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EARLY TERMINATION of the DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT for V&S by FUTURE BRANDS
PERNOD RICARD ANNOUNCED the signing of an agreement with Fortune Brands for an early termination of the distribution by Future Brands of Vin & Sprit brands in the US, and in particular Absolut, effective October 1. The initial contractual term of the distribution agreement for V&S brands by Future Brands, a joint venture company between V&S and Fortune Brands, was scheduled to end on February 2O12. The joint venture partners have agreed to an early termination of this agreement on October 1, 2OO8 with Pernod Ricard paying to Fortune Brands a compensation of $23O million. Together with the termination of the distribution, V&S will also stop being a shareholder in Future Brands.
Absolut and the rest of the V&S portfolio will join Pernod Ricard USA portfolio of leading spirits and wines brands on October 1. The savings generated by stopping the payments of commissions to Future Brands, the quicker than anticipated implementation of cost synergies on North American structures and the very positive impact of an immediate combination of brand portfolios in the US will more than offset the costs of exiting this distribution agreement.
Separately, and as part of the announced disposal plan, Pernod Ricard will sell the Cruzan rum brand and related assets to Fortune Brands for an amount of $1OO million. Cruzan had been acquired in 2OO5 by V&S.


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My new article "Story Mapping the Wrong Way", a tale of how I messed up our team's first attempt at story mapping but we learned stuff anyway, is on Techwell and Stickyminds. How fascinating! :->
Agile Testing with Lisa Crispin
Providing Practical Agile Testing Guidance
Providing Practical Agile Testing Guidance
Lisa Crispin is an agile testing coach and practitioner. She is the co-author, with Janet Gregory, of Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams (Addison-Wesley, 2009). Read more...
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subset: commoncrawl


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By-election for Brighton - council statement
The Councillor for Hanover and Elm Grove, Matt Follett has resigned due to moving outside of the city with his family.
A by election will be called within 35 days time excluding weekends and bank holidays.
Council leader Jason Kitcat said: "I wish Matt and his family all the very best for the future.
"I want to thank him for his hard work serving the residents of Hanover and Elm Grove ward over the past two years"


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Not even 100 years ago, the neighborhood of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, was known for its shipyards and sugar processing plants built along the East River. Ten years ago, the neighborhood was better known for its art and music scenes, roof-top concerts and underground dance parties. Since the rezoning of the North Side and Greenpoint neighborhoods in 2005, many of the area's artists and musicians have been priced out and a wealthier, less diverse demographic has moved in.
Today, Williamsburg holds only vestigial flickers of its former coolness. Even the Domino Sugar Refinery, which processed over half the sugar used in the United States for over two generations, was abandoned in 2004, and is better known today as an event venue for either city adventurers with flashlights who can run away quickly from the police, or folks who have the means to rent the space out (the most recent event was a swank gala to celebrate the (super, super over)hyped Art Star, Julian Schnabel).
Fortunately, amid the gentrification, there's the City Reliquary, a small museum committed to preserving the memory of the city, a sort of temple right in the heart of Williamsburg that has at its altar exhibits of subway tokens, Statue of Liberty figurines, and a plethora of other collections, which, while not necessarily considered worthy of Met Museum caliber, contain objects that show an older face of New York.
The City Reliquary started in 2002 in the first floor of a private residence, and in 2006, moved to a storefront only a couple blocks away from its current location on Metropolitan Ave. The permanent collection contains entire donated collections of World Fair memorabilia. The story goes that two collectors each bet that he could collect the most items- one started collecting from 1933, the other from 1964 (1933 won!).
The collection boasts fragments of landmark buildings (The Flatiron and the Morgan Library being just a couple), a wooden brick from the last known wooden sidewalk in Greenpoint, seltzer and water bottles showing what New Yorkers have drank over the years, and more. From floor to ceiling, the small museum is packed full of signs that used to hang over since-demolished neighborhood establishments, and even a newspaper stand that used to sit in Chinatown.
One of the coolest things in the collection is inside this booth (and no, it's not my gorgeous, messy self):
At first sight, this small booth seems to contain only a mirror. Press the button, however, beneath the glass, and the room (and my reflection!) is transformed:
Also in the collection is a cake from La Villita, a bakery that closed this past year due to the rent being astronomically raised. La Villita was famous for the cakes they kept in their storefront window. Covered in plastic figurines of half-naked women, the cakes were left so long that their white frosting became dark brown. That said, the bakery made damn good cakes (I ordered one nearly every year for my kid's birthday) and the neighborhood wept when they were forced to close.
The Reliquary has become a community hub, a space truly for the people that hosts block parties, concerts, plays and film events in its large backyard. The museum also works with Public School 132 to create exhibitions of student work. My daughter and I have attended a few events over the years (the most notable being an eerie Edgar Allen Poe performance on Halloween about five years back); I'm always struck by the diversity of the crowd, the genuine enthusiasm, and the grassroots community-building that is still thriving amid the still gentrifying neighborhood.
The Reliquary has become more than a museum of curiosities, it's become a non-profit that supports the community and maintains a bridge between the ever-changing neighborhood and the New York of yesterday.
370 Metropolitan Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11211
Thursday – Sunday – 12-6PM


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Adams Papers Indexes | Adams Papers, Cumulative Index to volumes published through 2006 | C | Carver, Jonathan, Travels through ... North-America
1771. Thurdsday May 30. [Diary and Autobiography of John Adams 2:17]
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Dear Friends, Thank you for these months of remarkable support & encouragement, for your voices, exhortations, & prayers. I have decided.—
ashley judd (@AshleyJudd) March 27, 2013
Sorry if the headline ruined the suspense, but no, Ashley Judd will not be running for Senate in 2014. We were looking forward to seeing just what Judd meant when she said that she could handle a campaign against Sen. Mitch McConnell, what with having been raped twice. We certainly wouldn't rule out a run in the future, though; her announcement does indeed sound like it was written by someone who was born to campaign.
After serious and thorough contemplation, I realize that my responsibilities & energy at this time need to be focused on my family.—
ashley judd (@AshleyJudd) March 27, 2013
Regretfully, I am currently unable to consider a campaign for the Senate. I have spoken to so many Kentuckians over these last few months ~—
ashley judd (@AshleyJudd) March 27, 2013
~ who expressed their desire for a fighter for the people & new leader. While that won't be me at this time, I will continue to work as ~—
ashley judd (@AshleyJudd) March 27, 2013
as hard as I can to ensure the needs of Kentucky families are met by returning this Senate seat to whom it rightfully belongs: the people &—
ashley judd (@AshleyJudd) March 27, 2013
their needs, dreams, and great potential. Thanks for even considering me as that person & know how much I love our Commonwealth. Thank you!—
ashley judd (@AshleyJudd) March 27, 2013
Admit it: you're disappointed too.
We as a country must pull together and get thru this. RT @AshleyJudd Regretfully, I am currently unable 2 consider a campaign 4 the Senate.—
Joshua Malina (@JoshMalina) March 27, 2013
All hope is LOST: Ashley Judd is not running for Senate washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-pol… #goodbyeamerica—
Callie Schweitzer (@cschweitz) March 27, 2013
I, for one, am heartbroken that Ashley Judd is not running for office. As sad day for our country. Lulz.—
Nancy (@Of_Angelis) March 27, 2013
Wait. @AshleyJudd, come back! This would have been pure entertainment for me.—
Pioneer (@KennethHarbin) March 27, 2013
The collective thud you hear? Liberal #Dems hearts dropping over @AshleyJudd deciding not to run. #KYSen—
Phillip M. Bailey (@phillipmbailey) March 27, 2013
A conspiracy must be behind Judd's decision… and she and Morgan Freeman will get to the bottom of it and expose the mastermind!—
(@jimgeraghty) March 27, 2013
The Twitterverse is already hard at work recasting the role of McConnell's opponent.
Ashley Judd has decided not to run for Senate, but the producers are hoping they can get Diane Lane.—
Matt Goldich (@MattGoldich) March 27, 2013
Welp, Ashley Judd's out. Isn't Billy Ray Cyrus from Kentucky?—
jennifer bendery (@jbendery) March 27, 2013
So can Democrats re-cast this role? Can they talk Dana Delany out of that awful series on ABC?—
(@jimgeraghty) March 27, 2013
Hey, where does Wynonna Judd live? And can McConnell get her residency certified quickly enough?—
Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) March 27, 2013
Well that little flirtation was short-lived—> "Ashley Judd is not running for Senate" washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-pol…—
Monica Crowley (@MonicaCrowley) March 27, 2013
It might have been a short flirtation, but we'll always have Louisville.
@AshleyJudd Upside: You don't have to pretend to like Louisville anymore.—
(@pourmecoffee) March 27, 2013
Now Ashley Judd can root against Louisville on Friday night.—
Nu Wexler (@wexler) March 27, 2013
Oh good Ashley Judd will be spared the humiliation of her own family not voting for her.—
Brianne (@Brianne26_2) March 27, 2013
Ashley Judd offers her thoughts on the decision, meaning she rambles on without saying much of anything. (Hey, we never said she wouldn't fit in in Washington, D.C.)
Dear Friends, My thoughts regarding my Senate decsion are on ashleyjudd.com Please be sure to sign in, if you'd like to hear from me—
ashley judd (@AshleyJudd) March 28, 2013


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|3Com GBIC 3CGBIC92
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Just uploaded Dalmas Disco 3yr Anniversary (Offbeat Mix) to Mixcloud. Listen now!
Just uploaded Animals Mixtape (mk1) to Mixcloud. Listen now!
The second single from London band Fé at Bad Life Records - 25/11/13
Lauren Laverne, BBC 6 Music: "A cracking debut"
Tom Robinson, BBC 6 Music: "extraordinary quality"
Pigeons & Planes: "brilliant… a wonderfully atmospheric experience"
The Line of Best Fit: "feels very much like the finished article"
Consequence of Sound: "a refined, resplendent pop sound"
Music Ninja: "pure atmospheric euphoria…a stunning pop piece"
Les Inrockuptibles: "Super!"
Offbeat: YES!
Source: SoundCloud / Fé.
Just uploaded This is Progress-ive! to Mixcloud. Listen now!
#MartinGarrix - #Animals
#SpinninRecords latest release Animals by Martin Garrix is a monster! The video is pretty ordinary with a bunch of slomo shots of ppl wearing animal masks.
Also a warning for a very #Top100drop!
#Andycap - Time Won't Let Us Stop
#WMWL (We Manage With Love) is a new label coming from my hometown of #Malmo, Sweden. They've recently released their forst EP called #FolketsHusEP. Some really nice, smooth melodies and awesome basslines comes pouring out my speakers as I turn the volume knob.
You better get your hands on this quick because it's almost sold out and it's just two weeks since it dropped!
#TheRealbirds - Emergency Landing
This is the second release from a new label called #Frenchmade that I'm going to start feature here on the blog.
The Realbirds is a tech house band consisting of Martin, Aleksandr and Francesco. Their EP Emergency Landing is a smooth EP with some really nice ambient feelings and a nice deep bass beat all through!
Source: SoundCloud / The RealBirds
#Blatta&Inesha - We Don't Know
There goes the neighborhood….literally. See what happens when you disturb Blatta and Inesha's neighbors. You will probably never have a house party again!
This #techno track is awesome and I have no idea why this old lady doesn't dig it too!
#NT89 - Bad Life 2013
He was the first producer on Bad Life's hit-list when they started the label and it's been an absolute pleasure watching him blossom into the 8th wonder of forward-thinking electronic music; gardener-in-chief at the hanging gardens of techno!
As talented a DJ as he is producer, NT89 now counts #2ManyDJs, #TheChemicalBrothers, #Tiga, #ErolAlkan, "LaurentGarnier, #BoysNoize, #Brodinski and #A-Trak amongst his admirers.
First up is Tom's chinos, an inspired techno track which delivers a devastating, artistic interpretation of Mickey Rourke's face after a night on the crystal. The second offering Entrust is an altogether more pleasant affair; a teddy bear's picnic where some rapscallion has spiked the scones with hallucinogens. There's fluff and buttons all over the shop. Nima Bar and D.C. complete this stunning EP.
Source: SoundCloud / Bad Life
#TheHats - Arpic
The Hats keep spitting crazy beats! The melody on this track is almost stupid and takes a while to get used to. But once you get it it's of the charts!
Best thing: IT'S FREEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
Source: SoundCloud / The Hats.


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Foreclosures dropped in 2013, but Michigan still one of the worst states Brian O'Connor, Detroit News The number of Michigan families who lost their homes in foreclosures dropped to fewer than … [Read more...]
MFI-Miami in the Media
MFI-Miami is an independent mortgage fraud investigation company created by the need to determine if a homeowner was a victim of fraudulent mortgage practices on both the compliance and securitization level.
MFI-Miami has become an internationally recognized leader for investigating mortgage fraud, mortgage compliance, predatory lending, mortgage securitization, assignment fraud and robo-signing. Through our offices in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and Milford, Michigan, MFI-Miami now covers 20 states.
MFI-Miami's President, Steve Dibert have been interviewed multiple times by Diana Olick of CNBC, ABC News, MLive, Michigan Messenger and The Huffington Post. I have contributed to news reports by USA Today,Al-Jazeera, Der Spiegel, Financial Times-Deutschland, Handelsblatt, Reuters, Korean Broadcasting and NHK in Japan. An investigation that was done by MFI-Miami was also featured in a BBC documentary. I have also been profiled in the Boston Herald, The Miami Daily Business Review, The Miami Herald, National Mortgage News, Mortgage Servicing News and on the website The Real Deal. I have been quoted in the German financial magazine, Capital and Der Spiegel about MFI-Miami's ongoing investigation involving Deutsche Bank and the current foreclosure crisis in the US. I am frequently quoted as an expert in the Huffington Post and one of my articles was recently discussed by Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert on The Keiser Report on RT.
ICYMI-MFI-Miami President Steve Dibert Was Quoted In The Detroit News
Is Quicken Loans Founder Dan Gilbert The Henry Ford or Henry Potter Of Detroit?
Douglas Jamiel, Truthout "The First National Building over here is ours," explains billionaire Dan Gilbert, pointing at the Detroit skyline from his glass promontory in a recent interview with 60 … [Read more...]
'Job Creator'/Candidate Dave Trott Once Tried To Foreclose On Ex-Green Beret
With foreclosure mill operator and financial terrorist, David Trott's announcement that he is running for Congress, Jeff Wattrick at Deadline Detroit picked up my article about David Trott's attempt … [Read more...]
I Was Quoted In A Great Piece By Darrell Dawsey At Deadline Detroit
Dawsey: People Like State Treasurer Andy Dillon Get a Pass While Poor People Don't With the digital age affording so many reading options, it's sometime difficult to keep up with how various … [Read more...]
MFI-Miami Warns the White House Not to Provoke a Political Fight With Hispanic Homeowners
TRAVERSE CITY, MI and DETROIT, MI--(Marketwired - Apr 23, 2013) - On April 23, 2013, Steve Dibert, President of internationally-renowned mortgage investigation firm MFI-Miami, announced that the … [Read more...]
The Keiser Report Talks About MFI-Miami Article About Fannie/Freddie Homes Being Meth Labs
Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert talk about my article from last week about how the majority of foreclosed homes Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are dumping on inexperienced investors are former meth labs. … [Read more...]
Max Keiser & Stacy Herbert Discuss Article From MFI-Miami
Another Person Dies From The Stress Of Dealing With Wells Fargo Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert of The Keiser Report on RT talked about an article that appeared on MFI-Miami last week. You can jump to … [Read more...]
MFI-Miami Is Quoted In A Great Piece On The Motor City Muckraker
Birmingham developer offers plan to buy Belle Isle for $1 billion, secede from Michigan Steve Neavling, Motor City Muckraker Prominent Republicans in Michigan will gather soon to hear a plan for … [Read more...]
Financial Guru Calls Actor John Cusack A Financial Terrorist
Max Keiser & Stacy Herbert Talk About MFI-Miami Article Steve Dibert, MFI-Miami If you didn't catch today's Keiser Report on RT, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert talk about my article last week about … [Read more...]
Cancer Patient Mom Renews Fight To Save Graffiti-Covered Home
David Sands, Huffington Post This article originally appeared in the Huffington Post on 9/24/2012 Kelly Parker, a single mom and cancer patient who covered her Detroit home with graffiti earlier … [Read more...]


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Staff Writer
Ella Mae Bradshaw, 79, of Carmi, passed away Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012, at 10:43 a.m. at Deaconess Gateway Hospital in Newburgh, Ind.
She was born March 24, 1933, in Crossville, the daughter of Lawrence Edward and Jessie (Koontz) Sturm. Ella Mae married Charles Fred Bradshaw July 27, 1951. She was a homemaker and an active long time member of Cherry Street General Baptist Church in Carmi.
Ella Mae is survived by her husband of 61 years, Fred Bradshaw of Carmi; a daughter and son-in-law, Melody and Jeff Hosick of Carmi; four sons and three daughter-in-laws, Charles and Kathy Bradshaw of Warner Robbins, Ga., Terry Bradshaw and Gary and Gayla Bradshaw all of Mt. Vernon and Jack and Jill Bradshaw of Carmi; 10 grandchildren, Michel (Randy) Daniel, Melissa Bradshaw, Kendra (Scott) Fiala, Lucy (Jeremy) Redman, Abby (Jody) Underwood, Ryan (Krista) Bradshaw, Ben (Natalia) Bradshaw, Keaton (Lacey) Bradshaw, Kyle (Holley) Hosick and Lindsey Hosick; 14 great-grandchildren; and two sisters, Marie South of Mt. Vernon and Betty Wright of Danville.
Funeral services will be held 11 a.m. Friday at Cherry Street General Baptist Church in Carmi. Burial will be in Kingdom Cemetery near Carmi. Friends may call on Thursday from 5 to 8 p.m. at the church.
For those who wish, memorials may be made to the Cherry Street General Baptist Food Pantry.
Campbell Funeral Home in Carmi is in charge of arrangements.


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Star Trek Into Darkness
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Heidelberg, Germany
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OMG the forum is back!
My little review...
Morals are back. Parallels to current controversial events are back. This film has an ethical message, and is therefore very much classic Trek!
But… Klingons appear for a mere minute or so. Space battles are over after just a few seconds. The FSNP is done with only 3 instead of 5 fingers.
Seriously, it's a good movie with a classic Trek theme. I still kinda like TVH and FC better. Into Darkness is certainly better than the last one, though.
Yes, the hommage scene was weird, and the cameo a joke (how does this information help?!). A british guy ruling over India also feels wrong, historically speaking. And why have a cybernetic crewman if he only gets a second of screen time and two lines? Why let the Vengeance sound like a propeller plane? Why does 31 now have crazy blue-gray suits? Despite these disappointments, it is a very pleasing experience to see Section 31 on the big screen, or to spot that little XCV 330 model and even a little Gemini capsule and an A4 rocket. The 'Kelvin Memorial Archive' was a nice subtle reference to the last film. The torpedoes (thank you for changing pink to red) could have been inspired by the TNG tech manual.
And for the magic-haters: It was not magic. He wasn't dead, only fatally injured. The enhanced thrombocytes healed his body, while his brain function was preserved in cryostatis. So there was no supernatural revival and we won't have Jesus Tsombie Kirk in the next one ;D
Watch it if you're a fan of classic Trek morality tales, if you like references to previous Trek, or if you enjoy little things like a cable car in 2259 San Francisco. Avoid it if you're only interested in epic space battles. I guess it's a film more suited for politically interested adults than people who expect mindless phaser fights. Which is a good thing!
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Well, it's that time of year! When we struggle to get through the holidays and get back to another Holiday Tour with Phish. This week Steve, Eric and Justin run through New Years shows from the past and discuss what makes a good show, what exactly was the best New Years show and some of their favorite moments from all the other days not marked 12/31 on the calendar.
This our final episode of 2010 and we want to thank everyone who has listened for their support and feedback!!! We'll be back on 1/11/11 discussing what took place at this year in Worcester and New York, and listening to all the best moments. So we'll see you then, Happy Holidays everybody!!
-The whole TypeIICast crew
Full Clip List
- Bohemian Rhapsody (12/31/1996)
- 1999 (12/31/1998)
- Simple (12/31/1998)
- Mike's Song > Loop Jam (12/31/1995)
- Weekapaug Groove (12/31/1995)
- Down With Disease Jam (12/31/1993)
- Harry Hood (12/31/1993)
- David Bowie (12/30/1993)
- Boogie On Reggae Woman > Antelope (12/30/2009)
- Auld Lang Syne > Antelope (12/31/1989)
Be sure to download and listen to "the Dog Log Album". During the last episode, we played a clip from 12/11/95, when Trey joked about a Dog Log album, with 15 different versions of the song. Steve had a little extra time on his hands, so he put together this compilation, complete with track listing, album art, and even a bonus disc. Phans of the song won't want to miss.


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Howdy, y'all! I'm Olivia from DIY Mother and I'm excited to be able to share one of my DIY projects with you, thanks to Shara being a bit busier lately!
I've been wanting to take a stab at the painted rug trend that's been happening for quite some time now, but I was never confident enough and was kind of afraid I'd ruin a decent rug. But then I found an amazing deal on a simple, solid color, low-pile rug at the hardware store and I knew that even if I messed it up, I could at least use it outside.
While I'm not LOVING the rug on its own yet, I will admit that it looks pretty good around furniture in a clean room. I might end up moving it to our deck, but for now, it's staying in the nursery. If you want to see any of my other projects, visit DIY Mother! Also, I'd love to know if you've successfully done a painted rug.
Materials you'll need:
Low-pile rug
Acrylic paint (I actually used a combination of acrylic paint and spray paint and preferred the spray paint.)
I was on a budget, so I managed to find a 6×8 ft. indoor/outdoor rug for less than $30. It's probably better suited for outdoors, so I'd recommend looking at others if you're looking for strictly indoor use.
I have a 6-month-old daughter with a pretty bare room, so I wanted to do a fun geometric print for the rug. I measured where the center of the rug was, and spaced my triangles out from the center. I used regular painter's tape to mark off each triangle.
Then, I started painting inside of the triangles. Don't worry about purchasing textile medium-unless you don't like the stiffness of dried paint. I, personally, don't mind the stiffness.
When they were finished, I wasn't completely satisfied with the end product. Even though I love simplicity, I thought it needed something extra. So I decided to turn the triangles into "banners" running across the rug.
That required me to connect the triangles to one another, which proved to be much more difficult than taping off the triangles.
When it was all said and done, I was pleased with the final result. IF I could have done anything differently, I probably would have been more mathematical when measured out the banner part of the design. I tend to do everything by eye, but this isn't one of those designs you should eyeball. Lesson learned. The baby loves it!
Olivia from DIY Mother
Howdy! I'm Olivia. I'm a 20-something year old mother to two rambunctious little girls, and wife to a handsomely handy contractor. Our family purchased our first home last year, and since then we've been embarking on any DIY renovation project we can dream up; I've also become a bit of a decorating nerd.
Somehow through all of the madness happening in our home, I still manage to find time to blog about our DIY and my personal decorating experiences. When I have 30 minutes to myself, I'm usually listening to 60's girl groups (The Crystals, The Ronettes, you name it) or looking up pictures of Ryan Gosling. I take my free time very seriously.


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You've all heard it, and you all know it: premature optimizations are the root of all evil. But what does that mean? When is an optimization premature? I've come to think of this sort of 'dilemma' many times at work, where I see both my self and coworkers judging this by different standards.
Some programmers really don't care about performance at all. They write code that looks perfect, and fix performance issues as they come. Others think about performance all the time, where they will happily trade good software engineering principles for improved performance. But I think that thinking about performance in both of these ways are wrong. Performance is about simple and 'natural' design.
Let me give one recent example from work. A few months back, we rewrote parts of our software to get new features. Most importantly this involved a new protocol to be used between some client and server. After a while, users of our software were complaining about a server process consuming an unreasonable amount of memory. After profiling the server in question, we found that they were right: there was no need for that process to use that much memory. While profiling, we found a lot of things consuming an unecessary amount of memory, but the most important of them was that some large piece of data was copied many times before sending it through the cable.
Why did we write software like that? Well, while writing the new protocol we thought that it didn't matter. The data was typically not that big, and the server could handle the load fairly well according to benchmarks. Turns out that the user was serving much more data through that server than we anticipated. Luckily, increasing the JVM heap size made things go around, so it was no catastrophe.
We set off to fix it, and the amount of 'garbage' created was much less and memory usage improved significantly. But to get there, we had to introduce a new version of our protocol and refactor code paths to be able to pass data through the stack without copying. It was no more than 5 days of work, but those days could probably have been spent doing more useful things.
But surely, you'd expect the code to become horrible, full of dirty hacks and as unmaintainable as OpenSSL? Actually, it didn't. The refactorings and protocol changes did not worsen the state of our software. In fact, the design became better and more understandable, because we had to think about how to represent the data in a fashion that reduced the amount of copying done. This gave us an abstraction that was easier to work with.
Premature optimizations are really evil if they make your software harder to read and debug. Optimizations at the design level on the other hand, can save you a lot of trouble later on. I am under the impression that a lot of software is written without a 'performance mindset', and that a lot of manpower is wasted due to this. If we used 1 day to properly think through our protocol and software design in terms of data flow, we could spend 4 days at the beach drinking beer.
I like beer.
Having run my toy web service wishsys for a few months, I thought it would be nice to setup a continuous delivery/deployment pipeline for it, so that I could develop a new feature and push it into production as quickly as possible (if it passes all tests). I thought writing a small article about this would be nice as well, as I found few resources for doing CD with haskell.
The wishsys code is written in haskell and uses the yesod web framework. Update: I noticed a comment on reddit mentioning keter, which is essentially what I should have used instead of debian packages since I'm using yesod. This guide should still be relevant regarding CI though.
Choosing CI system
After doing a little research, I ended up with two alternatives to use for CI.
I have some experience with Jenkins at work, and since its very generic, I thought it would be easy to build a haskell project with it. Since the wishsys code is hosted at github, I was tempted to try travis, since it integrates well with github. I decided to go with Jenkins instead, mainly because I had a VPS to run it, and I didn't need the great Heroku support, as I would be deploying it to the same VPS. There is a good introduction of CI for Haskell and Yesod at yesodweb.
Git and branches
Having chosen which CI-system to use, I needed to structure the git repository in a way that fits my workflow. Since I wanted to have some control over what changes that are pushed out to production, I created a stable branch in the repository, which is the branch from which the production binaries are compiled. All development goes into other branches. For CI to have any meaning, all of these branches should be built all the time so I can be sure that my tests are stable and that they pass. The plan was to create a build job for every branch that builds and tests that particular branch.
Setting up Jenkins
Setting up Jenkins is very easy on Debian, as you just need to add the jenkins debian repo and install packages. Having done that before, I just started on creating a new project for wishsys. Jenkins has a lot of plugins, and since this is a github project, I installed the github plugin for jenkins as well.
Having only the stable branch, I created one job called wishsys-build-stable. To build haskell, I added an entry under "Execute shell", which runs the following commands when building:
$CABAL sandbox init
$CABAL --enable-tests install
$CABAL is parameterized to /var/lib/jenkins/.cabal/bin/cabal since I needed a newer cabal version to get the sandbox functionality. I also configured the job to trigger for every commit, though I will probably change it to build as often as possible to ensure there are no unstable tests.
Creating a debian package
The next step was to create debian packages of the software, so I could easily install it in my VPS (manually or automatically). Since this was unfamiliar territory, it took some time and reading to grasp the package layout, but I found an intro guide for creating debian packages that helped me. In addition, I added a makefile that invokes all of the cabal commands to build my project and to do what the debian package tools expect.
Creating debian packages in jenkins
I then started looking for a jenkins plugin to help me build the debian package, and found the following plugins:
debian-package-builder seemed to only support automatic version manipulation for subversion repositories. Since wishsys uses git, I went for jenkins-debian-glue. Creating a debian package is complicated in itself, and I initially spent some time doing a lot of what jenkins-debian-glue tries to do automatically (automatically creating a tarball of the repo and running git-import-orig and git-buildpackage).
I used this guide to setup the jenkins jobs. I ended up with a wishsys-debian-source job for building the source package, and a wishsys-debian-binaries job for creating binary packages.
The jobs are run in the following order: wishsys-build-stable -> wishsys-debian-source -> wishsys-debian-binaries
The wishsys-build-stable job is run for each commit, and reuses the git checkout between builds to reduce build times. The wishsys-debian-source job simply creates a tarball of the git repo, and forwards the resulting tarball to the wishsys-debian-binaries job, which does a full clean build of the software before creating the binary package itself.
Setting up a CD pipeline is a great way to get your features tested and into production in minimal time. Though this setup is somewhat debian specific, the generic pattern should be reusable. In the future, I would like to avoid building the project twice (once in wishsys-build-stable, and once in wishsys-debian-binaries), but the build times are currently not an issue. Another improvement would be to get hunit and quickcheck test reports displayed in Jenkins.
The set of files necessary for debian build are available at github.
Today, I launched my wishsys service, which is just a simple service for creating wish lists with separate access for owners and guests. The original use case was my own wedding, so I created an even simpler version for that using snap. Snap worked great, but I had some hassle building the authentication mechanisms properly.
After the wedding, one of the guests wanted to use the same system for their wedding, so I thought I might as well create a more generic wish list service. This time, I went with yesod, as it seemed to provide more of a platform than a framework.
At Yahoo!, I work on a search platform, and there are a few things I expect from a platform. It should provide
- Storage
- Access control
- Higher level APIs for request handling
- Internalization
- Good APIs
- Good documentation
- Ease of deployment
- Test framework
Yesod did not let me down. It provides a real book, and not just a bunch of outdated wiki pages. Its solution for storage is excellent. Persistent allows me to write the definition of my data structures in a single place, and automatically generate a database schema and haskell types. I chose to use postgresql as my persistent backend, and by using the scaffold code, getting it working was trivial. Creating request handlers was so easy, I won't even tell you how I did it.
My biggest yesod issue was authentication, since I had somewhat special requirements where I wanted to have two users with different access levels (admin and guest). I also missed a method in the authentication system to request a user to be logged in, regardless of what authentication backend used. I ended up looking at what HashDB did internally, and just copy that (If there is a better way, please let me know).
I used the hamlet template system to write HTML with minimal haskell clutter. Forms are a pleasure to work with, because I don't have to repeat myself. I just had to create the form in one place, and I could then use it both for generating correct HTML and easily parse the POST request.
I just followed the deployment chapter when deploying, and then the service was suddenly live. Even more important to note is the development server, which automatically compiles the app if something changes. Great for local testing!
My biggest issue with yesod was understanding compilation errors messages. But, when I got things working, yesod was a great experience. It is one of the few open source projects I've seen that understands what it means to be a platform, and it thinks of your needs before you realize them. Kudos!
Btw, the wishsys source code can be found on github
I have tried using Haskell to various smaller projects, such as wishsys and a game that I never got really far into making. But learning a new programming language through the means of hobby projects only work as long as the project is contained and small. For my part, most hobby projects start out with great ideas and grand designs, but end up as a mess since I am unfamiliar with the programming language.
When using a new programming language, time is spent learning the language rather than developing the project. This in turn means that I end up learning the bare minimum to get the job done. And this defeats the purpose of using a project to learn a new language. If the goal is to finish the project, you should have used something you know well and feel most productive with. If the goals is to learn a programming language, you should start out with a small project instead.
For me, project euler is a great way to learn Haskell, because it contains a lot of problems that Haskell (and functional languages in general) is the perfect tool for solving. The projects I mentioned above involves using databases, multiple threads and other scary real world stuff, but I just wanted to learn Haskell. And better yet, once you have solved a problem, chances are you can find someone with an even more elegant solution written in the same programming language you are using. A great way to learn!
This time I thought I'd share our dinner plans for the next week. We take turns creating dinner list every week, and next week is my turn!
- Monday: Tortellini with sun dried tomatoes and mozzarella
- Tuesday: Fish with avocado, ruccola salad and hot mustard
- Wednesday: Fennel soup with chicken
- Thursday: Albondigas
- Friday: Salmon with fennelrisotto
- Saturday: Breaded cod with salad and potatoes
- Sunday: Home made tomato soup
Lets hope it tastes as good as I think it does.
I have started to learn myself haskell using the book named "Real world Haskell". I have so far only come to chapter 4, but I am already in love with some of the features:
Its strict static type system, which makes it easy to understand what a function does. Moreover, it allows you to think through what your code is going to do as well as make the decisions of what to do for special cases up front. The following is a definition of a function which compares the length of two lists, and returns their order (==, <, >). The definition clearly states that it operates on two lists of any type, and returns a value of type Ordering. Crystal clear!
listCmp :: [a] -> [a] -> Ordering
Partially due to the above point, one can avoid unpleasant bugs later on, because you chose to postpone your decision on what to do with your input.
Pattern matching. I came across this in the Oz programming language when I was in university, but I didn't really understand how powerful and readable everything becomes until using it in Haskell. The following function takes a separator and a list of lists as argument, and combines the lists using the separator:
intersperse :: a -> [ [a] ] -> [a] intersperse sep [] = [] intersperse sep (x:[]) = x intersperse sep (x:xs) = x ++ [sep] ++ (intersperse sep xs)
I love how you can just look at the patterns to see what cases is covered by the function, rather than nesting into some complex if sentence.
Readability when using 'where' syntax. This is the implementation of the listCmp function:
listCmp lhs rhs | lengthLhs < lengthRhs = LT | lengthLhs > lengthRhs = GT | otherwise = EQ where lengthLhs = (length lhs) lengthRhs = (length rhs)
What I like about it is that you can separate the logic performed on values from the function calls, so that when you read the code, you see the actual computation done by the function in the different cases. You can also do this with the let syntax, but I think the above reads really well.
For a while now, I have been using Ubuntu Linux on my desktop, and it as worked really well. In fact, I even installed Windows 7 on my media center (replacing Linux) just to stop bothering with configuring my system all the time. Since I started working at Yahoo!, I did not really feel like having to do extra work at home in order for my computer to function properly. Moreover, I did not have much time left to work on FreeBSD, so I simply reinstalled my desktop with Linux, and that has been working well for almost a year now.
But recently I have sort of missed working on FreeBSD, so I decided to give it at try again from a user perspective. Many of the things I feel was lacking is still there. However, the things that were good, are still good. So far, I have been able to install all software that I wanted to install, but I still feel that we need something better on top of ports in order to make it easier for users. Hopefully, some of the initiatives that I have seen on the mailing list will not die any time soon. Apart from ports, many of the common tasks are pretty manual too. Configuring the system should be more straightforward than having to guess and edit what should be in /etc/rc.conf. Though many of the issues I encounter comes from the fact that FreeBSD has a very small userbase, and is simply not prioritized by many companies, there are a lot of things that can be improved irregardless of that. If i start doing any more FreeBSD work, it is most likely to be in the "make-it-less-painful-to-use"-department.
I just bought two Western Digital 2 TB disks the other day in order to increase storage capacity. I was planning on putting a ZFS mirror on them. The other day I discovered that the disks uses a new drive format called "Advanced Disk Format". This format basically extends the sector size from 512 to 4096 bytes.
The problem is that the disks report their sector size to be 512 rather than 4096 in order for them to work well with existing operating systems. The issues with these disks are discussed here and here.
To summarize, this results in two main problems:
Partitioning tools operate on 512 bytes "logical" sectors, which may result in a partition starting at a non-aligned (compared to 4096 bytes) physical sector. If using partitioning tools that are not updated to align partitions to 4k, a request may cause a write to more than one sector.
File systems/disk consumers think the underlying device has a 512 byte sector size, and issues requests that are below 4096 bytes. For a write request, this is catastrophic, because in order to write only parts of a block, the disk will have to read the block and modify the part that changed, before writing it back to disk (Read-modify-write).
Dag Erling Smørgrav made a tool to benchmark disk performance using aligned and misaligned writes (mentioned in his post above (svn co svn://svn.freebsd.org/base/user/des/phybs). Here are the results:
nobby# ./phybs -w /dev/gpt/storage0
count size offset step msec tps kBps
131072 1024 0 4096 131771 16 994
131072 1024 512 4096 136005 16 963
65536 2048 0 8192 74762 14 1753
65536 2048 512 8192 71407 15 1835
65536 2048 1024 8192 73432 15 1784
32768 4096 0 16384 20710 130 6328
32768 4096 512 16384 61987 43 2114
32768 4096 1024 16384 62719 43 2089
32768 4096 2048 16384 61089 44 2145
16384 8192 0 32768 14238 245 9205
16384 8192 512 32768 53348 65 2456
16384 8192 1024 32768 52868 66 2479
16384 8192 2048 32768 50914 68 2574
Clearly, using < 4k blocks results in bad performance. Using blocks larger than 4k results in a 3x speedup.
The way I solved this in FreeBSD was to partition the disk manually with gpart and set the partition start to a multiple of 8 (8 * 512 = 4096). All partitions on the disk should start at a sector number that is a multiple of 8.
ZFS uses variable block sizes for its requests, which can pose a problem when the underlying provider reports a sector size of 512 bytes. In order to override this, I used gnop(8), which can create a provider on top of another provider with different characteristics: gnop create -o 4096 -S 4096
The -o parameter makes sure that the new provider does not conflict with the original provider when ZFS tries to detect any filesystems on the disk. The second parameter sets the sector size of the new parameter to 4096, which makes sure that all requests going to the disk from ZFS will be in 4k blocks.
For UFS, the default fixed block size is 16k, so there should be no worries about it using lower block sizes. Moreover, newfs provides a -S parameter, which overrides the sector size of the underlying provider. I have not tried using UFS on these disks, but I don't see any reason for it not working.
After looking for a long time as to why my default locale in gnome changed after a recent upgrade, I finally found out where to change the locale setting. The problem was that gnome did not seem to pick up my system locale settings, and the norwegian characters in my terminal came up as question marks.
As the gnome login manager (gdm) got rewritten, there is now no way to change this locale at the login screen unless it was picked up by gdm. But, as always, reading the documentation helps. After reading
I discovered that I could just edit
and write this:
to set the correct locale!
I just learned of sysutils/bsdadminscripts after my previous post about how hard it was to use packages only in FreeBSD. Well, I think I found a partial solution to my problem, as the bsdadminscripts port contains a pkg_upgrade utility, which is able to update your system without a ports tree available, as long as the INDEX file exist on the packages server.
I now use this in combination with my port tinderbox, building the packages I want for my laptop. Then I generate the INDEX file in the tinderbox ports tree, and put it into the packages folder of the tinderbox. Voila! I can now use pkg_upgrade -a, and all packages are upgraded to the latest version.
There are a few things that I think can be improved: Have the tinderbox scripts automatically generate the INDEX file and putting it into the packages directory with a simple command or just do it on an update of the ports tree. The other thing is what I mentioned in my previous post about keeping the official packages properly up to date.
I guess I'm not the typical FreeBSD user, because I do not enjoy using ports much. Mainly this is because I also use it as a desktop. On a powerful server or workstation, ports is fine. It's super flexible and everything works quite well. And kudos to all people working on updating and making improvements to it.
However, using ports on my laptop really makes me cry. Why? If I want to install a port, I have to keep a ports tree on my laptop and actually compile everything. Since I have a pretty weak laptop in terms of processing power, this takes ages. But of course, I can install packages! The thing with packages, however, is that it works really well for a release, but when upgrading later on, I always end up in trouble if I try to use the official FreeBSD packages.
First of all, the package sets following each release gets outdated quickly. Second, if I want to update my packages without using ports I get into trouble. There is no real package upgrade tool that I know of, but I can install portupgrade if I want to, because it has a fancy -PP options, telling it to use packages only. But there are issues with this: portupgrade seems to require that you have a ports tree to work. In addition, when you have the ports tree, portupgrade will look for packages matching the exact version that is in ports, and if the package server does not happen to have the same ports tree as you (only one commit updating a port can break this), it fails.
So what is the solution for me, besides writing a pkg_upgrade? Having a ports tinderbox on a different host to build packages for my laptop (I could use official 8-stable packages for instance, but there always seem to be some packages missing, and some not built). And the upgrade procedure? Move /usr/local and /var/db/pkg away, and reinstall packages. It works ok, but looking at how well this can be handled on other systems, it's a bit silly :/ So, maybe I'll just have to look closer at the pkg_upgrade idea :)
So, on to the constructive part of this rantWpost. There is no need to change everything for this to work better. A pkg_upgrade tool can probably reuse a lot from the other pkgtools, such as version checking and dependency checking. However, the hard part is knowing what version to get from the servers. Luckily, the Latest/ directory contains unversioned tarballs of packages that can be examined to get their version. But again, this requires one to get the packages first in order to examine it. Not very bandwidth-friendly. I think a simple approach would be to keep a version list together with the packages, which could be used by pkg_upgrade to check if any new version of a package exists (much like INDEX in /usr/ports I guess). I haven't thought about the hardest question yet: how to handle dependencies and package renaming, but I would think one could allow specifying this in the same file.
Update: As i was working against my local package repository, I did not notice that the official package repositories actually contains the INDEX file from the ports tree where the packages are built.
I also think the package building procedures could be changed, because somehow, there are always packages missing (at least several gnome packages last time I tried). I do not know much about this though, but I would advocate for a system where a package was rebuilt on all architectures and supported releases once a commit was made to the affecting port.
There, I feel better now :)
Last year in Japan I bought a Cowon iAudio D2 player, which have proven to be quite good. But a few days ago, I thought I'd try to upgrade the firmware of it. I then discovered that there are four different types of firmware depending on where you bought it. As I bought it in Japan, my firmware was not compatible with other firmwares. The reason for this are mostly due to small differences in hardware. In my case, I have the possiblity of watching Japanese television (not really useful in Norway).
Therefore, I thought I would try and upgrade to the european firmware (a lot more fixes get through to this firmware it seems), but I was a bit afraid I would brick it if it was the case. I looked around at the iaudiophile forums, and finally I found someone with the same attempt, and they succeeded. The procedure was easy, but to be able to use the european firmware, I had to rename them to have the same file name as the Japanese, in order for the player to pick them up. Luckily, it worked for me too. Phew!
As I usually have a few classes at school which requires special software, I wanted to be able to run some of this software on my own computer, as there are student versions of some of the software. One of these is ModelSim from MentorGraphics. ModelSim is basically a simulator for hardware designs, and I use it to simulate VHDL. Unfortunately, ModelSim only comes for Windows, Linux and Solaris. As I only run FreeBSD on my laptop, no software for me :( But wait, FreeBSD have the linuxulator!, which allows Linux binaries to be run unmodified on a FreeBSD host (It is basically an implementation of Linux syscalls within the FreeBSD kernel). The steps I needed to go through to install the Linux version of ModelSim was pretty easy.
First of all, one of the emulators/linux_base* ports needs to be installed. I chose linux_base-fc6, as I'd like the Linux 2.6 support (although I'm not sure if that is actually needed). After installing the port, a linux userland appears in /compat/linux. To make sure I don't get any problems with programs needing procfs, I mount linprocfs(5) as well.
There, easy! Ready to run linux programs. Now, ModelSim comes with its own installer, which needs a few additional files that you can get at their web-site. However, programs may depend on additional libraries, and this is IMO the most tricky part about the linuxulator. In my case, I got some errors complaining about not finding libXsomething. Luckily, there are a few ports that you can install for the most common libraries. In this case, I had to install x11/linux-xorg-libs. Although a very old version, I was able to run the ModelSim installer and the installed binaries afterwards. Awesome!
Today, I'm sitting in a café in Oslo, waiting until we're leaving for Gardermoen and our flight back to the Netherlands after one week vacation in Norway. The weather was nice, and I got to do some skiing at least. However, I was actually supposed to be in the Netherlands already. The reason that I'm not, is that we (my girlfriend and I) missed the flight on Sunday. We actually missed it by one day, as we were 100% sure that we were leaving yesterday, so when we showed up at the airport, we were shocked to learn that we were 24 hours late! This was a silly mistake, as neither of us really looked at the date, we always assumed that we were leaving on Monday. Unfortunately, to be able to board the flight that we assumed was our flight, we had to pay 3000 NOK extra per ticket! In other words, we had to find other ways of getting back. Luckily, we got to stay at my sister place last night, and got new tickets for today's flight at approximately the same price as our original tickets (700 NOK per ticket). Hopefully, we'll be back in our apartment tonight :)
After Arnar Mar Sig posted his patchset for an initial skeleton of the AVR32 port almost a year ago, things started to catch speed in the beginning of this year. The work is done in perforce, and is progressing well. Currently, the system boots and recognizes most of the hardware, but linker work is required to be able to run init.
So far, I've been working on busdma support, grabbing the source from the mips port and adjusting it as well as implementing support for cache operations on the AVR32. It seems to work for now, as Arnar was able to get the ate(4) device driver to work with it.
The last work have been to design and implement a generic device clock framework. This is supposed to be used with devices in an architecture independent way, so that devices can be associated with a clock without knowing what clock it is (assigned internally for each architecture). This is necessary for a few devices to avoid #ifdefs all over the place. For instance, the at91_mci device is identical to the one used in AVR32, and it gets the clock frequency based on at91 machine dependant defines. Another property of this would be to export clocks using this interface to userland (AVR32 have a set of generic clocks as well).
Last weekend I imported gvinum into HEAD, and I hope many users (and old users) of gvinum will try it out, as it have some nice improvements. Moving it into HEAD now, means it also will become part of 8.0-RELEASE which is coming later this year, and since it is a lot of changes, the intention is to have it in HEAD now for a while before the release process begins. Among the most interesting updates for users are:
- Support more of the old vinum command set
- Less panics :)
- Rebuilding and synchronizing plexes can be done while mounted.
- Support for growing striped or raid5 plexes while mounted, meaning that you can just add a new disk to your gvinum configuration, and grow it to cover the new disk.
Damn, reading for exams is really not my favorite thing. It's not that it's very hard material, but the motivation is the problem. I always tend to get a bit sloppy with classes where the only form of assessment is the exam, and if the class is not very interesting either, it gets hard. However, these kind of classes are typically very theoretical courses, and one way I cope with it is to make them practical. For instance, in this course there are lot of distributed algorithms that the student is expected to know. Some of them are almost several pages long, and I'm really not the type for keeping all that in my head, and if I did, it would only be because I memorized it. So instead, I tried to implement the algorithm, as it helps with understanding because you can see how it works in action! What I did in this case was to create a node abstraction/class which I could re-use in several algorithms. The nodes definition is something like this:
void send(Message, nodeid); // Send message to a single node
void multicast(Message); // Multicast message to all neighbouring nodes
void deliver(Message); // RMI method called by other nodes via their send method
Message receive(); // Blocking receive method to fetch contents from buffer
The node creation itself adds necessary neighbours, and connections are specified at startup time. The Message class contains most info necessary, but is extended in some algorithms that need extra stuff. I implemented these algorithms using the interface:
- Ricart-Agrawala's mutex algorithm
- Maekawas mutex algorithm
- Peterson election in unidirectional ring
Some algorithms are really tricky, and I end up spending more time wondering how to implement it than actually doing it, so I guess this technique is not good always :)
Phew, the first quarter of my exchange study is almost over. So far, the stay here in the Netherlands have been very exciting. First of all, we did an awesome project creating a quad rotor controller using a joystick to fly. A demo of the previous years group can be found here. We were actually able to make it work like in this video. The hardware consists of a Xilinx Spartan 3E starter kit running the X32 CPU core developed here at TU-Delft, a PC with serial link to the FPGA board, a joystick connected to the PC, and the Quad Rotor itself connected to the FPGA board via a modified serial link. We implemented the control software, signal filtering etc on the X32 in C, and after optimizations, we had a cycle time almost half of the required, and it flew!
The other course I've been taking is a seminar on wireless sensor network, which handled nearly all aspects of this topic, having students present a paper on a certain topic each week. I presented a paper on reliable energy aware routing, which was very interesting.
Lastly, I have a course in distributed algorithms, which will finish on April the 4th with an exam. The course teaches various distributed algorithms for synchronization, global state detection, deadlock, locking etc, and goes through several P2P protocols as well.
After this quarter I'll also go home to Norway for a short vacation, finally :)
The past week I've been using some of my time to setup Ikiwiki, and I was able to import my wordpress FreeBSD blog without too much hassle. I had to manually edit some posts, but other than that, the most work was into getting the tagging stuff right.
After loader support for ZFS was imported into FreeBSD around a month ago, I've been thinking of installing a ZFS-only system on my laptop. I also decided to try out using the GPT layout instead of using disklabels etc.
The first thing I started with was to grab a snapshot of FreeBSD CURRENT. However, I discovered that the loader doesn't support ZFS, so you have to build your own FreeBSD cd in order to install a working loader! Look in src/release/Makefile and src/release/i386/mkisoimages.sh for how to do this. Since sysinstall doesn't support setting up ZFS etc, it can't be used, so one have to use the Fixit environment on the FreeBSD install cd to set it up. I started out by removing the existing partition table on the disk (just writing zeros to the start of the disk will do).
Then, the next step was to setup the GPT with the partitions that I wanted to have. Using gpt in FreeBSD, one should create one partition to contain the initial gptzfsboot loader. In addition, I wanted a swap partition, as well as a partition to use for a zpool for the whole system.
To setup the GPT, I used gpart(8) and looked at examples from the man-page. The first thing to do is to setup the GPT partition scheme, first by creating the partition table, and then add the appropriate partitions.
gpart create -s GPT ad4
gpart add -b 34 -s 128 -t freebsd-boot ad4
gpart add -b 162 -s 5242880 -t freebsd-swap ad4
gpart add -b 5243042 -s 125829120 -t freebsd-zfs ad4
gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptzfsboot -i 1 ad4
This creates the initial GPT, and adds three partitions. The first partition contains the gptzfsboot loader which is able to recognize and load the loader from a zfs partition. The second partition is the swap partition (I used 2.5 GB for swap in this case). The third partition is the partition containing the zpool (60GB). Sizes and offsets are specified in sectors (1 sector is typically 512 bytes). The last command puts the needed bootcode into ad4p1 (freebsd-boot).
Having setup the partitions, the hardest part should be done. As we are in the fixit environment, we can now create the zpool as well.
zpool create data /dev/ad4p3
The zpool should now be up and running. I then decided to create the different filesystems i wanted to have in this pool. I created /usr, /home and /var (I use tmpfs for /tmp).
Then, freebsd must be installed on the system. I did this by copying all folders from /dist in the fixit environment into the zpool. In addition, the /dev folder have to be created. For better details on this, you can follow (http://wiki.freebsd.org/AppleMacbook) At least /dist/boot should be copied in order to be able to boot.
Then, the boot have to be setup. First, boot/loader.conf have to contain:
Any additional filesystems or swap has to be entered into etc/fstab, in my case:
/dev/ad4p2 none swap sw 0 0
I also entered the following into etc/rc.conf
In addition, boot/zfs/zpool.cache has to exist in order to be able to let the zpool be imported automatically when zfs loads on system boot. To do this, I had to:
mkdir /boot/zfs
zpool export data && zpool import data
In order to make /boot/zfs/zpool.cache get populated in the Fixit environment. Then, I copied zpool.cache to boot/zfs on the zpool:
cp /boot/zfs/zpool.cache /data/boot/zfs
Finally, a basic system should be installed.The last ting to do is to unmount the filesystem(s) and set a few properties:
zfs set mountpoint=legacy data
zfs set mountpoint=/usr data/usr
zfs set mountpoint=/var data/var
zfs set mountpoint=/home data/home
zpool set bootfs=data data
To get all the quirks right, such as permissions etc, you should to a real install with making world or using sysinstall when booted into the system. Reboot, and you might be as lucky as me and boot into your ZFS-only system :) For further information, take a look at:
http://wiki.freebsd.org/ZFSOnRoot which contains some information on how to use ZFS as root, but by booting from ufs and: http://wiki.freebsd.org/AppleMacbook which has a nice section on setting up the zpool in a Fixit environment.
When rebuilding FreeBSD after this type of install, it's also important that you build with LOADER_ZFS_SUPPORT=YES in order for the loader to be able to read zpools.


text:
Parking lot stripers are fantastic tools, but are you getting the most from your equipment? Today we will focus on the best ways to use your line striping machine for circles, arrows, and wall markings. After all, using your striping equipment to the fullest is the key to working smarter, not harder.
Circles Made Simple! You know the size circle you need, so how do you get the job done? Let's say your circle is 10 yards. Find your center point, and hammer in a dowel if it's a field, or have someone hold it firmly if on asphalt pavement or concrete floor. Take a firmly knotted loop and place it over the stick. Your parking lot striper will now need 5 yards from the center to make a 10 yard circle. Mark 5 yards on the rope (leaving excess rope for the knot), and tie off to your line striping machine, or to your chalk. Either way, make sure to have your front caster wheel set for the turning point of the arc. Test with a dry run before running paint through the striping equipment.
Tip: The loop is critical instead of a knot; otherwise the rope will wind around the post and get shorter as you execute your turn!
Arrows Done Right: Parking lot stripers with a detachable spray gun are easily the best tools for the job. Rather than wheeling back and forth over your arrow stencil, this style of line striping machine allows you to make passes with the spray gun by hand. You can always buy spray cans of traffic paint if you're striping equipment does not have a detachable gun. The key thing about arrows is size, and durability. Your best all-around size is a 60-inch arrow. To get durable markings, do 2 thin coats of paint allowing each layer to dry completely. A single thick coating is prone to peeling and flaking, ruining all your hard work!
Pro Tip: Having multiple arrow stencils saves time, money, and mistakes since you don't have to remove the stencil while it dries.
Walls And Curbs: If walls and curbs are a big part of your work, seriously consider upgrading your parking lot striper to one with a detachable gun. Not only does this save you and your crew time, it is far cheaper than continually buying spray cans of traffic paint. The main thing here, just like with arrows, is to apply two thin coats of paint with your striping equipment. Not just for long-lasting markings, but also to avoid paint drips running down the wall or curb.
Tips: A 217 tip is a good choice for wall markings. Be sure and use extra cardboard around your stencil to protect against overspray from your line striping machine.
Striping equipment is an investment that pays off when you use it to its fullest potential. Get the most from your line striping machine by learning how to use it for circles, arrows, and wall and curb markings, and not just for straight lines. It you don't yet have one with a detachable spray gun, consider investing in an upgrade. Now that's using parking lot stripers to the max!
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The Green Wave varsity football team has wrapped up its preseason scrimmages and turned its focus to the games that count.
Meteorologist Rob Fowler will give a presentation about Hurricane Hugo at the Summerville Dorchester Museums special Third Thursday program.
A Harleyville man who said he was just trying to blow off steam after a bad day wound up cooling off in jail after cops arrested him for shooting a gun while under the influence of alcohol.
Bob Folkman is excited about the next Dorchester District Two board meeting; when he provides his construction update he can tell the board and audience members that he is no longer waiting on a land disturbance permit for Sires Elementary.
The Pinewood Prep football team broke a 19-game losing streak Tuesday, defeating First Baptist 46-0 in the season opener for both teams.
Goose Creek area students returned to school Tuesday for the start of the 2014-2015 school year.
The Summerville Police department, along with Dorchester County Sheriffs Office and South Carolina Highway Patrol, will be conducting a DUI checkpoint on Saturday, Aug. 23rd, 2014 on Miles Road near Trolley Road. Any questions can be directed to Lt. Allison or Sgt. Shingler at the Summerville Police Department at (843) 871-2463.
South Carolina native, Kim Boykin recently released her new novel "Palmetto Moon." The story takes place in Charleston and features …
Want a guarantee for great seats to all of the hottest RiverDogs games in 2015?
Another Goose Creek High School girls basketball player has worked herself into a position to play in college.
Berkeley County students returned to school Tuesday for the start of the 2014-2015 school year.
Transit provider TriCounty Link will be holding seven public meetings throughout the region to gather public input on existing TriCounty Link routes and proposed route changes aimed at improving service to local residents.
The Berkeley County Auditor wants to be sure that all Berkeley County property owners are receiving all the property tax exemptions that may be available to them.
On Nov. 19, the Gibbes Museum of Art will present its annual Distinguished Lecture featuring New York-based and internationally acclaimed architects …
On Saturday, Aug. 9, Coach Bill Dillard, owner of CheckMat Charleston Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, took several of his adult and junior students to Florence, …
A woman called police to report that her husband was being verbally abusive to her and that he was yelling at her and calling her names. According to a report, when police arrived, she said they had been arguing about her being out of town for five days. But she would not tell the officer anything else, the report said.
Isnt it funny how we obsess over the little things?
Check out these events and classes taking place the Sewee Visitor and Environmental Education Center during the month of Semptember.
I was lamenting times passage the other day in a Facebook post, about how you seem to have all the time in the world when theres nothing to look forward to, but the moment you find someone you really like and would love to spend all your time with, somebody upstairs hits the fast forward button.
Helena Fox Fine Art, LLC, is pleased to announce the opening of its upcoming exhibition entitled, The Color of Light with the Plein Air Painters …
Casey Lee McDonald of Augusta, Ga. and Timothy Richard Limehouse of Beech Island, S.C. were married on June 21, 2014 at Calvary Baptist Church in …
Armed with pencils, paper and Spiderman and Barbie-themed bookbags, thousands of kids took over Dorchester District Two schools when classes started …
Rindy Ryan, a former elementary school teacher and mother of three children enrolled in Berkeley County public schools, announced she is seeking the Berkeley County School Board District 2 seat. Ryan holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Illinois and a Master of Arts in Elementary Education from Washington …
Amy Hampton Knight Cadwell, 42 of Denver, Colo, loving and beloved wife, mother, daughter, sister, and daughter-in-law, died Tuesday, July 22nd after battling a sudden and invasive lung disease.
Deputies with the Drug Enforcement Unit of the Berkeley County Sheriffs Office arrested three people on methamphetamine charges on Monday, Aug. 18. …
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Early in the game it looked like Nikola Dragović was going to have one of those hot games as he hit three consecutive 3-pointers on his way to 11 first half points. Things were going great as the Bruins pushed ahead by 11 points at 29-18 as the Ducks went nearly nine minutes without a bucket from the field. However, the Bruins were then blanked except for two Tyler Honeycutt free throws, but still led 31-28 at the half.
Second half and overtime after the jump.
Doubtful if many of you are still interested, but here's the second half as well as overtime videos. Not much to say. Despite Oregon giving us every chance to win this game, including letting us get into overtime, we couldn't overcome being out-boarded and commiting key turnovers.


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If you are looking for more luxury for your stay, 5-star L'Hotel is the way to go. Mobility is facilitated by the presence of nearby Saint Germain des Pres metro station. Attractions close to this hotel include Odéon and Les Invalides. Le Parc de Bercy is an entertaining addition to your Paris visit. A popular location for conferences and events, Maison de la Mutualite is not far away.
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Rabbi Akieba took a trip to a strange land. He took an ass, a rooster, and a lamp.
Since he was a Jew he was refused hospitality in the village inns, so he decided to sleep in the woods.
He lit his lamp to study the Holy Books before going to sleep. But a fierce wind came up knocking over the lamp and breaking it. So he decided to turn in, saying, "All that God does, he does well."
During the night some wild animals came along and drove away the rooster and thieves stole the ass. Rabbi Akieba woke up, saw the loss, but still proclaimed easily, "All that God does, he does well."
He then went back to the village where he was refused lodging only to learn that enemy soldiers had invaded it during the night and killed all the inhabitants. He also learned that these same enemy soldiers had traveled through the same part of the woods where he lay asleep.
Had his lamp not blown out he would have been seen. Had not the rooster been chased it would have crowed, giving him away. Had not the ass been stolen he would have brayed. So once more he said, "All that God does, he does well."


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Brooklyn Academy Songs, Videos, & Albums
Brooklyn Academy ft. Fresh Jones & Keith Murray - Hide [Stream]
If kids today are Bored of Education, tell them to check out the moving rhymes of underground rap group Brooklyn Academy. The whimsically-named emcees of B.A.—Block McCloud, Mr. Metaphor, and Pumpkinhead— delve deep into... Read More
Brooklyn Academy ft. Jean Grae - Raise Ya Hands [Stream]
Emcees Pumpkinhead, Block McCloud and Mr. Metaphor, otherwise known as Brooklyn Academy, decided to get their scientific-technologic-metaphysic wordplay on for their new single, Raise Ya Hands. These non-conformists of the... Read More


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Scenes From 'The Fellowship of the Ring'
Elijah Wood plays Frodo Baggins in the first film based on the famed trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien. Sean Astin plays his companion Samwise Gangee, with Ian McKellen as the wizard Gandalf the Grey in this epic of the battle of the Hobbits against the Dark Lord, Sauron.
Image 1 of 10
Frodo Baggins
Elijah Wood stars as Frodo Baggins in the first installment of the "Lord of The Rings" trilogy, opening December 19, 2001.


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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- This holiday season, the American Red Cross asks Kentuckiana to support its mission by giving something meaningful -- giving hope to those in need.
Something meaningful like a blood donation is a gift that doesn't cost a thing but can give joy and hope to a hospital patient. The 35th Annual American Red Cross Donorama Blood Drive celebrates that spirit of generosity by bringing together 1,200 blood donors over two days.
35th Annual Louisville Donorama Blood DriveThursday, December 27 and Friday, December 28Noon to 7 p.m. each dayCrowne Plaza Hotel830 Phillips LaneLouisville, Ky.
"Giving blood to help others is a wonderful way to give something meaningful this holiday season. Please add making a blood donation to your holiday to-do list and schedule your Donorama appointment today," said Linda Voss, CEO of the Red Cross River Valley Blood Services Region.
The Louisville Donorama will have something for the entire family. All presenting donors will receive a complimentary long sleeve t-shirt. Entertainment on both days will be supplied by local bands - courtesy of the Louisville Musicians Union. Hot meals will be featured in the refreshment area and childcare will be provided throughout the drive.
Additionally, all presenting donors in the River Valley Region, between November 21 and December 31, 2012, will earn a chance to win one $1,000 Visa gift card or one of three $200 Visa gift cards.
Call 1-800-RED-CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or visit www.redcrossblood.org to make an appointment or for more information.
How to donate bloodSimply call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or visit www.redcrossblood.org to make an appointment or for more information. All blood types are needed to ensure a reliable supply for patients.
A blood donor card or driver's license or two other forms of identification are required at check-in. Individuals who are 17 years of age (16 with parental consent in some states), weigh at least 110 pounds and are in generally good health may be eligible to donate blood. High school students and other donors 18 years of age and younger also have to meet certain height and weight requirements.
Copyright 2012 WDRB News. All Rights Reserved.
624 W. Muhammad Ali BlvdLouisville, KY 40203


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ODU Appoints New Head of Reference Services at University Library
Lori Ostapowicz Critz has accepted the position of head of reference and research services at the Old Dominion University Libraries, effective July 10.
She comes to ODU from the Georgia Institute of Technology Library and Information Center, where she was assistant department head of information services.
At ODU, Ostapowicz Critz will oversee the library's reference department, working in concert with faculty from all six colleges.
Ostapowicz Critz earned her master's degree in library sciences from the University of Rhode Island. She also has a 5th-year diploma in teacher education from San Diego State University, a master's from the University of West Florida, and a bachelor's degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
In other library news, two employees were recognized recently for their contributions in the past year.
Marissa Jimenez, a library specialist I in reference and research services, was named Staff Member of the Year.
Jimenez has been at ODU since 2005, after working as a teacher in the Norfolk and Virginia Beach school systems. She holds a B.A. from ODU and is working on her master's degree.
Morel Fry, administrative services librarian, was named Librarian of the Year.
Fry, who has her master's degree in library science from the University of Denver, has been with the ODU Libraries since 1986.
Finally, the Diehn Composers Room of the ODU Libraries presents "From Pen to Page to Stage: Scoring for Suspense: Music for the Movies," an exhibit in support of the fifth annual John Duffy Composers' Institute and held in conjunction with the Virginia Arts Festival.
The exhibit will be available for public viewing in the Diehn Composers Room, 189 Diehn Fine and Performing Arts Center, from May 18 through Nov. 3. The Diehn Composers Room is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The exhibit focuses on select early horror film scores and the composers that made the genre what it is today - with their innovative use of instruments, instrumentation, and corresponding motifs and visual cues.
These composers were able to create an astounding emotional response to their music and the images on screen, by being unafraid to take risks.
Highlighted in the exhibit are John Williams' memorable "Jaws" theme; John Carpenter, the mind behind the chilling Mike Meyers theme in "Halloween"; and classics such as Bernard Herrmann's "Psycho," "Vertigo," "Citizen Kane" and "The Man Who Knew Too Much."
The exhibit also showcases John Duffy, Charles Wuorinen, Libby Larson, Alan Johnson, Rhoda Levine, and Patrick Mason, the master composers and faculty of the 2009 John Duffy Composers Institute, and their respective works.
Funding for this exhibit is provided by a grant from The Norfolk Foundation.
For more information call Jessica Mirasol, librarian archivist for music collections, at 757-683-4175.
This article was posted on: May 11, 2009
Old Dominion University
Office of University Relations
Room 100 Koch Hall Norfolk, Virginia 23529-0018
Telephone: 757-683-3114
Old Dominion University is an equal opportunity, affirmative action institution.


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We've all heard the horror stories of home owner's associations. Some are wonderful, others won't let you put a flower pot outside your front door.
After multiple Greenville homeowners complained to 9 On Your Side about their HOAs we wanted to know what rights you have if you don't like your HOA.
"We love living here and going into this four years ago, if we'd known this would have been an outcome, we wouldn't have bought a place out here," said JoAnna Wolfe, who lives in Forbes Woods.
Joanna and her husband Will Wolfe say hindsight is 20/20.
"We knew within the first two years that we wish we hadn't bought here because of the HOA," said Will Wolfe.
The Wolfes say their home owners association quickly became aggressive and seemed poorly managed. They say the HOA board increased their monthly fees at a rate they believe will decrease their home resell value.
"It's just one thing after another. Everybody has the same complaints," said Will.
Forbes Woods HOA President Mac Manning sees the situation differently.
"I've talked to some of the neighbors in passing and they're very supportive of what the board is doing," said Manning.
Manning says it's hard for homeowners to understand HOAs because the owners don't see the regular upkeep and issues facing a neighborhood.
"Who wants to pay more for anything? I don't either but when I'm sitting there with the board and we're discussing the business of the association, we have to do what's in the best interest of the association as a whole," said Manning.
As HOA living becomes more popular in our state, we asked property law expert Gary Davis what rights homeowners have under over-bearing HOAs.
"The homeowner may not have a lot he can do," said Davis, "There can be conflicts and there are procedures. The people who have the right to vote on the board can jump through the proper hoops to elect a new board if they don't like the one they've got."
Davis says, contrary to popular belief, an HOA is not the end-all-be-all; however, he says it does take a deep knowledge of the statutes and by-laws governing the neighborhood and getting a lawyer doesn't hurt.
That's exactly what the Wolfes did.
"They finally acknowledged the fourth request we had which was literally a signed petition with everybody saying we do want this special meeting and that there is enough support in this neighborhood to get what we're trying to do, done," said Will.
The Forbes Woods HOA put on a special meeting last night and residents successfully voted to re-elect new board members.
You can find more information on your rights has a homeowner here.
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Tuesday, November 04, 2008
We Finally Saw This!
Last night.
We Hendricks are unapologetically musical fans.
I'm married to a man who declares his love for musicals and chick flicks loudly and openly.
We're raising a house full of boys that will have at least half an ovary each, I'm sure.
We've seen the non-cold, tv versions as well as the iced variety. I recorded and then actually watched and learned the dance moves. We've watched all the movies, waited in anticipation for them to come out, and even held a manly male musical lovers anonymous showing of the movie at our house. Men could come, watch, enjoy, without being made fun of for having fallopian tubes.
So, last night, getting to see the movie was exciting for us.
Of course we loved it.
Of course we wanted to stand up and dance.
Even Hudson's eyes were glued to the screen.
I couldn't even get him to eat, and it was WELL past the time when he should have been hungry.
Yep...he's one of us.
Food takes a back seat to singing and dancing.
Who needs food when there is music playing and jazz hands a wavin', right?
Although I secretly wish life could be like a musical...where a problem comes up, or something exciting happens and then music starts playing and we all mysteriously know all the exact dance moves, and magically know all the words to the song that fell out of thin air, I will admit...there were some things about the movie that made me laugh.
I mean SERIOUSLY...
Does it take three movies for Troy to realize that he likes to sing and dance?
How many movies is it going to take before Troy's parents do not seem SHOCKED that their son is in a play and can sing? By the third movie, I wanted to sit down and talk to them and say, "Are you kidding me? Come on you two...pay attention."
How many movies do we need before we all realize that Gabriella IS going to be in the show at the end...she'll run away, but then...wait for it...wait for it....she's going to come back and be in the last few songs of the show.
I can make fun of musicals, because I love them.
I left the movie theater wanting to be a dancer. I left actually thinking I might have liked high school (that wore off before I got home). I left wishing we lived in a world with background music and choreography.
Hoory for High School Musical!
I vote for College Musical One.
5 comments:
- thoughtsbyryan said...
First off... I like that "fallopian tubes" made it into this post.
Second... if you like to dance so much, then I expect to see you and Aaron on the dance floor at our wedding!
That's it!
- Ricci said...
I told you, right!? It ROCKED my world and made me want to jazz square my way out of the theatre with my glitter adorned outfit and waaay too much lipstick on so that the audience would be able to see it!
I've also been singing it since I saw it, so when we're all watching the election and eating cupcakes tonight, don't be surprised if I just start in a reprise of "Be With You."
I LOVED the movie so much! I thought it was better than the second one. I bought the sound track this weekend and have played it pretty much nonstop in my van. Hannah holds the words to the songs and we learn them together. Danielle Bourne (sp?) got the soundrack a week before me and knows all the words, which she sang while sitting in On The Border last night.
When we went to see Fireproof last month, the previews for HSM3 came on and 3 girls had the nerve to sit in front of me and make fun of it the whole time. Not cool. Not cool at all, girls. I clapped when the preview was over.
Hannah gets to go again tonight with her dad. Lucky.
- Matt and Sarah Pitts said...
I was planning on seeing it by myself the Saturday before last...but I went into labor instead. One of our friends bought me the HSM3 soundtrack as a welcome home gift, she said it's for Gracie and me to share. It is pretty much great. So when I finally see it, I'll already know the music!
- D.O. said...
I heartily disagree with thoughtsbyryan, as I don't like at all the fact that "fallopian tubes" (or "ovary" for that matter) were used in this post.
Since when does a male liking musicals grow in him female reproductive organs? Huh? I think that is a little much.
However, I do agree that Troy's parents are a little out of the loop, and I think Kelsi is going to do really well at Juilliard. Ryan on the other hand... he'll meet his boyfriend there and he might go off the deep end. Not sure. Jury's still out.
D. "Just because I saw HSM3 on opening night doesn't make me female" O.


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Acidophilus is a probiotic that helps support healthy digestion, absorption of nutrients and cardiovascular function. Nature's Plus Acidophilus not only aids in these functions but gives the body a healthier balance.
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Warnings: Keep out of reach of children. As with all dietary supplements, consult your healthcare professional before use. See product label for more information.


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By ADEM SARICAOGLU
FIVE clubs from Melbourne's West have been offered licences to join the new National Premier Leagues Victoria competition.
Former Victorian Premier League giants Melbourne Knights and Green Gully will join State League One clubs St Albans, Sunshine George Cross and Werribee City – who have all been invited to join the new league set to be rolled out for the upcoming season.
Altona Magic and Western Suburbs are the two notable former SL1 clubs that have not been offered an NPL license.
Last week Football Federation Victoria announced the 30 clubs and entities that will most likely form the Victorian NPL competition.
Each club is now required to confirm their participation by Wednesday next week.
The FFV has not yet released details on the structure of the league, but an announcement is expected to be made in coming days.
The final fixture has been slated for a 26 February release.
FFV president Nick Monteleone acknowledged the clubs' efforts in applying for a spot in the new league after what has been a troubled six months for the federation and the local game.
"FFV recognises the tremendous level of effort and resources required to produce an NPL submission," Monteleone said.
"All applicants should be congratulated for their dedication in submitting an application. I would like to also thank the assessment panel for its hard work reviewing all 37 applications.
"The NPL will have a positive impact on players, coaches and club development across all of Victoria."
Liam Bentley has been appointed Head of NPL Victoria.


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Eau Claire (WQOW) - In some ways farming has bounced from one end of the spectrum to the other in a year.
Last year farmers faced drought, this year the soaked soil has too much moisture to plant seeds.
"We're a good couple of weeks behind and when you look at it from a percentage, usually we have about 25-35% of our crop planted already and we're barely at 5-10%," says soil and agricultural educator for University of Wisconsin Extension, Jerry Clark.
So on this May day farmer's tractors sit idle waiting for sunshine to spread seed.
"Soybean takes a little bit less of a season to grow so that's a little more flexible. The corn we try to grow as full of a season as we can," says farmer Pat Schaffer.
Right now corn is two and a half weeks behind the normal planting, push that back much longer and it could cause problems with yield in the field.
"Farmers, they're not going to be able to switch to shorter season crops now. They're still going to plant a full season crop hoping we can get a full season out of it yet," says Clark.
"The stuff we can't get in it will just have to get left, seeing it's this late, it will just not have anything planted in it," says Schaffer.
The seeds that are sown this spring do have a big advantage going into the summer because they'll be well hydrated.
"Many rainfalls we end up losing some of that. I think all of this will go into the ground. Right now we're very fortunate that the subsoil has been replenished," says Clark.
Of course with every up comes a down.
"It will slow the harvest down because all that corn has to be dried and the wetter it is, the longer it takes to dry," says Schaffer.
Which costs farmers more to get their product to market, a feat becoming a unique challenge each year.
"These are basically night and day. When you had early planting last year and still snow in May, I don't know that it can get any different than these two years," says Clark.
"This is average. We have the warmest and then we're going to have the coldest, so that really, those two years just make average," says Schaffer.
Hay and Alfalfa are not recovering well from the winter and some farmers may have to re-plant their crops to provide feed for their cattle.
Crops finding success in this weather include spring wheat and oats and barley.


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Redwood Deck Ideas: Inspiration Outside the Deck
Excitement and inspiration can come in many forms and derive from countless sources. When it comes to building outdoor projects such as redwood decks for your backyard, your deck doesn't have to be just a simple platform. If you are looking for ideas and inspiration for your redwood deck ideas, there are many sources you can turn to. Books, magazines, TV shows, local contractors, your local lumber yard or home improvement center, and increasingly, the Internet, are all wonderful sources to help you get started. From appealing photographs detailing beautiful outdoor ambiance, to online plans illustrating clever designs and how-to videos; inspiration for building unique decks, fences and outdoor furniture is all around.
Redwood lumber is so easy to work with, even novice do-it-yourselfers can turn their redwood deck ideas into a thing of beauty with little more than a few tools, a set of redwood deck plans and little bit of ingenuity. You might even consider transforming that deck into a functional structure surrounding an outdoor pool, spa or water feature. If your backyard landscape happens to slope downward, a terraced deck can blend in with the outdoor environment and provide stunning views. A redwood deck doesn't have to sit at ground level either. For those with a multi-story home, redwood decks can be built far above ground as an extension of your house.
Even if the limitations of a small backyard space require you to keep things simple, your deck does not have to be boring. Adding planters or benches to your deck can turn plain old redwood deck ideas into functioning masterpieces. But, why stop there? You can think outside the deck by embellishing your outdoor gathering place with additional features such as exquisite redwood lawn furniture and garden structures.
Inspiring creativity is often just a quick Google search away. Get started turning your redwood deck ideas into reality, and when you are ready to build, head on over to our Where to Buy page to find a retail lumber yard or independent home improvement store in your area.
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