text:
Share a Google calendar on my website
If you have a public Google calendar, you can share it with visitors to your website. Any updates to your Google calendar are automatically passed to your website. (You cannot change the calendar from your website; you'll have to do that within your Google account.)
There are two parts to connecting the calendar to your website. This article explains the first part, which is how to copy the iCal URL from your Google account. The article for the second part explains how to display a calendar on my website.
This video is part of the How-To series for Adding Advanced Functionality in Website Builder.
- Sign in to your Google account.
- In the top-right, click the grid button and click Calendar.
- When the calendar section opens, click the gear button and choose Settings.
- In the page's left column, select the calendar you want to share, click Calendar settings and make sure Make available to public is checked in the Access Permissions section.
- Click your selected calendar's Integrate calendar section, then click in the Public address in iCal format field to automatically copy the entire address. Paste that address into a separate text document and save it. You'll use it in the Next Step following Step 6.
- Click Settings at the top left to close Google's calendar settings, then continue using the Next Step link below.
Note: Be sure the calendar you select includes future events, or Websites + Marketing will tell you that it couldn't find any events in the calendar.
Note: Be sure you copy the iCal link. Websites + Marketing only recognizes iCal as a valid Google calendar to import.


text:
Chairman Paul, Ranking Member Clay, and members of the Subcommittee, we appreciate the opportunity to discuss the different ways in which the Federal Reserve informs the Congress and the American people about our policies and actions. The Federal Reserve regularly releases significant, detailed information about its operations. Our aim in doing so is to promote understanding of how the Federal Reserve fosters financial and economic stability and to facilitate an evaluation of our actions while also preserving the ability to effectively fulfill the responsibilities that the Congress has given the Federal Reserve. In that context, we will describe the Federal Reserve's compliance with the disclosure provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act), including the data we released in December 2010 about the transactions we conducted to stabilize markets during the recent financial crisis, restore the flow of credit to American families and businesses, and support economic recovery and job creation in the aftermath of the crisis. We will also address our March 2011 release, under the Freedom of Information Act, of documents regarding the use of the Federal Reserve's discount window during the crisis.
The role of lender of last resort is a critical responsibility long filled by central banks around the world. Central bank lending facilitates the implementation of monetary policy and allows the central bank to address short-term liquidity pressures in the banking system. During normal times, the Federal Reserve's discount window provides a backup source of liquidity for depository institutions in sound financial condition to address unexpected, short-term funding pressures. In doing so, the discount window facilitates the smooth and efficient flow of credit to U.S. households and businesses. In periods of crisis, the discount window is a tool that can be used to support market liquidity, and thereby mitigate strains in financial markets that could otherwise escalate and lead to sharp declines in output and employment. All discount window loans are fully secured and the Federal Reserve has not suffered a loss on any discount window loans.
Disclosure and Integrity of the Federal Reserve's Financial Statements
Since it began operation in 1914, the Federal Reserve has published full financial
statements. We release our balance sheet every week, both by individual
Reserve Bank and on a consolidated basis for the entire Federal Reserve System.1 In
addition, the Federal Reserve publishes annual financial statements with information
on our assets and liabilities as well as income and expenses in the same detail
as a publicly traded corporation.2
During the recent financial crisis, the Federal Reserve expanded its weekly balance sheet disclosures to include information about the amount of credit outstanding under each of the credit facilities established during the crisis. The Federal Reserve also initiated in June 2009 a special monthly report, which we provide to the Congress and publish on the Board's website, that provides additional detail about the Federal Reserve's emergency lending programs, including information on the amount of lending under each program, a description of the type and level of collateral associated with those loans, and information about the borrowers under those facilities.3 This report includes aggregate information about credit provided to depository institutions through the discount window as well as information on the Federal Reserve's securities holdings and the holdings of Maiden Lane, Maiden Lane II, and Maiden Lane III. The Board's website also contains detailed information about the terms and conditions of each of the emergency lending programs, the availability of discount window lending, the swap lines opened with foreign central banks, and the arrangements with third-party vendors used by the System during the financial crisis, as well as expansive data and numerous reports and other information on all aspects of Federal Reserve operations.4
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) also maintains a website that offers detailed information on open market operations taken to implement the monetary policy decisions of the Federal Open Market Committee. This information includes schedules of purchases and sales of securities as part of open market operations with CUSIP information describing the securities involved. With this information, a description of every open market operation can be examined shortly after it is conducted. Other open market information available on the FRBNY website includes summary and individual data on the securities held in the System Open Market Account and information about the federal funds rate.5 The site also contains a great deal of additional data related to FRBNY operations, including the names of the primary dealers, some legal forms for transacting business, and other information about fiscal agency activities on behalf of the U.S. Treasury.
The Federal Reserve's annual financial statements are audited by an independent public accounting firm, which performs customary procedures to assure their accuracy and integrity. For the last four years, for example, Deloitte and Touche has audited the financial statements of the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve System as a whole. In each year, the Federal Reserve has received a clean auditor opinion, meaning that the financial statements present fairly the financial positions of the Federal Reserve. Further, the external auditor also opines that the Federal Reserve has maintained effective internal controls over financial reporting. The independent audit also covers transactions conducted through each of the special lending facilities established by the Federal Reserve under section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act and the financial statements of Maiden Lane, Maiden Lane II, and Maiden Lane III, as well as the transactions conducted through the discount window and with foreign central banks. By statute, the Board's Office of Inspector General (OIG) is responsible for ensuring that the auditor and the audits are independent. The results of these financial audits are reported annually to the Congress along with the audited financial statements of the Federal Reserve System and published on the Board's website.6 The OIG also has conducted its own review of the special lending facilities established under section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act.
In addition to these audits, the Federal Reserve, and in particular, the special lending facilities established by the Federal Reserve during the recent financial crisis, have been subject to a number of other audits and reviews. These include special audits by the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program for each program that involved any funding from the TARP program.7 The Congressional Oversight Panel and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission also conducted reviews and both have issued public reports.8
Moreover, the Federal Reserve's financial statements and a broad range of our functions are subject to review by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). For example, in recent years the GAO has conducted reviews of the policies and practices of the Federal Reserve in its supervision and regulation of bank holding companies, state-chartered banks that are members of the Federal Reserve System, and other banking organizations. It has also conducted reviews of the Federal Reserve in other areas, including our oversight and operation of payment systems; our implementation and enforcement of consumer protection laws; our policies on the acquisition of U.S. banking organizations by sovereign wealth funds; our efforts to address cyber security; and the need for financial regulatory reform. These reviews are not limited to auditing the integrity of the financial statements or public reporting of these activities. Rather, the GAO reviews the development of policies and provides assessments of and suggestions regarding appropriate policies.
In response to a directive from the Congress in the Dodd-Frank Act, the GAO is currently conducting a special review of all loans and other Federal Reserve transactions between December 1, 2007, and July 21, 2010, under the special lending facilities and other programs developed during the financial crisis.9 This review will assess operational integrity, internal controls, security and collateral policies, policies governing third-party contractors, and the existence of any conflicts of interest or inappropriate favoritism in the establishment or operations of the facilities.10 The Federal Reserve is fully cooperating with the GAO in its conduct of this extensive review and will continue its close cooperation with the GAO to assist in its reviews of Federal Reserve functions generally.
Recent Information
As provided by the Dodd-Frank Act, on December 1, 2010, the Board published
detailed information on its website about the Federal Reserve's actions
during the financial crisis, including transactions to stabilize markets, restore
the flow of credit to American families and businesses, and support economic
recovery and job creation in the aftermath of the crisis.11 Many
of these transactions, conducted through a variety of broad-based lending facilities,
provided liquidity to financial institutions and markets through fully secured,
mostly short-term loans. Purchases of agency mortgage-backed securities
(MBS) supported mortgage and housing markets, lowered long-term interest rates,
and fostered economic growth. Dollar liquidity swap lines with foreign
central banks helped stabilize dollar funding markets at home and abroad. Other
transactions provided liquidity to particular institutions whose disorderly
failure during the financial crisis could have severely stressed an already
fragile financial system.12 The
Federal Reserve followed sound risk-management practices in administering all
of these programs, most of which ended during 2010. The Federal Reserve
has incurred no credit losses to date on these programs, and does not expect
to incur any credit losses on the few programs still outstanding.
In the December 1 data release, the Federal Reserve provided vast amounts of information about the programs and the terms and conditions of the individual transactions made under them. The information provided detailed explanations as well as definitions of the material terms for each facility. Data concerning the material terms were made available in multiple formats, including Excel files that allow users to search, sort, and filter the data for each program in multiple categories. For the broad-based lending facilities, details included the name of the borrower, the amount borrowed, the date the credit was extended, the interest rate charged, information about collateral, and other relevant credit terms. Similar information was provided for the draws of foreign central banks on their dollar liquidity swap lines with the Federal Reserve. For agency MBS transactions, details included the name of the counterparty, the security purchased or sold, and the date, amount, and price of the transaction.
In addition, as mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act, the Board's website directly links to the Federal Reserve's audit-related information, including GAO reports, annual audited financial statements, and reports related to emergency lending authority provided to the Congress.13 The Board has also charged staff with identifying other information that could be posted to this site that would help to explain the accounting, financial reporting, and internal controls of the Board and the Reserve Banks.
On March 31, 2011, the Federal Reserve released documents related to the discount window in response to requests filed by Bloomberg L.P. and Fox News Network LLC under the Freedom of Information Act. Discount window lending under section 10B of the Federal Reserve Act offers secured, short-term loans from the Reserve Banks to depository institutions located in the lending Reserve Bank's district. The March 31 release included documents containing information related to borrowers at the discount window between August 8, 2007, and March 1, 2010, that was not required to be disclosed under the Dodd-Frank Act.
Future Information Disclosures
Going forward, the Dodd-Frank Act provides for the release of information on
any broad-based emergency lending facility one year after the termination of
the facility. The act also provides for the release of information regarding
discount window lending and open market operations conducted by the Federal
Reserve after July 21, 2010, with a two-year lag. For lending facilities
(including both emergency lending facilities and the discount window) and for
open market operations, the Federal Reserve will publish information disclosing
the identity of the borrower or counterparty, transaction amount, interest
rate or discount paid, and collateral pledged.
The Federal Reserve believes that the lags provided by the Dodd-Frank Act for the release of transaction-level information about open market operations, emergency lending facilities, and discount window lending activities establish an important balance between the public's interest in information about participants in transactions with the Federal Reserve and the need to ensure that the System can effectively use its congressionally authorized powers to maintain the stability of the financial system and implement monetary policy. We remain concerned that a more rapid release of information about borrowers accessing the discount window and emergency lending facilities could impair the ability of the Federal Reserve to provide the liquidity needed to ensure the smooth working of the financial system. If institutions believe that publication of their use of Federal Reserve lending facilities will impair public confidence in the institution, then institutions may choose not to participate in these facilities. Experience has shown that banks' unwillingness to use the discount window can result in more volatile short-term interest rates and reduced financial market liquidity that, in turn, can contribute to declining asset prices and reduced lending to consumers and small businesses.
We will carefully monitor developments in the use of the discount window and other Federal Reserve facilities and keep the Congress informed about their effectiveness.
The Federal Reserve has worked and will continue to work with the Congress
to ensure that our operations promote the highest standards of accountability,
stewardship, and policy effectiveness, consistent with meeting our statutory
responsibilities. We appreciate the opportunity to describe the Federal
Reserve's efforts on this important subject and are happy to answer any
questions you may have.
1 This information
is published each Thursday, for the week ending the preceding Wednesday,
through the Federal Reserve's H.4.1 Statistical Release, "Factors
Affecting Reserve Balances of Depository Institutions and Condition Statement
of Federal Reserve Banks." The current release, as well as
past releases dating from 1996, is available on the Board's website
at www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h41/default.htm. The website also
provides descriptive information and an interactive guide for each table
in the release.
2 This information
is included in the Board's annual report, which is submitted to the
Congress each spring and published on the Board's website at www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/rptcongress.
3 See
the Monthly
Report on Credit
and Liquidity Programs and the Balance Sheet, available
at www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/clbsreports.htm.
For more information on the various Federal Reserve liquidity and credit
facilities and further background on the Federal Reserve's balance
sheet, see www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/bst.htm.
4 The
website is at www.federalreserve.gov.
5 FRBNY's
website is at www.newyorkfed.org.
See www.newyorkfed.org/markets/openmarket.html for
information about open market operations.
6 The
latest Annual
Report of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is
available on the Board's website at www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/rptcongress.
7 See www.sigtarp.gov/audits.shtml.
8 See
Congressional Oversight Panel (2011), March Oversight Report—The
Final Report of the Congressional Oversight Panel (Washington: GPO,
March 16), www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-112shrg64832/pdf/CHRG-112shrg64832.pdf;
Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (2011), The Financial Crisis
Inquiry Report (Washington: GPO, January), www.gpoaccess.gov/fcic/fcic.pdf.
9 This
audit is being undertaken pursuant to section 1109 of the Dodd-Frank
Act and is to be completed in July 2011.
10 See
31 U.S.C. § 714(f).
11 See section
1103(b) of the Dodd-Frank Act. The data released on December 1, 2010,
included transaction-level information about the following programs:
the Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity
Facility (AMLF); the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF);
the Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF); the Commercial Paper Funding
Facility (CPFF); the Term Securities Lending Facility (TSLF); the TSLF
Options Program (TOP); the Term Auction Facility (TAF); agency MBS purchases;
dollar liquidity swap lines with foreign central banks; assistance to
Bear Stearns, including Maiden Lane; and assistance to American International
Group, including Maiden Lane II and III. The information can be found
on the Board's
website at www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/monetary/20101201a.htm.
12 The
Dodd-Frank Act has substantially modified the ability of the Federal Reserve
to extend emergency credit to single identified non-banking companies.
Now, credit under section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act may only be
offered through credit facilities with broad-based eligibility.
13 See www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/reform_audit.htm.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
When you install Alfresco, it gives you an option of having it installed as a service or not.
If you install it as a service, the service starts up on booting but since it's using Tomcat it's too heavy to leave as a background program. In addition, it takes a lot longer to stop than Apache.
Therefore, I would like to keep it as a service but have it set to off by default so all I need to do is type sudo service alfresco start
While I can leave it set-up not as a service and write a bash script or two, I'd like to learn more about how "services" work in Linux. Apache's not a problem but it would be nice to know where its service parameters are stored and how you can change these.


text:
The seneschal is the legal representative of a branch. Seneschals sign all contracts, make sure that things are done pursuant to the restrictions of all modern laws, corpora and kingdom law, work with the chatelaines to handle all public relations, and normally conduct the business meetings.
Search terms:
- Search
- Login


text:
Your Session has expired
Please select a Product and add to your basket to proceed
Zip/Postal Code Lookup
Please Enter the City and State to search for a Zip/Postal Code
The city and state you entered returned the following Zip/Postal Codes.
Is there anything you'd like us to know when we're creating your gift?
Number & Street*
Address Line 2
City / Town*
A stylish card including your personal message will accompany your gift
Fill their Valentine's Day with colour with this gorgeous bouquet, bursting with romantic blooms in all sorts of stunning shades. About their sumptuous brights
All prices in GBP (£)
Sumptuous Brights Romantic Mix
Sumptuous Brights Romantic Mix - £62.00
© Interflora British Unit All Rights Reserved.


text:
Long recoil operation is one of the most mechanically interesting of the main firearm operating systems. When the gun fires, the recoil energy generated forces the barrel to move rearward, and the bolt remains locked into the barrel until the two reach the full length of travel (the length of the whole cartridge). At that point the bolt is held rearward and the barrel unlocks and moves forward under pressure from a return spring. The empty cartridge case is held in the bolt face, and the barrel pulls forward off the front of it. An ejector kicks the empty case out when the barrel is fully clear, and when the barrel has returned to its firing position a trip releases the bolt, which moves forward under pressure of a second return spring and feeds the next cartridge into the chamber.
Long recoil system are very safe, as they allow the longest time of any system to let pressure vent from the barrel before unlocking. They are also mechanically complex, and tend to exhibit higher than normal felt recoil. The system was employed successfully in a wide variety of firearms including light machine guns (the Chauchat), rifles (the Remington Model 8/81), shotguns (the Browning Auto-5 and Winchester Model 1911), and handguns (the Former Stop). All of these date from the early 1900s, when designers were still exploring ways to safely and reliably build self-loading firearms.


text:
Home >
News & Policies >
November 2001
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
November 15, 2001
President Commends Lawmakers for Aviation Security Agreement
Statement by the President
I commend the House and Senate conferees for reaching an agreement that puts the federal government in charge of aviation security, making airline travel safer for the American people.
This agreement improves upon the Senate-passed legislation in several important ways, including putting responsibility for all modes of transportation security at the Department of Transportation, where it belongs. Today's agreement also gives the federal government the flexibility to ensure a safe transition to a new aviation security system and will ultimately offer local authorities an option to employ the highest quality workforce-public or private. In addition, the compromise will help ensure security by requiring that all screeners be U.S. citizens and by guaranteeing the screening of all checked bags.
Safety comes first. And when it comes to safety, we will set high standards and enforce them. I congratulate the conferees and look forward to signing this important legislation into law.


text:
Alligators and crocodiles
Updated March 1, 2017 |
Infoplease Staff
The Question:
What's the difference between an alligator and a crocodile?
The Answer:
In general, our advice would be to look at the sign or plaque in the zoo where you see the animal in question. If you see either and you're not in the zoo, you will probably want to run very quickly in the opposite direction and worry about its species later.
More seriously, while there are a number of different alligator and crocodile species, crocodiles usually have narrower, pointier snouts than alligators. When their mouths are closed, you can see some of the crocodile's lower teeth, but not the alligator's. And alligators usually stay out of salt water; crocodiles don't.
-The Editors
See also:


text:
A commenter complained:
I have noticed that most of the accepted papers in SODA/STOC/FOCS seem to be from one of the IVY league schools or from one of the established Labs...I'll address both these points in some detail, accompanying my comments with statistics provided by Adam Buchsbaum (SODA 2005 PC Chair). First, let's look at the complaint about author diversity:
Also, why in the world do we see the same set of names on program committees with little/no permutations.
1. Diversity of authors:
What follows is a frequency chart of affiliations for a random sample of 27 (20%) of the accepted papers at SODA 2005:
6 max plank inst.
5 mit
4 u. illinois (u-c), tel aviv u.
3 u. bergen (norway), technion, hebrew u.
2 uc berkeley, u. waterloo, u. paris-sud, rutgers, ohio state u.
1 utrecht u., unsw (sydney), uc irvine, u. tokyo, u. leeds, u. glasgow, u. chicago, u. aarhus, stanford, simon fraser u., microsoft, kings college, it u. copenhagen, eth zurich, comenius u., cmu, christian-albrect u., charles u., acad. sci. czech republic
seems fairly diverse to me. It should not be hard to compile such stats for other years/conferences as well...
Next, let's look at the issue of recycling commitee members:
2. PC "freshness":
There is a perception that newer folks have a hard time getting onto S/S/F committees. To remedy this, David Johnson, at the SODA 2004 business meeting, introduced a list of 'neverbeens'. This list is defined somewhat roughly as
People who have never served on a S/S/F committee and plausibly could, where "plausibly could" includes things likeHe also requested that people who want to be on this list should email him. He then provides this list to commitee chairs to do with as they please.
- out of school for at least some small amount of time
- some reasonable number (>= 1, more is better) of conference papers
- regular attendance at such conferences
But in reality, how skewed towards "frequent members" are program committees in reality ? Let's look at some numbers in detail.
Freshness of PCs:
For SODA 2005, roughly 1/2 (my earlier comment had said 1/3) of the PC members are new i.e have not served on a SODA/STOC/FOCS committee before (disclaimer: this set includes me). For SODA 2004, the corresponding number appears to be 1/3. Both numbers are reasonable, and might demarcate extreme ends of the "right" ratio.
Historical PC composition (all years):
Served exactly once: 130 people
Served exactly twice: 34
Served three times: 13
Served four times: 1
1 time: 140
2: 52
3: 24
4: 14
5: 9
6: 4
1: 139
2: 49
3: 19
4: 8
5: 5
6: 2
8: 2
Overall: (SODA U FOCS U STOC)
1: 200
2: 84
3: 55
4: 34
5: 29
6: 5
7: 7
8: 9
9: 11
11: 1
12: 2
16: 1
(My take: SODA is better than STOC/FOCS at integrating new people, but not hugely so)
Adam further points out:
Translating these statistics to reflect recidivism in filling slots reveals that for each of the three conferences, a majority of the PC slots were filled by then-first timers. For all conferences as a group, the majority was filled by 1st- or 2nd-timers.
It thus seems to me that the perception of incestuousness amongData is a good thing... If you don't like the stats here, do your own digging and I will post the results here.
FOCS, STOC, and SODA PCs is in fact a mis-perception. Still,
we have to address the mis-perception by ongoing action, not
simply historical statistics. David Johnson's maintenance of
a list of people who have never served on STOC, FOCS, and SODA
committees and a continuing effort to include new people are
positive forces.


text:
The Huawei Mate 30 Pro has been out for a few weeks outside the US, mainly in China and India and we have gathered 15 video samples from its slow motion mode which as of today is the best performing high-speed phone ever developed. We had some shortcomings about the way the phone reaches the highly hyped 7,680fps mode which is 1920fps multiplied by 4x in software from a small snapshot of the video memory.
We also had some suspicions that the 1080p 960fps mode was also interpolated but looking at the samples we gathered it seems that was a premature call. The phone is actually capturing the full frame rate at 1080p or close to that. The real max mode is 1920fps at 720p which is then interpolated to 7,680fps with good success by the new Kirin 990 chipset. Your mileage may vary and the results depend on the subject matter more than anything as organic slower motion looks much better than fast unpredictable bursts that break the interpolation algorithm.


text:
Blue Nights by Joan Didion
Trade paperback format.
A New York Times Notable Book and National Bestseller
From one of our most powerful writers, a work of stunning frankness about losing a daughter.
Richly textured with memories from her own childhood and married life with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, and daughter, Quintana Roo, this new book by Joan Didion is an intensely personal and moving account of her thoughts, fears, and doubts regarding having children, illness and growing old.
As she reflects on her daughter's life and on her role as a parent, Didion grapples with the candid questions that all parents face, and contemplates her age, something she finds hard to acknowledge, much less accept. Blue Nights—the long, light evening hours that signal the summer solstice, "the opposite of the dying of the brightness, but also its warning"—like The Year of Magical Thinking before it, is an iconic book of incisive and electric honesty, haunting and profound.
"Incantory….A beautiful condolence note to humanity about some of the painful realities of the human condition." —The Washington Post


text:
Official Downloads:
- Download plain text file
- Download HTML file
- Download PDF file
- Download ODT file
- Download EPub file
- Download SST file
The DRM-free ebooks above are provided on a name-your-price basis. You can pay any time — before or after you download. As a guide, the average donation to date is $11.75; the smallest was $0.50, and the largest was $200.
Here are links to downloadable editions of the text of With a Little Help. These downloads are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike license, which lets you share it, remix it, and share your remixes, provided that you do so on a noncommercial basis.
I maintain the official file-formats using a piece of free software called SiSu from Ralph Amissah. SiSu is pretty clever: you use a very lightweight markup to put together a master file, and then you can run SiSu on it to convert that master file in PDFs, ODTs, Epubs, HTML, plain text, and so forth. It's a little rough around the edges (I'd love to be able to tweak the layouts more), but having a single-source solution is vital to correcting typos — otherwise, every typo has to be corrected in multiple files.
For those that care, I use a stupid-simple shell script that invokes SiSu, renames its output files, and then uses scp to upload them to this server. So I fix the typo in the .sst file, run the script, and a few minutes later, the corrected files are all generated and uploaded. Hey-presto! Ralph was incredibly patient and nice about getting me set up with this, and I'm deeply grateful for it.
It's kind of a tradition around here that my readers convert my ebooks to their favorite formats and send them to me here, and it's one that I love! If you've converted these files to another format, send them to me and I'll host them, but before you do, make sure you read the following:
- Only one conversion per format, first come, first serve. That means that if someone's already converted the file to a Femellhebber 3000 document, that's the one you're going to find here. I just don't know enough about esoteric readers to adjudicate disputes about what the ideal format is for your favorite device.
- Make sure include a link to the reader as well. When you send me an ebook file, make sure that you include a link to the website for the reader technology as well so that I can include it below.
- No DRM. The Creative Commons license prohibits sharing the file with "DRM" (sometimes called "copy-protection") on it, and that's fine by me. Don't send me the book with DRM on it. If you're converting to a format that has a DRM option, make sure it's switched off.
Fan conversions:
- DSLibris edition — thanks to Michael Speth!
- Mobi edition — thanks to Ryan Bernacki!
- Plucker edition — thanks to Sean McGaughey!
- LRF edition — thanks to Sean McGaughey!
- DAISY edition — thanks to Claude Almansi!
- Djvu edition — thanks to Claude Almansi!
- AZW version — thanks to Ian Bone!
- FB2 version — thanks to Marcis Berzins!


text:
Utility: Questions & Answers
- What distinguishes the most successful utility
HVAC programs?
- What innovative ideas separate Proctor
Engineering Group from the competition?
1. What distinguishes the most successful utility HVAC programs?
The best HVAC programs have real savings, not fake savings, as their number one goal.
To get real savings:
- The program has constant (daily) oversight of the work by the field technicians.
- The program meets the utility and regulator effectiveness criteria.
- To be consistently effective, there are constant calculations of the energy savings from the work and these calculations are based on field measurements.
- Successful HVAC programs do not rely on deemed savings.
- The program uses a single experienced HVAC vendor who works with local contractors to produce market transformation.
- The vendor has a history of actions that they have taken to correct technicians, contractors, and procedures that have detracted from program performance.
2. What innovative ideas separate Proctor Engineering Group from the competition?
The innovations at Proctor make the real competition the status quo. The vast majority of houses, small commercial buildings, and HVAC systems suffer from "status quo – business as usual-itis". When and if these structures and systems are addressed, they are not brought up to their energy efficiency potential.
There are three basic innovations that drive all of Proctor Engineering's developments and programs:
- The use of full scale QUALITY ASSURANCE. The quality of the final product is dependent on assuring that every step of the process from initial technician selection through the final test of the work is a closed loop. The loops are closed by continuous evaluation of each step and continuous improvement to make the system produce the correct final result.
- The use of MONITORED RESULTS under real world conditions. The actual performance of buildings and their systems is the focus of Proctor Engineering. We are always monitoring buildings, systems, and technician/contractor performance and making decisions based on that information rather than a limited metric. For example, unlike many air conditioner designs and AC programs, we concentrate on the installed efficiency of the system as is appropriate to the climate and structure. Our competition depends on the SEER metric. Unfortunately, SEER is not the seasonal efficiency of an air conditioner. Due to oversimplification, SEER does not accurately represent the performance of air conditioners in real climates and under real installations.
- The CONTINUOUS UPGRADE of the technical specifications and devices used. Based on the monitored results, we improve the specifications to obtain more savings for less expenditure. Based on monitored results, our upgrades have included controls, duct design, motor efficiency and more.
Proctor Engineering has built a portfolio of innovations: CheckMe! – a constantly improving quality assurance process, climate sensitive air conditioners (Hot Dry and Hot Wet), inexpensive control upgrades to existing cooling and heating systems to provide proven energy savings (WCC, DBTD, and HHPC), the Concept3™ motor, test equipment for AC diagnosis at low outdoor temperatures (Charging Jacket) and more.
3. What are the opportunities and barriers to successful HVAC programs?
Heating Ventilating and Air Conditioning systems are the "pinch points" through which most of the energy used in buildings flows. They will be there for a long time and have a long term effect on the demand and use of energy across a service area, region, or country. Increased energy use well into the future is a long term planetary emergency. One of the largest opportunities to successfully reducing energy use is to constantly focus on improving HVAC efficiency. The reverse of recognizing the long term emergency is to maintain a short term approach that produces successive "Booms and Busts". Dealing only with immediate energy emergencies (black outs, brown outs, etc.) makes the next immediate emergency inevitable.
4. Are all Utility Programs essentially the same?
Not really, there are two kinds of programs:
- Commodity programs like rebates for light bulbs or refrigerators
- Non-commodity programs like HVAC or whole house programs
Commodity programs have limited variability. They can be acquired through the same process as utility pole acquisition. Commodity programs install a device with a "known" efficiency rating in place of another device also with a "known" efficiency rating. It matters little whether the device is sold/installed by vendor A or vendor B. The energy and peak savings are not particularly dependent on the QUALITY of who delivers the product, but rather the QUANTITY of the product delivered. Innovation in commodity programs is limited to items like marketing that produce more quantity.
Non-commodity programs have higher variability. They perform a service or install a device that is dependent on the quality of the service/installation. The savings and peak reductions depend on the QUALITY AND QUANTITY of the product delivered. It matters a great deal who the vendor is for a non-commodity program. There can be more innovation in these programs because they can introduce new and improved products, improved quality assurance, improved processes – as well as finding opportunities to increase production.
"Knowns" and Assumptions
Energy efficiency programs depend on a number of "knowns". "Everyone knows" that a 40 Watt incandescent lamp uses 40 Watts of power. Many "knowns" are actually assumptions that may or may not hold true for the product or within the program.
This is particularly true in HVAC programs. It is assumed that an air conditioner rated at 14 SEER averages one Watt hour of energy use for every 14 BTUs it produces. This assumption has many flaws – variability in the operating conditions, variability in the configuration of the system and house in which it is installed, and most importantly, variability in the quality of the installation. The very best case scenario – probably never achieved – would be that the air conditioner functioned to the rated seasonal efficiency.
- How many technicians have you removed from your programs in order to protect the integrity of your program? (more is better)
- How many people do you have available for immediate support for the field technicians? What are their names and work history?
- How do you calculate the energy savings you report to us?
5. What questions should we ask potential program implementers?
6. Are quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) the same thing?
No, Quality Assurance focuses on improving processes so that defects do not occur, while Quality Control focuses on identifying defects the program has already produced and correcting them.


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Leading Enterprise Manufacturing Companies Purchase Memex Automation's MERLIN Software
Burlington, ON, Canada – February 18, 2015 – Astrix Networks Inc., operating as Memex Automation (TSX-V: OEE) ("Astrix"), the global leader of manufacturing M2M productivity software, is pleased to announce Addison, IL-based Overton Chicago Gear Corporation and Ingersoll Rand Trane have made initial purchases of the machine tool productivity software solution MERLIN.
"Overton Chicago Gear (OCG) in its pursuit of continual improvement of its operation has reached an agreement with Memex to install its MERLIN data collection system on a number of machines," said Don Brown, President and CEO of Overton Chicago Gear. "One of the reasons OCG selected MERLIN is that one of our other divisions has had a successful experience with this system and the ability it has given them to increase machine uptime and throughput."
"We see how the MERLIN system can collect data automatically from the machine, with much detail and granularity of events which will give us much more actionable data to streamline our manufacturing process," continued Brown. "We are looking forward to a successful launch in Q1 2015."
"We are thrilled to see MERLIN being adopted by manufacturing leaders like Overton Chicago Gear Corporation and Ingersoll Rand Trane," said John Rattray, Memex Automation's Vice President of Sales. "Many of our clients operate multiple plants throughout the world and our software has the sophistication and scale to perform as an enterprise solution across their entire asset base."
Memex Automation's flagship product, MERLIN, enables effective machine communication across the shop floor, speeds up production processes, and can increase machine utilization by an average of 10% to 50%. Plants using MERLIN are able to improve output by more than 10% and related Income From Operations by as much as 20% – 60%.
About Overton Chicago Gear Corporation
Overton Chicago Gear is a full service manufacturer of gears and enclosed gear drives with a rich tradition. It has been designing and producing gear boxes since 1888 and was one of the founding members of the American Gear Manufacturing Association (AGMA). For more information, please visit http://www.oc-gear.com/.
About Ingersoll Rand Trane:
Ingersoll Rand has a family of brands including Club Car®, Ingersoll Rand®, Thermo King® and Trane®, who work together to enhance the quality and comfort of air in homes and buildings; transport and protect food and perishables; and increase industrial productivity and efficiency. For more information, visit www.ingersollrand.com.
About Memex Automation:
Astrix Networks Inc., operating as Memex Automation (TSX-V:OEE), provides award-winning software to measure Machine to Machine (M2M) productivity and Overall Equipment Effectiveness ("OEE") in real-time. MERLIN (Manufacturing Enterprise Real-time Lean Information Network) generates OEE metrics for each machine in every plant. MERLIN is used by leading machine tool companies as a complete shop floor communications platform. For more information, please visit: www.memex.ca.
Media Contacts
Memex Automation
Leanne Rattray, Communications Specialist
Phone: 905-635-1540 ext. 103
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
David McPhail, CEO
Phone: 519-993-1114
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
To see the full press release, please click here.


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I am still here.
I try to visit as many blogs as time allows, and hope to get back to posting on my neglected blog more often.
I can see by many of the blogs I visit that a lot of you have backed off on posting much as well!
Life just gets in the way of fun at times, doesn't it.
Be sure to visit How Sweet The Sounds' Blog Shop.
{link below}
Keep in touch,
leave comments
I miss you all


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This year with the advent of high school for my oldest I really needed a method to keep better track of, well, everything. Grades, attendance, transcripts, course materials, book lists, etc.
During the summer I got really serious about finding a workable method for record keeping and what I found was exactly what I needed, in Homeschool Tracker.
We first downloaded the free version to make sure that I liked it. Played with that for about 6 weeks of summer school and I knew it was a keeper, so we jumped in and bought the full version, and now I tell everyone I meet about my new brain.
Why I love it so much:
– Does way more than I ever need it to do. This is a good thing. Because, some day I might just get the urge to put all my homeschool books in one list or write out detailed lesson plans or have a weighted grading scale. But, for now, I can pick and choose the features that I choose to use, and the rest just sit there quietly until I decide to use them or not.
– Prepares my assignment sheets for me. At the beginning of the school year and again over Christmas break I put in a bunch of hours logging all their assignments for the months ahead. Yes, that was a monumental task. Think 5 kids times about 7 subjects each times about 200 days of school. Yeah, a little crazy, but the program makes it as easy as possible. Now, all I do is select all the students and print out the sheets two weeks at a time. I could print the whole year, but I like to do a couple at a time because invariably I change something over the course of a week or two and I would hate to have to hand-write all those changes. Each weekend, or Monday morning depending on how things go, I print out everyone's sheets, punch holes in them and they put them in their binders. Then, as I come around to work with them individually we pull out the binder and know exactly what needs to get done today and all week.
– Easy to reschedule. Life happens, sometimes a little too often. Kids get sick, relatives drop in, an assignment takes longer than anticipated, a concept needs extra teaching, kids fly through what you thought would take a week, books get lost, and sometimes the teacher gets sick. With a few clicks you can reschedule all assignments for all the kids or pick and choose what subjects and what kids need some rescheduling.
– Grades are figured automatically. All I needed to do was each week spend about 20 minutes (for all 5 kids, if you have fewer in school this would be even quicker, it takes me less than 5 minutes per kid) putting in their grades for the week and I have report cards ready made at the end of each quarter to go get their rewards from Chuck E Cheese.
– Not just about grades. As I mentioned this program does way more, and you can use any or all of the following features: track attendance, keep a reading log, record assignments and grades, write lesson plans, track goals, record school info, catalog your home library, and print reports for any or all of those things.
This program has surpassed my expectations for a record keeping program and made it so painless. Yes, it took a little bit to get the hang of it, but they have an online forum on their site that can answer all of your questions and then some. I also made some silly mistakes while learning and spent extra time fixing said mistakes and getting back on track. But, now it is such a huge time saver and I have all their records in one place, saved and backed up every five days without another thought.
Why you should definitely try the free demo first:
– I will readily admit, there is a huge learning curve with this one. There are so many features, and it is a little old school in its on screen presentation, but it can do anything you want it to, you just need to learn how to work it.
– I'm sure it's not for everyone. Although for me it was love at first download, it might not float your boat. So, check it out, but don't say I didn't warn you. It is amazing!
I can't say enough about how much I have enjoyed using Homeschool Tracker Plus. I am thrilled to pieces with this program. You can check out the basic edition for free, and you can try the plus edition for $5 for 30 days. If you do decide to buy, pleas use my referral code: U33EH and I'll get a little bonus for referring you. 🙂 Hope it is a help to you as much as it was for me.
Check out more wfmw.


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Presentation of the peoples of the Amur river basin, on the border between Russia and China. These populations earn their livelihood through fishing and hunting and speak a variety of languages. The exhibition presents their decorative art, revealing the connections between the world of humans, nature and the spirit world.
176 pages • 24.8 x 28.7 cm • €37
Joint publication musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac / Flammarion 2015


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Advanced Search
Consultancy firm Directions on Microsoft has outlined expectations for Microsoft's product roadmap in 2012 and beyond.
In a Webinar conducted on Thursday, Rob Helm, managing vice president at Directions on Microsoft, described a rough timeline for Microsoft's emerging products and services. He specifically touched on Microsoft's cloud platform (Windows Azure, along with System Center 2012), mobile devices platform (including Windows 8), and business intelligence (SQL Server 2012) segments. Despite its name, Directions on Microsoft isn't affiliated with Microsoft, although many of its analysts formerly worked at the company.
Helm said that in 2012, we should see Microsoft rolling out System Center 2012, Windows 8 and Windows Server 8 products (see chart). However, Windows Server 8 may arrive later than the client. Helm explained that "we don't think that Windows Server 8 is tied to the client release."
Cloud ExpectationsHelm described Microsoft's cloud platforms as centering on software and services for running apps in large-scale datacenters, both public and private. Motivations for organizations to move to the cloud include cost, as well as gaining access new hardware and automating processes.
On the private cloud side, Microsoft's vision is Windows Server 2008 plus System Center 2012. Helm said that many organizations with private clouds use VMware's hypervisor for virtualization rather than Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor, but those using VMware products may also rely on Microsoft System Center for management.
On the public cloud side, there's Windows Azure, hosted by Microsoft. Windows Azure offers some unique capabilities for organizations to tap, but it doesn't use System Center right now, Helm said. Instead, it has its own management solution called the Windows Azure Fabric.
The two cloud platforms, as represented by Windows Azure and Windows Server, will likely get closer, according to Helm.
"In the endgame, two to four years out, I expect their [Microsoft's] unified platform that private datacenters and partner-hosted datacenters will be able to host, as well as Microsoft datacenters. But I think that's going to take a couple of successive releases of both Azure and Windows Server," he said during the Webinar.
Windows Azure may get two important updates in 2012 around the time of the April Microsoft Management Summit. The updates will be designed to help port Windows Server apps to Windows Azure with less cost. The first update is associated with "VM roles," allowing customers to take virtual machines and put them on Windows Azure. The second update may relate to Server App-V, which "will allow Windows Azure to run Windows service components and various other kinds of Windows service components that it can't run today," Helm said.
In general, Microsoft is moving more toward hosting its software products on the Windows Azure platform.
"In the second half of 2012, I'd expect to see one or more Microsoft products being run for paying customers on top of Windows Azure. That's not the case today," Helm said.
For instance, Helm noted that Office 365 (a collection of hosted Microsoft applications) does not currently run on Windows Azure. Another case is Microsoft Dynamics NAV, an enterprise resource planning application. Helm predicted that Dynamics NAV might be seen running on Windows Azure "in second half of 2012."
In response to a question, Helm said that Office 365 gets updated on a quarterly basis. It tends to get "service pack" updates on a once-a-year basis. Major Office 365 releases that introduce new suite components will continue to arrive in three-year product wave cycles, with the next one possibly arriving in late 2013. Dynamics CRM has been the only product where the online and on-premises releases have coincided, he noted.
System Center 2012Every product in the System Center 2012 suite will get a major update, but the most important changes will be found in Virtual Machine Manager. The entire System Center 2012 product line will be sold as a single suite when released in 2012. Currently the products are available at the release candidate stage. Helm said that we might see System Center 2012 released as a final product, "probably by April." It's expected to happen near the time of the Microsoft Management Summit.
System Center will gain greater reach into Windows Azure, Helm predicted. He noted that Virtual Machine Manager 2012 already can manage some Windows Azure resources. In addition, some Windows Server capabilities will grow closer to Windows Azure.
"I think Windows Server will eventually gain the capability to run Windows Azure's unique services for storage, authentication and so on," Helm said.
System Center 2012 licensing has been reworked so that organizations will only be able to buy licensing for the whole suite, but individual product licenses will continue to be available for the older products for 12 months out, Helm said. Licensing for the System Center 2012 suite will require Software Assurance (SA). Organizations will have to commit to two or three years of SA licensing to use the new suite. For those wanting buy into System Center 2012, it will be a much bigger financial commitment to consider. Those organizations using System Center products piecemeal without SA will have to consider making a big step if they want to move to System Center 2012.
In general, Helm said that Microsoft is getting more liberal with its licensing, but the trend is that it's tied to having SA subscriptions in place.
In response to a question, Helm explained that up to now with System Center, organizations have needed Management licenses (MLs) and Infrastructure licenses. With System Center 2012, the Infrastructure licensing is eliminated but MLs remain. The two System Center 2012 ML licensing options will require SA over a period from two years to three years, and the licensing is based per processor. Pricing for the cloud has gone up 35 percent to 40 percent, but pricing for the non-virtualized cloud case has gone down 10 percent to 15 percent, he added.
Organizations that want to use System Center 2012 will get the whole suite. For instance, if an organization already has a System Center Configuration Manager ML [with SA], that translates into gaining access rights to entire suite ML for organizations that upgrade. For organizations already covered by SA, this transition will be relatively painless until the SA payments reset.
Helm cautioned that Directions on Microsoft has not seen the final licensing language for System Center 2012. It comes out in March, so the final licensing ramifications can't be determined until then.
Helm was also asked if the System Center 2012 Standard license would be supported by license mobility. Helm said he didn't know and that the answer would await the release of final licensing language. Microsoft's license mobility program is for Volume Licensing customers with SA, allowing them to leverage the value of some of their on-premises licenses when migrating to cloud services.
Mobile Devices and Windows 8With the consumerization of IT trend, tablets increasingly are seen as targets for running corporate applications, Helm said. However, to get there, tablets will have to become "good corporate citizens."
Windows 7 is Microsoft's current client OS for tablets, but the tablets on the market running it tend to lag in providing good battery lifetimes, Helm said. Microsoft's tablet strategy used to be based on the Window CE OS, which was designed for low- power, touch-enabled cell phone use.
One key element of Microsoft's mobile platform strategy is Active Sync, which is implemented across almost all non-Microsoft-OS mobile devices out there. Active Sync is designed to help coordinate data but it also can be used to locate devices that are lost or stolen.
Windows 8 will be the next client release of Windows for PCs, but it's also designed for tablets. Windows 8 features the Metro user interface, the Windows Runtime for programming applications and some improvements for mobile broadband network access, Helm said. He predicted that we will see some sort of touch interface for Microsoft Office on Windows 8 tablets.
The best-case delivery time for Windows 8 is late 2012, according to Directions on Microsoft analyst Michael Cherry. However, Windows 8 could arrive as late as late sometime in 2013, possibly in the first quarter. Helm said that a "beta" of Windows 8 will be coming at the end of February. Veteran Microsoft observer Mary Jo Foley has noted that Microsoft plans to call this release a "consumer preview" rather than a beta, but it's not clear what Microsoft means by that nomenclature.
Windows Phone could eventually move off the Windows CE kernel, Helm said. He suggested that Windows 8 might show up for use on high-end smartphones. System Center Configuration Manager 2012 will have some ability to control mobile devices through Exchange Active Sync, Helm said. Windows Server will gain the ability to manage encryption of data on mobile devices sometime between now and 2014, he added, possibly using something like Active Directory rights management. Something like that will be possible for Android and Apple device platforms too in "the next couple of years," Helm said. Beyond 2014, System Center products will be able to control and update applications on mobile devices, possibly starting with Windows 8 on smartphones, he added.
In response to a question, Helm suggested that Microsoft will add support for BI in Android and Apple clients in late 2012. In general, Microsoft's mobile BI strategy will be centered on its PowerPivot technology and not on online analytical processing (OLAP) technology, Helm explained.
Microsoft recently reviewed its efforts to get BI on the iPad, which appears to be a work in progress or an effort that will get better support through the Microsoft partner community.
Business Intelligence and SQL Server 2012Business intelligence (BI) is a catch-all term to describe how a business is doing in terms of sales, internal processes and targeting using its hard data sources. The aim is to make better business decisions, Helm explained. Microsoft delivers its BI capabilities via SQL Server and its PowerPivot family of technologies.
The value of Microsoft's BI concept is in allowing groups within an organization to tap corporate data without having to consult the IT department for access. BI models can be built by experts using Excel. The expert constructs a specialized analysis database and publishes it using SharePoint Server. SharePoint handles the problem of having to update the analysis database and SQL Server is used to manage it. Helm added that PowerPivot will work with other relational database management systems, such as those from Oracle and IBM.
PowerPivot helps with modeling using Excel. In late 2012 and early 2013, there may PowerPivot support for Android and Apple mobile clients, and for Windows 8 clients when that OS is released, according to Helm. Microsoft also has a PowerView feature that will allow SharePoint users to design their own reports using just a browser.
These Microsoft BI technologies are not available on Microsoft-hosted systems such as the Office 365 suite. Helm said that this situation may change by 2013, possibly near the time when the next major release of SharePoint is available.
SQL Server 2012 is getting a major overhaul in terms of licensing. Organizations wanting to use PowerPivot previously had to have the Enterprise edition licensing of SQL Server. However, that option is getting replaced. There will be a new BI edition, licensed on a Server Client Access License (CAL) basis, that will replace the Enterprise edition, Helm explained.
SQL Server 2012 licensing will move to a per core basis, instead of a per physical processing socket basis. There may not be a cost impact to that change because of the way servers are sold today, Helm said. Organizations can license the software on a CALs basis, but the cost has gone up 27 percent, Helm added. Some the SQL Server 2012 rights are less generous. For instance, some virtualization benefits in SQL Server 2012 will be linked to SA licensing. To use PowerPivot for BI, an organization needs to license Excel, SharePoint and SQL Server with CALs. Consequently, suites with Enterprise CALs can look good by comparison, but they also entail an SA cost.
Microsoft recently announced that it will initiate a March 7 "launch event" for SQL Server 2012. That date might not be the time when the product is released. However, Helm appeared to accept it as such. He said that the PowerPivot BI capabilities would be available at that time.
Other Product MilestonesIn a Q&A session, Helm provided a few more predictions about Microsoft's product roadmap. On Exchange, he said that the product's direction mostly will be determined by the cloud version. For instance, he predicted that the next Exchange product release would be designed to handle larger multitenant installations. Exchange has its own product release schedule that is not tied to the Microsoft Office releases. Helm predicted that the next version of Exchange might be released sometime in 2013.
Microsoft is planning to host Hadoop on Windows Azure, enabling big data capabilities. Helm said that Microsoft plans to look at Hadoop-style capabilities more generally for its SQL Server product line. Microsoft is going to rethink its platform in SQL Server given the success of Hadoop, he explained.
With regard to Lync, Microsoft's unified communications product, Helm said there will be a hands-off integration with the Skype voice-over-IP solution, possibly happening sometime in 2013. He said that the integration might start out with just presence and instant messaging at first.
Microsoft Forefront, which is a suite of enterprise security solutions, will get new releases sometime in 2013, Helm predicted.
Helm replied to a question about the cloud computing market by stating that Amazon's and Microsoft's capabilities are fundamentally converging. Amazon offers platform-as-a-service storage that is almost identical to Microsoft's hosted storage, he said, adding that "I think you'll gradually see Amazon Web Services and Azure converge in terms of their capabilities."
In response to a question on social networking, Helm said that SharePoint's next-generation social computing behavior will be similar to Facebook. Content management will be integrated more fundamentally into social computing. Social computing integration is already being seen with Windows Phone. He predicted something like the Windows Phone people hub appearing in the Windows 8 client.
More ResourcesDirections on Microsoft is ramping up for the next release of its Microsoft enterprise software roadmap publication, which is issued quarterly to subscribers and provides greater detail than the Webinar session. The consultancy also plans to publish a study specifically on SQL Server 2012 that is planned for release next month.
Experts at Directions on Microsoft also go into the field to help to the general public understand Microsoft's licensing. The group's next "licensing boot camp" is scheduled for February 21 and 22 in San Diego, but registration closes on February 7. The company also publishes licensing guides.
As the dust settles on the massive CrowdStrike and Azure outage, conversations of what your organization should do in similar situations should happen now.
Tech giants including Microsoft and top AI players like Nvidia and OpenAI have formed a new industry group aimed at promoting AI safety and security standards.
Microsoft Designer, the company's AI-powered design tool, officially hit general availability on Wednesday after being unveiled during Ignite 2022.
With Microsoft's Copilot Studio, it's easy to get up and running in just a few minutes.
Microsoft's Purview Data Governance, the company's AI-powered solution designed to address governance and security challenges under one unified umbrella, will hit general availability on Sept. 1.
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I originally posted this over on MAKE, but I'm particularly proud of it, so I figured I'd put it up here, too.
Hacker- and makerspaces are a fairly meta concept. While they can be explained via terms like "community workshop," they are essentially a created place where people can create projects. It's sort of like a school for teachers. It's important to understand this, because this entry involves some folk who see the space itself as a project. There are many systems stacked on each other, sometimes seamlessly, sometimes awkwardly. Things like space layout, new member introductions, decision-making processes, monetary obligations. If done well, these systems are joyfully participated in, and disappear except for the standard maintenance and conscious involvement of the membership. In a smooth-running space, you don't have to think about where to return your ratchet to, you just do. You don't have to struggle with understanding the board-voting system because you helped create it, and contributing to it helps further your community.
There are certainly people in your space who are specialists in maintenance and repair of the space itself. We do have to worry about due dates on bills, and maintaining safe space, and the dirty fridge not providing the material basis for the next incarnation of Cthuhlu. Some people take on the active role of those administrative tasks. And yet, part of being a hacker/maker/citizen is being aware of and responsible for the systems you're part of. This is a participatory culture we're creating.
A metaphor, just to be sure we're in the same cognitive place: this is like when you get so good at riding your motorcycle that you reach a flow – you have only to think about where you're going, not clutch-shift-clutch. As hackers and makers, we care to know how the carburetor or fuel injector is working, how that interacts with the air intake, what other models of motorcycles are out there. I can keep going about the welded construction, the materials involved, what grease to use, etc, but I think you get the point. Now extrapolate that to your *space. Also think about how nice it is to have reference material to help guide you through – either an online forum, or the oil-smeared choose-your-own-adventure of Haynes.
During my wonderful winter stay in Berlin, some of my lovely hosts discussed the idea of *space creation and maintenance. Skytee and Pylon participated in the first rounds of the Hackerspace Design Patterns. They were co-founders of Köln fablab Dingfabrik. Fabienne, another founder of Dingfabrik, but not an original documentor of the Design Patterns also sat with us. It's important you know their names because these ideas would not have emerged without that conversation. Their work on the Patterns was sort of like laying the groundwork for that motorcycle maintenance forum.
Back around 2007, there were a fair number of spaces either established or getting started, mostly in Europe. The people participating in them mostly at least knew each other, but didn't really have a dialog around the creation and maintenance of the spaces themselves. There was, however, conversation around the curation of those ideas and structure. And so, be still my organizing heart, a small group just started on it. They curated the conversations into general topics and flows, what seems to work and what doesn't. That set was dubbed the Hackerspace Design Patterns. Those, along with a tour of European *spaces around the time of Chaos Communications Camp in 2007 is arguably what spawned the boom of *spaces in America. (Bre posted about the talk at Chaos Communications Congress later that year about the Patterns as it was happening right here on MAKE.)
Infrastructure before projects. Get the place and the people and the infrastructure all set up and folks will come up with the most amazing projects. Get the space, power, servers, connectivity and all that kind of stuff all set up so that projects and community can be supported. You need to have a mailing list, wiki, and an irc channel (or jabber server).
When my hosts, along with others, later founded Dingfabrik, they were glad to apply the Patterns. And better yet, to discover they were still relevant and useful. Part of this is due to continued conversation around and development of those patterns, but it is also due to the intelligent and careful laying of groundwork. I love how the sharing of knowledge is a key component to this movement, manifest even in the propagation of useful infrastructure.
Hearing these folk, who have been involved in the *space community for so long, speak with such passion about the community and their own Dingfabrik (sidebar: ownership as something that is/should be for any participating member of a *space, not just the founders) was inspiring. They spoke of the creation and maintenance of the space itself as a project just as worthwhile as the Taschen nähen workshop or Steampunk Bandwidth Meter coming out of it. They see these *spaces as decreasing the barrier to creativity, a place where you can make a mess, make noise in ways that you can't in your own home. They are the infrastructure on which creativity and community exists.
The next time you're visiting your friendly neighborhood *space (bonus points if you get the comic reference), remember to take a moment on the long-term group project of the space's infrastructure. Remember to grease the chain by running the vacuum cleaner. Give a special thank you to the people who set aside their own physical projects to maintain the infrastructure. See how you can lighten their load.
If even only a small part of this movement is the creation of things, not simply the consumption of them, remember that this also applies to the social.


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Norcross Collaborative Divorce
When going through a divorce, you can choose not to go to court anymore. This option is made possible by the process called collaborative divorce.
If you and your spouse already agreed to get divorced, you can reach a negotiated settlement through a collaborative divorce. The process would not involve court litigation at all. Both of you just need to hire a collaborative divorce attorney and get on with the process, which is substantially less expensive and stressful compared to the traditional route of divorce litigation.
Vayman & Teitelbaum, P.C. can best explain this option to you. We have expert collaborative divorce attorneys who will discuss the process, advantages, and drawbacks of undergoing a collaborative divorce. You will know exactly what is required of you and decide if whether or not this path is what's appropriate for your marriage.
Once you choose to go through the collaborative divorce process, our lawyers are more than willing to assist you in reaching a favorable settlement. We will help you iron out the details of what necessary terms you want to include in the divorce settlement. Also, we will expertly handle the negotiation process to ensure that neither you, your soon-to-be former spouse, or the children involved will suffer from an ineffective settlement.
Contact Vayman & Teitelbaum, P.C. at (678) 504-8411 for a Case Evaluation with a collaborative divorce attorney in Norcross now.
Collaborative divorce is not like the traditional divorce process where both parties acquire counsel, engage in litigation, and resolve the divorce issue under trial. Instead, its goal is for both parties to reach a mutually beneficial agreement without having to go to court.
The process of collaborative divorce involves both parties and requires them to work together. As the name suggests, the spouses won't act as adversaries but will instead work amicably to reach a satisfactory settlement. This will be done with the expert representation of each of their chosen collaborative divorce attorney.
Additionally, couples undergoing the process are supported by a neutral team of professionals to help them reach an agreement that works best for both parties and the children involved. These professionals include financial advisors, mediators, therapists, and child specialists.
Generally, a collaborative divorce is initiated before the filing of a petition for divorce. Only after an agreement is reached will the couple file for a divorce action. And since they have already agreed on a settlement, there will no longer be any divorce trial. The next step will only be as easy as having each of the party's attorneys file a petition for the court to adopt the settlement agreement into the court's final judgment and divorce decree.
Collaborative Divorce Process in Norcross
The process of collaborative divorce is pretty simple. However, it is imperative that it is followed correctly.
To start, you and your spouse should each appoint an attorney knowledgeable of the collaborative divorce law. However, before getting the lawyers involves, both of you should discuss what you want from the divorce settlement. It must include issues that concern children and affect finances.
You and your spouse then need to meet with each of your respective attorneys to discuss the breakdown of the marriage and the divorce considerations. This should include everything from infidelity issues to agreed-upon conditions that will take effect once the divorce is final.
The next step will be to hold a four-way meeting between you and your spouse with your respective collaborative divorce attorneys. This is when the full disclosure of all relevant documents and information will take place. It is a given that your attorney will defend your side while the attorney of your spouse will do the same for him. However, both attorneys will no doubt work towards a common interest.
If certain issues need knowledge of specialists, neutral experts should be hired. They can help with matters like parenting issues, financial advice, and real estate. Generally, the resulting cost will be shared between you and your spouse.
After disclosing all relevant information, a divorce settlement will be drawn up and be officially agreed to. This will then be filed in the court to be approved by the judge to make it final. This can be done without requiring you or your spouse to be present in the court.
However, even if you and your spouse have the best intentions, disagreements are hard to avoid when it comes to formalizing divorce agreements. If these then lead to the complete breakdown of the collaborative divorce process, it is up to the courts to decide about the divorce issues. Although, if it works, a mediator can be hired to put the process back on track.
If the mediator's way wouldn't work, the collaborative divorce process won't do, and it would be better to go through the conventional route of traditional divorce litigation instead.
Advantages and Drawbacks of Collaborative Divorce
Like every other thing in the world, collaborative divorce has its share of advantages and drawbacks. Both of which each couple should know about before deciding if the process is right for them.
The major advantage of collaborative divorce is that it saves you both time and money compared to the traditional divorce process. Also, hiring a collaborative lawyer that most people consider as a drawback is an advantage in itself.
On the other hand, the main drawback of collaborative divorce is that it requires both you and your spouse to work together. If the negotiation was unsuccessful, there could be a need for both attorneys to pull out, and new ones will be appointed. This can generate more expenses as any retainers that have been paid, and other money that was spent will all be forfeited.
To better understand what the implications of collaborative divorce in the dissolution of your marriage are, it is best to talk to a professional divorce attorney in Norcross.
Best Collaborative Divorce Attorneys in Norcross
Vayman & Teitelbaum, P.C. is a group dedicated to giving quality legal service to each one of our clients. If your marriage is now going down the road to getting divorced, we have expert attorneys who can fully explain the option of undergoing a collaborative divorce.
Our lawyers are trained on how to handle issues related to collaborative divorce properly. Once you choose to work with us, we will guarantee a smooth collaborative divorce process that is free of emotionally stressful confrontations.
As your legal assistant, our attorney will take into consideration all your preferences and unique circumstances to come up with the best negotiation tactic. We are committed to giving you the most favorable resolution without letting you go through the lengthy, costly, and taxing process of divorce litigation.
This is what we can guarantee: Vayman & Teitelbaum, P.C. is your top legal partner when it comes to collaborative divorce in Norcross.
Case Evaluation
If you think that collaborative divorce is the right choice for you and your spouse, do not hesitate to reach out and discuss your case with us. Also, if you want additional information to make sure that this is the best path to take, our lawyers are ready to answer all of your questions.
Contact Vayman & Teitelbaum, P.C. at (678) 504-8411 for a Case Evaluation with a collaborative divorce attorney in Norcross now.


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The Fault in Our Stars (Paperback)
I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, then all at once.
Despite the tumour-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis.
But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.
Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars brilliantly explores the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.
Praise for The Fault in Our Stars:
Sunday Times (Culture)
'A touching, often fiercely funny novel'
The Sun on Sunday (Fabulous Magazine)
'So good I think it should be compulsory reading for everyone!'
Daily Express
'John Green brilliantly captures the voices of a young generation while instilling it with the wisdom of a life that has lived too much yet will never live enough'
The Metro - 2013 Best Fiction
'The love affair of two terminally ill teenagers could be mawkish. In fact, it's funny, clever, irreverent and life-affirming.'
'So good!'
Good Housekeeping
'As funny as it is heartbreaking... we defy you not to fall in love with its main characters, Hazel and Augustus.'
The Tablet
'A humourous and poignant love story... It's terrifically funny... as well as a moving exploration of loss and grief. And no, it's so much not just for teenage cancer sufferers... it's for everyone.'
'If you need inspiration when it comes to making the most of a moment, this one is for you'
'Insightful, bold, irreverent and raw, if this doesn't make you cry, it'll definitely make you think, laugh and maybe even fall in love yourself!'


text: In a competitive bid in 2001 DFID asked "How the emerging Information and Communication Technology will change the poverty landscape?". We later found out that while most responses were on 'Technology', our bid was focused on the social factors that drive behaviour – and that's why we won it. So began a series of research into how low income households in Africa and Asia were beginning to use Mobile Phones and Telecentres (as they were called back then!). From that research we found the airtime transfer behaviour that led to us Championing Mobile Money transfer. That story is about to be told more fully than ever before in an IDS Research Bulletin in September 2012 – however at the moment we can't repeat the text without disrupting the peer reviewed journal process! For the last 10 years we have been researching the use of Information and Communication Technology in Development. The rest of the website gives some examples of our work but here on this page we wanted to declare our recent special interests. One is ICT Landscapes.The idea of Information, Knowledge Attitude Practice and Behaviour (IKAPB) Landscapes is explained more fully on this linked page. However with respect to ICT it has led us to a special interest in some areas. We have been involved with the development of the ICT Agriculture Sourcebook, and we think that is a good overview of the landscape. We are currently looking at the Health Information Seeking Behaviour of the rural poor in Bangladesh. We are using our Future think to consider where its all going! Another is ICT in Monitoring, Evaluation and Impact analysis.After looking at UNICEF innovation in Mobiles, we have been involved with a recent project by UNICEF on Real Time Monitoring for the Most Vulnerable. The possibility of real time monitoring speaks to our interest in Evaluation and Impact and our pioneering work using Android apps on Tablets to gather IKAPB survey data – and the resulting cost effectiveness of household surveys. It also feeds our interest in a deeper analysis of data – which may seem a bit of a geek statement, but we really believe that the power of statistical analytical software (which is improving all the time) gives insights into the links between attitudes and practice that just were not cost effectively possible before. Quasi experimental investigations can now be undertaken for the same cost as baseline and endline 'evaluation' surveys. There is also the idea that we can gain increased participation and crowd sourcing for understanding that landscape. For instance we recently contributed to the GNDR Voices from the Frontline, which included not only coordination of 530 CBOs undertaking face to face interviews (which would not be possible without email and internet) but also direct text based surveying of 36000 people in 16 countries. Rapid feedback on governance and disaster mitigation. We also have an on-going interest in the use of Mobiles to alleviate poverty.Mobile money was a good, can we say great, idea. Private sector players coming together with public sector donors and civil society, to create a product that enabled the poor to send money over distances and make considerable savings. Effective policy influencing to change the regulation to enable that product, and networks and discourse change to replicate across the globe – it's a rare story where things came together. Yes we are talking about Mpesa at the start, but also Orange Money, Wizzit and all the other products that are now available, even Mcel credit transfer and Sambasa were part of the story. And yes we agree it needs on-going study to consider and nuance its sociological and poverty effects. But on the whole it's a story of change that worked in favour to the poor. While Mobile money is one part of the story we must not forget some of the other parts. Back in 2003 we were able to identify the (statistically valid) difference in strength of livelihoods between communities with one phone and communities with no phones. (Interestingly there wasn't a difference that we could see between one phone and many phones). Of course that sort of study cannot be conducted now because of the ubiquitousness of phones. Nevertheless less it did document that even the presence of a phone made a change in livelihoods. Our special interest remains in how ICT will evolve and have an effect on poverty – how does it strengthen the lives of the poor –mitigate vulnerabilities, increase assets, affect structures. There are many initiatives on mHealth, eHealth, mAgric, eAgric, mGov, eGov, etc. Of course it's going to accelerate. Of course developing countries will improve in connectivity. But how can we optimise the system for alleviation of poverty. Per second billing made a great difference to the cost of the ICT basket for the poor. Peer pressure to use the phone is causing the very poor to spend a substantial portion of the household income on it. Micro-insurance is now possible alongside Mobile Money. Smartphones are emerging into developing countries and ….where to next? Our interest is in practical solutions, and a focus on the social factors that are important – hence projects like the rapid prototyping we did with Grameen App labs. Mobile MoneyFinally for this page we would draw attention back to Mobile Money itself. Studies need to be conducted on the financial literacy of households and how best to ensure that the liberalised competitive environment works in their favour and yet protects them at the same time. (The answer is proportional risk regulatory environment, in case you wanted to know). This is particularly true for the current global situation with its fragile global economy. |


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May 2007 Digest
Tying Energy Efficiency to Renewable Energy
Lost in the rush to develop alternative energy technologies is the obvious value of making energy usage more efficient. As Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute would say, "a watt saved is a watt earned." This can be applied to biofuel usage as well. It is far cheaper to save energy than it is to produce more of it, particularly when existing technologies are so wasteful.
In marked contrast to the oil crisis of the 70's when cars lined up on even or odd license number days to tank up on gasoline and speed limits were held to 55 MPH to conserve energy, there has been little preaching by this administration - or the states for that matter - to slow down and use less. Memorial Day weekend driving plans were little impacted by recent gas price spikes. Auto shows still promote performance over gas use efficiency.
It is highly unlikely that the laudable goals of the 25x'25 Initiative for reducing fossil fuel dependence will be reached if we persist in inefficient usage of our energy resources or, in fact, grow our demand beyond current expectations. Similarly, while developing renewable energy (RE) technologies, energy efficiency (EE) needs to be built into the systems.
In a joint report presented by the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) and the American Council for an Energy-Efficency Economy (ACEEE) case studies are showcased that demonstrate the synergies available when RE and EE are developed together. For installations that have such long lifespans and high capital costs, it is important to address efficiency challenges during early planning.
Here are links to stories that were posted in the BioEnergy BlogRing during May, 2007:
BIOstock Blog--------------
• Clean Wood replaces Coal Power Plant in N.H.
• U.S. paper & pulp industry assesses its bioenergy future
BIOconversion Blog--------------
• Molecular visualization of the bioconversion process
• U.S. State Dept. to host 2008 Int'l Renewable Energy Conference
• IPCC 4th Assessment: Steps to mitigate climate change
• U.S. D.O.E./E.I.A. International Energy Outlook 2007
BIOoutput Blog--------------
• Tying Energy Efficiency to Renewable Energy
• California's electricity - Phasing out coal
• Amory Lovins - RMI and the Hypercar
Each month we provide a similar breakdown of article titles from our favorite "companion" site - Biopact Blog. This list is kept current and is accessible in the right hand column of each of the three blogs.
Please forward a link to this digest to anyone you know who would be interested in keeping track of change that will affect us all. They can add their name to the mailing list on the BioConversion Blog.
technorati digest, biofuels, conversion, bioenergy, cellulosic, feedstock, ethanol, sustainability, forestry


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Luke Bryan's Secret Talent Is … Making Fart Noises With His Back?
Did you know Luke Bryan's hidden talent is that he can make fart noises? Not with his arm, mind you, but with an entirely different body part: his back.
The "One Margarita" singer revealed the secret skill on a recent episode of the Kelly Clarkson Show. Speaking to the host and fellow vocalist via video, the crooner admits to his extraordinary proficiency.
"I can lay on a wooden floor and make fart noises with my back," Bryan explains, to which Clarkson cracks up.
He divulged the unlikely gift during a fan Q&A on the program when a Twitter used asked about a "useless talent" the musician may have. That's when the singer let loose about the distracting noises he can make.
"They will stop the room," Bryan jokingly adds.
"Oh my God, that's awesome!" Clarkson replies. "I only have one useless [talent] — well, it's not useless, I guess. I have the worst memory, especially if I write the song. … So I make up words [at] the last second. And nine times out of ten, it rhymes. It doesn't make sense, but it rhymes!"
Naturally, that admission prompts Clarkson to ask if Bryan ever forgets the words when he's performing.
"The only time I forget the words when I'm in concert is if I'm reading someone's sign," Bryan responds. "But [only] if their sign has some interesting message. You know, 'My mother saw you in 1999, and she wants me to tell you…' Like, I start reading it, [and] my brain is gone."
As long as he doesn't start farting with his back onstage, we think he'll be OK. Bryan's new album, Born Here Live Here Die Here, is out now.
44 Reasons You've Gotta Love Luke Bryan:


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Full Mouth Rehabilitation
If you've had trouble with most or some of your teeth throughout your life, you may sometimes wish that you could hit reset & start over with a brand new mouth. Achieving that reset is the goal of full mouth rehabilitation, though it isn't quite as easy as hitting a button.
Patients' motivation for getting a complete mouth rehabilitation is usually twofold: they want to look better but also feel better too. Missing teeth & oral pain can be a constant drain on your feelings of well-being & may even limit the foods you eat. With a restored smile, our hope is that you'll be able to enjoy many of your favorite foods again.
Perhaps the best moment in a complete mouth rehabilitation is when a patient sees their restored smile for the first time. Many patients report an immediate boost in self confidence & self esteem. We love seeing that genuine new smile reveal itself for the first time, especially in patients who have been avoiding smiling or hiding their true smiles for years. A complete mouth rehabilitation may feel like a long road, but we have had patients tell us that the journey is worth the destination. If you would like to completely restore your smile, please contact us to schedule a consultation.
What Is Full Mouth Rehabilitation?
Rather than a single procedure, full mouth rehabilitation involves addressing multiple problems using a variety of treatments. We can attempt to completely restore the health, function & aesthetics of your mouth using all of the tools, technologies & techniques available to us.
For example, a patient may get a combination of crowns & bridges to replace & strengthen teeth, while another patient could do a combination of clear aligners & veneers. The combinations of potential treatments your rehabilitation may include are nearly endless as every case is entirely customized.
Procedure Overview
Every full mouth rehabilitation starts with a consultation visit. If you are an existing client, we will already have records of your latest x-rays & your dental exams. If you are a new client, you may need to have an exam appointment where we'll also take updated x-rays. At your consult, we'll discuss your current dental condition, as well as your goals for your final result.
Next, we will assemble a treatment plan that details which procedures will be needed to achieve our goals. This treatment plan will also act as a timeline & a budget estimate. During a complete mouth rehabilitation, not all the procedures will happen right away. To accommodate your comfort & healing times, we may space out treatments over several days, weeks, or months. This will also allow time for any custom appliances or replacement teeth to be fabricated, either by us or a dental laboratory.