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From New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis comes the next sexy, standalone novel in the Heartbreaker Bay series...
About CHASING CHRISTMAS EVE:
Meet cute...
Run for the hills—temporarily. That's Colbie Albright's plan when she flees New York for San Francisco. Wrangling her crazy family by day and writing a bestselling YA fantasy series by night has taken its toll. In short, Colbie's so over it that she's under it. She's also under the waters of a historic San Francisco fountain within an hour of arrival. Fortunately, the guy who fishes Colbie out has her looking forward to Christmas among strangers. But she's pretty sure Spencer Baldwin won't be a stranger for long.
Make merry...
Spence's commitment to hiding from the Ghosts of Relationships Past means he doesn't have to worry about the powerful—okay, crazy hot—chemistry he's got with Colbie. Just because she can laugh at anything, especially herself... just because she's gorgeous and a great listener…just because she "gets" Spencer immediately doesn't mean he won't be able to let Colbie go. Does it?
…and hope for a miracle.
Now the clock's ticking for Colbie and Spence: Two weeks to cut loose. Two weeks to fall hard. Two weeks to figure out how to make this Christmas last a lifetime.
Pre-Order CHASING CHRISTMAS EVE in ebook or paperback, releasing 9/26/17
Amazon | iBooks | Kobo| Barnes & Noble
The bathroom door opened, and even better than his fantasy, Colbie emerged from a cloud of steam, her willowy body wrapped in one of his towels, her exposed skin gleaming and dewy damp. Her hair had been piled on top of her head, but wavy strands had escaped, clinging to her neck and shoulders.
He couldn't tear his gaze off of her. There was just something so uncalculated about her, so . . . natural and easy. She was like a beacon to him, which was both crazy and more than a little terrifying.
Clearly not seeing him against the wall, she moved with an effortless grace to the suitcase she'd left at the door. Bending low enough to give him a near heart attack, she rifled through her things, mumbling to herself that she should've researched more about how to be a normal person instead of how to kill someone with an everyday object.
"Do you kill a lot of people, then?" Spence asked.
"Motherforker!" she said with a startled squeak of surprise, whirling to face him, almost losing her grip on the towel.
Five days a week, Spence worked out hard in this gym. Mostly to outrun his demons, but the upside was he could run miles without losing his breath. But he lost his breath now.
And that wasn't his body's only reaction.
And don't miss the previous books in Jill Shalvis's Heartbreaker Bay Series, SWEET LITTLE LIES, THE TROUBLE WITH MISTLETOE, ONE SNOWY NIGHT and ACCIDENTALLY ON PURPOSE, now available! Grab your copies HERE!
About Jill Shalvis:
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jill Shalvis lives in a small town in the Sierras full of quirky characters. Any resemblance to the quirky characters in her books is, um, mostly coincidental. Look for Jill's sexy contemporary and award-winning books wherever romances are sold and click on the blog button above for a complete book list and daily blog detailing her city-girl-living-in-the-mountains adventures.


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More unworthy garbage keeps coming our way, the splatter pattern created after all the filth has hit the surface behind us is put into words in our Sadistic Metal Reviews.
Reverie – Bliss (2015)
With a band name like Reverie and a seemingly ironic album title like Bliss you might have expected postmodern post-indie shoegaze hipster black metal to roar and pounce at you like an enraged kitten, but luckily, we are met with something at the very least resembling a lion here; pity this one just so happens to not be the king of the jungle.
In homage to the oldest Bathory-tradition, we find Reverie struggling to bring hardcore punk and ominous metal harmonics into a vileful matrimony. Where Reverie, like most other modern exploits of this scheme fail, is in the insistence on very low-brow hooks and plodding "anti-cosmic" disharmonics which only further leads the listener astray from whatever good basic riff the song was initially edified around. Acoustic interludes and vapid diversity in riffs can't overshadow the monotony that all songs eventually end up in – Imagine a less successful and inspired newer Autopsy, and you'd be close to what the songwriting sounds like for the most part.
There are shining, spirited moments, but if this band is to evolve beyond the hordes of Katharsis-clones, they still have years of sadistic refinement to come.
Arvas – Black Satanic Mysticism (2015)
If there's something the modern black metal scene likes to fawn over, it's music with empty calories -Excellent riffs, delectably prepared into a concoction without any lasting impressions. Black Metal has at this point made it into the realms of nostalgia, and genre-pandering releases such as this one clearly proves this. The music found here clearly harkens back to the glory days of the Norwegian early 90's, but are so firmly entrenched in their own sentimentality that they miss the original explorative spirit of the genre.
Nothing on here is offensive, as background-music it is highly soothing and comforting for anyone already introduced into the genre, since it is so highly conscious not to disrupt its conventions. If you're the kind of person that likes Choco Puffs for breakfast rather than a swordfight with your mortal enemy to the death, then this release might just be the one for you.
Dystopia Nå! – Dweller on the Threshold (2015)
What else does the modern underground cherish? High-functioning blenders. The ingredients aren't all that important, as long as the blend is interesting and "unique". Once we taste the results after the blend, we'll go into denial over its real flavours, and instead gaze at the moon as it reflects our own ego shining bright ëíIím the only one who understands this! This is the new wave!íí
What is Dystopia Nå!? It's Screamo and Nu-metal of the 2000's with instrumentation and lacing from De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. Ironic, depressive quotes rumble through the wall of sound and powerless anguished screams echo through chuggy deathcore breakdowns, but neither of these elements hold any gravitas whatsoever, even for the most unscrupulous of hipsters. Like all other depressive black metal/rock, this is professional duping of young indie girls into the new "edgy" trend. No soothing ëartfulí piano-interludes or post-rock guitars could save this abomination. Avoid.
Harrow – Fallow Fields (2015)
Some bands don't even know how to be subtle and mask their blatant source-material. Harrow is a pure rip-off of more successful atmospheric/post-rock black metal bands, and it becomes obvious from the very first seconds of the first track.
If you have heard Agalloch, Kroda and Drudkh, you have heard the instrumental ingredients of this release, but never before has someone managed to achieve this level of tedium in the faux-ambient genre. Pass this one up, and you'll get some extra time to listen to Hvis Lyset Tar Oss instead.
Vardan – Between the Fog and Shadows (2015
Droning minor chords for minutes on end, replete with "catchy" piano and synth-"bloops" akin to a new-wave pop band. The dominant theory in our contemporary music scene is that this drivel was conjured up by the evocative gloom of Burzum, but there we must vehemently disagree. This is a spawn of the same old ego that spawned Grateful Dead, Opeth and Liturgy, this time merely slapped unto a production that they think would sell with the lower echelon of the black metal hordes; incapable of distinguishing a duck from an ostrich. It worked ten years ago, and we're still seeing bands such as Vardan cashing in on the plastic underground credibility to this day.
Trials – This Ruined World (2015)
The instrumental performance of Pantera amalgamated with metalcore production and composition, sprinkled with the most basic uninspired Metallica-worship gallop and Sepultura breakdown. What do we get? Imagine a cake concocted by a skilled chemist lacking any taste buds. Technically, it's proficient, but the emperor wears no clothes, and even the most passing glance at this record might confirm this. I'm sure these fellows think their murky, crusty chugs mixed with catchy melodic death metal riffs and pop choruses was a top notch idea to get all the chicks on the beach, but I assure them that for this atrocity they'll receive only personal embarrassment in the future.
SoulLine – Welcome My Sun (2015)
At some point in the mid-to-late 90's, the term melodic death metal, once the moniker used for bands using the death metal labyrinth-riff through leitmotifs of recognizable melodies more so than percussive grounding, became usurped by the most twee of electro-pop bands, grunge-rejects and the burgeoning modern screamo and post-hardcore genres.
The band might define itself as a melodic death metal band, but one would be hard-pressed to find any differences in this material from your typical screamo/crunkcore-band. A band like Attack Attack will have the same moronic, oversimplified Pantera-grooves, monotone, emotionless vocals, random disco drums and pop structures with a slaphappy yet indignant "mad-at-father" choruses. The only differing elements are the chunkier metal production and the fact that there are a few more listless harmonies in the breakdowns. Melodic death metal is a sham, it has nothing to do with death metal, and just about anything labelled this after 1995 is a marketing ploy to get both the listless Cannibal Corpse-fans who will gobble up anything death metal-related for the "br00tal" street cred and the emo kids who've had enough of the bullying at school into bands like this in this putrid, yawn-inducing horror of a genre.
Shrapnel Storm – Mother War (2015)
Looking at this record superficially we see the image of a forsaken mother clutching a decayed baby as though it was all that was left for her in her life. The Apocalypse is raging all around in an urban environment and the future is bleak. This imagery has a striking resemblance to what crust punk constantly portrayed.
This is no accident. One of the bases for the Swedish death metal sound which this Finnish band pursues was this Discharge/Amebix-influence. The Stockholm HM-2 Boss guitar sound was the natural evolution of the bass-driven, gritty rasp that could be heard on Amebix releases as early as 1983's Winter. Shrapnel Storm's idea on how to elaborate on this legacy is to strip back the evolution of Swedish Death Metal one step further into the lost realm of Crust-bleakness where monotony and desolation rules. This is a valid endeavour and the result does predictably come off similar to a modernized, groovier version of what Deviated Instinct and Bolt Thrower did in the late 80's.
There's only one vital flaw: The music isn't very engaging and hearkens back to Wolverine Blues and Welcome to the Orgy more than it does Left Hand Path and Arise!. Rather than exploring the ambiance that could be found in both of these genres when played with expertise, in actual content, Shrapnel Storm for the most part makes this seem like just another mediocre death-n-roll record rather than the potential their sound actually might possess.
If they drop the simple bluesy riffs, focus on the monotone but engaging crusty riffs, play around with song structures more you might actually find a worthwhile record from these guys sometime in the future, but for now, it's not salvageable and we're left with dull and mediocre riffs that go nowhere but straight into the bin.
Nihilosaur – Icebreaker Hope (2014)
Reminiscent of the overtly artsy post-death metal bands in Finland after the countries initial boom of creativity died out, this band tries to take death metal in an interesting direction, but ends up sounding like a mediocre Sludge Metal band with no clear direction on how to escape the forest of their own design.
Loud, buzzing bass-distortion and peculiar, sometimes Godflesh-like guitar-notes screech in the distance. But no one will listen, except for their mothers who assure that they're as special and unique as ever. The main differing factor between Godflesh or other quirky but successful bands like Carbonized and this is ultimately the fact that Nihilosaur merely know how to take you on an obscure journey through industrial film noir-visuals, but then leave they leave you with no satisfying conclusion. It starts and ends with a vortex of randomness where listlessness is king.
This is the Mulholland Drive of death metal, it wishes it was Voivod or other narrative bands, but for this fairytale, the narrator has long been asleep at the wheel, never to be found again. Good riddance.
Minority Sound – Drowner's Dance (2015)
Did you ever want Marilyn Manson with a bit more EBM, injected with leftover riffs from Megadeth Risk album to then be spiced with movie soundtrack electronic orchestras, desperately trying to inject some novelty into the tween-metal? No? You elitist bigot!
The band is definitely more instrumentally competent than most in the industrial metal genre but like other novel bands like Babymetal the music is pop music on steroids, disguised as an ironic, competent "new" take on metal. If the fair is too expensive for you but you still want that roaring deluge of incomprehensible, meaningless sounds and images to barrage before your senses and this might be just right for you.
Lothlöryen – Principles of a Past Tomorrow (2015)
The trouble with the modern power metal genre is its overwhelming mediocrity, where the bulk of the music sounds like pop music on speed conjured up by the high from their own auto-effluvial sniffings. It is truly a rare gift to see anything even resembling what Iron Maiden could achieve with the beginnings of this sound in the mid-80ís. But that's Is a story for another time.
This isn't utterly horrific by modern power metal standards, it's just so average that it could be any tired Blind Guardian-influenced attire shuffling through the fog for an original approach to songwriting that isn't copy-pasted from an early Helloween album. The occasional EBM interlude and gimmicky parody of a Celtic major-driven song-and-dance isn't doing this already stillborn record any favours – the only favour I can ask of the band members to do for themselves would be to stop wasting valuable plastic on this insipid tripe. That, or move to Finland, join a Polka-troupe and finally kill themselves.
Crown – Natron (2015)
Indie rock will always find new aesthetic means to plague us and infest any worthwhile medium of creative composition. They will perpetuate Shakespeare's legacy as if it were Comic Sans in their vain vision of art.
What does this new incarnation bring us? Well, the black rider in the night wears the robes of sludge/doom metal of the lowest caliber, laced with post-rock and industrial clichès. If you're a fan of pseudo-prog of the last decade but would like it artsier, "spiritually deeper", more Agalloch-infused and Rammstein-attuned, then this might be for you. Mind you, you would have had to have lost your taste buds ages ago if you find that sounding remotely palatable, so I'm sure you'll gobble it up like a any fine happy meal from the garbage bin.
Locrian – Infinite Dissolution (2015)
As the album initiates its sonic onslaught, we are at first greeted with something resembling early Godflesh, but with a more derivative, flaccid production. Where will this lead us? I'll tell you where, to post-rock and Wolves In the Throne Room-tedium. The industrial aesthetic attempt to hide the fact that this is the same tired quasi-ambient formula where emotionless "emotional" sounds roll unto the listener until a barrage of harmonic, almost Liturgy-like random melodic throwaways strikes as if it is the only path for the music to take, until it dies a tragic death in reflection of its own hubris.
This pattern is repeated throughout the entire record. It's clear that they want to be Drudkh 2.0 and some of the slower melodies hold some meagre musical merit, but the approach and composition is botched with no saving grace to be found. Avoid or fall into oblivion, as is the fate of this album.
Credit where credit is due: The album title perfectly describes how focused the composition is on the record.
Sonick Plague – Street Wars (2015)
An 80's speed metal band, forgotten by time and space, decide to make a new record almost 30 years after being out of business. One can wonder if anyone ever found their output special to begin with, as what we find here is something akin to early Megadeth without any substantial riff variation and a latter-day groove metal influence, pedalling in these similar motifs that don't go much further than tying themselves up in a nice enough fashion. This is the barcode for mediocre, it might get them some high fives from their friends at the pub that they haven't met since the late 80's, but to the general public this is as forgettable as they come.
Funebria – In Dominus Blasfemical Est… Ad Noctum Sathania (2015)
Some bands are only after the lipstick and aesthetics. Funebria is a Venezuelan black metal band that despite their best efforts, come off as a modern melodic death metal/metalcore act with dynamics borrowed from Marduk and Cradle of Filth. They try their best to disguise this under raw, simplistic war metal lyrics and scene pandering, but for the discerning ear this is as vapid as the latest Dimmu Borgir albums, unfortunately for this album however, they lack even the instrumental proficiency of the latter. Let this abortion sink into the depths that their doted Ea might give them a final mercy kill so we might never hear such belligerently tedious music ever again.
Note: Oddly, this sounds like "Fun"+ "ebria" (drunk in Spanish).
22 CommentsTags: 2015, Arvas, Between the Fog and Shadows, Black Satanic Mysticism, Bliss, Crown, Dweller on the Threshold, Dystopia Nå, Fallow Fields, Funebria, Harrow, hipster bullshit, Icebreaker Hope, In Dominus Blasfemical Est... Ad Noctum Sathania, Infinite Dissolution, Locrian, Lothlöryen, metalcore, Mother War, Natron, Nihilosaur, piece of shit, poser metal, post-metal, Principles of a Past Tomorrow, Reverie, sadistic metal reviews, Shrapnel Storm, sludge metal, Sonick Plague, SoulLine, stinking shit, This Ruined World, Trials, vardan, Welcome My Sun, worthless scum

subset: commoncrawl


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(NOTE that with pinball games, the transition to solid-state technology [the use of semi-conductor-based components such as ICs] and the transition to microprocessor technology generally occurred simultaneously, unlike in coin-op video games, which had used solid-state technology before the transition to microprocessors)
As most of you probably know, Midway's Gun Fight is almost universally acknowledged as the first coin-operated video game with a microprocessor. One thing I have learned while researching video game history, however, is to be skeptical of any claim that a video game was the "first" to do X. Such claims are often made on the basis of little or no research and turn out to be incorrect, or at least incomplete, when the evidence is examined. Such is the case with the first microprocessor videogame.
I posted about this subject earlier and suggested a few possibilities, one of which was Mirco's PT-109, which was introduced at the same 1975 MOA show as Gun Fight. At the time, I was not entirely certain that the game used a microprocessor. Since then, I have found that it did use one – the Fairchild F-8 (interestingly enough, the F-8 was also used in two other early microprocessor video games – Jerry Lawson's Demolition Derby and Innovative Coin Corporation's Spitfire). I have also unearthed a little more information about the game, including the identity of its designer, Cash Olsen. In this post then, I take a closer look at the game and discuss some other early microprocessor coin-op games (for more information on Mirco, see my earlier post)
That Mirco developed one of the first microprocessor video games is not surprising. Not only did it have extensive experience developing microprocessor-based test equipment, but a number of its employees had come from Motorola, where they had worked on its 6800 microprocessor. Chief among them was Mirco's President Tom Connors. Known as "Tiny" because of his immense size, Connors had headed Motorola's Semiconductor Products Group. Surprisingly, however, PT-109 did not use a Motorola microprocessor. Instead, designer Cash Olsen, chose to use a Fairchild F-8, due to its development system, sales support and ability to transfer large amounts of data efficiently. (Olsen 2015; EDN 3/5/76). Integrating the F-8 into the game's hardware was a challenge. Olsen recalls that F-8 consisted of separate chips to support memory, Input/Output, and other functions. In addition, PT-109 was one of the first games to make use of a new component called a Field Programmable Logic Array (FPLA) – an Integrated Circuit whose logic of "ands" and "ors" could be reprogrammed in the field. In total, the game used about 300 chips – 50 for the video and the rest to support the microprocessor (Olsen 2015). If creating the game's hardware was a challenge, so was programming its software. Though the F-8 shipped with an assembler (a program that translates low-level assembly language into machine-readable binary code), it had no native assembly ability. Instead, code had to be written on a GE time-sharing system then uploaded to a central mainframe, where it was compiled into binary and sent back – a process so time-consuming that the developers were sometimes able to get only two "turnarounds" a day. (Olsen 2015)
After a laborious effort, Mirco was able to get PT-109 ready for the 1975 MOA show, where it drew a good deal of attention owing to its use of a microprocessor. Ultimately, however, despite its innovations, the game sold poorly. Though this may have been due to technical issues, another potential problem was that PT-109 was only available in cocktail table format. By the time it appeared, the cocktail video boom had passed and the same doctors and lawyers who had purchased TV Ping Pong and Challenge were unwilling to buy another video game. As a result, PT-109 is all but unknown today, and even the most ardent video game collector is probably unaware that it had a microprocessor, much less that it was one of the first video games to use one.
The above article on PT-109 appeared in the March 5, 1976 issue of EDN |
So which was first, PT-109 or Gunfight? Both were introduced at the 1975 MOA show (for some other contenders at the same show, see my earlier post) but I am not sure exactly when they began shipping to distributors. The release of both games was announced in the trade magazines in November but I don't know which came first. Whether or not PT-109 was first on the market, its sales were dwarfed by those of Gun Fight. As far as priority goes, let's call it a tie for now.
What about other coin-op games?
I am not sure what the first coin-op game to use a microprocessor was. The first one I know of was Bally's Bally Alley, a wall-mounted bowling game released in 1974 that used an Intel 4004. I have not done nearly enough research, however, to state with any certainty that it was the first.
As for pinball, a number of companies had experimented with microprocessor pinball games in 1973 and 1974, including Atari, Ramtek, Bally, and Allied Leisure. I am not sure which was first, but my guess is that it was Atari, which produced a prototype game based on Bally's Delta Queen at its Grass Valley skunk works (when Williams and Bally later went to court over Bally's microprocessor pinball patents, engineers from Grass Valley testified as friends of the court and Bally's patents were ruled invalid).
It's a bit ironic that PT-109 is so little known since the one Mirco game that anyone does remember is the pinball game Spirit of '76, which is generally considered the first production pinball game with a microprocessor, despite that fact that it may not have been.
Spirit of '76
The initial idea for Spirit of '76 had come from Dave Nutting, who had approached Mirco after Bally passed on the Intel-4004-based Flicker prototype he and Jeff Frederiksen had developed in 1974.
[Dave Nutting] When I did the first microprocessor pinball game, Bally at first didn't want to pay the price I wanted for the patent so then I went to Mirco and had a contract with them and we came out in 1975 with a game called Spirit of '76. (2001)
The use of a microprocessor (in this case, the Motorola 6800) offered a number of advantages over electromechanical pinball games. One the biggest was that it allowed machine to track each player's game state so that they could pick up from where they left off. It also allowed for the creation of more sophisticated sound effects, such as drums, whistles, and cannon fire, along with providing automated diagnostic routines and a host of operator-adjustable settings. Like PT-109, Spirit of '76 caused a buzz at the MOA show and the games also drew the attention of the press – at least the electronics press – with articles appearing in Electronics, EDN, and Electronic Design. Mirco, however, was ultimately unable to capitalize on the publicity.
[Cash Olsen] Interest was very strong and we were riding on a big bubble after the show. Apparently, large orders were written and unrealistic delivery dates promised. We went back to Phoenix with a great deal of pressure because both games were still in prototype status; nothing was finalized and ready to turn over to manufacturing. The next several weeks were spent readying a couple of more prototypes of each game for delivery to the first customer; I believe it was [C.A.] Robinson in California. The [sales] price that …[Mirco] committed to was well below the cost of manufacturing the games as they currently existed…the silkscreens of the glass and …[playfield] of the pinball machine were of particular concern. Sourcing of the plastic and electro-mechanical parts of the play field was not firm and Bally/Midway seemed to control most of them. As shown at MOA, they used seven screens, …[which] caused the cost to be excessive, (2015)
Spirit of '76 also suffered from technical problems. After shipping the first units in November, Mirco had to halt production until March as they worked out the issues (Walker 1976).
[Cash Olsen] I think that 2-3 months had gone by and the customer was making threats of cancellation and maybe worse. After days of all-nighters two pinball machines and one video game were readied and loaded onto a Cessna 205 to be flown to California to meet the deadline. When the pinball machines were setup on location we got a panicked call back that the machines had both played for less than two days before they could not be played anymore. The report was that all of the solenoids were hanging by their wires. (2015)
So though Mirco may have led the microprocessor revolution, it did not reap its rewards. Spirit of '76 reportedly sold an abysmal 140 units and it remained for Bally/Midway to popularize the concept of microprocessor pinball machines and video games. Even if Mirco had been able to meet the initial demand, it may not have mattered. Technical issues aside, Spirit of '76 was an ugly game. The dull-as-dishwater backglass consisted of little more than a stylized American flag and the playfield art was virtually nonexistent, possibly because no one at Mirco had any experience with pinball games
[Cash Olsen] Mirco knew absolutely zero about dong a pinball machine when they started Spirit of 76…they could have hired the janitor at Bally and he could have bought more corporate knowledge about pinball…than…all of the people involved at Mirco. (2015)
Like Olsen, Spirit of '76's designers had come from Motorola, where they had worked as applications engineers on the 6800 microprocessor family. Neither of them had ever designed a pinball game before. Not surprisingly, Mirco made just one other pinball game – the 1978 cocktail pin Lucky Draw.
So was Spirit of '76 the first microprocessor-based pinball game? As with Gun Fight it was introduced at the 1975 MOA show and as with Gun Fight, there were other games released at the same show that apparently also used a microprocessor.
One, Allied Leisure's Dyn-O-Mite - which featured the likeness of Jimmie Walker from Good Times – is fairly well known. The other, Invasion Stratogy from Komputer Dynamics, is not.
Based in Indianapolis with a production plan in nearby Spencer, IN, Komputer Dynamics was organized in 1974 by Richard Payne, Chad Zulich, Ronald Young, and Charles Russell (whose father Louis was at the time the longest surviving heart transplant recipient). Invasion Stratogy (no, that's not a misprint) was a two-ended pinball game in which two players could play head-to-head (a concept that had been tried in 1971 with Gottlieb's Challenger). Two balls were in play at the same time and each player had four flippers. The game does not appear to have done any better than Challenger, which sold just 110 units, and Komputer Dynamics quickly disappeared.
So should these three games be considered co-holders of the "first microprocessor pinball game" title. Maybe not. As it turns out, Allied Leisure also produced a four-player version of Dyn-O-Mite called Rock On, which may have been released in September – though this too appears to be uncertain.


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Thomastik-Infeld Jazz Flats Short Scale Bass Strings
Nobody knows flatwound bass strings better than Thomastik-Infeld.
SPIROCORE strings by Thomastik-Infeld have been legendary among upright bassists for decades. Now the electric bassist can also experience the Thomastik-Infeld sound. Thomastik-Infeld utilizes a highly pliable steel core which is wrapped with a silk inlay. The outer winding is a true ribbon flatwound constructed of a special nickel alloy. The result is an incredible depth of tone and an enhanced fundamental which is unavailable from any other flatwound.
Thomastik-Infeld Jazz Flats Short Scale Bass Strings


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Amazon scraps secret AI recruiting tool that showed bias against women
Amazon scraps secret AI recruiting tool that showed bias
against women
By Jeffrey Dastin OCTOBER 10, 2018 / 10:12 PM
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc's machine-learning
specialists uncovered a big problem: their new recruiting engine did not like
The team had been building computer programs since 2014
to review job applicants' resumes with the aim of mechanizing the search for
top talent, five people familiar with the effort told Reuters.
Automation has been key to Amazon's e-commerce dominance,
be it inside warehouses or driving pricing decisions. The company's
experimental hiring tool used artificial intelligence to give job candidates
scores ranging from one to five stars - much like shoppers rate products on
Amazon, some of the people said.
"Everyone wanted this holy grail," one of the people
said. "They literally wanted it to be an engine where I'm going to give you 100
resumes, it will spit out the top five, and we'll hire those."
But by 2015, the company realized its new system was not
rating candidates for software developer jobs and other technical posts in a
gender-neutral way.
That is because Amazon's computer models were trained to
vet applicants by observing patterns in resumes submitted to the company over a
10-year period. Most came from men, a reflection of male dominance across the
tech industry.
In effect, Amazon's system taught itself that male
candidates were preferable. It penalized resumes that included the word "women's,"
as in "women's chess club captain." And it downgraded graduates of two
all-women's colleges, according to people familiar with the matter. They did
not specify the names of the schools.
Amazon edited the programs to make them neutral to these
particular terms. But that was no guarantee that the machines would not devise
other ways of sorting candidates that could prove discriminatory, the people
The Seattle company ultimately disbanded the team by the
start of last year because executives lost hope for the project, according to
the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Amazon's recruiters looked at
the recommendations generated by the tool when searching for new hires, but
never relied solely on those rankings, they said.
Amazon declined to comment on the recruiting engine or
its challenges, but the company says it is committed to workplace diversity and
The company's experiment, which Reuters is first to
report, offers a case study in the limitations of machine learning. It also
serves as a lesson to the growing list of large companies including Hilton
Worldwide Holdings Inc and Goldman Sachs Group Inc that are looking to automate
portions of the hiring process.
Some 55 percent of U.S. human resources managers said
artificial intelligence, or AI, would be a regular part of their work within
the next five years, according to a 2017 survey by talent software firm
Employers have long dreamed of harnessing technology to
widen the hiring net and reduce reliance on subjective opinions of human
recruiters. But computer scientists such as Nihar Shah, who teaches machine
learning at Carnegie Mellon University, say there is still much work to do.
"How to ensure that the algorithm is fair, how to make
sure the algorithm is really interpretable and explainable - that's still quite
far off," he said.
Amazon's experiment began at a pivotal moment for the
world's largest online retailer. Machine learning was gaining traction in the
technology world, thanks to a surge in low-cost computing power. And Amazon's
Human Resources department was about to embark on a hiring spree: Since June
2015, the company's global headcount has more than tripled to 575,700 workers,
regulatory filings show.
So it set up a team in Amazon's Edinburgh engineering hub
that grew to around a dozen people. Their goal was to develop AI that could
rapidly crawl the web and spot candidates worth recruiting, the people familiar
with the matter said.
The group created 500 computer models focused on specific
job functions and locations. They taught each to recognize some 50,000 terms
that showed up on past candidates' resumes. The algorithms learned to assign
little significance to skills that were common across IT applicants, such as
the ability to write various computer codes, the people said.
Instead, the technology favored candidates who described
themselves using verbs more commonly found on male engineers' resumes, such as
"executed" and "captured," one person said.
Gender bias was not the only issue. Problems with the
data that underpinned the models' judgments meant that unqualified candidates
were often recommended for all manner of jobs, the people said. With the
technology returning results almost at random, Amazon shut down the project,
they said.
Other companies are forging ahead, underscoring the
eagerness of employers to harness AI for hiring.
Kevin Parker, chief executive of HireVue, a startup near
Salt Lake City, said automation is helping firms look beyond the same
recruiting networks upon which they have long relied. His firm analyzes
candidates' speech and facial expressions in video interviews to reduce
reliance on resumes.
"You weren't going back to the same old places; you
weren't going back to just Ivy League schools," Parker said. His company's
customers include Unilever PLC and Hilton.
Goldman Sachs has created its own resume analysis tool
that tries to match candidates with the division where they would be the "best
fit," the company said.
Microsoft Corp's LinkedIn, the world's largest
professional network, has gone further. It offers employers algorithmic
rankings of candidates based on their fit for job postings on its site.
Still, John Jersin, vice president of LinkedIn Talent
Solutions, said the service is not a replacement for traditional recruiters.
"I certainly would not trust any AI system today to make
a hiring decision on its own," he said. "The technology is just not ready yet."
Some activists say they are concerned about transparency
in AI. The American Civil Liberties Union is currently challenging a law that
allows criminal prosecution of researchers and journalists who test hiring
websites' algorithms for discrimination.
"We are increasingly focusing on algorithmic fairness as
an issue," said Rachel Goodman, a staff attorney with the Racial Justice
Program at the ACLU.
Still, Goodman and other critics of AI acknowledged it
could be exceedingly difficult to sue an employer over automated hiring: Job
candidates might never know it was being used.
As for Amazon, the company managed to salvage some of
what it learned from its failed AI experiment. It now uses a "much-watered down
version" of the recruiting engine to help with some rudimentary chores,
including culling duplicate candidate profiles from databases, one of the
people familiar with the project said.
Another said a new team in Edinburgh has been formed to
give automated employment screening another try, this time with a focus on
Reporting By Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco; Editing by
Jonathan Weber and Marla Dickerson


text: Be With The Leader! Reap the Benefits!The main goal of our activity is to provide you with premium quality transit fuels. Welcome to KEFALONIAN OIL a company that supplies duty-free fuel to vessels, through an exclusive partnership with ARGO S.A., providing you with high quality, tax-free fuel. Here at KEFALONIAN OIL, we are fast, flexible, and innovative and we focus on customer needs. We are happy to provide you with high quality fuels. Our product has already been checked before delivery in order to ensure it meets all international standards. Also, our company has its own tankers, ensuring the quality and quantity of product received. When ordering duty-free fuel to fill up your ship, it is important to know the fuel capacity of your vessel's tank to avoid cumbersome procedures. |


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Over 600 new e-books from Palgrave have been added to DiscoverEd. Subject areas include: Business & Management, Economics & Finance, Education, History, Language & Linguistics, Literature, Media & Culture, Political Science Collection, International Relations & Development, Religion & Philosophy, Social Sciences and Theatre & Performance.
A title list of the new additions can be viewed here.
We now have access to over 6,600 e-books on the Palgrave Connect platform, these can be browsed at this link http://www.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/login?url=http://www.palgraveconnect.com/pc/browse/jumpStartResults.


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The Green Bay Packers drafted Bryan Bulaga as a left tackle out of Iowa in 2010. He found a home at right tackle as a rookie when starter Mark Tauscher was injured and never vacated the position.
Left tackle Marshall Newhouse has been average at best in two years as the starter at left tackle. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Bob McGinn reported that Newhouse allowed 42 1/2 pressures, 11 sacks and 13 1/2 "bad" runs in 2012 and 41 1/2 pressures, 10 1/2 sacks and 14 1/2 "bad" runs in 2011.
The Packersneed better production from their left tackle, and Bulaga could be the answer, McGinn suggests.
"It's hard for me because I think Bryan has really emerged," coach Mike McCarthy said at the NFL Scouting Combine. "I think he's an all-pro right tackle. I thought he was having an all-pro year this year. That's the way he graded out for us. He had the bad game at Seattle, but he recovered."
Bulaga missed the final seven regular-season games with a small fracture in the capsule of his hip. Undrafted rookie free agent Don Barclay fared better than expected in relief -- so much so, that Bulaga flipping sides could be an option. The wild card in all this is tackle Derek Sherrod, who missed all of 2013 after he suffered a gruesome broken leg as a rookie. There were high expectations as a first-round pick out of Mississippi State, but he was off to a slow start before the injury. There once was a vision of Sherrod on the left and Bulaga on the right for the next 10 years. That hasn't been ruled out.
Bulaga has shined on the right side, but that offensive line has to improve. Newhouse has yet to find consistency in two years as the starter on the left.
McCarthy won't stand idle with the same production from the line.
"I'll say this," McCarthy said. "We will be a better offensive line next year. You can write that down."
Follow Kareem Copeland on Twitter @kareemcopeland.


text: 20s-through-ages-banner (3) By mostlyserious Posted April 2, 2018 In 0 0 mostlyserious Recent PostsFall is the perfect time of year to get a chemical peel. These are the questions you should ask before you get one.Microneedling is the ticket to that healthy fall glow of your dreams. Here's what you should know beforehand.4 Reasons You'll Be Glad You Got Vanquish Instead of LiposuctionHow to Get Your Skin Wedding-Ready in Just 3 Months


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Their Wine & Food Pairing is 2 hours of fun, engaging "edu-tainment" set in their underground barrel aging cellars. Guests are greeted with Prestige Cuvée (bubbles) and guided on a brief tour of their Estate vineyard and production areas prior to their pairing. Prepare to have your senses amazed during the seated tasting lead by V. Sattui's expert staff pairing five phenomenal wines with five sumptuous culinary creations.
Explore how these combined flavors elevate both the wine and food to a whole new level. No wine or food substitutions. 21 and over please.


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Jennifer Pastiloff
mbg Contributor
Jen is a self-described Rule-Breaker, Shame-Buster, BeautyHunter, LipReader, WayMaker, TruthTeller, and Bullshit-Eliminator. She travels the world with her unique workshop "The Manifestation Workshop: On Being Human," a hybrid of yoga, writing, sharing out loud, and the occasional dance party. She has been featured on Good Morning America, New York Magazine, and CBS News among others. She leads annual retreats to Italy and California as well as many other places which combine writing and yoga, sharing out loud and fierce listening. When she is not traveling she is based in Los Angeles where she lives with her husband and soon, her new baby boy. When she is not pregnant you can find her sipping a nice pinot noir. She is deaf as a post and she enjoys laughing at herself, most of the time. You're most likely to find her these days eating a brownie or on Instagram at @jenpastiloff. She is also the founder of the empowerment project for young women called Girl Power: You Are Enough. Upcoming workshops and retreats in NYC, Dallas, Seattle, Kripalu in Massachusetts, Atlanta, Portland and of course, Italy September of 2016. Email firstname.lastname@example.com or visit http://themanifeststation.net/events/.


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Beal Pro Water 11mm Unicore
493059Floating Type A low stretch rope for work at height above water (off-shore wind farms, oil rigs). It can also be used for swift water rescue. A new patented technique allows Pro Water 11mm to become the first floating low stretch Type A rope on the market. Thanks to limited shrinking in water, its suppleness is maintained and knots remain easy to tie. In case of an operative falling into water, boat based emergency services can easily see this orange rope which, because of its floatability, is unlikely to get tangled in propellers. Pro Water rope benefits from all the advantages of UNICORE technology giving it a real increase in security.
- CE Certified EN1891 Type A
- Video: www.libertymountain.com/beal


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comScore: Q1 online sales go up
RESTON, Va. — E-commerce sales grew 13% year-over-year to $50.2 billion, marking the fourteenth consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth and tenth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, according to comScore. It was also just the second quarter on record to surpass $50 billion in spending.
The survey also revealed that nearly half (48%) of time spent in the retail category occurred on mobile devices, with smartphones (34%) outpacing tablets (14%).
"The first quarter of 2013 was fairly strong for online retailers, with total e-commerce sales surpassing $50 billion for only the second time on record," said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. "While the year-over-year growth rate of 13% remained healthy, it was a point or two below that of the preceding quarters. One potential explanation for this mild deceleration is the payroll tax increase, which went into effect in 2013 and which removed some disposal income from Americans' wallets."
Fulgoni added that, as long as job growth continues and consumer sentiment remains positive, the outlook for e-commerce in 2013 remains bright.
"However, one wild card is the possible enactment of legislation requiring state sales taxes to be collected on every e-commerce transaction -- which would reduce the Internet's traditional price advantage and possibly dilute the channel's growth rate," he explained.
Other highlights from the comScore report:
• The top-performing online product categories were: digital content & subscriptions, apparel & accessories, sport & fitness, consumer electronics, and consumer packaged goods. Each category grew at least 20% versus a year ago.
• E-commerce accounted for 10.6% of discretionary dollars spent, the highest share on record.
• comScore's new m-commerce spending estimates revealed that apparel & accessories was the highest grossing mobile (i.e. smartphone & tablet) product category with nearly $1 billion in first quarter sales.


text:
Matis Collection - Degrade Navy Blue Earrings
- DesignerMaji Tasarım Nurşen Tarkan
Matis Collection - Degrade Navy Blue Earrings
- DesignerMaji Tasarım Nurşen Tarkan
- Delivery in 1 - 4 Weeks
- Worldwide Shipping with DHL Express
- Local Designers from the World
- Return Within 14 Days
Guaranteed secure & safe checkout.
About Us
Lokkals was established on January 11, 2023 by Candaş Çetinkaya in London, England. Its aim is to bring the products of local and independent designers to the whole world.
Our aim is to increase the pleasure of shopping lovers by providing a boutique marketplace service, contributing to the recognition of independent and local designers, and keeping design lovers away from the chaos created by the crowded brands and products in the existing marketplaces.
We aim to bring small local designers to a larger audience. Support local.
Ships worldwide by DHL Express.
Lokkals is a trading name of Nowshopfun LTD
Contact: +44 7842 060458
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Physical address: 71-75 Shelton Street Covent Garden, WC2H 9JQ, London, United Kingdom
Company Registration Number: 14584528


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The highly-anticipated Primetime Bida drama series "Walang Hanggan" will finally premiere on January 16 (Monday), showcasing a powerhouse cast composed of two queens of Philippine cinema Susan Roces and Helen Gamboa; 'eternal love team' Richard Gomez and Dawn Zulueta; and the first onscreen team-up of Julia Montes and Coco Martin.
"Walang Hanggan" features the undying love that revolves around characters from three different generations: the love triangle among Virginia (Roces), Margaret (Gamboa), and John (Eddie Gutierrez); the ill-fated lovers Marco (Gomez) and Emily (Zulueta); and young sweethearts Daniel (Martin) and Katerina (Montes).
Roces expressed excitement over their newest series. She said, "I'm a fan of teleseryes myself, that's why I'm very happy to be part of it.
But what makes "Walang Hangan" more special is that this is Helen and I's first-ever onscreen project."
Meanwhile, Zulueta, who is set to revive love team with Gomez, took pride in the narrative that they will be offering to the audience. "The story was so great, that it was hard to turn down the role. Everyone can surely relate with the characters' journey," Zulueta mentioned.
While Zulueta and Gomez rekindle an old onscreen romance, Martin and Montes starts anew. Martin shared, "This is a new challenge for me since this is the first time that I'll be doing a 'full love story.'
But I'm getting inspiration from the fact that I'm working with the best actors and actresses of the industry."
Completing the powerhouse cast are well-regarded actors Rita Avila, Melissa Ricks, Joem Bascon, and Paulo Avelino; with the special participation of Eddie Gutierrez and Joel Torre. The series is directed by Jerry Lopez Sineneng and Trina Dayrit.
Never miss the beginning of a story of true love bound to last forever in ABS-CBN's biggest teleserye offering this 2012, "Walang Hanggan," this Monday, (January 16), after "Budoy" on Primetime Bida.
For more updates, log on to www.abs-cbn.com or follow @abscbndotcom on Twitter.


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According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, nursing and residential care facilities experienced some of the highest rates of lost workdays due to injuries and illnesses. In response to this, OSHA has announced a new National Emphasis Program for Nursing and Residential Care Facilities to protect workers from serious safety and health hazards that are common in medical industries. These hazards include exposure to blood and other potentially infectious material; exposure to other communicable diseases such as tuberculosis; ergonomic stressors related to lifting patients; workplace violence; slips, trips and falls, and exposure to hazardous chemicals and drugs. See OSHA's complete directive PDF).
Safe Lifting
Injuries resulting from patient transfer and patient lifting are a particular area of concern. According to OSHA:
"The incidence rate for cases involving days away from work in the nursing and residential care sector was 2.3 times higher than that of all private industry as a whole, despite the availability of feasible controls to address hazards. The data further indicate that an overwhelming proportion of the injuries within this sector were attributed to overexertion as well as to slips, trips and falls. Taken together, these two categories accounted for 62.5 percent of cases involving days away from work within this industry in 2010. For this NEP, OSHA will target facilities with a days-away-from-work rate of 10 or higher per 100 full-time workers."
According to the American Nurses Association, 12% of nurses leave the profession due to back pain. Nursing is one of the top 10 most hazardous jobs for injuries to muscles and joints. Many heavy labor industrial jobs have weight lifting limits of 50 pounds, yet nurses routinely bear many times that weight when transferring, repositioning or lifting patients. Nursing home workers in particular are at higher risk of injury than underground coal miners, construction workers, and tire manufacturers. Of the 16 million US workers employed in health care and social assistance, more than 3 million are employed in US nursing and residential care facilities.
NCCI study on safe lifting programs for long-term care facilities
A few years ago, an important NIOSH study on nursing home lifting equipment demonstrated that the benefits outweigh the costs. In addition to recapping the equipment investment in less than three years, NIOSH found a 61% reduction in resident-handling workers' compensation injury rates; a 66% drop in lost workday rates; and a 38% decline in restricted workdays. Plus, the rate of post-intervention assaults during resident transfers dropped by 72%. Study authors found that the initial investment in equipment was recovered in less than three years based on post-intervention savings in workers' compensation costs
More recently, further evidence was released via a study by NCCI: Safe Lifting Programs at Long-Term Care Facilities and Their Impact on Workers Compensation Costs (PDF). The study was a collaborative effort with the University of Maryland School of Medicine. It was limited to facilities that have had safe lift programs in place for more than three years. Originally, researches intended to compare the experience of facilities with and without such programs, but during the course of the research, the rate of adoption of safe lifting devices was so great that close to 95% of facilities had them and about 80% of those used them regularly.
NCCI summarizes the study results:
"After controlling for ownership structure and differences in workers compensation systems across states, the statistical analysis performed as part of this study shows that an increased emphasis on safe lift programs at long-term care facilities is associated with fewer workplace injuries and lower workers compensation costs. More precisely, higher values of the safe lift index are associated with lower values for both frequency and total costs. The safe lift index captures information on the policies, training, preferences, and barriers surrounding the use of powered mechanical lifts. The institution's commitment to effectively implementing a safe lift program appears to be the key to success."
According to the earlier NIOSH study, training alone is ineffective as a prevention strategy because "lifting the weight of adult patients is intrinsically unsafe." It's also important to note that the equipment alone won't do it – workers also need to be trained how to use the equipment and management must implement and enforce a "zero lifting" policy.
Many states have safe patient handling laws
In recent years, a number of states have enacted legislation mandating safe patient lifting – and that no doubt has contributed to the rapid adoption rate noted by NCCI researchers. According to the American Nursing Association, a strong advocate for such legislation, 10 states have implemented safe patient handling laws. These include California, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas, and Washington, with a resolution from Hawaii. In addition, they are tracking 6 states with pending legislation currently: California, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri and Vermont.
Tools & Resources
- NIOSH: Safe Patient Handling and Movement Principles
- OSHA: Nursing Homes and Personal Care Facilities
- ANA: Safe Patient Resources
- ANA Safe Patient Handling Tip Sheet
- Facility Guidelines Institute Patient Handling and Movement Assessments: A White Paper (PDF)
- CAL-OSHA A Back Injury Prevention Guide for Health Care Providers (PDF)
- States with Safe Patient Handling Laws – Map
- Safe Lifting Portal
- Ohio BWC Lifting Guidelines


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load-logical-pathname-translations host => just-loaded
Arguments and Values:
host---a string.
just-loaded---a generalized boolean.
Searches for and loads the definition of a logical host named host, if it is not already defined. The specific nature of the search is implementation-defined.
If the host is already defined, no attempt to find or load a definition is attempted, and false is returned. If the host is not already defined, but a definition is successfully found and loaded, true is returned. Otherwise, an error is signaled.
(translate-logical-pathname "hacks:weather;barometer.lisp.newest") >> Error: The logical host HACKS is not defined. (load-logical-pathname-translations "HACKS") >> ;; Loading SYS:SITE;HACKS.TRANSLATIONS >> ;; Loading done. => true (translate-logical-pathname "hacks:weather;barometer.lisp.newest") => #P"HELIUM:[SHARED.HACKS.WEATHER]BAROMETER.LSP;0" (load-logical-pathname-translations "HACKS") => false
Affected By: None.
Exceptional Situations:
If no definition is found, an error of type error is signaled.
See Also:
Logical pathname definitions will be created not just by implementors but also by programmers. As such, it is important that the search strategy be documented. For example, an implementation might define that the definition of a host is to be found in a file called ``host.translations'' in some specifically named directory.


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AV, Presentation, and Display | News
Crestron has launched its newest all-in-one AV presentation solution for video conference rooms, the DigitalMedia Presentation System 300 with Acoustic Echo Cancellation.
The DMPS-300-C-AEC comes with acoustic echo cancellation (AEC) on each of its six mic inputs and can connect directly to up to two audio or video codecs, according to a statement from the company. The dual codec support enables both codecs to be used at the same time, plus the signal from one codec can be fed to the other codec. The rackmountable system also includes a "control processor, multimedia matrix switcher, mic mixer, audio DSP, and amplifier."
"The addition of Acoustic Echo Cancellation to the DMPS makes integration of videoconferencing systems even easier by providing native control of all signal routing and audio processing functions," said Fred Bargetzi, vice president of technology at Crestron, in the prepared statement. "This eliminates complex interconnections and programming of third party DSP's while providing clean, high quality audio for teleconferencing applications."
Crestron is offering four versions of the new system. The DMPS-100-C, with 4x1 matrix switching, is designed for small venues with single displays. The DMPS-200-C, a 6x2 matrix switching system, supports dual projector applications. The DMPS-300-C, with 7x4 matrix switching, is suited to large environments with multiple displays. The DMPS-300-C-AEC, designed for video conference rooms, is the only model featuring AEC technology.
Additional information about Crestron's DMPS line can be found at the company's Web site.
About the Author
Kanoe Namahoe is online editor for 1105 Media's Education Group. She can be reached at [email protected].


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Our site will also let you know the companies are popular on stock articles and whether or not we believe they are a good investment to make. The best part of this feature on our site is that penny stocks require the investor to trade quickly. These stocks make and lose money within hours or even minutes, meaning the investor has to be on top of what's going on with the stocks. By reviewing popular stock articles and hanging in our penny stock chat room you will know which penny stocks are the top stock picks to buy right now and that means a savings of a lot of time for you the investor. Penny Stocks have the ability to give a big return with little invested, this is the reason everyone always goes back to the basic good old penny stocks. Start by learning about penny stocks education with our daily mentor BigRed live during market hours. Search our website for penny stocks articles, reports; we also can notify you about penny stocks that are trending on a given market day.


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Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, returns to court to defend internet company for second time in two weeks.
The chief executive of Google, Sundar Pichai, was summoned to a US court for the second time in two weeks on Tuesday to testify in an antitrust trial threatening to topple a pillar of an internet empire that he helped build.
In his latest court appearance in San Francisco, Pichai spent more than two hours defending the business practices of the Google Play Store, which distributes apps for the company's Android software that powers most of the world's smartphones.
At times, the soft-spoken Pichai looked nonplussed and frustrated by the confrontational questioning he faced. Other times he came across as a professor explaining complex subjects to the trial's 10-person jury located just a few feet from a podium Pichai was allowed to use because he has difficulty sitting for prolonged periods.
Epic Games, the maker of the popular video game Fortnite, is trying to convince the jury that a Google Play payment processing system that collects a 15% to 30% commission from in-app purchases is illegally hurting consumers and software developers. Google collects those commissions, according to Epic, by using its market muscle to thwart competing Android app stores — a strategy that drives up prices and discourages innovation.
It echoes a previous case that Epic brought against Apple, the iPhone maker that is alternately being depicted as Google foe and ally in this trial.
Pichai's latest testimony came 15 days after he travelled to Washington DC, to take the stand in a separate antitrust trial revolving around the Justice Department's allegations that Google has stifled competition and innovation by abusing the power of the dominant search engine that launched the company in 1998.
Although the two trials are unfolding on opposite ends of the country and are delving into different parts of a company that investors value at $1.7 trillion, they are touching upon at least two common issues — Google's immense power and its unusual relationship with Apple, an even bigger tech powerhouse.
A key part of Google's defense against that allegations that its Play Store is running an illegal monopoly on Android apps hinges on the assertion that the company faces major competition from Apple's iPhone, mobile operating system and app store.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department's case against Google in Washington is focused largely on deals that the company negotiated with Apple to ensure Google's search engine automatically fields queries entered on iPhones and Apple's Safari browser.
After Monday testimony from an expert witness in the Washington antitrust trial revealed Google shared 36% of its ad revenue from Safari search queries with Apple in 2021, Pichai was forced to confirm the figure Tuesday in San Francisco under often combative questioning by Epic lawyer Lauren Moskowitz.
Things got so tense that before recessing for a short break, U.S. District Judge James Donato described the back-and-forth between Epic's lawyer and Pichai as a "rocking 75 minutes."
Before the testimony began, Donato had granted Moskowitz's request to disclose the precise amount of money that Google paid Apple in 2021 over objections from both Google and Apple lawyers, but she never got that specific.
Instead, Moskowitz got Pichai to acknowledge that Apple received the bulk of the $26.3 billion that Google paid for all of its 2021 deals that locked in its search engine as the automatic handler of queries on smartphones and web browsers. Analysts have estimated Apple's annual take from Google to be in the range of $15 billion to $20 billion.
Moskowitz also pointed out that Apple's 36% cut from Google's search ad revenue in the Safari browser was more than twice the 16% rate paid to Samsung, the biggest seller of Android smartphones. That point seemed to be aimed at painting Apple as one of Google's biggest business partners, rather than a major competitor.
Although he sometimes seemed to be caught off balance by Moskowitz's aggressive questioning, Pichai never wavered from his insistence that Google and Android compete "fiercely" with Apple and the iPhone — a rivalry he asserted has given consumers more choices and driven down prices.
"We enable more affordable smartphones," Pichai said of Android, which Google gives away to Samsung and other smartphone manufacturers for free in exchange for putting the company's search engine and other services, such as its Play Store, on the devices. That, Pichai added, "is very different from what Apple does."
Apple's specter looms over the Play Store in other ways too, given Epic Games already has lost in a similar 2021 trial that targeted the payment system for the iPhone app store.
Although a federal judge sided with Apple on most fronts in that trial, the outcome opened one potential crack in the digital fortress that the company has built around the iPhone.
The judge and an appeals court both determined Apple should allow apps to provide links to other payment options, a change that could undermine the commissions that both Apple and Google collect on digital purchases made within a mobile app. Apple is appealing that part of the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Evidence submitted during Pichai's Tuesday testimony showed just how lucrative the Play Store has been for Google. During the first half of 2020, for instance, the Play Store generated an operating profit of $4.4 billion.
Steered by questioning from a Google lawyer, Pichai pointed out that figure didn't account for the billions of dollars that the company spends on the Android operating system that ensures people have other smartphone options than then iPhone. He also pointed out that 97% of software developers with apps in Google Play don't pay any fees at all because they either don't sell digital goods or don't generate enough revenue to reach the threshold that triggers the commissions.
"The way we designed Google Play is we do well only when developers do well," Pichai said.


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I know the general advice is to spend money on lenses and avoid spending on the camera body.
However, I'm in a position where I intend to purchase a camera to last for 15 or 20 years. I'm not a professional photographer, but I would like a DSLR anyway because I simply can't stand the noisy garbage that comes out of point and shoot sensors.
Based on Rfusca's recommendation, (again using Nikon as an example) I'm probably looking at a D5100 or a D7000. Now, there's a $500 price difference between these cameras, but that's really not true because the D7000 kit comes with a more general purpose (18-105mm VR) lens, while the D5100 comes with a plain ol' (18-50mm VR) lens (and the cost difference in the lenses is 2 to 3 hundred). With the D5100 kit I'd probably end up purchasing another lens now; with the 7000 I'd probably not be doing so for quite some time.
Now, with this in mind I'm considering spending the additional money for the 7000 kit. My main "stopper" for doing that right now though is that little voice in the back of my skull saying "don't spend that on the camera, spend that on lenses..."
I'm wondering if the foundation for that advice is for people who are going to replace their body every 5 years, which I won't be doing. Is that the case?


text:
Das Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversitätswandels
ist ein Forschungsmuseum der Leibniz Gemeinschaft
Link zur Leibnizgemeinschaft
GGBN - a collaborative effort to cryo-preserve and provide access to genomic samples from across the tree of life:
The Global Genome Biodiversity Network (GGBN) is a global network of well-managed collections of genomic tissue samples from across the Tree of Life, benefiting society through biodiversity research, development and conservation. This network will foster collaborations among repositories of molecular biodiversity in order to ensure quality standards, improve best practices, secure interoperability, and harmonize exchange of material in accordance with national and international legislation and conventions.
Goals: Provide genome-quality samples from across the Tree of Life for research, training, and development, thereby contributing to the conservation of global genetic diversity for generations to come. Provide open access to a global data management system hosting the aggregated primary specimen data and metadata for all the member institutions. Develop standards for sharing DNA and tissues information. Develop best practices related to management and stewardship of genomic samples and their derivatives, including appropriate access and benefit sharing (ABS). Promote targeted preservation of genomic samples representing a synoptic sample of Life on Earth. Recruit partners with different regional and taxonomic focus, to preserve the global genetic diversity in a concerted effort.