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We often consider 21 to be a coming-of-age year, and the World Wide Web's impending 21st birthday will be no different.
Read Network World's 25th anniversary package with more living legends
Network industry timeline of the past 25 years
The Web will officially hit adulthood this Christmas, which will mark 21 years since computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee first initiated communications between an HTTP client and a Web server, thus marking the dawn of the so-called "information age" that defined the 1990s. The linking of hypertext with transmission control protocol is now so routine that we forget how revolutionary it really was at the time. Even Berners-Lee, in a question-and-answer session posted on the World Wide Web Consortium in 2008, seemed to downplay his own role in creating such a world-changing technology.
"Lots of hypertext systems had been made which just worked on one computer, and didn't link all the way across the world," he wrote. "I just had to take the hypertext idea and connect it to the TCP and DNS ideas and -- ta-da! -- the World Wide Web... the inventing it was easy. The amazing thing which makes it work is that so many people actually have made web servers, and that they all work the same way, on the Internet. They all use HTTP."
Berners-Lee today maintains that the only way the Web will remain a viable force into the future will be if it maintains that spirit of collaboration and openness that helped it to become so successful more than two decades ago. After all, he notes, his goal in creating the Web was to make something that could be used by everyone and not just an academic, business or government elite.
"I didn't know what would happen [with the Web] but I knew I wanted it to be a universal space," he says. "I knew from the get go that it was very important that it not be relegated to any particular circle."
Because of this, Berners-Lee has been one of the foremost advocates of network neutrality, which is the principle that ISPs should not be allowed to block or degrade Internet traffic from their competitors in order to speed up their own. The push for net neutrality began in 2005, when incumbent telecom carriers successfully lobbied the FCC to repeal common carrier rules that required the incumbents to allow ISPs such as EarthLink to buy space on their broadband networks at discount rates. Because small ISPs are no longer guaranteed access to the big carriers' infrastructure at reasonable rates, Berners-Lee and other net neutrality advocates say net neutrality must be enforced to make sure the big carriers don't exert too much power over how the Web functions.
"This is a question of principle, it's a right to be able to access [the Web] anywhere, and it's a question of keeping the market open," he says. "Whether you happen to be getting it over wired or Wi-Fi or Mi-Fi, it doesn't have any bearing on the principles of free speech and connectivity."
Berners-Lee thinks that Web connectivity ought to be a basic human right that he has recently compared to the right to access water. He points to the role the Web played in the recent overthrow of the Egyptian government as a key reason to view Internet access not merely as a luxury but as a vital component of free speech.
"I listened to [Egyptian opposition leader] Mohamed ElBaradei talk recently and he was asked whether the revolution would have happened without the Web and he said no," Berners-Lee explains. "It worked because a lot of people figured out how to play their cards so they could enact change without violent conflict."
But Berners-Lee says that if ISPs are allowed to play favorites and offer a faster Internet for certain preferred websites over others, it could have a dampening effect on peoples' ability to get accurate information and thus harm democracy itself. In particular he points to the dangers that a non-neutral 'net might have during elections, when so many people rely upon the Web for their news.
"Some people worry that without net neutrality during election time that individual political parties might be able to buy bad connectivity for their opponents," he says. "Imagine that parties will be able to use campaign dollars to prevent the Internet from becoming a neutral space for democracy."
But even though he views access to a neutral Web as vital, he realizes that he and his fellow net neutrality advocates have a lot of work to do in the sphere of public relations. After all, even the watered-down net neutrality regulations passed by the Federal Communications Commission last year are currently in danger of being repealed in Congress.
"Watching a lot of people, they don't understand what net neutrality is," he says. "They say, 'Net neutrality, you're the people who want everything for free,' or 'you're the people who don't want network management.' This sort of thing has been spread about very effectively and, I'd imagine, professionally by those who want to make walled gardens."
Read more about lan and wan in Network World's LAN & WAN section.
This story, "Web inventor Berners-Lee fights to keep it open" was originally published by Network World.


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Great design + technical innovation + impeccable quality + sustainability
The idea for Yoga Design Lab started while on vacation in Bali. I was seated in the back of a packed class at the well-known mecca for yoga, Yoga Barn. Looking around, all I saw was a sea of unoriginal, massed produced, solid colored yoga mats. My thinking was, there must be a way of creating a highly functional product that was also aesthetically beautiful. The inspiration grew and I knew I wanted to design mats that would make more people excited about practicing yoga.
So the journey began. Long story short, I sold my stuff, packed up a couple bags and moved to Bali with the goal of creating a line of yoga accessories that would inspire people around the world.
Blending fashion-forward design elements with innovative functionality and bio-renewable consciousness is key to the Yoga Design Lab approach. From our insulated stainless steel water bottles (reduce your use of plastic water bottles please!), to our hot yoga mats comprised of biodegradable natural tree rubber, to the water based inks used in our printed designs, we can all make a difference with the products we buy.
Giving back is awesome. $1 from every purchase goes to support Urban Youth Yoga Programs in need.
The adventure has just begun.

subset: commoncrawl


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Image: Jason Hickey. As Christmas revelers head out for last-minute shopping in the last surge of pre-holiday capitalism, they might catch over piped music the ouvre of one Mannheim Steamroller. For all the electronic artists we might imagine as representing the genre, this guy has sold one heck of a lot of Christmas records, in […]Read more
brings together the latest breaking news on music, technology, gear, and live visuals. Got a project, found a news tip, or want to share your product? Submit to us directly.


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Rangers bats wake up late, not enough vs. SF
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The Texas Rangers' loaded lineup rarely experiences a collective funk. And manager Ron Washington rarely gets too concerned about this bunch.
Still, Texas might be eager to leave the Bay Area after a rough seven-day stay in Oakland and San Francisco.
Ryan Vogelsong pitched a season-high 7 2-3 innings to win his fifth straight decision, Nate Schierholtz hit an RBI triple and the Giants bounced back from their first shutout of the season to beat the Rangers 5-2 on Saturday.
"You usually don't have everybody in the lineup struggling at once," Washington said. "It will come back around. We have a track record. These guys can hit. I don't have an answer other than to keep getting after it."
Ryan Theriot added an RBI single off Scott Feldman (0-5) while helping Vogelsong (5-2) run his unbeaten streak to seven outings since losing May 3 against Miami.
Giants slugger Pablo Sandoval also hit an RBI single in his first game since May 2, pumping his right fist as he ran it out in the seventh. He went 1 for 4 and received a warm ovation each time he stood in to bat. The switch hitter came off the disabled list and returned to the starting lineup playing third base and batting third after undergoing May 4 surgery for a broken hamate bone in his left hand.
Angel Pagan, who had his 15-game hitting streak overall and 28-game run at home snapped in Friday's 5-0 loss, had an RBI double in the seventh and singled in the second. He also made a running backhanded catch to rob Adrian Beltre of a hit to end the third.
Texas' Mitch Moreland splashed a home run into McCovey Cove beyond the right-field arcade. It was his first career pinch-hit drive, No. 4 by the Rangers this year and the 25th splash-hit homer by an opponent.
"It was just one run and we didn't get what we wanted," Moreland said. "I don't worry about us being down too long. We'll come back and get back on track."
Mike Napoli connected in the ninth against Clay Hensley, who walked Craig Gentry before Santiago Casilla got the final out for his 16th save in 17 opportunities.
Texas dropped to 3-6 on its 10-game road trip.
Two-time NL Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum takes the mound in the rubber game Sunday for San Francisco, trying to snap a seven-start winless stretch in which he's 0-4. The hard-throwing right-hander pitched the Game 5 World Series clincher for the Giants at Texas in 2010, beating the Rangers for the second time in the Series. He has never faced them in the regular season.
Vogelsong allowed only one baserunner past second until Moreland's homer, shutting down the Rangers a day after the two-time reigning AL champions snapped an 11-game losing streak in San Francisco with a 5-0 win. That victory Friday night marked the first time San Francisco has been blanked this year.
"He's got a maniacal focus that you love," manager Bruce Bochy said. "That's a tough lineup. What a job he did."
San Francisco produced five hits with runners in scoring position for just the third time this year.
Vogelsong allowed one run and three hits while lowering his ERA to 2.26, third-best in the NL.
He singled in the third for his first hit in 21 at-bats this season and 24th of his career in 133 at-bats. He scored the first run of the game on an error by second baseman Ian Kinsler, who fielded Theriot's grounder about 20 feet off second and -- with baserunner Blanco blocking his way -- threw wildly toward first. The ball bounced off the dugout screen as teammates ducked.
Feldman struck out a season-best seven and walked one in 5 1-3 innings, showing some positive signs.
The right-hander, who grew up in nearby Burlingame, worked deeper into a game than he has all season and was more consistent than when he allowed eight runs and seven hits in 1 2-3 innings in a 12-1 loss Monday at Oakland. Feldman lost his lone other start against the Giants on June 19, 2009, when matched up with Randy Johnson.
"Obviously I'm disappointed when we don't win but there are positives to take out of it," Feldman said. "I threw the ball well and we just didn't get any breaks as a team and they scrapped together a couple of runs."
Washington stuck with Gentry a day after he produced a career-high five hits, but he went 0 for 2 with a walk and a hit by a pitch.
"It might be a long time before he gets five straight hits in the big leagues again," Washington said. "It just doesn't happen that often."
NOTES: Home run king Barry Bonds has 35 splash hits. ... Washington hopes to get about 60 pitches from Sunday spot starter Alexi Ogando, taking the turn of Derek Holland after the LHP went on the disabled list Thursday with a fatigued throwing shoulder. He also had a stomach virus that caused him to lose about 15 pounds. "Derek is a horse, and he was acting like a pony," Washington said. "He was sick. We're going to work him hard and build his stamina back up." Washington doesn't need Ogando to throw his usual 97-100 mph, saying, "97, 98, 99, 100's something you go get when you need it."


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This is supposed to be the fifth year of an economic "recovery," but the jobs numbers continue to badly underperform. In February, U.S. employers added 175,000 workers to their payrolls, but that's still below the 200,000 to 250,000 a month we need to bring down the real unemployment rate and to keep pace with young people entering the workforce.
But the employment anemia is still plaguing the U.S. economy. The labor force participation rate (63 percent) remains stuck at or near its lowest point since the late 1970s when the Bee Gees were the hottest music group in America. Amazingly, there are more than 2 million FEWER Americans in the labor force today than one year ago. Usually recoveries bring more Americans into the workforce.
Another troubling sign: weekly hours worked dipped by 0.2 hours in February. How much the record snow and cold impacted these numbers is yet undetermined.
The number of long term unemployed (six months or more) also rose by 203,000. Americans who lose their jobs are having a very hard time finding new ones.
Since this recovery began, job growth has maintained an underwhelming pace of half the employment growth of the average recovery. If the number of jobs had just kept pace with the growth of food stamps recipients, we would have at least 2 million more Americans working today. If the economy were where Obama promised it would be when he signed his stimulus bill, we would have at least 3 million more jobs and an unemployment rate of 5 percent.
It's time for the White House to get serious about an aggressive jobs agenda. Right now it isn't. Its two big ideas, Obamacare and the minimum wage hike, would erase nearly 3 million more jobs.
A pro-jobs agenda would mean suspending Obamacare, cutting tax rates on businesses, ending regulations that choke off jobs – especially in the energy industry – and bringing down government spending and debt to free up private sector resources. For the near 20 million Americans unemployed, underemployed, or out of the labor force, this is no recovery at all.


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SGIP—Frequently Asked Questions
Incentive Information
- What is the average $/watt of a project?The $/watt for every project varies with technology, system size, and system configuration. Updated statistics for each technology and to specific projects that have been completed or are in progress are listed on the Available Funding and Program Statistics page.
- How do I qualify for the higher incentive rate as a Renewable Fuel Cell?Customers must demonstrate that 75% of a projectâs fuel source comes from a non-fossil fuel other than those defied as conventional in Section 2805 of the Public Utilities code that can be categorized as one of the following: wind, gas from biogas, digester gas, and landfill gas. The Renewable Fuel Project may not use more than 25 percent fossil fuel annually. In addition, application documentation must be submitted to demonstrate availability.
- How do other incentives, grants, or donations affect my incentives for this project?Customers are encouraged to pursue all available financial sources to make their project a reality. Different types of funding sources may affect the incentive paid out on a given project depending on the funding source (See Section 3.3.2 in the current SGIP Handbook).
- How will the Self-Generation Incentive Program's rebates be paid?Upon final approval of the incentive claim form documentation and completed field verification visit, PG&E will issue the incentive in the form of a check in approximately 30 days. Projects over 30 kW will receive 50% of the full incentive at this time, and the remaining 50% over 3 years in the form of a Performance Based Incentive (PBI).
- Are SGIP incentives taxable?Regrettably, PG&E does not provide tax advice to customers. Please consult your tax advisor for more information.
Program Information and Eligibility
- Who administers the Self-Generation Incentive Program?Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), Southern California Edison (SCE), the Southern California Gas Company (SoCal Gas), and the California Center for Sustainable Energy (CCSE*) administer this program throughout their respective service territories.
*CCSE is the Program Administer for SDG&E customers.
- Is there a limit to the number of systems I may install under the Self-Generation Incentive Program?Yes. A customer may receive payment up to a maximum of 3 MW of installed self-generation per Site, but may install up to 5 MW per Site.
- I'm a customer who takes gas service from PG&E, but my electric provider is a municipality. Am I eligible to qualify for this program?Yes. A customer who takes gas retail level service from PG&E at the facility, but electric service from a municipality may participate in the Self-Generation Incentive Program, subject to certain restrictions.
- I am currently participating in an interruptible program. Am I still eligible for the Self-Generation Incentive Program if I choose to install on-site generation?Yes, as long as the portion of load that is committed to such a program (an interruptible program, curtailable rate schedule, or any other state-agency sponsored interruptible, curtailable, or demand responsiveness program) is not displaced by self-generation receiving incentives through SGIP.
- Am I eligible for the Self Generation Incentive program if I also plan on selling energy to PG&E?Yes, customers who qualify may participate in wholesale or retail sales of generated electricity. For the purposes of SGIP, customers are allowed to size their generating system up to 125% of annual consumption at the site; however, the SGIP incentivized capacity will be based on 100% of the annual consumption at the site.
- Are government agency's facilities eligible under the Self-Generation Incentive Program?Government agencies that are distribution customers of Pacific Gas and Electric Company are eligible, with the same restrictions and limitations on the size of systems and payments per year as other customers.
Application Information
- How do I apply and what are the steps I need to take?Interested customers are encouraged to visit PG&Eâs SGIP website to view and download copies of the current program handbook, application process overview, and program application forms. Please review these materials carefully for both customer eligibility and technology eligibility requirements to ensure a successful application.
- Is there an application fee for this program?Yes, the application fee is 1% of the requested incentive amount and must be paid before a reservation is issued.
- If I interconnected my system before receiving a reservation, will I qualify for incentives?Projects are eligible for incentives if the Host Customer or System Owner has not yet received authorization from the serving Electric Utility to operate the Project in parallel with the grid or if the system was authorized for interconnection within the 12-months prior to the submittal of the reservation application.
- May I apply for a SGIP reservation online?Yes, emailing your Reservation Request Form (along with required documentation) to firstname.lastname@example.com. Application fees should follow via mail:
Mailing Address:
Self-Generation Incentive Program
PO Box 7433
San Francisco, CA 94120
Overnight Mailing Address:
245 Market Street
Mail Code N7R
San Francisco, CA 94105-1797
Selecting an Installer
- Where do I go to get help with making system equipment specification and buying decisions?Pacific Gas and Electric Company does not recommend nor endorse any particular equipment nor installers. There are, however, outside consultants and contractors available to assist customers evaluate whether or not on-site generation is right for them.
Interconnection & Metering
- When should I submit my interconnection application?Applicants are encouraged to submit their interconnection application as soon as they receive their Conditional Reservation Notice from their Program Administrator. Please note that the project must be interconnected to the PG&E grid and the customer must receive a âPermission to Operateâ Letter, prior to payment approval.
- Am I eligible to participate in the Net Energy Metering (NEM) Program as well as the Self Generation Incentive Program?Yes, PG&E offers Net Energy Metering for wind and fuel cell technologies. Please visit: http://www.pge.com/b2b/newgenerator/netenergymetering/index.shtml for additional information on how to apply for NEM.
- Do I have any obligations after the self-generation equipment installation and incentive payment?Yes, all systems are required to operate under a 10 year warranty, and projects over 30 kW receive a Performance Based Incentive (PBI) of 50% of the eligible incentive amount for meeting performance requirements over the first 5 years of operation. Customer is also responsible for data metering and monitoring (to be communicated via an approved Performance Data Provider (PDP)) for both PBI & Measurement & Evaluation.
- Are there currently classes offered on the Self Generation Incentive Program?Yes, PG&E host webinars throughout the year. Please visit the solar education website for future classes or previous presentation webinars.
What's New
- How do I get information or updates from the Self-Generation Incentive Program?Applicants and customers may visit the SGIP website at any time to get program updates and information.
Contact Us
Self Generation Incentive Program (rebate application questions)
Generation Interconnection Services (interconnection questions)
Mailing Address
PG&E Solar and Customer Generation – SGIP
San Francisco, CA 94120-7433
Street Address (for overnight deliveries)
PG&E Solar and Customer Generation - SGIP
245 Market Street MC N7R
San Francisco, CA 94105-1797


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Windows Phone's "Mango" update has been pushed out to the last few stragglers. The final handset to receive the update is the Dell Venue Pro—a quirky device with a portrait mode keyboard and a different WiFi chipset from most other Windows Phone models.
From start to finish, the whole upgrade process has taken a little over two months, with most users receiving the update at or soon after its release. Over the last few weeks, certain "problem" handsets—most notably a variant of Samsung's Focus—have also received their updates.
This successful rollout has been a refreshing change after the difficulties faced with the first significant Windows Phone update, "NoDo." That update trickled out over a period of many months, amid problems with failed installations, bricked phones, and recalcitrant carriers. In comparison, the Mango roll-out has been smooth-sailing; Microsoft has clearly learned from the problems it experienced first time around and improved its update process substantially.
Flush with this success, further updates have been pushed out over the last few weeks without issue. These include handset-specific improvements, including driver updates to enable Internet sharing on some models such as the HTC HD7; and an operating system patch, build 7740, that fixes an incompatibility with Exchange 2003 and some issues experienced with visual voicemail.
The Mango rollout, and subsequent patches, is starting to show the appeal of Microsoft's via media. A bit more hardware variety than the iPhone, less than Android, and with availability of major updates that's much closer to Apple's than it is Google's. Future upgrades should continue to build on this now solid foundation, giving Microsoft a genuine market advantage over Google.


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Would you believe that before I had the chance to experience the Chesapeake Bay Mind & Body candles and diffuser, I only purchased candles that smelled like food, coffee, or seasonal scents like burning leaves? Don't get me wrong, I still love filling my home with scents like Chesapeake Bay Vanilla Biscotti and of course Snow by the Shore, but now that I have had the chance to enjoy these incredibly pleasing scents, I'm obsessed.
I admit in the past I would have walked right by these scents. Clearly I didn't know any better. And I definitely didn't know that I needed these calming, relaxing, delicate, harmonious candles in my life. I'm so obsessed with them that I'll even burn them during the day when I'm home. I have never, ever burned candles during the day before, it was always just a night thing for me. For some (silly) reason, in my mind, candles only got burned at night. I'm a weirdo, I know.
I think part of the reason I would have never picked up candles like these before is because I'm not familiar with the scents. It's easy to buy a coffee scented candle, or an apple pie scented candle because you know what that smells like! The scents from the Mind & Body collection, I was completely unfamiliar with.


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It is clearly the popularity of open-ended, sandbox-style gameplay that has led EA to take the franchise in this direction. As mentioned, players will be required to scour the map to locate race events to engage in. But other than those events, a few scattered shops, and a few randomly placed cash pick-ups, there's little to do in the city beyond enjoy your ride through it. I am able to do just that. Sure, my primary goal when exploring may be to find some hidden shop I've been informed about. But secondarily, that extra exploration makes the environments more familiar and easier to navigate. This leads to more knowledge of the tracks while racing and thus better results afterwards.
While I appreciate the environment and cite it as the major reason I'd take a copy of Need for Speed Underground 2 over its predecessor, I can appreciate that many will be annoyed with much of the baggage the addition brings along for the ride. For example, race events seem to be scattered randomly through the environment with little thought given to why each icon has been placed where it has. It never seems like where I've driven to attend a race is where we end up racing, exactly. And because each event is simply marked with a stylized icon rather than a crowd modded cars and their owners, I never really feel like I'm participating in anything illegal or underground at all. Other than some scattered traffic and a few other tuner cars, the city is lifeless; there are no pedestrians roaming around at all, for example.
Narrative Hell
The decision to develop a more open game world is also likely the major reason that EA Canada made a point to inject more narrative elements into the game. While I'm quick to dismiss and ignore such additions if necessary, I don't doubt that others will find this to be a difficult feat given the quality of what's on display. I'll be blunt; the attempt at a coherent story is dreadful. Not only is the plot trite, but the dialogue is downright offensive in most cases. Brooke Burke's character Rachel is only tolerable when she's deliver the most specific pieces of information. (Drive here to find this. Enter this race.) Otherwise, she and the other characters deliver nearly unlistenable faux-street performances that'll even make white boys cringe. Unlike, say, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, it's absolutely clear that the attempt to inject believable urban cultural themes has failed and the result is left feeling downright contrived. To be fair, the game was developed in Canada rather than in New York City. Unfortunately, that doesn't make it any easier to listen to.


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Over 2000 years ago the Greek mathematician Euclid came up with a list of five postulates on which he thought geometry should be built. One of them, the fifth, was equivalent to a statement we are all familiar with: that the angles in a triangle add up to 180 degrees. However, this postulate did not seem as obvious as the other four on Euclid's list, so mathematicians attempted to deduce it from them: to show that a geometry obeying the first four postulates would necessarily obey the fifth. Their struggle continued for centuries, but in the end they failed. They found examples of geometries that do not obey the fifth postulate.
Spherical geometry
Image: Lars H. Rohwedder.
Spherical geometry is geometry on a sphere. In spherical geometry the Euclidean idea of a line becomes a great circle, that is, a circle of maximum radius spanning right around the fattest part of the sphere. It is no longer true that the sum of the angles of a triangle is always 180 degrees. Very small triangles will have angles summing to only a little more than 180 degrees (because, from the perspective of a very small triangle, the surface of a sphere is nearly flat). Bigger triangles will have angles summing to very much more than 180 degrees.
One funny thing about the length of time it took to discover spherical geometry is that it is the geometry that holds on the surface of the Earth! But we never really notice, because we are so small compared to the size of the Earth that if we draw a triangle on the ground, and measure its angles, the amount by which the sum of the angles exceeds 180 degrees is so tiny that we can't detect it.
The sphere has what mathematicians call positive curvature and this makes intuitive sense. But there is another geometry that takes things in the other direction:
Hyperbolic geometry
Hyperbolic geometry isn't as easy to visualise as spherical geometry because it can't be modelled in three-dimensional Euclidean space without distortion. One way of visualising it is called the Poincaré disc.
Take a round disc, like the one bounded by the blue circle in the figure on the right, and imagine an ant living within it. In Euclidean geometry the shortest path between two points inside that disc is along a straight line. In hyperbolic geometry distances are measured differently so the shortest path is no longer along a Euclidean straight line but along the arc of a circle that meets the boundary of the disc at right angles, like the one shown in red in the figure. A hyperbolic ant would experience the straight-line path as a detour — it prefers to move along the arc of such a circle.
A hyperbolic triangle, whose sides are arcs of these semicircles, has angles that add up to less than 180 degrees. All the black and white shapes in the figure on the left are hyperbolic triangles.
One consequence of this new hyperbolic metric is that the boundary circle of the disc is infinitely far away from the point of view of the hyperbolic ant. This is because the metric distorts distances with respect to the ordinary Euclidean one. Paths that look the same length in the Euclidean metric are longer in the hyperbolic metric the closer they are to the boundary circle. The figure below shows a tiling of the hyperbolic plane by regular heptagons. Because of the distorted metric the heptagons are all of the same size in the hyperbolic metric. And as we can see the ant would need to traverse infinitely many of them to get to the boundary circle — it is infinitely far away!
In contrast to the sphere with its positive curvature, the hyperbolic plane is negatively curved. Very small regions of it have the same type of curvature as saddles: along one direction, they look like the summit of a mountain ridge, and along another direction they look like the bottom of a valley.
Image created by David Wright.
Hyperbolic geometry may look like a fanciful mathematical construct but it has real-life uses. When Einstein developed his special theory of relativity in 1905 he found that the symmetries of hyperbolic geometry were exactly what he needed to formulate the theory. Today mathematicians believe that hyperbolic geometry may help to understand large networks like Facebook or the Internet.
You can read more about hyperbolic geometry in non-Euclidean geometry and Indra's pearls.


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Eric Meyer of A List Apart, CSS wizard and fan of vendor prefixes, interviews Tantek Çelik, Mozilla's web standards lead, on Mozilla's controversial plan to support
-webkit- prefixed properties.
Tantek precipitated the current crisis in Web Standards Land during a public meeting of the W3C CSS Working Group, in which he noted the predominance of WebKit-only mobile sites, thereby creating a browser monoculture. Tantek discussed Mozilla's solution — having Firefox Mobile pretend to be like Webkit and support a few
-webkit- CSS properties — which inflamed many in the standards community, especially when representatives from Opera and Microsoft immediately agreed about the problem and announced similar plans to Mozilla's. The following discussion was conducted via EtherPad, instant messaging, e-mail, and telephone calls.
Let's start with the basics. What exactly are the Mozilla, Opera, and Internet Explorer teams planning to do?
I can't speak for the Opera and Internet Explorer teams. Mozilla is currently analyzing mobile web sites for a couple of problematic behaviors—sites that are sniffing for a WebKit user agent string, and only sending high-fidelity mobile content accordingly; and sites that are using only or primarily
-webkit- prefixed properties.
Based on that analysis, we are planning on implementing a UA string for Firefox Mobile that passes such UA-sniffing—ironically, this is similar to how WebKit added "like Gecko" to its UA string when Safari launched—and implementing specific
-webkit- prefixed properties on a case-by-case basis, when justified by the data collected.
You're not going to just universally map
-webkit- to
-moz- ? The plan is to only support a limited subset of all
-webkit- properties?
Right. Our goal here is to minimize the number of other vendor-prefixed properties that we have to support to only those that are justified by the data, and that will make a difference to Firefox Mobile web users. The data we have so far does not justify blanket support of all
-webkit- properties.
In addition, we are considering only supporting the
-webkit- prefixed version of a property if and/or when we also support the unprefixed version. That will provide web developers with a standards-based option instead of using prefixed properties.
But as of now, we don't know which properties that will be. Or do we?
We don't have a specific list as of now. We're being very deliberate about this, and scrutinizing our data accordingly to make sure that we have data-driven justification—that we only support what the data justifies supporting—and efficacy, which means making sure that adding such support does make a difference to Firefox Mobile users.
I assume that list will change over time. This seems like it's going to generate even more confusion for developers, since you'll be supporting the
-webkit- prefix on some properties and not others. How do you expect developers will keep up with who's supporting whose prefixes on which properties?
Vendor prefixed properties were never supposed to be something developers could depend on. They were, and are, for experimental implementations and technologies in progress from iterations of CSS working drafts in the process of standardization. I expect developers to keep up with unprefixed properties and the implementations that support them. That's what developers can depend on.
That doesn't seem realistic, though. If developers stuck to what they can depend on—the unprefixed properties—we wouldn't be in this situation.
In fact, developers sticking to what they thought they could depend on is why we are in this situation—some prefixed properties were pitched as dependable and then supported as such without advancing the standards accordingly.
Will Mozilla maintain a list of which prefixes are supported on which properties?
Mozilla will continue documentation of what properties Firefox supports, with any recognized prefixes, on developer.mozilla.org.
Okay, so that's what you plan to do, but how about why you plan to do it? What's the goal of your plan?
Mozilla's goal is to open up the WebKit-specific part of the web to other vendors in the same way that, years ago, Mozilla and Opera had to be practical about what IE-proprietary or IE-only technologies to support. We've raised the problem of both a WebKit mobile web monoculture; and also the insufficiency of evangelism to fight it, despite numerous evangelists at Mozilla, Opera, and Microsoft working with web developers to publish standards-based cross-browser content.
With so many evangelizing the right thing, why has it been insufficient?
In the past 10+ years, web standards evangelism has been quite effective, raising awareness and adoption of valid HTML+CSS, progressive enhancement, unobtrusive scripting, microformats, et cetera. However, despite Mozilla's and others' evangelism efforts over the past year, the WebKit-specific mobile web is growing faster than we can evangelize, especially in contrast to WebKit-specific evangelism, both implicit and explicit.
I think it is a fair question to ask: what went wrong here, how did we end up with a WebKit mobile web monoculture despite at least some standards evangelism to the contrary? I'm not sure it was any one thing, I think there were several contributing factors that together created the conditions for the emergence and reinforcement of this particular monoculture.
First, the innovations in WebKit helped raise expectations of what was possible on the web platform—which, to be clear, was and still is a very good thing, as advancing the potential of the open web platform is a goal that we all share.
Second, the widespread WebKit adoption in iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry. This should have been a warning sign; that is, when multiple vendors all use a single implementation, there is a high likelihood of a monoculture emerging.
Third, we've seen strong evangelism of
-webkit- features by Apple and Google, most notably as part of "HTML5" presentations and demo sites. Some of those "HTML5" sites have subsequently been updated with multiple vendor-specific prefixes for experimental CSS features (for more cross-browser demonstrations and coding). However, the implied message of early WebKit-only versions still echoes today.
Fourth, there have also been years of talks in nearly every web design/development conference where speakers, excited to discuss and demonstrate the latest cutting edge, showed sites and code built with
-webkit- prefixed properties. This provided implicit, if not explicit, encouragement to target and code primarily or only for WebKit, especially on mobile sites.
Lastly, all of the above has been exacerbated by how long it has taken the CSS working group to standardize some of these innovative
-webkit- prefixed properties, so that all browser engines could support them without prefixes, including WebKit, and provide web developers a standards-based option they can depend on.
You said you're doing this for Firefox Mobile users. So this plan is only in your mobile product, and not in the desktop browser?
The UA string for Firefox Mobile is already different than Firefox Desktop, so yes, that part mentioned earlier is specific to the mobile product. As far as implementing particular
-webkit- properties, we're currently weighing the option of supporting them only in mobile, thus limiting exposure, versus providing a consistent Firefox/Gecko platform for web developers that they can depend on.
Since the goal here is to provide a consistent experience for all mobile users, it seems pretty likely you'd eventually decide to provide a consistent experience for all Firefox users, doesn't it? Thus causing this strategy to spread from mobile to desktop.
The problem we've found is specifically with mobile web sites that have been coded for WebKit-only. Since there's much more browser diversity on the desktop, there's a lot less WebKit-only coding happening there. This is where the efficacy requirement comes in—if something doesn't actually help the user, there's no reason to implement it. So we could implement this across the Firefox platform, but there's much less of a point to it if doing so doesn't make the desktop experience better for users. We still have to consider the impact on developers, though, and that might be enough. We may try things in beta builds to get feedback.
Along the same lines, this doesn't seem like something that will stay limited to a few properties here and there. It seems more like once the door is open, eventually you'll get to the point of just treating
-webkit- as if it were your own prefix. Or even if Mozilla doesn't, then Opera or Microsoft will do it at some point and subsequently you'll be forced to follow suit. True, or no?
I think that's dependent on whether we can open up the WebKit mobile web monoculture or not. History has shown that Mozilla and others succeeded with opening up the IE web monoculture with limited implementation of a few IE-only features such as
innerHTML and
XMLHttpRequest, both of which have been subsequently standardized with the W3C. There was no blanket implementation of IE-only features in Firefox. Mozilla has a solid track record here of very deliberate and case-by-case pragmatic implementation of features for web compatibility.
But suppose, say, Opera goes ahead and universally supports
-webkit- for reasons similar to those when they had their UA string default to Internet Explorer for a while. Wouldn't that force Mozilla onto the same path? And if not, why not?
If another mobile browser supports
-webkit- universally, I don't see how that impacts the situation, because the dominant mobile browser engine, WebKit, already supports
-webkit- universally.
Peter-Paul Koch has said quite forcefully that "there is no WebKit." You see it differently, obviously.
It doesn't matter that Peter-Paul Koch says "there is no WebKit"—what matters is that web developers believe and act as if there is a WebKit. They are coding and shipping mobile sites accordingly, by sniffing for WebKit UA strings, and by using only
-webkit- properties. That effect is measurable. Denying it doesn't make it not so.
And by developers doing so, they're giving a reduced or, in the worst case, broken experience to users of non-WebKit browsers like Mozilla, Opera, and Explorer.
Right. We're seeing downlevel or "feature-phone" ultra-minimal and reduced functionality experiences being sent by mobile web sites to non-WebKit mobile browsers.
In at least some of those cases, you fully support what they're doing, except they've hidden it behind
-webkit- prefixes?
Yes. Current versions of Firefox support
-moz- prefixed versions of CSS3 gradients, transforms, animations, et cetera. We're working actively with the CSS Working Group to rapidly advance the respective specifications and drop vendor prefixes on such stable features. That way we can all help the web platform move forward with standards, rather than handfuls of vendor prefixes.
How often is a site truly broken, though? If a site is different but still functional, that's kind of what we expect on the web already. It seems like your real objection is that your browser's rendering is less spiffy, not that users are being locked out. Is this really a threat to the adoption and use of non-WebKit browsers?
They're often broken. These downlevel mobile sites are different and significantly less functional. When users see a substantially worse experience in a different browser on the site on the same device, they blame the browser, not the site, nor the device.
The promise of vendor prefixes was that implementations could be tested in the wild and problems corrected before behavior was formalized. That paid off handsomely with gradient syntax, for example, where totally incompatible syntaxes were tried out, and eventually a unified syntax was found. This plan seems like it imperils that ability—that, once vendors start supporting each others' prefixes, we may as well drop prefixes altogether. Is that a reasonable conclusion?
Sometimes there's an expectation in technologies that they'll be perfect, without any flaws or bumps. Of course, such expectations have no bases in experience so it's not clear where they come from. CSS vendor prefixes are no different in this regard. They've actually been quite successful—many browsers experimented with iterations on various features for years, eventually standardizing what works.
Mozilla, in particular, has an excellent track record of trying things early with a
-moz- prefix, and when standardized, shipping a standard, unprefixed property as well as dropping the experimental
-moz- prefixed version. There has been pain along the way sometimes, too: for example, how long it took
border-radius to get standardized, which it is now. However, the WebKit mobile web monoculture is probably the first time we've seen a serious problem with vendor prefixes. Should we give up on vendor prefixes now, despite their imperfect but impressive track record?
There have been calls to replace vendor prefixes with "universal" prefixes, such as
-x- or
-beta-. What's your take on that idea?
Experience has shown in other standards efforts that when there is a beta or experimental prefix, like
-x-, that everyone does end up supporting them forever in addition to the unprefixed version. For example, check your email headers—you'll see lots of
X-* headers. Or the fact that browsers have to support
image/x-png in addition to
image/png for PNG images.
On the contrary, with CSS vendor prefixes, Mozilla has shown it is possible to drop
-moz- prefixed properties and move the web forward. I believe at least one other browser vendor has been able to eventually drop their vendor prefixed properties after they've shipped the standard unprefixed versions.
Why couldn't "universal" prefixes be dropped the same way vendor prefixes have been? What's the difference?
Universal prefixes become seen as dependable across browsers, and thus the network effects reinforcing their use and support are stronger—perhaps strong enough to require supporting them indefinitely for compatibility, like the aforementioned
X-* mail headers and content types.
There is a similar risk when multiple browsers support
-webkit- prefixed properties. This risk could be mitigated and perhaps even overcome if multiple browsers support the equivalent unprefixed properties, and we encourage web developers to instead use those moving forward. However, that won't fix the WebKit-specific mobile sites that have already shipped.
So this is focused on fixing the problem now, at risk of creating a similar problem in the future. Aren't you just deferring the pain?
It's certainly a complex problem with many variables and many actors. The combination of patching past problems and enabling a dependable path for future development provides a good balance of helping users and developers. We're basing our approach on study and collecting data, and expect to evolve and iterate it as such.
No approach is without risk, but doing nothing at all, or pretending there is no problem, is riskiest of all because it merely lets the WebKit mobile web monoculture worsen. The last time we had a web monoculture, it set the open web back for years.
Daniel Glazman, co-chair of the CSS Working Group, put out a call for action in response to your plan. Do you have any suggestions for what we can do to improve the situation?
As web developers, there are few key things we can do.
First, stop doing "WebKit"-specific UA-sniffing and content-serving, especially on mobile.
Second, stop only using
-webkit- prefixed properties, and either use the unprefixed property where it's standardized or "stable" per the Working Group; or, if it isn't stable, use every vendor's prefixed property where they've announced or shipped support.
Third, help evangelize corrections for any sites you see which are doing WebKit-specific UA-sniffing and/or only using
-webkit- prefixed properties. Similarly, help evangelize corrections for any webdev sites which are promoting, even implicitly, the use of WebKit UA-sniffing and/or use of only
-webkit- prefixed properties.
Most importantly, set a good example. Use web standards first and foremost in your sites, articles, and talks. When discussing or demoing experimental features or standards-in-progress, whether in one browser or many, be up front with warnings, and make it clear what's shiny today may break tomorrow.


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The purpose of this collection is to provide documented information about whistleblowers and the act of whistleblowing in the United States and internationally, over time.. Protecting the rights of whistleblowers and their ability to expose fraud, governmental abuse, safety violations and environmental problems -- along with any other misuse of authority -- helps all of us to create a more just society.
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New Unified Messaging Functionality and Voice Mail Features
Applies to: Exchange Server 2010 SP2
New functionality and many new features have been added to Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Unified Messaging (UM). This topic explains the new features for Unified Messaging and voice mail that are included in Exchange 2010.
Call Answering Rules
Additional Language Support
Improvements to Name Lookup from a Caller ID
Voice Mail Preview
Message Waiting Indicator
Missed Call and Voice Mail Notifications Using SMS
Protected Voice Mail
Incoming Fax Support
Group Addressing Using Outlook Voice Access
Built-in Unified Messaging Administrative Roles
Call Answering Rules
In Exchange 2010, the Unified Messaging server role allows UM-enabled users to create and customize call answering rules to enhance the experience of people who call them. At the time a user becomes enabled for UM, no call answering rules exist. The Exchange 2010 voice mail is the default call answering behavior. However, users can create up to nine call answering rules.
Call answering rules are similar to the Exchange Server 2007 UM auto attendants. There is usually a greeting, a menu prompt, and a list of options to choose from. The key difference between an auto attendant and a call answering rule that, when the call answering rule processes an incoming call, Unified Messaging already knows who the call is for.
Using call answering rules, a caller can:
Leave a voice message for the UM-enabled user.
Transfer to an alternate contact of the UM-enabled user.
Transfer to the alternate contact's voice mail.
Transfer to other phone numbers that the UM-enabled user has configured.
Use the Find-Me feature or locate the UM-enabled user via a supervised transfer.
Additional Language Support
In Exchange 2007, each UM language pack included a Text-to-Speech (TTS) engine and the prerecorded prompts for a specified language. UM language packs for Exchange 2007 are offered in 16 different languages. However, not all the UM language packs contain support for Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR). For ASR, there was only one language—US English.
For Exchange 2010, all available language packs contain the Text-to-Speech (TTS) engine and the prerecorded prompts for a specified language and ASR support. However, only some of the language packs contain support for Voice Mail Preview. The US English (en-US) language pack is included on the Exchange 2010 DVD and additional UM language packs can be downloaded from the Microsoft Download Center.
For more information about UM language packs, see the following topics:
Improvements to Name Lookup from a Caller ID
In Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging, a voice message was created after a call was diverted to a Unified Messaging server because of a ring-no-answer or busy condition. After the call was answered, Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging tried to resolve the caller ID. It did this so that it could insert a name, rather than a number, into the sender information.
In Exchange 2007, name lookups for voice mail messages were done using information about the caller who was in the same dial plan as the user being called. Name lookups were performed by using an Exchange Unified Messaging proxy address (EUM proxy address), using the personal contacts of the user receiving the call, or using the msRTCSIP-Line attribute in Active Directory if Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Exchange 2007 was installed and Exchange 2007 was integrated with Office Communications Server 2007.
In Exchange 2010, the name lookup methods used in Exchange 2007 have been enhanced. Although Exchange 2010 includes methods that were used to resolve calling IDs in Exchange 2007, eight other Active Directory attributes have been added for resolving a caller ID to a name. You can use the following steps to look up a name from the calling party's information:
Use the caller's name if the caller is signed in to their mailbox from Outlook Voice Access or if they use a Unified Communications client such as Office Communicator 2007 or Office Communicator Phone Edition to place the call. The caller's identity is known because they've already been authenticated by Outlook Voice Access, Office Communicator 2007 or Office Communicator Phone Edition.
Use the EUM proxy addresses in Active Directory. If the proxy address contains an at sign (@), it's considered to be a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). If the proxy address begins with a plus sign (+), it's considered to be an E.164 number. If neither of these symbols is present, the address is considered to be an extension within the same dial plan as the called party or an equivalent dial plan.
If the caller ID is a valid SIP URI, use Active Directory to resolve the SIP URI using the EUM proxy addresses.
If the caller ID is a valid E.164 number, use Active Directory to resolve the number using the calling party's name. For this to work correctly, you must manually configure the
UMCallingLineIdsparameter on the UM-enabled mailbox for each user. This is useful when you don't want to publish a telephone number, such as a personal cell phone number, in Active Directory, but still want to resolve the calling party's name by using this phone number.
Use Active Directory heuristic matching, if it is enabled, to resolve the number using the calling party's name. Active Directory heuristic matching must be enabled on the dial plan, and the user's account in Active Directory must contain information in at least one of the following Active Directory attributes:
Use the personal Contacts of the called party to resolve the number using the calling party's name.
If the calling party's name is not resolved using one the methods described previously, the phone number is used in the voice mail message.
Voice Mail Preview
In Exchange 2010, the Unified Messaging server role uses ASR on newly created voice mail messages. When users receive voice messages, the messages contain both a recording and text that's been created from the voice recording. Users see the voice message text displayed in an e-mail message from within Outlook Web App, Outlook 2007, or Outlook 2010.
Message Waiting Indicator
Message Waiting Indicator is a feature found in most legacy voice mail systems and can refer to any mechanism that indicates the existence of a new message. In Exchange 2007, this functionality was provided by a third-party application, which indicated receipt of a new voice message by lighting the lamp on the desk phone. This feature has been added to Exchange 2010, and third-party software isn't needed. Enabling or disabling Message Waiting Indicator is done on the user's mailbox or on a UM mailbox policy.
Missed Call and Voice Mail Notifications Using SMS
When users are members of a hosted or consumer dial plan, and they configure their voice mail settings with their mobile phone number and configure call forwarding, they can receive notifications about missed calls and new voice messages on their cell phones in a text message via the Short Messaging Service (SMS). However, to receive these types of notifications, the users must first configure text messaging and also enable Notifications on their account.
Protected Voice Mail
Protected Voice Mail is Unified Messaging functionality that enables users to send private mail. This mail is protected by Active Directory Rights Management Services (AD RMS), and users are restricted from forwarding, copying, or extracting the voice file from e-mail. Protected Voice Mail increases the confidentiality of Unified Messaging, and lets users rely on Unified Messaging if they want to limit the audience for voice messages. This functionality is similar to the way private e-mail messages were handled in Exchange 2007. In Exchange 2010, it applies to voice mail messages as well.
Incoming Fax Support
Exchange 2007 provided built-in support for fax message creation through the Unified Messaging server role. A user with a UM-enabled mailbox could receive fax messages from calls placed to his or her phone number. There's no support in Exchange 2007 UM for inbound fax routing, or for outgoing fax.
In Exchange 2010, direct support for fax has been removed from the Unified Messaging server role. Customers who require a fax solution that works with Exchange 2010 will need to deploy a fax partner solution. Fax partner solutions are available from several fax partners. The fax partner solutions are designed to be tightly integrated with Exchange 2010 and allow UM-enabled users to receive incoming fax messages.
Group Addressing Using Outlook Voice Access
In Exchange 2007, users could use either the telephone user interface (TUI) or voice user interface (VUI) in Outlook Voice Access to send e-mail and voice messages when they logged on to their mailbox. However, users could only send a single e-mail message to a single user in their personal Contacts, to multiple recipients from the directory by adding each recipient individually, or by adding the name of a distribution list from the global address list. In Exchange 2010, when a user signs in to their mailbox using Outlook Voice Access, they can also send e-mail and voice messages to users in a group stored in their personal Contacts.
Built-in Unified Messaging Administrative Roles
A set of roles for managing Unified Messaging and voice mail features have been defined within Exchange 2010. Administrative roles that included UM were available in Exchange 2000. The following UM-specific administrative roles have been added for Exchange 2010:
UM Mailboxes
UM Prompts
Unified Messaging
© 2010 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


text:
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text:
Valerie Cooper
Valerie Cooper
Associate Professor of Religion and Society and Black Church Studies
Duke Divinity School
Duke University
407 Chapel Drive
Duke Box #90968
Durham, NC 27708-0968
- B.S. (Howard University)
- M.Div. (Howard University)
- Th.D. (Harvard University)
Professor Cooper, the first African American woman to earn tenure at Duke Divinity School, joined the faculty in 2014. Using historical and theological methodologies, her wide-ranging scholarship examines issues of religion, race, politics, and popular culture. She has published essays on African American evangelicals (particularly in Pentecostalism and the Holiness Movement), on African Americans' use of the Bible, and with political scientist Corwin Smidt, co-authored an essay on the roles of religion and race in the 2008 election of President Barack Obama. Her article on "Black Theology" is forthcoming in the Oxford Handbook of Political Theology.
Her book, Word, Like Fire: Maria Stewart, the Bible, and the Rights of African Americans, (The University of Virginia Press, 2012), analyzes the role of biblical hermeneutics in the thought of Maria Stewart, a pioneering 19th-century African American woman theologian and political speaker.
Cooper is working on Segregated Sundays, a book evaluating the successes and failures of the racial reconciliation efforts of Christian congregations and ministries from the 1990s to the present. In addition to examining why such efforts frequently fall short of their stated goals, she also hopes to propose methods for achieving meaningful cross-racial relationships in America's still very segregated churches and religious organizations. In this research, she is particularly interested in recovering and recording the stories of ordinary men and women of faith.


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It's been 10 years since voters approved a home-rule charter giving Santa Fe a measure of independence from the state Legislature, which reigns supreme over most New Mexico towns and cities.
It's a good local constitution. Among its features are modern-day citizen controls over government via initiative, referendum and recall. And, of course, it made provision for amendments. This was an especially appealing idea — since some of the more sweeping reforms were held in abeyance by a diverse charter commission willing to wait until our community might be better prepared to adopt them.
For the past year or so, a citizen-volunteer charter review commission has been working on several amendments.
At this evening's meeting, the council will determine which ones to send on for citizen approval. Some are so sensible that we can't imagine the City Council not putting them on the March municipal ballot. As for others, we're not sure they're ready for prime time.
Among the proposals:
* Requiring law degrees of our municipal judges? Great idea. There'll be a bit of resistance from folks who love to maunder about the "people's court" — but last we looked, Ann Yalman was eminently human; sensitive yet sensible. The acting judge also is a lawyer — and that, we suspect, is a leading reason why our city court at last is less of a zoo.
* Allowing the mayor to vote not just to break ties, but also when his or her vote is needed for quorum purposes to meet minimum-vote standards? This provision surely should be in the charter.
* Lowering the number of petition signatures necessary to put initiatives and referenda on the ballot? Beware of this one, unless you like lunatics running the asylum — or corporate interests controlling our community under the guise of Concerned Citizens for Noble-Sounding Ignobility, or something like that.
Our charter allows citizen-initiatives, referenda and recall of bad choices — but it takes petition signatures of 20 percent of our registered voters. That's a high hurdle — and it should be. Worthy causes will draw plenty of signatures.
* Instant-runoff, or ranked-choice, elections? This is a sophisticated concept, but this is a city of sophisticated voters. We should be able to rank our choices of candidates right on the ballot. If no candidate wins a majority of first-place votes, the one with the fewest votes is eliminated — and the second-, third- and lesser votes are counted according to voters' choices. The process goes on until one candidate gets a majority. It's done by computer, so it really is an instant runoff. It's working in other places — and, as we've noted, voters are spared the damage that "spoiler" candidates and assorted whackos can do to the process, while allowing every dog his day.
* Public financing of municipal campaigns? That could cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars every couple of years — and could be a big disadvantage to candidates willing to stick to the city limit while an opponent goes hog wild. We'd say let candidates scrounge for whatever money they think they need — as long as there are disclosure rules on the books. Santa Feans, election in and election out, have shown a healthy disregard for heavily financed candidates — and/or their sugar daddies.
We hope to hear a lively discussion of the amendments tonight — and with at least as much sincerity as Machiavellian motives. Meanwhile, we thank the members of the original charter commission as well as the charter-review commission; theirs is, too often, tough, dry, difficult work on behalf of an ever-better Santa Fe.


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2010 marks the 30th anniversary of Audi's quattro all-wheel-drive system, as well as the car that first brought it to market. With that in mind, let's take a look back. Airborne UrQ hotness, we salute you!
2010 is the 30th anniversary of Audi's quattro four-wheel-drive and, by extension, the Audi Quattro (the car) itself. In recognition of this, Audi announced today that it will be taking a selection of its classic vehicles to an "unusually large" quantity of motorsport events in an effort to promote the marque's heritage.
This is a nice gesture, and it's an acknowledgement that Audi owes its modern fortunes to the virtues of all-wheel drive. And while automotive anniversaries seem to come around once every fifteen minutes, we figured a look at the beginning of Ingolstadt's modern history was a nice way to close out the week. And by "modern history" we mean "cool-ass UrQuattro, rally, and IMSA/Trans-Am stuff."
Quattro owes a large part of its existence to an Audi chassis engineer named Jörg Bensinger. In the late 1970s, Bensinger was testing a Volkswagen Iltis in the middle of a Finnish winter when he discovered the beauty (to coin a phrase) of all-wheel drive. The Iltis, a trucklike off-road vehicle that had been developed for use by the German army and forestry service, was simply untouchable on snow-covered roads — no car or truck of the time, no matter how powerful, could keep up with it.
Bensinger was enthralled with the idea of a four-wheel-drive road car, and in February of 1977, he proposed the idea to Ferdinand Piech, Audi's director of technical development. Piech signed off on the notion, authorizing a limited testing program built around the Audi 80. The first mule was given the code-name "A1" — allrad, or "all wheel" one — and, like the Iltis, lacked a center differential. Several other prototypes followed, with Piech and his engineers raiding both Audi and Volkswagen parts bins. The most evolved mule used an Audi 100's suspension and transmission, the floorpan and a few running-gear bits from the Audi 80, a turbocharged five-cylinder, and the body of the soon-to-be-released Audi 80 coupe.
In September of 1977, the whole caboodle gained the approval of Audi's board of management. Following a winter test at Turracher Höhe pass, one of the steepest and highest roads in Europe, the Volkswagen board also gave its approval. (Awesome tidbit: The car that completed the Turracher test climbed a snow-covered, 23-percent grade without snow tires or chains. Try that in your average 1977 road sled.)
The details of the approval and development process are the stuff of legend: A member of VW's board had doubts that the company would recoup the Quattro's high development costs, so Piech got crafty — he doused a grassy slope with water, put the board member in a front-wheel-drive Audi 80, and then gave him a Quattro prototype. (Guess which one made it up the hill.) VW's development director, Ernst Fiala, swiped the car for a weekend and gave it to his wife for a shopping trip; when she complained that the car hopped and jumped in parking lots, Fiala brought it back to work, telling his engineers to slap a center differential in it.
That last bit is where things get interesting — it led to one of the most ingenious packaging solutions of the late 20th century. The Quattro's longitudinal center diff is built into the back of the gearbox, and the gearbox's primary shaft is essentially an extension of the crankshaft. The primary shaft drives a hollow secondary shaft, which then drives the diff.
But here's the cool part: A third, solid shaft lives inside the hollow secondary, transmitting power to the front axles. This is the much-lauded "shaft within a shaft" that everyone talks about, and it allowed the Quattro to pack a steamer trunk's worth of components into a space barely larger than an overnight bag. (Note: Anyone who makes an Xzibit "Yo dawg, I herd you like all-wheel drive so I put a shaft in your shaft so you can diff while you diff" joke at this point will be shot.)
The car that resulted from all this — essentially a much-tweaked Audi Coupe sporting flared fenders and a whole lot of badass — hit European showrooms in 1980. It sported a 2.1-liter, ten-valve, turbocharged and intercooled I-5 that produced 197 hp and 210 lb-ft of torque. 60 mph came up in just over seven seconds, and wet-weather/dirt/snow performance was mind-boggling. The world went apeshit.
It is virtually impossible to overstate the impact that the Quattro had upon the rally world, nor the public-relations gold mine that came out of it. When Audi entered the car into the World Rally Championship in 1981, all-wheel-drive rally cars didn't exist. The technology had only made a prior few appearances in the sport (Jeep Cherokees won the first two years of Michigan's internationally recognized Sno*Drift rally but were reportedly asked not to come back), and for the most part, it wasn't on anyone's radar. This commercial, from Audi's 25th anniversary celebrations five years ago, nicely captures the feeling:
Audi's WRC entry was nothing short of monstrous, and the Quattro all but dominated its first few years on the scene. The car turned driver Michele Mouton into an international sensation — she became the first woman to win a WRC event and was mobbed on street and starting line alike — and gave Audi multiple run-away-with-it rally championships in the hands of Stig Blomqvist and Hannu Mikkola.
Click to view
Still, the coolest part was yet to come. As the WRC evolved and turbocharged, all-wheel-drive cars became the norm, Audi went even further. The essentially unlimited Group B class reached its height in the early 1980s, and while the cars that Ingolstadt crafted to compete in it — the short-wheelbase Sport Quattro and Sport Quattro S1 — weren't as all-conquering as their predecessor, they were still cool as all get-out. (For reference, this is how you build a Sport Quattro S1 from an ordinary Quattro coupe: Throw away almost everything, give the car a carbon-kevlar body, chop a few hundred feet out of the wheelbase, stuff in an aluminum-block, antilag-equipped five good for around 500 hp, and toss in steeply raked windshield to shut up drivers complaining about dash reflections. Recipe equals 2400 pounds; serves everybody.) Guys like Blomqvist and American rally star John Buffum got scared but won anyway.
When Audi pulled out of Group B rallying in 1986, Ingolstadt's motorsport department got antsy. The 1988 Audi 200 Trans-Am cars that resulted were massive, all-wheel-drive beasts, so quick and all-conquering that they were banned by the SCCA within a year of their arrival. The 720-hp IMSA 90s that followed in 1989 were more technically advanced, essentially turning this:
...into this:
...by way of a much-modified Group B five-cylinder, a complex tube frame, and a carbon silhouette shell. They looked like Audi 90 Quattros that had been to the gym, done a lot of muscle-building drugs, and hung out under a few overpasses guzzling Jagermeister and listening to Scorpions with the volume turned up to eleven. They weren't banned, and they weren't quite as successful as the Trans-Am cars, but they did incredibly well and were given a lot of very dirty looks. After one incomplete season and a record-breaking seven wins, Audi pulled the plug, moving to the DTM. This video gives a pretty nice wrap-up and some cool period track footage:
And that, as the saying goes, was that. There is, of course, more to Ingolstadt's modern quattro history; the company's motorsport successes tapered off significantly following the IMSA efforts, but they did not disappear. But that's fodder for another day. In the meantime, lift a glass to the folks who gave us all-wheel-drive rallying and one of Germany's coolest homologation specials. The UrQuattro and its immediate kin are as Jalopnik as Audis get, and thirty years on, we can't get enough.
Addendum: Just because we can, we've added a heaping dose of video. Happy Friday!
Four and a half minutes of five-pot snarl coupled with spectators yelling and getting all "Aww! Yeah!" on the sidelines:
Annoying British announcer, amazing footage. Pay close attention to where the former rally driver talks about house-pulling torque and being scared out of his pants:
Click to view
Audi Quattro - Remastered Vintage Footage - HQ - The most popular videos are a click away
Walter Röhrl absolutely dominating at Pike's Peak in 1987, one of the last times a Group B car was run in serious, factory-sponsored anger:
And finally, just because we like it, the original ski-jump ad:


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SANTA MONICA (AP) — Sandwiched between a brake shop, gritty industrial buildings and a few modest storefronts is a little neighborhood that time has seemingly forgotten.
Santa Monica Village Trailer Park is an anachronism, a throwback to another era, one when neighborhoods filled with modest, makeshift houses constructed of tin and perched upon wheels dotted coastal cities like this one from one end of California to the other. Rents were low, sunny days were plentiful and gentle ocean breezes helped ensure that the living was easy.
At Santa Monica Village, where rents on mobile homes still range from $370 to $410 a month (in a city where apartments rent for five or even 10 times that much), the living was easy — until recently.
On Tuesday, the City Council is scheduled to take up a proposal to raze the 3.8-acre park's 47 aging trailers, some of which are just slightly larger than modern SUVs and have been around since the park opened in 1950. They would be replaced by multiple-story buildings containing more than 400 apartments and condominiums, as well as more than 25,000 square feet of office and retail space.
In order to do so, the city must change the property's zoning, which essentially allows only a mobile home park to exist on this almost-hidden, aging piece of paradise that is two miles from the beach and seemingly 50 years away from the upscale coffee bars, clubs and high-end stores that have come to define Santa Monica in recent years.
If the City Council does change the zoning, longtime resident Ralph Meyer is not sure what he'll do, he said as he showed a visitor around his modest home on a recent day.
"It may not look like much," he says of the home so small his bed barely fits inside, "but I've gotten used to it."
He bought the place 30 years ago, moving into what was then mostly a gritty section of aging apartment buildings and rundown warehouses. In the years since, many of those buildings have been replaced with new apartments and also sleek modern office buildings like the ones that house outfits like Yahoo and Viacom just a few blocks away. At noon each day, young hipsters pour out of those places to patronize gourmet food trucks that line up outside.
During those years of change, Meyer has lived to be 86, and that's too old, he says, to move someplace else.
"I could have moved at one time," he adds softly, "but that window has closed."
That's a sentiment expressed by many in the park, where most people are old and many are in declining health.
"When we bought this, I thought we were going to be here forever," said Ray Meeks, who moved in more than 15 years ago with his wife, Geri. The still strapping former cop is 79 and weakened by chemotherapy.
The problem, says Marc Luzzatto, the developer who wants to transform Santa Monica Village into a high-density, upscale neighborhood, is that the area is not a sleepy, modest place anymore.
"We haven't been able to figure out a way to keep a mobile home park operating in that location," he said last week. "It hasn't been viable for many years."
He's been trying to redevelop the property since 2006, facing opposition from residents at pretty much every turn. But time finally may be on his side.
As older folks have died or moved to retirement homes in recent years, their trailers have been removed and spaces left vacant. Where 109 homes once stood, only 47 remain and a handful of those are used only as weekend getaways.
If the park is closed, Luzzatto has offered residents as much as $20,000 to relocate, as well as the opportunity to move into one of the new apartments after they're built. He says he'd subsidize rent for up to five years so they'd pay the same amount as now.
Several people want no part of apartment living. Some in this famously liberal and sometimes eccentric city simply don't believe in it.
"I'm one of those people who didn't quite buy into the Western civilization way of living," said Jack Waddington, a retired computer programmer and self-described "non-violent anarchist."
Relaxing by the pool on a warm, sun-splashed afternoon, Waddington says he believes everyone should eschew material wealth and live simply in mobile homes.
Taking into account such feelings, Luzzatto says he is modifying his proposal.
In addition to offering relocation money and a chance to move into a new apartment, he and his partners will offer to buy new mobile homes for every displaced resident who wants one and put them in what would be the city's last mobile home park, a city-owned operation four blocks away.
Rumors are rampant throughout the park that if the City Council does approve the development people who live on small, fixed incomes, will simply be put out on the street in a city where even a modest condo fetches about a half-million dollars.
"It's absolutely the last home ownership opportunity in Santa Monica for anyone of our income level," says Catherine Eldridge, a 61-year-old social worker who has lived there since 1999. She says she couldn't believe such a place existed when she showed up one day to buy a used refrigerator and bought a mobile home instead.
It was located in a park with a large, sparkling pool, a large recreation room and its own library containing several hundred books. Tropical plants and fruit trees abounded and you could smell the salt air.
Although he's trying to bring an end to that lifestyle, Luzzatto says his first concern has always been to take care of the residents and keep them in Santa Monica if they wish. While some doubt that, others say at heart he's not a bad guy.
"He's a very nice person," says Meyer. "It's not personal with him. He's just got big dollar signs in his eyes."
He adds with a laugh, "If I owned the property, I might do the same thing."
SANTA MONICA (AP) — Sandwiched between a brake shop, gritty industrial buildings and a few modest storefronts is a little neighborhood that time has seemingly forgotten.


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The ongoing federal government shutdown is a big cloud of uncertainty hanging over the stock market.
Investors will have their eyes trained on Washington this week to see whether Congress will reopen the U.S. government and -- more importantly, some say -- avoid default by raising the federal debt ceiling.
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew warned the U.S. could default in just over a week. He said Congress was "playing with fire," and chastised lawmakers for the "irresponsible and reckless" government shutdown, in an interview with CNN's State of the Union with Candy Crowley.
The uncertainty dragged markets largely lower last week. The Dow lost 1.2% and the S&P 500 gave up 0.1%.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq bucked the trend and rose 0.7%, bolstered by Facebook (FB) stock gains on news that it would run ads on its popular Instagram service. The index also got a lift on news of a public offering from another social media company Twitter.
Related: Wall Street digs in for a U.S. default
The shutdown left investors without a key economic indicator last week, when the government's September jobs report was not released on Friday. The federal workers who produce the report were locked out of their offices on furlough.
Cues from the Fed: But this week, investors will see other assessments on the economy. On Wednesday, minutes of the September 18 Fed meeting will be released. The minutes hold particular significance because the central bank surprised investors by announcing that it would not immediately start pulling back its stimulus program.
With the uncertainty on Capitol Hill, investors will be looking for cues from the Fed on timing of plans to taper its $85 billion monthly injection of funds by buying bonds. The central bank's next meeting is later this month.
Start of earnings season: Corporate earnings season kicks off this week with aluminum giant Alcoa (AA) on Tuesday. Large banks J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM)and Wells Fargo (WFC) report on Friday morning.
Also in the pipeline are earnings reports from KFC and Pizza Hut's parent company Yum Brands (YUM) on Tuesday. The company has had a rough year because of a dip in sales at its biggest overseas market China. Shareholders are waiting to see if sales have recovered.
On Wednesday, discount stores Costco (COST) and Family Dollar (FDO) will also release their quarterly earnings.
Investors will get a better sense of the health of the U.S. consumer with September retail sales data due Friday and the University of Michigan's Consumer Sentiment reading for October.
World economy: The International Monetary Fund will release its World Economic Outlook on Tuesday ahead of the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington next week.
What we won't see: The Treasury Department is delaying the release of its September budget due to the government shutdown. September was the last month of the government's fiscal year.
On trial: Five alleged accomplices of Bernard Madoff are expected in a New York federal court on Monday. They're accused of helping Madoff run his $20 billion Ponzi scheme. Lawyers for each defendant have told CNN their clients are not guilty.


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Climate Change Resilient Development (CCRD) was a global, four-year project in support of USAID's Global Climate Change Office (2012-2015). CCRD's climate adaptation-focused programs operate in 36 countries throughout Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean.
Employing USAID/GCC's strategic "development first" framework, CCRD delivered guidance, technical assistance, and capacity building to 3 Regional Bureaus and 8 Missions for USAID, several national governments, and dozens of local communities around the world to integrate climate change concerns into development policy, planning, and implementation.
FINAL PROJECT REPORT IS HERE!USAID CCRD Compendium (PDF), describes CCRD's activities, products, findings, and key accomplishments. It also provides links to connect USAID Bureaus and Missions and international practitioners to the large library of project resources, including tools, guidance, training materials, technical reports, and journal articles. In addition, the CCRD team provided some suggestions for future work to advance USAID's development first approach to climate adaptation. Check it out!
CCRD also explored emerging
issues in climate adaptation by developing innovative programs:
Explore the CCRD Library for Technical Reports, Factsheets, and Workshop Summaries.
CCRD enabled
USAID Bureaus and Missions to mainstream adaptation into planning; utilize custom-tailored, industry-first tools; provide technical assistance; and build capacity to their respective stakeholders.
For more information, please contact Michael E. Cote, Senior Climate Adaptation Specialist at email@example.com.


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links you'll like
The Mothership
Design Within Reach
Sure, the Marathon Coach next to you has a full size washer/dryer, leather Euro-recliners and a 50 inch flat screen. Screw that guy. A quick trip to dwr.com and several thousand dollars later and you'll be the envy of the KOA based on your folding chairs alone.
The Airstream Knowledge Sharing Forums
Owner photos, topical fun and priceless collective wisdom to help you restore your vintage trailer. (Typical post: "Help! Just got our new Astrodome replacements for my 65 Overlander and the instructions with the rivots had me drill through the dbl layer of the vent and use a sealant–I thought you would rivot the hardware to the single interior layer of the vent cover!" As Dave Barry says, I am not making this up.)
The Wally Byam Caravan Club, the Airstream RV Association (The WBCCI)
The official website of the WBCCI begs more questions than it answers. Visitors wanting to join the club will be like, uh…so now what? Here's what you do: Click on the "Regions and Units" tab. Locate your "region" on the map of the United States and click the corresponding number. Find your state or area on the list. See the membership chairman? You have to CALL THEM ON THE PHONE. How 1978 is that.
Fast forward to the 21st century: The adorably dated and mildly sexist Blue Beret, the official magazine of the WBCCI, can now be found online.
That Wondrous Time
When I visit photographer Jen Zahigian's blog I think of this striking phrase from the overpopular All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum: "Remember the the first word you learned—the biggest word of all—LOOK." She captures the beauty of neglected and ignored objects and American roadside relics in a way that make you feel like hugging someone, and young people will be nostalgic for a time that never was.
Mingle Freely
I don't fully understand what creator Mick Jeffries does for a living but each week he turns up in odd places surrounded by colorful people and archives it all on his lighthearted photoblog.
The Airstream Chronicles Continued
Photographs from Planet Awesome by Rich Charpentier. Shockingly beautiful landscapes and photo manipulation tips that are way over my head.
Long Long Honeymoon
Perhaps the most professional of the Airstreamer blogs, filmmaker Sean Michael (and pretty wife Kristy) host dozens of high quality short vids on topics ranging from a look inside the Jackson Center factory, to battling ants, to what kind of dog makes the best RV companion. My favorite: a tutorial on how to back a trailer into a tight camp spot employing their secret maneuver, "the scoop (TM)".
Airstream Life
"Traveling Well" is the tagline for Airstream Life, The Official Airstream Lifestyle Magazine, packed with all things Airstream—past, present, and sometimes future. A free sneak peek limited online edition is available, but you'll want to subscribe to the print version so you don't miss a thing (like the "Power Camping" article by yours truly in the Summer 2010 edition).
Weasel Mouth
I interviewed Texans Deke and Tiffani Waters for "The Technomads" (Airstream Life, Winter 2010), passionate owners of "The Weasel", their 2003 22′ International CCD. (They've since supersized to a new 27 footer). "Our dream life is a little different than most folks' our age. The material things we've been working for up to now are all things we just don't need or even want. In fact, they've become burdensome," they confess in the article. Young Airstreamers looking for a lifestyle change will be inspired by their slick site.
Mobile Kodgers
Itching for a fight? You'll appreciate Mobile Kodgers, a blog that isn't afraid to stir up a little controversy now and again. Opinionated fulltimer Randy "travels the continent on the back roads where adventure lives" and uses his likable ways and reporter's nose to sniff out the local story.
Eccentric Roadside
Everybody loves Eccentric Roadside—the blog "devoted to old fashioned American roadside attractions"—some even refer to it as a legitimate travel guide alongside Fodor's and Woodall's.
Liquid Courage
Liquid Courage – Drinking our Way Through Military History is "a celebratory combination of military history and drinking…alcoholic drinks that embody important moments in military history. Each blog entry is a drink, how to make it, and the skinny on what happened in that war or battle." Now what's not to love about that. A tip of the hat and bend of the elbow to its four clever authors. (The Master of History and I instinctively Pulled a Custer at Little Bighorn even before we knew there was such a thing.)
The Path Less Pedaled
"In March 2009, Laura Crawford and Russ Roca made the decision to drop out of the status quo and find something new in an open-ended journey," states the online explanation of their ongoing adventure on two wheels. "Our journey is about meeting people, tasting new foods, seeing unknown corners of the world," they say. "We travel on bicycle because we move slowly. We can sink into our surroundings and connect deeply with the world around us."
They ride, they eat, they mingle. Then they film, they sketch, (that's our DWR and Ralph's Tikit foldable bike), they photograph, and finally share it all with you via every social media tool.
Laura and Russ recently discovered a connection between Airstreaming and cycling when they passed through Baker City during the Wally Byam Birthday rally. Watch their video about the celebration (yep, that's me prattling on at 02:08) here.
Laura and Kevin, also featured in my Technomads article, live and work in their beautifully appointed 27' International. Laura, a professional photographer, posts pix of their upscale household improvements and the couple's Northwest rec activities with their top of the line outdoor gear.
Their occasional "view from the office" shots, taken through the front window of their Airstream, will make you sell your possessions and hit the road. And if you've ever struggled with internet connectivity, you'll enjoy this laugh-out-loud post.
Catskill Kiwi
Hungry? You will be. A gardener, cook, and owner of a '74 Argosy, this blogger posts the most mouthwatering, unpropped food photos on the internets: bright and fresh raw ingredients; comfort food bubbling hot from the oven; delicious baked goods and meals casually plated, crumbs and all. Recipes, too.
The Glamourai
Detailed fashion photos of a girl (blogger Kelly Framel—cute as a bug's ear), modeling fantastic casual clothes.
Man in the Maze
The travels and musings of Rich Luhr, Editor and Publisher of Airstream Life Magazine (THE publication for any Airstream owner or lover; see above). Like a collection of professionally-written "what I did on my summer vacation" essays, Rich's consistent and candid coverage includes behind the scenes reviews of events like Modernism Week and Alumapalooza, destinations closer to home, and the exploits of his heroic alter ego, Temporary Bachelor Man.
TrailerChix is dedicated to (deep breath): Adventure | Caring | Freedom | Style | Independence | (and) Creativity. TrailerChix.com is especially for those seeking fabulousness—and who isn't—within a smaller eco-friendly footprint. Passionate creator Shelah Johnson has been busy building a strong online and real world community and is influential in returning "some of the lost charm and elegance to trailer life." (Please to enjoy my TrailerChix.com article about an inspiring woman of the road: Finding Focus – Award-winning photographer develops new lifestyle.)
Oh God, My Wife is German.
Do you like indelicate humor? Of course you do. The author of OGMWIG—who has a way with words and an appreciation for the comically tasteless—routinely entangles himself and his comely bride in a variety of physical and cultural snafus. Hilarity ensues. Enjoy.
Two Girls and a Trailer
Clean design. Cute Etsy shop. Humble, midcentury tasties. Vintage Airstream restoration on the way—I'm staying tuned.
Mali Mish
These guys have guts: mom, dad, three (count 'em, 3) kids and a cat virtually fulltiming in a 25 ft Ocean Breeze. Sightsee along with the family as these prolific bloggers trek from coast to coast in the Mali Mish ("little mouse" in Croatian).
4 Responses to "links you'll like"
wanted to say hello… tiffani (of weaselmouth) just passed your blog along to me and as a fellow airstreamer wanted to introduce myself. (we do home on wheel tours with Q&A's) give me a shout if you'd like to share and do one with your airstream (;
xo, tiffany
Hey, we have a Mercedes Sprinter Van/Airstream Interstate RV. Any groups for us or should be just hang out with the Class B groups?


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James Franco uploaded this nude (although self-censored) pic to Instagram early on Friday morning.
I'm on the side of the fence that firmly believes Franco is having a good laugh at all of us with these semi-trolly social media stunts. But hey, whatever. Here is an Academy Award nominee covering his dick with his hand and sharing it with the whole world.
UPDATE: Looks like the pic was deleted from James Franco's Instagram account. Either it was a legitimate mistake or he's basically saying "Nope, sorry Internet. Only cool bloggers who are up at 1 a.m. drunkenly scouring through the accounts of random celebrities like me get to have this story." Not that I know anyone who does that. (Also, Franco's pic may have been reported and then removed by Instagram as well. So many theories. This is like Oliver Stone's JFK, only with celebrity dick instead of presidential assassination theories.)
Image via James Franco Instagram.