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NL DIVISION SERIES: ROCKIES v PHILLIES
October 2, 2007
Cole Hamels
Charlie Manuel
Chase Utley
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: Workout Day
Q. How did your friendship with Garrett Atkins evolve and do you think consciously or subconsciously you'll push each other?
CHASE UTLEY: We met in college and came into UCLA together. We had a great time in college and we worked out together in the off-season, and I think we do push each other a little bit. We're always talking baseball in the off-season and trying to get better. He's established himself as one of the best third basemen in baseball.
The off-season grind, pushing each other, trying to get stronger, trying to get quicker, I think it's helped us both.
Q. Cole, it's a glass half-empty, half-full question. When you were injured, you threw 116 Friday night; are you getting a second wind right now or will there be a lot of trepidation tomorrow night?
COLE HAMELS: I don't know, I never really thought of it that way. I think having a month off can always do some damage in the end because if it ever gets to playoff season, you do want to be ready and foremost guys it takes a couple of games, fortunately chase was able to go out in that first game.
For myself, I think it takes a couple games, and for myself, I knew it would take about three before I was actually ready to go and I think that was perfect timing. You know, just being able to go out there and continue my routine, I think that was probably the main focus. You know, when you don't play for a month your routine gets thrown off and all of a sudden you get back into that five-day routine of what you need to do every day. I think I have a good feeling of what I'm doing and what I'm capable of doing.
Q. You went with ten pitchers on your post-season roster, at least for this series, what went into that decision?
CHARLIE MANUEL: Basically we went into the series itself, I felt like we needed, we actually starting out with Cole being ready to pitch. And the way our pitching is set up, we'll use Lohse out of the bullpen probably for the first day or two. And the way set up with our closer and with our set up guy, and of course Romero and Flash Gordon in the seventh or eighth inning, I felt like depth-wise, we had enough depth to cover our pitching. And actually, I feel pretty good about it. I feel like we have it organized and I feel like we have everybody in a place where we can have an idea like where we're going to use them.
Q. What was the toughest decision narrowing it down to 25?
CHARLIE MANUEL: I would say probably the toughest decision was we -- right now, we kept three catchers and that was a place where we might need a runner or an extra player. But like we kept the three catchers because we wanted to make sure that we had all of our catching covered.
Q. How much of that was because of Carlos' injury, and where does he stand with that? Do you know if he's going to be ready for Game 1?
CHARLIE MANUEL: Today his arm was swollen and hurting him. We'll probably know more about that tomorrow. At the same time, we do figure that we'd better keep three catchers. That was kind of a must.
Q. Cole, interestingly, you haven't faced the Rockies ever in your career, and I think the only guy that has any experience against you is hurt. Is that going to be unusual at all in do you feel like there's just enough out there about you that it doesn't matter or how does that change your approach and preparation for this?
COLE HAMELS: You know, I think sometimes seeing a team can always help you, but I think sometimes it can hurt you to the point where you might not have seen them enough or you get a little overconfident with a certain pitch and then they make the adjustment.
I think with not facing them, it can help with that sort of surprise. But with the video out there these days, there is no surprises. I'm just going to go out there and just treat it like any other game. If it was the Padres, the Mets, have my own game plan, and if I can stick to it, and execute, I think that's the biggest part is executing, because when you're able to execute, obviously the count gets more in your favor. And so you're able to do a little bit more and keep the hitters off-balance. And so it's just, you know, something that I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Q. For Chase and Cole, wondering in the first two games with the shadows, will that be a big advantage for the pitcher?
CHASE UTLEY: Hopefully we'll have a little cloud cover tomorrow for the hitters' standpoint.
It is difficult in the shadows. But only thing you can really do about it is put it out of your mind. Both teams have to deal with it. I think it is an advantage for the pitcher when there are shadows because you don't see the ball as well. What are you going to do about it.
COLE HAMELS: I guess my standpoint is it obviously will help me, and I just have to, you know, not use it as an advantage because when you do get overconfident with something, you can get yourself in trouble. I'll just try to use it as much as possible with trying to see the way the hitters are taking their approaches and their swings because that's when I can tell what they are really looking for for the differences in shadow.
I have enough confidence in our team that I think we'll be able to luck out a little bit more just because of the type of players we have and just everything will be in focus. I don't think it will be much of a difference too bad, but I know it probably won't favor the pitcher, so I know it won't be a 9-10 game.
Q. How much of a learning experience has this year been in handling different aspects of the game?
COLE HAMELS: You know, I think I learned a little bit more last year, just because I lost more. And I think for myself, I learn more when I lose. You know, when you fail, you learn more with failures. You know I think this year was big on trying to keep yourself in shape, going through that long grind. That was a big point.
Also, you know, having the All-Star Game, that was different. There's a learning experience there with just the type of players that you're around, and I think, you know, having Jamie and a couple of the other veteran pitchers, they are able to help you out with how to prepare yourself for each game. They do give you a few good pointers on what teams and what type of hitters, and just any little point that they can help you, because in baseball, inches go a mile.
Q. Can you talk about the impact of playing in two hitter-friendly ballparks?
CHASE UTLEY: For me personally, I think it's a great thing. (Laughter.)
You know, a lot of parks nowadays are hitter-friendly. Obviously Colorado is a lot bigger than here, the ball carries better, more hits in Colorado than I think here because the ground out there that you have to cover. So two good offenses are going against two good pitching staffs. So, it's going to be exciting. I don't think the ballparks are really going to play too much of a factor.
COLE HAMELS: I guess you know, for myself, I've not really pitching in Colorado so I don't have to deal with it. But I'm going to stick with the pitchers and try to give every little pointer I can, just because I'm pitching in the first game, I can help them out for Games 2, 3, and 4 with what I saw, and I know with the big ballpark, not everybody is going to throw a no-hit shutout, you just try to keep the hits, you know, minimal but at least going in the right direction towards our outfielders.
Q. This town has waited so long for playoffs, and you get the start; what does that mean to you personally, and what do you think this place will be like 24 hours from now?
COLE HAMELS: I think it's going to be very exciting, just trying to go out there and play, you know, the other day on Friday, I think that was more of an important start for me anyway, because I think getting there is a lot bigger baggage than right now at the moment, because everybody is stressing out not getting there in 14 years, nobody thought about what you would do on day one of the post-season just because they wanted to get there.
So I think that was a little more purposeful. But just being able to go out there and have the confidence in the players that they want me to go out and start Game 1, because they see that I can make the difference. You know, it's big, and it gives me that extra confidence to go out and succeed. But I obviously wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the offense that we have.
Q. How much do the Rockies remind you of the Phillies? Both teams closed with a rush and both are primarily offensive teams and both are relatively inexperienced as far as playoffs.
CHARLIE MANUEL: Offense is definitely a lot of similarities and also personnel-wise. I look at the one thing that we've got, both Rockies play very good defense, they have all season, and you know, we definitely can catch the ball. And I look at it, I think we've got a little bit more speed, especially with Jimmy Rollins' victory and Bourn and Utley, that gives us a little bit more speed. (Laughter.)
But at the same time, we've got to get that speed on base. I think the pitchers come into play, and we are very similar in the fact that they have two real young starters in their rotation, too. The guy pitching for them tomorrow, he's one of their big pitchers, and Cole is going for us. I like Cole's last game. If he can give us that same effort, we're going to win. (Laughing) No, just kidding.
I think we're definitely ready for him but you're right, very strong similarity. If you're not careful, either one of these teams can put some runs on you in a hurry, and that can dictate the game.
Q. Do you have any comfort that they don't have much more post-season experience than you do?
CHARLIE MANUEL: This is our first trip in a long time, 14 careers or something, so I think the experience is going to be about even. But we have some guys on our team like Rowand and Jamie Moyer and Jose Mesa, we have some guys -- and Alfonseca, I'll probably miss somebody, but I look our guys and you look at their team, I'm sure they have got some guys, too.
Q. Talking to Jamie Moyer, we asked him if you would come to him and say things, and he said no, but there may be a conversation or two; will you talk with him before the playoff games?
COLE HAMELS: I don't think so, not right now, everybody is on pins and needles because they don't note what to do and they want to get to that point and I think maybe further down the line, because the games, there's a little bit more pressure, a little bit more attention on the games. I think just with the way that I've been able to go out there this season and play, I think he has enough confidence in me that he doesn't really need to say much.
I know every once in a while, I will go to him in the dugout and ask him what he saw or maybe there's a few pointers here, and he'll suggest something, but most of the time he says don't do it now, do it the next time. (Laughter.)
Q. What has impressed you the most about Cole this year?
CHARLIE MANUEL: First of all, I think when Cole is good, like when the game starts, it's an early, got to feel it out process, and the more, the better, the sharper he is, especially with his command, all of a sudden when he gets going, that's when he really gets good and I think he keeps his composure good and I think it's very important, his makeup and how he goes about his business, it's definitely part of his pitching. He has tremendous ability. He's got three real good pitches. I think his command, like almost any other pitcher, plays a big role in it. And also I think his style of pitching is smooth, easy, looks like it comes easy for him, and that's when he gets on a roll.
He can strike people out, but at the same time, he can also be what I call a pitcher. But I think his composure is always pretty good, and he seems like he definitely wants to be there. He gets a little feisty sometimes when you take him out of a game, but that's okay. Some lady told me yesterday that we had a love/hate relationship. I told her, "He can hate me all he wants." I told the lady, I said, "I love him, he can hate me all he wants, as long as he wins." (Chuckling) That's kind of how I look at it.
He's good, and he's going to get better, too. He has the chance to be a real big Major League pitcher.
Q. Since you came back, it seems like you've thrown a few more curveballs and a few less changeups in all kind of different situations. Is that something that you think will continue and what led to that decision?
COLE HAMELS: I think it will continue, and just with everything that happened this year and what I learned, a lot of the guys didn't hit the changeup in the middle of the year and in the summer guys were looking for it and I wasn't getting those strikeouts and those ground outs that I want to, just those blooper hits, they can add on and can be runs.
For me to succeed and obviously keep my pitch count down, I have to get some outs and keep them off balance I guess. So you know, it's just something that with throwing it and what I saw last game and the game before, I actually realized what a powerful pitch a third pitch can be.
So I'm just going to have to keep fighting for it because I know sometimes I'm not going to always have it and you just have to keep throwing it because it does make the face ball and changeup just that much better.
Q. At any point when you were working out in the off-season, did you ever talk about the fact that one day one of you could keep the other guy from having a shot at the World Series, and how do you balance that friendship versus competitiveness?
CHASE UTLEY: I think it's pretty easy to balance it. On the field, I want to win and imagine he wants the same thing.
As far as talking about the World Series, we used to just talk about trying to get to the big leagues. Obviously now we're here and we've been fairly successful. No, we haven't really talked about playoffs together. Maybe tonight I'll take him to dinner and talk about it a little bit. Try to drug him maybe. (Laughter.)
Q. How has your hand been coming and do you feel like it's a hundred percent, and when did it reach that point?
CHASE UTLEY: From day one, my hand's felt great, in that first game against the Mets, I haven't had any problems since then at all. It doesn't look that great but it feels fine. The strength is there. It's just a battle now.
Q. Are you going to stick with the protective --
CHASE UTLEY: Yeah, I still have the pin in there, but I will stick with the padding just to ease my mind a little bit.
Q. Shane's been getting down the stretch here and you did play Jason Saturday against a left-hander, are you going to stick with that platoon through Games 1 and 2?
CHARLIE MANUEL: Tonight I'll think about our lineup. Also, we've had, like I said, we've had some success against Francis and we will definitely -- I'll definitely -- I'll probably write out lineups tonight.
And the one that's been successful, that's more than likely the one I'll land on and we'll go from there. But you never know until I come to the ballpark.
Q. Cole, did you watch the San Diego/Colorado game last night, and is there a point where you're going through the San Diego lineup and thought you were going to face them, and talk about mind-set as you were watching that game.
COLE HAMELS: I went to a movie last night anyway because I didn't really want to watch it. But I did come in from the movie and see the 8th and 9th -- and I was really only focused on left-handed hitters, because I don't really see that too often. When you don't really see it, you need that sort of experience to be able to get through them.
So I just watched what type of left-handed hitters I would face. Definitely I think I watched just -- they brought in their lefties pitching, seeing what pitches they threw at different times in the count. I think in the post-season every inning is big-time. You just have to kind of look at it a little bit, and I did, and fortunately I think I picked up a few clues on what I'll be able to do tomorrow.
Q. How closely have you been able to watch what Colorado has done over the last couple of weeks and how surprised are you they were able to sneak in?
CHARLIE MANUEL: First of all what did they win, 14 out of 15? The game we pitched the other day is the one they lost.
I followed them, especially when the Dodgers were playing them. Dodgers played so many young kids and stuff and I kind of -- I didn't really -- what I want to say, they didn't really catch my eye a whole lot. But I watched every game they played mostly and they are a good team. Like I just got through saying, they are very similar to us and they have a big offense.
Basically, pretty much even. Matter of fact, I think all of the teams in the National League are pretty close to being even. And the ones that play the best baseball and the ones that pitches and catches the ball, that's the team more than likely is going to win, hopefully it's going to be us.
Q. Cole, you mentioned the 14 years that Philadelphia has not won anything. In this season, and the celebration that you saw yesterday, do both of you think that the players now better understand the city and the frustration that they are going through?
COLE HAMELS: I think we understood the frustration they were going through every time we lost. (Laughter.) So I don't think it's anything new to us. Ever since I've been here, I've noticed some of the frustration.
But you do notice the excitement. I know at this point last year when we were battling to the very end, I could tell the excitement level that we had and so ever since this year, I think they had a little bit more excitement in them, just because I think they believed a little bit more.
You know, it's a nice feeling just to have them supporting us because they can help out a lot. For myself, I love being able to go out there with a sellout crowd on their feet. That's baseball. You know, when you're dreaming of making the Major Leagues, you dream of a sellout; you don't dream of maybe 20,000 fans booing you.
But it's going to be something, you know, spectacular. I know everybody's been talking about it as the days have been going on, and you can see it in the streets and the signs that they have when you drive home. You know, I think after tomorrow, it will definitely put everybody in a very good place on where they see our future, even though we kind of see it going all the way to the World Series.
CHASE UTLEY: Good answer. (Laughter.)
Q. Can you talk about the importance of situational hitting and being able to manufacture runs in the post-season?
CHARLIE MANUEL: Situational hitting is big in every game you play. And of course it's big in post-season. And when we can manufacture runs, that's where our speed on the bases definitely comes into play. I think that definitely helps us. Any time you play the game right, and right is moving the runners and always putting them in position where you can score the most in the easiest possible way.
Fundamental part of baseball, that's how you play the game and that definitely counts. Now, the team that makes some mistakes and the other team if they capitalize it or wins the game, that's what most of the times when we come here and talk, that's the first thing that pop up. Somebody will ask you about your fundamentals or why your defense broke down and what you're going to do about fixing it and all that stuff. When you get back to it, execution is the name of the game, and the team that executes is usually the team that wins.
Q. This is a hitter's park, but will cooler temperatures in October negate that a little bit?
COLE HAMELS: I hope.
CHARLIE MANUEL: I'll let Chase answer it first. He's a hitter and he's the guy that hits the ball, and a lot of times when you hit the ball, you have a gauge on how far it's going to go and whether it has enough or whatever. I'll let him talk about that.
CHASE UTLEY: When it cools down a little bit, obviously the ball doesn't travel as well. I think it's a little bit more difficult to hit in colder weather, I imagine a lot of hitters will tell you the same thing. But again, both teams have to deal with it and we both have to battle through it. So in my mind, it's not really a factor because you both have to deal with it. So we're in the shadows, nothing you can do about it, so it's a clear playing field.
Q. Charlie mentioned your composure, and it is remarkable; do you ever get nervous? Do you have butterflies going into this?
COLE HAMELS: Oh, man, I think it depends on I guess the situation. I know last Friday, I had some nervous feelings waking up. I don't get it a few days beforehand, it's usually the day of. But the moment I throw my first pitch, my warmup pitch, it instantly disappears. And it's that comfort level, you get into that sort of zone that everybody talks about.
And you want to get into that from the first pitch on because if you throw a couple of balls, you can definitely get rattled a little bit. I think definitely the main thing for myself is, you know, it's always that day, it's never been a couple days before or anything.
Q. What movie did you go see?
COLE HAMELS: Oh, "Good Luck Chuck." It wasn't that great. (Laughter.) He didn't wish me luck.
CHARLIE MANUEL: Imagine that. (Laughter.)
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RENO, Nev. (AP) - Ann Romney says she she's taking to the presidential campaign trail to tell the real story about her husband, Mitt, as a caring man not someone who thinks he is "above it all."
The Republican candidate's wife told an outdoor crowd of more than 500 in Reno Thursday they already know Mitt Romney is a capable, competent man. She says her job is to share the "caring piece" of her husband that she knows best.
Ann Romney said accusations that he doesn't care about others or is "above it all" or "can't relate" are off base. She said he has a good heart and "does things for the right reasons."
She said during a noon speech at a hot, park amphitheater that Nevada is critical to winning the White House.

subset: commoncrawl


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BEREA, Ohio -- After trading their No. 67 overall pick in the third round to the Denver Broncos for the 87th and 120th overall picks, the Browns selected defensive tackle John Hughes of Cincinnati with the 87th pick.
Hughes will provide depth behind Ahtyba Rubin and last year's first-round pick Phil Taylor. He's 6-2 1/2, 309. Twelve receivers came off the board before the Browns drafted Hughes.
"There were a couple of guys we like and we thought they'd be there later on,'' Heckert said. "I was kind of holding my breath. He's a big, powerful tough guy,. You can't have enough defensive linemen.''
Said Shurmur: "We drafted two big, tough physical guys today."
Hughes, who starred at Gahanna Lincoln High School in suburban Columbus, where he received Associated Press All-Ohio honors, finished the 2011 season with 51 tackles, 12.5 tackles for loss and five sacks in 12 games.
Heckert said not to rule out getting a receiver on the final day of the draft.


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GULF BREEZE � A 29-year-old woman was charged with driving under the influence early Wednesday morning.
GULF BREEZE - A 29-year-old woman was charged with driving under the influence after a one-vehicle crash early Wednesday, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
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The life of a meme comes to a close as the famous falling bear was struck by two cars and killed on a highway just two miles from the University of Colorado campus where it was tranquilized.
The bear had been relocated 50 miles from Boulder. Wildlife officials believe that it returned to the area in search of food, lacking natural food sources because of dry weather, reports the Associated Press. The bear, later identified by its ear tag, was first hit by a 1992 Toyota Camry, which was totaled, and a 2002 Ford Focus. Only one driver sustained minor injuries.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesperson Jennifer Churchill told the Boulder Daily Camera, "It's a bummer. It's so hard to go through this and not be able to give these bears a good place to live."
Had it not been for this meme and the bear's viral celebrity, we would have never heard of its death. It is a sad reminder of how human development encroaches on wildlife habitats and how the ridiculous, amazing, meme-worthy beauty of nature is so easily destroyed.


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Let me introduce Mr. Clappidoo.
Clappidoo sits quietly and will not bother anyone, unless somebody carelessly puts an object in front of him. Clappidoo will then wake-up and, depending on his "mood" of the moment, will either be:
- Angry. His eyes will turn red and he will grunt at you.
- Happy. His eyes will turn green, and he will chirp with joy.
- Confused. His eyes will flicker randomly and his sound won't make much sense.
- Flirty. His eyes will turn pink, and he will try to capture your heart.
Many aspects of Clappidoo are similar to my Papydoo Project. In fact, Clappidoo was an earlier project, and some concepts (and parts) were reused in Papydoo.
Clappidoo is built inside a small "chest like" balsa wood box with a hinged lid on top. The front lid locking hardware was removed, so the lid can always open freely.
Clappidoo detects the presence of objects in front of it with the help of an infrared (IR) reflective proximity sensor. This sensor has a fixed detection threshold of 10cm (about 4 inches).
Each eye contains a 5mm RGB LED, capable of producing any colour with variable PWM drive of each channel.
The lid is actuated by a small "9g" R/C type servo. These small servos, mostly designed for R/C aircrafts are very cheap (I bought 6 for $10 on Ebay) and easy to use.
Clappidoo can make sounds, with the help of a small 8 ohms speaker, mounted inside the box. The tones are generated by the microcontroller.
Clappidoo is "always on the lookout", meaning always powered. It is battery operated, and the three AA batteries last a few months with moderate usage. Again, like with Papydoo, low-power considerations are essential.
The project is built around a Zilog Z8F042A 20DIP microcontroller.
IR proximity sensors are very easy to use. Sharp is the leading manufacturer of these devices (to my knowledge). Many models exist with various detection range and output type.
An IR LED illuminates the surface, and depending on the distance, a different reflexion path will land the reflected IR at different locations on an array of photo detectors. There are 2 types of output for these sensors: Digital or analog.
The digital variety operates on a fixed distance range and will output a logic high or low if an object is detected within that distance.
The analog variety outputs a varying voltage depending on the distance of the detected object, if any. Using a comparator or an ADC, an adjustable distance threshold can be implemented in software.
I have the unusual habit of using Zilog eZ8 MCUs in many of my hobby projects. I began using them many years ago in professional designs and stuck to the family and dev. tool chain. When you do many projects with the same family of MCUs, there are lots of code re-use opportunities which makes doing projects easier.
I also use Microchip PICs sometimes, especially the small 8 pins ones, like the 12F675, in many (very) simple projects. I have some great Parallax Propeller project in store for future posts also.
The Zilog Z8F042A is an 8 bits microcontroller from Zilog's eZ8 XP family of devices.
Main features:
- 4K of flash ROM
- 1K of RAM
- 20MHz max clock freq.
- 5.5592 MHz internal oscillator
- 2 x 16 bits timer
- 20DIP package available
- ADC, UART, temp. sensor, voltage comparator, trans-impedance op-amp (not used in this project)
- Single pin programming and debugging (ICD)
- 2.7 to 3.6V operating voltage
One of my "hacking / making" habit, which adds to the challenge of doing these kind of projects, is to come up with an idea, and build something mostly with what I have on hand. Having a workshop loaded with parts kind of makes it possible also.
I've had a small bunch of leftovers Zilog Z8F042A that were collecting dust and not used in any of my work related projects, so I've decided to use one of them here. The present version of the code fills almost completely the 4K ROM. An 8K ROM version, the Z8F082A would have been a better fit for this project, but I didn't have any around. It would have allowed code size headroom for future improvements.
Check out my Papydoo Project Part 2 for more informations about programming and developing C code in the freely available Zilog Development Studio II tool chain.
Two independent, four pins common anode RGB LEDs are used for illuminating the eyes. Colours are produced by varying the intensity of each individual channels (red, green or blue) with pulse-width modulation (PWM). Six PWM channels (three per LED) are necessary to accomplish this. The Z8F042A has two hardware PWM (bundled with the timers). That's not enough, and would monopolize the timers, which are used for other purposes. So all six PWM channels are done in software. Also, this MCU has four GPIO pins that feature controlled current direct LED drive. This spares the resistors for four of the six LED channels.
For a more interesting look, I ripped the eyes from a "chattering teeth" toy like this one:
I sliced each eyeball in half with a Dremel cutter disc, and glued the front part (with the black dot) over each LED:
These plastic globes acts as diffusers and colour rendering is better. They are also phosphorescent, and actually glow lightly in complete darkness.
One of the MCU's timer is used to generate audio tones. The timer outputs a 50% duty cycle square wave signal on one of the pin. A push-pull current amplifier, done with two transistors, is used to drive the 8 ohms speaker directly.
A servo moves its lever arm based on a received control signal. The signal is a pseudo-PWM digital waveform. The on-time of the signal must be between 1ms and 2ms, followed by an off period, to cover the 60 degrees position range (1ms = minimum, 1.5ms = centre, 2.0ms = maximum). The signal is repeated every 20 milliseconds (the "update" rate). These servos consume many milliamps, even when not moving, so they need to be turned off when Clappidoo is sleeping. They have peak current demands of about 500mA when they start moving, so a capable power switch is required. I use an IRF7343 power MOSFET pair (in a small 8 SOIC package) to power on or off the servo. It can handle around 2A of current with minimal voltage drop. The servo is operated directly from input voltage (4.5V) for maximum strength and speed.
At the time, I chose to use a micro power LP2950 fixed 3.3V TO-92 low-dropout voltage regulator. This regulator is designed for low power applications and has a typical 75uA quiescent current drain. It requires a low ESR capacitor (tantalum) for stable operation. I thought 75uA quiescent was great, until I discovered the MCP1700 series later on, which consumes even less: 1.6uA! All my newer builds uses the MCP1700 from now on. The LP2950 has the same basic "in-ground-out" pinout as the ubiquitous 78Lxx regulators, but the MCP1700 doesn't.
Again, like with Papydoo, the microcontroller spends its time sleeping and is waken-up by the watchdog timer every 1 second. It turns on the IR sensor, wait the appropriate detection delay, then reads the sensor output. If no object is detected, everything is turned off and Clappidoo goes back to sleep for another second. If an object is detected, full wake-up ensue, and the microcontroller activates sound, the LEDs and the servo depending on the mood.
Three timebase are used in the code, although only two genuine 16 bits timers are available in the Z8F042A. The third timebase is the UART Baud Rate Generator, used as an interval timer because the UART is not needed in this project. The BRG generates the main timebase used for PWM LED drive and the servo update sequence start. Timer 1 is used in one-shot mode to generate the servo "on" portion of the pulse. Timer 0 is used to generate sound tones on the timer's output signal. LED PWM and servo waveform generation is interrupt driven, as not to bother the main C function. The Zilog C compiler provides the "interrupt" keyword for transforming a C function in an interrupt service routine:
void interrupt My_ISR(void) {
//... my interrupt service routine code here ...
The eZ8 MCU uses prioritized vectored interrupts. Each interrupt source has its own entry in the vector table. The SET_VECTOR directive is used once in the code to add an ISR function to the vector table:
SET_VECTOR(Timer1, &My_ISR);
LED colours are 4 bits (16 shades) per channel, meaning 12 bits RGB colour space (4096 colours). One of the "non-obvious-at-first" aspect of the firmware was doing gradual "cross-fades" between two arbitrary colours. This involves a "Bresenham line drawing" like algorithm. Imagine each begin and end values of the 3 channels as a line's start and ending Y coordinate, and the X coordinate as the progression in time: 0 to 15.
The full project source code can be downloaded from here.
Here is the full schematic:
Clappidoo: A kids' favourite!


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Our picks
How to listen to Podcasts
Dave posted a topic in Forum News,Let's start small with the definition. If you know about podcasts already you can skip ahead.
What is a podcast? There is no set definition but in general a podcast is a voice recording on a subject that you can usually listen to however and whenever you want. Let's break these down a little bit and that will also help define the term for you.
- 1 reply
Picked ByDave,
CES 2019 Unveiled via the DJI Osmo Pocket
Dave posted a topic in CES 2019 Coverage,Here is something that wasn't planned but came to me while I was at Unveiled. The Unveiled event was a little lackluster so I had a little fun with the DJI Osmo Pocket. Take a look.
- 0 replies
Picked ByDave,
CES 2019 Swag Bag Review
Dave posted a topic in CES 2019 Coverage,It's the most important post covering CES. The swag bag review.
- 0 replies
Picked ByDave,
TP-Link's Wi-Fi 6 Routers
Dave posted a topic in CES 2019 Coverage,I talked with TP-Link about their AX series routers. The Deco X10 is a Tri-Band mesh router that will come in a pack of two for $350. I was told Q3 for release but if that sounds like a long time don't forget that we don't have anything that will talk with the AX standard yet.
It's a good looking box that I hope will perform well and have plenty of features. I've read good things about the Deco series and there were a few good sales last year on the M5. I really should test the M5!
Here it is. Yes, it's huge! Not a hockey puck like the M5 is. What do you think?
- 1 reply
Picked ByDave,
ASUStor AS4004T 10Gbe NAS Review
Dave posted a topic in NAS,ASUStor AS4004T NAS - Short and Sweet Review
- 0 replies
Picked ByDave,


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Swiss luxury watchmaker RAYMOND WEIL is proud to award Kostas Mantziaris the RAYMOND WEIL International Photography Grand Prize 2013 for his emotional picture of Greek traditional musicians. The 2013 edition of the contest – organised each year since 2006 – took place from October to December 2013 on the Brand's website and was open to all photographers, professionals or amateurs. The theme was RAYMOND WEIL's dearest passion: music.
Greek photographer Kostas Mantziaris was born in 1979 in the city of Larissa in Greece and raised in both Athens and Larissa. He started his career as a photojournalist in 1997 and is specialized in documentary, concert and news photography. Kostas Mantziaris has been working on traditional musicians in Greece for the last ten years. This picture was taken in the summer of 2009, during the traditional religious feast of prophet-Elias in Kalloni, a mountain village located in the north of Greece. Kostas Mantziaris will have the chance to see his artwork exhibited on the RAYMOND WEIL booth at BASELWORLD – the world's largest watch & jewellery show – from 27th March to 3rd April 2014.
In addition, among the submitted artworks, 10 pictures were selected and presented online on the Brand's official social channels where people could vote for the ones they liked best. This year, the public decided to award Emerson Oraya Baluyot the Public's Choice Award. This professional photographer lives in Marikina, Philippines. His picture, entitled "BADJAO STREET DRUMMERS" is the story of children who were victims of the war in Zamboanga, Philippines. To escape death, they came to Marikina making use of recycled materials as their means not only to earn money, but also to create music.
As part of its on-going effort to be ever more involved and successful in the patronage of the arts and its endeavour to unveil new artists, RAYMOND WEIL has awarded and promoted many young talents over the years. The watchmaker is proud to share the work of these two artists with its public and can't wait to discover next year's talents!


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Installation of a SailVac holding tank on SV Zephyr.
Installation of a SailVac holding tank on SV Zephyr.
*Access limited to current and past Whitby & Brewer owners only. To gain access please contact us at email@example.com.
The association holds an annual Whitby Brewer Rendezvous. Education, commeraderie and boat visiting are abundant. Save the date! October 1-3, 2018 at the West River Sailing Club in Galesville, MD. Hope to see you there. Watch the Forum topic Getting Together for more information.
Information from previous rendezvous' can be found here.


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How to Modify the Options Panels in Visual Basic 2008
You can change almost everything about how you use your programming environment from the Options dialog box in Visual Basic 2008. Take the time to familiarize yourself with this handy dialog box and set up your environment for just the way you like to work.
You get to the Options dialog box by choosing Tools→Options from the main menu. You navigate through the various options screens using the tree view on the left side. To show the total of all of the options, check the Show All Settings check box in the lower-left corner of the Options dialog box. The following table gives you a rundown of the amazing amount of stuff you can alter from this one spot.
|IDE Element
|Where You Set It
|What It Does for You
|Tab sizes
|Text Editor – All Languages – Tabs
|Lets you specify the tab sizes for Visual Basic code (or any
other language in Visual Studio, for that matter)
|SQL Parameter Prefixes
|Database Tools – Query and View Designers
|When Visual Studio creates SQL parameters, it will add these
prefixes to the names to meet with your standards.
|Comment Tokens
|Environment – Task List
|These are the phrases that you can begin comments with in order
to add them to the task list.
|Opening view
|HTML Designer – General
|When you open an ASPX or HTML file, you have a choice to see it
in the Designer View or the Code View.
|Source control login
|Source Control – Plug-in Settings
|If you are using Source Safe, you can set your username
|AutoRecover timing
|Environment – AutoRecover
|In case of blackout, you can set how often Visual Studio saves
your code in an AutoRecover file, just like what happens in
|Viewing Help
|Environment – Help – General
|In Visual Studio, the Help is actually a totally separate
application. You can view it inside Visual Studio by changing a
setting here.
|VB code options
|Projects and Solutions –VB Defaults
|If you like your code compiled with Option Explicit or Option
Strict by default, you can set it here.
|HTML Formatting
|Text Editor – HTML – Formats
|If you don't like the editor adding the close tag to HTML
elements for you, you can turn that off here.
|Startup Actions
|Environment – Startup
|You can set the last project you worked on to load
automatically here, as well as customize the RSS feed that the
Start page uses.
|Online Help
|Environment – Help – Online
|When you aren't connected to the Internet, you may not
want the Help software to check online. You can change the option


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HANOVER, N.H. - The MIT men's lightweight team traveled to New Hampshire to take part in the Biglin Bowl against Dartmouth and Harvard on Saturday morning. The Engineers entered three Varsity 8 boats in the event, finishing second in two of them and third in the other.
The first Varsity 8 race was won by Harvard with a time of 5:41.2, but was followed soon after by Dartmouth and MIT boats with times of 5:45.1 and 5:53.5 respectively. In the second varsity race, MIT came in second with a 5:56.7, a few seconds behind first place-finishing Harvard with a time of 5:48.1. The Big Green was third in 6:03.4.
Results were much the same in the third varsity race, with the Crimson leading the race from start to finish, completing the course in 6:02.7. The Engineers followed in 6:13.1 and Dartmouth was third in 6:31.3.
MIT will next travel to Ithaca, N.Y. to race in the Geiger Cup against Cornell and Columbia on Saturday, April 20, starting at 8:40 a.m.
2V Cox Henry Skupniewicz 8 Tom Altmann 7 Mycal Tucker 6 William Martin 5 Luke Koblan 4 Christopher Knapp 3 Devin Cela 2 Keanu Delgado 1 Michael Wu
3v Cox Sam Oppenheim 8 Peter Florin 7 John Kongoletos 6 Richard Chew 5 Berk Ozturk 4 Carlos Torres Quinones 3 Jose Burgos 2 Robert Learsch 1 Patrick Lowe


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Hello guys!
As many of you already know, we were working on an Italian website about Syberia, called "Syberia Italia". Well, the project is now ready to be shown to the world, even if far from being completed, so... pay a visit, if you please, to http://www.syberiaitalia.com !
And let us know how does it look like
If someone of you is interested in a link exchange, just ask; Ante, I've already added your website to our links' page


text:
Air Filters, Inc. is a US based manufacturer of residential and industrial air filters. If you are interested in a larger pack size or have a question about this product, please click here to request a quote.Request a Bulk Order
- Details
Are you simply masking annoying odors?
Astro-Pleat™ Astro-Sorb™ activated carbon 1-inch air filters provides light to moderate odor control of smoke, pet odors and cooking odors that are absorbed and trapped with in the millions of microscopic carbon pores. Primarily used for general indoor air filtration in heating, cooling and ventilation equipment/systems but also can be applied as an excellent pre-filter for use in commercial and industrial high efficiency systems.
Astro-Pleat™ Astro-Sorb™ activated carbon 1-inch air filters are a combination of granular activated carbon (Removing gases and odor's) thermally bonded to the polyester non-woven fibers (MERV 6 rated for Arrestance of 85% and Dust Efficiency 35%) that offers maximum carbon surface area, consistent carbon distribution with minimal pressure loss. Activated carbon air filters provides high filtration performance with a low-pressure drop for energy efficiency and utilizes 100% synthetic fibers, high initial efficiency, no chemical binders, and does not absorb moisture.
Astro-Pleat™ Astro-Sorb™ activated carbon 1-inch pleated air filter media is supported with expanded metal backing and is encapsulated in a heavy duty die cut beverage board frame to insure filter integrity in high moisture applications. The pleated filter cartridge is glued to the peripheral interior of the outer frame with a vinyl adhesive, preventing air by-pass.
Activated carbon air filters are designed to last up to 3 months however the activated carbon with in the air filter can have a limited life span based on the amount of odors required to absorb and so replacement may need to occur in quicker intervals.
Additional Information
SKU ASX1820114 U.S. Efficiency MERV 6 - AS Euro Efficiency EN779-F5 Shipping Ship within 5 - 7 days Market Commercial , Industrial, Residential Applications Apartment , Commercial Building , Hospital Labs , House , HVAC , Industrial Workplace , Odor Control, Furnace | AC Filter Characteristics Arrestance 85% , Disposable , Dust Efficiency 35% , MERV 6, 3 Month Filter Filtered Contaminants mite , odor , pollen , smog , smoke, dust Construction / Style Beverage Board Frame, Moisture Resistant , Standard Pleat Media Activated Carbon , Cotton-Polyester, Expanded Metal , Activated Carbon Filter Frame paper Pleats Per Foot 14 Actual Size 17 1/2 x 19 1/2 x 3/4 Nominal Size 18 x 20 x 1 Manufacturer Air Filters Incorporated UPC 715907002063 MFG Part ASX1820114 Weight 8.9000
Customize Your Air Filter in 4 Easy Steps
Air Filters, Inc. is committed to providing a "one-stop shop" for all of your air filtration requirements. As an air filter manufacturer, we are uniquely positioned to custom make any and all types of air filters.
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Have a Question?
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Browse a full list of industry terms to better choose your filters.
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Receive our full product catalog via email.
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Video Library
Need to know how to install your filters? Watch helpful videos from AFI.


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When I enter this site, I see what I left the last time.
Everythings alright, but then when I log in, the forum changes to have 2 members, Pifou and imagine, and they both joined today
For some reason I'm not logged in and when I try to, it says that my nickname or password doesn't exist.
But then if I enter the site again, everythings okay again, and now I am logged in..


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Singapore Braces for a Kitty Riot at McDonald's
Will This Year's Hello Kitty Promotion be Catty, or More Civilized?
SINGAPORE—Fourteen years ago, a Hello Kitty sales promotion here spiraled out of control, threatening to disrupt the peace in this order-obsessed Asian city-state. Historians called what happened a "fever," while lawmakers debated what should be done to end the plushy pussy mayhem.
Now a new set of the famous Japanese cartoon characters are coming—and Singapore's ability to play nice with its Hello Kitty toys is about to be put to the test....


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Amba is a unique gallery and boutique with a direct connection to skilled weavers, craftspeople and traditional artisans of India.
With an aim to support and sustain the diverse skills and translate the artistic visions to fit into contemporary international lifestyles, Amba has been able to redefine tangible beauty and luxury.
Amba invests its profits into projects that conserve and develop the skills and lives of these craftspeople.
Amba Gallery | 143 South Cedros V105b, Solana Beach, CA 92075, USA


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In a rather obvious attempt to court a more demanding PC gaming crowd, EA's Origin service today announced it has signed up eleven new publishers for its online marketplace. Among them are CD Projekt, of The Witcher fame, and Paradox Interactive, of hardcore historical strategy game fame.
Joining them will be Trion Worlds, Robot Entertainment, Freebird Games, Recoil Games, Autumn Games, 1C Company, inXile entertainment, Core Learning Ltd. and N3V Games.
Trion's Rift will be the first game from these publishers to be made available.


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Those in the football world feigning outrage can lower their pitchforks; Ndamukong Suh will show up for work.
NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport reported Tuesday that Suh is in town and will partake in the Detroit Lions' organized team activites.
The defensive tackle's absence from voluntary workouts this offseason has been a source of consternation and empty fist-shaking from an establishment that believes all players must attend non-mandatory workouts (yet, in the next breath, scoffs at the fact that they are defined as voluntary).
Per Rapoport, Suh stayed in contact with new coach Jim Caldwell throughout the offseason and visited with him last week.
The Lions have consistently said they were not worried about Suh's absence from the voluntary workouts and expected him when OTAs arrived. The workout regimen is the same one the three-time Pro Bowl player has used the past three years -- including 2013, his best professional season.
Suh and the Lions are currently in negotiations about a long-term contract extension. Detroit's brass has said repeatedly it is optimistic about locking up its best defensive player.
UPDATE: As expected, Suh showed up to work Tuesday. The team's official website posted a photo of the defensive lineman in action.
The latest "Around The League Podcast" breaks down the latest news and shares takeaways from rookie camps.


text:
Email has been sent to you , please check your spam/junk emails if you are unable to find the email.
Due to some internal error, the mail has not been sent.
The Vector E is an Electric only unit provides a powerful, low noise solution for cold storage temperature control
Refrigeration Capacity
(System net cooling capacity under A.T.P. Conditions at 30° C ambient)
Heating Capacity
(High speed engine operation)
(Including battery)
Sound pressure
Developing innovative cold chain solutions is ingrained in the culture of Carrier Transicold, where respect for the cold chain is crucial to ensure perishable, fresh and frozen goods are delivered in optimum condition to customers.
The E-drive® all-electric technology removes mechanical transmissions found in belt-driven technology by transforming engine power into electricity.
This unique and patented solution delivers superior cold chain performance while reducing CO2 footprint and total cost of ownership:
For our customer, it is essential to optimally transport their products and deliver the best quality. AdvanTE³C Solutions Centre is a global group of experts in efficiency and environment focused on developing sustainable transport solutions.
Their research will lead in the future to the introduction of new technologies, to continue redefine the cold chain.


text:
SLATTACH(8) BSD System Manager's Manual SLATTACH(8)
slattach - attach serial lines as network interfaces
slattach [-hm] [-s baudrate] ttyname
slattach is used to assign a tty line to a network interface, and will attach the named tty line to the first available slipdevice that is con- figured and up. The following operands are supported by slattach: -h Turn on RTS/CTS flow control. By default, no flow control is done. -m Maintain modem control signals after closing the line. Specifically, this disables HUPCL. -s baudrate Specifies the speed of the connection. If not specified, the default of 9600 is used. ttyname Specifies the name of the tty device. ttyname should be a string of the form "ttyXX", or "/dev/ttyXX". In addition, the following flags to ifconfig(8) control various proper- ties of the link: link0 Turn on Van Jacobsen header compression. -link0 Turn off header compression. link1 Don't pass through ICMP packets. -link1 Do pass through ICMP packets. link2 If a packet with a compressed header is received, automati- cally enable compression of outgoing packets. -link2 Don't auto-enable compression. Only the superuser may attach a network interface. To detach the interface, use "ifconfig interface-name down" after killing off the slattach process. interface-name is the name that is shown by netstat(1).
# ifconfig sl0 10.0.0.1 10.0.0.2 link0 link2 up # slattach ttyh8 # ifconfig sl1 192.168.0.1 192.168.0.2 link0 up # slattach -s 4800 /dev/tty01
Messages indicating the specified interface does not exist, the requested address is unknown, the user is not privileged and tried to alter an interface's configuration.
netstat(1), netintro(4), ifconfig(8), rc(8)
The slattach command appeared in 4.3BSD. MirOS BSD #10-current April 1, 1994 1
Generated on 2017-04-03 16:26:17 by $MirOS: src/scripts/roff2htm,v 1.88 2017/01/29 00:51:06 tg Exp $
These manual pages and other documentation are copyrighted by their respective writers;
their source is available at our CVSweb,
AnonCVS, and other mirrors. The rest is Copyright © 2002–2017 The MirOS Project, Germany.
This product includes material provided by mirabilos.
This manual page's HTML representation is supposed to be valid XHTML/1.1; if not, please send a bug report — diffs preferred.


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Be the first one who Explore our amazing mixture of the Ancient Egyptian History& Islamic and Coptic history in Cairo in four days, starting from Egyptian museum and the pyramids and sphinx ending with old Cairo.
• Transfer / guide in private air-conditioned vehicle with Professional driver
• Get inside tips from a local.
• Multi day trip.
• Perfect introduction for first-time visitors.
• Guarantee your safety during your trip (24/7).
Day 1:
After arrival in Cairo, you will meet your representative to transfer you to your hotel for overnight.
Day 2:
After breakfast at hotel, you will Visit the three Pyramids and Sphinx, the next step will be visiting the Step Pyramid of king Djesor at Saqqara & Memphis, then transfer back to your hotel for overnight.
Day 3:
After Breakfast, you will start a full day City tour to visit the most interested places in Cairo like the Egyptian Museum, Citadel of (Salah El Din) & Khan El Khalili Bazaar (in the night Optional Dinner on Nile cruise sailing for 2 hours in the Nile with Band, Belly Dancer and Tanora Show) then transfer to the hotel for Overnight .
Day 4:
After Breakfast in Hotel you will be transferred to Visit Old Cairo with old churches and the Synagogue of Ben Ezra then transfer to hotel for overnight .
Day 5
Finally, Transfer to Cairo airport for final departure.
√ Meet and Assist by our representative at Airport & Train Station.
√ Pick Up service from your hotel & return every day of visit .
√ Transfer in private air-conditioned vehicle with Professional driver as mentioned on itinerary.
√ Accommodation 4 Nights in Hostel at Cairo, including breakfast.
√ Private English-Speaking Tour guide (other languages are available upon request).
√ All private sightseeing tour as mentioned in program .
√ For your safety: trip under authorization of the Egyptian Government.
√ All taxes & service charge.
× International Flights.
× Optional and extra activities.
× Main Entrance Fees of all mentioned Sites .
× Any meals not mentioned in program, drinks, and any personal spend.
× Visa to Egypt.
×Tips are not compulsory and are left at your own appreciation.


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Rick Itzkowich necesitaba un nuevo diseño de otro y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 64 diseños de 14 diseñadores freelance.
LinkedIn Power
I have a passion to help entrepreneurs, small business owners and service professionals generate more clients. I also believe that relationships are key. LinkedIn is a goldmine for people who know how to use it. 99% of people have no clue. My information will have people rise to the top 90% of LinkedIn users and generate a lot of business for them.
Entrepreneurs, small business owners and independent professionals. They are hungry for business and realize that they need to do things differently in our current economic environment. Many of these people are new to Social Networking. Most of them have heard of LinkedIn but have no clue what to do once they create a profile. Some of them have been using LinkedIn more regularly but are failing to generate any profits from it. So the people are those who have heard of LinkedIn but don't know where to start or those who have started but don't know what to do to make it work for them. On this book, I'm teaching:
• Entrepreneurs how to leverage the use of LinkedIn to generate business from both their online and offline networking activities.
• The people reading this will be both new users of LinkedIn as well as those who have used it in the past but without good results
I will need the fonts, logo, etc to be also available to me as the design will be used afterwards on a possible blog or Website
One of the challenges is that as LinkedIn is a Registered Brand the exact logo cannot be used so, It needs to convey to people that this is about LinkedIn
without infringing on their trade mark. It needs to be similar but different.


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Make your own move: Entire Shop 20 percent off
While everyone is focused on the Winter Meetings in Florida, the MLB.com Gift Guru has been kicking around some Fiki Baseball at the office and thinking about player deals -- and some holiday shopping deals you can find yourself.
The MLB.com Shop is offering everything at 20 percent off for the occasion plus free ground shipping for orders over $50. So in the spirit of the Winter Meetings let's take a look at some players who already have moved to new clubs this offseason -- and how to cash in on their moves:
While everyone is focused on the Winter Meetings in Florida, the MLB.com Gift Guru has been kicking around some Fiki Baseball at the office and thinking about player deals -- and some holiday shopping deals you can find yourself.
The MLB.com Shop is offering everything at 20 percent off for the occasion plus free ground shipping for orders over $50. So in the spirit of the Winter Meetings let's take a look at some players who already have moved to new clubs this offseason -- and how to cash in on their moves:
Tim Hudson joins Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and Ryan Vogelsong in the Giants' rotation heading into next spring. No point in hauling that old Hudson No. 15 A's jersey across the Bay to watch him pitch. Manager Bruce Bochy is 15 on the Giants, so Hudson will debut at No. 17 and you can knock nearly $50 off the regular price and customize his Giants Home Cool Base Jersey during this sale.
Sure, you could get her the Holiday PJ Set or some Alex Woo jewelry . But now that Doug Fister has been added to the Nationals' rotation, don't overlook a new Nationals No. 58 Women's Customized Replica Jersey for only $71.99.
The 2013 season was a big one in both leagues for young Cuban talent, with Oakland's Yoenis Cespedes winning the Home Run Derby at Citi Field and Yasiel Puig bursting onto the scene and helping the Dodgers to the National League Championship Series. Now all eyes will be on first baseman Jose Abreu, who signed with the White Sox on Oct. 29. You can get his No. 79 Authentic Font Personalized T-shirt for just $28 after applying the sale price.
Ken Griffey Jr. always will be No. 24 in Seattle, so it is presumed that the one thing Robinson Cano won't get is his old number from the Yankees. It will be a formality to M's fans, who are going to be wearing Cano on their backs in droves next April, so for now you might just order the same Mariners cap that their next second baseman will sport at Safeco. It's only $27.99 thanks to this sale.
Meanwhile, there is the decision about what to do now that No. 24 pinstriped jerseys are instantly out of vogue in the Big Apple. You can get a deal on Brian McCann in pinstripes , but we're still waiting on Jacoby Ellsbury's number, as he wore 46 (2007-09) and 2 (2010-13) in Boston; both numbers were Core Four property in the Bronx. May we suggest something from the Yankees-Red Sox Rivalry T-shirt collection for April 10-13 at Yankee Stadium?
A.J. Pierzynski is Boston-bound, but the veteran catcher won't be able to keep his familiar No. 12 due to Mike Napoli re-signing a two-year contract with the World Series champs . Your best bet now -- especially if you are replacing Ellsbury garb for someone -- is to finally order that Napoli jersey you had waited on because you weren't sure he'd be back, and you get it at a savings instead of pennant-race full price. Meanwhile, Pierzynski's autographed baseball is $119.99 at the Shop, so you can take $24 off that.
You'll need any new Rangers jersey if you want to stay current in Texas, because the logo has just been updated to remove the black drop shadow and give more of a retro look. But you might as well go straight for the new No. 84 Rangers Authentic Home Cool Base Jersey to make it a Prince Fielder kind of summer. Add an Autographed Game-Used 2012 Home Run Derby Baseball from the event Fielder won at Kansas City, or maybe a Mounted Memories Autographed Tucci Game Model Bat .
Hank Greenberg's No. 5 was retired by Detroit, so Ian Kinsler had to choose a new number after the trade for Fielder. Now the coast is clear to order that No. 3 Tigers Authentic Road Jersey , and you can knock 60 bucks off the retail price.
"We've got hopes that with a change of scenery we're going to get him going in the right direction," Twins general manager Terry Ryan said of Phil Hughes, who signed a three-year contract after a 4-14 season with the Yankees. If you like that scenery as much as we suspect Hughes will, order an MLB.com exclusive Target Field Bronze Coin Photo Mint . It's the site of the 2014 All-Star Game , and who knows, maybe the 2010 All-Star will wind up there.
Veteran free agents who sign with St. Louis historically fare well in the ultra fan-friendly ballpark, and you can point to Carlos Beltran and Lance Berkman as recent examples. Now here comes Jhonny Peralta as the 2014 shortstop, and you can get the same road jersey and batting-practice cap he will be wearing.
Here's an idea for the do-it-yourself type on your shopping list. Get him or her (or, ahem, you) a Caseworks Shadow Box Display for $45 off the usual $225 price. Then get a photo with a newcomer like Astros outfielder Dexter Fowler, as well as his signature on a ball at Spring Training, and both go in the shadow box for a beautiful display.
New jerseys also are -- or soon will be -- available for Josh Johnson of the Padres; Jason Vargas and Norichika Aoki of the Royals; Heath Bell and Ryan Hanigan of the Rays; Peter Bourjos of the Cardinals; David Freese of the Angels; Luke Gregerson, Jim Johnson, Scott Kazmir and Nick Punto of the A's; Dan Haren of the Dodgers; Jordan Lyles of the Rockies; David Murphy of the Indians; Joe Nathan of the Tigers; Wil Nieves of the Phillies; Ricky Nolasco of the Twins; Skip Schumaker of the Reds; Jemile Weeks of the Orioles; and Chris Young and Curtis Granderson of the Mets. And now that the Winter Meetings have arrived, more new choices are on the way.
The MLB.com Shop Virtual Catalog is a great starting point for more options. And when in doubt or after the last shipping deadline has passed, remember that MLB.com online gift certificates in any denomination via e-mail are safe bets for any fan.
Mark Newman is enterprise editor of MLB.com. Read and join other baseball fans on his MLB.com community blog.


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Published on
Nanotechnology can be defined as using materials and systems whose structures and components exhibit novel and significantly changed properties by gaining control of structures at the atomic, molecular, and supramolecular levels. Although many advanced properties for materials with constituent fiber, grain, or particle sizes less than 100 nm have been observed for traditional science and engineering applications (such as in catalytic, optical, mechanical, magnetic, and electrical applications), few advantages for the use of these materials in tissue-engineering applications have been explored. However, nanophase materials may give researchers control over interactions with biological entities (such as proteins and cells) in ways previously unimaginable with conventional materials. This is because organs of the body are nanostructures and, thus, cells in the body are accustomed to interacting with materials that have nanostructured features. Despite this fact, implants currently being investigated as the next-generation of tissue-engineering scaffolds have micron-structured features. In this light, it is not surprising why the optimal tissue-engineering material has not been found to date.
Over the past two years, Purdue has provided significant evidence to the research community that nanophase materials can be designed to control interactions with proteins and subsequently mammalian cells for more efficient tissue regeneration. This has been demonstrated for a wide range of nanophase material chemistries including ceramics, polymers, and more recently metals. Such investigations are leading to the design of a number of more successful tissue-engineering materials for orthopedic/dental, vascular, neural, bladder, and cartilage applications. In all applications, compared to conventional materials, the fundamental design parameter necessary to increase tissue regeneration is a surface with a large degree of biologically-inspired nanostructured roughness. In this manner, results from the present collection of studies have added increased tissue-regeneration as another novel property of nanophase materials.
Prof. Webster obtained a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering (University of Pittsburgh, 1995) and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Biomedical Engineering (both at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; 1997 and 2000, respectively). He started as an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue in 2000. His lab (the "Nanostructured Biomaterials Laboratory") has completed extensive studies on the use of nanophase materials as tissue-engineering constructs. His lab currently has 16 post-doctoral, graduate, and undergraduate researchers; 4 students have graduated from his lab with M.S. degrees since 2000. Work from his lab has resulted in 5 invited book chapters, 52 peer-reviewed publications (in press or published), 9 patents (disclosed, provisional, or full), and over 90 contributed and invited papers at national/international professional society meetings. His research on nanophase materials for tissue-engineering applications has received attention in recent media publications such as Chemical and Engineering News, Advances in Nanomaterial Research, Nanoparticle News, American Ceramic Society Bulletin, Materials Research Society Bulletin, and High Tech Ceramics News. Prof. Webster has organized symposia on the integration of biology and nanomaterial science at several conferences including the American Institute of Chemical Engineering, Society for Biomaterials, and the Biomedical Engineering Society. He is the current recipient of the Biomedical Engineering Society Rita Schaffer Young Investigator Award for initiating new research directions in the fields of biomedical engineering. Prof. Webster also has published papers and has received awards for increasing female and minority representation in engineering.
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Cite this work
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
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MetroLyrics necesitaba un nuevo diseño de otro y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 81 diseños de 21 diseñadores freelance.
What we are looking for is a new background image for http://www.metrolyrics.com/ which goes below the content. If you visit the site you might see a background ad or our current blue background as on http://www.metrolyrics.com/apps.html
We are looking for creativity in the new design whether it's more emphasis on our branding and logo or color schemes. Right now the blue is rather dark and we would like to see other color variations. The blue is not mandatory and most likely not preferable.
Please try various colors including green, yellow, orange, baby blue, ping, purple and all the other colors I didn't mention. There is no 1 right color to use.
It can be a repeating background, does not have to be one big image. Creative repeating background will get you more points since it's usually lightweight.
Please put the homepage over the background so it can be seen what it would look like when launched.
Judging Criteria:
- how well it flows with the site
- does it increase the mood or makes the site feel a certain way
- how image heavy is it (for loading purposes)
- how unique is the background
LOGO: http://www.metrolyrics.com/images/n/logo.png


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In today's still slowed economy it is reassuring to hear about corporate endeavors bringing jobs back into the United States. On February 28, 2011 Bennu Glass LLC announced plans to reopen an idle wine bottle manufacturing facility in Kalama, Washington, pending financing, required maintenance, and replacement of faulty equipment. Bennu's newly forged alliance with distributor AAC Wine is making this dream a reality.
The factory is currently in production and is planning to celebrate a grand opening in September of this year. Bennu will manufacture up to 34 different bottle styles, produce over 11 million cases of wine bottles per year, and create over 90 new American jobs internally. The factory will create additional American jobs as numerous local and regional suppliers will be needed to serve the its demand for raw materials, supplies, and services. The factory will also further shrink the wine industry's carbon footprint using low emission liquid oxygen for combustion and state of the art pollution controls, making it the greenest glass factory in the country.
AAC Pacific Coast, a division of All American Containers, is excited to collaborate with Bennu Glass to help expand the company's distribution reach along both East and West coasts. AAC will be fundamental in Bennu securing a distribution foothold and establishing a presence in the market. "We're currently focusing our efforts on producing the highest quality product possible." said Nicole Weir, Bennu's distributor accounts & sales service manager, "With the current structure and size of our sales team it would be impossible to distribute and create a presence in the market ourselves. This is why our alliance with AAC is invaluable."
"We're thrilled to be part of such a win-win opportunity. So much of the domestic wine industry is very patriotic and are demanding product that are manufactured by and creating jobs for Americans. We're excited to be able to offer more American made options and supporting a good cause." says Stephanie Ramczyk, Business Development manager of AAC Wine's West Coast Distribution. This Westcoast alliance will allow them to to offer more variety and keep domestic glass as price competitive as possible. "People that we've talked to continue to tell us that having a reliable, low-cost, high-quality producer in the United States is something that's good for them, good for their brands, and we have people very anxious to get started," said Jerry Lemieux, CEO of Bennu Glass LLC
All American Containers, Inc is one of the largest suppliers of glass, plastic and metal containers, tubes and dispensers, and plastic and metal closure in the US. Their wine division carries a complete line of wine bottles, corks, and capsules in a wide selection of colors, shapes, styles, and sizes- and our bi-coastal warehouses service the entire United States. AAC Wine serves businesses of all sizes and with warehouses in Santa Rosa, CA, Simi Valley, CA, and Pittsburg, PA, AAC Wine makes access to their product as easy as possible. "Whether your operation is large or small, we'll treat your business as if it were our very own." states President Marty Sychowski on their website, aacwine.com.
For more information please feel free to contact Stephanie Ramczyk by phone at (707) 544-3496 or by email at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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How Would You Explain Twitter to Your Grandmother ?
November 8, 2009 By Leave a Comment
By now thousands of articles and blog posts have analyzed the reasons for the appeal of Twitter. They have sliced and diced it neatly into its various components - simplicity, brevity, openness, immediacy, transparency etc. But if you have ever


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Cisco Networked Video Strategy: The Cisco Difference in Video
Part 2 of a 4-part series
In part one of this series, Cisco Video Collaboration Group SVP Marthin De Beer kicked off our exploration of the new Cisco Video strategy unveiled at Cisco Live 2012 in San Diego.
Video drives more traffic than any other application on the network and it's changing how people communicate, collaborate, and consume content and entertainment. By 2016, we forecast 86% of traffic on networks will be video.
Using video is about the optimal experience for the task at hand – it is about creating that in-person experience from immersive TelePresence, but also about creating the best possible experience when you are on the road participating via your iPad.
When it comes to video, Cisco does three things differently to ensure superior end-to-end video experiences with greater efficiencies:
- Architectural Approach: The Cisco Medianet architecture delivers superior experiences and efficiencies by integrating video capabilities all the way from the network to the application. Cisco video endpoints use Medianet to discover and configure themselves, dramatically reducing deployment cost. Medianet infrastructure provides detailed performance information, which allows IT organizations to detect and fix problems in a fraction of the time required by traditional approaches. Medianet also helps companies leverage existing investments to build new capabilities more cost efficiently, such as adding recording and sharing to TelePresence or providing common call control for voice and video endpoints. Cisco's advantage comes from the network, which allows us to build and manage systems that best "understand" network performance, complexity, interactivity, and capacity. While Medianet provides compelling experience and total cost of ownership advantages today, we believe an architectural approach like Medianet will become absolutely required as video becomes pervasive.
- Investment and Innovation: With more than 8,000 engineers working on video innovation, Cisco is a video powerhouse. Our teams have filed 1,700 video-related patents in the last five years. Cisco's focus on video innovation is second to none. Cisco's powerful and award-winning video innovations include TelePresence, Videoscape, Show and Share, Media Experience Engine, and Pulse Analytics. We've also augmented our internal innovation with acquisitions including NDS, TANDBERG, BNI Video, Inlet, and ExtendMedia.
- Portfolio Breadth: Cisco provides enterprise video solutions from collaboration applications like TelePresence, Cisco Jabber, WebEx and video surveillance. For service providers, Videoscape provides a complete platform for next-generation TV services. Cisco products yield experiences for television, virtual meetings, global virtual events, dynamic safety and security, virtual expert customer services, sports venue video, e-learning, e-medicine, and e-shopping. Our portfolio breadth allows us to deliver complete solutions to our customers, and, going forward, we are working hard to make our products deliver even more unique capabilities when customers deploy them together.
But how do these aspects of the Cisco Video Strategy come together in tangible ways to transform your home and office experiences with video? Check back here on the Video Blog for the third installment of this blog series from Enterprise Video Director Erica Schroeder as she describes how these features create experiences that truly are better than being there.
In an effort to keep conversations fresh, Cisco Blogs closes comments after 60 days. Please visit the Cisco Blogs hub page for the latest content.


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Handbook on European law relating to access to justice
Access to justice is an important element of the rule of law. It enables individuals to protect themselves against infringements of their rights, to remedy civil wrongs, to hold executive power accountable and to defend themselves in criminal proceedings. This handbook summarises the key European legal principles in the area of access to justice, focusing on civil and criminal law.


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Makes 16 canapés
A mixture of sweetened ricotta, chocolate, fruit and nuts is versatile as a splendid topping or dip for cookies, or try it as a quick-to-prepare filling for prepared dessert containers.
Ricotta Mixture
½ cup ricotta cheese, preferably whole milk
1 teaspoon coarsely chopped orange zest
1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
1 teaspoon honey, or to taste
1/8 teaspoon pure almond extract
2 tablespoons slivered almonds, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon currants
To complete the recipe
16 gingersnaps or thin chocolate wafers
Cocoa powder for garnish
16 fresh raspberries
To make the ricotta mixture, stir together the ricotta cheese, orange zest, orange juice, honey and almond extract in a medium bowl until smooth. Stir in the remaining ingredients.
To assemble each canapé, spoon a ½ tablespoon dollop of the ricotta mixture in the center of a gingersnap or chocolate wafer. Sprinkle with cocoa powder stirred through a very fine strainer. Top with a raspberry.
Distributed by LAKANA. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Hitachi Tools
Hitachi Tools
Hitachi Koki Company began in 1948 manufacturing coal mining equipment and electric power tools. They quickly built a reputation for quality with the success of their air powered framing nailer and electric sliding compound miter saw after Hitachi Power Tools U.S.A. was founded in 1980. By 1985, Hitachi Power Tools had produced over 30 million power tool units.
As part of the Hitachi Group, Hitachi Power Tools has access to industry leading technologies. As a result Hitachi has been dedicated to research and development, leading to many product firsts for the company including a sliding compound miter saw, cordless impact driver and cordless screw driver, air-powered concrete nailer, metal stud cutter, portable rebar cutter and the use of rare earth magnets in cordless tool motors. Some technologies utilized by Hitachi include brushless motors, Lithium-Ion battery power, Internal Double Insulation housing for reducing vibration and increasing tool life and the use of 3D-CAD design simulation for digitally engineering, testing and improving tools.
Today, Hitachi is a world leader in metal casting and plastics technology and manufactures more than 1,000 models of electric power tools ranging from masonry, metal working, woodworking and more as well as a full line of power outdoor equipment.


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I recently did a count of all the writers who have contributed to Keyframe at Fandor, and was pleased to discover that over 50 different contributors have lent their insights in just the past six months. I'm hoping to expand that number considerably over the rest of the year, with more content of different kinds, from articles to videos to round-table surveys and so on.
As editor, I try to help each piece to become its best and try not to play favorites. But I can't deny that there are certain entries that are especially satisfying to have on Keyframe. So I thought I'd share a few from the past several weeks that I consider to be standouts:
- "Four Times Truer Than Life: Four Thoughts on Lillian Gish", by Farran Smith Nehme. Quoth the Self-Styled Siren:
I've always been fascinated by the idea that Gish isn't sexy, considering that she spent her entire silent career playing women (and, in Broken Blossoms, a child) who are desired by men, and often wind up seduced and abandoned. It's no harder to get past Gish's thin lips and flowing hair to her beauty, than it is to overlook Garbo's eyebrows or Clara Bow'soddly drawn mouth. Do those who find Gish a "silly, sexless antique" (Louise Brooks' sarcastic phrasing of such criticisms) wonder what the male characters are after? Nowadays, are innocence and purity so despised, or so transient, that no trace of their appeal remains? Surely not. Perhaps in our day, those qualities are so firmly relegated to childhood that modern audiences aren't comfortable with an erotic attraction to innocence–or, in The Wind, with how a young virgin's terror of sex can coexist with an equally primal yearning for it.
- Terri is a recent film that I really like, sort of like Wes Anderson without trying to be too twee. We were lucky to have this interview with director Azazel Jacobs, in which tells Nick Dawson what it was like to be schooled in movies as a kid (esp. when your dad is a famous avant garde filmmaker and film school professor). And you can also watch his previous film, Momma's Man, on Fandor.
- Filmmaker (though I like to think of him as a "cinematic instigator") Alejandro Adams has started issuing a monthly column on Keyframe, appropriately named "Noisemaker." In "How You Can Be A Better Filmmaker than Terrence Malick" Alejandro talks about the ways that co-opting movies by audience members can lead to acts of creation more inspired than the original works.
- A month has passed but I'm still thinking fondly of the surge of activity around Fandor's digital premiere of David Holzman's Diary. There was a noticeable uptick in the undervalued status of this classic, highly influential but still underseen film, thanks, I dare wager, to the extensive coverage Keyframe lent to the film.
There were many highlights, but the communal centerpiece was a poll of 25 film critics on the best films about filmmaking, with results that had the right blend of "right" and "surprising" (Sunset Blvd. and 8 1/2 are obvious, but Beware of a Holy Whore and Close-Up? Wow!) Perhaps just as good were the personal passion picks expressed across the full listing of the ballots, where everything from Inland Empire to The Last Action Hero got a vote of confidence (and really, aren't those two films essentially one and the same?)
But there were also a few stand-alone thought pieces on David Holzman, and my favorite was Tom McCormack's essay that tied the film's vision of narcissism posting as art into today's all-encompassing social network echo chamber.
I also enjoyed Brian Darr's tribute to Douglas Fairbanks, Michael Joshua Rowin's discovery of the first baseball movies, and Dan Callahan's appreciation of the "very horny cinema" of Claude Chabrol's A Double Tour.
More delights are in the works for August. In the meantime, Happy reading, and happy viewing!


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Burglar to get 25 years after guilty pleas
Guilty pleas made this week by the second of two men who acted as the busiest high-end burglary team seen in the state in many years has opened the door to begin the return of hundreds of thousands of dollars of stolen possessions to scores of burglary victims, including those in Greenwich, North Stamford and New Canaan, officials say.
Around noon Wednesday, Mark Missino, 46, of Waterford, pleaded guilty at state Superior Court in Stamford to five counts of third-degree burglary, along with single counts of first-degree burglary and violating the state's Corrupt Organizations and Racketeering Activity act.
Missino and a partner were suspected in burglaries and one attempted break-in in Greenwich in 2010, police said at the time. In those Greenwich burglaries, victims sustained an estimated $190,000 in total property damage and a loss of approximately $376,000 in stolen goods.
In January and March 2010, burglaries and attempted burglaries were reported on Highland Farm, and Round Hill, Close, Sky Ridge, Sumner and Day roads. In nearly every case, intruders forced entry and took off with cash, coins and jewelry, police said.
Although the charges carry a maximum 65-year prison term, a plea agreement with the state will send Missino, who has been in held on a nearly $1.7 million bond since his December 2010 arrest, to prison for 25 years, along with five years probation.
An unexpected twist occurred when Assistant State's Attorney David Applegate said prosecutors in other parts of the state would be filing three armed robbery warrants against Missino. He said Missino was expected to plead guilty to those charges, with the penalties for those crimes folded into his 25-year sentence, which is to be handed down on Jan. 30, 2014.
Few details were given on the robberies, besides Applegate telling Judge Richard Comerford that the warrants would be filed in the Judicial Districts of New London, Windham and Middlesex. After the hearing, Applegate said he could not comment further on the robbery allegations.
Although Missino and his partner, Bernard McAllister, 42, of Lisbon, were originally charged with 33 residential burglaries up and down Interstate 95 from Greenwich to Stonington, and suspected in as many as 40 more, their charges were reduced to those that were most easily proved. Kevin Shay, assistant state's attorney in the Statewide Prosecution Bureau, said McAllister admitted the two may have been involved in as many 300 burglaries.
Shay said the CORA charge encompassed all burglaries the two were accused of, even those that have not been attached to them.
"The evidence will show that Bernard McAllister and Mark Missino cooperated in a criminal enterprise, engaged in for-profit racketeering, specifically from July 11, 2008, to June 17, 2010, throughout various cities and towns in the state. The incidents are interrelated, they are not isolated," Shay said.
Wearing a white, short-sleeve undershirt with a longer shirt underneath and an orange jumpsuit tied around his waist, Missino answered most questions with yes and no answers.
When asked by Comerford if the state's allegations were substantially correct, Missino said, "yes, they are."
Outside the courtroom, Missino's attorney, Sebastian DeSantis, said he was uncomfortable speaking about the case and declined comment until sentencing.
After his guilty pleas to burglaries in Greenwich, Stamford, Madison and East Lyme, Missino agreed to waive any rights to property seized by police nearly three years ago in two eastern Connecticut storage units containing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stolen goods belonging to scores of owners.
Applegate said that waiver would allow the state to start the process of getting the property back to the rightful owners.
Last May, McAllister pleaded guilty to third-degree burglary, first-degree larceny and the Corrupt Organizations and Racketeering Activity charges and agreed to be sentenced to 15 years in prison.
The two have also been charged under the federal Armed Career Criminal Act, which provides sentence enhancements for felons who commit crimes with firearms, if convicted of certain crimes three or more times. Any federal prison sentence will be served at the same time as state sentences.
After as many as 90 burglaries -- even three in one night -- stacked up along I-95 in 2010, a break in the case arrived on the night of Nov. 13, 2010.
After a burglary occurred in Greenwich, detectives alerted officers in East Lyme to be watchful for two suspects, McAllister and Missino, while checking locations they were known to frequent.
Prior to this burglary, East Lyme investigators knew the two drove a white Nissan Maxima and visited the East Lyme area, police said.
An officer on patrol in East Lyme spotted the Nissan at a storage facility later that night.
The men then fled when they saw the officer, who recognized one of them as Missino, police said.
Other officers arrived, but a search for the two men came up empty. They were arrested a few days later in Massachusetts.
Authorities say they found thousands of stolen items in the storage unit, including a fur coat valued at $15,000, a host of jewelry items, paintings and a $5,000 bicycle. The items came from homes including mansions in Greenwich and summer cottages in the Niantic section of East Lyme.


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This project is for men and is managed by the Martlets Hospice bereavement service. It offers a programme of six weekly sessions at PLOT 22 for a closed group of men. Six programmes will run throughout the year. Please contact email@example.com to find out more.
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Earlier Event: March 10Workshop: Herbal Remedy Making - with Jessie Martelhof
Later Event: March 12TouchBase @ PLOT 22