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Reg. $595.00
Sale! $94.99
Made of tightly woven durable water repellent and wind resistant fabric. Warm interior fleece collar. Adjustable cuffs. Two-way zipper with storm flaps. Removable interior liner is down insulated to provide maximum warmth. Combine the exterior shell and liner to stay warm and dry during winter's coldest days. Dry clean. Imported.
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Love it!
By honey
from new york
About Me Trendy/Stylish Dresser
Comments about Jos. A. Bank Two-In-One Cold Weather Jacket:
It keep you warm in cold weather.
Bottom Line Yes, I would recommend this to a friend
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too bulky and not practical
By Chairman N Chief
from ohio
About Me Casual Dresser
jacket is well made but very bulky with interior liner too long...appearance nice on outside but like putting on a space suit not practical..will keep looking thoughgreat service...
Bottom Line No, I would not recommend this to a friend
Casual and Versatile Coat
By Greenskeeper Sneaker
from Baltimore, MD
This is a great coat for bear wrasslin' in the snow or simply fighting crime in the streets. I love the style and how well it keeps out the cold even on a windy day. It's the end of December and I haven't had to wear it with the down liner yet! The liner does at a significant amount of bulk to the coat, but the warmth is worth it. My only complaint is that the zipper can be a fuss to figure out, but other than that absolutely satisfied.
Nice jacket!
By RKS
from New Market, Maryland
About Me Classic Dresser
I was looking for a coat to wear on a trip to Italy. I needed it to be stylish and flexible. Weather in December can be unpredictable in Tuscany and the coats I had were either for very cold or mild weather. I looked at a Marc Anthony jacket with a removable lining in Nordstroms but it wasn't quite right. This jacket is on a similar design but it seems to be better made and more conservative. The colar is more subdued and the over all quality seems so much better.
Just what I needed for the northwest!
By Slick
from Mount Vernon, WA
This is a great jacket for a place where the weather changes quite a bit - from rain to sunbreaks to showers to clear skies. It's the right weight, has a superb and warm zip-in liner,and sheds the water very well. The outside pockets are deep and convenient. The inside pockets provide just enough room for cellphones, keys, and other things you might want easy access to.
I Highly Recommend
By Yarni
from Washington, DC
Very warm and elegant looking
Awesome Jacket
By Hybrid Guy
from Binghamton, NY
The jacket looks good and is VERY warm. I wanted a reasonably stylish jacket that provided warmth and was water-proof, and this one does the trick. My only complaint is the set-up on the zipper - it gives an occasional hassle when zipping together.
(2 of 4 customers found this review helpful)
Big men; big cold
By Clothes' horse
from Jamaica, NY
This is definitely for the country of big men and cold weather. That said as a 46 regular men's suit clothes horse, I like the wear and feel of this coat! The wear is for the long haul: synthetic material to ward off cold winds and insular warmth within from the liner to keep out the snow and wind chill factor air. I feel like a West Point plebe when wearing this coat: I'm ready for marching out in the cold, and if I have to stay there...bring on winter...this soldier is prepared. A nice tuck away hood would make this very good coat excellent!
Dressier than I thought it would be!
By Baby Boomer
from Worthington, OH
I thought I would use it only for outdoor activities, but I now wear it every day for business casual attire. I like the shiny finish more than I thought I would and it is easy to keep clean. The down liner is very warm and comfortable. I also like the fit of the cuffs with an internal elasticed cuff that keeps out the cold air and snow.
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J. Maureen Henderson, Contributor
I write about early career issues. Pithily.
As an experiment, I quit the internet in September. I started with Twitter (update: I've since rejoined this particular platform), I moved on to Facebook and ended by shuttering my blog. I didn't stop freelancing or responding to emails, but I dropped social media and my participation in it like a hot potato and I haven't looked back. I held a client meeting at Dunkin' Donuts. If I wanted to see adorable pictures of my nieces, I had to email my sister to request them. I had more room in my schedule for the gym. The less time I've spent working on my online brand, the more offline opportunities have come my way. Here are three reasons you too should disentangle yourself from the social web in 2013:
It harms your self-esteem
While evidence for Social Media Anxiety Disorder is largely anecdotal at present, a UK study from the fall found that over 50% of social media users evaluated their participation in social networking as having an overall negative effect on their lives. Specifically, they singled out the blow to their self-esteem that comes from comparing themselves to peers on Facebook and Twitter as the biggest downfall. It seems trite, but you can't feel anxious about the achievements of your old college roommate or your MIT fellow cousin if you don't know about them in the first place. And forget about social media stalking your ex; it's as unhealthy as you'd guess.
Your blood pressure will thank you
Social media a hotbed of bad behavior – flame wars, bragging, bashing and crimes against grammar, among other misdeeds. If you find yourself getting unduly irritated by, say, entitled Millennials tweeting their displeasure at being denied iPhones by Santa, or falling victim to Godwin's Law while arguing with cyber strangers, it might be time to take a timeout. And make sure that break is a legitimate one – none of this downloading an app to manage your social media obligations for you.
Online is no substitute for offline
Almost a quarter of Americans say that they've missed out on important life moments in their quest to capture and memorialize them for social media. Think about that the next time you're Instagraming your anniversary dinner at P.F. Chang's. With the ubiquity of communications technology in our daily lives, it's easy to convince ourselves that the digital world is where all the action is and that the effort we put into building our online empire directly correlates to IRL benefits such as scoring a new job or landing a new mate. In fact, over 90% of job hunters of all ages look for work online, but less than 5% are conducting offline job hunting activities such as attending networking events or setting up information interviews. And guess what? A full 70 – 80% of job vacancies are never posted, so all that job board scouring is likely for naught. If the only benefit you've derived from flexing your social media muscle was free anti-antiperspirant samples from the folks at Klout, it might be time to direct your energy elsewhere.
Related on Forbes:
Beware, Tech Abandoners. People Without Facebook Accounts Are 'Suspicious'
Social Media And The Job Hunt: Squeaky-Clean Profiles Need Not Apply
Yes an if we put down the Iphone or push our selves away from the keyboard, we might actually find that there are meaningful people in our lives right in our own home or sitting across the table from us. They might actually have something interesting to say or a funny story to share. I see too many people going out to dinner and sitting there glued to their iphones not talking to each other. Maybe they should just drop the dinner partner.How ironic that this story is sponsored by an advertisement for a career in the icloud.
my friend's sister-in-law makes $86 every hour on the computer. She has been without a job for 7 months but last month her check was $14893 just working on the computer for a few hours. Read more on this web site Bing30.ℂOℳ
Man, spam comments on FORBES? That's depressing.
'Good advice! I never used it anyway. Years ago, I received emails that looked like they came from some of my friends, asking me to sign up, but when I called them, they said they didn't send the emails. This is a deceptive tactic used by social media sites. I have my own Web site that I control completely. It is available to the world and no registration is needed. www.pritchettcartoons.com
My site has no blog or forms. There is an email link on every page. If yopu have something to say to me, send me an email.
Keywords here being "years ago." Social media sites would never, ever do something like that now. And why would anyone need to register for a website that isn't a social media site?
I, too, felt compelled to walk away from FB for a week this past year because I recognized how dependent I'd become. It was refreshing and although I've returned, I pared my "friends" list and dropped a couple of groups.
There comes a point where each of us might want to ask ourselves whether our computers are tools or anchors.
It's also good to take a step back and look at the tech field and how they're drawing us all in with hype.
As an experiment, I quit the internet in September. Of course, I didn't really quit. But that doesn't matter, let me tell you how good it felt to pretend I quit. You should pretend to quit too!
I wonder what Emerson, Thoreau, Gandhi, Christ and the like would say today about the Internet Social Media. I have spent thousands of hours providing sidewalk astronomy for more than the past decade. Allowing thousands of people to observe the sun safely up close through special solar research-grade telescopes while on a 10,000 mile road trip across the US-Canadian continent over a 6 week period in 2000. Then three trips to the Fiji Islands in 2003 ~ 2004 to do the same for astronomy education in a developing country where they could not afford these expensive solar telescopes. Much of my teaching was arranged via Internet but the real process was on the streets as live real social interaction as I recorded peoples responses in audio as they first looked t the suns surface. I can tell stories about the hundreds or thousands of people and their personal lives that they allowed me the privilege to hear. The short 6.5 minute film- Solar Prophet was made a year later by a friend of mine of me on the streets providing this here in my home town of Portland Oregon . It is without narrative but at the end after the trailer music and credits, a real TV news blip of 2 minutes shows the actual process. This cannot be fully realized of really done on the internet- it must be experienced live. So I have covered it all, real life, the internet, the writing of the story and lecturing about it- then I started the art that has won awards and published in NASA web sites- this too has to be done as a real live process- Feel free to search my name on the web or in Facebook- see the many albums and photo documentation. Human reality in life is not only experiencing what others do- it must be engaged by all to experience life to the fullest- everyone wants to find meaning and feel that they belong to the universe while living, regardless of nationality, creed, color, socio-economioc status, etc >
Someone from The Verge actually went a year off of the grid.. great read: http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/1/4279674/im-still-here-back-online-after-a-year-without-the-internet
Favorite quote from it "…there's a lot of "reality" in the virtual, and a lot of "virtual" in our reality. When we use a phone or a computer we're still flesh-and-blood humans, occupying time and space. When we're frolicking through a field somewhere, our gadgets stowed far away, the internet still impacts our thinking: "Will I tweet about this when I get back?"

subset: commoncrawl


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Place: Sta-Mo Fields
Address: 1917 Moore Road
City: Stafford,Texas 77477
Entry: $100
Groups: 12u,14u,16u
Format: 4 GG
70 Minute Games
Free Sub, Bat Your LineUp
Batting cages and nets outside each field
Plenty of warmup areas
No gate fees
Coolers are welcome
Email at= email@example.com
or 281-960-1507 (Johnny Lara/ Tournament Director)
Texas Magic
Online Golf Tee Times with Last Minute Tee Time Deals & Discounts
Cool Running is the complete online resource for runners.
Find your favorite campground from the best campgrounds listing!
What have you always wanted to do?


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By Cass Rains, Staff Writer
Enid News and Eagle
ENID, Okla. —
Two storm systems are expected to bring strong, gusty winds and the possibility of rain or snow to northwest Oklahoma today.
Mike Honigsberg, director of Enid and Garfield County Emergency Management, said residents shouldn't expect too much precipitation, though.
One storm system was to pass through the area Tuesday.
"The storm system in the Pacific Northwest will begin moving through the inter-mountain region, and will cause a low pressure system to form in the Texas/Oklahoma Panhandle," Honigsberg said.
He said the second system would cause a "very strong wind gradient."
"This means the winds will almost be out of control," Honigsberg said.
He said major impacts from the front would be blowing dust, especially in southwest Oklahoma, and the possibility of rain and/or snow in the Enid area.
"Don't get your hopes up on either, simply because we are extremely dry right now," Honigsberg said. "If either does occur, there may or may not be any measurable precipitation. It's hard to say right now."
Winds gusting 40-50 mph are possible, and tonight's low will be in the mid-20s. That means wind chill values could drop into the single digits, according to National Weather Service.
"This stated, if we see rain, it could become freezing rain and we know what this means — slick roads Thursday morning," Honigsberg said. "If this falls as light and blowing snow, the roads should be OK. There may be a mix, so just stay aware and drive accordingly (tonight) and Thursday morning."
NWS puts the precipitation chance at 30 percent tonight. The high temperature is expected to be in the low-60s.
And will we have a white Christmas?
"There are indications from one model that is used in forecasting, that there might be a big change coming," Honigsberg said. "Several models have to be in agreement before forecasts can become relevant. I would not get your hopes up right now for a white Christmas, but we are watching this very closely. Seven days out is too far to come to any conclusions, especially when other key models are in disagreement."
According to NWS, a storm out of the Rocky Mountains could bring white-out or blizzard conditions to parts of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas on Christmas night. An exact track of the storm isn't known, nor are snowfall amounts.
Forecasters said the weather could force travelers to change their plans next week, and said later reports would have better predictions of where the storm may hit.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.


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New York Times vs. New York Mag: Beyoncé "Fashion Icon" Debate Heats Up
Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll: "Shining Star"
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to Feature Items from BEYONCÉ'S Personal Collection for the First Time
Exclusive Interview with Fall Out Boy: On E-Street Band, Slash, Joan Jett and AP Music Awards
The Rock Hall's 19th Annual Music Masters series will Honor 1986 Inductees The Everly Brothers
Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll: "Bye Bye Love" and "All I Have To Do Is Dream"
Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll: "Money"
Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll: "Dance to the Music" and "Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin"
Five Memorable Moments from the 2014 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival
Festival Six Pack: Performers at 2014 Bonnaroo and In Rock Hall
Frankie Sardo is not a rock and roll star. He never sold a million albums or reached the top of the charts. He is not a household name. However, he is a vital character in one of the most important ...Categories: Event, Education


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I've lived in the extreme-music trenches for most of my life, but there are still occasions when a band will make me stop and shudder. Death metal offers quite a few of those moments, but over the years it's become so fragmented, it's now more a loose subset and harder to define. Still, there are iconic bands whose names always spring to mind, and for me, Florida unit Six Feet Under is one of them. While death metal purists consider them more of a splinter group, the band's foundation of ultra-violent horror lyrics, "death-n-roll" groove riffs and cave-troll roars has made them as memorable as many of the bands who first defined the genre – including Death, Cannibal Corpse and Obituary, whose alumni rank among SFU's founding members. The buzz for their ninth studio album Undead reached feverish levels, and advance tracks like "Formaldehyde" fueled fan bloodlust even more. I finally got the chance to plunge myself into this gore-drenched audio inferno, and I'll warn you straight up: this one's gonna leave a stump. Read on for the breakdown, and preview one of the new tracks!
Long-time fans of the band will note the revised and expanded lineup: core members Chris Barnes (former vocalist for Cannibal Corpse) and guitarist Steve Swanson are now joined by new axe-man Rob Arnold and drummer Kevin Talley (both formerly of Chimaira), as well as bassist Jeff Hughell (Vile, Brain Drill), who replaced SFU founding member Terry Butler. While the band is known for steady, straightforward drop-tuned chugs, Undead boasts some of the group's highest-velocity rhythms, mainly due to Talley's proficiency with supersonic blastbeats. "He holds the beat and plays harder and louder and faster than any drummer I've ever been in a band with," Barnes declared. "The guy punches holes in the bottoms of drums, that's how hard he hits!"
In addition to the increase in speed, the songs have taken on a different structure and feel, which the frontman credits to his collaboration with Rob Arnold: "Rob brings a fresh outlook to the themes of Six Feet Under," Barnes explains. "He has a vast knowledge of what I've done, and he has a clear vision and great skill for writing memorable riffs. Being around him and the music he was creating was really inspiring to me, and it really pushed me to write the best lyrics I could." Those lyrics are perfectly matched to Undead's more furious performance style, with more supernatural themes and literal ocean tides of gore, and supported by rough & chunky production by Mark Lewis, who previously worked on DevilDriver's incredible 2011 release Beast. The end product walks a thin red line between old-school technical death and modern, hook-filled groove metal... and maintains that balance for much of its 40-minute length.
The band wisely front-loaded the record with three monolithic cuts, opening with "Frozen At the Moment of Death," which lays out a slow and ominous buildup before busting into overdrive to showcase the new lineup's more aggressive side, while sliding repeatedly into down-tempo phases that maintain a constant sense of doom. "Formaldehyde," the album's first single, is another example of the band's expert balancing act, with Hughell laying down a dark but complex and crawly bass line as a foundation for some creepy solo action from Swanson, while the beat pattern shifts constantly, building relentless tension. Barnes' voice is nearly impossible to decipher (even by death metal standards), but to me it's served more as an instrument in itself; in this mix, he blends well with the lower range of the guitars, making him sound like a surly giant, multi-tracked with other shrieks and shouts to enhance the terror. The pitch-black "18 Days" taps into the same slow-burn feeling, but with frequent controlled bursts from Talley's supernatural double-kick, plus some seriously bizarre insectoid sounds called forth from the guitars, resulting in one of the band's scariest tracks.
From here, the album does a bit of a stylistic callback with "Molest Dead," falling more into the style the band forged back in '95 on their amazing debut record Haunted, but with a leaner, simpler structure. "Blood On My Hands" is a more atmospheric mid-tempo piece, with smoldering chord progressions and some crazed solo work. "Missing Victims" is a fairly urgent chugger, but lacks enough dynamic changes to really take off; not so for "Reckless" and the superbly eerie "Near Death Experience," both of which fall solidly into the "death-n-roll" category, featuring some of the album's hookiest riffs (while still mixing up tempos here and there). "Delayed Combustion Device" goes low and dirty, with raunchy bass and guitar rhythms stomping in lock-step; "The Scar" plays out in the same style, only with much less focus. I crossed my fingers hoping the track "Vampire Apocalypse" would rise above its cliché title... and thankfully, I have to say it's pretty badass, with muscular riffs (including some wicked harmonics) and explosive drumming. The album closes out on "The Depths of Depravity," a haunting down-tempo number that begins with clean guitars and a smoky ambiance, picking up the pace at the midpoint, building suspense before easing slowly back down into darkness.
If your loyalties lie with '90s-era death metal, Six Feet Under may have previously wandered too far off the path for your liking. But with Undead, I'm sensing a powerful pull back to the genre's origins, along the lines of Obituary, Cannibal Corpse and early-era Morbid Angel, no doubt due in large part to the diverse backgrounds of the band's current lineup, and also the sharing of songwriting duties between Chris Barnes and Rob Arnold. The famed mid-tempo grooves are still tight, but there's more technical wizardry on top, and the drumming on this release is phenomenal enough in itself to warrant a listen. Personally, I dig their smooth integration of creepy-crawly tempos with explosive shreddage and blastbeats, and while they may not have kept that mixture well-stirred for the entire album, it's still a seriously potent blood-red cocktail.
Speaking of which... how about a little sip of "Formaldehyde?"


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Go behind the brands you buy
What do Twinings, Toblerone and Tropicana have in common? The same as Coca Cola, Cheerios and Cadbury's, Ovaltine and Oreos, Pringles and Pop tarts. They're all made by the 'Big 10' food companies, who between them make over $1 billion a day.
Here at Oxfam we've spent a good part of the past 18 months looking at how the world's biggest food firms - household names like Nestle, Coca Cola, Pepsi and Kellogg - do business. While some are doing better than others, overall, the results are bad news. But the good news is that no brand is so big it can ignore its customers – and that's where you come in.
We know you already think hard about what you buy, so we're not asking you to feel guilty about it. Instead we want to work with you to push for these companies we buy from everyday to do better. We've created a simple 'Behind the Brands' Scorecard to compare how the 10 biggest food companies score on issues from water to workers. The results aren't pretty – and when it comes to supporting the women in supply chains all companies are failing.
Start with the women behind your chocolate
Three companies - Nestle, Mars and Mondelez - buy over 30% of the cocoa grown worldwide. But the women who grow and pick that cocoa are getting a raw deal.
This matters because it's women who most often provide food for their families, and thousands of these women farmers and their families are going hungry. And because you buy the bars, you really can change the way those chocolate companies do business.
For decades, these companies have put women front and center in their advertising but have ignored the women they rely on to grow the chocolate. It's time for Nestle, Mars and Mondelez to LOOK, LISTEN and ACT for the women who grow their cocoa.
But first, they'll listen to you. You don't need to stop buying chocolate. But you can stop the big chocolate companies from putting women last. Sign the petition now and urge these companies to act.
Because if you think you can't change the food system, you really need to think again. You're more powerful than any of the world's biggest food companies. Without you, they won't stay big for long.
my confession
I love chocolate my mom and I would buy twosnickers bars almost everyday when Id get out Of school it was to no shame, my grandma would make cocoa for us even in the ummer I crave the drink when Im cleaning n with meals I try to control myself seriously
I fail to see what the
I fail to see what the previous coment has to do with the story
Basically she's saying she's an addict, this is going to be like her petitioning a drug dealer to change their cocaine manufacturing process to be more environmentally friendly...
There are alternative companies
I abandoned most of these companies years ago and Cadbury in the wake of their takeover by Kraft. The fact is that each of them already know about their ethical and environmental shortcomings but their corporate conscience lacks any willingness to address the issues. And whilst it's true a few have made improvements over the years I remain concerned that most have to be pushed, cajoled or forced (e.g. through regulation) to make changes. I would rather spend my money with companies I can trust to implement best practices with a programme of continuous monitoring and review on the ethical and environmental fronts.
Never going to change corporations
Either the workers get paid so little, or we the consumer have to shell out to cover the "Fair" Trade gap.
Real Fair Trade would take the difference out of the corporation's massive profits rather than the pockets of the consumer, but that's never going to happen.
Which are the companies we
Which are the companies we CAN trust? Which chocolate shall we buy? I think we should spend more effort in showing people which are the good one's in comparison to the bad one's.
Fair Trade is half the answer; we gotta change the big guys too!
Yes, certainly, you can make positive choices by buying fair-trade products.
But you cannot ignore the big brands who wield so much power over the market and people's lives in the producing countries.
We all have to engage with those companies if we really want to change things for the better for the millions who are affected by the actions of the big guys!
As a consumer you have a voice - use it wisely to make the world a better place!
yes, i agree. who are the
yes, i agree. who are the good companies.
Great campaign Oxfam. Thanks
Great campaign Oxfam. Thanks for giving us the information we need to pressure the companies we buy from to do better. Land grabs are hideous and we don't want to be part of them...
We have to engage with powerful brands if we want real change
Yes, certainly, we can make positive choices by buying fair-trade products.
But we cannot ignore the big brands who wield so much power over the market and people's lives in the producing countries.
We have to engage with those companies if we really want to change things for the better for the millions who are affected by the actions of the big guys!
As a consumer you have a voice - use it wisely to make the world a better place!
Do you not see the irony of your add and your mission
I think throwing chocolate at a woman is degrading and borders on a slasher film approach to making your point. Did you all watch "Makers" last night on PBS? Degrading a woman has no moral nor ethical justification. Please take that down now.
Thanks Gail for your comment.
Thanks Gail for your comment. With this film, we wanted to pick up on the very strong trend in chocolate advertising to focus on women (see this recent example from Mars on M7Ms - http://youtu.be/bBBcU8at568), and to subvert or interrupt that with the uncomfortable reality. The explosion of chocolate is an analogy for this.
We were very careful to make sure that the model featured in the film is unimpressed by the explosion - in the same way that we hope chocolate consumers are when they realise that companies are not doing as they should for the women we all rely on to grow the cocoa that makes our chocolate so delicious.
soft porn
well you draw on the soft porn analogy used by chocolate advertisers. then put the words hungry in front of the very thin model's stomach. already this is a mixed message. that model is definitely hungry but not like the women farmers. throwing the chocolate in her face is a degrading action to the model which is presumably supposed to make us think about the degradation of the women who are being exploited to farm the cocoa BUT actually your treatment of this image - its gloss, the slow motion so beloved of paint advertisers, the HD close up and the texture of the quality of chocolate on her skin is still soft porn - it says degraded model not degraded women farmers. I am spectacularly unimpressed with this approach to information giving. It uses tropes that degrade women in an unintelligent way - perpetuating rather than critiquing.
How to change the system?
This report has made national news here in Australia, but I honestly don't think many people will change their purchases at the check out simply because I don't feel that there is enough promotion for those companies that do the right thing. Naming and shaming these big brands is a good thing, but there should be a real push on the large supermarkets for refusing to sell them, similar to factory farming animal products. Not sure what the answer is......
Go behind the brands you buy | Oxfam International Blogs
Thanks for finally writing about > Go behind the brands
you buy | Oxfam International Blogs < Loved it!
Also visit my web blog: visit


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Cumberland Times-News
The Cumberland Times-News will use photographs of hunters with deer that are harvested during the 2012 seasons. There is no charge.
Most photos will be used in the January issue of Rod & Gun. Photos will be accepted through Dec. 14.
One photograph per hunter. Preferred are photos that show the hunter and deer at the scene of the kill, with the deer displayed in an acceptable fashion and the hunter wearing orange during the seasons when it is required.
Include a telephone number, hunter's name and place of residence, place of kill and information about the deer. For youth hunters, include the age.
Submit to:
• firstname.lastname@example.com
• Mike Sawyers, Outdoor Editor, Cumberland Times-News, P.O. Box 1662, Cumberland, MD 21501-1662
• Newsroom is on the second floor. Use the South Mechanic Street entrance.
Some photos may be rejected. Photos from cell phones are often poor quality.


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Dill Weed Spice Glass Jar
Dill is a bright, tasty addition to dips and dressings, white sauces and soups. It is commonly used with poultry, fish, egg and cheese dishes. The herb is popular for dishes containing mushrooms or spinach, and is great with lamb. Kamenstein Dill Weed Spice, 0.42 oz. (12 g) dry measure.


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Mark Rogowsky, Contributor
I write about technology, trends and companies on the leading edge.
It's no secret that the console-gaming business hasn't exactly been setting the world on fire of late. IDC says that as of January Sony's PS3 (77 million sold) surpassed Microsoft's Xbox 360 (at 76 million). But the consoles were introduced in 2006 and 2005 respectively, and not a lot of those sales have come lately. Today's announcement of the PS4 — Sony's next-generation console — comes after the longest period between product introductions in the history of the videogame industry. It's the struggling Japanese giant's latest, best hope to recapture some of the magic that vaulted it to the top when the original Playstation launched in 1994. But is it too late to matter?
First, let's get some praise out of the way. The technical capabilities of PS4 look terrific. (The machine itself? Who knows. In a two-hour event Sony never did manage to display a Ps4!) Sony showed off plenty of demos at the introduction and I have no doubt some of the finished product will be state-of-the-art console gaming. Additionally, the company is saying all the right things about online gaming and using their handheld Vita as a "client" device to the PS4, giving Sony similar capabilities to what Nintendo has delivered with its recently introduced Wii U.
But the Wii U is kind of a bust, setting the wrong kind of records for console sales (as in record lows). That's especially troublesome for a new product. And while Sony is unlikely to do the same kind of face-first fall that Nintendo has, it's worth remembering that in the last round the winning console was, in fact, Nintendo's Wii, which recently surpassed the 100 million mark. Nintendo won for two primary reasons (1) it had the first-of-its-kind Wii Remote controller, which allowed you to do things like swing a virtual tennis racket through the air or pretend to bowl and (2) largely as a result of that controller it reached a number of people who weren't traditional gamers, both young and old.
Wii, in short, was revolutionary and both Sony and Microsoft had to react. Sony's Move controller was a knockoff. Microsoft's Kinect, while imperfect, was a revelation: control without any controller at all. Watching today's PS4 announcement, one couldn't help but wonder where the equivalent of Kinect was. What's the one feature that's going to get people to run out and buy PS4; that's going to reignite interest in console gaming? It simply wasn't there.
Instead, we saw a lot of game developers showing unfinished demos and Sony touting as one of its big "gets" that Blizzard Entertainment, part of gaming giant Activision, will bring the hugely popular Diablo III to the PS4. Of course, they'll also bring it to the aging PS3. Oh, and Diablo 3 is hugely popular because it's already been available on PC and Mac since last May. This isn't something new, it's something kind of nice. And something "kind of nice" is actually where the center of gaming has moved in the past couple of years.
Which brings us back to that second Nintendo success factor: more people are gaming than ever. It's just that now they're just doing it on smartphones and iPads. Phenomena like Angry Birds and Words with Friends may not have the spectacular graphics of a PS4 game, but they have sometimes hundreds of millions of players worldwide. And the commitment can be as little as downloading an ad-supported app to your phone while waiting on line at the DMV. For Activision, which owns blockbusters like the Call of Duty franchise (a single title makes hundreds of millions) and the aging but still very profitable World of Warcraft multi-player game (with 10 million people paying a monthly subscription), this trend hasn't been especially important. For everyone else in gaming, including struggling Zynga, it has been.
So while PS4 looks cool, it looks a lot like a better PS3, without a killer feature like the BluRay drive that helped bring the previous console into many homes the last time around. The controller isn't especially exciting and the online capabilities are mostly a refinement of what you can already get. In the meantime, the barbarians are already in people's pockets and purses and are threatening the living room, too. A startup called Ouya raised more than $10 million on Kickstarter to create a new console that will play Android games and promises to come out with a new model every year for $99. (Sony didn't announce pricing). They launch this June with a slate of 500 games. Maybe they won't all be Diablo 3, but then you'll probably be able to pick up 30 of them for less than the cost of one Ps4 title.
Apple also looms in the background. The iPhone is especially successful with casual gamers and the co-founder of online gaming company Valve thinks Apple could "roll the console guys really easily" using a device like the AppleTV as the way into the living room. Whether that's in the offing, the reality is that competition for people's dollars is high, with options like tablets not existing a few years ago. And competition for attention spans is even higher thanks to app stores, Facebook games, Netflix, and endless-channel television. PS4 might be technically great. But great might not be good enough.
Watch Dogs and Destiny are not exclusive to the PS4 and of course every major developer is going to be working with this, they are game developers its their job to make games and guess what the PS4 PLAYS GAMES. It would make no sense for them to ignore new hardware. The PS4 has no control over internet speed that comes down to your own connection, it wont magically turn your 2mb/s connection into a 1gb/s connection. I'm also not sure about what you are trying to say with load times. Games are still going to have to load and pull data from the HDD or disk, you don't have an SSD in this thing. This is the generation that will make or break console gaming and if you can't see that then you clearly have blinders on.
PS4 won't have control over your own personal internet speed but there is a reason people pay to play XBox games online rather than play for free on PS3. It does matter what kind of servers you have and so forth. And yes, in the presentation they mentioned the load times would no longer be a factor. They also mentioned you would be able to go onto the PS Network and instantaneously preview games. I have no blinders on, you obviously didn't see the presentation.
I'll be honest here, I barley noticed a difference in lag between psn and xbox live. Anyways the only way no load times would work with the PS4 is with streaming games and I'm not a fan of that. I do most of my gaming on my PC and like the idea of the hardware being on the user end not a server. I really wasn't impressed by much of the game play. I liked media molecule thing (I'm not sure what to call it) and the watchdogs game play made me want the game even more but other then that I wasn't really blown away by anything. I have a GTX680 in my PC so I probably already have the PS4 beat but I honestly couldn't tell how good the stuff looked because of the crap quality of the stream.
The reason why I said this generation will make or break console gaming is because you have to look at it from the companies standpoint. If these consoles flop do you think that companies will want to risk another potentially failed generation? Most likely no, or at least not until a true next generation leap can happen i.e. N64 – Gamecube/Xbox.
If the PS4 is compatible with ultra HD, then it does represent a considerable technical leap over its predecessor. When the cost of ultra HD comes down in 4-5 years, the life cycle of the new consoles will be extended even further. If consoles fail, what platform will the new Call of Duty's be introduced on? That's a billion dollar franchise, as is GTA, Halo and Mario Kart. The only alternative to consoles that I can think of is Steam. Then again, maybe these MBAs like Michael Pachter who only seem to look at sales figures (and not the dynamics behind the sales figures) are on to something when they say console gamers are gravitating to mobile platforms. I don't know about you, but I'd rather play Fruit Ninja than Watch Dogs.
The PS4 will not be capable of rendering in high resolutions like that. I can't see it being that capable and still remaining in a appropriate price range for a console.
My take is the opposite of a true gamer. I do own a PS3 but haven't even turned it on in about 4-5 months. I do have a degree in journalism and an MBA though, and my take is based on the fact you have no factual information in this regard, and wrote a blog post, on Forbes, comparing apples to oranges when comparing Playstation and XBox brands to iPhone game apps. Those are two different markets. Let's face it, comments from people across the internet who were "unimpressed" are those same people who are going to stand in line for 24 hours in the middle of winter to be the first to purchase a PS4 or new XBox. Those people you talk to in gaming really have no idea either. Of course the titles at launch are going to be limited, but eventually, PS3 games will be discontinued and PS4 games will be the primary focus. But I don't think that's really news to anyone considering it has been that way for all of their new systems.
What looks Familiar? pictures perhaps would help
This guy writes about technology and new tech trends? Well your doing a poor job of it.


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August 1, 2014
The Bryan/College Station Chamber of Commerce delegation arrived in Washington, D.C., early Monday afternoon. Their first stop: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
"This briefing from the U.S. Chamber has always been well received by past delegations, and it's been extremely helpful to us. That's why we keep coming back each year," said B/CS Chamber President Royce Hickman.
The delegation met and heard from the U.S. Chamber's Vice President for Small Business Police and other key members. The briefing ranged from Political Affairs to Health Care Policy.
This meeting with the U.S. Chamber gives the B/CS delegation a chance to ask questions and better understand legislation or policies.
Tuesday, the B/CS Chamber delegation will do something they haven't done before. They have a room reserved on Capitol Hill and about a dozen lawmakers, including the House Majority Leader, will be coming to them. Each presentation, by the full group, should last about 30 minutes.
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Linux and Samba in a Federal Lab
Linux and Samba recently answered the needs of the Army Research Lab (ARL) at Adelphi, Maryland. Our branch does state-of-the-art research into a specific type of lasers and amasses large amounts of data during the performance testing of these devices. We were able to connect our test equipment over the network to a Samba server. The twist to this approach is that our configuration makes it appear to the users that they access the data through the branch's NT fileserver. I'll explain the setup in detail, but the main trick is creating a network shortcut on the NT box to point to the Samba share while making the Linux box invisible on the network. Figure 1 depicts the setup of the network.
Our branch develops extremely small lasers called VCSELs (vertical-cavity, surface-emitting lasers), which fall under the general category of photonics research. We easily can put over 60 lasers into a square millimeter, and the full wafer containing the lasers can be three inches in diameter. Therefore, we can have thousands of devices on a single wafer. Figure 2 shows a picture of a typical VCSEL. The main tests we run to characterize the performance of each VCSEL are called ILV curves for current, light and voltage. Basically, we see how much light comes out for the power that was put in. Also, most of the analysis software is on the user's desktop machine so they need to be able to access the raw data from there. Users are creatures of habit. Getting data pertinent to the branch has historically meant going to the NT server. Since the users were used to getting data from the NT box, we did not want to make them go somewhere else. We tried to make everything transparent to the user and make it appear as though they were getting the data from the NT server. To force the users to go through the NT box, we make the Linux box invisible to the network. We rely on the security of the NT box to authenticate users accessing the data.
Two pieces of equipment are key to characterizing the VCSELs. First is the probe station that is basically just a microscope with some tiny probes and a light meter. The probes apply the power to the device, and we measure the power produced with the light meter. A 4155B parameter analyzer from Agilent is the second piece of equipment. This analyzer is programmed to sweep the current level and measure the voltage and light. It has two main ways of being controlled: front panel and the GPIB interface. Granted, the GPIB port is a popular scientific interface and allows us to do fancier tests by controlling the test setup with a computer as well as collect the data, but our controlling computer is about five feet down the lab bench and cannot be moved closer. This makes it difficult to start the test when the probes are in place. Fortunately our main test is simple to program through the front panel. Our test routine is to position the probes by looking through the eyepiece of the microscope, reach up carefully and push the test button on the parameter analyzer and then save the data. Figure 3 shows the lab hardware.
After we get a clean run, we need to save the data. The 4155B has three ways to save the data: GPIB, floppy and TCP/IP. Since we aren't controlling the analyzer with the GPIB, that's not an option. The floppy supports 3.5" disks, but these disks fill up quickly and you have to walk around with them. Since we have several lab areas where we work, it's not unheard of to have to backtrack to recover a temporarily misplaced disk. The answer we put together works because of the TCP/IP support.
The parameter analyzer supports TCP/IP, specifically NFS. You can even ping the analyzer. Since it's registered in the lab's DNS, the ping can be done by way of IP address or name. We were able to put together a Linux box out of obsolete or broken equipment. Literally, we pulled together parts of three computers into one. It didn't cost the government anything, and it fills the need. For the installation, the newest distribution that we had and that the P-133 hardware would support is Red Hat 6.2, so we put that on and hardened it with Bastille and the latest patches. Additionally, all the unnecessary services were turned off and SSH was added. We sliced the hard drive space carefully and ended up with about 1.5GB of space for data. Total time of install and configuration was three hours.
Linux has become a key foundation for supporting today's rapidly growing IT environments. Linux is being used to deploy business applications and databases, trading on its reputation as a low-cost operating environment. For many IT organizations, Linux is a mainstay for deploying Web servers and has evolved from handling basic file, print, and utility workloads to running mission-critical applications and databases, physically, virtually, and in the cloud. As Linux grows in importance in terms of value to the business, managing Linux environments to high standards of service quality — availability, security, and performance — becomes an essential requirement for business success.
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text:
July 31, 2014
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- An education advocacy group is pushing for teacher candidates to face higher academic standards before they even begin taking college classes.
The move by the State Collaborative on Reforming Education comes after Tennessee education officials linked teacher effectiveness to better ACT scores. It said some colleges and universities admit teacher education students who score as low as 15 on the college admissions test. A score of 21 on the ACT is considered the standard of readiness for college.
The Tennessean reports the recommendation was part of the group's third annual State of Education in Tennessee report which was released on Tuesday. It also recommends stricter licensing policies for teachers
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Well met, as always, and welcome to the latest tome from the pen of Ed of the Greenwood that purports to lay bare secrets of the world I dwell in, the place best known to ye as "the Forgotten Realms."
A world so vast and rich that its secrets could fill libraries—to say nothing of the myriad passing details of everyday life, the strivings of folk mighty and simple. Beggars and humble crofters can change the Realms as much as kings do, and its heroes are not always those lauded. Like thy world, the Realms needs splendid deeds from us all for life to hold a goodly measure of pleasures and rewards.
In short, it needs thee to make a difference.
In today's look inside Ed Greenwood Presents: Elminster's Forgotten Realms, we continue with Chapter 3: Hearth and Home. "Every player whose character has been attacked at home, in bed, or has arrived home battered and weary after a hard adventure to find that home looted, burned to the ground, or under the bulk of a grinning dragon, knows the sickening shock, the violation, of having one's home messed with. As the beggar Jorthyn famously told King Azoun IV of Cormyr: I'll fight for my best begging spot, Majesty, just as fiercely as you'll defend yon Palace."


text:
Chan's free skate is to 4 Seasons. Don't know if it's the same as his previous program to that music, but either way, it will be 3 seasons of using that piece.
Chan's free skate is to 4 Seasons. Don't know if it's the same as his previous program to that music, but either way, it will be 3 seasons of using that piece.
Eight Seasons and it's the other four seasons? Or P/B's Four Seasons?
Yeah, I guess not. Too bad, a cotton ball costume would be fun.
If it *is* the Vivaldi piece, I think it will suit his skating style very well. He's very big and grandiose, lots of choreography, movement, etc. so I think it'll work.
He's gunning for Petrova/Tikhonov's record.
Last edited by nlyoung; 08-18-2013 at 09:42 PM. Reason: double post
Vivaldi 4 seasons will be a perfect vehicle for Chan.
Music which is great to display a pure skating.
I liked Chan's 0708 vivaldi LP. The awesome step sequence.
Going by their theme of posting photoshoot pics for their programs, Weaver and Poje's FD is María de Buenos Aires by Piazzolla
That would be great: "Maria de Buenos Aires" has a lot of great music.
"The team doesn't get automatic capacity because management is mad" -- Greg Smith, agile guy
Well, I love the Four Seasons and it'd be nice to see someone win gold with it some day. I'm far from being a fan of Chan's, but I think if he had to go back to an old routine/music, then Four Seasons is a great choice.
"Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility." - Ambrose Bierce
"I hit him with my shoes... if he had given me the medal like I told him to, I wouldn't have had to hit him!" -- 8-year-old Rhoda Penmark in "The Bad Seed"
Snip-bits of Adelina Sotnikova's new LP:
It's a techno-y modern remix of Saint-Saëns's Rondo Capriccioso, I believe. I'm not totally sold on it yet, but snaps for *someone* finally taking choreographic risks during an Olympic year. Yey?
I am more interested in his training.
blazingblades.tumblr.com/ has posted a clip of the FS of Chan uploaded on YouTube by Keiko12311:
I always liked 4 Seasons by Vivaldi. Many skaters have used it in all disciplines, yet, this is one few pieces of music which doesn't tire me even after hearing it often, especially the summer and winter parts.
Swan Lake could have worked beautifully for her...but I shudder to think what dress they'd come up with for Sotnikova. Maybe Shizuka can lend her the techno-bondage dress she wore to the same music in 2004?


text:
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Dear Paul,
In your last Foxhall Global Outlook you talked about how the next big GLOBAL SUPER-CYCLE INVESTMENT TREND was investing in those companies and commodities that will be used by China over the next decade in their trillion dollar infrastructure investment programs. Isn't this trend applicable in other emerging markets too? I hear many other emerging markets are spending big sums on their own infrastructure development.
You are right! Many emerging markets around the globe are flush with U.S. currency reserves. These countries have decided that they would rather spend those hard currency reserves on developing their own country's infrastructure rather than invest in U.S. Treasury Bonds, given the fact that the U.S. government is paying rates on U.S. Treasury bonds that yield less than the inflation rate, in addition to the dollar continuing to loose its value.
Over the next decade, we believe investing in the commodities and companies that will be directly benefiting from the infrastructure spending of Asian countries and other emerging markets will be an excellent way to maximize your investment dollars over
the next decade!
The Biggest Investment Boom in History
Investment analyst Nicholas Vardy estimates that emerging economies will spend an estimated $1.2 trillion on roads, railways, electricity, telecommunications and other infrastructure projects just this year. He says, "That's the equivalent to 6% of their combined GDPs—and twice the percentage being invested in developed economies. Even at the height of the United States' infrastructure spending—the expansion of railways in the mid-nineteenth century—total investment barely hit 5% of GDP. Today, the equivalent number in China is 12%. "Laggard" India intends to almost double the infrastructure investment share of its GDP from 5% to 9% within the
next five years."
Morgan Stanley predicts that emerging economies will spend $22 trillion on infrastructure between now and 2018. Australia's Macquarie Bank puts the number at $30 trillion through 2030. Last year, Brazil announced a four-year plan to spend $300 billion to modernize its infrastructure. The Indian government has penciled in $500 billion in infrastructure projects in its latest five year plan. Russia now has plans to construct 39,000 miles of new roads and 5,300 miles of railways by 2015, including an eight-lane expressway that will link St. Petersburg to Helsinki and Moscow by 2015.
Vardy also notes, "This investment boom isn't limited to emerging economies. A casual drive through the Northeast corridor of the United States will confirm that much of the United States' roads, airports, bridges and tunnels are in sore need of upgrading. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimated that $1.6 trillion would be required during a five-year period to bring U.S. infrastructure back into shape."
The Biggest Investment Boom in History: The China Factor
Vardy also echoes what I discussed in last weeks Foxhall Global Outlook that "unsurprisingly, the biggest player in the infrastructure boom is China. Four out of 10 dollars spent on infrastructure during the next 10 years will be spent by Asia's emerging economic giant. China's commitment to infrastructure has been relentless. Between 2001 and the end of 2005, it spent more on roads and railways than it did in the previous 50 years combined. By the end of 2007, China had built some 33,500 miles of roads, thereby achieving in 17 years what the West took 40 years to accomplish. And its remarkable pace is continuing. Between 2006 and 2010, China will invest $200 billion in railways alone, four times more than in the previous five years.
Like the Olympics, China's infrastructure boom is a collection of trophy projects. Beijing's new airport terminal is the world's largest. The floor space is 17% bigger than London's Heathrow—the world's busiest airport. Designed in the form of a Chinese dragon, it was planned and built in a mere four years by an army of 50,000 workers. And China plans to ADD ANOTHER 97 AIRPORTS BY 2020 to the 142 it had at the end of 2006. The number of airports handling more than 30 million passengers a year will grow from 3 to 13.
Bullet trains are another high profile endeavor. Costing $30 billion, the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed line is the most expensive project in China's railway history. An 800-mile bullet train between Beijing and Shanghai—the equivalent of going from New York to Chicago—will reduce the travel time between the two cities to a mere five hours.
But the ultimate trophy is yet to come. A plan published by the Ministry of Communications in 2004 mentions a highway from Beijing to Taipei, Taiwan, to be completed by 2030. The technical challenges of crossing the 94-mile Taiwan Strait aside, the document does not suggest how to tackle the even bigger political problem of reaching an agreement with Taiwan."
The Biggest Investment Boom In History: A No Brainer
Here's what Vardy says he particularly likes about the infrastructure investment boom:
"Infrastructure spending provides the ultimate bang for the investment buck. Initially, a wide range of infrastructure companies—steel, mining equipment and construction companies—are set to benefit from an unprecedented construction boom. But infrastructure is a gift that keeps on giving, itself boosting economic gains. The World Bank estimates that a 1% increase in a country's infrastructure stock generates a 1% increase in the level of GDP. Once you understand that, it's easy to see how East Asia's investment in infrastructure explains a large part of its faster growth compared to Latin America.
Long-Term Trend Investment Advice: "Use Your Eyes and Plagiarize"
And like the best global megatrends, the infrastructure boom is not about re-inventing the
wheel. The late Nils Taube, one of the United Kingdom's most esteemed fund managers,
noted at the London Junto conference last year that the secret to his investment success was to "use your eyes and plagiarize." Unlike venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, investors in global infrastructure don't have to uncover the next Google to make money. Infrastructure assets offer investors remarkable benefits: there is little competition; they offer essential, non-substitutable services; and they provide stable cash flows linked to inflation during a period of several decades. After all, people use and pay for roads, bridges and ports everyday."
I would also add that once engineering plans are completed, an investor can know, with some specificity, how long each project will last and the amount of commodities that will be used and the major companies that are receiving contracts and will profit over a long period of time
Your Investment Portfolios At Foxhall Capital Will Benefit From This Long-Term Investment Trend
Foxhall Capital fully understands and appreciates that this is going to be one of the biggest investment booms in history. This is going to be like getting into steel before World War II or investing in Microsoft in the early 1980's.
The key is to see and identify the Global Super -Cycle Investment Trend Early And Act On It.
At Foxhall Capital we are already positioning portfolios through our investments in hard asset commodities, our Pacific Rim and Emerging Markets investments and investing in those U.S. companies that will be primary beneficiaries of this global infrastructure spending boom.
Our FOXHALL CAPITAL clients will be invested early to take maximum advantage of this major global investment trend over the next decade.
Until next week…
—Paul Dietrich


text:
Our "10 Things You May Not Know About Windows Vista" series continues as we explore one of the least-known features in Windows Vista: the Volume Mixer. Although it might not be as well-touted as the Aero interface, you may find it's one of the more useful features available.
I'm sure we've all had the experience of working on one application when another application's sound suddenly blasted out your speakers. It can be disconcerting anytime, embarrassing when it happens during a meeting and downright painful when using headphones.
Windows XP had a single control for all sounds, and this controlled only the hardware. If an application's sound was louder or softer than that specified by Windows XP's volume control, you had to constantly adjust the volume.
Windows Vista allows you to choose the right volume for any running application. It's also very easy to use. Right-click the speaker icon in the notification area (systray) of your desktop, then click Volume Mixer to open the control. You'll see a list of programs running. Then, just use the slider bar to adjust the volume up or down. (Note: If some of the sliders have a black background, just move the slider and Windows Vista will re-draw it. KB article 938308 explains this more.)
You can adjust volume for use with either speakers or headphones simply by selecting the desired output in the device column. You can also choose to mute individual programs so as to not be interrupted by sounds from other running programs. If you change the output device, you will need to readjust the volume.
1) How can I assign my MSN IM and Internet Radio feeds (Volume out) under Windows Volume Mixer, separately to an external mixer; such that the IM channel feed does not contain Internet Radio steam and vice-versa?
2) Is it possible to run two Windows Media player Internet Radio streams concurrently?
I have a guitarport USB device,I used to play a jam track through media player, and play along through the gutarport and all worked fine in XP. In Vista, not so, if I play the track (mp3 or whatever) the sound in media center (or any player) will mute when I start to play through the guitarport - I haven't found a way to stop the channel muting - This doesn't seem like a 'mixer' to me - Is there a way to control this behavior?
Hi , Recently i have got sony vaio cr24g with vista home premium . being a visually challenged i use screenreading software jaws to operate a computer , but with vista voice of jaws [text to speach] is very low , i have checked all the settings from volume mixer it seems everything is fine , i have set the highest volume for jaws from mixer , and i have pulled all other volume level on maximum level , for cross checking i have used text to speach provided by microsoft SAPI5 from ease of access , volume level of SAPI5 is much lower than my screenreader . in other cases like mp3 files i am getting exceptable volume as compare to text to speach . i cant operate my laptop without my screenreader so please help me out , waiting for your reply , thanks in advance .
I like the idea of spliting the old wavetable into programs but why loose the input control? I have a USB soundcard which has an internal Microphone. In XP I could mute the mic in the mixer for recording and monitoring separately but I find that in Vista I can only mute the mic for recording. The mic only shows an an input device not an output device and does not control the output. This makes the soundcard rather useless as an output device in a live situation. I would like to add the input devices as playback devices list so that input monitoring can be controlled.
I just got a new computer with Vista, and plugged in the 2 front speakers and woofer from my old xp computer (the integrated card couldn't take the rear or center speakers).
Here's my problem: the lowest setting in the volume mixer is too high. The upshot: I can either have no sound, or sound that could wake up my 2 year old at night. I'd like the volume to be about half of the lowest setting currently possible.
Is there any way to fix this?
Please can you help a complete novice.
A friend has Windows Vista and his problem is this - he sets the volume sliders for various applications - the problem is that when he is listening through headphones to someone speaking via Microsoft Messenger the slider does not stay put - it goes to the very bottom of the scale and only returns to its previous setting when he or the other party speak - is there a way of disabling any auto settings so that the slider stays put?
Any help will be appreciated.
I am running Vista Home Basic on an Acer Travelmate 2480. What I want to do is to use the laptop to stream audio to a piece of wireless sound equipment (Roku M1000). I have been experimenting with Windows Media Encoder and Broadwave, both of which work fine with Stereo Mix as the default recording device. The problem is with the Volume Mixer. I cannot mute the speakers without also muting the stream. Moreover, the speaker volume seems to set the "max" volume for all other sources. Is there any way to mute just the speakers and not affect any other application or audio source? This worked perfectly under XP, by the way.
I take it ALL back. I was wrong.
It's not a Vista bug for me at all. Somehow my Realtek sound driver has been removed and replaced with the standard windows sound driver. How this happened I do not know. All I know is it did. I do know that I didn't remove those drivers myself. I have since re-installed the Realtek drivers and everything is back to normal.
I still Luffs Ya Vista!
Hi Guys. I too have the same problems as munchkin with the volume levels in played movies etc. Searching the interwebbytubes shows that a LOT of other people are experiencing this problem with Vista. It's not incorrect volume settings, it's not the wrong codecs, it's not that I've forgotten to turn the volume lever up on my laptop. Everything was fine for weeks, but all of a sudden the volume levels for movies in particular have dropped so low I can hardly hear any sound. I hadn't changed any settings, nor installed any new codecs or programs that would affect the sound. In particular this is in relation to headphones (which are the most affected) where previously I had to keep the volume turned down, now I can barely, BARELY hear the audio track. It's on full volume, as is everything else. It too seems to me that this has happened as a result of a Windows Vista Update.
Can you guys please shed some light on this?
To manniongeo:
Your problem is definitely not common and I am not sure what is goin on. The expectation in your case is that the system sounds should be substantially louder than your WMP playback.
Where are you enabling this "Loudness Equalization" you mention?
What audio device and driver is used in each of your 3 systems?
What types of files are you playing in WMP?
Have you modified your system sounds in any way?
Is this on a clean install of Windows Vista with no special/additional software installed?
When I set the Vista Volume Mixer to the settings you describe on all the machines I have in my office (more than 3 :-)) I hear system sounds loud and clear and WMP is very low.
Hakon Strande - Microsoft
Is it generally the case with Vista that the volume of Windows Media Player 11 completely overpowers the volume of the normal system sounds, like bells and dings from error dialogs?
I've built three Vista machines over the past few weeks, each with completely different hardware, and am experiencing this same issue with each. I assume that I'm missing something obvious, but can't seem to figure it out on my own.
Using the Volume Mixer, I have 'Speakers' set to 100%, 'Windows Sounds' set to 100%, and 'Windows Media Player' set to perhaps 5%. With my external powered speakers at full blast, WMP sounds good, but the system sounds are barely audible.
The only way I have been able to equalize the system and WMP sounds is by enabling the 'Loudness Equalization' enhancement. Unfortunately, this quashes the crescendos of all of my music. I understand that this latter behavior is the intent of Loudness Equalization. I'd like to be able to hear the system sounds without using it, though.
Is this something I can fix with the Volume Mixer?
I love the Volume mixer in the applications that it has been working. However, windows did its automatic updates and since it did, I no longer get any sound while watching videos in either of my web browsers, IE or Firefox. Neither program shows up in the volume mixer either. All my other programs for sound work beautifully! I have tried reinstalling quicktime, Flash, Itunes, with anti-virus and firewalls on and off with no success!
How do I get these programs to work with sound? How do I add them to the volume mixer?
As a side note, since 11/15 my computer has been trying to do an automatic update of KB941649, but always failed. Spoke with a tech and he was looking into the problem. In case anyone wants to know, today I downloaded it from the ms website manually and it went right through! (I have Vista Home premium 32 bit)
..why on earth would you create a media driven OS which doesn't suport a stereo in, either by on board sound card OR external.
A phasing left to right effect from my DJM800 is totally wasted in MONO and more to the point, every single track is being recorded in MONO which totally deadens the track.
PLEASE tell me there is a fix somewhere for this issue as, I've done my own tests, and its not the mixer, nor is it specific to the USB sound card or on board one; its both!! - Common denominator; VISTA ??
How can I resolve this issue without switching os or getting a mac?
"2. An app could be set to feed into multiple outputs, for example multi-room audio distribution."
Please, please, I beg you! Implement this in SP1 or earlier. JohnHind is right on target here. At the bare minimum let us output the entire mix to multiple outputs, like we could with XP.
If this and the monitor-profile-resetting bug were fixed, I would be fairly happy with my computer. As it is I am seriously considering going back to XP, which would be a serious hassle.
I found this mixer stuff a little bit complicated, since I don't have the option to change a application from one device to another... So much time wasted when I have to close iTunes and re-open since I was using speakers and want to use headphones... Or unplug headphones and plug back in and the app doesn't work... Microsoft should do something about it in service pack 1 to come!!!
Hi JohnHind -
Thanks for your thoughtful post and great suggestions. We have considered many of the ideas you suggested, but with Windows Vista, the magnitude of the changes we made was already large for even one major release. That said, we have a long list of proposed ideas and features we're considering for future releases, and many of those you suggested are on our radar.
Thanks again for taking time to notice and offer your feedback.
PS - we may address some of the specific ideas you mention in future blog posts as we've already been thinking about them in depth.
It's an improvement, but not a big enough one given the time we've been waiting!
WHAT MICROSOFT SHOULD HAVE DONE: Give each app its own virtual sound card and map the outputs of these to the physical outputs using a software crossbar mixer.
Advantages of this:
1. User could change the output being used by an app without having to shut down and restart the app as they have to at present (even with Vista's built-in apps like Media Center and Media Player)- i.e. switch from speakers to headphones while leaving other apps on the speakers.
2. An app could be set to feed into multiple outputs, for example multi-room audio distribution.
3. Downmixing could be provided to feed multi-channel audio feeds into stereo or mono outputs.
4. Outputs from different apps could be positioned on multi-speaker sound stages under user control - for example, PC noises could be positioned to seem to come from the direction of the PC.
USB audio adapters are now so cheep that it is really tempting to use one for headphones, another for workstation monitor built-in speakers and leave the main output for 5-1 or 7-1 cinema use. But it is still a pain to work a system like this in Vista software.
It's petty cool when are listenig music and another aplicacion like de msn stard to pest off you with de sound and nuge just simpli you can turn down or even mute
Hey there. It's very interesting the new Vista volume mixer... But I`m having some trouble with it. I use VLC (VideoLAN) to stream some mp3 sets I've created, and when I try to stream from a DEVICE, Vista shows Rear MIC, Front MIC, Line IN and Microphone instead of showing up the DEVICES, like Sigmatel High Definition Card. Why this happens? In Windows XP only the real device cards shows up. It's a Vista problem? Either other streaming programs didn't show up devices, just MICs and LINE IN. (Using Vista Ultimate 64.).
I suppose it's cute to have volume sliders for each app now, but all I want is one or two keystrokes to get the line-in level adjustment and the mute button for line-in. How do I get line-in to appear in the mixer without going through a ridiculous number of steps which basically leads me into the control panel?
so useful that it doesn't even control the bass or treble tones anymore. how fantastic.
Now if someone can supply a rundll32 like line that opens the "speakers properties" window directly, that'd be nice.
thanks, but my problem is not that the volume is too LOUD, it's that for many programs, I can't hear the sound very well. I have checked volume mixer and everything is all the way to the top (100%), and I promise I am not going deaf, some things are LOUD and others, I can barely hear. Is there a fix for this?
Jessica from It's Not About Your Stuff
Hey Roy99999999999: you can turn on the audio icon in the systray by right-clicking the task bar, selecting Properties | Notification Area, then selecting the Volume icon.
But how do you get the speaker icon in the systray in the first place? My PC has a 'realtek' speaker without this option. I had a look at help and it showed you a link to open the mixer from a help page, but not how to add the speaker icon.
I am using this feature since the day I installed Vista :)...I really like this feature...
While the improvements are nice, especially per app volume, some of the functionality from the old mixer has again been dropped. For instance, advanced settings e.g.microphone boost, bass and treble adjustments and making quick adjustments to only certain volumes such as the MIDI/Synthesizer line (not the MIDI playback app), line in and there are recording-level (gain) indicators earlier.
OMG im so glad u did somthing on this i love it soooooo much shows every program and volume level. It ajust alot of my programs fine and it is great being able to mute what u want. Two things I notice that would make my experince even better and some others may notice theese?
A problem i do find though is with internet explorer?? Where with each new tab launched the "Internet Explorer volume" in the mixer isnt saved but reset. (By reset i mean matches the MAXIMUM or main volume setting of the first slider.) It seems other programs keep the settings like windows media player ect. Is there a way to fix this?? I even tried ctrl + close in one tab but didnt save. Si im Watching youtube got 2 or 3 things open go to a next tab BLARING. That embaresing thing u were talking about (;--___--) Im always in the mixer or touching my speakers or hitting mute button on kb to sort it out before (now that im trained on it) I love the feature and the ability to do it but it should be a set and forget deal.
The Second MINOR problem i find is ME MAYBE and inconsistancy with the intervals of some programs?? Take media player for instance. (example in steps for refrence i dunno)
Main system volume takes 20 steps to get to max. You set Windows Media Player half of that at 10 or so. Ofcours now it takes a shorter distance for windows media player on the slider that is to get to maximum volume 10 steps up, but sometimes it feels like 5?? or less, there will be times where i set it lower not too low and ill literaly turn it up a hair and itll blare... but next time it wont?? Now now now I know theres alot to consider. Videos and audio files are recoreded at diferent volumes. What volume are my physical speakers at ect. ect. So it could just be me but then again ive noticed it more than enough times. Could be me though :)
Good Stuff either way. Me = Love Mixer.
This feature of Vista is a genuine improvement to my user experience.
Also, michaelper22, Volume Mixer allows you to control sound effects given off by running programs.
So you can dutifully work on that presentaton with HALO 3 running silently in the background whenever bossman comes around.
Hey michaelper22: this is certainly true, but part of the point of the Volume Mixer is that it gives the user control of all running apps with audio output in a single place.
Volume mixer is awesome. Without the ugly black border it will be godlike.
PD: Ahh.. and double click to open the mixer too!
Volume Mixer is pretty cool. I use it quite a lot. It comes in handy when you want to watch a movie and you want to quickly mute all other running applications.
You can find a similar tutorial here:
This one also has pictures.
This is a useful feature in many instances, but a good portion of the programs that output sound have their own volume control (like Windows Media Player, and Pinnacle Studio, both of which I used on Windows Vista).


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The Daily Star
---- — Up until this year, my first year at college, the only time I'd heard the words "Doctor Who" mentioned were in passing by my friends who had a passion for science fiction. I, for the most part, do not.
Because of this, I was largely unaware of the series while in high school and therefore missed many of its seasons as they were airing for the first time.
Once I began my freshman year of college, a number of my floormates discovered that they all had the show in common and would often reference it and its characters. Being the pop culture fanatic that I am, I did not like being out of the loop, and so finally, about a month ago, I decided to rectify the situation.
Thankfully, Netflix has the first six seasons of the Doctor Who series beginning in 2005, and I have been hooked ever since I started.
Now, for those of you who were in the same boat as I was, "Doctor Who" is a British television show that is aired on BBC, and in the states, BBC America. The show first aired in 1963 and ran until 1989, and a made-for-TV movie was made in 1996, with the series finally returning in 2005.
The plot of the series is somewhat confusing, but I will attempt to do it justice. The main character of the series is known as just "The Doctor," an alien from the planet Gallifrey, which is home to the time lords. During the Time War, which was essentially a large battle between different alien races, the time lords were decimated, and the Doctor is the only one who remains.
The Doctor is able to travel through time and space in his "TARDIS," which stands for Time and Relative Dimensions in Space. The TARDIS is crafted to look like a blue police phone call box (a common sight in 1963 Great Britain), but it appears much larger on the inside. The Doctor also carries a tool called a sonic screwdriver, a multi-purpose tool that is quite useful in getting him out of a variety of sticky and often severe situations.
Since the original series aired for more than 20 years, the writers figured out a clever way to introduce new cast members and get rid of others without killing them off. Whenever the Doctor sustains an injury that would be life-threatening to a human, he simply regenerates. This means that his soul is transferred to another body, and for the most part, give or take a few personality traits, his is the same Doctor.
So far, the Doctor has regenerated 11 times, each time introducing a new actor and allowing the series to stay somewhat fresh and avoid clichés.
The Doctor typically travels with at least one companion, usually a human who helps him with tasks and keeps him company as they travel through space to different planets or different time periods.
The general fan consensus favors the 10th Doctor, who is played by British actor David Tennant, although I have also heard a lot of praise for the current doctor, the 11th, played by Matt Smith. Tennant is usually the favorite because of his quirky, energetic take on the Doctor, and it is hard to not find him likable.
When I began the show, I liked the ninth Doctor that I had come to know, played by Christopher Eccleston, and wasn't sure I would be able to get used to others playing the same character. However, I think that each actor is different enough to provide a fresh perspective while remaining faithful to the Doctor's overall personality.
I can't quite say it's as easy to get over the changes in companions, at least for me. Without a doubt, my favorite companion is Rose Tyler, the first companion of the new series. Rose, played by Billie Piper, was brave and intelligent, and I grew to care for her as a character and root for a romance between her and the Doctor. When she left at the end of the second season, I cried harder than I ever have at any TV show or movie. And I've read Harry Potter.
Once you begin watching the show, it is hard to stop. I've quickly gone through the first three seasons, and am in the midst of the fourth, and still find myself looking forward to each episode.
I also recommend, if you decide to try it out, to watch it with a friend, because it is otherwise obscure enough that not many people will know what you are talking about and your words could just come out like mumbo-jumbo to them.
Anyway, enough mumbo-jumbo from me. Back to the show!
Maggie McVey, a 2012 graduate of Oneonta High School, is a freshman at the State University College at Plattsburgh. 'Teen Talk' columns can be found at www.thedailystar.com/teentalk


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Improve School Suicide Safety with Help from NYS and Contact
Contact Community Services hosted representatives from Syracuse and North Syracuse school districts to share New York State resources that can help "Create Suicide Safety in Schools." Pat Breux, from the Suicide Prevention Center of New York, said, "Suicide safety happens in the context of a competent and caring school community. In a caring community, we are all connected and care about each other's well-being. In a competent community, everyone has a role to play and knows, how, when, and where to get help." She provided an overview of the state's process to help schools enhance school suicide safety.
read more
Pauline Stanley Scholarships Awarded
Congratulations to our 2014 Pauline Stanley Scholarship recipients: Jennifer Corbacio, Henninger High School; Elaine Dermady, Corcoran High School; and Sakina Ahmed, Nottingham High School. Scholarships recipients are selected from graduating seniors who participated in Contact's school or youth development programs.
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From left, Elaine Dermady, Jennifer Corbacio
George Stanley, Sakina Ahmed
Thank you, Pauline Stanley
Contact Community Services has lost a cherished friend and our longest-serving volunteer, Pauline Stanley. It is hard to believe that we will no longer be hearing her say, "Hello, this is Contact. May I help you?" She said it thousands of times over these past 42 years, as she logged more than 12,000 hours on the counseling line.
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Obituary, Syracuse.com
Contact May Newsletter
May is National Mental Health Month
Contact Awarded Funding for Suicide-safer Community Initiative
Good Behavior Starts with Fun: PAX-Good Behavior Game
Do You Have an Hour to Learn to Save a Life?
Volunteering is Good for Your Mental Health
Preventing Suicide through Follow-up
Contact Community Services is one of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline centers offering suicide crisis follow-up through a federal grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Follow-up after a suicide crisis can prevent another attempt. Read about follow up in SAMHSA News.
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TeleCare Connects Elderly, Isolated with a Friendly Voice
In Good Health
Sometimes all you need is a reminder and a little friendly conversation to brighten your day. That is what Contact Community Services offers aging and disabled Central New Yorkers with its unique and free TeleCare program.
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Stop saying 'committed' suicide
Would you ever say that your loved one "committed cancer" or "committed a heart attack"? Sounds strange, right? This is how it feels to hear people say that your loved one committed suicide, implying that they should be blamed for their illness.
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Words to Inspire
Greek philosopher Diogenes said, "We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less." Listening is what
we do best here at Contact—on the Hotline and in our work with youth. Read 15 inspiring quotes about listening from actor Alan Alda, writer Ernest Hemmingway and others.
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New from SAMHSA: Helping Families to Support Their LGBT Children
A Practitioner's Resource Guide: Helping Families to Support Their LGBT Children
was developed to help practitioners in a wide range of settings understand the critical role of family acceptance in contributing to the health and well-being of adolescents who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender.
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Get the free 15-page Guide
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Jeff Bezos' Innovation Formula
In August of this year, Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post for $250 million. In his first interview after the purchase, Bezos summed up his innovation process:
"In my experience, the way invention, innovation and change happen is [through] team effort. There's no lone genius who figures it all out and sends down the magic formula. You study, you debate, you brainstorm and the answers start to emerge. It takes time. Nothing happens quickly in this mode. You develop theories and hypotheses, but you don't know if readers will respond. You do as many experiments as rapidly as possible. 'Quickly' in my mind would be years."
Leaders and entrepreneurs can learn the following from Bezos strategy:
1. Teamwork Leaders should never hold out hope for a creative "lone genius" to come along and plop a great idea into their laps.
Innovation is a group process. That's why it's crucial for leaders to build coalitions around their change agendas. The more people who are working together, the better the result will me.
Takeaway: Stop waiting for Godot. Build a coalition and start the discussion.
2. Tinkering Thomas Edison famously said, "I failed my way to success." So to do teams. Bezos makes it very clear that he brainstorms, debates, and tinkers with ideas.
In the same interview, Bezos says, "I'm a genetic optimist. I've been told, 'Jeff, you're fooling yourself; the problem is unsolvable.' But I don't think so. It just takes a lot of time, patience and experimentation."
Bezos works on big problems in a small, organized way. He welcomes debate and testing because he knows creativity and innovation will be improved.
Takeaway: Kurt Vonnegut said it best: "We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down."
3. Patience For Bezos, innovation isn't an overnight thing. It's a long process that could take years.
Leaders shouldn't try to force innovation or speed it along. It's a slow, natural process that needs time to grow, develop, and adapt.
Takeaway: Don't force creativity. Let it develop and bubble to the surface naturally. You can't mandate innovation.
In the final analysis, pragmatic leadership is about implementing innovative ideas and sustaining team momentum. Leaders and entrepreneurs should learn from Bezos' pragmatic approach to innovation. They shouldn't worry about cultivating a "lone genius." What they should do is deliberately build a coalition. They shouldn't spend their time worrying about failure. They should embrace it. Lastly, they should accept that innovation is a slow process.
Innovation isn't going to be delivered instantly by a Lone Ranger riding into the boardroom. It's going to be developed by a team over time.
15 Business Etiquette Rules You Need to Know
13 Habits of Extraordinary Bosses
One Simple Way You Can Boost Your Employees' Happiness
21 Inspiring Quotes for Leaders
SAMUEL B. BACHARACH | Columnist | Director, Cornell's Institute of Workplace Studies
Samuel B. Bacharach is the co-founder of Bacharach Leadership Group (BLG), specializing in leadership development programs with an emphasis on micro-skills: change, execution, negotiation and coaching. He is the McKelvey-Grant professor of organizational behavior at Cornell University's ILR School. His books include Get Them on Your Side and Keep Them on Your Side.


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Plenty of designers have been rummaging Tumblr memes and Hackers to find inspiration for their fall clothes, and there's been debate about who does it authentically and who is just copying the cool kids. But if anyone can be called an internet fashion original, it might just be Carri Munden of Cassette Playa, who's been designing clothes that look like Geocities pages for the likes of MIA since at least 2002. Even if people have been jocking her style, she's holding her ground, and for her new collection, Munden has released a collection and video inspired by one of the cyber world's favorite topics: 2012′s Mayan apocalypse. Called "Karmegeddon" and set to a creepy but amazing Dipset trance anthem, Munden's collection has crop-top bustiers, dyed-green hair, cigarettes, joints, lollipops—the whole shebang. (via Vice Style)
POSTED February 22, 2012 2:15PM IN STYLE VIDEO TAGS: cassette playa, London Fashion Week, Menswear, womenswear


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Texas Oil Refineries Seek Tax Refund from Public Schools, Local Governments
The returns on public investment in education are well known. Traditionally, the United States has been the best educated nation in the world in terms of mean years of schooling, a designation we have only recently lost. These investments have led to robust economic growth, with some studies attributing 25% of all post-World War II GDP gains to increases in educational attainment.
There is, however, an obvious objection to this namby-bamby narrative. Sure, children are our future… but can you turn them into sweet, sweet crude? Maybe Johnny can read, but will fractional distillation transform him into a high-octane fuel? And if your state's student population features a large number of undocumented immigrants, is it even worth spending money on Juan if he can't power your SUV? All important questions, to which Texas offers one possible answer…
Some of the nation's largest oil refineries are seeking huge tax refunds that could force school districts and local governments across Texas to give back tens of millions of dollars they were counting on to pay teachers and provide other services.
The refineries want the tax breaks in exchange for buying pollution-controlling equipment. But the cost to public schools would be dear, coming only months after lawmakers slashed education spending by more than $4 billion.
If a three-member commission appointed by Gov. Rick Perry grants the refunds, nearly half the money would be taken from schools. Classrooms in cities with refineries would be hurt most.
An agency hilariously named the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality — no relation to North Korean Commission on Human Rights or the Iranian Committee on Religious Tolerance, if you're wondering — is evaluating the oil companies' request for a tax abatement, which appears to have legal merit thanks to an amendment to the Texas Constitution exempting from property taxation any equipment installed to meet EPA requirements.
Hopefully, the mock bake sale hosted by Texas parents in protest of the possible refunds will be better received than this week's White Privilege Forever Bake Sale.
Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images News/Getty Images
Tags: Education, Energy & Oil, Environment, Food, Rick Perry, Taxes, Texas
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From staff reports
---- —
TRAVERSE CITY — Northwestern Bank named Daniel W. Terpsma its new president and CEO.
Terpsma replaces bank president Harry C. "Scrub" Calcutt, who announced his retirement in January.
A Northwestern Bank press release stated Terpsma has spent over 30 years in the financial services sector in Michigan, including more than 20 years in community banking.
Terpsma also was appointed to the bank's board of directors.
Terpsma has held a number of senior management positions with other financial institutions, including regional bank president, the bank's press release stated. He has a home in Grand Traverse County.
Since August, Northwestern Bank has operated under a consent agreement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Michigan's Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation, oversight related to failed loans.
Bank officials said Calcutt's retirement is unrelated to the consent agreement. Calcutt turned 65 last month.