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More test results of the new Samsung 960 Pro, if your brain still has the free space to store it
Subject: Storage | October 18, 2016 - 03:30 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: vnand, ssd, Samsung, NVMe, 960 PRO, 48-layer, 2TB
Al has already exhaustively covered the new Samsung 960 Pro in his latest article, which also happens to be the premiere of PC Perspective's new storage testing suite. An in depth discussion of the new testing methodology can be found on the third page and you can expect to hear about it on our podcast tomorrow and perhaps in a standalone article in the near future. Several comments have inquired as to the effect this drive would have on a system used for gaming or multimedia and how it would compare to drives like the Intel 750 and DC P3700 or OZC's RD 400. The best place to find those comparisons is over at The Tech Report, their RoboBench transfer test features a long list of drives you can look at. Check it out once you have finished off our article.
"Samsung's 960 Pro follows up on last year's 950 Pro with denser V-NAND, a brand-new controller, and space-age label technology. We put this drive to the test to see whether its performance is truly out-of-this-world."
Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
- Samsung SSD960 PRO 2TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD @ Kitguru
- WD Blue SSD Review (1TB) @ Kitguru
- Crucial MX300 M.2 525GB SSD @ eTeknix
- Seagate BarraCuda Pro 10TB SATA III HDD Review @ NikKTech
Power efficient memristors could be showing up in your smart toaster
Subject: General Tech | October 18, 2016 - 02:23 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: memristor, iot
Over at Nanotechweb you can read about research being conducted on memristor technology to reduce the power required to write to a cell to make this memory type more useful in low voltage applications, such as IoT devices. Apart from the challenges of creating materials capable of remembering how much current has flowed through them in the past there is what the researchers refer to as the sneak path problem. When writing to a memristor, current flows to the cell that is being updated, unfortunately it also flows into a number of other cells thus increasing the current required for each write cycle. This team hopes to overcome this issue, so far having successfully reduced the current required to 8% of that in conventional crossbar circuits. Check out more on the research in the full article.
"Researchers at Hewlett Packard Labs in California, the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Seoul National University are reporting on a new low-current, self-rectifying memristor made from titanium ion electron traps in a niobium oxide matrix. The device might be used as an embedded memory on low-power chips and for storing data in Internet of Things (IoT) appliances."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- Sweet, vulnerable IoT devices compromised 6 min after going online @ The Register
- The answer to Internet of Things madness? Open source, of course! @ The Register
- Aurora sets up medical 3D printing joint venture @ DigiTimes
- Surprise release candidate of Linux 4.9 kernel has element from Project Ara @ The Inquirer
- LogMeIn collapses its 'Cubby' Dropbox clone into LogMeIn Pro @ The Register
- Video Game Voice Actors To Go On Strike This Friday @ Rock, Paper, SHOTGUN
NZXT is filling the oceans with Kraken! Three new models annouced today
Subject: Cases and Cooling | October 18, 2016 - 01:53 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: nzxt, kraken, Kraken X42, Kraken X52, Kraken X62, Aer P120, Aer P140, AIO
NZXT have announced one new AiO watercooler and updates to two of their existing models, along with new features and CAM 3.2 fan controller software allow you to change fan speeds and lighting on the watercoolers. That software will also handle any firmware updates that are released to ensure even your radiators can be upgraded. All have new Aer fans with variable speeds and are fully infected with RGB for those who need an even more intense lightshow in their case.
The X52's radiator has dual 120mm fans, to allow you to slip it into a narrow case while the X42 and X62 both use 140mm fans, single in the former and dual in the latter. All three coolers come with a six year warranty are available for preorder here.
MSRP Pricing:
- Kraken X42 – $129.99
- Kraken X52 – $149.99
- Kraken X62 – $159.99
Stand alone fans
- Aer P120 -$15.99 each
- Aer P140 - $17.99 each
- Aer P Colored Trim - $5.99 for two trims (Available in Red, White, and Blue)
The full PR is below the fold.
Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon 653, 626, and 427 SoCs
Subject: Processors, Mobile | October 18, 2016 - 11:32 AM | Sebastian Peak
Tagged: SoC, Snapdragon 653, Snapdragon 626, Snapdragon 427, snapdragon, smartphone, qualcomm, mobile
Qualcomm has announced new 400 and 600-series Snapdragon parts, and these new SoCs (Snapdragon 653, 626, and 427) inherit technology found previously on the 800-series parts, including fast LTE connectivity and dual-camera support.
The integrated LTE modem has been significantly for each of these SoCs, and Qualcomm lists these features for each of the new products:
- X9 LTE with CAT 7 modem (300Mbps DL; 150Mbps UL) designed to provide users with a 50 percent increase in maximum uplink speeds over the X8 LTE modem.
- LTE Advanced Carrier Aggregation with up to 2x20 MHz in the downlink and uplink
- Support for 64-QAM in the uplink
- Superior call clarity and higher call reliability with the Enhanced Voice Services (EVS) codec on VoLTE calls.
In addition to the new X9 modem, all three SoCs offer faster CPU and GPU performance, with the Snapdragon 653 (which replaces the 652) now supporting up to 8GB of memory - up from a max of 4GB previously. Each of the new SoCs also feature Qualcomm's Quick Charge 3.0 for fast charging.
Full specifications for these new products can be found on the updated Snapdragon product page.
Availability of the new 600-series Snapdragon processors is set for the end of this year, so we could start seeing handsets with the faster parts soon; while the Snapdragon 427 is expected to ship in devices early in 2017.
Introduction, Specifications and Packaging
Just under a year ago we published our review of the Samsung 950 PRO, their first foray into NVMe SSD territory. Today we have a 960 PRO, which strives to be more revolutionary than evolutionary. There are some neat new features like 16-die packages and a Package-on-Package controller/DRAM design, all cooled by a copper heat spreading label! This new model promises to achieve some very impressive results, so without further delay, let's get to it!
Specs have not changed since the announcement. Highlights include
- A new 5-core Polaris controller (with one die solely dedicated to coordinating IO's to/from the host)
- 4-Landing Design - It's tough fitting four flash packages onto an M.2 2280 SSD, but Samsung has done it, thanks to the below feature.
- Package-on-Package - The controller and DRAM are stacked within the same package, saving space.
- Hexadecimal Die Packages - For the 960 Pro to reach 2TB of capacity, 16 48-layer MLC V-NAND packages must be present within each package. That's a lot of dies per package!
Nice touch with the felt pad on the bottom of the installation guide. This pad keeps the 960 Pro safely in place during shipment.
NVIDIA GTX 1050 and GTX 1050 Ti Launch on October 25th
Subject: General Tech | October 18, 2016 - 09:01 AM | Scott Michaud
Tagged: pascal, nvidia, GTX 1050 Ti, gtx 1050
NVIDIA has just announced that the GeForce GTX 1050 ($109) and GeForce GTX 1050 Ti ($139) will launch on October 25th. Both of these Pascal-based cards target the 75W thermal point, which allows them to be powered by a PCIe bus without being tethered directly to the power supply. Like the GTX 750 Ti before it, this allows users to drop it into many existing desktops, upgrading it with discrete graphics.
Most of NVIDIA's press deck focuses on the standard GTX 1050. This $109 SKU contains 2GB of GDDR5 memory and 640 CUDA cores, although the core frequency has not been announced at the time of writing. Instead, NVIDIA has provided a handful of benchmarks, comparing the GTX 1050 to the earlier GTX 650 and the Intel Core i5-4760k integrated graphics.
It should be noted that, to hit their >60FPS targets, Gears of War 4 and Grand Theft Auto V needed to be run at medium settings, and Overwatch was set to high. (DOTA2 and World of Warcraft were maxed out, though.) As you might expect, NVIDIA reminded the press about GeForce Experience's game optimization setting just a few slides later. The implication seems to be that, while it cannot max out these games at 1080p, NVIDIA will at least make it easy for users to experience its best-case scenario, while maintaining 60FPS.
So yes, while it's easy to claim 60 FPS is you're able to choose the settings that fit this role, it's a much better experience than the alternative parts they list. On the GTX 650, none of these titles are able to hit an average of 30 FPS, and integrated graphics cannot even hit 15 FPS. This card seems to be intended for users that are interested in playing eSports titles maxed out at 1080p60, while enjoying newer blockbusters, albeit at reduced settings, but have an old, non-gaming machine they can salvage.
Near the end of their slide deck, they also mention that the GTX 1050 Ti exists. It's basically the same use case as above, with its 75W TDP and all, but with $30 more performance. The VRAM doubles from 2GB to 4GB, which should allow higher texture resolutions and more mods, albeit still targeting 1080p. It also adds another 128 CUDA cores, a 20% increase, although, again, that is somewhat meaningless until we find out what the card is clocked at.
Update: Turns out we did find clock speeds! The GTX 1050 will have a base clock of 1354 MHz and a Boost clock of 1455 MHz while the GTX 1050 Ti will run at 1290/1392 MHz respectively.
NVIDIA's promotional video
Obviously, numbers from a vendor are one thing, and a third-party benchmark is something else entirely (especially when the vendor benchmarks do not compare their product to the latest generation of their competitor). Keep an eye out for reviews.
Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon X50 5G Modem
Subject: Networking, Mobile | October 17, 2016 - 11:00 PM | Sebastian Peak
Tagged: Snapdragon X50, snapdragon, qualcomm, modem, mobile, mmWave, LTE, cellular, 5G
Qualcomm has officially unveiled the development of a new 5G modem with the Snapdragon X50, which targets OEMs and early 5G development. The X50 supports milimeter wave (mmWave) technology initially, and rather than replace existing LTE solutions the X50 is designed to work alongside LTE modems integrated into Snapdragon SoCs, for a seamless handoff between 5G and 4G networks.
"The Snapdragon X50 5G modem will initially support operation in millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum in the 28GHz band. It will employ Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) antenna technology with adaptive beamforming and beam tracking techniques, which facilitates robust and sustained mobile broadband communications in non-line-of-sight (NLOS) environments. With 800 MHz bandwidth support, the Snapdragon X50 5G modem is designed to support peak download speeds of up to 5 gigabits per second.
Designed to be used for multi-mode 4G/5G mobile broadband, as well as fixed wireless broadband devices, the Snapdragon X50 5G modem can be paired with a Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ processor with an integrated Gigabit LTE modem and interwork cohesively via dual-connectivity. Gigabit LTE will become an essential pillar for the 5G mobile experience, as it can provide a wide coverage layer for nascent 5G networks."
Ratification of an official "5G" standard has not taken place, but Qualcomm hopes to position itself at the forefront of its development. The mmWave technology (which is explained in this video) is only one part of the puzzle:
"Work has begun on defining, standardizing and designing the new OFDM-based 5G New Radio (NR) as part of the global 3GPP standard. 5G NR is being designed to support a wide variation of device-types, services and deployments. It is also being designed to get the most out of every bit of spectrum across a wide array of available spectrum bands and regulatory paradigms."
(More information is available on Qualcomm's 5G Technologies page.)
The Snapdragon X50 modem is set to begin sampling to OEMs in the second half of 2017, with the first half of 2018 projected for the first commercial products featuring the new modem.
Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200MHz 32GB, a lot of space in more ways than one
Subject: Memory | October 17, 2016 - 02:37 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: corsair, Corsair Vengeance LPX, ddr4-3200
This particular Corsair Vengeance LPX kit comes with the Airflow kit, active cooling for your DIMMs which does require a fair amount of clearance around your CPU socket if you intend to install it. If you do not use the active cooling the low profile DIMMs stand a mere 31mm tall, which should fit alongside even the largest heatsinks. This 32GB DDR4-3200MHz kit has default timings of 15-15-15-36, Overclockers Club managed to squeeze out an overclock of 14-16-16-36 @ 3261MHz on this particular kit. Drop by to see the effect that had on performance in the full review.
"Right out of the box, this set of modules delivered excellent performance across each of the tests I ran. From synthetic to real world and finally in the gaming test, these modules delivered better performance overall than even the Dominator platinum modules I just looked at. The tighter primary timings and SPD tuning really brings out the performance potential of this Vengeance LPX 3200MHz 32GB set of modules."
Here are some more Memory articles from around the web:
- G.SKILL Trident Z 3200MHz DDR4 32GB Review @ OCC
- ADATA XPG Dazzle 2800MHz CL17 2x8GB DDR4 Review: Razzle-Dazzle Without The Hassle @ Modders-Inc
- Patriot Viper 4 8GB DDR4 3400MHz Memory Kit Review @ Neoseeker
Google tests its Power and takes a shot at Intel
Subject: General Tech | October 17, 2016 - 12:48 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: google, Intel, power9, zaius
Not too long ago Google revealed it had updated the code that runs behind its popular web based services to make it more hardware agnostic. With a trivial tweak to the code their software can switch between running on Intel x86, IBM Power or 64-bit ARM cores. On Friday Google Cloud's technical program manager, John Zipfel, provided more information on the OpenCAPI compliant Zaius P9 server that is in development and revealed it will use an IBM Power 9 chip. As it will be OpenCAPI, it will use interconnects such as NVIDIA's NVLink or AMD's as yet unnamed fabric interconnect but will not leverage Intel's. The Register has a bit more information on Google's plans and the Zaius here.
"Google has gently increased pressure on Intel – its main source for data-center processors – by saying it is "looking forward" to using chips from IBM and other semiconductor rivals."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- 'Pork Explosion' backdoor found on Foxconn-made Android devices @ The Inquirer
- There's Bugs In The Windows 10 Implementation of Bash @ Slashdot
- How a chunk of the web disappeared this week: GlobalSign's global HTTPS snafu explained @ The Register
- More Lithium Battery Product Recalls Predicted @ Slashdot
- The DJI Matrice 600 Drone Preview & Flight Demonstration @ TechARP
- NikKTech & QNAP Tri-NAS Global Giveaway
Samsung Begins Mass Production of 10nm LPE SoCs
Subject: Mobile | October 17, 2016 - 07:01 AM | Scott Michaud
Tagged: Samsung, 10nm
Earlier today, Samsung announced that mass production has started for system-on-a-chip (SoC) products on their first-generation 10nm process, which is called Low Power Early (10LPE). Chips produced from this node will begin to ship in devices starting early 2017. The press release claims that, for integrated circuits manufactured under the 10LPE process, die area could decrease up to 30%, with either an increase in performance of up to 27% or a decrease in power of up to 40%.
This is a little higher than the 10% increase in performance that AnandTech claimed in April. On the plus side, it was also expected that any design that was created for 10LPE could be migrated, pretty much without change, to the second-generation, Low Power Plus (10LPP) node. Jumping back to today's press release, Samsung claims that 10LPP will begin mass production in the second half of next year. So basically, early 10nm parts will launch in a couple of months, then a second wave will arrive the year after, using a more refined fabrication method.
Rumor: Newegg Acquired by Liaison Interactive
Subject: General Tech | October 14, 2016 - 10:40 PM | Scott Michaud
Tagged: newegg, liaison interactive
About a month ago, Newegg announced that Hangzhao Liaison Interactive Information Technology Co., Ltd. has agreed to make a "significant investment" in their company. That is not a rumor; it was officially acknowledged by Newegg. Their press release doesn't really elaborate on the specifics of the deal, though, except to note that Liaison Interactive is interested in Newegg because of their position in the VR and AR market. Got to love the PC gaming ecosystem.
Well, this month, the rumors are claiming that Newegg was outright acquired by Liaison Interactive. The United Daily News is reporting that the deal was 17.7 billion yuan (which Google mis-translated to 1.77 billion yuan for me) for 55.7% of the online retailer. It's unclear how the other 44.3% is split up, but Newegg is said to become a subsidiary as a result of this transaction.
The UDN story also expands upon the "why" question that was loosely touched upon last month. I can't tell, especially with Google Translate stripping a lot of context, how much of this is speculation, but the report suggests that Liaison Interactive is interested in Newegg as an extension of its supply chain. That is, more easily get their products to end-users world-wide.
Interesting. We'll hopefully get a new press release soon.
Intel Optane (XPoint) First Gen Product Specifications Leaked
Subject: Storage | October 14, 2016 - 08:05 PM | Allyn Malventano
Tagged: XPoint, Optane, 8000p, Intel
Intel and Micron jointly launched XPoint technology over a year ago, and we've been waiting to see any additional info ever since. We saw Micron demo a prototype at FMS 2016, and we also saw the actual prototype. Intel's last demo was not so great, later demos were better), and we saw a roadmap leaked a few months ago. Thanks to another leak, we now have specs for one of Intel's first Optane products:
Now I know there is a bunch of rambling around the net already. "Why so small?!?!". What I think we are looking at is Stony Beach - Intel's 'Application Accelerator" seen here:
What further backs this theory is that you'll note the PCIe 3.0 x2 link of that product in the above roadmap, which couples nicely with the upper end limits seen in the 32GB product, which is clearly hitting a bandwidth limit at 1.6 GB/s, which is the typical max seen on a x2 PCIe 3.0 link.
Now with the capacity thing aside, there is another important thing to bring up. First gen XPoint dies are 128 Gbit, which works out to 16 GB. That means the product specs for the 16GB part are turning in those specs *WITH ONE DIE*. NAND based SSDs can only reach these sorts of figures by spreading the IO's across four, eight, or more dies operating in parallel. This is just one die, and it is nearly saturating two lanes of PCIe 3.0!
Another cool thing to note is that we don't typically get to know how well a single die of anything will perform. We always have to extrapolate backwards from the smaller capacities of SSDs, where the dies are the bottleneck instead of the interface to the host. Here we have the specs of one die of a product. Imagine what could be done with even wider interfaces and more dies!
XPoint fills the still relatively large performance gap between RAM and NAND, and does so while being non-volatile. There are good things on the horizon to be enabled by this technology, even if we first see it in smaller capacity products.
Planning a Fall refresh for your system?
Subject: Systems | October 14, 2016 - 03:32 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: system build
Drop by The Tech Report for their take on the best system components available to build a system at a variety of price points. They take you through the components you will need, from the CPU and cooler right up to the version of OS you could choose. At the end they offer suggestions on entire PC builds if you are not comfortable picking and choosing each component separately, or if you want to compare your dream machine to theirs.
Don't forget we have our own Hardware Leaderboard as well.
"In this edition of the TR System Guide, we examine the effects of Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1060 family and AMD's Radeon RX 460 and RX 470 on the PC-building marketplace."
Here are some more Systems articles from around the web:
- MSI Vortex G65VR 6RE GTX 1070 SLI Gaming PC @ eTeknix
- Cyberpower Hyper Liquid 100 GTX 1080 Gaming PC @ eTeknix
- Competitive Gaming On A Budget – Can It Be Done? FNATIC And AMD Say YES! @ Techgag
The MSI GTX 1070 GAMING X 8G has extra power
Subject: Graphics Cards | October 14, 2016 - 01:27 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: msi, gtx 1070, GTX 1070 GAMING X 8G, factory overclocked
The most noticeable feature of this GTX 1070 from MSI is that is has an additional 6 pin power connector intended to ensure smooth power delivery. The most confusing part is the branding, a GAMING X is better than a GAMING Z which is better than a GAMING which is better than a non-GAMING 1070. The factory overclock on the card pushes the boost clock to 1771MHz and [H]ard|OCP also tested it the best overclock they could manage, a base clock of 1692MHz and a boost clock of 1882MHz. Check out the effect that had on gameplay in their full review.
"We have MSI's new GeForce GTX 1070 GAMING X 8G video card to evaluate today. We will push this GPU as high as we can, and see how the overclock compares to the default factory overclock, and a Founders Edition NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070. This video card is a fully custom retail video card with the Twin Frozr VI cooling system. "
Here are some more Graphics Card articles from around the web:
- ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce GTX 1070 O8G-GAMING @ [H]ard|OCP
- ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1070 AMP! Graphics Card @ Custom PC Review
- ASUS GeForce GTX 1060 6GB Strix Graphics Card Review @ Techgage
Strap a peltier to your DSLR so you can lengthen your exposure
Subject: General Tech | October 14, 2016 - 12:45 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: DSLR, peltier
Peltier coolers have proven too inefficient to cool modern CPUs and have been relegated back to car seats and other traditional usages, until now. A company called PrimaLuce will send you a Nikon D5500 with a peltier cooler strapped to the back which will cool your camera during long exposures which reduces image noise. It will also prevent the camera from getting obnoxiously warm, a common complaint around the PCPer office. This particular camera is intended for capturing the night sky, the inclusion of a anti-dewing system is very welcome. Pop on over to Ars Technica to take a look.
"For €2,190 (£2,000/$2,400), the Italian company PrimaLuce will sell you a Nikon D5500 DSLR with a dual-Peltier cooler strapped to the back, called the Nikon D5500a Cooled. In addition to the cooler, the modified camera also switches out the standard low-pass filter in front of the sensor for something that is specially tuned to be more sensitive to astronomical wavelengths of light (specifically H-alpha deep red)."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- PSVR vs. HTC Vive vs. Oculus Rift vs. Gear VR: Which VR headset should you buy? @ Ars Technica
- The exploding Note 7 is no surprise – leaked Samsung doc highlights toxic internal culture @ The Register
- 10-year-old OpenSSH vulnerability caught up in IoT DDoS attacks @ The Inquirer
- AMD, HPE, IBM, Samsung and more join forces to challenge Intel's data centre dominance @ The Inquirer
- Oz gummint's de-anonymisation crime is as mind-bendingly stupid as we feared @ The Register
- Eddie Putera Shares DJI Drone Photography Experience @ TechARP
- noblechairs EPIC Series Chair @ eTeknix
- Wi-Fi baby heart monitor may have the worst IoT security of 2016 @ The Register
- Yahoo Explains Why It Recently Disable Automatic Forwarding On Yahoo Mail; Reinstates the Feature @ Slashdot
- How To Migrate Yahoo Mail To Gmail And Outlook @ Techgage
Stepping Up the Simulation Game
I don't exactly remember when I first heard about Fanatec, but it likely was sometime after the release of DiRT 2. I was somewhat into racing games before that, but that particular title sold me on the genre and I have not looked back since. Before then I used a Microsoft Sidewinder FFB stick for my racing, but it was D2 that convinced me to purchase a wheel for the full fledged experience. The initial impression of Fanatec was of course "high priced, but really nice gear". These were products that I did not think I would ever see in any personal capacity as they were out of my price range and my driving passion was just not amped up enough to rationalize it.
My dog is quite suspicious of the amount of boxes the set came in.
I know I probably talk about it too much, but the introduction of DiRT Rally really supercharged my interest in driving accessories due to the work they did on physics and Force Feedback effects. My older Thrustmaster Ferrari F430 wheel featured a meager 270 degrees of rotation and clunky FFB that did not translate well with this particular title. It may have done OK with older, more arcade based racers, but with the latest generation of sims that focus on accuracy in experience it just did not cut it. Purchasing a Thrustmaster TX based unit was a night and day experience for these latest titles.
The next few months after that I spent time with multiple other wheels and accessories and provided a few reviews based on them. My level of interest grew exponentially about what the industry offered. I was able to contact Fanatec and they agreed to put together a bundle of products based on their latest ClubSport V2 products. This would include the ClubSport V2 Base, ClubSport Universal Hub for Xbox One, ClubSport Pedals V3, ClubSport Shifter SQ, and the desk mounting hardware for the units.
Fanatec is not for the faint of heart when it comes to pricing. The total package I received is worth 1800 Euro, or about $2016 US. This is a pretty tremendous amount of money for racing gear, but it is about average for higher end products that exist in this market. People will question why it costs so much, but after my experience with it I now know why.
Wide load coming through, Carbide Series AIR 740
Subject: Cases and Cooling | October 13, 2016 - 05:10 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: corsair, carbide air 740
At 426x340x510mm (16.8x13.4x20.1") the new Carbide AIR 740 looks like a double wide and there is a reason for that. Corsair have separated the drives and PSU into a secondary chamber, going so far as to mount the PSU vertically. The design also gives you more than enough room to install radiators in a number of locations inside the case without impinging on any other components nor will you have issues with even the tallest CPU heatsink. [H]ard|OCP was impressed enough with the case to give it the Gold, though they would have liked to see a fan controller in an AIR series case.
"Corsair is back with another cube type case this time in its Carbide AIR series. The model AIR 740 is a big steel case that has a big footprint, and along with that comes a spacious interior that will lend itself to just about any amount of hardware you want to install and Corsair has its sights set on excellent cooling for all that hardware."
Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:
- Raijintek Styx Case Review: Simplicity Par Excellence @ Modders-Inc
- Aerocool P7C1 Project 7 Tempered Glass Mid-Tower Chassis @ eTeknix
- Aerocool DS 230 @ Kitguru
- Thermaltake Core X31 Mid Tower @ eTeknix
- Cryorig H5 Universal CPU Air Cooler @ eTeknix
- DeepCool Captain 120EX White Edition CPU Cooler @ eTeknix
Think you can handle the Wang? NVIDIA is giving away $50,000 worth of Shadow Warrior 2 codes
Subject: General Tech | October 13, 2016 - 03:50 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: shadow warrior 2, nvidia, geforce, geforce experience 3.0, giveaway
Shadow Warrior 2 is out today, bringing Lo brow humour and procedural gore back to PC gaming. For those of you who have created a user at GeForce.com, you have a chance to win a copy of the game for free, all you need to do is install GeForce Experience 3.0 on your machine and you are entered to win. If you haven't the desire you can pick the game up on GOG or Steam, but you will have to pay for it. This new incarnation adds four player co-op to the game and the levels are described as procedural, theoretically places you have previously visited will not be the same if you head back. More info on the contest in the PR below
Shadow Warrior 2 launched today, and GeForce gamers using GeForce Experience may be getting it free. We will be giving away $50,000 worth of codes for the over the top first person shooter Shadow Warrior 2 to random gamers registered with GeForce Experience 3.0. This marks the second game code giveaway this month and more are coming soon. Just download and log in to the new GeForce Experience 3.0 to be eligible. Shadow Warrior 2 is highly anticipated first person shooter that is focused on fun. But not to be missed behind the numerous weapon choices, over-the-top gore, and edgy sense of humor is an indie release that is loaded with next generation technology thanks in part to a collaboration between NVIDIA and Flying Wild Hog, the game's independent Polish developer.
The developer of Shadow Warrior 2, Flying Wild Hog, along with Devolver sister company Gambitious, were a part of the NVIDIA Indie Spotlight Program launch with their game Hard Reset: Redux. So naturally working with them on Shadow Warrior 2 to expand the indie game partnership between Devolver and NVIDIA seemed like the natural next step.
PC Gamers count on GeForce Experience to get the most from their games. It keeps drivers up to date. It automatically optimizes game settings for more than 300 games. And it's the easiest way to capture gameplay video, stream it to Twitch or YouTube, or share it with another player over the Internet using the easy-to-use in-game overlay tool.
And now it rewards you for playing on GeForce. Dating back to July, NVIDIA has thanked their loyal GeForce Experience gamers by giving away: MSI VR-Ready Notebooks, HTC Vive Systems, GeForce GTX 1080s, SHIELD Android TVs, alpha access codes to the game LawBreakers and $200,000 worth of codes for Dead by Daylight.
More than 75 million gamers can't be wrong--GeForce Experience is the gateway to great PC gaming.
Microwave your RAM to make it faster?
Subject: General Tech | October 13, 2016 - 03:19 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: terahertz, research, memory
You have probably recently heard of terahertz radiation used to scan physical objects, be it the T-Rays at airports or the the researchers at MIT who are reading books through the covers. There is more recent of news on researchers utilizing the spectrum between frequencies of 0.3THz and 3THz, this time pertaining to RAM cycles and the possibility of increasing the speed at which RAM can flip between a 0 and 1. In theory a terahertz electric field could flip bits 1000 times faster than the electromagnetic process currently used in flash memory. This could also be used in the new prototype RAM technology we have seen, such as MRAM, PRAM or STT-RAM. This is still a long way off but a rather interesting read, especially if you can follow the links from The Inquirer to the Nature submission.
"Using the prototypical antiferromagnet thulium orthoferrite (TmFeO3), we demonstrate that resonant terahertz pumping of electronic orbital transitions modifies the magnetic anisotropy for ordered Fe3+ spins and triggers large-amplitude coherent spin oscillations," the researchers helpfully explained."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- Smart Linux Home Hubs Mix IoT with AI @ Linux.com
- Apple tipped to launch new MacBooks on 27 October @ The Inquirer
- Shadow Warrior 2 Dev Says DRM Makes A Game Worse @ [H]ard|OCP
- Adobe on patch parade to march out 83 bugs @ The Register
- First look at Windows Server 2016: 'Cloud for the masses'? We'll be the judge of that @ The Register
- Shadow Warrior 2 Dev Says DRM Makes A Game Worse @ [H]ard|OCP
- Become Very Unpopular Very Fast With This DIY EMP Generator @ Hack a Day
Podcast #421 - iPhone 7, Drobo 5C, Intel FPGAs and more!
Subject: Editorial | October 13, 2016 - 11:22 AM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: XG-U2008, western digital, video, stratix, ssd, podcast, nvidia, msi, kaby lake, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 7, iphone, Intel, drobo, asus, apple, 5c
PC Perspective Podcast #421 - 10/13/16
Join us this week as we discuss our review of the iPhone 7, the Drobo 5C, Intel FPGAs and more!
You can subscribe to us through iTunes and you can still access it directly through the RSS page HERE.
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Hosts: Ryan Shrout, Allyn Malventano, Josh Walrath, Jeremy Hellstrom, and Sebastian Peak
Program length: 1:22:35
Week in Review:
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Hardware/Software Picks of the Week
Ryan: UE Boom 2
Jeremy: Hee hee, you really want Win7?
Josh: Wipe that drive!
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text:
- Engelstalig
- 400 pagina's
- New edition
- 9780099257035
- mei 2001
The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in caves 20 miles east of Jerusalem in 1947 and 1956. Now Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, co-authors of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, have succeeded in uncovering what has been described as 'the academic scandal par excellence of the twentieth century': the story of how and why up to 75 per cent of the eight hundred ancient Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts, hidden for some nineteen centuries, have, until very recently, remained concealed from the rest of the world. Through interviews, historical analysis and a close study of both published and unpublished scroll material, the authors are able to reveal the true cause of the bitter struggle between scholars, for these documents disclose nothing less than a new account of the origins of Christianity and an alternative and highly significant version of the New Testament.
<i>Chicago Tribune</i> Not for the theologically faint of heart.

subset: commoncrawl


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Club Information
Welcome to our club!
Service Above Self
We meet Tuesdays at 7:00 AM
Coeur d' Alene Resort
Coeur d' Alene Resort
115 S. Second Street
Coeur d'Alene, ID 83814
United States
Coeur d'Alene, ID 83814
United States
District Site
Venue Map
Home Page Stories
Daniel Connelly and Miranda Anderson were our RYLA campers this summer. Daniel showed us some highlights and shared a video greeting from Miranda!
Venture High Senior Dan DeFalco was our September Student of the Month. He shared his feelings about the school and his future plans.
Who knew? The Director of the Kootenai County Office of Emergency Management, Sandy Von Behren explained to our club just a small part of what went into the Cascadia Rising exercise this summer!
Members of the NIC Womens Soccer team at our September 6 meeting at the Hagadone Event Center - left to right: Jessica Scott, Emily Aspen, Cori Holmes, Jocelyn Cook-Cox and Assistant Coach Becky Thompson.
District 5080 Governor Kees van der Pol and his wife Mayumi told of their Rotary lives during our July 26 meeting.
Sunrise Rotarians Mark Fisher and Wayne Ellenbecker get a close-up look at a demonstration of a tactical shield by CDA Police Officers (L-R) Craig Buhl, Steve Harris, Nick Lowry and Johann Schmitz. Nearly $6000 was raised to assist the Police Department at the club's annual fundraiser event last October. After consulting with the Police Chief and Sgt. Greg Moore's wife, it was determined that this was the type of safety equipment Sgt. Moore would have chosen to help protect fellow officers. Those funds enabled the Department to purchase 3 of the tactical shields.
At our Tuesday, July 12 meeting, Rudy Lopez gives us a great presentation about the Eastern Washington State Veterans cemetery.
At our June 28th meeting, Incoming President Bryan Taylor and outgoing President Jeff Mahon load up on coffee...
At our June 14 meeting we welcomed two new members. President Jeff pins Paula Pinkerton while her husband Gary looks on. Later, they both entertained us with their classification talk.
At our June 7 meeting, Winton Elementary Principal Karen Troxel chats with David Gibbs & President Jeff after her presentation about the Winton Rotary Readers.
We learned a LOT about Osprey at our May 31 breakfast. Thank you Wayne Melquist!
At our May 10 breakfast, Sunrise Rotarian LaDonna Beaumont told us about S.O.A.R.I.N.G. and it's impact on young people in our community.
Visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpYw2VTyLwM to learn more!
Ginger Wireman of the Washington State Dept of Ecology tells us lots of things we didn't know about the Hanford area!
...why can't we meet here every week...?
Dani Zibell-Wolfe, Volunteer Director, IronMan CDA
CDA Charter Academy Student of the Month Josh Moehring.
Kelsey Parker tells us all about First Tee of the Inland NW...
Mike's stylin the glasses as he presents the Constitutional Minute...
On Saturday, April 16, Sunrise Rotarian Tom Tessendorf embraced his nautical side at the Hayden Chamber banquet.
CDA Charter Academy Student of the Month Katie Givens describes her years at Charter...
Incoming President Bryan Taylor updates the club about where we stand on our Visioning goals...
Native North Idahoan and Idaho State Historical Society Trustee Don Pischner entertains our club about things from Idaho's past (and present)!
On March 8, two students from Nihongo (Japanese) Club tell our club about their plans to visit Japan this summer.
CDA Charter Academy Student of the Month Stephanie Kociela tells us about herself.
Friday Rotarian Sandy Patano makes a point during the Primary Election 101 presentation, with help from Sunrise Rotarian Denny Davis (not pictured...)
ANNALYSE VANCHIERI is our February student of the month from Venture High School!
Sunrise Rotarians listen as Nicole Kahler tells what's new at CDA 2030...
Greta Gissel gives an overview of Kids Camp, part of the CDA 2030 presentation on February 23.
Stan Schedler & Fred Quigley at the Sunrise Rotary booth at the CDA Chamber After-Hours Business Fair.
Club President Jeff Mahon tries to make a blood donor out of Mike Beck while pinning him as a Paul Harris Fellow.
Troy Tymeson picks the wrong card from Wayne Ellenbecker, so the pot continues to grow...
Welcome back, Brian Goetz!
BNSF Regional Public Affairs Director Ross Lane points out the efficiency and safety of freight trains during our January 19th meeting.
Club Executives & Directors


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On the Olympics & Body Diversity
December 15, 2012 by mamaV
Filed under Athletes, Body Image, Featured, Healthy Eating, Nutrition, Role Models, Self-Acceptance
This Guest Post graciously submitted by Virginia Sole-Smith I know, I know, the Olympics ended Sunday (with that weird Spice Girls reunion/closing ceremony). But I was at the beach last week, so these are some late musings. Every four years there is always a lot of talk about how Olympic athletes aren't like us regular folk, particularly […]
Precocious Puberty: A Risk Factor For Eating Disorders
February 7, 2012 by Robyn Hussa Farrell
Filed under Eating Disorders, Featured, Nutrition, Obesity, Parents
It is important to consider the psychological effects of early puberty.
A Teen's Instructions to Parents
October 15, 2011 by MamaV
Filed under Eating Disorders, Healthy Communication, Self-Care, Sharing Feelings, Wellness, What to Say, How to Say It
Thanks to MEDA's recent newsletter, I was led to a blog post on the Children's Hospital Boston Pediatric Health site. It was written by a teenager who has healed from an eating disorder and wanted to share what she wished her parents had known about EDs. For this young woman "It was never about weight" […]


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My wife and I are in our late 60's. For 26 years we've lived in a 3,200 square foot house on ten non-easycare acres in rural south Salem, Oregon. We've visited four retirement communities in the northwest, and browsed numerous others online.
It's tough for seniors to decide when to leave a beloved home because it's become too damn difficult to maintain. Various factors enter into that decision: health status, where children and other family members are living, how attached one is to a current location -- all kinds of stuff.
We've mulled over the reasons to stay where we are, and the reasons to move to a retirement community. Our conclusion: it makes sense to keep on living in our home for as long as possible. I like to say, they're going to have to tear my DR Field Mower out of my cold dead hands.
(See my 2015 post, "I couldn't mow steep slopes in a retirement community." And a story in the New York Post that featured us.)
Not surprisingly, those who market retirement communities argue otherwise. Every community we've looked at has a pitch that echoes what a "infomercial" story in the Homes & Rentals section of a recent Sunday Oregonian says.
The piece was titled, "Moving in 'young' enables seniors to remain active," and extolled the virtues of one of the retirement communities we've visited, Hillside in McMinnville, Oregon. Here's an excerpt from Erinn Hutkin's story.
While some may have the idea that moving to a retirement community such as Hillside is something done in the last years of life, there are advantages to making the transition at a younger age and being able to enjoy the freedom that such communities offer.
For one, it's much less taxing for an older adult to move into a community when they choose to, rather than doing so quickly in a time of crisis. What's more, downsizing to a community like Hillside frees up time to be able to enjoy life. Moving when you're younger and more able-bodied also allows for the opportunity to be involved and take advantage of community activities and programs.
OK, here's what I disagree with.
(1) "There are advantages to making the transition at a younger age." This assumes that seniors know the future. Which, of course, nobody does. I don't know how long I'm going to live, or what the cause of my death will be. What if I moved into a retirement community that I wasn't really wild about because I envisioned myself growing old and infirm there -- then died in a head-on crash with an out-of-control semi on the freeway a year or so later?
My last thought would be, "Shit, I shouldn't have moved, because I could have spent my last year happier in our rural home, rather than in the retirement community, and now I'm about to di..."
Us baby boomers came of age in the live for the moment 1960's. Now we're in our 60's. Planning ahead is fine. However, so is enjoying life right here, right now. Finding the balance between planning for a possible future, and living in the reality of the present moment, this is a central dilemma for seniors.
Our leaning is toward now, a more vibrant reality than could be.
(2) "Being able to enjoy the freedom that such communities offer." Question is, freedom from what? Apparently, Hutkin means, in large part, freedom from home and property maintenance.
But my wife and I enjoy the freedom of living in our own house and making our own decisions about how to maintain it. As noted in the post linked to above, I even enjoy the sweaty, dusty, muscle-fatiguing work our property requires.
Recently I was up on the roof of our house, walking along the edge of the gutters, blowing out debris with a Stihl backpack blower. I would really miss doing this in a retirement community where most of the chores are done by others. It makes me feel free to do difficult, even semi-dangerous, jobs around our house.
Sure, I realize that there may come a time when we aren't physically able to do what we're doing now. But as long as we are, why shouldn't we keep on doing what we enjoy?
(3) Moving when you're younger and more able-bodied also allows for the opportunity... To be with older and less able-bodied people in a retirement community. This is a fact.
My stock line when we talk with a salesperson who has just shown us around a retirement community is, "Thanks for the tour. You've got a nice place here, but I'm freaked out by how many old folks we saw."
That's meant to be humorous. But I'm also serious.
It's depressing for me to see old people getting around with walkers, and sitting at card tables playing something-or-other on a nice warm sunny day. I realize that this often is what happens with increasing age. But since my wife and I are pretty darn healthy at the moment, and don't feel as old as our driver's licenses say we are, we look upon retirement communities with a decidedly wary eye.
I talked about this in "I'm 65. Where's my 'Aging Hippie' retirement community?", where I related our feelings about watching a DVD of a Washington retirement community.
It appears to be a great retirement community for those who are attracted to having assisted living and skilled nursing facilities available, allowing them to smoothly transition from being independent to needing regular health care and other help.
The people interviewed in the Panorama DVD are not like us. Again, not a criticism. Just reality. This was evident from their clothes, home decor, manner of speaking, interests, and what they liked about Panorama.
Laurel and I don't think ourselves as old, even though we're 64 and 65. We damn sure don't enjoy acting like we're old. We dress as youthfully as Social Security recipients can get away with. We enjoy the MTV Video Music Awards. In short, we're aging ex-hippies who still embrace the Flower Child dream.
I'm sure marketing genuises in the 55+ community industry must recognize this. However, a bunch of Googling hasn't revealed any "active adult" developments aimed at the Aging Hippie demographic.
I think there's an opportunity here. Give me a call, planned community developers. My wife and I would be happy to serve as consultants on what people like us are looking for when they decide to leave their current home and lifestyle.
Dog-friendly/dog park. Not only allow skateboarding; encourage it. Multi-use paths in natural settings. Coffee house. Brew pub. Movie theatre that does not show On Golden Pond. Tai Chi, Yoga, and meditation classes. Intellectual stimulation.
And a community bus that looks a lot more like Ken Kesey's than a retirement home's.
So this is where we're at now, retirement community-wise. Things could change. Heck, they definitely will change. Life is always changing. I just wanted to share our counter-arguments to the frequently-heard advice, "Don't wait too long to move into a retirement community."
Rather, our feeling is, wait as long as possible.
I'm really looking forward to this free talk by Strong Towns founder Chuck Marohn. Put it on your Must Attend list for October 5.
I'm pleased that Salem Community Vision is supporting this event (I'm a member of the SCV steering committee). It took us about zero seconds to decide to do this. Chuck Marohn is an energetic, creative, thoughtful advocate for the sorts of positive changes that need to happen in Salem.
Salem Weekly has a good story about the Strong Towns talk in its current issue. Check out "Reimagining Salem as a Strong Town." This is how the piece starts out:
When they were first conceived of, streets like Lancaster Boulevard [actually, Drive] in Northeast Salem were projected to be a source of commerce and community wealth for all. Subdivisions in south Salem were designed to provide housing that would bring ongoing good to the city as healthy places to live and thrive.
But because of the way they were designed, says Chuck Marohn, founder and President of Strong Towns, a non-profit organization working to support a better model of development, Salem's decisions about downtown, its roads and neighborhoods, actually created long term debt for citizens and for the community as a whole.
Well, also long term ugliness.
Lancaster Drive is a street that I do my best to avoid. It's a great example of urban planning gone wrong, a Stroad through and through. Here's a Strong Towns video about Stroads, a horrendous combination of a street and a road that combines the worst qualities of each.
Salem has a lot of them. South Commercial is another example.
They are dead zones for pedestrians, cyclists, and anyone else not driving a car. Living as I do in south Salem, I drive along South Commercial almost every day. It isn't quite as ugly as Lancaster Drive, but that's about the only good thing that can be said about it.
Since City of Salem planners, managers, and elected officials have gotten Salem into its current Weak Town state, we can't rely on them to get us into Strong Town mode. I liked the end of the Salem Weekly story by Helen Caswell.
Marohn believes that solutions can be found right in a community like Salem. He says local leaders who can lead the way don't have to have degrees in civil engineering to address these issues.
"And, they're not necessarily the mayor or city council, either. Often they are people who care about their block, who volunteer in the community, who are invested in their church or school. These are the people who know what needs do be done and will actually do something about it."
The cities Marohn sees as being most successful in creating long-term wealth, jobs and healthy communities are those who recognize how critical it is that decisions arent simply left in the hands of planners accustomed to the status quo. "People like city leaders and department heads of local governments," in contrast, "often have a hard time really understanding what things need to change."
I DID IT! (in my magical thinking brain, at least)
Just five days after my annual blog post rant about DirecTV not carrying the Pac-12 Networks -- and the Pac-12 Networks not being offered on any streaming service -- today a deal has been announced between Sling TV and the Pac-12 Networks.
SAN FRANCISCO– Pac-12 Networks announced today a new agreement with Sling TV to make all six Pac-12 Networks regional feeds, which collectively offer live coverage of more than 800 sporting events, available to Sling Orange and Sling Blue customers who subscribe to the "Sports Extra" add-on pack as six separate channels. Sling TV is Pac-12 Networks' first over-the-top provider to offer the network's content, enabling Sling TV customers to watch Pac-12 games, regardless of their location.
"This is a great way for Pac-12 Networks to kick off the 2016 football season," said Pac-12 Networks' president, Lydia Murphy-Stephans. "Our six regional networks, featuring 800 live sporting events and all-access original programming, will now be available over-the-top on Sling TV for Pac-12 fans across the country. Sling's innovative delivery model and great interface makes it incredibly easy for our fans to stay connected with their favorite Pac-12 school, team and sports."
"Students, alumni and Pac-12 fans can now enjoy conference games without regional restrictions," said Roger Lynch, CEO of Sling TV. "With Sling TV, Pac-12 Networks games have never been more affordable and accessible. As a Pac-12 fan, I can't wait to watch the 'Conference of Champions,' on Sling TV – the premier destination for college sports fans."
Naturally I had to jump on this.
I'd rather have the Pac-12 Networks be part of my DirecTV package, but I'm so damn irritated at DirecTV for not being able to work out a deal with the Pac-12 Networks for five freaking years, I'm pleased to pay $25 a month to get Sling Orange ($20/mo) with the Sports Extra add-on ($5/mo) just to figuratively poke DirecTV in its corporate eye with a silent scream of Take this, you jerks -- Sling TV is getting my Pac-12 Networks money rather than you!
It was a breeze to sign up for a 7-day trial with Sling TV. (Which is owned by Dish Networks, so that's an extra poke in the eye of DirecTV.)
After signing up, I fired up my Apple TV, downloaded the Sling TV app, put in my Sling TV password, and voila!, I was watching an OSU/Oregon volleyball game on the Pac-12 Networks -- which conveniently had a scroll at the bottom of the screen announcing the deal with "its newest TV provider, Sling TV."
I can't tell you how satisfying it was to take the photo above of the volleyball game on our big screen TV.
I've been watching Pac-12 Networks games for so long on my 13" MacBook Pro laptop via technically illegal streaming sites, the pleasure of finally getting the Pac-12 Networks on our television was well worth the $25 a month that I'll have to fork out to Sling TV if I keep subscribing after the 7-day trial ends.
Which I almost certainly will.
Anyway, I'm glad to take credit (again, in my own mind) for writing the blog post that provided the karmic impetus for getting the Sling TV deal done with the Pac-12 Networks. I'll quote myself from my September 3 blog post:
This is the freaking fifth year I've complained about DirecTV not carrying the Pac-12 Networks. Count 'em: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016.
...I hope both DirecTV and the Pac-12 Networks realize they're acting like idiots. Their five year pissing match over broadcast rights/fees has passed the point of ridiculousness into Asinine Abject Absurdity.
...here we are, a year later, with me and many other unhappy DirecTV customers ferreting out unauthorized streams of Pac-12 Network games, because there is no legal way to watch them without subscribing to a cable or satellite service that offers the Pac-12 Network. Which is stupid, since other leagues offer stand-alone streaming.
But ever the optimist, this story gives me some reason to hope: "Pac-12 Networks hires cable executive to solve distribution problems."
...Well, Ms. Budill looks like an attractive, charming, competent woman. If she is able to break the corporate logjam that is preventing DirecTV and the Pac-12 Networks from working out a deal, I'll nominate Budill for a Satellite TV Peace Prize.
The Sling TV deal is a good start, Ms. Budill. Now, work out a deal with DirecTV to carry the Pac-12 Networks so I can stop paying $25 a month to Sling TV. Then you'll really be entitled to your Satellite TV Peace Prize.
For political junkies like me, it's easy to go a little (or a lot) crazy during the excruciatingly long presidential campaign season -- becoming joyful when a chosen candidate (Clinton, in my case) is ascendent in the polls, and despondent when a downturn happens.
Here's my advice about how to handle this:
Follow the best poll analyzer around, FiveThirtyEight, Nate Silver's operation. After he left the New York Times, Silver and Co. branched out into analyzing sports and other areas.
But politics, not surprisingly, is his emphasis at the moment. I follow FiveThirtyEight on Twitter and enjoy his highly competent take on what's happening in the Clinton-Trump battle.
He regularly reminds people that single polls aren't meaningful, like the recent CNN poll that showed Trump with a 2-point lead nationally. Looking at averages of many polls over time is the way to go.
Currently FiveThirtyEight gives Clinton a 67% chance of winning, almost exactly the same as in early June. There have been ups and downs for the candidates, but no overall movement in the past three months.
I'm also a fan of prediction markets, where people lay bets on political and other sorts of contests. I don't follow prediction markets very closely, so had to do some Googling to find a good example to share.
PredictWise popped up. This is the web site's pitch:
PredictWise reflects David Rothschild's academic, peer-reviewed, research into prediction markets, along with polling and online/social media data. The backbone of predictions on this site are market-based, generated from real-money markets that trade contracts on upcoming events. While we have great respect for: polls and online/social media data, the topline predictions reflect data that are more accurate, flexible, and update in real-time.
Below is the current presidential chart.
It shows Clinton with a 75% chance of winning, and Trump 25%. Which isn't far off from FiveThirtyEight's 67% chance of a Clinton victory.
You can see that the prediction markets are more stable than the FiveThirtyEight model. FiveThirtyEight had the race tied in late July, while at that time PredictWise had it 70-30 in favor of Clinton.
At any rate, there's two months left before the November election.
Quite a few ups and downs likely remain for both presidential candidates. Like I said, it's easy to get overwrought about temporary blips in the long term trend. The time to worry is when your favored candidate is on a steady downward trend close to election day.
Once the presidential debates begin, I suspect we'll see some significant bumps for the candidates. The debates will give people a chance to see Clinton and Trump on the same stage, talking about the same issues. I'm predicting Clinton will benefit from the debates.
But I'm not betting on it. I'll be watching PredictWise as a detached observer.
This is the freaking fifth year I've complained about DirecTV not carrying the Pac-12 Networks. Count 'em: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016.
(See here and here for links to my previous blog post rants.)
Today, once again, I had to scramble to watch the Oregon Ducks football opener against UC Davis. Yes, after some Googling I found a free online stream of the Pac-12 Networks broadcast. But I'd much prefer to watch the game on my big screen television than on my 13" MacBook Pro.
I hope both DirecTV and the Pac-12 Networks realize they're acting like idiots. Their five year pissing match over broadcast rights/fees has passed the point of ridiculousness into Asinine Abject Absurdity.
I like DirecTV. But whenever someone in our rural neighborhood asks me for advice about DISH vs. DirecTV, I always start off by saying, "DirecTV works well for us, but not having the Pac-12 Networks is a big downside if you enjoy college sports."
Plus, I will never, ever consider switching our cell phones back to AT&T from Verizon, because I'm so irritated at AT&T for not being able to work out a deal with the Pac-12 Networks after acquiring DirecTV last year. There was a lot of hope in 2015 this would happen, spurred by an encouraging statement from the Pac-12 Networks.
Yet here we are, a year later, with me and many other unhappy DirecTV customers ferreting out unauthorized streams of Pac-12 Network games, because there is no legal way to watch them without subscribing to a cable or satellite service that offers the Pac-12 Network.
Which is stupid, since other leagues offer stand-alone streaming. (I added the boldfacing.)
Are you a frugal college football fan and/or a hip Millennial? Chances are, you're one of many American TV consumers who've cut the cord!
But now that it's college football season, you might feel obligated to buy back into the morass of high-dollar cable and satellite providers, just to enjoy the fabulous myriad of games across multiple networks each week.
Don't do that, friend! (Unless you're a Pac-12 fan.) We've assembled a quick guide on how to watch almost every college football game via non-traditional digital and streaming platforms.
...If your game is on the CBS Sports Network (most notably certain C-USA and American Athletic Conference games) or Pac-12 Networks in 2016, you'll need a cable or satellite subscription. Both of those are unavailable on Sling or Vue and can't be accessed via apps without first logging in through a cable provider.
The Pac-12 Networks' absence is probably the most impactful. Of the games currently scheduled to air on P12N, most are conference teams vs. FCS opponents, but decent matchups like Rutgers vs. Washington are unavailable unless you've got a cable provider that carries P12N.
But ever the optimist, this story gives me some reason to hope: "Pac-12 Networks hires cable executive to solve distribution problems."
Pac-12 Networks hired a longtime cable industry veteran to try to solve its distribution problems.
Alden Mitchell Budill will be head of distribution, overseeing the network's affiliate sales and marketing department. She replaces Art Marquez, senior vice president of affiliate relations, who left the network in March.
One of the first items on Budill's to-do list will be to set up a meeting with DirecTV, the satellite operator that has not carried any of the Pac-12 Networks channels since their 2012 launch.
Well, Ms. Budill looks like an attractive, charming, competent woman. If she is able to break the corporate logjam that is preventing DirecTV and the Pac-12 Networks from working out a deal, I'll nominate Budill for a Satellite TV Peace Prize.
On the negative side, this story says there is very little chance that a deal will be worked out soon. (RSN means regional sports network.)
The Pac-12 Network is kicking off its fifth year without a carriage agreement with DirecTV, and prospects for a resolution appear further away than ever.
Indeed, after apparently getting close to a deal at this time last year, going into the regional sports network's fifth fall of highly rated college football coverage, analysts and pundits don't think a deal is even close this time.
The standoff between the RSN, launched in August 2012, and the satellite operator remains one of the most protracted and frustrating impasses in the pay-TV ecosystem.
Through his "Hotline" column, the San Jose Mercury News' Josh Wilner has been perhaps the closest observer of the dispute.
"In past years, the Hotline advised Pac-12 fans to be cautiously optimistic when the season approached and negotiations with DirecTV heated up," Wilner said this week. "That was, in part, because some of my best sources on such matters were either 1) expecting a carriage deal or 2) felt it was a reasonable possibility. Not this year. The sentiment has shifted: Nobody expects a deal and many don't even consider it a reasonable possibility."
Probably I'll be complaining next year at this time about not being able to watch the Oregon Duck's opening game on DirecTV. Here's a link to Wilner's non-positive column about a deal being worked out between DirecTV and the Pac-12 Networks.
The time for a deal was last August/September, when the AT&T takeover of DTV was fresh … and it didn't happen.
Now we're one year removed from that potential collaboration point, one year closer to the end of AT&T's contract with the Pac-12 and four years removed from DTV's initial rejection of Pac12Nets carriage.
The dynamics for a deal have ebbed, it seems.
*** Of course, I have not spoken to Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott, Pac12Nets boss Lydia Murphy-Stephans or the AT&T brass in charge of negotiations.
All of this is just reasonably-informed speculation; please take it for nothing more.
Could a deal happen this week or next? Absolutely.
But at the moment, it sure seems unlikely.
I love my Smith Optics Captain's Choice sunglasses. They're spendy, but I got mine on Amazon for considerably less than list price.
Comfortable. Nicely designed. Polarized. Great color quality (blue sky looks way more intense with them on).
And they come with an integrated sunglasses leash.
"Integrated" means the narrow plastic flexible wire fits into the frame of the sunglasses, so the leash won't come off, and nothing protrudes on the head side of the frame (a drawback of leashes with elastic connections that slip over the end of the frame).
That's the good news. The bad news is that the integrated leash is a bear to install. Not a cute cuddly bear, an angry growling grizzly bear.
At least, that's how I felt after I got my Captain's Choice shades and spent fifteen minutes or so trying to get the leash to lodge in the small grooved hole in the end of the frame. There weren't any real instructions, just a minimalist diagram of where the leash attaches.
Here's what worked for me.
Twice, because today the leash caught on part of a grocery cart while the glasses were dangling from my neck and I was putting something heavy into the cart. When I stood up, the plastic tore. Luckily, my wife had gotten a pair of the same sunglasses and gave her leash to me, because she didn't want to use it.
I wish I'd blogged about installing the leash before, because I just had to recollect my technique for getting it on after buying the sunglasses a few months ago. This time I went less insane, though it took me a while to remember what I'd done before.
I approached the leash installation as if it was a surgical operation. (Believe me, you need some finger dexterity, no matter what technique is used to get the leash on.)
My killer tool is on the left: a wooden something-or-other I found in my wife's Nail Care drawer. It has something to do with cuticles, she told me. The fairly sharp angled ends worked well for me, as I'll describe below. The other items are: (1) the replacement integrated leash, and (2) my Captain's Choice sunglasses.
There's only one way the plastic inserts on the leash go on. That's easy to figure out, since you want the wire on the outside of the frame, and the shape of the insert has to match the shape of the hole in the end of the frame. After getting that straight, the "fun" begins.
The goal is to get the leash insert to lodge in the groove in the frame hole. Pushing on it doesn't do the trick. At least, not for me. I just found a You Tube video where a guy manages to get the integrated leash on with just his fingers. OK, I'm impressed. It might work for you, but if it doesn't, read on.
What I did is start by pushing the wider part of the plastic leash insert into the hole. That was pretty easy to do, which gets the groove-insertion process rolling. I then used the sharp end of the wooden cuticle thingie to push the groove in the leash insert into the hold, bit by bit, pushing from the outside of the frame.
I found that turning the glasses upside down helped a bit. The first insert took me a while. Then I must have gotten my groove on, so to speak, because the second insert went in almost immediately.
I recommend a wooden tool like what I used, because the small screwdriver I used in my first integrated leash installation attempt seemed like it could tear the flexible plastic. Ditto with the tweezers that I briefly tried to use to pull the plastic through the hole.
Anyway, if this blog post helps one person go only mildly insane when installing a Smith Optics integrated leash, I've done my part for the mental health of humanity. I love the leash, and I love my Captain's Choice sunglasses. It's just the installation process that can be a (grizzly) bear.
Just when I thought the Portland Oregonian couldn't irritate me any further, the newspaper DID! (Since 2013, I only get four print editions a week delivered to my south Salem home, and I don't like the Oregonian's increasingly right-wing editorial positions.)
A few days ago a letter arrived from The Oregonian informing me they'd now be charging my EasyPay account $2.99 for each of four "premium editions" -- the first of which would be a 100 page Investment & Retirement Guide that will be delivered with my September 18 Sunday Oregonian.
Even more irritating: in addition, I'm slated to be charged $4.00 for "the premium Thanksgiving Day edition." So apparently I'm supposed to pay four bucks for all of the Thanksgiving Day newspaper ads that my wife and I dump into the recycling bin without looking at them.
Here's a PDF file of the letter I got:
Download Oregonian letter about premium editions
I've filed a Better Business Bureau complaint, and have sent a link to this blog post to the Home Delivery email address on the August 12 letter, along with a demand that my EasyPay account NOT be charged extra for the so-called "premium editions" that I didn't request, and which have nothing to do with the Oregonian subscription that I signed up for.
This is the gist of my Better Business Bureau complaint:
I've received an August 12, 2016 letter from the Oregonian informing me that my EasyPay (automatic deduction from checking account) subscription account will be charged $2.99 for each of up to four "premium editions," the first of which is a 100 page Investment and Retirement Guide that will be delivered on September 18 with my Sunday Oregonian. I have absolutely no interest in paying for this Guide, or the other "premium editions" that are an unwanted and unasked-for add-on to my Oregonian subscription.
The letter also says that my EasyPay account will be charged $4.00 for the premium Thanksgiving Day edition, which sure seems to be the regular ad-filled thick newspaper that I now would have to pay $4.00 extra for, even though my wife and I take out all of the Thanksgiving ads and recycle them without looking at them.
The Oregonian says: "Since the charge is applied to your subscription account balance, it will shorten your paid-through date so that the next charge comes about sooner." So this is an extra charge for (1) non-news material that I don't want and has nothing to do with the Oregonian newspaper that I bought a subscription to, and (2) the Thanksgiving ad-filled newspaper that until now has just been a regular edition of the Oregonian.
DESIRED RESOLUTION: Billing adjustment
I've received an August 12, 2016 letter from the Oregonian informing me that my EasyPay (automatic deduction from checking account) subscription account will be charged $2.99 for each of up to four "premium editions," the first of which is a 100 page Investment and Retirement Guide that will be delivered on September 18 with my Sunday Oregonian. I have absolutely no interest in paying for this Guide, or the other "premium editions" that are an unwanted and unasked-for add-on to my Oregonian subscription.
The letter also says that my EasyPay account will be charged $4.00 for the premium Thanksgiving Day edition, which sure seems to be the regular ad-filled thick newspaper that I now would have to pay $4.00 extra for, even though my wife and I take out all of the Thanksgiving ads and recycle them without looking at them.
The Oregonian says: "Since the charge is applied to your subscription account balance, it will shorten your paid-through date so that the next charge comes about sooner." So this is an extra charge for (1) non-news material that I don't want and has nothing to do with the Oregonian newspaper that I bought a subscription to, and (2) the Thanksgiving ad-filled newspaper that until now has just been a regular edition of the Oregonian.
If any other Oregonian subscribers decide to file a BBB complaint, here's a tip. The BBB web site had difficulty finding the main office of the Oregonian when I typed in the name of the business I was complaining about. I had to enter the address information manually:
The Oregonian
1500 SW 1st
Portland, OR 97201
UPDATE: Today, August 29, I got an email reply from the Oregonian's Home Delivery folks. Here's what Linda said.
Thank you for contacting the Oregonian.
I have simply opted your account out of being charged for the premium issues. I am sorry if the letter you received did not state that you could simply opt out. A correction was placed in the paper several times about this. You will not be charged for ANY premium issues. If the carrier delivers this to you in error, please note that your account WILL NOT be charged. Due to the nature of your email, did you wish to cancel your subscription? Please call or reply to this email if I can assist you in another way other than opting your account out of being charged for any and all premium issues.
Customer Care
This was my reply to her.
Linda, the letter I got said that my EasyPay account WILL be charged for the premium editions. It didn't say I could opt out. Anyway, I do NOT want to cancel my subscription. I just don't want to be charged for any premium issues. I also don't want anyone else charged for them either. Thanks for responding. I do have a question: I didn't see any correction in the Oregonian. What day(s) was this correction published?
— Brian
With western Oregon in the midst of a several-day record-breaking heat wave -- temperatures over 100 degrees here in the Willamette Valley -- it's a great time for me to reprise my May 2008 blog post, "'Ooh, it's hot!' Oregonians are heat wussies."
Days like today, I feel so superior to most of my fellow Oregonians. I grew up in central California, where for much of the year a temperature under 100 degrees is considered a cool day.
So here I am on May 16 in Salem, Oregon – enjoying a record breaking heat wave for this date. The thermometer in my car read "100" when I was downtown this afternoon.
Ooh! Wow! One single freaking day with a three digit temperature and the local news is filled with tips about how to survive.
Hydration. Sunscreen. Wear a hat. Don't exert yourself.
Oregonians are such wussies. Of course, I've lived here myself for 37 years. But those 15 years in California, from age seven to twenty-two, trained me to be a macho man when it comes to a bit of heat.
A few days ago, when the temperature was still in the high 70s, I walked into a Starbucks and ordered my usual nonfat vanilla latte. I never get asked this question, but that day the barista said "Do you want it iced?"
"Good god, no," I told her. "I could be crossing the Sahara Desert and I'd still have my latte hot. It's just wrong to drink it cold."
Probably she'd been making iced drinks all day long for Oregonians who worried about suffering heat exhaustion as they walked a few steps from their air conditioned office or car into the air conditioned Starbucks.
I've been speaking similarly about Oregonians the past few days, but now I prefer the term "heat weenies." Understand: I realize that many people don't have air conditioning, and it can be dangerous for humans or animals to get overheated.
Still... come on.
Walking around in 100 degree weather is well within the capability of us furless Homo sapiens. Many people live in places where the temperature is that hot much of the year. They survive just fine, as I did when I lived in the foothills of central California.
Here's the rest of my 2008 post.
When I was a boy (ah, how I look forward to my one year old granddaughter getting a bit older, so I can use these words much more frequently), all summer long I'd ride my bike to see my friends in Three Rivers, California.
They weren't down the block. There weren't any blocks in this rural hamlet nestled in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. I had to pedal miles to get to my best friend's house. Mostly in over 100 degree weather. Up and down those foothills. On a three speed.
No problem. So now I say to heat, "Bring it on. Show me your best stuff."
Today I stood in the sun for a while, waiting for my car to be washed at Car'l B Klean, while inferior Oregonians cowered in the shade under an umbrella. I leaned on a railing, skin blazing, feeling like Leonardo deCaprio in "Titanic."
I'm the (non-wuss) king of the world! On hot days in Oregon, at least.
Until recently, I thought I had to accept the pain-in-the-butt necessity of having my 2011 Mini Cooper S serviced in Portland at the one and only Mini dealership in Oregon.
But now that I've discovered Prestige Auto Repair right here in Salem, specialists in Mini, Mercedes, and BMW cars, I'm overjoyed to know that a drive to Portland isn't necessary to have my Mini serviced or repaired.
This is the review I left several places online:
Chris and the other Prestige Auto guys were wonderfully competent and pleasant. I've been having my 2011 Mini Cooper S serviced at the Mini dealership in Portland, but no longer. Now that I've discovered how much better Prestige Auto Repair is (also, so much closer), this is where my Mini is coming for both routine service and repairs.
They figured out that my air conditioning wasn't working because of a slow freon leak. After adding dye, Chris said I should come back in two weeks for a visual inspection to see if the leak is still there. I found the whole Prestige Auto Repair experience to be way more satisfying than going to a dealer, because with Prestige you are talking with the person who is actually working on the car, not a service advisor.
Plus, dealerships don't have a friendly dog to pat like Prestige does -- another benefit. (This is an option; if you don't like dogs, they can put the dog in a back room.) Plus, plus, the cost of repairing the air conditioning and checking a balky hood latch was decidedly reasonable. I give them 5 stars!
Buying local isn't always possible, car-wise or otherwise. If you want to buy a Tesla, for example, you're going to have to go outside Salem.
Still, outside of these exceptions, this experience helped me realize more strongly the truths Melody Warnick talks about in the "Buy Local" chapter of her wonderful book, This Is Where You Belong: The Art and Science of Loving the Place You Live.
If you spent $25 at a local Salt Lake City retailer, $14 of it stayed in Salt Lake. At a big chain, only $3.50 did. Economists call this the "local multiplier effect," and the most obvious reason for it is that the people making money from an independent business aren't out-of-state megacorporations but entrepreneurs who live (and spend and pay taxes) in the same communities where they work.
If you own a local store, you usually employ more people locally than a comparable chain would, because everyone works in town, not at headquarters -- so a neighbor who's a CPA does the books, not the accounting department in Omaha.
...One study by a team of Penn State University researchers found that a high density of locally owned small businesses correlates with a higher regional GDP. Importantly for place attachment, it's also more social.
...Milchen told me..."if you're patronizing neighborhood businesses, a lot of those people are likely to live near you. You're likely to become familiar with them by face if not by name, and that's part of what builds a feeling of connection in a community, a feeling of trust and cohesiveness. those casual conversations you have with folks that may not be your best friends are a key part of what creates community fabric."
...Live Local campaigns slowly move the needle on a town's culture by inculcating the idea that our shopping habits are largely responsible for creating the place we live. "It begins with getting people to recognize that every time they spend a dollar, they're in some form casting a vote for the kind of community they want to see, says Jeff Milchen.
Another local business gem, among many, is Saffron Supply Company in downtown Salem. This hardware store has been in business since 1910. It is to Lowe's as an artisanal cafe is to McDonalds.
Back in 2004 I wrote a grateful blog post about Saffron Supply, "I'm the king of the world!" That's how I felt about a Saffron guy who took plumbing-challenged moi in hand, leaving me a happy customer when I left with everything I needed to fix a non-draining drain.
Here's how the post starts off:
King of the world, that's who I am all right, in my own mind at least (where it counts). For I have replaced a rusted-out leaking drain on our laundry room sink, notwithstanding my normally plumbing-challenged handyman skills. There was something tremendously fulfilling about successfully dismantling the decrepit parts and installing the fresh new parts, adding the dollop of plumber's putty, tightening the, um, whatever-you-call-its that needed to be tightened, turning on the water, and hearing the water run down the drain with nary a drip.
The list of those I'd like to thank for enabling me to achieve this marvelous accomplishment is short: the great guys at Saffron Supply in downtown Salem, that's the beginning and end of it. This is the sort of place that can't be allowed to disappear in the shadow of all the Lowes, Home Depots, and the like. I shamefully admit that I have a fondness for the bright lights, neatly stocked shelves, and cheerful employees at the Lowe's store here in Salem.
But when you don't know much about plumbing, and are carrying a plastic bag filled with a bunch of dirty, broken plumbing parts that no longer are plumbing for you, a place like Saffron Supply is where you want to be. It looks like it hasn't changed much in decades. Wooden bins are filled with mysterious plumbing and electrical parts. When you pay, a pad is pulled out and you get a handwritten paper receipt. No women were in evidence, either staff or customers. I was careful not to wear a batik shirt last Wednesday, knowing that I would be entering the plain denim world of Saffron Supply.
Bottom line: shop at local businesses whenever you can. It'll be more enjoyable, and you'll be contributing much more to Salem's economy.
(Got to add: in case you're wondering why it took me five freaking years to realize that I could have my Mini Cooper serviced here in Salem, a three year/36,000 mile maintenance program was included with the new car purchase in 2011. I assumed that I had to have the servicing done at a Mini dealer. After three years, out of habit I continued to go to Mini of Portland, until I discovered Prestige Auto Service. When I talked about this with the Prestige folks, they told me that car dealerships try to give people the impression that warranty work and routine maintenance has to be performed by dealers, but actually this isn't true.)
Thank you, talented cast members of Enlightened Theatrics' current cultural gift to Salem, a marvelous stage production of "The Wizard of Oz."
You've restored the pleasure I felt as a child when I'd watch, and re-watch, the classic movie version of The Wizard of Oz. It was shown annually on television from 1959 to 1991.
So, since I was born in 1948, I must have seen it close to half a dozen times before I went off to college in 1966. What pushed me over the Oz edge, though, was raising a daughter born in 1972. I remember watching the same movie many times with her. More accurately, too many times.
Delight in Dorothy's far-out adventures in Oz wore thin with those repeated viewings. My young daughter got thrills from the annual showings of The Wizard of Oz. Increasingly, I got irritated thoughts of "Oh, no, it isn't already time to see this damn movie again, is it?!"
Thus sitting in my second-row seat last night in the beautifully revamped Grand Theatre in downtown Salem was a healing moment for me. I'd never seen a theatrical production of The Wizard of Oz. As soon as actors appeared on stage, L. Frank Baum's story seemed fresh to me.
For one thing, there's nothing like live theatre. It's unpredictable, never repeated, as vibrantly three-dimensional as life itself (unsurprisingly).
When Toto, caninely played by Mickey Tate, ran across the stage at some climactic moment, I realized there was a non-zero chance that he'd run in an unintended direction. At least, that's what our dog often does in response to commands of mine, which Zu Zu views as requests to be considered, but not necessarily obeyed.
I found myself much more emotionally involved when Toto was in danger during the stage production, than in the movie. From my seat I could see this so-cute dog close up and personal. I cared about him. I was confident that he'd turn out OK, but with live theatre, like I said, there was a possibility of the unforeseen happening.
(Our dog, though equally cute in her own way, would be quickly cut from the show as soon as she failed to run across the stage, but rather raced to smell, and wishfully be given a bite of, what a person in the audience was eating.)
Dorothy, played by soon-to-be West Salem junior Phoebe Jacobs, was so talented as an actress, singer, and dancer, I now have vowed to never, ever bring up the fact of me having a lead role in the Woodlake Union High School junior class play -- except in the context of "Young people these days are so much more talented than me and my classmates were back in the '60s."
Everybody else in the cast of The Wizard of Oz, without exception, also was hugely enjoyable to watch.
The dancers were a favorite of mine every time they came on stage. Plus, close-up even the rhythmic zig-zag dance movements of Dorothy and her Scarecrow/ Tin Man/ Lion companions to "We're Off to See the Wizard" music looked more impressive to me than it did on a television screen. And I loved the sinuous sensuality of the female Apple Tree Dancers. The music is also live, by the way.
Bottom line: if somehow you've never seen The Wizard of Oz, go see this Enlightened Theatrics production. You've got until August 28. But if you have seen another version of The Wizard of Oz, the same advice applies, because with live theatre every show is different and unique.
Further, this production uses an updated script:
Employing the R.S.C. 1987 adaptation of the musical production, Enlightened Theatrics offers a more technically complex performance featuring as much of the aura of the classic 1939 film as possible on stage.
I didn't completely follow the plot point involving the Wicked Witch's plan to wear out Dorothy and her companions by getting them to dance a lot of jitterbug with the witch's minions, but I sure don't remember anything like this in the movie version of The Wizard of Oz.
This new scene to me was marvelously performed. So again, even if you think you're familiar with The Wizard of Oz, think again. The Enlightened Theatrics production is appealingly unique.


text:
Email: email@example.com
Job Titles
Department Chair, Professor of English
English, College of Arts and Sciences
Started at Bethel
- Wheaton College - B.A., 1982
- University of Minnesota - Ph.D., 1992
Areas of expertise
Larson's favorite thing about teaching English is getting to read and think about books that are so different from daily life, yet hold so many important connections; and she loves doing this with faculty and students who also enjoy it. Recently she has published articles in areas related to interfaith dialogue and faculty development, and hospitality as a metaphor for teaching. She received the Faculty Excellence Award for Teaching in 2001.


text:
Building 18 powerful bots in 24 hours
On 6th and 7th October 2016, we hosted our first IBM Watson UK Hackathon at the Rainmaking Loft in London.
Cognitive Enterprise
Customer Engagement
Developers + APIs
October 20, 2016
Leveraging personality to predict consumption preferences
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October 20, 2016
What your customers wish you knew about customer service
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The ultimate Watson DevCon attendee guide
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CyberCode Twins, America and Penelope believe that technology can change lives.
October 13, 2016
Is cognitive technology living up to the hype?
The research, IBM's first quantitative global study of the cognitive market, is based on survey results from more than 600 early adopters.


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Parallel Programming with OpenMP
In shared memory programming multiple CPUs can access the same variables. This makes the program more efficient and saves copying. In some cases, each thread needs its own copy of the variables – such as the loop variables in parallel for() loops.
Clauses specified in OpenMP directives (see the descriptions Table 1) define the properties of these variables. You can append clauses to the OpenMP #pragma, for example:
#pragma omp parallel for shared(x, y) private(z)
Errors in shared()/private() variable declarations are some of the most common causes of errors in parallelized programming.
Now you now know how to create threads and distribute the workload over multiple threads. However, how can you get all the threads to work on a collated result – for example, to total the values in an array? reduction() (Listing 2) handles this.
Listing 2
01 a = 0 ; b = 0 ; 02 #pragma omp parallel for private(i) shared(x, y, n) reduction(+:a, b) 03 for (i=0; i<n; i++) { 04 a = a + x[i] ; 05 b = b + y[i] ; 06 }
The compiler creates a local copy of each variable in reduction() and initializes it independently of the operator (e.g., 0 for "+", 1 for "*"). If, say, three threads are each handling one third of the loop, the master thread adds up the subtotals at the end.
Who is Faster?
Debugging parallelized programs is an art form in its own right. It is particularly difficult to find errors that do not occur in serial programs and do not occur regularly in parallel processing. This category includes what are known as race conditions: different results on repeated runs of a program with multiple blocks that are executed parallel to one another, depending on which thread is fastest each time. The code in Listing 3 starts by filling an array in parallel and then goes on to calculate the sum of these values in parallel.
Listing 3
Avoiding Race Conditions
01 #ifdef _OPENMP 02 #include <omp.h> 03 #endif 04 #include <stdio.h> 05 int main() { 06 double a[1000000]; 07 int i; 08 #pragma omp parallel for 09 for (i=0; i<1000000; i++) a[i]=i; 10 double sum = 0; 11 #pragma omp parallel for shared (sum) private (i) 12 for ( i=0; i < 1000000; i++) { 13 #pragma omp critical (sum_total) 14 sum = sum + a[i]; 15 } 16 printf("sum=%lf\n",sum); 17 }
Without the OpenMP #pragma omp critical (sum_total) statement in line 13, the following race condition could occur:
- Thread 1 loads the current value of sum into a CPU register.
- Thread 2 loads the current value of sum into a CPU register.
- Thread 2 adds a[i+1] to the value in the register.
- Thread 2 writes the value in the register back to the sum variable.
- Thread 1 adds a[i] to the value in the register.
- Thread 1 writes the value in the register to the sum variable.
Because thread 2 overtakes thread 1 here, thus winning the "race," a[i+1] would not be added correctly. Although thread 2 calculates the sum and stores it in the sum variable, thread 1 overwrites it with an incorrect value.
The #pragma omp critical statement makes sure that this does not happen. All threads execute the critical code, but only one at any time. The example in Listing 3 thus performs the addition correctly without parallel threads messing up the results. For elementary operations (e.g., i++) #pragma omp atomic will atomically execute a command. Write access to shared() variables also should be protected by a #pragma omp critical statement.
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Benwood Not Getting on Board
WHEELING – Ohio Valley Regional Transportation Authority buses may stop in Benwood less frequently as a result of the city's decision to put a levy on the ballot calling for only a 5-percent increase in support for the transit service, OVRTA board members warned Wednesday.
Citing increased operating costs and decreased federal funding adding up to a projected deficit by 2017, OVRTA is asking each community it serves to increase support for the bus service by 15 percent beginning in mid-2015, when the current levy expires. However, Benwood City Council's decision to put a lesser increase before its voters drew concerns about fairness from board members representing other communities.
Meanwhile, the board voted to raise salaries by 2 percent for four OVRTA management positions during its meeting Wednesday.
Benwood Mayor Ed Kuca, who represents his community on the OVRTA board, said City Council members decided the 15-percent increase is too severe. He pointed out thousands of Marshall County residents have received notices that their property assessments are going up by 10 percent this year.
"We've got to watch out for our residents. Many of them … are on a fixed income," Kuca said. "They just can't take it."
OVRTA Executive Director Tom Hvizdos said communities that do increase their levies by the 15 percent requested may feel they're not being treated equally. Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron, OVRTA board president, hinted that could result in changes to bus service down the road for Benwood.
"We're all in this together and we need to go forward together. … Ultimately, this board will decide the level of service based on the funding we get," Herron said.
Although ridership systemwide is up about 5 percent, Kuca and Bethlehem Mayor Garrett "Rhett" Daniel said there are often plenty of empty seats on the buses that run through their communities. They suggested the authority could save money by purchasing smaller vehicles to replace older buses as they're taken out of service.
"On certain routes, we probably can go down to a slightly smaller size. … Do we fill buses to standing room only? Very seldom," Hvizdos said, though he noted buses that may appear empty when they stop in Bethlehem or Benwood often fill up as they return to Wheeling.
Hvizdos added health insurance costs for employees could soon increase by as much as 40 percent.
"We try to keep an eye on our expenses and our revenues here, too," he said.
Following a 12-minute closed-door session, board members approved 2-percent pay raises for four management positions, with Herron, Kuca, Daniel, McMechen Mayor Mike Gracik, Ohio County Commissioner Tim McCormick and Wheeling resident Rick Courts voting in favor. Wheeling Councilwoman Gloria Delbrugge, Marshall County Commissioner Don Mason, Larry "Babe" Schmitt and John Aderholt were absent.
Hvizdos's salary as executive director will increase from $69,064 to $70,445; the finance director's from $56,378 to $57,605; the maintenance director's from $54,535 to $55,625; and the office manager's from $40,234 to $41,038.
Board members also approved spending $5,000 in non-levy funding for advertising to urge voters to support the levies in their respective communities.