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We've all had this same discussion. Who would win in a fight between Batman and Superman? NetherRealm Studios — the development team behind the successful 2011 reboot of the Mortal Kombat franchise — was kind enough to create Injustice: Gods Among Us, a fighting game almost specifically designed to answer that one burning question. Drawing much influence from Ed Boon's most famous video game creation, all of the fights here are one-on-one two-dimensional battles between you and your opponent. Featuring 24 classic DC comic heroes and villains, Injustice is a fast-paced hard-hitting spectacle that doesn't disappoint.
Much like Mortal Kombat, Injustice features a single player story mode that has you fighting through 12 chapters as a number of different characters. While not all of the fighters are playable during story mode, it's a great way to get a feel for many of the different playing styles. As you work your way through, you will also gain experience points and level up. While levelling does not enhance your characters in any way, it does earn you access cards that can then be used to unlock additional play modes, accessories to customize your hero card — which is visible to online opponents — and character skins.
The story starts out in an alternate dimension where the Joker tricks Superman into killing Lois Lane and their unborn child. Unable to control his rage, Superman kills the Joker and eventually creates a new world order in which he rules with an iron fist. Other members of the Justice League have either joined the tyrannical Superman or have gone into hiding until they find a way to bridge the inter-dimensional gap and bring alternate versions of themselves over to help in the fight against the Kryptonian tyrant. Truthfully, it's all very confusing, and having multiple versions of the same characters on-screen during cinematic sequences doesn't help clarify anything, but that doesn't really diminish the excitement of the plot. It may be convoluted, but the story is also full of the action, betrayals, secret alliances and genuinely funny one-liners that fans of comic heroes will find familiar. The campaign is relatively short, and can be completed in under three hours, but its just long enough to remain interesting without having the plot feel as though it is dragging itself out for the sake of squeezing in every character.
During battles and the movie sequences that string the campaign together, Injustice looks and sounds great. The characters and environments are detailed and — even during some of the more action-heavy portions — there is little change in the frame rate. The soundtrack does well to reflect the intensity of the battles and plays to the emotions being conveyed. There's also an absolutely fantastic cast behind the characters' voices, including Kevin Conroy, Adam Baldwin, Phil LaMarr and Tara Strong. It's obvious that as much care was put into crafting this game as a cinematic experience as was put into the gameplay mechanics themselves.
Injustice is controlled similarly to many basic fighting games, with the left stick or D-Pad controlling movement and light, medium, and heavy attacks attributed to different face buttons. There is also a fourth attack linked to the A button that can result in strength boosts or weapon enhancements, depending on your character. Performing character-specific special moves requires a combination of directional and attack inputs, but none are particularly difficult to pull off. Players have the option of using the GamePad's smaller screen to display a list of their character's combos, or it can be used for off-screen play instead. Different attacks can be strung together to create longer combos, but this fighter is mostly concerned with huge attacks and figuring out the right time to unleash them. Because of this, Injustice tends to be more accessible for players who may be unfamiliar with the genre. The downside is that serious fans of fighting games might miss the necessity of timing their attacks against their opponents, but that's not to say that players of all skill levels won't enjoy the over-the-top gameplay.
Despite the similarities to Mortal Kombat and other major fighting franchises, Injustice does have some elements that make it stand out in the genre. You and your opponent each have two health bars, and a third bar on the bottom of the screen called a Super Meter. Your Super Meter will gradually fill up when you take damage or execute combo attacks. Portions of this energy can be used in bursts by pressing the ZR button after performing special moves, or you can wait for your Meter to fully charge and press ZL and ZR together to execute a super move. Each character has a super move specific to them that shows off their superpowers — or lack thereof — and causes a huge amount of damage. Players can also use their super meters to initiate a clash with their opponent. During a clash, both players wager a portion of their super meter, with the player who wagers the most winning the clash and gaining a slight health bonus. From shocking your opponent with a lightning bolt as Black Adam to launching them into the stratosphere with a mighty uppercut from Superman, the super moves and clashes are easily the coolest and most flashy elements of this game.
Also adding to the grandiose sense of battles is that the stages are both interactive and contain multiple battlefields. How your character interacts with certain elements of the battlefield depends on what type of fighter he or she may be. For example, while Catwoman may nimbly propel herself off of a car parked in the background to dodge her opponent, a stronger fighter such as Bane would instead pick the car up and use it as a projectile weapon. There are many different interactive sections in each stage, and finding these and using them effectively in battle adds both challenge and variety to the gameplay. In the environments that contain multiple arenas, connecting your opponent with a strong blow near the edge of the stage will sometimes send them crashing through the wall Dead or Alive-style, delivering damage and eventually leading them to a separate area to battle. Much like the interactive elements, finding and utilizing these stage transitions can put you at a distinct advantage over your opponent.
Though the campaign may be short, there are plenty of other single player elements to explore. The area where the majority of players will spend most of their time is working on the Battles and S.T.A.R. Labs. Battles reflect the classic arcade style gameplay in which you fight a series of enemies without cinematic plot points breaking up the action. There are 20 different types of battles that can be unlocked by using access cards, all of which have different rules to challenge players and test their skills. For instance, Poisoned battles have you taking on your enemies as your health gradually diminishes, and Countdown challenges you to defeat each of your opponents in under 30 seconds. Among the Battles is Classic mode that is a simple series of fights without extra rules or restrictions, but completing Classic mode with any character will unlock their individual secret ending to the Injustice saga.
Unlike the Battles, S.T.A.R. Labs are mission-based activities that have you performing a series of very specific actions as each different character — almost like an extended training mode — but with difficulty levels that can be somewhat unforgiving. Some missions have you executing a series of combos, while others restrict you to only use certain attacks to defeat an enemy or defend a civilian. Upon completing a mission, you will be rewarded between one and three S.T.A.R.s, depending on your performance, which are then used to unlock further missions. There are 240 missions in total, so those players with the urge to complete every task at hand will definitely have their work cut out for them.
As is par for the course with modern fighting games, another major element is the online multiplayer. There are a few different multiplayer modes available, such as ranked one-on-one matches with leaderboards and King of the Hill and Survivor games that add certain twists to the classic formula. Online matches load quickly and play smoothly, making it easy to jump from battle to battle without feeling like you're wasting too much time waiting to find a match. Just like the campaign and other single player modes, you will gain experience from playing online matches, ultimately unlocking more goodies.
Injustice also supports local multiplayer, with one player using the GamePad and the other playing with the Wii U Pro Controller. The Wii Classic Controller is also supported, so anyone wanting to engage in some local multiplayer action won't have to shell out for the Pro Controller. Support for the Classic Controller via a Wii Remote also means that FightSticks made for the Wii work with this as well, making a great combination for those players looking for a truer arcade experience.
Though this may be a well-crafted fighter with a lot to offer, that doesn't mean that it is without its fallacies. The two major issues plaguing Injustice are imbalanced characters and wavering difficulty spikes. Both of these are issues that could easily be overcome with a future patch of the game, but until that happens, the fact remains that certain characters and battles are simply unfair. Beyond that, however, Injustice provides a mostly seamless experience.
Though it may share many similarities with 2011's Mortal Kombat reboot, Injustice: Gods Among Us is a fun and fresh fighting game that stands well on its own merits. The distinctive and fun gameplay comprising of huge attacks coupled with flashy power moves makes this an accessible fighter for genre veterans as well as newcomers who might simply enjoy the idea of pitting their favorite DC heroes and villains against one another. Between the single and multiplayer modes, Injustice offers a robust experience with much variety and a whole lot to keep you busy. Whether you're pummelling your opponent through the core of the Earth as Doomsday or smashing a car over Aquaman's head, it is very satisfying having so much power in your hands.


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Facing Facts
Artists Have to be Entrepreneurs
In the summer of 2010 I performed in my first ever Fringe Festival. I had known about the Fringe circuit for a long time. I had volunteered at the San Francisco Fringe as a technician ten years earlier where I saw some of the worst theatre in my life. It was at that point (at the ripe age of twenty-five) when I decided to stop pursuing theatre the way I had previously. By this point I had created three solo shows and directed a play I wrote, but when I moved to the Bay Area something changed. I had taken on jobs in arts admin and tech and got totally burned out by what I was witnessing, not to mention how jaded I felt about what I saw on my own.
So there I was in Boulder in 2010, where I had attended college at Naropa University. My friends from that time period had gone on to found this Fringe. My show was all about my dealings with the New Age movement and Boulder was the perfect place to test out the Fringe waters. My days were super long, around twelve to sixteen hours of running around to various venues as well as performing and networking. My schedule was highlighted with multiple notes of what shows I should stand outside of and postcard, where I could interact with audience members so that my show hopefully got stuck in their heads. Also, I had grown older and my indifference had transformed back towards curiosity. I was seeing quality theatre, shows that were inspiring me, making me laugh and cry. I was connecting with a batch of amazing people and being constantly reminded why I had fallen in love with the live arts in the first place. I was coming back home to theatre and my heart was open.
My interest in so many subjects, my ability to juggle various administrative duties, to change focus quickly and see how things overlap, to realize when to drop an idea that wasn't panning out... this way of being in the world wasn't scattered, it was actually entrepreneurial.
While I was in line with a bunch of other artists waiting to get into a show that was quickly filling up, I started a conversation with a new friend who was in the MFA program for Contemporary Performance at Naropa. I was going on and on about all the things I was noticing in the field that I had to stay on top of in order to do this full time. As I started listing the intertwined aspects of marketing, fundraising, visual branding, PR, creating a database of donors, and networking, I watched her brow crinkle in both confusion and curiosity.
I discovered that she didn't really know what I was talking about.
"They still aren't teaching this stuff?" I asked, blown away. She just shook her head.
"Would you be up for meeting with me and some of my class to talk about the business?" she asked.
The next thing I knew I was creating a syllabus of information to share. In my friend's small living room I disseminated information to about six people. Another friend, Karen, (who was in charge of finances for the Fringe at the time) joined me. At one point she stopped me. "Hold on," she said. "How many of you know how to write a press release?" Not one hand was raised. "Wow...," she said. My jaw dropped. I mean, I didn't learn how to write a press release in college either, but I graduated in '97 with a BA from this school. Now they had a master's degree in how to be a very present weirdo on stage, and not one of these people who was going into their last year had this basic tool in their tool box.
When I got back home I wrote down everything one would need to know in order to self-produce their work. The list was long, because as I had already learned years back, this was a full-time job. When I was twenty-five I wasn't ready for what it would take to put myself out in the world in this capacity. I just wanted to create new works and perform them. All the business stuff freaked me out. After flailing about for almost a decade I realized that I had built up the skill set through various other jobs and life circumstances to actually go forward in this way, and my skin had thickened due to consistent rejection and indifference. My interest in so many subjects, my ability to juggle various administrative duties, to change focus quickly and see how things overlapped, to realize when to drop an idea that wasn't panning out... this way of being in the world wasn't scattered, it was actually entrepreneurial.
How do you run a crowdfunding campaign that doesn't make your friends block you on Facebook? How do you identify and brand your work? How do you really figure out who your audience is? How do you have a good working relationship with the press?
I created a course outline and named the crash course The Nuts and Bolts of Being a Performing Artist. I asked people who were currently in school or who had just graduated whether they were learning anything about the business side of the performing arts. All I heard was a resounding no. I developed a pitch for the course and started contacting various service organizations that helped artists, as well as performing arts programs at colleges, and started to gain some traction. What stood out were the people who saw the inherent value in making this information available to current students and working artists, and those who didn't.
"Why don't universities make this a mandatory part of the curriculum?" asked one performing arts student during one of my workshops.
"Academic narcissism," I said without a beat.
The blind spot of most college professors needs to be understood for what it is. A lot of college teachers who are tenure track have been in school their whole lives. Creating their own work has been in the context of academia and the relationship to both process and theory. Practitioners in the academy always have a place to rehearse and develop new work. They don't have to worry whether people attend the performance and if it will break even or not. When showing a new work, they are part of an infrastructure that already subsidizes them. The business skill set doesn't seem to fit into "What Would Artaud Do?" They are focused on students building a performance skill set. I've actually heard some of these well-meaning professors say "If they want that information, they can take a course with the business school."
There are two fundamental problems with that attitude. One, it treats this critical information as "other." Art doesn't mix with business. Which is just not the case. That's simply xenophobic arrogance. When you come to terms with the fact that most MFA programs are mills churning out the future waitstaff of America, you may feel pangs of guilt instead of writing off how inherently important it is to choose the photo that pops for a show poster. Two, most business people speak in a foreign language that right-brain artists can't translate. They walk away from a workshop on how to choose a business entity feeling stupider than when they walked in. The double bind is that those artists (who need the information desperately) end up writing it off out of frustration or (even worse) shame. Some just end up thinking "What's the point?" and choose another career entirely.
It took almost two years from an initial conversation with a friend of mine who was in a PhD program in theatre to host me at her college to teach "Nuts and Bolts." The pitch had to go through several committees and departments in order to move forward. Having her advocate for me was what made the difference. If she hadn't been in the trenches speaking on my behalf, it wouldn't have happened. Plus, it gave me one of my better (and somewhat disturbing) pull quotes: "I can honestly express that I learned more about creating a sustainable artistic business during Seth's seven-hour workshop than I did during six years of graduate study."
In order to be a successful (a word that I grapple with constantly) performing artist, you need to understand business fundamentals, and disseminating this information is crucial. How do you run a crowdfunding campaign that doesn't make your friends block you on Facebook? How do you identify and brand (ugh… brand) your work? How do you really figure out who your audience is? How do you have a good working relationship with the press? Knowing these key aspects gives artists a leg up, not to mention more validity and credibility in a world that still views artists as quaint and a little off.
I'm always the first to point out that it's important to figure out what you hate doing, what aspects being covered during the course make you nauseous, because it's imperative that you figure a work-around for that. Do you need to outsource that work to someone else? Do you need to create a cognitive shift so that you can accomplish it without feeling like you're going to die? Do you need a group of other artists to meet with on a regular basis to discuss how your business is coming along to keep you on track?
Most importantly what top three things do you need to focus on for the next two years? Making Your Life as an Artist (which every single one of you reading this should download immediately and read next) from Artist U got me thinking about how important this is. They do work similar to what I do in terms of education but have an even better infrastructure, which I hope to become a part of. Like any amazing resource, I was able to walk away with a new focus from reading this straightforward, pull-no-punches-account how to build a sustainable life as an artist because, hey, I'm still figuring it out just like you.
I don't mess around with this course or the process of being a working artist. It's ridiculously difficult, complicated, and discouraging. It's also liberating, boundless, and phenomenally rewarding. I want students to know what they are getting themselves into and what it's going to take to deal with the almost psychotic ups and downs of choosing this life.
We need to not be afraid of this skill set. We need to embrace our entrepreneurial mindset and understand how transferable our skills can be in our chosen field and through other means of livelihood. Educational institutions need to get on board by offering semester and year-long courses on the business of being a professional working artist. Service organizations need to work on grants in tandem to cross-pollinate best practices, resource and data sharing that can benefit the live arts as a whole. I need to collaborate with other artist educators to make all of the above a reality.
What do you need next in terms of your career and how are you going to make it happen?

subset: commoncrawl


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Experiencing Joy in the Midst of Grief: Make-A-Wish Partnership Holds Special Connection for Jerod Long
For Jerod Long, a residential sales consultant with Knochelmann Service Experts, the company's partnership with Make-A-Wish is personal. Jerod, his wife Candice and his two sons have experienced the power of a wish firsthand.
When his son Jude was 18 months old, doctors at Cincinnati Children's Hospital discovered a baseball size tumor on his brain stem. After enduring emergency surgery and one year of intense chemotherapy, Jude was stabilized and referred to Make-A-Wish.
At the age of three, Jude knew he wanted to "see Mickey and dolphins" and his wish was granted. In 2017, the Long family enjoyed an amazing seven-day trip to the Walt Disney World® Resort. Jerod recalls that the highlights of the trip included a limo ride and all-access lanyards that gave his family the royal treatment throughout their trip. The boys enjoyed ice cream for breakfast at Give Kids the World and priority access to all rides and attractions at Disney World and Universal Studios.
"Families who receive wishes have dealt with the deepest stress and grief imaginable," said Jerod. "Our trip really put the wind back in our sails and gave us the strength to get back on track."
Today, Jude is a resilient, fearless six-year-old with an incredible sense of humor who is enjoying a great quality of life with his family and friends.
A special thank you to Disney for the donation of theme park tickets for this wish and more than 130,000 worldwide since 1980.


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The Most Important Book Since 9/11
Anyone interested in the War on Terrorism must read James Bovard's newest book: Terrorism and Tyranny: Trampling Freedom, Justice and Peace to Rid the World of Evil.
For critics of the War on Terrorism there are two major problems: there's too much information to keep track of, and we risk losing ourselves in the effort.
We owe much to James Bovard for Terrorism and Tyranny, for he has largely solved both of these problems for us. He has constructed with precision and scholarly excellence a narrative of all that Bush has done since 9/11 in the name of fighting terror. Not only does it cover everything from airport security to the War on Iraq, it does each of these topics justice. The writing is dense, the endnotes are invaluable, and the underlying thesis is essential to understanding where the United States is heading. While reading the book you'll learn and be reminded of the insanity that has emerged in the last two years, and by the time you're done you'll be recommitted to the cause of resisting that insanity.
The book's beginnings present a survey history of United States antiterrorism policy in the Middle East under Reagan. While the topic can only fall under so much exploration in one chapter, Bovard does an excellent job in narrating one futile U.S. attempt to stop terrorists with missiles after another. By the chapter's end the reader has lost count of the number of embassy bombings and hijackings, and it becomes clear that while the U.S. government did everything possible to appear vigilant against terrorists, it did little to ensure even the most common sense security precautions at obvious terrorist targets.
Bovard then explains how FBI incompetence and arrogance had the likely effect of allowing the hijackers to murder thousands on September 11, and how the most severe bureaucratic error in American history was rewarded by a glorification of those most responsible. By focusing not on alleged government malice, but rather on the incompetence inherent in bureaucracy, Bovard distances himself from the counterproductive argument that government officials wanted the attacks to happen. This also puts into proper context the way the government responded to 9/11 blindly increasing its own budgets and complicating its own bureaucracies revealing that such policies are doomed to failure, regardless of the intentions behind them.
Terrorism and Tyranny then gives a dramatic account of how the Patriot Act was railroaded through Congress without anyone reading it, and with only a perfunctory appearance by Attorney General John Ashcroft at congressional hearings about it. Next, the book presents a bulletproof documentation of the abuses in practically every domestic "antiterrorism" policy: From the government's confiscation of millions of dollars from innocent immigrants without due process; to the harassment of any traveler who dares "smuggle" his own cash to another country; to the de facto suspension of habeas corpus of millions of legal immigrants; to the incarceration of hundreds and stripping of their rights to either trial or council, in some cases not even under a façade of battling terrorism; to the practical obliteration of all Fourth Amendment protections at the say-so of a federal agent; to the molestation of airport patrons and the evacuation of tens of thousands of them over such "security threats" as pairs of scissors found in trash cans; to the hiring of hundreds of federal airport security guards without putting them through any background checks or significant training. The government abuse and ineptitude approaches unbelievable levels through these chapters, which Mr. Bovard documents with nearly 70 pages of footnotes.
The next chapters compare the brutality of terrorists with that of governments. While the Administration claims that the War on Terrorism is a noble crusade against evil, a simple and meaningless devotion to U.S. policy can exempt such unsavory regimes as those in China, Indonesia, and Zimbabwe from criticism or even earn them subsidies no matter how many tens of thousands of dissidents they torture or exterminate. Acknowledging the undeniable horror of terrorism, Bovard compares the thousands of innocents who international terrorists have killed to the millions murdered by their governments in a recent ten-year period. He explains the severe danger in trusting governments to suppress terrorism when governments are quite guilty of terrorism themselves.
Perhaps the most controversial chapter is on Israel's War on Terrorism and how the United States has increasingly adopted it as a model. Bovard documents the numerous abuses of the Israeli government in an even-handed, non-inflammatory way, while clarifying that he is not an anti-Semite simply for his critique of Israel. Unfortunately, no matter how well a chapter criticizing Israel is written, no matter how solid its supporting evidence and how tasteful its delivery, there will always be some who liken its sentiments to those of Adolph Hitler. Nevertheless, this chapter is powerful, engaging, fair, and quite helpful in understanding the danger of the United States mimicking the policies of Ariel Sharon.
His chapter on Iraq details fairly well the implications of the UN sanctions, as well as in addresses the controversy surrounding that program. It also gives a strong argument that the Bush administration lied America into war, readily changing its reasons for the military adventure and instigating a widely held and baseless fear that Iraq somehow posed a threat to the United States. The dishonesty and inconsistency of the Bush Administration comes through so well in quotes from presidential press conferences and CIA intelligence reports that Bovard can almost rest and let government officials prove their deceitfulness without the need of any artful commentary. While he could have gone more deeply into the Iraq War perhaps documenting some specific horrors from U.S. bombing this chapter is still very compelling.
The last few chapters put everything into context. In the chapter "Bastardizing Freedom," Bovard advances his theory that "it is impossible to understand the long-term political consequences of 9/11 without examining Bush's freedom rhetoric." In the next chapters, Bovard explains how an America more in line with its founding principles should react to 9/11. He concludes that America is on a road to tyranny, and that the long term as well as "immediate threat to Americans' freedom does not stem from a depraved interpretation of the Koran, but from a perverse reading of the Constitution." The government's War on Terrorism, if it continues on its current path, will cause far greater harm to American liberty and security than al Qaeda ever could, while doing very little even to suppress the latter threat, as real as it is.
Does the book have any major weaknesses? Well, people bent on supporting America's current policies might complain that Bovard sometimes cites sources they might not find credible, such as Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union. But he also cites speeches by Bush, Ashcroft, Rumsfeld, Rice, and Ridge, as well as officials from the FBI, CIA, Homeland Security Department, and military. And the ineptitude of these officials to keep their stories straight is at times much more convincing of their dishonesty than anything the ACLU could ever say.
One possibly
genuine weakness of the book is there's not too much talk about Afghanistan.
This is a shame but understandable. Strategically speaking, the book
might convince more readers without it. By working in thematic and chronological
order, Bovard shows the reader how far the United States has moved from
its founding principles in the last two years, from an imperfect republic
to an imperial Big Brother. Even many of those lacking sympathy for
foreigners will come to realize in the book's first half how much deception
the government has used in concealing its abuse of American citizens,
so by the time Bovard's chapter on Iraq comes around, the war makers
will not seem very credible in their claims on foreign policy. Overall,
Terrorism and Tyranny provides a rewind of the last two years
that Americans need to stop and see.
Anthony Gregory has a B.A. in history from the University of California at Berkeley, where he was the president for the Cal Libertarians. He sometimes writes for the Libertarian Enterprise, and has a website.
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With its glassy walls, boxy shape, 50-foot height and preponderance of office space, a four-story building proposed for 240 Hamilton Ave. is perfectly emblematic of downtown Palo Alto's latest development trends.
For downtown resident Douglas Smith, that's exactly the problem.
On Monday, the City Council will consider Smith's appeal of the project, a 15,000-square-foot building designed by architect Ken Hayes and developed by Sal Giovanotto, which would stand across the street from City Hall, next to Reposado Restaurant. The new development would replace an existing two-story corner building, best known for having once housed Radio Shack.
It would include 9,190 square feet of office space, mostly on the second and third floors, 2,337 square feet of retail on the ground floor and two residential units on the fourth floor.
The city's Architectural Review Board approved the project last month, with board member Lee Lippert calling it a "handsome building" and Alex Lew praising it for being mixed-use.
Smith isn't so adoring. In his appeal, which is co-signed by 23 other residents, Smith argues that in approving the modernist design, city staff and the architecture board ignored its incompatibility with the dozens of nearby heritage buildings, many of which bear the classical decorative Spanish features popularized by Palo Alto architect Birge Clark: stucco walls, arched doorways and decorative pilasters.
"The proposed design is neither high quality nor considerate of its surroundings," the appeal states. "It is a modernist glass box which would be entirely out of place at Ramona and Hamilton, surrounded on three sides by heritage structures."
The immediate area around 240 Hamilton, Smith wrote, "is saturated with more than a dozen historic structures that exemplify harmonious style and are officially recognized as deserving preservation and compatibility."
"At the ratio of 13 (historic) to 7 (newer) buildings in a one-block radius along Ramona and Hamilton, this is the most densely historic spot in any commercial area in Palo Alto," wrote Smith, a music historian with an interest in art and architecture.
City planners, in their analysis, had found the project both compatible with the downtown area and consistent with the Comprehensive Plan, the city's guiding document for land-use decisions. City Planner Jason Nortz wrote in the findings that the project "incorporates quality design that recognizes the regional and historical importance of the area" and "reinforces its pedestrian character."
Specifically, Nortz wrote, the project "creates enhanced vehicular and pedestrian entries," "provides varied building mass and height," and "maintains Hamilton Avenue as a pleasing, tree-lined pedestrian environment with complementary outdoor amenities."
But Smith is going further than just appealing the specific project. In challenging the approval of 240 Hamilton Ave., he said he also hopes to stoke a community discussion about aesthetics and architecture. To that end, he put together an extensive survey asking residents to weigh in on the enduring architectural debate -- traditionalism versus modernism. In the survey, he pits traditional structures like the downtown post office, the College Terrace Library and Stanford's Cantor Center for Visual Arts against glassy modern ones like the Apple Store on University Avenue, the soon-to-be-completed Mitchell Park Library and San Francisco's de Young Museum.
The survey, which can be accessed at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/paloaltoarchitecture, gives participants a chance to select their preference for traditional or modern buildings, both in Palo Alto and elsewhere in the world. It also lists a series of buildings, including the new housing development at 801 Alma St. and the commercial building at 525 University Ave., and asks visitors to rate each on a scale of 1 to 10 according to its "aesthetic quality."
As someone who favors traditional architecture ("not a fan of glass walls"), Smith told the Weekly he wants to know if he is an outlier or a representative of the majority local view. If most respondents state a preference for tradition over modernity, he reasons, their feedback can send a powerful message to the City Council -- a message that could influence future developments such as the office complex proposed by developer John Arrillaga for 27 University Ave.
Smith is hardly alone in his discontent. In recent months, residents have lashed out against new developments like Alma Village, Arbor Real (at Charleston Road and El Camino Real) and 801 Alma, prompting the council to take a fresh look at design guidelines for new buildings on El Camino Real and Alma Street. During an Aug. 22 discussion between the council and the architecture board, Councilwoman Karen Holman noted that the city has "a public that's not happy" about new developments.
One of Smith's goals is to figure out what segment of the public fits this mold. But beyond that, he said he also hopes to call attention to what he labels a broken development-review process.
"The review process is not working," Smith told the Weekly. "You have too many buildings like, for example, 801 Alma St., that the public only finds out about when they're finished. Then there are shrieks of horror when people see what happened and people asking, 'How did that get approved?'"
As far as 240 Hamilton Ave. goes, the modern design is just one of Smith's concerns. Parking is another issue. Like many other nearby developments, including Charles "Chop" Keenan's planned mix-use building at 135 Hamilton Ave, this project would not provide enough parking to accommodate its occupants. Local law allows this through the use of "transfer development rights" (TDR), a mechanism under which developers are given parking exemptions in exchange for seismic and historic retrofits elsewhere in the city. The Hamilton project would provide four spaces for the residential units, though in doing so it would take away two existing spots. It would not provide on-site parking for its office workers, much to the chagrin of downtown residents who have long clamored about downtown's steep parking deficit.
Smith, whose Forest Avenue home is a block from City Hall, is joined in his appeal by other downtown critics of the city's parking policies, including Professorville's Ken Alsman and Downtown North's Neilson Buchanan. The appeal argues that the development application for 240 Hamilton Ave. skirts the parking issue in relying on the exemption.
"The time is overdue to abolish or restructure TDRs because they are being used time and again by developers to save money at the expense of residential neighborhoods by providing grossly insufficient parking -- or none at all -- for the large office spaces they are building," the appeal states. "Here again the planning department is asleep at the wheel for allowing this development and many others to proceed despite new on-site parking that will accommodate only a fraction of the worker cars that the buildings will attract."


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Accused by prosecutors of running a Manhattan brothel, Anna Gristina says she's not a madam but a matchmaker, whose inspiration for a new business venture came from watching Patti Stanger's Bravo series, The Millionaire Matchmaker. Her dating defense raised more than a few eyebrows while she was held on Rikers Island, unable to post $2 million bail for nearly four months. Whether it was a stalling technique, a way to control spin, or a sincere account of her career goals, Gristina's self-discipline paid off. A panel of five judges reduced her bail to a more civilized $250,000, and the New York Post reports that efforts are underway to get a bail package approved so she can prepare for her trial at home.
How will Gristina's "dating strategy" play out when she returns to court to face trial? Perhaps we have a hint: in May, Gristina's husband, Kelvin Gorr, appeared on Anderson Cooper's daytime talk show. "She was not running a brothel, she was running a dating service," Gorr said. "Basically, she has some very wealthy powerful friends, and she knows a lot of beautiful women."
The TV host was skeptical, as was another guest, former madam Kristin Davis, but Gristina's family and legal team have stayed on message regarding her dating-service defense and her innocence.
She has been charged with one count of promoting prostitution.
Jaynie Mae Baker, labeled an "accomplice" by tabloids and indicted for promoting prostitution in April, hasn't been part of this public chorus, but reports in the Daily News and on ABC News about her connection to VIP Life, a self-described "elite social club" for "relationship-oriented men and women," make it hard for me to dismiss Gristina's explanation.
After the Anderson show, on which I also appeared, I asked Gorr whether I could interview him. While our exchanges were amicable, Gristina's husband was reluctant to commit to an on-the-record conversation. Consequently, we have never discussed his wife's situation—or his role in publicizing her dating-service defense.
In addition to the Anderson appearance, Gorr, who works in real estate, has denied the prostitution-related charges against his wife on Eyewitness News.
And on The Insider, he told Kevin Frazier there were benefits to be derived from his wife's matchmaking: "Say, if we were looking for real-estate investors, somebody to invest in our projects, to introduce a gentleman to a very beautiful girl, it certainly works in your favor."
Two days after Gristina's bail reduction was announced, the so-called Mommy Madam did a jailhouse interview with the Today show, telling Matt Lauer how The Millionaire Matchmaker had provoked her imagination: "Instead of 'single and seeking,' it was 'married and seeking' ... very much like Match.com."
This isn't the first time the site has been mentioned. Shortly after her arrest, one of Gristina's lawyers said his client was in the process of developing a dating site "that would have rivaled Match.com." (Match.com, like the Newsweek Daily Beast Co., is owned by IAC.)
Whatever the outcome in court, Gristina's dating defense just might be an idea whose time has come.
It is not entirely new, but the use of pop-culture references (such as Patti Stanger) and hugely successful corporations refines the idea quite a bit.
Escort-service owners have frequently argued that an escort is paid for her time, not for sex, or that sex that may occur is outside the contract. The argument hasn't saved enough people from being convicted, but it continues to be made. It's based on something so fundamental that we rarely examine it because it's now so deeply embedded in our modern lives: a woman having sex with a man outside of marriage isn't automatically a prostitute, an outcast, or a criminal—and that means her associates aren't assumed to be criminals either. That's the liberated subtext of the dating defense in all its variations. There's something heroic—not merely expedient—about this argument, though it also has the potential to sound cynical.
Dating itself looks like a very businesslike activity in 2012, and Gristina chose two disparate and well-established brands, The Millionaire Matchmaker and Match.com, to make her point. During one memorable episode of The Millionaire Matchmaker, Stanger lectured her audience about monogamy, money, and "the best blow job possible." Even if most viewers are unlikely to date a millionaire, the show's sexual and financial frankness do reflect mainstream ideas about courtship. Tens of millions of Americans will, however, end up on a dating site where searching for romance is like shopping for a household appliance on Amazon. Dating has become more nakedly transactional and, with the rise of location-based apps, geared to consumer convenience. The idea that dating is just something we do when we're getting to know each other seems naive when a multibillion-dollar dating industry exists.
OK, so Gristina's dating defense might make sense as a piece of ideological warfare on behalf of the criminalized. How does her business plan stack up?
I asked Andrea Syrtash, a dating expert, TV host, and author of a guide to dating your spouse, Cheat On Your Husband (With Your Husband).
"Match.com is the largest dating site in the world," said Syrtash. "They have many dating sites under their umbrella, including OkCupid, so it's a lofty goal to aim to be bigger than the biggest. Anyone launching a startup dating site believes she will be the best and the biggest," Syrtash was quick to add. "So I don't blame her—that's being a good entrepreneur."
Syrtash sees how some of the social skills possessed by a madam are shared by matchmakers and dating-service entrepreneurs, but she isn't convinced that Gristina understands the online-dating model and questions her strategy.
"Match.com is like a bargain basement with some great options if you look hard enough. It's like shopping at Century 21," Syrtash said. "The Match.com model is, we throw everyone from every background together and we give you tons of choices, and it's for you to decide."
This idea of creating a middle-market relationship mall is clearly at odds with everything else we've heard about the alleged Mommy Madam, whether from Gristina's supporters or her tormenters. It's not what Gristina's husband described when he spoke on Anderson of wealthy men seeking discreet companionship. According to The New York Times, prosecutors have gone out of their way to emphasize the exclusivity of an alleged brothel servicing high-wealth individuals.
In many ways, Gristina's experience as a social facilitator sounds too fancy for the Match.com model. We don't know what connection, if any, exists between Anna Gristina, Jaynie Mae Baker, and VIP Life. It's not a crime for people from different industries to befriend each other.
However, a visit to the VIP Life website helps me to appreciate the logic behind Gristina's dating defense. VIP Life is clearly skewed toward commitment-minded singles, but there's a surprising window of tolerance for the guy who says he's not "ready for a relationship." (Perfectly acceptable, says the FAQ, as long as the client is honest with the matchmaker, so she can match him up "with a woman with the same desire.")
Traditional matchmakers, eager to distinguish themselves from a dating service, would frown on this feature. You won't see casual dating on the menu at Selective Search (a Chicago-based personal-matchmaking firm with fees starting at $20,000) or at New York matchmaker Janis Spindel's site. (Spindel quotes her initial fee as "$50,000 in the tri-state area.")
What VIP Life, Selective Search, and Janis Spindel do have in common is a business model that treats well-to-do men as paying clients and exceptional-looking women as nonpaying members of a database. (It's not the only business model, but, Syrtash told me, it's popular throughout the U.S. and very common in New York.)
Selective Search tells prospective women: "Join now for free!" Spindel and VIP Life present things differently: many women apply and few are chosen, in case you were wondering.
Spindel's goal is to get her clients married to the right person. She doesn't protest when matchmaking is called "the second-oldest profession," perhaps because her services aren't open to misinterpretation. Spindel opened her gay division last year, in response to same-sex-marriage legislation—and not before. She is adamant about the difference between online dating and her own bespoke matches. Spindel also takes seriously state laws that regulate the New York dating industry.
A madam or anyone else hoping to cross over into matchmaking would be well advised to study Article XXVI, Section 394-C, of New York state's general-business statute. During the jailhouse interview on Today, attorney Norman Pattis wouldn't answer questions about his client's matchmaking activities. Given the requirements of this law, that may be a wise move. A "social referral service" fee can be no higher than $1,000, while anyone paying more than $25 is entitled to a guaranteed number of introductions per month.
"You have to be extremely careful in terms of how your contract is written," Spindel told me. "I, at least, abide by everything." Explaining her $50,000 fee (which doubles when her client has been with his match for a year), she said, "I do a gazillion other things other than matchmaking. I have about 20 ancillary services from image consulting to a home visit to background checks." The law treats these extras as separate from the social referral fee. "I'm from soup to nuts. I don't just say, 'Here's a number, go meet her.'" Gold diggers, Spindel assured me, are easily detected and are eliminated from her database.
An audacious, compelling character who would have to be invented if she didn't actually exist, Spindel says she hands out, on average, 200 business cards each day: "I'm out shopping, or scouting, for women morning, noon and night."
Spindel had "never heard" Gristina's name before the arrest hit the news, and she said the matchmaking industry is riddled with women she calls "total wannabes." However, Gristina—a married mother of four with a supportive husband—doesn't fit Spindel's profile of the wannabe.
"They're single women who hang out a shingle and say they're matchmakers," according to Spindel. The motivation isn't professional reinvention so much as "finding a guy for themselves."
According to The New York Times, there are court documents indicating that "a Morgan Stanley employee" was meeting with Gristina before her Feb. 22 arrest, reportedly to secure financing for a new business. A prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney's office reportedly described this as an "illicit" venture "matching up male clients with female prostitutes."
At a news conference in March, one of Gristina's lawyers told reporters the proposed business venture was a legitimate online dating service that would, as The Times article put it, compete with other dating websites like JDate.
We don't know what Gristina was doing at Morgan Stanley, but the district attorney's theory seems less credible to me than her lawyer's explanation.
If she's the seasoned New York madam prosecutors allege her to be, would she really seek out Morgan Stanley's assistance to fund an escort site?
"I doubt it," said Amanda Brooks, a Dallas-based escort and author of the Internet Escort's Handbook series. "Even with dedicated hosting, merchant account, secure online payments, professional photo shoots and top-notch design, we're talking maybe $10K, if you're being extravagant."
Prosecutors often use broad stereotypes about the sex industry to shape a defendant's image. In the real world, our skills and career moves don't always follow the most direct path. New York in particular is filled with quirky personalities who earn a living by muddling categories, thinking out of the box, and attempting to blend multiple careers.
Whatever may be discovered about Gristina's matchmaking trajectory, she doesn't deserve to be in jail.


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Table of Contents
Product Index
|Product Name:
|FWSA Bex HD for Teen Josie 8
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Bex is a high quality Character for Genesis 8 Female.
The head and body for Willa are custom sculpted in Zbrush for a unique and youthful appearance, and her skin was created using high quality photo references for depth and detail. She also comes with custom sculpted longer nails as well as longer longer lashes that can be dialed to your desired length.
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Forefront Identity Manager includes a number of different management agents to connect to a variety of data sources. To enable you to connect to other data sources, FIM includes
the Extensible Connectivity Management Agent (ECMA). To interact with a data source, the ECMA uses a connected data source extension. A connected data source extension is a Microsoft .NET Framework assembly that is implemented in the form of a dynamic link
library (.dll) file.
You can create this extension by using any programming language and compiler that creates a .NET Framework assembly.
For more information, see
Creating Connected Data Source Extensions.
There are a number of partners that have created Management Agents using the ECMA to connect to a number of different systems or just to enhance connectivity options that are available out of the box.
This article was first posted as a blog on http: //blogs.technet.com/identitymanagement but now that more and more partners are developing MA's we want to move this to the WIKI so that we can get
faster updates to this page.
If you are a partner and have updates, please join the TechNet wiki community and make updates and we will review before the page is updated.
Brjann Brekkan
Technical Product Manager - Identity and Access - Microsoft Corporation
MA's from some of our Identity and Access partners:
(partners sorted alphabetically)
"Centrify's core capability is to extend Active Directory's authentication, authorization and group policy capabilities to non-Microsoft platforms such as UNIX, Linux and Mac. In doing this "identity consolidation" into Active Directory, UNIX attributes
such as UNIX UIDs, home directories, etc. are stored within Active Directory, including the ability to map multiple UNIX UIDs to a single AD account (this technology is called Centrify Zones). "
In order to simplify provisioning of UNIX user profiles within Active Directory, Centrify provides a Provisioning Agent that leverages Active Directory Groups to automate the management of Centrify Zone profiles. Adding a user to the Active Directory
control group for a specific Zone will cause the Zone Provisioning Agent to add a UNIX profile for that user to the Zone, similarly if you remove the user from the group it will delete the UNIX profile, and in this way Forefront Identity Manager only needs
to manage an Active Directory Group's membership in order to manage the provisioning of Centrify UNIX profiles.
Also, because Centrify makes the AD username/password the global username/password, FIM's self-service password reset capabilities reach beyond Windows and into hundreds of non-Microsoft systems. For a free version of Centrify's software for Linux/AD
integration, check outhttp: //www.centrify.com/express/ . . "
Management Agents available on blogs as well as on sites like sourceforge.com andCodeplex.com
The SharePoint List Management Agent is an attempt to provide an easy-to-use, familiar interface between ILM 2007 and a WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 list. It is deployed as a "PackagedMA" to help alleviate some of the more tedious tasks involved with the development
of extensible management agents (ex. run profile configuration, object type configuration, data manipulation, etc.). For more information and to download the code please click
The OpenLDAP Extensible Management Agent (XMA) for Microsoft Identity Lifecycle Manager(ILM) enables efficient two-way synchronization of identity information with the OpenLDAP directory. For more information and to download the code please click
For other LDAP v3 directories such as Oracle Internet Directory you can use the OpenLDAP MA as starting point for integration with FIM.
The Granfeldt PowerShell Management Agent (MA) is a diverse Management Agent (MA) that can be used for many different purposes. Basically, any task that can be done in PowerShell can be triggered through this MA, making it very flexible and a regular hybrid
Source: http: //blog.goverco.com/p/powershell-management-agent.html
But has the following extra functionality:
Based on the ECMA 2.0 framework and can be found here and has the following functionality:
Management Agents developed and maintained for Forefront Identity Manager (FIM)
The following lists Management Agents Directory Concepts has developed and maintains under software maintenance agreement. For further information regarding how these and other Directory Concepts products compliment your Microsoft FIM solution please refer
to our web site.
If your requirement is not on this list, please feel free to contact us and we will develop it for you.
Source: http: //www.directoryconcepts.com.au/
Company website: http: //www.ensynch.com/ida
The Google Apps MA from Ensynch is capable of managing the entire Google account lifecycle. This MA is not only proficient at provisioning and de-provisioning tens of thousands of accounts, but can also synchronize password and bio-demographical data. With
an additional SAML based SSO web site, users can continue to use their directory login to access their Google accounts.
Ensynch's Extensible Management Agent (XMA) for Databases is a configurable XMA capable of scaling to millions of objects and offers true delta processing on any database source. The XMA offers both Stored Procedure and XSLT customizations allowing for virtually
any database to be queried and processed quickly and efficiently. Observed performance improvements over the built-in SQL or Oracle MA of between 10x and 20x.
Company website:
Identity Forge solutions for FIM
The IdF Management Agent for FIM has been tightly integrated with Microsoft's Forefront Identity Manager as well as ILM and MIIS. The Management Agent works with IdF's Adapter Suite providing Microsoft customers with an "out of the box" solution for ACF2,
Top Secret, RACF, iSeries, SAP ECC, Solaris, AIX, Linux, Cloud-Based and other target applications
Company website: www.inceptio.dk
The PowerShell Management Agent is a diverse Management Agent (MA) written using ECMA 2.0. It can be used for many different purposes. It allows for PowerShell scripts to be run on addition, modification and/or deletes of objects in the connector space and
supports any attribute (single-/multivalue) to be flowed as parameters to scripts. Delta import is supported.
Download it here.
The Directory Management Agent is extensible management agent used to physically manage user's home directories or other (create / move / remove) by calling customizable scripts for each operation and it will update home directory information on the Active
Directory user object accordingly when scripts have executed succesfully. You'll be able to write the scripts in the scripting language of your desire.
Download it here.
TheMyID Management Agent for Microsoft Forefront Identity Manager allows Intercede MyID to simply 'plug-in' to FIM, adding secure device and credential management capabilities to any FIM enabled environment.
Connecting MyID to FIM via the management agent allows:
Website: www.intercede.com
Contact: email@example.com
Visitwww.omada.net for more information or contact Omada on email
Omada provides a range of Management Agents (MA's) supporting advanced deployments of FIM2010. The MA's covers integration to SAP, SAP GRC, Exchange, File shares, SharePoint, SCCM, Exchange, Powershell and more.
Omada's SAP MA is based on FIM's extensible connectivity management agent framework. The agent supports both full and delta imports as well as exports. The integration to SAP is performed via web services, and supports interaction directly with the SAP backend
such as SAP , SAP HR, SAP BI etc. or via SAP PI. Omada provides web services for various objects in SAP such as Org. Units (organizational structure in SAP HR), Employees, Cost Centers (including the hierarchy), Company Codes, Users (includes Password reset),
Roles (With Transaction Codes, Auth. Objects).
Omada also provides advanced integration to SAP GRC.
Omada's SCCM Management Agent is based on FIM's extensible connectivity management agent framework. The agent supports full import of systems, collections, collection assignments, and installs from a SCCM system. On export, the agent supports the addition
of systems to collections, as well as removal of a system from a collection.
Omada's Exchange Object Management Agent is based on FIM's extensible connectivity management agent framework. The agent supports full import, and can move mailboxes within an Exchange organization. The agent has two modes of export operation: 1) synchronous
moves of mailboxes 2) asynchronous moves of mailboxes (i.e., multiple threads moving mailboxes).
Omada's File Share Management Agent is based on FIM's extensible connectivity management agent framework. The agent supports import and export operations, and can create, move/rename, and delete file shares. Additionally, the agent can optionally set permissions
on file shares, and move file shares between different file system volumes.
Omada's Home Folder Management Agent is based on FIM's extensible connectivity management agent framework. The agent supports import and export operations, and can create, move/rename, and delete home folders. Additionally, the agent can optionally set permissions
on folders, and move home folders between different file system volumes.
Omada's PowerShell Management Agent is based on FIM's extensible connectivity management agent framework. The agent supports export (add) of a script with parameters to execute. The agent is based on the "post processing" approach to creating extensible
management agents that execute external (to FIM) commands.
Omada provides a number of Management Agents which are used to populate the FIM Portal with the customer's existing Accounts and group memberships in the target systems such as Active Directory, ADLDS, SAP etc.
The SharePoint Management API is based on SharePoint's standard API. The agent supports full import of users, sites, lists, permissions and permission levels. On export, the agent supports adding user permissions and revokes violating permissions.
Company website: http: //oxfordcomputergroup.com/
Information: firstname.lastname@example.com
Oxford Computer Group's Exchange MA makes it significantly easier to create, maintain, disconnect and delete Exchange Mailboxes (user, resource mailboxes and contacts). The MA is able to check and guarantee the uniqueness of mail addresses (mail and proxies).
Furthermore it supports mailbox quota and protocol settings management (OWA, MAPI, IMAP etc.). The administration of distribution groups is additionally also possible.
The mailbox permissions can be kept up-to-date by FIM. It allows managing mailbox permissions like send-as, send-on-behalf, full-access, etc.
The solution allows forest-wide mailbox provisioning as well as forest-wide and cross-forest mailbox relocation.
The Management Agent serves the following functions:
The Management Agent serve the following functions:
OCG's Oracle System Management Agent is based on native Oracle.NET library. The agent supports export and import operations and can create, delete and modify account objects, manage database permissions, user profiles and schemas on database level. It can
import accounts, roles and role assignments for reporting and attestation processes.
The OCG PowerShell MA enables the execution of various tasks that can be also performed in the PowerShell Shell. It is a universal PowerShell Management Agent that allows the provisioning of various systems to be managed by PowerShell (e.g. Lync, SharePoint,
Exchange, Office 365, NetApp…) Any PowerShell script can be used as part of provisioning, modification or deprovisioning logic by integrating it into the PowerShell Script called during Export by the Management Agent. Modules can be loaded locally on the fly
to enable the use of extended Commandlets. The Import Script supports Delta Imports to speed up the Import process. Errors can be logged into EventViewer, to a file or directly into the Synchronization Engine. The agent also supports outbound password changes
as part of the Password Change Notification Service (PCNS) system, by using Password Management Script.
The OCG PowerShell Transaction Management Agent enables the execution of any PowerShell command inclusive additional userdefined parameters and arguments for all systems supporting PowerShell interface. Based on object information commands will be executed
local or using different endpoint systems. Additional PowerShell modules can be loaded during the runtime executing a single object or a bundle of objects. Authentication modes, user and credential infomation can be added if necessary for each operation. After
sending the PowerShell command result collection and error streams will be catched by the Management Agent and provided for further execution.
OCG RSA 7 Management Agent provides functionality for RSA 7 SecureID Lifecycle Management on enterprise level. The RSA 7 SecureID MA can manage multiple RSA Systems, realms and data sources. The agent supports export and import operations and can create,
delete and modify account objects, manage tokens and token assignments incl. token change und pin reset functionality, manage groups and group memberships.
Oxford Computer Group provides a solution specifically designed for organizations running SAP R/3 and Netweaver. The MA integrates SAP with FIM, uses standard BAPI calls to manage users and roles by combining the power and flexibility of Microsoft Forefront
Identity Manager (FIM) with a bespoke connector for SAP. OCG have created a cost-effective and easily deployable solution to address issues of identity and access management.
The Management Agent serves the following features:
Oxford Computer Group's SharePoint MA makes the creation, deletion and maintenance of up-to-date SharePoint profiles significantly easier. The solution allows an organization's SharePoint user profiles to be kept up-to-date by FIM. FIM populates the SharePoint
user profiles with data from any of its connected data sources, such as Active Directory, HR systems, company white pages, email Global Address Lists etc. By utilizing FIM's provisioning and deprovisioning power, an organization's SharePoint user profiles
can be created and deleted in line with its business rules. That means new Starters get access to all the required and approved systems from the minute they join the company. It also means their access privileges can be changed when required and removed when
they leave. This significantly reduces the possibility of data theft.
OCG SSH System Management Agent is based on standard .NET library. The agent supports creation, deletion and modify of unix-based systems account objects and user profiles. Combined with OCG Password Change Notification Service (PCSN) the solution provides
the ability to synchronize account passwords between active directory and the connected unix systems. The MA functionality is easily and free extensible.
The OCG Simple LDAP MA (based on Extensible Connectivity MA 2.0) allows the import of Active Directory Partitions or Global Catalog Structures into FIM. The Management Agent has automatic AD Schema discovery. It is therefore possible, in the FIM User Interface,
to select which object types and attributes are imported from AD or GC.
The OCG Sync Monitor Solution MA (based on Extensible Connectivity MA 2.0) generates Metaverse data which make the monitoring and troubleshooting of Sync issues straightforward. For example, the MA generates a multi-value list for each object in the Metaverse,
showing which Management Agents are connected to this Metaverse object. Similarly, errors in synchronization or export also result in Metaverse Objects which are related to the object which expeirenced the error – this increases the visibility of the error
message, and makes troubleshooting more straightforward.
OCG has many other Management Agents that are available as part of a service engagement, and is developing new ones all the time - for example Google MA, File Share MA, Unix, Oracle RBAC, various Telephone systems, Sharepoint, Office365, Exchange 2010 Resources,
custom LDAP MA, GPO Link MA, AD DACL - please contact us!
Visit our company website: http: //www.predica.pl/ for more information on our FIM related solutions or e-mail us for additional information at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Predica has created a specialized management agent for integration of Cisco Unified Communications Manager into FIM 2010 based solutions eco-system. CUCM management agent extends FIM with full management capabilities for CUCM user accounts for import and
export operations in all scenarios: provisioning, information management and de-provisioning process.
CCUM MA provides also password management capabilities to manage both CUCM user PIN and password for initial account provisioning and password synchronization / reset.
In addition to user management agent can be used also to retrieve information about user's devices, lines assigned to devices and service profiles assigned to these lines and hunt lists with its members.
For its management capabilities CUCM MA uses native web service interfaces of Cisco Unified Communications Manager and doesn't require any additional elements to be deployed in the managed system. All information are retrieved using configurable queries, which
can be adjusted for each object type.
The agent was proven through deployments where it manages thousands of user accounts. Currently supported with CCUM version 7.x and 8.x.
Agent is available in Extensible MA and ECMAv2 versions. You can read more about agent and its configuration
on dedicated blog post.
Fully supports: FIM 2010, FIM 2010 R2 and SP1
Agent enables following scenarios (not limited only to those):
Company website: http: //www.quest.com/
Quest Management Agent for Forefront Identity Manager allows you to combine the capabilities provided by Quest ActiveRoles Server and Microsoft Forefront Identity Manager (FIM) to automate user management tasks. With Quest Management Agent for Forefront
Identity Manager you can benefit from the bi-directional synchronization of user accounts, groups, and other directory objects between FIM and the Active
Directory domains and AD LDS (ADAM) instances managed by ActiveRoles Server.
Company website: http: //www.schakra.com/Services.aspx
With the Home Directory Management Agent (HDMA) for FIM, user home directories can be managed with the same ease and familiar environment as other aspects of the identity lifecycle.
Company website: http: //www.traxion.com/
Advanced framework that contains standard used functions, converters, configuration, logging and codeless provisioning & synchronization. These features can be controlled trough an XML-file.
This management agent can retrieve information from text files or sql databases or through a custom implementation (e.g. a web service) and validate the input and references to other objects. All the object attributes are validated (via an xsd schema) and
filtered before even entering the connector space. Together with the IM Sequencer scheduling and synchronization solution (see
www.imsequencer.com) , this information can be logged in reports. (This agent can be easily used in combination with other extensible agents.)
Using the Liferay web services this management agent is able to provision portal user accounts and roles (incl. members).
The group MA is used to generate Active Directory groups based on attribute values within the metaverse, for instance generate a group based on org units or generate a group based on users working in specific departments.
The AEOS extensible management agent connects to Nedap AEOS using an ODBC connection. Employee information can be added, modified and removed using specific import function codes.
If a web service meets the requirements of a predefined WSDL, the Generic Web Service MA can be used to connect it to FIM without the need to write custom code. The predefined WSDL consists of a basic object model that is easily translated to other systems.
This agent fully manages the mailboxes for MS Exchange 2003, 2007 and 2010 , this agent has standard support for creating, deleting and managing all the mailbox capabilities. Mailboxes can also be distributed evenly over different mailbox stores.
This agent imports or exports data from or to multiple SQL tables, you can easily configure how connector space objects should be exported or imported. This management also supports delta imports.
This agent manages folders, file shares, DFS links and all the security rights for users and groups. This management agent also supports delta imports.
With this solution Traxion and Imprivata offer
a seamless integration of ILM/FIM with Imprivata OneSign enterprise
single sign-on .
We have also built an extensive list of other MA's for specific customer scenarios. Examples are MA's using Webmethods, SAP web services and Powershell commands.
Company website: http: //www.unifysolutions.net/
The UNIFY Identity Broker, is a service that solves the following issues:
UNIFY's list of Identity Broker MAs includes (but is not limited to) the following:
Gokan Ozcifci edited Revision 128. Comment: Tag & Title
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Yahoo named Scott Thompson as its new CEO.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- After four leaderless months, Yahoo named Scott Thompson as its new CEO on Wednesday -- choosing an outsider to take over the helm despite shareholders' calls to sell the company.
Thompson was previously the president of PayPal, an eBay (EBAY, Fortune 500) subsidiary. His appointment, which becomes official January 9, follows the ouster of former CEO Carol Bartz -- who was unceremoniously fired by the company's board via phone in September.
Shares of Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) closed 3.1% lower Wednesday.
In a prepared statement, Thompson called Yahoo "an industry icon" with a "rich history." Although that's true, Yahoo has struggled mightily in recent years. The company gave up on search two years ago, a market that it once led. It is also losing ground with its other cash cow, display advertising, to new entrants to the market such as Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) and Facebook.
On a conference call following the announcement, journalists and analysts hammered Thompson on those points. He said he needs time on the job to develop strong answers.
"It's too early for me to have any informed opinion as to the display space, what's going on there and what's happening next," Thompson said on the call. "I have a lot to learn, and it's still very early days ... but down in that data we're going to find ways to innovate and compete."
Roy Bostock, chairman of Yahoo's board of directors, was also on the call and jumped in to answer many of the hardball questions.
"What we're doing at Yahoo, you can call it a turnaround, but it's really building on strong assets," Bostock said.
Will Yahoo sell itself? Despite Bostock's insistence Yahoo can stand alone, the company's weakness has attracted buyout interest from a long list of both private equity firms and tech titans. Reports in late October said Google was preparing a bid, in addition to Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500), which offered to buy Yahoo for more than $47 billion in 2008 and was turned down. Reports last month said Chinese Internet company Alibaba, of which Yahoo owns a stake, is preparing a takeover bid.
Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang and other board members have privately told four major private equity firms that the board would not support a takeover offer for the entire company, Fortune reported on Wednesday.
Several groups of activist shareholders had pushed Yahoo's board to sell the company, but bringing in an outside CEO makes that possibility more remote.
An analyst on the conference call asked Thompson whether he "see[s] Yahoo as public or private" in the future.
Thompson got out half a word before Bostock jumped in: "We are a public company, with roughly a $20 billion market cap. We don't see that changing right now."
But earlier in the call, Bostock said Yahoo is "considering a wide range of business investments" and other options. He stressed several times during the call that "the primary focus will be on core business."
That leaves Yahoo room to shed more of its vast product portfolio. It began winnowing in late 2010, killing off struggling services like its Buzz community news site and aging AltaVista search engine. Yahoo also thinned its blogs and sold off bookmarking service Delicious.
Thompson said his aim is "to return this business to one of the great iconic brands. I have a core belief that what happens in the next five years, and the next ten, is almost impossible to imagine."
He closed the call by saying, "I'm genuinely excited to be here. I would not be here if I didn't think the future of this brand could be spectacular."
Yahoo chief financial officer Tim Morse had been serving as interim CEO, and he will return to his former position once Thompson takes the helm. Morse will also join the company's board.
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