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College Material
This story appears in the April 1998 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »
Most people agree that a college education is a critical component of a child's future success. However, the majority of American parents do not save for their children's education. So reports a Lou Harris & Associates poll conducted in 1997 for Alliance Capital Management LP, a New York City investment management company.
According to the quarterly Alliance Capital Financial Preparedness survey, 89 percent of parents considered saving for college a worthwhile investment, but only 47 percent said they regularly put aside money for this purpose or have in the past.
When the study looked at the parents' ages, an interesting picture emerged. An estimated 68 percent of Generation X moms and dads are saving regularly for their children's college education, compared with 51 percent of parents ages 30 to 49 and 36 percent of parents ages 50 and older. Gen Xers also began saving when their child was younger--an average of 2.5 years vs. 7.2 years for Boomers and 11 years for older parents.
"There are a few reasons Generation X parents are doing better," says Duff Ferguson, assistant vice president at Alliance Capital and coordinator of the poll. "When young people come out of school and start out in the workplace, they're given information on 401(k)s and told they'll be responsible for their own retirement needs."
These younger investors know that if they don't start planning now, they--and their children--could be in trouble later.
"The other piece to this [puzzle] is [Gen Xers] know a college education is now the standard and that it's much more expensive," adds Ferguson.
Consequently, firms wanting to attract younger employees should offer benefit packages that contain savings options. And companies with older workers may do well to stress financial education and provide information on college savings programs.
It Takes Two
This alliance means free assistance for entrepreneurs.
Visa U.S.A. and the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) have formed an alliance to provide entrepreneurs with a wider array of financial assistance. The first products to come out of the partnership are two free workbooks.
According Susan Forman of Visa, How to Choose the Best Bank for Your Business and How to Secure Financing were created as a result of requests from entrepreneurs. "They are geared to small businesses," says Forman. "In How to Secure Financing, you'll learn how to calculate your financial needs, forecasts and projections as well as how to put together a polished package to present to a lender." How to Choose the Best Bank for Your Business discusses how to select an institution interested in building a relationship.
In addition to the workbooks, Visa has added a small-business element to its Web site (http://www.visa.com/smallbiz). Here, you can learn about legislative and tax concerns, plus other issues pertinent to entrepreneurs.
The workbooks are available from any SCORE chapter or by calling Visa at (650) 432-3200.
Record Highs
Small-business lending is on the rise, according to the SBA:
- In fiscal year 1997 (which ended September 30), the SBA approved 45,288 loan guarantees totaling $9.46 billion in the 7(a) General Business Loan Guaranty program--a 23 percent increase over fiscal year 1996. Combined with the 4,131 loans ($1.44 billion) under the Certified Development Company Loan program, the $10.9 billion total exceeds the fiscal year 1996 mark of nearly $10.2 billion.
- A record 10,600 loans were made to minority owned firms in fiscal year 1997. Similarly, a record 10,800 loans were made to women-owned firms in the same time period.
Contact Source
Duff Ferguson, c/o Alliance Capital Management LP, 1345 Ave. of the Americas, New York, NY 10105, firstname.lastname@example.com


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Record 346 inmates die, dozens of guards fired in Florida prisons
From Daily Kos
The U.S. incarcerates 716 people for every 100,000 residents, more than any other country. In fact, our rate of incarceration is more than five times higher than most of the countries in the world. Although our level of crime is comparable to those of other stable, internally secure, industrialized nations, the United States has an incarceration rate far higher than any other country.Nearly all of the countries with relatively high incarceration rates share the experience of recent large-scale internal conflict. But the United States, which has enjoyed a long history of political stability and hasn't had a civil war in nearly a century and a half, tops the list.
If we compare the incarceration rates of individual U.S. states and territories with that of other nations, for example, we see that 36 states and the District of Columbia have incarceration rates higher than that of Cuba, which is the nation with the second highest incarceration rate in the world.
Now, what we are learning is that the United States is not just imprisoning people at an outrageous pace, but that men and women are dying in these prisons at all-time highs, often at the hands of guards, in the most awful and brutal ways imaginable. The state of Florida, it appears, is ground zero for the deaths of prisoners, and the crisis is so deeply corrupt and out of hand that it needs immediate national intervention.In 2014, Florida recorded at least 346 deaths inside of their prison system, an all-time high for the state in spite of the fact that its overall prison population has hovered around 100,000 people for the five previous years. Hundreds of these deaths from 2014 and from previous years are now under investigation by the DOJ because of the almost unimaginable role law enforcement officers are playing in them.
Below the fold I will highlight some of the most egregious stories.

subset: commoncrawl


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South African Journal of Science
On-line version ISSN 1996-7489
Print version ISSN 0038-2353
S. Afr. j. sci. vol.105 n.7-8 Pretoria Jul./Aug. 2009
Synthesis of nanocrystalline silicon thin films using the increase of the deposition pressure in the hot-wire chemical vapour deposition technique
S. HalindintwaliI, *; D. KnoesenI; R. SwanepoelI; B.A. JuliesI; C. ArendseI; T. MullerI; C.C.TheronII; A. GordijnIII; P.C.P. BronsveldIII; J.K. RathIII; R.E.I. SchroppIII
IPhysics Department, University of the Western Cape, Private Bag X17, Bellville 7535, South Africa
IIMaterials Research Group, iThemba LABS, P.O. Box 722, Somerset West 7129, South Africa
IIISID Physics of Devices, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80.000, 3508 TA Utrecht, the Netherlands
Nanostructured thin silicon-based films have been deposited using the hot-wire chemical vapour deposition (HWCVD) technique at the University of the Western Cape. A variety of techniques including optical and infrared spectroscopy, Raman scattering spectroscopy, X-rays diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) have been used for characterisation of the films. The electrical measurements show that the films have good values of photoresponse, and the photocurrent remains stable after several hours of light soaking. This contribution will discuss the characteristics of the hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon thin films deposited using increased process chamber pressure at a fixed hydrogen dilution ratio in monosilane gas.
Key words: hot-wire deposition, intrinsic, absorption coefficient, degradation measurements, stability, photoresponse
Hot-wire chemical vapour deposition, also known as catalytic chemical vapour deposition, is one of the techniques used to prepare thin amorphous and microcrystalline films for photovoltaic and large-area electronic applications.14 The process involves the catalytic decomposition of the feed gases over a resistively heated filament followed by a deposition of a layer on a substrate kept in an evacuated chamber. When silane or a silane/hydrogen mixture are used as feed gases, films ranging from amorphous to polycrystalline hydrogenated silicon can be obtained by proper control of the deposition parameters such as the hydrogen dilution ratio in the silane gas,5 the substrate and filament temperature4,6 and the process pressure. Hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H)-based devices have been reported to be more stable than their amorphous (a-Si:H) counterparts.7 Klein et al.8 have recently shown that microcrystalline silicon films grown at a high deposition rate could be obtained at a high deposition pressure, but the material quality decreased. In this study, good-quality intrinsic nanocrystalline silicon films have been deposited using the increase of the deposition pressure at deposition rates as high as 4.7 s1.
Thin films ranging from ~500 nm to 1 000 nm were deposited onto 2 cm × 2 cm Corning glass and c-Si (100) substrates. More details on the deposition chamber and the deposition process have been given elsewhere.9,10 The thickness was calculated using the computing method of Swanepoel11 and measured by a Dektak profilometer. For this effect, a Veeco Dektak 6M profiler was used to take measurements electromechanically by moving the sample beneath a diamond-tipped stylus that rides over the sample surface. The scan traces were always taken from a bare area of the substrate to the surface of the deposited layer and average step heights were calculated to estimate the thickness using the interfaced software.12 To ensure that the films were free of impurities during growth, a background pressure of less than 107 mbar was always achieved before deposition. The tantalum filament catalyser consisted of seven parallel wires maintained at 1 600°C. The temperatures of the substrate heater (Tsub.) were preset at 375°C, 410°C and 450°C. The distance between the filament and the substrate was fixed at 3.6 cm. Table 1 gives the details of the deposition conditions of the films used in this paper. The hydrogen dilution ratio in the silane gas was calculated as
where øH2 and øSiH4 represent the flow rates of hydrogen and silane, respectively. The phase changes were observed by XRD and by Raman scattering spectroscopy. X-ray diffraction spectra were obtained by means of a D8 advance Bruker diffractometer, a theta-2 theta (θ-2θ) machine situated at iThemba LABS, Faure. The used X-ray radiation was Cu Kα, with a wavelength of 0.15 nm. The intensity of the diffracted radiation was detected as a function of 2θ. In this study the value of 2θ varied from 22° to 70.72° with an angular resolution of 0.04° and an accumulation time of 30 s per step, i.e. 10 h per sample. Raman measurements were performed using the 514.5 nm line of a Spectra Physics Ar+-ion laser, a SPEX triple-grating monochromator and a CCD-detector situated in the Physics Department, Utrecht University (the Netherlands). The crystalline volume fractions (fc) were calculated from the deconvoluted peaks using the Raman data according to
where Ic, Igb and Ia are the integrated intensities of the crystalline peak, intermediate peak of the amorphous to crystalline phase, and the amorphous phase respectively.13 The hydrogen content (CH) was calculated from Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy measurements, using the integrated absorption coefficient of the rocking mode vibration at ~640 cm1.ref. 14 For dark conductivity and photoconductivity measurements, two silver electrodes with a length of 20 mm separated by a distance of 0.5 mm were deposited on the samples. The photoconductivity was measured using a solar simulator with the AM1.5 spectrum at an intensity of 100 mW cm2 ref. 15 and an applied voltage of 100 V. For activation energy (Ea) measurements, dark currents were measured from films successively annealed and cooled down in a vacuum from 160°C to room temperature. Activation energy was obtained from the Arrhenius plot of the dark conductivity data versus the reciprocal temperature in the cooling region. The light degradation experiment was done using the same setup as the one used by Britton et al.16 The samples were illuminated for 300 h and the photocurrent was measured at different time intervals at an applied voltage of 50 V.
Results and discussion
Phase transition
Figure 1 displays the Raman spectra of the films deposited at a fixed hydrogen dilution ratio of 87% with the deposition pressure varying from 20 µbar to 60 µbar. The first three samples deposited within the range 2040 µbar were fully amorphous, as shown by the broad peaks centred around 480 cm1. The fourth sample deposited at a pressure of 60 µbar was just above the edge of crystallinity. Its Raman spectrum is showing an asymmetry towards 520 cm1 and its deconvolution into different Gaussians produced a small peak around 506 cm1 in addition to the amorphous one centred around 480 cm1. This has been interpreted as the inclusion of a finite number of small crystallites in an amorphous network. A crystalline volume fraction equal to 6% was calculated for this sample. The abundance of atomic hydrogen on, or near, the growing surface is essential for a change from an amorphous phase to a crystalline phase4,17 as the atomic hydrogen is known to passivate the surface and to etch away weak Si-Si bonds in the subsurface region.18 An increase of the deposition pressure had the beneficial effect of increasing the silane conversion rate and thus generating more silicon and atomic hydrogen precursors. It was even easier to induce crystallinity by increasing the pressure within the same range of 2060 µbar at a fixed higher hydrogen dilution of 92% as shown in Fig. 2;19 increasing values of hydrogen dilution ratio produced more atomic hydrogen resulting from an increased splitting of molecular hydrogen on the hot filament. In Fig. 2(i), an increasing trend of the peak centred around 515 cm1 with an increase in pressure, is observed on the spectra corresponding to Samples 79. The increasing Raman intensity of this peak at increasing process pressure is indicating an increase of the crystalline volume fraction. Sample 6 remains amorphous as its Raman spectrum shows only a broad peak centred around 480 cm1. The XRD results in Fig. 2(ii) agreed well with the Raman results for Samples 6, 8 and 9. The XRD spectrum of Sample 7 was not conclusive enough, suggesting that, for films near the edge of crystallinity, a complementary sensitive method must be used to confirm the phase of the material. The UV-VIS reflection measurements on the same samples in Fig. 3 agreed with the XRD and Raman findings for the three investigated films (Samples 6, 8 and 9); the crystal Si direct-transition UV reflectance signatures at 365 nm and 275 nm20 revealed the presence of any crystalline phase at the surface. No crystalline signature was observed in the case of Sample 6, meaning that it was fully amorphous. The transition peaks for Samples 8 and 9 are distinguishable around 275 nm; they are not sharp as in the case of the c-Si substrate due to the residual amorphous network. Figure 4 displays the typical cross-section transmission electron micrographs of a nc-Si:H film near the edge of crystallinity with a crystalline volume fraction of 8% and a µc-Si:H film with fc of 53%. They are identified as Samples 10 and 11 in Table 1. The dark regions dispersed in much brighter areas are the crystals embedded in an amorphous network. The crystal sizes observed from TEM fell in the calculated range of about 240 nm as determined by the Scherrer formula on XRD data.
Deposition rate
Figure 5 shows the deposition rate against the deposition pressure at a fixed hydrogen dilution ratio of 87%; it is observed that the deposition rate increased with an increase in pressure until a point where it saturated. The supply of Si-containing radicals increased with the process pressure; but since the surface of the filament was limited, a saturation point of the decomposition of the feed gas would have been reached and thus the deposition rate saturated. For the films deposited at a higher hydrogen dilution of 92%, at increasing chamber pressures within the same range of 2060 µbar, slower growth rates were observed (2.173.00 Å s1). This is explained by both the depletion of the SiH4 gas in the chamber resulting in less species decomposed on the filament for film growth, and the increase of H2 in the chamber giving rise to the concentration of atomic hydrogen decomposed from the filament that, in turn, increased the etching effect on the growing surface.21
Absorption coefficient
Figure 6 shows the absorption coefficient (a) spectra for films ranging from amorphous to microcrystalline silicon. They were processed using the deposition conditions of Samples 69 as given in Table 1. As expected, the amorphous sample deposited with a deposition pressure of 20 µbar had higher α-values in the visible part of the spectrum than the microcrystalline films. Its value at 2 eV (~600 nm) was greater than the minimum reference value of 3.5 × 104 cm1 for 'device quality' amorphous silicon films.22 Furthermore the calculated values for the three µc-Si:H films all had, at the same wavelength of the spectrum, relatively high values (greater than 1 × 104 cm1) decreasing with the increase in crystallinity. This improved light absorption of the two-phased material was attributed to the remaining amorphous network in the films, which allowed direct optical transitions.
Electrical properties
Table 2 summarises the electrical characteristics of Samples 25. It transpired from the table that the dark conductivity values were low, a sign that the films were truly intrinsic and the incorporation of impurities had been minimised. They compared well with the reported value for an amorphous silicon 'device quality' film of <1 × 1010 Ω1 cm1.ref. 22 The values recorded for the activation energy supported this observation, as they agreed with the calculated energy gap values found in the range ~1.61.9 eV. The photoresponse of Sample 5 was maintained particularly high for a film above the edge of crystallinity, showing that the carriers recombination on the grain boundaries was insignificant. We conclude that the film contained a sufficient amount of hydrogen, as depicted in the last column of Table 2, such that the grain boundaries were passivated very well. A degradation study was conducted on the sample to investigate its stability under illumination. Figure 79 displays the measured photocurrent values as a function of the light-soaking time. The stability of Sample 5 (Table 1) was high as the change in photocurrent after more than 200 h of illumination was observed to be far less than one order of magnitude. The measured small value of the dark current was not affected by the illumination, and thus maintained the photoresponse at a high level. Compared to the graph of an amorphous Si film identified as Sample 1 in Table 1, it follows that the nanocrystalline material showed an improved stability against light exposure. This result is in agreement with other published reports.23 The noticeable difference between our results and those reported by Souffi et al.23 is the sharper drop of the photoconductivity for our amorphous film in the first 20 h of illumination. On the other hand, the photocurrent of the two films probed in our investigation stabilised after 200 h of illumination. The last observation was one of the advantages of a-Si:H films deposited by HWCVD over those deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD).
Those deposited by PECVD reportedly do not attain a stable photoconductivity after several hours of illumination,24 in contrast to the HWCVD samples investigated in this study.
An increase in the deposition pressure at a fixed optimum hydrogen dilution ratio in the HWCVD process can be used to produce nc-Si:H intrinsic films that are both photosensitive and stable against light degradation effects. It has been shown that at a fixed relatively low hydrogen dilution ratio of 87% in silane, the films remained amorphous up to 60 µbar. When the hydrogen dilution ratio was increased to 92%, a gradual increase of the process pressure allowed the crystallisation of the films at a much lower pressure of 30 µbar. This method of inducing crystallinity using an increase in deposition pressure is particularly beneficial because relatively high deposition rates are achieved, although a saturation point will ultimately be reached due to the limited surface area of the filament catalyser. In this study, a deposition rate as high as 4.7 Å s1 was achieved for a film at the edge of crystallinity with a crystalline volume fraction of 6%. The electrical properties studies have shown that this layer has a good photoresponse of 6.08 × 103 while the degradation measurements have shown that the sample is quite stable.
The research described in this paper was financially supported by the National Research Foundation of South Africa (GUN 2050646). S.H. wishes to thank Utrecht University for the Werner van der Weg fellowship grant. iThemba LABS and the University of Cape Town are acknowledged for XRD and degradation measurements, respectively.
1. Wiesmann H., Gosh A.K., McMahon T. and Strongin M. (1979). a-Si:H produced by high-temperature thermal decomposition of silane. J. Appl. Phys. 50, 37523754. [ Links ]
2. Matsumura H. (1986). Catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CTL-CVD) method producing high quality hydrogenated amorphous silicon. Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 25, L949L951. [ Links ]
3. Matsumura H., Masuda A. and Umemoto H. (2006). Present status and future feasibility for industrial implementation of Cat-CVD (hot-wire CVD) technology. Thin Solid Films 501, 5860. [ Links ]
4. Mahan A.H., Carapella J., Nelson B.P., Crandall R.S. and Balberg I. (1991). Deposition of device quality, low H content amorphous silicon. J. Appl. Phys. 69, 67286730. [ Links ]
5. Bauer S., Herbst W., Schröder B. and Oechsner H. (1997). a-Si:H solar cells using the hot-wire technique how to exceed efficiencies of 10%. In Proceedings, 26th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, Anaheim, CA, pp. 719722. IEEE Conference Publishing Services, Anaheim. [ Links ]
6. Jadkar S.R., Sali J.V., Kshirisagar S.T. and Takwale M.G. (2003). Deposition of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) films by hot wire chemical vapour deposition: role of the filament temperature. Thin Solid Films 437, 1824. [ Links ]
7. Fonrodona M., Soler D., Escarré J., Villar F., Bertomeu J., Andreu J., Saboundji A., Coulon N. and Mohammed-Brahim T. (2006). Low temperature amorphous and nanocrystalline silicon thin film transistors deposited by hot-wire CVD on glass substrate. Thin Solid Films 501, 303306. [ Links ]
8. Klein S., Finger F., Carius R. and Lossen J. (2006). Improved deposition rates for µc-Si:H at low substrate temperature. Thin Solid Films 501, 4346. [ Links ]
9. Halindintwali S., Knoesen D., Swanepoel R., Julies B.A., Arendse C., Muller T., Theron C.C., Gordijn A., Bronsveld P.C.P., Rath J.K. and Schropp R.E.I. (2007). Improved stability of intrinsic nanocrystalline Si thin films deposited by hot-wire chemical vapour deposition technique. Thin Solid Films 515, 80408044. [ Links ]
10. Knoesen D., Arendse C., Halindintwali S. and Muller T. (2007). Extension of the lifetime of tantalum filament in the hot-wire (Cat) chemical vapor deposition process. Thin Solid Films 516, 822825. [ Links ]
11. Swanepoel R. (1984). Determination of surface roughness and optical constants of inhomogeneous amorphous silicon films. J. Phys. E: Sci. Instrum. 17, 896903. [ Links ]
12. Veeco Instruments Inc. (2002). Dektak 6M Manual, Software Version 8.30.005, 119. [ Links ]
13. Bustarret E., Hachicha M.A. and Brunel M. (1988). Experimental determination of nanocrystalline volume fraction in silicon thin films from Raman spectroscopy. Appl. Phys. Lett. 52, 16751677. [ Links ]
14. Ouwens J.D. (1995). Characterization and applications of wide band gap amorphous silicon, pp. 2829. Ph.D. thesis, Utrecht University, the Netherlands. [ Links ]
15. Markvart T. (2000). Solar Electricity, chap. 2, pp. 89. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester. [ Links ]
16. Britton D.T., Sigcau Z., Comrie C.M., Kanguwe D.F., Minani E., Knoesen D. and Härting M. (2003). Light induced changes in the defect structure of a-Si:H. Thin Solid Films 430, 149152. [ Links ]
17. Brogueira P., Conde J.P., Arekat S. and Chu V. (1996). Amorphous and microcrystalline silicon films deposited by hot-wire chemical vapor deposition at filament temperatures between 1500 and 1900°C. J. Appl. Phys. 79, 87488760. [ Links ]
18. Feenstra K.F. (1998). Hot-wire chemical vapour deposition of amorphous silicon and the application in solar cells, pp. 5455. Ph.D. thesis, Utrecht University, the Netherlands. [ Links ]
19. Halindintwali S., Knoesen D., Muller T.F.G., Adams D., Tile N., Theron C.C. and Schropp R.E.I. (2007). Optical characterization of a-Si:H and nc-Si:H thin films using the transmission spectrum alone. J. Mater. Sci: Mater. Electron. 18, S225S229. [ Links ]
20. Jayatissa A.H., Hatanika H., Nakanishi Y. and Ishikawa K. (1996). Low-temperature growth of microcrystalline silicon using 100% SiH4 by rf glow discharge method. J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 29, 16361640. [ Links ]
21. Halindintwali S. (2005). A study of hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon thin films by hot-wire chemical vapour deposition (HWCVD), p. 20. Ph.D. thesis, University of the Western Cape, South Africa. [ Links ]
22. Schropp R.E.I. and Zeman M. (1998). Amorphous and Microcrystalline Silicon Solar Cells: Modelling, Materials and Device Technology, chap. 3, pp. 4647. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Massachusetts. [ Links ]
23. Souffi N., Bauer G.H. and Brüggemann R. (2006). Study of metastabilities in microcrystalline silicon films by photoconductivity techniques. Thin Solid Films 501, 129132. [ Links ]
24. Das C. and Ray S. (2002). Onset of microcrystallinity in silicon thin films. Thin Solid Films 403404, 8185. [ Links ]
Received 18 May. Accepted 3 June 2009.
* Author for correspondence E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


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Once the signed builds are available, QA starts manual and automated testing. QA relies on a mix of community members, contractors and employees in different timezones to speed up this verification process. Meanwhile, our release automation generates updates for all languages and all platforms, for all supported releases. These update snippets are typically ready before QA has finished verifying the signed builds. QA then verifies that users can safely update from various previous releases to the newest release using these updates.
Mechanically, our automation pushes the binaries to our "internal mirrors" (Mozilla-hosted servers) in order for QA to verify updates. Only after QA has finished verification of the builds and the updates will we push them to our community mirrors. These community mirrors are essential to handle the global load of users, by allowing them to request their updates from local mirror nodes instead of from ftp.mozilla.org directly. It's worth noting that we do not make builds and updates available on the community mirrors until after QA signoff, because of complications that arise if QA finds a last-minute showstopper and the candidate build needs to be withdrawn.
The validation process after builds and updates are generated is:
- QA, along with community and contractors in other timezones, does manual testing.
- QA triggers the automation systems to do functional testing.
- QA independently verifies that fixed problems and new features for that release are indeed fixed and of good enough quality to ship to users.
- Meanwhile, release automation generates the updates.
- QA signs off the builds.
- QA signs off the updates.
Note that users don't get updates until QA has signed off and the Release Coordinator has sent the email asking to push the builds and updates live.
Pushing to Public Mirrors and AUS
Once the Release Coordinator gets signoff from QA and various other groups at Mozilla, they give Release Engineering the go-ahead to push the files to our community mirror network. We rely on our community mirrors to be able to handle a few hundred million users downloading updates over the next few days. All the installers, as well as the complete and partial updates for all platforms and locales, are already on our internal mirror network at this point. Publishing the files to our external mirrors involves making a change to an rsync exclude file for the public mirrors module. Once this change is made, the mirrors will start to synchronize the new release files. Each mirror has a score or weighting associated with it; we monitor which mirrors have synchronized the files and sum their individual scores to compute a total "uptake" score. Once a certain uptake threshold is reached, we notify the Release Coordinator that the mirrors have enough uptake to handle the release.
This is the point at which the release becomes "official". After the Release Coordinator sends the final "go live" email, Release Engineering will update the symlinks on the Web server so that visitors to our Web and ftp sites can find the latest new version of Firefox. We also publish all the update snippets for users on past versions of Firefox to AUS.
Firefox installed on users' machines regularly checks our AUS servers to see if there's an updated version of Firefox available for them. Once we publish these update snippets, users are able to automatically update Firefox to the latest version.
Lessons Learned
As software engineers, our temptation is to jump to solve what we see as the immediate and obvious technical problem. However, Release Engineering spans across different fields both technical and non-technical so being aware of technical and non-technical issues is important.
The Importance of Buy-in from Other Stakeholders
It was important to make sure that all stakeholders understood that our slow, fragile release engineering exposed the organization, and our users, to risks. This involved all levels of the organization acknowledging the lost business opportunities, and market risks, caused by slow fragile automation. Further, Mozilla's ability to protect our users with super-fast turnaround on releases became more important as we grew to have more users, which in turn made us more attractive as a target.
Interestingly, some people had only ever experienced fragile release automation in their careers, so came to Mozilla with low, "oh, it's always this bad" expectations. Explaining the business gains expected with a robust, scalable release automation process helped everyone understand the importance of the "invisible" Release Engineering improvement work we were about to undertake.
Involving Other Groups
To make the release process more efficient and more reliable required work, by Release Engineering and other groups across Mozilla. However, it was interesting to see how often "it takes a long time to ship a release" was mistranslated as "it takes Release Engineering a long time to ship a release". This misconception ignored the release work done by groups outside of Release Engineering, and was demotivating to the Release Engineers. Fixing this misconception required educating people across Mozilla on where time was actually spent by different groups during a release. We did this with low-tech "wall-clock" timestamps on emails of clear handoffs across groups, and a series of "wall-clock" blog posts detailing where time was spent.
- These helped raise awareness of which different groups were actually involved in a release.
- These helped people appreciate whenever RelEng got processes to run faster, which in turn helped motivate Release Engineers to make further improvements.
- These helped other groups think about how they too could help improve the overall release process a big mindset shift for the entire organization.
- Finally, these also eliminated all the unclear handoff communications across groups, which had historically cost us many respins, false-starts, and other costly disruptions to the release process.
Establishing Clear Handoffs
Many of our "release engineering" problems were actually people problems: miscommunication between teams; lack of clear leadership; and the resulting stress, fatigue and anxiety during chemspill releases. By having clear handoffs to eliminate these human miscommunications, our releases immediately started to go more smoothly, and cross-group human interactions quickly improved.
Managing Turnover
When we started this project, we were losing team members too often. In itself, this is bad. However, the lack of accurate up-to-date documentation meant that most of the technical understanding of the release process was documented by folklore and oral histories, which we lost whenever a person left. We needed to turn this situation around, urgently.
We felt the best way to improve morale and show that things were getting better was to make sure people could see that we had a plan to make things better, and that people had some control over their own destiny. We did this by making sure that we set aside time to fix at least one thing anything! after each release. We implemented this by negotiating for a day or two of "do not disturb" time immediately after we shipped a release. Solving immediate small problems, while they were still fresh in people's minds, helped clear distractions, so people could focus on larger term problems in subsequent releases. More importantly, this gave people the feeling that we had regained some control over our own fate, and that things were truly getting better.
Managing Change
Because of market pressures, Mozilla's business and product needs from the release process changed while we were working on improving it. This is not unusual and should be expected.
We knew we had to continue shipping releases using the current release process, while we were building the new process. We decided against attempting to build a separate "greenfield project" while also supporting the existing systems; we felt the current systems were so fragile that we literally would not have the time to do anything new.
We also assumed from the outset that we didn't fully understand what was broken. Each incremental improvement allowed us to step back and check for new surprises, before starting work on the next improvement. Phrases like "draining the swamp," "peeling the onion," and "how did this ever work?" were heard frequently whenever we discovered new surprises throughout this project.
Given all this, we decided to make lots of small, continuous improvements to the existing process. Each iterative improvement made the next release a little bit better. More importantly, each improvement freed up just a little bit more time during the next release, which allowed a release engineer a little more time to make the next improvement. These improvements snowballed until we found ourselves past the tipping point, and able to make time to work on significant major improvements. At that point, the gains from release optimizations really kicked in.
We're really proud of the work done so far, and the abilities that it has brought to Mozilla in a newly heated-up global browser market. Four years ago, doing two chemspill releases in a month would be a talking point within Mozilla. By contrast, last week a published exploit in a third-party library caused Mozilla to ship eight chemspills releases in two low-fuss days.
As with everything, our release automation still has plenty of room for improvement, and our needs and demands continue to change. For a look at our ongoing work, please see the documentation on the design and flow of our Mercurial-based release process.
The authors were all members of the release engineering team at Mozilla. This article was excerpted with permission from Volume 2 of Architecture of Open Source Applications and lightly edited.


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Tree Tots 19/06/2020 (other dates available)
Tree Tots
This event is in the past. This page is for information purposes only.
Pre-school toddlers and their parents are invited to join our Outdoor Learning Team for a weekly toddle into Howe Park Wood followed by a "Nature Play" session either in the wood or at the education centre.
The session is specifically designed for pre- school children and their parents or carers. Activities will vary according to the weather and the season. As much of the session as possible will be outside playing in Howe Park Wood. We will always go out for at least some of the session, but we may end up back at the Education Centre on occasions where a variety of activities will be offered. These will range from stories, exploring natural treasure baskets, or making things with bits and bobs we have collected on our toddle in the woods.
Maximum 3 children per adult
A limited number of drop in spaces are available on the day.
Please all come dressed appropriately for the weather. Paths may be muddy in the winter.


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Panasonic Broadcast has announced the availability of the AJ-PCS060 P2 Store Drive, a rugged, portable hard disk unit with a P2 card slot that quickly transfers the content of P2 cards to an internal hard disk drive. "
The 2.5" 60GB hard disk drive can hold the contents of up to 15 4GB P2 cards, and the entire contents of a 4GB P2 card can be transferred to the internal hard disk drive in about four minutes (in Verify Off mode). After the P2 content has been transferred, the P2 store can connect to a nonlinear or server ingest PC via a USB 2.0 interface and appears as an external disk drive.
The AJ-PCS060 has a shock-resistant magnesium alloy body and is equipped with special impact-absorbing materials to cushion the hard disk against shock and vibrations. In the field, the 1.4-pound AJ-PCS060 stores the contents of P2 cards, thus minimizing the number of reusable P2 cards needed. Back at the studio, it serves as a high-speed drive for transferring video into a station's Local Area Network (LAN) or nonlinear editing system to speed access to the recorded content.
For quick and easy operation, the AJ-PCS060 simply has a large start button. The drive also includes LED indicators for copy status, drive capacity, and battery life remaining. The drive supports Windows 2000 and Windows XP operating systems. It runs on DC power, so a user can use a 7.2V DC battery or a 7.9V AC adaptor to power it.
The AJ-PCS060 is available at the suggested list price of $1,800.
Panasonic's DVCPRO P2 series products are fully compatible with DVCPRO, the industry's standard for digital newsgathering, and provide a seamless migration path to DVCPRO HD. DVCPRO P2 offers nonlinear acquisition and instant access to material, high-speed file transfer, laptop field editing without requirement for proxy videos, and compatibility with off-the-shelf data storage drives for low-cost archiving, while eliminating traditional digitizing and ingesting operations. The core products-AJ-SPX800 camcorder, new AJ-SPC700 camcorder, AJ-SPD850 studio recorder--eliminate transports and mechanisms, resulting in a significant maintenance cost-savings because of the absence of any moving parts that can break down or wear out from repetitive use. Moreover, DVCPRO P2 products are resistant to environmental stresses such as shock and vibration.


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Exceptional Golf Breaks
For a holiday or just a weekend, Open Golf Club – Hotel Golf Resorts offers you quality golf breaks in charming hotels, on exceptional courses in France, Spain, Benelux.
Not only golf breaks but also discovery holidays , gastronomy, spa or exceptional moments spent in marvelous and convivial places. Our golf courses are exceptional, internationally renowned, adapted to all levels of play.
Our resorts are designed for holiday breaks for all, as, within close proximity, everyone can enjoy moments of pleasure according to their desires, around a table, a swimming pool, at a spa, a golf, in a remarkable environment...
All of our sites are situated in tourist regions rich in natural heritage, culture and history in order to make your holiday or weekend break unforgettable.
According to your wishes, your golf break will be « intense », romantic, combined with gastronomy or linked with the discovery of a region and its heritage.


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Educational Toy Focus: Creativity, Concentration, Fine Motor Skills
Get creative and make paper bag puppets, then keep the fun going by putting on a show. Everything included to make 5 colorful paper bags for making puppets – chicken, frog, lion, cow and elephant. Just peel, stick and glue to create funny friends. Contains stickers, cutout and a chunky glue stick that's easy for little hands to hold. Step-by-step instructions included with no reading required. Each project comes individually wrapped and ready to begin when you open the box! Perfect for kids to do individually or with friends.


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Proverbs 3:5-6 New Living Translation (NLT) Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.
Showing posts from July 17, 2013
The Presence Of The Lord & Answered Prayer--Day 19
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Last week the floodgates opened. No... bad choice of words. What I'm trying to say is that after long gaps between posts, I'm ready to start blogging again on a semi-regular basis. Being a virgin empty nester has its perks if you set aside the "missing your kids" part.
I've been working on a murder mystery for a while, and I'm ready to dive back into it. If you're a member of Book Country, you might have seen a pretty big chunk of Mallet as it was being developed.
I'm a Certified Pantster, so whatever you read today might not be the same tomorrow. I decided to post a sample of the book, just to whet appetites - yours and mine.
Now, where to start? The Beginning, according to all agent rules? Or a little piece in the middle, just to keep everyone guessing? I'll let you guess, since I'm still guessing anyway.
Saturday dawned hot and hazy. I blew the dust bunnies off my navy blue pumps, cinched myself into a steeply discounted designer sundress, and headed for the polo grounds on the Montgomery farm in Gormley. A few signs with red arrows pointed the way to the venue, and I scanned for the entrance.A long line of cedar fencing bordered the farm to my left, and out of the corner of my eye I noticed a rail had snapped in two, leaving a gap. Someone should fix that, I thought.I returned my attention to the winding road. In the same moment, a huge reddish-brown object filled my view in front of my car."Shit!" I slammed on my brakes and struggled to keep the Toyota from spinning out of control. Gravel spit in every direction. I managed to bring the car to a halt on the soft shoulder, facing the way I had come.I gulped and gasped, gripping the steering wheel. When my heart and the dust settled, I searched the roadside, wondering if I'd hit the deer.It wasn't a deer. It was a horse.It shuffled back and forth in the ditch on the west side of the road, doing a little pirouette on its hind feet before trotting in the opposite direction.With a deep breath, I undid my seatbelt and opened the door. I stood on the gravel shoulder for a moment, wondering about my next move.The horse stopped for a moment and pricked its ears before flattening them and resuming its dance in the ditch. There was no sign of a limp, and a quick glance at my bumper reassured me I hadn't made contact. Thank God.I had no idea how I was going to catch it. I looked around for help, but for the moment the lane was empty. No freaked-out farmhand came running from any nearby property, so it looked like I was on my own."Come on… girl?" Or was it a male? I didn't have time to peek at its undercarriage. I just kept my eyes fixed on a pair of flared nostrils while I slithered into the dry ditch.The horse gave me a look that said, "Oh, no you're not," and flattened its ears again.It wore a leather halter, but I knew from experience it wasn't a good idea to try to lead a nervous horse without a rope of some kind. One toss of the head and I could end up under its hooves. I crept closer, speaking softly while unbuckling my navy blue cotton belt. I slid it from the loops on my dress and held it to my side.The horse snorted and nosed the sky, eyes rolling, but briefly stood still.I stepped forward, and it stepped backward. I tried again, and it retreated.I remembered a move I'd learned back in college when I took care of the school horses. I turned my shoulder and walked along the ditch, ahead the horse. I extended my closed fist as if I were holding a lead.The trick worked. It followed me and I slowed my pace until it strode alongside. I looped my belt around its halter and hoped it wouldn't rear up, as I didn't have quite enough slack to keep the horse from hauling me into the air.We scrambled out of the ditch, my genuine imitation patent vinyl pumps slipping on the flattened grass, and my arm almost yanked out of its socket as the horse unceremoniously assisted me to higher ground.A car approached and slowed, its tires crunching the gravel. I raised my free hand and the driver rolled to a stop."Need any help?" The guy asked from his open window."No – I got it." I struggled to keep the bay still as it danced about, trying to jerk the belt out of my grip.The driver set his hazard lights and got out of his car, halting the increasing lineup of vehicles that had built up behind him. He waited until we passed through the gates of the nearest driveway, and then returned to his car with a friendly wave.By now the horse had finally decided to cooperate, and clopped calmly beside me. I hoped this was the right farm. This property was either on the polo grounds or adjacent, since the line of cars had turned into the next driveway.A voice drifted through the trees from a loudspeaker, calling out the itinerary for the day's festivities. The first game was due to start just after lunch. I pictured Dionne sitting with the chairpersons and polo players' wives, sipping mimosas and making excuses for my absence.At this end of the grounds, silence surrounded me except for the occasional sleepy tweet from birds high in the pines that lined the driveway. A whinny drifted from a gargantuan century barn, and as I got closer, I heard angry male voices.


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So this weekend I was up in San Francisco for work and for the half marathon! It was a great weekend and I got to meet up with my friends on Saturday after working all day at the expo. We hit up Little Star Pizza for dinner and I was famished so I basically ate a ton of pizza and caprese salad, which seems to be my new obsession. Little Star was awesome and it was great hanging out with everyone for a night.
Over dinner, Maritza was mentioning about a place that did cupcake and wine parings in the city.
WHAT. This place sounded way too good to be true, so I demanded we must travel there next. I could wait. I love cupcakes and this place sounded awesome. We got the best parking spot around and walked into American Cupcake and I was NOT disappointed! It's mood there was awesome, they were playing some sweet jams and the cupcakes were all displayed perfectly. It was love at first site. They had macaroni and cheese and some other treats as well. To me that is the top of the line! So we sat down at the bar and order different stuff for each of us. I ended up with a Willy Wonka gone Wild. It had a coconut, red velvet and vanilla cupcake.
It was maybe the best idea ever! Everything was awesome and the frosting was the BEST part. Normally I'm not a big frosting girl because it overloads you with sugar and makes my tummy hurt, but yum yum, this frosting was light and freaking awesome! It was like marshmallow fluff! Awesome.
Everything was absolutely delish! The owner of the bakery was working on a ton of different cupcakes and when you ordered them at the store, they were frosted right in front of you. Made the frosting and overall cupcake 100x better! So I'm pretty much in love with this place.
Maritza and I, so happy to be together and eating cupcakes! Here's a list of their pairings.
The owner is one smart cupcake to start this because it was basically brilliant. Like, beyond brilliant. Awesome concept, awesome delivery, and awesome, AWESOME product. Yummy win on many levels. If you are ever in San Fran and looking for the best place around, be sure to visit American Cupcake, you definitely won't be disappointed!
Tomorrow, race recap!


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Endangered Species
Rep. Pombo's aide Brian Kennedy, NWF's John Kostyack debate ESA, property rights
Is the Endangered Species Act really protecting wildlife? Or does it threaten property rights and add regulatory red tape to little effect? What are the differences in how the House and Senate might revise ESA? Joining OnPoint are Brian Kennedy, a top aide to House Resources Chairman Richard Pombo (R-Calif.), and John Kostyack of the National Wildlife Federation, to talk about the strengths and weaknesses of the 30-year-old law and moves to change it.


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A new and unusual coalition of nonprofit, religious, and corporate interests today killed a legislative effort to get more money for Muni through the Transit Impact Development Fee, which was going through its process of being reauthorized every five years and came to the Board of Supervisors today.
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency was hoping to get millions of dollars more per year from the fee to help cover the increasing costs of Muni service, so the city last year commissioned a study establishing a nexus between new development projects and their impact on the public transit system as a way to set the fees developers would pay.
Using that study, Sup. Scott Wiener sponsored legislation that increased the cost per square foot of development for some business types – mostly notably hospitals, big retail and entertainment complexes, and Cultural/Institution/Education facilities – and ended the categorical exemption for nonprofit organizations.
Those who could be impacted by the increased fees banded together into an organization calling itself NOTT (Non-profits Opposed to the Transit Tax), a group that included the city's major health care providers, religious institutions, and influential nonprofits such as Council of Community Housing Organizations and Chinatown Community Development Center.
"We are gravely concerned that elements of the forthcoming Transportation Sustainability Program (TSP), especially elimination of the non-profit fee exemption, have been selectively imbedded in the TIDF update legislation. Elimination of the non-profit exemption has not been considered through a thorough and transparent process and is not good public policy," SF Chamber of Commerce President Steve Falk wrote in Nov. 27 letter to supervisors on behalf of the organization.
In the face of opposition from both downtown and progressive groups, and hoping to get SFMTA more money for its next budget cycle, Wiener appealed for support to sustainable transportation activists, who had mixed feelings on the legislation for reasons ranging from its exemption of parking garages and development in Mission Bay to its inclusion of organizations serving low-income communities.
So Sup. Sean Elsbernd – who spoke on behalf of Catholic schools and churches – was able to amend the legislation back to the status quo on a 9-2 vote, with only Wiener and Sup. Carmen Chu opposed (Sup. Christina Olague, who co-sponsored the measure with Wiener, even failed to support it in the end).
While that ends this effort for now, it is really only the first round of efforts that are just getting underway to find more funding for Muni, which is underfunded and at capacity on many lines, and implement the TSP when it is unveiled next year.


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Current Developments in Monetary and Financial Law, Vol. 5
Show Summary Details
Current Developments in Monetary and Financial Law, Vol. 5
- toggleI. Legal Developments in the IMF
- toggleII. Central Bank Law
- toggleIII. Financial Stability : Overview
- toggleIV. Rationale for Regulation of Derivatives and Hedge Funds
- toggleV. Financial Disclosure, Liability of Supervisors, and Legal Risk in Financial Markets
- toggleVI. Anti-Money Laundering—Terrorist Financing and Financial Stability
- Chapter 13 The Broader Impact of Terrorism on Financial Stability
- Chapter 14 The Impact of Weak AML/CFT Frameworks on Financial Stability
- Chapter 15 Elements of an Effective AML/CFT Framework: Legal, Regulatory, and Best Institutional Practices to Prevent Threats to Financial Stability and Integrity
- toggleVII. Governance, Deposit Insurance, and Market Discipline
- toggleVIII. Payments, Settlement, and Securities Infrastructure
- Chapter 17 The Central Bank's Role in the Payment System: Legal and Policy Aspects
- Chapter 18 Legal Protection of Payment and Securities Settlement Systems and of Collateral Transactions in the European Union
- Chapter 19 On the U.S. Commercial Law Response to the Development of Intermediated Securities Holding Systems
- Chapter 20 The Hague Securities Convention
- Chapter 21 The Draft Unidroit Convention on Intermediated Securities: Transactional Certainty and Market Stability


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If you've lost some precious jewelry, you should definitely search between the sofa cushions, behind your dresser, and in any vegetables growing in your back yard. Lena Paahlsson of Sweden lost her wedding ring in 1995 when she took it off in the kitchen, and recently she found it in her garden with a carrot growing through it. She and her husband believe the ring fell into the sink and wound up in some vegetable peelings that were either composted or fed to their sheep.
Image via Nils Z/Shutterstock.


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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Hillary Rodham Clinton and Jeb Bush may share a presidential debate stage in 2016. But White House talk can wait in the name of civics.
Bush, the former Florida governor who chairs the National Constitution Center, honored the former secretary of state on Tuesday with the organization's Liberty Medal, marking Clinton's "lifelong career in public service."
"Hillary and I come from different political parties and we disagree about lots of things. But we do agree on the wisdom of the American people — especially those in Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina," Bush joked, referring to the three states that have traditionally played pivotal roles in presidential campaigns. Bush mused that Clinton was visiting Des Moines, Iowa, next week. "Now, don't actually wear the medal there, Madam Secretary."
Clinton and Bush are potential presidential candidates in their respective parties and part of two political dynasties that have produced three presidents since the 1988 election. Both families have deep ties to the center, which serves as a national headquarters for civic education and is situated near Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was adopted and the U.S. Constitution was signed. Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush received the Liberty Medal in 2006.
Clinton playfully joked that the two ex-presidents are "let's face it, the classic odd couple of American politics." She said the duo "just had one of their annual play dates up in Kennebunkport," at the Bush family compound in Maine.
"Jeb and I are not just renewing an American tradition of bipartisanship. We're keeping up a family tradition as well," Clinton said.
Clinton was feted at an outdoor ceremony on a night filled with politics. She spoke about 90 minutes before President Barack Obama addressed the nation about the crisis in Syria and on the eve of the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
A small group of protesters gathered near the site, some shouting, "Hands off Syria." Others carried signs that read, "Benghazi," a reference to Wednesday's one-year anniversary of the attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans. Some conservatives have criticized Clinton's handling of the incident.
Briefly addressing Syria, Clinton reiterated remarks she made at an unrelated event at the White House on Monday, saying that the "inhuman use of lethal chemical weapons against men women and children … violates a universal norm at the heart of our global order and it demands a strong response from the international community led by the United States."
"This debate is good for our democracy," Clinton said. "As our founders knew, fervent arguments are the lifeblood of self-government."
The ceremony included video tributes from former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, tennis star Billie Jean King and Jordan's Queen Rania. They lauded Clinton as a trailblazing figure for women around the globe and a champion of public service.
Others alluded to the possibility of another Clinton presidential campaign.
Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania, said when she was a child it would have been unthinkable that a woman could lead her university, "let alone secretary of state of the United States and something many of us can't wait to celebrate: the first woman president of the United States." The statement prompted cheers from the audience.
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, a longtime Clinton supporter, predicted Clinton would be "the first first lady to walk back into the White House in her own right" as president.
Clinton, seated on stage, smiled as she listened to the tributes. She said later she was "overwhelmed" by the kind words and recalled the "patriots who met right here in Philadelphia over in Independence Hall 226 years ago."
"They knew that in a democracy citizens cannot sit on the sidelines, that we have to 'get into the arena,' as Teddy Roosevelt called it, and participate in the debates that shape our country's future," Clinton said.
(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


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Infrastructure overhaul of 2017
December 2017
Infrastructure overhaul of 2017
As many of the community are aware on August 9, 2017 Basilisk experienced an extended unplanned outage due to disk issues on the server. As that process unfolded TheAnswer promised the community we would share what happened and what we planned to do about it.
TL;DR (Summary)
We lost disks on the original Basilisk server causing us to do manual work to restore the game server databases, this work resulted in the restoration of the server on August 16, 2017.
As of December 4, 2017 all services have been moved to a new environment that is much more robust, has considerably more resources and is designed for us to handle hardware outages much more easily in the future. Our new environment includes redundant servers, faster internet access, more CPU power, more RAM and improved storage redundancy and speed.
The completion of this migration provides a stable platform for the community for many years into the future.
What happened?
When the original server for Basilisk was deployed in 2006 it was a state of the art machine and had experienced a number of hardware upgrades over the years.
The system was configured with multiple Solid State Disks (SSD) setup to keep two on-line live copies of the data (RAID 1 mirror). The goal of such a setup is that when one disk fails we can replace it before data is lost and rebuild the copies. This setup also provides higher read rates because the system can ask both disks for different data at the same time.
The week before this incident one of the mirrored disks failed, our hosting provider failed to notify us and meanwhile we did not get the emails from the sever alerting us to disk issues. In a sad twist of fate the second disk that was mirroring this failed drive also started to fail a week later. The odds of two disks failing within such a short timeframe are fairly rare.
Because of the size of Basilisk's database (over 600 Gigs) we were doing backups on an ad-hoc basis to the Nova server's disks. This meant any restore would lose significant amounts of player progress. With this in mind TheAnswer worked with low-level filesystem debugging tools to extract the database files from the failing drive. This was a painful, slow process that required many iterations to get the data back to a usable state. Much of it was manual and each step could take many hours to run before the results are known and decisions are made on the next step. After many sleepless nights TheAnswer was able to get Basilisk back online on August 16.
How do we avoid this in the future?
In response to this event we took inventory of all our services and did an analysis of our current setup. As you can imagine after 10 plus years the project had accumulated many services and servers to run our community. This setup was very difficult to maintain due to the many dependencies between various services and the underlying software, operating systems and hardware.
After debating various paths forward the team decided it was time to overhaul our infrastructure. We decided to re-build from scratch on new bare metal servers from packet.net and utilize an open-source technology called kubernetes to manage the services as individual movable containers. We would deploy our servers on top of ZFS storage pools which would allow us to have modern data safety and management tools.
Deploying on packet.net gives us an incredible amount of flexibility, rather than opening tickets and asking for new machines or emailing back and forth we can just launch new resources using the packet.net API. In addition to that we have "reserved" three servers that allow us to run our infrastructure and provide on-line ready to run redundancy for our services.
Containerizing our services and using kubernetes to manage them allows us the ability to quickly re-schedule services on other hardware if we lose a node or it becomes overloaded with work. The industry is rapidly turning to support kubernetes (originally a Google technology) and by standardizing on this system we can leverage other providers if needed in the future or quickly expand our footprint in any of packet.net's datacenters.
By utilizing ZFS for our storage system we are able to make instantaneous snapshots of the data underlying a service. We setup these storage volumes using very high speed non-volatile memory (PCIe NVMe) and join those in redundant and high-speed configurations (RAID 10). For most services we were able to deploy packet.net's block store volumes. These are high-speed (PCIe NVMe) network attached volumes that allow us to quickly move between servers if a server crashes or becomes overloaded with work.
This combination of our hosting, containerization and storage strategy provides us with many options that were not available to us before the overhaul. This investment should power the project's needs for many years to come and will make it easier for the team to manage existing services and provide new and exciting capabilities to the community in the future.
We expect the short term financial impact to be a bit higher as the services transition and overlap plus bandwidth to copy files into the new environment. Over time we predict the costs to be about the same as our previous setup with easily a 10x increase in capacity and capabilities.
As of December 2, 2017, all services have been moved to the new infrastructure. Basilisk has been happily running on the new hardware since September 24, 2017 and Nova followed not long after that. We have moved everything from forums, support site, jenkins, gerrit and various other servers to the new infrastructure.
We have daily snapshot backups that are pushed to external block store volumes so we can lose a host completely and have worst case one day of lost progression. Meanwhile we have deployed database logging on Basilisk and Nova so that every transaction is saved in storage in a way that we can roll-forward a database crash if needed by re-playing the changes that happend since the prior copy of the database.
We maintain daily snapshots for a week both locally on the server's disks and remotely on blockstore volumes attached over the network.
What's it look like?
Here is a simplified diagram of our current environment for your viewing pleasure:
Random Stats
Next Steps
- Migrated 16 distinct services
- Over 3 Terabytes of data migrated
- 3,009,329 lines of PHP
- 18,640,175 lines of C++
- 102,682,949 lines of Lua
- 12 copies of sceneobjects.db in various folders
- 4 people actually read this far in this post.
We've started creating alert bots that send messages to a channel the staff can monitor for issues so they can help escalate as needed.
We will be adding more alerts, testing some deep storage solutions (AWS S3 Glacier and the like) and adding more tools so other members of the staff can help with various tasks w/o being Unix admin experts.
~lordkator DevOps Engineer


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How astronauts' day-planner helps Dublin's firefighters
The Dublin Fire Brigade is using mobile communication technology, originally developed for astronauts on the International Space Station, to get crucial information about emergency situations while en route to accident scenes. Firefighters can intervene faster, saving precious time and possibly lives.
The new system allows an emergency crew travelling to a fire to download the layout of the building, identifying where the hydrants are located and what chemicals may be inside and where.
In the case of a car crash, the crew on the way to a scene could download information about the types of vehicles involved. With explosives in airbags, high-voltage batteries, liquefied gas tanks and other new hybrid car technologies, removing an injured person from a crash scene can be extremely hazardous to both the emergency crew and the victims.
The Irish company Skytek adapted the Advanced Procedure Executor (APEX) system, originally developed to assist astronauts in managing the International Space Station (ISS), for use by the Dublin Fire Brigade.
Safety and speed are crucial in any emergency situation
"By equipping our crews with the latest technology, we can avoid delays and ensure that injured parties are getting the best possible care. This system means that our firefighters have access to key plans on their way to incidents and at the scene of accidents," says Richard Hedderman of the Dublin Fire Brigade.
The Dublin Fire Brigade is the largest brigade in Ireland, with 850 full-time personnel at 12 stations. They run an emergency ambulance service, as well as fire, rescue and emergency call-taking for Dublin city and county, Dublin Airport, oil terminals in docklands, hospitals, chemical factories, universities and research centres.
"We plan emergency situations for dealing with major incidents in hospitals, hotels, the Dublin Port Tunnel and other such locations. Since every situation is different, ranging from fires to chemical and biological hazards, it is important that those dealing with the situation have the correct procedures and information to hand."
"By electronically capturing the details of each accident site, we will also have access to realtime data to help build a complete picture of emergencies as they happen."
Operated by ISS astronauts
The technology behind the APEX system is Skytek's own International Procedural Viewer (iPV) software, development of which began eight years ago. Through a contract with Enterprise Ireland, Skytek started working with ESA, leading to the development of core technology for the operation of ESA's Columbus laboratory. Today, the APEX system and Skytek's iPV technology are used regularly by astronauts on the ISS.
Skytek is now in a position to transfer this space technology to other industries, a process it started in close collaboration with the Dublin Fire Brigade.
"As with many innovations, this technology was originally developed for space missions where there is a need for control, methodology and procedures that are safe and accurate," says Dr Sarah Bourke, CEO of Skytek.
"This system has now been operational on the ISS for three years. It contains all the procedures the astronauts need, from routine things like fixing a fuse, to dealing with an emergency situation. They use a huge variety of emergency procedures as there are a lot of different experiments and exercises going on. From routine day-to-day activities to spacewalks and emergencies, there are between 2000 and 3000 different procedures that can be accessed instantly."
System tailored to firefighters
To be used by firefighters, the system has to fulfil four requirements. Firstly, emergency crews need to be able to report online from the scene of an incident. Secondly, emergency plans for public buildings such as hospitals and schools have to be available. This enables firefighters en route to a site to download valuable information, allowing them to hit the ground running with a plan when they arrive. Thirdly, the system must have extensive information about different chemicals and how they should be handled, and lastly the database should include comprehensive information about all vehicle types and models, which is crucial in responding to a road accident.
The technology transfer adapting APEX to the Dublin Fire Brigade was partly funded by Enterprise Ireland and ESA's General Support Technology Programme (GSTP). In addition, the Dublin Fire Brigade was involved throughout the technology transfer process, ensuring the quality and suitability of the end product.
"The equipment that is currently on trial in North Strand and Swords has been very positively received," says Hedderman. Skytek's near-term objective is to have the technology rolled out across Dublin's fire stations this year and eventually installed nationwide.
"This is an excellent example of how space technology can benefit society. This technology has been rigorously tested under extreme situations for reliability. By harnessing these developments, huge leaps can be achieved in efficiency, safety and in saving lives," says David Raitt from ESA's Technology Transfer Programme Office.
ESA's Technology Transfer Programme Office (TTPO)
The main mission of the TTPO is to facilitate the use of space technology and space systems for non-space applications and to demonstrate the benefit of the European space programme to European citizens. The office is responsible for defining the overall approach and strategy for the transfer of space technologies including the incubation of start-up companies and their funding. For more information, please contact:
ESA's Technology Transfer Programme Office
European Space Agency ESA
Keplerlaan 1, 2200 AG, Noordwijk ZH
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 (0) 71 565 6208
Email: ttp @ esa.int
Website: http://www.esa.int/ttp


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Jenny stepped quickly off the trailer into her new home, striding over to Jack, who seemed interested in the fresh arrival.
The two donkeys leaned their gray faces toward each other for an instant, then Jack followed her around a bit before Jenny trotted off, exploring the far ends of her fenced pasture.
The gray and white Jerusalem donkey became the 18th livestock resident of the new Burleigh Manor Animal Sanctuary and Eco Retreat in Ellicott City, but that's if you don't count the tabby cat, Barnie. She doesn't qualify as livestock, although she arrived recently with her buddies, Jack the Sicilian donkey and a big pale horse named Doogie.
Livestock is the speciality at this historic manor house with 10 acres, recently turned into Howard County's only haven catering chiefly to farm animals. There's a horse rescue in Lisbon and Frisky's Wildlife & Primate Sanctuary in Woodstock, which mostly takes in primates and wildlife, but Burleigh Manor appears to be the county's first animal rescue with this focus.
"I think this is just the way I was raised," said Lisa Davis, the proprietor, who grew up on a horse farm in Chester County, Pa., and did the horse show circuit as a child. "My parents loved animals. I'm for the underdog."
Many of the animals here -- horses, donkeys, mules, goats, pigs -- count as underdogs. Some came from good homes where their owners, for reasons of illness or life changes, could no longer care for them. Others were rescued from neglect or the slaughterhouse.
Six were saved from "kill pens" at auction houses in Pennsylvania and Maryland, where horses are sold for dog food.
"Some came with the stickers on their tush from the kill auction," said Lise McKinnon, who volunteers at the sanctuary. She has five cats and two dogs at home, and finds her weekly visits to Burleigh Manor help control her habit of adopting animals.
"It keeps me from getting a divorce," she said.
Davis has had little trouble gathering animals into her care. Through word of mouth and a Facebook page that she put up after she and her family moved into the house in June, she's been getting a steady stream of referrals to animals needing help.
The first two to arrive were Vogue, an aging black thoroughbred horse, and Pagan, a senior appaloosa. Davis heard from the granddaughter of the man who had them on his land in Waldorf. It wasn't a case of willful abuse, but of an elderly man who could no longer take good care of the horses.
When the granddaughter saw the animals -- underweight and stuck in a field of mud rather than grass -- she put out the word that two horses needed a refuge. Davis got the call.
Vogue lost the sight in her left eye because of an infection that went untreated too long, and Pagan is entirely blind, but both have adjusted nicely to their new pasture. As far as Davis can tell, Pagan is "very comfortable with his blindness."
He and Vogue have been living in the intensive feeding area, putting back much of the weight they had lost through neglect. The two share a pasture with Amir, a pale Arabian and Brisk, a brown horse who went by the name Brisk Interlude in his harness racing days. Too slow for racing, Brisk was probably overworked on farms, Davis said, then cast off to the auction lot.
Now he's getting ointments for his back and legs, and a food supplement to help his joint movement.
Brisk and most of the other animals share quarters on occasion with two goats, Faint and Alpie, who came to the farm as casualties of a divorce. Davis has a notebook she keeps for sanctuary business, with a sheet about Jenny, but Alpie ate most of that page.
Jenny was picked up last month in Relay, where she'd been staying with Joe and Jean Bennett. They were caring for the horse for Joe's sister, Margie, an Eastern Shore resident who was not able to care for Jenny any longer.
On the bright morning of her move, Jenny walked with Davis up the long driveway from the Bennett's barn, and with the help of a little coaxing and some apple treats, stepped right into the trailer. Margie Bennett was there, rubbing her face goodbye.
"I promise I'll come see you," she said.
It's not so sad a parting as it might be, she said, because "I know she's going to a good home."
Davis has been traveling in the past six months, hitching a trailer to a Lexus SUV and retrieving lost souls, sometimes with her father, Eddie Davis, at the wheel. She's been to western and southern Maryland, to auction lots in New Holland, Pa., to Dover, Del., and even back to her home turf of Chester County to retrieve a black Vietnamese pot-bellied pig name Arnie.
She's been working at this while shifting out of her life in the corporate world. Davis, who holds a doctorate from Hopkins in neuroscience and nutrition, still puts in one day a week at Medifast, the weight-loss products company based in Owings Mills, where she has worked as vice president of scientific and clinical affairs.
Two years or so ago, she started thinking about pursuing a course that was very different, but hardly out of character. When she mentioned her notion for an animal sanctuary to some of her old friends, she said, "they were all, like, 'we thought you would have been a vet or a farmer.' "
She incorporated the sanctuary in June, and in August it became a nonprofit. A web site went up in the summer, showing ways to "adopt" an animal through donationand offering tours. They're planning an "animal cam" so folks can visit online.
Centuries ago, the farm was part of the enormous estate of the Hammond family, who built the brick manor house in the early 1800s. Five Hammond family members are buried under trees and simple headstones out back.
Davis lives here with her husband, Dr. Lawrence J. Cheskin and their 11-year-old daughter, Libby, and Davis' father. It's a big center-hall manse listed on the National Register of Historic Places, with a gate house, smoke house, pool house and finished barn, but room for animals is quickly filling up.
Plenty of room remains left for smaller beasts such as sheep, goats and chickens, but Davis says the grounds are nearing capacity for the larger ones, who need a half to a full acre each.
"Although I am saving space for a cow," she said. "I love cows."
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text:
Vintage Fork Set of 4
|BackOrder Message
|Low Stock. Order quickly to secure this item.
Fragile Item
Some fragile items can be collected from our store for free or alternatively, you can choose to have them delivered to your home. Please see Delivery & shipping for the different charges to different areas, or find your closest store for click & collect. After your order is placed online and you've chosen your delivery option, our customer service representative will contact you with the earliest collection date possible from your selected store or arrange a convenient delivery date.
Click & Collect
Click & Collect is a free online delivery option where you can easily buy online and collect accessories, small and some fragile items in-store. Our Flagship store currently accept Click & Collect orders. Please visit our store page to find your the store closest to you or see 'Click & Collect' for each store's collection schedule.
Gift Box Service
Indigo Living provides a premium gift box service on our website and in our stores. Only products on the website with the gift box icon can be gift boxed, as some items are too big or fragile to be gift boxed. When you purchase online or one of our stores, you can gift box your item. Our gift box allows you to write a personalised message, or we can send it straight to you with a blank message card for you to write in. For more information, please contact us at email@example.com.


text:
DENVER—Colorado's first recognized same-sex divorce is final.
Supporters of the new Colorado law say the court ruling sets a precedent for gay couples married in other states who want to legally terminate their relationships here without uprooting their lives.
Juli Yim and Lorelei Jones wed in Massachusetts in 2009, where same-sex marriage is legal.
Yim tells the Fort Collins Coloradoan ( http://tinyurl.com/nzqoxwd) the relationship went sour and she found a new partner in Colorado.
Information from: Fort Collins Coloradoan, http://www.coloradoan.com


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|Attention: DocWiki has reached EOL and will be decommissioned late January 2019.
Cisco Unified Presence, Release 7.x -- How to Configure Alarms and Alarm Definitions in Cisco Unified Serviceability
From DocWiki
Main page: Cisco Unified Presence, Release 7.x
Previous Topic
Alarm Configuration Checklist
Table 1: Alarm Configuration Checklist provides an overview of the steps for configuring alarms.
Table 1: Alarm Configuration Checklist
|Configuration Steps
|Related Procedures and Topics
Select the server and service for which you want the alarm information.
Select the destination of the alarm.
Select the alarm event level.
If desired, add a definition to an alarm.
Viewing Alarm Definitions and Adding User-Defined Descriptions
If you chose an SDI trace file as the alarm destination, collect traces and view the information with the trace and log central option in RTMT.
If you chose local syslog as the alarm destination, view the alarm information in the SysLog Viewer in RTMT.
See the corresponding alarm definition for the description and recommended action.
Viewing Alarm Definitions and Adding User-Defined Descriptions
Related Topics
Configuring or Updating an Alarm for a Service
Cisco Unified Serviceability alarms provide information about runtime status and the state of the system. This information allows you to troubleshoot problems that are associated with your system, for example, to identify issues with the Disaster Recovery System.
You can configure the alarm interface to send alarm information to multiple locations, and each location can have its own alarm event level (from debug to emergency). You can direct alarms to the Syslog Viewer (local syslog), Syslog file (remote syslog), an SDI trace log file, or to all destinations.When a service issues an alarm, the alarm interface sends the alarm information to the locations that you configure (and that are specified in the routing list in the alarm definition) (for example, SDI trace). The system can either forward the alarm information, as is the case with SNMP traps, or the system can write the alarm information to its final destination (such as a log file).
You can configure alarms for services, such as Cisco Database Layer Monitor, on a particular node, or you configure alarms for a particular service on all nodes in the cluster.
To configure an alarm for a service, you select an alarm event level, such as Error, and the location(s), such as Syslog Viewer (local syslog), where you want the system to send the alarm information. Choosing an event level accomplishes the following tasks: helps you narrow the types of alarms that get collected and prevents the Syslog and trace files from becoming overloaded.
You view alarm information to determine whether problems exist. The method that you use to view the alarm information depends on the destination that you chose when you configured the alarm. You can view alarm information that is sent to the SDI trace log file by using the Trace and Log central option in RTMT or by using a text editor. You can view alarm information that is sent to local syslog by using the SysLog Viewer in RTMT.
- Select Alarm > Configuration.
- Select the server for which you want to configure the alarm from the Server list box.
- Click Go.
- Select the category of service, for example, Database and Admin Services, for which you want to configure the alarm from the Service Group list box.
- Click Go.
- Select the service for which you want to configure the alarm from the Service list box.
- Click Go.
- Note: The list box displays all services (active and inactive).
- Check the required alarm destination, as described in the table below.
Name Destination description
Enable Alarm for Local Syslogs
SysLog Viewer. The program logs Cisco Unified Presence errors in the Application Logs within SysLog Viewer and provides a description of the alarm and a recommended action. You can access the SysLog Viewer from the Serviceability Real-Time Monitoring Tool.
Enable Alarm for Remote Syslogs
Syslog file. Check to enable the Syslog messages to be stored on a Syslog server and to specify the Syslog server name. If this destination is enabled and no server name is specified, Cisco Unified Presence does not send the Syslog messages.
Note: If you want to send the alarms to CiscoWorks 2000, specify the CiscoWorks 2000 server name.
Enable Alarm for SDI Trace
The SDI trace library.
Check this to log alarms in the SDI trace log file, and then check Trace On in the Trace Configuration window for the chosen service.
9. Select the desired alarm event level from the Alarm Event Level list box.
- The required alarm settings are described in the table below.
Name Description
Designates system as unusable.
Indicates that immediate action is needed.
Cisco Unified Presence detects a critical condition.
Signifies an error condition exists.
Indicates that a warning condition is detected.
Designates a normal but significant condition.
Designates information messages only.
Designates detailed event information that Cisco TAC engineers use for debugging.
10. Check Apply to All Nodes to apply the current settings for selected services to all nodes in a cluster.
11.Perform one of the following actions:
- Click Save to save your configuration.
- Click Set to Default to revert to the default settings.
- Click Save.
Troubleshooting Tips
- We recommend that you do not change SNMP Trap and Catalog configurations.
- See your online Operating System documentation for more information on how to use your standard registry editor.
Related Topics
Viewing Alarm Definitions and Adding User-Defined Descriptions
Alarm definitions describe alarm messages: what they mean and how to recover from them. You search the Alarm Definitions window for alarm information. When you click any service-specific alarm definition, a description of the alarm information (including any user-defined text that you have added) and a recommended action display.
You can search for definitions of all alarms that display in Cisco Unified Serviceability. To aid you with troubleshooting problems, the definitions, which exist in a corresponding catalog, include the alarm name, description, explanation, recommended action, severity, parameters, monitors, and so on.
When the system generates an alarm, it uses the alarm definition name in the alarm information, so you can identify the alarm. In the alarm definition, you can view the routing list, which specifies the locations where the system can send the alarm information. The routing list may include the following locations, which correlate to the locations that you can configure in the Alarm Configuration window:
- SDI -The system sends the alarm information to the SDI trace if you enable the alarm for this option and specify an appropriate event level in the Alarm Configuration window.
- Sys Log-The system sends the alarm information to the remote syslog server if you enable the alarm for this option, specify an appropriate event level in the Alarm Configuration window, and enter a server name or IP address for the remote syslog server.
- Event Log-The system sends the alarm information to the local syslog, which you can view in the SysLog Viewer in the Cisco Unified Presence Real-Time Monitoring Tool (RTMT), if you enable the alarm for this option and specify an appropriate event level in the Alarm Configuration window.
- Data Collector-System sends the alarm information to the real-time information system (RIS data collector) (for alert purposes only). You cannot configure this option in the Alarm Configuration window.
- SNMP Traps-System generates an SNMP trap. You cannot configure this option in the Alarm Configuration window.
The system sends an alarm if the configured alarm event level for the specific location in the Alarm Configuration window is equal to or lower than the severity that is listed in the alarm definition. For example, if the severity in the alarm definition equals WARNING_ALARM, and, in the Alarm Configuration window, you configure the alarm event level for the specific destination as Warning, Notice, Informational, or Debug, which are lower event levels, the system sends the alarm to the corresponding destination. If you configure the alarm event level as Emergency, Alert, Critical, or Error, the system does not send the alarm to the corresponding location.
For each Cisco Unified Serviceability alarm definition, you can include an additional explanation or recommendation. All administrators have access to the added information. You enter information into the User Defined Text pane that displays in the Alarm Details window. Standard horizontal and vertical scroll bars support scrolling. Cisco Unified Serviceability adds the information to the database.
Before You Begin
Review the description of alarm definition catalogs.
- Select Alarm > Definitions.
- Perform one or more of the following actions:
- Select an alarm catalog from the Find Alarms where list box, for example, a System Alarm catalog or Cisco Unified Presence alarm catalog.
- Select the specific catalog name from the Equals list box.
- Enter the alarm name in the Enter Alarm Name field.
- Click Find.
- Perform one of the following actions if multiple pages of alarm definitions exist:
- To select another page, click the appropriate navigation button at the bottom of the Alarm Message Definitions window.
- To change the number of alarms that display in the window, select a different value from the Rows per Page list box.
- Click the alarm definition for which you want alarm details.
- Enter text in the User Defined Text box if you want to add information to the alarm.
- Click Save.
- Select Back to Find/List Alarms from the Related Links list box if you want to return to the Alarm Message Definitions window.
- Click Go.
Related Topics
About Alarm Catalog Descriptions
System Alarm Catalog Descriptions
Table 2: System Catalogs contains the System Alarm Catalog alarm descriptions.
Table 2: System Catalogs
All cluster manager alarm definitions that are related to the establishment of security associations between nodes in a cluster.
All Cisco database (aupair) alarm definitions
All Disaster Recovery System alarm definitions
All generic alarm definitions that all applications share
All Java Applications alarm definitions.
Tip: Cisco License Manager, which supports Cisco Unified Communications Manager, uses this catalog.
Tip: You cannot configure JavaApplications alarms by using the alarm configuration GUI. You generally configure these alarms to go to the Event Logs and to generate SNMP traps to integrate with CiscoWorks2000. Use the registry editor that is provided with your operating system to view or change alarm definitions and parameters.
All login-related alarm definitions
All log partition monitoring and trace collection alarm definitions
All Cisco Unified Presence Real-Time Monitoring Tool alarm definitions
All alarm definitions that are used for tracking whether SystemAccess provides all thread statistic counters together with all the process statistic counters.
All service manager alarm definitions that are related to the activation, deactivation, starting, restarting, and stopping of services.
Cisco Unified Presence Alarm Catalog Descriptions
Table 3: Cisco Unified Presence Alarm Catalog contains the Cisco Unified Presence Alarm Catalog descriptions.
Table 3: Cisco Unified Presence Alarm Catalog
Config Agent
All Config Agent alarms that notify the Cisco Unified Presence SIP Proxy of configuration changes in the Cisco Unified Presence IDS database.
Intercluster Sync Agent
All Intercluster Sync Agent alarms that enable DND propagation to Cisco Unified Communications Manager and synchronize end user information between Cisco Unified Presence clusters for intercluster SIP routing.
Presence Engine
All Presence Engine alarms that collect information regarding the availability status and communications capabilities of a user.
SIP Proxy
All SIP Proxy alarms that are related to routing, requestor identification, and transport interconnection.
Client Profile Agent
All Client Profile Agent alarms that provide a secure SOAP interface to and from external clients using HTTPS.
Sync Agent
All Sync Agent alarms that keep Cisco Unified Presence data in-sync with Cisco Unified Communications Manager data.
Related Topics
What To Do Next
Alarms for Cisco Unified Presence
Alarm information, which includes an explanation and recommended action, also includes the application name, server name, and so on, to help you perform troubleshooting even for problems that are not on your local Cisco Unified Presence.
For more information about the alarms specific to Cisco Unified Presence, see the System Error Messages for Cisco Unified Presence at this location:


text:
Originally Posted by Rosenivy
Well, I would love to see the impact of individual managers more, and actual manager movement. I'd love for the game to identify how certain managers play, and have them move from team to team like IRL, and not just stay at the same team for 15 years. I think it'd be great to be asked about a recent managerial hiring/firing in press conferences or to see how a team changes with a new manager, very much like in FM.
Maybe certain managers could even retire and regens/lower league managers
Wreckfest :: Online Fun | It's Play TIME!
Raptor: "This ain't no Dinosaur Game" (1994, MS-DOS)
Let's go for a ride on Trials Rising (Closed Beta / multiplayer, PS4):
16 PlayStation Games from my Youth:


text:
In just under four minutes, VFX studio Pixomondo has highlighted – with gusto – the best special effects from HBO's second season of Game of Thrones, which (rightfully) recently picked up six awards at the 2012 Emmy Creative Arts Awards. The reel, which Pixomondo has now made available to fans, is exceptionally impressive, not only because of the quality of the work shown but, frankly, in the actual production of the clip itself.
One of the most impressive elements of the season were Dany's dragons, and seeing how they were layered up from bone to flesh and movement just goes to prove the lengths the VFX team went to to make them as visceral as possible for their scenes. To view the clip which also features key scenes like the Battle of Blackwater Bay as well as that rather memorable closing scene of the season, hit the jump.
Via westeros.org
Though many might be surprised at the extent to which Pyke, Harrenhal and some of the other castles and locations were digitally rendered, even more interesting is perhaps how much of it is not. Many of the sets are incredibly impressive in their own right, with the green screens or layering in post helping just to enhance the grandeur of scale. That is particularly true with the White Walkers, many of whom were actors with zombie-esque make up on as a base layer that was digitally enhanced to exceptionally creepy levels of decay (and I didn't at the time realize that the horse, for instance, was entirely digital and not just a digitally zombified. Apparently though, Kit Harington's hair is all-natural).
Looking ahead, the series's upcoming third season will cover roughly half of the third book in the novel series, A Storm of Swords, and will feature not only some new locales but some new characters as well.
Game of Thrones is set to return to HBO in late March 2013.


text:
I am so excited! I know about Rodinia. I know that fragments of an ancient continent are buried beneath the floor of the Indian Ocean. There is evidence for a landmass that would have existed between 2,000 and 85 million years ago. The strip of land, which is called Mauritia, eventually fragmented and vanished beneath the waves, study says.
The grains of sand found on the beaches of Mauritius are from a volcanic eruption that happened 9 million years ago. Zircons that are extracted from the grains, are common in continental crust. Zircons are very very old. Can be 600 million years old.
Scientists believe zircons are remnants of ancient land that was dragged up to the surface during a volcanic eruption. They believe pieces of Mauritia can be found about 10km down beneath Mauritius and under a swathe of the Indian Ocean.
After many millions of years, some intelligent beings will find the land we are now living in. In the meantime the land will be drifted away from their places or the land will be vanished under the ocean. I am so excited!