipment, that have not yet been explored, and which loom on the horizon. These new, more flexible pieces of equipment would impact the way that we set up stations throughout the kitchen, perhaps even allowing simple modifications for different day parts. They would have a beneficial impact on labor. They would reduce the initial development costs, while simultaneously lowering ongoing operation and maintenance costs. Most importantly, this new equipment would positively impact profitability. Does this sound too good to be true? It's not. These adaptable, flexible pieces of equipment may be just around the corner.
Examples of Flexibility
Let's say that you own and operate a 150 seat restaurant that has recently been granted the right to add 45 outside dining seats, which you expect to be very popular with your guests. In reviewing your facility, you find that the cooking line, service stations, rest rooms and other key components of the restaurant will be able to adequately handle the increase in volume. However, there is one exception - the ware washing area. The dish tables are sufficient, but the single tank dish machine just won't cut it anymore. You need a larger machine with greater capacity.
So here is my contention with our current logic … why must you get rid of the existing, perfectly functional machine and replace it with a larger model? Why can't the machine adapt with your operation? Why can't you purchase a module that you can add on to your existing machine? The equipment should adapt to you, not the other way around.
This concept of flexibility can be applied throughout the production areas. Perhaps the storage area can be modified by season, as the types of products stored may change during the course of the year. What if you want to add a sink to an existing work table? How about the chef's counter? I know that operators want flexibility in one of the most important production areas in the kitchen. Menus may change over time, by season, or even by day part … shouldn't the kitchen facility have the same capability? Such changes could include an increase in refrigerated storage during certain seasons where products are received fresh, and greater frozen storage during other parts of the year.
It is my belief that foodservice equipment manufacturers, as a whole, do not give operators the "palate with which to paint." Current equipment choices are too limiting, and operators are forced to work with these limitations. Thus, we find ourselves in the position which we are in today with little new product innovation and operators that must work around the equipment offerings manufacturers have brought to the marketplace, whether it is right for their operation or not.
The Unfortunate Reality
Profit margins for those who manufacture, represent, distribute and sell foodservice equipment have steadily declined for decades. Looking at the equipment manufacturers specifically, these lower margins have significantly limited their research and development efforts, as is evidenced by the remarkably low number of new products introduced every year. Think for a moment about the last "new" piece of equipment that positively impacted your operation. Again, I am willing to bet that those impacts are few and far between.
Though there are the exceptions, as a whole, manufacturers of foodservice equipment are a conservative, fairly reactive group. Many of them are now owned by large conglomerates that must answer to shareholders and are often more concerned about their stock performance than innovation or investing in the future. This only further limits the potential for the development of new, more flexible equipment that will better serve the industry and which could change the way that kitchens operate. These evolutionary possibilities are so close, yet so far away at the same time. If we rely on the manufacturers to develop these new pieces of equipment on their own, we may never see this next generation of equipment.
Think outside of the proverbial box and evaluate your kitchen environments. Dream with me for a moment and see if you can conjure up ideas for new equipment, or modifications to existing equipment, that do not yet exist but would positively impact your operation. I see equipment that will be flexible enough to adapt to the needs of the operation, even as it evolves over time. This is what I refer to as the Kitchen Evolution. I am challenging the entire industry to consider what could be, without being hindered by what is. Take a minute to dream with me. It will be worth your time.


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I received the following announcement from Elissa Powell, CG, one of the directors of the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh. The institute will be held Sunday, July 22, 2012 through Friday, July 27, 2012 at LaRoche College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. There is still limited space available in three of the courses: German Research, Intermediate Genealogy, and Problem Solving with Online Repositories.
May 21, 2012
Early Bird discount on courses at the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh ends on Wednesday, May 31. See www.GRIPitt.org for more information on the courses offered and the evening lectures sponsored by the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania (GSP), the Western PA Genealogical Society (WPGS), the North Hills Genealogists [of Pittsburgh] (NHG), and the Great Lakes Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG).
One of the most unique courses to be offered is one that can be considered a "backdoor to the Internet" coordinated by D. Joshua Taylor. This course allows you to explore the gems on various archives and library websites that you might not know of otherwise. The title "Beneath the Home Page: Problem Solving with Online Repositories" also speaks to how these gems, once found, can help you in your genealogy. Bring your laptop, your family notes, and your curiosity and see what it is you can discover!


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Project FreduraiPosted in Features on May 19, 2005
Last year we told you about our plan to challenge each member on staff to buy and build a truck with a total budget of $1,500. Well, some of us succeeded, and others didn't. I, for one, bought a black '91 Samurai for $450 and had it built under budget ("4x4x$1,500," July '04), but then I blew the head gasket on the first run out and was dead in the water with no rubber duck. So as I rounded up the parts to fix the black Sammy, I was offered a white '86 Samurai. Price? Free. It turns out that a friend of a friend had this little white rig in his driveway, and couldn't get the transfer case into gear, and he quickly got himself a new truck to get around in. Before long his wife was ready for Ol' Whitey to be gone. Luckily, he found me, a poor magazine editor who can never say no to a cheap 4x4, much less a free one. With that, I was back in the game!
Then, as if building a rig on a budget wasn't stressful enough, I decided to add to the challenge by starting the buildup one night as the sun set, and hopefully have it finished by the following morning. Yes, the dusk-to-dawn wrenchfest was in the works, and it almost happened.
This little breadbox of a 4x4 would give me another entry, and I decided to try it down the same trail, but on a different path. Again I would go for bigger tires and some lift, but this time the Sawzall, grinder, and hammer would be my friends. And, since there was no initial cost, I would be able to fix any issue with the transfer case, and also spend a little green on a Calmini low gearset while I had it apart. And since it was a carbureted rig, I also wouldn't have any of the computer problems the '91 had. As for what to call it? Well, since the black Sammy is named after my brother Sam, this one is going to be named after me--Project Fredurai.
5PhotosView Slideshow
Every self-respecting 4x4 has knobby tires, and I wanted to run the knobbiest little muds I could afford and fit. I got on the horn to Tyres International and had a set of 30x11-15 Super Swamper TSL/SXs at my door in no time. These bias-plied doughnuts have thick sidewalls with extra lugs for mud and rock traction. I also contacted SpyderTrax for a set of black steel Rock Crawler Xtreme wheels. These 15x8 wheels have only 21/2 inches of backspacing to keep bigger tires out from the frame and suspension. I saved a few bucks by getting my friend Chris Durham to help mount them in my garage using some Tyre Plyers I had from Outback Extreme Products. You can order tires mounted and balanced from Tyres International, but I decided to wait and see what type of balancing problems I encounter by doing it at home.
9PhotosView Slideshow
|The Recipe
|'86 Suzuki Fredurai
|13/4-inch longer shackle from Trail Tough ($46 per pair)
|2-degree shim to keep caster within reason ($20 per pair)
|Calmini 5.14:1 Rockcrawler transfer case gears
|Five Super Swamper TSL/SX from Tyres International ($100 each)
|Five 15x8 steel wheels with 21/2 inches of backspacing ($44 each)
|Shifter sheet from Petroworks
|Pilot bearing
|Degreaser and gear lube. Pizza and beer to convince friends to help.
|Other costs which would make us blow the budget, but you might encounter
|Getting someone to weld the diff and set up the gears
|$150 to $500
|Welding the shock mounts
|$50 to $100
|Towing the pile home
|$20 to $50
|Calmini transfer case bearing kit
So did we succeed? We think we did, but it was tight, and only worked 'cause we had some tools and good friends to help use them. Building a rig on a budget is rough, especially if you don't know anyone. Take you time, and research everything you can about the vehicle you are gonna build. We spent a bunch of time on the Internet, specifically on Zukiworld Online (www.zukiworld.com) and similar sites specific to Suzukis, but there are sites for all vehicles, and from these sites you can usually find parts, tips, and even friends who will help you wrench.


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Susan Holliday
Susan Holliday
Sue Holliday has been a member of the CTC for over 20 years and has worked as a long term volunteer with the A5 Rangers CC, a keen affiliated club. She has always taken an active part in that club's affairs, not only racing but also encouraging and promoting the touring activities that have always played an important part in the A5 Rangers programme. The A5 Rangers have long had close relations with the CTC and encourages membership of the Club.
During 2008 Sue, in conjunction with South Northamptonshire District Council, launched a campaign to encourage local ladies in South Northamptonshire to take up cycling and this has continued into 2009 with an increasing number enjoying organised weekly leisure rides. On average some 8 or 10 ladies ride regularly and Sue continues to lead by example. She volunteers helping to organise tourist trials, social events and has been Chairman of the Northampton and District Cycling Association for a number of years. CTC Northamptonshire and Milton Keynes have been a contributing member club within this organisation for about 20 years. Although Sue's work is nominally for the A5 Rangers, she spends a lot of her free trime encouraging the growth of cycle touring and leisure riding within Northamptonshire.


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22454. Dandelions been in bloom almost all of this warm winter. The girls are bringing orange and red pollen. Hives are light and feeding sugar patties ( warm weather has them eating a lot of stores).
22454. Dandelions been in bloom almost all of this warm winter. The girls are bringing orange and red pollen. Hives are light and feeding sugar patties ( warm weather has them eating a lot of stores).
Red maples in bloom, Big Stone Gap, VA, February 18th. Yesterday the honey bees worked our red maple quite heavy.
24120 meadows of dan, va
Mar. 4, 2012
Hazelnuts blooming
Shenandoah county VA elev 900
Crocus sieberi, south slopes
Bees working red maples in Big Stone Gap VA, 24219.
Strasburg, VA elev. 900 ft.
Did not observe nectar source but did observe hive bringing in nectar on 3/15 and drawing comb (no syrup supplementation yet). Maples in immediate vicinity have not bloomed yet. Bees bringing in abundant gray-white pollen on 3/15, temp 58 degrees F.
In Northern Shenandoah County, VA, 22657, 4/13:
Maples and box elder not yet in full bloom, redbud just starting, daffodils, a few dandelions.
22657 Strasburg VA
Autumn Olive starting to bloom. Redbud, dogwood, wild cherry, mustard, fothergilla, hawthorn, dandelion. Pears, cherries and crabapples blooming on 4/14 are finished.
20016 Washington DC
Cherries finished, crabapples, sweet box and dogwoods in bloom. Dandelions blooming.
Red Maple
11 yrs. 25 Hives T Zone 7a
Manassas, VA
Black Locust
New Creek Mountain WV
1800 ft
Tulip Poplar
(Crowns of older trees)
New Creek Mountain WV
1600 ft
Black Locust
Just starting
Mountain Laurel
Underway a few days
New Creek Mountain WV
1800 ft
Crown Vetch
First blooms about 6/9, in full bloom now. Not normally known as honeybee forage, but our bees are working it eagerly.
Basswood. 20176, 6/17/14
I have lived in this house for seven years and this is the first time this tree has ever bloomed - I didn't even know what it was and never paid it any attention. When I walked out this morning it was absolutely covered from top to bottom with honey bees and bumble bees. I looked it up and discovered it is a Basswood, also known as a "Bee-Tree". Perhaps it was our extended cold winter that kicked it into gear.
24078 - Collinsville, VA
Sourwood 6/19/2014
11 yrs. 25 Hives T Zone 7a
New Creek Mountain WV
1800 ft
The bees are working it.
Smithfield VA 23430
Red Maples sporadically blooming Jan 19, 2015
Winter Jasmine blooming Jan 25, 2015
Parrotia blooms just coming out Feb 1, 2015
Mahonia still in bloom from November 30, 2014 (bees all over them on warm days)
My bees are hauling in all sorts of different pollen. light yellow, dark yellow, greens, greys.
Fieldale VA 24089
Smithfield, VA 23430 Feb 8
'Diana' Witchhazel
She stayed their long enough that I got to watch her gather the pollen and pack it in her pollen baskets.
23040 Cumberland Va.
Sweetheart Chestnut Full Blown
White Clover and Alfalfa
Early Staghorn Sumac to pop any day


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According to OECD figures the number of mobile broadband subscriptions has reached nearly 700 million in OECD countries, with South Korea, Sweden and Australia leading the way in penetration rates.
The OECD figures are based on standings as of June 2012. Mobile broadband saw 18 percent growth in 12 months, driven by continuing strong demand for tablets and smartphones, said the OECD.
The average penetration in the OECD area was 56.6 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, for a total number of nearly 700 million subscriptions. South Korea (104.2) and Sweden (101.8) topped the table, being the only two countries with more wireless broadband subscriptions than inhabitants.
The UK was above average in the table with 60 connections per 100 inhabitants.
Worldwide mobile data traffic will increase 13-fold over the next four years, according to research from Cisco, and will exceed the amount of data initiated over fixed lines by three to one by 2017.
Cisco said the big increase in mobile traffic is due to continued strong growth in the number of mobile internet connections, which will reach 10 billion and exceed the world's population by 2017.
The OECD figures reveal fixed wired broadband subscriptions reached 321 million in the OECD area in June 2012, for an average penetration rate of 26 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, a 1.7 percent increase over the previous six months.
DSL subscriptions are being slowly replaced by faster fibre, the OECD said. The share of fibre subscriptions in fixed broadband has increased to 14.2 percent, while DSL represented 54.7 percent of the total fixed wired broadband subscriptions.
By the end of 2009, fibre subscriptions only accounted for 11.2 percent of total fixed broadband. Cable (30.4 percent) accounted for most of the remaining subscriptions as of June 2012.