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|Sale | Closeouts
|Fly Lines
|Spey Lines
|Wading Boots
|Wading Gear
|Fly Boxes
|Leaders | Tippet
|Tools | Accessories
|Tying Tools
|Rod & Reel Cases
|Bags | Luggage
|Packs | Vest
|Smith Optics
|DVD's | Books
|Gifts | Cool Stuff
|Fly Fishing Travel
Gorge Fly Shop carries a wide range of reels to meet the needs of beginners all the way up to the most discerning anglers with brands like Hatch, Nautilus, Sage, Bauer, Abel, Hardy, Ross, Tibor, Redington, Galvan, and The Waterworks Lamson. Fly Reels come in many different styles and colors to meet the demands of todays Fly Anglers. Gorge Fly Shop currently offers 13 brands of fly reels, more brands than any other fly fishing product in our store. There are many different considerations when purchasing a new fly reel such as line size, arbor size, drag type, weight and maybe even color match for a particular rod you are intending it for. Many manufacturers offer customizable features to their reels and we are well experienced in those special build your one of a kind fly reel. If you are specifically searching for a spey reel then check out the Spey reel category for all Spey specific reels. Demo reels and Used reels are also offered at a discounted price. Take care of all your fly reels with specially designed Reel Cases that can be found in Rod and Reel Cases. We also feature todays most popular fly lines, Spey lines and backing brands such as Rio, Scientific Anglers and Airflo. Let our professionals set the retrieve direction and load your fly line and backing as a courtesy for you. Having trouble deciding on a reel? Our contact info is at the bottom of every page so give us a call or send an email. 541.386.6977
Click here for Buyers Guide to Fly Fishing Reels
Categories under "Reels"


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What do you think about a badge for users having 100% accept rate?
What is meta?
- Any Stack Exchange user can ask a question
- The community provides support, votes on ideas, and reports bugs
- Your voice helps shape the way Stack Exchange operates
I think that encourages the wrong behavior. I feel pressured to accept answers just to keep my percentage high, even if the questions I asked have no relevant answers. It's too easy of a task to go around accepting a single answer for each question, and encouraging this could lead to wrong or incorrect answers being marked as accepted; which is definitely undesirable.
Regardless of whether or not it's too easy or encourages the right behavior, i don't like it because badges aren't revoked. So if you accept answers to your first three questions and never accept another answer, regardless of how many hundreds of questions you post, the badge starts to look kinda sad.
I think that it not only encourages the wrong behavior as Ian mentioned but that it is highly subjective or variable. I might have a 100% accept rate right now, but once I ask another question that starts getting answers my accept rate will go down. Would I then be awarded the badge mutliple times, each time I hit a 100% accept rate?
In fact, to me it seems that even indicating an accept rate at all is going to encourage people to start accepting answers just to increase their accept rate, which will ultimately have the opposite effect as what is intended. I also think that it is going to cause some people to not answer a question if the poster has a low accept rate.
Accept rate is variable. If we want badge for this, badge should be for time frame (month, quarter).
Encouraging accepting answers rather than always accepting an answer might be key. How about a badge for every x answers accepted, without so many points attached? That way there's a slight incentive to accept, but not so much that it creates a bias.
What we want to reward is the time taken to read all answers and decide if they address the question. If one answer does and is clearly better than the other ones, then accepting an answer is the obvious way to thank the answerer and state that he/she got a relevant answer.
But if no response definitely answer the question, the original poster could still be rewarded in some way for having done the same work as accepting an answer. I even appreciate his/her honesty in not accepting any answer.
I have no suggestion of new feature, I just wanted to point out what we really value behind the "100% accept rate".

subset: commoncrawl


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Item #: TS5TLDL
$669.00 Free Shipping
Earn $20.07 Smart Cash
Currency 60" Single Pedestal Desk with Left-Hand Drawers
by Turnstone from Steelcase
|At A Glance:
Create a clean, classic look with the Currency Pedestal Desk by Turnstone. Featuring roomy storage compartments and a large worksurface, this desk easily expands your space and allows you to keep a more organized office. The storage pedestal on the left includes 2 locking drawers that accommodate letter-size filing front to back and legal-size filing side to side.
What's To Like:
It's a pretty straightforward desk - and that may be just the thing. Two file drawers sure do come in handy, and the Currency pedestal desk boasts some pretty incredible durability, with Steelcase's solid-as-a-rock construction.
What's Not to Like:
Though it's not a flaw in design, this desk is pretty heavy. Two people can move it, but it'll be a workout. Once you have it in place, though, heavy becomes an asset. It won't shake.
The Bottom Line:
Definitely pick one of these up (not literally - you'll hurt yourself) if you need a desk with some file storage space. The Currency 60" Single Pedestal Desk is a great long-term solution for any office.
The Currency Pedestal Desk is also known by the following manufacturer item number: TS5TLDL3060.
Materials & Measurements
Low-pressure laminate construction
Overall: 28.5" h x 60" w x 30" d
Low-pressure laminate construction
Overall: 28.5" h x 60" w x 30" d
Assembly Instructions
About The Manufacturer
Whatever you need to accomplish in your home office, Steelcase can provide you with the tools to do it better, faster and more effectively. That's because they're passionate about unlocking the potential of people at work. It's the fundamental principle on which the company was founded in 1912, and it's being brought to your home office today. Headquartered in Grand Rapids, Steelcase is an international company with approximately 13,000 employees worldwide, manufacturing facilities in over 28 locations and more than 800 dealer locations around the world.
Related Categories
Shipping & Delivery
Free shipping with curbside delivery for destinations within the contiguous United States.
Usually ships in 3-5 business days.
The default, free shipping service is Curbside. This means that your item will be delivered on a large commercial truck to your curb. In some cases, you may have to assist the driver in removing the item from the truck. Shipping upgrades are available and come highly recommended.
Product Q&A
Q: Is assembly required?
A: No, the Currency Desk comes fully assembled.
Q: Is there any way to change have the desk with drawers on the right side instead of the left side?
A: Yes, see the Currency Single Pedestal Desk with drawers on the right side.
Q: Are there recommended care instructions for the Currency Single Pedestal Desk?
A: To clean your Currency Desk, dust regularly with a soft, clean cloth. Occasionally, it may be necessary to use a mild non-abrasive cleaner. When using any cleaning product, read and follow the manufacturer's directions carefully. Do not use an abrasive or solvent cleaner.
Product Q&A
Laminate veneer comes with a limited 10 year warranty.
Get answers before you buy. Call 800-260-8420 .


text:
|By Marketwired .
Article Rating:
|February 8, 2013 08:00 AM EST
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The Internet of Things will challenge the status quo of how IT and development organizations operate. Or will it? Certainly the fog layer of IoT requires special insights about data ontology, security and transactional integrity. But the developmental challenges are the same: People, Process and Platform. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Craig Sproule, CEO of Metavine, demonstrated how to move beyond today's coding paradigm and shared the must-have mindsets for removing complexity from the develo...
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SYS-CON Events announced today that MangoApps will exhibit at the 19th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 1–3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. MangoApps provides modern company intranets and team collaboration software, allowing workers to stay connected and productive from anywhere in the world and from any device.
Jul. 26, 2016 01:45 AM EDT Reads: 1,296
The IETF draft standard for M2M certificates is a security solution specifically designed for the demanding needs of IoT/M2M applications. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Brian Romansky, VP of Strategic Technology at TrustPoint Innovation, explained how M2M certificates can efficiently enable confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity on highly constrained devices.
Jul. 26, 2016 01:30 AM EDT Reads: 986
The 19th International Cloud Expo has announced that its Call for Papers is open. Cloud Expo, to be held November 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, brings together Cloud Computing, Big Data, Internet of Things, DevOps, Digital Transformation, Microservices and WebRTC to one location. With cloud computing driving a higher percentage of enterprise IT budgets every year, it becomes increasingly important to plant your flag in this fast-expanding business opportuni...
Jul. 26, 2016 01:15 AM EDT Reads: 2,519
In today's uber-connected, consumer-centric, cloud-enabled, insights-driven, multi-device, global world, the focus of solutions has shifted from the product that is sold to the person who is buying the product or service. Enterprises have rebranded their business around the consumers of their products. The buyer is the person and the focus is not on the offering. The person is connected through multiple devices, wearables, at home, on the road, and in multiple locations, sometimes simultaneously...
Jul. 26, 2016 12:45 AM EDT Reads: 629
"delaPlex Software provides software outsourcing services. We have a hybrid model where we have onshore developers and project managers that we can place anywhere in the U.S. or in Europe," explained Manish Sachdeva, CEO at delaPlex Software, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at @ThingsExpo, held June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY.
Jul. 26, 2016 12:00 AM EDT Reads: 1,540
"We've discovered that after shows 80% if leads that people get, 80% of the conversations end up on the show floor, meaning people forget about it, people forget who they talk to, people forget that there are actual business opportunities to be had here so we try to help out and keep the conversations going," explained Jeff Mesnik, Founder and President of ContentMX, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 18th Cloud Expo, held June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY.
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From wearable activity trackers to fantasy e-sports, data and technology are transforming the way athletes train for the game and fans engage with their teams. In his session at @ThingsExpo, will present key data findings from leading sports organizations San Francisco 49ers, Orlando Magic NBA team. By utilizing data analytics these sports orgs have recognized new revenue streams, doubled its fan base and streamlined costs at its stadiums. John Paul is the CEO and Founder of VenueNext. Prior ...
Jul. 25, 2016 11:15 PM EDT Reads: 2,014
Internet of @ThingsExpo, taking place November 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, is co-located with the 19th International Cloud Expo and will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading industry players in the world and ThingsExpo Silicon Valley Call for Papers is now open.
Jul. 25, 2016 10:00 PM EDT Reads: 2,507
The IoT is changing the way enterprises conduct business. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Eric Hoffman, Vice President at EastBanc Technologies, discussed how businesses can gain an edge over competitors by empowering consumers to take control through IoT. He cited examples such as a Washington, D.C.-based sports club that leveraged IoT and the cloud to develop a comprehensive booking system. He also highlighted how IoT can revitalize and restore outdated business models, making them profitable ...
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With 15% of enterprises adopting a hybrid IT strategy, you need to set a plan to integrate hybrid cloud throughout your infrastructure. In his session at 18th Cloud Expo, Steven Dreher, Director of Solutions Architecture at Green House Data, discussed how to plan for shifting resource requirements, overcome challenges, and implement hybrid IT alongside your existing data center assets. Highlights included anticipating workload, cost and resource calculations, integrating services on both sides...
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Big Data engines are powering a lot of service businesses right now. Data is collected from users from wearable technologies, web behaviors, purchase behavior as well as several arbitrary data points we'd never think of. The demand for faster and bigger engines to crunch and serve up the data to services is growing exponentially. You see a LOT of correlation between "Cloud" and "Big Data" but on Big Data and "Hybrid," where hybrid hosting is the sanest approach to the Big Data Infrastructure pro...
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"We are a well-established player in the application life cycle management market and we also have a very strong version control product," stated Flint Brenton, CEO of CollabNet,, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 18th Cloud Expo, held June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY.
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We all know the latest numbers: Gartner, Inc. forecasts that 6.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide in 2016, up 30 percent from last year, and will reach 20.8 billion by 2020. We're rapidly approaching a data production of 40 zettabytes a day – more than we can every physically store, and exabytes and yottabytes are just around the corner. For many that's a good sign, as data has been proven to equal money – IF it's ingested, integrated, and analyzed fast enough. Without real-ti...
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I wanted to gather all of my Internet of Things (IOT) blogs into a single blog (that I could later use with my University of San Francisco (USF) Big Data "MBA" course). However as I started to pull these blogs together, I realized that my IOT discussion lacked a vision; it lacked an end point towards which an organization could drive their IOT envisioning, proof of value, app dev, data engineering and data science efforts. And I think that the IOT end point is really quite simple…
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A critical component of any IoT project is what to do with all the data being generated. This data needs to be captured, processed, structured, and stored in a way to facilitate different kinds of queries. Traditional data warehouse and analytical systems are mature technologies that can be used to handle certain kinds of queries, but they are not always well suited to many problems, particularly when there is a need for real-time insights.
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Unless your company can spend a lot of money on new technology, re-engineering your environment and hiring a comprehensive cybersecurity team, you will most likely move to the cloud or seek external service partnerships. In his session at 18th Cloud Expo, Darren Guccione, CEO of Keeper Security, revealed what you need to know when it comes to encryption in the cloud.
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We're entering the post-smartphone era, where wearable gadgets from watches and fitness bands to glasses and health aids will power the next technological revolution. With mass adoption of wearable devices comes a new data ecosystem that must be protected. Wearables open new pathways that facilitate the tracking, sharing and storing of consumers' personal health, location and daily activity data. Consumers have some idea of the data these devices capture, but most don't realize how revealing and...
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1929 Ford Highboy Roadster - When New Is Old And Old Is NewWritten by on January 1, 2012 Pachi Bengochea's '29 Ford highboy roadster is all traditional in its build
Father's Day is extra special for hot rod dads here on the Best Coast. The L.A. Roadsters put on one heck of a shindig for us dads. It's called the L.A. Roadsters Show, and as the name suggests, this two-day gathering showcases some of the best—no, make it the best—hot rod roadsters in the country.
And it was during this year's topless gathering at the Pomona Fairplex that we spotted Pachi Bengochea's timeless '29 highboy. We say timeless because if this all-steel car were transported back 60-something years to Muroc or one of the other legendary dry lake beds, it would fit right in with the party. That is, until someone popped open the Rootlieb hood, and there, plain as day, they'd see a small-block Chevy. Well, the motor's cylinders aren't so small because the engine has been bored and stroked to 383 ci, but let's put a lid on the engine for the time being so we can admire the car's timeless lines and proportions.
But before we do that, Pachi explains how most of the tinware, hardware, and speedware on this hot rod are post-war (as in World War II) stuff. Some notable exceptions include the big '39 Lincoln brakes, '40 Ford split wishbones, and the Model A buggy spring. Pausing to think for a moment, Pachi adds: "The door pull-knobs and the license plate are authentic 1929 items."
In truth, the squeaky-clean Squeak Bell '32 frame was originally intended for a '30 coupe that Pachi bought on his 30th birthday. Pachi, with the help of his father, Dave, pinched the framerails and installed crossmembers to match the coupe's body. "I had the chassis done, and I was ready to chop the top (on the coupe) when I ran into a deal on a (Model A) roadster," he tells us. Even though we need no further explanation, Pachi adds: "The roadster was my dream car." No apologies necessary, Pachi. Many of us share that same dream.
It wasn't just any Model A roadster body, either. The fresh tin had the word Brookville stamped on it, so there was no rust or other accumulated caustic calluses to clean up, although there was some squaring to the frame required before assembly. "I had to add an inch on each side of the cowl, and I pulled the fenderwells to fit the frame," Pachi told us.
When Pachi was satisfied with the fit, he delivered the body to Santa Rosa Collision and Custom where Parker Arrien, Quinn Norcutt, and Jim Fitzgerald prepped the metal so that Arrien could squirt it with the single-stage black paint. "I didn't get the hood and deck back until Tuesday before the roadster show," Pachi says, "and I mounted them Wednesday and left for Pomona on Thursday morning." That's cutting it close, especially considering that his trip started in beautiful downtown Winnemucca, Nevada.
And while Pachi waited for those remaining body parts to be delivered, he and his father fitted the rubber floor mats and installed the Frank Wallic aircraft-style seats and Bill Rich bomber-style belts. The Spartan interior includes a pair of '38 Auburn gauges on the '32 Ford dash, and what little upholstery there is to be found was installed by Pachi and Dave. "And the custom dinosaur egg shift knob is by Bazel Slaughter," Pachi adds. It all makes for a tidy and timeless roadster interior.
The car runs straight and true, too. The 383 engine produces 415 hp and a hefty 470 lb-ft of torque, so there's no question when the Tremec five-speed transmission and Halibrand quick-change deliver the knockout punch to the 18-inch Firestone skins that look at all the world as if they rolled right out of 1938. Pachi gives credit to Source Too Machine for helping bring the old Chevy mill back to life, machining all surfaces to tolerance. Source Too also cut the three carburetor stacks that sit atop the Barry Grant Six Shooter induction system. A matching set is found on father Dave's roadster. "My wife, Nikki, and daughters, Kepa and Adia, were patient with me during this five-year build," boasts Pachi. His 3-year-old son Txema was another story. "He was born in the middle of this project, and as soon as he was old enough to walk he liked hanging out in the garage with Dad and me. He's one of the main reasons we finished the car before this year's roadster show!" Obviously the little tyke knows how to run a tight shop.
Pachi's '29 also happens to be joined at the hip to his father's '32 highboy. "I find myself looking at these two roadsters and saying to myself, 'like father, like son.' The truth is, the black paint and velocity stacks are the only two things the same. But we share a real passion for hot rods."
But if Txema has his way, Pachi will have to change the family mantra to: "Like father like son like grandson." And sharing a love for hot rod roadster is partly what the Father's Day Show is all about, no? Moreover, this year's show was the perfect place to debut Txema's, er, Pachi's car.
More Photos From This Article View Slideshow
The Deuce dash is fitted with '38 Auburn Stewart-Warner mechanical speedo and tach. The steering wheel is a '40 Ford while the bomber-style bench seat was hammered out by Frank "the Rivet" Wallic covered in tan-colored mini corduroy by Lebarron Bonney.The Deuce dash is fitted with '38 Auburn Stewart-Warner mechanical speedo and tach. The steering wheel is a '40 Ford while the bomber-style bench seat was hammered out by Frank "the Rivet" Wallic covered in tan-colored mini corduroy by Lebarron Bonney.


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Behavioral Sciences ScholarshipsClick above to apply online at wou.academicworks.com or via the portal, select WOU scholarships
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The countdown has begun to the International Panoramic Photography Conference being held in Tucson Arizona April 14th-18th.
If you are new or experienced to panoramic photography you will still learn new things. The event is a huge collaborative undertaking by both the IVRPA and IAPP. There are some great speakers lined up, sessions, tutorials, local photo-safari's and a great opportunity to network with some of the biggest names in the industry. If you don't have a pano head - no worries - we'll provide you a loaner during the event.
We are also very excited to be unveiling new products by Fanotec - can't say what just yet or it will spoil the surprise but those that have been watching our forum may have some early clues.
Those "in attendance" will receive great one time discounts on our products. These super discounts can only be issued at the venue so if you are thinking of buying please wait until then to take advantage of this.
What's a conference without the free stuff and door prizes? We'll be giving away some pano heads as prizes and every attendee will receive a free pair of prism binoculars with case along with other merchandising items - all compliments of Nodal Ninja.
So far we will have 4 resellers in attendance - Mauro (Italy), Vincèn (France), Andrew (UK), Dennis (California) as well as Rob (shipping manager) and of course myself.
Spring time in the desert - great photographic opportunities!
For more on this event please visit www.tucson2010.com
Hope to see you there.


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Cuban Property Reforms
As part of a raft of recent economic reforms, including a limited liberalization of self-employment, the Raul Castro government has recently reiterated its plans to introduce a market for housing at the end of this year. The reforms will permit Cuban homeowners to buy and sell their residential properties for the first time in decades. Discussions of the planned housing reforms have often misstated the existing law and have failed to note that the Cuban government has taken similar steps before, with disastrous results. That earlier experience suggests that, without a more ambitious transformation of the Cuban economy, these admittedly significant changes to Cuban housing law will yield the same disappointing consequences this time around.Although commentators (including arecent article in the New York Times) often mistakenly claim that all property in Cuba is owned by the state, Cuban law has long permitted private homeownership.
The nationalizations of property by Fidel Castros government after the 1959 revolution focused on agricultural, industrial, and commercial properties. Apart from confiscating the homes of those who left the island, the Cuban government did not undertake a wholesale collectivization of the countrys housing stock. Instead, from the beginning, its policy has been to widen the opportunities for private homeownership. To that end, it expropriated rental properties in order to transfer them to tenants, who purchased them from the state at low prices with state-subsidized credit. The Cuban government has also allowed residents of state-owned housing to purchase their units from the state at fixed (and relatively modest) prices. Absentee ownership remains illegal, but Cubans are permitted to own a single vacation property. By the late 1960s, virtually all commercial activity in Cuba was firmly in state hands, but private homeownership rates have remained consistently high, reaching nearly 90% in the late 1980s.In some respects, homeownership in Cuba resembles homeownership anywhere else. Cubans enjoy a great deal of tenure security. They exercise control over when and how to maintain their homes. They can, within limits, pass their property down to their children when they die. The most significant difference is that Cubans are not permitted to buy or sell their homes.Cubas blanket prohibition on sales leads to enormous problems. Cubans get married and divorced, have children, and occasionally need to relocate in order to live nearer to work or school. When these things happen, the inability to sell their homes or buy a new one makes it virtually impossible for Cubans to move into a house that matches their needs. As you might expect, the difficulty of sharing a house with, say, an ex-spouse and her new husband has inspired no small amount of dark Cuban humor.The state allows homeowners to swap their houses with one another in a heavily regulated barter transaction known as a permuta. In order to get a home that suits them, however, Cubans must sometimes put together intricate three and four-way transactions that resemble complex baseball trades. The states role overseeing the permuta process has predictably stimulated a great deal of corruption.The difficulty of arranging permutas has been exacerbated by Cubas severe housing shortage. Over the years, the Cuban government has tried solving this problem in the usual socialist ways writing five-year plans, using state enterprises to build massive, soul-crushing, soviet-style housing projects, and mobilizing small groups of people into militant microbrigades to construct housing for themselves in their spare time. None of these strategies has allowed Cuba to come close to meeting the demand for housing on the island. The cash-strapped government has never been able to dedicate enough resources to overcome the backlog of demand, and its job has been made more difficult by the inefficiencies of its state-run construction industry. The result has been severe and persistent overcrowding. Although genuine homelessness is very rare and Cuban cities lack the massive shanty-towns that skirt most Latin American cities, it is extremely common for Cubans to live in dangerously overcrowded and dilapidated conditions.Contrary to some news reports, the housing reforms planned for the end of this year are not the first time the communist government on the island has experimented with allowing the sale of residential property. In the mid-1980s, the government briefly permitted the sale of homes. The immediate result was sky-rocketing prices. The government blamed speculators, but the rapidly rising prices were a fairly predictable market response to a severe housing shortage. Within a few short years, the government slammed the door shut again. (Of course, illegal sales have continued to occur through corruption of the permuta process.)The outcome of the 1980s experiment illustrates why Raul Castros housing reforms are likely to fail this time around as well. No matter how heavily it regulates the buying and selling of property to prevent speculation, the government cannot repeal the law of supply and demand. Given a housing shortage that is now far worse than it was in the 1980s, housing prices are certain to shoot through the roof.What the Cuban government refuses to acknowledge is that Cubas housing problem is not really a housing problem. Its a socialism problem. In a market economy, rising housing prices stimulate activity among homebuilders competing with one another to meet the demand as efficiently as possible. High home prices in Cuba will not magically generate housing production where construction materials are almost impossible to come by and where the construction of new housing remains largely in the hands of inefficient state enterprises. Instead, Cuba is likely to find that the most immediate consequence of the introduction of a housing market will be to move the best properties into the hands of those fortunate Cubans lucky enough to have access to hard currency, either in their jobs or through remissions from abroad.This is not to say that the Raul Castro government is wrong to liberalize housing. Allowing home sales will add fluidity and mobility to its crippled housing system. That is a change for the better, at least relative to the low baseline of its current system. But Cubas housing problem will only be genuinely solved when the government goes much farther and liberalizes the other sectors of the Cuban economy as well.
About the Author
Eduardo Moisés Peñalver is the Allan R. Tessler Dean of the Cornell Law School. He is the author of numerous books and articles on the subjects of property and land use law.
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Fascinating. Thanks.Interesting how when a dictatorship to which a publisher is sympathetic announces a policy decision that appears to even slightly make things less awful, it's praised as significant progress.
It might be interesting if it were true. Are you saying that you think the New York Times is sympathetic to socialism as opposed to capitalism, or sympathetic to dictatorships as opposed to democracy, or sympathetic to Castro as opposed to Batista. Or are you just throwing out someone else's talking points?
I agree with Unagidon -- I would chalk it up more to ignorance/poor reporting than any kind of pro-Castro bias.
We Canadians are free to travel to Cuba, and it is probably my favourite destination, The weather is great, the countryside is beautiful, the beaches magnificent, and most important, the people are wonderful.The housing conditions are poor for most people, but some have built, or are having built, very nice homes. We are of course tourists, so we don't see Cuba as Cubans see it, but where we like to go, Guardalavaca, the local housing is within a few hundred yards of the resorts. It is shabby, and certainly there is overcrowding, but as mentioned above, there are no shanties.My observations are always as follows:You have to convert currency at the State run bank, which has got to be the height of inefficiency.There are armed guards in the departure lounges at the airports, this is after the security check, so it is obviously to keep Cubans there.According to the locals, corruption is rife.The locals don't talk politics, but they don't like Americans, and who can blame them.It is the one place in the N American continent which is not overrun by Americans, but Quebecois are twice as rude.So I hope that when change comes, and it will, it happens slowly, and the USA does not move in expecting to be greeted as saviours. Cubans have a long collective memory, and everything they remember about the USA is negative.
Thanks for the interesting tutorial about real estate conveyance in Cuba. Id be interested in hearing from those who have insights about the current level of discontent in Cuban society as a whole. (Thanks to Micahel Cowtan for his personal observations.) There are undoubtedly still a sizeable number of true believers in Fidel Castros revolution and his brand of socialism, but what happens when he passes completely from the national scene? Raul was also one of the core members of the revolution, and he has little in the way of taint associated with him as a result of the apparent absence of corruption in his administration of the Cuban defense forces, but he lacks Fidels sense of presence, both literally and figuratively. Raul is decidedly low key in comparison to his brother, while Fidel in his heyday wasnt hesitant to encourage the cult of personality around him. Fidel could also periodically reinvigorate Cubans sense of nationalism, as he did so skillfully during the Elian Gonzalez repatriation issue about a decade ago. Does Raul have a similar ability to transform Cubans frustrations with the economic and social hardships of daily life into patriotic zeal? I assume he will carefully lift restraints on other reforms, too, all the while attempting not yo betray the ideals of the revolution, but without his brothers larger-than-life presence, I wonder if Raul can keep the lid on the pressure cooker.
unagidon 09/06/2011 - 3:11 pm :
Are you saying that you think the New York Times is sympathetic to socialism as opposed to capitalism, or sympathetic to dictatorships as opposed to democracy, or sympathetic to Castro as opposed to Batista.
Socialism, of course. The belief that governments have the duty to aggressively protect their societies from excesses of individual greed is axiomatic among progressives. Therefore, governments that do this to a much higher degree than others are given much more good will up front. Conservative governments are considered dangerous at their outset, and in need of an extraordinary degree of close monitoring, whereas socialistic governments are given up-front credit for having their hearts and minds in the right place. They are free to engage in a fair amount of economically and socially harmful activity before progressive publishers decide to call them out editorially.Of course, the same thing works in the other direction. It's a shame we're stuck in this bipolar way of thinking. It skews much of our discussion and argument into unrealistic black-white channels.I wonder whether Eduardo may not be being too charitable in assigning most of the blame for biased reporting to navet and ignorance. Black-white thinking leads necessarily, I think, to a circle-the-wagons way of reacting to just about any event - the assumption that if you don't push your side's point of view aggressively and unremittently, and not give an inch, your opponent will walk all over you.
"Socialism, of course. The belief that governments have the duty to aggressively protect their societies from excesses of individual greed is axiomatic among progressives."Socialism is the ownership of the means of production by the State. It is not universal healthcare, universal education, minimum wages, business regulation, taxation, public housing, disaster relief, postal or rail subsidies, interstate highways, economic stimulation, gun control laws, public support of the arts, water fluoridation, food regulation, public works, free WiFi, public libraries, traffic laws, abolition of capital punishment, pollution regulations, or anything else. Think of it this way: nationalized industries = socialism, otherwise, no. Once you have that straight, you will see that my list contains a whole array of choices that people calling themselves "conservative" or "progressive" (whatever those are supposed to mean once one gets outside of their purely tribal contexts) can then discuss on their own merits. Otherwise, it skews much of our discussion and argument into unrealistic black-white channels.
If it helps David's thinking about socialism, it should be said that no one in Cuba is living in a sewer, and life expectancy in Cuba is the same as the USA.Reminds me of when I was a kid and listened to "better dead than red". I always thought that maybe those communist countries were not great, but I would prefer to be alive than dead.
unagidon --I fear you are under the misapprehension that for many conservatives the word "socialism" refers to an economic system adopted by certain governments at different times. Having a history, such a government can be evaluated based on facts. But the aforementioned conservatives don't mean that. For them "socialist" is a dirty word useful for discrediting an opponent, which like many dirty words convey only the users negative feelings, not facts which might be checked out.
Alexis de Tocqueville - - "The most dangerous moment for a bad government is when it begins to reform."The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856)
Michael Cowtan:There are armed guards in the departure lounges at the airports, this is after the security check, so it is obviously to keep Cubans there.We are of course tourists, so we dont see Cuba as Cubans see it...According to the locals, corruption is rife.Wow! and this is your favourite destination? Different strokes for different folks.
I would think, U, that a mindset that wants the government to directly control - to own - all production would need to control - own? - a lot more almost directly - to ensure that raw materials and components are delivered as needed and finished products will be distributed as desired. Surely, ownership of production is only the first step - you can't stop there. For example, what does government ownership of housing have to do direrctlywith production?I'm obviously not well read on political theory. As Ann suggests, neither are, probably, a lot of people who find the European model of wide and deep state control of individual lives at least worrisome. The thing that bothers me most - call it what you please - is the very real possibility of government's clamping down on individual liberties. If "socialism" doesn't best describe that - fine. I'm sure Fascism or some other more or less familiar label would do as well. Liberal democracy, even, properly transmogrified, would do as well.But do we need to get hung up on terminology? Do most of us agree (blindered Canadian tourists excepted) that the people of Cuba have been living for half a century under a cruel socialist dictatorship masquerading (feebly) as a workers' paradise? If so, doesn't that at least give a reasonable person pause when choosing his preferred model of government?
Interesting observation Helen. Corruption is relative. Cuba is # 69 on the Transparency International Corruption Index, most sunshine destinations are much worse than that. Mexico for instance is 98. I will not go to Mexico because the police are not on my side, they are there to "screw me over" if possible. In Cuba you can trust the police.As for seeing places as the locals see it, none of us see the real conditions anywhere if we go to a resort.As a "nice" Canadian, I am astounded that the richest country in the world seems to think that it is OK for people to be homeless. That is not a mindset that I, or many people in the developed world, accept. Not to say it does not exist in Canada, it does. The difference would seem to be that we are ashamed that some Canadians are forced to live like that. Does that make us less "free" than Americans? I suppose it does, not that you are going to notice the difference if you cross the border. My personal experience suggests that many Cubans dislike the situation in Cuba, but please don't think that they want to be like America, they don't. There collective memory of America is that they were controlled by American gangsters, and the Cubans who were corrupted by those Americans. One other reason why it is great to be a tourist in Cuba. My Canadian Health Insurance covers the full cost of treatment in Cuba. The last time I went to Florida, health insurance cost almost $1200 for my self and my wife, for two weeks. I cannot afford that twice a year.
"But do we need to get hung up on terminology? Do most of us agree (blindered Canadian tourists excepted) that the people of Cuba have been living for half a century under a cruel socialist dictatorship masquerading (feebly) as a workers paradise? If so, doesnt that at least give a reasonable person pause when choosing his preferred model of government?"This statement doesn't get us anywhere. It ignores all the important stuff. Sure, Cuba Bad, America Good. But their government has also enjoyed wide support for 50 years. Note I say support, not love. What the people have supported are (first and foremost) their nationalism (which Mr. Cowtan points out); their medical system; their educational system; low rents; etc. The Cuban revolution that brought Castro to power was also a popular revolution that had wide support in the country. A more interesting question is "why was that"? How has Castro held onto power for 50 years? (You can't just say because of the police and military; these people are drawn from the same people who support the government.) What kind of government would the Cuban people really like to have? Would they really go back to the kind of governments they had before Castro? If they embraced democracy, would they utterly reject socialism? The question of what would they save is as important as the question of what would they jettison if you want to understand who they are and where they might be going.Regarding "the European model of wide and deep state control of individual lives" I am not seeing Europeans talk like this. It might look like this to you, but it doesn't look like this to them. And again, whether you hate their system(s) or not, the important question is "why do they support those systems"?
"As Ann suggests, neither are, probably, a lot of people who find the European model of wide and deep state control of individual lives at least worrisome"David S. --I think you confuse government ownership/control of basic industries with provision of social support systems. The first IS a limited sort of control, whereas the second is not a matter of controlling individual but of supplying them with the means to live their lives in more secure fastion. This is the sort of thinking I'm talking about when I refer to conservatives confusing "socialism" with all sorts of other things, and then making "socialist" a dirty words.You really do need to get into some basic political and social studies. But be sure to listen to both sides.
Ann (9/7 4:57 pm), I'm talking mostly about generalities, general principles, attitudes, reasonable conclusions from what seems - to me, of course - a fair amount of evidence. College classes and certification aren't required for that. No doubt you're convinced I'm a conservative, ignorant, and confused. Fine - I concede that from your point of view, I'm guilty on all counts. I don't see the evidence, but that probably simply proves your point :0)
Michael and U, it's a matter of values and priorities. If the Western democracies were to become dictatorships, I have no doubt that great improvements in many areas could fairly rapidly be achieved. Democracies are inefficient and wasteful. Dictatorships can, for example, eliminate poverty simply by making it unnecessary and illegal - unnecessary by providing free food, shelter, and medical care, and illegal by prohibiting any recipient from taking advantage of them. When governments see and treat people as objects to control, they can bring about much social improvement. Presumably, members of dictator classes believe that the sacrifice of individual liberties is worth the cost. Fair enough - most people probably ask for little more than to be fed, housed, and cared for when sick. The notion that there's anything particularly valuable about individuals other than as servants to the collectivity is an abstraction that they might quickly become accustomed to doing without, so long as their basic physical needs are met.
This BBC article ("The Revolution of Capitalism") is not on topic, but it's generally relevant, I think. It's about how capitalism, not communism, has destroyed the middle class and our expectations. It surely seems to describe the situation of middle class people these days, especially as contrasted with the Victorians, and, I'd say, the '50s. Claims capitalism is intrinsically unstable, and maybe it's right.HEre's a bit:"Marx was wrong about communism. Where he was prophetically right was in his grasp of the revolution of capitalism. It's not just capitalism's endemic instability that he understood, though in this regard he was far more perceptive than most economists in his day and ours."More profoundly, Marx understood how capitalism destroys its own social base - the middle-class way of life. The Marxist terminology of bourgeois and proletarian has an archaic ring."But when he argued that capitalism would plunge the middle classes into something like the precarious existence of the hard-pressed workers of his time, Marx anticipated a change in the way we live that we're only now struggling to cope with." (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14764357
Thanks for the URL, Ann. Here's a bit about the author:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_N._GrayFrom it:
Gray sees volition, and hence morality, as an illusion, and portrays humanity as a ravenous species engaged in wiping out other forms of life. Gray writes that 'humans ... cannot destroy the Earth, but they can easily wreck the environment that sustains them.'
Furthermore, he argues that this belief in progress, commonly imagined to be secular and liberal, is in fact derived from an erroneous Christian notion of humans as morally autonomous beings categorically different from other animals. This belief, and the corresponding idea that history makes sense, or is progressing towards something, is in Grays view merely a Christian prejudice.
David S. --And how does any of that biographical information falsify his economic theory? Science is not a matter of the good guys against the bad guys, nor the religious v. the non-religious.
It's not science, Ann - it's philosophy. He's not a scientist, just an opinionator.
"When governments see and treat people as objects to control, they can bring about much social improvement."So are you saying that such policies as Social Security and Medicare are cases where the government is treating people as objects to control?
While Leftists are probably satified with Cuba and the status of things there, the "progressive policies" of Fidel's brother Raul, it is a tragedy all the same. In fact Cuba is such an old tragedy, that it is easy to forget the plight of the average Cubano. After Fidel with blood on his hands had his way with that country, now his brother Raul, (also a murderer by the way) seems to see what a catastrophe Fidels Cuba is, and that it seems, passes for "progress".At least Chavez in Venezuela has not started murdering people like Casto did. Hopefully Chavez will stay on-course and keep good relation with the Catholic Church. In that sense, Chavez' alliance with Iran's president (a fanatical Muslim) may have helped; who knows?Meanwhile, regarding the Cuba-embargo, the US is stuck in a quandary. Because it was first imposed by JFK, who is admired by most Americans regardless of party, and is quite naturally and probably justifiably revered by Democrats, and since in general Democrats are touchy about being seen as going too soft on Communists, to date no Democrat president has seen fit to lift the embargo. The Republicans also have a problem regarding this. They cannot afford to enrage Florida Cubans, and most rank-and-file Republicans oppose lifting the embargo because it would be seen that in the end we will cave in to Communists, but the fact of the matter is that Republican business types would like to start working/investing in Cuba.After all these years of moronic rules by crude Leftists, it will take Cubans several generations to bring back a work ethic, not to mention the Church, decency, some kindness and culture.Oh well, I wish the Cubans luck; I would like to visit Cuba someday.
Ken, you really do have a rich fantasy life.
KenYou can visit Cuba any time you like. Just go via Canada or Mexico. A tip. If you go, don't make a point of being American, and take Euros or Canadian Dollars. Much better rate of exchange.
The Castro regime is a family-run enterprise. The leading candidate for Defense Minister, to follow now "President" Raul Castro, is his own son. The second and third generation apparatchiks want to live well, but in Cuba you cannot live well within the law. It is awkward for the scions of the Castros and their families to live openly in nice houses that are illegal to buy or sell. Hence, the law is changed so all can buy and sell respectable properties. But, this is a meaningless reform. The average salary in Cuba is $12 per month. It would be difficult to save enough to buy a home on such a stipend. Raul Castro allowed a few years ago people the right to own computers and cell-phones. Again, only government-insiders can afford such luxuries, but now they need not hide their electronics to avoid charges of revolutionary insincerity. I am glad our Canadian friends enjoy their cheap vacations in Cuba. It helps when you don't give a hoot about political prisoners and other such malcontents. Compared to Cuba, North Korea doesn't have good beaches and kimchi can grow old. But why not give it a try too.
J.C. Marrero, I was wondering if you could comment on the US trade embargo with Cuba. On one hand, ending the embargo would immediately benefit the Cuban government who seems to own the commanding heights of the economy. On the other hand, the flow of foreign capital into Cuba might cause a power shift and a trend towards political liberalization (at least that's the argument). Eastern Europe is often held up as the argument for this. What do you think?
William, for one perspective on current level of happiness (or not) in Cuba, read the blog Generation Y. It is banned in Cuba, but has found a way to be heard, both within and outside of Cuba.
Thanks, unagidon. The US has an porous embargo that allows medicine and food, but a true complete of the US embargo would require the US to extend credits to a nearly bankrupt Cuba for it to purchase US goods. Lifting the embargo tomorrow without lending the Cuban regime funds with which to purchase goods would mean very little. Spain, Italy and Canada are among Cuba's top trading partners. Mostly, Cuba has leased beach front properties to firms from those countries to build tourist facilities. Cuba also hand picks employees (mostly white Cubans) to work at these hotels and restaurants. The firms pay the Cuban government the salaries of these Cuban nationals in hard currencies and Cuba then pays the Cuban employess in near worthless pesos. However, these jobs are worth more than a medical degree because of the tips involved. So, the government makes sure that only Cubans with demonstrated loyalty to the regime will get these positions--a famous example is Elian Gonzalez's father who was rewarded with a waitressing job in one of these resorts. The key to it all is Government control. Castro, paraphrasing Mussolini without attribution, early on declared that "everything is permitted within the Revolution; outside the Revolution is permitted. Any end of the embargo would only flow from such orthodoxy. when you think of Cuba think of an organized crime family running a large enterprise.
Kris - I reviewed the blog briefly; thanks for the link. It is interesting.It seems clear that poor Cuba has a long, long way to go before being anthing like a reasonable place.
I meant to write, "everything within the Revolution is permitted; outside the revolution nothing is permitted". This Castro quote is from a speech he gave to intellectuals at the start of the Revolution, on June 30. 1961. This is similar to Mussolini's dictum "Everything inside the State. Nothing outside the State". As a teenager, Castro studied the mannerisms and speaking styles of Il Duce and Hitler, hence the dramatic pauses and the huge rallies that have bedeviled Cuba during his tenure.
Frankly it is always amazing how Democrats are so, shall we say, carefully quiet regarding Cuba.
There he goes again.---Ronald Reagan


text:
Gary Shteyngart's debut takes readers through the end of an era of exuberance and uncertainty, seen through the eyes of one of the most engaging protagonists in recent fiction. Vladimir Girshkin, the child of immigrant Soviet Jews, is prepared to spend the rest of his life at the bottom of the American socioeconomic heap. But when he becomes the recipient of the attentions of an uncomfortably rich girl, this perennial loser is sparked into a sudden, potentially disastrous quest for fame, fortune, and a new identity.
Shteyngart relentlessly trains his gimlet eye on the slackers, posers, and perennial adolescents of modern-day New York and the fictional eastern European city of Prava, the laid-back flip side of dot-com fever. But The Russian Debutante's Handbook doesn't actually deliver on the title's promise to lay out the rules for Vladimir to follow; watching our bumbling buffoon of a hero figure out that there seem to be no rules at all is the considerable pleasure this enchanting novel provides. (Summer 2002 Selection)


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6 Mar 2012 4:31 PM #1
Grid buffered/infinite scrolling in 4.1
Since the changes described below have started appearing in the nightly builds, I figured it was a good time to start this thread. The good parts of this post are most likely written by Animal (Nige)
NOTE: The following will apply to the next generally available build, but does not apply to Beta 3. Some of this was already discussed in the recent performance blog post (http://www.sencha.com/blog/optimizin...d-applications).
Buffered rendering of grids, commonly known as "infinite scrolling" has improved significantly in 4.1. The major improvements are in the "prefetch buffer" management. The prefetch buffer used to just be a MixedCollection of records keyed by the ordinal position in the global dataset which greatly complicated cache lookup and eviction. This has now become a true page cache which maintains a set of page-sized blocks of records, each keyed by page number.
This means that fetching a range of records from the cache is as quick as can be. It's a matter of calculating the page range which encompasses that record range and extracting the set of records. This is done as efficiently as possible using Array.slice where the range does not coincide with the beginning or end of a page.
Simpler API
You no longer have to know about the methods which perform all this magic. In 4.1, you can use the regular Store API.
All you need to do is configure your Store like this:
buffered: true, pageSize: 50, // or whatever works best given your network amd DB latency autoLoad: true
How it works
The grid now calculates how large the rendered table should be using the configuration of the PagingScroller which is the object that monitors scroll position. These are as follows when scrolling downwards:
* trailingBufferZone The number of records to keep rendered above the visible area.
* leadingBufferZone The number of records to keep rendered below the visible area.
* numFromEdge How close the edge of the table should come to the visible area before the table is refreshed further down.
The rendered table needs to contain enough rows to fill the height of the view plus the trailing buffer size plus leading buffer size plus (numFromEdge * 2) to create some scrollable overflow.
As the resulting table scrolls, it is monitored, and when the end of the table comes within numFromEdge rows of coming into view, the table is re-rendered using a block of data further down in the dataset. It is then positioned so that the visual position of the rows do not change
In the best case scenario, the rows required for that re-rendering are already available in the page cache, and this operation is instantaneous and visually undetectable.
To configure these values, configure your grid with a verticalScroller:
{ xtype: 'gridpanel', verticalScroller: { numFromEdge: 5, trailingBufferZone: 10, leadingBufferZone: 20 } }
Keeping the pipeline full
Keeping the page cache primed to be ready with data for future scrolling is the job of the Store. The Store also has a trailingBufferZone and a leadingBufferZone.
Whenever rows are requested for a table re-render, after returning the requested rows, the Store then ensures that the range encompassed by those two zones around that requested data is in the cache by requesting them from the server if they are not already in the cache.
Those two zones have quite a large default value, but can be tuned by the developer to keep fewer or more pages in the pipeline.
Cache Misses
If "teleporting" way down into the dataset to a part for which there are definitely no cached pages, then there will be a load mask and a delay because data will need to be requested from the server. However this case has been optimized too.
The page which contains the range required to create the visible area is requested first, and the table will be re-rendered as soon as it arrives. The surrounding pages covering the trailingBufferZone and leadingBufferZone are requested after the data that is really needed ASAP by the UI.
Pruning the cache
By default, the cache has a calculated maximum size, beyond which, it will discard the Least Recently Used pages. This size is the number of pages spanned by the scroller's leadingBufferZone plus visible size plus trailingBufferZone plus the Store's configured purgePageCount. Increasing the purgePageCount means that once a page has been accessed, you are much more likely to be able to return to it quickly without triggering a server request later.
A purgePageCount value of zero means that the cache may grow without being pruned, and it may eventually grow to contain the whole dataset. This might actually be a very useful option when the dataset is not ridiculously large. Remember that humans cannot comprehend too much data, so multiple thousand row grids are not actually that useful - that probably means that they just got their filter conditions wrong and will need to re-query,
Pull the whole dataset client side!
One option if the dataset is not astronomical is to cache the entire dataset in the page map.
You can experiment with this option in the "Infinite Grid Tuner" which is in your SDK examples directory under examples/grid/infinite-scroll-grid-tuner.html.
If you set the "Store leadingBufferZone" to 50,000 and the purgePageCount to zero, this will have the desired effect.
The leadingBufferZone determines how far ahead the Store tries to keep the pipeline full. 50,000 means keep it very full!
A purgePageCount of zero means that the page map may grow without limit.
So when you then kick off the "Reload", you can see the first, visually needed page being requested, and then rendered.
Then you can see the Store diligently trying to fulfil that huge leadingBufferZone. Pretty soon, the whole dataset will be cached, and data access anywhere in the scrollable area will be instant.
Compatibility with 4.0
There are new API's in 4.1 related to these changes. Unlike in previous beta releases, the guaranteeRange method should work now. Even so, as notes above, its use is discouraged because (for compatibility) when you use it you are also specifying the size of the rendered table. Since the minimum size is actually dynamic, this can be hazardous to handle this way. The new "zones" configurations are designed to allow you to adjust the amount of rendering you want beyond the minimum.Don Griffin
Director of Engineering - Frameworks (Ext JS / Sencha Touch)
Check the docs. Learn how to (properly) report a framework issue and a Sencha Cmd issue
"Use the source, Luke!"
7 Mar 2012 7:08 AM #2
Thank you for writing this up. Very comprehensive.
8 Mar 2012 1:10 AM #3
Sounds good; I look forward to trying it.Product Architect
Altus Ltd.
8 Mar 2012 9:17 AM #4
Effect on dom?
In the event of getting enitre record set down on the client and keeping the purgePageCount to 0, what will that do to the dom? Will it still only render a small portion of the records clearing out ones that are scrolled away from? Or will it just continually add more records to the bottom potentially getting very large?
8 Mar 2012 10:37 PM #5
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It only renders just a few more rows than you can actually see.Search the forum: http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=01...%3Az7of1ufqccu
Read the docs too: http://extjs.com/deploy/dev/docs/
Scope: http://extjs.com/forum/showthread.ph...642#post257642
9 Mar 2012 12:26 AM #6
This is such great news -- really made my day -- thanks dongryphon and Animal! There seemed to be a lot of uncertainty and issues with respect to Grids and virtual/infinite scrolling since 4.0 and throughout the 4.1 betas, but this should certainly ease much of the concerns. Don, just for clarification -- these changes will appear in the RC's, or just the Final GA release?
9 Mar 2012 2:05 AM #7
Filtering problem
There is still a little filtering problem.
I need remote filtering for buffered grid data.
So I'm setting new extraParams to proxy, then clearing pageMap and loading page 1.
When filtered resultset is at least as long as page size (scroller is needed), the scroller is adjusted to new resultset size. But when resultset is smaller, even one record, the scroller has size of unfiltered dataset.
The reason is in scroller: when the resultset size is smaller than page size, the scroller is disabled no matter what it was before that test, see Ext.grid.PagingScroller.onViewRefresh.
It was tested on today's nightly.
9 Mar 2012 11:15 AM #8
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Thanks. We'll have to implement a remote filter somewhere.Search the forum: http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=01...%3Az7of1ufqccu
Read the docs too: http://extjs.com/deploy/dev/docs/
Scope: http://extjs.com/forum/showthread.ph...642#post257642
9 Mar 2012 11:33 AM #9
scroller bouncing UP while scrolling
Has anyone noticed in infinite grid that the scroller is moving back up as you mousewheel down? It seems to happen as soon as the grid prefetches more data. I also CANNOT look at the last records in the grid, the scroller doesnt like them or something.
9 Mar 2012 12:03 PM #10
@scancubus. Which build are you testing with?ConsultJS: http://consultjs.com/
Skirtle's Den: http://skirtlesden.com/
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5 Things That Are Being Automated That Probably Shouldn't Be
As we all know, letting computers do everything for us will cause them to one day take over the earth and kill us all, or if we are lucky, just make batteries out of us. But some foolish, uneducated people out there have neither watched the Matrix nor Terminator movies and are working diligently toward making computers do people jobs. While someday these robots and programs will become our overlords, in their present crude state they are content to destroy us with their hilarious incompetence.
Here are some things that anyone with a lick of sense would not put in the hands of a computer, and the people who are putting them into the hands of a computer.
#5. Stock Trading
Trading stocks is a tedious, mass-number-crunching game. Why not make computers do it for you?
Because they will fuck it up.
On May 6, 2010, the Dow dropped about 1,000 points in minutes, which is usually about the kind of rate that kicks off something like the Great Depression. Stockbrokers barely had enough time to get their office windows open before the word spread that it was a false alarm. The cause? Robots.
"Mr. Raymond? It turns out it was just a computer glitch... oh."
Someone realized that human traders, no matter how sheeplike or pessimistic, couldn't have freaked out fast enough to drive the Dow down 1000 points in 10 minutes. Computers are just designed to do everything faster and more efficiently, including stock panics.
Stock trading algorithms, or "algos," as financial people fondly call them are responsible for 70 percent of trades today, which means that most of the stock market is literally just computers making deals with each other.
"Mr. Vaio? You wanted no cream, right?"
These programs trade in millionths of a second, millions of trades a day, and are even trained to prey on other algorithms by recognizing their patterns, stealing their stock picks, and selling them back to them. They even get names, like, "Dagger," "Barcode" or "Crystal Triangle," that apparently come from the Drug Dealer Brand Name Generator.
Malfunctioning algos have shut down the London Stock Exchange and briefly paralyzed the New York Stock Exchange among others. In one incident, a guy not double-clicking fast enough triggered a bug in the program.
When you're controlling billions of dollars, you don't have time to use an antiquated semi-automatic mouse.
Instead of slowing down to work out the bugs, finance companies keep rolling out bigger and more aggressive algorithms. The bank that crashed the NYSE didn't even know they'd done it until they got a (probably very angry) phone call the next day.
Some firms have gone even further and put the algos in charge. At Rebellion Research, computers and humans have actually switched roles. The program (named "Star") is the boss, analyzing over a decade of stock market data and coming up with a long term strategy, giving humans a list of buy/sell instructions every morning. The humans then make the trades at the computer's command, and are not allowed to modify them in any way.
It's not clear from the article whether the program is named after Star Jones pre or post surgery.
More freaky than the fact they're taking orders from a computer is (1) it's actually working - Star is beating the market and bought "defensively" before the stock market crash, and (2) they've started calling it a "he". The creators (servants?) of the program say things like, "He just loaded up on value stocks," and "I've learned not to question the AI." We will all be batteries soon enough.
First the stock market. Then this.
#4. Lawsuits
The economic collapse, a lot of people owe money these days, and that sure is a lot of people for banks to threaten every day. It's just not possible to hire that many threatening humans, so debt collection agencies have been using robocallers for years, which are about as inaccurate as mass mail (seriously, how many of you ladies have gotten penis enlargement ads).
"Would... I like... to... increase... the... size of... my..."
I have had my cell phone for three years and I am STILL getting debt collection calls for someone named Annette X (or Ax?) who apparently owned the number before me. Annette, if you are reading this, call the fucking bank already.
Since people like Annette apparently change their numbers and ignore these calls all the time, debt collectors have been moving up to the next step - lawsuits. Previously they didn't want to go here because it was insane to pay a lawyer to collect someone's piddling $250. But now? Robot lawyers.
Some terrible, terrible people have come up with computer software that allows one lawyer to easily file 5,700 lawsuits a year. You just feed the software a Social Security number, date of birth, address, and amount owed, and presto. It files all the paperwork and that person is sued. If they don't show up (and most don't), then jackpot! Free money.
But if they do show up, you may be fucked. One woman targeted by mistake showed up in court to prove she didn't even owe the debt. They wanted $9,000 from her. She got $8.1 million from them.
You'd think surely someone would be checking these records at some point, either at the bank before they sell it to the collection agency, or the collection agency before they hand it to the law firm, or the lawyers before they put it in their lawsuit robot. But no. The sworn affidavit, the piece of paper they need to show in court to take your money, is often signed by people who either don't read them, or in at least one case, by a person who is dead.
Despite being dead, Martha Kunkle managed to sign thousands of affidavits used to pursue thousands of debtors. Which seems like a good idea at first. If the image of your creditor returning from the dead as a restless payment-seeking banshee doesn't frighten you into paying your debts, what will? But alas, it's illegal.
#3. Journalism
It's getting harder to make money at news, and what with human reporters constantly fussing about "food" and "supporting a family," news outlets have been trying to figure out ways to cut them out of the equation.
It's easy to get a robot that eliminates reporters, it's harder to get one that takes their place.
You probably already know about Google News using some AI to collect headlines of the day, and you might have heard of AOL's plan to start writing stories based on search engine algorithmic analyses of what people want to read. That's small potatoes.
Google News and AOL News.
Statsheet wants to create a program to write entire sports blogs from basically scanning box scores, blogs that readers will think are written by a human. This article includes a sample. These automated blogs might someday be read by an algorithm like Infonic's or Reuters' which scans and analyzes hundreds of news articles a day to tell you what people think of different companies (in Infonic's case) or athletes, or political issues, or anything you don't want to read about yourself.
With computers doing all the writing and reading, I guess we will just go play video games or something.
But we'll probably want to tune in, because computers writing news can be pretty hilarious. Techmeme's 2007 experiment in algorithmically scanning the web to predict the next big headlines before they happen resulted in them putting out front page headlines about Anna Nicole Smith's hospitalization when she had in fact been declared dead.
That and other failures prompted them to stop being so idealistic about AI and hire an editor.
Making even less headway is automated video journalism. Do you like Siskel and Ebert style movie reviews? Then you'll hate NewsAtSeven, an AI journalism project by the Intelligent Information Laboratory at Northwestern University that feeds algorithmically generated lines to animated anchors using the shittiest text-to-speech program they could find. The bantering beginning at 0:45 is cringe-inducingly amusing, a contradiction you can only fully understand by watching the video.
To be fair, Techmeme and the NewsAtSeven team are clearly aware of how far they still have to go. More bravely clueless about the failure of his automated journalism venture is Tom Costello, who already failed at making a search engine "better than Google" with Cuil, and has now made the remnants of that into the amazingly bizarre Cpedia. Cpedia is a sort of automated Wikipedia that gathers information from the web and brings it together into entries that make no fucking sense. Stung by criticism along those lines, Costello replied with a weird blog post about how he was beaten as a child when trying to speak proper Irish and that's why it's okay for Cpedia articles to make no sense. Touche, Tom.


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A Heavenly View From On High
For more than six centuries, the brilliantly frescoed walls of Florence's Basilica of Santa Croce functioned as what its current rector, Father Antonio Di Marcantonio, calls "medieval PowerPoint": scenes from the Bible and saints' lives illustrating the sermons that Franciscan friars preached to largely illiterate congregations.
Church authorities whitewashed most of the interior in the mid-16th century, as part of the Counter-Reformation's effort to promote a more austere and theologically rigorous faith. Since then, a real sense of the original effect has been available only in the chapels at the east end of the vast, soaring nave. But those steep, narrow spaces do not facilitate the scrutiny that works by the likes of Giotto command today; nor have time and pollution spared the paintings, some of which are now mere shadows of their original selves.
Hence the excitement over the recent cleaning of the frescoes in Santa Croce's main chapel and the news that the restorers' scaffolding will remain in place for most of 2013, allowing visitors to see Agnolo Gaddi's late-14th-century fresco cycle, "The Legend of the True Cross," from the vantage point of the artist himself.
The cycle tells the story, drawn from Jacobus de Voragine's 13th-century compendium of saints' lives, "The Golden Legend," of the wood used for the cross on which Jesus was crucified. Made from an offshoot of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden, the wood takes various forms across the millennia, becoming an object of reverence, desire and fear for various crowned heads until the early seventh century, when a Christian emperor humbly carries it to its sanctuary in Jerusalem.
In the psychological expressiveness of his figures and the drama of their interactions, Gaddi shows his debt to Giotto, but his vibrant colors, stylized choreography and playful details of animals and clothing produce a lighter effect, at once mannered and naive. These paintings were a source for Piero della Francesca's cycle on the same subject, painted in Arezzo in the middle of the following century, though Gaddi, with happy disregard for realism in scale, hardly anticipates the rigorous perspective and complex geometry of Piero's work, not to mention its cold, clear atmosphere or the figures' graceful stillness.
Cleaning the Santa Croce frescoes, which took more than five years, has revealed long-obscure details, such as the gilding in an angel's halo, the blue background of a field of stars, and the distinctive foliage of various trees. The cleaners have also undone the effects of a 1946 restoration, which followed then-standard practice in replacing lost elements. Today visitors can see sections of Gaddi's preparatory underdrawing, and some of the artist's pentimenti, or self-corrections, including a now-diaphanous tree used to cover up a misplaced sign.
Viewing the works as they were never meant to be seen, at eye level, we discover the thoroughness of Gaddi's craftsmanship, in the care he devoted even to sections invisible from below. We also gain insight into the technique that lies behind illusion, seeing that Gaddi made his figures on the upper levels larger and simpler than those below, to produce a uniform effect for those standing on the pavement.
Apart from a better understanding of the frescoes, the visitor's 100-foot climb offers an unexpected bonus, to be claimed by turning away from the paintings and looking out on the body of the church—a view that will be impossible once the scaffolding comes down this fall.
From there we can see dozens of rectangular slabs set into the pavement, marking the burial places of centuries of Florentine families, and along the walls, funerary monuments to some of the greatest names in Italian history, including Dante, Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Galileo and Rossini, which make Santa Croce the Italian equivalent of Paris's Pantheon or London's Westminster Abbey, a shrine to the so-called lay saints of a modern nation-state.
Such celebrations of secular glory might seem incongruous inside a church, even in cases where the celebrated were conventionally religious. We seem to be a long way from the Exaltation of the Cross, the subject of the last scene in Gaddi's fresco cycle, in which the Emperor Heraclius, having alighted from his horse by order of an angel and walking barefoot like a mendicant friar, bears the relic into the holy city.
Yet the legend of the cross—which subverts the unworthy intentions of its users, becoming instead the instrument of their redemption—is at heart entirely consonant with the church's monumental program.
In honoring illustrious figures of Italian culture and politics, as well as the Florentine banking families whose names still grace the chapels they paid to decorate, Santa Croce ("Holy Cross") embraces and claims them as its own. These relics of the world's magnificence appear inside the temple's precincts not as idols but as tribute.
Mr. Rocca is the Rome bureau chief of Catholic News Service.


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The time has come once again to vote for president of the United States. If neither candidate has that "something special" that you're looking for, I have a write-in candidate suggestion for you. Who may you ask do I think would be the perfect leader of our great nation? Why, none other than Elvis Presley.
Let me present my case and the case of "Committee to Elect the King" (information taken from an actual book written by the latter and published in 1992.)
There are nine reasons the King should be elected: 1. He's cute; 2. He already has a postage stamp; 3. He has a distinguished military record; 4. He'll bring elegance back to the White House; 5. He'll address reporters as "ma'am"; 6. He knows his way around a supermarket (unlike some of our former presidents); 7. You can be sure he won't bring up things like the line item veto; 8. He hasn't inhaled since 1977; and 9. President Presley is just fun to say.
Yes, you're saying, but he's dead. I see your point, but does that matter? Some living presidents had many a fiasco during their terms. Kennedy has the Bay of Pigs Fiasco. Johnson has the Vietnam fiasco. So, we can call being dead Presley's fiasco.
There is the issue of a first lady for the King. Priscilla Presley is the natural choice, but her current boyfriend presents a problem. Maybe Hillary Clinton or Madonna? Clinton would be more likely to take the reign from Elvis. Madonna, well, she's Madonna, a bit much for the people to see as the first lady. The perfect choice would be Oprah Winfrey. Everyone knows her, she's single and she shares his southern heritage. What more is there?
And what about his running mate? How about Jimmy Hoffa or Dan Quayle? Then again, even if they could find Hoffa, his public appearances would be limited. And while Quayle would never stand a chance at upstaging Elvis, he can't spell and is pretty much spineless. So, his running mate should be Mario Cuomo. Why? He's a Yankee and would get the votes of the Northerners that Elvis can't get. What more of a reason do you need?
Now, you may ask, what would Presley's platform be? He's against high taxes, crime and pollution. He's in favor of education, health, prosperity and world peace.
Let's not forget, he'll need a catchy slogan. Possible slogans for him: "We want Elvis - Dead or Alive!"; "Read my Hips"; "The King for President"; or "Elvis - Now more than ever!"
There is no better candidate than the one and only Elvis Presley. So, when you cast your vote on Tuesday, vote Presley!
But, if you don't see my point of view and don't think he would be the perfect candidate, please vote anyway. Our future is in the hands of each and every one of us.
I want to take a moment to thank police officer Brian Watson who came to my rescue at the gas station in Brilliant on Oct. 23. I locked my keys in my car, and he came to my aid. Thank you, sir.
(Letusick, a resident of Rayland, is copy editor for the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times.)


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Men's Golf 10TH After Two Rounds at Food Lion SAC ChampionshipApril 14, 2014
SEVIERVILLE, Tenn. – Senior Sean Shelton continued to pace the Anderson University men's golf team, as the Trojans sit in 10th place after second-round action on Monday at the three-day Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Championship, hosted at the 7,054-yard, par-72 Sevierville Golf Club in Sevierville, Tenn.
Tusculum (36-301=607) moved from second to claim the top spot entering Tuesday's final round, while Wingate (310-298=608) garnered the second spot. Lincoln Memorial (305-306=611), which led following Sunday's opening round, is tied for third with Carson-Newman (313-298=611). Newberry (313-302=615) holds the fifth spot, while SAC-newcomer Queens (313-305=618) is three shots further back in sixth.
Coker (316-304=620) lept from 10th to seventh, while Brevard (316-310=626) and Catawba (316-316=632) occupy eighth and ninth, respectively. Anderson (316-319=635), Lenoir-Rhyne (324-319=643) and Mars Hill (325-322=647) round out the 12-team field.
Wingate's Ben Gebhardt (77-67=144) leads the individual medalist chase by three strokes over Tusculum's Nick Forsberg (74-73=147). LMU's Connor Froning (75-74=149), Newberry's Richard Mansell (77-72=149) and Coker's Josh Clay (76-73=149) head into Tuesday's final round tied for third.
Shelton (76-77=153) posted a pair of birdies, but also carded a double bogey at No. 11 and is 13th, with senior Arran Setro (80-80=160) holding the 36th slot. Sophomore David Wachter (80-81=161) is 40th, with junior CJ Messana (83-81=164) in 47th.
The third and final round of the championship is set to get underway at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, weather permitting.


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Belly of the Beast
I'm holding my breath (and have turned a nice shade of Cub Blue at this point). Big Z tweaked his left hamstring in the 5th inning after successfully bunting for a hit. It was a key to the Cubs 6-4 win over the Marlins as DLee whacked a grand slam homerun to break a 2-2 deadlock. The Cubs have been hit hard with pulled stuff...hamstrings, calves, groins all of which are in this grey zone of injury where they've not disabled listed anyone so far. The roster is running on empty to the point that they've had to use Koyie Hill as the backup-backup third baseman, Zambrano as the first pinch hitter off the bench and now Rich Harden gets told to put on his spikes to pinch run for Z.
We'll find out today the results of Zambrano's MRI but from the usual sources covering the Cubs, manager Lou Piniella was quoted as saying the injury was in the belly of the hamstring. This means muscle belly rather than the tendon which is where muscles attach to bone. Proximally hamstring muscles attach to the pelvis (ischium). If the MRI picks up on enough muscle injury expect the first DL stint of the season but a grade I injury can be better in 2-4 weeks. If the MRI doesn't pick up much injury he may just miss a start.
Carrie Muskat/mlb.com quotes:
"I tried to initially [take Zambrano out], but he told me that it
was more of a cramp than anything else," Piniella said. "After a pitch,
he realized it was more than that. I tried to get him out initially,
and he talked me out of it.
Zambrano then slowly walked back to the dugout. The problem is in the "belly" of the (left) hamstring, Piniella said.
Toni Ginnetti/Sun-Times quotes:
At first he tried to convince trainer Mark O'Neal and Piniella it was
only a cramp. After one pitch to the next batter, Alfonso Soriano, ''he
realized it was more,'' Piniella said. ''We did the right thing by
getting him out.''
Zambrano's next scheduled start is Friday in Milwaukee.
''I'd say it's in jeopardy,'' Piniella said. ''And if I had to
guess, I'd say no. We'll see. I'd guess we'd have to do something to
bring up a starter, but let him get his [MRI].''
Re: Belly of the Beast
If zambrano goes on disabled list here is what i would do
1. bring up scales.
2. sit ramirez a few more days.
3. send scales down on friday
4. bring up pitcher from iowa
Re: Belly of the Beast
Re: Belly of the Beast
It has got to be hard for Lou with such a short bench. I know the Cubs think some of these players are close to getting back, but while it sucks, I am all for just DLing the guys who can't play full time and make sure they are 100%. The bring up position players to fill in so to not have starting pitchers PH or PR. It is not like these guys have stubbed their toe. They have tweaked hammy's, groins shoulder, etc.
Again, IMO, the key this early is to get healthy ASAP. The faster they do that, the faster they can get rolling and catch the Red birds.
Re: Belly of the Beast
I think we are starting to see everyone get healthy. Word has it that Ramirez may be back today. If Z only misses one or two starts, once he comes back providing no one else gets hurt the team is about as healthy as it can be.
They are fortunate to be where they are, played terrible for a few weeks and still only find themselves 3.5 games behind the Cardinals who have got off to a red hot start.
Re: Belly of the Beast
Agreed Manny....tired of pitchers pinch-hittng..running...etc...
Re: Belly of the Beast
Disagree. Most of these guys were two way players and the best hitters on their HS teams, and many their university teams as well. Wrapping professional athletes in bubble wrap isn't going to solve the teams' problems. Neither is having Bobby Scales on the roster for 15 days.
Re: Belly of the Beast
bobby scales is a K machine that's 90 years old and not a very good IF'r...meh.
Re: Belly of the Beast
Sit them now or sit them much longer at a later date. We've seen that you don't mess with Ramirez when it comes to his injuries, and having Z come back one start too soon could also lead to more problems in the future - take your lumps now, before it's too late.
Recent comments
Cards and Pirates lose. I'm OK with that.
I'm ready for the end of the Miggy era.
he juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust got there...1st appearance, injury...yow
b.matusz it is.
Oops. Colin Rea leaves the game with injury.
Cubs optioned Justin Grimm to Iowa after the game. No corresponding roster move announced yet, but it could be Brian Matusz.
Marlins with a quick 4 spot vs Jaime Garcia. Osuna HR the highlight.
Brian Matusz, supposedly he has attachments. Hope it's not like an email with a virus attached.
One thing to remember about Chapman -- he can be magic, but his ERA is higher than Rondon's this year. 100+ mph is fun, but I'd love to see a few more sliders. I think he enjoys the crowd reaction from 103 mph.
"Diamondbacks designated RHP Josh Collmenter for assignment."
aww...he was my 2nd favorite crapballer. his control issues are rather severe at the moment.
Wow -- Chapman gives up a hit and everything completely caves in. I think the Cubs went into collective shock.
Stolen base with the pitcher holding the ball, WP that should have been caught or blocked, then Russell with a 2-out error on a routine play. Cubs handed them 2 runs. Throw in a Fowler bobble and it was a mess.
Hopefully, that is all out of their system now -- let's get a W tomorrow.
First time I've ever seen a base running slump -- he's made some poor decisions recently, but I thought it was a great idea to try to score there -- it's not like Heyward was going to get a 2-out hit against a LHP. Sliding feet-first into home is probably the safe (ugh) way to go, but it's hard to get the foot on the plate.
Yup. He got squeezed (twice) on the first walk, but, when you have one-run lead and the other team is trying to make an out -- take the out.
Wasn't fun!
Clearly the Cubs need to clear out the farm and trade for another closer
Where's Ed Lynch when you need him?


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Kimetto Breaks Course Record in Chicago
Kenya's Dennis Kimetto captured the Chicago Marathon Sunday, breaking the course record in a field of 40,230 runners. Kimetto finished in 2 hours, 3 minutes, 45 seconds, leading a 1-2-3 finish for Kenyan men. He bested the mark of 2:04:38 set by Ethiopia's Tsegaye Kebede last year.
It was Kimetto's second major victory this year, to go with a win at Tokyo in February. Countrywoman Rita Jeptoo was the women's winner.
—Associated Press
Texans Sink Deeper, Chiefs Keep Climbing
Through six weeks of play in the NFL, many of last year's great teams are mired in mediocrity. On Sunday, the Green Bay Packers improved to 3-2 with a 19-17 win over the defending champion Baltimore Ravens (3-3), in a game that showed that neither team has recaptured its former glory.
The Houston Texans' season appeared to come to an unofficial end as the perennial playoff contenders were blown out at home by the St. Louis Rams, 38-13, dropping them to 2-4. Texans quarterback Matt Schaub's nightmare season got worse when he left the game with an ankle injury.
The reverse of the Texans' cursed season seems to be happening in Kansas City, where the Chiefs are 6-0 after tormenting Raiders quarterback Terrelle Pryor, picking him off three times in a 24-7 win.
—Kevin Clark


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At the moment,the main tool-bar is on the middle of the screen and there is no space on the tool-bar click-able to get it back to the stretched position
thank you
To reset your gnome panels to "factory default" delete (or better move to have a backup) the settings folder
To delete enter a terminal an type
If you log out and back in it should be ok again...
If by the "main toolbar" you mean the top panel, try this: Alt-F2, then type gconf-editor in the textbox and execute that command (or run it from a terminal).
In the GConf editor navigate to /apps/panel/toplevels/top_panel_screen0 (where "/" indicates a level in the tree).
Under that you'll find a setting named "expand", and if you tick the checkbox next to it, the panel should be stretched to the whole width of the screen again.


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I think it happens for everyone that sometimes we go to a room and forget why we went there. Is there any research or article on this?
It is a phenomenon known as room amnesia, some research has shown that your brain may use physical barriers like the room and doorways as a way to compartmentalize thoughts. One article summarizes it here: