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Cartier Roadster Mens Steel Red Strap Large Watch W62000V3. Automatic self-winding movement. Stainless steel tonneau shaped case 38 x 43mm. Scratch resistant sapphire crystal with cyclops magnifying glass. Silver sunray effect dial with black roman numerals. Luminescent sword shaped steel hands. Date window at 3 o'clock. Red leather strap with Stainless steel deployment clasp.
Warranty provided by SwissWatchExpo, Inc. Manufacturer's warranty does not apply.
SwissWatchExpo has been an esteemed dealer of fine Swiss watches for many years. Our impeccable reputation is what has allowed us to grow from a single Atlanta showroom to one of the world's largest online dealers of luxury timepieces.
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We understand that buying or selling a luxury watch is a big decision. We want you to understand that preserving our well-known reputation for Quality, Value and Service is equally important to us. When our customers are happy, we prosper, and that has worked for us for many years. That's why our utmost goal is nothing less than 100% satisfaction for 100% of our customers.
Check online independent sources such as Google, eKomi and eBay to see why our customers give us 100% satisfaction. We want you to have complete peace of mind about your Swiss Watch Expo purchase. Our Triple Guarantee assures you of a totally risk-free, worry-free purchase:
Best Deal Guarantee: We offer the lowest prices on luxury watches that you will find anywhere. But there is more to a great deal than finding a low price. Most important of all is obtaining a truly fine watch of genuine quality. Also, free domestic shipping is nice, and that's standard at SwissWatchExpo. All of these factors ensure that with us, you always get the best value. That's our Best-Deal Guarantee.
Authenticity Guarantee: Each of our watches has been meticulously inspected by a master watchmaker and is guaranteed 100% authentic.
18-Month Limited Warranty: If your watch fails as a result of a manufacturer's defect during the first 18 months, we will repair or replace the item at absolutely no cost to you. For more details, see our Limited Warranty.
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SwissWatchExpo is honored to have the opportunity to serve you. That is why we stand by all of our products with a full 18-month limited warranty. If an item we sell you should fail as a result of a manufacturer's defect at any time during the first 18 months, we will repair or replace the item at absolutely no cost to you.
If your watch has any symptoms of abnormally gaining time, losing time, or not keeping proper time please do not hesitate to contact us by phone or email. If it is determined by SwissWatchExpo that a repair under warranty is required, one of our trained watch professionals will direct you on how to safely and efficiently ship the watch to us.
The Rolex I bought was exactly as promised to me. Honesty and transparency with that velvet touch. I was scared buying a high dollar item off the internet from photos. It takes a lot of trust, and the guys at SwissWatchExpo came through like champions. My 2018 Rolex 126660-0001 is a beauty. Thank you Erik Plumb and everyone else involved with my purchase. Sincerely, Markus Wakefield
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Great customer service! Matt and Creed were very helpful and patient in helping me decide on my watch selection. I purchased a Rolex DateJust Anniversary edition (1987-1988) watch and I am extremely pleased with the watch. It is stunning! I would definitely recommend SwiisWatchExpo to my family and friends:-)
If you are looking for the perfect watch look no further than the experienced professionals at SWE. Jim, Erik and Victoria and the entire team are outstanding. I am in sales and have led many sales teams in my career. I have to say that the SWE sales team is the epitome of professionalism. They take a consultative approach with the customer and are well informed and provide direction as to what option best suites their customer's needs, budget , etc. Thank you and I will be a returning customer.
I recently purchased a vintage watch for my husband. Swiss Watch was patient - answered all my questions and thusly, reduced all my fears of buying a watch I had never seen, from a place I had never been to. They are knowledgeable and pride themselves on their reputation of excellence and customer service. I would definitely buy from them again!
Just got my awesome Rolex Air King received Quickly and the condition was just perfect also it came with original box and papers very satisfied. Would highly recommend Bbarton
The watch I purchased was listed in excellent condition for a pre-owned luxury watch. When the watch arrived, it came close to mint that I had ever seen. A beautiful time piece and my first ever luxury watch. Michael was excellent in his help and would recommend Swiss Watch Expo! Well done.
Cautious of spending so much on an expensive purchase initially gave me pause, but after doing so much research and reading reviews from SWE, I am extremely happy with my Cartier that I bought. The condition of the watch is significantly better than I expected and as soon as I made the purchase, I immediately received a call from Michael who walked me through the process and ensured that my watch would be delivered quickly. I would definitely recommend purchasing a watch from SWE and I will be doing so in the future.
Order was what was presented, arrived on time and the conversation I had with the company seemed knowledgeable and friendly. ood company!
Bought a 116500 Daytona black dial yesterday and Michael Cash was most helpful with assisting me with my time piece. I had some further questions after my purchase and gave him a call the day after and he spent a good bit of time answering my questions. When I am in the market for another time piece I'll be going back for sure. Thanks Michael for all your help.
Excellent customer service and awesome staff to work with. The watch I have received it exactly what they said it will feel, look, and 100% authentic. Don't look elsewhere if you need a great timepiece, this is the right place with the right price and excellent customer service. Special thanks to Michael cash.
Great experience with SWE! i found the perfect watch (Rolex ladies date just) at the very best price. Watch arrived looking PERFECT. Thank you, Matt, for exceptional service and product. I would recommend them to family and friends without hesitation, and will shop there again myself. Really good experience.
Great experience buying a watch for my son (college graduation gift). Was looking at a specific Omega SeaMaster and was directed to an even better watch in stock. Arrived as excepted and looks/works great - son was thrilled!
I have three Rolex's and wish I would have found them sooner. They are a team that works with you and the show room will exceed your expectations.
I was completely happy with my experience of buying my Cartier Panthere from this company. Over the course of a few weeks I spoke to three of their employees, all of whom were courteous and helpful. My watch is exactly how they represented it—perfect.
Bought a Rolex 15200 from 2000. It was one of the only ones I found that had such a late date, for such a good price and in such good condition. Matthew was very responsive and helpful in answering pre-sale questions, and the transaction was seamless. Arrived in mint condition - just as advertised. Very happy so far!
Awesome experience! Creed is the most helpful and informative sales person. I will be a customer for many years to come.
Bought my wife a Rolex, they were Very professional and knowledgeable, everything was perfect on delivery, Wife is very happy with her watch !!
I have purchased two Rolex watches, one for me and one for my wife. Both purchases were quick and easy with excellent customer service. I highly recommend Swiss Watch Expo and appreciate the expertise and knowledge that Creed and Blake provided me. Thank you very much SWE and Team!!
Great place to make your 1st or 101st luxury watch purchase, everyone—especially Blake was extremely helpful during the buying process. I will definitely be back and would recommend them to a friend.
No complaints. I walked in not knowing I needed an appointment, but they helped me anyway. Victoria and Michael were both very helpful, and answered all of my questions. Very happy with my purchase. Huge Rolex selection, a tad overwhelming at first if I'm being honest. Everything from understated to something you'd see in a Migos music video. Happy with purchase.
Bought my first Rolex from this site and it has been the best decision I made the watch was actually better in person when I received it !! Couldn't be more happy I highly recommend Swicc Watch Expo
I searched high and low for a watch made in the year my husband and I were married. I found it on SWE and it is even better than I expected. My husband loves it! Great anniversary present! Thank you SWE!
I was looking non-pro-actively for a watch and found a watch from Swiss Expo. I told that it was going to be my first time purchase of an high end and/or vintage watch overseas. Creed is very helpful and kind. He advised me what to take in account when purchasing for the first time such high end vintage watch overseas. With his help, thinking along and the good experiences of other customers, I am already looking and considering to purchase a second one from SWE! Definitely recommend this store! Thanks
Michael and Blake are very knowledge and quick in their responses. I bought a Rolex and Omega from them and couldn't be happier with the quality of their inventory. Their protective watch boxes are amazing too.
An amazing experience throughout. Professional, knowledgeable, and friendly customer service! The Cartier Roadster Chronograph I purchased was in perfect condition and arrived quickly. I was very skeptical about making such a large purchase online on an item that I was not able to touch, hold, or try on. Once I received the watch, I went directly to a certified Cartier dealer and they verified it's authenticity. I couldn't be happier with my experience! I will purchase from this company again and I highly recommend them!
Purchasing a watch online sight-unseen can be an intimidating experience. I had been researching Omega Seamasters for several months until I was fairly familiar with the online inventory. I subscribed to the "new arrivals" page on SWE until my future watch, a Seamaster Chrono became available at the lowest price I had yet seen. Within 2 days I had my watch by UPS. I ended up needing one half link added to the bracelet which I was able to get from SWE within a few days. The condition of my watch was listed as "very good" but after having studied the watch I can find absolutely no signs of wear. It looks, wears, and functions like a brand new watch. I will definitely look on SWE first for my next watch. Thanks to Blake for all your help!
Great service and communication. I ordered a Rolex for my wife and there was a problem with the shipment but SWE followed through and made it right. The watch is beautiful and exactly as described. My wife loves it! Thanks SWE!!
I had multiple questions about the watch I wanted. Victoria was soooo helpful. I also spoke with Creed and he was equally as helpful. The purchase was very easy and I received my watch in two days. I loooove the watch and look forward to more business in the future!!
I recently purchased my very first Rolex from SWE. I had been researching and looking for my first Rolex watch for several years. I reached out to SWE and was put in touch with Jim who was excellent. He sent me photos of a couple of watches I was looking at and had a lady in the store put them on so I could compare sizing on her arm and also see them in pictures other than what was displayed on their page. He was not pushy and gave me some really good honest advice, which I really appreciated. I honestly felt like he wanted me to be happy with my purchase and wasn't just trying to sell me jus any watch. I ended up finding the perfect watch for me, when It arrived it looked better than the pictures showed, it looked brand new and was in excellent condition. I have recommended several of my friends to SWE. Even though I live in California and have options closer to home I will always go back to SWE. I found The whole process to be very easy and professional and I will continue to go back to SWE. Thank you again to SWE and Jim, I love my Rolex and I couldn't be happier.
This is the second time that I deal with Swiss watch Expo, my experience is great and I am so happy that I deal with such great sales people, they know what it takes to make there customers happy and I am one of them. Thank you and you have earned my business. 5 star all day
Purchased a newer Rolex date 34mm for my wife, white dial with some diamonds. Watch arrived in fantastic condition, great watch great job by this company!
Michael helped me find the exact Rolex I wanted. When I saw it live it was more beautiful than online. Absolutely impeccable service and knowledge. Great experience! He even put new pins in the Rolex I was wearing. Thanks for everything Michael!
I have now bought three Omega Speedmaster's from SwissWatchExpo and also they have helped me get extra links for one of them. Outstanding service and selection. Great prices and I know I can trust the description to be accurate. My go to place for watch purchases. Outstanding personal help also.:) Totally satisfied.
Good variety of watches and easy website to navigate. Transaction went through with no problem. They don't send tracking info which causes some consternation (requirement of their insurer), but you can call them for info on the day of arrival. Watch arrived on time and everything was as advertised. Recipient of this gift was extremely satisfied.
I am a returning customer and have worked with Jim in the past and most recently Erik. Both were receptive, knowledgeable and most importantly patient. I recently learned this is a family operated business and it shows. There is a true vested interest. A pleasure.
I purchased my Rolex GMT Master II from SWE last year. I called to asked about the specific watch and Matt was polite, friendly and knowledgeable. I've had my watch for over a year and no problems what's so ever. I'm in the market for another Rolex and will definitely be purchasing from SWE very soon.
My sales rep was very knowledgeable and approachable. Answered all my questions from the basic to the complex and reassured me about making a substantial purchase online. Absolutely first rate. My watch is beautiful.
I thoroughly enjoyed working with the team at SWE. I finally found the Omega watch I was looking for, which took considerable time to locate the right one and appropriate condition. I worked with a few members of their team towards the purchase, and they were very helpful answering any questions I had as this was my first luxury watch purchase. As well, I found their pricing to be reasonable and directly in line for the age and condition of the watch (for comparison, recent sales of this watch elsewhere online have been far higher and unreasonably priced). Excellent experience working with SWE. Thanks.
They were very helpful when I called about a watch I wanted to buy as a Christmas gift. They helped me make sure I got the right one. Which I did and he loved it. Thanks so much for making my experience a great one.
Very friendly staff. Easy to make an appointment and a great selection of watches.
Have been a customer for 5 years for both watch service and watch buying. They're great! ATL is fortunate to have a watch store with massive selection and friendly helpful watch lovers to serve you. highly recommend!
I purchased my Rolex day date from swiss and my experience was nothing less than perfect. I would purchase from them again without hesitation, as well as reccomend to all my family and friends.
The watch purchased was exactly as pictured, very clean and well taken care of! I think that their descriptions are on point; for example we saw on that indicated "scratches on the band" and we did not purchase that one, but the one we purchased indicated no noticeable wear flaws, and it truly looked like a brand new watch! My son was thrilled for his gift - it came with a gift bag, and an insurance certificate of value which was wonderful for him to have just in case he needs it!
Excellent service and true craftsmanship in their field. All sales associates are wonderful and knowledgable about every piece in the showroom. Truly a magnificent place. The owners are amazing and go out of their way for you.
I bought a Rolex Explorer (114270) from SwissWatchExpo. I was impressed by the level of transparency on the products they sell, from the photos, to the condition details from the Sales team, to the delivery time, to the customer service I was offered from start to finish. Always anxious spending thousands of $$ on a new seller, but SwissWatchExpo made it a comfortable experience.
The people I have dealt with at Swiss Watch have been very accommodating, and answer questions very quickly about any particular watch I have had questions about. I appreciate the fact they took time to call me with a follow up on a particular watch. Top notch all the way around.
Jim has done it again!! Superb customer service as always. I will continue to purchase watch's for my collection only from Swiss Watch Expo!!!
Purchased a gorgeous Omega Speedmaster from SWE in excellent condition. Very friendly, shipped immediately. Happy customer. I would buy from SWE again.
Bought last month a hard to find model of a watch in "unworn/never worn" condition from Swiss Watch Expo and had a very positive experience. It was a "Special Order Item" so it took me a week to receive the watch. Their price was the best I found and I even paid through a bank wire to save an additional 3%. Being my first time buying an expensive watch online, I have to say that I was a bit anxious. Having said that, Ernesto and the team were very professional, understanding and patient. When the watch arrived everything was perfect: original box, papers, warranty, stickers, etc; just like buying a brand new watch. To be 100% certain that the watch was authentic and for my peace of mind I decided to take the watch to an authorized dealer. I was finally relaxed when they reconfirmed that it was an authentic, original piece. I am a happy Swiss Watch Expo client and the proud owner of a brand new ("unworn") beautiful watch.
I had done research on several sites after my husband told me what he was looking for. SWE had the best inventory. Once I narrowed my search down to a few, I went in and looked at the options. A woman had explained the options to me, pricing and history of the product. Creed then came in and helped finalize everything. Service was great and the product is amazing! My husband loves it!
Erik was so helpful when it came to purchasing my first Rolex! Love the shop, love the customer service, love the fast shipping!
Theses guys are extremely helpful and offer great watches. Love my Breitling and the quality was mint. Fast shipping with tracking info. Great experience. Highly recommend. Plan to visit next time I am in Atlanta
Great customer service. Awesome to be able to see high resolution pictures of the exact watch you are ordering. Arrived in three days.
After doing a lot of research, I settled on SWE for our purchase. From start to finish my experience was a 10. Blake was informed, informative, patient and responsive throughout the process.
Great experience, super friendly staff! I had been shopping around for a while and this store has by far the best selection and most importantly every watch was quality. No after market garbage.
I just purchased a men's Cartier panthere watch online from Swiss Watch Expo. A couple of years ago my sister bought a vintage Rolex from them and she was very pleased with both her shopping experience and the watch itself. The Rolex is running great. I also enjoyed my shopping experience with Creed, my salesperson, who was knowledgeable about the watch and also informative and friendly. The free and fast shipping worked out great and my watch arrived keeping perfect time. Based on my experience, I can recommend SWE to anyone looking for a first class watch.
I bought a second watch through Swiss Watch Expo 1 week after I got my first watch from them. Th ET proved to me that they are a first class organization that sells authentic & high functioning watches. Hey have great prices & their shipping & packaging is first rate with a free watch travel case as a nice bonus with each watch purchase
Very smooth and easy buying process. We did most of the communication via email and everything was waiting on me upon my arrival and ten minutes later we were finished and I was on my way.
Hi i purchased a watch for my wife last minute for a Christmas gift It was processed asap with help of the staff at SWE and i received it on Christmas eve by 10:00 a.am. As promised The watch was pristine and my wife was absolutely thrilled Thnx SWE For creating a memorable moment for my wife and I. This is the year of our 30th wedding anniversary.
Wonderful purchase- and follow up- experience. The website has great details and pictures, making you feel far more confident in your purchase. And i have been pleased with the teams follow up on my purchase as well.
I recently purchased a Cartier from Victoria and Jim at Swiss Watch Expo. I scheduled an appointment in advance and told them the options I was interested in (based on the website). They had the watches ready for me when I came in and politely explained details behind the watches, giving me time to try them on as well. Impeccable customer service! The watch I purchased looked brand new. I wear it all the time and have received many wonderful compliments.
Michael answered all my questions and helped me with my 1st watch purchase. They are competitively priced and Conveniently located (in Atlanta, GA) so easy to see the watches in person.
Wow!!! These guys went above and beyond what was necessary to insure a new customer's happiness and satisfaction. Absolutely fantastic from start to finish? I think it is TIME for everyone to splurge a little and obtain a fine watch from this company! Enjoy it!!!!
We bought a watch for our daughter, and I couldn't have been more pleased with both the watch and the customer service! The selection of watches is amazing, and Erik was able to help us find the perfect one! He was extremely knowledgeable and helpful and patient. He earned our confidence right away. The follow-up after we purchased the watch has been wonderful. I would highly recommend this company.
Excellent in-store customer service and purchase experience. I had searched the website for the watches that I was interested in, and used the in-store experience to make the final decision and purchase. SwissWatchExpo is the only choice for my future watch purchases.
I purchased a Rolex for both myself and my wife for Christmas! The watches were everything and more that we saw on the website. Great service and speedy delivery. This is the second time I have bought from Swiss Watch Expo and no disappointments!
Great experience. I cane from South Carolinia because of the great selection. When i arrived Victoria helped me and still was one of the best sales experience possible. I would go back and would recomend SWE
These guys helped me find the perfect watch. I'm immensely happy with their service, professionalism, communication and of course the watch!
Seamless experience with knowledgeable sales people and product as advertised. Easy, timely, and hassle-free. I would recommend them and use them again.
great communication and client satisfaction. the say what they deliver and deliver what they say. I am an avid watch collector and would find it difficult to purchase my next high end watch anywhere but from swiss watch expo. thanks for being people of honor.
I'll never buy a watch from another business! I've had nothing but extremely helpful customer service from the beginning of a purchase, to the end, and even later with a trade in! Swiss Watch Expo has the best prices, selection, and payment options. I purchased a watch from them, found out I wanted to trade into a different one, and they helped make that possible. Thanks for going above and beyond to make sure your customers are satisfied; you have a customer for life with me!
Big fan of these guys. Unbelievably helpful. For my first time luxury watch purchase they were incredibly informative. Michael walked me through the entire process. Helped me to narrow down my choices within my price range and found the best quality president for the money. Couldn't be happier with my watch. First of many to come and I will be definitely shopping here again.
Just wanted to thank the staff at SwissWatchExpo for the help I received for my recent purchase. I was trying to find a pre-owned Cartier Panther for quite some time when I came across their website. It was exactly what I was looking for, well priced and in excellent condition. Jim was my initial contact at SwissWatch but I was also given assistance by Erik and Ernesto. You can't go wrong with anyone of these gentlemen. Jim was extremely knowledgeable with the watch line and I know this since I myself use to work in watch sales many years ago. I'll admit, it seemed to be a purchase that was too good to be true, but I took the watch to my local Cartier boutique for assurance and they confirmed it was indeed a legitimate watch. I will absolutely be referring friends and family to this company for any pre-owned watch needs. I'm sure to be using them again soon in the near future for another purchase! Thank you!!
Had a great experience with Michael and Mathew. Michael helped me twice, first, with a trade of one Rolex for another, and then a second time, when I returned that watch for an upgrade to my present Rolex GMT Master. One cannot go wrong dealing with SWE!
Beyond happy with my recent Rolex purchase from SWE. Just had the watch authenticated and everything checked out perfectly. Pristine condition! Can't wait to purchase another piece. I'll be a lifelong customer.
Just purchased a Rolex from SWE and impeccable service and Kindness from the whole team and Jim & Erik Process was super smooth, and I received the watch as promised the next morning. Watch condition was brand new as described with full set box + papers and original Rolex protections Thanks for a great professional business !!!
I was trying to purchase a Rolex watch for my son as a college graduation gift but when searching the many choices given from SwissWatchExpo I was a bit confused. With just a phone call Creed helped to clear any confusion and also sent photos of the watches he felt were the correct size for my son within the price range I had chosen. After the watch arrived ,literally the next day, I loved the look but was still concerned that it might need extra links therefore I emailed Creed. Some time passed that day and I received an email back from Matt because Creed wasn't available. He assured me the links would not be a problem but wanted me to have a response ASAP. These guys did an outstanding job responding and assuring me of the graduation gift my son will treasure for years. Thank you Creed and Matt!
The service was knowledgeable and thorough. Every detail was executed exactly as was promised. Watches were perfect. Phone support was excellent in every way and sales rep made the transaction very pleasant. Will use them again without hesitation. Top notch staff and organization.
GreAt in-store experience buying my first luxury watch! Though nOt a typical retail environment and set up for online sales, in store staff were great and very helpful. Make sure to have an appointment! Huge selection of Pre-owned prestige watches. Very satisfied!
Good price, watch was as advertised. I authenticated it once I received it and check out perfectly. Service was excellent.
Fantastic customer service and great products. I went to their shop to try in several models. I like that they physically own all of the watches they sell. All watches are inspected and serviced on site. I will use them again.
Hey. I am quite satisfied with the form of communication with a sales consultant named Creed. Briefly, succinctly, politely and, most importantly, absolutely in detail. You clearly understand what needs to be done at one time or another. Hoping in advance for my expected result, I am grateful to Mr. Creed for his help and professional service.
I was impressed with everything from the minute I walked in the store. They were thoughtful, knowledgeable and able to accommodate all of my needs. I chose my Rolex and they assisted me in every way to make sure it was the right one and fit for me. My purchase couldn't have been any smoother.
My first experience with Swiss Watch. Very knowledgeable & great customer service. Highly recommend to do business with. I know who I'm calling when adding another watch to my collection.
What a fun experience! I bought my "Hesalite Sandwich" Omega Speedmaster through SWE and had a great conversation with my sales rep that showed a real interest in quality timepieces that was truly authentic. Simply awesome!
Ive bought a tag hauer and also an omega both watches were in a1 condition just as advertised,i didn't measure my wrist and when i called the staff were very helpful in finding me links to make them fit ,as a business owner i like the way they had concern about my issue and did all they could to resolve the issue .because of there excellent service and knowledge of there products im in the process of buying a rolex submariner ,i look forward to doing business with swiss watch expo again . Todd thorpe port huron michigan...
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I had him pegged as a Huge Lib. I have clearly underestimated Mr. T
I had him pegged as a Huge Lib. I have clearly underestimated Mr. T
I was amazed, I guess this is one of those media secrets, I'll post more when I get a chance.
ralph wiggum
I had him pegged as a Huge Lib. I have clearly underestimated Mr. T
That would be "Mr. ICE-T" to you. :D
I had him pegged as a Huge Lib. I have clearly underestimated Mr. T
Oh he's a huge lib on some things. But not guns and 2nd Amendment stuff.
It's the gang banger in him. As a member of the Crips he's all for being able to carry and own as many guns as possible.
Monday, 08 Jul 2013 10:05 AM
By James Hirsen
Tracy Marrow is better known by his stage name, Ice-T.
Ice-T initially secured fame by being one of the early practitioners of a form of rap music known as gangsta rap. After co-founding the band Body Count, the urban music artist became even more famous for a public controversy that eventually ensued over his "Cop Killer" track, which glamorized the murder of police officers.
The storm surrounding "Cop Killer" reached its zenith in July of 1992, at an annual shareholders' meeting for Time-Warner, the parent company of Ice-T's record label. It would be here that Hollywood giant Charlton Heston would take to a stage of a different sort.
Heston had been given the opportunity to address the Time-Warner group because he himself owned shares in the media company. During his presentation, the legendary actor recited in dramatic fashion the lyrics from the "Cop Killer" tune, leaving the owners of the company in a stupefied state. The publicity that would follow would ultimately cause Time Warner Music to cancel the release of Ice-T's then-upcoming album.
Heston would go on to take a starring role in the Second Amendment drama that was taking place in our society. He became a stalwart defender of the right to bear arms and eventually became the leader and spokesperson for the National Rifle Association.
Fate has a way of writing tales that rival the best of human authors. Ice-T, the very same rap artist that Heston had so vociferously opposed, would undergo a professional conversion of his own that would transform him into the current TV and film A-list star that he is today. He, like his former adversary, has become a persuasive voice for the Second Amendment in helping to move forward Heston's legacy issue.
Last year the rapper was being interviewed by Krishnan Guru-Murthy, an anchor for the British television station Channel 4, about a documentary dealing with the art of rapping. Ice-T was asked questions during the interview about the infamous Colorado theater shooting.
After being questioned as to why he was a defender of gun rights, Ice-T replied, "Well, I'd give up my gun when everybody else does."
Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/hirsen/ice-t-heston-gun-control/2013/07/08/id/513778#ixzz2Z9ZhfC91
Urgent: Should Obamacare Be Repealed? Vote Here Now!
Corey Malinowski +
| May 24, 2013 | |
Hunter, musician, and Second Amendment activist Ted Nugent weighs in on recent gun control legislation in a new documentary.
Hunter, musician, and Second Amendment activist Ted Nugent weighs in on recent gun control legislation in a new documentary.
Rapper Ice-T and musician Ted Nugent may not share the same type of music, but they are sharing the spotlight as they team up for a new documentary focused on the controversial gun control debate.
The upcoming film Assaulted: Civil Rights Under Fire takes a look at the history of the Second Amendment and examines current gun control laws.
Ice-T narrates the documentary, which features numerous other commentaries on the subject including words from Nugent, Dan Gross, and Adam Winkler. Gross is the president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, and Winkler is a noted author and professor at UCLA.
In an interview with FOX411, the films executive producer, writer, and director Kris Koenig says that, Assaulted turns the gun debate around. It is a civil rights issue, and we take a look at the history of the Second Amendment. Its a right that has been abused over the years and one that gets overlooked the most.
The documentary follows hot on the heels of controversial new gun control legislature like New Yorks SAFE act, Marylands assault weapons ban, and the Colorado gun bill that prompted Magpuls departure.
Koenig highlights the recent rash of assault weapon legislation in the interview with FOX411, stating that, When dealing with anything to do with our Second Amendment, our lawmakers need to keep in mind that it serves to protect us as individuals Incidents of violence with an assault weapon are few and far between, less than one percent. [...] We shouldnt give up our civil liberties for a false sense of safety.
Read More>http://www.outdoorhub.com/news/ice-t-and-ted-nugent-defend-second-amendment-rights-in-new-documentary/
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L Is For Lucky – The ABCs Of Cancer
How can a child diagnosed with brain cancer be considered lucky?
Before Danny Thomas built St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, an alarming 96 percent of kids diagnosed with the most common form of childhood cancer died. Today, because of the amazing work the doctors are doing in Memphis, 94 percent of those children live and go into remission!
One mother I met during my visit to St. Jude was from the Philippines. She said her little boy had frequently complained about his head hurting. Initially, she wrote it off as minor headaches and had told him to take a nap. But when the pain persisted, she took him to see his pediatrician and after running a battery of tests, the doctor said her little boy was very ill.
She received several referrals and took her son to a number of doctors. Finally, they were referred to St. Jude. "When we first arrived, I thought there was no way we'd ever be able to afford his treatments," she told me. But that was before she learned how things worked at St. Jude.
Soon, the doctors were working hard on helping her son with his brain tumor. Meanwhile, she and her husband learned that they would never receive a bill for any of the treatments their son would receive at St. Jude. That was a huge weight lifted off the family's shoulders! Now they could concentrate on getting their little boy well.
Today, two years after his initial diagnosis, her son is in remission and is living the life of a normal little boy. When the boy sang "The Impossible Dream" for us, none of us could keep from crying. Suddenly, the song's lyrics had a new meaning. This child had been so lucky, despite his brain tumor. He was lucky because he had great doctors. He was lucky because his parents were willing to do anything they could for him. But most of all, he was lucky because St. Jude existed and was able to offer him the medical help he needed, regardless of his family's ability to pay.
Now you have the chance to make other families and children with pediatric diseases feel "lucky." Become a Partner In Hope today, and your donations will assist in treating the worst medical cases, offering hope to families whose situations had previously seemed hopeless.


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I've just discovered a mapping website that has something perfect for model making...
The site is called http://www.what3words.comand its prime purpose is to make locating specific points anywhere throughout the world very easy to specify when identifying and/or telling others where the location is. Instead of using latitude and longitude values....which they consider to be too complicated ...they've split the whole of the world's surface up into 3m squares....and named each square with three names.....such as "elephant.sandwich.pint". Good idea? Well yes...and no! Either way, a side effect of this is that you can view anywhere in the world as a satellite view that is overlaid with a 3m square grid.
Here's an example:
This is going to make working out sizes of any building an easy and simple job!!!


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See something you like, but prefer another color, please contact me. I'd be honored to make something just for you, if possible. Be creative & enjoy life!
After 2 weeks your items will automatically renewed for another 60 days and $0.23 per item will be added to your billing ledger.
While you were away our TOU was updated,
read the terms of use here.
*No action is required on your part.


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Comfortable zippered waterproof and bed bug proof mattress covers protect expensive mattresses and let you sleep comfortably, too.
At Safe Home TM , choose from washable wool mattress pads, foam mattress pads, waterproof mattress covers , foam pads and gel overlays. Reduce allergens with mattress covers and pillow covers that keep dut mites out or in pillows! Safe Home Products® sells hospital and hotel mattress products as well. Safe Home ™ is your best choice for sleep comfort products.
Vinyl Mattress Covers and Pillow Covers. Bed bug and anti-allergy bedding products with absorbent cotton backed with polyurethane for mattress protection, too. Safe Home ™ offers waterproof alternating pressure overlay replacements and entire systems for those bedridden.
Use wool mattress overlays and bed bug mattress covers are high quality.
Choose Safe Home ™ for comfort and protection for expensive bedding at home and in hospitals. For questions, send email to firstname.lastname@example.com or phone us at (877) 358 - 0900.


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Commercial, Personal/Corporate
By Staff Writer | March 1, 2009
Send Feedback
Bell Helicopter Textron Canada Ltd. (BHTCL) has laid off 500 employees at its Mirabel plant; located outside Montreal, Canada. The layoffs effectively cut the Mirabel workforce by 24 percent, from 2100 to 1600. According to BHTCL director of business development Michele Legault, the 500 "temporary layoffs" will last for three months at least. The BHTCL plant produces Bell 206B, 206L, 407, 412, 427 and 429 helicopters. Both assembly line and office staff were affected by the cuts.
Legault blames the layoffs on softening customer commitments. Although BHTCL has a long backlog of orders, many of its customers "are not eager to take possession for various reasons," he told Rotor & Wing. Chief among these is the fact that most of BHTCL's products are being purchased by customers to serve as revenue-makers. With the dive in the world economy, "those revenues are not there," he said. As a result, customers caught in this bind are coming to BHTCL and saying, "I'm just not ready to take my helicopter; can you hold it for a couple of months?" The only good news — so far — is that BHTCL customers have not been walking away from their deposits.
If all goes to plan, BHTCL will be able to recall its laid-off staff once the market picks up in a few months. Until then, the company's goal is to "slow the machine," said Legault; reducing the number of aircraft produced to match the slowdown in deliveries rather than devouring its order backlog. Ironically, BHTCL increased its workforce in the past few years to keep up with the then-burgeoning helicopter market.


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Add to Calendar
May 26, 2019 @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Join us Sunday for Pints & Planks at Rio Bravo Brewing Company, LLC!
Class starts at 11am and is sure to leave you with a smile on your face and ready to tackle Sunday Funday! Class is $5 cash fee and stay after (or drink during class) with $1 off drinks! Class is 1 hour and tends to all experience levels.


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Quote:and I don't even use the name "JKD"...
Quote: Or, you also enter into biting and grabbing/maiming distance.
Quote:The point that I'm making with this post is that certain requirements have to be in place if you truly understand JKD. Some are saying now that JKD is just MMA, etc. But this is true only in a very limited sense. JKD is about being without limits.
Quote:I agree John, I think you should write a book/training manual.
Quote:One thing I wanted to pull out of your post was this: Quote: Or, you also enter into biting and grabbing/maiming distance. This is very true. When I was bouncing I saw a very skilled combat athlete set up the clinch perfectly, and then clinch, but his head placement, though fine for the ring, allowed access to his ear. He had it bitten and torn half off. Little 'tweaks' like this to your overall game (like head placement, altering takedowns so the the knees stay off the ground as much as possible) are integral to using what you know for self defense.
Quote:The only thing I would add is that I still think that an MMA gym can bring someone 'up to speed' quickest and give them a good foundation. After this, I think working weapons and multiple attacker scenarios is absolutely necessary. Of course everyone is different, but for me, I found jumping right into this stuff without that base to be too challenging, and in the end fruitless.
Quote:And seriously John, start writing that book man.
Artifacts from the Ryukyu Kingdom missing since WWII.
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Complete surveillance systems for covert operations
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Book presents photo tour of the Trans-Allegany Lunatic Asylum. A must if you're going to take a ghost tour!


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CVS has come under fire for asking employees covered under the company's health care plan to disclose a range of personal information — from their weight to glucose levels — or face a financial penalty. But that company is far from the only one pushing workers to reveal detailed medical information.
As health care costs tick up and employers rush to comply with new requirements tied to President Obama's Affordable Care Act, many companies are asking their workers (and in some cases, workers' spouses) to undergo rigorous health care screenings aimed at encouraging healthier living — and boosting the company's bottom line.
CVS Caremark introduced the health screening this year, and fines employees $600 if they don't comply. When news of the screening came out this week, the company was slammed on social media. But CVS isn't alone in using money to encourage employees to stay fit or aware of their health.
At Home Depot, for example, workers covered by the company insurance plan are encouraged to fill out on an online questionnaire and take a "hidden health risk screening" that measures their waistline, triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, blood pressure and glucose levels. They're also given targets: Women should aim for a waistline under 35 inches, while men should try to stay below 40 inches. While no one is required to participate, those who do (regardless of whether or not they hit their targets) can earn an extra $25 every two weeks. Spouses covered by the plan can also participate.
Some companies use data gathered from these tests to drive decision-making about the sort of health services they provide their employees, while others use it for targeted outreach, said Julie Stone, a senior consultant at Towers Watson.
If a person is significantly overweight, for example, he or she may receive information about weight loss programs.
The idea is that employees, inspired either by the promise of extra cash or the threat of losing cash, will work harder to be healthier. And healthier employees are both more efficient and cost the company less money.
While health care costs have always been an important consideration for executives, they've become an even bigger priority since the Supreme Court upheld the president's health care overhaul law last year. In 2018, a provision of the law will kick in that taxes companies 40% for any coverage that exceeds a certain threshold — $10,200 for individuals or $27,500 for families each per year.
To avoid the tax, employers are encouraging their workers to lead healthier lifestyles, and are asking them to pay more for their health coverage.
"I absolutely believe that's one of the root drivers for more of these companies looking at [health screenings] now," said Stone. "It's a really steep tax … I don't know a single CFO who would say, 'Sure, I'll pay that tax, no problem.'"
More than two-thirds of employers already offer financial rewards to encourage workers to participate in health and wellness programs, according to a survey released earlier this year by Towers Watson/National Business Group on Health. Sixteen percent of the 583 employers polled said their companies use rewards or penalties to gather specific biometric information from their workers, and another 31 percent said that they were considering implementing such a strategy for 2014.
Companies emphasize that medical data collected during these screenings is intended to improve employee health and not to make employment decisions, though privacy advocates are wary.
Home Depot, which describes its health program as "win/win," assures employees in a health guide posted to its website that the company "will not have access to your results and your results will have no effect on your employment or your medical coverage."
CVS Caremark said in a statement that "all personal health data from these screenings are collected and reviewed by a third party administrator" and that the data "is never shared with CVS Caremark."
Dr. Deborah Peel, the founder of Patient Privacy Rights, expressed doubts about CVS's assurances.
"There's no chain of custody for health data," she told the Boston Herald. "So there's no way to verify that they don't really look at it."


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No doubt you've noticed some changes around here. Yeah, this is has been sometime in the making. We had to enslave an entire wing of the local library to find the nerd-power necessary to get this far. And on top of that, we had to buy majority shares in Jolt Cola to make sure everything launched on time.
This was all Wanye's idea. And when I asked him to help test the site tonight, he just yelled, "IHAVETOGOTOPOKER!"
So I tested it — along with developer boy-genius Jeffu.
And we registered and re-registered on the new sites. Until it was perfect**.
And when we phoned Wanye to tell him we were live, all he had to say from his poker game was, "What the f&*$?! What time is it? Holy crap, it took forever! You poor bastards working through the night…"
This was said in between loud cursing and the sounds of breaking glass.
But as sure as the sun rises, so do we… Ahem. I didn't mean for it to sound like that.
Welcome to the dawn of a new Nation (or Army depending on your timezone).
We'll be rolling out new features (and importing our old content) over the next little while, so stay tuned. In the meantime, register, comment and enjoy the sexy new look.
** I was joking about perfect. It's still something of a work in progress. If you find any bugs, email them to [email protected] Oh yeah, we have real email addresses now.
More on that after I finish this mickey of cough medicine and pass-out in the kitchen.


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Season Pass Pricing for Wisła Stok
How much is a season pass to Wisła Stok? Check out the latest Wisła Stok season pass pricing for an adult, child, junior and senior, where applicable. In some cases, ski resorts may be part of a multi-mountain ski pass, which will be indicated when those prices are displayed. Wisła Stok provides these season pass prices directly to OnTheSnow or they are sourced from the ski area's website. To purchase a season pass or see the latest ski pass pricing info, visit the ski resort's website directly.
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#FebruBURIED at Squaw Valley | Alpine Meadows
Squaw Valley | Alpine Meadows in Lake Tahoe has received over 11 feet of snowfall this February and over 32 feet this season.


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#SuuntoRun, #SuuntoClimb, #SuuntoSki / II 21, 2020 Raising the stakes for Suunto World Vertical Week
Over at Suunto, we make our products to stand the test of time – but even we can't demonstrate that as well as Walter Hassler, from Tirol, Austria. The retiree has taken his Suunto X6 on every single bike, ski tour, and hike since he got it thirteen years ago – and it's still ticking, all the way up to two million height meters (now, more.) We stopped by for a visit to see what we could learn about him – and his thirst for adventure.
As a young man my goal was getting faster and faster
Now I am just happy to keep doing what I am doing. I grew up with nine siblings in the beautiful valley of Zillertal. Sports has always been important for us – I played soccer, biked, went swimming or skiing with my brothers and sisters. Now it's mostly mountain biking and ski touring. On good days I am still able to achieve the same results (time) as 13 years ago when I first got my Suunto watch.
12 ski/bike tours a month are the minimum
If the weather is nice I sometimes do up to 15 tours a month in summer.
I don't get on my bike (or my skis) for less than 1,000 height meters
I don't get on my bike (or my skis) for less than 1,000 height meters
This is how I end up doing between 15,000 and 20,000 height meters a month on average. Whenever I am on my bike I am clocking between 2.5-3 hours minimum. The longest tours I am doing are up to 6 hours though. Of course I feel bad for my wife, leaving her alone for a couple hours every other day!
On October 24th, 2009 I put 1 million height meters on to my Suunto
When I downloaded the data 4 days later I already had 1,007,000 height meters on it. I wanted to put 2 million height meters on, and then stop – at least that´s what I said. When I downloaded the data it was already 2,007,000 height meters, so I just have to keep going, I guess.
2 million height meters are actually 2,000 kilometers
That´s just crazy, isn´t it? It took me only 5 years to do my first million height meters, so maybe if stay healthy I can get up to three million.
Bad weather has never been an excuse for me
On one tour I was looking at my cell phone, then lightening struck so close to me that it actually knocked the phone out of my hand.
I mostly exercise by myself
I mostly exercise by myself
Because I love getting on my bike right in front of my house. Waiting around for others to finish work, lunch or just better conditions isn´t for me. If I do go with a buddy, they usually are 20-30 years younger than me so they can keep up.
I just turned 70
I just turned 70
But I think I´ll still be on my bike 20 years from now.


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A paramedic who rushed James Gandolfini to hospital after the actor suffered a massive heart attack while in Italy has been accused of stealing the star's Rolex, officials said, NBC News reported.
Claudio Bevilacqua, 43, went on trial on Monday for allegedly snatching "The Sopranos" star's $3000 Rolex Submariner watch in June 2013.
It is unclear if the watch was stolen from Gandolfini's room in the Boscolo Exedra Hotel in Rome or whether the actor was wearing it when he collapsed.
U.S. & World
Stories that affect your life across the U.S. and around the world.
Bevilacqua was not present in court Monday. The start of the trial was postponed until November.


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I know we've discussed how the Queen's Diamond Jubilee is not a thing that we should care about, but that was until Grace Jones, who is SIXTY FOUR YEARS OLD, took the stage to perform "Slave to the Rhythm" and hula hooped the whole time.
Now we should care. We should care very much.


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Some Notes on Moving the Zone to Django
Fredrik Lundh | August 2007
Updated 2007-08-20: Added sections on caching and resource "minification".
The effbot.org "zone" is a constantly growing collection of documents, most of them concerning various aspects of Python and related technologies. The zone software is also used for my PIL and Tkinter documentation, the online edition of my Python Standard Library book, and a couple of other document collections.
All in all, the zones at effbot.org currently contain around 2,000 documents, plus some 500 user comments.
Until now, the zone has been served as static HTML, generated and maintained using an increasinly disorganized collection of CGI scripts and off-site tools. Given that we moved pythonware.com to Django late last year, it's about time I did the same to effbot.org.
Design #
My original plan was to use the old effbot.org templates pretty much as they were, but all recent talk about
CSS frameworks (dead link), and how they'd ruin the field of web design by leaving it open for people who just cannot be bothered to learn everything there is to know about cross-platform CSS inanities, made me curious. I grabbed a copy of the Yahoo! User Interface Library, and went to work. I set up the following requirements:
- No radical redesign; the new site should look similar to the old one.
- Identical look for a majority of my visitors — in other words, for IE and Firefox.
- Scalable layout in both IE and Firefox. Most importantly, increasing the font size should work well (for people with reduced eye-sight or high-DPI displays).
- Support for 80-column wide code samples.
- The site should be fully usable with CSS disabled.
Implementing this on YUI was surprisingly easy. The current design use a 950px wide base layout, with a 180px navigation column to the left. The remaining space is split into two parts, with around 550px effective space (3/4) for the main column, and 180px (1/4) for a sidebar column to the right. Document blocks can be placed in the sidebar or the main column, or they can cover both columns. A combination of class names and render heuristics is used to handle block placement. Some source-code examples:

This text goes into the

This goes into the main column.

This wide code example extends into the sidebar.
The "wide" class is automatically added to wide PRE sections (currently, the limit is 55 characters). A wide column is wide enough to hold just over 80 columns of preformatted text.
Aiming for Typographic Perfection #
I experimented a little with Chad Miller's SmartyPants implementation for Python in the final rendering step, but it was horribly slow — at least compared to the rest of the rendering chain. I ended up applying this during conversion to the intermediate format instead.
(I haven't looked at the code, but it seems to me as if it should be possible to apply the SmartyPants algorithms to the existing Element tree, rather than having to serialize the document and then run it through SmartyPants' home-grown HTML parser).
I'm also doing some microtuning in the rendering stage, including inserting hard spaces in titles to keep the last few words together, trimming off trailing whitespace in PRE CODE sections, etc.
Performance #
The effbot.org site isn't exactly a high-traffic site, but since I'm interested in performance and scalability issues, I set up some basic requirements:
- Efficient data transfer to client (support for compression, validation/conditional requests, etc).
- Efficient caching
- Efficient dynamic rendering on cache misses
Django provides middleware for compression (GZipMiddleware), validation (ConditionalGetMiddleware), and caching (CacheMiddleware). The only problem was to apply them in the right order (see below for more on this).
Rendering required a bit more code. Zone sources are provided in a number of formats, but they're primarily written in an HTML subset (just the  contents) and in Markdown with some Infogami-style extensions. Metadata is extracted from the source documents, which makes it easy to author zone documents in pretty much any text editor.
To speed up rendering, the new system converts from the source to an intermediate XML format when documents are added to the database (via a save override on the relevant model). The intermediate format is then turned into proper HTML and pushed through Django templates on the fly.
The intermediate format is basically an XHTML document, with the following extensions:
- Support for dynamic titles (fetched from the target on demand)
- Support for inline images.
- Support for local menus (based on headings on page).
- Support for intelligent links.
- Support for program code colorization.
Inline images are stored as data URI:s in the intermediate format (and usually also in the source documents), but since not all browsers support this format, the renderer replaces the data URI:s with HTTP pointers to an image cache directory. To distinguish between images, their MD5 hash is used.
Intelligent links are links that point to "target subjects", rather than specific pages. For example, a link can point to the "subprocess" module, or even to the "insert" method of the "Text" class in the "tkinter" module. The renderer maps these to suitable on-site locations on the fly.
The current renderer can produce the equivalent of 2-5 A4 pages per millisecond, which means that most documents on the site render in a few milliseconds on a lightly loaded server, at the most. (FIXME: This is no longer true; for example, the YUI tree restructuring and code colorization is currently done during the final rendering step, and that processing is somewhat costly. I'll move that to the preprocessing stage when I find the time.)
Some Performance Observations #
Middleware Order #
As noted above, getting the middleware order right can be tricky. Especially the ConditionalGetMiddleware component kept messing things up for me. With that middleware in the wrong place, the server kept locking up at times. After a few failed attempts, I finally came up with the following order:
MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES = ( 'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware', 'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware', 'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware', 'django.middleware.cache.CacheMiddleware', 'django.middleware.http.ConditionalGetMiddleware', 'django.middleware.gzip.GZipMiddleware', # custom middleware follows... )
(This may be documented somewhere in the Django documentation, but I sure couldn't find that place.)
I'm also using some non-standard middleware components, including my own multihost middleware, to co-host the development sandbox, online.effbot.org, and a few other sites on a single Django instance.
Accessing Large Database Records #
Both the source document and the intermediate XML version are stored as TextField:s in a big un-normalized table, which also holds associated data such as titles, publication date, etc. This design might be simple and practical, and un-normalized tables have plenty of performance advantages when the data is relatively static, but a drawback is that it's rather expensive to pull out an object from this table via Django's ORM; even if you're only looking for a couple of metadata attributes, Django will fetch the entire row.
I was about to change the data model when I remembered the values method. This method tells the ORM what fields you're interested in, and returns only those, in an ordinary dictionary.
query = SomeModel.objects.filter(key=value) for obj in query: do_something(obj.title) # slow
query = SomeModel.objects.filter(key=value) for obj in query.values("title"): do_something(obj["title"]) # fast
You obviously don't get all the functionality of your model implementation when you use values, but you get the data you're after without any extra overhead. With query sets containing hundreds of documents, some operations took well over a second without values, and less than ten milliseconds with it.
Django Caching #
I've played with both the file cache and memcached, and seem to get roughly the same performance with both backends (which is a bit surprising).
I'm currently using memcached; after all, it "should" be faster, and is definitely not slower. I'm a little concerned about memory usage, though. Given that I'm running this on a shared account, memory is somewhat tight; there's a balance between how much memory you can spend on caching, and how much you can spend on Apache processes (see below).
Some useful resources:
- Gomez Instant Site Test lets you check performance from a few remote sites (or from thousands of them, if you're prepared to pay for the service).
- The Firebug extension to Firefox can be used to check performance from your own systems, and a lot more — that and the Web Developer toolbar has helped me keep my sanity during deployment.
- The YSlow add-on can be used for additional performance analysis, including a simple "performance grade" analysis tool (effbot.org currently gets an "A", python.org an "F" ;-)
Media Caching #
I had some difficulties getting proper caching for static media resources (which are served by a separate Apache instance). As it turned out, the copy of Firefox that I used for testing had caching turned off under about:config (d'oh!), but Apache didn't produce proper headers either. Fixing the latter was almost as easy as fixing the former (and a lot easier to discover); adding the following .htaccess-file to the media root directory did the trick:
<IfModule mod_expires.c>
ExpiresActive on
ExpiresDefault "access plus 1 days"
With this and ConditionalGetMiddleware in place, the server now generates proper expiry- and cache-control headers, and validation requests work as expected.
(By the way, Mark Nottingham's Cacheability Engine is a very useful tool for analyzing cache behaviour).
Server Crowding #
This kind of careful up-front design doesn't help if you're sharing your server with a bunch of Zope applications, though ;-)
The day before the new site went live, both the staging server and our other sites all slowed down to crawl, and even started to cause browser timeouts. top told me that a bunch of Zope instances and the mysql server kept hogging the CPU:s (with sustained loads in the 80-110% range), and the overall server load was often 10 or above. And when this happened, it took seconds to fetch a new page from my server. Tens of seconds, at times.
My hosting provider set up a new account on a less crowded server, but also spent some time tuning the current server; most importantly, they:
- Made sure that the front-end Apache server had enough processes available to handle everyone on the machine.
- Increased the ServerLimit setting for my private Apache instance (the one that's running Django).
When I'm writing this, the old server is about as quick as a server can be. I haven't ruled out a move, but it's not very likely. We'll see.
Resource Minification #
Reducing the number of external resources is a good way to eliminate some overhead. Since every server request has a cost, it's a good idea to eliminate requests if you can.
The original design used four CSS files, and a few small JavaScript snippets for some unintrusive enhancements (see if you can spot them ;-). I've now combined the screen CSS files, and "minified" all resources.
For JavaScript minification, I use Baruch Even's Python port of JSMin (available from that page). For CSS, I use a simple 10-minute hack, which does the following:
- Gets rid of comments
- Gets rid of whitespace, except between identifiers (this is way too aggressive for arbitrary CSS, but happens to work fine on my files — after some tweaks, at least)
- Replaces color names with hex codes and replaces 6-digit hex codes with 3-digit codes where possible.
- Combines my files with Yahoo's CSS files (see above).
(if anyone is aware of a more robust Python solution for CSS minification, let me know.)
The result is a (currently) 7800-byte large CSS file (2200 when gzipped), and a 960-byte JavaScript file (480 when gzipped).