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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Netflix Inc.'s earnings were better than expected, but the real surprise was the comment in the company's shareholder letter that the streaming and video rental company is testing different pricing levels, with the hopes of having three different options.
Netflix said in its fourth quarter letter to shareholders that since last year it has been "testing 1-stream and 3-stream variants, as well as SD/HD variations, at various price points," Netflix
Investors love the possibility of higher pricing. Wall Street analysts have been calling for Netflix to raise its prices, as they are worried about impending saturation in some markets, especially in the U.S. Netflix demonstrated in the fourth quarter that it still can grow subscribers as it makes more progress in its international expansion. It added 1.74 million subscribers outside the U.S. and 2.33 million in the U.S. during the fourth quarter. Its shares jumped over 17% in after-hours trading.
In the post-earnings interview with two analysts, who conducted it live over a Google Hangout, Hastings was asked about the new pricing tests, including one test of $6.99 for one stream. Hastings said, "I wouldn't read too much into the $6.99 other than we're testing some things. And we're continuing to try to figure out, you know, how to evolve to a good-better-best plan that makes sense to consumers and feels fair."
He added that for existing customers, the company planned to grandfather "very generously." Read a recap of the live blog.
Still, it seems clear that investors are hoping that the company's testing with various price levels leads to an eventual price hike for some customers. But it might be good to remember the summer of 2011, when Netflix raised prices. That hike did not go over well with consumers, and its stock plunged.
A memory of that explains why Hastings & Co. are going about the current price testing so deliberately and trying to find different levels that will not lead to another big fallout among its customers again. It's a fine line the company is trying to walk. At least it does appear Netflix has learned from its past mistakes.
More on MarketWatch:
Is Facebook like a spreading disease that's about to fade away?
Google Glass user questioned by Homeland Security for suspected movie theft

subset: commoncrawl


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"Otzi the Iceman," a 5,300-year-old Copper Age/Neolithic man, was found in 1991 preserved in the Similaun Pass of the Otztal Alps at 10,500 feet between Italy and Austria. Since the discovery, extensive ongoing scientific investigations indicate that he is unique because "Otzi" is practically an archaeological site in himself.
Unlike any other human remains of this age discovered to date, nearly every bit of Otzi is preserved, including his clothing, tools, gear, weapons — even his last meals. Amazing forensic science has recovered many details about his life through the material technology he carried, including a rare and precious copper axe, and vital medical and bioarchaeological data. This includes his DNA and a full genome record, where he lived in the prehistoric Val Senales, and reconstructions and possible scenarios of how he was killed.
Not only did Otzi treat his own parasites, showing prehistoric human medicine, but he used and carried more than 10 different tree and plant products that survived in his glacial context. Even his weapons demonstrate early archery using spiraling arrows, suggesting prehistoric knowledge of aerodynamic stabilizing technology. For those fascinated with forensic and C.S.I. investigation, Otzi may be the "coldest case" on record.
Dr. Patrick Hunt of the Stanford Alpine Archaeology Project has studied Otzi's tools and paleobotanical specimens in Bolzano, Italy, where Otzi resides frozen, as well as in the Otztal Alps where he lived and was found.
Meet Dr. Hunt at a Distinguished Lecture at HMNS on May 14. This lecture is co-sponsored by Archaeological Institute of America – Houston Society with support of Applied Diagnostics and Dr. and Mrs. Arthur Bracey.
What: Distinguished Lecture: "Frozen in Time – The Story of Otzi the Iceman"
When: Tuesday, May 14, 6:30 p.m.
Where: Houston Museum of Natural Science main campus
How Much: $12 for members, $18 for general public. Tickets available here.


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To celebrate our 500th post, we Anti-Roomers share how the internet has changed our lives for the better – and the worse. We'd love to hear your early internet stories, life-changing online experiences and whether you love or loathe the interweb…
Anna Carey
The first time I went online was in 1994. I had read in the NME that Courtney Love had been rambling wildly but entertainingly on something called a newsgroup, which as far as my innocent little arts student brain could gather was a way of writing stuff on a computer that could be read by lots of people on different computers all over the world. I knew about e-mail, though I didn't have an account – at the time, only computer science and maths students at Trinity, where I was in first year, automatically had college e-mail accounts, and I was doing German and History of Art. But this public discussion thing was new to me. So I nagged one of my best friends, who happened to be studying computer science, to show me how to read Courtney's ravings on a Sun computer in the Hamilton science building. I was unimpressed by Courtney, but mildly intrigued by the whole internet thing – not that I could do much about my interest down in my Arts Block home.
When I started my third year of college in October 1995, arts students finally got Eudora e-mail accounts (though there wasn't enough server space to accommodate us, so we had to save our mails onto individual floppy discs), and I haven't looked back since. By 1996, I had discovered the possibilities of hugely entertaining webzines (I miss you, Blair); by 1998, I was engaging in discussions on Hissyfit.com with people who, as I discovered when I met up with some of them while visiting the US a year later, were just as they seemed online: smart, funny and good company. Soon after that I became involved in the forums at a women-centric literature site called Chicklit.com (named before the term took off as a description of popular fiction). Through the Chicklit forums, I was introduced to dozens of authors who have since become my firm favourites and, more importantly, many people who have since become dear and close real-life friends. When I joined Livejournal back in 2002, many of my friends there were from Chicklit, and these days loads of us are on Twitter. We've all been talking on the internet, and sometimes meeting in real life, for more than a decade, and my life is definitely better for it.
Since I first read Courtney's ravings in the Hamilton, the internet has changed my life in many ways. It's allowed me to keep in touch easily with friends who have moved away. It's allowed me to make genuine, real friendships with people from Canada to Edinburgh to Dublin, people who were once just words on a screen. In Twitter and indeed the Anti-Room, it's given me the equivalent of an office full of smart, funny, thought-provoking people, some of whom have also become real-life friends, while I work alone at home. It's made my job so much easier – when I started my first job at the Sunday Tribune back in 1998, there was only one computer in the entire building with internet access, and the amount of information available online was much, much smaller. It's educated and entertained me. It's given me countless books and music that I would never have had access to before – I got my first credit card purely to buy American stuff from Amazon, back in 1999. It's enraged me and upset me – there ain't no drama like internet drama, and over the years I've typed a few comments and posts with hands that were almost shaking with rage. It's made me temporarily lose my faith in humanity – just a few minutes looking at the comments over at Comment is Free robs me of the will to live. It's distracted me not just from work – entire evenings at home, evenings I should have spent hanging out with my husband or reading a book or playing the piano or working on some art, have been sucked into the maw of Twitter and Google Reader. It's tapped into my worst qualities – my innate desire for distraction and novelty, my procrastination, my need to have the last word. And it's put pointless pressure on me – while I do love my iPhone, sometimes I genuinely hate the expectation that we should all be constantly contactable and online at all times.
But it's also entertained me, made me laugh, given me good friends, and shown me how incredibly nice and kind people can be. And for that, I can only be grateful.
Sinéad Gleeson
Sometime in early 1996, I remember getting up very early one morning to queue in UCD for an email account. Not an internet one – the two were distinctly separate – but one solely for email, with no other web access. The idea now seems positively antediluvian. The only reason I wanted said account, was because my brother had just moved to Australia. Email was a far more affordable way of talking about records and gigs than 3am phonecalls when I'd wandered home from a club. The clunky, minutes-to-load account was life-changing, and a bazillion gigabytes away from today's smart phones with their Sci-fi apps. My consumption of online life has intrinsically increased. It's invaluable for my job, for music, for contact with distant friends, for rewatching TV shows, laughing at viral nonsense… But it's also the biggest time sponge I know, and the reason why I have umpteen unfinished short stories sitting on my laptop. It's a leveller and a curse; indispensable and completely disposable. You learn to live with the duality of something that is both an enormous help and a hindrance. I've killed my Facebook account four times, but Twitter is the most instantaneous news ticker I know. I've made lots of friends, from my early days as Editor of an online magazine (Sigla) to Arts & Culture blogging and now among the wonderful women of the Anti Room. The key is balance. To embrace it, but to also plug out more and remember that when you're not online – like those Saturday nights in your early 20s when you were broke and had to stay in – that you're not missing very much anyway.
Sarah Franklin
I thought this topic was an utter no-brainer for me. Gorgeous Twitter, which some days feels like my own personal version of Sliding Doors. Where else can I chat to people I probably sat next to in college French lectures, people I unknowingly drank alongside in Soho dive bars, people like, well, the ladies of the Anti Room, who I should have known years ago? All at once? Without even leaving my desk? (although, as Keith Ridgeway put it so mesmerically, beware the false sense of company). Yep; Twitter's changed my life more than any other section of the internet, I thought.
But then I thought back a bit, to the prehistoric times of 2005. Twitter was but a gleam in Jack Dorsey's eye and both Skype and my elder son had both entered their infancy. We were living in Seattle, a good place for knowing about emergent technologies and a TERRIBLE place to be if you want to show your newborn child to your extended family, and they're all 5,000 miles away. Skype honestly changed my life at that point. Post-natal blues were so much easier to handle with the baby and the laptop both wedged on my lap, my son's head given a ReadyBrek glow from the screen as he slept and my grandmother gazed at him, rapt.
It's a funny old thing, the internet. Sure, it means we can shop without leaving our sofa, that we're never more than a mouse click away from knowing who wrote the song lyrics you can't stop trilling, but that's not really the power of it. Seeing people, real people, people you love, from thousands of miles away; watching that family bond come down the interpipes; that's amazing.
Lisa McInerney
I can't really say the internet has changed my life. It's made my life; there wasn't a time, from my teens on, when there wasn't an internet to teach, and entertain, and distress, and provoke me. I embraced an online life from the beginning – chat rooms, message boards, amateur web design … blogging. Most obviously blogging. The fact that we're living in The Information Age is something I find endlessly fascinating, and I think it's shaping the world we live so radically it's practically … biblical. No, honestly. I waffle on about this a lot. The Book of Genesis, in which ignorance was equated with beauty and innocence, to the Information Age, in which there are absolutely no limits to personal pursuit of knowledge; we've come 360 and that's thrilling and kind of disconcerting, if you're a superstitious type. Who knows what effect all this info will have on us? But that's a subject for another day, possibly one spent in a cafe in Amsterdam. Personally, the internet has been good to me. It allowed me a platform to write, an instant audience to make me improve, the knowledge that shaped me as an adult. And gosh, have I met some really amazing people. Some of my closest friends were originally "internet people". I can't imagine my life without them. And as for those who moan about the "evils" of Facebook – learn to streamline your experience, read up on the privacy options, and make the bloody thing work for you. I have whole legions of far-away relatives whose faces I'd have forgotten if we didn't have Facebook to weld us together. Play me off, keyboard cat!
Rosita Boland
The A-Z of my internet life…
@ the new 27th letter of the alphabet. Antiroom blog – a must-read, everyone!
Bewildered to know how I would live without the internet now.
Couldn't live without the internet now – did I mention that?
Dial up – took forever and sounded like a freight train.
E-mail – it changed everything about the way I communicated with people.
Floppy disk – never really understood them. Facebook – never did that.
Galway – where I went to my first ever internet café, in Cornmarket Lane, about 15 years ago.
Help! – Sound I emitted many a time when I thought I'd broken the internet.
Information superhighway – remember that?
Journalism – I hope it never dies, no matter what the future of digital media holds.
Kansas – what I would rename the internet.
Letters – sadly, I no longer write them, although I used to write six a week for years.
Macs – been through two laptops so far.
Netbook – my latest on-the-hoof bit of gear.
Online. Online. Online – are we ever offline these days?
Paywall – we put them up at the Irish Times, we took them down; as busy as the construction industry in Ireland this last decade.
Questions – are there any the internet considers it cannot answer?
Real Player – more new language I now take for granted.
Skype – talking and waving to my faraway friends for free.
Tibet – the very first word I ever keyed into a search engine. Twitter – where I've found so many new friends.
Unknown – there are always so many new places the internet takes me.
Virtual – a dazzling experience the internet allows; it has let me see video clips from literally all over the world, and almost feel like I'm there.
Web – a word I've already discarded.
X – internet, I heart you!
YouTube – my favourite clip ever is the mad music video, Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off.
Z – often difficult to get any when engrossed with The Twitter or any of the many joys of the internet.
Jude Leavy
Picture the scene; the romantic incomer – beguiling, charming and undeniably fascinating, with a metaphorical sweep of opera cape, a suggestive bit of eyebrow play and a mutter of sweet sentiments it snares me into its loving embrace where I swoon…
I am a fan of the internet.
Years ago it successfully courted and seduced me implanting itself into almost every aspect of my life. Work, leisure time, friendships, I saw the world with the tickets I'd booked online, attended plays and enjoyed concerts through it, reconnected with old acquaintances and kept in touch with new ones.
I made friends through the internet, true friendships sometimes with people from other ends of the globe; some I went on to meet up face to face, others I know I never will. It even played a role in introducing me to my fiancé (which I wrote about here) thereby changing my life in the biggest way possible.
I also have to it to thank for being here, writing with this amazing group of extraordinary women; the people I wished I'd known when I was becoming the adult I am.
Of late I've found my beloved internet to be a demanding lover, I've allowed it to muscle in other potential love interests in its quest to dominate. So have been forced to be strong and cut back on the hours we spend together, to recover more of my off-line life. I had expected it to cause me many a pang on leaving it, but strangely this hasn't really been the case. Perhaps my red hot love is not the real passion of my life, but just a passing fancy?
I do hope not.
Eleanor Fitzsimons
Despite living a good portion of my life in the real rather than the virtual world I simply can't imagine life offline at this stage. I remember the day we first connected, way back in 1996. Sneering in the face of a potentially skyrocketing phone bill the husband & I hooked up a laptop to our phone socket via a labyrinthine tangle of trailing wires that snaked across the living room and caused us to temporarily lose telephone contact with the outside world. I looked on sceptically as he typed in the long numerical string that he assured me was our IP address, no user-friendly front-end back in the day. I can't remember what we looked up, something utterly innocuous I'd imagine, but I was hooked.
Several years later, while living in London, I was booking tickets to must-see shows and iconic sporting events, not to mention flights and train journeys all over a world that had become my oyster. I had serious RPS and my credit card was on fire. Before I knew it (and yes I am cringing as I type) I had signed up for daily internet updates on my first pregnancy.
Nowadays I simply can't imagine life without the internet. You might as well ask me to live in a cave and forage for bush tucker. I use it for work and for connecting with friends, old and new. I tweet and blog and file copy and mess about and still book holidays and shows and sporting events. I've shaken off the shackles of the desktop and shed the weight of the laptop by getting an iPhone. Next step is undoubtedly an implant in my brain. There must be a website offering that…
Jennie Ridyard
Hail, hail the new religion, for is that not what the Holy Trinity of Internet, Facebook and Twitter are? Lo, on Sunday mornings we gather in the light of a screen, or sit alone in silent contemplation, picking out like a mantra our online prayer, "OMG". We bow before the Gospel according to Google and Wikipedia, and confess everything to the all-knowing, all-embracing Status Update. Then we mutter endless Hail Mary Byrnes – is she really singing the next Bond theme tune? Some merely dip a toe in, checking church times online and googling their own names. Others are found in the pews morning, noon and night, tweeting each passing thought, blogging their sermons, and singing the praises of lolcats and failblog, while damning 13-year-old Rebecca Black to hell.
Like a religion, the plugged-in world offers an answer to everything and a friend to everyone. You can be reborn on Avatar, you can embrace kibbutzim on Farmville. Equally, you can cure diseases on WebMD, make your offerings via Paypal, and wage war on the sinners, the Muslims, the Bible-thumpers, the atheists, the smokers, the non-smokers, the obese, the anorexic, the ugly, the beautiful, and Justin Bieber. Oh, and you can wage actual war in Libya too, wielding the sword of eternal truth that is Twitter. Indeed, through the miracle of YouTube the scales fall from our eyes as we bear witness to modern miracles like Monkey Rapes Frog and Fire Fart Goes Wrong.
Yea, I tell thee, this is the way, the truth, and the light. It's also how to lose your way, spread untruths and spend days alone in the dark.
Nuala Ní Chonchúir
Internet -The good: new friends (real & virtual); reconnecting with old friends; access to a world of information; being able to send things (manuscripts, photos) without the palaver of Post Office visits with kids in tow; online banking; online shopping (very important when you live in the sticks); literary blogs; freely available music; new audience for my books; cheap PR for cash-poor writers; speed of access to Important People in publishing etc.
Internet -The bad: e-mail pile-up; obsessing about being able to be online and/or feeling bereft if the internet connection is down; stalkers; reconnecting with old friends; people picking fights with you over innocuous/innocent statements; people being nasty in general; going online when drunk and being over-chatty; people knowing far too much about your life; time-wasting; isolation; Facebook competitiveness and boasting.
Antonia Hart
In about 1988, in the school computer room, in order to draw a green box on the black screen we had to type the following commands in LOGO:
June Caldwell
I can't remember my first email in the same way I can't remember my first roast potato, but I do recall getting addicted to random chatrooms very early on. Rubbish chatyack where you simply logged on and saw streams of absurd irrational messages dropping in real-time like plunging neon, before wasting eight hours of my working life, missing deadlines. Immediacy and anonymity were overwhelming features of my unspecified shadowy self on de web. Of course this would get me into trouble very early on. In the mid 1990s I mistakenly sent an email to my boss instead of the man I was having a fling with in the office, to disastrous consequences (especially as I was, er, mentioning what a prick the boss was at the time).
It was also the year I sat through a rather trite PgDip in Journalism, where I realised how easy it was to sift through cyber offscourings for feature ideas to sell. A tiny ancillary fact about an increase in unmarried fathers phoning Parentline about child access problems, turned into my first published article: 'Clowning Around With Fatherhood', published in the Big Issues in 1997. An article I wrote on narcolepsy a month later was picked up by a health supplement in the New York Times. I could barely fathom how any of this 'global village' stuff could happen! The 'world wide web' very quickly became a de rigueur necessity of both my working day and my off-duty life.
Flurry and melodrama surrounding this newfound instant access to info still manages to fool me, and I often fail to see the danger in mouthing off without reserve. A few weeks ago a 14-year-old girl hacked into my partner's Facebook account, printing off all our private messages [some of which were unsuitably sexual, others which were raw and noxious drunken arguments dating back to a horrendous few years in Belfast) and is now claiming to be Pandora's box disturbed by what she read. Her mother had 'encouraged' her to excavate this material, without any care in the world for how it might damage her. This is the kind of horrific payoff that seems tout de suite worth it in the midst of relationship breakup. The experience has made me feel sad and sick to the core. Likewise, the existence of trolls (even on this blog) upsets me immensely when they dig in claws for little or no reason. Or the flagrant paedo who keeps looking me up on Linkedin and any other website I'm registered to/with due to his lack of life, or the knowledge that I wrote things online very early on that I had no idea would linger everlastingly (rubbish poems, half-finished stories, crap ideas).
However, it's not all bedlam and mobocracy, I have met some incredible new friends (antiroom peeps more recently), sourced much-needed work, shared opinions through Facebook updates, splashed about different demeanours and 'frames of mind' [especially on Twitter] I'd never get a chance to in the humdrum of ordinary daily life. A piece I wrote on depression won 'Best Blog Post' at the recent Irish Blog Awards – only a few short months into my newfound blogging life – and a poem I wrote was picked up and published by a UK magazine. As a writer, it's becoming increasingly clear how vital an online presence is, not just for freedom of expression or the ability to rant, but to stay in touch with people who might want to hear what you have to say.
Digital stratosphere is also great for following other writers in the same genre I'm interested in. As a shy gobshite all my life, this type of connectedness is nothing short of love. Then there was the time I was being bullied by a paramilitary landlord in Carrickfergus and having got so totally bored with his daily intrusions, I lost my mind and contacted a local sex addict who took me to an abandoned salt mine where he did some 'stuff' that took my mind right off my ills for more than a day. But who wants to hear a glut of unsavoury details of how my cyber life led me astray when there's so much goodwill and kindheartedness to mull over instead?
Claire Hennessy
I grew up with the internet, so I've never known what it's like to be a grown-up without it. But a lot of the complaints I hear people make – the obligations to present a public persona, to update their various social media outlets, the busyness of it all – just sound to me like the sort of things adulthood seemed to be about. Being capable of making one's own choices, but still having obligations and commitments, whether it was attending some work event or chatting to someone at the supermarket. Many of these things often sounded suspiciously close to fun, and if they were really that dreadful then why didn't grown-ups just, well, not do them?
That little child-voice in my head that wonders why grown-ups talk about the things they 'have' to do when they don't really have to speaks up a lot when I think about the internet and how time-consuming it can be, how we can feel under pressure to respond immediately to emails or represent ourselves in an interesting way on Twitter or whatever it might be. It's the same voice that reminds me that despite all the complaining we can do, the truth is that for most of us, the internet, like growing-up, is infinitely better than the alternative.
Catherine Crichton
My contribution is all about Twitter. So, what have I got out of it?
- A bottle of wine from @grapesofsloth, just for posting him a useful link
- Two free theatre tickets from @darraghdoyle for entering a competition
- A copy of Mary Poppins from @patomahony1, which I passed on in turn to @snastablasta
But those are just the added extras. Twitter is a source of news, information, fun, great conversations and recommendations for films, books, restaurants and music. It's all out there if you follow the right people. TV becomes communal; many programmes just aren't the same without a simultaneous Twitter stream of comments and observations.
I often work from home, and while Twitter can be a terrible distraction, it also helps to make tedious work bearable and lessens the feelings of isolation. During a recent hospital stay I was really touched by all the good wishes I received from my Twitter friends. And, sad though this may sound, I do regard some of my Twitter contacts as friends. I have met a few of them in the real world, and hope to meet more.
As @nickmcgivney wrote in this recent blog post, Twitter can help people to virtually meet their heroes. I have had a tragic middle-aged crush on actor David Morrissey (@davemorrissey64) since once briefly meeting him. Lo and behold, he joined Twitter and posts interesting tweets and an excellent daily music track of the day. Not only that, but he also engages with his followers including, occasionally and thrillingly, me. I have also had a few exchanges with the highly amusing @hughbon. Oh yes Downton Abbey fans, only Lord Grantham himself!
But the best thing about Twitter is that it inspired me to move beyond 140 characters and to start writing, on a (recently neglected) blog of my own, and here at the Anti Room. Nothing beats the feeling of someone commenting that they enjoyed something I have written. So I want to raise a glass to Sinead, Anna and all the other Anti Room women. Here's to the next 500 posts.
Amanda Brown
Answering people's social media problems in the Irish Times for the past year has taught me a thing or two.
Stuff I knew already: Irish people are intensely private, mostly because if it gets out their grandmother will know within five seconds, problems on the Internet feel as all-encompassing as problems off the Internet – they are real problems – and everyone's compartmentalised social spheres are becoming melded together.
Things that have impressed on me include; just how intensely personal problems on the Internet are, how little most people who use it know about how to protect themselves on it, how unwilling most people are to be rude on the Internet – except the copious amounts of people who become incredibly rude when they are on the Internet.
The ramifications of the move of large parts of our social lives online are profound and currently little known.
What we do know is society has always had technology and technology has always been a part of society. There are negative books about the Internet being spat out as if the printed word were going out of fashion (snark), the most recent being a tome called Alone Together by Sherry Turkle. These types of books claim the revolution of social media on the Internet is making us socially poorer by creating an illusion of being surrounded by friends when the essential elements of real friendship (regular real world meetings, face to face communication etc) are not there.
There are other, more positive books, notably The Cognitive Surplas by Clay Shirky, which recognises the enormous power of good that has occurred from millions of people democratically connecting in order to entertain, inform and even encourage each other to give charitably and improve the real world.
The arguments against the Internet continue to rumble on ploughing the exact same ground as all those spouted against television.
My bottom line, having dealt primarily for the last year with people's problems online, is that the Internet and more specifically Social Media, widens our lives out in a mostly positive way by making connection and meaningful, as well as meaningless, communication possible at the touch of a fingertip
As Adam Gopnik wrote in his superb New Yorker article on the subject, "Thoughts are bigger than the things that deliver them."
Social media delivers far more people's thoughts far more effectively than any previous media revolution.
That will take us where we decide to take ourselves.
Aoife Barry
My first forays onto the internet took place when I was in secondary school. I'd go online with a friend, using her creaky dial-up connection. We'd sit chomping on Pringles while patiently waiting for the beep-beep-brriing-buzz noises to signal that we were on our way to the super cyber highway. Though the internet seemed a huge and somewhat unfathomable beast, with an infinite amount of information at my fingertips, I always ended up doing exact the same thing – going to Alta Vista and searching for very basic items like song lyrics, or information on TV shows. Wild days, to be sure.
That said, at one stage, unsure of what else to do online, I'd just search for 'chatrooms'. Not my finest moment, it has to be said – up there with when I used to think LOL meant 'lots of love'. That naivety makes me laugh now, but back then the internet really was unchartered territory. Today, I'm wholeheartedly pro-internet. Just last night, I caught the end of a documentary on Robert Moog, the creator of the Moog synthesiser, on TV. That led me online, searching for Youtube videos about early electronic music; watching old Delia Derbyshire videos and marvelling, as always, at her perfect ear for beat-matching; and then discovering legendary Theremin players.
I believe the net has enhanced women's lives immeasurably. Online, we can join communities, connect with people with similar ideals to us; find out more about feminism; and read about women's rights in other countries. We can blog about our experiences, in private, using a pseudonym. We can talk about sex, contraception, relationships, in the 'open', perhaps for the first time in our individual lives.
Have a problem? Google it. It's perhaps no surprise that type in the words 'Am I…' into Google and the first suggestion is 'Am I pregnant?'
But just as the internet offers freedom, it offers constraints too. It's not free of the prejudices which can plague life off-line – sexism, racism, homophobia. There are 'good' and 'bad' people online, and women are exposed to the same abuse on the net as they may be in real life situations, albeit in a non-physical manner. Though the internet offers anonymity, and that includes the ability to hide your sex, if you 'out' yourself as female, or male, or transgender, you leave yourself open to being judged on that.
I find the internet can also impinge on my real life – sucking up precious minutes and hours when I should be working, playing on my innate ability to procrastinate and sitting like the proverbial shoulder-devil, tempting me with just 'one more' look at a new site or Twitter feed.
But despite all of its pitfalls, I will forever be grateful for the internet – and do not take the fact I live in a country where I have uncensored access to it for granted. It gives me knowledge, it gives me space to vent, and has even been beneficial to my career. And now that I've learned not to spend time arguing with people on forums (that's a top tip there if you want to stay sane on the internet!), 'surfing the net' is a rather pleasant experience indeed, even if it does have its ups and downs.


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Semi mountings engagement rings
Information about semi mountings engagement rings
So, Wedding rings, semi mountings engagement rings, have long been considered a symbol of marriage, so their choice was given great attention. And so far, the newlyweds with particular trepidation and responsibility are sent in search of the cherished accessories, semi mountings engagement rings. But along the path they often have many questions related to both the acquisition of rings and their wearing. In addition, there are many will take about wedding rings, semi mountings engagement rings, which should not be blindly believed, but they should definitely know!
What is the value of a semi mountings engagement rings?
The value of a wedding ringlet derives from its round shape, which has neither beginning nor end. It symbolizes the infinite love and loyalty to each other, which perfectly reflects the essence of these important decorations.
What finger wear a semi mountings engagement rings?
Which finger is the ring in America? It all depends on belonging to one faith or another. In Orthodoxy, wedding rings, semi mountings engagement rings, are usually worn on the right ring finger. This tradition started from antiquity, because it was believed that it is through this finger that the vein goes, leading to the heart. Catholics wear these decorations on their left hand, while Jews wear the index finger. So, semi mountings engagement rings!
Who should buy wedding rings?
By tradition, the wedding rings, semi mountings engagement rings, are bought by the bridegroom, who does it either secretly from his darling, having previously specified the size of her ring finger, or with her.


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Happy 2017 folks! Hope you had a great Christmas and New Year!
New Years always brings a flurry of hope and optimism with them. After the last year, I think we all need it! This optimism leads to people making resolutions and promises to themselves and others. If you have been around here long enough, you will know I don't do resolutions. I break them the moment I make them! Instead, I set myself goals I want to achieve. These are either for my own well-being or in the interests of improving my writing.
To say the least, I have had limited success with the goals I set myself last year.
Try to write something every day or every week. Writing every day is not easy. I was either being too lazy or life was taking too much of a priority. Looking at my spreadsheets, it shows that, on average, I wasn't writing 11 days each month. I was achieving my word counts most months, until I gave myself a new word count after achieving it. This was a short sighted move. I ended the year with a deficit of 4,848 words. I am still proud of that when I compare it to 12,700 word one I went into November NaNoWriMo with.
It hasn't been all bad on this front. I have been reviewing my word goals every three months. This has proven helpful. It made me reset some of them because of life and how that was going to impact on my writing. This is something I wouldn't have done without the Word Nerds talking about it in their videos.
Post once a week, every week on this blog. Partial success again that fell by the wayside at the end of the year. I did achieve this, putting November and December aside. I was writing or reblogging something roughly once a week.
Read more. Uh, yeah. I am calling this one a failure. I did read stuff, like the Rivers of London comics and started reading books but did I finish them? Not many. Going by my GoodReads Reading Challenge, I set myself a target of 25 books and read 23. Some were rereads, like Doctor Who Writers Tale: The Final Chapter, quite a few were comics, like Kingsman and Green Arrow New 52 Vol. 1, then there were indie books like Witch At Heart and Preternatural Affairs. So a mix and I did complete some books but I still feel like that I just didn't read enough or finish enough books.
Participate in as many writing/National Novel Writing Month events as possible. Done and dusted on the NaNoWriMo front but definitely not on the writing event front. I participated in the DraeBox Writers Club challenge, which was a lot of fun. I will be again this year and I am looking forward to it. I am not resetting this goal for this year though. Instead I am replacing it.
Reason being, I think the universe has been trying to say something. Few recent experiences have made me think this. Firstly, I was talking with good friends of mine about drafting. We noted that we seem to always be starting or restarting drafts but never finishing them.
Secondly, I have been seeing tweets about committing to finishing 1 draft of a manuscript in 2017. It's just typical I can't find any of them now. This is what got me considering this new goal.
Thirdly, as I was writing this and reflecting on the past year, I realised something. I have spent more time on just one story than I have done in a long time. That story is the dark witch story. I have had some detours but I have always gone back to this one.
Spending so long on it, talking with friends and seeing the tweets have made me want to get at least one draft done. I want to be able to say I have finished something.
So my goals for 2017 are:
- Write something at least once a week, every week.
- Post once a week, every week on this blog.
- Read more and finish books.
- Complete at least one draft of one story.
What goals are you setting or pursuing this year? Had any luck with your goals or resolutions last year? Wishing you all the best for 2017!


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If you're looking to create a series of film sequels, launching your planned franchise with producer-director Rob Cohen is one of the safer bets you can make.
Best known for launching the continuously sequelized "Fast and the Furious" series, Cohen was also been behind the camera for the first installments of multiple multi-picture properties {"xXx," "Dragonheart," "The Skulls"). Now Cohen directs "Alex Cross," the reboot of the film series starring author James Patterson's best-selling crime-solver, with Tyler Perry in the title role – and yes, the helmer is already thinking about sequels.
How did you strip the story down to what you thought would be good to launch, or re-launch, what everyone involved hopes will be a franchise?
I wanted the character to go on the longest possible journey we could in a 90-minute film, and I wanted him to go to Washington carrying with him the internal sense of tragedy. Because I think the Alex Cross that Jim [Patterson] has written in book after book is a kind of tragic hero. I mean, so many members of his family get into bad stuff, but I felt like he needed the bottom notes that this story would bring, so that when you're in Washington, all future romantic involvements, all future friendship, all future crime stuff is all informed by the trauma of this period of his life, and that would make for a much more interesting character.
Did that go hand-in-hand with you having some ideas about where you might take the future films as a director as well?
Yes. Like I said to Jim in the beginning, I want to be truer to your characters than anybody's ever been, but it doesn't mean that I necessarily want to be faithful to pots and other things.
Is he on board with some blowback from the movies showing up in future books, as people may come to have expectations from what they see you and Tyler doing?
Yeah – I think he has a lot of respect for his readers and following, and I don't think he feels they're going to have any trouble once he's been clear that he blesses it, which he obviously does. That would've concerned me in the beginning, but I talked to him about it and I said 'Why don't you novelize this?" And he said, 'Well, I already wrote a book where the wife was killed.' I said it to him a few times, and each time he pushed back, so I think he feels that the movies are like a separate animal, that book series goes this way and the movie series is quite capable of going another way, as long as we're faithful to who Alex Cross was. And I think we're much closer with Tyler than they were before.
Will you always ask Jim to have a hand in creating the storyline for the films?
I think it's always good. I like collaboration, not dictation, so as long as we're in the collaborative mode I'm very happy. He's a very smart man, with a lot of story sense, and I can learn and I can feel that with the two hands on the Ouija board, the sum is greater than the parts.
Was the film's lean-and-mean budget good for what you were trying to do? Because you've worked with all levels of budgets throughout your career, but this one's a little tighter than you've been used to.
Yeah! [Laughs] Well, I went from $167 million for "The Mummy [Tomb of the Dragon Emperor]" to $23 million for 'Alex Cross,' and a lot of that went to the above-the-line cast – it's a big-name cast – so I had $15 or 16 million to physically make the film.
I thought it was very good for the film, because first of all I think Tyler works better fast: he shoots his own movies in 12 or 15 days – this was 41 days. But there's an energy that comes around a picture that doesn't have enough money, because then creativity is actually drawn on. How do you do these things in a way that fits the money you have? And very often throwing money at the problem is the wrong approach. Throwing ideas at a problem, alternates, is much more creative.
U.S. & World
Working with Tyler, who has an actor's eye, a writer's eye, a director's eye and a producer's eye – did you see any of that, or did he truly show up as an actor to follow your direction?
He really showed up as an actor. He was very well prepared. He had a coach. He never got directorial. I think if you look at his task each day, which was as a man who's done primarily comedy to acting against the veteran actors who are dramatic all-stars: Ed [Burns], Cicely [Tyson], Jean Reno, Matthew Fox – these are people who have made their bread and butter and their reputations doing drama. I think that's what he kept, rightly, as the focus of his day.
What did Tyler think about your minuscule budget still being several times what he usually makes a movie on?
I think he was fascinated. I think he was going to school on it. I think he hopes it helps him in his own filmmaking and that I'm a veteran, a guy who's comfortable moving cameras and choreographing and orchestrating larger set pieces. I think Tyler is just a sponge and is too smart a guy to not learn what everything does, and give him new possibilities in his own film work.
If this movie performs in the way everybody involved hopes that it will, how quickly do you plan to mobilize on a second one?
If this works and Tyler's amenable to doing another one, I would jump on it immediately to get it developed. I'd probably do a movie in between, because I'm sure with his schedule it's not like he's not available – he seems to plan his years out. But I would love to do another one.
What's the secret to your ability to sense projects with franchise potential?
It all comes down to the characters. Context is important: 'Fast and the Furious' was part context, part character. Without the cars and glam and the color and the speed and the stuff we did with the action scenes, it's just be a movie about Dominic Torretto and his sister and his friends and it wouldn't have done it.
But the idea is that once you find a connection with the audience in the film through the characters, then you know that you can move on with this character, that there's unfinished business. When you read a film and you go 'That's finished. That's the complete story. I don't know anything else I don't need to know anything else. I'm complete with that experience,' then you know that's a one-off. And certainly most movies are one-offs. But when you read something and it's a no-brainer that there's 12 or 14 or 18 books [as in the Alex Cross series], you say it'll only happen if they get into Tyler Perry, Cicely Tyson, the children, and we watch them grow and change in Washington DC.


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Khader Adnan ended his 55-day long hunger strike Tuesday, after the Israeli authorities vowed to release him on July 12, as his lawyer, Jawad Boulos, reported. Adnan remains in a critical condition at the Israeli Ramla prison clinic where he was transferred due to his deteriorating health at the beginning of June.
"All the guarantees which Sheikh Khader asked for have been obtained, and so he triumphed over the occupation state after 55 days of hunger strike," Adnan's wife told Ma'an News Agency.
Early Monday morning, the Israeli Parliament and prison authorities succumbed to the pressure of various human rights NGOs, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and agreed to end Adnan's administrative detention.
Prior to his strike this year, Adnan went on hunger strike for 66 days in 2012, before the Israeli authorities set him free. However, two years ago, he was ingesting salt and vitamins, as opposed to this time when he accepted nothing but water, which significantly worsened his health.
Jacques de Maio, the head of the ICRC in Israel and the OPT said that both the ICRC and Adnan's family were "anxious about his health" and "concerned that his life was at immediate risk."
Khader Adnan, a 37-years old member of Islamic Jihad and its former media officer in the West Bank, was detained by Israeli military last July during the wave of IDF's raids after the kidnappings of three Israeli teenage settlers near Hebron.
Adnan was placed under administrative detention for the ninth time since 1997 without charges and devoid of proper trial. On May 7, he launched his hunger strike in protest against the Israeli decision to renew his detention for another six-months.
Haneeb Zoabi, the Joint Arab List's MK said that his release, "is not only a victory for Khader Adnan, the administrative detainee, [but] it is a victory of human spirit against forces of oppression," +972 magazine reported.
Zoabi, Jamal Zahalka and other members of the Joint Arab List visited Adnan at the Ramla hospital on Sunday to express their support. This Sunday was the first time since Khader's detention that his family from the West Bank was given a visit permit to see him in Israel.
This came only after repetitive appeals from ICRC members who urged Israel to observe its commitments under international law. "Under the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, detainees have a right to be visited by their families," said the ICRC official, and added that Israel has been preventing such a visit for over two months.
According to the Palestine Prisoner's society, 414 Palestinians were held under administrative detention as of April 2015, amongst them are Arab members of the Knesset.
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An artist created this incredible 3D chalk art for the Dark Knight Rises film in a mall in Sydney, Australia. It looks like the glowing bat symbol has eaten away the floor and the entire shopping center is crumbling into the Earth's superheated maw. Click to enlarge!
AP photo by Rob Griffith


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In a similar vein, another new paper in TREE asks what issues should the conservation community be addressing. A short-list of 15 issues suggests highly specific problems that should be addressed soon, including the exploitation of Antarctica, rapid geographic expansion of macroalgal cultivation for biofuels, and the loss of rhinos and elephants.
Even if the official IPCC report proves too long or dry for the average person to read before the end of the year, there is also a haiku version. The pretty watercolour illustrations don't make the report any more cheerful, unfortunately.
Finally, a new journal, "Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene" seems positioned to focus precisely on these kind of issues. According to their website:
"Elementa is a new, open-access, scientific journal founded by BioOne, Dartmouth, Georgia Tech, the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Michigan, and the University of Washington.
Elementa represents a comprehensive approach to the challenges presented by this era of accelerated human impact, embracing the concept that basic knowledge can foster sustainable solutions for society....Elementa publishes original research reporting on new knowledge of the Earth's physical, chemical, and biological systems; interactions between human and natural systems; and steps that can be taken to mitigate and adapt to global change. "
It will be interesting to see how it develops.


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The president and several members of Congress are proposing to fund the extension of unemployment benefits again. Before they do that they should look at Denmark�s study on unemployment benefits along with our own experience.
To the editor:
The president and several members of Congress are proposing to fund the extension of unemployment benefits again. Before they do that they should look at Denmark�s study on unemployment benefits along with our own experience.
Denmark did a study on unemployment benefits that were granted for four years. Denmark learned that the longer the period of unemployment benefits, the longer individuals stayed out of work. Those obtaining and accepting jobs spike near the end of the unemployment benefit period. The results were repeated again when they studied the benefits that where granted for five years.
The United States is experiencing the same employment cycle that Denmark experienced. The longer the unemployment benefit cycle; the longer individuals will remain unemployed. Most of our unemployed will not accept a job until near the end of the unemployment benefit cycle.
The United States must do two things with unemployment. First we must return to a reasonable and sensible unemployment benefits period. Secondly we must establish a declining unemployment benefits rate schedule. At some point, unemployment benefits must be below the minimum wage level. The only way to encourage many individuals to return to work is by eliminating unemployment benefits or by reducing the benefit to less than what can be earned in an entry level job at minimum wage.
Rather than keep extending the unemployment-benefit cycle, our politicians must start looking at ways to wean our citizens off the unemployment-benefit cycle and entice them to return to work. Each day an individual is not applying the skills needed in the workplace those skills are deteriorating and becoming less and less valuable to prospective employers.
Getting citizens off unemployment is just one of the many things our current politicians can do to improve our economy. Other things that can be changed to jump start our economy are: eliminating or reducing federal regulations; reducing government spending at the federal level; reducing taxes on businesses and individuals; reducing the national spending deficit; reducing the national debt; opening up public lands for fossil fuel extraction; and getting rid of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. These are just a few examples that are having major impacts on our national economy.
It is time to put our citizens back to work rather than creating citizens that become increasingly dependent on the government as their primary means of support � it only prolongs their existence as the poorer members of society in the United States of America.
Ray Shamlin
Rocky Mount


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Thank you to all who signed up and donated to our 5K Run/Walk to Support Germantown Businesses!
Stay tuned to our Facebook page for all the gift certificate giveaways purchased with profits!
So far we have given away gift cards from
Robert's Frozen Custard Swing Time
Latitude Cafe Marko's Pizza
The Flower Source Aldo's
Mama Mia's Ace Hardware
US Cellular - Connect Cell Ivee's
Habitat for Humanity - Restore The Prec1nct
Kettle Hills Golf Course
Retail/Specialty Shops
Join Today
Sign up today and connect with local businesses to grow connections, support the community, create exposure. We want to support you and your business as you strive for success.
Germantown Area Chamber of Commerce
W156 N11251 Pilgrim Road, Germantown, WI 53022
262. 255.1812
© Copyright 2020 Germantown Area Chamber of Commerce . All Rights Reserved. Site provided by GrowthZone - powered by ChamberMaster software.


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Click on item for more details:
This list is being continuously updated.
Contents- 1 Screw 1 Stem 1 Nut 1 Grommet 1 Cap 1 Core
For a standard ignition:
1. Fill all four tires with the recommended pressure.
2. Tighten the handbrake.
3. Set the ignition to the OFF position, then operate the brake pedal and release it
4. Set the ignition to the RUN position (ON) 3 times quickly from OFF (OFF) (do not start engine). Finish the process in the RUN position.
5. Operate and release the brake pedal.
6. Set the ignition to the OFF position
7. Switch the ignition to the RUN position three times quickly from the OFF- (OFF) position (do not start the engine), end the process in the RUN position. Note: All above actions must be performed within 10 seconds.
8. A single horn sounds and the TPMS light flashes as soon as the training mode is initiated.
9. If a message center is present, it displays RELEARN LF Tire.
10. Use the device to activate the sensor on the front, a single horn will sound when the sensor is detected.
11. Repeat the step for the right front, rear right and left rear tires.
12. After learning LR, the message center displays: TRAINING MODE COMPLETTE (training mode completed). If the vehicle is not equipped with a message center display, the successful completion will be indicated by the fact that no horn is sounded after the ignition is set to the OFF position.
For more information on product and availability please contact us at email@example.com


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SquashMatrix was born in Canberra in the late 90s as an update to an existing competition system and for the purpose of being accessible to players like yourself. It was developed by Matthew Driver. Fast forward to today and the system is being used by tens of thousands of players and adopted by all states in Australia. In early 2012 Squash Australia took over and the first mission is to modernize the site and improve your experience.
The site you see now has been revamped with you in mind:
|It's all about style
|We've integrated with Squash Australia to provide a modern style. You'll want to use a modern web browser. No IE6 please.
|Staying clean
|The news has been moved to its own area and you'll be notified when it needs to be looked at...reducing page clutter a lot.
|Faster information
|Intuitively drill-down from the state, to event, to division, to your team in the blink of an eye.
Or type your name in the search box at the top-right of the screen to jump straight to your page.
|Instant results
|Log in and enter your pennant results right after playing. As a bonus, your ratings will be updated immediately.
|Stay up to date
|Keep your contact information up-to-date from your player page so that your team mates and opposition can get hold of you. Don't worry, this information is only available to those who also play in your state.
|Looking good
|Email your photo to have it uploaded to the site. Instructions are on your player page.
|Visual progress
|Rating charts have been added to the team and player pages. Watch your team mates rise and fall on the team page. See how your next potential opponents have been doing from your own player page.
|Out and about
|Mobile devices are now supported and can navigate to the team pages a lot quicker.
Stay tuned, this will be improved upon.
This is only the start and we'll continue to roll out new features. Keep an eye out!
The Squash Matrix is a Web-based Squash Ranking System developed to improve the method of ranking players. Unlike player average systems which are based on the result of a pennant game at a specific division and position, this new ranking system is based on player versus player results. There are multiple benefits from this player versus player system;
The Matrix is completely web-based. This means that the information is instantly accessible to a very high percentage of players. It also means that the results can be updated by multiple people concurrently from any location with web access.
This squash ranking system has been nicked named "SquashMatrix" because at the heart of the ranking system is a matrix of points that are added or subtracted to a players rating depending on the result of the games and the relative ratings between the two players.
The Squash Matrix Privacy Statement provides information on your privacy rights and how they apply to the Squash matrix website.
If you find an error in the results or have question regarding the competition please email the group organiser. Their contact details can be found on the 'contact' tab on each region's page.
If you have any comments or ideas about the site please e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


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Black Valentines Day Flyer/Poster
"Black Valentines" -This flyer was designed to promote a valentines day themed event. New and unique versions of the template can be achieved by adding and altering text, font style and layout, colors, as well as the addition & removal of objects and layers .
All elements shown, excluding the models & logos, are included in the PSD file.
Fonts Used
Additional Notes
Models and logos are NOT included and are used for display purposes only.
Feel free to contact me personally with any queries and please leave a rating if possible, it helps out a lot.
Thank You! and Enjoy.


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I read this piece in the Bookseller today and there were a couple of comments I'd like to address. First, here's one from everybody's favorite literary crusader, Doug Preston:
"I think Jeff Bezos is an evangelist as much as he is a businessman. He believes he's making the world a better place and I think he's less concerned about making a profit. Now that might sound like a nice thing but if you study history you'll realize it is the people who believed that they were right, believed it absolutely, who are the ones who do the most damage."
Can't disagree with him there. It is very true that people who believe that they're right even in the face of mounting contradictory evidence, are capable of doing the most harm. All I can say is, as such, Preston himself needs to take a long, hard look in the mirror.
But his relative cluelessness and lack of self-awareness notwithstanding, there's another quote in the piece that I find far more interesting. It's from author Germaine Greer:
"Amazon wants to sell e-books at less, so they should. They should cost less because they don't have to be put together, stitched, printed, designed, blah, blah, blah. If you skip all that and all you have got is a ribbon of text on a Kindle, then it should cost you pennies, frankly."
Now this is obviously going to set some people on edge. I, for one, am not down with the pennies assessment, but I do agree that the pricing for ebooks should reflect the far lower production costs. As a side note, does anyone else find it kind of ridiculous that many publishers are now openly dismissing production costs as not that big of a deal yet at the same time arguing royalties need to stay low to cover those expensive costs? Which is it? I think it's pretty obvious that they'd like it to be both, depending on the question they're answering, and who they're answering it to. Remember, just a couple of years ago, these same publishers were swearing up one side and down the other that ebooks weren't cheaper to produce than print, and some even went so far as to suggest they might actually be more expensive. The massive profits publishers are pulling in from ebooks today shut that line of thought right up, exposing it as the lie it always was. Anyway, back to the quote…
Here's a tweet I found in response to it:
"Ebooks should cost what readers are willing to pay for good writing, editing and design. Many readers value those far more than pennies" — Caleb Woodbridge @calebwoodbridge
Here's where I have an issue. The word "should" in respect to what readers want to pay is out of place. There is no place for should there. Readers will pay what they want to pay, be it $20 or just the pennies that Greer suggests. There's no should involved, only what the market will bear. But this got me thinking about the notion of value and how that relates to price. Sure, it would be nice if readers were interested in paying high dollar for concepts and ideas within a story but, and here's the kicker, they never have. Nobody in the industry had a problem with that, either, up until they lost control of pricing and fell behind the curve on reader expectations.
I've found myself comparing newspapers and book publishers a lot lately, mostly because the Amazon/Hachette dispute has exposed more of the underlying strategy of the publishers. It's a strategy that appears, on its surface, to mirror the strategy that newspapers used to decimate their own business. This is another example of that, I think.
Contrary to what you may have been told, newspaper readers never paid for the content in the paper, they paid for the bundle of services including coupons, circulars, classifieds, etc, etc. The bundle they bought wasn't even priced to reflect the value of the content. It was done so to maximize the audience to better support the exorbitant ad rates because that, and not selling content to readers, was where most of their revenue came from. But as the value of their bundle declined, the industry decided people should pay for the content. Not only that they should, many believed almost religiously that they would. They were wrong. Some have but most won't, principally because they were not paying for that content in the first place. Nobody in that industry segment had any problem with it, either, so long as the ad sales kept flowing. Once that dried up, though, their argument switched to one of value and what readers should do.
Books are having the same problem. It's popular in some circles to claim books aren't commodities but that's disingenuous. People have always paid for the container not the content. Pricing for books of similar form have always been eerily consistent based on the form. There was never any kind of premium pricing going on between similar books that I've ever seen. In fact, the more popular books were usually subject to more discounting than others. Oddly, ebooks are exhibiting a far greater range of pricing relative to its form than almost any other type of book, yet that's hardly ever mentioned when folks start discussing the issue of pricing. Funny, that.
Now that the value of those older containers have diminished somewhat, and ebooks have emerged as a potentially very cheap type of container, the discussion is starting to turn to one of the value of the content. Just like newspaper readers never paid for the content but the packaging, book readers have never paid for the content, just the packaging. And that's leading to suggestions about what readers should do. According to some, they apparently should now pay for something they've never paid for in the past. That argument simply doesn't fly and, unless you're interested in watching book publishers piss away their business like newspaper publishers did, it's not one anybody should be interested in pursuing.
The difference here is that should absolutely applies to people producing and selling books. People buying them, however, are under no such requirement, nor will they ever be. The pricing structure for newspapers was to sell to a mass audience to support ad rates. Pricing in books was to sell mass numbers of similarly commoditized books in total to stores and other retailers. There was never any point that the value of the content inside was the principle driver of the price, except to the people buying them. Even then, that value has been established by the practice of commoditizing book prices based on their form. As newspapers learned the hard way, you can't just shift gears and expect people to pay for something they've never paid for when it's convenient for you to do so. There is no such word as should when dealing with the choices readers will make for themselves.
Dan Meadows is a writer living on the banks of the Chesapeake Bay. Follow him on Twitter @watershedchron


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Posts Tagged 'Terrorists Are Traitors And Cowards'
Target The Terrorist ! Editorial International Anti-Terrorist Day
United Nations General Assembly Hall in New York City Photo by Patrick Gruban
by Samuel E. Warren Jr.
Every man and woman on planet earth should be free of the fear of terrorism.
Terrorists are the Cancer Of Humanity.
Scientists and medical researchers search for a cure to the various forms of Cancer.
Courage Is The Terrorist Cancer Cure
Every man, woman and child on planet earth has the cure for the Cancer Of Terrorists – Courage.
Courage like air is hard to see, taste, smell or test for. But, like air, courage I everywhere. The key with using Courage to cure terrorism is to be willing to be creative in the careful application of the solution. You can use your courage to battle terrorist.
The resistance fighters of World War II devised ways to humbly and covertly overcome the Nazis. Your greatest weapon is your mind. Use your common sense to triumph over the bullies and thugs, who grow up to be terrorists.
Every child should be able to use his or her ingenuity to triumph over the school bully.
Thus, every man and woman should be able to think of a way to expose a terrorist to the proper authority.
Acknowledged National Interests
Every nation in the world has an agenda and interests to pursue; the terrorist is always a threat to citizens and the nation that can be dealt with effectively and efficiently.
The United Nations headquarters building in New York City Photo by Steve Cadman
International Anti-Terrorist Day
October 9 should become the International Anti-Terrorism Day. On October 9, 2012, two armed terrorists gun men stopped a school bus and shot three schoolgirls at point blank range. The Taliban terrorists' group admits to meeting to decide to issue the "Kill Order" on a 14-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl.
The terrorists gun men squeezed the trigger, but, other terrorists groups and individuals had supplied them with the weapons, training and money to carry out the heinous act to assassinate a child.
I would suggest all nations observe October 9 as International Anti-Terrorist Day. Naturally, all nations will have their own priorities, thus, they may decide to choose another date and observe that day as a National Anti-Terrorist Day or promote it as their nation's date to observe International Anti-Terrorist Day.
Real Victims, Real Symbols Of Terrorists
Malala Yousafzai and her wounded girlfriends are now immortal symbols that cowardly thugs and bullies are an infectious blight on the soul of humanity. Legions of unknown and unnamed children have been misused and abused since time began, but, responsible people always try to protect the children that they might have a future.
Everyone Is A Terrorist Target
When the terrorists squeezed the trigger, they acknowledged that two-thirds of the human population were simply their targets. No woman and no child is no longer safe from the psychotic, sadistic lust for murder in the heart of a terrorist. When the terrorists fired at the frightened children they acknowledged, that now that children and women were legitimate targets of assassination, essentially every man, woman and child is a terrorist target. No one is safe.
United Nations Resolution
All nations can agree that terrorism is a threat. All nations can agree to protect their own domestic and foreign sovereignty to overcome a persistent threat of global terrorism. All nations should be able to agree to sign a short United Nations Resolution that identifies them as a nation that will never rest until the terrorists lie down their weapons or learn to live in virtual isolation afraid of human contact.
Global Terrorism Definition Change Suggestion
Every nation and government on the planet can agree terrorist are a threat. Every nation and government on the planet can agree they need to take action to stop and decrease that threat. How the nations and governments of the world take that action should always be their sovereign right.
I would humbly suggest the nations consider looking at their legal codes. Legal systems are designed to punish criminals and protect citizens. A terrorist is a creature that should not be considered human. Humans have rights.
Terrorists throughout history have demonstrated they are some being that respects only death, destruction and a continuing state of chaos. The legal change to the letter of the law to identify a terrorists as something as other than human would allow governments more flexibility in the persecution and prosecution of terrorists.
Of course, legal scholars will help to prevent dissidents and opposition political party candidates as being classified as terrorists/
The global legal systems of planet earth should review their laws on terrorism.
Terrorists Legal Precedent Change Suggestion
I would recommend the following statement as a starting point:
A terrorists is anyone, who uses a bomb, in a time of peace, to destroy people or property.
A bomb is a device intended only to create death, destruction and create a sense of terror and fear. A bomb is a device that will always kill, maim or injure more people that it was intended due to the scientific and physical laws that explain the blast, concussion, fragmentation and fallout from the initial explosion. In peacetime, a bomb should always be considered the primary weapon of the terrorist.
Individual Citizen's Responsibility
We all live on planet earth. We have the right to feel a certain sense of peace in our person and in our homes.
Governments can only do so much to protect you from bullies, thugs and terrorists. Each person to be at peace in their own mind and needs to find a way to triumph over the bully, thug and terrorist.
World Wonder Warriors
Every man, woman and child on planet earth who has access to a cell phone or a laptop can text, email or forward a copy of this article or lines of text to their friends, family members, elected officials and colleagues.
October 9 is my suggested date for the International Anti-Terrorist Day.
The important thing is to get people pro-active to resist the bullies and thugs of life than grow into terrorists.
Every person on planet earth should feel honored to be alive.
No one should ever make you feel terror or fear at getting out of bed in the morning.
We may all seem meek and mild-mannered, but, we all have the right to feel as though we should be able to rip open our shirts and be the heroes and heroines that stand up to the Terrorists Of The World.
We owe it to ourselves and our families to be World Wonder Warriors. The true War On Terror needs to start with every man, woman and child on planet earth, who are tired of being bullied and the victim of thugs, who feed off their fear and terror.
Time to text on the cell phones.
Time to email on the laptops.
Time to stand up to The Terrorists Of The World and let them know The World Wonder Warriors will find a way to deliver the terrorists to Justice.
The Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands, which is the seat of the International Court of Justice.
The Little Things
Sometimes the most innocent of acts can reveal a terrorist to the authorities or the terrorist to his or her enemies. Decide in the privacy of your own mind what act you believe will reveal the terrorist and then be careful when you decide to act.
Likewise, we should not have to fear the bullies and thugs that grow up to be terrorist. Children should feel safe to tell a teacher, administrator or adult if another child is trying to bully or hurt him or her. Stop the bullies in grade school and high school and there will be fewer people to recruit into terrorists.
Individual citizens should find a covert way to report a suspected terrorist to the proper authorities.
Terrorists Threat Truly Global
Terrorists are a real threat to every citizen on the planet.
In business, sometimes, people may not be aware that their goods, products, services or money is going to support a terrorist or terrorist group.
If you suspect someone you have dealt with is a terrorist, then, remember: Malala and her girlfriends, who got shot on the school bus, could of just as easily have been your daughter,
Terrorists Are Traitors And Cowards
Terrorists are friends to no one. Terrorists stand ready to "betray" their own friends. The Taliban offered to turn Osama bin Laden, the terrorists 'Al Qaeda leader, over to his enemies.
One news report revealed that when Osama bin Laden was cornered he grabbed one of his four wives in an attempt to use her as a "human shield."
Osama bin Laden had the bravado to pose aiming an AK-7 in a photo and, yet, in a close quarters situation the best reaction that he could come up with was to "hide behind his wife's skirt ?"
In Texas, using your wife to stop a bullet is the act of a coward.
In Missouri, using your wife to stop a bullet is the act of a coward.
Most places in the world, using your wife to stop a bullet is the act of a coward.
Terrorists Are "Phony Phreedom Phighters"
A terrorist is a friend to no one.
A terrorist is not a freedom fighter. A terrorist is not a resistance movement leader. Freedom fighters and resistance movement operatives have objectives that can be achieved to end a war. A terrorist wants chaos and a constant state of war to thrive to keep people in fear and terror.
A terrorist is a parasite that feeds off human fear and terror to find any excitement or meaning in his or her life.
A terrorist is a killing machine that respects no one and nothing.
A terrorist live to create terror and promote a climate of fear that will have people afraid to sleep at night and walk down the street in sunlight.
Ban Bullies, Thwart Thugs, Trample Terrorists
No one in the world should ever feel bullied by another person. No one in the world should ever feel the victim of a thug. Everyone should be able to find a molecule of courage to reveal a terrorist to the authorities or to an enemy of a terrorist.
Diligence and perseverance through the years and generations will turn the mass multitude of bullies and thugs in army surplus uniforms from units of trained killers into the recognized cold-blooded killers in costumes that they are. Once the propaganda is stripped away, then, the terrorist can be seen as the "kill crazy" creature he or she really is.
Know Your Enemy
Terrorist organizations are the enemies of people, who simply want to live and enjoy their lives and families. Always keep an eye open for information on terrorists organizations. You may not want to bury yourself in a mountain of research everyday, but when you have the time talk to friends, listen to the news, use your mind and decide what to watch out for.
Since I enjoy helping trying to make my readers' lives more interesting, informative and entertaining, I offer you the links to information on Global Terrorists Organizations Of The World. Those links are at the end or the article, which I call my "Rat Finks File."
In the 1960s, people who pretended to be friends and then would "rat out" their friends were called, "Rat Finks." I can't imagine bigger Global Rat Finks than terrorists, thus, check out the links of "The Rat Finks File."
Celebrate Global Humanity October 9, 2013
October 9, 2013 – Citizens Of The World should either be dancing in the streets of their nation's capitols or enjoying local public celebrations to point out how many terrorists are now in jail, facing prosecution or (some places in the world) "sleeping with the fishes."
International Anti-Terrorist Day Slogan Suggestion
Eventually, countries, will have their own national and local slogans to combat terrorists. The world is full of creative and imaginative people, who love to stand up to bullies, thugs and terrorists.
Until then, if your International Anti-Terrorist Day needs a slogan, feel free to use this Samuel E. Warren Jr., original slogan:
"No home, hut or out house on planet earth will ever be safe for a terrorist."
–Samuel E. Warren Jr.
Think of how pretty that slogan will look in needlepoint next to the "Home Sweet Home" you hang above the fireplace mantel.
Citizen Of The World
Malala Yousafzai arrives at special gunshot unit in British hospital
Schoolgirl shot by Taliban received at Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham, the primary centre for UK military casualties
The Samuel E. Warren Jr. Terrorists' Information Links
"The Rat Fink File"
Al Qaeda
Written by samwarren55
October 17, 2012 at 1:59 AM
Posted in Bloggers, Blogs, Current Events, Editorial, Family, Opinion
Tagged with Al-Qaeda, authority, "No home hut or out house on planet earth will ever be safe for a terrorist.", "Rat Finks File", "kill crazy", "KILL Order", "sleeping with the fishes", Ban Bullies, bomb, bullies, by Samuel E. Warren Jr., Cancer Of Humanity, car bombings, Celebrate Global Humanity October 9 2013, Child, child abuse, citizens, Citizens Of The World, commentary, Courage Is The Terrorist Cancer Cure, domestic policy, earth, editorial, Everyone Is A Terrorist Target, Fear, foreign policy, Global Terrorism Definition Change Suggestion, Government, governments, Hamas, Hezbollah, hijackings, history, human rights, Individual Citizen's Responsibility, International Anti-Terrorist Day, International Anti-Terrorist Day Slogan Suggestion, Justice, kidnappings, Know Your Enemy, Malala Yousafzai, mind, Nazis, October 9 2012, October 9 2013, opinion, Osama bin Laden, Pakistan, rat finks, Real Symbols Of Terrorists, Real Victims, school bus, schoolgirl, sovereign right, suicide bombings, Taliban, terrorism, terrorist, terrorists, Terrorists Are "Phony Phreedom Phighters", Terrorists Are Traitors And Cowards, Terrorists Legal Precedent Change Suggestion, Terrorists Threat Truly Global, The Little Things, thugs, Thwart Thugs, Trample Terrorists, UN, United Nations Resolution, World War II, World Wonder Warriors


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text:
Anything above this line is advertising and is not a link
to information on my web site
Revised July 2013
Corrections (with sources) are welcome. The webmaster is a DNA hobbyist who lives in
No Known "Hawaiian" DNA
DNA testing as a tool for genealogists has become popular but there are limitations to what DNA can tell you. If you are only interested in testing to establish your ancient Hawaiian ancestry, it is important to understand that while there is some information about the haplogroups -- deep ancestry going back thousands of years -- of ancient Polynesian DNA, there is NO known DNA that is specifically or exclusively Hawaiian.
Until 2010, testing was restricted to only direct maternal (mtDNA) or direct paternal (Y-DNA) lines. Males and females have mtDNA from their mother, but only males have Y-DNA (hence a male member of the family is needed for that test).
There is now an AUTOSOMAL DNA test that everyone – males and females – can use in their genealogical research. This test looks at close relationships along all ancestral lines and is not restricted to only the paternal (Y-DNA) or maternal (mtDNA) lines. Anyone, regardless of their gender, will be able to match to male and female cousins from any of their family lines in the past five generations. Linked blocks of DNA across the 22 autosomal chromosomes are matched between two people. As with our Y-DNA and mtDNA projects, the database for this test will need to grow. In the beginning you may not have any/many matches and the matches may appear closer than they are (see remarks below under AUTOSOMAL). Hopefully many of our Y-DNA and mtDNA participant pioneers will be able to invest in this test and enhance the database. (FAMILY FINDER is the name of this test at FTDNA).
mtDNA Haplogroup B
This lineage is found in eastern and southeastern Eurasia, Native American
Indians, and
Important: The above mutations are
based on the
Y-DNA Haplogroups
Y-DNA in
1) Haplogroup C2 [M38]
This is the haplogroup of about 34% who report their paternal line as Polynesian.
C2 is found in Polynesia,
2) Haplogroup O [M122]
This is the haplogroup of about 24% who report their paternal line as Polynesian.
O is typical of populations of East Asia, Southeast Asia, and culturally Austronesian regions of Oceania [includes Polynesia], with a moderate distribution in
3) Haplogroup K [M9]
This is the haplogroup of about 18% who report their paternal line as Polynesian.
K is an old lineage presently found only at low frequencies in Africa, Asia, and in the South Pacific. One descendent line of this lineage is restricted to aboriginal Australians, while another is found at low frequency in southern Europe, Northern Africa, and the
Sources for the above:
For more on this subject, see these papers and references therein:
Oppenheimer, S. and M. Richards. 2001
Fast Trains, Slow Boats, and the Ancestry of the Polynesian Islanders. Science Progress 84(3):157-181.
According to this paper, and/or references therein, an mtDNA sequence referred to the Polynesian Motif is found almost exclusively in
Kayser, et al, 2006
Melanesian and Asian Origins of Polynesians: mtDNA and Y Chromosome Gradients Across the Pacific
Molecular Biology and Evolution 2006 23(11):2234-2244; doi:10.1093/molbev/msl093
and Supplementary Material - Supplementary Tables S1–S5 and Figures S1 and S2
Information regarding haplogroups is subject to change as scientific research on this subject progresses over time.
See also:
Additional information at the link listed below under
Hawaiian Ancestry ~ Native Hawaiian Direct Paternal or Maternal Line
See also:
"Just wondering ... why no data on Hawaiian natives . . . . ."
about all the other ethnic groups in
That is a very large and complicated subject! For now, see the remarks at the link listed below under:
Hawaiian Islanders ~ All Ethnic Groups
Many people wish to DNA test to learn more about their personal genealogy and/or ancient ancestry. This is a pioneer field and there is much to be learned. Many hobbyists have begun surname projects or geographical projects. One benefit of these group projects is a reduced rate for some of the tests. At this time, there are few surname projects for names associated with the various diverse ethnic populations living in
The project administrators of the below projects are genealogy hobbyists -
not scientists - using DNA as one of several resources to further their various
genealogy and/or anthrogenealogical interests.
None are employed by FTDNA, nor do they, or their projects, receive any
form of compensation, kickbacks, etc., from tests ordered at FTDNA. They are willing to share with, and learn
with, others with
When you visit the below sites, please read all of the information before contacting the project administrator.
UPDATE – Now that autosomal tests are available the below project distinctions do not apply. If you have a Native Hawaiian line and want to order Family Finder (FTDNA), order through the Hawaiian Ancestry Project.
Hawaiian Ancestry ~ Native Hawaiian
Direct Paternal or Maternal Line
This project is for persons whose direct maternal or direct paternal line is Native Hawaiian. It is NOT required that you be 100% Native Hawaiian or that both your maternal and paternal lines be Native Hawaiian. Either the direct maternal or direct paternal line meets the requirement. The project requirement is based on the limitations of DNA testing, as known today, and should NOT be considered a definition of Hawaiian ancestry. If your direct maternal or paternal line is not Native Hawaiian, you may participate via the Hawaiian Islanders project. Direct maternal/paternal lines are described at the below link - please read all of the information at this link:
Hawaiian Islanders ~ All Ethnic
This project is for all members of all ethnic groups who have roots in the
Please read all of the information at this link.
When you visit the above sites, please read all of the information before contacting the project administrator.
What is a direct maternal/paternal line?
See below definition of direct maternal/paternal lines.
Direct maternal line
This refers to an unbroken line of maternal grandmothers. In the case of Native Hawaiians, this means that your mother's mother's mother's mother, was Hawaiian - going back before the arrival of Captain Cook (about eleven generations). If so, you carry the mtDNA of that line going back to ancestral
Direct paternal line
This refers to an unbroken line of paternal grandfathers. In the case of Native Hawaiians, this means that your father's father's father's father was Hawaiian - going back before the arrival of Captain Cook (about eleven generations). If so, you carry the Y-DNA of that line going back to ancestral
= = = = =
Hawaiian Roots - Genealogy for Hawaiians
Honolulu County Genealogical Society
= = = = =
Autosomal tests such as FTDNA's Family Finder (or 23andme's Relative Finder) may show matches that are erroneously reported as being closer that they really are.
The Family Finder DNA test locates segments of DNA that are shared by two people. This information is then used by the computer to suggest how closely the two people are related: siblings, first cousins, second cousins, etc.
However, people whose ancestors were relatively isolated genetically usually share DNA from multiple ancestors. This will "trick" the Family Finder computation, which will systematically tend to predict that two Hawaiians are more closely related than they may actually be.
This phenomenon was first noticed among the Ashkenazi Jewish DNA tests, which seemed to show too many close relatives. The Ashkenazim have over the generations tended to marry within their community.
Here is how the situation is explained in the Family Tree DNA FAQ [as of November 2012]:
'Q: How does it affect my results if some of my ancestors married their relatives? faq id: 621
A: You may appear more closely related to your matches than you actually are. The impact to Family Finder results varies. It depends on how closely related these family members were, the frequently of marriages between your ancestors, and how recently they occurred. Notably, the greatest impact to calculations comes from endogenous populations where the frequency of intermarriage is high."
To summarize, as a result of frequent intermarriage, a Family Finder cousin match may show a total value of shared DNA composed from the combination of different lines. That is, they are a more distant cousin who is related in multiple ways.
= = = = =
Haplogroup B with Malagasy Motif.
In addition to SE Asia and the Pacific, the Polynesian Motif is also found in Madagascar [see Soodyall, Jenkins, Stoneking; Nature Genetics, Vol.10, 377, (1995)].
Note: A full sequence mtDNA test is needed to confirm this motif (that mtDNA test is referred to as the FGS at FTDNA).
Using full mtDNA sequences, Razafindrazaka et. al. found two additional
markers in the coding region that appear to be unique to the B4a1a1a from
Razafindrazaka, et.al., European Journal of Human Genetics, Vol.18, 575, (2010).
The motif [appeared] as "B4a1a1a2" on the 7 February 2011 (Build
11) mtDNA tree at www.phylotree.org .
African American connection:
Some self-identified as African Americans have the "Polynesian Motif" in their mtDNA. That is, they are in haplogroup B4a1a1a, and get low resolution HVS1 and 2 matches to Hawaiians, New Zealanders, etc.
These mutations were absent in the Polynesian-Polynesian samples the authors looked at, but present in every one of the Malagasy samples.
At least two African American FTDNA customers who have had the full sequence
mtDNA test done have the Malagasy Motif. The conclusion is that their maternal line
most likely comes from
* * * * * * * * * * *
Website address of this page (the page you are reading now):
A shorter url to this page is:


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Cloud Computing: Public Versus Private OptionsBy Dennis McCafferty Print
Business and technology managers may be uncertain about the differences between public and private clouds, but they need to get up to speed very quickly because the demand for cloud computing is increasing at a fast clip.
If you've decided to take your organization's enterprise "into the cloud," you're hardly alone. And if you're weighing whether to go with a public cloud versus a private one, well, you have lots of company there, too.
Take United Seating and Mobility, which sells specialized wheelchairs at 30 locations in 12 states. The company initially tried to stay on top of matters such as vendor contracts by using phones and e-mail. Then it monitored these developments with off-the-shelf applications on its own servers. Today, however, it manages its business via a public cloud.
SEE RELATED STORY: Weigh Legal Risks of Cloud Computing
"The off-the-shelf applications didn't collaborate," recalls Michael DeHart, director of operations at the St. Louis-based company. "You'd log on to all of the apps and try to remember which one needed which password." Thanks to the enhanced tools available via the public cloud, staffers throughout the country now share the latest information in a more seamless manner.
For the Cleveland Cavaliers, using a private cloud to run its arena's Website made sense. Going private has enabled more one-on-one interaction with the cloud-provider partner, while giving the sports franchise greater resources to handle traffic.
SEE RELATED STORY: Cloud Computing: Public or Private?
As with many sports and entertainment venues, traffic on the arena site can spike—when the team makes the playoffs or a big concert is announced, for instance. "When you've booked Miley Cyrus," says Jeff Lillibridge, director of Web services for the Cavs, "you'd better be ready."
Demand Is Increasing
As both these organizations have discovered, few enterprise managers will be able to avoid the topic of private versus public clouds. Worldwide cloud services revenue will reach $44.2 billion in 2013, up from $17.4 billion last year, according to research firm IDC.
Though that demand is increasing, many business and technology professionals are still a bit confused about what public and private clouds actually are. A public cloud—such as Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Google AppEngine, IBM's Blue Cloud and LotusLive Engage, and Microsoft's Windows Azure Services Platform—is a shared technology resource that's available via the Internet and can be used on an as-needed basis. In contrast, a private cloud is created specifically for one organization's use.
Both concepts, greatly enhanced by virtualization technologies, are paving the way for an "evergreen" approach to IT. Enterprises can obtain the technologies they need when they need them, without having to purchase and maintain an array of in-house systems.
"It all stems from the legacy model of 'build it and forget about it,'" says Bob Zukis, national leader of IT strategy for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). "Changes taking place in the industry are making it much more efficient and effective to provision what IT needs. So 'build it and forget about it' no longer meets the needs of the business. Whether you're going with a public or private cloud, you're pursuing a way to increase your technological resources in a more efficient, flexible way."
Appropriately enough, this evergreen movement is also green-friendly. "Cloud computing allows for reduced power consumption because enterprises are maximizing their resources and paying only for what they use," says Vanessa Alvarez at Frost and Sullivan. "When an application is not utilizing resources, those resources can be moved to another application that needs them, enabling maximum resource efficiencies. If additional capacity or resources are no longer needed, virtual servers can be powered down or shut off."
Many organizations struggle with the decision of private versus public clouds. Private clouds offer security and greater flexibility than traditional legacy systems, but they have a higher barrier of entry than public clouds, PwC's Zukis says. Private cloud services require an enterprise IT manager to handle technology standardization, virtualization and operations automation, as well as operations support and business support systems.
Public clouds don't require this kind of organizational shift. "With public clouds, you provision your organization very quickly, by increasing service, storage and other computing needs, Zukis says. "A private cloud takes a lot more time because you're essentially rearchitecting your legacy environment."
However, though public clouds are faster and more convenient, they don't provide the same transparency as private clouds afford. "It's not always clear what you're buying off the shelf with public clouds," Zukis points out.
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