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Choosing a Linux DistributionIf you're new to Linux you'll face a choice between some unfamiliar distributions. In this article we try to de-mystify those choices.
Choosing a Linux distribution
If you're new to Linux you'll face a choice between some unfamiliar distributions. In this article we try to de-mystify those choices.
So many options
When you're creating a server instance you have to choose what Linux distribution you want to run. Fortunately the distributions all share a lot of common functionality. They mostly differ in presentation and focus.
Primary considerations
When you look over this list of distributions bear in mind what kind of server you want to build. A production server needs to be stable and reliable, while a server you're just running for fun gives you more leeway to play with newer software and features.
Any of the distributions will run most software you need. They can all run web servers, database servers, and application servers - the standard "LAMP stack". They're all Linux and they all have access to software package repositories containing thousands of programs put together with that distribution in mind.
Finally, consider your level of Linux administration expertise. The distributions near the beginning of this list tend to be more friendly to new admins than those later in the list. Not coincidentally this mirrors the general popularity of each distribution as a server OS.
Quick rundown
First let's look a brief overview of each distribution we offer to help you narrow down the field.
Ubuntu focuses on being user-friendly and offering newer software versions.
CentOS emphasizes stability and enterprise software compatibility above cutting-edge features.
Debian is similarly conservative with a focus on tested and stable software, but with easier access to a repository of newer but potentially less stable packages.
Red Hat is the best choice when you absolutely need the maximum level of enterprise software compatibility but it costs an extra license fee.
Fedora is laid out similar to CentOS but offers a newer and broader variety of software packages.
Gentoo gives you obsessive control over every aspect of the system and how the software it runs is compiled, making it good for people learning to program for Linux.
Arch is targeted at people who are comfortable running a Linux server and want more control over the server's inner workings.
With that, let's look at each distribution in more detail.
The distributions
Some of these distributions are based off some of the others. Many share a package manager (CentOS, Red Hat, and Fedora use "RPM" packages while Ubuntu and Debian use "APT" or ".deb" packages). There are, in short, a lot of interrelations in the Linux world.
These similarities mean that you usually can't go wrong. At worst some tasks will take a little more work than others, so don't stress too much over your choice of distribution. Whatever you pick you should be fine.
Ubuntu has a reputation for ease of use, which helps explain its popularity on desktops and servers. Ubuntu also helps users keep up with the latest software versions by releasing updates on a regular schedule.
The drawback of frequent updates is that it's harder to keep bugs from slipping into the mix. To this end Ubuntu releases an LTS version periodically, which stands for "Long-Term Support". The LTS version uses package versions that are considered more stable than cutting-edge, making it more suitable for use on a production server than the interim Ubuntu releases.
If you're completely lost as to which distribution to run Ubuntu LTS is a safe place to start. Its widespread adoption means there are several forums and sites on the Internet that provide help resources for Ubuntu users.
Ubuntu uses apt as its package manager.
CentOS is a distribution that emphasizes reliability. It replicates Red Hat Enterprise Linux as much as possible, omitting only the non-free components of that distribution. That means CentOS is a very stable distribution and is well-suited to production environments. It also tends to be compatible with enterprise software, though it's not always officially supported by software vendors.
The price of stability is that the software versions included with CentOS are rarely the latest and greatest. The packages included with CentOS have been tuned over time to work out as many bugs and security flaws as possible.
CentOS uses rpm for its package manager.
Debian focuses on stability and security in its official releases. In that respect it can be similar to CentOS, using older packages with proven track records. The reliability of Debian is such that several other distributions (such as Ubuntu) build on top of Debian releases.
Debian provides an "unstable" repository for ambitious server admins looking to incorporate newer software releases into a Debian installation without sacrificing the stability of the rest of the system.
Debian uses apt as its package manager.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is aimed at enterprise-level servers. That means it's stable and handles heavy loads well.
The price for reliability is, in this case, a literal one. RHEL requires an additional license fee to Red Hat to access their non-free software components and updates.
The main reason to use RHEL would be if you're running a software package that has RHEL in its list of supported operating systems. This usually means enterprise software - heavy-duty stuff aimed at larger businesses. If you're spending that much on your software you'll want to make sure you run it on an OS that lets you get support from the software vendor.
If you aren't running software that requires RHEL but want to take advantage of its reliability you'll usually be fine running CentOS instead. RHEL is worth the extra cost when it gets you vendor support or if you want to be able to take advantage of support from Red Hat itself.
If you don't know if you use enterprise software then, well, you probably don't. Use another distribution for now and you can switch later if you decide to migrate to software that requires RHEL.
RHEL uses the rpm package manager.
Fedora was originally the free version of Red Hat's Linux distribution. Red Hat still sponsors the distribution but while Red Hat's current distribution is very conservative in its package choices Fedora focuses on including cutting-edge software. The release cycle for Fedora is a short one as they continually update to newer software packages.
Fedora is a good choice if you want to have easy access to new software versions soon after release. Fedora is popular as a desktop distribution and for hobbyists learning Linux but it's still a strong server distribution.
Fedora uses the RPM package manager.
Gentoo is an unusual distribution in that its default behavior is to compile installed software itself instead of grabbing precompiled packages. This means that Gentoo can be intimidating for new system administrators and can take a while to set up (compiling takes time).
If you know what kind of compiler options are best for your environment then Gentoo can allow a level of system optimization that's difficult to achieve in other distributions. You can configure system default compiler options as well as set them up on a per-package basis so they'll be used when the package manager updates and recompiles software.
Gentoo is a great choice if you want an environment that forces you to learn more about Linux programming, or if you're a very knowledgeable system administrator who wants fine-grained control of every aspect of the system. Otherwise you're probably safer trying a different distribution.
Gentoo uses the emerge package manager.
Arch is a system administrator's distribution with its own design philosophy, the "Arch way". It's an approach that makes sense once you start learning how they've laid out the system but it can be a bit daunting if you're new to Linux administration.
If you're an experienced system administrator and want some good low-level control over how programs run on your server, but don't want to get into the level of detail and complexity Gentoo offers, then Arch can be worth trying. If you're new to system administration you may want to try another distribution for now. You can always take a look at Arch later when you're more comfortable.
Arch uses the pacman package manager.
That should give you a general idea of what distinguishes one Linux distribution from another. It's by no means a comprehensive examination of the distributions involved. You can get more information from their respective web sites.
Fortunately all these distributions are still Linux, so all have a baseline of performance. The distributions that don't emphasize stability aren't unstable, it just means there's a possibility they'll contain bugs that wouldn't be in a more conservative distribution. Similarly, if a distribution emphasizes stability it doesn't mean the software it runs is ancient - it just won't include the newest bells and whistles.
If you're having trouble deciding just try them out. It doesn't take long to rebuild a VPS with a new image so experiment a bit before settling on one and installing software in earnest. You might even have fun - tinkering with an instance you know you can rebuild at any time is surprisingly liberating.
Once you pick your distribution you can visit our articles repository for help setting it up or go to the distribution's web site to view their official documentation.
-- Jered
Article Comments:
As for me, I prefer CentOS on production servers and Fedora on desktops. Stability of CentOS and availability of RHEL packages - is a great plus. When I need more recent packages, still unavailable for CentOS, I search for src.rpm in Fedora repos and recompile them using rpmbuild for CentOS.


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Donald Trump Spouted Off About Kate Middleton Because Of Course He Did
You can always count on Donald Trump to voice an opinion no one asked for. The latest example? He's weighed in on the Kate Middleton topless photo scandal.
On Monday, the Donald took to his Twitter feed and played Judgy McJudgerson with this pair of posts:
Kate Middleton is great–but she shouldn't be sunbathing in the nude–only herself to blame.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 17, 2012
Who wouldn't take Kate's picture and make lots of money if she does the nude sunbathing thing. Come on Kate!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 17, 2012
This is all very reminiscent of the paparazzo who once scaled Jennifer Aniston's wall to get a shot of her topless, because who wouldn't wanna see Rachel Green's rack? But according to the Daily Mail, the photographer who shot Middleton was a half-mile away and had a "long-lens camera."
Samesies! Except they're not.
Whatever. The only reason he spouts off like this to see his name on websites and in reader polls because even though he likes to pretend he's a Very Busy Person, he's really just a blowhard addicted to his own Google Alerts.
The hardest part of business is minding your own, Donald. Just be thankful it wasn't your daughter Ivanka's boobs on that magazine cover.

subset: commoncrawl


text: I too have get the fleeting blue screen on start up followed by a restart. The only thing that I can read on the screen is vsdatant.sys. The rest isa blur. I have uninstalled and reinstalled ZL repeated over the past few months. It seems to start up for a week or so, just fine. Then it starts to crash upon start up. Sometimes it will crash repeatedly. The only permanent fix seems to be to start the program manually after the Windows goes through everything else.Does anyone have a permanent fix?ThanksSteve


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Intel claims latest tablet SoC beats Nvidia Tegra 3
24 comments
SAN JOSE, Calif. Intel claimed its latest tablet SoC outperforms the Nvidia Tegra 3 while consuming less power. On another mobile front, the x86 giant will show Haswell Ultrabooks at the Consumer Electronics Show and discuss a sub-10W variant.
Intels Clover Trail, a dual-core Atom SoC for tablets, consumes as much as a half a watt less that Tegra 3 on some tasks, Intel told a group of analysts recently. In particular, the Imagination Technologies graphics block on Clover Trail eats less energy than the rival Nvidia block, the company said.
The tablet performance is as good with Clover Trail as with ARM SoCs if not better and now the surprising thing is they are using less power, said Nathan Brookwood, principal of market watcher Insight64 (Saratoga, Calif.). Ive always been a little critical of that Atom core because I think they went a little too far in emphasizing power savings, but even so Clover Trial is beating Tegra 3."
Intel compared a Windows 8 tablet using Clover Trail with a Microsoft Surface tablet running Windows RT on Tegra 3. The systems were hooked up to meters measuring consumption on the processors power rails on a variety of jobs.
The Nvidia chip uses four main and one helper core. Brookwood said Windows RT does not use the helper core as extensively as Android. Intel did not show Clover Trails performance running Android.
In the second half of 2013, Intel will roll out Bay Trail which is expected to use the first out-of-order Atom cores to bolster performance. It will also roll out Haswell, a new 22-nm PC processor geared for a variety of systems including ultrabooks.
Intel hasnt given up on Ultrabooks by any means, despite sluggish market uptake to date, said Brookwood.
They are convinced ultrabooks represent a journey, Brookwood said. They havent been able to quite deliver all the features and form factors they wanted to yet, but they think Haswell will give them the muscle they need and better than all-day battery life, he added.
Intel is expected to show at CES a reference design using a Haswell chip that consumes less than 10W and fits into an Ultrabook as thin as an Apple iPad.
Separately, Intel demoed its Medfield chip running in Android smartphones, outperforming Qualcomm and Nvidia chips in some cases while having similar battery life. The problem Intel faces is they have no hope of the U.S. market due to their lack of LTE support--that forces them to focus just on Asia and Europe, he said.
Related stories:
Intel debuts next-generation Atom for tablets
How to make next-gen media tablet an iPad killer


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http://www.mandalamagazine.org/2012/lin ... of-danger/
Kyabje Ling Rinpoche, the main organizer of the Jangchup Lamrim teachings with His Holiness the Dalai Lama currently taking place in Mundgod Tibetan Settlement in India, was injured in a deadly automobile collision the day before the teachings began. According to Phayul.com, Ling Rinpoche was traveling to Goa to receive His Holiness on November 29 when there was an accident, which left the driver of Rinpoche's car dead. Ling Rinpoche is in a hospital in Goa and reported to be "out of danger."
Lama Zopa Rinpoche's attendant Ven. Roger Kunsang, who is currently at the teachings in Mundgod with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, shared in an email that Ling Rinpoche received the full impact of the collision and should be dead. He also wrote that Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drolma (Khadro-la) miraculously arrived at the scene of the accident five minutes after it happened, just after Ling Rinpoche, who was in a great deal of pain, had been freed from the car.
"Khadro-la had just arrived in Goa (about two or three hours away) and said to her two attendants they needed to do puja as it was a bad day, and then suddenly she said they should leave Goa straight away and drive quickly ‒ that was all!" Ven. Roger wrote. "Then they came on the accident scene. There was no one else there. The accident had just happened and one man had dragged Ling Rinpoche free. It was a strange scene they said. The driver was already dead. Also in the car was TT-la (a 79-year-old monk who had been the previous Ling Rinpoche's secretary), who was in a bad way, as well as another young monk. It took a long time to get help.
"Khadro-la took control of the whole scene and started checking everyone and doing her thing," Ven. Roger wrote. "They got everyone to a small hospital and after some quick patching and more transport, took them to the main hospital in Goa ‒ in all more than eight hours. It was 11 hours before they got Ling Rinpoche in on the operating table and then it was a seven-hour operation. The young monk is OK. TT-la has had several operations and seems stable."
Ling Rinpoche in Car Accident, 'Out of Danger'
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Re: Ling Rinpoche in Car Accident, 'Out of Danger'
http://www.jangchuplamrim.org/2012/12/0 ... es-health/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
He's been discharged from the hospital May his full recovery come swiftly.
He's been discharged from the hospital May his full recovery come swiftly.
No Distracted Thoughts!- Geshe Karag Gomchung
- waimengwan
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Re: Ling Rinpoche in Car Accident, 'Out of Danger'
Om mani padme hum may he have a long life and turn the wheel of dharma.
- wisdombeing
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Re: Ling Rinpoche in Car Accident, 'Out of Danger'
This is an amazing story... i wonder what karma Ling Rinpoche had absorbed to have been in such an awful accident. There must be something supernatural about this, if the accident was so bad that it was a surprise he survived it and also that Khadro-la arrived 5 minutes after.
Anyway, in case anyone wants to read more about Ling Rinpoche, you can read here http://www.loselingmonastery.org/index.php?id=52&type=p
Anyway, in case anyone wants to read more about Ling Rinpoche, you can read here http://www.loselingmonastery.org/index.php?id=52&type=p
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Victoria Advocate wins 19 awards in state editors' contest
March 31, 2012 at 9 p.m.
Updated March 30, 2012 at 10:31 p.m.
DALLAS (AP) - The Victoria Advocate won 19 awards Saturday in the annual Texas Associated Press Managing Editors contest.
Here are the newspaper's winners:• Infographics, Robert Zavala, first place.
• Best video of greater than a minute, Frank Tilley and Todd Krainin, first place.
• Team page design, Scott Reyes, Meredith Cash, Camille Doty and Kassandra Lau, first place; Frank Tilley, Robert Zavala, Kayla Bell and Veronica Gonzalez, honorable mention.
• Best video of less than one minute, Angeli Wright, second place and honorable mention.
• Star Online Package of the Year, staff, second place.
• Business reporting, Dianna Wray, second place.
• News page design by an individual, Kimiko Fieg, second place; Lauren Hightower-Emerson, honorable mention.
• Feature page design by an individual, Kimiko Fieg, second place; Robert Zavala, third place.
• Feature series, staff, second place; Dianna Wray, honorable mention.
• Star Designer of the Year, Robert Zavala, honorable mention.
• Feature writing, Dianna Wray, honorable mention
• Comment and criticism, Todd Krainin, honorable mention
• Photojournalism, Angeli Wright, honorable mention.
• Best blog, Chris Cobler, honorable mention.
The Advocate competed against Texas newspapers ranging in circulation size from 30,000-124,999. The convention continues Sunday in Dallas.


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Audra Lowe, the beautiful host of Better TV, invited me to talk about some of the benefits of raw foods. I had so much fun shooting 2 segments in her Connecticut studio back in November. Autumn on the East Coast is so pretty with the changing colors of the leaves. These segments aired nationally on January 12th, 2011.
- 1) Watch this first segment on the Better TV website where I show you an easy, immune boosting Acai smoothie using my favorite VitaMix blender and Sambazon Acai juice. I also make easy fruit and nut cookies and cobbler.
- 2) Watch this second segment on the Better TV website where we debunk common myths about the raw food diet.
- 3) Watch this third segment on the Better TV website for teasers for the week.


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Casey Gruber, DVM
Casey Gruber, DVM, is an associate veterinarian at Moore Equine Veterinary Centre in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, where he specializes in podiatry and emergency and sport horse care. He's a graduate of Colorado State University.
Articles by Casey Gruber
Swelling in the Girth Area
March 24, 2014
What is causing my horse to swell in the area his girth sits? Read More
Encouraging Cold Weather Water Consumption
January 08, 2013
Is it a good idea to add a little salt to your horses' diet in the winter to get them to drink more water? Read More
Cold-Weather Equine Ear Protection?
November 20, 2012
Do horses living outside need their ears protected during cold weather? Read More
Possible Granuloma
June 01, 2012
My 20-year-old Arabian gelding has a hard, bony, fingerlike growth deep in a Read More
The Prepurchase Exam
March 01, 2011
A prepurchase examination or "vet check" of a potential horse purchase can identify any physical problems. Read More
Horse Wounds 101 (Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention)
May 01, 2010
With increased activity all horses are at a higher risk of sustaining traumatic lacerations or other wound types. Some might appear more serious than others. Often the wound might be hours, days, or even weeks old before it is observed. Read More


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Penn State Hershey Dermatology will host Taste of Tango beginning at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 19, at the Antique Automobile Club of America Museum in Hershey.
Doors open at 7 p.m.; tango lesson begins at 7:30 p.m.; and dancing to run from 8 to 11 p.m.
Guests are invited to explore the collection of antique cars, feast on a selection of chocolate desserts, and to dance the night away. Tickets cost $60 per person. To reserve tickets, call 717-531-6049.
Proceeds benefit the education and research endowment funds for Penn State Hershey Dermatology.
Media Contacts:
Last Updated September 04, 2013


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27.1021 Unclaimed merchandise-Sale or destruction-Redemption.Cite as [A.S.C.A. § 27.1021]
(a) Any entered or unentered merchandise which remains in customs custody for a period of 90 days from the date of importation without the payment of excise taxes, storage or other charges thereon shall be considered unclaimed and abandoned to the government and shall be sold by the customs officer at public auction.
(b) Merchandise liable to depreciation in value by damage, leakage, or other causes to such extent that the proceeds of sale thereof may be insufficient to pay the duties, storage, and other charges if permitted to remain in customs custody for a period of 90 days may be sold forthwith.
(c) Merchandise subject to sale under this section may be withdrawn at any time prior to such sale upon payment of all duties, storage and other charges and expenses that may have accrued.
(d) Any merchandise abandoned, unclaimed, or forfeited to the government under the provisions of this chapter, and which the Treasurer shall be satisfied will not sell for a sufficient amount to pay such charges, shall forthwith be destroyed, rather than sold at auction.History: 1963, PL 8-1; amd 1987, PL 20-29 § 15; 2008, PL 30-36.
Amendments: 1987 Subsection (a): added "excise taxes" after "payment of".
Subsection (b): replaced "Port Director" with "Treasurer".


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Rumors, Bloody Rumors + Giants/Dodgers Family Hijinks
The Rangers signed Beltre, except for the fact that they didn't. That was totally a rumor. No wait, new rumors from more credible sources say that it's the second rumor that was only a rumor. Beltre is signing on the Rangers' dotted line right now. But wait, no. The people who are responsible for the rumor that the rumor about the first rumor being only a rumor was really just a rumor too, are now also guilty of spreading a rumor. Moose bites hurt. A lot. And now for something completely different…
This is the Hot Stove news I read on my Blackberry as we left a family holiday party this evening. And, yes, because I came in on the tail end of all of the rumor and counter rumor, to me it really did sound that Python-esque. The final word on all of the rumors? According to MLB.com, the Rangers do not have a deal with Beltre, nor is a deal imminent. The article goes on to quote Nolan Ryan this evening saying "As of right now, Michael Young is our third baseman. We haven't done anything." While I tend to think that, with Young's bat and glove at third base, the Rangers wouldn't really be interested in Beltre at this price, I did notice that Ryan's no isn't exactly a long term no and it's not like the Rangers haven't asked Young to switch positions for someone else before. I believe that MLB.com's article is the final word on Beltre and the Rangers today but Monday? Tuesday? Wednesday? Next week? Who knows.
The family holiday party this evening was our annual post Christmas get together with my mother's side of the family. The Giants cousins come down from Merced and Fresno and the Dodgers cousins come from all over L.A. and Orange County and then there are my husband and I. Surprisingly, baseball is not usually a big topic of conversation. This year, of course, it was not to be avoided.
I was pleased to see one cousin from Merced whom I have not seen in about two years because he's been very ill. He's recently recovered almost completely. "Oh I'm feeling so much better and it's the strangest thing. Do you know what the turning point was? Game 6!" I had to laugh and congratulate him, of course. And that was pretty much the tone for the evening. My cousins are still so ecstatic and cute over the Giants win that I can't help but be happy for them all over again. Of course, they're still a little chip on their shoulders over the Giants' champion status. Mentions of the Angels or 2002 still bring about hissing – yes, literal hissing – and a chorus of too soon, too soon. They're a little sensitive about the Dodgers rivalry too, all of which kept me in stitches for large portions of the evening.
My dad picked up on this, I think, because during a discussion about baseball announcers, he pounced. One cousin mentioned that he likes the Giants radio announcers so much, he will gladly put up with the delay in order to hear the radio broadcast while he watches the game muted on TV. My father got this mischievous twinkle in eye and said that, over the years, he's done the same thing with Vin Scully's broadcasts…after the Dodgers beat the Giants and head into the post season. My cousin started to sputter angrily about the Dodgers bad season and how he expects the same from them next year and so on, until he realized everyone else was cracking up on both sides of the fan divide, including my father. Then the conversation became playful and teasing again. You simply can't let family get your goat that easily.
I may have been laughing the loudest of anyone. I don't think I have ever seen my father talk trash before. But he and my mother were high school sweethearts so he has known all of these cousins, her cousins, since they were in high school and, in some cases, much, much younger. I think I just got a tiny glimpse of what they were all like getting together as kids and that was neat to see. Family and baseball both have the power to take even the most grown up among us back to the carefree silliness of our childhood and thank Heaven for that!


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News & Events
For the Media
Clarkson University's Norbert Ackermann to be Named Professor Emeritus
[A photograph for media use is available at http://www.clarkson.edu/news/photos/nackermann.jpg .]
Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Wallace H. Coulter School Distinguished Professor of Engineering Norbert L. Ackermann will be named professor emeritus at Clarkson University's 118th Commencement on Saturday, May 7. Ackermann will be honored for 36 years of exemplary service to the University.
Ackermann has been a dedicated teacher, inspiring generations of Clarkson students for over 30 years. He advised master's and Ph.D. candidates throughout his career and was honored by his students and colleagues as an exemplary educator as a recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award. Last year, he was named the Wallace H. Coulter School Distinguished Professor of Engineering.
Ackermann was dean of the School of Engineering for three years of distinguished service, which culminated in the school receiving a $30-million gift from the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation in recognition and in support of its high-quality engineering and science programs.
He served as executive officer and chair of the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering for a combined 25 years, one of the longest and most productive tenures in the history of the School of Engineering.
During Ackermann's leadership, the department experienced remarkable growth in scholarship, which led to consistently high-ranking degree programs at both the graduate and undergraduate level. He also served as chair of the Faculty Senate, Administrative Council and Honors Program Council.
Ackermann has contributed important research in the fields of river hydraulics and mechanics of granular flow. He is a long-standing member of the American Society of Civil Engineering and served as a member and chair of the technical committee on fluids, and chair of the subcommittee on granular flow, engineering mechanics division of ASCE.
He received his bachelor of science, master of science, and doctoral degrees from Carnegie Institute of Technology. He joined Clarkson's faculty in 1975 as chair of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department.
Clarkson University launches leaders into the global economy. One in six alumni already leads as a CEO, VP or equivalent senior executive of a company. Located just outside the Adirondack Park in Potsdam, N.Y., Clarkson is a nationally recognized research university for undergraduates with select graduate programs in signature areas of academic excellence directed toward the world's pressing issues. Through 50 rigorous programs of study in engineering, business, arts, sciences and health sciences, the entire learning-living community spans boundaries across disciplines, nations and cultures to build powers of observation, challenge the status quo, and connect discovery and engineering innovation with enterprise.


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We can beat Taiwan, says Hewitt
Lleyton Hewitt says he has moved on quickly from his bitterly disappointing Australian Open loss and is ready to lead Australia to victory in next week's Davis Cup tie.
Australia will face Taiwan on their home court in an Asia/Oceania Zone Group One clash from February 1-3.
While Hewitt is confident, the team will be without the country's top player, Bernard Tomic, who has been suspended.
"We've still got a pretty strong team, though and hopefully we can go there and get the job done," Hewitt said on Sunday.
"All in all our depth is promising but our team in terms of Marinko (Matosevic) and Matt (Ebden) and Chris Guccione in doubles didn't have the success through the Australian summer that we wanted.
"But we're favourites in this tie, I'd say.
"I haven't heard their team named yet but I've played a couple of the guys before so I know a little bit about them."
Hewitt, who won the Australian Open lead-up event at Kooyong, ran into eighth seed Janko Tipsarevic and went down fighting in the first round.
"I'm hitting the ball really well at the moment, nothing's changed.
"I still feel there are guys in the draw at the moment I could beat so that's frustrating for me to not get through and get further," he said.
Tomic won his first ATP title in Sydney a week ago and extended Swiss great Roger Federer before losing their Open third round match on Saturday.
He was suspended from the first tie by Davis Cup captain Pat Rafter for displaying a poor attitude on court.
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Results tagged ' Christopher Lidle '
Where is the " Gambino? "
When I was younger, there were several television and picture puzzle shows that questioned the location of its characters. "Wheres Waldo? " and "Where in the World is Carmen San Diego? " were institutions for kids to want to discover geography and hopefully, develop a love for other countries cultures and it hoped to cultivate a yearning to read about other nations around the globe.
Well, in the vein of such great shows and pictorial institutions, I think that the Tampa Bay community should create its own version called," Where Is the Gambino? ". Seriously folks, since he has let it be known that he would love to play for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2009, I have seen multitudes of Giambi sightings in Las Vegas and in venues beyond the neon lights. The tabloids and the Internet are full of "Gambino" photos of him posing with the rich and famous, and with the fans of the blue-eyed slugger.
Here we have a nice keepsake photo of Rays Manager, Joe Maddon in the kitchen with culinary master chef Barry Dakake at his swanky Las Vegas bistro with the "G-man" at their side. To say that Giambi is a social animal is an understatement. He truly enjoys the social side of baseball as much as the hitting and running. And he also pulls both off well. But be advised, he is great on the diamond as long as you hide his glove after Batting Practice.
So the guy with the steel-blue serial killer eyes wants to be a Ray? He is currently campaigning to be a Ray, an Athletic and even a Blue Jay. All three need a highly potent bat at Designated Hitter for 2009. So where will Giambi park his Escalade in 2009? Most people think that the next sighting of the "Giambino" might be at a contract signing at Tropicana Field some time in the next few weeks. According to local gurus, the slugger is adamate about the area and wants to play for a winner next year. That combined with the aspect of putting it to his former team might be a great motivator for Giambi.
I can give you an honest opinion here that I like the idea of him playing here. I love it more for the fact it will drive Yankees Manager Joe Girardi absolutely nuts 17 times a year, and I like that idea a whole lot. And I am fine with that proposition, since I personally think that Girardi is not the right fit for the manager of the Yankees. Even as a player he was never the "go-to" guy on his Yankee squads. I can see him as a bench coach, or even a catching coordinator in someones' minor league system, but not the head honcho of the Yankees. He was very lucky with the Florida Marlins, they were a good team before he got there and got better with him in the dugout, in spite of his managing skills.
But I do know that Giambi loves the Tampa Bay area. You got to remember, he spent every Spring Training here with the Yankees, and his rehab assignments have all started in Tampa, at the neighboring Yankees complex on North Dale Mabry by Raymond James Stadium. He has been known to stand out in the crowd at local hangouts during the spring, or when the Yankees were in town to play the Rays. I saw him a few times at Push Lounge during the Yankees series last year. And you know he was there for the music, not the fine assets that wear skimpy outfits in Tampa Bay. The nightlife in St. Petersburg and Ybor City would appeal to him, and we all know that he is not your typical baseball hound, he is usually seen mingling and chatting up with the locals either on the main floor or by the rails at the VIP lounge area.
Can you imagine the St Peterburg Times section called "The Juice" blowing up in popularity by posting a "Giambino" photo essay weekely on the places to go, and be if you are an up and coming guy like Giambi. I can only imagine the rise in readership and webviews if such a section would be included in the publication. It would surely help the circulation woes of the paper and maybe even produce a cottage industry of people going to places to be Giambi watchers.
Might even spawn a club or two of faithful Rays fans who would be affectionately called the "Giam-Bros" who would be a outer perimeter posse for the big D H. Wow, could this area even support such a player who could transform a fan base into loving an ex-Yankee. Well, it might actually bring in a few Yankees fans to more games to just try and get Giambi's signature. People in the Bronx had a hard time getting up close and persona with the giant, but now could get right next to him in the fan-friendy confines of the Trop.
And we already know that we will be able to find Giambi after Rays game somewhere in the community enjying life and the night life. Think of the crowds that would assemble for signing outside the stadium. And try and even imagine a Giambino sighting at a Lightning game or a USF football game. The crowd would go wild to know that he is supporting the local community.
And we do not have to worry about a posse or entourage for him. He is a personal friend of any celebrity that wants to meet him. Seriously, just becuase he took a photo with ?Rays crazy man Brian Knobs, doesn't mean they do not have each others number on speed dial. Think of the entourage he could obtain of just the current Rays fans. He could have Hulk Hogan, Bill Goldberg, Knobs and John Cena in his corner as muscle while other locals celebs would flock to chat and mingle with the new Rays.
I have a personal "Giambino: story I know about that is quite halarious and think you might find it funny too. Back in the days when Jason and his brother, Jeremy played for the Oaklans A's, they used to love to mingle in the crowds at Fergs'. This is true story, one time I was there with a friend and the two brothers were there with team mate Jason Isringhausen having a few brews and enjoying the sights. Well, come time to leave, a friend of mine decided to give them a ride back to the Vinoy, which is on the waterfront here in St. Petersburg. Well, somehow she got the Mercedes Benz pointed in the wrong direction and after driving for a spell, found them selves in Tampa, a good 20 miles norht of the hotel. True story, and one that Giambi might still remember.
But beyond that, think of the crowds and the publicity this guy can bring to charity events and community outreach programs. While he was with the Yankees he was a vaulable pitch man and a community magnet for anything to do with the kids. That is the part of this guy that I admire greatly, and wish we had more of on the team. We do have the guys who give their all for the community, but sometimes the lack of name recognition right now gets the better of the Rays.
After this past post season, I truly feel that is a thing of the past, but we shall see on that front. Anyways, the guy would be an instant hit and a instant attraction at events. Tell me you would not stand in line for his autograph or a chance of a photo with Giambi. I can tell you I enjoy meeting these guys and taking a photo more for the sake of talking about it when I am old and gray.
Baseball players can make a huge impact on younger kids since the baseball seasons in Florida can run 12 months a year of the weather is good. With that kind of potential for new fans and interest in the team, a guy like Giambi might be a perfect fit. A local newspaper also has listed the odds of getting the big slugger at 3-1, and I will take those odds.
Heck, I have forgotten all about the Mitchell Report and everything else before 3 years ago with this guy. If you saw a photo of him in the minors, you know that he either took a huge responsibility to get bigger, or had some help. Since I played a bit of football at every level we have in the US, I know what he did and how he got that big.
But I also know it is the culture of sports and not the athlete that sometimes condones and expects such actions. For that reason, I will never shout the "Steroid" word at him, or even riddicule him for something he did to make him better suited for his craft. It is a fact of life that people love the long ball, and some players have to adjudt their body mass to get the same result as natural hitters like Ken Griffey Jr.
But what has endeared me to the guy is what he did during the Spring Opener at Yankee Stadium in 2007. Jason Giambi has known Cory Lidle during his days both as an Athletic and as a Yankee. You have to assume and know that the guys were friends. And when Lidle has that fatal airplane collision in 2006, you know Giambi was one of the first Yankees to break down and cry.
But the action he took with Cory's widow Melanie and her son, Christopher that day truly touched me alot. Here is guy as big as a horse who was there foir the family of a fallen team mate, kneeling with his son before the ceremonial first pitch of the 2007 season. I was a touching sight and one I have had signed by him on a 8 X 10. I know what I saw in his eyes when he signed it, and I let him know he was a baseball friend of mine form his short time with the Rays.
Giambi just patted me on the shoulder and asked how close were we, I told him not as close as team mate, but as close as you can get with a guy without violating that fan-player trust. He just smiled and told me to catch him anothe time when we could chat more…………That is why I like this guy as more thna ball player. His personality and charm is just what the Rays need to convey that next level of greatness. I hope we sign the guy, but even if we do not, I am a "Giambino" fan for life now.
So what do you thinki, can we get a localized version of "Where's the Giambino?" going if we sign this gentle giant, or will the polarized fan base of the Rays again make a great baseball player think twice about signing with a small market club. One of the huge advantages of playing here that is missed by so many players is tha fact you are no longer in that fishbowl, you can live your life with a bit more freedom and enjoy your time with the team. And Jason, if you need an inside source for your entourage, call me..I am in the book.


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Question: What is more adorable than overly dramatic teens singing their hearts and souls out? Answer: Teeny, weeny toddlers dressed up like overly dramatic teenagers singing their heart and souls out. Check out brand new photos from Tuesday's "Glee" episode. You better sit down. You will be overcome with cuteness.
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In this week's episode of "Glee," the staff of McKinley High is hit hard with the flu. With sectionals just around the corner, Mr. Schuester tries to power through his fever. He doesn't fully understand the extent of his illness, until he hallucinates that his team is made up of toddlers. It's weird. No matter what their age, the cheerleaders wear the same size uniforms. Watch the great behind-the-scenes video and check out the army of adorable tots in our gallery.
Tune in to "Glee" this Tuesday (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. For more info on "GLEE" The Music visit: http://www.gleethemusic.com. In the mean time, catch up on all the greatest "Glee" hits on "Glee" Radio.


text: On Thu, 14 Dec 2000, Mofeed Shahin wrote: > G'day all, > > I am currently working on a program which is simulating the movements of 'n' > number of nodes. > > The problem I am having is that it doesn't take long to calculate the next > position of Node n1, n2, n3, etc...... I need all the locations for time t, > before I can start calculation the locations for t+1. > > And therefore the bottleneck becomes the IO bandwidth between the cluster > processing units, and not CPU. > > Is there a way to get rid of the bottleneck? (ie change of algorithm?) When you say calculate the positions of N nodes, do you mean in a sort of molecular dynamics sense? That is (to be picky) are you solving either N coupled ODEs or N forward difference equations? If so, then an important question becomes what the range of interaction is. That is, does the differential step for the ith node (out of N) depend on the state of ALL the other N-1 nodes or just some "local" subset (often in real MD, it might be a really local subset in that they are spatially contiguous). If the ODE's or iterated difference equations are "local" to some degree, the proper treatment is usually to partition the problem, although if the math for a step is truly small compared to the IPC time (even for only the IPC's required to transmit the "boundary" node information, which usually scales like a surface relative to a volume) it may still not parallelize very well until N becomes very large. If the ODE's are long range, and the step of the ith node depends on the state of all N-1 other nodes, well, you may have a problem that just doesn't parallelize very well, at least on the less expensive beowulf architectures. In that case, your alternatives are to spend a lot more money on communications than on computation -- buy a truly high speed network like e.g. Myrinet and use it with relatively cheap and slow processors, and you might be able to scale up to some decent limit. Greg Lindahl has presented studies of alpha/myrinet clusters that scaled well for e.g. gravitation problems (another long range interaction) that might be relevant at Linux Expo (the one in Raleigh a year and a half ago) that are probably in the proceedings. The other possibility is to make your problem embarrassingly parallel. OK, so you cannot sanely partition your problem. If you CAN run your problem with all N nodes on a single system, and need to run it many independent times (M times, in fact) for N node strings, you can run the M calculations in parallel on M computation nodes and still complete the N*M work in N time. In fact, this will scale better than just about any alternative even with cheapo ethernet, provided only that it doesn't take a huge amount of time to start a calculation and process/tabulate the results relative to the internal compute time. The final note is that there are circumstances where it is worth it to parallelize a problem even when it scales poorly (even when it scales "negatively"). If the largest computer you can sensibly afford contains e.g. 2 GB of RAM, but you need to do calculations with 10 GB worth of nodes, well, running in parallel may be slower per node than running on a single system but running >>10 GB<< worth of nodes in parallel (with any IPC penalty) is infinitely faster than not being able to run them at all. Or, more practically, than trying to run the calculation with a disk-based virtual memory space -- memory to memory transactions across the network are generally faster than a disk, which motivates e.g. the Trapeze project at Duke (efforts to create a virtual memory space across a network of systems for truly big memory projects). Again, a really fast network helps here, and you are likely better off building a carefully balanced system with a more money tied up in the network than in the processors. rgb > > Mof. > > _______________________________________________ > Beowulf mailing list > Beowulf at beowulf.org > http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf > -- Robert G. Brown http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/ Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305 Durham, N.C. 27708-0305 Phone: 1-919-660-2567 Fax: 919-660-2525 email:rgb at phy.duke.edu


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O'Reilly has a "Web Client Programming With Perl" book out there; you can even read it online for free. That's where I've pointed people in the past when they wanted to do something LWP was suited for.
I'll be glad to have a new book on the subject! I haven't done much with LWP myself, but I know it's there and have all sorts of ideas for it.


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AN Australian lawyer has fired back with a lawsuit against McDonald's after the fast-food giant blocked him for registering his nickname as a trademark.
Malcolm McBratney vowed not to back down in the battle that erupted earlier this year, when McDonald's took exception to his use of "McBrat" on the uniforms of a local rugby team.
"What it boils down to is that McDonald's seems to be trying to own not only the McDonald name but everything beginning with Mc," said McBratney, who is a specialist in intellectual property rights.
"There are a lot of people with Irish and Scottish heritage who'd dispute that, including me, and I'm prepared to take them on."
McDonald's Australia spokeswoman Kristene Mullen denied the burger giant was trying to monopolise the "Mc" prefix.
"McDonald's is like any company with intellectual property it wants to protect," Mullen told AFP. "We want to protect our investment, our image and our brand."
McBratney sponsored the Brisbane Irish rugby union team, which adopted the McBrat tag on the back of their shorts because they claimed his full name would not fit.
The company objected that McBrat could be confused with McKids. Mullen said that toys with the McKids logo had been on sale in retail outlets since earlier this year.
But McBratney said a trademark could be challenged in Australia if it had not been used for more than three years, and that McKids had been dormant since it was registered in 1987. His suit seeks to de-register McKids.
"I think it smacks of corporate arrogance that even though McDonald's is not using the McKids trademark in Australia, it still thinks it can block the registration of a separate trademark that has nothing to do with its business," McBratney said.
The Brisbane team is boycotting the chain, once a favourite haunt, in a full show of McSupport.
"Our team, with its Irish heritage, has many Mcs in it and they are all outraged," team spokesman Shane Quinn said. He said the company "really have got to be McKidding."


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People 65 and over comprised 17.1 percent of the city's population in the U.S. Census of 2010 — up from 15.6 percent in 2000. In California as a whole, seniors make up just 11.4 percent of the population.
Age by itself is a poor yardstick for predicting what people will need or what the community will look like.
"There are some very young 80-year-olds and some very old 60-year-olds," notes John Sink, vice president for programs at the nonprofit senior agency Avenidas.
But even as many Boomers vow to stay young through exercise and nutrition, chronic illness and "major life events" such as loss of a spouse inevitably come with the years.
Sink, who watches the numbers as he helps plan programs for "older adults," says, "We're studying the needs of folks very carefully.
"It's hard to go by age. You have to go by needs and interests."
An informal 2006 "white paper" on the impact of aging Boomers on Palo Alto — authored by a task force of community leaders, including city officials — raised the specter of a community where "upwards of 40 percent of our total population will be 55 years of age or older" by 2030.
That surprising projection was based on a survey of more than 300 Palo Alto Baby Boomers, who said they aim to age in their homes and remain active in the community, according to the paper, titled "Impact of the Aging Baby Boom Population on Palo Alto's Social and Community Services." It was co-authored by Richard James, then director of community services for the City of Palo Alto and Lisa Hendrickson, president and CEO of Avenidas.
The survey found that 80 percent of Boomers, who possess a higher education level than any past generation, have no plans to leave Palo Alto when they retire.
That, and other surveys confirm that "older adults going forward are not going to fit the same model of older adults of the last generation," Sink said.
"They have a different self-image, different view of independence and self-sufficiency and of what they want. They're very interested in health, fitness and nutrition."
High on the priority list for this group are strategies for "aging in place" — staying in the home, but using an array of supports to do things like help turn a mattress, clean the gutters or care for a family member.
Sink segments current and future users of older-adult services into a range of categories: lifelong learners, health seekers, practical-help seekers, volunteers and the frail elderly.
The relative sizes of those categories could shift as Baby Boomers age.
In a recent snapshot of Palo Alto's current senior population, gleaned from a January 2013 survey of Avenidas users, Sink found that 40 percent come to the agency for "lifelong learning" opportunities; a third come for practical help; one in five come for fitness and not quite one in five come for the weekday hot lunch program, La Comida.
Twenty percent of respondents (81 out of 398) described themselves as "caregivers" to a spouse or another household member, a figure significantly up from 13 percent in the past.
"People don't self-identify as caregivers, but we're starting to see that dial go up," Sink said.
"A big chunk" of today's seniors have no monthly housing expense, with mortgages fully paid off, he said.
However, nearly half the Avenidas survey respondents said they're living on incomes of less than $50,000 a year.
Sink said he has yet to fully analyze the survey and also is awaiting age-specific data from the 2010 Census, particularly on income.
"We take our responsibility as being experts on older adults in Palo Alto very seriously because part of our charter is to consult with the city on the needs of older adults in the community," he said.
As Palo Alto's over-65 population expands, so does its cohort under the age of 18.
The segment of the city's population that's under 18 grew from 21.2 percent in the 2000 Census to 23.4 percent in 2010.
In the same period, enrollment in the Palo Alto school district has grown from 10,000 to 12,400 as of last fall, and school leaders are looking to build new elementary and middle-school classrooms.
This story contains 726 words.
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Today must begin by thanking the ALMIGHTY God for creating each and everyone of us. Before the foundation of the world was made he knew that each of us would be here. God's love in providing salvation through His one and only son leads us to honor him in all that we do.
Dudley Rutherford is passionate about sharing the salvation and hope that is found in Jesus Christ with all people. He is the author of "Walls Fall Down" and the senior pastor of the 10,000-member Shepherd Church, which the city's mayor has called "the most racially diverse church in Los Angeles." Dudley's other books include God Has an App for That, Unleashed: The Church Turning the World Upside Down, and Romancing Royalty. Dudley and his beautiful wife, Renee, have three children.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
The Number 53
Today must begin by thanking the ALMIGHTY God for creating each and everyone of us. Before the foundation of the world was made he knew that each of us would be here. God's love in providing salvation through His one and only son leads us to honor him in all that we do.
7 comments:
- Jeff Perrin said...
We should all sing Happy Birthday to you tonight i wonder what that would be like, turning red, you know....anyone ??
- 10:54 AM, March 24, 2011
- Jeff Perrin said...
Not to be a pest but how many days of the year can i bug you.... ON YOUR BIRTHDAY !!
Stephanie says you will need to get a bigger cake and start practicing the blowing out of the candles.
Have a great day
- 10:56 AM, March 24, 2011
- CAPTAIN FREEDOM said...
Dudley, I have a thought for the renaming of our church. In Acts 8:25 it tells that Peter and John stopped in many villages along the way to preach the Good News. Maybe we can come up with something about getting the good news out to people and/or unleashing the Holy Spirit?
Another that I was reading is Acts 2:1-4 which talks about that a mighty windstorm which filled everyone present with the Holy Spirit. This gave the people the ability to share the word of God in a way that they could understand, in a language that they could understand.
Acts 2:17-21 tells about pouring the Holy Spirit upon all the servants and they will prophesy.
One that really hit me is Acts 2:37-42 which tells us about the gift of the Holy Spirit and the promise to all who have been called by the Lord our God.
I will continue to pray for this.
- 12:00 PM, March 24, 2011
- barbwyr said...
Pastor, first let me say Happy Birthday and may God Bless you with many more. You have been a blessing to our church and my family and I thank God every day for putting me in a church where I can learn from Godly teachers like yourself.
All of the things you have said make sense. It doesn't make sense to teach only those who already know God or are complacent with their place in His house. We need to reach those who are lost or who are struggling with their place in life and we can't do that without making room for them or making it so they can find us. If we are not out looking for them as well as drawing them in with music like the worship team led this past weekend then we face losing them to the "World".
As for changing the name, I struggled for months with remembering that there is no "A" and it's "PH" like "F" to spell it so I can understand the dilemma and while I would hate to see the name change, I would hate more to have to answer to God as to WHY we didn't use every opportunity to save every lost person. So if we pray and God puts it on our hearts I believe a majority will come up with the same name or at least the same conclusion. Perhaps that conclusion will be to stay the same, but as one who once struggled I do indeed understand. My first inclination would be why not go back to where it all began with the merge and change it to Hillcrest Christian Church, if that decision were indeed made but again as you pointed out pray indeed will lead us to God's will.
Again, Happy Birthday Pastor Dudley
With Love and Great Respect
- 1:38 PM, March 24, 2011
- steven said...
happy bday to the original P-diddy..or is it P-Dudley?
- 2:09 PM, March 24, 2011
- Allane's said...
Loved reading your blog--Yes, you are going to have your hands full the next twenty years!New church name-great idea-would all the satellites and Shepherd,honestly,I just spelled Shepherd wrong:) have the same name? I'd have two huge contests, one "Name the Church" and the other "Design a Logo" To raise funds each person would make a donation to have their choices submitted into the contest. The contest would last 3-6 months so thousands of recommendations would come in--Everyone would get involved-Fun! Love you too,Dudley
Be well and the happiest of birthdays to you! Allane (your favorite waitress)
- 5:07 PM, March 24, 2011
- Dave Page Live said...
Regarding changing the name of the church ... I see the reasoning in wanting to do this and the need to maybe rebrand The Shepherd.
You're right about some people not knowing how to spell shepherd. I got an email today from someone who sings at the church and she spelled shepherd "sheperd."
Another possibility would be to rename the church with a nickname. Like when Ed Young came to 2nd Baptist Church of Houston and nicknamed it "The Fellowship of Excitement" or when Hayford named The First Foursquare Church of Van Nuys "The Church on the Way." You could keep the name SOTH as the DBA but name it something completely different and rebrand it that way with a new logo, etc. I like one word names - ie. Harvest, Radiant, Resonate, Journey, Mosaic, etc. The diversity is such a huge value at SOTH maybe you want to have a name that highlights that? Just my 2 cents ... Dave
- 10:11 PM, March 26, 2011


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Kelly Clarkson, Lady Gaga, Mr. T + More in Celebrity Tweets of the Week
In our Celebrity Tweets of the Week, Kelly Clarkson and Clive Davis had a little dust up, Lady Gaga had a message for her Little Monsters before she had surgery, Don Cheadle wants to be Sarah Silverman's hero, Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks looked utterly adorable together on their first Oscars date — and a whole lot more.
Mr.T's Tip for Today: Don't drink and drive! Don't text and drive! Don't act a fool and drive! You got all that? Good! Now have a great day!
— Mr. T (@MrT) February 20, 2013
Hey y'all, So I just heard Clive Davis is releasing a memoir and spreading false information about me and my music… say.ly/GLO5cY7
— Kelly Clarkson (@kelly_clarkson) February 19, 2013
Team @kelly_clarkson
— Adam Lambert (@adamlambert) February 20, 2013
My good friend, record mogul Clive Davis, has come out as bisexual. Good for him! He likes both the A-side AND the B-side.
— Joan Rivers (@Joan_Rivers) February 21, 2013
Ha!! RT @alyankovic: Just started giving my daughter piano lessons.No pressure. twitpic.com/c5e3tw
— Jane Lynch (@janemarielynch) February 20, 2013
My weaknesses have always been food and men – in that order.
— Dolly Parton (@Dolly_Parton) February 18, 2013
Doctor in lab coat peers into microscope. "Good Lord!" he says. "His burrito levels are off the charts!" – from my autopsy
— Andy Richter (@AndyRichter) February 20, 2013
@sarahksilverman alright, alright, I'm inStop begging
— Don Cheadle (@IamDonCheadle) February 20, 2013
Going in for surgery now. Thank you so much for sending me love and support. I will be dreaming of you.
— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) February 20, 2013
First Oscars together before we were married. twitter.com/RitaWilson/sta…
— Rita Wilson (@RitaWilson) February 21, 2013


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The school choice movement — which germinated 50 years ago in free-market economist Milton Friedman's fertile mind — recently counted its largest victory. The Indiana Supreme Court unanimously upheld the constitutionality of the state's school voucher program. Under it, more than half a million low- and middle-income Hoosier students — and about 62 percent of all families — are eligible for state aid to help pay for a private or religious school.
This is what school choice has traditionally lacked: scale.
Since the first experiment in Milwaukee in 1990, voucher programs have been resisted by a powerful combination of interests. Teachers' unions have fought what they regard as a diversion of resources from public education — while conveniently undermining a source of professional competition and accountability. But this opposition has been empowered by the skepticism of many suburban parents, who have paid a premium to buy homes in better school districts. When educational outcomes become less connected to the ZIP code you inhabit, some property values will decline.
It is a paradox Friedman would have appreciated. Vouchers have been blocked by unions resisting market forces and by suburban parents reflecting those forces. Not surprisingly, support for school choice programs is often twice as high among urban residents as it is among suburban ones.
This has generally relegated vouchers to the margins of education reform, in underfunded micro-programs aimed at the very poorest. The District of Columbia's scholarship program, for example, capped participants at 3 percent of the student population while increasing funding for public education.
A limited choice program is not the same thing as a healthy, responsive educational market. "A rule-laden, risk-averse sector," argues Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute, "dominated by entrenched bureaucracies, industrial-style collective-bargaining agreements and hoary colleges of education will not casually remake itself just because students have the right to switch schools."
But even small, restricted choice programs have shown promising results. Last year a group of nine leading educational researchers summarized the evidence this way: "Among voucher programs, random-assignment studies generally find modest improvements in reading or math scores, or both. Achievement gains are typically small in each year, but cumulative over time. Graduation rates have been studied less often, but the available evidence indicates a substantial positive impact."
... Only recently, a few innovative governors — particularly former Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana and Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana — have decided to bring this promise to scale. The Louisiana Supreme Court will soon issue a judgment on Jindal's program. The Indiana verdict could hardly have been more favorable to the choice movement. The court found that Indiana is serving valid educational purposes both by maintaining a public schools system and by providing options beyond it. And it held (as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002) that including religious schools as an option does not establish religion.
These principles have broader implication.
The pursuit of the public interest does not always require a public bureaucracy. Medicare pays for services provided at Catholic hospitals. The GI bill allowed veterans to use their scholarships at religious colleges and universities. The proper role of government is to ensure the provision of essential services — not always to provide those services itself.
In the case of children in failing public schools, this argument gains moral urgency. Choice may not be a system-wide panacea. But it remains a disturbing spectacle when teachers' unions count it a legal "victory" when disadvantaged children are returned to troubled, unsafe institutions.


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Enervit Pre Sport Nutrition
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Enervit Pre Sport Nutrition
Product DescriptionEnervit devised Pre Sport as an energy source to be consumed before you ride. In fact, you could have two for breakfast and one more within 30 minutes of your start time. PreSport is loaded with easy to digest carbohydrates and is free from fats that can slow the digestion process. You can be sure that you won't have to worry about stomach upset as the pace gets cranked up in the early miles of your ride.True, Pre Sport is nearly pure carbohydrates, but Enervit's particular blend of Fructose and Glucose ranks as a low glycemic index food. This is important for two reasons. First, it won't trigger a serious glucose dump (and resulting insulin response) into your bloodstream. In simple terms, you'll get a metered flow of energy and the stability to feel good enough to push yourself when the going gets hard. Second, the low glycemic index Pre Sport promotes fat metabolism. The fat stores in your body are a great source of slow-burn energy and can prolong your physical endurance, Pre Sport just helps light the fire.Each Orange flavored packet of Enervit Pre Sport Jelly contains 105 calories and 25.5 grams of carbs. The recommended serving size is two packets. For those with allergies: be aware that Pre Sport is produced in an Italian factory that also processes milk, sesame, cereals, nuts, soybeans, and eggs.
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Office Politics and How to Successfully Deal With It
Office politics could almost play out like national politics with all the intrigues and schemes in place. Office politics can be mild, and it can be vicious because it largely has to do with power struggles. In fact, it's bound to play out one way or the other as a mild or vicious drama between one or two persons or between a team and the management, and there could be casualties and fatalities if things really go unchecked. (more…)


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According to ESPN the minute restriction has been lifted and now Amare wants more minutes. Before you bombard the tread with Amare is finished posts consider this.
In every game that Amare has scored 17 points or more he has done so playing no less than 22 mins per game. If he's to be most effective Amare needs no less than 25 to 27 mins. Against Toronto he scored 23 points and 9 rebounds in 30 mins. The question isn't can Amare still be effective, its can he be effective, complement Melo's game and win. Interestingly in most games this season where he's scored 20 or more points the Knicks lost.
It's clear that his all-star years a behind him and he is all but untradable, but that doesn't mean that Amare can't contribute in some measurable way. Since the Knicks are inconsistent and have no second scoring option should they give Amare more playing time?


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So did we get it right?
So once again, here's our list of the Top 10 Non-Giants Who Should Be on Every Giants Fan's Christmas Card List.
No. 1, Brooks Conrad
No. 2, Jonathan Broxton
No. 3, Larry Beinfest
No. 4, Cliff Lee
No. 5, Chase Utley
No. 6, Andrew Friedman and Neil Huntington
No. 7, Roy Oswalt
No. 8, Bud Black
No. 9, Paul Emmel
No. 10, Bengie Molina
Did we miss anyone? Anyone more deserving than this list of people?
We considered other people for this list, but this was a nice mix of pitchers, players, managers, front-office people and even an umpire.
Let us know your thoughts?


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Welcoming one pensively to the Philadelphia Museum of Art's marvelous exhibition "Cézanne and Beyond" is the French master's "The Bather" (c. 1885), familiar for many years as the first painting one saw at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (and still in the first gallery of Yoshio Tanaguchi's new building). Shown next to it in Philadelphia, though, is Marsden Hartley's "Canuck Yankee Lumberjack at Old Orchard Beach, Maine" (1940-41), a burly, suntanned object of desire by the sea. The homoerotic Hartley piece, almost as large as its neighbor, has the effect of turning Cézanne's tentative young man, who had always seemed rather to walk on the water than to put his foot into it, now into an innocent boy—and to show clearly the difference between a good painting and a very great one.
"Cézanne and Beyond" is not a complete survey of the master of Aix-en-Provence's presence in 20th-century art. (How could it be? Entire museums strain to show the range of his influence.) Instead, it is a selective, often rapturous conversation between some 50 paintings and 20 works on paper by Cézanne (1839-1906) and more than 100 pieces by 18 Modernists (Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Piet Mondrian, among them) and later artists (Arshile Gorky, Ellsworth Kelly, Jasper Johns, Brice Marden, for example) whom he liberated and inspired. Proceeding thematically rather than chronologically, it treats seated figures, still lifes, pictures of women, studio paintings, bathing scenes, landscapes trees and meditations on mortality.
The show's organizers, Joseph J. Rishel and Katherine Sachs, dedicate its handsome catalogue to the beloved late director of the Philadelphia, Anne d'Harnoncourt, and the introductory essay admits that there are obvious lacunae (with regard to Latin American art in particular). Still, with marvelous loans from the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the National Gallery in London and many private collections, the exceptional Cézannes alone would carry the show—and there are another 69 at the nearby Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania.
The first thematic grouping, of seated figures, soars, with Cézanne's "Card Players" (1890-92), "The Smoker" (1890-92) and "Man in a Blue Smock" (1892 or 1897). Ingeniously, the curators have placed Fernand Léger's "The Mechanic" (1920), a muscular worker with a cigarette, so that his profile directly faces "The Smoker," whose dignity and strength are rendered with what can only be called reverence. Across the room Ellsworth Kelly's "Larry" (1947), an oil on paper, presents a smoking young man as the exact reverse of Cézanne's. Meditatively responding to the other figures in the room are Alberto Giacometti's three small bronze busts of his brother Diego and an oil portrait of Diego in a red plaid shirt that takes the visual and emotional sense of transience in Cézanne to its existential limit.
Not a natural draftsman, Cézanne could nevertheless evoke personality hauntingly, and never more so than in 40 studies of his longtime companion, Hortense Fiquet. Around "Mme Cézanne in a Red Armchair" (c. 1877), from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the show has gathered women painted by Matisse, Picasso, Max Beckman and another later portrait of Hortense (c. 1886). Pride of place is given to Picasso's "The Dream (Marie-Thérèse)" (1932), a much-reproduced but rather facile exercise in vivid color and sensuous form lent by Steve Wynn. Equally luxuriant but more expressive is Matisse's "Woman in Blue" (1937), in which rich decorative patterning surrounds a figure who beautifully commands your attention. Max Beckmann's strong portrait of his second wife, "Quappi in Blue and Gray" (1944), is hard to imagine without Cézanne's example.
In another curatorial coup the later painting of Mme. Cézanne is hung on a wall opposite Matisse's mystery-laden "Mademoiselle Yvonne Landsberg" (1914), done almost in grisaille, with half circles of white springing from her slender body to intimate an undefined presence. (It is puzzling that the exhibition does not include at this point Willem de Kooning's "Seated Woman" (c. 1940), which is in the Philadelphia's own collection and is one of the artist's finest pieces.)
Still lifes and studio paintings relate to each other fluidly, especially since Cézanne, and no painting in the show makes the point more vividly than Matisse's "Fruit, Flowers, and the Dance" (1909) from the Hermitage, in which the still life on the table in the foreground interacts with the famous painting commissioned by Sergei Shchukin in the background. Matisse's "Geranium" (1910) pays delicate, luminous hommage to Cézanne, who is honored also by Ellsworth Kelly's elegant pencil drawings of geraniums (from 2002) and, nearby, three exquisite still lifes by Giorgio Morandi in his typically pale and subtle palette. Two of the greatest paintings in the exhibition, Piet Mondrian's "Still Life with Ginger Pot 2" (1912) and Georges Bracque's "Studio V" (1949-50) likewise pay joyous and earnest tribute, respectively, taking Cézanne's rendering of fragmented and colored form to new heights and expressing artistic sensation through imaginative rather than naturalistic representation.
You'll be forgiven, though, if you spend most of your time in this section of the show before Cézanne himself, above all with "Curtain, Jug, and Compotier" (1893-94), from a private collection in Chicago, and "Apples and Oranges" (c. 1899) from the Musée d'Orsay, the former in a cooler color scheme, the latter radiantly warm, each a tumble of form and color that rights itself only to tumble again.
You scarcely have a choice, though, except to be thrilled, on entering the center of the show, a great open space displaying two of Cézanne's "Large Bathers," one from Philadelphia (1906), the other from London's National Gallery (1894-1905), with the smaller but compelling "Bathers" (c. 1890) from the Musée d'Orsay between them. A third "Large Bathers" (c. 1895-1906) is in the Barnes Foundation, and when its treatment of the great traditional theme was shown at the Salon d'Automne retrospective of Cézanne in 1907, it had a profound effect on Matisse, Picasso, Bracque, Léger and many other artists, including the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, who went daily to the show and wrote ecstatic letters about it to his wife. The freely drawn, monumental figures and their harmony with the trees and landscape beyond them seemed a wholly new vision of the human body in nature.
Henri Matisse bought a small "Bathers" from the dealer Ambroise Vollard in 1899 and wrote almost 40 years later, "it has sustained me morally in the critical moments of my venture as an artist; I have drawn from it my faith and perseverance." Three Matisse paintings in the show, the puzzling, mythic "Bathers with a Turtle" (1908), the sculptural "Bather" (1909), and "Le Luxe" (1907), along with the magnificent bronze "Back I" (1909), look particularly strong here. Picasso's "The Bathers" (1956), on the other hand, a group of six bronze figures, seems routine and distracting. Jasper Johns's "Fall" (1986), from his Seasons series, also seems contrived. But Brice Marden, who called Cézanne "the greatest realist and the greatest abstractionist at the same time," elegantly evokes both his formal ingenuity and rhythmic color in Marden's own "Red Rocks (1)" (2000-2002), whose proportions are based on the National Gallery's "Large Bathers."
No exhibition of Cézanne would be complete without the presence of the painter's beloved Mont Sainte-Victoire, and Philadelphia offers a full six views of it, including the museum's grand, and especially abstract, version from 1902-04, the Metropolitan Museum of Art's off-center view including the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley (1882-1885), and the Courtauld Gallery's endearing version with a large pine tree in the foreground caressing the profile of the mountain in the background (c. 1887). The paintings are hung around a Jasper Johns "Map" (1963), which has never looked better. Along with scenes of "The Bay of Marseille Seen from L'Estaque" (c. 1878-79 and c. 1885), they evoke representational responses from Max Beckmann and highly abstract ones from Ellsworth Kelly and Brice Marden, with the Canadian photographer Jeff Wall, one of the younger artists in the show, offering one of his transparencies in a light box, "Coastal Motifs" (1989), which shows a harbor near a mountain under clouds.
Closely related to these scenes of land, sea and sky are images of trees in a gallery devoted to that theme. There are some grand paintings here, as well as an absurdity by Francis Alÿs (a small Cézanne in bubble wrap). It would have been the right place to include Joan Mitchell, whose "La Grande Vallée" series would more than hold its own. But nothing compares to Cézanne's "Large Pine with Red Ground," from the Hermitage, on which he worked for five years from 1890 to 1895.
In a deceptively simple view from his sister's home into the Bellevue Valley, Cézanne conjures up a sturdy trunk, off center in the foreground, with myriad branches reaching to the sky, red earth and rooftops behind it in the middle distance. But the distinction between foreground and background keeps collapsing. The foliage is substantial, but it isn't, regularly becoming a glittering haze. The tree grows from the red earth, but it doesn't. The palette is restricted, yet as rich as creation. You can see the vertical brush strokes, like colored rain from painter's heaven, but they shimmer away. The marvelous, mysterious painting is entirely there and real, but also entirely elusive, a vision. "It's a living being," Cézanne wrote of the tree. "I love it like an old colleague."
How can Paul Cézanne make you weep as only great sorrow or great joy can, or the sight after a long absence of someone you love? Is it the fullness of reality, the hard-won but never-ending struggle to see and show things as they are, the simple sense that "this is the way it is"? (Never, ever, "Look at me;" always rather, "Here it is.") This young bather, this smoking man, someone's pensive wife, apples on a tilted table; a pine tree in red soil. How can they possibly affect us as deeply as they do?
Cézanne painted no "Lifting of the Cross," no "Night Watch," no "Las Meninas," as did Rubens, Rembrandt and Velázquez. He painted the daily and the ordinary, which then appeared as sacred, even holy. Matisse saw him as "a sort of god of painting" and said, "if Cézanne is right, then I am right." "He was like our father," said Picasso, "my one and only master!" Fernand Léger wrote: "One feels that for Cézanne painting was a matter of life or death; he risked everything—yes, even his life—each time he embarked upon a picture. That's why I have learned more from him than from anybody." Through shimmering patches of shaped color he struggled to render his sense of the world—its fields and forms and figures—simply as present, changing the course of painting for a century and more and anxiously helping us all to accept the unfinished and imperfect state of our human condition.
"Cézanne and Beyond" remains at the Philadelphia Museum of Art until May 31. It will not travel.


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Let's Go Knicks!!
Show them, Melo!
Let's Go Knicks!!
Show them, Melo!
"Winner of the coveted "Chink in the Armor" award!"
Call me an *******
Neg Rep me
But today Toney Douglas wins it for us.
...If only because i just can't see other way. Davis proved he can't play extended minutes and Bibby is just plain crap. TD can have one of those hot hot shooting nights.
Orlando- 90
TC owns Howard, rest of the Knicks strip him repeatedly.
Melo makes some hot shots with nice assists making the rest of the team look good.
Here we go with the 3s... Novak is gonna come in early tonight.
Carmelo is gonna be the man for the rest of the regular season.
This game is no exception.
We're playing awful so far...
Knicks backcourt is disappointing so far
Melo looks really good so far. Chandler has to play smarter.
wait until chandler sits down and jorts is on superman.
gonna be interesting .lol


text:
Council members said the city had a compelling reason to make the switch to the new operator, Community Gatepath. Over the last four years, Children's Creative Learning Center fell significantly short of the city's goal for serving low-income families. Mounting financial difficulties forced CCLC to ask the city to reduce its annual rent of $200,000 a year to only $100,000.
"Please sit down and mediate" with CCLC, said parent Sasha Hart. "Money can be easily negotiated. A high-quality, superb education, once it's gone, it's gone."
Council member Margaret Abe-Koga recalled the reason why council members pushed to build the child care center, which opened in Rengstorff Park in 2008. The Packard Foundation had done a study identifying the Rengstorff Park area as "a place of need" for affordable child care, she said. "The whole purpose was to build a child care center to serve that location."
The city had a goal of having 30 percent of the center's 100 or so children come from low-income families. The CCLC was able to bring in only 7 percent, on average, since 2008.
Community Gatepath won the five-year contract to run the center over five other applicants who responded to a notice sent to 100 possible new operators. City staff said the new operator had "provided a detailed plan and identified funding resources to meet the 30 percent low-income enrollment goal within 18 months of commencement of operation" and had agreed to be responsible for the full annual lease payment of $201,084.
Council members approved the Community Gatepath contract in a 5-1 vote with John McAlister absent and Mayor John Inks opposed.
"The bottom line for me is that the 30 percent low-income is really critical," said council member Ronit Bryant. "Otherwise I would invite CCLC to find another location in Mountain View and continue with the program because it sounds like a program people really love.
Serving the low-income families was the reason for the creation of the child care center, Bryant said.
Community Gatepath said that 75 to 95 percent of teachers are usually retained when they take over an existing center, which seemed to alleviate some concern. But parent Ania Mitros wasn't convinced CCLC would allow its teachers to stay.
"I think CCLC is going to put business before children and do their darnedest to draw children and teachers from the Mountain View center to other CCLC centers," Mitros said in an email, adding that CCLC has promised to inform parents of other CCLC centers in the area where parents could find the "top talent we retain."
CCLC had budget shortfalls every year except 2010-11 when it had a surplus of $9,063. In 2011-12, the operation had its biggest shortfall ever: $136,982.
In their opposition to the switch, parents noted that Community Gatepath had two licensing violations at its other "Learning Links" locations and that its centers lacked accreditation.
"Many centers in the state have violations, these things happen," explained Community Gatepath's Tracey Fecher. "We had an aide with less units (in early childcare education than required) in the nap room." Now the nap room always has someone with the appropriate units, she said.
In response to requests from parents that the city renegotiate with CCLC, City Manager Dan Rich said that the city issued a request for proposals. "That process is an open, competitive process. At this point it would be highly unusual to discontinue this process," he said.
City officials said they were surprised to hear complaints from CCLC at the meeting about the city not doing enough to help market the program.
"It's been a challenge on our end" in working with the city," said CCLC's business development director Kevin McAdams, saying that the cities of Palo Alto and Redwood City are "much better champions" of similar child care centers.
City Manager Rich said it was the first he had heard of such complaints.
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This study is provided by ICPSR. ICPSR provides leadership and training in data access, curation, and methods of analysis for a diverse and expanding social science research community.
American Customer Satisfaction Index, 1994 (ICPSR 3973)
Principal Investigator(s): Fornell, Claes, University of Michigan Business School. National Quality Research Center
The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) is a uniform and independent measure of household consumption experience. The ACSI tracks trends in customer satisfaction and provides valuable benchmarking insights into the consumer economy for companies, industry trade associations, and government agencies. It is based on modeling of customer evaluations of the quality of goods and services that are purchased in the United States and produced by both domestic and foreign firms that have substantial United States market shares. The ACSI model is a set of causal equations that link customer expectations, perceived quality, and perceived value to customer satisfaction. In turn, satisfaction is linked to consequences as defined by customer complaints and customer loyalty -- measured by price tolerance and customer retention. Customer expectations combine customers' experiences with a product or service and information about it via media, advertising, salespersons, and word-of-mouth. Customer expectations influence the evaluation of quality and forecast how well the product or service will perform. Perceived quality of a product or service is measured through questions on its overall quality, reliability, and the extent to which it meets the customer's needs. Perceived value is measured through questions on overall price given quality and overall quality given price. Customer complaints activity is measured as the percentage of respondents who reported a problem with the measured companies' product or service within a specified time frame. Satisfaction has an inverse relationship to customer complaints. Customer loyalty is measured through questions on the likelihood that customers will purchase a company's products or services at various price points. The ACSI is produced through a partnership of the University of Michigan Business School, the American Society for Quality (ASQ), and the international consulting firm, CFI Group. Background variables include age, education, number of family members, Hispanic origin, race, household income, sex, industry, and sector of the economy.
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Study Description
Fornell, Claes. American Customer Satisfaction Index, 1994. ICPSR03973-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2004. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03973.v1
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Scope of Study
Subject Terms: advertising, consumer attitudes, consumer expectations, consumer expenditures, consumers, expectations, expenses, marketing, prices, products, purchasing, satisfaction
Geographic Coverage: United States
- 1994
- 1994-05--1994-09
Unit of Observation: individuals
Universe: American consumers aged 18 to 84 living in households with telephones in the continental United States.
For additional information, including related publications, visit the ACSI Web site at http://www.theacsi.org.
Sample: Households were selected by random-digit dialing. Within households, the respondent selected was the adult with nearest birthday to date of interview who had purchased or consumed specific products and services within specified, recent time periods varying from three months to three years according to the product or service. The selected adult was interviewed to screen him/her for purchase and use of specific goods and services to qualify as customer eligible for interview. The probability sample selected to represent the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) for each company is based on approximately 250 customer interviews.
telephone interviews
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text: Hi. This is my first attempt at a build thread. The bike is already done but I haven't had the time to start a thread during the build so I'll just do it now instead. I have had the bike for about a year now and I love it. I'ts just so much fun. Sadly the winter came and I didn't want my baby to be out in the cold. A thought started to grow in my mind, Is it possibly to bring the bike in to my appartment during the winter? I decided to give it at try. I am a student and live in small apartment at 21m^2 so first I had to carry out the diner table and some chairs to the storage. About twenty minutes later the bike was safe inside. After a few weeks I couldn't keep my hands off it. So I started to disassemble the front end and tried out a few ideas with some cardboard shaped into two round lights and cowlings. Don't have any pictures off that but I decided that I liked the idea and it didn't took long before I found some lights that maybe could fit right into the original mountings. While waiting for the lights I wondering about cutting the cowlings but didn't know if I dared to or not, but I decided to go for it. I found some left over plastic boxes and patched up the front of the cowlings using glue and the soldering iron to melt plastic in the gap between the cowling and the patch. The results was pretty god. I did paint it later with a thick black paint to get a smoother surface. Also had time to make some mountings for the GPS and the power outlet. Finally the lights arrived. And it was a perfect fit between the original mountings. I just had to fabricate a small extension from the original mounts to fit the lights. It's alive.. Also fabricated some protection for all the wires behind the lights. At the same time a package with the sw-motech gravel guard, bar riser and footrest kit arrived Here's some pictures of it on the bike. After some finishing touches like painting the brackets for the lights etc I thought it was almost done. But I became impatient and started to look around for a 19" V-strom wheel just to see how hard it was to find and how expensive it would be. It was hard to find one. But when I did the price was just right and a few weeks later this arrived. Now all I had to do was to measure the brake rotors and spacers and to drop it off at the workshop. All according to jdrocks guide in one of his build threads. (hope it's ok to mention you here). When I got the spacers and rotors back from the workshop it was an easy process to install the wheel. Only thing to do was to rise the front fender 4.5cm (which allowed me to use the standard crossover brake line) and to shim the brakes 1mm. Here's some pictures of the swap and the finished bike Can barely wait until summer. I have also made some other changes that was done before I brought the bike inside, they are: Rear/front mud protection. Two toolboxes made of PVC pipe. Vario screen. Givi hard cases mountings. Zeta handguards. SW-motech engine guard. Leovince slip on. Thor mc-alarm. I still have some things I want to do. New tires. R1 rear shock. Other front forks or maybe just change the oil etc. Swap in a matching black three spoke rear. But that won't be until the summer or next winter. If you have any questions just ask and I will be happy to answer. Hope you like it. Cheers.