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Posts tagged with Android
AR is on the brink of a breakout thanks to new platforms from Google & Apple
On Tuesday, Google announced ARCore, a new augmented reality (AR) development platform.
Facebook: A handy roundup of its latest developments and commercial opportunities
Although it is nearly seven years since Time Magazine observed that Facebook was 'the site that ate the internet', in the intervening years the social network has only increased its influence in the digital space and beyond.
Personalisation can lift push notification open rates by up to 800%: Study
Building a successful mobile app is difficult.
Companies spend significant amounts driving consumers to install their apps, and by some estimates, apps that aren't opened for a second time within the first 12 hours after download can see churn exceeding 50% in some categories.
Five implications of Android Instant Apps for marketers
Android Instant Apps allows Android apps to run instantly, without requiring installation. Users will simply tap on a URL.
Developers will need to ensure their apps are 'modularized' and then will be able to offer this service to users on Jelly Bean OS or later.
Many have hailed this announcement from Google's recent I/O event as the most exciting. So what are the implications?
Google pushing hard to extend influence to apps
The rise of native apps is one of the biggest threats to Google's dominance, but the search giant isn't sitting idly by.
In fact, slowly and sometimes quietly, it's increasingly working to extend its influence into the apps Googlebot can't reach.
Eight reasons to kill your native mobile app
Companies have invested significant sums in developing native mobile apps but the harsh reality is that many have little to show for it.
While many continue to maintain and invest in their apps despite the results, some are deciding that it's better to pull the plug.
Three points to consider when developing a mobile app strategy
As mobile adoption continues to flourish, brands are required to incorporate distinct mobile web and app experiences into their mobile strategy.
Six ways mobile can ease traveler stress and increase bookings
We've all been there. It's the day of travel and you're scrambling to get to the airport. Tempers are high, boarding passes are scattered, your arms are already sore from lugging that heavy suitcase down the stairs.
But traveler anxiety starts well before the big day, stretching back to the initial stages of the planning process.
During each unique stage of the mobile journey, travelers experience changes in their mindset and behaviors, requiring brands to take a closer look at how to close the gap between what users want and what they are offering on mobile.
15 compelling stats from around the digital world
Stat's what people say, mmm-mmm.
It's become tradition to open the stats roundup with an awful song-based pun.
Start Me Up! A profile of social treating app Givvit
Givvit is a new mobile app that enables users to send their friends small gifts, an activity it describes as 'social treating'.
Available on iPhone and Android, the treats include things like boxes of chocolates, flowers, restaurant vouchers, or a pint in your local pub.
How are brands driving TV ad viewers online?
This is an investigation to see how the adverts in a commercial break try to get people online. Here's an early spoiler: they don't try very hard at all.
Ericsson ConsumerLab discovered that, out of 15,000 people surveyed, 75% use mobile devices at the same time as they watch TV. Nielsen discovered that eight out of 10 global mobile users similarly multitask when they should be paying attention to Eastenders.
These statistics basically just tell us what we already know. People second-screen. In fact they (I say 'they', really I should be saying 'I'. I am after all people) second-screen relentlessly, without prejudice all the time.
It's not out of boredom either; it's mainly to supplement the enjoyment of what I'm watching with extra information. "So the character of Deathlok in 'Agents of Shield' had three different alter-egos in the comic books. INTERESTING."
Although when adverts do appear, that's when I start looking at my mobile or laptop out of boredom.
10 great internet marketing stats from this week
A cracking week this week, with a smorgasbord of statistics, from Android fragmentation to tablet games and eBay sales in the wake of Hollywood blockbusters.
Get stuck in, but don't forget to check out the Internet Statistics Compendium for more online marketing figures and charts.


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April Johnson was working at the Greyhound Bus Station ticket counter on Florida Street on Sunday night when a man ran to the door, pleading for someone to help.
Charles Vincent had just been shot.
When Johnson asked passengers waiting at the station for help, a nurse jumped up and ran with her across the street, where the 59-year-old homeless man was struggling for life.
"I saw life leave his eyes," Johnson, 23, said. "It's been haunting me a lot."
Vincent's killing marks the fifth deadly shooting inside city limits in six days, a development District Attorney Hillar Moore III calls frustrating.
"We're pretty much as surprised as anyone else," Moore said when asked about the spate of fatal shootings.
Moore said so far, investigators have found no connections in the five slayings.
"Hopefully, it's not a sign that things are picking up," Moore said, alluding to the progress law enforcement officials have made with the Baton Rouge Area Violence Elimination Project since September 2012 at lowering the number of homicides in Baton Rouge.
According to statistics compiled by The Advocate, there have been 41 homicides so far this year, slightly ahead of 2013 when the 41st homicide occurred on July 31. But that is far behind 2012 when the 41st homicide of that year's 83 slayings occurred on June 9.
The latest spate of bloodshed began Wednesday night when officers found Major Brown's body shot multiple times in the front yard of the Cate Avenue home he shared with his family.
Brown, 29, had just run downstairs, after getting a cigarette lighter for someone who knocked on the door, when family members heard shots ring out.
Police have released no motive in the slaying, which remains unsolved.
The next day, Travis Jones, 22, 1860 Boulevard de Province, was shot to death in the 200 block of South 17th Street.
Jones died at the scene.
Police have released no motive or suspects in that case, which also remains unsolved.
Then early Saturday, police found Javontia Davis, 24, 2663 Wenonah St., shot to death not far from his house.
Officers working a traffic detail near 2600 Plank Road heard gunshots near Wenonah about 2 a.m. and found Davis lying in the road.
Police have issued an arrest warrant in the Davis slaying for Tajh Harris, 21, 3434 Jackson Ave., Baton Rouge, for second-degree murder and illegal use of a weapon. Harris is known to frequent the Tigerland area and may be driving an older model tan or brown Toyota Camry.
Police suspect an argument among Harris, Davis and several others led to the shooting, though they are unsure what the group argued about.
The shooting death of Vincent, the homeless man found across from the Greyhound bus station, also remains unsolved. Police have not released any details, other than to say he was not pronounced dead at the scene, but at the hospital where paramedics transported him.
In addition to Vincent's killing, police are also investigating the shooting of La-Ross Cortez Davis, who was found by firefighters clearing his home at 2632 Eaton St. shortly after 6:30 a.m. Monday, following a fire.
Davis, 35, was shot in the head, a coroner's official said.
Police have released little information about that death.
"Investigators are working continuously to solve these crimes along with making every tip a priority," Cpl. Don Coppola Jr., a police spokesman, said Monday afternoon.
He asked that anyone with information on the homicides call the Violent Crimes Unit at (225) 389-4869 or Crime Stoppers at (225) 344-7867.
Follow Ryan Broussard on Twitter @ryanmbroussard.

subset: commoncrawl


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Welcome to the home page for the Family Medicine Residency Program of Wake Forest School of Medicine. I am pleased to share with you the broad overview and specific details of our residency program. The over-arching goal of our family medicine program is to train outstanding family physicians.
Managed care, changes in health care finance, rapid advances in technology, and enhanced variation in patient's expectations of care have altered what is needed to be an "excellent family physician." The changes occurring in medicine no longer allow a program to rest on a past history of excellence. At Wake Forest, we are dedicated to train physicians who will have mastered the current state-of-the-art of family medicine, but also have learned to adapt to the future advances that will inevitably come.
As a program that stresses diversity, allows residents to differentiate their skills, reinforces continued learning, and rewards the challenges of excellence, I hope to ensure a steady stream of outstanding family physicians to provide care for the future.
Disclaimer: The information on this website is for general informational purposes only and SHOULD NOT be relied upon as a substitute for sound professional medical advice, evaluation or care from your physician or other qualified health care provider.


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Sep 14, 2009
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- Fans outside of the WCTE TV viewing area can still watch The Watson Brown Show each week on OVCsports.TV. Presented by IWC Cash & Carry, the show will be streamed live on the Internet each Monday and also available on the OVCsports.TV archives.
The program airs each Monday from 5-5:30 p.m. live from the WCTE
TV studios, and is also aired at the same time on WHUB am 1400
radio. Fans are invited to call in or email questions or comments
to the head coach. The number to call is (931) 528-2222. Send
emails to: firstname.lastname@example.com.
The taped show also airs Wednesday at 7 p.m. on both WCTE TV and WHUB am.


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(AP) Lawyer: 25 of 31 expected to settle with Penn St.
By MARK SCOLFORO
Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa.
A lawyer brought in by Penn State to help resolve civil claims with former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky's sexual abuse victims said Monday he expects 25 of 31 to be settled by the end of the week.
Attorney Michael Rozen said "the overwhelming majority" of the eight young men who testified against Sandusky last year are among the 25. A 25-year-old man from suburban Philadelphia, a trial witness referred to as "Victim 5," became the first to finalize a deal on Friday.
Rozen said all of the deals include provisions to give the university the right to pursue claims against the university's insurer, The Second Mile charity founded by Sandusky and The Second Mile's insurer.
Sandusky is serving a 30- to 60-year sentence in state prison for child sexual abuse. Witnesses testified that he met victims through The Second Mile.
Rozen said the "value" of the claims depended in part on whether they happened after 2001, when top-ranking school officials were told by a graduate assistant about Sandusky with a child in a team shower, or before 1998, the earliest documented example of a Sandusky complaint.
"It's what did Penn State know and what duty did they have?" Rozen said. "What did they know, when did they know it, and what duty _ if any _ did they have to act, and to what extent?"
He said claims for abuse before 1998 also may fall outside the statute of limitations that put time limits on how long victims have to sue.
Although some lawyers have said they were interested in settlements that require Penn State to make changes that might prevent such abuse from re-occurring, Rozen said those matters have been eclipsed by the widespread reforms the university has adopted or begun since an internal report made a series of recommendations last summer.
"I don't think anybody could reasonably or rationally question the university's commitment to doing things differently in the future," Rozen said. "This was about trying to redress harm caused to young men by this really bad person, Sandusky."
He declined to say how much the 25 cases are settling for, or provide a range of the settlements.


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Tues.-Wed., Nov. 6-7, 2018
Nov. 8-9, 2018
Carnegie Science Center
For more info:
SciTech Days are a special kind of field trip that features the growth areas of Pittsburgh: biotech & health, nanotechnology & advanced materials/processes, information technology & robotics, and eco tech (think environment & energy). It also connects visitors with leading scientists and technologists in a fun, dynamic atmosphere.
This hands-on event allows you to register middle and high school students for cutting-edge workshops and featured programs, as well as explore interactive exhibits from leading STEM companies and higher education organizations.
All programming is linked to the Next Generation Science Standards. Act 48 credit is available for Middle School and High School.
SciTech programming is designed to offer a diverse and broad range of topics. Programs emphasize:
Each program varies as to the degree of these components. Feel free to ask for a fuller description of what to expect in a workshop or theater program.
During the program, students can collect as many stamps as they want in their passport booklet by visiting corporate and higher education exhibit booths. For more details, see Student Assessment: Passport System/Act 48 Form.
Advanced registration can only be made with groups of 15 or more. Information for the November event will be online by Fri., Aug. 31. Registration opens Thurs., Sept. 6.
Group rates are available to groups of 15 or more people (includes students, parents, and teachers) and include access to four floors of hands-on exhibits, Highmark SportsWorks®, and one reserved workshop and special program. The cost per student is $8. Required chaperones (1 adult per 10 students) are free. Additional adults will be charged $8 per person.
For additional program information about SciTech Days, call 412.237.1552.
Spring 2019 SciTech Days will be held March 5–8, 2019.


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Written by Austin Benson Thursday, 10 October 2013 14:21
The Brady volleyball team traveled to Wallace Oct. 1 for a triangular and brought home wins against Maywood and Wallace.
The Eagles first match was against host Wallace, beating them in straight sets 25-21, 28-26.
Head coach Lynne Johson said the Eagles struggled in parts of the game that normally they are great at.
"We struggled to click as a team," Johnson said. "Our passing and setting were off and normally those are strengths."
Defensively, Wallace attacked the right side of Brady's defense, which was worked on through last week, Johnson said.
Madison Elliot led the Eagles with six kills on 12-13 hitting. Tara Callahan added five kills in the match and Valerie Most rounded out the attack with four kills.
Alexis Mann assisted on 12 of the 20 kills during the match.
In the second game, Brady took on Maywood and beat them 25-15 and 25-12
Johnson said it was a good game to let some junior varsity girls play and get some experience.
Josie Palmer and Callahan led the Eagles with seven kills apiece.
Callahan added six aces in the victory.


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Answering the calls of iPhone users who crave more out of the device, Steve Jobs announced today that an official iPhone SDK will arrive in February 2008.
Read More
At long last, The Announcement is made.
I think it's a good one, and Jobs definitely backs it up with thoughtful rationale.
The general consensus seems to be that all third-party developers crank out bugless, flawless apps, when nothing could be further from the truth.
Frankly, most apps out there--even ones that are paid for--suck ass and I wouldn't want them ruining my {insert phone platform here} either.
I feel vindicated
But.... but... Apple is teh eViL!
All I know is that I'm suing Apple. I bought an iPhone in June but I can't get third-party applications on it until February? Hellooo class-action for pain and suffering.
Edit: Emoticon added to ensure y'all know I'm kidding.
I haven't bought an iPhone yet, but count me in anyway.
Uuuuhhh ... native Skype, Adium, MarsEdit, NetNewsWire, Yojimbo, MacJournal, OmniOutliner, etc., etc. ... {{drool}}
This is great news. However, did Jobs say anything about Apple having some sort of certification process for third party apps? I hope that's not the case. That still would leave Apple with the power to close the iPhone to unwanted competition, for example, a VOIP client that bypasses the cell network.
Provided the above is not so, this is really really great news.
Everyone knew this was coming, it was only ever a question of when.
It'll be interesting to see what kind of signing/submission for inspection is required, if any. Will apps be able to access the cell network? Signed/authorized apps only?
Some questions remain, but this is a solid start. Let the whinging commence!
I would be surprised if there wasn't a certification process being developed for 3rd party apps, if only to sell and manage them via iTunes.
He implied it, though he didn't state it directly. Given the plausible alternative of a Windows-esque malware scene, I have no problem with only allowing signed or certified apps.
Wow, funny what patience will get you, the frickin thing is nmot even 6 mos old and people are asking to build their apps on it, when they dont even understand the iPhone and what it will can/will do. A little patience and look, Steve opened up the cookie jar, now i hope all the brick owners feel like jackasses.
Next thing on the to-do list for Apple's press folk ... clean out them old press releases
I don't own a cell phone of any type right now, but come on, grow up! This doesn't cause any more "pain and suffering" than the fact that you may not be able to put fancier tires on an economy car without great expense for new rims, etc. because the car wasn't designed for it. Sure, you might like the cooler looking (debatable) ride, and you might like the better handling ride (though economy cars aren't known for sporty suspensions, at least not in the past) but not having it won't cause true "pain and suffering" but at worst, "Whine and tormenting" of all around you at how unfair life is.
Remember: Apple didn't promise any timeline on an externally-available 3rd party SDK before you bought it, so if anyone's at fault for your "pain and suffering" let the self-lashings commence!
Call me crazy, and I know there weren't any emoticons to indicate it, but I thought he was being facetious.
I think it's part of a strategy that was there all along.
The big phrase here is Steve's "It's a cat and mouse game".
Hackers unlock the phone, Apple locks the phone. Once, twice, over again.
But there's one way for Apple to make sure that it is one step beyond in that game, it's by obsoletting its phone itself.
It's the same thing as, you know, locking MacOS on Macs. The point is not that you will never prevent the iPhone from being unlocked.
But you can make the kind of people who unlock their phone so envious of the last-big-thing that the drawbacks of being the mouse are just to high.
So 1.1.1 is unlocked ? Upgrade the phone with this new killer app / feature. Unlocked phones owners are frustrated. 1.2 is cracked, ok, make the phone 3G and make them upgrade. 2.0 is cracked, OK, launch the SDK. 3.0 is cracked ? Make the iPhone a bluetooth modem.
Using MacOSX on a standard Dell box sucks. No hardware support, no updates, constant waiting of cracks, no feature parity.
Using the iPhone on a non supported carrier sucks too. Use each and every lacking feature and update to make people feel how much it sucks. Make everything possible so that visual voice mail requires the supported carrier. If you're successfull, then only the toughest die-hard users will hack the phone. And it's OK, they're trend-setters, fashion makers, and they're 2000. Out of millions.
It was a joke.
I write for Ars and have had to cover a lot of these iPhone lawsuits that can't seem to stop cropping up.
Preserving it for posterity because I can ...
who wouldnt want certified apps? Gives me a sense of confidence that the app will work as designed and not wreak havoc on my iphone, let alone, the apps on it.
Too bad they'll make it some sort of thru-iTunes-only proprietary installation process that they charge you for.
I doubt this will actually mean we'll be able to install any 3rd party apps we want.
Folks will prefer their currently jailbroken iPod touches and iPhones which can run anything they want right now. It's great having the apps returned to the touch that Apple removed before launch like Weather and Maps and Notes, and being able to add Calendar entries is back too. Plus a number of (free!) apps are out there from games to productivity. Plus you can install Apache webserver (literally in two clicks via AppTap Installer) and be able to access local content on the device so you can download some web-based apps and successfully run them off the device without needing to have wifi on sucking away your battery.
Right now the touch is about perfect as far as open access goes. It's a great device now that we can put the apps on it it needed from the factory and add additional 3rd party apps and games.
So really this news isn't all that exciting, even though it's certainly big news. One can bet a reason for it to be announced now is due to the cracking of the 1.1.1 firmware.
About the only really good news for owners is that it should mean easier development of apps for the devices, although given Apple's metamorphosis into a more draconian corporation that locks down devices and locks out users and creativity, i imagine the SDK will output something that can only be installed via iTunes and not a normal app like people are creating now the hard way.
I remain optimistic that developers can offer apps for free if they want, just like most podcasts are listed by the iTunes Store for free (but not hosted).
There are still a lot of unknowns here. Apple could require developers to be a specific level of Apple Developer Connection member, helping to weed out jokers who aren't serious about developing good apps. Apple could also offer to host the apps for free (to maintain security) or impose a charge, which could complicates things.
Still, I think it's early to assume all apps will be commercial. Let's watch how this plays out, shall we?
There almost has to be a vetting process.
There's no way the Apple/AT&T contract would leave a loophole open for someone to roll and distribute a Skype-over-edge app.
The only real question is whether it'll be more analogous to making, vetting and rolling out an XBLArcade title, or a full blown 360 game.
i.e. what's the SDK cost, where's the bar set for organizational requirements, what's the review process like, etc.
Well, this raises the hope of seeing ActiveSync support. I still don't get why that's not already there.
This puts the heat on MS to announce their iPhone copy by February, if they can. They're going to need to do something to stop or slow down Apple's momentum in establishing a platform here. MS is all about establishing the platform - and they are not going to take this lying down.
I doubt we'll ever see a VoIP application over edge. The latency alone would make it almost useless ontop of stoppy bandwidth. Now VoIP over WiFi might be nice. Even better if they could pull over a Cell / WiFi handoff ala some of the Nokia and T-Mobile phones.
My hope is that unsigned apps can exist in a sandbox (what's that? sand-boxed apps is a feature of Leopard? you don't say!), and that some kind of signed apps would have much greater access to iPhone internals.
just hoping anyways. It seems reasonable, doesn't it?
Actually, I'm going to sue Apple just for allowing 3rd party Applications on the iPhone period. I purchased this phone with the sole intent that I would never ever have to worry about installing 3rd party applications and knowingly bind myself to a closed software/hardware architecture. And if Apple allows the phone to be unlocked, I'll sue again. I for one welcome our new GSM overlords, and anyone that comes between me and my new masters at AT&T will have to deal with me and my lawyers.
And they're not the only ones:
I have another theory: your source doesn't know anything.
Does the fact that the SDK isn't coming out for a while have something to do with how current applications are being run as root? Is this why Mr Jobs feels that viruses on phones are a threat? Does an SDK mean I will have to buy an iPod touch to play around with?
That sort of reads--you will need to either pay for the SDK or subscribe-- a la MSDN.
Also, sorry, but the FIC Neo1973 is the most powerful phone currently. I wish they were on schedule to release phase 2 NOW
Found on OpenMoko's wiki on the Neo:
# Nov 20 - GTA02v3 design verified through testing by developers.
# Dec 10 - GTA02v3 produced in moderate volume
# Dec 20 - GTA02v3 goes on sale
# Dec 25 - GTA02v3 arrives. See Santa's Sleigh Package Service.
???? Are you high? Windows Mobile has been on phones for YEARS. Notwithstanding individual applications, this is clearly a case of Apple copying Microsoft for a change. No, MS doesn't have their very own hardware, but they don't need it. They have happily been selling mobile and making money on it - without whining Birkenstock wearing user lawsuits - for years.
And again, leave it to Jobs to say that the iPhone is "the most advanced phone EVAR!" Is it advanced? Sure. Its pretty cool. but there are plenty of other "advanced" gadgets out there. Reminds me of all the years that Apple poo-pooed x86 hardware - until, that is, they switched to it and then suddenly it was superior because they used it...
Steve-O please!
Locking the phone down was a strategy. They threw it out there so they could see how people would use it / want to use it, and to see what sort of grass-roots hacking would result and now that they have that info, they are gonna milk it for all its worth.
I think it was the right approach. Clever bastards.
Get wealthy users to buy into your beta program, and get savvy hackers to put the product through its paces.
Well, this is how J2ME works (on just about every modern mobile phone), so yes, it's sensible. Some features, such as initiating a call or a data transfer, are still accessible to unsigned apps, but require an additional confirmation from the user. Basically to stop a rogue app from costing you money.
I'm wondering, will we actually see an iPod Touch SDK? Because we're just assuming so based on the fact that there will be simply because given an iPhone SDK, there's no reason why not. There's also no reason why the iPod Touch shouldn't come with the iPhone's email app or Google Maps, but it doesn't. There's a lot of business model going on.
Mr. Jobs, a brilliant and egotistical man is finally learning how to communicate.
'Bout time.
I believe that is exactly what is in store.
Note also that this means that, come February, the ONLY reason to want an "unlocked" phone will be to run software on it that Apple and/or AT&T doesn't want. Doesn't mean people will stop trying to jailbreak it at that point, but it does mean that Apple can get downright nasty to those who do ...
I'd gladly trade my Treo 700w and $399 for an iPhone. If only I didn't have to go to AT&T to get it ...
Microsoft has been losing in the cell phone OS game for years. They have not had a successful product in the space (by "successful" I mean one which is heavily desired and which breaks 50% market share amongst smart-phone devices). It was, quite literally, their market to lose, and they did.
I'd agree that the iPhone is not necessarily the "most advanced" phone out there, certainly in terms of hardware. In terms of user experience ... damn, I haven't seen anything on par with it.
As for x86 hardware ... until the Core Duo series of chips, x86 hardware did suck, and for many many years Apple's primary metrics (performance per watt used, allowing for kick-ass portables) consistently placed the G3 and G4 lines far above their competition. The G5 was a nice swan song for the PPC desktop platform, but it wouldn't scale; still, a late-model G5 versus a late-model P4 shows the x86 implementation to be a bloated pig.
But all thats beside the central point. The iPhone is widely regarded as the leader in cell phone interface+technology. Obviously Jobs is going to echo that sentiment.
From the article by Steve:
AT&T's Edge network is not very transparent, at least to this decidedly network-unsavvy guy. I'm not sure it would be very easy to do VOIP over Edge, even if the latency were decent. VOIP over WiFi, on the other hand, should be possible now with jailbroken phones: the microphone is accessible.
Apple would really be lucky if all the folks at MS smoked as much pot as you have.


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I've wanted to try to run a tourney but never had what I thought was a unique idea until now. I thought I would put it out there to see if it is a good idea as well.
I'd like to do a set of eight games on the same map with eight different settings of play but the same eight players in each game.
Deciding who wins the tourney would be based on points maybe 8 for 1st, 7 for 2nd and so on unless someone thinks a better point award is more suitable.
I'd love to use maps where the players start with 8 territories to keep with the series of eights idea but I have no idea which maps those would be or how to figure that out.
Looking forward to some input, rob


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Take your time
For everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven.
On goes the alarm: 6 a.m. thirteen minutes of news, weather, and traffic. 6:13. Out of bed, into the shower. First sip of coffee. Pack lunch, make breakfast, finish coffee, brush teeth.
Here comes the bus--uncharacteristically on time. Nod to the driver. Nice to be early to work.
Eight minutes later, onto the train and out with the newspaper-surprisingly silent for so many commuters. No morning people here. "This is Monroe," says the computerized train voice matter-of-factly. My stop. Subway belches commuters to the street. Four blocks to work. More coffee, e-mail, meetings. You get the picture.
5 p.m. or thereabouts: reverse. Dinner, dishes, TV (definitely), book (maybe), bed. Repeat five times in a row. Rest two days. Repeat cycle. And so on.
There's something comforting about a schedule, especially one that perpetuates personal financial solvency and provides meaningful work. I can think of many people robbed of both who would envy my daily grind, and others still who would like to spend the day working at something they care about, as I do.
But July in Chicago abhors a schedule and undermines even the most entrenched work ethic: Summer sun, after all, is more likely to appear during the five working days than on the measly two that make up the weekend. I often wonder if the summer sun stares down in a fit of pique every Tuesday in July (inevitably sunny in Chicago, unlike Saturday) and, stellar hands on hips, declares us all fools as we pass thoughtlessly between home and work. It might as well be January.
I imagine the indignation of the roses and hydrangeas, impatiens and day lilies, when their floribundant fashion show goes unnoticed by focused commuters. They invoke Jesus' counsel: "Consider the lilies. . . . They neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these" (Luke 12:27). Good enough for you, we reply. We have to work. The flowers toss their blossoms in disgust, as any spurned supermodel should.
It's not that I'm against an honest day's work, but I realized recently that I am 36 and not entirely sure when that happened. Much of that time has been spent working, earning, acquiring-season in, season out. It may be early for this realization, but the words of the psalmist are ringing in my ears: We mortals are like the summer grass that "in the morning flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers" (Psalm 90:5-6). Even if I think it's only midday for me, I am not so unlike July's flowers after all.
It strikes me that if the financial collapse of the previous year should have taught me anything, it's the obvious lesson that what is truly valuable is most likely not found in stocks and bonds or savings accounts. It's now obvious to me that a Gerber daisy has more value than a mortgage-backed security, at least a few of which were probably hiding somewhere in my retirement account.
Even bonuses counted in the hundreds of millions start to seem worth less than a single summer day, a mere series of zeroes reflecting a sum so ridiculous that a human being couldn't possibly make use of it in 10 lifetimes. The wisdom of summer is that the passing taste of a homegrown cherry tomato is worth more.
Unless you don't have any money, of course, and that is a practical matter to be considered. But we never seem concerned that the poor lack not only livelihood but leisure as well. We may want to make sure that a single mother has a job, but it rarely occurs to us that she also needs a vacation. True human living needs at least a few "wasted" days at the beach or park, yet we behave as if exhaustion were a virtue.
This month my grandmother will have a birthday that will bring her only a few ticks from triple digits. Her great-granddaughter will have her first birthday the week before. If I asked my grandmother for the summer advice she would give in her fading days to my niece who is just beginning to flourish, I doubt that she would counsel a life of untiring industry and measurable productivity. My grandmother, a lover of roses, would more likely suggest that our family's youngest member take time to stop and smell them.
This article appeared in the July 2010 issue of U.S. Catholic (Vol. 75, No. 7, page 8).
Image: Tom Wright


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2011 Congressional Report Card
View the entire Congressional Report Card. To view Representatives' grades state-by-state, see menu bar on left.
The Secular Coalition for America is pleased to present its report card for the U.S. House of Representatives for the the 1st session of the 112th Congress. The Secular Coalition chose seven issues covering aspects of protecting and eroding religious liberty, religious privileging in law, discrimination against nontheistic Americans, the influence of religious dogma on the availability of health care and educational choices, and the effect of religious bias in science.
Please see Legislation and Grading for descriptions of the legislation that the House voted on and how and why the Secular Coalition graded each vote.
The Secular Coalition believes it is vital to hold elected officials accountable for every vote they cast on behalf of their constituents. The Secular Coalition urges all nontheistic and secular Americans and every American who believes in the separation of church and state to contact their U.S. Representative and ask him or her to account for the votes as presented in this report card.
The Results*
*The total will not be exactly 435 due to members who did not vote, who have left Congress, and who were absent.
The Grades
- No member of the House received a perfect score because of the voice vote for HR 473, the vote to approve a land conveyance to a Boy Scout council. Due to the fact that the House approved the conveyance by a voice vote, meaning no one asked for a record of the vote, the Secular Coalition chose to give every member of the House a negative score rather than not count this vote at all.
- The grades were calculated by the number of correct votes (as determined by the Secular Coalition) and then divided by the total number of votes taken by each individual member. So a member who voted all seven times, but only voted the correct way 5 times, received a score of 71 percent and an A grade. A member who voted only six times, but voted correctly four times, would receive a score of 67 percent and a B grade. It should be noted that some members who did not vote the full seven votes may have higher or lower grades than accurately reflects their stances on issues. This illustrates the importance of our elected officials doing their jobs—voting.
To Be Noted
- A startling fact that emerged from the vote totals was the low number of Representatives who were present for all seven of the votes, which came at different times of the year. Of the 435 members of the House, and acknowledging Rep. Giffords' absence as well as the tradition of the Speaker of the House (Rep. Boehner) not to vote, and the partial terms of Representatives Amodei, Hahn, Hochul, and Robert Turner, only 279 Representatives voted in all seven votes—and that is giving all 433 members a pass on HR 473, which was a voice vote. At least 156 members of the House missed one or more votes.
- For Roll Call 601, the Church Investment Plan, about 28 percent of the House didn't vote. Of about 433 eligible members, 120 of them didn't bother to vote on this legislation. If they chose not to vote, their constituents should demand an accounting of their time.
- For Roll Call 816, the reaffirmation of "In God We Trust" as the national motto, nine members voted "nay" against 396 who voted "aye." While the Secular Coalition asserts the correct vote was "nay", we take particular issue with the 28 members who stated "present" or chose to not vote at all. We applaud the nine members for taking an unpopular stand and thank them for it. Alternatively we reproach the majority of the U.S. House of Representatives for voting "aye" on a measure that merely entrenches the idea that the Judeo-Christian God is favored in this country over all other gods and religions—and that being religious is akin to being patriotic. The Secular Coalition for America represents thousands of patriotic Americans who have no belief in any gods and simply ask their elected representatives to also represent them.
In This Section
- 2011 Congressional Report Card
- Legislation and Grading
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
Grades and Key
- ✓ - correct vote
- X - incorrect vote
- NV - not voting
- P - indicated present
- † Representative was not in office for the full term.
- ³ Score is incomplete because Representative did not vote at least once in the scored votes.
- ‡ Saying "present" is counted as an incorrect vote in this report card.
Guide to Legislation
Would have eliminated all federal funds to Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Would have expanded federal funding for religious schools in D.C.
Would have acknowledged Congress accepts climate change is occurring.
Would have amended the Securities Act of 1933 to allow certain church plans to be exempt from registration and disclosure requirements.
Would have established a special envoy to promote freedom of religious minorities in the Near East and South Central Asia.
Would have reaffirmed "In God We Trust" as national motto and encouraged all public buildings to display such motto.
Would have required the conveyance of specified land to the Boy Scouts of America. This was a voice vote.


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Search Jim Cramer's "Mad Money" trading recommendations using our exclusive "Mad Money" Stock Screener.
NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- Investors need to stick with the big themes that are working, Jim Cramer told "Mad Money" viewers Thursday. He unveiled two more macro themes that he said can be bought on any market weakness. Cramer's first theme: the revolution in American oil and gas. He said this multi-year theme will be a boon for our energy independence, but it will also mean big profits for those companies that use a lot of oil and gas, mainly the chemical and plastics companies. He said stocks including Dow Chemical ( DOW) and PPG ( PPG) remain favorites, as does Georgia Gulf ( GGC), makers of PVC plastics for everything from piping to windows. Cramer was also bullish on refiner Valero ( VLO) and soon-to-be natural gas exporter, Cheniere Energy ( LNG). Cramer's next theme for 2013 was technology, mainly cellphone technology, as every major carrier in the U.S. begins aggressively rolling out their latest 4G networks. Cramer said everyone from SBA Communications ( SBAC) to American Tower ( AMT) to Broadcom ( BRCM), a stock he owns for his charitable trust,
Stock PlayoffsContinuing with his "Stock Playoffs" series, Cramer pitted the two top performers in the S&P 500 last year, Sprint Nextel ( S) and Pulte Homes ( PHM), against each other to see which one should be in your portfolio for 2013. Cramer said while he's still a fan of Sprint, there's no way the stock will repeat its 300% performance from last year. He said the easy money has already been made with Sprint, now that Softbank has made a significant investment in the company. While Sprint will finally be able to compete with AT&T ( T) and Verizon ( VZ), the Softbank deal will take time to complete and the competing bid from Dish Network ( DISH) for Clearwire ( CLWR) will only complicate matters. Meanwhile, Pulte Homes remains one of America's largest homebuilders in what is still the very early innings of a housing recovery. The stock may be at its 52-week high, but that doesn't mean this stock can't soar higher, said Cramer, as home prices continue to rise. Pulte has been aggressively cutting costs and fixing its balance sheet and is now up against very easy comparisons from last year.


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Tip #1: Start with Stories
Nurture spiritual feelings by seeking inspiration, starting with stories, and testifying of the blessings of temple and family history work.
Tip #2: Help Them Have a Positive Experience
Create a positive experience for members by encouraging early success, building their confidence, and being a friend.
Tip #3: Teach People, Not Lessons
Teach members by adapting to their needs, being prepared, asking them what they want to do, and focusing on stories.
Tip #4: Help Them Act in Faith
Build faith by allowing members to act and to discover for themselves.
Tip #5: Help Them To Progress
Help members to progress by following up, being patient, and focusing on the positive.


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The Milstead 104 "Dinky" Steam Locomotive
Conyers, GA 30012
770-602-2606 | 800-266-9377
The Dinky is a 1905 Rogers steam locomotive that hauled cotton bales from the main line to the textile mill on the Yellow River. It is permanently located across the tracks from the Conyers Depot. The locomotive once ran rail service between Conyers to the neighboring mill town of Milstead along 3.5 miles of rail. The engine is one of three left in the world.
Info & Amenities
Hours of Operation
Sunday: All Day
Monday: All Day
Tuesday: All Day
Wednesday: All Day
Thursday: All Day
Friday: All Day
Saturday: All Day
Admission & Fees
Admission Free
Facility Amenities
Free Parking
Parking off Site
General Information
Free Admission
Open Year 'Round
Near Interstate Highway
Suitable for Ages
All Ages


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Poison Ivy
Please Note: By clicking a link to any resource listed on this page, you will be leaving the KidsHealth site.
National Park Service
This site contains information on America's national parks and the many ways you can enjoy the great outdoors.
Poison Ivy
This site includes a wide selection of poison ivy photos to help people identify the plant. The photos show different varieties of the plant and how the plant looks during different seasons of the year.


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My Favorite Flirts is a feature that lets you reach your favorite Flirts easily from My Account or on 1-800-TO-FLIRT.Manage My Favorites
(8 Reviews)
I'm 42 years old & my name is Julianna. I work for a very prestigious law firm. My boss is a very powerful & high profile Attorney and I'm his legal Secretary Slut. He is so dominant that I get weak in the knees when he's near me. He makes me wet whenever he talks to me. I just drip all day at the office. I bend right over every afternoon so he can take me over his desk. I love it!! Sometimes I go away on business trips with him. He likes me to take care of all his needs which I very happy to do.
Occasionally I have to entertain his new clients and I love giving that extra something that the other firms don't give, me. It's not always about price for a client, they like to know they can have that little extra something whenever they need it. I'm always eager to please.
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Hi all.
My problem is: I enter the game (latest release - 2.1) and set graphic options to "mist" and "screen shake on". I play the game, everything works ok. I exit the game and when i re-enter it, the graphic options are reset everytime, so they are again set on "fog of war" and screen shake stops working from time to time although it says it's on in the menu; all other settings like resolution and invert mouse stay selected the way i have set them.
I play it on Intel Celeron 1300 mhz, 256 mb NVidia graphic card, 1GB ram, windows xp sp3.
EDIT: I found some other reports of this, i checked it out, but if anyone can explain the problem and/or solution to me quickly, you are most welcome I also saw that there are some posts about editing the command line, but I didn't find any commands for those two issues


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I Dig It Expeditions Review
Despite a few flaws, we really enjoyed the original I Dig It and saw huge potential in that creative, craftily designed game. The developers clearly saw the same flaws and potential, and for the sequel have upgraded the gameplay with the equivalent of a titanium hull, liquid nitrogen cooling system, and diamond-tipped drill bit.
In I Dig It Expeditions, you guide a tunneling machine called a digger through three huge environments, set in Antarctica, South America, and the Indian Ocean. These new locations offer much more variety than the North American farmland seen in the first game. The Ocean level, for example, has you using up oxygen (which is free and plentiful at the surface and in special underground air pockets) instead of fuel, and the South American level introduces giant ants as enemies that can rip up your ship's hull.
Borrow the font from Indiana Jones!
In each stage, you can dig your own path, often guided gently by the game towards quest items like pieces of a pirate flag, Azetec pottery, and other unique treasures. Optionally, you can also haul up gems, minerals, artifacts, and strangely exciting objects like alien skulls and UFOs. Each item pays out cash when you bring it to the surface, and you can then upgrade your digger to go deeper and further than before.
The number one reason to buy this game is for the incredible value you'll get. While each mission plays similarly, there are three big expeditions lasting two to three hours each, plus a variety of side challenges. Overall, this game can last you around 10-15 hours, which is a huge amount of content for an iPhone game.
That will look great on the coffee table.
Several minor updates also streamline the gameplay experience, making this a much more accessible game than the first. A sonar map is a button press away, meaning it's much harder to get lost in your own tunnels. You can also quicksave every time you surface, and turning the phone off or receiving a call mid-mission will let you resume in the exact same spot you left off. The game also introduces consumables like dynamite for solving puzzles, and spare fuel to get you out of a tight spot.
We were extremely impressed with I Dig It Expeditions. Whether you're gassing monster ants or riding an underwater current, the game regularly throws in new twists on an already enjoyable formula. It's a lengthy experience, absorbing and addicting, making Expeditions less of a game for the bus ride and more for an afternoon or two. Without hesitation, we say buy this game.


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Editor's note: Margaret Hoover is the author of "American Individualism: How a New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party."
(CNN) -- Riddle: What is less popular than herpes, self-inflicted stupidity at its worst, and a gift to the GOP's tax reform agenda?
Answer: The IRS' $4.1 million 2010 Anaheim Conference, where an on-stage artist was paid $17,000 to demonstrate "painting as a learning tool."
Note to the IRS: Dean Obeidallah will paint your next conference for $400, plus room and board, if John Avlon fails to convince President Obama to shut you down. (We have heightened confidence, in light of NSA's cell phone record-collecting, that the White House is indeed listening to The Big Three podcast).
Rarely do we kick off a Big Three podcast with unanimous outrage. The IRS, our least beloved federal agency, has managed to unite us. In my view, while waste, fraud and abuse is rampant in the federal government, this episode will prove especially helpful to the House Republicans' agenda to pass radical tax simplification measures before the 2014 Congressional elections.
Next in the discussion: Is heckling an effective political tactic? Increasingly, some LGBT activists believe heckling is responsible for advancing their political agenda and LZ Granderson (@locs_and_laughs) chimes in on its value. In his CNN Opinion article in response to Mrs. Obama's incident at a D.C. fundraiser this week, LZ makes the case that heckling heightens attention to LGBT issues, suggesting that every major progressive step for the LGBT community during President Obama's administration has occurred in response to a public heckling incident.
For Dean, heckling is personal, and he offers constructive advice to the heckled. First, never give up control of the spotlight to a disruptive audience member. Second, have a prepared zinger to quip back, like, "I don't heckle you at work, I just come to McDonald's and order a big mac and fries." Or, in the case of the first lady, Dean suggests she respond: "Do you really want to heckle a person with access to drones?" He offers other knee slappers, too.
Finally, "humble brag" alert on Michael Douglas. The actor stoops to new lows while discussing his cancer and industrious sex life, but still manages to elevate the important health issue -- widespread HPV (human papilloma virus). While the details of his own cancer and comments appear confusing at best, it turns out Texas Gov. Rick Perry was right and Michele Bachmann was wrong. The HPV virus is linked to cervical cancer and some types of head and neck cancer, which the HPV vaccine can eliminate if administered to children and young adults.
Perry as a GOP presidential candidate argued in favor of the availability and administration of this vaccine, while Bachmann, in our view, ridiculously suggested it would lead to increased sexual activity for children (which studies have disproved).
Not quite the Angelina Jolie class act that brought the breast cancer gene into the public consciousness by sharing her choice to undergo a proactive double mastectomy, but Michael Douglas' disgusting bravado has still managed to contribute to public understanding of HPV ... ahh celebrity.
Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion.
Join us on Facebook/CNNOpinion.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Margaret Hoover.


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Knowing what consumers want and knowing how to produce a crop that looks, stores, and ships well is critical for North Carolina vegetable grower Curtis Smith.
Smith, who operates Smith Farms in Seven Springs, N.C., is recognized by fellow growers — even those with much larger acreage — as the best strawberry packer in North Carolina.
The same care in production, harvesting and packing sweet potatoes, watermelons, cabbage and recently sprite melons has kept Smith Farms among the top vegetable producers in the state, throughout Curtis Smith's 20-year history in the business.
Just getting into the vegetable business was an interesting journey for the North Carolina grower. "I grew up in the cattle business, then we went to hogs and raised both for a while," he explains. His father has maintained a life-long interest in cattle, but is a chemist by training and worked for many years with the USDA, leaving many of the farming responsibilities to Curtis.
After college, Smith worked for a while with the John Deere dealership in nearby Kinston, N.C. By that time his father, who traveled extensively in the Southeast, saw the first white, then black plastic being used in the vegetable industry. He saw an opportunity and in 1985, Smith Farms began with an acre of cantaloupes on plastic.
From that humble beginning, the farming operation grew slowly — a pay as you go type growth. Now, they still have a small cow/calf operation, but the primary emphasis is on vegetables.
Now they grow 12 acres of strawberries, 40 acres of cantaloupes, 15 acres of seeded and seedless watermelons, 12 acres of sweet potatoes, and a few acres of specialty crops, including cabbage and grape tomatoes.
Grape tomatoes have replaced cherry tomatoes in the specialty markets. "We used to grow a lot of cherry tomatoes, now the grape-shaped tomatoes have about replaced the old varieties," Smith says. "It is a good example of knowing how and when to stay ahead of the trend, he contends. Knowing what consumers want and what is trendy is critical in the specialty vegetable market, Smith points out.
In 2005, Smith grew sprite melons, a softball-shaped melon that is a blend of a watermelon and a honeydew, with grain of a pear. "Sprite melons are a unique fruit, it is very sweet, and it keeps a good 10 days to two weeks shelf life, if handled correctly. Fruit is about a pound and a half, so it can be eaten at one time," he explains.
"We started growing seedless watermelons in the late 1990s, primarily because our customers wanted them," Smith recalls. "We continued to grow the seeded varieties because some customers wanted those types — we want our customers to buy everything from us, so we grow both types," the North Carolina grower explains.
Seedless varieties have become the staple watermelon variety in more recent years, Smith says. Though growing the two varieties is much the same, packing and handling the smaller seedless varieties is much easier. Anything that reduces shipping costs is critical in today's market, he stresses.
"We are a member of the Southeastern Growers Association, which is a group of farmers who have banded together to sell watermelons, cantaloupes and specialty melons. The group of 12-15 area farmers meets regularly to study marketing trends and to determine how many acres they will need to fill contracts for the upcoming crop season.
Smith also ships products in a 100 mile radius of his farm, using his own trucks for distribution. His products have developed a reputation for quality and reliability, which are critical to growers, Smith contends. "If you can't consistently provide a high quality product in this market, then someone else will do it — it's a very competitive business," the North Carolina grower explains.
"As a one-man operation, like I am, keeping ahead of marketing trends is the hardest part of my business," Smith contends. "I don't under-emphasize the importance of knowing how to grow the crop and to attending to the details of growing quality crops — without the crop, you have nothing," he explains. "Still, it is absolutely critical to know what buyers and ultimately consumers want, because these trends change every year," he stresses.
"We are in the service business and what we are supplying is quality produce. When we started out in strawberries, we packed everything in quart cups, now we pack in several sizes, because that's what the customer wants," Smith explains. Growing the crop hasn't really changed so much in the past 15-20 years, but how you package products changes every year, he adds.
An ongoing production problem for North Carolina vegetable growers is yellow and purple nutsedge. Controlling this pest is about to change for the worse for Carolina farmers, Smith fears.
Methyl bromide, which is used as a soil fumigant to control nematodes, with a side benefit of eradicating nutsedge, is being phased out. When that happens, Carolina growers will be faced with the management challenge of how to control nematodes and nutsedge.
"It will be a double cost for us in terms of chemicals and in terms of application," Smith explains. Methyl bromide already costs over $500 per acre and additional cost will be tough, the North Carolina grower points out.
Huge increases in fuel costs and for all petrochemical products is a major concern for vegetable growers. "Except for sweet potatoes and a few acres of cabbage, all our crops are grown on plastic, and we are expecting a big jump in the cost of plastic," Smith says.
To reduce plastic costs, he is now double and triple-cropping on plastic. This year, he will leave plastic over a year and use some in-line fumigation through the drip tape. Typically one crop is stripped and the next crop is planted right behind the first one.
To get more efficient in rotation, Smith is taking land out of cattle production and putting it into vegetable production. This is a slow and costly process — $1,200-$1,500 per acre — but one Smith believes will pay off in lower production costs in the long run.
The cost of fuel and labor are major concerns for the future, the North Carolina grower says.
Already, he has seen a loss of migratory workers, who can make much higher wages working in the Hurricane Katrina cleanup. And, additional regulations that generate increases in paperwork to hire migratory workers is a constant battle, he says.
The North Carolina grower is absorbing huge increases in fuel cost in delivering his products, both on his own delivery routes and the trucking lines that carry his large contract melons.
Fuel increases alone, cost him $260 more per pallet to ship his melons. Add to fuel surcharges that he has to pay for shipping his contract crops and added cost of fuel to deliver his crops locally, which he can't pass along to his customers, and the numbers can quickly go from black to red.
On the positive side, increased fuel costs may open other eastern markets for Carolina growers, because the high cost of shipping produce from California and from port cities to the east coast will give the local growers a huge advantage.
Despite all the challenges, Curtis Smith is in vegetable production for the long run and optimistic about the growth of his industry.
e-mail: [email protected]


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The guy in the red suit hardly had time to pack the sleigh away when the guy with the red nose took over.
Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United's manager, is a remarkable man. He is actually bigger than the game, an extraordinary situation when the game happens to be the squillion-pound English Premier League, the world's most famous domestic sports competition.
I am addicted to Ferguson and his team, not having missed a United match on television for a long time. I watch the rest but also channel surf them, whereas with United every second counts. The drama, the way they play, the personalities, the skill, the never-say-die attitude and, most importantly, Ferguson's win-at-all-costs behaviour that has accompanied him into his 70s, make for compulsory viewing.
It's a love-hate thing though. Ferguson's latest tirade has been really annoying, particularly because he got away with stepping over the line of acceptable behaviour and a clear attempt at intimidation. Unhappy with a decision in the Boxing Day clash against Newcastle, he harangued the referee, linesman and fourth official around halftime, yet was not charged with an offence.
The power of his personality, presumably, persuaded referee Mike Dean not to mention the outrage in his report. His getting away with it has angered many including Arsenal's managerial giant Arsene Wenger.
Furthermore, Ferguson banned Sky TV - whose money drives the Premier League success - from his press conference, for the crime of showing the Dean incident a few times.
Ferguson is bad news who is good for the news industry, a la other sporting miscreants such as soccer's Roy Keane and the American basketball lunatic Bobby Knight.
But he has been allowed to run amok, constantly getting away with arbitrary bans against media outlets who dare to not see the world precisely his way.
And he is operating in a reasonably lax soccer environment. Harassment of match officials is par for the course in the Premier League, where managers and players do stuff that would cause outrage in other sports. At times it looks like a Brat Pack, as in a horde of John McEnroe tennis tantrums on the loose.
The brunt of the managerial outbursts are borne by the fourth officials, sideline assistants lifted from obscurity in their role as verbal punching bags. These latterday soccer valets - whose role is to attend to the referees' needs - get Ferguson, Wenger et al in their face, with worldwide television coverage.
Maybe they even enjoy the attention of famous sportsmen. "Oooh mum, did you see me arguing with Sir Alex on TV the other night. How did I look?"
Anyway, on with the countdown to what is looking like another title for the ultimate Red Devil. United were in very average form against West Bromwich Albion yesterday morning, but notched up another win. Ferguson was there, unpunished and highly visible driving his team on.
Confession time then. The managerial and player meltdowns are entertaining and captivating, so call me a hypocrite - guilty as charged. They show, in a naughty way, how much each moment, each game, means to the combatants. The blood also gets stirred and we seem tuned to love villains and heroes.
As with McEnroe, condemnation and fascination go hand-in-hand.
RIP Tony Greig
Hard to believe we won't be hearing the voice of Tony Greig again. The cricket giant and commentator, who has died aged 66, was the colourful yet authoritative sound of cricket and the sort of enormous character all sport struggles to produce any more.
Greig helped to lead the famous revolution that virtually saved cricket and his death comes when the sport is at a dangerous crossroads to some, an exciting new era for others.
There were sharp analysis and clever angles in the air when the strong-minded Greig was about, unlike the spruiking that passes for T20 commentary.
Greig was in the long-time pay of the broadcaster he served so well during the World Series upheaval, but wasn't bought. He will be genuinely and sadly missed, and even more so if the new commentators forget what made Greig great.


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But How Do You Really Feel? Emotions at Work
"But how am I supposed to know what they want if they don't tell me how they feel?"
This was the question I was asked during a coaching session with a supervisor the other day. She had received good marks on her feedback survey from her staff, but like most managers, there were a few areas that could use improvement.
The difficult part was, there were no comments from any of her staff members, and the numbers alone could not tell the story of what she needed to do in order to improve.


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Today's post of note is from the blog of No Tell Books, a small, respected indie press:
No Tell Books' best selling title broke even after three years and is now earning a very modest profit. This is by an author whose work has appeared in places like Poetry and Best American Poetry. This title has been taught at universities. How many copies does one have to sell to be the best selling title at No Tell Books after four years? 228. That is not a typo. This number doesn't include what the author has sold herself, probably around 200 copies on her own. But the press doesn't earn money on those sales.
So if that's a best seller, what's a flop? 74 sales after five years (again, this number doesn't include what the author sold on his own, which was maybe 50 or so). (UPDATE: Gatza states, "In general, books by new authors sell around 25 - 30 copies." Shocking? Only if you don't know the first thing about poetry publishing.)
This is the reality of poetry publishing. There are certainly presses that sell more copies. A poetry title reviewed in The New York Times can sell 2-4k copies, it is true. But small, independent presses, those small shops, usually run by one or a few people, rarely see those kinds of sales. University presses, for the most part, don't see those kinds of numbers for poetry. I attended a panel by the publisher of Grove/Atlantic and he said his press' poetry sales was around 800 per title. They publish "big-name" poets, their books are often shelved by chain bookstores, they have good distribution, a strong reputation . . . and that's what they sell. Publishing poetry is their charity--their poetry titles are subsidized by their fiction and non-fiction sales.
I know of prose books where the publicity machine exploded spectacularly (or didn't exist), the publisher seemed to do everything possible to bury the book, and it only ever appeared at tiny bookstores in uninhabited regions of the world -- and still managed to sell over 300 copies!
I was going to say that obviously America hates poetry, but that's not true. To hate it, we'd have to pay attention to it.


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Thursday, February 23, 2012
Enrage Timers and Meters
The thing is that SWTOR doesn't have a combat log or DPS meters. So there's really no way for a DPS player to truly judge her performance. So we don't know if the enrage timers are actually tight, or the DPS players are simply not performing at a high enough level.
The variance between DPS can be huge. It's not like people are performing at 89% of theoretical max and they need to get to 90%. Very often, because of improper rotations and incorrect use of cooldowns, a decent player who isn't conversant with the best theorycraft might only be performing at 50% or less of the theoretical max.
And the DPS rotations in SWTOR are not trivial. I had a rotation for my Sniper that I was happily using. It seemed to be the best I could come up with. Then I went to sithwarrior.com and looked at their rotation. It was structured very differently than what I was using, and involved several abilities that I wasn't using. I switched, and I think my damage went up significantly.
Though, truthfully, because there are no meters and no combat log, I have no idea if what I'm doing now is better. It's better on paper, and seems to be better in game, but who knows.
Again, we hit a theme that I've hitting for years now. Good play requires feedback. Good dps requires feedback. And the best feedback for DPS is a combat log and damage meters.
But if you don't want damage meters, if you think they are detrimental, then you should not have DPS checks like enrage timers. Having strict enrage timers without meters strikes me as unfair to the DPS players.
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Well, in theory I agree with Tobold's premise that DPS checks help spread the stress around, relieving the pressure on the tanks and healers. Similarly, I agree that absence of DPS meters means the blame for failure gets spread around even more, so no one feels like the "bad guy."ReplyDelete
But then a part of me feels compelled to say, "they're just DPS; they're easily replaced; who cares if they feel better about themselves or not?" Harsh, but true. And yes, I primarily play DPS (Ranger in EQ2, DPS Rogue in Rift), though I've dabbled in tanking (Guardian in LOTRO) and healing (Bear Shaman in Age of Conan). I know exactly how replaceable I am; and it doesn't bother me one bit.
Then there's the issue of fairness. True, it's not fair to the DPS to expect them to "get better" and then deprive them of the best tool for doing so (a DPS meter). Again, sure, they're just DPS and easily replaced. But how are you supposed to figure out which ones are the "good ones?" Keep trying the content over and over with different DPS until you find a group that works and then never change that group? That's pretty primitive. It reminds me of the way archers used to test out bows in Asheron's Call before the bows' damage mods were finally made public information in the tooltips (sometime in 2000).
So I'll come down in favor of DPS races and enrage timers, but only if there are combat logs (and the subsequent parsers and DPS meters) so you can actually FIX the problem if you're not beating the content. The problem generally isn't with DPS meters themselves, anyway; it's with the way some players choose to use them to exclude their "inferiors" from participating in content, and the fact that they often broaden the definition of "inferior" well beyond the needs of the content.
In other words, being able to measure the ability of DPS players isn't the Bad Thing; arbitrarily excluding average, or even above average, DPS players from groups due to unnecessarily stringent expectations is the Bad Thing. Frankly, I wouldn't want to play in a group with someone who thinks that way anyway; so being excluded from their groups could really be seen as a Win-Win situation for everyone involved ;^)
Yes, exactly.ReplyDelete
Just like the whole "Hate leads to anger" thing, difficult content necessarily leads to players taking content seriously, which divides those players away from those who don', which leads to player stratification, which leads to EJ and e-peen.
It's an inherent property of difficulty in group-based MMOs.
I agree with you completely. Without access to the combat log, proper analysis of a group's performance is impossible. This means that the content needs to be tuned around the lowest common denominator, in this case, the Sith Warrior named Vaderlol who only spams assault because it worked for his barbarian in Diablo II.ReplyDelete
Hehe DPS without a damage meter....ReplyDelete
....more or less as tanking or healing without seeing the health bar :)
Until I started doing Operations recently I was dead-set against damage meters...now I see we kinda need them, but not only damage meters, healing too please - trying to do Soa with two badly geared healers is a lot of fun, especially with only 1 sage, other being a trooper. At times it looked like the sage was solo healing we went down do fast. Healing meters would have helped a bunch there. Being able to move bars around would make healing a damn sight easier as well.ReplyDelete
DPS isn't only about DPS; it is also about utility. Dispelling, leap of faith, off tanking, healing. I play shadow priest in 10m guild, we have about 15 players in guild and we rotate but my primarily utility for the group isn't my buffs and debuffs (they're not unique). I provide a mana hymn for our healers therefore I am not easily replaced during progression. They did try it on farm but they came back from that. Now the officers don't take the risk anymore. They did not tell me this, but I know it.ReplyDelete
Being part of a rotation prevents slacking because of a psychological trick: you get not to play, they down content without you. It confirms the truth that you are not needed, expendable. Everyone is expendable, even a healer or tank. Those just require more effort, and might not be expendable on short term (that moment in the evening, but sunday will be, or we may need to recruit another tank/healer, or use someone's OS).
In MoP mana hymn is gone from shadow priest, and we don't have a lock, so I may reroll to something which provides some neat utility. Speaking of warlocks and utility I don't have DI. Nor 10% SP, nor always 8% more magic damage so it is difficult to get ranked. In a static fight like Ultraxion HC it is easy to do a DPS check, though since there is no multi dotting involved I should not come up top. My 4set relies on me standing still. I do need to work around heroism at start like our healers do.
On Warmaster HC the problems arise. We are melee heavy. I am bad at multi dotting because of the combination of target switching, running into small (and big) swirls. It requires quick reflexes and decision making, and here I fail to soak the small ones and kill the drakes in time. My 4set (fiend) requires me to stand still; not really possible here. The charges are easy to avoid, but the fire (and certain other graphics) makes them hard to see. After every try our raid leader calls out how quick the drakes went down, who ate which swirls, how many the ship took. We don't come further than the 3rd set of drakes. Which we don't reach often.
Add to that some bugs in the AI of shadowy apparitions akin to the bugs the fire and earth elemental totems have: if they cannot reach the target they won't run to another, they will stand still doing nothing. Very frustrating with 4set. My fiend also sometimes does not proc for whatever reason. On MoP normal it even dies, I cannot rely on it to nuke down the tentacle. And if the tentacle isn't down in time I cannot rely on it to nuke down the bolt either. I tend to use it to nuke down the blistering.
Back to ship HC. We down all the farm content on farm evening, and then are stuck 2 raid nights here. Morale is low. We have combat logs, recount, death log, WoL at our disposal. Every player knows how to play their class though we are not a hardcore raiding guild. We have only 1 legendary staff (not me, btw). Yet we are not able to do this fight for the past weeks, and I doubt we will with 10% nerf. It is a brick wall we've hit. I don't think it'll be Warmaster the guildkiller in our case, but some drama did arise. I try to be positive at start of every evening, theory craft, bring humor, but I quickly become tired from the fight. Mentally exhausted, too. We'll see.
- Hunaiam6:58 AM, February 24, 2012
I am a Sith Healer in SWTOR and my guild has been running HM FP's for about 2 weeks. I have found that as far as the enrage timer goes it helps that even as a healer I have significantly more DPS than I did as a healer (Shaman) in WOW. I think this was intentional on Bio's part to help with just this sort of thing. Yes we wipe but after learning what I need to do as far as healing is concerned, I find that I can throw in the occasional DOT and Lighting Attack and help beat the enrage timer. I think this is all part of their plan for us to work as a team. I like DPS meters and don't think there a bad thing, but I don't find them necessary. They are Hard Modes for a reason.ReplyDelete
It's amazing to me that WoW has gone 7 years without implementing some kind of dps tracker into the default ui. Granted, it took until sometime in WotLK before they got a threat one in. Something that just shows you your actual DPS, theoretical calculated DPS, and actual damage done; so you can see where you are. Maybe provide the raid leader with a more robust recount-ish gadget for deeper analysis and tracking. The lack of feedback is almost a cliche now, but it really is true...other than the general feedback of successful fight or wipe, dps get almost nothing from the game.ReplyDelete
The theory here is sound; a good game provides feedback, and in fact feedback is a common theme in many different developer's very definition of the word game. Still, I dispute that the only kind of feedback in this case is numerical metrics.
How about borrowing something from a totally different genre of gaming, like my wife's Wii Zumba? When she's performing within 90% of max, her character is highlighted in green. When she's between 60% and 90%, shades of yellow, and below 60%, shades of red. There's absolutely no reason a similar, personal system couldn't be implemented to let each individual player know, based on the minimum dps requirements for the fight, how they're individually performing. That provides the feedback you need without the immediate consequence of creating a hostile environment.
Alternatively, dps could be measured simply as percentages after an attempt, successful or otherwise. Without specific numbers, a simple percentage of who did what could be displayed, allowing a minimal amount of feedback, but certainly enough to gauge where you belong. Even within that; leaderboards could be set up with rankings for each boss, showing what number you rank at individually.
If what we want is feedback, then fine, you certainly deserve it. If what you want it the ability to judge if others are succeeding or failing, I'm not sure how I feel about that. The very nature of PuGs is distrust due to that type of thinking. I understand how frustrating it is not to be able to figure out what's going wrong (I struggled with that on my fire mage; I felt I was doing exactly what I'd been told from my enormous about of reading and research; I'd basically perfected the timing of my rotation and CD use, and still I was stinking it up), but the nature of being "good" sometimes means being vulnerable. I realize that some people choose efficiency over goodness, but that's not a game I want to participate in, nor the kind of people I want in my games.
So, is there a compromise that can be reached?
@Matt: WoW "chickened out" the problem of providing a damage meter in a very simple way: allow addons and let people deal with the problem. It also saves them a ton of development costs and headaches.ReplyDelete
@Stubborn: sorry, it doesn't work: either something is important and you have the tools to work on it, or it's not important and then the tools are not required. If you put in tight enrage times, then you must provide people with tools to train/study/improve their play. And these tools inevitably can lead to finger-pointing.
What I don't understand is why people feel obliged to deal with it: in real life when you meet finger-pointing people you avoid them or ridicule them, the same approach works fine in MMOs....
I don't know, when you put it like that I can't really agree. DPS players do get feedback - namely whether the boss dies before they do or not! I find the idea that anything not expressed in exact numbers doesn't count as feedback kind of absurd. By this logic it would be impossible to be a good healer without metres either, because you don't have any numbers telling you which of your spells have the highest hps, never mind whether you keep people alive or not.ReplyDelete
The problem is not that there is no feedback, it's that as soon as there are multiple people working on the same thing, it gets all mixed up and you can't tell who did how much of the work. I think that the Eternity Vault raid solved this quite elegantly by making the fourth encounter one where each member of the raid has to kill their own mob, which is basically a performance check just before the final boss to see who's doing well and who's lagging behind, no metres needed. It's just a shame that this isn't really feasible to do before every important encounter. Still, I think it proves that it's not a do or die situation where you either need metres or dps has to be completely irrelevant.
Well, I consider tangled or bad feedback to be worse than no feedback.ReplyDelete
As Stubborn said, you don't need formal DPS meters. A green/yellow/red light system for individual players, tuned for each boss, would be more than enough feedback.
You might not even have to display the state to the entire group. Just showing the individual player her performance would be enough.
Excellent post, and so very true.ReplyDelete
Anyone that has done LFR in WoW or just seen the damage meters from it can easily see the HUGE gap between the people that know their class and the people that don't.
Gear is part of it, absolutely, but player skill/spec/rotation are all just as important.
Also for people that say "well its ok as long as the boss dies!"... I hate that logic. People should be able to see their contributions and know when they should improve. They should -want- to improve. Just being blissfully ignorant of their own shortcomings makes them a leech on the rest of their team.
Frankly, the best argument for DPS meters isn't figuring out who the "good DPS" are, it's giving the DPS the tools they need to improve. How on earth are you supposed to figure out which rotations work best if you don't know the results you're getting from each one?ReplyDelete
I'd liken it to practicing martial arts without an instructor: you can spend hours practicing a certain move, but without an instructor it's hard to know if A. the move you're practicing actually has any practical use and B. you're executing the move properly.
Without a DPS meter, all you have is a hunch that using ability 1 or 2 before 3 will yield more damage, but you have no way of knowing if you should hit 123, 213, 1323, 23123, etc. Often those little distinctions can make a huge different in final results.
"But if you don't want damage meters, if you think they are detrimental, then you should not have DPS checks like enrage timers."ReplyDelete
I've spoken out in the past against the idea of adding damage meters to SWTOR, but I agree with this statement. If you're going to make success in a fight predicate on tight DPS output, you have to provide the tools to monitor and improve that output. I'm actually really surprised to hear that the enrage timers are so fierce. It seems like the wrong design move.
For what it's worth, I also disagree with Tobold's "all DPS are slackers" stance. I think it's just easier to hide as a bad DPSer because there is a pack of them. Bad tanks and healers will get picked out (and kicked out) faster. It's the same principle as finding more players on the low-end of the skill scale in a 25 man than in a 10 man.
But if you don't want damage meters, if you think they are detrimental, then you should not have DPS checks like enrage timers. Having strict enrage timers without meters strikes me as unfair to the DPS players.ReplyDelete
I... have to disagree, at least with the overall sentiment. I'm not going to argue for or against a DPS meter (though statements have been made that Bioware is in fact adding support for such a thing in one fashion or another). What I am going to argue is that enrage timers are for more then just DPS checks.
While you argue that it's unfair to "punish" players when they don't know their own performance, is it fair to remove the semblance of difficulty to "compensate"? The moment a healer is able to keep the tank up, the fight loses any sense of urgency or challenge, if there wasn't an enrage timer.
Still, I think it proves that it's not a do or die situation where you either need metres or dps has to be completely irrelevant.ReplyDelete
Why bother with the roundabout half-measures? It has NEVER made sense to me that a game could emphasize big, splashy numbers popping up when you press buttons, and then pretend it gets to eat its cake too by not bothering to add said numbers up. Ignoring the systemic nature of the design does not make it go away.
I was playing Dungeon Defenders the other day, and when you attack the training dummy in the waiting area, your DPS automatically pops up after a few seconds. It felt like the most natural thing in the world. How else I supposed to judge upgrades otherwise? What does +10 strength even mean? They could be handing out placebo gear and no one would ever notice.
@Shintar, the feedback DPS get is very bad compared to healers. Even the situation you described doesn't provide good feedback - it only tells something went wrong but not what did. A healer can see (without meters) what went wrong because:ReplyDelete
- heals have a noticeable impact on the health bars (even the weakest heal is about 7-8% I think, DPS is orders of magnitude lower)
- ...and on healers' endurance (the mana bars can't be as easily restored as the equivalent ones can for DPS)
As a healer, it is easier to find out what went wrong with the meters but (assuming the unit health bars show incoming heals) it can be done without. As a DPS, it's not possible.
DPS have tools at their disposal to optimize, and the good ones already know about this because they have put time in to min-maxing and in their search stumbled upon this. I don't know what it is, why DPS wouldn't want to do it, because DPS is a highly competitive role (the only competitive one I'd say).ReplyDelete
There is WoL which for example can tell you your DoT uptime, compare your DPS with others. There is Recount/Skada which allows you in-game to see who did how much damage on the Tendon or Bolt. For a beginner you can even use something like Ovale which tells you which button to press next, and Skada has support to give feedback on how well you did.
To the person who said DPSing in SWTOR is more strong from a healer POV. Doing damage as healer in WoW is certainly possible, and something hardcore raiding guilds do. As atonement priest you do some ace DPS, there is a spec for shaman to also DPS with lightning bolt, and last but not least you can do some nice DPS in tree with wrath (which our resto druid does on Ultraxion). I also remember helping out with DPS on for example Sindragosa HC as resto druid because in P1 there isn't much to heal while DPS was tight.
I believe it is an attitude problem. What I can advice to raid leaders: get more DPS in your raid team and rotate them. When deciding who to bench keep in mind aspects like raid buffs (esp in 10m), utility, maturity (included in this is showing up on time, connection/computer stability), and last but not least actual raw performance. The DPS in your raid group will go up, and the slackers will /gquit or whine (and then /gkick). Of course it is not fun to bench your best WoW friend "Bob" because "Alice" is more solid, but it is a necessity.
- Anonymous6:04 PM, March 20, 2012
I ran a highly successful raiding guild in EQ2 was main tank for 6 yrs we would of never got to that point without programs such as ACT ( advanced combat tracker) that said me and some friends are starting the raid / ops here and this game NEEDS a meter for healing and dps. Why? Theres sooo many classes available and sooo many people who have no idea what they are doing. I put a run together for a dungeon /flashpoint with myself as tank , a commando as heals , a gunslinger for dps and a jedi sentinal sounds like a decent group right ? Well we get to the first boss and start wiping , why ? The commando thinks hes dps cuz he has a big gun lol. How are we gonna gauge people worthy of a raid spot withput a meter of sorts? People dont wanna be singled out but how do you create a successful group withput knowing if your team is actually preforming to par? Stab it till it dies or goes enrage? There will always be players better than others and it just makes the raid leaders job that much harder if he cant tell whos not pulling their weight so he can take them aside and work with them to see if they can improve or replace them if they do nothing but bring your team to fail. The meter is not evil it helps top end players improve their game and whoop ass. I give 110% when I raid if my team doesnt then i take those players aside and find out how to fix the problem without the tools to measure your left to guess and make bad mistakes in keeping or removing certain players.ReplyDelete


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1- Divine casters have no magic; are the spells still there, but no contact or are they just not gone?
2- Divine casters get wet all others have the rain pass thru them. Gil not a divine caster, but he is wet as well.
3- from 1, can I still use my magic items that require me to use a spell slot?
4- Did I have an episode similar to Olaren's (the cleric in the tavern at the beginning of the campaign) or Veld?
5- Do I know of the events that transpired in Tradestop before the campaign started?


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