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The Sinar Mas influence map by Salter Baxter
Is it a tube map for spiders? A diagram of the galactic core? No, it's an analysis of our ongoing Sinar Mas campaign, specifically the way it has evolved online.
Communication consultants Salter Baxter have tracked how our campaigns on Nestlé, HSBC, Burger King and their connections to Sinar Mas have been discussed on the web, how those conversations have interacted and what impact they've had on the campaign itself.
A larger version of the map and a summary of their findings is featured on the Guardian, and here's a particular interesting note on the amplification which the web provided:
Of course, it was not Greenpeace's actions alone that created this change but the power of social media. The story was followed closely by specialist media, such as Greenbiz and Treehugger, as well as mainstream media such as the Guardian and newswires like Reuters. There was also a large amount of commentary on blogs, which accounted for 70% of the conversations about palm oil on the web during the six month period to September 27, and of course, the NGOs were vocal and influential.
The combined effect of all these voices was a damaged reputation and loss of business, reflected by a dip in its share price, for Sinar Mas.
The story doesn't touch on the Fonterra chapter in this story but future accounts are sure to.
Last week when Fonterra responded to public questioning of its involvement in the palm kernel business sparked by our spoof Fonterra milk ad first by deleting comments and then by deleting its whole facebook page - we made it a new one.
This then resulted in a TV piece over the weekend called Fonterra commits facebook suicide so Fonterra's dismissive attitude towards the concerns of New Zealanders is not working.

subset: commoncrawl


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Who's performing — and who's not — at Trump's inauguration
Two new musical acts were added to President-elect Donald Trump's Inauguration Day lineup Thursday, bringing the total number of confirmed performers for Jan. 20 to three.
Meanwhile, as reports of the Trump camp's desperation to get A-list stars to perform at the ceremony grow, the list of musical artists who say they will not be there is much more lengthy.
Here's the full rundown of people who will — and won't — be in Washington D.C.
Jackie Evancho
Evancho is probably best known for her appearances on the fifth season of the reality TV contest show "America's Got Talent." A classial opera singer, Evancho was just 11 years old when she finished second on the show.
Since then, she has released five studio albums, including three Christmas albums, and performed for President Obama at the National Christmas Tree lighting ceremony and National Prayer Breakfast.
On Dec. 14, Evancho announced on The Today Show that she would perform the national anthem at Trump's inauguration.
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, comprised of 360 men and women who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has performed at five previous inaugurations, according to a press release on the choir's website. The last time came in 2001 during the inaugural parade for George W. Bush. They will perform at Trump's swearing-in ceremony.
The choir is based in Salt Lake City, where the Mormon church's robust presence led many political analysts to suggest that Trump's comments about women, feud with Mitt Romney and brash political style would struggle in the state. Independent candidate Evan McMullin even appeared to be pulling even in several polls before the election.
Trump, however, carried the state by almost 18 percentage points, though he earned just 45.5 percent of the vote, the worst performance by a Republican in the state since 1964.
The Radio City Rockettes
The Rockettes, founded in 1932, have performed at both inaugurations for George W. Bush, according to a statement put out by the group's owner.
The dance group, which is famous for its synchronized high kicks, has been a New York City institution since the 1930s and are especially popular during the holiday season.
According to Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn, the Rockettes will be involved in the inauguration festivities, which means they are unlikely to perform at the actual swearing-in ceremony.
Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn says The Rockettes will participate at the inauguration https://t.co/6OZtrfIwim https://t.co/Q3fzMn61X1— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) December 22, 2016
In the same interview with CNN, Epshteyn said "we are not putting on Woodstock," pushing back against the notion that Trump has struggled to attract top-level talent despite his desire for the event to be a celebrity-studded affair. One media report even claimed Trump's team has offered talent bookers ambassadorships if they can deliver a big name.
Not Performing
Kanye West
The controversial rapper has surprised fans and observers in the past month or so when he told concertgoers he would have voted for Trump in the election, when he met with Trump in New York City not long after being released from the hospital for a reported mental health crisis and when he later tweeted about his seeming admiration for the president-elect.
But West will not be performing Jan. 20, Tom Barrack Jr., the chairman of Trump's inaugural committee, told CNN.
Elton John
In late November, reports that John, whose song "Tiny Dancer" was a fixture at many Trump rallies, would perform at the inauguration began to circulate. However, his publicist issued a strong denial to the New York Times. John had performed at a fundraiser for Trump's opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton, during the campaign.
Andrea Bocelli
The popular Italian singer is also a friend of Trump, but he will not sing at the inauguration.
Whether it was Bocelli or Trump who decided against it, however, is unclear. Barrack told CNBC that Bocelli offered to perform but Trump turned him down, but the New York Post reported that Bocelli decided not to do so over fears of a backlash.
According to TMZ, Gene Simmons, the frontman for the rock band KISS, will be touring in Europe at the time of the inauguration, but his wife said he would not perform anyway. Simmons, however, has expressed support for Trump in the past, per Rolling Stone.
Idina Menzel
Menzel, famous for her roles in the musical "Wicked" and the animated movie "Frozen," told Vanity Fair that Trump's scheduling woes were "karma" and that he might have to sing himself at the ceremony because "all the artists in the world got up and tried to get" Clinton elected.
The Chainsmokers
Brian Feldman, a writer for New York Magazine, tweeted out Dec. 15 that the pop group would be performing, but he later admitted the tweet was a joke and the band's manager confirmed that the report was false.
Potentially performing
The Beach Boys
One of the most iconic bands in American musical history, The Beach Boys have been invited to perform by Trump, according to Billboard. However, the band has not decided whether it will accept the invitation.
Kid Rock
The rock musician has expressed support for Trump in the past in an interview with Rolling Stone, but there have been no reports yet that he will perform.


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Windows Home Server (at last)
After announcing its Windows Home Server idea at CES in January, Microsoft has now announced that the HP MediaSmart Server is now available for pre-ordering. Effectively a giant NAS with Windows-friendly streaming software, the UK availability of the MediaSmart Server is pegged for December.
F7012A digital photo frame
Every digital home should have a digital photo frame. Once viewed as a pointless product, price drops have made them all the rage. The F7012A offers a 7-inch frame, USB connector and memory card slot - handy as the onboard RAM can only hold 15 pictures. It costs £48.


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Albeit it's Donut, but the Italian "I'm Watch" (yes, that's what it's called) has plenty of flair in its bright colors and 1.5-inch screen that you can preview emails and texts on, plus screen calls like a normal Bluetooth watch.
Some basic Android apps work on the I'm Watch, and you can browse photos and play music from the 4GB of onboard storage, for 48 hours (or 30 if you're using the Bluetooth features). It'll set you back a fair ol' whack though—around $350. [I'm Watch via PCMag The Droid Guy via UberGizmo]
You can keep up with Kat Hannaford, the author of this post, on Twitter or Facebook.


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Windows Communication Foundation Glossary for .NET Framework 4.5
The following terms are defined for Windows Communication Foundation documentation.
|Specifies the location where messages are received. It is specified as a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). The URI schema part names the transport mechanism to use to reach the address, such as HTTP and TCP. The hierarchical part of the URI contains a unique location whose format is dependent on the transport mechanism.
|application endpoint
|An endpoint exposed by the application and that corresponds to a service contract implemented by the application.
|A behavior is a component that controls various run-time aspects of a service, an endpoint, a particular operation, or a client. Behaviors are grouped according to scope: common behaviors affect all endpoints globally, service behaviors affect only service-related aspects, endpoint behaviors affect only endpoint-related properties, and operation-level behaviors affect particular operations.
|Defines which communication protocols are used to communicate with WCF services. It is constructed of a set of components called binding elements that stack one on top of the other to create the communication infrastructure. See endpoint.
|A concrete implementation of a binding element. The binding represents the configuration, and the channel is the implementation associated with that configuration. Therefore, there is a channel associated with each binding element. Channels stack on top of each other to create the concrete implementation of the binding: the channel stack.
|claims-based security
|Allows authorized access to protected resources based on claims.
|client application
|A client application is a program that exchanges messages with one or more endpoints. The client application begins by creating an instance of a WCF client and calling methods of the WCF client. It is important to note that a single application can be both a client and a service.
|Allows the developer to retain strict control over all components of the service or client, and any settings done through the configuration can be inspected and if needed overridden by the code. Control of an application can be done either through coding, through configuration, or through a combination of both.
|Configuration has the advantage of allowing someone other than the developer (for example, a network administrator) to set client and service parameters after the code is written and without having to recompile. Configuration not only enables you to set values like endpoint addresses, but also allows further control by enabling you to add endpoints, bindings, and behaviors. Control of an application can be done either through configuration, through coding, or through a combination of both.
|A contract is a specification of support for the particular type of contract that it is. A service contract, for example, is a specification for a group of operations. In WCF, contracts have a hierarchy that is mirrored in the description objects located in the System.ServiceModel.Description namespace. A service contract is the largest contract scope in WCF. Each service operation in a service contract has an operation contract, which specifies the messages -- including fault messages -- the operation can exchange, and in which direction. Each message in an operation has a message contract, a specification for the structure of the SOAP message envelope, and each message contract has a data contract, which specifies the data structures contained in the messages.
|data contract
|The data types a service uses must be described in metadata to enable others to interoperate with the service. The descriptions of the data types are known as the data contract, and the types can be used in any part of a message, for example, as parameters or return types. If the service is using only simple types, there is no need to explicitly use data contracts.
|declarative application
|An application that is described sufficiently to be created at runtime without running imperative instructions.
|Consists of an address, a binding, and a contract used for communicating with a WCF service.
|endpoint address
|Enables you to create unique endpoint addresses for each endpoint in a service, or under certain conditions share an address across endpoints.
|fault contract
|A fault contract can be associated with a service operation to denote errors that can be returned to the caller. An operation can have zero or more faults associated with it. These errors are SOAP faults that are modeled as exceptions in the programming model. The exception is converted into a SOAP fault that can then be sent to the client.
|A service must be hosted in some process. A host is an application that controls the lifetime of the service. Services can be self-hosted or managed by an existing hosting process.
|hosting process
|A hosting process is an application that is designed to host services. These include Internet Information Services (IIS), Windows Activation Services (WAS), and Windows Services. In these hosted scenarios, the host controls the lifetime of the service. For example, using IIS you can set up a virtual directory that contains the service assembly and configuration file. When a message is received, IIS starts the service and controls its lifetime.
|initiating operation
|An operation that is called as the first operation of a new session. Non-initiating operations can be called only after at least one initiating operation has been called.
|instancing model
|A service has an instancing model. There are three instancing models: "single," in which a single CLR object services all the clients; "per call," in which a new CLR object is created to handle each client call; and "per session," in which a set of CLR objects are created, one for each separate session. The choice of an instancing model depends on the application requirements and the expected usage pattern of the service.
|A message is a self-contained unit of data that may consist of several parts, including a body and headers.
|message contract
|A message contract describes the format of a message. For example, it declares whether message elements should go in headers versus the body, what level of security should be applied to what elements of the message, and so on.
|message security mode
|Message security mode specifies that security is provided by implementing one or more of the security specifications. Each message contains the necessary mechanisms to provide security during its transit, and to enable the receivers to detect tampering and to decrypt the messages. In this sense, the security is encapsulated within every message, providing end-to-end security across multiple hops. Because security information becomes part of the message, it is also possible to include multiple kinds of credentials with the message (these are referred to as claims). This approach also has the advantage of enabling the message to travel securely over any transport, including multiple transports between its origin and destination. The disadvantage of this approach is the complexity of the cryptographic mechanisms employed, resulting in performance implications.
|The metadata of a service describes the characteristics of the service that an external entity needs to understand to communicate with the service. Metadata can be consumed by the ServiceModel Metadata Utility Tool (Svcutil.exe) to generate a WCF client and accompanying configuration that a client application can use to interact with the service. The metadata exposed by the service includes XML schema documents, which define the data contract of the service, and WSDL documents, which describe the methods of the service. When enabled, metadata for the service is automatically generated by WCF by inspecting the service and its endpoints. To publish metadata from a service, you must explicitly enable the metadata behavior.
|operation contract
|An operation contract defines the parameters and return type of an operation. When creating an interface that defines the service contract, you signify an operation contract by applying the T:System.ServiceModel.OperationContractAttribute attribute to each method definition that is part of the contract. The operations can be modeled as taking a single message and returning a single message, or as taking a set of types and returning a type. In the latter case, the system determines the format for the messages that are exchanged for that operation.
|The representation of data on the wire. For example, a SOAP projection sends messages as SOAP envelopes and a Web projection sends messages in JSON format.
|Security in WCF includes confidentiality (encryption of messages to prevent eavesdropping), integrity (the means for detection of tampering with the message), authentication (the means for validation of servers and clients), and authorization (the control of access to resources). These functions are provided by either leveraging existing security mechanisms, such as TLS over HTTP (also known as HTTPS), or by implementing one or more of the various WS-* security specifications.
|self-hosted service
|A self-hosted service is one that runs within a process application that the developer created. The developer controls its lifetime, sets the properties of the service, opens the service (which sets it into a listening mode), and closes the service.
|A program or process that exposes one or more endpoints, with each endpoint exposing one or more operations.
|service contract
|The service contract ties together multiple related operations into a single functional unit. The contract can define service-level settings, such as the namespace of the service, a corresponding callback contract, and other such settings. In most cases, the contract is defined by creating an interface in the programming language of your choice and applying the T:System.ServiceModel.ServiceContractAttribute attribute to the interface. The actual service code results by implementing the interface.
|service operation
|A service operation is a procedure defined in a service's code that implements the functionality for an operation. This operation is exposed to clients as methods on a WCF client. The method may return a value, and may take an optional number of arguments, or take no arguments, and return no response. For example, an operation that functions as a "Hello" can be used as a notification of a client's presence and to begin a series of operations.
|system-provided bindings
|WCF includes a number of system-provided bindings. These are collections of binding elements that are optimized for specific scenarios. For example, the T:System.ServiceModel.WSHttpBinding is designed for interoperability with services that implement various WS-* specifications. These bindings save time by presenting only those options that can be correctly applied to the specific scenario. If one of these bindings does not meet your requirements, you can create your own custom binding.
|terminating operation
|An operation that is called as the last message in an existing session. In the default case, WCF recycles the service object and its context after the session with which the service was associated is closed.
|transport security mode
|Security can be provided by one of three modes: transport mode, message security mode, and transport with message credential mode. The transport security mode specifies that confidentiality, integrity, and authentication are provided by the transport layer mechanisms (such as HTTPS). When using a transport like HTTPS, this mode has the advantage of being efficient in its performance, and well understood because of its prevalence on the Internet. The disadvantage is that this kind of security is applied separately on each hop in the communication path, making the communication susceptible to a "man in the middle" attack.
|transport with message credential security mode
|This mode uses the transport layer to provide confidentiality, authentication, and integrity of the messages, while each of the messages can contain multiple credentials (claims) required by the receivers of the message.
|type converter
|A CLR type can be associated with one or more System.ComponentModel.TypeConverter derived types that enable converting instances of the CLR type to and from instances of other types. A type converter is associated with a CLR type using the System.ComponentModel.TypeConverterAttribute attribute. A TypeConverterAttribute can be specified directly on the CLR type or on a property. A type converter specified on a property always takes precedence over a type converter specified on the CLR type of the property.
|WCF client
|A WCF client is a client-application construct that exposes the service operations as methods (in the .NET Framework programming language of your choice, such as Visual Basic or Visual C#). Any application can host a WCF client, including an application that hosts a service. Therefore, it is possible to create a service that includes WCF clients of other services. A WCF client can be automatically generated by using the ServiceModel Metadata Utility Tool (Svcutil.exe) and pointing it at a running service that publishes metadata.
|workflow services
|A workflow service is a WCF service that is implemented as a workflow. The workflow contains messaging activities that send and/or receive WCF messages.
|Shorthand for the growing set of Web Service (WS) specifications, such as WS-Security, WS-ReliableMessaging, and so on, that are implemented in WCF.
|eXtensible Application Markup Language
|XAML schema
|A markup schema used to define custom types in XAML.


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Sign In / Sign Out
Navigation for Entire University
- ASU Home
- My ASU
- Colleges and Schools
- Map and Locations
- Directory
The quality and focus of these submissions vary considerably. With the exception of those submissions selected as winners or finalists, these documents are unedited and are reproduced in the condition in which they were submitted. They may nevertheless contain useful information or may report innovative projects.
Adopt a District, Anti-Graffiti Program, Arvada Police Department (CO, US), 1995
Anti-Graffiti Problem-Solving Project, Bridgeport Police Department (CT, US), 2001
Anti-Graffiti Program, Fontana Police Department (CA, US), 2001
Anti-Graffiti Program, Lakewood Police Department (CO, US), 1994
Bath Graffiti Partnership, Avon and Somerset Constabulary (Bristol, UK), 2004
BIG Attack on Graffiti, Lincoln Business Improvement Group (Lincoln, UK), 2008
Community and Police Response to Graffiti, within the Mosse Humanities Building, University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department (WI, US), 2006
Community Outreach Unit/Graffiti Task Force, Indio Police Department (CA, US), 2008
Drake Apartments, Fontana Police Department (CA, US), 2000
Graffiti Abatement Program, San Francisco Police Department (CA, US), 1998
Graffiti Abatement Program: Newbridge Area, Henrico County Division of Police (VA, US), 1996
Graffiti Project Hornchurch High St., Metropolitan Police Service (London, UK), 2006
Graffiti Reduction and Enforcement, Lakewood Police Department (CO, US), 2011
Graffiti Reduction Through Task Force Partnerships, Sacramento Police Department (CA, US), 2003
Graffiti Task Force, Richmond Police Department (VA, US), 1999
Juvenile Gang Graffiti, Dallas Police Department (TX, US), 1997
Mid-City Graffiti Project [Goldstein Award Winner], San Diego Police Department (CA, US), 2000
North Park Graffiti Task Force, San Diego Police Department (CA, US), 2002
Operation Blight, South Yorkshire Police (South Yorkshire, UK), 2009
Operation Deface [Goldstein Award Finalist], Lancashire Constabulary (Lancashire, UK), 2009
You may order free bound copies in any of three ways:
Online: Department of Justice COPS Response Center
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Phone: 800-421-6770 or 202-307-1480
Allow several days for delivery.
Send an e-mail with a link to this guide.
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The maximum threads setting specifies the maximum number of simultaneous transactions that the Web Server can handle. The default value is greater of 128 or the number of processors in the system. Changes to this value can be used to throttle the server, minimizing latencies for the transactions that are performed. The Maximum Threads value acts across multiple virtual servers, but does not attempt to load balance. It is set for each configuration.
Reaching the maximum number of configured threads is not necessarily undesirable, and you do not need to automatically increase the number of threads in the server. Reaching this limit means that the server needed this many threads at peak load, but as long as it was able to serve requests in a timely manner, the server is adequately tuned. However, at this point connections queue up in the connection queue, potentially overloading it. If you monitor your server's performance regularly and notice that total sessions created number is often near the maximum number of threads, consider increasing your thread limits.
To compute the number of simultaneous requests, the server counts the number of active requests, adding one to the number when a new request arrives, subtracting one when it finishes the request. When a new request arrives, the server checks to see if it is already processing the maximum number of requests. If it has reached the limit, it defers processing new requests until the number of active requests drops below the maximum amount.
In theory, you can set the maximum threads to 1 and still have a functional server. Setting this value to 1 would mean that the server could only handle one request at a time, but since HTTP requests for static files generally have a very short duration. Response time can be as low as 5 milliseconds. Processing one request at a time still allows you to process up to 200 requests per second.
However, in actuality, Internet clients frequently connect to the server and then do not complete their requests. In these cases, the server waits 30 seconds or more for the data before timing out. You can define this timeout period using the IO Timeout setting on the configuration's Performance tab ⇒ HTTP Settings page. You can also use the command wadm set-http-prop and set the io-timeout property. The default value is 30 seconds. By setting the default value to less than 30 seconds you can free up threads sooner, but you might also disconnect users with slower connections. Also, some sites perform heavyweight transactions that take minutes to complete. Both of these factors add to the maximum simultaneous requests that are required. If your site is processing many requests that take many seconds, you might need to increase the number of maximum simultaneous requests.
Suitable maximum threads values range from 100-500, depending on the load. Maximum Threads represents a hard limit for the maximum number of active threads that can run simultaneously, which can become a bottleneck for performance.
The thread pool minimum threads is the minimum number of threads the server initiates upon startup. The default is set to number of processors.
When configuring Web Server to be used with the Solaris Network Cache and Accelerator (SNCA), setting the maximum threads and the queue size to 0 provides better performance. Because SNCA manages the client connections, it is not necessary to set these parameters. These parameters can also be set to 0 with non-SNCA configurations, especially for cases in which short latency responses with no keep-alives must be delivered. It is important to note that the maximum threads and queue size must both be set to 0.
For information about using SNCA, see Using the Solaris Network Cache and Accelerator (SNCA).


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Public Company Information:
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Schwab Advisor Services today announced recent and upcoming enhancements to Schwab Advisor Center, the core custody and trading platform for independent advisors whose clients custody with Schwab. The platform now offers an array of automation features and tools, along with online support and guidance to help advisors efficiently complete tasks and resolve questions or operational issues. The platform enhancements enable advisors and their clients to reduce paperwork and complexity.
"The advisor office is continuously changing as technology becomes an integrated and intuitive part of all facets of our lives," said Ed Obuchowski, senior vice president, advisor technology solutions, Schwab Advisor Services. "Our vision is to empower advisors to conduct all routine business with Schwab securely online, digitizing their workflows at every opportunity, while also minimizing time-consuming activity like follow-ups on status over the phone. This will ultimately allow advisors to continue to achieve scale and efficiency in their operations and stay focused on the needs of their clients."
Schwab Advisor Services unveiled the enhancements to Schwab Advisor Center at SOLUTIONS, the summer-long series of technology events held in 12 markets around the country for more than 1,800 professionals from independent advisor firms. Key updates include:
- Digital tools to reduce paper and complexity
The online account open tool guides advisors through the process to reduce errors, and enables them to send account applications to clients for electronic signature.
By partnering with DocuSign, Schwab plans to expand eApproval capabilities to most transactions conducted via Schwab Advisor Center, including money movement and account maintenance. Advisors can also now use text-based authentication. Lastly, bulk-downloading capabilities will increase efficiency for advisors who process a large number of e-signed forms.
Schwab will introduce a new electronic check deposit capability in 2017, which will allow advisors to scan checks and upload checks on behalf of their clients to Schwab Advisor Center. The tool will allow advisors to upload batches of checks to minimize data entry. Straight-through processing (STP) will ensure funds are deposited as quickly as possible into client accounts.
- Streamlined access to client information
Schwab has made it easier for advisors to securely view and share client account information with authorized third parties, such as legal counsel or accountants, through Schwab Alliance. Advisors can help clients manage the process, including obtaining client authorization and sharing with relevant parties, completely online.
In other efforts to streamline access to client information, Schwab recently introduced the ability for advisors to view a Schwab Bank Pledged Asset Line online and improved the experience for advisors' clients who call Schwab for account information by introducing voice verification.
- Improved online service experience
Schwab continues to add features to extend the client-service experience to the online platform. Building on the Service request feature launch a year ago, advisors can now securely submit requests or documents from their mobile phone or tablet. New tracking features make it easier for firms to manage documentation and track the history of requests. In addition, Schwab will soon introduce enhanced status for service requests, providing greater transparency into the status of requests.
The redesigned and enhanced Schwab Advisor Center service guide now features predictive search and frequent search suggestions. Advisors also have a more dynamic service experience with the ability to rate and comment on article content.
Schwab Advisor Center serves as mission control for approximately 40,000 independent advisors at more than 7,000 firms who custody more than $1 trillion in client assets with Schwab. The flexible and secure online platforms is the central access point for advisors to manage their trading and custody needs and integrate with both Schwab Alliance, the website for advisors' clients, and Schwab Mobile, the mobile app. Schwab Advisor Center also integrates with Schwab's proprietary trading and portfolio management solutions as well as with those of third-party providers.
For more information, access the replay of Schwab Advisor Services' recent webcast: What's new: An overview of technology platform enhancements.
About Charles Schwab
At Charles Schwab, we believe in the power of investing to help individuals create a better tomorrow. We have a history of challenging the status quo in our industry, innovating in ways that benefit investors and the advisors and employers who serve them, and championing our clients' goals with passion and integrity.
More information is available at www.aboutschwab.com. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn .
Through its operating subsidiaries, The Charles Schwab Corporation (NYSE: SCHW) provides a full range of securities brokerage, banking, money management and financial advisory services to individual investors and independent investment advisors. Its broker-dealer subsidiary, Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (member SIPC, www.sipc.org), and affiliates offer a complete range of investment services and products including an extensive selection of mutual funds; financial planning and investment advice; retirement plan and equity compensation plan services; compliance and trade monitoring solutions; referrals to independent fee-based investment advisors; and custodial, operational and trading support for independent, fee-based investment advisors through Schwab Advisor Services. Its banking subsidiary, Charles Schwab Bank (member FDIC and an Equal Housing Lender), provides banking and lending services and products. More information is available at www.schwab.com and www.aboutschwab.com.
Brokerage Products: Not FDIC Insured • No Bank Guarantee • May Lose Value
Schwab Advisor Services™ serves independent investment advisors and includes the custody, trading, and support of Schwab.
Independent investment advisors and Schwab are independent of each other and are not affiliated with, sponsored by, endorsed by, or supervised by each other. For informational purposes only.
Charles Schwab
Rob Farmer, 415-667-0083
The Neibart Group
Emily Serafin, 718-875-2122


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Wired reports that there are many security issues with Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) and now there is an easy to use tool to scan and detect vulnerabilities.
They say it's so easy, the update for Metasploit make it analogous to Firesheep for PLCs.
What must IT shops do to prevent attack?
If the PLC controllers are not on the network, or are isolated, should we still be concerned?
If an IT shop has no PLCs in the course of business (manufacturing, etc), are the HVAC systems of the datacenter or door/access control systems vulnerable?


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We almost take Bluetooth for granted, as it zips our data through the air, letting us make hands-free phone calls and sync media between devices, among countless other applications enabled by the short-range wireless technology.
The industry consortium that has encouraged the growth of the technology happens to be based in the Seattle region, in Kirkland: the Bluetooth Special Interest Group. Its longtime executive director, Mike Foley, is our latest Geek of the Week.
The recognition comes at pivotal moment for him. After a decade in the role, Foley recently announced plans to gradually transition out of the job to start a new chapter in his career. He reflects on his tenure, talks about his favorite gadgets and geeks out on golf in his answers to our questions below.
Name: Mike Foley
Job, hobby and/or other geeky pursuit: Job: Executive Director, Bluetooth SIG
Hobby/Geeky Pursuit: I actually have many geeky pursuits which change over time. I tend to do one, then move on to the next in an attempt to learn new things or industries. For example, I spent a lot of time learning about home automation and then to the chagrin of my wife, completely automated our house. I updated all the lights and most of the outlets and then wrote an iPhone app to control everything.
My latest geeky pursuit goes hand-in-hand with another recent endeavor: boating. About a year and a half ago, I purchased an old boat. While the mechanical systems were in good condition, the electronics on it were ancient to non-existent. I've been spending some time this winter updating those systems. I was surprised to discover that even "state of the art" electronics in boats is relatively unsophisticated. The project I've been working on is getting the sensor data from the various boat components on the network such that I can monitor them from my iPad and/or iPhone or even from my desk when away from the boat.
Coolest thing about what you do: Playing with gadgets! In my position with the SIG, I am constantly exposed to new, cool gadgets. I get to try them out to see how they work and often provide feedback to the manufacturer.
As you approach the end of your tenure with the Bluetooth SIG, and look back on the past 13 years, what surprises you most?
I think the biggest surprise is the success of Bluetooth technology. Back in 2000 we thought Bluetooth was a cool technology and could do some great things. However, I don't even think the most optimistic of us believed that it would ship in over 5M products each and every day; and that number keeps growing.
Most mind-blowing application of Bluetooth you've ever seen?
This would have to be the "Magic Legs" application. Not Forrest Gump, but Marine Lance Cpl. Joshua Bleill who lost both legs in Iraq. Due to some excellent medical and engineering work, Bluetooth was utilized to coordinate the movement of the artificial joints in his prosthetic legs.
It is truly an honor to think that I had any part of making this miracle a reality.
What's the potential of Bluetooth in the years ahead? Have we seen most of the applications we're going to see at this point?
I think we've only scratched the surface regarding what applications we are going to see utilizing Bluetooth technology. Now that smart phones are open platforms any manufacturer can create their widget, build an app for it and sell it. They are no longer dependent upon the carrier, mobile manufacturer or Bluetooth SIG to support their hardware or concept. This is stimulating innovation like never seen before.
What does it mean to you to be a geek? For me, being a geek is synonymous with the love of the latest technology and the pursuit to improve it.
Geekiest thing(s) you've ever done, built, or worn (photos encouraged if relevant):
The digital oscilloscope I built in college was pretty geeky. (Although advanced for its time.) My family thinks the "Insteon Turns Me On" tee shirt the SmartHome folks sent me and I wear on weekends is geeky, but I don't get that…
I do get that wearing the glasses for our 3D TV is geeky.
Your best tip or trick for managing everyday work and life: I know this sounds cliché, but don't sweat the small stuff. Far too much time is wasted on things which really aren't that important. I guess the trick is learning to quickly figure out what is really that important and what isn't. That skill is priceless.
Mac, Windows or Linux? A combination of Mac and Windows. Windows is my primary OS, however I carry a MacBook Air with me and use that OS a lot. I have Windows on it as well and switch back and forth between the two.
Kirk, Picard, Janeway or Sisko? Another no contest answer: Kirk. I appreciate the fact that Netflix has the entire original series available for streaming 24×7! Now I don't have to pull out my DVDs.
Transporter, Time Machine or Cloak of Invisibility?
This one is really difficult. My initial thought was "Time Machine" but that may have been a reflection on the movie Back to The Future. After thinking about what I'd do if I had a time machine, there really isn't much about my life that I'd go back and change. Of course, with the knowledge I have now I could do many things better than I did at the time, but most of those things were fairly insignificant and helped form who I am.
I believe the "Cloak of Invisibility" is more of a cop out than a real helpful tool like the others. The benefit of the cloak is to hide and sneak around. I don't want to do that. I don't want to eavesdrop on other's conversations. I'd rather have the important conversations with people directly.
That leaves the "Transporter" which is my choice. This is because I've found to be successful one needs to get out and meet with people, to build relationships and to learn. That takes a significant amount of time. Time which typically comes at a cost to my family. With a transporter I could still travel the world meeting and learning from people while still being home with my family for the weekends and important events like birthdays, soccer matches, etc. Yes, at this stage of my life, a transporter would provide the most benefit to me.
If someone gave me $1 million to launch a startup, I would …
This is a timely question. … I'm not going to go into specifics here, but I firmly believe there are still lots of opportunities in connectivity, data aggregation and app development.
I once waited in line for … A cabbage patch doll. It wasn't for me! It was a Christmas present for my younger sister.
Your geek role models (And why?):
Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak and Don Estridge. I think the first two are pretty obvious but the third probably needs more explanation. These three gentlemen are probably most responsible for the personal computer as we currently know it. When I was an undergraduate at the University of Iowa, I participated in the co-operative education program with IBM at its Boca Raton facility. That is where Don Estridge assembled a small team and created the first IBM PC. Boca wasn't like the rest of IBM which can be directly attributed to Estridge's style and vision. While there, I had the opportunity to meet Estridge and hear him speak about PCs. I've always been impressed with how he was able to take a concept and achieve it in a big organization. It was a very sad day in 1985 when his plane went down in Dallas.
Years later, I worked at Microsoft. As such, I was able to meet Bill Gates and hear him speak about software many times. One of my favorite times was during a relatively small Windows launch party and Gates reflected upon the early years of the PC and Microsoft. He spoke about working with IBM, the idiosyncrasies of writing code for the Intel processor architecture and how he begged IBM to use the Motorola 68000 instead. It was interesting to hear Gates tie together two such important times in my life and hear his side to some of the same issues I heard Estridge discuss decades earlier.
While I never worked with Steve Wozniak, I have had the opportunity to speak with him as well. Not at length, but a nice conversation about a watch project he was working on. While interesting, that isn't what impressed me about The Woz. I, like every other geek, is still amazed at what he was able to design and build with the original Apple computers. I remember going to my dad's office at night because there was an Apple computer there. On really special occasions, Dad would bring the computer home and I'd play around with programming it all night long. Perhaps not the best of habits to form as a teenager, but it is one which I still have.
Thus Gates, Wozniak and Estridge all influenced me in different, but important ways. These role models affect how I think and work to this day.
Greatest Game In History:
I'm not sure if this is meant to be the greatest single match or greatest type of game. I'm going to infer the latter and also include sports as a type of game. (Although some people will dispute whether my choice is a sport or a game.)
The greatest game in history is golf. No question. There are many reasons for this, but here are a few of my favorites: Via the handicap system, golf enables players of any ability to compete against each other on a level playing field. Golf also allows weekend hacks such as myself to play on the same courses where the greats of the past as well as those of today have played. Through my travels I've been able to play Muirfield, Winged Foot, The Country Club, Newport CC, Pebble Beach, Olympia Fields, Beth Page, Pinehurst #2, Olympic and my home course of Sahalee all of which have hosted one or more major championships. All of these courses have storied history in the game of golf. The fact that golf is played on a different course each weekend demonstrates the ability of the best players in the world as they can win on any course. Contrast that with the complaints I hear from big name baseball free agents not willing to some to Seattle to play because Safeco Field is a "pitchers park." You don't hear about golfers not showing up at Augusta National because the greens are too fast…
I'll never forget dropping a ball behind 17 at Pebble Beach and trying to reenact the chip which Tom Watson made in the '82 US Open on Sunday to defeat Jack Nicklaus. Or dropping a ball on the 17th green at The Country Club trying to make the same putt Justin Leonard made to seal the victory for the USA in the '99 Ryder Cup.
In other sports, or games, amateurs simply don't have the opportunity to play on the same great fields as the pros do. While it would be fun to try to mimic Carlton Fisk's game 6 homerun in the '75 World Series, it isn't possible. (See this video.) Also, in other sports the fields are all the same. (OK, the fences in baseball are different, but essentially a diamond is a diamond.) I've hit many buckets from the top of the key, but none of them are close to a reenactment of Michael Jordan's shot to beat the Jazz in the '98 finals. The fact that every basketball court is the same makes it somewhat meaningless that I'm able to go out and shoot from the same spot.
Golf on the other hand is different. When one gets the chance to try the same shot as the pros, it really is the same shot. Granted without the US Open pressure, but still…
Back to Basics TEM4500 4-Slot Egg-and-Muffin Toaster. This thing is amazing. It not only toasts your muffin, but also steams your egg and heats some ham. To ensure you have the perfect breakfast, the muffin doesn't pop out of the toaster until the eggs are perfectly cooked. Thus the muffin is still hot when the eggs are done! One of the best 50 bucks I've ever spent!
First computer: TRS-80
Current phone: iPhone 4S
Favorite app: Shazam: It comes in super handy when I'm driving the girls around and we are playing "guess the artist" with the radio.
Favorite hangout: My boat.
Most important technology of 2012: iOS.
Most important technology of 2015: My next adventure.
Words of advice for your fellow geeks: Never stop learning!
Your site(s): bluetooth.com … bluetooth.org … developer.bluetooth.org
Your Twitter: @WirelessMike
Geek of the Week is a regular feature profiling the characters of the Pacific Northwest technology community. See the Geek of the Week archive for more.
Does someone you know deserve this distinguished honor? Send nominations to firstname.lastname@example.com.
[Geek of the Week photography by Annie Laurie Malarkey, firstname.lastname@example.com.]


text: Mercury Cougar 8th Generation (1999 - 2002) - fuse box diagram. You will need to remove the ABS fuse to prevent the ABS pump from burning out and the battery to go dead. The antilock brake system will not function until the unit is repaired.. Jan 13, 2011 · 4l80e transmission electrical problems C/K Car Forums . That wiring diagram is the same one that I have, only mine has highlighter marks all over it.. This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.. GM Specific Models. 2002 Cadillac STS I looked under the hood and popped the cover off the fuse box. Under the lid is a diagram of the fuses with labels. One of them (#24 on my model car) said "DRL" on it. I pulled that fuse and voila!. View and Download GMC 2002 Sonoma owner's manual online. 2002 Sonoma Automobile pdf manual download.. View and Download GMC 2013 Sierra owner's manual online. 2013 Sierra Automobile pdf manual download.. In order to flat-tow a 2019 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk you are going to need a base plate kit, tow bar, safety chains, flat-tow wiring, a supplemental braking system, and a possible high-low adapter. I have attached my recommendation on the following parts for you below. Base Plate Kit: Roadmaster EZ4. Video Transcript for Draw-Tite Accessories and Parts 20127 Review. Today we're going to review part #20127. This is the draw-type replacement brake controller plug-in wiring harness for the Tekonsha and draw-type brake controllers.. Tail, Brake, Reverse, Turn Signal Light 5 Wire Harness Assembly. 2x 1156 Ba15s Single Circuit + 1x 1157 Bay15d Dual Circuit : Fits 25-35mm diameter holes: Twist Lock: $14.99 ea.. Please use the form below to contact us. We reply to every ticket that is started in the order we received them. Making multiple tickets will only delay our staff, please only respond to one ticket..


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New York Auto Show
2015 New York Auto Show
2013 New York Auto Show
2011 New York Auto Show
Starting back in 1900, the New York auto show showed the would-be motoring public an array of horseless carriages. Oldsmobile used the 1901 show to debut its little one-cylinder runabout that came to be nicknamed the Curved Dash Olds, due to its design that made it look more like a small horse-drawn sleigh than a motorcar.
But the Olds would not be on static display, rather it was driven from Detroit to New York to appear in the auto show. Back then it was a way of showing that this new mode of transportation was reliable. Despite a number of mishaps, including a bent axle and some transmission trouble, the Olds made it to the car show and logged the longest automobile trip up to that time.
Through the decades, the New York auto show switched venues and saw a lot of changes to the automobile. For most of the first 50 years, the shows were held at Madison Square Garden and Grand Central Palace, but as the car show moved through the new century, the venue would change. For 1956, auto show management made the decision to focus on foreign cars, which were growing increasingly popular with the American motoring public. That year also saw a move to the then-new New York Coliseum and a change in the show's name to the New York International Auto Show. At the 1959 car show, Toyota and Datsun made their U.S. debuts.
Other highlights of the New York auto show include the U.S. debut of the stunning Jaguar XK-E at the 1961 show, the Mercedes-Benz C-111 rotary-engine sports car concept in 1970, Chrysler's minivans in 1984 and a number of SUVs in the '90s, including Mercedes-Benz's ML class and Honda's CR-V. Some of the more forgettable cars include the ill-fated Merkur division from Ford and the Chrysler-Maserati TC convertible. Within that time frame, 1987 to be exact, the New York auto show moved to its present location, the Jacob Javits Convention Center. Nicknamed the Crystal Palace for its extensive use of glass, the Javits has the capacity to display over 1,200 vehicles, making the New York auto show that much more enticing for exhibitors and patrons alike.
The Big Apple might not seem like the best place for a car show, but the New York International Auto Show remains one of the most well-attended car shows in the U.S. First held in 1900, it's also the longest-running car show in the States. With its April time slot, the New York auto show is the last major show of the season so it often gets debuts that weren't quite ready earlier in the year. The 2005 New York Auto Show was no different, as 17 all-new concept cars and production models made their world debuts. No one category stood out as we saw everything from classic muscle cars to futuristic import concepts. One of the most notable cars at the show was the 2007 Ford Shelby Cobra GT500. With more than 450 horsepower, this modern version of a Ford classic looked as though it had everything it needed to uphold the Shelby Cobra name.
With its April time slot, the New York auto show is also the last major show of the season so it often gets debuts that weren't quite ready earlier in the year.


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Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 electronic: first ride
Can Shimano succeed where others have failed?
Shimano's Dura-Ace Di2 electronically-controlled shifting system is finally here. We rode the new gear at its launch at the legendary Formula 1 race circuit in Suzuka City and just to make things interesting Mother Nature saw fit to provide buckets of driving rain. Game on.
Shimano claims its new shift-by-wire system is effectively faster than old-style cables (we'll explain in a bit), requires less effort, and far less finger movement. The gradual performance degradation caused by cable housing wear or contamination is completely eliminated (as Shimano puts it, "the input always equals the output").
Big claims indeed. What we wanted to know was simple; how does it work on the road
Zoom zoom
Di2 is jaw-droppingly smooth. Even the standard all-mechanical 7900 Dura-Ace group almost seems clunky in comparison and SRAM's top-tier Red group just can't compare. Our early impressions are that Di2 ushers in a previously unheard-of level of shifting precision and refinement.
The 7900 Dura-Ace group uses the same system of pins, gates, and ramps as Di2 so you might not expect much of a difference. But while the mechanical drivetrain is just as capable of knocking off similarly smooth shifts under ideal conditions, Di2 makes nearly every shift so dead-on perfect that it's almost eerie.
Instead of forcing the chain on to larger cogs or rings at less-than-ideal times as we often do with mechanical shifting, Di2 basically only shifts at the designated gate and it seems to hit its mark almost every time.
Front shifts in particular are remarkably well controlled. While 7900 opts for a slightly wider front derailleur cage to eliminate the need for trim, Di2 sticks to a narrower dimension for more precision and squelches the rub by automatically tweaking the position depending on rear gear selection.
For example, when in the inner chainring and largest rear cog and then shifting to the outer ring, Di2 first adopts an intermediate position that allows the chain to cleanly grab the ring without overshifting and then finishes the rest of the movement just afterward so as to eliminate cage rub.
The CPU also quickly realizes that you're now in a cross-gear combination and then readjusts the cage back inwards a hair to squelch rub on the inner cage, just as you would do yourself.The reverse happens when shifting in the opposite direction. Clever.
Unlike mechanical systems though, even rear shifts use a two-step motion, at least for upshifts. The rear derailleur overshoots slightly to grab the smaller cog a little more quickly and then tweaks the cage back over to quiet things down.
Di2 doesn't actually shift the chain from cog to cog faster than 7900. Since shifts are now even more dependent on the location of the timing gates on the cogs and chainrings it's arguably a bit slower if anything. However, the time savings come more in the reduced delay from lever input to derailleur output. It's a subtle difference for sure but one that's tangible nonetheless (again, don't scoff until you've ridden it).
Multiple shifts honestly surprised us. There's no built-in mechanism to trigger multiple shifts. You can't slam the shift lever across several clicks. But the button throws are so short that you can rattle off as many shifts as you want with little issue. Galaga champions: your time has come.
As intelligent as it is, Di2 can still be confused but you really have to ride it as if you're intentionally trying to break it. Like if you dumped six gears in one direction and then went three gears in the opposite direction before the system had completed the first set of commands. While out of the saddle and in a full sprint. And shifting up front at the same time.
Of course, that scenario is purely hypothetical because we're far too responsible to even dream of treating a test bike this way…
Lay your hands on me
The Di2 Dual Control levers are markedly different in feel and shape from 7900: they're smaller in girth and slightly more rounded. According to Shimano, 7900's bigger dimensions were dictated by engineering requirements (and therefore not entirely by choice) as the shifter guts were relocated into the body.
Di2 had no such restrictions so its shape is more in keeping with Shimano's ideal. It still retains the flatter perch that we found so welcome with 7900 so it's still a notable improvement over 7800's ergonomics.
Unlike earlier prototypes though, our pre-production test samples omitted the small LCD displays for gear selection and battery power; that space is now reserved for the optional FlightDeck computer modules. ('Pre-production' in Shimano terminology means the bits were made on final production tooling but just hadn't gone through the quality control process yet.)
Button placement, however, leaves something to be desired. Although one button per lever wears a distinct texture on its surface, they're still hard to differentiate in the saddle even with bare fingers (let alone with full-finger gloves) and they're almost wholly lacking in tactile feedback of any sort when pushed.
Moreover, though they're offset fore-aft and side-to-side and also rather elongated, they're still arguably too small and seem far too close together. Even as seasoned Shimano users, we mis-shifted Di2 with alarming frequency (albeit with stunning precision).
Unfortunately, not only do the same problems exist when your hands are in the drops but new ones crop up. The fore-aft offset is a reasonable approximation of mechanical STI levers while in the hoods (really, it is; go check out your current Shimano setup) but down below you can't simply reach a finger out to flick the very tip of the brake lever anymore. The downshift button doesn't reach down that far and you have to curl your finger upward to reach it. Last we checked our fingers didn't bend that way all that easily and we're willing to bet that yours probably don't, either.
To be fair, we weren't able to spend nearly as much time on Di2 as we would have liked and many of our lingering questions will have to wait until proper test samples begin arriving in a few weeks' time.
If there's a mental adjustment period required with Di2, we didn't reach the end of it during this trip. Even so, the button actuation doesn't seem terribly intuitive and considering Shimano's engineers probably could have put the buttons virtually anywhere, the final locations seem to be needless analogues of the mechanical system that unfortunately didn't translate as well as they should have.
Our limited time also provided little real world information on battery performance although the fact that it didn't immediately roll over and die in the pouring rain was encouraging..
Shimano's own "conservative estimate" says the 7.4V Li-ion battery will run for at least 2000km per charge and will withstand 500 charge cycles before exhausting its usable life. However, Shimano also had no answer for us on exactly how many shifts it estimated would be made during those 2000km and the LED battery indicator provides only a relative approximation of remaining charge rather than a more informative absolute display.
Wave of the future or stuck in the starting gate?
Cyclists are undoubtedly a funny lot. While the majority of us have heralded the rise of fancy carbon frames, new metallic alloys and other tech-heavy developments, the idea of using something other than a comparatively ancient steel cable running through a plastic-lined housing strikes most of us as anathema for whatever reason (and let's not even get into the discussion of how we're still clamping on those scandium-enhanced rims with small blocks of rubber).
Think of it this way: in this day and age, how many of you would agree to revert back to non-power assisted steering or brakes in your car? Or alternatively, take a look at the specs for your car's throttle system to see whether it's controlled by a few strands of cable or a copper wire carrying a bunch of electrons back and forth. You might be surprised.
Shimano naturally has remained steadfast in the position that its new SEIS (Shimano Electronic Intelligent System) technology not only offers more performance than traditional cable-actuated transmissions but that electromechanical designs have the potential to eventually take over mechanical systems altogether someday.
While the new Di2 initially strikes us as an impressive package that could perhaps benefit from a few relatively minor ergonomic changes, the shifting performance is undeniably superior so Shimano's long-term vision might hold merit if it's willing to see it through.
Even Shimano might not be able to overcome one of the concept's inherent drawbacks though. Much as automakers have struggled with this (especially with power assisted steering), there's an inherent tactile disconnect in an electronically controlled system that can be so critical especially at the enthusiast end of the spectrum.
Di2 is incredibly fast and precise but when it comes down to it, there's no real feedback in your hands as far as what's going on in the drivetrain and any sort of device that could be built in to offset this would invariably add weight to the system.
Then again, the added performance might just trump everything. Computer-controlled paddle shifters have undoubtedly removed some of the driver interaction in Formula 1 as compared to standard manuals but if you ask Renault driver Fernando Alonso (who won at the Suzuka circuit the last time the series visited here in 2006) which he prefers, the answer will probably be rather direct: "Which is faster?"


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Six Nations
Nick de Luca injury blow for Scotland
ESPN Staff
January 11, 2013
Nick de Luca started sevens Test for Scotland last year © PA Photos
Scotland have been dealt a big blow on the eve of their Six Nations campaign with the news that centre Nick de Luca is set to miss the entire championship due to an eye injury.
The Edinburgh player suffered a fractured eye socket during a training session last month and following surgery on the injury he is expected to be out of action for 'around two months'. As a result the 28-year-old, who started nine of the Scots' 11 games last year, is highly unlikely to add to his 38 Test caps during the Six Nations.
"The damage required time to settle for full assessment," his club explained in a statement. "It was deemed that the operation would be the best course of action to support the quickest return to playing."
De Luca's progress will monitored by Edinburgh medical staff in the coming weeks while interim Scotland coach Scott Johnson must look elsewhere to fill the void in his midfield options ahead of their opening clash against England at Twickenham on February 2. De Luca's Edinburgh team-mate Matt Scott and Glasgow's Max Evans started Scotland's last game - an embarrassing home defeat to Tonga.
Scotland's injury headache extends to two other Edinburgh players - hooker Ross Ford and flanker Ross Rennie. Ford suffered a shoulder injury in the 23-14 RaboDirect PRO12 loss to Glasgow last month while Rennie is still recovering from dislocated shoulder suffered in Scotland opening autumn international defeat to New Zealand.
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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It also depends upon the kind of storage, clutter, etc. After the termite examination is complete and you have the report in your hand, you should consult a pest control company Prescott Valley that's licensed in order that you may eliminate the existing termites in your home and prevent them from coming back. A termite examination costs around a hundred dollars however this usually depends upon the location and neighborhood you live in. When the pest control Prescott Valley is conducted after the termite examination, the prices will vary. The amount of infestation and harm will determine the variety of areas within your house that should be treated and the prices will differ accordingly.
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Pest Control Cost Estimates – In the latest article that appeared on Home Advisor, the average cost for pest control services was $180 whilst the averages ranged from $109-$278. The key word here's estimates and that word is very important because insects are resourceful and cyclical. Very rarely do you simply have one invasion. By summer the spiders, flies, and sting insects will be moving in with you.
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Spurs sweat on Assou-Ekotto fitness after knee injury
TOTTENHAM were still waiting to discover today how long Benoit Assou-Ekotto would face on the sidelines amid fears he could be ruled out for up to a month.
Left-back Assou-Ekotto missed Andre Villas-Boas' first win in charge at Reading on Sunday with a knee problem that may require a 'washout' procedure, ruling him out for around four weeks.
Losing Assou-Ekotto, who has barely missed a match in the last four seasons, would be seen as a blow to Spurs' hopes of building on their opening Premier League victory this term and of progressing in both the Carling Cup and Europa League.
But Kyle Naughton proved an able deputy at the Madejski Stadium, while Jan Vertonghen has played numerous times at left-back for Belgium.
Either could be asked to fill in there for Tottenham's Europa League opener against Lazio on Thursday.
The Group J match is Spurs' first ever competitive meeting with the Italians, to whom they famously sold Paul Gascoigne 20 years ago.
The draw last month prompted Lazio to offer to invite the former England midfielder to the reverse fixture in Rome on November 22.
It is understood Tottenham also invited the 45-year-old to attend Thursday's match but he was unable to accept for personal reasons.
Gascoigne has struggled to deal with alcohol problems since retirement but his agent said this summer that he had embarked on a health drive.
It remains to be seen whether he will attend the game between the sides at the Stadio Olimpico.


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MSI GeForce GTX 780 Ti Gaming Review -
Review - Article - Guide
MSI GeForce GTX 780 Ti Gaming Edition - Oh it can game !
In this review we test the GeForce GTX 780 Ti Gaming edition from MSI. The customized product is equipped with MSI's popular TwinFrozr IV cooler armed two fans. It remains to be quiet and keeps temperatures under the 70 Degrees C marker as well. Next to that MSI factory overclocked this product for you towards a very nice 1020 MHz on the GPU core, that means it can boost towards 1085 MHz on all of the unlocked 2880 Shader processors available.
NVIDIA unlocked the GPU completely meaning all 2880 Shader processors are available. That combined with increased core and memory clock frequencies and nice overclock potential will make this the top 699 USD flagship product to purchase for the Christmas holiday season. So yeah, this means it is based on the GK110 revision B GPU and has an whopping 7.1 Billion transistors. That makes it a nice, one of the fastest graphics cards available on the market today. We test the product with the hottest games like Metro: Last light, Battlefield 4, Medal of Honor Warfighter, Hitman Absolution and many more.Just like GTX Titan, the GTX 780 Ti is based on the GK110 GPU with the distinctions that the Titan has a GK110-300 GPU and the GeForce GTX 780 a revision B GK110 GPU. Same stuff, yet with some changes. The recipe for the GTX 780 Ti is fantastic though, as the product has the full 15 Streaming clusters thus 2880 Shader Processing Units enabled. That's 240 TMUs and 48 ROPs on a 384-bit memory interface of fast GDDR5. So yeah, NVIDIA in a nutshell that is a 45 mm × 45 mm 2397-pin S-FCBGA GK110b GPU with 2880 shader/stream/CUDA processors. But wait Dave, there's more. Memory wise NVIDIA equipped the GeForce GTX 780 Ti with 7Gbps memory, the fastest GDDR5 memory you can find on a graphics card today. The GeForce GTX 780 Ti ships with 3GB of this memory, providing up to 336GB/sec of peak memory bandwidth. That is still huge (12 pieces of 64M ×16 GDDR5 SDRAM) of memory (384-bit) on there and started designing a bunch of new tricks at BIOS and driver level. Combined with GPU Boost 2.0 you will see this product boosting towards the 1000~1050 MHz range once you tweak it. The reference clock is 875 MHz with a boost clock of 928 MHz. Looking at the specs you must think that this product must consume heaps of power, well it's not great, but definitely not bad at all either. Another improvement that Nvidia implemented to the GeForce GTX 780 Ti is a new power balancing feature that's been made so enthusiasts can get the most out of their overclock. Typically GPU gets its power from three sources: the 6-pin and 8-pin power connectors, and the PCI Express interface. Under normal conditions, the power sent to the GPU is balanced across these three sources, but when a user overclocks their graphics card they can unbalance the power delivery and draw more power from one source than the others, potentially maxing it out. With this new feature we can steer power from one input to another, so if you max out one power source, you can draw more power from the others to make up the difference.
The maximum allowed board design power draw is 250 Watt, which considering what this product is, is good. NVIDIA is also focusing strongly at gaming in Ultra High Definition (UHD), so this will be a focus in our review as well. Will we be able to play the hottest games at that whopping 8.2 Mpixels at a 3840x2160 resolution @ 60 Hz? So yeah dude, head over to the next page where we'll start-up the technology overview first, but not before you have seen the product though.
But let's say hello to Titan's little brother first, the GeForce GTX 780 Ti from MSI, in a black and red themed Gaming edition flavor. This is the 3GB model that comes factory clocked for you at 1020 MHz (Ref 875) with a Boost clock of 1085 MHz (Ref 928). However we noticed that the card ran steady at 1100+ MHz just as well.
But have a peek at the product we test today and then head on-wards into to review.
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Loopholes can't solve fiscal cliff
Raise revenues and reform the Tax Code? Easy — just eliminate all the tax loopholes, right?
Good luck with that.
Story Continued Below
"Eliminating loopholes" sounds a lot better than "raising rates": The tax rate is what I pay, and a loophole is what the other guy gets.
But the biggest loopholes in the U.S. Tax Code — generally referred to as tax expenditures — aren't just the tricks of the trade for millionaires with offshore bank accounts. For the vast majority of Americans, they're just how things work: You don't pay taxes on your health insurance or Medicare benefits; you contribute tax-free to your 401(k); and your mortgage interest pushes down your tax bill each year.
And even if you dump the biggest of the set, these tax perks don't even come close to closing the deficit. At best, the top 10 would pull in an extra $834 billion a year, according to Joint Committee on Taxation figures. Considering the hole lawmakers are trying to fill is several trillion dollars large, it's clear they wouldn't even come close.
( See also: POLITICO's full coverage of the fiscal cliff)
Here are the 10 biggest tax loopholes — and the reasons why most of them will survive the fiscal cliff.
Exclusion of employer-sponsored health insurance — $164.2 billion
A vestige of the World War II era, the health insurance tax exclusion is the big kahuna of expenditures.
More than 60 percent of Americans get their insurance through their jobs, making this "loophole" part of the fabric of the workplace. The exclusion is popular generally — and very important to lower- to middle-class workers who might otherwise be shut out of the expensive insurance market.
It's also a boon to health insurers because it expands their client base.
Obamacare capped the benefits that high-income earners can claim tax-free, but the broader tax exclusion isn't going anywhere.
( Also on POLITICO: Dems have own fiscal cliff issues)
Exclusion of employer pension benefits — $162.7 billion
For nearly 40 years, workers have taken for granted that contributions to, and earnings from, long-term savings plans like 401(k)'s and individual retirement accounts are not taxed upfront.
The exclusion is designed to encourage Americans to save more for retirement even though it has an outsize benefit for higher-income workers, who contribute more and pay higher marginal rates. The Brookings Institution's William Gale has proposed replacing it with a nonrefundable tax credit.
But critics say getting rid of the tax break would also make folks at the lower end of the pay scale less likely to put money away for retirement.
Mortgage interest deduction — $99.8 billion
It's always the first tax break mentioned when talk of tax reform heats up. And it's always the first one to be taken off the table.


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The Los Angeles Kings rolled to the brink of the franchise's first NHL title, beating the New Jersey Devils 4-0 in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final Monday to take a 3-0 series lead.
Martin Brodeur is not Jonathan Quick. And that's why he will be shaking his hand and giving congratulations in a small matter of time.
For five periods, from the start of Game 2 to somewhere in the second period of Game 3, the Devils threw their best punch, like when you'd hit the Star button on Tyson's Punchout for the haymaker. Problem is, when you missed that, you were left completely open to be torn apart. Well, the Devils missed. And they missed because once again, Jonathan Quick had all the answers, and the Devils couldn't even stand up straight on their power play.
The game changed when David Clarkson had the first clean look the Devils have gotten at Quick all series. Seriously, I don't remember another breakaway or 2-on-1 down low that the Devils have gotten. This capped their best series of pressure in Game 3 against the Kings. But when finally given time to pick a corner, Clarkson declined and was turned away. Half a minute later, Dwight King and and Alec Martinez combined to bull one home, and you could tell where it was going.
The real decider was when the best player on the Kings, Anze Kopitar, got the better of the Devils' best player, Zach Parise. He beat him to the net and buried it. What a perfect metaphor for the series, where Kopitar has provided just enough to capitalize on the platform Quick has given them, and Parise is a half-step behind.
The underlying story will be the Kings penalty kill, which swallowed the Devils' power play whole, spit it back out, and then swallowed it again, and regurgitated it for its kids. The Kings jammed up the Devils on the boards consistently, won that battle, and then lazily sent the puck down the other way with no pressure. Not only could the Devils not generate chances, they couldn't generate anything, and you could see their spirit ebb away because of it.
With them out on the ropes, the Kings put them away on their power play. Kings fans are probably in disbelief at that. Jeff Carter, Mike Richards, and Justin Williams suddenly appeared, while Zach Parise can't find space and Ilya Kovalchuk can barely move. That's the difference.
Oh, and Jonathan Quick is redefining the position. That helps.
Sam Fels is the proprietor of The Committed Indian, an unofficial program for the Chicago Blackhawks. His work has appeared on NBC Chicago, SB Nation, Yahoo's Puck Daddy and NBC's Pro Hockey Talk. Fels is a lifelong hockey fan and also writes for Second City Hockey.


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Product Description
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