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Personally, I think that steam's freeplay weekend for multiplayer titles such as Shattered Horizon is one of the best ideas they've ever had. Frankly, I wish Microsoft would do the same with Xbox LIVE and have Gold Membership taster weekends where people who haven't subscribed can see what they're missing. In any case, this weekend is a bit of a treat, with Shattered Horizon being one of the most bizarre FPS experiences I've ever had. You thought jetpacks in Halo: Reach were cool? Well this game takes place in zero-g and liberally urinates all over mere jetpacks. If Rocket Riot, Halo, Modern Warfare 2 (just for the ridiculousness) and Worms ever got drunk and all woke up in the same bed, this would be the result.
Considering that you'll be hard pressed to find a boxed version anywhere, Steam is pretty much the only place to go. Lucky then that all of this weekend you'll be able to play the game for free and, if you find that you like it, you can buy it at half price for £7.49 if you get in there before Monday morning. Hit the first link to get started right away, the bottom one will take you to the product page. Don't have Steam? Not to fear, you can download it here.
- Click here to start downloading and installing the free Shattered Horizon trial
- Click here to head over to Steam and buy Shattered Horizon for £7.49
What with us humans being pretty stupid as a whole, a wayward explosion on the Moon has gone and scattered millions of pieces of hazardous rocky debris into the space near Earth which is not so great. Thankfully, some genius saw the opportunity for some crazy Battle Royale shenanigans and so you and 31 of your mates can zip around the asteroid field hunting one another for entertainment, boosting around the place in glorious zero-gravity and landing on fragments of Moon rock, curious asteroids and space station remnants.
It's a brave new take on the standard FPS formula, expanding the dimensions of gameplay for a thoroughly unique experience and one that developers Futuremark should be praised for undertaking. Unfortunately, it's let down somewhat by its content, the action can quickly become pretty stale as there's not a huge amount of diversity or support. The meagre amount of weapons and options weighing heavily against it. We've been spoilt lately with RPG elements, weapon loadouts and upgrades in multiplayer shooters that to have none of that here is somewhat jarring. Hopefully it's something Futuremark can look at remedying in the future.
That said, Shattered Horizon still stands out as an exceptionally interesting game and one that I'd encourage FPS fans to try out this weekend. It's very good in short bursts and the innovative gameplay can prove hugely engrossing and fantastically thrilling when you get used to it. At it's best, it's an original slant on the tried and tested first person shooter that offers some brilliant new ideas and some fast and furious gunplay.
A shout out for Cuddy over at HUKD for posting this up last night.


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Just as our odds forecast a Best Picture win for "Argo" at the Oscars, so too do they back its bid at the BAFTAs.
While "Lincoln" leads with 10 BAFTA nominations, "Argo," which has seven BAFTA bids, is the pick for Best Pic by all our Experts as well as all but one of our seven Editors and three-quarters of our Users. That support translates into leading odds of 6/5. In second place is the screen adaptation of the British musical "Les Miserables" with odds of 9/2. "Lincoln" is in third with odds of only 11/2.
Such was the love of the Brits for Ben Affleck that they cited him for both his directing of and acting in "Argo." While he is all but certain to lose Best Actor to Daniel Day-Lewis ("Lincoln"), he is far ahead for Best Director.
In one of those awards oddities, Steven Spielberg was snubbed for helming "Lincoln." He and Affleck are locked in a fierce duel for the DGA prize this Saturday but only Spielberg contends at the Oscars.
The BAFTAs shifted their schedule in 2000 to take place while academy members are still voting for the Oscars. The BAFTAs have foreseen six of the dozen Best Picture Oscar winners since then: "Gladiator" (2000), "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (2003), "Slumdog Millionaire" (2008), "The Hurt Locker" (2009) "The King's Speech" (2010) and "The Artist" (2011).
-ADDPREDICTION:86:529:Click to predict BAFTA Best Picture:ADDPREDICTION-
"The Artist" won seven of its leading 12 BAFTA bids — Best Picture, Director & Original Screenplay (Michel Hazanavicius), Actor (Jean Dujardin), Cinematography, Costume Design and Score. It repeated in all these races but screenplay and cinematography at the Oscars.
In 2010, "The King's Speech" won seven of its 14 BAFTA bids — Picture, Actor (Colin Firth), Supporting Actor (Geoffrey Rush), Supporting Actress (Helena Bonham Carter), Original Screenplay, Score and Best British Film. At the Oscars, it only repeated for Best Picture, Actor and Original Screenplay. While helmer Tom Hooper had been bested at BAFTA by David Fincher ("The Social Network"), he won the Academy Award.
In 2009, "The Hurt Locker" won six of its eight BAFTA bids and repeated at the Oscars for Best Picture, Director (Kathryn Bigelow), Original Screenplay, Editing and Sound. "Avatar" prevailed in just two of its eight BAFTA categories — Production Design and Visual Effects — and also won those at the Oscars as well as Cinematography over BAFTA champ "Hurt Locker."
In 2008, "Slumdog Millionaire" won with BAFTA first as did three of the four Oscar acting champs — Kate Winslet ("The Reader"), Heath Ledger ("The Dark Knight") and Penelope Cruz ("Vicky Christina Barcelona"). BAFTA Best Actor champ Mickey Rourke ("The Wrestler") lost the Oscar to Sean Penn ("Milk").
While home-grown "Atonement" took the 2007 BAFTA Best Picture prize over eventual Oscar winner "No Country for Old Men," all four BAFTA acting winners — Daniel Day-Lewis ("There Will Be Blood"), Marion Cotillard ("La Vie en Rose"), Javier Bardem ("No Country for Old Men") and Tilda Swinton ("Michael Clayton") — went on to repeat at the Oscars.
In 2006, "The Queen" won over the Brits for Best Picture edging out eventual Oscar champ "The Departed." Again, all four of the acting champs — Forrest Whitaker ("The Last King of Scotland"), Helen Mirren ("The Queen"), Alan Arkin ("Little Miss Sunshine") and Jennifer Hudson ("Dreamgirls") went on to Oscar wins.
Directors Guild Awards showdown: Ben Affleck vs. Steven Spielberg
News nuggets: Costume designers get their own academy branch
Oscars Experts' Predictions: 'Argo' and Jennifer Lawrence zoom ahead after SAG Awards

subset: commoncrawl


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ADL Embedded Solutions, Inc. Announces ADLVIS-1700 Small Form Factor Industrial CoaXPress Vision System
ADL Embedded Solutions Inc., a leading provider of high-performance embedded solutions, has announced today their compact CoaXPress vision system, the ADLVIS-1700. Measuring only 5" x 7" x 7.6", the ADLVIS-1700 helps address the need for high-performance image capture and storage in a variety of industries. The system supports two CoaXpress CXP-6 ports (1250 MB/s) and four removable SATA (6Gb/s) drives for embedded vision applications such as 3D machine vision, hyperspectral imaging and a host of other high-performance vision uses.
Two base configurations (2-CH CoaXPress or 4-CH Cameralink) include 2x USB 2.0, 2x COM and 2x Gb/s LAN. Options exists for additional GigE and USB 3.0 ports, as well as a 4x mPCIe carrier for optimal flexibility of design. Both configurations are GENICAM compliant with Linux and Windows driver support.
"ADL Embedded Solutions, Inc. has been developing small form factor (SFF) military and industrial vision systems for a number of years. We have customers working with photonics applications like hyperspectral imaging and other high-framerate imaging technologies that they deploy onto commercial drones, avionics, machine vision and unmanned systems. These clients have been in need of CoaXPress-level performance for a while and ADLVIS-1700 fits that need very nicely", according to JC Ramirez, ADL Embedded Solutions' product manager.
For additional information about the ADLVIS-1700, please visit: http://www.adl-usa.com/vision-systems. For additional information regarding systems capabilities and engineering design services, contact ADL Embedded Solutions at 855-727-4200 (toll-free), email email@example.com or visit www.adl-usa.com.
About ADL Embedded Solutions Inc.
ADL Embedded Solutions, Inc. is a leading provider of high-performance embedded systems targeting demanding thermal and rugged environments for industrial and military applications. ADL Embedded Solutions excels at collaborating with customers to design quality, reliable embedded solutions in a timely fashion to exacting customer requirements. ADL Embedded Solutions boasts a broad portfolio of long-lived SBCs, ranging from low-power Intel® Atom® architecture through high-performance Intel® Core™ i5/i7 processors that ensure access to the latest processor technology and long-lived availability.
ADL Embedded Solutions serves customers in a variety of markets, including Medical, Transportation, Defense, Aerospace, Communication, Security, Process Control, and Science. For more information about ADL Embedded Solutions, visit their websites at www.adl-usa.com or www.adl-europe.com.
Contact Information
ADL Embedded Solutions Inc.4411 Morena Blvd
Suite 101
San Diego, CA, 92117
tele: 855.727.4200


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The boards of the Betty Ford Center and the Hazelden Foundation, two of the nation's biggest addiction treatment providers, are considering a formal alliance, the Pioneer Press reports.
In an announcement released this week, both boards said they have engaged in talks. No formal contract is close to being drafted, they noted. Officials at both organizations said one incentive for a possible alliance is the Affordable Care Act, which is expected to greatly increase the number of Americans who will receive health care coverage.
Judge Susan Fox Gillis, Chair of Hazelden's Board of Trustees, said the health care law provides challenges and opportunities. "The good news is that many more Americans who desperately need help will be eligible to receive quality treatment for their addiction to alcohol or other drugs," she says. "The challenge will be to pay for that expanded coverage and service. At this stage it appears that institutionally, only the strong will survive and thrive. Both Betty Ford and Hazelden are recognized as industry leaders, but the fact is we'd be even stronger if we collaborated on a formal basis."
Both organizations provide inpatient and outpatient services for drug and alcohol abuse. Hazelden, based in Center City, Minnesota, employs about 1,000 people in Minnesota, Oregon, Illinois, New York and Florida. The Betty Ford Center, in Rancho Mirage, California, was founded by the wife of former President Gerald Ford. It employs about 225 people. The statement notes that in both organizations, "the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous provide the foundation for treatment protocols, which are abstinence-based."
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text: Does anyone know of an app that automatically sends a text message when you leave a specific location? For example, when I leave work, I'd like my iPhone to send a text message to my wife to let her know that I'm on my way home. I've searched in the forums, app store, google, but I haven't been able to come up with anything. As a side note, I did see an article about an app with this functionality, but I didn't download it when I saw it at the time (about 7-8 months ago). I thought I saw it on tuaw.com, but I haven't been able to find it again.


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She was sitting with her father and brother huddled underneath a tree in full cammo, including head cover and mask, when the tom came strutting down the old logging road.
All three remained calm, although Madison Door began to get a little nervous. This was the 13-year-old's first turkey hunt and she had already lost two other chances to bag one earlier in the day.
As Madison began to get excited, her brother Austin and father Justin remained calm, allowing Madison to shoot when ready. The tom made its way to the decoys the three had set out, fanning out its tail feathers in a show of dominance. The seconds ticked off as the bird got closer and closer, the tension mounting as Madison's mother, Sara Door, stood watching from a distance recording the moment on video.
And it was over. The 18-pound, Rio Grande tom turkey with a nine and one-half inch beard was now Madison's.
A month later the Sunnyside girl describes the moment a bit more calmly.
"The tom came running down the road towards our decoys and I shot it," she explained. "I felt excited, like I accomplished something."
Madison's kill makes hunting a family affair now. Father Justin Door has been hunting and fishing his whole life, and his wife has been hunting for a long time as well. This is brother Austin's third year of hunting and Madison's first.
"It's good to have another family member hunting," Justin Door said. "We go as a family and it's neat to go out to the wilderness. It's fun."
The Doors are accomplished archers and Madison and Austin have been awarded several trophies for their efforts. But a shotgun is a little different from a bow.
Madison received her 20 gauge shotgun for her 13th birthday and two weeks before the youth turkey hunting season started she began practicing with it.
She was a little nervous about firing the shotgun.
"I had shot a rifle before and it kicked so I was afraid to fire it," she recalled.
She finally overcame her anxiety and fired the gun, after that it wasn't a problem for her anymore, she said.
It took her about three evenings of practice before she started hitting her target regularly.
"Madison is a very focused person," Sara Door said. "Anything she tries she succeeds at."
She progressed well enough that on the weekend of April 7-8, Madison and her family got up at 2:30 a.m. to make their way to the mountains in eastern Washington.
"Turkey hunting is completely different than other bird hunting," Madison's father said.
He explained that turkeys can't smell so their sight and hearing senses are heightened.
"You have to coax the turkey to you," he said.
If a turkey sees a hunter or any movement, they will spook and flee the area.
Madison almost got a turkey on her first attempt but some other hunters came into the area and spooked the bird.
Later that day, hiking up an old logging road the family had been on before, Justin stopped and sent out a turkey call. He heard a gobble so Justin, Austin and Madison set up the decoys and laid in wait as Sara moved back to film the action.
Madison's first hunt excited her enough that she is looking forward to next year so she can bag another one. She also wants to start duck hunting.
Now, after Madison's first hunt, her goal is to hunt a turkey with a bow and arrow.
"That would raise the difficulty level up a lot," her father said.
But, judging by her archery trophies and her actions on her first hunting trip, it shouldn't be too difficult for her.
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Marijuana affiliate program
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The Greenwood Village Police Department's K-9 Unit is currently comprised of a K-9 team. The team consists of an officer/handler and a police dog. The K-9 team is trained in narcotics detection, tracking of suspects, area and building searches for evidence or suspects, obedience and agility, suspect apprehension, and handler protection. The K-9 team has been SWAT trained and is currently used by the department's Emergency Response Team in addition to assisting other agencies' SWAT teams.
Some additional responsibilities of the unit include conducting demonstrations and providing information about the unit to local charity and citizen groups, citizen and youth academies, and at city functions. The K-9 unit also completes regular proactive locker searches for narcotics at the request of the local schools.
K-9 training is an ongoing process of several days a month and includes meticulous note taking. The K-9 team must demonstrate their proficiency in all areas by conducting bi-annual audits. Due to this high standard of training, the K-9 unit is regularly called to assist area police and sheriff agencies.
TAG and Officer Stuebinger
TAG, a Belgian Malinois, joined the Greenwood Village Police Department in 2011. TAG and Officer Stuebinger are assigned to supplement the Patrol Division. TAG was purchased entirely using donated funds from K9Connection. TAG was recently involved in a case in another jurisdiction in which he assisted in recovering over ten pound of Methamphetamine.
K-9 Demonstration Request Form.


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The second Isurus album, 11 tracks, 62 minutes.Recorded and produced by: Isurus at The Event Horizon, London, England.Mixed & mastered by: Daniel Bergstrand at Dugout Productions, Upsala, Sweden.Released in May 2015.
'If you're looking for an album that's big on technicality and complexity but that doesn't forget the importance of real songs that groove and properly rock out, you could do an awful lot worse than check out Isusus' 'Logocharya'. This is most definitely one of the finds of 2015 so far for me, that's for sure.' Matt Spall - The Blog Of Much Metal
PLEASE NOTE - Payment is through Paypal, BUT you do not have to have a Paypal account - Any credit/debit card can be processed!
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"You can learn more about a person in an hour of play than you can from a lifetime of conversation." – Plato
The Nashville Technology Council and Centresource are teaming up to present an event that aims to improve communication between technologists and marketers.
This event is for any team who has ever had miscommunication about technical specs and how they link to the marketing goal… basically, most of us.
This is a hands-on, minds-on, problem-solving workshop – not a presentation. It will be a professionally-facilitated process using a tested concept: LEGO Serious Play.
The LEGO Serious Play methodology has been used around the world for a huge range of applications including M&A, strategic planning, and other complex problem-solving in organizations.
Our facilitator, Jody Lentz, has worked for LEGO and used LEGO Serious Play with over 6,000 people around the world from Stockholm to Sacramento.
He says, "Communication is abstract and ephemeral. But when you build it out of LEGO and make a story out of it, it has some heft to it. It allows you to pick apart the meanings, and reassemble – like a good LEGO set."
Just getting Nashville teams around a table to share about their perspectives is going to be valuable. But there is an output – not just LEGO models – but also rubric, guiding principles, rules of engagement… things that will help us create better products AND avoid train wrecks that are almost always caused by lack of clarity.
"It's an incredibly useful tool to get people to understand more about themselves, the people they work with, and the problem they're trying to solve…and it's fun!!"
How do you prepare for the event?
This is a 2-hour workshop, followed by a cocktail hour to debrief.
Bring your imagination. You could come individually, or even better, bring 6 or 7 people from your team who often work together. If they can build together, your organization will get more out of it.
May 13, 2015
3-6 pm (2 hour workshop followed by cocktail hour)
Emma Bistro
Free as a member of the NTC, $10 for non-members


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Great Shakespeare Actors: Burbage to Branagh, by Stanley Wells, (Oxford University Press), 288 pages, release date 23 June, 2015
Stanley Wells' Great Shakespeare Actors is a wonderful read for fans of theatre, literature, and history. Besides providing us with descriptions of some of history's great actors at work, Wells gives readers a sense of the evolving understanding of Shakespeare's works and of actors' interpretations of them: "There is, we might say, no such thing as a play: there are only scripts which come to life in different ways each time they are performed."
Wells is working with challenging material. We have very little documentary evidence regarding early performers of the plays, sometimes a single painting, sometimes not even that. He provides illustrations wherever possible, and the number of these increase as the book progresses.
Wells looks at the types of roles these early actors were known for and at first-person accounts of viewing plays in order to attempt a written portrait of their work. For example, given their differences as texts, it's likely the roles of Falstaff and Macbeth's porter were written for different actors: the first a clown (perhaps the era's Will Ferrell); the second a much darker sort of comic (maybe a Lewis Black).
Wells also moves us from the era of men-only acting to today's gender-inclusive theatre, and he pays attention to male roles mastered by women (Sarah Bernhardt's Hamlet, for instance), as well as the historical use of boys to play female characters. Why do so many of Shakespeare's female characters find themselves in situations that require cross-dressing? For the plot, yes, but also to get boy actors out of skirts whenever possible.
Given that Great Shakespeare Actors is a static text attempting to depict a highly plastic medium, at times the reader will have difficulty "seeing" what Wells sees as he writes. Nonetheless, the specificity of Wells' writing brings to life performances that remain almost undocumented.


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THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED David's Cafe 2
1654 Meridian Ave. (Lincoln Rd.) Send to Phone
305-672-8707 | Make Restaurant Reservations
OpenBreakfast, Lunch & Dinner daily
Open late
- Parking lot
- Dress code: Casual
- Kid-friendly
- Romantic setting
* Click here for rating key
THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED David's Cafe 2 Restaurant Review: A Cuban restaurant with a dual personality, David's is sibling to the Collins Avenue sandwich and coffee shop. Likewise, this location serves terrific medianoche sandwiches, croquetas, coladas (shots of Cuban espresso) and cortadito (café Cubano with milk), available either in the sit-down diner or via the popular take-out window. (There's usually a festive crowd of tourists, locals and business people sneaking a break at the always-open latter.) David's has a more formal side, however, evidenced by white linen-covered tables and polished (if brusque) service in the sedate dining room. Here you can indulge in vaca frita (fried steak) or arroz con pollo that's made to order, if you've got the time, or take part in the lunchtime buffet that typically includes such favorites as ropa vieja (stewed meat), plantains and rice and beans.
GAYOT's Annual Restaurant Awards honor America's best chefs, as well as promising newcomers and a top restaurateur.


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Simulation of Higgs boson production
A142/0403 Rights Managed
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Keywords: boson, cern, cms, computer screen, detector, electronic display, higgs, higgs boson, higgs particle, particle, particle physics research, particles, simulated, simulatio, track, tracks
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June 29, 2010
New Presidents Elected in North American, East-Central Africa, and Euro-Asia Divisions
Beardsley heads GC Education; Olivers to GC Family Ministries
By Mark A. Kellner, News Editor
elegates to the fifty-ninth General Conference session Monday elected three new executives to head regions of the 16.3-million- member world church.
Dan Jackson, 61, is the new president of the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists (NAD), elected June 28 by delegates of the world church at their business session in Atlanta, Georgia. Jackson was proposed by the church's Nominating Committee and confirmed by the General Conference session delegates. He replaces Don Schneider, who has served as president since 2000.
Elected as the new president of the East-Central Africa Division (ECD), a region that encompasses 10 nations and 2.5 million members from Eritrea in the north to Tanzania in the south, was Blasious Ruguri. He was formerly the secretary of the ECD, and succeeds Geoffrey G. Mbwana, who was elected a world church general vice president.
The new leader of the Euro-Asia Division (ESD) is Guillermo E. Biaggi. Stretching over the 12 nations that replaced the former Soviet Union, the ESD ministers to more than 135,000 members. Biaggi, the former treasurer of the ESD, will follow Artur A. Stele, who was also elected a general vice president of the church.
Other division presidents were returned to office: Bruno R. Vertallier in the Euro-Africa Division; Israel Leito, Inter-American Division; Jairyong Lee, Northern Asia-Pacific Division; Erton C. Köhler, South American Division; Barry D. Oliver, South Pacific Division; Paul S. Ratsara, Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division; John Rathinaraj, Southern Asia Division; Alberto C. Gulfan, Southern Asia-Pacific Division; Bertil Wiklander, Trans-European Division; and Gilbert Wari, West-Central Africa Division.
The new NAD president, who had been featured in a March 2010 Adventist World profile, reacted to his election: "God never calls us to do things we are capable of, and this thing is so much bigger than me. But He has called, and I accept this with the greatest humility and with extreme gratitude to Don Schneider," Jackson said.
FACES OF THE FUTURE (Back row):
Erton C. Kohler (SAD); Daniel R. Jackson (NAD); Bruno R. Vertallier (EUD); Israel Leito (IAD); Barry D. Oliver (SPD); Bertil A. Wiklander (TED); Gilbert Wari (WAD); (Second row): Alberto C. Gulfan, Jr. (SSD); Paul S. Ratsara (SID); Jairyong Lee (NSD); Blasious M. Ruguri (ECD); John Rathinaraj (SUD); Guillermo E. Biaggi (ESD). [Joel D. Springer/
Adventist Review
Responding to the vote, Schneider said, "Jackson is a wonderful Christian whose leadership has demonstrated a commitment to the mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church."
Jackson is a native Canadian and, with the exception of five years of service in the Southern Asia Division, has lived and ministered in Canada. He is a graduate of Canadian Union College (now Canadian University College) and Andrews University, from which he holds a Master of Arts in Religion in Systematic Theology.
During his career, Jackson has served the church as a pastor, teacher, and administrator. He is currently the president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Canada. Dan and Donna, his wife, have three children and four grandchildren.
"My thoughts and prayers are with him," said Carlton Byrd, pastor of Atlanta Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church here. "I had the privilege of meeting him at session and I look forward to working with him."
All of new presidents are well-known to staff of the
Adventist Review
"Pastor Ragouri comes with 10 years of experience as executive secretary in East Africa," says Claude Richli, associate publisher of Adventist Review and Adventist World magazines, and the former associate secretary of the ECD. "He's a passionate evangelistic and a gifted administrator, and brings a wealth experience to his role."
Gerald Klingbeil, Adventist Review/Adventist World associate editor knew Guillermo Biaggi when they served in Argentina. "Pastor Biaggi is a warm-hearted, mission-minded people person who is committed to the message and mission of this church," he says. "He's the kind of person that everyone would like to have as a friend."
Separately, Lisa M. Beardsley, who holds a Master of Public Health degree from Loma Linda University, a Doctorate in Educational Psychology from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, and a Master of Business Administration from the Claremont Graduate University in California, has become the first woman to serve the Adventist Church as Education Director. Beardsley, previously vice chancellor for academic affairs at Loma Linda University, came to the world headquarters in 2005 as an associate in the Education Department.
Willie and Elaine Oliver, who currently lead Family Ministries for the North American Division, will succeed Ron and Karen Flowers in running the program for the world church. He holds a Doctorate in Family Sociology, and master's degrees in Pastoral Counseling and Family Sociology. Elaine holds a graduate degree in Higher Education with concentrations in student development and counseling. She is associate vice president for Enrollment Management at Washington Adventist University and serves with Willie in ministry conducting marriage conferences, retreats, and relationship seminars. The Olivers have been married for 25 years and are the parents of university students Jessica and Julian.
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Three door supervisors have been charged with gross negligence manslaughter in connection with the death of Adam Hird outside an Albert Embankment nightclub.
30-year-old Adam Hird from Epping died following an incident outside the No 65 bar on Albert Embankment in the early hours of Sunday 15 June 2014.
The three men charged are 22-year-old Lewis Thorne of Ramsgate, Mark Pantalleresco, 51, of Tadworth, and Sebastiano Ragusa, aged 30, of Walthamstow.
All three have been released on bail to appear at Croydon Magistrates' Court on Tuesday 9 June.


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A minimum of 33 graduate-level credit hours beyond the basic core is required to complete the MBA Program. The Program is divided into three sections: the Basic Core, the Professional Core, and Electives. The Basic Core of 12 credit hours and is designed to serve as a leveling mechanism for students whose previous programs are not in business or do not provide adequate preparation. Depending upon their previous academic records, students may be exempted from part or all of the Basic Core courses by the Director of the MBA Program.
The Professional Core is 24 credit hours of mandatory courses, which focus on the internal and organizational business environments, the functional areas, quantitative techniques, and managerial communications. Students also choose 9 credit hours of electives or nine hours for a concentration in Logistics and Supply Chain Management.
To complete the MBA degree, students must have a 3.0 GPA or higher for all courses taken at Alabama A&M University as part of the MBA program. They must also have a 3.0 GPA or higher for all courses taken at Alabama A&M University in the MBA Program beyond the Basic Core requirements. Transfer credit is not considered in the GPA for the MBA program. In addition, only students who have full admission and appropriate prerequisites will be admitted into courses in the Professional Core.


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Subscribe to The Crowd with these links:
Adam: Welcome to episode 58 of The Crowd. I'm talking to Tom Hunt, founder of virtualvalley.io.
Welcome to Near Me's podcast, The Crowd, bringing you interviews from thought leaders in the collaborative economy who'll be sharing their knowledge, diverse real world experiences and stuff you need to know to help build a successful marketplace. If this is your first time joining us, thanks and welcome. I'm your host, Adam Broadway.
Today's guest is Tom Hunt. He spent years working in the high-end corporate world but once bitten by the startup bug has turned himself into learning to build his own businesses. Over the past three years, he started a number of online businesses, the latest being a marketplace for connecting entrepreneurs and business owners with a virtual assistant who can take over repeatable tasks, freeing you up on focusing in on the unique expertise that can't be outsourced. This is a candid conversation about his journey so far and some lessons he's learned to share with you.
I'm with Tom Hunt who is the founder of virtualvalley.io. That's virtualvalley.io. And Tom, you're based in England, right?
Tom: I am based in England. That's correct.
Adam: Excellent. What I'd love to talk to you about is just your journey as an entrepreneur and how you've come to build virtualvalley.io. It's not your first business that you've built, is it?
Tom: Correct. It's not the first business but it is the first marketplace which has been a very eye opening experience. And I'm looking forward to getting into it and sharing all the learnings with everybody.
Adam: That's going to be awesome. I think everybody is going to be very excited to hear your story, your journey, the travels that you've done through Europe while you've been building this business but let's go back a little bit further. You're obviously an entrepreneurial spirit and you've done other things. What got you started on the journey of being your own business owner?
Tom: I think I'm like maybe an adventurous or disobedient spirit but I sort of went through the conventional life from somebody like that lived in my area in England. So I studied and got good grades at school. I went to study Chemistry in London. And then after Chemistry, I went to work in management consulting companies in the city of London. And then one day on a bus on the way back from a Halloween party in London in 2012, Halloween 2012 –
Adam: Now, this is one of those double-decker buses, right? It's really cool. Everyone's –
Tom: Exactly, top level, front seats. And I and my friend were on the way back. We'd actually worn tights to this party because it's fancy dress. And I don't know if you've ever worn leggings or tights but they're comfortable and really, really good. So as a joke, I think I said to my friend we should start a business with this. So you fast forward one week and we had 22 pairs of female leggings that we purchased from eBay and then marked on a logo just above left knee. I'm actually wearing a pair now so I have to check. And we are selling these leggings on a trendy East London market store. And this was in December 2012. By now, it was very cold and we stood there for eight hours and we sold zero pairs.
Adam: Oh no.
Tom: Oh no. But we got some good feedback. And probably most importantly, another friend had joined us by then. So there were three of us and we had a good time. So as we sort of trudged back from the marketplace to our house, we decided to set up an e-commerce store, start a brand and start selling these leggings. And the reason I brought up that story is because that whole process, from going from nothing to this market store in this website and making the first sale from someone that we didn't know which occurred I think in February 2013, it was that rush, maybe it's not a rush, it's that feeling of excitement that hasn't left me since. And it's the reason that most of my spare time over the past three years I've invested into building businesses.
Adam: There is nothing quite like the sale, isn't it? It's an adrenaline rush.
Tom: Yes.
Adam: Three months from December 2012 on a street corner trying to sell leggings. You said that you had some feedback. What was the feedback that you got during that time?
Tom: Feedback on the market store, I think it was just a few people saying yeah, they look cool but no one actually bought. Now, looking back, I think the actual motivation for starting a market store was to we said we could talk to girls. So we weren't very good with girls and we thought there were really attractive girls in this market and there were, right? But we obviously couldn't talk to them normally because we're too shy. So if we had a market store selling male leggings, the girls would find that really funny, right? So that was actually the motivation but it sort of got me and my partners hooked on the business thing as well.
Adam: Look, irrespective of the motive, you've learned some awesome lessons and you're out doing market research. And you're selling, you're selling yourselves. And that's what people are buying ultimately. Of course, personal branding's important but then you've gone on now. And you're building your own brand around Virtual Valley. What was the next phase in that learning process that you went from to get to the marketplace?
Tom: Okay. So from Stitch leggings, which is still a business now that sells leggings, to Virtual Valley, there has been, I don't know for sure, I should probably write a list, but at least 10 online ventures that I mean, you could say have failed like in Speech Marks or you could say I've learned something from each one.
Adam: That's how I look at it.
Tom: Yeah.
Adam: Failure to me is not giving it a go. So you've learned something. What were some of the valuable lessons that really resonate with you in terms of those experiences, building those 10 online ventures?
Tom: I think the biggest one is, the majority of those, maybe all of them, I was building something that I didn't know people wanted. Even with the leggings, I think we read one newspaper article that showed people, men wearing leggings in the US. We then sort of dove into the small MVP test I guess you could say with our market store. We didn't really get validation. We got some people say they were cool but no one bought. So even with the leggings, we jumped into a business that we didn't know people wanted. And then a number of small things I've tried since, there were a couple of other things I built that I wasn't sure people actually wanted. And so when I was considering Virtual Valley before even starting to design anything or starting to build out the marketplace, I spoke to I think 20 people who were potential target customers just asking about their outsourcing or whether they've tried outsourcing.
Adam: And this is a really good lesson. I think the idea of build it they will come is something that many of us make that assumption and learn from experience that it doesn't really work. Sometimes, some people fluke on to it. It's like wow, I built this. In fact, people build things and don't expect it to work at all. I do it as a joke. An example is the Dogecoin. Jackson Palmer came up with that. Let's put the dog face on a bit coin and overnight, boom, a joke turned into a real business.
Tom: Yeah.
Adam: StartupBus. I don't know if you've heard of StartupBus. Elias Bizannes is an Australian guy here in the Silicon Valley who as a joke said we're going to do an entrepreneurial journey between San Francisco and South by Southwest. And we're going to pack a bunch of people that don't know each other and they're going to start a business in the trip between San Francisco and Texas. We're going to have teams. They're going to build a business and pitch it and launch it by the time they get to Texas.
Tom: That's awesome.
Adam: That was a joke. And I called him out on it and so we did it. And it was a huge success and continues to be a huge success going global. So sometimes build it they will come accidentally happens. But I think when you're really serious about the idea you'll learn that the research is important first. Who were the people that you then targeted? What was the hypothesis that you started with?
Tom: So I think I'd have to – Virtual Valley was actually sort of a second iteration of an outsourcing business that I've started. The company that I used to replace my salary to enable me to leave my corporate role with Accenture was and what I'd like to call an outsourced service company. So I would link startups in London that couldn't afford to employ people in London to do that say admin or marketing support work with people that I knew in the Philippines. And I would more or less be the middle man helping them start up with what they should outsource and how they should outsource as I've just been doing that for three years in the corporate world and then helping the team member in the Philippines to sort of make sure everything was okay which was fine. And we're able to charge like a significant uplift on the salary of the team member for my service. But once we got to six clients, I was spending all of my time with these clients and not on the business so –
Adam: So not scaling?
Tom: Yeah, exactly. So early in 2015, I decided to stop investing time into our business and to try to automate and step away from as much of that as possible so I could scale obviously with a lower margin on top of the team members' salaries but the upper limit to the amount of people I could have employed through this marketplace would be near infinite. So the people that I spoke to were all of the clients from my previous business. And so I guess the hypothesis is would you be prepared to go on to a marketplace, a website and hire and start working with a team member without having somebody in the middle? Some of the questions I would ask at the end of the conversations I was having with these startup founders and entrepreneurs is what sort of information would you want to see before you started and chose to work for someone which directly fed into building a platform. And for example, one thing that sets us apart from say Upwork is that we have videos of our team members on their profiles within the platform so you can check their English skills which is one of the things that people told me.
Adam: What were some of the key parts of the business that were common across all of those previous clients that could be I guess commoditized in a role that could be outsourced? Were there accounting personal assistants for scheduling meetings, customer service? What were some of the core things that were common across all that could be sort of bundled or packaged up and then scaled as far as here's your startup package that consists of people with these skills that will allow you to focus on the things that only you can do?
Tom: Yeah. I think that usually like all of the tasks that we were doing with our previous outsourced service company fit into around five categories. So social media, so once a team member has the right guidance from the company, they can pretty much run in my opinion social media channels. So social media. CRM, so like I love using CRM tools. It sorts and times everything like organized in there but the data entry into CRM can sometimes take time. So that's the second thing. Inbox and calendar management, so for the people at the top of the organization that really don't have much time like having everything organized, then someone making their inbox kind of organized has a high leverage for them. And then I would name this as lead generation. So there are some sort of manual lead generation tasks that team members can do to find, like manually scrape the Internet for people that you could approach with to sell your startup. So that's four, right. And the last one escapes me. But I think you can see the thought of the pattern for these four tasks.
Adam: Yeah. Every business has to be on top of those many things. They have marketing, social media, lead gen, data entry and general personal assistance services. That then resonated with all of those businesses. And then what happened when you got that research, you found out what they needed and then you went to the next step of building up the marketplace? How do you solve the whole supply-demand issue?
Tom: Yeah. So I had a lot of time to think about this. So once I set up the development of the platform, I wish I could've just come to you guys and actually have one really quickly, right? But once I had set up the development, I had a lot of time, so I spent a lot of time on blogs and reading books about marketplaces and marketing marketplaces. And I think the best resource for me was a blog called platform.info, I believe. You probably have heard of a guy called Sangeet, Sanjiv who's like a thought leader on platforms in the world. He has a book called Platform Thinking. I may be getting these names wrong but you can probably find them by Goggling them. What I learned about that problem or the advice I gathered that I agreed with or that I was going to action was to build up the side of the marketplace a lot efficiently that is, that have more incentives to use as a marketplace.
So we chose to hand recruit the supply side of the marketplace so the virtual assistants in time for the launch. So we spent – I have a blog post that we can link below that outlines our findings from recruiting 57 virtual assistants to be on the platform for when we launched and opened up to the demand side which in this case a few entrepreneurs. So far, it seems to have worked. Once we launched the platform, like I didn't have an amazing launch planned. So we didn't have an avalanche of entrepreneurs. We had a few entrepreneurs trickle in and hire people. So yes, some of the supply side don't have, like haven't found their match. They haven't been connected. So they're probably – like I tried to keep everybody sort of motivated by sending regular emails. But yes, we probably have lost some of those people from the supply side but I'm not that bothered because I know exactly the cost and amount of time to recruit someone. But what we have avoided is having an entrepreneur come on to the platform and not find someone that they want.
Adam: That's an excellent thing to have provided a customer promise and deliver on that. If there was ever an issue around the supply-demand, you've got it around the right way.
Tom: Yeah for sure. Yeah.
Adam: What would you say as being, some of the key points in your business journey that has helped you to accelerate conceptualizing, researching and then executing on this? Do you have a co-founder? Are there people that have been mentoring you along the way? Obviously, you've got developers in place. What are some of those things that have helped you to execute so well as you have?
Tom: Good question. So there is no co-founder. It's just me. I think I managed to build a thing. So we've gone from – like I had the idea to build the platform. It would've been in July this year. So that's six, seven months ago. And now, I have a platform that's up and running and people using it. So I guess you could say it's pretty quick, right? And I've done it like everything, 100 percent myself obviously that like I and the company but we had the development team in Egypt and I have a manager in the Philippines. So I haven't had anybody sort of helping with the strategy but I think – now to answer your question, I think I've been able to action things that quickly is because I spent the past three years building online businesses from working with people in the Philippines. I also spent three years within the corporate world project managing outsourcing projects. So this may not be very helpful to people listening but the tip that I would give is to start things, start and try things so you can sort of improve your action taking muscle. And also if you can possibly get project management experience by working in large companies or even a small startup, that could be very helpful in your future business entrepreneurial career. Like managing projects I think will be crucial as an entrepreneur full stop.
Adam: So your overnight success as it were took about six years.
Tom: Yeah. You could – yes, you could say that.
Adam: And that's something that I've experienced with many entrepreneurs I've talked to. They've launched a business and then it really rockets. They execute it really well in a short space of time and they got – yeah, this is pivot number 10. And I hate that word pivot. This is iteration version 10. I've learned along the way and that's the key to it. Also, I think – and I have to commend you. Doing this on your own is rare. I've generally found that most businesses without a co-founder don't do as well. But to be able to do this as you have speaks volumes to your tenacity and your project management and vision as well as obviously the experience you've had in working with virtual assistants. And I'm sure you've leveraged that as well in building it out. So congratulations on that. That's really good.
Tom: Thank you, Adam. I appreciate that.
Adam: Yeah. You got to be proud of yourself for that, in and of its self. Often when in dealing with marketplace clients, one of the questions is so how many are you in your team? Do you have a co-founder? And I'm always very wary with those who do not have a co-founder because it is tough. It's really tough. But you've done a sterling job. Congratulations. I'm really impressed. What would you say would be the toughest thing that you had to handle in your building of the marketplace so far?
Tom: Definitely the offshore development, yeah. This is for me the crucial point. It's aligning your interests with the interests of the development team. Now, the best way to do this is to have a technical co-founder that you have a 50 percent share of the company with. Then your goals are 100 percent aligned. Now, the opposite end of the scale and actually the reason that I probably wouldn't take again is paying a – actually, the opposite end of the spectrum would be paying to a development team per hour to complete a project. One step back towards the middle is to pay a fixed price for the project in my opinion. So I took the approach of paying a fixed price with a team in Egypt. I went through probably a two to three-week bidding war, like a bidding process on all of the large freelance marketplaces and eventually settled with this company in Egypt primarily and I sort of regret this now because the cost that they proposed was half the price of everybody else. And I had the budget to spend more and to spend double and go with other options that may have been high quality but I didn't. And I think one of those reasons is I got on really well with the leader of the Egyptian team. And then since we sort of moved forward, there have been like a number of issues that partially were my fault or I can take full responsibility that I selected that team so I shouldn't be negative at all.
Adam: Yup.
Tom: And so yes, the development was an absolute rollercoaster. Like we've come out the other side now is awesome and everybody's happy but it was an absolute rollercoaster. And that has what kept me up at night but –
Adam: I totally hear you.
Tom: Yeah.
Adam: No. I think in that for a nontechnical, for somebody who's building a software as a service business as you have whether it's a marketplace or whatever it is and to not have the background on infrastructure and DevOps and scalability and SSL issues and load balancing and databases and data mining and reporting and dot, dot, dot, it's a minefield out there. There's no doubt about it. And to have come out the other side, again I commend you. You've done a good job in pulling it together but it is a tough business to be in software development which is why I guess and this is a plug for Near Me why we have commoditized everything and make that journey of development more efficient because you get economies of scale. And if there's a bug, well, we got to fix it. It's just part of – there are platforms. Everyone gets affected. We got to fix that. We go to add a feature. Everybody gets it whether they need it or not. And so that economies of scale on that intellectual property that we are developing and intellectual capital I guess of ideas and learnings can feedback into it. Payment gateways, my goodness the biggest pain in the –
Tom: Oh my god. Yes.
Adam: And seriously especially in a marketplace environment.
Tom: Yes.
Adam: You know what it's like. Traditionally, e-commerce, no problem. API integration, money goes from buyer to seller. Marketplace, buyer, seller, marketplace owner.
Tom: Yes.
Adam: It is a nightmare. So I feel your pain. We've solved all those problems by the way. So version 2, come talk to us.
Tom: Exactly. I think one of the many reasons that I've been "successful" is because the barriers to entry to starting a business have come down so, so far. Like we set up the e-commerce store for the leggings with 20 pounds and it took us eight hours to set up the site. It's so, so easy. And what you're doing I already admire because you're taking it even to the next level. The ease of being able to set up now, not just an e-commerce or a website or a blog but a marketplace, a marketplace that will connect to a buyer and a seller is coming down as well. Like that for me is really exciting. So I just want to say that.
Adam: Thank you. Yeah, I know it is tough. It's the toughest technology problem or not we've had to crack so far in my career. And I've been doing this for nearly 30 years since the Internet was a baby. So yeah, it is really difficult but everything is getting commoditized. So let's then take it to the next phase of the business because technology is just a tool after all and things are going to get faster, better, cheaper when it comes to technology. What do you think then beyond the technology is the most important part of the user experience when dealing with your clients?
Tom: I've spent a lot of time trying to understand the user flow for the entrepreneur or trying to optimize the user flow for the entrepreneur because we are getting entrepreneurs creating accounts but not – it's actually only 20 percent of entrepreneurs that create accounts, hire a team member. So I really need to try and understand how I can make it easier for people to hire team members. So I've been trying to work out, I've spent a lot of time thinking about what the must-have experience is for the entrepreneur. And I think that is their first interaction, like real life human interaction with a potential team member. So if through the platform you can communicate without actually hiring a team member – and when you hire, you validate your PayPal account and access of the payment. So you can communicate through the platform. And when you hire and validate your PayPal account, you can then – it releases contact details so you can communicate off the platform.
So what I've been trying to do is to shorten the time and make it as easy as possible for the entrepreneur, after they create their account, to actually have an interaction with the team member because I think once you have that, I think you're much more likely to sort of go on and hire somebody. I actually got that by talking to one of our first entrepreneurs on the platform about their experience and their sort of not emotions but their sort of feelings and their keenness towards Virtual Valley after I went through that process. And they said when they got that first message from someone in the Philippines and they said yeah, I can do that role, it sort of made them not addicted but they felt like getting your first photo tag of you on Facebook. They're pulling lots of that. That was good. So I think your question was what is the most important part for users when they come on to the platform? For me, for us, that is the most important.
Adam: And that's that first time communication.
Tom: Yes.
Adam: With the potential – it's the human interaction. You're a matchmaking service and it's ensuring that the first conversation is a positive one whether or not that follows through to actually engaging but making that easy and human.
Tom: Yeah, exactly.
Adam: And what surprised you the most about building a marketplace?
Tom: It was realizing after sort of jumping in and all this talking with development that you're actually marketing to two groups of people. And I love the analogy that is given on this website platform.thinking is that in the traditional business, you see it as a pipe where the business people sort of push down this product to a service down the pipe to one group of customers at the end of the pipe. And in the marketplace, it's different because you are actually trying to attract these two groups of people and then enabling them to interact. And it was realizing that that I had to try and attract two groups of people after I'd already started that for me that was a hard realization to make.
Adam: So, it's not the traditional sales funnel.
Tom: Correct.
Adam: And what's the future? What's the next step for you, Tom, in taking the business to the next level?
Tom: So what I'm trying to do in the moment is to sort of validate. You could call it finding product-market fit. I think I sort of have that. We have entrepreneurs who've used it but I just want to sort of validate and optimize, to validate that product-market fit and also optimize the user flow a little bit more so you get more than 20 percent of entrepreneurs hiring people. And I've build up this group of entrepreneurs just through content and social. There's been no paid acquisition. So building up to the launch of the platform three weeks ago, I went on a guest blogging spree and posted 42 guest blog posts on various marketing blogs around the world. And then, we also have to start to build up our own blog once I get a good idea about the content the target customer likes to consume. And I have recently just launched a podcast. And all this is integrated with the social media strategy.
And so, we're just trying to sort of push the name of Virtual Valley out into the world, into the social world where our potential customers are. And that has provided us with this first group of entrepreneurs with no financial investment, just a lot of time but no financial investment. So that's where we are at the moment. And I'm going to continue with this sort of content machine, posting more stuff on our blog because I've been focusing on guest blogs but putting more stuff on our blog just to keep this flow of entrepreneurs that are aware of us coming to the platform and hiring people so I can validate the product-market fit and improve the conversion flow.
Then, in order to scale once I'm happy with the platform, the technical side and everything, I'm going to leverage the connections I've made through that guest blogging spree. So I have around 40, well, probably more than 40 connections with influencers that have audiences in the people that I think would use Virtual Valley. So I'm going to leverage the relationships with those people to produce a piece of content, potentially a webinar where we go deep into sort of the image revisited theory and building systems and outsourcing. And then at the end, put an offer that I could potentially split the revenue with the influencer. So I think that with those strategies that once I have the conversion flow optimized it could enable us to scale fast.
Adam: And that referral approach definitely works.
Tom: Yeah.
Adam: Great, great approach. And the whole content marketing strategy is vital because it's always a soft sell when you're online.
Tom: Yeah.
Adam: Of course, a hard sell if you go to – you're doing a Google search for a particular product and people have got – they Google ad words there. They're qualified leads. But for the type of businesses that you and I are building, marketplaces, it's – unless you're providing high value through content, through advice, through thought leadership, before leading them to the service or product that you want them to connect to, you really do struggle. And I think you're approaching it spot on with the content marketing. And fantastic job on getting 42 guest blog posts in a short space of time. What's been the number one, well-read post that you've put out there? What was the content centered around?
Tom: So, the most shared post was – we have a bit of an anomaly and I wasn't really considering the goals of the platform because the targeted blog for that post that was shared 6.4 thousand times was not really the customer I was told it was focused. It was more like I like that blog so I wanted to post on it. So that was just a list of influencers that provide media that is not an alternative. So people like Joe Rogan, Alan Watts, there were 18 people on the list. So we managed to – it got shared that many times because it had such big influencers on that list. But in terms of a post that was well received on a blog that I believe has a high concentration of target customer, it was probably on the HubSpot blog.
Adam: Wow.
Tom: I'll say it was just a post. I just outlined how we managed to get on TV and in newspapers for that leggings company we discussed at the start. I just read that and like a step-by-step guide. And that's obviously helpful. It was like a massive blogs. So we got great exposure but I can obviously track traffic through the author bio links and that has been awesome for us.
Adam: Excellent. How to do PR on a budget. That has –
Tom: Yeah. The title was How to Get Free Press for Your Startup with No Connections.
Adam: That's fantastic. We definitely need to get people connected to that post. I think that's a spot on approach because what you're doing is providing high value to people who are your exact market, target audience. Entrepreneurs want to know how to do it for low or no cost. And then your name attached to that, Virtual Valley, also provides many other services. I'm guessing you probably have PR experts who could jump in and provide some assistance as well, a virtual assistant, a virtual PR assistant.
Tom: Yes. So we should probably talk about that as well as like we're actually with Virtual Valley at the moment trying to start our niche niche just like how – you must know about the history of marketplaces. Like eBay started just selling Pez dispensers. So we are only providing what I call general virtual assistants. Some people today – there are four basic tasks that we outlined earlier in the call. But yes, definitely, in the future when like the model prove that and we've scaled the general virtual assistants, we could branch out to have other people providing a whole range of different services.
Adam: Again, you've done the right thing. You're focused.
Tom: Yeah.
Adam: You're not getting diverted by the Adam Broadways of the world that say hey, what about this one and what about that one?
Tom: Yeah, exactly.
Adam: Yup, yup. That's a great idea. We will revisit that later. You're staying true to your core and focusing in those tried and true successful services. So that's well done as well. Brilliant, mate. This time has gone very fast and I really enjoyed catching up with you and learning about your journey. We have to wrap it up. Final tidbit that you'd like to share and then I've just got one final question for you after that.
Tom: You left that very open. I mean, so I can actually say anything now. So in all the businesses that have been successful which is maybe three out of ten if you want a conventional definition of success, we have had excellent customer service. Now, I think it's free, like free in terms of money, pretty much free. Like it's not that much more time to provide awesome customer service compared to rubbish. And I know customer service, I believe, generally is getting better but there's still, I think, a massive opportunity for small businesses to outperform these larger corporations by having personal, what I like to call legendary customer service. So it's like going above and beyond putting a smiley in your messages, refunding whenever anything is your fault. And I think that is one of the reasons why this small number of successes I have experienced have occurred.
Adam: That's brilliant. Well then, the final question I have for you. Thinking back on your life's journey as a child, teenager, adult, entrepreneur, what was the one piece of advice that you were given that still resonates in your mind even now?
Tom: Very good question. Okay, I think – so I can't think of a specific example of someone saying this to me but it's the one that goes it's not the things that you do that you regret; it's the things that you don't do. So if you're on the verge, anybody listening, of considering like starting a marketplace or even just a business, I would say that you'll probably regret not doing it more than you will so you should at least try.
Adam: Very cool. Give it a go.
Tom: Yeah, exactly. Like why not?
Adam: Tom, it's been a pleasure. I've really enjoyed hearing about your journey. It's been an awesome one. And it's only just really beginning. I know six years might sound like a long time for some people. I mean, you have to get six years of experience to – well, it starts today.
Tom: Yeah.
Adam: So if you're not already doing, it starts right now. And you've got a great huge future ahead of you. There's absolutely no doubt about it. And I'm looking forward to revisiting in the months or the year ahead and getting a followup on how things have progressed and other lessons that you've learned. And I'll certainly be encouraging everybody to connect with you. You've got a website of course which is virtualvalley.io.
Tom: Yup.
Adam: And people can follow you in Twitter @tomhuntio.
Tom: Yes.
Adam: And we're going to get a transcript of this conversation in our blog post and a link out to Tom's site. Thanks Tom. Again, fantastic to hear about your journey.
Tom: Yeah. Adam, I've also really enjoyed this. And as I said earlier, I really admire what you're doing with marketplaces and helping people get set up with marketplaces. I also think that's awesome. Final note, if anybody has any questions about like marketing marketplaces or marketing businesses, you can just ask me a question on Twitter. So, yeah, as Adam said @tomhuntio. I'm more than happy to provide my input.
Adam: Well, thanks again, Tom. I look forward to catching up soon.
Tom: Cheers, Adam.
Adam: Thanks for joining us for The Crowd, the podcast that keeps you connected. Join us next episode for our chat with two amazing ladies who are from the small business administration office of the Advocacy. Looking forward to sharing that interview with you next week.


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One of the many end products
Proudly display in the classroom.
Sharing with Simple things Sunday, Tuesday around the world, http://nihaoyall.com/
Dear Sylvia:
To me weaving seem to be need more skills than sewing. Just love those rainbow colors.
Always love the ideas of parent helpers practise in Western School. I was actively involved in Ray's school activities when we were in NZ.
But back in Malaysia, you dont have much of this chances anymore. Even school events of singing competition, parents not invited.
I suppose mainly due to the numbers of heads, too crowded to house all in one small hall.
Hi Sylvia:
Knowing you are coming back to Malaysia and you had asked where to get some other baking utensil and happened to see the promotion on this mixer again in Groupon that you may be interested in.
hope this reach you before the deal goes off.
Hi Yin,
thanks for the info. Just manage to get my internet fixed. Think I might have to wait for another promotion.. fist internet, next is a car the bank is running dry ;(


text:
Bethlehem will conduct an auction of unclaimed bicycles being held by the police department. The auction will begin at 9 a.m. next Saturday in the garage area beneath City Hall.
Purchasing Director Ellery Royal said about 50 bikes, some in excellent condition, will be available. Many are stolen or lost bicycles that were never claimed.


text:
- Ribbons[10]
- Velcro Tapes[10]
- Other Sportswear[1]
- Hair Styling Products[3]
- Hair Roller[8]
- Door Stops[10]
- Cable Ties[10]
- Furniture Accessories[10]
- Hooks & Rails[10]
- Forks[5]
- Spoons[6]
- Mats & Pads[1]
- Other Packaging Materials[1]
- Strapping[9]
- Rubber Sheets[1]
- Other Fitness & Bodybuilding Products[2]
- Other Ski Products[10]
- Contact Person : Ms. Wu Helen
- Company Name : Guangzhou Balance Daily Commodities Co., Ltd.
- Tel : 86-020-61921488
- Fax : 86-020-84932055
- Address : Guangdong,Guangzhou,1/F, No.17, Row 2, Dongliu Industrial Zone, Dagang Town
- Country/Region : China
- Zip : 511470
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Nylon Velcro roller
As we are a professional manufacturer. Superior quality, competitive price and timely service, that is why our product are popular with the market of Europe, USA, the Middle East, the Costa Rica, Peru, Japan, UAE, Australia, etc .We can support OEM and ODM services.We can make new model for your new products. We have professional staff to develop new models.
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· 1) Specification: please see as follows:
62 mm
25 mm
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· 2) Material: Velcro ,PP
· 3) Product Color: Different color is available
· 4) Packing: Pack into Polybag + Header card
· 5) Size of Polybag + Headercard: 145*160mm
· 6) Package: 60 cards/inner carton, 360 blister cards/outer carton
· 7) Measurement of Outer Carton: 60*40*35cm
· 8) Weight of Outer Carton: 18kg
· 9) MOQ: Accept small order
· 10) Samples Lead time: Around 1-2 days
· 11) Samples charge: Free
· 12) Payment Term: 50%T/T in advance THE BALANCE BY B/L COPY
· 13) Port: FOB Guangzhou, China; FOB NanSha, China; FOB ShenZhen, China
· 14) Delivery Time: See details as below.
1. Production Time: Items will be shipped within 4~15 working days (excluding weekends and holidays) as soon as your Payment arrived. We are always serious on the delivery time, any orders will be checked by us carefully to make sure there are no delay on the shippment, no problems on quality, no unsatisfictions on the packaging.2. Shipping Time:
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around 7days
Every girl needs a set of large velcro rollers in her hairstyling arsenal.
Bouncy, billowy waves are better achieved with velcro rollers, and they're better for the health of your hair since heat is damaging.
Hair roller used in ladies' hair curling. Smears the "fixture" or "aerosol foam" on the hair and choose the right specification of roller to curl your hair little by little, according to the roundness you like after cleaning your hair.
Remove the hair rollers after one and half hour (the longer, the better), then the hair is shaped.
This kind of hair roller is easy to use, without asking help from others.
Furthermore, it won't hurt your hair and cause yellowing, bifurcate, dullness; So it is very popular with women.
See below pictures for more details:
Nylon Velcro roller


text:
|Carbuncle is a Scrabble word. Scrabble point value for carbuncle: 15 points.
|Carbuncle is a Words with Friends word. Words with Friends point value for carbuncle: 15 points.
Above are the results of unscrambling carbuncle. Using the word generator and word unscrambler for the letters C A R B U N C L E, we unscrambled the letters to create a list of all the words found in Scrabble, Words with Friends, and Text Twist. We found a total of 190 words by unscrambling the letters in carbuncle. Click these words to find out how many points they are worth, their definitions, and all the other words that can be made by unscrambling the letters from these words. If one or more words can be unscrambled with all the letters entered plus one new letter, then they will also be displayed.
1. an infection larger than a boil and with several openings for discharge of pus
|Words that start with carbuncle
|Words that end with carbuncle
|Words that contain carbuncle


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The Olympus Stylus SP-100 Digital Camera is a fixed lens point-and-shoot digital camera with a very powerful 50x optical zoom lens, equivalent to a 24-1200mm lens in the 35mm format. The lens is particularly versatile, able to capture perspectives from true wide-angle to ultra telephoto. It even includes a macro mode that can focus as close as 0.39" (1 cm). With an innovative On-Camera Dot Sight it is easier to locate and track distant subjects when utilizing the extreme telephoto focal lengths achievable with this lens. The Dot Sight incorporates a pop-up glass panel and a projected red light to combine a wide field of view with a dot of light that follows your subject, making it easy to keep your subject in frame and in focus despite distance and movement.
The SP-100 features a 16MP 1/2.3" BSI CMOS sensor and the TruePic VII Image Processor, which is also found on Olympus' top-end mirrorless cameras. The sensor and image processor combine to offer high resolution images with rich tonal range, low light sensitivity and fast autofocus and response times. Full HD 1080/60p video is supported, as is lower resolution video options, including slow-motion capture. A lens-shift image stabilization system compensates for camera movement to reduce the blur often found in images shot in dim light and at long focal lengths.
A 920k-dot Electronic Viewfinder is featured for bright, stable, eye-level composition. Camera settings are visible within the EVF so making adjustments without removing your eye from the subject is possible, and an adjustable diopter is supported for those who wear eyeglasses. In addition, a 3.0" 460k-dot LCD monitor provides large and accurate image playback and is useful for odd-angle and discreet composition.
The SP-100 is a practical camera for photographers of any skill level. It offers an enhanced Intelligent Auto feature with scene and subject recognition technologies. These shooting modes make it simple to capture difficult shots as the camera will recognize what you are shooting and apply the optimal settings. Also, full manual exposure control and shutter priority and aperture priority modes enable exacting control for those who prefer to utilize such options. Three autofocus modes, as well as Manual Focus and a Focus Limit function, provide several alternatives for automatic control or precise manual control of focusing. A built-in flash will add light to your scene if needed. And in addition, Picture and Art Filters allow you to add effects to your images, 360ş Panorama Mode captures astonishing vistas, and Interval Shooting mode lets you create time lapse videos.
A solid yet compact form factor with a large hand grip and ergonomically placed buttons and zoom lever enable comfortable handling. The SP-100 is compatible with SD, SDHC, SDXC and FlashAir SDHC memory cards. FlashAir cards allow for wireless transfer of images stored on the card to compatible computers, smartphones, and tablets.
16MP 1/2.3" BSI CMOS Sensor and TruePic VII Image Processor
Know the Olympus digital camera you are looking for?Go directly to the camera by using the drop-down menu below


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Q&A with CORNEL WEST
Q. The title of your book is Brother West. Why do you greet each person as "brother" or "sister" no matter their color?
A. I try to give heart to intellect by being true to the funk of living. For me, this can only be seen through the lens of the cross and realized in the light of love. This is the reason that I greet each person struggling through time and space in search of love and meaning before they die as brother or sister no matter what their color. I affirm them as brother or sister to acknowledge their human struggle and suffering. It's not simply a greeting that Christians reserve for other Christians, or even an acknowledgement reserved for and between black people. Both are too narrow.
Q. At Harvard you received your "calling." Can you describe that moment?
A. It was during the Christmas break of my freshman year at Harvard. I'd returned to Sacramento and hooked up with Glenn Jordan, a close friend of mine from high school, who'd gone to Stanford. Glenn and I compared notes on our first semester at school. He spoke of a professor—the brilliant St. Clair Drake—whom he'd felt had changed everything for him. Glenn had decided he, too, wanted to be a professor. Something clicked. In a moment that I can only call transformational, I was feeling the miraculous passion that professor St. Clair Drake had passed on to Glenn. It was that winter day in 1970 that I committed myself to the life-long vocation of teaching and have never veered from that commitment.
Q. In the book, you talk about Paideia. What is that?
A. Paideia is an ancient Greek word that literally means "education." When we use it today, it means a deep education that connects you to profound issues in serious ways. It instructs us to turn our attention from the superficial to the substantial, from the frivolous to the serious. Paideia concerns the cultivation of self, the ways you engage your own history, your own memories, your own mortality, your own sense of what it means to be alive as a critical, loving, aware human being.
Q. You express in the book how much you enjoy teaching college freshmen the most. Why?
A. Reaching and teaching is my greatest joy…especially lighting a fire in the minds of young people. Every year at Princeton I insist on teaching freshmen. I want to be part of their academic lives, knowing that connecting with them at an early juncture might move their stories in a positive direction…My lens as a bluesman is to begin with the catastrophic, the horrendous, the calamitous and monstrous in life…Initially, students are quite shaken with this stress on the fragility of their lives and the inevitability of their own death. Yet as they examine these great texts and see the centrality of death and rebirth, of learning how to die, to learn how to live, they are initiated into paideia. I consider this a life-long initiation in deep education, a priceless contribution to their lives and to my life as a teacher. In fact, my enthusiastic teaching itself at my beloved Princeton is a living testimony to the sheer transformative power of paideia.
Q. You allude in the book to "teachable moments" outside the classroom. Please explain.
A. Teachable moments do not just happen in the classroom. They are shot through everyday life and take place in a variety of contexts. To be teachable is to muster the courage to listen generously, think critically, and be open to the ambiguity and mystery of life. For example, I began as a fierce critic of black leaders Reverend Jesse Jackson, Reverend Al Sharpton, Minister Louis Farrakhan, Bishop T.D. Jakes, and Barack Obama. But after breaking bread with all four and spending countless hours in rich dialogue, I realized how short-sighted I had been. All four men had much to teach me, and I certainly had a deep love for each of them. We vowed to continue the conversation for the rest of our lives. Of course, it mattered that we disagreed deeply on many subjects. But what mattered more was the mutual love and respect that came out of those meetings.
Q. You've been involved in a few political campaigns, including Barack Obama's campaign. How do you feel about political campaigns?
A. Political campaigns are one of the moments in American culture where my fellow citizens are most open to democratic awakening. So my involvement has not only been to support a candidate but also to lay bare a vision and analysis as a form of democratic paideia (education) as my part in the campaign.
Q. You've been wrongfully arrested, detained, and threatened. How do you handle these injustices?
A. When arrested, threatened, or persecuted, I give myself permission to be full of righteous indignation and moral outrage but I try to never allow righteous indignation to degenerate into bitter revenge, or let moral outrage become hateful anger. My blues sensibility or tragic-comic disposition leads me to juxtapose the sheer absurdity of the situation with the utmost seriousness of the injustice. So I retain a painful smile on my face even as I respond to the undeniable hurt with intense ethical energy.
Q. You worked on President Obama's campaign. Please talk about some of the challenges he faces in the years ahead.
When Obama burst on the scene in Boston at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 proclaiming that America is a magical place, I turned to my dear brother Tavis Smiley and said, "This brother is going to have a Christopher Columbus experience. He's going to discover America!" The greatness of the American democratic experiment has nothing to do with magic but rather the blood, sweat, and tears of ordinary people endeavoring to create a fragile yet noble democracy…I have a deep appreciation of Obama's brilliance, charisma, and his sense of a fresh start for the nation. In my times with him as a presidential candidate, he struck me as a decent person filled with a sense of destiny. Brother Obama's amiable personality often wants to put a smile on everyone's face and thereby give the impression that he agrees with everyone. My constant worry is that he can be easily mesmerized by fasttalking establishment figures whose braininess lacks wisdom, vision and commitment…The deep tension in Obama's vision and expression of democratic rhetoric and technocratic policies reflects his own divided mind about the crucial role of mobilizing everyday people while satisfying the elite establishment…As he [Obama] aspires to be the black Lincoln, I intend to be a blacker Frederick Douglass.
Dr. Cornel West
October 5, 2009
Smith Opera House
Geneva, N.Y. 14456
Program begins at 7:30 p.m.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Free and open to the public
- Q&A with Cornel West
- Stephen Colbert takes on Cornel West
- Official Cornel West Web Site
- Never Forget, Cornel West's album featuring Talib Kweli, Jill Scott, Outkast & more
- 9-30-09 Democracy Now interview with Cornel West
- 9-30-09 WNYC interview with Cornel West
- 'Counselor West' in The Matrix


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January 11, 2017Hi everybody,
I am new to this forum. I`ve got 2 vehicles, the Suburban and the 2007 GMC Acadia (my wife`s car). Eventually, there was a short circuit or something in her electrical system, and now she`s having hard time with the fuel pump in her Acadia. Diagnostics showed malfunction of that fuel pump relay. I have ordered one online, having compared the OEM part # with what they sell (https://www.carid.com/fuel-pump-relays/). Since I am planning to install the piece by myself, I am just wondering, maybe someone has replaced this relay? Where is it?
Thanks! Any help is appreciated!


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I posted a ranty post about RDF; based on some of the discussion on the back of that with friends and colleagues, I thought I'd follow up with something a lot less sweary and hopefully a bit more helpful.
As a user of RDF, I'm rather inclined to think of it as a good thing; I also use other technologies for data work; column and row-oriented stores, (No)SQL, etc. I'm a firm believer in using the right technology for the job and I observe many people trying to do everything with RDF, when the RDF stack isn't suited to this.
RDF is good for data models, it's good for data structures and transformations (HT @jindrichmynarz); it isn't good for working with values. I have worked in several contexts where I have worked with values in a large scale way and here, I have inevitably moved values away from the semantic technology and into more robust systems that can crunch numbers and access values quickly and simply. That isn't to say that RDF doesn't play a role; it does, it plays important roles in helping users and systems understand and gather data.
I pointed out that the major benefit of RDF over other technologies is that it is schemaless; there are other schemaless technologies, but none are self-documenting and none are delivered with a open, standardized API. Schemalessness is important because it allows abstract and complex structures to be represented alongside simple ones; it means that you never have to worry as a developer about designing a clean and effective model. This can come later, if at all.
In saying that RDF's only benefit is schemalessness, I'm talking about RDF as a modelling framework; the many vocabularies, ontologies and tools that make up the linked data stack aren't "RDF", but they are facilitated by it. These are indispensable in working with data on the Web in a distributed, Web-like fashion, but they don't need RDF to work.
As a technology, RDF has some other benefits, but they're not of clear value to a developer; things like how triples are efficient in storage and how the syntax is compact in some obscure sense can only be viewed as at a tangent to the pressing concern of writing working code.
Unfortunately, RDF's power as a data tool is lost because people wanted another database. We need to get over that. I represent my data and work with my data structures in RDF, but I manipulate the values in JSON with tools that allow can give quick responses to questions about textual content, geographical and temporal information.
In working with values, I'm not working with data structures, I'm asking questions about instances, about the outermost edges of my graphs. I'm literally not interested in anything other than literals and I don't need RDF data structures to do this. Simple tools for these simple jobs.
Nevertheless, to build these simple tools, I can perform much better if I have a knowledge base that provides tools to tell me if I have any geolocation data, what its structure is and what it is actually geolocating. Without this, I just have some literals.
In the library world, we bang on about "things not strings" because we were inundated with strings as well as powerful tools for manipulating strings; the recent BIBFRAME initiative attempts to formalize "things not strings" in a way that is compatible with historical practice. I'm not a believer in this approach, but the nature of RDF, its hitherto-noted modularity and extensibility, means that it doesn't matter — something better can come later.
RDF's problems are many, but they largely boil down to a couple of things; firstly, as @xbib pointed out in a comment on the previous post, people don't want a data model, they want values. I'd respond to this by firstly agreeing and secondly thinking that this is a shame. There are plenty of examples why choices that boil data on the Web down to the simplest route to values aren't necessarily good choices, but Sarah Mei's thorough treatment of using the JSON document store, MongoDB, might open a few eyes.
The second big problem RDF has is that it isn't what people expected. I wrote this in a flippant way previously, but it needs to be said properly. The RDF stack doesn't provide a replacement for a database. The expectations that one has because of the omnipresence of databases include: easy schema-based data entry forms, easy value querying and sorting and knowing that the data you got out was the data. Enter RDF. Aside causing triples to come into existence directly, getting data into RDF is difficult; there is no roundtrip from HTML. Or any other from. I will take a moment to point out that some people in the past did data entry in Protégè…alas. This makes RDF largely useless to anyone who thinks database-wise; it also directs attention away from the lack of data management in RDF…but that is for another time. I've already said RDF isn't good for values, but I didn't mention that it's open world, which means that the data you have is just some statements that may or may not be all of the statements and/or be true. This is difficult for most people to accept.
RDF then should large largely be left to applications where you need a logical data model that will allow you to create data structures and manipulate these as graphs. If you don't need this, you don't need RDF. I'd argue that you often do, especially if you work with data and large volumes of complex data. I'd argue that a logical, modular representation can be useful for generating views of data and providing new insights into data structures and transformations of these. RDF can be a good starting point for producing smart data, but it isn't the endpoint; the endpoints are ephemeral and provide the here-and-now of the data. Pushing all the data power into technologies that focus on the here and the now doesn't seem like a long-term strategy.
As a footnote, JSON-LD has been mooted as an alternative to RDF; why not, it's either a serialization for linked data (not a very good one because I can't parse JSON as easily as I can parse XML, I can't read it as easily as I can read turtle and I can't easily chunk it like I can ntriples). It also imposes a whole load of conventions that make my data more difficult to work with when I need simple access to simple values. Will I use JSON-LD? I already do. Is it the panacea it's being toasted as? Certainly not, it's another route to not having the tools to work with data and it certainly smacks of being of the here and now.