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Generate and add keyword variations using AdWords API
AdWords is Google's flagship advertising product. AdWords offers pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, and site-targeted advertising for both text and banner ads.
The Google AdWords API lets developers build applications that interact directly with the AdWords platform. With these applications, advertisers and third parties can more efficiently and creatively manage their large or complex AdWords accounts and campaigns.
The key object in AdWords system is Keyword - word that triggers an Ad. Ads and Keywords are grouped underneath parent object - AdGroup. Each keyword in some AdGroup can trigger any of the Ads in that AdGroup.
Example: Let's say that in AdGroup A are keyword X and Ad Y. When some user enters into Google's search engine word X, AdWords system will show Ad Y.
This article will explain how to programmatically add Keywords under some AdGroup. Presented is an application that adds all combinations of certain set of keywords under specified AdGroup. For that purpose application can use one of the following libraries:
- Google api-adwords-dotnet
- 3rd party AdWords API for .NET (GemBox.Ppc)
Keyword is an object that specifies on which searches would be some Ad shown. Keyword is composed of two properties: Text and MatchType.
MatchType closely define some Keyword. MatchType can have on of the following values:
- Exact
- Phrase
- Broad
Using Match Type user can specify which variations of Text will trigger some Ad. Although keyword that has Broad match will be triggered by the largest set of search words, it's the most expensive. On the other hand keyword with Exact match will be triggered only if user searches for the word that is equal to the value that was specified by the Text property. Each of those approaches has some advantages and disadvantages.
AdWordsKeywordGenerator app shows one approach that combines Match types that are provided by the AdWords platform.
AdWordsKeywordGenerator takes set of words and makes all combination with those words. After that it uploads them to the AdWords system.
For example, if user specifies words "summer" and "hot", AdWordsKeywordGenerator will upload keywords:
- Summer (Exact match)
- Hot (Exact match)
- Summer hot (Exact match)
- Hot summer (Exact match)
One of the biggest advantages in this approach is that we can review statistics for each phrase. We could add only one word and specify Broad match, but then we couldn't examine statistic for one specific phrase (in this sample, we couldn't distinguish phrase "hot" from other phrases).
Picture 1: AdWords Keyword Generator.
To use application follow these steps:
- Specify Account Information - information that is needed for logging. Help on this is here
- Specify API library that you want to use
- Specify AdGroup in which you want to add new keywords
- Add Source Words - words that you want to combine
- Generate Keywords - this will combine Source words
- Upload New Keywords
AdWordsKeywordGenerator is WPF application written in C# using Visual Studio 2008.
Typical application workflow is:
- Generating combinations of words
- Uploading combinations:
- Logging to AdWords platform
- Getting AdGroup
- Adding new Keywords to AdGroup
- Uploading changes to AdWords platform
Generating combinations of words
For Generating combination of words we use class KeywordGenerator. It has method GenerateCombinations that accepts list of source words, makes combinations and returns them in a new list.
Uploading combinations
For uploading combinations we can use two different libraries: google-api-adwords-dotnet (GoogleLibraryUploader class) and 3rd party AdWords .NET API (GemBoxPpcUploader class).
Uploading new keywords using google-api-adwords-dotnet is made of the following steps:
- Logging to AdWords platform
- Downloading all AdGroups
- Selecting specified AdGroup
- Creating new Keywords
- Uploading new keywords
Here's the complete code:
internal class GoogleLibraryUploader : IUploader
// User.
private AdWordsUser user;
// Login.
public void Login(string email, string password, string developerToken, string applicationToken, string userAgent,
bool useSandbox, string clientCustomerIdOrClientEmail)
// This can be set in config file.
ApplicationConfiguration.email = email;
ApplicationConfiguration.password = password;
ApplicationConfiguration.developerToken = developerToken;
ApplicationConfiguration.applicationToken = applicationToken;
if (clientCustomerIdOrClientEmail.Contains('@'))
ApplicationConfiguration.clientEmail = clientCustomerIdOrClientEmail;
ApplicationConfiguration.clientCustomerId = clientCustomerIdOrClientEmail;
ApplicationConfiguration.adWordsApiUrl = useSandbox ? "https://adwords-sandbox.google.com" : "https://adwords.google.com";
this.user = new AdWordsUser();
// Upload keywords to AdGroup.
public void UploadKeywordsToAdGroup(string campaignName, string adGroupName, IList<string> keywords)
// Get AdGroupService.
AdGroupService adGroupService = (AdGroupService)this.user.GetService(AdWordsService.v200909.AdGroupService);
// Get All AdGroups
AdGroupPage page = adGroupService.get(new AdGroupSelector());
// Select specified AdGroup.
AdGroup adGroup = page == null || page.entries == null ? null :
page.entries.FirstOrDefault(x => x.campaignName == campaignName && x.name == adGroupName);
if (adGroup == null)
throw new System.ApplicationException("AdGroup with name " + adGroupName + " doesn't exists!");
// Create AdGroupCriterionOperations with new keywords.
List<AdGroupCriterionOperation> operations = new List<AdGroupCriterionOperation>();
foreach (string keyword in keywords)
// Create AdGroupCriterion
AdGroupCriterion criterion = new BiddableAdGroupCriterion()
adGroupId = adGroup.id,
adGroupIdSpecified = true,
criterion = new Keyword()
text = keyword,
matchType = KeywordMatchType.EXACT,
matchTypeSpecified = true
// Create AdGroupCriterionOperation
AdGroupCriterionOperation keywordOperation = new AdGroupCriterionOperation()
@operator = Operator.ADD,
operatorSpecified = true,
operand = criterion
// Ad operation to the list.
// Get AdGroupCriterionService
AdGroupCriterionService adGroupCriterionService =
// Upload new keywords.
Uploading new keywords using GemBox.Ppc AdWords API is made of the following steps:
- Logging to AdWords platform
- Specifying that component download data on demand
- Selecting specified AdGroup
- Creating new Keywords
- Uploading new keywords
Here's the complete code:
internal class GemBoxPpcUploader : IUploader
// Account (contains user)
private AwAccount account;
static GemBoxPpcUploader()
// Set license. We use free version of GemBox.Ppc.
// Login.
public void Login(string email, string password, string developerToken, string applicationToken, string userAgent,
bool useSandbox, string clientCustomerIdOrClientEmail)
// Create Account.
this.account = new AwAccount(new AwUser(email, password, developerToken, applicationToken, userAgent, useSandbox, clientCustomerIdOrClientEmail))
// This enables automatic downloading so we don't need to call Download() method.
DownloadLazy = true
// Upload keywords to AdGroup.
public void UploadKeywordsToAdGroup(string campaignName, string adGroupName, IList<string> keywords)
if (this.account == null)
throw new ApplicationException("You haven't login to account!");
// Get Campaing.
Campaign camp = this.account.Campaigns.SingleOrDefault(x => x.Name == campaignName);
if (camp == null)
throw new ApplicationException("Campaign with name " + campaignName + " doesn't exists!");
// Get AdGroup.
AdGroup adGroup = camp.AdGroups.SingleOrDefault(y => y.Name == adGroupName);
if (adGroup == null)
throw new ApplicationException("AdGroup with name " + adGroupName + " doesn't exists!");
// Add new Keywords.
foreach (string keyword in keywords)
adGroup.Criterions.Add(new BiddableAdGroupCriterion()
Criterion = new Keyword()
Text = keyword,
MatchType = KeywordMatchType.EXACT
// Upload changes.
As always in programming, there is more than one method to achieve the same thing.
Google api-adwords-dotnet is a set of proxy classes built from WSDLs plus some extra classes that enables logging to AdWords platform. It is completely free but it is not completely optimized for .NET platform and requires some manual work (casting, setting xxxSpecified properties, different ids, etc).
On the other hand, GemBox.Ppc is optimized for .NET, encapsulates different AdWords services and provides many utilities out of the box. However, Free version has limitations.
Useful links
There are many ways to generate new keywords. GemBoxPpcUploader shows only one way of it, but user can easily extend application and add custom variations. For extending the application, following links could help:
- http://code.google.com/apis/adwords/ - AdWords API
- http://code.google.com/p/google-api-adwords-dotnet/ - Google's client library
- http://www.gemboxsoftware.com/Ppc/Overview.htm - GemBox.Ppc library
- http://www.gemboxsoftware.com/Ppc/ReferenceApplication.htm - Sandbox Editor


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subset: commoncrawl


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SEATTLE (AP) — Jake Gillum loves his bike. So when it got stolen in Portland, Ore., while he was on a date, he was determined to get it back.
The quest seemed hopeless, but a week of poring over online postings for his 2009 carbon fiber Fuji paid off when he spotted the road bike offered for sale in Seattle. That sparked an elaborate interstate sting operation last weekend in which Gillum not only got his bicycle back but used it to chase down the suspect before police arrested him.
Gillum documented it all on YouTube under the username Simon Jackson.
"This is why you don't steal from bicyclists!" Gillum shouts as he trails the suspect while recording with his phone. "Because we care about our rides! Because I will go 160 miles to get my $2,500 bike back! You are going to jail!"
In an interview Thursday, the 28-year-old added, "Best feeling in the world, seeing that guy get locked in the police car."
The success of the sting heartened bicyclists around the world as the video spread. Such stings are far from unheard of — there have been at least four in Seattle alone recently, two involving the same suspect — but they don't typically wind up on video that goes viral.
In May, Dave O'Hern got one of his two stolen bikes back when its new owner took it to a repair shop that recognized a crack in the frame. The new owner, University of Washington law student Noel Merfeld, helped O'Hern set up a sting to catch the guy Merfeld bought it from. Police showed up and arrested a man who had been arrested in a similar bust two months earlier.
Also in Seattle, Matt Goyer retrieved his stolen bicycle last month after seeing it on Craigslist. The seller let him take it for a test spin — and Goyer never looked back.
"People have a right to reclaim their stolen property. It belongs to them," said Seattle police spokesman Sean Whitcomb. "Obviously, the first and best method to do that is through the police."
Gillum's ordeal began Aug. 3 in Portland when he realized his bike was missing and filed a police report. He has no car and uses it to travel to odd jobs and yard work around town, as well as for exercise. Over the next week, he checked online obsessively and on Aug. 9 saw it advertised in Seattle.
"I flipped out — just started jumping in the air and yelling," Gillum said. "Immediately I thought, 'I have to go up there and get it, no matter what.'"
He talked it over with friends, as well as his dad, who gave him some sage advice: Don't be an idiot. Don't beat up the guy.
A plot began to take shape.
Gillum and two friends, Chris Williams and Williams' younger brother, Shannon Hardie, created the online persona Simon Jackson with a fake email account. They also used a cellphone app to call the seller and make it appear they were calling from Seattle. When the seller sent photos of the bike, Gillum became even more certain it was his.
The trio drove north and met the seller outside a grocery store. The others called police as Gillum started chatting with the seller, later identified as Craig Eric Ackerman, also of Portland.
Gillum said that about 40 minutes later, police still hadn't arrived and the seller seemed to be getting nervous, so Gillum agreed to buy it and said he needed to walk inside a nearby bank. A teller told him she would call security, and Gillum walked back outside and began filming.
"Here's the deal. I live in Portland, and you stole my bicycle," Gillum says.
"All right," the nervous seller replies. "I don't know what you want me to say."
"I would like you to apologize."
"For what?"
"For stealing my bicycle."
The seller insisted he lives in Seattle and bought the bicycle off Craigslist, though he acknowledged knowing it was stolen. When Gillum says police are on the way, the seller runs away, so Gillum hops on his newly recovered bike, starts chasing and repeats over again: "He cannot get away from me!"
Police arrived and arrested Ackerman for investigation of possessing and trafficking in stolen property. He has not been charged, and his lawyer, Holli Giffin, declined to comment because of the pending investigation, except to say, "We have a lot of concerns about the way things have been portrayed."
Whitcomb, the police spokesman, cautioned people against using stings without being absolutely sure they're right, which can be difficult using a picture on an Internet message board.
"Personal injury is not worth your bike," he said.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
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BBC Radio 6 2011 Advert music
Again with the failure that as far as I know has only been handled correctly by Channel 4's Misfits; the BBC have a new advert out for Radio 6 featuring their hosts moving speakers about as they play music. Now try to discover what they're actually playing.
From the comments and elsewhere we get:
Jarvis Cocker - I'll Take Care of U by Gill Scott-Heron & Jamie xx
Lauren Laverne - You've got the Love by Florence and the Machine
Steve Lamacq - Connection by Elastica
Cerys Matthews - ?
Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie -Neat Little Rows by Elbow (thank you Chris G)
Huey Morgan -One Nation Under a Groove by Funkadelic
Bigger laugh is that this is supposedly also promoting their exclusive mixes that can be found here. No it doesn't tell you what they're mixing there either.
Anyway if you can fill in the gaps; I'm sure someone out there would appreciate it.


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Union St
Oxford OX4 1JP
The East Oxford Farmers' & Community Market is a small, friendly local market which can provide the staples for your weekly shop, all from sources within 30 miles of Oxford: bread, eggs, milk, vegetables, cheese, various meats, refills for cleaning supplies – as well as a range of other products such as jewellery, clothing and secondhand books.
It has been running since August 2006, and is a non-profit making organisation, run by a committee and a group of volunteers.
We are passionate about the market and what it sells. We actively source food from within 30 miles of Oxford and encourage community stalls run by local residents. We also offer Fairtrade produce from further afield and try to make sure it comes to us by land or ship. Further details are available in our Market Manifesto.
The market has a cafe which runs each week selling delicious breakfasts, lunches, cakes and fair-trade teas and coffee. This is a lovely place to meet up and take a break from shopping.
Become a fan of the market on Facebook – see our East Oxford Farmers' Market Facebook page.


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Please review the terms and conditions below before placing an order.
Terms & Conditions
The Employee Purchase Program ("Program") is a benefit provided by Apple Inc. ("Apple") to current and retired employees, contractors, members and family members of participating companies, and other organizations. The Program is intended for personal use.
By submitting your order, you certify that you have read and understand the terms and conditions of the Employee Purchase Program and confirm that you are an eligible person, of at least 18 years of age, to participate in this Program as described above.
Under this Program, Apple sells and ships products to end user customers only. You may not purchase for resale. Apple reserves the right to refuse or cancel your order if Apple suspects you are purchasing for resale.
Return Policy
Please note that most returns must be initiated within 14 days from the time you receive the product. Apple does not permit the return of certain products.
Please refer to the Apple Sales and Refund Policy for more information.
Before You Start
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I agree that I am of at least 18 years of age and a current or retired employee, contractor, member or family member of a participating company or other organization and that I accept the above terms and conditions.


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Edelman's survey, which asked the public how much it trusts businesses in a range of industries to do what is right, showed energy was the most improved sector of the 11 measured.
The UK energy sector's score had dropped from 44 per cent in 2010 to 31 per cent a year ago, but has risen back to 38 per cent this year, taking it ahead of the financial services industry.
The rise comes despite the round of headline-grabbing price rises and a Which poll this week that placed the big six energy providers at the bottom end of a customer sat-isfaction survey of the sector.
Angela Knight, the chief executive of newly formed trade body Energy UK, told PRWeek: 'We're taking very seriously what we call the trust agenda.
'We are working with the Government, our members and the regulator, Ofgem, to see how we can use the information and survey results that everybody has, to put in place a real cross-industry trust agenda.'
According to Knight, the new strategy includes a UK-wide roadshow to meet consumer groups outside London, with eight dates in the diary.
'We want to be able to give regional consumer groups the opportunity to ask us questions and for us to say what we can do and where the energy companies are going,' she said.
Knight was selected to lead Energy UK as part of its creation last year. The body joined together a number of smaller trade organisations representing separate parts of the energy industry – generation, retail, sustainable energy and a comms group also called Energy UK.
Both she and the former chairman of the 'old' Energy UK, Guy Esnouf, stressed that the energy industry must aspire to extend the turnaround in trust.
The most trusted industry by the UK public was technology, with 72 per cent, a slight increase on its table-topping score of a year ago.
Knight claimed to have the same overall budget as Energy UK's predecessors, but said the combination could give it 'more bang for the same amount of bucks'.
Double-digit price hikes trigger industry reaction
The catalyst for many energy firms deciding to address their poor standing was the reaction to the double-digit price increases during the autumn of 2011.
This is the opinion of Guy Esnouf, head of corporate and internal comms at E.On and chair of the industry's comms group from late 2010 to early 2012. 'That led to stakeholders [such as the Energy Select Committee] saying "well this can't go on" and companies saying "we need to explain why this is because if customers don't trust us this is a problem for us",' he said.
Esnouf also attributed the change to Ofgem's 'leadership' and said his personal view was that the energy industry overall was 'being more open about what it says and what it does', though it still had to make improvements to customer service.
E.On also assembled a monthly 'independent customer council' formed by Allan Leighton, former CEO of Asda, Paddy Tipping, former MP and former chair of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee, and Justine Roberts, founder of Mumsnet.
'We put various things in front of them, which included our direct debit policy that many people said was confusing. We concluded it was and so we changed it,' added Esnouf.
How I see it
Jessica Lennard, head of energy public affairs, Edelman
In large part, the fact that the industry was in such crisis in terms of public perception 12 months ago means that a lot of people have made a push to improve PR and trust.
Things reached a crisis point and it was a shock to the system. I believe the response, particularly from the large utilities, has been an about-turn. Many of them have said they will do better for their customers and are looking at different ways of engaging with their customers.
They have increased levels of scrutiny and reporting, and are working with consumer bodies in a way that five years ago they might not have been able to do quite so well. There has been a deliberate attempt to drive this issue of trust.
Key figures
7% Percentage point improvement in the energy industry's trust score*
15.1% Increase in the average household's annual dual fuel bill in 2012**
5.3% Increase in the average household's annual dual fuel bill in 2013**
53% The trust score this year for the global energy industry*
*Edelman Trust Barometer 2013; **Ofgem


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Posts Tagged 'gnocchi'
Last night my girlfriend went for a night on the town, and decided to dine at a fairly unknown, nondescript Italian restaurant in Burlington, L'Amante. L'Amante is located on College Street, directly across from Burlington's newest Vietnamese Restaurant Saigon Bistro (which you all should check out as well; very tasty Duck stew). I've walked past L'Amante countless […]
Filed under: Bars, Opinions, Restaurants | 1 Comment
Tags: Burlington, chianti, gnocchi, Italian, kayne west, pork, prosciutto, trout


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HEAD Racquet Rebel Laura Massaro won her 11th WSA World Tour title and her second World Series title in her career. World No. 3 ranked Massaro had a great run at the CIMB KL Open Squash Championship.
After her win over Irishwoman Madeline Perry and seven-time World Champion Nicole David, Massaro defeated Alison Waters in the all British final. After a close first game 11-9 Massaro extended her overall lead as she took the second game 11-7 and finally completed the match as a champion in the third game.
"I won!! KL Open champion. My second ever World Series title, so excited! Massive thanks to everyone who helped me achieve my win this week!" said Massaro who was overwhelmed by her success. Now she will focus on the next World Series event, the Allam British Open, which will take place in front of Massaro's home crowd in May.
After winning in 2011 HEAD player Karim Darwish captured his second title in Kuala Lumpur. In the final the Egypt beat 22 year-old fellow countryman El Shorbagy in a three set battle 11-9, 12-10, 11-7.
"I had to play extremely well - last time he beat me in three," said Darwish after his 23rd PSA Tour title."


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Early in her career, the British sculptor Cornelia Parker avoided the familiar associations of representational objects by creating purely abstract works. At a certain point, however, she began to reverse the process, achieving a form of abstraction instead by removing recognizable items from their fundamental usage or meanings.
For the Rorschach Series, Parker was inspired by Hermann Rorschach, a Swiss psychiatrist who in the early twentieth century developed a technique of psychoanalysis utilizing inkblots. Ink was allowed to fall onto a piece of paper, which was then folded in half, permitting the ink to spread into a symmetrical pattern. Rorschach prompted his subjects to make free mental associations and to "see" shapes and images in the inkblots, and these were interpreted as direct projections of the subconscious. In Parker's Rorschach Series, silver-plated objects standing in for the ink literally mirror the viewer. As in all of her works with found objects, individual pieces with varying pasts have shared the same fate in the artist's hands. Robbed of their third dimension and evoking their lost volume by being suspended a few inches above the gallery floor, they create cartoon shadows of their former selves.
Parker has made several works referring to psychoanalysis and the subconscious, even making Rorschach inkblots using various symbolic materials. The artist's so-called "pornographic drawings" are made with ink she created using pornographic videotapes confiscated by HR Customs and Excise. Parker explains, "Customs destroyed the tapes by chopping them up; I reinstated their imagery by making Rorschach blots."(1) Parker realized that the folding of paper to make a blot was similar to the folding that occurs when metal is crushed, and this led to the Rorschach Series. Parker comments, "Making Rorschach out of silver gave a new dimension to the pieces. As objects that have had a life and a death, they are full of associations. The works become loaded and contradictory in the context of the idea of Rorschach—they are the inverse of Rorschach."
Like Rorschach's inkblots, Parker's sculptures are open to countless subjective interpretations. Endless Column I suggests in its title an homage to the Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi, whose concentration on pure, abstract, repetitive form was a significant influence on later artists, especially the Minimalists. Brancusi's seminal work, Endless Column (1918), created as a memorial to Romanian soldiers killed in World War I, consists of a series of carved wooden forms that sit on the floor while rising into the air. Parker creates a similarly elegant line of balanced, symmetrical forms, yet, rather than rising from the earth to the sky, Parker's work hangs from the ceiling, floating just inches from the floor. "Suspension has been a central theme in my work," the artist explains, "sometimes literally and other times metaphorically. It describes limbo and our battle with gravity and its grip on all of us. All our life we have a precarious relationship with the earth's surface; gravity exerts its attraction increasingly until the moment we die."
— Andrea Karnes
(1) All quotations from the artist are taken from an e-mail message to the author, November 30, 2005.


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We are delighted to announce two new appointments in the China and North East Asia region – Manuel Alvarez as Director, China and North East Asia and Misha Kim as South Korea Manager.
VisitBritain is this week hosting its largest ever tourism mission to China, followed by its first trade event to South Korea in more than five years.


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Explore the archive of exhibitions
The installation Passage by Matej Krén consists of almost 15,000 books?
Svetozár Mydlo
Now and then, one can overhear a relic of the obsolete division into individual specialities in the art community: he is a painter, a graphic artist, illustrator, sculptor, stamp designer, coin engraver, landscape painter, portraitist, figural painter, etc. While in the case of some artists it can be quite useful, Svetozár Mydlo resisted the pigeon-holes his entire life: spontaneously, animally, and vividly. He believed the potentialities of no genre, category or form had been fully exploited, and so they can be restored again. Similarly, nothing was too established or too canonized to avoid the irony or a good stir...
Although the exhibition only focuses on a particular area of Svetozár Mydlo ́s body of work, his variability come through all its manifestations: the sculptor Mydlo always contains a painter, figural painter, designer, architect, the painter Mydlo encompasses a sculptor, monumental artist, illustrator...
Nonetheless, the convention prevents us from referring to Svetozár Mydlo as a sculptor and to the displayed objects as sculptures. Let ́s stop, quietly and with a proud humbleness, before the gates of official and authoritative institutions. After all, our dear friend has never forced his way to them. If we cannot resist the need to name, categorise or taking an inventory, we can refer to the exhibits as to subjects. Then, the subject can be a random object appropriated, transformed, individualised by the artist, who can cancel its function, parody its usefulness, cheerfully play with its hidden qualities, and perceive it as an experience.
The professionals and the general public are familiar with the diagnosis of restless legs syndrome that has been thoroughly described. Svetozár Mydlo, however, was endowed with the syndrome of restless eyes. This means he was unable to see the world in a conventional, disciplined, stereotyped and agreed manner. His perception was completely different. He lived to create, re-create and even dub. He was making art all the time, wherever he was. Creating in a permanent move, even when walking, he often stopped to throw himself into new visual adventures. He was collecting items, things, artefacts, objects, or simply junk and useless things, which he employed in his works. If he could not take them home, at least he took their photographs. With passionate thirst he fell upon things and objects, pulling them out from wardrobes and chests, cellars and attics, stores and pantries. The industrial products inspired him with their innovation, the antiques with their ability to withstand the time. Mydlo was turning duplicates into unique objects, the replicas into originals. To him, nothing was too ordinary or trivial to be employed in painting, sculpture, and object. The inventory of his objects includes clothes pegs, braces, hangers, old jeans, stationary, torches and flat caps, upholstered door, or a fence. Throwing aside the conventional terminology of art history, we could call them 3D works, with three Ds standing for adventure (dobrodružstvo), dynamics (dynamika), and making up (dotváranie).
From the very beginning, the work of Svetozár Mydlo was very unique. Unaffected by the latest trends and styles, he never noticed that he became one of those vitalising streams bringing fresh air to the art practice in Slovakia.
As the big gestures were foreign to his nature, it is up to us, the heirs of his creativity, and his friends who are missing him so much, to point out this
Daniel Hevier


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SnapNPlay music 1.50 APK
APK Version History
- Version
- 1.50 (Updated)
- Architecture
- All
- Release Date
- March 03, 2015
- Requirement
- Android 2.2 and up
About Radio FM 90s
Your phone can sight read sheet music using Music OCR. "SnapNPlay music" allows you to take a picture of sheet music and play it back. It is true sheet music reader designed for students. Snap a picture of sheet music and watch the notes light up in time as you hear the music played back to you. Select an instrument to watch it play the notes in time to the music. Choose between piano, recorder, trumpet, guitar, violin, viola, cello, and bass. Watch the positions on the instrument light up and learn to play with ease!
For optimal results hold your camera as close as possible to the line of sheet music. Do not include clef, key signature nor time signature in snap. When holding the camera too far away, it doesn't work as well.
The workflow:
Snap a line of sheet music. Fit the music in the rectangle and keep it steady. DO NOT include Key and Clef symbols in the picture. Select the Key and Clef. Edit the music. SnapNPlay will detect most notes and rhythms, but you will have to analyze and correct the music. Play the music. Learn the tune. Select an instrument. Save the snap. Snap the next line...save it. Snap some more..save it. Then you can combine snaps that you saved and hear an entire tune played while watching the notes light up in time. Adjust the tempo or transpose the tune. Sing it, play it on your fiddle, recorder, trumpet, viola, cello, bass, guitar or piano.
Email me when you experience difficulty or have suggestions .
Currently the SnapNPlay algorithm only tries to detect notes, their length and accidentals. It does not try to parse triplets, rests, or grace notes. It does a great job at helping you learn a tune and learning to read sheet music. Just spend a few minutes snapping and learning. After you learn the tune, you will always be able to play it!
A couple tags: snap n play, snap and play, music education
What's New in this version
Updated Edit View to show notes and notelengths better.


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You can make changes to your entire website, such as customising the font and colour of your text, the style of the buttons, or the background image, in the Global Design panel. This allows you to keep your website's design and colour scheme consistent across all pages and saves you having to edit each piece of text, button, etc. individually. Any changes that you make to specific widgets or pages will override anything you do here, therefore we recommend that you make changes here first before customising any part of your website.
Click Design on the left menu to open the Global Design panel.
Text Style
This section lets you control the style of the text for your website, both for paragraphs and titles of all sizes (H1 to H6). Change the font size, style, colour, format, and direction that will affect the text for all future text and title widgets.
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Changes that you make to specific widgets or pages will override these global styles. For this reason, we recommend that you first decide on a global style, and afterwards make customisations to parts of your website that you want to stand out or look different from the rest.
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Dad always saw the good in people and was so honest that when a waitress gave him an incorrect check in his favor, he brought it to her attention because he didn't want her to have to pay out of her own pocket for the mistake. It is this type of behavior that I have tried to follow; this kindness and unconditional love I will always remember about him.
This disease needs to be stopped. There is currently no cure and the number of Alzheimer's patients is rising. I have posted a brief video about the statistics. Thanks for letting me veer off topic today to grieve.


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Abilify is a brand name for aripiprazole, a type of antipsychotic medication sometimes used to treat problem behaviours in people on the autism spectrum.
This glossary is designed to explain some of the jargon and gobbledygook used by some people when they talk about autism or research..
You may be able to find more information, including links to other parts of this website, by clicking on the title of an item.
If you can't find the word you are looking for, or you know of a word we should include, please email firstname.lastname@example.com
The fact that an intervention is listed in this glossary does not necessarily mean that we agree with its use. Nor does it necessarily mean that there is any scientifically valid or reliable evidence behind it.


text:
Events & Meetings in Smithfield Virginia
Friendly and accommodating service, with a distinctive local, Smithfield style — these qualities define the exceptional meeting and function spaces at Smithfield Station in Smithfield, VA.
Groups & Events
Groups & Events
When others are relying upon you to bring important people together, you want to be certain that the details are right. And, while our style resembles simpler times, you'll discover that we are plugged-in to the needs of the contemporary business guest and the modern bride. Our Inn and restaurant offer event services distinguished by our down-to-earth friendliness and marked by a commitment to quality so that any event can be transformed into something exceptional.
Smithfield Station is uniquely able to offer a range of venues suitable for a variety of functions, from a large conference and reception room and private dining room to the patio overlooking the marina to the beautiful Windsor Castle and park just across the street from the inn.
For a fabulous business meeting location in Smithfield, Virginia, think first of Smithfield Station. And for private dining and meetings, our award-winning restaurant presents imaginative culinary options. View our sample private dining and banquet & catering menus.
To book your group, or for more information, please contact Randy Pack at (757) 357-7700 or


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You can upload an avatar to represent yourself on all of Fandom's communities. It will appear in several locations and gives users another way to identify themselves to others.
To upload an avatar for your profile while on desktop:
- Save your chosen image to your computer (if not there already).
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Moderator: GnATTERbox Moderators
DCRfan wrote:Underneath the two central supports are just sitting in place. They won't be glued/nailed in place until the location of the points are confirmed.
Jon Randall wrote:Gnice carpentry Paul.
Are you going to have the segments so you can run each one on it's own and also in any combination
How many work-mates do you have
DCRfan wrote:More workmates will be purchased as sales occur
scott b wrote:Are we doing the entire script?
"Round up the usual suspects"
Scott B
DCRfan wrote:And one from a movie I got on CD for $9.99 recently.
'It sounds a bit far-fetched. But, personally, I think it could be done.'
Hint - it is currently being remade in Wellywood and the UK
Gavin Sowry wrote: Top dollar, I only paid $6.99 for my copy of 'Dambusters'...I suppose that that film is somehow related to 'Casablanca', they were both Black and White.
Hint - it is currently being remade in Wellywood and the UK
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 8 guests


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Let the Speculation Begin.
New Jersey Republican activists can hardly contain their excitement over the fact that their Governor has been selected to give the all important keynote address at the Republican National Convention. New Jerseyans are bursting with pride over the thought that our Governor will be given the national spotlight and be called upon to articulate the Republican case and cause before the nation and the world. But the reports have not yet been confirmed by either Governor Christie, Governor Romney or the Republican National Committee. According to the Washington Post;
"Republicans say that, contrary to media reports, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has not been confirmed as the keynote speaker at the Republican National Convention in Tampa.
Neither the Romney campaign nor the Republican National Committee would confirm those reports.
"You"ll have to stay tuned," Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said on MSNBC Wednesday afternoon.
Sources with the campaign say Romney is not prepared to announce any speakers yet. The New Jersey State GOP Committee said they knew nothing about it.
"I've gotten no invitation to do anything like that," Christie told NBC."
These unconfirmed reports amount to nothing more than speculation but if true, the decision to make Christie the keynote speaker opens the door for additional speculation. So here goes.
If it is true that Christie is the RNC's 2012 keynote speaker, it will signal the G.O.P.'s obvious desire to highlight the message of a figure who has established a reputation for being blunt about what needs to be done to get our nation on a track to economic responsibility and prosperity. It would also signal the G.O.P.'s desire to appeal to fiscally conservative independent voters, a segment of the voting bloc which could be critical to who wins the presidency in November.
Picking Christie to be the keynote speaker could also be a signal of several other things to come such as who Mitt Romney will pick as his running mate. There has been a wide range of Republicans who would have liked to see freshman Florida Congressman Allen West deliver the keynote address. West has proven himself to be a powerfully articulate speaker who inspires the conservative base while also firing up the TEA Party which Romney needs to bolster his standing among. Christie tends to enjoy similar popularity within those same groups but West brings additional positives that Christie doesn't. Unlike Christie who comes from a state that Republicans feel is so hard to win that they have written it off in most of their campaign plans, Rep. West comes from a critical swing state that is well within the reach of Republicans to win. Additionally, West is African-American, and those two factors would have made West a prime pick for giving the keynote address. But giving that honor to Christie instead of West could be a sign that Mitt Romney has picked a running mate of color and so the need to highlight ethnic diversity during a high profile, primetime, keynote address may not be as necessary as it once was. If true, that person of color who Romney may be ready to pick could very well be former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who many have suggested that Romney is quite enamored with and whom in national polls,leads all other potential vice presidential choices Romney may have.
But to read too much in to any decision would be wrong.
While Chris Christie is liked for the breath of fresh air that his brutal honesty and bluntness brings to the table, his abrasive nature does not fit well with the more diplomatic, less confrontational approach to politics that Mitt Romney is comfortable with. The same goes for West who may seem like a good choice for Vice President for Romney but like Christie, neither man can be described as having the "same personality type" as Mitt, a factor that Anne Romney once described as a key consideration in her husbands decison on who he will nominate for Vice President. Yet there is no denying that Christie's approach has been popular and as such, there may be no other suitably prominent role for Christie to play in the Romney campaign other than allowing him to be a surrogate speaker and what more suitable platform can there be for such a surrogate than keynote speaker?
This of course does not leave West out in the cold. Many other primetime slots are still available. They include the highly coveted opportunity to be tapped as the lucky individual who gets to make the speech that nominates the presidential candidate, a role that West would fit quite well.
All of this is speculation though. The only thing that is not speculation however is the fact that if it is true that Christie is the keynote speaker, you can rest assured that he is definitely out of the running to be Romney's Vice President.
On that front, until now, speculation about who Mitt Romney will pick as his running mate has of late been superseded only by the speculation over when he will publicly announce who that person will be. Today's Wall Street Journal writes;
"It appears unlikely now that Mr. Romney will name his selection before departing next week for a trip abroad."
At the same time, The New York Daily News writes;
"Sources close to the Romney campaign told the Daily News the working plan has been to announce the pick after the Olympic Games, which begin next week and conclude Aug. 12 — two weeks before the Republican convention in Tampa."
Yet amid that media speculation comes a Tuesday tweet from National Review political reporter and CNBC contributor Robert Costa in which he writes:
"A Republican strategist close to the Romney campaign tells me veep announcement may come Friday"
Meanwhile, in an interview taped for ABC earlier today, Ann Romney claims that her husband is "not quite there yet" on a final decision regarding who he will nominate for Vice President.
Not long after that interview, while attending a town-hall event in Bowling Green, Ohio, Mitt Romney answered a a question from the audience regarding who he will pick by confirming that he has "not chosen the person" who will be his Vice President.
What this all means is anyone's guess but to confuse matters even more, as noted in a previous White House 2012 post, Tim Pawlenty, the former Governor and candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, has decided to retool his website, TimPawlenty.com.
Currently TimPawlenty.com has been replaced by a "Coming Soon Page" that features a blank white screen with four small words that simply read "Please come back later." Normally such an event would not mean very much but at a time when who Mitt Romney will pick as his running mate remains the only cause of suspense left in the presidential campaign, every move of every individual who might be under consideration for Vice President will be seen as a signal. In this particular case though, having been a year since he dropped out of the race for President, T-Paw's decision to finally retool his website and put in its place a "Coming Soon" page that urges people to come back and revisit it, appears at the same time that Mitt Romney's decision on who his nominee for Vice President will be is also "coming soon".
Coincidence? Speculation? Maybe. Maybe not.
You're guess is as good mine.
Filed under: Chrios Chrisite, Vice Presidential Contenders | Tagged: about tim Pawlenty, allen west keynote speech at republican national convention, Allen west to nominate romney at republican national convention, ann romney, Chris christie to give keynote address at the Republican national convention, Chris Chrsitie will not be Mitt romney's vice presidential nomineee, christie, Christie out of the running for vice president, Christie to give keynote adress, Daily News, Is Romney picking tim pawlenty for vice president, John Thune, john thune for vice president, Mitt Romney, Mitt Romney for President, Mitt Romney's vice presidential short list, Nation First Pac, New Jersey, Pawlenty replaces website with a coming soon page, possible nominees for vice president, Republican, Republican National Convention, Robert Costats, Romney, Romney Pawlenty, Romney short list, Running mate, T-Paw website, Tim pal;wenty takes down his website, Tim Pawlenty, Tim Pawlenty bio, Tim Pawlenty for vice President, Tim Pawlenty updating his website, Tim Pawlenty voting record, Tim Pawlenty.com, United States, veepstakes, Vice President of the United States, Vice president watch, vice presidential candidates, Vice presidential contenders, vice presidential short list, White House 2012, who will mitt romney nominate for vice president | Leave a comment »


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Flexible plastic computer displays have come closer as a result of a successful organic flash memory project led by University of Tokyo researchers.
Flexible flash memory could be used in other relatively large area applications, such as pressure sensors, actuators and electric ink book readers. This contrasts with NAND or NOR flash, which is used in physically small areas. The flexible flash display material has to withstand bending and the Tokyo researchers' material can deform up to a 6mm curve radius without its working being affected.
Flexible plastic sheet flash array (from Tech-on).
An organic flash memory transistor (OFMT) has two main components: a conducting floating gate which is wholly enclosed by an insulating gate dielectric material. It is layered onto a substrate material. The Tokyo-led researchers used a plastic sheet substrate made of a PEN (polyethylene naphthalate) resin sheet, on which they built a 676 cell (26 by 26) array. The PEN sheet was not melted by the floating gate production process, which has been a problem for other organic flash memory projects.
Floating gate transistor cross-section (copyright Science/AAAS).
The dielectric is formed of two layers; a self-assembling monolayer (SAM), about 2nm thick, built from phosphoric acid with an alkyl chain, described as n-octadecylphosphonic acid, and a 4nm aluminium oxide layer, forming a 6nm dielectric layer in total.
The floating gate is made of aluminium and its surface is oxidised to form the inner dielectric aluminium oxide layer. An aluminium control gate exists between the PEN and the floating gate transistor. An organic semiconductor made of pentacene is also used.
The Tokyo OFMT needes an applied charge of 6 volts applied to the dielectric to affect the polarity of the floating gate inside it, whereas other organic flash projects require 20 - 30 volts. Reading the setting of the floating gate requires a 1 volt charge. Apparently up to a 1,000 write-erase cycles have been demonstrated.
This is a prototype project which proves a concept. Its charge retention time is around 24 hours, which is not long enough at all, contrasting poorly with the months and years duration of silicon-based NAND flash. However, the researchers think that this can be extended by making the transistors smaller and extending the molecular length of the SAM. ®


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I am developing OpenCL program using MultiGPU.
I have to launch very large number of threads. At a time i am launching only few threads for a kernel, based on number of resources(registers usage and local memory usage ) used to best utilize GPU resources. So i am launching my kernel total n times(n = N/M), where N is total number of threads that i have to launch, M is number of threads that i can be launched at a time and n is number of times needed to launch the kernel.
Launching of kernel for few iterations goes successfully but it fails for more iterations. Kernel crashes with -5 Error when i am launching my kernel for more iterations.
I am getting "CL_OUT_OF_RESOURCES" Error while while calling clEnqueueReadBuffer() function. It means that i am accessing GPU memory out of limit, but the same code is working fine for few iterations.
I am using Nvidia GPU device :: GeForce GTX 295
Platform Version :: OpenCL 1.1
Operating System :: Ubuntu 11.04
My Questions are ::
What could be reasons the for error messages and crashes?
What are the causes of getting "CL_OUT_OF_RESOURCES" Error?
Waiting for your quick reply.
Thanks in advance.


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|Kabul girl and her mother 1973
Another weekly image from my archive. Click on it to make it larger.
In addition to the images I've posted on Flickr and those I've periodically posted on PND, I have now produced a Big Blurb Book: From the Archive 1960 -1980 of some of the images I really thought were special.
I now have an iPad version of this book for sale ($4.99) on the Blurb site which you can find here: STORE
I have to say, even on the iPad the book looks pretty good.


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3) Monthly rate applies on 28 nights onwards.
Prices are maintained by Advertisers/Owners themselves. Dubai Apartments do not control prices.
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LIMITED TIME: Get all 12 games with Choice Premium for September only. Plus, new subscribers can lock in $12/month for a year!Offer applies to customers who have never subscribed before. Discount applied at checkout and ends September 24 at 11:59pm PT.
Thank you for supporting Istani0815. Learn more about Humble Partners


text: Oscar-Isaac.com is merely a fansite run by fans. We do not have any direct contact with Oscar himself, his management, family or co-workers. Our purpose is only to provide news, images and media involving Oscar in support of his career. The webmaster(s) of this website claim no ownership to any material seen on this website and is used, to the best of their knowledge, under the "Fair Use" copyright laws.


text:
I had three reactions to this post.
First, I recognized that it's written by someone who is not responsible for defending any network of scale or significance. Network defense is more than tools and tactics. It's more often about people and processes. My initial response is unsatisfying and simplistic, however, even though I agree broadly with his critiques of anti-virus, firewalls, WAFs, and some traditional security technology.
Second, staying within the realm of tools and tactics, Dave is just wrong on several counts:
- He emphasizes the role of encryption to defeat many defensive tools, but ignores that security and information technology architects regularly make deployment decisions to provide visibility in the presence of encryption.
- He ignores or is ignorant of technology to defeat obfuscation and encryption used by intruders.
- He says "archiving large amounts of traffic is insanely expensive and requires massive analytics to process," which is wrong on both counts. On a shoestring budget my team deployed hundreds of open source NSM sensors across my previous employer to capture data on gateways of up to multi-Gbps bandwidth. Had we used commercial packet capture platforms we would have needed a much bigger budget, but open source software like Security Onion has put NSM in everyone's hands, cheaply. Regarding "massive analytics," it's easier all the time to get what you need for solid log technology. You can even buy awesome commercial technology to get the job done in ways you never imagined.
Third, and this is really my biggest issue with Dave's post, is that he demonstrates the all-too-common tendency for security professionals to constrain their thinking to the levels of tactics and tools. What do I mean? Consider this diagram from my O'Reilly Webinar on my newest book:
Here is an example of one strategic security approach to minimize loss due to intrusions, using a strategy of rapid detection, response, and containment, and NSM-inspired operations/campaigns, tactics, and tools.
Now I don't want to seem too harsh, because tool- and tactics-centric thinking is not just endemic to the digital security world. I read how it played out during the planning and execution of the air campaign during the first Gulf War.
John Warden and the Renaissance of American Air Power and learned how the US Air Force at the time suffered the same problems. The Air Force was very tactics- and technology-focused. They cared about how to defeat other aircraft in aerial combat and sought to keep the Army happy by making close air support their main contribution to the "joint" fight. The Air Force managed to quickly deploy planes to Saudi Arabia but had little idea how to use those forces in a campaign, let alone to achieve strategic or policy goals. It took visionaries like John Warden and David Deptula to make the air campaign a reality, and forever change the nature of air warfare.
I was a cadet when this all happened and remember my instructors exhibiting the contemporary obsession with tactics and tech we've seen in the security world for decades. Only later in my Air Force career did I see the strategic viewpoint gain acceptance.
Expect to hear more from me about the need for strategic thinking in digital security. I intend to apply to a PhD program this spring and begin research in the fall. I want to apply strategic thinking to private sector digital defense, because that is where a lot of the action is and where the need is greatest.
For now, I talked about the need for strategy in my O'Reilly Webinar.


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BERKELEY — Violent crime is on its way up here, and the city's police union says it needs more bodies to push it back down.
Robberies were up 25 percent to 221 for the first six months of the year and burglaries were up 34 percent to 479, according to a midyear crime report from the Berkeley Police Department.
Police Chief Michael Meehan will present the findings to the City Council on Tuesday.
While the report showed there was just one homicide through the end of June, the number now stands at four for the year. Last year there were five homicides, and there was just one in 2011.
Berkeley Police Officers Association President Chris Stines said the department needs more officers to stop further increases in robberies and burglaries. The upward trend in homicides is concerning, too, he said.
"Staffing is the biggest factor in crime trending back up," Stines said. "We're at a tipping point over whether we can provide the services and coverage the community expects."
The city has authorized the Police Department for 176 officers, but the department is well below 170 at the moment, Stines said. With officers retiring and new officers constantly coming on, it's hard to determine an exact number, both Stines and Meehan said.
The number of officers the city allows the Police Department is way down from 210 back in the 1990s, Stines said.
Stines said the department started the summer with 150 officers, "so we're in a serious staffing crunch and we have open beats in critical areas of the city."
Stines said an open beat is an area where no officer patrols on a regular basis. He said there are open beats in the hills, the northeast side of town and on the south side.
Meehan agreed the number of officers is not up to what the city allows the department to have, but he did not provide a specific number.
"We spend all the money the city gives us and we hire as many officers as we can as quickly as we can," Meehan said. "I don't know what our specific numbers are. I would love to have as many officers as the city allocates us, but we do have to work within our budget."
Reported rapes were even during the period compared with 2012, at 18; aggravated assaults were down from 61 to 60, and arson was up from six incidents last year to eight this year, the report said.
On the bright side, auto thefts were down 8 percent to 293 for the first six months of the year, a number that defies regional trends. Auto thefts in Alameda County were up 16 percent in the same period and up 4 percent statewide, the report said.
Contact Doug Oakley at 510-843-1408. Follow him on Twitter/douglasoakley.


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The date of 9 July 2011 was historic for South Sudan, as it was the day the country officially declared its independence. On 25 May of the next year, the young nation was officially affiliated to FIFA. And on 10 July, a little over a year after independence, another milestone was reached with their first officially sanctioned football game as a national team.
The match took place in Juba, South Sudan's capital, in front of a lively crowd of 22,000. The opponent was Uganda, East and Central African (CECAFA) regional champions. The South Sudanese managed a 2-2 draw, twice coming back from behind to seal the result. "Playing against a well known side like Uganda and getting a draw is a very good start," confirmed South Sudan's Serb coach Zoran Djordjevic.
But beyond the game itself, that day proved that South Sudan is becoming increasingly integrated into the world of football. It followed intensive infrastructure work and cooperation between FIFA, CAF (African football's governing body) and the football stakeholders in South Sudan to make sure the country was ready to take such a big step.
Having South Sudan's FA affiliated to FIFA is a fantastic first step. But I think it is even greater to see that since then things are quickly moving on, in the field of football development and on the pitch.
"We've had a lot of discussions with FIFA and our government about how best to develop the game in general, and our main priority will be setting up our own Premier League and applying for development projects to help fund academies and improve stadiums," said SSFA President Chabur Goc Alei a few weeks ago to FIFA World, FIFA's official magazine.
The first development steps were taken in late 2011. Preliminary discussions were held between CAF President Issa Hayatou and representatives of the embryonic SSFA, which were followed by several missions in January 2012 with the involvement of both FIFA and CAF.
Meetings with the main stakeholders were held and members of the football community from all parts of the country were convened to a founding congress. They then adopted statutes in line with FIFA requirements on 4 February 2012. The SSFA also adopted an electoral code and elected members of the electoral committee and the electoral appeal committee.
Development in process
CAF decided to admit the SSFA during the CAF Congress in Libreville on 10 February 2012, at which time the SSFA became the 54th CAF member. Elections for new office-holders were held on 30 April 2012. The members of the FIFA Member Associations and Development Division were involved and worked together with the SSFA in each phase of the process.
The SSFA also submitted an application for admission to FIFA, a request which could not be accepted at the time because FIFA Statutes then required an association to have been a member of a confederation for two years before it can be accepted. However, the procedure was amended at the last FIFA Congress in Budapest so that the two-year waiting period could be foregone. This measure immediately benefited the South Sudan Football Association, which was admitted as FIFA's 209th member.
A FIFA delegation was recently in Juba for a development mission, to identify the projects and activities that will be supported by FIFA in the upcoming weeks and months. "Having South Sudan's FA affiliated to FIFA is a fantastic first step. But I think it is even greater to see that since then things are quickly moving on, in the field of football development and on the pitch. This is what football is about," said FIFA Member Associations and Development Division Director Thierry Regenass.


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Wednesday, February 19. 2014
Google Glassholes and the 2020 vision
Google Glasses, 2020 Vision
Google has published a series of "Don'ts" for Google Glass aficionadoes to prevent them being Glassholes - not because of the danger of nerds being disrepected, but because its bad for business - Don't #4:
And Do #2:
Ask for permission. Standing alone in the corner of a room staring at people while recording them through Glass is not going to win you any friends (see Don'ts #4). The Glass camera function is no different from a cell phone so behave as you would with your phone and ask permission before taking photos or videos of others.
But even this still gives huge permission latitude. Most people would find it creepy if someone was sitting in their social situation with someone recording everything, even if there was not a formal "no camera/mike/recording" sign or no real permision required. As TechCrunch notes:
Google's challenge is not building the Glass platform, but training the general public to welcome Glass wearers into society. Glass's future rests largely on the public's acceptance of the technology. If, like Bluetooth headsets, it's deemed nerdy or, worse, if Glass is lumped in with the NSA privacy scandle, the technology will be an also-ran. A lot is riding on Google Glass Explorers.
The problem is many "Explorers" - being tech nerds - have the social intelligence of...well, tech nerds - the result is increasing unease with Glass, and the emergence of No Glasses Allowed and similar campaigns' hence the publication of the advice. They'd probably also be well advised to give them to more socially aware people rather than the sort of geeks who will pay $1,500 for the privilege of testing them.
But if you think this is creepy, just roll this forward a few generations of Moore's law when you can wear a much less obvious recording device, and it can access a wealth of Big Data Crunching and layer some form of augmented reality over your vision. Here's a scenario - you can walk into a room in 2020, scan all the faces, and do a search of all the data held against those people from a whole range of sources - on Google, from their social networks, from open data given away, and, for a price, from hacked data apps that give you that little bit more. The picture at the top of this post imagines that - imagine a cocktail party where you could see all the dirt on everyone after a guick glass and google.
Creepy? You bet. Impossible? You're fooling yourself - all those in the picture have happened or may soon do so:
The other 2 cases are hypothetical, but could come from Government data already in the frame for being opened up (though I note today we have another 6 months grace for medical records).
Playing Charades at parties will never be the same again....
Posted by Alan Patrick in Mobile Web & Multimedia at 11:49 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0)
Wednesday, September 4. 2013
Microsoft buys Nokia - give me Patents!
Microsoft has just paid $5 bn for Nokia's handset business and $ 2.3bn for a 10 year licence for the patents. The handset business is probably worth far less than $5bn, but the patent option is interesting, as the game is to increase Android's operating costs in the struggle for operating system dominance in the emerging New Device Order. Window PC penetration is saturated, smartphones and tablets (Non-Microsoft Operating systems) are growing, Apple typically takes teh high margin quartile of a market so the battle is between Microsoft and Android - Reuters:
Next step, Blackberry?
Posted by Alan Patrick in Mobile Web & Multimedia at 12:47 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
Thursday, July 18. 2013
The Internet of (Wearable) Things
(Above - 2016 Season Integrated Wearable Technology Suit with Wide Area Connectivity Device and inbuilt Directional IPTV Transceiver)
Article in the FT today spurred me into writing something that I've been mulling on for a while:
The revolution will be wearable. Only, like most technology revolutions, it will not come as fast or in quite the form that the visionaries predict. That is the safe bet for what is quickly becoming Silicon Valley's most hyped new claim: that "smart" devices like watches and glasses represent that next front in personal computing.
There is nothing new here of course - "wearable" computing, device miniaturisation, wireless networks have been with us for ages. But at some point a cost/performance/quality level is reached that allows an entire new sector to go from "interestingly geeky early adopter" to "early mass market". There are 4 main components in wearable systems - small intelligent devices, sensors, power sources, and networks. The time is now emerging where these are becoming a viable wearable system - here are some pointers as to the "why":
What is so far missing is the Killer Consumer App that will push this into the early mass market, as the FT notes. But I will put my neck out and make a guess that it will be around the area of (most likely a dumbed-down derivation of) the rapidly growing "Quantified Self" (QS) movement, driven by branded "smart" clothing to make ypu a "smart" person.
"Know Thyself" said the ancient philosophers, and argued for a sound mind in a sound body. And with QS technology you can know yourself, and how sound your mind and body are on a microsecond by microsecond basis. And obsess over it with charts and graphs, and share your data with others, and build social networks around it. Any product that promises personal growth via combining self knowledge, self obsession and buying branded aspirational clothing is bound to take off - with all the benefits that will no doubt be promised, everyone will "just do it".
Let see how this prediction works out in 4 years time, and how ludicrous and luminous the clothing is - lets hope its not based on midlife crisis level urban cycling gear
Posted by Alan Patrick in Mobile Web & Multimedia at 10:38 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
Friday, April 5. 2013
Facebook Home built on Google sand?
A lot has been said about Facebook Home, about its privacy implications (privacy - what privacy?) and so on and so forth (see Techmeme, screeds and screeds of...), but this is standard Facebook modus operandi. Zuckerberg's Law is that every year the amount of personal things you will share on Facebook doubles, the only question you need to ask yourself is whether its you or Facebook driving that.
What fascinates me more, and oddly seems not to have been taken up too much by the Pop Tech Press so far, is the strategic wisdom of building their service out on Android, a platform owned by Google, who is someone who would probably dearly like to gazump Facebook in matters Social. Now Amazon has already purloined Android for its own purposes with Kindle, but that is on its device using its own delivery chain for its own content. This is relying on the Other Guys for a lot more of the value chain, and that means a leakage of value. Facebook desperately needs a big, organic Mobile story, and no doubt they hope/believe that the sheer scale of Facebook's user base will make Android an offer it cannot refuse.
There is a fascinating bit of strategic game theory emerging here, one assumes Facebook sees this as a temporary measure, a "starter home" in Mobile, and is betting they can build their own permanent home on their own rock before this one sinks into the Android Sands. Now the Facebook crew are very smart, so if anyone can pull it off it is them. And as Tim Berner's Lee pointed out the other day, many people now think Facebook is the Internet, and Facebook is no doubt hoping they also will learn think the mobile screen is as well, with Android lost somewhere inside.
But thinking of Tim Berners Lee also makes me think of the last time someone tried to capture the front page of someone else's value chain. That was Netscape - remember them?
History also tells us building your home on another guy's foundations is a rocky road to travel. Especially if the Other Guy is Google. To my mind its like saddling the apex predator to go a-hunting, but then having to pray you can catch enough prey to feed you and it, so it never eyes you up as the next meal.
The one really interesting rider to this piece of game theory will be What Will Apple Do. Mark Zuckerberg, when asked by Wired, said that issue was "above his pay grade", then expanded:
Look, I would love for that answer to be yes. Facebook is in a very different place than Apple, Google, Amazon, Samsung, and Microsoft. We are trying to build a community. We have a billion folks using our services now, and we want to get to 3 or 5 billion one day. We're going to do that by building the best experience across all devices. Android is growing quickly, and we're excited that the platform is open and that it allows us to build these great experiences. I think that this is really good for Google too. Something like this could encourage a lot of people to get Android phones, because I think people really care about Facebook. In a lot of ways, this is one of the best Facebook experiences that you can get. Of course, a lot of people also love iPhones—I love mine, and I would like to be able to deliver Facebook Home there as well.
I predict Apple will retire into their top quartile smartphone market segment, sucking up most of the surplus in the ecosystem, after all its what they do in market after market
And then we will see if Google plays Internet Explorer to Facebook's Netscape.
Posted by Alan Patrick in Mobile Web & Multimedia at 22:25 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
Wednesday, November 28. 2012
Consumer Mobile Riches - Come back in 5 years?
Very interesting analysis of the fundamental problem of building mobile consumer service businesses from Vibhu Norby, who has started up two mobile consumer service busineses. In essence he recites the impact that has been there since we first looked at mobile app functionality 5 years ago, ie small screen, small phone brain, closed walls and low returns to creators make for "high friction" service experience - here are the key stats from their first startup:
- Out of 300,000+ downloads and 250,000 unique website visitors, 200,000 people have signed up. So right away, chop off 60% of your audience whom are just window-shopping. As an aside, I have heard privately from an app maker with a 100m+ downloads that 50% of people don't even open their app after downloading.
Result is at best, they retained about 5% of users through the entire onboarding process. Attempts to fix it raised it only nominally. If you try and ratchet up the total number of downloads, and that costs money - paying Google's $1 CPC for people to enter your funnel, you're really paying $20 per user and you will never recoup that cost. Service redesigns are too slow and expensive, and in a non-uniform set of separate walled systems (as opposed to the 'Net/Web) there is little of the systemic innovation that removes friction, so even if the Ad gets through the user has "already calculated in their mind how long it takes to go to the app store, find your app, download it, enter their password, open the app, and go through onboarding, and because it will take so long they simply won't do it"
His conclusion:
In conclusion, I want to say that I don't think mobile is going to stop growing. We are not going web-first because people use the web more than mobile. I use my phone more than anything else. I just don't think that an entrepreneur who wants a real shot at success should start their business there. The Android and iOS platform set us up to fail by attracting us with the veneer of users, but in reality you are going to fight harder for them than is worthwhile to your business.
May I repeat what I wrote in 2007 on this subject, in our first research project on the Mobile Internet industry:
The story emerging is essentially that:
Doing a quick 5 year review here, (i) the causes of friction are by and large still true (albeit with different players and for slightly different motivations), (ii) absolutely still applies, see above article (iii) "Pay as you go" and "sticker shock" pricing has largely disappeared as a problem, but (iv) the small audience for any one application means the economics of new content and service creation are still not attractive so apps are small and simple (by service creation I don't mean the initial app, I mean the development of that app into a useful value added service) - there are very few mobile application successes that are not "Web first" services.
Plus ca Change. Or better, the more things change, the more they stay the same. There has been change - better devices, better pricing, fewer annoying ringtones, a huge App development ecosystem - but systemically all that has changed in Planet Mobile is the 2007 mobile operators end to end control of the value chain has shifted to Apple and the "Android mishmash", but the open web environment that drove all the Web service innovation still has not emerged, and the rewards have still not moved to the service creators in any sustainable way - "sell a billion $0.99 games with 30% taken off the top by Apple/Google and you now have the equivalent revenue of a Call Of Duty opening weekend" as the author puts it.
So, lets make a date for 2017 and see if anything has changed.
(Vibhu has also done a very good analysis of the issues around Ad supported consumer Web businesses, but that is the subject of another post)
Update - Ciaran Norris responded via Twitter:
Not all ad businesses need low income/educated ppl to survive. Most are doing everything they can to get ad-dollars from FMCGs, & FMCGs depend on people with disposable income to spend on brands, rather than own-brand products. So he's wrong, & offensive
Posted by Alan Patrick in Mobile Web & Multimedia at 21:47 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
Tuesday, December 6. 2011
Is the dedicated Mobile website yesterday's news?
Consider the following 3 facts:
Spot the contradiction.
It seems odd to me that just as these sites are becoming less necessary, they are increasing. Clearly the time lag of consultants suggesting companies adopt mobile assets is greater than the development paths of mobile hardware
Posted by Alan Patrick in Mobile Web & Multimedia at 10:08 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
Thursday, July 21. 2011
Nokia needs Putsch Technology
Since setting up this blog we have railed against the myopia of Planet Mobile in general and of Nokia (read here) - the Olde Guarde mobile phone makers and the elements in the Mobile Telcos that have fought tooth and nail against Mobile IP and decent IP devices. (The well powered, user friendly smartphone was technically possible some years before Apple brought the iPhone out, all it required was the will) so it is with no surprise we note Nokia is hitting the wall of its own self-created obsolescence - PaidContent:
Nokia today reported an operating loss of €487 million for the quarter, a decline of €782 million from the same quarter a year ago, when it made an operating profit of €295 million. The declines seen at the handset maker were near-total, represented by a string of negative percentages down the balance sheet.
That doesn't even begin to cover the disaster that is Smartphones:
In sales, smart devices saw a decline of 33 percent, to €2.368 billion from €3.503 billion a year before; in volumes that worked out to a 34 percent decline to 16.7 million units. In comparison, Apple sold nearly 34 million units and the combined Android makers sold around 37 million, according to figures from analyst Benedict Evans.
The "Microsoft Effect" had better be felt, and fast then..... if they want to have anything left of the JV and all the $ they are pumping into it. But they can't carry on doing "more of he same" - our own view is that they are better off putting their young turks in charge, rather than carrying on with the current management team.
Putsch Technology in other words......
Posted by Alan Patrick in Mobile Web & Multimedia at 16:42 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
Friday, February 11. 2011
Can Nokia and Microsoft ever be Mobile?
Can elephants dance? (Picture from David Anone http://dailytickles.blogspot.com)
Today Nokia and Microsoft announced a JV to retake the Smartphone market - Nokia:
While the specific details of the deal are being worked out, here's a quick summary of what we are working towards:
So far so good, now here is the harder bit:
The reason the JV is happening is that the assets being brought to the table are not so much incredible but non-credible. The two companies have completeley dropped the ball in mobile over the last 5 years, from positions of strength, due to a combination of world class arrogance, incompetence and intransigence. The question is, can they remove the cultures that made this happen? The next paragraph makes you wonder:
Together, we have some of the world's most admired brands, including Windows, Office, Bing, Xbox Live, NAVTEQ and Nokia. We also have a shared understanding of what it takes to build and sustain a mobile ecosystem, which includes the entire experience from the device to the software to the applications, services and the marketplace.
That shared undestanding of what it takes to build an ecosystem is a chimera in the smart mobile world, they have both been comprehensively outdone by Apple and then Android (Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, more ...). They are right when they say that ecosystems need to be at scale and execution is key:
My Broadsight colleague Dave Short has a rule of thumb, that Nimbleness = 1 / Size squared - ie double the company size, you get 1/4 of the nimbleness. In other words, Nokia and Microsoft doubling up is likely to reduce, not increase speed.
As to disrupting the market there is an irony here for Microsoft, as they disrupted the PC market in a similar way - find a sluggish giant that has missed a step (IBM) and use its assets (brand, sales channel) to capture a market (Microcomputers, or PC's ase we now call them) with their* new operating system (MS-DOS) and snaffle the market from Apple. Only thing is this time, Google has already aggregated the very fragmented non-Apple market under an O/S - ie Android. The lesson last time was that once there was a major mass market OS, all the other later entrants failed and had to adopt MS-DOS. This was partly because of the dominant OS effect by then, but was more due to the applications Ecosystem that MS-DOS and Apple already had. Android is now the MS-DOs in this industry, so it's highly likely that the New MSFT/Nokia play will struggle in the market.
But for Microsoft, there is an added pressure to consider in mobile. When it was all dumbphones, it was no threat to the Microsoft core user base. Even smartphones are no real threat, more a market missed - but tablets are the real threat, as a good tablet OS will be a major competitor for laptops and PCs.
The saving grace is the huge market share Nokia potentially can upsell to, but they will have to move very fast, every month people are opting fior iPhones and Android phones, and the whole market cycles around in about 2 years and we are well into the Smartphone upgrade cycle.....and if Dave's formula is right, that Nimbleness ain't going to happen. Rosabeth Moss Kanter once wrote "Can Giants learn to Dance" where she argues it is possible, my view on the book was it was more the triumph of hope over evidence. Or, as Telecom TV's ever-sharp mobile device fundi Lelia Makki (@leilamakki) puts it, she is:
"hopeful but not holding my breath."
Me neither - in fact, it seems more a desperate "last dance at the disco" tie-up. I'd bet on Nokia/Microsoft phones running Android in 2 years time (in fact I'd bet more on Kinect protecting MSFT's PC/Laptop assets)
Update - infomation on the new Nokia structure - looks like one small newly created division is responsible for this whole smartphone turnaround, but key assets - R&D, dealmaking, sales channels, even finance - are owned elsewhere in the company. This won't dance, never mind fly, as it will be mired in the peanut butter of the existing Big Battalions. They need to create a proper Joint Venture or Spinout with real independence. And time is fleeting, as yet there is no Nokia/Microsoft smartphone or tablet, they need one sooner rather than later.
Update 2 - Ian Betteridge makes a good point:
Good point - what killed Planet Mobile was the Operating System Tower of Babel - it made apps writing extremely uneconomic and using them extremely frustrating.
Update 3 - interesting theory - Microsoft has set up a Puppet Government in Nokia (the $0 acquisition)
* Ignoring the nip and truck they did with the original PC-DOS of course.....
Posted by Alan Patrick in Mobile Web & Multimedia at 09:21 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)
Wednesday, February 9. 2011
Nokia sees the light....
...even if it is from their own Burning Platform - the new CEO wrote a long memo today, saying Nokia was on a burning platform and had little choice but to jump into icy seas:
Over the past few months, I've shared with you what I've heard from our shareholders, operators, developers, suppliers and from you. Today, I'm going to share what I've learned and what I have come to believe.
More on all this over here at Engadget. Given that the smarter industry observers have been saying this for at least 6 years, its no great surprise, but as always poorly navigated large companies, like large ships, have to hit icebergs before they think of changing course.
We've been fairly rude about Planet Mobile's stupi...short sightedness (our term for the the Olde Mobile industry, of which Nokia was one of the largest players) since we started writing this blog in 2006. Here is us in Jan 2007 - the article (over here) compares 'Net with Mobile development and concludes that Time is Running Out:
So, how long has Planet Mobile got to terreform itself? Two trends one should never bet against:
That was 2007, pre iPhone/Smartphone et al - let me bet on "mobile vs tablet" penetration by 2013.....
When the iPhone came out in 2007 Nokia made a false start to"get with it" - quoting ourselves from 2007:
Actually, we did tell them in 2005. I still recall sketching out the iPod's end - to end value chain to 'em in 2005 and saying "someday soon, mobile telephony will work this way".
As for Symbian, it was fairly clear that was fuc - sorry, largely obsolescent - by late 2007 - us again:
(I reference our writings because its quick to find them, but any decent independent observer could see the same thing at the time.)
What would we tell them now, apart from "Told Ya So". Well, in a way it would be "Ye don't want to be starting from here! More helpful perhaps would be to reflect on how IBM reformed itself under Gerstner, or Apple came back from its walk on the dire side - ie use the strategic assets it still has got and merclessly jettison those that are obsolete.
But the main thing they need to do is to re-innovate the product and end to end proposition, and - in my view anyway - the current structure and staff have proven to be unfit for purpose. Better leave 'em out the lifeboat.
Update - WSJ publishes the following view of "what to do"
According to Zeus Kerravala, who follows the hand-held device market for research firm Yankee Group, Nokia's best hope is to create a vibrant community of developers interested in creating apps for its Symbian operating system. But, said Mr. Kerravala, "it's a real eight ball they're behind right now."
I disagree - Symbian is obsolescent now, and Nokia have consistently misunderstood the market moving to:
- end to end service drives device (Apple/iTunes)
As I note above, I have very little confidence that the existing product crowd in Nokia could "get" this now. Also, I don't think bribing developers to build for Symbian will work, even if it was an OK OS. There are already too many apps elsewhere. If you look at the IT industry in the 80's, HP, NCR et al all had to adopt UNIX for their midrange tins and DOS for their PCs. IMO Nokia needs to do this now with Android (not Microsoft - that is too small a market share), and use their other market advantages to "stay in the game" in the short term.
Posted by Alan Patrick in Mobile Web & Multimedia at 16:08 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
Wednesday, November 3. 2010
Facebook, Mobile, Freeconomics, iPad and Social Media in one story
Yes, dear reader, who could resist the linkbait of this one - Facebook has launched a service down the well worn path of allowing local businesses to push their special deals onto your mobile phone. The interesting thing is, as Inside Facebook explains:
So - well worn Use Case, but with Freeconomic play from subsidisation elsewhere to push for-pay startups out the space and grow market share fast (roll over Groupon, and do tell Foursquare the news....).
But it won't be available on the iPad - TechCrunch:
Zuckerberg was pretty blunt when it came to explaining why there wasn't an iPad launch during today's mobile event: "The iPad isn't mobile". He later qualified this statement to say that Facebook loves working with Apple, but that the iPad isn't as mobile as a phone (he's right).
In other words, the use case and demographic for the iPad is not likely to support a shedload of coupon adsh*t on their screens. Guess which device I am using around town from now on
There is a substantial customer subsegment that clips coupons, so there is no doubt a market for this - but what size this is, what they are worth vs the cost to serve, and whether they will wade through all the Adcr*p on such a small screen will be interesting to see, it may well be that Facebook is better off limiting its players to a smaller number of (large, high paying) high street brand names.
Definitely a "watch with interest", as I think the "No iPad" rule means they have clearly carefully considered the market (Zuckerberg thinks the iPad is a computer - we agree). I suspect that the iPhone user demographic will be rarer users too by the way.
(Disclosure - we have helped two interactive mobile Ad startups set up their businesses, so we know there is a market, and roughly where it is....)
Posted by Alan Patrick in Mobile Web & Multimedia at 20:33 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
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