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If you enjoy astrology, you will like this Summer Solstice update written by my good friend Laurie Baum, MSW, a psychological astrologer and psychotherapist in practice in Encinitas, California.
Laurie writes a free astrological newsletter about how planetary alignments affect our lives on earth. Click here to e-mail Laurie to subscribe at no cost, or visit Laurie's website and click on "Free Email Newsletter."
Laurie is a former newspaper and news magazine reporter who is profiled in the books Psychic New York and The 100 Top Psychics in America. She is the author of five books:
A to Z Acrophonology: Discover the Power of the Letters in Your Name
Everything You Need to Know About Your Astrology Sign
Astrological Secrets for the New Millennium
Laurie also offers counseling appointments by phone. She will answer your questions about major life decisions and talk with you about the reasons you have incarnated, the lessons you are here to learn, where you are on the wheel of karma, and the psychological developmental cycles you have been through and are going through. She will look at current influences on your health, finances, relationships, career, and any relocation plans that may be necessary. She also will look ahead with you at the next seven years of your life. A reading with Laurie can help you take the next step in your life. Sessions, which are available via landline phone or Skype (audio or video), are digitally recorded.
To make an appointment, click here to e-mail Laurie or call her at (760) 753-7676. Click here to visit Laurie's website for more information.
The summer solstice, the longest day of the year, arrives on Wednesday, June 20th. This is a time to take advantage of the power imparted by the changing angle of the Sun to energize your positive thoughts, affirmations, intentions, prayers, hopes and dreams. Use the days leading up to the summer solstice to focus your mind on one important prayer or intention that you would like to carry out during the summer season. Every small step toward self-healing and self-improvement will bring you that much closer to the divinity you seek to express. Remember, the journey of 1,000 miles begins with one step.
I feel quite inspired as I write this newsletter to you, having just returned from viewing Venus, planet of love, through a telescope at a local observatory, as it crossed the path of the sun. This remarkable astronomical phenomenon, which occurs in pairs only once a century, follows closely on the heels of an eclipse of the Moon just the day before, and an impressive eclipse of the sun just two weeks ago. What a brilliant heavenly show for those of us on earth to enjoy!
The eclipses also portend changes in consciousness here on Earth. I feel particularly hopeful about the passage of Venus over the sun as a harbinger of the love planet's balancing and harmonizing influence on our world. Venus radiates love, balance, peace and harmony. By crossing in front of the fiery, male-oriented sun, the powerful life-giving planet that also expresses ego and pride, we are learning that feminine energy is ready to move into the foreground in a new way. Nature also is showing us the unity of male and female, revealing their interdependent quality at this time in our evolution.
The eclipses also are a backdrop for the beginning of a rare alignment on Sunday, June 24th of revolutionary Uranus in Aries and explosive Pluto in Capricorn. These two consciousness-raising planets last aligned in a similar configuration from 1932 to 1934 and again from 1965 to 1966. Through upheaval, both alignments lead to lasting societal changes that open the way for a more enlightened way of thinking.
The Uranus-Pluto opening square on June 24th is the first in a series of 7 alignments between the sky god Uranus and the god of the underworld, Pluto, between 2012 and 2015. At the end of 2015, we will be living in a very different world, one that has changed relatively rapidly compared to the prior pace of events. Uranus and Pluto are both change-oriented planets. Uranus moves quickly. In nature, Uranus is associated with lightening. And Pluto effects change from a deep level, from the substrata of our awareness. Pluto is associated with volcanoes – the sudden release of smoldering pressure that has been building over a long period of time. Both Uranus and Pluto are related to earthquakes – the shifting of the ground beneath us to accommodate new stresses.
We will see the radical changes played out on the world stage and in our own lives during the next 3 years.
Pluto in Capricorn will deconstruct governments, corporations and financial systems that are no longer honest, efficient, or serving the public good. Uranus in Aries will give voice to those whose anger with societal institutions has not been heeded. Uranian protests may seem disorganized or chaotic at first, but the energy expressed will give birth to new ideas to base our lives upon. Protests from without (Uranus) will meet the building pressure from within (Pluto) to radically and alchemically change the structure of the environment, social organization, even our bodies.
Just as the Depression Years gave rise to a reconstructed banking system because the previous one did not work, so too will we have an opportunity – for the next 3 years – to deconstruct and reconstruct those areas of our lives that are backward and do not function efficiently.
Ultimately, the changes will necessitate the break-up of rigid, unworkable patterns, to make way for a more enlightened way of living, for sharing with others and for living harmoniously on the planet. But before that can happen, what has been repressed has to be expressed. Then, a new and higher age can ascend.
We will be like trapeze artists who experience a moment of emptiness after we let go of one bar to take hold of another. We may experience a moment of not knowing, but it's the only way forward. And without taking the risk, the show can't go on.
The rare alignment between Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn begins on June 24th, and continues on September 18th, 2012, May 20th, 2013, November 1st, 2013, April 21st, 2014, December 15th, 2014, and March 17th, 2015.
* SUMMER SOLSTICE * June 20, 2012 – Longest day of the year.
* Uranus in Aries square Pluto in Capricorn * June 24, 2012 – Change is in the air – radical, revolutionary change.
*Jupiter in Gemini square Neptune in Pisces * June 25, 2012 – Intuition is heightened. Listen to your premonitions. Engage in spiritual practice.
* Saturn direct in Libra * June 25, 2012 – Best time to negotiate agreements.
* Venus direct in Gemini * June 27, 2012 – Peace and harmony restored.
* Mars enters Libra for 7 weeks after 8 months in Virgo * July 3, 2012 – Negotiations succeed.
* Uranus retrograde * July13, 2012 – Wheels of change grind to a halt.
* Mercury retrograde in Leo * July 14, 2012 – Look at situations from other people's points of view to gain greater clarity.
* Mercury direct in Leo * August 7, 2012 – It's okay to advocate for your own point of view.
* Mars enters Scorpio * August 23, 2012 – Take productive steps. Positive actions produce desired results.
* Pluto direct in Capricorn * September 17, 2012 – Revelations about government, politicians and business exposed.
* Uranus in Aries square Pluto in Capricorn * September 18, 2012 – Energy for change intensifies.
The Mayan Calendar characterizes the period we are living through as "Ik Manik," which means winds of change, moving toward self-realization through self-knowledge. As predicted in Mayan prophecy, the winds of change are continuing to blow strongly in 2012. This heralds not only a purification so we may move to a higher dimension of consciousness, but the winds are being generated by a shift in the earth's magnetic poles, as well as a reversal of the earth's axis. These rare phenomena are expected to last for at least two to five years. Continue to pray and send positive energy to Mother Nature so the shift can be accomplished in the most supportive way possible for all life forms on Mother Earth.
Illustrations by Kagaya, a Japanese digital fine artist.
Click here to visit Kagaya's website.
ARIES (March 21 – April 19)
You will feel a shift in your awareness and in the nature of the events in your life as Mars, your planetary ruler, completes its 8-month journey through Virgo on July 3 to continue on a 2-month journey through Libra, the sign of the scales. You will see the big picture in areas where you have become overly-focused upon details. You will shift your focus from health and the cleanliness of your environment to your personal relationships by July. If people have been neglecting you or if you have been neglecting others, you will pay more attention to each other during the summer season. If you feel yourself about to express negative feelings, try to see a situation from an other person's point of view. A rare line-up of Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn will transform your work life and you will create an opportunity for you to do what you really want to do from the level of your soul.
TAURUS (April 20 – May 20)
Venus, your planetary ruler, will be in the flexible sign of Gemini until August 7th. Under this pleasant celestial influence, you will experience multiple options for creating financial abundance. You also will think of just as many ways to dispense of the wealth that comes to you. So, create a special place where you can save some of the resources that come your way during the summer season. You will need these resources throughout the fall and winter. The passage of the Sun through the compatible sign of Cancer at the Summer Solstice will bring people into your life with whom you feel comfortable and harmonious. A rare alignment of Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn on June 24th will initiate a period in which you will get everything you have dreamed of – but in unusual and unexpected ways.
GEMINI (May 21 – June 21)
With loving Venus and lucky Jupiter in Gemini, you will find people to support your socially viable ventures. Many people will be attracted to you under the magnetic influence of these two beneficial planets in Gemini. The love planet, Venus, will be in Gemini for an uncharacteristically long period of time, from April 3rd to August 7th, due to its retrograde motion. And lucky Jupiter will be in Gemini until June 25, 2013. Under this positive influence, you may suffer from an embarrassment of riches – too many friends, too many places to go, too much information, too many ideas, and too many people to share them with. All are positive, but you may want to develop a system for categorizing or sifting through all of the energetic influences that will come your way during the summer season. Periods of solitude or meditation will help you become centered within yourself to regain your perspective. Sometimes less is more. A rare alignment of changeable Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn on June 24th will make you aware of the level of transformational change going on around you.
CANCER (June 22 – July 22)
Loving Venus in Cancer from August 7th to September 6th will spice up your romantic life and enable you to beautify your home to reflect an idea you've been dreaming of. Beauty and harmony will easily come your way under this positive celestial influence. The moon in Cancer from June 19th – 21st, July 16th – 18th, August 13th –15th, and September 9th – 11th, will help you accomplish your aims. These are positive days on which to move forward on projects and possibilities that are important to you. An unusual alignment of Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn will help you reorganize your work life so you will have more time for relationships with the people you care about.
LEO (July 23 – August 22)
Mercury, the communications planet, in Leo from June 25 to August 31, will enable you to create positive outcomes through carefully-chosen words. Think about the goal you'd like to achieve or the effect you'd like to have with your words, and use your magnetic personality to radiate your message. When Mercury is retrograde in Leo from July 14th to August 7th, you will encounter people from your past and situations created in an earlier period of your life. The Sun in Leo from July 22 to August 22 will magnify your creative and romantic flair. A rare alignment of Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn on June 24th will spice up your life with a new idea you had never considered before. Don't resist. It will lead you to a more conscious way of being.
VIRGO (August 23 – September 22)
You will breathe a sigh of relief when energetic Mars leaves Virgo on July 3rd. The fiery planet, which has been visible in the sky throughout the year, has brought a fiery, sometimes overwrought, quality to your personal and professional affairs. You have been alternately energized and industrious, or at times, overly critical. Try to step back and see the big picture under this energizing influence. With loving Venus and lucky Jupiter in the mental sign of Gemini this summer, you will benefit from exercising your powers of perception and precision to make accurate decisions in challenging or confusing situations. It is likely that there has been a maelstrom of activity around you since Mars entered Virgo in late 2011. Try to sort out what is important to take forward into the next chapter of your life – and let go of the rest. A rare alignment of Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn on June 24th will unearth latent talents and creative gifts.
LIBRA (September 23 – October 23)
Mars in Libra from July 3rd to August 23rd will energize projects you have been avoiding for as long as two years, when the fiery planet Mars was last in Libra (from July 29th to September 14th, 2010). Mars in Libra will energize your forward progress where advancement has been delayed. While diplomacy is always a key to your success, it will be important to be forthright too under this celestial influence. An unusual alignment between change-oriented Uranus and depth-seeking Pluto on June 24th will start the process of changing the way you relate to others. There is something important deeply held within yourself that needs to be expressed to someone you are in a close relationship with.
SCORPIO (October 24 – November 21)
The summer season will bring you a respite from the financial ups and downs that visited you during the spring. This is a time to embrace a more conservative financial strategy that will give you the peace of mind to pursue your true passions. You are motivated by psychological exploration, emotional sharing, and deep caring relationships. Establish a firm foundation for yourself so you feel the security you need to open your big, loving heart. You have much to share, and only need to feel safe to share your beautiful soul with others. When you have found someone with whom you can share your deepest secrets, you will know you have found the person you have been seeking. On June 24th, a rare alignment between erratic Uranus in Aries and your planetary ruler, Pluto, in Capricorn, will bring repressed feelings or a health issue to the surface so they can be healed. Patiently allow the disharmonious energy to release so you can resume your normal routines.
SAGITTARIUS (November 22 – December 21)
With loving Venus and lucky Jupiter in Gemini this summer, you will learn from people who are different or even opposite from yourself. Gemini is the sign opposite Sagittarius in the sky, so when planets are in Gemini, where they will be this summer, you will be attracted to a diverse group of souls. Gemini natives also will be electromagnetically attracted to you during the summer season. It is a law of nature that opposites attract. To create balance between the extremes of Sagittarian focus and Gemini dispersion, seek compromise wherever possible so you will find a comfortable middle ground. The love planet, Venus, has been in Gemini for an uncharacteristically long period of four months, from April 3rd to August 7th, due to its retrograde motion. And lucky Jupiter, your planetary ruler, will be in Gemini until June 25th, 2013. It will be a busy time for you, but gratifying when you stay open to a new way of being. There is a lot to learn in practicing the art of negotiation, cooperation, concession and compromise. An unusual alignment of Uranus in fiery Aries and Pluto in earthy Capricorn will bring out the creativity in you.
CAPRICORN (December 22 – January 19)
The summer season will give you an opportunity to bring projects to completion that have been outstanding since 2010. Saturn, your planetary ruler, is transitioning from Libra to Scorpio in October 2012. This transition in the heavens will cause you to experience a similar transition in your feelings in a relationship. You are moving into a time when you will put a greater focus on self-healing and inner reflection. Saturn moves into a new sign every 2 1/2 years, changing the nature and quality of your life every time it changes sign. You are about to undergo another important change. The alignment of unusual Uranus in Aries with transformative Pluto in Capricorn on June 24th will cause a change in the way you express yourself. This change will change the dynamics in a relationship with someone you are close to, enabling you to express something you have hidden deep inside yourself.
AQUARIUS (January 20 – February 18)
You are a mentally strong and capable air sign influenced by the enlightening planet Uranus. Beginning on July 3rd, loving Venus and lucky Jupiter will be in the compatible air sign of Gemini and energetic Mars will be in the compatible air sign of Libra. This celestial line-up will give you the sense of stability you need to establish a strong foundation to launch a new idea, project or relationship. This is the time to get your ducks in a row so you will be prepared for the wave of positive energy that flows into your life during the active summer season. Mercury in your opposing sign of Leo from June 25th to August 31st and the Sun in your opposing sign of Leo from July 22nd to August 22nd will attract important relationships to you. Mercury retrograde from July 14th to August 7th will help you decide whether people from your past are journeying along with you into the next stage of your growth. A rare alignment of your planetary ruler, Uranus, and depth-seeking Pluto will help you originate creative ways of dealing with a confining structure or system.
PISCES (February 19 – March 20)
The summer season will give you a pleasant opportunity to reminisce about the past as your planetary ruler, Neptune, retrogrades through Pisces until November 10th. Combined with Mercury retrograde from July 14th to August 7th, you will have ample opportunity to reflect upon the currents flowing through your life. Think about the direction you have taken – and the direction you would like to take. This is a time to imagine what is possible. Through the power of thought, you will be able to re-sculpt the quality of your every day reality. Imagine what you'd like to create, and begin the process of serious manifesting with the positive support of Saturn and Mercury in the compatible water sign of Scorpio, beginning October 5th. An unusual alignment of Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn on June 24th will bring people into your life who will alter your financial picture.
Click here to view all my posts about Laurie Baum.
Through God's Eyes: Finding Peace and Purpose in a Troubled World, is a road map for living a more peaceful, beautiful life. It's the one book that explains how dozens of spiritual principles interact, how to weave them together into a cohesive worldview, and how to practically apply this spiritual wisdom to daily life.
Who will benefit from reading Through God's Eyes?
Anyone who is on a spiritual path, or wants to start one.
Anyone who loves life, or wants to learn how to.
Anyone who is happy, or wants to be happier.
Click here to order your copy of Through God's Eyes from GodsEyesAmazon.com.
For an inscribed copy, click here to e-mail Phil for information.
Click on the link below to download a FREE 28-page chapter!
Click here to visit the Through God's Eyes website.
Click here to ask Phil to add you to his e-mail list for updates on his blog and books.
Here is a two-minute video introduction to Through God's Eyes.
Like to learn more about Through God's Eyes? Here is a free 44-page PDF sampler from the book that includes:
• an overview of the book
• the complete table of contents
• the Foreword by Caroline Myss
• my Introduction
• chapter excerpts
• a sample end-of-chapter story
• endorsements from authors and thought leaders
Just click on the link below to download your free PDF sampler!
Schedule a Mastery Mentoring phone session with Phil to learn how to apply principles of spiritual living more effortlessly and effectively. Priced affordably! Click here to e-mail Phil for details.
Phil's eBook, The Logic of Living a Spiritual Life: Supporting a Life of Faith Through Logic and Reason, is now available for 99 cents.
Order it at GodIsLogical.com.
In this eBook, you'll find answers to questions like:
• What is the cornerstone of a spiritual life, and why?
• What is the secret to liberating yourself from other people's judgments and expectations?
• How do you reconcile the "free will vs. Divine Will" conundrum?
• Why is there an exception to "Everything happens for a reason"?
Those who worship logic instead of God are only half right. Not only is it logical to believe in God and to live a faith-based life, the existence of a loving, benevolent God that governs all creation is perhaps the only systematic worldview that explains every aspect of life.
Phil is also the author of Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything, a collection of 45 inspiring, life-changing stories from prominent authors and thought leaders he interviewed. The roster of storytellers includes Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, Neale Donald Walsch, Caroline Myss, Larry Dossey, Rachel Naomi Remen, Bernie Siegel, Dean Ornish, and Christiane Northrup. Sixty Seconds has been translated into four languages: Italian, German, Spanish, and Portuguese. Reading this book is like spending a few minutes face to face with each of the contributors and listening to their personal stories.
Click here to order Sixty Seconds.
Click here to read unsolicited testimonials from readers.
Learn more by visiting the official Sixty Seconds website.
Here is a three-minute video introduction to Sixty Seconds.
Tags: astrology, Summer Solstice


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It's been a busy week. I'll just use text for this post, no photos to share anyway. No luxury of time to "beautify" this post with photos too. Remember my Sarawak road trip last year? We encountered a haunted hotel in Bintulu. I did not exactly feel "it", only blurted something I normally won't say […]
Entries from April 2014
The Haunted Hotel – From My Perspective
April 25th, 2014 · 13 Comments
Categories: Bintulu · Going Places · Land of the Hornbills - Sarawak
Finally, In a Kebaya
April 18th, 2014 · 8 Comments
Remember the kebaya I bought last year in Melaka? Never had the chance to officially wear it. Finally the chance was here early this month. Wore it to my company's annual award night but too bad wasn't entitled to any award or even lucky draw as I'm still new hehehe… Had fun dressed up though. […]
Categories: Fab Fashion · Girl Stuffs · Me, myself and I
Han's Dim Sum
April 13th, 2014 · 4 Comments
Hans Dim Sum or Han's Coffee Shop is where you can get dim sum without pork, no pork served. Located at Central Park, next to Jolibee Food Court. Rather hard to find the place if you are not familiar with the area. It's located away the main road, the row of shops at the back […]
Categories: Food Porn
P Cafe
April 5th, 2014 · 2 Comments
P Cafe (Jalan Wan Alwi, 93350 Kuching, Sarawak) located just at the other shop lot of Choice World at Jalan Wan Alwi. Never bother to try out until last week. Couldn't decide where to eat and ended up here after did a bit of grocery shopping. Simple interior design and clean. I would put it […]

subset: commoncrawl


text: thorleif-jacobsen 0 Posted September 1, 2014 · Upgrade Possibility? : Semi-automatic bed leveler? Have someone maybe thought about having a distance measurement tool hooked up to the arduino making a script to run to the 3 - 4 points of adjusting and blink a light when you have adjusted the height "perfect"? So when you level it and hit that perfect point it lights up and you do the next? This way you get a measurable feedback Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


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Posts Tagged 'the evil within 2'
E3 2017: The Evil Within 2 Revealed, First Trailer
Last night game publisher Bethesda revealed its roster for 2017, and among the titles listed was a sequel to 2014's The Evil Within. The same team that gave us the original game is also behind the new one: Shinji Mikami (who cut his teeth on Resident Evil) and his studio Tango Gameworks. Looks as creepy […]


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DENVER -- Few people still take New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie seriously as a presidential contender, which may explain the governor's comments Monday derisively referring to this critical swing state as a land of "head shops popping up on every corner."
During a radio appearance Monday, Christie responded emphatically to a caller who asked about legalizing marijuana.
"You say it's going to come down the road," he said, interrupting the caller. "You know it may come down the road when I'm gone. It's not going to come while I'm here."
Christie, a Republican thought to be considered the GOP's 2016 front-runner until he got bogged down in a scandal late last year, showed little grasp of an obvious reality: that voters here and in Washington state -- not governors -- are the ones who had the power to legalize recreational marijuana.
"I think when you're running for president and you haven't been to a state you know nothing about, you're likely to say outlandish things," said Colorado Rep. Dan Pabon, D-Denver, who helped write the state's new marijuana laws, which run more than 500 pages.
"When you're counting your electoral votes, I guess he doesn't think he needs Colorado's nine."
Christie's office could not tell FOX31 whether the governor has actually traveled to Colorado since recreational marijuana became legal on Jan. 1 or when the last time he visited the state actually was.
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat who opposed Amendment 64, which voters approved in 2012 to legalize marijuana but has since directed his administration to implement the new law, responded to FOX31 Denver's request for a comment with a slew of statistics from his office, all showing Colorado ranking above New Jersey on economic development, job creation, innovation, technology, strong communities and so on.
The first statistic Hickenlooper's office offered showed Colorado ranked seventh among "top states for business" by CNBC.
New Jersey is ranked 42nd.
In a Healthways survey of healthy communities, Denver ranked seventh while New Jersey was 23rd, seemingly contradicting Christie's characterization of Colorado's communities being overrun by "head shops" and marijuana tourists.
"For the people who are enamored with the idea with the income, the tax revenue from this, go to Colorado and see if you want to live there," Christie said later in the broadcast, bringing up Colorado again on his own.
"See if you want to live in a major city in Colorado where there's head shops popping up on every corner and people flying into your airport just to come and get high. To me, it's just not the quality of life we want to have here in the state of New Jersey and there's no tax revenue that's worth that."
Mike Elliott, who represents the Medical Marijuana Industry Group, argued that Christie's brash assertions about quality of life and public safety belie the reality -- that legalizing marijuana has brought regulation and rule to what had been a black market enterprise.
"This is superior to an environment where it's the black market, it's people who use violence to sell it, they sell it to kids and -- 'would you like that heroin with that?'" Elliot said.
"There's no accountability to what New Jersey is doing; in these other states, marijuana has been out of control. We're building control into the system here."


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These are the activity reports and musings of David A. Gilmour, professional photographic artist and owner of Lumacraft Photography.
I am happy to add another local RBC Dominion Securities team to our client list. Thank you Richard and Charmaine! Thank you also Virginia of Beauty on the Go, for once again contributing first class in-studio styling work.
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Remember Amazon's Fire TV set-top streaming box that made a subsidised play to sit under your telly last year? Well, now it's available in stick form.
Getting up in the US grills of Google and Roku since last autumn, the Amazon Fire TV Stick will launch in the UK on April 15, sailing on a raft of smart-device mirroring and familiar streaming and catch-up options, from its own Prime Instant Video subscription and rental service, to Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Curzon Home Cinema and Sky News.
But the most intriguing part is the pricing menu. Although the HDMI plug-in dongle and Apple TV-like remote-control combo will be £35 at launch, for the next two days it's going for £19 if you already have Amazon Prime's £79-a-year streaming telly-cum-free deliveries (we'd argue it's kind of necessary if you're a) into the ecosystem or b) like us, have a terrible soft spot for Black Sails).
Still allergic to Prime? Well, if you overcome that and sign up, Amazon will give you a £12 refund, meaning you get the Fire TV Stick for just £7. It really wants you to sign up to Prime, it seems.
Boasting all the duals – dualcore processor, dual-band dual antenna and double the memory (1GB) of Google's Chromecast – the Fire Stick has 8GB storage for search-boosting and outputs in 1080p HD. Our US team reviewed it following its launch there last November and said it "makes tiny sacrifices for something that otherwise beats the competition to deliver something very, very good". Let's hope the UK's iteration lives up to it.


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With the help of our professional glassblowers, you can sculpt hot molten glass into egg shaped paperweights for Easter.
Must be 5 years or older. Reservations required by phone (513-751-3292). Check availability by phone or email (firstname.lastname@example.com). Scheduled in 30 minute increments per person. Ready for pick up in 7 days.


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July 8th, 1990
Night flight from JFK – LGW
Short crew rest as we wing our way home, across the Atlantic.
Thought about ringing Christopher this morning to see if he was free for lunch but decided against it and went for a walk instead. The city was teeming with tourists, dressed in patriotic t-shirts, purchased no doubt to celebrate the fourth. There were more families than usual with frazzled looking dads attempting to decipher oversized maps and nervous looking mums holding the kids a little too close.
When I got back to my room (ah, air conditioning!) the message light was flashing, which usually indicates a delay but this time, it was David.
"Just calling to say hi, sorry I missed you. Call me at work if you can."
Those were all the words I needed to hear.
"Hi, it's me."
"Hi me," he laughed. "How's your day going?"
"Really well, thanks. I've just been people watching."
"Fascinating. As always."
"Did you imagine writing about some of them?"
I couldn't help but chuckle. "How did you know?"
"I pay attention."
"Seems you do. So, how are you getting on at work today?"
"I just spent an hour on the phone with Delhi trying to put out a few fires and…"
"Please don't tell me you have to go to India."
"I might," he said, quietly.
"I'll know for sure tomorrow."
"Will you let me know?"
"Of course. If you want, you can stay at my place next week."
"Wouldn't that be weird if you aren't there?"
"Not for me," he laughed
"Ugh, I really hope you don't have to go. I've been so looking forward to seeing you."
"Same here."
"I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that whatever the problem is gets resolved and you don't have to fly, how many miles? Just to sort it out."
"It's like eight thousand, maybe a little less."
"That's mental."
He laughed. "Great expression. Listen, I'm sorry but I have a meeting I need to get to so why don't I call you tomorrow?"
"Ok, what time?"
"If I call before I leave for the office that'll be, what, three in the afternoon for you?"
"Yeah, that sounds about…" I stopped when I heard someone in the background calling his name.
"Sorry, I have to go. I'll call you tomorrow. Have a safe flight home."
"Bye," I uttered, but he was already gone.


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I am joyous about the food preparations and servings... but I have an irrational fear about tile floors!
I will eat on the edge of them, but not fully on top of them.
Mom, who welcomes and encourages me ANY and EVERYwhere... thinks I am persnickety, about the tile floors.
And really... I have been encouraged to walk on them, spoken to lovingly and cuddled on them. I sometimes sneak onto them, but feel "caught" when Mom finds me there.
I have been here 8 months, and in that time... she has never scolded me.
That is not to say that she has not been forceful in two commands... "come" and "drop it", but that's because my two favorite games are "hard of hearing" and "chase me"!
Yes. I am ornery.
I'm gradually growing in comfort, though, because in the last month... I've pranced confidently (and absent mindedly) into the bathroom to get loving from the Mom!
You have no idea how BIG that step is for Big Boy Bleu (aka Bleu Bear)!
Monday MOMSandMEday - SUNday At The PF Palace - A SUN puddle ;-) June? How did THAT happen? Two V pals! Bonjour #1! And a* DOGtor we khan all swear *by! SUNday vis...


text: Response 26 - Social Welcome to Response magazine – International Marcomms Insights From Ebiquity. International marcomms insights from Ebiquity Issue 26 - Q1 2017 The pre-pitch checklist: five crucial steps for advertisers The considered approach that advertisers are starting to take before putting media business out for pitch. Laetitia Zinetti, Ebiquity's Practice Principal for Strategic Media Consultancy, welcomes the considered approach that advertisers are starting to take before putting media business out for pitch. For advertisers today, the increasingly digital media landscape offers unprecedented opportunities to connect – often directly – with consumers and customers. Yet the sheer complexity of the ecosystem threatens to overwhelm even the best-informed marketer. This threat is nowhere more obvious and potentially more damaging than in many advertisers' perceived need to change media agency. This is often driven by a desire to capitalize on the opportunities they believe their current agency partners may be failing to seize on their behalf. Over the course of the last year, we've been involved in more than 100 pitches for advertisers looking to refresh – and often change – their media agency of record. Some of these have been local, single-territory deals; many more have been regional, or global, multi-territory relationships. A quarter have been with the world's leading advertisers. What has emerged during engagements with bigger, progressive advertisers is the increasing amount of work they now undertake before they ever go out to tender. Changing media agency is an upheaval that advertisers should not enter lightly, and preparing the way for transition to a new agency partner – or a refreshed relationship with an established agency of record – requires both outward and inward-looking analysis. Advertisers need to make themselves aware of and understand what's available in the market. But they also need to ensure that their own organizations are set up to succeed with new agency partners. During recent engagements, we've observed five key trends among advertisers which show how behavior over agency partner selection is evolving. "The sheer complexity of the digital media ecosystem threatens to overwhelm even the best-informed marketer." 1. Analyze the agency Progressive advertisers are increasingly auditing the capabilities of their agency partners to understand what works – and what needs addressing – within current relationships and processes. This analysis often covers a diverse range of capabilities assessment, plus also data access rights and transparency, as well as identifying the detailed composition of the right tech stack to meet marketing objectives. This enables advertisers to define the key issues and challenges, set benchmarks, and prioritize what needs to change. 2. Audit internal organization Understanding existing – and competitive – agency capabilities is critical; agency partners clearly need to provide what advertisers want and need. But it is equally important for advertisers to fully specify and articulate their own internal organization and processes to understand whether their own structure allows the agency to deliver what's required of it. Often it does not. Advertisers need to set brand requirements, business objectives, and KPIs. What's more, they need to ensure they have the right talent and internal organization to support the agency. This means having the right people in the right roles, as well as ensuring that key internal partners – particularly marketing and procurement – understand and respect their mutual roles. The key outcome of this internal analysis is to define the optimum process and governance for future agency relationships. 3. Transform the organization Given the unprecedented pace of change in marketing and marketing technology, every advertiser faces the imperative to transform their business to be fit for the digital age. This means advertising in its broadest sense, but it also encompasses the entire customer journey, taking in an increasingly broad cross-section of disciplines – from marketing to insight, customer relationship management to human resources, internal comms to employee engagement. Too often, however, the component parts of the potentially integrated whole operate in disconnected silos.[1] In pre-pitch work, we are increasingly observing progressive advertisers taking meaningful strides toward genuine transformation of their marketing communications infrastructure. This includes evaluating how they plan to embrace the evolving media landscape, restructuring so they stop working in silos, and building and executing better integrated campaign plans. It requires advertisers to be more agile, more data minded, and ready to be in a permanent state of test and learn – to experiment with and then optimize new communications opportunities as they emerge. In turn, this helps to shape the role that media agencies should play as genuine partners in this transformation. "In pre-pitch work, we are increasingly observing progressive advertisers taking meaningful strides toward genuine transformation of their marketing communications infrastructure." 4. Prepare the contract Before requests for proposals are issued, we find that progressive advertisers are increasingly bringing marketing and procurement together to draft and prepare a contract that is truly fit for purpose and for advertisers' needs. Then, and only then, is it issued as a prerequisite for agencies participating in the pitch. The purpose – and benefits – of this approach help to guarantee data transparency by ensuring that all rights clauses are included in the contract. 5. Take control of adtech A recent survey we conducted with the WFA showed that 70 percent of advertisers spend money with adtech and martech vendors governed through contracts held by media agencies on advertisers' behalf. Often, these contracts fail to deliver data transparency. However, 30 percent of advertisers hold contracts directly with vendors, even if they ask their agencies to administer adtech – such as ad servers and ad verification – on their behalf. This proportion is growing and is evidence of advertisers looking to take back control of both their relationships and their data. Benefits By taking these steps before putting their media agency contracts out to tender, progressive advertisers are establishing the elements they need to write better, more appropriate briefs that suit their circumstances. This, in turn, generates better responses from the most appropriate partners. Advertiser-agency relationships typically last at least three years, though often much longer. So, this approach enables advertisers to set better relationships in the medium to long term with the winning agency – or, indeed, to reset the relationship they have with their existing agency. It enables them to test which agency has the best fit and the right understanding of its challenges, the best capabilities, and the most suitable talents to be their partner. It really does make sense to look before you leap – to plan before you pitch. [1] See 'Breaking free from the swim lane mentality' by Andrew Challier in this issue of Response When was the last time you reviewed your media agency? Last year During the last three years Three to five years ago More than five years ago Laetitia Zinetti Laetitia is Practice Principal, Strategic Media Consultancy, at Ebiquity, and has over 14 years' media and marketing experience. She joined Ebiquity in 2010 as Managing Director of the Company's French operations, moving from multinational automobile manufacturer, Nissan, where she was European Media Manager for more than four years. She then became Group Strategy Development Director at Ebiquity in 2014 where she was responsible for future-proofing products for the media practice. Moving beyond the ANA report The actions that marketers need to take to achieve transparency across all their media activities. Bill Bruno, CEO of Ebiquity, North America, addresses three potential misconceptions about the ANA initiative and restates the actions that marketers need to take to achieve transparency across all their media activities. 2016 was the year in which debate about media transparency moved out of the shadows and into the mainstream. First came the study for the U.S. Association of National Advertisers (ANA) from K2 Intelligence. This was followed by the ANA's recommendations for members – the report written by Ebiquity and FirmDecisions titled 'Prescriptions, Principles, and Processes' (more details here) – together with a new, model, media agency template contract (see here). "It's important for advertisers to address the wider issues associated with transparency to improve the return on their media dollars." The process by which the ANA's members adopt these recommendations is still just beginning. Overall, advertisers seem to have considered the recommendations to be well balanced. What's more, they highlighted advertisers' own responsibility for managing their media agency partners moving forward, rather than relying on agencies to do this job for them. However, there was so much attention paid to the issue – in the media and in conversations between advertisers, their agencies, and their advisors – that, with some justification, many found it difficult when the term 'transparency' was brought up in conversation. This is unfortunate, because it's important for advertisers to address the wider issues associated with transparency to improve the return on their media dollars: to become better clients and more effective advertisers. 'The ANA review was all about media rebates' While the reason for the market review was undoubtedly the contradictory viewpoints regarding the existence and extent of rebates in the US media market, both the K2 Intelligence study and the subsequent recommendations go much further and deeper. The K2 Intelligence study clearly demonstrates that there are numerous media trading incentives in the market. However, one of the most important points in the entire study is the broader definition of media transparency (section 2.2.1). Essentially, advertisers need full oversight of all the factors that help them make well-informed media decisions. This can take many forms. It includes access to the right research and data, the certainty that media plans are not compromised by conflicts of interest, and the best possible reporting on the effectiveness and efficiency of media performance. All of these can be adversely influenced by media trading incentives. And it's impossible to measure the effectiveness of all marketing investments without full transparency into how budgets are allocated along the full length of the adtech and martech supply chain. While the study was not just about rebates, it's also clear that the word 'rebates' also covers a wide range of media trading incentives, including free media inventory. Globally, there has been a marked move away from cash rebates to other forms of incentive, and free or heavily discounted media space is in the ascendant. Media agencies' practices are evolving to try to ensure that certain rebates can remain undisclosed to advertisers (and therefore not returned to them). In turn this provides greater flexibility and higher margin opportunities for the buying entities. So, the use of 'rebates' as a generic term can also lead to an understatement of the wide range of trading mechanisms in the market, many of which are described in the K2 Intelligence study and which advertisers should know about. Lack of transparency is also fundamentally a data issue, as demonstrated by the difficulties experienced by both Dentsu (see this Financial Times article) and Facebook in 2016. For Dentsu, lack of transparency over trading led to hundreds of suspected cases of overcharging more than 100 advertisers, while Facebook was forced to admit it had overestimated average viewing time of video content by as much as 80 percent, over two years. As the data-rich customer journey continues to increase in complexity, advertisers need to have confidence in and ownership of the data which their marketing activity generates. If they can't be certain about the accuracy of the data, and if they don't have the freedom to interrogate it using the technology platform of their choice, they will be unable to properly understand the impact and effectiveness of their media choices. This is the reason that data is increasingly viewed as the true currency of the advertising industry. 'Transparency is only a US issue' Since the release of the study and recommendations, there has been a tendency outside of the US to understate the relevance of the ANA exercise to other countries. This is partly because media trading incentives have been more commonly discussed and known for many years in other markets. This is also because of the misconception that the review was only about rebates. The reality is that the ANA's recommendations for advertisers are relevant right around the world. They describe the steps advertisers should take to take control of media governance, improve accountability, and achieve transparency. These principles are universal, and advertisers need to focus on internal housekeeping to ensure that they are properly protected. Some in the industry suggest that the historic presence of rebates has led to tighter and more up-to-date contracts and audit rights in other markets, although it is true to say that those markets still lag best practice as described in the ANA's guidelines. This is well demonstrated by recent data from FirmDecisions showing that contracts are frequently incomplete or unsigned right across the world. Fundamental issues such as the advertisers' free choice of auditor and audit scope also occur throughout the world. The new media agency template contracts from ISBA in the UK and the ANA go beyond former standards in helping advertisers achieve the accountability and transparency they need, and other countries should consider adopting similar standards. 'The ANA review has harmed client/agency relationships' There has been significant coverage of the differences between the approach taken by the ANA and the transparency initiative conducted by the Association of Advertising Agencies (4A's) in the US. As widely documented, the ANA and 4A's had diverging views on the contents of a mutual media transparency protocol. The 4A's issued a statement that suggested that the ANA recommendations document was at odds with the agencies' own experiences with clients, but any individual client/agency conversations are self-evidently between the two contracting parties. It is not surprising that the agencies' experience of talking to clients varies from the ANA's new recommendations and draft media agency template. The purpose of the ANA review was to establish the facts as an essential basis for normalizing and improving relationships between advertisers and their media agency partners. So, the K2 Intelligence study was not intended to be 'anti-agency,' but rather was designed to help provide the foundations for an open dialogue. This is a result that should benefit all parties, and is in the interests of the industry as a whole. The recommendations produced by Ebiquity and FirmDecisions aim to provide the ANA's members with a best-practice guide to how they should manage their media investments. The emphasis in the document is on the advertisers' responsibilities, and underscores the need to have clear terms of engagement with agencies via a mutually agreed contract and a Code of Conduct. More details can be found here. Moving forward, advertisers now have the opportunity and the blueprint to build better and more effective campaigns with clear measurement, governance, and accountability for all parties involved. "The aim is to create more stable, clearer relationships. Such partnerships have always been at the heart of good advertising." In summary Ultimately it is important to remember that the K2 Intelligence study and the Ebiquity and FirmDecisions recommendations were designed to reveal facts and to provide a way forward in order for the ANA's members to improve their media management at a time when it is sorely needed, given the scale and speed of industry change. However, now that the industry dust has settled, it will be for each advertiser to decide how to take advantage of the ANA's initiative for its own purposes. The outcome should be that more honest and frank discussions can take place between clients and their media agency partners, supported by clearer rules of engagement. They will be enshrined in better, more up-to-date contracts that are more suitable for today's media market. The aim is to create more stable, clearer relationships. Such partnerships have always been at the heart of good advertising. They are necessary for the industry to address, collectively, the new challenges which face all parties in the advertising ecosystem, such as ad fraud and ad blocking. Perhaps most importantly, in moving toward a better industry, data is the new currency. If you own the data, you own the industry and thus your own destiny as an advertiser. Bill Bruno Bill Bruno is CEO of Ebiquity – North America. He began his career as the first employee of Stratigent, the global leader in multi-channel analytics consulting to enterprise level brands. At Stratigent, Bill quickly became CEO and led the company through its successful acquisition by Ebiquity in August 2013. He has actively worked in the multi-channel analytics space for over 12 years and has extensive experience helping clients navigate the ever-complex customer journey to generate ROI and create a high level of transparency across all marketing initiatives. In addition, Bill helped incubate and grow Ensighten within Stratigent before it became a separate company in 2009. Throughout the years, Bill has gained certification in every major technology within the analytics and marketing space and manages successful partnerships with over 100 solution providers in the industry. Bill holds a degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois. Breaking\ free from\ the swim lane mentality Time to remove the swim lanes that are holding advertisers back from truly integrated brand communications? Ebiquity's Chief Client Officer Andrew Challier says it's time to remove the swim lanes that are holding advertisers back from truly integrated brand communications. Swim lanes exist across businesses, for obvious – and understandable – structural and psychological reasons. Structurally, functions and areas of responsibility need to be led and driven by individuals who are charged by their organization to make a meaningful difference to performance within a specific area of expertise. Budgets are typically and traditionally allocated against these functions. Marketing, advertising, digital, and PR all have fees and expenses associated with execution, and the individuals leading functional teams are required to spend their budgets optimally to deliver against objectives. Psychologically, being responsible for a specific function means that those in charge are more likely to clearly demarcate and argue for this function, at the expense of – or indeed in competition with – other functions to which the budget could be reallocated. How else could they make the case for more budget next year? This approach apparently made sense when the different functions were relatively separate and there were no obvious benefits of distinct and discrete – if ultimately complementary – functions working together. In an omnichannel world, a world in which a wide variety of different skills and disciplines make interactive contributions to the experience of the customer journey, silos are not only unhelpful – they are actively counterproductive. In an environment where, say, the marketing team is responsible for driving traffic to a company website and the e-commerce team is responsible for improving conversion rates, both teams need to work in lockstep, not competition. There is no bliss in ignorance of what colleagues are doing down the hall. "In an omnichannel world, a world in which a wide variety of different skills and disciplines make interactive contributions to the experience of the customer journey, silos are not only unhelpful – they are actively counterproductive." Regrettably, in many businesses, complementary teams like these not only fail to work together – sometimes they either don't know what the other is doing or, in extreme cases, that the other even exists. This can be the result of the radically different life cycles that different functions have – a year or less for marketing compared with two years or more for new product development. Perhaps surprisingly, this even occurs in more modern, digital-first businesses less than ten years old, as well as considerably older organizations trying to adapt to the new realities of the digital economy. Too often we hear examples of retailers whose sales teams organize online promotions without finding out from buying teams first whether they have sufficient stock to meet the demand the promotion stimulates. Why siloed organizations are bad for business Swim lanes cause confusion within marketing and communications teams. More importantly, they cause confusion for customers. A suboptimal customer journey with unnecessary friction, conflict, and contradiction along the way is quickly rejected by customers. One negative experience can outweigh 100 positive experiences, and negative experiences are much more likely to send users to social media in condemnation. Under recent data laws, customers can ask brands to delete all data about them provided there are no legitimate reasons for retaining it. For siloed businesses that fail to remove all information from all systems – principally because individual customer records are splintered across the organization – there's a risk of future contact if all traces of a customer are not deleted under a 'right to be forgotten' request. In Europe, businesses face fines of up to €20m for making this kind of mistake. Swim lanes also make businesses function suboptimally. A disjointed business is much less effective than a joined-up business. They prevent knowledge share and shared learnings cascading through a business. Working in silos means decisions are made in isolation. If you're lucky, they'll be complementary. If you're unlucky, you'll find potentially complementary functions working at cross purposes or in opposition to one another, like Dr Dolittle's Pushmepullyou. And, worst of all, organizations that operate in clearly demarcated swim lanes actively lose money and alienate customers. How to get this right The utility of modern digital communications and the ease with which customers can interact with – and shape perceptions of – brands mean that marketing has evolved out of the hands of marketers and communicators and into the hands of those very customers. Accordingly, and to do its job with impact, contemporary marketing communications must work with a much wider collection of disciplines and functions within an organization than ever before. Functions like marketing, sales, PR, digital, IT, social, insight, customer service, CRM, HR, internal comms, employee engagement … the list grows almost daily. And to achieve genuinely cross-functional working requires a fundamental shift in both attitudes and behaviors around ownership, hierarchy, and responsibility. "A disjointed business is much less effective than a joined-up business. Swim lanes prevent knowledge share and shared learnings cascading through a business." Put another way, marketing is no longer uniquely – or even primarily – responsible for creating a positive experience on the path to purchase. There are other equally or more impactful touchpoints and contributory factors that marketing doesn't control but needs to partner with in order to have meaningful impact. Again, this requires a change in working culture. Teams need to talk, to meet, to be properly structured cross-functionally. To institute a change program with impact, you'll need an executive sponsor to fight your corner, a program manager to create change, and a storyteller to vocalize that the pain everyone has to endure will be worth it in the end. All partners – and particularly the storyteller – will need to talk from senior to junior levels, inside and outside the organization, with department heads and agency leads. At Ebiquity we have the experience and the temperament to help companies deliver just this sort of transformational change program, to use the power of the different departments to tear down walls between them. As Isaac Jaffey, the lead character in the Aaron Sorkin TV series Sportsnight, said: "If you're dumb, surround yourself with smart people; if you're smart, surround yourself with smart people who disagree with you." That'll be your first experience of tearing down the barricades of silos. But quickly you'll discover a new, cross-functional, integrated way of working that changes your business forever. Hold on tight. It's going to be a bumpy ride. Andrew Challier Andrew is Chief Client Officer of Ebiquity. He joined the group in 2007 having previously held director level positions at Marks & Spencer, Verdict Research, and Ninah Consulting. With a pedigree encompassing both client-side and consultancy experience, and having spent many years advising clients on Marketing Effectiveness issues, Andrew brings a results-orientated and client-focused perspective to the challenge of helping businesses make better marketing decisions. In conversation with... Gerry D'Angelo of Mondelēz Today's media landscape offers marketers an unprecedented array of opportunities to connect and engage with people. With choice, however, comes complexity and the level of media expertise needed by advertisers has never been greater. Much of this is outsourced to media agencies, but marketers need to see this as a shared responsibility. The 2016 media transparency initiative conducted by the U.S. Association of National Advertisers (ANA) emphasized the need for substantially increased accountability and more disciplined processes client-side. When Ebiquity and FirmDecisions published a set of recommendations for the ANA's members, we recommended that advertisers should consider appointing a 'Chief Media Officer' or equivalent. This individual would serve as a centralized internal resource to oversee media strategy, partner with external providers, provide oversight of the data and technology resources needed, and manage all the contractual relationships necessary in the media ecosystem. Some advertisers have operated in this way for some time, including Mondelēz. Nick Manning, Ebiquity's Chief Strategy Officer, talked to Gerry D'Angelo, Director, Media MEU and Global Digital Media Partnerships for Mondelēz, about how the company manages its media affairs. NM: How does Mondelēz think about media and its role in brand-building? Gerry D'Angelo: Media is very important to our business and our brands. Traditionally, media was seen as a cost, with the resulting emphasis being on efficiency. But media is now increasingly seen as an investment to drive growth. Adopting a 'Laws of Growth' approach, inspired by Ehrenberg-Bass, helped us to adopt this new mindset, as well as embracing different routes to market such as branded content and media monetization. NM: What are the main preoccupations for advertisers in today's media environment? GD'A: There are some troubling aspects of today's media environment – in particular the level of complexity driven by ad tech and the straining of relationships between advertisers and media agencies; these are separate but interrelated issues. Media agencies have become more commercially driven as their importance to the bottom line of holding companies has grown but, in fairness, advertisers also need to acknowledge that they have placed increasing demands on the media agencies. The only way to resolve this tension is by calling out the issues and both parties – advertisers and media agencies – working together to find a solution. "In today's media environment, the level of complexity driven by ad tech is straining relationships between advertisers and media agencies." Gerry D'Angelo, Mondelēz NM: How do you decide which external partners to work with given the choices now, for example, in ad tech? GD'A: There is no perfect solution. Firstly, we must recognize that there are multiple routes to market, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. We have made a real effort to understand each route, and what the constituent parts are. Then we've done our best to make informed choices that lead to less complexity, lower costs, and increased accountability. With a clear approach to how we do marketing and – in turn – media, we are well set to evaluate each route based on a set of rigorous KPIs. NM: How does Mondelēz view the media transparency debate? GD'A: The best thing about the recent ANA initiative is that media transparency is now being discussed openly, and it's a healthy debate. Mondelēz is in a good position to deal with this issue because we are a global company with an established playbook for addressing transparency issues. For companies with a narrower, more domestic footprint – companies that are less used to dealing with media transparency issues – it's a new challenge. NM: Do you believe that today's generation of media managers can cope with the multiple demands they face? GD'A: They have no choice but to cope. If they stand still and do not evolve, they will be overtaken by technology, consumer behavior, and industry disruption. Media is such a major investment for large advertisers that they need the right level of talent and resource to manage it: for example, a 'Chief Media Officer' or equivalent who is as dedicated, informed, and expert as, say, sales and retail specialists who are constantly looking at new ways to open up distribution channels. Nick Manning Nick Manning is Ebiquity's Chief Strategy Officer. Nick has spent 30 years in the media industry, principally having co-founded Manning Gottlieb Media (MGM) in 1990. MGM became one of the most highly respected and fastest-growing Media Specialist agencies before becoming part of Omnicom in 1997. His most recent position was CEO of OMD's operations in the UK. Nick also co-founded OPera, the media negotiation arm for OMD and PHD, with billings of £1 billion. He joined Ebiquity in October 2007 as Chief Operating Officer, with special responsibility for the Analytics division, before becoming President, International, in overall charge of Ebiquity's non-UK based operations. Nick is now Chief Strategy Officer, with responsibility for developing and implementing Ebiquity's strategy across its three business segments. Going for gold Best-in-class marketing effectiveness from the Direct Line Group Leading UK insurance brand Direct Line ended 2016 on a high after winning Gold at the Institute for Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) biennial marketing effectiveness awards. The award entry told how brand repositioning drove fundamental changes across the organization, from call centers to proposition research. The judges described it as "an extremely well-considered comeback that transformed the business from the inside out." Ebiquity's Nic Pietersma spoke to DLG's Ann Constantine about this transformation and how the Group makes the most of marketing effectiveness. NP: What role did the ROI measurement framework play in your recent award entry? AC: It is a common misconception that the IPA Effectiveness Awards are based solely on ROI, at least in the narrow sense. Demonstrating ROI is an important part of the story, but it's not the only factor the judges consider. When we looked at previous winners, many report ROIs that would be unrealistic in our sector. So, we decided to adopt a broader approach. We wanted to put together a well-rounded argument that was evidence-based, demonstrated profitability, and told a compelling story about how the reboot transformed the business. The Direct Line Fixer campaign ticked a lot of boxes. It improved brand measures like 'Integrity,' 'Preference,' and perceived 'Quality.' It was also successful in terms of the econometric ROI. And it was successful in terms of topline customer growth. It's rare for campaigns that can demonstrate effectiveness across so many different types of metric. "It's rare for campaigns that can demonstrate effectiveness across so many different types of metric – brand measures, econometric ROI, topline customer growth." NP: What do you think is particularly strong about your effectiveness program? AC: The key thing is that we use a range of tools to measure our marketing effectiveness. Econometrics is central, but also not the be-all and end-all. If we relied on a single approach, we'd miss the bigger picture. In addition to econometrics, we've used geotesting to evaluate our campaigns over the last five years, initially to cut inefficient spend from our marketing budget, but more recently we've used the same approach to understand how novel media initiatives work across our company's portfolio of insurance brands. Figure 1. Testing Cycle When it comes to direct mail and paid social, we prefer to use a 'matchback and hold-out' approach wherever possible, because we believe that this is best practice. I know some companies use econometrics to measure direct mail but for us this would be missing a trick, as you're not using the right tool for the job. Figure 2. Matchback analysis Call volume tracking – using tracked phone numbers – was state of the art in insurance marketing 10–20 years ago, but consumer behavior has changed and today we rely on this approach less. "Digital investment needs to wash its face in terms of cost, reach and frequency, and viewability. Ideally, we also need to demonstrate effectiveness from a test and control perspective." We use digital tracking to plan our day-to-day digital marketing but, even so, we don't take tracked sales at face value. Digital investment needs to wash its face in terms of cost, reach and frequency, and viewability. Ideally, we also need to demonstrate effectiveness from a test and control perspective. NP: Those approaches seem to cover the short-term media response from every possible angle. What about the brand? AC: Ideally, marketing should impact both. The IPA paper – and the Winston Wolf, Fixer campaign – was successful partly because it showed that there were short-term benefits in terms of quotes and sales, as well as a meaningful, longer-term shift in brand metrics. Figure 3. Direct Line – Brand Index Quality Score (Net), from YouGov Ironically, some of the brand health changes happened very quickly. Our YouGov net quality score jumped up after the first month of the campaign. We also saw a holistic improvement in the Direct Line brand tracking that would be easy to miss from a narrow ROI standpoint. Statements like 'cares for customers,' 'resolves claims fairly,' and 'is easy to deal with' all saw major improvements after the Fixer campaign launched. Figure 4. Direct Line brand tracking statements, before and after launch of Fixer campaign Those shifts laid the groundwork for long-term success. Interestingly, we reported a strong above break-even ROI, which benchmarked well for this sector, but since then our estimated ROI for Direct Line has improved further'. Understanding how brand metrics fit together and work to drive quotes and sales in the long term is an ongoing area of work for us. One of the things that we've found is that certain elements of brand health tend to move together in the consumer's mind and that these collectively drive sales in the longer term. Figure 5. Clustering of brand metrics for the Direct Line brand In a way, they form a family tree of positive brand attributes. For example, some recent work we did with our Churchill brand highlighted how 'Britishness' was linked to 'Likability' and also how notions like 'Efficient / Dependable / Forward Looking / Straightforward' are all linked in the consumer's perception of the brand. NP: What role does customer segmentation play in your strategy? AC: We have a portfolio of brands and, while most use mass reach media lines (TV, PPC, etc.), the brands are nevertheless differentiated in terms of their core target audience. This plays a big role in shaping creative decisions across the portfolio. We also use segmentation in our analytic approach. Our econometric models are segmented not only in terms of channel (e.g., phone versus web transactions), but also in terms of age and risk profile, which is important in the insurance sector. This gives us a clear and granular view of what kind of customers our media investments attract and the commercial impact of this. "Segmentation gives us a clear and granular view of what kind of customers our media investments attract and the commercial impact of this." NP: What is the role of an effectiveness professional in a modern marketing department? AC: We strive to be seen as an internal agency that can give clear and concise opinions; we certainly don't want to be seen as a blocker of exciting new initiatives. We work closely with marketing teams to understand the role that each media line is expected to play and which KPIs need to be tracked and understood. We have also spent the last 18 months bringing what were seen as three separate disciplines – brand research, market and competitor research, and marketing effectiveness – under one umbrella. This is unique and allows us to have a fully rounded view on performance. Does your business integrate brand research, market and competitor research, and marketing effectiveness for a joined-up view of what works and what doesn't in the marketing mix? Yes No We're working on it! Nic Pietersma Nic is a Business Director at Ebiquity. Before joining the group in 2008 he worked as an analyst at Mediacom, as an economics lecturer at the University of Cape Town and as a parliamentary researcher. Nic's mission today is to make marketing analytics more commercial, more credible, and more useful. Digital growing pains for online advertising Reflecting on the digital hype of 2016. Ebiquity's Head of Communications Insight, Martin Broad, cuts through the hype about digital that assaulted marketers in 2016. Over recent years, the marketing community has been subjected to a large number of sensationalist headlines which have eventually been revealed to be only partly true. "TV is Dead!" – TV isn't dead: it's changing; "Social Video is The Future!" – tell that to the likes of Vine; "YouTube Ads are 80% More Effective Than TV!" – effective in what way, and for who? I say 'eventually revealed' because the nature of the advertising business often means that predictions and broad statements take time to prove, or disprove, with a tangible sense of uncertainty left hanging in-between. Nowhere is this uncertainty felt more than in online advertising – the mixture of an ever-evolving landscape, and predictions that are often as incorrect as they are correct, means that many tackle digital with trepidation rather than confidence. Yet the juggernaut rolls on; the plaudits of online advertising are heralded more and more, and the promises they make grow ever larger. The questions are, with still so much confusion about digital, where does the line lie between fact and fiction, and did digital overpromise in 2016? "The entire programmatic universe – especially difficult topics like visibility, fee allocation, and bot fraud – must have clearer signposting for clients." Transparency and problematic programmatic Two worries of digital cited more than any other are transparency and quality, particularly with respect to programmatic buying. A survey by Strata in August last year found that just over 50 percent of respondents were concerned with the transparency of programmatic buys, with nearly 60 percent worried about the quality. The Internet Advertising Bureau even offers marketers a free Programmatic Fee Transparency Calculator – its very existence pointing to the sheer scale of the transparency problem. The moment transparency is mentioned, an immediate undertone suggests that agencies are intentionally trying to 'cheat' clients – undoubtedly an unfair view. Through our Marketing Effectiveness practice, we have seen good examples of where digital can work well if done right. Nonetheless, the entire programmatic universe – especially difficult topics like visibility, fee allocation, and bot fraud – must have clearer signposting for clients. In March 2016, a report by Forrester revealed that 31 percent of companies have expanded to handle more programmatic needs in-house – a trend sure to continue unless confusions around programmatic are cleared up. Muddled measurement One of the most vocal critics of digital is Mark Ritson, Adjunct Professor at Melbourne Business School and prolific Marketing Week columnist. Whether claiming that "Facebook should hang its head in shame for measurement errors" or highlighting the little-publicized diagnostic discrepancies between digital and traditional TV views, Ritson's message is clear: digital measurements demand closer scrutiny. Poke's Head of Strategy, Bogdana Butnar, echoes the view that analytics need to be improved, although she highlights that current analytics are outdated, rather than outright dishonest. At last September's APG event Noisy Thinking, she commented: "The problem that we have is that the metrics we use [like impressions, views, and clicks] aren't bad – they're supposed to measure something else. They're supposed to measure transactions, which is different from what we're trying to measure, which is building brands and share." Whether metrics are clumsily deceitful or simply need updating, the incongruity between the promises they make and real-world results is harming the digital industry. Micro-targeting: missing the target altogether? Next comes the question about the necessity – if not the application – of micro-targeting. One of the frequently hailed accolades of digital in recent years has been the ability to drill down through reams of consumer data to a highly targeted level, often able to reach individuals. Unfortunately, micro-targeting had not-a-little wind taken out of its sails when P&G, the world's biggest advertiser, pulled back on its amount of targeted Facebook ads in August 2016. Global marketing officer Marc Pritchard stated that "we targeted too much and went too narrow." Let's be clear; 'pulling back' is not the same as 'pulling out.' P&G will continue to invest heavily in Facebook advertising, as it should. But the decision does suggest that full-scale micro-targeting may not be entirely necessary, and with Mars and Unilever following suit into what's been dubbed 'sophisticated mass marketing,' marketers are looking at micro-targeting with a more critical eye. Ad blocking … Ad unblocking … Ad nauseam … 2016 also raised the seemingly intractable issue of ad blocking. Whether you see ad blocking as illegal 'vandalism' of a publisher's digital property, or a necessary roadblock that makes advertisers work harder to create better ads, ad blockers are understandably vilified by the big digital players. Facebook took measures into its own hands last August, announcing that "[we'll] begin showing ads on Facebook desktop for people who currently use ad blocking software" in a move to outmaneuver ad blocking. In response, Adblock Plus launched a new filter to bypass the technology … with Facebook introducing new code to beat the filter … only for Adblock Plus to roll out ANOTHER update … followed by a reply by Facebook. This cat-and-mouse game shows no sign of slowing down. "The days of online advertising being prescribed as a marketing panacea have come to an end." The notion of overpromise applies when you consider the extent to which Facebook knows it may be impossible to block ad blockers. Whether down to browsers' capabilities for personalization, or the fact that any kind of clouded approach to ad labeling won't be allowed by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, it could be said that ad blockers are here to stay. Indeed, as Princeton Assistant Professor Arvind Narayanan has said: "All of this must be utterly obvious to the smart engineers at Facebook, so the whole 'unblockable ads' PR push seems likely to be a big bluff." This is just one more overpromise that Facebook knows it can't commit to in the long term. Summing up Significant and market-impacting challenges – challenges that have continued to grow in 2016 – can be summed up in three words: lack of clarity. Whether it's clarity of how ads are bought and sold, how the metrics are working, what they are measuring, or who will see ads, the failure of the industry to have a bipartisan discussion of digital's weaknesses as well as its strengths has led to a sense of distrust. The days of online advertising being prescribed as a marketing panacea have come to an end. In 2017, adland needs to be honest, upfront, and clear about the strengths and the limitations of digital in equal measure. It is only in this way that the promises digital makes can, at last, be kept. What are your plans for marketing investment in 2017 compared with 2016? Increase spend Keep spend the same Decrease spend Martin Broad Martin Broad is Head of Communications Insight at Ebiquity. His team provides strategic insight into the Paid, Owned, and Earned comms of leading brands around the world, working regularly across sectors such as technology, alcohol, finance, mobile, and skincare and cosmetics. The rise and rise of fake news The impact and implications of the fake news phenomenon. Sarah Wingrove, Client Services Manager at Ebiquity Australia, considers the rise, impact, and implications of the fake news phenomenon. More and more people are turning to the internet as their primary source of news. The web is replacing TV, press, or radio. This is particularly true among younger users. However, the validity and veracity of online news content is now a concern, thanks to the growth in fake news content and sites. The legitimacy of news is compromised further by social media platforms, where real news and fake stories live side by side, making it hard to tell them apart. What's more, channels such as Facebook and Twitter amplify the reach of fake news. Fictitious information is nothing new online, but fake news is now being deliberately created to circulate inaccurate information about current events. The commotion surrounding the role of fake news in the recent US presidential election was best (or perhaps worst) characterized by the so-called pizzagate conspiracy theory. This even led to a member of the public using a firearm in a restaurant when trying to investigate the claims for themselves. And following the US election and based on a federal intelligence investigation, the outgoing administration expelled 35 Russian diplomats said to be involved in fake election news. "The phenomenon is also starting to have commercial impact." The phenomenon is also starting to have commercial impact. Kellogg's recently pulled its ads from the right-wing news site Breitbart in the US, and this action has encouraged other brands to question whether they want to be associated with controversial, often fictitious content. More and more advertisers are now exposed to fake news sites as brands hand over control to trading platforms, for programmatic trading algorithms search for the cheapest advertising available. The twin forces of fake news and programmatic trading mean that brands should monitor the quality of environments selected to carry their messages. Relying on a programmatic strategy that goes unchecked can place branded content in environments which are not aligned with corporate values. Brands need to be aware of the parameters put in place through trading desks to ensure their ads are served through publishers that offer quality and credibility. As a result, the leaders of the dominant platforms – with Facebook and Google now accounting for more than 80 percent of both traffic and revenue – are already under increased pressure to use their power to act against fake news. Policies are already being implemented to cut off advertising revenue for websites and users posting fictional information. "The twin forces of fake news and programmatic trading mean that brands should monitor the quality of environments selected to carry their messages." But should it be these companies' responsibility to act as the adult in this situation? Fake news stories thrive on Facebook because the newsfeed algorithm is set up to prioritize 'engagement,' based on the number of people reading, sharing, and responding to content. One suggested option is for Facebook to give legitimate, high-quality news sources an advantage in its newsfeed algorithm. But, again, should we leave it up to an automated program to make these decisions or should people be hired to verify news stories which appear on the Facebook newsfeed? In Germany, by contrast, the government is planning to take a further step to keep these businesses accountable. It is considering legislation to penalize social media platforms that allow fake news to appear on their sites. This issue will grow over time, and keen scrutiny is needed for the dominant social media platforms who will be increasingly required to put processes in place to limit the volume of fake news published. However, it is also up to brands to determine whether they are happy to be associated with false content. If the stories are creating engagement for advertisers, they may decide that fake news is a better option than fake eyeballs. Sarah Wingrove Sarah joined Ebiquity in May 2015 as Client Services Manager, with four years' experience previously working for Ebiquity UK and agency side. She gained global media experience through project managing the English Premier League audience report and as part of the Trading & Investment team at Dentsu Aegis Network. At Ebiquity, Sarah works with clients across most areas of Ebiquity's consulting services, including benchmarking, brief and strategy reviews, media process reviews, agency reviews, and developing KPIs. Caveat outdoor Getting the best from Out of Home advertising A quiet revolution has been underway for some time in out of home (OOH) media. Digital sites are now commonplace – a third of sites in the UK market are now digitized, and the pace of transformation is accelerating. Digital OOH offers advertisers innovative opportunities for arresting creative. The medium also allows advertisers to reach ever more targeted audiences, by location or time of day, with messages appropriate to both. But with these new possibilities come challenges. Media owners are investing in this lucrative side of their business and are understandably keen for digital sites to feature prominently on our streets and media schedules. There's an obvious temptation for advertisers to get carried away by this innovation, and this should be balanced with common sense regarding campaign objectives, fundamental cost-efficiencies, and campaign reach. And it's not only in media planning where advertisers need to be more demanding of their trusted OOH partners – in this medium comprising media agencies, outdoor specialists, creative agencies, and media owners. Digital OOH raises challenges for creative, trading, and transparency and, for advertisers to get the most from these opportunities that digital offers, they should ask the following questions when considering OOH plans as a matter of routine. Targeting: Who am I targeting? When and where should they receive the message? - Environment, time of day, day of week, location Formats: How do the proposed formats contribute to my strategy? - Are they all efficient, effective, and necessary? Are there better options? Campaign weight: Does my budget reach sufficient people for long enough? - By format, environment, and overall? Cost-efficiency: What is the point of free 'value' activity? - Does it contribute to audience delivery and campaign objectives, or just exit costs? Transparency and validation: How will I know my digital ads appeared? - How will the campaign activity be verified? Impact: Will the creative solution achieve standout and recall? - Digital sites deliver much reduced screen time for advertisers Success: How will I know my campaign worked? - Are expectations clear and are metrics in place to verify them? A viewpoint paper on DOOH will be available in Spring. Judith Warn-Ford Judith Warn-Ford is Head of UK Media, having started her media career at Dorland Advertising as a Planner/Buyer in the early 1980s. When the media world decided to split the planning and buying function, she chose to align herself to the discipline of strategic media planning. Judith left Dorland to join Yershon Media (an Aegis company) as their lead Strategic Media Planner and consultant responsible for many clients, including Birds Eye Wall's, Unilever, TSB, and ICI. She left Yershon to join Fairbrother Lenz Media (FLE) and set up the non-TV auditing department and later the online auditing department. FLE became part of Ebiquity 2013.


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Beijing MMD Mining Machinery Co. Ltd. was founded as the manufacturing and supplying base for Asia Pacific Region by MMD Group , with a total investment of US7.5 million in 2005. Mining Machinery Developments (MMD) is a world leader in the design, manufacture and supply of mineral processing solutions and associated machinery serving the mining, quarrying and recycling industries. For almost 40 years we have delivered innovative solutions that improve the productivity, profitability and safety of our customers' operations while minimising environmental impact. We work closely with our customers offering comprehensive support through an expanding global network of offices and manufacturing facilities, employing over 500 dedicated and experienced professionals.
UK Address
Cotes Park Lane, Cotes Park Industrial Estate, Somercotes, Derbyshire, DE55 4NJ
China Address
Beijing MMD Mining Machinery Co. Ltd, MaPo JuYuan Industrial Park, Shunyi District, Beijing, 101300
北京市顺义区马坡聚源工业区 白马路66号 邮编:101300 北京英迈特矿山机械有限公司
Adam Zhang
Marketing Manager
Tel: +86 10 6940 7788


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Thursday, April 26, 2018
Participants of Mid-Career Course visited the Punjab Judicial Academy on 26-04-2018. The Additional Director welcomed the participants of said course. Mr. Nadeem Ahmad Sohail Cheema Senior Instructor/AD&SJ briefed the participants about the working environment of various departments of the Academy and also shared the performance of the Academy.
At the end the Director General of PJA addressed the participants and shared a souvenir with the incharge of the course Major Qaiser. The Participants were also visited the classrooms, IT.Lab and Auditorium of the Academy.
For pictures, please click here.


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Well I finally got one of these surveys in but it did not credit after several hours. Anyone try this one? Having more luck then me or not?
OpinioNetwork Survey not working
Started by MikeSol, Apr 18 2017 10:54 AM
4 replies to this topic
Posted 18 April 2017 - 10:54 AM
Posted 18 April 2017 - 12:14 PM
I have tried it about 30 times and just like many others, either it does not do anything ( Freezes) or does not credit. Your not alone.
Posted 19 April 2017 - 09:01 AM
I've never seen it freeze. I just never qualify for what few surveys show up for me. I finally got a survey in, reached the congrats screen, but no credit. Oh well. Won't be bothering with that one again any time soon.
Posted 27 April 2017 - 07:44 PM
I have completed 2 of them and neither of them credited
Posted 28 April 2017 - 01:33 PM
Thank you for posting jars3d. I just wanted to make sure others were having trouble with it. I don't bother with this one. I just click the ignore button on this one every day when I get to cash offers.
0 user(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users


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Kingmax DDR-333 (PC2700) Memory Review (Page 1)
Based in Taipei, Taiwan, Kingmax Memory has grown to the become the largest memory producer for the Taiwan and East Asian markets. Kingmax's ties have also been strong in Australia growing to become the largest memory source ever to the Australian public.
Kingmax Technology was founded in 1989 and is listed among Taiwan's Top 200 manufacturers (Commonwealth Magazine, May 2000), and is a leading manufacturer of memory modules. Aside from the Taiwan based manufacturing facilities, the company's American, Chinese, Australian and Dutch workforce consists of over 390 employees, and this is just the head offices. Production facilities employ four times this amount to produce the high quality Kingmax memory modules many Australians use in their PC's.
Kingmax has gained ISO-9001 certification and developed business partnerships with top enterprises and organizations in the IT industry. A global leader in DRAM memory products, Kingmax announced the world's first memory module with TinyBGA packaging technology in 1997. The award winning TinyBGA package allowed the company's PC-133 DRAM module to triple memory capacity up to 512 MB while maintaining a small one inch form factor. Kingmax has also created 1GB StackBGA modules for use in high-end servers and workstations. This allowed them to use 1GB of memory on the same PCB space as the 512MB modules, maintaining its small one inch form factor. With the market swinging the overclockers' way, Kingmax have pushed their memory fabrication process towards making faster and more stable memory at insane clock speeds, like the PC166 SDRAM. With the release of the VIA KT266, SIS 735, ALi MagiK 1 and the AMD 760 chipsets supporting DDR SDRAM, Kingmax were there once again with PC2100 DDR SDRAM with overclocking beyond that of any other memory manufacturer.
Now with the Advent of SiS 645, ALi Magik2, SiS 745 and VIA's KT333 chipsets due very shortly, Kingmax have already pulled all their strings to get their latest creation to market; the Kingmax DDR-333 PC2700 memory module.
Last updated: Apr 7, 2020 at 12:25 pm CDT
PRICING: You can find products similar to this one for sale below.
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Deutschland: Finde andere Technik- und Computerprodukte wie dieses auf Amazon.de
- Kingmax DDR333 - Page 1
- Kingmax DDR333 - Page 2
- Kingmax DDR333 - Page 3
- Kingmax DDR333 - Page 4


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Religion: Is the Church the New Israel? Part 6
And so all Israel will
be saved, as it is written: 'The Deliverer will come out of Zion,
And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob…'".
And so all Israel will
be saved, as it is written: 'The Deliverer will come out of Zion,
And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob…'".
Gentile theologians were highly
influenced by Greek philosophy. This philosophy led to new deductions that were
translated into the language of the Old Testament and reported as truth or new
This is the time Eden is restored, to be what God intended, when He will once again walking with us in the Garden; this is the purpose of the Millennium.
Revelation is perhaps the most misunderstood, most studied book in the Bible; it is certainly the most mysterious. And between its pages lie mysteries within mysteries. One of these is the topic of the Millennium. The first thing to know about the Millennium is that there are different interpretations of it.
The idea of this devotional is to prompt the reader to take in a deeper look into the prophetic book of Revelation to help answer questions that generally arise from studying this mysterious book. This study is comprehensive, but not exhaustive.
In my last blog I posted a sample from Week Three from my book, Revelation in Seven Weeks: A Bible Study. It is a devotional prompting the reader to take in a portion of the book of Revelation and answer some questions to give them a deeper understand of this profound and mysterious book. This study is comprehensive, but not exhaustive.
Below you will find the questions for day one of the second week during the seven-week devotional, as well as the answers. This is a sample of the Revelation in Seven Week: A Bible Study: Teachers Manual study guide. It is prepared to help the Bible study teacher delve further into the book of Revelation to bring further insight into the group. This is all structured to encourage and develop conversation amongst the group and to get everyone involved.


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The view from the walls of Stirling Castle, Stirling, Scotland, overlooking the plains. On a grey dreary day, the sudden rays of sun cutting through the clouds bring a sudden feeling of lightness.
Month: April 2017
Starry Night Cracker Butterfly (digital painting)
Digital painting of a Starry Night Cracker Butterfly, scientific name: Hamadryas laodamia. It can be found from Mexico all the way to the Amazon basin. I really really love the juxtaposition of the dark blue and light blue areas, as well as the even spacing of the light blue patches. Such a stunning butterfly.
Map of Stony Brook School Campus (published work)
This is a watercolor painting map I did for The Stony Brook School's magazine. This is a beautiful independent school on Long Island, NY for grades 7-12, boarding and day. The magazine was featuring the trees planted on the campus and I was asked to paint a map that showcased the greenery in addition to the buildings.
In an alternate publication, this is my map printed in the arboretum walking trail guide with just descriptions of the trees. Interesting how the colors came out differently on this one.


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Maybe we should incorporate the Specifying_DPI_for_NVIDIA_Cards page into this article as well, just like we did with the NVidia Instability page?? --Michel 11:53, 31 August 2007 (UTC)
Overlay color fix with xvattr
Someone needs to either document where the 66048 number is coming from or stop changing it. I tested this pretty thoroughly and 0 seems to work just fine as the value (and is easier to type and remember) for the overlay color. -- Dagmar d'Surreal 12:52, 29 February 2008 (UTC)
The idea of video-overlaying (it is the only situation where this problem occurs!) is replacing some background color with the actual video image. You may know this from television where the person telling you the weather forecast actually stands in front of a blue screen, where later the video-imaging is put you see on television.
Normally XV_COLORKEY is used as a key color which is used for the hardware to "know" where the video image should be replaced instead of that key color. Like is done on television, a linux box also uses blue, but that can be annoying if the image replacing the blue screen is too small (hence the blue lines surrounding your video!).
The solution is to replace the colorkey to some other value (yes, it may even be black!) which is less annoying. When using full-screen video it is even the best choice as it is the darkest color available. However, there are some problems may arise when using color "black" as in BLACK (as in RGB value 000000). If, for example, you want to run the video in a window (some people use mythfrontend on their laptop to watch some television in a window while doing other things!) and you have some other open windows lurking around your desktop, thing may go wrong. It is possible that the video-image may appear in your XTerm (if that one has black background as well :-)
Solution for that problem is to use some dark color, dark enough to be invisible, but not equal to black. 66048 refers to some color which is really dark, but not black. It is a color not commonly used in window-manager decoration nor somewhere else in a normal desktop computer X enviroment. Therefor, it serves very well to "disable the blue lines", which actually is "replace the blue lines with some dark color which is (almost) invisible for my eyes".
If 0 (real black) works in your situation I would like to advise you continue using that color (I assume you run full-screen?), but this page was written with the intention to provide one single solution working in all cases! So please, revert your change back to the value 66048, as that also serves people with myth running in a window. --Michel 21:10, 29 February 2008 (UTC)
Saw the value 0 was still in the article; reverted the value to 66048 myself --Michel 13:18, 28 March 2008 (UTC)