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Direct sales of auto insurance to consumers has been a prime distribution platform for a number of years, keeping the heat on agents and brokers to demonstrate their added value if they want to retain or expand their market share. However, a day of reckoning for intermediaries on small-commercial business might similarly be looming sooner rather than later, as carriers begin to seriously explore the potential for reaching buyers directly via a one-stop, Web- or mobile-based transaction.
It would be understandable if many are skeptical about the potential for disintermediation in small-business lines, if only because it simply hasn't yet been attempted to any great degree here in the United States. The conventional wisdom is that such consumers probably don't have time to shop for coverage on their own – and even if they do, their lack of an insurance background, the complexity of coverage, as well as their service requirements would likely keep them solidly entrenched in the agency camp for the foreseeable future.
The Deloitte Center for Financial Services conducted a survey of more than 750 small-businesses in March 2013 from a variety of industries and company sizes to understand if there is a potential market for carriers looking to sell direct to consumers over the Internet. The survey also looked into which lines of insurance might be most attractive to online prospects, the premium discount expected by those likely to buy online, and the factors discouraging some small-businesses from purchasing direct over the Internet.
The survey found that nearly half of the respondents are at least somewhat likely, including nearly one-in-five who said they would be very likely to buy direct from a carrier over the Internet, without having an agent or broker to shop for them or advise them, given the proper circumstances.
And so it seems that carriers assuming an agent will always need to be part of the small-business insurance transaction should perhaps reconsider that value proposition. Those who ignore the potential of direct sales might risk losing a chunk of this increasingly commoditized customer segment to more innovative competitors. However, there are lessons to be learned from the potential for direct sales even for carriers uncertain whether to add that channel to their distribution mix, or determined not to sell that way.


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Last summer I spent some time in the Hamptons with a client and she served me a fantastic rose- turns out it was local, from the Hampton's own Wolffer Estates Vineyard. Since then I've been on their e-mail list and when I saw the new release from them, a rose called "Summer in a Bottle" I about flipped. Over the bottle itself! While I'm sure the dry blush wine is delightful, that bottle is insanely great! And I love the name too. It's the perfect thing to bring to any summer dinner parties or events.
It inspired me to design a little tabletop scheme based on this fun, flirty bottle design. A mix of graphic black and white with bold floral melamine plates, acrylic glassware and hints of gold it's cheery and bold, setting the perfect mood for a patio dinner party. (Hint: when using bold plates or tablecloths always keep your flowers one single color to avoid an overpowering look!)
Now how do I find a way to change Massachusetts law to allow the shipping of booze into our state?
1. // 2. // 3. // 4. // 5. // 6. // 7. // 8. // 9. // 10. // 11. (and I forgot to label the woven ice bucket)

subset: commoncrawl


text: Want a truly personalized Christmas sweatshirt this holiday season? You've found it in this Deer Ones Personalized Christmas Shirt, which features a festive reindeer and will be personalized with any title — like Mom or Poppy — and up to 30 loved ones' names. Our custom reindeer sweatshirt is available in three colors and adult sizes S-4XL.


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I headed back from Las Vegas yesterday and I thought I'd stop in the Amex Centurion Lounge there after I read online reviews that described the place as "stunning," and "feels like being in a art gallery, with "unique culinary experiences." That's one hell of a goddamned lounge! I can't turn down a visit to such as paradise.
I can say only that none of those reviews fully captures the breathtaking breathlessness you'll have when you enter the Centurion Lounge at Las Vegas.
Speaking of entering, the incredible design team created an entranceway that not only serves as an entrance, but also, get this, serves as the exit. Yes, the space you enter is the VERY SAME space that you exit. Incredible!
When you walk in, you'll be greeted by a human employee who addresses you by name, "Hey Steve," she said to me, "may I please have your Amex card?" (See, you need an Amex Platinum or Centurion card to enter). Then she added, "And may I see your boarding card?" Hilarious! Finally, after I managed to catch my breath she finished up with, "And now do you have an ID?" Go find THAT at a Delta Lounge!
I walked in and was greeted by a floor that prevented all of the visitors from falling through and landing on the tarmac 20 feet below. Some of the floor was covered in tiles and others were covered by carpet, which engulfed the bottoms of my shoes in pure luxury. I felt like an angel floating through clouds! Clouds made out of industrial carpet!
I chose from the many available tables. Now, I say "table" but that doesn't really do justice to the area in which I sat. You know how some tables are just for "dining" and other tables are for "kitchen" while others are for "coffee"? I could put almost anything I wanted on these tables! It's hard to put a label on such a table when it handled coffee, my bag, my ass, a napkin, and a one dollar bill with equal aplomb. I ask my readers, what do YOU like to put on a table?
I lifted my ass from the table and headed over to the big buffet which was stocked with delicacies from around the globe. There was meat that was originally part of a cow that lived in Kansas until it was lifted up by its hind quarters, stunned with a pipe, had its throat slit, blood drained, disemboweled, had its carcass cut up, vacuum sealed, shipped to Las Vegas, then fried up in a pan and served to me, hamburger style! And there was a chicken quesadilla representing the finest cuisine both from Mexico, and Arkansas, which is home to the Tyson Chicken company, and was home to this chicken before they injected it with antibiotics, grew it to 6 pounds in 3 1/2 days, killed it and chopped it up so that it could end up inside my quesadilla. Delish!
But the best part, perhaps, was the bathrooms. First of all, they had showers, which is incredible because I typically use a bucket and a rag on a stick at home to bathe myself, so this was luxury redefined. Also, I do like to make sure the rooms where I shower are only populated by people who have an Amex Platinum card.
Second, I thanked God that I was a man because while (it is my understanding) women only have toilets in their bathrooms, the Amex Centurion Lounge at Las Vegas provided visiting gentlemen with a choice — they could choose to use the toilets provided (just like the ones in the women's bathroom) or they could use one of the 3 urinals the bathroom has on offer. It was a really tough call for me – do I enjoy a few relaxing minutes of alone time on the toilet, or do I quickly zip in and zip out with the urinal so that I could head back to the buffet and partake in some dessert? I did both!
All-in-all I would highly recommend the Amex Centurion Lounge at Las Vegas to all travelers.
What do you think?


text:
City of Lincoln
Police Department
Police Department
Lincoln Police Investigating Homicide
On Monday, January 21, 2008, at 8:15pm, Lincoln Police responded to a medical emergency at 335 W. Charleston Street. Officers discovered one party deceased and another requiring medical attention. Robert J. Dunkin, a 43 year old Lincoln man, was treated at the hospital and released. He was subsequently arrested for the murder of Lynn E. Anderson, a 26 year old Omaha woman.
The deceased:
Lynn E. Anderson
Date of Birth 10-15-1981
14806 Y Circle
Omaha, Nebraska
Arrested for First Degree Murder:
Robert J. Dunkin
335 West Charleston Lincoln, Nebraska


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You've reached SPARC's archived website. Visit our new site at sparcopen.org
- About
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- Initiatives
- News
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- All Resources
- Search Resources
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- Membership
Today (February 9, 2012), Senators Cornyn (R-TX), Wyden (D-OR), and Hutchison (R-TX) and Representatives Doyle (D-PA), Yoder (R-KS), and Clay (D-MO) introduced the Federal Research Public Access Act, a bill that would ensure free, timely, online access to the published results of research funded by eleven U.S. federal agencies.
We currently have a unique opportunity to create change. The Research Works Act, a piece of legislation introduced in December that would ban the government from providing the public access to publicly funded research, has galvanized the research community into acting against practices that restrict access to research articles – reaching the pages of the Economist, the New York Times, Wired, the Guardian, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and many other outlets.
With reinvigorated support from the research community and attention from the mainstream media, now is the time to push for this groundbreaking legislation and let Congress know that students - and the rest of the public - deserve access to the research which they paid for and upon which their education depends.
All supporters of public access – universities and colleges, researchers, libraries, campus administrators, patient advocates, publishers, consumers, individuals, and others – are asked to ACT NOW to support this bill. See below for actions you can take.
Now before both the House of Representatives and the Senate, FRPAA would require those agencies with annual extramural research budgets of $100 million or more to provide the public with online access to research manuscripts stemming from such funding no later than six months after publication in a peer-reviewed journal. The bill gives individual agencies flexibility in choosing the location of the digital repository to house this content, as long as the repositories meet conditions for interoperability and public accessibility, and have provisions for long-term archiving.
The bill specifically covers unclassified research funded by agencies including: Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department of Education, Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Transportation, Environmental Protection Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Science Foundation.
FRPAA reflects the growing trend among funding agencies – and college and university campuses – to leverage their investment in the conduct of research by maximizing the dissemination of results. It follows the successful path forged by the NIH's Public Access Policy, as well as by private funders like the Wellcome Trust and campuses such as Harvard, MIT, and the University of Kansas. The bill also reflects the Administration's recent expression of interest in the potential implementation of public access policies across U.S. science and technology agencies – as indicated by the call for public comment issued by the Office of Science and Technology Policy, which closed in January.
Detailed information about the Federal Research Public Access Act is available at http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/frpaa.
As always, thank you for your support and continued persistence in supporting public access to publicly funded research in the United States. Constituent voices make an unparalleled difference on Capitol Hill.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us at any time.
Heather Joseph
Spokesperson for the Alliance and Executive Director of SPARC
Telephone: (202) 296-2296
Email: heather [at] arl [dot] org
Andrea Brusca Higginbotham
Communications Manager, SPARC
Telephone: (202) 296-2296 ext. 121
Email: andrea [at] arl [dot] org


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Friday, June 25, 2010
Thanks Shimano
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
HyVee Report
Wooow what a great weekend. Kyla and I were starstruck all weekend with all of the famous people that we kept seeing at our hotel! We were running on the treadmill beside Emma Moffat the day before the race and we thought it was soooo cool, so to be running with those speedy girls during the race was pretty neat.
We woke up on race morning to huge thundershowers and lighting, so we were really hoping that it would clear up before race time. It ended up being almost perfect weather for us. No rain, but still cloudy so it wasn't as hot as we expected. I was worried about the swim since lots of fast American swimmers were in the race, so I knew that I would have to go out hard to get into the front pack. I never have any idea where I am until the run out for the second lap, and I found myself in pretty good position. The second lap was much better for me- way less chaos and I felt way more relaxed. I got out of the water in the main pack with Hayley Piersol and Sara Mclarty about a minute ahead us.
The bike course was very narrow and technical at some parts, and despite all of my efforts to stay at the front of the pack, my cornering is really bad so I kept getting pushed to the back. I took some pulls but I do not feel very comfortable in those big packs and feel safer at the back, even though I know it's not the best place to be. My biggest mistake of the race was being at the back going in to T2 and having to bridge a gap to the leaders right away.
The run was very challenging and I felt very out of place running with that group of girls at the front. I surprised myself by keeping up with them for most of it. I let a gap form on the third lap when Emma Snowsill passed us, but I got a second wind on the last lap and felt like I could maybe catch back up. I was going all-out for the last 400 meters, but Emma Moffat and Helen Jenkins were in a sprint with each other for 2nd place, so I would've had to have a super sprint to be able to catch either of them. 4th place is always a little bittersweet, but given how competitive this race was with all the money on the line, I couldn't of asked for more!!
Thanks so much to Kim and Rob for looking after us before the race, it's really great to have them travel with us and know that we are in good hands. And of course thanks to Pat and Kurt for their help and support!
I have one short week back in Vic before we head to Europe for a training camp, with a stop in Montreal on the way to race Coteau-du-Lac. My next big race will be London at the end of July. Maybe I'll do a post or two between now and then… hah I knew I would be bad at this blog thing!
Thanks for reading..


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This contact form is brought to you by Camps.ca by Our Kids – The Trusted Source for thousands of families since 1998.
We have limited information on STEM Lab Robotics as they are currently not registered with us. We do however have details on camps in the area shown in the map below :
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text:
D.C. United announced today the club's end-of-season award winners, with several honors going to 2012 MLS Comeback Player of the Year candidate Chris Pontius.
Pontius, United's longest tenured player, tops the list by earning the 2012 Volkswagen Most Valuable Player Award, Volkswagen Fans' Choice Award, Volkswagen Goal of the Year and the club's Golden Boot.
After suffering season-ending injuries in 2010 and 2011, Pontius had a career year in 2012, setting highs in goals (12), games played (31), games started (26), minutes (2,339), shots (71) and shots on goal (29). Six of Pontius' 12 strikes this season were game-winners, tied for the club record set in 1996 by Steve Rammel and tied for third in MLS 2012.
Pontius captained the squad in place of the injured Dwayne De Rosario, the 2011 Budweiser Golden Boot winner and 2011 MLS MVP. Since De Rosario was sidelined, Pontius led United to a 5-0-2 unbeaten streak to cap off the season and a second-place finish in the Eastern Conference, vaulting the club to its first playoff appearance since 2007.
Pontius' game-changing performances earned him key awards this season, including MLS Player of the Week in Week 7, becoming the only player to be a two-time unanimous selection by the North American Soccer Reporters. In mid-July, Pontius was chosen to the 2012 AT&T MLS All-Star roster for the first time and was a part of the squad that defeated Chelsea FC (England) 3-2. Pontius was subsequently voted as the match's Most Valuable Player after scoring the game-tying goal in the 73rd minute and assisting on Eddie Johnson's game-winner in the 91st.
One of Pontius's most memorable nights with D.C. United was the April 22 home match against Atlantic Cup foe, the New York Red Bulls, when he notched his first career hat trick in a dominant 4-1 win in front of the RFK faithful. Also against New York, on June 24, Pontius scored the fastest goal in United's 17-year history with his opener 31 seconds into the game.
To view the complete article, click here.


text:
Hi, I post regularly on the bottleneck and slide forum. After dabbling in slide for a couple of years (and very happy with it!), I had the
itch to try my hand at the harp. So, I just ordered for a Hohner 560/20 special 20 in the key of C. I wish to know
how long such a harp typically lasts? When do I start bothering about replacing the harp/reeds, etc???? I am an absolute newbee, and
know nothing about harps!


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The Wyeth Family through Three Generations: The Generations of Genius
Jean Browne Theatre
Sunday, October 28, 2012, at 2 p.m.
Dr. Henry Adams will present The Wyeth Family through Three Generations: The Generations of Genius on Sunday, October 28 at 2:00 p.m. at the Jean Browne Theatre.
In his lecture, Adams will provide an in-depth look into the lives and works of N.C., Andrew and Jaime Wyeth. N.C. Wyeth, patriarch of the Wyeth legacy, was a famous illustrator who illustrated Treasure Island, The Mysterious Stranger and many other books. Andrew, his son, became known as one of the most significant American realists of the 20th century. Jaime, Andrew's son, is still increasing his body of work but is well known for portraits of John F. Kennedy, Andy Warhol, Rudolf Nureyev and many others. His scenes of Maine and Pennsylvania have also been widely received.
Adams wrote the essay and other entries for the exhibition catalog that accompanies The Wyeths Across Texas, currently on view at the Tyler Museum of Art. The Wyeths Across Texas was organized by the TMA and will be on view through December 9, 2012. It is the first major exhibition featuring the three generations of Wyeths to be presented in Texas in 25 years. This exciting exhibition additionally features works drawn only from public and private collections across Texas.
Adams is an American art historian at Case Western Reserve University. He curated the exhibition Andrew Wyeth: Master Drawings from the Artist's Collection that was presented at the Brandywine Museum in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania in 2006. Adams wrote the essay and entries for the accompanying catalog as well. His other books include Tom and Jack: The Intertwined Lives of Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollock, Eakins Revealed and many others.
The Wyeth Family through Three Generations: The Generations of Genius is open to the public but seats are limited. This lecture will conclude the Tyler Museum of Art's 2012 Fall Lecture Series. An exhibition catalog signing will follow. The Jean Browne Theatre is located on the Tyler Junior College campus adjacent to the Tyler Museum of Art. For more information and to purchase tickets, contact Visitor Services at the Museum at 903-595-1001 or visit tylermuseum.org today.
The Tyler Museum of Art exists as an educational and cultural center to enrich the lives of East Texas citizens and visitors through the collection, preservation, study, exhibition, interpretation, and celebration of the visual arts. The Museum is accredited by the American Association of Museums and is located at 1300 S. Mahon Ave., adjacent to the Tyler Junior College campus off East Fifth Street.
Related Posts
The Tyler Museum of Art Opens The Wyeths Across Texas with Victoria Wyeth – September 8, 2012
The Wyeths Across Texas at the Tyler Museum of Art – August 15, 2012


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- Home
- Customizable Lab Kits
- Basic 2 Router & 2 Switch CCNA Lab Kit 200-125
Product Description
Basic 2 Router & 2 Switch CCNA Lab Kit 200-125
This is a kit in our Basic Series CCNA Kits. It uses a WIC-1DSU-T1 module and a special crossover cable instead of the more common place DB60 module. But it works just fine and saves you money!
This base kit includes two 1841 128/32 FastEthernet routers, two WIC-1DSU-T1 modules, two 2960-S switches and all the accessories to round out your kit. You can also select to upgrade the routers and switches in the kit from the drop downs below.
In regards to router upgrades here is what is available:
- The base 1841 128/32 router is a dual FE ISR router that comes with two HWIC slots and runs 12.4(25). This router can do your NAT/PAT labs and CCP. The 256/64 upgrade allows you to run IOS 15.1(4). The 384/128 upgrade allows for multiple IOSes.
- The 2801 upgrade is also a dual FE ISR router that offers two additional HWIC slots over the 1841 with enhanced functionality, dual AIM slots and PVDM slots on the motherboard for future Voice use. 256/64 runs 15.1 IP Base and 384/128 runs IOS 15.1 Advanced IP Services for CCNA Security.
- The 2811 upgrade can do everything the 2801 can and more. It is more flexible, has additional Network Module slots and is the preferred router to match up with the CCNA Voice lab workbook. 512/128 runs IOS 15.1(4). Advanced IP Services for CCNA Security and Advanced Enterprise Services for CCNA Voice.
- The 2821 upgrade has all the functionality the 2811 does plus two Gigabit Ethernet interfaces. This way if you are going to use it in your home network, you can have blazing fast speeds! 512/128 runs IOS 15.1(4). Advanced IP Services for CCNA Security and Advanced Enterprise Services for CCNA Voice.
In regards to the switch upgrades, here is what is available:
- The base 2960-TT-L supports 15.0(2) IOS and IPv6 addressing and can do very limited Layer 3 static routing.
- The 3550 upgrade supports true Layer 3 routing while running 12.2(44)SE6 EMI IOS.
- The 3560-TS upgrade supports 15.0(2)SE5 IOS and true Layer 3 routing and PVLAN and QoS features the 3550 does not.
- The 3750v2 upgrade is the newest series of switches that we offer that you will see in the real world. These switches support 15.0.2-SE10 and have StackWise ports that none of the other switches have so you can stack them and manage them as an entire entity to make it easier to manage a large enterprise environment.
Here is a listing of the base kit of which you can select any of the upgrades we described above.
- Tested and Guaranteed working!
- Two 1841 128/32 FastEthernet Routers (can be upgraded)
- Two 2960-TT-L switches (can be upgraded)
- Two WIC-1DSU-T1 modules
- Two Ethernet Patch Cables
- Two Ethernet Crossover Cables
- One WIC-1DSU-T1 Serial Crossover Cable
- One Console Cable Kit
- Four Power Cables
- One Training CD
- 1 Year Warranty!
- Additional Items Include:
- 450 Page CCNA Lab Workbook Covering 60+ Labs! ($44.99 value)
- How & Why We Subnet Workbook ($19.99 value)
- CCENT, ICND2 & CCNA Practice Exam Simulators ($149.97 value) (Includes practice test files and trial of software. Software requires paid activation past the free trial)
- CCENT, ICND2 & CCNA Boot Camp Study Guide eBooks ($89.97 value)
- CCNA CRAM Sheet ($14.99 value)
- TCP/IP Study Poster ($9.99 value)
- CertificationKits TFTP Server
- CertificationKits Subnet Calculator
- CertificationKits Binary Bits Game
- 50 CCNA Instructional Videos
- Cisco Network Assistant
- Cisco Router Password Decryptor
- Cisco VPN Client 5.0.04.0410
- Port Scanner
- WinPcap 4.1.3
- WireShark 1.10.05
- IOS Backup as noted above for the routers and switches
- Cisco Configuration Professional (CCP) 2.8 for 1841/2800 Series Routers
Optional Upgrade To Smart Serial Cards & Cables Includes:
(Replaces 1DSU-T1 cards and WIC-Crossover Cables)
Two WIC-2A/S Modules
One Smart to Smart Back to Back Serial Cables
***Why should you consider upgrading from the HWIC/WIC-1DSU-T1 Serial cards to the Smart Serial Cards?***
The WIC-1DSU-T1v2 Serial cards are a great, budget friendly option for lab purposes. However, if your budget allows, we always recommend upgrading to the smart serial WIC cards and Smart Serial-to-Smart Serial cables. Smart serial is a more current technology that offers a faster DCE/DTE connection that will also use the same clock rate command you will see in all of your labs on every exam, regardless the level. Once again, the WIC-1DSU-T1v2 Serial cards will work just fine (the clock rate command is slightly different and that difference is covered in our CCNA Lab Workbook), but if you want to be the most up to date and want the clock rate commands to match identically like you would see when you are sitting your exam, the smart serial upgrade is an excellent choice.
This is a complete Cisco certification kit and much more than just hardware to build a lab. Obviously we include the hardware you need but we also include ALL of the study material you need to pass your exam in one kit which we will show you samples of below. No other kit contains a physical 450+ page CCNA Lab Workbook, a physical 100 page Subnetting workbook, our three ICND1, ICND2, and CCNA practice exam simulators so that you can break your exam studies up in the way that best fits your study style. These practice exam simulators are so good that when they are purchased as a solo product we offer our Pass Guarantee. Then we also include our ICND1 100-105, ICND2 200-105, and CCNA 200-125 Boot Camp Study Guides in Windows eBook format. These are not pirated copies of eBooks, but fully licensed copies that are 436, 384, and 780 pages respectively! So let's take a look at some of these samples and then we will get to all of the other materials we include which we have not mentioned yet!
CCNA Lab Workbook
Here is a sample topology from our 450+ page CCNA Lab Workbook that will walk you through over 60 labs. You can see them all listed at the bottom of this page. Notice how we have redundant links and combine both WAN and LAN technologies in our lab as they each use different encapsulation types. These are the types of complex labs that will help you actually learn the topics in the CCNA exam. This is a $44.99 value alone.
Click here to download the sample CCNA EIGRP Lab
Subnetting Lab Workbook
Now let's take a look at a portion of a chapter in our subnetting workbook by downloading the sample chapter in pdf format here. Notice we explain the theory behind the process and then give you written lab exercises at the end of each section. You will get over 100 practice questions to burn subnetting into your brain! Keep in mind you will receive the full printed book when you order the kit. This is a $19.99 value alone.
ICND1, ICND2, and CCNA Exam Simulator
Now let's take a look at a sample of our CCNA exam simulator program which you can download a trial version here. Notice that these are not simple questions like what protocol runs on port 21. You have to be able to read and understand the topology, comprehend the different subnets shown and understand what they infer that Cisco is not going to tell you and then draw conclusions based upon the problem that is described in the question. These are not the kind of questions you can brain dump. These force you to learn the concepts covered on the exam and prepare you for the types of questions you will see on the exam. We also provided detailed explanations on why each possible answer is right or wrong. You need to understand why you answered questions incorrectly so you don't make the same mistake twice! These are so good that when purchased as a solo product we offer our Pass Guarantee. Each one of these normally costs $49.99 each when purchased separately for a total value of $149.97. Compare this to the exam simulators offered by Transcender for $139 or Measure-Up for $99 per exam!
ICND1, ICND2, and CCNA Boot Camp eBooks
We also include Windows eBooks from our ICND1 100-105, ICND2 200-105 and CCNA 200-125 boot camps (these are not pirated eBooks). You can click the link to download a PDF sample of our Advanced IOS Management chapter. We offer these eBooks individually for $29.99 each but we include all three in our kits for free! That is an $89.97 value.
CRAM Sheet, TCP/IP Poster & CCNA CBT Training DVD
You will also get our CCNA CRAM Sheet. This six page, full color laminated foldout is a great addition to your CCNA study arsenal which is easy to carry around so you can study the exam key points anywhere. You will also get our CCNA TCP/IP Study Poster to hand in your cube or study area. It compares and contrasts many of the differences between IPv4 and IPv6 for your CCNA exam. You can also add as an option to your kit our CCNA CBT DVD. This CCNA computer based training is comprised of 44 videos that total more than 22 hours of CCNA training that you can get as a $50 add-on to your kit. This is the same instruction you would receive it you sat in a full week CCNA boot camp.
Having a problem with one of our lab scenarios? We include free lifetime support for our customers. Just shoot us an email and we will help you through it!
The total value of our study materials that are added to your kit is $329.90! You will need to have these extra items like a lab workbook, subnet workbook, practice exams and study guides. Why buy them elsewhere when you can get them for free with your kit? The total value of these items are more than the cost of most of our kits and it is all included for FREE!
Additional Tools and Study Material Included
We also include a ton of other cool things to make your lab experience the best it can be such as our TFTP Server so you can do your IOS upgrade labs, our Subnet Calculator for praticing subnetting, our Binary Bits game to make learning Binary fun, 50 Instructional videos and the many more tools listed below!
Additional Items Include:
CertificationKits TFTP Server
CertificationKits Subnet Calculator
CertificationKits Binay Bits Game
50 CCNA Instructional Videos
Cisco Network Assistant
Cisco Router Password Decryptor
Cisco VPN Client 5.0.04.0410
Port Scanner
WinPcap 4.1.3
WireShark 1.10.05
IOS Backup as applicable to the kit Routers and Switches
Cisco Configuration Professional (CCP) 2.8 for 1841/2800 Routers
Lab Workbook
What is covered in our 450 page CCNA Lab Workbook? Below you will see listed all the labs in the workbook. Please note that depending on the routers and switches in your lab, you may or may not be able to fully complete every lab.
Lab 1-1 Identifying Router Components and Accessories
Lab 1-2 Router Connectivity
Lab 1-3 Identify Router and Switch IOS
Lab 2-1 Cisco 1700/1800/2500/2600 Series Password Recovery
Lab 2-2 Configure Login, EXEC, and MOTD Banners
Lab 2-3 Configuring the Password Encryption Service
Lab 2-4 Exec Timeout and Login Failure Rate
Lab 2-5 Installing a TFTP Server & Overview
Lab 2-6 Upgrading the IOS for 1700/1800/2500/2600 Routers
Lab 2-7 Cisco Licensing
Lab 3-1 Terminal Server Setup
Lab 4-1 Static Routing
Lab 4-2 Default Routing
Lab 5-1 EIGRP Routing
Lab 5-2 EIGRP Split-Horizon
Lab 6-1 OSPF Routing
Lab 6-2 Multi-Area OSPF Routing
Lab 7-1 Cisco 2900/3500 Switch Password Recovery
Lab 7-2 Switching Introduction
Lab 7-3 VLANs
Lab 7-4 Trunking
Lab 7-5 VTP
Lab 7-6 Spanning Tree Protocol
Lab 7-7 Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol
Lab 7-8 Per VLAN Spanning Tree Protocol
Lab 7-9 Inter-VLAN Routing
Lab 7-10 Configuring an EtherChannel Link
Lab 7-11 Configuring EtherChannel Using PagP
Lab 7-12 Configuring Etherchannel Using LACP
Lab 7-13 Configuring a PortChannel Interface
Lab 8-1 Standard ACL
Lab 8-2 Extended ACL
Lab 8-3 Named ACL
Lab 8-4 Trusted Hosts
Lab 8-5 Controlling VTY Access
Lab 9-1 Cisco Discovery Protocol
Lab 9-2 DHCP, DHCP Relay & DHCP Exclusions
Lab 9-3 DNS
Lab 9-4 Configuring NTP
Lab 9-5 Configuring Logging to a Remote Syslog Server
Lab 9-5 NetFlow
Lab 9-6 Routing Redundancy with HSRP and VRRP
Lab 10-1 Static Inside Source Address Translation
Lab 10-2 Dynamic NAT
Lab 10-3 Overloading an Inside Global Address
Lab 11-1 Frame-Relay Switching
Lab 11-2 Frame-Relay on Physical Interfaces
Lab 11-3 Frame-Relay on a Point-to-Point Interface
Lab 11-4 Frame-Relay on Multi-Point Interfaces
Lab 12-1 PPP Encapsulation
Lab 12-2 PPP PAP Authentication
Lab 12-3 PPP CHAP Authentication
Lab 12-4 HDLC Encapsulation
Lab 13-1 IPv6 Link Local Addressing
Lab 13-2 IPv6 EUI-64 Addressing
Lab 13-3 IPv6 Site Local Addressing
Lab 13-4 IPv6 Global Addressing
Lab 13-5 EIGRP IPv6 Routing
Lab 13-6 Configuring Basic IPv6 OSPFv3
Lab 13-7 Configuring IPv6 over Frame-Relay with OSPFv3
Lab 14-1 Configuring an IPSec Tunnel
Lab 14-2 GRE Over IPSec Virtual Tunnel
Lab 15-1 Installing & Configuring Cisco Configuration Professional


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One of the good things about choosing an iPhone that works on AT&T's network is that you don't have to use it on AT&T's network.
Unlock that handset, and you can then take it to T-Mobile, which uses GSM network technology similar to that of AT&T. However, until recently doing this not been a great experience: iPhones on T-Mobile's network use the older, and much slower, 2G EDGE data service.
But here's excellent news for Houston GSM iPhone owners: T-Mobile has rejiggered its network here so that unlocked AT&T smartphones can access its faster HSPA+ data service. While it's not as zippy as LTE, T-Mobile's HSPA+ offers respectable speeds. On test phones, I've seen downloads as fast as 24 Mbps.
T-Mobile is the only one of the big four U.S. carriers to not offer the iPhone. Still, unlocked iPhones are common on its network – last year, the company estimated that 1 out of every 10 smartphones on its network was made by Apple. And T-Mobile has launched a campaign to lure unlocked iPhone users with promises of significant savings over AT&T.
As part of this drive, T-Mobile is changing the frequency on which its HSPA+ data network is offered to work with unlocked AT&T devices. The first cities to get this capability were in Kansas City and Las Vegas. On Wednesday, T-Mobile said Houston, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., were added to the list. The Houston coverage area includes the suburbs of Cypress, Jersey Village, Humble, Kingwood and The Woodlands.
Other major cities are partially converted:
T-Mobile network advancements also continue in additional cities including Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York metro area, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Diego and Seattle. Customers in parts of these metro areas are already experiencing improved coverage and iPhone "speed sightings" on T-Mobile's 4G network.
Note that these faster speeds will only work with the iPhone 4S or iPhone 5, which can talk to HSPA+ networks. It's not clear if older iPhones can now get T-Mobile's 3G network speeds in these markets, or if they'll still be confined to the pokey EDGE service.
The campaign comes as T-Mobile struggles against tough competition from the two largest carriers, AT&T and Verizon, and to a lesser extent, Sprint. In an earnings report released today, T-Mobile's sales and profits were both down.
Although its proposed merger with AT&T was killed by regulators earlier this year, the company is now planning to hook up with the smaller MetroPCS.And T-Mobile is also hustling to catch up with its competitors by launching its own LTE network next year.
Once T-Mobile has an LTE network up and running, it's possible Apple would finally offer an iPhone through that carrier. For now, though, T-Mobile customers who want an iPhone will have to make do with a patchwork of HSPA+-enabled markets.
[Spotted at GigaOM.]


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A graded k-algebra is called d-Koszul if the corresponding Yoneda algebra Ext(k,k) is finitely generated and Exti,j (k,k) is zero unless j = d(i) for some function d: N®N. Green and Marcos ask if there is a bound N such that for any d-Koszul algebra A, Ext(k,k) will be generated in degrees 0 to N. I will answer this by showing that for any integer m ³ 3 there is a non-commutative quadratic d-Koszul algebra for which the Yoneda algebra is generated in degrees (1,1) and (m,m+1). These algebras are not Koszul but are m-Koszul (in the sense of Backelin).
Recall that a ring is called Jacobson if every prime image is semiprimitive. We show that the tensor product of a Jacobson ring with a simple algebra is still Jacobson. This extends results of Krempa and broadens a set of examples given by Jordan.
The Shephard-Todd-Chevalley Theorem states that if a finite group G acts on a commutative polynomial ring A=k[V] as elements of GLn(V), then the ring of invariants AG is a polynomial ring if and only if G is generated by reflections. In the same context Watanabe's Theorem states that if G acts on A as elements of SLn(V), then the ring of invariants AG is a Gorenstein ring. We consider generalizations of these theorems to the noncommutative setting where A is a noetherian Artin-Schelter regular algebra with a finite group G acting linearly on A. More generally we consider actions on A by a finite dimensional semi-simple Hopf algebra H, where each homogeneous component Aj is an H-module and A is an H-module algebra.
Joint with James Kuzmanovich and James Zhang.
Let n be a positive integer, let k be a field (of arbitrary characteristic), and let R be a finitely presented k-algebra. We consider the problem of algorithmically determining whether or not R has infinitely many distinct equivalence classes of irreducible n-dimensional representations. The approach combines Artin-Procesi Theory, Shirshov's Theorem, and computational commutative algebra.
A common subject of study in algebraic geometry, algebraic topology and the representation theory of finite dimensional algebras is the derived category of an abelian category, which is naturally equipped with the structure of a triangulated category. If a triangulated category admits a Serre functor, then it has Auslander-Reiten triangles. In this case, one can define the Auslander-Reiten quiver. The purpose of this talk is to describe the shapes of the connected components of the Auslander-Reiten quiver of such a triangulated category.
Let G be an affine algebraic group that acts rationally by algebra automorphisms on an arbitrary associative algebra R. We study the induced G-action on the spectrum of all prime ideals of R, viewed as a topological space with the Jacobson-Zariski topology. The main themes are local closedness of G-orbits and the so-called G-stratification of the prime spectrum. Our principal results are based on, and generalize, prior work of Moeglin & Rentschler and Vonessen.
Hopf x-algebras have recently received lots of attention as the most general symmetry of rings with several objects. In this talk we show that the cyclic duality, which is a beautiful property of Hopf cyclic cohomology of Hopf algebras, will extend to x-Hopf algebras.
Let C be a curve over a p-adic field F and K = F(C). For division algebras of exponent prime to p, it is known that index divides the square of the exponent and division algebras of prime degree are cyclic. Both results avoid the prime p because in that case there is no good theory of ramification of Brauer group elements. However, one can try and avoid this obstacle by defining the ramification group of a discrete valued field K with valuation ring R as the quotient of Brauer groups Br(K)/Br(R) and then study the functorial properties of this quotient. One is then led to the complete case and to consider the paper A generalization of local class field theory by using K groups I, by Kazuya Kato (J. Fac. Sci. Univ. Tokyo Sect. IA 26(1979), 303-376). We will discuss the progress we have made on this problem using Kato's work.
The purpose of this talk is to show that over every countable field K there is a nil algebra R such that the algebra obtained from R by extending the field K contains noncommutative free subalgebras of arbitrarily high rank.
It is also shown that over every countable field K there is an algebra R without noncommutative free subalgebras of rank two such that the algebra obtained from R by extending the field K contains a noncommutative free subalgebra of rank two. This answers a question of Makar-Limanov.
It is well known that a ring R is right noetherian if and only if every direct sum of injective right R-modules is injective. We show that a ring R is right noetherian if and only if for every injective right R-module M, each essential extension of M(À0) is a direct sum of modules that are either injective or projective.
This is a joint work with Pedro A. Guil-Asensio and S. K. Jain.
Inspired by homological mirror symmetry, Paul Seidel and Richard Thomas constructed braid group actions on derived categories of coherent sheaves of various varieties and proved faithfulness of such actions for braid groups of type A. I will discuss joint work with Christopher Brav giving some faithfulness results for derived braid group actions of types D and E.
For a given smooth projective variety X, the cardinality of the set of isomorphism classes of smooth projective varieties which are derived equivalent to X is called Fourier-Mukai number of X.
I find a formula of Fourier-Mukai numbers of minimal elliptic rational surfaces.
As its application, I give an example of a pair of minimal model 3-folds with Kodaira dimensions 1, h1(O) = h2(O) = 0 such that they are mutually derived equivalent, deformation equivalent, but not birationally equivalent. It also supplies a counterexample of the birational Torelli problem.
The talk will focus on a generalization of graded Clifford algebras, called graded skew Clifford algebras. Regularity of such algebras is determined by a simple geometric condition. Some families of examples of such algebras will be presented that are regular quadratic algebras of global dimension four having a finite point scheme (typically twenty distinct points) and a one-dimensional line scheme.
The work discussed is joint with Thomas Cassidy.


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Why the U.S. Wants Military Commission Show Trials for 9/11 Suspects
A number of commentators have replied to Attorney General Eric Holder's announcement today that five suspects in the 9/11 attacks, including alleged Al Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will not be tried in civilian courts for the terrorist attacks almost ten years ago, but will be tried by President Obama's revamped military commissions tribunals. What no commentator has stated thus far is the plain truth that the commissions' main purpose is to produce government propaganda, not justice. These are meant to be show trials, part of an overarching plan of "exploitation" of prisoners, which includes, besides a misguided attempt by some to gain intelligence data, the inducement of false confessions and the recruitment of informants via torture. The aim behind all this is political: to mobilize the U.S. population for imperialist war adventures abroad, and political repression and economic austerity at home.
Holder claims he wanted civilian trials that would "prove the defendants' guilt while adhering to the bedrock traditions and values of our laws." The Attorney General blamed Congress for passing restrictions on bringing Guantanamo prisoners to the United States for making civilian trials inside the United States impossible. Marcy Wheeler has noted that the Congressional restrictions related to the Department of Defense, not the Department of Justice, and there is plenty of reason to believe the Obama administration could have pressed politicians on this issue, but chose not to. (Others see it differently.)
Human rights organizations have responded with dismay, if not outrage. Center for Constitutional Rights, whose attorneys have been active in the legal defense of a number of Guantanamo prisoners, stated, "The announcement underscores the fact that decisions about whether to try detainees in federal court or by military commission are purely political. The decision is clearly driven not by the nature of the alleged offense, or where and when it was committed, but by the unpopularity of the detainee and the political culture in Washington." CCR also compared the precedent-setting behavior to "Egypt's apparent plans to use military trials for protesters at Tahir Square."
Human Rights First spokesperson Daphne Eviatar said, "Decisions on where to prosecute suspected terrorists should be made based on careful legal analysis, not on politics. This purely political decision risks making a second-class justice system a permanent feature U.S. national security policy – a mistake that flies in the face of core American values and would undermine U.S. standing around the world."
Most organizations stressed the fact that this was an about-face for the Obama administration. Indeed, one of the oldest human rights organizations in the United States, Human Rights Watch, called the decision a "blow to justice." HRW Executive Director Kenneth Roth said, "The military commissions system is flawed beyond repair. By resurrecting this failed Bush administration idea, President Obama is backtracking dangerously on his reform agenda."
The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers statement concentrated on the faults of the military commissions themselves, headlining their press release, "At Guantanamo, "Detainees Are Presumed Guilty":
"Despite some cosmetic changes since the Bush-era commissions, the commission rules still permit the government to introduce secret evidence, hearsay and statements obtained through coercion," said the association's Executive Director, Norman Reimer. "NACDL maintains that the rules and procedures for these commission trials raise serious questions about the government's commitment to constitutional principles upon which our country was founded. "
Anthony Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU, echoed this today when he called the military commissions "rife with constitutional and procedural problems," noting the outstanding cases "are sure to be subject to continuous legal challenges and delays, and their outcomes will not be seen as legitimate."
The Origins of the Military Commissions
CCR, HRF, HRW, and NACDL are all correct, so far as they go. It is evident to many observers that only peculiar military exigency, backed by facts, could allow for military tribunals, as the Supreme Court's 2006 Hamden decision made clear. It is a matter of historical record that the Bush-era military commissions policy, adopted by President Barack Obama, was initially pushed by former CIA employees William Barr and David Addington, with the encouragement of former Vice President Dick Cheney, along with other "War Council" participants John Yoo, Defense Department counsel under Donald Rumsfeld, William Haynes, and Bush lawyers Alberto Gonzales and Timothy Flanigan.
At the same time the military commissions proposal was initiated, via a military order by Bush, the Bush administration was stripping detainees of Geneva Conventions protections, as well as implementing a program of torture, with Haynes soliciting the Pentagon's Joint Personnel Recovery Agency (JPRA) as early as December 2001 for techniques used in the "exploitation" of prisoners.
In a recent article by Jason Leopold and Jeffrey Kaye, it was shown that the JPRA program that was "reverse-engineered" was Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) course SV-91, "Special Survival for Special Mission Units," whose mission was to train U.S. military and intelligence personnel to withstand torture meant to "exploit" them for enemy purposes. Those purposes went far beyond the gathering of intelligence. As then-SERE psychologist Bruce Jessen, who was later to work as a contract psychologist and interrogator for the CIA beginning in 2002, noted in notes for SV-91 written in 1989:
"From the moment you are detained (if some kind of exploitation is your Detainer's goal) everything your Detainer does will be contrived to bring about these factors: CONTROL, DEPENDENCY, COMPLIANCE AND COOPERATION," Jessen wrote. "Your detainer will work to take away your sense of control. This will be done mostly by removing external control (i.e., sleep, food, communication, personal routines etc. )…Your detainer wants you to feel 'EVERYTHING' is dependent on him, from the smallest detail, (food, sleep, human interaction), to your release or your very life … Your detainer wants you to comply with everything he wishes. He will attempt to make everything from personal comfort to your release unavoidably connected to compliance in your mind."
Jessen wrote that cooperation is the "end goal" of the detainer, who wants the detainee "to see that [the detainer] has 'total' control of you because you are completely dependent on him, and thus you must comply with his wishes. Therefore, it is absolutely inevitable that you must cooperate with him in some way (propaganda, special favors, confession, etc.)."
A former colleague of Dr. Jessen, and along with him a founder of the SV-91 SERE class, former Captain Michael Kearns told Leopold and Kaye:
"What I think is important to note, as an ex-SERE Resistance to Interrogation instructor, is the focus of Jessen's instruction. It is exploitation, not specifically interrogation. And this is not a picayune issue, because if one were to 'reverse-engineer' a course on resistance to exploitation then what one would get is a plan to exploit prisoners, not interrogate them. The CIA/DoD torture program appears to have the same goals as the terrorist organizations or enemy governments for which SV-91 and other SERE courses were created to defend against: the full exploitation of the prisoner in his intelligence, propaganda, or other needs held by the detaining power, such as the recruitment of informers and double agents. Those aspects of the US detainee program have not generally been discussed as part of the torture story in the American press."
The Stalinist governments of the USSR and East Europe used to make a great practice of show trials, one of the most famous being the trial of Hungarian Cardinal Mindszenty. Arthur Koestler's famous book Darkness at Noon is about the show trial and confession of an "old Bolshevik" under Stalin's regime. Such show trials still occur in many parts of the world, from China and Vietnam, to Indonesia, Burma, Iran, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, and the list could go on and on.
That list now includes the United States, where most recently, former child prisoner Omar Khadr was tried in a military commission, pleading guilty with a coerced confession, after years of torture and imprisonment in solitary confinement, his penalty phase of the military tribunal amounting to a show trial, complete with psychiatric "expert" testimony about Khadr's supposed propensity for "terrorism." The result? A 40-year sentence for the young man who never spent a free day as an adult, part of a staged deal with the U.S. military prosecutors, who presumably will release Khadr to Canadian authorities in a year or so, where he will continue to be imprisoned, pending any appeals there. But the penalty "trial" got a lot of press, and the U.S. was able to garner a propaganda "victory."
Without Accountability, Whither America?
The United States is only a small step away from some kind of dictatorship. This may sound like hyperbole to some, but the lack of a clear and strong opposition to military and intelligence community institutional pressures has driven the Obama administration to the right even of the Bush administration on matters of secrecy and executive power. Proposals for "terrorist" or "national security" courts continue to be seriously considered, while the public uproar over the use of torture on prisoners has died down ever since Barack Obama told his Democratic Party followers not to "look back," and made clear that accountability for war crimes would not happen on his watch. Meanwhile, tremendous inroads are made on privacy rights, while surveillance of private citizens, strip searches at airports, seizures of personal computers, and gathering of personal data from emails and phone calls are now everyday occurrences.
As a result, Obama has been the active creature of militarist forces within the government, and on point after point, has given way to lobbying by the military and intelligence establishments, themselves beholden to a power elite that holds the economic reins of the country, from oil to finance, in their hands. Obama's role is most evident in his recent military actions against Libya.
The courts, too, have stepped back from their gesture towards judicial independence under Bush, with the Supreme Court ruling today that it would not hear three Guantánamo detainee cases, appeals on rejected habeas reviews regarding Fawzi Khalid Abdullah Fahad Al Odah, Ghaleb Nassar Al-Bihani and Adham Mohammed Ali Awad. While the cases concerned issues surrounding use of hearsay, other evidentiary standards, the role of international law, and the right to a meaningful challenge to detention, the Court gave no explanation for denial of cert. Courthouse News noted, by the way, that new Justice Elena Kagan "does not appear to have recused herself from consideration of two of the cases because of her prior work as U.S. Solicitor General."
Meanwhile, some anti-torture activists are trying to pursue accountability the best they can, going after the licensure status of mental health professionals who participated in the Bush torture regime. Complaints against former Guantanamo Chief Psychologist Larry James and CIA contract interrogator James Mitchell have not gotten very far, with their cases dismissed.
Another case against former Major John Leso, a psychologist working for the DoD Behavioral Science Consultation Team at Guantanamo, who in 2002 helped write an interrogation protocol that relied in part on SERE "reverse-engineered" torture techniques, was also dismissed, but according to Raw Story, this Tuesday the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) and the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) will ask the New York Supreme Court to reconsider the decision of the New York State Office of Professional Discipline (OPD) not to investigate the misconduct complaint against Leso.
The issue of the military commissions must be considered in the context of its embedded existence as part of a full-scale exploitation plan upon prisoners, implemented as part of a war policy with strong imperialist ambitions, initiated by the United States in the aftermath of 9/11. The agitation for such a war preceded 9/11. The terrorist attack set lose this militarist policy, whose appurtenances — military tribunals, exploitation of prisoners, psychological warfare, secret prisons, false confessions, experimental torture programs, and unchecked executive power — threaten to end the semblance of democracy in the United States once and for all.


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Ginger Pumpkin Pie, The Best Mashed Potatoes, Green Bean Casserole, Thanksgiving Stuffing, Whiskey Bundt Cake, Gluten-Free Gingerbread, Tarte Tatin, & Amazing Chocolate Cake
This week we have a Thanksgiving feast for you, as well as desserts to round out the sweets table at your next celebration. We gussied up a classic with our favorite pumpkin pie recipe, which has a graham cracker crust and fresh ginger. We offered the most amazing chocolate cake you'll ever eat, complete with thick ganache icing. There's a pretty bundt cake, maple pecan blondies, and chocolate chip brioche pretzels from Smitten Kitchen's new book. And welcome anyone with a moist, delicious vegan, gluten-free gingerbread cake.
But let's not forget the savory side of things! We show you how to make the very best mashed potatoes, and how to bake a pan of easy Thanksgiving stuffing. There's a green bean casserole from scratch, complete with crispy onions on top. Pour a spritzer of Prosecco and pomegranate, and you'll be set. Cheers!
• Ginger Pumpkin Pie with Graham Cracker Crust
• How To Make the Best Mashed Potatoes
• Green Bean Casserole with Mushroom Bechamel & Crispy Onions
• How to Make Easy Thanksgiving Stuffing
• Smitten Kitchen's Chocolate Chip Brioche Pretzels
• Gluten-Free Vegan Gingerbread
• How to Make a Classic Tarte Tatin
• Southern-style Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Ganache Frosting
• Spiced Bundt Cake with Whiskey-Coffee Glaze
•• Maple Pecan Blondies
• Pomegranate and Prosecco Spritzer
Last Week's New Recipes: Oven-Baked Salmon, Quicker Pot Roast, Shepherd's Pie, Beef and Bean Chili, Shortbread Toffee Bars, Hot Cocoa with Whiskey, and Tofu Kimchi Dumplings
(Images: See linked recipes for full image credits)


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Electric firework firing system
I made this as an early birthday present for my father. Both he and his brother love their fireworks and do a pretty awesome show for the 4th every year. I wanted to do something nice for him and got interested in building an electric firing system. I had used nichrome wire to ignite fireworks in the past for one-off projects, but this scaled things up to a respectable level. I learned a lot about the pyro community and different designs available to use. In the end I really like how this project turned out, it has a home-made look to it, works great, and remains a compact unit for easy use by a hobbiest.
Some terminology
The firework scene has some unique terminology I was not aware of until I started hanging out on related forums:
- Cue - a single ignitor control, called a cue because the firework doesn't immediately launch, it just ignites the fuse when triggered
- Ignitor - one of several types of devices that converts electricity into heat or flame to start the firework
- Pyroclips - a trade-name for spring clips where the ignitor wires connect to the slat
- Slat - the junction box at the remote end of your firing system where the ignitors connect - can be hard wired or wireless
- Shooting wire - the wire that connects the ignitor to the slat, usually solid conductor and low gauge like 22 or less
- Talon ignitors / Falcon ignitors - trade names for nichrome clip-on ignitors
Design and Photos
I had a rough idea of how I wanted to build it, but I decided to do some research to see what other folks had done first. One of the main expenses in a hard-wired system is the wire itself, I wanted to find a clever way of reducing the number of wires running from your control box out to the fireworks. After some digging I found some folks using a diode-matrix design to reduce down the number of wires required by a good factor. One could also implement charlieplexing here to get even higher "wire-efficiency", but the complexity was not warranted for what I needed to achieve.
I found some 12 position rotary switches from Jameco and based the design around those. Two 12x12 switches using the diode matrix slat design yields a 144 cue firing system. The firing panel attaches to the top of the slat for easy transportation. I attempted to make my own pyroclips using finish washers sitting on springs. One thing not shown well in the photos is the 50' of 24 conductor wire (22 guage), it's nice to have a friend that works at the cyclotron :).
Most electric firing system designs use tons of switches, this is a minimalist's design using a single fire button in series with the 12 position switches. The Aux switch allows two cues on the same "bank" to be selected at once when fired. I used a 1/4" jack as a safety key, it's nice and heavy which makes it feel solid (and easy to replace if necessary). The test switch automatically runs low current through the ignitor which allows you to quickly cycle through positions noting if the lamp goes out. A lot of folks building firing systems use a pair of 12V sealed-lead-acid batteries for 24V, I just kept this design simple by using 8 D-cell batteries. There's also an auxillary power terminal strip on the outside as a backup power source. The white surfaces are glow in the dark, and lastly I ordered a bag of Falcon ignitors to finish the project off. I originally intended to just give my dad a spool of nichrome wire, but the clip-on ignitors are very cheap and WELL worth the cost. Sure you can manually wind nichrome on a couple fuses, but doing more than a couple dozen would easily take hours, and with hundreds of fireworks to launch, there's just no way to go with anything less than the clip-on's.
Further Reading and other designs
There's a bustling fireworks community online which I had no idea about until I started digging.
- www.RFRemotech.com - This site lists several interesting products and also has a schematic for the diode matrix I used in my design
- Falcon Ignitors - they changed their design shortly after I bought mine
- Fireworksland forums
- Pyro Universe forums
Something I found out after building this system is that professional firing systems have to ground the ignition wires when not in use to prevent stray RF interference from generating current on the wires and causing accidental ignitions. While the chances are pretty slim that this would happen, it's worth considering in future designs.


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|Stony Brook, N.Y.
|High School:
|Ward Melville
2011 (Sophomore): NFHCA National Academic Squad honoree for the second time ... Unanimous first team All-Ivy League ... Earned Yale team's first Player of the Year award ... Led team and tied for fourth in Ivy League with three defensive saves ... Tied for sixth in Ivy League in goals, and tied for seventh in league in goals per game (9 in 17 games, .53 goals per game) ... Tied for eighth in Ivy League in points and points per game (9-4-22 in 17 games, 1.29 points per game) ... Tied for second on team in goals and tied for third on team in points ... Hat trick (3-0-6) in 5-1 win over Dartmouth Oct. 15 ... Named Ivy League Player of the Week Oct. 18 ... Started all 17 games for the second straight season ... Earned Major Y.
2010 (Freshman): NFHCA National Academic Squad honoree … Ivy League Co-Rookie of the Year ... Second team All-Ivy League ... Started all 17 games ... Four goals ... Six assists ... Had an assist in her first career game ... Scored first two career goals in 6-0 win vs. Colgate Sept. 11.
USA Field Hockey: Competed for North team at 2012 USA Field Hockey National Championship ... Won Junior National Championship with Pennsylvania team June 2010 … Olympic Development Select 2010 … U-19 National Team 2010 (Argentina Tour in April) … Junior National Camp 2008-2010 … Futures Elite 2009 … National Futures Championship 2008, 2009 … Played for Yale associate head coach Tamara Durante, and with current Yale teammate Emily Cain, on Junior Olympic Team in 2008, earning second place.
High School: First Team All-American as a senior … National Academic Squad as a senior … All-state and all-county 2007-09 … All-county honorable mention 2006 … Captained team senior year … All-state tournament team as a senior … Newsday's Long Island Field Hockey Player of the Year as a senior … Newsday All-Long Island Field Hockey Team 2007-09 … Empire State Games Silver Medal 2008 … Nancy Cole Award and Exceptional Senior Award 2009 … Led Long Island in goals (22) and assists (15) as a junior, and was second on Long Island in goals (18) and assists (11) as a senior … Team won first New York State Class A championship in 2008 and was New York State Class A semi-finalists in 2009 and 2007 … Also played basketball, captaining team for two years … Basketball team was Suffolk County semi-finalists in 2010, a first for the school, and was quarterfinalists in 2008 and 2009 … All-county in basketball in 2009 and 2010 … All-league in basketball in 2007 and 2008 … League rookie of the year in basketball in 2007 … Exceptional Senior Team in basketball in 2010 … Most Valuable Player in Suffolk County Shoot Out in basketball in 2010 … Also played lacrosse … Cellist in Ward Melville Symphony Orchestra … AP Scholar with Honor … National Honor Society … French Honor Society.
Notes: Two-year captain of US Soccer Region I Premier club team …Soccer team was Eastern New York State champions in 2007 and 2008 … Father played football at Bucknell.
Why Yale? "I chose Yale because I think it provides the best combination of academics and athletics."


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Our Worldwide Travel Exhibitions: BERLIN, NEW YORK, LONDON…
The Amazing Peru team attends travel events all around the world. Our agenda for the remainder of 2018 and for 2019 as below so why not meet up with us personally?
Please note the following travel shows where we will be present as exhibitors:
- Berlin, Germany 2018/2019
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For appointments and more information, please contact us at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Who needs hiking when you can fly? The company Amazing Peruoffers hour-long flight tours right over the Sacred Valley of the Incas. The plane fits a minimum of eight passengers, and it can also be chartered. Passengers fly over Tipon and Pikillaqta, both archaeological sites, Pisaq and the Urubamba Valley, Sacsayhuaman, and, of course, Machu Picchu itself. Flights can be longer or shorter as requested. "
"You can Om your way through Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu is known as one of the most spiritual lands in the world, so why not go all out and Om your way through its ruins? Amazing Peru offers a seven-day yoga tour where visitors travel from Lima to Cuzco and finally to Machu Picchu, where they stay in the famed sanctuary Lodge hotel right outside of the ruins. They participate in multiple meditation and yoga sessions throughout the trip, but the highlight is a private session smack-dab in the middle of the ruins. Now that is an Om experience worth waiting for."
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Helping children in one of Peru's poorest village schools supporting hands-on initiatives such as implementation of classrooms to ensuring the robust education, health, and well-being of young children
As part of our philanthropic projects we support the older community to promote sporting and social events in the lesser known regions of Peru.


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Lokomotiv playing to honor victims one year laterby Tal Pinchevsky
On the afternoon of Sept. 7, 2011, an airplane carrying nearly all the players from the Kontinental Hockey League's Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ice hockey team crashed less than 2,000 feet after takeoff for Minsk, Belarus. Of the 45 passengers, only a flight attendant survived in one of the deadliest aviation accidents in the history of sports. Yaroslav Lokomotiv was given a one-year hiatus from the KHL to rebuild its program. The team this month returned to compete in Russia's top league with a remade roster featuring players promoted from the club's farm team, as well several imports from North American hockey circles.
The recovery for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl began with a phone call from a stranger.
"I contacted [the club] and said I'd be happy to give a hand," former NHL general manager Mike Smith said of reaching out days after the tragedy. "They were in deep shock. It was a catastrophic incident."
Hoping to salvage Lokomotiv's 2011-12 season, the Kontinental Hockey League offered to help assemble a new team. But it wasn't the right time for club president Yuri Yakovlev, who played for Yaroslavl before taking it over in 1989.
Victims of 2011 Lokomotiv plane crashBy Tal Pinchevsky - NHL.com Staff Writer
On the one-year anniversary of the Lokomotiv plane crash tragedy, NHL.com honors the 44 people who lost their lives. READ MORE ›
- WATCH: Lokomotiv Yaroslavl tribute
- WATCH: Lokomotiv ceremonial puck drop
"They're used to having a Yaroslavl team. They were going to concentrate on their younger players and youth program," Smith said. "When they decided it would be in their best interest to rejoin the KHL, they would."
Tributes immediately poured in, including a tearful memorial at the Minsk arena where the team was scheduled to open the season. By January, Yakovlev was ready to begin assembling a new team and he called Smith, who recommended former Carolina Hurricanes assistant Tom Rowe for the coaching job.
Brad McCrimmon, a Stanley Cup-winning player and former NHL assistant who died in the crash, made his mark in the short time he served as Lokomotiv's coach. Continuing McCrimmon's plan became a priority for Rowe, who previously worked as coach of the Hurricanes' American Hockey League affiliates in Lowell and Albany.
"When I was in Lowell, Mike Milbury called and said Brad wanted to get into coaching. So Brad came up and we spent a couple of hours talking about coaching. We got to know each other pretty well," Rowe told NHL.com. "I look at this as an opportunity to continue Brad's great work. All the people here absolutely loved him. I want to make him proud. Everybody here is focused to make sure we have a great season to celebrate what that team started last year."
Rowe added former NHL players Dmitri Yushkevich (who started his pro career in Yaroslavl) and Nikolai Borschevsky (a former Lokomotiv coach) as his assistants. They joined a staff that included Jorma Valtonen, one of only two members of the club (along with player Maxim Zyuzyakin) not to travel with the team that fateful September day.
In assembling the roster, young prospects quickly went from being Lokomotiv's future to being their present. Many of them represented Yaroslaval last season in the VHL, a second-tier league below the KHL. Now called upon to represent Lokomotiv in Russia's top league, they're joined by former NHL players Viktor Kozlov, Curtis Sanford, Vitaly Vishnevsky, Niklas Hagman, Sami Lepisto and Mark Flood, who played under Rowe in Albany.
"Mark is a guy that I contacted fairly early. Having him brings a nice comfort level. He knows exactly how we want to play," said Rowe, who sees similarities between this club and his 2004-05 Lowell team, which featured several players who won the Stanley Cup a year later with Carolina. "We had Eric Staal, Cam Ward, it was unbelievable. This is the most talent I've had since that team."
Lokomotiv's exhibition play started in early August with a 4-1 loss to CSKA in Moscow, with hundreds of Yaroslavl fans turning out to support the squad. The emotional preseason included a memorial game held by the Swiss League's Kloten Flyers, in which they played a team of NHL stars that included Evgeni Malkin, Pavel Datsyuk and Ilya Kovalchuk.
On the anniversary of the crash, and with training camp now finished, the rebuilt Lokomotiv Yaroslavl team is ready to embark on a season in which it will be playing for more than just wins.
"It's a unique situation. We're playing for the city and we're playing for the guys who passed away. It's a huge honor and we want to perform well," Lepisto said. "Coach Rowe said we're here to win a championship. We have a good team and this is [a] realistic [goal]."
That goal seems even more realistic following the team's 5-2 season-opening win at Sibir Novosibirsk. After falling behind 1-0 just 3:34 into the game, Lokomotiv rallied for the victory. The charge was led by former NHL player Staffan Kronwall, who contributed two goals, including the game-winner.
But the club's season starts in earnest on Sept. 16, when Lokomotiv will play its home opener against Mystishchi Atlant, which knocked Yaroslavl out of the 2011 KHL conference finals in the club's last meaningful match before the tragedy five months later.
"It's going to be very emotional," Rowe said. "We want to celebrate that team with a tremendous season."


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Coast Guard: 4 people dead when boat capsizes off coast of Florida; others were rescued
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MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Four women died and 11 people were taken into custody after a boat with more than a dozen people aboard — including Haitians and Jamaicans — capsized early Wednesday in the waters off South Florida.
The U.S. Coast Guard responded around 1 a.m. after one of the survivors called 911 to report that the small vessel had capsized seven miles east of Miami.
"Sadly, and tragically, we did find four females, adults, underneath the boat that had perished," said Cmdr. Darren Caprara.
Most of the survivors were found clinging to the hull, and another was found in an air pocket beneath the boat, officials said.
One survivor was taken by boat to Miami Beach, where he was treated at a hospital and released to federal law enforcement, Barney said.
The rest of the survivors were in good condition and were taken into custody aboard a Coast Guard vessel while authorities investigated whether they were part of a human smuggling operation. It was not immediately clear whether they would be brought to the U.S. or repatriated to their home countries.
"Well, obviously, 15 people on a boat, transiting in the middle of the night with no life jackets is a very, very unsafe condition," Caprara said.
Caprara said that authorities were working to confirm that the people on the boat were Haitian and Jamaican.
"That's still a lengthy process that involves contacting other countries and doing some investigatory research," Caprara said.
Images of the vessel show a small white recreational boat with its center console missing. It was overloaded and lacked lifejackets, Caprara said.
Migrants from Haiti, Cuba and other Caribbean countries routinely attempt to illegally enter the U.S. by reaching Florida's coast in overloaded or unseaworthy vessels.
In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the Coast Guard picked up 508 Haitians and 1,357 Cubans at sea. Since the new fiscal year began Oct. 1, the Coast Guard has reported picking up 93 Haitians and 117 Cubans.
The number of migrants who die in the crossing or disappear into the community after successfully reaching shore is unknown.
Cubans who arrive in the U.S. are generally allowed to stay under the "wet foot, dry foot" policy, while those stopped at sea are usually returned home. Other immigrants who make it to land don't receive the same treatment.
Kay reported from Miami.


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It's probably just coincidence that New York's Skaters have a band name that's only one letter away from being an anagram for "Strokes."
That's as in fellow NYC band the Strokes, whose jittery early sound Skaters do a bang-up job of replicating on tracks such as the punchy pop-rock confection "Schemers" on the quartet's debut album, "Manhattan."
Fortunately, Skaters steals more of the devil-may-care attitude of the Strokes than the music itself. The breezy "Manhattan" succeeds most when it sticks to crisp rockers, but the band also has a couple of less successful reggae-influenced tunes such as the dub exercise "Band Breaker" and the more skeletal "Fear of the Knife."
"Miss Teen Massachusetts" shows what Skaters can do when given a first-rate song to work with. Its chorus seems to arise naturally out of the full-bodied instrumentation, gathering steam with each repetition as the track builds to a powerful conclusion.
Not all of the songs on "Manhattan" reach that level. "Nice Hat" drives along on spiky bursts of guitar, but ends up sounding like routine 1978 punk rock, while "To Be Young in NYC" adds rudimentary vocal harmonies to its fizzy foundation. Neither sounds fully formed.
With experience and more carefully constructed songs to go along with its high spirits, Skaters has the potential to do great things. In the meantime, "Manhattan" makes for bright, lively listening, with the interweaving of ambient New York street sounds and dialogue adding to the fun.
Skaters is scheduled to perform March 18 at the Constellation Room in Santa Ana and March 19 at The Satellite in Silver Lake.


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As the saying goes, "What is old is new again." This can definitely be said about terrariums. They were popular in Victorian times, all the rage in the '70s, and are having an amazing resurgence. Garden centers offer classes on making terrariums and little plants being hybridized are endless.>> read "Create a Tiny Plant World Under Glass" #Containers #Crafts #Terrariums
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Luxury log homes are the article of animalism for many. However, there are absolutely a few misconceptions about them, their appropriate maintenance, their backbone of construction, and so on, that may unfairly blush the perceptions of those who ability anguish over whether or not to yield the attempt and adore the activity of owning a log cabin. Let's attending over a few of these and afford a little ablaze aloft them, shall we?
Luxury Log Homes Myth #1;
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Luxury Log Homes Myth #2;
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Luxury Log Homes Myth #3;
Log cabins are abundantly anticipation of as getting difficult to finance. This may be partially accurate to an extent. Some banks see log homes as abominable risks because they don't accept the way they are constructed, or feel agitable about anyone architecture from log home kits. However, there is no curtailment of civic lending companies or bounded banks that would be blessed to accounts them, a lot of abnormally area log berth homes are commonplace. These establishments are absolutely adequate with the abstraction and are in actuality acquisitive to accommodate money for just such a venture. Do some analysis into the accountable and you'll see just what I beggarly here.
Luxury Log Homes Myth #4;
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Intuit Inc. was founded in 1983 as the publisher of Quicken, an MS-DOS financial-management system for individuals. Quicken's success led to a host of follow-up products, including QuickBooks, which was launched in 1992 and quickly became the industry's top small-business accounting solution. Intuit describes QuickBooks as the backbone of its "small business ecosystem," a market that accounts for a major share of the company's $3.9 billion in annual revenues. It is easily the best-selling retail software for small-business accounting worldwide.
Dr. Dobb's spoke with Jon Burt, group manager in the operations department for Intuit's Financial Management Solutions division. FMS supports the delivery of QuickBooks for Windows, QuickBooks for Macintosh, and QuickBooks Online. Burt manages software configuration management for these three products, plus the operations aspect of QuickBooks Online. He manages a staff that is split between Intuit's Mountain View, California, headquarters and Bangalore, India.
In addition to supporting multiple platforms, Intuit offers different feature sets at different price points. QuickBooks for Windows, for example, is available in Pro, Premier, and Enterprise editions. Specialized editions are available for accounting, contracting, manufacturing and wholesale, nonprofits, professional services, and retail businesses. Additionally, each product may be purchased on CD or via subscription. Subscribers get new features as they are developed, while CD users don't get the new features until they upgrade to a new release of the software.
As if that weren't enough, the software is also offered in localized versions for the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom.
A Single Codebase
"You wouldn't guess it," Burt says, "but on each platform, all those products come out of a single codebase. The Windows version is about 80,000 source files, 10+ million lines of C++ code plus a little C# for the .NET parts. Plus help files, tax tables, files defining local accounting rules, tax and other government reporting forms, upgrade offers…a lot of files. Every customer gets the full version. Specific feature sets are turned on and off with the license key."
The license-key approach means Intuit can upgrade customers or license specialized versions of the software with a simple online transaction. It also has big implications for SCM. "The benefit is that we're always extending and refining a single codebase," Burt notes. "We don't have to worry so much about maintaining compatibility among multiple versions of the product. The downside is that a full build rolls out many, many versions of the product. It's a huge build."
As the manager with primary responsibility for build management, Burt has supervised the construction of automated systems that perform continuous builds and continuous integration. The systems incorporate tools for testing, version control, and scheduling.
The decision to use a single codebase for each platform was a strategic one for Intuit. "It's a lot of work," Burt acknowledges. "It means that we needed to put coverage tools in place so we could keep complexity under control as we added features to the product. We needed to perform frequent builds, so we needed to invest in systems and tools to turn the codebase over as quickly as possible."
Managing Multiple Builds
In addition to different combinations of locales, versions, and vertical-market features, Burt specifies that each build includes a debug version and a release version for each locale, a version built for analysis with Coverity, and a build that incorporates HP's Fortify code-analysis tools for security scanning. Plus, Burt says, there are separate builds for the main trunk of the source-code tree and for branches associated with different projects about four branches per year, on average, each with a full set of builds. That's a lot of specialized builds, and it requires a lot of resources.
"The Coverity build alone is a 20-hour run," Burt says. "Coverity does a tremendous amount of analysis, so we threw major resources at it."
Intuit uses Jenkins, the open source continuous-integration tool derived from Oracle's Hudson, to coordinate builds. "We use Jenkins essentially as a job system," Burt says. "It's a scheduling app. A build is triggered when code is checked-in, or if there's a series of check-ins within a 15-minute window. Every 15 minutes, we ask the version-control system if anything has happened along each branch. If the answer is 'Yes,' then we have a set of continuous-integration systems that will go off and do a build."
The continuous builds are deployed to specially prepared virtual PCs (implemented with VMware) where they undergo minimal testing. "We do just enough testing to ensure you can open the application, create an invoice, and close the application," Burt says. "No one does anything with these builds they're disposable. They're basically to ensure that you didn't forget a semicolon that could break tomorrow's build. They're compiled with zero warnings. If you've been doing your local compiles in debug mode, you may miss or ignore a warning that's what trips people up. It's not reasonable to ask everyone to do his local builds in both debug and release modes, so we let the continuous-integration system do it. If the test exposes an error, everyone who had a check-in since the last clean run gets an e-mail, and they sort it out. You also get an e-mail when the tests succeed, so you have some assurance that you're not going to have a DOA build in the morning."
This minimal testing has a major impact on workflow, Burt says. "It's really the problem I came to Intuit to solve. Every morning we'd come in to a broken build. We'd spend from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. unblocking QA so they could test. We were always behind."
Burt relies on Perforce Software's Perforce revision-control system, with good results: "Perforce works well for us. It's rock-solid, it has the features we need, and it's pretty fast. The main server is here in Mountain View, and we have proxies at the remote sites."
In addition to the check-in-by-check-in builds, Burt's team schedules nightly builds of the entire codebase, plus additional runs. There's a Fortify build every night, for instance. A weekly schedule governs which branches get Coverity builds on which nights.
Five years ago, builds were performed on a cluster consisting of 70 rack-mounted 1U nodes. Last year, Burt says, Intuit replaced that hardware with four Dell 2950 2U nodes. "We've got twice the performance now, after moving from two full racks to just four 2U units," he says. To take full advantage of the hardware, Intuit uses Electric Cloud's ElectricAccelerator to distribute builds across multiple virtual machines. ElectricAccelerator lets Burt's team launch compiles in parallel across the cluster. "We can build the entire product 8 to 10 million lines of code in 45 minutes," Burt says. "With ElectricAccelerator, we can do 7 builds in parallel and get 45- to 60-minute turnaround time. Of course, it's a diminishing-returns dynamic. The happy point is about 10 virtual boxes. If you do more, you hit the asymptote it's not worth it 10 seems the sweet spot for this codebase."
Burt says Intuit has been shipping product built in parallel for the past four years. "I'm not sure management knows we're not building sequentially," he says with a laugh. "But there's no reason for them to worry. It's solid. If we have a broken build, it's never because of Accelerator."