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Remote Desktop Services Remote Code Execution Vulnerability Recently we have been aware of the Vulnerability in Windows system and we are keeping a close watch on the recently disclosed Remote Code Execution(RCE) vulnerabilities by Microsoft. The two reported vulnerabilities are also marked 'wormable' like the 'BlueKeep' ... إقرأ المزيد »
Webmin - Remote Command Execution Vulnerability We have been made aware of a remote exploit in Webmin versions 1.882 to 1.921 that would allow users to run arbitrary commands. The parameter old in password_change.cgi contains a command injection vulnerability that can be exploited for remote command execution.Version 1.890 is vulnerable in ... إقرأ المزيد »
IMPORTANT - THIS NOTICE AFFECTS ALL EXISTING LICENSES AND NEW ORDERS FROM 1ST SEPTEMBER 2019 ONWARDS. cPanel announced a new pricing structure last month which moves from a fixed price per server to charging based on the number of accounts on the server. This new structure affects all existing licenses and comes into effect from 1st September ... إقرأ المزيد »
Exim is the mail server software cPanel & WHM servers use. Last week an exploit for Exim was identified, and today a patch for the exploit was released. This exploit allowed for both local and remote root-level privilege escalation. That means that you won't need to be able to access the server as a user to exploit the server, as is the ... إقرأ المزيد »
As you may already be aware, On January 16, 2019, Google announced a price update for G Suite Basic and G Suite Business edition which will be effective from April 02, 2019. Google has transformed from providing Gmail solution a decade ago to a more powerful platform with more than dozen applications. These applications with ... إقرأ المزيد »
The Heartbleed software bug is not only one of the most serious online security breaches in recent memory, it has also demonstrated how difficult it is for websites to tell their customers whether they're at risk or not.The Heartbleed Bug is a serious vulnerability in the popular OpenSSL cryptographic software library. This weakness allows ... إقرأ المزيد »
Dear Customers,
To increase stability and performance we have moved the ProHosterz Client Area to a dedicated subdomain.
New Client Area Url: http://clients.prohosterz.com
ProHosterz Support Team
We have detected a possible defect on the power of our USA node (ns4005125.ip-198-27-66.net) which could cause a failure in case of high consumption.In order to replace the power supply, we will have to power off the server node (with a software shutdown) for about 10 minutes.In order to reduce the inconvenience, this 10 minutes maintenance will ... إقرأ المزيد »
As I type these words, there is an on-going and highly-distributed, global attack on WordPress installations across virtually every web host in existence. This attack is well organized and again very, very distributed; we have seen over 90,000 IP addresses involved in this attack.At this moment, we highly recommend you log into any WordPress ... إقرأ المزيد »
Hello,This is to inform you that recently we have landed into issue with Paypal and due to which all paypal transactions are frozen. Till we resolve this matter we request you to please do not make any transaction with our paypal account email@example.com. In the meantime you can use other payment gateway such as 2Checkout & ... إقرأ المزيد »

subset: commoncrawl


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Art museum to create visitors' center
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts plans to open a visitors' center in a 163-year-old building on its Richmond campus.
VMFA plans to rehabilitate and repurpose the Robinson House, a Italianate building constructed around 1850, to include a regional visitor center.
The visitors' center will be operated in collaboration with Richmond Region Tourism.
The art museum has become the region's biggest attraction since its reopening in May 2010 following a major expansion.
The visitors' center is scheduled to open in summer 2015 in time for the UCI World Championship cycling event in September of that year.
The preservation and rehabilitation of Robinson House will stabilize its structure, and reclaim interior spaces to evoke the building's past.
In addition to the tourism center, a gallery is planned to interpret the history of the site from Native American times to its role as the headquarters and museum for the R. E. Lee Camp, No. 1, Confederate Veterans for 56 years, among other uses.
VMFA has engaged Glavé & Holmes' Cultural Studio for the project. VMFA has nominated Robinson House to the National Register for Historic Landmarks and the Virginia Landmarks Register.


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Where the Streets Have Your Name
By far the most Tweeted map this week was this Google Map that lets you find all the roads, parks and rivers that share your name around the world.
If you haven't already tried this vanity map search give it a go now.
Groupon Now
Groupon has finally turned on location and has become a lot more useful in the process. Groupon Now lets you view the nearest deals to your location on a Google Map. It is available both from your desktop and from your mobile device.
At the moment Groupon Now has very limited coverage. But this is Groupon so this will eventually be huge. Coupon maps are one of the biggest trends in online maps this year and Groupon, Facebook and Google will no doubt be the biggest players in this market.
LoveFre.sh is a location based service to help you connect with locally produced food, wherever you are.
The LoveFre.sh Google Map features the latest check-ins made with the app and provides a great way to find local food markets and outlets selling locally produced food.


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I've been in a gi since I got out of diapers. I started off in karate, then jiu-jitsu and Muay Thai, and finally wrestled in high school. Practicing martial arts has not only made me better at kicking and punching. The endurance, the mental discipline, the balance and flexibility, and the strength I've gained from martial arts have tremendous carryover to my performance in other sports.Endurance is important when practicing martial arts. In practice, in competition, and in self-defense situations, having the endurance to execute techniques is vital to safety. Martial arts emphasizes endurance with cross-training and technique drills.
Before and after martial arts practice, classes will typically jog around for 10-15 minutes to increase heart rate and warm up the muscles. Sometimes the time spent jogging will be longer. Other times the intensity of the jog will be higher.
Endurance is also improved through technique drills. Hitting pads and shadowboxing for prolonged periods increases heart rate and over time, improves overall endurance. This endurance translates well to sports with lots of running and prolonged periods of play such as soccer, basketball, and tennis.
Martial arts teaches mental discipline. In most schools, students are discouraged from picking fights, abusing drugs, and bullying others. Students are rather taught to be humble, to live a healthy lifestyle, and to work hard. My school had its own honor system, with rules that emphasized the values of good character and good work ethic.
The values and discipline learned through martial arts follow students to school, work, and other sports. Martial arts training requires focus inside and outside of the dojo. Being attentive and obeying instructors is crucial to martial arts learning. Success only follows consistent hard work and focus towards one's craft.
The discipline gained from martial arts makes an athlete more coachable and disciplined in other sports. Athletes will be able to pick up techniques more quickly and have greater focus on the court or field.
Many of the techniques in martial arts require great balance and flexibility. Both of these skills are emphasized in schools with drills, and static and dynamic stretching. Static and dynamic stretching is a key part of every warm-up.
Some techniques require more balance and flexibility than others. Front kicks, for example, require balance to plant one foot on the ground while kicking with the other. Front kicks also require great flexibility to bring the kicking foot to appropriate height. The consistent repetition of techniques like this will improve flexibility and balance over time.
The balance and flexibility gained from martial arts can be almost universally beneficial to performance in other sports. In fact, I can't think of a single sport where increased balance and flexibility wouldn't be helpful. Balance and flexibility is even crucial in dynamic sports like football, wrestling, and basketball.
Another benefit of martial arts training is strength. No, doing karate or jiu-jitsu won't make anyone look like a bodybuilder, but the functional strength necessary to perform techniques will be useful in other sports.
In martial arts, core strength is the base of every technique. The power generated for every kick, punch, and throw goes through the core. The core is also responsible for keeping proper posture and breathing. Many classes will emphasize core strength by doing core workouts such as planks and crunches.
While the core is the primary focus of martial arts strength training, the rest of the muscles are not neglected. Drilling techniques makes the body more efficient at channeling its own strength. For example, an inexperienced martial artist may only throw punches using their arms. But a more experienced artist understands how to use the entire body to punch.
Core strength is important for any sport, especially ones requiring a repeated exertion of force. Martial arts core training will help anyone's performance in kicking a ball, throwing a ball, etc. Martial arts will also improve an athlete's efficiency in using their own strength. Being more efficient will conserve energy and increase output in any sport.
Martial arts is one of the most challenging and rewarding sports there is. Training requires a serious amount of focus and athleticism that will not only make a better martial artist, but a better overall athlete. The passive skills such as endurance, strength, flexibility, and balance cross over to almost every sport. The mental discipline will help out in sports, school, and everything in between.


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This limited edition Giclée Art Print, designed by Gabriel T Toro, comes with a numbered and signed certificate of authenticity. Printed on 100% cotton, acid-free, heavyweight paper using HDR UltraChrome Archival Ink, this artwork reflects our commitment to the highest color, paper, and printing standards.
This limited edition Fine Art Block designed by Gabriel T Toro is numbered, signed and comes with a certificate of authenticity. Artwork is printed on fine art paper using archival inks and mounted to a 2" deep hand stained dark brown frame. Comes ready to hang.
Probably there has not been a woman more iconic in all history than the beautiful Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn gave off sensuality, sense of humor and sexuality in equal parts. I love painting portraits of Marilyn since I was a kid. And I always try to paint Mrilyn away from using as a reference the most popular photos and that, after Warhol, usually paint all the people.
Malaga, Spain


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By Ronald Bailey
In his new movie, "Religulous," comedian Bill Maher makes wicked fun of the religiously credulous. But it turns out that the folks who believe in talking snakes and 72 virgins per martyr may be on to something. As wacky as some dogmas are, religions do appear to encourage generosity and honesty. At least that is the claim made in a fascinating review article, "The Origin and Evolution of Religious Prosociality," published in the current issue of Science.
Evolutionary biologists argue that there's nothing surprising about genetically related individuals making sacrifices for their kin: They are helping some of their own genes get passed along to the next generation. But what might cause people to make sacrifices for the good of unrelated strangers? Here, according to University of British Columbia social psychologists Ara Norenzayan and Azim F. Shariff, religion plays a key role.
The authors have winnowed three decades of empirical evidence, looking for examples of religious prosociality, which they define as "the idea that religions facilitate acts that benefit others at a personal cost." Specifically, their hypothesis is that religion encourages people to sacrifice their individual fitness for the benefit of unrelated individuals or for their group. For example, young men may risk sacrificing themselves in war to protect their tribe. So how does religion encourage prosociality? The answer is that being watched by a Big-Brother-in-the-Sky tends to make believers nervous about being selfish.
This observation accords with numerous studies showing that people behave better when they think that someone may be watching them. For example, one remarkable study in 2006 found that just being under the gaze of eyes on a poster nearly tripled the contributions to an office coffee kitty. Exposing participants in a laboratory economic game to computer-generated eyespots while they played made them twice as generous as those who were not. Another study found that participants in a laboratory economic game were nearly four times stingier with other players when they thought they were anonymous than when they thought they were being observed. In other words, watched people are nicer people. Why should that be? It's because we want to have the reputation of being cooperative and prosocial, so that other people, especially strangers, will want to cooperate with us.
"The cognitive awareness of gods is likely to heighten prosocial reputational concerns among believers, just as the cognitive awareness of human watchers does among believers and nonbelievers alike," hypothesize the authors. But supernatural oversight is even better because it "offers the powerful advantage that cooperative interactions can be observed even in the absence of social monitoring."
So does religion work, in the sense of encouraging prosocial other-regarding behavior? It depends. In one famous 1973 study, degrees of religiosity did not predict which students would stop to help someone lying on a sidewalk appearing to be sick. However, in another experiment, two players would simultaneously decide how much money to withdraw from the same envelope — if their combined withdrawals exceeded the amount in the envelope, neither would get any money. Systematically, less money was withdrawn when the game was played at religious kibbutzim than when it was played at secular kibbutzim. This finding supported the researchers' prediction that "men who participate in communal prayer most frequently will exhibit the highest levels of cooperation."
So why do religious believers tend to cooperate more? In one illuminating study cited by the researchers, volunteers were given the option to raise money for a sick child's medical bills. Some would-be volunteers were told that it was very likely that they would be asked to help, while others were told that there was only a small chance that they would be called on: "In the latter condition, participants could reap the social benefits of feeling (or appearing) helpful without the cost of the actual altruistic act. Only in the latter situation was a link between religiosity and volunteering evident," claim Norenzayan and Shariff. Religion played a role when it appeared that volunteering would improve one's reputation without much personal cost.
Even more interesting are studies that find that invoking an unseen watcher enhances moral behavior. In one amazing experiment, when participants were told that the ghost of a dead student was haunting the experimental room, they cheated less on a computer test. Other researchers report that when experimental subjects were primed with religious words, they cheated significantly less on a subsequent task. Similarly, Norenzayan and Shariff found that subjects in experimental economic games were more generous when God concepts were implicitly activated before play.
The authors hypothesize that the belief in morally concerned gods who keep track of who's been naughty or nice helps create and stabilize large-scale societies. "Large groups, which until recently lacked institutionalized social-monitoring mechanisms, are vulnerable to collapse because of high rates of freeloading. If unwavering and pervasive belief in moralizing gods buffered against such freeloading, then belief in such gods should be more likely in larger human groups where the threat of freeloading is most acute," suggest the authors. In fact, a cross-cultural analysis of 186 societies confirms this prediction: The larger a society, the more likely its members believe in deities that are concerned about human morality.
In small, hunter-gatherer bands or subsistence-farming villages, it's pretty easy to keep track of just how cooperative your neighbors are. But when groups grow to encompass thousands and eventually millions of strangers, a Big-Brother-in-the-Sky can watch how your fellow citizens behave when you can't. And even better, Sky Big Brother can punish them with eternal damnation if they swindle you. One big downside is that groups have different Sky Big Brothers, which means that "the same mechanisms involved in in-group altruism may also facilitate out-group antagonism." In other words, kill the infidels!
Shariff and Norenzayan note that while religion remains a powerful facilitator of prosociality in large groups, modern societies have devised secular replacements for Sky Big Brother, including courts, police and other contract-enforcing institutions. Also, the modern world is headed toward a transparent society in which social monitoring will be nearly as omnipresent as that of a hunter-gatherer band. Increasingly sophisticated information and communication technologies will enable anyone to assess your reputation for prosociality with a few mouse clicks. Sky Big Brother is being outsourced to the Web.
Bailey is Reason magazine's science correspondent and author of "Liberation Biology: A Moral and Scientific Defense of the Biotech Revolution."


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The 9 Most Racist Disney Characters
Don't Miss
These old Disney movies are a little bit like your aging Uncle Frank. Honestly, he means well when he points out that Will Smith is "well-spoken." It's just that he, like the assemblage of clips below, dates from a time when people were unfairly characterized by their ethnic background (the acceptable methods are, of course, religion, geography, sexual preference and income).
Don't Miss
The Merchant from Aladdin
The opening musical sequence from the hugely popular 1992 animated film had to be edited due to protest from Arab-American groups for saying about the Middle East what most of us were merely thinking.
Lesson Learned:
The Middle East is a barren wasteland where the justice system runs on a clear and simple limb-removal policy.
Best (Worst?) Moment:
"Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face" is the offending line, which was changed on the DVD to the much less provocative "Where it's flat and immense and the heat is intense." Whatever. Our question: In a city full of Arabic men and women, where the hell does a midwestern-accented, white piece of cornbread like Aladdin come from? Here he is next to the more, um, ethnic looking villain, Jafar.
Sebastian from The Little Mermaid
In this 1989 film, a Jamaican-sounding crab teaches Ariel that life is better "Under the Sea," because underwater you don't have to get a job.
Lesson Learned:
Up on the shore they work all day
Out in the sun they slave away
While we devotin'
Full time to floatin'
Under the sea!
Are we reading too much into it? Do you see anything wrong with how they've drawn "the duke of soul" at 1:57?
Still too subtle? How about at 2:01 when the "blackfish" appears?
Best (Worst?) Moment:
As far as Disney movies go, you've got two choices: unforgivably offensive and just slightly racially insensitive. Sebastian definitely falls into the latter category. So while making Sebastian a charming, party-loving stereotype is a baby step forward for Disney, it's still a stumble backwards for civil rights.
The Crows from Dumbo
In this 1941 classic, Dumbo the flying elephant runs into a band of jive-talking black crows who sing, "I'd be done see'n about everything/when I see an elephant fly!"
Lesson Learned:
Come on, blackbirds acting in a manner stereotypically assigned to African-Americans isn't that offensive. At least they didn't just get some white guy to do his best "black voice." Oh, really? They did? And, they called the lead character "Jim Crow?" Um, hey, look over there! It's a convincing, logical end to this argument!
Best (Worst?) Moment:
So many too choose from. The crows are very specifically depicted as poor and uneducated. They're constantly smoking; they wear pimptastic hats; and they're experts on all things "fly," so it's really a team effort contributing to the general minstrel-show feel to the whole number. You could pretty much pause this video at any second and use it as evidence in your hate-crime lawsuit against Disney.
For its time, though, the portrayal of the crows was almost progressive. The crows band together and help Dumbo learn to fly, so they're counted among the heroes of the film. Remember, this was just a couple of years after somebody introduced a bill to outlaw lynching and congress voted it down. So, you know, you take what you can get.
King Louie from The Jungle Book
Having outgrown the crude portrayal of African-Americans as black crows, in 1967 Disney decides to portray them as monkeys instead.
Lesson Learned:
All animals in the jungle speak in proper British accents. Except, of course, for the jive-talking, gibberish-spouting monkeys. Did we mention they desperately want to become "real people?"
Best (Worst?) Moment:
Fine, so an ape singing, "I wanna be like you" might be a little subtle, in a "we own multiple copies of Catcher in the Rye" conspiracy theory kind of way. Still, considering the author of the The Jungle Book also thought up "the white man's burden", we don't think it's too much of a stretch.
The Siamese Twin Gang from Chip n' Dale Rescue Rangers
Overt racism against African-Americans was obviously intolerable by the time this Chip n' Dale series began in 1989. Overt racism against Asians, luckily, was still on the table.
Lesson Learned:
Even as criminals, Asian-Americans immigrants, represented here by a gang of cats, have become integral parts of American culture. Kidding! They own a laundromat, run an illegal, basement gambling operation and speak in horribly mangled "Engrish." It's like a designer of World War II propaganda posters accidentally quantum leaped into the body of a late '80s cartoon writer.
The video becomes cringe-worthy about six minutes in:
Best (Worst?) Moment:
The Siamese Cats sell their karate expert Juice Lee, a Japanese fighting fish, for a suitcase full of dead fish. If you can't find something offensive in that sentence, congratulations. You're a cyborg.
Sunflower the Centaur from Fantasia
Of all the items on this list, this is the one Disney has tried the hardest to make us forget.
Lesson Learned:
Even in Fantasia's beautiful, magical landscape, African centaurs are hoof-polishing handmaidens for prettier, Aryan centaurs. Also, 1940 was a great year to be a centaur fetishist and/or Don Imus.
Best (Worst?) Moment:
It was insulting enough for Disney to include the smiling servant stereotype to begin with, but, to make matters worse, they started categorically denying Sunflower's existence with the Fantasia re-release in 1960. How does that possibly make things better? "No, you misunderstand. In our perfect, Fantasia world, Africans aren't servants. They don't fucking exist."
The Indians from Peter Pan
In this charming musical number, the "Red Man" explains his people's history and culture.
Lesson Learned:
Why do Native Americans ask you "how?" According to the song, it's because the Native American always thirsts for knowledge. OK, that's not so bad, we guess. What gives the Native Americans their distinctive coloring? The song says a long time ago, a Native American blushed red when he kissed a girl, and, as science dictates, it's been part of their race's genetic make up since. You see, there had to be some kind of event to change their skin from the normal, human color of "white."
Best (Worst?) Moment:
It's a tie between Tiger Lilly's traditional Native American hussy dance, and the number of times Native American's misogynistic tendencies are played for laughs (hint: It's more than three!)
Uncle Remus from Song of the South
The tales of Br'er Rabbit are relayed by kindly old Uncle Remus, a black man happily working on a plantation in the post-Civil War South. Disney has never released this one on home video, for some reason.
Lesson Learned:
The late 1800s were a great time to be African-American and possibly on acid.
Best (Worst?) Moment:
Less eerie than any imaginary singing birds is what's not in the film. It's as if someone made a children's musical about Jews in post-World War II Germany that had a number titled "Hey! Nothing Bad Has Happened to Us, Ever." Also failing to reach the screen: When the movie had its world premiere in 1946 in Atlanta, James Baskett, the actor who played Remus, was not allowed to attend. Zip-a-dee-doo-dah!
Thursday from Mickey Mouse and the Boy Thursday (Book)
In this forgotten Mickey Mouse book from 1948, Mickey gets a crate full of West African bananas, and finds an African inside instead! Ha!" The savage soon is confused by Mickey's human lifestyle and commits acts of random violence.Lesson Learned:
"What's the deal with Africans? If they're not trying to eat it or throw a spear at it, they're worshiping it as a some sort of tribal deity, am I right?"
Best (Worst?) Moment:
Where to begin? The book compiles almost every offensive preconception of Africa lurking in the American subconscious.
Some choice quotes:
"Well, well." Mickey laughed ... "So I'm supposed to be your governess and nursemaid, and you can't even talk!""Let me see. A genuine African native," Mickey murmured. "Perhaps I should start showing him off."
Perhaps the most depressing part is that this was somebody's idea of tolerance, back in the ideallic '40s:
"Poor little guy! He just makes mistakes. He doesn't know any better. I'll just have to be patient and teach him the right way to do things," said Mickey.
You may also enjoy Ben Joseph's 10 Most Ridiculous Overseas Rip-Offs of American Films.


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This project is an adaptive reuse and gut renovation of an existing abandoned cheesecake factory in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. It is situated among two and three story buildings. The mustard yellow cast stone and concrete framed structure is in excellent shape, and lends itself to a simple residential conversion with large windows and 11 foot ceilings. The scope of work includes relocating the existing stair core and adding a public stair, and opening up previously closed in masonry openings.
A new glass and steel penthouse floor shall be added on the roof to create top-floor duplex apartments, and will provide access to large private terraces and magnificent views of Brooklyn.project
Our design retains the building's original industrial character, dating back to 1911, but gives it a residential edge with transparent glass railings on new discrete balconies, and the substitution of the existing loading docks with an access ramp at street level.
The building shall remain in its existing color, and the caste iron cornice and first floor facade shall be dark grey.
The alteration of the building in compliance with Article 7B of the New York Multiple Dwelling Law permits a new penthouse addition on the roof, which redefines the base and main portion of the building as a three-part facade and completes the building visually by creating a new addition that echoes the classical first floor facade in color and massing but uses glass and steel as a modern expression.


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The words were so brazen that they have created a firestorm globally. Characterized as "outspoken" and "brash" [1] in the international media, Osaka mayor Toru Hashimoto has claimed that "comfort women"—the thousands of Asian women who were forced to serve as prostitutes during the Second World War—were "necessary" for the morale of Japanese troops.
"Anyone can understand that the system of comfort women was necessary to provide respite for a group of high-strung, rough and tumble crowd of men braving their lives under a storm of bullets," Hashimoto said, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Although the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and other political figures quickly distanced themselves from Hashimoto's remarks, Hashimoto was simply putting into words what many Japanese elites—and many in the Japanese public more broadly—believe to be true.
The Osaka mayor's remarks came in the wake of another scandal: a mass visit in April by some 170 sitting legislators and members of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet to the Yasukuni Shrine [2], the home of Japan's war dead, which includes among its honorees 14 convicted war criminals. Many have condemned the ritual as a sign of the country's unrepentant attitude for its conduct during World War II.
Failure to Confront the Past
Japan's experience contrasts with that of Germany, where society was subjected to a process of "denazification," the centerpiece of which involved embedding Nazi Germany's responsibility for the war and its unspeakable atrocities, including the genocide inflicted on the Jewish people, in the national consciousness.
In Japan, in contrast, Washington played a role in fostering historical amnesia. Instead of dethroning the emperor after the Japanese defeat, the United States kept Hirohito in power for purposes of political stability. The main symbol of Japan's imperial aspirations was thus exempted from retribution, and the meaning of that gesture was not lost on the Japanese.
Moreover, the window of opportunity that saw a flurry of U.S.-imposed reforms destroy the old imperial army and reduce the power of the bureaucratic and economic elites closed with the onset of the Cold War and the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950. Seeing the defeated Japanese elite as an ally against Communism, and needing a revived Japanese industry as a base for war materiel production, the United States allowed the rehabilitation of key figures in the Japanese war machine. That process climaxed in 1957, when Nobusuke Kishi, a top official in the Manchurian puppet regime and later wartime Japan's minister of trade and industry, became prime minister. This would have been the equivalent of Albert Speer, Adolf Hitler's surviving economic henchman, becoming head of post-war Germany.
Reemergence of Chauvinism
Owing to wartime suffering, pacifism has long been a widespread sentiment in Japan. But instead of building on it to get the nation to accept responsibility for its wartime crimes and atrocities, elites promoted rapid economic growth as an alternative to national soul searching—indeed, as an antidote to it, given the willing participation of almost the whole society in imperial aggression.
Conservatives committed to maintaining Japan's subordinate status to Washington have dominated the country's politics for the last six decades. But with the two-decade-long recession that the country entered in the 1990s—and the economic ascent of China, which Japan's elites see as their mortal rival—political and ideological trends in Japan have become more fluid. Right-wing elements that seek to restore Japan's imperial glory have taken advantage of the nation's lack of internalization of war guilt and responsibility for war crimes to become a political force. Meanwhile, the left, which has championed pacifism and national responsibility for war crimes, has become more and more marginal. The view that the comfort women were a myth and that the 1937 Rape of Nanking, which involved the massacre of thousands of Chinese civilians, never happened, has gained widespread popularity.
Far-right politicians such as Hashimoto and former Tokyo governor and nationalist ideologue Shintaro Ishihara have successfully fished in these troubled waters. In a move calculated to inflame relations with China, Ishihara proposed that the Tokyo city government buy the disputed Senkaku Islands. Meanwhile, Hashimoto played on the Japanese public's frustration over the government's failure to address the radioactive and political fallout from the 2011 tsunami by advocating a "dictatorship." Ishihara has advocated a nuclear-armed Japan, while Hashimoto proposes "simulating" possession of nuclear weapons while the parliament is debating whether or not to go nuclear.
Japan Moves Right
In the general elections of December 2012, Hashimoto and Ishihara's party, the Japan Restoration Party, became the country's second-largest opposition party. The conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) rode back to power, this time with an avowed chauvinist, Shinzo Abe, becoming prime minister.
Abe, who was in power briefly in 2006-2007, shares with Hashimoto and Ishihara the desire to delete Article 9—the clause that outlaws war as an instrument of foreign policy—from the Japanese constitution. According to Australian analyst Tessa Morris-Suzuki, "Though Abe's comments on the nuclear weapons issue have been more circumspect than Ishihara's and Hashimoto's, he has expressed the view that the development of 'small' nuclear weapons would be permissible even under Japan's present constitution."
With the LDP and the Japan Restoration Party competing for the growing right-wing vote, the center of gravity of Japanese politics is moving right. In such a volatile context, one can only expect more incendiary statements from figures like Hashimoto as they go about their work of revising interpretations of the Japanese past in order to get to a future featuring an aggressively assertive Japan. With the previous generations' failure to come to terms with their nation's checkered past, many Japanese unsettled by contemporary conditions marked by permanent recession and demoralization now find that promised future increasingly seductive.
Walden Bello


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Leamington Spa, United Kingdom – Following the release of their multiplayer game Gobang Social in New Zealand, Kwalee have launched a new and improved version of their game into more App Stores.
After developing features and adding further enhancements to Gobang Social, version 1.2 is now available in Australia, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Taiwan. Fully integrated with Facebook, players can begin playing now with their Facebook friends.
Kwalee released V1.0 of Gobang Social in the New Zealand App Store at the beginning of February. This was accompanied with a discussion forum to develop the game into V1.1, which was released 3 weeks later.
Gobang Social is a turn based strategy game that is played with Facebook friends. It is derived from the Asian game Gomoku. Kwalee's fun game is a version of connecting 5 in a row horizontally, vertically or diagonally, in a 12 X 12 matrix that requires strategic thinking. The game is free to buy and free to play.
The new V1.2 release contains many further enhancements including play against random opponents, instant messaging chat, a streamlined user interface, great music and sound effects for a great gaming experience.
David darling, Kwalee CEO, is delighted:
"It is fantastic to publish the first game in new countries. The great team we have built at Kwalee have gone from nothing, to being a publisher in a very short time. Now we look to build on this with a further range of games and with continuous improvements to those that we publish."
Bruce Everiss, Kwalee CMO, is behind the marketing strategy:
"Kwalee is climbing many learning curves in an incredibly competitive marketplace. Everything we do is driven by the customer, and this phased launch allows us to adapt to give them what they want."
Device Requirements:
* iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad
* Requires iOS 4.0 or later
Pricing and Availability:
Gobang Social 1.2 is Free and available in select countries exclusively through the iTunes App Store in the Games category.
Gobang Social 1.2
Download from iTunes
YouTube Video
Gobang forum
Gobang Game Description (pdf)
Kwalee is a startup company based in Leamington Spa to develop and publish multiplayer social games for mobile devices. Founded by David Darling CBE who has many decades of experience at the top level of the video game industry with contributions to very many #1 games on many platforms in his CV. Kwalee is different. We seek to excite and entertain our customers with innovative new products that provide special experiences. Our ethos is based around a set of core values that put the customer first and which harness the creative skills of our staff to the maximum in order to do so. Kwalee is still at its beginning and so is very actively recruiting those special people who want to join us in our exciting journey. Copyright (C) 2012 Kwalee. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.


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Newark Street Collection | T-50 Slim
Non-cutaway model with thinbody arched maple top. Guild's T-50 is based on a mid-1960s T-50 model and features an arched maple back, maple sides, and a sleek, Vintage Sunburst finish. With beautiful vintage details like the Guild harp tailpiece, iconic center-raised headstock and ivoroid binding, the T-50 harkens back to the classic Guild vibe of the 1950s and '60s. Low output single-coil pickups and an easy-to-amplify 1 3/4" body depth complete this guitar, which promises to offer another generation of guitarists the distinctive Guild styling and voice.


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By Kolawole Olaniyan
President Muhammadu Buhari was elected in 2015 after emphasising his track record of tackling corruption, and his pledge to stop public officials from looting the country's treasury, after he rightly declared: "if we don't kill corruption, this corruption will kill us."
Mr. Buhari has backed his commitment by putting in place some important measures such as the Treasury Single Account (TSA), the Whistle-Blowing Policy and the establishment of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, to combat the systemic theft of public resources and by extension, its pernicious effects on human rights and development.
The TSA, in particular, aims to pave the way for the timely payment and capturing of all revenues going into the government treasury, without the intermediation of multiple banking arrangements.
However, real progress is yet to be made with respect to the prosecution of cases of grand corruption. High-ranking corrupt officials rarely end up in jail, as suspects continue to exploit the flaws in the justice system and the anti-corruption programme's legal and institutional mechanisms, to the point where individuals are profiting from their crimes.
Part of the problem is the authority's disdain for the rule of law, as illustrated by the tendency to pick and choose which court orders it complies with. This selective application of the rule of law implies an agenda to delegitimise the judiciary, and perhaps, inadvertently, render it incapable of contributing to the anti-corruption fight.
Mr. Buhari has put the rather slow pace of his government's fight against corruption down to the 'lack of cooperation by the judiciary.' As he put it: "In fighting corruption, however, the government would adhere strictly by the rule of law. Not for the first time I am appealing to the judiciary to join the fight against corruption".
But while the judiciary may not as yet be up to speed in terms of accelerating the hearing of high-level corruption cases – consistent with the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 – and adopting an activist-cum-public-interest approach to such cases, judges can do very little if the investigation and prosecution of grand corruption cases continue to be poorly handled.
Mr. Buhari cannot on the one hand blame the judiciary for 'failing to work' with his government in the fight against corruption, while on the other be disobeying judgments by the same judiciary.
Yet, obeying court orders is the bare minimum required of Mr. Buhari by his constitutional oath of office to: "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria [1999]", and by extension, defend the independence of the judiciary. But the attitude of the government to court orders has fallen far short of this constitutional commitment.
Court orders that are yet to be complied with include those obtained by human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, particularly the judgments by Nigerian courts ordering: The establishment of education banks to assist poor students to obtain loans to pursue tertiary education; the restoration of the People's Bank of Nigeria to give loans without collateral to underprivileged citizens, and more recently, the release of Islamic Movement of Nigeria leader, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky and his wife, Zeenah, from unlawful detention.
Other high-profile judgments the authorities are refusing to obey include at least three judgments obtained by the anti-corruption group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP). The first is the judgment by Justice Hadiza Rabiu Shagari ordering the government to tell Nigerians about the stolen asset it allegedly recovered, with details of the amounts recovered.
The second judgment, by Justice Mohammed Idris, ordered the government to publish details on the spending of stolen funds recovered by successive governments since the return of democracy in 1999, while the third judgment, by the ECOWAS Court of Justice in Abuja, ordered the Nigerian authorities to provide free and quality education to all Nigerian children without discrimination.
Disobedience of court orders is inconsistent and incompatible with any definition of the rule of law. It's very difficult for any country to successfully combat corruption if its government doesn't obey court orders. If government doesn't obey court orders, citizens are unlikely to do so.
Disobedience of court orders implies the executive can do what it likes.
The government has also claimed that obeying judges' decisions would require an assessment of 'national security' implications and potential to spark crisis. However, this position is the exact opposite of the rule of law.
The rule of law implies the supremacy of the law as opposed to arbitrariness by government, or the whims and fancies of its officials. This means that it is the responsibility of every law-abiding government to obey decisions of lawfully constituted courts, including those the authorities may dislike.
The government can disagree with court orders, but if it has issues with any of these orders, it ought to use all available means of appealing them rather than refusing to obey them. Deliberate disobedience of judges' decisions would, ultimately, shatter citizens' confidence in judges' ability to champion the rule of law.
In any case, the surest way for any government to promote and improve national security is to uphold the rule of law, by among others complying with court orders.
Supporters of the government may point to Mr. Buhari's political will to fight corruption. To his credit, Mr. Buhari has shown some level of political will to fight corruption, at least when compared with the record of his predecessor, former President Goodluck Jonathan, who once infamously said: "stealing is not corruption."
However, political will is not enough to tackle corruption if the government routinely disobeys court orders. In fact, the fight against corruption can only succeed if all citizens, including those who serve in the government, are adequately constrained by the law.
Make no mistake: If Mr. Buhari fails to demonstrate commitment to obeying judges' decisions, some of which are highlighted above, he will be striking at the foundation of Nigerian constitutional order, suggesting that his government is above the law.
Mr. Buhari should embrace the rule of law as a logical extension of his commitment to 'kill corruption'. The rule of law can check corruption and abuses of power. If the fight against corruption is to succeed (and by extension, the rule of law is to be upheld), it is vital that court orders are rigorously and predictably enforced.
It is to be hoped that Mr. Buhari and his government would learn from John Locke's dictum that "Where-ever law ends, tyranny begins" and Thomas Paine's declaration that "in free countries, the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other."
As the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights put it (in Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights v Zimbabwe, para 118): "The alternative to the rule of law is the rule of power, which is typically arbitrary, self-interested and subject to influences which may have nothing to do with the applicable law or the factual merits of the dispute."
Learning from these wise words may seem a tall order, but it is the one that the rule of law and Nigerian constitutional order commands.
Kolawole Olaniyan is the author of Corruption and Human Rights Law in Africa and legal advisor to Amnesty International's International Secretariat.


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Database-backed Web Sitesby Philip Greenspun, updated March 1997Note: this book was superseded in 1998 by a new edition |
Note that the book was also produced by Hanser in a German translation by Olaf Borkner-Delcarlo
"Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement; then it becomes a mistress, and then it becomes a master, and then a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster, and fling him out to the public."But I got so much email asking for more detail that I wrote The book behind the book behind the book....
I think this book is great. It could be considered a great CS comedy classic (like Dilbert) as well as being informative.
-- Russ Tessier, September 13, 1997
Philip Greenspun's "Database Backed Web Sites" is an irreverent but informational and entertaining book that reads like a cross between a Dogbert management handbook and an O'Reilly manual. This book is completely unique to any technical manual I have ever read. It presents pertinent technical material in a way that is actually entertaining. This book is worth reading for any person interested in setting up a Web site (whether or not the site will include interactive database systems). It is particularly useful for technical personnel, but also contains enough high-level information to make it useful for less technical managers. This book is almost unique in the way that Mr. Greenspun gives his experience-based opinions on web tool and database manufacturers. No wishy-washy reviews exist in this book. Mr. Greenspun has case-reviewed his personal use of many of the more and less popular tools available today. Some of these reviews strongly suggest certain tools, other reviews strongly urge the reader not to use others. Mr. Greenspun is not afraid of offending manufacturers which have brought immature and ill-conceived products to market. This attribute is lacking in many of the technical magazines which exist today because the editors of these magazines cannot offend their advertisers. Because of Mr. Greenspun's different approach to tool review and his overall description of web technology, he has built an immensely informational book. I strongly suggest "Database Backed Web Sites".
-- Joe Nonneman, September 24, 1997
I've read your book Database Backed Web Sites and enjoyed it very much. It was the most entertaining technical book I've ever read. Come to think if it, it's the only technical book that I've ever read from cover to cover.One of my favorite parts was the case study of your Remind Me system. It was simple enough to follow, yet "real world" enough provide useful examples -- not just another tutorial that has you write six pages of code in order to print "Hello world" on the screen.
-- J. Piscioneri, November 1, 1997
Database Backed Web Sites is the reality behind the hype! We have distributed this book throughout our organization because it not only gives details on Web publishing, but gives the reader a feel for the "social environment" of the Web. It is much more than a book about Web databases, although that is what is really driving Web development. Our managers as well as our technicians and programmers enjoyed the book because it is written in an enjoyable, humorous way. We not only use it as a reference, but we all find ourselves going back to read passages and compare our own experiences to incidents mentioned in the book. The only problem is the title. It doesn't really do justice to the wealth of information and enjoyment that any reader will experience.
-- Mark Samis, November 4, 1997
Summary: if you want to [understand how to] build robust, useful, attractive websites, this is the book for you.There's much more to Greenspun's work than Dilbert/Dogbert's recycled truisms; don't compare them just because Greenspun's writing is witty and often very amusing. The difference is that Greenspun's book has *content*: real, useful, and very-well presented (and yes, the humor does help).
In a the Web's mediascape full of hype, punditry, and PR writing passing itself as technical content, Greenspun's book is welcome relief. This guy is a practical problem solver who retains the sense of technical elegance often confined to "academic" (not necessarily university!) environments. He tells us how to build production systems with existing technology, but he does not mince words about the dismal state-of-the-art.
The book covers from the nitty gritty but crucial detail of avoiding unix process forks to the clear but evidently (look around at the web) not obvious question of putting actual content on websites. That is, it not only covers the 'how', but also delves in the 'what' of web publishing, and profits from the understanding their synergy.
-- Cris Pedregal Martin, November 4, 1997
Excellent book. I hope some marketing people read it.This book won't turn you into a DBA, nor will it give you all the technical skills needed to make a fancy web site with animation and other BS. What it will do is help you to build a web site that's actually useful. Unfortunately, this is sorely lacking out there on the web. Additionally, this book will teach you how to create a site that will attract both new and repeat readers.
Philip gets a lot of points for pushing technology that is appropriate to the task. A good web site needs content. This content must be both growing and searchable. Content = data so what's better at maintaining data than a database(it's sad how many people out there are using C and flat files for this purpose)?
I'd have given the book a full 10 but I'm taking away 1/2 point because Philip has spent a little too much time in academia. He loses another 1/2 point because he and his fellow CS people at MIT couldn't get a printer to work with NT(I've built PC's out of spare parts and gotten NT to work reliably without a lot of effort, and I went to UMass).
-- Paul Wilson, November 4, 1997
If you buy one book on the web this year and you already know HTML, make this book the one, because you're not going to learn anything from the other ones anyway.The quote you're looking for is "Why are they coming to your site? If you look at most Web sites, you'd presume that the answer is 'User is extremely bored and wishes to stare at a blank screen for several minutes while a flashing icon loads, then stare at the flashing icon for a few more minutes.'"
The book should really be called something like "Building Web Sites: How To Avoid Wasting Money". Clear ideas, no stupid hype, engaging writing. You may disagree with the concepts, but it's worth reading just to see what he has to say.
This text includes a "brain turned on" discussion of just about everything dumb in the web, from four page entrance tunnels to goofy multimedia presentations, to annoying interactive GIFs, to David Siegel. It doesn't tell you how much money you'll make putting up your dumb personal site, and is heavy enough to act as an "authoritative reference" in the general direction of managers that ask for stupid additions to the company site. Sure, you probably don't need a book to tell you all this - just a brain - but it's a fun read and you can look like you're engaging in "professional development" at work. See if you can get them to pay for it.
There's also a lot of discussion about how to interface a web server with a database. It's good, but it's not what makes this book great.
Added bonus: the best diagrams I've ever seen in a computer book, drawn on napkins. The lack of transition to goofy line art made them a lot easier to read.
The text, along with comments on the writing of the book, are available online at http://www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/wtr/dead-trees/ but I recommend just reading his comments and then buying the hardcopy. For one thing, you can read it anywhere rather than driving yourself blind reading a one inch thick book on your computer monitor. For another, you can hit people with it. This is one of the key qualities for a good web product, and the paper weight here really delivers. Sure, you could probably print out the entire web site and do the same with that, but the pages would fly everywhere afterwards.
I'd like to think that sending money in the direction of books like this would cause the industry book quality to improve as well, but my experience in the computer book publishing industry (whose marketing plan most closely resembles dumping the cesspool on the audience and hoping everyone gets wet) tells me otherwise. At least give your money to Greenspun, who deserves it for writing such a good book (and pukey green color, too!).
-- Faisal Jawdat, November 5, 1997
Irreverent and invaluable...don't leave your homepage without it. Philip Greenspun is absolutely your best guide to the RDBMS-web frontier.
-- Teresa Ehling, November 5, 1997
I knew what a database was before I read the book. I think that was all. Now I manage a student (a sophomore) who handles our Multi-University Research Initiative Relational Database-backed web site. It's not all Greenspun's input--but like 90% of the wisdom came from Greenspun's book. I bought all his suggestions (mostly because he justified them), and they all panned out. Get AOLserver, get Solid, spend lots of time on the data modeling, don't write anything in C, don't fork a cgi process every time you want to query the database--hang the database off the server... This could get long quickly. All I know (almost) about databases, I learned from Greenspun. But don't get me wrong; if you're an idiot, you won't appreciate the book--so don't buy it.
-- John Kaufhold, November 14, 1997
The best general book on web publishing I have seen yet.A 900 word review can be found at http://www.anatomy.su.oz.au/danny/book-reviews/h/Database_Web.html
-- Danny Yee, November 16, 1997
Many books purport to teach people how to use the unique and or functional features of various products. Greenspun is honest enough to tell us what doesn't work.Especially in the fusion of web and database, where product specific overtechnical and underedited tomes teach people to build marginally useful sites handling hundreds of hits per day, Phil has given us a philosophy for designing much bigger, much more useful sites. It's an added bonus that the ideas are expressed clearly enough that they are readable by less technical management, who often believe that if they spend enough money on industry leading products, everything will work wonderfully.
-- Cam MacKinnon, November 17, 1997
There are a lot of choices when it comes to database site development, but "Database backed Web sites" really helped me to separate the advertising hype from the reality, and also provided invaluable historical background for anyone who wants to get a grasp on where software development has been and where it's going. The book was also well seasoned with experienced based cynicism, that made me laugh while I learned the side of the story that the software companies don't want you to know.
-- Godfrey Alleyne, November 20, 1997
While there are many things to love about this book, I think the best part is that Philip places the emphasis on putting yourself in the user's shoes. He avoids the narrow focus of the "Teach Yourself To Be A Dummy In 21 Days" books. He talks about the why's as well as the how's. And he's funny as hell. I love this book!
-- David A. Buser, November 20, 1997
This book will increase your cool nerd status if you recomend it to others.It provides many useful insights into web page/server design. It clearly and concisely puts into words arguments for good web design. A friend of mine surfed the web site, went into a meeting, and promptly shot down (with a cogent reason) why his company did not need a "tunnel" at the beginning of the web site. Prior to surfing the site, my friend just knew tunnels were wrong, but he had no argument why. After the meeting, he ordered the book (yes this story sounds like a chain letter).
The book advances strong reasons why coding is wrong when off the shelf tools will serve just as well.
For anyone who has built a huge mission critical system starting from "hello_world.c", a CORBA grid or banking example, or MicroSoft's "generic.c", scribble tutorial, or a sample app (you know who you are), this book provides the starting base for building a robust web enabled database application. Many projects map nicely to this solution; in fact, the book demonstrates several different applications. By shamelessly stealing Greenspun's ideas and work, one can look wise and deliver working code faster then one's experience would permit ordinarily. Truly what the web is about.
-- albert s boyers, November 21, 1997
Elegant. Concise. Opinionated, offensive. Muhammad Ali takes on web publishing. This book does a very good job of explaining why there is no single approach to web publishing. Most books out there tell you how to "Publish in the Web using (insert your favorite platform here)" Philip Greenspun is the first author to come up with an articulated methodology to build web sites that add information value, and he does it by covering a myriad of different tools and explaining why and in which context they work. Although I do not agree with everything in the book (especially the author's claim that LISP is the best programming language ever), no design decision is made without a convincing explanation. Although the design philosophy fluff is pretty good by itself, he has also included enough code so that you can understand how the innards of web information systems work. Must-read for anybody who needs to do anything dealing with databases and the web.
-- Joao Paulo Aumond, December 12, 1997
There is seemingly an endless supply of books about 'The Web', so it's hard to get excited about any one in particular. Philip Greenspun's "Database Backed Web Sites: the thinking person's guide to web publishing", on the other hand, is very good.As opposed to being a compendium of HTML tags and pre-made home pages "so you can be online tonight!", the book's aim is to make the reader aware that there's more to the web than cute Java scripts and silly animated GIFs.
The main idea is that a static web site resembles a coffee table book with pretty pictures: you look at it once or twice, then it's just taking space.
Philip explains how to create web sites with databases behind them to manage the content, provide interactive discussion forums where the users provide a lot of the content, and help analyze the server logs to see what your users are doing while visiting your web site.
Instead of the step-by-step approach, teaching is done by case studies, which I consider a preferrable approach, since it makes the reader think and forces understanding before something can be produced.
There's plenty of light humor throughout the book, without getting too silly or distracting from the main purpose. And the book doesn't come with a CD. This is actually a good thing, since the author makes what would be on a CD available on the Internet via FTP servers. This has the advantage that the material can be updated over time.
The book includes a light discussion of Internet connectivity options, as well as a somewhat detailed description of the web server software and operating systems in use. While not complete (VMS, for example, is not mentioned), it's impossible to be current while publishing a book. Even a monthly magazine is out of date before it hits the stand.
In sum, definitely recommended reading.
-- Javier Henderson, December 18, 1997
Very unique book. Presents viewpoints that one has to look very hard to find nowadays: accurate, not sugar-coated, and honest.The most useful *concept* in the book is that sticking to standards is good; a site that looks great but is all line breaks and font tags is a (mostly) useless site.
The most useful *tool* (for me) was actually learning how a relational database works; they're a lot simpler than one would think. I've often heard of them but not even bothered to find out more because they seemed overkill for the task.
Also, AOLserver is the last thing I would have used, it being owned by the same people who brought us America Online, but it's really the best tool I've seen for the job if you really want to put up an online database; only problem I have with it is that I've not taken the time to learn some of the more advanced configuration syntax, which isn't the server's fault.
Which brings me to the third most useful toolset, Lisp and MetaHTML. (Including them together because MH is largely inspired by the former). Lisp is another thing I'd heard about but thought was the wrong tool or overkill. It's really one of the easiest languages I've seen to learn, and certainly the most elegant.
-- Gavin Lewis, January 3, 1998
I can't think of anyone in the web industry -- engineers, content producers, advertising sales, etc. -- that wouldn't benefit from the remarkably common-sensical (yet somehow lucidly revealing) presentation that Greenspun's spun.The only problem is that the title makes it look like a techie book -- one for database techies. There is plenty of that covered, but for me (a non-database techie) there's so many gems sprikled throughout that I recommend it to anyone, techie or not.
I spent 2.5 years writing a book of my own, yet I feel this is one of the best books I've ever read. The only problem I could point out, besides the ill-conceived title, is that some of Greenspun's nomenclature gets overused and somewhat weary. A small price to pay for the fantastic light he sheds on common-sense web publishing.
-- Jeffrey Friedl, January 14, 1998
Overall a great "in the trenches" overview of web database design... almost as good as this web site! I was looking for nuts and bolts about choosing servers, database engines, scripting languages, and I wasn't disappointed (tho I wish I had more programming background to feel like I was *realy* understanding all the important points!). What the book gave me that I wasn't expecting was (1) valuable perspectives on what makes a site good, what makes a site worth even doing (2) no punches pulled skewering of both hardware and software companies for design flaws, bad customer service, and other sins (3) Really funny anecdotes and wicked sarcasm... I was laughing out loud several times just reading it to myself. A really good book, no complaints.
-- Dan Doernberg, January 22, 1998
It's a good book; it may even be a great book.It's an introductory book about a a single subject (hooking a database into a web server) that frequently wanders outside the alloted subject into related matters (what makes a web site good, how to administer a web site).
It is a practical manual (any programmer who reads this book will have a solid grasp of the subject and will be ready to go out and hook databases to web servers with elan) without having much in the way of code or boilerplate recipes and without being product specific.
It's written from experience-- there are lots of warnings, lots of examples drawn from real projects, lots of information about avoiding pitfalls. And yet, it's short, pithy, and an easy read.
In short, it's a roadmap to the technology, covering the obvious important issues (CGI scripts, connecting to databases) and the ones that are important, but that a first-timer might easily overlook (for example, Chapter 7: Learning from Server Logs. 20 pages that explain what logs do and why they're useful. Good info, nicely presented).
-- William Grosso, January 31, 1998
Database Backed Web Sites is excellent. The first publication I've read that helps me understand why someone would visit a Web site, and how to optimize the design of your site to deliver value to the users. For a non-technical hoping to improve, this book gave me the "why", not just the "how" or "what".
-- Kenneth J. Cook, February 13, 1998
What can I say that hasn't been said? You succeeded in presenting your topic outside of the realm of marketing hype. Yet, you maintained a keen sense of wit and irreverance throughout the book.
-- John Zachary, March 13, 1998
Those of you who really want a copy of Philip's previous book in German have probably been frustrated. The publisher broke the link -- how annoying:Fehler 404 Leider konnte die angeforderte Seite auf unserem Server nicht gefunden werden.Fortunately, a quick search reveals that they still carry Datenbankgest|tzte Web-Sites in their current catalog.The Idea Factory is out of print, at least according to Amazon.
-- Frank Wortner, October 21, 1999
I remember the first time i tasted phillips semen when he was a little boy. This book does a good job of not talking too much about that. In fact it's about computers or something.
-- bucket haus, February 21, 2002
You have no right to criticize anyone by the looks of your website. I would be careful about following rules in the future. It my bite you where the sun don't shine. Oh yea, you should remove this useless website. no one cares about it and you are wasting valuable internet bandwidth.
-- waldo kipper, May 10, 2002


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NAMM 2014: M-Audio rolled out its eight-inch M3-8 three-way monitor just last year and, hot on its heels, comes the six-inch incarnation, the M3-6.
Designed for desktop monitoring where space is at a premium, each M3-6 has a six-inch woven Kevlar LF driver, a five-inch midrange driver and one-inch silk tweeter. Each driver is powered by its own Class A/B internal amplifier, meaning the M3-6 can offer three-way monitoring in the same footprint as a two-way speaker.
Prices look competitive, with the M3-6s costing around $249.99 USD/ £199.99/€249.99 per monitor (street price). Check out the press release below for more info...
M-Audio M3-6 monitors press release
Innovative tri-amped coaxial monitors deliver precise, immersive sound for the audio professional.
Cumberland, RI, USA - January 22, 2014. M-Audio (www.m-audio.com), industry-leading manufacturer of award-winning computer interface and studio integration solutions, announces the addition of the M3-6 to its acclaimed 3-way studio reference monitor series. The M3-6 joins the larger M3-8 3-way 8-inch studio monitor introduced in Fall 2013.
The M3-6 is a premium 3-way monitor for space-challenged desktop workspaces. The woven Kevlar® 6-inch low-frequency driver and 5-inch midrange driver are mounted coaxially, taking up no more room than a traditional 2-way speaker.
The 1-inch natural silk dome tweeter is equipped with internal waveguides for improved clarity. Inside, three separate Class A/B amplifiers—one for each driver—deliver a combined 160 Watts of power.
- Three-Way Active Studio Monitors
- Superior audio detail from three individually amplified drivers
- Inline mid & high drivers deliver world-class acoustics in a compact size
- 1" silk dome tweeter with integrated waveguide
- Resilient woven Kevlar drivers (6″ low / 5″ mid)
- Tri-amp Class A/B power, 160 Watts total
- XLR and 1/4" balanced ins; RCA unbalanced in
- 3-band EQ with bypass; switchable low-cut filter
- 40 Hz - 22 kHz frequency response
M3-6 monitors are sold individually, with an estimated street price of $249.99 USD/ £199.99/€249.99.
M-Audio will unveil the M3-6 in Hall A, Booth 6700, at the 2014 NAMM Show, January 23- 26 in Anaheim, California. For more information, visit: www.m-audio.com/wnamm2014


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