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The Game Room
Today's Best Tech Deals
Picked by Macworld's Editors
Top Deals On Great Products
Picked by Techconnect's Editors
Vivendi Universal Games Imaginext Battle Castle
MacSoft Age of Mythology
Freeverse Software Active Lancer
Freeverse Software Burning Monkey Casino
Aspyr Media Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer
Feral Interactive Ghost Master
MacSoft has a knack for delivering some of the best strategy games on the Mac. Age of Mythology, its newest addition to the genre, is no exception. Developed by the same people who brought us the Age of Empires series, Age of Mythology shares many of the traits of those earlier games. But thanks to great graphics, challenging play, and an interesting new twist, this game is anything but derivative.
Age of Mythology focuses on three ancient civilizations renowned for their mythology: the Greeks, the Egyptians, and the Norse. Each culture has unique attributes, such as the way its people gather and use resources, how they build structures, and, of course, what they believe. Gods and monsters play a central role.
The notion of unique civilizations isn't new to this type of game. However, unlike the Age of Empires games -- which featured a dizzying array of ancient civilizations but didn't do much to distinguish them -- Age of Mythology creates tangible differences.
You'll raise your civilization through various aspects of economic and technological development. Gods are key to this endeavor: different gods demand different forms of worship, and they respond with blessings to help you along. If you sufficiently curry your patron god's favor, you'll earn upgrades in weapons and armor, as well as the ability to acquire mythological beings. These creatures and heroes can help when it comes time to wage war against your neighbors.
The graphics in Age of Mythology are fantastic. Although it features the same isometric view as the Age of Empires titles, Age of Mythology includes a new 3-D game engine that lets you zoom in on the action, with beautiful results. Also worthy of note is the included map editor, which lets you design your own game maps.
In addition to offering an extensive single-player campaign, Age of Mythology supports multiplayer gaming over LANs and through the game-matching service GameRanger. Alas, you won't be able to take on PC gamers. A proprietary technology called DirectPlay hampers the Windows version of this game.
The Bottom Line Age of Mythology's impeccable credentials and flawless Mac conversion make this an instant classic for strategy-game fans.
Who You Gonna Call?
Feral Interactive's Ghost Master is a strategy game with an unusual twist: you're the bad guy. Oh, and you're dead.
Welcome to the town of Gravenville, which is currently under siege by the living. As a civil servant in the afterlife, you are charged with scaring them. Together with your spectral squad, you'll haunt more than a dozen different locales, including residences, the local police station, and a hospital.
Strategy games inevitably require resource gathering, and the coin of Ghost Master's realm is Plasm -- the substance that's created when people are scared. The more you frighten the residents of Gravenville, the more Plasm they generate. You can click on humans to figure out what scares them and maximize your fright potential. Larger spooks tend to generate bigger scares, but they also require more Plasm. You'll also discover that most ghosts are fettered to specific types of objects -- some need to work near beds, for example, while others are tied to electrical devices.
Although Ghost Master is primarily about scaring folks, some twists and turns keep things interesting. Missions have primary objectives -- to scare people or to make them discover certain things -- as well as secondary objectives, such as freeing ghosts from traps. Unfortunately, some of the goals are remarkably hard to achieve.
If you've spent any time playing The Sims, Ghost Master will seem familiar. In fact, Gravenville residents even communicate in Sims-like babble and dialogue bubbles. However, Ghost Master's game play is a lot richer and more complex. And thanks to its good tutorial, Ghost Master takes only a short time to learn.
Ghost Master has a wicked sense of humor -- its level names spoof popular Hollywood movies, which in turn inspire some of the characters and situations. It also features a great soundtrack.
Ghost Master offers only single-player modes, but I don't consider that a detriment -- not every game needs to have multiplayer features shoehorned into it.
The Bottom Line Ghost Master marries a unique concept with great execution. It's marred only by a few flaws in level design that make some parts of the game more frustrating than they should be. Overall, though, it's a great game -- especially for fans of horror movies.
Hang OS X
If you're looking for an extreme sports challenge but are burned out on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series, Aspyr Media has an alternative that will let you use some of the same skills in a very different setting: the waves.
Pro surfer Kelly Slater is a Mac user in his own right. He was featured in early Switcher ads showing off video footage he'd edited with his Mac. But until recently, if you wanted to play his game, you had to buy a video-game console. Now Aspyr has brought the surfboarding action to the Mac.
The trappings of Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer will seem familiar to anyone who's played Tony Hawk. The trick engine is similar; it has a career mode, in which you unlock new areas by achieving goals; and you can pick an identity from a variety of real-world pro surfers. In fact, the actual mechanics of surfing are not unlike those of riding a half-pipe in Tony Hawk. While riding waves, you try to string together as many tricks as possible to earn ever-higher combination scores. A trick meter gauges the success of your sequences. Once you've maxed out the meter, you'll be able to pull off mad tricks that wouldn't otherwise be possible.
The game's graphics are fantastic. In fact, they're better than what I've seen in the console versions -- water effects are detailed and lifelike, with beautiful particle and translucency effects that really bring the game to life. However, as with many games that have console pedigrees, you'll find it more satisfying to play on a game pad than on the keyboard, which I found cramped, lousily configured, and uncomfortable to use. The soundtrack is also good, evoking the mood of hanging out at the beach and trying to catch that perfect wave.
Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer doesn't offer Internet-based competition, which is probably just as well, as I've had little success with Tony Hawk's online modes. Aspyr advises Panther users to download a Pro Surfer patch (available from the company's Web site), which fixes problems specific to that operating system.
The Bottom Line Fans of Tony Hawk's game franchise won't find a ton of surprises here. Still, Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer is well executed and fun to play.
My Money's on the Monkey
Freeverse Software is one of my favorite independent Mac game developers, partly because it has an irreverent streak that imbues every game with a healthy sense of humor. Nowhere is this more evident than in its Burning Monkey series.
In the newest addition, Burning Monkey Casino, Las Vegas gets the smoldering-simian treatment. The collection includes five games: Slots, Three Card Monty, Poker, Scratch 'N' Win, and Black Jack. Each game is customizable -- even Three Card Monty (the classic card-shuffling game made famous by street hustlers). A stand-up comic (doing the worst impression of Henny Youngman I've ever heard) pops up every few minutes to interject one-liners. Thankfully, you can shut him off if he becomes unbearable.
The entire Burning Monkey Casino collection is brim-ming with Freeverse's trademark humor and high production values. It comes with a great soundtrack that evokes Vegas lounge acts. In fact, it even offers a separate lounge-act feature in which a gorilla serenades you. Each game features animated backgrounds and special effects that will make you feel as though you've been transported to a casino in Vegas or Atlantic City, circa 1959.
And if you find you've bet the farm and can't cover your debts, the Borrow Money button is only a click away. (I wish it were that easy in real life!)
The Bottom Line Burning Monkey Casino offers cute, lighthearted fun for players looking for some quick and dirty Vegas-style action.
Shoot-'em-ups -- or shmups -- are some of the most popular arcade games of all time: Xevious and Super R-Type, for example. But while this genre once dominated the game market, shmups have largely been cast aside in recent years, in favor of showy 3-D games that look pretty but often don't measure up in game play.
Active Lancer, a new game by Freeverse Software, is a throwback to the golden days of shmups but offers enough new embellishments to keep the action challenging and fun for gamers young and old. It features elaborate 3-D cinematic sequences worthy of a big-budget game, as well as a lavishly illustrated and lushly rendered environment. It's also got a body-rocking soundtrack and game play up the wazoo.
In Active Lancer, you pilot an elaborate, formfitting flight suit complete with no less than five different kinds of weapons, ranging from particle beams to guided missiles. Your mission is to fly over the surface of an alien landscape and annihilate a marauding interstellar species -- while defending yourself against an onslaught of opponents that populate the land, air, and sea.
Each level in the game ends with a boss -- a large alien craft that's much stronger, better armed, and substantially tougher to beat than its smaller counterparts.
As you fight, you collect power-ups, which you can use to charge up your weapons. Sharpshooting will also give you the chance to recharge. The more bad guys you blast, the higher your Rage meter gets. When it maxes out, you can activate a Berserker mode that temporarily causes you to speed up, while also powering up your weapons and recharging your shields.
To share the challenge of making it all the way to the end, you can use Active Lancer's two-player mode, which lets two gamers play simultaneously from the same computer. You can also team up with players over a LAN or through Freeverse's own GameSmith service. However, Freeverse notes that game play through GameSmith can suffer from latency issues.
The Bottom Line Like many shmups, Active Lancer is tough to beat but very rewarding if you make it all the way to the end. The game's excellent production quality is proof that there's a lot of life left in this venerable genre.
Knight for a Day
Vivendi Universal Games has launched a new game franchise for kids. It's based on Fisher-Price's Imaginext toy series -- action play sets for kids aged five and up. Vivendi's first game, Imaginext Pirate Raider, which I reviewed last December, let kids take to the high seas as marauding pirate captains. For its second release, Imaginext Battle Castle, the company turns its attention to knights, castles, and dragons.
Like its predecessor, Imaginext Battle Castle is packed with action, although there's absolutely no bloodshed or overt violence. On their journey, players get to build castles, challenge knights to duels, participate in castle sieges (and the defense of castles), go on rescue missions, and more. The missions grow progressively harder. The successful completion of each mission rewards players with new items they can use for their ultimate confrontation, with a mighty dragon.
All of the challenges in this game are age appropriate -- just what you'd expect from a major publisher of kids' software. However, if your little ones have already played Pirate Raider, Battle Castle may seem repetitive. Also, there's no option for turning your knight into a girl. That's historically accurate but a bit backward-thinking these days -- even given the toy series' boycentric approach.
The Bottom Line Imaginext Battle Castle is a great tie-in for kids who already play with Fisher-Price's Medieval World toys. It's also a fun romp for kids who want to pretend to be a knight for a day.
Vivendi Universal Games Imaginext Battle Castle
MacSoft Age of Mythology
Freeverse Software Active Lancer
Freeverse Software Burning Monkey Casino
Aspyr Media Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer
Feral Interactive Ghost Master


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Two hydrogen generators based on reactions involving magnesium and steam have been proposed as means for generating the fuel (hydrogen gas) for such fuel-cell power systems as those to be used in the drive systems of advanced motor vehicles. The hydrogen generators would make it unnecessary to rely on any of the hydrogen-storage systems developed thus far that are, variously, too expensive, too heavy, too bulky, and/or too unsafe to be practical.
The two proposed hydrogen generators are denoted basic and advanced, respectively. In the basic hydrogen generator (see figure), steam at a temperature ≥330 °C would be fed into a reactor charged with magnesium, wherein hydrogen would be released in the exothermic reaction Mg + H2O → MgO + H2. The steam would be made in a flash boiler. To initiate the reaction, the boiler could be heated electrically by energy borrowed from a storage battery that would be recharged during normal operation of the associated fuel-cell subsystem. Once the reaction was underway, heat from the reaction would be fed to the boiler. If the boiler were made an integral part of the hydrogen-generator reactor vessel, then the problem of transfer of heat from the reactor to the boiler would be greatly simplified. A pump would be used to feed water from a storage tank to the boiler.
Only a small fraction of the heat generated in the reaction would be needed for boiling: For every kilogram of hydrogen produced, about 44.5 kW⋅h of heat would be generated, while only about 6 kW⋅h would be needed to boil the requisite amount of water. The remaining 38.5 kW⋅h of high-grade heat would have to be dissipated via a radiator. Optionally, the flow of heat from the reactor to the radiator could be intercepted by a thermoelectric converter, thereby increasing the overall electric power generated; the net increase in the overall efficiency of the fuel-cell power system has been estimated to be equivalent to that afforded by an increase of 19 percent in the amount of hydrogen generated.
The generated hydrogen would be sent through a cooler to reduce its temperature to 80 °C as required for the fuel cell(s). During operation of a hydrogen-burning fuel cell, water is generated in liquid and vapor forms. The liquid water could easily be recycled to the storage tank. Depending on detailed calculations yet to be performed, it may be advantageous to also recycle the water vapor by condensing it and pumping the resulting liquid water to the storage tank, provided that the weight of the condenser did not exceed the weight of the water saved. At 80 °C, the waste heat from the fuel cell would be of too low a grade to be useful for most purposes; however, if the fuelcell power system were part of a motor vehicle, the waste heat could be used to heat the passenger compartment in winter.
In the advanced hydrogen generator, the reactor vessel (or one of two or more vessels, depending on the design) would be initially charged with magnesium hydride. The advanced hydrogen generator would exploit two reactions: the aforementioned exothermic reaction at a temperature ≥330 °C plus the endothermic reaction MgH2 → Mg + H2 at a temperature ≥300 °C. Once the initial heating was complete and both reactions under way, the Mg produced in the endothermic reaction would be consumed in the exothermic reaction, which, in turn, would generate sufficient heat to maintain the endothermic reaction. The main advantages of the advanced hydrogen generator over the basic one would be that (1) it would produce twice the amount of hydrogen for a given amount of magnesium, but (2) the cost of operation is likely to be less than that of the basic hydrogen generator because it is likely that MgH2 could be produced at less than twice the cost of the corresponding amount of Mg.
The main waste product of both the basic and advanced systems would be MgO, which has extremely low toxicity. MgO could be safely and easily recycled in a magnesium-refining plant for less than the cost of Mg because MgO is an intermediate product of the refining process.
This work was done by Andrew Kindler and Sri R.. Narayan of Caltech for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
In accordance with Public Law 96-517, the contractor has elected to retain title to this invention. Inquiries concerning rights for its commercial use should be addressed to:
Innovative Technology Assets Management
Mail Stop 202-233
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA 91109-8099
(818) 354-2240
Refer to NPO-43554, volume and number of this NASA Tech Briefs issue, and the page number.
This Brief includes a Technical Support Package (TSP).
Fuel-Cell Power Systems Incorporating Mg-Based H2 Generators
(reference NPO-43554) is currently available for download from the TSP library.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Custom Search
About Animals:
Of the million or more animal species in the world, more than 98% are invertebrates. Invertebrates don't have an internal skeleton made of bone. Many invertebrates have a fluid-filled, hydrostatic skeleton, like the jelly fish or worm. Others have a hard outer shell, like insects and crustaceans. There are many types of invertebrates. The most common invertebrates include the protozoa, annelids, echinoderms, mollusks and arthropods. Arthropods include insects, crustaceans and arachnids.
Click on the picture or name of the animals below for more information.
|Copyright © 1998-2012 Kidport


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When the first human colonists arrive on Mars, they could find a nice warm science lab and living quarters waiting for them, all built by thousands of tiny ant-size robots working and thinking collectively. European researchers are hard at work developing swarms of autonomous microbots. They can also do some other neat things aside from colonizing other planets, such as joining together to form larger robots, just like the Constructicons. Form Devastator!The robots are being developed as part of the European Union's I-SWARM program. At this point in their research, they have assembled groups of 100 robots (their official term for these groups seems to be posse, which seems hilarious for some reason) that can communicate with each other and team up to perform tasks too large for a single bot. In one example, a robot runs into an obstacle, and shortly thereafter a bunch of other robots show up to move it out of the way. The plan is to create robots that can reconfigure themselves based on the situation at hand, or even combine with other robots to form more complex machines. So far, they have tiny robots (pictured) that carry two kilobytes of RAM and move by vibration, and larger robots, called Jasmines, that roll around on little wheels. In addition to their Martian construction duties, the robots could be used as repair teams inside larger machines (like the Nanites on the Satellite of Love) or even medical robots that crawl around fixing things inside people. Throw in the fact that these robots will surely someday escape human control and form bizarre, hostile microbot societies, and I think it's safe to give this the H.G. Wells Award for Scientific Research Most Likely To Result In a Science Fiction Novel or Movie Coming True. Image by: I-SWARM. Robotic Ants Building Homes On Mars? [Science Daily]
More from Gizmodo
x Dave Lister x
There was a book called Recursion that had humans doing most of their construction using little robots like that, but they could self-replicate. You could drop one and it would be programmed like DNA to replicate and construct buildings or whole cities. It was just one of the book's interesting ideas.


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|Related Links
Lodging On-Campus
Andrews University offers a range of accommodations for guests, plus a full-service cafeteria. Guest Services will be happy to assist you in choosing suitable on-campus accommodation.
There are also a number of RV and tent campsites available at Beaver Point, located by the St. Joseph River on the edge of campus and open from May through October.
When arriving at Andrews, please stop by the the Campus Safety office to obtain your free visitors parking permit. If you are staying in a campus guest room, you can obtain a permit at the front desk when checking in.


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CMV test
This is a urine test for cytomegalovirus (CMV), a common virus that belongs to the herpes family. It is so widespread that most people in the U.S. have been infected by the time they reach age 40, although many don't realize it. You can pick up the virus by handling or exchanging bodily fluids, such as saliva, blood, urine, breast milk, and semen. The virus usually causes only a mild illness, but it can do serious harm to unborn children, people with HIV/AIDS, or others with a weak immune system.
You may need this test if you have unexplained symptoms that resemble the flu. If you've been infected with the virus, you may have these symptoms:
Tiredness and weakness
Night sweats
Muscle pain
Sore throat
Swollen glands
Loss of appetite
You may even think you have mononucleosis, an infectious illness that leaves many people temporarily bedridden.
Your healthcare provider may also order this test if you develop a mononucleosis-like illness during pregnancy. This is because pregnant women exposed to the virus can miscarry or pass along the virus to the fetus. Although most unborn children exposed to CMV are born healthy or with only mild symptoms, exposure to the virus raises the risk for nervous system defects, hearing loss, and other problems later in life. If you test positive for the virus, your healthcare provider can take steps to protect you and your baby.
Babies are often tested up to three weeks after they are born if their skin and eyes turn yellow, a sign of jaundice. This virus can also cause newborns to be born smaller or develop a lung infection and splotchy skin.
Your healthcare provider may also order this test if you are getting an organ transplant. Undetected herpes viruses, including CMV, are behind the failure of many kidney transplants. Many people who get organ transplants test positive for the virus, and up to 72% develop CMV infections.
You may also get a test for CMV if you have symptoms of CMV infection and HIV/AIDS, because your weakened immune system leaves you open to other illnesses. If you have HIV/AIDS and develop an infection caused by CMV, you may suffer severe symptoms, such as pneumonia, diarrhea, bleeding ulcers in your throat or stomach, and even blindness or swelling in the brain.
Your healthcare provider may order a liver test to see whether your liver is working properly. People with this virus often get their blood tested as well. A high white blood cell count in a blood test may be a sign that you have the virus.
Test results may vary depending on your age, gender, health history, the method used for the test, and other things. Your test results may not mean you have a problem. Ask your healthcare provider what your test results mean for you.
Your test is positive if a culture from your urine sample can produce, or "grow," the virus. Talk with your healthcare provider about what a positive result means. You can usually limit and reverse the effects of CMV with treatment.
This test needs you to give a urine sample.
This test poses no known risks.
Make sure to drink enough fluids to be able to give a urine sample. Be sure your healthcare provider knows about all medicines, herbs, vitamins, and supplements you are taking. This includes medicines that don't need a prescription and any illicit drugs you may use.


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This two pieces headwear set is used for perfectly decorating for babies, toddlers, teens and even adults, and it would absolutely make your sweetheart more stylish and adorable!
- Color: Ivory
- Material: Grosgrain ribbon
- Measurement (L x W): Approx. 5.5 x 1.5 inch / 14 x 4 cm
- Wide crochet weave make it ideal for adding bows, ribbons or flower clips
- Super soft and stretchy, no damage to your baby's skin
- Fashionable design, exquisite craftsmanship
- Beautiful creamy peony flower with rhinestone in the center
- Perfect size for a baby or toddler or even an adult
- Could be decorated on a headband or hat or worn alone on your hair
- Easy to put on and take down with the alligator clip
- Flower Diameter: Approx. 4.5 inch / 11.5 cm
- Rhinestone Diameter: Approx. 0.7 inch / 1.8 cm
- Alligator Clip Length: Approx. 1.7 inch / 4.3 cm
- Material: Cloth and metal
- Color: Creamy
Package Includes:
- 1 x Headband
- 1 x Hairclip
Note: Since the size above is measured by hand, the size of the actual item you received could be slightly different from the size above.Meanwhile, please be reminded that due to lighting effects, monitor's brightness / contrast settings etc, there could be some slight differences in the color tone of the pictures and the actual item.


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"As two of the world's leading ePassport experts, this collaboration is an important achievement as we help global governments deploy first-generation or migrate to second-generation ePassports. Entrust is a pioneer in ePassport encryption technology and this agreement strengthens both of our ePassport offerings by providing interested governments a single, interoperable source for a comprehensive ePassport solution."
Rich Sanders, business manager, 3M Security Systems Division
"Entrust has given us a more sensible and cost effective way of buying security software.Now, as the number of users accessing our system begins to rise or if there is precipitate growth, our licensing needs are already covered, whilst our unit cost declines yielding better value,"
Ken Walker, senior project manager of Platform Services at Aon Limited
"We considered both tokens and PIN/TAN for stronger security. Tokens would require we pass along the cost to our customers, and PIN/TAN just didn't offer the security strength we wanted. When we unveiled the cards to our customers, they were thrilled to have a more secure method for doing business with us."
Laureano Cuesta, Internet Security Manager, Banco Santander Santiago
"As banks in Chile were required to comply with the government-issued mandate, we found the versatility, ease of use and efficiency of Entrust's strong authentication solution to be the right choice as we integrated two-factor authentication. The platform's versatility and interoperability allows us to address both current and future needs as we evaluate the risks of the transactions our customers choose to execute with us online."
Sebastian Covarrubias, Manager of Marketing and Products, Banco Security
"We wanted our solution to be inclusive and able to be used anywhere in New Zealand, and around the world. There's value in NetGuard (Entrust IdentityGuard) for all of our customers,as it can help safeguard not only funds but personal information as well. Being able to offer NetGuard to our customers is something we are very proud of and cements our position as a leading financial services provider in our market."
Shona Bishop, Bank of New Zealand General Manager Marketing
"At Baptist, our number one priority is to help our medical professionals efficiently provide superior healthcare to their patients. My team's goal was to give them simple and secure access to the information they need to deliver that care. Passlogix and Entrust provided a solution that was relatively quick to deploy, and that provides convenient and secure access to our clinical systems."
Roland Garcia, CIO of Baptist Health
"While our initial needs were authentication driven, we anticipated that our Entrust PKI would evolve with our business needs to help secure additional business applications. Now, that same infrastructure has evolved into the foundation of our information-security practice. Particularly when administered via a lifecycle management platform, PKI, coupled with a secure e-mail solution, provides us the ability to secure many different aspects of our organization. From logical access, user and machine authentication to secure e-mail, this new multi-solution approach provides the security we need without hindering efficiency or productivity."
Richard Perry, Director of Security, Compliance and Continuity, BNSF Railway Company
"The Entrust IdentityGuard authentication platform provided us with a cost-effective solution to extend two-factor authentication capabilities to many more remote access users than was previously possible. What we specifically liked about the Entrust IdentityGuard solution was the choice of having the option to deploy multiple types of tokens."
Hiren Shah, Chief Technology Officer
"One of the challenges of initiating a new security measure for customers is the ease of delivery and implementation. The Entrust services team provided the necessary expertise and worked closely with our team to establish the optimum card delivery strategy, keeping our customers and their concerns in mind. We are excited about this roll out and the security Entrust IdentityGuard will provide to our valued customers."
Jose Reyes, Senior Vice President of Security Commercebank
"At Commercebank, we are committed to providing unparalleled levels of customer satisfaction and flexibility through the latest available technology. We are constantly enhancing our product lines and services to meet the needs of our domestic and international markets, and one of those needs has been addressing the concerns around online banking and identity theft for our customers. We needed a solution that would be easy for our customers to use, while also scalable and cost effective. Entrust IdentityGuard met all those criteria."
Herbie Folgueira, Executive Vice President Commercebank
"Our organization's goal was to implement a seamless fraud detection strategy that wouldn't require invasive integration with back-end applications — this solution enables us to do just that"
Sofie Nystrøm, Chief Information Security Officer, DnB NOR
"Certification adds the legally valid digital signature to the Enel.it's security solutions and products and Entrust has contributed to the achievement of this objective,"
Francesco Perna, Head of Security Competence Centre at Enel.it
"One of the most attractive elements of Entrust's platform is its versatility. Our primary objective is the security of our corporate resources. We sought a dynamic, straightforward method that could easily be tailored to meet our security goals now — and in the future as our business expands."
N.Jayantha, Head of IT, Essar Group
"With the migration of our PKI to Entrust we wanted to strengthen the security in the exchange of payment instructions in our network and make it easy for our members to install and use. The Entrust Authority Security Manager solution allowed us to have the highest level of confidence in our communications. It also gave us the advantage of integrating the solution completely into our own application using the Entrust Authority™ Security Toolkit for the Java Platform. With Entrust we have the flexibility to manage the PKI environment ourselves and provide our members with platform independent installation procedures."
Uwe Holmsgaard, IT Director at Eurogiro Networks
FCH Centrum
"In order to protect our customer base from online phishing and secure their identities, we sought an easy-to-use, simple-to-deploy authentication solution. Entrust's multifactor authentication capabilities are cost-efficient, easy to deploy and provide the strong second factor of security that we sought for our online customers."
FCH Centrum Executive Director
"The main benefit that we see in the Entrust Certificate Administrator Service's Web-based interface is that it provides us with an easy way to manage certificates. The enhancements to the interface really streamlines the certificate management process whether it is for live sites,or for internal testing sides we are able to revoke the certificates immediately. Even with large numbers of certificates this is a painless process. Given the ease of this task I can keep our consultants focused on evolving our systems and dealing with more complex technical issues. We would rather take a proactive stance when it comes to our security model in order to maximize our certificate usage,while protecting our clients' confidential data. The Certificate Administrator Service allows us to maintain a higher level of control,"
Jeff Narucki, Director of Technology Development, Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, P.C.(FDBL)
"Second-generation ePassports represent the beginning of an evolution that will improve the reliability and security of electronic travel documents. Entrust's EAC ePassport CA solution was selected because it was a ready, well-documented, fully supported and security evaluated product."
System Integrator Erkki Wuoma at the Finnish Population Register Centre
"We've been a proud technology partner of Entrust as a value-added reseller, but now GET Group's Passport and ID Division will collaborate on global projects by leveraging their proven and highly secure ePassport technology. By collaborating on a complete solution, we'll be working together to ensure the latest ePassport technology is available to security-conscious governments across strategic global regions."
GET Passport and ID Division President & CEO, Gary Christelis
"We wanted an authentication solution that would provide strong security but also be easy to use for our students and faculty and also be economical to manage. Because we can combine the Entrust IdentityGuard grid authentication capability with the identity cards we already issue to our students and faculty at the beginning of the school term, it fit seamlessly into our existing system and will give us the ability to make even more services available online for everyone."
Sven-Elof Kristenson, IT manager at Göteborg University
"From a cost perspective, it was just hard to top the versatility and strength of the Entrust IdentityGuard authentication solution, but the usability for our staff members really put the Entrust solution over the top. We now are able to save money across the board and deploy strong enterprise authentication for a larger group of users, and the employees can just carry the grid cards with their ID badges, which makes them much easier to keep track of than a key-fob token. In addition, the platform supports a wide array of authenticators that, in the future, can help us secure a variety of applications that also house sensitive patient information."
Rick Allen, IT director at Gwinnett Medical Center
"In the end, it came down to what was best for our customers. Time and time again, Entrust has proven that grid cards are affordable, simple to use and openly accepted by end-users. This implementation will provide our customers much-needed peace of mind during a time when online identity fraud is so commonplace."
Jeff Theiler, Senior Vice President, Payment Services at Hancock Bank
"Adding a time-based token to our arsenal gives us even more flexibility to choose the appropriate authentication mechanism for different users. The best part is that we can issue tokens to users who, by the nature of the information they need to access, must have a stronger level of authentication while offering more appropriate options to a broader audience, all from the same authentication platform."
John Millican, Chief Information Security Officer at Hotwire
"Entrust has added energy conservation leadership to their considerable list of successes. "They've shown that innovation in energy conservation and innovative product development are a winning combination."
Rosemarie Leclair, President and Chief Executive Officer, Hydro Ottawa Group of Companies
"Our deployment of Extended Validation SSL certificates demonstrates our commitment to security — both for our consumers and business partners — and signifies our dedication to provide a safe, secure online portal for e-commerce. EV SSL certificates will help increase confidence in our online channel and will notify potential customers that conducting secure online transactions with our site is a simple, easy-to-understand process."
S. Gokulkrishnan, Chief Technology Officer at IndianMusicInfo.com
"We believe Entrust TruePass offers IDX users a flexible, easy-to-use alternative to hardware tokens that will drive a greater return on investment. As a result, Entrust TruePass will become the Web-based method by which we authenticate end users and eventually provide digital signatures to electronic documents."
Tim Cornish, Manager of Information Services, IDX
"What we really desired was a proven, affordable solution that could authenticate users — employees, suppliers and customers — with different roles to varying applications. Grid cards were the simple, cost-effective answer to replace high-priced tokens, which lacked the versatility we required. In the end, it was the easy, affordable choice that best fit the needs of our users and organization."
"Entrust IdentityGuard's ability to grant external contractors time-limited grid cards provides unique flexibility and allows more frequent maintenance operations. This is a tremendous benefit to ISS business as internal resources are less solicited, drastically reducing operating and travel expenses."
ISS architecture manager Thierry Issindou.
"At Kotak Securities, we understand the importance of safeguarding the investments of our customers; and that is precisely what a trusted security expert, such as Entrust will do, to boost the confidence of our customers and instill trust in our brand."
Mr. D. Kannan, Executive Director, Kotak Securities Ltd
"Scalability and performance were important given the number of customers we expect to use the Website. Entrust was able to demonstrate the success of its access control software in other large enterprise businesses, including telecommunications and banking."
Arnold Hoogerwerf, technology manager from KPN
"For Land Registry to generate operational efficiency gains, it was vital for us to drive more applications through the Land Registry Direct web portal. With the rise in online fraud, internet security concerns could count as a factor in deterring customers from using online services. We required an identity and access management system to provide assurance to customers that their personal records and details remain private and secure from the prying eyes of unauthorised users. Entrust presented us with a solution that is robust and highly scalable. These capabilities will allow us to support a growing number of online users as demand for Land Registry Direct increases."
Brian Barrett, e-Services Business Manager for Land Registry
"It is essential that Lloyds TSB offer customers the same levels of trust and peace of mind that they expect from more traditional banking methods, while also providing speed and flexibility of access with added online banking functionality. The proven Entrust security infrastructure and the additional access security provided by the smart-card system, will provide the security required with the flexibility and scalability to enable Lloyds TSB to develop 'key online banking' into the future."
Dave Callington, manager, key online banking, Lloyds TSB
"The Ministry of Economic Development is focused on improving government performance through the appropriate use of technology. A key business requirement is to deliver day-to-day business applications in a secure manner to the end user wherever they may be. This concept facilitates not only the ability to work remotely but also provides a level of business continuity to the Ministry. To help accomplish these goals, we required two-factor authentication in order to provide secure remote access via the Web for all of our employees. Entrust IdentityGuard was the most cost-effective solution for delivering this security capability."
"The Entrust solution is a fraction of the cost of our previous token solution, RSA SecurID®. As a result, instead of reaching just a subset of employees, we can deploy two-factor authentication across our entire agency,"
Stephen Isaacs, Senior IT Architect at the Ministry of Economic Development of New Zealand
"We needed strong PKI technology with good support and a technically sound team to use the solution on a sustainable basis."
Mr. Girdhar Varliani, General Manager, (n)Code Solutions
"Protecting citizens' confidential information online is of paramount concern to us. Our online services are now even more secure with Entrust EV SSL certificates, and citizens can be confident that transactions conducted online with Oakland County are protected."
L. Brooks Patterson, Oakland County Executive
Ocean Systems, Inc.
"With regulatory and customer confidence pressure to bolster security with multifactor authentication, our customers are thirsty for solutions that give them a wide range of choices while not requiring integration into their back end applications. Entrust IdentityGuard is cost-effective, versatile, as well as easy to deploy and use — traits attractive to our company, clientele and their customers."
Juan Mendoza, President, Ocean Systems, Inc.
"Our decision to leverage Entrust's solutions to secure the Lab's security infrastructure was premised on the Department of Energy's objective of establishing a secure e-services platform between DOE agencies, partners and other Federal government departments. We wanted a solution that could satisfy our in-house security requirements, but could also scale up and interact seamlessly with other applications and business units outside of our walls as this vision becomes a reality."
John McCoy, program manager at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
"Trust and confidence — for our customers, for employees, for our partners — is paramount to us. We understand the current security landscape and want to face that challenge head-on with a comprehensive, full-featured platform of products. Not only are Entrust's solutions more cost-effective than other vendors, but their reputation as a trusted security leader only confirmed our decision."
Vas Rajan, CISO Philadelphia Insurance
"The sensitive information of our customers, as well as our own intellectual property, is one of our most valuable assets. Understanding the need to protect these identities and information, the Hong Kong branch of PT Bank Mandiri sought easy-to-use solutions that would help authenticate users and encrypt vital files, folders or networks. Entrust offered a complete package that could be implemented seamlessly within our existing environment."
Richard Yiu, MIS manager, PT Bank Mandiri (Persero) Tbk
"The majority of our customers collaborate on sensitive files or folders on a daily basis. The operational challenge of securing this information, without negatively impacting efficiency, was of utmost concern. With this innovative network folder encryption solution, we not only secure their key data and intellectual property, but we do so in a cost-efficient, non-invasive manner. It's an invaluable tool."
Eric Ren, General Manager, PXInfosec
"The Government of Slovenia began issuing e-passports in August 2006 and is rapidly incorporating EAC into our systems and processes. We are happy to have the assistance of S&T Slovenija and Entrust in this effort as we increase the security of e-passports for our citizens."
Vladimir Logofetov, Secretary, Information Services Division, Interior Ministry of Slovenia.
"Our citizens and business partners want to conduct business with their government securely and efficiently, so building out a trusted environment was a critical step to underpin our growth as an e-government leader. Entrust serves as a trusted advisor to many countries that have developed successful e-government models and we wanted to partner with a security leader with that level of experience. The integration expertise of S&T Slovenija helped these projects move quickly to meet our objectives."
Dusan Kricej, Deputy Director General at the Slovenian Ministry of Public Administration
"Entrust proved to be an invaluable partner and advisor during our implementation of the first phase of ePassports in 2006; leveraging their expertise for our second-generation transition was an easy decision. Entrust is a leader in the public key infrastructure (PKI) technology that helps strengthen and secure the foundation of our ePassport environment, and we're eager to realize the capabilities of this second-generation ePassport standard."
Dusan Kricej, Deputy Director General at the Slovenian Ministry of Public Administration
"The Entrust solution was by far the most flexible and user-friendly solution that we considered … I would estimate that moving to an SMS OTP approach substantially reduced our costs, somewhere in the region of £100k per year."
William Hewish, Chief Technology Officer at Severn Trent Water
"The transition to Entrust IdentityGuard's grid-based authentication solution was seamless and very easy for our end-users. The grid cards are easy to produce and distribute to our various branches across the world, making this an extremely attractive option when searching for alternative authentication options."
Thomas Keisu, IT Security Manager at Skanska
"The implementation of the electronic National Identity Card will provide all the elements to more securely identify Spanish citizens, and provide a user- friendly process to carry out procedures that require a digital signature. As a leader in securing governments world-wide, Entrust was the natural choice for this effort."
SIA Group Chief Executive Officer Enrique Palomares
SILA Communications
"SILA Communications understands the tremendous advantages for both business customers and consumers alike in having up-to-the minute access to news and information via wireless devices. The pace of today's global economy demands that decisions be made at the touch of a button, and secure access to wireless information and services will increase the speed and confidence with which customers can make critical and informed choices both in business and at leisure. Entrust is providing the products and services that will give customers the confidence to make transactions online and from mobile devices."
Bo Kroll, CEO of SILA Communications
"Not only did we save money by dropping our high-priced hardware tokens, we did so with an authenticator that is easy to use, simple to deploy and concurrently enables secure access to our corporate resources, applications and intellectual property. The Entrust IdentityGuard platform is an efficient, cost-effective solution that has helped enable us to meet today's security challenges while also keeping an eye on future business needs as we evolve."
Didier Lajarrige, IT manager at Societe Generale
"We chose Entrust because they are able to provide a scalable technology solution for our requirements now and in the future. Entrust very rapidly grasped the complexity of our requirements, responding quickly and efficiently to our requests. It has a good understanding of the way E-Government initiatives work, having worked with the top E-Governments worldwide."
Sean Dawtry, SmartPath Programme Manager for Southampton City Council
Southwest Border States Anti-Drug Information System
"Since this project crosses jurisdictional lines, we needed a proven technology that everyone agreed was secure enough to protect highly sensitive information. We chose Entrust because they provided the best-of-breed technology and the flexibility required to bridge our participants' disparate systems."
Glen Gillum, Director, Criminal Information Sharing Alliance, on Southwest Border States Anti-Drug Information System (SWBSADIS) implementation of Digital Signatures Technology
"We looked at a number of strong authentication solutions, but eventually it came down to the affordability and flexibility of Entrust's authentication platform. While our current needs require a proven two-factor authentication solution to secure remote access, we also wanted the capability to leverage other methods of authentication as the business continues to grow and our environment evolves."
Sulake security director Markku Kaskenmaa
"And while the cost-savings were the key differentiators, the versatility of Entrust IdentityGuard to solve future security challenges … will help meet authentication requirements as our business grows."
Rod Lefever, SVP and Chief Technology Officer at Susquehanna Bancshares.
"The GetAccess solution from Entrust Technologies delivers uncompromising security and the availability required to establish fast, responsive and personalized service to millions of customers. Entrust's proven expertise in deploying large scale portals has been a tremendous asset in helping us to deliver www.telia.se services within compressed timeframes."
Jan Rudberg, Executive Vice President, Head of People Solutions Business Area, Telia
"Teranet has successfully become the world's first secure electronic registration authority that specializes in land registry information. Security is very important for our solution and our partnership with Entrust provides the comprehensive digital identity and information security capabilities to meet our requirements. The achievement of the one-millionth document registration milestone demonstrates that our system is a proven success."
Charles De Peri, Vice President, Marketing & Business Development of Teranet
"Our long term goal was to have a security solution that would integrate with an all-campus information repository. With this seamless combination from Entrust, we didn't have to wait long to get everything integrated and running smoothly for our students and faculty. The best part is that they don't have to worry about securing themselves. Entrust technology has helped take care of that."
Associate Professor Katsuyoshi Iida, Ph.D., Global Scientific Information and Computing Center, Tokyo Tech
"Secure communication within the department's dozen bureaus is essential, especially today. We needed a security infrastructure that would allow us to safely share critical information among our staff without compromising performance. We now have the full complement of security solutions to protect vital documents and information across bureaus while providing authentication, digital signature and enhanced encryption capabilities for any application."
Mayi Canales, former US Dept. of Treasury CIO
"Universa required the ability to secure resources and access with a strong, respected authentication platform. The primary goal was to enable secure access without sacrificing security and the integrity of our sensitive information and intellectual property. This implementation allowed us to address those goals with a simple-to-use, easy-to manage solution."
Christian Knauer, IT manager, Universa
"We explored a lot of options when it came to strong authentication – time synchronous tokens, USB tokens and others, but they were very expensive with some hardware compatibility issues and would not be very convenient for our workers to use. The Entrust IdentityGuard grid authentication mechanism suited us well because it was very low cost, had very flexible architecture, working as an authentication platform for our integrational needs. We could print grid cards for each workplace and activate them when needed."
Lars Hillerup, IT Security manager, Vejle Amt
"But the real value for us was being able to displace a high-priced vendor for strong authentication with a solution that is more affordable, customizable to our needs and simple for our customers and partners to use."
Michael Schoenwiese, CISO at x-tention


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Berlin retro enamel cup with city map - trend gift for design lovers, outdoor globetrotters and souvenir collectors
You wake up in the morning still dreaming of Berlin?
Then this high-quality enamel mug with the minimalist city motif is just the thing for you. Choose from one of the 5 colors and enjoy its modern design. If you can´t decide´on a colour - take 2 or 3...
- Colours . Bright Red, Petrol, Ice, Golden, Black
- Capacity. approx. 300 ml, size (Ø x H): approx. 8,5 x 8 cm
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- Quality. Dishwasher safe, food safe, recyclable and eco-friendly
- Handmade. The cups are decorated and printed by hand with love in my studio in Berlin. Manual work, in contrast to mechanical production, leads to variations in design. It is possible that the position of the design may vary.
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44spaces stands for handmade original gift ideas featuring your favorite places. Our modern and timelessly beautiful products with clear shapes and colors are the perfect gift for dads, dads, dads, grandfathers, Father's Day birthday, births, weddings, anniversary, Christmas, Valentine's Day, as a declaration of love and souvenirs or just for fun. Simple, modern and timeless.
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!Decoration is not included in the price
! Like all metal goods, enamel cups can not be used in the MICROWAVE.
! Colors may vary slightly depending on the screen resolution and color setting
© 44spaces. All graphics, illustrations, patterns are protected by copyright


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We'd love to hear from you! Call us or use the form to the right to contact us to
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you what we can do.
Fort Worth: 817.336.2066
Dallas: 972.751.6212
Fax: 817.283.7933
4300 Buckingham Road
Fort Worth, TX 76155


text:
Table of contents
The Sims 3: Ambitions Cheats :
Secret - TIme Machine Children
MY current family consist of 22 people. Mother, Father and 20 children. Mother and Father are Fully grown adults. 4 of the children were born at the hospital. 16 were from time traveling, they were 9 elders, 1 young child, and 6 teens. So how do you get a time machine child?
Secret - How to promote yourself faster in a job profession
by Unregistered Jun 08, 2010
Type in 'testingcheatsenabled true' on the main menu screen once your game starts up. When you are playing in your town and you select a Job Profession, you can easily get yourself promoted by clicking and dragging your Job Profession Experience Bar found under your Career tab.
Secret - Cheats (All the ones I know)
by Unregistered Aug 13, 2012
While the "testingCheatsenabled true" code is enabled, hold [Ctrl] and click a Moodlet in the Moodlet panel to remove it. Note: If it is motive-induced, the bar related to the negative Moodlet will be completely filled.
To max out Moodlets and keep them that way, enable the "testingCheatsenabled true" code. Then, hold [Shift] and click your Sim's mailbox. Select "Make all happy", and click the mailbox again, then select "Make needs static".
While the "testingCheatsenabled true" code is enabled, hold [Ctrl] and drag the Mouse left or right to raise or lower your Sim's current motive as well as raise or lower relationships.
Use the following trick to watch your own videos on the Sim television. Place the video you want into the "/My Documents/EA Games/The Sims 3/Movies/Broadcast/[television station]" folder. Turn on the television in the game, and you can watch it. The video must be in .AVI format, with a resolution no larger than 128x128 pixels, and frame rate not greater than 15 frames per second.
Place the desired .MP3 files in the "/My Documents/EA Games/The Sims 3/Music/[radio station]" folder. Start the game, go to "Options" menu, select "Music Settings", then choose radio station. Select which songs you want the radio to play.
Start writing novels on your computer. Write fiction novels as they take the least amount of time. They will not bring you too much Simoleons. When you write, your skill will automatically advance. If your skill is high enough, you will be able to write more novel types/genres. The most money can be made from "Romance Novels". You will get royalties for six weeks once you finish a book. With the "Writing" skill maxed out, you can make approximately 40,000 Simoleons every week, which is more than the 34,800 Simoleons you can get by purchasing all neighborhood businesses, and takes less time to achieve. In three game weeks you should have a very high speed writing, 9 or 10 novels as best sellers, and 100,000 Simoleons.
No matter how many times you use an object, if you sell it the same day you got it you can get all your money back. If your Sim is poor and needs body points or something else, buy a body machine and keep selling it back to get a refund of all your money.
continue →
Code - $50,000 Simoleons
by Unregistered Jun 08, 2010
Press ctrl and C button to open up cheat code entry box, then input: motherlode , then press enter. It gives you $50,000.00 Simoleons each time and it can be used an unlimited amount of times, time to make yourself a millionaire and retire early! :)
Secret - Monster
Okay, first you'll have to wait until u get a call from the science facility asking for
The Sims 3: Ambitions Cheats:


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Would you also share the code? Is your code also frequency hopping? Do you have failsafe implemented? Do you have rssi implemented (would it be possible to have an audible alarm, if I connected a buzzer to the board), can rssi be taken from the board (on the plane or heli) to an osd? Is it possible to configure the power output of the module - for example to use a booster.
Are you familiar with multiwii (http://code.google.com/p/multiwii/ , http://www.multiwii.com/ )? Probably it would be possible to incorporate multiwii in your design, because the relevant pins (SDA and SCL) for interfacing with sensors are free right?I would like to have my plane stabilized and autolevel,...Since your board is 5V unlike Melihs, I can use a original wii-motion+ as a gyro,...and as a accellerometer I will use a adxl345 which has already an LLC and voltage reg. on board.Instead of using a SMA connector like on your photo, could I just solder the coax directly to the pins? (central conductor+shielding)Are those two leds on the board useful for diagnostic if the boards are working, for example uploading blink sketch?
How far away did you go with your heli ?


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An infamous Papua New Guinea cult leader known as "Black Jesus" was castrated by an angry mob after being hacked to death for killing young girls as sacrifices, reports said on Monday.
Steven Tari, a convicted rapist who was suspected of cannibalism, was killed in a remote PNG village last week, with gory details of his death emerging.
The National newspaper said Tari, who had been on the run since escaping from a prison in Madang in the Pacific nation's east during a mass break-out with 48 others in March, was hunted down by 80 men.
It said he was killed, castrated and then dragged with a cane tied around his neck to a shallow pit where his body was dumped.
The corpse was dug up by police, prison and health workers on Friday. Juith Gawi, a doctor at Modilion Hospital, said he had multiple knife wounds.
"He was chopped and slashed with bush knives on both arms and legs, chest and stomach which revealed his intestines. He was also castrated," Gawi said.
Tari, a failed Lutheran pastor who was widely known as Black Jesus, was found guilty in 2010 of raping girls who belonged to his Christian-based sect and sentenced to up to 10 years.
At the time, he had thousands of village followers, including a core of armed warriors to protect him, in what is commonly referred to in PNG as a "cargo cult".
As part of his "culture ministry", he preached that young girls were to be "married" to him as it was God's prophecy.
The National said villagers where he was hiding became fed up with cult beliefs and practices, which included "the killing of young girls as sacrifices".
Local police official Ray Ban said Tari and his followers offered Rose Wagum, 15, last week as a "sacrifice". She was found with stab wounds and reportedly died of blood loss.
The group also tried to offer another 14-year-old girl but were stopped by the mob which eventually killed Tari.
The National said Wagum's aunt was the first known "flower girl" for Tari and found young virgins for him, and it was she who took her niece to his camp to be sacrificed.
Ban said at least one other girl was still missing.
"Tari is dead and this cult worship dies with him," Ban said.
"Stop this worship now. If I hear any more cult worship here, I will return with my men."
When he was captured in 2007, there were widespread allegations that Tari's cult also practised cannibalism along with sacrificial blood rituals, but police only charged him with rape.
PNG is a sprawling nation where black magic, sorcery and cannibalism sometimes occur.
Last year, police arrested dozens of people linked to an alleged cannibal cult accused of killing at least seven people, eating their brains raw and making soup from their penises. – AFP


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San Francisco, CA–The Center for WorkLife Law at UC Hastings College of the Law has been awarded a $225,000 grant from NoVo Foundation. The grant will help in continuing the mission of the Center for WorkLife Law to advance women's economic rights.
The NoVo Foundation grant provides support for the Center for WorkLife Law's Pregnancy Accommodation Working Group, a group dedicated to helping pregnant workers stay on the job while protecting their health and the health of their babies. Support from NoVo Foundation enables the Center for WorkLife Law to develop and disseminate information and tools to employment lawyers, Ob/gyn doctors, the larger medical community, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), employers, and employees to help ensure that low-income pregnant workers gain the accommodations they need to keep their jobs and maintain financial security for themselves and their families.
"With this important partnership and support from the NoVo Foundation," says Center for WorkLife Law Director Professor Joan C. Williams, "we will be able to help reduce vulnerability for low-income pregnant women so that they may move beyond poverty and achieve economic empowerment for themselves, their children, and their communities."


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HIGH PERFORMANCE ARCHITECTURES FOR PACKET FORWARDING AND STRING PATTERN MATCHING by Hoang Xuan Le A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (COMPUTER ENGINEERING) December 2011 Copyright 2011 Hoang Xuan Le
Object Description
|High performance architectures for large-scale packet forwarding and string pattern matching
|Le, Hoang Xuan
|Author email
|Doctor of Philosophy
|Document type
|Degree program
|Computer Engineering
|Viterbi School of Engineering
|Date defended/completed
|Date submitted
|Date approved
|Restricted until
|Date published
|Advisor (committee chair)
|Prasanna, Viktor K.
|Advisor (committee member)
Parker, Alice C.
Nakano, Aiichiro
|The internet has grown explosively to a giant open network. Routers in the backbone should simply move traffic as fast as possible. However, packet forwarding has long been a performance bottleneck of these routers. While the throughput requirements continue to grow, memory efficiency has also been an additional critical concern. Although ternary content addressable memories (TCAMs) have been widely used for packet forwarding, they have high power consumption and are inflexible for adapting to new addressing and routing protocols. ❧ Along with the rapid development of the Internet, network security has arisen as a major concern. Internet attacks require little effort or monetary investment, and are difficult to trace. They can be launched from virtually anywhere in the world. Computer networks are constantly assailed by attacks and scams, ranging from nuisance hacking to more nefarious probes and activities. Therefore, network traffic filtering is a crucial way to protect these networks. ❧ This dissertation studies (1) algorithms that are applicable to the network field of research, and (2) the use of low-power memory, such as static random access memory (SRAM), combined with application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and/or field programmable gate array (FPGA) technology. The goals are to develop high-throughput, memory-efficient, and flexible algorithmic solutions for packet forwarding (used in core routers) and string pattern matching (used in network intrusion detection systems). ❧ Specifically, state-of-the-art packet forwarding algorithms mapped onto SRAM-based architectures are proposed. In these architectures, high throughput is achieved by employing pipelining and/or multiprocessing. Challenges and optimizations for such algorithm-to-architecture mapping are addressed. Due to customized architecture design, these algorithms are optimized to achieve high memory efficiency and throughput. ❧ *Tree-based IP lookup: Tree-based algorithms and data structures for the IP lookup problem are described. The algorithm partitions a routing table into groups of prefixes to minimize the total memory consumption. A data structure based on a complete binary search tree that achieves superior memory efficiency and a data structure based on 2-3-tree that supports single-cycle incremental update are also introduced. The achieved throughput also surpasses that of the state-of-the-art. ❧ *Trie-based IP lookup: Two algorithms to compress the uni-bit-trie representation of a given routing table are presented. These algorithms determine the optimal maximum skip distance at each node of the trie to minimize the total memory requirement. Our algorithms demonstrate substantial reduction in the memory footprint compared with the uni-bit-trie algorithm and with the original path compression algorithm, for both IPv4/IPv6. ❧ *IP lookup in virtual routers: A simple merging algorithm whose performance is not sensitive to the number of routing tables considered is offered. The performance solely depends on the total number of prefixes. A novel scalable, high-throughput linear pipeline architecture for IP-lookup that supports large virtual routing tables and quick non-blocking update is also presented. ❧ *String pattern matching: The similarities between IP lookup and string matching problems are intensively exploited. We propose an algorithm called leaf-attaching to efficiently disjoint a given dictionary without increasing the number of patterns is given. We also present a scalable, high-throughput, and memory efficient architecture for large-scale string matching based on pipelined binary search tree. The proposed algorithm and architecture achieve a superior memory efficiency compared with the state-of-the-art. Dictionary update involves only rewriting the memory content, which can be done quickly without reconfiguring the chip. ❧ The proposed solutions are evaluated using modern ASIC/ FPGA platforms. The implementation results demonstrate superior performance over the state-of-the-art, with respect to the throughput and memory consumption.
|network routers; IP lookup; packet forwarding; FPGA; NDIS; trie-based IP lookup; tree-based IP lookup; string matching
|Part of collection
|University of Southern California dissertations and theses
|Publisher (of the original version)
|University of Southern California
|Place of publication (of the original version)
|Los Angeles, California
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|University of Southern California. Libraries
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|University of Southern California
|Le, Hoang Xuan
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|The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the author, as the original true and official version of the work, but does not grant the reader permission to use the work if the desired use is covered by copyright. It is the author, as rights holder, who must provide use permission if such use is covered by copyright. The original signature page accompanying the original submission of the work to the USC Libraries is retained by the USC Libraries and a copy of it may be obtained by authorized requesters contacting the repository e-mail address given.
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|HIGH PERFORMANCE ARCHITECTURES FOR PACKET FORWARDING AND STRING PATTERN MATCHING by Hoang Xuan Le A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (COMPUTER ENGINEERING) December 2011 Copyright 2011 Hoang Xuan Le


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New Appeal Filed for Ryan Ferguson
COLUMBIA - Convicted murderer Ryan Ferguson's dad, Bill Ferguson, issued a new appeal last week in order to get his son a new trial regarding the 2001 murder of Kent Heitholt.
The Court of Appeals has agreed to hear the appeal which includes eight errors found in the 2005 trial, along with charging Prosecutor Kevin Crane with perjury.
A main error the appeal describes is the jury selection from Lincoln County. Lincoln County allows citizens selected for jury duty to pay $50 and perform community service in order to be relieved of jury duty.
Ferguson's case was the first to come forward fighting for a mis-trial due to the Lincoln County jury selection process, but was denied by the Western District of the Missouri Court. Since then, four other cases came forward in the Eastern District and were exonerated.
Bill Ferguson said he has spent around $200,000 on his son's appeal, including the new billboards put up asking for information on the case, and offering a reward for new information that could help Ryan Ferguson's appeal.
So far, Bill Ferguson said he's received 100 calls and two of them have deemed helpful. Ferguson's defense team is sending investigators this month to Columbia to interview the two tippers.


text: CARGOCARE AG was founded in 1984 with the core idea "we care for your cargo". Ulrich Schweizer, one of the co-founders, understood his client's needs with regard to forwarding and related services. With the incorporation of Fashioncare and the further development of an international network of carefully selected partners, he and his wife Sue were among the first to create the conditions required for innovative logistics and fulfilments solutions. Prestigious international clients are profiting from the competences developed over the years and from an on-going determination to learn.


text: Corporal HicksFeb 23, 2011, 05:40:10 PM Topic on: Feb 23, 2011, 05:40:10 PM And to add even more confusion over whether Prometheus is Alien related or not, Dark Horizons have just posted this:"Another source shot me a message today having read an early draft of the script saying that a "bioweapons planet" is the only link to the "Alien" films in it and it's a tenuous one at best."Key thing to note there is that the source talks of an early draft. The shooting draft may have been changed if SkyMovie's contact is correct. Thanks to Darkoo for the news.Link To Post


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Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery is pleased to announce that its May 2013 art exhibition "SeaScapes" is now posted on their website and is ready to view online. The theme for this art exhibition is "SeaScapes" and artists were asked to submit their best seascape art for the gallery's April art competition.
The gallery received submissions from 22 different countries from around the world and they also received entries from 38 different states. Overall, there were 629 entries were judged for this art competition.
Congratulations to the artists who have been designated as this month's category winners, along with the winning Special Media and Special Recognition artists. To proceed to the gallery's "SeaScapes" online art exhibition follow this link: http://www.lightspacetime.com/seascapes-art-exhibition-may-2013/


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I love strong female characters so I couldn't resist sharing this.
Also I had to share something about writing, that's what I do!
And to the end something funny!
I hope this images inspire you , make you laugh or think. If they did I'll be happy!
Have a great day!


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I know Valentines Day is over, but shouldn't it we celebrate it everyday? OK, one last thing.... Have you ever thought about other ways to indulge in Red Velvet cake, besides cupcakes? Check this out, I came across this recipe in my "must try recipe files" and had to share it!
Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons buttermilk
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon red food coloring
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 pound cream cheese, softened
2 sticks butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cup finely chopped pecans, optional
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Mix together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs 1 at a time. Then beat in the buttermilk, vinegar, vanilla and red food coloring. Once combined, add the dry ingredients to wet. Mix until thoroughly combined.
Onto a parchment lined sheet tray, drop batter using an ice cream scoop, forming 2-inch round circles.
Bake for 10 minutes, until baked through. Cookies should be cake-like and light. Allow to cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla together until smooth. Add the sugar and on low speed, beat until incorporated. Increase the speed to high and mix until very light and fluffy.
Spread the cream cheese frosting between 2 cooled cookies and roll the edges in finely chopped pecans, if desired
I love me some Paula Dean!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Red Velvet Sandwich Cookie
I know Valentines Day is over, but shouldn't it we celebrate it everyday? OK, one last thing.... Have you ever thought about other ways to indulge in Red Velvet cake, besides cupcakes? Check this out, I came across this recipe in my "must try recipe files" and had to share it!
6 comments:
- (JIN) Love, Loss & Lacquer said...
Oh my goodness - those look wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing :)
- February 17, 2009 at 1:51 PM
- i do monograms said...
ok i so want one of these right now!
- February 17, 2009 at 2:06 PM
- Meghan said...
I love Red Velvet!!!!!!
Oh yum!
- February 17, 2009 at 3:04 PM
- Room 209 said...
I just found your blog and the first thing I saw was these yummy cookies. I'm practically drooling right now! Thanks for sharing the recipe...and great blog!
- February 18, 2009 at 7:10 PM
- African-American Brides said...
Oh my, that looks good!!! Either that or I'm already hungry. lol. Please forgive me for being so forgetful. I just saw a reminder to myself about being tagged on your blog. Charge it to mommy brain. I'm all. over. the. place. :)
- February 19, 2009 at 11:12 AM
- Unknown said...
Thanks ladies! I'll take a swing at those cookies one of these days. I'll let you know the outcome....
AAB.. no worries. :-)
- February 23, 2009 at 8:52 AM


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Hi guys,
So my program does run in Eclipse, however, there are a few fixes that are still needed and Im looking for simple suggestions/ideas. Im saying simple because Im still learning plus I dont want to delve into anything, just yet, my class hasnt covered.
QUESTION 1: I realize my decimals needed to be round up for the outputs regarding money. From what Ive been reading using double or flat is considered a sin. I think I could fix it by using the primitive type int instead, but the assignment was pretty clear on using the primitive type double. What do you guys think?
QUESTION 2: Two of my instance variables are giving the following message? Any suggestions?
The field Amortization.intPerPd is never read locally
The field Amortization.numPmts is never read locally
QUESTION 3: I know the assignment says the three methods below should be, called every time getPmtAmt() or displayResults() is called. So far Ive only added it to public double getPmtAmt() method, but not the public void displayResults() method. Any suggestions for this?
private double calcNumPmts()
private double calcPmtAmt()
public double getPmtAmt()
If Im not asking the right questions, I apologize. Im still trying to grasp the concept of programming.
Including the following:
1. Assignment
2. Amortization.java
3. AmortizationClient.java (works fine)
Thank you.
This is the assignment. You are to write a Java program that calculates the amount of a loan payment. The user will enter a loan amount, the number of payments per year, the number of years, and the interest rate. The program will then output the amount of the loan payments. You will use the formula: i PMT = PV --------------- 1 - (1 + i)-n Where PMT = payment amount PV = amount of loan (present value) i = rate per period (annual interest rate divided by payments per year) n = number of payments (number of years times payments per year) You will create a class called Amortization that contains several methods and instance variables and another class called AmortizationClient that uses the Amortization class. The instance variable that you will use will be: private double loanAmt; private double annIntRate; private double numYears; private double pmtsPerYear; private double intPerPd; private double numPmts; private double pmtAmt; The methods that class Amortization will contain are prototyped below: public Amortization (); public Amortization (double aLoanAmt, double anAnnIntRate); public Amortization (double aLoanAmt, double anAnnIntRate, double aNumYears, double aPmtsPerYear); public void explainProgram(); public void getLoanParameters(); public double getLoanAmt(); public void setLoanAmt(double aLoanAmt); public double getAnnIntRate(); public void setAnnIntRate(double anAnnIntRate); public double getNumYears(); public void setNumYears(double aNumYears); public double getPmtsPerYear(); public void setPmtsPerYear(double aPmtsPerYear); private double calcIntPerPd(); private double calcNumPmts(); private double calcPmtAmt(); public double getPmtAmt(); public void displayResults(); Method explainProgram() will explain the purpose of the program. Method getLoanParameters() will ask the user to input all four loan parameters. Methods calcIntPerPd(), calcNumPmts(), and calcPmtAmt() calculate the utility instance variables. These should be called every time getPmtAmt() or displayResults() is called. displayResults() displays the four loan parameters the user inputs and the payment amount. The dialog will appear as follows (italicized text in text boxes): This program will ask the user to input four loan parameters and will then display the payment amount. (Be more verbose than this in your program.) Please enter the loan amount: 5000.00 Please enter the number of payments per year: 12 Please enter the number of years: 10 Please enter the interest rate (in percent): 7 The loan amount is $5000.00 The number of payments per year is 12 The number of years is 10 The interest rate is 7% The amount of the loan payments will be $58.05.
import java.util.Scanner; public class Amortization { private double loanAmt; //INPUT 1 private double annIntRate; //INPUT 4 private double numYears; //INPUT 3 private double pmtsPerYear; //INPUT 2 private double intPerPd; //interest per period (interest in decimals / 12 months) private double numPmts; //total number of payments (12 months * X years = numPmts) private double pmtAmt; //Payment AMount (Loan formula) public Amortization () { set(0, 0, 0, 0); } public Amortization (double aLoanAmt, double aAnnIntRate) { set(aLoanAmt, aAnnIntRate, 0, 0); } public Amortization(double aLoanAmt, double aAnnIntRate, double aNumYears, double aPmtsPerYear) { set(aLoanAmt, aAnnIntRate, aNumYears, aPmtsPerYear); } public void explainProgram() //Explain purpose of the program { System.out.println("This program calculates the amount of a loan payment."); } public void getLoanParameters() //will ask the user to input all four loan parameters { Scanner keyboard = new Scanner(System.in); System.out.println("Please enter the loan amount: "); loanAmt = keyboard.nextDouble(); System.out.println("Please enter the number of payments per year: "); pmtsPerYear = keyboard.nextDouble(); System.out.println("Please enter the number of years: "); numYears = keyboard.nextDouble(); System.out.println("Please enter the interest rate (in percent): "); annIntRate = keyboard.nextDouble(); } public double getLoanAmt() { return loanAmt; } public void setLoanAmt(double aLoanAmt) { set(aLoanAmt, annIntRate, numYears, pmtsPerYear); } public double getAnnIntRate() { return annIntRate; } public void setAnnIntRate(double aAnnIntRate) { set(loanAmt, aAnnIntRate, numYears, pmtsPerYear); } public double getNumYears() { return numYears; } public void setNumYears(double aNumYears) { set(loanAmt, annIntRate, aNumYears, pmtsPerYear); } public double getPmtsPerYear() { return pmtsPerYear; } public void setPmtsPerYear(double aPmtsPerYear) { set(loanAmt, annIntRate, numYears, aPmtsPerYear); } private void set(double aLoanAmt, double aAnnIntRate, double aNumYears, double aPmtsPerYear) { loanAmt = aLoanAmt; annIntRate = aAnnIntRate; numYears = aNumYears; pmtsPerYear = aPmtsPerYear; } private double calcIntPerPd() //calculate the utility instance variables, //called every time getPmtAmt() or displayResults() is called //interest per period (interest rate / 100 / 12 months) { return intPerPd = annIntRate / 100 / 12; } private double calcNumPmts() //calculate the utility instance variables //called every time getPmtAmt() or displayResults() is called //total number of payments (12 months * X years = numPmts) { return numPmts = numYears * pmtsPerYear; } private double calcPmtAmt() //calculate the utility instance variables //called every time getPmtAmt() or displayResults() is called //Payment AMount (Loan formula) { return pmtAmt = (calcIntPerPd() * loanAmt) / (1 - Math.pow((1 + calcIntPerPd()),(-1 * calcNumPmts()))); } public double getPmtAmt() { calcIntPerPd(); calcNumPmts(); calcPmtAmt(); return pmtAmt; } public void displayResults() //displays the four loan parameters the user inputs //and the payment amount. { System.out.println("The loan amount is: $" + loanAmt); System.out.println("The number of payments per year is: " + pmtsPerYear); System.out.println("The number of years is: " + numYears); System.out.println("The interest rate is: " + annIntRate + "%"); System.out.println("The amount of the loan payments will be: $" + getPmtAmt()); } }
public class AmortizationClient { public static void main(String[] args) { Amortization calculate = new Amortization(); calculate.explainProgram(); calculate.getLoanParameters(); calculate.displayResults(); } }


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I'm trying to find out a proper practice of checking if the pointer/array is valid before calling the delete operator. I know I can check if the pointer is a NULL pointer before deciding whether I should call the delete operator, but that doesn't take care of the case of a dangling pointer. In other words, how do I check whether I have proper access to the memory that the pointer is pointing to before calling the delete operator?
Thanks in advance for suggestions.


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"There should be no laughing at the British"
Bauman noted that the 1864 book The Last Men of the Revolution quoted aged veteran Lemuel Cook as saying about Yorktown:
We were on a kind of side hill. We had plaguey little to eat and nothing to drink under heaven. We hove up some brush to keep the flies off. Washington ordered that there should be no laughing at the British; said it was bad enough to surrender without being insulted. The army came out with guns clubbed on their backs. They were paraded on a great smooth lot, and there they stacked their arms.That's another version of the same story that Dr. Thomas H. McCalla told in Charleston in the early years of the nineteenth century.
Of course, the two stories might not have been independent. By the time Cook was interviewed, Dr. McCalla's anecdote about Washington had been in print for decades. It was in popular histories and textbooks. If audiences had come to expect that detail, that could have tinged the way Cook retold his story.
However, I find Cook's remarks credible, for a couple of reasons. First, he obviously wasn't trying to provide a familiar, heroic version of Yorktown. He was talking about being thirsty and fly-ridden. He described the orders that came down to him in concrete soldiers' language: "there should be no laughing."
Second, this anecdote, unlike some, is completely in character for Gen. Washington. He always valued military discipline. He always favored keeping emotion in check. This is just the sort of order he would have given, whatever language he chose.
Joe Bauman's comment mentions his edition of The Last Men of the Revolution, available for Kindle or Nook. The original book collected the Rev. E. B. Hillard's short profiles and photographs of six men who had fought in the Revolutionary War. For his digital reprint, Bauman added a foreword and substituted some photographs from his own collection, producing crisper reproductions.
A few months earlier Bauman published Don't Tread on Me (Kindle or Nook), with photographs and original profiles of eight more Revolutionary War veterans who survived into the age of photography. That book describes how he collected those images and identified the old men they showed. With each photograph is a thoroughly researched and cited biography.
Bauman's books are also a fine use of digital publishing. The market for them is select, but they'd have to be printed well to show off the photographs; until recently, that would have meant quite expensive printed books. But tablet computers display the portraits well at a minimal cost. Together these two e-books cost less than $10, and they'll let you gaze into the eyes of fourteen Revolutionary War veterans.


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State-run Life Insurance Corp of India (LIC), a major domestic institutional investor, sold shares worth Rs 12,600 crore (about $2.32 billion) in companies related to financial, auto and pharma sectors in the October-December quarter of the current fiscal.
At the same time, LIC acquired shares worth about Rs 3,877 crore (about $714 million) in energy, metal and mining and software companies, the global research report by BofA-Merrill Lynch said.
LIC sold shares of private lenders - Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank - drug major Sun Pharma and auto firm Mahindra & Mahindra, while bought shares of energy companies - Reliance Power, Cairn India and Reliance Industries - IT giant Infosys, and FMCG firm ITC, the report said.
"State-run LIC lowered its exposure to companies like Axis Bank (with sale of shares for an estimated $891 million), Mahindra & Mahindra ($177 million), HDFC Bank ($157 million), Sun Pharma ($154 million) and ICICI Bank ($145 million)," the report said.
On the other hand, LIC's major investment during the quarter included Reliance Power ($203 million), Infosys ($162 million), Cairn India ($150 million), Reliance Industries ($142 million), and ITC ($94 million).
The report said that LIC has emerged as net sellers during October-December quarter and most of the pullout was from
Also, LIC was net seller during the July-September quarter 2012 with the insurer purchasing shares worth an estimated $1.3 billion (Rs 7,020 crore) in India equities and selling shares to the tune of $436 million (Rs 2,355 crore).
In terms of sectors, LIC sold shares valued at $1.45 billion in the finance portfolio during the three months ended December 31, 2012 followed by auto ($368 million), pharma ($325 million), industrial ($82 million), cement ($81 million) and chemicals ($7 million), the report said.
In contrast, the insurance giant's investment in the utilities sector stood at $300 million, followed by $197 million in the energy category, $142 million in metals and mining space, $54 million in software and $21 million in the telecom area.
Financial sector accounted for 24 per cent of LICs total equity portfolio in the country followed by energy at 16 per cent, consumer goods 13 per cent and software 8 per cent.
According to an estimate, LIC has lowered its holdings in as many as 27 of the 50 blue-chip firms forming the market benchmark index Nifty, selling shares worth an estimated Rs 8,000 crore for the three-month period ended December 31, 2012.


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At the end of each year we each start to reflect on the things we set out to accomplish during the year. Sometimes these are New Year's resolutions and sometimes they are mid-year adjustments. As I look back at 2011 I see some things I am proud to have accomplished. And of course there are things that I didn't finish, but I know I can keep working on them next year.
Setting My Goals
As I started 2011 I wanted to focus on running with the hopeful side benefit of loosing weight. I also wanted to continue to support the YMCA Strong Kids Campaign. I had an idea that would combine the two – donate $1 for every mile that I ran. My plan also includes encouraging others to join and they could donate for my miles or theirs.
My original goal was 1000 miles and a total of $1500 raised between me and my friends and family. This sounded easy since I had ran that many in 2010. Plus that is under 20 miles per week. With the training for Lake McMurtry 50K, OKC Marathon and Route 66 Marathon it should be easy, really easy…
Meeting My Goals
I had not looked at my total miles for a while and after the Route 66 Marathon I took off a couple of weeks of running. After a couple of week of nursing a sore calf/shin and burritoed in blanks on cold mornings I looked at my schedule and realized I was 15 miles under 1100 miles total. I was very pleased and thought I could get the 15 miles in by the end of the year easy.
Resetting Expectations
Then I made the mistake of attending the TATUR Christmas Party and watched the movie Unbreakable (http://www.ws100film.com/). I guess the movie inspired me a bit (or it could have been the beer) but I thought "1200 miles might be a better goal." Followed by "if they guys can run 100 miles of mountain trails in 24-30 hours, I can run that far in three weeks."
The big mistake I then made was mentioning "a few more miles" to my friends Ken Childress and Kathy Hoover. They both said "you can do it" and the rest of the conversation was like this:
Ken: "How many miles to do you need?"
Me: <pause> "About 100."
Ken: "Umm, how close to 100?"
Me: <longer pause> "115."
Ken: <his turn to pause><blink><stare> "We should start early then - 6:00 Saturday."
Me: <big smiles>
That was a Tuesday night. This is the text with Ken on Friday evening:
Things have picked up this last week. So far I have run 46 miles leaving 69 miles in 8 days. I can do this especially with great friends encouraging me on.
How You Can Help
You can join me on Saturday mornings at 8:00 as I'll be running with the RunnersWorld Tulsa running group. I'll then go out to get a few extra miles.
You can also help support my mission by donating to the YMCA Strong Kids Campaign. Simply click on http://bit.ly/uM8Bsv and donate a few dollars. For every dollar you donate between now and December 31st, I will add that many miles to my 1000 mile goal for 2012.


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We currently monitor our webapps using cURL. More and more of our webapps use the GWT framework, which uses tons of JavaScript, and we can't rely on our cURL system to monitor anymore. Therefore, we search the right tool to monitor, but it seems difficult to find a crawler which is light (no Selenium please) but handles JavaScript correctly.
P.S. : we host our webapps as well as the probes, we don't want any Internet monitoring service.