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Johanna Rothman - Becoming an Agile Leader, Regardless of Your RoleJohanna RothmanPragmatic ManagerRothman Consulting Group, Inc
schedule 7 years agoSold Out!
45 Mins
Agile is about the ability to inspect and adapt to change. Can we become adaptable agile leaders? You don't need to change your title. You might not need to change where you sit in the organization. You will need to change your mindset to have the courage to lead.
Johanna will discuss how you can develop an agile mindset, seeing and living the "art of the possible." We'll discuss how your mindset influences your change artistry tools, and maybe even what you call yourself. We'll see how to learn from small successes and continue to make progress, as you change yourself and your organization. You can start your change by changing your mindset to be one of change artistry and leadership.
Todd Hager / Damanjit Padam / Eric Protzman / Joe Savukas - Federal Agile Transitions: Lessons in Endurance from the Front LineTodd HagerVice PresidentMacro SolutionsDamanjit PadamVP Technical SolutionsMacro SolutionsEric ProtzmanProgram ManagerMacro SolutionsJoe SavukasVice President DeliveryMacro Solutions
schedule 7 years agoSold Out!
45 Mins
IntermediateAchieving greater agility is a goal among many federal agencies. While many federal CIOs may institute agile practices from the top down, others may promote self-organizing teams that bring about change from the bottom up. These approaches represent ends of a spectrum, any point on which agile transformation require focus on enabling team empowerment.In the federal workspace, governance and oversight vary greatly from one agency or office to another. As such, federal leaders should seek to implement strategies that will navigate typical organizational roadblocks to agile adoption, such as a forced separation of duties, vertical authority structures, and misaligned incentives. Macro Solutions uses a tailored approach to identify organizational impediments, develop successful agile implementation strategies, and enable project teams in each unique organization.
Bryan Miles - High performing teams. Want to watch one in action? Yes, please! (part 1)Bryan MilesAgile CoachPliant Solutions
schedule 7 years agoSold Out!
45 Mins
"Companies know that they derive greater creativity and innovation from teamwork - but what, they wonder, makes a great team?" -Margaret Heffernan
The research is clear: High performing teams are extremely rare, but their ability to impact an organization is limitless. If we know this is what we're aiming for, why is high performance so elusive and how can organizations and leaders create environments where it can flourish?
In this unique session, participants will have the opportunity to observe and interact with a high performing team (live and in the flesh!), discuss what makes them a great team, and learn about the various roles that make them who they are. Through performance and a facilitated conversation, the Ars Nova Chamber Orchestra (ancoselfconducted.org), Washington DC's premier self-conducted orchestra, will offer insights into their organizational dynamics. You will observe and discuss what makes them tick and take away practical examples of how you can supercharge the teams you work with or coach.
Bryan Miles - High performing teams. Want to watch one in action? Yes, please! (part 2)Bryan MilesAgile CoachPliant Solutions
schedule 7 years agoSold Out!
45 Mins
"Companies know that they derive greater creativity and innovation from teamwork - but what, they wonder, makes a great team?" -Margaret Heffernan
The research is clear: High performing teams are extremely rare, but their ability to impact an organization is limitless. If we know this is what we're aiming for, why is high performance so elusive and how can organizations and leaders create environments where it can flourish?
In this unique session, participants will have the opportunity to observe and interact with a high performing team (live and in the flesh!), discuss what makes them a great team, and learn about the various roles that make them who they are. Through performance and a facilitated conversation, the Ars Nova Chamber Orchestra (ancoselfconducted.org), Washington DC's premier self-conducted orchestra, will offer insights into their organizational dynamics. You will observe and discuss what makes them tick and take away practical examples of how you can supercharge the teams you work with or coach.
Fadi Stephan - Fostering Self-organizing TeamsFadi StephanTechnology Consultant, Agile Coach and TrainerKaizenko
schedule 7 years agoSold Out!
45 Mins
One of the 12 principles of the Agile manifesto states that "The best architecture, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams." Why is that? and what exactly are self-organizing teams? How does a team become self-organizing? Teams that have always been used to command and control cannot suddenly become self-organizing overnight. Come to this session to learn what self-organizing really means. Understand the attributes of a self-organizing team and some of the challenges you face in getting your team there. Understand how to find the right balance between team learning and team empowerment vs. control? Leave with techniques to help you build and foster high performing self-organizing teams.
Shawn Faunce - The Awkward Teenager of Testing: Exploratory TestingShawn FauncePrincipal ArchitectIntellibridge
schedule 7 years agoSold Out!
45 Mins
We think we understand that awkward teenager.
Many experienced testers will claim exploratory testing expertise, but too few have ever written an exploratory testing charter, and even fewer have applied a heuristic in that charter. We think we understand exploratory testing just as we think we understand teenagers, because "we have been there". However the reality is that many of the words currently used in exploratory testing are foreign to us and we feel awkward about our lack of knowledge. The goal of this talk is to give people experience writing and executing exploratory testing charters, creating mind maps, and applying exploratory testing heuristics.
The talk is intended to introduce people to the exploratory testing techniques described by Elisabeth Hendrickson in her book Explore It! with some added material from the work of Cem Kaner and James Bach.
Kosala Nuwan Perera - Fake it before you make itKosala Nuwan PereraSolution Adviser/Architect, Full-stack Developer, Clean Coder, Lean Startup/UX EvangelistAlertbox Inc.
schedule 7 years agoSold Out!
45 Mins
Experience Report
Typical mistake many startups do is engineering idea before validating to learn whether it'd solve the problem. Obvious approach, also another mistake, is to run in a shorter sprints, demo, & get feedback till team realizes that features doesn't seems delightful or satisfactory. Consequently, the app isn't often used by many as predicted once shipped. Speaking of learning, experimenting with a fake app to validate the idea is a cheaper, faster, a smarter strategy that's worth investing therefore.
What's there to validate about your ideas? What are the cheaper, smarter, and faster ways to engage with users to decide what a good idea is and what a stupid idea is? Let's meet to learn some of the pragmatic ways to validate your ideas before putting everything to leap-of-faith.
I had been introducing some of these tactics to many product teams, forums such as IIBA, Google Business Group events during last few years and now that entrepreneurship and startups has become one of the buzzwords, I am pleased to learn new methods that audience has to share.
David Horowitz - The 7 Secrets of Highly Effective RetrospectivesDavid HorowitzCofounder and CEORetrium
schedule 7 years agoSold Out!
45 Mins
Retrospectives are the core of agility. And yet they are the scrum ceremony that is most frequently skipped. Many teams like the idea of the retrospective but find them boring, or worse ineffective.
This talk aims to re-energize retrospective facilitators and participants. Starting with the basics: "what's a retrospective and how do you run one?", this talk reveals 7 secrets that lead to more engaging, more effective retrospectives.
You'll learn:
* The best way to ensure your retrospectives lead to real change
* The "pledge" everyone on your team should take before participating
* How to know who to include in each retrospective
* The single most important thing you can do to keep your team engaged during the retro
* And much, much more!
Manjit Singh - The Power of Mindsets and Questions in Agile CoachingManjit SinghEnterprise Agile Transformation Coach (CSP, CSM, CSPO, SAFe SPC, ICAgile Expert Coach)Agilious LLC
schedule 7 years agoSold Out!
45 Mins
"The important thing is not to stop questioning." –Albert Einstein, because "every question missed is a crisis waiting to happen." Discover the technique to ask the questions to make breakthrough differences in decision- making, problem-solving, innovation & culture. Typically, questions open thinking, while answers often close down thinking. Question Thinking is a tool for moving beyond limitations in perception and thinking and advancing to novel and extraordinary solutions and answers.
Dan Neumann - Improve Your Team: Explore Cognitive BiasDan NeumannSr. Agile CoachAgileThought
schedule 7 years agoSold Out!
45 Mins
Many team challenges can be tracked back to cognitive biases: our judgement gets anchored, we think we're better than we are, and we are our own favorite reference point. And even though we're encouraged to "think outside the box," there are conditions where we have a bias against creativity. If that's not a recipe for a tough team environment, I don't know what is.
Improve your game by learning about bias! You'll leave this session with strategies for identifying and mitigating bias on your team.
George Paci / David W Kane - CardUnit: A Unit Testing SimulationGeorge PaciSr. DevOps EngineerMAXIMUSDavid W KaneSolution ArchitectGeneral Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT)
schedule 7 years agoSold Out!
45 Mins
It can be difficult for developers to find the motivation to write automated unit tests. This workshop introduces a simulation that can demonstrate the value of automated unit tests to identify and localize defects. In the simulation, participants will play the roles of programs and tests. We will discuss barriers to creating and maintaining unit tests, and how this simulation addresses those barriers.
Theme: Games for Learning, Code and Test
(We have not published slides for this workshop. "Slides" link below is to representative slides from other presentations.)
Raj Indugula / Robert Brown - What's Measured Improves: Metrics that MatterRaj IndugulaSVP, Agile ConsultingLitheSpeedRobert BrownCloud Solutions EngineerBooz Allen Hamilton
schedule 7 years agoSold Out!
45 Mins
"Every line is the perfect length if you don't measure it." - Marty Rubin
So your organization has embarked upon a transformation to be more nimble and responsive by employing the latest tools and thinking in the Agile and DevOps arena. In this transformational context, how do you know that your initiatives are effective? Empirical measurements should provide insights on business value flow and delivery efficiency, allowing teams and organizations to see how they are progressing toward achieving their goals, but all too often we find ourselves mired in measurement traps that don't quite provide the right guidance in steering our efforts.
Rooted in contemporary thinking and tested in practice, this talk explores the principles of good measurement, what to measure, what not to measure, and enumerates some key metrics to help guide and inform our Agile and DevOps efforts. If done right, metrics can present a true picture of performance, and any progression, digression of these metrics can drive learning and improvement.
It is our hope that this session inspires organizations and teams to start or take a fresh look at implementing a valuable measurement program.
Thomas Cagley - Storytelling: Developing the Big Picture for Agile EffortsThomas CagleyAgile Practice ManagerDavid Consulting Group
schedule 7 years agoSold Out!
45 Mins
Agile reminds us that the focus of any set of requirements needs to be on an outcome rather than a collection of whats and whos. Storytelling is a powerful tool to elevate even the most diehard requirements analyst from a discussion of individual requirements to a discussion of outcomes. Outcomes are the big picture that acts as an anchor for whole efforts and which is continuously broken down into more and more detailed backlogs. The onion metaphor that is popularly used in agile planning (Cohn's Planning Onion) can be used to describe the evolution of backlogs. Building an initial backlog is much like peeling through the layers of an onion to get to the core. There are many mechanisms for developing and maintaining the detailed backlogs, including asking, observing, showing and all sorts of hybrids. Using the onion metaphor, techniques for developing and splitting user stories are the second layer of the onion. However, before getting to the center of the backlog evolution onion, composed of features, epics, and user stories, we need to understand the big picture.
Provide an overview of storytelling in a business context and a lean change canvas framework.
The room will be broken into teams (aisles will be used if auditorium seating). Each team will be seeded with a common product change scenario. Based on the scenario the teams will be asked to tell the story of the change and capture the story on a small change canvas. The exercise and session will culminate in by sharing ideas and lessons learned.
(Note the longer workshop would break the changing canvas into epics and stories)
Paul Boos - Mind Meld: Why Pair Programming WorksPaul BoosStrategic Agility & Innovation CoachExcella
schedule 7 years agoSold Out!
45 Mins
So why does pair programming (or any form of pairing really) work? Well rather than tell you why, let's experience it!
This is a simple 3 round exercise that you can do with your teams and managers to demonstrate the benefits of pairing. It will show the linkage between having a shared mental model through collaboration and ease of integrating the resulting work.
Mathias Eifert - Don't assume you're creating value – prove it!Mathias EifertAgile Pragmatist and Managing ConsultantExcella
schedule 7 years agoSold Out!
45 Mins
Does your organization find it hard to determine "the right thing" to build? You are not alone – studies show that even in very high performing organizations only 10-35% of initial ideas actually generate business value. Agile development should make it easier to obtain early customer feedback, but in most organizations Agile approaches are limited to software development teams with little connection to the rest of the business. In addition, Agile methods by themselves offer few guidelines on how to translate organizational goals and customer needs into the backlog's content and relative priorities in the first place. As a result, there is a significant, but often underappreciated risk that Agile teams end up very efficiently building "the wrong thing right."
In this session, we explore how Lean Discovery and experimentation can expand the scope of Agile's "inspect and adapt" feedback loops to systematically identify and validate critical assumptions about our product's value proposition. Based on the Lean Startup and Lean UX approach to product development as a series of hypotheses about customers' behaviors and value perceptions, we discuss ways to derive testable assumptions from organizational goals to enable validated learning. Finally, we explore the implications of this approach on project planning and budgeting to support increased business agility.
Trent Hone - DevOps Darwinism: Advancing our Art through Safe-to-Fail ExperimentationTrent HoneExcella
schedule 7 years agoSold Out!
45 Mins
Static designs and monolithic structures are brittle and prone to failure. How can we progress beyond them? By understanding the nature of our challenges and applying the right tools at the right time. This talk will describe how to use evolutionary principles to foster changes in your architecture and infrastructure so that you can create antifragile systems.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb spoke to these ideas in "Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder." Join us as we describe how we can:
- Move beyond planning for known failure modes and instead develop antifragile systems that are safe-to-fail in unanticipated ways.
- Leverage the Cynefin framework and its 5 sense-making domains to better frame problems and drive action.
- Employ microservice architectures to make the variability of our environments work for us, not against us.
- Gain knowledge more rapidly through multiple parallel experiments.
Andy Bacon - The Super Agile SatchelAndy BaconAgile Consultant and CoachInnovireo LLC
schedule 7 years agoSold Out!
45 Mins
Experience Report
Are you a Scrum Master that has a strong affinity to sticky notes, dry erase markers, and other tools of Agile facilitation? Are you tired of seeing the same old blue painters tape on every kanban board? Want to learn some new facilitation techniques that you can use in retrospectives or to build awesome information radiators with your team?
If so, join me for my session on the Super Agile Satchel.
During the session, I'll briefly talk about how the satchel came to be and its awesome contents. Then we'll jump right in to actual examples of information radiators that I created with the tools the satchel contains. I'll discuss why choosing the right materials, colors, and sizes are critical to facilitation and creating information radiators that draw attention, are maintainable, and focus the team on what's truly important.
Jim Damato - Business Agility - Being the Bigger Dog in a Dog Eat Dog World (Even for a Chihuahua!)Jim DamatoTransformation LeadEliassen
schedule 7 years agoSold Out!
45 Mins
Business is tough. If your market is any good, other companies want your revenue and market share. A lot comes your way that's beyond your control, so how do you stay competitive in a dog eat dog world? You strive for Business Agility.
Business Agility is about being able to sense, create and respond to change, quickly and confidently. Every organization has the bravado to think they do, but few actually can. Think about these local companies who are:
- At the top end of the market being threatened by a newer, faster rival.
- Experiencing a market shift threatening half their revenue.
- Subject to whims of powerful regulation.
- New in an emerging market and need to stay ahead of the major players.
Major change can come from all angles, whether from competitors, regulators or market shifts. Companies need to be able to execute not just at the execution level, not just as the portfolio level, but at the business level, so they can handle the change or better yet, BE the change.
Business Agility isn't about how big you are, it's about survival of the fittest. Whether you are a small business or a publicly traded company, be the bigger dog.
Lisa Schlecht - From complexity to clarity in one week with Enterprise Design SprintsLisa SchlechtFounderRecharted Territory, LLC
schedule 7 years agoSold Out!
45 Mins
Does any of this sound like you?
- You're a changemaker working on a complex problem either as an entrepreneur or intrapreneur. You have some resources for making change but will need to work with partners, policymakers, or others to scale your impact.
- You're a product manager, business analyst, designer, architect, or systems engineer in a large organization.
- You're working on a difficult problem which will need to be solved in phases over months or years.
- You're managing a portfolio of work that spans multiple time phases or teams.
Are you running into any of these problems?
- The product design cycle is taking too long.
- You're delivering value but getting a lackluster response from customers and stakeholders.
- You have great ideas and the customer likes them, but there's no roadmap to get them into production.
- You have multiple stakeholders, none of whom are on the same page.
- You don't have one single, completely informed decision maker who can make the final call.
- You're having difficulties reconciling modern experiences with legacy systems and business processes.
- You have "wicked problems" to tackle but your organization is ignoring them in favor of low-hanging fruit. And you're starting to run out of low-hanging fruit.
- You're having difficulty helping other people focus on anything beyond the latest fire.
If any of that resonated with you, an Enterprise Design Sprint might be exactly what you're looking for. Combining elements from agile, design thinking, enterprise architecture, and systems engineering, Enterprise Design Sprints will help you make sure that you're delivering value over the long term. This talk will cover the theory and mechanics behind planning and running your own sprint, with examples from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Craeg K Strong - Behavior Driven Development WorkshopCraeg K StrongCTOSavant Financial Technologies, Inc. d/b/a Ariel Partners
schedule 7 years agoSold Out!
45 Mins
Behavior Driven Development / Acceptance Test Driven Development (BDD/ATDD) is a new, exciting approach to developing software that has been shown to reduce rework and increase customer satisfaction. While other testing tools focus primarily on "are we building the thing right?", BDD tools such as Cucumber and SpecFlow attack the problem of software directly at its source: "are we building the right thing?" By retaining all the benefits of automated unit testing, while extending them upstream to cover requirements, we cut the Gordian knot of risk and complexity to unleash hyper-productivity.
Why is BDD so effective?
- As a form of Test driven design, BDD helps produce frugal, effective and testable software.
- As a development tool, BDD frameworks like SpecFlow provide many convenience functions and are pre-integrated with powerful libraries like Nunit and selenium to make writing tests a snap.
- As a collaboration tool, BDD helps ensure the "three amigos" (tester, analyst and developer) sync up – ahead of time.
- As a facilitation technique, BDD enables product owners to efficiently provide the team with concrete examples that clarify the true intent of a user story and define the boundaries.
- As a reporting tool, BDD captures functional coverage, mapping features to their acceptance criteria to their test results, in an attractive hierarchical presentation.
Want functional documentation? How about documentation that is guaranteed to be correct, because every feature maps to its test results? Witness the holy grail of traceability – executable specifications.
We will spend a few minutes talking about the context and pre-requisites, so attendees have an idea of where BDD fits in, and what type of investment they are signing their teams up for. We will see that in return for a modest amount of investment in tools and training, very significant benefits can be realized, and the benefits compound over time.
This workshop then dives right in to Gherkin, the structured English language technique used to capture BDD specifications. We will spend the better part of the session learning the tricks and techniques that make for robust and maintainable gherkin specifications. We will review and critique lots of examples, both good and bad.
We will review several examples of reports generated from BDD tools, to provide context and to immediately highlight the bottom line business value that makes an investment in BDD so worthwhile.
Come and learn why Behavior driven design is taking the software world by storm!


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Asset Performance Management (APM) Market 2021 Trends, Demand and Scope with Outlook, Business Strategies and Forecast 2031
insightSLICE recently published a market research report on Asset Performance Management (APM) which is based on intensive research methodologies and studies examining market status post corona virus outbreak.
Increasing investment in development of smart industrial solutions, expanding manufacturing and process industries across the globe, and rising penetration of advanced analytics solution across industrial applications are major factors contributing towards the growth of global asset performance management market. Asset performance management (APM) is an essential tool in monitoring, maintaining and improving reliability and availability of physical assets for optimized operational performance.
Looking for quantitative data @ https://www.insightslice.com/request-sample/488
Competitive Landscape
Some of the major players in the Asset Performance Management (APM) market are ABB, Aspen Technology, Inc., AVEVA Group plc, BENTLEY SYSTEMS, INCORPORATED, DNV GL AS, General Electric, IBM Corporation, Infor, Oracle, OSIsoft, Rockwell Automation, Inc., SAP SE, SAS Institute Inc., Siemens, and Uptake Technologies Inc.
Players in the Asset Performance Management (APM) market are mainly concentrating on new product launches, acquisition, and collaboration to meet the growing demand for various end-use industries. New product launches help companies to strengthen their product portfolio and meet the specific demands of customers.
The report discusses key information about major growth drivers, restraints, opportunities, and trends observed in the global Asset Performance Management (APM) market. Factors such as market projections, the supply-demand ratio, market size, market attractiveness, technological advances, and key segments have been studied in detail. The Asset Performance Management (APM) market shares, product portfolios, and business strategies of the major market players have been revealed, along with authentic statistical data, figures, charts, and tables.
Segmentation Overview:
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About Us:
insightSLICE is a market intelligence and strategy consulting company. The company provides tailor-made and off the shelf market research studies. The prime focus of the company is on strategy consulting to provide end-to-end solutions.
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Website: https://www.insightslice.com/asset-performance-management-apm-market

subset: commoncrawl


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Saturday, 19 October 2013
late adopter peplum
27 comments:
That is so sweet! I totally understand what you mean though wether to get on the peplum-train or not. It took me some time, but this summer I made two out of the Salme patterns peplum top. Very nice and super comfy:)ReplyDelete
and whats up whit those clips?? Where did you find them?? I have never heard of those before! What a smart accecories:)Replies
Thanks Trollemor! I love your peplums, and those Salme patterns are really beautiful. I was given some as a gift from my hubby, and I found another pair online, aren't they fun!Delete
I haven't sewn myself one yet, I'm afraid it would make me look huge around my hips. But I like the drape of your peplum a lot, and I'm slowly changing my mind about them :)ReplyDeleteReplies
Thank you Mary! I remember how odd they looked to me when they first came out, now they seem so normal. Funny how that happens!Delete
it's lovely - I do like the drape you've chosen. And that fabric was definitely worth elbowing your way back for!! I have a few dress clips & have been meaning to make more square & sweet-heart necklines to show them off - they deserve another chance to shine!ReplyDeleteReplies
Ooh do you! I'd love to see them on something you make. I've been experimenting with using them on a layered top which is fun!... but I have yet to wear them outdoors because I'm worried they'll fall off. Next time will put a couple of stitches in :)Delete
I am not big on peplums, sometimes I see one that I like, like yours! It's not over-the-top peplum and the asymetrical pleats give it a nice touch... But I am still not sewing my own peplum top!ReplyDeleteReplies
Ha ha, thanks Wendy!Delete
I tried the peplum thing but didn´t work for me.ReplyDelete
However yours is so pretty. Love the fabric and the asymetrical pleats, and also the lining. And it looks great on you!
i haven't done it yet, but i really want to! love your peplum top, that fabric is killer!ReplyDelete
I love this! Great fabric and the swingy peplum looks cute on you. The dress clips are so fun -- I've never heard of them before. I love the peplum look but I haven't found a way to make it work for me, unfortunately.ReplyDeleteReplies
Thanks Jean! I guess the true test will be how often I actually wear it....!Delete
- Anonymous20 October, 2013
This is really cute! I love the print you used! Peplums can be so tricky to wear-- I made one that looks pretty cute, and one that's a bit of a disaster. The proportions are so important! You've really nailed it-- this is a very flattering length!ReplyDeleteReplies
Thanks very much! I have yet to see you make a disaster though! ;)Delete
I have not converted to peplums, but I like your soft version :)ReplyDeleteReplies
Thank you Elisabeth! It's so funny that so many of us are on the fence but they are still around!Delete
The peplum looks great on you!!!!!! Love the fabric and the small leaves they are sooooo cute!ReplyDelete
Love that fabric! Love the peplum!ReplyDeleteReplies
Thanks so much!Delete
Oooo I love it! The drape on the peplum and the surprise underneath are perfect! you definitely have the figure to pull off the peplum shape. That fabric though... I want it! I would probably love it so much I'd get too paralysed by fear of ruining it to use it. That's probably the core of my fabric hoarding problem...ReplyDeleteReplies
Ha ha, mine too!!! Luckily it didn't fray so it was easier to work with than I expected. Thanks for your nice comment, I was happy to find a home for those scraps of fabric for the lining!Delete
Love the silhouette. I have to been a big fan but maybe I should try it before dismissing it!ReplyDeleteReplies
Thanks Nat! I haven't worn them out yet, but glad I got it out of my system. I'm good for now...I think...!Delete
My favourite is the red one because the design lines are the main feature as opposed to the print. Did you use a pattern for the peplum or is it self drafted? If it's self drafted I'd love to know how you did it!ReplyDelete


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The North Carolina Zoo turns 40
By Marilyn Jones
From the very beginning, it was a conscious effort to make the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro a shining example of what an animal sanctuary should be. This year the zoo is celebrating its 40th year of achieving that goal.
"They wanted to build the very best," says Owen George whose father Alvis George served as the Architect and Project Coordinator for the original N.C. Zoo design project.
Alvis traveled with zoo director William Hoff and five other professionals on a four-week study trip to Africa and to several well-known European zoos during October and November 1973.
"I remember my dad saying they visited zoos not so much to see what worked, but to see what didn't," recalls Owen.
The men returned to North Carolina with a vision of creating a natural habitat zoo that would surpass any other in existence. For Alvis, it was the beginning of a creative collaboration with the zoo that would last for 30 years until his death in 2001.
Visiting the zoo
First, there's its size: 2,000 acres (one of the world's largest) with more than 500 acres developed into two continents — North America and Africa. Joined by a tram, the two continents feature 1,600 animals.
Two western lowland gorillas and their toddlers, born at the zoo, are the stars of Africa as the two little boys romp and wrestle on the soft green grass. Other primates include baboons and chimpanzees. Watani Grasslands is home to rhinos, antelope, gazelles, waterbucks and ostriches. Nearby at the Forest Edge you may get the opportunity to feed a giraffe.
The North American half of the zoo highlights animals from the Arctic — a polar bear, Arctic fox and puffins — to the prairie, cypress swamp and marsh. Playful otters, three cougar cubs rescued from the wild, grizzly bears, black bears and elk are some of the other animals here. In some of the featured areas, the land is so expansive it's hard to remember you're in a zoo.
Add special attractions such as "Bugs: An Epic Adventure" and "Rio: The 4-D Experience" (through October), and you've got a memorable experience.
When you go:
There are picnic areas near Akiba Market (Africa) and North American Plaza including Solar Pointe, where the solar energy collected is used by Randolph EMC which supplies the zoo's electricity.
For more information
(800) 488-0444


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The latest expansion pack for World of Warcraft crushed the last 24-hour sales record set by the massively popular, massively online computer game, selling 3.3 million copies in a single day.
"We had to bring Azeroth to the brink of destruction in Cataclysm, but the result was our best expansion yet," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We want to thank all of our new, existing, and returning players throughout the world for their incredible enthusiasm and support, and we look forward to hearing what they think about all the new content."
Despite those impressive numbers, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm still didn't manage to topple Call of Duty: Black Ops' record of 5.5 million copies sold in 24 hours when that game hit stores last month.
Of course you don't have to pay a monthly fee to play Black Ops, and both games are under the same Activision Blizzard umbrella.


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A deep dive on what's new, and what's the same
Call of Duty: Ghosts' multiplayer has finally been revealed, and it's the biggest overhaul Infinity Ward has done since the first Modern Warfare. What I got to play at the reveal event was pretty fun, but then again that's not shocking as I've always enjoyed playing the series' multiplayer.
And I think that's how things boil down here. If you've enjoyed Call of Duty's multiplayer in the past, then you'll like Ghosts' just the same. If you've never been into the series before, well, there's nothing too different here that will suddenly pull you into the experience.
That's not to say there aren't some cool new changes that refresh things just a little, but on the whole, there's nothing huge that will make you think twice about giving this one a go.
Call of Duty: Ghosts (PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One [previewed], Wii UDeveloper: Infinity Ward / Treyarch (Wii U)Publisher: Activision:Release: November 5, 2013
Guns, Call of Duty: Ghosts has them. Here's all the categories along with the few weapons we got to use:
- Assault Rifles: Honey Badger, SC-2010
- Sub Machine Guns: MTAR-X, Vector CRB
- Marksman Rifles : IA-2
- Sniper Rifles: L115
- Shotguns: MTS-255
- Riot: Riot Shield
Six weapon classes, with the addition being the Marksman Rifles category offering weaponry good for mid- to long-range distances. You're able to attach a three-round burst to these guns, but aiming gets wonky with it. Various attachments can be added to all the weapons like under barrels, scopes, and the works — and that goes for the Riot Shield now too. There are three possible attachments for this, with the one I saw giving you a portable radar system on your shield.
Then you have your secondary weapons like pistols and launchers, lethal items such as the I.E.D. and the Canister Bomb, plus tactical weapons such as the thermobaric grenade and the 9-bang grenade. The 9-bang will have a bigger flash-bang effect the longer you hold it, and at max charge it'll give you an EMP burst.
Perks have been overhauled in a big way, and there's roughly 40 to choose from now. How many you can bring with your character depends on the number associated with each perk. Similar to Black Ops II, it's all based on a point system. Here, you have a total of eight points to spend on perks for your character. So, for instance, both Sleight of Hand and the Agility perks are two points each. Take those two and you have four more points left to spend. You can actually have 11 points were you to drop your secondary and equipment items.
Here's a list of all the perks we were able to see, along with the seven categories.
- Speed: Sleight of Hand, Agility
- Handling: Strong-Arm (throw farther, decrease cook time), On the Go (reload while sprinting)
- Stealth: Takedown (kill without revealing location), Off the Grid (undetectable on mini-map)
- Awareness: Scavenger, Wiretap (upgrades Sat Coms by hacking into active enemy Sat Coms)
- Resistance: Tac Resist (resistance to tac bombs), Blast Shield
- Equipment: Fully loaded (max ammo)
- Elite: Ping (activate sonar ping upon killing an enemy), Deadeye (consecutive kills increase chance to deal more damage)
Strike Packages are back from Modern Warfare 3, and come in three flavors: Assault, Support, and Specialist. There are 12 total Assault streaks, with the highest being a 15-point streak. The ones I got to see in my hands-on time were Sat Com at three kills, your dog body guard at five kills, and Maniac at nine kills. Maniac sees you summoning a care package where you'll equip a juggernaut suit and be given an increase in speed. The tradeoff is that you only have a knife, and your health won't regenerate.
Support has 12 total streaks to choose from, with the highest point streak at 16. Unlike Assault, your point streak won't reset when you're killed. At four kills you'll get to drop a Sat Com, which I should add are the replacements for UAVs from past games. It's also worth mentioned that the reason Sat Coms are available for both packages here is that you can stack Sat Coms as a team to get better radar detection.The first Sat Com will give you radar detection based on your teammate's line of site. Two of them will give you a more traditional UAV-like system, with a third one that refreshes the radar faster. At four, you'll be given the ability to see the direction enemies are facing on the mini-map.
A Night Owl can come in at nine kills, and it's this floating little companion that acts as a mini-radar and as a Trophy system as it will take down missiles that come near you. Plus, it'll stick around even after you die. The last thing I got to mess with was the MAAWS at nine kills. It's a shoulder mounted rocket launcher which spits out two rockets that you guide with a laser.
Finally there's the Specialist class, which will be the same as before where you can stack Perks on top of each other with each successive kill you get.
Rounding out all your customization features is the new create-a-soldier feature where you can modify the look of your solider, right down to playing as a female. It's all purely cosmetic, and none of it affects gameplay but it's there with 20,000 different possible visual customization if that's your sort of thing. You can create up to ten soldiers, and each can be leveled up to a max of prestige level one.
Other noteworthy changes to the gameplay are the ability to lean around corners, and knee sliding. With leaning, just walk up to the edge of a wall, hold the aim button down, and you'll peek around the corner. It's seamless and easy to get in/out of it, but not really the most ideal thing to do in a fast paced combat situation.
Knee sliding is fun, though — you can trigger that at any time while running by pressing down on the crouch button. You can continue to shoot when going into your knee slide, as well as when you're vaulting over obstacles too.
14 maps will come with Ghosts; 15 if you pre-order the game. The big twist now is that each map has some level of destructibility associated with it. It's not as extensive as Battlefield 4's system — more that certain walls or structures can be knocked down. Plus there are some events you can trigger too, like causing a satellite to fall from space into the map.
There's going to be seven new game modes added, and I got to check out two of them. Cranked is this badass, super-fast-paced mode where you are given 30 seconds to kill someone after getting your first kill upon spawning. Fail to kill someone in that timeframe and you'll explode. Succeed, and your clock resets to 30 seconds for you to repeat until failure. Your speed is amplified while cranked so things get nuts very quickly.
Then there's Search and Rescue, a variation of Search and Destroy, with a little Kill Confirmed thrown into the mix. It plays out just the same as S&D, where one team has to plant a bomb while the other has to defend. The twist now is that instead of being taken out of the match completely, there's a chance for you to come back. Killed players will drop a dog tag, and if a teammate recovers the tag you'll instantly respawn. If the enemy team get the tag though, then that player is out for good.
Visually, there's really nothing to write home about. Sure, certain parts of the map do look good — but nothing about this screamed "next-gen." I played Ghosts on the Xbox One (or at least a PC that was on par with the Xbox One specs) and couldn't help but laugh when thinking about how gorgeous something like Battlefield 4 or Titanfall will be in comparison. It's not bad-looking, of course — just don't go expecting the most realistic thing ever.
Thankfully the audio design is able to make up for the visuals as everything has been overhauled on that end. In reminded me a lot of Black Ops 1's audio design, and you're going to be able to really read where enemies are just by paying attention and listening. Along with that, your teammate's in-game audio will now specifically call out enemy locations instead of just giving you a general idea like in the past.
So yeah, that's the multiplayer in a giant nutshell. Lots on offer, and it'll certainly do the job of pleasing the Call of Duty audience. I will admit that I didn't think Infinity Ward was going to match the very high bar that Treyarch set with Black Ops II's multiplayer, but after some extensive hands-on time I can say they definitely nailed it.


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America's Most Beautiful Sunsets (Plus Deals to Get You There!)
From Montauk to Maui, from Denali to Daytona, the U.S. is blessed with beautiful scenery and jaw-dropping sunsets. And Contributing Editor Darley Newman, host of PBS's Equitrekking, has seen more beautiful sunsets than most. Here, a video of her top picks for the loveliest in the land, plus affordable deals to get you up close and personal with each sunset on the list!
Want to check out these amazing sunsets in person? Here are deals to get you to all of them:
How does six nights at the Ka'anapali Beach Hotel sound? Delta Vacations puts you right on the beach, including airfare, six nights, and hotel taxes for around $1,200 (depending on where you're flying from).
Spend some time exploring Arizona with an Expedia deal that includes airfare and five nights, usually for less than $700! The stunning Bradshaw Mountains are in Prescott National Forest, about a two-hour drive northwest of Phoenix.
The Marriott Ranch, in Hume, Virginia, is about 50 miles outside Washington, D.C., but is a decidedly rural environment. You can book day trips, including a "City Slickers" ranch experience, "Twilight Dinner Rides," and a four-night "Western Vacation Package (including all riding equipment) for under $700.
You can book a flight and three nights in Austin via Expedia, usually for under $500, and explore Hill Country must-sees like Fredericksburg (about a 90-minute drive due west), with its thriving wineries, inns, and restaurants.
The gorgeous sunsets behind freighters in the Soo Locks here are an unlikely pair, but it's all part of the spectacular landscape to be found around Lake Superior, the largest body of fresh water on earth. Fly into Minneapolis (typically under $400 on U.S. Airways from New York) and explore the lakeshore, including Minnesota, Michigan, and Ontario, at your own pace in a rental car.
From the sunny valleys to the mist-shrouded mountains, the warm days the cool nights, the climate in Northern California isn't just ideal for growing grapes but for the perfect romantic getaway as well! Gate 1 Travel offers package deals that include airfare, hotel, and car rental in San Francisco and wine country, often for less than $800!


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Neymar leads Barcelona to 2-1 win over Madrid
Neymar scored one goal and set up Alexis Sanchez's winning chip shot in the 78th minute, carrying Barcelona past Real Madrid 2-1 in the first ''clasico'' since the defending champions added Neymar and Real signed Gareth Bale.
With Lionel Messi oddly quiet for Barcelona, Neymar opened the scoring in the 19th minute from close range after a pass from Andres Iniesta. Two minutes earlier, Neymar struck the ball into the arms of Madrid goalkeeper Diego Lopez with the game's first shot.
''Scoring a goal in a clasico is very special,'' Neymar said. ''It's a game that everyone wants to play. It was like a dream come true.''
Neymar received an ovation when he was substituted with six minutes to go after a match in which the Brazilian striker clearly outshone Bale.
Neymar joined Barcelona this offseason for $76 million, a player who could represent the team's future in a distant post-Messi era. Bale, an attacking midfielder from Wales, signed with Real Madrid for a sum reported variously at $120 million and $132 million.
Barcelona coach Gerardo Martino, also making his clasico debut, was careful not to overpraise Neymar, while also giving credit to Messi for his work in defense.
''The transcendence of this game and the goal he scored magnified the level of his performance,'' Martino said about Neymar. ''But I think he has had better games than tonight. As far as what (Messi) did for the team to recover the ball, I give him a superlative mark.''
Bale failed to produce a shot on goal before being replaced by Karim Benzema with a half hour to go. Bale was limited to a pair of harmless long attempts that sailed high as Madrid failed to muster a shot on target until a minute before halftime.
Bale was making his second start of the season since being hampered by muscle injuries, but didn't prove effective in attack with Cristiano Ronaldo.
Benzema hit the woodwork before Sanchez took Neymar's pass and sealed the victory with an exquisite chip. Substitute Jese Rodriguez scored for Madrid in injury time on a counterattack.
Barcelona now has nine victories and one draw in the Spanish league, lifting it four points ahead of Atletico Madrid, which hosts Real Betis on Sunday.
Madrid is now six points back amid fresh doubts about the team under new coach Carlo Ancelotti following losses to both its league challengers. It lost 1-0 to Atletico last month.
''I think we showed good football in front of a fantastic team,'' Ancelotti said after his first clasico. ''Of course, we want to win this kind of game but at this moment it was a good test. We are improving.''


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Egypt's interim president retreats from naming ElBaradei Prime Minister
The appointment of former IAEA chief Mohamed Elbaradei for the post of Egypt's interim prime minister has been placed on hold as consultations with various political parties over the selection of an interim PM continue.
Speaking at an impromptu press conference held at Cairo's
Ittihadiya presidential palace, spokesman for interim President
Adly Mansour, Ahmed Musilamani, told reporters the presidency had
to take into account opposition to ElBaradei and denied that the
nomination of the Nobel Peace laureate was ever certain.
Earlier, the Tamarod movement which organized the mass protests that lead to the overthrow of Morsi on Wednesday, made the announcement after consultations with Adly Mansour, that Mohamed ElBaradei was appointed to be Egypt's interim Prime Minister.
The announcement was greeted with cheers from thousands of Tamarod supporters outside the presidential palace. They waited there for most of the day as ElBaradei spent Saturday in discussions with other chiefs of Egypt's new coalition, involving army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at the Ministry of Defense.
Meanwhile, the country's most prominent Islamist parties
expressed their opposition amid the news reports ElBaradei would
be appointed.
"The nomination of ElBaradei violates the roadmap that the political and national powers had agreed on with General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi," the deputy leader of the Nour Party, Ahmed Khalil told Al Ahram. The Nour Party is Egypt's second biggest Islamist group.
The Muslim Brotherhood, the country's largest Islamic party and supporters of former President Morsi also voiced their anger over ElBaradei's nomination, calling it "Washington's choice" and urged more protests on Sunday.
"We reject this coup and all that results from it, including
ElBaradei," a high-ranking official in the Freedom and
Justice Party, the Muslim Brotherhood's political wing, told
Presidential spokesman said that several options remain for the role of the interim Prime Minister but mentioned no other candidates. Musilamani also emphasized there was no set date for the appointment to be made.
The spokesman also said that the Muslim Brotherhood can take part in the coming elections.
"We extend our hand to everyone, everyone is a part of this nation," the spokesman told reporters. "The Muslim Brotherhood has plenty of opportunities to run for all elections including the coming presidential elections or the ones to follow."
But outside Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque in Nasr City, in Cairo, a nucleus of Morsi supporters demanded the army restore President Morsi to power. Following Friday and Saturday clashes where at least 36 people died and more than 1,000 were wounded, they staged a sit-in protest next to the barracks of the Republican Guards where the ousted president is believed to be held.
Following the ousting of President Morsi on Wednesday, tens of thousands of people marched across the country in what the Muslim Brotherhood movement called a "Friday of Rage". Street battles erupted with some of the worst violence seen on the streets of Alexandria, where 14 people lost their lives. Eight areas of Cairo have also witnessed street battles with anti-Morsi activists clashing with his supporters. In Cairo, three hours of street fighting eased after the army deployed troops and vehicles, to keep rival sides apart.


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For those of us who love a good ghost story, no matter what time of year it is, Frank E. Bittinger provides a fun holiday read with A Christmas Canticle.
Channeling Charles Dickens' novella A Christmas Carol for inspiration, Bittinger gives us his version of Ebenezer Scrooge - Bronson Ghostley, a demanding gothic horror author, paranormal television star, and all-around media personality who has no time for sentiment or holidays.
This twist on the familiar holiday tale has been up-dated to the 21st century complete with cell phones, DVDs and the internet. Although the story is predictable as to the purpose of the visiting spirits (And how could it not be?), Bittinger leads us along with enough interesting details that we accept Ghostley as a modern-day Scrooge.
His spin on Marley's ghost is unique and interesting, especially when you begin to understand the backstory of Ghostley's childhood. The Ghost of Christmas Past has a unique vision, offering Ghostley "two sides of the same coin." The Spirit of Christmas Present provides more illumination into what makes Ghostley tick, reminding him, and us, that "even when we can see, sometimes we are still blind."
The final spirit, the dreaded Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come, is a "real bite in the ass" according to Ghostley. But the death coach that propels Ghostley into the future does seem pretty cool!
All in all, A Christmas Canticle is an enjoyable holiday read offering a message that transcends religious ideology and simply asks that we treat our fellow man, woman, and the animals, with respect and caring.
[The Youngblood's 1960s song Get Together kept running through my mind as the perfect soundtrack for this book:
Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now]
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now]
|The Author and A Friend
Bittinger originally wrote his book as a Kindle exclusive to raise money for animals in need. Now available in paperback, a portion of the royalties from A Christmas Canticle are used to assist in rescuing and caring for animals that have been abused and neglected. So go ahead, order the book and enjoy the guilty pleasure of reading a rejuvenated Christmas novella by the fire knowing that you're helping to save lives, too.
A Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good read!
~ Joy
About the Author:
Over the centuries, Frank Bittinger has experienced many existences. In this incarnation, Mr. Bittinger is a vegan who lives and writes in Western Maryland, sharing his home with a menagerie of pets, several alternate personalities, and the occasional ghost. One of his favorite pastimes is taking walks in old cemeteries in the evening. Ancient Egypt holds a fascination for him; he has a scarab beetle tattoo between his shoulder blades as well as a collection of Egyptian items and books in his deep, dark red bedroom. Learn more about the author at his web site: http://www.frankebittinger.com
Book Details:
A Christmas Canticle by Frank E. Bittinger
Published and available at Amazon (2014)


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During this course, we will explore the primary components that are offered by Microsoft Azure Virtual Network under Microsoft Azure Resource Manager (ARM). This is sometimes known as IaaSv2. For the sake of clarity, this course does not cover IaaSv1, which is Microsoft Azure infrastructure services provisioned using the Azure Service Management (ASM) REST API. In addition to covering Azure Virtual Network concepts, we'll also demonstrate the deployment and management of these services using the Microsoft Azure Portal, Cross-Platform (xPlat) CLI Tool, and the Azure Resource Manager PowerShell module.
The components offered by Azure Virtual Network are:
Virtual Networks - Using Microsoft Azure Virtual Networks, you can deploy Azure services such as infrastrucutre Virtual Machine (IaaS), Redis Cache, and Web Apps. Each Virtual Network can have more than one overarching address space defined, and is subdivided into one or more subnets.
Network Security Groups - These are essentially Layer 4 (OSI model) firewall rules that allow you to limit the flow of network traffic at the Subnet and individual Network Interface layers. Each Network Security Group can contain up to 200 individual Network Security Rules, which allow or deny traffic, based on a variety of parameters, such as the source / destination IP address and ports, the network protocol, rule priority, and others. Network Security Groups must be created in the same Azure Region (Location) as the Virtual Network subnet that it will be associated with.
VPN Gateway - Using Microsoft Azure VPN Gateway, you can securely connect globally-distributed Virtual Networks together, as well as extending on-premises networks into the cloud. This scenario is known as Site-to-Site (S2S) connectivity, and is also commonly called "hybrid networking." You can also enable Point-to-Site (P2S) connectivity, where the "point" is a client device that connects directly to the Virtual Network, and and enables private access to network resources over a secure Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection. The P2S model is particularly useful for deploying lab environments in Microsoft Azure, that are only accessible through a private interface, or other cloud-based workloads that don't require public access.
Load Balancer - Using the Microsoft Azure Load Balancer, you can build and deploy geographically distributed, high performance, highly available applications. Load Balancers can be exposed publicly, through the use of a Public IP Address resource, or they can simply be deployed into a Virtual Network subnet for private, internal access. The Load Balancer health probe ensures the availability and health of the application, on each endpoint. Endpoints are dynamically added and removed from the Load Balancer's rotation.
Route Tables - Microsoft Azure Virtual Networks support custom Route Tables, allowing you to shape the flow of cloud-based network traffic. One of the more common use cases of custom Route Tables is to route all network traffic through a Virtual Appliance that is responsible for ensuring the security of network traffic. A Route Table can be created, by itself, directly inside an ARM Resource Group, but it must be associated with a Virtual Network subnet in order to take effect on network traffic.
Join us as we dive into Azure Virtual Network concepts, deployment, and management!
If you have thoughts or suggestions for this course, please contact Cloud Academy at email@example.com.
Transcript unavailable for this lecture.
Trevor Sullivan is a Microsoft MVP for Windows PowerShell, and enjoys working with cloud and automation technologies. As a strong, vocal veteran of the Microsoft-centric IT field since 2004, Trevor has developed open source projects, provided significant amounts of product feedback, authored a large variety of training resources, and presented at IT functions including worldwide user groups and conferences.


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THE WEEK FOLLOWING Christmas brought in a thaw, and by New Year's Day all the world about us was a broth of grey slush, and the guttered slope between the windmill and the barn was running black water. The soft black earth stood out in patches along the roadsides. I resumed all my chores, carried in the cobs and wood and water, and spent the afternoons at the barn, watching Jake shell corn with a hand-sheller.
One morning, during this interval of fine weather, Antonia and her mother rode over on one of their shaggy old horses to pay us a visit. It was the first time Mrs. Shimerda had been to our house, and she ran about examining our carpets and curtains and furniture, all the while commenting upon them to her daughter in an envious, complaining tone. In the kitchen she caught up an iron pot that stood on the back of the stove and said: `You got many, Shimerdas no got.' I thought it weak-minded of grandmother to give the pot to her.
After dinner, when she was helping to wash the dishes, she said, tossing her head: `You got many things for cook. If I got all things like you, I make much better.'
She was a conceited, boastful old thing, and even misfortune could not humble her. I was so annoyed that I felt coldly even toward Antonia and listened unsympathetically when she told me her father was not well.
`My papa sad for the old country. He not look good. He never make music any more. At home he play violin all the time; for weddings and for dance. Here never. When I beg him for play, he shake his head no. Some days he take his violin out of his box and make with his fingers on the strings, like this, but never he make the music. He don't like this kawntree.'
`People who don't like this country ought to stay at home,' I said severely. `We don't make them come here.'
`He not want to come, never!' she burst out. `My mamenka make him come. All the time she say: "America big country; much money, much land for my boys, much husband for my girls." My papa, he cry for leave his old friends what make music with him. He love very much the man what play the long horn like this'-- she indicated a slide trombone. "They go to school together and are friends from boys. But my mama, she want Ambrosch for be rich, with many cattle.'
`Your mama,' I said angrily, `wants other people's things.'
"Your grandfather is rich," she retorted fiercely. `Why he not help my papa? Ambrosch be rich, too, after while, and he pay back. He is very smart boy. For Ambrosch my mama come here.'
Ambrosch was considered the important person in the family. Mrs. Shimerda and Antonia always deferred to him, though he was often surly with them and contemptuous toward his father. Ambrosch and his mother had everything their own way. Though Antonia loved her father more than she did anyone else, she stood in awe of her elder brother.
After I watched Antonia and her mother go over the hill on their miserable horse, carrying our iron pot with them, I turned to grandmother, who had taken up her darning, and said I hoped that snooping old woman wouldn't come to see us any more.
Grandmother chuckled and drove her bright needle across a hole in Otto's sock. `She's not old, Jim, though I expect she seems old to you. No, I wouldn't mourn if she never came again. But, you see, a body never knows what traits poverty might bring out in 'em. It makes a woman grasping to see her children want for things. Now read me a chapter in "The Prince of the House of David." Let's forget the Bohemians.'
We had three weeks of this mild, open weather. The cattle in the corral ate corn almost as fast as the men could shell it for them, and we hoped they would be ready for an early market. One morning the two big bulls, Gladstone and Brigham Young, thought spring had come, and they began to tease and butt at each other across the barbed wire that separated them. Soon they got angry. They bellowed and pawed up the soft earth with their hoofs, rolling their eyes and tossing their heads. Each withdrew to a far corner of his own corral, and then they made for each other at a gallop. Thud, thud, we could hear the impact of their great heads, and their bellowing shook the pans on the kitchen shelves. Had they not been dehorned, they would have torn each other to pieces. Pretty soon the fat steers took it up and began butting and horning each other. Clearly, the affair had to be stopped. We all stood by and watched admiringly while Fuchs rode into the corral with a pitchfork and prodded the bulls again and again, finally driving them apart.
The big storm of the winter began on my eleventh birthday, the twentieth of January. When I went down to breakfast that morning, Jake and Otto came in white as snow-men, beating their hands and stamping their feet. They began to laugh boisterously when they saw me, calling:
`You've got a birthday present this time, Jim, and no mistake. They was a full-grown blizzard ordered for you.'
All day the storm went on. The snow did not fall this time, it simply spilled out of heaven, like thousands of featherbeds being emptied. That afternoon the kitchen was a carpenter-shop; the men brought in their tools and made two great wooden shovels with long handles. Neither grandmother nor I could go out in the storm, so Jake fed the chickens and brought in a pitiful contribution of eggs.
Next day our men had to shovel until noon to reach the barn-- and the snow was still falling! There had not been such a storm in the ten years my grandfather had lived in Nebraska. He said at dinner that we would not try to reach the cattle-- they were fat enough to go without their corn for a day or two; but tomorrow we must feed them and thaw out their water-tap so that they could drink. We could not so much as see the corrals, but we knew the steers were over there, huddled together under the north bank. Our ferocious bulls, subdued enough by this time, were probably warming each other's backs. `This'll take the bile out of 'em!' Fuchs remarked gleefully.
At noon that day the hens had not been heard from. After dinner Jake and Otto, their damp clothes now dried on them, stretched their stiff arms and plunged again into the drifts. They made a tunnel through the snow to the hen-house, with walls so solid that grandmother and I could walk back and forth in it. We found the chickens asleep; perhaps they thought night had come to stay. One old rooster was stirring about, pecking at the solid lump of ice in their water-tin. When we flashed the lantern in their eyes, the hens set up a great cackling and flew about clumsily, scattering down-feathers. The mottled, pin-headed guinea-hens, always resentful of captivity, ran screeching out into the tunnel and tried to poke their ugly, painted faces through the snow walls. By five o'clock the chores were done just when it was time to begin them all over again! That was a strange, unnatural sort of day.
We care about eBooks because we care about the environment.
Copyright © 2000-2019 Literature Project. All Rights Reserved.


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When a politician on the campaign trail claims, "I'm just quoting, I'm just quoting" something from the opposition, you can bet your bottom dollar they probably aren't. Barack Obama insisted in his North Carolina speech on Tuesday that he was just quoting an unnamed Republican Congresswoman who supposedly attacked students for running up debt:
She said she had 'very little tolerance for people who tell me they graduate with debt because there's no reason for that.' I'm just quoting here, I'm just quoting.
She said students who rack up student loan debt are just 'sitting on their butts having opportunity dumped in your lap.' I'm reading it here. So I didn't make this up.
Well, actually, Obama wasn't quoting Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), at least not accurately, and so he did make up his assertion. As Katrina Trinko reported for National Review, Foxx wasn't claiming that she couldn't tolerate any students who took out student loans. What she did say was that she had no tolerance for students who take out $80,000 or more in debt to get overly expensive education and then later claim poverty when it comes time to pay:
"I have very little tolerance for people who tell me that they graduate with $200,000 of debt or even $80,000 of debt because there's no reason for that," Foxx continued. "We live in an opportunity society and people are forgetting that. I remind folks all the time that the Declaration of Independence says 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' You don't sit on your butt and have it dumped in your lap."
How many of those who owe student-loan debt rise to that level? Trinko did a little research:
According to a recent study by the New York Fed, 94 percent of student-loan debtors owe $75,000 or less. (Forty-three percent owe $10,000 or less.) So, Foxx was talking about a very small percentage — 6 percent! — of the student-loan debtor population, not all students.
But by omitting that crucial phrase — and Obama did not acknowledge he had omitted any of the quote — the president made Foxx appear to to be lambasting all students who graduate with debt, not the small percentage who graduate with $80,000 or more.
And actually, Foxx's advice is a lot more helpful than Obama's to these students. Does Obama want young adults to get out of college with $200,000 in debt that they likely will never fully retire, leaving them financially crippled and unable to buy a house even if they get a decent-paying job? Why does Obama hate students?
Or perhaps even more to the point, himself (via Jim Geraghty):
As Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Tribune wrote during the last campaign, Obama worked his way through college and law school – including jobs selling trinkets, making sandwiches at a deli in Hawaii and working as a telemarketer pitching subscriptions to The New York Times. Michelle's early jobs included work as a camp counselor and a typist/assistant for the American Medical Association. In the early years, nobody would call the Obamas rich.
But according to their tax returns, which are available on the White House website, the Obamas had a healthy, six-figure income by the year 2000 (the earliest return available). And for at least two years before his loans were paid off, Obama, by his own definition, made so much they were wealthy enough to pay higher taxes.
Here's a rundown of the president's income, according to his tax returns, in the years before he paid off his student loans:
2004: $207,647
2003: $238,327
2002: $259,394
2001: $272,759
2000: $240,505
In 2001 and 2002, the Obamas would have met the $250,000 standard the president has set for those wealthy enough to afford to pay more taxes.
It's also notable that the Obamas didn't claim deductions for student loans on any of those years, most likely because they made too much money to qualify for the student loan deduction.
So even when he was "rich," Obama couldn't quite retire the student loans — and most of those students who fall into the high-debt category won't win public office and write memoirs for extra income. Wasn't that Foxx's actual point?
Of course, this is the same President who wants to force all of these young adults to buy expensive comprehensive health insurance that they don't need in order to subsidize premiums for 45-64 year olds, too. Pushing young adults into indentured servitude seems to be a habit of his.
Got an Obamateurism of the Day? If you see a foul-up by Barack Obama, e-mail it to me at [email protected] with the quote and the link to the Obamateurism. I'll post the best Obamateurisms on a daily basis, depending on how many I receive. Include a link to your blog, and I'll give some link love as well. And unlike Slate, I promise to end the feature when Barack Obama leaves office.
Illustrations by Chris Muir of Day by Day. Be sure to read the adventures of Sam, Zed, Damon, and Jan every day!


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The launch of Diablo III was marred by controversy and technical problems, but those have long since blown over. It's been five years. After an expansion and innumerable patches, the game seems to have settled comfortably into its final form. So now is probably a good time to pick this thing apart and see what Blizzard decided to do with the sequel to one of the greatest PC games of all time.
In this three-part series I'm going to look at Diablo 3 on both a cinematic and gameplay level. But first let's talk about…
The Legacy of Diablo
The original Diablo came out in 1996. It was so influential that it was seen as the father of a genre. I don't know if it was actually the first game in this particular style, but it was recognized as such to the point where the others were called "Diablo clones". I think we're over that now. Instead the culture has decided that the genre is named ARPG. (See, it's not like all those other RPG titles. It's an ACTION RPG.) While I hate to see the already-muddled term "RPG" stretched even further, I suppose this is better than "Diablo clone".
In any case, Diablo looked almost like isometric survival horror. With its macabre scenery, haunting ambient sounds, smothering darkness, and grim endingThe hero sacrificed themselves to contain the titular demon., it was a tense experience focused on creating a sense of dread. You could argue that maybe the foreboding tone was at odds with the treasure-hunting gameplay loop, but the experience seemed to work for the folks in 1996.
Four years later, Blizzard followed up with the sequel. Diablo 2 was of similar tone to the original, although the visuals weren't quite as pervasively dark. The scope was larger, the gameplay was more varied, and it seemed to have more of the ingredients that made the first title such a hit.
Diablo 2 was not instantly recognized as a classic when it hit the market in June of 2000. Gamespot gave it 8.5/10, IGN gave it 8.3, and Gamespy gave it 86/100. That's amazingly consistent by the standards of review scores, and yet surprisingly low given its reputation today.
In 2012 – long after Gamestop had lost interest in the PC and decided they wanted to run console gaming pawn shops – you could still find the Diablo 2 BattlechestThese days it would simply be called the "Game of the Year Edition". It was the core game along with the expansion. in their stores. Their entire PC "section" was usually half a shelf of AAA titles, but somehow on that tiny shelf they always managed to find room for the 12 year old Diablo 2.
It's not hard to understand why. At release it became the fastest selling PC game in history, moving over a million units in the first week. Even eight years later it was still relevant on the sales charts as the 19th best selling PC game of 2008.
Diablo 2 was videogame malaria. You'd think you had it beat, but then out of nowhere the symptoms would re-emerge and you'd find yourself clicking away until 3 a.m., to the detriment of your career and relationships. Symptoms would usually last for a few weeks and then vanish again.
In the Diablo 2 postmortem, project lead Erich Schaefer said, "Diablo II never had an official, complete design document… for the most part we just started making up new stuff." You'd never guess that by playing the game. Diablo 2 had all the hallmarks of a Blizzard title at the time. It was beautiful, smooth, incredibly polished, completely intuitive, and relentlessly fun.
And then they made a sequel.
The Long-Awaited Sequel
Twelve years is a long time to wait for a sequel. Everyone made fun of Duke Nukem Forever for the unbelievable time it took, but the wait between Duke Nukem 3D and Duke Nukem Forever was only three years longer than the wait between Diablo 2 and Diablo 3. There were multiple industry revolutions in that expanse of time, so it's natural that the long-awaited Diablo 3 would be different from its predecessor. Having said that, I'm kind of surprised at how much they changed.
If you squint you can see the family resemblance, but Diablo 3 does look very different from its grandfather and the two games have vastly different personalities. While there are lots of dead bodies around, Diablo 3 doesn't have its grandsire's morbid fascination with impaled corpses and general body horror. The "satanic" imagery is basically gone, and the overall tone has shifted from tension to empowerment. The entire pace of the gameplay is different. In Diablo 1 you might stop and squint at the movement of a single foe at the edge of your torch radius. In Diablo 3 you'll storm into a room by blasting open the door and obliterate a dozen foes in a single sweep.
I'm not suggesting this change in tone was bad, accidental, or even wrong. Blizzard made exactly the game they wanted to. But it's a very different game than the one that made the series such a hit.
It's always hard to revive a series after a decade like this. Change too little and people will claim you're stuck in the past and clinging to old ideas. Change too much and people will claim you've lost sight of what made the series great to begin with. On top of that there's the problem that Diablo games are a two-headed beast that tries to appeal to two different audiences at the same time.
A Tale of Two Diablos
Much like another famous Blizzard title, Diablo is a game divided between two very different groups of players. The first group is a stream of casual content consumers. They show up, plow through the story content, and then leave until something external (a patch, an expansion, nostalgia, or their friends) lures them back for more story. They choose abilities based on how fun they feel or how cool they look and aren't inclined to crunch numbers or read wikis to maximize their power.
The other group is here for the "end game" grind. They want to push up against the more challenging content designed for high-level players. They care less about story and more about mechanics. For them the game is a continuous labor of optimization. They're always looking for a better build, better gear, and fresh strategies.
These are broad stereotypes of course. Not everyone fits neatly into these two groupsBy necessity the second group is largely comprised of people who began as part of the first group.. But in the macro sense it's true enough. The trick here is that for one group the game ends at the level cap, while the other group views that as the start.
I've played through the story once with a wizard and then about halfway through with a couple of the other classes. For the "content consumer" players this is a very thorough exploration of the game, and for the other group I literally haven't even gotten to the "good part" yet, which is grinding for items to make various specialty builds.
Next week I'll talk about the gameplay and see what Blizzard decided to do with the Diablo formula.
[2] The hero sacrificed themselves to contain the titular demon.
[3] These days it would simply be called the "Game of the Year Edition". It was the core game along with the expansion.
[4] By necessity the second group is largely comprised of people who began as part of the first group.
A video discussing Megatexture technology. Why we needed it, what it was supposed to do, and why it maybe didn't totally work.
Two minutes of fun at the expense of a badly-run theme park.
Netscape 1997
What did web browsers look like 20 years ago, and what kind of crazy features did they have?
Do It Again, Stupid
One of the highest-rated games of all time has some of the least interesting gameplay.
Lost Laughs in Leisure Suit Larry
Why was this classic adventure game so funny in the 80's, and why did it stop being funny?


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Estimate how long the upgrade process will take and the space that you need (SharePoint Server 2010)
Applies to: SharePoint Server 2010
An important part of planning your upgrade from Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 is determining how long the upgrade process will take and how much storage space will be required. Every environment is unique and includes different hardware capabilities and different site characteristics. The space and the length of time that you need to run an upgrade will vary greatly depending on your environment. The best way to estimate these factors is to perform a trial upgrade, and then review the space and time that it took. For more information about how to perform a trial upgrade, see Use a trial upgrade to find potential issues (SharePoint Server 2010).
In this article:
Estimate the space that you need for the upgrade
Estimate how long the upgrade will take
Estimate the space that you need for the upgrade
During both the in-place upgrade and database attach upgrade approaches, the databases might expand during upgrade. Also, many transactions take place while the upgrade process runs, so you must make sure that the log files have room to expand to accommodate the changes that are occurring. You have to plan for growth in both the databases and the log files.
When planning your upgrade, make sure that your current environment follows the best practices for storage for Office SharePoint Server 2007 so that you have the best experience and performance during upgrade. For more information, see Physical storage recommendations (Office SharePoint Server). You should also review the best practices for SharePoint Server 2010 and make any adjustments needed to your upgraded environment.
Because of the changes in table structures in the new version, the databases grow temporarily while the data is reorganized. This space can be recovered after upgrade, but you should ensure that there is room for the databases to grow up to 50 percent larger than their current sizes during either an in-place or database attach upgrade (be aware that after upgrade, you can reduce the database again to recover much of this space). You should also make sure that there is room on your database servers for your databases to grow over time with typical use. To find out how large your databases currently are, use Enterprise Manager in Microsoft SQL Server. In addition to database space, you also must have room for the following items:
The temporary databases. Ensure that you have enough database space to enable quick growth of the temporary databases. If you have insufficient space, the upgrade process might time out and the upgrade will fail.
The upgrade log files.
The transaction log files for the databases. These log files must grow quickly to accommodate the number of changes occurring in the databases.
In very large environments, there is a possibility that the default growth rate for the transaction log files (10 percent) is not enough to keep up with the upgrade process; this can cause a time-out. Again, a trial upgrade is the best way to determine whether the transaction log files can keep up with the upgrade process. If your environment is very large, or if the process timed out during a trial upgrade, consider expanding the SQL Server transaction log files beforehand to make sure you have room for the number of transactions that must be processed. For more information about how to expand the SQL Server transaction logs, see Expanding a Database (SQL Server 2005) (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=182619) or Expanding a Database (SQL Server 2008) (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=182620).
Estimate how long the upgrade will take
With your disk space estimates in hand, and some testing under your belt, you can now calculate a rough estimate of how long the actual upgrade process will take. Upgrade times vary widely among environments. The performance for an upgrade depends greatly on the hardware being used, the complexity of the sites, and the particular characteristics of your implementation. For example, if you have many large document libraries, these may take longer to upgrade than a simpler site.
Factors that influence performance are described in the following table.
|Content factors
|Hardware factors
The number of:
Plus the overall database size itself.
How your data is structured can affect how long it takes to upgrade it. For example, 10,000 lists with 10 items each will have a longer upgrade time than 10 lists with 10,000 items. The actions required to upgrade the list infrastructure must be performed for each list, regardless of the number of items; therefore, more lists equals more actions. The same goes for most of the items in the "content factors" column in the table above.
The structure of your hardware can also have a big effect on performance. Generally, the database server performance is more important than Web server performance, but underpowered hardware or connectivity issues at either tier can significantly affect upgrade performance.
The upgrade approach you have chosen will also make a big difference in how long the process will take. Performing a database attach upgrade is the quickest method (however, the pre-upgrade and post-upgrade steps for this approach take longer than for in-place upgrade). An in-place upgrade takes a little more time because you are upgrading the environment in addition to the sites, but you do not have as many pre-upgrade and post-upgrade steps when you use this approach.
The best way to estimate overall time is to do a trial upgrade of a small part or all of the data, and then review the upgrade log files. The log files contain the duration for your upgrade — look for Total Elapsed Time at the bottom of the upgrade log file. Use this time to project a duration for your full set of content. You can also use the log files to check your progress during the upgrade process. The upgrade.log file is located at %COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\14\LOGS.
The estimate you arrive at based on your trial upgrade is for the actual upgrade process for the data; it does not include all of the steps that you have to perform before and after this step, which can take more time than the upgrade of the data itself. When estimating how long the upgrade will take, in addition to the time that is required for data to be processed, you must also estimate how long the activities during the pre-upgrade and post-upgrade phases will take.
For pre-upgrade steps, consider the following factors:
Creating custom elements Upgrading Web Parts or re-doing custom templates to take advantage of new features will take some time. The process of creating custom elements should begin early, during the evaluation phase of your project.
Backing up the databases For in-place upgrade, you must perform a full backup — not a differential backup — of your entire environment to make sure that you can recover in the remote possibility that the upgrade fails and you must rebuild your server farm. For large environments, this step can take a significant amount of time. In particular, if you are backing up to a network location, network latency issues can slow this process down.
For post-upgrade steps, consider the following factors:
Verifying sites and making changes Allow enough time for users to validate their sites after the upgrade. This may take several days. For more information, see Verify upgrade and review upgraded sites (SharePoint Server 2010).
Creating service applications and configuring services This step only applies during a database attach upgrade (during an in-place upgrade, the service applications are created as part of the upgrade process). Creating service applications and configuring services does not take long; however, if you need to contact a database administrator to pre-create the databases for you, you might need a day or two of lead time.
Converting profile properties to taxonomy data and updating the photo store for User Profile services You must convert user profile properties that include choice lists to use taxonomy features provided by the Managed Metadata service. Depending on the number of user profiles in your environment, these steps can add one or more hours to the upgrade process.
Running a people crawl For large organizations, this step can take more than 24 hours.
Running a search crawl on all content For large sites, this step can take more than 24 hours.
Additional factors in your environment can also contribute to longer upgrade times, including the following:
Very large document libraries A document library with more than 250,000 documents all in the root of the document library (instead of in folders) will take a long time to upgrade, and the upgrade might not be successful. Following the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 guidelines for using folders to break up large document libraries can help you manage the library size. For example, if you rearrange the same document library so that the 250,000 documents are divided into 125 folders, it should upgrade more easily.
Very large databases Databases larger than 100 GB can take a long time to upgrade.
If you have content databases that are larger than 100 GB and include mixed site types (such as My Sites and team sites together with published sites), we recommend that you divide them up into smaller databases that contain a consistent type of data before you run the upgrade. Larger databases not only take longer to upgrade, but they can make it harder to recover if the upgrade is not completed successfully.
You can use the mergecontentdbs or the backup and restore operations in Stsadm.exe to move sites between databases. For more information, see Mergecontentdbs: Stsadm operation (Office SharePoint Server) and Backup and restore: Stsadm operations (Office SharePoint Server).
If you have a very large database (more than 100 GB) that you cannot break up because most of the content is in a single site collection, you may want to reconsider your upgrade approach. A database attach upgrade approach is more difficult with very large databases, because backing up and restoring such large databases is problematic.
Be sure that you are following the capacity planning guidelines from the previous and new versions before you attempt the upgrade. If you have exceeded the guidelines for best performance, the upgrade process might take longer, or it might not succeed (for example, the process might time out repeatedly on the same large document library). If your deployment does not meet the recommended capacity guidelines, consider whether you need to do some work to meet those guidelines before you try the upgrade. Again, a trial upgrade can help you with that decision.
Communications requirements
You need to notify your users and your team of the upgrade schedule, and give them time to do their tasks. For more information, see Create a communication plan (SharePoint Server 2010).
Managing system center alerts and alarms
You need to monitor system performance during upgrade, but you will not need to monitor specific features. Pause any unnecessary alarms and alerts from Microsoft Systems Center Operations Manager or Microsoft Operations Manager, and then turn them on again after upgrade.
Turning SQL mirroring and log shipping on/off
You should turn off mirroring and log shipping before you upgrade, and then turn them on again after you are sure that your environment is running correctly after the upgrade. We recommend that you do not run mirroring or log shipping during upgrade, because this creates additional load on the servers running SQL Server and also wastes resources mirroring or shipping temporary data.
Test your upgrade process to find out how long it may take, then create a schedule for your upgrade operations and test that to determine your timeline. You should include the time that you need to do the pre-upgrade and post-upgrade steps in your operations timeline: If it takes 5 hours to back up your environment before you start, you need to include that time in your outage window. Also include buffer time in case you need to restore or recover — you should determine both your planned outage (realistic case) and your emergency outage (worst case) timelines.
See Also
Other Resources
Downloadable book: Upgrading to SharePoint Server 2010
Resource Center: Upgrade and Migration for SharePoint Server 2010


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Mobile Artistry
As I continue my Photo Art journey, I am also learning how to use my iPhone and Apps to create Photo Art! One of the courses I am currently enrolled in focuses on using your iPhone for picture taking and learning how to use the many photo Apps on the market. It took me awhile to cross over to this form of artistry because I was so set on always using my DSLR. I thought it was "cheating" to use these Apps! But as I have learned, it still takes a creative eye to use these Apps (and usually more than just one) to create something really unique. I am still learning and experimenting with this method of artistry and finding it a way to keep creating when I am not able to use my MAC or Mac Book to work on my art.Read More