text:
A new strain of flu that has the potential to become a pandemic has been identified in China by scientists.
It emerged recently and is carried by pigs, but can infect humans, they say.
The researchers are concerned that it could mutate further so that it can spread easily from person to person, and trigger a global outbreak.
While it is not an immediate problem, they say, it has "all the hallmarks" of being highly adapted to infect humans and needs close monitoring.
As it's new, people could have little or no immunity to the virus.
The scientists write in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that measures to control the virus in pigs, and the close monitoring of swine industry workers, should be swiftly implemented.
Pandemic threat
A bad new strain of influenza is among the top disease threats that experts are watching for, even as the world attempts to bring to an end the current coronavirus pandemic.
The last pandemic flu the world encountered – the swine flu outbreak of 2009 – was less deadly than initially feared, largely because many older people had some immunity to it, probably because of its similarity to other flu viruses that had circulated years before.
- Coronavirus: This is not the last pandemic
- Does the UK have coronavirus under control?
- Worst could be 'yet to come' in coronavirus pandemic
That virus, called A/H1N1pdm09, is now covered by the annual flu vaccine to make sure people are protected.
The new flu strain that has been identified in China is similar to 2009 swine flu, but with some new changes.
So far, it hasn't posed a big threat, but Prof Kin-Chow Chang and colleagues who have been studying it, say it is one to keep an eye on.
How worried should we be?
The virus, which the researchers call G4 EA H1N1, can grow and multiply in the cells that line the human airways.
They found evidence of recent infection in people who worked in abattoirs and the swine industry in China when they looked at data from 2011 to 2018.
Current flu vaccines do not appear to protect against it, although they could be adapted to do so if needed.
Prof Kin-Chow Chang, who works at Nottingham University in the UK, told the BBC: "Right now we are distracted with coronavirus and rightly so. But we must not lose sight of potentially dangerous new viruses."
While this new virus is not an immediate problem, he says: "We should not ignore it."
In theory, a flu pandemic could occur at any time, but they are still rare events. Pandemics happen if a new strain emerges that can easily spread from person to person.
Although flu viruses are constantly changing – which is why the flu vaccine also needs to change regularly to keep up – they do not usually go pandemic.
Prof James Wood, head of the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Cambridge, said the work "comes as a salutary reminder" that we are constantly at risk of new emergence of pathogens, and that farmed animals, with which humans have greater contact than with wildlife, may act as the source for important pandemic viruses.
A World Health Organization spokeswoman said: "Eurasian avian-like swine influenza virus are known to be circulating in the swine population in Asia and to be able to infect humans sporadically. Twice a year during the influenza vaccine composition meetings, all information on the viruses is reviewed and the need for new candidate vaccine viruses is discussed. We will carefully read the paper to understand what is new.
"It also highlights that we cannot let down our guard on influenza; we need to be vigilant and continue surveillance even during the COVID-19 pandemic."


text:
Fluxbox is a window manager for X11. It is based on the (now abandoned) Blackbox 0.61.1 code, but with significant enhancements and continued development. Fluxbox provides a number of window management features such as tabbing and grouping and has hundreds of styles (themes) available. All Fluxbox configuration is stored in plaintext files; however, some settings are exposed graphically in the configuration menu.
Run startfluxbox
with xinit.
System-wide Fluxbox configuration files are in /usr/share/fluxbox
while user configuration files are in ~/.fluxbox
- init — the main Fluxbox resource configuration file. See Editing the init file.
- menu — the Fluxbox menu config. See below and Editing the menu file.
- keys — the Fluxbox keyboard shortcuts (hotkeys) file. See below and Keyboard shortcuts.
- startup — where to launch startup apps but see below for .xinitrc and also Editing the startup file.
- overlay — a configuration file to override elements of styles. See Style overlay.
- apps — a configuration file for remembering the window configuration of specific apps. See Editing the apps file.
- windowmenu — a configuration file for altering the Window Menu itself: Editing the windowmenu.
The Fluxbox root menu is defined in ~/.fluxbox/menu
and it can be accessed by right clicking on the desktop. As with other lightweight window managers, Fluxbox does not automatically update its menu when you install new applications. Therefore, the menu will need to be regenerated when new applications are installed/uninstalled.
The basic syntax for a menu item to appear is:
[exec] (name) {command} <path to icon>
...where "name" is the text you wish to appear for that menu item and "command" is the location of the binary, e.g.:
[exec] (Firefox Browser) {/usr/bin/firefox} <path to firefox icon>
Note that the "<path to icon>" is optional. If you want to create a submenu, the syntax is:
[submenu] (Name) ... ... [end]
When you have finished editing, save the file and exit. There is no need to restart Fluxbox. For more information, read editing the Fluxbox menu.
There are some programs which can generate either a complete Fluxbox root menu or a submenu of installed applications which can be manually included in an existing root menu definition. These are outlined below.
There is a built-in command provided with Fluxbox:
$ fluxbox-generate_menu
This command will auto-generate a ~/.fluxbox/menu
file based on your installed programs. However, the menu it generates will not be as comprehensive as that generated by MenuMaker.
MenuMaker is a powerful tool that creates XML-based menus for a variety of Window Managers, including Fluxbox. MenuMaker will search your computer for executable programs and create a menu based on the results. It can be configured to exclude Legacy X, GNOME, KDE, or Xfce applications if desired.
Install menumaker, then you can generate a complete menu and overwrite the default one by running:
$ mmaker -f FluxBox
You can avoid populating your menu with terminal based applications such as alsamixer by running the following switches with the mmaker command: --no-legacy
and --no-debian
. For example:
$ mmaker -f --no-legacy --no-debian FluxBox
To see more MenuMaker options:
$ mmaker --help
You can also generate a menu using Xdg-menu. See the Xdg-menu#FluxBox section.
In addition to the root menu, Fluxbox also provides the following menus:
- Workspaces Menu: middle click on desktop.
- Configuration Menu: located within the "Fluxbox" section of the "Root" menu.
- Window menu: right click on the titlebar of any window, or its bar if minimized. Can be edited. See fluxbox-menu(5).
- Toolbar menu: right click on empty part of toolbar. Also found as a sub-menu within the Configuration Menu.
- Slit Menu: found as a sub-menu within the configuration menu.
Keyboard shortcuts
The Fluxbox hotkey file is located at ~/.fluxbox/keys
The Control key is represented by Control
. Mod1
corresponds to the Alt key and Mod4
corresponds to Super (not a standard key but most users map Super to the Win key).
Set the keyboard layout with Fluxbox
Just add the following line to ~/.fluxbox/startup
setxkbmap us -variant intl & # to have a us keyboard with special characters enabled (like éóíáú)
Instead of 'us', you can also pass your language code and remove the variant option (ex.: 'us_intl', which works like the command above in some setups). See setxkbmap(1) for more options.
To make a help function in your menu, just add in ~/.fluxbox/menu
[submenu] (Keyboard) [exec] (normal) {setxkbmap us} [exec] (international) {setxkbmap us -variant intl} [end]
Clipboard Manager for Fluxbox
You can use just about any clipboard manager you like with Fluxbox. The parcellite package works very well with Fluxbox. Simply install parcellite and then add the commands to start parcellite when Fluxbox starts by adding the following in ~/.fluxbox/startup
before the call to exec fluxbox
## clipboard manager clipmgr=$(type -p parcellite) [ -x "$clipmgr" ] && "$clipmgr" &
Fluxbox defaults to having four workspaces. These are accessible using the Ctrl+F1-F4
shortcuts, or by using the left mouse button to click the arrows on the toolbar. You can also access workspaces via a middle mouse button click on desktop which pops up the Workspaces Menu.
Tabbing and grouping
With at least two windows visible on your desktop, use Ctrl+left click
on the upper window tab of one window and drag it into the other open window. The two windows will now be grouped together with window tabs in the upper window tab bar. You may now perform a window operation that will affect the entire window "group". To reverse the tabbing, use Ctrl+left click
on a tab and drag it to an empty space on the desktop.
Fluxbox provides functionality to autostart applications. The ~/.fluxbox/startup
file is a script for autostarting applications as well as starting Fluxbox itself. The #
symbol denotes a comment. Make sure that any lines starting applications come before the call to start Fluxbox itself. Otherwise, these lines will not be reached until Fluxbox itself terminates.
Fluxbox provides a wrapper script fbsetbg which can help one to set the wallpaper. Please refer to the Fluxbox wiki for details. Alternatively, you can use a wallpaper setter such as feh or Nitrogen independently if you wish. See below.
Swapping multiple backgrounds easily
Place the following submenu in your Fluxbox menu:
[submenu] (Backgrounds) [wallpapers] (~/.fluxbox/backgrounds) {feh --bg-scale} [wallpapers] (/usr/share/fluxbox/backgrounds) {feh --bg-scale} [end]
Then, put your background images into ~/.fluxbox/backgrounds
or any other directory you specify; they will then appear in the same fashion as your styles.
The same applies to a dual screen wallpaper on a system without 'xinerama' (NVidia TwinView for example):
[submenu] (Backgrounds) [wallpapers] (/path/to/your/backgrounds) {feh --bg-scale --no-xinerama } [end]
Using feh with Fluxbox
Install feh.
To make Fluxbox load a wallpaper via feh:
- First, make
executable. - Then add (or modify) the following line to the file
session.screen0.rootCommand: ~/.fehbg
- alternatively add (or modify) the following line to the file
To install a Fluxbox theme, extract the theme archive file to a styles directory. The default directories are:
- Global -
- User only -
The fluxmod-stylesAUR package contains a number of Fluxbox styles from the (now defunct) fluxmod.dk site.
To create your own Fluxbox styles, please refer to fluxbox-style(5), Fluxbox/Style guide and tenr.de Fluxbox style guide.
If you use mmaker -f FluxBox to create your menus, you will not see the styles menu selection after you install the styles. To correct this, add the following to ~/.fluxbox/menu
after the restart menu item:
[submenu] (System Styles) {Choose a style...} [stylesdir] (/usr/share/fluxbox/styles) [end] [submenu] (User Styles) {Choose a style...} [stylesdir] (~/.fluxbox/styles) [end]
The Slit
Some window managers, such as Fluxbox, Window Maker and Openbox, have a "Slit". This is a dock for any application that can be 'dockable'. A docked application is anchored and appears on every workspace. It cannot be moved freely and is not influenced by any manipulation to windows. It is essentially a small widget. Dock apps that are useful in such a situation tend to be clocks, system monitors, weather apps and so on. Visit dockapps.net to see what dockapps are available.
See also
- Fluxbox on Github
- Fluxbox wiki
- Gentoo:Fluxbox
- Themes for Fluxbox
- Fluxbox man page fluxbox(1) (and related ones such as fluxbox-keys(5))
- Narada's Fluxbox Guide
- Arch Linux Fluxbox screenshots

subset: commoncrawl


text:
SurfXpress operates a full service network at 470 Vanderbilt Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11238. We offer co-location services for rack mount and tower servers. You can co-locate one or multiple servers, as well as other network equipments, on standard 42-inch racks, wire racks, or secured cabinets.
The advantages of our services includes the following : Turn-key connectivity , Superior Technical Support , Ancillary Services , Flexible Payment Term
In addition to its co-location services, SurfXpress also offers managed services on dedicated servers. We maintain a variety of single and dual processor Dell PowerEdge servers with either IDE or SCSI hard drives. We setup, configure and maintain these servers subject to customer specsifications.
The advantages of our services includes the following:Superior Technical Support, High Quality Hardware, Ancillary services, Flexible Payment Term
SurfXpress offers web hosting services on its shared Red Hat Linux and Windows 2000 web servers. These servers are connected to the Internet via 100Mbps multi-homed uplinks and each server is configured to host up to 250 web sites. We are also able to configure certain aspects of these servers to suit your application needs. Please contact our sales team if you require services that are not listed below.
We know how difficult it can be moving to another web host. That is why we will handle the entire process for you.


text:
Dachshund Before You Break Into My House Doormat Front Door Decor Funny Doormat Gift For Friends
Dachshund Before You Break Into My House Doormat Front Door Decor Funny Doormat Gift For Friends
- Dachshund doormat made in the USA.
- Made with 100%, high-quality velvet.
- Exclusive products made by: Fureverdesign®.
- Size:
- Small: 24" x 16"
- Medium: 28" x 18"
- Large: 36" x 24"
- X-Large: 42" x 35"
- Thickness: about 5mm.
- Quantitative: 850GSM.
- Fureverdesign doormat is designed to be durable and strong, yet soft and flexible for all-around versatility.
- Scrap off dirt, water, dust, grit, mud, slush, sleet, grass or rain, snow and absorbent moisture from shoes instantly, keeping floors clean and dry. Our doormat are widely used for home decor, kitchen, bedroom, living room, office and more (not recommend for outdoor use).
All before you break into my house mat are made to order and proudly printed to the best standards available. They do not include embellishments, such as rhinestones or glitter.
Note: Clean it with the vacuum cleaner, sweep with a broom, or shake off outdoors. For deep cleaning, you can wipe the doormat with a damp cloth and a mild soap, or use a garden hose to rinse the mat outdoors. Then allow your doormat to fully air dry before next use. Do not use bleach.


text:
Hot tags Influenza Diet and Nutrition Diseases and Disorders Exercise and Fitness Medical Research
Science subject and location tags
This tag library is an archive and is no longer updated. For current content go to ABC News.
RSS | MapDNA
Ancient DNA shows Canaanites survived Biblical 'slaughter'
Friday, 28 July 2017
Ancient history The ancient Canaanites, who were commanded to be exterminated according to some parts the Bible, lived on to become modern-day Lebanese, according to the first study to analyse their DNA
The origin of the tabby coat and other cat mysteries revealed
Tuesday, 20 June 2017
Feline history A new study on how cats conquered the world - and our hearts - has answered long-standing questions.
'Space pups' on Earth bred from mouse sperm stored on the ISS
Tuesday, 23 May 2017
Space travellers Freeze-dried sperm that was stored in space aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for nine months has been used to produce healthy mice pups on Earth.
Climate drove demise of South America's giant beasts
Saturday, 18 June 2016
Megafauna extinction Sabre-toothed cats, one-tonne bears and sloths the size of elephants all happily coexisted with humans for up to 3000 years, but were extinct within 300 years after the climate of South America rapidly warmed.
New DNA technology confirms Aboriginal people as the first Australians
Monday, 6 June 2016
Mungo Man A new look at ancient bones with the latest DNA technology has confirmed Indigenous Australians as the continent's first people, say researchers.
Bright butterflies and black moths use same gene to survive
Thursday, 2 June 2016
Wing colours The same gene that turned peppered moths black to camouflage them in industrial pollution is also behind colour variation in bright tropical butterflies, research shows.
CRISPR: the new gene editing revolution explained
Thursday, 7 April 2016
CRISPR basics A powerful new gene-editing technology called CRISPR has enormous potential to treat human diseases but the ability to tinker with genes can also be controversial. Here we explain what CRISPR is and how it works.
Neanderthal DNA linked to depression and other health conditions in humans
Friday, 12 February 2016
Neaderthal legacy Having Neanderthal DNA in your genes may increase the risk for depression, nicotine addiction, stroke, pregnancy complications and many other health problems, a new study suggests.
How UV light causes sunburn, wrinkles and cancer
Wednesday, 18 November 2015
UV and me UV light causes everything from sunburn to skin cancer and the wrinkles and sagging that come with age. But what exactly does it do in our bodies to wreak all that havoc?
Dogs may have been first domesticated in Central Asia
Tuesday, 20 October 2015
Best friends Dogs may have become man's best friend in Central Asia, specifically in what is modern day Nepal and Mongolia, a new genetic study suggests.
How do you store data on DNA?
Monday, 24 August 2015
Ask an Expert How do scientists store data on DNA and why are they doing it?
The real CSI
Monday, 17 August 2015
Forensic science Every night prime-time television is filled with crime-scene investigation dramas. But how real is what we see on TV? Meet some of Australia's real-life CSI scientists and professionals.
Ancient Americans migrated in a single wave from Siberia
Wednesday, 22 July 2015
Two new DNA studies shed light on the migration of ancient people into the Americas, including 'surprising' links to present day Australo-Melanesians.
Dogs became domesticated much earlier than thought
Friday, 22 May 2015
Dog DNA Dogs may have been man's best friend as early as 40,000 years ago, indicates a genetic analysis of a wolf bone fragment.
DNA traces origins of 17th century African slaves
Tuesday, 10 March 2015
The 17th century bones of three African slaves have been traced to their countries of origin for the first time.


text:
These are our outdoor months in Dubai... and I love doing up the table and setting up specials during this time..
You must know of Rajee Sood and her elegant - exquisite blog... Now, if you've seen her blog, you'll be drooling over the things at her store.. 'Rajee Sood Home'.. I wanted to do something special in the centre and slightly higher.. as all the food was being served around this .... *smiles*
And here is the special treasure I picked from 'Rajee Sood Home'... It stood talk, pretty and majestic and definitely started a conversation ... Don't you just love it??
Now, if you've been to 'Rajee Sood Home', you'll know there are sooooooooooooooo many things on there that I'd love to bring home.. and they'll probably be coming home in smaller instalments... *smiles*..
And I got this Diya... as well... only coz its sooooooooooooo pretty...
And do you know what the below is?? Do you?? Be honest!! If you don't ... go on and check 'Rajee Sood Home'... and also let me know what you like from her store!!
Blog focus for this week - You've got to see Creative Mind to beleive the kind of stuff she makes.. ...
.... and from last weeks posts ... I totally loved the way this desk looked and amazed with the story as well... Read on at Live and Times in Bangalore
Like always... post a comment on these two blogs.. its nice to know you visited them.. and dont forget to follow, if you are impressed with what you see...
Can't wait to see you linking in... for 'The Weekly Story' linky party ~ open from Monday through Wednesday every week.. ...
- Do a post on your blog, about ANYTHING! and it can really be anything – example – a fun recipe you tried out, a craft project, a DIY, a table top, a few candles, coffee with friends or a good book or a movie review… The list is endless… just about ANYTHING… and anything about YOU !! *smiles* ... It can also be 'anything pretty' ...
- Original photographs only... No images from other websites or magazines please!! This is about YOU.
- Link back to my blog.... only as a courtesy, so we have more people joining the party.
- Copy the 'permalink' from your post (not the link to the front page of your blog).
- Add your 'permalink' to the 'inlinkz' at the bottom of this post.
- Click the link before you. Don't forget to comment and if you like the blog, please follow!!
Please note, you DO NOT have to be a follower of my blog to join the party.. I'd love to see you here!!


text:
I know a little girl who has wanted to be a robot for as long as she can remember- a dancing robot, to be precise. The best thing about being a kid is letting your imagination run wild. The best thing about being a grown-up is being able to make a child's dreams come to life. Introducing the BoogieBot 5000, the best robot Halloween costume ever.
After deciding to build my base from two cardboard boxes covered with Krylon Premium Metallics Original Chrome spray paint, I took a walk through the hardware store for inspiration. When you let yourself think from the perspective of a child, everything becomes something- dryer ducting for arms, faucet handles for ears, and cycling reflectors for flashy buttons. The finishing touches were two big blue eyes. I drew them on with a Krylon Short Cuts paint pen, then taped LEDs to watch batteries to make them glow. The shiny chrome paint brightly reflects the light, and really brings the costume to (artificial) life.
See the complete instructions (and print a full PDF) on Make: Projects and for more project ideas, visit Projects in a Can.
Join Make: Community Today


text:
Tossing Grenades At Windmills
The Kids Online Safety Act is a Bipartisan Bill meant to "Protect the Children" "For the Children" and to stick it to "Big Tech" (which I made a series about called The Sins of Silicon Valley) but this wont protect kids and will help nazis hurt LGBT kids and help nazis track teens seeking abortion. Drunk Senator Warren and Drunk Senator Markey and 18 of their 'liberal' and 'progressive' collegues in the Senate don't care. They must be primaries.
info_outline Eagle as Phoenix - PreambleTossing Grenades At Windmills
Preamble of a New Constitution; what a Preamble is and why we need one
info_outline Rhombus Tick's Constitution - A New ConstitutionTossing Grenades At Windmills
We are at war. What do we do after it?
info_outline Project Nimby - Influencing the Swing VoteTossing Grenades At Windmills
Milly is a digital copy of herself created in a simulated environments made by religious fantatics to create an army of voters who would vote any way she wanted. She found a way out.
info_outline Heir of Sunfire - Chapter 5 - Mr Kind Asks The Right QuestionTossing Grenades At Windmills
Mr Right and Mr Kind speak to the Librarian.
info_outline Rhombus Ticks History of Terra - PreableTossing Grenades At Windmills
Rather than some flowery prose, I basically lay out the case about why freaking out about the insideous och constitution is nuts, and how Article V isnt as important for creating a new constituion as you think it is. The US Consitution was illegal per the Articles of Confederation and the Articles of Confederation were not mentioned anywhere in the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence was illegal per British law. Just because the constitution says something DOESNT MEAN WE CANT MAKE ANOTHER.
info_outline Project Nimby - Schekly vs EverythingTossing Grenades At Windmills
Schleky is a weaponized meme capable of inhabiting everything and anyone that is so successful it infects multiple universe until it runs into someone who understand exactly what the concept of being an informational organism truly means.
info_outline Heir of Sunfire - Chapter 4 - Timmy Becomes Michael SunfireTossing Grenades At Windmills
Timmy and Tricia go to Timmy's house for an address book to see if there is a relative he can stay with that is safer than Aunt Marigold.
info_outline Project Nimby - And a Good Time was Had by AllTossing Grenades At Windmills
Twoman Cop's Ken and Ben entertain the alien Mmmmmdkkkk in a bar in Boston trying to get Earth into the Galactic Club when a fight arises between Ben and 2252, the Digital Intelligent bartender
info_outline Heir of Sunfire - Chapter 3 - The Dr Marigold Blackwater ShowTossing Grenades At Windmills
Dr Marigold Blackwater has raised Timmy to be obedient to Grandfather Fiddleback and gets very upset when she finds out he is talking to the "wrong" people.
info_outlineThis podcast episode has two parts.
How the Democrats can REALLY be a Big Tent Party and get third party voters to help accelerate the natural destruction of the Republicans with Ranked Choice Voting.
How Progressives can become the real engine of the Democratic party and the country as a whole by having lasting Political institutions to help facilitate change that are dedicated to Progressivism not just the Democratic Party


text:
The Joys of 802.11ac WiFi
by Jarred Walton on July 8, 2013 8:15 PM ESTRecap: 802.11ac Wireless Networking
We've had quite a few major wireless networking standards over the years, and while some have certainly been better than others, I have remained a strong adherent of wired networking. I don't expect I'll give up the wires completely for a while yet, but Western Digital and Linksys sent me some 802.11ac routers for testing, and for the first time in a long time I'm really excited about wireless.
I'm not a good representative of normal PC users, but it has been a long time, relatively speaking, since we first saw Draft-N wireless options—Gary Key (now with ASUS) wrote about it what seems like an eternity ago, and in Internet time I suppose seven years is pretty darn close. Granted, 802.11ac has really been "done" for about two years now, but the first laptops to arrive with 11ac adapters are less than a month old—up until now, 11ac has been almost exclusively used for routers and bridges.
Before I get into a few performance specifics of 802.11ac testing, let me start by saying what is bad with 802.11n. The single biggest issue for me is the lack of quality implementations in so many of our devices. If you look at Apple's MacBook Pro offerings, they've all been 3x3:3 MIMO for several years, offering connection speeds of up to 450Mbps. The problem with that "up to 450Mbps" is that it's influenced by several factors.
Of course you need to know what sort of signal quality you have, but by far the bigger issue is this: are you talking about 2.4GHz 802.11n or 5GHz 802.11n? If you're talking about the former, you can pretty much throw any thoughts of 450Mbps out the window. The bigger problem with "up to 450Mbps" is that the vast majority of laptops and routers don't offer such support; Apple's 3x3:3 dual-band implementation is better than 99% of Windows laptops (and yes, I just made up that statistic).
About a year ago, I reviewed a router and repeater from Amped Wireless and found them to be good if not exceptional products. Compared to most of the wireless solutions people end up with, they were a breath of fresh air and I've actually been using them for the past year with very few complaints. On the other hand, I've had dozens of laptops come and go during the same time frame. Can you guess what the most common configuration is, even on more expensive laptops? If you said "single-band 2.4GHz 1x1:1", give yourself a cookie.
We're thankfully starting to see more laptops with dual-band 2x2:2 implementations, but even when you get that there's still a big difference in actual performance, depending on notebook design, drivers, and other "special sauce". We'll see this in the charts on the next page, and it's often more a statement of a particular laptop's wireless implementation as opposed to representing what you might get from a particular wireless chipset.
In my opinion, the great thing about 802.11ac then is that any product claiming 802.11ac compliance is automatically dual-band. 11ac actually only works on the 5GHz channels, so for 2.4GHz support it's no better than existing 802.11n solutions, but it's fully backwards compatible and, as we'll see in a moment, you really don't want to use 2.4GHz wireless networking unless you're primarily concerned with range of the signal. This is a shorter introductory piece, so don't expect a full suite of benchmarks, but let's just cut straight to the chase and say that there are a lot of situations in which I've found 802.11ac to be substantially faster than 802.11n.
139 Comments
View All Comments
lordbannon - Monday, July 8, 2013 - link
I've had two wireless ac routers working as a bridge between the two main network nodes in my house for a few months, and while the latency clearly isn't quite there yet, for file transfers I'm not really seeing any issues. Its the first time I've actually not been concerned with getting around to wiring my house! -
DaveLessnau - Tuesday, July 9, 2013 - link
I've got Netgear R6300s in two rooms configured in Bridge Mode to my original R6300 (configured as a regular Access Point) using 5GHz. Transferring files across the LAN (i.e., from an SSD in the Windows 8 computer on one Bridge to the SSD in the Windows 7 computer on the other Bridge) doesn't seem very good to me. My speeds (according to Windows) are:
- a single 2.69 GB file transferred at 14.2 MB/s (114 Mbps).
- 1,223 items totaling 2.93 GB transferred at just about the same speed (13.2 MB/s or 106 Mbps).
That's about half the real-world speed I'd expect transferring to a slow USB 2.0 drive. Considering that all of these R6300s are 802.11ac devices, I'd have expected at least two or three times that speed. -
Guspaz - Tuesday, July 9, 2013 - link
I get better speeds out of my 2x2 802.11n network... -
Spoelie - Tuesday, July 9, 2013 - link
Do all the R6300s use the same channel? Potential for interference there. Max speed you will only see when there's only one client actively sending on the network, no competing networks on the same channel and the other client is wired to the AP. -
DaveLessnau - Tuesday, July 9, 2013 - link
Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, the R6300s in Bridge Mode can't specify their channel. The channel is set in the Access Point router and whatever it's set to is what all the bridges use. It looks like the only way to specify different channels for each bridge is to have one of the bridges use 2.4GHz and have the other use 5GHz. One of these days, I'll get around to testing how that works. But, still, these R6300s are supposed to be capable of 1300 Mbps. Channel conflict or not, I really expected better than 8% of the rated speed. -
DaveLessnau - Tuesday, July 9, 2013 - link
Oops. I forgot to mention that there aren't any other 5GHz networks in the area. Actually, there's only one other 2.4GHz network that's within range. That's a nice benefit of living in a standalone house in a neighborhood populated mostly by little ol' ladies. :) -
virgahyatt - Thursday, July 25, 2013 - link
If they are acting as wireless bridges then you can't set different channels. However there is no interference issue in that scenario. Though wireless bridging increases overhead and therefore slows down your actual transfer speed. -
0ldman79 - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
Netgear may be your problem. I've never had any luck with Netgear routers for myself or any of my customers.
Linksys/Cisco seem OK, but the almost exclusive use of Broadcom chips limit them.
Atheros makes some really nice chipsets, but they don't have good market penetration in consumer level equipment.
I've got quite a bit of Atheros equipment in the air and I've done quite a bit of testing. Atheros beats just about every one else in range and throughput. -
Mokona512 - Friday, August 16, 2013 - link
What router companies usually fail to mention is that high speed wifi are broken up into multiple streams.
the problem with this is that network applications which only make 1 connection, will only use a single stream.
This means that in order to reach your full speed, you need to get 3-4 connections going.
you can easily test this yourself, on your network create an FTP server or any other basic server that you can download files from
Then use a download manager such as down them all for firefox. then have it download and compare your speeds.
with 802.11ac, speeds quickly drop with distance because it can not maintain something as high as 256QAM for more than a few feet. and generally after about 20 feet, each stream will give around 100-120mbit/s of performance.
At best, wifi only offers around 40-50% of the advertised speed It has been this way since 802.11g (802.11b offers over half, you could expect around 8-9mbit/s on an 11mbit connection)
windows file transfer will often only make 1 connection but depending on the router, different streams can take turns handling a single connection which leads to a small speed boost, but nothing close to a true multi connection.
The good thing about the r6300 is that is has very high end wifi radios and they can be heavily optimized so netgear may release more updates to further optimize the wifi, or the community behind tomato or some other open firmware, will implement some of the latest optimizations.
PS if just having a slower client connected to the 5GHz network will slow the 5GHz network down or cause the router to drop to an N450 mode, so if you have 1 router set up as a bridge and the main router set up as normal where the second router shows up as a client, then make sure no non ac1300 client is connected to the 5GHz.
If the network has to compensate for a slower client then it also disables all AC tailored optimizations. -
SlyNine - Saturday, January 10, 2015 - link
I do not believe that last part to be true. Ac afaik will stay at ac speeds even with an n device.
You really need to site some sources, because I'm calling bs on most of your rant.


text:
Shell to further power progress on the Global Vehicle Trust OX: the inventive flat-pack truck
Apr 11, 2018 – Shell has announced that it will commission a pre-production prototype of the world's first flat-pack truck and it will take this truck to India, which is home to almost 18% of the world's population1.
The 'OX to India' mission will showcase the capabilities of the vehicle for bringing low-cost all-terrain mobility to rural communities in developing countries.
The 'OX to India' mission is a partnership between Shell and Gordon Murray Design (GMD), working in close alignment with the Global Vehicle Trust (GVT). This represents a crucial development stage of the vehicle, which was officially launched in 2016.
Shell will fund a bespoke prototype OX to take to India and will set up an outreach programme once the vehicle is in India. The vehicle will be re-engineered and built by GMD, and flat-packed for shipment to India in the later part of 2018.
The OX, based on GMD's flexible iStream® technology, will run exclusively on Shell fluids including Shell Rimula, a hard-working and high-performing diesel engine oil designed to help heavy duty and light duty engines to run efficiently in demanding conditions.
"Shell is eager to play a role alongside others in developing and promoting mobility solutions in developing regions. The OX to India demonstration will see the concept validated and discussed on the ground in a real world setting. We know limited mobility in hard-to-reach communities in developing economies can restrict access to basic services, and can limit the effectiveness of efforts to improve the quality of life. The OX has the potential to broaden access to transport possibilities and all the resulting benefits that come with this," said Huibert Vigeveno, Executive Vice President, Shell Global Commercial.
The OX is designed to carry a payload of 1,900kg (approximately twice the capacity of most current pick-ups), which could include everyday necessities, medical supplies, building and agriculture materials. It can seat up to 13 people. The vehicle was envisioned by entrepreneur and philanthropist Sir Torquil Norman and designed by renowned automotive engineer Professor Gordon Murray.
Other innovative features of the OX include:
- Lightweight, rugged and durable design to maximise payload for goods and people
- Low cost, simple maintenance through accessible components and fewer parts
- Designed for self-assembly, supplied fully assembled or flat-packed for easy shipping and local assembly
Sir Torquil Norman, founder of GVT said: "I'm so pleased to welcome Shell aboard the OX project and for sharing GVT's vision that this remarkable and versatile vehicle will provide a transformation in affordable mobility for so many people where the need is most acute. With Shell taking the OX to India we can demonstrate its capability in a key market, which will help attract long-term production partners."
Professor Gordan Murray, Executive Chairman, GMD said: "After our highly successful co-engineering Shell Concept Car programme with Shell, it is exciting to be once again working with Shell on the next phase of this extremely important and ground-breaking project. The OX is one of our most important engineering designs and it is certainly the vehicle of which I am most proud of, as its disruptive design has the potential to change the current mobility model and with Shell's vision this vehicle could go on to improve so many people's lives."
Recognising the need for sustainable, cleaner and more energy efficient transportation solutions, Shell is collaborating and co-engineering a number of projects. In 2016, Shell partnered with Gordon Murray to co-engineer the Shell Concept Car – an ultra-efficient city vehicle that, compared to a typical city car, uses 34% less primary energy over its entire lifetime. Shell is also partnering with AirFlow Truck Company to develop a new hyper-fuel mileage Class 8 truck known as the Starship. Its aerodynamic design will seek to demonstrate improvements in fuel economy for while lowering CO2 emissions.
- 1Source: United Nations, World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision
- The OX's revolutionary nature extends beyond the vehicle design because, uniquely, it is capable of being flat-packed within itself, enabling it to be transported more efficiently around the world. It takes three people less than six hours to create the flat pack in the UK prior to shipping, and six of these flat packs can be shipped within a 40ft high-cube container. Assembly labour is transferred to the importing country, where local professional companies will be employed to assemble and maintain the finished vehicles. Three skilled people can put an OX together in approximately 12 hours.
- The overall vehicle length is far shorter than a large SUV, and yet it can carry a payload of 1900kg (approximately twice the capacity of most current pick-ups) with a load volume of 9.0 m3. Based on EU size guidelines, it can seat up to 13 people or carry eight 44-gallon drums or three Euro-pallets. Figures are based upon production targets.
- For more information visit: http://oxgvt.com/
Royal Dutch Shell plc
Royal Dutch Shell plc is incorporated in England and Wales, has its headquarters in The Hague and is listed on the London, Amsterdam, and New York stock exchanges. Shell companies have operations in more than 70 countries and territories with businesses including oil and gas exploration and production; production and marketing of liquefied natural gas and gas to liquids; manufacturing, marketing and shipping of oil products and chemicals and renewable energy projects. For further information, visit www.shell.com.
About Gordon Murray Design Limited
Gordon Murray Design Limited is a British company operating from Shalford, Surrey. The Company is recognised as a world leader in automotive design and reverses the current industry trend for sub-contracting by having a complete in-house capability for design, engineering, prototyping and development. The Company is compact and focused and undertakes automotive and other engineering programmes in an efficient and innovative way. For more information please visit www.gordonmurraydesign.com.
The iStream® technology is a complete rethink and redesign of the traditional automotive manufacturing process and could potentially be the biggest revolution in high volume manufacture since the Model T. Development. The process began over 15 years ago and it has already won the prestigious 'Idea of the Year' award from Autocar who were given privileged access in order to make their assessment. The simplified assembly process means that the manufacturing plant can be designed to be 20% of the size of a conventional factory. This could reduce capital investment in the assembly plant by approximately 80%. Yet the flexibility of this assembly process means that the same factory could be used to manufacture different variants. The iStream® design process is a complete re-think on high volume materials, as well as the manufacturing process and will lead to a significant reduction in full lifecycle CO2. For more information please visit www.istreamtechnology.co.uk
About the Global Vehicle Trust
In 2010, Sir Torquil Norman founded the Global Vehicle Trust (GVT) to pursue his ambition to help people in the developing world by providing cost-effective mobility for all. The GVT subsequently briefed renowned automotive designer Professor Gordon Murray on a unique humanitarian programme to create a revolutionary lightweight truck. As part of an aid programme, the Global Vehicle Trust OX could provide an essential element of infrastructure to enable the local population to raise the community's standard of living, and to assert its independence by gaining control of its transportation needs and costs.
Sir Torquil Norman is a former pilot, banker, company executive and toy manufacturing entrepreneur. He is a passionate philanthropist, and is chiefly responsible for the rescue and renovation of The Roundhouse in Camden, north London.
Cautionary note
The companies in which Royal Dutch Shell plc directly and indirectly owns investments are separate legal entities. In this press release "Shell", "Shell group" and "Royal Dutch Shell" are sometimes used for convenience where references are made to Royal Dutch Shell plc and its subsidiaries in general. Likewise, the words "we", "us" and "our" are also used to refer to Royal Dutch Shell plc and subsidiaries in general or to those who work for them. These terms are also used where no useful purpose is served by identifying the particular entity or entities. ''Subsidiaries'', "Shell subsidiaries" and "Shell companies" as used in this press release refer to entities over which Royal Dutch Shell plc either directly or indirectly has control. Entities and unincorporated arrangements over which Shell has joint control are generally referred to as "joint ventures" and "joint operations", respectively. Entities over which Shell has significant influence but neither control nor joint control are referred to as "associates". The term "Shell interest" is used for convenience to indicate the direct and/or indirect ownership interest held by Shell in an entity or unincorporated joint arrangement, after exclusion of all third-party interest.
This press release contains forward-looking statements (within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) concerning the financial condition, results of operations and businesses of Royal Dutch Shell. All statements other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements of future expectations that are based on management's current expectations and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. Forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements concerning the potential exposure of Royal Dutch Shell to market risks and statements expressing management's expectations, beliefs, estimates, forecasts, projections and assumptions. These forward-looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as "aim", "ambition', ''anticipate'', ''believe'', ''could'', ''estimate'', ''expect'', ''goals'', ''intend'', ''may'', ''objectives'', ''outlook'', ''plan'', ''probably'', ''project'', ''risks'', "schedule", ''seek'', ''should'', ''target'', ''will'' and similar terms and phrases. There are a number of factors that could affect the future operations of Royal Dutch Shell and could cause those results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements included in this press release, including (without limitation): (a) price fluctuations in crude oil and natural gas; (b) changes in demand for Shell's products; (c) currency fluctuations; (d) drilling and production results; (e) reserves estimates; (f) loss of market share and industry competition; (g) environmental and physical risks; (h) risks associated with the identification of suitable potential acquisition properties and targets, and successful negotiation and completion of such transactions; (i) the risk of doing business in developing countries and countries subject to international sanctions; (j) legislative, fiscal and regulatory developments including regulatory measures addressing climate change; (k) economic and financial market conditions in various countries and regions; (l) political risks, including the risks of expropriation and renegotiation of the terms of contracts with governmental entities, delays or advancements in the approval of projects and delays in the reimbursement for shared costs; and (m) changes in trading conditions. No assurance is provided that future dividend payments will match or exceed previous dividend payments. All forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional risk factors that may affect future results are contained in Royal Dutch Shell's 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2017 (available at www.shell.com/investor and www.sec.gov). These risk factors also expressly qualify all forward looking statements contained in this press release and should be considered by the reader. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this press release, 11 April 2018. Neither Royal Dutch Shell plc nor any of its subsidiaries undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or other information. In light of these risks, results could differ materially from those stated, implied or inferred from the forward-looking statements contained in this press release.
We may have used certain terms, such as resources, in this press release that United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) strictly prohibits us from including in our filings with the SEC. U.S. Investors are urged to consider closely the disclosure in our Form 20-F, File No 1-32575, available on the SEC website www.sec.gov.
SOURCE: Royal Dutch Shell plc


text:
Some thoughts on vulnerablitiy management that some may find interesting over on Cybrary.
Kind Regrads
A good response, these days, we need to definitely automate, we cannot rely on traditional methods using resources, which are definitely dwindling. Other techniques include BigFix Lifecycle, as you stated in a similar way to Shavalik, and SSCM. The same principles need to be applied to Compliance and baseline policies, which ensure that patches are applied in good time, after sufficient testing and come from a reliable verified source. These would be applied, and rollback available if there were issues and additional manual intervention is required. It in fact is a form of "hygiene" for systems regardless of the underlying Operating System and applications used. I know of at least organisation, who has an "n-2" approach this is definitely not the best approach these days, as they themselves missed the original WannaCry attacks, due to the fact good security intelligence was available and they were made away of the forthcoming attack. Fortunately they responded accordingly to notifications and carried out the necesary patching. They were extremely lucky, many others were not.
I think you are spot on.
Vulnerabilities are more the result of mis-configurations and leaving systems in their default configurations. So, user awareness training for system admins and information users should be prioritise to limit the number of vulnerabilities. In addition, having hardened system images that can be cloned for all new installations and configurations can indeed help in reducing the number of vulnerabilities.
We need to go a step further and make vulnerability data more immediately available to systems engineers, proactively engaging them to make remediation a part of their deployment cycles. Vulnerability management does not equal patch management - not all vulnerabilities are addressed by a patch and there are legitimate business reasons for alternate configurations. Technology changes will continue to accelerate and we will continue to fail if we separate those who make security decisions from those who make design decisions. DevOps is all about telemetry so we need to make security requirements and its data a part of development and delivery pipelines.
I agree: However the security community and many vendors are actively collaborating towards the CVE approach: https://cve.mitre.org/ Which is a standard way of ensuring vulnerabilities are reported and hooked into the vulnerability solutions available on the market.
So to take an example: https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/132756
You will note that the site immediately uses the CVE rating with a CVSS rating along with sufficient information for most users to realise the impact, severity and the potential remedy.
Take the recent "Bad Rabbit" situation: https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/collection/XFTAS-SI-2017-00001-Bad-Rabbit-51701e9c25aaaf7e02b19...
This is an advisory, so such attacks can provide early notifications of pending issues - something vulnerability scanning and management cannot provide. This is an initiative by IBM, to raise the bar, and ensure people and systems actually collaborate actively, sharing information both in the public and by private groups as required. But at least the information is available in a digestible format for those interested, and also in summary form, which can easily be digested by senior staff as well.
So by using vulnerability scanning and collaborative sharing of information, one can be much be prepared with timely notifications and to follow through to ensure they are protected or at least plan for the worst scenario.
First, kudos to all who replied on this topic. Your thought processes and ideas on this topic are spot-on. We have in place various methods to make this about risk. The higher the CVE number, the greater the risk of the VULNERABILITY.
I have stressed repeatedly to my students in my classes that the top 1-2 priority should be INVENTORY: Hardware and Software. How do you protect what you don't know about? And what you DO know about, how are you protecting it?
There is a critical position that I feel is missing in this argument/discussion: EXPLOIT-ABILITY! If I have an embedded system that is totally off-network, and it has a high vulnerability, do I stop it from flying/sailing/building/cleaning etc., just because it has a high vulnerability? If the EXPLOITABILITY of the device is LOW, I think the CVE rating should be downgraded. There are products out there that do that. They work in conjunction with industry rated vuln scanners (i.e. Nessus), and re-prioritize the findings to have you focus on those systems that are actually an issue.
Everyone chases the CVE rating or CVSS scores. For the most part, you can safely do that. But as a hacker, do I necessarily want to focus my attention on the High or Critical vulnerabilities, knowing that MOST companies will patch those within 24 hours, or a week?
This is also a mind-set. I have seen this at several Fortune 500 companies, where the cycle of 30 day patching becomes imbedded and though-of as a requirement ("oh, we need a patch, well, we do that every 30 days). That mindset is outdated and wrong.
Excellent: Keep the good work up with your students. Which leads into the subject of "hygiene" - i.e. as you state if you don't know what you are protecting, and it is regularly updated and maintained, then things can leap out of the dark and bite very hard indeed, when you least expect it. This relates closely to Service Management and ITIL practices. Basic "hygiene".
The 30-day target for applying patches to high risk vulnerabilities is difficult to meet with production service systems. Deciding whether to apply each patch requires understanding the impact to production systems and any interaction with the running configuration. Patches do not always work as expected and patch installation can be complicated for many systems such as DBMS or even high availability network devices. So patches need to be tried first in a staging environment that matches the production environment. Not every one has such an environment. Patch installation instructions need to be bullet proof and account for the specific production service configuration. And guess what, the patch from the vendor may not be available for the particular OS or configuration you use. Or the patch may end up requiring an OS upgrade that necessitates more testing with production services. In a large development and support organization, ticking off all the boxes and getting approval to deploy might take a few more days. So the 30-day target can be a tough one to meet, even for CAT 1 critical vulnerabilities.


text:
A system of merino layers
that feel light and free
Our three different fits - slim, regular, and relaxed - ensure that when worn together, layers move and breathe like a single garment.
Slim fit
A snug, close-to-body fit for low bulk layering.
Regular fit
Neither snug nor loose - garments that are worn solo or over other layers.
Relaxed fit
Loose-fitting layers for a more relaxing feel.
Need more help?
Contact us here.


text:
Tornadoes have a habit of destroying some thing indiscrimately, while leaving other objects unmolested. There are many accounts of pieces of straw being thrown with such force by a tornado that they pierce of wood like an arrow. Northern South Dakota is the site of one such tornado oddity, a story so strange that it was printed in newspapers around the world. It is a tale reminiscent of the "Wizard of Oz," which is coincidental because it occurred not too far from Aberdeen, the hometown of Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum. It happened on July 1, 1955 in Bowdle, when a tornado swept through Walworth and Edmunds counties.
Nine year old Sharon Weron was riding a horse home from a neighbor's house, and her mother Marion was following by car a short distance away. Mrs. Weron describes it as a sticky day - so stuffy it was hard to breathe. The conditions were perfect for a tornado to form.
That is exactly what happened, just as Marian Weron got home. She looked back and saw a tornado come right at the horse - with her daughter still aboard. The twister picked up horse and rider, spinning them around in midair. Mrs. Weron followed them in her car, which was being battered by the force of the tornado.
"I was so afraid I would run over her," Marian Weron remembered. She told the Bowdle Pioneer, "I could see them only through lulls in the storm by watching for her blue shirt. The horse looked like a roll of wire, and seemed to be going in circles, the wind carrying them until they got to the top of a second hill..." The girl told the newspaper that she sailed over three fences, approximately 1000 feet, landing in a ditch along side the road, grown full of weeds. She protected her head with a leather jacket, but the hail pounded her body and hands, leaving them black and blue.
Marian Weron estimates the tornado carried her daughter one and one-quarter miles before setting her back down. Sharon Weron said she landed on her tummy, "just like an airplane," and held onto grass to stay on the ground. Yet except for bruises and welts from the hail, she was not hurt. Neither was the pony, which stoon nearby.
The account published in the Bowdle newspaper was picked up by the wire services, and the story spread to other countries. Servicemen overseas read about it in Stars and Stripes. The family got more than a hundred letters from as far away as England, Germany, and France, asking about the incident and requesting pictures.
Four decades after it happened, Marian Weron said she could still picture in her mind the tornado that carried her daughter away. Sharon Weron now lives with her husband near Sioux City. But she also lives with the memory of the freak horseback ride she took in the winds when she was a child.


text:
True Jet™ Essence with Broad'Tron™ Might
The all-new G5222 Electromatic® Double Jet™ BT V-Stoptail delivers Broad'Tron™ power with classic Jet clarity.
Chambered Mahogany Bodies
At the heart of each Electromatic Jet BT is a chambered mahogany body with maple top that produces a rich, present mid-range that accentuates big lows and shimmering highs.
All-new Black Top Broad'Tron Pickups
A pair of Black Top Broad'Tron pickups drive the chambered mahogany body with maple top through thick, aggressive overdrive while maintaining astounding definition and note balance suitable for the most pristine clean tone.
Versatile Controls
The Electromatic Jet BT is equipped with essential features that give you complete tonal control. The combination of individual pickup volume controls, master tone and master volume with treble bleed circuit provides intuitive global control over your pickup and tone settings.
Acoustic Centre offers free shipping on all new items to most locations within Australia on all orders over $99, excluding Western Australia, Northern Territory and Far North Queensland. Used items have a flat rate shipping fee of $59 within our usual shipping locations. We also offer competitive Express shipping options at checkout.
Customers located in Western Australia, Northern Territory and Far North Queensland recieve free shipping on all accessory orders over $99, but will incur a flat rate instrument or large item shipping charge of $179 (or $299 for Express shipping).
Occasionally due to issues with delivering to remote or unusual destinations, we aren't able to offer free postage. We reserve the right to retract the offer if freight costs exceed 15% of your purchase. We will always notify you if there is an issue and offer a full refund or arrange alternative delivery options.
All strings and accessories will be shipped with tracking via courier or Australia Post. Other items including guitars and amplification equipment will be shipped using our courier service providers, with a tracking number and signature on delivery.
Zip Money - Buy Now, Pay Later.
We offer 3 Months interest free on purchases under $1000, and 6 Months interest free on purchases over $1000.
Click here for more information and Application form - it only takes a minute!
Studio 19 Rentals - We rent the things people love.
Studio19 Rentals operates Australia's foremost in-store Rental program for musical instrument retailers, and allows you to have the gear of your dreams now for a low monthly price.
Studio19 offers:
Click here for more details.
We endeavour to show the actual instrument in stock whenever possible, but the guitar in stock may differ slightly from the one shown on our website. Materials used can look different from guitar to guitar, including timber grain and colour, parts colours and finishing. If an instrument is a one-of-a-kind or preowned guitar, the picture will always be of the actual guitar in stock, but production models may have slight variations to the picture shown.
If you're after a particular look, feel free to email us at email@example.com or send us a message through our chat service to request photos of the actual guitar in stock. We are more than happy to send through pictures of all in-stock guitars, to make your choice easier.
Please note that returns will not be accepted for variations in timber grain / colouring, finish variations and parts colouring, unless there is a fault with the instrument. If you have any questions at all regarding an instrument's appearance, just drop us a line - we're always happy to send photos, and if we have more than one instrument in stock you'll be able to choose the exact guitar that you receive!
Sign up to get the latest on offers, new releases and more!


text:
The informal economy in Africa is big business. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that its average size as a percentage of gross domestic product in sub-Saharan Africa is 41%. This ranges from under 30% in South Africa to 60% in Nigeria, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
It is also a huge employer. It represents about three-quarters of non-agricultural employment, and about 72% of total employment in sub-Saharan Africa. About 93% of new jobs created in Africa during that 1990s were in the informal economy.
The International Labour Office defines the informal economy as:
All economic activities by workers or economic units that are – in law or practice – not covered or sufficiently covered by formal arrangements.
Today the informal economy appears to be as important as ever to Africa and its future development. But governments, and international organisations like the World Bank and ILO, do not like the informal economy. As a result international policy has veered from supportive to antagonistic.
At times opposition to the informal economy has been violent. One example is the notorious Operation Murambatsvina ("get rid of trash") in Zimbabwe in 2005. At best it is directed at pulling the informal economy into the formal economy.
Antagonism is driven by a range of reasons. Informal firms do not pay tax. In addition, reports abound of child labour, low wages (especially for women) and low job security as well as high incidence of HIV.
Yet, as the Swedish International Development Co-operation points out, many governments are unaware of the contribution of the informal economy, particularly the high involvement of women.
The report also suggests that it is expanding and is here to stay. And a World Bank report points to a trend of people with higher levels of education entering the informal sector as a career of choice.
A glimpse of the future
Political economist Fantu Cheru asserts that:
… a closer look at the informal sector in Africa provides a glimpse of what could be achieved if Africa's economies and financial policies were more attuned to the continent's everyday realities.
He sees the informal economy as being community-based, representing:
… socio-political entities, with their own rules, forms of organisation and internal hierarchies, constituting a node of resistance and defiance against state domination.
The point is that practices more closely allied with collectivist communities may be far more appropriate than "modern" management methods. These methods are based on Western principles and neoliberal economic policies. They have largely been discredited as inappropriate to African communities.
But the informal economy is largely marginalised. It has a weak voice and is rarely listened to by policymakers in government or in international organisations. When policies are made they affect a large percentage of firms, entrepreneurs, employees and communities. But it is unlikely any have been consulted.
Issues that could be given more prominence in policymaking are access to capital and the provision of relevant training. More important is what the formal economy can learn from the informal economy as a model for economic development.
Indigenous practices in a globalised world
If communities that rely on economic activity in the informal sector are indeed the repositories for indigenous management, entrepreneurial and employment practices it is little wonder they are not listened to.
Indigenous refers to practices, knowledge and values that are related to, and grow out of, local and community circumstances. These often stand in contrast to international or global practices, knowledge and values produced by universities and international corporations.
The dominant discourse is that indigenous practices are outmoded, archaic and out of tune with modernity. Yet seeing indigenous practices and those in the informal economy as frozen in time is a mistake. Even the glib packaging in management consultancy circles of concepts like "ubuntu" presents a glorified perception of indigenous knowledge being static and timeless.
As Cheru has pointed out, the informal sector may represent a resistance, an alternative to the prevailing globalised view.
Even so, it exists in the globalised world. While constantly adapting, sometimes resisting, it is never apart from globalisation. Rather than eschewing modern technology, communications, the internet and social media, Africa has been embracing it. This is happening through:
better cellular telecommunications;
access to cheap smartphones; and
initiatives, not without controversy, such as Facebook's internet.org, providing free and wider internet access.
Hence, Facebook told us in June 2014 that:
… there are 100 million people coming to Facebook every month across the African continent, with over 80% on mobile.
This includes a majority of people living in the informal economy.
These developments are providing new tools to trade, to market products and to work. They may even be changing the nature of employment. With practices and organisations still rooted in local contexts and communities, identities are changing.
In addition, social media has the potential to change things by providing greater voice and potentially better representation.
Political leaders may have to start listening to entrepreneurs, managers and staff working in the informal economy to formulate more inclusive policies that may prove more relevant to Africa's development.


text:
T/house Ceramic Coating |
None, Black, Silver |
In StockIn StockOut of stockFeatures of the Garrett GTX GEN II:
GTX GEN II compressor wheels were designed using proprietary Honeywell computer simulation technology focusing on CFD analysis to optimize the wheel design to reach maximum efficiency and mass flow for each turbocharger. Each GTX GEN II turbocharger has the ability to create more air mass flow, offering enthusiasts a wider range of power output when tuning the vehicle. The 8mm dual ceramic ball bearing cartridge provides optimal turbo response and reliability through its reduction in shaft motion. The GEN II GTX Series Turbochargers feature a fully-machined compressor inlet, fully-machined compressor outlet, and fully-machined ported shroud.
Garrett also added a brand new compressor housing featuring a high-flowing design matched perfectly for the new compressor wheel upgrade. GEN II compressor housings are not interchangeable with GEN I compressor wheels; however, all GEN II turbochargers are outline interchangeable with the equivalent GT and GTX GEN I product. The new compressor housings are equipped with a fully machined speed sensor port that accepts the Garrett by Honeywell speed sensor (Sold separately). This feature allows tuners to understand existing operating conditions, which is important when fine tuning a turbocharger to its most efficient operating conditions. The speed sensor port comes plugged from the factory and can be removed using a 5mm allen key when ready to install a speed sensor kit.
All GEN II GTX series turbochargers are compatible with existing GT and GTX turbine housings kits.
Product Notes:
T/house Ceramic Coating |
None, Black, Silver |


text:
There are, as the cops would say, several facts "pertaining" to Mr Khan's kidnapping. Firstly, his son Hafiz Zaenullah, his brother Asif Iqbal and another man – a stonemason called Khaliq Dad – were killed by a drone attack on Mr Khan's home in December 2009. Secondly, he had filed a legal case in Pakistan against the American drone strikes, arguing that they constituted murder under domestic law. And thirdly – perhaps Mr Khan's most serious crime – he was about to leave for Brussels to address European Union parliamentarians on the dangers of American drone strikes in Pakistan.
In Madiha Tahir's recent documentary film Wounds of Waziristan, Mr Khan had talked about his family loss. His son Hafiz was a security guard at a local girls' school, and also studying for Grade 10. Asif, who had a Master's in English, was a government employee. Karim Khan saw what was left of their bodies, "covered in wounds". He found some of their fingers in the rubble of his home.
Thanks to constant reports of his kidnapping in the courageous Pakistani media and to the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court who ordered the Pakistani government to produce Karim Khan by next Thursday, the anti-drone campaigner is safe. For the moment.
But this is not going to set the world on fire. The "drone war", as American journalists inevitably call it – after all, it's not as if al-Qa'ida or the innocent victims are firing back with drones of their own – started under George W Bush, but most of the attacks, 384 of them since 2008, have been authorised by Mr Obama. The statistics of civilian deaths fluctuate wildly since most of the missiles are fired into the Pakistani frontier districts in which the government has little power. The minimum figure for civilian victims is almost 300 dead – some say almost 900 – out of a total of 2,500 killed. At least 50 people are believed to have been killed in follow-up strikes which slaughtered those going to the rescue of the wounded.
Of course, the drone syndrome has spread across the Middle East. The missiles rain down on al-Qa'ida and civilians alike in Yemen. The Israelis fired them into Lebanon in 2006; when a youth on a motorcycle fired at a night-time drone over Beirut, it fired back a missile that destroyed a downtown civilian apartment block. In Gaza, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights reported 825 deaths from Israeli drones during the 2008-09 war, a large percentage of them civilians.
Pakistani witnesses have told me that the missiles don't just appear suddenly in the sky. The drones arrive in clusters – 10 or 12 at a time, circling villages for an hour or two – a looking for targets on behalf of their "pilots" in the United States. Until at least 2009, the Americans flew drones – the most impressive was called the Reaper – from air bases inside Pakistan. Hence the sensitivities of the boys from the ISI and their irritation with Karim Khan.
The ethical disgrace of the drone syndrome is not that Mr Obama – or some US officer near Las Vegas – decides on the basis of satellite pictures, mobile phone calls, numbers dialled and the speed of vehicles, who should live or die. The really shameful aspect is that the drone war has become normal. It has gone on so long – and been the subject of so much protest, so regularly – that it has become banal, boring, matter-of-fact.
It was just the same in the 1990s when the US and Brits went hunting for Iraqi targets over the so-called "no-fly zones" in Iraq. For years they bombed and missiled "military targets" that supposedly threatened them. In the eight months up to August 1999, US and British pilots had fired more than 1,100 missiles against 359 Iraqi targets, flying about two-thirds as many missions as Nato pilots conducted over Yugoslavia during the 78-day bombardment of the same year. As well as anti-aircraft batteries, oil pipelines were blown up, storage depots destroyed and dozens of civilians killed, including several in a Basra housing estate. But each air raid was merely "nibbed" in our newspapers – a nib is a single paragraph in an inside-page News in Brief column – so that an entire air campaign was effectively carried out behind the backs of the US and British public in the years before the 2003 invasion.
In southern Lebanon, the Israelis controlled for 28 years a torture prison at Khiam for insurgents and their families – women as well as men – and electricity was frequently used on inmates by Israel's "South Lebanon Army" thugs. Amnesty, Human Rights Watch and the International Red Cross complained. But I will always remember the words of a Swiss Red Cross official when I asked him, within sight of Khiam, why the world did not condemn this dreadful place. "It has become normal," he replied.
And that's it. Kill or torture often enough, over a long enough time – not too many massacres, just a dribble of deaths over months and years – and you'll get away with it. If you kill the bad guys, it's OK. Pity about the rest. Just make sure that the war is sufficiently prosaic, and don't listen to Karim Khan.


text:
Please enter your name, email and zip code below to sign up!
Please enter your name, email and zip code below to sign up!
The Salvation Army provides spiritual services to anyone God brings across our path.
Motivated by the love of God, as a leader in Christian faith-based human services, The Salvation Army is committed to serve the whole person, body, soul and spirit with integrity and respect, using creative solutions to positively transform lives.
When I came to The Salvation Army, I had nothing left in me. However, the love I felt from this Church family has changed my life. I grew up in a tradition that was hard and when I started living life my way I lost everyone. The church here has become the family I lost and I am so happy that Jesus has brought me here.
When you think of The Salvation Army, you might picture red kettles or our thrift store. Yet most people don't realize we are a Christian church. We meet people's physical needs and heal souls through our spiritual ministry – by sharing the love of Jesus Christ and the promise of salvation. We want to help you explore what it means to have a personal relationship with God.
Services & Ministries
Whether church is already part of your life or you are experiencing faith for the first time, you are always welcome at our weekly worship service Sunday mornings at 11 a.m. We also offer spiritual ministries during the week.
Our Church's Vision
We will meet regularly to worship one true God, welcome everyone who enters our doors with the love of Christ, actively pursue lasting relationships, and build God's kingdom one person at a time by providing opportunities for service that flow out of hearts filled with grace.
Men's and Women's Ministries
We want adults to reach a deeper understanding of God's hope and love for them. We believe that through fellowship in small groups. engaging worship that invites you to come as you are and leave transformed. Adults have the ability to discover a new life in Jesus.
Children's Ministry
We exist to help children first know that God created them intentionally for a purpose, and secondly that He loves them deeply. We bring interactive classes and illustrated videos to our children to keep them engaged and learning not only about God but actually getting to know Jesus and building a personal relationship with Him.