text:
I remember clearly a moment about three months after leaving the RPI campus, after all the congratulations for my degree and the genuine excitement people shared with me for my new job. One evening after a long commute from the office, I stood in the doorway of my very small studio apartment where I could see every single one of my worldly belongings in a glance and with a stack of mail in my hand addressed to "The Resident of …" I had this sinking feeling: Really? Is this it? I thought I'd make a difference. I have heard this kind of experience referred to as the "after-school blues."
I talked with my older sister, who, in her infinite wisdom, said "Shush … you have a good job." Yet, as fortunate as I was, there remained a meaningful gap that I could not quite step over. Now, 15-plus years later, in a career that I am passionate about, I see that day in the doorway as a defining moment in my professional life. Many people talk about the transition from being a student to becoming a professional. I prefer to think of it as a transformation. It's the opportunity to start living into the promise you have spent your entire undergraduate experience preparing to deliver. It is a chance to fundamentally challenge your own operating models and define again, for yourself, what it means to generate results.
I have spent a good deal of time recruiting, training, mentoring, and promoting new employees coming out of school over the years. I would like to share my observations about some key attributes demonstrated by those I've seen be highly successful in transforming from student life to professional life. (Note: professionals are life-long learners.) In my effort to express the commonalities I have observed, please consider the following equation:
Transformation = (E+CM+RA)2TI
Defining the variables
E: There is no substitute for excellence. Excellence is not to be confused with instances of perfection. It's a trait of your individual work style. It's exercised daily with the commitment to delivering accurately and consistently in the present, keeping an eye on the future and maintaining a quest for new/innovative ways of working. Work to develop strong skills in both problem solving and opportunity identification. The status quo is most aggressively challenged by those who can identify and articulate opportunities for new approaches, processes and products.
CM: CM represents communication, not communications. It is essential to know the difference. The latter, communications, is about technology and different methods for exchanging messages. Our BlackBerrys and iPhones have communications. (They send and receive messages over a cellular network.) Communication is about the exchange of information between people. The "s" makes a world of difference. Effective communication is dependent on understanding your audience. The additional complication today is that part of understanding your audience means knowing the tools they prefer to use. And now, we get to go old school. Don't skip the chance to meet face to face with people or the chance to present your ideas and thoughts in person. Prepare as well as possible because these opportunities are becoming increasingly rare.
RA: Relentless & Relevant Action. What relentless relevant action can look like: requesting to go to conferences, signing up for training, attending lectures, writing whitepapers, searching for speaking opportunities, participating in local industry chapters, reading industry journals, learning about customers, requesting a mentor, learning about industry leaders, and asking questions about the company strategy and how it relates to your projects and assignments. Learn and live the code of ethics for your profession. Measure the results you are able to create while being in action. Results always trump intensions and provide greater learning value.
T: Teaming skills act as an amplifier. Teaming is about more than doing your work in a group setting. It includes negotiating capabilities, and the ability to support both the strengths and weaknesses of members. It is based on respect and being able to define the rules of engagement in a fair and equitable manner. It includes creating an atmosphere where people can speak freely about their perspectives and thoughts. Interaction is inclusive by design, not default. As a team member, regardless of your particular role, you will need to lead at times and follow at times. Learn to make that distinction based your team's needs and balance that with personal agendas.
I: In this equation "I" represents influence. Understanding that, as a professional, success is not only about what you personally "do" or personally "produce," but it is also about the manner in which you influence and inspire others. Influence is developed over time and is not only about being "right." Being recognized as someone with a positive "can do" or "let's explore that" attitude goes a long way in your ability to influence others. In many cases, a positive attitude often generates more career opportunities than aptitude.
Let the transformation begin! Do the math. Show your work. Become a professional. If that path should ever seem overly complicated or if you ever find yourself with the "after school blues"; consider contacting one of the 95,000 RPI alumni. We're partners in changing the world.
Columnist's Note: Allison Woodford '93 '96 G is an Executive Management Consultant at ABeam Consulting, driving the Human Capital Practice in Financial Services. She received her bachelor's degree in communication and master's degree in Technical Communication from Rensselaer. Woodford currently serves on the Rensselaer Alumni Association Board of Trustees, the Rensselaer Annual Giving Leadership Council, and as the vice president of communication for the Dallas/Fort.Worth Chapter. You can contact her at firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
Nelson Mendela died today. He lived a long, good life. When we were in Cape town in 1996, dad took a detour and visited Johnannesburg too. I remember everyone talking about Mr. Mendela and the revolution that was happening under him. There was an excitement in the air that connected the social narrative, that real change was now possible. To think that one man made such a HUGE difference in a nation of over 51 million is astonishing.
Reading about his story I also realized that he, like Martin Luther King, like Mother Teresa, had flaws, but also did things for other people. There is a certain joy to helping others. He believed the true freedom cannot be reached if there are people in poverty, because in poverty no one can ever really escape life's harsh realities. I see now that I have spent my last 10 years seeking "freedom with income and women", while Mendela was a higher purpose, seeking freedom for all.
It also got me thinking about the reason for selfishness vs. selflessness. In a world that is sometimes hard to see clearly the morality of a situation, how does one like Mendela continue to hold onto hope and the best in people? In his words:
"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite." —Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela"
I enjoy the flow of the game at night game, but I do get despair when I see the superficial aspects of women in clubs. They turn easily (from one guy to another, based purely on social value), they go home with strangers, people value alcohol and smokes and loud dance music over genuine conversation and a level of sophistication and class that seems to be sorely missed from Jay Gatsby's days.
I have strayed from my original ways, learning game mechanically. Larry Page found Lucy based on his perception of her intelligence and gentle nature. I'm not going to find my counterpart going out to clubs, its just not likely that will happen. Instead, I should look towards avenues via social circles to expand my horizons. I am going to conclude my training with Psych at 6 sessions, and see if I can get a refund for the remaining 4 sessions. I hope Fuji is cool about this, we'll see. I am improving my club game immensely. My speech is getting better, and so is my eye contact and body language. Mary said something important to me though – if I just show my vulnerable self, who I really am, women will fall for me. And if I can find a girl as good as her, who shares my values, then I will feel like I have accomplished what I had initially set out to do.
The mechanics of club game is an important skill, but ultimately I want to be a man of integrity and substance, that extend beyond the cold approach pick up of the club. I have made this decision tonight and will follow through on it.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Were we born into another tradition we would have covered the mirrors. But we are far from tradition; we are people rather short on traditional pathways. There are some vague Anglican gestures to be made. There is the Globe's death-notice department to be contacted. There are a few relatives to be called. We search the lonely old house for anything that had meaning and we search for meaning itself.
A pretty portrait taken six decades ago. Reminders of a fondness for Tennyson and for Olivier's Henry V. The files and aides-memoire and pills. Suddenly evoked: hands, voice, tears.
In the mirrors -- there are three -- I see nothing about me that is newly wise; no warning or message appears. Mirror-ish words drift through my thoughts. Under pressure I am a pun factory; I seize at words. I am reflecting on her life. I should frame it this way, or that.
When I settle a bit I can see that there is something else there, between the mirrors' cloudy images and mahogany, and I hope it is what lies ahead: light.
*Thank you to Colin Dickey for his recent story "Behind the Draped Mirror" at hazlitt.net, which got me thinking.


text:
LEGO Alien: Covenant Xenomorph MOC
12 Mar
Excuse me, sir, a-a what? – Private Frost (Aliens, 1986) It was sometime in 1979, while watching the original Alien film, that I developed a life-long crush on actress Sigourney Weaver, and a fascination for Xenomorphs. I've seen every movie, … Read More »


text:
One of the most beautiful libraries in Maryland is John Hopkins' George Peabody Library. Located in the world-renowned Peabody Institute of Music in Baltimore, Maryland, the Peabody is the 19th century research library of Johns Hopkins University's Sheridan Libraries Special Collections. The library's magnificent settings have made it one of the city's most popular venues for weddings, events, and … of course the movies (think Sleepless In Seattle).
The George Peabody Library was once known as the Library of the Peabody Institute. Established in 1857 by George Peabody, a Massachusetts-born philanthropist who "gave $300,000 as a beginning sum for the Peabody Institute," the library is a historic institution of the City of Baltimore. Mr. Peabody lived briefly in Washington, DC, fought in the War of 1812, and in 1816, he moved to Baltimore and resided there for the next 20 years.
A keen businessman, Mr. Peabody accumulated tremendous wealth and later settled in London to direct the banking firm George Peabody & Co. His goal was to dedicate the Institute to the residents of Baltimore and create a library "for the free use of all persons who desire to consult it." The construction of the new Peabody Institute was delayed by the Civil War and the building eventually opened in 1866. In 1878, the George Peabody Library joined the Conservatory and was immediately well-known as one of the most spectacular buildings in Baltimore.
The Peabody Library today has over 300,000 volumes of (mostly) 18th and 19th century literature. Books in archaeology, British art and architecture, British and American history, biography, English and American literature, Greek and Latin classics, are among many of the classic volumes housed in the Library collection.
Designed by architect Edmund G. Lind, the library is world-famous for its stunning five tiers of ornamental cast-iron balconies rising dramatically 61 feet above the floor (ironwork fabricated by the Bartlett-Robbins & Company). The Peabody Library is one of the few examples of Edmund Lind's designs still remained from the architect's lifelong, distinguished career.
The Peabody Library belonged to the Peabody Institute until 1967, when the City of Baltimore took over and made it a department in the Enoch Pratt Free Library. In 1982, Johns Hopkins University acquired the Peabody Library and made it a part of the Eisenhower Library's Special Collections department and the JHU Sheridan Libraries system.
In accordance to the provisions of Mr. Peabody's original gifting terms, the George Peabody Library is a non-circulating collection open to the general public.
If you're, like me, a big fan of the rom-com Sleepless in Seattle, you may remember the scene where Annie (Meg Ryan) pays her brother a visit at his office. She pulls her car up in front of a beautiful historic building in Baltimore where he works. That scene was filmed on location in front of the George Peabody Library.
In the next scene, Annie walks through the Library's main room on her way to her brother's office. That scene was filmed in the main room of the George Peabody Library.
The main room in the George Peabody Library was also where the movie Washington Square (1997) was filmed. The Library stood in for a bookshop in Paris where Catherine Sloper went on an extended holiday with her father.
I was at the George Peabody Library last week to take photographs of the library. The minute I walked into the Library's main room, I was in awe. No matter how many photos I've seen of the library, seeing it in person literally took my breath away. The George Peabody Library is absolutely the most beautiful library I've ever seen. Nothing could have prepared me for seeing it in person.
Imagine being able to film your movie here. Wow.
Lucky for filmmakers and production companies, the George Peabody Library is currently listed on LocationsHub and is still available as a film location. If you're interested in filming at the George Peabody Library or filming in Maryland in general, contact the Maryland Film Office today.
For information on filming in Baltimore specifically, visit the Baltimore Film Office's website.
Both the Maryland Film Office and the Baltimore Film Office are LocationsHub's and Reel-Scout's clients.
PHOTO CREDITS: Unless otherwise noted, all images used in this article were photographed by Sarah Le.


text:
I'm falling over because of the pink sparkles. Like, completely in love this this kick ass picture. Aren't you? And honestly, I have no clue what I'm looking at; is it a piece of fabric? A bridesmaid dress? Can't tell, and I don't care, but I cannot bring myself to look away. Actually, I'm distracting myself. I swear, every time I go to write this post, I find myself just staring at the sparkles and the bling. Sometimes I am such a typical girl. Right? Just show me some bling and a ring, and I can't look away.
Anyway, why don't I move on and tell you a little bit about Rachel and Justin? As a couple who both love country, their wedding definitely reflects this passion... I mean check out the Jack Daniels bottles wrapped in burlap and ribbon centerpieces! Or the cowboy boots! But, our bridey, Rachel, loves a bit of glam and glitter. And as a SUPER glamorous bride, Rachel will absolutely STUN you with her sparkly lacey wedding dress, and her amazing makeup. There are so many cool details to absorb, so don't let me distract you! ENJOY!
Two things... IN CRED IBLE wedding dress! Simply incredible!! I mean, just look at how amazing Rachel looks!!! WOW! Oh, and the other thing? Those boobs. Right? DAMN! This dress was made for you Rachel!Super glam and totally dazzling!Love the angle of this shot. Entirely romantic.Chalkboard mason jars for all of the guest. Such a FAB idea!I need one of these.LOVE IT!Look at Rachel's face! She totally got him!Awwwww....
Industry Peeps:
Photographer: Marie Still Photography
DJ: Celebrations 24
Florist: DJ's Clearwater-Largo Florist
Venue: Historic Feed Store!


text:
Ship early, ship often
By Najaf Ali
You have a developer and a clear set of requirements to get your project started. Now you need to begin shipping software.
By "shipping" we mean going through the process of implementing your requirements and deploying it to somewhere you can interact with it. The following do not count as shipping:
- Having the code for it complete but not deployed yet
- Having it work on your developer's computer
- The software being mostly done but with a few loose ends to tie up
For a web application, shipped typically means that there's a URL that you visit with your browser that will serve your application and allow you to interact with it.
The first thing you should do is ship
Creating a deployment of your software should be the very first thing your developer works on. They can't deliver any software to you before this step. This should result in an application hosted at a domain name or IP address that doesn't do very much to begin with.
Setting up a deployment environment for a web application is easy when it doesn't do anything at all. It becomes more complex with the more features you add to your application. Rather than figure all of the requirements out right at the end of the project, typically a few days before a big launch date, shipping first allows you to solve any deployment problems as you go. You pay this cost up front when you have ample time to spend on them rather than later when you're feeling greater schedule pressure.
Ship each feature as it's developed
You should ship each and every feature as it's developed, rather than in one big periodic release.
Shipping means fewer errors
Each change you ask to make to the system requires special consideration when deploying. Does deploying this change require special actions (like running database schema migrations or making configuration changes)? Will it react to production data differently than to development data? Are there any other problems it will have in production that it doesn't have in development?
Skilled developers will try to foresee these problems to the extent possible but experienced developers know that they'll eventually miss something. While they will try to prevent problems, they will also prepare for things to go wrong.
If you ship a large feature all in one go, then you have to deal with all the emergent production-only problems in one go. This can result in complex, difficult to diagnose bugs that hamper development speed and otherwise hold your project back.
By instead breaking each task down into the smallest tasks that make sense to deliver and deploy them as they're developed, you can deal with one set of problems at a time. The parts of the task that deploy without issue will work just fine. The parts of the task that surface problems on deployment can then be easily identified. This makes your development process less error-prone. It also means that when there are errors in production, they're easily diagnosed and fixed.
Shipping gets you closer to the software you want, faster
One major source of risks in software projects is the gap between the software that you want built and the software that your developer believes you want built. You can take a number of steps (like providing designs/wireframes and clear acceptance criteria) to try and close this gap. However clients often get a clearer understanding of their requirements once they see a first version of their deployed software.
Rather than trying to endlessly perfect the requirements gathering process, we can try to create a tight feedback loop. That means that instead of you giving feedback on the delivered software after a big release, you give it as soon as it's completed and deployed. If the acceptance criteria has been met then you can immediately create a new task definition based on your feedback and schedule it into the next iteration.
By deploying and giving feedback as each feature is developed, you help to make the desired and delivered software converge in smaller steps. You can make finer-grained course corrections on the development process than if you had to wait for a big release to interact with the software. This is especially important on projects where the major requirements change (which is, in our experience, all projects).
Shipping shows progress
The basic content of client communication on software development projects at the implementation is status updates on progress. The more simply this is communicated the better. Communicating the status of progress on large, complex tasks is strictly more difficult than that of small, simple ones.
From a non-technical client's point of view, a developer saying that they're "still working" on a large task is a black box. They have no visibility into the details of the task, so have no way of knowing the real status of progress. Even if given a step-by-step break down of the current progress, they have no way of verifying and giving feedback on the completed steps. They end up having to rely on the trust they have for the developer, which can be eroded if the developer incorrectly estimates the remaining time required to complete the task.
From a developer's point of view, giving the client feedback on the progress of a large, complex task presents a number of challenges. There may be implementation details that are difficult to explain or seemingly irrelevant to the client that are nonetheless holding the task up. Giving constant status updates may in fact be preventing the developer from concentrating on the task at hand in sufficient depth.
When a lender seeks payment from a borrower on a loan, the best possible status update they can receive is payment. The best possible status update that a client can receive in a software project is shipped software.
By breaking tasks down into the smallest deliverable pieces, the client no longer needs to rely on trust and the developer no longer needs to give awkward status updates. The developer can deliver the software, tell the client how to test it and that is the status update. That's what shipping early and often buys you.
Help your team ship often
You want your team to ship often. Here's what you need to do to make that happen:
- Ensure that the developers that will actually implement the software are consulted when writing your acceptance criteria on task definitions. If your developers aren't given clear requirements, they can't ship anything.
- Break tasks down into the smallest conceivable pieces that can be shipped individually. You will probably need your developer's help to do this.
- Give developers time to set up a deployment process that makes shipping software extremely easy to do. They should be able to do it in two or three steps, and it shouldn't take longer than ten minutes to complete, beginning to end.
- Tell your developers explicitly that they're to deploy the software as it's developed. A feature is not "done" until it's deployed. A feature should be deployed successfully and QA'd before they continue to the next feature in their to-do list.
- Shipping early and often makes your software project more successful.
- The first thing you should do on your project is set up a production environment that your developers can deploy software to.
- Shipping as features are developed results in a number of benefits:
- It results in less error-prone and easier to fix software.
- It allows you to give more fine-grained feedback on delivered features.
- It gives you more visibility into the progress your developers are making.
- You can help your team ship more often by consulting them during requirements gathering, allowing them to set up a smooth deployment process, and making it clear that they're to deploy as they go.
Once you become used to seeing consistent (usually daily) forward movement on your project, you become much more confident in your and your team's ability to deliver on the requirements you set out to meet. You insulate yourself from much of the risk inherent in software projects and so greatly increase your chance of success.


text: Get your weekend planners out now - The entire schedule for this year's San Diego Comic-Con has been released, from Wednesday (Yes, something's happening on Preview Night this year; two special screenings of the Fringe pilot) through to Sunday. We'll have a rundown of our choices for what you should be attending later this week, but don't let that stop you from going to pick your own favorites now. Just remember that we're in Room 2 on Thursday at 2pm. [San Diego Comic-Con 2008]


text:
New Jacksonville Spa in Riverside and Creative Ideas
May 1, 2015
So I had the wonderful fortune of getting to accompany a good friend of mine from Jacksonville Magazine, Jocelyn, to the opening of a new spa here in Jacksonville. It's a themed spa, which is something I didn't even think existed but I'm also pleasantly surprised as to how much I liked it. This new spa located in Riverside is uniquely named Marilyn Monroe Spas.
During our visit we received a complimentary polish change on our hands and I chose a very pretty color I thought looked Tardis blue. According to one of the associates, the girl who did a great job on my nails, all of their polishes are vegan and cruelty free, and their formulations are formaldehyde, DBP and toluene free. I did manage to find out the name of the polish i choose and isn't Tardis blue but British Love which is still VERY fitting. I'd also like to point out all of MM Spas' polish's names are inspired in some way by Marilyn Monroe.
Later, after a plate of delicious cheeses and fruits and a quick tour of the facility, Jocelyn and I decided to attempt a massage. I've never received a professional massage in my life. The closest I've come are the massage chairs at Planet Fitness and it doesn't compare. Rachel, who did my massage, was very attentive to what places need it most. I got up feeling wonderful and sleepy.
I was also very intrigued by how very well decorated everything was. The floors looked like an interesting type of hardwood and the walls showcased different iconic photos of Marilyn Monroe. The red carpet that lead from the front door all the way to the back of the building was easily my favorite accessory though.
The best part of this visit was the inspiration it gave me for my next set of text art I'd like to persue. My Disney work will never be done so I can easily put that aside a moment while I work on my current creative project.
Photo 1 is the original picture of a smiling Marilyn. Photo 2 has been converted to nothing but text and all the words are different Marilyn Monroe quotes. Next comes my favorite part of adding the colors and bring my art to life.
If you'd like to see my finish piece or maybe even want a copy for you self, check out my etsy account @ www.etsy.com/shop/ronohdesigns where I'll be posting it for sale along with a few more Disney inspired pieces and hopefully soon, more celebrity prints.
And if you decide to give the Marilyn Monroe Spa a visit, which I highly recommend, you can find them @ 150 Riverside Ave #303. Be sure to check out their great package pricing and specials. For more information, visit their facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/marilynmonroespasjacksonvillenaillounge?fref=ts.
Til Next Time!


text:
Please note that the meal was complimentary. However, the opinions expressed in my blog are 100% my own!
I was recently invited to Wasabi Sushi and Bento, the outpost of a fast casual Japanese grab and go restaurant popular in London that opened in February in Times Square. It is always exciting to try a new place, trying to find what makes them different and stand out. For sure, Japanese cuisine is fairly popular here, between the Japanese restaurants, the non Japanese restaurants serving sushi like Rue 57 or 5 Napkin Burger, the supermarket or deli offering sushi boxes to grab. I admit that I would never order sushi in a burger joint or grab a box made who knows when from a supermarket or deli.
So let's see what Wasabi Sushi and Bento is! Before talking about food, let's talk about the place. It all started in 2003 in London, when its owner, Mr Kim, a Korean born immigrant, got the idea to offer high quality Japanese classics for takeout at reasonable prices. He now has opened 36 locations across the UK and is branching out to the US with this first location that is of a nice size, with impressive high ceilings, white walls and floors that are immaculate, the main color standing out being the green from the stools.
In the back is the open kitchen where you can observe the crew preparing some food cooked all day long, making sure that what you eat is fresh.
At Wasabi, you can pick either sushi, salads or hot food (photo below), including soups.
It is grab and go, that is nothing extraordinary, except for sushi: you can grab individual pieces rather than a sushi set, allowing you to compose your meal at a reasonable price.
So I decided to compose my dinner with a bit of everything:
I grabbed different pieces of sushi:
- hosomaki (thin rolls),
- nigiri (thinly sliced fish over rice),
- Maki (large rolls made with two or more fillings wrapped in rice and nori).
Here is some of what I tried:
Tuna Nigiri:
Salmon Nigiri:
Tamago Nigiri (Japanese omelet):
Crabmeat and cucumber maki:
Inari Nigiri (deep fried tofu):
Tempura Veg maki:
Avocado Hosomaki:
Cucumber Hosomaki:
This was really good, each of the pieces I tried tasted fresh (they are made that day and never served the next day). Little I know that the owner, Mr Kim, is committed to serving sustainably-sourced yellowfin tuna and salmon.
The last sushi I tried was a first for me: it was the Chicken teriyaki onigiri, a triangle of rice tied in nori and flavored with chicken teriyaki.
I had to follow the instructions to unwrap it:
Et voila!
It was served cold and had some nori inside. Very tasty, it had a slight kick that tickled my throat.
Of course, I also had to try some hot food. First was the grilled teriyaki chicken bento box:
Chicken in a teriyaki sauce on a bed of stir-fried cabbage mix, served with rice, garnished with pickled cucumber, red ginger & sesame seeds:
If you like chicken, this is definitely to try, the meat, although smothered by teriyaki sauce was quite moist.
Next was the Chicken gyoza tanmen, a soup made with super thin rice noodles with lots of fresh vegetables in a delicious house-made broth:
It was a very good soup, made with plenty of veggies like Napa cabbage, bean sprouts, pak choi, carrot, onion or snow pea. But the star of the dish was the gyoza itself that was fantastic!
At the time we went, they did not have any more ramen, that they also serve, because they prepare their broth in advance, cooked for 8 hours, and serve it until there is no more.
Last was something sweet. I chose a Daifuku that is mochi filled with Azuki (sweetened red bean paste):
It was a delicious way to end a great discovery. Wasabi is a great way to get high quality Japanese food in the busy area that is Times Square, allowing its customers to create their own menu at very reasonable prices.
Enjoy (I did)!
If you like this post or the photos, feel free to share it using the toolbar below or to write a comment!
And Remember: I Just Want To Eat!


text:
It is always difficult to review collections of essays, and this is especially the case for the present volume. This reviewer was of course confronted by the usual problems associated with evaluating individual discussions that are meant somehow to link up in more general thematic ways. But the scope of this particular collection is vast and makes impossible a competent evaluation of the book by any one person: texts from China, Hittite Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Persia, Israel, Greece and Rome are all dealt with here. So let it be noted here that I know nothing about Chinese historiography, and little about the historical writing of the Ancient Near East. I found the book to be very stimulating and informative, but also, as a collection, somewhat flawed.
It is probably best to start by looking at the collection as a whole, and that being the case, I have to begin on a negative note. While I learned a great deal from many of the individual papers in the collection, I do not believe that the volume as a whole succeeds as a collection: the sum is most certainly not greater than its parts. Issues of genre and narrative are inevitably bound up with cultural issues, and hence bring into question the value of assembling essays on such a broad range of historical writing. Perhaps this is what the editor, Christina Kraus, wanted to suggest by 'limit'? As Michalowski asserts in one of the best pieces in the collection, 'genre and historiography are western concepts that have yet to be satisfactorily defined within the sphere of [Mesopotamian] civilization' (p.69). While some would want to refine this statement, the general point is a good one: what is the merit in trying to see if cultures outside Greece and Rome had a tradition of historiography that in turn responded to generic demands, when the terms being used have such specific associations with Classical antiquity? Furthermore, 'historiography' and 'genre' are 'labels', and yet, as Michalowski sagely warns us, civilizations cannot be reduced to 'collections of labels' (p.70).
Fully half of the papers in the volume deal with historical writing that comes neither from Greece or Rome (excluding Pelling's concluding essay). At some point most of these essays get around to saying that the particular tradition of writing about the past which is in question operated by a different set of principles from what we see in the Greco-Roman world. This conclusion is not surprising, but it does make one wonder why the volume was put together in the way it was. The problem becomes even more acute when we factor in the essays by Pelling and Marincola and their focus on the problem of genre. I will treat both papers in detail below, but it is enough for me to say here that each claims, in essence, that genre is something of an interpretive dead-end, even when considering Greco-Roman historical writing. But if that is the case, what are those western rules for writing history that the subjects of the non-western papers are not following?
Another difficulty with the volume as a whole, and no doubt one related to that mentioned above, is the generous scope of the non-western papers when compared with those treating Greece and Rome. With the exception of Clarke, Marincola, and Pelling, the remaining four Greco-Roman papers concern single authors (Thucydides, Livy, Tacitus, Sallust, in that order). This is by no means meant as a criticism, but in the present volume such an orientation makes these essays look very narrowly focussed. When vast stretches of time and space are being charted for other parts of the world's recorded past, it seems slightly off-putting to ponder detailed, author-based questions for Greece and Rome. This focus made me feel that the collection had two distinct registers: the broad and historical, and the narrow and literary. To put it another way: we see no authors' names in any of the papers except for those on Classical Greek and Roman historians.
A final complaint. A couple of areas were felt by their absence, at least by me. Where is Egypt? The Egyptian traditions of king lists and historical narrative (esp. royal autobiography) are clearly worthy of inclusion in such a collection and yet are not discussed,1 'Egypt' does not even appear in the index of the volume. Further, as long as the Greco-Roman part of the project was dominated by essays centered on single authors, why not have a chapter on Herodotus? If there is any historian from Mediterranean antiquity whose work raises issues of genre and limit it is his. Perhaps a piece on Herodotus would have had the effect of moving the presentation of the Greek and Roman material into broader categories of analysis. It is significant that he does appear quite a bit in the volume, but in Pelling's concluding essay, Marincola's general discussion, and Rood's excellent intertextual analysis of Thucydides and Herodotus on imperial invasions.
Now for the individual essays, many of which seem to organize themselves into subgroups. If I do not have a lot to say about the first pair of contributions, it is not a comment on their quality, but rather my own ignorance.
The first two essays in the volume concern Chinese historiography; and in fact there is a sizeable overlap in coverage, inasmuch as both deal at considerable length with the Zuo Commentary Tradition.2 David Schaberg writes on 'Social Pleasures in Early Chinese Historiography and Philosophy', while Wai-yee Li offers 'Knowledge and Skepticism in Ancient Chinese Historiography'. Li knows Schaberg's work, but Schaberg does not cite Li.
Both Schaberg and Li are interested in exploring how historians find meaning from the past by giving it order (see below on Pelling). For Schaberg this entails the development of a type of historical criticism by Chinese scholars that focussed on morality and aesthetic taste. For Li, the same scholars sought their authority to comment on the past by deploying a skeptical stance towards their sources. Save for some helpful opening remarks, Li does not really venture beyond the confines of her topic. A fairly thin comparatist view emerges at points in Schaberg's discussion through explicit allusions to the Greek historical tradition ('[Chinese] histories are hardly Thucydidean' p.2), and he makes a point of using Greek critical terms (aisthesis p.8, analepsis p.10). Li's essay was lucid and convincing. In a couple of places I found Schaberg's presentation somewhat less successful and certainly harder to follow.
Alexander Uchitel and Piotr Michalowski provide papers on historiography from the Ancient Near East: Uchitel discusses Hittite texts ('Local versus General History in Old Hittite Historiography'), and Michalowski primarily Old Babylonian ones ('Commemoration, Writing, and Genre in Ancient Mesopotamia').
Uchitel sketches out the histories of four distinct types of Hittite writing about the past: royal building inscriptions, royal annals, political satire, and local history. He concludes that '[o]nly two of these genres belong to historiography proper, being composed for the purpose of commemorating past events with no more practical aim, i.e. royal annals and local history' (p.65). This seems a naïve observation for a couple of reasons. First, there is the presumption that narratives which do not have an obvious and defined function are more accurate because they do not have specific agendas. But what texts do not have some sort of 'practical aim'? Second, to think that royal annals and local history are two examples in particular of texts without 'practical aims' is surely incorrect. Uchitel has been misled by an often unstated but nonetheless persistent assumption: for a Hittite text to be called historiographic, it must look like an historical work from Greco-Roman antiquity. So much is clear when he writes at the very end of his essay that '[t]he quality of [Hittite] writing also reached such heights as the dating by "summers and winters," preceding Thucydides by little short of a millennium, and even incorporated some elements of archival research' (p.66). What we do not get from Uchitel's work is a good sense of how the texts he examines functioned as repositories for the past within the context of Hittite culture.
Michalowski's discussion is altogether different. This is a truly important and brilliant piece. If read carefully, the opening pages of his essay make clear why the volume as a whole has the problems it does. Each culture has a different way of viewing and recording the past. Michalowski brings up the point made some time ago by Jacob Finkelstein that 'the Mesopotamian sense of the past was not to be found in the obvious places--annals or king lists--but in omens' (p.75).3 He disagrees with Finkelstein's particular finding, but applauds the general thrust of the observation: one has 'to analyze historiography "from the native point of view," rather than as a reflex of modern intuitive concepts' (p.76). Above all, he is interested in how the people of Mesopotamia manipulated their texts which concerned the past through various processes of transmission and allusion. Indeed, for Michalowski, 'historical meaning' in Mesopotamia came precisely from the copying, reshaping and even falsifying of pre-existing texts such as Gilgamesh. Especially important are his remarks about the self-reflexivity of this epic in a first-millennium redaction. Michalowski draws notice to passages at the beginning and end of this version that refer to a foundation deposit under the walls of Uruk which turn out to contain Gilgamesh's own story, as well as the reported narrative of Utanapishtim, the male flood survivor. The entire poem is transformed by this detail, for the poem, which deals with the problem of immortality and remembrance, is made a permanent historical artifact and connected to a physical reminder (the walls of the city). For Michalowski this historiographic 'sealing' of Gilgamesh reveals the emphasis that the people of Mesopotamia put on 'the textual nature of history' (p.80). Indeed, there is an entire class of texts from Mesopotamia that contain similar assertions (often false) of historicity and monumentality: naru= literature, or 'stele literature' (a modern designation, p.87). I could not help but think in this connection of the detail in Berossus' own flood story where Cronus (=Enki/Ea) orders Xisouthros (Sumerian Ziusudra = Utanapishtim) to bury 'the beginnings, the middles and the ends of all writings in Sippar', who then later digs them up and gives them to mankind (FGrH 680 F 4 = Syncellus pp.30-32 Mosshammer). Clearly Berossus was adapting a traditional device for claiming authority for his account from his Near Eastern setting; furthermore, the popularity of naru= texts may also imply that Berossus was directing his narrative not only at Greeks, but also at his hellenophone compatriots.
Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg has also contributed a splendid piece: 'The Persian Kings and History'. She too is sensitive to the fact that different cultures approach the past in different ways, and that what we call 'historiography' has a distinctively Greek tincture (p.99). Her essay focuses on Darius' famous Behistun inscription (DB). Sancisi-Weerdenburg turns her attention to the significant fact that while Achaemenid kings could record their deeds in writing in the lands they conquered (e.g. Cyrus in Babylon, Cambyses in Egypt), they had no written tradition in Persia itself (p.101). So, when Darius put up the account of accession and his victories over rebels and Scythians, he was breaking new ground, creating a text that had no precursors in his own culture, and perhaps even deploying Old Persian in writing for the first time. She is quick to point out, however, that there were several models in the Near East from other cultures for Darius to follow. Looking at the first four columns of the Behistun inscription (DB I-IV) in particular, Sancisi-Weerdenburg argues that the text was in all likelihood originally first written up as a letter to be distributed throughout the empire to assure people that peace and order had been restored after the usurpation of Gaumata; hence, this portion of the text is found in Elamite and Akkadian, as well as Old Persian. Column five (DB V) alone is written only in Old Persian because it had a different purpose, namely to announce Darius' successful conquest of Scythia (109). Its vagueness, which contrasts somewhat with the factual nature of the earlier sections of the inscription, can be explained by a desire to represent the actions as timeless: the eternal Persian monarch (not a particular one) subduing and conquering any foe of Persia (p.110). Darius' power was more secure, and the 'prototext' for this section was not a letter to all the peoples of his realm.
In 'History, Historiography, and the Use of the Past in the Hebrew Bible', Thomas Bolin issues something of a challenge. It is his contention that the Hebrew Bible (HB) ought to be understood not as a work of historiography but a work of antiquarianism; Bolin frames his claim against the views others, especially the recent work of John Van Seters.4 This paper has real points of merit; however, while this attempt to relabel the HB from one term with strong Greco-Roman resonance to another has a some interpretive payoff, it also involves Bolin in major difficulty. He argues that important features in the narrative of the HB are better explained when viewed as aspects of an antiquarian rather than a historiographic project: doublets, aetiology, etymology are just some features he draws notice to (pp.133-36). He connects his efforts to 'other lines of investigation which are beginning to look to the Hellenistic era as the intellectual background to the creation of the HB', rather than the Exilic period (p.133). The Hellenistic, after all, was the time when antiquarianism flourished. Bolin points to 2 Maccabees chapter 2 as the only evidence from the HB for its compilation (p.132, pp.136-37), and there are real attractions to the view that it was being shaped in a significant way during the Hellenistic. But my concern has precisely to do with the concept 'antiquarianism'. Although he makes effective use of Momigliano and Rawson in discussing the topic, Bolin does not really make clear that 'antiquarianism' is really a modern designation. Well might we ask: what is antiquarianism anyway (see Marincola's difficulties with this term as well, p.307)? And, assuming it really was a different way for ancient peoples to talk about their pasts than 'historiography', were their objectives really that different? Since Bolin seems to believe that real 'historiography' must be contemporary history, he is driven to say things about antiquarianism that are highly problematic. To suggest that antiquarianism deals primarily in 'ephemeral details of the distant past rather than on the immediate political or national history of the author' (p.137) implies that the presentation of the remote past did not have contemporary political relevance--and this is surely not right. One of the motivations behind the histories of Manetho and Berossus was the desire to assert to the Greek-speaking world the claims of Egypt and Babylon as great civilizations, indeed ones that had known world dominion in the remote past (even if they in fact had not). Josephus is perhaps an even better example. He knew that remote history was a matter of contemporary concern; he had studied Manetho and Berossus (among others), and made it his purpose in the Against Apion to defend the great antiquity of his people, the Jews. On a personal level, he did the same in his own autobiography, where he drew notice to the priestly and even royal nature of his own lineage. Certainly since the time of Elias Bickerman's classic article on this question,5 it has become widely accepted that in antiquity 'ancient history' was in fact intimately connected with 'contemporary history'.
With Tim Rood's essay, 'Thucydides' Persian Wars', we turn to Greco-Roman topics. It is an outstanding piece. I found some of his arguments for an intertextual relationship between Thucydides and Herodotus convincing, others not; however, the essay is always interesting, and its conclusions are important.6 I found Rood's treatment of those places in Thucydides' narrative where the Persian and Peloponnesian wars are explicitly connected excellent: Plataea in 427, and the comparison of Sphacteria to Thermopylae. Less convincing are those cases where he rests his argument on verbal echoes: I do not think we can tell whether the phrases 'going on board ships' (p.147) or 'sparing neither their own or others' property' (p.151) constitute real links between different moments in time because they are so common (how else would such ideas be represented in Greek?). Rood's main contribution, and one that is sure to excite controversy, is his argument that Thucydides' treatment of the Sicilian expedition is in some sense modeled on Herodotus' account of Xerxes' invasion of Greece. While he is quick to note that others have made the same connection (pp.152-53 n.35, esp. F. Cornford Thucydides Mythistoricus ch.12), it is Rood's contention that Thucydides' engagement with Herodotus' narrative is sustained, aimed at a specific purpose, and meant to be recognized by the reader. Further, he adds that the comparison between Athens' defeat in Sicily and its victory over Persia was not just a literary matter; people at the time must have seen the connection for themselves. Although not all will agree with his analysis, Rood's essay is powerful and will need to be read by all interested in Thucydides' debt to his great predecessor, as well as his own procedures for bringing meaning to his account. This contribution puts the question of intertextuality between historians on a new footing.
The next three papers concern Roman historians: Livy, Tacitus, and Sallust (in that order). All three attempt to find in their texts deep structures (or their absence) that inform the narratives in question.
Mary Jaeger contributes 'Guiding Metaphor and Narrative Point of View in Livy's Ab Urbe Condita'. This paper argues that we should look for Livy's 'sense of space', and to find in particular a spatial metaphor that helps to throw light on the organization that underpins his text (p.170). The metaphor she chooses is 'the idea of the labyrinth'. There are several thought-provoking readings in this piece, especially in connection with Livy's use of spatial terms to describe the 'path' his narrative is taking, but on the whole I do not think the article justifies its central thesis. On p.172 Jaeger admits that Livy 'never mentions a labyrinth in the extant books of his history'. Why, then, should we look for it in his work? Jaeger relies heavily on a book by Penelope Reed Doob, The Idea of the Labyrinth from Classical Antiquity through the Middle Ages (Ithaca 1990). But as Doob points out early on in her own discussion, 'references to the labyrinth and its associated myth abound in Classical literature' (p.17). If that is the case, this fact would perhaps lend some indirect support to Jaeger's reading, but also pose a much more serious obstacle toward accepting her views: if we can assume that Livy knew of the concept of labyrinth, and yet did not employ it in the presentation of his ideas, what is the value of using it as a heuristic device in interpreting his text? The attachment to the labyrinth as 'guiding metaphor' at times seems to lead Jaeger into narrow interpretations. Her lengthy treatment (pp.183-193) of Publius Decius' activities in Book 7 of the AUC emphasizes his control over space and hence his expertise as a commander; yet, as Pelling suggests in his concluding essay, Decius also represents something of the 'Black Hunter', a tricky opportunist who contrasts sharply with the ideal Roman commander (p.339).
D.S. Levene's paper, 'Tacitus' Histories and the Theory of Deliberative Oratory', is a valuable discussion of how rhetorical models may have played a crucial role in Tacitus' presentation of speeches in the Histories. It is Levene's contention that a 'non-Aristotelian' position in which moral arguments are not subordinated to arguments from advantage is typically associated in the Histories with villains, and is often shown to be persuasive in contexts where the outcome is disaster for their audiences too (see esp. pp.212-215). The upshot is the very grim conclusion that '[s]uccessful moral persuasion...is thus consistently linked by Tacitus to moral disaster' (p.213). I found this a powerful essay, as well as well-argued.
In 'Jugurthine Disorder' Christina Kraus proposes a daring thesis: that there is a 'thematics of disorder' in Sallust's Jugurtha, centering on the subject of the text. As she puts it, 'the prince is the embodiment, cause, and effect of disorder at all levels, political, military, and historiographical' (p.220). She isolates a number of places in the Jugurtha where there seem to be slippages of various sorts: war with Jugurtha does not end, it shifts elsewhere; Jugurtha's character in his early years is presented first as dangerous, then as noble, and then as dangerous again; the Romans who fight him are confused by his tactics and corrupted by contact with 'Jugurthine disorder' (p.235). Kraus makes a compelling case, noting the frequency with which confusion attends the figure of Jugurtha. But I hesitate to agree with her when she alleges that 'turmoil...ultimately threatens even the historian's project' (p.220). I simply cannot accept that Sallust ever 'lost control' of his subject matter (p.245), whether due to the character of Jugurtha or anything else. If we treat the slippages and discontinuities of Sallust's narrative as signs of his inability to write coherently about his topic, then all of the meaning of his text would seem to be thrown into doubt.
The final three essays in the volume are all very ambitious, and all are excellent. Katherine Clarke's paper treats 'Universal Perspectives in Historiography'. She makes it her task to 'explore the nature of universal writing in order to discover what makes it distinctive as a genre' (p.249); her focus is on Diodorus Siculus, Pompeius Trogus, and Strabo--all late first century BC figures, chosen on the grounds that they represent 'universal historiography in its extreme...form' (p.252). Clarke's main contribution is the simple but nonetheless brilliant observation that the historians in question represented 'universality' in two fundamentally different ways: through temporal or through spatial continuities. It is her claim that although they all must deal with these two types of universality, they work out the 'interweaving' of them in different ways, privileging one of the two axes over the other: Diodorus favors temporal linkages, Strabo spatial, and Trogus temporal but set against histories of separate nations (p.275). Clarke makes some wonderful points in the service of this larger argument: her discussion of Diodorus' citation of earlier historians is especially good, leaving us with the impression of an author who saw the past not in terms of actual events, but as constituted by the great narratives of previous historians at his disposal (p.259), a view that connects up nicely with the fundamental work of Volquardsen, Schwartz, and most recently Stylianou. Clarke does deal briefly with the question why universal history flourished at the time it did; the suggestion that it reflects an oikoumene unified by Roman rule (p.277) is essentially Nicolet's view,7 and is surely correct. One wishes she had said a bit more about this, as well as earlier practitioners of the genre (esp. Ephorus, mentioned in passing on p.255). But on the whole this is a superb piece of work.
John Marincola's massive contribution, 'Genre, Convention, and Innovation in Greco-Roman Historiography', is an extremely important essay that should be consulted by all who study Classical historiography. Marincola's study is first a probing criticism of Jacoby's organizing principles for his FGrHist. Similar in spirit are the critiques of Jacoby by Schepens and Humphreys in Glenn Most's collection of essays, Collecting Fragments (Göttingen 1997), as well as by Potter in his book Literary Texts and the Roman Historian (London 1999); in fact Marincola cites both Schepens and Humphreys (he could not have known Potter's work at the time of writing). Marincola asks us to rethink whether genre fundamentally shaped ancient historical writing; or, in his words, 'whether a particular focalization determined a consequent methodology and purpose' (p.296, his stress). Basically his answer is 'no', and his case is compelling. Even in groupings of apparently strongly allied texts such as the Atthidographers, Marincola sees more individuality and difference than generic sameness (p.299, pp.312-13; cf. Harding's views, Androtion and the Atthis [Oxford 1994], cited by Marincola). He has much the same to say about universal history (pp.311-12; note Clarke's conclusions, just above). Above all, where earlier critics have seen generic boundaries in historiography as closely policed, Marincola prefers to see individuality and dynamism. He does not want to eliminate the idea of 'genre', but rather, following Conte, to redefine it; it is not a fixed recipe, but rather a 'dynamic' concept that should be seen as a flexible "strategy of literary composition"' (p.282). Even if some readers will not agree with every one of his arguments, all will recognize their salutary effect: to show 'that the historiographical genres of the Greeks and Romans were not static categories in which one writer merely followed all or most of the aspects of his predecessors, but rather they were constantly dependent upon change and innovation...' (p.320). In other words, we have to read ancient Greek and Roman historians without rigid preconceptions, and credit them for choosing to write about what they did for very good and specific reasons, not merely the presumed dictates of their craft. I agree.
Christopher Pelling's concluding 'Epilogue' is marvelous. It is in essence both a built-in review of the preceding essays, as well as a wide-ranging discussion of genre and explanation in ancient historiography. Most of what he takes up by way of recapitulation and comment has to do with Greco-Roman antiquity, though not exclusively so. His argument, which amounts to nothing less than a statement of a philosophy of history, deserves a close look. Like Marincola, Pelling has a much more generous concept of genre, and therefore comes up with important results. What Pelling does is put the matter of genre more in the hands of the reader than the historian. Put simply, ancient readers read narratives that conditioned their expectations for later works (p.326). Or, as he says a bit later in the essay, citing the work of H. Dubrow on genre, 'it is better to think of a cluster of "on-the-whole" expectations, what Dubrow calls a "What if/then probably' rather than an "if/then" approach' (p.329). Pelling broadens this view yet further as he proceeds: '...whatever else we say about Tacitus borrowing patterns from Livy, Herodotus from Homer, or Thucydides from Herodotus, we should not lose sight of that simple point: the story is simply more believable if it corresponds to the audience's expectations, more or less conscious, of how stories work' (p.344). Notice that here he relies not only on the notion of the reader's response, but particularly as it relates to believability in the context of 'stories' in general. Pelling asks the fair question in all of this: if 'intelligibility' is generated by repetitions of narrative patterns, what about the fact that human events themselves seem to show familiar and repeating chains of causation (pp.347-48). Since this complicates the whole notion of repeated story-patterns, Pelling offers a different place to look for the common denominator in all historical writing and hence perhaps a key to its understanding: the need to order the past (pp.349-50). When he cites Xenophon's ending of the Hellenica as his first example of the historian's overarching concern to bring order to the description of the past (p.350), I can only applaud, for I am on record as being in complete sympathy with this view. While it may seem at first a trivial point, none is more important when looking at historical writing of any kind: historiography is the process whereby the past is made meaningful, and that is done through imposing order upon it. Such a view subsumes much if not all of the vexing discussions relating to genre.
Pelling leaves us with an excellent starting point for further study. It is crucial that, in addition to our own readings of ancient historical texts, we look at how they were read in antiquity itself. It is not as if the information is lacking. Of course historians were voracious readers of each other's work. And there were commentators as well: Dionysius of Halicarnassus is an obvious example, but so also numerous other texts, including the subliterary (see most recently P.Oxy 4455, a commentary on Herodotus published by M. Haslam). But in this context I am thinking also of, e.g., the material collected by Angelos Chaniotis in his book Historie und Historiker in den griechischen Inschriften (Stuttgart 1988), and before him, by Louis Robert in several articles:8 historical writing was read aloud, or, if you like 'performed', throughout the Greek-speaking world for centuries, in many cases by the authors themselves. Perhaps we should look here as well.
1. Sancisi-Weerdenburg does allude briefly to the king list tradition in Egypt in her essay (pp.99, 101).2. The authors date the Zuo Tradition in slightly different ways: Schaberg 'near the end of the fourth century [BCE]' (p.1); Li 'ca. Fifth-fourth century' (p.27).3. J.J. Finkelstein, 'Mesopotamian Historiography', Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 107 (1963) 461-72. Finkelstein was in turn borrowing a definition of historiography articulated by Johan Huizinga: 'history is the intellectual form in which a civilization renders account to itself of the past' (Finkelstein p.462); cf. Bolin's contribution, p.124, who also looks to this description from Huizinga.4. Esp. John Van Seters, In Search of History. Historiography in the Ancient World and the Origins of Biblical History (New Haven 1983).5. 'Origines Gentium', CP 47 (1952) 65-81 = E. Bickerman, Religions and Politics in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods (Como 1985) 401-17.6. Some of Rood's ideas are found also in his book, Thucydides. Narrative and Explanation (Oxford 1998).7. Space, Geography, and Politics in the Early Roman Empire (Ann Arbor 1991).8. E.g. Études Épigraphiques et Philologiques (Paris 1938) 14-15, Hellenica 2 (1946) 35-36, Gnomon 35 (1963) 58-59, and (with J. Robert) BE/ 1958 no.336, and Fouilles d'Amyzon en Carie vol.1 (Paris 1983) 162. Consult also L. Boffo, 'Epigrafi di Città Greche: un' Espressione di Storiografia Locale', in Studi di Storia e Storiografia per Emilio Gabba (Pavia 1988) 9-48.


text:
How to Develop a Softphone Call Forwarding Feature for BPOs
Plenty of companies around the world are ditching their desk phones in favor of softphone applications and, as our reliance on technology continues to increase, it's only a matter of time until softphones are the more popular choice. In fact, softphone usage is already on the rise, especially among call centers requiring scalable, robust, and low-cost VoIP telephone services.
Not only is a desk phone a relatively pricy piece of hardware, but they come with a certain amount of operational overhead for support and maintenance. Alternately, softphone clients are very portable, enabling anyone with a laptop or smartphone to stay connected on-the-go.
But, what if you want to take your softphone application to the next level with call forwarding? Fortunately, with a Zang-powered softphone, you can easily develop a call forwarding service to ensure maximum availability and prompt attention to customers' issues. By utilizing this feature, call centers (and anyone else who would benefit from it) can efficiently transfer calls to different units who can better address the needs of their customers, effectively increasing the satisfaction of their customers.
After setting up a Zang phone number for your softphone, you can develop a call forwarding feature to redirect phone calls to desired locations in just a few simple steps. This way, if customers call your softphone, they could be redirected to a secondary number where their issues will be addressed. Furthermore, when a call center agent is not able to pick up a call for any reason, the call can be automatically redirected to the next available agent to ensure customers receive the best prompt service.
Set-Up is Easy
Setting up a call forwarding service for your Zang-powered softphone is easy. Let's start by outlining how the service works:
- A customer makes a call to your BPO
- The call is directed to your VoIP softphone
- The call is forwarded to a secondary number
If you intend to develop a call forwarding capability from scratch and integrate it in your existing softphone, you can use the <Dial> element, which connects the current caller to another phone. In such a case, it's better to enable the action URL to return XML that includes the tag, with your softphone phone number specified.
And, you can include the call forwarding instructions within the <Response> </Response> elements. The instructions will be interpreted from <Response> until the end of the </Response> element.
Here is an InboundXML document containing a piece of code you can use to activate the call forwarding functionality.
To get the address to enter in the "Insert the Public URL" section, you'll need to create the following code:
After creating the second document, ensure you copy its Public URL, which you'll enter in the two places named "Insert the Public URL" above. Better still, you can start by creating the second document so you can retrieve the Public URL before moving on to creating the first document.
Worth mentioning, the phone number format you use does not matter. Zang automatically formats the phone number as appropriate. White spaces are eliminated and invalid values such as letters or symbols are parsed out. Therefore, you can use any format you desire. For example, XXX-XXX-XXXX, X (XXX) XXX-XXXX, or XX X X XXXX X XX will all work just fine.
Take It Even Further
It's that simple! Your VoIP softphone will now be able to redirect callers to another number so that customers can get the best service from your BPO.
In addition to building the call forwarding service, you can achieve even more elaborate actions using a Zang-powered softphone, such as setting a timeout for the number of minutes the forwarded call will ring, recording all forwarded calls, and customizing the caller identity. If you have any questions along the way, reach out to our support team at firstname.lastname@example.com.
image compliments of pixabay.


text:
"Our family put the 'dys' in dysfunction." It was a humorous note in an otherwise somber meeting with three siblings as we prepared the funeral for their mother. Story layered upon story of missed opportunities and emotionally barren relationships that created a toxic culture saturated with the slow acting poisons of indifference and neglect. My heart ached for this family-for their aborted past and for the ways that some of the sins of the past were visiting another generation.
Yet, there were glimmers of hope. For some, it was evident that other relationships with spouses, friends, and a faith community had intersected their adult lives providing an antidote of hope and altering the trajectory of despair. They discovered the healing power of human touch, of companions willing to walk alongside, of friends who showed up.
As I reflected on this situation, I came across these words from Lauretta Miles: "The community of persons closest to us has the power to keep us in the tomb of fear or to call us into the daybreak of hope. Do those around us call us to huddle more closely together…or do they help us throw the doors open because we have experienced together the freeing call to action that is the Spirit of Jesus in our midst?"
The power to keep us in the tomb of fear. The power to call us into the daybreak of hope. Think about the power of human relationships. Now think about your relationships. Who are the people in your community? Do they call you to huddle more closely together or throw the doors open on the wild and unpredictable experience of life?
It's Monday. Find someone in your community that calls you to "the daybreak of hope." Make it a point to spend time with them soon. Experience the life-giving power of relationship. Peace. Kai


text:
Performance Coaching
If you have a job which includes responsibility for the performance of others and you have to work with them day to day, you will know it can be the hardest and most time-consuming part of the job.
Believe it or not, noone gets up in the morning and decides to be the company driftwood but something happens on the way into work!
People, as a rule, do not purposely give a bad performance – but 'stuff' can get in the way – stuff that they will probably never tell their manager or supervisor about because half the time they do not actually know the cause themselves.
Getting top performance from people consistently
An objective outsider with no ego, knowledge of internal politics or axe to grind can help to see past blind spots and provide support for employees to be all they can be – every day. Coaching is not a replacement for the Performance Management system but can greatly enhance it.
It works to identify what is getting in the way of achieving what is required and putting strategies in place to eliminate them, without fear of reprisal or looking stupid.
How can a performance coach help you?
Performance coaching works because it involves assessing your personal situation and will help you to:
- Explore the mental blocks to achieving excellence and realising potential
- Define appropriate approachs to dealing with daily tasks that may cause undue frustration, broken relationships, missed performance, poor quality, and recurrent errors
- Engage others by giving effective feedback, enabling action, encouraging development, and tracking results
- Increase competence and overcome barriers to improving performance


text:
OK, I know there is no show yet (working on it now) but we do have a listener comment line. So if you don't want to type you can call (206) 350-0592 and leave a voice message. We may play them on the show so be nice! ;-)
You must leave your name and way (either email or phone) to get ahold of you, but I will NEVER publish, share or broadcast your personal information without asking you first, or unless you request it. (that's why I need the contact info) If you leave a message and you want to be anonymous, please just let us know. I can withhold your name or disguise your voice if you feel you need it. Truth sometimes requires protection, and we're all about truth right after Brotherly Love and Relief.


text:
Gevirtz School Dean Jeff Milem admits the post-election mood was a bit subdued as he got settled at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building for the White House Convening on Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Education held on November 18. But he also realized, "There's a good chance I'm not getting invited back for the next four years," so he was sure to present a summary of research that helps provide an empirically supported framework to examine a campus's racial climate.
"This meeting organized by President Obama's domestic policy advisors and the Secretary and Undersecretary of Education brought together policy makers, campus leaders, and scholars to ensure that discussions of campus diversity and inclusion consider how we admit and enroll diverse student bodies as well as to understand what we need to do to have all students feel safe, supported, and valued on our campuses so that they can thrive," Milem says. "As an educational scholar who has spent my entire career studying these issues, I was deeply honored to have the opportunity to share my insights."
Of course while a visit to the White House might be the most dramatic way the School is attempting to forge sound educational policy, Milem asserts, "It is just one of many ways in which members of the GGSE community are actively involved in work that informs and improves educational and social policy at the local, national, and international levels." (Watch Milem's comments here.)
This fall the School, supported by the UCSB Committee on Education Policy, kicked off the 2016-17 "Policy Goes to School" Lecture Series. The three talks – all free and open to the public – examine areas where current academic research sheds light on policy dilemmas in education, concerning topics such as special education, history, and cost-benefit analyses.
"Academic research often operates in silos, limited to providing empirical information to small audiences. 'Policy Goes to School' is an effort to expand the scope and reach of our research endeavors," says Department of Sociology Professor Victor Rios, a member of UCSB Committee on Education Policy. "The goal is to translate solid evidence into applicable, practical, and sound solutions for the most pressing issues in education today."
The GGSE's own Michael Gottfried gave the first lecture, "Children with Disabilities in Full-Day Kindergarten: Effects & Policy Implications" in October 12.
The second lecture on January 30 will by Ethan Hutt, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership in the School of Education at the University of Maryland College Park. And the third lecture in May 2017 will be by Brooks Bowden, an Assistant Professor of Methods and Policy in the School of Education at North Carolina State University.
"Education policy research has great potential to identify significant policy problems, to provide the scientific knowledge to help formulate policy solutions, and to evaluate their effectiveness in solving those problems," Gottfried says. "To be placed on the policy agenda, a problem needs to be framed in such a way as to capture the attention of policymakers, often by linking it to larger social and economic issues of importance to them. And that is the purpose of 'Policy Goes to School' – to place key research issues being studied at UCSB to the foreground."


text:
How to prepare for Magento Solution Specialist Certification
I just completed Magento Solution Specialist certification and thought of share with my experience to everyone who wants to do the certification.
Who all can take the Exam?
Business Analyst, Project Managers, Developers, eCommerce Consultants – Who are all having real time experience with both Magento community and Enterprise edition.
About the Exam:
- 66 Multiple Choice items (60 scored and 6 un-scored, you don't know what are all the questions which are not considered for score)
- 90 minutes to complete the exam
- All questions are valid for Magento Community Edition (1.8 & 1.9) and Magento Enterprise Edition (1.13 & 1.14).
- All questions assume the default state of native Magento installations, except where specified in the question.
What are all the areas need to cover?
Questions will be covered from the following 4 areas.
- eCommerce – 8
- Magento Architecture – 16
- Elements of Magento eCommerce site – 21
- Application of Magento knowledge to business goals – 15
Please refer Magento Solutions Specialist study guide for more details about the topics for each areas.
I would recommend concentrating more on the following areas for preparing the exam
Difference between Magento Community and Enterprise Edition
In which scenario we need to go with third party extension or custom development
Suggest better way for your customer based on the scenario
Catalog Events
Recurring Profile
PA-DSS, PCI Compliances
Catalog and shopping cart price rules
Order Processing
Multi store/Multi website setup
Table rate shipping method
Paypal payment method
Rule based promotions
Customer segments
Native cart and checkout
Customer account management
Tax management
Email Marketing
Reward points and gift card
Catalog, Product management
To prepare for the exam I would suggest you to study as a group and discuss the Magento admin feature, Magento Enterprise feature, because you will not get a chance to work/use all the Magento features in your project.
Finally, it doesn't matter how long you are spending to prepare for the exam, it matters how long you are working on Magento. If you are using Magento for long time and you have good work experience, I don't think it will take more than a day to prepare for the exam.
All the very best!


text: Join the Elgin Cultural Arts Commission and downtown Elgin businesses for the third-annual Art Harvest on Saturday, October 26, 2019 from 1:00-4:00pm! This free family-friendly event is a celebration of the arts and the season, and this year we will be unveiling the two new pieces of public art!Events include things like a community yarn-bomb spiderweb, paint your own pumpkin, face painting, inside-out haunted house, hayride, arts and craft project, and the Art Treasure Hunt! The Art Treasure Hunt leads participants on a hunt for public art in downtown Elgin. Find the art, meet an artist, get a sticker and return your map to Art Central @ DuPage Court for prizes! While you are on the art hunt, check out the downtown businesses that will be open for trick or treating! This event is family-friendly and free to attend.


text:
Innovate Finance would like you to join us as we honour Women in FinTech on International Women's Day.
In 2015, the inaugural Innovate Finance Global Summit produced a list of the most influential women in financial technology. This year we want to expand the celebration to include an informal social gathering that will inspire you to reach new heights and play a bigger part in creating a more diverse and sustainable future for finance.
Come celebrate the rise of FinTech and the role of women in the development of modern banking.
Meet and engage with those who made our power list as well as the community that is shaping a better world for financial services.
5.30pm – 6.30pm
Registration and Drinks
6.30pm- 6.35pm
Welcome Remarks by Sharon Lewis, Lead of the Global Finance Practice, Hogan Lovells
6.35pm – 6.45pm
Keynote – "Women in FinTech & How FinTech is changing the World" by Viola Llewellyn – Co-Founder & COO at Ovamba
6.45pm – 6.55pm
Presentation: Giving Back by UNICEF UK
GIFT (Girls Investment Fund Taskforce) is an innovative solution for women in FinTech, who want to embark in their first steps of philanthropy and to celebrate the contribution of women to tackle gender issues.
6.55pm – 7.20pm
Panel discussion: ''How FinTech is changing the world"
Moderator: Nancy Hulgrave, Anchor at CNBC Europe
Speakers: Liz Lumley – Head of Ecosystem at Startupbootcamp
Anne Ravanona – Founder and CEO at Global Invest Her
Claire Calmejane – Innovation Director at Lloyds Banking Group
Phoebe Hugh – Co-founder at Brolly
7.20pm – 7.25pm
Pitch Perfect: Global Invest Her presents entrepreneurs of tomorrow
Shreya Hewett – Co-founder & CEO – TransferGuru
Norah Prida Bay – Founder & CEO – Nickle
Paulina Sygulska – Founder – Grant Tree
Marta Krupinska – GM & Co-founder – Azimo
7.25pm – 7.30pm
Closing remarks by Lawrence Wintermeyer – CEO at Innovate Finance
7.15pm – 9.00pm
Drinks reception and networking
Event ends
Source link


text:
Nothing marks the festive season more so than the aroma of warm mulled wine (and the taste too!). The spicy, aromatic scent instantly whips up a warm feeling inside and is a great indication that Christmas is on its way!
So, no matter if you are out and about visiting local markets to get a taste for what's to come, enjoying one of our foodie breaks or looking to impress your friends at home, mulled wine is sure to make any occasion, and it'll taste even better when you've made it yourself!
Mulled wine is ever so simple to make, so why not give it a whirl?
Here's our guide to making mulled wine, and we've ensured that the recipe is for a 'party-sized' amount, so that you can share to your heart's content:
Servings – 12
· 2 unwaxed oranges
· 1 lemon, peel only
· 150g caster sugar
· 5 cloves, plus extra for garnish
· A pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
· 2 bottles of fruity, unoaked red wine
· 150ml ginger wine
· 5 cardamom pods, bruised
· 1 cinnamon stick
1. Peel and juice one orange. Add to a large saucepan along with the lemon peel, the sugar and the spices.
2. Pour in enough wine so that you have covered the sugar.
3. Allow to gently heat until the sugar dissolves while stirring your ingredients on occasion.
4. Bring your mulled wine recipe to the boil and allow to cook for 5-8 minutes until you can see that you have made a thick syrup.
5. While the recipe is boiling, stud the second orange with six vertical lines of cloves, then cut the orange into segments which can be used as a garnish.
6. Reduce the heat and pour the remainder of the wine into the saucepan, followed by the ginger wine.
7. Leave to gently heat through and then serve with the pre-made orange segments as a garnish.
8. Enjoy!
Image: rpavich under Creative Commons.


text:
Mercedes E-Class named ContractHireAndLeasing.com Car of the Year
A phenomenal amount of new cars have hit the roads over the last 12 months or so and once again, our dedicated panel of road testers and writers have been busy pondering over which models are worthy of their own accolade.
That's right, awards season has rolled around once more and as always, ContractHireAndLeasing has you covered! Principally of course, there's our coveted Car of the Year Award to consider, but with 13 separate segment wins also up for grabs, we're nothing if not thorough!
If you want to learn more about the nominees, click here...
or skip to: City Car / Supermini / Small Family Car / Large Family Car / Executive Car / Luxury Car / Small SUV / Large SUV / Convertible / MPV / Commercial Vehicle / Green Car / Performance Car / Overall
Best City Car
Volkswagen Up
Read our full Volkswagen Up review
The Volkswagen Up isn't the newest car on the scene, but thanks to a raft of updates it remains one of the most desirable and practical city cars out there. While the frugal 59 and 75bhp 1.0-litre units are still perfect for nipping around town, last year saw the introduction of a more powerful 89bhp option too.
This makes the Up just as easy to drive on motorways as it is in built up areas. The newly introduced Beats Edition gives you a stereo that's as potent as the engine too, but whichever Up you opt for it still offers what it always has: fantastic build quality, class-leading interior space and of course, that sought after German badge.
Runners up: Hyundai i10, Smart ForTwo Coupe
Best Supermini
Citroen C3
Read our full Citroen C3 review
Certainly one of the most distinctive cars launched recently is the funky Citroen C3. With the same styling cues of the C4 Cactus, it's gets a much more inspired look than its forebear. But those individualistic air bumps aren't the only reason it wins our supermini of the year award.
The C3's update extends well beyond the bodywork, thanks to an interior that features possibly the comfiest seats ever to grace a small car. Its four doors and 300-litre boot means practicality is just as high on the priority list as comfort. too. The best thing is though, if you don't like those air bumps, it's available without them…
Runners up: Hyundai i20, Suzuki Baleno
Best Small Family Car
Mazda 3
Most Mazdas used to spend their life in the shadows of the iconic MX-5, but its latest line up are all every bit as fantastic as the drop-top sports car. The Mazda 3 was updated last year, although it didn't really need much if we're honest.
A fresh grille keeps the car looking youthful, while inside there's a plethora of tech available. It's available with a wide range of petrol and diesel engines, all of which provide an entertaining drive. For us though, it's the Mazda's fantastically set up chassis and stand-out looks that set it apart the most in this crowded market segment.
Runners up: Renault Megane, Fiat Tipo
Best Large Family Car
Audi A5 Sportback
More details on the Audi A5 Sportback here
The Audi A5 Sportback may not be the most conventional choice of family vehicle, but for those that want the very latest in German tech and design, it's certainly one to consider. It's the sporty fastback look that won us over, and makes it a more interesting choice than opting for an A4 saloon.
Just like the A4, it's practical too. In fact, it gets an identical 480-litre boot. Audi's latest and greatest power plants are all there, the most powerful of which produces 284bhp. With sleek looks, a class-leading interior and refined engines, the Sportback is a cut above its rivals in every regard.
Runners up: Kia Optima, Skoda Superb
Best Executive Car
Mercedes-Benz E-Class
Read our full Mercedes E-Class review
Just like its C-Class sibling, the Mercedes E-Class is one of ContractHireAndLeasing's favourite cars. However, its latest incarnation has really broken the mould. Where an E-Class of old could be considered a larger C-Class, it's now a baby S-Class.
Its engines deliver power and economy in equal measure and all are mated to a silky smooth 9-speed automatic gearbox – a mixture we think makes it the ideal motorway cruiser. Long distance comfort is enhanced further by the beautifully put together interior, where you'll find every conceivable accoutrement on even basic models. Put simply, it's one of the best cars available today.
Runners up: Jaguar XF, Volvo S90
Best Luxury Car
Mercedes-Benz S-Class Coupe
Read our full Mercedes-Benz S-Class Coupe review here
You'd be forgiven for thinking we've got a thing for Mercedes, but the Ingolstadt-based company really is on a roll at the moment. The E-Class may be the perfect executive express, but what if you're after something truly opulent? Can Mercedes compete with the likes of Aston Martin or Bentley? Well the answer comes in the form of the magnificent S-Class Coupe.
Whereas the S-Class saloon is all about being a passenger, the Coupe makes it all about the driver; yes, every conceivable creature comfort is still there, but a dynamic chassis set-up and a host of thunderous engines make the driving experience as athletic as it is opulent. The S-Class Coupe is the ultimate Grand Tourer.
Runners up: Porsche Macan, Bentley Bentayga
Best Small SUV
Seat Ateca
Read our full Seat Ateca review
Seat came quite late into the SUV game when it launched its Ateca last year, but it was worth the wait. It uses the same underpinnings as the new Tiguan, but unlike the Volkswagen, it feels and looks more like a fun hatchback to drive than a sensible family wagon.
That's because it shares its appearance and componentry with Seat's sporty Leon. As such, it stands to reason the Ateca should be just as good behind the wheel too, and it doesn't disappoint. With its impressive mix of handling, space and good looks, the likes of the Nissan Qashqai and Ford Kuga need to watch their backs.
Runners up: Audi Q2, Volkswagen Tiguan
Best Large SUV
Jaguar F-Pace
Taking on the Audi Q5 and Porsche's highly praised Macan was no mean feat, but Jaguar certainly pulled it off with its striking F-Pace. A lightweight aluminium construction means despite a capable four-wheel-drive system and all Jaguar's usual interior refinements, it's both agile and frugal.
A sporty steering set-up means it doesn't feel too far behind the current XF from a driver's perspective, particularly in rear-wheel-drive guise and, although it's not what we'd call a conventional look, we think it's one of the best-looking cars Jaguar has built for a while.
Runners up: Ford Edge, Skoda Kodiaq
Best MPV
Citroen Grand C4 Picasso
Read about the changes to the 2016 Citroen Grand C4 Picasso
In the British lexicon, the name Picasso is now probably more associated with MPVs than it is with surrealist paintings, and the updated Grand C4 Picasso ensures this trend continues. This behemoth seven-seater gets a flexibility that makes it the perfect family load-lugger around.
Huge infotainment and driver info screens now dominate the dashboard, which along with the spaceship looks give the Grand Picasso a futuristic flavour. Some people carriers can be rather drab, but not this one. The Grand Picasso doesn't try and apologise for what it is, and that's why it's a winner.
Runners up: Vauxhall Zafira Tourer, Renault Grand Scenic
Best Convertible
Fiat 124 Spider
Read our full Fiat 124 Spider review
With the exception of the MX-5, two-seat roadster convertibles are sometimes viewed as a relic from a different era. But Fiat's changing all that. Enter the 124. Ok, the namesake is carried over from a fifty-year old car, but we can assure you there's nothing retro about it under the skin.
That's because it uses the MX-5's basic platform. It doesn't share an engine with the Japanese car however, and that's no bad thing. Fiat has developed its own 1.4-litre turbocharged engine for the job, which gives the little Spider a unique character of its own.
Runners up: BMW 4 Series, Range Rover Evoque
Best Commercial Vehicle
Ford Ranger
Read our full Ford Ranger review
Since the introduction of attractive company car and employee tax incentives were introduced, pick-up trucks have been taking off in the commercial sector. Not only is it a beast-of-burden, but it can double as a family vehicle. So, if you're wondering just how 'car-like' pick-up trucks are these days, look no further than the splendid Ford Ranger.
As well as being available with an all-out four-wheel-drive system, opt for the double-cab variety and you'll have a practical vehicle that's capable of seating five. What's more, interior quality is on par with the rest of Ford's range, while opting for the Wildtrak edition will get you satnav, a reversing camera and ambient lighting to name but a few features.
Runners up: Toyota Hilux, Citroen Dispatch
Best Green Car
Hyundai Ioniq
Read our full Hyundai Ioniq review
The Hyundai Ioniq shouldn't just win our best green car award; it should win three of them, because this all-new model can be specified as an all-electric vehicle, a plug-in hybrid, or a conventional hybrid. To keep things simple though, we'll stick with the conventional hybrid.
Aimed squarely at tackling the Prius, it's the value of the hybrid Ioniq that's just as impressive as its eco credentials. Not only does it produce just 79g/km of CO2 and achieve up to 74mpg, but it gets alloy wheels, cruise control, air conditioning, rear parking sensors and autonomous emergency braking as standard. And you get all this for an eye-catchingly affordable monthly price. An easy choice.
Runners up: Toyota Prius, Kia Niro
Best Performance Car
Ford Focus RS
The latest Ford Focus RS was without doubt one of the most anticipated performance cars for years, and it did not disappoint. It gets to 62mph from rest in just 4.7 seconds thanks to the 2.3-litre Ecoboost engine that can also be found in the Mustang.
Not only can this 346bhp Ford embarrass cars bearing Porsche badges, it can out manoeuvre them too thanks to a stunning four-wheel-drive system that'll make you feel like a rally driver should the feeling take you. Blisteringly quick, superb handling, room for your mates and a big spoiler. What more can you ask of a performance car?
Runners up: Audi TT RS, Porsche 718 Boxster
ContractHireAndLeasing.com Car of the Year 2016/17
Mercedes-Benz E-Class
There's little doubting any of the above cars' abilities and attributes, but if we could only pick one to drive day in, day out, it's got to be the E-Class. Within a month or two of launch, it went straight to the top of its class, and that's where it has stayed.
There's few things you could not ask of an E-Class. Especially since it's now available in Estate form, All-Terrain guise and coming soon, a Coupe. The ultimate all-rounder then. What more could you ever need?


text:
UniRac Recognized for Progressive Manufacturing
UniRac's Lean Manufacturing drive has been recognized with a 2007 Progressive Manufacturing Award from Managing Automation.
Albuquerque NM, May 8, 2007�UniRac's Lean Manufacturing drive has been recognized with a 2007 Progressive Manufacturing Award from Managing Automation.
"We've already seen great dividends from this program with new levels of quality, cost, and delivery performance," said Richard P. Welch, UniRac's Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, who initiated the drive last fall. "The rapidly growing solar industry provides us the opportunity to be proactive around this lean initiative and forward looking in its contributions to the company. We're committed to a long term continuous program of improvement, not a one-shot or limited effort."
The award will be presented in Las Vegas on June 14. As a recipient, UniRac is eligible for one of the magazine's High Achiever awards, to be announced that evening.
Lean Manufacturing stresses systematic approaches to identifying and eliminating waste and any activities that add no value to the product. It strives to continuously improve product flow based on the customer's "pull-signal" demand. An example is "just in time" delivery of materials via a supplier-managed inventory process. As a result, the right materials are always on hand to fill orders.
Welch stressed the impact on the customer in terms of meeting demanding short-cycled delivery expectations "On-time deliveries were 100 percent in April and are greater than 99 percent for the entire year. We deliver a significant percentage of our products in one to five days from order receipt."
"UniRac delivers on time and they do what they say they will do," said Ed Bless of Blueline Power of Marina, California. "Many aspects of supply are time-critical, and everything in the supply chain happened as it needed to happen. By meeting its commitment, UniRac came through for us." Blueline recently completed an array atop the Monterey County (California) Weekly, which featured in installation in its cover story May 2.
Welch identified employee involvement as the largest contributor to the program's success. "I'm truly encouraged by the acceptance across the organization." He also credited key contributors to the lean effort: Andrea Holling and Matt Moser of the New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership, who provided Lean training classes, and Brian McMillan, a representative of Global Shop Solutions, the developer of UniRac's Enterprise Resource Planning software.
"As an environmentally conscious company, we aggressively practice recycling and waste-product elimination which coincides with the lean principles around waste reduction," said Welch. That effort ties into the company's long-standing commitment to green business practices and a preference for partnering with suppliers who employ the same practices.
UniRac, Inc. (www.unirac.com) designs and manufactures mounting structures for photovoltaic (PV) arrays, which convert sunlight into electricity. Based in Albuquerque, it works worldwide with builders dedicated to sustainable energy�from residential installers to high-rise contractors. Its product lines promote versatility, efficient installation, code compliance, and superior aesthetics. UniRac is the parent company to UniRac Pty Limited, incorporated in Australia earlier this year.
Managing Automation (www.managingautomation.com) covers technology solutions for progressive manufacturers. It is based in New York City.
Featured Product
Panasonic HIT® AC Series - Design flexibility, faster installation, higher ROI - all in one panel
Extract maximum power production from every roof size and shape. HIT® AC Series combines the module efficiency of Panasonic solar panels with the intelligence of Enphase microinverters. A built-in IQ 7X microinverter with Individual MPPT (Module-level Power Point Tracker) tracking helps deliver an all-in-one module that offers design flexibility, reduced installation time, and a higher ROI. Field-replaceable microinverter with no DC wire management required yields lower cost of ownership.