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Eurobike 2011: Disc brakes for cyclo-cross taking off
Latest gear from TRP, Hope, Tr!ckstuff, Look, Stevens, Dedacciai
Lots of buzz has surrounded the UCI's decision to allow disc brakes on cyclo-cross bikes and the performance potential is certainly there: superb mud clearance, more consistent braking in poor weather and reduced maintenance. The reality of available high-end gear is still a year or two away, but there were some tantalizing stopgap bits on display at this year's Eurobike show along with some forward-thinking framesets.
Mechanical-to-hydraulic converters from TRP, Hope and Tr!ckstuff
TRP, Hope and Tr!ckstuff each displayed their own take on the mechanical-to-hydraulic converter box designed to work with currently available road brake levers. While the execution varies slightly, the concept behind all of them is nearly identical: the input cable is clamped to a short arm that then actuates a hydraulic master cylinder piston, which is in turn connected in a sealed system to a hydraulic disc brake caliper.
Hope's solution differs slightly in that the cable is directly attached inline with the piston. This means there's no mechanical advantage built into the system but the upside is a cleaner-looking final product that also looks like it might be lighter than the other two (Hope didn't have claimed weights available).
TRP say their Parabox mechanical-to-hydraulic converter will be shipping to dealers this month
These interim solutions aren't as clean-looking or – at least in theory – powerful as a full hydraulic setup but all things considered, the drawbacks are fairly minimal for early adopters who want to go with discs right now. The steel cable run is very short, the units' placement below the stem is generally out of the way and well protected, and predicted weight penalties are modest at about 250g in total relative to a standard cantilever setup.
Jumping on to the disc-equipped 'cross bandwagon will cost you, though. TRP's complete Parabox setup with calipers and rotors is US$459.99 while the Hope is similarly priced at £300. Hope's master cylinder adapter won't be available until November or December but the TRP unit should be in stores later this month.
The Tr!ckstuff Doppelmoppel is similar to the TRP Parabox but the actuator arms are turned sideways and the overall layout is switched front to back
Look debut disc-only X-85 carbon 'cross frame
Sitting quietly amid the scrum of Look's Eurobike booth was their new X-85 carbon 'cross frame, built with tube-to-tube construction, dedicated 'disc brake fittings front and rear, and no provision for rim brakes. The aesthetics were clean and mud clearance was generous, with no hardware running close to the rims and no bridges joining the rear stays – arguably the biggest potential advantage of running discs in 'cross.
Look claim a medium X-85 frame weighs a competitive 1,150g, with the matching carbon fork adding another 550g. So-called 'FLEX' seat- and chainstays with strategic shaping through their length promise a smooth ride quality along with the relatively small-diameter 27.2mm seatpost. Rear dropout spacing is set at 135mm to better accommodate the generous availability of mountain bike disc hubs and 29er disc wheels.
Look quietly showed off their new X-85 disc-only 'cross bike at this year's Eurobike show. Interested buyers won't be able to get one until the spring, however
While the concept of the X-85 is cutting-edge, a couple of other aspects of the frame are rather traditional, including the threaded bottom bracket and straight 1-1/8in head tube – though with the brake located down by the dropouts, there's less of a need for a stiffer tapered head tube to combat brake shudder. Look will offer the X-85 in four sizes for around US$3,499-3,699 but you won't be able to get one until next spring.
Stevens show off Niels Albert prototype disc cyclo-cross rig
German bicycle powerhouse Stevens displayed their own carbon disc-equipped 'crosser, though unlike the Look it was still officially deemed a prototype. Nonetheless, it looked ready for production with its tidy post mount carbon disc tabs front and rear, ample clearances throughout, internal cable routing, and even an integrated seatmast that's guaranteed not to slip after a remount.
One of the most striking 'cross bikes on display at this year's Eurobike show was this prototype disc-only Stevens
According to Volker Dohrmann of Stevens, the hesitance of many pro racers to try discs is due more to tradition and habit than any performance shortcoming. He points out that "wheel changing is very fast and easy on a 'cross bike with disc wheels", owing to the fact that there are no brake arms to open up.
However, Dohrmann says the major barrier to widespread acceptance in the upper ranks of the sport is the lack of any properly integrated hydraulic system that can fully take advantage of the potential all-weather performance and minimal weight penalty.
You can find out more about the Stevens prototype in the video below:
Stevens will only offer an alloy 'cross disc bike for now but when the supporting components are finally completed, the company will clearly be ready to pull the trigger. "Within the next year," said Dorhmann, "I predict we'll have the combination of Shimano [Dura-Ace] Di2 drivetrains and hydraulic disc brakes which could also be a good way for road bikes, not just for cyclo-cross."
Dedacciai unveil a disc 'crosser of their own
Most riders don't think of Dedacciai as a frame company but the Italian outfit actually offer 10 models for 2012, including six carbon road frames, a titanium road frame, a time trial chassis, a 29er hardtail (!) and one carbon 'cross platform that's intriguingly disc-only.
Dedacciai's lone 'cross frameset is boldly disc-only for 2012
The new Super Cross boasts a 1,050g modular monocoque frame with a press-fit bottom bracket, a huge asymmetrical down tube and seat tube, tapered 1-1/8 to 1-1/2in head tube and slim seatstays. Aluminum post mount disc tabs are featured at both ends and clearances through the stays and fork crown are impressive, with no shelf behind the bottom bracket on which mud can accumulate, either.
The matching carbon fork is light, too, at a claimed 420g – lighter than ENVE Composites' offering, in fact. Routing for the derailleur lines is partially internal – running through the top tube but exiting out around the seat cluster – but the rear brake is externally run with zip-tie mounts for either a hydraulic line or full-length housing.
Plenty of other companies were showing off disc brake solutions for cyclo-cross bikes at this year's show. Check out our image gallery for more details


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In April, the options strategy focused on rolling calls in a rising market. Here's another way to use that strategy.
Despite the broader market's continued climb to new all-time highs, as with any market, a pullback will occur at some point. Or perhaps you own a stock that already is moving lower and you want some protection. Here's how to use a covered call to help protect your portfolio from the inevitable downturns.
A covered call is when one call option is sold for every 100 shares of stock an investor holds, and typically is considered for use in markets that are moving moderately higher. The idea is to sell an option with a strike price that an investor believes will safely expire worthless at expiration, thus allowing him to keep the entire option premium.
But what about when the market drops? You can apply the same covered call strategy to offset some, or even all, of the losses from the stock dropping in value. The strategy just has to be used a little differently.
Let's assume you own stock that is worth $100 currently. The red line in "P/L gut check" illustrates your profit or loss as the stock moves higher or lower. The bottom blue line shows how the P/L changes when you sell a 105 call at a price of $3.00. The stock continues to profit up to the strike price of $105, plus the $3.00 premium, thus giving you $8 of potential profit.
Look what happens if the stock goes down. Instead of immediately losing as the stock drops below $100, the breakeven point for your covered call position is lowered to $97 because of the option premium collected from the sale. To figure the breakeven point, simply subtract the call premium from the stock price.
In a market that is moving higher, choosing progressively higher strike prices for the call option allows for more upside potential, but does so at the risk of a higher breakeven price.
If you sell a call option with a strike price closer to where the stock is trading, then the downside breakeven point also moves lower, which helps cushion the blow in a market that is dropping. As shown, by collecting $5 in premium, the breakeven price for the stock is $95 instead of $97.

subset: commoncrawl


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BERKELEY — Linebacker Khairi Fortt of Cal will declare for the NFL draft, he announced Friday morning on Twitter.
Fortt, a transfer from Penn State who played just one season for the Bears, becomes the third junior off a one-victory Cal team to declare his intentions to turn pro.
Previously, cornerback Kam Jackson and tight end Richard Rodgers said they will enter the draft.
A 6-foot-2, 240-pound native of Stamford, Conn., Fortt tied for third on the Bears with 64 tackles this season.


text: eCinemaOne, The Kirkham Report, and Planet BiblioMusica will have daily coverage of the days counting down to the Eurovision Song Contest 2018! Over the coming weeks, sometimes more than once a day, we will bring you daily previews of the contest, spotlighting each of the songs individually in random order, where they come from, who will be performing them, and more, as well as some historical info on the contest and some of the past winners and participants. Next up on our Song-By-Song preview is the official entry from The Netherlands, "Outlaw In 'Em" by Waylon, written by the artist,Read more


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Whip up an exciting new look for your walls-quicker and easier than ever. Borders bring character, color and detail to a roomlifting it to a refined level of style that reflects your personality and flare. Beautiful die cut rose border in primary tones. New innovative non-vinyl wallpaper that removes 100% in full strips without any special tools, chemicals or steamers. New material is easier to hang and helps eliminate any visible seam lines. Breathable paper-fiber material inhibits mold and mildew.
- Pre-pasted, requires no additional adhesives or activators
- Washable-can be washed with gentle pressure and a soft, damp cloth
- Strippable non-woven
- In order to ensure that you can complete your project with product from a common dye-lot, it is recommended that you order 1 extra roll at the start of your project, if you reorder extra paper at a later date, a matching dye-lot may not be available
- If you are placing a reorder requiring a specific dye-lot of a pattern please call home depot customer service at 800-430-3376 for assistance
- Click here to view this pattern in a room or to order a sample
- Wallpaper samples are not returnable


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A 16-year-old boy was shot in the Rogers Park neighborhood this evening, authorities said.
The boy was shot in both legs in the 6500 block of North Bosworth Avenue about 7:50 p.m., said Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Amina Greer.
Someone approached the boy on foot and shot him, police said, citing preliminary information.
The boy was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, where his condition had stabilized, she said.
Neighbors said the shooting took place at the southeast corner of Albion and Bosworth avenues and reported hearing several shots fired in quick succession.
Check back for updates.
email@example.com | Twitter: @ChicagoBreaking


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Click here to print the obituary below
Zhuang Zedong
BEIJING (AP) — Three-time world table tennis champion Zhuang Zedong, a key figure in the groundbreaking "pingpong diplomacy" between China and the United States, died Sunday, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported. He was 72 and had struggled with cancer since 2008.
Zhuang won fame by presenting a gift to American player Glenn Cowan, who had inadvertently boarded a bus carrying the Chinese team at the world championships in Nagoya, Japan, in 1971.
Zhuang and Cowan were photographed together, creating an international sensation at a time when China and the U.S. were bitter Cold War rivals.
Under orders from Chinese leader Mao Zedong, the 15-member American team was then invited to China at the end of the Nagoya championships for an ice-breaking visit. Ten months later, President Richard Nixon made a surprise visit to China, leading to the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1979.
Zhuang became a favorite of Mao's wife, Jiang Qing, a member of the notorious Gang of Four, which held sway during the radical turmoil of the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution. Jiang appointed Zhuang to a number of political posts in the sports ministry.
Zhuang came under investigation after the Gang was deposed and Jiang imprisoned following Mao's death in 1976, and subsequently spent years coaching the provincial team in the northern province of Shanxi. He returned to Beijing in 1985 and coached young players for several years.
Zhuang was married twice and had one daughter.
Copyright © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


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The best place to shop is...the Q96 Prize Closet. Everything in there is free :)
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Scrolls Update to Shower You with More Scrolls
Mojang's tactical trading card game, Scrolls, will be receiving a rather sizable update in October. Will the changes be a treat? Or perhaps a few tricks will be coming our way?
A preview for the update has been posted on the official Scrolls site, detailing some of the changes and giving us a look at the new scrolls that will become available for play. One of the biggest facets will be Judgement, a game mode that tasks you with drafting a deck of 45 scrolls from a random selection of cards and using it for five competition matches. Your rewards will depend on how well you do with your bespoke deck.
Mojang is also going to add spectator mode, which players can take advantage of to watch masters at work and take notes on their strategies. For a preview of each of the new cards and their flavor texts, check the link above.


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Marquette's Office of International Education strongly emphasizes the importance of global understanding in today's increasingly interconnected world.
A Marquette study abroad participant will grow and develop in the following four areas.
Increase ones Intercultural Competence: Effectively and appropriately interacting within a variety of cultural contexts through knowledge, skills and attitudes.
Develop ones Global Perspective: Developing and enhancing one's global perspective cognitively, intrapersonally and interpersonally.
Personal Growth and Development: Gaining confidence in one's perceived independence, goal accomplishment and sense of purpose.
Second-language Acquisition: Improving one's written, oral, auditory and speaking-abilities in a second-language.


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adidas black & white gazelle trainers youth
Tap to Spin
Adidas gazelle
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Fresher than ever, the adidas Gazelle arrives for your mini-trendsetter in a cool monochrome colourway. Downsized for kids, the iconic silhouette features a black suede upper, white 3-Stripes and gold foil branding. A durable rubber sole completes.
- UPPER: Suede & man-made
- LINING: Fabric & man-made
- INSOLE: Ortholite
- OUTSOLE: Rubber
colour: black & white
Product code: 2700087250
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Introducing NEW Fabrics: MELVA, MALMO NEW & SUN. New fabrics at 30% OFF! Details
Cover for LYCKSELE Two-seat sofa bed
Polo Mineral Mine Polyester designed by CoverCouch
Average score: 5/5 Reviews: 1
About the product
Cover for IKEA LYCKSELE Two-seat sofa-bed Polo Mineral Mine. Blue is said to bring down blood pressure and slow respiration and heart rate. That is why it is considered calming, relaxing and serene, and it is often recommended for bedrooms and bathrooms. Be careful, however: a pastel blue that looks pretty on the paint chip can come across as unpleasantly chilly when it is on the walls and furnishings, especially in a room that receives little natural light. If you opt for a light blue as the primary color in a room, balance it with warm hues for the furnishings and fabrics. To encourage relaxation in the social areas ( family rooms, living rooms, large kitchens) consider warmer blues, such as periwinkle, or bright blues, such as cerulean or turquoise. It is often used to make smaller rooms look more airy and larger. Blue is the color of Peace in Feng Shui. The fifth state is blue.
Please note this custom cover is tailored by CoverCouch to fit the IKEA LYCKSELE Two-seat sofa-bed model. LYCKSELE Two-seat sofa-bed is NOT included and is available at IKEA.
Please note this custom cover is tailored by CoverCouch to fit the IKEA LYCKSELE Two-seat sofa-bed model. LYCKSELE Two-seat sofa-bed is NOT included and is available at IKEA.
Fabric key facts
- 100% Polyester
- Classic crepe fabric
- Attractively priced
- Washable at up to 30C
- Environmentally friendly
- CoverCouch
About the fabric
Polo is a 100% polyester classic well-known crepe fabric with a light structure and a fresh colour range. It is a synthetic fabric suitable for environments with special requirements regarding cleaning. The fabric is extremely durable, available in the most popular colour combinations. One of the most efficient choice for upholstery that money can buy. Polo is washable both by hand and machine (30C).
A sample of this fabric was added to your shopping cart
Fabric details
|100% Polyester
|Width, cm
|Weight, g/m2
|Colour fastness to light
|Abrasion resistance
|100 000 cycles (Martindale EN ISO 12947)
|Tear Strength
|Seam Slippage
|< 5mm (EN ISO 13936-2)
|Tensile Strength
|Production / Supplier
Care instructions
Clean the fabric with a water-based product; soap can be mixed with water in order to clean the stains.
Machine wash at 30°C. Don't use chlorine bleach. Dry clean. Tumble dry at low temperature. Cool iron.
Machine wash at 30°C. Don't use chlorine bleach. Dry clean. Tumble dry at low temperature. Cool iron.
Facebook comments:
Your IKEA is now a beautiful piece of design furniture
Verified Buyer
Kaz M.
The sharp and modern shape of an IKEA MELLBY armchair is elevated to a luxurious piece of design furniture with this stunning cover from CoverCouch. The Rimini fabric is a gorgeous, soft velvety fabric with a slight texture to it that gives it a beautiful and interesting depth. The dark orange colour fits right in with today's trend of earth tones, ambers and ochres, but would definitely fit many interiors. The covers are sewn to a perfect standard and delivered quickly.
Verified Buyer
Camilla G.
Looks great,very,happy,with,it.Not,that,easy,to,take,on,and,off,but,that,is,the,IKEA,design.Well,made,quick,service.All,good.
Event Burnt Sienna
Verified Buyer
Excellent fit; Excellent materials. Nothing bad to say, except on my behalf - I should have thought out the colors more... the "red" in this brings out the blue in my side chair, and the white wall now makes the room seem rather patriotic - red white and blue - not what I was going for. But, as I said - the cover is excellent. Make sure you get samples really think out your colors as there are no returns because of your wrong choice. Now trying to sell it..,
Love My Cover Couch Purchase!!
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Amanda B.
I purchased two covers for two KIVIK armless chairs and I LOVE them! The material is great! They were super easy to put on and they fit perfect! I will definitely recommend Cover Couch to anyone needing to find an ikea cover!
Karlstad Two Seat Sofa plus add on Chaise...pretty darn good..
Verified Buyer
Maureen A.
Most of you know that you can't get the replacement covers from Ikea any more...so rather than ditch the sofa, we went looking. And came upon this brand of replacement covers. The prices are much better than the "other" place (begins with B..) We had ordered samples of the fabrics before and we're very impressed with the quality of the fabric. I had a couple of questions that were answered promptly...We received the covers (after shipping updates) in a timely manner and went ahead and put them on...they go on easily because the fabric back has a kind of finish on it that makes it slip a bit easier than it would otherwise...there are a couple of places that are not identically made to the original, for example, the chaise seat (without the cushion) has no cover...it just goes around the outer edges of the bottom and velcros in place. It's minor, but should be noted. Take your time installing these. It will make a huge difference in the finish if you can get it as tight as possible (and the stitching and fabric will take a decent amount of pulling). Overall I'm very impressed! It looks like a new sofa!!
Love it!
Verified Buyer
Suzanne W.
We got a totally New 'Expression' on Our 2-oneseater, they both are going to Our cabin. We love it <3 - perfectly fitted and good quality
Cover for POÄNG Armchair - Boss Brick
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Levon C.
Very happy with product. Excellent service and great craftsmanship.
Perfect green (Palermo Forest Green)
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Patrina F.
We got the palermo in both forest green and indigo. The fabric is soft and super durable. We have 2 cats that are notorious couch arm shredders (they've even destroyed the arm of our leather club chair) and they couldn't even dent this fabric. They just gave up after trying a couple times. The color is the most perfect earthy deep green, better than the image shows on my laptop. The fit was mostly good. The cover for the bottom piece of the Kivik base had velcro where there was nothing to attach it to and so as we've used it the base tends to sag and slip so it needs to be pulled tight occasionally. The rest of the pieces fit perfectly and held tight. We are super happy with this one!
Good quality cover
Verified Buyer
Marcus O.
The cover arrived within the specified delivery date and fits the IKEA Lycksele 2 seater sofa bed well. We put it over the old cover to give it even more thickness. Thanks


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Elizabeth Escalona, Texas mom who glued toddler's hands to wall after brutal beating, sentenced to 99 years in prison
(CBS/AP) DALLAS - Elizabeth Escalona, a Dallas mother, has been sentenced to 99 years in prison for beating her two-year-old daughter and gluing the child's hands to a wall.
PICTURES: Mom who glued tot's hands to wall gets 99 years
Escalona faced from probation to life in prison, with prosecutors seeking 45 years behind bars. A state district judge decided her sentence Friday.
Police say Escalona attacked two-year-old Jocelyn Cedillo because of potty training problems. The 23-year-old pleaded guilty in July to felony injury to a child.
Police records show Escalona's other children told authorities she kicked Jocelyn in the stomach and hit her with a jug in September 2011. They said Escalona glued Jocelyn's hands to the wall with a type of strong adhesive known as super glue.
Jocelyn suffered bleeding in her brain, multiple bruises and was in a coma for a couple of days.
More on CrimesiderOctober 8, 2012 - Elizabeth Escalona, Texas mom who beat, glued kid's hands to wall, faces life term


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Welcome to our store. Here at Milano Watchbands, we work our hardest to help our customers find exactly the piece that will suit their needs, with a personal touch. We guarantee 100% customer satisfaction with every sale from our stores. Milano Watchbands prides itself on attention to detail, working hard on having the best pictures and descriptions possible, to make it easier for you, the customer, to find exactly what you are looking for.


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Audi S3 Cabriolet
Static photo
Colour: Misano Red
Consumption data:
Audi S3 Cabriolet
Combined fuel consumption in l/100 km: 6.8 – 6.7; Combined CO2 emissions in g/km: 156 – 153; Figures on the fuel consumption and the CO2-emissions vary in case of givven ranges depending on the used combination of wheels/tires.
Fuel consumption and CO2 emissions data as well as the efficiency classes are dependent on the choice of wheels and tyres.


text: Those of you who were at the Open IB conference last week saw me give a talk entitled "The Case for an MPI ABI". It seems that Patrick and I have been channeling each other AGAIN; see what happens when I move to California? The first question is: Does an ABI provide enough benefit for people to care? To care enough to sit on a committee? If the answer is "yes", then I think we'll have one. The minimum technical issues revolve around the contents of <mpi.h> and the names of shared libraries. The amount of work for MPICH or OpenMPI to support that part of an ABI is modest. If we wanted to go farther, I have a strawman proposal which addresses a generic startup procedure which would allow user applications, MPI implementations, and queue systems to all live in peace and harmony. This talk: http://www.openib.org/docs/oib_wkshp_022005/mpi-abi-pathscale-lindahl.pdf mostly talks about why we need an ABI, who wins and loses as a result of having one, and the pieces that could be in it. Please give it a look. -- greg


text:
At Songbird Essentials we specialize in unique patented products that help consumers attract the beautiful songbirds they love to their homes or office grounds.
Whether it is attracting Cardinals, Goldfinches, Bluebirds, Hummingbirds, Purple Martins, Orioles or your favorite; we have proven products to help you attract the desired songbird. [more]
Tips for Attracting Birds
Check out our free online tips to help you attract the birds you desire!
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Watch "Attracting Hummingbirds To your Backyard!"
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text:
This month's biggest news is English version of Yume nikki(Dream diary).
It's also good news for developers who use Japanese RPG maker.
Similar style(dream-based)
- Earthbound's Moonside[youtube]
- LSD[youtube]
MissileMatador is a simple and well designed platformer by Shimobayashi.
All you have to do is to avoid missiles.
How To Play
- [WASD] or [↑↓←→] or Arrow Buttons on Joypad 0 : Move
- [H] or [Z] or Button 0 on Joypad 0 : Jump
- [Right-ALT] and [ENTER] : Toggle full-screen mode and window mode
Ikaria is a mouse controlled shmup by HIZ.
(needs Java Runtime)
You can absorb yellow bullet and convert into horming laser.
Mouse controlled shmup is always stressful because of delicate mouse controll,
but Ikaria permits rough controll.
HIZ also makes good looking shmups. Check it out!


text:
Presence of Loresho Primary and Secondary during Fruits Tree Planting at CAVS Field Station
SEMIs Inauguration by VC
Chairman of the University Council Dr. Farah speaks during SeMIs Inauguration
55th Graduation Ceremony
Prof. Kimenju Dean Faculty of Agriculture at the 55th graduation ceremony
Prof John Nderitu and colleagues attending a workshop at The Nairobi National Museum
Principal CAVS welcome Gatugi Girls during their visit
Principal CAVS speaks to Gatugi Girls Sec. during their visit
Prof.Kiama the principal CAVS welcomes Gatugi Girls Sec. School.
Gfar Workshop at SeMis
SEMIs Curriculum Review Workshop Photos


text:
The HP Chromebook 11 - see full review - is a thing of beauty, if you like acres of glossy white plastic. Details such as the light-up strip of Google colours and the blue accents are nice touches, but it also comes in black if you prefer.
Look around the curved edges and you'll find more seamless plastic. The only connections are on the left-hand side: a pair of USB 2 ports, a headphone output and a micro-USB charging port.
In theory it should charge from your PC, laptop or any USB charger you have lying around, but in practice only some chargers work. Using the supplied charger, it takes around four hours.
The lack of HDMI isn't a big problem since you can buy a SlimPort adaptor for between 10 and 20 pounds. This will give you a full size HDMI output.
What's annoying is the absence of an SD slot, although USB card readers don't cost much.
HP Chromebook 11 video review: keyboard, touchpad and screen
The keyboard is excellent: sturdy and pleasant to type on. The dedicated search key (in place of Caps Lock) is genuinely useful, and the top row of shortcut keys lets you adjust brightness, volume and more.
The touchpad isn't so successful. Its rough surface is the opposite of the smooth plastic elsewhere. Instead of gliding, your fingers stutter over it and it doesn't feel as sensitive or responsive as it should do. There's support for gestures including scrolling and pinch-to-zoom, but the buttons are built-in – and we always prefer separate buttons.
There's good news however. The screen is actually very good. Yes, it has a glossy, reflective finish, but since it's an IPS panel, it's bright, colourful and has good contrast and viewing angles. The resolution is standard fare, but text doesn't look blocky.
HP Chromebook 11 video review: build quality
Underneath the plastic shell is a magnesium alloy frame. This makes the base nice and rigid but the screen is another matter entirely. It flexes, bends and twists an awful lot, but if you're careful you should have no problems.
Weighing just 1kg, the HP Chomebook 11 feels amazingly light so you can carry it everywhere with you.
HP Chromebook 11 video review: performance and battery life
Underneath the sleek exterior is the processor from Google Nexus 10 tablet. Chrome OS needs more grunt than Android, though, and the Chromebook 11 doesn't feel as zippy as the Nexus.
Web pages take longer to load and don't scroll as smoothly. It's not unacceptably slow, but every time you use the Chromebook 11, you're reminded that it's a budget device.
Battery life isn't particularly great. It lasted around five hours in our tests – that's around half what the next-generation of Chromebooks promise, which should be launching soon.
HP Chromebook 11 video review: Chrome OS
If you've never used Chrome OS, it can take some getting used to. You can think of it as a laptop with only a web browser, which means there are few offline capabilities.
Google has made offline Gmail and Drive a lot better, but you can't get a Chromebook out of the box and create a new document with no internet connection.
You won't be using Outlook to check your email, either or using Photoshop to edit photos. You can watch videos and browse photos from a USB drive without an internet connection, though.
Printing is possible, as long as you have a newish, compatible printer, and you can download email attachments and save them to the 16 gig of internal storage or a USB drive. You also get 100GB of free online storage for two years, which is standard with all Chromebooks.
HP Chromebook 11 video review: verdict
The Chromebook 11 looks great. It's small and light and has good screen. However, build quality isn't quite up to scratch and – more importantly – neither is performance.
Acer's soon-to-be-launched Chromebook C720 costs less than £200, yet uses a much faster Celeron processor. The bad news is that the C720's screen isn't as good as the HP's.
We're yet to be convinced by Chromebooks as a concept, but with several new models being launched in the next few months, it's definitely worth waiting to see if one of them can combine good performance with a good screen at the right price.
HP's latest effort aims well, but misses the mark.


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By Kelli B. Grant
Being fit and being fashionable aren't always compatible goals, particularly amid the growing trend of activity monitors. Some look like bulky sports watches. Others, rubbery bracelets. Then there are the arm-, chest- and headbands more recognizable as sports apparel.
This year, BodyMedia plans to introduce the first "fashionable" tracker, mounted in a silver bracelet rather than on an arm strap. (Price TBD.) A spokesman says the device works in the same way as its traditional activity tracker, but is designed to appeal to fashion-conscious consumers tracking say, a night out dancing. "They felt [the original] was too medical looking for that," he says.
But wrist-worn trackers can be less accurate than sensors worn closer to the body — that's why many trackers (including the original BodyMedia band) are worn on the upper arm, says Jessica Matthews, an exercise physiologist with the American Council on Exercise. Consumers looking to invest in a tracker should put function first. (A BodyMedia spokesman says the new fashionable tracker is just as accurate.)
That said, comfort plays a role, too, especially for sensors meant to be worn all day. Then, it makes sense to pick something that fits easily under shirt sleeves and doesn't chafe, Matthews says. But Michelle Madhok, founder of fashion and sale site SheFinds.com, says fashionistas may still find the solution that goes with any outfit is a free or low-priced phone app that automatically tracks your movements — no tracking accessories required.
Senior consumer reporter and "Deal of Day" columnist Kelli B. Grant travels to Las Vegas to find the best, the worst, and the most hyped gadgets at this year's Consumer Electronics Show. Join her as she roams the exhibit floor for three days, with dispatches here and on Twitter @kelligrant.


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Monday, March 13, 2006
Interview with Mark Goodstein, X PRIZE Foundation
My interview this morning is with Mark Goodstein, who recently joined the X PRIZE Foundation. The X PRIZE foundation (www.xprizefoundation.com) is the organization behind the Ansari X PRIZE, the $10M award that was given for putting a vehicle into space, and is now setting up a new award and competition in the area of energy. Mark was most recently at X1, and was a founder of GoTo.com (now Overture) along with being an early employee of Idealab. Mark is Executive Director of this new prize effort.
Ben Kuo: Mark, thanks for the interview. For those few readers who are not familiar with the X-Prize foundation, tell me a little bit about what its purpose is, and what this new prize is about?
MG: As you know, in 2004, the Ansari X-Prize awarded $10 million to Burt Rutan and SpaceShipOne for successfully completing the launch of a single vehicle, with 2 people, 100km high in less than two weeks. The challenge was laid down in 1996, and it really disrupted the commercial space industry, doing what many said was not possible. In doing so, it seems to have spurred the creation of a consumer—albeit a very rich consumer—space flight industry, with Richard Branson and everyone else now doing this. There was lots of excitement, and it really seemed to capture the public's imagination—that regular people could go to space. In the wake of that success, a bunch of very important people reached out and came on the board of the X-Prize foundation. They challenged the foundation to come up with a strategic plan that would basically make them the Nobel Prize of the future—meaning a prize that induces future advances rather than recognizes past accomplishments. People like Larry Page of Google and Craig Venter have come on board, and given the foundation the financial and political wherewithal to expand. The foundation decided to expand into genomics, energy, and education with its prizes. In the energy side, we toyed around with various ideas and settled on the automotive industry. Automobiles right now suck up sixty percent of America's petroleum. The transportation section is an enormous user of energy. This started several months ago, when we had a roundtable with Jim Woolsey and other ecopolitical hawks, and had a meeting at the Google headquarters with Al Gore. At each meeting we talked along the lines of emissions and what we could do for a prize that sought to spur the design and production of hyper-efficient vehicles. Everyone is very passionate about the subject, regardless of their political or technical ideas. We wanted to see what will actually change an industry that is so mature, and so seemingly resistant to change that the gas mileage of the original Model T is better than the average gas mileage of vehicles on the road today. Of course, the Model T was much lighter, and didn't have the same safety standards, but if you look at the computer, which went from taking up huge buildings and now fits into your hand in a cell phone, the automotive industry at large hasn't made much progress in the last 100 years. The idea now is for us to come up with a set of rules. For prizes, rules are everything – rules that can spur public excitement and interest and team involvement that the Ansari X Prize did, but have even larger impact – on transportation and energy. Prizes have an old background, from the Longitude Prize (which was chronicled in a story and miniseries) and the Spirit of St. Louis, which was a $25K prize that led Charles Lindbergh to fly across the ocean. In the case of the Ansari X Prize, people spent $100 million to win that $10 million prize. There's a magnification factor involved in inducement prizes that benefits society. That's one of the things behind prizes as a mechanism of advancement.
BK: How did you get involved in the X PRIZE foundation?
MG: I left X1 in April of las year, for a variety of reasons. It had been three years, and I wanted to hang out with my dad who had had an accident, and to take a break. I went off and helped a company raise money, and also helped two other companies start up. Then, this came along and I couldn't refuse. This touches on so many passions of mine it was hard not to be excited. Peter Diamandis and I talked and we hit it off immediately, and we have the same vision on what it takes to get this thing done. Also, my dad is a professor of physics at Caltech, and wrote a book "Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil" which I was involved with, where I got to read every chapter as it was written,
BK: What's the timeline for the prize?
MG: We're three weeks into this, with the idea that we will spend the next eight to ten weeks talking to everyone we can possible talk to in the industry. We're talking to political, industry, and regulatory associations, from the NRDC and others to specific industry organizations so we get enough feedback and that we don't embarrass ourselves when we announce the rules. We will the announce the rules for public comment, and get comments. It's trial by fire. We'll then open up the doors for registration, and hope that we get hundreds and thousands of registrations from the proverbial garage teams to those backed by big companies. The idea is that we award the prize—and we have one or two individuals whoare close to backing the purse—of $25 Million and manufacturing contracts, ala American Idol, to the winner. We are close to the sponsorship side and close to the purse, and are talking about a framework in which the prize is open to the world in the July timeframe, and closes in two years time. Of course, that could change, and so far nothing is written in stone.
BK: Do you think that the innovation will come out of the auto industry, or are you looking at the. The auto industry seems behind the times.
MG: The auto industry faces obstacles—the pension/life support that supports American life, but they also have a lot of capital and a lot of knowledge.
BK: So perhaps the solution will come out of the technology industry?
MG: Technology people seem to appreciate efficiency more than the average bera. But there's also the heavy tilt toward using software to make better fuel injection, and lots of ways to make an efficient vehicle. Even more so that companies have something to offer and help, ranging from companies that retrofit Priuses to plug in vehicles, to companies developing smart Lithium ion batteries that charge very quickly. It's very compelling for the transportation industry. At the end of the day, we want a set of rules that does not favor one technology over the other. We would like it if an all electric vehicle has the same opportunity as a hydrogen powered vehicle as well. There are two starting points in this brainstorm period, with no bad ideas, and accepting everything with the rules, and we don't want to tilt the field toward anybody. Technology to make an order of magnitude of efficiency exists today. This is not about technology innovation, although there might be technology innovation as a result of the prize. We don't feel that this is the next prize for the next best carburetor or next best fuel injection system. That said, we feel that the market is the best proxy for many of the things we've been hearing about. We've heard that people want the rules to make it that cars must be 4 seaters, handle 40kg of cargo, and have a range of X miles—but wait, if the winner is the group that sells the most vehicles that's a proxy for all of that—market acceptance. We're tilting that towards a significant portion of the criteria.
BK: Are you going to include things such as cost factors, etc?
MG: Yes, but market acceptance as a proxy. We have heard that the smart car that DaimlerChrysler sells has sold 45,000 cars, but they still lost $5000 per car. And if they raised the prize by $6000 they'd lose more, because they won't sell as many cars. We want the market to be a determining factor in the winner.
BK: So it sounds like the X PRIZE foundation also is working on other prizes?
MG: There are other prizes in development, but I don't know what level each is at. We are working on prizes in genomics and maybe even other energy projects.
BK: Thanks for the interview, and good luck on the prize.
MG: It's bold but we hope to make a difference.
BK: Thanks!


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Archbishop plea over women priests
The Archbishop of Canterbury said the Church of England still has a "long way to go" as he spoke of the scars and "hurt" suffered by campaigners in favour of women's ordination in the face of "knee-jerk" resistance to change.
The Most Rev Justin Welby urged celebration with "boundless fullness of heart and no holding back" - declaring it is "birthday time, party time" on the 20th anniversary of the ordination of the first women to the priesthood in the Church of England.
But he told more than 2,000 people, including 700 women ordained as priests in 1994, their family and supporters gathered at a national service in St Paul's Cathedral, that they should not overlook the cost to those who had made the change possible.
He said there was "much to celebrate" on the anniversary but the "sacrificial commitment" of those who achieved change should be remembered.
"In our celebrations let us not overlook the cost, the bitterness of disappointment and rejection, the knee-jerk resistance of an institution facing change," he said.
He added: "As a representative of that institution, I want to thank those here today whose costly loyalty, whose scars, make this celebration possible, and to say personally how I grieve that it cost so much, to apologise for my own part in that hurt."
The Archbishop said the service was one of celebration but "never of complacency".
"As we celebrate how far we have come, let us be mindful of the distance yet to travel," he said.
"In 20 years we have come a long way - how did we not see that women and men are equally icons, witnesses, vessels of Christ for the world?"
The service was presided over by the Rev Canon Philippa Boardman, canon treasurer of St Paul's, with Archbishop Welby choosing to act as a deacon.
Women who were ordained as priests in 1994 processed into the cathedral at the start to prolonged applause and a standing ovation.
The service was relayed live on a screen into nearby Paternoster Square, with Holy Communion brought into the square for outdoor worshippers.
The service heard testimonies from the Very Rev June Osborne, Dean of Salisbury, and the Rev Kate Boardman, assistant curate at St Mary's Heworth in Gateshead, who was ordained by Archbishop Welby when he was Bishop of Durham.
The retired Bishop of Bristol, the Rev Barry Rogerson, who ordained the first set of women priests in 1994, gave a reading at the service.
The Church of England voted in favour of women's ordination in 1992.
The decision to ordain women sparked a walkout by traditionalists opposed to female ordination.
Today's event came as the General Synod prepares to give final approval to legislation introducing the first women bishops in July. The move could mean the first woman bishop is appointed by early next year.
The Very Rev Osborne told the service that women priests in 1994 knew they had crossed a "new threshold".
"The nation cheered on the Church of England. The vocation of being the first is superficially exciting - how many times have we heard it said to us 'So you are one of the first'?
"Yet being the first also holds its own demands. We embodied change."
The Rev Boardman said as an undergraduate she had seen a notice in a church warning "This parish will take no part in the apostasy of women".
She joked to the service: "Truthfully, I had to look up apostasy."
"Truthfully, I would have laughed at the idea of me becoming a priest," she added.
She said she had been ordained by Archbishop Welby to "cause trouble with his blessing".
"Today I would laugh at the idea of being anything but a priest," she said.
The Archbishop later quipped: "I don't actually remember ordaining you to cause trouble - but I don't have much of a memory."
Roman Catholic campaigner in favour of women's ordination Lala Winkley, 70, a retired drama teacher from London, held a placard inside the cathedral at the start of the service.
She was one of a group from the Catholic Women's Ordination (CWO) campaign attending the service.
She said she felt "deep, deep sadness" at the Roman Catholic Church's refusal to ordain women priests.
"I am a Catholic and I am not envious of anything but I grieve for our particular tradition because it is so bereft of women's input and significantly the poorer because of it - and it does not realise it," she said.


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As technology spawns a profusion of student options for researching and completing school projects, Palo Alto's two high school libraries have remade themselves into gathering spots not just for reading and researching but for watching, playing and creating.
"There's a trend in libraries as a place, or space, not just to read books but to do whatever you wish — from writing the great American novel to disguising yourself as a cancer cell," Gunn librarian Meg Omainsky said.
While still managing collections of more than 10,000 physical books each, Omainsky and her Paly counterpart, Rachel Kellerman, have become purveyors and curators of technology to students, who arrive with varying degrees of sophistication.
"In Silicon Valley there's this view that everybody's got tablets, everybody's got technology, and since kids are so facile they don't need any guidance," Kellerman said.
"But spending so much money on technology, which is just a tool, is like giving a kid a car without driving lessons. They need help to navigate.
"We want to find kids where they are, and a lot of them are online."
Both librarians offer lessons on how to access academic databases and publications the schools subscribe to, such as the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
Palo Alto schools were equipped for wireless coverage in 2010, but Kellerman said she sees fewer laptops on campus than she expected.
"Kids use their phones a lot, and I've seen more tablets. I sense when they bring computers to school there's a security issue and a heaviness issue," she said.
She also sees evidence that not all Palo Alto teens have the latest electronic gadget.
"We see tons of kids who don't have a device at home, don't have a robust computer at home," she said.
"We see them because they come in at 7:15 in the morning to get their work done, either because they don't have computers at home or they need a place where there are fewer distractions."
At Gunn, Omainsky has 48 laptops and 16 Flip video cameras available to students for two-hour checkout — and laptops are taken out about 200 times a day, she said.
She goes out of her way to make exceptions to the two-hour rule.
"My main priority is to meet the needs of the student, so if a kid needs Photoshop for a project but doesn't have it at home, they can take a laptop home for the weekend," she said.
As for iPads, she's experimented with checking them out but usually keeps them on a cart for teachers to use with individual classes, either in the library or in classrooms.
The schools recently launched the "PAUSD Download Library," which allows students access to a collection of 600 books that can be downloaded on nearly any device — laptops, tablets or mobile phones.
But the printed page remains in strong demand, the librarians said.
"Since the beginning of the school year, each of our libraries have checked out 10,000 books, and that doesn't include technology," Omainsky said.
At Paly, Kellerman believes younger students in particular "need a physical book," and she makes a point of supporting the freshman and sophomore history, English and science curricula with multiple copies of printed research material.
Omainsky, having visited Stanford University's Institute of Design (d.school), is enamored with the notion of the library as an "idea lab" — modeled after the d.school philosophy that "creativity follows context."
She recently condensed some stacks to clear a small open space in Gunn's library, furnishing it with round red tables of adjustable height, rolling stools and a floor-to-ceiling whiteboard, where kids can communally solve math puzzles or pen quotes from upcoming school plays.
For students who want or need absolute quiet, she equipped a side room with study carrels behind a closed door.
Paly's giant library chalkboard was installed last fall at the suggestion of a parent who works at Google, where whiteboards are ubiquitous.
During pre-finals dead week last month, Kellerman extended library hours until 8 p.m. and served food, attracting 80 to 100 students.
At Gunn every week, Omainsky convenes "TED Tuesdays" during lunch hour, drawing as many as 180 students to the library to watch reruns of old TED videos.
"Libraries are intellectual spaces, but they're also community spaces where kids can come together to get construction paper, a Post-it note, a textbook or enjoy a laugh together," Kellerman said.
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|Birth Date:
|Barranquilla, Columbia
|Bogota , Colombia
|High School:
|Jontan School
|Mechanical Engineering
A strong student and a consistent player, Arturo's strength is in his singles play...hoping to earn a spot in the day-to-day lineup.
AT TECH -- In Fall 2010 (Sophomore): Arturo fell twice in doubles while teamed with Josh Girling at the season opener, UNCG Invitational...did not play the rest of the fall season due to a wrist injury, but will be back in action in the spring, anticipating a spot in the line-up.
In 2009-2010 (Freshman): Arturo did not have a consistent position in the line-up in the spring season, but showed a lot of strength and promise when he did get to play...posted an overall singles record of 8-5 for the fall and spring season, playing the 5 and 6 positions for Tech. Among his wins he contributed to the teams success with an OVC singles record of 4-2. Arturo also showed his capabilites in doubles his first spring season capturing a 7-3 record with partner, Oscar Pachon. He went 3-2 in OVC doubles as well, where the team finished second overall. Winning the last six out of ten matches he played, he hopes to carry that success forward into next season....Arturo saw limited action in his first fall season with the Golden Eagles, posting a 1-1 record in singles play in his only appearances.
Before Tech: Attended high school at Jontan School of Bogota, Colombia...played volleyball, ping pong and tennis...finished #1 in his class...competed in and won national tournaments, as well as na international tournament in Germany.
Personal: Son of Arturo Santa and and Nancy Ruize of Bogota, Colombia...born on December 22, 1990...major is mechanical engineering.


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Your shopping cart is empty! $0.00 $0.00
Yellow (#12) is useful for observing Mars, especially to highlight light areas or darken blue or brown features.
When observing Jupiter, #12 is used to darken blue festoons near the equatorial regions.
When used to observe Uranus or Neptune, it enhances the blues and greens of the atmosphere.
1.25" Vernonscope Mounted Glass Filters feature 1" clear-aperture optical glass. Numbers are engraved on the mounting to correspond with those of Kodak Wratten series. The mountings are edge-knurled and threaded to fit the bases of BRANDON oculars and DAKIN Barlows. Vernonscope Mounted Glass Filters cut glare, provide superior contrast, improve definition and reduce eye fatigue.


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Oh, contentment. Fulfillment. Happiness. So slippery, so elusive. And yet, we never stop looking for it, do we?
A generation ago, women–stuck in the home and driven apeshit by a never-ending list of mindless chores–ran screaming out of those homes (and, sometimes, away from their families), certain fulfillment was waiting for them in the world of work (or anywhere but home).
In "Fear (Again) of Flying: The domestication of the female midlife crisis," NYT Mag writer Judith Warner sums up this way:
In the mid-1970s, women began to take flight.
They got jobs, got their consciousness raised or got divorced. Sometimes their marriages evolved with them. Sometimes they just sort of took off — "finding themselves" in new relationships, dropping out of family life, leaving latchkey children behind. These outward-bound adventures tended to happen in early midlife, the moment when, as Gail Sheehy put it in her 1974 mega-best-seller "Passages": "A woman had to make it happen–whatever she hadn't yet achieved–or settle for the bed she had made." The "runaway wife," Sheehy declared, as she charted the "midlife passage" of her Silent Generation cohort, was "one of today's fastest-growing phenomena."
Today the daughters of these runaway moms, having arrived at the shores of middle age, are taking flight, too. But they're not, by and large, dumping their husbands. They're not looking to the job market with expectations of liberation.
Instead, they're fleeing to yoga, imitating flight in the downward-gazing contortion called the crow position. They're striving, through exquisite new adventures in internal fine-tuning, to feel more deeply, live more meaningfully, better inhabit each and every moment of each and every day and attain "a more superior, evolved state of being," as Claire Dederer puts it in her just-published book, "Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses," the latest installment in the burgeoning literature of postboomer-female midlife crisis.
The trend she's identifying is not the old (disproven) one of opting out… exactly; this one has women opting inward. Indeed, pointing to a lineup of books, Warner suggests that when today's women find ourselves dissatisfied, we opt to fix ourselves; that, rather than taking off for the big wide world to find ourselves, we look at home. In a way, of course, this is all to the good: we know that true happiness is something that comes from within. And yet, somewhere along the way, the message gets a little problematic. Warner writes:
There's no sense that personal liberation is to be found by taking a more active role in the world.
Indeed, says Warner, the pendulum's swung all the way back home:
In other words, the new "narrative of liberation," as Dederer puts it, of the postboomer, "postfeminist" woman, the new incarnation of the '70s girl who could do anything, appears to lead right back into a performance-enhanced version of "Mad Men"-era domestic fantasy. "In response to my 1970s mom, I had become a 1950s housewife," Dederer writes.
(One flew over the chicken's coop, much?) Don't get me wrong; I come not to judge. And I think part of the reason contentment can be so very elusive for women has to do with our refusal to allow the women who choose differently from us the freedom to "choose their choice," as SATC's Charlotte might have said. And, to that end, if raising chickens in your backyard and keeping a perfect home are where you find your bliss, more power to you. (And, just have to add: if the chicken coop is your happy place and you can actually afford to stay home and hang out with your birds, consider yourself blessed. And if vacuuming is your happy thing, please please come to my house.) My issue is what Warner gets at here:
The values and beliefs and practices that go into sustaining and maintaining the way right-thinking, highly educated, generally affluent folk go about living their lives today–and that have made yoga a multibillion-dollar-a-year escape from the crush of modern life–are not rejected. Rather, as ever, the women question themselves. They can always be–must always be–further perfected, their performance of selfhood more highly refined.
And perhaps that's why we're always seeking something else. No matter where we find ourselves–pearl bedecked behind a vacuum cleaner, shoulderpadded in a corner office, pondering our navels in India while our children and husbands' lives go on at home, teaching our children their ABCs…in Mandarin Chinese, or feeding the chickens in our own backyard–the second that happiness slips through our fingers, we assume it's because we're doing whatever it is we're doing wrong. Or that we chose wrong. To have all of these choices is new for women, so it's natural that we feel an intense responsibility to live out whichever ones we choose perfectly. And perfectly happily. We can do anything… so if we're miserable, either we're not doing it right, or we should be doing something else.
Don't get me wrong: the modern world is maddening and overwhelming and much about the way we engage with it is dissatisfying. And turning inward helps. It's crucial, in fact, if we're ever to figure out who we are. And, let's face it, it's a luxury: the world of full-time downward dogging is reserved for the select few who can afford it. Most of the women I know who do yoga (myself included) are happy to squeeze in an om or two between five thousand other obligations. And while I tend to believe that the search for happiness, contentment, fulfillment is more eternal truth than trend, I also can't help but recall something I wrote some time ago:
And while I have no problem with self-empowerment, it strikes me, perhaps given Barbara's and my posts of earlier this week, that there's something bigger, something less about the self, something more collective going on. You've read the study: Women's happiness is on the decline. So it makes sense that, as a whole, we're hungry. We're in a state of transition, aching from the growing pains. And while the transition is collective, each one of us feels the growing pains acutely, individually.
And given all of that, the question I'm left wondering is this: if we address our dissatisfaction by disengaging with the world around us, what are we missing? And more importantly, what is the world missing? If the current setup of life and work is such that it makes everyone crazy, well, wouldn't it be great if some of us were driven just crazy enough to set out to change it?


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You sure seem to love picking a small sample size to make your points - did Detroit win when they picked up Hossa? Did the Devils win when they picked up Kovalchuk? How about the Hawks, they must have picked up somebody big to win their cup right? The Bruins?The_Pauser wrote:LA had scoring problems last year so they went out and picked up Jeff Carter. We have had scoring problems in the playoffs for two years now and we're looking at guys like Nate Thompson to save us.
Pittsburgh had problems with giving up too many goals so they went out and picked up another defensive defenseman, and a gritty defensively responsible winger. See the trend? Teams that address their problems win, while teams like Vancouver who ignore their problems lose.
Fact is, you put the best team on the ice that you can, and you need a ton of luck to win it as well. You get a hot goalie and you can win, you get a player playing out of his mind and you can win, you get shut down in one series and you lose, your goalie lets in a softie or two and you lose.
The Nucks have picked up a number of players at the deadline too in recent years, it hasn't led to a cup yet but maybe it does this year. You simply won't know until the playoffs happen, but I agree Gillis has some needs to address for this year.


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Dirs: Morgan O'Neill, Ben Nott. Aust. 2012. 113mins
Here's a surfing movie with plenty of Big Wave action and gorgeous oceanscapes at sunset, plus some 1970s social history, a 'vicious bikers v laid back hippies' subplot and a 'which brother gets the girl?' love interest. All these ingredients are crammed into a last-gasp resolution with enough technical skill to make you wish these fresh West Australian filmmakers had narrowed their scope.
With his campervan painted in psychedelic swirls and a NOWHERE FAST destination board, Worthington has solid authority as the photographer/hippy who, fortunately, can confront the baddies when the time is right.
Of considerable international interest is the participation of Sam Worthington (Avatar, Clash Of The Titans) who takes third billing as a guru-style travelling surfie. The movie had a disappointing first weekend on 140 local screens.
An opening caption — 'Inspired by actual events' — refers to the formation in the '70s of Australian surfing brands like Quiksilver and Billabong destined to transform surfing culture worldwide. Here the fictional brand is Drift, brainchild of Andy Kelly (Myles Pollard) and younger, wilder brother Jimmy (Xavier Samuel), who, with the vital help of their sewing-machine-toting mother Kat (Robyn Malcolm), fight unhelpful bank managers, suspicious cops, drug-smuggling toughs and cheating competitors to get their back-shed operation going.
The Kellys had driven 4000 kilometres (2,500 miles) cross-country from Sydney a decade earlier. Indeed, the first 10 minutes of Drift tells their dramatic backstory in effective monochrome, leading to an exhilarating crash-cut to full widescreen colour as Jimmy surfs the first of many mighty West Australian waves.
There is lush location camerawork from Geoffrey Hall (Chopper, Red Dog) and tight editing from Marcus D'Arcy (Swimming Upstream, Tomorrow When the War Began), along with a driving original soundtrack from Michael Yezerski plus a wide selection of tracks that exactly nail the period
Handsome lead and co-producer Pollard gives gravitas to the thinking brother, and Malcolm is particularly valuable as the cheerful, determined Mum. With his campervan painted in psychedelic swirls and a NOWHERE FAST destination board, Worthington has solid authority as the photographer/hippy who, fortunately, can confront the baddies when the time is right.
Production company: World Wide Mind Films
International sales: TF1
Producers: Tim Duffy, Michele Bennett, Myles Pollard
Executive Producers: Joan Peters, Peter Lawson
Screenplay: Morgan O'Neill
Cinematography: Geoffrey Hall
Editor: Marcus D'Arcy
Production designer: Clayton Jauncey
Music: Michael Yezerski
Website: www.driftthemovie.com
Main cast: Myles Pollard, Xavier Samuel, Sam Worthington, Robyn Malcolm, Lesley-Ann Brandt, Aaron Glenane, Steve Bastoni, Maurie Ogden


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Investor releases
UBS reports third quarter profit of CHF 296 million
UBS reports a Group net profit attributable to UBS shareholders of CHF 296 million for third quarter 2008.
Third quarter 2008 remained difficult as the credit crisis broadened and intensified:
Global financial markets came under increased stress as problems in the US residential mortgage market spread to the broader economy and the global financial sector.
Fears of a global recession increased and were exacerbated by further declines in housing and credit markets in the US and Europe, which heightened concerns over the creditworthiness of some financial institutions.
Equity markets were extremely volatile and trended sharply down over the quarter, driven by deleveraging and extreme risk aversion from investors.
In the Investment Bank, revenues generated by the advisory and capital markets business were down significantly, driven by a drop in capital markets revenues reflecting reduced market volumes across all geographical regions. Sales and trading results were affected by losses and writedowns on legacy risk positions. Revenues from equities were down despite a strong performance in derivatives. Fixed income, currencies and commodities were still negative due to losses and writedowns on legacy risk positions; however these were lower than in the previous quarter. Foreign exchange and money markets had a record quarter.
Across the firm, total operating expenses were down 26% to CHF 6,036 million in third quarter 2008. Personnel expense decreased 13% to CHF 3,997 million, reflecting primarily lower accruals for performance-related compensation. At CHF 1,702 million, general and administrative expenses decreased CHF 1,129 million, mainly due to the provision of CHF 919 million made in second quarter 2008 in relation to auction rate securities. There was no goodwill impairment charge in third quarter 2008. A goodwill impairment charge of CHF 341 million was recorded in second quarter 2008, relating to the exiting of the municipal securities business by the Investment Bank.
The result for the quarter included a gain from own credit of CHF 2, 207 million, recorded in net trading income. UBS also recognized a net income tax benefit of CHF 913 million for third quarter 2008, which mainly reflects a net impact of CHF 930 million from the recognition of an incremental net deferred tax asset on available tax losses which arose in the quarter.
Risk inventory reduced
Results were impacted by realized and unrealized losses of USD 4.4 billion on legacy risk positions, mainly on exposures related to US residential real estate-related securities and other credit positions. UBS continued to reduce exposures to significant risk concentrations. Exposures to US residential real estate-related positions were reduced by almost 50% by quarter end. This was achieved largely through sales and to a lesser extent further writedowns. Leveraged finance and commercial real estate positions were reduced through a combination of sales and writedowns, and further credit valuation adjustments were taken against credit default protection purchased from monoline insurers.
Transaction with the Swiss National Bank
As announced on 16 October 2008, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) and UBS have reached an agreement to transfer up to USD 60 billion of currently illiquid securities and other assets from UBS's balance sheet to a separate fund entity. With this transaction, UBS caps future potential losses from these assets, reduces its risk-weighted assets, materially de-risks and reduces its balance sheet and is no longer exposed to the funding risk of the assets to be transferred.
The assets to be transferred to the fund include approximately USD 31 billion (as per valuation at 30 September 2008) of primarily cash securities, already disclosed as concentrated risk positions relating to US real estate-related securities, US student loan auction rate securities and other US student loan securities, and assets from the US reference-linked note program (RLN). Upon the completion of the transaction, UBS's net exposure to these risk categories will be reduced to nearly zero (compared with USD 44 billion on 30 June 2008 and USD 32 billion at 30 September 2008), with residual long positions held by UBS in these asset classes hedged through existing short positions, including credit protection embedded in the RLN programs. UBS will continue to manage down these residual positions.
UBS expects to transfer assets to the fund primarily over fourth quarter 2008 and first quarter 2009. The impact of the transaction and related capital measures will be shown in the fourth quarter 2008 results, separately identified within operating performance.
Capital base and balance sheet
UBS's capital ratio remains strong with a tier 1 ratio of 10.8% and total capital adequacy ratio of 14.9%
UBS's balance sheet was reduced by 4% from the previous quarter, with significant reductions in risk positions partly offset by an increase in positive replacement values and the appreciation of the US dollar against the Swiss franc over the quarter.
Total risk-weighted assets (RWA) under Basel II increased 2% from the previous quarter, to CHF 332.5 billion. The reductions in risk positions were partly offset by the impact of market volatility and the appreciation of the US dollar against the Swiss franc over the quarter.
As announced on 16 October 2008, UBS is to raise CHF 6 billion of new capital in the form of mandatory convertible notes (MCNs), fully placed with the Swiss Confederation, subject to approval by UBS shareholders at the 27 November 2008 extraordinary general meeting (EGM). The MCNs will count as tier 1 capital for BIS capital adequacy purposes if following approval at the EGM.
Combined with the reduction in RWAs, it is estimated that the impact of the transaction with the SNB and the issuance of MCNs would result in a 30 September 2008 pro forma tier 1 capital ratio of 11.9%.
Liquidity and funding
Since the onset of the financial crisis, UBS has proactively undertaken a number of measures to safeguard its liquidity position. Combined with the broad diversity of its funding sources, its contingency planning processes and its global scope, these additional measures have proven extremely helpful in enabling UBS to maintain a balanced asset / liability profile, in spite of this period of unprecedented market dislocation. In particular, UBS was able to benefit from its substantial multi-currency portfolio of unencumbered high-quality short-term assets.
At the end of third quarter 2008, UBS's funding profile was broadly similar to its funding profile at prior quarter end and at year-end 2007, in terms of diversification with respect to both currency and product type. Approximately 18% of funding continues to be raised on a secured basis and UBS's unsecured funding remains well diversified. UBS raised new long-term funds in third quarter 2008 through the issuance of approximately CHF 19.7 billion of long-term debt and structured notes.
Cost reduction
Across the firm, total operating expenses were CHF 6,036 million, down 26% compared with second quarter 2008. This decline was driven by lower accruals on performance-related compensation.
Personnel expense decreased 13% to CHF 3,997 million, reflecting primarily lower accruals for performance-related compensation. General and administrative expenses decreased 40% from the previous quarter, which included a provision of CHF 919 million in relation to auction rate securities. The reduction in third quarter 2008, which was 11% excluding the effect of this provision, reflected cost cuts in most categories in connection with UBS's ongoing cost reduction program.
The number of people employed at UBS was 79,565 on 30 September 2008, down by 1,887 compared with the end of second quarter 2008, with a reduction of 574 in the Investment Bank.
Risk renewal plan
Progress continues to be made in UBS's "Risk renewal plan", which is supported and supervised by the Swiss Federal Banking Commission (SBFC). The plan was implemented in order to overhaul the approach UBS takes to risk management, strategy and planning, the processes used to value and estimate the risk of UBS's positions, the integrity of underlying data on UBS's holdings, and the system architecture needed to support all of these processes. The plan will deliver a robust system of risk control that fully addresses the weaknesses exposed in 2007. It is expected that material progress will have been achieved by the end of 2009, with some components running into 2010.
UBS expects that the conditions seen at the beginning of fourth quarter will continue to affect clients' assets, and therefore UBS's fee-earning businesses. Operating expenses will continue to be trimmed where possible.
UBS's results for fourth quarter 2008 will include two large accounting effects. Since the announcement of the SNB transaction, credit spreads on UBS's debts have narrowed. If this persists, some or most of the accumulated CHF 4.8 billion own credit gain will reverse. In addition, a loss will be recognized on the sale of the equity in the fund sold to the SNB - partly offset by recognition of the value of UBS's option to buy the equity back in the future. A possible reversal of own credit would not affect our tier 1 capital and tier 1 ratio. The transfer of assets into the SNB fund, and the loss recognized on the sale of the equity, will reduce UBS's risk-weighted assets and tier 1 capital balance. After the planned issuance of the MCNs to the Swiss Confederation, the tier 1 capital balance would be slightly higher than its value prior to the transaction and the tier 1 ratio would improve.
Performance against targets
UBS focuses on four key performance indicators: return on equity (RoE), diluted earnings per share (EPS), cost / income ratio and net new money. These are designed to monitor the continuous delivery of adequate returns to shareholders and are calculated using results from continuing operations.
UBS's annualized RoE from continuing operations was negative 44.4% in the first nine months of 2008 compared with positive 19.0% in the first nine months of 2007, following a substantial negative impact from Investment Bank losses on exposures related to the US residential mortgage market and other credit positions.
Diluted EPS from continuing operations were CHF 0.09 in third quarter 2008, compared with negative CHF 0.17 in second quarter 2008. This change was mainly driven by reduced losses in the Investment Bank. The EPS calculation assumes the issuance of the shares issuable upon conversion of the mandatory convertible notes issued on 5 March 2008.
The cost / income ratio was 102.1% in third quarter compared with 200.7% in the prior quarter. Income in third quarter was affected by the factors mentioned above. Total operating expenses were down 26% from the previous quarter, mainly due to lower accruals for performance-related compensation in third quarter and the provision of CHF 919 million made in second quarter in relation to auction rate securities.
Third quarter 2008 saw net new money outflows of CHF 83.6 billion, compared with outflows of CHF 43.8 billion the prior quarter. At the end of third quarter, total invested assets stood at CHF 2,640 billion, of which CHF 1,932 billion were attributable to Global Wealth Management & Business Banking and CHF 708 billion were attributable to Global Asset Management.
Global Wealth Management & Business Banking saw total net new money outflows of CHF 49.3 billion. Wealth Management International & Switzerland recorded net outflows of CHF 36.0 billion, Wealth Management US recorded net outflows of CHF 9.8 billion and Business Banking Switzerland recorded net outflows of CHF 3.5 billion.
Global Asset Management saw total net new money outflows of CHF 34.4 billion. Institutional clients recorded net outflows of CHF 21.0 billion. Excluding money market flows, outflows increased to CHF 16.1 billion from CHF 8.1 billion. Net outflows were reported in equities, fixed income, multi-asset, alternative and quantitative investments and real estate mandates, with infrastructure reporting net inflows. Wholesale intermediary recorded net outflows of CHF 13.4 billion. Excluding money market flows, outflows of net new money decreased to CHF 13.1 billion from CHF 16.0 billion. During third quarter, outflows were reported in multi-asset, equities, fixed income and alternative and quantitative investments, while inflows were reported in real estate funds.
UBS results - 3Q08 vs 2Q08
Global Wealth Management & Business Banking
The pre-tax profit for Global Wealth Management & Business Banking was CHF 1,861 million in third quarter 2008, an increase of 66% from the previous quarter. Second quarter 2008 included a provision of CHF 919 million related to auction rate securities.
Wealth Management International & Switzerland's pre-tax profit decreased by 12% to CHF 1,110 million in third quarter 2008. Total operating income fell by 9% to CHF 2,609 million. The lower average asset base caused recurring income to fall 6% to CHF 2,023 million. Additionally, lower client transaction activity, driving lower sales commissions, prompted non-recurring income to fall 13% to CHF 610 million. Credit loss expenses went up significantly to CHF 25 million compared with CHF 2 million, reflecting provisions arising from impaired collateral quality. Operating expenses declined 6% to CHF 1,499 million, driven by lower accruals for performance-related compensation.
Wealth Management US recorded a pre-tax profit of CHF 203 million, compared with a pre-tax loss of CHF 741 million in the previous quarter. Second quarter 2008 included a provision of CHF 919 million related to auction rate securities. Without these provisions in second quarter, the pre-tax result would have increased 14%. Total operating income decreased 1% to CHF 1,469 million. In US dollar terms, operating income declined 5% as a 14% decrease in non-recurring income - resulting from reduced transaction activity and therefore lower commission income - was only partly offset by a 2% rise in recurring income. Total operating expenses declined 43% to CHF 1,267 million. This decline primarily reflected the provision related to auction rate securities of CHF 919 million in second quarter 2008. Excluding this provision, operating expenses would have declined 2% due to lower personnel and non-personnel expenses. Personnel expenses decreased 3% to CHF 981 million. Excluding the impact of currency translation, personnel expenses would have declined 7%, mainly due to lower severance costs and reduced salary costs associated with fewer non-financial advisor personnel.
Business Banking Switzerland's pre-tax profit fell 8% to CHF 548 million. Total operating income decreased 3% to CHF 1,186 million, as both interest and non-interest income declined.
Global Asset Management
Global Asset Management's pre-tax profit increased 18% to CHF 415 million in third quarter 2008. Excluding a gain from the sale of a minority stake in Adams Street Partners, pre-tax profit decreased CHF 105 million.
Total operating income rose 2% to CHF 827 million. Institutional revenues rose to CHF 525 million from CHF 472 million and included a gain of CHF 168 million from the sale of a minority stake in Adams Street Partners. Excluding this effect, institutional revenues decreased to CHF 357 million due to lower performance fees (from alternative and quantitative investments and the Brazilian asset management business), lower management fees (from the lower average invested assets base) and seed capital losses. Wholesale intermediary revenues declined to CHF 302 million, from CHF 336 million, with management fees impacted by the lower average invested assets base.
Total operating expenses declined 9% to CHF 413 million. Personnel expenses declined 11% to CHF 258 million, reflecting both reduced severance costs and accruals for performance-related compensation.
Investment Bank
Pre-tax results were negative CHF 2,748 million in third quarter 2008 compared with a pre-tax loss of CHF 5,233 million the prior quarter. Writedowns on risk positions more than offset a gain from own credit of CHF 2,207 million and cost-cutting measures related to the repositioning of the division.
Total operating income was negative CHF 750 million compared with negative CHF 2,302 million.
Investment banking revenues declined 22% to CHF 786 million from CHF 1,008 million. The key contributor to this change was a 41% decline in capital markets revenues, reflecting reduced market volumes across all geographical regions. Equity capital markets revenues decreased 55% and fixed income, currencies and commodities capital markets revenues dropped 22%. These decreases were only partly offset by a 3% increase in advisory revenues, to CHF 448 million. Other fee income and risk management revenues were negative CHF 102 million in comparison with negative CHF 179 million.
Sales and trading revenues declined to negative CHF 3,426 million from negative CHF 3,178 million, driven by negative revenues of CHF 4,563 million in fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) that were only partly offset by a positive revenue contribution of CHF 1,136 million from equities.
The equities business saw a 26% decline in revenues to CHF 1,136 million. Lower cash revenues were driven by seasonally lower August revenues, reduced commissions and higher client facilitation costs. Derivatives revenues increased due to a strong performance across all geographical regions, particularly Asia Pacific and the US. Revenues in equity-linked products were negative as all regions saw a decline from the previous quarter. Prime brokerage revenues decreased from a seasonally strong second quarter. Exchange-traded derivatives revenues increased across all asset classes. Proprietary trading had negative revenues in all regions. The Investment Bank is refocusing its proprietary trading activities as part of its more disciplined capital allocation methodology.
FICC revenues were negative CHF 4,563 million compared with negative CHF 4,720 million.
Losses and writedowns on risk positions were lower than in the prior quarter. The largest losses were recorded in positions related to the US residential real estate market, while further credit valuation adjustments were made on protection bought from monoline insurers. UBS marked down its positions in certain leveraged finance commitments and US student loan asset-backed securities. Losses were also recorded on the US reference-linked note program. During third quarter 2008, UBS further reduced its exposures related to the US residential real estate market and other risk positions.
The losses described above were only partially offset by income in other areas. Foreign exchange and money markets had a record quarter as key businesses benefited from strong client flow and successful trading strategies in times of extreme market volatility. Total credit revenue decreased quarter on quarter, with credit proprietary strategies underperforming due to volatile markets and the lack of liquidity in the cash markets. Rates reported a decrease in revenue despite a strong performance in Europe. Structured products posted solid revenues, though these were down on a record second quarter. Emerging markets revenues decreased in all regions except Latin America. Precious metals had a very strong quarter as flow was supported by clients seeking to invest in gold.
Total operating expenses declined 32% to CHF 1,998 million from CHF 2,931 million. A 29% decline in personnel expenses, to CHF 1,061 million, was driven by lower accruals for performance-related compensation. Salary costs also declined as personnel were reduced by 574 full-time equivalents over the quarter. General and administrative expenses decreased 18% to CHF 640 million, with the most notable reductions in provisions, administration charges and professional fees.
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements


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Its quartet of stars are nothing if not eminently likeable, and the program is a bit like a comfy chair you'd hate to part with even though it's ready for the curb, its stuffing bursting through torn leather arms. The leading players of New Tricks - Season Five (2008) infuse it with what charm it has, but beyond that it looks rather cheap and its mysteries are resolutely routine, singularly unimaginative, even dull.
Acorn Media's release is handsome, however, with eight hour-long episodes presented across three discs. Also included is a decent behind-the-scenes featurette.
The series revolves around UCOS, the Metropolitan Police Service's special branch dealing in cold (sometimes very, very cold) cases. The Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad is lead by Det. Sup. Sandra Pullman (Amanda Redman) but staffed by much older, retired officers: Brian Lane (Alun Armstrong, age 62 during season five), Jack Halford (James Bolam, 73), and Gerry Standing (Dennis Waterman, 60).
The colorful but wheezy cases are of the same ilk as those found in similar, star-driven American shows featuring Andy Griffith, Dick Van Dyke, Angela Lansbury, et. al.: an actor shot dead with a prop gun during the middle of a performance; a famous rock star whose suicide 33 years before is called into question; a controversial DJ murdered in a radio station fire. One episode even involves hypnotism and a possibly murderous magician, a premise already old hat back when Lt. Columbo was on the case 40 years ago.
Produced by the BBC, New Tricks - at least the season five episodes this reviewer saw - have an air of cheapness about them, especially when compared to other British detective series that may not have the high budgets of CSI or Law & Order but which nonetheless have superior production values. This is surprising given the program's popularity; it's consistently the most-watched British show of its time-slot.
Rather, the series is predominantly personality-driven, with ongoing, melodramtic story threads that those late to this party (such as this reviewer) may have difficulty following and fully appreciating. As the season begins, Ricky Hanson (David Troughton, the son of actor Patrick Troughton), the man who murdered Jack's beloved wife, is now on trial. Jack, who talks to his wife nightly at the small, candlelit gravesite/shrine he keeps at his home, later goes missing and is absent from several episodes. Brian is an eccentric, obsessive-compulsive and recovering alcoholic cared for by doting wife Esther (Susan Jameson). Gerry is a thrice-divorced, old school copper trying to mend ties with an estranged adult daughter. Sandra, meanwhile, learns unsettling facts about her ex-cop father.
Dennis Waterman sings the show's theme song. Not being familiar with the show or its history, my first reaction was that it outrageously plagiarizes the George Harrison/Traveling Wilburys' "End of the Line." Apparently, however, the real "End of the Line" was used for the pilot film, which was then changed to the sound-alike "It's All Right" for the series, its title taken from the lyrics to "End of the Line."
The show's cagey premise, teaming three veteran male actors with a younger, sexy female actress as their boss is so clever I'm surprised that the series hasn't yet been adapted for American television.* (Picture this: Dennis Franz, Tom Selleck, and Daniel J. Travanti, with Natalie Martinez as their boss.)
There's an undeniable familial camaraderie among the cast, helped no doubt by the fact that nearly all the actors have worked with one another before, often multiple times. Actress Jameson, for instance, appeared on both Waterman's Circles of Deceit TV movies, and is now a regular on Grandpa in My Pocket, which stars Bolam. (Reader Jason Bott helpfully adds "An additional trivia note about the actors in the show: Jameson, who plays [Brian Lane]'s wife, has been married to James Bolam since the '70s. They co-starred as love interests in the classic BBC drama When the Boat Comes In, which I highly recommend, [though] unfortunately not released in the U.S.")
Video & Audio
Shot for 1.78:1 high-def exhibition, New Tricks - Season 5 is up to contemporary television standards, and has especially good Dolby Digital stereo audio supported by optional English SDH subtitles. Eight episodes are spread across three single-sided, dual-layered discs.
Extra Features
The lone extra is a pretty good one, if spoiler-filled: a behind-the-scenes featurette with the cast and crew, who chiefly discuss season five's character arcs.
Parting Thoughts
Despite an ingratiating cast, I found New Tricks slight in the extreme, with overly-familiar storylines functioning like filler for the more interesting if melodramatic personal lives of the aging ex-coppers investigating them. Rent It.
* Something else that took me by surprise is actress Amanda Redman's badly scarred left arm, the result of being scalded by boiling soup when she was just 15 months old. Though more than 75% of her body suffered burns (she was even pronounced dead at one point), Redman recovered and only her arm was permanently impacted. Though it's initially startling, Redman is to be commended for making no effort at all to hide it, and undoubtedly has inspired other burn victims to regain their self-esteem and self-consciousness. Good for her.
Stuart Galbraith IV's latest audio commentary, for AnimEigo's Musashi Miyamoto DVD boxed set, is on sale now.


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Understanding Exchange 2013 page zeroing
Applies to: Exchange Server 2013
Page Zeroing in Exchange 2013
Zeroing is a security mechanism that writes either zeros or a binary pattern over deleted data so that the deleted data more difficult to recover. In Exchange Server 2013, an ESE database uses pages as its unit of storage, and as a result it implements page zeroing. Page zeroing is enabled by default, and it cannot be disabled. Page zeroing operations are recorded in the transaction log files so that all copies of a database are page-zeroed in a similar manner. Zeroing a page on an active database causes the page to get zeroed on a passive copy of the database.
There is no mechanism for the Extensible Storage Engine (ESE) to prioritize the reutilization of zeroed pages over allocating new space. Tables which have sequential space allocation assigned will intentionally skip fragmented or zeroed pages in favor of using new or free sequential pages. This approach reduces database IOPs.
In Exchange 2013 page zeroing reduces the performance impact on servers when they're performing zeroing functions. This includes:
Optimized storage and network capacity ESE writes a page-zeroing record to the transaction log file instead of logging the entire page image. This approach reduces log write I/O, and reduces the bandwidth requirements for shipping log files.
Optimized database disk I/O In Exchange 2010 RTM and earlier, page zeroing occurred only during a backup, or during scheduled maintenance, and it caused significant database disk I/O. In Exchange 2010 SP1 and later (including Exchange 2013), page zeroing occurs by default and happens at transaction time. In the majority of cases, zeroing occurs immediately after a hard delete. This design allows the database to leverage the checkpoint depth capability of the engine, which ensures that dirty pages stay in the database cache for a certain amount of time so that additional page updates that occur in close time proximity don't cause additional database write I/Os. Because of this design, page zeroing has no significant database I/O impact, which is why it's enabled by default.
Implementation of Page Zeroing in the ESE Database
Page zeroing writes a binary pattern over a hard-deleted record. The page-zeroing pattern is specific to the ESE engine operation and it is different for run-time operations versus maintenance operations. The following table lists the fill patterns that correspond to specific run-time operations.
Fill pattern of page zeroing during ESE run-time
|ESE run-time operation
|Fill pattern
Record/long value delete
Freed page space
The following table lists the fill patterns that correspond to specific operations that occur during ESE background database maintenance.
Fill pattern of page zeroing during ESE background database maintenance
|ESE background database maintenance operation
|Fill pattern
Record delete
Long value delete
Freed page space of partially used page
Freed page space of unused page
Background Database Maintenance
Background database maintenance is a process that continuously checksums and scans each database. Its primary function is to checksum database pages, but it also handles cleaning up space and zeroing out records and pages that were not zeroed out because of a Store crash. Background database maintenance processes approximately 1 MB per second per database. If timely page zeroing is a priority, you can reduce database sizes to ensure page zeroing occurs for the crash recovery cases in a shorter time period (for example, 24 hours).
Background database maintenance is a continuous process, so there are no events associated with its start and completion. You can track the progress of background database maintenance by reading the value of a performance counter:
- MSExchange Database -> Instances -> Database Maintenance Duration
This counter indicates the number of seconds that have passed since maintenance last completed for a given database.
Process of ESE Database Page Zeroing
The following table discusses database delete scenarios, and when page zeroing functions occur.
ESE background database maintenance
|Database delete scenario
|ESE process and timeframe to zero database data
An asynchronous thread writes a binary pattern over the deleted data. This action occurs within milliseconds of the record deletion. If the Store process crashes while the asynchronous zeroing work is still outstanding (or version store cleanup is cancelled due to version store growth), the zeroing is completed when background database maintenance processes that section of the database.
View Scenario: Expiration of items from Outlook/Outlook Web App folder view (for example, Conversation view)
Data zeroing occurs when background database maintenance processes that section of the database.
Move Mailbox/Delete Mailbox Scenario: Source mailbox deleted (expiry of deleted mailbox from dumpster)
Data zeroing occurs when background database maintenance processes that section of the database.
Monitoring Page Zeroing Behavior
You can measure and monitor page zeroing functionality by viewing two ESE counters:
MSExchange Database -> Database Maintenance Pages Zeroed: Indicates the number of pages zeroed by the database engine since the performance counter was invoked.
MSExchange Database -> Database Maintenance Pages Zeroed/sec: Indicates the rate at which pages are zeroed.
To learn how to enable these counters, see How to Enable Extended ESE Performance Counters.
Page zeroing is a database maintenance function, so performance information related to both page zeroing for run-time transactions and page zeroing due to background database maintenance is included in these counters.
Mailbox Data Types without Page Zeroing
The following Mailbox data types have no provisions for page zeroing:
Mailbox database transaction logs (.log)
When transaction logs are deleted (due to truncation via backup or circular logging), there is no process to zero the blocks in the NTFS file system that stored the deleted log file(s). It's likely that NTFS will quickly re-utilize that free space for newly created logs, but there is no guarantee that this will happen.
Content index catalog files
Exchange 2013 uses Search Foundation for search indexing functionality. The search index catalog is comprised of several dozen files stored on the same volume as the mailbox database file. When a message is hard-deleted from the mailbox database, the associated content in the search catalog isn't immediately deleted. Content deletion occurs when Search Foundation does a shadow, or master merge, of many small catalog files in to a single larger file. After the master merge completes, the smaller catalog files are deleted. There is no process to zero the blocks which stored the deleted catalog files.
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