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Tomorrow night the global village will come together for the glorious purpose of celebrating the things that prevent us all from walking around totally naked. In other words, clothes! Below, a global guide to Fashion's Night Out.
Sydney, Australia
Date: September 6, 2012
Location: Sydney around Pitt Street, Castelreagh Street, and Martin Place
Details: Vogue Australia is celebrating its 3rd year of FNO with the theme Fashion Meets Music. "Designers love musicians, musicians love designers, It's a marriage made in fashion heaven," explains Vogue Australia on its website. Jessica Mauboy, Sarah de Bona, Emma Birdsall, and Diana Rouvas are among the artists scheduled to perform.
Fashion's Night Out Sydney
Moscow, Russia
Date: September 6, 2012
Location: GYM, TsUM, Petrovsky Passage, and Vesna and Tsvetnoi shopping centers.
Details: Many of the world's biggest brands including Christian Louboutin, Chanel, Fendi, Burberry, and Hermes are participating in Russia's Fashion's Night Out. Fendi is giving away two handbags, the Vera Wang bridal shop will be passing out cocktails for shoppers to enjoy while looking at the newest haute couture collection, and Diesel is hosting a party complete with a martini bar, DJ, and party favors. Russian supermodel Natalia Vodianova is FNO's official celebrity and the sale of limited edition FNO t-shirts will go to her charity, the Naked Heart Foundation.
Fashion's Night Out Russia
Paris, France
Date: September 6, 2012
Location: Shopping district between the Elysée Palace on rue du Faubourg St Honoré, and Madeleine
Details: This is Paris's fourth fashion night out, but the first event that's invite only. Vogue readers and special guests can enjoy in-store events with DJs, cocktails, and exclusive giveaways ranging from diamond jumping ropes to FNO t-shirts. Burberry is celebrating by hosting a photo exhibition of anonymous individuals sporting their famous French coat in its store. Vogue.fr will conduct a live stream of the events and keep updates going with Facebook and Twitter.
Fashion's Night Out France
Madrid, Spain
Date: September 6, 2012
Location: Calle Serano
Details: Stores in Madrid will stay open from 7:30 to 10:30, way past their normal hours, to celebrate fashion's night out. They will offer discounts, cocktails, cupcakes, ice cream, music, free photo shoots, celebrity appearances, and specially designed gifts for the occasion. Highlights include Pandora, which will be giving away some of its new animal print charms, and 12 professional manicurists who will be available in a stand in the ABC Serrano, a shopping center, to do free shellac manicures.
Fashion's Night Out Spain
Berlin and Dusseldorf, Germany
Date: September 6, 2012 in Berlin and September 7th in Dusseldorf.
Location: Various locations.
Details: More than 200 shops, boutiques, and department stores will be open across Berlin and Dusseldorf. Germany's FNO is focusing on raising money for charity. Participating vendors will sell a green, metallic, limited-edition FNO bag that was designed by Vogue and handmade dolls that were inspired by the drawings of orphans and made from fabric donated by Bogner, Boss, Escada, Odeeh, Rena Lange, Schumacher, Talbot Runhof, and Windsor. Proceeds go to the Zola Crèche orphanage in Soweto, South Africa.
Fashion's Night Out Germany
Athens, Greece
Date: September 20, 2012 in Athens and September 25, 2012 in Thessaloniki
Location: Various Locations
Details: For the first time Thessaloniki will be participating in Vogue's Fashion Night with boutiques, stores, and department stores open their doors with parties, discounts, the launch of new collections, and drinks. Limited-edition FNO t-shirts will be sold with all proceeds supporting various City of Athens charities.
Fashion's Night Out Greece
New Dehli, India
Date: September 7, 2012
Location: DLF Emporio, New Delhi
Details: To celebrate this year's FNO designer Sabyasachi has fashioned an FNO-themed tote and both Rohit Bal and Shantanu & Nikhil have designed t-shirts that will be sold with all proceeds going to charities. Glee star Darren Chris also filmed a version of Madonna's Dress You Up for the event; Armani Junior is serving cupcakes; Bally is holding a raffle for Bally gift; and Canali is offering free makeovers to male shoppers.
Fashion's Night Out India
Tokyo, Japan
Date: September 8, 2012
Location: Harajuku, Omotesando and Aoyama
Details: Last year Tokyo held it's Fashion Night out months after everybody else, but this year it's right on schedule with over 300 stores participating from 6pm to 11pm. DJs will play at Omotesando Hills, and shoppers can collect stamps in the official guide book (You get one stamp for every ¥5,000 spent) which can then be entered into a raffle to win gifts including a Milly bag, Toni & Guy styling products, and Chloe jackets.
Fashion's Night Out Japan
Mexico City and Guadalaja, Mexico
Date: September 6, 2012 in Mexico City and September 13, 2012 in Guadalaja
Details: The Director and Editors of Vogue Mexico and Latin America are so excited about Fashion's Night Out this year that they created their own playlist that participants can download from the Vogue website. They have also revealed their favorite outfits online and have created The Vogue Cocktail just for the event. Shoppers will be able to try this concoction (made of Absolut Pear, cranberry juice, fresh strawberries, star fruit and Sprite Zero), at a select location.
Fashion's Night Out Mexico
Lisbon, Portugal
Date: September 13, 2012
Location: Chiado, Avenida da Liberdade, Rua Castilho and Príncipe Real
Details: Stores located on four streets in Lisbon will be blasting electronic and house music and passing around trays of strawberries and champagne for an entertainment and hopefully, therapeutic, evening. Proceeds from sales of Lisbon's FNO tote bag will support Portugal's Make A Wish Foundation.
Fashion's Night Out Portugal
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Date: September 13, 2012
Location: P.C. Hooftstraat and Van Baerlestraat
Details: Models, designers, fashion editors, photographers, and shoppers will come together to celebrate FNO in Amsterdam as stores stay open later than ever before, hosting parties and selling limited edition products. Highlights include Michael Kors launching his new sunglasses and Chanel presenting a fresh lipstick. Stores have also created specially styled windows for the event.
Fashion's Night Out The Netherlands
London, United Kingdom
Date: September 6, 2012
Location: Mayfair, Soho, Other locations in the City Center
Details: London's boutiques are hosting musicians, DJs, and even break-dancers to celebrate this year's Fashion's Night Out. With main streets closed to traffic, the streets should be as colorful as the stores with fashion bloggers, photographers, and just crazy-dressers out in full force. Vidal Sasson is giving free trims, Louis Vuitton is hosting a Yayoi Kusami-themed party, and two Vivienne Westwood locations will have live entertainment. Yasmin Le Bon will perform a public catwalk show with Lizzy Jagger and musical groups Dear Prudence, Jess Mells, AlunaGeorge, and Wolf Gang will each perform 30 minute sets in Burlington Gardens.
Fashion's Night Out United Kingdom
Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Date: September 10, 2012 in Sao Paulo, and September 12, 2012 in Rio de Janeiro.
Location: Sao Paulo – Shopping Cidade Jardim, Patio Higienopolis, Rua Oscar Freire, Rio de Janeiro – Shopping Leblon, Fashion Mall
Details: In Sao Paulo Tiffany & Co will be participating in FNO by offering non-stop service of champagne and cakes in the shape of the famous blue box that all Tiffany jewelry comes in. In addition, Tiffany will be launching its new collection, designed specially to celebrate its 175th anniversary. Also, for the second year in a row the ice cream fashion cocktail will be made available that mixes tropical fruits such as mango and passion fruit. In Rio de Janeiro Juliana Burlamaqui, an expert image consultant, will be online ready to connect with shoppers through Facebook and Instagram, giving her take on the fashion and highlighting collections, concerts, street fashion, and more.
Fashion's Night Out Brazil
Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, China
Date: September 7, 2012
Location: West Nanjing Road, Huaihai Road, Xintiandi, and the Bund
Details: Highlights include Powellato offering VIP cocktails and VIP consultation services; Lane Crawford giving out surprise gifts and the chance to win gift cards, and Liu Jo giving away limited edition gifts with purchases.
Fashion's Night Out China
Milan, Rome, Florence Italy
Dates: September 6, 2012 in Milan, September 13, 2012 in Rome, and September 18, 2012 in Florence
Location: Milan – Surrounding Piazza Duomo, Rome – Unspecified, Florence – Unspecified
Details: Many events for Italy's Fashion Night Out revolve around food. Lavazaa, for example, produced a limited edition coffee, that is signed by designers such as Marni, Cavalli, Missoni, Etro, Versace, and Moschino, which it will sell during Fashion Night's Out. A portion of the proceeds will go to the charity Fashion 4 Development. Misura Stevia has also created a low calorie cotton candy that will be served to shoppers in Milan on the evening.
Fashion's Night Out Italy


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Bragging Gets a Boost From Social Media
Elizabeth Bernstein on Lunch Break looks at bragging, including why do people do it and what can we do about it. Photo: Getty Images.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... I ... bringing you on Facebook becomes ... your ranking too much ... into the scene is on the rise in trading by social media ... Elizabeth Bernstein she writes our bond columnist is to post about how great a book on this is we do it for her here on Lunch Break she is right there ... tells a little bit about this in in in in in in re social media's status update we see ... in the religious people saying the facts about their life or is it really Draghi what were talking about was that ... but the social media we are trained to ... reduce the time this sort of idealized version of ourselves that we already know what's happening as that person is due it is it's it's so ... prevalent that we're not really noticing that it's a real post ... they you give some examples in your column which have had a sneak peek out ... about the typical boasting ... I lines that you've heard you can say things like got my first royalty check for my book or ... on best gift ever from the best husband ever ... now these ones about boasting about our spouse or significant others may seem to be particularly prevalent what's inside talking to the psychologist about why people feel the need to go and talk about how great their spouse is it discusses actually so great why would they be stating that I'm ... having to convince everybody on Facebook ... exactly why we have to talk to our spouse through Facebook when they're ... sitting next to the catch I do think on to say in and be careful that solidity insecurity here coming on the bench if things are really so perfect we might not need to be shouting into the world ... now how much is it all up I typically all about us me all about me in terms of how much we Bradley is the stats right now saying in everyday speech ... thirty to forty percent of what we talk about is me me me me me delay comes to social media ... if eighteen percent ... in the just the nature of the beast Elizabeth I mean is that the whole poisoning ... of Facebook you're sharing about yourself so ... how did not come across as bragging ... you share yourself ... I and I think people are are worse about a person whom were annoying ... French citizen is interesting research from harbor where neuroscientists and the brain in a can of the week ... I it lights up the reward centers of Akron might not be the same ... every now when are up for it to ... other organisers facts so it is a very primal thing we'd like to talk about herself sch and that was inches brand name will look at just speaking about her stop so is this something that they're in twenty ten offline the ear and I'm I'm really encourages a ... light on Mr. you wanna know something that can it be ... that skinny get my chapstick and the like button what we do when people are bragging typically when they say brag about their children on social media because he never wanna be rude about something like that people are bragging on social media ... activities particular tips and advice that we can use ... to sort of ... handle bragging politely ... exactly the summit is it just hit my especially if you're online and it's not a person just like it and move on or just ignored in Congo are on track ... I that that person grabbing ... be careful to be you are annoying people yet to realize the cute you are having some kind of back to your ... relationships so again back to the present yesterday that ... I just hit my were really trying to bring your own insecurities too was this just irony because I feel little insecure about my own children are driving me nuts today ... us is take a step back and try to take it with a grain of salt or just read or stop

subset: commoncrawl


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Moms often share advice about things that make their lives easier in order to help lessen the load for other mothers. It's a kindness we do for each other because every little thing helps. Where would we be as mamas if nobody ever told us tips and tricks to make life a little easier?
With that mentality, Texas mom Brooke McDaniel went on Facebook and shared how she created the best DIY baby bottle holder for only $12 by repurposing a shower caddy. She'd already shared her brilliant hack in a mommy group, but decided she should share it with all new moms on her page as well.
McDaniel's post privacy was set so that anyone online could see it, as opposed to just her friends, and it went viral with more than 1.2K shares and counting.
All those shares make sense because it's exactly the kind of thing that new moms want to share with other new moms. Think about it: The bottle holder hack is simple, solves a problem, is easy to re-create and is cheap AF. What's there not to like?
See for yourself:
The comments on the post are full of praise with words like "genius," "brilliant" and "amazing." You would think that's where this story ends ... but NO!
McDaniel actually felt that she had to go back and edit the post to respond to all the negative feedback she got. What? How could anyone find fault with something so utterly innocuous? Well, you know how it is, nitpickers like to nitpick and that's exactly what they did.
Some felt that McDaniel has too many baby bottles because apparently there is a rule about how many bottles you can have.
Then there were those who took offense at the exposed bottle nipples in the picture because dust and germs are EVERYWHERE!
Unfazed, McDaniel explains—and not that she needs to, just for the record—why she has so many bottles: "I have two children on bottles and not enough time to wash them 6 times a day."
As for the exposed nipples, she points out that the only thing those nipples are coming into contact with while stored is the very same air that the family is already breathing. If you aren't comfortable with "exposed nipples in your own home you should really be more concerned with your cleaning habits." Mic drop!
Honestly, people of Facebook, can a mother get a break now and then? Keep your petty judgements to yourself and let a mother be. She just might teach you something to make YOUR life easier!


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I've had some time to play with the Drobo 5D; filling up about 6TB worth of data (out of 10.89TB in my 5X3TB setup). I've been using it in a mix-use environment. I think I have enough time to form an opinion. So here is my non-professional, regular end-user hands on review of the new Drobo 5D Thunderbolt / USB 3.0 raid box.
The device was originally announced during the summer and there was a series of delay, waiting and anticipation. Drobo did not release performance figures until they neared shipping. This was not a very promising introduction.
I was ready to give up and go elsewhere. The Pegasus R4 is the closest competitor to the Drobo and I'm sure it will be cross-shopped. The Pegasus R4 (4 bay RAID) system can be had for $1,000 with 4TB of disks ($985 at Provantage link, $1100 amazon link).
The Drobo 5D is $850 and it comes bare (enclosure-only) but does include a Thunderbolt cable (which is worth $50 by itself). You will need to load it up with drives. If you are a savvy shopper, you can start off with three 2TB drives to give you 3.63TB of useable data (according to the online calculator) to match the Pegasus R4's storage capacity. So if you shop around, three 2TB will cost about an $300 (with heavy slickdeals-like discount and bargain hunting) which still makes it more expensive than an R4 setup.
Even though the Drobo 5D is more expensive (with drives), you do have 5 bays vs R4 only having 4 bays. You also have the added benefit of USB 3.0 which the R4 lacks. This broadens the use of this device over a Thunderbolt only system. With 5 bays, you have the potential of filling it up with 4TB drives; giving you around 14.5TB useable storage (from 16TB). That in itself is very compelling.
You can start off cheaper with a Drobo because you can add drives at any time. But, I doubt anyone buying a Drobo at $850 will skimp out by using 1 or 2 drives.
So why would I go out and buy this device? Well, I was already allotted a budget and "gifted" funds to buy one from a job I did over the summer. In short, I had to buy one or return the bonus funds I got from that job.
The Drobo Sales Pitch
Drobo claims this device will yield 400 MB/s reads with 256 MB/s writes on average. That doesn't sound as compelling as their competition who posts higher Megabytes per second. Rather, Drobo prefers to bench based on I/O per seconds (IOPS). They believe that "real-world" performance is where the 5D will shine.
They explain this in detail on their performance page: http://www.drobo.com/how-it-works/performance-professional.php
In short, they claim:
"While benchmarking give you a good indication of how well a storage device performs when it's healthy and for a single task, it is still not a replacement for real-world performance. Benchmarks are nice, but real-world performance is everything."Real-world performance includes a mix workload; copying various random small files in addition to large bulky files. This is where the IOPs figure comes into play. If you are copying a Photo Library folder with lots of small thumbnails or large volumes of small text files (say a web project), your transfers will be slower than if you normally copy something like large video files. I've seen this happen in the real world where I copied GIT repo of a website with thousands of files and it did indeed take longer than copying large movie files.
They claim 400 to 1280 IOPS. For comparison, some single SSDs are rated at 40,000 to 80,000 IOPS. The Samsung 830 SSD has benched 4K random read IOPS of 80,000.
Other HDD manufacturers do not bench on IOPS and I could not find any reviews on the net to compare the Drobo 5D to when it comes to comparable storage/raid redundancy.
If you are used to thinking in Megabytes per second, you need to acclimate yourself to IOPS.
The Drobo uses a form of RAID which is similar to RAID5/RAID6/RAIDZ. They call it Beyond Raid and it has a some unique characteristics both real and perceived. It provides single or dual disk redundancy. This in itself is very important. This is a redundant RAID system.
Unlike traditional RAIDs, you can mix-and-match drives sizes (called Mix drive utilization). You can also grow your array at any time buy swapping out smaller drives for larger ones. You can start off with 1TB drive, add 2TB in a few months, or opt to mix and match with 3 and 4TB drives as prices drop. This provides un-paralleled flexibility.
Unlike other RAID systems, Drobo implements their version of data-tiering. Tiering, not to be confused with SSD caching, basically will automatically stores the files that require faster access on SSDs. The system automatically tunes itself and migrate data across SSD/HDD depending on usage. This is similar to the "Fusion" drive technology that Apple recently announced for their new iMacs/Mac Minis. Like the Apple's Fusion drive, the Drobo requires an SSD in the form of a mSATA drive that is installed in the bottom bay. This is the key to increasing IOPS performance.
Their pitch on data-aware tiering can be found here: http://www.drobo.com/how-it-works/data-aware-tiering.php
Using SSDs for acceleration, smaller and random reads benefit significantly while the larger HDDs are used for storing larger data. This whole process is automated. Transactional tiered data goes to SSD and bulk data goes to platter drives. I can see the benefits for databases and virtual machines.
For a non-technical person or someone unfamiliar with RAID technologies, the Drobo 5D is a simple and easy to use system. In theory, you can't go wrong. You won't get the fastest drive setup but you will get ease-of-use and a rich feature-set. Automated data-tiering is a very compelling proposition.
The things I like
- Battery backed cache. This is found in more expensive RAIDs and helpful in case of power failure.
- The software has a nice GUI interface with tools like email notifications.
- Two Thunderbolt ports for daisy-chaining and it does indeed work well.
- Black thunderbolt cable that is slimmer than Apple's cable. Where can I buy another?
- Ability to mix drives and upgrade in the future.
- Thin Provisioning.
- Ability to boot from Drobo.
The Competition
Let me preface by saying I am NOT a professional journalist or reviewer. I am enthusiast end-user and a normal consumer like you.
My source drive is a Crucial M4 512GB SATA 6.0Gb/s running on a Macbook with Mountain Lion 10.8.2. The Crucial M4 random reads bench at 45-50,000 IOPS (http://techreport.com/review/20646/crucial-m4-solid-state-drive).
In short, my source copies will not be bottlenecked copying to the Drobo.
My Drobo 5D setup:
- Five Seagate ST3000DM001 3TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s
- Crucial M4 mSATA 6gb/s 128GB SSD w/ latest firmware 01MG as the cache accelerator drive
Knowing that the Drobo 5D will not bench that great using MB/sec, I attempted to evaluate this device on Drobo's premise of mix-real world usage. However, I will also present synthetic Black Magic numbers for reference.
In terms of USB 3.0 performance, this is what Black Magic shows. 90MB/s write 110-130MB/s reads.
Next, Thunderbolt. the best I could muster over several tries were 210-240 MB/s writes and 290-300MB/s reads. This is actually good for a consumer RAID but fall short when compared to something like the Pegasus R4.
Again, these are just synthetic numbers that an application produces and is not indicative of real-world use. Im not a professional reviewer so I can't give you IOPs numbers.
To follow Drobo's assumption of real-world mix usage, I attempted to see how well it performed copying a mix of different file types.
Instead of trying another synthetic test, I did it the old fashion way. I timed it. My test is all writes. I am more concerned about fast the drive writes my copy rather than how fast it reads.
Instead of copying large 30GB files to see the sustained transfer rate, I opted to try a typical usage of copying my photo backups. This s a 28.76GB folder of 2,277 photos in RAW format from my DSLR. This is 2-3 months of photos and typical usage example to test performance of copying a lot of medium sized files where the should Drobo shines.
I called this the Photo test.
I did another test with extremely small files. A webserver folder with 27,759 items clocking it at 1.5GB. These include small 5k HTML/Javascript files. So this would be a typical thing for a web developer to back up his/her files of a working project.
This is the WebTest.
- Samsung 830 SSD via USB 3.0 in an Oyen Mini-Pro enclosure (with ASMedia 1051e chipset).
- Samsung 830 SSD w/ Seagate Thunderbolt Adapter
- Internal Seagate Momentum XT 2.5 " 7200 rpm drive. This is the Hybrid XT drive.
- 5400 rpm USB 3.0 Seagate Go Flex portable drive
- 5400 rpm Firewire 800 Seagate Go Flex portable drive
- USB 3.0 Hitachi portable 2TB drive. 5900 rpm.
- HDD Thunderbolt comparison against a LaCie 2Big 4TB in RAID 0.
Photo Test. Copying 28GB of Photos.
Shorter bars are always better.
Full Chart.
|Time (min.sec)
|Photo Test
|USB3.0-Samsung SSD
|Photo Test
|Thunderbolt-Samsung SSD
|Photo Test
|HDD Seagate 7200 rpm internal drive
|Photo Test
|5400 rpm 2.5 Go Flex USB 3
|Photo Test
|5400 rpm 2.5 Go Flex via Firewire 800
|Photo Test
|5900 rpm external Hitachi USB 3
|Photo Test
|LaCie 2 Big Thunderbolt 4TB
|Photo Test
|Drobo 5D
|Web Copy
|USB3.0-Samsung SSD
|Web Copy
|Thunderbolt-Samsung SSD
|Web Copy
|HDD Seagate 7200 rpm internal drive
|Web Copy
|5400 rpm 2.5 Go Flex USB 3
|Web Copy
|5400 rpm 2.5 Go Flex via Firewire 800
|Web Copy
|5900 rpm external Hitachi USB 3
|Web Copy
|LaCie 2 Big Thunderbolt 4TB
|Web Copy
|Drobo 5D
Test observations.
Going in, I knew the SSDs will smoke any HDD system. That is a given.
The Drobo 5D performs decent in my view. It is not super fast and not slow. The LaCie 2big Thunderbolt simply smokes it but we have to remember, the LaCie is a Striped RAID vs Redundant Array. Also, the LaCie is 4TB/6TB vs 10TB (you can go up to 16TB on the Drobo).
If you notice, Firewire smokes the USB implementation when it came to small 4k-10K file web copies. This illustrates the inefficiencies of the BOT (Bulk-Only-Transport) protocol of USB 3.0.
Watching the progress bar on a regular USB 3.0 drive was painful to watch as it struggles with smaller files. 12-15 minutes for a 1.5GB folder!
The Drobo 5D performed surprisingly well. Like I said earlier, the synthetic benchmarks will not give you a realistic idea of how the drives will perform in the real world.
So is the Drobo 5D fast?
I wish I had a Pegasus R4 to compare. I ran this test about 3 times on fresh formatted systems. I also skipped testing the Drobo 5D via USB 3. It simply wasn't that fast with USB 3.0 in my view.
It did surprisingly well where it was suppose to - with smaller files. If you are copying 4-6GB Blu-Ray ripped movies, there will be other things out there that will out-run it.
How it fares will ultimately depend on how you plan to use the device. I would also add that my test may not be indicative of your use. The device is suppose to automatically tier the data upon repeated use and you might fare better in a different workload environment.
The speed perception will also depend on what you are used to. I've been living with SSDs in my day-to-day life that I'm very spoiled. I carry about 4-5 SSDs in my carry bag. The LaCie 2big is also a very fast HDD Thunderbolt enclosure. Read and writes average 300+ MB/sec. But I have to remind myself that the LaCie is a striped RAID and not a redundant RAID like the Drobo 5D. The redundant RAIDs I've used are the OWC Mercury, MediaSonic, and Sans-Digital eSATA based systems for consumers. At RAID5, they often top out at 150-200 MB/sec. So when you compare it to the Drobo 5D, the Drobo is indeed faster. However, those enclosures are $300-400 versus a $850 Drobo.
First and foremost, you need to have a Thunderbolt equipped machine to be in the market for this device. The USB 3.0 is a nice add on for future proofing but it isn't the main reason to buy this device.
Should you use this device in a network share environment? No. This is not a NAS or even recommended as storage for your SOHO server. I've read of people planning to use this device ( and other Thunderbolt RAID systems) as storage for mac mini server set-ups. With Gigabit's theoretical 125 MB/sec limits, this device is over-kill on single NIC servers. You'll need Fast multiple NIC teaming or 10GbE networks to properly use this for multiple clients. Otherwise, there are mini-SAS eSATA solutions. Look elsewhere for a dedicated NAS system for your SOHO use.
There will be users who buy the Drobo 5D as their primary backup system. Like with all backups, it is not a good idea to have all your eggs in one basket because with one catastrophic failure, you lose everything. There are countless horror stories on RAID failures. Drobo is not unique . If you plan to use this as your primary backup, please consider having additional offline or additional supplemental backups as well.
I think the buyers will most likely be creative professionals who need fast, large storage. They include photographers and video editors who need to move large files fastly. If you are planning to copy and archive your MP3 music collection, this is definitely over-kill.
My use case would be a mix usage with a heavy leaning on using it as a fast work drive. E.G. scratch drive, running Virtual Machines, Lightroom catalogs.
Drobo with other platforms.
Right now, Macintoshes have a monopoly in terms of Thunderbolt usage. I'll follow up in the future to give my opinion on using this with Linux (via USB 3.0).
You need to heavily weigh your needs and your usage to consider this device.
Filling up a Drobo is not cheap. 5x 2TB drives would cost you around $500 (if you can get the drives at $100 a piece) and this would yield you 7.26TB of usable space according to their drive calculator.
Dont even bother with 1TB drives. The difference being $70 vs $100 2TB on sale, go for the 2TB or 3TB HDD drives. Hence, we are now talking about around $1350 to begin. This does not include the mSATA cache accelerator drive. With a 128GB mSATA cache drive, you are looking at $1500.
$1500 can buy you lots of drives, SSDs, and even a few RAID enclosures.
As for a redundant backup system, you may want to skip the Drobo 5D because I do believe the $850 is a bit pricey for that type of use. If you absolutely need to have something faster than your current backup system, then the Drobo 5D may be an option for you.
As for a performance oriented work drive, it is a tough call. The Pegasus R4 is a proven performer with little problems (according to end users and message boards). You can buy an R4 for your fast RAID5 and a few external USB 3.0 3TB drives for your secondary backups. Or you can buy a LaCie Big Disk (I got a 4TB refurb for $200) and a lot of spare 3-4TB external drives.
The picture below exemplifies this hard choice. $900 can get you a LaCie 2big, 2 SSDs, three 3TB USB 3.0 external drives (totaling 9TB) vs an empty bare Drobo 5D enclosure (with no drives). 13TB vs 0 on the Drobo.
For me, it boils down to this, how big of a scratch work drive do I need? If you need 6 TB and larger, the Drobo is a good buy.
There is no substitute for the fact you can get up to 16TB of storage with good speed. 200-350 MB/s is still very good.
If you are looking for a combination of both in terms of mix-use (backup drive and work drive), then you might buy the sales pitch Drobo is making.
As for me, I think a mix-setup that I currently have is more preferable: A fast 4TB cheap Thunderbolt striped RAID or SSDs for work disk and a NAS for backup along with multiple external drives/cheaper RAID setups.
If the Drobo 5D was $100-$200 cheaper, I would totally recommend it.
I'll probably end up keeping this device. I can always use the storage.
Update 2012-12-03: Thunderbolt does not work under Windows. Read more on my blog post.


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From 1981 to 1995, there were more cumulative deaths from the AIDS epidemic in New York City than total U.S. deaths in the Vietnam War, yet as some have pointed out, there is no significant memorial to those losses in the city of New York — aside from a bench in the Hudson River Park. There is now a movement to build a deserving memorial and Architizer and Architectural Record have launched an official design competition. The site up for design is the triangular plot of land in the West Village that is located across the street from the old St. Vincent's Hospital, one of the first locations to treat those affected by HIV and AIDS in the 1980s.
The site proposed consists of 16,000 square feet of above ground space intended to be a green space — which is currently a public garden and an empty storage building that belonged to the hospital — and 10,000 feet of basement area that the coalition believes could be transformed into a museum and learning environment dedicated to the AIDS epidemic. "We envision AIDS Memorial Park as a vital community park that integrates green public space with a living memorial. We believe that our design process will engage the best architects, and landscape and urban designers to propose inspirational, imaginative and thoughtful alternative solutions for the park and underground space," said Keith Fox, Chairman of AIDS Memorial Park's Executive Committee.
Entries to the competition are being accepted from now until January 21st, 2012 on Architizer. Michael Arad, designer of the National September 11 Memorial, is the chair of the jury and is joined by quite a few notable figures, including Elizabeth Diller founding partner of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, who helped design the High Line; Robert Hammond founder of Friends of the High Line; Dr. Marjorie Hill, CEO of Gay Men's Health Crisis; Richard Meier, Managing Partner, Richard Meier & Partners Architects; and Suzanne Stephens, Deputy Editor, Architectural Record, among others.
"I am honored to chair the jury for the NYC AIDS Memorial Park. The redesign of the grounds of the old St. Vincent's hospital has afforded a unique opportunity to create a meaningful public space," Michael Arad said of the project. "My fellow jurors and I are looking forward to reviewing proposals that imagine both a neighborhood park that will serve the surrounding community, and a significant memorial that can serve as a symbolic touchstone as we commemorate 30 years of the AIDS epidemic."


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Yesterday memories of my time at Shamper's Bluff (seen above) came flooding back as I listened to an interview Freeman Patterson recently did on CBC Radio. It was lovely to hear Freeman's voice again, recounting some of the stories he shared with us but there was also a reminder for this journey. Freeman spoke about the camera looking both ways. It's a not a new concept to photographers but Freeman was more specific saying that with "every photograph we make, we are all writing our own autobiography".
Our photographs record how we feel, our fears and secrets, our dreams and desires, our successes and failures. They are who we are, pieced together over our lifetime. I wonder what images we would create if we were more mindful that we are writing stories about ourselves all the time through our photographs. And I wonder if we would take more care responding with our words to the images others make if we understood that they all carried a piece of that person in them.


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Reading a character sheet isn't easy, especially when you don't know what you're looking for. "Longsword: +6 to attack, 1d8+3 damage" doesn't actually mean anything without context, and that context is usually buried in gaming rules and minutia. Even if you have a frame of reference, like knowing you're looking at a 2nd-level fighter in 3.5E, the context changes based on the campaign style ("Why don't you have a magic weapon yet?"), the challenges ("You're almost guaranteed to kill any goblin in a single hit, that's ridiculous."), the setting ("A longsword? So you're showing off that you're a foreigner?"), and too many other factors to list. I can't give you a detailed primer on how to know if your character's abilities, or the abilities of your players' characters, fit the character or characters you want to play. That's something you have to figure out for yourself within your campaign framework.
What I can do is give you examples of reading character sheets for information and what we learned from those examples. These aren't direct recommendations like "if a character's attack bonus falls below the recommended range for an attack bonus at the character's level, that character is not interested in front-line combat". Hard and fast rules don't work for this. Instead they're concepts, gentle nudges that say "here's what we noticed, here's what it meant, here's how we reacted or did not react, and here's the result" to demonstrate the general flow of this activity.
Before getting too deep into this, I do want to say that nothing here is an indication of bad or malicious play. A player isn't bad at the game or trying to trick you just because what they said they wanted for their character doesn't match what the character does. It's far more likely that the player's concept changed during character design, they're leaning a bit outside their concept for survivability (a character with low defenses may be flavorful, but it's not fun if they're unconscious for half of every session), or they just don't know what's an especially good, bad, impressive, or broken value or tactic. Don't read these as examples of behavior that needed to be fixed, just examples of things that happened.
Except for Jeb. He needed to be fixed.
Jeb was the cucco farmer in the second Zelda campaign. He was a reskinned seeker, a ranged controller who throws or shoots weapons and channels fey spirits to aid allies and limit enemies' powers. Jeb did this by tossing hay bales, summoning chickens, blocking attacks with pigs, and passing out tasty, tasty milk. He was somehow the comic relief in a party that already had a cowardly healer constantly talking about how he was very definitely not a thief, a hair-trigger defender/explosives expert, and Princess Azeld, royal murderhobo. All this was fine and valid.
The issue was shortly after a fight when the player was talking about how rarely he seemed to hit his targets. We took a look at his sheet and realized he hadn't updated it for recent level gains, which meant he was missing several bonuses and abilities he should have been applying. Once we fixed that, suddenly he was much better at combat. This is a somewhat meta first example, but it shows how the player's stated (understood) intention, "I want to play a character in a 4E campaign" was secondary to his actual (understood) intention, "I want to play a character who is fun." The action of running the character and using his wacky powers was more relevant to the player than being mechanically viable even in a system built around mechanical viability.
Once I saw that, I largely stopped trying to find ways for Jeb to be relevant as a combat threat and just let him do his own thing. It was clear to me that being effective in fights was not Jeb's payoff. Instead of making encounters where Jeb was a plus because that would cause him to have fun, I assumed he would find ways to have fun even if he wasn't terribly powerful in a given fight, and I was right. Jeb kept getting wackier, but in a way that remained fun and interesting instead of distracting or annoying, and I only had to juggle four characters' abilities when I built my monsters, giving everybody else a little more time in the combat limelight. We recognized the disparity between the intention and the actual character and we rolled with it instead of trying to shoehorn Jeb into something he didn't want to be.
We did something similar with Icronouf. His player said Icronouf was an innovator, but he took no abilities related to innovation and did not significantly innovate during the campaign. Instead his abilities tended toward diplomacy and archery, with a splash of healing because the party desperately needed it. This patchwork of ideas gave us a character who didn't work as well as intended, and I don't think he got enough of a chance to shine because he was too busy wearing several hats to impress us with any one of them.
I discuss him a bit more at the link above, including how his concept and his play style didn't really mesh, but what I don't say is that we didn't really do anything about it. Had we caught what he was doing early we might have been able to work with it more. But we kind of just let the character be himself, and his story petered out with the rest of the campaign in an ignominious end. Icronouf really could have benefitted from a line-by-line read of the character sheet to bring him more in line with his concept, and at that point in my career I wasn't prepared to do that.
I want to point out that the response "ignore the disparity and let the character run as written" worked in the first case and didn't work in the second. Different situations require different responses even when a lot of the points in those situations are the same. You and your players have to decide how important the disparities are to you before you decide how much effort you want to put into fixing them, and that involves understanding what your players actually want. Sometimes the character concept is just an excuse to use a given build or vice versa, and in most cases that's okay, as long as it's intentional.
Of course, it's hard to read the intentions of a party the same way you can read the intentions of a player. Parties tend to be dominated by the loudest voices and the strongest opinions. For groups I've had more success looking at the broad trends of characters sheets; there's no use in collecting everybody's full feat lists, but by comparing everybody's AC you can get a sense for who's an outlier and how afraid the party is of taking damage. This is easiest when you pick something tangible, like a specific number (attack bonus) or game concept (skills). Consider The Eight Arms and the Day That Wasn't, my current campaign in 5E, in which the party has the following skills and tools trained:
- Four characters: Insight, thieves' tools
- Three characters: Perception, Stealth
- Two characters: Athletics, History, Intimidation, Investigation, Persuasion, Religion, Sleight of Hand, disguise kit
- One character: Acrobatics, Arcana, Deception, Medicine, Nature, Performance, Survival, various proficiencies
- No characters: Animal Handling
What does this say about them? As a group, they are not interested in being surprised, but they do want to surprise others. They do not want to be tricked by creatures or impeded by locks or traps. They are not particularly interested in creature lore or backstories, and they are not prepared for physical challenges besides combat. They are not animal lovers.
This is, of course, a generalization—one character is proficient in Arcana, History, and Nature, so it is safe to say he cares about knowledge skills, and that same character is proficient in thieves' tools but only because they came automatically with his class and not because he plans to use them. But as a whole, most of the party is much more worried about a lie going undetected than they are about not knowing what a given creature's powers or weaknesses are, and they are much more prepared for a deadly trap than for an obstinate guard. I should have sneaky enemies so they can use Perception, I should be careful about putting them in crumbling ruins because they're short on Acrobatics and Athletics, and I absolutely should not make the campaign hinge on whether or not they can save and befriend a tribe of hungry wolves.
(As I compiled this list, at least one player explained that they deliberately did not take proficiency in a specific skill because they decided their bonus from an ability score was already fairly high and they would rather have the proficiency bonus elsewhere. This was presented as an argument against using skill proficiencies as a measure of party intention, and I understand that. But even this argument told me the silent intention "being well-rounded is more important to me than excelling at something", and that factors into my design decisions and my understanding of the character just as much as anything else. The act of discussing intentions gave me more intentions my players hadn't expressed verbally. The lesson, as usual, is to listen to your players even when they aren't saying something.)
As an example of things gone badly, look at The Umbrageous Sodality and the Ghost Opera, our all-vigilante Pathfinder campaign. During Session Zero, our stated intention was to have the characters start separate but join forces during the campaign. The example we used for power level and feel was the X-Men: everybody knows everybody else's powers and identities, each character had their own background and path that converges with the group, and the party is powerful enough to save a city but not a planet. Things didn't work out that way. Once the campaign started, the players fiercely protected their identities and avoided each other, resulting in them wandering around investigating several different storylines even after they had ostensibly joined together, which was rough because their lower level was more in line with the Defenders than anybody who could shoot lasers and fly.
Why what we wanted differed from what we did isn't the point here. The issue is that it was different, and more that I was surprised by it. If I had been paying attention I could have seen it from minute one. Everybody built a character versed in working alone: for the most part they had exceptional Stealth so the other characters couldn't find them, exceptional abilities so they couldn't be caught and unmasked, exceptional ability to blend in so nobody suspected them, and exceptional survivability so they never got in a situation where they would be knocked unconscious and unmasked. Characters were built to be individuals, not part of a team, and they were built to protect themselves, not to put their trust in others. If I'd seen it earlier I could have forced the issue harder, making it clear in everybody's storylines that the plot before them was too great to handle alone. But I didn't push it enough narratively, and everybody danced around each other for several in-game days, which played a big part in making a five-week campaign balloon to eight.
But I didn't fail completely because I recognized the shift in power level. When we originally discussed the campaign, I'd expected the players to take only half their levels in vigilante. I foresaw them multiclassing to get all the other neat abilities they wanted to make their concept go, like magic or training or anything that could be considered a superpower. Instead, of our six characters, only two multiclassed, and only one of them went anywhere supernatural. Of the two characters who took magic, one reskinned it as equipment and the other never made it to a session. But I saw this happening early and I adjusted for it. Even if the players said they wanted a superhero power level, the characters they built were street heroes, so I scrapped any designs I had on giant enemies, threatening villains, and horde battles in favor of small-scale combats against fantasy creatures and low-level minions, capped by a villain who operated cleverly from the shadows. If I hadn't, most of the party would have gotten overwhelmed and killed or captured in the first two sessions.
Like a lot of DMing this is more art than science. No matter what checklist you imagine, you're going to catch some things and miss others. How (and whether) you react to a disparity is similarly subjective and I can't give you a best way to do it. It's something you develop a sense for over time by reading the table and understanding why players make the characters they do. The point of these posts is to acknowledge that disparities between concept and execution exist, show you some of the ways they present themselves, and explain what happens when you do or don't work with them. Once you get a feel for it, a lot of "why didn't this campaign/character work the way I thought?" questions start making sense, and that's a step on the way to recognizing and getting the at-the-table feel you want.


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|GF9 supplies some flat scenery in its Tanks game to get you
started, but the houses - in particular - just didn't feel right
during my first game.
Then I remembered the printed paper models that my father used to make for his model railway layout, some of which were very good indeed. The advantages of these are; they are cheap (sometimes free), they are pre-textured so don't require painting and they are relatively quick to put together (though there are some very sophisticated paper models out there).
|An example of some nice historic paper models by PaperTerrain. Unfortunately,
they charge $18 to download this set, so had to look elsewhere!
Sourcing The Models
This is one of those areas where the Internet shines after a short Googling session I found a few likely sources for free paper models, but I was most impressed by the range of buildings by Wordsworth Model Railway and their 'Townscene' collection.
|WMR's 'Townscene' series of paper models and well-designed models which
represent standard British building types which suit most periods, from the
1930s to present day.
|WMR's 'Stoneacre' model is a nice 'two up' house model and was the first
I downloaded and made.
|The 'Hannah' cottage kit is their simplest of WMR's model and only takes
minutes to put together!
The only real issue is scale, the WMR models are in 'OO' railway scale (1/76), so I had to do a bit of math to work out the size reduction necessary to make these models suitable for a 15mm game (1/100-ish). In doing so I discovered that 15mm is actually an equivalent to the 'TT' railway scale which is about 1/120 scale, in the British way of calculating it (apparently it varies around the world).
My way of calculating was a bit more 'guestimate' as I happened to find an actual 15mm house model - a particularly badly drawn one which I couldn't use - which gave me the standard scale height for a doorway in this scale. I then used this measurement to determine that I needed to scale down the 'OO' models by 72% (so the doors were 19mm high by 10mm wide, roughly).
A couple of evening later I had these...
I was a little slow at making these as I have never put together a paper model before. But I did get a bit better as I went along and the lovely little garage building went together pretty quickly. There's a bit of a knack to building paper and card buildings and you soon find you own best technique for doing things.
One thing I would say is that your choice of glue and card thickness has a lot to do with how easy you will find these models and how good the end product will look. I tried ordinary 'school' PVA glue and this 'wet' glue soaked the paper and deformed the card, this is why WMR suggests that you use PRITT sticks. I used heavy 410gsm card stock, but this was probably overkill taking into consideration the rescaling I did, so I will try out a test using half that thickness for 15mm in future.
Finally, always use a sharp craft knife blade for your cutting out. A dull blade can drag and tear the paper which is glued onto the card, so you will have to change blades every so often. I used two craft knives, one with a new super sharp blade for cutting and the second with a used and duller blade for scoring the card for folding.
Sod's Law Strikes Again!
When I was searching for suitable buildings for my game I did really want authentic continental house models, but aside from PaperTerrain's costly WW2 French village models I couldn't seem to find any. Which is why I made do with WMR's more rural houses instead.
However, as thing always tend to happen, when I sat down to write this blog entry I was doing some additional web research and guess what? Yes, I found better examples of WW2 rustic building models!
The Perry's Heroes website has a set of 'Western European Buildings' which fit the bill exactly, the only catch being that they seem to be in 28mm scale I think (so I ended up scaling these down in my print dialogue by 48%).
These are actually simpler - so quicker to put together - designs than WMR's, and I had the cafe example put together in about ten minutes (there are no fiddly chimneys, etc). That said, I did take the design into Adobe Photoshop and add some of the French cafe signs that I used for my earlier MDF French building project that I did a week or so back.
I did like the rather more grubby rustic look of these models and the fact that they only composed of two building sides (front and side and a back and side) plus a roof meant you could knock out a whole village in an evening if you want to!
I'm really happy with these little models, they fit my current needs exactly. They are cheap (free), simple and quick to put together and look OK from a tabletop distance. However, one caveat is that if you are playing a wargame like 'Flames of War' you might not find these models useful as the game requires that you be able to place figures inside your buildings!
This wasn't a problem for me, as GF9's 'Tanks' game does not include infantry units, so houses are no more than obstacles to the tanks movement and line of sight, so they can just be solid models.
And, one more thing, I actually found these little models very satisfying to make in of themselves! So I would be happy to look into using these again for when I gat more into 28mm Bolt Action gaming, I would just have to devise a method fro making the roofs removable for placing my little soldiers inside.
NEXT: I set up a test game of Tanks using my new houses!


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We had a very interesting weekend waiting to see if Cyclone Ita would stop us from going to Port Douglas in North Queensland. We arrived safely yesterday afternoon with no dramas or delays.....straight into relax mode!
On Saturday we went to my brothers 50th in Sydney. It has been a few years since we were last together. That's me on the right next to the birthday boy. I'm the only one under 50 now, and didn't I rub it in.
Not sure how much sewing will be done on holidays, but I brought plenty with me.
Susan x


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What can Oscar Wilde teach us?
"Don't give up that day job..."
Recently a 13 page letter and an undiscovered poem titled "The new Remorse" were discovered in a dusty old wardrobe. The letter (written around 1890) was a hand written advisory to an up and coming writer, who sought advice on literary success from Wilde. It seems Wilde was direct and to the point. He basically saw much wisdom is pursuing one's creative life in one's spare time, and advised the writer not to give up a life of work and salary for art or creativity.
"The best work in literature is always done by those who do not depend on it for their daily bread and the highest form of literature, Poetry, brings no wealth to the singer."
Strangely, most poets would agree that writing poetry is not a path to financial wealth and happiness. It has been repeated many times, and I even heard it said by the poet Seamus Heaney. In the material world we have today, most of what goes on and most of what we do, comes down to material things. It is simply a statement of factuality. We cannot exist without first having the financial means of supporting ourselves. But can art and creativity, independent from debt and bills and a dependence on money - be truly pursued? So was Wilde's words of wisdom true or out of step with modern times?
Wilde also added in his letter: "Make some sacrifice for your art and you will be repaid but ask of art to sacrifice herself for you and a bitter disappointment may come to you."As the letter and poem come up for auction, many people in the creative and art world will debate this matter, just as Oscar Wilde did, all those 120 odd years ago.
A warm (because it is actually very warm) St. Patrick's Day celebration to you all, and thank you for supporting the blog and everything! Best wishes for the weekend and the next week from my Missus Mandy and myself.
If by some strange chance you see any little people wandering around, or funny little guys with beards and green hats, don't worry. That's a different festival day, because those critters work for Santa! That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!
Enjoy the weekend and the holiday! - from Alan & Mandy!
Courage to paint
A recent feature on art in a blog caught my attention. It was about showing or exhibiting original art on blogs or websites. The blogger said it was basically a waste of time and energy putting original art anywhere on the web in public as it would be scraped, copied, stolen, or somehow duplicated somewhere else. The point was well made. But for an artist to decide to undo the process of showing one's art to the world runs against the artistic temperament. As artists, we all need to show our creations to the world. One thing we can also do is watermark our art and make it so that if it appears anywhere else, we know it is our original work because of that tag or attached security created for it. Adobe Photoshop would be one such place to start, as this software has watermark creation technology. Let's face it. There is a lot of stolen content on the web. But that should not stop us making original art.
"Conversation" by Kadar Bela
In the world of art and great paintings, we are used to certain typical great names standing out. Degas, Dali, Picasso, Van Gogh, and so on. Their names instantly transport us to a frame of mind of their artwork. What comes from their eyes, from within their imagination - is the sum of their dreams, vision, emotions, memories and talent. What usually results, is whatever influences them, no matter how amazing or unusual, or dark that imagination.
In this painting Kadar Bela's "Conversation" is a classic painting, but much less well known when compared to some great artists. He lived from 1877 to 1956, and his art is quite revolutionary. He is one of the reasons that Hungary is famous for great paintings and painters.
Some artists paint something safe and pleasing and reassuring, while others choose a more darker subject or theme. Edward Munch chose some dark subjects to paint, as his painting "The Scream" eloquently shows.
Bela was not afraid to depict his subjects, in this case, 2 nude ladies sitting in apparent conversation, seemingly oblivious to the artist who sat painting them, just feet away. The immediate sense one gets from looking at how it is created and framed makes us think of many modern precepts in art and design, even logos of MTV, and modern art of the 2000's. The arrangement of the seated women, the odd yet amazing framing of one woman inside a blue frame, the unusual object that divides colours in the center of the work, but which somehow harmonizes the painting, and the rendering of the women - so much like the abstract style of Picasso and other figure painters. Bela's art is so revolutionary, that the consequences of just how transformational his style is - still rings true today in many kinds of art and across many creative mediums, from advertising to TV to motion pictures and more still...
In art, we begin learning by painting what we see. but when we have practiced this for long enough, and hopefully become bored with it, we progress beyond formal drawing and painting by rote, or rule - and we venture into the unknown. That place is the dark and strange recesses of our own imaginations. It can be a scary place. it can be confusing, having to ditch all those rules on how to draw and compose. But when we see art that stops us in our tracks and makes us confront a different kind of thinking, that is because that artist is revealing that imagination to us and we have to work to decrypt its meaning or massage. The potential rewards of this are endless, for a true lover of art.
The courage to paint well, and transform our work from the mere "usual" we produce - into something more - requires a change from us. That change consists of a conversation we have with ourselves, where we decide that we have to migrate to another plane as artists. That other place is the base from which we forge that new "self". Art is an amazing medium. It is hugely forgiving, and accommodates this transition, provided we understand the few conditions of having to produce works of some kind of value. We can study the Greats in art, like Kadar Bela, and become more than we thought we could be.
Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads. ~ Erica Jong
I could have put any great painting or image by any of the usual great artists in this blog. I chose Bela because he doesn't get the credit he richly deserves. By studying the thinking and the techniques and works of masters such as Bela, we become better at appreciating quality art, and as artists, we can grow and be inspired enough to follow in those footsteps. We can emulate their way of creating and enable them to inform us as to how we can evolve as they did. Learning the rules of art - and then bending them. Or even breaking them.
Alan Mc Keogh - March 2013, Singapore.
Alan Mc Keogh
I am an artist, web and blog designer, and I enjoy creating art, whether people, still life, or landscapes. I blog and write to grow the masses. Logos are a growing passion here. Come to me, brethren! New projects coming soon.
September 2018


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In honour of new years, and my friend Tara's birthday, I decided to make a cake! After researching a zillion different cake recipes, I came across one that didnt seem too simple nor too complex (the ridiculously simple ones scare me a bit, there has to be a catch...like it tastes like shit but looks great....i opted for quality & appearance)
In the end though it wasn't all that complicated, except between the cake and frosting i used 10...TEN egg whites. and i'm not about to eat all those leftover yolks, so you can see how cake making can be a bit pricey and sometimes pushing absurd (i came across some recipes that asked for 10 egg whites just for the cake alone...forget the frosting). On that note I also stumbled across one that had a full 5 cups of butter in it between the cake and frosting....needles to say I avoided that one.
But I am happy with my choice of recipe and with the icing! Which is the first time I've mean swiss meringue buttercream. I like that it looks so glossy, and tastes pretty great too. The link to the recipe I used for the cake is here, however I used a Martha Stewart frosting recipe, which is for you below:
**In the layer between the cakes I added shredded coconut in with the frosting.
Swiss Meringue Buttercream
- 1 cup sugar + 2 tbsp
- 5 large egg whites
- 2 cups unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
**I added a tsp of coconut extract as well, however in retrospect I probably would have done with 1/2 tsp. Too much extract and it tastes like sunscreen.
- Place sugar and egg whites in the heat-proof bowl of an electric mixer. Set bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, and whisk until sugar has dissolved and egg whites are hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. Test by rubbing the mixture between your fingers; it should feel completely smooth.
- Beat on high speed until mixture has cooled completely and formed stiff and glossy peaks, about 10 minutes.
- Add the butter, one piece at a time, and beat until incorporated after each addition. Don't worry if the buttercream appears curdled after all the butter has been added; it will become smooth again with continued beating. Add vanilla, and beat just until combined.
- Beat on the lowest speed to eliminate any air pockets, about 5 minutes. If using buttercream within several hours, cover bowl with plastic wrap, and set aside at room temperature in a cool environment. Or transfer to an airtight container, and store in the refrigerator, up to 3 days. Before using, bring buttercream to room temperature, and beat on the lowest speed with the paddle attachment until smooth, about 5 minutes.
For the roses on the cake, it's a lot easier than it looks. You just use a 1M tip and pipe swirls starting in the middle and working your way out. After you've piped the roses, fill in the gaps in between with swipes of frosting using the same tip.


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S.U.R.G.E. TM Seminars ( Support, Uplift , & Respect Girls Everywhere!)
The S.U.R.G.E. program empowers women & girls to have positive self-perception, self-esteem, & body image. We focus on learning how to communicate, respect, & support each other. (ages 5-13 years). Our objectives are to:
- Focus on open & honest communication between mothers and daughters.
- Provide tools to improve self-esteem, set goals, and share ways to strengthen the bond between mothers and daughters.
- Provide an intimate & loving environment where mothers and daughters can share their concerns.
- Teach mothers and daughters how to support and respect other women & girls.


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Reverence. Respect. Responsibility. Since 1981, these values have shaped our students. Daily we create experiences for students to grow in God, develop a biblical worldview, & use their gifts & talents to change the world! Our accredited K3 -12 grade program equips students to follow Christ & reach their highest potential academically, socially, & spiritually.
Students enjoy the numerous extracurricular activities, caring faculty, positive friendships, daily Bible instruction, dynamic chapel services, & community service opportunities. We are confident that you will find Faith Academy a worthwhile investment in your child's future. Shaping Hearts & Minds.


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I've been very quiet on Twitter. The main reason is that I created the account to communicate with my students. I would Tweet homework assignments (which you know I don't give) or upcoming events (like Flashback Days). Anyway I have a bunch of students following me.
Then I started blogging and fell into this great bunch of other bloggers who also Tweet. I feel that I can't really join in because I don't want my students to find my blog that has the occasional answer key.
In order to feel part of the in crowd I'm going to need to be more active on Twitter. Therefore I created another Twitter account where I can feel more free to Tweet about my blog.
Want to find me? I'm noraoswald. See you on Twitter!!!


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Bill St. Arnaud
- Bill St. Arnaud is a consultant and research engineer who works with clients around the world on a variety of subjects such as next generation Internet networks and developing practical solutions to reduce CO2 emissions such as free broadband and dynamic charging of eVehicles. He is an author of many papers and articles on these topics and is a frequent guest speaker. For more details on my research interests see https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bill_Arnaud
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Named Data Networking - how LTE networks will soon be extension of enterprise WiFi
[It amazes me how still many people think that the Internet network architecture is a variant of the telephone system.
Monday, November 7, 2011
OECD report: Internet Traffic Exchange Points
[Here is an excellent report on IXPs recently released by the OECD.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Forbes: Cloud Computing is Fueling the Next Startup Boom - role of funding councils and R&E networks
[Here is a great article from Forbes on how cloud computing is fueling the next startup boom.
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Ollie Liner Center may close in November for repairs
Ollie Liner Center Manager Lynn Barton will ask Hale County commissioners permission to close that exhibition facility to most events during November to allow time for necessary repairs and repainting.
"It's been four or five years since we have done anything significant to the structure," said Barton, who is listed on the commissioners' agenda for their Friday work session as well as their regular session on Monday.
"We have some cracks in the arena floor that need to be repaired, and then we need to paint the floor along with doing general upkeep and cleanup," he said.
The structure on the south edge of Plainview sees heavy usage during August, September and October, and light use during November and December.
"October is one of our busiest months with the Running Water Draw Arts and Craft Festival," Barton explains. "November and December is our slack time due to the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. I've got something booked for every weekend in August, and September and October are usually just about as busy."
Even if commissioners allow Barton to close the arena and two attached livestock barns for maintenance during November, he says the conference room will still be available on a limited basis.
"We already have the election (on Nov. 4) scheduled, but they'll just use the conference room."
He hopes to have all the repairs made before the local and county stock shows in January.
Hale County voters approved a bond issue for the purchase of what is now the Ollie Liner Center on Dec. 21, 1963. That vote was 1,134 to 933 following two failed attempts.
According to Herald files, the structure was erected in 1946 for Consolidated Gas and Equipment Co. of America. That company distributed butane, manufactured butane tanks and sold appliances and other equipment.
The structure was used for grain storage after it was acquired by Billy Sol Estes and later American Grain, which sold it to the county to use as a livestock exhibition facility. It's now used for a wide range of activities and hosts a multitude of events throughout the year.
About two-thirds of the structure served as an aircraft hangar in St. Louis before being shipped to Plainview by rail after World War II. The remaining third apparently was a Phillip's Petroleum Co. warehouse in Denver before being disassembled and transported to Plainview.


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- Home
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Tengchong Beihai Wetland Reserve is located in the north-west part of Tengchong County, at a distance of 12.5 kilometers from the county. It is the only National Wetland Reserve in Yunnan Province, covering an area of 16.29 square kilometers.
The wetland is surrounded by mountains, located in a special geographical position, and is a typical subtropical volcanic lava barrier lake marsh wetland. The reserve features a "floating blanket style" marsh, complex biodiversity and high productivity. The reserve is not only a garden of national protected plants like Brasenia schreberi and wildwater chestnuts, but it is also a paradise for water birds.
Tengchong Wetland is very special. Numerous lush water plants are interwoven and are continuously thriving. Day after day, year after year, old plants decompose and new plants sprout, finally contributing to many one-meter thick meadows, like small grass islands floating above the water. Walking barefoot on a grass island is like walking on a sponge.
Local people often cut apart a grass meadow and use it as a raft so that they can catch fishes and shrimps on it; some people even dig a small hole in a meadow and put a fishing rod through the hole to go fishing which is very interesting.
Every mid-to-late April is the most beautiful season in the reserve; you will love the sea of blooming Beihai orchids there. The meadows turn yellow in autumn but are still amazing to see. The aroma of grass is floating in the air, wild ducks are quacking from amongst the reeds, and tourists are enjoying taking soft steps on the meadows. Boating on the lake, surrounded by the beautiful landscape, you will feel like you are in a prairie, a prairie floating on the water.
Hotels in Tengchong County are based in the Gongtingxiang area; travel advisers of China Highlights will arrange the best accommodation for you.


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5. Your child's name references 6 generations across 4 different lines.
4. You do online research while using a breast pump.
3. You cry when discussing historical infant mortality rates.
2. You've ever found yourself in a dark room after putting the baby to bed, bleary-eyed from lack of sleep (because why does he sleep worse now than when he was a newborn?), furiously citing a source before you'll let yourself go to bed.
And the top sign that you're both a genealogist and a new mom . . .
1. You add to the family tree at both ends!


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Provider does not welcome 'unsolicited' feedback.
Quality of Care
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Outdoor Activity
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Social Atmosphere
Enjoyable Food
This facility is owned by ARVIDA Villages.
ARIA BAY RETIREMENT VILLAGE located in Browns Bay, Auckland. Offering apartments, serviced apartments and care onsite.
No. of Units 33
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Pam Lannie
ARIA BAY RETIREMENT VILLAGE | Arvida
3-7 Woodlands Crescent
Browns Bay
New Zealand
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About Clarus
Clarus, a Gordon Gow company, is handmade in Florida and owned by Joe Perfito (Gow's brother-in-law). Gow was one of the original engineers for McIntosh.
Clarus & Tributaries Equipment we Carry
- cables & interconnects
Visit Clarus online at http://www.claruscablesreviews.com/
Clarus & Bekins
We believe it's our job to be top to bottom experts on every brand and speaker we sell.
At Bekins, we choose only the most reliable, durable audio brands to be in our showrooms, which includes Clarus. We offer customers "best in class" audio equipment which is an investment for their home.
Ready to see what Clarus can do for your home or boardroom? Test drive speakers and more in Grand Haven, Grand Rapids or Classic Stereo showrooms today.


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It took them eight months, but students at Luther Burbank Middle School have successfully restored a once-dilapidated 1979 Volkswagen convertible Beetle into "The Luther Mobile" for its debut Saturday at Burbank on Parade.
Teacher Joe Reed provided the car and oversaw the project. The students replaced the clutch, transmission and engine on the Warner Bros. lot where employees in the transportation department there coached students in auto restoration.
PHOTOS: Burbank Middle School students restore '79 Volkswagen Beetle
Reed said the majority of the dozens of students who worked on the car during his "Exploring Technology" class had no prior auto mechanical experience. Once split into teams, they became specialized in upholstery or mechanical repair.
Other students helped create the car's logo, which was designed by Burbank High student Mariah Wood. Her logo was selected from 50 student entries.
Students also raised $1,000 to repair the car by selling slushies. The Burbank Arts for All Foundation granted the group another $1,000. And Cyril O'Neill, owner of Ghostlight Industries, which rents and fixes cars for the movie industry, donated thousands of dollars to restore the car.


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Unreal* Engine 4 is a complete suite of game development tools made by game developers, for game developers. From 2D mobile games to console blockbusters, Unreal Engine 4 gives you everything you need to start, build, ship, and stand out from the crowd.
The award-winning Unreal Engine is considered an industry standard in the game development world. One example of its prevalent use in the industry is the free version of Unreal Engine 3 (UDK) has more than 3 million unique installations. Licensees of full source UE3 have used it to power more than 350 triple-A games since 2006. Many observers expect UE4, launched in the spring of 2014 and now free for anyone to access, to have a far greater footprint in the market.
The game engine is a sophisticated piece of software that is the heart of a video game, making the storyline, characters, objects, and action come to life. Not only does it control the operation of elements such as textures, physics, and artificial intelligence, it enables game content to be created, tested, and optimized on a PC, and then exported to other gaming platforms.
Unreal Engine supports a broad array of gaming platforms, from mobile to consoles and VR platforms, including, of course, Intel® processor-based Windows* and Android* devices. For years, Epic has usedIntel® GPA to debug the Unreal Engine rendering pipeline and to profile graphics performance across the studio's portfolio of products.
Native x86 Support on Android*
In the fall of 2014, Unreal Engine 4 began shipping with native x86 support for Android. To enable building for x86, you'll need the engine source from GitHub. To begin, associate your Unreal Engine 4 account with GitHub as outlined here. Once complete, navigate to Epic's GitHub page and follow the instructions for downloading and building the source code. Once the editor is built, just follow the steps in the Android Quick Start guide and your system is ready to build for Android.
The next step is opening the editor. Choose your project from the list or browse to find it. From there, open the project settings:
Navigate to Supported Platforms on the left. Make sure Android is in the list of Supported Platforms. If not, check the box.
Next, enable x86 support in the build. On the left navigate to Android under the Platforms header. Make sure the platform files are writeable (green) and then check the Support x86 box. Fat binary (x86 and ARM* in the same apk) support is automatic if both architectures are checked and Split Into Separate APKs is clear.
From here it is a simple matter of packaging your game. For more information, see the Unreal Engine 4 documentation on Packaging for Android.
For more such intel resources and tools from Intel on Game, please visit the Intel® Game Developer Zone
Source: https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/unreal-engine-4-with-x86-support/
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|Indigo manufacture, Central Carolina, from 'Le Costume Ancien et Moderne', Volume I, plate 51, by Jules Ferrario, published c.1820s-30s (colour litho)
There are many stories to tell about indigo. Nineteenth century work clothes tell one such tale. Here are a few earlier stories about indigo and its material connection to Brittany.
Eighteenth century indigo production depended upon slave labor in the French colonies.
Indigo, as much as sugar or cotton, was a highly desired raw material that played an important part of the history of global trade on the Atlantic. Its country of origin is uncertain, but Indigo was being grown in India and exported to the Roman Empire.
The plant grows in hot climates-- it is a shrub that fixes nitrogen in poor soils. To make dye from it, the leaves are fermented-- again this needs to happen in a very warm climate.
|Indigo oxidation. My experiments with indigo dying use a pre-reduced kit.
Fibers dyed in indigo come out of the dye vat a screaming chartreuse green, and miraculously turn blue in the open air. Repeated dipping and oxidizing produces the deepest blue.
|Pieces of lace oxidizing. The pieces on the left have just been taken out of the dye bath. They will become as deep blue as the pieces on the right.
In the 18th century, indigo grown on plantations in Saint-Domingue (Haiti) and in Lousiana, Florida and South Carolina brought a stunning amount of wealth to France.
Dried indigo dye compressed into rounds was shipped in barrels across the Atlantic to France, a raw material to feed the textile trade.
|'It is at this price that you eat sugar in Europe" from Voltaire, Candide.
Like sugar, the misery indigo caused for some and wealth it produced for others paid for rococo and neoclassical art, fashion and interior design.
This portrait of two named white women, their slave child, pug dog and exotic porcelain is a nightmare of early modern global trade that had already commodified people and nature. I use this image in class to talk about the fetishism of people as things. The students always understand the obscene parallels of boy and dog in this painting, so well articulated in Fred Wilson's Mining the Museum (1992) in which a recorded child's voice is heard coming from a painting that depicts a child slave, asking: "Am I your brother? Am I your friend? Am I your pet?"
The deep blue made by forced labor on one side of the Atlantic became the blue of peasant work clothes on the other. After the abolition of slavery, indigo production increased in colonial India.
Brittany had a textile industry that existed prior to the importation of cotton from the colonial Americas. From the 16th-18th centuries, linen and hemp was grown, spun and woven in pre-industrial Brittany: these fibers outfitted much of Europe's maritime fleet with sails and rope. Both crops were grown widely in the interior of Brittany, especially near the north coast and the area around Rennes.
This map shows the areas in which linen (blue) hemp (green) or both (brown) were woven and the ports (red dots) that exported the textiles to Europe and the Americas. The sculpted Enclos Paroisiaux of the 16th-18th centuries attest to the wealth that the textile trade brought to Brittany.
King Louis XIV effectively shut down this trade and destroyed the local economy with the eviction of many Breton Protestants – textile dealers and manufacturers (Rennes, Nantes and Vitré)– in the mass "brain drain" emigration that followed the revocation of the edict of Nantes in 1685.
From 1650 through the eighteenth century, Nantes, a major Breton city and seaport port (prior to the separation of the historical provinces of France in 1790) imported cotton, indigo and sugar from the French overseas colonies in the Americas. Nantes printed cotton (along with liquor, and ironware) was later used as currency in trade for enslaved Africans who were sent to work in the French overseas colonies. Nantes was the primary French port of the slave trade, followed distantly by Bordeaux and La Rochelle.
Nantes became famous for its printed "indiennes: cotton fabrics printed from intaglio-etched copper plates. Cotton and indigo were the stuff that made colonial images for global consumption.
|Télémaque dans la Grotte de Calypso, Detail. Indigo Toile de Nantes, c.1785.
The colonial pastoral fantasy of Paul et Virginie (Bernardin de Saint Pierre, 1788) is set on the Île de France (Mauritius): two exiled French single mothers (one a Norman libertine aristocrat, the other Breton peasant who was seduced and abandoned) are aided by the slaves Marie and Domingue as they "live as creoles" and raise their children as siblings. They fall in love as teenagers, unaware of the corruptions of the modern world; they are parted when Virginia (daughter of the aristocrat) is sent back to France to be educated, and she later dies in a shipwreck when returning to the island. Historian Megan Vaughan has shown that this fantasy relates to the social engineering of the French East India Company which had provided substantial monetary incentives for Breton peasant girls to emigrate to Mauritius, where, like many other overseas colonies (such as the seasonal fishing communities in St. Pierre and Miquelon in Newfoundland), there was a dearth of white brides. Breton women were recruited as yet another export commodity.
The story of Paul and Virginia was wildly popular as a mass-reproduced image in the decorative arts especially in the Toiles de Jouy luxury cotton fabrics produced in Nantes: textiles whose material existence depended upon colonial labor and materials.
The story of Paul and Virginia was wildly popular as a mass-reproduced image in the decorative arts especially in the Toiles de Jouy luxury cotton fabrics produced in Nantes: textiles whose material existence depended upon colonial labor and materials.
One more story about Indigo: From one island to another.
Indigo truly can take its place in "blue cultural studies."
There is something that I cannot stop imagining and I have only read about it in this text on shipwrecks. Off the coast of Western Brittany, on the miniscule Ile de Sein that stands only a few feet above sea level, in December of 1739 the 300 ton ship the Ange Raphael (Angel Raphael) of Bordeaux wrecked on its return trip to France from Haiti (Saint Domingue). Twenty one were drowned. Bails of cotton and barrels of indigo came ashore as did 5,000 livres in silver and jewels. The islanders came to aid of the survivors, but they also pillaged the wreck. Were the shores of Sein awash in blue? Did sodden wads of cotton lie limply on the wrack line? Did the women of Sein make anything from these spoils, born of slave labor and hot sun, that had traveled the ocean to spill at their door?


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I love to sit on my front porch and watch the birds. We planted this River Birch to give us shade and a place for the birds. This year Mother Robin decided to make her nest in the crotch of this tree. Her nest is about 9 feet off the ground. She started this on March 22.
Each day she brought twigs and mud and moss and strings and grasses to build her nest. She would sit down inside it and wiggle and smooth the inside surface.
By Day Five she had it completed. Now it is so deep that I cannot see down inside it from my lower front porch. I wanted to get pictures each day as she laid her eggs, so now I go to the upstairs front porch and use a zoom lens on my camera.
Here is the view from upstairs on Day 5.
On Day 6 we found our first egg.
I could hardly wait to see what I would find on Day 7 and then on Day 8.
Sure enough on Day 7 another egg and on Day 8 yet another egg.
This is Day 9 and it is raining. It is just a slow, steady drizzle with no thunder and no lightning. I am on the upstairs porch with my camera and the golf umbrella.
Look who is sitting on the nest with her wings spread to keep everything covered.
Do you see the raindrops? Maybe the rain will stop and I will be able to see what is under her. I will keep checking during the day.
Well, she has not disappointed me. She has laid egg #4. According to my research she could lay up to 7 eggs, always only one per day. However, in this part of the country a clutch is usually only 4 or 5. We will see what she does tomorrow and see if that will be the last egg.
This is Day 10 and Mother Robin has sat on the nest most of the day. It has been a rainy day, but when she did fly out this afternoon I could see that she had not laid anymore eggs. Now we will wait for the next two weeks until the babies begin to peck out of the shell. I will update as they begin to hatch and certainly into fledgling.
Hope you have enjoyed this. I have really loved watching the nest each day.


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THQ's controlling board has signed off on a ten-to-one reverse-split of the comapny's stock, most likely averting the company's potential NASDAQ de-listing. As of July 9th, the company will go from having 70 million shares of tradable stock to only seven million.
Back in January, the NASDAQ exchange told the publisher that they needed to raise their stock price above $1.00 for ten days straight by the end of this month, or the company would no longer be allowed to trade on the exchange. At that point, THQ's stock had already been trading for under a dollar for more than 30 days.
The reverse-split will raise the company's stock from $.60 to $6.20, putting the company well above the minimum value. That said, THQ isn't out of the woods yet. If the stock value drops below a dollar again within ten days of the consolidation, the company will still be de-listed.
THQ's next game, Darksiders II, is set to hit stores on August 14th.


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Airlines seek to transfer more costs to GA
Recently the Airline Group on NATS customer panel proposed that GA should take on the costs of services it receives rather than the whole cost of NATS being carried by them. This seems to be £5m to £6m. Director Airspace Policy said he was minded to conclude that controlled airspace was there for the benefit of airlines and that they should pay the consequential costs. We wrote to him to support this and to say thanks. A copy of the letter is here.
In their responses to the formal consultation on NATS En Route ltd funding for the next 5 years several airlines have pursued this and set out their argument. You can find the whole of the published documents here but I have extracted the relevant bits and set them out in this document.
We think we should put up a robust defence on this but at the moment we are considering tactics and will let you know.
John Brady
LAA Vice-Chairman


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Hand Built Bikes
Every one of our hand built road bikes is lovingly assembled and finished by our own highly trained mechanics at our assembly facility in Sussex. Based at the foot of Ditchling Beacon, an iconic climb in British cycling, the site is an inspiration and perfect testing ground for our unique handmade bikes.
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Are you looking for a comfortable, durable footwear solution for field sports activities? At Uttings we understand the need for comfortable field sports footwear. Stocking specialist field sports brands such as Toggi, Timberland, Aigle and Kanyon, our field sports footwear range is second-to-none.
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