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As most of y'all are probably aware, we here on AW are adding a novel component to our existing short fiction challenge. This new component will kick off Nov 1, 2011.
This here is the sign-up booth for that challenge.
What sort of challenge are we talking?
Basically, the challenge is for you to write, polish, edit and begin querying a novel within a certain time period. The exact length of that time period is up to you.
Originally, we thought of making this a yearlong challenge. But not everybody is able to write, edit and polish a novel in 12 months. And for some, 12 months may be too long for just one novel. So, the scheduling ball for this is in your court. Sit down, sketch out a plan. Does that plan see you having a novel ready to rock in eighteen months? No problem. Sign up for the challenge, and tell us you plan to do it in eighteen months. Or can you see yourself having a novel at sellable status in 6 months? Again, no worries. Sign up.
Perhaps you've got several manuscripts lying around, neglected. How about signing up for the challenge, but adapting it to getting those manuscripts polished and perky rather than working on new material?
What if you're the type of person who needs to work on several projects at once? Sounds great. Sign up for the challenge.
And yes, you can do both the short fiction challenge and the novel challenge if you want to.
Once the novel challenge kicks off we'll start check-in threads at the beginning of each month, and nudge them weekly, so you can update us with your progress, and draw motivation from the progress of others. The short fiction challenge is already in progress, and will continue to remain so.
But, you ask, what if i fail? What if i set goals but can't reach them? Won't that be humiliating? I don't want to crush my creative spirit!
We're an understanding bunch here. We realize that life gets in the way of even the best laid plans, that sometimes, for various and numerous (and sometimes hard to explain or pinpoint) reasons, we're unable to write. We're not going to point the finger at you, accuse you of not being a real writer. More than likely, we'll offer you hugs and kind words. And we're sure you'll do the same for us.
One of the great things about participating in a challenge like this is the community aspect. We're not struggling on alone. There are other like-minded people who we can draw encouragement from, commiserate with, congratulate, or just hang out with.
For an example of how successful a challenge like this can be, take a look at the threads relating to the short fiction challenge. Not only have many short fiction sales resulted, but peeps have solidified their writing habits, become more resilient to rejection, improved their skill set one hundred fold. Some of us haven't been able to keep up with that challenge, for one reason or another, but we still hang out with the rest of the crew. It's that community spirit, peeps.
Could the novel challenge do the same for you?
Finally, why Nov 1 as the kick-off date? Doesn't that compete with NaNoWriMo? Not really. We're thinking our challenge will act as a complement to Nano. How many manuscripts get written in November, do you think? And how many of those get written and then find a home in the bottom of someone's drawer, or the deep recesses of their hard drive, only ever to see the light of day when the writer has an attack of the wistful? A great many, I'd wager. So, if you're doing Nano this year, why not consider doing this challenge as well? Write the first draft in November and then spend some time editing and rewriting and polishing that manuscript until it's ready to dazzle the publishing world.
If you like the idea, but don't think you'll be able to start in November, that's not a problem. You can start whenever you're able, as the challenge will be continuous and ongoing.
Sign up now, and help us take over the writing world, one story at a time.


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Sheriff's Deputy Fired For Harassing Journalist Taking Photos Of An Arrest On A Public Street
from the protecting-citizens-rather-than-deputies:-so-crazy-it-might-work dept
Here's something that's all too uncommon in the police world, so enjoy the moment.
A King County sheriff's deputy who threatened to arrest an editor for The Stranger weekly newspaper during a sidewalk confrontation in July has been fired by Sheriff John Urquhart.According to the complaint filed by Dominic Holden (the editor who was harassed), Deputy Saulet became "agitated and confrontational" when he noticed Holden taking pictures of an arrest that occurred on a public street. An internal investigation found that Saulet "recast" the confrontation to put it in a more favorable light, deliberately obscuring the fact that he threatened to arrest Holden for (basically) performing his job and "misidentifying" public property as private property. Another deputy, John Marion, was suspended for a day (without pay) over the same incident, after it came to light that he threatened to harass Holden at his workplace.
Deputy Patrick Saulet, a 27-year veteran with a troubled disciplinary history, was terminated at the end of the business day Monday, according to Urquhart.
So far, so good. Rather than letting this slide, the sheriff fired the deputy. Surprisingly, the strongest words used against Saulet came from the letter accompanying his pink slip -- written by his former boss, Sheriff Urquhart.
"Your ill-advised actions also play to some of the most basic fears among some citizens, which is that a police officer may indiscriminately exercise his or her power in violation of their rights, because in the event of a complaint, the officer will just deny the allegation and 'circle the wagons' with his or her fellow officers on the expectation they will take care of their own."This is a rather bold admission of the attitude that's almost omnipresent in law enforcement agencies across the nation. The "basic fears" Urquhart writes of aren't unfounded. Example after example exists of LEOs making up the rules as they go along (and reinterpreting laws on the spot), secure in the knowledge that the system will protect them. (And in some cases, return them to their jobs despite their supervisors' obvious desire to be rid of them.) Firing Saulet is a small step towards restoring the public's trust. But lurking behind this stark acknowledgement of the corrupted system is more evidence that the system -- even Sheriff Urquhart's -- is still severely broken.
Saulet was demoted from sergeant last year after Urquhart found he had harassed a family in a vehicle that had made a wrong turn into an area reserved for King County Metro Transit vehicles.Saulet has been a problem for a long time. That the Sheriff is unwilling to let this last one slide isn't really a victory -- it's simply the end result of an ugly history that could no longer be ignored. An action like this should have been taken long before Saulet racked up his 21st sustained complaint. And, unfortunately, Saulet still has the option to work with an arbitrator to reclaim his position -- a position of responsibility and power he's clearly unfit to fill.
Overall, Urquhart wrote, Saulet had been the subject of about 120 allegations, with 21 sustained. Saulet had racked up more complaints on the force than any other King County deputy, according to a demotion letter previously obtained by The Stranger.
So, it's a small step forward for the King County Sheriff's Department, but one that follows several steps backwards. A sustained movement forward is what's needed to start shifting the balance of power back towards King County residents. Urquhart seems to be ready to do exactly that, but Saulet's long rap sheet points to a long history of "circled wagons" and ineffective wrist slaps.
Filed Under: dominic holden, john urquhart, king county, patrick saulet, police

subset: commoncrawl


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Nicole Richie: Beverly Hills Hotel Party!
Nicole Richie makes her way to the Beverly Hills Hotel on Saturday (January 19) in Beverly Hills, Calif.
The 31-year-old fashion designer was visited by her two children Harlow and Sparrow, and her hubby Joel Madden later in the day.
PHOTOS: Check out the latest pics of Nicole Richie
After the party, Nicole carried a very sleepy Sparrow out of the hotel.
Earlier in the week, Nicole was spotted leaving Tracy Anderson's gym after an invigorating workout.
10+ pictures inside of Nicole Richie and her family at a party at the Beverly Hills Hotel…


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Trail conditions, clean-ups, upcoming trail runs and other events.
Post pictures and trail reports here.
Budweiser Canyon 3-9-08
December 13th, 2019
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text:
Alfa Romeo Giulia
Alfa Romeo has finally launched the long-awaited successor to the 159. The brand that has languished and seen plummeting sales over the last fifteen years aims to revive the glory of its heydays with the all-new Giulia. As of now, Alfa Romeo launched the Giulia Quadrifoglio only, the top-of-the-range version capable of some mind-blowing numbers: it features the 510 hp six-cylinder 2.9 turbo petrol engine developed by Ferrari engineers with a top speed of 307 km/h and capable of an acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in just 3.9 seconds, a peak torque of 600 Nm, while it should brake from 100 km/h back to 0 in less than 32 metres. Alfa Romeo claims best in class emission levels, with 198 g/km of CO2, while its dry weight is just 1,524 kg. Sales of the Giulia Quadrifoglio will start during the last quarter of 2015, with prices starting at about 79,000 Euro in Italy.


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Nutrition Facts
Percent Daily Values (DV) are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.
Servings and Times
Cups of Fruits and Vegetables Per Person: 0.5
Ingredients and Preparation
- Combine all fruits, tapioca, grape juice, and water in slow cooker.
- Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.
- Before serving, stir in orange and lemon juices, orange peel, and brown sugar.
- Serve warm as soup or dessert. Serve chilled with frozen vanilla yogurt.


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SET 1: The Landlady > My Sweet One, Split Open and Melt, Bouncing Around the Room > Rift, Cavern, Fluffhead > Maze, Sweet Adeline[1], Mike's Song > I Am Hydrogen > Weekapaug Groove
SET 2: Axilla > The Curtain > Chalk Dust Torture, My Friend, My Friend, All Things Reconsidered, Uncle Pen, Llama, Hold Your Head Up > Love You > Hold Your Head Up, Dinner and a Movie > David Bowie -> Baby Elephant Walk[2] -> David Bowie
ENCORE: Good Times Bad Times
SET 1: Possum, Ya Mar, Fee, Walk Away, Tweezer[1], Uncle Pen[2], The Oh Kee Pa Ceremony > Suzy Greenberg, Take the 'A' Train > Runaway Jim[1], You Enjoy Myself, Good Times Bad Times
SET 2: Funky Bitch, Mike's Song > I Am Hydrogen > Weekapaug Groove, Jesus Just Left Chicago, The Lizards, Split Open and Melt, Contact > La Grange, Rift, Cavern[1], Highway to Hell, If I Only Had a Brain[3]
ENCORE: Carolina, Sweet Adeline[2], Whipping Post
March 27, 1993
25 years ago
Warfield Theatre
Set 1: Llama, Guelah Papyrus, Rift, Stash, Reba, My Friend, My Friend[1], Uncle Pen, Sample in a Jar, I Didn't Know[2], David Bowie[3]
Set 2: Buried Alive > Halley's Comet > It's Ice > Bouncing Around the Room, Chalk Dust Torture, The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday > Avenu Malkenu > The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday > Mike's Song > I Am Hydrogen > Weekapaug Groove, Hold Your Head Up > Cracklin' Rosie > Hold Your Head Up, Poor Heart > Golgi Apparatus
Encore: The Squirming Coil, Carolina
[1] Beginning featured Trey on acoustic guitar.
[2] Fish on trombone.
[3] All Fall Down signal in intro.
Phish.net is a non-commercial project run by Phish fans and for Phish fans under the auspices of the all-volunteer, non-profit Mockingbird Foundation.
This project serves to compile, preserve, and protect encyclopedic information about Phish and their music.
Credits | Terms Of Use | Legal | DMCA
The Mockingbird Foundation is a non-profit organization founded by Phish fans in 1996 to generate charitable proceeds from the Phish community.
And since we're entirely volunteer – with no office, salaries, or paid staff – administrative costs are less than 2% of revenues! So far, we've distributed just about $1,500,000 to support music education for children – hundreds of grants in all 50 states, with more on the way.


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Donaldson feeling chipper as Bees stay pace
Leading goalscorer Clayton Donaldson kept Brentford's automatic promotion hopes alive with a sensational late winner to sink rejuvenated Portsmouth.
The Bees' dreams of a top-two finish looked slim thanks to strikes from Pompey pair David Connolly and Shaun Cooper until 22-goal striker Donaldson struck with four minutes remaining.
His late winner came after Bradley Wright-Phillips had scored either side of the break in a hard-fought battle.
Wright-Phillips broke the deadlock after 21 minutes when he lashed home a half-clearance from 12 yards.
But the visitors responded within five minutes, Connolly curling home a beauty from the edge of the box before Cooper gave them a shock lead with a skidding long-range drive that sneaked in at the far post.
The Bees, who ensured a play-off spot with the win, rode their luck against Pompey's packed seven-man rearguard.
Connolly lifted a shot over the crossbar after Jed Wallace's low drive was only parried by Bees goalkeeper Simon Moore as the Londoners repeatedly struggled to make the breakthrough.
Brentford boss Uwe Rosler threw on a third striker in Marcello Trotta in the 74th minute and his deft touch teed-up Wright-Phillips to slide home after a goalmouth melee.
The Bees shattered Pompey's spirited resistance in the dying minutes when Donaldson latched on to a slide-rule Wright-Phillips through ball to chip his shot over goalkeeper Simon Eastwood in a dramatic finale.
Source: PA
Source: PA


text:
Wow, did Charlie Cleveland ever surprise me at PAX East. I don't know the guy, and I didn't pay much attention to the game his studio was showing off at the big show in Boston. Not at first.
Charlie's game looked, at first glance, like just another team-based shooter.
I walked by a row of PCs running the game and nothing caught my eye. Later on, I was walking past the other side of Charlie's booth. That's when I saw the teeth. That's when I saw what looked like a first-person shooter, except the player wasn't looking down the barrel of a gun but through the jaws of a monster.
This is Natural Selection 2, a shooter, a brawler and a real-time-strategy game. It's awesome.
Cleveland's small studio, Unknown Worlds, has been working on Natural Selection 2 for a couple of years and will be releasing it this summer on Steam.
If you play as a Marine, you're playing a first-person shooter.
If you play as a monter, your'e chomping through Marines or buzzing over them as some sort of flying critter that streams spores.
BUT! You can also play the game as a Marine or an alien commander, seeing the game overhead, doling out resources
Pre-order the game at NaturalSelection2.com.


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If you were skeptical about claims your choice of footwear could tone your legs and tush, you were right.
Reebok has agreed to pay $25 million to consumers who bought their RunTone and EasyTone shoes after the shoe company claimed the togs would tone legs and buttocks. The Federal Trade Commission reached the agreement with the shoe giant to settle charges it deceived consumers.
"The FTC wants national advertisers to understand that they must exercise some responsibility and ensure that their claims for fitness gear are supported by sound science," said David Vladeck, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection in a statement on the FTC's website.
U.S. & World
Reebok agreed to the settlement, but did not back down from its claims.
"Settling does not mean we agree with the FTC's allegations; we do not," Reebok spokesman Daniel Sarro told msnbc.com in an e-mail. "We have received overwhelmingly enthusiastic feedback from thousands of EasyTone customers, and we remain committed to the further development of our EasyTone line of products."
The FTC said consumers will get the refunds either directly from the FTC or through a court-approved, class action lawsuit.
Reebok's ads claimed that wearing its EasyTone shoes resulted in "28 percent more strength and tone in the buttock muscles, 11 percent more strength and tone in the hamstring muscles, and 11 percent more strength and tone in the calf muscles than regular walking shoes."
These claims "didn't withstand scrutiny," Vladeck said. "The evidence was wholly insufficient." Ads often make vague boasts, but these claims were deemed specific enough to need scientific backing. It's unclear what the settlement may mean for other shoe manufacturers who make claims about their versions of toning shoes, including Skechers and New Balance.
Consumers who wish to apply for a refund should visit http://reeboksettlement.com/FTC and fill out an online application. Vladeck said the amount of refunds who be determined by a federal judge who will oversee the process.


text:
The new KidCo Angle Mount Wood Safeway Baby/Pet Gate is a perfect choice where mounting points are not straight across from each other. The Safeway gate has angle-mount hardware that allows the wooden gate to be installed in any position, including on angled banisters and walls.The hardware allows the gate to swing both ways and has a stopping feature to prevent the gate from swinging over the stairs. The hardware also allows the safety gate to be quickly released from its mountings as desired.It stands 31" high and is constructed of strong furniture grade wood. Perfect for the top of stairs, as a window barrier, or at a doorway. Mount directly to walls and banisters or add a gate mounting kit if you have hollw walls, baseboards, or dont want to screw into your banisters or woodwork. One-hand adult operation of child-proof latch. Basic gate fits openings 28.5" to 43" wide.
Angle Mount Wood Safeway Features:
FREE UPS Ground Shipping With Purchase of KidCo Safety Gates!
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text: It doesn't take much for cables to become entangled and unmanageable. That's why BT Shop is on hand with an extensive range of practical cable management products. Whether you're looking for adhesive clamps or cable ties, you'll find a wide selection of robust and practical cables management products to help make computer desk cable management easy. The BT Shop cables management range includes cable tidies from leading manufacturers such as HP and Belkin. Take a look at the full selection today.


text:
Arbor, meet ardor
I'm now a certified tree-killer.
It was deliberate. When I bought my little Casa Craptastica a dozen years ago, it had two arborvitaes in front that blocked views of the walkway to my front door. Conifer geeks call these trees "everybodys" because everybody's got them. But there's a reason for that — they're adaptive, solid, easy-care, privacy-producing. In my front yard, though, my best friend called them a safety hazard when they were only 8 feet tall. Someone could hide behind them to attack me, she worried. Now, this is residential Loveland, where a cop lives across the street and, in addition to arborvitaes, everybody's got dogs that raise the dead barking their heads off anytime someone so much as walks down the street. But the trees still bothered her, and so her kind husband installed motion-sensor lights that automatically shot the walkway full of light glaring enough for surgical procedures whenever someone approached.
But I kept the arborvitaes because … well… they were alive. They took literally zero care. They shaded the driveway until high noon. Birds and bugs happily sheltered in them, bunnies under them.
It was a milestone in my evolution as a gardener when I finally decided that just because it COULD grow in my yard, didn't that mean it HAD to grow there. After the fifth near-miss collision on my busy corner because I couldn't see oncoming cars as I backed out, and when their tops began colliding with my flowering crabapple, and when I started envisioning all the things that could take their place, I started to agree that the evergreens should go.
I priced professional removal ($600 apiece). That bought the trees a few more years of semi-benign tolerance. Then this spring, my wonderful next-door neighbor, Retired Rancher Guy, allowed as he had a chainsaw that could take care of these now-14-foot-tall monsters. Well, not so much. Taking down just one of the trees ate his chainsaw blade. It took the two us (truth: mostly him) most of a morning to hack Tree No. 1 into pieces, load it into the back of his big truck and take it to the nearby recycling center (three trips). Tree No. 1 had two old birds' nests and at least five old wasp or hornet nests in it — testimony to just how much shelter these trees had provided (and that I now have a karmic debt to replace). The sawzall made short work of Tree No. 2, but that meant we didn't get to examine its innards. Probably better not to know.
Now I have two 5-foot diameter blank spots in the front yard and … I can see sidewalk from my front door. And idiotically, it took a while for my head to make the connection between my mulch shortage and the piles of dried-up arborvitae fronds that I was sweeping up. Voila: Free mulch. If I, or any of the neighbors, had a chipper-shredder, there would have been a mulch-ado party.
But the final punchline on my tree removal adventure came via UPS from Proven Winners which sent me adorable little sample shrubs from their summer 2011 lineup. Four of those shrubs. were — you guessed it — arborvitaes. Baby, six-inch-high arborvitaes. And — because, well, they're BABIES — I just can't bring myself to kill them.
Got tree-removal stories? We want to hear them. You know what to do.


text:
Our editors will review what you've submitted and determine whether to revise the article.Join Britannica's Publishing Partner Program and our community of experts to gain a global audience for your work!
Eric Kandel
Eric Kandel, (born November 7, 1929, Vienna, Austria), Austrian-born American neurobiologist who, with Arvid Carlsson and Paul Greengard, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2000 for discovering the central role synapses play in memory and learning.
Kandel received a medical degree from New York University's School of Medicine in 1956. Following residency in psychiatry and employment at Harvard University, he served as associate professor at New York University (1965–74). Beginning in 1974, Kandel held a series of professorships at Columbia University, where he also directed its Center for Neurobiology and Behavior until 1983. In 1984 he became an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Kandel's award-winning research centred on the sea slug Apylsia, which has relatively few nerve cells, many of them very large and easy to study. The sea slug also has a protective reflex to guard its gills, which Kandel used to study the basic learning mechanisms. These experiments, combined with his later research on mice, established that memory is centred on the synapses, as changes in synaptic function form different types of memory. Kandel showed that weak stimuli give rise to certain chemical changes in synapses; these changes are the basis for short-term memory, which lasts minutes to hours. Stronger stimuli cause different synaptic changes, which result in a form of long-term memory that can remain for weeks.
Kandel's books include The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind, and Brain: From Vienna 1900 to the Present (2012). In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind (2006) is an autobiography.
Learn More in these related Britannica articles:
Arvid Carlsson
Arvid Carlsson, Swedish pharmacologist who, along with Paul Greengard and Eric Kandel, was awarded the 2000 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his research establishing dopamine as an important neurotransmitter in the brain. Carlsson's work led to a treatment…
Paul Greengard
Paul Greengard, American neurobiologist who, along with Arvid Carlsson and Eric Kandel, was awarded the 2000 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of how dopamine and other neurotransmitters work in the nervous…
Harvard University
Harvard University, oldest institution of higher learning in the United States (founded 1636) and one of the nation's most prestigious. It is one of the Ivy League schools. The main university campus lies along the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a few miles west of downtown Boston. Harvard's total enrollment…


text:
It's My Park
Cinema at Socrates Sculpture ParkEach summer Socrates Sculpture Park, in collaboration with Museum of the Moving Image and Partnerships for Parks, presents an outdoor international film festival. Each evening focuses on a different country or culture, and visitors are invited to sample regional cuisine from neighborhood restaurants, picnic on the grass, listen to performances by local musicians, enjoy the waterfront views as the sun sets over the Manhattan skyline, and watch international films on an outdoor screen.
This video contains closed captions. To activate them, please click the CC button in the player's control bar.


text:
The 5th Annual Pittsburgh Perl Workshop (PPW) will be held October 8-9, 2011 at Carnegie Mellon University. PPW will feature great coffee, workshops, and talks all relating to the Perl programming language created by Larry Wall in 1997. ioBridge is one of the community supporters and sponsors of the Pittsburgh Perl Workshop and Perl Foundation.
Perl + CGI changed the Internet back in the mid-90's. This combo was the catalyst for the creation of dynamic web applications and paved the way for the "Web 2.0". The next big movement is the Internet of Things. This is where web applications mash-up with sensors, devices, appliances, power meters, mobile phone, and social networking to form new applications. Perl sits in a great spot to "Script Things". Perl is a high-level language that has the ability to interface with any API, server, back-end, and new things that come its way. This is often why Perl gets called the "Duct tape of the Internet". Last year, Hans Scharler, of ioBridge, created a thermostat that regulates itself based on his location on Google Latitude. The scripting was all done in Perl and interfaced with ioBridge's API to control the thermostat. A lot of new applications are possible.
Hans will return to PPW and hold a new session called Scripting Things. The idea behind this session is to start with the basics. You will learn about Digital I/O, Analog Values, Serial Data, and Web APIs. All of these topics are things that we take for granted and assume that everyone knows about. You will also learn how to pull everything together with Perl and scripting languages. The target audience is anyone looking to learn how to get started with the Internet of Things and create mashups with real-life things with virtual things.
Injunction with PPW, ioBridge will also be hosting an all day long Hardware Workshop at CMU on October 8, so you can apply your new knowledge right-away. The only thing you need to bring is your imagination. Everything else will be provided — sensors, hardware, Arduino boards, ioBridge modules, buttons, and LEDs. The location is on the 6th Floor of the Gates Hillman Complex right on the Carnegie Mellon Campus and is open to everyone. We look forward to seeing what you will create and/or inspire for the future of the Web of Things.
The Pittsburgh Perl Workshop
October 8–9, 2010
Carnegie Mellon University
Gates Hillman Complex
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213


text:
September 26, 2012, 2:22 pm
First Look at the gameplay footage in Total War: Rome II
[media-credit name="The Creative Assembly" align="aligncenter" width="495″][/media-credit]
A gameplay video in the latest chapter in The Creative Assembly's Total War series, Rome II, was released today.
I've been a longtime fan of the series since Shogun came out in 2000. The grand strategy game pits the user against multiple opponents, and potential allies, using a variety of diplomacy, battles, espionage and sabotage to claw your way to the top.
Check out the trailer below.
The company released a live action trailer for the game back in July.


text:
In living up to our mission of providing hope and preserving dignity, Kindred fosters a spirit of giving back – both to our employees in need and the communities we serve. Principals of our work culture are giving hope to each other and giving back to the community.
Giving Hope to Each OtherAn essential part of the Kindred mission is that we also take care of each other. While life is never easy, some situations are more difficult than others. At these times, maintaining hope can become a daily challenge for our employees and their families. It is specifically for this reason that The HOPE Fund (Helping Others Persevere through Emergencies), a 501(c)(3), was created to assist Kindred employees facing catastrophic life events that challenge their hope.
Since 2005, over $3.3 million has been donated to assist employees struggling through seemingly insurmountable difficulties such as deaths, terminal illness and devastating weather events such as floods, hurricanes and wildfires. In all, we have helped more than 2,800 employees.
Giving Back to the CommunityOur commitment to our patients and residents extends to helping raise money to fight the diseases that most affect them and their loved ones. We help enhance local community fundraising by matching donations raised by our employees. Through the Kindred Foundation, a 501(c)(3), we have created strong national and regional partnerships with the Alzheimer's Association, the American Heart Association and the American Lung Association.
Since 2005, Kindred and our employees have contributed over $3.5 million
to the Alzheimer's Association through participation in A Walk to End
Alzheimer's. Each year, about 3,000 employees participate in more than
100 walks across the United States.
Copyright © 2016 Kindred Healthcare, Inc.


text: Representatives of the China Population Welfare Foundation, UNAIDS China Office, and civil organizations attended a ceremony in Sanlitun, Beijing, on July 4, at which they announced plans for an AIDS walk to raise funds. Movie star Xu Qing also attended the ceremony as ambassador for the event, which attracted 120 hikers in 2012. The walk will take place October 13 on the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall in Hebei province. According to Guy Taylor of the UNAIDS China Office, the event will combat discrimination against patients and help raise public awareness about HIV/AIDS. Applications for the event and information are available online.


text:
Difference between revisions of "Session:Linux where are we going ELCE 2012"
m (→Session Details)
(fix a few typos)
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LINUS: It's been "let's get this ready", and whenever it's ready, it will get merged. So I don't actually need to plan, not even 5 years ahead. Not even more than usually like two released ahead. I know, some of the
LINUS: It's been "let's get this ready", and whenever it's ready, it will get merged. So I don't actually need to plan, not even 5 years ahead. Not even more than usually like two released ahead. I know, some of the going in 3.8. And when I say "no", I think it will happen, but if something big comes up, it won't make it into 3.8, and nobody will care, because there is always 3.9. So we do not have the kind of long-term plans, and I think everybody is much happier now.
DIRK: So to sum it up, we have no plan, but everybody is happy.
DIRK: So to sum it up, we have no plan, but everybody is happy.
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JIM : Thanks everyone, thanks for coming. In honor of Linus coming, for every single person in this room, we have a special gift for you. — It's the latest version of the Linux kernel if you go to www.kernel.org! What did you think I was going to say? Alright, well, thank you for coming, we will see you next year at many of our events, enjoy the rest of the day.
Revision as of 10:52, 16 November 2012
Session Details
- Event
- Linux: Where are we?
- Date
- 2012-Nov-07
- Presenter
- Dirk Hohndel, Linus Torvalds
- Organization
- Intel, Linux Foundation
- Slides
- none
- Video
- LF, where art thou?
- Duration
- ~ 47 minutes
- Transcribed by
- Jan Engelhardt
- Verified by
- 1 -
(Fast pass - there _are_ orthographic errors still.)
[…] which is: you are destined to be successful. And, but, you know, one of these challenges that Linux faced early was that propreitary […] would create fear, uncertainity and doubt (FUD) about open source. So you should be careful, because they're ognna take your slides and describe a scenario where 3D printers start to self replicate, take over the world, right. […] I can give you, just for today.
Right, our next speaker needs very, very little introduction. He is the creator of Linux itself, Linus Torvalds. He is here for the first time in Spain, and I look forward to hearing from him and from Dirk Hohndel, the Chief Linux and Open Source Technologist at Intel to talk about where Linux is going.
So, come on up, Linus and Dirk. (Applause) (Gansta music selected by the people behind the curtain to be played through speakers)
?: Oh wow, this is the *haha*
DIRK: First, a request. I have seen quite a few empty seats, and there are people piled out in the hallway over there (<<<). If you have an empty seat next to you, can you move this (>>>) way and make space so a few more people find a seat and do not have to stand […]? I really appreciate the […] The people who are now getting a seat also really appreciate that. Oh look at this, there is lots of free seats, guys, is not that awesome? I like how this works.
DIRK: This is what is called "crowd movement", right? So, we now have lots of free spaces around the aisle here. Please come on in. Thank you everyone for making this an increasingly warm morning in this conference room here. It is exciting to be here. Linus is actually here for the first time, I have been to Spain quite a few times - my mother used to have an appartment just an hour south of Barcelona, so, I have been here a few times.
DIRK: I at first thought we should be, you know, congengient(?) of the current situation and turn this into the election 2012 dis... but I think Donald Trump has taken all the good points already, so we will both skip this and instead, let us talk about Linux. Linux is more or less at drinking years age now - 21 years old.
LINUS: In the US, it's 21. Here, here it is, what, 15?
DIRK: No, 15 is when it's mandatory to drink.
DIRK: But, we've done a lot of talking about 21 years of Linux, so the news, I guess, is not so much in the last 21 years. The news is in as the title of the presentation says, "what's next?". But still, what do you think were the highlights, what are the things you are most proud of that Linux achieved?
LINUS: I think the highlight for me has been something that I did not expect, which was, when I started, Linux was my personal project. I sat in my […]. It was not a basement, but it was a dark room, like, keeps the evil sun aways, so that you can see the monitor better, and it was completely […] single person working on a small project on his own.
LINUS: And I felt that was very interesting and the technology was very fun. But especially these days, what makes it so much fun, I think, is the technology is still intersting, but what is even more so is the discussion and the community and the arguments. A lot of arguments, but it keeps us kind of interested, motivated to discuss things about Linux and how things should be done, and the community around the kernel in particular has been the biggest success.
DIRK: But that is kind of an inward-facing view. But let us turn this around - what do you think has been the biggest impact outside this company, you know, besides curing, you know, cancer, and world hunger and all this. But, where do you think, what is, if a stupid conversation partner like me asks you: "what is the one thing you are most proud of that you have achieved through the nets, with the impact outside of the developer community?"
LINUS: I would not say "I have achieved", what I find...
DIRK: "we have achieved"
LINUS: interesting is actually, the people who do things that I would never have done, and I am not actually personally even interested in it. So, all the people who - I do not know how many of you are aware of the OLPC One Laptop Per Child project, for example. Things like that, where somebody tries to improve the world, and this is so not me. (Laughter) I did not do Linux to improve the world, I did Linux because the technology was interesting and I just found that part fascinating. But what Linux has then allowed others to do, others who actually care about other people to trying to get to these— (Laughter)
LINUS: But seriously, it's really fun to see those projects and see them exactly, because you realize "no, I would never have done anything like that". And there is tons of these small projects, the small projects are often the more interesting ones. I mean, when the big companies say "we make a big business about ~~", I don't care. I mean, it's interesting to see that too, but I think the small oddball projects are what makes me feel like "hey that's fine".
DIRK: So, since this is all about you, then let's make it about you. What was the award that you personally received that you were most proud of? I mean, I assume most people are aware that you got the Millenium Technology Prize this year, shared with an other scientist who, a few weeks later then, got for the same the Nobel Prize in medicine, so,...
LINUS: ... yeah ...
DIRK: what is the highest […] which—
LINUS: […] There is no Nobel Prize in Computer Science. I like getting awards, but at the same time, it is not why I did it. It is not a big deal for me, it is not, it is something that ok, it's recognition and I appreciate that, but at the same time, it's not what motivates me […] what I think about my doing Linux. So, I should not say "I don't care", because I do care, but it is not that important.
DIRK: So far we have established, you don't do this for the other people. You don't do it—
LINUS: No, but I do it for other people in the sense that I actually view it like the community, it really a motivating factor. But I do not do it in order to help 3rd world countries. I find it exciting that other people do, but...
DIRK: So, I throw this in. This is obviously not just the two of us talking. We talk way too much with each other anyway. Please, if you have questions, raise a hand. I am not sure if we have microphones, otherwise yell and I'll repeat.
DIRK: I absolutely encourage audience questions, but until I get some, I 'll continue.
LINUS: I'd like to just say that one of the reasons I do not do public speaking. I absolutely […] standing up here with slides and speaking[…] audiences I don't know what you guys are interested in. So,...
LINUS: What?
[Referring to Linus's "Fuck you, NVIDIA" stance earlier the year.]
LINUS: I had answered that question exhaustively. (Laughter) But I do find, I mean, I really this is supposed to be a questions-and-answers session, so I wanted to point out that please do feel free to shout out your questions. There's, hey:
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Jonathan Corbet [of LWN.net] said yesterday that Linux was for one time chasing the tail lights of all other systems, and at the moment, […] we are not chasing tail lights anymore. So we're driving in the dark, […] which means you […]
LINUS: Right.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: […] Where are we going?
LINUS: Do we need to repeat that question? You were loud and nice, I think people heard the question.
DIRK: No, they can't hear in the back. So the question is, Jonathan Corbet said yesterday [2012-11-06] that we are no longer chasing tail lights of others. So, the question is, we are now obviously driving in the dark and he [Linus] is steering — where are we going?
LINUS: The kernel I would not be too worried about. The kernel has always been kind of defined by the interfaces of the hardware and the platform software above the kernel. So, the kernel has never really had a steering wheel to begin with. The kernel has been defined by the uses and the hardware platform its built on. And we are doing really well. I think some of the other open source project have less of a direction in mind. - And I won't name the projects because people know what I am talking about.
[Interpretation of transcriber: He is probably thinking of graphical desktop environments and his own personal forth-and-back swining experience with them.]
LINUS: But, we are in a situation where sometimes people don't have a vision of where they want to go. The kernel has been in this odd situation that I never had a vision of where I'd really wanted to go. I mean that very seriously. One of the things I think has so successful about the kernel, the kernel did everything I really expeceted it to do back in the fall of 1991. Right, and ever since then, and actually the reason I continue doing the kernel was, what has defined the direction for the kernel has been all these odd peopel and odd companies that have certain things they want to solve, and for the kernel, the direction has always come from the outside.
LINUS: And I actually that has been one of the reason that Linux has been so successful is that I and a lot of other kernel engineers did not have this vision of "we want to drive it in that particular way". We were very open to the visions from outside, and some other projects have not necessarily always been as succesfully taking direction from outside.
DIRK: So since you're not a new GUI toolkit, although we all wait for "LTK" [pun on GTK].
LINUS: No.
DIRK: What are the open source projects you are engaged in, besides the kernel?
LINUS: I try not to get too enganged in other projects, part of it is: I just don't have the time. I also don't tend to have the interest. Peronsally, I think kernels are interesting because they're very lowl evel hardware. I had to get involved in Source Control Management — so hopefully you all use git. I am very happy to say that it was written for the kernel needs, but turns out, a lot of projects noticed that what git does is actually the right way to do software control management.
LINUS: The third projects I have been involved in, is, Dirk is actually the lead developer for out diving log software and that is not a big important project, but we will take over in the diving world someday.
DIRK: I beg to differ on the last qualification. Hard to see, very bright light. There, yes, Sir. Oh, there is a microphone, awesome!
AUDIENCE MEMBER: [Linus,] you said you are not very much conerned about the future of Linux as far as the kernel is concerned. So what is that worries you the most about the future?
LINUS: So I 'm actually a very optimistic person, I am not hugely worried about the future.
LINUS: The things that tend to make me stay up at night are - every once in a while, we had difficult personal relationships. And, we are, the kernel people, I mean, I do not know how you are actively involved in the kernel commnunity, but we like arguing, and, (slight laughter) being heated is not necessarily bad. But sometimes there are personalities that clash a lot and can be problematic. It's not actually that common, but when it happens, it's one of those things that make me worried. Then, there is the just legal situations everybody knows about. The issues with the patent system is just broken. It's more so in the US. I think the European patent system is in better shape than the American one,
LINUS: but it's clearly not perfect here either. We've had - In the US, we've had these really bogus copyright lawsuits too. That is not something that I worry too much about, but it is very irritating when, like the SCO drama dragged on for, whatever, 8 years?! It is a long time. So, the technical side I am not worried about, because I think we're in a very good spot and have a very deep and good kernel community. And, technical challenges I don't worry about. I do worry about community issues and legal issues and occassionally, I worry about hardware companies.
[Thinking about NVIDIA, probably.]
DIRK: More questions — over there... microphone is on the way.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: It's question connected with hardware companies. They are very frustated with Linux; it is too speedy. Interfaces is changes too frequently [sic]. This is a problem with hardware guys. (I am from the hardware guys, partly.) While we were working for some hardware, you 've changed already like three to four steps. For the business is a-very frustating. Do you think is this necessary to speed up such, such big speed of changing interfaces? Our […] [problem is not with] the scheduler or something, but interfaces is changing too rapidly.
LINUS: So, we've had issues with that. I am guessing you're working for an embedded hardware [manufacturer].
LINUS: one of the biggest issues we've had with hardware companies, certain classes of hardware companies has been, they like to use Linux, and especially in the embedded world, but they come from a model where you have a product cycle that you do development for anything between 1 and 5 years, and the you maintain that product largely unchanged 5-10-15 years. And, they caome from a background where software is largely static. I mean, they buy a license to their software stack and that's what they use for the lifetime of the product. And we had huge problems initially with the embedded side, the embedded hardware companies who just...
LINUS: ... wanted to continue doing the same development model. And they found it very painful to take a kernel release and then 2 years later, when they wanted to [??] the hardware, everything had changed form under them. And I don't think it's something where we, in the kernel community necessarily, have needed to change. We have had fairly good luck with slowly kind of introducing the open source model to hardware companies themselves, so that a lot of the embedded devleopers are much happier tracking our kernel instead of staying on one kernel and then a few years down the line, noticing that everything has changed around them. They are much happier now to track kernels, and that has made it, I have to say, in the last few years, it has become much more pleasant with a lot of decent […] vendors.
LINUS: It sounds like not all of them have quite caught on yet...
(Slight laughter) [probably thinking about NVIDIA again]
LINUS: ...but things are getting better. It's very hard for us "no, we will not change internal interfaces", because quite often, we end up having to rearchitect some driver subsystem. And then, when we make changes, we will have to change every single driver that uses that subsystem to work with the changes. And saying "no we will not do that", because we want to stay stable internally - (a) it does not allow us to make the changes we need to do, and (b) it's very frustating to developers. So, I do not think our model is going to change much, although, as the kernel […] large portions of the kernel no longer see huge changes anymore.
DIRK: I think the ability to make changes and the ability to change even internal interfaces is one of the major strengths of Linux. And, in many ways for hardware vendors — I obviously work for Intel, which is, I think, a pretty big hardware vendor — uh, it is a learning experience. And once you buy into it, and once you say "we do our development upstream, we aggressively work in the upstream repositories and do so in the way that means we integrate the community into our own development model", then this actually becomes an advantage for you. And once you reach out to the commnunity and take them seriously, and do that work, it is a major advantage that you have in innovating and creating interesting products. So, in many ways, I understand the question, but I would say it is also an indication of maybe you need to try a little harder to work upstream. And then, it becomes much, much easier.
DIRK: More questions? In the middle back there...
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I'm coming from another side, not from the hardware, with embedded system, but with very large systems. We are using Linux for a very, very large system. And what we are kind of worried every time is what is going to happen in the next release? Because, for example, lately, we have moved from the O(1) scheduler to a completely new scheduler, and I feel in my bones that there has been an impact(?) struggle towards this scheduler, because there have been different variance. And now, we have one scheduler that we think we are going to concentrate on, and we are going to […] according to this one.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: But, my colleague from my work came one day to me, and said "you know what, I saw they have next release [sic], and they took out the cgroups", and I said up "man, they took out the cgroups? What do you want from[…] is gone?" So, I understand..
LINUS: cgroups is still there.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Oh yeah I know that.
LINUS: Not everybody likes them, but they are still there. Uhm, what is actually, I mean this is a real issue,in general is that one of that's, how should I put this, especially the specialized systems, and this is true both on the big very like supercomputer-side, and on the embedded side. They don't get the same kind of day-to-day testing that a more normal size system gets
LINUS: The kind of system that developers actively use every day. So what we do see and what I think is very true is that we do most of our testing, not just the developers, but if you look at the user base that uses Linux and especially uses modern kernels and is willing to test out development stuff, they tend to be a class of hardware that sits somewhere inbetween, in the middle. So, we have anything from 2-16 CPUs, and then if you go way beyond that, and make supercomputers, it is often the case that you notice that we made changes and we have not been able to test those changes on your 4000 CPU monster - because there's only five of those in the world.
LINUS: And, in that situation, you do have the source code available. But I realize that I can sometimes be slightly painful when you make changes and we can't always test on your system. I think that is somewhat unavoidable. It's not perfect and I actually love this for us kernel developers to have a much and wider range of hardware we can play and do daily builds on. And the fact that our daily builds and daily work tends to be done on a very limited set of machines is sometimes a problem.
DIRK: So, we at Intel actually do builds with fairly sizable machines and we provide information on regression, performance, but again, this is, you know, 16-core or 32-core system, not much more thousands.
LINUS: Yes, it's the extreme ends that usually, they tend to be specialized, and they don't track daily stuff,
LINUS: They sometimes do not even track monthly stuff. They may upgrade every year or two, because they are big machines and they are used for big things.
DIRK: More questions. Over there. I am trying to make them as far apart as possible. The mic is right next to you.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Last year, you stated that you […] Linux kernels developers are not really focused because you can't easy, can't easy the change the kernel on devices, for example in [??]. Is it going to change soon?
LINUS: Uhm, I don't really that much. I mean, it's true that kernel developers often do not interact with individual embedded systems that much, because most of them tend to be very locked down, even when they, you can change the kernel on your cellphone, it's usually just made unnecessarily painful by the phone manufacturer with a lot of bootloaders and so on.
LINUS: At the same time, most of the embedded systems these days actually tend to look fairly similar. There is being a huge amount of standardization in the embedded world, mostly around ARM. And it means that even though people may not develop for one particular phone or something like that, a lot of the work that gets done by a lot of kernel developers is actually for embedded systems. And they just tend to use, there is, development boards that they either get from work or buy online, you can get them fairly easy online - that look not exactly like a phone, but are close enough that we actually are doing, I think, much better in that space today than just 3 years ago.
LINUS: So the embedded people have been very active and have been, I have been so pleased with what has happened in the ARM community in the last 2 years that I do not worry about the embedded at all as much as I used to.
DIRK: There are a lot of projects that try to make this easier. The Yocto project, which is also a Linux Foundation project, has tried to consolidate the efforts around embedded Linux development, and make it easier for people to rapidly develop and deploy embedded systems. So this is not just the kernel, it's much more the whole stack that needs more ease of use.
DIRK: More questions? All the way back there, gentlemen.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: A very general question. Where is the next Linus Torvalds in the OS business? Will there be a new very disruptive in the next 10 years or so? Or is Linux as innovative as you can get?
LINUS: So, I may be a bit biased—
LINUS: but realistically, I do not actually think operating systems need all that much innovation. I mean, just to a large degree, when I started Linux, there were all these crazy people doing "innovative" operating systems, and they were all horrible. And they were trying to do things in new ways, and it turns out, sometimes, the old ways are the correct ways, and, you have done something for 30 years one way, because that works. And, I do not think there is a lot of innovation in operating systems that it's worth doing. I think what operating systems should do, and this is how I, what I think is important when I look at Linux, is to work well. It's not about innovation, it's about getting all the details right,...
LINUS: and doing the right thing, and really getting performance right, being able to run across a wide variety of machines, doing the best you can do in security, in getting applications all the interfaces they need to do their work right. It is not about trying to come up with a new of doing things. And if you actually look at all the major operating systems today, they are pretty much based on ideas that were basically developed 50 years ago. So, I think innovation, I mean, I am not saying innovation should not happen. But I do not think you should necessarily do innovation in the operating system area. You can do cool small thigns within an operating system. There are lots of details inside the kernels that are worth doing better.
LINUS: But I do not see some genius coming around and saying "hey, we should just switch around how we do things, and do this completely new operating system", I do not think that makes sense. I think it makes more sense for somebody to say, "hey, there are all these cool things we could do with computers, and let's just build on top of existing hardware and existing software to get those cool things done instead of trying to rearchitect the world."
LINUS: That said, I am biased. And […] some crazy young guy — or gal — comes around and shows me wrong, and that would be interesting, but I think it is unlikely.
(Slight laughter.)
DIRK: I think one of the challenges is the network effect. We have so many people working on Linux, so many people working with Linux, on top of Linux, to try to compete with this brain tank that is working on that is certainly going to be very hard.—
DIRK: And the question is, is it worth the investment? Would it not be much more valuable to focus on creating the […] above this infrastructure that is there. And that seems to be where the industry is going. I mean, if you look at the phone market with Android, and if you look at many of the embedded places where there used to be all these proprietary operating systems, and they have mostly disappeared, it's mostly Linux these days.
DIRK: More questions? All be on the side, because I always go for the middle, and this is the longest way I can send you.
(Slight laughter.)
AUDIENCE MEMBER: After we used the kernel like for over 10 years, […] it gets larger and larger and larger. And, obviously some of the things in there are not required anymore, per se. So, I am just asking, is there ever like some procedure to get things out that nobody uses anymore?
LINUS: We do remove stuff - occassionally. But there is a fairly high threshold for removing code. One example of this is, we, or rather […] did some architecture massaging to try to use the same generic code for a lot of the standard process handling like fork(2) and exec(2). And in the process, we have noticed, that we have two architectures that clearly have not worked at all for at least two years, or something like this, right. And nobody uses them, and nobody has every complained. They kind of compile in the cross-compile environment, but nobody cares. And we have not removed them, even though clearly, they are not getting used. And one reason for that is, it turns out, that, what occassionally happens is,
LINUS: somebody, some random person in the middle of nowhere has access to a piece of hardware and finds that the kernel almost works for him. And he says, "ok, I will take over maintenace of the kernel for this piece of hardware, and I will fix it so it works for me". And that is not only how we often get new people, it's just fun to see. So, I actually say hey, there is no real cost to maintaining this code that clearly nobody uses and really does not work. By "doesn't work", maybe it works in practice for people, but it has known bugs. It's better to leave it be and allow people to come in and say "I will step up and fix it", than it is to very aggressively say "hey, clearly this is broken, we should just throw it away".
LINUS: So we actually do not remove code unless it has major problems, generally. Most of the time, this kind of code, people don't ever compile in. I mean, this was/are architectures, that if you run on any normal machine, it will not get compiled, it will not get used. So, a lot of the code in that sense, it has no overhead apart from existing.
LINUS: Sometimes, there are real overheads that, the security people in particular have added over the years, and we can't remove, because there's 5 people who still use those interfaces. But quite often, we have drivers or architectures or filesystems that are just not getting used, but we still need them in, in case something comes along and says "I want to maintain this".
DIRK: But having said that, you do have a process to remove code, and it happens at times.
LINUS: We do have a process to remove code, but it is rare. And it is clear that we add way more code than we have ever removed.
DIRK: […] Linux keeps growing.
DIRK: Back there,..?
AUDIENCE MEMBER: My question regarding Android and Linux consistence. Your vision about this. Until now, Google st[…] well and uses Linux as a […] and now, Android have changes in kernel side [sic] […] […] […] […] […] […] […]
LINUS: So the Android situation actually is much better today than it was a year ago, or two years ago. The Android situation is not actually all that different from say the RedHat or SUSE situation some 10-15 years ago. The fact is, a lot of vendors end up doing their own forks and saying "we need these changes to support the market we are going after". And what happened in the case of Android was that Google had this vision of where they wanted to go, and they needed to the kernel and they said "will do that", and they were obviously fairly successful. On the other side, we had kernel developers who felt that the extensions were not always very well designed and well thought out, and said "hey, you should have done it in a completely different way".
LINUS: And, for a couple of years, there was, there was discussion on bad blood about this. And people worked on trying to convince the Google people to change the way they are doing things. But, the Google people at the same time have the situation that they have applications that are using the interfaces they started they designed with. A year and a half ago — when was this? —
DIRK: Almost exactly a year ago.
LINUS: We in, yeah in the kernel community just decided, "hey, the Android thing is clearly for Google, and we should just stop being difficult about it and start merging the code back". And, it was not that Google did not make the code available to us, they always did. It is that we in the kernel community were kind of fighting taking it.
LINUS: And now, a year has passed and we not taken all of it back yet, but I think most of it is now in the standard kernel, and there is a few pieces that are details that people do not care that deeply anymore that Google still carries in the Android tree. But, this is how development happens. This is how kernel development has always happened. It's just people kind of forgot it for a while, cause, for several years, all the major distributions had decided that they don't want to create their own fork anymore, and they all were very aggressive at feeding things upstream first, and people had kinda forgotten that this is what all the distribution used to be 10-15 years ago. So, I do not think it was not that painful to me. I have seen it before, and the fact that companies come up with new usage models—
LINUS: often does mean that we have to change and improve our kernel interfaces to support those usage models. And it's not always easy for us to change, so it can take a few years to kind of get over it, and say "ok, you were right, you have 100 million devices running your code, you must be doing something right, let's take it back".
DIRK: There, right in the hallway, the gentlemen.[…]
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Last year in Prague, there was concern from all of the panel that kernel maintainers were getting older year over year...
DIRK: I am getting younger, what are you talking about!
AUDIENCE MEMBER: And there is a higher barrier of entry for new people. Has the situation improved?
LINUS: So, I think last year I […] said — I do not think it is actually true. I think it is true that the main maintainers are getting older, because a lot of us have been around for a long time, I mean, I have been doing this for 21+ years, some of the main maintainers have been around for almost as long. So, we are, by definition, 21 years older than when we, what we used to be, right.
(Slight laughter)
LINUS: At the same time, there is tons of new people coming in all the time. It used to be that people who came in to kernel development were literally, I mean they were highschool students, they were maybe 1st year university. It is true, that these days the people come in tend to be older, for that's often because they come in as professionals, because there are so many companies involved.
LINUS: So, it's not because we're getting older as a developer community, it is that the situation has changed. Now the kernel is so important for a lot of companies. You don't get, I mean, you still get highschool students, but you get even more of the people whose job it is to do kernel development work. So we're getting older, but I don't think this is a bad thing, I think this is just normal. I would be much more worried about if we did not have a huge a lively development community. But we are getting new people all the time, we have ton of people working on the kernel.
LINUS: The question that always comes up after the age question, so I'll just mention it myself before somebody else asks, is, the males-females ratio question. And, it's just the fact that we are 99% male. And there are very few females, and nobody really knows why.
LINUS: It's not Linux-specific, although the kernel community is probably a fairly extreme case of that. But I mean, if you look at Computer Science, even at universities, once you get past a few years of Computer Science education, it tends to be very male-dominated. And it, there is something social about it, and we'd love to change that. And we do have female programmers in the kernel community, but there is too few of them.
DIRK: Ok, I think we have time for one more question. Right there in the middle[…]
AUDIENCE MEMBER: In the past the main focus on systems has been performance. Lately, there is a big thing about power usage. You have data centers that take up the power of a city, you have small embedded farms with a […] low power usage. What is your take, and where is that headed to?
LINUS: I actually do not think the performance-versus-power [disscussion] really much of a versus. Quite often, you actually want the same thing for both power and performance. You want lean, mean code, and you want the code to be efficient, and what's bad for performance tends to be bad for power too. Power does have additional aspects to it, mainly that you need to have, device drivers in particular need to be very power-aware to aggressively power down the hardware. So, so power does have that. I think I am for it. The good news is, people had become very concious about power. And it's not just the kernel people, this is very much the hardware manufacturers too. It used to be almost impossible to even measure power.
LINUS: I mean, you could measure power at the wall, but then actually knowing what that number meant when you actually measured power for the whole system was, used to be very hard. With especially embedded people becoming much more power-aware, they tend to have much better view into where the power goes, and that makes it much easier to debug. And in fact, even on a laptop today, we have much better tools, so that we can see, ok, we're not, we don't just see, "ok this laptop is using 11 W of power", but we can actually see ok, it's actually the panel is using 2 of the 11 W, and the CPU is using 1½, and the network is using 5, and you say "why is the networking chip using 5 W of power"? So we're getting better at it, we're certainly not perfect, but I think people are very well aware of power usage, not just in the industry, but also inside the kernel community.
DIRK: So, Linus, the topic for our panel was "where are we going with Linux?" And I know I will not get a 5-year outlook from you. I have given up on that question. But, can you at least give us a "what's coming, what's interesting" in Linux 3.7, 3.8, in the next 6 months?
LINUS: So, right now, we're in the, we finish the merge window for 3.7, and in this merge window, we had a few interesting things coming up. 64-bit ARM is happening in 3.7, and I was, something that had a lot of discussion, a lot of it was about the name, not so much about the code, and mine will [sic] prevailed, and it's called now ARM64 and not something odd ["AArch64"].
LINUS: But there has been a, we, for the last more than five years, how long have we been the whole time-based [release] thing? 6 Years? We have done kernel release not based on features, but instead on, we have the 3-month release window, and what is ready in time for the merge window […] will get in regardless. And that has meant that we do not - I do not - need to plan ahead. I do not need to say "ok, in order to release kernel 3.8, I need to have ARM64 with SMP working and tested and ready to ship". So, I do not actually need to worry about that, and it has made my job so much easier, I think it has made all the kernel developers' job so much easier, because now they do not have to worry about "ok, let's get this ready in time for so-and-so release".
LINUS: It's been "let's get this ready", and whenever it's ready, it will get merged. So I don't actually need to plan, not even 5 years ahead. Not even more than usually like two released ahead. I know, some of the things going in 3.8. And when I say "no", I think it will happen, but if something big comes up, it won't make it into 3.8, and nobody will care, because there is always 3.9. So we do not have the kind of long-term plans, and I think everybody is much happier now.
DIRK: So to sum it up, we have no plan, but everybody is happy.
(Laughter, Applause)
JIM ZEMLIN: Thanks everyone, thanks for coming. In honor of Linus coming, for every single person in this room, we have a special gift for you. — It's the latest version of the Linux kernel if you go to www.kernel.org! What did you think I was going to say? Alright, well, thank you for coming, we will see you next year at many of our events, enjoy the rest of the day.


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Friday, July 1, 2011
Friday Afternoon's Qualifying Showdown
If the weather in Daytona stays dry, TV viewers should get an interesting afternoon of programming on Friday. ESPN2 will be up first with Nationwide Series qualifying and then SPEED will be next with the Sprint Cup Series.
Fans already know that both series are deeply committed to the tandem-style of racing for the Friday and Saturday night events. Fans already know many of the teams and partners who will be pairing up from the green to the checkers in both series.
This new style of racing certainly throws a wrench into the typical TV presentation of qualifying. Other than missing the actual race, what is the real story? Once the green flag flies for these two races the scramble is not going to be for the lead, but instead to find your prearranged dance partner.
The challenge for both ESPN2 and SPEED is to tell the real stories of how things are different this year and what that means for the sport. Will Nationwide Series teams operated by Sprint Cup Series owners have an advantage? Will these power teams fade to the rear at the start and just ride as we have seen on the Cup side?
Ultimately, what does qualifying really mean for the Nationwide Series? If the TV presentation is done as if the tandem racing does not exist, what credibility does that give ESPN going into the Friday night race? Will we see graphics of the team pairings for the race during the qualifying coverage?
It's up to Marty Reid to try and put the single car Nationwide Series qualifying into perspective for a race that will never for a moment feature single car racing. If the only real story is the battle for the "start and park" positions at the rear of the field it could be a tough afternoon for Reid, Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree. Coverage begins on ESPN2 at 2PM Eastern Time.
Adam Alexander put his hands in his pockets a lot when he is on-camera. Maybe he is nervous, maybe he is relaxed or maybe he is uncomfortable. Alexander will once again have his hands in his pockets at 4PM ET as he leads the TV team through Sprint Cup Series qualifying.
This time it will be Kyle Petty and Larry McReynolds joining Alexander on SPEED. Petty has once again been a breath of fresh air this season because he speaks his mind on any NASCAR topic. The irony of Petty being matched with McReynolds is not lost on veteran fans.
It was McReynolds who started the pre-season by lecturing the NASCAR media face-to-face on the importance of being positive and making sure to report good things about the sport. He did that on the January media tour to a large group of veteran reporters from around the country. Needless to say, the frost between the Infield Media Center working press and McReynolds has never thawed.
This time, McReynolds gets to explain to TV viewers what relevance qualifying has for top 35 teams who have long since planned their Daytona tandem racing strategies. As the crew chief in the booth, it should be interesting to hear his comments on the topic, keeping in mind his own admitted philosophy of NASCAR "reporting."
Both networks stayed flexible on Thursday after rain delays and finally got some limited TV coverage of practice sessions for both series. If the start of qualifying is also delayed by rain, it may cause some interesting schedule issues between ESPN2 and SPEED.
Nicole Briscoe is scheduled to host a 6:30PM version of NASCAR Now on ESPN2 before the NASCAR Countdown show begins the Daytona coverage on ESPN at 7PM. It will be Allen Bestwick, Rusty Wallace and Jarrett on the pre-race show.
NASCAR TV winds-up on Friday with Trackside on SPEED at 10PM. Krista Voda hosts with Darrell Waltrip and Jeff Hammond. Brad Keselowski and Trevor Bayne are the guests. TDP will live blog the Nationwide Series race, join us right here for that event.
In the meantime, we welcome your comments on the Friday afternoon qualifying coverage. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. Thanks for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.
24 comments:
- Anonymous said...
TDP, what is your take on the Gluck/Busch story behind the story?
Is the Mainstream Media too close to the drivers to report anything in a negative light. Should Speed/TNT, etc reporters be Twitter buddies with the people they supposed to be reporting on, good or bad? Will Glauck be ignored in the Media Room for bringing up the obvious, musch as McReynolds is for encouraging "tell the good news only"?
- July 1, 2011 at 9:11 AM
- Daly Planet Editor said...
As a sports fan, I understand that interest in high-profile athletes goes beyond professional and into personal.
As a NASCAR fan, I have no interest in Kurt Busch's social life. While some wives choose to be higher profile than others, it's up to media members to determine if that type of content makes sense for their employer.
- July 1, 2011 at 10:06 AM
- GinaV24 said...
This tandem style racing sure makes for some weird coverage. Nice day in NJ - don't know that I will stay inside once I get off of work to listen to Adam or Marty, esp when qualifying won't mean much for the actual races.
Larry has created a serious credibility problem for himself - at least from my perspective - how can I trust anything he says if he always puts a positive spin on it? I'd much prefer that all of them and especially the media try to be impartial and present the information without editorializing or if it is just their opinion, then say so.
Obviously people like some people better than others, but if an online journalist can get fired for "cheering in the press box", why is it any different for the commentators?
Guess that's why my mute button gets such a workout -
- July 1, 2011 at 10:27 AM
- Roland said...
I dont think Gluck did anything wrong. The media, including Gluck, respected his privacy until Busch publicly showed off the new girl. At that point the cat is out of the bag and its fair game.
As far as today goes, im not really excited about any of the coverage. Yesterday ESPN spent most of the first 10 minutes of NNS practice in commercial or in replay for the stuff they missed. Pretty sure today it will be a commercial after every car. Marty struggled today and I dont expect miracles. Im kinda glad hes back, now I can listen to MRN and not feel bad about it.
On an unrelated note. Last night Bristol did another one of their internet shows where they talk about the upcoming race weekend and give away free stuff. This is the kind of online content all tracks should be doing. Tracks need to wake up.
- July 1, 2011 at 10:28 AM
- sue said...
Its kind of funny that nothing was said after Jimmy Spencer spouted off a few weeks ago on Race Hub that Smokes crew doesn't care for his new girlfriend yet several articles are now being written about the Busch separation. There definitely is a difference between stating the obvious ie. new gal in VL and no wedding ring versus an opinion on someone's friend.
But enough of that.
Some one tell me why I should turn in and watch qualifying at all on restrictor plate tracks. It doesn't matter and is a waste of time. The cars rarely run by themselves on plate tracks and many good cars will be racing in the back trying to avoid problems. Just a thought but maybe next year Speed could have the Barrett Jackson auction preempt the plate qualifying instead of last weeks live road course qualifying.
- July 1, 2011 at 11:12 AM
- PhoenixHotZonie said...
Yesterday Jeff Hammond said he was on pins and needles during the big pack racing,slicing and dicing of yester Daytona races. I assume his agenda & NASCAR is to tell us the fan that the tandem hookup,dancin partner,2 car team racing is the way it is. Like it or not. NASCAR solution to the "big one" & the expensive dollar and/or point carnage for the owner & drivers. A trade off of exciting pins and needles big pack for strategy not so exciting-wait till the end-multicar photo finish. Maybe we get a balance of big pack pins and needles,2 car strategy, 5 2or4 tire changing pitstop then go go go go racing and everybody is satisfied.
- July 1, 2011 at 11:51 AM
- Anonymous said...
I love how 2/3rds of the NASCAR on TNT announce booth crew does the shows on SPEED. Where is Wally? Only time I have heard him on SPEED was the first Pocono practice and then the final Cup practice at Sonoma last week.
I get that SPEED is with FOX and wants to have their crew together like DW and Larry Mac, but FOX's part of the season is over.
- July 1, 2011 at 12:21 PM
- Joe said...
Would someone tell Dale Jarrett the term is "point in time" not "point and time". So, at this point in time blah blah blah...
And Larry, good guy but work on the use of plural words. Please....
- July 1, 2011 at 1:03 PM
- NorCalFan said...
Off topic from qualifying but I attended Gluck's tweet-up gathering at Sonoma and asked a Penske PR rep if Kurt was getting a divorce. She answered yes and that Kurt and Patricia have been seen being affectionate in the garage area; Kurt's marital situation has not been a secret within Nascar. She also said that since Patricia was at the track her presence with Kurt would become very obvious today (rep must have been referring to likelihood of her being shown on camera during National Anthem unless she was clairvoyant on Kurt winning the race). Gluck said he wasn't sure how to treat the information, i.e., was the impending divorce affecting his on-track performance? Had interesting chat comparing situation with Jeff Gordon's very public divorce. In the end, Gluck's story quieted his twitter followers.
- July 1, 2011 at 1:17 PM
- Matt said...
Is anyone having sound trouble on the HD feed of ESPN's qual? My SD feed is perfect though.
- July 1, 2011 at 2:02 PM
- Anonymous said...
Happy Night Racin' Planeteers <3
Agree JD. There had been talk on Twitter about it so it was "known" and when folks saw her on Sunday it blew up with "who is that?" "where is Eva?" Jenna tweeted a link to her bio. So yes there are fans who *do* want to know and others who don't. Just depends on where you stand.
Agree Roland that's why I don't get the "backlash" folks are talking about our the smart remarks about it. Once he put her out in public it was fair game to talk about. Nothing Gluck wrote about was "gossip" it was the straight facts. Kurt & Eva are no longer together, they're going through the process, he is now with someone else.
- July 1, 2011 at 2:16 PM
- Roland said...
If Marty Reid says the words "four horseman" again the TV is going on mute
- July 1, 2011 at 3:48 PM
- Charlie said...
During qualifying Marty Reid sure is a happy guy. I am not sure if he is faking how happy things are or he is just that way.
He talks happy like we are children being read a story from a book.
- July 1, 2011 at 4:04 PM
- Anonymous said...
It didn't take long for Marty Reid to show his weaknesses. During the NNS qualifying as one of the drivers was completing their laps, he said the driver "was looking for the Tri-Oval". Looking for the Tri-Oval?? Then when Logano went out without a functioning clutch, Reid commented how slow his first lap was (37 th). Obviously, Reid never connected the fact that the crew pushed Joey off where he couldn't shift through the gears and where it would take a while to get up to speed. True, these are just nits, but they're indicative of how shallow he is when it comes to what's happening out on the track.
- July 1, 2011 at 4:05 PM
- Can the announcer just be quiet said...
I don't get the IRONY of Petty
working with McReynolds ??
And only a few races left till
Adam goes away. Of course we dont
need Reed comes along -- for a long
time ..Argggghhhh
But any time with adam is too much
time. Dont ask me why ..I can't
figure it out.
- July 1, 2011 at 5:03 PM
- It's all better now said...
OH Please God get me some tums
and a doctor who can fix stomach
The shtick between Adam and Kyle
was sooo hideous horrid ugly and
I hope you missed it ..
- July 1, 2011 at 5:18 PM
- Palmetto said...
I've questioned the relevance of qualifying at plate tracks for years. There's no significance to it beyond pit stall selection.
- July 1, 2011 at 5:23 PM
- glenc1 said...
I'm with Gymmie on the Gluck issue. You show up and a race with a woman not your wife and expect no one to comment, as if drivers are somehow golden figures beyond the touch of reporting? It doesn't really matter if you 'care' or not....but they are public figures in a sport that prides itself on its clean image. Only difference with other sports is that unless you're in a 'box', it'd be harder to tell who you're with, whereas WAGS are usually with the teams in racing. I thought Kurt was being a little ridiculous...I'm tired of hearing athletes talk about the press trying to 'tear them down' (Kurt is not the only one.) Usually they've created some situation themselves and then get upset that someone asks them or reports about it. That's part of the job. Personally I think racing reporters probably let more things slide than other sports.
Watching qualifying...love Jeff Burton's radio dial.
- July 1, 2011 at 6:01 PM
- Debby said...
I don't think Gluck did anything wrong. One problem is that he is not one of the "popular" reporter/journalists. Matt Youcum and others took him to task for his info. Personally, I noticed that Kurt's wife wasn't there, but a lot of them don't show up each week. She seemed to be there all of the time.
Love the qualifying (only got to see Cup)and do try to tune out the booth. Just like to see how they do and where they line up, especially on plate tracks. Hope this is a great TV weekend for racing.
- July 1, 2011 at 6:29 PM
- Wally and Kyle will you be quiet said...
DO U THINK that Kyle and wally
will ever....
SHUT THE H**L UP ??? no respect
at all Beyond bad ...we dont need
overkill information about the
dancing partners
How about letting them run and
letting us hear the engines
- July 2, 2011 at 8:00 PM
- stop the insanity said...
The highs and lows of kyle and
wally talking their brains out
- July 2, 2011 at 8:11 PM
- Dazed and confuzed said...
Do these folks really think that the Viewer at home --can follow
all the chatter about bumping
and cooling and hot engines and
drafting sorta and who cah go with
whom i am tired just typing this.
theeee worst -- and of course all
of the great roaring sounds from
Daytona are gone Beyond belief.
Wait let me check out the camber
before i switch to Lawrence welk
- July 2, 2011 at 9:13 PM
- Broadcast School Grad said...
Woo hoo non stop chatter with
the non stop commercial chatter and
the boys in the booth .. have been
taken to the house for an exam of
the Gene in the brain that causes
folks to
Here is what it sounded like..
- July 2, 2011 at 9:32 PM
- Falstaff beer said...
Coors. Good Nite.
- July 2, 2011 at 9:35 PM


text:
A flourishing cultural scene that knows no bounds in The Buffalo News
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Colin Dabkowski reflects on Buffalo's "flourishing cultural scene" in Sunday's Buffalo News.
Read more at http://bit.ly/17tEbvD
Since I started covering art and theater in Western New York in the winter of 2007, I have often wondered aloud and in print exactly when the remarkable growth of Buffalo's cultural scene might plateau.
Surely, I thought, a shrinking midsize city that was adding a pair of new theater companies and at least as many gallery spaces every year, along with innumerable individual collaborations spanning all the artistic disciplines, would reach its limit before long. The pace of cultural growth in this city since the late 1990s, it seemed to me, could not possibly keep up forever.
But here I stand, more than six years later, happily flabbergasted that the growth of Buffalo's cultural offerings is not only continuing, but rapidly accelerating.
Exhibit A is my inbox this month. Much to the dismay of many of those hoping for more in-depth coverage for their projects, it is overflowing with evidence of at least 13 simultaneously running productions from the city's more than 20 professional and semiprofessional theater companies. At least twice as many exhibitions pepper the kaleidoscopic visual arts scene here, without even factoring in the many major-league offerings of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and Burchfield Penney Art Center.
We're not talking about community theater productions of "You Can't Take It With You," or your grandma's Sunday afternoon watercolor paintings. Weed out the amateur and half-baked offerings, and you are still left with far more activity on the theater and art scenes here than you could possibly see in several months' time. And that is to say nothing of the breathless literary or growing indie-music communities.
Because I didn't participate in the much-ballyhooed artistic explosion of the 1970s in Buffalo, I cannot say with certainty whether we are now living in the most culturally diverse and active period in the city's recent history. But it sure does feel that way.
The trend applies across all levels of culture. The active underground hip-hop, graffiti and b-boy scene peeking its head above ground on Friday for the ambitious "Cuts & Breaks" exhibition at the Vault Arthouse on Main Street. This summer's Buffalo Infringement Festival – at this point by far the area's largest arts festival by participation – will shed even more light on the region's vast below-the-radar artistic ecosystem.
New galleries like Meridian West and the Project 308 space in North Tonawanda cater to broader tastes, while venues like Silo City have arisen as playgrounds for a new and active generation of artists and performers. At the same time, attempts by the likes of art professor and curator Jonathan Katz and others to bring the fascinating work of the University at Buffalo's visual studies department into the community at large are growing.
The proliferation of Buffalo's theater ecosystem, which underwent a sea change with the closure of the former Studio Arena Theatre (now the 710 Main Theatre), has been an especially interesting case. For many years, the city could boast of an extraordinarily high number of theaters for a region of this size, but couldn't crow quite as loudly about the quality of its productions.
Even that is finally beginning to change as theaters such as the Kavinoky are spending more time in rehearsal, and three-show seasons, like that of the excellent Jewish Repertory Theatre, are becoming more popular than substandard, wall-to-wall productions from September to June.
Because of all these projects and many more on the horizon, the city's quickening cultural pulse won't be slowing down any time soon.


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The General Assembly's interim career and technology committee stopped short Wednesday of calling for the creation of a dual track diploma in North Carolina. Instead it recommended "endorsements" for the already existing high school diploma.
Each student in North Carolina is required to take a certain number of electives. The endorsements would simply reflect whether those electives met the requirements for one of three special designations – career, college, or both.
It would be up to the State Board of Education to determine the requirements, which, according to the committee, should be in place by the 2014-2015 school year.
Citing a "skill gap" in fields reliant on science, technology, engineering and math, the report also recommended a streamlined process for hiring career and technology teachers; the sharing of resources between public schools and community colleges; and a concerted effort to increase the number of students enrolled in vocational education programs.
In a similar fashion, the Education Oversight Committee also avoided hot button K-12 issues in its final report, which focused instead on improvements to teacher training programs, college completion rates, and the transition from two-year to four-year colleges.
The omission of vouchers, education savings accounts and charter schools, however, means very little.
"I imagine they are going to take substantive legislation that will need a lot of committee review and a lot of study," Sen. Jerry Tillman, a Republican from Archdale who co-chairs the committee. "That's probably something that would not be normally handled in this report."
"They probably will come up," he said, "just not in that report."


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Our theme at Expo West in the Anaheim Convention Center March 9-11 is "We Dig It," to promote our organic Madagascar vanilla beans, which are used in products across all three brands of the Frontier Co-op family.
Why "We Dig It" ? Through a $40,000 donation from the Simply Organic 1% fund, we dug 49 wells in 38 villages where our vanilla beans are grown and processed. This effort brought clean water to thousands of people. Previously, women and children fetched water from a stream, sometimes walking up to several hours a day.
Here's a look at this joint effort! See if you can spot Tony Bedard, our CEO.
If you are attending Expo West, some of the info below will fill you in about what we're up to in Anaheim. If you aren't – which includes most of our retail customers – the information below will still tell you a bit about what's new and how we interact at this trade show.
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If you order directly from us, stop by our Frontier Direct booth #3730 and meet some of the folks who specialize in ensuring that your orders are filled quickly and accurately. We'll also have displays of new products on hand. It's a great way for us to meet members and get feedback on how to better serve you.
And join us at the Aura Cacia booth #3633 to learn about new products, make your own personal mister, and enjoy the music provided by DJ Drez. You're also invited to attend our FREE yoga class Friday, March 9th, from 7:00 to 8:30 a.m. in the ballroom at the Hilton Avalon.


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Every day Poets & Writers Magazine scans the headlines—from publishing reports to academic announcements to literary dispatches—for all the news that creative writers need to know. Here are today's stories:
Today is the opening ceremony for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. To mark the occasion, the Los Angeles Review of Books launches a series of poets and poet-critics on sports and poetry.
Salon publishes an essay by Abby Mims, which originally appeared on The Nervous Breakdown, about wrestling with writerly envy and what happens when your number-one literary nemesis (in this case Joshua Ferris) achieves wild success.
Over at the Kenyon Review, Jake Adam York develops a classification system for book blurbs in his "Field Guide to North American Blurbs." Groupings include the "Lavish," the "Drunk on the Wine Within," and "Phantom Blurbs."
"Go, said his soul to a poet." The New York Public Library publishes a scan of a Walt Whitman manuscript on its Tumblr site.
Melville House's Dennis Johnson blogs about Brian Howard's revelatory story in Book Business magazine about how e-books sales are inextricably linked to bricks-and-mortar stores, and what the closing of so many stores could mean for publishing.
Start the weekend right with a dose of advice from great authors: Check out Open Culture's extremely rare video footage of Rudyard Kipling on truth in writing. Then head over to Asian American Writers Workshop's website to watch Junot Diaz and Min Jin Lee share their two cents on the writer's journey: "You haven't done anything wrong. Didn't take an MFA? You didn't do anything wrong. Took eleven years to write your first book? You didn't do anything wrong. Don't feel like writing about your family? You didn't do anything wrong. Feel like writing about your family? You didn't do anything wrong."


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Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins have split, a rep for the actress confirmed to Access Hollywood.
According to the actress' rep, Sarandon and Robbins split several months ago.
"Actress Susan Sarandon and her partner of 23 years, actor Tim Robbins have announced that they separated over the summer," Sarandon's rep, Teal Cannaday, said in a statement to Access. "No further comments will be made."
On Tuesday, Sarandon was accompanied by her dog, Penny, as she appeared on "The View" and Penny and another, unnamed dog as she visited "The Late Show With David Letterman."
But when asked about Tim on "The View" by Joy Behar, Sarandon avoided announcing their split.
"Who gives better gifts, you or Tim?" Behar asked.
"Oh everybody gives really good gifts in our family," Sarandon replied. "I like… I used to like to make stuff all the time and I haven't been able to do that lately though."
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MORE ACCESS ON THESE TOPICS: Susan Sarandon - Break-Ups - Celebrities - Former Couples - Movies