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We have lots of great updates this release! We're super excited to announce this month that both the decomposition tree and drill through button actions are now generally available. On top of this, we have several new features and updates that will really enrich your reporting: curate featured tables for Excel, new Apply button for the filter pane to apply all changes at once, enhancements to change detection and page navigation action, support for images in buttons, and more!
Check out the full blog to learn more about all the updates and enhancements.
Here's the complete list of May updates:
- Curate featured tables for Excel (preview)
- Apply all filters (preview)
- Buttons now support fill images
- Drop shadow support for visuals
- Filter pane migration
- Packed bubble chart by xViz
- Updates to hierarchy filter by xViz
- Power Apps visual is now compatible with all languages supported in Power BI
- Direct Query on Dataflows
- Web by example now automatically suggests tables by default
- Enhancements to Query Diagnostics: Privacy Level partitions
- Witivio connector
- Linkar connector
- Webtrends connector
- Planview ProjectPlace connector
- Shortcuts Business Insights connector
- Vessel Insights connector
- Zoho Creator connector
Check out the following video for demos of the highlights:
Curate featured tables for Excel (preview)
In this month's release of Power BI Desktop, you can now curate featured tables to be referenced in Excel (Insider build). This can help you easily enrich your Excel sheets with authoritative enterprise data.
In Excel's data types gallery, you will be able to find data from featured tables in Power BI datasets; for example, you can feature data on Customers, Product, and Suppliers:
Additionally, by using Power BI's certified and promoted datasets capabilities, you can enable members of your organization to find and use relevant and refreshable data to ultimately make better decisions. In the example below, the Let's Stop N Shop cell is linked to curated, organizational data from Power BI, so you can find the contact information for the owner of the store right within your spreadsheet:
To curate a featured table in Power BI Desktop, you will need to first turn on the preview switch by going to File > Options and Settings > Options > Preview features and selecting Featured tables:
In the model view of Desktop, you can then pick the table that you want to be a featured table to use in other products like Excel.
You can do so by selecting the table and setting the Is Featured table toggle to Yes:
You will then need to use the Set up this featured table dialog to provide the required fields in the table.
A featured table must have a description, a row label, and a key column.
- The Row label field value is used in Excel so users can easily identify the row. It appears as the cell value for a linked cell, in the data selector pane, and in the information card.
- The Key column field value provides the unique id for the row. This enables Excel to link a cell to a specific row in the table.
For the last step you will need to publish the dataset to the Power BI Service. After you publish or import the dataset to the Service, the featured table is displayed in Excel's data types gallery.
Excel caches the list of data types, so you'll need to restart Excel to see newly published featured tables. Note that some datasets are not supported in the preview, featured tables defined in those datasets won't appear in Excel.
If you're a Power BI admin, you can control who in the organization can use Featured tables in the Excel data types gallery. In your tenant settings, you can find the control to Allow connections to featured tables:
Note that if the Export data tenant setting is set to Disabled, connections to featured tables are also disabled.
Apply all filters (preview)
We're excited to announce a new feature that will help optimize the filter pane for query reduction by applying all filters changes at once. Previously, you had two options for filter queries: apply basic filters instantly (the default option) or add an apply button to each basic filter. The first option to apply the basic filter instantly, was ideal for those who prefer instant interactivity over query reduction. Then, the second option, add an apply button to each filter card, optimized for query reduction instead; however, it required an additional click every time you needed to apply a filter.
Now, we're adding a new option for you to add a single apply button to the filter pane, essentially, allowing you and your end-users to apply all filter modifications at once. This capability will be useful if you want to defer when to apply filter changes, so you only have to wait once after you are ready to apply any filter changes to the report or visuals.
Note that you can set this this feature at a report-level; however, the feature will be off by default.
You can turn on this new option in Power BI Desktop by going to File > Options and settings > Options > Query reduction > Filters and selecting the option to Add a single Apply button to the filter pane to apply changes at once (preview).
Currently, the formatting options for the "Apply" text for the button are controlled by the following settings in the Filter pane section of the Format pane:
- Font and icon color (controls text color)
- Header text size (controls text size)
- Font family (controls font)
Stay tuned as we plan on adding more formatting options for this new Apply button in an upcoming release. As always, we encourage you to try this preview feature and share your feedback.
Before we jump to the next feature, we also want to recognize and thank Parker Robinson for working on this feature in the summer as an intern and more recently as a new, full-time hire.
Enhancements to change detection (preview)
In our previous monthly release, we announced the capability to have page refresh for DirectQuery sources based on a detected change instead of a fixed refresh interval. This month, we are adding the ability to improve and optimize the performance of your change detection measure through:
- Change detection simulation in Desktop
- Change detection queries in Performance Analyzer
Change detection simulation in Desktop
Like automatic page refresh, you can now preview the behavior of your change detection measure in Power BI Desktop. Previously, you had to do this in the service. To access this simulation just define your change detection measure and turn on page refresh with the "Change detection" option turned on and you will be able to preview how the visuals in your report page refresh based on changes detected by the measure. This will help you confirm that your change detection measure is behaving the way it's supposed to and to troubleshoot any issues you might have with this new capability.
It's important to highlight that to make change detection work on the Service these restrictions will apply:
- This is a Premium only feature so you need to publish the report to a Premium workspace to enable it
- We will respect the settings and minimums defined by the capacity admin, so if the feature is off, it won't work. Also, if the frequency you set up is lower than the minimum set up by the admin, we will respect the capacity limits.
Change detection queries in Performance Analyzer
The performance analyzer has been helping authors to improve their reports since May 2019. We are happy to introduce the capability to analyze queries beyond visuals with change detection being the first of this type. To see how your change detection measure is performing you need to open the performance analyzer through the View tab in the ribbon, click on start recording, and turn on change detection in the page refresh section in the page formatting pane. Once you do, you will see the analyzer populate with information of all actions, including each run of the change detection measure. You will also notice that this measure has its own section including time spent in the DAX query, the Direct query, and other tasks.
To use these new capabilities you need to enable the automatic page refresh preview:
And as always, if you have any feedback about automatic page refresh and change detection, we would love to hear from you.
Drill through button action is now generally available
This past March we released a preview of a new action type for buttons: drill through. As a recap, the new action type allowed you to contextually navigate to a drill through page.
We got a lot of valuable feedback from you all from the preview period, and now this month we are happy to announce that this new action type is now generally available.
As part of this release, we've now added the ability to:
- Conditionally set the drill through destination for the button
- Conditionally format the tooltips for the enabled and disabled button state
- Individually customize the formatting for the disabled state of the button
Conditionally set the drill through destination
You can now use conditional formatting to set the drill through destination based on the output of a measure.
There are some scenarios where you might want the button's drill through destination to be conditional:
- You only want to enable drill through to a page once a specific condition has been met, else the button is disabled.
For example, you want the user to select a single product and a single store before they can drill through to the Market details page, else the button is disabled. - You want the button to support multiple drill through destinations based on the user's selection(s).
For example, if you have multiple destinations (Market details and Store details) that the user can drill through to, you can have the user select which destination they want to drill through to before the button becomes enabled for that drill through destination. - You may also have interesting use cases for a hybrid scenario to support both multiple drill through destinations and specific conditions where you want the button to be disabled.
For the first use case where you want to keep the button disabled for additional conditions, you simply need to create a DAX measure that will output an empty string ("") unless the condition has been met, then it should output the name of the drill through destination page.
Here's an example DAX measure that requires a Store to be selected before the user can drill through on a Product to Store details page:
Destination logic = If(SELECTEDVALUE(Store[Store], "")=="", "", "Store details")
Once you have the measure created you can click the conditional formatting (fx) button:
For the last step you just need to select the DAX measure you created as the field value for the destination:
Now, you will see the button is disabled even when single product is selected because the measure requires a single store to also be selected:
For the other common use case where you want to support multiple destinations, you can start by creating a single-column table that has the names of the drill through destinations:
Note that we use exact string match to set the drill through destination, so you will want to double check that the entered values exactly align with your drill through page names.
Once this is created, you can add it on the page as a single-select slicer:
If you need more vertical real estate, you can convert the slicer from vertical to horizontal orientation:
Then for the destination input for the drill through action, you will need to click the conditional formatting (fx) button:
For the last part, you will then select the name of the column you created:
Then you will see that drill through button will only be enabled when a product and destination has been selected:
Alternatively, if you are interested in a hybrid of the two scenarios, you could create and reference a DAX measure if you want to add additional logic for the destination selection.
Here's an example DAX measure that requires a Store to be selected before the user can drill through on a Product to any of drill through pages:
Destination logic = If(SELECTEDVALUE(Store[Store], "")=="", "", SELECTEDVALUE('Table'[Select a destination]))
And then you would need to select the DAX measure you created as the field value for the destination.
So in this example, the user would need to select a Product, Store, and destination page before the drill through button is enabled:
Conditionally format disabled and enabled state tooltips
Another improvement we added is the ability to conditionally format the tooltip for the drill through button when it is enabled or disabled. This can be particularly useful if you have used conditional formatting to dynamically set the drill through destination and you want the tooltip for the button state to be more informative based on your end user's selection. Here are some examples:
- You can set the disabled state tooltip to be prescriptive on a case-by-case basis using a custom measure. For example, if you want the user to select a single product and a single store before they can drill through to the Market Analysis page, you can create a measure with the following logic:
- If neither a single product nor store is selected, the measure can return "Select a single product and Ctrl + click to also select single store"
- If a single product has been selected but a single store has not been selected, the measure can return "Ctrl + click to also select a single store"
- Similarly, you can set the enable state tooltip to be specific the user's selection. For example, if you want the user to know which product and store the drill through page will be filtered to, you can create a measure that will return:
- "Click to drill through to [drill through page name] to see more details on sales for [product name] at [store name] stores."
Customize formatting for the disabled state
Previously, the disabled state look and feel could only be controlled through the report's theme. Now, we're adding a lot of new formatting options for the disabled state.
These formatting options include:
- Button text controls: text, color, padding, alignment, size, and font family
- Button fill controls: color, transparency, and *NEW* fill image (more on this in the next section)
- Icon controls: shape, padding, alignment, line color, transparency, and weight
- Outline controls: color, transparency, weight, round edges
Enhancements to page navigation action
In March, we release a built-in button action for page navigation, which allowed you to quickly create entire navigation experiences without having to use a single bookmark. Now this month, we have a couple of enhancements to the feature:
- Conditionally set the navigation destination
- Support for shapes and images
Conditionally set the navigation destination
You can now use conditional formatting to set the navigation destination based on the output of a measure.
This can be useful if you want to save on real estate by having a single button to navigate to different pages based on the user's selection.
In order to create the example shown above, you can start by creating a single-column table that has the names of the navigation destinations:
Note that we use exact string match to set the navigation destination, so you will want to double check that the entered values exactly align with your page names.
Once this is created, you can add it on the page as a single-select slicer:
Then you will create a page navigation button and select the conditional formatting option for the destination:
For the last part, you will then select the name of the column you created:
Then you'll see that based on the user's selection the button can navigate to different pages.
Support for shapes and images
Page navigation action is now supported for shapes and images, not just buttons. Here's an example using one of the built-in shapes:
Here's an example using an image:
Buttons now support fill images
We are happy to announce that all buttons now support fill images. This can be super useful because you can now highly customize the look and feel of your button using fill images while also taking advantage of the built-in button states: default, on hover, on press, and disabled (for drill through).
Drop shadow support for visuals
This month, we're adding a new formatting feature to all visuals: drop shadows. Toggling this option on in the formatting pane will display a shadow behind the border of your visual.
In the Shadow tab, you can customize the look and feel of each shadow. You can choose between a number of presets, or adjust individual properties of the drop shadow with the Custom setting.
Shadow controls whether the shadow appears in or outside of the visual border.
If you are using Custom setting, you will see several additional options:
- The Size controls the radius or thickness of the shadow.
- Blur controls how gradually the shadow will fade into the background. Keep in mind that this blur extends beyond the range set by Size.
- Angle controls where the shadow will show up.
The shadow will move clockwise. In other words, 0 degrees is horizontal and to the right; 90 degrees is vertically down.
- Distance controls the shadow's offset from the center of the visual.
- Transparency controls the transparency of the shadow.
Before we go to the next feature we want to thank and recognize a contributor, Daniele Perilli, for delivering this great, new feature!
Filter pane migration
This month, we've officially moved over to the modern filter experience, meaning any reports with the old filter pane have been automatically migrated to the new experience.
Be sure to take advantage of all the new capabilities in the modern experience, including:
- Quick filter view
- Lock or hide filters
- Sort the filters (custom or alphabetical sort)
- Rename filters
- Theme and formatting options
- Capture filter pane state in a bookmark
- Show/Hide the filter pane for end-user
- Show/Hide the filter pane while editing
- Allow/Restrict changes to filter type
- Search for filters
To learn more about these capabilities, check out our documentation.
Decomposition tree is now generally available
We are very excited to announce the general availability of the decomposition tree. As part of this release, there are several exciting updates to the visual:
- Conditional formatting: the decomposition tree now supports conditional formatting by a second measure
- Drill through support: you can drill through on any node of the tree
- Sort capabilities: you can sort the tree alphabetically or by the measure
- Responsive design: the design of the tree has been improved to fit better into more compact spaces and on mobile. When you resize the tree, the layout changes to better fill the available space
- Cross-highlight support: the tree can now be cross-highlighted as well as cross-filtered
- Accessibility: screen reader, keyboard navigation and high contrast mode are now supported for the decomposition tree
- Improved behavior for filtering out of the visual: selecting any node in the tree will now always results in a cross-filtering action (instead of collapsing the tree)
- Improved scrolling behavior: when a user scrolls down a level in the tree, the path they selected will be retained (instead of automatically collapsed)
- Right click menu options: you now have the ability to include and exclude datapoints as well as show as table
- Pinning visual to the dashboard: you can now pin a decomposition tree to your dashboard (without AI splits)
We want to thank you for all the feedback that helped us improve and we hope you enjoy all the enhancements to this AI visual.
Packed bubble chart by xViz
Packed bubble chart by xViz is similar to a bubble chart except that the bubbles are tightly packed rather than spread over a grid of X and Y-axis.
A single category and value field is all that is required to create the visual. The Category field defines the individual bubbles and value represent the bubble size. You can enable interaction features like drill down, grouping or clustering by adding additional category fields. Additionally, you can use conditional formatting to highlight the bubbles based on different business rules.
Listed below are some of the frequently requested features from the Power BI community that are available with this new packed bubble chart:
- Bubble clustering and grouping capability based on assigned legend field
- Data label customization: choose from different data label formats to display combinations of category, value, and percent of total
- Word wrap and responsive text: enables easier readability of data labels
- Advanced conditional formatting: visually highlights outliers based on different rules
- Bubble size customization: define the minimum or maximum bubble size
- Drill down support
- Number formatting: enables customization of values based on various business scenarios
- Summary table: tabular view of data
Download this new visual from AppSource.
Updates to hierarchy filter by xViz
xViz has released a new version (1.1.3) of the hierarchy filter that has been re-engineered to support a galore of new features with a modern interface and wide range of enterprise hierarchy filter scenarios. The hierarchical navigation along with conditionally formatted value field makes it very intuitive to understand the importance and performance of each node.
The xViz hierarchy filter caters to some of the most requested features by enterprises like search, unbalanced hierarchy support (hide blanks), formatting and interaction capability along with other additional features listed below:
- Ability to add value (measure) along with category
- Support for measure filter
- Conditional formatting: alert induced selection (text and background)
- Search capability
- Support for unbalanced hierarchies: hide blank categories and values
- Single child display: customize tree structure with single child nodes
- Context menu for runtime capabilities like expand/collapse all nodes, enable/disable different conditional formatting rules, and rearrange nodes on the fly
- Node level formatting: top node, parent and child
- Interaction customization: on hover and on node selection
- Display mode: list and dropdown
- Single and multi-select options
- Display child count
- Hierarchy icon customization: arrow, plus/minus
- Default expand to a particular level
- Appearance tab: customize filter look and feel
- Column header for category and value
Download the latest version of this visual from AppSource.
Power Apps visual is now compatible with all languages supported in Power BI
We are excited to announce that to Power Apps visual is now compatible with all languages supported in Power BI!
Check out our documentation for a full list of supported languages.
List separator and decimal symbol will now default to the standard DAX separators
DAX authoring will now default to using the standard DAX characters of comma as the list separator and period as the decimal symbol. Before this change, Power BI required you to type the list separator and decimal symbols defined by your machine's Region settings.
Behind the scenes Power BI would convert your localized DAX to the standard separators required by the AS engine before saving. At times, this led to some confusion and made it hard for customers in different regions to easily share DAX snippets. So as an improvement, we now default to the standard DAX separators. If you want to default back to the list separator and decimal symbols defined by your machine's Region settings, you can find this DAX separators option under Options and settings > Options > Global > Regional settings:
Before continuing to the next section, we want to thank Marco Russo, a Power BI contributor for the work he did on this feature!
Data preparation
Direct Query on Dataflows
We are excited to announced that you can now connect to dataflows in Direct Query (DQ) mode. In order to get started, you will need to have the dataflow configured on a premium workspace and you will need to ensure the enhanced compute property on the capacity is enabled. With these two conditions met, when connecting to a dataflow inside Power BI Desktop, you will now be prompted if you wish to use import or Direct Query mode.
In order to enable Direct Query, be sure to check out our documentation.
Note – this feature is incompatible with the enhanced metadata preview. Please turn this preview off in order to use Dataflows with Direct Query.
Web by example now automatically suggests tables by default
Web by example now provides automatic recognition of tables by default. Previously, this option was off by default, but it is now readily available from the Navigator dialog.
Automatically recognized tables via Web by example will save you time; instead of needing to go through the Extract tables using examples experience, users can pick from the automatically recognized tables on a given webpage. However, users can also continue to go into the Extract tables using examples experience to select different data as needed.
Enhancements to Query Diagnostics: Privacy Level partitions
This month we are adding Privacy Level partitions to Power BI. These are the logical partitions used to isolate data for privacy when running queries.
You can find the option to turn on or off Data privacy partitions in the Diagnostics menu for Power BI. These query diagnostics reuse the 'Id' concept from previous diagnostics, with a number of new columns.
- Id: Same as the id for the other query diagnostics results. The integer part represents a single activity id, while the fractional part represents a single evaluation.
- Partition Key: corresponds to the Query/Step that is used as a firewall partition.
- Firewall Group: categorization that explains why this partition has to be evaluated separately, includes details on the privacy level of the partition.
- Accessed Resources: list of resource paths of all the resources accessed by this partition, generally uniquely identifying a data source.
- Partition Inputs: List of partition keys upon which the current partition depends. (this could be used to build a graph)
- Expression: The expression that gets evaluated on top of the partition's query/step. In several cases it coincides with the query/step.
- Start Time: Time when evaluation started for this partition.
- End Time: Time when evaluation ended for this partition.
- Duration: End Time – Start Time
- Exclusive Duration: If partitions are assumed to execute in a single thread, exclusive duration is the "real" duration that can be attributed to this partition.
- Exclusive duration %: Exclusive duration as a percentage.
- Diagnostics: This column only appears when the query diagnostics "Aggregated" or "Detailed" is also captured, allowing the user to correspond between the two diagnostics outputs.
Data connectivity
Witivio connector
Witivio is an enterprise chatbot platform for employees with a deep integration in Microsoft 365 and the Power Platform. Without code, users can design and monitor chatbots for HR, IT HelpDesk and change management. With the Witivio Power BI connector, chatbot admins can track the usage and the performance of their chatbots to build advanced analytics.
You can find this connector in the Online services section of the Get data dialog.
Linkar connector
Linkar is a suite of components that facilitates efficient connectivity to MultiValue Databases. Linkar SERVER works with almost all MultiValue Database platforms centralizing connections and optimizing DBMS license usage. Client apps use Linkar CLIENT libraries to interact with the database through Linkar SERVER, with bindings for popular languages. Linkar Power BI connector allows easy integration with MultiValue Databases through the Linkar platform.
You can find this connector in the Database section of the Get data dialog.
Webtrends connector
Webtrends Analytics is a Microsoft-preferred solution built from the ground up for the nuances of measuring performance of your website or SharePoint environments. The Webtrends Analytics Power BI data connector allows you to import your data into Power BI via our Data Extraction API (REST) with point and click ease. All reports on an individual profile are now available at once; no more limited report lists. The date range options have been expanded to allow standard report periods as well as custom date ranges. A customer account with Webtrends is required to use the connector.
You can find this connector in the Online services section of the Get data dialog.
Planview ProjectPlace connector
Get work done across projects and teams. Projectplace lets you plan, collaborate and track progress of all projects and assignments in an easy and user-friendly way.
This connector is supported by Planview as the preferred method of reporting on ProjectPlace moving forward. Existing users of the ProjectPlace connector should consider rebuilding their reports on this new, Planview maintained, certified connector.
You can find this connector in the Other section of the Get data dialog.
Shortcuts Business Insights connector
The Shortcuts Business Insights connector enables you to consume, read and analyze your data collected via your Shortcuts point of sale product of choice. Gaining access to this data will enable you to realize valuable business insights from your appointment, transactional, client, employee, product, and service data. These insights will allow you to better serve your customers and anticipate their needs, while growing your business to its full potential.
You can find this connector in the Other section of the Get data dialog.
Vessel Insights connector
Vessel Insight is a vessel to shore data infrastructure delivered as a service. The service enables shipowners, operators, and charterers to capture data from onboard systems such as propulsion, navigation, cargo, VDR as well alarm and engine management systems. Vessel Insight aggregates and contextualizes the data before transferring it to the cloud using the KONGSBERG Global Secure Network. The Vessel Insight Power BI connector makes it easy to integrate and combine vessel data with existing systems and streamline reporting and decision making.
You can find this connector in the Other section of the Get data dialog.
Zoho Creator connector
Zoho Creator is a low-code cloud software which lets you create custom applications for your business. Zoho Creator can collect data, automate business processes or workflows, analyze the data in reports, and collaborate with your application users. The Zoho Creator connector allows you to analyze data and share insights based off all data in Zoho Creator, aside from the pivot report.
You can find this connector in the Online services section of the Get data dialog.
Dataset impact analysis
As a dataset owner, you want to understand how your dataset is being used within the workspace and in other workspaces. With the dataset impact analysis, you can judge how careful you need to be when making changes to your dataset. For example, if your dataset is being used in multiple workspaces (that feed multiple apps), with hundreds of end-users consuming its data, then you will want to provide the relevant contacts heads-up notification about changes that may impact their reports so they can take any necessary action.
When you re-publish a dataset from Power BI Desktop to the service, you'll get a message that summarizes for you the potential impact – how many reports and dashboards are already built on top of this dataset, and in how many workspaces. If you want to see more details, such as usage metrics, and take action, you can click on the View impact link. This will take you to the Power BI service where you will see the full, detailed analysis.
That's all for this month! Please continue sending us your feedback and don't forget to vote for other features that you'd like to see in Power BI Desktop. We hope that you enjoy the update!


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Searching for just a few words should be enough to get started. If you need to make more complex queries, use the tips below to guide you.
Open Access
Impact Factor 2024: 1.7
Argument & Computation (A&C) is an open access journal providing a dedicated venue for the dissemination of high quality papers concerning state-of-the-art advancements in the field of computational argumentation.
A&C stands as an interdisciplinary journal by nature, lying at the crossing of the studies on artificial, natural and theoretical argumentation, acknowledging the richness of diversity and promoting integration.
The journal welcomes submissions presenting original scientific results and innovative applications, relevant to this multi-faceted domain and addressing foundational, design, or implementation aspects of computational models and systems thereof, extending the state-of-the-art in research.
Proposals for timely reviews and tutorials and for special issues are encouraged and should be discussed with the Editors-in-Chief.
Topics of interest are exemplified, but not exhausted, by the following list:
All submitted manuscripts are subject to initial appraisal by the Editors-in-Chief, and, if found suitable for further consideration, to rigorous peer-review by independent, anonymous expert referees. Papers should explain the addressed problem, the relevant state-of-the-art, the innovative idea, the results reported, and the relevance.
Queries regarding submissions can be made by contacting the Editors-in-Chief, whose decision is final.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Odessa Locksmith Service Keyless Entry Locks Commercial Odessa, FL
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By Salem Solomon | New York Times
ON Sept. 2, Ambassador Susan E. Rice delivered a eulogy for a man she called "a true friend to me." Before thousands of mourners and more than 20 African heads of state in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Ms. Rice, the United States' representative to the United Nations, lauded the country's late prime minister, Meles Zenawi. She called him "brilliant" — "a son of Ethiopia and a father to its rebirth."
Few eulogies give a nuanced account of the decedent's life, but the speech was part of a disturbing pattern for an official who could become President Obama's next secretary of state. During her career, she has shown a surprising and unsettling sympathy for Africa's despots.
This record dates from Ms. Rice's service as assistant secretary of state for African affairs under President Bill Clinton, who in 1998 celebrated a "new generation" of African leaders, many of whom were ex-rebel commanders; among these leaders were Mr. Meles, Isaias Afewerki of Eritrea, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Jerry J. Rawlings of Ghana, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Yoweri K. Museveni of Uganda.
"One hundred years from now your grandchildren and mine will look back and say this was the beginning of an African renaissance," Mr. Clinton said in Accra, Ghana, in March 1998.
In remarks to a subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations that year, Ms. Rice was equally breathless about the continent's future. "There is a new interest in individual freedom and a movement away from repressive, one-party systems," she said. "It is with this new generation of Africans that we seek a dynamic, long-term partnership for the 21st century."
Her optimism was misplaced. In the 14 years since, many of these leaders have tried on the strongman's cloak and found that it fit nicely. Mr. Meles dismantled the rule of law, silenced political opponents and forged a single-party state. Mr. Isaias, Mr. Kagame and Mr. Museveni cling to their autocratic power. Only Mr. Rawlings and Mr. Mbeki left office willingly.
Ms. Rice's enthusiasm for these leaders might have blinded her to some of their more questionable activities. Critics, including Howard W. French, a former correspondent for The New York Times, say that in the late 1990s, Ms. Rice tacitly approved of an invasion of the Democratic Republic of Congo that was orchestrated by Mr. Kagame of Rwanda and supported by Mr. Museveni of Uganda. In The New York Review of Books in 2009, Mr. French reported that witnesses had heard Ms. Rice describe the two men as the best insurance against genocide in the region. "They know how to deal with that," he reported her as having said. "The only thing we have to do is look the other way." Ms. Rice has denied supporting the invasion.
More recently, according to Jason K. Stearns, a scholar of the region, Ms. Rice temporarily blocked a United Nations report documenting Rwanda's support for the M23 rebel group now operating in eastern Congo, and later moved to delete language critical of Rwanda and Uganda from a Security Council resolution. "According to former colleagues, she feels that more can be achieved by constructive engagement, not public censure," Mr. Stearns wrote recently on Foreign Policy's Web site.
Ms. Rice's relationship with Mr. Meles — which dates from 1998, when she was a mediator in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to prevent war between Eritrea and Ethiopia — also calls her judgment into question.
In fairness, in her eulogy, Ms. Rice said she differed with Mr. Meles on questions like democracy and human rights. But if so, the message did not get through; under Mr. Meles during the past 15 years, democracy and the rule of law in Ethiopia steadily deteriorated. Ethiopia imprisoned dissidents and journalists, used food aid as a political tool, appropriated vast sections of land from its citizens and prevented the United Nations from demarcating its border with Eritrea.
Meanwhile, across multiple administrations, the United States has favored Ethiopia as an ally and a perceived bulwark against extremism in the region. In 2012 the nation received $580 million in American foreign aid.
Eritrea is no innocent. It has closed itself off, stifled dissent and forced its young people to choose between endless military service at home and seeking asylum abroad. But I believe that the Security Council, with Ms. Rice's support, went too far in imposing sanctions on Eritrea in 2009 for supporting extremists.
President Obama has visited sub-Saharan Africa just once in his first term — a brief stop in Ghana. One signal that he plans to focus more on Africa — and on human rights and democracy, not only economic development and geopolitics — in his next term would be to nominate someone other than Susan Rice as America's top diplomat.
Salem Solomon is an Eritrean-American journalist who runs Africa Talks, a news and opinion Web site covering Africa and the global African diaspora.


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Make all the recipes, do all the gardening and paint or craft your heart out with our signature artisan aprons from the Le Leanian™ Home Collection. Our collectors are as unique as our products; proving work or play doesn't have to be bland.
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New mothers have long been told that breast milk is best for their baby, and now there's more evidence that breastfeeding helps protect babies against potentially harmful viruses.
With the coronavirus pandemic on everyone's mind, the new research is especially timely. However, the report did not look specifically at the virus that causes COVID-19.
For the study, the investigators analyzed the types and numbers of viruses in the first and subsequent stools of hundreds of newborns in the United States and Botswana.
Immediately after birth, the babies had little or no evidence of viruses or bacteria, but their numbers were high by time the babies were a month old, the researchers found.
Most of the first wave of viruses were beneficial ones, but those that can make people sick were more prominent by age 4 months. However, breastfeeding suppressed the accumulation of potentially dangerous viruses among babies in both countries.
The University of Pennsylvania researchers also concluded that breast milk mixed with formula still offers more protection against harmful viruses than formula alone, according to the study published April 15 in the journal Nature.
"These findings can help us better understand why some babies get sick and develop life-threatening infections in their first months of life," said study senior author Frederic Bushman, chair of the department of microbiology at UPenn.
The study adds to previous research suggesting that breastfeeding plays an important role in the interaction between infants and microbes, and could help guide strategies to prevent early gastrointestinal disorders and encourage mothers to breastfeed their babies, even if they mix breast milk with formula, the authors said.
The study also found that babies in Botswana were more likely to have potentially harmful viruses in their stools at 4 months of age than babies in the United States.
"Location of the mom and baby seems to play a role, probably due to the kind and number of microorganisms babies are exposed to environmentally," study first author Guanxiang Liang, a postdoctoral researcher in the department at microbiology, said in a university news release.
"Nevertheless, Botswana-born babies still seemed to benefit from breastfeeding, whether exclusively or in addition to formula consumption," Liang added.
More information
The U.S. Office on Women's Health has more on breastfeeding.


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U.S. Merchant Marine Academy Graduationwith Captain Mark Kelly as Commencement Speaker for Class of 2012 Graduation
June 18, 2012 - 10:00amWashington, DC
330-629-8230814-653-2760703-961-9250 ext. 231
KINGS POINT, NEW YORK, May 4, 2012 - The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy today announced that Captain Mark Kelly, a 1986 Academy graduate, has been chosen as this year's commencement speaker at the Merchant Marine Academy graduation on Monday, June 18, 2012. A retired U.S. Navy captain and astronaut, Kelly was chosen by the 219 graduating midshipmen as the most inspirational role model representing the Academy's core values of Courage in Adversity, Respect for Others, Integrity from Within and Service Above All."Captain Kelly's life story is an inspiration to us all - but especially for the midshipmen who are following in his footsteps as they graduate from the Academy," said Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood. "Personally and professionally, the example he sets does both the Academy and our country proud - we look forward to hearing his remarks next month."In addition to his experience as a U.S. Navy Captain and astronaut, Captain Kelly is a best-selling author, prostate cancer survivor, and an experienced naval aviator who flew combat missions during the Gulf War. The winner of many awards, including the Legion of Merit, two Defense Superior Service Medals and two Distinguished Flying Crosses, Kelly was selected as an astronaut in 1996. He flew his first of four missions in 2001 aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour, the same space shuttle that he commanded on its final flight in May 2011. He has also commanded Space Shuttle Discovery and is one of only two individuals who have visited the International Space Station on four different occasions."Captain Kelly's impressive career as a Navy officer and astronaut along with his personal dedication and fortitude in the face of adversity makes him the ideal speaker to launch our graduates' careers as commissioned officers," said Dr. Shashi Kumar, acting superintendent of USMMA. "I am extremely honored Captain Kelly will be sharing his insights and wisdom as our commencement speaker this year."Already a celebrated American, Kelly became the center of international attention after the January 2011 assassination attempt on his wife, former US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. In their best-selling memoir, Gabby, the couple shares their story of hope and resilience with the world. The inspirational memoir has topped multiple best-seller lists, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Amazon.For more about Capt. Kelly read Fast Lane, the official blog of the Secretary of Transportation.The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, located in Kings Point, N.Y, educates and graduates merchant marine officers and leaders of honor and integrity who contribute to the economic, defense, and homeland security interests of the United States. With 95% percent of the worlds' products transported over water, these exceptional leaders are vital to the effective operation of our merchant fleet for both commercial and military transport. The U.S. Merchant Marine is administered by the Maritime Administration under the auspices of the Department of Transportation.


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By Margie Anne Clark
Words cannot express the sadness at the untimely death of Joan Rivers, she will be greatly missed. She'd probably be joking about it, but sadly there are few if any comics left that could say it as dead on and funny as she could.
She was a force of nature – smart, witty, intelligent, always making such clever connections in her jokes and it's sad that she had to go out this way when she was in such good health and at the top of her game. But maybe she would have had it no other way …. Her 'Fashion Police' attracted a multi-generational audience. She was loved by young and old alike. She was too young to go, she was one of a kind. She was a Joan Ranger in the truest sense that no matter how old you are, you can always work and bring good to the world. I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to meet her, she was so great to her fans at her book signings. She said it best: "What pleasure you feel when you've kept people happy for an hour and a half. They've forgotten their troubles. It's great. There's nothing like it in the world. When everybody's laughing, it's a party." – Miss you tons Joan Rivers! This Joan Ranger salutes you!


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Previous Lesson
Complete and Continue
Earn Your DogNostics Dog Behavior Consulting Diploma
Eligibility Requirments
What is a Dog Behavior Consultant
Program Eligibility
What is The Program?
The Modules
Graduation Requirements
Welcome & Introduction
The Student Common Room
Progressing Through The Modules
How We Approach Our Responsibility of Teaching!
Included With This Course
Module One - The Use & Application of Best Practices – A Working Guide to Case Management
Introduction To Module One
Book Terms & Conditions
Pet Training and Behavior Consulting - The Book
Video - Best Practice Introduction (2:57)
Video - What is a Best Practice (3:20)
Video - The Humane Hierachies (10:34)
Video - LIMA (2:38)
Video - Science In The Context (4:10)
Video - Chasms In The Industry (8:06)
Video - Who is Responsible (6:43)
The Working Model - Your PDF (8:19)
Your Module Test
Homework Written Assignment
Module Two - A Comparison and Contrast Between Respondent Conditioning and Operant Conditioning
Introduction To Module Two (7:22)
What is Behavior (5:11)
What is Learning (4:01)
Associatitive v Non Associative Learning (6:09)
Applied Behavior Analysis (3:26)
Respondent Conditioning - An Introduction (8:22)
How Respondent Conditioning Takes Place (7:09)
A Recap of The Respondent Conditioning Process (4:48)
High Order Respondent Conditioning and Extinction (5:01)
The Limbic System & Its Role in Emotion and Learning (8:40)
Conditioned Emotional Responces (10:51)
Operant Conditioning - An Introduction (17:24)
The Quandrants! (18:25)
Steps, Tests & Procedures (11:02)
Antecedent Package - Setting Events & Motivating Operations (5:27)
Types of Reinforcement and Punishers (7:08)
Reinforcement Schedules (5:25)
Differential Reinforcement (15:00)
Stimulus Control (19:09)
Measuring Behavior When & Why (11:03)
Empowerment Training (10:14)
Comparing & Contrasting OC & RC (4:38)
Module Test
Home Work Written Assignment
Home Work Skill Assignment
Module Three - A Deep Dive into Canine Communication, Social Behavior & Emotions!
Introduction - Our Utmost Responsibility (11:44)
Communication is Social Behavior (22:11)
Learning Impact on Behavior (13:57)
Distance Decreasing Signals (18:15)
Distance Increasing Communication (30:34)
Distance Increasing - Aggression (21:19)
Ambivalent & Adjunctive Behaviors (11:32)
Canine Greeting Rituals (34:24)
Canine Emotions (3:27)
Consent Testing (14:15)
Preference Testing (12:13)
Canine Motivational Conflict (4:34)
Bite Inhibition and Bite Thresholds (13:09)
Canine - Human Greetings (23:00)
Dog Bite Hierachies (9:58)
Analyzing Dog Bites (16:52)
Canine Vocal Communications (9:19)
The Tail End (4:38)
Module Test
Homework Skill Assignment (19:34)
Video Submission Form
Module Four - The Functional Assessment – A Professional Approach & Flow to Behavior Case Management
Introduction to Functional Assesments (6:13)
Science is Not Ethical and Ethics is Not Science (5:02)
Preliminary Concepts (27:44)
The Case For using Functional Assesments (19:46)
Using Data To Drive Decisions (11:05)
The Functional Assesment (2:46)
Helping Discover The Cause (3:10)
The Informant Interview (19:39)
The Direct Observation (15:14)
Functional Analysis (12:04)
Using Functional Assesments to Drive Behavior Change (5:53)
Module Test
Homework Skill Assignment
Bonus Webinar - DMAIC It! (64:20)
Module Five - Building Behavior Change Programs Using Differential Reinforcement, Counter Conditioning & Desensitization Protocols
Operant - Respondent Interrelationships (12:30)
Choose Your Ingredients
Differential Reinforcement - An Alternative To Punishment (8:55)
What is Desensitization (22:30)
What is Counter Conditioning (16:37)
Why Does CC & DS Fail?
Developing Behavior Change Programs
Example Scenarios & Approaches (11:00)
Example DS Hierachy for Resource Guarding
Example DS Hierachy for Hand Shyness
Case Study Approach - Building Your Plan
Module Homework Assignment
Module Six - Managing Productive & Professional Behavior Consultations
Choosing The Model
What Are We Missing
The Biology of Learning
Experiential Learning
Understanding Our Students
Communicating With Powerful Words
Building Productive Relationships
To Influence We Must First Understand
The Human Component
Fundamental Principles for Teaching Adults
Assessing Current Skills, Knowledge & Talent
Helping Students Develop Mastery and Competency
Managing and Resolving Conflict
Managing Your Clients through Change
Managing Your Client's Training Performance
Managing Clients Anger
Manage Your Clients Time – Be an Effective Consultant
Building Client Commitment and Compliance
Module Homework
Module Seven - Transformational Change Agent - The Art & Science of Teaching People
The Introduction (11:20)
The Training System and Process (2:08)
We Are Teachers As Well As Trainers (1:58)
We Must Facilitate & Inspire Learning! (6:51)
What Are Skills & Knowledge (10:30)
The Model – Experiential Learning (15:26)
The Process & Method (11:02)
The Training Road Map (10:30)
The Lesson Plan (8:44)
Individual Sessions (4:30)
On Task Skill Coaching - #1 Opening The Session (2:28)
On Task Skill Coaching - #2 The Finished Skill (2:53)
On Task Skill Coaching - #3 One Way Demo (1:44)
On Task Skill Coaching - #4 Two Way Demo (11:50)
On Task Skill Coaching - #5 Trainee Performs The Task Way Demo (5:16)
On Task Skill Coaching - #6 Supervised Practice (2:14)
On Task Skill Coaching #7 Wrap Up The Session (1:39)
On Task Skill Coaching #8 Assign Homework (2:41)
Module Homework Assignment (5:11)
Module Eight - Bringing It All Together & Your Certification
Your Final Certification Assignment (11:42)
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Windows Vista Feature Focus: 64-Bit (x64) Support
With Windows XP, Microsoft created specific Windows product editions, or SKUs, that targeted 64-bit processors from Intel and AMD. One of these product editions, Windows XP Profession...
October 6, 2010
With Windows XP, Microsoft created specific Windows product editions, or SKUs, that targeted 64-bit processors from Intel and AMD. One of these product editions, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition (see my preview and mini-review), is the most interesting of these because it provides functional parity with the mainstream 32-bit version of XP Professional (with a few key but understandable exceptions including 16-bit support). XP x64 is a surprisingly stable and well-designed product, but it was doomed to failure because of hardware and software incompatibilities: Unlike with 32-bit XP versions, many hardware devices will not work on XP x64 because of a dearth of 64-bit drivers (32-bit drivers will not work in a native 64-bit OS). Likewise, many software applications will not install or run because of various issues, including a surprising amount of 16-bit application installers and poorly-designed version detection.
The x64 versions of Windows Vista adopt virtually none of the negative quirks of their XP x64 predecessor, bringing new levels of hardware and software compatibility to the mix. Like XP x64, the various Vista x64 versions support x64-compatible PCs based on the AMD-64 (Athlon-64, Opteron, Turion processors) and Intel EMT-64 (Pentium D, Xeon, Core Duo, and Core 2 Duo) platforms. But unlike XP x64, these 64-bit Vista versions are now viable for mainstream use.
Tip: Windows Vista Ultimate comes with both 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) versions in the box, on separate DVDs; purchasers of other retail 32-bit Vista versions can order the 64-bit version from Microsoft for a nominal fee.
64-bit versions of Windows Vista are functionally identical to their 32-bit counterparts, though the 64-bit versions support a few unique features as outlined in this article. So the 32-bit version of Windows Vista Home Premium, for example, offers essentially identical functionality to Windows Vista Home Premium x64.
For the most part, the x64 support in each Vista x64 edition is identical. One exception is that they each support different amounts of RAM. Vista Home Basic (and Home Basic N) support up to 8 GB of RAM, compared to 4 GB for all 32-bit versions of Vista. Home Premium, meanwhile, supports 16 GB. And Business (and Business N), Enterprise, and Ultimate all support 128 GB or more of memory. (The "or more" bit refers to the fact that there are currently no PCs available yet that suport over 128 GB of RAM; when that happens, these Vista versions will support it.)
Security features
One of the primary benefits of using an x64-based version of Windows Vista is that these versions provide somewhat improved security functionality when compared to their 32-bit counterparts. Working in tandem with the No Execute (NX) technologies in modern x64 microprocessors from both AMD and Intel, Windows Vista x64 versions, like XP x64, also provide support for hardware-backed Data Execution Protection (DEP), which helps to prevent the buffer overflows that are commonly used in electronic attacks. (32-bit Vista versions utilize a less effective, software-based version of DEP.)
Another unique x64 feature, Kernel Patch Protection (sometimes called PatchGuard), prevents malicious software from patching the Windows Vista kernel. PatchGuard, Microsoft says, works by preventing kernel-mode drivers from extending or replacing other kernel services and preventing third-party software from patching any part of the kernel.
Before Windows Vista was finalized, Kernel Patch Protection came under fire from security software vendors who complained that this feature prevented them from patching the Vista kernel and thus protecting users from kernel-based attacked. After some deliberation, Microsoft agreed to let these companies patch the Vista kernel. This change became available as part of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1).
Additionally, Windows Vista x64 versions require that all drivers be digitally signed by the developer. If you've ever installed a driver in Windows XP, you'll likely be familiar with the unsigned driver dialog, which offers a "Continue Anyway" option when a setup application attempts to load an unsigned driver. In the x64 versions of Windows Vista, this will not be possible. Microsoft says that it is requiring signed drivers so that it can ensure that drivers are of the highest possible quality; poorly-written drivers are, today, still the leading causes of blue screens and other system instability issues.
When taken together, these features ensure that the x64 versions of Windows Vista are the most secure and reliable desktop versions of Windows ever created. Likewise, they are more secure and reliable than the 32-bit Vista versions.
Other unique x64 features
The x64 Vista versions include a few esoteric and unique features that will likely be of interest only to the corporate market. For example, a service called Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications (SUA, previously called Windows Services for UNIX) is included with Vista Enterprise x64 and Ultimate x64 and provides a native 64-bit POSIX (Portable Operating System Interface) subsystem on x64 versions of Windows Vista, the first time such technology has been made available by Microsoft.
Fun fact: Microsoft originally intended to provide another compatibility feature called Virtual PC Express in the x64 versions of Windows Vista Enteprise and Ultimate. However, this feature was removed when the company decided instead to make Virtual PC free to all Windows users. There is a native x64 version of Virtual PC available for Vista x64 users.
Compatibility issues and other limitations
With the initial shipping (RTM) version of Windows Vista, the various benefits of the x64 Vista versions were somewhat counterbalanced by a number of limitations, the most important of which were compatibility issues. 16-bit applications are not supported, which is less problematic than it was a few years ago, but still an issue for some applications that use legacy application installers. 32-bit device drivers are not supported, so you can't use any of the existing hardware drivers out there, but must instead use native x64-based drivers. This situation improved dramatically over the first 12 to 18 months that Vista was on the market, however. So by the time that SP1 shipped, most compatibility issues were gone. Today, there is no reason to opt out of Vista x64 because of comaptibility.
Those hoping to upgrade should be aware of a few remaining issues, however. 32-bit versions of XP can only be upgraded to 32-bit versions of Windows Vista. And Windows XP Professional x64 Edition can only be upgraded to 64-bit versions of Windows Vista (Business and above). There is no way to do an in-place upgrade of 32-bit versions of Windows Vista to any 64-bit version; you'll need to backup data and install from scratch.
Finally, it's worth noting that while Microsoft is proudly trumpeting the fact that Vista's new modular architecture will allow corporations to rollout Vista to multiple desktop types using only a single Windows Imaging Format (WIM)-based installation image, the truth is a bit more complicated. Companies that plan to rollout both 32-bit and 64-bit Vista versions will need to maintain separate install images for both 32-bit and x64 Vista versions.
Final thoughts
Unlike with Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, the various Windows Vista x64 versions no longer represent a compromise of sorts: You can now safely choose a 64-bit version of Windows Vista and take advantage of over 4 GB of RAM, if needed, as well as that system's improved security and reliability.
Think of Vista as the "line in the sand" for the x64 platform on the client: Post-Vista, x64 Windows versions will outsell their 32-bit brethren, as any remaining compatibility issues will be resolved or rendered moot by new hardware and software versions that are more x64-savvy. Hopefully with Windows 7, the successor to Windows Vista, Microsoft will allow for migrating 32-bit systems to x64 versions. In the meantime, Vista x64 is here now and works surprisingly well.
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Once upon a time 802.11b wireless networking appeared, freeing us to roam around at 10Mbps, and it was good. Actually, it was just OK. So hardware vendors whipped up 802.11g — 54Mbps of bandwidth goodness. The people rejoiced and then said, "Got anything faster?" One day we'll have 802.11n, but until that day comes, vendors have been devising ingenious new ways to extend 802.11g to send Wi-Fi signals faster and farther.
ZyXel's X-550 XtremeMIMO Wireless Broadband Router sports the latest souped-up 802.11g features combined with the firewall and network management features we expect from a broadband router today. ZyXel is marketing the X-550 as "eight times faster and farther." Compared to what, they don't exactly say.
Besides sheer speed, the X-550 touts improved ease of setup with built-in wizards and support for Microsoft's Windows Connect Now technology. The router's Stream Engine provides traffic shaping to manage real-time activities like VoIP and gaming, and it bolsters security with support for WPA2 and a stateful firewall.
But first, what's a MIMO? And why is it so Xtreme?
MIMO and Super G
MIMO and Super G are two complementary technologies that can extend the range and speed of 802.11g wireless networks.
MIMO, or multiple-in multiple-out, describes an arrangement of antennas for sending and receiving wireless signals. MIMO devices feature several antennas that break up and recombine signals into portions. Because the MIMO approach takes advantage of natural reflectivity in wireless signal distribution, it results in better signal strength in areas that were marginal or unreachable with conventional antennas.
ZyXel's X-550 features two positional, 4dBi external antennas and two fixed internal antennas.
Super G technology takes advantage of MIMO signal distribution to effectively double the available bandwidth. This allows Super G devices to be rated at a maximum 108Mbps speed, or twice that of a conventional 802.11g network.
Both MIMO and Super G are backwards compatible with standard 802.11g (and 802.11b) networks. By default the X-550 will work with all b and g cards — but its greatest performance boosts will come with clients featuring MIMO and Super G capabilities.
Set It Up
Out of the box, the X-550 is a dainty little thing, all white — including its antennas — with a minimalist design and soft lights. Clearly ZyXel is giving a nod to — or taking a page from — Apple, employing a purist aesthetic any interior decorator/yoga instructor will love. Even the power plug (which is not white) shows a considerate touch, being oriented sideways so as not to block an adjacent outlet.
At its rear, the router features a four-port 10/100Mbps LAN switch, a WAN input, a wireless radio on/off switch, a reset button and a USB port for use with the (optional) Windows Connect Now configuration.
Initial setup is straightforward for a broadband router — plug your broadband connection into the WAN port, turn on the power, and boot up a computer with a wireless card (or an Ethernet cable plugged into one of the router's LAN ports).
The X-550 defaults to an IP address of 192.168.1.1, where you can reach it through a Web browser and begin configuration.
ZyXel's administration interface is clean but thorough. The Basic/Start page offers two simple wizards — Internet Connection Setup and Wireless Security Setup. The Internet Connection setup walks you through setting a new administrator password (an excellent idea), adjusting the time and date, and connecting to the Internet via either static IP, dynamic IP via DHCP, or PPoE depending on your ISP. DHCP users can clone their PC's MAC address onto the router, for providers which use this information for access control.
You can alternatively set up your network using Windows Connect Now. Available only with Windows XP SP2, Connect Now lets you use a USB flash drive to set up a network. You run a wizard on the XP machine, plug in the flash drive, then plug that drive into the router's USB port, and then into each client machine. The procedure is documented in the manual.
In addition to incorporating MIMO and Super G features, ZyXel designed the X-550 as a relatively advanced SOHO router.
You'll find a plethora of customizable routing, port forwarding and port triggering options through the Game Hosting, Virtual Server, Applications and Routing interfaces. Although there may be some confusion caused by multiple ways to accomplish the same task, ZyXel has its bases covered.
The router includes port forwarding and triggering presets for many popular games and applications. It even includes support for Dynamic DNS services like no-ip.com, so that even customers without static IP addresses can host servers or games to outside networks (which may violate your ISP's terms of service, but that's not ZyXel's problem).
The X-550's firewall features stateful packet inspection (SPI), which makes it more intelligent than firewalls that just blindly block ports. SPI uses complex algorithms to analyze patterns of traffic, allowing it to spot potentially malicious activities that would not be easily detected by looking at individual pieces of data alone. The X-550 logs all suspicious activities.
And speaking of logs, the X-550 can deliver log data to external servers and/or e-mail logs to any address on a specified schedule. The average home user might not have much use for these features, but they can be valuable to businesses and other security-conscious organizations.
The X-550's access controls give router administrators — sometimes known as parents — control over tasks and content. The router can limit Internet activities by type (such as games), time (such as after 6 p.m. on weekdays) and content, through a filter of acceptable Web sites.
ZyXel's so-called StreamEngine is a simplified form of traffic shaping, also known as QoS (Quality of Service), a technology used in corporate and ISP routers to give priority to certain kinds of network activities. By default, the StreamEngine is on and operates in automatic mode, identifying game and VoIP traffic, and increasing its priority over less time-sensitive traffic such as Web surfing. You can customize the StreamEngine further by adding rules to promote — or demote — traffic that meets certain criteria such as port ranges and protocol.
Wireless Security
Considering how few people take the time to secure their wireless routers, ZyXel has clearly made a good effort to put security front and center. The wireless security wizard appears prominently upon initial setup, and very simply walks you through setting up a WEP or WPA access control.
The X-550 supports both WPA and WPA2, which the wizard refers to as "better" and "best" respectively. Unfortunately, some consumers might have a hard time determining whether their wireless clients support WPA2, but there's not much ZyXel can do about that.
The router also supports WPA authentication through a Radius server, along with conventional pass-phrase protection.
As with other routers, you can create a MAC address filter to further restrict network access and disable SSID broadcasting. Note, though, that despite ZyXel's on-screen advice that hiding your SSID can deter hackers, this is a very insecure form of protection, which is easily overcome with the right sniffing software.
All wireless speed claims are overstated — 802.11b is rated at 10Mbps and at best, achieves half that. The same is true for 802.11g, rated at 54Mbps, which translates to a real-world maximum of about 20-25Mbps. With Super G added into the mix, the wireless speed rating is doubled to 108Mbps, and its real-world maximum is also doubled, to just over 50Mbps. For the sake of comparison, a typical 100Mbps wired LAN can produce maximum speeds of about 90-95Mbps — in other words, although rated slower than Super G, a wired LAN is much more efficient, and therefore almost twice as fast in actual practice.
W tested the X-550 against the venerable Linksys WRT54G router, an 802.11g router without MIMO or Super G support. For a wireless client card, we alternated between ZyXel's own Xtreme MIMO M-102, marketed as a natural companion to the X-550, and our own Netgear WG511T card, which also features Super G.
Testing throughput with both Qcheck and NetCPS, both cards maxed out at around 20-24Mbps when associated with the Linksys WRT54G router — as expected. The Netgear client card consistently pulled a few Mbps ahead of the ZyXel, but both performed near maximum for plain vanilla 802.11g.
When associated with the X-550, the speed difference was indeed dramatic. Both cards maxed near 50Mbps with the Netgear, again, slightly ahead more often than not. However, both cards experiences wide fluctuations in speed, sometimes plunging as low as 10Mbps, even when signal strength was strong and the X-550 was only a few feet away.
The key to controlling fluctuations, it turned out, is in the router's basic wireless settings. You can choose among several Super G modes — disabled, Super G without turbo, Super G with dynamic turbo, and Super G with static turbo. The dynamic turbo mode accommodates a network that may include non-Super G cards, but at the price of wide ranging speed negotiations. When we switched to Super G with static turbo, the wide speed fluctuations disappeared, and throughput consistently hovered at or even slightly above 50Mbps — the maximum effective speed expected for a Super G connection.
Enabling 128-bit WEP or WPA encryption made little-to-no difference in average throughput performance. So there's no excuse for not securing your network.
Super G, then, can indeed perform twice as fast as regular 802.11g. If you configure the X-550 for compatibility with a wider variety of cards, though, you sacrifice some consistency in your maximum throughput. If you lock down the X-550 to an 802.11g-only Super G static turbo-only network, you will floor it full time for maximum performance.
MIMO promises not just speed but range. Here again, the marketing claims are not just a gimmick. With both routers on the second floor of the building, we got a strong signal to both from anywhere downstairs. The WRT54G, too, has good coverage. What differed, sometimes dramatically, was speed at a given range. In a distant location where we could pull only 15Mbps from the WRT54, the X-550 still delivered over 30Mbps.
Coverage performance is going to vary a lot from one home or office to another, so it is difficult to draw broad conclusions. In our situation, both the Linksys and the ZyXel X-550 were accessible from just about anywhere. The X-550, though, presented double the throughput and sometimes more.
With a street price currently around $100, the ZyXel costs approximately twice as much as its non-MIMO/non-Super G counterparts, and several times more than barebones wireless routers. In its favor, the X-550 delivers with maximum throughputs near the expected maximum and impressive coverage. Beyond simply being a street racer, the X-550 is also quite a thorough router, with comprehensive network management features appropriate for advanced home users and small businesses.
It's worth noting that the X-550 actually performed best with Netgear's WG511T Super G card (which happens to cost about $20 less than the ZyXel's M-102companion card).
Adapted from PracticallyNetworked.com, part of the EarthWeb.com Network.
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How to approach IT staffing in today's data center
Virtualization and tight budgets have changed IT staffing in modern data centers. Find out how to blend skills and technology for the best mix.
At one time, it took a small army of highly trained and experienced IT professionals to run a corporate data center. But the persistent advances of technology and changing business perceptions have changed the nature of IT staffing.
No longer viewed as a bastion of esoteric technology, IT shops have assumed a more traditional role as a cost center -- an everyday element of business operations that contends for diminishing budget dollars just as other parts of the organization do.
Business changes have also converged with technological advances in management tools, improvements in resiliency and the emergence of virtualization. And all of these factors have had a profound effect on the IT staffing needs and skill set requirements for modern data centers.
Trends in today's IT workforce
Organizations expect today's IT staffs to do more with less. Because of that reality, the scope of many IT roles is expanding, often aided by advances in virtualization technology to support many more business systems without more bodies to operate them. It's common to see an IT staff tasked with backup now taking care of SharePoint portals, while systems administrators may now manage storage as well.
The changes are taking place all the way up the corporate ladder. "Senior management roles, such as the CIO and CTO, are evolving at an accelerated rate with very specific alignment to the business line managers," said Allen Zuk, president and CEO of Sierra Management Consulting LLC, a technology consulting firm based in Parsippany, N.J.
Although this evolution of roles may sometimes result in fewer IT positions, the bright side for more experienced IT personnel is that they often get to spend extra time on strategic projects.
"The reality is that once you get past the initial setup and hardening, most of the day-to-day operations are managed by our junior technicians," said Chris Steffen, principal technical architect at Kroll Factual Data, a business information provider in Loveland, Colo.
For senior IT personnel, this means a shift toward a supervisory or project management position. It's a trend that Steffen sees increasing among his peers. "IT managers can't really afford to get rid of their 'big picture' people," he said. "They need to have those people around, if nothing else than for compliance reasons."
Steffen's anecdotal observations are reinforced by data from a 2009 survey from the Computing Technology Industry Association Inc., the nonprofit IT trade association known as CompTIA. Its survey, called "Evaluating the State of IT Skills," reports that the number of IT employees within 57% of respondents' organizations is staying the same (see Figure 1), while 24% of respondents indicated an increase in the number of IT employees. Only 14% of respondents indicated a decline in IT staff.
But the median number of open IT positions is down substantially, from five open positions in 2008 to only one open position in 2009. The reduction in open positions is most likely because of a combination of new openings being filled -- or open requisitions cancelled -- and the tendency for businesses to hold the line on staffing levels until the economy shows clear signs of recovery.
Although the average number of open positions may be dwindling, the openings show a significant range of IT responsibilities (see Figure 2), from technical support to application developers. Roughly one quarter of respondents had no open positions.
There is certainly no single formula or rule of thumb for staffing modern data centers. Staff composition will vary dramatically based on the size of the organization, its geographic location, its industry or vertical market and the actual technologies implemented in-house. Still, core staffing typically requires some number of data center operators, a SAN architect, some network architects or administrators, support technicians, application developers and communication engineers.
As an example, Steffen reports that Kroll Factual Data employs approximately 95 IT professionals from the CIO and down -- 12 to 15 in the network operations group, five or six junior technicians, two or three senior IT staff and about 20 people in technical support. The remaining staff generally comprises application development professionals and various managers.
The making of an IT professional
Those who work in the IT profession typically have some amount of college-level coursework, such as a bachelor of science degree in computer science, but a two-year associate of science degree or strong technical training may also be acceptable. Steffen suggests starting with a selection of baseline certifications from CompTIA such as A+, Network+, Security+ and Server+. Although such certifications are not all-encompassing, they demonstrate a basic knowledge that gives a prospective junior staffer an excellent starting point.
At the high end, expect senior IT administrators and engineers to possess advanced Microsoft certifications such as MCSE and MCSA or Cisco certifications such as CCNA or CCIE. Steffen said he considers CCISP and MCIE to represent the pinnacle of IT certifications because of the complexity and scope of each certification's requirements.
There is, however, a proliferation of other IT certifications, including those from SANS Institute, a cooperative research and education organization, along with other more specialized certifications from vendors like VMware and Citrix, as well as professional certifications such as Project Management Professional, Certified Data Center Professional and IT Infrastructure Library -- depending on the specific needs of the organization.
CompTIA research shows a growing importance of certification for IT employees. In 2008, respondents to the CompTIA survey emphasized the need for internal training and incentives or rewards over certification. In 2009, certification took the top spot over feedback and assessments and internal training as the most used method to enhance IT skills.
Other skills are also essential for IT professionals looking to get ahead. Zuk underscores the value of negotiation and management abilities for tech employees."Broad network and data center management experience is going to be significantly important, as well as the understanding and negotiation of service-level agreements and the ability to manage and work with managed service providers," he said.
"Soft skills," such as customer service, sales, project management and communication, earned a high rating on the CompTIA survey, with an importance level of 6.0 out of 7.0. These skills were considered to be almost as important as hardware skills and knowledge, which garnered only a slightly higher rating of 6.1 out of 7.0.
According to Steffen, entry-level staff should have baseline certifications rather than a set number of years of experience to enhance their value in the job market. Senior-level IT professionals should expect to show at least five years of relevant experience. "Once you're in the door, part of your expectation as an employee would be to obtain more certifications," Steffen said.
Staffing options for data centers
Budget constraints and new technologies are prompting data centers to look at a number of new alternatives to reduce their dependence on full-time employees. Such options are particularly attractive for small to mid-sized organizations where business needs can justify IT projects that current revenue levels simply might not allow.
Outsourcing routine tasks to managed service providers is one well established avenue and supports such core business tasks as website hosting, email hosting or hosted security. MSPs allow clients to pay a fixed monthly fee for needed services without the burden of managing infrastructure and IT staff. In many cases, an MSP uses highly scalable processes and infrastructures that allow them to easily absorb additional clients without adding staff themselves.
VARs, consultants and temporary staffing agencies offer other alternatives where clients can bring in outside talent to perform particular services or projects, usually for a limited duration and limited cost. For example, an experienced VAR might be an ideal choice to install and integrate a new server or storage system, freeing the in-house IT staff to continue their daily routines with minimal disruption.
Similarly, a knowledgeable consultant may be appropriate for compliance auditing when that expertise is lacking internally.
"VARs and consultants are an effective choice for staffing, especially if there is a need for staff augmentation," Zuk said. But this assumes the required talent is available on a timetable that meets the client's needs.
One emerging trend in temporary contract staffing is a "contract-to-hire" model that gives client companies the opportunity to hire the most desirable temps in a proposition sometimes called "try before you buy."
A third option is the adoption and integration of automation and self-service resources geared toward end users. One example of this is an automated password reset, freeing IT staff to focus on bigger projects. Zuk said that this option is quickly gaining traction and acceptance because end users are becoming more tech savvy. But an improper deployment or excessive reliance on automation tools can pose a management nightmare for existing IT staff.
The future of IT staffing
Experts say they see little perceptible change in IT staffing in the near future.
"Virtualization is still new in the broader sense, and management tools are still behind the eight ball in terms of lights-out support," Zuk said.
Well-trained and motivated people still play a crucial role in provisioning, management and maintenance activities.
But more staffing changes are on the horizon. Ongoing concern with the global economy and a tighter business focus on IT will invariably keep staff counts tight. Companies will increasingly leverage staffing alternatives to tackle important IT projects. Staffing decisions also need a clearer consideration of critical technologies and the faster introduction of new technologies in the data center.
"People who are truly succeeding in the industry are those who stay on top of the technology -- who don't look at it as work but as getting experience with the newest, latest and greatest," Steffen said.
CompTIA research indicates that security, general networking and soft skills will be critical for IT professionals five years from now.
The need for IT services is certainly not expected to wane, but some companies may eventually opt to trim IT staff positions as management improves or as core IT functions are outsourced to MSPs. Conversely, other companies may choose to maintain or even increase staffing levels to implement and manage new cost-saving or revenue-producing projects that are so vital to the bottom line.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Stephen J. Bigelow, a senior technology writer in the Data Center and Virtualization Group at TechTarget Inc., has more than 15 years of technical writing experience in the PC/technology industry. He holds a bachelor of science in electrical engineering, along with CompTIA A+ and Network+ certifications, and has written hundreds of articles and more than 15 feature books on computer troubleshooting, including Bigelow's PC Hardware Desk Reference,/i> and Bigelow's PC Hardware Annoyances. Contact him at [email protected].


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Aquaman's 13 Past TV and Movie Lives
It took Aquaman nearly eight decades to star in his own movie, but over the last 50 years he's turned up on TV in many different forms.
The ocean-dwelling character made his first comic book appearance in 1941, and his TV debut 26 years later. Though Aquaman was one of the first superheroes to be embraced by the public, he has had to wait a long time for his big-screen moment in the sun. While his contemporaries Batman and Superman scored many hit films and TV shows over the years, the king of Atlantis remained mainly in the shadows, reduced to occasional cameos. Worse, the character was often the butt of jokes, usually related to his somewhat-limited powers and campy appearance.
But the new Aquaman film has proven to be a box office powerhouse, earning more than $800 million worldwide. Though it is the third live-action movie to feature Jason Mamoa's version of the character, following Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Justice League (2017), it is the first full-length feature film centered around him.
When Aquaman finally hit the movie spotlight in December 2018, he was a far cry from the character first seen on TV more than 50 years ago. Gone was the orange and green spandex, clean-cut blonde hair and powder blue eyes. In their place, Momoa's version had long brown hair and beard, with armor-like attire and an intimidating scowl.
It's been a long transformation for Aquaman. As you'll see below, the character's journey has included stints as a buttoned-up do-gooder, a brooding college student and even a quirky kid's show host. Here's our look at Aquaman's TV and film evolution:


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Junagadh (Gujarat) [India], November 13: Axit Maheta, 19, has become the youngest leader in the history of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to head the party's social media cell in Gujarat's Junagadh city.
Junagadh BJP President Punit Sharma and Gujarat BJP President CR Paatil appointed Maheta as the convener of the BJP's social media wing in Junagadh. He has become the BJP's youngest leader in history to take on the most important responsibility.
"Axit Maheta has set a record in the BJP party by becoming the convener of the BJP's social media cell at the very young age of 19 years," a senior party functionary in Junagadh said.
Maheta is the youngest entrepreneur in Junagadh, the founder of Fwitty India and Ramayana Group of Companies. He is an excellent orator at the public meetings in Junagadh. He is also the owner of thrice business and the youngest leader of his vast Junagadh area in Gujarat.
Following his appointment as the BJP's Junagadh social media cell leader at the youngest age, Maheta has been receiving numerous greetings from party leaders, friends, and youths from across Gujarat.