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True Love Personalized iPhone Case Set
True Love Personalized iPhone Case Set
True Love Personalized iPhone Case Set
True Love Personalized iPhone Case Set
True Love Personalized iPhone Case Set
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True Love Personalized iPhone Case Set
Personalized iPhone case for iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6+ (choose your model above). This personalized iPhone case set really says it all. This is such a wonderful gift for you and your loved one to have protecting your iPhones. This is also a really great gift idea to give as a wedding gift! The sleek design keeps the iPhone nice and slim, just as it was intended. The "True Love" personalized iPhone cases come in two color schemes; you can have them in red and white, or red and black. On the back of the first case reads the word "True", printed in beautiful script and set inside half of a heart; on the back of the second case reads the elegantly scripted word "Love" inside of the other half of the heart. These two halves make up one complete heart. That heart is shared by two names that you can choose to have printed beneath each heart's respective half.
The iPhone love case is designed to be used with the iPhone 4/4S, iPhone 5/5s, iPhone 6/6+, these models are available at Sprint, Verizon, or AT&T. The cover is made of plastic and has a metal back, ensuring that it will protect your iPhone like you will protect your love. Make any occasion extra special for the love of your life by giving them this personalized "True Love" iPhone case. <3
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Personalize this gift with names on each case. Both Cases are black and have an option to select the design color.
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The Creation Station
Inspire your child's imagination and nurture their potential with The Creation Station fun, hands on and educational classes, parties, club and events.
Rated 5 star by customers on Trustpilot The Creation Station creative experiences are designed to help your child explore ideas and materials, discover new techniques and develop essential life skills.
Weekly classes include
- Baby Discover classes, for parents and carers of 6 – 15-month-old babies. Designed to help babies explore and discover their world through safe, tried and tested hands-on and toes-on creative activities.
- Little Explorers classes for parents or carers with 16 months to 5-year-old child. Classes support children to explore materials and concepts, discover new techniques, ideas, and develop skills and confidence.
- Create Club, our after-school clubs for 5 – 11-year-olds. Classes are designed to support your child's exploration, develop their ideas, discover techniques, and grow their confidence, creativity, and problem-solving skills.
- Family Fun classes in the school holidays for the whole family.
Creation Station Arty Birthday Party
Give your child a fun, creative experience to enjoy with their friends. More than just a simple event, our craft-making parties entertain and inspire too. Our parties are tailored around your child and great fun for you too, giving you less to do.
All the children are inspired to create at least two original art pieces to take home and our art parties all include painting, modelling, making, sculpting, and crafting. Of course, music, dancing and games are provided too. Plus we supply the party invites and the parties bags that are filled with each child unique creations, giving you less to do.
Crafty Events
- Tiny Treasures – create beautiful keepsakes with your new born baby at one of our monthly events. Enjoy a drink and cup-cake and create new friendships along with treasured mementoes as you baby grows.
- Crafty Saturday – enjoy a monthly crafty event in your local area. Every month there are different theme and fun crafts to inspire the whole family.
"The Creation Station has really helped Owen develop lots of skills. He is a lot more confident in what he creates and the weekly classes have helped his concentration and the ability to share. It's also given us more ideas of activities to together at home and when we are out and about. Tthank you very much, Owen and I love coming" Owens Daddy
Using art, craft music & movement…and a little bit of magic, the children (and parents/carers!) are inspired to create their own journey of discovery. The mark making, funky objects and learning that develops is shared and enjoyed with the other children and adults. See some of our activities on our site.
'It's full of inventive ideas that children love to do, and I would never think of doing!' Kylas Mummy
Established in 2002 The Creation Station team are passionate about inspiring children's imaginations and nurturing potential. They have inspired over 250,000 children and families and came in the top three out of 5000 comp0anies for the Richard Branson Voom competition for the positive impact on society.
You can rest assured that your child's safety and well-being is the utmost importance to the Creation Station . All franchise owners are fully trained, DBS checked and first aiders and have completed safe guard training.
Children's arts & crafts classes in Wakefield , Worcester , Hatfield , Eastbourne, Honiton, Chester-le-Street, Hanwell, Bradford, Ponsanooth, Wanstead, Thatcham, Corsham, Chester, Rugby, Halesowen, Rothwell, Scawthorpe, Eastfield South, Up Holland, Welwyn Garden City, Cheltenham, High Wycombe, Bracknell, Salisbury, West Molesley, Thame, Guildford, Niton, Bow, London, Southsea, Redbourn, Livingston, Workington, Trowbridge, Haverhill, Sutton Coldfield, Godalming, Skelton, Turriff, Macclesfield, Paignton, Winchester, Lancaster, Yeovil, Gateshead, Leicestershire, Ardley, Blackheath, Crewe, Amersham, Derbyshire , West Lothian, Leicester, Kirkwall, Northwich, Driffield, Birmingham, Merstham, Bournemouth, Prestwick, Sleaford, Fareham, Spondon, Morden, Haywards Heath, Gosport, Swindon, Northampton, Pinner, Southport , Radstock, Wendover, Welwyn, Sunderland, Didcot, Tyne & Wear , Faversham , Ash, Appleby, Pitmedden, Sunbury-on-Thames , Ayr, Spalding, Stockton-on-Tees, Narbeth, Frankley, Exeter, Moate, Cambridge, East Molesey, Frampton Cotterell, Lincolnshire, Wirral, Ipswich, Watford, Marlborough, Cardiff, Bath, Solihull, Burton upon Trent, Christchurch, Exmouth, Hinckley, Kenilworth, Loughborough, Lowestoft, Newton Abbot, Nottingham, Poole, Royal Leamington Spa, Sandhurst, Stratford-upon-Avon, Tamworth, Taunton, Tiverton, Warwick, Windsor, Wokingham, Wolverhampton, Worthing, Leeds, Derby, Frome, Glasgow, Glossop, Nuneaton, Ormskirk, Sheffield, Warrington, Basingstoke, Bolton, Bristol, Luton, Melksham, Penzance, Telford, West Fife, Milton Keynes and Norwich

subset: commoncrawl


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Source: Hoops WorldWhat are our baseline assumptions? Do we take the owners at their word that they're losing money and that the players are overpaid by about $700 million? For their part, they say they've provided certified accounting stattements and tax records to the players -- so there's at least some semblance of an open book. That doesn't make it impossible to hide things, but I'm more inclined to believe statemens that are backed up by data.
So let's go with a premise that the next agreement needs to bring down player costs by about a third. The solution needs to do three things:
1. Get them out of the mess they're in currently.
2. Implement a system where they can't get right back into the same mess.
3. Fix inequities created by differences in market size and owner financial resources.
The answer to the third point is easy -- increased revenue sharing. For their part, the league has said that they're addressing revenue sharing separately but in parallel to the CBA discussions.
The answer to #1 is principally salary rollbacks.
Finally, the answer to #2 is primarily dealing with long-term guaranteed contracts. It's not guys like Kobe Bryant -- earning $25 million but also having an MVP-caliber season -- who are the problem. It's the guys like Eddy Curry, who are raking in eight figures for almost zero production. The Knicks would waive him in a hot second if they can escape paying his salary. And I'm not sure fans should be made to continue subsidizing him with their ticket & jersey purchases while he languishes on the bench.
So here's a "tough love" proposal:
*. A salary rollback. The owners will want 33%, the players 0%, but let's compromise at 20%. The rollback will be progessive, so that minimum-salary guys aren't touched at all, and the max salary guys take the greatest hit -- but the overall reduction is 20%.
* The salary cap is based on net revenues rather than gross revenues. The inclusion/exclusions and the percentage split needs to be figured out, to ensure a correct revenue split.
* Contracts can be guaranteed for two years, plus the "following" year (on January 10). A new contract is guaranteed for two years. The third year becomes guaranteed on Jan 10 of the second year. The fourth year becomes guaranteed on January 10 of the third year, etc.
* All minimum-salary contracts are fully guaranteed. Protect the guys whose entire career might be just a couple seasons.
* Max salaries stay where they are, but they become just that -- the maximum. No more exceeding the maximum via raises.
* Teams retain Bird rights, but sign-and-trade goes away. It's like someone having a credit card that allows them to make purchses they can't afford, and having a heart attack when the credit card bill arrives.
* Contracts are limited to five years. The mid-level exception is limited to three. The bi-annual goes away.
* Non-simultaneous trades go away (and with them, trade exceptions).
* A franchise tag is available, which can only be used on one player at a time, can't be used on the same player more than twice, and when applied, constitutes a one-year contract at the maximum salary.
* A revenue sharing system is devised that equalizes teams based on market size and owner wealth, but rewards well-run and financially successful teams. This system takes the place of the luxury tax, which is eliminated.
* Oh, and finally, sportswriters get 10%. We'll ask for 10% of the gross, but we'll settle for 10% of the net.
Great insight. This guy really knows his stuff and I always love reading his opinion. In case you have not see my suggested sites on the RR Forums Questions, Suggestions or Feedback board then here:
Larry Coon's NBA Salary Cap FAQ
You'll be hard pressed to find a better explanation of the current CBA.


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Sponsor Change Could Force FOM Change at Thrivent: NCUA
Should its sponsor broaden its common bond requirements, Thrivent Federal Credit Union will have to submit its sponsor's new bylaws to the NCUA for review to make sure its field of membership remains in accord with the agency's regulations, according to an NCUA letter.
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, the $75 billion insurance and financial services mutual company sponsors the $478 million, 45,000-member TFCU, which it formed last year from the consumer lending and deposit taking business of a bank that it owns.
The sponsoring firm's members face a vote starting in March about whether to expand the firm's common bond for membership from Lutheran to Christian, raising the possibility that it might also sharply expand the credit union's field of membership.
That possibility drew a protest letter this week from the American Bankers Association, raising questions about whether TFL's moving its common bond from Lutheran to Christian might mean the Appleton, Wis.-based credit union adopts an illegally broad FOM.
"ABA believes that the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) has an affirmative obligation to limit this type of expansion," wrote ABA Senior Economist Keith Leggett in the Feb. 4 letter to the agency. "The NCUA needs to ensure a genuine affiliation between credit union members, as Congress mandated."
The agency responded with a letter, also on Feb. 4, which said that if TFL changed its common bond from Lutheran to Christian, TFCU would have to submit the organization's bylaws to the agency for review of their impact on its FOM.
Citing the agency's Interpretive Ruling and Policy Statement 08-2, Gail Laster, director of the NCUA's Office of Consumer Protection, wrote: "In the event a change occurs, Thrivent Federal Credit Union would need to submit the sponsor's revised bylaws to this office for review to ensure the sponsor continues to meet NCUA's associational common bond requirements."
Laster did not indicate how long such a review process might take or what steps the agency might take if it found TFL's new common bond, should it occur, was too broad for TFCU's field of membership.
The agency did not say whether any credit unions in the past have faced similar situations or how they were resolved.
Meanwhile, TFL has been somewhat surprised at the attention this potential change to its common bond has drawn, and Brett Weinberg, communications director for the firm, challenged the notion that making that change would mean TFCU would be throwing open its doors to Christians generally.
"[T]o be a credit union member, an individual must still become a Thrivent member or otherwise meet the credit union's eligibility requirements, such as being a credit union employee or Thrivent employee," he wrote in an email response to a question from Credit Union Times.
"It is not correct to say that any Christian could join Thrivent Federal Credit Union if Thrivent's membership did vote to extend its common bond," Weinberg said. "The credit union's membership would still be primarily restricted to those who meet Thrivent's eligibility criteria and who actually join the fraternal benefit society."
In addition, he noted that the making the common bond had been in discussion at the firm for some time and actually predated the creation of the credit union.
"In addition, the purpose of the potential extension is to allow us to help more Christians be wise with money and live generously" Weinberg added. "The potential impact on the credit union field of membership simply did not play a factor in the decision to move forward with the member vote."


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CalTrend EuroSport Seat Covers VW108-06HH
- Our Price: $203.83
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- Part Number: VW108-06HH
- Rating: (19)
Rear Row EuroSport Seat Covers
- Part #: VW108-06HH
- 40/60 Split Back & Solid Cushion Bench Seat, with Separate Headrests, with Center Console, with Folding Latch, with Rear Side Panels
- Beige
$203.83Free Shipping
Select your vehicle details above to ensure item compatibility.
- Renew your interior looks with sophisticated CalTrend Euro Sport Seat Covers
- Made from premium spacer-knit fabric that's breathable, cool, and comfortable
- Custom-fit to your vehicle with precision computer-cutting processes
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- UV-treated to resist sun fade
- Fine-knit trim surrounds a perforated, breathable insert
- Available in Black, Charcoal, Beige, and Light Grey, with or without Black trim
- 2 Year Warranty
Add a touch of sporty European style to your interior. Cal Trend EuroSport Seat Covers suit your seats up with the protection and comfort of breathable spacer-knit fabric. They're custom-cut to your exact vehicle, and take just minutes to install.
CalTrend Euro Sport Seat Covers are crafted for a long life as well as high style. Reinforced edges and extra padding at body contact points deliver years of comfort and support without undue wearing or splitting. Cal Trend EuroSport Seat Covers are fully UV-treated to stand up to the sun's rays without fading. Plus, they take minutes to install without tools using the included hooking straps and cords.
CalTrend includes armrest and headrest covers with your EuroSport covers when needed. Your CalTrend Euro Sport Seat Covers are backed with a 2-Year Warranty.
Note: For an easier installation, add an Installation Kit at checkout!
Note: Due to variations in computer monitor settings, colors viewed on the web may not display as intended. If you have questions about the color of a particular CalTrend Seat Cover, please call and we will be happy to assist you.
CalTrend VW108-06HH fits:
- 2007-2011 Volkswagen Jetta
There are no reviews for this application.
See All CalTrend EuroSport Seat Covers Reviews.


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Welcome To Hoteles Royal
Discover Colombia, Chile and Ecuador through our luxurious hotels
Hoteles Royal. A world of friendliness
With twenty luxury hotels located throughout Colombia, Chile and Ecuador, Hoteles Royal welcomes you to leave the ordinary behind and uncover the perfect travel destination - whether you seek a welcoming home away from home for family holidays, a modern and elegant address for conducting business in style, or a relaxing retreat for weekend getaways.
All Hoteles Royal hotels are strategically located within their cities, offering effortless access to Colombia, Chile and Ecuador's top corporations, attractions and shopping, nightlife and entertainment areas. Each hotel is as unique and dynamic as the city it serves, and each caters to the needs of discerning executive and leisure travelers with a dedication personalized service practiced by the finest hotels.
Step through the doors of an individually designed Hoteles Royal hotel and you will encounter beautifully appointed rooms and suites outfitted with every modern comfort, luxurious amenities, marvelous cuisine and entertainment at our restaurants and bars, and first-class facilities and catering for meetings, weddings and special events.
We invite you to discover Hoteles Royal – Your Genuine Host in Latin America.


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Sorry for the double post, something happened, my editor remained with the text and was re-posted as I refreshed and I can't delete it for whatever reason. Don't know what's going on. A glitch or something...
http://sports.nationalpost.com/2012/...e-working-out/Raptors rookie Jonas Valanciunas, the fifth pick in the 2010 draft who spent last season playing professionally in Lithuania, hurt his left ankle while working out on Saturday. The Raptors have not released any details yet, but Valanciunas was photographed by Twitter user @msharbaf walking in the boot on Saturday evening.
The Raptors are expected to release more details on Monday morning, and are hopeful the injury is not serious. Valanciunas played for the Lithuanian national team this summer at the Olympic qualifying tournament and the London Olympics, and has been in Toronto as the Raptors have gathered together in anticipation for training camp, which is scheduled to open in Halifax on Oct. 2.
Hopefully its a minor issue.. we'll find out tomorrow.
arghh...does he have to bring up ed davis? bad karma
The article says that Jonas was picked in the 2010 draft :/
Acording to JV's facebook page: " Hey everybody, according to Jonas, its a minor injury, nothing
too serious. Now take a deep breath, relax, and have a good
I feel better about that now. Still has a week to rest it up. Not like he needs a whole lot of work to shake the rust off. He's been doing nothing but ballin all summer.
After reading the sky-is-falling comments, I have been converted into thinking that yes, [some] Raptor fans have definitely placed way too much weight on Jonas' shoulders.
Dinner with @klow7, @luke1luk & two rookies, @quincyacy & Jonas Valaciuna. Jonas came suited and booted, pun instagr.am/p/QDbnPOp9ua/— Landry Fields (@landryfields) September 26, 2012
Jonas Valanciunas was out of his protective boot today, taking jumpers, lifting weights, if not playing actual basketball.— Eric Koreen (@ekoreen) September 26, 2012
Even if he can go through the sets at half speed.
@landryfields @klow7 and myself took the rookies out to dinner, but @klow7 pick the bill up I got the next oneyfrog.com/obafjnmj— John Lucas III (@Luke1luk) September 27, 2012
Great pic! RT @chris_cap16: @raptors pic with the cuzzins twitter.com/Chris_Cap16/st…— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) September 26, 2012
My goodness Lowry's a midget...
...then again, Lucas is the same height (while standing on a step).
Nice to see a bunch of the new guys spending time together. Would like to see a pic of some of the old with the new.
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A Salad for All Seasons: Arugula, Blood Orange + Ricotta
Recently, I shared a recipe for Toasted Orzo Mac & Cheese, cobbled together after inspiration struck in the form of a couple of visits to B&G Oysters, a restaurant in Boston's South End. For that side dish, the B&G team used Parmigiano Reggiano. At the opposite end of the cheese aging scale, however, they offered another delicious dish on their menu: arugula salad paired with citrus and their house-made ricotta – a fresh, young, milky cheese.
The salad was simple but delicious in that it balanced the bite of the arugula with the creamy, sweet and cool ricotta. The citrus (blood oranges the first time I had the dish) brought brightness, acidity and a touch of sweetness to the plate.
As with B&G's mac and cheese, I was inspired to attempt its recreation at home – at first using blood oranges and then, as the season passed, a range of other orange varieties. For the cheese, I used the ricotta we carry here in the shop. The ricotta we source is wetter than B&G's house-made cheese and, as a result, I instantly had the effect of a creamy dressing once the salad had been tossed. The cheese was not my only dressing though; I used a little bit of vinaigrette too. Simple, tasty and fresh – this is an easy combination to riff on, both in the summer and in the winter.
Arugula, Blood Orange + Ricotta Salad
Serves: 2-3 (as a side)
2 tbsps Antonia's Old Fashioned mustard
2 tbsps Katz Sauvignon Blanc vinegar
6 tbsps Aria extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
4 cups arugula, washed
1 orange
¼ – ½ cup fresh ricotta
Combine the ingredients for the dressing in a jar – seal with lid and shake until emulsified. Place the arugula in a bowl. Using a paring knife, remove the skin of the orange and segment pieces into the salad, being sure to remove all seeds. Dollop the ricotta on the salad and drizzle over dressing to taste (you will probably have more dressing than you need). Toss and serve.
Mary is a baker and cheesemonger at Formaggio Kitchen Cambridge.


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August 11, 2009
New Moon Teaser Clip
Thanks Twilight Moonlighter [via Twilight Source]
- Lorabell
45 comments:
Paws off Jacob!!!!ReplyDelete
I love it!
Love me some Jacob!
That was beyond good. I just had a little Twigasm.
Still not going to watch Bandslam though. Sorry.
I have to play it again and again just to hear that voice.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 11, 2009 at 2:40 PM
anticlimax...sort of rubbishReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 11, 2009 at 2:41 PM
OMG OMG HYPERVENTILATING RIGHT NOW!!! LOOKS AMAZING!!!ReplyDelete
- twilightislifeAugust 11, 2009 at 2:47 PM
aww man i was hoping for a bit more than that but it does look good (:ReplyDelete
Oh how I love me some love triangle! I'm Team Edward all the way, but without a little "geometry" there would be no need for teams!ReplyDelete
Twilight fans, brace yourselves!
I can't see it at work!!!! NOooooo!! I'll have to wait to see it when I get home at night!!! This sucks!!! Grrr!!ReplyDelete
I hate and love the fact you can see a portion of Taylor's bum. He's too young for him to be and look so tasty.ReplyDelete
I'll say I was hoping to see a "Bella on the cliff" teaser...ReplyDelete
- Lorabell
- AnonymousAugust 11, 2009 at 3:01 PM
Holy flipping jailbait, Taylor!!!! That boy is fiiiiine. Ahhhhhh I can't wait any longer for this movie to come out, I seriously need to see it now! Twi-crack addict, how aptly named we are! The many, the proud, the closet stalker-azzi hehehe. I am such a Twitard at heart. Sarah in NCReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 11, 2009 at 3:07 PM
Holy crap! That was GREAT!ReplyDelete
i'm a little disappointed. of course its just a teaser. and of course it looks awesome. but it was nothing we really hadn't seen before. i can't wait for the real thing on friday. i'm not watching band slam. i'll wait till someone posts it on youtube.ReplyDelete
less dogs more vamps please ;)ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 11, 2009 at 3:11 PM
okay...and you think this looks good why exactly?!ReplyDelete
his arm looks HUGEReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 11, 2009 at 3:13 PM
i agree, how is this good? please enlighten meReplyDelete
What do you mean, "how is this good"? How is it bad? Ok, so it's a 14 second teaser. Anything that's only 14 seconds long isn't going to be fantastic, of course. And yeah, I was hoping for a little cliff-diving as well. Actually, I'm still waiting to see Edward's "apparitions".ReplyDelete
But this was CERTAINLY a welcome teaser....HA. I think I just figured out where they got the term "teaser"....I didn't think it was possible for anyone to be that ripped, let alone someone who's still technically a child. RAWR.
I liked it...it was a good 14 seconds...from that I really got a sense of Bellas sadness....I think more so then the first whole trailer...and I like that it had more Jacob..I mean most of this movie is about Bella and Jake...I cant wait to see the whole new trailer though..I bet there will be lots of fun stuff in it!ReplyDelete
its 14 seconds geez what would have made it "good" for you?ReplyDelete
i liked it..it shows the forming of the jacob-bella relationship!
taylor's abs..OH-MY-GAWD!
cant wait for the full version ..i hope it has a clip of her cliff dive!!
Tease- seriously!!!!ReplyDelete
I still love Edward but I have to keep telling myself Jacob is jailbait. Did you see those abs?..No,he's jailbait!ReplyDelete
Wow, that didn't feel like 14 seconds, more like 5.ReplyDelete
yeah most of the video was like black and then title...ReplyDelete
yeah it was good cause it looks beautiful. it shows her sadness. and taylor's abs.
but its stuff we've seen already.
if we hadn't seen the clips from Comic Con this would have been a bigger deal.
most of us are team edward and didn't see much of him...which we wont in the movie cause its a jacob and bella story mainly
crap i forgot what i was gonna say.
- Danish Twi-loverAugust 11, 2009 at 5:38 PM
Oh what a great clip:-)ReplyDelete
But BAD-Jacob BAD! Paws off! But he does look very cute though ;-)Oh this movie is going to kill me *sob*
- Danish Twi-loverAugust 11, 2009 at 5:42 PM
Stacey-> Oh yeah... he's definitely well build now. But I'll have to repeat with you: Jailbait, jailbait, jailbait.... Gah! He's not jailbait in Denmark ;-)ReplyDelete
Too much Jacob, where's Edward and the Volturi?!ReplyDelete
Also, Jacob's arm looks HUGE, it's kinda gross. *hides*
Just my opinion.
BOYCOTT BANDSLAM! Team Rachelle! Summit sucks! Let them know they cannot treat the fans any kind of way and profit from it!ReplyDelete
PS -- The weird arm thing is actually his SIDE. The odd-looking portion is his arm positioned directly in front of the side of his manly, well-muscled, rippling, *ahem* ....Whoops. Sorry. Anyway, while his biceps are huge to begin with, the part that makes it look agreeably gross-ish is that his arm is in front of the side of his torso. That's what looks weird...I had to watch it like 6 times before I figured it out. ...Well, that's my excuse anyway. Mmmmmmmmmmm.....ReplyDelete
Wait Jen i'm gonna come hide with you!ReplyDelete
when he took the shirt off i was like WHOA!
but this angle its kinds like weird...like too much. i'm not a big muscles type girl though...
That's it? That's it? Gah! I was hoping for some Volturi action!!! :( Oh well I guess it's better than nothin'.......ReplyDelete
Call me easily-amused but those 14 seconds were twigasmic. Anything longer than that and I might have a seizure. Also, I'm trying to keep my spoiler ingestion to a minimum until Nov.20th heheheReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 11, 2009 at 7:53 PM
That was lame. Seriously, that wasn't anything I haven't seen before.ReplyDelete
- Mrs. CullenAugust 11, 2009 at 8:23 PM
I re-read New Moon last night and I think they aren't making Bella as held back, upset, and vulnerable as she is in the book. She seems so open the have Jacob come in and be her new man and I think this is forming way to quick. I'm not liking it :\ReplyDelete
good news: its Twilight relatedReplyDelete
Bad news: no Edward. Sorry I am no wolf fan.
THAT was sorta beautiful .. GAWDReplyDelete
Kristen is so gorgeous. Girl crushReplyDelete
pause it at 0:08 or right before and Jacob looks like Dobbie.ReplyDelete
Just sayin ...
and then you can also pause at 0:06 or 0:07 and see where they took a wrinkle pen and drew a line, hoping to make him have a more defiant jawline ... which is also a FAIL.
Where the hell is Edward ? What kindda trailer is that ?:(ReplyDelete
This comment has been removed by the author.ReplyDelete
team jacob he is so fuckin hot and look at his body geeeeeeeeeezzzzzzReplyDelete
hot hot hot hot hot
- Julie M.August 12, 2009 at 1:37 AM
How is Kristen going to get that beautiful hair back? :-( Great teaser!!ReplyDelete
I'm not trying to be mean but that long hair makes Jacob look girly. He looks better with the short hair, I'm still Team Edward but those muscles on Taylor OME!ReplyDelete
you know with all the talk about this movie- we've all read the books too, but this is going to be such a sad movie:(( and poor jacob- again I know we all know what happens, but I think I'll feel even more sympathy for jacob after the movie.ReplyDelete


text:
Data Analysis Reveals the 'What Next?' in Credit Card Portfolio Management
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It's true, issuers with larger card portfolios yield more data points for exploration. Yet, even smaller card portfolios generate lines upon lines of useful data. Credit unions can make great strides simply by examining statement data like transaction history, interest rates and credit lines.
A lot of data can also be obtained from outside the credit union's card portfolio. Member data not related to card activity can be equally as informative when looking for the "What next?" in the credit union's portfolio strategy. With data analysis, every member interaction is a transaction, leaving a trail of valuable data.
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Todd Herren is chief technology officer at The Members Group in Des Moines, Iowa. The above is an excerpt from the white paper "Data Analysis Points the Way Forward for Card Management Teams."


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There's been a lot of reporting on the testimony of Michael Barr who testified for the plaintiff. Did Toyota field their own expert witnesses ? If they did, it would be interesting to learn what their rebuttal was.
The undoubted fact that all of us who drive make mistakes should not be used by the automobile companies as a cover for ignoring functional safety issues and making the driver the fail safe for malfunctioning electronics. What has come out of the woodwork through Dr Barrs testimony is that the EDR results may get corrupted and fault codes disappear when Task X dies - so the software has perfected a way of exonerating itself and the automakers and allowing drivers to shoulder the blame. This might not matter so much if it was not for the fact that people are getting injured and killed and blamed for it and insome cases, if they survive, ending up with lengthy prison sentences. At the end of the day there are moral issues here and public safety.
Yeah, software-driven cars need to be more reliable than human-driven ;-)
There's tons of chatter out there on various message boards & sites about this case. People are clearly interested.
The most dangerous element is still... human. I'm in a cab and somoene just swerved in front of us and almost took the cab's fender off. I'd like to update that guy's software...
Thanks everyone. It is wonderful to see so many people interested in the issues and putting in ideas. May this be the start of something bigger and wider
Thank you Betsy, Antony, Mike...!
Thank you Junko!
No matter if the Toyota Camry problem was due to penny-pinching, bad design, shoddy design, inability to anticipate where problems might probably occur, the fact is modern automobiles are systems far more complex than the Model T or Model A and even the best design will have interactions than cannot be anticipated, even assuming a rational driver who is knowledgeable about driving and about the tool – his or her vehicle – and what to do when the unanticipated occurs.
But in most countries, except maybe in Europe, there is little or no education. Unlike the situation in the latter part of the last century, In the US, there is no requirement for driver education in school and the driver's test you take to get a driver's lisence is micky mouse. And as for knowledge about the tool – the inherently dangerous tool under most normal driving conditions – forget it.
Not just software, but look at the hardware and systems. Dont forget the physics of failure approach as followed by Michael Pecht at CALCE
Right, Michael, that too....Once again, thank you all for chiming in
Thanks to all, and especially our host, Junko.
I have long expected that as automakers 'relaxed' their testing by not vetting such complex issues as software, and by accelerating the introduction of more and more technology at lower cost, that a decision would have to be made:
Do we increase cost and slow innovation by testing to what we suggest here to be FAA standards?
Increase cost and weight with backup/redundant systems?
Do we ask buyers to sign a disclaimer?
Do we confine rapid innovation to non-critical systems and fall back to robust, proven mechanical systems for acceleration/braking?
I do like Colin's suggesetion of a big red "STOP" button. If we can have that on a treadmill, why not a car?
Thank you for hosting this Junko Yoshida
We need to keep asking what they will do next
@ dabebarman.
It doesn't have to be an official "bug" to kill, just an algorithm that didn't take a particular set of circumstances into account!
...isn't that just a bug in the model. As systems become more complex, the models do too.
@bsnguy - Nike's "Just do it" is quoting a doomed convict's last words before he was executed.
conclusions include: NHTSA, IEEE, and the auto industry
Definitely Mike. System design is where it's gotta start. A good system design can mitigate some crappy sub-components. Not that there should be any, but, things fail...
but there are a lot of good nuggets here
This feels like only the beginning of the great discussion, but I am afraid time is up
"we do fly-by-wire planes, in the presence of increased radiation at higher altitudes. I believe we can handle the complexity of cars"
Absolutely! As Nike would say: Just do it!
We are talking of ensuring the stability of of interacting vehicles each with its own power supply. So ensuring stability is bound to be a major problem - where and how is the multi-vehicle system to be kept stable?
one comment on complexity -- we do fly-by-wire planes, in the presence of increased radiation at higher altitudes. I believe we can handle the complexity of cars
@embeddedbarr, that system-level choice is definitely something we can all chew on
@Tom: as a former Intel employee my thots at the conoclusion of a meeting are - what's the follow up action to be taken?
Great question. Is anybody from the auto industry listening? How do we get them to understand that electronic systems relability is important and they need to pay attention? I thikn they are due to the Toyota case, but are they looking at the right things (or are they focused on "software" as the only problem/solution)?
@Hess, I doubt Michael can answer. I think it was the Toyota attorneys who demanded he take it down.
@junko would differ with the statement about the financial industry....
I noticed that Michael Barr's account of the Oklahoma trial and the link to the transcript have disappeared from the web - any ideas?
Keith Armstrong of Cherry Clough Consultants and EMI expert talks of the "thousand car pile up".
Yes, we all know driving is dangerous. And that cars have gotten safer. But injury/death caused by poor & incompetent design. That's unacceptale IMHO.
The systems are very complex. But there are methods for dealing with it. The problem is that these methods have inputs that are not being supplied, today.
@tom, it was the same issue that caused the massive financial failure -- things got so complex that nobody can understand
I think a more fundamental problem with autonomous driving may be proving the algorithms won't suddenly make a life-ending decision incorrectly, but not because of a software bug, just the way the algorithms work.
as a former Intel employee my thots at the conoclusion of a meeting are - what's the follow up action to be taken?
But what are you certifying against? I would say that certification should be that you have demonstrated that your systems are immune to radiation hazards to some level; that you have mitigated metstability failures to some small level; and so on... but if we don't know what those possible failure modes are, and/or if we don't analyze them, we can't define the standard in the first place.
If the auto industry wants to take the lead, here, they could simply start doing the analysis and then they can write the standards! Yes, they can! And I'd be happy with that if they prove they have done the analysis and that they understand the results and that the standards they set forth are reasonable. Oh, and there needs to be a public review of all of this.
Autonomous vehicles - remember the stability problems that we have controlling a large generation and transmisstion network. Think of the equivalent brownout with a traffic network.
CAN networking was grewat for the auto industry to reduce the wiring complexity. It is not a relaible (physical) transport, and I doubt can be made reliable enough for the sensor network.
It's ok to turn lights on and off, thats about all.
there is an over-arching issue here. have our systems - in cars, health care, financial markets... - become so complex they are unmanageable except by even more complex systems which in turn require...? where does creative destruction end?
>@dabeberman thought someone has already shown that you can hack the CAN through the tire sensor or something like that
I think you are right, but no verified crashed caused by hacker yet--I don't think. Anybody know of verified hacker caused crashes?
Thanks embeddedbarr
>>But, a failure may now cause more damage (or death) so the numbers of deaths/injuries per failure may be higher.
Are there any statistics to support this? I suspect cars are also probably safer than ever as well.
JPL has some videos on the automotive issues from flight software workshop KEYNOTE (Day 1): Software Development for Safety-Related Automotive Systems Dr. David Ward, MIRA
@Tom and @JC: Agreed. Complixity is increasing. We are just at the start of the new reliability issues.
JCreasey, unless, every car on the road is autonomous
@B.Benjamin get Consumer Reports to write an article on the value of independent 3rd party validation and verification certification for autos
The most eye-opening thing I've learned is that "neutral" is only a suggestion to the software that may be malfunctioning.
Scary. I still drive a 1998, and am unaware of these early 21st c cars you speak of...
Two wire system - dont forget also that the vehicle is used as ground return. So there can be plenty of problems of ground lift e
Thanks Antony will do
@Tom Mahon. It it the tip of the iceberg....as we move to autonomous systems the problems apparent here with multiply exponentially.
Imagine thousands of autonomous vehicles interacting (with faults)
So to get third-party certification of auto electronics safety, you could go with governments requiring it or consumers being taught to demand it. The UL might lead such a consumer driven effort.
@R_Colin_Johnson -- thought someone has already shown that you can hack the CAN through the tire sensor or something like that
I suspect that cars ARE more reliable. But, a failure may now cause more damage (or death) so the numbers of deaths/injuries per failure may be higher. We need to mitigate failures so they are not catastrophic.
I can recommend that you take note of Ron Belt's work on the possible part played by the battery.
Suggest you google "BELT HYPOTHESIS SUDDEN ACCELERATION" and you should find the relevant page on my website where the pdf files can be found. If not, e mail me
@Tom Mahon - as others have stated, this is not new territory, just new to the auto industry. We do know how to mitigate a lot of went wrong here, to do some level of risk mitigation
>two wire system, too easy to use, even though it is not secure
Yes, it will take verified hacker-caused crashes to change from CAN
@Tom, exactly
this exchange has been a real eye-opener for me in terms of the universality of this issue. we all have our favorite stories of problems resulting when 'the system crashed.' but when working with a desktop or laptop that was an inconvenience. system crashes at 60 mph are a whole other universe of pain.
@B.Benjamin -- agree with 3rd party verification houses
>> Anyone seen any stats on the complexity of the average car today and the statistical probabilities of failures? I suspect cars are probably more reliable today than ever, despite being so much more complex.
@junko ...agree that IEEE is the place to start, but you have to have teeth to the standards to ensure implementation worldwide.
@Antony Anderson -- the industrial automation space is going to Profinet. Doesn't look like the automotive space is going to move away from CAN -- two wire system, too easy to use, even though it is not secure.
@bsnguy Ford MS Sync sits on the Canbus with the other 50 processors....
Corrected... so it's possible that an event from this system could casuse a signal to get onto the bus that was unexpected and cause another system to fail. Great... I feel so much better!
>@R_Colin ....That would be great...what does it disconnect. I'd love to be doing 60mph and simply turn of the drive by wire functionality.
>If we are going to go electronic, then the sytems have to be reliable.
Of course you are right. I should have said - tongue in cheek :)
@dabeberman, I am not sure if we need another standards body... but IEEE is the first place I would talk to
Third-party safety certification is not being done for autos. Really it must be done.
Otherwise, a company like Toyota can trumpet its "redundancy" in PR and marketing, but that may actually mean they put two sensors on one chip. Which was the case here, in the gas pedal position sensors.
The CAN bus is another area that needs looking at.
also ..NHTSA FISCAL YEAR 2013 BUDGET OVERVIEW can be found at https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=9&cad=rja&ved=0CFcQFjAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nhtsa.gov%2Fstaticfiles%2Fadministration%2Fpdf%2FBudgets%2FFY-2013_Budget_Highlights.pdf&ei=_4x6UvyoKMavsQSd5YEI&usg=AFQjCNHoyPGyM-yMuNGjssliC8yj_aHjjg&bvm=bv.55980276,d.cWc
@junko so we start another standards body up? Get the experts together, look for harmonization internationally? Could work.
@R_Colin ....That would be great...what does it disconnect. I'd love to be doing 60mph and simply turn of the drive by wire functionality.
If we are going to go electronic, then the sytems have to be reliable.
Certifications and regualtions are all "after-the-fact" solutions. We need to understand the fundamental issues before we can regulate them or cause people to be certified to meet some bar. I've seen little discussion of the underlying problems and that's what is bothering me. All of this talk about software makes it sound like there is an easy fix (for everyone knows that software is easy... of course it's not, but that's the conception). I suspect there is no easy fix; the systems are simply too complex so all of the handwaving that used to work will now fail. We need to get back to fundamentals and understand (then mitigate) failure modes.
>>already a lot of people died in the Toyota case From what cause has not been proved. People die in car accidents all the time...
@Colin, someone in the forum also suggested big red button on the dash. But it won't work when the vehicle is moving
It might be a good start if the automobile industry recognized that Murphy's Law - whatever can go wrong will - applied to electronics. At present their method of dealing with electronic failures seems to be to blame the driver. Witness the effort to "prove" every incident of sudden acceleration to be due to "pedal error". If they had put in a totally independent fail safe when introducing the electronic throttle we would not be having this discussion now.
@B.Benjamin, already a lot of people died in the Toyota case
Neither Windows or Linux are viable in any life value situtation, but why would you want a large multitasking OS for tasks such as this?
>Redundancy is the only way to ensure ultimate reliablity.
How about a big red "Shutdown" button in the middle of the dash?
The problems with waiting until manufacturers act differently due to fear of litigation is--first, someone has to die first. Second, the cost of the biggest court loss is chump change.
@dabeberman, I am not sure about world wide
@Michael Dunn -- !!!! please do not promote Linux for safety systems.
as far as NHTSA is concerned
I'm not worried about Ford MS Sync. If it failed, my car should still run (well, maybe I'm distracted by it, but that's another issue). I'm concernd about the 50 or so procesors controlling everying from my engine timing to the breaks to the airbags to the steering. Oh, and they all communicate so I'm worried about that, too...
@junko - so right now, there are no safety certifications required for automotive controls software, world wide?
Linux is certainly making auto inroads. But NOT in safety systems! Just in "infotainment"
I think the basic problem for the auto industry is that as systems become more complex the number of single points of failure increses, and they have never implemented any forms fo real redundancy.
Redundancy is the only way to ensure ultimate reliablity.
>would anyone want to drive in a car running under Windows?
Windows is a perfect example of software that was engineered to just work right doing things "one way" rather than testing to make sure all ways are "safe"
I have seen a document in which there was a scribbled matrix of the costs of various types of recalls. And evidence of efforts made to limit recalls.
And one email expressing hearty congratulations for limiting a 2007 recall to floor mats. The writer was a little incredulous that they succeeded in getting NHTSA to pin it on floor mats.
@Tom Mahon -- Ford MS Sync? source of latest complaints by Consumer Reports - how long before it is blamed for an accident?
>reduce them to reasonable limits
Key word in bold. While engineers think of reasonable limits, the probability of an occurrance, lawyers don't. It only takes one instance to cast doubt.
Agreed! And if the laywers get invovled, that's good in this case! It will force the manufactures to do the analysis both to improve reliabilty AND to guard against lawsuits. "Your honor, we did everything humanly possible to prevent such an event." If thay cannot say that, I would hope they would change their ways so they could.
Re cost, there are the infamous stories of mfrs basing a recall decision on cost of recall vs. cost of lawsuits...true or not.
Anyone seen any stats on the complexity of the average car today and the statistical probabilities of failures? Like hard drive mean times between failures?
would anyone want to drive in a car running under Windows?
IEEE automotive controls - http://www.ieeecss.org/technical-activities/automotive-controls
@dabeberman, true. But then, from what I understand, they've got nothing right now...
>>reduce them to reasonable limits
>Key word in bold...It only takes one instance to cast doubt.
It only takes one instance to kill. Do we need some kind of "panic" button or manual override?
A company called Quality Control Systems in Md. is keeping track of current Toyota SUA complaints to NHTSA. These complaints are posted on the company's website. The numbers have come down somewhat, but still quite significant, even in new model years. This jives with one of the Toyota documents in which an executive expresses concern in 2010 that the poor quality practices are actually "proliferating." So they are not over.
@junko.yoshida althought I'm for safety-critical standards. There is a tremendous cost associated with the FAA standards, and it significantly slows down development. Think 2x to 4x at least in extended time. The question will come up, does the automobile need this level of certification.
There are reliability engineers working at every auto manufacturer. But they don't have the data they need to do the job. What can fail? What's the probability of failure? What are the modes of failure? There are tools to do this analysis, but I don't know of any auto manufacturers using them. Things like I mentioned, before: radiation, metastability and other forms of failure can be characterized, but are they? I think not.
Yes the IEEE and the IET and various other professional institutions should be involved because there are major issues of public safety here.
@dabeberman, there is definitely that -- penny pinching
>For the engineers out there (I am one) we need to understand the underlying issues that can cause failures and work to reduce them to reasonable limits.
Good advise! Too much emphasis is on delivering by the due date over understanding the underlying issues.
Since the NASA study, NHTSA has established an electronics department and has hired some engineers there. The Senate recognizes the problem of lack of expertise at NHtSA and they are slowly working to solve it.
Why wouldn't they?
@bsnguy perhaps one of the elephants in the room is the profit margin pressures in the auto industry. Might be a source of institutional pressure to cut corners.
I think it's important for NHITSA to have something similar to FAA
I wonder what the SAE (Soc of Auto. Engs.) is doing to foster/standardize SW quality.
Well NHTSA has provided the 1989 NHTSA sudden acceleration report and the redaction of the NASA report and Secretary of State La Hood has exonerated Toyota's software and the car companies take shelter behind NHTSA so to that extent they do need to be called to account
good idea, Susan. since cars have become computers on wheels, the IEEE should be involved.
>>As far as I can tell, the problem is more or less the same in other companies.This could suggest a lot of it is human error after all...
For the engineers out there (I am one) we need to understand the underlying issues that can cause failures and work to reduce them to reasonable limits. This is what the aerospace industry does; it's what medical device companies do... it's not new teritory... except maybe in automotive electronics/systems.
I think all sorts of upcominf ADAS could turn into a litiginous nightmare...
>Let's blame the auto industry, the component manuafactures and the engineers who don't do the proper analysis.
Systems used to be tested to be safe in all possible scenarios, but as they got more complex, engineers have fallen all the way back to just getting it to work one way, then doing testing until its time to deliver.
JRMHess, exactly. that's why they handed things over to NASA
I take it the kitchen sink approach is no longer something Toyota does. Obviously standards are happening organically in the auto industry...but I think embedded systems software experts should work with automotive engineers from all companies and come up with recommendations. Maybe it should happen through IEEE.
The NHTSA does not have enough embedded software engineers - so a funding problem as well
There's a NASA report about a Toyota throttle malfunction due to whiskers in the pedal assy
how many more issues like this will come up when auto-parking, collision avoidance, autonomous driving, etc. are more prevalent? Very complex software sitting on top of very complex hardware all being used in a harsh environment.
The cultural issues explain the behavior but do not excuse the behavior. When lives are at stake, one cannot hide behind cultural discomfort.
And looking at the hardware side of things, there's the tin whisker issue just for starters.
As far as I can tell, the problem is more or less the same in other companies.
@Garcia-Lasheras one bad pointer increment and your program is dead or worse, misperforming. No stack checking. Manual memory management. Poor type checking.
Not the venue to discuss software language short comings though I think.
but the cultural difference should not absolve them for not coming forward -- if indeed they felt that they might have made mistakes
This is not a NHTSA problem. Assume for a moment that all of our cars will have more electronics in them next year than today... will NHTSA ban them all from our roads? The problem is what's been said, before... there has not been adequate attention to safety and reliability analysis on the systems in the car. Let's not blame NHTSA. Let's blame the auto industry, the component manuafactures and the engineers who don't do the proper analysis.
when will Barr's 800 page report be published?
I heartily agree that NHTSA needs a big push, but huge efforts by individual citizens to push NHTSA will not work. Sorry.
Instead, Congress must be pushed hard, and they will push NHTSA.
how has the automotive trade press been covering this issue?
right, betsy
I agree with Antony. I think the report needs to be released un-redacted.
Junko, the documents are written by people inside Toyota. They wrote their own cultural narrative.
>>I wonder if everyone agrees here that we want NHITSA to step up their efforts -- to look into thisTo look into what exactly?
just a thought, its likely that some of the software and systems come from Germany, India, US, Brazil, etc.
@dabeberman: "the fragility that both C and C+ have"
Are you talking about being very prone to memory leaks? Which other flaws do you think C/C have?
Tom, not a bad idea
Yes of course NHTSA should be held to account for the way in which they agreed to redacting the 2011 NASA Report.
maybe the NHTSA has an ombudsman to whom this chat could be sen,t requesting a reply from them as to their plan of action going forward.
Interesting. Difficulties on a basic language level, or more of unspoken assumptions & conventions?
I would loathe to see anyone pinning any blame on the cultural issues here, though
Yes, Michael, I do believe Japanese cultural issues have been at play all along. Quite a number of the documents put across an "us vs. them" attitude towards Americans, for one. A kind of samurai view of things.
my wife drives a Nissan Pathfinder, my daughter a Jeep, I rent Toyota Camry's. Would hate to lose someone to a correctable software bug, as did happen, and could happen to any loved one. Doesn't that speak for itself regarding getting NHTSA involved?
Talk about languages--with a global supply chain in the auto industry, I sometimes wonder about the human language translation of the documentation of all the software and hardware. Certainly that is a tower of babel that could lead to many mismatches between hardware and software components. Among Toyota's internal documents that I have seen, one introspective one by a senior quality executive mentioned the terrible communication difficulties with overseas suppliers.
Betsy, do you feel there are Japanese cultural issues at play here?
In my humble opinion, NHTSA totally dropped the ball
I wonder if everyone agrees here that we want NHITSA to step up their efforts -- to look into this
@Michael Dunn perhaps in terms of "separation of concerns", but not in terms of safer languages.
Sorry - don't know
JRMHess, Michigan case is not part of the MDL, correct?
quick comment on languages, there have been more than 100 languages since C was invented. Many of them remove a lot of the fragility that both C and C+ have.
I'm still learning about AUTOSAR. Would this standard help?
Re. Toyota - what's happening next then? In the February Michigan case, will there be any restrictions on Barr's testimony as we'll have them in the St. Ana case?
I have written a report on a Mitsubishi Sudden Acceleration incident in New Zealand which I would be happy to share with anyone who contacts me.
Also look at my website on my sudden acceleration pages where I have gathered a lot of information over many years:
@MeasurementBlues Can't wait for the self driving car bugs to show up.
Some say self-driving cars will actually be safer by removing "driver error"--the most common cause of accidents--however, for my dollar I want a "death proof" cage around my seat in a self-driving car!
>>Other manufacturers also have sudden acceleration problems and it would seem that there are certain systemic elements that may be to some extent independent of the quality of the software.
So Toyota is not necessarily to be singled out here for having products of "unreasonable quality?" If not, on what standard is "unreasonable quality" based?
What comes to my mind with the question of software for both Toyota and self-driving cars is both architecture/design and understanding safety/failure modes. Although the details are vague, it sounds like there were both architecture/design issues and safety issues.
Which language would you use then??
I'm not the expert. But I know enough to know what NOT to use :-}
Provable languages. Model-based design. And just best-practices SW engineering.
"SW engineering" – an oxymoron in most cases. But that's what we need.
JRMHess, as to how Toyota compares to others, I don't think we really know... and that may be an opening for the future "peer review" requirement for the auto industry...
@Michael Dunn: "I wouldn't use C for safety-critical code"
>Can't wait for the self driving car bugs to show up. I for one won't be trying them out in the first 5 years or so...
I'll wait 10 years, thank you very much.
@ bsnguy there are lots of things that can fail in the hardware
You are right. I got rear-ended by a car with "sudden acceleration" but it was a restored hot-rod under total manual control, hense no software to blame.
The gas pedal on my 1999 Camry used to stick, requiring a tap to get it unstuck. Mechanic said they add did that, nothing could be done. It stopped by itself a few years ago.
autnomous cars....that's been the focus of our forum discussions, related to software bugs in Toyota
@Michael Dunn that's been our position for the last decade
Can't wait for the self driving car bugs to show up. I for one won't be trying them out in the first 5 years or so... And google will be checking the code very carefully too. Maybe a search engine for code bugs is their next big project...
So how does Toyota's software and practices compare to that of other automakers?We are seeing more and more problems here - Nissan had a software related recall, and so did Honda, Hyundia/Kia, GM and Chrysler - all this year!
MISRA SHMISRA! I wouldn't use C for safety-critical code, period.
Cars are not fighter jets or commercial airliners. Has there been the same type of focus on both software and system safety in the automotive space?
Wow that is suprising about them not following MISRA! (There seems to be some lag in my refresh)
I think there are lots of things that can fail in the hardware: electrical noise (standard stuff), radiation, metastability, etc. It's not just a bad speed signal... it's a valid speed signal but the software reading inconsistent states based on these errors, or having values change when they shouldn't, etc.
Other manufacturers also have sudden acceleration problems and it would seem that there are certain systemic elements that may be to some extent independent of the quality of the software.
My next car choice in quickly being winnowed down.
@embeddedbarr -- that's very surprising to me, given some other information I have.
There are some VERY nasty looking Hyundai behaviours out there - search on YouTube!!!
There are software standards for automotive such as MISRA that many auto manufacturers adhere to
in Toyota's case, there were some cascading issues... that should be taken into consideration
@LarryM99, so we get our sensors changed when we change the oil?
Toyota apparently used about 5% of MISRA!
MISRA coding standards are good for what they are. Maybe they are the body to promote new standards for the automotive industry?
What nobody seems to have done is to look at the throttle control system from a control systems point of view. How stable is it? This could be done in the normal way that you might assess the stability of a system. This perhaps is something that could be discussed later.
So how does Toyota's software and practices compare to that of other automakers?
You also have the situation where systems degrade over time. Sensor connections get noisier.
So MISRA is not enough.
@Susan Rambo there are some software standards from MISRA. Toyota did use these. However they are not formal methods based and wouldn't pick up things like unprotected variables that I believe Michael Barr wrote about
but what about providing a degree of probablilty?
That's kinda what an FMEA does for HW, and what Barr investigated for SW. Not sure how you'd convert his findings to a definite probability, but I wouldn't want that SW in a word processor, let alone a car!
ISO 26262 is the auto industry functional safety standard. There's a dim possibility of parts of that being turned into regulations or referenced in regulations.
Quite right not to focus just on the software. For example, electrical intermittencies can cause false speed signals and it sounds as if a false speed signal might under some circumstances trigger a task death.
thanks, embeddedbarr
To get regulations, you need Congress to be willing to regulate the industry. Who can make Congress regulate automakers? Any volunteers here?
Good question LarryM99 - formal methods static analysis tools are used in some development processes much more than others
Regardless, I think the auto industry should have basic sw standards -- regulations about software quality. Exactly...I agree with @dabeberman
It's hard to prove a specific failure mode/case, but what about providing a degree of probablilty?
Somebody knows if Toyota's control unit includes hardware redundancy?? -- something like "three module redundacy"
One of the articles I read (sorry, can't recall which) said that in all the Toyota court cases where SW was blamed by the plaintiff, Toyota settled! Hmm...
Software failed, in this case, because the hardware under it failed in some way. Don't we need to fix both? Software cannot overcome all hardware failures. What where the underlying hardware failures? Were there any details? I have some guesses...
@dabeberman FAA and similar agencies in other countries. A large body of work exists on how to develop and test such software
Good point, since aircraft going to drive-by-wire had to give up manual overrides, which seems relevant here too.
Will send later
does anyone know whether Toyota changed its source code after the recall in 2010? Or improved its system?
Lol ... the software engineers always know that the point of failure started with hardware ;)
Is this going to be enough of a trigger to rekindle interest in provably correct software?
@Antony Anderson please send the article to me at firstname.lastname@example.com. Thanks
@rich.pell, hardware engineers know that the problem is alwasy software
The problem is that the auto industry is nowhere near as advanced as other industries insofar as standards of electronic functional safety is concerned.
This is perhaps an issue that could be picked up later. I have sent Junko an article written by Keith Armstrong, Brian Kirk and myself on the subject which I could perhaps be circulated to anybody interested
But in something so complex, it's hard to prove a specific failure mode/case.
It wasn't proven - the testimony only said that there are problems with the software whihc could have caused ua
Jacob and Rich... YES! I understand that underlying issues (that I'm unsure were adequately discussed/investigated) caused the software to fail. That is, hardware failures (bit-flips) caused the software to fail. Yes, the software could/should be improved, but what about the underlying issues that "strange things happen" that we need to understand? All of this focus on the software is fine, but I posit it's impossible to write software that can account for every possible random bit error the system might encounter (some of which are permenent, some are transient). Don't we need to understand the fundamental issues of what caused the software to fail in the first place to even begin to understand how to minimize the risks associated with those failures?
What is "significant?"
@Michael Dunn
Don't know how relevant this is. We work on the standards for safety-critical software adopted by the FAA and similar agencies in other countries. A large body of work exists on how to develop and test such software.
in the software analysis done by Barr
I don't think there's any doubt that the SW has a significant failure potential.
In 2010, Toyota engineers admitted to Congress that they could not test the software to be certain SUA could not happen.
Someone commented that it is shoddy software engineering ..... is it bad engineering or have these systems become so complex that validating the interactions of these software and hardware systems is pushing the boundries of the processes and test methods that have been traditionally used?
Where was it proven that the software flaws were definitely the problem?
MD, that is true...we are all dealing with probabilities, but that does not save people's lives
You can test software (&HW) for thousands of hours, but that doesn't prove much when it'll be used for billions.
What about the overall statistics?
Senator Grassley (R-Iowa) is one person in a position to holler about NHTSA. The Senate Commerce Committee could also do it.
IMHO, they will do nothing unless there is a strong public outcry.
Are there any doubts still lingering in any engineers' minds that the software flaws were the problem? I think the testimony was pretty solid.
I chuckle when someone says "well, I've had my "carX" for 10 years, and nothing bad has ever happened. Minimal grasp of statistics...
Antony, yse, that's correct
I think what NHTSA can be called to book on is their "exoneration" of Toyota in Feb 2011 when the NASA report was published.
"supposed to" is a squishy concept.
well, that would be ideal, but unless there is oversight, sometimes the cost gets in the way
I think ASIL is just part of a bigger standard (26262?)
Many of the automotive electronics standards are universal, I think
MD, there could be shoddy sw in your car, but the right conditions to expose it have not arisen.
well, the assumption is that there are standards in place, and responsible automakers and parts suppliers are supposed to comply with them. Correct?
Hi...Does Europe have better regulations the US on auto safety-critical software?
there are things like ASIL, right?
Michael Dunn, regarding safety-critical software, could you connect with me after this chat? email@example.com
that's a good question -- who is supposed to check that?
There are many standards for auto & safety-critical work. I don't know how compliance is checked though...
I don't think anyone at the NHTSA promised anything at this point
I (and many others I think) would like to know how widespread this kind of shoddy software engineering is...
If anyone can share what are the most important things we have learned from this Toyota case, I want you to share them with us
So there is a possibility that the NHTSA might investigate, maybe next year?
Let's step back; I actually want to start from the top
OK. we want to dive into NHTSA?
What we've learned from the Toyota case
How we can mitigate the problems
where we go from here
To JRM Hess:
Great questions about NHTSA's response to Barr's findings. I've been to DC twice to push this issue, and have observed and learned a lot about NHTSA (although still not an expert—the Center for Auto Safety has the world's best expertise about NHTSA).
First off, NHTSA responses are normally measured in months or years, not days or weeks. Second, as a policy, NHTSA does not accept materials from outside the agency unless they have a "docket" open on a particular subject, to which the public can contribute materials. They were recently asked to open a docket on SUA and they refused.
I think they will re-do their Toyota investigation only by order of Congress, and so far, Congress has not reacted in any way, AFAIK. The best thing you can do is to contact your own representative and Senators and press them to propose or support a new investigation. The main committees in charge of NHTSA oversight are the Energy & Commerce Committee in the House and the Commerce Committee in the Senate.
I would like to begin our chat today on the followings
I have invited
Antony Anderson who has been working as an independent electrical consultant specializing in electrical machine and control system failure investigations and expert witness work. He has been very active in our forum where our readers have been discussing Toyota cases recently.
I also invited
Betsy Benjaminson, who worked as an official Japanese-to-English translator at Toyota; who has now become a public safety advocate
why too soon - the evidence is here?
Junko, I am here.
Oh, here you are Antony.
I don't see them here yet, but I have invited a few guests today here...
Far too soon for NHTSA to act
First, I would like to thank you everyone who joined here today
OK, are we all here now?
JRMHess, that's a damn good question
My quicktime keeps crashing on Firefox.
If Barr's finding show that there is a problem with the electronic throttle control, why has the NHTSA not acted on this? Are they planning anoterh investigation, this time with Barr's evidence?
The cross-examination of the expert witness by Toyota was really weak.
This could indicate that Dr Barr was proving a very credible witness under cross examination. Pressing matters further on the points that you suggest might have been counter-productive and reinforced Dr Barr's credibility with the Jury rather than undermining it, as the defence might hope. So they would move on and attack from a slightly different direction.
The cross-examination of the expert witness by Toyota was really weak. They did not contest the main points of the deposition, that is possibility of stack overflow, race conditions among some of the 1000+ global variables, "kitchen-sink" design of the 1-milliseond task, etc. I am really interested to hear why Toyota allowed such unprofessional software and what they are doing now to improve their software development practice.
I just got a confirmation from several knowledgable people on the Toyota case will be joining us. Including Antony Anderson from U.K.
Hi Crusty 1 and Bert_home: I hope you cna join us for the live chat tomorrow on Toyota unintended acceleration cases. Junko Yoshida and Michael Dunn (who wrote EDN's in-depth story) will be there to discuss. Wed. Nov 6 -- 10amPT, 1pm ET...right here.
@bert_home: So far my Hyundai IX35 and previously Trajet have performed without fault
I dont have a Camry but I know people who do. I'd be very interested to hear about how common this sort of crappy design is used through out the automotive industry or if Toyota is the worst one. Any info on Nissan, Hyundai and VW designs would be appreciated.
Join EE Times editors for a live chat on Toyota's unintended acceleration cases an Wednesday Nov. 6 at 10am PT/1pm ET. Editor Junko Yoshida will discuss aspects of the Toyota Oklahoma case and what it means to both the engineer and the average consumer.
Test Tool Finds Ethernet Wiring Errors
Martin Rowe Post a comment
When my house was renovated several years ago, I had the electrician install network outlets in numerous places, then run the LAN cables to a wiring closet. But he didn't document the ends ...
Local Electronics Store Supplies Engineers and Hobbyists
Martin Rowe 6 comments
Rochester, N.Y. — Tucked away in this western New York city known for its optics is Goldcrest Electronics, a local store that's supplied businesses and individuals with electronic ...
How to Transform a Technology University (Book Review)
Martin Rowe 1 Comment
The Presiding Genius of the Place by Alison Chisolm. WPI, Worcester, Mass., 234 pp., 2016.
Engineers love to discuss, and often criticize, engineering education. They often claim ...
Aloha from EEWeb
Max Maxfield 1 Comment
Just a few minutes ago as I pen these words, I posted this blog about this month's Cartoon Punchline Competition over on EEWeb.com.


text:
I see many fans praising Jonas domination of Under 19 basketball tournament. He deserves those praises for playing this well but let's not kidd ourselves. This tournament is meaningless in terms of evaluating if Jonas can be a star player in the NBA. Most of those star players in the tournament couldn't hack it as starters on above average NCAA team ( I am not saying Jonas is one of them).
Wait until he plays the Men's tournament in the end of August before we can see any indication of NBA potential. The fact that he's 19 and playing this well among his age group is a good start.


text:
Ballmer, 54, forms a unique and controversial figure as chief
executive of the world's largest software company. His
cracking, nasal voice brings to mind Chris Farley and his quirky
sense of humor only strengthens the comparison.But at the end
of the day Mr. Ballmer means business, and he's been the undisputed
leader since
Bill Gates departed in January 2000. Ballmer has led the
company through some of its most glorious successes -- Windows XP,
the Xbox, and Windows 7 -- but has also been on the helm for some of
its less glorious campaigns -- Windows Vista, Windows Mobile, tablet
efforts, and Kin.A study by
Glassdoor.com shows that the company's above outlined struggles and
Mr. Ballmer's strong personality may be outweighing his successes.
The survey of 1,000 departing Microsoft employees found that only a
razor-thin 51 percent majority approved of Mr. Ballmer's job
performance.That's number seems more troublesome given that
overall the employees were very satisfied with Microsoft -- rating it
at 3.5 out of 5, just below the 3.8 out of 5 that Apple and Google
both received in similar recent studies.This year has been a
stormy one for Microsoft. Despite the wild sales success of
Windows 7, the company's stock has dropped 20 percent and the company
was forced to pull its new Kin phones off the market only weeks after
it released them. The latter failure cost Mr. Ballmer a
bit of his yearly bonus. Mr. Ballmer also drew fire
for killing
Microsoft's Courier dual-screen tablet concept, which had drawn
much excitement.Some observers say that Microsoft's
performance with its new smartphone operating system, Windows
Phone 7, and its upcoming
tablets may determine Mr. Ballmer's ultimate fate and
whether he is suitable to keep leading Microsoft. A failure in
these arenas would be a massive loss for Microsoft, and potentially
catastrophic to Mr. Ballmer's career.Rebecca Wettemann,
analyst at Nucleus Research comments, "This is a pretty critical
moment for Microsoft, particularly as we see a shift to people
wanting access to the information they need from any device.
The winner in this space will be the one that puts a toy in the
consumer's hands that is also a good business tool for a worker's
hands."She adds, "[Oracle CEO] Larry [Ellison] has
Fusion and [Apple CEO Steve] Jobs has the iPad, but Microsoft has had
things in development for a while without being able to get those
things to market. That's the kind of thing that sparks a
leadership change."If Mr. Ballmer has his way he would
retire on his own volition at around 2018, according to his past


text:
I look at Colangelo in a similar way to how I view Bargnani: lots of promise and potential that has led to a lot of disappointment..... until the Gay trade.
I am not advocating an extension... far from it.
But at this point in time I would not oppose his 3rd Year Option being picked up.
What do you think?


text:
North Korea reports that they've discovered a unicorn lair: "The lair is located 200 meters from the Yongmyong Temple in Moran Hill in Pyongyang City," the report reads. "A rectangular rock carved with words 'Unicorn Lair' stands in front of the lair." I assume the unicorns carved "Unicorn Lair" in the rock using their horn, so they could easily find their way home.
Here's one of many articles:
This picture might be a fake:
[IMG]https://encrypted-tbn1.************/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRBsybLOcJoTGRnqAF41_KjlknSf8qf0 92OSi4Vk19oCzvVCBakQA[/IMG]
Please discuss...


text:
LSCU Moves Into New Office
The League of Southeastern Credit Unions & Affiliates has moved its office to the Credit Union Center in Tallahassee, which also houses Corporate One, Member Business Solutions and CU Members Mortgage.
"Once we sell our existing property in Tallahassee, we will see significant savings," said LSCU & Affiliates President/CEO Patrick La Pine. "We signed a new lease for our Birmingham (Alabama) office that downsizes our existing space and provides a better rate. These two moves will show about $2 million in savings over seven years."
The Birmingham office will also see leaseholder improvements by the end of the first quarter of 2014. The new LSCU & Affiliates office's address is 3692 Coolidge Court, Tallahassee, FL 32311.


text: If you're looking for Doug Smith to rant about the team and validate your opinions every day, the sense of entitlement has reached an all time high. He provides his take on things, the way he sees fit, and repeatedly reminds people of how he views the sport, and why, to shed light on what he writes about. If you can't appreciate that take, because it doesn't match yours or the angst you feel, don't read it and stay in this sand box where you can find many to validate you.


text:
The U.S. military originally had a virtual monopoly of certain communications channels. It was one of the few entities to be using internet, and it used many areas of the spectrum untouched by civilian communications. However, with the digital revolution and the expansion of civilians onto the internet and increasing using of the digital spectrum, the military is finding adapting to the deprivation of these bands difficult.
Last year during the bandwidth auction, the portion of the spectrum used by the B-2 bomber's Raytheon APQ-181 radar was accidentally sold to an obscure multinational organization according to Military.com. As a result, U.S. taxpayers will be footing the over $1B USD bill to replace the radar in the 20 remaining jets.
With users demanding video-ready smartphones, high-speed mobile internet, and other emerging applications, the military is finding that the spectrum is quickly disappearing, and it's having trouble finding areas for its own sensitive technologies.
Other expensive losses abound. The Joint Tactical Information Distribution System, a costly system used to get AWACS targeting data to F-22 fighter jets has "limited supportability outside the continental U.S."
Another key issue is the steady creep of civilian communications into the spectrum used for flight-test telemetry. While there are workarounds to gather some additional information, telemetry data remains essential to testing both manned and unmanned aircraft and protecting pilots from failures.
Ultimately, more data takes more bandwidth -- an unalterable fact -- and to achieve higher frequencies more power is required. This places inherent limitations to the amount of data capable of being communicated over the spectrum.
Military designers are in a sticky situation as they can't compress their data, in many cases, like civilian applications. "This is not a cell phone," said Darrell Ernst. "You can't ask the pilot to wait while you redial."
Ernst works for the Mitre Corp., a member of a U.S.-European delegation trying to raise international awareness of bandwidth issues, and estimates that by 2020 the Air Force will need 600 MHz of spectrum for telemetry data. Currently the only vacant spot suggested to them is the 5091 and 5150 MHz band. The Air Force is eager to occupy even this meager 59 MHz offer. States Mr. Ernst, "If [the flight-test community] can get in there and start using it, we can be established as the primary user and it will be hard for them to throw us out."
When it comes to the spectrum issues, there are few good answers, just more fears and doubts. As a final example of the industry problems, when the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) test program is flying two missions no other combat aircraft will be able to fly in the Western U.S. States Mr. Ernst, "They're the 600-lb. gorilla. They don't see that they have any reason to move, and they don't have the radios to do it."


text:
(Serial Ports on) Steroids enables users to execute remote C functions in a Python shell over a serial interface. It is useful for embedded system testing and industrial automation. It generates C code for the target and a Python script for the host automatically from a C header file.
/bin/js is a Bash/JavaScript-based shell scripting language. It is a mashup of JavaScript syntax with Bash one-liners which looks and feels like C/C++/Java. Shell scripts can be written with the shebang #!/bin/js, and all lines are executed as Bash commands. All code loops, switch statements, functions, and classes are written in JavaScript. JavaScript array syntax, number types, and i++ are supported, so the resulting shell scripts are easy to write and to read. Anyone who can write JavaScript and Linux commandline statements can write /bin/js scripts.
A camera app for Android.
A SFTP plugin for the Total Commander based on PuTTY.


text:
Pay Can Raise Expectations for Credit Union Directors: Editor/Publisher's Column
A couple of state legislatures have recognized the value of credit union directors' work toward maintaining a safe and sound credit union. Washington state and Tennessee credit union regulators recently permitted state-chartered credit unions there to compensate board members for their time. This was a wise move for a number of reasons.
First, as I said, it recognizes the value of the board members' time and expertise. And it is not as if directors are doing warm and fuzzy things like candy striping or walking dogs at the Humane Society. They are crunching numbers and approving audits for IT security and ensuring Bank Secrecy Act compliance – all at a huge personal risk.
Sen. Jack Johnson, a Republican from Tennessee who also happens to be a senior vice president and financial adviser for Pinnacle Financial Partners in Knoxville, said as much when he sponsored the bill in his state senate. He cited the growth and complexity of the financial services industry that is creating more time demands, expertise and deliberations among board members.
The new law does require credit union boards that decide to compensate board members to adopt a resolution that the credit union needs expertise among board members for the general management of its operations. The board also will be required to adopt a policy governing the participation and attendance of board members in order to receive compensation, and that the board members' compensation be published in the annual report. It does not permit paying credit or supervisory committee members.
Another benefit to paying board members is that there are no more excuses to accept mediocre or even lower performance just because they're volunteers. If board members are paid X, it means they should perform up to that value, however the credit union wants to measure it.
I attend many conferences and inevitably you hear, "What can you expect? They're volunteers." The risk to the institution and the individuals is no less than a comparable bank. Credit union management, directors and members must accept nothing less than a full effort to keep up to date on the financial services industry, their members, technologies and governance issues.
The new authority will also help credit unions in these states diversify their boards. Credit unions opting to use this new power will be able to attract people with specific skills to the board that might currently be lacking.
Directly compensating board members is also clears up a messy ambiguity. Credit unions already compensate their boards with educational conferences that are held on an Amazon tour or aboard an Alaskan cruise ship. Setting a stipend and paying it for performance is much more ethical and transparent.
Take for example the $1.4 billion Trumark Credit Union, which pays its board members between $30,000 and $60,000 each per year for an aggregate of approximately $450,000. Sounds like a lot of money for an industry that prides itself on the volunteer leadership.
If you look more closely, Trumark earned $14.5 million in net income last year and appears to be on track to exceed that in 2013. According to the NCUA's financial performance reports, the credit unions in the peer group over $500 million in assets in the capital region averaged $2.5 million in net income last year. However, return on assets was in line with this group of peers. Did compensating board directors contribute to Trumark's high net income? It's definitely a matter to explore.
On the other hand, I know a board chairman who won't even accept personal mileage reimbursement to attend board meetings after retiring from his job and moving more than two hours away from the credit union.
What does bother me about these two pieces of legislation is why the bankers didn't bother to oppose them. They seem duty-bound to fight any new authorities credit unions try to obtain yet they maintained a cacophony of silence.
American Bankers Association Senior Economist Keith Leggett explained that the association viewed the issue as a mere internal governance issue, and that perhaps it would attract better-qualified credit union board members.
Particularly as the tax exemption issue raises its ugly head yet again, why aren't bankers attacking this "power grab?" Credit unions often point to their volunteer boards of directors as one of the justifications for their tax-exempt status. Do the bankers see this as an opportunity to weaken credit unions' case for maintaining the tax exemption?