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Managing Technical Debt
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Technical Debt is widely regarded as a bad thing; that should be avoided or should be paid back as soon as possible.
Should you? We don't think so. First, we compare Technical Debt with financial debt, explain its similarities with Strategic Design and which stakeholders it surprisingly has. Then we list the various possibilities to identify the Technical Debt in your code, which you perhaps have to take care of.
Finally, we describe different ways that a project could pay back Technical Debt and which considerations must be made in order to decide if you should better repay, convert debt or just pay the interest.
What is Technical Debt
Developers have the choice to implement new features in two different ways: one is to do it quickly and messily, which will make future changes very hard. The other is a clean and smart solution, which takes longer to implement, but makes changes easier in the future (see also Martin Fowler). But why should the sponsors of a project accept higher costs for a clean implementation of a feature if the same feature, implemented with a messy solution, delivers the same functionality and costs less? Why should they spend money on automated test coverage? Tests are not features and therefore don't deliver business value!
Although messy code or code without tests works perfectly for customers if it delivers the desired business value, this will lead to an uncontrollable code base, extremely specialised developers and eventually to an inflexible software product. A sufficient amount of messy code may bring a whole engineering department to a stand-still.
The metaphor 'Technical Debt' - Similarities and differences to 'financial debt'
Ward Cunningham used the metaphor 'Technical Debt' for the first time in 1992 to communicate this problem with non-technical stakeholders. Code with low quality and no automatic test coverage can be compared with financial debt. This code is like a financial burden, which imposes on all stakeholders - not only on the developers - a debt incurring interest for the future. The principal amount is the cost of refactoring the codebase to a clean design, which allows easy future changes. The interest is the extra costs, which have to be paid in the future if the team has to work with a messy codebase instead of a good one.
Unlike financial debt, you don't have to pay back Technical Debt. Sometimes paying it back would even be pointless: some pieces of code are rarely or never read or changed. Therefore Technical Debt also needs to take into account a probability of occurrence - how probable and how often will the messy code be touched in the future? Another difference to financial debt is that the originator of Technical Debt won't necessarily pay back the debt himself, but rather the developers who maintain the codebase later.
Like financial debt, Technical Debt is not necessarily a bad thing. Going into debt to buy a house is responsible if you know how to pay it back. Buying lots of luxury items on your credit card knowing very well you're not able to cover the bill usually ends up in a disaster. Concerning software Technical Debt might give an advantage of an early release and profit the organization more than it costs to pay back the Technical Debt. In finance, debt is a good thing, if the principal amount plus the interest is lower than the yield of the investment. The same is true for software. If you sacrifice internal quality for being the first on the market, it only pays off if the yield you make with this decision is higher than being later to the market with better internal quality. There is, however, a risk, because it is hard to estimate these benefits upfront since there is a degree of uncertainty.
Technical Debt and Strategic Design
The concept of strategic design by Eric Evans gives us an idea how to deal with Technical Debt. Strategic Design says that a system can't have the same high level of quality throughout the system. Therefore a team can choose to either leave to chance which parts of the system have a good or a bad quality or to actively control the quality. Messy code, which is rarely read or touched and doesn't implement important requirements, does not have to be absolutely perfect and therefore we don't need to spend a lot of effort on refactoring it into great code. So the question is which parts of the code should have high quality? It's possible that a piece of the implementation has a bad design without having a bad quality - if no good design is required for that piece of the implementation. This argument is of course questionable: while each particular piece of code doesn't need to have good quality, in summary you might be creating an unmaintainable system.
Understanding Strategic Design and Technical Debt leads to better communication within a project and therefore to better decisions from the stakeholders of a software project. Developers might realize that not every requirement has to be implemented elegantly, if this requires too much effort. Also the customer understands that quick & dirty solutions lead to debt the project eventually has to pay back. Technical Debt consists of hidden quality problems, which like an iceberg might lead to a failure of the project once they surface e.g. through too many bugs it is most likely too late to fix the quality problems cost-effective.
Stakeholders of Technical Debt
Technical Debt concerns many stakeholders of a software project:
- Customers are annoyed by bugs or missing features due to low productivity.
- This leads to additional costs for the helpdesk, which annoys the people there, too.
- Increased development time and quality issues are also a problem for marketing.
- Bugs lead to frequent patches, which annoys the operations team.
- Many annoyed parties definitely don't make the management happy - especially if there is bad publicity due to bugs, delays or security problems.
- Last but not least also the developers are suffering. No one wants to deliver bad work. Furthermore, no one wants to take over the bad work of others.
Technical Debt is unavoidable
But why don't many projects do it right the first time and avoid Technical Debt? Assuming that developers aren't lazy and are experienced with the relevant technology and patterns, than Technical Debt is almost always enforced by time pressure. The developers hope to gain a higher short-term productivity with a quick & dirty implementation and lower costs for the current release - well aware that they cause lower productivity and higher costs in future releases. The team, however, can never be really sure that it actually achieves a higher productivity or lower costs within the current release. Possibly, the shortcuts boomerang earlier than expected and the team has to pay the interest earlier than expected.
But we as developers usually don't really want shortcuts or compromises in quality. Sometimes the external conditions are just that things within a release have to be done quickly, because otherwise there won't be a next release. Or the team assumes that the code won't be read or changed often. The previously discussed "Strategic Design" definitely allows compromises in quality. In that case good code might rather be "gold-plating", an overkill.
Thus we see, that the Technical Debt metaphor helps all stakeholders to communicate the problem of poor quality that might otherwise go unnoticed until it is too late. The subsequent damage due to bad code quality and the increasing degeneration of the quality are very well represented by the metaphor of interest. But the metaphor also falls a bit short: not all Technical Debt must always be repaid. The team also doesn't know exactly how much the debt is and when it needs to pay it back. The person who obligates the debt is not necessarily the one to repay it, but usually someone else. Fancy that in real life!
Identifying Technical Debt
A major problem of Technical Debt is that it's not obvious. Anyone can see the amount of debt on an account statement. But how can a team actually recognize Technical Debt? What are the indicators?
- General "smells" that manifest themselves in statements from the team members: "the only one who can ever change this code is Carl", "let's just copy & paste this code", "if I touch that code everything will break" or too many TODOs or FIXMEs in the code (nicely described by Nico Zazworka).
- Scrum-teams have a velocity. The software system has probably too much Technical Debt if the velocity decreases even though the team wasn't changed and the external circumstances did not change,
- Software ages. One indicator for Technical Debt is when a system uses very old libraries, that are no longer being maintained or in a new version are much more productive (e.g. EJB 2 vs. EJB 3). In the worst case, the libraries are already so old, that the developers of the libraries no longer even support them.
- Automatically measuring Technical Debt is partially possible. Correctly configured, tools like Sonar, SonarJ or Structure101 find important violations of best coding practices. As this blog post shows, this is not the ultimate solution, but a very good one. With Sonar you ensure that developers follow important code metrics like appropriate class and method size or low cyclomatic complexity. Tools like Structure101 find structural problems. These include cyclic dependencies. If two elements depend on each other, any change in one of the elements potentially affects the other element. These two elements can only be changed together - although they actually should be separated and should be developed independently. Furthermore Structure101 finds complex code: it is all about the dependencies among the elements. A system is really hard to understand and therefore to maintain if its classes or packages have too many dependencies to other classes or packages. If a developer wants to make a change he has to understand many classes and packages and has to consider many dependencies. These problems point to key challenges in the architecture.
- Code coverage tools can detect how much code is really covered by automatical tests. This metric should be used with care, since there are no general guidelines. Generally a coverage of more than 90% is a good indicator that there are enough test cases available. Conversely, a coverage below 75% may indicate a serious problem.
- But there are also a lot of cases in which systems have Technical Debt, but it cannot be measured directly in the code, e.g. clumsy solutions, wrong choice of technology, a well-executed, but wrong design for a solution or simply evil hacks that cannot be detected easily by tools. In these cases Technical Debt must be measured differently: the bugs per release rise rapidly, the velocity decreases permanently or the team is under extreme stress at the end of a release.
- A very bad indicator are frequent problems in production. This means that the problems in the system are so extensive that reliable operation is no longer possible.
All of these indicators can be measured, but not always directly in the code. The sooner these problems are solved, the cheaper. If developers identify Technical Debt, communicate it, and nothing happens, sooner or later business people will feel these problems too. This statement clearly shows: Technical Debt is not a gimmick of developers who want beautiful code. It is a tangible cost factor and may be a risk for a project. Therefore Technical Debt must be made visible and manageable. As in real life, debt is not necessarily a bad thing, but it must be used consciously and properly. This means for software projects that paying back Technical Debt is a pure business decision. It must not simply a developer's decision.
How to manage Technical Debt?
We have seen that Technical Debt cannot be ignored. Even the non-technical management on the client side must have an interest in managing Technical Debt as smartly as possible to achieve the best balance between short-, mid- and long-term success. What can a team do to avoid wasting its time with unimportant beautification but still make meaningful business decisions for improving their code quality?
Coarse-grained statements such as "do nothing" or "if the code is unmaintainable anymore, develop anew" do not help.
We consider two promising approaches in this article, which have already found useful in several projects:
- Technical Backlog
- Include cost for Technical Debt in requirements estimation
- Prior to that, we want to discuss two other critical processes that probably make sense in certain project contexts:
- Buffer-tasks for refactoring
- Cleanup-releases
One question, which must also always be addressed in the discussion of Technical Debt: must Technical Debt ever be repaid? Frank Buschmann describes 3 strategies, which we address later on:
- debt repayment
- debt conversion
- just pay the interest
The team creates one buffer-task per release with e.g. 10% of the available time. Team members can record the time on that task for not yet scheduled refactorings. So it is used for yet unknown problems that might appear in the future. Such a buffer is very easy to schedule and use. However, it also poses the risk that time is wasted on unimportant work. A buffer doesn't force anyone to consider whether the time is spent for useful refactorings or not. The developers just record their time on the buffer task. Most likely the time of the buffer may not be optimally utilized - and especially deciding which refactorings will be done, although that should really be a business decision. Using buffer-tasks unfortunately means that what should be done is not really defined.
Some teams do a purely technical release to improve the codebase from time to time. This approach is only useful if a list with the really necessary refactorings already exists. Otherwise the team risks wasting time on unimportant refactorings. This approach must also be supported by the business side because it might delay new features. Of course this requires that business people understand Technical Debt. You should think about a pure technical release to clean up the codebase and to rework the architecture if some major effort is needed. For example the same parts of the code might always cause problems during development or operations, the current architecture might no longer fit the current requirements. Such problems cannot be solved within small refactorings. A cleanup release allows extensive changes.
It makes no sense to do a cleanup-release after a very hectic and time-critical release that has created a lot of Technical Debt. There is only little experience with the new code base, so no one can say which part of the code needs to be improved. The danger in changing code which does not really need improvement.
Technical Backlog
The technical backlog is an established best practice to define purely technical work packages. Tasks for this purpose are created in a task tracker or requirements management tool. Each task has a brief description of the technical change to be made, why this technical change is important for the project and in which part of the code the technical change has to be performed. As with any other task, we need an estimate of how long it takes to develop a good enough solution. In addition we need to estimate the interest which is inherent in this code. A precise estimation is difficult, but often a rough estimate such as 'small', 'medium' or 'high' is sufficient to guide a decision. Ultimately we also need a probability: how likely will this code be read or changed in the not distant future?
This approach has several advantages:
- Technical Debt is made visible and clear for everybody. A unanimous decision can be made if and when a refactoring task should be done based on the estimated effort and the impact on future code changes.
- The cost per task is easily trackable
- There is no mixture between technical tasks and feature tasks.
- However, this approach also has some disadvantages:
- The customer must decide about the backlog and prioritize tasks. The customer can do this only to some degree concerning technical issues since he cannot determine the value of a technical task without detailed knowledge of the software.
- In addition, the customer may not really understand the business benefit of a purely technical task. In many cases, there will be some mistrust why a technical task without a feature relevant to the customer is really needed.
In our opinion only in special situations is the customer able to decide that e.g. with software updates. It is obvious to most customers that outdated software causes problems. Whether an update should be done has to be decided case by case based on cost, risk and necessity of the upgrade. Updates of components such as the Java Runtime Environment, or an O/R mapper do usually not cause a lot of effort and have a rather small risk if they are done regularly. Very expensive changes e.g. the replacement of a web framework or a change from a relational database to a NoSQL solution must always have a business reason, e.g. the performance or the user experience of an application must be improved. For this purpose the technical backlog is also well suited. But for such tasks you may also initiate a separate project, depending on how much effort is expected.
The technical backlog is not so great if a new requirement should be implemented in a codebase and that codebase is not well designed for this new requirement. In such a case a refactoring might be needed before implementing the requirement. To do this, you have to add the extra effort for the refactoring to the estimation of the requirement.
Requirements estimation with effort for Technical Debt
Strategic Design has taught us that not every part of the codebase must be very good but only those parts whose changeability brings business value or need to be changed frequently for other reasons. So concerning Technical Debt code quality of rare or never changed locations can be ignored. Also important: Code should never be refactored without a good reason. So if a new requirement provides concrete business value then we should never implement this requirement based on badly written code but refactor beforehand. That way the really important requirements can be implemented to a "good enough" standard. When the team has been assigned to implement such an important feature in an upcoming release, the refactoring should be budgeted and then implemented. Of course there are exceptions, which we will discuss in the section "To pay or not pay".
This procedure ensures that no unnecessary beautification work is done and that refactorings are always directly associated with a requirement. This allows the customer to discuss and prioritize the refactoring with the team. The customer can also decide whether or not a requirement should be implemented based on debt and interest. There might be other factors to take into account such as time-to-market. The customer might also already know about future changes to the code which are based on these requirements. He might therefore decide to refactor to a clean code base in order to save costs in the future.
Problems arise if the team runs into a problem with the code base during the implementation. Then the team must decide what to do: Maybe meeting the delivery date with all promised functionality is very important. Then the resulting Technical Debt and the interest payments have to be accepted. Or all development based on badly written code is considered to be waste and there is no real deadline pressure. Then the team should schedule the refactoring which causes a later release date. This can only be decided depending on the context and in particular the needs of customers.
To pay or not to pay
We have seen that only important parts of the code must be really clean. So code should only be refactored if necessary. However, it is hard to decide what solution might be best for a specific scenario. Frank Buschmann describes 3 strategies:
- Debt repayment: refactor or replace the code, framework or platform that is considered a Technical Debt.
- Debt conversion: Replace the current solution with a 'good, but not perfect' solution. The new solution has a lower interest rate. That might be a good option if a perfect solution is prohibitively expensive to build.
- Just pay the interest: live with the code, because refactoring is more expensive than work with the not-quite-right code
Developers and customers have to decide that on the basis of cost, risk and urgency. In summary, such a substantial refactoring should always be a business decision. Another important factor for paying interest: the "end-of-life" of the software - is a refactoring valuable at all, if the system will be redeveloped or retired soon anyway?
Technical Debt can be seen as a shortcut, which saves teams' time, effort and/or money today, but might lead to increased costs in the future. Technical Debt cannot really be avoided in software projects. But it is not necessarily a bad thing, if handled properly.
Doing so is difficult: The effect bad code quality has for future requirements is difficult or even impossible to predict. However, completely ignoring Technical Debt can have disastrous impacts on the software. If the team and the customer handle the risk of Technical Debt properly, it should remain manageable. We have presented different ways to respond to Technical Debt. Each of these options should only be used in a specific context. It is important to accept:
- that there is always Technical Debt
- that Technical Debt is not always bad
- and that Technical Debt does not have to be (fully) repaid in every case.
Any repayment should be a business decision. Even if the repayment is so small that a consultation with the customer does not make sense, the developer must always ask himself whether an improvement of the code really justifies the invested time and effort.
About the Authors
Sven Johann is working as a Software Developer for Trifork Amsterdam. Sven is an avid user of XP practices like pair programming, TDD and small releases. Currently he's developing online assessment software for schools in Switzerland and The Netherlands based on Trifork's QTI engine.
Eberhard Wolff is working as Architecture and Technology Manager for adesso AG in Germany. His focus is on Java, Cloud and Software Architecture. He is a regular contributor at international conferences and author of several books and articles.
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Excellent article on Technical Debt
Curt Hibbs
Re: Excellent article on Technical Debt
Eberhard Wolff
Thinking beyond technical debt
jeff schneider
Isnt the initial premise incorrect?
Brad Appleton
initially it appears as if "clean and smart" is referring to the "refactor-as-you-go" approach, but the rest of the discussion about the cost of the "clean and smart" approach seems to more closely match the case of "design up front" rather than "refactor is you go".
I think the developer has three choices, not two:
1. pay now "up front" (design or "factor" up-front)
2. pay later "with compounded interest"
3. pay as-you-go (just-in-time + just enough).
Much of the discussion about whether or not to remove the "debt" seems to require a degree of up-front certainty about whether or not the messy code will actually need to be revisited that much (which also doesnt seem to account for the likelihood that how messy the code is can play a significant factor in whether or not the developer will choose to revisit it versus change something else as a workaround).
I thought the whole point of the agile "pay as you go" approach was an application of lean's "right amount, right place, right time" approach to defer irreversible decisions to the last responsible moment (or somehow make them be reversible). The other point is that doing the clean and simple stuff simply becomes a force of habit, like breathing in and out, for every development task. And it would be only the bigger and more concerted refactorings that you leave for later (applying the "rule of three") -- hence the advice given here would be more applicable not so much for deciding whether or not to refactor at all, but rather when to stop refactoring (removing smells) beyond just the initial clean+simple stuff.
The approach suggested in this article seems to require the kind of pre-cognitive certainty to accurately predict (guess) the risk+likelihood of needing to revisit the code again. That sounds more like taking the YAGNI approach for up-front-design rather than the pay-as-you-go approach.
I would think a "real options"-based approach applied to managing technical debt w.r.t. cost-of-delay would make a lot more sense to use here (especially for the "pay-as-you-go" approach).
Re: Isnt the initial premise incorrect?
Eberhard Wolff
I believe "Refactoring as you go" is generally a good idea. However:
- if test coverage is low you might not be refactoring is risky and developers might limit it to the bare minimum.
- it only works for smaller refactorings Larger changes might be needed if you learn more about the requirements or if you add a new technology or new version of a technology that allows you to do things in a much easier manner.
Also I agree that refactoring should be a habit. But there are exceptions. If you have a large pile of hard to change code you probably should not try to refactor it - or maybe you should if you keep changing that code over and over again. In such scenarios the usual approach to aim at the highest quality possible must be replaced by a business decision. That decision must be based on an estimate whether it is better to improve quality and gain higher productivity or just deal with the bad quality. In particular for such scenarios the approaches described here are useful. This is a guess - but we do guesses all the time when we talk about the time and effort a feature need. These kinds of discussions are IMHO what the metaphor of technical debt was invented for - to talk to business people about such scenarios.
Re: Isnt the initial premise incorrect?
Brad Appleton
I'm sorry - are you talking about the actual practice of refactoring as described by Martin Fowler and Extreme Programming whereby "refactorings" are not separate tasks unto themselves but are very small changes made as part of a task.
Or are you referring to "restructuring" (where the changes being made are significant enough that they basically are a separate task (or even larger) on their own. Because those are very different things.
Because all the examples you give as exceptions don't look like examples of refactoring to me, but of restructuring (even the case of low/little test-coverage).
So your initial premise still seems incorrect to me. All of the cases where you say we shouldnt do it automatically and need to consider it more carefully first seem to be restructurings that require more effort than the refactorings Fowler and others describe.
If it fits within the scope and effort of the task being worked on, I don't think there should be a question of whether or not to refactor. The real question is if what youre about to do is really refactoring, or if it is something bigger (a.k.a. restructuring).
If it's bigger, THEN we have the "technical debt" discussion you mention. And look at risk and strategy and increased test-coverage and all that other good stuff).
I think maybe the real issue here is the common misuse of the team "refactoring" to refer to "after-the-fact restructuring" instead of the small refactoring-type changes Fowler and Beck initially described.
Rather second-guess all applications of refactoring, I think much better results would come from clarifying and correcting the intended meaning and usage of what refactoring is and is not, and that for true refactoring, most of the time it's probably more wasted effort to second guess them then to just do them as habit.
Then the primary focus can be more on honing and improving one's judgement (heuristics and "tests") for how to tell when what they're trying to do is more than just refactoring and hence warrants a discussion about the costs and risks of the "debt" being delayed or deferred.
Otherwise I think the wrong message is being conveyed as a result of the initial premise (and intended versus "popular" use of the term refactoring) being incorrect and misunderstood. I'd like to see the misunderstanding correct first (rather than leaving it stand), and then it actually makes the rest of the discussion a lot more consistent with when refactoring is and isnt already being recommended.
business decision on technical debt?
frits greuter
Re: Isnt the initial premise incorrect?
Sven Johann
But what if you have the case, which Martin Fowler describes as "Now we know how we should have done it"? Then you're probably in the need of a larger refactoring (or restructuring) once you recognize your problem and you have to think about it as we described it.
You say: "If it's bigger, THEN we have the "technical debt" discussion you mention". That's what we mean. It's most of the time the bigger issues, where we have to think about how and when and if to pay back.
Regarding "I think much better results would come from clarifying and correcting the intended meaning and usage of what refactoring is and is not [...]": to be honest, I never thought about it, it was always refactoring for me. Large or medium or small. But while writing this comment and also discussing the article with colleagues, I agree with you, that the part is not really clear between larger and smaller refactorings. If you want to improve a nasty little part of the code you run into over and over again, which fix only costs you one day, there's no point in doing the things we described in the article. If you do continuous design, then you rarely run into these issues.
Re: Isnt the initial premise incorrect?
Brad Appleton
Then I suggest you familiarize yourself with martinfowler.com/bliki/RefactoringMalapropism.html
(and you may want to seriously reconsider your use of the term).
It probably would also help a lot for your article to refer to martinfowler.com/bliki/TechnicalDebtQuadrant.html when talking about the kinds of things to do/avoid and the risks involved.
Either way, you will probably want to revise your article to define what you mean by refactoring early on -- since there are obviously (at least) two very different meanings of "refactoring" floating around out there (i.e., the one that seems to be "popular" versus the one that was originally intended by the likes of Fowler and Beck)
I guess if you insist on using the term "refactoring" in the 'popular' sense, then you are right that there can be confusion as to when to do it or not. That confusion largely goes away if you use the intended meaning from the folks that actually popularized the term.
I would think it better to reduce the confusion (rather than promoting or sustaining it) by clarifying the intended meaning from the popular meaning and the importance of the difference between them.
Re: Isnt the initial premise incorrect?
Fredrik Vestin
Re: Isnt the initial premise incorrect?
Eberhard Wolff
thanks a lot for the thoughtful comments!
The Tech Debt quadrants are also quite interesting - www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kotnF6hfd8 is a video in which Martin talks about this among other things. I think the quandrant approach shows that it is important to discuss Technical Debt as something you can do deliberate - and it might in same cases even be a smart decision. That was one of the motivations to write the article.
Concerning the RefactoringMalapropism link: It emphasizes that Refactoring must not break the tests for a longer period of time. I completely agree with this. However, that still allows complex changes and eliminating Technical Debt. Actually even the original Refactoring book has a complete chapter (12) on big Refactorings.
So I guess we are talking about two different things here: The decision to pay back some technical debt - which might influence larger parts of the code base and might be a considerable effort. That is then broken down in Refactorings that each by itself is guarded by tests and might be automated.
I actually don't believe in the XP idea of "Continuous and Merciless Refactoring". It is very hard to reach the ideal quality and most of the time it doesn't make sense economically. Also developers often just don't invest the time to improve quality and therefore other solutions are needed - like setting aside some time. This is one of the points the article tries to make. It is based on our experience - as well as the experience of some others cited in the article.
Technical Debt: A Long standing issue
Re: Technical Debt: A Long standing issue
tushar jain
Technical Debt
Don Allen
Re: Isnt the initial premise incorrect?
Don Allen


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DP Bill Holshevnikoff put LED technology to use on the feature AMERICA IS STILL THE PLACE with ARRI L-Series and LoCasters – all captured on an ALEXA camera.
Soft Lighting | Redefined. ARRI proudly introduces SkyPanel, a brand new line of LED fixtures. SkyPanel is a compact, ultra-bright and high-quality LED soft light that sets a new standard for the industry. With a design focused on form, color, beam field and output, SkyPanel represents the culmination of more than a decade of research and development of LED technology at ARRI.
ARRI is proud to support the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' groundbreaking multimedia exhibition HOLLYWOOD COSTUME in Los Angeles with over 25 L-Series LED Fresnels. Watch the video for a look at HOLLYWOOD COSTUME and listen to Burk explain how it was lit with the ARRI L-Series.
In this beginners' workshop, lighting tutor Dennis Jackstien talks about the characteristics of different light sources and lighting fixtures. He explains the basics of lighting design by working on a number of different scenes, covering techniques such as three-point lighting and interview setups.
In this beginners' workshop, lighting tutor Dennis Jackstien talks about the characteristics of different light sources and lighting fixtures. He explains the basics of lighting design by working on a number of different scenes, covering techniques such as three-point lighting and interview setups.
In this beginners' workshop, lighting tutor Dennis Jackstien talks about the characteristics of different light sources and lighting fixtures. He explains the basics of lighting design by working on a number of different scenes, covering techniques such as three-point lighting and interview setups.
The characteristics of LED lighting, such as color quality, white light quality and tuneability, are explained in detail during this hands-on workshop presented by lighting tutor Dennis Jackstien. The workshop also explores the challenges of lighting for high-speed filming.
The characteristics of LED lighting, such as color quality, white light quality and tuneability, are explained in detail during this hands-on workshop presented by lighting tutor Dennis Jackstien. The workshop also explores the challenges of lighting for high-speed filming.
The characteristics of LED lighting, such as color quality, white light quality and tuneability, are explained in detail during this hands-on workshop presented by lighting tutor Dennis Jackstien. The workshop also explores the challenges of lighting for high-speed filming.
Lighting Product Manager Mike Wagner presents some of ARRI's latest lighting fixtures and interviews set lighting gaffer Helmut Prein about his work with ARRI lampheads on Wes Anderson's film THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL.
ARRI Lighting Product Manager Mike Wagner introduces the BigBee universal motorized yoke, which fits a range of ARRI lampheads. Manufactured by Licht Technik, the BigBee is available exclusively through ARRI distributers.
The compact and lightweight ARRI L5 is presented by Lighting Product Manager Mike Wagner. Bright, energy-efficient and tuneable, the L5 has an on-board battery input for industry standard batteries.
Curator Kate Goodwin conducts a video tour of the SENSING SPACES exhibition at London's Royal Academy of Arts, for parts of which scenic & lighting designer Shizuka Hariu made use of ARRI L7-C LED lampheads.
The Silversun Pickups' latest music video Cannibal drops the viewer right into an intense situation -- captured on ALEXA with Master Anarmophic lenses.
Following the success of the ARRI Caster Series LED-based products, ARRI's Michael Wagner, Lighting Product Manager, presents the latest advancements in the Caster Series: LoCaster 2 Plus and BroadCaster 2 Plus.
ARRI's Lighting Product Manager Michael Wagner, gives us an overview on the newest addition to the LSeries family - the L5 LED Fresnel. The L5 is approximately 45% brighter than a 300 watt tungsten Fresnel, but only consumes 115 watts.
Go behind the scenes with the cast and crew of Wes Anderson's adventure comedy THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL and learn about the rich story behind one of the most anticipated films of the year.
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL recounts the adventures of Gustave H, a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars, and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend. Directed by Wes Anderson, it was shot with ARRICAM cameras and ARRI M-Series lights by cinematographer Robert Yeoman, ASC.
Shot on ARRICAMS and ALEXA by Rodrigo Prieto ASC, AMC THE WOLF OF WALL STREET tells the surreal life of stockbroker Jordan Belfort.
For HER, gaffer Cory Geryak utilized the ARRI L7 LED Fresnels to light the romantic drama set in the future. Captured on ALEXA by Hoyte Van Hoytema.
Filmmaker Bill Holshevnikoff takes a look at the ARRI True Blue D5 & D12
This video introduces the newest features of the ARRI True Blue studio and tungsten lights, along with the benefits of using these powerful units. Here, we learn how to prepare the fixture for use right out of the box.
Once you have the True Blue out of the box, you can adjust the center of gravity of the fixture by configuring the stirrup.
Whether you need to hang the fixture or place it upright on a lighting stand, you'll need the attach appropriate mounting hardware to the stirrup.
Here we show you how to properly insert the lamp into the fixture.
Ready to see the quality of light for the True Blue? Here's how to turn it on properly. Be sure to check that the connector is grounded and rated for the wattage and voltage listed on the fixture.
A new spring-loaded top latch makes inserting accessories even easier, while the bottom catch offers extra safety.
Enhanced features on the True Blues like the new two position brackets allow additional space for accessories while eliminating like leak.
See how to adjust the focus between a spot beam of light and a flood beam of light. New redesigned barndoors and a tilt lock, allow better control.
ARRI True Blues are ready to set a new standard in professional lighting. There's more to come, so stay tuned.
Filmmaker Bill Holshevnikoff takes a look at the ARRI True Blue ST5
Filmmaker Bill Holshevnikoff takes a look at the ARRI True Blue ST2
Filmmaker Bill Holshevnikoff takes a look at the ARRI True Blue ST1
Filmmaker Bill Holshevnikoff talks about how compact, low heat Pocket Pars provide a superior light that would previously have only been attainable with higher wattage lamps; they are ideal for close-ups or setups where space is limited. For day-to-day production the Pocket Pars offer superb punch and are invaluable for both direct lighting and for use with reflectors.
An introduction to the tuneable daylight L7-DT -- the latest fixture in ARRI's L-Series of LED Fresnel lights.
ARRI's Mike Wagner gives an overview of the 800 W M8, the latest fixture in the ARRI M-Series and the smallest lamphead to incorporate patented MAX Technology.
Resumen por Jeffrey Reyes de la nueva luz LED de ARRI, L7-TT y M90.
The new L7-TT Tuneable Tungsten is over 20% brighter than the L7-C as a tuneable 2600 K - 3600 K tungsten version while maintaining the same size and weight. It offers the same calibrated color quality and adjustable green-magenta point as the L7-C, and is well suited to applications requiring precise color matching to conventional tungsten lampheads.
ARRI's Michael Wagner shows us the EB 6000/9000 along with the M90/60, an exciting fixture in a new power class at 9,000 W -- exactly half the wattage of the ARRIMAX and just over double the wattage of the M40/25.
Showing the new 9K power class for the award-winning M-Series.
Lighting designer/Director Bill Holshevnikoff talks about working with the ARRI L-Series, a new generation of lighting fixtures that heralds the seamless integration of LED technology into established working practices within the film, television and event industries.
Assante Wealth Management commercial featuring hockey legend Serge Savard was lit with the ARRI M18 with
At ARRI's Big Screen Presentation during IBC, lighting designer and director of photography Bill Holshevnikoff demonstrates how the L-Series are a significant step in lighting evolution.
Ryan Fletcher, Lighting Platform Manager, details the latest updates and additions to the L-Series, ARRI's LED-based Fresnel lighting fixtures.
Ryan Fletcher, Lighting Platform Manager, details the latest updates and additions to the L-Series, ARRI's LED-based Fresnel lighting fixtures.
Platform Manager Ryan Fletcher reviews the benefits of ARRI's groundbreaking LED fixtures the L-7 series. For more go to: www.arri.com/l-series/
ARRI's Mike Jones takes us through the ever popular M40 fixture and shows us why this light is in such high demand.
ARRI's Michael Keppler shows us the latest manual and motorized rigging systems and lighting control available from ARRI at NAB 2012.
Resumen por Jeffrey Reyes de la nueva luz LED de ARRI, L7-C.
Dennis Jackstien, Product Manager of Lighting for Film & Location discusses the latest fixtures and ballasts like the M40, AS18 and highspeed ballast.
ARRI Inc.'s Michael Keppler discusses custom suspension, control and dimmer integration for a wide array of applications.
ARRI's Platform Manager, Ryan Fletcher gives us an update on the L-Series. Since their release one year ago, the fixtures are now an industry workhorse known for versatility, ease of use and best return on investment.
Massimo Cecchini talks to the press about ARRI's new range of lighting suspension solutions, and the ARRI team takes questions from the audience. (Part 4 of 4).
Ryan Fletcher presents the ARRI L-Series - a collection of efficient and versatile LED light fixtures - while Dr. Alexandra Musto discusses the innovations behind ARRI's unique, patented MAX Technology. (Part 3 of 4).
The latest fixture in ARRI's M-Series is presented by Stefan Schmidt. The M40/25 incorporates ARRI's unique and patented MAX Technology, which combines the advantages of a PAR and a Fresnel, and eliminates the need for spread lenses.
Ryan Fletcher presents the ARRI L-Series, a new generation of LED fixtures that is about to make a dramatic impact on the film and television lighting industries with its performance, versatility and cost efficiency.
Now the "Brightest HMI you can plug into the wall," (a single, 20A 120VAC electrical outlet on a single circuit), the M18 is a lensless, open face lighting fixture that combines the desired light distribution from the optics of a PAR and a Fresnel fixture. Here, ARRI shows you the unique technology behind the ballast that has made this light so successful.
ARRI is pleased to introduce a new generation of 1000 Hz High Speed Ballasts that meet the challenges of modern high-speed digital photography with ease.The new 1000 Hz High Speed Ballasts make it simple to achieve high quality flicker-free images even at frame rates of 5001000 fps and in many cases beyond, even with just a single HMI daylight source. 1000 Hz High Speed Ballasts are available for all wattages from 125 watts 4000 watts.
Norbert Wunderlich, Director Sales Administration of ARRI Lighting Solutions in Berlin talks about how this division of the ARRI Group specializes in project work, offering design, 3D visualization, consultancy, installation, delivery, training and after-sales service to facilities, events and studios looking to expand or improve their lighting setup. This comprehensive service is available for projects of any size, from simple, small-scale applications to complete turnkey lighting solutions.
Combining the cool-burning, energy efficient advantages of LED illumination with the controllable versatility and established design of traditional Fresnel fixtures, the new ARRI LED spotlights mark a turning point in the incorporation of LED technology into the film industry. Product Manager Ryan Fletcher gives a guided tour of this truly revolutionary lamphead.
Product Manager Ryan Fletcher presents the ARRI CASTER series of LED light fixtures, which offer a flexible and efficient solution for LED lighting at an attractive price level
The new ARRILITE Plus fixtures from ARRI represent the next generation of these traditional, open-faced lights. Martin Carnell from ARRI in the UK talks through the improved functionality and simplified maintenance of the ARRILITE 750 Plus and ARRILITE 2000 Plus.
Bill Holshevnikoff presents the ARRIMAX 18/12
The ARRI CASTER Series utilizes a special optical design and dedicated LED arrangement, presenting an efficient solution for LED Lighting at an attractive price level. Specially designed accessories, such as a 2-leaf barndoor, intensifier and a range of mounting options expand the CASTER Series flexibility.

subset: commoncrawl


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Old school building located on 9.9 acres with easy access to I-77.
† Excluded Feature
See complete school information
Based on 20.00 % down and a 4.13 % financing rate
Includes Mortage, Insurance, and Tax payments
Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
Copyright 2018 Piedmont Regional Multiple Listing Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
The data relating to real estate for sale on this web site comes in part from the Broker Internet Exchange Progtam of the Piedmont Regional Multiple Listing Services, Inc. Real Estate listings held by brokerage firms other than Weichert Realtors are marked with the BIX logo or the BIX thumbnail logo and detailed information about them includes the name of the listing brokers.
The information being provided is for consumers personal, non-commercial use and may not be used for any purpose other than to identify prospective properties consumers may be interested in purchasing.
Data is updated as of 8/29/2018.
Financial calculator disclaimer:
Default based on a 30-year fixed rate of 4.125% with 20% down. The estimated payment is offered for convenience and is not an offer of credit. Due to market fluctuations, interest rates are subject to change at any time and without notice. Your individual rate may vary. Rates may differ for FHA, VA or jumbo loans.


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Sotirios G. Xiarhos
Sotirios G. Xiarhos
owned Sam's New York System
Sotirios G. "Sam" Xiarhos, 75, died March 3, 2012 at home. He was the beloved husband of Kathy (Sionis) Xiarhos for 43 years.
Born in Kollines, Arcadia, Greece, he was a son of the late George and Vasiliki (Marneris) Xiarhos. He was owner of Sam's New York System on Sandy Lane since 1968. Sam was a veteran of the U.S. Air Force from 1955-1959 and a member of Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church and the Warwick Senior Center Card League. He was an avid bowler, a Yankees fan and a Giants fan.
Besides his wife he is survived by three sons, Thomas and his wife, Marie, George and Peter Xiarhos; four grandchildren, Samuel, Stephen, Katrina and Philip; a brother, Christopher Xiarhos; and three sisters, Maria Vlahos, Anna LeClair and Connie Dernikos. He was the brother of the late Christos and Arthur Xiarhos.
His funeral will be held March 7 at 8:45 a.m. from Thomas & Walter Quinn Funeral Home, 2435 Warwick Ave., with a service in Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, 175 Oaklawn Ave., Cranston, at 10 a.m. Burial with military honors will be in North Burial Ground. Visiting hours are March 6 from 4-8 p.m.
In lieu of flowers, contributions to Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, 175 Oaklawn Ave, Cranston, RI 02920 will be appreciated. For information and condolences visit www.thequinnfuneralhome.com.


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Ah the family pet. A source of great joy, deep camaraderie and yes, at least occasional frustration.
Ah the family pet. A source of great joy, deep camaraderie and yes, at least occasional frustration.
Perhaps you have a dog that spends a little too much time checking out what's inside the cat's litter box; a cat that for some reason likes to sharpen its claws on the chair in your study; or maybe a rambunctious puppy that thinks the toys in the kids' playroom are meant for him. Or maybe you have an area of your yard — like a garden — that you want to protect from digging by your pet.
A hidden or "invisible" fence could be just what you need to protect certain areas of your home by restricting the places where your pet can traverse.
Animal fencing systems work by delivering a radio frequency static correction from a transmitter board located inside the home to a collar worn by the pet, if the pet enters a restricted area. Most invisible fence systems use wires buried underground for outside containment and transmitter systems that deliver the same correction in a predefined area indoors.
One common misperception is that animals receive an electric shock when they enter the restricted area. In fact, the correction is a static shock, similar to walking on a carpet in socks and then touching a doorknob. The correction, if designed and installed correctly, serves as a reminder, rather than a punishment for the pet.
But proper design and installation is key. Pet owners who are interested in adding an invisible fence should look for a company with a good reputation of training pets in a positive way.
"We use a gentle steps training program, so the dog isn't afraid to use the yard," said Shane Wisdom, owner of Dog Wisdom in Saint Peters, Mo. "The idea of a dog fence is not to shock the dog. It only corrects the dog while they're within the signal field. We teach the dog their boundaries before we ever use the correction, so the dog understands where their boundaries are. The dogs typically only need one or two corrections to keep them in. From that day on, the dog never touches the fence because the dog knows where the fence is. I liken it to touching a hot stove. You only have to tell me once."
There are a variety of pet fence systems on the market, so it's important pet owners do their research on the various options available. For example, a quality system will work for multiple pets and allow different settings on the pet's collar that determine how much of a static correction the pet receives based on its size and its temperament. Some systems only offer a one-correction-fits-all approach.
"We mount a control box in the garage and all the settings are done through that control box, so you can program each individual (collar)," Wisdom said. "So, if you have a 4-pound dog, a 30-pound dog or a 130-pound dog, I can program each individual collar to match that dog, so the collar for the 130-pound dog won't (issue a correction level) for the 4-pound or 30-pound dog at the same rate."
Many systems also offer an audible warning that alerts the pet they are about to reach the correction zone.
"Our receptor collars always put out a sound first; kind of an alert that if (the dog) keeps going, it's going to set it off," said Kim Karr, with Invisible Fence of the Upstate in Greenville, S.C. "The audible (correction) is used in the training as well, so you don't have to give as many (static) corrections. We train sight, sound and then feel."
Most professional pet fence companies advise that they can train a pet to stay within the predefined boundaries within a week or two.
"Your dog could be off the leash and in your yard within about nine days of training," Wisdom said.
Depending on the size of the area, a pet fencing system can cost several hundred dollars to more than a thousand. That's a reasonable investment for a homeowner who doesn't want — or can't have —a fence in the yard.
"They're good for areas that don't allow for wood privacy fencing or chain link fencing, or for people who don't want to create a barrier and block their views from their own yard," Karr said.
Hicks is the founder of Angie's List, a resource for local consumer reviews on everything from home repair to health care.


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Your discovery sounds like a brittle star, a type of sea star.
Q We found a small, long-armed, squiggly creature clinging to our crab pot. It looked like some kind of starfish, but was grayish and skinner than the orange ones we find on the beach. We let it go. Was it some kind of starfish?
A. Your discovery sounds like a brittle star, a type of sea star. These supple creatures live and hide in a variety of habitats – on pilings, jetties, rocks, bottom debris – and even in seaweed, marine plants and in clusters of oysters and barnacles. They also bury in sand or mud.
Some brittle stars prefer calm waters in sounds and estuaries. Others live in the shallow water below the low tide line. Some inhabit ocean depths as much as 4,000 feet, and certain species congregate in tremendous numbers on the open sea floor.
Brittle stars move faster than common sea stars; however, their rays are fragile and break easily, earning them their name. They shun light, and, when exposed, their long rays, called arms, begin searching frantically for a place for the little sea star to hide.
In some parts of the world, the snake-like arms of these marine animals have given them the name "serpent stars."
Like other sea stars, brittle stars can regenerate missing parts.
For a look at brittle stars on the move, visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Texm2eTmSc.
Primarily night hunters, brittle stars feed on organic debris, worms, small crustaceans and carrion. They rely mainly on smell to locate food, and tiny tube feet on their rays pass tidbits to their mouth on the underside of their central disc.
Most brittle stars are covered with nearly invisible small scales and tiny spines. Colors and markings vary widely, from gray to creamy yellowish-brown to dark brown to black and green. Some species have a light stripe running the length of each ray.
The colorful daisy brittle star in northern Atlantic waters has a central disk that's usually red and rays with red and white bands. The central disk can also be blue and brown with rays banded green and brown.
Information provided by the N.C. Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores. The state operates three public aquariums; one in Pine Knoll Shores, another at Fort Fisher and a third on Roanoke Island, as well as Jennette's Pier in Nags Head. The facilities are administered by the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources and are designed to inspire appreciation and conservation of North Carolina's aquatic environments. For more information, log onto ncaquariums.com, or call 800-832-FISH.
The StarNews welcomes and will consider publishing articles contributed by readers. They should be 400 words or less and accompanied by a good-quality photograph. Contact Community News Editor Si Cantwell at 343-2364 or email@example.com.


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On this weekend's concerts, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra is performing new music with an old, familiar title. "Clair de lune" is the latest composition by George Tsontakis. The American composer uses the name of a famous piece Claude Debussy wrote in about 1890 to express his own impressions.
Tsontakis says he's pleased that his music is being played in concert, but he often feels like the token modern composer amid Tchaikovsky and Beethoven. Tsontakis says he's much more interested in having his music recorded.
Along with its premiere peformances of "Clair de lune," the SPCO is also recording the work and another Tsontakis composition, "The Past, the Passion for 14 Players." The SPCO will add these pieces to its earlier recording of Tsontakis's Violin Concerto for a CD expected to be released later this year.
Tsontakis recently received a prestigious award called the Charles Ives Living, which will give him three years to concentrate on composing. However, in a conversation with Minnesota Public Radio's Karl Gehrke, Tsontakis says that composing is not his main interest. Sometimes he'd rather be acting.


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Pulitzers Make Rep. Peter King Mad
from the he-never-got-a-pulitzer-for-appeasing... dept
His main beef is his supposed belief that Snowden and anyone reporting on the facts he revealed are somehow "appeasing" terrorists. Of course, that's quite ironic, given King's history as a major terrorist appeaser in supporting the IRA decades ago, even as they were blowing up buildings that resulted in death and injury to many.
However, it's long been clear that King has no self-awareness and no understanding of his own hypocrisy. Within minutes of the Pulitzers announcing that one of its prizes was being given to the publications that reported on the Ed Snowden documents, King angrily tweeted his disgust:
Awarding the Pulitzer to Snowden enablers is a disgrace
— Rep. Pete King (@RepPeteKing) April 14, 2014


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College Portrait of Undergraduate Education
College Portrait takes a by-the-numbers look at colleges around the country. The resulting five-page profile is divided into three sections:
- consumer information,
- student experiences and perceptions, and
- student learning outcomes.
Numbers include how many students stayed in school from year to year, what the undergraduate student body looks like, how much college typically costs for full-time undergraduates without financial aid, and how many degrees were awarded. These pages provide a fascinating, colorful and charted look at how the University's numbers break down as well as an easy way to compare and contrast an incoming student's choice colleges.


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Discover How You Can Take Advantage of the Online Knowledge Revolution and Start Cashing in on Other People's Knowledge Right Now!
Why Anova?
- Video and Audio answers – no other site or software can do this! Be unique in the industry
- Smarty Templating system – for quick and easy template updates
- Your site grows virally as your users provide all the content (great for the search engines)
- Easily customizable
- Search Engine Friendly URL's – get even more exposure in the search engines
- Dedicated 24/7 support team to help you every step of the way!
- It's a breeze to setup!
- Monetize your traffic with advertising!
Features in Anova?
Smarty Templating System
It's incredibly easy to switch the entire look of the Anova site by uploading a templates file. The main advantage is that webmasters need not know any programming to edit the themes. They can choose a template that they want to use in the backend without messing up everything. Webmasters can get other people who are familiar with the smarty template system to integrate their design for them. Smarty will give you a great experience in customizing web design.
Video question/answer
Video helps people ask and give answers clearly and quickly. Members can ask questions and answer questions in an interactive way through videos, and get the experience of visual and interactive mixing on the site. Video enhances the interaction between community members. It comes with a handy flash player that can be embedded on site to allow streaming of video and audio without allowing downloads. Users can preview a video before attaching it with a question/answer, to make sure that it's all fine before sending it live. Best video answers will be shown randomly in the "Best Video Answers" block of the site.
Note: Video capability require specific modules installed on your server. Not all hosting companies are able to support these advanced modules so please check with your hosting company. Click here for the full hosting requirements.
Audio question/answer
It lets users listen to audio clips attached with questions or answers posted on the site. This would be a new experience for users; to be able to listen to content, rather than read it. Audio can be recorded using the voice recorder. Users can preview audio before sending it live.
Note: Audio capability require specific modules installed on your server. Not all hosting companies are able to support these advanced modules so please check with your hosting company. Click here for the full hosting requirements.
It rewards points to members when they undertake any action on the site, and user level will be updated according to the points scored. The points system is incorporated to encourage users to answer many questions and to limit spam questions/answers. The number of points rewarded to users depends on their participation level.


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New Delhi, Dec 5: A day after India was suspended by the International Olympic Committee, Sports Minister Jitendra Singh said he does not have the mandate or the jurisdiction to interfere in the matter but will still try to engage with the IOC to get the ban reversed.
Squarely blaming the Indian Olympic Association for the embarrassment, the Minister said had the IOA amended its Constitution to include government guidelines on age and tenure limitation, the suspension could have been avoided.
"The government does not have any mandate or jurisdiction. We are concerned and that is why we called a meeting of the IOA and wrote to the IOC. That's not our mandate but we will make all efforts to resolve the issue," Mr. Singh told reporters here on Wednesday.
"Two days ago I had met IOA officials and warned them that such a ban can come and amend your Constitution. But today instead of playing the blame-game, the need is to have a future strategy.
"I will once again talk to the IOC and write to them that let's talk about solving this problem for the future of Indian sportspersons. The government will take every step and we are willing to mediate. In the next few days I will also talk to sportspersons on the matter," he added.
In a major embarrassment for India, the IOC on Tuesday suspended the IOA because of government interference in its election process.
The IOC said that it decided to ban India as the IOA had failed to comply with Olympic Charter and also allowed a tainted official to contest elections for a top post.
The decision was largely expected after the IOA decided to go ahead with the elections today under the government's Sports Code, defying the IOC's diktat to hold the polls under the Olympic Charter.
Mr. Singh said the government guidelines remain quite relevant and it is the IOA which needs to put its house in order.
"The sports bill is very important and relevant. Along with that we have to now immediately sit together as it is important for the image of the country, image of sports and sportspersons that this problem is resolved.
"It is very sad that despite IOC warnings, the IOA did not amend its Constitution. The sports code is in sync with the IOC charter, there is no difference," he said.
Mr. Singh said there has to be a cap on age and tenure of office-bearers.
"I had requested them (the IOA) personally that please incorporate this sports code in your constitution and none of this (the ban) would have happened.
"I feel that in any organisation, including associations, there should be transparency, there should be age limit and there should be a tenure which is very important," he said.
"I was appealing to a lot of political people as there are many of them in associations and I had requested them that they should use their political clout for the betterment of sports rather than vice versa," he added.
Singh also rejected suggestions that government's interference complicated the matter.
"There is no interference from government in running or functioning of any association. We just say that the sports code in which tenure and age limits have been fixed should be incorporated. The courts have also said so in their judgements," he explained.


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Update – Jordan Johnson Pleads Not Guilty to Sexual Intercourse Without Consent [AUDIO]
In Missoula District Court Tuesday morning, now former University of Montana quarterback Jordan Johnson entered a plea of not guilty to the charge of sexual intercourse without consent. One of Johnson's defense attorney's, Kirsten Pabst said she would be filing a motion to dismiss the charges.
Deputy Missoula County Attorney Suzy Boylan said Tuesday afternoon that another hearing would be held on August 21st.
Johnson is accused of raping a woman at her home on February 4th while the two were watching TV. After the alleged assault, the victim went to The University of Montana Student Assault Center where she was examined by the staff at First Step.
Charges were filed by the county attorney's office on July 31st, and Johnson's district court appearance was originally scheduled for August 14th, however that date was moved up to Tuesday, August 7.
Deputy Missoula County Attorney Suzy Boylan


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Earlier this month, HTC refreshed its Software Updates page with information on the HTC One (M7)'s Sense 6 upgrade, revealing that most models had officially entered the "Integration" stage of the upgrade process. Now HTC has updated the page, revealing that many devices are now even closer to getting the Sense 6 upgrade.
HTC recently refreshed its official Software Updates page to reveal that most One (M7) variants in the US and Canada are now in the "Certification" stage of their Sense 6 upgrade. Those include the AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, unlocked and developer models in the US, as well as the Bell, Rogers, SaskTel, Telus, Virgin Mobile and Wind versions in Canada. The Sense 6 upgrades for the Sprint and Verizon versions of the One max are also in "Certification."
As for the models that aren't quite as far long in the Sense 6 upgrade process? The T-Mobile One (M7) is still in the "Development" phase, while the AT&T One mini is in "Integration." The Rogers One mini in Canada is also still in its "Integration" phase.
HTC's software update process consists of 5 phases: Evaluation, Development, Integration, Certification, and Push to Customer. Now that most One (M7) variants are in the "Certification" stage of their Sense 6 upgrades, it means that the carriers are testing the new software to ensure that there aren't any major bugs before the push to users begins.
HTC previously said that the One (M7) would be updated to Sense 6 by the end of May. While we still don't have a more precise rollout date for any of these One devices, it's nice to see that HTC is continuing to keep us updated on the Sense 6 upgrades as they progress through the upgrade process.


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Halo 4 brings us the most emotionally charged story we've encountered in the long-running video game franchise.
SPOILERS ahead.
Halo 4 is a game that gets right down to business.
Master Chief and Cortana are reunited but they don't have long before guns are blazing, Covenant dropships are swooping down from the sky, and general chaos has broken loose.
At first it all feels quite familiar---the same alien antagonists from previous games (though looking a great deal prettier) and the same guns, the same greens and blues.
But about halfway through the game the familiarity begins to wash away.
Most obviously, the colors of Halo 4 become much warmer than previous entries in the franchise. Magma reds and oranges replace the cooler color scheme that's defined Halo. Gone are the purples and blues and greens (at least for a while) as we're introduced to a new enemy, the Prometheans, and their overlord the Didact, a long-imprisoned member of the ancient and mysterious Forerunners who has gone over to the Dark Side.
All of this makes for some great space opera drama---and, of course, lots and lots of action taking place across a wide variety of terrains and vehicles---but the real heart of the story takes place on a much more personal level.
The story of Master Chief and his AI companion Cortana is surprisingly touching.
Part of this is the writing which is minimalist, tightly paced, and sincere. Chris Schlerf, Halo 4's lead writer, and the rest of the writing term deserve all the praise they've received.
The voice acting, with the Eastwood-esque Steve Downes delivering a solid performance and Jen Taylor as Cortana running away with the show, is excellent throughout.
A great deal of the story's success must also be laid at the feet of the animators and programmers who have crafted some of the most stunning cutscenes I've seen in a video game, and at the feet of its composers who have written a lovely original soundtrack that compliments each stage of the adventure perfectly.
But it's all these parts crafted into one compelling whole that makes the story of Master Chief and Cortana such a beautiful and tragic tale.
Perhaps the highest praise I can give to this game is that I never once wanted to skip a cutscene. Each scene was brief enough and believable enough to harness my attention fully. Especially toward the end of the game, the scenes---both in-game and cut---gained an emotional intensity that I found both welcome and surprising.
As Cortana begins her descent into an AI version of madness, I found myself increasingly uncomfortable and concerned. So did Master Chief, even if he isn't one for too many words.
By the end, I felt a real weight, a real sadness. As Master Chief stares down at Earth, I could feel his melancholy. How 343 Industries managed to convey so much emotion through a visor, I really don't know. But it was there and it was powerful.
I say all of this as someone who typically isn't really fond of many linear, story-driven games. I've a terrible habit for skipping cutscenes and racing through dialogue. It's my attention deficit issues at play, I'm quite sure, but I'm very often an impatient gamer. I blame this also on the often bad writing and laughable cutscenes we find in so many games and which Halo 4 so magnificently avoids.
Maybe I'm just a sucker for a good love story.
Which is what Halo 4 really is: a love story but not a romance.
The affection between Cortana and Master Chief is not romantic, despite the odd sexualization of Cortana.
This is only fitting. Master Chief is a Christ-like figure; even his name, John-117, can be read as a biblical reference. There is no room in his mythology for romantic relationships.
So we have a man who seems more machine than human and an AI that seems more human than machine. The two not only compliment one another, they come to depend on one another and as we can see in the events of Halo 4, this can only really be described as love.
Cortana's final sacrifice is no less poignant because she is not human, because there are other models of her in the universe.
Later, when Master Chief is reminded that soldiers are humans and not machines, it's almost as if he's been slapped.
And his last line, spoken only to the stars---She said that to me once. About being a machine---was simply beautiful. A haunting, poetic farewell, and a brief glimpse at the super soldier as something less machine and much more profoundly human.
Follow me on Twitter or Facebook. Read my Forbes blog here.
I write about video games, TV and movies.


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Air France Industries and KLM Engineering & Maintenance merged eight years ago to create what is now a global MRO powerhouse. Today, AFI-KLM E&M is mainly focused on expanding its engine and component business, which accounts for 10% of its growth. The company's president, Franck Terner, discussed strategies with Aviation Week.
How will the AFI and KLM E&M MRO dual-profile continue to evolve?
Terner: We are already an integrated company. It's not Air France Industries on one side and KLM Engineering & Maintenance on the other. It has been more than seven years since we merged, and we are one, single integrated company. Business at AFI-KLM E&M will continue to go on as it has for almost eight years.
From Day 1, the main topic of discussion was: "What can we get out of this merger?" It is difficult to say how long it took to get to this stage, probably years. The synergies between Air France and KLM are very aligned; there is no crossover in the products we share within our network.
Can you describe your "contract management flexibility" strategy?
It's a simple strategy: organize ourselves to say 'yes' to the customer. Our main goal is to never say 'no' to a customer. Our first question to a customer is, 'What do you need?' Do you need components powered by the hour? Yes, we can. Do you need flexibility to just have us do the repair and you take care of your own asset? We can do that. Do you need engine spares? We can do that. The contract has to be adaptive to what the customer wants.
What are your performance goals for the aftermarket business?
We have a history of pretty nice growth, which is mainly focused on engines and components. Overall our business has grown 3%, but when it comes specifically to engines and components, it's more like 10%. Our goal is to carry on that growth and we think the market is there, as long as we continue to deliver a high-quality service.
How will you achieve that?
The first thing is to implement the Air France-KLM Group's Transform 2015 plan. We can also rely on some existing strengths. We have invested significantly in our Paris and Amsterdam facilities, including the new test cell for very big engines. We'll continue to focus on listening to the request of the customers and not impose a solution on them. By continuing to ensure we keep up with new technologies, we can guarantee our growth in the long term. We also want to have a presence in areas such as China, Asia and South America.
Where do you see the biggest opportunities for growth?
If you look at demand in our industry, you can see steady growth of roughly 3% globally. If you focus a little more on what kind of product is growing, new-generation aircraft are growing fastest, I would say 8-10%—this is a balance between aircraft retiring and new aircraft entering into service. Looking more closely again at the areas in which this growth is particularly high—Asia, China, India (even if India is still a small market, it is growing fast), South America, Eastern Europe and Russia—today we are present in all these areas, whether we have contracts, or whether we are implementing some facilities to be closer to our customers.
Is there an increased emphasis on growing partnerships in China?
We cannot say we invest more in China than in Europe. We will continue to invest in our facilities in Europe, but of course we have to be present in this growing market [China], so we will also invest in the region. We have to be very open to partnerships of any kind. We are working with many partners around the world and I think there is a real opportunity to catch some growth from these emerging markets.
What new services are you introducing to the market?
Our large-engine test cell at Charles de Gaulle in Paris is now running. It is a big move for us as it makes us a full alternative to GE. We are fighting a friendly fight every day with the OEM; there is still big competition in this arena. The fact that we are now 100% capable for the GE90 is very important. The test cell will also be capable of handling all the new big-engine technology.
What about future developments?
We are working hard on new products like asset management. We are growing that activity and we think there is a real opportunity to leverage our big assets. In 2014, we will invest significant sums of money into setting up a new facility here in Paris for aerostructure activity. Our customers are very keen to be helped with day-to-day on-wing services, so we will also enhance our engine capability for on-wing services.
How is the business preparing for the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350?
We have been present on the 787 from the beginning, when we signed a contract with LOT Polish Airlines. It was our first contract and won't be the last.
Handling components on A350 engines is our goal. It is a bit too far away to say what the aircraft is looking like as far as the airframe is concerned, but we are working hard to offer our customers that capability.
We see a trend that new-technology airframes require less and less maintenance. Some years ago, and it's still the case for 747s, for example, when you have facilities in Western Europe, or sometimes in the U.S., it is a good thing to fly the aircraft over to a lower-cost region for maintenance. But when the aircraft is less demanding in man-hours, you have to consider the tradeoff between fuel cost and man-hour rates. In the longer term, it may happen that the maintenance of the 787 and A380 will be regionalized. We're thinking about that and we will see if there is interest from our customers for us to be present in the areas where they fly the aircraft.
The new aircraft capabilities come on top of already existing products that we have developed. We are a big provider on the A380 with our partner, Lufthansa Technik. We are becoming a big player on Embraer's E-Jet family and ATRs, too. Our big seller is still the Boeing 777, while we are probably the leader in Airbus A330 component support. We will continue to develop capabilities on the GE90 and component repairs on the engine.
Are customers starting to bundle services more with new aircraft such as the A380 or 787?
We are very keen to have a global offer for airframes, components and engines, but we do not see customers bundling those services because the facilities and the know-how for each product are very different.
What is the bulk of your external business?
The main products we serve our customers are engine and component services. We are still strong on line maintenance and cabin modifications. There are regions of the world where our customers can achieve D checks far more cheaply, but they are still in high demand, particularly for our parent company.
What trends are you seeing in component and engine MRO?
It is quite obvious that customers are growing in size as they consolidate. These bigger customers have more power to negotiate. And with newer technologies bringing better value to airlines, there is a clear size effect on the business of components. As a trend, component MROs have to be more and more competitive as time goes by.
With these bigger customers investing in new long-range fleets, which have newer technology and larger engines, it is more difficult to access these new technologies. There are high barriers to getting into the big-engine business, so the number of players is quite low, perhaps only five. As a result, I think in the future we will see only big MROs handling engines. I'm not saying it will lead to a consolidation, but perhaps there will be bigger partnerships in order to cope with the customer's demands for lower cost and to deal with the size effect of larger airlines.
Will there be room for the smaller aftermarket players?
With bigger customers putting more pressure on price and impacting margins, there is less ability to invest in growth, and at the end of the day, you can imagine how that will affect smaller MROs.
It's also impossible to predict what will happen as OEMs put more pressure on the market. It's a question of leveraging discussions with OEMs, and I can imagine that small independents will have some trouble doing that. The trend is going toward partnerships and/or consolidations. When? I don't know.


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The Strelitz Diabetes Center
Dedicated to exemplary patient care, innovative research and excellence in education.
The EVMS Strelitz Diabetes Center (SDC) in Norfolk, Virginia, is comprised of a renowned international team of endocrinology experts – clinical providers, scientists and educators – working to find the cure for diabetes and to prevent the debilitating complications of neuropathy and cardiovascular disease. We are committed to improving quality of life for patients with diabetes and other metabolic disorders by developing innovative methods for treatment and diagnosis.
In the U.S. News and World Report's Best Hospitals 2014-15 list, the diabetes & endocrinology program at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital (SNGH) was recognized as "high performing," meaning the quality of care ranked in the top 25 percent nationwide. EVMS faculty help staff SNGH — the top-rated hospital in Virginia — and its diabetes & endocrinology program.
Our Mission
- Improve the quality of life for individuals with diabetes and other metabolic and hormone disorders (thyroid, pituitary, adrenal disease, osteoporosis, elevated cholesterol, and neuro-endocrine tumors) by developing innovative methods for treatment and diagnosis.
- Engage in new and innovative diabetes research to find a cure and prevent the debilitating complications of diabetes, especially diabetic neuropathy (diabetes-related nerve damage) and cardiovascular disease.
- Educate Hampton Roads patients, health professionals and the public about diabetes prevention and treatment topics, including:
- Signs and symptoms of diabetes
- Distinctions between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes
- Diabetes risk factors
- Diabetes prevention
Watch a story about how the Strelitz Diabetes Center changed someone's life:


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Today I placed a gallon jug of water under two legs of my hive and put the other two inside a cement mixing tray. I filled everything with water to try and create a moat to stop the ants. Later today I looked and one of the gallon jugs was just touching the back leg and the **** things had made their way to the hive again, leaving a perfect trail.
Who can tell me what to do? I may have to exterminate this fresh cut-out because the first banana boat from South America doomed the colony.


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H6: Diary of a Serial Killer (US - DVD R1)
Gabe Powers isn't really all that shocked by this recent Spanish torture show...
Freed after a 25-year jail sentence for killing his girlfriend, Antonio Frau (Fernando Asaco) inherits an old motel from an aunt he never knew. Inspired by another killer, who kept record of his murders, Antonio decides to begin "cleansing" those who have lost the will to live (shades of Jigsaw). He retrofits his new lair with a torture room (shades of H.H. Holmes and Buffalo Bill) and leads his naive victims to it, where he purifies them through excruciating pain and blood-soaked torture, while at the same time, continuing his everyday life next to his new wife.
Thanks to a somewhat misleading quote from the fine folks at Bloody-Disgusting.com, a lot of people seem to be under the impression that H6 has something in common with Eli Roth's Hostel. Other than the lead character's penchant for torture, the two films are pretty much not a like at all. Hostel knew it was a B-movie, and was made to thrill and gross-out. H6 is under the impression that it's somehow classy. It's a B-movie masquerading as an art flick.
H6 is also surprisingly tame in its actual on-screen mayhem. The most gruesome gore is reduced to rushing blood splatter from just off screen. I'm thinking that the flick's infamous reputation has more to do with the disturbing depictions of rape and psychological torture (because believe it or not, there is such thing as psychological torture). Knowing the girl strapped to the table has been there for days on end without food is more disturbing than watching the killer dispose of her body parts. This is where the film manages to channel a little genuine terror, sticking it just above most B-horror releases.
The diary aspect is, unfortunately, the film's only real original addition to the genre. One could compare this gimmick to the story telling of voice-over driven character portraits like American Psycho, but here all the leads are given a diary voice-over. The problem is that this is the picture's most intriguing aspect, and it isn't quite explored to such an extreme fashion to be anything more than an intriguing gimmick. Rather than simply being a good-looking average scare show, H6 becomes a missed opportunity. Imagine if the story was told like Stephen King's Carrie, all in news clippings and interviews. It would've been great.
But the flick does look good, though sometimes a simple sequence will be over-edited, as if the editor were just bored with the angle. Director Martín Garrido Barón seems to have been watching a lot of recent Korean films, or at least the same films those filmmakers were watching, because the picture is extra decorative and downright Baroque at times (Are you sick of that term yet Editor Chris?). The set design is particularly pretty, and makes a nice contrast to the ugliness of the story. Not that that hasn't been done before, of course.
The most memorable aspect of the film, the one that will really creep out most viewers, is the fact that our killer is neither passionate nor anguished. Antonio is so creepily apathetic that he's actually a bit scary. This, again, isn't something we haven't seen on film before, but considering the majority of serial killer pictures take either the 'angry monster' or 'weepy momma's boy' route, it's good to know Barón was interested in making something that would make a lasting impression.
I first saw this flick on a DVDR sent from Tartan in order to type up a few E-Mail questions for the director. It was very hard to see what was happening. Now I can actually watch the film. The transfer runs hot and cold in quality, but most viewers should find it more than acceptable. The well-lit scenes look perfect, high detail, nice washed out colours, but the dark scenes are a different story. As you may've expected from the plot synopsis, a lot of the picture takes place in the dark rooms of the apartment building. The problem I have with the transfer is that it never gets truly black. The dark spaces take on the colour characteristics of the brighter colours around them, which are often reds and burgundies. The film is stylized enough for me to accept that perhaps this was done on purpose, but it comes across as a mastering mistake.
The film's score is mostly of a traditional classical nature, but there's a bit of pop thrown in for good measure, and the dueling DTS and Dolby Digital tracks both make for nice music. The surround channels are especially impressive with the fluttering of strings. Sound effects are pretty low-key, but there are some subtle directional effects that'll bring you into the story, and that chainsaw will rattle even the most steadfast nerves. The dialogue track is often curiously artificial sounding, with a bit too much reverb in scenes that don't require it. I'm sure some of the dialogue was recorded in post, but even cheap ADR sounds more realistic. It's odd, but not entirely distracting.
The whole business is rather bare-boned, including only a director/actor interview and an assortment of Tartan trailers. The interview runs a total of about 8 minutes, and doesn't offer much in the way of insight. It appears to have been filmed on set. Those that enjoyed the film will appreciate the inclusion, but most of us will end up skipping it down the road.
If you see only one portrait of a serial killer in you lifetime, make it Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. If you see two or three, make them H.H. Holmes: America's First Serial Killer or Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer , both solid documentaries on the subject. If you're planning on seeing about 10 serial killer profiles, H6 should be on your list. It's not original, though it does verge on originality at times, and it's not as gory as the box art would have you believe, but it's very well made. If you have the stomach for some disturbing scenes of psychological torture, and pointless over editing, give the flick a chance. I've given H6 an above average score based on the fact that, for a young director's first film, it shows an impressive visual prowess.
Review by Gabriel Powers
David Blackwell Senior Member Join Date: February 2004 Location: United States Posts: 2,831
I like to see a sequekl to this. I can't wait to see what you think of Pulse.
Noto Member Join Date: July 2006 Location: United States Posts: 14
I received the DVD-R screener of this as well. This was a tragically boring film with a plot that is almost completely recycled parts.
mikey mike Member Join Date: March 2006 Location: Yemen Posts: 256
always wanted to see a movie bout 10 serial killer profiles so this is a dream come true
Simon Abrams Member Join Date: June 2005 Location: United States Posts: 710
Pulse (the remake) is not worth your time; I saw the rought cut of it before they changed it and the changes seem to have been minisculel. It's still a very poorly made movie in my opinion.
The original is very good though.
The original is very good though.
This product has not been rated
Disc Details
Release Date: 21st November 2006
Discs: 1
Disc Type: Single side, dual layer
RCE: No
Video: NTSC
Aspect: 1.85:1
Anamorphic: Yes
Colour: Yes
Audio: DTS 5.1 Spanish, Dolby Digital 5.1 Spanish
Subtitles: English
Extras: Director/Actor Interview, Trailers
Easter Egg: No
Feature Details
Director: Martín Garrido Barón
Cast: Fernando Acaso, Angel Alarcon, Raquel Arenas, Ruperto Ares, María José Bausá
Length: 91 minutes
6Review Guide
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Met up with those Ashbury bros at Bear on last week. A bunch of 'em rolled down to So Cal to get some before the Ashbury demo at Bear. It was a real Spring Break 09 vibe. We all flopped at Desiree Melancon's place. Felt like a gypsy camp, every one living out of their respective board bags. All of which eventually exploded, pouring plaid and paisley-patterned fabrics everywhere.
The living was easy. Up late-ish, to let it soften up, eat, maybe skate some flatground, try to stretch, try to get everyone going at the same time, pile into cars, head to the mountain, and then hot-lap 'till the legs went. It was hot and sunny all day. Typical Bear: more features than you can keep up with and gangs of fools following each other at break neck speeds down the mountain.
And with almost everyone armed with a digi-cam there was a lot of blogging going on.
Expect to see some edits from the week…soon, they're still to come..check back here…
But 'till then…here's stills of some of the boarding that went down…
And some sequences…
And here's a shred edit from Jake Kuyzk
And another from Larry Penguin


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