text:
RUTLAND — Just listening to these working parents pursuing college degrees is exhausting.
Ava Pehm, 42, of Pittsford is a single mother to two kids, ages 10 and 13. She is pursuing a degree in administrative management from the Community College of Vermont in Rutland and works part-time.
Greg Lambert, 36, of Rutland is a single father to a seven-year-old boy and is a recent cancer survivor pursuing a degree in environmental science at CCV.
Niki Twohig of Rutland has two-year-old twin boys, and splits her time between school and work.
BRISTOL — The location may have been rural Vermont, but the ambiance was entirely French at the Mount Abraham Union High School cafeteria last Thursday. French music piped in through the speakers, crisp, white tablecloths dressed up the cafeteria, and students gathered to converse in French over a gourmet meal prepared by chef Bill Snell of New Haven's Tourterelle restaurant.
NEW HAVEN — K9 Vincent of the Vermont State Police New Haven Barracks will be receiving his bullet- and stab-proof vest thanks to a nationwide Groupon event. K9 Vincent is a 4-year-old Belgian Malinois assigned to handler Senior Trooper Justin Busby. K9 Vincent is certified in narcotics detection and patrol techniques for the Vermont State Police.
The full text of this article is only available to online subscribers.
Are you an online subscriber? Click to login.
Click here to learn more about our subscription options.
If you have a print subscription, you can now add an online subscription at no additional charge! Just email us with your name and mailing address to set it up.
ADDISON COUNTY — Spring is in the air, the days are getting longer and for some homes and businesses, the increased sun exposure may mean more than starting gardens, wearing shorts and slathering on SPF-65.
A growing number of homeowners around Addison County are considering putting photovoltaic solar panels on their rooftops or in their yards, which until recently constituted a substantial up-front investment — from $10,000 to $100,000, depending on the size of the home and the location.
VERGENNES — Vergennes city council members at their meeting last week said they will almost certainly fill the vacancy on the council at their April 9 meeting, and two candidates have emerged for the vacancy created when Alderman Bill Benton won a race for mayor on March 5.
BRANDON — A neighboring landowner has appealed a recent Brandon Development Review Board decision to permit a medical marijuana dispensary on Lovers Lane.
Joanne Nichols filed an appeal to the Vermont Environmental Court on March 21, citing numerous concerns with the proposed facility, including issues of safety, privacy, odor and air quality, pesticides and fertilizers, and the potential risk of living next to a "high-crime target."
MIDDLEBURY — Vermont Gas Systems will hold an informational meeting on Monday, April 1, in the Middlebury Municipal Gym, from 7-9 p.m. to discuss potential pipeline routes for its proposed natural gas pipeline.
BRISTOL — During this month's annual Legion Birthday Dinner in Bristol, Commander Ron LaRose presented the annual Above and Beyond Awards to Brenda Boutin of Starksboro and Jim Rivers of Bristol.
Boutin was nominated by Jan McCleery for her exceptional volunteer work for the Starksboro Senior Meal Program. She spends many hours procuring food and product donations that she uses to prepare the meals and desserts for all that attend. The number of people served at this monthly meal has increased to 45.
Subscribe to Online Edition
Online PDF Print Edition
Copyright 2011 Addison Independent | 58 Maple Street, Middlebury, Vt. 05753 | All Rights Reserved
Site Development by Surf New Media


text:
California Department of Transportation
Headquarters - Public Affairs Office
Matt Rocco
(916) 654-5467
April 16, 2009
Sacramento - Today, the California Transportation Commission (CTC) allocated $298 million for 81 transportation projects, which includes $181 million from Proposition 1B, the 2006 voter-approved transportation bond, and $62 million in federal economic stimulus funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act). The remaining $55 million was allocated for pavement maintenance, bridge preservation, safety, and environmental enhancement projects.
"These projects will create thousands of jobs and boost the economy while improving the state's highway system," said California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) Director Will Kempton.
The Recovery Act funding provides $49 million to advance a widening project on Interstate 215 in San Bernardino County. The additional $13 million will fund two highway improvement projects in Monterey and Fresno counties.
The Proposition 1B allocation went to four projects in San Bernardino County. In order to complete the projects, additional funding is being made available from a private placement of bond sales financed through the San Bernardino Associated Governments. For information about all of the projects that received funding allocations and financial advancements today, visit: http://www.dot.ca.gov/docs/ctcprojectallocationsandfinancialadvancementsapril2009.pdf
In addition to the allocations, the CTC voted to allow Caltrans to advance $261 million in Recovery Act funds to three Proposition 1B projects. The funds will go to projects on Interstate 405 at the Sepulveda Pass in Los Angeles County, State Route 905 in San Diego County, and the Caldecott Tunnel in Contra Costa and Alameda counties. The San Diego County project was previously approved by the CTC, but was stalled due to the state's difficulty in funding the project through its bond sales.
Caltrans has launched a Web site (http://www.dot.ca.gov/Recovery) designed to provide the public and the transportation industry with up-to-date information on using the Recovery Act funds on transportation projects to create jobs and jump-start the economy.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
|Oracle Workflow Developer's Guide
Release 2.6.3
Part Number B10284-02
The PL/SQL procedure that generates a PL/SQL BLOB document must have the following standard API:
procedure <procedure name> (document_id in varchar2,
display_type in varchar2,
document in out blob,
document_type in out varchar2)
The arguments for the procedure are as follows:
|A string that uniquely identifies a document. This is the same string as the value that you specify in the default value field of the Attribute property page for a "PL/SQL BLOB" document (plsqlblob:<procedure>/<document_identifier>). <procedure> should be replaced with the PL/SQL package and procedure name in the form of package.procedure. The phrase <document_identifier> should be replaced with the PL/SQL argument string that you want to pass directly to the procedure. The argument string should identify the document. For example: plsqlblob:po_wf.show_req_blob/2038. If you wish to generate the PL/SQL argument string value dynamically, create another item attribute, and reference that item attribute as "&ITEM_ATTRIBUTE" in place of the PL/SQL argument string. Then before any activity that references this other item attribute gets executed, call the WF_ENGINE.SetItemAttribute API to dynamically set the PL/SQL argument string value. For example: plsqlblob:po_wf.show_req_blob/&POREQ_NUMBER.
|For a PL/SQL BLOB document, this value should be ' ' to represent the content type used for the notification presentation, also referred to as the requested type:
|' '--the document is presented as a separate attachment to the notification. Any content type may be returned.
|The outbound LOB locator pointing to where the document text is stored. This locator is a temporary LOB locator, so you must write your document text to this locator rather than replacing its value. If this value is overwritten, the temporary LOB is not implicitly freed. For more information, see Temporary LOBs, Oracle Application Developer's Guide - Large Objects (LOBs).
|The outbound text buffer where the document content type is returned. Also referred to as the returned type. If no type is supplied, then 'text/plain' is assumed. This argument should specify an appropriate MIME type with a primary type of either application or image, such as 'application/doc', 'application/pdf', 'image/jpg', or 'image/gif'. You can also optionally specify a file name for the attachment as part of this argument. Use a semicolon (';') to separate the file name from the preceding value in the argument, and specify the file name in the format 'name=<filename>' with no spaces before or after the equal sign ('='). For example, you can set a value for the document_type with the following command:
document_type := 'image/jpg; name=filename.jpg';


text:
Salma Hayek presented the Humanitarian and Governor's Awards, and Zoe Saldana presented alongside Chris Pine for Scientific and Technical awards.
There was only one Latino who won an award last night: Claudio Miranda for Life of Pi won Best Cinematographer.
Three films with Latino main characters won: Inocente, Sugar Man, and Argo.
Searching for Sugar Man, a documentary about Mexican American singer-songwriter Rodriguez, took home the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.
Inocente, the story of a homeless artist, won Best Documentary Short Subject.
Although Argo, the film telling the story of CIA agent Tony Mendez's rescue mission, won Best Picture, Jose Antonio García lost for Best Sound Mixing.
No, starring Gael Garcia Bernal, from Chile was nominated for Best Foreign Film.
Paco Delgado lost for Best Costume design in Les Misérables.
Lupe Ontiveros wasn't honored which is such bull- she is a huge influence in the Latino community, and that the Academy omitted her was a huge insult!
Want more from Krystyna? Follow her on Twitter @Krysty_C


text:
- Home
- News
- Sports
- Opinion
- Obituaries
- Features
- Special Sections
- Classifieds
- Public Notices
I do not remember having homemade chicken soup when I was a kid. The first time I ever remember my mother making chicken soup at home was when I was an adult. I was living with my parents briefly, and came down with the flu. Mama made chicken soup from scratch, simmering the chicken and vegetables to make the stock, and then making soup from that. It was wonderful and made me feel so much better.
If you currently subscribe or have subscribed in the past to the The Spencer Magnet, then simply find your account number on your mailing label and enter it below.
Click the question mark below to see where your account ID appears on your mailing label.
|ZIP Code:


text:
Power Outage Forces Smith County Courthouse to Close
The Smith County Courthouse, Courthouse Annex, and the Sheriff's Administrative offices are closed due to a power outage Thursday Morning.
Adrienne Graham, Public Relations Director for Smith County says electric crews are hoping to restore power this afternoon, but the courthouse will remain closed the rest of the day and re-open Friday.
Meanwhile, Oncor reports hundreds of their customers are without electricity following Wednesday Night's storms.


text:
Norwich City are back in the Championship and will be hoping they can repeat the success of their 2003-04 side who went from fighting relegation to a Premier League side in just four seasons.
Craig Fleming was a part of Nigel Worthington's new look side which narrowly avoided relegation at the start of his reign. They reached the play off final the very next year, where they faced Birmingham City.
Norwich lost on penalties and Fleming recalls: "A few of the older heads like myself, thought that might be our last chance of getting back into the Premiership."
The Carrow Road faithful would have been forgiven for thinking the same would happen again, after a League Cup first round elimination at the hands of Northampton Town.
The current Lowestoft Town coach remembers: "It was a big confidence drain. It wasn't necessarily the result it was how we played; we were awful that night.
"It knocked us a little bit but we had players who had been around the Championship for a long time so we knew we were a decent team, very hard to beat."
Although Norwich's up-turn in fortunes under Worthington had been a surprise to some, Fleming always felt they were there or thereabouts.
After the League Cup loss, though, it was clear there was still a lot of work to be done so Worthington went about re-building yet again and this time his transfer marker acumen worked and finally got Norwich into the Premier League.
"The turning point was when we went out and got [Peter] Crouch and [Darren] Huckerby on loan. They transformed us from a hard to beat, workman-like Championship side knocking on the door of the play-off to serious contenders," Fleming said.
"With Hucks' electric pace and Crouchy's aerial presence, hold up play and goal threat they really made us a team that could destroy sides."
The signings up front complemented the Canaries' experienced backline which, at an average age of 30 years old, was in it's prime and were safe in the knowledge they had a talented young keeper, who is now a member of the England squad, behind them
"We had Robert Green behind us, who was one of the best keepers in the country and has gone on to be the best. Adam Drury was one of the best left-backs outside the Premiership."
The whole season, including going top of the league at Portman Road, will live long in the memory of the whole squad but Fleming points to the last day of the season as his stand out moment.
He recalls: "It was Iwan Roberts' last game for Norwich and he is obviously a legend at Carrow Road. We had already won the league and Crewe gave us a guard of honour, the whole day was just great. We played as well as we had played all year."
Fleming's outstanding season ended in him winning the prestigious Player of the Year award, voted by the fans and he said: "It is quite a big award at Norwich because it is named after a former player called Barry Butler.
"It is taken quite seriously amongst the fans and it is a big trophy to win so it capped a memorable season off."


text:
Gadsden police are searching for a man wanted on robbery warrants and for his possible involvement in a weekend shooting.
Gadsden police are searching for a man wanted on robbery warrants and for his possible involvement in a weekend shooting.
Nyheim Daquan Toney, 19, Gadsden, is wanted on two outstanding first-degree robbery warrants, according to a news release from Gadsden Police Capt. Bobby Jackson.
Jackson said Toney also is a suspect in the weekend shooting of a teenager.
Jelani Perkins, 16, was shot between 5 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Saturday near the intersection of Padenreich Avenue and East Broad Street, according to a police report. Perkins told police he had been shot by someone in a brown, four-door car.
The teen was taken by helicopter for treatment at UAB Hospital, where a hospital spokesperson said he was in fair condition Monday morning.
Toney is known to hang around the East Gadsden area and has family connections in Marshall County. He is described as a black male with brown eyes, about 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weighing 165 pounds.
"He should be considered armed and very dangerous," Jackson said. "Do not attempt to approach him.
Anyone with information on Toney's whereabouts is asked to call the Gadsden Police Department at 256-549-4500.


text:
The Jets might have been idiots a few weeks ago, but their players seem to think bringing back wide receiver Braylon Edwards was a genius move.
"It's awesome," Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez said Tuesday night, via Conor Orr of the Newark Star-Ledger. "He'll fit right in, I'm sure."
The consensus among Jets players was that bringing back Edwards was a good move, something which says more about their current receiving corps than Edwards himself.
With Stephen Hill suffering a sprained LCL last week, they were running out of options in what was already a thin room. So they claimed him off waivers, bringing him back at the veteran minimum for the final three games.
"That's a funny sequence of events," Sanchez said. "He's a great player. We have a good chemistry together. I'm confident throwing him the ball. I don't think that will change. Get him in the building soon and get him working."
Of course, the bigger question is what Edwards has left. He caught 88 passes for 1,445 yards and 11 touchdowns for the Jets in 28 games, but in the two years since he left, just 23 catches for 255 yards and one score.
"It's a good comfort level for him," linebacker David Harris said. "When he was here before he had a good connection with him. He goes out and lays it on the line for his quarterback, diving for passes, jumping over guys. Even better as a run-blocker, which he doesn't get credit for.
"He's going to be another huge piece for our wide receiver corps. Professional guy. So we look for a lot of positive things from him."
If Edwards lives up to that kind of notice, bringing him back will be the smartest move they've made lately.


text:
Event Registration
|Rhyme Time
Event Type: Children
Age Group(s): Preschool
Date: 7/23/2018
Start Time: 4:15 PM
Rhyme Time is an interactive language-enrichment program for children newborn through 24 months old (not a traditional storytime). The rhymes, songs, and fingerplays selected will introduce your child to the sound and rhythm of words as well as simple concepts such as physical features and counting. Rhyme Time is designed to provide parents, expectant parents, and caregivers a repertoire of materials to use at home with their children. Rhyme Time will last 20 - 25 minutes.Library: Olathe Indian Creek
Location: Meeting Room
Other Information:
No registration but space is limited. Tickets will be handed out 15 minutes prior to program.


text:
Tag: DOJ
Apple to Australia: This is no time to weaken encryption; access only for 'good guys' is a false premise
Saturday, October 13, 2018 · 12:12 pm · 57 Comments
Apple has filed its formal opposition to a new bill currently being proposed by the Australian government…
Apple urges Australian government not to destroy encryption with 'backdoors'
Friday, October 12, 2018 · 5:37 pm · 8 Comments
Apple has submitted its formal response to a draft bill undergoing debate by the Australian government…
Apple, other tech giants denounce proposed Australian law seeking encryption 'backdoor'
Wednesday, October 3, 2018 · 8:35 am · 8 Comments
Four global tech giants – Facebook, Apple, Alphabet and Amazon – will oppose an Australian law…
More proof that iPhone backdoors are a stupid idea: Massive cache of law enforcement personnel data leaks
Monday, July 2, 2018 · 9:30 am · 21 Comments
A data breach at a federally funded active shooter training center has exposed the personal data of thousands of US law enforcement officials…
Apple highlights user privacy as Facebook exec steps down
Thursday, June 14, 2018 · 5:35 pm · 8 Comments
Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook takes every opportunity to highlight his company's commitment to privacy…
Bipartisan 'Secure Data Act' would make it illegal for U.S. government to demand backdoors
Friday, May 11, 2018 · 2:55 pm · 9 Comments
A new bill introduced in Congress gets encryption right…
Bill Gates thinks Apple should unlock iPhones at the government's request
Tuesday, February 13, 2018 · 11:56 am · 62 Comments
In an interview with Axios, Bill Gates warned Apple and other tech giants that they risk the kind of nightmarish government…
Apple to challenge Amazon with all-new 'Books' app
Thursday, January 25, 2018 · 9:00 am · 29 Comments
Apple Inc. is ready to take on Amazon.com Inc. in the digital book market again…
FBI forensic expert blasts Apple 'jerks' for encrypting iPhones
Thursday, January 11, 2018 · 12:01 pm · 31 Comments
Ever since Apple made encryption default on the iPhone, the FBI has been waging a war against encryption…
FBI Director Wray calls inability to access electronic devices an 'urgent public safety issue'
Tuesday, January 9, 2018 · 5:00 pm · 48 Comments
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is increasingly unable to access data from some electronic devices…
President Trump's attorney general pick Jeff Sessions could restart the encryption fight
Friday, November 18, 2016 · 3:15 pm · 73 Comments
After weeks of speculation, President-elect Donald Trump today named Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) as his choice for attorney general…
Hardware hack bypasses iPhone passcode security
Monday, September 19, 2016 · 3:32 pm · 12 Comments
The work contradicts a claim made by the FBI earlier this year that this approach would not work….
Apple backs Microsoft in battle against U.S. government over 'Sneak-and-Peek' searches
Tuesday, September 6, 2016 · 11:01 am · 7 Comments
Apple Inc., Google and Amazon.com Inc. were among the tech leaders that rallied behind Microsoft Corp…
Inept Microsoft demonstrates just how right Apple was to stand up to U.S. government overreach
Friday, August 12, 2016 · 12:03 pm · 8 Comments
I wrote an opinion piece predating the San Bernardino shootings on why Apple was right to stand firm…
Bungling Microsoft singlehandedly proves that 'backdoors' are a stupid idea
Wednesday, August 10, 2016 · 2:30 pm · 23 Comments
Microsoft leaked the golden keys that unlock Windows-powered tablets, phones and other devices sealed…
Apple to begin doling out $400 million to customers in ebook price-fixing settlement
Tuesday, June 21, 2016 · 2:26 pm · 26 Comments
Beginning June 21, 2016, millions of e-book purchasers will receive credits and checks for twice their losses…
Apple rehires prominent security pro to deliver even more powerful security features
Tuesday, May 24, 2016 · 4:01 pm · 2 Comments
Apple Inc , which has resisted pressure from U.S. law enforcement to unlock encrypted iPhones…
Feckless FBI unable to unlock iPhone, even with a 'fingerprint unlock warrant'
Thursday, May 12, 2016 · 11:42 am · 34 Comments
A judge recently took the controversial step of letting the FBI force a woman to unlock an iPhone with her fingerprints. But it didn't work…
The Touch ID lock on your iPhone isn't cop-proof
Wednesday, May 11, 2016 · 9:55 am · 33 Comments
Law enforcement may be able to compel suspects to press their fingers to the devices and unlock them…
U.S. government wants your fingerprints to unlock your phone
Sunday, May 1, 2016 · 4:24 pm · 51 Comments
As the world watched the FBI spar with Apple this winter in an attempt to hack into a San Bernardino shooter's iPhone…
U.S. Congressman Ted Lieu says strong encryption without backdoors is a 'national security priority'
Friday, April 29, 2016 · 4:02 pm · 14 Comments
Ted Lieu is one of the few bona fide computer geeks in Congress…
Apple demands delay in NY iPhone case: Company wants to test FBI hack in San Bernardino terrorist iPhone case
Monday, March 28, 2016 · 4:55 pm · 16 Comments
Apple last week asked a federal magistrate in New York to extend a court filing deadline…
FBI vs. Apple isn't over; Fourth Amendment issues remain
Monday, March 28, 2016 · 10:57 am · 8 Comments
The FBI and Apple reached a cease-fire last week, but it can't last…
Apple says it may not be needed to unlock New York drug dealer's iPhone
Friday, March 25, 2016 · 4:55 pm · 3 Comments
Apple Inc. said it may not be needed to help unlock an iPhone connected to a drug case in New York…
Zdziarski's take on the FBI's 'alternative' method
Wednesday, March 23, 2016 · 2:58 pm · 10 Comments
FBI acknowledged today that there 'appears' to be an alternative way into Farook's iPhone 5c…


text: About: ALGLIB is an open source numerical analysis library distributed under GPL 2+. It implements both general numerical algorithms and machine learning algorithms. ALGLIB can be used from C#, C++, FreePascal, VBA and other languages. It is the only numerical analysis library which uses automatic translation to generate source code written in different programming languages with 100% identical functionality.Changes:


text:
Four Standouts Named 2011-12 Macey ScholarsSOCORRO, N.M. May 10, 2011 – New Mexico Tech has selected four stellar students to be the 2011-2012 William B. and Jean M. Macey Scholars.
The four students are Ahmed Hussien, civil engineering; Nikki Porch, biology; Alyssa Rose, chemical engineering; and Lindsay Snyder, biology.
|Ahmed Hussien
Civil Engineering
Los Lunas H.S.
Click here for a
profile of Ahmed
|Nikki Porch
Gallup H.S.
Click here for a
profile of Nikki
|Alyssa Rose
Chemical Eng.
Click here for a
profile of Alyssa
|Lindsay Snyder
Aztec H.S.
Click here for a
profile of Lindsay
Macey Scholars are academic standouts, as well as "super-citizens." They represent the best of and most well-rounded Tech students – brilliant young scientists and engineers who are involved in their communities and give of their time to worthy causes.
"Our 2011 Macey Scholars are especially deserving of this honor with their generous contributions to their fellow students and the Socorro community in addition to their exceptional scholarship," said Elaine DeBrine Howell, the scholarship committee chair.
The Macey Scholarship is among the most prestigious scholarship awarded at New Mexico Tech. The program is named after 1942 New Mexico Tech graduate William B. Macey. Mr. Macey has been among the biggest supporters of New Mexico Tech over the years, including significant contributors to the Macey Center building fund in the early 1980s.
"New Mexico Tech is very fortunate to have the generous support of the William B. Macey family to recognize some of our most outstanding students," said DeBrine Howell. "I am in awe of the strength of character and stunning accomplishments of this year's winners."
Macey Scholars are Tech undergraduate students who are U.S. citizens, have completed 30 semester hours and have a cumulative GPA of 3.4 or greater. Qualified students apply for the program, along with nominations from faculty and staff members, employers and research associates nominate students. Those selected as Macey Scholars receive an award of $5,000.
The selections are based upon accomplishments in the classroom, research laboratory, service projects, volunteerism, awards, honors and other activities. Each of the 2011 winners have an impressive resumé, full of research projects, internships, volunteer work and extracurricular activities. They are all well-rounded young scientists and engineers who have marked their careers at Tech with academic achievement, campus involvement and devotion to helping others.
By Thomas Guengerich/New Mexico Tech


text:
Excuse my emmence ignorance in programming languages. Get ready for this one: what does object oriented language mean?
Okay,now you're done laughing at me, please answer my question without already making me feeling really stupid.
Excuse my emmence ignorance in programming languages. Get ready for this one: what does object oriented language mean?
Okay,now you're done laughing at me, please answer my question without already making me feeling really stupid.
it means to degrade women.
"She had an ass that wouldn't quit. Like a Java app it was."
thank me later.
Some languages use objects as a way of organizing data. It lets you define new types, so in addition to integer, double, float, etc., you might also have Coordinates or Company. The purpose of the new type is that it contains multiple properties, which the object allows you to handle all at once.
A Coordinates object might have an int x and int y to represent two values. Normally, in many languages (like C), you can conventionally return only 1 variable from a function. But if you return a variable of type Coordinates, you are effectively returning 2 values for the price of one.
Objects can also be much more complex. So say you have a "student" object. He might have the following properties:
string Name
Say this instance of the student is called honorStudent. Depending on your language and the context, you might access his Name with "HonorStudent.Name" and his gender with "honorStudent.IsMale."
In addition to the types "string" and "boolean," which are pretty standard across many languages, we've also got "classes" and "backpack"-- some stuff I just made up (additional objects, beyond student). Each of those has its own properties, so each of the classes might have a professor, a room number, and meeting times, while the backpack's properties might be an array of contents and the backpack's brand and color.
So, you might do something like "ExtractedColor = honorStudent.backpack.color;". This would be distinct from another instance, like "crappyStudent.backpack.color;". You might even do "crappyStudent.backpack.color = honorStudent.backpack.color;".
To answer your question more directly, object-oriented means the language caters to object-based design. So, C++ is object-oriented thanks to its implementation of classes, while C is not because you have to fudge with structs and stuff (essentially just a hack). You could technically use C for object-oriented stuff, but it's a pain in the buttz0r.
Does that answer your question?
BTW, BEIGE, WTF does your From: mean? ç®± == ã¯ã" == box, right? If so, how does that phrase make any sense?
[This message was edited by hikikomori on October 14, 2001 at 04:35.]
In much simpler terms, you can define your own units (i.e. bool double long). It makes the language much more versatile.
In Layman's Terms:
Thanks for the clear explanation of what an object oriented programming language is. My programming learning stopped in 1992 with C.
What are the advantages of an object oriented programming language over a regular one? What are the benefits of a language that caters to object-based design?
Code Reuse: Suppose you want something that works almost the same as something you've got. OOP makes it a lot easier to add only what you need without needing to rewrite everything else.
Encapsulation: Suppose you're in charge of a very large team which is writing a filesharing app. Team A is working on a 'Piecemeal File' object which allows you to grab different sections of a file at different times and write them all in any order that you want. The idea is that Team A's object will allow you to read a little of the file from one host at one time, a little from another at the same time, and whenever they get some data of a certain size they update whatever place in the local file object the data they've got should go. It also takes care of getting the data written to the disk. This represents a body of code that Team B, the main app programmers, don't need to know about and don't want to need to learn. All they want to know is how to use it. Using OOP, the file object can manage all its own data and do all its own processing in a way that none of the rest of the world needs to know, and hide all that complexity. It's not as much privacy as making the burden on the developers lighter: if I don't need to write the code myself, then why should I bother to learn how it's constructed?
Polymorphism: Suppose you have a program representing a University. You have data that represents a person in the school directory. This person could be a teacher, student, or staff member, but as far as the directory is concerned they're all the same: They're all a Person object. But for other areas of the application, whether the person is a teacher or student makes a big difference. You don't want to assign and process a salary for a student. Usng OOP you can treat objects very specifically (that is, as a Teacher object, a Student object, etc) when necessary, but also treat them more generally if they share a lot in common (that is, they're both the same type at some higher level).
Those are a few of the main reasons. Hope the explanation is clear.
Thanks for the explanation guys.
So by your explanation, would visual basic 6 also be an object oriented language? I'm asking because VB6 is where I'd like to start my programming ladder, from VB6 to C++ for more hardcore stuff later on once I master VB, if I can mudge through this without quiting.
VB contains some hints towards object orientation, I believe. It doesn't really encourage you to use object orientation, and I think it still lacks some of the more advanced OO features.
C++ can do most of the interesting OO tricks, and the language leans further toward object orientation than VB does. C++ supports object oriented programming, but it doesn't encourage it heavily.
Java is quite obsessive about objects and object orientation, although it contains some bits that doesn't really fit in.
VB.Net is the first revision to come fully into the OO world.
I think VB6 would be more like "component oriented". Or large-object oriented if you want.
VB is a component oriented language in that almost everything it consumes is a component. What it produces, on the other hand, is a component only some of the time. Component oriented programming doesn't necessarily entail internally object oriented programming, but since the concepts are related, it's difficult to have a really hgh class component producer without OO as well.
Heh. I'm way too academic about stuff sometimes. The above is needless detail.
quote:Well a component would be a somewhat larger unit of encapsulation than an object. One can easily write a component using a non OO language (such as VB). It can still be a nice way of programming for some kinds of work since it gives you the simplicity of procedural programming without many of the risks since you're constrained within the component. Of course I'll admit VB only consumes components most of the time, and isn't quite the best language to create them!
VB 6 isn't really what I'd call object oriented. Sure it allows you to define classes that have fields (primarily accessed through what it calls properties), and functions, but its missing some key functionality thats generally accepted as part of an object-oriented language, stuff like full inheritance ( VB only allows it through composition) and polymorphism (composition, again) and constructors, and function overloading. Also, since you want to start out as a VB programmer, you'd be wise to be very careful of the code you write, because VB will let you develop some very bad habits that will hurt you later should you go on to something better, like Java or Java-- (aka C++).
IMHO, the explanations of encapsulation stated here - the core concept of object orientation - don't go far enough. Code in OO languages, unlike procedural languages such as C or Pascal, no longer maniplates large amounts of program data. Instead, they ask a variety of objects to change the data they're controlling. This may not sound different from modular design but its a subtle shift in perspective.
Consider a database connection pool where multiple threads acquire and release DB connections as needed. With procedural languages, different client code must co-operate so two don't try to use the same connection. With objects, this thread contention can be written and debugged as the object behaviour, so some junior programmer can't write some horrid client code that crashes the other threads.
An object can be regarded as owning its data. A large number of unused, open connections just wastes DB resources. So, a connection pool object could close idle connections and recreate them as needed. It could create a private timer to handle this, which other developers won't even know exists, let alone need to set up.
[This message was edited by warmachine on October 15, 2001 at 11:11.]
As far as I know, C is a procedural language (as only one person above me seems to have caught). C contains the ability to make structures, which is actually what was being talked about in the first reply. C CANNOT be considered object oriented since you need to create separate functions that don't necessarily have any relation to a particular piece of data, rather than having those functions defined as part of the type. As an example:
struct foo {
Keep in mind that this example is really, REALLY simplified in the sense that all of the processes mentioned in here could be used, but there's a much simpler and more obvious way to do what I'm talking about. Just rest assured that there are quite a few cases for which what I'm talking about is very useful. Anyhow, suppose you want y to be some variable used by a function or two that's always 1 greater than x, and x is the only variable that a programmer using foo needs to know about. You can create a function like int foo_update(foo bar) { return bar.x - 1; }, but now you have a few issues. For one thing, if someone else uses your library and needs foo for something, they are free to mess with y if they feel like it, which has a good possibility of making y invalid in relation to x. Also, the programmer has to remember to call foo_update every time x is changed, or else y is once again invalid. In short, it's pretty much left to the programmer to keep data private when it doesn't need to be public and otherwise use it properly.
C++ adds capabilities for object oriented coding to the C standard by adding "class" functionality. Here's how this works:
You once again create "foo," but this time you create it as a class.
class foo {
Here, the new_x_val() function is used to set the value of x (obviously). Note that only the public data and/or functions (I only used functions in the example, since data should be kept private when it can be) can be accessed by the programmer. If you were to try to do something to foo_1.x in main() or anything like that, you'd get an error when you try to compile. However, you can still tell what x currently is, change it if you want to, and find out y. It also gives you the possibility to create your own functions for new_x_val(), current_x(), and current_y(), allowing greater portability in case some of those functions may not be very compatible with different types of systems.
I'm not sure if any of that made sense, but I tried.
Object-oriented programming = sub-routines and sub-progams from so-called 'predicate' programming = "New Improved" label on an old product (or concept, in this case).
I never understood what the big deal was, but I guess a new fashion was in order, in order to make programmers feel good.
I would recommend starting with Java, while not pure object oreinted language it is more into it than C++ (which mix imparetive + OO in a very complex language for starters).
Your equation is far from being correct. You need to read more on the paradigms of programming languages before making such things.
I started in Fortran '66 (variant WatFor), after the initial flush of OOPs died down most of the OOPs fanatics I knew admitted that it wasn't that different. The real trick isn't in the language itself, so much as how you approach the logic of programming itself. Certainly, OOPs languages are different from predicate languages, but they are all different from each other, within the same "class", and each has it's own strengths and weaknesses, regardless of whether they are OOPs or predicate. Think outside the box of this OR that, don't confuse a feature for a paradigm. OOPs is, in my opinion, a programming style rather than a set of languages.
You can in fact write a procedural C++ or Java program. In theory you could write an object-oriented C program, but you'd just end up reimplementing C++ or Java.
If a language is not OO, you can't make it so without a lot of nasty work. The converse is rarely true (it might be tough to make Smalltalk procedural, as I recall it).
And then of course there are the functional languages, which are neither OO nor procedural...
What I'm trying to say (not enough coffee), is that I wouldn't use Fortran or Cobol these days, either. OOPs grew out of and is the logical extension of predicate (aka procedural) programming techniques. It was the programming style that changed, and it changed incrementaly, not in one fell swoop. Just trying to blur the lines
C# is a fabulous learning language, I'll note. While it doesn't have any sort of permeation (yet) it's makes learning either C++ or Java pretty easy once you know it. Java is not the a great pathway into C++ or vice versa, but C# can do both really well.
That, and it's lovely.
Right, but IMHO when most people think of OO programming, they think of OO programming in the context of a language explicitly created to support this programming model. So, in a manner of thinking, the lines between the programming paradigm and the language blur. And as technophile pointed out, writing OO code w/o language support is extremely difficult, so I don't really see a difference.
As Tenebrae says, OOP is at least as much about how you approach the problem than it is about language features (classes and such).
quote:Not just in theory, in practice too. And you wouldn't reinvent anything. Just take a look at the Win32 API (lets say the GDI to keep things simple, and please don't point out specific irrelevant issues). It might very well be considered good OOP. The representation is abstract. You manipulate objects through handles and associated functions. You don't know what's going on underneath. Yet it's 100% C, which has just about no support for OO programming. So you see, OOP is a way of thinking, not just a language feature.
Except that the whole "handle + assoc. functions" model is a simplistic reinvention of the OO features found in C++. Handle == pointer (more or less) and the "associated functions" where you don't know what's going on underneath are the "member functions". The difference is that the C API can't enforce any sort of public/protected/private mechanism, and neither can it implement class inheritance, templates, etc. -- which severely limit its OO-ness. If you wanted to, you could manipulate those handles using your own home-cooked functions, where in an OO language the handle classes would be the only way you could get at them (including subclassing).
I maintain that writing OO code in a procedural language (ie one which does not include OO features) is possible only if you reinvent the wheel and either write your own OO support features, however simplistic -- thereby reimplementing Java or C++ etc. -- or else just trust that all the programmers will abide by an "OO-like" object model. That latter option doesn't make the program OO, however, as a function which takes an object handle as an argument is a different paradigm than an object which operates on its own data.
I guess my assertion is that the approach to the problem and the language features are inseparable, unless you're willing to trust every programmer who may use or interface with your code to abide by the "pretend" OO model.
quote:Actually, I think an abstract handle is better than a class in many ways. It does have private stuff (it just isn't there at all, unlike a C++ class where you still have to declare it). It does have inheritance and polymorphism (DeleteObject works on almost any kind of GDI handle, lots of window functions work on window handles and dialog handles, as well as control handles). You could say that the controls are derived from the windows. There are countless examples. Of course it lacks templates, but that's not really OO, more generic programming (a very different topic).
quote:How so? The only difference IMO is syntax. How does an object "operate on its own data"? It does so through functions which recieve a hidden pointer (this) to the object. Doesn't that sound a lot like a normal function taking a handle? Sure, it might be more convenient and natural to write, but conceptually it's the same thing: indirect manipulation of the data.
I don't understand what you mean by this. Are you saying that a "private" variable in that context is one which hasn't been declared and thus cannot be accessed (at all, including by whatever function it's supposed to be "private" to)?
Function overloading != polymorphism || inheritance.
I cannot create a new kind of GDI handle and have it automatically inherit all the capabilities of a window, while adding capabilities. At minimum I'd have to write some forwarding functions to redirect pre-existing function calls to the original functions, or maintain a number of different structures all relating to the same notional "object", or some such improvisation of inheritance.
I disagree. Templates are an extremely useful way to promote polymorphism. If I have an Array class which I want to be sortable, which is easier/more reusable/less error prone: to write a new sort function every time I declare a new class, or to write one total, using templates and operator overloading? Even Java can do something nearly identical by having every object ultimately descend from Object, and using reflection; if everything is an Object, then you can ask any object whether it is "less than" another object, and if it knows how to do that, it can tell you. Compare that to C, where you have to write a function for every exact combination of parameters, (even using void* won't get you past the "are you less than that" problem) or else not do it at all.
But any random function can take that handle, and assuming it knows the underlying data structures, can twiddle the bits any way it likes. In a true OO paradigm, there's protection there so that only classes who should have access to that data do. Handles + assoc. functions are a simplistic reimplementation of true OO, I already said that; you're basically supporting that point for me in the last sentence. Without reinventing some form of indirect manipulation of data, as well as "inheritance" and "polymorphism" (via creating overloaded functions for everything under the sun) you can't force a procedural language to behave in an OO manner.
The Win32 API would be a lot cleaner and a lot easier to work with had it been designed and implemented in C++, not C. Instead of spending time recreating OO capabilities, the programmers could have written naturally OO objects. C's version of OO-ness is a pale imitation of the real thing.
quote:Well, in this context I meant you don't really need "private" as such, since the stuff you shouldn't see just isn't there. Look at it this way: most of the time in C++ private is there because the compiler needs the declaration but you don't want it to be part of the interface (I think the exception would be a private virtual function). In a handle-based interface, all data is private. Private "methods" just aren't part of the API.
quote:Errr ok. I was considering this as part of a fixed interface (and from the user's point of view, not the implementer's). If you throw in extensibility, handles don't go very far. In fact, their implementation is probably already rather complex. And I don't think the functions are overloaded, there is only one function which decides what to do based on the handle it receives (much like a virtual method).
quote:Well I disagree too! Templates != polymorphism. Templates are generic programming, which is different. Polymorphism implies a hierarchy, and inheritance. Generic programming only implies identical semantics (say, all objects have to be comparable with < ). The difference is slim, but I believe it is there. Another thing: polymorphism is run-time while templates are compile-time. Of course I'll take a template over multiple functions any day Unfortunately, some of the people I work with won't And they seem to be the one taking the big decisions...
quote:The language itself does not, but the design does. My first point (if I remember well) was that OO was more about the design than about the language (given that the design you choose can have a reasonnable implementation in a given language). Of course more complex designs might not fit at all in C. It depends what you need to do.
quote:I don't know for sure. The Win32 API is admirable in it's abstraction and simplicity (after having dug through MacOS (not X) APIs, I'm pretty convinced of this). A true nice C++ API (read: probably not MFC) might have been better. It depends who designs it Every language can create good stuff and evil stuff.


text:
Bokum and Morrison To Receive Bureau Awards, Jan. 5, 2006
by Peter Scholle and Kathleen Hedges
SOCORRO, N.M., Jan. 5, 2006 -- The New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources (a division of New Mexico Tech) has announced that the recipients of its 2006 New Mexico Earth Science Achievement Awards are Consuelo Bokum and Thomas D. Morrison. The awards will be presented on Jan. 27 at noon in the rotunda of the State Capitol Building. The awards are co-sponsored by the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department (EMNRD) of New Mexico.
The awards are presented annually to honor individuals who have made outstanding contributions to advancing or facilitating the role of geoscience in areas of education, research, public service, and public policy in New Mexico. Selections were made following a statewide nomination process. The awards were initiated in 2003 to honor those often unrecognized champions of earth science issues vital to the future of New Mexico.
The presentation will coincide with the legislature's Earth Science Day. The presentations will be made by Joanna Prukop, cabinet secretary of the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, and Dr. Peter Scholle, director of the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources. The public is invited to visit the Roundhouse throughout the day and to attend the ceremony. In addition, several related agencies will be staffing tables in the west wing of the Roundhouse from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on that day.
For the past 15 years, Consuelo Bokum has worked tirelessly on issues related to water, New Mexico's most vital resource. Her involvement with 1000 Friends of New Mexico and with water planning groups, boards, task forces, and councils, in addition to her authorship of several sensible water management policy publications, have given her a well-deserved reputation as one of the "movers and shakers" on water issues in New Mexico.
Thomas D. Morrison is chief of the Hydrology Bureau at the New Mexico Office of the State Engineer. For over 25 years he has been at the forefront of shaping water management policy throughout New Mexico. His guidance has been instrumental in increasing our understanding of the state's water resources and has resulted in more informed decision-making in this area. He successfully championed the use of sound hydrogeologic and engineering principles as the foundation for good policy, to the benefit of all New Mexicans.
The New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources is a non-regulatory service and research division of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro. For 78 years the bureau has served as the geological survey for the state of New Mexico. EMNRD provides resource protection, recreation, and resource development services to the public and other state agencies.
For more information, contact:
Peter Scholle, State Geologist & Director
New Mexico Bureau of Geology & Mineral Resources
New Mexico Tech
801 Leroy Place
Socorro, NM 87801
(505) 835-5302


text:
Powering Up Faculty Prestige
Acclaimed scientists, writers and economics experts are among distinguished scholars joining the faculty this fall, as CUNY continues to raise its profile as a magnet for high academic achievers.
"CUNY's top priority continues to be the hiring of more full-time faculty, the lifeblood of the University," Chancellor Matthew Goldstein said. "We are fulfilling that mission, further enriching the high quality and value of a CUNY education."
"It is most inspiring to contemplate the contributions that these stellar scholars and researchers will offer our University," said Alexandra W. Logue, Interim Executive Vice Chancellor and University Provost. "As teachers, they will offer our students exceptional instruction, mentoring and guidance. As scholars, they will further enrich the vital intellectual and artistic contributions and collaborations already taking place among their faculty colleagues."
A significant number of new hires reflect the University's commitment to the CUNY Decade of Science (2005-2015), a wide-ranging initiative to position CUNY at the forefront of research. They include Charles Vörösmarty, an expert on freshwater resources, who will direct the water and environmental sensing laboratory at the Advanced Science Research Center, which broke ground this fall at City College. Vörösmarty, who joins the civil engineering faculty at CCNY's Grove School of Engineering, will develop computer models and geospatial data sets to analyze the water cycle's interaction with climate, biogeochemistry and human activities. Vörösmarty comes from the University of New Hampshire's Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space.
Another science star hired this fall is Alan Lyons, professor of chemistry at The Graduate Center and at College of Staten Island, where he co-directs the Center for Engineered Polymer Materials. At Bell Labs (Alcatel-Lucent), Lyons was a leading innovator of manufacturing technologies for electronic components; his work was responsible for new products and for improvements yielding over $30 million in savings. As a founding member of Bell Labs Ireland, Alcatel-Lucent's newest research lab, he established a group of young scientists to research thermal management and other energy-efficient technologies. His Ph.D. in polymer chemistry is from Polytechnic University.
Associate professor Daniel Kabat, moving to Lehman College from Columbia University, is a theoretical physicist studying modifications to Einstein's theory of gravity, which could account for the increasingly rapid expansion in the present-day universe. He has a Ph.D. in physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology; much of his research is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Physicist Chiaki Yanagisawa, assistant professor of science at Borough of Manhattan Community College, researches particle astrophysics, in particular neutrino physics and its oscillation, proton decays, and cosmic rays. His international collaborations have led to the discovery of the particle gluon, of top quark (sixth and last ingredient of matter) and of neutrino oscillation. His Ph.D. is from the University of Tokyo.
At York College, Mandë Holford, new assistant professor of chemistry, hopes to develop a lab where researchers will reconstruct the evolutionary history of venomous marine gastropods (cone snails, terebrids and turrids), studying their toxins as biochemical tools for characterizing cellular communication in the nervous system, and as potential drug development targets. Her Ph.D., in synthetic protein chemistry, is from Rockefeller University.
Accomplished writers joining CUNY this fall include Amy Hempel, who heads Brooklyn College's M.F.A. program in fiction writing. A Guggenheim fellow who has penned more than 50 short stories, a novella and many articles, Hempel succeeds Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Cunningham. "Michael and I are very much in line in thinking about fiction, teaching and what works best," she said, "so it's not like people will arrive and find something they don't recognize." Hempel, who plans to incorporate more poetry and playwriting into the program, has taught at Bennington, Sarah Lawrence, The New School and Princeton.
Francine Prose, author of more than 20 books of fiction and nonfiction, is Baruch College's Sidney Harman Writer-in-Residence for fall 2008. Her works include the just-published novel Goldengrove, novels Blue Angel and A Changed Man, volumes on gluttony and the painter Caravaggio, and books for children and young adults. A contributor to The New York Times, New York Review of Books, The New Yorker and other journals, Prose, president of PEN American Center, has received many grants and awards and has taught at The New School, Harvard, Iowa Writers Workshop, and as a distinguished visiting writer at Bard.
The academic interests of a number of new faculty members resonate with contemporary concerns, from ethnic strife to financial markets to social issues.
Sara Schechter has been appointed distinguished lecturer, law and paralegal studies at New York City College of Technology, after 25 years as a Family Court judge and 20 as an adjunct professor at City Tech. "Teaching, with its focus on positive futures for the students, was an antidote to my judicial function of presiding over lives unraveling," explains Schechter, who recalls teaching her course "Law Through Literature," on Sept. 12, 2001: "Seventeen of the 23 students managed to make it to class that night, and the session was a celebration of our survival and our freedom to learn together." The author of the textbook New York Family Law, Second Edition, Schechter has supervised foster care and adoption litigation for the city Human Resources Administration. A former foster child herself, in 1999 she was the first judge to sit in New York City's Model Court, a federally funded project designed to expedite permanency for children within Family Court jurisdiction. At City Tech, she teaches law and English courses.
Jonathan Engel, professor of public affairs at Baruch College, and associate dean of the School of Public Affairs, specializes in healthcare issues; he is working on a book that examines changes in health care delivery since 1970. He wrote The Epidemic: A History of AIDs, and just published American Therapy: The Rise of Psychotherapy in the United States. "Most psychotherapy today has a strong teaching component," helping people negotiate difficult situations in a way that promotes healthy functioning, he points out. Classic Freudian psychoanalysis, he adds, is "dead," except as a chapter in the history of ideas. His Ph.D. in history and M.B.A are both from Yale.
Considered one of the nation's top demographers, Richard Alba, distinguished professor of sociology at The Graduate Center, specializes in the sociology and demography of migration, race and ethnicity and urban sociology. With CUNY colleague Nancy Foner, he is working on a book comparing incorporation of immigrants and their children in North America, and Western Europe. Professor Alba comes to the Graduate Center from SUNY Albany, where he directed the Center for Social and Demographic Analysis and the Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and Regional Research. His Ph.D. is from Columbia University.
Bojana Blagojevic, assistant professor of political science at LaGuardia Community College, emigrated to the U.S. from Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1996 to continue her war-interrupted education. Once here, her educational trajectory was swift, from the GED and high school diploma she earned in 1997, to her associate degree from Union County (N.J.) College in 1998 to her Rutgers University (Douglass College) B.A. in 2000, to her Rutgers Ph.D. in global affairs in 2004. Her research interests include causes of war, conflict resolution and peacebuilding. Her latest scholarly article "Peacebuilding in Ethnically Divided Societies" was published in Peace Review in October 2007. Non-scholarly publications include a book of poems written during the war in Serbo-Croatia.
In economics-related fields, new faculty include Anne Zissu, an expert on mortgage and asset-backed securities, as associate professor and chair of business at New York City College of Technology. Founding editor of The Financier and The Securitization Conduit, she comes to City Tech after 20 years at Temple University and remains a visiting professor at University Paris-Dauphine. With her husband, Charles Stone, she has co-authored The Securitization Markets Handbook: Structures and Dynamics of Mortgage- and Asset-Backed Securities, three books on global securities, and one on the European market. Zissu has a patent pending for a method of modeling and computing the risks of investing in senior life settlements, contracts that transfer a life insurance policy from the insured (settler) to a life settlement company. Her economics Ph.D. is from The Graduate Center.
Gene Park, assistant professor of political science at Baruch, studies the political economy of Japan — how the Japanese finance their state, tax and use public funds. He also examines why Japan has recently become a debtor country. His book Taxation Without Spending: Financing the Japanese State, the Fiscal Investment Loan Program and the Politics of Public Spending is under review for publication. His new work will contrast Japan's political economy with other industrially developed nations'. Park holds a Ph.D. from Berkeley.


text:
DIY This Easy Ear Cuff For Under $15
We're big fans of the latter look as part of a sparkly New Year's Eve ensemble, which is why we wanted to share the easy steps to Honestly WTF's DIY Ear Cuff. Turned off by notion of making your own jewellery? Don't be. This professional-looking sparkler is a far cry from your preschool macaroni necklace. Besides, we're guessing you might have a little time off for the holidays, so why not get crafty??
Photo:Honestly WTF
- (5) 8 x 4mm Swarovski navette rhinestones & settings
- (6) 11 x 3mm Swarovski navette rhinestones & settings
- (1) 2 x 40mm curved gold tube
- (1) flat glue-on post
- (1) stabilizer clutch
- a pair of flatnose pliers
- a pair of wire cutters
- a hammer
- a toothpick
- E6000 glue
?- thin piece of cardboard
Photo:Honestly WTF
Step 1:
Lay out a working surface to protect your table (a thin piece of cardboard works well), and hammer the hollow gold tube flat. The flattened hollow gold tube will be referred to as the "curved piece". Use the flatnose pliers to flatten and even out the texture on the curved piece.
Photo:Honestly WTF
Step 2:
Pull the working surface off the edge of a table. Pierce a hole and push the earring post through the working surface. Squeeze a dollop of E6000 glue onto a disposable spoon.
Photo:Honestly WTF
Step 3:
Use a toothpick and apply a generous amount of glue onto the flat post. Glue the curved piece to the center of the flat post. Allow to dry for 10-15 minutes before applying more glue and attaching the shorter rhinestones to the flat post. Use the pliers and toothpick to help manoeuvre the rhinestones. Allow to dry.
Photo:Honestly WTF
Step 4:
Add more glue along the curved piece and add the longer rhinestones, one piece at time in an alternating pattern.
Photo:Honestly WTF
Step 5:
Use the toothpick to add glue along the sides of the rhinestones each time for extra hold. Dry overnight.
Photo:Honestly WTF
Step 6:
Use wire cutters to trim away the excess metal. Check for any potentially loose pieces and add more glue. Allow to dry for at least another day before wearing. And be sure to back it with a stabilizer clutch to help keep the ear cuff from drooping.
Photo:Honestly WTF
Final Product


text:
Today's API design fail case study is Iconv. It is a library designed to convert text from one encoding to another. The basic API is very simple as it has only three function calls. Unfortunately two of them are wrong.
Let's start with the initialisation. It looks like this:
iconv_t iconv_open(const char *tocode, const char *fromcode);
Having the tocode argument before the fromcode argument is wrong. It goes against the natural ordering that people have of the world. You convert from something to something and not to something from something. If you don't believe me, go back and read the second sentence of this post. Notice how it was completely natural to you and should you try to change the word order in your mind, it will seem contrived and weird.
But let's give this the benefit of the doubt. Maybe there is a good reason for having the order like this. Suppose the library was meant to be used only by people writing RPN calculators in Intel syntax assembly using the Curses graphics library. With that in mind, let's move on to the second function as it is described in the documentation.
size_t iconv (iconv_t cd, const char* * inbuf, size_t * inbytesleft, char* * outbuf, size_t * outbytesleft);
In this function the order is the opposite: source comes before target. Having the order backwards is bad, but having an inconsistent API such as this is inexcusable.
But wait, there is more!
If you look at the actual installed header file, this is not the API it actually provides. The second argument is not const in the implementation. So either you strdup your input string to keep it safe or cast away your const and hope/pray that the implementation does not fiddle around with it.
The API function is also needlessly complex, taking pointers to pointers and so on. This makes the common case of I have this string here and I want to convert it to this other string here terribly convoluted. It causes totally reasonable code like this to break.
char *str = read_from_file_or_somewhere(); iconv(i, &str, size_str, &outbuf, size_outbuf);
Iconv will change where str points to and if it was your only pointer to the data (which is very common) you have just lost access to it. To get around this you have to instantiate a new dummy pointer variable and pass that to iconv. If you don't and try to use the mutilated pointers to, say, deallocate a temporary buffer you get interesting and magical crashes.
Passing the conversion types to iconv_open as strings is also tedious. You can never tell if your converter will work or not. If it fails, Iconv will not tell you why. Maybe you have a typo. Maybe this encoding has magically disappeared in this version. For this reason the encoding types should be declared in an enum. If there are very rare encodings that don't get built on all platforms, there should be a function to query their existence.
A better API for iconv would take the current conversion function and rename it to iconv_advanced or something. The basic iconv function (the one 95% of people use 95% of the time) should look something like this:
int iconv(encoding fromEncoding, encoding toEncoding, errorBehaviour eb, const char *source, size_t sourceSize, char *target, size_t targetSize);
ErrorBehaviour tells what to do when encountering errors (ignore, stop, etc). The return value could be total number of characters converted or some kind of an error code. Alternatively it could allocate the target buffer by itself, possibly with a user defined allocator function.
The downside of this function is that it takes 7 arguments, which is a bit too much. The first three could be stored in an iconv_t type for clarity.


text:
August 12, 2012
Jaroslav Kulhavy wins gold on SRAM XX1, SRAM sweeps the podium with Schurter and Fontana
On Sunday, August 12th, Jaroslav Kulhavy (Czech Republic – Specialized) became the new XC Champion in London, after one of the most exciting races of the year. Right off the start Kulhavy got in the lead group with Nino Schurter (Switzerland – Scott Swisspower) and Marco Aurelio Fontana (Italy – Cannondale Factory Team). The three riders pushed hard and established a gap on the rest of the field, but the race was far from over. Both Jaroslav and Nino had chosen the new SRAM XX1 drivetrain, an ideal weapon for the course in Hadleigh Farm. Each of the riders in the leading trio took turns on the front, riding on the edge through the climbs and the descents. With less than a lap to go, Fontana lost his saddle and seatpost, allowing Kulhavy and Schurter to break away. A sprint finish was inevitable, but Kulhavy motored away in the last two corners edging Schurter for gold. Fontana soldiered on and crossed the line in 3rd, making this a SRAM podium sweep. With Jaroslav Kulhvay's victory XX1 is London and World Cup Champion in the first two XC events it was ever raced in: UNSTOPPABLE.
Please see the attached PR for all details.


text:
Postcard reminders for backflow prevention annual testing are being mailed to our current list of homeowners that have irrigation backflow devices.
Backflow occurs when water or other substances flow in the opposite direction than intended, allowing contaminants to enter the public water system or consumer's plumbing. For detailed information, please visit WA Department of Health
• All underground lawn sprinkler systems are required to have a backflow prevention assembly installed to reduce the risk of contaminating public drinking water.
• Installation of a backflow prevention device or lawn sprinkler system requires a plumbing permit issued by the City of Camas.
Remember: have your irrigation system's backflow device tested annually! All testing is the responsibility of the property owner.


text:
Inquiry Question
Woodrow Wilson: Prophet of Peace examines the struggle of a president who brought the United States through World War I and tried in vain to make America a member of the League of Nations. Below are materials for further exploration of the subjects this lesson considers.
Woodrow Wilson House
The Woodrow Wilson Birthplace
Washington, DC, Travel Itinerary
American Presidents Travel Itinerary
Biographies of Woodrow Wilson
National Archives
American Presidents, Life Portraits


text:
Oakley Hijinx Sunglasses Emerald Iridium Lens Gainsboro Frame OfThe Oakley Hijinx sunglasses'wrap-around frames and polarized High Definition Optics offer advanced protection from high glare conditions like boating, driving, or snow
Durability and all-day comfort of lightweight, stress-resistant O Matter frame material
Precision and durability of sculpturally integrated hinge mechanisms with dual cam action
Dual polaric Ellipsoid lens geometry (two lenses cut from single toric shield)
Comfort and Performance of Three-Point Fit that holds lenses in precise optical alignment
Metal icon accents
Comfort and performance of Three-Point Fit that holds lenses in precise optical alignment
Optical precision and performance that meets ANSI Z87.1 standards
Impact resistance that meets ANSI Z87.1 standards for high-mass and high-velocity impact
UV protection of Plutonite lens material that filters out 100% of UVA / UVB / UVC and harmful blue light up to 400 nm
Glare reduction and tuned light transmission of Iridium lens coating.
Oakley is one of the top-end designer sunglasses brand in the fashion world, 2013 The latest Cheap oakley sunglasses and Discount oakleys are showed on The Best Oakley Sunglasses Oultet. Cheap Oakley Sunglasses Online here will never disappoint you. We are new oakley sunglasses wholesale and retail supplier, We sale latest oakleys model. cheap Oakley summer sunglasses are hot sale now. No tax to worldwide. Home delivery.
You May Also Like


text:
A contractor hoping to convert the second floor of his commercial building on Lumber Lane into two apartments for his sons, returned to the East Hampton Village Zoning Board on Friday with something to celebrate.
On Jan. 18 the village board had adopted a zoning code amendment that would eliminate one obstacle to his plan — a requirement that anyone who cannot provide the mandated off-street parking pay a $10,000 fee per space into the village's parking fund. The amendment will allow the zoning board to waive that fee, but only if property owners are creating affordable housing.
Pat Trunzo, a contractor who owns the building with his brother, Mike Trunzo, wants to create two "affordable" apartments there but needs a number of variances to do so, including one from the village's off-street parking requirements, which he had not initially requested.
Now he has, but Linda Riley, the village attorney, cautioned Mr. Trunzo against hastily acting on his plans. "Be advised that the local law is not effective yet," she told him. It does not become effective until five days after it is filed with the state, "and it hasn't even been sent yet," she said. Ms. Riley took the opportunity to clarify the code, which she said is largely misunderstood. The code will require $10,000 for each space if a variance from the off-street parking is granted by the zoning board, she said, "except for a variance granted for affordable housing on the condition that there's covenants and restrictions, etcetera, that require it to remain affordable housing in perpetuity."
Andrew Goldstein, the zoning board's chairman, told Mr. Trunzo that he must also submit "a program for those apartments whereby the tenants will be restricted to those meeting certain economic limitations." The board has indicated its support for the parking variance, he said, "but we can't proceed any further until we see those materials."
Mr. Trunzo said he had given Ms. Riley a template of covenants restricting the apartments to people within a certain income range, as well as the rent that could be charged. "With your permission, I'd like to work with the board's counsel to put those in a form that the village would find appropriate," he said.
Lysbeth Marigold, a board member, asked Mr. Trunzo if it was improper for family members to benefit from affordable housing, citing a conversation she'd had with an inspector regarding unrelated, Section 8 housing. "There won't be a government subsidy," Mr. Trunzo answered. "Nobody's subsidizing the rent here. As we've indicated before, we're hoping that my sons go on to bigger and better things, so at some point in time these will be available" to new, qualified occupants, he said.
Ms. Riley said she would review Mr. Trunzo's materials and circulate them internally. The code enforcement officer, she said, will determine how many parking spaces are required. "The board needs a determination by the code enforcement officer on what the required parking is, what the required aisle width is. Then we'll know what we're dealing with," she said.
Mr. Trunzo plans to present the materials the board seeks at the next meeting on Friday, Feb. 8.
Mr. Goldstein also announced on Friday a determination regarding playground equipment at St. Luke's Epsicopal Church. The board found that playground equipment on a 2012 survey should have been encompassed in the special permit and permanent variances the board granted for the property in 2004. The board modified the 2004 determination to include the playground equipment, which will allow the church to replace it with new equipment without submitting a new application.


text:
For a third year, University's Diversity Council singled out as one of nation's best10/21/2013
UA's Diversity Council has been honored by the National Association of Diversity Councils for its "extraordinary efforts and results" in advancing inclusive excellence principles on campus.
UA was the only university nationally to be presented with the association's Heart & Hustle Award. Only one other nonprofit was singled out for the honor.
Here at the award presentation in Washington, D.C., are, from left, Philip Bailey, executive director of the National Association of Diversity Councils; Lee Gill, UA's associate vice president for inclusion and equity and chief diversity officer; Natalie Pesantez, manager of client relationships for the association; and Dr. Rosa Githiora, UA's associate director of multicultural programs.
The award is new for 2013, exclusive to nonprofits. Previously, nonprofits were judged alongside major corporations in the association's ranking of top diversity councils across the nation. UA has been ranked in the top 25 each of the last two years, keeping company with such giants as FedEx, Comcast and American Airlines.
"The award demonstrates that our framework for meeting our inclusive excellence challenges — student success foremost — is a model for others to follow," said Lee Gill, associate vice president for inclusion and equity and the University's chief diversity officer. "The recent changes we've made to the Diversity Council should further enhance the effectiveness of our council and make us competitive for this and other recognition for years to come."
Expanding use of best practices
Based on a best-practices model, the council has been reconstituted to include representation from each college. The changes will make it easier for the colleges to build inclusive excellence goals into their educational, research, hiring and service missions, and to set a course to meet those goals. Learn more and see who serves on the council.
In presenting the Heart & Hustle award to the University, the association cited the composition of UA's Diversity Council as a strength. The council continues to have representation from students, the community and the administration.
Referring to the University, association Executive Director Philip Bailey said, "We think they have 'heart and hustle' in their efforts and results, and they deserve to be recognized by other higher education institutions as an example to emulate."
See also:
Cleveland Plain Dealer: Universities honored for diversity and inclusion initiatives.


text:
April 24, 2004
The Elis reclaimed the Case Cup from Radcliffe, the reigning 2003 NCAA Champions, on the Housatonic River in Derby, CT. Yale led the entire race and defeated the Crimson by five seconds to win back the cup.
Yale's time of 6:05.8 was nearly five seconds faster than Radcliffe, who stroked to a 6:10.7 finish. The Elis, who began the race at a pace of 42 strokes per minute but settled at 36 at the 500-meter mark, led the entire race, but were challenged from behind by the Crimson.
"Radcliffe is a high-caliber crew, which means you are never able to break free from them," said Will Porter, head coach of Yale women's crew. "This shows that were are able to compete at that level. We really worked on our starts since Princeton."
The Crimson defeated the Elis in the Novice Eight, but Yale was victorious by a slight margin in the 2nd Varsity Eight. In the 3rd Varsity Four, Radcliffe bested the Bulldogs.
Yale will travel to Brown May 1st to take on the Bears.
For complete crew coverage see http://www.row2k.com.
1st Novice Eight R: 6:44.8 Y: 6:57.9
2nd Varsity Eight Y: 6:20.7 R: 6:21.4
3rd Varsity Four R: 7:18.2 Y: 7:22.7
Varsity Eight Y: 6:05.8 R: 6:10.7


text:
Doomsday: 10 ways the world will end EP.2
(Spoiler Alert to those who havent watched yet)
The Rogue Black Hole will more or less end earth. But is it still based on solid scientific foundation?
I have heard of various new theories like: The event Horizon being an incendiary boundary that vaporizes space-time, Ring-shaped singularities, etc.
What do you think will happen if Earth gets sucked into a Black Hole based on what you know?
Earth falling into a black hole: Is the science right?
For the discussion of the sciences. Physics problems, chemistry equations, biology weirdness, it all goes here.
Moderators: gmalivuk, Moderators General, Prelates
1 post • Page 1 of 1
Earth falling into a black hole: Is the science right?
Last edited by gmalivuk on Fri Jan 06, 2017 3:35 pm UTC, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: made title more descriptive, corrected "rogue"
Reason: made title more descriptive, corrected "rogue"
1 post • Page 1 of 1
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 8 guests


text:
ATLANTA (AP) - Marcus Georges-Hunt scored 15 points, including a go-ahead 3-pointer with 0.7 seconds remaining, and Georgia Tech beat Boston College 74-71 on Thursday.
Olivier Hanlan led Boston College with 21 points, including a jumper with 3 seconds remaining to give the Eagles a 71-70 lead.
Georges-Hunt took the inbounds pass, dribbled toward the right wing and launched the go-ahead 3-pointer over Lonnie Jackson, who was called for a foul. Georges-Hunt sank the free throw.
It was Georges-Hunt's second go-ahead basket in the final 20 seconds. His layup with 19 seconds remaining gave Georgia Tech a 70-69 lead.
Daniel Miller led Georgia Tech (13-12, 4-8 Atlantic Coast Conference) with 18 points. Kammeon Holsey had 15.
Ryan Anderson had 13 points for Boston College (6-18, 2-9), which has lost four straight and seven of eight.


text:
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Reimer of University of Konstanz and University of Applied Sciences St. Gallen Institute for Information and Process Management explains the value of lightweight ontologies.
1. What are ontologies and what are they good for?
Originally, the term ontology means a philosophic discipline that is concerned with the study of the nature of being and existence as well as the basic categories of being and the relations among them. In computer science the term ontology stands for an engineering artefact and thus has a quite different meaning:
Definition: An ontology is a formal representation of concepts in a domain of discourse and the relationships between those concepts.
An ontology can therefore serve as a shared vocabulary when:
- Information systems need to exchange information among each other and therefore need a common basis for denominating objects in the domain.
- People wish to share information objects among each other and therefore need a common vocabulary to characterize the objects so that they can be more easily retrieved and shared.
- Knowledge-based systems need to reason about entities within a given domain using terminological reasoning to diagnose malfunctioning devices, design and configure complex systems, understand natural language texts, etc.
The definition of an ontology leaves it open what exactly "a formal representation of concepts in a domain of discourse" means. It is meanwhile standard to use description logics (a subset of first-order logic) to formally represent an ontology. Current ontology languages like OWL and (with some restrictions) RDF Schema are based on such description logics. In practice, however, ontologies are sometimes informally represented, e.g. by a graph. In that case their correct interpretation by a computer is not granted and even worse, they cannot be shared freely between applications.
2. Ontologies have varying degrees of expressiveness
The level of detail in which the concepts in an ontology are represented can vary quite considerably. In the simplest case an ontology is just a taxonomy (or concept hierarchy: see Fig.1). ?
Concepts can be represented in more detail by stating additional relationships between concepts as well as properties all instances of a concept have (see Fig.2).
Going even further, relationships between concepts can be said to have certain properties (e.g. being transitive like the part-of relation), to fulfill certain cardinality restrictions (to state that an airplane has two wings), to be not fulfilled (to state that a bachelor does not have a relationship "being-married" to a female person), etc.
2.1 Lightweight ontologies
Ontologies with restricted expressiveness, like taxonomies (cf. Fig.1), are sometimes called light-weight ontologies (LWO). A lightweight ontology can also mean a collection of concepts which are related with each other via associations that are untyped and do not specify of what kind the relationship is (cf. Fig.3). Typically, a numerical weight between 0 and 1 is assigned to the associations, indicating their semantic strength (or semantic nearness of the related concepts). These kinds of lightweight ontologies are also called associative networks.
In the following we will focus on lightweight ontologies of the latter kind:
Definition: A lightweight ontology (or associative network or LWO) is a directed graph whose nodes represent concepts. The links between the nodes indicate associations (or untyped relationships) between the corresponding concepts. The associations express semantic nearness. An association between two concept nodes is labelled with an association strength between 0 and 1.
Lightweight ontologies are sufficient for many kinds of applications, especially in the area of information retrieval where typed relationships between concepts are not really needed:
- Query extension: There is a huge gap between a user's information need and its transformation into an appropriate query for obtaining the relevant information. It can be quite cumbersome to find the needed information because there may be many ways to refer to a particular concept (e.g. "MSD", "musculoskeletal disorder", "lower back pain"). A lightweight ontology which relates semantically similar concepts with each other enables a search engine to extend a query to include additional, related concepts. For example, entering the search term "life style" would also retrieve documents that contain the words "nutrition" or "physical exercise" if the underlying ontology contains the proper relations between these terms (cf. Fig.3). Query extension introduces an independence from actual words occurring in a document or in a query. This is sometimes called concept-based or content-oriented retrieval (as opposed to word-based retrieval).
- Document categorization / document clustering: Rules for categorising text documents into predefined categories typically refer to the words occurring in the documents. A lightweight ontology as background knowledge introduces an independence from concrete wording as discussed above for query expansion. Similarly, lightweight ontologies can improve document clustering.
- Tag cloud generation: By using a lightweight ontology the concepts most strongly related to a query term can be shown as a tag cloud (cf. Fig.4). The font size of the tags in the cloud and their closeness to the query term correspond to association strength. A tag cloud:
- helps the user to get a better understanding of the underlying domain and thus of his or her information need and how to properly express it;
- allows a user diflucan without rx explore the term space defined by the lightweight ontology and thus to improve his or her understanding of the underlying domain;
- allows a user reformulate or extend the original query by selecting terms from the tag cloud.
Since lightweight ontologies can be constructed automatically from text documents (see Sec.3) they can also play an important role in the first steps of building more detailed knowledge models. For example:
- Building a simulation model might start with learning a lightweight ontology from relevant text documents, which gives an initial account of the relevant concepts to consider and how they are associated with each other.
- Defining a mapping between the schemas of two different data sources might begin with learning a lightweight ontology from text documents as well as from already existing ontologies and thesauri.
2.2 Full-fledged ontologies
Ontologies with a richer structure, i.e. consisting of a taxonomy and additional relationships between concepts, are in the following called full-fledged ontologies. They can be used whenever a more detailed conceptual model of a domain of discourse is needed:
- Software engineering: An ontology provides a formal representation of the relevant con-cepts in the domain of interest together with their attributes and inter-relationships. Due to the formal representational basis of description logics a computer can perform formal reasoning on the ontology and check it for consistency and compliance with business logic. Moreover, the ontology can be automatically translated into a component of the target software system. Often UML class diagrams are used in software engineering. Although UML class diagrams qualify as ontologies in an informal way they are not based on any representation formalism and therefore do not facilitate consistency checks or automatic translation.
- Interoperability: The semantic interoperability of application systems requires either a com-mon data schema or a mapping between the data schemas. In order to keep the actual data schemas hidden an ontology can serve as an interchange format that provides a neutral representation of the kinds of data objects involved, their attributes and inter-relationships. Each application system needs only to map to this interchange ontology in order to communicate with other application systems.
- Information extraction from texts: Automatically extracting facts from text documents not only requires natural language understanding capabilities but also an ontology that provides the necessary background knowledge and the schemata into which the facts are extracted. For example, for extracting facts from life science documents the relationships between proteins and (areas on) genomes might be relevant and have to be encoded in the ontology.
3. Where do the ontologies come from?
Ontologies can be obtained in one of the following ways, or a combination of them:
- manual building,
- reuse of existing ontologies,
- automatically learning ontologies from text documents,
- extending an existing ontology by social tagging.
Full-fledged ontologies can only be built manually, possibly reusing parts of already existing ones. Automatically learning a full-fledged ontology from text documents is subject to ongoing research and not practically feasible at the moment.
As opposed to full-fledged ontologies, lightweight ontologies can be automatically learned from text documents. This opens up huge opportunities whenever:
- a lightweight ontology is sufficient for the application (as for most information retrieval sce-narios), and/or
- complex models need to be built (such as full-fledged ontologies, schema mappings, simulation models) : Instead of starting from scratch an initial lightweight ontology is learned to get hints as to what concepts to consider in the final models. This is very helpful because in the beginning it is often only partially known what the relevant domain concepts are.
4. Learning lightweight ontologies with ai-one
There exist many approaches to learning lightweight ontologies from text documents. A recent approach is based on a biologically inspired neural network (BINN) and the associated learning algorithm provided by the company ai-one™. This approach has considerable advantages over other approaches (see Reimer et al 2011 for details):
- Higher relevance: The learned associations between concepts are more relevant (as judged by domain experts) than those of other approaches.
- Directed associations: Most classical approaches yield symmetric associations between con-cepts, while target applications (e.g. query extension) often need asymmetric (or directed) associations. Learning a lightweight ontology with a BINN is one of the few approaches that results in directed associations.
- Speed: Building association nets with a BINN is magnitudes faster than with other approaches.
- Incremental learning: Due to the nature of a BINN, the learning of lightweight ontologies is incremental, i.e. can be continued any time when further input documents are available. This is not possible with most other approaches, which have to start from scratch again when new learning input is to be considered.
- Evolving domains: Due to the support of incremental learning it is possible to take account of evolving domains when using a BINN for learning.
- Small learning input: Unlike other approaches, learning a lightweight ontology with a BINN already delivers reasonable associations from a very small number of input texts.
U. Reimer, E. Maier, S. Streit, T. Diggelmann, M. Hoffleisch: Learning a Lightweight Ontology for Semantic Retrieval in Patient-Centered Information Systems. In: Int. Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 7, No.3, 2011.


text:
Sports superstar David Beckham has forged a friendship with singing legend Rod Stewart over their shared love of soccer.
The two Los Angeles-based Brits converged in a park last week to watch their sons play a match.
Beckham's sons Brooklyn, Romeo, and Cruz took to the field alongside Alistair, Stewart's son with model Penny Lancaster, while the two proud dads sat side-by-side to watch the game.
David's wife Victoria later turned up with their daughter Harper in tow – and the girl joined in with her sporty siblings by kicking a red ball around the sidelines.
Beckham plays for L.A. Galaxy while Stewart played professional soccer as a teen before moving into singing.


text:
I have a long-standing love of old-fashioned reference books. Like, the ones where the whole thing, cover-to-cover, is devoted entirely to illustrations of, say, Napoleonic cavalry uniforms.
One day I'll sort out just what that fetish means, but in the meantime, I'm going to indulge it with these pieces of Halo 4 concept art by Kory Hubbell.
A guy who's done work for companies like 343 Studios (obviously) and Zynga, he's now at Wildstar developers Carbine Studios. You can see more of Kory's work at his personal blog and CGHub page.
To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they're big enough, so you can save them as wallpaper), right-click on them below and select "open in new tab".
Fine Art is a celebration of the work of video game artists, showcasing the best of both their professional and personal portfolios. If you're in the business and have some concept, environment or character art you'd like to share, drop us a line!


text:
Another way to describe this process would be "test-driving the seller." By that we mean two things:
- Finding out as much as possible about an advertised vehicle before you go to see it.
- Getting an early read on the seller, whether it's an individual or a dealership, to try and reduce your chances of buying someone else's problems.
To test-drive a seller, you'll need to answer the following questions. If you're working off a classified advertisement, call the phone number listed and — rather than ask if you can see the vehicle — ask these questions.
This interview accomplishes a few things. It helps you rule out some vehicles without leaving your home, and it gives you perspective on the vehicle before you see it and perhaps get distracted by some overwhelmingly positive or negative aspect of it (or of the seller!). It also gives you a record of the seller's responses. If you do go to see and test-drive the vehicle and something conflicts with what the seller told you on the phone, it's a pretty good sign that you don't want to do business with that person.
Note that most of these questions are legitimate for used-car dealers as well. The more documentation they have on the car, the better. You can ask for a phone number of the previous owner if the dealer doesn't have many details. How the dealer reacts to this request may be of interest to you.
Why are you selling the vehicle?
If the seller answers, "Because it's a piece of junk!" then the interview may be over (unless junk is your thing). But the seller may say something else so odd, or say it so nervously, that you can tell he or she thinks it's a piece of junk and are trying not to say so, or doesn't have the good sense to make up an alternate reason ahead of time. If the person doesn't have the sense to do that, he or she probably doesn't have the sense to keep oil in the engine or to roll up the windows when it rained.
How many miles are on the odometer?
A used vehicle's mileage helps determine its value, which will be important during negotiations. You can research values in our used car pricing tool before meeting the seller. Also, if you eventually see the vehicle, and the odometer reads significantly higher (or appears to be stuck on a number when you drive it), it's time to leave.
What's the condition of the vehicle?
Note that the wording of the question is neutral. See how the seller responds. You know what kind of problems you can live with and how they affect your offer. Be sure to follow up by specifically asking about both its structural and mechanical condition in case the seller didn't address either one. Again, if you see the vehicle and find that the seller could have been more honest about its condition, take it as a sign.
Does it have any special features?
How a vehicle is equipped also affects its value. Are the seats upholstered in leather? Are there any fancy gadgets? Is it equipped with air conditioning?
Are you the original owner?
In general, single-owner vehicles are preferable. This also helps with the next few questions. If the seller isn't the original owner, he or she might not have the answers. The more you know about the vehicle, the higher your comfort level will be.
Was the vehicle ever involved in an accident?
A crucial question. Vehicles that have been in collisions are prone to more problems and are worth less. If the seller says "no" to this question on the phone and then you determine that it's been damaged and repaired, you'll know that the seller is untrustworthy or, at best, not as familiar with the vehicle as you would hope. Whatever their reason for getting it wrong, it may be time to walk away.
Do you have service records for it?
An owner who was meticulous enough to keep service records was probably meticulous enough to take good care of the vehicle — and fortunately, you can find out.
How much are you asking for it?
Again, the wording is important. It suggests that the price the seller quotes should be negotiable.
Take along the Used-Car-Buyer's Checklist.
This handy list includes things you want to know but might forget to ask.
source: cars.com
Questions to Ask the Seller


text: Dear All, We have started a new module, for managing Microsoft Exchange / Active Directory using ISPConfig. The goal of this module is to provide customer control into their Tenancy organization. There is a lot of works, but we are on the good way, and we have do a lot of stuff. This module is on 2 parts, one on Windows (using a Windows service to communicate with the AD / Exchange and the database), and the second is on ISPConfig, for displaying, managing Active Directory Objects. As this module use a copy of the LDAP database under mysql (done by the windows service) we need to implement complicate SQL query. However, we didin't find documentation for ISPConfig for doing that. We just see that every Mysql Table must have some columns, like sys_userid, sys_groupid etc.. How can we do that ? We need to implement "where" to the query, but on the module, we have to select all the table, and the {AUTHSQL} never help . Is there a way for doing that ? like that : Code: $liste["name"] = "Exchange_details"; // Database table $liste["table"] = "AD_MY_TABLE"; [B]$liste["where"] = "columns='" . $_REQUEST['id'] ."'";[/B] Also, we need to use other objects with mysql, for performance, like stored procedure, and views.. In advance, thanks for your help. PS: Of course, when this module will be done, all the sources will be push to the community, include Windows source.