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user comments 89 comment(s)
|i downloaded it… (10:01am est tue aug 10 2004)
last night and installed. nothing has burnt up or exploded. i give it a thumbs up. – by jb
|i upgraded too… (10:08am est tue aug 10 2004)
and now my powerbook says it has 4.5 hours left on the batters…. i used to only get about 3.5
they must have made some changes to the enegery config. – by ming
|update (10:24am est tue aug 10 2004)
here we go again, geek.com delivering yesterdays news…… again!!!
i downloaded the update at 6pm eastern.
geek.com is so so sad.
i bet you guys did even notice that the updates are different sizes for different computers, did you?!?!?!?!?
mine is 22.9mb – by geek sux
|i hope this helps (10:29am est tue aug 10 2004)
osx has been so buggy, i hope that they have ironed out the samba issues. i do need to use macs, in production, what a headache. maybe this upgrade will make it a little smoother. – by graphics guy
|frag time. (10:30am est tue aug 10 2004)
as a proud owner of a g5 i have to say there is nothing more fun than a ten-player game of photoshop deathmatch.
i have this really sweet gaussian blur death ray.
(but seriously, i do own a g5 and love it.) – by ratbastard
|u id10t. (10:33am est tue aug 10 2004)
samba for graphics work? do you even know what samba is. sheesh. – by ur a liar.
|samba! (11:07am est tue aug 10 2004)
samba is a bit buggy to say the least, but what value for money! ch'ching. i've had one in production for a month now so far so good.
osx, don't, dont even try and tell me how stable it is, it's total poo.
back to the drawing board on that one – by mm
|cool (11:08am est tue aug 10 2004)
i bet this must be great for those six users out there that run a mac – by windowsuser
|ah (11:25am est tue aug 10 2004)
i will have to get on the net with my powerbook and do an update. – by regulas
|samba, off topic (11:29am est tue aug 10 2004)
samba provides seamless file and print services and allows for interoperability between linux/unix and windows. samba can be run on unix, linux, sys/390, openvms, and uses tcp/ip that allows a host to interact with a windows server as if it is a windows file and print server.
shorter: let's *nix use windows files.
– by tech
|in graphics (11:48am est tue aug 10 2004)
i need to log on to many windows boxes, servers and rip's, i should just switch to doing all my work on pc's adobe has made all that possible. all my problems with osx would go away. – by graphics guy
|re: geek sux (11:54am est tue aug 10 2004)
you're comment was 38 minutes late. – by you suck.
|hmm (12:12pm est tue aug 10 2004)
why does it sound like all your mac problems is windows??? – by sucka
|geek sux… (12:15pm est tue aug 10 2004)
well my friend, you dont like it, then leave. the rest of us will keep the news and leave the comments that make geek.com worth it. – by konker1.1
|in graphics (12:39pm est tue aug 10 2004)
in fact, i have verry little trouble with my windows boxes. they are solid, and do what i need. since we have moved to osx, we have had an increased incedence, of mac related problems. – by graphics guy
|^^ (1:10pm est tue aug 10 2004)
good comment graphics guy.
– by :x
|wow (1:14pm est tue aug 10 2004)
so much macintosh hate here… – by someone…
|imho (2:01pm est tue aug 10 2004)
macs and pc's are both fine(meaning they both suck), some excel at some tasks and others at different ones. but if you could only have one, the choice is easy. isn't it? – by billy "big $" gates
|in graphics (2:49pm est tue aug 10 2004)
i have both, and they both work, but if i had to chose, i would have to go with a pc, with xp. the mac is just to limiting. – by graphics guy
|graphics guy (3:00pm est tue aug 10 2004)
what specific problems are you having? it sounds like you don't have proper tech support for your macs. so, state your specific problems/perceived limitations, and i (and maybe some other readers) can suggest solutions. – by answer guy
|mac os 126.96.36.199.5012 (3:25pm est tue aug 10 2004)
who cares? mac's suck anyway
i mean come on, they haven't even upgraded from a 1 button mouse… shame shame – by realist guy
|hmmm? (4:53pm est tue aug 10 2004)
same bunch of anti mac nazis.
see ya geek. – by gone
|graphics guy (5:05pm est tue aug 10 2004)
"i would have to go with a pc, with xp. the mac is just to limiting."
one word for you, poser: colorsync
all windows cmm's suck by comparison.
|realist guy… (5:08pm est tue aug 10 2004)
don't forget music!!
all the musicians and engineers i know use macs. music engineers i mean.
i havn't had any probs with os/x.
and yes they are pretty, oh so pretty. – by sho is tasty tho
|reality (7:12pm est tue aug 10 2004)
there is not a lot you can do with a one button mouse. how do you right click and "save as" to download your updates?
does your mouse have fur on it (like the thread from yesterday? mickey mouse macs i believe.) – by apple 2e user
|well, that was ok (9:59pm est tue aug 10 2004)
would like to know if the graphics drivers did much of interest, don't see anything mind. – by updated
|yes yes yes (10:02pm est tue aug 10 2004)
oh so many problems with mac os updates…like? and in comparison to the latest xp update? smooth as silk.
still waiting for that compelling reason to switch from the mac o/s to xp that doesn't involve yet another 1st person perspective game. – by os/x stud
|in graphics (10:07pm est tue aug 10 2004)
i didn't mean to staart a mac pc war (another). i haave been using both platforms for 20 yeaars. i will say that mac did hold a definate advantage over the pc, for many years, but that has disapeared. not both platforms will do most of anything. my son uses protools, and staaarted on a pc, has moved to a mac, and it does seem to work better., but i use use all the adobe apps, on the job, and off. the pc does just as well, if not better. fontas are still an issue. tho open fonts are deleting that issue. i repeat. both paltforms are good, and will perform all tasks. personaly tho, i will take a pc. there are more things that just just work… – by graphics guy
|graphics guy… (11:01pm est tue aug 10 2004)
let's get some real specifics here, buddy. what "just works" for you on windows systems that doesn't on mac osx? i'd like to hear specifics. as a commercial director and motion graphic animator/compositor, i find the mac to be superior as a platform to windows for a number of specific reasons. perhaps the #1 being uptime without system reinstalls. a close #2 is performance under heavy loads. i can be rendering in after effects and hop over to edit uncompressed 10bit in final cut without even feeling a thing. meanwhile, all windows systems bog down under cpu crunching. period.
so show me the specifics. – by dr alien
|flaaaame! (12:20am est wed aug 11 2004)
pc's are the intergral part of the jewish-illuminati conspiracy! mhmmmmmmm…. why aren't you guys sad for wasting your time flaming each other on a message board on a site that say instead of living for a change? – by powerbookuser
|one button mouse (12:47am est wed aug 11 2004)
i love that one. when an uneducated pc user can't think of anything better, they always go for the mouse.
blue screen of death.
there…thats my uneducated mac opinion.
now for the mouse. we have a command key that gives us the same commands pc users have with their second mouse button.
am i right in guessing pc users prefer 2 mouse buttons so they can have a hand free to whack off over bill gates pr0n?
apples on pc networks. they're always neglected. i mean, every production house i've worked in has had its technicians ignoring macs on networks due to them not having a clue. therefor it is left to the tech savvy designer to rectify any problems.
i'd love to see the technician here at work on the $85k salary do somthing other than re install the system everytime he can't figure something out (99.9% of the time). it sure would give me less to do on my humble wage which doesn't include it work i'm doing to counter balance his lack of experience.
i believe macs suck when you don't know how to use them or if you're just plain ol' ignorant. i also strongly believe that if you can't work a mac then it's highly possible you may not posess the skill to coordinate breathing and thinking at the same time.
greetz to all pc techs who actually know enough about a mac to have reason to hate it.
back on topic…apple needs to update isync!!!!!! – by tool
|the one button mouse (7:19am est wed aug 11 2004)
so old,so unoriginal.
truth is you don't even need a mouse on a mac.
open universal access, mouse on.
0 opens the drop menu, and . closes it.
multi button mice are for pooftahs.
|poofs poofs poofs (8:37am est wed aug 11 2004)
yeah…go away you pooftahs
only one enter key? what if you're a power hungry pc user who boasts about his billion button mouse? surely you don't expect them to use a single "enter" key do you?? – by tool
|tool (8:54am est wed aug 11 2004)
only one enter key?
actually 3. you can use return, or click with the 1 button mouse if you choose, as well.
or you can plug a 20 button mouse in and it works.
you do have choices. – by willy
|ps (8:58am est wed aug 11 2004)
i forgot one!
5 on the # pad is click as well. – by willy
|chuckas (9:19am est wed aug 11 2004)
you're all chuckas if you can't use key commands to work your rig faster than a 80 button mouse. that's what it's there for. multi-button mice are an option, but they're not superior in any way. they are only an advantage to people who don't know their computer very well. – by jack move
|ps> tool (9:22am est wed aug 11 2004)
isync was just updated to 1.5. – by jack move
|what i would like to see (10:33am est wed aug 11 2004)
is a scroll button on the mouse. maybe using a strip of the ipod touch wheel mechanism. touch scroll pad on the side of the pro mouse, so you can use your ring-finger (fourth finger in). great for web surfing. – by super pro mouse
|what blue screen? (2:35pm est wed aug 11 2004)
i keep hearing about "the blue screen of death." i have not seen it once on windows xp pro!
the damn thing just stops. no fabled blue screen, no three-finger salute — it just stops. a reset or power cycle is the only thing that will get it going again.
that, and windows xp can't maintain an internet connection for even a single day.
it ain't hardware, because linux works beautifully on this box.
multimedia is a complete joke. getting audio to sync with video is damn near impossible on this platform. any simple a/v task is like pulling teeth, and is better handled by a 5-year-old 366mhz ibook!
so i bring in my own old ibook for any serious work. oh, and graphics guy — ditch samba and use sftp! good grief, windows was never meant for networks, using its built-in stuff is asking for trouble. put an ftp daemon on your peecee and use the unixy goodness of mac os x.
it's no wonder the industry standardized on windows crap: it gives it drones lots of work. had the industry standardized on quality, these low-iq it types would have to work at mcdonald's "building" hamburgers.
hmm, you want these idiots anywhere near your food? didn't think so!
mac os 10.3.4 is already better than longhorn will be in what, three or four years? it takes microsoft so long to catch up, and they never get it right.
10.3.5 probably puts apple another year ahead of microsoft.
maybe if i played a lot of games i would appreciate windows xp pro. but when a game switches screen resolutions, xp throws my desktop icons wherever it wants, making the desktop useless.
(even in mac os 9, it was *simple* to make an applescript to place the icons in useful places — i mean, it took maybe three clicks and a drag to write the script. where is such ability in xp? ain't got it. probably never will.)
another example of microsoft not getting it, and not getting it right. – by unix daemon
|ah ha ha ha ha ha! (5:30pm est wed aug 11 2004)
where's your mighty 64bit g5 now?
george lucas is using amd 64's! that right and x86 64bit amd to make starwars episode iii.
nope… he knew that to get the work done, apple doesn't cut it because it sucks big time.
the true big boys know which hardware to use when it comes to crunch time and g5 isn't one of them.
ha ha ha ha i laugh at all you wannabe maya osx users!
– by macs do suck!
|cont. (5:34pm est wed aug 11 2004)
the amd64 processor-based workstation systems are running microsoft� windows� xp pro, alias' maya and adobe� after effects software. amd64 processor-based file server systems are running on clustered microsoft windows storage server 2003 software.
can you mac losers read that! using windows xp pro, maya and adobe after effects.
where's your g5 osx maya version? that's right in the gargabe can 'cause that's all its worth. – by ha ha ha!
|here's some more for you mac losers! (5:37pm est wed aug 11 2004)
"amd64 processor-based workstations and servers are helping to shave time and money off the multiyear and multimillion-dollar star wars: episode iii project. more importantly, amd64 is helping to inspire a renaissance in both movies and music by removing technological limitations, enabling the creative mind to remain open to experimentation, new ideas and possibilities towards expanding digital art forms. "
eat that all you mac graphic wannabees!
learn from real multi billion dollar pros! they use x86 machines for pre-visualization and pre-postproduction, which involves 3-d match moving, 3-d modeling, lighting, shading, texturing, compositing and rendering techniques.
– by ha ha ha!
|where's your comment macjedi? (5:54pm est wed aug 11 2004)
hmmmm… mr macjedi, what do you say now that your beloved starwars are using windowsxp amd systems?
lordross, unixdaemon, mingisback and the rest of you guys or girls who keep saying the movie and sound pros only use macs?
– by curious george
|get a grip (6:15pm est wed aug 11 2004)
ms xp and apple's os/x are typically only used in pre and post production. the real difficult stuff is done on high end workstations running either some kind of unix or specialty os/software. lucas isn't going to trust the hard-core special effects needed for his latest completely sucks-fest using windows or the mac os. – by os/x stud
|ummm…. (6:25pm est wed aug 11 2004)
"the real difficult stuff is done on high end workstations running either some kind of unix or specialty os/software."
perhaps sun microsystems? fair enough but the main fact still remains, lucas chose amd 64 windows boxes over the 64 bit g5 for pre and post production. – by sorry, you lose
|re: os/x stud (6:30pm est wed aug 11 2004)
"lucas isn't going to trust the hard-core special effects needed for his latest completely sucks-fest"
i take it you're a muti-billionaire film maker like lucas who's been making films since the early 70's and you've made multi million dollar films yourself?
not!!!! just go back to your spinning beach ball of death and be the movie maker wannabe that you are. – by geesh, some people
|re: unixdaemon (6:46pm est wed aug 11 2004)
"multimedia is a complete joke. getting audio to sync with video is damn near impossible on this platform. any simple a/v task is like pulling teeth, and is better handled by a 5-year-old 366mhz ibook!"
i take it you're also a muti-billionaire film maker like lucas who's been making films since the early 70's and you've made multi million dollar films yourself?
– by geesh, some people
|isync (7:28pm est wed aug 11 2004)
yay! about bloody time….now lets see if i can hook up my 7610. – by tool
|wow! (8:39pm est wed aug 11 2004)
no comeback from all those diehard loyal mac osx users who kept on saying if you want to play games use a pc but if you want to get your work done (video editing, 3d modelling and rendering and or music) use a mac because real pro's use mac's.
yeah pro's who either work for someone else (someone's bitch) or film maker wannabees.
learn from someone who's actually made million dollar movies and who own's industrial light and magic.
he uses and amd64 windows xp box.
|lucas… (8:47pm est wed aug 11 2004)
anyone that really works in the industry knows that x86 boxes are the dominant force in 3d right now. in most 3d apps, the fastest x86 workstations are faster than the fastest g5. of course, the g5 is significantly cheaper than brand-name x86 workstations and get drastically better price/performance. regardly, x86 rules the 3d roost for now and has more applications, plugins and supporting apps.
that said, the content creation industry overall is on the mac for the majority of the work getting done. video, compositing and motion graphics is dominated by macs and apple's dominance is growing. they rule the print and ad agency world with no sign of slowing. and with maya unlimited as well as kaydara and other 3d developers porting to osx, the mac is growing stronger every year in 3d.
mr. lucas is using amd boxes for this movie. in a year he'll throw them out or move them to the renderfarm for the next best platform… and there'll be even more reason to go with the mac then.
you mac haters are just biased, ignorant children. i'm still waiting on those specifics from mr. graphics guy. – by dr alien
|i think (9:11pm est wed aug 11 2004)
"mr. lucas is using amd boxes for this movie. in a year he'll throw them out or move them to the renderfarm for the next best platform… and there'll be even more reason to go with the mac then."
he's also used amd 32 bit athlon xp's with starwars 2 before they were 64 bit processors. why amd when you can get g5 with maya unlimited as well as kaydara?
look at all the work done by ilm. countless movies thanks to amd. so… this comes to show you that the g5 is not the fastest and most costs efficient as the marketing ads say they are.
photoshop tests on apple's website are a crock. real world testing is what the idustry uses and that my friend is an athlon amd64 x86 windows xp!
ouch… windowsxp and an x86 over a supposed superior g5 with osx. – by ouch
|macjedi, yoohoo where are you? (9:21pm est wed aug 11 2004)
i think your jedi worthiness has now been demoted to padiwan wannabee since your name is associated with the movie that uses
amd64 windows xp pro! – by double u dee
|shooooooooosh! (9:35pm est wed aug 11 2004)
we must whisper. it's oh so quiet in mac land since there's no reponse to this whole amd thing.
you see, this is what happens when some of you mac folks (i'm not saying all of you) keeping slagging pc's for games only.
pc's have come along way from the days of just spreadsheets and word documents. – by no more fighting
|changin' times (9:49pm est wed aug 11 2004)
times are a changin' – by the borg
|amds this year (11:22pm est wed aug 11 2004)
next year, intels or ibm processors. whatever he uses for the high end special effects, it won't be running xp or os/x.
wasn't this thread supposed to be about apple's latest update? just downloaded it and smooth as silk, back up and running. no probs, unlike the latest sp from ms. – by os/x stud
|no prob for me for sp1 (11:55pm est wed aug 11 2004)
"unlike the latest sp from ms."
funny, i'm using sp1 and i don't have any problems also?
can't wait for sp2
"won't be running xp or os/x."
|too many hardons… (12:51am est thu aug 12 2004)
not enough sex eh? – by heh…
|yeah yeah (8:14am est thu aug 12 2004)
george lucas, star wars, amd, windcrap, blah blah blah…………
then this guy comes along and makes all the neccessary improvements.
lowry digital uses proprietary, software, called the lowry process, which employs 600 dual g5 macintosh computers, each with 4gb of ram, harnessed into a "supercomputer" configuration using a gigabit ethernet network and 400 tb of hard disk.
– by willy
|i'll tell you what… (9:08am est thu aug 12 2004)
come to new york city, grab a ny production guide, and go on a little day trip to post facilities. talk to their editors and tech support staff about which platform they prefer.
go to boutique facilities like edgeworx or off hollywood digital or rouge creative or countless others and see what they use and what their people prefer.
then, stop by viacom (1515 broadway) and check out what machines are at the heart of every broadcast and cable channel here (mtv, mtv2, vh1, comedy central, nickelodeon, tv land, spike tv, bet, cmt, noggin, cbs). talk with our head of production technologies who deploys and manages these systems. ask him the difference in support issues between a avid system on a pc and on a mac when either crashes (one usually looses a day to a full os reinstall…guess which one).
then, come back to this dinky little message board and report honestly on what you've heard. you'll never say win/x86 is the superior platform for media again without knowing that you're lying through your teeth. this is the world i work in every day. it's just a fact that all these places prefer the mac overwhelmingly. there are pc shops, and they get their work done just fine, but nothing beats a g5 running panther for overall productivity.
again, setup a maya render on a windows machine and then try to do anything else. do the same on any recent mac running osx. that answers your question right there.
my only sidenote is that for 3d work, the mac is playing catchup since they've only had a modern os for 4 years compared to the 7+ that nt has been out there. now that osx is unix, 3d is moving in a big way (over 20% of maya licenses are for the mac).
– by dr alien
|dr alien (10:01am est thu aug 12 2004)
you're so very correct, but you're wasting your finger muscles.
when we consider how many magazines, book publishers, post-pro shops, design agencies etc. are based in new york city it strikes us as hilarious and misguided when these losers spout off about nt/x86 being on-par with the mac in these fields. nothing's going to change their redneck opinions on the matter. they interperet out real-world experiences as "misguided snobbish elitism," but you already know that.
i'd suggest–being that the geek.com staff has dropped the ball on troll filters for years now–that you ignore their misguided bloviations and discuss relevant news with those of us who know what the hell we're talking about.
so, what are your first impressions on motion?
|mr. tisk tisk.. (10:42am est thu aug 12 2004)
holy one man teenage troll spaz, batman! nobody cares about your troll because what the hell does it have to do with anything? how long did you sit on this page by yourself whining on and on trying to make yourself feel good? what does it have to do with the topic, and who gives a crap about star wars iii? – by death cube k
|gropo… (1:34pm est thu aug 12 2004)
i haven't recieved my copy yet, but i've been extremely impressed with what i've seen at nab and promax. it can't handle layered illustrator art which hurts it for my use doing motion graphics compared to ae. it's ui and workflow look pretty impressive and i can't wait to play with it. i think that it will fit into my toolkit as an app for fast turn-around work or for generating elements that can make use of it's particle engine and it's behavioral animation (which is just friggin amazing).
this is the first 2d app to bring interactive behavior-driven animation to the table. that alone will pay for the measily $299 price in one job. there are ae plugins that cost more and do only one thing. the sheer fact that you can buy a dual 2.5ghz g5 and motion for under $4000 and have this much realtime power is just unheard of. this could replace old paintbox systems for a 100th the cost.
the best thing of all, though, is that apple has made this app a demo of what developers can do with ease. tiger has the motion realtime engine built in as "core image" and easily available for developers to tap with simple apis. you can build a realtime graphics app from scratch without having to write any image manipulation code.
this is what makes the osx apple so fucking great. they aren't just "competing with their developers" as the nimrods with no info claim. they are providing unreal tools for the developers and raising the bar with their own apps. any developer can make an app as well-integrated and feature rich as motion. they aren't keeping their most important api's hidden (the way ms does with it's key apis for server/client connectivity and office file formats).
go apple go!!! – by dr alien
|death cube k (3:58pm est thu aug 12 2004)
"who gives a crap about star wars iii"
uh…. try 300 million dollars?
that's right go back to your 40k a year job small boy and keep working your 5 days/40 hours a week job. – by tisk, tisk
|dr. alien (4:02pm est thu aug 12 2004)
so doctor alien, in a nutshell all those production houses in newyork, are they in the same league with george lucas, jak, and ilm and their net worth both for producing products for themselves and other big budget motion pictures?
n o t !!!!
keep trying because the big boy made his choice and that's a 64bit x86 over a 64bit g5 and to top it all off, it's runnning windows xp pro.
ha ha ha ha ! – by give up now
|newsflash! (4:05pm est thu aug 12 2004)
this is basically to shut all you macheads from saying windows or shall we say x86 are for teen gamers only. for serious work get a mac. unfortunately for you it can also get done on an x86 so enough about the games only bs! – by my 3.5 cents today
|g5 vs amd64 (4:22pm est thu aug 12 2004)
man, seriously, these guys are on the same side!
mac = awesome beautiful desktop.
one side is perfecting pure inovation and style that is working on a computer, the other to produce the most simple basic any idiot can use so he can download porn and play video games.
i mean, whats this "in your face mac users, star wars iii is using amd64″….the xbox 2 might be running a power4, which is a g5. an't that a little turn of events? – by pissed off
|tsk tsk (4:24pm est thu aug 12 2004)
'that's right go back to your 40k a year job small boy and keep working your 5 days/40 hours a week job.' – tsk tsk
interestingly, i am at my 40k job right now- and i also work five days a week, although a bit more than 40 hours-and i'm loving it! strange attempt at a put down, if that's what you were going for- but whatever.
you're not george lucas, now are you? so who cares, because like i said, it has nothing to do with this topic, and (since you couldn't figure out i was speaking in relation to this topic) i'll repeat myself-
who gives a crap about star wars iii!!? – by death cube k
|g5 vs amd64 (4:24pm est thu aug 12 2004)
"might be running a power4, which is a g5"
ummm… newsflash, the power4 is made by who? that's right ibm one of the largest pc makers in the world. – by pissed off too!
|death cube k (4:27pm est thu aug 12 2004)
"who gives a crap about star wars iii!!?"
try the starwars fan base, that's who cares!
that anwser your question? – by tsk tsk
|give up now… (4:30pm est thu aug 12 2004)
um, the ad world alone in ny deals with a great deal more than 300 million in production over the course of 3 years, buddy. same goes for all of viacom. not to mention the sheer number of machines in use compared with the amount of systems those few large houses you reference. we're talking marketshare.
looks to me like the mac is only gaining more share. these numbers don't include print or advert industries.
would you be willing to back up you "knowledge" (ehem…cut…paste..) with any actual experience in this arena?
i'm sure you'll discount when pixar switches to osx fully since it's job's company (even though under ed catmull makes those decisions and would only do so if it improved productivity).
you are out of your league, pal, unless you can prove otherwise. – by dr alien
|by death cube k (4:30pm est thu aug 12 2004)
who gives a crap about star wars iii!!?
i think macjedi cares! – by double u dee
|hard to swallow (4:32pm est thu aug 12 2004)
i think it may be a little hard to swallow the fact that measly ol' x86 was chosen over a g5.
why don't we just accept it and move on folks – by century 21
|tsk tsk (5:40pm est thu aug 12 2004)
'ummm… newsflash, the power4 is made by who? that's right ibm one of the largest pc makers in the world.' – tsk tsk
is that what you're going with? really? the power4s are ppc (one of which is the g5)- not x86, so for the umpteenth time your flame doesn't even make sense.
you answered my question, but of course it didn't make any sense either. the 'star wars fan base' isn't here, because this isn't a star wars forum, which i repeated to you twice, now three times. maybe you should go there next time you feel like swinging from george's beanbag.
|death cube k (6:04pm est thu aug 12 2004)
"is that what you're going with? really? the power4s are ppc (one of which is the g5)- not x86, so for the umpteenth time your flame doesn't even make sense."
i think by your comment "ain't that a little turn of events?" – meaning xbox went ppc instead of intel is supposed to mean that they went g5 and apple product?
ppc, g5 processor what ever you want to call it, the fact remains that it's made by a dominant pc manufacturer.
look at that, ibm (synonymous with the word pc – ibm pc/clone) make processors for it's own machines (servers) and apple computers, can't say the same for apple. it has to rely on a pc manufacturer to make it's parts. – by tisk, tisk
|geek blows (10:29pm est thu aug 12 2004)
are we off topic here or what???
stfu! – by tool
|tisk , tisk (4:14am est fri aug 13 2004)
don't forget that it is not ibm pc that manufacture the g5 ( ppc ) but ibm microelectronics . same company different section. they are a business in their own right.
also the ppc was developed jointly
between apple / ibm / motorola ( aim )
so apple did have a huge input to the design and development of the ppc's ( 601 , 603 , 604 , g3 , g4 and g5 ).
does dell , gateway , hewlitt packard/compaq , etc did they all have any input the design and development of the x86 series of processors. – by smiler
|why microsoft chose powerpc (9:05am est fri aug 13 2004)
the playstation 2 has a not-too-modest architecture for simd execution. shading, mip mapping, etc. benefit greatly from specialized parallel floating point execution in the general logic processor.
the playstation 3, thanks to the "cell" cpu powering it, will have a vast array of simd cores.
neither intel or amd has been able to bring a simd core to market worth its salt, for whatever reason. i guess they've been caught up in a int/fp horse race for too long and see too little return on the investment of improving the mmx/3dnow! cores to the point of true industry-wide competition.
motorola and apple (and now ibm) have been co-developing generations of altivec simd architecture that are as of yet unsurpassed in the industry. perhaps this will change once the "cell" hits the market, but for now, altivec rules the roost.
microsoft had few other options when it came to competing with sony's upcoming console. the fact that the powerpc manages to get more integer and general fp work done at lower frequencies (and in turn with lower wattage dissipation) was undoubtedly another large factor in the choice. a 3+ ghz intel (or 2+ ghz amd) monster would not lend itself well to a compact console enclosure.
so there you have it, microsoft itself thinks the powerpc is a better gaming cpu. and now that a directx derivative is being developed for the powerpc instruction set, the macintosh will likely be getting more game titles far more concurrent to the windows version releases than is currently the case.
|well said gropo… (11:22am est fri aug 13 2004)
i love how these mac haters forget that microsoft has chosen the apple-preferred architecture when the chips are down and they really need to compete.
there's no denying that the powerpc is a great architecture. none. apple will soon hold two places in the top five fastest supercomputers on earth. both systems were chosen purely on performance and cost by people with no prior mac experience.
|mac envy (8:30am est mon aug 16 2004)
why are mac haters perusing the mac section? i can only think of one reason. mac envy. those kids should just stay in the shallow end of the pool. – by chickenman
|my powerbook just crashed (5:09pm est wed aug 18 2004)
updated to 10.3.5 today and i've had two crashes since. first time i've had a mac running osx hang up (on the first crash today it switched itself off, second crash the entire thing froze).
just wondering if anyone else has had this problem. i was using idvd during both crashes – by g-loc
|another weird thing (5:14pm est wed aug 18 2004)
…another thing. it also told me that an additional 40gb had been used on the hard drive just before it hung. after restoring the machine the 40gb was also restored.
– by g-loc
|in graphics (3:46pm est tue aug 24 2004)
graphics guy,
you must ahve grown up in a ewindow box
yur english is perfect – for kindergarten. your knowledge of what i s available for either a pc or a mac is pathetic if not non-existant.
by mac do you mean mac, mac or wha telse is there.
– by fedup
|in graphics (3:50pm est tue aug 24 2004)
graphics guy,
you must have grown up in a windows box
your english is perfect – for kindergarten.
your knowledge of what is available for either a pc or a mac is pathetic if not non-existant.
by mac do you mean network, the original pc (fyi – it was the apple ii that opened the business desktop to billy's lame game) or a burger?
btw – you must be a gal 'cause i never heard so much penis envy from a whole pack of pc users, let alone one whiner.
– by fedup
|grow the f**k up (3:18pm est thu sep 02 2004)
both platforms are tecno-gestapo imposed crap. however we are stuck with them and users my support the latrine of choice.
were it a perfect world our choices would be between linux and amiga. – by bytebutcher
|who cares? (1:57am est fri sep 17 2004)
i only have an opinion i can base off of reading about the g5 and athlon i've never used either one, atleast i'm being honest.
anyway, i know some people on here will patronize me and all that other mess, but i'm not worried.
my point – in my opinion i will never buy a complete computer (pc or mac) because its simply easier to build one from scratch, it's more fun, and you learn more that way. i keep seeing alot of "pc sucks, mac sucks blah blah blah.", the point that im making is from who i've talked to the mac osx is more stable then windows xp, but on the other hand the apple g5 also runs dual cpu's as opposed to the single athlon amd 2.5 ghz 64bit cpu i'll be running in mine. it's cheaper and furthermore, so graphics rendering and stuff will have some lag, big deal? this computer is also going to be for gaming. building one from scratch and getting what you want from who you want is just the better route. it's also cheaper to build a pc to because prices for apple hardware are outragiously outthere. but all in all whichever os is more compatible with what i have is the one im going to use. mac or windows, just use the one you feel comfortable with.
– by comp noob
|big crashes with 10.3.5 (11:57pm est sun sep 26 2004)
i use digidesign pro tools 6.4cs8 and i installed the 10.3.5 and bad news! big mistake! crashing all the time. is there anyway to get back to 10.3.4 without reinstalling? – by appledowner
|re:appledowner (7:08am est wed sep 29 2004)
crushed? …. hummm… i'm not sure how to do un-install on apple… i don't think there will be many reader on this post coz originally dated 10/aug!
try your post again on a more recent one.
i update to 10.3.5 few weeks ago and it works fine – better then the previous 2 update!
actually i never have any crush after any update, just remember to shutdown all application (including anti-virus!), turn-off screensaver, and follow the updated instruction for each update.
i'm using 10.3.5 to reply you now!
cheers – by not sure it help
|mac vs pc war… again. (1:55pm est fri may 27 2005)
both platforms are excellent for their respective users. i personally prefer pcs.
the hardware on pcs is flat out better. that's on paper and irrefutable. the mac software is very stable. that's because apple has very strict rules on releasing software. that makes stabiltiy a great plus for macs, but diminishes the vast amounts of software that is available. that is the balance of things and i don't mind the instability given the selection of software i have at my disposal.
that is the reason for the stability arguments. so all you mac people can have an educated argument regarding pcs.
graphic capability: macs held this for so many years. it is aparent now that pcs are meeting and in some cases exceeding in performance regarding graphical capability. that isn't to say that macs are not good for graphics. the mac set a benchmark in the industry and pcs have finally caught up to that. this is just a plus for pc enthusiasts.
one bad thing on macs: web browsers!! being a web developer, i hate mac browsers specifically safari. they are so quirky. do all web developers a favor and use firefox on your mac.
now longhorn is taking so long because they are fixing all of the things that made previous versions of windows unstable. this better software teamed up with the already better hardware will be a very good platform.
the issue with mac vs pc is not the platform, it's the software. now mac is using the pc developed unix as a base for their os. linux is also based on unix (although l.inux i.s n.ot u.ni.x) and runs rock solid on pcs. this is a benefit of having an open-source community. which i don't believe exists for macs. i may be mistaken on that point, so don't flame me.
in conclusion: i think both platforms are great for their respective users. – by ugotstuckby
|so much hate (12:57pm est tue nov 15 2005)
i'm a pc user but i would like to buy the new power books when they have the dual
pentiums! i heard you'll be able to intsall windows, and osx. i love computers
period, there are so many trade-offs between platforms that it really comes down to what you are used to. i think windows could take lessons from the mac on stabillity and mac is really not as user friendly as you would think. doesn't matter to me, i think we are in for major cool stuff from both platforms. – by damien


text:
The Design of Robust Soft Sensor Using ANFIS Network
Hamed Hosseini1,, Mehdi Shahbazian1, Mohammad Ali Takassi2
1Department of Instrumentation and Automation engineering, Petroleum University of Technology, Ahvaz, Iran
2Department of Basic Sciences, Petroleum University of Technology, Ahvaz, Iran
A soft Sensor is a model which is used to estimate the unmeasurable output of an industrial process. Designing a soft sensor is usually difficult because its modeling is often based on case data. These data commonly contain the outliers and noise as soft sensor design is been problem. In order to solve the problem and successfully design a soft sensor, this paper introduces a new approach for designing a robust soft sensor which is not affected by outliers especially batch outlier and long tail noise. To response this goal, a robust soft sensor based on Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) which is based on robust cost function such as the summation of the absolute cost function. To minimize the cost function the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm was used. The subtractive clustering technique was used to determine the ANFIS structure. The proposed method for designing a soft sensor is implemented on a chemical plant and compared with soft sensor based on ANFIS which is based on quadratic cost function. The simulation result shows higher accuracy in prediction of output variable in new robust soft sensor.
At a glance: Figures
Keywords: soft sensor, ANFIS, particle swarm optimization, robust cost function, outlier, noise
Journal of Instrumentation Technology, 2014 2 (1),
pp 9-16.
DOI: 10.12691/jit-2-1-3
Received April 14, 2014; Revised June 03, 2014; Accepted June 04, 2014Copyright © 2013 Science and Education Publishing. All Rights Reserved.
Cite this article:
- Hosseini, Hamed, Mehdi Shahbazian, and Mohammad Ali Takassi. "The Design of Robust Soft Sensor Using ANFIS Network." Journal of Instrumentation Technology 2.1 (2014): 9-16.
- Hosseini, H. , Shahbazian, M. , & Takassi, M. A. (2014). The Design of Robust Soft Sensor Using ANFIS Network. Journal of Instrumentation Technology, 2(1), 9-16.
- Hosseini, Hamed, Mehdi Shahbazian, and Mohammad Ali Takassi. "The Design of Robust Soft Sensor Using ANFIS Network." Journal of Instrumentation Technology 2, no. 1 (2014): 9-16.
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1. Introduction
Soft (or inferential) sensors are a valuable tool in many different industrial fields of application. A soft Sensor is a model which is used to estimate the unmeasurable output of an industrial process. The expression soft sensor is mainly used in the field of process industry, but the utility of mathematical modelling is widespread in engineering fields.
A first wave of soft sensors based on the "classical" back- propagation neural network approach is in use in different areas of manufacturing since the early 1990's [1]. Studies of use of soft sensors that mostly focus to process industry can be found in [2, 3, 4]. The approach is however not limited to process industries and similar ideas are utilized in other engineering fields, for example in traffic engineering, e.g. [5, 6]. Soft-sensors are used where their hardware counterparts are not available, are very costly or their installation is very costly.
In general Soft-sensors can be divided to two different classes which are model-driven and data-driven Soft-sensors. The model-driven family of Soft-sensors is most commonly based on theoretical or so called first principle models or on extended Kalman filter. The data-driven family of Soft-sensors is based on data measured within the systems. The data-driven Soft-sensors gained increasing popularity in the process industry, because data-driven models are built on the data measured within the processing plants and describe the real process situations.
Soft-sensors are based on process model that is obtained from measured data. Most real-world databases include a certain amount of exceptional values, generally termed as "outliers". Presence of outliers in training and testing data can bring about several difficulties for learning methods. The isolation of outliers is important both for improving the quality of original data and for reducing the impact of outlying values in the process of knowledge discovery in databases. Thus, removing or replacing outliers can improve the quality of stored data. Isolating outliers may also have a positive impact on the results of data analysis and data mining.
Measured data need a lot of pre-processing due to: missing data, data outliers, drifting data, data co-linearity, different sampling rates and measurement delays. Robustness toward process variability, industrial data quality, and insufficient modeling are key subjects for reliable and mass-scale application of inferential Soft-sensors.
The most popular modelling methods for data-driven Soft-sensors are principle component analysis (PCA), partial least squares, artificial neural networks, Neuro-Fuzzy systems and support vector machines [2]. Hybrid methods are popular for designing of data-driven soft sensor. Among these methods Neuro-Fuzzy has gained a high popularity within the past few years due to its benefits over other methods. A well-known Neuro-Fuzzy model is the ANFIS model [7]. ANFIS is an architecture which functionally integrates the interpretability of a fuzzy inference system with adaptability of a neural network. In other words, ANFIS is a method for tuning an existing rule base of fuzzy system with a learning algorithm based on a collection of training data found in artificial neural network. The ANFIS composes the ability of Neural Network and Fuzzy System.
Most of the widely used training methods for determining ANFIS parameters are gradient based. The outliers reduce the quality of the data and affect the derivation calculation accuracy required. This makes the methods to be not always robust. A novel training approach based on summation of absolute cost function has been proposed to overcome the shortcoming. This function is able to train and update the ANFIS parameters and reduces the effects of the outliers. The PSO, a gradient free based optimization algorithm, also has been employed to consider the absolute cost function requirements and find the solution fast.
The subtractive clustering technique was used to determine the ANFIS structure. The rest of paper is organized as follows: In section 2 a full description of the method is proposed. The implementing and its results of the purposed method on a simulated chemical plant together with a short description of the plant are presented in section 3. The paper is terminated with the conclusion in section 4.
2. Methodology2.1. Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS)
Here, in this section, we present the basic theory of ANFIS model. ANFIS is a multi-layer adaptive network-based fuzzy inference system proposed by Jang [7]. In this paper, an ANFIS is presented as the Neuro-Fuzzy systems is subtractive clustering based fuzzy inference system, named Sub.Clustering ANFIS. The network applies a combination of the least square method and the back propagation gradient descent method for training ANFIS to imitate a given training data set. When the training and testing errors are within the acceptable bound, therefore the system converges. This construction has demonstrated high performance in many applications.
A typical ANFIS construction is shown in Figure 1. The circular nodes represent nodes that are fixed whereas the square nodes are nodes that have parameters to be learnt. For simplicity, consider two inputs (and), one output (). The Sugeno model is formed by using five layers and two if–then rules.
ANFIS's system architecture has five layers. The details of the algorithm are explained below:
Layer 1. Every node i in this layer is an adaptive node with a node function.
View current figure in a new window
Where x1 (or x2) is the input to node i and Ai (or Bi-2) is a linguistic label associated with this node. Here the membership function forA1, A2, B1 or B2 can be any appropriate parameterized membership function, like for example the generalized bell membership function:
Where ai, bi and ci are the parameters of membership functions. Parameters in this layer are referred to as premise (antecedent) parameters.
Layer 2. Every node in this layer is a fixed node, whose output is the product of all the incoming signals:
Each node output represent the firing strength of a rule. In general, any other T-norm operators that perform fuzzy and can be used as the node function in this layer.
Layer 3. Every node in this layer is a fixed node labelled N. The node calculates the ratio of the rules firing strength to the sum of all rules firing strengths:
For suitability, outputs of this layer are called normalized firing strengths.
Layer 4. Every node in this layer is an adaptive node with a node function:
Where pi, ri and qi are the design parameters. Parameters in this layer are referred to as consequent parameters.
Layer 5. The single node in this layer is a fixed, which the overall output is computed by the summation of all incoming signals [7].
The subtractive clustering method is proposed by Chiu [8]. Clustering data set in an unsupervised method by measuring the potential of data set in the feature space is subtractive clustering technique. Subtractive clustering assumes that each data point is a potential cluster center and calculates the potential for each data point based on the density of surrounding data points. The first cluster center has the highest potential and the potential of data points near the first cluster center (within the influential radius) is destroyed. The radius of influence is important to determine the number of clusters. A smaller radius leads to many smaller clusters in the data space, which results in more rules, and vice versa. It is important to choice suitable radius of influence for clustering the data space. The Subtractive Clustering technique is used to determine the ANFIS structure. Subtractive Clustering looks for an optimal data point by distributing the data into clusters and defining a cluster center based on the density off surrounding data points. The Subtractive Clustering algorithm has the following steps:
1. Select the data point with the highest potential to be the first cluster center.
2. All data points in the vicinity of the first cluster center (as determined by radii) are removed in order to determine the next data cluster and its center location.
3. This process is iterated until all of the data is within radii of a cluster center.
The optimal point defining a cluster center is found with proper cluster radii [9].2.3. The Outliers
Outliers are the cases with data values different than the values of the majority of the cases in the data set. Outliers are patterns in data that do not conform to a well-defined no notion of normal behavior. Figure 2 illustrates outliers in a simple 2-dimensional data set. The data has two types of outliers (single/batch).
Points that show sufficiently far away from the data set, are outliers [10]. In analytical chemistry, empirical data often contain outliers of one type (Single Outlier) or another (Batch Outlier). Statistical techniques are often used which are sensitive to such outliers, and negative results may have been affected by them, and the most robust and resistant methods have been developed since 1960 and less sensitive to outliers. Robustness is the key issue for modeling and identification.
Robust Cost Functions are alternative cost functions which are robust against outliers and noise. Quadratic cost function is the conventional cost function which is used as optimization tool. Figure 3 show the Quadratic cost function.
Absolute cost function is a type of robust cost function. Properties of Absolute cost function are absolute error, called 'total variation', convex and non-differentiable at origin. Figure 4 show the Absolute cost function.
This section gives a brief over view of PSO method. Also, the procedure of the minimization of the robust cost function by using the PSO algorithm for the solution is given.
Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is a method used to explore the search space of a given problem to find the settings or parameters required to maximize a particular objective. This method, first described by James Kennedy and Russell C. Eberhart in 1995 [11], originates from two separate concepts: the idea of swarm intelligence based off the observation of swarming habits by certain kinds of animals such as birds and fish and the field of evolutionary computation. It uses a number of particles that constitute a swarm moving around in the search space looking for the best solution. Each particle is treated as a point in a N-dimensional space which adjusts its "flying" according to its own flying experience as well as the flying experience of other particles.
Each particle keeps track of its coordinates in the solution space which are associated with the best solution (fitness) that has achieved so far by that particle. This value is called personal best (pbest).
Another best value that is tracked by the PSO is the best value obtained so far by any particle in the neighborhood of that particle. This value is called global best (gbest).
In the PSO algorithm, the velocity of particle is updated according the following equation:
Each individual moves from the current position to the next one by the modified velocity in (9) using the following equation:
Using the modified velocity and position of particle based on (9) and (10), the search mechanism of the PSO is demonstrated in Figure 5.
The general PSO algorithm can be summarized as follows:
Initialize a population (array) of particles with random positions and velocities of N-dimensions in the problem space.
Evaluate the desired optimization fitness function in N variables for each particle.
Compare particle's fitness evaluation with particle's pbest. If current value is better than pbest, then set pbest value equal to the current value and the Pbest location equal to the current location in d-dimensional space.
Compare fitness evaluation with the population's overall previous best. If the current value is better than Gbest, then reset Gbest to the current particle's array index and value.
Change the velocity and position of the particle according to (9) and (10) respectively. Vi and Xi represent the velocity and position of ith particle with N-dimensions respectively and rand1 and rand2 are two uniform random functions.
Go to Step 2 until satisfying stopping criteria, usually a sufficiently good fitness or a maximum number of iterations / epochs [9].
PSO method has many advantages; it is simple, fast and easy to be coded. Another advantage is that the initial population of the PSO is maintained, and so there is no need for applying operators to the population, a process that is time and memory-storage-consuming.2.5. Selection of Parameters for PSO Algorithm
The selection of these PSO parameters plays an important role in the optimization [12]. A single PSO parameter choice has a great effect on the rate of convergence. For this paper, the optimal PSO parameters are determined by trial and error experimentations.
A smaller radius leads to many smaller clusters in the data set space, which results in more rules, and vice versa. Hence it is important to select suitable influential radius for clustering the data set space.
The optimum radius, (0.6), is determined by trial and error experimentations.2.6. Training ANFIS with PSO
In this section, the PSO method employed for minimization of robust cost function in order to update the parameters of ANFIS structure. The ANFIS has two types of parameters which need to update, the antecedent parameters and the conclusion parameters. The membership functions are assumed Gaussian as in equation (11), and their parameters are Ci and σi, where σi is the variance of membership functions and Ci is the center of membership functions.
The parameters of conclusion part are represented with pi, ri and qi that are shown in (12) and (13).
3. Case Study, Implementation and Results3.1. Case Study
A model of a highly nonlinear chemical plant consisting of two cascade Continuous Stirred Tank Reactors (CSTRs) followed by a no adiabatic flash separator with a recycle has been selected in this paper [13].
A simple graph of the plant is displayed in Figure 6. This combination is prevalent in chemical industries such as the styrene polymerization process. The desired product B is produced by an irreversible first order reaction.
An undesirable side reaction occurs and leads to the consumption of B and the production of the superfluous side product C.
The product stream from CSTR-2 is directed into a flash to separate the excess A from the product B and the side product C. Reactant A has the highest relative volatility and is the major component in the vapor phase. A fraction of the vapor phase is purged and the residual stream is condensed and recycled back to CSTR-1. The liquid phase exiting from the flash consists predominantly of B and C.
In order to test the ability of soft sensor to track the process changes, we define some realistic scenarios of changes on the plant as follow:
1. A step change in the concentration of the input feed. At first, it is supposed that the input feed purely consists of component A. After the application of the step change, the input feed contains both components A and B with fractions of 90% and 10%, respectively.
2. Random changes in Qr, T0, D and F0 each with an amplitude of about 10% of its operating point value. The changes happen slowly and randomly, which is closer to the real case events.
All the changes are applied to the model during the test stage.
The inputs of soft sensor are: D, F0, F1, Hb, Hm, Hr, Qb, Qm, Qr, T0, Tb, Td, Tm and Tr which can easily be measured and the output is the product mass fraction XBb.
As it is mentioned before, the proposed approach has the ability of robust training. It means that the proposed approach will reduce the influence of noise and outliers on the performance of the soft sensor.
The model is implemented in Simulink. We generate about 600 samples from the model. All the variables of training set are scaled to [0, 1]. 240 data points are used as the training set and 360 data points are used for testing the model.
In this study, in addition to graphical demonstration we use two common numerical measures for performance evaluation. The Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) (also called the Root Mean Square Deviation, RMSD) is a frequently used measure of the difference between values predicted by a model and the values actually observed from the environment that is being modelled. These individual differences are also called residuals, and the RMSE serves to aggregate them into a single measure of predictive power.
The RMSE of a model prediction with respect to the estimated variable Xmodel is defined as the square root of the mean squared error:
where Xobs is observed values and Xmodel is modelled values at time/place i.
The calculated RMSE values will have units, and RMSE for phosphorus concentrations can for this reason not be directly compared to RMSE values for chlorophyll a concentrations etc. However, the RMSE values can be used to distinguish model performance in a calibration period with that of a validation period as well as to compare the individual model performance to that of other predictive models.
RMSE demonstrates how well the predicted output fits the true output but it does not necessarily reflect whether the two sets of data move in the same direction. For instance, by simply scaling the system output, we can change the RMSE without changing the directionality of data. The correlation coefficient (R) solves this problem. The correlation coefficient is calculated by:
The correlation coefficient tells us the strength and direction of the relationship between two variables. The closer the number is to 0, the weaker the relationship. The closer the number is to ±1.00, the stronger the relationship. Therefore, the R lies in the range [-1, 1]. When R = 1, there is a perfect positive linear correlation between and, that is they vary by the same amount. When R = -1 there is a perfectly linear negative correlation between and, that is they vary in opposite ways (when increases, decreases by the same amount). When R = 0 there is no correlation between, and the variables are called uncorrelated. Intermediate values describe partial correlations.3.3. Implementation of the methodology
At the first stage of the purposed algorithm, we generate a structure ANFIS by subtractive clustering. The first-order Sugeno fuzzy model was used in consequence part. In addition, in order to reduce the number of parameters to be optimized by the robust training method in the ANFIS structure, only two parameters have been used for the Gaussian membership functions in the premise part of each rule. Then use absolute cost function as robust cost function to updates the parameters of this structure. We employed PSO algorithm for minimization of cost functions.
After training step, for evaluating the performance of the trained ANFIS model and to monitor how well the network is training, the test data sets were presented to the network.
In this study, in addition to graphical demonstration we use two common numerical measures for performance evaluation: The Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and correlation coefficient (R).
RMSE demonstrates how well the predicted output fits the true output but it does not necessarily reflect whether the two sets of data move in the same direction and the correlation coefficient (R) gives more information about the training of network.
The results of using quadratic and absolute cost function for training ANFIS are shown in the following table and also the plot of the training data, testing data and correlation coefficient (R) for each method is displayed.
According to this study the results of the new method are very close to the experimental results and the correlation coefficient (R) value is 0.88128 for testing data sets.
The stopping criterion is the number of iterations as the maximum iterations is 100.3.4. Results and discussion
The simulation result show a very higher prediction accuracy in comparison with the ANFIS method for designing soft sensor. Figure 7 shows data set of soft sensor. Figure 8, Figure 9 and Figure 10 show the results Train data, Test data and Correlation coefficient of ANFIS approach and Figure 11, Figure 12 and Figure 13 show the results Train data, Test data and Correlation coefficient of new method for designing soft sensor. The results of using quadratic and robust cost function for training ANFIS are shown in the Table 1. As is shown in Figures and Table 1, a new method for the design of the soft sensor is robust against Gaussian noise and single/batch outliers, while other methods such as ANFIS and neural network are strongly affected by Gaussian noise and single/batch outliers. The correlation coefficient is closer to one, the better for us. Mean square error is used as quantitative measure for performance evolution of the training method.
4. Conclusion
This paper presents a new approach to design a robust soft sensor against noise and outliers. In this approach, ANFIS structure has been used and the PSO algorithm is used to minimization of cost function. Summation of the absolute cost function has been used as cost function in this method. The training method of ANFIS parameters can have a huge effect on the accuracy of identification and prediction. So, we can use PSO as a new tool for training ANFIS network that result in reduction of complexity.
Due to this study the new purposed method for designing a soft-sensors is more robust in the presence of noise and outliers.
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I'm incredibly excited to introduce you to this weeks artist of the week: Brighton-based Howland. I first came about Howland after receiving an email with a link… Read more "Artist of the Week – Howland"
Artist of the month – INHEAVEN
After seeing them live at Reading and ranking them in my 5 top acts of the whole weekend, it was obvious to me that my artist of… Read more "Artist of the month – INHEAVEN"
Indie Newcomer of the Week: BDRMM
If you like slow, dreamy and hazy vibes, you'll absolutely love BDRMM, aka Ryan Smith's, new single 'Everything'. Having already been described to the likes of bands… Read more "Indie Newcomer of the Week: BDRMM"
Aretha EP – Sam Butcher
If you've followed this blog since the start you'll remember me writing about a wonderful band called Mirror Gorillas, and then about 2 members of that band… Read more "Aretha EP – Sam Butcher"
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Song of the Week – Paris Milkshake
Right, hold on to your hats because this is going to be MASSIVE. I'm thrilled to introduce you to Douglas Richards, Jamie Richards, Chris Jones, Tom Farren and… Read more "Song of the Week – Paris Milkshake"


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Analysis: A trader's earnings season as stocks swing wildly on
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[February 05, 2014]
By Angela Moon
NEW YORK (Reuters) — Popular stocks
like Amazon, Facebook and Best Buy surprised investors with huge
post-earnings swings this quarter — and some of them headed south
fast — a big jolt for the market after 2013 saw many companies'
shares rally with nary an interruption.
Investors have started to bet on big swings in other normally
volatile stocks of companies due to report results in coming days,
including Tesla Motors <TSLA.O>, Twitter Inc <TWTR.N> and Green
Mountain Coffee Roasters <GMCR.O>.
But there is still a lot of room for shocks in the next few weeks.
In many cases, the expectations for share volatility remains lower
than the actual moves in such hot stocks in previous quarters.
"It's been a stellar couple of weeks for volatility players after a
quiet 2013. The overall market has seen volatility grow
substantially," said Randy Frederick, director of trading and
derivatives at the Charles Schwab Center for Financial Research in
Austin, Texas.
Best Buy <BBY.N> started the trend for this quarter's reporting
period. After ending the year as the S&P 500's second best performer
behind only Netflix <NFLX.O>, shares stumbled 29 percent on January
16 after reporting unexpectedly weak holiday sales. Amazon <AMZN.O>
followed later with an 11 percent decline following its
disappointing results.
Even those that did well have surprised investors with the magnitude
of the moves — Netflix rose 16.5 percent on January 23 after its
results and Facebook Inc <FB.O> rose 14.1 percent on January 30
following earnings.
Reflecting such caution, implied volatility for stocks of
high-profile companies due to report in the next two weeks has risen
in the last few days.
"We've been seeing a lot of movements this season and people might
be on the edge and inclined to sell off more sharply. It's probably
a wise idea to hedge a little more," said Rick Meckler, president of
investment firm LibertyView Capital Management in Jersey City, New
Expectations for Green Mountain Coffee Roasters is for a 15 percent
move in shares post-earnings, but that's less than the average move
of 25 percent in the past eight quarters, according to Goldman Sachs
The implied move on Tesla Motors <TSLA.O> options is about $8.40,
about 3 percent up or down, as the luxury electric auto maker is due
to report its earnings later this month. Over the past eight
quarters, Tesla's average move has been 10 percent.
Other notable companies in the social media and Internet space,
including Groupon, Expedia Inc <EXPE.O> and Yelp Inc <YELP.N> are
currently pricing in post-earnings moves about on a par with recent
activity, according to Goldman.
[to top of second column]
While some stock investors may be thrown for a loop, the
larger-than-expected swings have been great for options traders who
bet on volatility, no matter whether the stock goes up or down.
Social media play Twitter Inc <TWTR.O>, which went public with much
fanfare in November, has some investors betting on more volatility.
Demand for short-term options contracts, mainly used to react to
events like earnings, has soared ahead of its results after the bell
on Wednesday.
In its short life as a public company Twitter has already seen 17
trading sessions where it gained or lost more than 5 percent.
The expected post-earnings move is currently about $9.70, or about
14.5 percent up or down, an expectation that has been creeping up in
the last two weeks.
"The fear of the unknown is particularly high for stocks of
companies with no or a limited track record because you can't really
draw a comparison to their peers or history. It's harder to have a
view on how earnings will come out," said JJ Kinahan, chief
strategist at TD Ameritrade.
Adding to volatility, short interest in Twitter surged to 33 million
shares in January, more than 10 percent of the stock's available
Some bold bets were seen in the options market with traders buying
and selling out-of-the-money strikes — options contracts with prices
far away from the current price.
Top open interest positions in Twitter options ranged from $85
weekly strikes that expire on Friday, along with $47
out-of-the-money puts that expire on Feb 14. Even the most actively
traded near-term strikes are well out of the money — February $75
and March $75 calls. The stock would need to rise about 13 percent
from its close at $66.32 on Tuesday for those options to be
(Reporting by Angela Moon; editing by
Martin Howell and Grant McCool)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Play to incorporate prerecorded campaign ads
Staff writer
Goessel students will perform a political satire written by Don Zolidist called "The Election" at 7 p.m. Nov. 15 and 16 at the USD 411's high school auditorium.
In addition to the live performance, the two-act play will include sets painted by Fern Bartel and campaign videos that the cast and crew recorded on campus as well as out in the community.
"It takes place at Presley High," technical director Andrew Voth said. "During a student election, two candidates get swept up in big corporate money and the darker side of politics and hilarity ensues."
Voth said the play is about 80 minutes long and its cast has been working very hard. All seem to enjoy the script and some are even starting to get the pre-performance jitters.
"We have 29 kids participating in the play, which is about a third of the entire high school here in Goessel," director Travis Duerksen said. "Some kids have a lot of lines, what with all quick banter and debates this performance has."
This is the first year that Duerksen, Voth, and assistant director Donna O'Neill have been involved with a school play. However, Duerksen said he has a done a lot of theater work in the past including both writing and directing plays.
"The Election" is a modern comedy that involves all the hype that surrounds a political campaign by employing reporters and cable television, he said.
There are points in the play when cast members break the "4th wall" and talk directly to audience as if the audience were the TV.
"We also filmed campaign videos around town and in the community that will be shown during the play," Duerksen said. "Some are ads that build up each candidate and others are slanderous that try to tear the other down."
The story is told through the eyes of candidate Mark Davenport, played by senior Mark Schmidt who played the scarecrow in Goessel's rendition of "The Wizard of Oz" last year.
"At the beginning of the play my character decides to enter the race because he thinks he is the only one who will be running," Schmidt said. "He doesn't know much about politics. He is just your average guy."
Schmidt said when his character learns that a "nerdy" opponent, Khristy Martin, played by Gentry Thiesen, has entered the race against him he is not worried because he thinks no one will vote for her.
"But he finds out the race is not going to be as easy as he thought when he sees an ad for Martin on TV," Schmidt said. "She begins steam-rolling my character in the debate because she has a lot money and fluff backing her."
Eventually Schmidt's character becomes tempted to buy another character to use the similar tactics against Martin.
For more information or to reserve a seat, call the Goessel High School office at (620) 367-2242. Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for students and seniors.


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But Coleman's men have already beaten the Magpies once this season with a 2-1 win at Meadow Lane back in December and the Stanley chief sees no reason why his side can't repeat that result.
He said: "It will be difficult. They've been on a good run and they have ambitions of getting up automatically so it's going to be tough. But we've got the advantage of knowing that we can beat them and hopefully we can do it again."
Stanley lost 2-1 at Torquay last time out but Coleman is expecting his players to bounce back, he added: "They were still hurting from it, they're still smarting from it, so I expect a big response from them."
Accrington are still under a transfer embargo, but Coleman admitted he has already started looking at possible players to bring in. He added: "I'd like to bring one or two in but I can't until the embargo gets lifted. I think you have to (start looking at potential targets) otherwise you get caught cold."
Source: Team_Talk


text:
Minnesota Timberwolves President David Kahn told the Associated Press on Thursday that the team and Kurt Rambis were not close to a deal to name Rambis as its new head coach.
Kahn said Wednesday that he is in a position to "do something within a week" and would like one or two of the coaching candidates to meet with owner Glen Taylor before a decision is made. Kahn has spent the last seven weeks interviewing candidates and has settled on Lakers assistant Rambis, ESPN analyst Mark Jackson and Houston assistant Elston Turner as the finalists.
The Times reported that Rambis traveled to Minnesota on Wednesday night to meet with Timberwolves officials, but it was not immediately clear if Jackson or Turner would be asked to do the same. The Timberwolves, who are coming off a 24-58 season and are in the early stages of a rebuilding mode, are the only NBA team without a head coach.
Rambis is the only candidate with head coaching experience in the NBA. He coached the Lakers during the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season and has filled in for Phil Jackson several times over the years.


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Socialites GOpods 6 Pack - 18mg Menthol
- £19.99
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KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN. IF SWALLOWED: Rinse mouth. IF ON SKIN: Wash with plenty of soap and water. Call a POISON CENTRE or a doctor/physician if you feel unwell. To avoid risk of fire, injury and/or damage to your E-Cigarette product or other property, only charge your E-Cigarette device with the equipment provided in your kit, or with compatible charging accessories.
- Designed to work with the GO battery. Simply pop in the Menthol refill into your GO Battery and the device is ready to vape. All Socialites e-liquids are produced in the UK at our pharmacutical grade production facility.
- Liquid included: 6 x 18mg Menthol refills.
- Menthol flavour.
- 18mg/ml nicotine content.
- Store in a cool, dry, well ventilated place. Recommended storage temperature: 0 ° C to 25 ° C.
Menthol E-Liquid contains: vegetable glycerol, propylene glycol, menthol flavour, nicotine.
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*Prices correct as displayed but are subject to change.
The customer and brand answers you'll see above are submitted independently. As we don't review these answers, we can't take responsibility for anything they may say. The responses from Argos colleagues are accurate at the time of publishing. For the latest info, you should check the product page.


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The day I got married was the happiest day of my life not only because I was marrying my best friend but because I was the happiest I had ever been with myself. I worked hard to get where I was at. Do you know how many pieces of cake I had to pass up to get there? Don't worry because I made up for it during my last IVF cycle! I maintained this weight for a few months after our wedding but as soon as we started trying to conceive and I began tracking my cycles I realized I had a short luteal phase. After reading up on it I found it can often be caused by working out too much and low body fat. I unhappily gained my first 5 lbs but knew if it meant we were closer to baby then I could do it.
Months passed by and still no baby. We soon found out we were suffering from Male Factor infertility (MFI) and our only option was IVF. In our first IVF consult my Dr. told me I had to gain another 5 lbs. I put this on easily during all the hormones and stress of our first IVF cycle. As soon as I heard the IVF failed I decided to start working out again to lose some of the weight I had gained and muscle I had lost. I felt all flubbery and unhappy with myself. Not only was I not pregnant but now I was not pregnant plus had an extra 10lbs I was carrying. I felt uncomfortable and was so afraid someone would mistake the weight gain for pregnancy. I wore sweatshirts and baggy shirts to work. I lost about half of what was gained during IVF #1. My dream for baby was so strong that I was ready to try again a month after. We had three frozen embryos and decided to do a frozen embryo transfer (FET). FET was by far the hardest on me. I was on high doses of estrogen and I got the "hungry horrors" from hell. I ate so many sweets it makes me sick to think about. I put on 8lbs during that cycle. So here I am today…..up 12 lbs from my wedding weight and no baby to show. I know it will be all worth it but the journey to get there has to be the hardest thing I have ever been through. My next goal is to just become healthy again. I started eating better, going to yoga classes, exercising and doing things for me. I have long term struggled with depression and I am determined to do my best to keep balanced and happy during the next IVF.


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A little peek at all things spring…
Posted by fallback user
28 February, 2013
Category In Season:
Spring is around the corner! Our development chef Andy Owen and his team have made the last tweaks to our new spring menus that will showcase the best ingredients of the season at The Restaurant Bar & Grill, Piccolino, Bank Restaurant & Bar and Zinc. New season potatoes, rhubarb, spring lamb, and purple sprouting broccoli… Read more


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The Turks and Caicos Islands (/ˈtɜːrks/ and /ˈkeɪkəs/ / /ˈkeɪkoʊs/ / /ˈkeɪkɒs/), or TCI for short, are a British Overseas Territory consisting of the larger Caicos Islands and smaller Turks Islands, two groups of tropical islands in the Lucayan Archipelago, north of the larger Antilles island grouping. They are known primarily for tourism and as an offshore financial centre. The resident population is about 49,000, of whom 23,769 live on Providenciales in the Caicos Islands.
The Turks and Caicos Islands lie southeast of Mayaguana in the Bahamas island chain and north of the island of Hispaniola. Cockburn Town, the capital since 1766, is situated on Grand Turk Island about 1,042 kilometres (647 mi) east-southeast of Miami, United States. The islands have a total land area of 430 square kilometres (170 sq mi).
The first recorded European sighting of the islands now known as the Turks and Caicos occurred in 1512. In the subsequent centuries, the islands were claimed by several European powers with the British Empire eventually gaining control. For many years the islands were governed indirectly through Bermuda, the Bahamas, and Jamaica. When the Bahamas gained independence in 1973, the islands received their own governor and have remained a separate autonomous British Overseas Territory since. In August 2009, the United Kingdom suspended the Turks and Caicos Islands' self-government after allegations of ministerial corruption. Home rule was restored in the islands after the November 2012 elections.
A jet aircraft (or simply jet) is an aircraft (nearly always a fixed-wing aircraft) propelled by jet engines (jet propulsion).
Whereas the engines in propeller-powered aircraft generally achieve their maximum efficiency at much lower speeds and altitudes, jet engines and aircraft achieve maximum efficiency (see specific impulse) at speeds close to or even well above the speed of sound. Jet aircraft generally cruise at faster than about M 0.8 (609 mph, 981 km/h or 273 m/s) at altitudes around 10,000–15,000 metres (33,000–49,000 ft) or more.
Frank Whittle, an English inventor and RAF officer, developed the concept of the jet engine in 1928,Hans von Ohain in Germany, a decade later developed the concept independently at the end of the 1930s. He wrote in February 1936 to Ernst Heinkel, telling him of the design and its possibilities. However, it can be argued that the English engineer A. A. Griffith, who published a paper in July 1926 on compressors and turbines, also deserves credit.


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Cheap home rentals and accommodations in Sardinia - From 25€
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Compare top vacation rentals sites such as Booking.com, HomeAway, TripAdvisor and more, to find the perfect place to stay in Sardinia. Likibu provides you with 35118 short-term rentals in Sardinia.
Book in Sardinia vacation rentals from top accommodation sites.
Some say that Sardinia may even drive crazy because of the huge quantity of beauty displayed all over the island, so big and intense that it is even hard to receive all this beauty. Others would say instead that there is never enough beauty and enough harmony, but Sardinia will be more than a love at first sight, it will be a strong experience for all your senses. Dreamy beaches and obscure ancient traditions go together in this island where the Nuraghe buildings are still an undiscovered mystery. Sardinia is made of sand silky beaches and dunes, sheer white cliffs and small hidden bays which you can only reach by boat or swimming, this island was made to drive your senses crazy. For your holiday in Sardinia, rent a villa with swimming pool in Costa Smeralda where all VIP spend their summers between yachts, night clubs and fashionable restaurants. You have such a large and wide choice of accommodation for your holiday in Sardinia. From a very simple B+B in Nuoro or Sassari, to a Palazzo noble mansion in Cagliari just decide what is your budget and choose accordingly. Sardinia is full of very lavish Agriturismo farms both on the sea and on the forests, if you enjoy living in a natural and intact landscape you will surely find your own private paradise in exclusive Sardinia.
More than seven thousand Nuraghe are scattered all along the island. These mysterious towers and buildings which date back to Bronze Age still remain an obscure issue for all archaeologists and represent the very symbol of Sardinia. These ancient supposed to be tumbs or temples with a conical and roof truncated shape are generally situated in very special isolated areas. Three layers of masonry are present in each Nuraghe and most of them are about twenty meters high. Inside the Nuraghe, a real system of ancient corridors leads to a complicated maze of internal rooms possibly dedicated to cult or burials. For a long time considered as military strongholds towers, modern archaeologists do now take into consideration the possibility that these towers spread all over Sardinia land were not at all fortifications but rather religious buildings. Only in Mesopotamia such similar buildings were to be found within the perimeter of the so called "city-states". To know everything about the nuragic patrimony of Sardinia visit the Su Nuraxi in Barumini which was inscribed as Unesco World Heritage. Rent an apartment in Sardinia for your holiday and discover all the secrets of the ancient past of this island full of Phoenician archaeological sites.
You can practice any sport activity in Sardinia, from tennis to trekking and from horse riding to all water sports. Beach sports in Sardinia go from water skiing, windsurfing, kayaking, jet-ski and swimming to sailing and yachting. Offer yourself a private tuition for a scuba diving or windsurfing session in the morning whilst you will spend your afternoon discovering ancient Nuraghe riding a horse across the hills of the island. Rent a villa with seaview in Sardinia and enlighten yourself to a natural and healty life of sports and body healing.
Have you come to Sardinia looking for sun, sea and celebs? Are you a VIP hunter, a beautiful people obsessed monomaniac? Then Costa Smeralda is exactly what you need, welcome to the beaches of millionaires and big shots of the world. You only need to walk in the ancient streets of Porto Cervo to meet Silvio Berlusconi, Vladimir Putin or Sharon Stone in this exclusive paradise for rich people created by the Aga Khan in 1961 whose favourite beach was the Spiaggia del Principe. Super yachts anchored at the marinas are the night headquarters of most of the beautiful people who come every year to Costa Smeralda to enjoy sea, sex and sun. Go shopping in Porto Cervo where Gucci, Armani, Chanel and Dior malls are crowded with clients and often made private on arrival of Princess Caroline of Monaco and her children. Have a Campari or Martini drink on the Piazzetta and book your table at "Le Billionaire'" the most exclusive nightclub of Costa Smeralda belonging to Italian entrepreneur Flavo Briatore. Rent a villa with swimming pool and seaview in Sardinia in Costa Smeralda and you will soon experience that celebrity spotting makes you become a celebrity yourself and it is indeed a very pleasant thing to discover. This is the magic of Sardinia, just enjoy.


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Mountain Projects
Heritage of our Fathers
It's quiet. Midweek at the end of June. Perfect for a visit to the Tre Cime. It's the kind of day you see only choughs and beams of bright sunlight that reveal the Dolomites for what they really are. From the north face of the Cima Grande, a distant sound of clinking can be heard. Then the sound of a hammer. Just a few precise, effective strikes.READ MORE


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Mighty oaks from little acorns grow. While this brave little shoot may not be an oak tree, it is a sign of Mother Nature's amazing ability to repair, refresh and rejuvenate.
Here in the British Virgin Islands, recovery efforts from the devastating hurricanes of 2017 are still ongoing. But, while it is a long journey for everyone, there are more and more signs to be positive.
We found this green shoot growing out of the sand on the beach on Necker Island. All over the British Virgin Islands, little seeds of hope are sprouting. I mean this literally, as the land repairs itself and the lush green land slowly returns. But also metaphorically, as the wonderful local communities continue to band together to help rebuild the region.
I recently shared more information about three investments in education Virgin Unite and Unite BVI have made: supporting the rebuild of a public elementary and high school; donating Chromebooks to The Ministry of Education for every senior public high school student; and investing in a local youth empowerment project that provides opportunities and activities for young people.
Unite BVI are also launching the KickStart BVI Small Business Loan Programme. Our vision is to financially empower and support BVI entrepreneurs so that they can contribute to the region's social, cultural, environmental and economic development. We'll share more details soon. In the meantime, head over to Unite BVI for our latest activities, and do share any green shoots you see growing too.
I wanted to share one update from Necker Island too, where my beloved tennis courts are getting back on track. Here are the grand-kids giving it a work out and a rainbow giving it a blessing.


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Since my call to the bar 25 years ago, I have practiced exclusively in the area of labour and employment law on behalf of employers. I began my career as an associate, partner and then equity partner at one of Canada's largest national full-service law firms and practiced on Bay Street until 2010 when I left to co-found a management-side labour and employment law boutique.
In August 2017 I founded Fitzgibbon Workplace Law as the final step in my goal of establishing a firm that was truly my own and allowed me to service, represent and partner with clients in a collaborative, responsive and strategic way.
I have advised and represented multi-national, national and regional employers of all sizes and across all industry sectors and have been fortunate in my career to have maintained a balanced and broad practice representing both unionized and non-unionized clients. As such, I have dealt with virtually every labour and employment issue and have represented employers in countless cases before every workplace tribunal in Ontario including the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal and Ontario Labour Relations Board, as well as before consensual arbitrators under collective agreements.
I have been retained as lead Canadian labour and employment counsel in a variety of complex business restructuring and change management initiatives and have assisted clients execute their business decisions with a minimum of disruption.
I am a mediator and provide mediation services in both unionized and non-unionized workplaces to represented parties. My objective is to assist the parties avoid costly litigation or if litigation has already started, to conclusively resolve the dispute with finality and closure. I am a member of the ADR Institute of Canada (ADRIC) and the ADR Institute of Ontario (ADRIO).
I have taught for the past 21 years at the Centre for Industrial Relations at the University of Toronto. I see the value of labour relations and employment law theory where it can be applied in practice. In 2017-2018, I am teaching Canadian Employment Law & the Non-Union Workplace, Canadian Labour Law & the Unionized Workplace as well as a new seminar in employment relations entitled Regulation of Workplace Discrimination, Harassment, & Violence.
I have co-authored two books for Carswell, Recent Developments in Union Certification and Decertification and Understanding Ontario's Employment Standards Act, 2000, and have written extensively on a wide range of labour and employment law topics. I speak regularly at conferences and seminars including at the Canadian Bar Association, Québec Bar Association, Ontario Bar Association, Law Society of Upper Canada, and Human Resources Professional Association of Ontario. I have been interviewed by, among others, MacLean's, CBC, Report on Business, the Globe and Mail, National Post, Toronto Star, Lawyer's Weekly, Law Times, Canadian Lawyer and the CBA National Magazine on a variety of labour and employment law issues.
I am the founder and author of Thoughts from an Employment Lawyer, one of the first Canadian legal blogs and the oldest labour and employment law blog in Canada. The blog has been recognized as one of the leading practitioner legal weblogs in Canada.
Though I live in the Toronto area, I am, at heart, a Montrealer and an unapologetic Habs fan.


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"With a new building with a state of the industry mechanical and HVAC system, we would be in dire straits if Delta Mechanical were not our service provider. Without a thought I can depend on thorough maintenance, emergency service, and excellent customer service. I would recommend Delta Mechanical to anyone looking for a service which is responsive to and vigilant in providing excellent mechanical and customer service."
— Donata Martin, CEO
Boys & Girls Club of Fitchburg and Leominster
Knowledgeable, professional, honest, fair and easily accessible 24/7…these are the qualities of service we have been able to count on from Delta Mechanical for 11 years. The owners personally take the time to explain mechanical issues in detail and present multiple solutions to help us work within our annual budget. With their impeccable preventative maintenance service they have lessened the need for mechanical repairs. Delta has also gone the extra mile searching for ways to reduce the building's carbon footprint. On multiple sustainability projects throughout our buildings, they have performed all the leg work and paperwork in order to obtain available rebates which greatly reduced the cost to our company. Due to Delta's attentiveness and thoroughness, we have greatly reduced repair costs and have significantly lowered the building's energy consumption.
— Cheryl Esper, Property Manager


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Jet Turbo, Torch Flame, Wind-resistant, Push the ignition button and the cap opens automatically. Release the ignition button and the cap closes automatically.
Recommended by 100% of reviewers | Rated a "Good Value" by 100% of reviewers
Anthony's Cigar Emporium does not sell cigars or tobacco related products to anyone under the age of 19. Our website does not sell cigarettes of any kind.
If you are not of legal age, please do not enter our site.


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Snapper are wild caught near reefs and rocky bottoms, near the coast in traps, handlines, and trawlers. It has a pinkish skin with blue spots and a distinctive shape with prominent forehead hump. Snapper has a mild delicate flavour, low oiliness, and its flesh is moist and soft textured, with easily removed pin bones.
Cooking Methods; – Steam, Poach, Deep Fry, Stir Fry, Bake, Braise, Grill, BBQ, Smoke, Raw (sashimi)