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Disco 2017 Charcoal Response Cards
This retro flat white reply card features a charcoal background with large polka dots. "2017" is pre-printed at the top of the card with a disco ball in the center. Includes white unlined envelopes.
Ideal For:Reply Cards, Response Cards
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Judi Sohn posted on Web Worker Daily: 12 Ways to Use Facebook Professionally.
Facebook is one of those technologies that is incredibly interesting, but I am not sure how useful it is. After reading through the twelve ways, I did not find any that would warrant use of Facebook in a business setting. These are more about being more professional in Facebook.
I still question where Facebook is headed. Its strong tie-in with college students indicates that Facebook's users are going to be poring into the business community in the next few years as they graduate. But will Facebook crumble under the weight of bad social behavior like MySpace or dominate as a communications platform? If it is going to crumble, we can ignore it. BUT, if it becomes a dominate communications platform we cannot ignore it.
Looking back many years to the adoption of email, businesses ignored it for awhile. Eventually, they had to adopt it in order to communicate efficiently. Now, college-age students use Facebook to communicate; they use email sparingly. Facebook has become the new email for the college-age crowd. Will it become a new communications tool for business?

subset: commoncrawl


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"Republicans Buy Shoes Too"
Michael Jordan
The last few years, we've seen a divide in politics–bigger than we've seen in generations. In the US, it would be safe to say the country is equally divided between democrats and republicans, with about 10-20% acting as the swing vote. There are so many issues that divide us–our views on marriage, guns, taxes, education, healthcare, race, immigration, religion, the environment, war and the list is growing. There are red states and blue states. The most loyal of the Democrats and Republicans are each digging in deeper. Around the world, we are seeing the same divide, variations different issues.
Now, if your entire brand is about healthcare, I get that you should have a position anything to do with healthcare. If your about an environmental brand, of course you should have a position on global warming, energy efficiency and oil drilling. And if your a bank, being outspoken on debt, tax rates and the interest rate is well within your realm.
But if you are selling organic groceries, fried chicken, washing machines or laptops, you'd be really stupid as a brand to pick a side and speak out. I love politics, but I love making money even more. If there is a chance you could lose 45% of your audience, or even 10% because you think it's important for you to share your political conscience, then terrific. Give up the reins of being a Brand Leader, grab a sign and find a spot on the grass.
- The comments regarding support of traditional marriage by Chick-Fil-A's president Dan Cathy caused a political uproar that definitely had an impact on brand perception. Marketingland noted that the positive brand image that Chick-Fil-A once took for granted was dealt an almost fatal blow and the BrandIndex score in the northeast US for Chick-Fil-A fell from a 76 down to a 35. Chick-Fil-A responded to this disaster by backing entirely out of media comments and distancing the company's position from the personal opinions of Dan Cathy. But the damage to the brand was cemented when Sarah Palin lined up to get her chicken wings.
- John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods, is dealing with a huge backlash from customers of the upscale supermarket chain who have been angered by his recent comments likening Obamacare to fascism. Mackey, who made the comments during an interview promoting a book on capitalism, has since tried to walk back his more inflammatory statements, explaining he was talking about fascism in economic terms, not as a system of repression under the Third Reich. Obama supporters, many of whom love Whole Foods, turned on the brand with comments on Twitter, Facebook and any blog they could find. I've seen John Mackey on CNN trying to retract comments. I'd suggest he get himself a Communications VP and never talk into a microphone again.
- Donald Trump has been one of the most outspoken celebrities in the political area, many times embarrassing himself rather than offering the voice of the right. The Apprentice, once a top 10 show finished 113th last year, with ratings falling from 20 Million people down to 4.5 Million.
Not only is it dumb to divide your market in half, it's also arrogant to think we care about your view. Just because you are running a successful Brand, doesn't mean your view matters.
Maybe we could all learn a lesson from Big Bird. Even as he was brought into the political debate by a slip of the tongue by Mitt Romney, what did Big Bird and the rest of Sesame Street decide to do with their new found attention. They stayed quiet. That was the smartest political move they could make. After all, republican kids watch Big Bird and Elmo.
In terms of Politics, Brands would be better off just staying silent.
Here's a summary on Creating a Beloved Brand:
Other Stories You Might Like
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- How to Write a Brand Positioning Statement. Before you even get into the creative brief, you should be looking at target, benefits and reason to believe. To read how to write a Brand Positioning Statement, click on this hyperlink: How to Write an Effective Brand Positioning Statement
- Turning Brand Love into Power and Profits: The positioning statement sets up the promise that kick starts the connection between the brand and consumer. There are four other factors that connect: brand strategy, communication, innovation and experience. The connectivity is a source of power that can be leveraged into deeper profitability. To read more click on the hyper link: Love = Power = Profits
I run the Brand Leader Learning Center, with programs on a variety of topics that are all designed to make better Brand Leaders. To read more on how the Learning Center can help you as a Brand Leader click here: Brand Leadership Learning Center
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About Graham Robertson: The reason why I started Beloved Brands Inc. is to help brands realize their full potential value by generating more love for the brand. I only do two things: 1) Make Brands Better or 2) Make Brand Leaders Better. I have a reputation as someone who can find growth where others can't, whether that's on a turnaround, re-positioning, new launch or a sustaining high growth. And I love to make Brand Leaders better by sharing my knowledge. I'm a marketer at heart, who loves everything about brands. My background includes 20 years of CPG marketing at companies such as Johnson and Johnson, Pfizer Consumer, General Mills and Coke. My promise to you is that I will get your brand and your team in a better position for future growth. Add me on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/grahamrobertson1 so we can stay connected.


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Ever had a really big meal?
I'm not talking about a triple cheeseburger with waffle fries or a 24 ounce T-bone medium well with a baked potato … although both of those sound really terrific right about now.
No, we're talking about the kind of meal that sends you off on a new direction in life; the kind of meal that turns into a career.
That's the way it happened for Al Carper, who was born and raised in Nebraska, and went on to college at the University of Nebraska.
Because it wasn't any old lunch, you see, it was a recruiting trip for a burgeoning power in the department store vertical of the United States. A little company called J C.Penney.
"One day one of our professors took about half a dozen of us and we went to have lunch with the manager of one of the stores," Caper recalls. "I came out of that lunch really curious about J.C. Penney and what they had to offer."
What J.C. Penney had to offer was what has become commonplace today: a department store that is the hub for multiple goods and services for one entire town - from clothes and shoes to watches and necklaces to sporting goods and automotive repair facilities.
The diversification under one roof didn't just appeal to customers, but also to the future great business minds of this country. In 1940, a young man named Sam Walton began working for a J.C. Penney's in Iowa. Twenty-two years later, the idea of it would be the basis for his own mega-company, known the world over as Walmart.
Carper took to J.C. Penney's like a fish to water.
"I started out as a management trainee, then got my own store to manage, then became a district manager," he recalls. "I was in the corporate office in New York City for a time, then ran another district from Dallas. Then J.C. Penney's moved its headquarters to Plano, so I was there my last 27 years working for the company."
Although he built the majority of his professional career in Texas, Carper didn't have too much of a problem transitioning to another home in his retirement years.
"My daughter lives right near here," he says of Discovery Village at Sugarloaf, located in Suwanee, Georgia, "I was not really hard to leave Texas to live just a few blocks away from her."
Carper and his wife, who passed away about eight years ago, had three children together. The daughter in Georgia has provided him with endless entertainment with two grandchildren of her own, one of whom made Carper a great-grandfather with a son and daughter of his own. All of the descendants live in the same area in Georgia.
After all his years ensuring that J.C. Penney's profits were as high as possible, ranging routinely into the millions, Carper's days are now filled with another financial pastime that has proven to be a bit more enjoyable.
"One of my favorite things to do here is play poker with the guys," he says. "There's not a lot of pressure in those games, we use the kind of money that jingles. You can go in there with $5 and be fine for the evening."


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Don't let the title of my blog mislead you. I am by no way a Chef, just a wife and mom trying to please my family.
This is my first blog post and I was motivated to start blogging from Ivy, at Kopiaste.. to Greek Hospitality. I have been reading her blog for a while and recently joined BloggerAid.
Ivy, together with two other lovely ladies, Giz, at Equal Opportunity Kitchen and Val, at More than Burnt Toast created this Social Network to bring awareness about hunger. They are also going to publish a Cookbook by the end of the year and all money will be going to School Meals, a programme of the World Food Programme.
I bookmarked this recipe from Ivy's blog and my whole family and I have been enjoying it as I have made it more than once.
I saw some events going on at BloggerAid and decided to write my first post and participate at these events.
Risotto with Shrimps and Mushrooms
Recipe adapted from Ivy's blog
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Serves: 5
- 500 grams Arborio rice
- 1 kilo frozen shrimps
- 5 mushrooms, sliced
- 4 ripe tomatoes grated
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 5 tablespoons, olive oil
- 3 tablespoons, balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 cup white wine
- Salt and pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- Chicken stock (about 4 cups)
1. In a large skillet heat the olive oil and sauté mushrooms. Remove and set aside.
2. Add onion and garlic and sauté until translucent.
3. Add the rice and sauté for a few minutes. Add the wine and vinegar and mix.
4. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Add the tomatoes and mix and start adding the chicken stock gradually. When it is absorbed continue adding and mixing.
6. Five minutes before the rice is ready, add the shrimps and the mushrooms and keep adding stock and mixing.
7. Remove from the heat and serve while hot.
I am sending this recipe to Srivali, at Cooking 4 all Seasons, who is hosting the event Monthly Mingle 31, Kids' Lunches, event started by Meeta.


text: antsypants Posted May 16, 2015 Small long distance update, had some diatoms pop up this past week so I went ahead and sent a reefcleaners package to my home. Mom picked it up and I guided her through the acclimation process over the phone haha Anyways, here are some cell pics she sent me. It looks like the nerites are doing well, can't tell about the ceriths yet from the photos but I'm expecting they'll be out and about within a couple days. Anyways, John's service was really awesome and I, like everybody else who has dealt with reefcleaners, definitely recommend. If not for the amazing service then for free snails I'll be finishing up my first year of college real soon so the stocking phase won't be too long from now. Quote Share this post Link to post


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Feb 20, 2013
Cartoonist and foodie Lucy Knisley has learned many lessons in life from food. Here, she shares a few with us.
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Ilan Stavans loves to keep things interesting, which is definitely easy to see in his fun, quirky, and wildy entertaining graphic novel El Iluminado. We talked to him about how he mixed the real and the imaginative in this story of secret religion, murderous intrigue, and hidden realities.
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text: Home > Nation PH appeals for US help in building armed forces by Lachlan Carmichael, Agence France-Presse Posted at May 01 2012 08:48 AM | Updated as of May 02 2012 01:04 AM Share Save Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WASHINGTON - The Philippines, lamenting the poor state of its armed forces, appealed Monday for US and international help in building a "minimum credible defense" amid an escalating territorial dispute with China. Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto del Rosario and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin made the pitch in unprecedented joint talks in Washington with their US counterparts Hillary Clinton and Leon Panetta. Del Rosario lamented how the international news media has accurately described the poor state of the Philippine armed forces. "It sounds terribly painful for the Philippines, but more painful is the fact that this is true, and we only have ourselves to blame for it," del Rosario said candidly as Clinton and Panetta listened across a table. "For the Philippines to be minimally relied upon as a US regional partner... it therefore behooves us to resort to all possible means to build at the very least a most minimal credible defense posture," del Rosario said. "On our own, we will do the best we can," the top Philippine diplomat said. "Developing a minimum credible defense posture may however be hastened mainly through an enhancement of the activities we do together with our singular treaty and through a positive consideration of increased assistance that we seek at this time as well," he said. The two nations, which completed extensive war games earlier this month, are bound by a mutual defense treaty in which the United States has pledged to come to the aid of its weaker ally if it faces military aggression. "We are concurrently seeking a higher level of assistance from other international partners," del Rosario added. Gazmin alluded to tension with China over islands in the South China Sea as he called for the need to "intensify our mutual trust to uphold maritime security and the freedom of navigation." "We should be able to work together to build the Philippines minimum credible defense posture, especially in upholding maritime security," Gazmin said. The Philippines and China have been embroiled in a dispute over a shoal in the South China Sea, with both nations stationing vessels there for nearly three weeks to assert their sovereignty. The Philippines says Scarborough Shoal is its territory because it falls well within its 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone, as recognized by international law. The Philippines has called for arbitration through the United Nations to end the dispute, but China has refused. In a press conference after the talks, the Philippine officials stressed diplomacy when asked what aid they had sought from Washington to bolster Manila's ability to patrol its waters and deter what they call intrusions. "The assistance we have sought is to help us bring the case to international legal bodies so that the approach is the legal rules-based approach in resolving the issue in the South China Sea," Gazmin said. Clinton, the US secretary of state, told reporters that the first meeting of the two countries' four key national security officials is "a testament to our shared commitment to write a new chapter" in their partnership. She voiced concern about Scarborough Shoal, repeating that Washington does not take sides on competing sovereignty claims there but has a national interest in maintaining freedom of navigation as well as peace and stability. "The United States supports a collaborative diplomatic process by all those involved for resolving the various disputes that they encounter," she said. "We oppose the threat or use of force by any party to advance its claims." © 1994-2012 Agence France-Presse Share Save Facebook Share on Twitter LinkedIn Nation,Top Stories,philippines,military,china,united states,hillary clinton,Leon Panetta Read More: philippines military china united states hillary clinton Leon Panetta


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File perl-Inline.spec of Package perl-Inline
# # spec file for package perl-Inline # # Copyright (c) 2012 SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Nuernberg, Germany. # # All modifications and additions to the file contributed by third parties # remain the property of their copyright owners, unless otherwise agreed # upon. The license for this file, and modifications and additions to the # file, is the same license as for the pristine package itself (unless the # license for the pristine package is not an Open Source License, in which # case the license is the MIT License). An "Open Source License" is a # license that conforms to the Open Source Definition (Version 1.9) # published by the Open Source Initiative. # Please submit bugfixes or comments via http://bugs.opensuse.org/ # Name: perl-Inline Version: 0.50 Release: 0 License: Artistic-1.0 or GPL-1.0+ Summary: Write Perl subroutines in other programming languages Url: http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Inline/ Group: Development/Libraries/Perl Source: Inline-%{version}.tar.gz BuildRequires: perl BuildRequires: perl(Test::Warn) BuildRequires: perl-Parse-RecDescent BuildRequires: perl-macros Requires: perl-Parse-RecDescent Provides: perl-Inline-C = 0.20 Obsoletes: perl-Inline-C < 0.20 BuildRoot: %{_tmppath}/%{name}-%{version}-build %{perl_requires} %description Inline lets you write Perl subroutines in other programming languages, like C, C++, Java, Python, Tcl and even Assembly. You don't need to compile anything. All the details are handled transparently, so you can just run your Perl script like normal. %prep %setup -n Inline-%{version} -q %build perl Makefile.PL make %{?_smp_mflags} %check make test %install %perl_make_install %perl_process_packlist %clean rm -rf %{buildroot} %files %defattr(-, root, root) %doc Changes README %{_mandir}/man?/* %perl_vendorlib/Inline* %perl_vendorlib/auto/Inline %perl_vendorarch/auto/Inline %changelog


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Every season there is a statement colour that stands out, whether you like it or not – it will be worn! So far, the S/S13 shows have given us a variety of looks from the Sicilian beauties at Dolce&Gabbana to the 'light' comeback of the ultimate minimalist, Jill Sander. The colour du jour? Tangerine of course!! A strong, bold (I'd go as far to say) intense Tangerine, relieving front rowers from the soft pastels of S/S12. Being a lover of brights and print, I for one couldn't be happier!! From fluorescent lips, to full length gowns and THAT Victoria Beckham blazer; this Tangerine demands to be noticed and so far it's definitely got everyone's attention!
*All images courtosy of Style.com and Tommy Ton Street Style


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We Are All Friends HerePosted by Roxane Gay @ 2:08 pm on October 2nd, 2009
I've been thinking about nepotism and croneyism and friends publishing friends because I often hear people talking, complaining, and bitching about the insular nature of (independent) publishing.
Intrapublishing (new word!) happens but not as much as you'd think. Some magazines are largely vanity presses but most are not.
We all know each other, right? We read each other and we publish each other and support each other and love each other and hate each other. It's a small small community. The longer you stick around, the more inevitable it becomes that you will encounter people you know and/or like (or dislike as the case may be) in your submission queue. Does that influence editorial decisions? Sometimes. If I know you, for example, and you send me a 7,500 word story I will read it but that isn't a guarantee of publication. Most editors are great people with integrity who can look beyond friendship and/or mutual respect. I get rejected from acquaintances and friends all the time.
But we don't know each other. I'm old-fashioned. I still generally believe that my friends are people who have seen me doing something awkward at a bar. So we're friends, but we're not friends. I may know who you are and we may exchange e-mails and comments on various blogs but I don't feel any particular obligation to publish your work when it comes my way unless it is outstanding.
The Internet and the interconnectedness of magazines and blogs and writers and editors implies an intimacy that doesn't really exist. People often assume croneyism is taking place when in fact, speaking from my own experience both as a writer and editor, it isn't.
Beyond that, so what if editors publish their friends. I happen to know some really good writers. Is it really a problem?
Tags: editors, Friends, literary communities, Publishing


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Disease Awareness & Education: Pharma/Corporate
Brand/Client efforts designed to educate and/or promote health awareness. Efforts targeted to either healthcare professionals, patients and/or consumers are eligible for this award.
Time Is A Beautiful Thing
Every 2 minutes, a woman in the U.S. is diagnosed with breast cancer. Every 13 minutes, a woman in the U.S. loses her battle with the disease. While many brands talk about breast cancer awareness, Americans have become "pinkwashed" and numb to their ability to help. Ulta Beauty's "Time is a Beautiful Thing" campaign made Americans aware that even a small donation can make a big impact and fund life-saving research through the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) and helped raise over $4 million for BCRF.
Brand: Ulta Beauty
Client: Ulta Beauty
Agency: MullenLowe Winston-Salem
First Haircut
Every two minutes, a woman in the United States is diagnosed with breast cancer and faces a loss of health and identity. For a breast cancer survivor who's lost her sense of self, the journey of triumphantly reclaiming one's beauty can be linked to a simple milestone: that first haircut after treatment. By leverage the journey of one survivor, Tracy DeSoto, in reversing her own cancer narrative, leading to her self-reclamation, Ulta Beauty raised $2.6mm dollars for the BCRF and inspired millions of women to join the fight.
Brand: Ulta Beauty
Client: Ulta Beauty
Agency: MullenLowe U.S.
Act F.A.S.T.
Nearly 800,000 people have a stroke each year. But until recently, only 1 out of 4 stroke victims arrived at the hospital fast enough to reduce their chance of serious long-term disability. Genentech set out to change that. Through the Act F.A.S.T. campaign, hospitals and advocacy groups were able to effectively educate the public on the signs of stroke and need to get to the hospital right away. After launch, traffic to the website skyrocketed and the percent of patients optimally treated saw its first increase in almost 2 decades.
Brand: Genentech, Inc.
Client: Genentech, Inc.
Agency: CDMiConnect


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MURFC Rugby Lunch to remember Delcho Bobeff and Harry Arnold
A Rugby Lunch to remember Delcho Bobeff and Harry Arnold: – On the 21st July, we will be gathering at Royal Park to honour two great men of the Club. Del Bobeff was a player, committeeman, supporter and, above all, a wonderfully generous friend to all who knew him. Harry Arnold was Colts Coach during the 60s and 70s and inspired many new students to play University rugby and to go on to form many life-long friendships. At our home ground, a splendid lunch has been organised to honour both Del and Harry before a match against Quins. Their respective families will attend and your partners are included in this invitation. This lunch follows on from the memorable one in honour of Geoff Vaughan. It is sad to have lost three significant club members in such a short period, but it is also an opportunity renew old acquaintances and enjoy a long lunch and game of rugby in the park. With best wishes, Sean President Melbourne University Rugby Football Club


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Dive Into Bed: Children's Book
by Jason Letts (Author) and Paul Davies (Illustrator)
Discover a world of fun with your child in this exciting forthcoming children's book. Diving into bed lands two young kids in a new world full of interesting creatures and beautiful imagery, a perfect introduction for young fantasy fans. Contribute to this Kickstarter campaign and help bring this story to life!
(Note: This is not a discounted book listing but a promotion for a Kickstarter Campaign. When you click the link you'll go to the Kickstarter page where you can choose to contribute.)
Category: Fantasy – Children's


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Jeff Haverlack
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Twitter: @DLF_Jeff
Website: http://dynastyleaguefootball.com/
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Jeff Haverlack is a fantasy sports expert at Dynasty League Football.
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John A. Lomax always loved the cowboy songs, but down in Texas, his professors rebuffed this folklore as "cheap and unworthy." It wasn't until he headed to Harvard that he found support for his ballad hunting from scholars Barrett Wendell and George Lyman Kittredge, who "heartily joined in encouraging the work, as a real contribution both to literature and to learning." As Lomax jumped between teaching jobs in Texas, Wendell encouraged him to apply for the aptly themed Sheldon Fellowship for the Investigation of American Ballads. He got it. The resulting 1910 collection of Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads helped immortalize these old tunes and caught the eye of another ballad fan. The following letter from former President Teddy Roosevelt opens the book. The following are scans of my 1930 copy:
(Above, Lomax ca. 1930s, from the Library of Congress)
August 28th, 1910
Dear Mr. Lomax,
You have done a work emphatically worth doing and one which should appeal to the people of all our country, but particularly to the people of the west and southwest. Your subject is not only exceedingly interesting to the student of literature, but also to the student of the general history of the west. There is something very curious in the reproduction here on this new continent of essentially the ballad-growth which obtained in medieval England; including, by the way, sympathy for the outlaw, Jesse James taking the place of Robin Hood. Under modern conditions, however, the native ballad is speedily killed by competition with the music hall songs; the cowboys becoming ashamed to sing the crude homespun ballads in view of what Owen Wister calls the "ill-smelling saloon cleverness" of the far less interesting compositions of the music hall singers. It is therefore a work of real importance to preserve permanently this unwritten ballad literature of the back country and the frontier.
With all good wishes,
I am
very truly yours
Theodore Roosevelt
* * *
Some thoughts on toning down the cowboy lyrics for polite society from Lomax's intro to the book: Obviously, a number of the most characteristic cannot be printed for general circulation. To paraphrase slightly what Sidney Lanier said of Walt Whitman's poetry, they are raw collops slashed from the rump of Nature, and never mind the gristle...There is, however, a Homeric quality about the cowboy's profanity and vulgarity that pleases rather than repulses. The broad sky under which he slept, the limitless plains over which he rode, the big, open, free life he lived near to Nature's breast, taught him simplicity, calm, directness. He spoke out plainly the impulses of his heart. But as yet so-called polite society is not quite willing to hear. - John A. Lomax, Deming, New Mexico, Aug. 8, 1910
3 comments
ZZ says:
Quite a good letter from TR, telling us much about him while responding to Lomax. An unfortunately dying art, letter writing. But you, HH, are keeping the art alive in your ongoing and endlessly entertaining letter to all of us, your readers.
Hollister H. Hovey says:
Aw, thanks, ZZ. I'm ironically a terrible letter writer. I think I get too caught up in the aesthetics (or the lacking aesthetics) of my handwriting and lose sight of the content. Perhaps I need a nice fountain pen...
wild thyme flowers says:
HHH, I totally agree with ZZ, this is a lovely letter from TR. It does say a great deal about the man. It's actually quite moving to read. And of course, your own "letters" (I actually dislike the word "blog") are so wonderful and engaging. Thank you for a lovely post.
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|Adam Baldwin
|Mike Slattery
|Date of Birth:
|February 27, 1962
|Winnetka, Illinois, United States
Adam Baldwin (born February 27, 1962) is an American actor, known for his roles as Animal Mother in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, Ricky Linderman in My Bodyguard, Jayne Cobb in Firefly and its continuation film Serenity, Knowle Rohrer in The X-Files, Marcus Hamilton in Angel, and Chad Shelten in Day Break. More recently, he starred as Colonel John Casey on Chuck and as Mike Slattery on The Last Ship.
Behind the ScenesEdit
Adam Baldwin has appeared as Mike Slattery in ten episodes of The Last Ship.
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.


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Thanks to the Unabomber scare, S.F. State has installed high-tech bomb-detection devices in its mail room to scan all incoming packages and large envelopes, says Lt. Stephen K. McLain, who heads the campus police's Special Services Division. The devices were activated following the fatal mail-bombing of advertising executive Thomas Mosser of New Jersey in December, a killing attributed to the Unabomber. Lt. McLain cites several reasons for heightened security at the school: The Unabomber is believed to work out of the Bay Area and has made academicians the targets of his previous bombings. Also, the Unabomber displayed a specific interest in the school, affixing to the Mosser mail bomb the return address of the campus under the name of a fictitious S.F. State professor. All safely scanned packages are stamped "inspected" in red ink. And how about the unsafe ones? "We have not found any, fortunately," says Lt. McLain.
Walter Shorenstein R.I.P.
It's a rare thing that a man writes his own obituary before he dies, and rarer still that a major daily newspaper deigns to print it -- as did the San Francisco Chronicle last Sunday for real estate magnate Walter Shorenstein.
Cloaking the obit as the "Sunday Interview" ("The Man With the Keys to the City," July 9), Chronicle political editor Susan Yoachum acknowledges in her introduction that Shorenstein "has declined to give lengthy interviews in recent years, explaining that he sometimes gets 'in trouble' for making a controversial remark."
No worries here that Walter might say something provocative in the Chronicle interview -- or even something interesting -- as Yoachum serves him one softball question and pseudo-question after another. "You really love San Francisco." "You spoke in terms of wanting to do as much for the place you live as possible. You have been able to do more for San Francisco than many other people." "Why are you so generous with your time, your money, and your influence when it comes to Democrats and to San Francisco?" "What are you proudest of?"
Instead of asking him what he gets in return for all his influence-peddling, or inquiring about the real story behind the sexual-harassment charge brought against him, or demanding to know if he has sought psychiatric help for the fit of self-aggrandizement that caused him to write the check for the almost universally ignored UN50 pageant, Yoachum jumps into Shorenstein's lap and with her last question writes an obituary of a sort for herself as a serious journalist: "We've covered a lot of ground," she lies. "Is there anything that you'd like to add?"
Walter allows that he wishes he'd bought the White House for Hubert Humphrey in '68.
By Amy Linn and Jack Shafer


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The Perpetual Notion
Various ramblings by Christopher Friedt
Dear Canada Post..
a) Your website is broken. When I check the box that says "Want to track your service ticket status online? Provide a few more details to sign up.", and click "Continue" I get a blank web page rather than a form that allows me to enter more details.
b) The person who delivers parcels to us should be FIRED from their job
Steps to reproduce, EVERY SINGLE TIME:
1) Stay home expecting important delivery
2) listen for knock at the door and / or doorbell
3) leave notes to Please knock / ring doorbell / LEAVE PACKAGE HERE
Expected Results:
* Parcel delivery person knocks and / or rings doorbell and / or leaves package at door and / or delivers package to recipient.
Actual Results:
* Parcel NEVER delivered
* Notification not left (sometimes)
Hopefully the above should be concise enough to fit within your 1000 character limit (it does, I checked).
Managing Projects with GNU Make
A particularly great book at describing GNU Make is Managing Projects with GNU Make, which is published by O'Reilly freely under their Open Books Project. In fact, the book itself is distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License which allows me to redistribute an unmodified version of the documentation.
I took the liberty of assembling all of the individual chapters of this document into one cohesive pdf file with TOC links to individual chapters as well as bookmarks. While there are some particularly advanced topics that I could probably add a section on based on my extensive hacking of The Bionic C Library alone (e.g. the Android Build System, or Nonrecursive Automake), I have not modified the documentation in any way, I have just added meta-information to it*.
Some improvements I could see being made to the meta-information are below.
- inter-section references (i.e. links made to a different section from within the text of another)
- Index links (i.e. links to the exact page for each entry in the index)
If you are able to volunteer to make those improvements and share your changes, I would be happy to redistribute them here.
If you like this book, I encourage you to buy a hard copy, or if you feel like GNU Make has benefitted you enough, please donate to the Free Software Foundation.
*I have added the cover to that file as well, so please inform me if I have in any way violated the spirit of the license and I will remove it.
Play with VMFlexArray
- Download and uncompress the VMWare image (there is a .vmdk inside the .vmwarevm folder for those who do not use Mac OS X / VMWare Fusion)
- Run the VMFlexArrayLinux virtual machine
- Log in with user 'root' and an empty password
- Run 'ifconfig eth0' and write down the IP address
- Open a terminal session on the host OS and ssh into the IP address from above (i.e. ssh root@[ip_addr])
- run the demo ./fb4jdemo
MappedByteBuffer.hurray()!: Programming the Linux Framebuffer in Java & VMFlexArray Explained
- MappedByteBuffer.hurray()!: Programming the Linux FrameBuffer in Java & VMFlexArray Explained. See here.
- Internet of #allthethings: Using GNURadio Companion to Interact with an IEEE 802.15.4 Network. See here.
What I mean by that, is that when the VM instantiates an integer array object, e.g. int[] x = new int[ length ], it typically allocates memory (now careful, I'm going to use some C teriminology here) for an object struct (2 uintptr_t in JamVM) which represents the instance of the int[] object, followed by 1 uintptr_t, which represents the length of the int[] object, followed by exactly length uintptr_t items (on a 32-bit machine) or length / 2 uintptr_t items (on a 64-bit machine) to represent the data.
VMFlexArrays are slightly different. For the same case as above, where a new int[] is allocated on the Java heap, the VM would allocate an object struct (2 uintptr_t in JamVM) which represents the instance of the int[] object, followed by 1 uintptr_t to represent the length of the int[] object, followed by 1 uintptr_t to point to the int[] data, followed by the data itself.
What makes VMFlexArrays different, and what makes them flexible (and arguably way better than what most JVMs use today) is that they include that extra uintptr_t to point to the data which could exist anywhere in virtual memory. That means, obviously, VMFlexArrays can point to contiguous data that the JVM would allocate for a regular array, but it also means that it can point to an arbitrary location - and still cooperate with the garbage collector. Indeed, the object lifecycle remains unchanged for VMFlexArrays if the garbage collector avoids releasing memory regions with free(3) if the VMFlexArray pointer does not point to the next contiguous memory address.
VMFlexArray is a solution I came up with that allows one integrate off-heap memory regions into the Java Virtual Machine - e.g. a native external thread that allocates memory using malloc(3), or pages mapped from a device such as /dev/video0 using mmap(2).
Buffer Views
Perhaps the aspect of VMFlexArrays that I found most useful, that I somehow forgot to mention during my talk, is that they rather trivially allow the following code snippet to work as expected. Specifically, an IntBuffer derived from a ByteBuffer with a backing array should be able to provide an int[] backing array view of the same virtual memory.
Currently this code, which should work pretty seamlessly, fails miserably.
With VMFlexArrays, that problem is solved.
I've even used this code to memory map the Linux FrameBuffer and animate a bunch of bouncing balls :-) It works quite well.
There's even a massive speedup associated with access to the underlying byte[] from a ByteBuffer and even more so viewing the ByteBuffer as an IntBuffer, with access to the underlying int[].
I am definitely interested in enabling these changes to make it into OpenJDK, and I feel that the community at large would benefit greatly from them. As my time is rather limited these days, I might prefer to mentor a student to make these changes in the Google Summer of Code, 2015, if OpenJDK was a mentoring organization. Otherwise, I would be open to mentoring a student under the umbrella of JamVM or GNU Classpath as a mentoring organization.
Internet of #allthethings: Using GNURadio Companion to Interact with an IEEE 802.15.4 Network
- MappedByteBuffer.hurray()! Programming the Linux Framebuffer in Java & VMFlexArray Explained. See here.
- Internet of #allthethings: Using GNURadio Companion to Interact with an IEEE 802.15.4 Network. See here.
- FreakZ: A BSD-licensed ZigBee stack (for non-commercial purposes)
- Easily modified to communicate to a GNURadio device via UDP (github)
- Note: this stack is not certified.
- GNURadio
- a great suite of tools to interact with Software Defined Radio (SDR) transceivers
- GNURadio IEEE 802.15.4 Out Of Tree (OOT) module
- gr-ieee-802_15_4 is available today
- based on work originally from UCLA
- unofficially meets all of the mandatory requirements for the IEEE 802.15.4 PHY layer
- meets some of mandatory requirements for the IEEE 802.15.4 MAC layer
- lacking mandatory MAC features such as
- Beacon Management
- Receive Beacons
- Channel Access Mechanism
- Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA-CA)
- ACK Delivery
- Security
- Orphan Scanning
- Store One Transaction
To assist would-be developers in overcoming that hurdle, what I have done is simply used my USRP B200 to record real-world 802.15.4 traffic produced from an EM370 in NodeTest mode. This should easily facilitate offline signal processing using e.g. GNURadio (see File Source block), Matlab, Octave, or any other programming language. The block diagram for doing so is depicted below. I have intentionally made all of my variables directly obvious.
The files are listed and described below:
- ieee802154-channel14-txtone-complex-float32.dat
- simply recording a tone at 2420 MHz in the presence of noise
- note: there is a slight frequency offset which will need to be corrected
- ieee802154-channel14-txstream-complex-float32.dat
- a continuous random stream of valid channel symbols
- ieee802154-channel14-tx-complex-float32.dat
- a stream containing intermittent & full IEEE 802.15.4 frames
- frames are sent once every 25500 us
A Few Notes About the Current State of IEEE 802.15.4 in GNURadioAll of the open-source PHY implementations assume that Symbol and Timing Recovery (STR) is already performed. This is fine for simulation (depicted below).
However, since we already know the preamble of an IEEE 802.15.4 packet in the 2450 MHz ISM region, we are at liberty to implement a more sophisticated coherent architecture in our receiver. Specifically, due to the known preamble, we may use a Correlate and Sync block.
I will be doing a bit more experimenting in the coming days and will post an update once available.
Two Jedi-Fu Links for Installing Gentoo Quickly
- Install LiveDVD to Hard Drive
(works with 12.1 too)
- Remove Pam
(so passwordless root logins over SSH work)
(I typically use this for VMs when hacking Gentoo-ish stuff)
(... this is not the IP address you're looking for...)
What an Amazing Time Warp!
So when I was a teenager (years and years ago), my cousin John Muller & I played with Matt Howatt and a guy from Australia named Miles, and we covered the song Tinfoil by Limblifter. I played the bass, and Matt & John switched up for rhythm & lead guitar for every other song.
Tonight I had the privilege of seeing some of the original band from Limblifter playing in Hamilton.
It was a fantastic experience to be brought back to the music I loved in my youth and continue to love in adulthood.
Particularly, when I used to play this song, I played the bass, and I was certainly happy to meet the new female bass player tonight, who is certainly overqualified for this set. She has an MA I. Music specializing in the double bass. Aside from the cool factor of a 'chick' bassist, she was doing an amazing job with backup (and in some cases, lead) vocals.
This has probably been the best 'feel good' show for me this summer, thus far.
Thanks again to Limblifter for putting on a full energy show!
Cook Beans: Check ;-)
To Do: Cook Beans!
For anyone who thinks that going vegan is expensive... totally not the case.
If you are vegan and don't already own one, or if you're considering going vegan and have no idea where to start, investment #1 should be a pressure cooker. Not very many people (in Canada?) own one, but they're soooo common in India, and I've got my indian friends to thank for turning me on to mine.
You can buy massive dried bags of lentils of various colours (dal), kidney beans (rajma), chick peas (chana), or black beans for next to nothing. Compare the contents of one bag ($4 maybe?) to the same mass of beans in 20 (?) cans of water for >= $1 each!
And due to the simple equation from high school that most have forgotten, PV=nRT [1], you can cook dried gram at a much lower temperature if the pressure is increased (V, n, & R are held constant). This saves on electricity (or gas as the case may be). I'll be the first to admit, I used to cook dried beans like a complete idiot and soak them overnight, and then boil them for 5 hours or something. With a pressure cooker, there is no need to soak legumes overnight and cooking them takes about 1 hr. Most importantly, it completely seals in the flavour for whatever meal you have planned: burritos (like me), kaali, masoor, or tadka dal - or good, old-fashioned soups (e.g. lentil, split-pea)!
A nice side effect: dried legumes take far less energy to transport than cans of legumes that are 60% salt and water; you're going green [2]!
Naturally, not everyone has the proper body chemistry to be able to go vegan with great success, but here is one attractive figure that might catch your eye:
Marathon runners should consume about 1.5 grams of protein per kg of body weight per day [3].
For a 180 pound guy like me (~80kg according to Google's conversion), that's about 50g of chick peas. What is that for a total protein bill per day - about 25¢ ??
Not bad at all :)
[1] The Ideal Gas Law (Influences amazing things! E.g. how fast a pot of water takes to boil)
[2] Vegetarian Diets Help Protect the Environment
(As if you didn't already know how green a vegan diet is!!)
[3] Sources of Protein for Runners: Spring Marathon Training Plan Part 5
Yum ;-)
A nearly-vegan pad thai (no eggs, but crab & otherwise some fish sauce).


text:
Much was made recently about the fact that so many of our Olympic successes were independently educated. The implication, as always, was that this shows the lack of wider opportunity in our country. Maybe there are many other potential medal-winners out there – but a little-discussed possibility is that if those people had not had the kind of education they did, they might not have been successes either. If you attribute so much influence to schooling, you cannot avoid this argument.
The blogger Muggedbyreality made an excellent point recently, which took my own thinking further:
"…to create a strong, flourishing academic culture in a school or a subject department or a class requires a disproportionate, perhaps excessive number of persons of an 'academic' inclination.
…An intellectual environment seems to need a critical mass of staff and pupils who revel in intellectual pursuits to get an intellectual buzz… even in schools with a genuinely comprehensive intake and thus enough students to create that flourishing intellectual environment, it is missing."
This is my experience entirely. Whatever the arguments about selection, it seems to me that the effect of comprehensive schools has been to level people to the middle. The most probable outcome when a wide range of individuals is put through a common mould, is that there will be a tendency to a mid-point norm. This may well provide uplift at the bottom – but it comes at the expense of the greatest development of the most talented. In 1980, when I entered the sixth form, my grammar was turned into a sixth form college; its character changed almost overnight. No doubt some would argue that this was a good thing – but it was very clear to those who knew it before, that the academic ethos was instantly diluted by the simple arrival and behaviour of many who did not share that outlook.
This is precisely what I feel has happened to the U.K. over the past several decades. For all that diversity is supposedly celebrated, the common culture of this country has become ever more centred around the middle to low brow. Many educated people now have tastes and preferences no different from the less thoughtful mainstream. It has almost become a point of embarrassment to admit to anything more. I am not saying that they should not participate in that culture – but the number who also retain a diverse perspective, and who have the capacity to supplement their diet of soaps, celebrity and shopping with more demanding interests and activities, seems to have shrunk. And that is without the perceived intolerant eccentrics like me who would prefer their own diet to remain entirely unpolluted with junk. In other words, the pursuit and appreciation of challenging (but rewarding) high quality seems largely to have been lost, except perhaps when it only requires the flex of a credit card. And with it have been devalued the common cultural norms and values of the entire nation. I place part of the responsibility for that at the door of the education system.
I probably appear hugely intolerant here, but I want to make a point. A nation comprises vast numbers of people, all with their own world-view and preferences. But that nation's collective civil and cultural life is the sum of all its parts, and perhaps more than that. If there are few willing or able to uphold the more exacting end of the spectrum, the whole suffers as a result. If no one is prepared to be intransigent in the name of high quality, then it will simply disappear.
The casualty is then the collective standard of culture, thought, discourse, innovation and achievement of the nation. I would argue there is enough evidence to suggest that those things have declined in Britain, at least to claim that education has failed to act as a brake on other destructive pressures. I realise that there are very many wider factors that are influencing such trends – but my point is that at least for some, education ought to be providing a counter-balance to the mind-rot, and in the majority of the non-selective sector, I strongly suspect that it is not.
In the meantime, those who do still worry about these things perhaps perceive their last refuge to be in the remaining grammar schools – or the fee-paying sector.
In terms of the general health of a country's society, culture and wider welfare – to say nothing of individual preferences – I find it hard to accept that it is in the collective interest for the brightest and best not to be developed as far as they can be, for the sake of a rather low-grade equality. This is certainly not the approach that I see a number of our (rather more successful) neighbouring countries taking.
However, this is not in itself an argument for selection; in an ideal world, such aspirations would indeed be achievable universally. But the reality is that this does not happen; people are too diverse to be catered for so specifically all under one roof. Academic divisiveness is a distraction: the real issue ought to be whether specialised institutions of all sorts could achieve a broader but higher-quality education for more people than the current one-size-fits-all approach. Likewise, the mechanism for selection is nothing more than another distraction. I suspect that selection's opponents well know it.
As Muggedbyreality says, it takes a surprisingly large number of like-minded people to create a culture. I suspect that s/he is right: I work in a school that has a significantly positively-skewed ability range. I encounter lots of clever children – but very few who are academic. There are some – but nowhere near enough to influence the whole. This is not surprising, since they come in many cases from not especially academic backgrounds, and in any case, in most populations, I suspect the numbers of parents wishing or able to project such values is small. Institutional culture and values are things that schools have to instil – and in my experience, very few comprehensives successfully do so in academic terms, even where they claim otherwise. Again there are too many reasons for this to discuss here, though my scrawling over the past three years has covered many.
In some ways, comprehensive education has indeed been the leveller that its proponents wanted. The trouble is, it had no alternative but to level as many down as up. I'm not sure that's what they had in mind –at least I hope it isn't. The idea of grammar (i.e. academic) schools for all is a practical non-starter. Too many people simply do not set sufficient store by high intellectual quality ever to attain the necessary critical mass. I should add that exactly the same claim could be made with respect to schools of technical excellence, and other specialist needs.
This is the blind spot of those who oppose selection: it is not (principally) a matter of securing 'unfair' advantage; it is a matter of perceived cultural quality. For the most resolute of selection opponents, the principal purpose of education is social engineering; they often see teachers as class warriors. I'm not suggesting that tackling disadvantage is unimportant, but shift to a different paradigm, and the argument shifts too.
Whether the reality of selection matches that perception is almost immaterial, though my memories of both grammar school and local independents are indeed ones of integrity. As a grammar school pupil, I only visited secondary moderns a couple of times, but their different 'feel' has stayed with me. It was not a matter of superiority, but it was definitely different. In cultural terms, I am afraid that comprehensives are more like 'secondary moderns for all' than grammar schools, and I don't see how it could be otherwise. Neither is this even a matter of ability, so much as attitude. The problem stems not so much from the weak-but-willing, as the indifferent and the disaffected. Putting everyone together solves nothing; the lowest common denominator tends to prevail – and if it doesn't, those who cannot meet the standards and norms risk feeling all the more excluded.
And this does not only apply to pupils: I increasingly feel that some of my professional tribulations over the years have come from working in a culture to which I am not entirely suited, and much of my more dubious workload has actually been generated as schools battle to control the problems and tensions inherent within the comprehensive system. I chose to express my faith in that system by working in it notwithstanding the personal cost – but were I to choose now, with the benefit of hindsight I would make a different decision. There are plenty of teachers who thrive in the comprehensive setting – but there are those like me, as with pupils, who can do their best work somewhere else. To ignore their needs is no more acceptable than to do the same to any other group.
David Willets, the former trade minister, writing in Prospect magazine says research shows that non-graduate incomes are higher in areas where there are lots of high-calibre graduates than elsewhere. That spreads opportunity – but it is not necessarily an argument for making everyone a graduate. High quality has a more widely beneficial impact by raising norms.
The fact that some people insist on high quality, and will go out of their way in order to secure it is both their reasonable right, and in fact of benefit to more than themselves. In cultural terms, their effect permeates to the standards of wider society. If one eliminates such people from the wider mix on the grounds that not everyone wishes to emulate them, the effect on the whole is disproportionately large. On the other hand, distributing them widely but thinly removes the critical mass necessary to sustain them. The same applies in education, whether we are considering the needs of the academic minority or any other.
Is this really such a desirable template for a thriving modern society?


text: I am looking for a performance upgrade for a CAD workstaition, but I am unclear as to the ability of a new video card to improve the performance I am looking for. I want to improve shaded hidden line removal of WIREFRAME geometry. Not shaded image geometry. Is wireframe included in the OGL extensions or only shaded geometry. If I add a video card with dedicated OGL hardware acceleration will it improve my wireframe manipulation or is that only improved by increased CPU speeds?


text:
Motorhomers Pete and Kath McIndoe travel the stunning Lindis Pass in Summer and Winter. They take the turn off on Old Faithful Road to see the Lindis Hotel and Nine Mile historic reserve including archaelogical remains of sluicing faces, water race and tailings of alluvial mining from the 1860's.
RV Travel Lifestyle circulation and readership in unavailable. EAV for 8 pages is $11,980.


text:
Hello everyone,
Is there anyone can create network like this? 1 internet connection can connect to 3 nodes. How can he do that?
Is this a bug? [RESOLVED]
Have an issue? Ask or report here
Post Reply
2 posts • Page 1 of 1
Re: Is this a bug?
This is a bug that has been previously fixed, but will only resolve once a player logs into their network. As this player hasn't logged in since the fix, the solution hasn't been applied!
I'll forward this for a manual fix.
I'll forward this for a manual fix.
There are 10 types of people in the world. Those that can read binary, and those that cant.
Post Reply
2 posts • Page 1 of 1


text:
In my previous blog I discussed the Project Manager Octagon. Simply put: the project management Control Triangle (Cost, Time, Scope) is by itself subject to external factors that are grouped in the Influencer Pentagon (Customer, Stakeholders, Risks, Quality, Resources).
Controlling the Influencer Pentagon is done by a balanced use of the Control Triangle. Tasks are added to the project, a budget for executing these tasks must be approved, and tasks are planned in time. So far, the project manager seems to have the project pretty well under control, isn't it?
But is this really the case? Well, only in part, I regret. It is my experience that one of the three legs of the Control Triangle is typically lagging. And this depends on how you run your project.
Two popular ways of running projects are, obviously, Waterfall and Agile. The observation is that mixing the two seems not possible. I will discuss the reason why in another blog, but I can already give one reason why the two are different. Waterfall and Agile project management are acting strong in two areas of the Control Triangle and are lagging behind on the third.
- Waterfall project management usually starts with a description of the project targets. This typically includes hard target dates for delivery. I bet there would have been some frowning if Kennedy had put forward a proposal for "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth", and then had added "but, no rush, take your time."Waterfall project management therefore acts strong on the scope and time level. Once targets and milestones are communicated, a project manager will typically create a first work breakdown structure in the Waterfall project. Project resources are identified, and a high level planning put forward.
Only after these tasks are completed, a first project budget is put together. Indeed, the cost calculation is made subordinate to the work to be performed. Typically, the cost is lagging with respect to scope and time in Waterfall projects.
- Agile project management starts from high level Product descriptions, called User Epics. An Agile Scrum Team analyzes the User Epics and Team Members agree on how many weeks a sprint should take.
Agile project management acts strong on costs and timings. Once the Scrum Team is established, the cost for the team is known. Most Scrum Teams will also be able to provide good initial cost estimates for tools and materials used. The use of sprints allows good control of the timelines and readiness of Product Increments in the next sprints.The uncertainty lies in what will be delivered in these next sprints. User Epics still need to be broken down in User Stories. Even though the Product Owner can prioritize User Stories, it is the Scrum Team who will tell how many User Stories can be completed in the next time-boxed sprint. This leaves a level of scope uncertainty.
Moreover, the Product Owner can decide to stop further development at any time in the project. The Minimum Viable Product may have been reached, or the Product Owner can decide to not spend more on improving the Product.Consequently, the Product scope is made subordinate to time and budget absorbed in the project.
The question then is: who would be the third kid on the block? Which project management methodology would act strong on scope and cost, but less on timing? The truth is that it is not really a new methodology. Every seasoned project manager knows it as 'project babysitting'. It is Change Project Management.
- Change Project Management is executed as a series of changes that need to be closely followed up, but can be executed independently. An example would be the roll-out of a new software version over a large number of end-user machines. Each installation can be executed independent on a machine and requires a stand-alone change request.
Change Project Management is based on individual changes using well known procedures. It only needs a project manager to follow up on the right grouping of the tasks; e.g. per department, or test machines first and production machines last.Change driven projects act strong on the budget and scope level. The operational people involved are typically identified early in the project, and so are the costs. The volume and scope of the work to be done, is well defined. The individual changes are part of standard Operational (or DevOps) work, and covered in known procedures.
The challenge in the project then lies with proper planning of the Change Requests. The DevOps or Operational Teams involved have other things to do apart from project work. Project related changes will impact other projects or day by day work. There is a high risk that changes are asked to be delayed. The biggest challenge in Change Project Management is the timely completion of all project tasks.
This analysis already indicates that the three different project management methodologies have different strengths and weaknesses when changing a Product. Dependent on how you want to change or create a Product, you may want to choose a different Project Management Methodology! This is dictated by the Product, and should not be a personal preference of the PM or the PMO.
A PMO that only allows Waterfall Projects will soon discover that other companies are more successful in delivering Products with a vague a scope. Some PMOs have made the full switch and will only allow Agile Projects. They will find their project management methodology challenged for large, fixed scope and expensive infrastructure project with a single go-live.
Going through the paperwork for setting up a new Agile or Waterfall project takes its time. For many Product changes this level of red tape is not needed. Moreover, Agile focused organizations will discover that over time many User Stories are related to general maintenance. Follow-up on the work is still needed, but the costs for setting up projects would not be needed per se. I.e. both Agile and Waterfall driven organizations can limit project related costs by allowing Change Control driven project management. That is, if the risk on project timelines is accepted.
I have gone through this discussion with many managers running different types of projects. You may e.g. object that your organization is very successful in running Agile-only projects. It is an indication that you probably are in the software writing business, and your statement is 95% correct. Then again, will you also use Agile for building your data center? Will you build a small data center and ask your customer if it is a good one? If your customer says no, will you tear down the data center and build a new one? I don't think so. The requirements for the data center must be clear upfront. A design will be proposed and approved and the data center built. I.e. even Agile driven organizations do need Waterfall.
In another discussion I met a project manager that would only do Waterfall projects. His organization did large construction work projects for the government. Indeed, in 95% of their projects the requirements were strictly defined in specification notes. Timelines were enforced, with penalties for milestones not met. Even then, the manager had to admit that their internal IT initiatives would go a lot smoother and with less risk for failure when run in an Agile track.
These two examples show the outer boundaries of the spectrum. Most companies will have projects that are somewhere in between those two extremes. In other words: most companies will profit of a mixture of Waterfall, Agile and Change Control project management.
The question is then: how to decide which is the best track to follow? Ask yourself the following question. Do you allow your customer to change the project requirements at any time? Will your customer happily agree with changes in costs and timelines when you decide to change the Product design? If the answer to these questions is no, an Agile project track may not be the best choice, and you may want to go for a Waterfall project.
Another complexity lies with the integration of deliverables coming from different (type of) projects into a single Product. This is part of the Chagwa project methodology, and I will discuss this more in the coming blogs.
The ideas in this blog are part of the Chagwa Project Management methodology, http://www.chagwa.com.
Read more about the Chagwa Project Management theory: https://linchpinbooks.co.uk/books/


text:
Yesterday was my 2nd shave with the Merkur and Van der Hagen soap and I can say I am liking it. 2 shaves, no nicks, no blood, very little to no razor burn. I have sensitive skin and would end up with a little nick and slight razor burn whether using the Injector or my twin blades. So I can say it is a definite improvement especially when I don`t draw blood even on 2 passes. I shave every other day or even 3 days and I am looking forward to tomorrow mornings shave. I could never say that before.
The bad thing is I ordered Feather blades off of Amazon and found out they ship from Thailand and won`t get them for a couple weeks. I wasn`t paying attention when I placed the order. I guess I will see how many shaves I can get from the Merkur blade. Will likely go back to the Injector and try the VDH soap with that to see if I can go without a nick.


text:
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text:
Whispers of "revolution" are growing louder in Baghdad this month at teahouses, public protests and tribal meetings as Iraqis point to the past as an omen for the future.Public memories of the 1920s revolt, embodied in material culture of Iraq, must have served as fertilizers of Iraqi resistance, which, despite Sistani's failure of nerve, has by now grown into a joint Shiite-Sunni uprising.
Iraqis remember 1920 as one of the most glorious moments in modern history, one followed by nearly eight decades of tumult. The bloody rebellion against British rule that year is memorialized in schoolbooks, monuments and mass-produced tapestries that hang in living rooms.
Now, many say there's an uncanny similarity with today: unpopular foreign occupiers, unelected governing bodies and unhappy residents eager for self-determination. The result could be another bloody uprising.
"We are now under occupation, and the best treatment for a wound is sometimes fire," said Najah al Najafi, a Shiite cleric who joined thousands of marchers at a recent demonstration where construction workers, tribal leaders and religious scholars spoke of 1920. . . .
[Grand Ayatollah Ali al Husseini al] Sistani's representatives expect widespread civil disobedience and violence if elections are deemed impossible.
"They know what will happen if they do not listen to us," said Sabah al Khazali, a religious scholar who joined last week's demonstrations [demanding general elections]. "They know this is a warning."
The historic rebellion has broad resonance. A band of anti-American insurgents has named itself the "1920 Revolution Brigades," and Sistani himself, in a newspaper advertisement this month, asked Iraq's influential tribes to remember that year.
"We want you to be revolutionaries ... you should have a big role today, as you had in the revolution in 1920," the ad said.
Elderly tribal leaders recently discussed revolution amid plumes of incense smoke and the gurgle of tobacco-filled water pipes. Many men on the 50-member Independent Iraqi Tribes council proudly claimed ancestors who rose against the British in 1920. They likewise would join a revolt if Sistani and other clerics gave the word, they said. . . .
To many Iraqis, today's U.S. occupation reads like an old play with modern characters: America as the new Britain, grenade-lobbing insurgents as the new opposition, and Ahmad Chalabi and other former exiles on the Governing Council as the new kings.
"We've sacrificed many martyrs and we would do it again," said Sheik Khamis al Suhail, the secretary of the tribal council. "In 1920, we faced a struggle between Muslims and non-Muslims in Iraq. We are living under basically the same conditions now, and revolution is certainly possible." . . .
The al Hamdani tribe, with thousands of members across Iraq, provided key organizers of the 1920 revolt. These days, the family name is linked to the cream-filled confections sold at the popular al Hamdani pastry shops throughout Baghdad.
Yaser al Hamdani, a 28-year-old tribe member whose great-uncle fought in the revolution, said he'd give up his job in the steaming bakery for a rebellion.
"Of course I would join," Hamdani said. "There would be bloodshed along the way, but sacrifice is important for success." (Hannah Allam and Tom Lasseter, "Iraqi Whispers Mull Repeat of 1920s Revolt Over Western Occupation," January 27, 2004)
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Power of Public Memory
Tariq Ali says that many "otherwise intelligent people" in Britain and the United States are "surprised on learning that the occupation is detested" by a majority of Iraqis because they do not remember "what it is to be occupied": "the United States has never been occupied as a modern country. The last time the American mainland was hit, apart from 9/11, was in the early part of the 19th century. So they have no idea what it is to be occupied and likewise in Britain. The last time it was occupied was during the Roman Empire. So citizens in these two countries have no idea what it means to be occupied by a foreign power, whereas a large part of Europe does. And a large part of the colonial world does" (David Barsamian, "A Conversation with Tariq Ali: Cracks in the Empire,", January–February 2004). The virtual absence of public memory of being occupied by a foreign power makes it difficult for them to identify with Iraqis who resist the occupation, especially Iraqis who resist it with force. Even liberal peace activists, who condemn the occupiers' killings of Iraqi civilians and demand an end to the current US-led occupation of Iraq, often wish to believe that "good" Iraqis need "good" occupiers who protect them from "bad" Iraqis. One such liberal activist, Milan Rai, wrote that "the Iraqi people seem to want some outside military presence, for security reasons" ("Iraq Opinions," March 24, 2004), taking the results of Iraqi opinion surveys conducted by American and British firms without a grain of salt. However, it should go without saying that even the most conscientious pollsters would have been unable to accurately gauge opinions in occupied Iraq, what with ever-proliferating no-go areas on one hand and the occupiers' censorship on the other hand: "In June [2003], Bremer issued a nine-point list of 'prohibited activity' that included incitement to violence, support for the Baath Party, and publishing material that is patently false and calculated to promote opposition to the occupying authority" ("Exporting Censorship to Iraq," October 1, 2003). Not surprisingly, the aforementioned opinion surveys proved to be a poor predictor of unrest in Iraq. Journalists like Hannah Allam and Tom Lasseter who listened to whispered Iraqi rumors and gossips inspired by their public memories of anti-colonial revolts fared much better than pollsters:
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Okay, I'm a little tired of the BP commercials showing local BP employees that talk about what the company is doing for the area. They usually include something like, "I still have family in New Orleans and this is important to me …." I do believe that BP is working hard in the area and spending money to settle claims, but really — how long have those employees been with BP? Guessing they were just picked up so that the commercials could be made with the "I'm from here" sound bites. C'mon Iris Cross, how long have you been part of BP Outreach?
Month: September 2010
HSBC — typical big bank
Yes, typical big bank — bend over the customer and take what you can. What, and no kiss? Pay attention as all big banks are raping their customers, especially the ones unlucky enough to be trapped like flies in their sticky web of fees, horrible customer service and product commitment. Like me.
I purchased a new camera at Best Buy late last year — a gift to myself on my 50th. (I know what you're thinking, "he's 50, wow, he is so cool and it just makes him seem so much younger." I know, it's like a curse.) Camera, extra lens, bag, insurance, I spent about $1,400 — but wait, they had an 18-month 'same as cash' promotion. Make the purchase today and take up to 18 months to pay without interest. Of course if any part of the balance goes beyond the promo period, 18 months in this case, they tack on interest on the entire amount — regardless of how much may be owed — and that would appear on the next statement. But I knew that and was okay with that because I intended to pay the camera off in one year.
Got my statement today and it had a $39 fee for being late. WTF? I called HSBC customer service and of course, they answer as Best Buy credit — but I know better. I explained to Barb that I signed on for 18-months same as cash, which translates to no fees, no minimum due and no finance charges — none of this nonsense for the first 18 billing cycles. She told me she understood my frustration but this promotion was different, and my August payment was late. I stopped her right there and told her I did not even send an August payment and that I had been sending $50 or $100 payments previous months because that was part of my plan to pay down the 'free' loan. She repeated her understanding of my frustration. Okay bitch, if you really understand my frustration — and you stated that you did at least 3 times — then remove the fucking fee! Nothing doing.
I told her this was the last time I would do any business with HSBC and that I will never take advantage of a Best Buy credit promotion again. I pointed out that my minimum amount due is only $10 and they were charging me $39, and by now, my tone is less pleasant and more angry. She gave me the "I understand your frustration" line again and then went into a sales pitch for a product they have that would ensure to make at least the minimum amount due each month if I were to forget, and that it only costs some small amount based on the outstanding balance. This was the point I went from reasonable consumer to irate consumer — let's see what her scripting has in store for me now!
I told her that big banks like HSBC are the reason the government had to get involved with new regulations related to credit cards. And as she told me about the insurance program again, I had to tell her to stop. Really. I said "Barb, listen to me and stop reading from you script. I just told you I am pissed off at your company and will never use your product and you continue to try to up-sell me on an insurance product." It wasn't personal, and I am sure Barb was over it the very next call she took, but I was beside myself. Then she delivered the closing script, "Have I handled your inquiry to your satisfaction?" I laughed and told her to go back, with her supervisor, and listen to the recording, then decide for herself. I said "thank you" and hung up the phone.
So there you have it — one more reason to pile on banks and another way of showing why they suck. And despite them being bailed out by you and me, the American taxpayer, they are still disrespecting their bread and butter consumer.
Last bit of advice: join your work or community credit union, you'll never be treated this way.
Tea Party Nightmare
Tea Party darling and Delaware GOP senate nominee Christine O'Donnell is nothing more than a re-packaged Sara Palin. She's attractive, in an odd sort of way, she's firey, and she has financial woes in her past.
Pay attention people — anyone aspiring to political office at all costs, prostituting themself along the way is not who we want leading us, locally, nationally or otherwise.
This chick is ducking out of press meetings because she must — she lacks substance and like most other politicians, she has skeletons in her closet. The party affilliation makes no difference — if they can't speak in public on a variety of relative topics, then they're just window-dressing. (Not sure what that last sentence even means, just looking to fill space!)
Who is this guy and why is he smiling?
Dress the part for the job you want
This attractive blond is Ms. Ines Sainz, a 32 year-old sports reporter for a Mexican news outlet. Attractive? You bet. Embroiled in a sexual harassment claim against the NFL's New York Jets? Yes, that too.
These two pictures are a representation of how Ms. Sainz looks when she roams the sideline during football practice, or as she did Sunday, during an actual game.
Sexy? Don't be stupid. YES! Dressed a bit trashy as though to draw attention to herself? Again, a stupid question — yes to that as well. Look, there is no excuse that makes it okay for a person to make unwanted remarks to another, for any reason. But at the same time, there should be a rule in the sports reporter handbook that says one can't dress scantily in body-wrap clothing when walking into a locker-room of grown men who just came in from expending themselves on a gridiron, and where testosterone and adrenaline are flowing like water from the faucet. Or put another way, dress the part, in this case, of a professional. (Of course, the problem hers is that she does look like a pro, know what I mean?)
Seriously, where is the reporter's responsibility in her approach to her profession? Don't give me any bullshit about "how she dressed doesn't give the players a right to whistle and stare." She wasn't covering the locker room of a group of little league boys — she went into a room of men's men looking like she was dressed to draw attention to herself. Period. There must be a code of conduct she and other reports, male or female, follow when approaching their work — and yes, context and setting are important. If she were visiting a single player or a small group of players, one outcome, but she paraded into a room of 50 to 60 sweaty men in various stages of undress — some even showering — and expected no response. Give me a break. She should have entered looking like the typical wife of one of these players — wearing a sweatshirt and baggy sweatpants with her hair up in rollers, then we wouldn't be having this discussion.
Chase Online Banking
Okay, what is the deal with Chase's on-line banking for at least the past 24 hours? I've been trying to pay some bills and can't get in — all you get in the sign-on space is this goofy message about unavailability due to system maintenance. My ass. I've been in banking and IT for 30 years and you don't have scheduled maintenance for an entire business day — that's usually done during the slowest period of on-line banking, like between 3:00 and 4:00 AM on a Sunday.
C'mon Chase, at least be honest with your customers, we'd appreciate that more than some bullshit 'down for maintenance' message. Tell us things are messed up and you're fixing them. Scheduled maintenance suggests this is something you intended, and no one believes that to be true.