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Experienced software developers who are passionate about creating quality software solutions. Software is not just what we do it is who we are and it shows in our work. We'll work hard to ensure your software is completed as quickly as possible without sacrificing quality. Think of us as your dream team of software professionals who will put everything we have into creating a world class software solution for you.
We do not offer computer hardware or software support over the phone. If you have been contacted by someone claiming to be from softwaremaniacs and offering to help fix your computer it is NOT us. We never solicit new business over the phone and you are likely the target of a scam.
Software Maniacs can help. We specialize in working with startup companies and understand the need to move quickly to develop minimal viable products. We're seasoned software development professionals with diverse backgrounds and our expert staff has years of experience converting business needs into software realities. You will not find a team that will work smarter or harder to accomplish more for your budget dollars. So give us a call to talk about your project. There are no upfront fees or long term commitments.
We hired Software Maniacs to take over development on vizibility.com shortly after launching the service in 2010. Bill and his team came up to speed quickly, understanding our business model and helping to shape the software to meet our business objectives, which ultimately led to the sale of the company. Bill became our defacto CTO. He played a role in supporting technical diligence on three rounds of fundraising and our eventual acquisition. He also joined company executives on key sales calls when technical expertise was required. Hiring Software Maniacs allowed us to meet an aggressive release scheduled required of successful startups while also enabling the company to aggressively manage its resources in a way that would not have been possible had we had a dedicated development team. Vizibility's acquirer continues to use Software Maniacs for development and may expand its role to other parts of the company.James Alexander Founder & CEO, Vizibility Inc.
We can help. We specialize in rescuing failing software projects and can help put your project back on track. We'll bring proven agile software development practices to your project and turn it around so you can move forward with the real work of running your business.
A client of mine, in the materials handling space, needed some help to deliver a kiosk solution to their market. Another software vendor failed to deliver any useable software for the kiosk in a project effort spanning more than nine months. Software Maniacs stepped in to replace the original vendor and help with the project recovery. After a short analysis effort to understand the original project failures they built and executed a plan to address those failures and deliver a minimal viable product in three months.Michael Johnson, Founder & CEO of Full Potential Associates


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Majd's roots lie in the area around Haifa, from where his family was driven away during the Nakba in 1948. A few decades later, Majd was born as a refugee in Dubai, where he was recognized as a Palestinian, yet was not entitled to citizenship according to the laws of the United Arab Emirates. Since his grandparents had fled to Syria from Palestine, he received a laissez-passé issued by Syria and was registered by UNRWA as a member of the Palestinian refugee family. Majd grew up in the United Arab Emirates, Libya, Jordan, Syria, Kuwait and Tunisia. In 2004, he moved to Belgium to study and work and in 2011 he was able to visit Palestine for the first time.
The United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR, defines stateless people as individuals who are not considered a national by any state. This bond between an individual and a state comes with certain obligations, but also ensures the individual state protection and a legal basis to exercise his civil and political rights. Having a nationality is thus essential to fully participate in any society. Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "everyone has the right to a nationality" and that "no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality."
Did your status of stateless person ever cause you any problems?
"Whenever I had to fill in my nationality, it would cause problems. Just imagine enrolling as a stateless person at the university, singing up at the bank, taking out insurance, going through airports, visiting embassies and applying for visas, online services…"
You lived in the United Arab Emirates, Libya, Syria, Jordan, Kuwait, Tunisia and Belgium. Did you experience any differences in being stateless in the Arab world and in Europe?
"Since these Arab countries don't recognize Israel, I was automatically registered as a Palestinian. In Syria, I enjoyed nearly all of the same rights and duties as a Syrian citizen, except for the right to citizenship. It felt like I was going through life as a Palestinian in these countries. The term "stateless" didn't appear on my official documents, unlike in Belgium."
In Belgium, you were given residency rights. Was it difficult to obtain this?
"All kinds of residency permits, especially for an indefinite period, are hard to obtain in the EU. I had to go through many different procedures. Step one was to be recognized as a stateless person by the court, which took a few years. Afterwards, I had to file an application for regularization and wait for another few years until I finally received a positive reply by the immigration service. In total, obtaining residency rights took me seven years. The last step was filing a request for naturalization to obtain Belgian citizenship."
What was the procedure to obtain Belgian citizenship like?
"It was a lot easier compared to obtaining residency rights. I had to prove that I was integrated and had residency rights. After two and a half years of waiting, I finally got the good news in May."
In the Fall of 2011, you were able to travel to Palestine for the first time. How did you achieve this?
"It felt like a mission impossible with my Palestinian roots and a stateless travel document. I was interrogated three times at the Israeli embassy in Belgium and body-searched by the police on my first visit. Eventually they granted me the tourist visa because I was officially recognized as a stateless person, had never been to Palestine and was carrying an invitation of a Palestinian NGO. As far as I know, I was the first stateless Palestinian who was able to obtain a tourist visa."
"When we arrived in Tel Aviv, all of these efforts seemed to have been a waste of time. I was immediately detained at the airport together with a group of activists and thought that I would be sent back to Belgium, yet two hours later I was admitted to the country. It was one of the happiest moments in my life: visiting my country for the first time."
What was it like for you to be on Palestinian soil for the first time?
"It was magnificent and heartbreaking at the same time. It was very difficult for me to see that Haifa, where my grandparents are from, is now officially an Israeli city. But in my heart, without wanting to sound like a political activist, it is still historic Palestine. I was the happiest man on earth because I could finally breathe in the Palestinian air, eat Palestinian food, talk to the people, see the sea and get to know my family."
Was Palestine what you had expected?
"I wasn't really expecting anything actually. I looked at it as an adventure and allowed the many surprises that came my way to guide me. Every moment I spent there was part of a dream coming true. Everything was beautiful: the sea, the mountains, the olive trees, the people, the Jews, the Muslims, the Christians, the al-Aqsa Mosque, the Wailing Wall, the Nativity Church… everything."
Did your visit change your attitude towards Israel-Palestine in any way?
"I've never had much faith in politicians, both Palestinian and Israeli, and in their will to find a real solution through negotiations. Visiting the region hasn't changed that. I was, however, pleasantly surprised by Sadaka-Reut: a group of Israeli and Palestinian youth who work on ideas for peace and a better society together. Their love and respect for each other moved me. I really appreciated how they look at each other as human beings and not as enemies, which is something you will never see on television. The few days I spent volunteering with them, turned out to be some of the best moments I experienced in Israel-Palestine. I was in peace."
"Being stateless for the most part of my life has taught me how to exceed the concept of borders and nationalities and to get to know people as individuals. My hope for the future is that the occupation ends and the borders are opened, and that people can get to know each other."
Majd's search for his roots in Palestine was turned into a documentary called Stateless, by Senne Dehandschutter. The documentary shows Majd's search for his family's house and the cinema that was run by his grandfather. Majd's visit to Palestine was part of a bigger project called Tussen Vrijheid en Geluk (Between Happiness and Freedom) in which Belgian journalist, Pieter Stockmans, and photographer, Xander Stockmans, try to cover the hopes, fears and expectations of people behind the revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa.
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subset: commoncrawl


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CULTURE- ART FEATURE- Dances with forks: Sharrer's fabulous conflations
A couple stops at a shack on a beach while a cross-eyed, horned figure wearing one shoe wanders by leading a goat on a tether. A barefoot woman pours tea for an older gentleman as a crow clinging to a brick-red chair whizzes past overhead. Such dreamlike scenes, combining the utterly mundane with the utterly unlikely, may seem lifted from a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel, but they are, in fact, the visions of painter Honoré Sharrer.
Sharrer's 60-year body of work is currently sampled at the University of Virginia Art Museum in a select retrospective entitled "Humanism an d Enigma." Having garnered critical attention for her post-WWII painting series, "Tribute to the American Working People," Sharrer opted to stay with figural painting when the art world turned toward abstraction (a fickleness she skewers in several of her line drawings).
Yet her color-intoxicated oils dating from 1971-2005, in which she wittily explores an aesthetic of magical realism, are well worth a second, third, and fourth look (in fact, I could hardly tear my eyes away). Sharrer not only seamlessly elides the everyday with the fantastic and conflates the mythic past with the present, she also changes up painting styles and, amazingly, shifts spatial planes within the same image.
For example, in "Roman Landscape," a shadow-casting pink arch carved with bas relief stands in front of a flattened, almost wallpaper-like olive-green landscape. Electric lights festoon the ancient portico, and a motorcycle sits beside it. A fleshy nude woman, arse framed by the arch, moons viewers, while a cymbal-holding nymph, breasts upturned, lies on top of the structure. Meanwhile, a cartoon-ish man on the left looks elsewhere as he dances in turquoise jeans and orange socks beneath a floating, seemingly three-dimensional red cloak (reminiscent of Renaissance paintings).
Sharrer's compositions frequently make wry observations about relationships between the sexes. Men and women occupy the same space without truly engaging each other, clothed men humorously remaining oblivious to the proximity of nude women.
Throughout her work, Sharrer includes cryptic bits of personal symbolism such as cigarette butts, one-shoed figures, contorted forks, crockery, birds, and funny small dogs. And everywhere there is intense color used to sensational effect.
The gallery's anteroom offers a number of Sharrer's simple line drawings and a table of books referring to her work. But it is her rapturous paintings, with all their strange yet unified juxtapositions, that seduce the viewer's imagination.
"Humanism and Enigma: The Art of Honoré Sharrer" is on display at the University of Virginia Art Museum through August 20. 155 Rugby Road. 924-3592.


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Do you have something to sell, to rent, any service to offer or a job offer?
Post it at mu.afribaba.com, it is 100% free ✔, local ✔, easy ✔, reliable ✔ and super fast ✔
Sell, Offer, Rent, Bargain, Search, Buy all you want for free. Yes 100% free Port Louis Fashion - Fashion Accessories
Are you looking for a job? Upload your resume online at the Job search section of mu.afribaba.com 100% free.


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Acclaimed writer Scott Snyder's run on Swamp Thing has all come down to this. Swamp Thing #16, released tomorrow, features the conclusion of the "Rotworld" storyline — and you won't believe how jacked up Superman and Batman have gotten.
Check out an exclusive sneak peek of Swamp Thing's darkest hour, below.
Here's how DC describes this issue in its soliciations:
• "ROTWORLD: THE GREEN KINGDOM" races toward its epic conclusion!
• It's Swamp Thing vs. Rotmonster as Superman as Arcane's ultimate plan is revealed!
• What sacrifice must Swamp Thing make to cleanse the Earth of the Rot?
• And what secret did Batman leave behind in the ruins of Gotham City?
Here are the cover and first four pages. Click to embiggen:


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No injury to see here: Johnny Manziel tosses four TD passes
If there was any problem with his throwing shoulder, Johnny Manziel didn't let on Saturday.
One week after banging up his shoulder, the Texas A&M quarterback threw three first quarter TD tosses and finished with 305 yards as the Aggies routed Vanderbilt, 56-24.
MORE: Upsets | Top 25 scores | SEC icons
"In my mind I was always going to play," Manziel told reporters after the win.
In last week's loss to Auburn, Manziel injured his shoulder when he was driven into the ground on a run inside the 10. He left the game, appeared unable to throw the ball on the sideline, but somehow returned to the game and showed no ill effects.
The Aggies were careful with the Heisman Trophy winner this week. They were able to limit his time on the field, too, as he left the game just midway through the third quarter with the game well in hand.
"He practiced yesterday at the walkthrough, which we go about 20-25 minutes," A&M coach Kevin Sumlin said. "Ours is not really a walkthrough but it's a full-speed walkthrough that's not padded. He went through that without any mental errors. Actually got up this morning and was a little sore from that. I was a little concerned with that. We really didn't make a decision until warm-ups.
"People thought I was being coy, we didn't really know."
Manziel finished 25 of 35 for 305 yards, four TDs and one interception.
He hit Derel Walker for a 7-yard score, followed by another 7-yarder to LaQuvionte Gonzalez and his favorite target, Mike Evans, from 43 yards and A&M raced to a 21-0 lead before the first quarter was complete.
Manziel ran the ball just four times—possibly by design to prevent another injury—for 11 yards. He entered the game leading he Aggies with 486 rushing yards.
"It wasn't really in our game plan this week for me to run," Manziel said. "My shoulder is just a little sore. I don't know if it's bruised or what is going on. I knind of got squished when I went down last week against Auburn. It didn't cause me too many problems today, so that was positive."


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So I just found out that Robby Ginepri pulled out of the Tennis Channel Open due to personal reasons. I tried to fish around for more information, but couldn't come up with anything. I should probably respect his privacy, no?
His official website only mentions that he's spending time with his family. And poking around it led me to a profile in Atlanta Peach magazine published in the summer of 2006. (He loves to cook, and owns a tennis club in Atlanta.) The above pic is from that spread. God bless.
thanks to ZooTennis, and to the Ladies at Lady Hooligan for celebrating tennis hotties.
(Edit: some careless coding had put a picture of Marat Safin — also taken from Lady Hooligan — at the top of this post. I've since put it at the bottom of this post [where it should have been all along]. — CBHM)


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Moments ago, Carbonite — a company providing backup software for computers — announced that it will no longer advertise on Rush Limbaugh's show. CEO David Friend made clear in a Facebook statement that, despite Limbaugh's "apology" issued tonight, the company was still pulling its ads because it wants to "contribute to a more civilized public discourse":
No one with daughters the age of Sandra Fluke, and I have two, could possibly abide the insult and abuse heaped upon this courageous and well-intentioned young lady. Mr. Limbaugh, with his highly personal attacks on Miss Fluke, overstepped any reasonable bounds of decency. Even though Mr. Limbaugh has now issued an apology, we have nonetheless decided to withdraw our advertising from his show. We hope that our action, along with the other advertisers who have already withdrawn their ads, will ultimately contribute to a more civilized public discourse.
Indeed, evidencing the point made by Friend, Limbaugh's "apology" is riddled with offensive statements, comparing contraception to "sneakers" and implying that birth control is only a subsidy for personal sexual activity.
According to a ThinkProgress count, Carbonite is the sixth company to drop Limbaugh in the last couple of days. We will continue to keep an updated count HERE.
The Huffington Post notes that AOL — the parent company of HuffPost — has not yet dropped Limbaugh.


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Registration Information
Please visit http://www.wlu.ca/page.php?grp_id=1351&p=20662#Online_Registration_Returning_Students__Fall_2012_Winter__2013 for a detailed listing of registration dates using LORIS depending on your year and faculty.
It is the responsibility of the student to verify his or her registration status online by logging in through the Laurier Online Registration and Information System (LORIS). Details and procedures are available to assist you with your registration.
1. Go to www.mylaurier.ca
During the September to December or January to April terms, you may register for a maximum of 1.5 credits (or the equivalent) during each term as a part-time student.
If you wish to change or add a course, you must use the LORIS system by the appropriate deadline. If you do not have internet access, you must submit your request in writing to the Office of the Registrar. Notice by telephone is not acceptable.
To withdraw from a course, use the LORIS system by the appropriate deadline. If you do not have internet access, inform the Office of the Registrar in writing. Notice by telephone is not acceptable and non-payment of fees or failure to attend lectures does not constitute a withdrawal.
If you wish to withdraw without academic penalty, you must do so using LORIS or in writing before the last day to drop without failure. Please review the section Important Dates to find the information.
Part-time students wishing to request transfer to full-time status must submit a Request for Full-time Studies form to the Office of the Registrar. The form is available from the Office of the Registrar website www.wlu.ca/roforms.
Students registering on a Letter of Permission are required to submit the documents indicated below.
You may check your grades on the Web at any time once they are posted on the Unofficial Record of Course Work. Official grades and academic progression decisions are posted under the term of study (i.e., Winter 2012). For instructions, please see How to Get to LORIS (above).
Academic & Related Dates Spring/Summer 2012
Other Calendars


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September, 2008
To: All Friends and Fans of Peach Belt Conference Institutions
From: David R. Brunk, Commissioner
Re: Conference Sportsmanship Initiative
The Peach Belt Conference is committed to establishing itself as a national leader in intercollegiate athletics, with a strong emphasis on sportsmanship and ethical conduct. The Conference, with the support of the Presidents/Chancellors and athletics administrators at all member institutions, has developed an extensive sportsmanship initiative designed to improve awareness and encourage positive behavior at all athletic events.
This letter is to ask for your assistance in our effort to make the Peach Belt Conference, its member institutions and student-athletes synonymous with class, dignity and honor both on and off the field of play. Your actions, both home and away, are extremely important to the image of your team and your institution. You can have a positive impact on the guests that visit your institution and the experiences of the participating student-athletes. Please adopt a philosophy of respect and responsibility and help your fellow fans do the same.
Thanks for your continued support of the Peach Belt Conference and this very important sportsmanship initiative. It is most appreciated.
The Peach Belt Conference......Where Sportsmanship Matters


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The Accounting Historians Journal Vol. 17, No. 1 June 1990
Dixon Fagerberg, Jr.
Abstract: This article describes the development of a process cost accounting system for a war production plant in 1942. A variety of cost drivers were used for purposes of allocation of overhead. In addition, the role of the cost accountant in the war effort is emphasized.
Although Pearl Harbor and America's declaration of war against the Axis powers was creating tension in the country, my professional life as a CPA in Arizona was relatively normal in the winter of 1941-42. At that time, I heard of a tremendous complex of plants being built nearby for the production of magnesium. The site of the plants was later named Henderson.
Magnesium is the lightest of the metals and has many structural uses when alloyed with zinc, manganese or alumi-num. This plant's output, though, was wanted for its pyrotech-nical qualities in order to manufacture incendiary bombs to be dropped on Germany. The name of the Organization was Basic Magnesium, Incorporated (BMI) and the Defense Plant Corpora-tion was destined to invest some $140 million in the project. Over 7,000 employees were already working feverishly to com-plete the facilities by mid-1942, the date targeted for initial magnesium production.
Everything about the BMI situation intrigued me: its size, its importance, its proximity, and the metal-extractive nature of the underlying production processes. So, with some audacity perhaps, I applied to BMI on January 2, 1942, for the specific task of designing and installing BMI's accounting system. Fol-lowing a drawn-out series of letters and interviews, I was hired and reported for work on May 13, 1942.
Upon reporting for work, I was flabbergasted with the size of it all — not one plant, mind you, but rather 12 or 14 huge, separately structured, facilities in process of construction and machinery installation. As I recall, there were some 300 people


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Best of Summer Code Party: part 2
September 21, 2012 § Leave a comment
Best of Summer Code Party: part 2
September 21, 2012 § Leave a comment
MacArthur Foundation competition winners use Mozilla software to supercharge learning
March 2, 2012 § Leave a comment
The Badges for Lifelong Learning Competition winners were announced yesterday at the Digital Media and Learning Conference in San Francisco. The winners—awarded grants ranging from $25,000 to $175,000 —will use Mozilla's new free and open source "Open Badges" software to issue, manage and display digital badges for learning across the Web.
The competition brought together Web developers, designers and technologists with educators, online learning innovators and collaborators that range from NASA, the U.S. Department of Education and the Girl Scouts of America to Intel, Disney-Pixar and Motorola.
And the winners are…
The Competition was held in collaboration with the Mozilla, and is part of the Digital Media and Learning Competition supported by the MacArthur Foundation and administered by HASTAC. Winners include:
- NASA's Robotics and Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) System will engage learners in exploring new STEM topics and create digital badges for learners of all ages.
- The Disney-Pixar Wilderness Explorers badges will engage youth in nature-based explorations, offering ways to learn about and become advocates for wildlife and wild places.
- The Manufacturing Institute's National Manufacturing badges will recognize the range of skills and achievements workers need to be competitive in today's advanced manufacturing workplace.
- The Young Adult Library Services Association's Badge Program will help librarians develop the skills they need to meet the needs of 21st century teens.
- A complete list of all 30 competition winners is available here
Why digital badges for learning?
Learning today happens everywhere and at every age. But its often difficult to get recognition for learning that happens online or outside of school.
"We believe digital badges have the power to unlock the full educational potential of the Web," said Mark Surman, Executive Director of Mozilla.
"Our goal is to provide a free and open infrastructure that today's award winners—and any organization or community in the world—can use to easily issue and share badges across the web. This will empower learners to take charge of their online identity and reputation, gathering badges from any site on the Internet, and combining them into a single story about what they know and what they have achieved."
Learn more about Mozilla Open Badges for learning
Winding down the Drumbeat.org web site
February 16, 2012 § 5 Comments
TLDR version of this post:
- Later this month, we're going to retire the Drumbeat.org web site.
- This is a function of Mozilla Drumbeat's success. We're taking what worked about Drumbeat and shipping it right into Mozilla. With a laser focus on making and learning: creating great software and resources that build a generation of webmakers.
- If you have an active project or data on Drumbeat.org, you'll want to make other plans. The post linked in the comments below by my colleague, Ross Bruniges, has more details and FAQs. Please get in touch if you have questions.
- We're still sorting out the new brand and online home for our work going forward. ("make.mozilla.org?" "Mozilla Learning?" "Mozilla U?" something else?) In the mean time, check out our Mozilla Webmakers wiki for details on our projects, community calls, and ways to stay in touch.
Drumbeat was so successful, we're shutting it down.
About two years ago, the Mozilla Foundation started experimenting with a set of big ideas, using "Mozilla Drumbeat" as an umbrella brand and laboratory. Our thinking:
- Grow the Mozilla community. In size and diversity.
- Reach out to new audiences. People working in other spaces that matter. Like education, journalism, filmmaking, and youth.
- Collaborate on new projects and software. Lock web developers in a room with these new audiences, shake vigorously, and wait for lightning to strike.
- Work open. Template and package Mozilla's uniquely open way of working along the way.
- Invite the world. Extend that out to anyone who wanted to play.
What worked?
What we've proven together over the last two years is:
- Collaborative innovation really works. Bringing technologists together with innovators in other spaces = win. We brought filmmakers together with developers and got Mozilla Popcorn. We brought educational innovators together with developers and got Mozilla Hackasaurus and Open Badges. Hybrid innovation really works.
- Focusing on learning, media, and youth makes sense. There's broad support for these areas, we're getting traction, and it helps tell a great story about the Mozilla mission. The link between all these areas is empowerment, with the web as a vital public asset for all.
- The world is hungry for Mozilla maker values. At events like the Mozilla Festival, we're getting huge enthusiasm for a) bringing together diverse groups, and b) inviting them to make and learn together. "More hack, less yack." People are tired of "blah blah blah" — they love Mozilla's hands-on, "let's build stuff" ethic.
What didn't?
- Trying to support a million different projects. By inviting the whole world to set up a project on Drumbeat.org, we spread ourselves thin and created too much noise to signal (not to mention spam!). And we didn't provide value to these projects they couldn't find elsewhere on the web. It was a great starting point, but as Drumbeat.org users told us in our survey, we need to focus on doing a small number of projects well.
- Trying to over-engineer Mozilla's way of working. We thought that creating project pages and activity streams could help projects get a leg up and go faster. It didn't. There's (probably) no magic template or piece of software that helps projects work open. Ultimately, that's more of a culture and know-how problem than a technology problem.
What's next?
- Winding down the Drumbeat brand and web site. Shipping what worked right into the core of Mozilla. Phasing out the Drumbeat brand.
- Focusing on software and learning for webmakers. That's the thread that connects our most successful projects. It means delivering great authoring and learning tools (like Mozilla Popcorn, X-Ray Goggles and Open Badges), resources (like an expanded version of our Hacktivity Kit), plus great events and global community. From the yearly Mozilla Festival, to hackfests and learning labs, to mini webmaker meet-ups around the world.
- Finalizing the best way to brand all this. We've been doing a lot of work on this, and hope to have a finalized proposal ready to share soon. The key will be keeping it simple, telegraphic, and part of a larger brand architecture for "One Mozilla." Please drop in to one of our weekly community calls if you have ideas or questions.
- Launch a new web site in Q2. A simple site that helps tell our new story, guiding audiences to the specific pieces they're looking for. We already have web sites for our various individual projects, so this will be a thin, audience-focused layer that helps bring the pieces together. Ross Bruniges is helping to lead this work — please get in touch here if you're interested in contributing. Or check our Mozilla Webmakers wiki in the mean time.
What are we working on this week? Roadmaps, Tow Trucks and love bombs
February 14, 2012 § Leave a comment
Mozilla Webmaker weekly update for Feb 14, 2012
Getting practical on webmakers
This post from Mozilla's Executive Director Mark Surman ties together the various roadmaps and blog posts now underway, tying them back to our overall goals for the year.
Next steps: getting our roadmaps added to the main Mozilla roadmap wiki. Plus better participation in the weekly Mozilla All Hands updates.
Mozilla events menu and strategy
Michelle Thorne continues to test and simplify her event menu, working with Ben Simon on how we can create a scalable, self-organized model for events to take over the world. More on Mozilla Webmaker events:
- Mozilla Event Menu: Testing Continues
- Feature requests for webmakers (more about event platforms)
- Mozilla Popcorn Hack Jams
Tow Truck Demo
Simon Wex presented an outstanding demo of "Tow Truck," an educational HTML/CSS/JavaScript collaborative editor. Check out the prototype screencast. It kinda reminded us of the "hack battle" prototype from November's Mozilla Festival, which shows Mozilla X-Ray Goggle hacks as movies.
Knight-Mozilla OpenNews news
@OpenNews is now the default Twitter account for the Knight-Mozilla Open News project.
The "Webmaking 101 for Journalists" sprint this week in NYC was a big success. Read all about it in Jess Klein's week-in-review blog post. Plus more detail here, here and here. The Open News team wants to sponsor journalism hack days with YOU — so let us know what you're up to here.
Mozilla Popcorn roadmap, heatmap and upcoming fireside chat
How can Mozilla Popcorn serve as a starting point for deeper webmaking skills? The Popcorn team is looking for feedback on these user stories.
Bobby Richter is also looking for feedback on the developer "heat map" he developed to see where work load falls with each new release of Popcorn. The Popcorn team is also planning a special online fireside chat later this month to discuss their user stories and roadmap — look for a date and details on that soon.
Mozilla Hive Toronto Pop-up on Saturday
- Got kids in Toronto? Want them to learn how to hack? Sign them up free here.
- If you can come and volunteer (even for a few hours), please sign up as a volunteer
- If you're coming as a volunteer, please bring a laptop and flipcam or digital camera. On an ongoing basis, we'll need access to laptops that we can use for more of these Mozilla events. Let us know as a comment here if you have suggestions.
Software Carpentry in 90 seconds
Software Carpentry's mission: help scientists be more productive by teaching them basic computing skills. The project is looking for help and ideas in three key areas:
- 1) Volunteer developers to model their work. We'd like to screencast developers' desktop as they code and work, so learners can see what they do.
- 2) What happens after the workshops? Where do participants land after the intro workshop? This is a common challenge across our projects — see Greg's proposal in this "Stack Underflow" post.
- 3) Evaluation. How do we demonstrate impact? We need a way to make a case in terms that a prof or lab director relates to.
Africa Open Days
Africa Open Days is an event designed to help in explaining, encouraging and promoting the use of open source tools. It's the first of its kind in Africa. Check out the wiki and get involved here.
Love bomb blitz
It's Valentine's Day. Why not take a moment to send a love bomb to someone you love?
Upcoming events
- February 13-17: Open Badges Sprint (NYC)
If you are in NYC and want to participate, get in touch with Mozilla's Sunny Lee
- February 15: Connexions Conference (Houston / Rice University)
Mozilla's Open Badges project will be there
- February 18: Hive Pop-Up Toronto Hackjam for youth
Hosted by Mozilla Toronto (see above)
NEW DATE and TIME: Teaching the fourth 'R': a fireside chat with Cathy Davidson
February 10, 2012 § 1 Comment
Technical difficulties last time around forced us to reschedule this event. Please join us on our new date and time:
A virtual "fireside chat" with author Cathy Davidson:
Thursday, Feb 16 | 1pm PST / 4pm EST
Sign up on Lanyrd here
How do we teach the web?
You've heard of "the three 'R's:" reading, writing and 'rithmetic.
But author and noted academic Cathy Davidson says the 21st Century demands a fourth: "algoRithms," as in the underlying threads and logic that shape our digital lives.
More than just "teaching people how to code," Cathy sees "algorhtmic thinking" and webmaking as a vital antidote to the passive, assembly line model that still dominates most traditional education.
"Algorithmic thinking:" iterative, process-oriented, constructive
As Cathy argues recently in the Washington Post and in her most recent DML blog post:
We need to reform our learning institutions, concepts, and modes of assessment for our age. Now, anyone with access to the World Wide Web can go far beyond the passive consumer model to contribute content on the Web…. That Do-It-Yourself potential for connected, participatory, improvisational learning requires new skills, what many are calling new "literacies."
Like other literacies, algorithmic thinking is foundational, "a set of rules that precisely defines a sequence of operations." She sees it as the opposite of the "bubble-thinking" ingrained through decades of highly standardized, multiple choice tests. "It provides an alternative to fact-based mastery and proposes, instead, iterative, process-oriented, constructive, innovative thinking."
What is marvelous about algorithmic thinking and Webmaking is that you can actually see abstract thinking transformed into your own customized multimedia stories on the Web, offered to a community, and therefore contributing to the Web. Algorithmic thinking is less about "learning code" than "learning to code." Code is never finished, it is always in process, something you build on and, in many situations, that you build together with others. Answers aren't simply "right" guesses among pre-determined choices, but puzzles to be worked over, improved, and adapted for the next situation, the next iteration.
Mozilla's Michelle Levesque: "Teaching algorithmic thinking"
In her own blog post response to Cathy's argument, Mozilla's Michelle Levesque considers how we can put Cathy's principles into practice here at Mozilla, as we focus on creating tools and resources for a new generation of webmakers. Michelle will join Cathy to discuss how we can all work together to create a more web literate planet. We hope you'll join us!
This Valentine's Day, drop a love bomb on someone you love
February 9, 2012 § 2 Comments
Here at Mozilla, we like to drop "love bombs" on our favorite friends and colleagues. To reward great work and show we care.
The good folks at the Mozilla Hackasaurus team have taken it a giant step further. As part of their ongoing mission to make webmaking fun and easy for the planet, they've created this lovely "Love Bomb Builder" protototype. Making and sending hand-crafted love bombs has never been simpler! (See Jess Klein's "On Inspiration and Lovebombs.")
How does it work?
Simple! Choose a template, say a little about who and why the love bomb is for, then fire away! Your mom, dogwalker or special someone can click on the link you send them for a lovely digital token of your affection — lovingly handcrafted in HTML and CSS. I got one from my wife the other day, and it made me blush.
WARNING: Love Bomb Builder is an early prototype and still a little rough around the edges. May prematurely detonate. May cause blushing and/or spontaneous emotional combustion. No webmakers were harmed in the creation of said love bombs.
Some samples of what your customizable love bomb can look like:
- Atul's love bomb to Tim Berners Lee for creating the world wide web.
- A fist bump for Vint Cerf for thinkin' up the whole "open Internet" thing.
- A wrestler mask for Madonna. Cuz she'd look great in one!
So what are you waiting for? Go make one now and send it your geekiest Valentine!


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Plaza Mayor square in Graus
Graus offers the traveller a city centre filled with historic vestiges. This was the town where Joaquin Costa, a distinguished intellectual, was born and died. The most important festivities in Graus, declared of national tourist interest, are held from the 12th to the 15th of September, honouring Santo Cristo and San Vicente Ferrer. The village is internationally renowned because of its truffle industry. In addition, several fairs and trade shows take place throughout the year, as they have for centuries. To speak of the local architecture, we must begin by mentioning the basilica of Virgen de la Peña, which is sheltered by the Morral crag, and dominates the whole town. Construction work for this building began in 1538, its most remarkable features being its beautiful Renaissance main front, and a graceful gallery that offers a great view of the city centre. The latter has several interesting sites, such as the main square, or Plaza Mayor, where the town hall is located, as well as other buildings with lively, Neoclassical-style mural paintings. At the popular district of Barrichós, the oldest quarter in town, on Coreche square, we find ancestral homes such as the houses of Mur and Solana, both from the 16th century. Towards the end of this quarter we find the gates to the ancient walled enclosure, built in 1589. We must also point out the parish church of San Miguel, originally a Romanesque building, although numerous, successive remodelling work considerably altered its appearance. Inside we can find interesting Gothic panels from the second half of the 15th century.


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30 3d Real Estate icons set in PSD and PNG formats.
Set contains 30 real estate 3d icons in PSD format, each icon in two resolutions – 128×128px and 32×32px. In addition, each icon saved as a separate transparent PNG for both resoluions.
Features: Fully editable PSD files with shape layers. Layers named and organized 30×2 items – 128×128px and 32×32px for each icon.
Fonts used: Arial Regular – http://www.fonts.com/font/monotype-imaging/arial/regular


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The Ultimate Guide to Dropshipping
Looking to build a successful online business? This comprehensive guide covers everything you need to know about running a dropshipping business.Start reading
11 chapters
1. Understanding Dropshipping8 min
Dropshipping is a retail fulfillment method where a store doesn't keep the products it sells in stock. Read the Ultimate Dropshipping Guide and learn more.
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Read the Ultimate Dropshipping Guide and understand the in's and out's of supply chain and fulfillment in the drop shipping industry.
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Finding and working with dropship suppliers can be complicated. Read Chapter 3 of the Ultimate Dropshipping Guide to learn more about drop ship wholesalers.
4. Picking Products to Dropship17 min
Read Chapter 4 of the Ultimate Dropshipping Guide and learn how to choose the perfect drop shipping products. Learn to drop ship products easily!
5. Starting Your Business6 min
Learn how to start a dropshipping business with the Ultimate Dropshipping Guide. We go through it all in this FREE 8 Chapter Guide.
6. Evaluating Sales Channels4 min
Learn the pro's and con's of dropshipping on ebay, amazon or your online store. Before you start your drop ship business, evaluate your sales channels.
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This guide covers the in's and out's of the dropshipping industry. The information in this drop ship guide could save you weeks of wasted time and frustration.
8. The Key Elements of Success6 min
Discover everything from the fundamentals of drop shipping to the intricacies of picking a niche and running your business.
9. Glossary13 min
We use a lot of dropshipping related terms you may not be familiar with in this guide, so here are some simple definitions to help you out.
10. Infographic1 min
The Ultimate Drop Shipping Infographic! See at a glance what Drop shipping is and what it can do for your online business.
11. About the Authors1 min
About the AuthorsAndrew YouderianAndrew quit his job in corporate finance to launch his first drop shipping business in 2008. He's been a full-tim...
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|About this Web Site: A Disclaimer
While we make every effort to provide information from sources we consider reliable, we do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of information contained in this site. This information is subject to change without notice and the Power Authority disclaims any liability for any errors or omissions.
We provide links to other, outside web sites we think may be useful to our users. We have no control over these third-party sites and we do not assume responsibility for their content or endorse them.
Thank you for visiting our web site.
Copyright © 1996-2013 New York Power Authority


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Welcome to Bubble Tubs!
Bubble Tubs for Dogs was established in 2003 to create a high quality, professional grooming experience for you and your dog. We groom all types, sizes, pure breeds, and mixed breeds. We strive to meet your expectations and your dog's specific needs.
Our team of professionals takes great pride in providing your dog with a comfortable grooming experience. We use only high quality skin care products, and we will inform you of any health concerns that we may find during the grooming process. Each of the team members at Bubble Tubs for Dogs has a true passion for dogs. We love what we do and hope that you will find comfort in trusting our ability to care for your dog as if they were one of our own.


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Artist description:
On a twig and a prayer.
Java Draw Created Nov 16, 2012 640 x 460px Unless noted Copyright 2012 tytto.
We encourage you to submit a comment and let the artist know what you think of this drawing. Please log in or join to post a comment.
Post a comment
lovely bird.. and atmosphere
So Tweet! Love this little one,,, the style and technique are so soft and subtle,, great work,,
so cute
beautiful! 5h collect
Great draw! 5h Favs
Awwww such a sweet drawing!
soooooo cute the birdie looks, all fluffed up.! love it ! 5/5 h
Wonderful, Liisa!!!! Sometimes only the prayer holds that twig!!! Love it!!! :-D
soooooo beautifullllllllllllll.5/5.
i love the color of this lisa... the oranges are so warm and soft lovely bird


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I guess you could say I'm floating. :) So here's my bid for promotion.
BRASS BALLS, by @MiaWatts
CATEGORY: Contemporary Erotic Romance, Male/Male, Handcuffs and Lace.
LENGTH: Novella
Handcuffs and Lace Series
Kissing a fellow police officer might not have been the smartest drunken move Oak Takala has made in recent years. Okay, and it might have complicated the issue that the officer in question is his father's former partner, Wyatt Peterman. Aaaaaand there's the fact that Peterman is the newly appointed precinct captain.
So what the fuck? Why not go balls to the wall and make a play no one will forget?
"Fuck, the new captain is here," Detective Sommerset declared, choking on his beer. It sloshed as he whipped it away from his mouth and slammed it on the table a little too hard.
Oak Takala snorted. He mentally struck the verbal comma and "is here". His body was already on board with the idea of fucking the new captain. He glanced over his shoulder as the bar erupted with cheers.
"And the old one," a familiar voice said near Oak.
A heavy hand fell on Oak's shoulder. He turned around and grabbed his old man in a half hug. They pounded each other's backs in the time old tradition of rough men showing rough affection in public.
"Hey, dad. Thought you'd ring in the new regime with the guys?" Oak asked.
Former Captain of Police, now voice of the local tribe, John Takala grinned broadly. "You know it. I'm just glad the powers-that-be took my recommendation seriously. Wyatt Peterman's been an asset to the department since he partnered with me as a detective."
"I'm just glad they chose another guy from our precinct instead of bringing in new blood who doesn't know us. Means we're doing something right," Oak added.
His father squeezed his shoulder. "Means I'm doing something right that they took my recommendation."
"So what's your new position like, Cap—Geez, what the hell do I call you now? Mister Takala?" Sommerset wondered.
"Yep, that's all I am now. A civie. The only captain Takala will be my son when Peterman resigns."
"No pressure," Oak noted.
"He's gotta be as good as his old man, first." The new voice sent a hot crawl down Oak's spine.
"Captain Peterman, speak of the devil," Oak's dad did the back-clapping thing with his former partner.
They laughed. John lifted Oak's beer as though it was his own and shouted a toast to the bar filled with off-duty cops. They hoisted their mugs and guzzled amber fluid in deep draining pulls amidst joyful shouts.
Oak tried not to look at the captain out of the corner of his eye, but the man had so much charisma that it grabbed hold of Oak's attention with invisible fists. Determined not to notice, Oak rescued his beer and drained the contents.
"Whoa! Slow down there, partner. You're supposed to be my designated driver," Sommerset complained. "I've had way too many to take the wheel, and you just downed a second pint."
Oak stared into the thread foam at the base of his mug. "I think it's my first."
"No way. Chuckie bought you a second round just before Peterman got here."
"Captain Peterman," both John and Wyatt said at the same time.
"Aw, c'mon, we're off the clock," Sommerset teased.
"Not when it comes to seniority," John corrected.
"Fine, fine, but he's had two beers." Sommerset faced Oak. "You weren't gonna drink Chuckie's."
"I forgot." He had forgotten. Wyatt Peterman, Captain Wyatt Peterman, could make him forget his fucking name if he wanted to. It took a look, a smile, a hit to the chest of the man's deep laugh and deeper dimples, to make Oak go completely tongue-tied.
Another beer appeared in front of him. He stared at it.
"Don't even think about it, man." Sommerset was already claiming the frothy mug.
Oak wrapped his hand around it to stop him. Sommerset's smile disappeared. "Seriously. You can't drive as it is. Neither can I."
"I know. We'll walk," Oak decided.
"I'll drive you," Captain Peterman said.
"He's my kid. I'll take them both home," John protested.
Peterman shouldered in to the bar table they stood around. "You and I both know that even off the clock, I can't throw back beers with the guys. I can't be one of them anymore."
Oak could hear the smile in Peterman's voice, and he resisted the urge to look, choosing to take a long drink of his draft.
"The three of you will have to drink my beers for me, and I'll drive you all home," the captain finished.
Four fresh mugs appeared on the table. Oak was shocked to see the beer he'd been holding was now empty. He reached for his fourth mug. There were perks to being the former captain's kid and the new captain's friend.
There was also a shit-ton of disadvantages. Especially when you lusted after your dad's former partner. It had been bad enough wanting Peterman when he came over to the house for dinner, during Oak's teen years and not being able to do anything about it.
Then there was growing up and joining the force. More than just his dad's partner, he became inter-office taboo. But no, why stop there? Why not promote the object of his desires right into the most unobtainable position on the planet—oh, say, captain—and put him in the same office day in and day out where Oak couldn't help but see him. And it wasn't as if a captain ever left the office. No, he was there overseeing. It fucking increased the hours in a day Oak had to pretend the man didn't turn every one of his hormones into raging drones drawn to the cliff of self-destruction.
Kill him now. Just kill him now. God, his life sucked. Maybe he should put in for a transfer.
"Take it easy, kid. I think you've already reached your limit," Peterman told Oak.
Peterman's upper arm brushed Oak's shoulder. Oak bit back a groan behind the rim of his mug. A warm hand closed over his and pushed the mug to the tabletop. He made the mistake of looking up into Wyatt's dark blue eyes. Since when had the captain grown fuzzy eyes and a halo around his head? He reached a hand up to touch the halo and patted Peterman's head instead.
"Slow down. There isn't a race to drain the tap," Peterman murmured only loud enough for him.
Ah, but Peterman didn't realize that there was a race for drowning his libido before it took a turn he couldn't come back from. "I know what I'm doing," Oak slurred.
"Sure, ya do."
He swung his head around. The room took a minute to settle. "Hey. Where'd dad go?"
"He's in the john," Sommerset told him. He giggled madly. "John's in the john. God, that's funny shit right there." He laughed harder. "Shit! Ha! Funny shit in the john where John is. I'm a fucking comedian."
"Right, it's time to go, boys."
"Not done, boss," Oak argued.
"You're not only done, you're roasted and served up in beer sauce."
Oak smirked. "Maybe you've had too much to drink too."
"Not a sip." Peterman grabbed the upper arms of both men. "Let's go before you find a way to call in sick tomorrow."
"I have days saved up," Oak told him.
"So you're going to call in and leave your partner without a wingman because you drank like a fish one night? You aren't who I thought you were," Peterman countered.
"Yeah." Bright words of wisdom from Sommerset.
"What—I mean, who—did you think I was?"
Peterman spared him a look as he manhandled them through the crowd and into the cooler night air of the parking lot. "An officer."
"Pfft. That's a given captain. I have a badge and everything. It's super shiny."
"Mine is too," Sommerset chimed in.
"Fantastic. Neither of you can hold your liquor, and now I'm going to have two of the three stooges in my backseat."
"How 'bout you join me in the back seat, hm?" Oak wasn't positive, but he had the sinking suspicion that he'd regret that offer tomorrow. He ran the words over in his inebriated mind. Nope, they sounded good. Really, really good. Think of all the things they could do in the backseat of Peterman's car.
"Who'd drive you home if we were all in the backseat?"
"You missed the point completely," Oak complained.
"No, I don't think I did."
He shoved Sommerset into the backseat, policeman style with his hand on his head to keep Sommerset from bumping it on the way in. Sommerset sprawled, laughing as the door closed behind him. He maneuvered Oak to the other side.
"What? You get me drunk, and I don't even get a goodnight kiss?" Oak asked feeling a little sloppy. The captain wasn't standing still, was he? It was hard to tell. He glared at Oak for several seconds, letting Oak's request sink into his own head. Oak slapped a hand over his mouth. Oh shit, he knew that one would haunt him later. That's why he started laughing. Of course, that was why he was laughing and not because he'd just come out of the closet to his captain in a big way.
"Yeah, that's what I thought. Get in."


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House Dillon
SwiftVision Supplemental Materials
Posted by hpux735 in Uncategorized on April 9, 2016
Swift Vision
Recently, I posted a "short" video about the CM5 lights and transcribing their states automatically in Swift. Here is a link to the github repository. I've just committed an update that includes and enables "Mode 5" of the LED panel, in addition to the "Mode 7" that I had before.
For fun, here's a new histogram of the mode 5 video, which I captured on an iPad.
Also, the timeline for mode 5 (really more a function of the lighting and ipad)
What I'm sure iskunk and Mark are really after is the transcribed animation steps:
Mode 5
64-bit userspace on Nvidia TX1
I've been having trouble getting a 64-bit userspace up on the Nvidia TX1 (Linux4Tegra uses 32-bit), so I thought I'd share my progress and steps.
See the end of this post for a comment about how I actually got this working. These instructions don't work as they are, but I'm leaving them here for posterity.
To begin with, I use Debian (or Ubuntu, or whatever) for most of my work, so that's what this guide will be based on. Also, you'll need to have another drive to use with your TX1. Linux4Tegra (L4T) will be installed on the on-board MMC device, and we'll be installing Debian Sid on the other drive.
You'll need to copy the extensive partition scheme that Nvidia builds on the MMC (there's something like 8-9 partitions) onto your target drive. I do this by dd'ing the entire MMC onto the target
sudo dd if=/dev/mmcblk0 of=/dev/mmcblk1 bs=4096
Then we need to mount the root filesystem on the target device somewhere
sudo mkdir /mnt/rootfs
sudo mkfs.ext3 /dev/mmcblk1p1
sudo mount /dev/mmcblk1p1 /mnt/rootfs
Debootstrap will do the work of making the new (very minimal) root filesystem. It's very important to include the –arch flag, otherwise the bootstrap process will generate a rootfs using armhf, and we'll be stuck with a 32-bit userspace again.
sudo apt-get install debootstrap
sudo debootstrap --arch=arm64 sid /mnt/rootfs http://debian.osuosl.org/debian
As I said the rootfs will be VERY minimal, so we need to install tons of important stuff, including locales, keyboard maps, ssh server, etc… But, before we do that we have to chroot into the new rootfs:
sudo mount -o rbind /dev rootfs/dev
sudo mount -t proc none rootfs/proc
sudo mount -o bind /sys rootfs/sys
sudo chroot rootfs /bin/bash
source /etc/profile
apt-get update
apt-get install ssh openssh-server make gcc libncurses5-dev bc locales
dpkg-reconfigure locales
Then, we need to add information about the network interface to /etc/network/interfaces:
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
The current linux-upstream kernel has support (though apparently, rudimentary) for the TX1. This should obviate the need for the binaries supplied with L4T. So, let's clone the kernel repo and build one.
cd /usr/src
git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/next/linux-next.git linux-next
cd linux-next
cp /proc/config.gz ./
gunzip config.gz
cp config .config
make oldconfig (press enter until it's done)
make menuconfig
(in General Setup, select "open by fhandle syscalls")
(in Drivers->General, delete all the extra firmware names listed)
cp build
Next, we have to copy the entry that selects the boot mode in /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf and edit it to select our new rootfs. We'll leave the old one there so we can swift back and forth. This is especially helpful if something breaks.
LABEL debian
MENU LABEL debian kernel
LINUX /boot/Image-next
FDT /boot/tegra210-p2371-2180.dtb
APPEND fbcon=map:0 console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200n8 tegraid=220.127.116.11.0 ddr_die=2048M@2048M ddr_die=2048M@4096M section=256M memtype=0 vpr_resize usb_port_owner_info=0 lane_owner_info=0 emc_max_dvfs=0 touch_id=0@63 video=tegrafb no_console_suspend=1 debug_uartport=lsport,0 earlyprintk=uart8250-32bit,0x70006000 maxcpus=4 usbcore.old_scheme_first=1 lp0_vec=${lp0_vec} nvdumper_reserved=${nvdumper_reserved} core_edp_mv=1125 core_edp_ma=4000 gpt root=/dev/mmcblk1p1 rw rootwait
The last thing to do in the chroot is to set the root password to something, and allow (for now, change it later!!) root login over ssh:
vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config
PermitRootLogin yes
Now, we need to really dive into to some somewhat painful work. We have to setup a serial console onto the board, and have another computer (specifically a x86-64 machine running Ubuntu 14.04) to run the L4T apply_binaries.sh tool. First, the serial port connection is explained at elinux. Then, you need open a serial terminal to the board with 115200 baud. Once that's done, reboot the board, and prevent u-boot from autobooting. In the uboot console, enable the USB Mass Storage mode:
Tegra210 (P2371-2180) # ums 0 mmc 1
UMS: disk start sector: 0x0, count: 0x39f0000
Then, with the usb cable connected from the TX1 to your x86-64 box run apply_binaries.sh:
sudo mount /dev/sdg1 /mnt/rootfs/
sudo LDK_ROOTFS_DIR=/mnt/rootfs ./apply_binaries.sh
sudo umount /mnt/rootfs
The problem I've been having is that the USB keyboard that I have doesn't work on the console. It's obviously a HUGE bummer to not be able to login to a machine using the console. 🙁
I ended up following these instructions to net-install debian arm64 on my SD card. The limitation here is that most of the things that makes this an Nvidia device (GPU, CUDA, etc) don't work. For my needs, I only want a Arm64 to work on a Swift port, so I don't care.
Getting started with Swift and Raspi V.2
Posted by hpux735 in Uncategorized on January 8, 2016
While progress with Swift on ARM has been very encouraging, there have been a few reports of people having trouble with it. This post is intended to be a step-by-step, starting with a brand-new Raspberry Pi version 2 and a freshly-made Raspian image (note that other distributions might work, I've only verified raspian).
Setup the raspberry pi
I expect that you can ssh to your raspberry pi (hereto referred to as raspi), and that you've run the raspi-config utility.
First, you need to expand the range of debian repositories in order to access the required prerequisites. To do that, edit /etc/apt/sources.list:
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
and uncomment the last line in the file, which should look like this:
deb-src http://archive.raspbian.org/raspbian/ jessie main contrib non-free rpi
Then, you'll need to update your repositories.
sudo apt-get update
Install prerequisite software
Once that's complete, install clang
sudo apt-get install clang
Option 1: install from tarball
A tar of the swift installation (usually more up to date) is available from my website. You can install this in either your system root, or from another directory. I do all of my testing with it installed in the system root, and therefore things are more likely to work. However, you're putting your system at more risk by doing that. Keep in mind, though, that you're playing around with alpha-level software on your <$100 computer… YOLO.
cd / sudo wget http://housedillon.com/other/swift-armv7.tar.gz sudo tar -xzpf swift-armv7.tar.gz rm swift-armv7.tar.gz
Option 2: install with Joe Bell's repo
Joe @iachievedit did a fantastic job creating a debian repository for the swift compiler and tools, and he's hosting it in an amazon aws instance. Taking this route has some huge advantages. First among them is that they're only updated when things are stable-ish. The version hosted at my website can change frequently, and it might even be completely broken!
Now, assuming that everything went according to plan, you should be able to compile programs written in swift. Also, you should be able to use glibc and Foundation.
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ cat hello.swift import Glibc import Foundation let now = NSDate() print("Hello world at \(now)") pi@raspberrypi:~ $ swiftc hello.swift pi@raspberrypi:~ $ ./hello Hello world at 2016-01-09 05:36:31 +0000 pi@raspberrypi:~ $ uname -a Linux raspberrypi 4.1.13-v7+ #826 SMP PREEMPT Fri Nov 13 20:19:03 GMT 2015 armv7l GNU/Linux
Not so fast
Ok, so there are some caveats. For one, it seems like the REPL is kinda broken on the Raspi v.2. Joe noticed this, too. I'm not sure what the root cause is for this one. It works on the original raspberry pi (armv6), and it works on the Beaglebone Black and Nvidia Tegra (armv7).
Also, things are very alpha-level, so expect the unexpected.
Swift available for Beaglebone/RasPi
I was able to succeed in building Swift and Foundation for Ubuntu on ARMv7. This includes the Beagle Bone/Board, the Raspberry Pi, Tegra TK1, Cubox, and so much more…
This is more-or-less alpha-level at this point, but you should be able to compile and run basic swift programs that use the standard library, Glibc, or Foundation. Keep in mind that, even for x86_64, Foundation is far from complete.
To install, you can either un-tar in your root directory (which will install into /usr) or, create a new directory in /opt (for example /opt/apple, or /opt/swift) and update your paths. If you choose to install into /usr you're running a much greater risk to your system, and you had better be willing to re-install if from scratch!! 🙂
Once it's installed, give swiftc a try:
wdillon@arm:~$ cat hello.swift print("Hello world!") wdillon@arm:~$ swiftc hello.swift wdillon@arm:~$ ./hello Hello world! wdillon@arm:~$ uname -a Linux arm 4.1.12-ti-r29 #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Nov 10 00:38:08 UTC 2015 armv7l armv7l armv7l GNU/Linux wdillon@arm:~$
You can download the file here.
If you want to contribute to the effort, there are still a few tests that fail in stdlib that could be addressed, the swift package manager still doesn't work, lldb doesn't work, Foundation isn't finished, and it would probably be pretty great to have swift wrappers for GPIO pins and peripherals (such as SPI, I2C, etc.)
Building open source Swift on ARMv7
Apple recently open sourced their Swift language and compiler. I'm pretty excited about this (huge Swift fan), and I wanted t project to help motivate me to dig in. I also do a lot of work with embedded linux at work, so I'm eager to use this great language there, too. So, I found an existing feature request in the issue tracker that Apple set up for swift. I was pleased that they had already given it 'medium' priority, but I know that if you want something to happen sooner than later, you should just start working on it.
I've done enough linux work that I know that if you start deviating from the officially supported distro. you start making work for yourself pretty quickly, so I decided to limit myself to only ARMv7 systems that I can get a Ubuntu 14.04 image for. In my case that was a BeagleBone Black (BBB) and a Nvidia Tegra TK1. If you can, go with the Nvidia every time (The TX1 has 3GB of RAM). It's much faster, and has 2GB of RAM to the BBB's 512MB. Whatever amount of RAM you have (less than probably 16GB), you'll need to setup some swap space. Also, depending on whether you're using a SD card, you might need to set aside at least 8GB of space to store the source and build products.
To begin with, we need to understand the build process. Apple's documentation makes it plain that you should use the utils/build-script script to build, and that any processes outside of that system aren't supported:
For all automated build environments, this tool is regarded as *the* *only* way to build Swift. This is not a technical limitation of the Swift build system. It is a policy decision aimed at making the builds uniform across all environments and easily reproducible by engineers who are not familiar with the details of the setups of other systems or automated environments.
This script is responsible for parsing the arguments presented on the command line, printing help text, making build directories, and a prepares things for utils/build-script-impl. A read through it yields no information about architectures at all, so we move on to build-script-impl.
Most of the real work occurs in build-scipt-impl. Right away, we're presented with architecture specific parts.
This line sets a variable that will eventually tell the LLVM build process (several packages need to build to support Swift. One of those is LLVM, another is Clang) which architectures it should be able to generate machine code for.
This script is a little hard to follow because it's well over 1000 LOC, and there are functions mixed in with top level code. In this section, I'll trace the execution of the file rather than file order. I'll also omit anything that doesn't have a bearing on target/host architecture.
# A list of deployment targets to compile the Swift host tools for, in cases # where we can run the resulting binaries natively on the build machine. NATIVE_TOOLS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGETS=() # A list of deployment targets to cross-compile the Swift host tools for. # We can't run the resulting binaries on the build machine. CROSS_TOOLS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGETS=() # Determine the native deployment target for the build machine, that will be # used to jumpstart the standard library build when cross-compiling. case "$(uname -s -m)" in Linux\ x86_64) NATIVE_TOOLS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGETS=("linux-x86_64") ;; Linux\ armv7*) NATIVE_TOOLS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGETS=("linux-armv7") ;; Linux\ aarch64) NATIVE_TOOLS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGETS=("linux-aarch64") ;; Darwin\ x86_64) NATIVE_TOOLS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGETS=("macosx-x86_64") ;; FreeBSD\ x86_64) NATIVE_TOOLS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGETS=("freebsd-x86_64") ;; *) echo "Unknown operating system" exit 1 ;; esac
This section of code determines what the native platform is, both in terms of OS and architecture. The native tools deployment targets is an array of native targets. This could be something like building for multiple arm targets that (may) be binary compatible, like different hard(or soft)-float versions. The case block matches on the results of uname -s -m, which on most ARM platforms will return something like this: "Linux armv7l". You'll almost always see the 'l' after armv7. We don't want to be that specific, so we'll match just the armv7 part. The cross tools deployment targets variable is used to specify the cross compilers that should be built. However, we can't just put "linux-armv7" into this list to build a cross compiler, not yet anyway:
# Sanitize the list of cross-compilation targets. for t in ${CROSS_COMPILE_TOOLS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGETS} ; do case ${t} in iphonesimulator-i386 | iphonesimulator-x86_64 | \ iphoneos-arm64 | iphoneos-armv7 | \ appletvos-arm64 | appletvsimulator-x86_64 | \ watchos-armv7k | watchsimulator-i386) CROSS_TOOLS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGETS=( "${CROSS_TOOLS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGETS[@]}" "${t}" ) ;; *) echo "Unknown deployment target" exit 1 ;; esac done
This code will trap on any entry in that array that isn't in the list above. It would probably be possible to add linux targets there eventually, but for now let's move on. I want a native compiler for ARM, not a cross compiler. The next thing that we come across is the determination of the platform for which we want the stdlib built for. This case, like the prior one, matches on armv7, and ignores the suffix.
# A list of deployment targets that we compile or cross-compile the # Swift standard library for. STDLIB_DEPLOYMENT_TARGETS=() case "$(uname -s -m)" in Linux\ x86_64) STDLIB_DEPLOYMENT_TARGETS=("linux-x86_64") ;; Linux\ armv7*) STDLIB_DEPLOYMENT_TARGETS=("linux-armv7") ;; Linux\ aarch64) STDLIB_DEPLOYMENT_TARGETS=("linux-aarch64") ;; Darwin\ x86_64) STDLIB_DEPLOYMENT_TARGETS=( "macosx-x86_64" "iphonesimulator-i386" "iphonesimulator-x86_64" "appletvsimulator-x86_64" "watchsimulator-i386" # Put iOS native targets last so that we test them last # (it takes a long time). "iphoneos-arm64" "iphoneos-armv7" "appletvos-arm64" "watchos-armv7k" ) ;; FreeBSD\ x86_64) STDLIB_DEPLOYMENT_TARGETS=("freebsd-x86_64") ;; *) echo "Unknown operating system" exit 1 ;; esac
After skipping lots more functions, we come across the meat of the process.
# # Configure and build each product # # Start with native deployment targets because the resulting tools # are used during cross-compilation. for deployment_target in "${NATIVE_TOOLS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGETS[@]}" \ "${CROSS_TOOLS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGETS[@]}"; do set_deployment_target_based_options # ... skipped compile option flag management ... # Build. done function set_deployment_target_based_options() { llvm_cmake_options=() swift_cmake_options=() cmark_cmake_options=() swiftpm_bootstrap_options=() case $deployment_target in linux-x86_64) SWIFT_HOST_VARIANT_ARCH="x86_64" ;; linux-armv7) SWIFT_HOST_VARIANT_ARCH="armv7" ;; linux-aarch64) SWIFT_HOST_VARIANT_ARCH="aarch64" ;; freebsd-x86_64) SWIFT_HOST_VARIANT_ARCH="x86_64" ;; macosx-* | iphoneos-* | iphonesimulator-* | \ appletvos-* | appletvsimulator-* | \ watchos-* | watchsimulator-*) # ... snipped tons of cross-compile for Apple devices stuff ... *) echo "Unknown compiler deployment target: $deployment_target" exit 1 ;; esac }
The important thing here is that the build process runs in full for each native target and cross target. At the beginning of the process the set_deployment_target_based_options function runs, and it sets the host variant for Swift. Remember at this point, it's target variant, not host variant.
The rest of the script does the work of testing, packaging, and installing.
The CMakeLists.txt file provides CMake instructions on how to actually build the tools using the flags and options determined by build-script and build-script-impl. I am far less than a novice in all things CMake, so please correct me if I make mistakes in this area, but this is what I'm able to infer from what's happening.
Within CMakeLists.txt, we have to manually set CMAKE_SYSTEM_PROCESSOR unless the build is cross-compiled, or otherwise already set. In linux (and FreeBSD) it's set to the value of uname -m; it's just set to i386.
# Reset CMAKE_SYSTEM_PROCESSOR if not cross-compiling. # CMake refuses to use `uname -m` on OS X # http://public.kitware.com/Bug/view.php?id=10326 if(NOT CMAKE_CROSSCOMPILING AND CMAKE_SYSTEM_PROCESSOR STREQUAL "i386") execute_process( COMMAND "uname" "-m" OUTPUT_VARIABLE CMAKE_SYSTEM_PROCESSOR OUTPUT_STRIP_TRAILING_WHITESPACE) endif()
Later, we use the value of CMAKE_SYSTEM_PROCESSOR to determine what architecture to build. Remember that if we're not cross-compiling, its value is the host architecture. Also, note that cross-compiling is only available on Darwin (macosx):
# FIXME: separate the notions of SDKs used for compiler tools and target # binaries. if("${CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME}" STREQUAL "Linux") set(CMAKE_EXECUTABLE_FORMAT "ELF") set(SWIFT_HOST_VARIANT "linux" CACHE STRING "Deployment OS for Swift host tools (the compiler) [linux].") set(SWIFT_HOST_VARIANT_SDK "LINUX") set(SWIFT_PRIMARY_VARIANT_SDK_default "LINUX") # FIXME: This will not work while trying to cross-compile. if("${CMAKE_SYSTEM_PROCESSOR}" STREQUAL "x86_64") configure_sdk_unix(LINUX "Linux" "linux" "linux" "x86_64" "x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu") set(SWIFT_HOST_VARIANT_ARCH "x86_64") set(SWIFT_PRIMARY_VARIANT_ARCH_default "x86_64") # FIXME: This only matches ARMv7l (by far the most common variant). elseif("${CMAKE_SYSTEM_PROCESSOR}" STREQUAL "armv7l") configure_sdk_unix(LINUX "Linux" "linux" "linux" "armv7" "armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabihf") set(SWIFT_HOST_VARIANT_ARCH "armv7") set(SWIFT_PRIMARY_VARIANT_ARCH_default "armv7") elseif("${CMAKE_SYSTEM_PROCESSOR}" STREQUAL "aarch64") configure_sdk_unix(LINUX "Linux" "linux" "linux" "aarch64" "aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu") set(SWIFT_HOST_VARIANT_ARCH "aarch64") set(SWIFT_PRIMARY_VARIANT_ARCH_default "aarch64") else() message(FATAL_ERROR "Unknown or unsupported architecture: ${CMAKE_SYSTEM_PROCESSOR}") endif() # ... snipped FreeBSD and Darwin branches ...
To make sense of this we really need to dig into the implementation of the configure_sdk_unix macro in SwiftConfigureSDK.cmake, otherwise the arguments are just a bunch of "linux" strings with an arch. and a triple.
macro(configure_sdk_unix prefix name lib_subdir triple_name arch triple) # Note: this has to be implemented as a macro because it sets global # variables. set(SWIFT_SDK_${prefix}_NAME "${name}") set(SWIFT_SDK_${prefix}_PATH "/") set(SWIFT_SDK_${prefix}_VERSION "don't use") set(SWIFT_SDK_${prefix}_BUILD_NUMBER "don't use") set(SWIFT_SDK_${prefix}_DEPLOYMENT_VERSION "don't use") set(SWIFT_SDK_${prefix}_LIB_SUBDIR "${lib_subdir}") set(SWIFT_SDK_${prefix}_VERSION_MIN_NAME "") set(SWIFT_SDK_${prefix}_TRIPLE_NAME "${triple_name}") set(SWIFT_SDK_${prefix}_ARCHITECTURES "${arch}") set(SWIFT_SDK_${prefix}_ARCH_${arch}_TRIPLE "${triple}") # Add this to the list of known SDKs. list(APPEND SWIFT_CONFIGURED_SDKS "${prefix}") _report_sdk("${prefix}") endmacro()
This macro sets a number of CMake variables that will be used in both the generation of the swift compiler as well as the standard lib. An interesting thing to note is that the 4th "linux" should probably be "linux-x86_64" and "linux-arm".
While building swift files, these variables are ultimately consumed in the cmake/modules/AddSwift file for a variety of tasks, such as finding the path to the libraries, setting sdk and target flags, etc. Not that in this module, what was ${prefix} becomes ${sdk}.
function(_add_variant_swift_compile_flags # ... snip ... list(APPEND result "-sdk" "${SWIFT_SDK_${sdk}_PATH}" "-target" "${SWIFT_SDK_${sdk}_ARCH_${arch}_TRIPLE}") # ... snipped stuff about optimization, etc. ... endfunction() function(_add_variant_link_flags # ... snip ... _add_variant_c_compile_link_flags( "${sdk}" "${arch}" "${build_type}" "${enable_assertions}" result) if("${sdk}" STREQUAL "LINUX") list(APPEND result "-lpthread" "-ldl") elseif("${sdk}" STREQUAL "FREEBSD") # No extra libraries required. else() list(APPEND result "-lobjc") endif() # ... snip ... endfunction()
In cases where it's not obvious where control flow leaves you, especially with how CMake seems to make liberal use of globals, I find it helpful to grep for variable names. Doing so for "SWIFT_SDK_${" led me to…
Where I found this gem!
foreach(sdk ${SWIFT_CONFIGURED_SDKS}) if("${sdk}" STREQUAL "LINUX" OR "${sdk}" STREQUAL "FREEBSD") foreach(arch ${SWIFT_SDK_${sdk}_ARCHITECTURES}) set(arch_subdir "${SWIFT_SDK_${sdk}_LIB_SUBDIR}/${arch}") # FIXME: We will need a different linker script for 32-bit builds. configure_file( "swift.ld" "${SWIFTLIB_DIR}/${arch_subdir}/swift.ld" COPYONLY) swift_install_in_component(compiler FILES "swift.ld" DESTINATION "lib/swift/${arch_subdir}") endforeach() endif() endforeach()
This FIXME is a big deal, because I hadn't found it before. I was having linker issues with my binary, and this holds some promise helping address that issue. I'll go ahead and add a check here, copy the 64-bit script and edit it for 32 bit.
foreach(sdk ${SWIFT_CONFIGURED_SDKS}) if("${sdk}" STREQUAL "LINUX" OR "${sdk}" STREQUAL "FREEBSD") foreach(arch ${SWIFT_SDK_${sdk}_ARCHITECTURES}) set(arch_subdir "${SWIFT_SDK_${sdk}_LIB_SUBDIR}/${arch}") if("${arch}" STREQUAL "arm") configure_file( "swift_32.ld" "${SWIFTLIB_DIR}/${arch_subdir}/swift.ld" COPYONLY) else() configure_file( "swift_64.ld" "${SWIFTLIB_DIR}/${arch_subdir}/swift.ld" COPYONLY) endif() swift_install_in_component(compiler FILES "swift.ld" DESTINATION "lib/swift/${arch_subdir}") endforeach() endif() endforeach()
The 64-bit ld script is pretty small, and doesn't seem too intimidating (I've never seen an ld script before):
SECTIONS { .swift2_protocol_conformances : { .swift2_protocol_conformances_start = . ; QUAD(SIZEOF(.swift2_protocol_conformances) - 8) ; *(.swift2_protocol_conformances) ; } } INSERT AFTER .dtors
The only problem is that it's far from obvious what needs to change when porting that to a 32-bit system!! My only guess is that 8*8 is 64-bits, so maybe that -8 needs to be a -4! 🙂
SECTIONS { .swift2_protocol_conformances : { .swift2_protocol_conformances_start = . ; QUAD(SIZEOF(.swift2_protocol_conformances) - 4) ; *(.swift2_protocol_conformances) ; } } INSERT AFTER .dtors
Unfortunately, that got me no where. Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. Moving on…
This one is an easy one… All we have to do is make a new typedef for __swift_ssize_t for the 32-bit arm:
#if defined(__linux__) && defined (__arm__) typedef int __swift_ssize_t; #else typedef long int __swift_ssize_t; #endif
Next, we have to deal with the fact that a multiply with overflow is missing from what libgcc provides us. I'll leave this out for brevity, but basically I just copied an implementation from the compiler-rt project.
ToolChains.cpp is an interesting one because it is responsible for linking the compiler pieces together when building swift applications. In the original version, the x86_64 path to the swift stdlib was hard-coded in there. Now, we just have to query the target triple, and select the correct path to the library.
- Arguments.push_back( + - context.Args.MakeArgString(Twine(RuntimeLibPath) + "/x86_64/swift.ld")); ~ becomes ~ + Arguments.push_back(context.Args.MakeArgString( + Twine(RuntimeLibPath) + "/" + getTriple().getArchName() + "/swift.ld"));
Testing files
There were several files that affect the testing suite. This post is already way to long, so I'll leave those out. If you want to see all the changes I've made, checkout the commit:
This port is getting pretty close. My 32-bit linker script doesn't fix anything, and I'm still looking for other potential problems. But, for now I'm happy with the progress. I hope this helps anyone else exploring other ports. The 32-bit arm port is potentially the simplest possible one, because the older iPhones and iWatch use 32-bit arm chips.
Update 12/16/2015
I was able to fix the linking problem by looking at another exciting swift port (SwiftAndroid), and noticing that -Bsymbolc is being used in the AddSwift cmake module.
if("${sdk}" STREQUAL "LINUX") list(APPEND result "-lpthread" "-ldl" "-Wl,-Bsymbolic") elseif("${sdk}" STREQUAL "FREEBSD") # No extra libraries required. else() list(APPEND result "-lobjc") endif()
I added that to my copy of AddSwift, and it seems to work beautifully. I will do some more testing and clean up, and submit a new pull request.
$ cat hello.swift print("Hello world!") $ swiftc hello.swift $ ./hello Hello world! $ uname -s -m Linux armv7l


text:
Eclectic Galvanized Metal Planters
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- Overview
A fixture on American farms, galvanized metal has earned our affection for its simple style. Its ability to stand up to moisture makes it ideal for use as a planter fitted with container plants, any-weather outdoor storage or an ice-filled cooler for drinks.
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Planter Box
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View the complete Shipping and Delivery Information page.
You can return eligible item(s) within 30 days of receiving an order or 7 days for Quick Ship upholstery items for a refund of the merchandise value. An original receipt or gift receipt is required. Monogrammed items and Made to Order furniture or rugs are not eligible for returns. Review the full list of ineligible items and our refund policy below before starting the process.
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Flash Draw Created Feb 07, 2010 470 x 338px Unless noted Copyright 2010 underwater.
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OCC Bulletin 2012-25| August 30, 2012
Revisions to Market Risk Capital Rule: Final Rulemaking
Chief Executive Officers of All National Banks and Federal Savings Associations, Federal Branches and Agencies, Department and Division Heads, All Examining Personnel, and Other Interested Parties
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (collectively, the agencies) on August 30, 2012, published in the Federal Register a final rule that amends their respective market risk capital rules, which generally apply to banking organizations that engage in substantial trading activity. The revisions broaden the scope of these rules to better capture the risks inherent in trading positions. Specifically, the final rule improves the sensitivity to risks that were not adequately captured under the current regulatory measurement methodologies, such as the default and migration risks associated with less liquid products. The agencies' analysis indicates that, for those banking organizations subject to the market risk capital rules, these revisions will significantly increase the risk-based capital allocated to market risk. The effective date of the rule is January 1, 2013.
The final rule modifies the OCC's existing risk-based capital rule for market risk, 12 CFR 3, appendix B. The current market risk rule generally applies to national banks for which the gross sum of the bank's trading assets and liabilities is equal to (1) 10 percent or more of the bank's total assets or (2) at least $1 billion. Additionally, regardless of the aforementioned thresholds, the OCC may elect to apply the market risk rule to a national bank if the OCC deems it necessary or appropriate for safe and sound banking practices. The final rule does not change the scope of application of the rule.
The revisions in the final rule are consistent with the July 2009 publication by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision of "Revisions to the Basel II Market Risk Framework." The final rule incorporates (1) a revised definition of "trading position" that excludes trading assets and liabilities not held for the purpose of short-term resale or to lock in arbitrage profits, (2) a stressed value-at-risk measure, in which the calibration of the model reflects a period of significant financial stress, (3) a new capital charge for default risk and migration risk (the incremental default risk charge), (4) a substantially revised treatment of positions that comprise the correlation trading portfolio, (5) alternative standards of creditworthiness to be used in place of credit ratings to determine the capital requirements for certain debt and securitization positions covered by the market risk capital rule, (6) an expanded set of requirements for internal models, and (7) revised requirements for regulatory back testing.
Further Information
You may direct questions or comments to Roger Tufts, Senior Economic Advisor, Capital Policy Division, at (202) 649-6981; or Carl Kaminski, Senior Attorney, at (202) 649-5869.
John C. Lyons Jr.
Senior Deputy Comptroller and Chief National Bank Examiner
Related Link:
- Final Rulemaking (PDF)


text:
H.R. 1939, the "Electronic Life Safety and Security System Federal Background Check Act of 2009,†permits industry access to a database which can be used to check a potential employee's criminal history. Congress has authorized similar access in the past to groups such as banks, credit unions and private security guards.
"It is outrageous that a potential felon could have access to our citizens' homes and businesses without the employer knowing his or her record, and that is why this legislation is so important,†Luetkemeyer said. "It would be irresponsible to allow this to continue because it puts those families and businesses who think they are being protected at risk.â€
States are not currently able to stay apprised of crimes committed from one state to another, and many private background check services do not capture complete law enforcement information upon which to base a hiring judgment. Some states have no background check requirements for this industry. The legislation is not a government mandate, but simply offers the electronic life safety and security industry access to the same background information that is currently available to many other groups.
Americans do not want a person with a questionable criminal background installing systems designed to keep them safe in facilities such as child daycare centers, schools, public pools, chemical plants, water and nuclear facilities, banks, hospitals, port facilities and air terminals.
"I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass this commonsense legislation to keep our families, businesses, and critical infrastructure safe,†Luetkemeyer said.
Once the legislation is passed, the industry will need to secure support from the Attorney General to permit states to access the database. The bill also recommends certain standards for the Attorney General and Department of Justice for those states wishing to participate, including a reciprocity requirement and NBFAA's involvement as part of the background check process.
The bill will require significant support to pass both the House and Senate, as other groups are requesting background check access, creating a long delay in accommodating non-law enforcement organizations such as NBFAA. With the help of the security industry, NBFAA will work on securing a senate bill and seek to pass the legislation.
At 5:31 PM on December 30, 2000 a tragic fire happened at Simpson House that resulted in 3 deaths. (see NFPA Journal Sept/October 2001 and Security System News January 2007) After this fire FAMCO installed an IFP-1000.
At 5:44 PM on April 1, 2009 a fire started in a residents room when a lamp was knocked into a trash can full of paper. Within seconds a smoke detector in the hallway activated sounding the general alarm and the Fire Department was dispatched. The IFP-1000 continued to send signals to our Central Station as the Water Flow, additional Smoke Detectors, and Pull Stations were activated. Due to the early warning provided by the IFP-1000 all residents and staff were safely removed from the building. The Fire was contained to one room. The fire was very hot and 4 sprinkler heads activated during the fire. FAMCO responded and within a few hours all of the damaged Smoke Detectors had been replaced and the IFP-1000 was fully functional again.
No lives were lost and no one was hurt. This is remarkable due the fact that a lot of the residents use walkers to get around.
Congratulations to Silent Knight for building a product that has worked and continues to work 24 hours a day for the past 9 years. A product that gives the residents and staff of Simpson House confidence it a Life Safety System. This is what it is all about, saving lives.
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Brian Offenberger today announced the opening of Security Selling – a web marketing agency helping security companies, life safety companies and integrators increase online sales.
The inspiration for Security Selling came from a security dealer complaining about the poor quality of web companies able to understand his business, recalled Offenberger, president and founder of Security Selling. "The dealer complained that his website never produced leads and how hard it was getting to find new customers via traditional marketing methods,†said Offenberger. "And on top of it all, he couldn't find a web company that understood the industry, its customers or its products.â€
The idea that there could be a better way to increase online sales for security companies, life safety companies and integrators caught the attention of Offenberger, a 20+ year management veteran of the industry and a certified internet marketing expert. Pounds of almond M & M's later, Security Selling was born.
NBSP, a non-profit organization, was established after the events of 9/11 with the support of the US Congress. NBSP widely supports government and private sector efforts to standardize, test, acquire, and deploy biometric technology; and to do so in an environment compatible with rational social objectives in preserving individual privacy and civil liberties.
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text: Stoneware, raised-relief decoration. This stein features the Roman god of the sea, Neptun, resting on a raging sea. To the left waves crash against the base of a lighthouse and to the right a ship braves the stormy seas. The entire stein is finished in an antique blue. Rope and nots border the top and bottom of the stein along with various nautical themed items. A mermaid figurehead forms the handle of the stein and a conical pewter lid completes the piece. Limited edition of 5,000 pieces worldwide.