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Perry Farrell. Dave Navarro. Stephen Perkins. Warming up the crowd for the rock legends of Jane's Addiction is an honor in and of itself. But for you, we're offering an overdose of awesome with an even bigger prize package.
Enter the Guitar Center On-Stage: Jane's Addiction Competition and not only could you win three opening slots on the Jane's Addiction summer tour, you could also win $20,000 in new gear from Gibson and Epiphone, a $10,000 Guitar Center shopping spree, and a mentoring session with Prospect Park, the management team behind Jane's Addiction.
Know that song you wrote, the crowd pleaser? Upload it by July 31 and compete to win fame, glory, and some sweet new gear.
Artist submissions begin on June 1 and will only be eligible for submission until July 31, 2011, so don't miss this incredible opportunity. In September 2011, an expert panel of judges will select one winner to receive the Grand Prize from among the Top 100 ranked entries*.
Artists must be eighteen (18) years of age or older at the time of entry. Individual artists or a band member must be a legal resident of the forty-eight (48) Contiguous United States. An artist may submit only one unique track into the Guitar Center "On-Stage: Jane's Addiction" Competition Music Channel.
To learn more about the Competition prize, or answer additional questions visit the OurStage FAQs for more details.
Click here to view the official rules.


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Timeless (NBC) "Change Time, Make History" Promo HD
From Eric Kripke ("Revolution," "Supernatural"), Shawn Ryan ("The Shield") and the producers of "The Blacklist" comes this thrilling action-adventure series in which a mysterious criminal steals a secret state-of-the-art time machine, intent on destroying America as we know it by changing the past. Our only hope is an unexpected team: a scientist, soldier and history professor who must use the machine's prototype to travel back in time to critical events. While they must make every effort not to affect the past themselves, they must also stay one step ahead of this dangerous fugitive. Can this handpicked team uncover the mystery behind it all and end his destruction before it's too late? The cast includes Abigail Spencer, Matt Lanter, Malcolm Barrett, Goran Visnjic, Paterson Joseph, Sakina Jaffrey and Claudia Doumit.

subset: commoncrawl


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I've been saying for years that you can live a life involving code and hacking as a cultural phenomenon, but you can't live a life that only has code. You can work and make money doing web programming, but you can't make a life out if it. I try fill my mind and experiences with other shit, and then use code as one of many ways to express myself.
Back to the software development example, it's easy to get wrapped up
in the delivery of the code you are creating. Your customer needs a web
application up, and you focus on finishing that application. But, a living
application is never "done." One release leads to the next. Too much focus
on the end product distracts us from the real deliverable: the sustainable
development of a new entity.
Focusing on the ending makes you forget to
make the process good. And, bad processes
create bad products. The product might meet
its minimum requirements, but its insides will
be ugly. You've optimized for the short-term end goal -- not for the
inevitable, ongoing, future of the product's development.
Not only do bad processes make bad products, but bad products make bad
processes. Once you have one of these products that is messy inside, your
processes adapt around it. Your product's broken windows lead to broken
windows in your process. It's a vicious cycle.
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Compute the O'Brien transform on input data (any number of arrays).
Used to test for homogeneity of variance prior to running one-way stats. Each array in
*argsis one level of a factor. If
f_onewayis run on the transformed data and found significant, the variances are unequal. From Maxwell and Delaney [1], p.112.
- args : tuple of array_like
Any number of arrays.
- obrientransform : ndarray
Transformed data for use in an ANOVA. The first dimension of the result corresponds to the sequence of transformed arrays. If the arrays given are all 1-D of the same length, the return value is a 2-D array; otherwise it is a 1-D array of type object, with each element being an ndarray.
[1] (1, 2) S. E. Maxwell and H. D. Delaney, "Designing Experiments and Analyzing Data: A Model Comparison Perspective", Wadsworth, 1990.
We'll test the following data sets for differences in their variance.
>>> x = [10, 11, 13, 9, 7, 12, 12, 9, 10] >>> y = [13, 21, 5, 10, 8, 14, 10, 12, 7, 15]
Apply the O'Brien transform to the data.
>>> from scipy.stats import obrientransform >>> tx, ty = obrientransform(x, y)
scipy.stats.f_onewayto apply a one-way ANOVA test to the transformed data.
>>> from scipy.stats import f_oneway >>> F, p = f_oneway(tx, ty) >>> p 0.1314139477040335
If we require that
p < 0.05for significance, we cannot conclude that the variances are different.


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Dr. Jeff Bodycomb of HORIBA Scientific discusses method development for sizing by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and the SZ-100 Nanoparticle Analyzer.
This presentation will be useful for those who use DLS to determine nanoparticle size including SZ-100 users and DLS users in general. Topics to be covered include preparing suspensions, sample filtration (clarification), and particle concentration.


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(CNN) — A recall of about 200,000 bottles of Concentrated Motrin Infants' Drops due to a risk that they may contain tiny plastic particles is still in effect.
Maker McNeil Consumer Healthcare announced the recall a month ago, and asked retailers to remove three lot numbers of Concentrated Motrin Infants' Drops Original Berry Flavor in half-ounce bottles.
The lot numbers are DCB3T01, DDB4R01 and DDB4S01.
"The potential for adverse medical events related to the reason for this recall is not likely," the company said in a news release Sunday.
Tiny plastic particles were discovered in a different lot during manufacturing. That lot was not released, and the particles were traced to a shipment of ibuprofen from a supplier, the company said.
The three recalled lots were made with the same batch of ibuprofen, the company said.
Consumers with questions or who would like to request a refund may call the company at 1-877-414-7709.
CNN's AnneClaire Stapleton contributed to this report.
™ & © 2013 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.


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Google began displaying that message Tuesday to anyone using one of its search engine sites with a PC that appears to be infected with the DNSChanger malware.
"After successfully alerting a million users last summer to a different type of malware, we've replicated this method and have started showing warnings via a special message that will appear at the top of the Google search results page for users with affected devices," said Google security engineer Damian Menscher in a blog post. The previous effort targeted a fake antivirus software campaign.
[ Read about some real-world examples of mobile malware and the challenges of thwarting them. See 6 Findings That Prove Mobile Malware's Mettle. ]
"Our goal with this notification is to raise awareness of DNSChanger among affected users," Menscher said. Furthermore, since about half of infected PCs appear to be located in non-English-speaking countries, "we believe directly messaging affected users on a trusted site and in their preferred language will produce the best possible results."
Why the proactivity with respect to this particular piece of malware? Because any PC infected by DNSChanger stands to lose Internet access on July 9, 2012. That's the court-ordered date for the FBI and the Internet Systems Consortium to disconnect the domain name system (DNS) servers they're currently using to resolve Internet addresses for PCs infected by DNSChanger. The FBI commissioned the servers after "Operation Ghost Click," in which the bureau and Estonian police worked together to bust six Estonians for using the malware to conduct a four-year click fraud campaign that raked in an estimated $14 million.
To perpetrate the click fraud--forcing a Web browser to "click" on certain advertisements, thus generating revenue from pay-per-impression advertising networks or referral fees--the criminals used their malware to alter the DNS settings on infected PCs to their own rogue DNS servers. Even after the botnet operators were arrested, however, the infected PCs were still relying on the rogue DNS servers to resolve domain names into IP addresses.
For anyone left with a PC infected by DNSChanger come July 9, when the temporary DNS server gets disconnected, the resulting loss of connectivity may not be easy to diagnose. "In the simplest terms, connectivity will not be severed for DNSChanger-infected systems, but Internet communications will not function for infected systems that have not been cleaned up," explained Kurt Baumgartner, senior security researcher for the global research and analysis team at Kaspersky Lab, via Threatpost. "In the U.S., government agencies, home users, and other organizations still infected with the malware will have systems that effectively can't get online, can't send email, etc. It will look like they are connected to their network, but they just won't communicate with anything."
Google's outreach effort alone, of course, won't solve this malware-infection problem. "While we expect to notify over 500,000 users within a week, we realize we won't reach every affected user," said Menscher. Still, reducing the number of infections by any amount will help. "If more devices are cleaned and steps are taken to better secure the machines against further abuse, the notification effort will be well worth it," he said.
Since the botnet takedown, numerous service providers--including AT&T, Bell Canada, CenturyLink, Comcast, COX, Time Warner, and Verizon--have also begun notifying customers whose PCs that appear to be infected. Meanwhile, for anyone else who suspects their PC may have been infected, the DNSChanger Working Group (DCWG) also maintains a list of websites that will identify if your PC is carrying the malware.
When it comes to regulatory compliance, auditors consider more than how you protect your company's covered assets from external attackers. In the Compliance From The Inside Out report, we show you how to create and implement a security program that will defend against malicious and inadvertent internal incidents and satisfy government and industry mandates. (Free registration required.)


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Feb 1 2012, 9:00 pm
Ever wanted NPCs to wander around like zombies? Well, that can't really happen in this library, they don't chase you! But, they do wander, and it quite gives them more of a human-like way of thinking. Ha! Enjoy.
Can it do anything that step_rand() can't do, besides the random sleep() calls?
I typed this up in about 10 seconds, so I believe not. But if no random sleep() calls, then it wouldn't succeed in it's purpose, now would it? ^^
mob //Declaring it's going to be a mob
What you did was define an already built in proc, when you could have made it alot shorter, and more helpful to new programmers.
In response to Avainer1
Avainer1 wrote:
What you did was define an already built in proc
walk_rand() does not vary the time between each movement
In response to Falacy
Lag: Delay in world ticks between movement.
That delay is the same between each movement. Even if you pass it a rand() value, it is only configured once.


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In fact, you can find websites on the Internet offering thousands of new business ideas, including "Cool Business Ideas," "Ideas Watch," and "Business Opportunities." Amazon offers a multitude of books with free ideas, such as "Small Business Ideas," and "Business Ideas: 100 Starting Points to Make Money." In addition, we all have friends who harbor a few million-dollar ideas.
What we are all looking for are proposals that clearly have bridged the gap between an idea in the clouds and an implementable and financially attractive plan, put together by a skilled and committed team. If you follow these recommended steps before approaching investors, you may indeed convince someone that your million dollar idea could lead to a billion dollar business:
- Gather some market sizing data from industry experts. Just because you and your friends are convinced that everyone will love your solution, that doesn't mean there is a market. Of course, there are no guarantees, but if can find an independent sizing of the market opportunity, your job of convincing customers, and investors, will be much easier.
- Show evidence that your solution will create a viable business. Not all ideas have cost-effective solutions, or customers able and willing to pay real money. Thus you need to build a working prototype, and project total costs, a winning business model, and real growth opportunity. A good social cause doesn't always imply a viable business.
- Test your assumptions in the target marketplace. With interactive social media and blogging, you have every opportunity to test and tune your idea before spending any real money. Sell your solution before you build it (that's what crowd funding is all about). If you can't build any momentum at this level, funding is unlikely to make a difference.
- Draft a short pitch for customers, and one for investors. Contrary to popular opinion, these are not the same. The first is for people who might buy your product, and the second is for people who might buy a chunk of your business. The first is good preparation for a customer website, while the second is a prelude to a full business plan.
- Formalize a company entity, website, and social media presence. With these, your idea is visibly and legally transformed into a business. For investors, these are required to prove execution ability, and for you they are evidence of business value and a new brand. I recommend you start with a Limited Liability Corp (LLC) and a winning name.
- Stake your territory with some intellectual property. Just like an idea has no value in the abstract, your solution has minimal value generically until you put a fence around it as a barrier to entry. Nothing defines innovation, uniqueness, and commitment ability like a patent, trade secret, or a trademark. Investors pay a premium for this execution evidence.
- Assemble key team members with the right skills and experience. Most investors agree that the right technology makes a product, but the right people make the business. An individual can have a good idea, but it takes a team to build a good business. The team needs to show marketing as well as financial skills, and the ability to communicate.
It's a lot less painful to iterate at this level, until you get it right, before you ask for other people's money or use all of your own to scale up. For all these reasons, I recommend that you limit your idea discussions to friends and potential customers on social media, and wait until you have a viable solution before broadcasting your funding needs to the investment community.
The only sure-fire approach to selling a million-dollar idea is to first build and sell a billion dollar business. Then every investor I know will line up to buy the idea without question.
Marty Zwilling
*** First published on Inc.com on 04/13/2017 ***
*** Estonian translation provided by Karolin Lohmus ***
*** Macedonian translation provided by Katerina Nestiv ***
*** Russian translation provided by Angelina Baeva ***
*** Spanish translation provided by Laura Mancini ***
*** Catalan translation provided by Chema Bescos ***
*** Bulgarian translation provided by Zlatan Dimitrov ***


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PARIS (AP) — The director of the Tour de France expects Bradley Wiggins to come roaring back in 2014 after not defending his crown in this year's race that starts in just over a week.
"I think he'll have his motivation back and be back," Christian Prudhomme said in an interview Tuesday in his Paris office. Elite athletes, he noted, "can fall very low but rebound very quickly."
The first two stages in 2014 run through Yorkshire in northeast England, with the third going from Cambridge to London, so Wiggins will be on home ground.
"I think he'll be very strong," Prudhomme said.
With a sore left knee ruling Wiggins out of this year's race, Prudhomme identified the Briton's teammate at Sky, Chris Froome, as the rider to beat this July at the 100th edition of cycling's showcase race.
"I think it will be Froome and Sky against the rest of the world."
Prudhomme warned that the first stages on the French island of Corsica could be treacherous. After a flat opening stage on June 29 that British sprinter Mark Cavendish, among others, will have his eye on, the race ventures over more jagged terrain inland and up the island's west coast. From Corsica, the Tour crosses to the French mainland.
"Those who haven't scouted out the Corsican stages will have made a big mistake. On the evening of the first stage, they'll be telling themselves, "It's all flat!" Prudhomme said. "Two days later they will have understood why the automobile Tour of Corsica is called 'the rally of 10,000 bends.' Not only does it go up and down, it turns all the time."
In the 12 months since Wiggins became the first Briton to win the Tour, Lance Armstrong admitted in January that he doped for all seven of his Tour wins from 1999-2005. Those titles have been stripped from him and not reattributed. Armstrong told talk-show host Oprah Winfrey that doping was routine for him, part of the job.
"The picture of cycling we saw this winter is not the picture of cycling today. It is the picture of cycling in the past, even if it is a recent past," Prudhomme said.
He said the "the fundamental difference" between the Armstrong era and now is cycling's pioneering introduction five years ago of its so-called biological passport. That consists of blood tests over time on riders to look for abnormal readings and variations that could point to doping, triggering either more tests or disciplinary action if the proof of cheating is strong enough.
"Cycling is no longer the ugly duckling," Prudhomme maintained. He suggested the sport deserves more credit for its anti-doping measures.
"In all sports, there are good people, real champions, and cheats," he said. "Cycling cheated before the other sports, more than the others, but it got things under control. When the police catch thieves, we congratulate them. When cycling catches cheats, people say, 'there are still things going on.'"
Speaking to reporters in the south coast city of Nice, Froome said Tuesday that the onus is on today's riders to show that they're not like Armstrong.
"The revelations from Armstrong last year were a big hit to all of us, the fans, the professionals still in the sport now. We are all being painted with the same brush if you like," said the 2012 Tour's runner-up. "It is a completely different cycling to that era. There are new methods of training, new methods on nutrition. We are working really hard to get the results that we are getting, so it is up to us now to show the fans that this is how cycling has changed."
Froome identified Alberto Contador as "my biggest rival at this point." Contador was stripped of his 2010 Tour win for a failed doping test.
"To be labeled the favorite never sits comfortably for me. It is not a position I like to think of myself being in," Froome said. "I am fully aware that once we get to Corsica, then none of the races we have done in the build-up to the Tour de France mean anything anymore. Everyone starts on zero, so I think if we can get there and just stay focused on the race, then hopefully things should go according to plan."


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Kansas court overturns brothers' death sentences
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday overturned the death sentences of two brothers convicted of killing four friends who were robbed and forced to engage in sex acts before being shot to death and left in a snow-covered Wichita field.
The court also struck down three of the four capital murder convictions each against Jonathan and Reginald Carr, citing procedural problems at the brothers' joint trial for its decisions. It upheld one capital murder conviction for each of them.
Prosecutors said the brothers broke into a Wichita home in December 2000 and forced the five people there to have sex with each other and later to withdraw money from ATMs. Two women were raped repeatedly before all five were taken to a soccer field and shot while they were kneeling. Four of them — 29-year-old Aaron Sander, 27-year-old Brad Heyka, 26-year-old Jason Befort and 25-year-old Heather Muller — died.
One of the women survived a gunshot wound to the head and she ran naked through the snow to seek help. She became a key witness at the brothers' trial on the capital murder convictions.
The killings ended a series of crimes that authorities alleged the Carr brothers committed over nine days in December 2000.
The Kansas Supreme Court ruled 6-1 in overturning the Carr brothers' death sentences because the presiding judge did not hold separate sentencing proceedings for each man. In overturning most of their capital murder convictions, the majority said the instructions to jurors had been flawed because the judge tied those charges to the rape of the surviving victim, not the deceased ones.
The brothers' cases will return to Sedgwick County District Court for further proceedings
Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and several GOP legislators were immediately critical of the decisions, which involved crimes that were among the most notorious in the state since the 1959 slayings of a western Kansas family that inspired the book "In Cold Blood." The legislators said the ruling shows the court's unwillingness to uphold a death sentence, and the governor said he was "stunned."
"They were convicted by a jury of their peers in front of an elected local judge," Brownback said in a statement. "Today's ruling unnecessarily reopens wounds of a tragic moment in Wichita's history."
Heyka's father, Larry Heyka, also expressed disappointment and said he was struggling to make sense of the rulings, which totaled nearly 480 pages.
"Hopefully going forward, we will all understand what these rulings really mean," said Heyka, who is from Council Grove.
Attorneys for the brothers did not return telephone messages seeking comment.
Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said he's not sure whether his office will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, but he promised to continue pursuing death sentences.
Jonathan Carr, now 34, and Reginald Carr, 36, were in their early 20s when the crimes occurred. Together, they were convicted of 93 counts, including rape, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery.
The state Supreme Court upheld a total of 57 convictions against them. Most of the overturned convictions involved the allegations of forcing their victims to engage in sex acts.
Five other convicted killers remain on death row in Kansas. The state Supreme Court last week overturned the death sentence of Sidney Gleason in the killings of a Great Bend couple in 2004.
Kansas last executed someone in 1965, by hanging. The current capital punishment law was enacted in 1994, but the state's highest court has yet to approve any death sentences.
Opinions in Reginald Carr's case: http://bit.ly/1rFwzDa
Opinions in Jonathan Carr's case: http://bit.ly/1kfhTbv


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Italy: Cinque Terre
99 Coastal Destinations Rated
(Score: 76) The cluster of seaside villages known as Cinque Terre—Five Lands—burst onto the travel scene a decade ago to become one of the most visited attractions in Italy. Travelers might reasonably expect choking traffic and tawdry souvenir shops, but "the Cinque Terre still look like Italy did a hundred years ago," says sustainable-development authority Ed McMahon. "The towns are as beautiful, if not more beautiful, than anywhere along the Mediterranean Sea."
What happened? How did these towns defy the conventional wisdom that popularity inevitably dilutes the appeal of a destination? The answer lies in a mix of geography—the steep, rocky coast that the towns perch on has afforded them a natural seclusion from the rest of the mainland—and savvy development.
Only two narrow, cliff-hugging roads lead to the coastal villages, which limits access—a feature that locals have chosen to keep. Most visitors arrive by train or boat, or on foot along hiking trails, which reward walkers with views of vineyards, terraced farms, and seascapes. The villages feel like a pedestrian Shangri-la, free of the perils, fumes, and honks that accompany car traffic.
Recognizing and capitalizing on this natural advantage, the communities have carefully safeguarded the qualities that make them special. Zoning regulations are clear and enforced: No large-scale or modern-looking developments are permitted. Checking into a hotel or dining out often means meeting a local family. And while tourism pays the bills for most residents, you still see fishermen mending their nets and farmers tending their fields.
"The Cinque Terre are more than just one of the treasures of Europe," McMahon says. "They're a great example of sustainable-tourism management for the whole world."
Supporting evidence: In 1997 the area was designated a World Heritage site. In 1998, the coastline was named a protected marine reserve. And in 1999 the whole area was declared a national park. Fees visitors pay to hike a number of the trails and enjoy the more popular beaches help maintain the park and villages.
That still leaves a knotty problem—the summer months bring hordes of visitors. "There are so many people in the village of Vernazza, you can hardly move," rues sustainable-tourism consultant Julianna Priskin, who is based in nearby Switzerland. "Even the trails are overcrowded." Her suggestion to local officials: Extend the territory of Cinque Terre to include nearby towns with similar charm, such as Lerici and Portovenere.
McMahon goes further, advocating daily limits on the number of visitors from June through August. This has worked well for national parks, he notes. Most folks would gladly accept that inconvenience for the chance to better enjoy this coast's many pleasures: swimming, lingering in the piazzas, drinking wine made from local grapes, exploring hiking trails through the mountains, and getting to know families who have lived here for centuries.
"What's unique about this place," says McMahon, "is that each town has its own personality—and that you can go from one to the next independent of cars and tour buses. The villages of Cinque Terre offer us the chance to experience extraordinary journeys as well as authentic destinations."
From the November-December 2010 issue of National Geographic Traveler
- Nat Geo Expeditions


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Calling all Phillies players
Posted by Mandy Housenick | May 27, 2010 at 06:18 PM
The sign was there for all to see….Players meeting at 4:45.
It had to be about their lack of offense, right?
How could it not be?
But manager Charlie Manuel, seemingly wanting to keep the meeting topic a secret, ensured the media that it wasn't a players-only meeting about their slump (he wouldn't say what it was though).
Maybe it should have been.
In their last four games, the Phillies are hitting .192 (25-for-130) and have scored only three runs. Their on-base percentage of .255 is equally as pathetic. They struck out 26 times and hit only one home run.
Ask around, though, and this team isn't flustered, even after getting shut out in three of their last four games, even after leaving 30 guys on base in those contests.
"It's a long season. It's a very long season. We'll turn it around," hitting coach Milt Thompson said. "We're going to be alright. We're not panicking. We're still going to be loose and relaxed. It's a one-on-one thing. It's not a team thing. We all know we're struggling right now. Just need a pitch to hit. We've just got to hit a line drive somewhere, right back to the pitcher. Not to him, through him."
The Phillies need to do something about the stolen bases they're giving up. In the last two days alone, the Mets have swiped seven.
Not good.
"We gotta start trying to stop it," Manuel said. "We gotta hold them on better and be quicker to the plate."
Pitching coach Rich Dubee admitted that the brunt of the load shouldn't be placed on the catchers.
"Most of them are on the pitcher," Dubee said.
So are the pitchers going to start slide-stepping to help cut back on the number of stolen bases they're allowing?
"I'm not going to have Jamie Moyer at 47 years old learn the slide-step," Dubee said. "I've seen so many [gosh darn] slide-steps near the [gosh darn] ballpark. You're worried about stolen bases and you hang a slider and it goes 40 rows up. You can stick that slide-step as far as I'm concerned.
"We don't slide-step. Up here it's awful tough to change your delivery. Cole Hamels isn't going to be a slide-step guy. He's gotta throw over there three or four times. We gotta throw out there a few more times. (The Mets are) one of the few teams - San Diego is another - with big stolen base numbers."
Brad Lidge threw a 40-pitch bullpen session today that consisted of fastballs and sliders. Dubee said he might pitch in a rehab game in Clearwater, Fla., on Saturday.
"He threw the ball fine," Dubee said. "What the hell can I tell from a side session? He's gotta get between the lines someday and pitch. Then you can tell. He threw fine … fine … fine. Ultra fine. What's the point on the pens now? Ultra fine?
Expect Lidge, who already passed the 15-day DL requirement, to throw more in more than one minor league game.
"He'll be back when we think he's ready to be back," Dubee said. "if this game is that easy that you can take 2 ½ weeks off and just flip it in a game one time and then we're going to put him in the game in the ninth inning … that's pretty tough to do. This is the major leagues the last time I looked around."
What's new: In their last eight games, the Phillies have been outscored 37-15 and have been held to one run or fewer five times. During that time, they're hitting just .182 (10-for-55) with runners in scoring position.
Of note: The Phillies are just 11-9 against NL East opponents this year.
Pre-game quote of the day: "I can get loud every now and then, but I'm not going throw stuff," Thompson said. "It's not my nature. I want you to have a level head. You throwing stuff is only going to make things worse."
Best of Charlie's chat: "First of all, he shouldn't have said that," Manuel said of catcher Carlos Ruiz telling the media that of his sore shoulder. "We don't want you guys broadcasting that his shoulder's hurting. I know you guys have to know everything, but there's a lot of things you don't have to know. If they don't know his shoulder's hurting, then they aren't as apt to run. If that makes sense….to me it does. I'm not upset that he said it, but at the same time, it's like not having somebody in the bullpen available and us saying this guy's not available. Kinda makes it much easier on the guy sitting over there, doesn't it. "
Stat of the day: Placido Polanco leads the National League with a daytime batting average of .391.
Visiting team tidbits: Mike Pelfrey is one of only 22 active pitchers with at least 500 innings pitched to have never allowed a grand slam.
Next game's pitching matchup: RHP Kyle Kendrivk (2-2, 5.66 ERA) vs. RHP Chris Volstad (3-5, 4.31 ERA) at 7:10 tomorrow night in Florida.
On the horizon (next series): The Phillies head to Florida to face the Marlins in a three-game weekend series before heading to Atlanta next week.


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Former UVA QB to play for uncle at Richmond
Former Virginia starting quarterback Michael Rocco is transferring to Richmond.
Richmond coach Danny Rocco announced Monday that his nephew is joining the Spiders next season. Two other transfers - wide receiver Shane Savage from Cornell and tight end Sean Fitzpatrick from North Carolina - have also transferred to Richmond.
Rocco played in 30 games over three seasons at Virginia and threw for 4,731 yards and 27 touchdowns with 24 interceptions.
He had said in December that he intended to transfer. Rocco shared the starting QB job with Phillip Sims, a transfer from Alabama.
Because Rocco only has one season of eligibility remaining, the NCAA mandates that he sit out a season, but Richmond plans to petition the NCAA for a waiver that would allow him to play this season.


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Please check that you have joined the correct "virtual waiting room" when the video consultation begins to satisfy yourself that you are speaking with the correct and expected health professional before divulging any sensitive data to them.
We recommend you use a strong Wifi connection and close any unused applications to ensure the best quality call with the clinician.
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Illinois, United States


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Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Conversations on Skype
TOM: I don't know how you manage to give me the cold shoulder when we are half a world apart but you do.
TOM: Come on, I know you're there.
TOM: I'm going to keep messaging you until you respond. I already said I was sorry. I still don't see what the big deal is.
AMBER: The big deal is you didn't tell me someone was in the room with you as I rambled on about an embarrassing subject and sat in my Happy Bunny pajamas with hair that was not brushed.
TOM: Ha! I knew you were there. I knew you couldn't stay silent for too long.
AMBER: Oh stop being a baby, I just ignored you for two hours. With good reason.
TOM: A dumb reason.
AMBER: Tom, the first time I "meet" the people you hang out with in Korea, I want to be dressed in regular clothes with brushed hair. You let me ramble on in my Happy Bunny pajamas, not telling me that your friend was in the corner, listening to everything I was saying, able to see me.
TOM: It was fine. He probably wasn't even paying much attention, he was flipping through a magazine.
AMBER: It was not fine. I was talking about how I thought that waxing in between your butt would hurt, Tom. That's not exactly what I want to be talking about when I "meet" one of your friends for the first time. You could have said, "Hey, I have a buddy in the room with me, go easy on the anal speak."
TOM: Did it really matter? So what, he heard you talking about waxing.
TOM: He thought it was funny.
AMBER: I was in my PAJAMAS!
TOM: I'm sure he likes Happy Bunny.
AMBER: Tom, I know that men talk and now he's going to go back to your co-workers and be like, "I "met" Tom's wife. She sat in pajamas, had unkempt hair and talked about waxing ass hair."
TOM: So what?
AMBER: Suppose I had stripped for you? What then?
TOM: Please, you did that once and you didn't get all the way naked because you lost your balance and smacked into the bookcase.
AMBER: You saw boobage! What if your friend had seen my boobs?
TOM: He'd have been grateful, there are a lot of sexually frustrated men here.
TOM: It wasn't as bad as you thought. You were the one who had a fit when you heard him cough and demanded to know who he was. It was like you thought he was a chick.
AMBER: He coughs like a girl, it sounded feminine so excuse me for going, "What the f*ck is going on?"
TOM: I would just think that *that* would be what you were embarrassed about when you met him for the first time, not talking about butt hair. Cursing out someone upon meeting them for the first time is not a good impression.
AMBER: After I saw he had a penis, I said hello.
TOM: Then you said that you had to go and made up some excuse that you had to stop Natalie from sticking Qtips down her pants.
AMBER: That, sadly, was not an excuse. She was sticking Qtips down her pants.
TOM: Then after you logged off Skype you sent me a mean message saying that you were appalled that I didn't tell you that someone was in the room and how could I let you ramble on about waxing butt hair like that?
AMBER: I was pissed. Next time, tell me if you aren't alone and I'll talk about normal things like carpet and waffles.
TOM: Carpet and waffles?
AMBER: They were the first things that came to my mind that were normal. Pardon me.
TOM: So you're done being mad at me?
AMBER: Yes. If you promise to let me know when someone is in the room with you.
TOM: Will you log on Skype?
AMBER: I don't know. Are you alone?
TOM: Yes.
AMBER: Fine. But you won't be getting any boobage tonight.
TOM: You're mean.
(And I know I'll be asked about this: NO I have not had my butt waxed. I had watched a show where someone had done it which is why I was talking about the subject. I talk about the oddest things. I'm known for that. I'm known as The Girl Who Talks About Subjects That Aren't Exactly Proper. Hello. Nice to meet you.)
44 comments:
I've gotten it waxed before during a Brazilian. It wasn't that bad.ReplyDelete
For future Skype moments...
Evernay owshay oobagebay orway alktay aboutway axingway ouryay
uttbay airshay unlessway ouyay areway uresay ehay isway ethay
onlyway oneway inway ethay oomray!
LMAO. Awww, guys just don't understand. Of course you want to look your best when there are other people around!ReplyDelete
THis is so funny! I am sorry you got upset! I would have been too...it doesn't matter if the guy deosn't care you are in pj's...you care!ReplyDelete
The but wax doesn't hurt actually...they do it in a brazilian and its the least painful! TMI...sorry!
I totally understand where you would be angry with this... I would have been too. Being on the outside looking in, however, this story is hilarious!ReplyDelete
I've never used Skype, but it sounds as bad as when someone puts you on speaker phone without telling you. But at least chances are you'll never meet this guy.ReplyDelete
Thanks for the visit!
I've used skype and I sooo understand why you were mad. He didn't seem to get it either. Next time he's just going to tell his friend to be quiet...tred carefully. :)ReplyDelete
I think for punishment Tom should have HIS butt hair waxed! Shame on HIM for letting a fellow soldier listen in without telling you! I would be pissed for sure! I'm on your side!ReplyDelete
Poor Tom....no boobage.ReplyDelete
I've never used Skype before. We always used messenger.
All I have to say is a quote from Michelle Tanner.ReplyDelete
"How Rude!"
I'm very easily embarrassed and my husband never understands why.ReplyDelete
-sigh- MEN!
PS- waxing your armpits hurts more than a Brazilian. Just in case you run out of normal things to talk about - I thought I'd add to the not-so-great-for-company list
Tom should have told you. I mean, waxing butt hair isn't that bad, but without your make up on, is unforgivable.ReplyDelete
OMGOSH! I'm crying! You are hysterical! Bwhahaahahah!ReplyDelete
it wasnt the butt waxing that made me laugh out loud. it was the comment from Tom about you smacking into the bookcase while stripping. THAT made me laugh out loud. Maybe I have more in common with Natalie than I thought. lol. or maybe you just whack into things a little too often.ReplyDelete
I think you should Skype more often and practice that stripping routine so at least you can get to the pants before you fall down. Or keep falling down, then Tom can sell tickets to a comedy instead of a strip show. Either way he has the potential to make a lot of money on the side.ReplyDelete
This reminds me of Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason when she's having a sexy conversation with Mr. Darcy and she's on speaker phone and doesn't know it. Awkward....And I would totally have freaked out, too. I mean, what if you had flashed him a little boob...Jeez. I doubt that would have helped if the guy was sexually frustrated. Ha!ReplyDelete
Oh my, I had a bit of deja vue. I went to Fjii and my husband was at home...and he didn't mention he'd invited his young cousin over for the weekend. I was feeling frisky...and well, you can figure out the rest :-PReplyDelete
I literally laughed out loud! hahahaReplyDelete
But just so you know- I would have been SUPER pissed if my hubby didnt tell me someone was in the room. I get pissed when he says certain things on the phone around others. I couldn't imagine if they were secretly watching us video chat. I'd say no boobage for a week lol
Hells, yeah, he should have told you! Yike-a-roonies! That's a real no-no! Bad move, Tom!ReplyDelete
He proves, as most men could, how they can indeed mistreat us from half a world away! Sorry, Amber-- but at least he apologized... Maybe you should have one of your girlfriends sit in the corner of the room while you're on Skype with him some time... Hm...
LMAO! He definitely should have told you. My husband once told a fellow solider that I wore thongs. I guess it was one of those conversations they have while in the field. It made looking at that guy very uncomfortable.ReplyDelete
that is totally mortifying, you had a right to be mad. my husband would so totally do that.ReplyDelete
That is hilarious!ReplyDelete
But, I'd be mad if it happened to me, too.
It's official - you can go back to Tom and tell him you have a whole group of women who agree that you had a right to be upset!ReplyDelete
Maybe you ought to learn to be discreet? For all you know, what you say could be being listened to by hackers.ReplyDelete
I hate to point out that you kind of talked about waxing butt hair to the entire internet (ie EVERYONE) but you are shy about ONE GUY in your husband's room in Korea?ReplyDelete
I talk about inappropriate subjects regularly too. It makes my husband blush. And for the record, I would have been ticked off too.ReplyDelete
Damn that ass hair is hard to reach back there isn't it?ReplyDelete
I would've been mad too, but since it happened to someone else, it's pretty darn funny!ReplyDelete
When Ryan and I were living 5,000 miles apart, he would make it a point to call me on Skype with other people in the room when I was mad. He knew I would not go off on him... Chicken.ReplyDelete
I want Happy Bunny pj's too!
Hahahaha! No boobage for him!ReplyDelete
No boobage! That'll teach 'im!!!ReplyDelete
This would be a conversation my husband and I would have had! And I would have felt just like you!ReplyDelete
Let me know when there are other people there so I can change the topic to waffles and carpet!
This would be a conversation my husband and I would have had! And I would have felt just like you!ReplyDelete
Let me know when there are other people there so I can change the topic to waffles and carpet!
- AnonymousJanuary 19, 2011 at 10:46 PM
lmao! Sorry, but I was totally laughing. Even though I would have been really mad too!ReplyDelete
I like the fact that you talk about inappropriate things, it's part of what we love about you.ReplyDelete
Stopping by to say hi.
This was really funny. We just recently experienced this when our son called my iPhone via skype and my husband talked to him and did not realize he was talking through the computer and his roommate was listening. It was a little uncomfortable when discovered but ....all is good...we were just being parents! LOL!ReplyDelete
Good to know why you were talking about waxing butt hair.ReplyDelete
Waxing butt hair isn't too bad until you get to the part with the rotary buffer.
Boy, does it shine afterwords.
Repels water nicely too.
- AnonymousJanuary 20, 2011 at 7:59 AM
MEN! They just don't understand. . . but I must admit, I am curious; how does one cough like a girl?! *giggle*ReplyDelete
See when I found out that there was another guy in the room I would have laughed and asked him if he waxes his ass hair...just to break up the oddnessReplyDelete
I still haven't figured out how to work Skype. I will note to always look my best when using Skype in the future though. ;)ReplyDelete
Withholding long-distance Skyped boobage will lead him into the arms of the first stripper he sees.ReplyDelete
Just sayin . . .
I would have been furious, so I believe you to be completely in the right.ReplyDelete
Also, carpet and waffles are two of the most normal things in the world.
I probably talk about it too much as it is.
Waffles, not carpet.
I don't really like very much to talk in skype, because i don't like to talk to a computer i feel more comfortable talking on the phone, so that why i am looking for an app to talk free on my phone , i would love a viber reviewReplyDelete


text:
Anand Bagmar - Enabling Continuous Delivery (CD) in Enterprises with TestingAnand BagmarSoftware Quality EvangelistEssence of Testing
schedule 8 years agoSold Out!
60 Mins
Case Study
The key objectives of any organization is to provide / derive value from the products / services they offer. To achieve this, they need to be able to deliver their offerings in the quickest time possible, and of good quality!
In such a fast moving environment, CI (Continuous Integration) and CD (Continuous Delivery) are now a necessity and not a luxury!
There are various practices that organizations need to implement to enable CD. Changes in requirements (a reality in all projects) needs to be managed better. Along with this, processes and practices need to be tuned based on the team capability, skills and distribution.
Testing (automation) is one of the important practices that needs to be setup correctly for CD to be successful. But, this is tricky and requires a lot of discipline, rigor and hard work by all the team members involved the product delivery.
All the challenges faced in smaller organizations get amplified when it comes to Enterprises. There are various reasons to this - but most common reasons are - scale, complexity of the domain, complexity of the integrations (to internal / external system), involvement of various partners / vendors, long product life-cycles, etc.
In such situations, the Testing complexity and challenges also increase exponentially!
Learn, via a case study of an Enterprise, a large Bank, the Testing approach required to take them on the journey to achieving CD.
Anand Bagmar - To Deploy or Not-to-Deploy - decide using TTA's Trend & Failure AnalysisAnand BagmarSoftware Quality EvangelistEssence of Testing
schedule 8 years agoSold Out!
60 Mins
The key objectives of organizations is to provide / derive value from the products / services they offer. To achieve this, they need to be able to deliver their offerings in the quickest time possible, and of good quality!
In order for these organizations to to understand the quality / health of their products at a quick glance, typically a team of people scramble to collate and collect the information manually needed to get a sense of quality about the products they support. All this is done manually.
So in the fast moving environment, where CI (Continuous Integration) and CD (Continuous Delivery) are now a necessity and not a luxury, how can teams take decisions if the product is ready to be deployed to the next environment or not?
Test Automation across all layers of the Test Pyramid is one of the first building blocks to ensure the team gets quick feedback into the health of the product-under-test.
The next set of questions are:
• How can you collate this information in a meaningful fashion to determine - yes, my code is ready to be promoted from one environment to the next?
• How can you know if the product is ready to go 'live'?
• What is the health of you product portfolio at any point in time?
• Can you identify patterns and do quick analysis of the test results to help in root-cause-analysis for issues that have happened over a period of time in making better decisions to better the quality of your product(s)?
The current set of tools are limited and fail to give the holistic picture of quality and health, across the life-cycle of the products.
The solution - TTA - Test Trend Analyzer
TTA is an open source product that becomes the source of information to give you real-time and visual insights into the health of the product portfolio using the Test Automation results, in form of Trends, Comparative Analysis, Failure Analysis and Functional Performance Benchmarking. This allows teams to take decisions on the product deployment to the next level using actual data points, instead of 'gut-feel' based decisions.
Rahul - Life has not been that rosy with Agile - Practical experiences!RahulAgile Program Manager with 15+ years experiencePersistent Systems
schedule 8 years agoSold Out!
60 Mins
Experience Report
In my experience, Agile adoption started in some of the organizations with lot of hype and inflated expectations. And in such cases, if Agile transformation is not handled properly, it can result in multiple challenges rather than providing the expected benefits.
This practical experience sharing session would cover some such problems I faced while applying Agile in different environments. The audience practicing Agile can relate some of these challenges with their own environment as well. The attendees who are on their path to Agile transformation can learn from the lessons and mistakes shared by the speaker.
The session would cover challenges observed due to nature of the project, customer-vendor engagement model, application of processes, attitude of people rolling out agile, unrealistic expectations, conflict in roles and responsibilities. It would also highlight challenges introduced to some of the roles (like Project/QA Manager/Manual Tester etc.) in Agile environment and impact on billing / project contracts / SOW etc.
Vivek Ganesan - Congratulations! You are our startup's first Scrum Master! What's next?Vivek GanesanSaaS Entrepreneur, Tech Agility ConsultantAmpyard
schedule 8 years agoSold Out!
60 Mins
Do you fancy playing the first Scrum Master of a startup?
Do you want to live the challenges faced by the first Scrum Master of a startup? Do you feel that your organization is dramatically different from the 'ideal' organizations, which the Agile workshops project as a basic requirement for doing Agile development? Do you wish to deliver predictable results while your management is on-the-way to make your organization 'Agile-ready'? This tutorial is just what you want.
In this tutorial, you will experience the life of a first Scrum Master of a twenty member startup, which has expansion plans. Each of the audience will put themselves in the Scrum Master's shoes and try to solve the challenges posed by the ever-changing environment, while the company's management is putting its best efforts to make the organization 'Agile-ready'. In this interactive tutorial, a gripping story-line will drag you into the world of uncertainties where you would be challenged to take life-changing decisions regarding your product team's daily work.
Even if you are not in a startup, this tutorial would benefit you because everyone still comes across ad-hoc situations which go against the ideal expectations of Agile world.
Prasad - Movers n shakers of Enterprise AgilityPrasadPrasadHolleyHolland
schedule 8 years agoSold Out!
45 Mins
Experience Report
With business agility the new watchword in senior management circles, more and more enterprises are looking for ways to adopt 'agile' into their technology practices. However, such an initiative needs to go beyond the mere adoption of agile in a few projects. To successfully implement enterprise IT agility, organizations need to understand the impact of agile across functions and groups, develop frameworks to sustain agile, empower teams across the board to work in an agile fashion, and invest in the right infrastructure. A strategic roadmap based on these considerations can help organizations infuse agile into their practices, processes and systems, thereby achieving true benefits of agile – faster returns, better quality and quicker time-to-market.
This session discusses the critical factors for an effective roadmap to implementing enterprise IT agility. It also outlines how these factors contribute to a successful enterprise IT agility strategy.
Rishi Srivastav - Becoming Agile : Get back to first principles firstRishi SrivastavVice PresidentEmergn
schedule 8 years agoSold Out!
60 Mins
Talks about partial successes with Agile implementations. We have become iterative for sure and there is a definite sense of cadence. But concept to cash lead times are still quite high. A sense of dogma has crept in the rituals, they happen, but there is little soul.Team members are still quite stressed out; We have avoided the famous waterfall death march for sure but it is still a very tiring and painful long march. Organisations doesn't feel that they have reaped all the benefits which were promised. There is just a handful of companies who seem to be living the values and are really nimble in the market place. What went wrong?
Our focus on people, value, flow and quality instead of process,tools, cost, schedule and scope, got the attention but did not get internalised by all. So while we are adopting "Agile" methods we have not become "agile" yet.
There is a need to get back to first principles. There is a need to explain knowledge workers on the ground "Why" the principles work. Leaders need to do more than just support the change, they need to know, behave and do the right things. Lastly people do need to learn and love their craft. Yes, it is about money but is it also about autonomy, mastery and purpose.
The session takes through key concepts around people, business value, product development flow and quality via fast feedback, and invokes people to understand and let their team understand the basic principles first to lay a strong foundation, before building an Agile enterprise on top of it. It is only then the "real transformation" happens and the products get in front of the end users faster.
Venkateswaran NS - Experience Report: Agile Transformation & Implementation at Cisco Video BusinessVenkateswaran NSProgram ManagerCisco Systems
schedule 8 years agoSold Out!
45 Mins
Experience Report
The objective of sharing this experience report is to showcase how disruptive changes in the market place have driven the execution strategy for transforming a traditional waterfall organization to Agile.
It also contains a narration of our transformation journey so far and challenges we faced to understand the Key word "Value" across the business value chain.
However for embedded systems & solutions many believe that Agile is not going to work, "our product is so complicated and distributed" (Is this supposed to be a quote?), their nature of business is so unique etc.. and if you ask about scaling then "Forget it".
Hence my session is going to share the practical challenges we encounter and interesting stories of the transformation journey.
Shankar Garg - Behavior Driven Development - Creating a Robust Mobile Test Framework using Appium, Cucumber-JVM & Page ObjectsShankar GargSr. ConsultantXebia IT Architects Pvt Ltd
schedule 8 years agoSold Out!
30 Mins
For teams developing & maintaining mobile apps for both Android & iOS platforms, functional testing is a huge challenge. With the advent of Agile practices, behavior driven testing has gained more popularity. The current process of updating apps over the air is very easy, raising users' expectations of new features delivered sooner.
Appium has made it easier for teams to test their apps for multiple platforms. However, it alone cannot solve the challenges around implementing behavior driven development & frequent UI/functionality updates. So we created a robust Test Framework combining the best features of Appium, Cucumber-jvm & Page Objects.
Cucumber-jvm is a key tool in implementing BDD. Page Objects is a framework design approach for maintaining & accessing components & controls spread across test scenarios. Appium provides a JSON bridge that allows test cases to be written once, and run for multiple mobile platforms. Integrating the powerful features of these 3 tools, we can create a powerful framework that is easy to setup, use, scale and maintain.
Om Prakash Bang - Agile Business Analyst and Product Backlog ManagementOm Prakash BangAgile and BA coach, trainer and consultant.
schedule 8 years agoSold Out!
45 Mins
Agile Product development with Scrum is based on completing a set of User Stories within a time-box called a sprint. Stories describing user functionality. Conversatin with customer is the means of elaborating requirement. looks simple, right?
Only User Stories are enough for product development? If not, what all other documents are necessary and how these are progressively elaborated?
What's required before agile team start sprinting? What are the challenges while transitioning from waterfall to agile related to product requirement?
What's the role of Business Analyst in agile? BA moving into an agile team, moving to Product Owner? Can Business Analyst and Product Owner co-exist?
ShriKant Vashishtha - Continuous Inspection - How to define, measure and continuously improve code quality?ShriKant VashishthaAgile CoachMalonus
schedule 8 years agoSold Out!
60 Mins
When it comes to software quality, everybody wants good quality software only. However when it comes to define, measure and achieve it objectively, confusion prevails. Different people and different perceptions.
So how to define software code quality, how to measure it and build a culture towards great code quality software, take proactive steps instead of reporting based reactive steps? These are some important aspects this session will touch-base.
On top of that, we all have heard about Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery and Continuous Deployment, but what's this Continuous Inspection all about? What all is involved to achieve that and how to achieve that with Jenkins and with other Continuous Integration servers? Along with answers of all these questions, a hand-on demo will be given as part of the session.
Ebin John Poovathany - First Things FirstEbin John PoovathanyAgile CoachGE Healthcare
schedule 8 years agoSold Out!
90 Mins
This is a workshop to introduce the concept of Value and cost based prioritization. The speaker will facilitate a short game for participants to learn how to prioritize the backlong using value and cost.
Rahul Dewan - My Agile Transformation Journey -- How We Transformed Our Company Using Agile PrinciplesRahul DewanCEOSrijan Technologies Pvt Ltd
schedule 8 years agoSold Out!
45 Mins
Experience Report
This talk is about using Agile principles -- specifically focussed on 'agile contracting' and how this is key to financial health and ongoing project delivery success of small-mid sized IT firms in India.
Dr. Sanjeev Raman - Going Agile In An Embedded & Frimware EnvironmentDr. Sanjeev RamanLean|Agile & Management ConsultantRaman Technologies, Inc
schedule 8 years agoSold Out!
45 Mins
Agile for embedded and firmware product development can be very complex and challenging than traditional software development. For example, how do we coordinate hardware design and development with embedded and firmware work, how do we map extensive verification and validation like lab testing to the Agile framework, or how do we even ensure we have enough time in the Agile process to design out the features for implementation before a Sprint. These are just a few examples of difficult challenges we have. This presentation will discuss agile approaches based on the Scaled Agile Framework to address these challenges for embedded and firmware development.
Karthik Kamal Balasubramaniam - It's not an Agile StoryKarthik Kamal BalasubramaniamDirectorGrofers
schedule 8 years agoSold Out!
60 Mins
Having worked with multiple Agile teams, I realize that most problems the teams have to deal with are often related to issues that are beyond the scope of any Agile framework. These issues are often related to people and the surrounding eco-system. The success of any Agile implementation is largely dependent on this H(uman)-factor which is intrinsic to any team/organization. This H-factor has always been a pandora's box, that we would like to avoid owing to the amount of complexity and the uncertainty involved.
Here is my humble effort to try and identify few common traits that I have observed with people across Agile teams and organizations. The idea here is not to stereotype people, but to present an approach/strategy to accommodate different kinds of people in an Agile eco-system.
The objective of the session is to have some scientific vigour to our people processes and be aware of our current status quo.
Harikrishan Verma - Thinking beyond - Getting out of silosHarikrishan VermaAgile Coach and Manager Product DevelopmentPitney Bowes
schedule 8 years agoSold Out!
45 Mins
We are engineers and we know how to write code.
We are QA engineers and we know how to test an application or product.
There are so many roles and so many perspective about the product / application team is building. Everybody is right in their perspective. Then the question is....are we/they missing something?
This session is going to explore the perspective beyond the perspective of an individual in team. We will try to move from individual perspective to a common perspective which is so much critical for each individual. We will talk about the user perspective and how it is important to get the 'out of box' picuture over a 'in side box' picture.
Mohit Jain - The Lean Pizza ShopMohit JainAgile Transformation Consultant, Coach, CDA, SAFe Agilist, CSM, CSPOhCentive
schedule 8 years agoSold Out!
180 Mins
Kanban Pizza Game (www.agile42.com) which has been customized to include different workflows, and computation of Lead time and Cycle Time.
Sekhar Burra - The secret sauce of Self-OrganizationSekhar BurraCoachIndependent
schedule 8 years agoSold Out!
45 Mins
In this session, we discuss about the few facilitation techniques that a servant leader need to have to promote self-organization.
We also focus on Evolution of an Agile team, the traits of an agile leader and various of pit falls that do not lead to self organization.
How do you really make a team being controlled by a manager to become self- coordinating team?
We also look at key behaviours that helps changes stick.
Harpreet Singh - Agile Product Development : Entrepreneurial WayHarpreet SinghSr. Project ManagerR Systems International
schedule 8 years agoSold Out!
30 Mins
Entrepreneurship in product development is all about raising agile concepts to entrepreneurial level in a way that would clinch success by innovation, autonomy, proactiveness, risk-taking and other characteristics associated with entrepreneurship.
The present paper describes briefly how to make a Agile product development approach as entrepreneurial. An entrepreneur has high level of personal ownership and this is due to the fact that an entrepreneur understands that failure is not an option, so this approach of personal ownership sets performance standard high. Similarly entrepreneurial project manager understand that if the project fails then the organization fails. This paper also talks about three main aspects of entrepreneurial project management which are entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial management and entrepreneurship strategy.
Kshitij Agrawal - Implementing Agile in non-agile worldKshitij AgrawalDirector Technical Program ManagementOracle
schedule 8 years agoSold Out!
45 Mins
The simplicity of agile frameworks makes many of us believe that agile is simple. However, it's actually extremely hard to make it working in a non-agile environment. By non-agile environment, I mean organizations which are fundamentally driven by heavy controls and governance; systems which are legacy large, complex & tightly coupled; multiple stakeholders with conflicting priorities and list goes on.
This paper is share my experiences of one such journey of implementing agile in such non-agile world. It was quite a bumpy ride but in the end, we got a recipe with perfect blend of scrum, XP and Kanban practices – something which was generating visible value and truly in line with agile principles.
Vineet Patni - Lean - Agile: The Eternal SiblingsVineet PatniTransformational Coach, Trainer & Speaker | Enabling Agility | Building Great TeamsScale Up Private Limited
schedule 8 years agoSold Out!
30 Mins
What came first - Lean or Agile? It's a chicken-and-egg question for many. And then, there are beliefs that these two are separated twins.
If you think that Lean software development and Agile are the same, think again!
There are both difference and similarities in the Lean and Agile principles and practices.
During this talk, we will discuss on how Agile and Lean are related or different. Or are they two different names of the same thing? how the principles of Lean and Agile can be leveraged in order to create complex software solutions at enterprise level.


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Haiti's sham election shames US | Mark Weisbrot: "
Washington cannot confer legitimacy on this flawed election that does nothing for Haitians living under tarps, menaced by cholera
The election in Haiti shows, once again, how low Washington's standards are for democracy in countries that they want to control politically. And there is no doubt who is in charge there. There is a government, to be sure, but since the elected government in 2004 was overthrown, and even more since the earthquake, it is the 'international community' that calls the shots – Hillary Clinton's code for the US state department.
The election was a farce to begin with, once the non-independent CEP (Provisional Electoral Council) decided to exclude the country's largest political party from participating, along with other parties: Fanmi Lavalas is the party of Haiti's most popular political leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. It has won every election that it has contested. Aristide himself remains in exile – unable to return since the US-sponsored overthrow of his government in 2004.
Imagine holding an election in the United States with both the Democratic and Republican parties prohibited from participating. If we look at other troubled elections in the world – Iran in 2009, or Afghanistan more recently – Haiti's is even less legitimate. It is perhaps most comparable to the recent election in Burma.
But the United States government paid for this election, and was determined to go ahead with it and get the usual suspects to endorse it. The pleadings of 45 Democratic members of Congress, who sent a letter to Hillary Clinton on 7 October asking for a real election with all political parties included, were ignored. So, too, were the objections of President Obama's Republican foreign policy mentor, Senator Richard Lugar.
By Sunday, the day of the election, 12 of the 18 presidential candidates – basically, every prominent presidential candidate except the current government's choice, Jude Celestin – had publicly called for the elections to be annulled. They were backed by thousands of demonstrators in the streets.
The conduct of the elections turned out to be even worse than expected. There were widespread reports of people being unable to vote because they were not on the voter lists, incidents of ballot-stuffing, and other irregularities.
Despite all of this, the Organisation of American States issued its statement on Monday: 'The Joint Mission does not believe that these irregularities, serious as they were, necessarily invalidated the process.' No wonder the leaders of Latin America and the Caribbean met last February and decided to create a new regional organisation without the United States and Canada.
Haiti, of course, has bigger problems than a bogus election. And, in fact, that was a complaint heard on the ground – why was money being wasted on an electoral circus when people do not have access to drinking water, and the country is in the middle of a cholera epidemic? The latter crisis seems to have been pushed off the world's radar screen by the election, despite the fact that the United Nations has been able to raise only around 10% of the $164m they need to treat an epidemic that is estimated to grow to 400,000 cases of cholera in the next year.
And then there is the unbelievable failure of the reconstruction itself. Nearly a year after the earthquake, less than 2% of the rubble has been cleared, and less than 10% of the 1.5m people made homeless by the earthquake have shelter. Most of the rest are living under tarps, with the earth beneath them turning to water and mud when it rains. The 'international community' could not even get them tents.
Yet the bogus election does matter because, if allowed to stand, it will foist an illegitimate government on Haiti. For most of its existence, and until quite recently, Haiti was ruled by illegitimate governments that relied heavily on violence to maintain power. Aristide was the first democratically elected president, in 1990. He was overthrown seven months later, but eventually re-elected in 2000. Because his government was legitimate and did not have to rely on violence, he abolished the army – which was the main instrument of political violence. Washington never forgave him for this, and organised an international cutoff of aid to the country, while pouring tens of millions of dollars into the opposition, thus toppling the government.
In April of 2009, an election that also excluded the largest political party resulted in a boycott of about 90% of the electorate. Participation in this latest election appears to have been higher (although lower than the previous presidential election), but it will not be seen as legitimate. This has already increased social unrest. There is no longer a Haitian army, but there is a badly-trained national police force and a UN military force (MINUSTAH), which is widely seen as an occupying army and is notorious for its violence and human rights abuses. Its standing has fallen even further as it appears to be the source of the cholera epidemic.
Haiti needs a government that can contribute to the reconstruction of the country, its public health and the institutions necessary to promote economic development and employment. An illegitimate government won't meet any of these needs, and only raises the risk of increasing political violence.
• Editor's note: A typographical error meant that this article originally stated that Aristide's government was re-elected in 2004; this has been amended (at 13:30 EST on 2 December 2010) to 2000. As stated elsewhere in the article, 2004 was the year Aristide's government was deposed.
- Haiti
- United States
- Human rights
- US foreign policy


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Tools to prevent drive-by attacks
You won't find a perfect solution to the growing problem of drive-by attacks, but many tools are available to help you keep malicious code off your network.
Cover Stories
Attackers have an easy time on today's Internet. Intruders of the past needed to circumvent troublesome firewalls and other protective devices, but today, they only need to entice an unsuspecting user into accessing a web server prepared with malware or send a malicious link through email, text, or an instant messaging service. Contact details for reaching the potential victims can usually be retrieved from social networks such as Xing. And QR codes are ideal for distributing malware links: The reader has no way to even guess where the code might by pointing.
Many of these attack methods exploit the fact that Web 2.0 tools are installed on nearly every workstation and mobile device, including a web browser and plugins such as Flash Player, Java, and Adobe Reader. Browsers or plugins almost always contain vulnerabilities that are then exploitable using special attack tools installed on the web server. The goal of these attacks is to infect the client with malware and then misuse the client system by adding it to a botnet or using it as a bridgehead for access to other resources on the network. The attack is usually completely transparent and goes unnoticed by the user. This style of attack is often called a drive-by download (see the "How a Drive-By Attack Works" box). In the opinion of ENISA (European Network and Information Security Agency), drive-by downloads are currently the biggest threat on the Internet [1].
How a Drive-By Attack Works
One reason this new generation of attack techniques is flourishing is because the old generation of tools is so hopelessly underprepared for today's threats. Vulnerabilities in the Java Runtime Environment, for example (and thus for the Java plugin for your web browser), are now almost legendary: For nearly a year, Java has not been out of the headlines. As soon as a security update appears, the next vulnerability is already known – and immediately used.
A March 2013 study by Websense concluded that about 94 percent of all installed Java plugins are out of date [2]. Some government groups, such as Germany's Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), have even recommended disabling Java in the browser, or even better completely uninstalling Java. Exploits based on Flash, Acrobat, and .NET tools are also quite common, and more are appearing every day. To make matters worse, many attacks are launched from ordinary web servers that have fallen under the control of intruders – without the knowledge of the site owner, who continues to operate the site for some otherwise legitimate purpose.
Few users understand the risk of being infected with malicious code at a well-known site. The Websense Threat Report 2012 [3] reports that 82 percent of malicious websites are now run on compromised hosts – the risk of catching malicious code on a reputable site is thus very high. Additionally, web applications often contain well-documented vulnerabilities. A vulnerable web server is easy to find, and attackers find them every day. Preferred targets are outdated versions of PHP or content management systems like WordPress, Joomla, and Typo3. A complete solution to this complex set of problems is not even possible with present technologies, so careful admins must piece together a collection of assorted tools and techniques to keep drive-by intruders off the premises.
Attack Tools
Attackers have plenty of freely available tools to help prepare a web server attack. Hacking toolboxes such as Live CDs of BackTrack [4] or Kali Linux [5] offer a number of programs capable of identifying the type and vulnerabilities of various content management systems (CMSs) in their web application sections. Tools such as
sqlninja, which are available from the same sources, then execute the attack on the CMS or its database.
For many years, commercial exploit kits have also been available from various underground markets on the Internet. These commercial kits are kept up to date through standard software maintenance, and some even guarantee the availability of zero-day exploits (i.e., exploits for vulnerabilities about which the software vendor currently still does not even know). The kits that dominated the market years ago, MPack, NeoSploit, Zeus, and Eleonore have now been replaced by second-generation exploit kits.
The new generation includes the Phoenix exploit kit and, especially, the Blackhole exploit kit (BHEK2). Interested parties can rent instances of these attack tools on underground forums on a daily basis (US$ 50 per day, which includes 50,000 hits) or per month (US$ 500 with 70,000 hits) or per year (US$ 1,500 with an unlimited number of domains). A good overview of the state of exploit kit development is given by the Common Exploit Kits 2012 poster [6] and by the Exploit Table 2013 by blogger Mila, which is available as a Google Apps table [7]. The table lists the functions of the different malware kits, with reference to the corresponding CVE ID. (CVE stands for Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures, an industry standard maintained by MITRE Corporation [8] for the unambiguous designation of vulnerabilities in computer systems and software.)
What To Do?
The admin's defense against drive-by attacks falls into three categories:
- Harden web services against exploit kits and drive-by downloads.
- Keep browsers and plugins up to date and educate users about the importance of maintaining security policies.
- Offer safety measures at the border to the Internet (e.g., through the use of URL filtering and virus scanners on the Internet gateway).
You'll learn more about some of these techniques later in this article. However, the entire defense cannot rest on the shoulders of the system administrator. Security should be considered at the beginning of any process, and the most important step is to exercise appropriate care during the development of web applications. The German BSI, in cooperation with security service provider SecureNet, created a catalog of measures and best practices for web application security in 2006 [9]; this catalog provides the information necessary for developers. For prebuilt web applications, appropriate tools for automatic source code security analysis are readily available on the market; examples to be mentioned here include Fortify [10] or IBM's Security AppScan [11].
Of course, most companies and organizations do not develop their own content management systems, stores, and other web applications themselves; rather, they rely on commercial or open source systems. In this case, penetration testing with the appropriate tools can reveal the security status of the web server and the web applications it runs. Google has released the Skipfish [12] security scanner for web applications under Apache License 2.0.
Additionally, the Google Safe Browsing API [13] provides a programming interface for browser makers that checks URLs against Google's constantly updated list of suspicious phishing and malware sites (Figure 2). It pays to check regularly to see whether your own website is blocked. Currently, Chrome, Safari, and Firefox use the Safe Browsing API [14]. You can simply replace mysite.com with your own domain name, or use a known malware domain from the malware domain list [15] for test purposes.
Web Application Firewalls
Although source code analysis and penetration testing might have shown no evidence of vulnerabilities on your systems, this does not mean your own web server will remain permanently free from attack. For active hardening of web servers and web applications, it is a good idea to install a web application firewall (WAF). WAFs examine communication between the web server and the browser at the application level (HTTP, HTTPS) and in this way provide protection against typical attacks such as cross-site scripting (XSS), SQL injection, and other known web application vulnerabilities.
A WAF operates either as a reverse proxy in front of the web server or as a plugin directly on the web server. The most famous WAF from the open source camp is ModSecurity [18], which is available as a plugin for Apache, IIS, and Nginx. You can install ModSecurity using your distribution's package manager. To install the ModSecurity package on Debian/Ubuntu, type:
sudo apt-get install libapache2-modsecurity modsecurity-crs
Also, some manufacturers of UTM firewalls (e.g., Sophos UTM) or load balancers (e.g., Riverbed and F5) offer products with an integrated WAF.
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Information courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
How do I know if I have the flu?
You may have the flu if you have some or all of these symptoms:
- fever (It's important to note that not everyone with flu will have a fever.)
- cough
- sore throat
- runny or stuffy nose
- body aches
- headache
- chills
- fatigue
- sometimes diarrhea and vomiting
CDC recommends that you stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone. Your fever should be gone without the use of fever-reducing medicines.
What should I do if I get sick?
Most people with the flu have mild illness and do not need medical care or antiviral drugs. If you get sick with flu symptoms, in most cases, you should stay home and avoid contact with other people except to get medical care.
If, however, you have symptoms of flu and are in a high risk group, or are very sick or worried about your illness, contact your health care provider.
Certain people are at high risk of serious flu-related complications (including young children, people 65 and older, pregnant women and people with certain medical conditions) and this is true both for seasonal flu and novel flu virus infections. If you are in a high risk group and develop flu symptoms, it's best for you to contact your doctor. Remind them about your high risk status for flu.
Health care providers will determine whether influenza testing and treatment are needed. Your doctor may prescribe antiviral drugs that can treat the flu. These drugs work better for treatment the sooner they are started.
Do I need to go the emergency room if I am only a little sick?
No. The emergency room should be used for people who are very sick. You should not go to the emergency room if you are only mildly ill.
If you have the emergency warning signs of flu sickness, you should go to the emergency room. If you get sick with flu symptoms and are at high risk of flu complications or you are concerned about your illness, call your health care provider for advice. If you go to the emergency room and you are not sick with the flu, you may catch it from people who do have it.
What are the emergency warning signs of flu sickness?
In children:
- Fast breathing or trouble breathing
- Bluish skin color
- Not drinking enough fluids
- Not waking up or not interacting
- Being so irritable that the child does not want to be held
- Flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough
- Fever with a rash
In addition to the signs above, get medical help right away for any infant who has any of these signs:
- Being unable to eat
- Has trouble breathing
- Has no tears when crying
- Significantly fewer wet diapers than normal
In adults:
- Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
- Pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen
- Sudden dizziness
- Confusion
- Severe or persistent vomiting
- Flu-like symptoms that improve but then return with fever and worse cough
Are there medicines to treat the flu?
Yes. There are drugs your doctor may prescribe for treating the flu called "antivirals." These drugs can make you better faster and may also prevent serious complications.
How long should I stay home if I'm sick?
CDC recommends that you stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone except to get medical care or other necessities. Your fever should be gone without the use of a fever-reducing medicine, such as Tylenol®. You should stay home from work, school, travel, shopping, social events, and public gatherings.
What should I do while I'm sick?
Stay away from others as much as possible to keep from infecting them. If you must leave home, for example to get medical care, wear a facemask if you have one, or cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue. Wash your hands often to keep from spreading flu to others. Visit the Taking Care of a Sick Person in Your Home guide for more information.


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Happy 1st birthday to Zach & Lucy today! Due to a stomach bug that's attacked Lucy, posts are delayed this week. I'm taking us back to Saturday when we had the pleasure that afternoon to gather with close friends at our house to celebrate Zach & Lucy.
Due to {unrelated to us} sicknesses & life's busyness, our small party was smaller than expected, but Lucy & Zach didn't mind. They loved the cuddles, attention, decorations & friends.
I went with a monkey theme & kept things fairly simple. Invites, cupcake decorations & food tents were ordered off etsy & printed by Walmart & by my Dad. We found monkey boy & girl balloons at Party City & monkey paper goods at Walmart.
For food, I had help last weekend with my parents & Friday night from my aunt & friend Kelly. Mom & I baked mini banana bread loaves for adult goodie bags {kids also received monkey stickers & bubbles}.
Kelly & I made 'monkey tails' aka pretzel rods dipped in milk chocolate & green sprinkles. Sue used my mom's idea of 'monkey caps' – toothpick sized kabobs of tomato, basil & mozzarella which I drizzled with balsamic glaze minutes before guests arrived. Friday night, we also created a mix of kiddo puffs, melts & Cheerios for the littles.
I made my favorite banana pudding in cups for easy serving & enjoying. I picked up a tropical trail mix at Walmart. I sat out 'monkey crunches' {chips, carrots & tomatoes with ranch dip} too. And we had my {& now Zach's beloved} Gigi's cupcakes for dessert. I ordered mini cupcakes for us & two regular ones for Lucy & Zach.
So I expected Lucy to love her cupcake because she loves fruit & sweet pouches. I wasn't sure about Zach. Y'all! They drove in before we even had time to sing or think of putting in the '1' candle. Zach made a mess! It was awesome. Lucy took a little encouragement from me but she ended up liking it too.
After cleaning up Lucy & giving Zach a quick bath & outfit changes, it was time to bring out their gift from us {a coupe that their friend Reagan also enjoyed}.
Then we opened gifts from our sweet friends. Lucy & Zach received wiggly giggly balls, birthday books & boon snack/bowls. The books are our current favorites on rotation!
Two babies means cause for two celebrations! Up this weekend is the family birthday/baptism beach weekend party!


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Welcome to Tundras.com!You are currently viewing as a guest! To get full-access, you need to register for a FREE account.
As a registered member, you'll be able to:
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Nikola Nemesevic-Nemes is participant at the Serbian "Big Brother" TV reality show (Veliki Brat 2011: Srbija/Ex-Yugoslavia (Veliki Brat 4/VB4)). During the show, his song "Znam Taj Smesak" (I Know That Smile) was presented for several times. Song Info: Nemes – Znam Taj Smesak Some info related to the song… Music & Lyrics: Nemesh (Nikola Nemeshevic) […]
Cortex Cerebri is free knowledge base, an human knowledge sharing website.
Sharing articles, descriptions, terms, images, phrases and other hard to find information at Internet.
Knowledge is power.


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From Jimmy Fallon . . . referring to Prince William's bachelor party:
"It's gotta be weird stuffing money into a stripper's bikini
when every bill has a photo
of your grandmother printed on it."
Image via Wikipedia
Fantastic! I was ROTFLOL and choking too!ReplyDelete
Haha Good one!ReplyDelete
I saw this one and it CRACKED ME UP!!ReplyDelete
Lori, that was fabulous!ReplyDelete
I died laughing! ROFL that's a WIN!
Hi Lori,
Dropped in from Shellbelle's. This is so funny. Thank you for sharing the Jimmy Fallon comment. I love the title of your blog as I have a lot of those ones in my family :-)
hahahaha!!! love it!ReplyDelete
Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment. I appreciate every one of them and respond to all.


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The I-Tec Maverick, a roadworthy dune buggy powered by a Subaru engine, has won the first certification from the Federal Aviation Administration for a flying car. Its first mission: Saving the Third World.
Steve Saint runs i-Tec, which stands for "indigenous people's technology and education center." A Christian missionary, Saint started the firm to solve technological problems for remote tribes of Central and South America, and spent six years working on the Maverick.
With a 170-hp, 2.4 liter Subaru four-cylinder built into a canvas-covered frame, the Maverick can run up to 60 mph in less than 4 seconds. But its real trick comes when it deploys a cloth wing on a 22-foot mast and takes flight. After years of testing, the FAA in September certified the Maverick as a "powered parachute." That's different than the Terrafugia and similar vehicles which are classified as roadworthy planes.
Saint says since the Maverick needs just 100 yards to take off, it could help missionary pilots and jungle tribes become self-sufficient without having to abandon their way of life. His current estimated price for a production Maverick is $80,000, but hopes that sales to recreational pilots drive down the cost.
CNN interviewed Saint and took a ride in the Maverick:
Click to view


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Word Stacks September 11 2023
Word Stacks Daily Puzzle September 11 2023 Solution. Do you think you need help to complete Word Stacks today daily challenge? We're here to help you to complete this new feature that People Fun inc has just added to Word Stacks game. Sometimes challenges are harder than you think and obviously those challenges Aren't solo! so don't worry, we're going to be by your side through all of the difficulties.
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You can download and play this popular word game, Word Stacks here :


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Plumbing Maintenance Checklist
Homeowners – it is that time of year.
Time to check through your home's plumbing system.
I know that there are many things on your "honey do" lists and the plumbing maintenance is just one of them.
Though it is not a task you enjoy it is one that should be kept up with throughout the year. Plumbing problems as well as potential problems that should be addressed before they become a real plumbing problem. Carlsbad Plumber
Nothing lasts forever, including the pipes inside your house. Over the decades, the tubing gradually corrodes, rusts, and decays. Unless you replace plumbing, you're eventually going to get leaks—and possibly a flood of water or raw sewage into your home that causes thousands of dollars in damage to your building and belongings.
But is a plumbing disaster imminent or just a concern for the distant future? Replacing old pipes in a 1,500 square foot, two-bathroom home costs $4,000 to $10,000, and requires cutting open walls and floors, so you certainly don't want to do the job before it's necessary. Here's how to assess your plumbing system and know when it's time for replacement.
Know Your PipesThe type of plumbing in your house determines how long you can expect it to last. So review the home inspection report you got when you bought your home to see what kind of pipes you have—or bring in a trusted plumber to do a free inspection of your plumbing system.
Your Pipes' Lifespan
Typical lifespan
Supply pipes (under constant pressure and therefore most likely to cause water damage when they leak)
Galvanized steel
80-100 yrs
70-80 yrs
80-100 yrs
Drain lines
Cast iron
Polyvinyl chloride (known as PVC)
80-100 yrs
25-40 yrs
If your pipes are older than these guidelines, it doesn't necessarily mean they need to be replaced. Well-maintained pipes may last longer, and poorly maintained ones or those in areas with hard water (meaning it has high mineral content), may fail sooner, says Passaic, N.J., plumber Joseph Gove, who supplied the lifespan estimates.
So, no matter what kind of pipes you have and how old they are, you need to keep an eye on them.
Related: Plumbing Pipes: Which Is Safest, Easiest, Best?
Spend Oh-So-Wisely on a Kitchen Remodel
Lead pipes, used in the early 1900s, have a life expectancy of 100 years, but they can leach lead into your drinking water, a serious health hazard.
Polybutylene pipes, used from the 1970s through the 1990s, are extremely prone to breakage.
Watch for Signs of TroubleIf your house is more than about 60 years old, make it an annual ritual to look at any exposed pipe—in basements, crawlspaces, and utility rooms—for telltale signs of trouble. Check the tubing for discoloration, stains, dimpling, pimples, or flaking, which are all indications of corrosion. If you find irregularities, bring in a plumber to do an inspection.
You'll want to keep a watch for leaks too, of course. Even small ones that are easily repaired may be indicators that the time for whole-house replacement is approaching. After all, the original pipes in your home are the same vintage, they're made of the same material, and they've been subjected to the same water supply and usage patterns.
"So if you've got sporadic leaks in some places, they'll start showing up throughout your system soon," says Philadelphia plumber Joseph Emanuel. "It's time to change your water lines."
Also, when you fill your bathtub, look at the color of your water—especially after a vacation when it has been sitting in the pipes for a while. If the water looks brown or yellow, what you're seeing is rust, a sign of decay inside the pipes. Consider replacement soon.
Related: 8 Smart Tips to Stop Plumbing Leaks
Best Opportunities to Replace PipesUltimately, you'll need to rely on a trusted plumber to advise you whether it's time for a pipe replacement. And it's always good to get a second and even third opinion before you embark on a replacement project. But there are a few ways you can mitigate the cost and hassle of the job.
Replace what's exposed. For a home with plaster walls, wood paneling, or other features that make it difficult to gain access to in-wall pipes, consider at least replacing pipes that aren't buried in the walls. Although it's a big job, replacing exposed pipes in a basement, crawlspace, or utility room is fairly straightforward, because the plumber can easily get at the pipes.
And depending on the configuration of your house, the plumber may be able to access the vast majority of your system this way. For a 1,500 square-foot, two-bathroom home, you'll pay between $2,000 and $6,000 or more to replace just the exposed plumbing.
Replace when you renovate. Whenever you remodel a portion of your house, take the opportunity to inspect—and if need be, replace—any plumbing lines that you expose when you open up the walls and floors. This includes not only the plumbing in the kitchen or bathroom that you're remaking, but also any pipes passing through the walls to feed upstairs bathrooms.
Because the pipes are exposed during the project and because the plumber is coming on site anyway, the added cost may be only $250 to $1,000—a bargain, considering you've eliminated a hard-to-get-at problem area when you have the chance.
PEX Limits DemolitionIf you have inside-the-wall supply pipes that require replacement, your plumber may be able to limit the wall demolition he needs to do by using an alternative piping product: Cross-linked polyethylene tubing, also known as PEX, is a flexible plastic hose.
It can often be snaked into walls in much the way electricians feed their wires behind the wallboard or plaster with relatively minimal surgery—not an option with rigid copper pipe.
PEX meets building code nearly everywhere, comes with a 25-year warranty, and puts a smaller hit on your budget than copper. Replacing all of the plumbing in a 1,500 square foot, two-bathroom home with copper piping costs between $8,000 and $10,000.
But using PEX would cost just $4,000 to $6,000, according to Gove. That's because of lower material and labor costs. "If it takes you two days to re-plumb a house with copper, you can do that same house in a day with PEX," says Emanuel.
Still, some environmental groups worry about as-yet-unknown health risks of plastic water supply lines. And since PEX has only been widely used in the U.S. for about a decade, it doesn't have enough of a track record to indicate how long it will last—in other words, how long it'll be before the plumbing has to be replaced again.
If this is a concern to you, consider an alternative pipe material.
Our Pride
The smile you have when we leave is what we pride ourselves on.
April 2023