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By Satish More,
Imagine you've got at hand a huge task. You'd naturally want to have
multiple persons working in parallel on the task to finish it as early
as possible, but there are some considerations required to ensure that
the task "actually" gets done quickly.
In database terms these considerations would respectively mean the following:
This article is about handling such issues in the database world
(SQL Server to be specific). We shall see how with a help of custom
design and T-SQL, a huge dataset can be processed with both high
consistency and high concurrency by multiple processes running
continuously in parallel. These processes access the same resources
(tables) at the same time. But they aren't pre-assigned with any
specific identifiers (Row IDs) of the data they are supposed to
process. They would have to pick up these identifiers at run time.
Under such circumstances it has to be ensured that the processes are
not blocking each other and at the same time they are not duplicating
each other's efforts i.e. not processing data with the same identifiers.
Let's state the above requirement in database terms. There is an
event table with millions of event records waiting to be processed in a
particular order. More records are added to this table at regular
intervals. To start processing these records, multiple parallel jobs
are employed. They pick up a fixed number of event records at a time
from this event table, process them, and then mark them as complete.
Once finished with a batch, they pick up the next set of unprocessed
records. Each job should ensure that it is not processing the same
records that some other parallel job is processing.
First we define the size of a batch of records that these jobs would
be picking up for processing in every run. Let's assume the batch size
is "n" here. The following description is a basic idea of what each job
would be doing:
Thus the first thing each job would do is, fire a "SELECT TOP n…"
query on the EVENT table to get the records for processing. A SELECT
statement, on its own, places no more than a SHARED lock on the records
and hence does not prevent any other parallel SELECT statement from
picking up the same unprocessed records. We are considering that each
process takes quite some time for processing before it can mark the
records as processed. Eventually each parallel job would be processing
the same set of records. That would be highly inefficient since the
efforts are duplicated.
What we need is an exclusive record lock that would prevent any
parallel processing job from picking up the same records. At the same
time we have to make sure that any other different process that are
just intending to read the data should not be blocked. These things can
be achieved by specifying a table hint in the "SELECT TOP n…" query.
The following table hints are the relevant commands available for
exclusive locking.
Please note that only the relevant Table Hints have been listed.
For a list of all Table Hints please refer to SQL Server Books Online.
TABLOCKX: The whole table gets locked exclusively until the transaction completes.
UPDLOCK: An update lock gets placed on the records
in the table until the transaction completes. It is compatible with a
SHARED lock. By default it tries to lock rows but depending upon the
data size, SQL Server can escalate to a Page Lock or a Table Lock.
XLOCK: An exclusive lock gets placed on the records
in the table until the transaction completes. It is not compatible with
a SHARED lock.
From the above options, UPDLOCK turns out to be a better option in this situation for the following reasons:
But here again, the parallel data processing job may have to wait
until the first job has finished processing because it is trying to
SELECT the TOP n records which are locked by the first job for
processing. Only after the first job finishes marking the records as
processed would the second job be able to pick the next set of records.
To counter this, we can specify the READPAST hint (along with
UPDLOCK) in the same SELECT query so that it would skip the locked
records and get another set of records for exclusive locking and
Fine! So let's summarize the design discussed so far with the help of an example.
Consider RAINFALL_EVENTS as the event table that refers to the rainfall data entered into the system. This table will hold the RAINFALL ID,
which would ultimately guide us to the other details (e.g. Rainfall
measurement, Location, Instrument, Day and Time etc) that are
distributed across the other tables in the database.
The following would be the fields in the RAINFALL_EVENTS table:
|Auto-increment field, PRIMARY KEY with a Clustered index on it
|Single Reference to all rainfall related details
|Flag indicating whether the event is processed
Here's the DDL for the table:
IF object_id('Rainfall_Events') IS NOT NULL DROP TABLE Rainfall_Events
CREATE TABLE Rainfall_Events
(Event_ID bigint IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL
,Rainfall_ID bigint NOT NULL
,Processed bit NOT NULL default (0)
Populate the table with 10K records. Here's the script to do that.
DECLARE @Rainfall_ID bigint
SELECT @Rainfall_ID = 0
WHILE @Rainfall_ID < 10000
INSERT RAINFALL_EVENTS(Rainfall_ID) SELECT @Rainfall_ID + 1
SELECT @Rainfall_ID = @Rainfall_ID + 1
--SELECT * FROM Rainfall_Events
The following could would be the outline of the stored procedure
that the processing job would call. The batch size is set as 5, i.e.
the value of "n" in our SELECT TOP n query. Thus the procedure selects
the top 5 records at one time for processing. After that we introduce a
delay of 30 seconds in the procedure to account for the processing
time. Therefore 30 seconds is the minimum time that each process would
take to finish executing. Finally the procedure marks the records as
"Processed", i.e. updates the Processedflag to 1.
--DROP PROCEDURE DataProcessor
CREATE PROCEDURE DataProcessor
IF object_id('tempdb..#Events') IS NOT NULL DROP TABLE #Events
-- Retrieve data for processing
SELECT TOP 5 * INTO #Events FROM Rainfall_Events WITH (UPDLOCK,READPAST)
WHERE Processed = 0 ORDER BY Event_ID
-- Processing block. Say the time required is 30 seconds
-- Mark the records as processed
UPDATE A SET Processed = 1
FROM Rainfall_Events A JOIN #Events B ON A.Event_ID = B.Event_ID
--SELECT * FROM Rainfall_Events WHERE Processed = 1
Note the UPDLOCK and READPAST hint the SELECT query.
Now execute the same procedure at the same time in two separate
windows (as two separate processes) of SQL Server Management Studio as
shown in the image below.
EXEC DataProcessor
"SELECT getdate()" is done to display the start time and end time of
the processes just for demonstration purposes. From the figure it is
clear that both the processes started almost at the same time with a
small difference of about 1.5 seconds.
You'll see that both the processes finish in 30 seconds time and in
all 10 records have been processed, i.e. 5 records by each job. That
can be confirmed by the following query:
SELECT * FROM Rainfall_Events WHERE Processed = 1
-- 10 records affected
Just for the sake of testing our other options, we can modify the
SELECT TOP 5 query in our procedure to use TABLOCKX hint or only
UPDLOCK hint without the READPAST hint and then repeat the same flow to
see the results.
SELECT TOP 5 * INTO #Events FROM Rainfall_Events WITH (UPDLOCK)
WHERE Processed = 0 ORDER BY Event_ID
Before executing every option please execute this query to make the EVENT table fresh for each option.
UPDATE Rainfall_Events SET Processed = 0 WHERE Processed = 1
If both the processes are fired almost at the same time,
one process would finish in 30 seconds while the other would take close
to 60 seconds to execute. Overall 10 records are processed
So to summarize so far UPDLOCK and READPAST hints form the best choice because:
Well, it's not a happy ending yet. This solution does come with some practical issues which are listed as follows:
To demonstrate this, just alter the DATAPROCESSOR update and set the
batch size to 7000 in the SELECT TOP query in DATAPROCESSOR SP. The
query becomes:
SELECT TOP 7000 * INTO #Events FROM Rainfall_Events WITH (UPDLOCK,READPAST)
WHERE Processed = 0 ORDER BY Event_ID
Remember to reset the Processed flag to 0 in the RAINFALL_EVENTS table using this query
UPDATE Rainfall_Events SET Processed = 0 WHERE Processed = 1
Now again execute the procedure as two separate processes at the
same time. You will find that one process required close to 60 seconds
to finish processing. That is because SQL Server escalated the lock to
a TABLE Lock. This can be observed by executing the following query in
a separate window on the same server on the same DB. Please note that
this query has to be executed while processing is going on.
This query is extracted from the code for "sp_lock" system
procedure and is tweaked to display locking information related only to
Table "RAINFALL_EVENTS". That would give us only relevant results.
Alternatively, if the SPID of both the processes are known it would do
fine to directly execute the sp_lock System procedure as follows:
exec sp_lock @spid1, @spid2
select convert (smallint, req_spid) As spid,
rsc_dbid As dbid,
object_name(rsc_objid) As ObjectName,
rsc_indid As IndId,
substring (v.name, 1, 4) As Type,
substring (rsc_text, 1, 32) as Resource,
substring (u.name, 1, 8) As Mode,
substring (x.name, 1, 5) As Status
from master.dbo.syslockinfo,
master.dbo.spt_values v,
master.dbo.spt_values x,
master.dbo.spt_values u
where master.dbo.syslockinfo.rsc_type = v.number
and v.type = 'LR'
and master.dbo.syslockinfo.req_status = x.number
and x.type = 'LS'
and master.dbo.syslockinfo.req_mode + 1 = u.number
and u.type = 'L'
and object_name(rsc_objid) = 'Rainfall_Events'
order by spid
Output of the query
3. Deadlocks: This problem comes when SQL Server
doesn't perform a lock escalation even when the batch size is high. The
number of KEY (ROW) locks on the table would be the batch size
multiplied by the number of parallel executions of the processing SP.
Deadlocks could happen over any one of the keys.
To demonstrate this, just alter the DATAPROCESSOR SP to update the
batch size to 500 in the SELECT TOP query in DATAPROCESSOR SP. The
query becomes:
SELECT TOP 500 * INTO #Events FROM Rainfall_Events WITH (UPDLOCK,READPAST)
WHERE Processed = 0 ORDER BY Event_ID
Remember to reset the Processed flag to 0 in the RAINFALL_EVENTS table using this query
UPDATE Rainfall_Events SET Processed = 0 WHERE Processed = 1
Now again execute the procedure as two separate processes at the
same time. One of the threads fails with following deadlock error:
(500 row(s) affected)
Msg 1205, Level 13, State 51, Procedure DataProcessor, Line 17
(Process ID 64) was deadlocked on lock resources with another process
and has been chosen as the deadlock victim. Rerun the transaction.
Let me show the solution that I followed to handle this requirement.
As many of you would have guessed, it is an option of soft locking, or
flagging the records, instantly after they are picked up for
processing. We do this by marking the records as "In Process" with the help of an additional field – say Job Process IDthat
would indicate that the record is under processing. Other jobs would
look out for records with no Job process id allocated yet. A new column
would be created in RAINFALL_EVENTS table to store the Job Process ID.
This calls for an immediate UPDATE of the records returned by our SELECT TOP n query to assign @@SPID
as value to the new Job Process ID field. This can be achieved as shown
in the following query. The SELECT TOP n query forms a derived table
and is joined to "RAINFALL_EVENTS" table to get the records for Update.
UPDATE events
SET Process_ID = @@spid
FROM Rainfall_Events events
JOIN (SELECT TOP 5 Event_ID FROM Rainfall_Events WITH (UPDLOCK, READPAST)
WHERE Processed = 0 AND Process_ID IS NULL
ORDER BY Event_ID
) batch
ON events.Event_ID = batch.Event_ID
Lock (SQL Server Lock) is required on the records only when they are
being flagged, to ensure that the same records are not picked up by two
parallel jobs i.e. when two parallel jobs run the "SELECT TOP n" query
exactly at the same time (possible though rare). That is handled by
using UPDLOCK and READPAST as discussed earlier and shown in the above
query. Once the records are assigned a Process-ID, the lock can be
At a first look itself, we see the benefit of not having to enclose
the entire job process in a single transaction. Also since individual
records are flagged at code level and not "actually" locked we do not
have an issue of Lock Escalation.
But again this solution also comes with its own challenges:
Since the job takes care of locking the records, it has the
responsibility of unlocking the records in case of an unforeseen system
failure due to which the records could not be processed. The records if
not unlocked, they would remain unprocessed until some other job
acquires the same process id and processes those records. That would
not be acceptable.
The basic purpose of soft locking would be to keep our event table
free most of the time for parallel processing. But as we will see, the
table may be required to be a part of data processing logic. And some
part (DML) of that data processing logic would definitely be enclosed
in a transaction so that it can be rolled back in case of any
unforeseen failure. There goes our table into a lock again and hence
Let's now have a look at these "Challenges" in the same order
"With control comes responsibility": You either
finish the job (Processing) or either release the control to some other
job. But unfortunately our poor processing job has no idea that it's
going to crash or else it would have at least sent some signal asking
to take control.
So then the responsibility comes on another independent job specialized to reset locks on any orphan recordsthat it may encounter. What are orphan records?
These would be the records which are locked for more than a specific
period of time and yet are not processed. We can fix some time (say 15
minutes) beyond which we decide that any processing should not go. The reset-orphan-locks
job continuously would keep looking for such orphan records. If it
finds such records, it would straightaway attempt to update the Job Process ID
column of those records to NULL. Some other job would take over those
records and resume processing from where the first job had left.
This means that we would have to do a forced stop on slow processing
jobs. This also means that we would need to have one more column Locked Time Stamp (along with Job Process ID) in our Event table to store the timestamp when that record was locked.
So what are our processing jobs required to do? They have to keep a
track of the time they themselves are taking to finish the process
(Current Time minus the Locked Time). If they find that they are taking
more than even half the pre-fixed time, they have to rollback and call
off their current operation. Before that, they can even release the
control on the records and walk out. If they are well within the
allotted time, but crash out accidentally, the reset-orphan-locks job would release the records after the allotted time has passed i.e. < (Current Time – Locked Time)
Let's say that the data processing requirement is as follows:
Consider that the job has finished tasks "a" and "b" within the
allotted time, and it is now performing task c. While transferring data
across the network, the allotted time may get surpassed (possible in a
very slow network). In that case the continuous Reset-Orphan-Locks
job would treat those records as Orphan Records and hence release them
making them available to some other job for processing. But here the
records have already finished processing and are eventually transferred
across the network. It would be repetitive erroneous transfer.
That raises the need to lock (SQL Server Lock)the Event table during the time of transfer and release it only when:
Reset-Orphan-Locks SP would not touch the processed records.
But we may not afford to keep the event table locked for all the
time when a transfer across the network is in process. Hence instead of
directly transferring the data across the network we would actually be
writing data to a local queue table (which would have
the same format as the table across the network) and there and then
mark the record as processed and release the table.
Data transfer from a queue table to the destination table would be a
separate transaction unit. We may also consider deleting the record
from the queue table the moment it is moved to the destination table so
that the queue table remains small in size and writing to the queue
table becomes faster.
The following would now be all the fields in the RAINFALL_EVENTS table:
|Auto-increment field, PRIMARY KEY with a Clustered index on it
|Single Reference to all rainfall related details
|Flag indicating whether the event is processed
|Job Server Process ID which processes the event
|Timestamp indicating when the event was locked by the processing job
Script to add the new columns to the existing RAINFALL_EVENTS table
ALTER TABLE Rainfall_Events ADD Process_ID int NULL
ALTER TABLE Rainfall_Events ADD Locked_Time datetime NULL
We now need to alter the DATAPROCESSOR SP to incorporate our new design. Let's have a look at it.
--DROP PROCEDURE DataProcessor
CREATE PROCEDURE DataProcessor
DECLARE @AllottedTimeInMinutes smallint
,@StartTime datetime
SELECT @AllottedTimeInMinutes = 15
,@StartTime = getdate()
-- Soft-Lock data. Assign value to Process_ID and Locked_Time
UPDATE events
SET Process_ID = @@spid
,Locked_Time = @StartTime
FROM Rainfall_Events events
JOIN (SELECT TOP 5 Event_ID FROM Rainfall_Events WITH (UPDLOCK, READPAST)
WHERE Processed = 0 AND Process_ID IS NULL AND Locked_Time IS NULL
ORDER BY Event_ID
) batch
ON events.Event_ID = batch.Event_ID
-- Take the flagged data into a temporary table for processing.
SELECT * INTO #Events FROM Rainfall_Events WHERE Process_ID = @@spid
-- Processing block. Say the time required is 30 seconds
-- Processing completed. Transaction begins here
-- Get a quick table Lock on Events table (Shield from Reset_Orphan_Locks SP)
SELECT * INTO #LockHelp FROM Rainfall_Events WITH (TABLOCKX) WHERE 1 = 2
-- Now Check whether the process duration has not surpassed the allotted time.
-- If yes Abort the process
IF datediff(mi,@StartTime,getdate()) > @AllottedTimeInMinutes GOTO AbortProcess
--We are still in time.
--Write data to a queue table
--Mark the records as processed
UPDATE A SET Processed = 1
FROM Rainfall_Events A JOIN #Events B ON A.Event_ID = B.Event_ID
IF object_id('tempdb..#Events') IS NOT NULL DROP TABLE #Events
--SELECT * FROM Rainfall_Events WHERE Processed = 1
@AllottedTimeInMinutes: This variable holds the maximum time allotted to complete the processing
This variable marks the start time for processing. The same value goes
to the Locked_Time field in the Event table. It would be used to check
for the time elapsed during processing.
This is the query for flagging the records along with associating the Time when they are being flagged
-- Soft-Lock data. Assign value to Process_ID and Locked_Time
UPDATE events
SET Process_ID = @@spid
,Locked_Time = @StartTime
FROM Rainfall_Events events
JOIN (SELECT TOP 5 Event_ID FROM Rainfall_Events WITH (UPDLOCK, READPAST)
WHERE Processed = 0 AND Process_ID IS NULL AND Locked_Time IS NULL
ORDER BY Event_ID
) batch
ON events.Event_ID = batch.Event_ID
The UPDLOCK will ensure that the records are not picked up by any
other job (which may have been running the same query in parallel at
the same time). READPAST will ensure that the parallel job is not
waiting for the current UPDATE query to finish executing. It will skip
the locked records and update the next set of records.
In case the order is not important, we can use the UPDATE TOP (n)
feature of SQL Server 2005. An UPDLOCK would not be required in that
After processing we have to mark the records as processed and also
may be required to copy the processed / consolidated data to some queue
table. Before that we need to shield the table from Reset-Orphan-Locks
SP (in case we may surpass the time during the process) and also check
for the time already taken for processing. Hence we start a transaction
and take a quick exclusive table lock on the table. After that we check
for the elapsed time.
SELECT * INTO #LockHelp FROM Rainfall_Events WITH (TABLOCKX) WHERE 1 = 2
IF datediff(mi,@StartTime,getdate()) > @AllottedTimeInMinutes GOTO AbortProcess
If the processing time has gone beyond the allotted time there are
high chances that the records have already been reset by the
Reset-Orphan-Locks SP. In that case we have to abort the process and
not transfer the data lest some other job may already be in the process
of transferring the same data.
Please note this case of "processing time exceeding the allotted
time" should be a very rare scenario because we would be setting the
allotted time considering appropriate buffer in addition to the maximum
time that a job would require to finish processing. The
Reset-Orphan-Locks commonly comes to help when a particular processing
job fails and is not able to finish processing.
If the processing is still within the allotted time, we can safely
go ahead with transferring the data and marking the data as processed.
After that the transaction would be committed thereby releasing the
Event table
UPDATE A SET Processed = 1
FROM Rainfall_Events A JOIN #Events B ON A.Event_ID = B.Event_ID
Through a separate procedure, data from the queue table would be
pushed to the final destination table across the network to the other
server. Data would then be deleted from the queue table once it is
With so much discussion going on around about the Reset-Orphan-Locks SP, we definitely have to look at how it is implemented:
-- DROP PROCEDURE [dbo].[Reset_OrphanLocks]
CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.Reset_OrphanLocks
DECLARE @AllottedTimeInMinutes smallint
SELECT @AllottedTimeInMinutes = 15
-- Resetting locked records not processed within the allotted time
UPDATE events
SET Process_ID = NULL
,Locked_Time = NULL
FROM Rainfall_Events events
JOIN (SELECT Event_ID
FROM Rainfall_Events WITH (NOLOCK)
WHERE Processed = 0 AND Process_ID IS NOT NULL
AND datediff(mi,Locked_Time,getdate()) >= @AllottedTimeInMinutes
) batch
ON events.Event_ID = batch.Event_ID AND events.Processed = 0
This would be a separate regularly scheduled job which would keep on
checking for unprocessed records associated with a job process id for
more than a fixed amount of time and then resetting them. To make sure
that the update query in this job does not scan through the entire
table thereby locking the table for a long time, we first retrieve the
relevant records using NOLOCK hint and then join on Event ID of the
instance which actually gets updated. Event ID is the primary key with
clustered index.
First execute the following query to have the data fresh for simulation:
UPDATE Rainfall_Events SET Processed = 0,Process_ID = NULL,Locked_Time = NULL
WHERE Processed = 1
Now, open three windows in SQL Server Management Studio all
connected to the database which has the RAINFALL_EVENTS table. In the
first two windows, have the following script ready:
WHILE (1 = 1) EXEC DataProcessor
This statement would keep on executing two parallel processing
threads continuously. Note the SPID of each of the processing windows.
In the third window type the following query
WHILE (1 = 1) EXEC Reset_OrphanLocks
This SP will continuously check for orphan records.
Now execute the scripts in all the three windows. In a separate
fourth window check the contents of the RAINFALL_EVENTS table
especially the Processed, Process_ID and Locked_Time columns. At any
point of time, we would have 10 rows with Processed as 0 and Process ID
as NOT NULL. Those are the records which are currently under
processing. The records with Processed = 1have finished processing.
The next step would be to close down one of the processing windows
thereby forcefully stopping the processing and ending the session.
Check for unprocessed records for that session / SPID in the
RAINFALL_EVENTS table. There would be 5 such records. After about 15
minutes, the Process_ID of those records would be set to NULL by the
Reset_OrphanLocks SP and the same records would be picked up by the 1st
session later.
This article thus attempts to demonstrate how large volumes of data
can be processed efficiently having multiple parallel processes working
at same time. Using T-SQL programming transaction loading can be
reduced and resource availability (concurrency) can be improved. Though
these processes work independently synchronization and non-redundancy
(consistency) can be obtained with the help of some common parameters
and not having to really isolate the resources from each other.
Feedback and suggestions would be sincerely appreciated.
By Satish More,
Dim dtTable As DataTable
Dim dtTableNew As DataTable
Dim oDataRow As DataRow
Me.dgAssignIOPayments.DataSource = dtTableNew
after that, using ImportRow you can copy the rows you want
For n As Integer = 0 To originalTable.Rows.Count – 1
Here's a handy query for finding duplicates in a table. Suppose you
want to find all email addresses in a table that exist more than once:
SELECT email,
COUNT(email) AS NumOccurrences
FROM users
GROUP BY email
HAVING ( COUNT(email) > 1 )
You could also use this technique to find rows that occur exactly once:
SELECT email
FROM users
GROUP BY email
HAVING ( COUNT(email) = 1 )
Via Huajun Zhai's Blog. Also see How to remove duplicate rows from a table – Microsoft Knowledge base article.
original found on: http://www.petefreitag.com/item/169.cfm
The problem is with Visual Studio. Being a 32-bit application its limited to just 2GB of virtual memory, even if its running in a 64-bit OS. At least, its limited to 2GB by default… but we can
hack around change that.
The first thing to do is tell the OS to increase the amount user-mode memory from 2GB to 3GB. If you're running a 64-bit you can skip this step.
boot.ini file and then put the /3GB switch in your
boot.ini. (more information on the /3GB option)
1: BCDEDIT /Set IncreaseUserVa 3072
Then we have make Visual Studio large address aware.
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9\Common7\IDE\
1: editbin /LARGEADDRESSAWARE devenv.exe
Finally we'll use the old Microsoft-fix-all – reboot the machine. Bounce that box!
How to search all columns of all tables in a database for a keyword?
excerpt from http://vyaskn.tripod.com/search_all_columns_in_all_tables.htm
While browsing the SQL Server newsgroups, every once in a while, I see a request for a script that can search all the columns of all the tables in a given database for a specific keyword. I never took such posts seriously. But then recently, one of my network administrators was troubleshooting a problem with Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM). MOM uses SQL Server for storing all the computer, alert and performance related information. He narrowed the problem down to something specific, and needed a script that can search all the MOM tables for a specific string. I had no such script handy at that time, so we ended up searching manually.
That's when I really felt the need for such a script and came up with this stored procedure "SearchAllTables". It accepts a search string as input parameter, goes and searches all char, varchar, nchar, nvarchar columns of all tables (only user created tables. System tables are excluded), owned by all users in the current database. Feel free to extend this procedure to search other datatypes.
The output of this stored procedure contains two columns:
– 1) The table name and column name in which the search string was found
– 2) The actual content/value of the column (Only the first 3630 characters are displayed)
Here's a word of caution, before you go ahead and run this procedure. Though this procedure is quite quick on smaller databases, it could take hours to complete, on a large database with too many character columns and a huge number of rows. So, if you are trying to run it on a large database, be prepared to wait (I did use the locking hint NOLOCK to reduce any locking). It is efficient to use Full-Text search feature for free text searching, but it doesn't make sense for this type of ad-hoc requirements.
Create this procedure in the required database and here is how you run it:
–To search all columns of all tables in Pubs database for the keyword "Computer"
EXEC SearchAllTables 'Computer'
Here is the complete stored procedure code:
CREATE PROC SearchAllTables ( @SearchStr nvarchar(100) ) AS BEGIN -- Copyright © 2002 Narayana Vyas Kondreddi. All rights reserved. -- Purpose: To search all columns of all tables for a given search string -- Written by: Narayana Vyas Kondreddi -- Site: http://vyaskn.tripod.com -- Tested on: SQL Server 7.0 and SQL Server 2000 -- Date modified: 28th July 2002 22:50 GMT CREATE TABLE #Results (ColumnName nvarchar(370), ColumnValue nvarchar(3630)) SET NOCOUNT ON DECLARE @TableName nvarchar(256), @ColumnName nvarchar(128), @SearchStr2 nvarchar(110) SET @TableName = '' SET @SearchStr2 = QUOTENAME('%' + @SearchStr + '%','''') WHILE @TableName IS NOT NULL BEGIN SET @ColumnName = '' SET @TableName = ( SELECT MIN(QUOTENAME(TABLE_SCHEMA) + '.' + QUOTENAME(TABLE_NAME)) FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES WHERE TABLE_TYPE = 'BASE TABLE' AND QUOTENAME(TABLE_SCHEMA) + '.' + QUOTENAME(TABLE_NAME) > @TableName AND OBJECTPROPERTY( OBJECT_ID( QUOTENAME(TABLE_SCHEMA) + '.' + QUOTENAME(TABLE_NAME) ), 'IsMSShipped' ) = 0 ) WHILE (@TableName IS NOT NULL) AND (@ColumnName IS NOT NULL) BEGIN SET @ColumnName = ( SELECT MIN(QUOTENAME(COLUMN_NAME)) FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS WHERE TABLE_SCHEMA = PARSENAME(@TableName, 2) AND TABLE_NAME = PARSENAME(@TableName, 1) AND DATA_TYPE IN ('char', 'varchar', 'nchar', 'nvarchar') AND QUOTENAME(COLUMN_NAME) > @ColumnName ) IF @ColumnName IS NOT NULL BEGIN INSERT INTO #Results EXEC ( 'SELECT ''' + @TableName + '.' + @ColumnName + ''', LEFT(' + @ColumnName + ', 3630) FROM ' + @TableName + ' (NOLOCK) ' + ' WHERE ' + @ColumnName + ' LIKE ' + @SearchStr2 ) END END END SELECT ColumnName, ColumnValue FROM #Results END
Have you ever needed to add a null value to your integer, date & time,decimal or Boolean etc… data types?! I'm sure you may faced this desire before and you had to work around it to submit null value to those value data types. For example using DateTime.MinValue as a mark to a null value. But you cannot submit DateTime.MinValue to SQL Server Database, as this will throw an exception.
So .Net Framework 2.0 comes out with a great new feature and solution to your problem. It is The Nullable Value Types. I'm saying .Net Framework to generalize the feature as it is a new feature in both C# and VB.NET.The New Story:
In .Net Framework 2.0, value types can be extended to take either their normal values or a null value. Such an extension is called a nullable type.
Nullable type is constructed from the generic Nullable structure. By having this feature, you can submit null values to you database table field normally, like submitting a null DateTime value to a datetime field in your database table.
Now how can we declare a nullable value type?
Simply like this:
DataTime? dtmVarName = null;
int? intVarName = null;
bool? bVarName = null;
Dim dtmVarName As Nullable(Of DateTime)
Dim intVarName As Nullable(Of Integer)
Dim bVarName As Nullable(Of Boolean)
How can you check if your nullable value type contains data?
Simply by checking HasValue property attached to your nullable value type
if (dtmVarName.HasValue)
//…do something
If dtmVarName.HasValue Then
'…do something
End If
To extract your normal value from your nullable type, use Value property, only if HasValue returns true.
The following is written in MSDN, but I found it very useful to be used to close this article. Nullable types have the following characteristics:
Assign a value to a nullable type in the same way as for an ordinary value type, for example:
C#: int? x = 10; or double? d = 4.108;
VB.NET: Dim x As Nullable(Of Integer) = 10 or Dim d As Nullable(Of Double) = 4.108
C#: int j = x.GetValueOrDefault();
VB.NET: Dim j as Integer = x.GetValueOrDefault()
C#: Nullable<Nullable<int>> n;
VB.NET: Dim n as Nullable(Of Nullable(Of int))


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I don't even know where here is.
It's cold, cold and empty. People pass by and gawk.
I am a prisoner. But what is my crime? I can hear them speaking—cruel, barbed words—but I do not understand the sentence. Won't someone explain why I'm here? Can't someone rescue me?
Sometimes I see a man. I think I knew him before. But he scares me. I think he's the reason I'm here. But if he didn't imprison me, he wants me to stay here for a long time.
Others come—they call me sister and daughter. I sometimes remember them—light and laughter from a long time ago. When I try to speak, I don't think they can hear me.
I have been here so long—they won't let me out—and he has barred the gates against them. Guards patrol the halls, keeping others away.
Now they come for me. I scream, but they don't hear. I try to run, but my legs can't move. "What are you doing?"
They don't look at me.
I am dragged outside into the winter cold.Guards form a barrier between my would-be rescuers and me.
I stare at their blankets as I freeze to death
In memory of Terri Schiavo
December 3, 1963 ~ March 31, 2005
Never Again

subset: commoncrawl


text:
As for my promised updates on Linux. My present love is Mandrake 9.2. And the one word to sum it all. It Rocks!!!
I reinstalled Linux after all the minimum install i did the other day to convert to a full install. The best things
1. xmms
2. mplayer
3. anjuta
4. Xfce
6. cool wallpapers.
7. High stability.
Of course, there are still a lot of chinks that have to be filled into it before it can all the way with windows. But as an OS, Linux is _the_ most promising one on the horizon for me.
And for a console freak, and a stability drone, this is the place to be…
Im thinking of those times/days when i used to work in Windows. Nostalgia…sniff…sniff


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Recently, a colleague wanted to update our corporate profile on a well-known website for sharing interview experiences; we will call them Brickwindow. When signing up for a free corporate account, he filled out the fields honestly, stating his name, his job title, and checking the box that stated he represented HR, which he does as part of his various duties. 24 hours later (or thereabouts), the response came back saying that Brickwindow were not permitting him to open the account as his job title wasn't HR-related. They would need a C-level employee or member of the HR department to verify his authority (or to open the account themselves).
Here's the issue. Our organization does not have an HR department or traditional C-level employees like CEO, CFO or CTO. Just as we are trusted to make good software engineering decisions, we are trusted to make good decisions in other aspects of the business, including who we hire. There are no managers, no Chief Gubbins Officers, and no HR departments. So, my colleague wrote back to Brickwindow outlining how our company structure just does not fit their rules. He assured them that he is authorized to make HR decisions. Shortly thereafter, they responded reiterating that he could not have the account and asserting that they are committed to the security of their users.
So, I signed up.
I have the same job title as my colleague, but since we can choose our own job titles, I temporarily promoted myself to Assistant to the Director of HR. After submitting my application, I pondered on how they might verify this and quickly updated my LinkedIn profile to state the same title1. About thirty minutes later I had an account. It was that easy. My colleague had just been too honest. As for the commitment to user security, Brickwindow sent me my new user name and password in plain text. Brilliant2. I quickly changed it and then forwarded the account details to my colleague so he could continue with the task he had attempted to do the day before.
I think this tale serves as a great example of how we can get bogged down in process and miss the purpose of an activity altogether. In trying to make sure that no one could just create an account for any old company, Brickwindow made assumptions about its corporate user base that meant they could not adapt when faced with something that did not conform. Not only that, but they were so busy trying to enforce those assumptions, they missed the glaring loopholes. All they managed to achieve was a huge waste of time; theirs and ours. This had been an opportunity for Brickwindow to demonstrate they are forward thinking and adaptable, but instead they made it clear they are stuck in the past with the monolithic corporate structures of C-level employees and middle management. In the end, they failed on three major points: identity, roles, and security. We only persevered because we appreciate the primary service provided by Brickwindow.
So, next time you are faced with a situation that does not fit the script, consider whether the script needs to change before trying to change the situation. These conflicts are an opportunity to impress, not stick to rigid rules that don't even achieve the goals they intend to.
If you have any similar tales of well-intentioned processes gone wrong, or corporate dogma that gets in the way, please post them in the comments.
As for me, I have since demoted myself back to a Senior UX Engineer (a title I had chosen when I found out I would be speaking at CodeMash 126.96.36.199). It turns out HR was just not a good fit for me.


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If everyone knew all there is to know, they would not do half the things they do, including myself, therefore I must foregive them, including myself.
[Top House Republican leaders] are flying to Amelia Island to collaborate with a group dedicated to defeating conservatives in Congress.
The Republican Main Street Partnership's offshoot "Main Street Advocacy" is hosting the event at the Ritz Carlton on Amelia Island. . . . According to an email inviting people to the event, "People that are attending have donated $5,000 to the PAC."


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An interesting feature of today's post about oratory on the BBC website is that it doesn't say anything about why it should be appearing today, or any other day for that matter.
I say this because, as I've noted before, the BBC, like other media outlets, has systematically reduced the numbers of speeches they show on television over the past twenty years, which I regard as a worrying trend. You can see more on this in earlier postings on this blog, including Obama's rhetoric renews UK media in the 'lost art' of oratory.
And the title of that is what I would bet inspired Denise Waterman, and/or whoever it was at the BBC who commissioned the piece, to write about a subject that they'd probably never have bothered with in the pre-Obama era.
So a few months ago Alan Yentob, who in his former job at the BBC played a part in taking speeches off the air, suddenly became interested in the subject, probably to justify the expense of sending so many staff to Washington for Obama's inauguration - on which, see 'The Lost Art of Oratory' by a BBC executive who helped to lose it in the first place.
If you'd like to learn more about Obama's techniqes, the following posts include line-by-line analyses:
Rhetoric and imagery in Obama's victory speech
Rhetoric and imagery in President Obama's inauguration speech
There are quite a lot of other posts about him on the blog, and the easiest way to access them is either to type his name (or that of any other politician you might be interested in) into the search box on the left, or to go to my business website where there's a complete list of posts (and direct links to them) since the blog began.


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Are you looking for a good stick to your ribs dinner for this unbelievable cold outside? This Crock
Pot Beef Osso Buco can be waiting for you when you come home from work. The price is under $9.00 and can feed a family of 4 off of two large shanks. I purchased mine at Woodman's. I was looking at oxtails but for some reason they are crazy expensive right now. With the addition of polenta as a side, you have a delicious, filling meal.
Osso Buco
You need the stove for the first part, but I swear, the rest is easy peasy. Firstly, season and brown both sides of the beef in about 2 tablespoons of oil. You want a nice crust to form. Even brown the sides. Remove the beef to the crock pot. Add the mushrooms and onions and saute until golden. In the same pan, add one cup of red wine. I used Rex-Goliath Merlot. Use a wooden spoon to push up the brown bits from
the pan. Reduce for 5 minutes. The alcohol will cook out. Pour over the beef shanks. Add a pinch of Thyme, a teaspoon of minced garlic, a bay leaf, season again with salt and pepper. Add two tablespoons tomato paste and one can drained fire roasted tomatoes to the crock pot. Instead of adding more broth at this point, I added 2 beef bouillon cubes to keep the water content down.
You can add root veggies like turnips, potatoes, and carrots. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours. The meat will be fall off the bone. Remove the sauce to a sauce pot on the stove. Add corn starch mixed in water to thicken. Serve over your favorite side. For the polenta I used a tube version that I mixed chicken stock with until it was grit consistency.


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I have embraced my inner Real Housewife of NJ and started to create fabulous little bows for munchface. I mean, something about oversized, chunky, grosgrain bows just make my soul happy... This is the first of MANY tutorials geared toward other mamas just like me who have a thing for bows, headbands and any other hair decorations for little (and not so little) ladies :)
Finished product will look like this:
Step 1: Take a paper cup, flip it upside down and trace 5 circles. Flip over and trace 4 circles with the smaller base of the cup.
You will have a total of 9 circles (5 larger; 4 smaller) as pictued below:
Step 2: With a piece of felt, trace the base of a cup. This will serve as the base of your bow.
Step 3: Take one of your large circles and dab the center with hot glue. Fold in half and hold for about 10 seconds. It should look like this:
Step 4: Place hot glue on one side of the semi circle (pictured below):
Again, hold in place for a few to allow the glue to set (demonstrated below):
Top view:
Step 5: Dab the back side (as pictured below:
Step 6: Place the "point" on the felt bow base like so:
Repeat with 3 more circles. The 4 should cover the felt bow base. Take the 5th and repeat Steps 1-4. Place glue on the point, then place in the center. This piece will give the dome shape so do not glue anywhere other than the point. It will look like this:
Step 7: I like to glue the pieces together so the felt is no longer visible and it makes it a little more sturdy. It will look like this:
Step 8: glue the headband to the felt base:
Step 9: cut a small square of felt to reinforce the bottom of the bow:
Step 10: Glue the 4 smaller fabric circles to their base and, instead of the center piece of fabric, embellish with a gem (or random lost/broken earring). It will look similar to this:
LOVE! It adds that extra something to every outfit AND you can adhere these to ANYTHING! I've made a bib necklace, sewn them to purses, made a double sided version as a keychain... the possibilities are endless! HAVE AT IT!


text:
Author of Just Breathe, Barely Breathing, Forever Breathing, The Sound of Shooting Stars, Feeling This, No Regrets and No Fear
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Happy 2016!!! I'm a little late but that seems to be my style so after all these years...I've finally accepted it! I've seen everyone reflect upon 2015 and look to 2016 for hope, happiness and all those nice, pretty things... I suppose I can follow suit in saying bob-bye 2015- you sucked!! Hello 2016- Note to self- I'm going to make you so proud! So for writing this year- I have a shit-ton to do... No Return will be finished if it kills me... Feeling This has two books to follow... Storm of Ekkos has two more books as well... Cheers to ALL THE POSSIBILTIES!!!! <3
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During this week I began having bizarre dreams as well, all of them included a babygirl. I guess that's my minds way of saying that it's getting close. Maneuvering is a daily challenge. Chris always says to get him if I need anything but I still find myself trying to be self sufficient. It seems like I am up every 2 to 3 hours every night because the little darling is on my bladder. The other night I tried to get up and I swear I ripped an ab muscle!! It burned. Chris said again that I need to wake him up anytime that I need to get up so that he can help me. I am so fortunate to have him. Though he is always attentive to me even prior to the baby, he has continued to be his regular attentive self catering to me hand and foot. I am so blessed. For mornings when he has to leave early to get to the gym or work, he even crated a handle for me to pull to help me roll out of bed.
Though mentally prepared there are still some things that we need to take care of. The other day my sister Von and her family came over because we needed a nursery intervention. I found myself stuck on some ideas. My little brother Datus came over as well with his girlfriend Kayla. All of us were in the nursery hanging out and brainstorming. That was a lot of fun, we ordered pizza and made a night of it. Von even surprised us with one of the pieces of artwork that we registered for!
In this week our first fabric came in from fabric.com. It's called Gotcha and though this isn't the best photo, it's kind of a hot pink:
Aaaand for the belly shot!
|Boy...I have a sleepy face in this pic
Weird Dreams: Not this week
Emotional: Nope
Movement: Much more violent, doesn't feel so great anymore
Maternity clothes needed: Still wearing size large in some shirts,pants are getting snug...might need to get some maternity pants for the next couple weeks...


text:
I remember vividly coming home when the light is dimming and leaving wellies, scarves and gloves in the hall, to sit with toes as close to the log fire as we dared.
Living in the city you only get a muted version of Autumn. We're lucky enough to have a large green wooded area close by, but it's not the same as watching the deer nibble frosty grass from your bedroom window and collecting chestnuts at the end of the lane to roast on the fire.
Today was one of those days where I longed for the countryside. So I baked. Enough for many more people than live in this house.
Banana bread
Seeded sourdough loaves.
I then prepared an enormous Indian meal for City Boy and I to gorge ourselves on: poppadoms with chutney and raita, chana dal, spicy roasted aubergine, prawn coconut curry, rice and naan. Needless to say, we'll be eating it for the next week.
So, full and satisfied, I'm off to tuck myself up with a hot water bottle and a good book. Wild Saturday nights round here. I'm using the excuse of going on holiday on Wednesday to justify a lazy weekend.


text:
Two Duets and a Quartet
A poem
Inside two ladies from El Salvador natter
As they clean.
Outside a set of mourning doves
Oboes a rift.
Only listening for the direction the sound comes from
Can I tell which pair is which.
Writing you, forgetting to listen,
In the background, a quartet.
Recommended: Could you pass a US citizenship test?


text:
Friday, August 5, 2016
Jerry Yan defends his old love, Lin Chi Ling: She is a kind-hearted and filial person
On 27th July on Weibo, Edison Chen (陳冠希) made bizarre and intolerable attack in English to Taiwanese supermodel. Lin Chi Ling (林志玲) and it becomes the hottest topic among the netizens.
Taiwanese celebrity and Chi Ling's old love, Jerry Yan (言承旭) immediately defended her through his company upon knowing the attack: "Chi Ling is a kind-hearted and filial person." It is obvious Jerry shows lots of concern for Chi Ling.
Source: ON.CC (HK)
Translated by: tvfan @ Asian E-News Portal
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text:
Gallery Home
Artchive home
Oil Paintings
Traditional Portraits
Henry Moore
Landscape with cows by a river 1857
To Order a 100% Handmade Oil Painting Reproduction of this painting, Click Here!
Artist Name:
Henry Moore
Painting Title:
Landscape with cows by a river 1857
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Rough Weather in the Mediterranean reproduction
Storm Brewing 1890 reproduction
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The Gulf of Rosas reproduction
On the Seine Near Les Andelys 1871 reproduction
Stormy Seas 1874 reproduction
R e l a t e d r e p r o d u c t i o n s:
Frederic Remington:
Down go Horses and Men reproduction
Viktor Vasnetsov:
The field of Igor Svyatoslavich's battle with the... reproduction
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Albrecht Durer:
St. George On Horseback reproduction
John Robert Cozens:
Arriccia near Albano reproduction
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Edward Lear:
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A Fast Trotter reproduction
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text:
If you are thinking of going to a party of other occasion dressed as a clown, you will find that you can easily avoid the expense of purchasing or renting a costume by making it yourself. A clown's costume can, for the most part, be quickly assembled from bits and pieces from your closet. Though you might think you have to purchase a wig, you can make one fairly simply.
Cut pieces of yarn to the length you want for the hair. You will need a lot of these. You do not have to use one colour. For example, you might want the hair of the sides to be white, and the hair on the top blue.
Place the skull cap on a person who is about the same size as the person who will be wearing it. Pick up one of the pieces of knitting yarn, place some glue on the end and glue it to the base of the skull cap in the back. Continue this process, working you way in a line across back of the scull cap.
Let the line of hairs you have glued dry for a few minutes. Then add more layers above this, filling out the back of the head.
Repeat this process for the sides. Finally, add the hairs to the top.


text:
Caring professionals.
When things are going well, you tend to take your mental health for granted. You may not even slow down to think about your emotional well-being.
But, inevitably challenges occur. Happiness and satisfaction can be short-lived. Maybe a relationship goes bad. Or a promotion doesn't come through. Physical problems develop. In today's fast-paced world, you don't have to wait long for something new to produce stress.
Suddenly, difficult times are right there in front of you. And you can't avoid life's problems. How you respond determines – or can be determined by – the state of your mental health.
Your mental health.
To some people, however, achieving mental health means managing or overcoming a serious illness. Their struggles with depression symptoms, anxiety, mood, psychosis or personality can be debilitating.
Their illness can cause or complicate a variety of issues, such as the inability to keep a job, disruption of families, loss of sleep and deteriorating physical health.
These illnesses can't be ignored; they must be faced and dealt with by trained, experienced, compassionate mental health professionals. That's who you'll find at the Mehta Behavioral Health Center at Regional Hospital.


text:
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Almost there!
We are in NYC this weekend to watch Austin run the Jesuit Championship race, but our adoption journey continues. Victor went to check on our house and said a big envelope arrived from WACAP. That would be our referral packet for FengHong. Then he told us another envelope arrived from Guangzhou. This COULD be it! This could be the travel notice! If it is the travel notice, then we can finally make arrangements to fly to China!! We are still in NYC for Austin's meet, and I can't wait to get home to open our mail. It's funny how mail has become important to me this year. I used to have David get the mail on his way home from work, but since completing our adoption application a year ago, I've run to the mailbox everyday, much like a young child might. I anxiously scan the letters, hoping against hope that there is something from WACAP or the Dept. of Homeland Security. Now, while we're out of town, it looks like we might have received important mailings. If it is our notice to travel for BingHui, we have to find out if we can proceed, or if we need to wait for a second notice to travel for FengHong. Speaking of FengHong, David and I have talked of nothing else lately but his name. We spent hours talking about how to, and if we should, change FengHong's name. We pour over baby name lists trying to come up with a name similar to FengHong that sounds kind of American. No success at this point. We are wondering if he has already taken an English name; sometimes the children take American names for their English class. We want to know how FengHong will feel about an American name. We grapple with this everyday, while we wait to travel.
Posted by adoption journey at 6:25 AM
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General Rodríguez Torres was Maduro's Popular Power Minister of Interior Relations, Peace and Justice, from 2013 to October 2014. He was part of Chavez's 1992 failed coup, but is best known for being the public face of Maduro´s government during the 2014 opposition protests.
In 2013 a group a Venezuelan human rights organizations published a press release expressing concern for Rodriguez Torres' public claim that the president of the NGO Control Ciudadano, Rocío San Miguel, was a CIA agent. Rodríguez Torres never provided evidence of his claim.
During the violent first months of 2014, Rodríguez Torres often gave news conferences claiming that the opposition protests were no more than part of a plot to overthought Maduro's government. The conspiracy was, according to Rodríguez Torres, led by the Department of State of the United States, and also included Colombian ex-president Álvaro Uribe Vélez, and a long list of opposition leaders. Short of evidence to back his conspiracy claims, Rodríguez Torres often illustrated his press conferences with screen graphics linking pictures of opposition leaders and their foreign puppet masters.
But since January 2015, after his dismissal as Interior Minister, Rodríguez Torres has become increasingly critical of the government, making statements about the government's food program CLAP, for example, and claiming that "Venezuela needs a spiritual revival."
Now, according to the Venezuelan news portal El Estímulo, the military intelligence agency DIGCIM could be about to accuse Rodríguez Torres of being part of a conspiracy to oust Maduro. El Estímulo claims that the General will be presented as the head of a "great military conspiracy movement" operating in Venezuela.
This comes a day after PSUV leader Diosdado Cabello announced on his TV Show Con el Mazo Dando, that the government has discovered an ongoing conspiracy which the international reaction to the coup against the National Assembly, and street opposition protests in Venezuela. Cabello implicated opposition party COPEI leader Roberto Enríquez among other opposition leaders in the plan, but said that unnamed "members of the armed forces" are also part of the plot.
"Don't be surprise if we come knocking your door, tun, tun, tun… we are working for peace," said Cabello referring of possible night raids to come.


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The days when students hunted down all their expensive textbooks in a traditional campus bookstore have ended.
Following the trend of students renting textbooks online, Amazon Inc., a long-time student favorite for bargain books, recently announced it will offer a textbook rental system through which students can mail back well-kept books free of charge after 130 days, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Amazon's decision to hop onto the physical textbook rental market will increase competition, potentially a good thing for college consumers. Even companies that pioneered the rental model are trying to find innovative ways to turn a profit.
Five years ago, Alan Martin, CEO of Campus Book Rentals, started his company hoping a website could offer college students an way out of buying expensive textbooks. At the time, textbook rental services were practically non-existent. For instance, the option was absent from Amazon or Barnes and Noble, and Martin, who was then a Webster University graduate student, granted his company a pulse by ponying up a quarter-million dollars on maxed-out credit cards.
Martin dropped out of school, banking on his company's success and further upping the ante on his gamble with debt.
Now 33 years old, he pulled out of debt in 2009 and turned profits annually since then. Now, it's a different textbook market.
"All the folks who have been on the block who were just selling are now renting," said Martin in a phone interview. "Even at the college bookstore level that never rented a book prior to about three years ago."
There's a chance students have used Campus Book Rentals before without knowing it.
The company partnered with a number of colleges and universities, like New York University, to set up touch screen kiosks on 6,000 campuses that are usually placed in schools' bookstores where students traditionally purchased assigned texts. They don't feature the company's logos and are not paid for by the schools.
"They're completely, privately labeled for the bookstore," said Martin. "so students have no idea we're behind the technology."
When the student renting the book brings it back, Martin's company sells the book back to the bookstore. If the bookstore no longer offers the textbook, his company rents it out to another school.
Data gathered by Student Monitor, LLC, a college market research firm, reveals at least 15 percent of students rented textbooks after 2010, and 27 percent of students rented at least one used textbook.
It appears students attempting to spend less on college texts are succeeding. Another study by Student Monitor showed students spending an average of $345 on textbooks in the fall of 2005. In spring 2011, the average fell to $252.
However, recent studies suggest students may be getting the raw ends of deals by renting instead of buying and selling used books online.
BigWords.com, the first price comparison company to partner with Amazon's rental services, found through a survey that buying and selling books instead of renting them saved students an average of $1,000 per school year.
BigWords recently created a "consider buyback value" option to its price comparison toolbox, allowing students to compare the amount of savings from buying and then selling the book over the cost of renting books.


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Between camera issues (I have 3 kids, the issue is that one usually grabs the camera, drops it and we need a new one) and computer issues (crunked up computer) it has been a while since actually grabbed the camera, went outside and took some photos. But now we have a camera I hide from the kids so successfully that I forget where it is occasionally and a new laptop. So we are good to go!
Here is what we have going on in our little section of Sunny San Diego:
|Black Krim tomato
|Strawberries. (Our small strawberry patch needs an overhaul and I just haven't had
time to do it, so this small container should yield enough for the kids for now.)
|Container pickling cukes, and in front of that the seedlings I have had on hold.
|Salad mix after a big cut down (I generally don't grow salad greens, but after seeing everyone else's harvest and all the salads, I got jealous.).
|Red Potoates
|Juliet Tomato (small grape)
|My mini patch of bulb onions (red and yellow)
|Butternut Squash (Again, something I usually don't grow, but envy made me do it!).
|Bush Bean Filet (http://www.botanicalinterests.com/products/view/0228/Bean-Bush-French-Filet-Seeds/srch:bean)
|Water Spinach and Ram Ram in container
|More Ram Ram
|Gold Zucchini (http://www.botanicalinterests.com/products/view/0248/Squash-Summer-Max-s-Gold-Zucchini-Seeds/srch:gold%20zucchini)
Italian Zucchini
|Holey Cabbage and dill
|A closer look shows my tiny Bittermelon plants. Third planting for these guys, the transplants
did not take to the garden bed well, lesson learned.
|Another experiment for the year, artichoke. Poor little thing, our dog seems to think it was ok to step on it.
|Edible Chrysanthemum sprouts
|Thai Basil
|Chinese Okra (Luffa).
Bok Choy in container. All the bok choy we planted in ground was
munched on by some critter. I replanted more, I swear!
So, other than the perennials in the yard, that's it!


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Men across the nation spend millions on enlarge penis pills every year hoping to gain a little extra length or girth. With so many companies making these supplements and so many claims being made about them, it can be difficult to find the truth about Enlarge Penis Pills. Before you spend hundreds of your hard earned dollars on them, it's a good idea to take a closer look at the facts concerning enlarge penis pills so that you don't waste your money and end up disappointed. There may be results waiting for you thanks to enlarge penis pills, but chances are they aren't quite what you may think.
Uncovering the facts about enlarge penis pills is difficult, mainly since there is so little research concerning them. Since enlarge penis pills are supplements, the FDA doesn't have to approve them or conduct research concerning them. As a result, few studies have focused on their effectiveness. Most evidence concerning enlarge penis pills is merely anecdotal testimonials from users. In these instances, the results seem to be split in half with some reporting real results from the pills and others decrying them as a scam. The truth, most likely, lies somewhere between the two extremes.
In many of these cases, Enlarge Penis Pills may very well be working but not in the way that the user expected, causing them to cry 'scam'. While many enlarge penis pills will have no effect at all, the better ones will actually improve blood flow to the penis if taken regularly. While this has no real effect on the flaccid size of the penis, it can increase the size of erections slightly since the penis can become engorged with more blood than normal. Many people fail to recognize this and simply assume that since their flaccid penis hasn't grown, the enlarge penis pills aren't working.
Some enlarge penis pills truly are nothing more than a scam, and sometimes dangerous ones. Numerous contaminants ranging from E. coli to lead have been found in some of the low quality enlarge penis pills. Higher quality ones, however, seem to be safe and side effect free since they're made from natural products like pomegranate and saw palmetto. Still, it's important that you recognize the cold, hard fact that no enlarge penis pill will actually add inches to your penis. But combined with a few simple lifestyle changes, some Enlarge Penis Pills can give you a larger erection than you would normally have.


text: Not sure what you'd call this. We had some leftover emergency camping rations in the form of KD boxes. That was the foundation for this dinner. It came together well and tasted better then you'd think. The white cheese and creme fraiche combo didn't hurt either. I guess you can never judge a box by it's cover.


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Year in Review – Most Popular Posts of 2006
Most Popular Posts
The end of the year is always a time for reflection; here's a list of what people found most popular in 2006 (based on my wordpress.com stats). Listed in order of popularity.
- The Holy Grail of Synchronization
- 81 movies for geeks that do not suck
- IceWeasel
- The Great Firewall of Canada
- 107 t-shirts for geeks that do not suck
- Google Code Project Hosting
- Life in the Trenches – Getting Out Alive
- Top Ten Things I Hate About Crunch Time
- Web Anonymity 101 – Digital Breadcrumbs
- How to access Gmail when it is blocked at work
- You Can Be a Good Example or a Horrible Warning – How NOT to be a Successful Blogger
- Getting to Deadline – Programmer Productivity Tips
You can find out the stats for your blog by visiting this link and changing it to point to your wordpress.com blog
Most Bookmarked on del.icio.us
I've purposely left out the bookmarks that already made it to most popular posts.
- Painless Estimation Tools Evaluated
- How to fix the Firefox memory leak (Firefox hack)
- Web 2.0 Time Tracking In a Nutshell (please don't sue me O'Reilley)
- Life in the Trenches Part 1 – Getting Out Alive
- Guide on How to Setup Two or More Gmail Accounts to Use One Account
- WordPress.com Theme Reviews
- You Can Be a Good Example or a Horrible Warning – How NOT to be a Successful Blogger
- Top Ten Things I Hate About Crunch Time at a Startup (Bride of Getting to Deadline)
- Problems with searching del.icio.us
- Nokia 6682 Review Part 4 of 5: Freeware Applications
- I Hate Internet Explorer 7 (Uninstall Guide)
- Understanding Tagging Folksonomy – How it Relates to Improving PageRank
- WordPress Tips – Alt-B
- Web Anonymity 103 – Online Privacy
- 45 Books I Like More Than a Little
- 5 Habits for Writing for the Web
- Web Anonymity 101 – Digital Breadcrumbs
- The Secret to Blog Success is in the Title
- Building an Audience or "How I Learned to Stop Posting Inane Crap and Love the Blog"
- How to be a Programmer with 10 Simple Books
- Time Tracking Softare: Painless Estimation Tools Evaluated
- Making a mountain out of a molehill (of bugs)
One Response
[…] in Review – Most Popular Posts of 2007 The second year of Internet Duct Tape found me settling down into my blogging rhythm. It went from an obsession to […]


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I so miss SPD when the kids were younger. They would create the most elaborate Leprechaun traps ~ why didn't I take pictures! The mischief caused by the escaping Leprechaun entertained them to fits of laughter. Some of my favorite memories are from when I was teaching pre-school but I already wrote about that 2 years ago ~ obvious hint to link back to that post HERE
Leprechaun Hats~ aren't these cute! I bought 4 containers at the Wbox store for 88 cents. Waiting for the paint to dry was the longest part. Take her advice and sponge the paint on.
Candy Rainbows I didn't have the right size bags so I just cut the licorice in half ~ it is candy the kids aren't going to care.
I filled the hats with the popcorn and put one packaged candy rainbow in each. I couldn't find the candy coins. Crazy as it sounds the candy rainbows cost more than the other two combined.
My menu is pretty basic:
Corned Beef and Cabbage
Homemade Irish Soda Bread
Real Irish Butter (woo hoo so glad stores carry this now)
Beer and Hard Cider
Green Desserts (as healthy as possible)
I am adding two new appetizers ~ both healthy.
Using a shamrock shaped cookie cutter on spinach roll-outs I'll create shamrock chips
I saw a cute presentation of cucumbers that create a shamrock
I'll serve both with a light spinach dip


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Hello & Happy Friday!
So glad the weekend is here even though it felt like it was 100 degrees outside today! Phew, it was a steam bath! Since it was so hot, I headed downstairs to get inky! Things are in progress right now but i'm going to share my Fry Box treats today! I'm so happy with them!
I used the Stampin Up Fry Box Die to make these cuties! I filled some cello bags with Hershey Kisses, tied it shut with some Stitched Grosgrain ribbon that's now retired. I really love this ribbon because it's so easy to work with for tying bows! I decorated the front of the box with a stamp set called Oh My Goodies! I used the Deco Thinlits to cut them out and the Scallop Oval & Lg Oval Punches to change out the sentiment to a different color. I cut my stars with the Stars Framelits with Silver Glimmer Paper and my Real Red & Night of Navy cardstocks. The little clothespins I found a few weeks ago at Walmart.
These make a very cute gift for the upcoming July 4th holiday. I'm sure any kid would love to have that bag of Hershey Kisses while watching the fireworks! Fun times!
Patriotic Fry Boxes:
Stamps: Oh My Goodies!
Ink: Real Red, Night of Navy
Cardstock: Real Red, Night of Navy, Whisper White, Silver Glimmer Paper
Accessories: Fry Box Die, Star Framelits, Deco Framelits, Scallop Oval & Lg Oval Punches, Clothespin from Walmart, Rhinestones, Ribbon, Cello Bags, Tombow Liquid Multi Purpose Glue
Hope you like these yummy treats!
Well, that's all for me today!
Thanks for stopping by & have a great day!
Thanks for stopping by & have a great day!


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'Teen Mom 2' Is Returning With An All-New Season!
Jenelle Evans, Leah Messer, Chelsea Houska and Kailyn Lowry are all back for season two of MTV's hit show 'Teen Mom 2' starting Dec. 6!
MTV has officially announced that Jenelle Evans, Leah Messer, Chelsea Houska and Kailyn Lowry will be returning with an all-new second season of Teen Mom 2 on Dec. 6 at 10:00 p.m.!
Here are the girls' stories:
- Leah: "Leah sacrificed everything her senior year in order to graduate, take care of her babies and try to make things work with her daughters' father, Corey [Simms]," reads MTV's press release. "They've weathered many ups and downs as a couple, from trust issues to doctor visits for understanding daughter Ali's slow development. Just before the twins' first birthday, Leah and Corey made the ultimate commitment by becoming husband and wife. But soon after the honeymoon they realize that marriage isn't as easy as they'd hoped it would be."
- Jenelle: "Jenelle continues to reconcile the responsibilities of motherhood with her love of partying," MTV reveals. "With the birthfather of her son Jace out of the picture, Jenelle relies heavily on her mother Barbara. The two have an explosive relationship, which is amplified by the fact that Barbara has temporary custody of Jace. Through it all, Jenelle struggles to prove herself as a mom and responsible adult, but her party girl ways — and her trouble-maker boyfriend, Kieffer [Delp] — keep leading her down the wrong path. When Jenelle and Keiffer get arrested, she must choose between changing her ways or continuing on a downward spiral that could quickly hit rock bottom."
- Kailyn: "Kailyn and Isaac's father Jo [Rivera]'s relationship crumbled under the stress of balancing their lives and raising their child, and Kailyn moved out amidst their constant fighting," shares MTV. "A romance with coworker Jordan begins to get more serious as she turns to him for emotional support during a bitter custody battle with Jo. Through it all, Kailyn keeps two jobs and goes to school full time, determined to better her situation for her son while navigating her complicated relationship with Jo and struggling to finally move out on her own."
- Chelsea: "Since giving birth to Aubree, Chelsea's life has been consumed with taking care of her daughter and trying, in vain, to make her tumultuous relationship with Aubree's father, Adam [Lind], succeed," details MTV. "She still hasn't graduated from high school. As her emotional tug-of-war with Adam escalates, she finally gets the strength to call it quits, trying to move forward and focus on what's best for her and her daughter. Her friends and family just hope she can stay away from Adam for good this time."
HollyMoms — are you excited for the new season of Teen Mom 2?
– Lauren Nicole
More Teen Mom 2 Stories:
- Jenelle Gets Pizza In NYC!
- Jenelle & Kailyn Speak Out Against Teen Pregnancy!
- Jenelle & Leah's Teen Mom 2 Sleepover In NYC!


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I read this post on making farmhouse cheddar over at Suzanne McMinn's fun and family friendly site, Chickens in the Road earlier this week. Today she posted on waxing the cheese so as to age it. Farmhouse cheese is the fastest hard cheese to make, apparently, and is something I'd love to try to make, especially as I'm becoming hyper aware of all the non-recyclable plastic shrink-wrapped around so much of my food. Suzanne makes hers with store bought milk, so it's not as difficult to try out as I might once have thought – y'know, back in the days when there were no baby-steps, it was all or nothing and I had to have my own cow, or at least access to local raw milk before I'd look into such a project! In fact, just about a year ago, I was reading about Suzanne learning to make ricotta cheese from milk from her own goat! (of course, she clearly states that your own goat is not required!) This woman is a wealth of information on many old-time skills and crafts. She even wrote a post on how to make your own cheese press. While I know I probably couldn't make one all by myself (as I don't have any power tools), I know a few folk who'd kindly help me out 🙂
UPDATED Jan 19th: Suzanne posted about homemade cream cheese for all of those who were intimidated by the making farmhouse cheddar post (the whole cheese press thing is what seemed daunting to me). As well, she reminds us:
"You don't have to have a cow… Making cheese isn't an all or nothing proposition. Just because you bought the cream at the store doesn't mean it's not homemade cheese. You still have so much more control, both from a health and a taste standpoint, in the end product. You can use less or no salt. You can add your own flavorings using your own home-preserved fruits or herbs."
Baby steps. Flylady would be proud. So would Bob. 🙂
UPDATED: Jan 30th: El at fast grow the weeds recently posted this about cheesemaking. Lots of good links!


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Entertainment entrepreneur Ron Creevey has had a lot on his plate lately.
First there is the debut of Channel Seven's exclusive documentary on the late Michael Hutchence that he has claimed he helped germinate, though he recently has confirmed he is no longer involved in the project.
There's the 12-part series on Sydney's Sons of Anarchy, with colourful Sydney nightclub owner John Ibrahim as a creative adviser, which has been shelved.
Then there's the relaunch of his music venue the X Studio, which copped a double bruising from Sydney's lockout laws and a legal stoush with current Bachelorette star Sophie Monk over an allegedly unpaid contract. That matter was settled earlier this year.
Oh, and then there's that securities fraud matter he is facing in New York.
To Creevey, who spoke to Fairfax Media by email, the allegations ware "#fakenews", a "smear campaign" and "defamatory".
The lawyer for the US investors who have made the allegations, Ken Sussmane, says Creevey owes his clients "hundreds of thousands of dollars".
The legal affair, which is laid bare in court documents filed in New York and available online, has again shone the light on Australia's nascent tech scene, which has produce a few fabled "unicorns" but also a growing list of "tech wrecks".
The company at the centre of the New York civil action is Yuuzoo and it too looks set to join the tech wreck list.
It was founded by Creevey and former Nokia Asia Pacific chief executive Thomas Zilliacus in 2008 and listed in Singapore in 2014. The company bills itself as an e-commerce platform specialised for social networks.
Star cast
Leading the case against Creevey is New York-based Jim Heckler, a man-about-town with celebrity friends and a list of deeply trendy Manhattan venues to his name.
Along with his Los Angeles-based actor-director brother Andrew, Heckler alleges Creevey and his long-time business partner Mark Cramer-Roberts were involved in a fraud relating to Yuuzoo ahead of its float.
Also in the Hecklers' sights is Zilliacus, US bank Wells Fargo and former Wells Fargo adviser John Hoekman. Hoekman is accused of promoting Yuuzoo's shares to New York's socialite set.
Creevey's private company, Yuuu Pty Ltd, and Moment Media Pty Ltd are also listed as defendants.
The allegation is that Creevey and his associates fraudulently made Yuuzoo look like a successful entity valued at $US383 million ($490 million).
The US investors say it was all a mirage. They allege they were presented with accounts that made Yuuzoo look much healthier than it was.
Today Yuuzoo's market capitalisation is a mere $S50 million ($A47 million).
The investors are seeking damages in excess of $US500,000 and punitive damages in the quantum to "deter future misconduct". Punitive damages in the US can stretch into the millions.
Like Creevey, London-based Cramer-Roberts describes the allegations as "totally incorrect".
But the Hecklers tell a different tale of the duo who once counted the wealthy Packer family as backers of one of their earlier projects.
Like many lawsuits involving start-ups, the allegations are complex.
They include that related-party companies linked to Creevey and Cramer-Roberts made up about a third of Yuuzoo's total sales in 2011 and 2012. It is alleged that this relationship was not disclosed to would-be investors by Hoekman.
It is also claimed that a substantial portion of sales booked by Yuuzoo from its Australian franchise, YZ Australia, were in fact licence fees.
Those fees weren't paid in cash from sales but, it is alleged, by delivery of shares of YZ Australia to Yuuzoo.
They also allege Yuuzoo used seven dormant companies in the UK to pump up the sales of Yuuzoo by 400 per cent to make it look more successful than it was.
Both Creevey and Cramer-Roberts strenuously deny the allegations.
Creevey claims he has not been involved with Yuuzoo since 2012. (He was though, a significant shareholder in Yuuzoo ahead of its 2014 listing on the Singapore exchange through his private vehicle Yuuu Pty Ltd, according to offer documents.)
And Cramer-Roberts says that he was never a representative of Yuuzoo, had no insight into the company's accounting, and there were never any licences fees paid in stock to YuuZoo.
"It was cash payments for licences only," he says.
"My only affiliation was that of a licence holder. I paid vast amounts of money to hold licences," he says, adding that he had lost a lot of money on his investment.
Disappointing results
There is no denying Yuuzoo has been a disappointment for investors.
Illustration: Simon Bosch
According to offer documents for Yuuzoo's reverse takeover in 2014 of W Corporation, the offer price on consolidated company shares was $S1. As of this week, Yuuzoo's shares were trading at six Singapore cents.
The company now joins Guvera on the list of Australian tech companies linked to the entertainment industry that have left investors poorer and raised serious questions about the financial bona fides of the company.
But tech stocks can run into trouble without any suspicion of impropriety.
Recently, the Australian market turned on tech darlings construction software firm Aconex and telecommunications group Vocus after the companies' respective set of results.
And last week, BusinessDay detailed the trials and tribulations of wearable sports tech company Catapult.
But unlike the rather ho-hum backstories of some tech outfits, how Yuuzoo came to list and its now parlous financial and governance situation is quite the tale that stretches back more than a decade.
Creevey first shot to attention in Australia back in 2005 when the catering business he ran with Cramer-Roberts spectacularly imploded.
Ahead of its collapse, The Cabinet had counted Luna Park and a host of other high profile companies as clients.
Mark Cramer-Roberts (right) and Ron Creevey during their time running The Cabinet. Photo: Andrew Quilty
Its investors included hotelier Justin Hemmes, stockbroker Peter Burrows and the then Packer family-controlled financial services company Challenger.
But in 2005 The Cabinet collapsed under $16 million of debts. Creevey and Cramer-Roberts petitioned for bankruptcy later that year.
After a few years licking their wounds Creevey and Cramer-Roberts were back in business, but this time the duo had gone back to their technology roots, where they had, through internet provider MagnaData, made their first millions.
Creevey would end up putting together Yuuzoo with Zilliacus. Cramer-Roberts was also involved in the formation of the company's UK business.
The new tech company was pitched as a modern way for corporates, celebrities, entertainers and sporting clubs to harness social media use by consumers, supporters or fans.
To do this, Yuuzoo develops and sells niche, tailor-made social media sites for mobile phones. Its market is big festivals, sporting events and companies. Regular users can also sign up and explore its bespoke social networks.
According to the offer documents pertaining to the back-door listing of Yuuzoo in 2014, one of the company's biggest clients is Moment Media Pty Ltd.
Moment was contracted to Yuuzoo for four of its largest client-branded networks, including "Kyle Sandilands Social Media", a social media network designed for fans of the popular radio personality.
Moment Media counts Creevey as its sole director and has previously been mooted for its own multimillion-dollar float. Yuuzoo's relationship with Moment Media is one of the related-party deals the Hecklers say they were not informed of by Hoekman before investing.
Cramer-Roberts and former Telstra chairman Bob Mansfield are former shareholders.
The media campaign to promote Yuuzoo started to swing into force in 2013. It was around then that Yuuzoo began courting investors in the US in advance of the Singapore float.
The Hecklers and Jim Heckler's company Hecklerco were two of the early pre-float investors in Yuuzoo.
It's a decision they now regret.
According to court documents, the Hecklers and Hecklerco acquired 160,000 shares for a total of $US200,000.
They also made a $US245,000 loan to Creevey's private Yuuu Pty Ltd between June and November 2013.
Hecklerco acquired a further 50,000 shares as part of that loan agreement with Creevey, it is alleged.
A further 90,000 shares were pledged when Creevey allegedly asked for an extension of the loan.
These purchases were made based on "fraudulent" misrepresentations made by Hoekman, Cramer-Roberts and Creevey as to the financial strength of the company it is alleged.
In a laundry list of accusations, the Hecklers say they were also never told by Hoekman of Creevey's and Cramer-Roberts' failed business, their bankruptcies, the related-party dealings between Yuuzoo and entities associated with the Australian businessmen, that Yuuzoo had tried to list in America before its Singapore listing but was rejected, and that "YZ (International Inc) was a sham organisation with no business and no offices".
They were also allegedly told that the shares pledged by Yuuu would be free trading within seven days of the float, despite knowing the SGX had a six-month moratorium on the trading of these specific shares.
Movie makers
In an unusual turn of events, the claim alleges the money raised from the Hecklers and Hecklerco for Yuuzoo shares was used to back an indie film, The Makings of You.
The film starred Sheryl Lee, who shot to fame as Laura Palmer in the original Twin Peaks television series, and was produced by The Masses, a company linked to Creevey's Moment Media.
It toured film festivals in 2014 and 2015.
The credits show the executive producers of the film were Hoekman and Creevey.
Creevey did not respond to questions about the financing of The Makings of You.
He says he does not owe Jim Heckler any money.
"This is #fakenews. Fabricated lies and false allegations by a group of Yankee carpetbaggers," Creevey says.
"In fact, Hecklerco owes me money, in relation to which I am in the process of instigating legal action against him and his company," he adds.
Creevey says he would continue to push forward to develop platforms and companies that serve the entertainment industry.
"Finally, let me be clear that I will stop at nothing to protect the interests of my business, its investors and employees," Creevey says.
"To that end I reserve my rights completely to the extent there is any defamatory or misrepresentative publication made about me, whether arising from Mr Heckler's campaign of smear and fabrication, or otherwise."
In London, Cramer-Roberts via email describes the allegations as inaccurate and disappointing.
"This claim upon me is a complete misrepresentation and I reserve all the rights against the plaintiff for such an outrageous claim," he says.
He adds that he was licence holder of Yuuzoo's UK franchise and that company had no direct relationship with Yuuzoo other than the issue of the licence.
He says Yuuzoo UK "has been shut down due to the licence being taken back by Yuuzoo Corporation", adding the clients were transferred to Yuuzoo.
"To the best of my knowledge the [Heckler] loan was settled by Mr Creevey in full and final satisfaction at the time," he says.
Both Creevey and Cramer-Roberts are yet to file any defence with the court.
Court records show Cramer-Roberts has not formally been served (and as such is under no obligation to file a defence), while Creevey's lawyer, Brenton Yates, has claimed in a letter to the court that Creevey was never served despite an affidavit of service indicating otherwise.
But while the music continues for Creevey through his other venture, Helipad Media, it has well and truly stopped for the former Wells Fargo adviser who sold investors the shares, Hoekman.
Well Fargo declined to comment. Photo: BEN MARGOT
A spokeswoman for Wells Fargo told Fairfax Media that Hoekman left Wells Fargo in August 2015 "during a review by the firm". His departure followed the Hecklers' notifying Wells Fargo of their claim.
"Wells Fargo Advisors maintains rigorous policies and procedures governing conflicts of interest, and we do not comment on pending litigation or personnel matters," the spokeswoman said.
Hoekman was permanently banned from associating with any member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority after he failed to provide documents and information requested during the course of an examination into allegations he had engaged in certain outside business activities without the knowledge or consent of Wells Fargo.
He accepted the ban with no admission or denial of the allegations made against him by his former clients.
It is not clear whether another loan sought by Creevey to New York PR doyenne Ann Magnin was related to the purchase of shares in Yuuzoo. Magnin won a $US665,000 judgment against Creevey earlier this year in the Supreme Court of NSW. She was also awarded costs on an indemnity basis. Magnin did not respond to inquiries.
Magnin was also listed as a creditor of Hoekman's in his self-instigated bankruptcy proceedings alongside the Hecklers, Hecklerco and Australian-based investors. Those proceedings have been stayed.
Ron Creevey Photo: James Brickwood
Creevey and Cramer-Roberts' lawyer, Brenton Yates, claims he was told by a US attorney "with direct involvement in the matter" that Hecklerco agreed to abandon its claims against Creevey, Moment Media and Cramer-Roberts as part of the Yuuzoo settlement.
However, the Hecklers' lawyer, Ken Sussmane, says the matter against Yates' clients continues and they are not party to the settlement.
"Any statement that my clients owe money to Mr Creevey is false and defamatory," Sussmane says. "If money was owed to Mr Creevey he would have showed up in court to defend himself and made his claims in the active court case."
As for the allegations against the company Yuuzoo and its chairman Zilliacus; they were settled in August.
Yet, despite Yuuzoo disclosing the allegations to the SGX in July after a series of reports in the Singapore business press and assuring the market they would keep it updated about the "frivolous allegations", the company appears to have made no mention of the confidential settlement.
A spokeswoman said the quantum of the settlement was not significant and was confidential.
"All complaints and allegations were withdrawn as part of the settlement. YuuZoo has in its earlier responses already denied all of the allegations, and also shown them not to be correct," the spokeswoman said.
She added that none of Yuuzoo's current clients were from entities associated with Creevey or Cramer-Roberts.
In regard to the fall in the company's share price, the spokeswoman said: "The company is trading at a P/E ratio of below two. The average P/E ratio for comparable companies is above 25. If Yuuzoo was given an average P/E ratio, the share price would be well above the listing price."
Yuuzoo has been a point of concern for the SGX since before its float, according to emails from Zilliacus to shareholders filed as exhibits in the New York court.
It remains so now.
The company has recently appointed new board members, a new chief financial officer and is on the hunt for a new chief executive after Zilliacus stepped back into a non-executive role to strengthen the group's governance. It has told the market its auditors have signed off on its accounts and in 2016 there were no transactions with interested parties.
It also produced a profit for the second quarter of 2017 of $S8.2 million. However, in response to a recent inquiry by the SGX, Yuuzoo told the market that some of its contracts were with entities associated with Mobile FutureWorks Inc, a company that is a controlling shareholder of Yuuzoo and in which Thomas Zilliacus has a controlling interest
SGX head of listing compliance June Sim said the exchange had been monitoring Yuuzoo's disclosures.
"Yuuzoo has announced its plan to engage an independent reviewer," Sim said.
"SGX is in close contact with the company on the reviewer's appointment including terms of reference of the appointment."
A spokesman for Singapore's corporate regulator, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, said "as a matter of policy, MAS does not comment on our specific dealings with listed issuers".
"Where breaches of the Securities and Futures Act are found to have been committed, we will not hesitate to take appropriate action," the spokesman said.
In a recent YouTube clip loaded up to the Yuuzoo website, Zilliacus said part of the company's strategy was delivering a good bottom line and good profit from which the company can pay dividends.
"However, it is very important to understand in the case of Yuuzoo that this is a secondary part of our strategy. Our primary part is to build, hold and ultimately sell companies that use our unique and, in many cases, patented technology."
To some people that might sound like Yuuzoo has a circular business model. But its supporters, including Zilliacus who also run the South Korean beauty pageant Miss Supertalent of the World, say people simply don't understand the business model.
The case in New York continues.


text:
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United States District Court, E.D. California
June 22, 2017
WILLIE EARL FULLER, Plaintiff,v.NANCY A. BERRYHILL[1], Acting Commissioner of Social Security, Defendant.
Earl Fuller initiated this action seeking judicial review of
the administrative decision to deny his application for
Social Security benefits. However, Plaintiff failed to comply
with the Court's orders and failed to prosecute this
action by filing an opening brief. Accordingly, the action is
initiated this action by filing a complaint on February 12,
2016. (Doc. 1) On June 20, 2016, the Court entered its
Scheduling Order, setting forth the applicable deadlines.
(Doc. 8) Pursuant to the Scheduling Order, the parties
exchanged confidential letter briefs, with Defendant serving
the Commissioner's response on March 9, 2017. (Docs. 16,
In the
Court's Scheduling Order, Plaintiff was ordered to file
an opening brief addressing "each claimed error"
by the administrative law judge within thirty days of the
date of service of the Commissioner's response.
(See Doc. 8 at 2, explaining the applicable briefing
deadlines) Accordingly, Plaintiff was to file an opening
brief in this action no later than April 8, 2017. (See
id.) However, following the exchange of the letter
briefs, Plaintiff sought two extensions of time for filing an
opening brief. (Docs. 18, 20) The Court granted the
extensions requested, and ordered Plaintiff to file an
opening brief "on or before May 17,
2017." (Doc. 21 at 1, emphasis in original)
Plaintiff failed to file an opening brief, the Court issued
an order to show cause on May 31, 2017. (Doc. 22) The Court
directed Plaintiff to "show cause in writing why the
action should not be dismissed for failure to prosecute or to
follow the Court's Order or, within the same time period
to file an opening brief, " within fourteen days.
(Id. at 2)
On June
14, 2017, Plaintiff filed a response to the Court's
order, requesting that the action not be dismissed, and
requesting an additional seven days to file the opening
brief. (Doc. 23) Plaintiff's counsel, Melissa Newel,
reported that there was "a serious family illness,
" which resulted in a "significant and unexpected
time away from the office." (Id. at 4, Newel
Decl. ¶ 3) Ms. Newel asserted the failure to file an
opening brief was "not due to any wilful delay but
rather due to the unanticipated circumstances…"
(Id.) Therefore, she requested that "Plaintiff
be granted the opportunity to file his Opening Brief on or
before June 21, 2017." (Id. at 4)
Court granted the request for an extension of time, and
ordered Plaintiff to "file an opening brief no later
than June 21, 2017." (Doc. 24 at 2,
emphasis in original) The Court informed Plaintiff that the
Order to Show Cause would be discharged upon the timely
filing of the opening brief. (Id.) However,
Plaintiff failed to file his opening brief.
Failure to Prosecute and Obey the Court's
Local Rules, corresponding with Fed.R.Civ.P. 11, provide:
"Failure of counsel or of a party to comply with . . .
any order of the Court may be grounds for the imposition by
the Court of any and all sanctions . . . within the inherent
power of the Court." Local Rule 110. "District
courts have inherent power to control their dockets, "
and in exercising that power, a court may impose sanctions
including dismissal of an action. Thompson v. Housing
Authority of Los Angeles, 782 F.2d 829, 831 (9th Cir.
1986). A court may dismiss an action with prejudice, based on
a party's failure to prosecute an action or failure to
obey a court order, or failure to comply with local rules.
See, e.g. Ferdik v. Bonzelet, 963
F.2d 1258, 1260-61 (9th Cir. 1992) (dismissal for failure to
comply with an order); Malone v. U.S. Postal
Service, 833 F.2d 128, 130 (9th Cir. 1987) (dismissal
for failure to comply with a court order); Henderson v.
Duncan, 779 F.2d 1421, 1424 (9th Cir. 1986) (dismissal
for failure to prosecute and to comply with local rules).
Discussion and Analysis
determine whether to dismiss an action for failure to
prosecute and failure to obey a Court order, the Court must
consider several factors, including: "(1) the
public's interest in expeditious resolution of
litigation; (2) the court's need to manage its docket;
(3) the risk of prejudice to the defendants; (4) the public
policy favoring disposition of cases on their merits; and (5)
the availability of less drastic sanctions."
Henderson, 779 F.2d at 1423-24; see also
Ferdik, 963 F.2d at 1260-61; Thomspon, 782 F.2d
at 831.
In the
case at hand, the public's interest in expeditiously
resolving this litigation and the Court's interest in
managing the docket weigh in favor of dismissal. See
Yourish v. Cal. Amplifier, 191 F.3d 983, 990 (9th Cir.
1999) ("The public's interest in expeditious
resolution of litigation always favors dismissal");
Ferdik, 963 F.2d at 1261 (recognizing that district
courts have inherent interest in managing their dockets
without being subject to noncompliant litigants). This Court
cannot, and will not hold, this action in abeyance given
Plaintiff's repeated failure to comply with the deadlines
set forth by the Court and failure to prosecute. See
Morris v. Morgan Stanley & Co., 942 F.2d 648, 652
(9th Cir. 1991) (explaining a plaintiff has the burden
"to move toward... disposition at a reasonable
pace"). The risk of prejudice to the defendant also
weighs in favor of dismissal, since a presumption of injury
arises from the occurrence of unreasonable delay in
prosecution of an action. See Anderson v. Air West,
542 F.2d 522, 524 (9th Cir. 1976).
Plaintiff was warned that failure to comply with the
scheduling order "may result in sanctions." (Doc.
8 at 4) In addition, in the Order to Show Cause, the Court
reminded Plaintiff that an action may be dismissed
"based on a party's failure to prosecute an action
or failure to obey a court order." (Doc. 22 at 2) In
addition, the Court advised: "If Plaintiff
fails to comply with the deadline as ordered, the Court will
find that Plaintiff has abandoned the action, and dismiss the
matter." (Id., emphasis in
original) Thus, Plaintiff had adequate warning that dismissal
would result from the noncompliance with the Court's
orders and failure to prosecute the action by filing an
opening brief, and these warnings satisfy the requirement
that the Court consider less drastic measures.
Ferdik, 963 F.2d at 1262; Henderson, 779
F.2d at 1424. Indeed, the Court need only warn a party once
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