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If you are planning a building or renovation project for your home, it's likely you will need to obtain an approved consent before beginning work.
The process of gaining a consent and following through to obtain a Code of Compliance Certificate at the end can be daunting, time-consuming and frustrating.
There are some simple things you and your builder can do to save hours, weeks and dollars on building inspections.
Here are five tips to passing building inspections:
1. Make sure you are ready for the building inspection
A lot of contractors are so busy they find it easier to use an inspector to compile a snag list of issues to address.
2. Address any changes as soon as possible
To reduce possible delays, be sure to discuss these changes with the inspector as early in the process as possible.
3. Keep learning
Keep developing and improving your own technical knowledge, particularly if you are working with materials or products you are unfamiliar with.
4. Feel free to ask inspectors questions
They are highly trained and very knowledgeable about the Building Code and are very up-to-date on the latest trends and construction techniques.
5. Get your paperwork in order
Make sure you have all of your outstanding certificates and other paperwork when applying for the Code Compliance Certificate (CCC).


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Let us start with a question. In your view, how many job applications do big companies get for their job postings? 100? 500? 1,000? 5,000? Nope. It runs into tens of thousands. Yahoo!receives 12,000+ resumes every week. Companies eventually land up with an enormous pool of resumes in their database. It is humanly impossible to review so many applications for all sorts of job postings. Time is also of the essence. Behold the savior, technology. HRs use systems called Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to streamline their screening process. The job of the ATS is to find the most suitable candidates (thereby eliminating others) for a job posting and present them to the HR.
The ATS requires some inputs from the HR to find relevant candidates. HRs express these requirements in terms of words, also known as"keywords". The ATS scans the entire resume pool and uses sophisticated algorithms to find the most qualified candidates with respect to these keywords. Let us illustrate with a simple example.
Suppose Google is looking for a iPhone Developer in San Francisco. The HR at Google could look for a certain skill set, educational qualification, and location of residence of the candidate. Keywords for this position may include iPhone, iOS, software design, cocoa, objective-c, San Francisco Bay Area, Computer Science Engineer and so on. These are words that an ATS would expect to see in a resume of a person who has experience in iPhone Development. Their absence could indicate that the candidate is a poor fit for the job. This is a very simple example to explain the concept of keywords. If one thinks about it, there is a fascinating parallel between keyword search and a typical Google search. Making your website more searchable for a particular user search is commonly known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Likewise, making your resume more searchable for a particular job is slowly being referred to as SEO for Resumes or Resume Optimization.
Let us dig deeper into the different types of keywords that HRs look for. Keywords could be of but not restricted to the following types:
- Skill or Competency Keywords: These are generally core to any job requirement. Some examples of skill keywords from different streams include financial modeling, object-oriented programming, market research, sales, intellectual property rights, calculus, French, leadership, teamwork, and so on. Employers might look for a good mix of both hard and soft skills.
- Contact Information Keywords: Employers might look for local talent and so the name of the city itself could act as a keyword for that particular job. If Google wants to fill a position of Java Developer in their Mountain View office, they might want candidates from the San Francisco Bay Area only. So, San Francisco Bay Area is a keyword.
- Educational Qualification Keywords: It could so happen that an employer is looking for candidates who have finished a college degree only. Then, B Tech, BA, BSBA, BS, BE, etc. are all keywords for the job. Similarly, companies could look for candidates who have done their MBA from a certain list of schools. Essentially, MBA and the names of those schools are keywords being searched for by the ATS.
- Work Experience Keywords: Companies could also look for candidates who have worked in certain companies, or certain industries, or in certain job positions or in certain locations, and so on. For instance, Wikipedia might want candidates who have worked in the telecom industry space in emerging economies in Asia since they are looking to fill a job that demands such expertise and experience. Then, telecom industry, India, China, etc will be keywords that the ATS will look for.
- Action Keywords: These are words that are used to construct sentences in a person's resume or cover letter that exhibit actions, personality traits, and achievements of a person. Examples include achieved, executed, accomplished, reviewed, analyzed, and so on.
These are a few categories of keywords. As one can see, the keywords for a job are very specific to each job. Gone are the days of a one-size-fits-all resume.
Given a job posting, how do you find the keywords and where do you use them on your resume?
Now that you have a good idea about keywords and their different types, the next step is to identify them in each job that you are applying to. There are ways to do this. Here are a couple of ways:
- Manually go through the job description to identify the keywords from the lens of the employer with respect to the different types of keywords mentioned earlier. Add them to your resume in the appropriate sections.
- Use a resume optimizer to get all the keywords you require and the sections you need to add them in. Resume optimizers are nothing but ATS simulators. They simplify the process for job seekers to a large extent saving a tremendous amount of time.
Location Matters: The location of the keywords in a resume matters. For instance, if you have a high level of expertise in a certain skill like "financial modeling", the ATS would expect to see "financial modeling" in your work experience section and not just your skills section. The ATS is smart enough to identify contexts and extract meaning.
In summary, when interested in applying to a job, keeping in mind the different types of keywords, you need to identify the keywords, and add them in the right sections of your resume. This makes sure that you are considered to be a very strong candidate for an interview. For more important dos and don'ts on your CV, follow the link.

subset: commoncrawl


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Pumice is an igneous rock formed by the rapid cooling and depressurization of volcanic magma with a high gas content. It is characterized by a large amount of vesicles formed from gas bubbles in the magma.
Gases found in magma are highly pressurized and typically form liquid solutions. When the magma erupts, rapid depressurization causes the gases to vaporize and form a large amount of pockets in the frothy molten rock. The magma experiences rapid cooling and hardens, which causes the gas to become trapped in numerous vesicles, creating a highly porous igneous rock. These vesicles cause pumice to typically be extremely lightweight due to its low density.


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One lonely widow + one lonely widower + a wink = love, marriage, more family and blogging.
Vicki and Paul both lost their spouses and were looking for someone to share life with. They entered the world of online dating. After nine months of receiving possible "matches" that were mostly scammers and liars, Vicki received Paul's profile as a possible match. She winked, he answered then God worked in their hearts. Paul offered to coach Vicki with her dating profile to attract a man who loved God. Vicki shared a story about fishing on a lake. It is easy to catch sunfish – the scammers and liars found on online dating, but harder to catch the northern pike, the one God would want in her life. It wasn't long before Vicki and Paul realized she had hooked her Godly man, Paul. They realized they were meant to be together.
This is our story. We married in May of 2016. We combined our families: our grown kids, their spouses and the grandkids past and future. Our number is 14 and growing. This doesn't count our extended family or our dogs. You can imagine all the conversations that fill our tables as we share our lives and love for God together.
Paul and I settled into our life on Camano Island and started writing. Christian blogging became our first project we worked on together. The tech world has much to teach us and we are learning through trial and error. Our daughter Valaree is stepping in the share her knowledge and help with the blog. She will write posts for the blog as she shares experiences and her love for God. We are looking forward to having other family members share with you too as we continue our conversations about loving God and living in today's world.
We are sharing what God has given us – His Love. His love has seen us through some very hard times from our past lives. His love also gives us hope for a future with shared dreams to be used by Him. We are meeting people, traveling and experiencing a growing love for each other and our family while sharing the gift of God's love with you.
Vicki and Paul Burgess


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The year ahead: 2010 predictions
Published: 17 March, 2010
What future for merchanting? The experts give their forecasts, based on the mood of the market. Lisa Arcangeli reports.
Slow protracted growth
The UK remained blanketed in recession during the third quarter of 2009, after the vast majority of countries had already started to grow again.
Official figures published at the end of January 2009 are anticipated to state that economic recovery began in thefourth quarter of 2009, in part due to spending brought forward by the Government, through fiscal stimulus, but also by consumers taking advantage of lower VAT and the car scrappage scheme in addition to exporters benefiting from a favourable exchange rate.
However, according to the Construction Products Association, economic recovery is expected to be both slow and protracted. Growth of only 0.7% for the economy is anticipated in 2010 with 2% growth in 2011 prior to a return to trend growth only in 2012.
According to the CPA's Construction Industry Forecasts Winter 2009-2013,conditions for construction remain challenging, despite data for the fourth quarter of 2009 being expected to show that the economy had started its road to recovery.
Following on from 2009's sharpest fall in construction on record, the industry is expected to contract a further 3% in 2010, prior to a return to growth in 2011 with the result that the construction industry will have suffered a deeper and more prolonged recession than the economy as a whole.
Private sector construction is suffering from sharp falls in the commercial and industrial sectors.
The commercial sector is estimated to have fallen 26% in 2009 alone – the sharpest fall on record and it is expected to fall a further 15% due to a lack of orders for new offices and retail properties.
Likewise, due to a collapse in orders for new factories and warehouses, industrial construction work fell by an estimated 48% over the last two years and is expected to fall a further 2% during 2010.
Despite significant rises over the last six months, private housing remains at historically low levels.
Even with double-digit growth over the forecast period, continuing the growth seen in the second half of last year, private housing starts are only anticipated to be 92 000 in 2010, half the figure seen in 2007. Even in 2013, starts are expected to be 25% lower than in 2007.


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Top Suggestions 7 Wire Round Plug Wiring Diagram :
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In 2005, the Pennsylvania Justice Network (JNET), the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP), and the Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts (AOPC) began developing an electronic warrant issuance process for all Magesterial District Judge and Common Pleas warrants. The primary objectives for the eWarrant system were to collect, secure, automate, and enter all warrants into PSP's Commonwealth Law Enforcement Assistance Network (CLEAN) and the FBI's National Crime Information Center (NCIC) at the time of judicial approval.
In collaboration with PSP and AOPC, JNET has migrated warrant processing from the PSP to JNET-maintained system components and has enhanced the eWarrant system by deploying a warrant correction application to local law enforcement and by improving the system's capability to track rejected warrants.
Developed at a time when economic resources dwindled, but criminal caseloads rose, the Allegheny Standardized Arrest Program (ASAP) was designed to expedite required court paperwork preparation, electronically share information among law enforcement and other criminal justice agencies, and identify and reduce delays between the time of arrest of criminal defendants and their subsequent arraignment. ASAP generates a complete Pennsylvania Criminal Complaint complying with the uniform statewide template, which is immediately available to the jail, district attorney, and the court. The program has contained costs, vastly improved efficiency and accuracy, and has proven to be a valuable investigative tool.
In 2008, the York County Adult Probation Department was given access to the County's document management software system. When coupled with the AOPC's electronic docketing system and the offender tracking case management system, this new system enables the almost immediate transfer of information from the courts (sentencing orders and case notes) to the Probation Department (intake documents and revocation orders) to other justice system entities such as the Sheriff's Department and booking facilities. The Adult Probation Department also subscribes to the JNET electronic notification of new arrest warrants, enabling the probation officer of record to be automatically notified if a probationer is wanted on an arrest warrant. A key benefit of receiving these electronic communications is the immediacy with which offenders are supervised and held accountable, resulting in greater public safety and reduced violations and recidivism.
Disposition reporting in the state of Pennsylvania was developed from a paper, form-based process to a fully automated, standards-based system utilizing service-oriented architecture. The result is a centrally managed criminal history repository for disposition reporting by the Pennsylvania State Police. Significant collaboration in technological enhancements and business process improvements now yield 80 to 90 percent disposition reporting rates.


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Alternative tee, Costa Blanca vest from Parc Boutique, J.Crew Pixie pants, Target flats, Vince Camuto handbag, gifted necklace
Tasia got me hooked on this lipstick by CoverGirl in the shade Flame, and it's the only color I reach for when I want to turn heads. With understated colors creating the rest of my look, it was almost necessary to brighten my face with a bold lip color. Yesterday, we got lucky with one more nice day before rain and snow hit the Twin Cities today. Hoping it clears up soon because this girl got new summer clothes over the weekend!


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"There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living."
- Nelson Mandela
It's a bittersweet feeling - pride and excitement tinged with disappointment and thoughts of what if...?
But we have to remember that having a team in the World Cup is one thing. Hosting the event is another.
As South Africans we can be truly proud citizens. This World Cup must surely rank as one of the best in terms of organization, stadiums and tourism-friendliness, despite the doom and gloom predicted by the afrosceptics and perpetual SA-pessimists.
Yet again we South Africans have demonstrated to the world an amazing capability to stage a top class world event with panache. Our enthusiasm, energy and friendliness in welcoming the world has been unrivalled.
Our failure to progress on the sports field has been totally overshadowed by our success in hosting the other thirty-two nations. The positive press that our country has enjoyed during this short period has helped address negative perceptions built up over decades in the outside world where media feast on problems and failure and pay scant attention to good news stories.
Whatever, other people think of us they cannot deny that we are always great competitors, never ones to lie down when faced by seemingly insurmountable odds.
As South Africans we can never be accused of playing small.
Congratulations to all of us.
Now, let's sit back, relax and concentrate on being terrific hosts to the intriguing battle between sixteen other great soccer nations!
In the collective pride, disappointment and enthusiasm that we feel as a nation there is a great lesson for us as individuals...
The true glory is not in winning against - but in serving - our fellow men with graciousness, humility and vibrancy!
Till next week...
Warm regards,
Copyright New Insights Africa. All rights reserved.
New Insights Africa Life Coaching Skills Training - Putting an Extraordinary Business and Lifestyle within reach of Passionate People.
If you think you are Life Coach material why not study, at your own pace and in your own time, with New Insights Africa? If you have the passion, we have the skills, knowledge and support to offer you. Please visit our website.
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LBW Product Watch, Hallowe'en Edition/
Parents, are you concerned for the safety of your children this Hallowe'en? Don't be afraid to admit it, it's only natural. What with all of the pretend monsters, murderers and misanthropes thronging the streets, how could event the most astute of children be expected to pick out and avoid any real ones that might come along? That's why we here at Living Between Wednesdays* are pleased to endorse what we believe to be the perfect way to keep your child safe no matter what supernatural menaces might lurk in the night (or possibly late afternoon if you live in one of those wussy communities).
That's right, Robert E. Howard's Puritan adventurer himself, with more than six decades of globe-trotting monster massacre under his belt and a no-nonsense commitment to justice and right that will ensure that he will not stop until your offspring are safe, or at the very least avenged.
Why, just look at a few of Kane's areas of expertise:
Yes, with pirate popularity showing no signs of abating completely, one can never be sure if the Johnny Depp-lookalike staggering down the street is a mere reveler or an actual pirate, drunk on the rum. Solomon Kane can tell, and he has twice the bladesmanship of any rickets-plagued buccaneer. Or of Johnny Depp himself, if it should come to that.
Unlike many, Solomon Kane will not hesitate to jump on a werewolf if the need arises. Despite the fact that most werewolves will have buried themselves in river mud to sleep out the winter months by the time November comes, wouldn't you rest easier knowing that a dour Puritan was ready to jump on any that might still be awake, before they could jump on your spawn?
It is a little-known fact that giant snakes are the most easily-bored of all the reptiles and constantly crave new dining experiences. Thus, Hallowe'en is a particularly dangerous time of year, as their reptile brains are unable to grasp the concept of trick or treating and see the hordes of costumed youths thronging the streets as brand new taste sensations, rather than the same bland children that they had become so tired of preying upon by March or April of the year. Parents of especially creative children take note: if you cannot arrange Solomon Kane to escort your child then it may be wise to talk them out of that Two Headed Laurel and Hardy costume and into a more generic and safe ghost or sexy nurse outfit.
Whether zombies, vampires or cone-headed African zombie/vampire weirdos, Solomon Kane and his cat-headed ju-ju staff will murderize their unholy selves, just as a matter of principle.
But don't think that Solomon Kane is only proficient in battling garden-variety menaces like those above. No, he is available to protect your young from a whole host of less-common menaces, including:
And, perhaps most impressively of all:
Yes, Solomon Kane. He may call your wife a harlot and punch you out for taking the Lord's name in vain, and he definitely won't let your child engage in anything so Paganistic as trick or treating, but when you want a man who will almost certainly bring your youngsters home undevoured and not in thrall to ancient evil, this dour Puritan is the name that parents trust.
Order now! Supplies are limited!
*"We" is a proprietary term here used to refer only to Johnathan Munroe. And even then, only loosely.


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14-Jun-2017 @ 14:00
Rights for Bangladesh's 4.2 million garment workers must improve if the country is to maintain its tariff-free access to the EU, Conservative MEP Sajjad
Karim warned today.
Speaking as the European Parliament approved his Motion for Resolution reviewing the Sustainability Compact between the EU and Bangladesh, Mr Karim said a tipping point was close to being reached.
He said: "EU trade policy is our soft power. It is based on values meaning that we demand our trading partners to respect core principles in the area of human, labour and environmental rights.
"We have now come to crossroads. Either we see substantial progress in the terms of labour rights or we realise that trade preferences are not in line with our values and might be ultimately revoked.
"We simply cannot issue every year appeals and statements. We have to see tangible results on the ground for the privileged market access to be continued."
Today's resolution acknowledges that progress has been made in improving safety in garment factories since the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Dhaka in 2013 which killed 1,129 workers. It also notes that the garment sector is vital for the Bangladesh economy and allows many people, especially women, to move into the formal economy.
But it stresses more needs to be done and expresses concern about the arrest of union leaders and the dismissal of workers protesting about low wages.
The resolution calls on international brands which source garments from Bangladesh to "stay engaged in order to respect labour laws and ...to improve responsible business practices, including decent working conditions for Bangladeshi garment workers."
The garment and textile sector comprises 81 per cent of Bangladesh's exports, with 60 per of its clothing output going to the EU.
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Purple sweet potato with mint yoghurt, pine nuts and sprouts
Purple sweet potato is also known as the Okinawa potato. This vibrant veg is said to be one of the reasons Okinawa has such a high percentage of centenarians. In this recipe I boil the potatoes rather than steam or roast as Dr Greger says that boiling sweet potato retains the most nutrition.
1 large purple sweet potato, peeled and chopped
1/2c dairy free sugar free yoghurt
A few mint leaves, finely shredded
A squeeze of lemon juice
1T pine nuts, toasted
A handful of sprouts
1T shelled hemp seeds
Extra virgin olive oil or flax seed oil
Put the potato in a pan with water to just cover it. Boil until just cooked. Drain well and allow to cool, scatter a little salt on the potatoes. Mix the yoghurt, mint, lemon juice and a little salt. Put the potato on your plate, dress with the yoghurt, pinenuts, sprouts and hemp seeds. Drizzle a little oil over the potatoes.


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Meet Meghan Asha, one of the coolest, geekiest and most beautiful bloggers on the internet. A dream girl for any geek like me. Today she talks about Mobuzz.tv on her blog and how she really liked it. My week is made... Hell, my month is made now.
"Their video post today about backing up your data and photos is particularly informative (maybe, I'll take their info to heart before loosing my next external drive). I'm upset that I can't visit this company before leaving tomorrow. Perhaps, I'll need to add this to my ever expanding list of reasons to come back to Spain (sigh!)."
Damn! Have a good flight Meghan. Well, it's probably a good thing that Meghan didn't come by the office as I would have to give her a ring immediately and ask her to marry me. And we all know how that has gone in the past. Still, I'll have a little bit more of a smile on my face doing the shows, knowing she will might be watching. Thanks for the post Meghan!
Just had an idea for the collest podcast ever. Meghan and Jag together. ;-)
picture from NonSociety: Meghan
Tags: nonsociety, gabemac, mobuzz, meghan, hitthejagspot, tech, bloggers, superstar


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Alien balls are being found all over Mexico!
The World's Only Reliable News
Alien balls are being found all over Mexico!
ALBUQUERQUE, NM – Sew another star on the flag. Mexico will become our 51st state in 2012.
MEXICO CITY – A Zeeban spaceship was spotted over the city!
10,000 Mexican "undead" walked through the streets of Mexico City looking for brains to eat.
MEXICO CITY – On Monday, lawmakers in Mexico City passed a bill to legalize gay marriage. By Tuesday the city was in flames.
MEXICO CITY – The Mexican navy has discovered more than one ton of cocaine – in the bodies of frozen sharks!
MEXICO CITY – Cinco de Mayo celebrations will proceed in Mexico. Adjustments are being made to counter the lingering threat of swine flu.


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Jun. 17, 2015 11:31 am / Posted by Michael Eric to Files & Database
Follow @MichaelEric
Seems like you need a password for everything nowadays? Not able to remember all of them clearly for your Mac? Your best bet is to get a Mac password manager. Now the best password manager app for Mac gives you the option to sync or keep them local only, change web passwords with a click, login in to your sites for you, and more. In this page, we introduce the top 5 Mac OS X password managers.
Cost: $49.99 for the desktop version (Mac app store)
1Password for Mac, only part of the 1 Password suite, serves as a great password bank that you don't need internet connectivity in order to view. 1 Password uses a local file to store encrypted passwords. It supports synchronization of the password vault using iCloud. iCloud also supports synchronization over Wi-Fi between Windows, Mac and iOS clients. Because the 1Password vault is contained in a single file, you gain the convenience of a portable password vault without having to store your passwords on the Internet.
If cross-platform support is a necessity for you when it comes to storing and managing passwords, 1 Password for Mac hands down the best option.
Cost: Free. A Premium version is offered for $1 per month and includes mobile version, among many other features.
LastPass for Mac isn't actually a standalone app but it is a great password management service as long as you don't mind having to have an internet connection in order to access your vault on your Mac. The focus of LastPass seems to be protecting against attacks such as breaches, keyloggers and phishing. LastPass has recently partnered with PwnedList and added a new feature called Sentry that automatically emails you whenever a breach has been reported on one of your online accounts. They also offer a couple of different methods to protect against keyloggers.
Cost: $29.95 for OS X
RoboForm supports a wide variety of different browsers. It focuses on speeding up your internet browsing experience by helping you automatically login to your facourite sites once you've set up all the needed information. Not only can you do this one site at a time, as you are surfing you can batch-login to multiple sites at once.
Cost: $9.99
DataVault focuses on managing and securing your data. Along with the usual password management features, DataVault supports iCloud backup, plus Wi-Fi, WebDAV, and Dropbox synchronization. It also lets you resolve conflict resolutions manually, or you can choose whether the DataVault allows you all sorts of ways to arrange data stored within the app, like by grouping items, category and types. When you quit DataVault, it automatically clears your clipboard so it can't be used to poach your data.
Cost: $9.99
oneSafe is a standalone password management app for Mac that specializes in storing all your sensitive data before anything else. There may not be autofill options and browser integration but what oneSafe lacks in that department, it more than makes up for in security. For starters, oneSafe is the only app on this list that supports tri-pin security. You also have a vault inside of your oneSafe vault that requires an additional password to access it. All of this data also syncs to the iOS version via iCloud if you want it to.
While there are so many choices, you ultimate decision between those password managers for Mac may come down to your own personal preference for navigation and organization of your data.
For people who lost login password for Mac, 3 free Mac password crackers may be your choice.
Download Windows Password Recovery to instantly reset Windows password:
Recover all your Word, Excel, ppt, accesss office files password
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There's a meme going round that I think we need to stamp on, quick, because I know you won't give this piece much of your time. The reason for that is not because the internet is making you stupid, but because this piece will only appear on screens (unless you print it out onto paper, you environmental villain).
The idea that "the internet is making me stupid" has gained some traction in recent weeks. Nick Carr kicked it off with an article in The Atlantic magazine called "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" in which, contrary to longstanding requirements of headlines that ask questions, the answer was not "No, next!" but "Perhaps, yes".
His line — roughly — is that access to all this information, and the tendency to leap around as we consume information in little chunks, means that we're becoming unfamiliar with mastering long, complex arguments, and give up reading after a few screens of HTML.
Others chimed in, saying that they, too, found it hard to concentrate on things.
Well, sure, we have a lot more distractions these days. There's always the computer, and your mobile, so a tweet or a quick check on your Scrabulous game on Facebook is never far away. We're easily distracted, though I suspect that's just part of how we're built as humans. Nobody criticises birds for being prone to fly away when we approach them; it's a defense mechanism against predators. Humans, too, will flit around, given the chance, just in case we find something that's fabulously useful to us.
But I think the root cause of all this handwringing is much closer to home than Google. It's the screens. Reading on a screen is tiring. You read slower on a screen. Add in a non-optimal font (sans serif, without the little marks you find at the ends of letters, works best on screen because it's easier for the computer to draw) and you have a recipe for slow reading.
It's interesting to go back and see what Jakob Nielsen, the usability expert, was saying about this 10 years ago: "Low-resolution monitors (including all computer screens until now) have poor readability: people read about 25% slower from computer screens than from printed paper. Experimental 300dpi displays (costing $30,000) have been measured to have the same reading speed as print, so we will get better screens in the future. People will simply not read long texts at a reduced reading speed, so unless they have much better screens, electronic books will have a problem."
He added: "Even when e-books gain the same reading speed as print, they will still be a bad idea. Electronic text should not mimic the old medium and its linear ways. Page turning remains a bad interface, even when it can be done more conveniently than by clicking the mouse on a "next page" button. It is an insufficient goal to make computerized text as fast as print: we need to improve on the past, not simply match it.
"The basic problem is that the book is too strong a metaphor: it tends to lead designers and writers astray. Electronic text should be based on interaction, hypertext linking, navigation, search, and connections to online services and continuous updates."
(Interestingly, he said the two ideas that would work were print-on-demand, and downloadable audio. Have you subscribed to Tech Weekly?)
So this 25% slower figure: is it true? Yes. Other studies bear it out: this one in 1998 found that higher-resolution screens mean you read more accurately, though still not as fast as print; another more recent one at Manchester University (PDF or Google HTML cache) found reading on paper 10-30% faster.
There's another thing about paper. You're not tempted to go and check your email. I find I can read 5,000-word pieces in the New Yorker magazine (one of the last refuges of really long, well-written pieces, along with the London Review of Books) as long as they're on paper. On screen, I haven't a hope: they're about 10 screens long, and one does simply get tired of having to click through while retaining everything you've read. And there's always the distraction of following a link that you won't have in print.
Computer screens, meanwhile, are still a long way from mimicking the quality — in terms of dots per inch — of paper. Jeff Atwood of Coding Horror did an interesting comparison at the end of 2006 to show how far we haven't come, comparing commercial printing (about 2,400 dots per inch, or dpi) with a good, cheap printer will give you between 600 and 1,200dpi.
A typical computer display, by contrast, is between 72 and 100dpi (in some cases up to 150dpi — though often the screen is then very small, so the letters of words become hard to read. (There are other differences, which is that the screen has luminance, where the paper reflects light. This, as you already know, is why you can read a computer screen at night.) Atwood's conclusion: "We have a long, long way to go before computer displays can get anywhere near printer resolutions."
The only niggling question I have is whether anyone has investigated reading speeds for the Amazon Kindle, which has low luminance and a 167dpi screen. That's good, but it's still a long, long way from paper. (I can't find any studies about reading speeds on it; perhaps it's too early.)
OK, you've read to the end. You know now that the internet isn't making us stupid; it's just making us read slower. Go on, go and check your email. You've earned it.


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text: Rachel Effron + Bekah Barnett - 8pm // FREE SHOW - $10 Suggested Donation Saturday, May 13, 2017 8:00 PM 10:00 PM 20:00 22:00 Google Calendar ICS RACHEL EFFRON Oakland singer/songwriter Rachel Efron uses strong sensibilities in the realms of both classical and jazz to offer what we long for in any artist — intimate access to a wildly distinct experience of the world. "Balancing fragility and strength, introspection and unblinking observation, Oakland singer, songwriter, and pianist Rachel Efron sets her lambent, poetically charged lyrics to soft, caressing melodies." — San Francisco Chronicle. "[Efron's] songwriting — drawing from pop, alt-folk, Broadway and jazz influences — is brilliant, sophisticated and complex, yet instantly accessible and immersive." — Pop Culture Classics. BEKAH BARNETT Bekah Barnett is an operatically trained singer/songwriter who has been captivating audiences for years wit her emotionally engaging songs, poetic lyrics, soaring melodies, and catchy piano riffs. A refreshing blend of jazz, folk, pop, and spiritual music, her piano-driven tunes and soulful voice have been compared to Tori Amos, Regina Spektor, and Fiona Apple.


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The other day an office mate asked, "Do you twitter?" Sorting through the various snarky remarks that immediately popped to mind, I replied that I didn't think anyone would find my routine bits all that interesting. He suggested otherwise: that it would be a convenient place to record quick ideas. So I am now indeed twittering. Check out the link on the right of this blog. For those using an RSS/ATOM aggravator, you'll want https://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/15237105.rss.
Steve presumably you've seen this report on issue with Twitter ?
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It sounds like an April Fool, but this story in The Lawyer clearly bears today's date. Solicitor Andrew Grove is apparently suing his own firm Andrew Grove & Company for negligence and damages in connection with advice he received concerning his divorce.
I think I may now have heard it all...
Monday, April 19, 2010
Lawyer sue thyself
Posted by John Bolch at 10:35 am
Labels: Legal Profession
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Are your kids constantly bickering with each other and driving you crazy? Do they always seem to be picking on each other to get a reaction? Why won't they stop?
Dr. Susan Rutherford addresses what's going on between your children when they fight with each other… and what you can do it stop it!
Be sure to also check out our newly launched YouTube Channel, Raising Happier Kids for more videos!


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LOS ANGELES (AP) In the early going, Rich Hill was perfect. Only he didn't feel that way.
He didn't like the way the ball was coming out of his hand, even though he wasn't letting anyone on base.
''Around the third inning, the feel started coming around,'' Hill said. ''The big thing was getting ahead and throwing strikes.''
Hill allowed two hits over six shutout innings, Chris Taylor, Justin Turner and Max Muncy homered, and the Los Angeles Dodgers routed the San Diego Padres 11-1 on Friday night to snap a three-game skid.
Hill (6-4) retired his first 12 batters, seven of them on strikeouts, before Hunter Renfroe doubled leading off the fifth.
''There were a few pitches I left out there,'' Hill said. ''Everything needs to be tightened up as we move to September.''
Hill added another strikeout and had one walk on 90 pitches in his first win since Aug. 7 at Oakland. The only other hit the veteran left-hander gave up was a triple to Freddy Galvis in the sixth.
''It's discouraging when you go into a game with a game plan and we swing at fast balls up and out of the zone,'' Padres manager Andy Green said. ''You're just not going to get Rich Hill that way. It's going to take discipline.''
The last-place Padres proved the antidote that the slumping Dodgers needed after scoring just six runs while getting swept in three games by St. Louis. Los Angeles had lost nine of its last 12 and 10 of 14, but the victory brought them back to .500 at home (33-33).
''Just kind of getting that monkey off our back was big for us and hopefully we can settle down and relax,'' Turner said. ''Offense is contagious. When it goes good early, it goes really good. When there's opportunities lost early in the game it builds up anxiety.''
The Dodgers pounded out 13 hits and scored in each of the first five innings.
Taylor homered on his first pitch from Clayton Richard (7-11) in the third. Turner added a two-run shot on Richard's first pitch to him in the fourth, extending the lead to 7-0.
Richard gave up seven runs - six earned - and nine hits in 3 2/3 innings. He struck out three and walked two.
''It's extremely disappointing to put your team in the hole like that. I have no excuse,'' Richard said. ''It stinks to have an outing like that.''
Pinch-hitter Muncy slugged his team-high 29th homer, a two-run shot that made it 11-0, in the seventh. The Dodgers have an NL West-leading 179 homers this season.
The Dodgers scored four runs in the second on Cody Bellinger's RBI single, Brian Dozier's RBI double down the third-base line and Turner's RBI single.
Bellinger's RBI double and Hill's RBI single extended the lead to 9-0 in the fifth.
The Dodgers' bullpen completed the four-hitter. Yimi Garcia gave up two hits and allowed the Padres' lone run on Galvis' RBI double in the eighth.
The Padres have lost nine of 11 and fell to 4-10 against their NL West rivals this season.
Padres: 3B Wil Myers returned to the lineup, going 0 for 4. He had just one at-bat in the last two games after he was hit in the face by a groundball in batting practice Wednesday. ''I felt good,'' he said. ''No problems with anything.''
Dodgers: RHP Daniel Hudson (right forearm tightness) went on the disabled list. ... RHP Ross Stripling had his scheduled throwing session pushed back to Saturday, when he will face hitters for one or two innings. ... RHP Garcia was reinstated from the DL after missing 43 games with right forearm inflammation.
Galvis has hit safely in his last nine games at Dodger Stadium dating to Aug. 9, 2016. He's batted .400 with six runs, three doubles, a triple, three homers and 10 RBIs.
Dodgers center fielder Enrique Hernandez celebrated his 27th birthday by going 1 for 4 with two runs, a walk and two strikeouts.
RHP Brett Kennedy (0-2, 8.36 ERA) makes his fourth career start for San Diego and his second against a divisional foe. LHP Clayton Kershaw (6-5, 2.40) makes his 34th career start against the Padres. He is 18-6 with a 1.89 ERA against them, while holding opposing batters to a .186 average while averaging 9.52 strikeouts per nine innings.
More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/tag/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP-Sports
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There is a real cost for poor report design. Many times, highly successful and educated professionals will either argue or be confused by thoughtless design of a key business report. This is wasted energy and time which equates to costs.
For interface design, the costs and risks are much higher. Instead of the waste of time and delay of making good decisions, a poorly designed interface can be a never-ending source of support problems and cause database or other problems for downstream systems.
Given the amount of knowledge required to learn and keep up with changes, the pace of today's business makes bringing on specialists a cost-effective solution.
First and foremost, both report and interface design is all about the data. Not only is netlogx experienced with data discovery, modeling, quality and management; but, we have 16 years of experience in ensuring that data is semantically equivalent through our data mapping and cleansing experience. Therefore, combining data from various systems is possible and efficient.
Good report design stems from discipline to some fundamental principles of Form, Fit and Function. That is, the story of the data is clearly told when the physical layout (form), the content (fit) and technical production and distribution (function) are in harmony. netlogx staff have adopted Edward Tufte's principles of designing report so that the data is focus and unnecessary "chart junk" is eliminated. Further, netlogx will create templates and a report standards document so that key components can be included in all reports and there is consistency between reports.
Interface design goes beyond just constructing a syntactically correct message for integration of systems. By understanding both the business and technical processes governing the interface, netlogx ensure the meaning or semantics of the interface is maintained.
Maintaining the meaning of data to accurately tell a story or pass information from system to another is a key to controlling costs. Without appropriate design of reports and interfaces, maintenance and support costs will be high and at worst case, an incorrect decision will be made.


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Mayor Vincent Gray's 2010 campaign used hundreds of thousands of dollars in undocumented donations to help him get elected, a secret effort that the top District prosecutor said "compromised" the election.
Jeanne Clarke Harris, 75, admitted in city court to hiding and doling out $653,800 from the pockets of a well-known political donor and government acontractor, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.
Harris testified that she used money from a local donor – who The Post reported to be D.C. businessman Jeffrey Thompson – but that the donor did not know about the scheme. A third, unidentified person then devised the details, she testified.
Prosecutors did not claim Gray had knowledge of the secret fund, but Harris said the effort was "coordinated" with members of his campaign.
After hearing the plea, U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen Jr. denounced the legitimacy of the 2010 election.
"The mayoral campaign was compromised by backroom deals, secret payments and a flood of unreported cash," Machen said to reporters. "The people of this city deserve better. They deserve the truth."
The money paid for about 10,000 yard signs, 5,000 T-shirts, banners, lapel stickers and posters designed to look like part of the official campaign. The contribution also funded 200 umbrellas, consultants, canvassers, drivers, laptops, radios and a public address system.
The plea comes on the heels of continued suspicion about the corrupt 2010 election. In March 2011, a team appointed by the U.S. House of Representatives investigated claims by former mayoral candidate and ex-D.C. employee Sulaimon Brown that Gray paid and promised him a job if he bashed Fenty during the race. Later that year, a D.C. Council report slammed the alumnus in for allegedly having shady hiring practices and paying his top officials sums above legal limits.
The congressional probe later dismissed wrongful hiring allegations against Gray in November 2011, citing Brown's lack of credibility.
The probe into Gray's suspected 'shadow campaign' began in March.


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Google plans to update its line of smartphones with the Pixel 2 and other devices on Wednesday, in a move that analysts say will help it compete against Apple and prepare for the rise of augmented and virtual reality.
Google is expected to increasingly focus on Pixel following its $1.1 billion deal last month to acquire 2,000 smartphone employees and license some related intellectual property from HTC, which manufactured last year's Pixel phones.
The new phones are expected in two models: a Pixel 2 with a 5-inch screen at $650 and a larger Pixel 2 XL with a 6-inch screen costing $850. Both will have faster processors than last year's models and run Google's newest version of Android, called Oreo.
Google is also rumored to be debuting a new version of its Google Home connected speaker and its Pixel Chromebook laptop.
Google only sold a few million, or less, of the original Pixel phones introduced last year. That's in part due to the fact that only Verizon sold the phones directly, while other carriers opted not to stock Pixels themselves.
The same distribution plan is expected this year, which will likely prevent much growth in sales, Andy Hargreaves at Keybanc Capital Markets notes. Revenue from the phones won't be meaningful this year, he added, but he is looking for "clues" in Wednesday's keynote presentation at Google's media event in San Francisco that could "indicate the potential for a much broader distribution strategy in future years" that could raise optimism about greater revenue and gross profits from hardware sales.
Argus Research analyst Joseph Bonner said that the HTC deal, far more modest than the outright acquisition that had been rumored, should still help lift Google's hardware product efforts, which have been "halting and fraught at best."
Get Data Sheet, Fortune's technology newsletter.
"The HTC employees who will move to Google have likely been working on Google-related hardware for some time, and bringing them in-house should allow for the tighter integration of the Android OS in new hardware designs" including the Pixel smartphone line and perhaps in the connected speakers and other smart, connected devices, Bonner wrote. "The elegant integration of hardware and software has certainly been a key factor in the success of Apple's iPhone and other products."
The deal could also help expand distribution of Pixel phones using HTC's existing relationships with retailers and carriers, Youssef Squali at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey says. And Google (GOOGL) will be better able to keep up with Apple (AAPL) by bringing more design talent in house so it can make its mobile software and hardware work better together.
"Given mobile's importance, we believe that Google is likely looking to offer a better end-user experience through tighter integration between proprietary designed hardware and the Android operating system, similar to what Apple has done," Squali wrote.
Analyst Scott Devitt at Stifel Nicholas agrees. "With this level of control, Google can finally build a multi-year product roadmap similar to Apple's (for example, some functionality for the iPhone X was reportedly in development for several years), which we think is critical to creating leaps and bounds in device quality/functionality," he writes.
Google's great successes until now have come from products like search and YouTube that largely run on servers in Google's cloud data centers. But with the coming growth of artificial intelligence and augmented and virtual reality, more of the computing power needed by applications will have to be on consumers' own Pixel devices, Sameet Sinha at B. Riley points out. "Deeper integration of hardware and software resources was a necessary move and in line with management's underlying bet to integrate AI into everything Google does," Sinha writes.


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The bill has come due for our excessive use of the planet's resources. We need to become much more efficient and in tune with natural cycles if we are to continue thriving on the planet Earth. We face a Big Problem - so big that it is terrifying and thus causes some to feel overwhelmed and deny.
Luckily, the Big Problem is actually just networks of smaller inefficiencies and shortcomings - we can get to work solving the Big Problem today!
First we need to understand with a clear head and see the truth, a big part of which is:
Building energy use, from homes to commercial, is a growing crisis.
In just the US alone buildings already use 39% of all national energy produced and emit over 2,236,000 metric tons of CO2 per year.
Three-quarters of all homes in the United States have air conditioners. Air conditioners use about 6% of all the electricity produced in the United States, at an annual cost of about $29 billion to homeowners. As a result, roughly 117 million metric tons of carbon dioxide are released into the air each year. - https://energy.gov/energysaver/air-conditioning
This inefficiency gets worse when the weather gets extreme, and extremes are the new norm.
Suburban homes are extremely energy inefficient. The Berkley CoolMaps project reveals the scope of the suburban problem.
While urban areas are improving, the suburban zones were considered trickier to solve.
The current suburban home has a big problem in its can-lights and other metal penetrations. If you have not covered your can-lights with CanCoverIt then heating/cooling your house is like trying to fill your bathtub up while leaving the drain open!
Air-tight is not the core issue, radiant energy transfer through metal is what's costing you!
Thankfully new homes do not feature this dynamic as strongly, although we still see many builders out there in the field over-focusing on air-sealing and not paying enough attention to metal conductance to their customers' detriment (that's a topic for another post!)
Let's just assume all new homes are perfectly efficient. They still won't arrive in time to fix the problem.
In the US we build around 575,000 homes a year, which means that in the next five years we will build 2,875,000 new more efficient homes. Great! But there are over 130,000,000 existing homes. Oh... at current rates it would take over 200 years to replace all existing homes...
So we say don't focus on replacing everything. Instead make what's already here better - instead try a Common Sense Upgrade approach. This means start where it's most impactful: your attic!
There's a diminishing return to extensive home upgrades, so let's focus on doing the 80-90% improvement work TODAY which will get homes ready to accept more advanced upgrades later down the line. An 80-90% improvement NOW is what is needed, then we can get to 100% tomorrow, and even keep going to energy production
Other approaches to fixing the energy leakage caused by metal ceiling fixtures all fail when they're needed most: the extreme days. Even if you live in a moderate climate, that one heat spell or cold snap could cost you months worth of previous savings, and not to mention will tax the local infrastructure and cause you personal discomfort. Only CanCoverIt is designed to work in the most extreme conditions because it has taken every element of air and energy transfer into account.
CanCoverIt can reduce A/C cycles by more than half in almost every building.
Being off is as good as being gone.
This means that the 110 million A/C units installed today functionally get reduced to just 50 million units!
By installing CanCoverIt on every metal ceiling penetration we can eliminate millions of tons of pollution and save billions of dollars - NOW!
And CanCoverIt improves the operating efficiency of fixtures too – without CanCoverIt, LED bulbs installed in can-light fixtures are starting to fail in just a few years, even months, due to the intense thermal fluctuations of attic conditions. Protect your valuable LED bulbs, fans and speakers with CanCoverIt and save big on heating/cooling bills while reducing your carbon footprint dramatically!
Plus, widespread installation of CanCoverIt minimizes the need for flex alert behavior changes since peoples' homes no longer bleed energy. This will free our minds up from that obligation so that public officials can start new programs for raising awareness on other ways of saving, like reducing plastic use.
The Common Sense Upgrade approach is to improve the structure of every building at minimal cost and scale it out to everyone, not try to hammer away at behavior change and costly 'perfect envelopes'. Over the last six years we have seen our customers install CanCoverIt to solve their problems, then get interested in other upgrades.
Deliver results with a low-cost/high-return upgrade then get buy-in for more expensive upgrades, not the other way around!
CanCoverIt is the keystone element in a network of common sense upgrades - a smart thermostat will report the issue and try to adjust temperature but it cannot change your home's actual structure so the energy will still leak. CanCoverIt improves the actual structure, which lets other upgrades work much better!
Our big climate problems are actually millions of little problems - fix enough little problems and the big one goes away!
Start with your own home, get your neighbors to join in and we can start a movement to improve your local world and improve the whole world in the process!


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Delanea Davis
Delanea is a management consultant and mentor/coach that helps businesses improve their company performance through better employee engagement, enhanced customer experience and more efficient operations.
Her core tools include quantitative and qualitative research, customer and employee profiling, leadership development coaching and business strategy workshops. Additionally, she provides ongoing bench-strength support to top research firms across the U.S.
Delanea is a recurring speaker at national and regional market research industry conferences and is a feature writer on LinkedIn.
Delanea's credentials include:
- Masters Degree in Research Methods from UCONN
- Generalist Certificate in Industrial & Organizational Psychology
- Bachelors Degree in Political Science from UCONN
- Certificate in Small Business Administration from University of Hartford
- Certified & Registered in Hypnosis from the Hypnosis Research Institute
Contact firstname.lastname@example.com
Rita Faith MacRae
Rita is a licensed practicing nurse, a Certified Consulting Hypnotist with the National Guild of
Hypnotists & spiritual counselor who specializes in helping women emotionally heal and spiritually transform. She has a passion for empowering her clients to grow through personal and professional change so the mind-body-spirit are in alignment.
She is an expert in Five-Phase Advanced Transformational Hypnosis® (5 Path) which is a progressive therapy that focuses on identifying the root cause of emotional pain, self limiting beliefs and destructive behaviors. During the course of her 5-session program, individuals experience awareness, forgiveness, acceptance and self-love. This allows individuals to release years of pain and trauma from the inside-out for a happiness they never knew was possible. As a 5 Path practitioner, Rita joins the ranks with the top 1% of hypnotherapists in the world.
Rita holds a:
- Bachelors in Psychology from Mount Holyoke
- Masters in Education from Springfield College
- License in Practical Nursing
- Certification in Level III Mediumship and Spiritual Counseling from PSYCHE Institute.
- Master in Usui and Karuna Reiki
- Minister ordained by Universal Life Church
Contact firstname.lastname@example.com
Our Team
Lynne Hartwell, Alternative Medicine Specialist & Spiritual Psychic Intuitive
Lynne has appeared in numerous public appearances, Expos, Public Speaking Presentations, TV and Radio appearances and runs private and group practices in both CT and MA. She has assisted thousands of people to dynamically transform their lives with Optimism, Abundance and Joy.
-As an Alternative Medicine Specialist, Lynne Hartwell connects with the Infinite and Natural realms to help re-balance, shift, and transform your life. Each session is custom designed to address the root cause of the stress, anxiety, pain, discomfort or dis-ease you may be experiencing~Naturally. They work complimentary to current medications, surgeries or current medical practice you're receiving. Lynne offers a blend of sound and aroma healing sessions.
-As a Spiritual Psychic Intuitive of over 20 years Lynne connects with the Spiritual Realms to provide you answers, insight and knowledge from your Spiritual Guides, Angels, Ascended Masters, Animal Companions or Spriitual Guides, or Loved ones who have crossed over. Readings are done professionally and compassionately, and focus' upon the opportunities that are available to you, discussion options, and interpreting information that comes forward so that you can make the best informed decision for yourself.
Receive knowledge about current situations, what has been affecting or holds you back, and how to move forward in a manner that is empowering and positive. You can also recieve information on how to make this year the best possible for you!
Readings can include:
Messages from Spiritual Guides, Angels, Ascended Masters or Loved ones in Spirit
Crystal & Gemstone Energy Reading (Psychic Reading and Energy Healing in one)
Past Life Exploration
Animal Communication
EssentialBlissTM Aromatherapy Sessions: (Ideal for those seeking Relaxation and Stress Reduction) A Blissful Experience combining Medicinal Grade Plant & Tree Essences with Soothing Sound Vibration.
Transformational Energy Healing: (ideal for those seeking a greater level of healing at the physical, emotional and spiritual level). Sessions include a combination of:
- Vibrational Sound Therapy
- Medicinal Aromatherapy (100% pure, High Vibrational Medicinal-Grade Plant & Tree Essences)
- Crystal & Gemstone Energetic Healing
- Removal of negative belief patterns
Lynne is available every 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month from 2PM-7PM. Other dates and times can be scheduled depending upon availability.
Contact Lynne to set up your appointment: Call/txt 617.872.6399. or email email@example.com
Website: www.lynnehartwell.com
Carol Tyler, MA, RD, CDN, Holistic Nutrition
Carol empowers clients to live in harmony and partnership with their bodies. As a Holistic Registered Dietitian with 40 years experience working at hospitals and wellness centers, she blends her delight for food, cooking, fitness, mindfulness and healing to address the unique needs of her clients. Including creative ways to individualize whole food eating that feels expansive, not restricted. She believes in daily self-care for nourishing the mind, body and soul. Carol is an avid outdoor enthusiast, enjoys cooking, meditation, reiki and yoga.
Carol offers Holistic Nutrition that addresses the root causes of your symptoms of weight, digestion, low energy and other health issues. Discovering ways to replenish and bring the body into balance with a personalized nutrition and wellness program. My approach focuses on functional nutrition, lifestyle, emotional wellness, joyful movement and stress relief.
Carol's credentials include:
- Bachelors in Clinical Dietetics from University of Connecticut
- Masters in Fitness Management from University of Connecticut
- Registered Dietitian
- Training as a Nutrition Advisor at Sanoviv Medical Institute. A Functional Medicine Hospital
- Training in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction from Center for Mindfulness, University of Massachusetts Medical School
- Training in Mind/Body Medicine from Harvard Medical School and the Mind/Body Medical Institute
- Master in Usui Reiki
Carol holds office hours at Solstice on the second and fourth Mondays from 11 AM-12:30 PM & 3:30-5 PM, and is available on other days upon request.
To book an appointment, contact Carol at 860.729.4851 or email@example.com
Heather Munigle, Leadership Coach
Heather has been building and coaching high performance teams for more than twenty years. She has a proven track record of success growing organizations in terms of clientele, profit and retention. Her experience as a Director and a Quality Team Leader includes being recognized for instructional leadership, individualization and as a mentor/coach to colleagues teaching team systems, organizational structures, productivity, customer service, culture & engagement, conflict management and professional development of staff. Leading a culture of caring, competence and excellence, Heather has worked diligently in leading a culture of caring, competence and excellence building partnerships with Directors, families, teachers, community and across agencies including state and local. Heather's recent accomplishments include:
- Selected on a National level to participate in a student advisory council working with company leadership to inspire change in company's culture, quality in product and training of leadership and teachers in field;
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text:
XS Load Testing
From OLPC
Testing the OLPC School Server
Author: Benjamin Tran
Date: 12/15/2010
The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project oversees the development, construction, and deployment of an affordable educational laptop (XO) for use in the developing countries. OLPC has been deployed in many countries and as of August 2010, there are over 1.85 million XO laptops in the field. The low-cost XOs help to revolutionize the way we educate the world's children. In the school, each child's XO laptop connects to a central server that provides various networking, content, and communication services. The server also acts as the Internet gateway if an Internet connection is available. The hardware capabilities of the server depend on factors such as cost of hardware and availability of electricity. A more powerful machine means faster access to data and the capability to handle more users simultaneously, but this usually implies higher power consumption, a luxury that is unaffordable in many parts of the world. The software that runs on the server in the classroom, called the School Server (XS), is based on the Fedora distribution of the Linux operating system and provides networking infrastructure, services, as well as education and discovery tools to the XO laptops. Among the stack of customized software included in the XS, one of the most noticeable collaborations tools included is Moodle. Moodle is a free web-based course management system. With the customized software running on limited hardware resources, how many users can reasonably connect to the server and use Moodle? What hardware combination would be ideal for use with the XS given the estimated total number of students in a school? The purpose of this project is to come up with a method to determine the approximate number of users a potential server loaded with the OLPC School Server is capable of supporting. The approach taken will be to perform functional and load testing against different hardware systems loaded with the School Server software. The project makes use of industry-standard technologies and tools such as Selenium, Apache JMeter, and nmon for Linux. Selenium ensures Moodle functions according to specifications while JMeter simulates various load against the server to test its capability. Nmon for Linux monitors server-side resources and presents graphs of CPU usage, free memory, and disk I/O activities among many others. Test results from six different machines are compared. The outcome of this project is a formal process to test and measure the capability of a potential server that is being considered for deployment.
This work is the result of taking course CSC895 Applied Research Project (Computer Science Department, San Francisco State University), with the guidance and assistance from the following advisors:
- Professor Sameer Verma, College of Business, San Francisco State University
- Professor Dragutin Petkovic, Department of Computer Science, San Francisco State University
- Professor Barry Levine, Department of Computer Science, San Francisco State University
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.
Full Document
File:Testing the OLPC School Server Benjamin Tran SFSU.pdf
Scripts and Testing Material
Git repository at https://dev.laptop.org/git/users/sverma/xsloadtesting/
Methods and Approach
The purpose of this project is to come up with a method to determine the approximate number of users a potential server loaded with the OLPC School Server is capable of supporting. The approach taken will be to perform functional and load testing against different hardware systems loaded with the School Server software. Functional testing ensures that the software works the way it was intended to. Effective test cases need to be written to cover major and common use cases of the software system. Load testing involves putting variable demands onto a system and measuring its response time. This ensures the system's hardware is capable of supporting an expected number of simultaneous users at peak times. Similarly, exemplary test cases need to be written for this type of testing. The test approach needs to be defined. The review and selection of software testing tools is also of great importance. Additionally, a comprehensive but yet easy-to-use system monitoring tool must be chosen to monitor the server's resources, such as CPU and memory usage. Taking all of the required tasks into consideration, the following design objectives were finalized (with the advice of the candidate's committee members):
- To design and write effective test cases to ensure the program's major functionality is within the scope of specifications.
- To design and write exemplary test cases that can effectively resemble the activities and network traffic that occur when many users simultaneously access the system.
- To select a quick and efficient approach to carry out these test cases.
- To choose an effective functional testing framework that allows for easy creation of tests since a web application's user interface is expected to change frequently.
- To choose an easy-to-use but yet powerful load testing tool that can simulate a heavy load with unique, dynamic data.
- To select one or more comprehensive system monitoring tool that can graphically show the consumption of a system's resources.
- To pick out and obtain several computer systems that can represent a broad spectrum of potential servers. The XS software will be loaded on to these systems and testing will be performed against them.
- To write a thorough test plan containing information such as the testing environment, features to be tested, features not to be tested, test approach, hardware/software setup, etc.
All of the above design objectives that served as requirements for the project were successfully satisfied.
Performance/Load/Stress Testing
Many people use the terms performance testing, load testing, and stress testing interchangeably but they have quite different meanings [12]. Unlike functional testing, performance testing does not aim to uncover defects in the system. Instead, it is performed with the hopes of eliminating bottlenecks and establishing a baseline for future regression testing. It is of crucial importance to have a set of expectations for the testing so that the results can be meaningful. For example, in the context of this project, it is necessary to know the expected number of students that will be using the School Server's services at the same time and how long the acceptable response time will be. When the number of students reaches a certain level that causes the response time to be no longer acceptable, then bottlenecks can be looked for at different levels (application, web server, database, operating system, network) and then performance tuning can be performed. Due to the many layers of complexity involved in a modern day web application, performance tuning has to be done with care. Measurements should be collected after every modification of a variable. Changing multiple variables for a single test session can lead to complications and unexpected results. The complete process should be to run the tests, measure the performance, tune the system and repeat the cycle until the system under test performs at an acceptable level. This process is also known as configuration testing.
The definition of load testing is to execute the largest tasks the system under test can handle and understand the behavior of the system under an expected load [12]. Load testing is usually performed when the maximum number of supported concurrent users for a system is known in advance. Thus, the system is put under such a load to ensure it can still function properly.
The goal of stress testing is to make sure a system fails and then recovers in a graceful manner [12]. This is done by either using up all the resources of the system or taking resources away from the system. For example, stress testing a web application could involve taking the database offline or running unrelated processes that consumes most, if not all, of the resources (CPU, memory, disk, etc.) on the web server
Decisions regarding Performance/Load Testing
JMeter was selected for automating the load and performance testing in this project due to its popularity and large user base in the testing community. Similar to Selenium, JMeter offers a HTTP Proxy Recorder component to allow for quick creation of tests by recording all the requests made in a browser. Unwanted requests can be easily filtered or deleted. Shared settings such as server and port address can be extracted to a central setup location in the test script. The tool allows for testing with dynamic data; a different record from a comma-separated file can be used for each thread in a test. For example, it is possible to simulate fifty different users logging in to a system instead of reusing the same account over and over again. Some systems do not allow multiple logins from the same account, too. Also, the built-in Linux commands and the nmon tool should be sufficient for monitoring resource usage on the School Server during test execution.
The load on a server primarily depends on the number of concurrent users and not on the total number of user accounts in the system nor the number of users logged in at a given point in time. There are different definitions of concurrent users on different systems though [39]. Generally, concurrent users are those that are causing the server to actively do something for them at the same time, such as processing a page, querying the database, or transferring a file. In other words, many similar computations are being performed simultaneously and possibly interacting with each other on the server. Many users trying to post to a forum at the same time or many users trying to watch a certain video at the same time are considered concurrent users in this case. Therefore, test cases must be designed with this fact in mind. It will take a very long time if the tester needs to manually create hundreds or thousands of accounts in the system for testing. Although Moodle provides the option to perform a bulk upload of user accounts, there is still a need to easily create a CSV file with many records of account information. Therefore, a Perl script was written to perform this task. It generates a CSV file for upload to Moodle to create many user accounts at once along with various settings such as enrolling each user into an existing course. The script also generates a CSV file that can be set to be used in a JMeter test so each thread can use a record in the file, thus simulating different users logging in at the same time. The script and its usage can be found in Appendix E.
In addition to the number of concurrent users, there are other factors that can have a significant impact on the test results. First, a course representative of the actual courses used in the field is needed. In the countries where OLPC is deployed, the course materials are different from what a typical course here in the United States would contain. Each user loads the course page in Moodle and the amount of content on the course page contributes to the overall response time. For the project, a sample course was created, which is shown below in Figure 7.a. Due to the lack of data from the field, we could only estimate what should be in the course. Also, the ramp-up time should not be overlooked. It is highly unlikely that all students try to connect to the School Server at the exact same time after they were told to do so. The amount of time to spread out the connection requests to the XS can greatly affect the overall response time. Based on a video of an OLPC deployment, we estimated the average ramp-up time to be 60 seconds [40]. That was the value used for the experiments in this project. In addition, to make the load more realistic, a Gaussian Random Timer was added to each JMeter test case to add a small random delay between each request. This is equivalent to a Normal distribution of the load. A ramp-up time of 60 seconds can be viewed as aggressive. It really depends on the number of students in the classroom. There are lots of variations, leading to a wide range of possible values. We do not have good estimates and cannot observe the actual ramp-up time in a classroom in a remote part of Peru, for example. The effects to system performance could be significant due to the load being spread out over a longer period of time. An experiment was performed to confirm this and the results can be found in Appendix I. In the remainder of this paper, we will use 60 seconds as the average ramp-up time.
It would be too time-consuming to set up the test environment over and over again for each execution of the JMeter test on each of the machines. User accounts have to be uploaded. The sample course has to be restored to Moodle. Various IDs in Moodle need to be known and configured into JMeter. These IDs are different for each installation. The forum should be restored to its original state for each test run. The aforementioned list is just some of the steps needed to set up the test environment. A couple of Selenium scripts were written for the purpose of setting up and cleaning up Moodle for test execution. These scripts can be found in Appendix F.
Test Execution
Testing was done on six different machines, ranging from a XO laptop to a Dell Xeon workstation. The XO laptop used for testing was the same as the ones used by students in the field. The FitPC and FitPC2 machines are compact, fanless, and power-efficient. They are potential candidates for an OLPC deployment. The OLPCorps SolidLogic machine is the actual hardware used in the field and thus must be included. A regular P4 desktop computer and a powerful Dell Xeon workstation were included in the project to see how their performance compare to the other machines. Specifications of all test machines can be found in Appendix H.
After the test environment was set up according to the test plan, a Selenium RC server was started on the machine executing the tests. Then the Selenium tests were executed against the School Server. After running the functional tests, JMeter was started on the machine executing the tests. The server monitoring tool, nmon, was started on the School Server so it could monitor system resources during execution of the JMeter tests. The server was also restarted between each test run to avoid any data from being cached in memory.
For each JMeter test, we used 25 threads as an initial starting point. Since it would take a considerable amount of time to find the point where errors start occurring if we increased the number of threads by increments of 25, we took a guess at where this breaking point would be. In the case of the 'Log In' test (test case ID XSP001) being executed on the Dell Xeon workstation, the guess was 1000 threads. The corresponding error rate was 12.5% and so we started decreasing the number of threads by 25 until we found the breaking point to be at 850 threads. From there, we executed the test to get the average response time for four more data points (threads = 825, 800, 775, 750) prior to the breaking point. The same approach was used for all test executions.
Figure 8.m consists of data from the test results. For each test machine, it shows the maximum number of users that were able to successfully complete the test case with no errors and the total average response time for each user. As we can see, 125 users took an average of 164 seconds to log in with the School Server running on the XO. In other words, if 125 users try to log in to Moodle over a period of 1 minute, each user will have to wait close to 3 minutes before seeing the next page. Although there was no error for everyone, the total average response time might not be acceptable to most users. What total average response time is acceptable or unacceptable will not be discussed here.
The purpose of this project was to create a method to help determine what hardware is ideal for use given the total number of students. Or, vice versa, given a system that could potentially act as the server, we can use the same method to find out how many users it is capable of supporting. Functional testing using Selenium ensured each system in the experiments was working correctly. Load testing using Apache JMeter provided us the data in Figure 8.m. Nmon for Linux verified the correctness of this data by logging and presenting consistent patterns of CPU usage, free memory, and disk I/O activities across different test cases. The different hardware systems used in the experiments, ranging from the XO itself to a powerful workstation, presented data across a spectrum. This array of data allowed us to see the relationship between increased hardware performance and the maximum number of users a system can handle. The method of testing presented in this paper helps to solve the stated problem. For example, if the FitPC is being considered for deployment, we can claim it can support up to 150 users. The number would increase to 175 for the FitPC2 along with decreased total average response times. However, as a safety measure, we recommend reducing the total number of users in the table by 20% as this will help ensure the School Server hardware can really support the load. That would bring the maximum number of users supported by the FitPC2 down to 140.
The test results were presented in this chapter. The functional test results ensured that the system was working according to the specified requirements. After this was done, the system was ready for the load testing. Server-side resources were monitored while tests were being executed. Analysis of the test results and resource usage was performed afterward. The next chapter is the concluding chapter describing the outcome of this project and recommendations for future work that could be done to enhance this project.
The OLPC School Server was designed to be installed on generic low-end servers with limited hardware resources. The limitations put a cap on how many students can be supported simultaneously when they are all trying to access the server at a given point in time. The main goal of this project was to design, write, and execute a test plan on a set of representative computer systems in order to help determine what hardware combination would be needed given the total number of students in a school. We wrote a test plan for carrying out functional and load tests against the OLPC School Server. In the process of writing the test plan, certain decisions had to be made, including what machines to test against, what tools to use for testing, what test cases to include, what a sample course should contain, and the estimated ramp-up time of users. Every one of these decisions were crucial and affected the overall results of this project. We ran into several technical issues during the project such as setting up the network connections, obtaining initial access to Moodle, generating and uploading Moodle user accounts in bulk, bypassing an unexpected session key error, and installing tools for server-side resource monitoring. All the technical problems and solutions were documented in this paper, which will benefit any contributor who plans on doing future work relevant to this project.
Once the test plan was written and the test environment was set up, the tests were executed. Results were logged and resources were monitored. A detailed description and analysis of the results were provided in the previous chapter, along with a comparison of the results from all the test machines. Given an estimated total number of students at a future deployment site, we wanted to know what hardware combination would be ideal for use as the School Server. The hardware selection process depends on the number of XOs in the school, the cost of hardware, power requirements of the hardware, and the availability of electricity at the deployment site. This project provided a formal process to set up, test, and measure the capabilities of potential machines. The outcome of this project included a test plan, test scripts, and experimental results from executing these tests against a set of test machines. The testing process can be easily replicated with a different set of test machines for future OLPC deployments.
Future Work
There is no easy formula to calculate the maximum number of concurrent users a system is capable of supporting. That number highly depends on the hardware, software, and network combination involved. There are many performance factors that lie within each category. Having a faster processor will help to a certain extent, but it is usually the amount of memory installed that is the deciding factor. Performance also depends on the configurations of the different software running on the system. Work can be done to benchmark each component of the software stack – operating system, web server, database server, PHP engine and accelerator, for example. Further work could involve tuning variables in the configurations one-by-one, executing tests against the system, and analyzing the effects of a single change. The work done in this project provided a process and a set of tests that can act as a starting point for a much bigger project and thus, only barely scratched the surface of what can be done.