text:
Tonight's lineup
Pierre, CF
Furcal, SS
Nomar, 1B
Kent, 2B
Martin, C
Gonzo, LF
Ethier, RF
Abreu, 3B
Wolf, P
And, before I forget, here's great news for those of you not in LA (or even those who are). You can now buy a 2007 subscription to Dodgers Magazine. Go to dodgers.com/magazine and you'll get all seven issues of the 2007 Dodgers Magazine, the 2007 Dodgers Yearbook (featuring Vin Scully and Jaime Jarrín on the cover) and two vouchers for $5 off Reserve Level tickets for your next trip to Dodger Stadium. It's a $60 value for $34.95.
142 Comments
andy laroche experiment over?
Grady can;t make a lineup.
not over, just going to a different city where they actually believe in his ability.
is it just me or do the dodgers have 8 infielders? why do we need so many? lets get rid of betemit. but good line up. Ide rather see LaRoche though.
this is has to be so frustrating to laroche, and betemit. why bring up another guy to play that position? I personally dislike, even hate betemit, but why play abreu over him? and what about laroche? all his guy does is get on base. but i guess they want to make a bigger mess at third
Wow! This team is sooooo on fire that its hottest hitter is hitting 8th!
Abreu is far, far, FAR better than Betemit.
If you saw how LaRoche has been hitting with the exception of the Atlanta and Florida series you would understand Abreu filling his spot. We need some timely hitting, that's why we have yet another #2 hitter on the team. The problem is we didnt send down LaRoche and bring up Kemp and bench Pierre for a few. That's what we need to do to maybe light a spark up JP's butt.
i said before i'd rather see anyone than betemit start, so im glad abreu's up, i just think he should be playing second not third.
I still have no idea how we all these can't miss prospects and we block them, don't play them, and don't trade them for something along the lines of a David Wright, Miguel Cabrera, Mark Texeira, etc type
Maybe Josh can get someone to explain this move, or, maybe they're working on a trade? Or maybe we as fans aren't supposed to ask such questions?
I'm slightly perplexed and worried by the move, but well, what can I do? Hold thumbs that the Dodgers doesn't do something that can be regretted at leisure later on, I suppose!
There's nothing to be worried about; we need offense, and Abreu's been very hot lately. He might win the everyday job if he keeps hitting, which means LaRoche goes back to triple-A.
Betemit is now strictly a pinch hitter (where he belongs). I like the move.
mark teixera would look good in dodger blue, trade nomar let him dh and rack up numbers in arlington…..maybe package gonzo for sosa….interesting.
I have to believe that this move has just solidified Wilson Betemit as our full-time left handed pinch hitter (which is a good thing); at least until Marlon Anderson comes off of the DL. That said, if Betemit can maintain his current pace as a pinch hitter, then Anderson has (most likely) already played his last game in a Dodger uniform. I can see no other reason for this move.
I also have to believe that Ramon Martinez's days as a Dodger are now numbered, as Tony Abreu can play all of the infield positions and the OF (not to mention Ramon's .170 batting average). If Abreu can continue hitting in the Bigs as he has been doing in Las Vegas, then it's adios Ramon (in my humble opinion).
Regardless, you've got to like the fact that Ned and Grady are doing SOMETHING.
Now, to the matter at hand – JUST WIN BABY!
Abreu can't play 1B or the OF.
He plays an excellent 2B and SS, though.
Not sure about 1B, but hasn't Abreu played some in the OF at Las Vegas? If not – My Bad.
Nope, he didn't play OF in Vegas. Maybe you're thinking of Loney and LaRoche (who did).
patriotacts425 – "Wow."
Ya, me, too.
Nomar should be moved down in the order before we even talk about giving up on him. Nomar couldn't be a worse 3 hitter with this lineup. He swings at the first pitch almost 50 percent of the time so how is Furcal and pierre, if he ever gets on, suppose to steal when the batter behind him doesnt even average 4 pitchers per AB
momoracci – "Maybe you're thinking of… LaRoche (who did)."
Hmmmm. You don't suppose… Nah, Grady would never sit Gonzo down.
At least something got done, and that is a good note. I'm not sure that LaRoche got what I would consider a reasonable opportunity to prove himself. We'll see if Abreu comes in smoking hot and stays there at 3rd base, or if he and LaRoche trade off every couple of days, which would seem to give us too many infielders with an OF position clearly in need of improvement. I expect either LaRoche or Abreu will be gone back to Vegas in a couple of weeks, because one or the other is going to be redundant.
Gonzo is too hot to sit, he has 1 home run this month.
If you'll forgive the Jim Tracy self-interview, Am I happy to see Tony Abreu getting called up and getting a chance? Absolutely. He's a real possible star in the future.
Am I perplexed about why we're doing this while we're still experimenting with LaRoche? Yes, Andy's been good so far, and might be the 3B of the future.
Do I want to see Matt Kemp also get called up? Of course–Matt Kemp will be the big bat that we keep saying we need, either this season or in the near future.
Am I totally confused that we're keeping the prospect who has best demonstrated his ability at AAA (i.e. James Loney)? Absolutely. I mean, we all know that Loney should be the first basemen of the future. We know that he can hit in the minors (.380 last year), and in the big leagues (.343 after his second call-up last year, and over .400 this spring). So why are we trying to solve the 3B problem with every move EXCEPT the one that would put the best hitters in the line-up–i.e. Nomar at 3B and Loney at 1B???
Think about this–Abreu is a second-basemen who we have had playing 3B, LaRoche is a 3B that we have used in the OF, Betemit is **** who we converted to 3B, Loney is a 1B who we are trying to teach to play the outfield, and Nomar is **** who we converted to 1B. Yet, the one move we won't make is to take the one guy with the most experience and most certain degree of baseball knowledge and talent–Nomar–and move him to a position that he has played with the Cubs, and which many shortstops move to (Cal Ripken, A-Rod, etc.) and which is involved in a lesser number of plays than a first basemen, so there is less chance of injury (despite the claims of a long throw).
I hope that Abreu knocks the cover off the ball. I am happy for the kid, and glad we have another rookie getting an opportunity. I give Ned/Grady et al. credit for protecting the kids during the off-season, and now giving them chances (even if there are more/other chances that myself and others here would like to see). But why not make the most obvious of moves???
I had a great post all typed up lastnight around 11:30 and wouldn't ya know just to add to my frustration the blog was down… It had to do with Abreu coming up and who could go where to make room but this doesn't make sence.except that Kuo was not a reliever so get him back on track for a 6/7th starter is good.Maybe they are really looking at the Glaus/Rolen aspects and just want to try to give Abreu the final shot before pulling the trigger and give Laroche another shot for next year or if Kent goes down Andy @ 3rd and Abreu to 2nd.In the immortial words of 53 'Just Win Baby!' understand it or not I'm excited to see the game tonight with Abreu getting the start!
Everyone is wondering why so many infielders on the roster… it's simple: Ned isn't done tinkering just yet. There's no way any GM in his right mind would have a club set this way unless he's shopping talent or getting ready to trim some fat. Look for move(s) to happen throughout the week…
LOL good 1 LF
I hope that lil spat in Vegas didn't hurt Kemps chances or even worse that he is turning into a milton….
Welcome to the bigs kid, Now go out there and face Sheets.
i stand by my belief that 3b is being used as a scapegoat for the offensive failures on this team, when clearly there are other positions we are not getting production from. this also furthers my belief that we WILL trade for a 3b, and nomar, gonzo, and pierre will continue to play everyday.
our whole bench consists of utility infielders? pls clark and lieberthal. ??????????
Bringing in a new player such as Rolen or Glaus won't make a big difference on this club. We have a lot more holes to fill besides 3rd base.
51's consist of Pitchers… 15 pitchers 5 OF 4 IN and 2 C…
Yeah right what make you think Nomar wants to play in Texas?
"Welcome to the bigs kid, Now go out there and face Sheets."
kidding sl7180.
im only going to say this once.
Grady Little is the worst manager in the major leagues. Ned Colletti well..I kind of have a feeling that Colletti is Grady's puppet.
no, I'm pretty sure it's more that Grady is Colletti's puppet.
maybe…Either way I hope they aren't here for two long. I can't wait to wear my "Fire Grady" t-shirts to the june 15th game.
fansince53 – The idea of the Dodger management just doing something does not make me feel good. The idea of them doing something that might be good feels nice, though.
Therapy ^^
too* long.
Would someone please go to Dodger Stadium and let loose a couple of gophers, giving them strict instructions to burrow around the center field area only?
I'm sorry, that wasn't intended to be a negative comment… but I suppose one might take it as such.
………and on a Happier note I just read the Rick Monday internet chat from today.Great job by Rick I grew up with my mom in love with him and Cey as her Fav. players.Without pointing fingers or saying anything about anyone Rick drops this Bomb.
I think it's very important that a former player understand that you have to be a broadcaster. You can't rely on what you did when you played. That's not important. What's important is what's happening tonight. If you can draw on what you learned years ago, that's wonderful, but our job is to broadcast what's happening tonight with the Dodgers.
and thats why I don't like steve lyons as a broadcaster.I don't care either way if it was pointed or not he hit the nail on the head there.
max, you are a *****.
and i say that with all due respect
Max you need tool therpy….Grab a Framing gun a case of nails a truck of wood and build something… you will feel alot better and you might even think clearer.
grady is the worst manager in the league…well John Gibbons is pretty bad but Grady seems to not get whats causing the offense to not work. I know whats going to happen. They will blame the rookies and third base for our down fall and then trade them all away for a veteran. We'll make the playoffs get bet again and then in 3 years instead of having one of the best young teams in the league we'll have to rebuild.
Andy La Roche isn't out problem! Gonzo, Nomar and Juan Pierre are our problems.
Calling up Tony Abreu is just another way to say "hey we tried something now we need to make a trade"
Max you are crazy…
Grady is the WORST of all the managers/coaches of every sport on the planet..
Add another one who needs therapy
oh alex get off you **** positivity high horse. Grady's an idiot and you know it.
HA 'positivity' maybe you need more than therapy. After that you should never call anybody an idiot again. The man is not an idiot, he has a different way of doing things. There's a thin line between genius and idiot and it's called winning. It solves everything. Grady wins, so he's doing a lot right. Idiot is one thing the man is not.
Go Dodgers!
We have given up what 29-30 runs in the last 4 games?Our strong point is pitching is it not? Granted our offence ****** wind except for the last 3 inns lastnight.But its not just the offence that is not getting it done SP.D and lastnight Bills…everynight its something differant to fail. The Team will Get it done as a team or will unglue as a team, Everyone has to contribute and everyone has to do well mgr/coach pitchers fielder and hitters…You Throw the ball… you catch the ball… you hit the ball…. or you lose the game…Its all a team win or its a team loss…
Get er Done!!! Lets Win 1 tonight Go Blue!!!
LOL!!!!!!! thats why our worst hitter is batting lead off.
also Pierre is 14th in OBP and he's our lead off hitter. That makes NO SENSE!
Grady is the lowest paid manager in the majors… I Wonder why…
Grady was kicked out of Boston after two years even though he took the team to the playoffs… I Wonder why..
He sat at home for two years after that with no offers.. I wonder why..
He is a good ole boy from the farm.. I'm sure he is a great guy.. He just can't manage a lick…
Wow that didn't take long for his first error, that's gonna be an issue…
Alright Abreu!
First Error in the big Leagues! (on the frist ball hit to him).
what was that that furcal said to nomar? Bendayho?
so the the guys who do the pregame show say ned says abreu was THE most talented guy he saw in vegas…over kemp, loney, whoeever…im not sure what that means, but he sure does love those middle infielders.
Kemp is down to .265 and Loney is Up to .260 in the hitting dept.
i just don't see how we have more pure talent guy then matt kemp…but i guess im wrong.
That was a BS call JP hit the base as he got hit…..
haha! Vinnie was more concerned with Prince Fielder's arm than for Juan Pierre who just got his head/neck clothes lined!
i heart russell martin 8sb…love him!
If we win its all Martin if we lose its everyone else….
geez/ {Pierre cant even get a hit when he gets a hit. Its gonna be a long year.
MArtin is the heart and soul of the team.
have i mentioned how much i heart russell martin? he is amazing
MARTIN OH MY WHAT A SHOT! 5 SPOT MARTIN! Gonzo is still old…
I had to log in to say my piece about Pierre. I don't see how we ever get out of him what we are paying him. We all pretty much say the same things: either bat him 8th or even better, bring up Kemp.
Garciaparra is not hitting the ball hard at all. Anyone else think that something may be wrong?
So is it too early to suggest the Dodgers Clone Martin and Furcal to play all postions?
haha that's a really good idea
OMG Just Kill me Now AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH What is That in LF a sick Joke AHHHHH AHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Sorry my best impersonation of Sam Kinnison……Better then Gonzo's LF…….
Nobody liked my gopher comment??
The sick joke is in left field and center field!!!
no the sick joke is they all have no trade clauses
WOW BROX BRINGING THE HEAT! I'd really like to see these two square off in October!
Go Dodgers!
Wow, Betemit is a totally different batter pinch hitting. Just missed that one! Pierre sit down…
which is why he should remain a pinch hitter….
im not so sure they should be flashing pierre's obp up there.
Three might barely get 'er done tonight. No hits after the fourth inning though… not gonna get 'er done on most nights. Good thing Martin had a great game…
…and Broxton made Fielder swing at the air! How crazy was that 98 MPH laser beam up in the strike zone!?? Unhittable!
YES!!!! Saito San!!!!
I love our bullpen! Wolf was great again tonight! Take the series tomorrow! Martin continues to be amazing, the rest not so much right now.
Thank God for Great pitching…
Thank God for Martin…
No thanks to our Over Paid & Over the hill group of batters…
Martin is FOURTH in the All-Star catcher voting I'm not sure who he's behind but I would assume Lo Duca, McCann and Yadier Molina. Needless to say if N.Y gets Lo Duca to the All-Star game Martin is screwed, because LaRussa will pick Molina or McCann over Martin, so we need to do everything we can to get Martin to the All-Star Game which he deserves!
Abreu batted eighth Tuesday night, but he led off in Las Vegas, and if he's productive, he could find himself batting second behind Rafael Furcal, with Juan Pierre dropped to eighth.
"None of us should be assuming anything about our batting order at this time," Little said.
Little indicated more changes are on the way. He said fifth starter Brett Tomko would be skipped in the rotation and was non-committal whether Tomko (1-5, 6.28 ERA) might be removed entirely. Randy Wolf will move up and pitch Sunday.
Little said Kuo will return to the Las Vegas rotation Wednesday night with the intent to build enough endurance to rejoin the Dodgers as a starter, if needed.
"He was right there [with Tomko] in the running for the fifth starter until his injury [in Spring Training]," said Little. "At this point in time, that's where we feel he'll be the most productive."
Little said he might do the same with Chad Billingsley, another starter who has been transferred to the bullpen. Billingsley has had flashes of brilliance in relief, but he also was on the mound Monday night when five runs scored to cost the Dodgers the game. For now, with Kuo gone and the Dodgers back to 11 pitchers, Billingsley is the long reliever.
Kuo made only two Major League appearances after a Minor League injury rehab assignment and had a 15.43 ERA after beginning the season on the disabled list with a shoulder strain. He was called up to provide a 12th pitcher, which the Dodgers feel is not currently necessary with two days off in the next week.
LaRoche fallout: Abreu's arrival figures to cost Andy LaRoche playing time, but LaRoche won't argue.
"He deserves to be up there," said LaRoche, who is hitting .233 with no homers since his promotion two weeks ago. "You can't keep him down the way he's hitting. If he helps the team win, everybody would rather have him in the lineup than me. I hope he doesn't send me back to Vegas, but if it happens, I've got to start producing more. That's the way the game goes. I'm excited to watch him."
Little said he might use LaRoche in left field to spell Luis Gonzalez, which would take playing time away from fourth outfielder Brady Clark.
I assume one of them is Benjie Molina.
Grady should try putting our best possible lineup out there for a couple weeks.
Max, do you by any chance mean:
Furcal – ss
Abreu – 3b
Martin – c
Kent – 2b
Kemp – cf
Ethier – rf
LaRoche – lf
Loney – 1b
because as much as I'd like to see it, it's not gonna happen. Even if you leave Gonzalez in, he's doing alright, you're never getting Nomar or Pierre out of the lineup for Kemp and Loney.
Today before I left work I asked the pastor for a prayer for our bats…..I'm not religious but seeing as I was already there didn't seem to be out of reasonable request… Got great pitching and just enough bat on the ball so Thank You GOD!!!
Great Team effort tonight Johnny B is AWESOME Saito is AWESOME Martin is AWESOME Gonzo did a good job to hit Martin in who is AWESOME and Kent did good to get on base for ummm Martin who is AWESOME to Homer!But MVP goes to Wolf to bring it to the 7th with the lead He too is AWESOME! Gotta love ending a losing streak its really Kinna AWESOME!!!
What the heck you think be's been doing? Not our fault the team can't hit. He want Pierre batting 8th and that is not going to happen. Pierre deserve to be the leadoff hit on this team and that it. He's not a 2nd place hitters.
Hey Patriotacts425 Lastyear you posted alot and made 5 points on a regular basis most on point and always something to think about this year you seem a bit surly and somewhat short… you lose faith in the team? Are you not Dodger true Blue thru n thru anymore ? what gives? Dumb posers posting getting to you? C'mon Don't get all washed up on us your points do carry thought value on this board still! We Are all Dodger Fans and up n down carry one another through the Season STEP UP take a shot!
I mean what the heck he's been doing?
What on God's green earth makes you think Pierre deserves to be the lead-off hitter? Or for that matter, what makes you think he belongs anywhere near the top of the line-up???
Same reason that he's not going to bat 8th so get over it. I'd rather have him leading off then hitting 2nd and who care about ops? I didn't like the signing at first but still not going to hate on Pierre then most of you are. WE going to be struck with him for 5 yrs anyway? I'm not even going to say anything about ince it a oen year deal.
Alex, I for 1 have been reserving my votes for the stretch run so I can post the best NL lineup votes and the worst AL votes as possible I'm sick and tired of the AL taking the AS game and seriously want a powershift back to the NL.Everything I see first not on the Dodgers site is all AL related all power rankings go to AL teams.There is no DH in LL of HS and that is where the AL should be banned and called cheats no HOF players worse then steroids….VOTE NL VOTE MARTIN shame you can't vote Jeff Weaver AL pitcher…but players like him in the AL vote for em.
Same reason that he's not going to bat 8th so get over it. I'd rather have him leading off then hitting 2nd and who care about ops? I didn't like the signing at first but still not going to hate on Pierre then most of you are. We going to be struck with him for 5 yrs anyway? I'm not even going to say anything about Gonzo since it a one year deal and I'm also nor hater on him like some of you are. Stupid computer mess me up and accident hit post when I was still trying to correct my spelling.
I all got from what you just wrote is that you don't care about OPS (or did you mean OBP?)…
I guess that figures.
Yeah that what I mean OBP? I got confuse but it late here. Maybe I'm confuse on this stats a lot. Why is this stats so important? Pierre been a lead off hitter his entire career and I don't know why they won't experience him in that spot with Furcal batting 2nd and Martin batting 3rd and Nomar batting 5rd and Gonzo 6th. I think with all those hits/runs/alot of sb's that he's average every season he would be better leading off and at least Furcal would take a pitch and won't bunt as much as Pierre. I still hate this signing anyway. Is because people hate him for not hitting the ball on the ground and taken walk. Of course he's numbers are way down this year. I'm not trying to start an argue I just want to know what the point for him to not be at the top of the order and everyone seem to wanted him batting 8th.
I think Pierre is trying to hard because he's not really a 2nd place hitter.
DD17 Yes JP needs to step it up as most in the lineup.With Nomar taking lead in the needs to Step up dept!!!! or step aside…why do you all think that the sox and cubs fans went south on him?Lastyear was a glimpse of what was and could be but life is life and nomar has definate attension disorders with new twins at home….New kids 2 of them and play baseball 100%?I seriously doubt we will see anything from him this year other then worst hr% from a 1B starter.Loney is starting to spark his bat and as we saw lastyear when it started it kept going thru the ML.Can't bench him and who wants him now as a 3 hole hitter?Not to mention we can't trade him without permission from… him.So Therefore Nomar Please get outta your daddy lounge get your stuff together and start doing your BEST to do the job that you are preventing a fully capible knowledgable and willing Kid who is poised and ready to do without you.
everyone wants him batting 8th because he's the weakest hitter in the line-up.
First, OBP is important because if you're not on base, you can't steal or score runs. Getting on base is the best thing a lead-off guy can do because it gives the hitters in the middle of the line-up to knock runs in. Now, with that said, JP has the WORST OBP of anyone in the starting lineup
Second, outs cost the team valuable opportunities to create runs. No one creates more outs than Juan Pierre.
Bottom line is that JP hurts the team a lot more than he helps them. Batting him 8th minimizes the harm.
the lower you are in the batting order, the less AB's you get…im guessing thats the reason why people want pierre moved down. besides the fact that his obp is lacking, he's just not a good hitter right now.
what's really hilarious is they have two leadoff hitters pierre and furcal, furcal who was great leading off last year, and yet we need to sign another leadoff hitter. Pierre is batting second, now first, and now there's talk of moving abreu to the 2nd spot, while he's playing third base, when we already have two 3b on the team and abreu's natural position is 2nd. its confusing being a dodgers fan these days…
I thought JP get on base more and still have the worst OBP in the starting lineup except pitcher. Is that possible to do?
Yes I see now JP is killing this team. I know JP OBP wasn't good but I didn't know he was killing them.
I think I need to go back and see what Lofton was last year. Wow Lofton was a .360 and this year at .333. I guess resigning Lofton to another 1 yrs deal wouldn't be a bad idea again. I'm normally on the other board and most people would want Lofton back over Pierre.
Pierre was better in 2001, 2003 and 2004. I wonder what happen now.
Last 3 years stats for JP are inline with what he is doing now…. it gets worse next month…. But as far as Aug Sept and post season goes he is .325 or better in every month and .538 in the post season so you all need to chill on JP for now if we make post season and he still ***** the open the water cannons on him he is here to win a WS.geeze…..try reading some it does a mind some good…
So Pierre batting 8th would get him some ibb to improve the obp so I guess I would be fine with it.
with what JP has done the last weak week not to mention most of the lineup I think #8 spot looks good for a couple guys….
When I take into count he's been playing in Colorado/Florida not really big crowd there. I'm not going to say much about Chicago. I think the big crowd have some effect on him this year and he's being pushing to much pressure. He can't be this bad all year. I'm still not going to give up on him with this big contract he got.
Man Wolf is making Ned look good isn't he?Hope Wolf Schmidt and JP all go have a beer in Nov with Ned after ring sizing and laugh at all the crow eating posting posers.(Hope)
apparently rob neyer has an opinion about our 3b problem. i think he's right on. someone should fwd this to ned.
wow i guess you can't get there without the password thing. basically, he says what we've all been saying, which is that 3b isn't the problem…nomar, pierre, ethier and others aren't hitting their weight, and replacing laroche with abreu isn't going to change that.
Abreu might go 0-11 to start but I fully believe tonight was jitters and he will hit better then LaRoche this year.Kinna hard to compete with the OBP. though Andy wasn't pitched to very hard and he did a fantastic job of taking advantage of the opportunities.Abreu has been in the leadoff spot so he is usually looking at puting the ball in play and using speed to make it happen.#8 spot will be an adj. for him.
I agree with that JS Ethier is our best arm and he has upside Gonzo I fully believe was signed in the same capacity as Lofton lastyear and injury to Repko sidelined that yet again but the unwillingness of management to bring Kemp back when he was hitting .400+ in his few MLB chances this year after showing he is ready again is the most puzzling piece to this picture.Gonzo wants to Win and if he only plays 80-100 games to do it then so be it… He wants the TEAM to win as he has stated soo many times.If Kemp was good enough to make the team outta ST and did well then why isn't he back?
1) A lot of times these points will take a good little while to write. I typically don't want to be putting them up in the middle of the game, and sometimes I can't get to writing until gametime. That or I'll get distracted, or maybe Internet Exploder or Firefox will bloat too much and I'll have to close out the window (it's even worse when I'm ranting on Blogger). But maybe I should do that. Thanks for the appreciation.
2) When I was buying something on Amazon, I included "Few and Chosen" to get free shipping, and something Phil Pepe says in the introduction has remained true throughout the history of the franchise. "To root for the Dodgers was to endure some of the most unspeakable, excruciating disappointments any baseball fan could suffer." Historically, they're a bunch of bums, but still, they're our bums.
3) Have I lost faith in the team? I never had any faith in Ned Colletti's ability to make a good trade, or to avoid panicking. I still hold that Grady knows what he's doing, but is blinded by his favorites (note how he handles Lowe vs Penny, and Nomar vs Drew last year, even though both are liable to crumble at any minute), but he's ultimately limited by Colletti (thus Lugo in the 3, Nomar still in the 3 even though he's basically a singles hitter now). That's making an assessment; it's not retreat. I have not given up on the Dodgers, or lost faith in them. I remind you, I live on the East cCoast, and if I was going to give up on this team, I'd probably just go with being a Braves fan like the rest of my family. (As a sidenote, Alyssa Milano said that last weekend the Dodgers were giving her heartburn; how much has she been hanging out with Lasorda?)
4) I will say, and you'll notice this from my posts, that I've become more aware of the various statistics, but this goes back to like last summer. Come on, I'm a frickin' math major. The different stats really just carry a different philosophy, basically more Earl Weaver than Tony LaRussa. My dad's not an O's fan, but he always refers to the wisdom of the Earl of Baltimore.
5) I think Abreu will be alright. Matt Kemp went down swinging three times to Ramon Ortiz in his debut and made an error, but he went 2 for 5 the next day. I like that Little will platoon LaRoche with Gonzo, probably because Ethier's playing RF well, and then the Dodgers can have 3 French guys in the outfield. I can deal with this, as long as the younger Dodgers aren't lost in a trade for Scott Rolen, or for that matter Jeff Conine. I'm guessing that LaRoche and Abreu will compete to see who stays up once Schmidt gets back, whenever that is, and maybe if they both win, Ramon Martinez loses.
ooh! The Dodgers could potentially toss Billingsley into the rotation for the series against the Nats in DC. I know he doesn't read this, but DO IT GRADY! I WANT TO SEE CHAD START!!!!
When Ned signed Pierre, he said that Dodger fans will love him. I'm pretty sure the emotion felt by fans for Pierre is not love. Please Ned ,tell us what have we fans done to be subjected to this for 5 years?
I think that was a great post by fisher928 up there. I have said this before i think most of you will be saying by the end of the year "Where would we be if it werent for Pierre!?" i know he isnt producing as much as he has in previous years, but heck this is still the beginning of the season and he still leads the club in some areas. I for one think he needs to have a couple sessions with Willis or Eddie to maybe find the reason why he is upper cutting on the ball all the time. I know he will find his way and he will be a big assest to the team come playoff time. O and all the stats flying around all the time, i know that measures a lot in baseball now but i dont think it carries any weight from year to year, i mean if it did carry its weight then we would have seen Tomko take it to the Brewers on Monday, but he didnt and guess what it does the same for every player out there. The game is based on how you come out everyday and not by what was previously done, let's remember that!
Now as for Gonzo i really dont see him producing much except for the occasional glimpse of glory. I also would like the see Kemp in LF rather than Gonzo but that is up to Ned and or Grady to make that decision.
And while i am talking about Grady!! I have to say that i cant see how anyone on here could say that he is the worst manager in the majors!!!! are you kidding me, yeah your right he came in at the beginning of Spring Training with a club who had just been revamped with players he didnt really know and only turned the franchise around and gave us a winning season not to mention a ticket to the playoffs. sorry for such sarcasm but something had to be said i mean the guy is dealing with what he is given and what do you know his team is in FIRST PLACE!!!! If you dont like his line-up thats one thing and you can feel free to comment on what you would do with that but he is not going out there and booting ground balls or giving up go ahead runs or not swinging the bat well. Like i have said before we watch the major leagues people not some High School game these guys are being payed to swing the bat and strike people out. For some one to say Grady is at fault for the team play is ridiculous. I stand by Grady and Ned (i just hope he doesnt deal our talent for another aging veteran) and there decisions because im a Dodger fan! and dont get all stop being so positive, face the facts or stats for that matter, all those who say that must also remeber were are still talking about a game!
GO DODGERS!!! GO PENNY (another 6 game winner)!!!!!
patriotacts425 – "ooh! The Dodgers could potentially toss Billingsley into the rotation for the series against the Nats in DC…"
Brilliant minds think alike (LOL!) – During BP at Angel Stadium last weekend, I hollered down to Chad Billingsley that he'd be in the starting rotation within two weeks. Sure, it was wishful thinking on my part, but in my heart, I know that it is a very strong possibility; especially with Tomko's ineptitude (and growing ERA).
I have to admit that I was a bit uncomfortable with how badly Bills got lit up on Monday, but I wrote that off as him being a starter thrown into a relief role.
Also, as Fisher928 so accurately pointed out, I, too, have always appreciated your valuable insights here on this blog. Keep up the good work!
nice post patriotacts….i agree with your grady playing his favorites post, he rested jd drew alot last year, and one could make a point that nomar is more fragile than drew as evidenced at the end of the season nomar could barely swing a bat. he has not rested him much this season and I dont understand why either. i cant explain brad not being able to get into the 8th and even 7th innings, lowe just seems to have a bigger gas tank. jp needs to bat eighth with abreu in the 2 spot and furcal leading off, martin should bat third with kent following him, because they are really carrying us right now. bat nomar 5th, gonzo 6th ethier 7th and pierre 8th. thats the non andy laroche dream lineup.
Hey dahustlasbac – RIGHT ON! You nailed it!
Great post,dahuslalsbac..In case, it was missed. I was at
the game and Jonathon was a
killer. I was informed by an
associate, that Broxton was
hitting, 97; 98 twice; 99 &
100 twice, plus he threw a 79
changeup, on the inside corner
He has become, more then a
thrower, He is now Pitching
MAN..He is SOLID……
why is everyone second guessing Billingsley now! Those runs he gave up were the first he's allowed since april 27th. He hardly had anytime to warm up and he came in with the bases loaded. People have bad outings.
plus the brewers were hitting everything that night.
Yes i totally agree with you on that max! (for once lol) but honestly i think they will send him down like they sent Kuo down to get his stamina up and get some starts with vegas then make a decision wether to keep Hendy and put him to the pen or get rid of him in a deal which frees up some spots for Loney or Kemp or even better both! ( i can only hope) When Hendy is gone or in the Pen i think Bills will come up on top in the battle for the 5th spot and show us all what he is capable of doing for us again this year!
Hey pat25rod – There were two guys visiting from Taiwan sitting next to me last night. They said that they follow baseball in their country, but this was their first ever live MLB game. When Brox hit 97 (plus), I pointed this out to them and they could not believe that this was possible. They then asked me why all of the excitement when Saito came into the game. I'm not sure they understood everything that I was saying, but they understood that it was a good thing. To add to their memory and excitement of their first MLB game, I gave them a ball that I got during BP. They were ecstatic. It was a great time.
Hey Ron –
I really thought you were going to get another long ball last night. how close to you was Martin's big fly?
Pierre has made 158 outs this year, the most in MLB.
You just HAD to bring that up dahustlasbac, didn't you! (LOL). If you look closely at the video clip, you will see that the ball actually hit my glove. I had it all the way off of the bat, but, at the last second, some guy shouldered me and tried to bare-hand it. I tried to recover, but could only get the tip of my glove on it before it bounced off of his (hopefully sore) hands. Needless to say, I was a little upset. The guy later said "It was yours", but he never apologized. I had to endure some good natured ribbing (ya, right) from several people who didn't see what really happened. Oh well – Maybe next time. Thanks for asking.
Hey Ron
Did you call the ball??? lol
****, I never thought of that. Do you think it would have helped? lol!
My buddy David kept asking me if I loaned my glove to the Brewers because of all of the pop-ups they dropped during the series (the rotten bum). lol!
When is someone in the Dodger organization going to realize that Mark Hendrickson CANNOT pitch.


text:
The next generation of LCD monitors are improving things immeasurably, at least in a visual context. BenQ's 24-inch offering has been heavily delayed, but the final release model proves that the humble LCD still has a whole lot of development left in it.
There's full, proper HDMI support, giving you compatibility with the best graphics cards and external HD players, as well as a guarantee that the monitor end of your HDCP chain is fully catered for. But there's also a measure of image sharpening, including AMA Z dynamic video processing technology. This means that motion blur around the edge of the screen is reduced, which makes a surprising difference to quality, especially when playing back high-resolution video.
Combined with Senseye technology, a 6ms response time and the surprisingly high 500cd/m2 contrast ratio, the FP241WZ is a large, welcoming screen that's as home on your desk as it is in your living room. But it's not cheap.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
MOVIES OPENING (Friday; unless otherwise noted)
The Change-Up
Jaws (revival at the Charles; Saturday and Aug. 8 and 11)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
The Bachelorette (season finale; 8 p.m. Monday; ABC)
Secret Mountain of Fort Awesome (series debut; 8:30 p.m. Monday; Cartoon)
The Bad Girls Club (season premiere; 9 p.m. Monday; Oxygen)
The Real Housewives of New York City: Reunion, Part 2 (special; 10 p.m. Monday; Bravo)
Shark Week (throughout the week; Discovery)
O's at Royals (8:10 p.m. Tuesday; MASN 2)
50 Documentaries to See Before You Die (special; 9 p.m. Tuesday; Current)
Billy the Exterminator (season premiere; 9 p.m. Tuesday; A&E)
Take the Money & Run (series debut; 9 p.m. Tuesday; ABC)
Born to Dance: Laurieann Gibson (series debut; 10 p.m. Tuesday; BET)
Picker Sisters (series debut; 10 p.m. Tuesday; Lifetime)
O's at Royals (8:10 p.m. Wednesday; MASN)
Truck Stop Missouri (series debut; 10 p.m. Wednesday; Travel)
Locked Up Abroad (season finale; 10 p.m. Wednesday; NatGeo)
O's at Royals (8:10 p.m. Thursday; MASN)
Jersey Shore (season premiere; 10 p.m. Thursday; MTV)
Friends With Benefits (series debut; 8 p.m. Friday; NBC)
Whisker Wars (series debut; 11 p.m. Friday; IFC)
Who is Simon Miller? (special; 8 p.m. Saturday; NBC)
Outcasts (season finale; 9 p.m. Saturday; BBC America)
Michael Ian Black: Very Famous (special; 11 p.m. Saturday; Comedy Central)
Curiousity (series debut; 8 p.m. Sunday; Discovery)
Falling Skies (season finale; 9 p.m. Sunday; TNT)
Hillbilly Handfishin' (series debut; 10 p.m. Sunday; Animal Planet)
Ice Loves Coco (season finale; 10:30 p.m. Sunday; E!)
NEW ON DVD (Tuesday)
The Colony: Season Two
Eastbound & Down: The Complete Second Season
Exporting Raymond
The Music Never Stopped
My Dog Tulip
Soul Surfer
Tracy Morgan: Black and Blue
United States of Tara: The Third Season
ALBUMS DROPPING (Tuesday)
Arcade Fire, "The Suburbs — Deluxe Edition"
Archers of Loaf, "Icky Mettle"
Boston Spaceships, "Let It Beard"
Bury Your Dead, "Mosh & Roll"
Drive-By Truckers, "Greatest Hits 1998-2009"
Fountains Of Wayne, "Sky Full of Holes"
Fruit Bats, "Tripper"
Greyson Chance, "Hold On 'Til the Night"
John Hiatt, "Dirty Jeans & Mudslide Hymns"
Keb Mo, "The Reflection"
Kenny Wayne Shepherd, "How I Go"
Mat Kearney, "Young Love"
Moonface, "Organ Music Not Vibraphone Like I'd Hoped"
O.A.R., "King"
Tig Notaro, "Good One"
Trace Atkins, "Proud To Be Here"
RAMS HEAD LIVE: Cinderella (Tuesday); Paul Reed Smith Band (Friday); Local Rockers Unite (Saturday)
MERRIWEATHER: Steely Dan (Tuesday); Death Cab for Cutie (Sunday)
PIER SIX: Guster/Jack's Mannequin/Ra Ra Riot (Sunday)
TALKING HEAD: Lazarus A.D. (Monday); Rome Cee (Saturday); M.O.T.O (Sunday)
SONAR: The After Party/The Getaways (Tuesday); Cappadonna (Thursday)
OTTOBAR: Wyoming Exploded, etc. (Monday); Montpellier, etc. (Wednesday); Dead To Me, etc. (Sunday)
RECHER: Danjerus, etc. (Thursday); Alien Ant Farm (Friday); Hammerjacks Reunion III (Saturday)
POWER PLANT LIVE: Walk-ins Welcome (Friday)
BOURBON STREET: Play Me Bass Monster Tour (Saturday)
9:30 CLUB: Bon Iver (Monday and Tuesday; sold out); Rusted Root (Thursday); Midnight Hike, etc. (Friday)
VERIZON CENTER: Taylor Swift (Tuesday and Wednesday); Jill Scott's Summer Block Party (Sunday)
BLACK CAT: The CSC Funk Band (Monday); The Beanstalk Library (Tuesday); Archers of Loaf (Friday; sold out)l El Ten Eleven (Saturday); Mercies (Sunday)
ROCK AND ROLL HOTEL: Cold Cave/Austra (Thursday); Drop Electric, etc. (Friday); Big/Bright/Miyazaki (Saturday)
Doug Benson (Wednesday; Baltimore Comedy Factory)
Films on the Pier — "Takers" (Wednesday; Broadway Pier, Fells Point)
WTMD's First Thursdays (Thursday; Mount Vernon Park)
Rob Cantrell (Thursday-Saturday; Batltimore Comedy Factory)
Mondo Baltimore (Thursday; Windup Space)
"Unraveled on the Gravel" — a new musical (Opens Thursday, runs through Aug. 21; Spotlighters Theatre)
Craig Shoemaker (Thursday; Magooby's Joke House, Timonium)
Flicks From the Hill — "Viva Las Vegas" (Thursday; AVAM)
O's v. Blue Jays (Friday-Sunday; Camden Yards)
Baltimore Summer Restaurant Week (Friday-Aug. 14; various locations)
Timmy Hall (Friday and Saturday; Magooby's Joke House, Timonium)
National Aquarium 30th Anniversary Festival (Friday-Sunday; Inner Harbor)
Kenilworth Summer Film Series — "Toy Story 3" (Friday; The Shops at Kenilworth)
The Gathering: Take 2 — food truck rally (Friday; parking lot across from Red Star, Fells Point)
Baltimore Bluegrass/Charm City Limits (Friday; Creative Alliance)
Little Italy Open Air Film Festival — "The Tourist" (Friday; High and Stiles streets)
"Icarus Over The Boulevard: the art of Mark Tsikiris" opens (Friday; Charmedlife Art Gallery; Lauraville)
Dewey Beach Scavenger Hunt (Saturday; various bars)
Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower Open Studio Day (Saturday; Bromo Seltzer Tower)
Mobtown Ukefest w/ Baltimore Ukulele Symphonette (Saturday; Creative Alliance)
International Festival (Saturday and Sunday; Poly/Western High School)
Gilded Lily Presents "Raw" (Saturday; Ottobar)
Free Safari Express to the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore from Downtown (Saturday-Sunday; Druid Hill Park)
Multi Church Yard Sale (Saturday; Rockland United Methodist Church, Ellicott City)
Music Matters Showcase (Saturday; Mad City Coffee, Columbia)


text:
I'm trying to learn how to use rsync. I want to create daily backs up of my production server.
Right now I run the command
rsync -azr /var/www/* firstname.lastname@example.com:/var/www
Now let's say one day, I want to roll back the /var/www/ directory on my production server to last month's version. How do I tell rsync to retrieve version N?
On reading that rsync only copies differences between src and dest, I assumed rsync works like subversion where you commit changes to a destination, and keep track of every version, and with the option to checkout any version at anytime. Is that the way rsync works? It's like subversion but for an entire server? That would be great because then it means I don't have to do full ssh copies for my nightly backups.


text:
More about cloud storage:
Provider reviews:
Related software categories:
Popular provider reviews:
Best Cloud Storage 2020 – What You Need to Know
This article explores all you need to know about the cloud. We show you definitions and explain what the fuzz is all about. Whether you're after the cheapest cloud storage or looking for the best online storage – we've got you covered.
Cheapest Cloud Storage – not always the best idea
Over the last five years watching the industry, one thing is certain: the cheaper a service, the more likely it is to go out of business soon.
Once you see a "lifetime" offer of an unlimited cloud storage service that reads too good to be true — it most likely is.
Good "cheap" online storage costs around 10$ per month. That doesn't give you unlimited cloud space but usually around the 1TB mark – enough for to store videos, photos and documents.
One of our top services, Sync.com for example offers even 2TB storage for less than 10$ per month – and exceptional security which Dropbox lacks.
Our recommendations is that you don't go for the cheapest services that's just throwing an offer at you. Evaluate carefully, read our guides and check the cloud storage comparison above. For our German readers please check out this nice overview article on Sonntagmorgen.com.
Table of contents
All About Cloud Storage
Best Cloud Storage Providers
Best Online Backup Providers
Cloud Storage Comparison –What "Cloud" Are You Looking For?
Probably, you've found our comparison chart through a search engine looking for the best cloud storage for your files. But are you looking for a Dropbox like service that does file syncing and sharing, or are you more in need of a service to backup files to the cloud such as Backblaze or Crashplan? Before we can give you any recommendation, it's vital to know your needs. So, let us clarify a couple of those complicated cloud concepts and terms:
Cloud terms explained:*
We help you understand the different cloud terminology so you can be sure to know the difference.
Cloud Storage
This is the overarching term for online file storage. A common assumption is that it includes file syncing, sharing and collaboration where a local copy is always present on the user's computer.
Online Backup / Cloud Backup
Cloud backup is also a form of cloud storage, yet without file sync. It focuses primarily on backup, that is creating a copy of your hard drive in the cloud.
Online Storage
Storing files online without having a local copy on a computer. To edit a file it needs to be downloaded from the web or a specific application.
File Sync and Share
Belongs to the cloud storage space and connects a project folder to the cloud so that all files are the same on all connected devices for all users who participate in the share.
One-Click Hosters / Cyberlockers
Purely for online storage purposes and widely used in the illegal file sharing community due to its anonymity.
*This is just a quick overview, below you'll find more detailed explanation when clicking on the hyperlinks.
Cloud Storage Definition
Cloud storage is probably the overarching term for all of those services listed in our comparison and reviews. All providers transfer and store data in the cloud which essentially means on computers or servers located all around the world made accessible through the internet.
When people are looking for this term online, they immediately think of Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive because those are the services (Dropbox in particular) that coined the term and made file sync and share available to the end-user instead of just businesses.
In very simple terms, a cloud storage provider (the hosting company) installs a client program on a user's computer. That program then transmits any file a user choses over the internet to the service provider so that those files can be shared and accessed easily on other devices owned by the same user.
That can be a mobile device, a laptop or a desktop with Windows or Macintosh operating system. All changes made to the data that is set to be synced across devices, are updated in real-time on all machines where the cloud software is installed.
Why I'm using it…
Online Cloud Storage
So, let's assume a user has three devices: a desktop PC a laptop computer and a mobile device and she installs Dropbox (or any other cloud storage service) on all of them. Then there are in total 4 copies of each file available: one copy on each device and another one in the so called "cloud".
Saving a file on her laptop will upload the changes to the cloud where algorithms compare the new copy with every other copy on her machines and then decide which one is the most current version. That way, a user can always be sure to work on the correct file at any point in time.
Cloud storage providers can not only sync files but also make them available to another person or even a group of people by sharing. The cloud copy of a file is then available to a third party. Now there are two important concepts to understand: public and private links. With a public link, anybody with that link can access a file or folder, while a private link is only accessible upon invitation and generally requires the invited users to create an account with the cloud storage company. Now, that you understand what cloud storage is and what is does you can already see the endless possibilities:
Unlimited Cloud Storage Services – Possible?
The cloud has a lot of applications. We have gathered a list of things you can do and how the cloud can help you work more efficiently.
No more email attachments
Large email attachments are a pain, it's hard to know if they actually arrive safely at the recipient. As files can be shared with a public link that link can be then sent via email to a recipient where it can be downloaded.
No more awkward file names like final, final-1, final-final
All file versions of a document, presentation, spreadsheet or any file for that matter are stored in the cloud. All parties that have access to that file or folder will always see the current version no matter who edited it last. What used to be an endless chain of new documents whose filename creativity decreased by each version is now combined into one single file.
Knowing that all files are always there, aka file syncing
No matter if you're at the airport, in a café, a co-working space, traveling, at the office, at home, all crucial files are always available and you don't have to remember to transfer them onto a USB thumb drive or even send yourself an email because files are synced through cloud storage software across your (mobile) devices.
Cloud File Storage for Backups
Cloud file storage services can serve as a quick backup because multiple versions of a single files is both available in the cloud and on other devices. So if a computer meltdown occurs, having a subscription with a cloud storage service allows for quick restoration of lost files.
Online Storage for Collaboration
Certainly one of the major benefits of services like Dropbox is collaboration with a virtual team spread across different continents. All members of a team can have access to a shared folder and upload and download data, so everybody is on the same page with the project status. Even if somebody on the team makes a mistake, most services offer 'file versioning' which means the admin can go back and recover deleted files or even older versions of the same file.
Best Online Storage for Offline access?
Even though they are called cloud storage providers, with the above mentioned file synchronisation, all files are available offline. So working on a project with a weak or non-existing Internet connection is possible. Once re-connected, changes are uploaded automatically.
Best Cloud Storage Options We Like
Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. You have to look at your requirements carefully and select a service with the help of our comparison chart. These services below are some services our readers and we like a lot.
Sync.com is a fairly new provider on the block. Based in Canada, they rival Dropbox both in ease-of-use and syncing speed. However, they offer something much more valuable: zero-knowledge security. User's data is encrypted end-to-end, therefore nobody but the user can see the data in the clear. Sync offers mobile apps for both iOS and Android and is available on Mac and Windows alike. Unfortunately, a Linux client is not on the roadmap yet.
- Extremely easy to use, even for the most technically illiterate users.
- High level of security due to end-to-end cloud encryption
- Canada based, no US servers
- Also great for businesses due to granular sharing control and password protection of shared folders.
- Users have reported some syncing problems with McAffee antivirus software
- Mobile clients are a bit too simplistic yet
|Personal Mini
1-year plan $ 5.00/ month
$60.00 billed every year
|Pro Solo Basic
|Pro Solo Standard
1-year plan $ 10.00/ month
$120.00 billed every year
|Pro Solo Plus
1-year plan $ 15.00/ month
$180.00 billed every year
|Pro Teams Standard
1-year plan $ 5.00/ month
$60.00 billed every year
|Pro Teams Plus
|Pro Teams Advanced
1-year plan $ 15.00/ month
$180.00 billed every year
pCloud can be considered one of the newer players on the block and they come in with an interesting pricing. Users can get a massive 20GB of free storage. Their paid tiers are reasonably priced as well:
Customer get 1TB of storage for $7,99 per month and there save a few dollars compared to Dropbox or Google Drive. pCloud allows customers to set it up as a cloud drive which means files stored on pCloud doesn't need to be locally available on user's hard drives. Unfortunately, if you'd like to have additional security you need to pay an extra fee for pCloud Crypto.
Business users get 5TB of storage. This plan includes a minimum of 5 users, each getting 1TB of storage. This plans will set you back at 49.95$ per month, each additional user wil cost 10$.
pCloud is available for Windows and Mac and good news for Linux users, they can download a client as well. Their mobile apps a a beauty and are available on the iOS and Android app stores.
- Very affordable and reliable cloud storage service with "online hard drive" functionality
- User friendly and easy to setup
- 20GB of free storage
- Additional security only available as an add-on purchase
| Premium
1-year plan $ 3.99/ month
$47.88 billed every year
Save 20 %
Lifetime plan $ 4.86/ month
$175.00 one time payment,
Monthly price for 3 years of use
|Premium Plus
1-year plan $ 7.99/ month
$95.88 billed every year
Save 20 %
Lifetime plan $ 9.72/ month
$350.00 one time payment,
Monthly price for 3 years of use
1-month plan $ 9.99/ month
Save 58 %
1-year plan $ 23.97/ month
$287.64 billed every year
As the name already suggests, SugarSync is a service focused on file synchronisation and sharing, yet they also allow users to run backup jobs in the background. What's great about SugarSync is that they allow users to select any folder on a computer to be synced with their cloud, unlike Dropbox where customers need to choose one folder on their machines. SugarSync is available in many different flavors starting from 100 GB for 7.49 $/month. More expensive than Dropbox but well worth the extra money for the flexiblity.
SugarSync's online file storage application is available for Windows and Mac and the usual suspects for mobile clients: Android and iOS.
- Syncs any folder on your devices
- Includes automatic backups which are not as sophisticated as a real backup service but it's something
- Public and private link sharing with granular folder permissions such as read-only. Flexible pricing plans for most user's needs
- Slower syncing speeds than Dropbox
- More expensive than some of the competitors
- Sometimes there is a delay in syncing when adding a new folder
1-year plan $ 6.25/ month
$74.99 billed every year
Save 17 %
1-year plan $ 8.33/ month
$99.99 billed every year
Save 17 %
1-year plan $ 15.79/ month
$189.50 billed every year
Save 17 %
|Business 1TB
|Business Custom
From the outside Livedrive hasn't changed much in recent years, their website and plans still look the same as always. However, I have the feeling since they've been acquired by J2 Global things are moving for the better: they've updated their client software to a more modern look, upload speeds have increased and I'm overall pleased with the experience. It's one of those providers who combine file sync and share with cloud backups (if you're willing to whip out the cash for the Pro Suite), but users who are just looking for backup or syncing can choose cheaper plans. Unlike other service Livedrive also allows users to backup NAS drives. If you have a lot of files to sync you'll love Livedrive's LAN sync feature that speeds up the process significantly, if all your machines are in the same network. Clients are available for Windows and Mac, and iOS, Android and Windows 8 devices.
- Boasts a lot of features and lets users decide what they actually need
- LAN syncing for faster networks syncs
- Backup edition includes unlimited cloud backups for NAS devices as well
- Easy to setup
- Convoluted interface and too many features and options if you're looking for a simple solution.
- Automatic backup is at times unreliable
- Fairly expensive if users need both online backup and sync & share.
1-year plan $ 16.00/ month
$192.00 billed every year
|Pro Suite
1-year plan $ 25.00/ month
$300.00 billed every year
Other brands to know…
- CloudMe
- Bitcasa
- OpenDrive
- hubiC
- ZipCloud
- pogoplug
- Amazon Cloud Drive
- Yandex.Disk
- 4Sync
Cloud Storage Advantages & Disadvantages
There are some advantages and disadvantages when using cloud storage providers for your data. Here are some to consider:
- Everywhere access – access files everywhere because they are synced to the cloud and downloaded if connected to the Internet.
- Syncing of application data – application data, such as passwords or settings files can also be synced to the cloud to streamline the app experience on all devices.
- Integrated backup – while not to be confused with a proper online backup, copies of your files are in multiple places which protect them from corruption.
- Send public links – users can create a public link of a file in their syncing folder and share it via messengers or email.
- Auto-upload of photos – using cloud storage apps on a mobile device allows users to automatically upload the camera roll which adds further protection to the most valuable memories.
- Free up hard drive space – with selective sync it is possible to free up hard drive space on your computer, especially with the generous storage quotas users can save gigabytes worth of physical storage.
- Speed issues – transferring larger files over the Internet takes a lot of time. If dealing with video files or large CAD or .psd data then cloud storage may cause headaches.
- Security – One of the major concerns when using cloud storage is security and encryption. Most of the time, it comes down to trust, unless you pick one of our zero-knowledge cloud storage recommendations that encrypt data before it leaves your computer.
- Compatibility – in order to collaborate effectively, people need to sign up for a cloud storage service to share files in the same folder. If collaborating with a few teams some users may have to sign up for multiple cloud storage services.
- All-or-nothing approach – many cloud storage services, such as Dropbox follow an all-or-nothing approach which means that once a folder is shared with a person, she can re-share and delete files of that folder at her discretion.
Free Cloud Storage
Free cloud storage seems to be available in abundance these days, starting from 2GB (Dropbox) and 15GB (Google Drive) to 50GB for MEGA.nz. While free is certainly good enough to try if a service works or not, it comes with a variety of restrictions that users should be aware of. Let tackle the pros and cons of free storage with a side-by-side comparison and show a couple of services that do offer free storage.
- Comes with account restrictions: storage is obviously limited, but so are file versions, amount of files synced, etc.
- Support is very limited, you have to wait longer for your tickets to be answered.
- File size restrictions are very common
- Less security, some services may even transfer files in the clear without any encryption at all.*
- Constant marketing – expect to receive a lot of email trying to convert you into paying customer.
- In some cases files may take longer to upload than for paid users because of bandwidth restrictions in a shared environment.
- No guarantee that free plan will always be free. Notable example is SugarSync who ditched the free plan which annoyed a lot of users.
- Well, it's free. There are no fees associated to use the software and users can leave anytime.
- There are option to combine several free cloud storage service into one vault with cloud storage manager, Odrive being one example.
- Quick way to share large files without sending enormous email attachments. Can sync basic application settings as well because they don't need much space.
- Users can sign up completely anonymously, because generally there is no credit card required.
- Free storage space can be increased through referrals**
- Good for students who need to collaborate on a budget on quick projects or presentations.
*note, however, that there are free services that offer excellent encryption for those accounts, such as MEGA, Tresorit, Sync.com, and more.
** this can be a disadvantage as we saw with Copy.com: they allowed users to increase free storage to 200GB and now defaulted.
Cloud Storage Services for Enterprise, business or personal use?
Cloud storage services can be used for personal and business use. However, the requirements vastly differ from one another. While on the consumer side easy-of-use and compatibility is the main concern, priorities shift towards privacy and security in a business or enterprise environment.
For example, businesses need more granular control over shared files. They need to be able to set folder permissions on a case by case basis and even control subfolders. That's only one example. Here is a comparison table that shows the difference between consumer-grade and business/enterprise cloud storage.
Business cloud storage services are generally called Enterprise File Sync and Share (EFSS) vendors because they focus on business collaboration and mobile enablement. Gartner's magic quadrant for file syncing and sharing vendors compares these services annually and picks the ones that lead the field. While Dropbox for Business is gaining more and more traction, it's still mainly used by end users.
Popular vendors are Egnyte, who have made the hybrid cloud model popular, and Box, known for their vast array of integrations into third party apps such as Salesforce. Gartner's analysis classifies Citrix Sharefile as the current market leader of the Enterprise File Sync and Share vendors, however, those are generally more geared towards the enterprise with 10 or more users. If you're interested in looking at cloud storage options for the small business you can look at our comparison chart.
Online Backup
When using an online backup service computer data is stored in the cloud, but it works differently from cloud storage applications: online backups produce an exact copy of a hard drive and transfer the entire file and folder structure to the online backup service provider. This mirroring process is very convenient because users don't have to remember to copy and paste important files into a specific folder. Apple users may know this procedure from Time Machine where the entire hard drive is copied onto another drive.
Now, online backup services can run as scheduled jobs once a day, week or month, or continuously in the background, so whenever a file changes it is uploaded to the company's servers immediately. If your bandwidth and CPU allows this, we always recommend you activate continuous backups.
In recent years, online backup service providers have found their favorite marketing pet peeve pushing forward the word "unlimited" in their marketing copy. What they mean, of course, is they won't put any restrictions on the files a user uploads that's within their fair use policy. Savvy users know this advertisement from web hosting services offering unlimited bandwidth. However, fair use policies are usually pretty high in the terabytes range, so average computer users don't have to worry "running out of space".
How much online backup space do you need?
Most computer users only need a couple of gigabytes to backup their most important files, however, hard drives are getting cheaper by the month and people amass more digital media than ever before. So planning ahead is a wise choice.
Make sure you to check how much space on your hard drive you currently occupy. You can achieve that by right clicking either on your C: drive, (on Windows) or on your Macintosh hard drive (Get info).
- Further reading: How to choose an online backup service
The safe bet is to go with any unlimited backup service we rate highly, for example Backblaze, Crashplan or Carbonite because you can also backup external hard drives or NAS devices and never have to worry about space issues.
If you require additional features, such as file sync and sharing, you need to pick your online backup provider carefully because not every service has those features. Look at IDrive, Acronis True Image Cloud, Jottacloud, Justcloud or Livedrive for some examples.
Here are some suggestions of online backup services we recommend you check out:
Top 5 Online Backup Options We Like
We know it can get overwhelming choosing the right option. The market is quite saturated with over 50 providers so we show you our five favorites that have shown a high level of performance and cosistency over the last years.
Crashplan has been our top recommended cloud backup service for years because it offers a truly unlimited experiences (if set up correctly). There are virtually no limitations as to how much data you can backup, how many versions you can store or to the file sizes, even a large 10GB Outlook email data base is backed up properly.
So where is the catch? We have experienced rather slow backup speeds from our location in Europe. Customers in the US don't seem to have this problem. In any case, backing up a large quantity of files always takes time but Crashplan does a fantastic job with a simple set-it-and-forget-it setup approach. Users can choose the family plan which allows to backup up to 5 computers/devices.
- Truly unlimited online backup solution
- Highly customizable and includes free local backups as well
- Affordable personal and family plans for multiple computers
- Slow transfers from non-US locations
- Java client feels clunky at times
- No file sharing or syncing options
|CrashPlan Pro
1-year plan $ 10.00/ month
$120.00 billed every year
IDrive has turned into a hybrid service over the years: starting with only offering cloud backup, they now ventured into the file sharing and syncing game and are doing quite well. Yet consumers should use IDrive for what it was originally made: cloud backups.
IDrive offers end-users a whole host of backup customization options from creating various backup sets, settings granular backups schedules to protecting their backups with a personal encryption key that only the user knows and owns. In our tests uploading a 10GB it wasn't the fastest solution out there but did perform very well adding all files in a little over an hour. IDrive is not an unlimited service but has very affordable 1TB plans starting from $5 per month.
Interesting: paid subscribers can get 1 physical shipment of their data for free that speeds up the backup/restore process quite significantly.
- Continuous backup mode
- Vast scheduling options and backup set creation
- Includes free shipping once per year of a hard drive
- A lot of features can confuse some consumers
- Macintosh software and features slightly behind the Windows version
|Personal 2TB
1-year plan $ 5.79/ month
$69.50 billed every year
2-year plan $ 5.79/ month
$139.00 billed every 2 years
|Personal 5TB
1-year plan $ 8.29/ month
$99.50 billed every year
2-year plan $ 8.29/ month
$199.00 billed every 2 years
|Business 250GB
1-year plan $ 8.29/ month
$99.50 billed every year
2-year plan $ 8.29/ month
$199.00 billed every 2 years
|Business 500GB
1-year plan $ 16.62/ month
$199.50 billed every year
2-year plan $ 16.62/ month
$399.00 billed every 2 years
|Business 1.25TB
1-year plan $ 41.62/ month
$499.50 billed every year
2-year plan $ 41.62/ month
$999.00 billed every 2 years
|Business 2.5TB
1-year plan $ 66.62/ month
$799.50 billed every year
2-year plan $ 66.62/ month
$1599.00 billed every 2 years
|Business 5TB
1-year plan $ 124.96/ month
$1499.50 billed every year
2-year plan $ 93.73/ month
$2249.50 billed every 2 years
Save 25 %
|Business 12.5TB
1-year plan $ 249.96/ month
$2999.50 billed every year
2-year plan $ 249.96/ month
$5999.00 billed every 2 years
Backblaze has been my goto backup service to recommend to the technically less literate part of my family and friends. It is very easy to setup: install the client, start the backup and it backs up everything that's on your hard drive, except systems and application files. Users can exclude folders or files they don't want to backup, for example, I always exclude my Downloads folder because anything I store in there I can always re-download.
That saves bandwidth and overall backup time. Backblaze backs up fast – if you allow it to and set the threads to 10. This may however, slow down other network applications for example remote desktop session and the like. Backblaze's restore process is a little clunky as you can only download zip files from the web client. Overall, users can get Backblaze at a very affordable price for only $5 per month or 50$ per year. This is no brainer in my opinion.
- Very easy to use, probably the easiest online backup out there
- Decent uploads speeds from all tested locations (Germany, US, UK)
- No file size, type or storage restrictions
- Very secure backup through private 448-bit encryption key
- External hard drives must be connected every 30 days to be continuously backed up.
- For pro users it's a little too simplistic
- Support response times could be better
|Unlimited Personal
1-year plan $ 5.00/ month
$60.00 billed every year
Save 17 %
2-year plan $ 4.58/ month
$110.00 billed every 2 years
Save 24 %
Carbonite is another decent online backup service, however, the Windows version is vastly superior to the Mac edition: Mac users need to go without external hard drive backups or mirror image backups. If you're a Windows user, though, Carbonite has a lot to offer and is certainly one of the better solutions out there.
Users who sign up for the prime plan for $149/yr get a free restore to door service where a hard drive is shipped if disaster strikes. Cloud backup is easily setup and works automatically if users don't feel like selecting files and folders. Carbonite will continuously back up files in the background, if video files should be backed up automatically customers need to pick at the very least the prime plan.
Fortunately, Carbonite got rid of some nasty bandwidth limiting policies and offers users a truly unlimited experience.
- Very secure cloud backup through private encryption keys
- Easy setup process, even for novice users
- Decent client software
- No file sharing and syncing (discontinued since April 2016)
- Sadly, no NAS backups in the personal editions
- Sometimes slow backups, seems to be limited to 10 Mbit/s
|Carbonite Safe Basic
1-year plan $ 6.00/ month
$71.99 billed every year
|Carbonite Safe Plus
1-year plan $ 9.33/ month
$111.99 billed every year
|Carbonite Safe Prime
1-year plan $ 12.50/ month
$149.99 billed every year
|Carbonite Safe Backup Pro
1-year plan $ 24.00/ month
$287.99 billed every year
|Carbonite Safe Server Backup
1-year plan $ 50.00/ month
$599.99 billed every year
| Carbonite Safe Server Backup Ultimate
1-year plan $ 83.33/ month
$999.99 billed every year
SOS Online Backup
SOS Online Backup is here with an aggressive unlimited pricing: $7,99 per month is pretty good. There are a few caveats that users need to be aware of: on the one hand SOS requires enough free hard drive space for cached files, meaning if you're backing up 10GB of space SOS Online Backup may require an additional 10GB of space for cached files.
On the other hand, there is no continuous backup option available, users can crank up the schedule to hourly, though. SOS is not the fastest cloud backup services in our test and it took a little warm up time until the connection averaged to about 7Mbit/s. For those users who want to share files, SOS Online Backup has a file sharing option, according to their website that is. In practice, it's implemented in the worst possible way I've ever seen in a backup app. It took me almost 30 minutes to find it.
If you're looking for a file sharing solutions, please look elsewhere. Backups however work great and the fact that SOS stores unlimited file versions will satisfy most people's needs. On Cloudwards we recommend people use different apps for backup and cloud storage anyway.
- Great affordable unlimited pricing for up to 5 computer and unlimited mobile devices
- Easy setup process, but don't rely on the automatic backup selection
- Restores can be executed to a desired folder path
- Mac version weaker than Windows counterpart
- Terrible implementation of file sharing feature which makes me wonder if they actually want people to share files
- Mediocre transfer speed of up 7Mbit/s
1-year plan $ 3.75/ month
$44.99 billed every year
Save 25 %
1-year plan $ 6.67/ month
$79.99 billed every year
Save 17 %
1-year plan $ 8.33/ month
$99.99 billed every year
Save 17 %
1-year plan $ 10.83/ month
$129.99 billed every year
Save 17 %
1-year plan $ 16.67/ month
$199.99 billed every year
Save 21 %
1-year plan $ 33.33/ month
$399.99 billed every year
Save 17 %
1-year plan $ 133.33/ month
$1599.99 billed every year
Save 17 %
1-year plan $ 250.00/ month
$2999.99 billed every year
Save 17 %
Other brands to know…
- SpiderOakONE
- degoo
- Dupplica
- Jottacloud
- mimedia
- ADrive
- StorageGuardian
- memopal
- JungleDisk
- Symform
- Acronis Cloud
- ElephantDrive
- SurDoc
- Mozy
- Cyphertite
- MyPCBackup
- Zoolz
- IBackup
- nomadesk
- Norton Online Backup
- AltDrive
- Data Deposit Box
- SafeSync
- MyOtherDrive
- Total Defense
Cloud Backup
Cloud backup essentially is a synonym to online backup because it describes the exact same thing. In fact, the term cloud backup is becoming more and more popular. It used to be widely used in the business sector only but now everybody understands what is meant by the cloud.
On Cloudwards.net we use those backup terms interchangeably, so we hope this clarifies a few doubts. The list provided in our comparison chart ranks services based on features, reliability, speed, security and customer support. By no means are our rankings an end-all-be-all but instead can serve you as a starting point because you can filter the features based on your requirements.
Cloud Storage Wiki
We're working on our wiki section to provide newcomer to the cloud an easy way to check up on frequently used terms on vendor websites. Some of these terms are used interchangeably which makes it difficult to determine what they are used for.


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Q: How do I use the CLR Minidump tool?
A: The Common Language Runtime Minidump tool creates a file containing information that is useful for analyzing system problems in the runtime.
- What are Minidump files?
Applications can produce user-mode minidump files, which contain a useful subset of the information contained in a crash dump file. Applications can create minidump files very quickly and efficiently. Because minidump files are small, they can be easily sent over the internet to technical support for the application.
A minidump file does not contain as much information as a full crash dump file, but it contains enough information to perform basic debugging operations. To read a minidump file, you must have the binaries and symbol files available for the debugger.
- What 'DbgHelp' functions are used with minidump files?
Code:'MiniDumpCallback()' 'MiniDumpReadDumpStream()' 'MiniDumpWriteDump()'
- What types of crash dump files are there?
You can set the type of dump file generated, balancing the need for more information with the space available for storing it. Larger dumps provide more information, but embedded devices often have restricted amounts of memory available.
Typically, the error reporting system generates a system dump. However, if the size of the dump file generated would be larger than the space allocated to it, the system generates a much smaller context dump.
OEMs set registry values that control the type of crash dump to be generated and the amount of memory to reserve for that purpose. Each type of dump follows the same file format.
Error reporting can generate three distinct types of crash dumps:
- Context dumps
- System dumps
- Complete dumps
- What is the difference between the types of crash dumps?
- Context Dump
- Information about the crashing system
- Exception that initiated the crash
- Context record of the faulting thread
- Module list, limited to the faulting threads of the owner process
- Thread list, limited to the faulting threads of the owner process
- Callstack of the faulting thread
- 64 bytes of memory above and below the instruction pointer of the faulting thread
- Stack memory dump of the faulting thread, truncated to fit a 64 KB limit
- System Dump
- All information in a Context dump
- Callstacks and context records for all threads
- Complete module, process, and thread lists for the entire device
- 2048 bytes of memory above and below the instruction pointer of the faulting thread.
- Global variables for the process that was current at the time of the crash
- Complete dump
- All information in a context dump
- A complete dump of all used memory
- How do I use the Minidump tool?
You run the 'mscordmp.exe' tool from the command prompt
Code:mscordmp [options] /pid processID /out outputFile
- Can I have an example?
The following command creates a minidump file for the process with the identification number 12345 and saves the output in the file 'myDump'.
Code:mscordmp /pid 12345 /out myDump


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Pink Marble Phone Cover
Shipping calculated at checkout.
Flaunt your style with these stylish Phone Covers that are a great light-weight option for protecting your valuable gadget. You have full access to all buttons without removing it from the case. The case is truly like a second skin and a must have accessory for your daily needs. This hard back case cover comes in a matte finish.


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Welcome to our forum. Feel free to post a message. Please let me know when you swap or sell your parts so I can remove the items from this forum. Thank You to post pictures; Images must be stored somewhere that allows remote loading, or on a Bravenet Photo Center. Is also seems that images stored on Bravehost web space also work. The owner of the forum must also have enabled html in the forum. , you simply use standard html code: you start out with this simbol..... < ..... then...... img src= ..... then your web address for the picture.... then this simbol.... > ...... and your picture should come up example < img src=http://www.britishbusclub.org/52%20JAL%20far%20side.JPG> pictures can be gif or jpg.
Please NOTE this is an old forum I had on a different site but all seems to be working.


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Reyes says owner told him he would stay in Miami
- Reyes was in the Middle East when he found out he was traded
- Reyes signed with the Marlins as a free agent after the 2011 season
- Five days before he was traded%2C Reyes said Loria told him he wasn%27t going to trade him
TORONTO (AP) — Jose Reyes was in a hotel room in the Middle East when he received the surprising news: He had been traded from the downsizing Miami Marlins to the bulking-up Toronto Blue Jays.
"I went to Dubai on vacation with my wife," Reyes said Thursday in his first public comments about the Nov. 19 deal. "One day I got up at 6 in the morning and I see all these text messages saying 'You got traded.' That kind of surprised me a little bit."
Reyes left the New York Mets as a free agent after the 2011 to sign a $106 million, six-year contracts with the Marlins, who boosted their payroll as they prepared to move into a new retractable-roof ballpark in downtown Miami. But after fading from contention en route to a last-place finish, the Marlins sold off their stars.
The move was surprising to Reyes, given a conversation he had just had with owner Jeffrey Loria.
"Five days before I got traded I was with the owner of the Miami Marlins and he said he was never going to trade me," Reyes recalled.
Like his Miami teammates, Reyes didn't have a no-trade provision. Telephone conversations with new teammates and fellow Dominicans Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion soothed any concerns.
"After that I said, 'It's a better opportunity with the Blue Jays,'" Reyes said. "It's all about winning and the team we're going to put on the field is going to be good."
Reyes was dealt with pitchers Mark Buehrle and Josh Johnson, catcher John Buck and outfielder Emilio Bonifacio and $8.5 million to Toronto for infielders Yunel Escobar and Adeiny Hechavarria, catcher Jeff Mathis, right-handers Henderson Alvarez, and Anthony DeSclafani, left-hander Justin Nicolino and outfielder Jake Marisnick.
"He's the type of guy you want to come and see play, he's electric," Toronto general manager Alex Anthopoulos said. "This is a rare guy to find. Leadoff, shortstop, energy, makeup, you can check off every single box. I don't know that there's another shortstop like him. I think any GM would love to have him."
Anthopoulos called Reyes "probably my favorite player in the league."
"You can't help but admire what he brings and what he does," Anthopoulos said. "From that standpoint, the opportunity to get him in trade, we jumped at it. We felt we were pretty deep at shortstop but we've never seen a guy like this.
"I don't know that we're going to see another shortstop like this in Toronto for a long time. This is one of the great players to play the game and the fact that he's got a chance to be in Toronto for the next five or six years is so exciting."
Anthopoulos had made starting pitching his priority.
"We weren't going to go anywhere if we didn't improve the rotation," he said.
He addressed that concern in the trade with the Marlins and another that sent Buck as part of a package to the New York Mets for Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey.
The NL batting champion in 2011 and a three-time NL stolen base champion, Reyes will be the first in a quartet of Dominican stars at the top of Toronto's order. Outfielder Melky Cabrera will likely bat second, followed by sluggers Bautista and Encarnacion.
That's made the Blue Jays as big a story in the Caribbean as they've been since the 1980s and the days of George Bell and Tony Fernandez.
"When I went to the Dominican and people saw me on the street, everybody talked about the Blue Jays," Reyes said. "At least in my town, everybody is a fan of the Blue Jays now."
Reyes is set to play for the Dominican Republic team at the World Baseball Classic, among seven Toronto players expected to take part in the tournament. Encarnacion, Cabrera and right-hander Esmil Rogers have been selected for the Dominican Republic's preliminary roster; Dickey and catcher J.P. Arencibia for the United States; and infielder Brett Lawrie for Canada.
Bautista is skipping the WBC following surgery in September to repair a left wrist injury that limited him to 92 games last season.
"The biggest thing with that is we need him ready for the season," Anthopoulos said.
Anthopoulos said Bautista, who feels good and has been swinging every day, hopes to play in Toronto's exhibition opener on Feb. 23 against Detroit.
That's a game Reyes is looking forward to, as well.
"I can't wait to get to spring training and start to work together," Reyes said. "It's going to be a special season for the Blue Jays. The goal for us here is to go to the playoffs, go to the World Series and win. Less than that is not going to be acceptable with the kind of team that we have."


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The Interstellar Boundary Explorer discovered a stange barrier of energy and particles that surrounds the solar system. Recently scientists have isolated the ribbon of energy, but questions remain.
The heliosphere, the bubble of energy provided by the sun which envelops all the planets in the solar system, was known to block cosmic rays coming in from the rest of the universe. It seems that it doesn't do so alone. The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) orbited earth, in an attempt to map the edges of the solar system. The maps it brought back show that there is a specific energy barrier wrapped around the solar system. IBEX scientists have looked over maps made by the mission, and have managed to chart the shape of this huge ribbon of energy.
The IBEX used cameras that were sensitive to energetic neutral atoms, instead of photons, to focus on the boundary of the bubble of energy around our solar system. The heliosphere is puffed up, to a large degree, by the high-energy particles that shoot out of the sun. The ribbon appears to stretch down and wind around the heliosphere like stripes on a candy cane, and then move on.
There's no word, now, on how the 'ribbon' of energy was made. Scientists believe that it is a result of the heliosphere interacting with the magnetic field created by the galaxy, but don't know specifics. The unexpected finding leaves people with a clearer view of what the edge of the solar system looks like, even if no one knows why it looks that way.
Image Credit: IBEX Science Team/Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio/ESA
Via IOP.


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A Declaration of Flowers: Thoughts on Byron Herbert Reece's "Easter"
It's about as simple as poems come:
Easter is on the field:
Flowers declare
With bloom their tomb unsealed
To April air.
Little lambs
New as the dew shake cold,
Beside their anxious dams:
Easter is on the fold.
Its simplicity shouldn't be confused with sentimentality, though. Today, little lambs, blossoming flowers, and the like are stock symbols of the season, largely taken for granted, appropriated by salesmen to be consumed by us. We buy stuffed toy lambs, chocolate lambs, Hallmark cards with pictures of lambs. It's not my point to say whether this is right or wrong, but it is clearly sentimental.
Because Easter is a sentimental and therefore commercialized holiday, it's all too easy to read Reece's poem through pastel lenses, to imagine chicks and bunnies at the feet of the lambs, to imagine the lambs frolicking and stopping to sniff the blossoming flowers. But I don't think it's a sentimental poem at all.
Byron Herbert Reece wrote "Easter" in a setting far removed from the commercialized holiday we know today — sometime around the middle of the last century in a north Georgia valley bounded by mountains and crossed by the Nottely River, in a farming community called Choestoe. Reece himself was a small-scale farmer who worked a piece of bottomland alongside rhododendron-veiled Wolf Creek. As such, the flowers and lambs in his verses are not abstract ones. They weren't conceived in the mind of an entrepreneur to be born in a Chinese factory; they are flowers and lambs from nowhere but the dew-wet hills of Georgia. The poet saw the blossoming of peach trees, service trees, and laurel. He watched the shivering newborn lambs owned by a Choestoe neighbor for reasons far beyond sentiment.
If "Easter" is not a sentimental poem, then, what is it? The next temptation, I think, is to read it as a symbolic poem, to see the blossoming flowers and the lambs as signs of new life with the obvious correlation to Christ's resurrection. But I don't think that's quite right, either.
Reece was a practicing Christian, to be sure — even filling in for his preacher from time to time — but he was also too good of a poet to build a poem upon cliché, and the great cliché of Easter is that the vitality of spring represents the vitality of the risen Christ. To see the cycling of nature as nothing more than a religious symbol is to live on another plane. I think Reece understood, with Thoreau, that "heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads." And so Reece does something lovely with this poem: He turns the usual metaphor around.
"Flowers declare / With bloom their tomb unsealed / To April air," he writes. The "tomb unsealed" is an allusion to Christ's death and resurrection, of course, but it is the tomb, rather than the blossoming flowers, that serves as symbol here. In the same way, it is Easter itself that blesses the sheepfold, and not the other way around.
Flowers and lambs, then — and by extension all created things — have worth independent of doctrine. Doctrine, at its best — and in this case the doctrine of the resurrection — sheds light on the holiness of this world. Reece would've known that Mary Magdalene, the first to see the risen Christ, mistook him for a gardener. Resurrection abounds if we would but look.
~ Christopher Martin


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Every efficient backend system deserves a good interface to make it complete. At EG Technologies, we optimize modernized Content Management Systems (CMS) with streamlined front ends that can be used for all forms of production—whether it's a highly functional website that to manage customer information, or a Web-based interface for interpersonal company use. As with all our services, our Web solutions are backed by unlimited support at low monthly rates.
At EG Technologies, we specialize in efficiency. We know you can't afford to wait through system downtime when customers expect prompt service, and we understand that time is money. This is why our flat-rate fees will never change as long as the services remain the same, and why we offer around-the clock assistance, seven days a week. In a a market that's full of peaks and valleys, our flat-rate fees ensure you can count on at least one aspect of your budget to remain constant.
This availability means that EG will be there when an in-house IT department might not, and it also means that you receive these services without the hassle of hiring IT managers and specialists, finding a building and expensive hardware for them to work with, or paying the extra taxes and benefits associated with full-time personnel.
We are a collective of experienced Information Technology professionals with a wide range of technical expertise, who share in the ideal vision and standards of unparalled customer service. Our practices are geared toward the modernization of current systems for established companies, as well as the creation of completely new systems for startups. Our goal is to bridge the gap between each aspect of data and information management and production, allowing our clients to concentrate on their business without concern over the data management aspect.
EG Technologies
126 E. Haley Street Suite A15
Santa Barbara
(805) 364 4490
(805) 357 9295


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While this probably isn't that 'new' a thing, it was something that I never even knew existed until a co-worker casually mentioned her past experience at FAO Schwarz when everyone was discussing the fact that Toys 'R' Us bought them out. (And since the previously mentioned acquisition, Disney's bought up Marvel for $4 billion and Kraft went after Cadbury, but failed despite a $16 billion bid – doorcrasher sales on various international brands in the wake of an economic downturn… but that's off topic).
So it turns out, FAO Schwarz in New York has a whole section of the sales floor that's devoted to making your very own Muppet! The Whatnot Workshop has all kinds of different stations that allow people to mix and match different eyes, ears, noses – right down to accessories – to create a mixmatched customized Muppet that looks, works and feels like the real thing, as if Jim Henson himself had created a new character.
There used to be both an online and in-store Whatnot experience but since the May 2009 acquisition, the online platform has been scrapped and is in redevelopment. So, for now the only way to get your own Muppet is to boot down to NYC as it's an exclusive feature that thankfully Toys 'R' Us has no intentions of dropping. The store will remain an FAO Schwarz as well, good considering its icon status for children everywhere and the fact that it's been immortalized in films 'o plenty.
In total there's choice between three body types, 12 eyes, 12 noses, 13 hairstyles and 14 costumes (including The Statue of Liberty and a baseball uniform resembling that of the New York Yankees). Check out the photos below to see the real deal!


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seller's option contract(redirected from Sellers Option Contracts)
Seller's Option Contract
A contract between a buyer and a seller where the seller has the ability to delay settlement of the contract beyond the normal time. A seller may exercise this option if he/she has difficulty in making delivery on the contract for any reason at all. The farthest possible settlement date is stated in the seller's option contract. This contrasts with a cash contract, where settlement is made before the regular settlement date.
seller's option contract
A security transaction in which the date of settlement is delayed beyond the five business days in a regular-way contract. This very unusual transaction is generally caused by the unavailability of a certificate for regular delivery. The settlement date will be specified. See also cash contract.


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Why HIPAA Compliance Should Be Applied to Other Industries to Increase Security
With the increasing frequency of major-company data breaches in the news, companies need to find new ways to make sure they are focusing on security.
The world is rapidly moving toward the cloud and away from traditional IT systems. Browser-based security using https has evolved and is now accepted by customers as "secure." In recent years, many browser security flaws have been identified and fixed. A major industry shift occurred when some browsers were created and maintained as open source projects. This helped increase security thanks to a community of engineers reviewing and updating the code on an ongoing basis at no cost. Since some current browsers are not controlled by private corporations, this also creates a key element of trust.
U.S. federal law requires any organization dealing with private health information to adhere to strict security guidelines defined by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). However, non-healthcare companies are free to choose a HIPAA-compliant strategy with no liability to their customers and the increased benefits of additional security.
Even if your company does not need to comply with HIPAA regulations, it's an excellent risk-management strategy to protect very sensitive information like credit card numbers and private customer information. Companies need to consider the overall context of the data that customers trust them to protect.
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2 honored by Girl Scouts of Connecticut
More than 200 Girl Scout supporters, friends and family attended the 21st annual Woman of Merit benefit dinner at the Stamford Hilton Thursday, June 19.
Girl Scouts of Connecticut recognized the accomplishments and achievements of Linda Houston, managing director, New England market executive for Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, part of Bank of America. Houston acted as an extraordinary partner with Girl Scouts, organizing and leading a financial literacy event with the help of the Merrill Lynch Women's Exchange for a group of Fairfield County Girl Scouts.
"I am deeply humbled by this recognition," Houston said in a release. "I want to thank the Girl Scouts for their cultivation of girls' leadership. These girls here tonight are our future leaders -- business leaders, financial leaders, and government leaders. In their hands, we are in very good stead."
The Woman of Merit award recognizes leaders who demonstrate the Girl Scout values of leadership, personal achievement and service to the community. It is given in honor of Alice Pattison Merritt, who was the first woman elected to the state Senate and who was instrumental in bringing Scouting to girls in Connecticut.
Mary Barneby, CEO, Girl Scouts of Connecticut, said, "With incredible partners like Merrill Lynch, and with the continued support of local communities, we will be able to raise the funds necessary to better serve our girls and give them the tools they need to thrive and succeed. We are so grateful to the commitment of all those across the state -- as together, we can ensure a successful future for all girls."
In addition, the guests heard about Newtown Girl Scout Amylee Anyoha's Gold Award project, which brought together students in her town with students at a Nigerian school while educating them about Nigerian culture.
Net proceeds from the dinner will support programming that helps girls in kindergarten to grade 12 bring out the best in themselves and their communities.