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This was published 6 years ago
MH17: Expectations of success changing as shelling again frustrates investigators
A bugger of a day on the MH17 crash site on Monday – Australian and Dutch investigators were on the road before 8am, but the menace of war kept them away from the site for most of the day, and when they finally got to don their rubber gloves and High-Viz vests, it was for just 30 minutes at the scene.
Their objective was a swatch of wheat fields near Rassypnoe where the front-end of the Boeing 777 crashed to earth. Barely recognisable, the cockpit section is pancaked in a field of sunflowers on the edge of the village and a colleague tells me he had seen some of the overhead luggage bins from the business-class cabin hanging in a tree near here.
The investigators, bolstered by the arrival of a small Malaysian contingent – and later, more on what their police chief had to say when we spoke – spent virtually the entire day in their vehicles by a shady grove, while their security escorts haggled over secure routes to get them to where they needed to go. Doing their job on Monday meant dodging bombs.
And in the absence of a full investigative assault on the site, it became a day in which people made observations or comments that shed intriguing new light on aspects of one of the more challenging disaster recovery operations of modern times.
Such as: for how long does it go on?
Why do the Dutch and the convoy's Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe escorts have a fleet of armored vehicles, but none of their Australian partners are shielded as they cross back and forth over the frontlines in a reckless separatist war?
Did you understand all the promises to bring back all the victims' possessions to mean down to the last teddy bear? I did, but these investigators do not see that as a part of the jobs.
Just before the convoy pulls away from the Soviet-style dormitories that serve as the investigators' HQ, at Soledar, 95 kilometres north of the crash site, one of the Dutch officers wonders aloud how long this emotionally charged operation might continue.
He uses the terms ''politically acceptable'' and ''drawing a line under it'' as he grapples with the challenge for political leaders in the victims' countries when, inevitably, they find themselves at the intersection of demonstrating compassion and acknowledging that little more can be achieved.
His thoughts inform my interviews with his fellow investigators in the course of a day when they didn't get to do much investigating.
We drive south from the salt mines of Soledar and into a summer farming landscape that reveals why the Ukrainian flag is bright blue and golden yellow. The yellow panel is the sunflowers and golden grain; the blue panel is a vaulted sky that seems to go forever over the flat land.
The investigators' deal with the separatist rebels and the Ukrainian Army is that all sides put their heads together each evening and decide on which transit corridors to use to reach the 50-square-kilometre crash site.
But before we reached Rassypnoe, it becomes clear that the deal is not holding – several barrages of outgoing mortars crack the morning air and the investigators' plan for the day.
The investigators sit in the grove while their OSCE escorts attempt to firm up the transit deal of the previous evening. The talks last a few hours, dragging in different rebel commanders and officers of the Ukrainian Army, but they seem to be going nowhere as OSCE monitors chase after each barrage to determine where it came from.
The Malaysians have been busy at checkpoints on the drive south taking selfies with Ukrainian troops in front of their tanks and APCs, and now they are posing for shots with the rebel fighters. They seem very at home with representatives of the two factions in this war that accuse each other of shooting down MH17.
When the convoy does idle, there's an opportunity for the curious-minded to wander its length – 20 vehicles in all. By the Dutch vehicles we ask media spokesman Dennis Muller if his men feel safe when they are stuck out here?
He boasts that the armour on the Dutch communications vehicle is three times as heavy as the conventional 4WD that it looks like. What about the rest of the Dutch vehicles? "All brought from Holland, even the two refrigeration trucks. All Dutch personnel ride in armoured vehicles," Muller said.
Not quite it seems. A bunch of them are travelling with the Australians in a fleet of buses – several small ones that look like they might have been delivery vans from the Kiev fish markets. And a big red passenger bus that might have been picked up at the first bus stop that Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot's special envoy Angus Houston and his Dutch counterpart chanced upon when they landed in the country.
Frustration rises. These debris-strewn fields shriek for the attention of the investigators; but another outgoing volley, close in and from another direction, shrieks louder. The OSCE monitors are rightly cautious – outgoing fire tends to attract return fire.
We chance upon Muller again and he is starting to fume - "we need just a couple of hours at this site, so it's very disappointing because we're here to do one thing – to bring back the remains and the possessions. All the time we waste here is so precious."
Note yet another reference to bringing back possessions.
Malaysia's police chief Khalid Abu Bakar is travelling with the convoy for the first time – and the frustration does not sit easily with him.
Standing in the shade of a tree, as investigators loll around to escape the heat, he tells us: "Today we have done nothing – we're still waiting for negotiations . . . I hope they will allow us to do our task."
As the representative of a government that lost 43 among the 298 victims of the MH17 crash, Abu Bakar refers to his political masters when I ask if Kuala Lumpur is starting to wonder about how long the search should go on.
The police chief draws a breath before making a small speech that reveals the importance of sensitivity training for police chiefs and other senior officials.
"Speaking personally," he says, "we have to do the best we can. But it will get very difficult with the passing of time because if there are more body parts out there, they'll have rotted or have been taken by scavengers."
Suddenly, there's a scramble for the convoy to mount up. By 2pm, the OSCE admitts defeat, abandoning the day's plan and advising the investigators to head for another area. But they fail to negotiate a secure passage to their preferred next destination.
It seems, however, that the way is open to a third area, between the villages of Rassypnoe and Petropavlovska. However, the fate of that option hangs in the hazy air because even before the convoy can get under way, new, loud retorts roll across the fields. About two dozen missiles, probably the ubiquitous and highly inaccurate Grad missiles, of which both sides in this conflict reportedly have huge stocks.
It seems this has become the convoy to nowhere. It is stuck where it started the day, on a gentle hillside next to Rassypnoe, which allows the investigators expansive views of the crash site that they cannot reach.
After a time the OSCE official decide that it's safe to proceed and finally, at about 3pm, the convoy pulls in near a tree-lined watercourse that bisects a setting like an Old Masters' landscape – the old water tower, the poplars, and the cropped fields.
The inspectors tumble into the hot sun, forming teams with some carrying folded body bags, as they fan out in the flat fields. A Dutch sniffer dog, Spencer, works along side them.
At the edge of a field of sunflowers, a stake is driven into the black earth, a white rag affixed to the top of it signalling a body or body parts that seemingly had already been collected. The investigators go off in three different directions and the rumble of outgoing fire nearby doesn't perturb them, but within 30 minutes the convoy is preparing for the 100-kilometre drive back to the Soledar dormitories.
As they do, Australian Federal Police commander Mark Harrison touches on the ''for how long'' question.
"Access which dictates how long we can spend in the area is decided by the parties to the conflict – the Australians and the Dutch are here at the forbearance and understanding of the people who control the area."
He doesn't have to say that on Monday those people had been neither forbearing nor understanding. But he also alludes to the challenge in finding more human remains. "Our expectation is that the remains outstanding will be more of a challenge to find."
Referring to the tall crops in so many of the fields – sunflowers and corn as high as your shoulder and thigh-high wheat – he adds: "We also have to accept the fact that [there's] high vegetation and dense undergrowth, so we might not find some of the remains."
In this conversation it became clear that Harrison's definition of ''possessions'' was much narrower than the understanding implied by Prime Minister Abbott, his envoy Angus Houston and others.
For the policeman, the term means nothing more than documents that might help to identify passengers such as some papers they find on Monday, which appear to be an itinerary issued by Australia's Harvey World Travel.
"It's essential we get these documents," he said.
Asked about family and friends' expectations of recovering prized teddy bears and other such possessions, Harrison said: "We're not looking for teddy bears – that's a wider search aspect for someone else."
How long will it last? And if those precious possessions are not found now, will there be another opportunity before they deteriorate in the coming local winter?
The Kiev-appointed regional governor announced on Monday afternoon that on Tuesday he would visit former rebel strongholds, Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, north of the crash site, which had been ''liberated'' by Ukrainian forces.
Perhaps that why the rebel village of Petropavlovska was forlorn as the investigators' convoy departed. As they do in most villages, the locals turn out to look, more than to wave, at the convoy as it slips through.
But this evening a blond woman in particular stands out in the crowd. Her face is red and she is crying as she yells after the convoy, seeming to suggest that their self-declared republic jig is up. After months of vigorous support for the separatists, most of the village stands in silence as she alludes to the forces of the Kiev government.
"When will they come to bomb us," she cried.
Paul McGeough is chief foreign correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald.


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To make up for his extended absence from the podcast, Steve is joined, on a special videocast filmed in the HasBean Roastery, by none-other than the distinguished Erwin Mierisch of the legendary Fincas Mierisch. In Episode 39, Steve and Erwin walk through the history of the Mierisch family and farms and Erwin's experience working in coffee thus far, before ending with a serious and thoughtful discussion about recent Cup of Excellence changes.
Also covered: what happens when governments step into coffee farming, Intelligentsia's producers forum, Dr. Mierisch's hobbies, Steve's misbehaviour at multiple COE juries, family coffee jobs, the impact of exchange rates on buying and contracts, when cost-cutting measures taint entire lots from competition, and how El Salvador are working to find COE-replacement using Finca Mierisch's auction platform.
As operations manager for COE from 2000 to 2011, as well as overseeing multiple farms in Nicaragua and Honduras, Erwin's experience is vast—we could have kept chatting with him for days—but this is a great introduction to green buying, building relationships, and the history of COE: this is one you really shouldn't miss.
Watch/Listen here: http://www.tampertantrum.com/episode-the-39th/
This podcast has been made possible with the kind support of Nuova Simonelli (www.nuovasimonelli.it)--thank you!

subset: commoncrawl


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Coming into a team after not playing regularly is always difficult. Coming into the first leg of an Eastern Conference Championship against a physical, aggressive opponent like Sporting Kansas City for your second start of the season? That's another story.
That is what Mike Chabala was faced with Saturday afternoon, and the Houston Dynamo left back acquitted himself well. Chabala saw just 158 minutes of MLS action for the Dynamo this season but was called upon to cover for the suspended Corey Ashe.
Matching up against breakout USMNT midfielder Graham Zusi, Chabala put in a strong shift—covering ground and helping to neutralize the Sporting creator in a scoreless draw. The Dynamo left back was one of several reserve players—a term head coach Dominic Kinnear and company avoid at all costs—that picked up the slack for a weary Dynamo squad.
"I thought Chabala played excellent," said the Dynamo's opposite fullback, Kofi Sarkodie. "He hasn't played much all year to be called into a big game. Kansas City is a good opponent, and I thought he did great. Graham Zusi couldn't find his way at all, and I give credit to Mike."
"He probably works harder than anybody in training," said head coach Dominic Kinnear. "You know it's never going to be a fitness problem; he's going to be ready to play."
Chabala answered the bell, but it was not all roses for the left back. There were times, especially early, that SKC picked on the left side of the Dynamo defense and found space. But as the game settled, and with the help of left midfielders Brad Davis and Andrew Driver, Chabala and Houston held up against one of MLS's best attackers. Chabala also added the element of the long-throw to Houston's game, something Houston has lacked since the exit of Geoff Cameron last summer, putting several balls in the box to pressure SKC.
"Training with these guys and being with them, there's a good standard," Chabala said. "Going from my last full match in Panama to this, it's night and day. I just get myself fired up and just contribute and keep it simple and do my job and help the guys in front of me. It really just comes down to everybody taking part and contributing."
Chabala was joined by Cam Weaver, Omar Cummings and even Eric Brunner—who has started the last six games in place of the injured Jermaine Taylor—as players who started less than 10 games in the regular season but helped the Dynamo secure a result that belied their fatigue.
Now the team will have two weeks to get healthy and retool. The watch will be on Ricardo Clark, who left the game in the first half with a left leg injury that Kinnear said he would know more about early this week, and Will Bruin, who exited at halftime and was wearing a protective boot on his left leg after the game.
If Houston's retooling and recuperation leads to second leg success, the play of several reserves last Saturday will be a big reason why.
"I think it's everybody," Kinnear said. "These guys are ready. We try and tell in preseason and during the season that you're going to get our chance to play, just be ready. These guys are professional enough that they are."
Darrell Lovell covers the Houston Dynamo for MLSsoccer.com


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When its your birthday, its only right you have a birthday cake shake, right? Its even kind of healthy…that is until you have it along side a vegan panczki! oops……
In a blender mix:
1 cup vanilla almond milk
1 frozen banana
3 T yellow cake mix (make sure its vegan)
Ice cubes
Top with Sprinkles!


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It is hard to imagine a rack of servers and switches being too much of a machine for a pilot Hadoop system, but that is exactly what prospective customers have been telling Oracle. And so it is offering a cut-down "starter" version of its Big Data Appliance with a much lower price point.
George Lumpkin, Oracle's vice president of data warehousing product management, tells El Reg that contrary to what some people might be thinking, the Starter Rack of the Big Data Appliance X3-2 cluster is not aimed at small and medium businesses.
It is not a baby Hadoop cluster that will be suitable for modest data munching workloads, and in fact, says Lumpkin, the six server nodes in the cluster are the bare minimum of machines that are needed to load all of the software components of the Big Data Appliance just so you can see how they work and fit together.
You won't be able to get very much work done, and that is alright because, as a proof of concept machine, handling lots of unstructured data in Hadoop and the Oracle NoSQL (BerkeleyDB) database is not the point. If you want to do that, you have to build up the system.
The Big Data Appliance was previewed in October 2011 and started shipping in January 2012 using Xeon 5600-based servers. The initial setup was a full rack of servers (eighteen nodes) equipped with Oracle Linux (its clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux) with Cloudera's CDH3 Hadoop distribution using Oracle NoSQL as the data store underneath it.
In December 2012, Oracle upgraded the Big Data Appliance with Xeon E5-2600 processors using its X3-2 systems. Oracle said that the new Xeon E5 iron delivered about 33 per cent more performance running Hadoop and Oracle NoSQL workloads. Oracle also upgraded operating system on the nodes to Oracle Linux 5.8 and the NoSQL database to the 2.0 level, which included some performance tweaks to help make those numbers.
With this week's announcement, Oracle is still using its Linux 5.8 release on the same hardware nodes, but the Hadoop stack is being upgraded to CDH4.2, the latest Cloudera release, and the Cloudera Manager control freak for Hadoop is upgraded to the 4.5 release.
The NoSQL database has also been upgraded, but Lumpkin did not know the release number at press time, and the open source R statistical analysis tool is upgraded to the 2.15 release.
Oracle Enterprise Manager, the uber control freak for all Oracle systems, operating systems, and applications, now has a plug-in that can reach into the Big Data Appliance and manage its hardware and interoperates with Cloudera Manager to play nanny to the Hadoop software stack.
The latest Big Data Appliances are preconfigured with NameNode HA, the redundant NameNode that Cloudera created for its distribution to get around the single-point-of-failure issue with this part of the Hadoop stack, which keeps track of where all the data is distributed around the cluster.
A full rack of the Big Data Appliance costs $450,000 and still has eighteen server nodes and about 600TB of raw capacity to store data in the NoSQL database. You can add more storage by linking racks of machines together over Oracle's own InfiniBand switches, which are based on Mellanox Technologies ASICs. Oracle premier support for this engineered system costs $54,000 a year.
You can see now why potential customers were balking at the base configuration of the Big Data Appliance, since $450,000 is a lot to spend on an appliance. Sure, that includes a "lifetime OEM license" to Cloudera's Hadoop, which is worth something. But still, that is a lot of dough to shell out for something that may not fit the bill.
Oracle, of course, is pretty confident that customers that are using Exadata database machines and Exalogic application server machines are going to want to use its Big Data Appliances (why are these not called Exadoops or something like that to be consistent?) in conjunction with database connectors to link the Hadoop machines to production OLTP systems and data warehouses.
Oracle wants customers to buy all of its engineered systems
With the starter rack of the Big Data Appliance, the full complement of power distribution units and 40Gb/sec InfiniBand switches are in the rack, but it only comes with six of the X3-2 server nodes. These are set up to run all of the software components, and as we said above, this is a barely usable system in terms of capacity but sufficient for proofs of concept.
This setup, which has 200TB of capacity, costs $160,000. You can add another six server nodes for $160,000, and if you want to push it up to the full rack of eighteen nodes, you add yet another six nodes for another $160,000. So with the starter rack, you end up paying $480,000, or a $30,000 premium, for a single rack of the Big Data Appliance.
This, says Lumpkin, is a premium that customers are willing to pay to get a much smaller Hadoop test system. The important thing is that the Big Data Appliance shows up preconfigured and pretested, ready to accept unstructured data, and with Big Larry as the one throat to choke for support.
Oracle is also counting on all of the integration it has done between its engineered systems to be appealing to potential customers. The company says it can pump data between its Hadoop and database appliances at 12TB per hour.
The Big Data Appliance is also being added to Oracle's list of machines that are available as an on-premise infrastructure as a service, which Larry & Co announced back in January.
This special deal, which is like a 36-month lease with no interest where you pay for 75 per cent of the capacity and leave 25 per cent latent so it can be activated later, was initially available on Exadata database clusters, Exalogic middleware clusters, and Exalytics in-memory database appliances, Sparc SuperClusters (pairing Sparc T4 systems and Exadata storage servers) and Sun ZFS Storage Appliance arrays. Now you can buy a Big Data Appliance under the same deal.
Oracle is not talking about how many Big Data Appliances it has shipped, but Lumpkin says that the company has customers in the telecommunications, oil and gas, travel, and financial services industries that have acquired the Hadoop system, and as expected, customers are using the Hadoop machine to process network and application logs side-by-side with Exa machines.
In addition to rolling out the cut-down Big Data Appliance, Oracle is also talking up how it has tweaked and modified its E-Business, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, Siebel, and Hyperion to use the fat main memory and flash storage in its Exadata appliances to run faster.
Oracle has also cooked up thirteen new applications for these suites that do "in-memory" processing when used on the Exadata appliances and run 10 to 20 times faster than they would on a cluster of rack servers. You can see these new applications listed here.
Steve Miranda, executive vice president of application development at Oracle, says these thirteen new apps from Oracle are only certified to run on Exadata systems, and that this is the case because without the memory and flash in the Exadata storage servers and the fast InfiniBand switching, they would not perform acceptably.
And just to be clear, none of them run on the Exalytics in-memory appliance, which is a fat Xeon server running Oracle's TimesTen in-memory data base for specifically doing very fast analytics on data sucked out of Oracle 11g databases. ®


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The first footage from the sequel to the Korean monster movie, The Host, is out — and going straight for the tiny jugulars of children. Check it out below:
No word on any release date for commercial director Park Myeong-chan's sequel yet — but we'll be sure to keep you informed.
[Via Twitch]


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Product FAQs
How do I install my fax modem in Windows XP? (.exe method)
Prior to installing this device, ensure that your operating system is up to date (for example, you have installed the most recent service pack).
To install the driver:
- Download the latest drivers from the StarTech.com website (http://www.startech.com/Support). You can find the part number and product ID on the product's packaging.
Note: Windows will typically save the files to the Downloads folder that is associated with your user account (for example, C:\Documents and Settings\your_name\My Documents\Downloads).
- Once the download is complete, right-click the zip folder that you downloaded, select Extract All, and follow the on-screen instructions.
- In the list of extracted files, double-click the Setup.exe file.
- Follow the on-screen prompts to install the device drivers and restart the computer when prompted.
- Once Windows has restarted, connect the fax modem to your computer.
- Your computer will automatically complete the driver installation and your device should be ready to use.


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Someday, someone will make The Simpsons' Planet of the Apes musical — but until then, watch as composer/actor Paul Williams serenades the Tonight Show crowd in his full Battle for the Planet of the Apes orangutan suit.
Williams, who played Virgil the mutant human killer in Battle made a special appearance on this 70s show, treating us all to an amazing song. And giving me a new profile picture! Look, singing apes have proven time and time again to be a massive hit. Broadway, take notice!
Thanks for the tip Mike!


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Acer Switch One 10 stuck on endless Windows 10 update loop!!!
Acer Switch One 10 @ Windows 10
Fair warning to everyone who own this device!
The currently latest big Microsoft Windows 10 update failed on my Switch One 10 and it is stuck on an endless boot update loop saying something like:
We have updated Your PC.
The update is running, please don't shut down You PC.
... flicker, flicker - and everything starts all over again.
The above is a rough translation from German as my Switch One is set up to German language.
Two out of three "solutions" from Microsoft to fix this issue are completely useless.
Solution number one requires a successful boot to the OS desktop - my Switch One is looping/restarting during the boot up sequence.
Solution number two is suggesting a power drain - the Switch One has a non removable battery.
Solution number three is suggesting to create a Windows 10 installation media - I have yet to try this option, but I think it will not work unless the Switch One is set up by default to boot from USB media first.
The Switch One 10 never ran well on Windows 10, was always slow, laging, felt under powered.
Well, at this point Microsoft bricked my nearly new device, and I have to bother with the after math!
This same big Windows 10 update took over two hours to finish on my Intel quad core desktop PC at work, and it left some third party software issues in it's wake that took me another hour or so to resolve!
What a crappy OS!
And yes, my Switch One 10 is running a legal Windows 10 copy - the device was set up with it upon purchase!


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Astrobiology Top 10: What Lies Beneath
It is important to figure out how much water is on Mars – such information can help astrobiologists better understand the potential for life on Mars both in the past and present, help planners design future human settlements, and help scientists unravel the complex history of the Red Planet.
|A partial view of the martian south polar ice cap (also known as the south polar layered deposits) taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on Mars Express, from an altitude of 269 kilometers. Click image for larger view.
Credit: ESA/DLR/FU
Because of the thin atmosphere and low air pressure, water ablates, or turns directly from ice into gas, when warmed on the surface. But Mars has a lot of ice below ground, and some believe there could be hidden reservoirs of liquid water as well. NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft are currently using ground-penetrating radar to map what lies beneath the martian surface.
A new report describing ESA's Mars Express radar data was just published in the journal Science, so Astrobiology Magazine's Leslie Mullen sat down with Jeff Plaut, co-Principal investigator of the MARSIS radar instrument, to discuss the findings.
Astrobiology Magazine (AM): The MARSIS radar has detected water ice beneath the south pole of Mars. Your report in the journal Science says the ice below ground extends far beyond the ice visible on the surface, and this therefore greatly increases the known martian reservoir of water.
Jeff Plaut (JP): That is one of the important results, yes. The gamma ray and neutron measurements on Mars Odyssey had already indicated that the arctic regions of Mars are ice-rich in the upper meter or so, but we are looking much deeper.
Another one of our findings is that the polar layered deposits on the surface are very transparent to our radar waves. This suggests it's rather clean ice, not contaminated by very much dust. Only a small fraction — maybe up to 5 or 10 percent – consists of dust. They're predominately water ice.
AM: Is that an important finding because it improves our understanding of Mars, or does it have applications for future exploration?
|This map shows the thickness of the south polar layered deposits of Mars, with purple representing the thinnest areas and red the thickest.. The total volume of ice in the layered deposits is equivalent to a water layer 11 meters deep, if spread evenly across the planet.
Credits: NASA/JPL/ASI/ESA/Univ. of Rome/MOLA Science Team/USGS
JP: There's never been any disagreement that those deposits are mostly ice. If you're talking about mining water ice, then maybe your job is a little easier if there's less dust in it, but it doesn't really change the story.
For our understanding of the processes that have produced the polar layered deposits, one gap in our knowledge was the exact composition of the layered materials. We haven't determined the exact composition, but we have put bounds on just how much dust there might be mixed in. It turns out it's a small amount. Other instruments weren't able to make that measurement, so that's an important new result.
AM: And that tells you things such as the age of the ice, or the global cycling of the ice?
JP: Among other things. These layers are believed to represent some kind of climate signature. The layers that look darker in the camera images probably have more dust in them, which means they were deposited during a climate period when the atmosphere was releasing a lot of dust in the polar regions. Whereas other layers appear very bright in the optical images, almost dust-free, so that might represent another climate period. There's some sort of climate record in these layered sequences, and to understand what that means it's helpful to know what the composition of those layers is, and we're making some progress with MARSIS towards that.
AM: How much ice is there in the south polar region?
JP: The MGS MOLA data of the south pole surface topography had produced an estimate of about 1 million cubic kilometers. But with MARSIS, we've been able to measure down to the bottom of the ice deposit. MOLA measured the shape of the top, we measured the bottom, and that gives us a better estimate of the ice thickness. We've mapped the thickness of that ice in great detail over the entire deposit, and it goes from zero at the edges up to a maximum thickness of about 3.7 kilometers. We've discovered that the total volume is closer to 1.5 million cubic kilometers.
This volume estimate is a large fraction of the water that we know of on Mars. The largest chunk of the total water inventory of Mars, by far, is in these layered deposits. The north and the south combined have much more water than the vapor in the atmosphere, more than the amount of ice that's been estimated in the upper meter of the surface.
A lot of our effort in studying Mars is to "follow the water." These newly discovered ice-laden deposits, hidden beneath the surface of the southern layered deposits, is a substantial additional reservoir that has about half as much ice as the layered deposits themselves. It's not a small addition, it's the second largest reservoir that we know of.
AM: What do you mean by the term "ice-laden deposits?"
JP: It means they're a mixture of ice and some other material. But that's an interpretation of our data. The fact that we see deeply into this material suggests to us that it's ice-rich, but right now that's a hypothesis we need to test further. It may turn out there's not as much ice as we think, or no ice at all. But various lines of evidence are leading us to believe there is ice.
The radar image shows the surface as a bright line. Far beneath that is another bright line, which is the bottom of the deposit where ice sits upon rocky material, or material that has much less ice. In between the top and bottom line is all ice.
In some of the radar data, the bright bottom line ends suddenly, and that tells us the nature of the boundary has changed. There's a whole host of reasons why that boundary might become invisible to us: there may be pre-existing topography so that even though it's a sharp boundary between icy material and the rocky material, there's so much texture that our radar doesn't see it because it's easier for radar to detect smooth things. Or the minerals in the lower material may be different, or the mixture of ice and dirt in the upper materials may be different from one place to another.
AM: There are also dark circles in the radar. What are those?
|Artist's impression of water under the martian surface. If such underground aquifers do exist, humans could more easily explore and eventually colonize the Red Planet.
Credit: Medialab, ESA
JP: I call them "enigmatic deep reflectors." We found certain areas that seem to have negative topography, or deep holes. They may be impact craters that have been filled up with material, such as dust or ice or a mixture of the two, but in a slightly different geometry or configuration than the nice organized layers above them.
These holes add to the volume measurement. If we didn't know the hole were there, if we assumed a flat surface between data points, then there would be a smaller volume. And so those features are a major contributor to the change in the volume estimate from 1 million to about 1.5 million cubic kilometers.
AM: Could they be deposits of liquid water?
JP: No, we don't have strong evidence for liquid water. You would need a geothermal heat source from below — a remnant of some volcanic activity — or you would need to have an insulating blanket of material on top to keep things warm enough so that the natural heat from the planet would melt the ice. But we don't have any corroborating evidence for those scenarios. Also, the radar observation is not a distinct signature of liquid water. So there's nothing that leads us to conclude there's liquid water underneath the layered deposits.
Liquid water would show a strong reflection in the radar data. Water is much more highly reflective than any rock or ice material. If there were a feature such as Lake Vostok underneath the Antarctic ice sheet it would have a strong distinct signature in MARSIS, but we don't see anything like that.
AM: What are the future plans for MARSIS?
JP: The prime phase of the Mars Express mission ended in 2005, and it is now in its extended phase. This extended phase ends this year, but ESA just decided in February to continue the mission at least until May of 2009.
|This map shows the topography of the south polar region of Mars, including topography buried by thick deposits of icy material. The black line shows the boundary of the south polar layered deposits. Elevation values within the black outline show the topography at the boundary between the layered deposits and the underlying material, an interface known as the 'bed' of the deposits. Purple and blue represent the lowest elevations, and orange and red the highest. The total range of elevation shown is about 5 kilometers.
Credits: NASA/JPL/ASI/ESA/Univ. of Rome/MOLA Science Team/USGS
This year we'll be looking at the middle northern latitudes. The northern plains have been hypothesized over the years as being the site of a former ocean. When we first began in 2005, we detected a feature in the northern plains that we believe is a large buried impact crater that may have icy material filling it. There also are deposits associated with volcanoes. There are outflow deposits — the large channels that drain Valles Marineris and some of the other areas near the equator spread out onto the northern plains. So we have a lot of interesting targets to look at there.
Then, towards the end of 2007, we'll come back to the southern hemisphere and fill in gaps in our data, looking at areas we haven't seen, targeting some of the places where we've seen some interesting features, putting the radar into some different operating modes, using some of the other frequencies to get as much detail in our observations as we can.
AM: Is the orbit of Mars Express the reason why MARSIS has focused almost exclusively on the south pole so far?
JP: Yes. The orbit is such that the spacecraft visits Mars three times a day, and that close approach is at a certain latitude, and that latitude very slowly drifts. When we began, that latitude was in the north, but it was a very short season for us because we operate at night. We get the best quality data when we're on the night side. Later in 2005 the orbit drifted back into the night, and by that time it had drifted to the deep southern hemisphere. So we investigate wherever the orbit takes us.
AM: How long could Mars Express keep going?
JP: They estimate the fuel reserves would allow between 5 and 20 more years. The precise amount of remaining fuel isn't known; it's difficult to measure that. There are other systems on the spacecraft that can degrade or fail, but right now we're looking at a healthy spacecraft that could last for a number of years.
Related Web Sites
Martian Poles in the Swiss Alps
Martian Water, Past and Present
Sounding Out Mars


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Rodney Mach is HPC Technical Director for Absoft. He can be contacted at [email protected]
Mac OS X Tiger is the first version of the Macintosh operating system that supports 64-bit computing, thereby letting you fully exploit the 64-bit PowerPC G5 processor. However, this does not necessarily mean that you should migrate every application to the 64-bit platform. Most OS X apps don't need to be ported to 64-bit, and in fact will execute faster as 32-bit applications. The main reason you might want to make an application 64-bit is if it needs to access more than 4 GB of memory. Applications in this category include scientific and engineering programs, rendering applications, and database apps. So before looking at what's necessary to port your applications to 64-bit, it is a good idea to examine the circumstances that don't require applications to be ported to 64-bit:
- 64-bit math. You don't need to port to 64-bit to do 64-bit arithmetic with OS X on 64-bit PowerPC G5 hardware. The PowerPC supports 64-bit arithmetic instructions in 32-bit mode. You can use the GCC options -mcpu=G5 to enable G5-specific optimizations, as well as -mpowerpc64 to allow 64-bit instructions. Using these two options enables performance gains in 32-bit applications.
- Apple has announced that the Mac platform will be transitioning to Intel. Intel processors, such as the 64-bit Intel Xeon, require applications to be 64-bit to take advantage of the additional 64-bit general-purpose registers (unlike the PowerPC). Therefore, you may need to reevaluate decisions to port to 64-bit once more details about the Intel on Mac architecture become availableespecially if your code is integer intensive.
- 64-bit data types. You don't need to port to 64-bit to gain access to 64-bit data types. For example, long long and int64_t are 64 bit and can be used by 32-bit applications.
- Faster code. You should not port to 64-bit if your code is performance sensitive and highly tuned for 32-bit. The increased size of 64-bit pointers and long can cause increased cache pressure, as well as increased disk, memory, and network usage, which can lead to application performance degradation.
64-Bit Clean
Once you determine that an application does need to be 64 bit, then you should make your code "64-bit clean." The 64-bit C data model used by Mac OS X (and all modern UNIX derivatives) is commonly referred to as "LP64." In the LP64 data model, ints are 32 bit, while longs and pointers are 64 bit. The 32-bit data model is referred to as "ILP32," and ints, longs, and pointers are all 32 bit.
This difference in the size of long and pointer between ILP32 and LP64 can cause truncation issues in code that assumes the same width as int. Many of these 64-bit porting bugs can be detected by using the -Wall -Wformat -Wmissing-prototypes -Wconversion -Wsign-compare -Wpointer options with GCC. (For more information on general 64-bit porting issues, refer to my article "Moving to 64-Bits," C/C++ Users Journal, June 2005; http://www.cuj.com/documents/s=9796/cuj0506mach/0506mach.html.)
However, there is a 64-bit caveat: Support for 64-bit programming is not available throughout the entire OS X API for 64-bit computing on OS X Tiger. For example, application frameworks such as Cocoa and Carbon are not yet available for 64-bit development. This means you cannot simply recompile 32-bit GUI apps as 64 bit on OS Xonly command-line apps can be recompiled as 64 bit. However, this doesn't mean GUI applications cannot take advantage of 64-bit computing. In the rest of this article, I examine how you work around this issue by porting an example 32-bit OS X GUI application to 64-bit.
The Demo Application
The 32-bit demo application that I 64-bit enable here is a simple "array lookup" application. Users enter an index of the array, and the application returns the array value at that index; see Figure 1. I want to migrate this application to 64 bit to take advantage of arrays greater than 4 GB.
The GUI in this example is written in Qt 4 (http://www.trolltech.com/), an open-source C++ application framework that makes it straightforward to write cross-platform native GUIs (Carbon on OS X). At Absoft (where I work), all of our cross-platform developer tools are written in Qt for easy maintenance, and native speed on all of our supported platforms (Windows, Linux, and OS X). If your application is not Qt based and uses native OS X APIs, the strategy I present here still applies.
The Methodology
To convert the 32-bit demo application to 64 bit, I split the 32-bit application into two parts to work around the limitation that only command-line apps can be 64 bit on OS X:
- A 64-bit command-line server that does the necessary 64-bit operations such as array allocation and management.
- A 32-bit GUI that displays result and interfaces with users. The existing GUI is refactored to launch and communicate with the server.
This is the same strategy we used at Absoft with our 64-bit Fx2 debugger on OS X Tiger. The debugger is a 32-bit UI that communicates with a 64-bit back end. Refactoring the application into a 64-bit executable and 32-bit GUI is the most difficult task for most GUI applications.
Once you have identified a strategy for 64-bit enabling of the application, you must decide on the communication method between the 64-bit server and 32-bit GUI client. There are several mechanisms you can use for communication:
- Communicate using message passing between STDIN and STDOUT of the 64-bit application.
- Use UNIX Domain sockets for same host communication.
- Use TCP/IP client/server mechanisms.
- Use shared memory or other IPC mechanism.
The method you select depends on the application. The implementation I present here is based on UNIX Domain sockets.
UNIX Domain sockets are lightweight, high-performance sockets that enable communication between processes on the same host. If you are familiar with standard TCP sockets, you will find UNIX domain sockets easy to master. UNIX Domain sockets also assist in future proofing your code by enabling an easy upgrade path to more heavyweight TCP sockets. For example, a future version of your application could have the server run on a PowerPC-based Mac, and the GUI client on the Intel-based Mac.
Creating the Server
The server handles allocating the array so you can access more than 4 GB of memory. It also provides an interface that a client can use to look up values from the array. This server can be tested independently of the GUI, letting you hammer out the client-server interaction before refactoring the GUI.
Use fixed-width datatypes for sharing between ILP32 and LP64. Listing One (server.c) is the server source code. In lines 16-18 of Listing One, the code uses fixed-width datatypes such as uint64_t instead of unsigned long long. It is a good practice to use fixed-width datatypes when sharing data over a socket, or sharing data on disk between ILP32 and LP64. This guarantees that the size of the data does not change while communicating between the two different data models. It also future proofs your code against changes in the width of fundamental datatypes and saves you headaches in the future. These fixed-width datatypes were introduced by C99, and are located in the header file <stdint.h>. While this C99 feature is not technically part of the C++ Standard, it is a feature supported by most C++ compilers (such as Absoft 10.0 a++ and GNU g++).
Use the _LP64_ macro to conditionally compile 64-bit-specific code. When maintaining a single code base for 32- and 64-bit code, you may want to conditionally compile the code depending on whether it is 64 bit or 32 bit. In this case, I want the defined ARRAY_SIZE on line 18 to be larger when compiled as 64-bit to take advantage of larger memory. Listing Two (__LP64__) is the macro to use on OS X.
In UNIX Domain sockets, a pathname in the filesystem ("/tmp/foo," for instance) is used as the address for the client and server to communicate. This filename is not a regular filename that you can read from or write toyour program must associate this filename with a socket in order to perform communication. You can identify this special socket using the UNIX command ls -laF on the file; you will see a "=" appended to the filename indicating it is a socket:
% ls -laF /tmp/sock
srwxr-xr-x 1 rwm wheel 0 Oct 29 21:51
Returning to the server code in Listing One, the server must be prepared to accept connections, which is done via the socket, bind, and listen calls. On line 26 of Listing One, the socket call creates an endpoint for communication, returning an unnamed socket. The socket call takes three arguments:
- The first argument is the family type. In this case, I use AF_LOCAL to specify UNIX Domain family.
- The second argument of SOCK_STREAM type provides sequenced, reliable, two-way connection-based bytestreams for this socket.
- The final argument selects the protocol for the family. In this case, zero is the default.
In lines 30-33 of Listing One, I set up the sockaddr_un structure with the filename to use. Note that the SOCK_ADDR filename is defined in the absoft.h header file (Listing Two) as a UNIX pathame "/tmp/sock." The filename is arbitrary, but must be defined the same in both the client and server, and must be an absolute pathname. Be sure to delete this file as it may have been left over from a previous instance on line 35 and ensure that the bind call succeeds.
Next, on line 37, I bind the unnamed socket previously created with the name I just configured. Finally, on line 42, I use the listen call to begin accepting connections on this connection.
On line 46, I sit in a loop and wait to accept connections from the client. Once you have received a connection, you read in the array index the user selected on line 54, and return the array value on line 64. Note the use of readn and written functions. Regular read/write do not guarantee that all the bytes requested will be read/written in one call. Wrapper functions are used to ensure all bytes are read/written as expected (see util.c, available electronically, "Resource Center," page 6).
Creating the Client
To test the server, create a C client that connects to the server, requests an array index, and fetches the result. You can use this client to test the server interaction before having to refactor the GUI. The client uses the socket and connect calls to talk to the server; see Listing Three for the implementation of the client lookUp function. The client code should be easy to follow because it is similar to the server but uses the connect system call to connect to the already existing server socket.
You may wonder why the server and client were not written in C++. The main reason is portability. C socket implementations are portable to a variety of platforms without the need for third-party libraries or a roll-your-own implementation. If you do need to code the client/server in C++, Qt provides a QSocket class that you can extend to support UNIX Domain sockets.
Refactoring the GUI
At this point, you have a server that allocates the array, and a client that can call the server and fetch values from the server. It is now time to tackle the messy partrefactoring the GUI. You must identify everywhere the GUI currently manipulates or queries the array directly, and direct it to use the client function call instead. Luckily, only one method, Viewer::lookupArray() in line 52 of Viewer.cpp (available electronically), is used to look up values in the array. This method is modified on line 54 to call the client lookupUp function in a thread.
To leave the original behavior intact, wrap the new functionality in a DIVORCE_UI define statement so you can conditionally compile-in changes.
To simplify the code, I made all network calls blocking. You can't issue a blocking call from the UI thread in Qt (and most GUI frameworks) without making the UI unresponsive to users. Therefore, I issue the blocking call to the server inside a thread, and have the thread alert the UI when the blocking network communication has completed.
See the FetchDataThread.cpp class (Listing Four) for the implementation of my thread wrapper to the fetchData function.
The run() method in Listing Four calls the blocking lookupValue function call defined in Listing Three. The method locks a mutex around critical data to ensure thread safety.
In line 27 of Viewer.cpp, I use the Qt emit keyword to emit a signal containing the result received from the server. The GUI receives this method by connecting a "slot" in Qt parlance to the "signal" from the FetchDataThread thread (see lines 40-43 in Viewer.cpp). The end result is the showResult method in Viewer.cpp. It is called to display the results from the server and enable the Lookup button in the application.
Starting and Stopping the Server
The final piece of the puzzle is to have the GUI automatically start the 64-bit server to make the split appear transparent. The main() function in Viewer.cpp uses the Qt class QProcess to launch the server executable on lines 83-88, and shuts the server down on lines 93-97 before the applications exits.
Creating a Universal Binary
You may want to ship 32-bit and 64-bit servers so your application can run on a wide variety of Macintosh hardware. Instead of shipping multiple versions of the application, you can create a Universal Binary (also called a "Fat Binary") that lets you ship one server binary that is both 32 bit and 64 bit. A Universal Binary automatically selects the correct code, depending on the user's system without additional coding or user intervention.
It is straightforward to create a Universal Binary using Xcode, or using the lipo tool shipped with OS X. Lipo "glues" your 32-bit and 64-bit applications into one binary. Listing Five is an example makefile that creates a Universal Binary for the server presented here. Use the UNIX file command to examine the resulting binary:
% file server
server: Mach-O fat file with 2 architectures
server (for architecture ppc):
Mach-O executable ppc
server (for architecture ppc64):
Mach-O 64-bit executable ppc64
Building and Running the Application
To build the application after you have installed Qt, enter:
% qmake ; make ; make -f Makefile.server
at the command line. The qmake utility (included with Qt) creates a Makefile for building the GUI from the Viewer.pro file in Listing Six. The Makefile.server builds the server as a Universal Binary. Once the build has completed, you can execute the 64-bit enabled Viewer application by running it from the command line:
With its UNIX heritage and innovative features such as Universal Binaries, OS X is a great 64-bit platform to develop 64-bit applications on. Migrating command-line applications to 64-bit is straightforward, and the strategy I've outlined here will help you in 64-bit enabling your GUI applications to harness the full power of Mac OS X Tiger.
#include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <errno.h> #include <string.h> #include <sys/types.h> #include <sys/socket.h> #include <sys/un.h> #include <inttypes.h> #include <unistd.h> #include "absoft.h" int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { int listenfd,/* listen socket descriptor */ clientfd, /* socket descriptor from connect */ i; int32_t x; /* array index from the client */ uint64_t result; /* result sent to client */ static uint64_t bigarray_[ARRAY_SIZE]; socklen_t clientlen; struct sockaddr_un server, client; /* Initialize array with random values */ for ( i = 0 ; i < ARRAY_SIZE ; i++ ) { bigarray_[i] = 10000000000000000000ULL + i; } /* AF_LOCAL is Unix Domain Socket */ if ((listenfd = socket(AF_LOCAL, SOCK_STREAM, 0)) < 0) { perror("socket"); exit(1); } /* Setup socket info */ bzero((char *) &server, sizeof(server)); server.sun_family = AF_LOCAL; strncpy(server.sun_path, SOCK_ADDR, sizeof(server.sun_path)); /* Unlink file to make sure bind succeeds. Ignore error */ unlink(SOCK_ADDR); /* Bind to socket */ if (bind(listenfd, (struct sockaddr *)&server, sizeof(server)) < 0 ) { perror("bind"); exit(2); } /* Listen on socket */ if (listen(listenfd, LISTENQ) < 0 ) { perror("listen"); exit(3); } for(;;) { printf("Waiting for a connection...\n"); clientlen = sizeof(client); if ((clientfd = accept(listenfd, (struct sockaddr *)&client, &clientlen)) < 0) { perror("accept"); exit(4); } /* Read the array index UI has requested */ readn(clientfd, &x, sizeof(x)); printf("Read in request for array element %d\n", x); if ( x > ARRAY_SIZE || x < 0 ) { /* Error */ result = 0; } else { result = bigarray_[x]; } /* Print specifier for unsigned 64-bit integer*/ printf ("Server sending back to client: %llu\n", result); if (writen(clientfd, &result, sizeof(result)) < 0 ) { exit(5); } close(clientfd); } exit(0); }Back to article
Listing Two
1 #ifndef ABSOFT_H 2 #define ABSOFT_H 3 #include <stdint.h> 4 #include <stdlib.h> 5 #define SOCK_ADDR "/tmp/sock" 6 #define LISTENQ 5 7 /* When compiled as 64-bit, use larger array 8 * (for demo the size is just 1 larger then 32-bit 9 */ 10 #ifdef __LP64__ 11 #define ARRAY_SIZE 1001 12 #else 13 #define ARRAY_SIZE 1000 14 #endif /* __LP64__ */ 15 /* Protos */ 16 ssize_t readn(int fd, void *vptr, size_t n); 17 ssize_t writen(int fd, const void *vptr, size_t n); 18 uint64_t lookupValue(int32_t x); 19 #endifBack to article
Listing Three
1 #include <stdio.h> 2 #include <stdlib.h> 3 #include <errno.h> 4 #include <string.h> 5 #include <sys/types.h> 6 #include <sys/socket.h> 7 #include <sys/un.h> 8 #include <sys/uio.h> 9 #include <sys/fcntl.h> 10 #include <inttypes.h> 11 #include <stdint.h> 12 #include <unistd.h> 13 #include "absoft.h" 14 /* Lookup array value at index x 15 * by connecting to unix domain socket 16 */ 17 uint64_t lookupValue(int32_t x) 18 { 19 int s; 20 struct sockaddr_un remote; 21 uint64_t result; 22 if ((s = socket(AF_LOCAL, SOCK_STREAM, 0)) < 0 ) { 23 perror("socket"); 24 return(0); 25 } 26 bzero(&remote, sizeof(remote)); 27 printf("Trying to connect...\n"); 28 remote.sun_family = AF_LOCAL; 29 strcpy(remote.sun_path, SOCK_ADDR); 30 if (connect(s, (struct sockaddr *)&remote, sizeof(remote)) < 0) { 31 perror("connect"); 32 return(0); 33 } 34 printf("Connected and sending %d\n", x); 35 if (writen(s, &x, sizeof(x)) < 0 ) { 36 perror("send"); 37 return(0); 38 } 39 readn(s, &result, sizeof(result)); 40 printf ("Client received result from server = %llu\n", result); 41 close(s); 42 return result; 43 }Back to article
Listing Four
1 #include "FetchDataThread.h" 2 FetchDataThread::FetchDataThread(QObject *parent) 3 : QThread(parent) 4 { 5 } 6 FetchDataThread::~FetchDataThread() 7 { 8 cond.wakeOne(); 9 wait(); 10 } 11 void FetchDataThread::fetchData(const int32_t x) 12 { 13 // Hold mutex until function exits 14 QMutexLocker locker(&mutex); 15 this->x = x; 16 if (!isRunning()) 17 start(); 18 else 19 cond.wakeOne(); 20 } 21 void FetchDataThread::run() 22 { 23 QMutexLocker locker(&mutex); 24 int32_t xv = x; 25 // This is the call that blocks 26 uint64_t result = lookupValue(xv); 27 /* Minimal error checking. Returns 0 if error */ 28 if ( result == 0 ) { 29 emit errorOccured("Error looking up value"); 30 return; 31 } else { 32 QString str; 33 emit fetchedData( str.setNum(result) ); 34 } 35 }Back to article
Listing Five
CFLAGS= -Wall -Wformat -Wmissing-prototypes -Wconversion -Wsign-compare -Wpointer-arith all: server server32: util.c server.c gcc $(CFLAGS) -m32 util.c server.c -o server32 server64: util.c server.c gcc $(CFLAGS) -m64 util.c server.c -o server64 server: server32 server64 lipo -create server32 server64 -output server clean: rm -rf server32 server64 serverBack to article
Listing Six
# Use The Qt utility "qmake" to build # a Makefile from this file TEMPLATE = app CONFIG += qt release TARGET += DEPENDPATH += . INCLUDEPATH += . DEFINES += DIVORCE_UI HEADERS += Viewer.h HEADERS += absoft.h HEADERS += FetchDataThread.h SOURCES += client.c SOURCES += util.c SOURCES += Viewer.cpp SOURCES += FetchDataThread.cppBack to article


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Schuman Health Care Center
The Schuman Health Care Center is a hospital in Downtown, Vice City in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. When the player gets wasted, the player will respawn at this hospital if this hospital is the closest one to the player. An Ambulance and a health pickup is usually found here. It is one of the few places which displays an address: 1212 Hoarmount Ave.
In GTA Vice City, a unique stunt jump is located on the roof of this hospital. This hospital is where Tommy Vercetti drops of Lance Vance in the mission Death Row.
There is a non-solid piece of wall on the southwest side of the hospital. The player can go through the wall.


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My Head Exploded. Literally!
March 13, 2012 7 Comments
It's Let's Blog Off Day, a bi-weekly event in which bloggers post essays on a predetermined topic. It's possible that when I saw today's topic, What's your grammar pet peeve?, I rubbed my hands together, like Snidely over there. (There also may have been some gleeful cackling, but I admit to nothing.) Before I go on, a caveat: I can't think of grammar aggravations without running smack into punctuation and usage. Love and marriage, soup and sandwich, blah, blah, blah, etc. Here we go:
1. Use of "literally" as an intensifier
Chances are my head did not literally explode. Perhaps I only felt as if it did when I heard someone say, "I literally ran out of cereal this morning." I've no doubt that person did run out of cereal this morning, but "literally" implies a world in which one might only figuratively run out of cereal. Here's another one: "I was literally crying." As opposed to what? Some sort of virtual crying? Pretend crying while making air quotes? Either you were crying, or you weren't. "I literally have to have that." "It was literally huge." "He literally looked terrible." "Literally" has become the Monsanto of speech and must be stopped.
2. Comma before "however"
"We're here to serve you, however there may be a long wait."
I'll take that with a side of semi-colon, please. (There is this exception to no-comma-before-however, however.)
3. Mistaking "regime" for "regimen"
If I were the head of a regime, I would put all citizens on a daily regimen of vocabulary study.
4. Of Abuse
Poor "of," overused and abused, gets a special entry. Wantonly, callously inserted where it doesn't belong, "of" pushes out "have" when all it wants to do is what it was meant to do. End "of" abuse!
A) "Not that big of a deal"
Inserting "of" where it doesn't belong is that big a deal.
B) "I wish I would of" or "If I could of"
• Peeve the first: It's would (or could or should) have, do you hear me? Would. Should. Could. HAVE. As in, "my head would have exploded."
• Peeve the second: Not only is it not "would of" or "could of," it's not even "I wish I would have," or "If I could have." It's "I wish I had," or "If I had." HAD! HAD!! I WISH I HAD!! IF I HAD!! HAAAAAD!!!!!
There. I feel a lot better now.
Full Disclosure Footnote
In preparing this post I learned that it is not exactly incorrect to use "myriad" as a noun. I don't mind admitting I'm wrong about something, but this is a bitter pill, and I'm pretty sure I'll never get used to accepting a myriad of myriads used as nouns.
Don't Hate Me Because I'm Annoying Footnote
And now I have to ask it, much as it pains me. Who's worse: the person who talks sorta wrong, or the know-it-all? Hmmmm. . .


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I am using a Custom User Name Password Validator in my WCF Service. It works if I hard code the username and password in the validator function, but , I am trying to have my WCF service to validate username and password against those stored in my database, and that part does not work.
Can some one please let me know if I am supposed to do something else to make it validate against credentials stored in the DB. I have tested the entire database connection and reader related code in the client application and it works. It does not work when I use it in the WCF service.
Thank you for your help.
Here is my code:
Code:class CustomUserNamePassValidator : System.IdentityModel.Selectors.UserNamePasswordValidator { public override void Validate(string userName, string password) { string MyUser = ""; string MyPass = ""; string connectionString = "Initial Catalog=MyDB;Data Source=MyServer;Integrated Security=SSPI"; SqlConnection MyConnection = new SqlConnection(connectionString); try { using (MyConnection) { SqlCommand command = new SqlCommand("Exec MyDB.dbo.GetCredentials", MyConnection); MyConnection.Open(); SqlDataReader MyReader = command.ExecuteReader(); if (MyReader.HasRows) { while (MyReader.Read()) { MyUser = MyReader["UserName"].ToString(); MyPass = MyReader["Passwrd"].ToString(); } } MyReader.Close(); } } catch (Exception exp) { MyFaultException theFault = new MyFaultException(); theFault.Reason = "Database Connection Error: " + exp.Message.ToString(); throw new FaultException<MyFaultException>(theFault); } if (userName == null || password == null) { throw new SecurityTokenException("security Error: No Credentials Passed"); } if (userName != MyUser && password != MyPass) { throw new SecurityTokenException("security Error: Wrong Credentials Passed"); } //It works if I do it this way //if (!(userName == "MyUser" && password == "MyPass")) //{ // throw new SecurityTokenException("security Error: Wrong Credentials Passed"); //} }


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Undergraduates and professors conduct global climate change research in Panama as part of Penn State Lehigh Valley's award-winning CHANCE program.
They rolled up their sleeves with Smithsonian scientists and visited the Panama Canal and an indigenous village. They explored the biodiversity of mangroves and bird life, observed manatees, and participated in sea turtle conservation.
One student wrote about this amazing academic experience. Her thoughts about the Penn State Lehigh Valley CHANCE (Connecting Humans and Nature through Conservation Experiences) field program and her passion for science, excerpted below from her published blog entries, tell a story of dedication, education, perspiration, and plain old hard work—with some fun mixed in for good measure.
No electricity or running water? Sand and sweat embedded in their clothes? "In the end, it was all completely worth it."—Penn State Abington student Colleen Kelsey
August 7, 2013: For Granted
I considered myself to be fairly grateful. We all take advantage of things and get greedy on occasion, but most days I remembered to thank fate and everyone around me for what I have. I was also very aware that there were many others who have far less than I do.
But being aware and living it are two very different things.
Awareness brings compassion, empathy, and most times makes you a little more humble. But in Panama, there were times I was actually living it. There were places, mostly on the islands, that had no electricity.
At night—and we had to be up all hours sometimes to patrol for turtles—I had to dress in the blackest dark. When I returned from patrols, I had to shower in the dark using a bucket because there was also no running water.
Since there was no running water—and you wouldn't dare waste the little water you had to wash clothes—we all wore our two outfits over and over again. There was a week's worth of sweat, sand, and sea breeze soaked into our clothes that I don't think I will ever be able to wash out.
In the end, it was all completely worth it.
Every time I put on my clean clothes (and I have so many clothes!) and able to wash them it makes me happy. My life is so much more complete now.
Every little thing I used to take for granted, I fully appreciate. It has made me a much better roommate (because I'm so much cleaner), daughter (because I thank my parents more sincerely now), student (I put a lot of effort into my projects), and person (I'm alive and I'm happy.)
"I wonder about processes and the environment. I remember all those science classes I've taken and apply them to what I'm seeing and feeling at that moment."—Colleen Kelsey
September 12, 2013: Welcome to your senior year as a Science Student
So it has been one hectic and crazy first three weeks of school!
Sitting in room 313 Woodland on the Abington campus, waiting for my syllabus to be handed out, I hear what I already know is coming: "It won't be easy and you're going to need to put a lot of work into passing this class."
And it has been nothing less than that. I've been reading at least 10-15 pages of textbook, solving incredible amounts of physics equations, writing note cards, and just trying to remember to stop and eat.
This is usually when I ask myself, "WHY?? Why do I want to do this major? There are so many things that would be easier if I'd just switched two years ago."
Every time I'm outside, I look at the trees and I breathe in the air, my mind is at peace. I love it. I'm 100 percent in my element, whether it's 90 degrees and humid, or if its raining and chilly, or even when I'm walking through snow drifts and freezing. I am completely content outside.
I have also taken some time in the last week or so to notice my reactions when younger students ask me what my major is and why I would want to struggle through it.
Many of them are questioning their own fields of study, and they want to understand why I stuck it out.
So why do I do it?
Because I have to. Science is my addiction.
Read more of Colleen's blog entries as well as those of other Penn State Abington students.


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I really feel at home with Curvy3D. My strong suit is my 2d skills (lasso tool and all) but the lathe system is so fun.
Here are a few of my experiments with curvy3d
Software for Artists - Aartform Curvy 3D
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Home Sweet Home Quilt Along
- Schedule
- Block 1 - My Home
- Block 2 - Lapacek's Orchard
- Block 3 - House by the Bay
- Block 4 - My Tilted House
- Block 5 - Two Trees
- Block 6 - Tree of Life
- Block 7 - Under the Moreton Bay Fig
- Block 8 - A Wonky Modern House
- Block 9 - Scrappy Trees
- Block 10 - A Home for the Birds
- Block 11 - The Happy Tree
- Block 12 - the little house
- Block 13 - Three Trees
- Block 14 - Under the Apple Tree
- Block 15 - A Home for Hoot
- Block 16 - Branch Sweet Branch
- BONUS - accuquilt home
- BONUS - Acid Cottage
- BONUS - Marcia's Crazee Patch House
- BONUS Block - Rippling Pond
- Flickr Group - Post your blocks here!
- BONUS - Acid Cottage
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Kim's Crafty Apple has MOVED to www.PersimonDreams.com
I'm re-branding myself from Kim's Crafty Apple into 'Persimon Dreams.'
You can now find me at:
(and my jewelry is still at www.theapple.etsy.com)
Project QUILTING, Season 3, Challenge 1 – Architectural Elements
photo by Jack – Lloyd (found on flickr)Welcome back to another season of Project QUILTING! I am super excited to be back hosting more quilt challenges and I can't wait to see all the amazing pieces that are created over the next 12 weeks of Season 3.
The PRIZES –All of these will be selected from hat. Everyone who enters a piece following the challenges guidelines within the week of this challenge will have there
name put in the hat for an opportunity to win one of these ELEVEN amazing prizes! (Pictures/examples of the prizes are all shown on Project QUILTING Season 3 – PRIZES post)
Prize 1: StudioCherie is giving a free pattern to EVERYONE that participates in the first challenge!
Prize 2: The Fat Quarter Shop will be giving one lucky winner a layer cake of their choice!
Prize 3: FabricFascination is having the random drawing winner choose from either of these colors:
Batik 5" Charms: 40 Tonga Treat Mini Squares in BlueBerry OR
Batik 5" Charms: 40 Tonga Treat Mini Squares in Pomegranate
Prize 4: Marcia's Crafty Sewing and Quilting is offering a Gift Certificate of $30.00 off Quilting on a Baby size or larger. The Gift Certificate will be good for 60 days from the date of issue. The gift certificate is transferable so you can share it with a friend if you'd like.
Prize 5: Dye Candy is donating one yard of stunning hand-dyed fabric.
Prize 6: LoveBugStudios is giving a Quiltspirations! Mystery Card Pack from her latest venture, quiltspirations.com. (these are a brand new venture so you will have to be patient and your cards will arrive in the next few weeks…)
Prize 7: Quilties is giving away an adorable 'I Love Quilting' Keychain!
Prize 8: Quiltology is giving a coupon for her longarm quilting services for 20% off with a minimum $40 purchase. All of her patterns are online
Prize 9: QuiltsbyBarb is giving a gift certificate for $20 off machine quilting. The coupon expires in 6 months from the date issued and is not transferable
Prize 10: $10 to ThePaintedDaisy good for in stock merchandise in her Etsy shop (or local peeps are welcome to visit her and shop her inventory in person).
Prize 11: PennyFabricArt is donating the book 'pretty little mini quilts' for a prize!
The CHALLENGE -Architectural Elements
Photo by Blake Herman, found on flickr
- Your inspiration will come from architecture.
- Be sure to include a photo or description of the architectural element(s) that inspired you.
- Your project can be any size or shape.
- Please remember that these projects need to be created during the week of the challenge.
- POST your entries with a description of your creative process, including where you are (ie, I create in Madison, WI) and the size of your project by Sunday, January 15th, 2012, at noon, CDT, to this flickr group – Project QUILTING with KimsCraftyApple: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1401824@N21/ OR email a picture/description of your completed project to {lapaceksorchard at gmail dot com} with PROJECT QUILTING in the subject line.
- If you wish to receive critiques on your piece – the good and critical – please add your photo's to this group as well: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1628629@N24/
- Are you stuck? Need a little 'Tim Gunn' advice during the week? Or are you just so excited on how things are going along and what to share your WIP? We have a group for that! http://www.flickr.com/groups/1430386@N24/
- If this is the first Project Quilting challenge you've participated in, please email Kim at {lapaceksorchard at gmail dot com} with PROJECT QUILTING in the subject line so that Kim can keep you updated on the behind the scenes going-ons.
A great way to document your quilts is with Quilt Album! Check out this post for a discount code!
Help me spread the word about InfantSee – a great program for babies under 1 year old!
10 comments:
- Aunt Cindy said...
Great timing for this! I'm canvasing the neighborhood with my girlie today selling Girl Scout cookies - we're hitting the Victorian end of our street today (camera in hand!)
- January 8, 2012 at 12:09 PM
- Katie said...
I'm really super excited to try this challenge. This will be the first time for me. I look forward to working within guidelines and having my work critiqued. I REALLY appreciate this!!
- January 8, 2012 at 12:17 PM
- Stephanie said...
I'm really excited about this challenge. I do have a question though. The due date you have listed must be from a previous season, March 27, 2011. What is the due date for this project?
- January 8, 2012 at 12:31 PM
- PersimonDreams said...
OOPS! I left up last years due date - this challenge is due January 15th, 2012 at NOON!
- January 8, 2012 at 12:44 PM
- Marcia - Crafty Sewing and Quilting said...
Great Quilting Challenge! Thanks for the inspiration! There are so many possibilities with all the patterns of buildings and whatnot! This will be my thinking day!
Just tweeted this too and of course shared it on facebook when you shared it!
- January 8, 2012 at 1:00 PM
- lesleyworth said...
Hmmmm...this challenge is definitely going to get me out of my comfort zone...love the challenge and looking forward to playing along!
- January 8, 2012 at 1:14 PM
- Sharon said...
I'm a newbie and can't wait to give this a try! Thanks for the challenges!
- January 8, 2012 at 2:59 PM
- FabricFascination said...
So exciting! I can't wait to see the entries.
- January 8, 2012 at 3:14 PM
- moosecarol said...
This is the first time I've tried entering your challenge. I just finished binding my piece and will post pictures today. I'm excited about the process.
- January 14, 2012 at 12:08 PM
- Katie said...
I'm down to the WIRE here. . so CDT means "central daylight time?" I hope so . . that means they have to be posted by 1pm TOMORROW EST? hahaha
- January 14, 2012 at 7:41 PM
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- Project QUILTING, Season 3, Challenge 2 – Making M...
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- Architectural Elements – A Closer Look - Barn Bones
- What's Your Style: Art Nouveau
- Architectural Elements – A Closer Look, Part 5
- Architectural Elements – A Closer Look, Part 4
- Block 2: Home Sweet Home Quilt Along – Lapacek's O...
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- Block 1: 'Home Sweet Home' Quilt Along – My Home
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- Project QUILTING Sponsor – The Fat Quarter Shop
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- Modern Solids Quilt Along – FINISHED!
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- A Monday Treasury
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- Record your Quilts! A Quilt Album Review
- What's Your Style: Art Deco
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- Project QUILTING – Season 3 – PRIZES!
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Popular Posts
WOW! WOW! WOW! I was absolutely blown away by the number of amazing entries that were submitted for the first challenge! You all made a ...
Everyone super excited to see what Block 3 for the quilt along is going to be. Before we get there I want to introduce you to today's desig...
I started this quilt way back in February of 2011 when a friend of mine on etsy sent me the link for Amy Butler's Bloom Pattern . As soon...
Happy Thursday everyone! Can you believe we're already to block 12? Those that are following along I'm sure are seeing how awesome their q...
I am a HUGE HUGE HUGE fan of Project Runway. I don't have cable so I always wait patiently for each season to come out on Netflix and then ...


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California took a big step toward resolving its budget crisis Thursday afternoon. Spokespersons for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in an e-mail, "the Governor and Legislative leaders have reached the framework of an agreement, will work through the details over the weekend, and hope to come to a final agreement when they reconvene Monday (September 27).
Now, a lot could happen between now and then, but this can only be seen as the first positive news about the state budget since lawmakers blew through the deadline for a deal 85 days ago.
What no one is saying yet is who agreed to what. Republicans have refused to budge on the issue of tax hikes, while Democrats have fought against additional cuts.
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
Legislative leaders reached the deal at the Governor's offices in L.A. They were meeting there because Mr. Schwarzenegger has been battling a cold.
It might not be as therapeutic as chicken noodle soup, but a budget deal has to make Ahnold feel better.


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Updated: In a post-Jobs world, Apple seems to be sticking with its standard operating procedure: make major announcements on Tuesdays. Sources tell All Things D that on Oct. 4 new CEO Tim Cook's first product launch may well be the iPhone 5.
Stay tuned for when Apple sends out the official invites.
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
It's rare when, twice in one day, Apple employees are sources for rumor stories around the iPhone 5. In the end, it's still just a rumor -- spawning more questions than answers. (Is that a "we stopped caring" tipping point peeking from behind that next rumor headline?)
An employee told the New York Times that the new design would be "fairly different" from the 4. It's supposed to have an 8-pixel camera, for instance, which was leaked by Sony's CEO earlier.
The well-sourced and well-written 9to5Mac adds that there are two versions of the new device to be launched, with the bonus of a target launch date of Oct. 7. They have a look-alike for iPhone 4 as the lower-end device.
Production delays are also popping up, as the tear-drop shaped iPhone 5 -- with bigger display and a thinner, rounder body at 9to5Mac.
TheNextWeb shows that those leaked (read: posted and removed) pics of iPhone 5 cases were probably a publicity stunt -- but that doesn't make them wrong. They also point to new innards in the 5 that match the iPad 2's A5 dual-core processor.
One question still buzzing around is whether the 5's processor will have near-field communication (NFC) capabilities. Or will that come in the 6?
According to Apple, 200 million people have stored their credit card information on iTunes, the Times reports. That's a lot of waves, wafts and swipes for easy purchasing.
But we're getting ahead of ourselves... When's the thing available, again??


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Restrictions to be lifted on non-earning partners getting credit cards
A clause in the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act (CARD Act) of 2009 had a serious unintended consequence. It made it much more difficult -- often impossible -- for spouses or partners who weren't earning incomes in their own right, mostly stay-at-home moms and dads, to apply successfully for their own new credit cards. On Oct. 17, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a federal watchdog, unveiled plans to correct this error.
Credit card debt and students
The problem arose from a drafting error. A provision that was meant to protect students who had no income of their own from getting themselves into credit card debt was written so widely that it effectively prevented anyone who couldn't show independent earnings from receiving new cards.
According to a CFPB press release that quoted census data, up to 16 million married people who are full-time homemakers or otherwise not in paid employment could have been affected. That's in addition to unmarried people in long-term partnerships in the same position.
Credit card changes in sight
The press release goes on to describe the bureau's proposal for revising the regulation. It should allow credit card companies to approve applications from people who are age 21 years or over providing they "rely on third-party income to which they have a reasonable expectation of access." The proposed change should apply to all such adults, regardless of their marital status.
Even those most closely associated with the CARD Act seem to welcome the change. On Oct. 19, Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass), one of the law's architects, issued a statement in which he addressed the restriction that has led to creditworthy adults being turned down for cards:
This was never the Congressional intent and I am very pleased that the CFPB has once again demonstrated its value to consumers by making that clear and by proposing a rule that will fully enable spouses and partners to receive credit cards in appropriate circumstances.
Student credit cards still a problem
Ironically, the same clause that inflicted this problem failed in its real objective. As described early last year in "Student credit cards effectively unregulated," many credit card companies are ignoring the CARD Act's intended restrictions on issuing plastic to kids. True, they insist those kids have an income, although they rarely check claims made on applications, but they count contributions from mom and dad, grants and scholarships, and student loans (yes, really) as income.
Of course, some youngsters are perfectly capable of managing student credit cards well, and can benefit from building their credit scores early. But others soon find themselves in trouble. Perhaps the CFPB should fix that problem next.
Published 10/24/12
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OCEAN CITY — The 15th Annual Endless Summer Cruisin Car Show returns to the Ocean City Inlet parking lot Oct. 4-7.
Show hours are from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 4 through Saturday, Oct. 6 and the Grand Finale Car Show and Awards Ceremony 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 7. This four-day automotive event continues to be one of the eastern regions largest fall car shows with more than 2,000 hot rods, street machines customs and more.
Special guest this year is Butch Patrick, best known for his role as little Eddie Munster on The Munsters. He will be available for meet and greets Friday 11 a.m.-4 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Beachside Inlet and Saturday 11 a.m.-4 p.m. inside the Ocean City Convention Center. Also be sure to check out the Munster display inside the Convention Center Friday and Saturday, featuring the Munster Koach, Drag-u-la and little Eddie's go-kart replicas.
Being held in conjunction with Endless Summer Cruisin is the 32nd Annual Hot Rod & Custom Car Show Friday and Saturday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., inside the Ocean City Convention Center. See some of the hottest show cars around, including the "Fun 55" Chevy Watermelon Pick-up, "Brilliant Yellow" 36 Ford Coupe and the "Classic Muscle" 65 Ford Mustang Fastback.
Some of the country's top national names will be showcasing their products in the manufacturers midway at the Inlet parking lot all 4 days of Endless Summer Cruisin including AAA Mid Atlantic, Bimbos Xtreme, General Motors Performance Division, Flowmaster Exhausts, Maryland Lottery, Miller Electric, Optima Batteries, Royal Purple, Slide-Lok, Summit Racing Equipment and others.
Another Endless Summer Cruisin Car Show highlight is the special Boardwalk Parades that will take place Thursday, Oct. 4 through Saturday, Oct. 6 from 8 a.m. until 9 a.m. each day beginning at 27th Street and continuing south to the Inlet parking lot.
Tickets are $10 a day, good at both events, and children under 14 are Free with an adult. Four-day event passes are also available for $30.
For more show information be sure to visit www.endlesssummercruisin.com


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It may be illegal, but Californians are still breaking the law. Texting behind the wheel has tripled in Southern California since 2009, according to a survey from AAA.
Although the percentage is relatively low at 4.1 percent, it is three times higher than it was when the California state Assembly enacted a texting ban.
In January of 2009, only 1.4 percent of people said they drove while manipulating a wireless device. Last month AAA found that 4.1 percent of drivers could be texting at any given time while on the road.
Tickets for first time offenders are $25, but increases in price with time. Subsequent convictions are $50, and with penalty assessments the fine could be triple the fine, according to the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
"We write a lot of tickets for it," Lt. Andra Brown from the San Diego Police Department said. "It's something we take very seriously."
Texting and driving is a primary reason for stopping, meaning police officers can pull over any driver they see texting or talking without a hands-free device.
Brown said often times people try to conceal that they are texting, but because they realize the inherent danger they end up putting their phone in direct visibility.
"The fact that they're trying to hide it means they shouldn't be doing it," she said. "You obviously know that you're doing something wrong. They're giving themselves away."
The combination of texting and driving has proved to be lethal – for both drivers and others on the road. A study performed last year by University of North Texas Health Science Center found that texting while driving was responsible for more than 16,000 deaths between 2002 and 2007.
Let us know what you think. Comment below, send us your thoughts via Twitter @nbcsandiego or add your comment to our Facebook page.


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Yulia Brodskaya
April 28, 2010
This talented woman takes quilling to the extreme. EXTREME.
You may recognize her "PAPERgraphics" from Target, Neiman Marcus, Hermes, Starbucks, or Nokia ads. If not, maybe from a magazine such as Blender or the New York Times. Regardless, I'm pretty sure you've seen her work before!
Be sure to check out her other work here!
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platinum diamond flower wedding ring, engagement ring, wedding band ADLR190B
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What a couple of old farts I have reared:
Hope yours was just as merry♫♪♬
I luuuurve you.
They are the best LOL
David overslept, breezed in before work, had coffee, opened presents, we hugged 3 times and he left.
Total time elapsed: 45 minutes.
The end. :)
So funny! Are they still home? I know you enjoy them SO much! :)
Ha ha they sound like so much fun!
Hope you had a good Christmas!
I believe. I will always believe. And no one can convince me otherwise:)
big smiles......thankn you....;-)
So the kids know the truth about the jolly guy....and the mom is in denial...hmmmm....what to do with that...