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Saturday, April 16, 2005
Weekend Edition: The Best Advertisement For Satellite Radio
Today the car was a Kia, and it did not have satellite radio. So our daughters and I wrestled with old-style, terrestrial radio, and hated every minute of it.
Contrary to the assertions of the old-style radio CEO I met with at a conference earlier this week (described in "Much Ado About Nothing?"), old-style radio has limited choice, lousy audio quality, and way way too many commercials.
We re-discovered the sad state of affairs of Generic Mainstream Corporate Radio Mediocrity after trying unsuccessfully to locate a station that was actually playing "music" as opposed to commercials or station jingles. Finally, I hit the "scan" button and let the stupid radio simply run through the entire FM band, one station at a time.
At the lower end were a couple of gospel stations, then a mix of Hispanic, Classic Rock, Hip-Hop, Oldies and "Z-100" stations (about 13 in all). And the few that were accidentally playing "music" at the time the scanner sampled them, were all playing the same "music" their equivalent formats play up North. Generic Mainstream Corporate Radio Mediocrity struck again.
One of our daughters slipped on her iPod.
Finally, however, after about thirty minutes, I struck gold: the scanner picked up a station playing "music"--in this case, "Light My Fire." And it was the extended "Light My Fire." Bliss.
Bliss, until we drove out of the range of that station and "Light My Fire" faded into "I Just Called To Say I Love You," followed by extended commercials, disk-jockey chatter about the weather (there is not much variation in the weather in Florida), and extended commercials.
Did I mention the commercials?
The entire trip was a sixty-minute advertisement for satellite radio.
I have, in the past, had a hard time justifying the valuations of the two satellite radio choices--Sirius and XM. I am now convinced that, over the very long run, those valuations may prove reasonable; probably for XM rather than Sirius, which has a handicapped business model owning to its inferior technology and low OEM market share with the auto makers.
Nevertheless, at this stage, I have an open mind. Informed opinions are welcome.
Jeff Matthews
I Am Not Making This Up
19 comments:
- Neil said...
Your trip was a 60 min UNadvertisement for terrestrial radio. There are so many potential ways that satellite radio's delivery mechanism can be replaced that you can only value satellite radio companies based on their proprietary content.
Here are a few illustrative technologies;
*. 802.11a or whatever comes after it has the capability to send high bandwidth digital signals over a wide area. For the price of XM's annual depreciation you could probably outfit the top 10 metro areas and offer more channels.
*. You mentioned the ipod. You could already take a pod cast with you. How about your car radio stores 2 hours of 30 channels from your home wifi network before you leave
I may be (I almost certainly am) off on the exact technology but over the next 3-5 years there will be technology to deliver more channels much more cheaply than XM or Sirius.
Terrestrial as it stands today is dead but satellite delivery will probably never show real return on capital.
Of course XM, Sirius or any of the terrestrial companies may set up these new digital terrestrial networks but I can't see XM or Sirius doing it because it will damage their existing business.
- Chug-A-Bug said...
The notion of internet, particularly the wireless variety, displacing satellite radio, is untenable.
1. Programming is not free to create. The online music services already have or inevitably will adopt either an advertising or subscription model. Nobody will do this from the goodness of their hearts. And there are certainly performance and publishing rights holders always holding out their tin cups. (XM and Sirius apparently dole out about 6% of revenue to ASCAP/BMI/SESAC; the subject of internet radio rights fees has been exhaustively discussed elsewhere.)
2. Not everyone is necessarily very good at creating programming. Witness the recent AOL-XM deal. Clearly AOL believed it needed to partner up with XM's content, but apart from supplying certain AOL Sessions performances, AOL isn't going to be programming any XM channels.
3. Cell phones and other wireless technologies are simply not sufficiently ubiquitous or reliable to handle the heavy demands of such traffic. How often does your cell phone drop out? And they cannot compete with the coverage map of satellite radio.
4. There will always be room for ipods or other forms of allowing people to listen to specific pieces of music. But those aren't radio, where the listener is exposed to something new, and experiences someone else's programming spontaneity and taste.
5. Podcasting is not a useful substitute for satellite radio. Why bother with downloading a podcast when one can just flip the radio on? Much less 30 different podcasts? If a listener tires of the podcast, or the road trip is longer than 2 hours or whatever the podcast memory limit is, or the listener forgets to download the podcast before rushing out to the commute... And again, see #1. If it has value, the content will cost money.
Satellite radio simply has never gotten the respect it deserves from anyone but its rapidly growing legion of subscribers. First, we heard no one will pay for radio, radio is free. Then we heard the market is too limited. Now that the market appears to be larger by the day, we hear it will be replaced by some undefined future technology and business model.
The bottom line is, this is a business that is highly scalable, with very few if any substitutes or competition, and absolute barriers to entry (no more spectrum available for satellite radio, and all the dashboards are committed).
Rather than imagine reasons why it won't work, investors might do better to analyze how the business is currently working and what it might look like based on current and future fixed costs, variable costs, installation rates, take rates, churn rates, and ARPU. I'm getting near $4/share of earnings for XM in 2010, and committing funds accordingly. I'll worry about some magical new displacing technology and business model if/when it shows up.
- Chris Fischer said...
- This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
- Jeff Matthews said...
Chris Fischer's comment, though worthwhile, has been deleted owing to the use of sloppy message board language.
I'd be glad to have him post again, without the loose slang.
This satellite debate is getting interesting, and I do not want to stop the idea flow--but this site does not allow sloppy message board language.
Satellite radio bears, including Chris, should ask themselves why people paid for cable TV, when the networks were "free."
Satellite bulls need to understand the technological alternatives.
I can consider myself a bull on satellite radio--but not on the stock themselves, yet.
- Chug-A-Bug said...
I started this post as a response to the one that got deleted. But as it may answer common concerns, here is an edited version.
I derived my earnings estimate for 2010 by looking at the 2004 10-K, line by line, and adjusting based on the company's announced plans and very conservative assumptions, including established trends from prior years and quarters.
If people think it would be useful, I'd be happy to post a detailed analysis in the next several hours or day or so, and you are welcome to go through it and offer INFORMED, reasoned criticism.
In the meantime, I can offer a quicker response.
1. I suppose you can dismiss ANY business you don't understand with pejoratives, but there are installation committments from the auto manufacturers, established trends, and KNOWN variables about take rates and churn.
What you call the "retention" rate actually has two components, which XM announces each quarter. First, there is what subscription based businesses call "churn" -- the rate of disconnection by self-paying subscribers. For XM, the monthly churn rate tends to be in the 1.2-1.5% rate. Satellite bears should try to name ANY subscription based business with a lower churn rate. XM has reported that most of the churn is "involuntary." Sirius reports churn in the 1.5-1.8% range. There are reasons why Sirius has higher churn, but those aren't relevant right now. (Note that satellite radio has several advantages over cable, DBS, and POTS, in that moving usually does not require churn).
The second component of what you call "retention" is more accurately labeled -- and disclosed every quarter by XM (though not yet by Sirius, again for reasons not relevant here) -- the "take" rate or "conversion" rate of OEM promotional trials.
A rapidly growing percentage of the new car fleet each year comes with XM as factory installed, standard equipment, with a trial subscription (paid for by the automakers). Overall, 60% of trials subs convert to self paying each quarter. Think about that, and your comments suggesting there's no market for the service. Of the non-takers, a large number don't even know its there and never bother to turn it on. Surveys show that 90% of car buyers who subscribe to the satellite radio that came in their vehicles would ONLY or MOST LIKELY ONLY buy cars that have it in the future.
Considering that there are approximately 16 million new passenger vehicles sold each year, and XM owns on an exclusive or practically exclusive basis over 60% of these dashboards, it is easy to understand why the subscriber base is growing at an exponential rate.
Hyundai has already announced that they will install XM in each and every single vehicle they sell by 2007. Other automakers will have to match this committment, sooner rather than later. (Perhaps you haven't been shopping for cars lately. GM is currently installing XM in about about 25% of all vehicles, Honda is currently at about 33%). Think about it. And this is just the new car market.
Apart from faster sales and higher satisfaction ratings for their cars, the automakers have another incentive to install XM. It's a secure, omnipresent datapipe into the car for firmware updates, etc. GM, Honda, Nissan, and Toyota are all very pleased to have a slice of XM bandwidth for their own purposes.
2. Yes, terrestrial radio is free. And your very next comment is, people who like music aren't interested in "radio." I consider myself and most of the satellite radio subscribers I know to be music snobs with eclectic and deep tastes. Music lovers are always looking to be introduced to new music, and satellite radio, particularly XM, is the most effective way to do that. Many satellite radio subscribers had already abandoned terrestrial radio long ago.
3. Like many satellite bears, you state that XM is "hemmoraging cash." Please define what you mean by hemmoraging with reference to the company's annual and quarterly reports. XM's losses are largely a product of depreciation and amortization expenses related to start up costs. The cash burn for fixed operating expenses is quite low.
It is easy to see a big loss and not think beyond that, but the depreciation and amortization expenses are dropping as quickly as the revenue is ramping. CFBE is imminent, to be followed very rapidly by EBITDA earnings and then GAAP earnings. My estimates for 2010 are real, GAAP earnings.
4. Your statement that XM spends a lot of money promoting itself is as false as your assertions that churn and take rates are not published by the company. SAC is in the $50-$60 range and it doesn't go lower this year only because the company is committed to keeping hardware costs low. CPGA is going to be under $100 this year. (In fact, since average prepays are now over 7 months, each subscriber is, on average, NET CASH POSITIVE from day one.) I'd say variable costs for subscriber acquisition are more than under control.
Whether you (or I), personally, are interested in satellite radio is irrelevant. The numbers speak for themselves. This is a mass-market product rapidly growing across all demographics. And it will be very profitable.
- hundredyearstorm said...
I don't disagree with any of the enthusiasm for the satellite radio product, or for the growth of the industry. As Jeff mentioned in his post though, that doesn't necessarily translate to enthusiasm for the stocks. SIRI currently trades at a premium to XM, though XM has 3x as many subscribers, and its questionable if XM is even fairly valued. Some quick math will enlighten (I'll use SIRI as the example, since it is the more overvalued of the two):
- SIRI chareges 12.99/mo/sub for service, but in actuality gets closer to 10.50, due to deals on multi year contracts. Using the 12.99, you get annual revs per sub of $155.9, which at a 45% contribution margin means each sub adds $70/year in operating profit. Capitalize that at 6,8, and 10% and you get per sub values of 1,166, 875 and 700. At a current enterprise value of $6.4B, this implies subs of 5.49M, 7.31M and 9.14M respectively. SIRI currently has 1.2M subs (probably 1.5M at the end of Q1), but the market should be able to value out 6-12 months, so looking at year end 05 or mid year 06 numbers is more applicable. at YE 05, they will have 2.6M subs, and at mid year 06, they will have 3.9M subs. However you do the math, it doesn't add up.
- Perhaps a per sub valuation is not the correct way to look at the company (even though thats the way DBS, cable, and other sub businesses are) and a DCF is the better approach. According to one analyst, using a 15% cost of equity, a 12.5% FCF perpetual growth rate and a 38.5x FCF multiple, the resulting share price is $4. I would argue those are some fairly aggressive assumptions and yet still yield a price 20% below today's price.
Long term, I think both XM and SIRI will be viable, profitable companies. XM certainly is the better run, more mature of the two, but in a duopoly, there will be room for both to succeed. My only point is that prices have gotten ahead of reality, and that at least in the case of SIRI, the market is now discounting 24-30 months of sub growth.
- Chris Fischer said...
Ok, I don't know what Jeff means by "Sloppy message board language" (perhaps you can point out what I said that irked you so bad as to remove the post?) Anyhow, let me rephrase.
1) I think try to calculate anything 5+ years out is foolish. Be it earnings, subscribers, etc. This goes double for anything technology related.
2) For Jeff, the reason people payed for TV, when the networks were free, was partly because there was no "alternate" to get a better level of service. Satellite has plenty of alternates - IPod and CD's being the top two, IMHO.
As an aside, as far as XM/Sirius's target group, I'm a 25 year old software engineer who has extra money to spend. XM doesn't interest me. None of my friends use it. Many of us have IPods.
I just don't see what's going to make the subscriber base double in the next year-year and a half. XM's been around for quite a while.
3) For CHUG, as far as promotion expenses, go to CES in Las Vegas next year, see how much XM has a presence there. For numbers,
In the latest quarter, SG&A jumped to 116 million from 74 million in the prior quarter. OCF in the latest quarter only looked good because of a 66 million jump in AP.
Again, time will tell, but I don't think this is as mass market as people think it is, and the current economics of the companies are terrible...
- Chug-A-Bug said...
If calculating anything 5+ years out is foolish, especially in technology, why do you assume that anyone will be using ipods in five years instead of satellite radio?
The technologies are not mutually exclusive, indeed, they are complimentary,* but if you see it as a zero-sum game, then you cannot simulatenously say one will destroy the other while dismissing the notion that the future can be modeled.
(*A combination mp3/satellite radio device, probably on its way this year when XM's 4G chipset is ready, will be tough to beat. Especially when listeners can hit a button when they hear something they like, and then be able to buy that song. Guess who has the biggest digital music library...)
In any event, those of us who are interested in investing and assigning value to stock prices engage in forecasting, especially in considering new technologies and immature businesses. Fatalism is not a valid method of critiquing a business plan.
You are not in the "target" group by virtue of being a 25 year old male software engineer. The "target" demographic is *everyone*. XM's demos are broadly distributed across all age groups, and rapidly moving toward parity among gender. SIRI tries to specificaly target young men, but they probably believe they are early enough in the adoption phase to play that game, and have an unhealthy reliance on retail sales rather than OEMs right now. Still, the numbers bear out -- this is a mass market product, not a niche product.
Whether the product personally appeals to you or not is irrelevant. I don't smoke and almost none of my friends do, but I can see investing in Altria. Conversely there are many things I enjoy that would probably make irrational investments.
I'm glad XM has a good presence at the Consumer Electronics Show. Why is this a surprise? It doesn't break the bank.
SG&A is going to be highest in the fourth quarter because of something called the holiday season, where satellite radio gets 40% of its annual net sub additions and thus total variable subsriber acquisition costs are going to be higher. But you missed the part about how each net subscriber is cash flow positive because SAC is less than the pre-pay.
Your SG&A calculations also appear to include huge non-cash expenses, so I do not understand why you hold this number up against OCF.
I'm not sure where you're getting the accounts payable number for Q4 but XM does get alot of deferred revenue that is cash in the door, but has to be recognized over time. Most people would consider high deferred revenue a positive, because it greatly increases cash flow/working capital. (It also demonstrates consumer acceptance of the product; why pre pay if you don't intend to keep it?)
A subscription business with fixed costs that aren't going up, where there are no additional costs to serve each incremental subscriber, where the subscriber base is growing exponentially, and where the variable subscriber acquisition costs are less than the cash brought to the table by each new subscriber, is not what most people would call "terrible."
The crux of your bear case appears to be no different than all the bear cases -- that there is no market.
I have yet to see a bear case on XM that incorporates the reality of the market demand for the service, but shows, through an analysis of the balance sheet or other economic data, that the company is a poor investment.
I am polishing up my own notes on a rough sketch of the business in 2010 and will post those for informed, rational discussion based on numbers and reality.
You are correct that per sub valuations are not an appropriate metric to judge these businesses in the abstract, as they are rapidly growing their subscriber bases.
It is, however, a useful metric, in conjunction with other operating metrics, to compare the two satellite radio companies to each other. SIRI has a radically higher per sub valuation that is not justified by differences in ARPU, churn (SIRI's is higher), SAC/CPGA (again, SIRI's is higher), or anything else. The difference is most easily explained by comparing the shareholder base and price per share. Off the top of my head, I believe SIRI has something approaching 400k highly excitable retail shareholders v. XM's 2k (XM is largely owned by institutions).
- Jeff Matthews said...
Just for future reference, "sloppy message board language" includes cursing as well as referring to somebody else's analysis as "cr-p". That is not useful, helpful, or allowed here.
I have had other strands on this blog in which others have let loose with the sort of lazy, infantile banter that marks a Yahoo message board. It drives good people away and leaves the boards a screaming match of idiots. So it's not allowed here.
However, well-reasoned responses such as those now up, are encouraged.
I have a question regarding the earnings models for XM and SIRI: why is it that the models assume flat pricing going out 10 years?
XM recently raised prices to match SIRI...we don't know the exact response yet, but unlike, for example, eBay's fee increases, the XM price hike did not elicit great protests from the customer base.
So why will pricing stay flat for five years? Can it not go up? And if so, what does that do to the cash flow/earnings power?
- Chug-A-Bug said...
Jeff raises an excellent point. There's no reason to suppose the basic fee will remain this low. Certainly there is no resistance to it from consumers, given the rapid rate of adoption and the low churn rate. But let's just play with the numbers we have and can deduce now.
Subscriber Base Assumption
XM has traditionally been too conservative in its subscriber guidance. For 2003, they guided to 1.2mm and came in with 1.36. For 2004, they guided to 2.8, raised to 3.1, and then came in with >3.2. For 2005, they guided to end with 5.5 for a net increase of 2.3, and already came in with net adds of 540k for Q1 (about 18% of the year's net adds), so the trend is already pushing 6.
Guidance for 2010 is 20 million subs, although recently they've added the word "exceed" in calls and presentations. To me, that looks too conservative, but to bears who don't bother plotting the growth curve or looking at OEM installation plans, it looks ridiculous. Of course, it was not very long ago when bears said XM would never reach more than 10 million subscribers.
To model this business, one must make some assumption about the number of subscribers at a certain point in time. I've chosen management's guidance of 20 million in 2010, despite the fact that management has consistently low-balled guidance, and fully aware that bears who hate this business aren't going to read any further.
I would only suggest that bears skeptical of the 20 million number please run their own analysis of subscriber size based on HARD NUMBERS -- installation trends, take rates, churn. At a minimum, bears should address the historical rate of installation growth, and what is becoming known about future commitments (i.e., Hyundai will be 100% XM by 07), before providing their own number. If there is some articulable reason for asserting that the take rate will be cut in half, or the OEMs will suddenly stop installing radios, let's hear it. Bears should also question whether they accurately predicted the growth thus far.
Subscriber Revenue
With the service costing $12.95 a month and maybe 10% at the family plan rate of $6.99 a month (additional radios 2-4 get the lower rate), ARPU would be $12.35/month. However, XM offers some pre-payment discounts, reducing the basic fee to as low as 9.99/month for prepaying 3-5 years in advance, and eyeballing their effect, I assume ARPU is $11 a month (note the price increase just became effective April 2, so historical ARPUs aren't going to be apples-to-apples).
Note that I am NOT including ANY subscriber revenue for premium channels (such as Playboy, 2.99.month), data services like NavTraffic ($3.99/mo for existing subs or $9.99 standalone) or WX Weather, the online service ($5? a month when launched with AOL), downloading (which they're going to enter, doubtless), or anything else. In other words, the $11 ARPU figure is obviously light.
20 million x 11 x 12 months = 2.64 billion in gross subscriber revenue.
Revenue Share and Royalties
Assume maintain the 6% royalty fee to music rights holders, 158.4mm (if the parties cannot reach agreement it would be arbitrated, I foresee no change).
Assume of the 20mm subs, 7mm are subject to GM revenue share of 40%, or $4 a month (this figure is variously estimated between 30-50% and applies only to the first $10/month), so let's call it 336mm.
Activation Revenue
To sustain 20mm base with 1.5% monthly churn, that's 3.6mm churn for the year, so I figure XM grosses 7mm subs in 2010. Assuming by 2010, 70% are OEM channel and do not yield activation revenue. So 30% of 7mm is 2.1mm non-OEM subs, and let's assume they all activate online at the lower rate of $10 a piece (as opposed to the $15 activation fee charged for using the telephone). $21mm.
Advertising Revenue
In 2004, ad sales were 8.4 million on year ending subs of 3.2. What will ad sales be in 2010 on 20mm subs? Let's be very conservative and call it $100mm.
Equipment Revenue
Assume growth in the company-owned mall kiosks and direct sales (metron). They're just getting started in the kiosk program and this is a very cost-effective way to gain subs. 30mm (up from 11mm in 04).
Other Revenue
A trivial line item. Fees for mailing out bills to non-credit card subs, and technology/chipset licensing fees. Company is currently averse to increasing the latter, but by 2010 the hardware manufacturers may be easier to squeeze for this without impacting retail prices. Still, my model doesn't count on it. $5mm, up from 2.8mm in 2004. (Again, assuming zero for downloading, internet service, NavTraffic, etc.)
Canada Income
It is difficult to see the CRTC not approving the Canadian venture. GM Canada is pushing hard for it, and Bitove is well connected. A decision is expected by June so we'll know soon enough. CSR pays for all the costs of doing business up there and sends back ~1/3 of the revenue? Assume 5mm Canadian subscribers producing 780mm in revenue.
Customer Care and Billing
This item averaged 12.77/sub in 04, down from 19.07/sub in 03, and should continue to drop percipitously as people need less care (greater experience) and greater efficiencies are realized at scale. Assuming down to 5/sub by 2010 for $100mm.
Cost of Equipment
Ad Sales
Double the staff to 12mm
Satellite & Terrestrial
Unch, 40mm (note there will be an increase through decomissioning of xm-1 and xm-2 in 07 or 08, while they are running these in conjunction with xm-3 and before xm-4 replaces the co-located 1 & 2)
Broadcast & Operations
Programming & Content
The easiest way to figure out this number is to focus on the CPGA, which I predict will hold at 80, on gross sub adds during 2010 of 7mm (see above), 560mm in variable subscriber acquisition costs and marketing efforts. This is probably too high a number, as the technology component of SAC costs should continue to decline precipitously.
GM Amortization
40mm (ballpark guess, two healthy satellites instead of the Boeing 702 fiasco that is coming off the books by 2008)
Long Term Debt
MLB Payment
180mm (in escrow now but recognized in 2010)
Interest Expense and Interest Income
Call it a wash. Most of the debt is due 2009. Company should have alot of cash on hand.
Other income
Rent (mostly charged to DC MPD): 3mm
Adding and subtracting all the above, net: $1.7826 billion.
Less tax rate 35%: 1.15869 billion
Assuming 310mm shares: 3.7377/share of earnings.
Now, what kind of growth multiple will the stock be sporting? Well, the assumption here is for an avg. annual subscriber growth of 2.8mm with plenty more to go at that rate.
This is obviously a somewhat rough analysis. Criticism welcome.
- Jeff Matthews said...
Excellent debate. Thank you all for making it worthwhile.
A couple things to keep in mind, from my point of view (which is, thus far, that satellite radio is a great business, but the stocks may not, at current prices, be great investments).
First, satellite radio does not, like cable TV, require a "Cable Guy" to go out and hook up a new sub. The auto makers are OEMing the product, which makes it very easy to sample satellite radio and sign up. It also makes it easy to manage the churn.
So unlike cable TV, millions of people are going to be exposed to satellite radio when they buy or lease a new car. The cost of the radio will be rolled into the car. It may well be that satellite radio gets a higher adoption rate than expected because of this.
Also, consider this: you lease a car that happens to have satellite radio installed by the previous owner: you try it, you like it, you buy it. This is not a model available with cable, which required that Cable Guy to come out and make the hook-up.
(I'm not convinced that satellite radio will have better adoption rates than expected because there is not much data along these lines, but I point out the huge difference in the satellite radio/cable TV model.)
Second, I don't think the target audience is really the 25 year old with an iPod and a bunch of CDs. I think it's a commuter or anybody who spends a lot of time in a car, and doesn't want to mess with CDs or iPods, because they are not musical addicts...they simply want the music they want, without the noise, and they want news channels without the endless ads.
In contrast to the Cumulus Radio CEO who stated that satellite radio is "for gadget geeks" and "not soccer moms," I know at least one "soccer mom" who wants it desperately, for the Broadway channel alone.
[Reminiscent of the early adoption of cable TV, which was to sports fanatics watching boxing matches on HBO--cable TV was driven by product as much as the high quality signal.]
The flip side is, as Chris points out, there is one very good alternative to satellite radio--the iPod, and there lurks other options, including cell phone technology.
I would like to understand over what time frame a cellular alternative might possibly be available.
Any informed views?
- Bill said...
In regards to some sort of streaming over cellphone technology coming in the future, why would XM and Sirius not dominate this area as well? Music programming is their primary business and it would be hard to compete against them. They are already producing the channels and it would cost them less than anybody else to provide that programming via cellphones.
In the Ipod's case, part of it's appeal is no doubt how terrible terrestrial radio is. Ipod's require a lot of time and care in arranging playlists, searching out new music etc. Sometimes you just want to turn the radio and hear music which matches the mood you are in. This is something that XM does very well with it's 68 music channels. Perhaps people in their 20's have time to organize their playlists and find new music. A lot more people just want to listen to music. I myself tire of listening to the same 3987 songs in my Ipod.
- Bill said...
I should also mention that in one of their recent presentations XM mentioned that half of their top 20 or 30 channels are actually talk/news channels.
- Chug-A-Bug said...
XM has repeatedly vowed at all their conferences and presentations that their 4G chipset, arriving sometime this year, will be small, cool, and efficient enough to integrate into cell phones.
It would be quite a challenge for cell phone companies to produce the content, and deliver it over their networks, at a profit. They have to offer a sufficient number of channels to design attractive niches, and then squeeze them on their networks.
The two cell competitors thus far, Sprint's mspot and Motorola's iradio, are each a joke compared to satellite.
Sprint wants to charge $6 for 13 channels, hardly a value proposition compared to terrestrial.
Motorola wants to charge people to download podcasts into their cellphones to take with them, not competitive with ipods or cell phones that have plain vanilla mp3 capability.
I'm reminded of the horrible 1995 Sandra Bullock movie, "The Net," about the evils of the internet. At the beginning of the movie, Sandra is Very Modern because she logs on a dialup modem and navigates through a website to order a pizza. Ten years later, we know it's easier to just pick up the phone. Cell phone technology is GREAT.... for cell phones. To deliver 150 channels of digital audio to an infinite number of receivers, it's not so great.
- Jeff Matthews said...
Okay, music over cell phones doesn't cut it, but what about Neil's point in the very first comment, that:
*. 802.11a or whatever comes after it has the capability to send high bandwidth digital signals over a wide area. For the price of XM's annual depreciation you could probably outfit the top 10 metro areas and offer more channels.
Is this a likely/realistic threat? Could Infinity team up with Intel to install a cheap ground-based digital network that renders satellite high-cost/obsolete? At what cost and in what time frame?
- Chug-A-Bug said...
There is no reason to believe that a WiMax-type network will be any more reliable/complete than current cell networks. Neil talks only about "the top 10 metro areas," which doesn't sound very useful if you don't live in one of these... or want to drive to metro area #11.
The idea that more channels can be offered this way for the price of XM's depreciation appears very unrealistic. XM's content isn't free and more content will be more expensive. (Never mind what Sirius spends for content, they are completely out of control.)
There is also the issue that if geographic reach is so limited, there aren't enough listeners to aggregate within each niche that is offered. This is terrestrial's big problem. Nobody wants lowest common denominator content, but then, there aren't enough listeners in each listening area who share enough tastes. There is a national radio market for a broadway channel, reggae, prog rock, trance... but no such local radio markets.
Could something else compete with MORE content, and thus higher content cost, at a fraction of the available listeners (top ten metro areas)? Not very likely.
WiMax will compete will cable broadband, DSL, and fiber, and will likely cost about that much if not a slight premium to these services. $30 a month? (These services are not scalable. An infinite number of radios can receive the satellite signal without impacting XM's transmission capacity. This is not true of two-way terrestrial digital networks.)
To that price, add the costs of content, plus a nice margin to make it worthwhile.
There will always be some people who have a WiMax account for their laptops, and use it on occasion to stream music. However, it is difficult to imagine a business model that profitably combines the delivery of wireless data (at the highest capacity demands), plus premium content, on a scale that can compete with satellite radio.
There is also the OEM's interest in bandwidth. The carmakers like XM's datapipe into their cars. The reach is throughout North America, and its completely secure. This is why GM, Honda, Nissan, and Toyota all have some claim on slices of XM bandwidth. Can some other technology supplant this?
- Chug-A-Bug said...
Here's a more definitive answer:
Cellcasting costs providers $100/subscriber for 2 hours of audio a day.
- Bill said...
Another factor that works against wifi type networks is how much redundant capacity would have to be built into the network. if everybody's listening during the morning and evening rush hour that would create a very high peak demand at certain times during the day and the lower demand for the rest of the time. Whereas the cost for XM to broadcast to an additional radio is 0.
- Unknown said...
years later.. here comes the solution:


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The BlackBerry is a wireless handheld which I used mainly for office e-mail, telephone, text messaging and other wireless information services. Joe has published some interesting information about syncing BlackBerry on Linux:
If you use Linux on your desktop, and you also happen to have a BlackBerry handheld device, you're probably aware that Research in Motion, the company that develops the BlackBerry platform, offers nothing in the way of support for its devices on Linux — but the intrepid geeks in the free software world do.
Thanks to to the efforts of the Barry and OpenSync projects, I just finished syncing my BlackBerry 8800 with my Evolution contacts on my Ubuntu 7.10 desktop.
If all you want to do is share data between your Linux box and the BlackBerry, no sweat. The 2GB Micro SD storage I inserted in my 8800 is available to my Linux system just like any other USB storage device. When I connect the USB cable to the BlackBerry, I simply say yes when Ubuntu asks if I want to enter Mass Storage Mode, and I can copy music and photos to the phone. I have run into a problem getting the audio for videos that were created with Kino to work correctly, but other than that, moving data back and forth between the PDA and the desktop "just works."
=> Syncing your BlackBerry on Linux

subset: commoncrawl


text:
California's tourism industry soared in 2011, passing the $100 billion barrier in annual travel spending, according to new numbers reported this week.
That's good news, and demonstrates what has become conventional wisdom. California, for all its problems, is seeing a strong recovery on the coast, particularly in the three "T's" -- trade, technology and tourism.
Visit California, a nonprofit tourism promotion group that touted the milestone, cites figures showing that travel-related employment in 2011 acconted for 890,000 jobs, or more thna four percent of all jobs in the state.
Local news from across Southern California
And travel spending is growing -- up 10 percent next year. Spending by international visitors also is primed to rise, particularly if new federal visa rules make it easier for visitors.
So if the news is good in these areas, what's holding back the California economy? Job losses in housing, construction and government -- fields closely connected to the state's governance crisis. If we could remake the state's governing system along saner lines, imagine how much stronger California could be.
Let us know what you think. Comment below, send us your thoughts via Twitter @PropZero or add your comment to our Facebook page.


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Contact UsCSTB500 Fifth Street NWWashington, DCPhone: (202) 334-2605Fax: (202) 334-2318E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
Follow CSTB on Facebook and Twitter
CSTB is a part of the Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences.
Sign up for the DEPS newsletter.
Lynette I. Millett, Senior Program OfficerGin Bacon Talati, Associate Program OfficerShenae Bradley, Senior Program Assistant
Project Information


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Waste Collection Services
Rules & Guidelines
Garbage, recycling, bulk and yard waste collection services are provided by the City's exclusive franchise hauler, Waste Industries. The following services are included:
Weekly Curbside Garbage Collection (95 gallon cart included)
Curbside Garbage Collection Guidelines
Curbside Bulk Collection Guidelines
Curbside Bagged Yard Waste Collection Guidelines
Curbside Yard Waste Collection Guidelines
Curbside Recycling Collection Guidelines
Acceptable Recycling Materials:
Do not place any items in the recycling container that do not meet the exact descriptions above. Items made of recyclable materials, that are not household type containers, are not acceptable like plastic toys or metal fixtures. When in doubt, leave it out.
Recycling will be collected on an every other week schedule. The calendar below illustrates an A week and B week schedule. Your recyclables will be collected on the same day as your garbage but on the every other B week schedule. A calendar is attached for your convenience. To view a printable copy, please click here.
Garbage and Recycling Cart Placement Guidelines
The front of the container is where the lid opens.l The wheels are on the rear of the container. The front of the container should face the street while the rear of the container should face your home.
The container must be placed away from objects like mailboxes, telephone poles, and fire hydrants. If the container is too close to a fixed object, the automated mechanical arm may come in contact with the object, causing damage to the object and/or the truck.
Garbage, Recycling, Bulk and Yard Waste Collection Routes
Services will be provided Monday thru Friday by service zone. Refer to the link below to identify your service day.
Find my pick up day
Holiday Sanitation Schedule
During a holiday week, if your service day falls ON a holiday, you will be serviced the following day. Please refer to Waste Industries holiday schedule for an up to date holiday schedule.
2019 Waste Industries Holiday Schedule
1/1 New Years Day Tuesday – Friday services delayed by one day
1/21 MLK Jr. Day All services on normal day
2/18 Presidents Day All services on normal day
4/19 Good Friday All services on normal day
5/27 Memorial Day All services delayed by one day all week
7/4 Independence Day Thursday-Friday services delayed by one day
9/2 Labor Day All services delayed by one day all week
10/14 Columbus Day All services on normal day
11/28 Thanksgiving Day Thursday and Friday services delayed by one day
12/25 Christmas Day Wednesday-Friday services delayed by one day
For a printable version of the Holiday Pick-Up Schedule, click here.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Question: Am I required to have service with Waste Industries?
Answer: Yes, by law all residents are required to have
garbage service. Each homeowner will be billed
by the City.
Question: What if I have more garbage than the container will hold?
Answer: If this happens on occasion, place the bags
outside the container and they will be collected.
If this occurs regularly, contact Waste Industries
to order a second cart or sign up for our FREE
recycling service.
Question: Can I continue to use and place garbage in my
personally owned containers?
Answer: No, Waste Industries will only service the 95 gallon
cart provided by the City.
Question: How can I get rid of my personally owned
Answer: Call Waste Industries to schedule them to be
removed as a Bulk Collection item.
Question: What if no one in my home is physically capable of rolling
the cart to the curb?
Answer: Call the Stockbridge Public Works Department and
ask to be certified as a Qualified Disabled Resident
to receive backdoor service.
Question: Will Waste Industries pick up construction materials
during Bulk Collection service?
Answer: No, all construction and landscaping contractors, or
any other type of contractor that generates waste is
required to provide their own method of removal.
Landscape materials generated by the home owner
are acceptable. Construction materials, regardless
of the generator, are never acceptable.
Or call Waste Industries at:
To view the rules and Guidelines Flyer, click here.
City of Stockbridge Customer Service:
Yard Waste, Tree Limbs, & Bulk Pick Up Service:
Call Waste Industries at 770-474-9273


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Our Reigning Parade
What a joyous Tuesday it was in the small New England town of Boston, as tens of thousands of people lined the three mile parade route through the city. Everybody was happy, and the chants of "Sign Lowell" could be heard echoing through the twists and turns of the downtown area. At one point near the end of the festivities, Larry Lucchino picked up a megaphone and yelled to the crowd, "We hear you!" I sure hope so.
It looks as if we've seen the last of our rugged warrior Curt Schilling, and that makes me sad. Nobody gave more of his heart and soul to his team the last four years than Schill did. I will miss him immensely. We ALL will. Bobby Kielty also joined Curt in filing for free agency. Mike Lowell has not, as of yet. When, or only hopefully if, he does, he can be sure to hear from the New York Yankees, for they have no third baseman and would want him for that reason and to prevent the Sox from getting him. I hope Theo and company do the right thing, and do it fast. A three year deal, with an option for a fourth, seems like something both sides should be agreeable to. If not, someone needs to get their head examined by one of the Three Stooges. Stat. "Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard!! Report to Fenway Park immediately. A MR. T. Epstein needs to see you."
In between smiles of utter joy and happiness these past three days have been, for me, quick bouts of sadness, for 2007 is history, great history, and all that's left to look forward to is a couple of Championship sweatshirts (any day), the inevitable World Series DVD (widescreen, please!) and the memories. The memories will last forever. The team, however, will undergo change. Yes, they'll be competitive. Yes, they'll upgrade the pitching staff with another A starter to take Schill's place and be Beckett's #2, with Matsuzaka, Buchholz, Lester and Wakes to follow, and yes, they'll be the favorites to win it all again in '08. But I'll miss THIS bunch of guys, and what they did for us....bigtime. Have a great Wednesday. If there is any news about the Sox or baseball itself, I'll be here, all winter long, until that magic day in February when pitchers and catchers report. Count on me, just as I count on you. Have a safe and happy and fun All Hallow's Eve.


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You are here
Stylishly Southern Mississippi Home
A Jackson, Mississippi, home keeps its traditional roots with a modern-day makeover
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No rooms were unused. No walls needed to be moved for better access. No gut job was required to modernize the existing floor plan. The bottom line is John and Diane McGowan simply wanted a new decorative statement for their Jackson, Mississippi, home. Interiors that hadn't been touched significantly since the couple moved in almost three decades ago needed a facelift to provide a fresh foil for a grand collection of antiques and artwork. And Diane had a definite vision in mind.
Pairs of chairs in the living room offer contrasting forms. Tall wing chairs by Chaddock in front of the fireplace are covered in taupe velvet and exhibit an at-full-attention posture. Across the room, bergères wear white linen and are highlighted with gold around the curvy edges of their frames. An old armoire offsets the new sofa from Lee Industries.
Photography: Jean Allsopp
Produced by Eleanor Roper
Interior designer: Lisa Palmer, SummerHouse Interior Design, 1109 Highland Colony Pkwy., Suite D, Ridgeland, MS 39157; 601/853-4445; summerhouseinteriordesign.com
Round table between chairs: Oly Studio; olystudio.com.
Bergère chairs, fabric for seat cushion and front of chair "Belize" in Natural Linen, sofa F5750/07 in Natural Linen: Lee Industries; leeindustries.com.
Fabric for back of chair "Antique Strie" in Velvet Fog: F. Schumacher & Co.; 800/523-1200; fschumacher.com.
Contrast trim for sofa "Kediri Silk": Osborne & Little; osborneandlittle.com.
Pillows on bergère chairs: Rebecca Vizard, B.Viz Boutique; rebeccavizard.com.
Table bases for custom skirted tables: Brian Smyda, Smyda Woodworking; smydawoodworking.com.
Stone table tops Storm Travertine: JTM Tile Distributing; jtmtile.com.
Skirt fabric STDAS2 in Pewter: Nomi Fabrics; nomiinc.com.
Lamps on skirted tables: Visual Comfort & Co.; visualcomfort.com.
Mirrors above tables, zebra bench: Tara Shaw; tarashawmaison.com.
Painting above sofa: Brent Smith, Brent Smith Art; brentsmithart.com.
Framing of sofa painting, framed artwork at side of armoire Framed Inks on Paper by Dick Ford: Brown's Fine Art; brownsfineart.com.
Side tables: SummerHouse Interior Design, Ridgeland, Mississippi; 601/853-4445; summerhouseinteriordesign.com.
Chairs at fireplace "Laquinta Wing Chair" in Taupe Velvet: Chaddock; chaddockhome.com.
Rug: Nola Rugs; nolarugs.com.
Antique lamps flanking sofa, mirror at fireplace, armoire, coffee table, pillows on sofa: homeowners' collection.
Living Room Before
"The rooms hadn't been painted since the house was constructed in 1990," she says. "Furthermore, when we built the house, I picked out everything during the building process—from moldings to other architectural details. So when it came time to select furniture, I went the easy route and literally bought 'rooms' off the showroom floor. But those designs weren't really created specifically for us."
Light, Lovely Living Room
The first time around, the McGowans also didn't know interior designer Lisa Palmer. She's especially skilled at producing a majestic Southern look that's full of curves, shimmer, and layers without a heavy museum effect. In the McGowans' abode, Palmer shed the original floral chintz and dark colors (forest green and heavy yellow were the primary offenders) and delivered a look that reads 21st-century Southern chic.
"When Diane initially called me, she said that she wanted a few new paint colors," Palmer says. "But as the saying goes, one thing leads to another. Once she and I started talking, she realized that a few changes in paint colors, all on their own, weren't going to give her results that would speak to her current tastes. Reworking other elements was necessary, too."
Elegant fabrics grace the newly imagined living room. Matching console tables are draped in silver silk skirts decorated with tonal hand-painted dragons. Mirrors are from Tara Shaw. Kidney pillows by Rebecca Vizard on the armchairs were fabricated from the embroidery and stump work that embellished antique European textiles and old military jackets.
Chandelier (as seen from living room) "Palissy Lantern": Niermann Weeks; niermannweeks.com.
Foyer table (as seen from living room) "Collier Dining Table" by Hickory Chair: through SummerHouse Interior Design, Ridgeland, Mississippi; 601/853-4445; summerhouseinteriordesign.com.
Breezy Southern Home
The first considerations to be addressed? Focusing on the arresting outdoor views and forming a palette that wouldn't fight with them. The McGowans' home is situated near a man-made lake, and it's shared with only three other homes.
Foyer Before
Plantation-style windows that lift into the ceiling were installed around the home's perimeter as it was being constructed. So, the architecture of John and Diane's home already was conducive to an indoor-outdoor lifestyle. But the interior colors needed modification.
Bright Foyer
In the living room, foyer, and dining room—all adjacent spaces—Palmer applied rich ivory paint. It allows the intricate moldings to pop but in a clean, modern manner.
Above an old sideboard, candle sconces flank a trumeau mirror.
Dining Room Before
Before, the dining room walls were painted yellow and side chairs were upholstered in green leather.
Refreshed Dining Room
In the living room, neutral furniture is exotically interrupted with a bench covered in a black-and-white zebra print. The foyer teams a painted center table with a sleek crystal pendant. And in the dining room, the existing ensemble of side chairs exchanged green leather upholstery for more relevant ivory leather. A sideboard, lighted by a pair of amber-color glass lamps, was artfully enhanced by a contemporary abstract, painted by a relative.
A red breakfront, once positioned in the living room, was moved to the dining room as part of the home's refresh. To suit its new location between two tall windows, designer Lisa Palmer had a craftsman add height to the antique piece. Now it matches the scale of the soaring architecture. The crystal chandelier is original to the house. Lamps are from Arteriors.
Host chairs "Martin" in Mohair by Hickory Chair, lamps flanking artwork "Wilhelmina Amber Ribbed Glass Table Lamp": through SummerHouse Interior Design, Ridgeland, Mississippi; 601/853-4445; summerhouseinteriordesign.com.
Leather for side chairs "Vacona" in Downy Gray: Hickory Chair Co.; 800/349-4579; hickorychair.com.
Framed artwork by Martha Rae Baker: through Brown's Fine Art; brownsfineart.com.
Rug: Nola Rugs; nolarugs.com.
Base for chinoiserie cabinet: Brian Smyda, Smyda Woodworking; smydawoodworking.com.
Refinishing of cabinet: Virginia Weathersby, PaintShoppe.com; paint-shoppe.com.
Dining table, sideboard and mirror: homeowners' collection.
Sunroom Before
The pretty aubergine hue of the sunroom before stayed for the makeover.
Positively Purple Sunroom
A dark eggplant paint in the light-drenched sunroom juxtaposes the light hues that bathe the rest of the house. Diane's affinity for antiques is front and center with a cast-iron fireplace surround from England. Chairs from Lee Industries in front of the fireplace give Diane and John a place to sit and look outside toward the lake.
Chairs flanking fireplace in Huntley Mushroom: Lee Industries; leeindustries.com.
Cube stool "Duncan Cube" in Espresso Mohair: Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams; mgbwhome.com.
Rug "Mandacaru": Merida; meridastudio.com.
Side table at chair one of three "Lanier Nesting Tables": Mr. Brown; mrbrownhome.com.
Table lamp by Arteriors: through SummerHouse Interior Design, Ridgeland, Mississippi; 601/853-4445; summerhouseinteriordesign.com.
Veranda Before
"For one special birthday, my husband had the veranda redone for me," Diane says.
Stylish Veranda
Designer Palmer introduced a new furniture scheme that establishes two distinct areas. A seating arrangement with espresso-color wicker chairs contrasts materials with a glass cocktail table. The dining area mixes two styles of chairs—slipcovered and café-style—on either side of a stone table.
Fabric for wicker chair: Sunbrella; sunbrella.com.
Outdoor pillows: Dransfield & Ross; dransfieldandross.com.
Concrete table by wicker chair: Currey & Co., Atlanta; 678/533-1500; curreyandcompany.com.
Dining host and side chairs at far end of veranda by Elegant Earth, white garden stool by Emissary: through SummerHouse Interior Design, Ridgeland, Mississippi; 601/853-4445; summerhouseinteriordesign.com.
Master Bedroom Before
Pink bathed the master bedroom before, but in a much stronger value. Now, a barely-there version softens the symmetrical room.
Pretty Pink Bedroom
The master bedroom whispers pale pink. The canopy bed, once draped with black floral fabric, now cascades an elegant ivory sheer that doesn't make the bed feel too enclosed.
Bed "Simone": Hickory Chair Co.; 800/349-4579; hickorychair.com.
Fabric for tester on back wall "Sheer" CH2604-071: Chivasso; chivaso.jab.de.
Fabric for headboard and duvet "Blush Glazed Linen": Oly Studio; olystudio.com.
Bed drapery fabric "Linen" 27591-111, fabric for chair and pillow "Moire Line" in Rosewater: Kravet; 800/645-9068; kravet.com.
Bedding: Legacy Linens; legacylinens.com.
Accent pillow on bed: Rebecca Vizard, B.Viz Boutique; rebeccavizard.com.
Bedside tables "Carrey Mirrored Chest": Worlds Away; worlds-away.com.
Bedside lamps by Mottega: through Arteriors Home; 877/488-8866; arteriorshome.com.
Framed artwork at bedside tables: Max & Company; mrshoward.com/max-and-company.
Sofa "Marlor," fabric for sofa and pillows in Velvet 2948-11: Hickory Chair Co.; 800/349-4579; hickorychair.com.
Fabric for silk pillows on sofa and contrast appliqué on bed drapery "Silk Derby": Taffard Fabrics; taffard.com.
Chair "Marlena": Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams; mgbwhome.com.
Coffee table, rug, secretary: homeowners' collection.
Chair side table: Made Goods; madegoods.com.
Antique Secretary
Overall, the change in design speaks to Southern living in contemporary times—and that's just what the McGowans wanted for themselves and their growing extended family.
An antique secretary was moved from the sunroom to fill a corner here. Striped chairs from Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams offer extra seating.
Homeowner Portrait
"We were ready for something new, and we love what Lisa did now as much as the day she finished," Diane says. "With our large family that now includes great-grandchildren, our home is an especially happy place."
What a View
The Greek Revival-style home that John and Diane McGowan built was completed in 1990 and gives the couple spectacular lake views.


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European ALMA Regional Centre
The European ALMA Regional Centre (ARC) provides the interface between the ALMA project and the European science community. It supports its users mainly in the areas of proposal preparation, observation preparation, data reduction, and data analysis.
Unlike its partner ARCs in North America and Japan, the European ARC is organized as a coordinated network of scientific support nodes distributed across Europe. The central node is located at ESO Headquarters in Garching bei München and carries the responsibility for all the core ARC activities as well as the coordination of the additional science support provided by the regional nodes and centres of expertise.
The European ARC is the point of contact for European ALMA users from the moment of proposal submission to the actual distribution of calibrated data and subsequent analysis via the ALMA Helpdesk.
Funding for face-to-face support at one the European ALMA Regional Centre nodes is available for ALMA Users. Users wishing to apply for MARCUs funding should fill out the form, in addition to submitting a ALMA Helpdesk ticket.
European ARC nodes
The central European ARC node is located at the ESO headquarters in Garching bei München. A distributed network of ARC nodes is being set up to provide services to the community. ARC nodes are currently set up throughout Europe at the following locations:
Country: Germany
Contact person: Frank Bertoldi
Expertise: advanced data analysis and modeling (including Cologne Database for Molecular Spectroscopy), polarimetry, zero-spacings correction for continuum data
Local web pages
Country: Italy
Contact person:Jan Brand
Expertise: Data handling/GRID-technology, Mosaicing, Coordinating surveys/key-projects, Polarimetry
Local web pages
Countries: Denmark, Sweden, Finland
Contact person: Carmen Toribio
Expertise: Multi-Frequency Synthesis, Phase modeling, Self-calibration, Astrometry, Deconvolution, GRID computing, Astrochemical modelling and radiation transfer
IRAM, Grenoble
Countries: France, Spain, Germany
Contact person: Frédéric Gueth
Expertise: Calibration, Phase correction, Polarimetry, Imaging simulator, Schools
Local web page
Allegro, Leiden
Country: The Netherlands
Contact person: Michiel Hogerheijde
Expertise: High-frequency, High-resolution, Atmospheric corrections, mmVLBI, and Molecular line analysis tools
Local web pages
Country: United Kingdom
Contact person: Tom Muxlow
Expertise: Data analysis, Archive, Data reduction heuristics, Proposal preparation, Multi-Frequency-Synthesis and Wide-field & high-dynamic range imaging
Local web pages
Countries: Czech Republic
Contact person: Pavel Jachym
Expertise: Solar and (extra)galactic astrophysics, Laboratory measurements of molecular spectral lines, Observation planning, Data quality check, Data storage and processing, Data reduction using CASA
Local web pages
European Centres of Expertise
PACE, Lisbon
Countries: Portugal
Contact person: J. Afonso
Expertise: Extra-galactic astrophysics, Planetary atmospheres
Local web pages
Would you like more information on the European ARC and the services provided? Download the Guide to the European ARC.
Please direct any questions or comments to the ALMA Helpdesk. Detailed technical information about ALMA, including software download and documentation can be found at the ALMA Science Portal.


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Saturday, August 27, 2011
Which keys have you lost?
So two months of writing and editing that had me chained to my computer are over.
There were entire days I didn't leave my apartment, and since I live in a basement I like emerging occasionally, just to remind myself that the World Above still exists. Well, now I'll get more than enough of that, with clinical placement starting in just over a week's time. But I made a self-imposed deadline so I'm pleased about that.
I also noticed that several of the keys on my keyboard are worn away. The O is a semicircle and the I has vanished completely. A, S and T do not exist from the waist down. Both E and H are reduced to a single lonely angle and L is now |.
I mentioned that to a friend who said her Backspace key was worn away. Mine still looks new. Perhaps I should do more editing.
If you've lost any keys, which are they?
8 comments:
- gypsyscarlett said...
Hey, congrats on all your hard work and making your deadline! :)
None of the keys on my keyboard actually stick, but the "B", "G" and and "N" are somewhat faded.
- August 28, 2011 at 9:05 AM
Heh. No keys lost, but my caique *insists* on attempting to pry any that he possibly can off my laptop with his beak.
Congratulations on finishing!
- August 28, 2011 at 12:04 PM
- DLDzioba said...
I've worn down a indention into my space bar. My laptop keys are a matte finish, I've worn many of the letters smooth and shiny.
- August 28, 2011 at 5:03 PM
- Tiffany said...
I also have a burnished space bar. The rest of my keys are still mostly intact, but I think that has to do with the fact that I alternate between two computers.
- August 28, 2011 at 6:34 PM
- DeConstruction of the Sekuatean Empire said...
In two years of writing perhaps 250,000 words, I've lost the A and N keys and the W, S, and O keys are on their last clicks!
- August 28, 2011 at 7:31 PM
- DeConstruction of the Sekuatean Empire said...
PS--It occurs to me that the letters of the alphabet we use most in English should wear out first, however, because of the QWERTY arrangement, the wear-out timetable is skewed. E and T are the letters most used in English and mine are just fine.
- August 28, 2011 at 7:45 PM
- Loren said...
I don't recall ever rubbing off any of the keyboard labels, but I remember living with one key nonfunctional. I accidentally got water into it, but when it dried out, I discovered that the `~ key had stopped working. So I used some rather cumbersome workarounds whenever I needed that key's characters. I didn't want to get a new keyboard because I wanted to make it last as long as possible. When it had some other crankiness, I broke down and replaced it, and I got the `~ key back again.
But congratulations on making your self-imposed deadline.
- August 30, 2011 at 3:47 PM
- Marian Perera said...
Tasha - At first I thought it was weird that none of the other keys were so badly worn, because I use Enter and Shift a lot too. But those are longer keys, so my finger doesn't keep hitting their labels.
Wendy - Thanks! Exhausted but have a great sense of accomplishment. Your reply also made me look up what a caique was. :)
DLDzioba - Because you mentioned the space bar, I bent my head to look at mine from an angle in the light.
There's an indentation!
Tiffany - Lucky you, two computers. I keep wanting a laptop, but it'll have to wait until I get a full-time job.
Stephen - Of all my keys, only the Q, Z, X and J show no signs of wear at all.
Loren - Thanks! I didn't get to do anything social over the summer as a result... but I did manage a lot of swagging on the side. :)
- August 31, 2011 at 4:55 AM


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MESA, Ariz. - An auction for an airplane that was once part of the presidential fleet will begin again now that the government has sold a collection of spare parts separately.
The U.S. General Services Administration says the blue and white DC-9 was part of the Air Force Two fleet and at one point may have served as Air Force One, a plane used by the president.
The plane is being stored at the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport.
GSA area property officer Randy Patterson says the auction began last week but was postponed by the State Department so it could sell the collection of spare parts.
Patterson says an auction of the plane will be scheduled to begin in several weeks. Bidding starts at $50,000.


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Ricky Gervais returned to host the Golden Globes again Sunday night. The big winners of the night were The Descendants and The Artist taking home Best Picture Awards from Drama and Comedy respectively. Both films' leading men took home awards for Best Actor as well. I was happy to see Michelle Williams take home Best Actress for Comedy for My Weekend with Marilyn. On the television side Homeland was a big winner taking home the award for Best Drama and a Best Actress Award for Claire Danes. And Modern Family was Awarded the Golden Globe for Best Comedy. You can see the complete list of winners here.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }


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By Sami Aboudi and Yara Bayoumy
DOHA (Reuters) - To applause from Arab heads of state, a foe of Bashar al-Assad took Syria's vacant seat at an Arab summit on Tuesday, deepening the president's diplomatic isolation and diverting attention from rifts among his opponents.
Speaking at an annual gathering of Arab leaders in the Gulf state of Qatar, Moaz Alkhatib said he had asked U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for American forces to help defend rebel-controlled northern parts of Syria with Patriot surface-to-air missiles now based in Turkey. NATO swiftly rebuffed the idea.
"It was a historic meeting," said opposition spokesman Yaser Tabbara. "It's a first step towards acquiring full legal legitimacy."
The 22-nation League is set to support giving military aid to Syrian rebels. A draft summit communique offered some of its toughest language yet against Assad, affirming member states had a right to offer assistance "including military, to support the steadfastness of the Syrian people and the Free Army".
Alkhatib said the United States, which has given non-military aid to Syrian rebels, should play a bigger role in helping end the two-year-old conflict in Syria, blaming Assad's government for what he called its refusal to solve the crisis.
"I have asked Mr. Kerry to extend the umbrella of the Patriot missiles to cover the Syrian north and he promised to study the subject," he said, referring to NATO Patriot missile batteries sent to Turkey last year to protect Turkish airspace.
"We are still waiting for a decision from NATO to protect people's lives, not to fight but to protect lives," he added, addressing a body that barred Assad's government in late 2011.
Responding to Alkhatib's remarks, an official of the Western military alliance at its headquarters in Brussels said: "NATO has no intention to intervene militarily in Syria."
Turkey, which reported a mortar landing harmlessly on its border on Tuesday, said it was up to the rest of NATO to decide if members wanted to expand the remit of the Patriot batteries.
Michael Stephens, a researcher based in Qatar for Britain's Royal United Services Institute, said acceding to Alkhatib's request would effectively put NATO at war with Damascus.
NATO's current deployment of three Patriot missile batteries in southern Turkey is intended to be purely defensive. The Patriots are designed to shoot down hostile missiles in mid-air.
Alkhatib, a Sunni Muslim cleric, took Syria's seat at the summit for the first time despite announcing on Sunday that he would step down as leader of the Syrian National Coalition.
Behind him sat Ghassan Hitto, the prime minister of a provisional opposition government that plans to run rebel-held area, and fellow senior opposition official George Sabra.
Alkhatib made a blunt call on other Arab leaders to "fear God in dealing with your people" and free political prisoners - a departure from anodyne tradition at the League.
But he also criticized what he called Western failure to bring an end to the conflict, and said an influx of foreign Islamist fighters should not be used by the West as a pretext to deny Syrians meaningful help. He denounced the presence in Syria of Iranians and Russians he said were backing the government.
In his opening speech as host, Qatar's Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani urged the U.N. Security Council to stop the "oppression and repression of the people" in Syria, halt the bloodshed and "present those responsible for these crimes against their people to international justice".
The United Nations says about 70,000 people have been killed in a conflict that began with peaceful anti-Assad protests and turned into an increasingly sectarian armed insurrection.
The war in Syria has divided world powers, paralyzing action at the Security Council. The Arab world is also split, with Saudi Arabia and Qatar the most fervent foes of Assad, and Iraq, Algeria and Lebanon the most resistant to calls for his removal.
The conflict echoes sectarian strains between Sunni Muslims, notably in the Gulf, and Shi'ites, mainly in Iraq, Lebanon and non-Arab Iran, whose faith is close to Assad's Alawite minority.
Syrian rebels again fired mortar rounds into central Damascus on Tuesday. State television said several people had been wounded by "terrorist" mortar bombs that landed in the Syrian Arab News Agency SANA compound in the Baramkeh district.
State television said a suicide car bomber killed and wounded several people in northeastern Damascus, although opposition activists said the blast could have been a mortar.
Syrian state TV did not cover the Arab League meeting in Qatar, airing a program on makeup for women instead.
A group of pro-Assad hackers signing themselves the Syrian Electronic Army claimed an attack on an Arab League website that directed readers to a picture of Assad and derided the League's Egyptian secretary-general for his "loyalty to the sheikhs".
Alkhatib's decision to quit, which he blamed on the world's failure to back the armed revolt against Assad also appeared to be motivated by internal disputes in the alliance. It undermined the alliance's claim to provide a coherent alternative to Assad.
Liberals saw it as a protest against what they view as the rising influence of hardline Islamists in the Qatari-backed umbrella group set up in Doha in November.
Jane Kinninmont, of Britain's Chatham House think-tank, said Qatar and the other Gulf states had been frustrated that the United States in particular and also European powers had not done more to help the Syrian opposition.
"The Gulf countries contrast this to the Iraq war which many of them were quite dubious about," she said. "And they see a U.S. that's far less interventionist today, even though there's a much greater case for and immediate humanitarian need."
(Additional reporting by Mirna Sleiman and William Maclean, Omar Fahmy in Cairo, Oliver Holmes and Erika Solomon in Beirut, Gulsen Solker in Ankara and Adrian Croft in Brussels; Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syria-opposition-expected-syria-seat-arab-summit-080255252.html
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hey there fellas.. we'll draw together a joker skull today.. it's going to be fun. I've rendered the final image with charcoal.. you can use any medium to render yours.. have fun.. keep drawing n keep smiling..
DragoArt members upload artwork and drawing tutorials! They are also allowed to leave comments on tutorials, profiles, etc. Many more features, as well; it's way better than just being a boring guest! Register Now!


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Picture of the Day: Emily in her fishnet stockings
Emily shows off her killer curves in a thong and fishnet stockings.
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Kitchen countertops not only have a way of becoming overcrowded quite quickly, but they also lack the capability to expand outside of their boundaries. Not so with the stovetop. When those four burners become filled up with boiling water and busy fry pans, there is another option. Although nowadays, a portable burner can be so much more.
The Caso C21 Induction Burner fills the much appreciated duties of a "fifth burner," but it also does so with efficiency and style. Since induction cooking uses the pot or pan directly as the heat generator, more heat is transferred to the food resulting in highly efficient (and responsive) cooking times. With 10 power settings and precise temperature control from 140 degrees to 430 degrees, the C21 makes it easy to get the results you are looking for.
Usability is further enhanced with some convenient features. Preset "Keep Warm" and "Slow Cook" functions offer easy-to-use settings, while a 120-minute timer helps to keep things under control. A dual digital display shows the timer and power settings, while the slick touch interface not only offers familiar control, but also helps to make the borosilicate glass top easy to clean. An electronic sensor automatically detects when cookware is placed on the burner, and an included auto shutoff feature helps to prevent overheating. With enough available room on the counter top, it might just be hard to ever go back to the stovetop.


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Wis. Democrats say DNR must do more to stop CWD
December 20, 2013 at 02:04 AM
The Associated Press
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Democrats on the state Assembly's natural resources committee demanded Wednesday that state wildlife officials step up the fight against chronic wasting disease, tearing the scab off a bitter decade-old debate over how best to handle the fatal brain ailment.
They criticized the Department of Natural Resources during a hearing on deer management for bowing to public pressure to quit trying to reduce the deer herd in hopes of slowing the disease's spread.
"At some point ... you need to suck it up and deal with it," committee member Chris Danou, D-Trempeleau, told DNR officials. "The passive approach just isn't going to work. Just because some people are griping, we're going to let it spread? What are we going to do? Just watch it happen?"
CWD produces microscopic holes in cervids' brain tissue, causing weight loss, tremors, strange behavior and eventually death. The disease was first detected in Wisconsin near Mount Horeb in 2002. The discovery sent a shock wave through the state, known around the world for its deer hunting traditions.
The DNR's reaction remains a sore spot among hunters. The agency immediately adopted a plan that called for reducing the local herd to slow the disease's spread, employing sharpshooters and asking hunters and landowners to kill as many deer as possible in the area.
The strategy turned into a public relations disaster. Landowners and hunters refused to get on board, calling herd reduction unattainable and a waste of deer. A 2006 audit found the number of deer in the area had actually increased.
The DNR has since turned to a strategy of testing dead deer for the disease, tracking the disease's locations and gauging its prevalence. Texas deer researcher James Kroll backed up those tactics in a 2012 review of Wisconsin DNR policies he produced for Republican Gov. Scott Walker, saying the state should take a passive approach.
DNR Wildlife Health Section Chief Tami Ryan told the Assembly's natural resources committee that the disease continues to spread, noting that 20 percent of bucks and 9 percent of does in the Mount Horeb area now have it. The disease zone has grown to include southeastern Wisconsin, she said, adding that the agency has recorded localized outbreaks in the state's northwestern and central regions.
"We continue to see the disease increase in intensity and geographic distribution," she said. "We have not been able to contain the disease."
That left minority Democrats on the panel shaking their heads. They pointed to a letter University of Wisconsin-Madison wildlife ecologist Tim Van Deelen sent to state Rep. Fred Clark, D-Baraboo, earlier this month that called the DNR's passive approach "nothing more than a decision to let the problem grow in order to avoid controversy rather than to commit to more experimentation with disease control and eradication."
"I am deeply concerned we are fiddling while Rome burns," Clark said.
DNR Lands Division Administrator Kurt Thiede said the public won't support another herd reduction push.
"What we are dealing with here in Wisconsin is a public that doesn't have the stomach or support," Thiede said.
At one point the committee's chairman, Al Ott, R-Forest Junction, told Clark that he and his fellow Democrats should help the DNR win over public opinion by putting out press releases demanding herd reduction.
"Call for those drastic moves," Ott said, "and see what kind of reaction you get."
The committee didn't take any action.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.


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While this reading may at first seem possible, a number of observations, in my opinion, render such an approach highly implausible. In sum, I would suggest that while Gundry's reading is possible, it is exceedingly unlikely. Indeed, I think a growing number of commentators would agree--even Protestant ones.
First, we must first acknowledge that it would be odd for Jesus to state that he was building upon a πέτρος (petros), since one would usually associate a building-project with the more sturdy foundation of a πέτρα (petra), as Jesus' words in Matthew 7:24 indicate.
Going on from this we can point out that, as reader Cale Clark wrote correctly in the comment-box of the previous post, there is a perfectly natural explanation for the πέτρος (petros) / πέτρα (petra) construction: πέτρα (petra) is a feminine word. Jesus could hardly have used a feminine noun as the name of Simon Peter—"You are Petrina"? I think not!
So, grammatically, we have a problem. On the one hand, one cannot use πέτρος (petros) to describe a suitable foundation for a building project—for that, again as Matthew 7:24 indicates, one must speak of πέτρα (petra). Yet, on the other hand, Jesus can hardly name Peter, πέτρα (petra)—because the word is feminine! Jesus can't give Peter a feminine name!
In fact, if Jesus wanted to apply the terminology of the πέτρα (petra), i.e., that which the Church is built upon, to Peter, we would expect to find very kind of shift in language we have in Matthew 16:18. France puts it well:
"The reason for the different Greek form is simply that Peter, as a man, needs a masculine name, and so the form Petros has been coined. But the flow of the sentence makes it clear that the wordplay is intended to identify Peter as the rock."[1]


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HUDA offers 453 plots in Sector 56-A Faridabad
Haryana Urban Development Authority(HUDA) is offering 453 plots in Sector 56-A Faridabad. The booking of the scheme commenced on September 1, 2014 and the last date to apply for the plots is November 10, 2014. The Housing Authority is offering the plots in a well planned Urban Estate. Listed below are some facts that you should know about the HUDA scheme


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Read the original story in The Oregonian here.
A $1 million boost to a Portland State University program benefits academic aces and delivers the third-largest gift for a scholarship endowment in the institution's history.
The Rose E. Tucker Charitable Trust award to the University Honors Program, which offers special studies to top students, also will help create a laboratory, support employees and aid in recruitment efforts.
Such a high-profile investment will increase enrollment, improve the reputation of the entire university and help the Portland area, said PSU President Wim Wiewel.
Most "of our students come from here and stay here, so if you want to improve our community this is the way to do it," Wiewel said.
Half of the donation, $500,000, will go to a scholarship endowment, and so will the $500,000 in matching money the university must raise. The fund drive begins now.
PSU will receive the other half of the gift over five years, $100,000 annually. About half of that money is earmarked for student research, student-led global seminars, internships and scholarships.
Scholarships open doors, said Portland State University junior Tabatha Memmott, who recently landed a prestigious McNair Scholars Program award with the help of her Honors Program professors and PSU staff.
The program "isn't about creating an elitist space where people are treated differently," Memmott said. "This is about creating access."
As an independent student, the 21-year-old needed that chance. Her adoptive parents died when she was a teenager, and her biological parents "aren't in the picture," she said.
She maintains a grade point of average of 3.4, despite her struggles and taking classes such as Calculus 3 and organic chemistry.
As a biology and public health education major, Memmott is well on her way toward medical school and her dream career as a physician-scientist. She said she has her professors to thank for her continued success.
Some $110,000 of the donation will go toward recruiting more students like her. The Honors Program, which offers advanced classes for undergraduates, already is attracting more members, expanding from 161 students in 2008 to 343 students this year, a 113 percent increase.
Classrooms all over PSU are filling up, with undergraduate enrollment rising from 18,012 in 2006 to 23,170 this past fall, a 29 percent jump, PSU records show.
Wiewel credits the recent Honors Program growth to Ann Marie Fallon, who became the program's director in fall 2011.
"A lot of it comes from more concerted recruitment efforts," Fallon said.
The program is still too small a portion of PSU's total population, said Fallon, who also wrote the proposal for the Rose E. Tucker gift.
Fallon will get more time to spend on fundraising and program development because $20,000, spread over the five years, will be used to pay another faculty member to teach one of her six classes. In addition, $15,000 of the donation will be used to attract visiting scholars.
Also, $25,000 will pay for managing the trust, and $75,000 will fund the creation of an Honors Urban Ecology Lab on campus and an upgrade of the Honors Program's building, a three-story house built in 1893.
No one is more excited about the new teaching lab than Igor Lacan, a professor of urban ecology. Lacan has a small lab he uses and, for his students, the main options are doing fieldwork or borrowing space and equipment for a couple of hours at a time. It's hard for students to perform long-term research.
"It has worked relatively well, but it would be better to have our own space," he said.
The Honors Program, founded in 1969, could add even more amenities in the future. There is talk of turning the Honors Program into an Honors College. A college has greater institutional standing and more independence, Fallon said.
Whether it's a college or a program, it offers something crucial to students such as Memmott, Fallon said.
"It really helps students who didn't know how smart they are and how much they could do, to have someone believe in them," she said.


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Mark9291 needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 111 designs submitted by 27 freelance designers.
Receivables Management Partners
Receivables Management Partners provides accounts receivable and collection services to the healthcare industry. We have offices in Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. Our value proposition to our clients is to provide the customer service and relationships of a small company while having the resources of a large company to collect the most dollars for them.
Healthcare providers (particularly hospitals and physician groups) primarily in the Midwest but nationwide as well. Our services include acting as the Business Office (billing and obtaining payment for services) for our clients as well as providing collection services on delinquent accounts.
The logo should be very professional as it is very important for our clients to trust our company to manage their cash flow and treat their patients with dignity and respect.
Initially, this logo will supplement 4 existing logos at our independent offices to tie our brands together but could eventually replace those logos. I have attached my business card with all 4 logos on it.
Our websites are:
Some themes to consider:
- Healthcare Industry
- Cash
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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New Jersey Public K-12 School Rankings are based on data from the New Jersey Statewide Assessment Reports provided by the New Jersey Department of Education. There are two sets of rankings: (i) The Standard Rankings, and (ii) The Customized Rankings.
You have the option of (i) Ranking all schools in the State of New Jersey (choose "All Counties" in the toolbar to the left), (ii) Comparing individual counties (choose "County Vs. County"), and (iii) Comparing all schools in a given county (choose, for example, "Bergen" County). To view FREE public school rankings from a prior year, simply click on the "Rank" button on the toolbar to the left. The most recent rankings are available for subscribers only. Subscription fee is $8.33/month (1-year term). Sign up here.
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LONGMONT — For the past two weeks, Erie boys basketball coach Tim Leahy has professed faith in his club even while the Tigers endured a losing streak that reached four games.
Leahy believed his team wasn't playing poorly during that stretch, and that the losing streak had more to do with missing out on a key play here or there in close games than any particular funk on the part of the Tigers.
On Tuesday, Erie finally got the result it was looking for. The Tigers took control with a big run during the first quarter and went on to answer every Skyline challenge the rest of the way to post a 58-51 victory in a Tri-Valley League tilt.
Erie posted its first win since Jan. 8 while ending its four-game slide. Skyline continued to dig itself into a deeper hole in the conference standings, suffering its fourth loss in a row and its ninth in 10 games after starting the season 3-0.
"These kids, last year as sophomores and freshmen they took their lumps," Leahy said. "This year, obviously they're older and they've gone through the battles a little bit. We've been able to handle (pressure) a little bit better. For the most part, we played mentally tough."
Erie (5-8, 3-3 Tri-Valley League) scored 17 consecutive points during the first quarter, turning an early 7-2 deficit into a 19-7 lead. The Tigers retained their 12-point edge going into the second and never trailed after their early burst, yet Erie still had to answer several challenges by the host Falcons.
Each and every time Skyline drew within striking distance, Erie knocked down a key shot or put together an answering run to keep the Falcons at bay. When seven consecutive points by Skyline at the start of the second quarter pulled the Falcons within five, Erie responded with a 7-1 run. When Skyline scored seven consecutive points early in the third to draw within six points, Erie's Dylan Brink reversed the momentum by knocking down consecutive 3-pointers.
Skyline (4-9, 1-5) again pulled within six points late in the fourth, but another 3-pointer by Brink diffused what proved to be Skyline's final comeback attempt.
"High school basketball isn't about who has the most talent. It's about who plays with the most poise and composure and does the most basic things correctly more times than the other team, and we don't do that," Skyline coach Michael Peterson said. "There were three occasions where we went from double-digits down to single digits. And every time we got to four or six points, we had no composure."
Brink knocked down five of Erie's eight 3-pointers and led all scorers with 23 points. Kyle Leahy added 11 points for the Tigers. Erie senior Blake Baker, a regular starter who averages 10.1 points a game, was out of the lineup due to an illness.
Luciano Quesada led Skyline with 16 points. Although the Falcons' leading scorer, Colton Dabney, turned in a strong all-around game, he was limited to just one shot attempt in the first half before finishing with eight points.
"We were just trying to make the extra pass, and we knew we could break down their defense," Brink said. "We shot pretty good tonight, so that worked out. We were trying to get over that corner and we did it tonight. Hopefully we can keep it going in the future."
Follow Pat on Twitter: @prooney07
Erie 58, Skyline 51
At Skyline HS
Leahy 4 3-4 11, C. Brink 3 1-2 8, D. Brink 8 2-5 23, Melton 0 0-0 0, Tallman 1 0-0 2, Smith 3 0-1 8, Egan 2 2-2 6, Lucas 0 0-0 0. Totals 21 8-14 58.
Stuvel 2 0-2 5, Anthony 4 2-3 10, Quesada 6 1-2 16, Mandrell 3 0-0 8, Dabney 4 0-2 8, Soriano 0 0-0 0, Steakley 0 2-2 2, Mansanares 1 0-0 2, Helgeland 0 0-0 0. Totals 20 5-11 51.
Score by quarters:
Erie 23 10 12 13 — 58
Skyline 11 11 11 18 — 51
3-point field goals — Erie (8): D. Brink 5, Smith 2, C. Brink; Skyline (6): Quesada 3, Mandrell 2, Stuvel. Total fouls — Erie 18, Skyline 15. Fouled out — Tallman.


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Encoders are fine, in fact you'll find it harder to solve the problem without them. All your guide is telling you is that you can't assume that driving from one room to another is a standard, pre-specified operation - you may have to adjust your route on the way to avoid obstacles. You can still use encoders for dead reckoning, but you can't say that to get from room one to room two you turn east and go forward for 20,000 encoder clicks - circumstances may have changed this time.
1. SLAM: seems a quite popular field at the moment, but it quite complex and non-intuitive to implement. It also requires a lot of memory - more than the arduino has.


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While performance elements tell employees what they have to do, the standards tell them how well they have to do it. The first article in this series defined and reviewed the characteristics of critical, non-critical, and additional performance elements. This article reviews the principles of writing good standards that can be used effectively to appraise employee performance of those elements.
A performance standard is a management-approved expression of the performance threshold(s), requirement(s), or expectation(s) that must be met to be appraised at a particular level of performance. A Fully Successful (or equivalent) standard must be established for each critical element and included in the employee performance plan. If other levels of performance are used by the appraisal program, writing standards for those levels and including tem in the performance plan is not required by is encouraged so that employees will know what they have to do to meet standards higher than Fully Successful.
Performance standards should be objective, measurable, realistic, and stated clearly in writing (or otherwise recorded). The standards should be written in terms of specific measurers that will be used to appraise performance. In order to develop specific measurers, you first must determine the general measure(s) that are important for each element. General measurers used to measure employee performance include the following:
For each element, decide which of these general measurers are important to the performance of the element by asking the following questions:
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Once you've decided which general measures are important, you can develop specific measurers. It is these specific measures that will be included in the standard. To develop specific measure(s) for each element, you must determine how you would measure the quantity, quality, timeliness, and/or cost-effectiveness of the element. If it can be measured with numbers, clearly define those numbers. If performance only can be described (i.e., observed and verified), clarify who would be the best judge to appraise the work and what factors they would look for. (The first-line supervisor is often the best person to judge performance, but there may be situations, depending on what is being measured, when a peer or the customer receiving the product or service would be the best judge.)
The following questions may help you determine specific measures. For each general measure, ask:
If there is no number, and the element can only be judged, ask:
Once you've established the specific measures that apply to the elements, you can begin to write the standards. Before writing the Fully Successful standard, you must know the number of levels that your appraisal program uses to appraise elements. For example, if you are under an appraisal program that uses two levels to appraise elements, the Fully Successful standard would describe a single point of performance, above which is Fully Successful, and below which is Unacceptable. If, however, your appraisal program uses five levels to appraise elements, you would describe the Fully Successful standard as a range, above which is higher than Fully Successful, and below which would be Minimally Successful (or equivalent). How you write the Fully Successful standard depends on the number of levels your program uses to appraise elements.
If a specific measure for an element is numeric, for example, you would list the units to be tracked and determine the range of numbers (or the single number in a program that appraises elements at two levels) that represents Fully Successful performance. If the specific measure is descriptive, you would identify the judge, list the factors that the judge would look for, and determine what he or she would see or report that verifies that Fully Successful performance for that element had been met.
Included below are examples of elements and standards. The specific measures are in italics; the performance (or range of performance) that actually establishes the level of the standard are in boldface type.
Fully Successful Standard in an appraisal program that appraises elements at five levels (to meet this standard, all of the bullets listed must be present or occur):
(If this standard had been written for an appraisal program that appraised elements at only two levels, the standard would have been "no more than 8% errors per quarter, "at least 60% of customers agree," and "up to 8 working hours from receipt of request.")
The supervisor and team members are satisfied that the incumbent:
The Research Manager is routinely satisfied that:


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US: Target steps into Canada with $1.83bn Zellers buy
Value retailer Target Corporation is making its first foray outside the US after agreeing a CAD1.825bn (US$1.83bn) deal to take over leases for up to 220 stores operated by discount chain Zellers, a subsidiary of Hudson's Bay Co.
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