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Drunk Girl Proves Alcohol and Awnings Don't Mix
The young lady in this video decided this dangerous pose was a good idea after an afternoon at the pub. After a few sips...well, watch what happens.
Watch Hot Chicks Coming Out of Water
Over the years, movies have done a good job capturing the magic of the swimming pool. Check out our supercut of hot chicks emerging from pools.
See the Kids From 'The Goonies' Then and Now
'The Goonies' was an ensemble movie all the way, and the seven actors who played the ragtag gang of young treasure hunters all delivered memorable performances. In fact, most of them used 'The Goonies' as a springboard into long careers in TV and film, and even the ones who didn't have found success in other venues.
See the Kids of 'The Monster Squad' Then and Now
In 'The Monster Squad,' a gang of monster movie-obsessed adolescents end up waging an epic battle against the ghouls they idolized after they learn that Dracula, Frankenstein, et al. are real.
Chili's Waitress Fired For Making Negative Comment About Cops on Facebook
In November, Ashley Warden was fined $2,500 when a police officer spotted her three-year old son urinating on the front yard of her two-and-a-half acre property in rural Piedmont, Oklahoma. The cop was ultimately fired for issuing the ticket. But apparently Warden still holds a grudge against law enforcement, which she made known through a recent post to her Facebook page.
The White House Is Now on Tumblr Because of Course It Is
The Official White House Tumblr sounds like a parody website that would be full of political snark and GIFs. But it's not a parody. The recently launched page is actually the official Tumblr for the White House. Like, for real.
But that doesn't mean there isn't snark
33 High School Students Were Suspended For Twerking
"Twerking" is the latest dance craze. And by that we mean Miley Cyrus is quite fond of posting videos of herself doing it.
But the administration at Scripps Ranch High School in San Diego are not fond of Twerking. In fact they just suspended 33 students for their o
All The Miss South Korea Contestants Look The Same
In beauty pageants in South Korea, the talent portion takes on extra significance.
That's because all the competitors basically look the same.
See The Cast of 'Wayne's World' Then And Now
The cast of 'Wayne's World' recently attended a special screening of the film, which just celebrated its 21st anniversary. Meaning if you are a child of the '90s, you are officially getting old.
Let's check in on how Mike Myers, Dana Carvey and the rest the stars of the comedy classic are aging.
Proof That McDonald's Hamburgers Look the Same After 14 Years
On July 7, 1999, Dave Whipple bought a McDonald's hamburger. The Utah man didn't intend to eat it, but instead he wanted to prove that the burger was so pumped full of preservatives that it would look the same after a month.
News Anchor Curses in Debut Broadcast [NSFW]
A.J. Clemente's first day at his new job couldn't have gone any worse. The new weekend news anchor for KFYR, the NBC affiliate in Bismarck, North Dakota, managed to kick off his on-air career with a live mic gaffe consisting of two of the seven dirty words which George Carlin famously explained you can never say on television.
Woman Finds Whole Snake Baked In Bread
If you want a loaf of bread there are dozens of different types and flavors to chose from. Snake bread, however, is not something you're usually going to find at your local supermarket.


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November 25, 2014
Stay up-to-date with KAKE News:
Thursday, January 21, 2010
There are many rumors surrounding the pull tabs on aluminum cans. One viewer has heard that there are places that will pay up to $100 for a gallon jug filled with these little pieces of aluminum. Do pull tabs really have special value? Good question.
It's been said that the pull tabs are made from "pure aluminum" and are therefore worth more than the rest of the can. But in fact, the pull tabs are made from the same material and are worth very little. Some recycle centers don't even take the tabs.
One million tabs are worth about $360. Snopes.com suggests instead of collecting a million pull tabs, collect a million pennies. That would be worth $10,000.
Send your good question to email@example.com
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Viewers with disabilities can get assistance accessing this station's FCC Public Inspection File by contacting the station with the information listed below. Questions or concerns relating to the accessibility of the FCC's online public file system should be directed to the FCC at 888-225-5322, 888-835-5322 (TTY), or email@example.com.


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Part three in a series for Houston Pride Week. The trials, tribulations, and awakenings during the war against fascism led to a spate of coming-out items in the immediate postwar years. In 1944, poet Robert Duncan published The Homosexual in Society, the earliest attempt to formulate a gay rights a ... More >>
Dr. Murray Banks What YOU can learn from the Kinsey Report (Audio Masterworks, 1956) In the late 1940s and '50s, the lives of staid conservative Americans were rocked by the release of Dr. Alfred Kinsey's reports on human sexuality. Thanks to the recent film, you probably already know the story. ... More >>
Todd Solondz has been a lot of things, but never preachy or dull. Till now.
Howard Hughes gets what he wants, in this case a fun and loving biopic
Bill Condon's movie about Kinsey is warm -- and plenty hot, too
When he was young, William Simon wanted to change the world. The late University of Houston sociology professor changed the way we view sex instead.


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Dealing with manners, unwanted customs
Local columnist T.J. Ray finds examples every day of changes in customs that have to do with manners and acceptable behavior, and wonders when, or if, we will do something about it. (October 31, 2014, Page 4A)
Clear message: Don't let down your guard
Our View is that you must remain diligent as parents, adults, teachers, et cetera. Who would think about their teenage daughters or friends trying to fly halfway around the world to join terrorists with IS? Still, it happened. We cannot let down our guard in teaching, warning and watching our impressionable youngsters. (October 31, 2014, Page 4A)
Mississippi's finest presented in new book
Assistant News Editor Jeff Eubanks takes a look at all of the people featured in the just-released book, "Mississippi's Greatest Athletes," and why all — including one of the writers involved with the project — have done so much for sports in the state. (October 30, 2014, Page 4A)
Taking care makes for enjoyable Halloween
The EAGLE encourages all to plan for a safe and enjoyable Halloween evening, setting up good guidelines for trick-or-treaters and watching for them if you're out driving Friday evening. (October 30, 2014, Page 4A)
Letters to the Editor
Peter Frost writes to discourage counterintuitive politics and to urge voters to pick candidates who can build a consensus and get things done, while Juanita Boutin writes to ask voters to vote No on the constitutional amendment about the right to hunt. (October 30, 2014, Page 4A)
Parking meters: Good deeds or good luck?
Good Samaritan or city revenue producer. Editor Don Whitten is trying to decide if he should continue to help out downtown parkers whose meters are about to expire or just let them alone and boost the city coffers from the tickets and fines that would follow. (October 29, 2014, Page 4A)
Let's simplify the garbage can issue
There is a proposal to change the ordinance about when garbage cans must be removed from the curb after pickup, but we feel it's still a step from being as simple as it should be. Our view is not to set a time limit on retrieving your trash cans, but rather to set a specific time — say, midnight on the day your trash is picked up. (October 29, 2014, Page 4A)
So Fine Caroline
Local columnist Jimmy Reed tackles the subject of teenage boys and love as he recalls his infatuation with "So Fine Caroline" and his planned meeting and evening with her watching a scary movie on Halloween. (October 28, 2014, Page 4)
It's homework time with election looming
We urge all readers and citizens to do their homework to get prepared for next week's election. Voting is a right and a duty, and it's your responsibility to be prepared when you go to the polls next Tuesday. (October 28, 2014, Page 4)
Political signs have their place
So far, there appears no need to call out the "Sign Ninjas." Editor Don Whitten looks at election campaign signs and where they're supposed to be. (October 27, 2014, Page 4)


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- Flexible, minimal Vibram rubber sole
- Buckles have a small piece of elastic so the strap flexes with the natural movement of your foot. This flex also makes it possible to pull your shoe on/off without opening and closing the buckle each time.
- The Velcro strap has a faux buckle which can be easily removed—a nice option if you often find yourself sitting cross-legged on floors. Velcro straps are fast and super easy to put on/off.
- Choose from your own colors, cutouts or appliqués
- Handcrafted in USA from premium, formaldehyde-free leathers.
- We can make most shoes within 4 business days (some exceptions apply).
- Design-Your-Own shoes in like-new condition are fully returnable/exchangeable according to the terms of our return policy.
The minimal, flexible design of this shoe allows natural foot function with a buckle closure for an adjustable fit. We hear from many women who tell us their foot pain disappears when they put on these Merry Janes! Made with our signature premium full grain leather and durable Vibram soles.
Need this shoe in a smaller size? Check out our Youth Design-Your-Own category.
- I love soft star merry janes!Review by Gretchen
- Best shoes for my feet allergiesReview by Merry
- better than I was thinkingReview by dorayme
- That's why my daugther loves her mary janesReview by Mom from Amsterdam
And I ordered some DYO shoes for my 3 year old and some north star boots for my other daughter who will be 1 next month.
I think I'm going to order some sheepskin boots for myself also because I think they'll be comfortable too.
Thanks for new SSS addiction, I thought they wouldn't be that great but they are :D (Posted on 10/10/13)
- Best shoes everReview by Mel
- FantasticReview by Kathleen
- Even better than I expectedReview by Christy
- AwesomenessReview by Kara
- Happy FeetReview by Lexi
Write Your Own Review
Sizing Tips
Please use table below to best find your corresponding size. For best results, rely on your standard US shoe size. We find this to be the best place to start for adults and generally the most reliable method.
Wide/Narrow: Trouble deciding your width? Our best recommendation is to order a wide or narrow only if you have found you need those custom widths in other brands for your feet to be comfortable. If you have never found you needed wide or narrow shoes before then we suggest sticking with our regular width.
Style notes:
If you find yourself between two shoe sizes, we recommend ordering the larger size. This is especially true of our adult Phoenix Boots and Rogue casual shoes, which run a bit small.
For detailed instructions on how to measure your foot, please click here to view our sizing guide.
Leather Colors
The following list shows all of the leather colors used in our workshop.
You will notice that our smooth, full grain leathers come in a variety of grades and styles. We've found some of these to work well on certain shoes, but not on others. For this reason, when you choose to design your own shoe with smooth leather you will only see certain types available.
Smooth LeathersNOVA White
NOVA Black
NOVA Chocolate
NOVA Nutmeg
NOVA Burgundy
NOVA Red
NOVA Fuchsia
NOVA Pink
NOVA Orange
NOVA Yellow
NOVA Forest Green
NOVA Grass Green
NOVA Kiwi
NOVA Turquoise
NOVA Navy
NOVA Ocean
NOVA Ultra Blue
NOVA Dark Purple
NOVA Lilac
SUBLIME Black
SUBLIME Chocolate
SUBLIME Brandy
SUBLIME Cannon
SUBLIME Cream
SUBLIME Flame
SUBLIME Hot Pink
SUBLIME Tangerine
SUBLIME Olive
SUBLIME Sage
SUBLIME Lime
SUBLIME Sky Blue
SUBLIME Lavender
SUBLIME Purple
AGED Aged Black
AGED Walnut
AGED Oak
VEGETABLE TANNED Cocoa
VEGETABLE TANNED Butternut
VEGETABLE TANNED Olive
VEGETABLE TANNED Grey Plum
SHINY Platinum
SHINY Gold
SHINY Pewter
SHINY Bronze
SHINY Ruby
SHINY Sapphire
SHINY Violet
Plonge Leathers
Suede LeathersSUEDE Grey
SUEDE Black
SUEDE Chocolate
SUEDE Honey
SUEDE Tan
SUEDE Burgundy
SUEDE Red
SUEDE Watermelon
SUEDE Pink
SUEDE Orange
SUEDE Gold
SUEDE Forest Green
SUEDE Moss
SUEDE Emerald
SUEDE Navy
SUEDE Royal
SUEDE Medium Blue
SUEDE Turquoise
SUEDE Purple
SUEDE Fuchsia
SUEDE Lavender
SUEDE Baby Leopard
SUEDE Cream with Stars
SUEDE Black with Stars
LITE Leathers
LITE White
LITE Black
LITE Chocolate
LITE Red
LITE Turquoise
LITE Blue
Vegan ULTRASUEDE Leathers
Elastic/Sport Closures (fabric, not leather)
Royal Blue
Care Tips for Full Grain Leather Shoes
Soft Star Shoes are made from eco-friendly, tanned in USA leathers. Leather is a natural product and some variation in texture and markings is to be expected. Because we use natural food-grade dyes in our leather, there will likely be some initial color transference to your socks or skin if your shoes become damp - this will decrease with use but please don't wear your new Soft Stars with your favorite white socks the first time you take them for a spin.
If your shoes are a little snug at first in the toe box area, you can gently stretch them by stuffing the toe box with a slightly damp rag. Push the cloth tightly into the front of the shoe - don't worry, you cannot hurt it! Let the shoes sit stuffed overnight to stretch.
The full grain leather we use is naturally water resistant. Clean as needed with water dampened rag and let air dry. Condition the leather as often as desired with any quality leather dressing, but take care to keep it away from the edges of your rubber soles. Mink oil can degrade the adhesion on bonded soles and cause the sole to separate from your shoe over time. We highly recommend Bee Natural Amore for general conditioning or Rain & Snow on leather for enhanced water resistance. The color on shiny metallic shoes will eventually patina with use into an antique wear look - this can be accelerated with repeated use to water and high wear (e.g. scuffing toes).
You can use a damp cloth, or if needed you can hand wash your leather shoes using a gentle shampoo and cool water. We don't recommend frequent washing of any leather product as it strips the leather of it's natural oils and tends to dry stiffer.
We are often asked if our shoes can be washed in a washing machine. While not recommended as a normal course of action, when in dire straits the Elves have been known to toss a pair of shoes in the machine and generally have had good results - just don't mix them with any other item because of color bleeding, and do NOT put shoes the dryer. Shoes with sheepskin can take 3-4 days to air dry if fully submerged in water - you can speed up the drying by stuffing with old newspapers and replacing the paper 2x a day.


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Number of Questions:
The assessment task involves 25 questions. There also are 17 questions
related to your general political opinions and orientations.
Time to Complete: 5 to 10 minutes.
What type is George W. Bush?
What is your political skill?
What type is the Office Politician?
What is political behavior at work?
Is your classroom political?


text: Nikon D3100 w/ Lens for $389 – Deal Alert February 16, 2013 By Eric Reagan Adorama has the Nikon D3100 with 18-55mm VR kit lens refurbished for $389. This is a solid camera – especially at this price. You can read my earlier Nikon D3100 review for more on this entry-level DSLR. Check out the deal here at Adorama. email Related posts: Nikon D3100 w/ 18-55mm VR Lens for $374 – Deal Alert Nikon D3100 w/ 18-55mm VR Lens for $379 – Deal Alert Nikon D3100 Kit Deal Deal Alert: Nikon D3100 + Magic Bullet Software Bundle for $598.95 Deal Alert: Nikon D3100, Lens, Case, DVD for $634


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November 21, 2014
Cheyenne, Wyo. (KGWN) Groundzero Productions is holding a car show Saturday June 26, to benefit surgery for Gelnnda Schmidt of Cheyenne. The show runs from 9AM-4PM at Smart Sports, 5307 Yellowstone rd.
There will be door prizes along with trophies. Registration for cars is $20. Play the video to hear more.
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by Staff Report
view bio »
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The Hamilton County Sheriff's Office is looking for a man wanted on domestic violence charges.
Officers have issued an aggravated assault warrant against Anthony Poindexter. Detectives with the Criminal Investigation Division want anyone with clues about Poindexter's whereabouts to call 423-622-0022.
about Staff Report...
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The "Leonarda affair" which has polarised opinion in France since Thursday is still very much on every front page this morning.
The far-right politician who compared France's justice minister to an ape is likely to face prosecution for incitement to racial hatred.
This week we reflect on yet another racism row in English football. England manager Roy Hodgson has been the centre of attention this week.
France's far-right Front National (FN) has sacked one of its candidates in next year's local council elections after she posted an image of Justice Minister Christiane Taubira as an ape on Facebook.
Police fired teargas in Paris Thursday after clashes at a school students' protest against the deportation of a 15-year-old Roma from Kosovo and a 19-year-old Armenian.
France's ruling Socialist Party has been plunged into a public row over the deportation of a 15-year-old Roma girl to Kosovo.


text: Shop the Washington Middle School Apparel Store for a wide selection of Women's sweaters at Prep Sportswear. With v neck and zip up styles available, there are hundreds of different ways for you to customize Washington Middle School sweaters for Women. Whether you are a student, parent, alumni or faculty member, your customized Broncos clothing shows your pride and support for Washington Middle School. Looking for something a little lighter than a sweater? Check out our collection of customizable Washington Middle School Women's T-shirts , Sweatshirts and Outerwear .


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Rio Grande Guardian > Border News > Story
SpaceX expects to launch about 12 commercial spacecraft a year from Boca Chica. The spaceport is expected to generate 300 jobs and a roughly $100 million capital investment in the lower Rio Grande Valley region.
Space Xs decision to locate a launch facility in Cameron County is a great addition to our community, said Raudel Garza, executive director of Harlingen Economic Development Corporation. Garza said Harlingen has pledged its support for Space X and the aerospace industry in general and cited its decision to commit financial support for Space Xs efforts to create jobs in the region.
This project and the benefits it will bring go hand in hand with our efforts to enhance the regions workforce and create an industry cluster which will create high-paying jobs and educational opportunities for our citizens, Garza said. We look forward to fostering our relationship with Space X and its suppliers and working with TSTC-Harlingen, UTRGV, and our local schools to bring about a real change in the lives of our community.
Salomon Torres, executive director of San Benito Economic Development Corporation, echoed Garzas words.
Space X is not only a new important employer for the Rio Grande Valley but a new industry involving manufacturing, science, space, high tech, and transportation all rolled up into one launch and assembly site literally on a few steps from our beach and from our border with Mexico, Torres said.
In terms of its significance for our future economic success, I would place Space X up with there with our current water irrigation system in the Valley that made the Valleys agriculture blossom in the early 20th century or the railroad system that transported product north. Now, product will literally be transported up, up and away. Welcome, Space X, to your new home in Texas.
Dr. Lisa Garcia, superintendent of Point Isabel ISD, said her school district enthusiastically supports Space X as it begins its business endeavors in South Texas. She said Space X presents unlimited possibilities, both economically and educationally, for the area and the nearly 3,000 students of PIISD and their families.
With scheduled rocket launches from nearby Boca Chica Beach, PIISD students will have a front row seat to history with the expansion of commercial space flight. We have great confidence the PIISD school district motto of, Honor Tradition, Lead Innovation, will be carried out as potential educational partnerships with Space X and the local university will allow students to explore careers in Science, Technology, Math and Engineering. As the school district prepares the next generation of forward thinkers for jobs that are yet to be invented; Space X will allow our students to not only dream, but to achieve those dreams.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the Boca Chica rocket launch facility on Monday, as did Gov. Rick Perry and Congressman Filemon Vela. All three spoke at the event to an audience of distinguished guests and reporters from across the state and nation.
At the event, Perry announced that in collaboration with the UT System, his Texas Emerging Technology Fund would be making an investment of $9 million to create a powerful research and technology commercialization partnership that will create limitless possibilities for South Texas. The project is being called STARGATE and will encompass a radio frequency technology park located adjacent to the SpaceX launch site command center. When not being used for launches, SpaceX facilities will be used by student and faculty researchers at STARGATE for training, scientific research and technology development.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn could not attend the groundbreaking but issued this statement: Todays groundbreaking is a proud moment for South Texas and our state as we open a new chapter in what has been a long, historic tradition of leading the nations space program. This milestone ensures Texas will remain at the forefront of space exploration and discovery for years to come.
Here are some of the comments made at the groundbreaking event:
State Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville:
Todays groundbreaking is historic. It signifies the construction of a new industry and a new future for the Rio Grande Valley. SpaceXs launch site will soon become an invaluable economic driver for South Texas. With this site comes tens of millions of dollars in capital investment in our community annually, and hundreds of well-paying jobs over the next decade.
I hope the new launch site will propel a dramatic culture change in our region of the state, encouraging more of our children to pursue careers in engineering and science. Future generation of South Texas residents will look to this site and know that not even the sky is the limit for where their dreams may take them.
Irv Downing, vice president of economic development and institutional advancement at UT-Brownsville:
SpaceX has been an impressive company to work with through the entire site selection process. They have looked for ways to engage university faculty, our students and our commercialization programs. Clearly the SpaceX team understands the power of collaboration with the regional community and the University of Texas.
Jason Hilts, president & CEO of Brownsville Economic Development Corporation:
The SpaceX deal significantly changed the philosophy of Brownsville leadership, interagency collaboration and partnerships between the public sector, private industry and higher education in the quest of creating economic vitality, and not waiting for it.
Keith Uhles, chairman of the board at Brownsville Economic Development Council:
This is the first of many partnerships such as SpaceX which gives us excitement about Brownsvilles horizon and ability to reach new frontiers.
David Betancourt, Chairman of the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation:
The capital investment of SpaceX in our region and its commitment to our young students solidifies the fact that Brownsvilles human capital will have the tools to work in innovative industries and in turn, they will help the Commercial Space Industry flourish in South Texas.
Steve Taylor and Mario Muñoz contributed to this story.
Editor's Note: This is the first in a three-part series on SpaceX this week.
More >
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Jolie and her 6-year-old load up at a Beverly Hills toy store. Plus: Renée & Jerry, Ciara, George Clooney and more
Credit: Celebrity Babylon
Published: Monday Oct 29, 2007 | 05:20 PM EDT
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Lindsay Lohan takes a break from pizza and stops for lunch with a friend at an Asian restaurant in Los Angeles on Saturday.
Copyright © 2014 Time Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.


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Windows 8 to get self-healing 'Storage Spaces'
Microsoft will introduce in Windows 8 what it calls Storage Spaces – a method of putting drives into a virtual pool from which self-healing virtual disks can be created, with some resemblance to ZFS features. Details of these virtual disks – the aforementioned Storage Spaces – were described in a 4,400-word deep-dive blog post …
Sounds alot like how Windows Home Server works? I haven't tried WHS as I have a RAID5 array but when I was building it I did read up on it and it was a tempting idea for a home storage solution where I wouldn't lose any photo's/videos/work from drive failure.
Being a bit of a nerd I went for the hardware solution but frankly I don't need the performance improvements over the software one - I guess many smaller home/business users wouldn't either.
This is good stuff from Microsoft.
It will be excellent if you can assign individual files/folders their own level of protection and the subsystem just automatically deals with that.
Wow! What an innovation!
What an innovative and unique idea from Microsoft! Let me see if I understand it:
You turn a disk drive into a, what do you call it, a physical volume
You group those physical volumes into some form of logical volume
You create virtual disks from those logical volumes, and those virtual disks can spread across different physical disks, and can survive a disk failing.
What brilliant fellows Microsoft are! Wait - my Linux server just emailed me, something about a failure in LVM, a drive down, and falling back to the spare...
Sounds like Drobo
This "innovation" sounds exactly like Drobo, and no doubt a number of other NAS devices.
I'm not really sure how it differs from LVM, RAID etc ... most of this has, as you say, been done before ... although I will bet good money that M$ has obtained patents for this "new" idea ...
And then
Sue every maker of LVM systems for infringing said 'patent'?
Or just add it to the 238 patents linux infringes already but m$ wont say what they are
RE: Wow! What an innovation!
You can even have strict striping with LVM to make sure your mirror copies are on different physical volumes in the same logical volume. In fact, the only features I can see in the list that isn't in bog-standard Veritas LVM bundles are dedupe and thin provisioning, but that may be because Veritas (sorry, just can't bring myself to call them Symantec) have it in seperate products they charge extra for.
If M$ do bundle it into the server OS without charging extra then it is a big deal, otherwise I'm not convinced it's a big step forward.
This is just an extension of the volume management services already offered by Windows. It already does RAID 0+1, 5, concatenated filesystems and the like and has done for years, it's just that each version of Windows has more functionality and better options. I'm not sure if I'm correct in remembering that the use of LVM in Linux has only really come in since 2008, ie: the last major revision of Windows server. However the use of logical volume managers in UNIX has been around for years, certainly since the 90s - did Linux copy Veritas foundation suite? No, it's just a natural development of required functionality for a modern operating system.
The article below says that LVM for Linux was written in 1998 (10 years before you say it was):
re Linux lvm
It may well have been around since 98, but it certainly hasn't been in standard use until really quite recently. I seem to remember it turning up around three or four years ago.
I also note that the article says it was based on hpux's lvm...
re HP-UX LVM
Yes, and HP-UX LVM is from circa 1992. AIX got there a few years earlier - AIX 3 had unified storage management with logical volumes on physical volume pools back in 1989.
And of course other OSes for big iron (various mainframe and midrange systems) had logical volumes before that. The IBM System/38 (like its successor, the AS/400) completely virtualized all storage (the "single-level store" architecture). There was a filesystem with files, from the application perspective, but files had no particular relationship to disk storage allocation.
That came out in 1979. So this sort of feature is at least 33 years old.
Doesn't mean it's not nice to see it show up in Windows, though. As someone else noted, Windows storage allocation has gradually gotten better with each release, and this is the logical next step. (And third-party vendors had products to provide it already - now it'll just be built into the base OS.)
But the big question is ...
Will the control panel app for this feature slide partially out of view a few seconds after you open it, and are just reading the info from the screen?
No? Then why do you think its a good idea to have this "feature" on your website huh? Bored of your articles hopping about on the page when I am trying to read them.
The same happens on my computer too
When it happens, I click on the down arrow key, or shift + space bar, half a second and I am back where I was before.
If your operating system and / or browser turn this simple task into a disruptive one, you should consider changing either / both.
Alternatively, I believe it is possible to open more than one article at a time in a different tab, by the time you have gone through the main page and opened all the new tabs you want , the page with the first article will be fully static.
Another option would be to find all those who find the banners annoying and form a pressure group to make El Reg offer an ad free paid subscription version of their site
In the meantime, we can just sit down for a minute and wonder if people tend to blow things up out of proportion, I guess
Oh, and don't forget to click on the banners in the meantime.
RE: But the big question is ...
Taking a dig at the incredibly annoying M$ cloud ad at the top of all The Register pages, which makes the whole page jump up just as you start reading an article? Agree completely - make it static or take it off.
Too late, I activated a proxy on my gateway and blocked 2788 ad servers, inc ad.doubleclick.net, no more annoyances and no ad revenue for the reg from my office.
Maybe the reg should think about their readers before accepting _disrupting_ ads.
There are only 5 top stories. And you can see 5 icons which obviously represent said top stories (this is clearly seen by noticing the 'moving' highlight).
As such; tried hoovering your mouse over said icons yet ?
Unless we're talking about ads here (which I don't get to see anywhere on El Reg thanks to Adblock Plus) I don't see the big problem here. Its not as if those top stories hold a lot of text.
No problem for me with The Register, but then...
NoScript and AdBlock Plus are present.
I love those add-ons so much I'd go and live there
FF + NS + ABP = surfing happiness.
Its just a different web without the ads. My boss uses vanilla IE, & I look at his screen when he's viewing the same URL as me, & I almost can't believe its the same address. For those who don't know, not only does ABP remove the ads, it collapses what it can, as does NS(while also protecting me from exploits I don't even understand, let alone know how to avoid them all by myself). Faster loading, more info per square metre, no hideous flash ads, & the pages often look like there never were any ads. Lovely.
El Reg is going to loose revenue.
I have always disabled ABP etc on the Register to support them.
These ads have become so disruptive I'm not going to bother any more. ABP back on.
Take note: Readers are often more than happy to have ads, not so happy when they make a chunk of the article slide off their screen a few seconds into reading!
"loose revenue"
Is that like pocket change? Or is it the sort of revenue that has a bit of a reputation for enriching anyone who shows a bit of interest, if you know what I mean?
Excuze ma spelin an grama
I always mix them up...
"Loose revenue" is what you hope to pick up when, like ShelLuser up there, you are "hoovering your mouse".
"Perhaps storage spaces are better carved out from pools made of many small drives than a few large drives."
To my mind this is the only real advantage over hardware RAID; proliferation of data across larger numbers of more diverse drives could increase resilience, performance and build flexibility.
Oracle will sue them!
Diy Drobo
sounds to me like i can now build my own drobo with as many drives as i like then
Try freenas. You can build array's quickly using whatever disks you have lying around. the only drawback is that you cannot turn a 4 disk array into a 5 disk one at a later date. You can however, replace existing disks in pool with larger ones. Not quite a drobo but considerably cheaper.
These features have been in serveral Unix's since the early 1990's as well as Linux.
So someone at MS has seen this and realises that this is just what they need as a USP for the next Windows release.
These bozo's in Redmond really no need to get out a bit more.
It's not ZFS...
It's ADVFS from Tru64/DEC Unix.
Not the same as LVM
To all the people saying this is like LVM, it isn't. Windows already has LVM type features, they're called dynamic disks and can be built across physical discs with mirroring or parity type fault tolerance.
In this new feature (which isn't new as is pointed out in the article just new to windows) first you allocate a bunch of disks. Lets say you have 8 500GB disks. Then you create a storage space on your pool of disks and choose a fault tolerance level. Lets say that's a 3TB space with mirroring. Now in an LVM setup or a typical Raid array 8 500GB disks with mirroring (RAID 1+0) would yield a maximum partition size of 2TB so there's a difference. Now we start filling up the storage space, we add 1TB of data. One day a disk fails, note we have no hot spare, the system automatically shuffles the data around to rebuild the redundancy we've lost by using the spare space on each disk. As soon as this process is complete you're protected against failure again without replacing the failed drive.
It does sound like it will work, at least up to a point.
But why do MS take something simple, like networking, and make it so oddly complicated? They've done it again with this.
You say "Something simple like networking", then suggest that storage is simple.
As a storage/SAN/backup person: I wish it were.
Re: Fuzz
"new to Windows" actually it's not, it was in the first version of WHS as Sampler put in the first comment, which came out in 2007ish (my original WHS box is still ticking along nicely and always loved how it handled drives like this). Yes it wasn't included in version 2 (wasn't going to upgrade myself due to the loss of this feature) since they couldn't get it to work at the time, but it does seem like they have finally fixed it and tweaked it a touch.
So all the whiners saying it's nicked off this that and the other, yes there are other things on the market which do things in a similar nature. But MS has had this for a long time, just not done a great deal with it till now.
Sounds just like levelling on a SAN to me.. Providing you have enough spindles you should, in theory, never lose data due to a disk failure.
Surely storage IS simple?
It's just retrieving the damn stuff in one piece that is the hard bit.
Backups are Write Only, as any fule kno...
Loose data?
"...Providing you have enough spindles you should, in theory, never lose data due to a disk failure..."
The problem is that in practice, your data is slowly corrupted, without you ever knowing it. Slowly, your data rots away, due to bit rot. So you are wrong.
Have you heard about ECC RAM? Why do you use it? Well, because your bits in ram flips randomly, they "rot". Suddenly, a few bits flip on random. Therefore you need ECC memory sticks to detect the flipped bits, so the computer can correct the faulty bits.
Exactly the same problem occurs on disks. The bits flip on random, but there are no ECC functionality to detect nor correct the faulty bits on disk. This is called silent corruption and a big problem when you store large amounts of data, over 10TB, say. Having raid and enough spindles does not protect against bit rot, as hardware raid, ntfs, ext, jfs, xfs, etc are not designed to look for these kind of errors.
There are lot of research on this Silent corruption issue in this link. (initial research shows that zfs solves all these problems):
"Loose data"
Is that the sort of data that spills off the end of a buffer overflow? Or the sort of data that has a bit of a reputation...
etc etc.
What is it with all the loosers on here today?
Maybe I am a bit late posting to this, but wouldn't bit-rot cause a read error, as the sector CRC would be wrong? OK so that means you have to do a read-check every now and then, but that is certainly something that my lowly NAS does which is just based on Linux.
I saw some mention of this before and from what I could gather, the only difference with zfs is that it does a consistancy check using the data and parity. This means that zfs would pick up bit rot that had somehow managed to rot the bits but still have a valid CRC. (OT but in the end I didn't go with zfs because of the inflexibility re-sizing the array)
Storage Spaces is somewhat like ZFS, although it [ ... ] lacks [ ... ] ZFS features.
So, not like ZFS then. Why not just call it software RAID?
In fairness to Microsoft...
...this is, at least, a genuine OS-level feature rather than yet another bouncy graphic for the vacuously inclined. It is, in fact, the first I've heard that Win8 will be different (at an OS level) from Win7 and therefore conceivably (*) worth shelling out money for.
(* Probably not, in practice, since I'm quite happy with my existing backup strategy and don't require five-nines uptime, but I dare say it will appeal to some.)
software raid, windows NT rules
oh dear,
why cant redmond just use existing stuff,
raid , zfs , vlm.
Oh dear, why can't commentators understand what the article is about, before making a knee jerk comment about MS, when they clearly know nothing about Windows.
I thought MS were putting this "any disk into a fault tolerant disk thingy" in the *second home server version, but admitted they couldn't get it to work and dropped it, thereby upsetting beta users. Maybe they took on some _more_ **Unix guys to fix it for them.
* I'm sure this was in an old reg article.
** Unix guys fixed a pile of stuff in NT.
I'm guessing that all of this is moot, as home users will probably get shafted. What do I mean? Well, MS is bound to put this feature as a "Business/Ultimate only" or whatever, so everyone buying PCs will have to pay double to MS (the OEM license, then the upgrade) to get Storage Spaces. Already the case with their software RAID, Remote Desktop, Hyper-V integration stuff... Bad bad MS.
My company is actually planning on going Apple thanks to that. They rather pay less on MS licensing. :/
Maybe, but they sure shown differently when looking at Windows 7. I get the feeling you're overestimating the needs / requirements of the average Windows end-user. This is not to say all end-users are stupid, but their demands are hardly as high as you portrait them to be.
Just look at the difference between Windows 7 home-premium and professional. The main difference is networking. Professional allows access to several networks (domains, vpn, etc.), provides more network access to some applications (backup for example) and finally provides options for using native XP software through means of "XP mode".
Which doesn't even mean that home-premium users can't use MS Virtual PC with a virtual XP environment. Its simply not supported "out of the box" so to say.
oh for hevens sake.....
yadda yadda yadda.... linux already does this along with various other bits of kit... so what...
the point is, that up to now Windows does not, so they are adding it to the feature list.
Will it make windows better? yes... is it a worthwhile addition? yes... does Microsoft claim this is a brand new technology that they have invented? no,
Give them a break ffs...
When do we get end-user innovations?
Now, while all the latest news around Win8 isn't all too bad, also not too exciting, I have to wonder...
When do we get to see new developments which really make the lives of the end-user easier? So far all we got were more technical aspects; mounting (accessing) ISO files, a new recovery method and finally this "drive-pooling" feature.
I've grown a liking towards Windows 7 last year and learned quite a bit about it. Enough to think that there is a (slight?) chance that people disliking Metro might be able to work around it.
But, my point: while all these latest developments are nice for techies they'll mean nothing for end-users. Some of my customers (end users) have worked with Vista for years now and still didn't know about the "previous version" option. So when a file was deleted by accident (and not to be found in the waste bin anymore) they feared it was gone for good and called me.
Being able to access ISO files? Its an interesting feature, but its too late. Most people will already use virtual disks (I like MagicISO) or a mere archiver like WinRAR if all they need is to get a single file.
So my prediction is that it may very well turn out that the biggest innovation / change in Windows 8 will be Metro (from an end-user point of view). And quite frankly I don't think that's going to sell very good; I still foresee a new "Vista disaster", but maybe even larger.
Re: end-user innovations
It's an operating system. It's job is to be boring.
If you want end-user excitement, buy some applications.
Re: previous versions
Of course, the previous version is still there for *you* to find precisely because the end-user didn't know about the feature and therefore hadn't either switched it off or recently purged all previous versions. Making the feature *more* visible to typical end-users might actually make it *more* likely that they lose data.
VMS had a similar feature and a sub-population of end-users who relied on the fact that a document had multiple personalities and so you could store important data in different versions. It was great until they exceed their disc quotas and their sysadmins "fixed" the problem for them by purging all older versions of all their documents.
There's no substitute for a decent backup regime. I know it's boring, but if you can't calm down enough to put one in place then I'm afraid you are just too disorganised to use a computer.
@Ken Hagen
This is why you never allow end users the ability to manage their own data or backups. Let them load/save/delete/copy their own stuff, but no more. At a previous company I worked for, we found that the end users were using NetApp snapshots to store data in such a way that they got a larger quota because of the multiple copies. Realising the implications (ie: loss of data, etc. etc.) we took away the ability for the end users to have any access to their snapshots, waited for them to call the helpdesk and returned their missing files along with a brief lecture about file management and why the quotas were there in the first place.
Ermmm.....Will this be available as a clip on pack to the back of you nice shiny new Win 8 tablet?
parity spaces
According to the FAQ there is no such thing as dual parity support, single parity is the only option , contrary to your article
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What's the reality behind children fleeing Central America? Read this only if you are willing to be disgusted and outraged, including with Obama and HIllary. MORE
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text:
Many M Flight members had the opportunity to attend the 2012 M Festival at the Nurburgring during the 24hr Race (18-20 May 2012), which celebrated BMW M's 40th anniversary.
The first day started out for the group at Pentagon Car Sales in Ramstein-Miesenbach, which they set out from for the Nurburgring. Upon arriving at the Ring, all members parked their Ms in the M Parking Garage. The M Shuttle then brought the group to the M Gallery where they were received by Brian Watts (BMW … CONTINUED
We can finally confirm that the next generation M3 (F80 / F82) will be powered by an inline 6 cylinder engine. We spoke to the President of BMW North America, Mr. Ludwig Willisch, at the ongoing M6 convertible / 6 Gran Coupe US press launch and he has officially confirmed that the next generation M3′s engine will indeed feature an inline 6 layout and not a V6.
Until now, there has been no official confirmation (nor denial) from BMW on whether the F80 sedan and F82 coupe's … CONTINUED
We've been saying it for a while now, but here's finally proof of the MY2013 BMW M3 coupe (E92) and convertible (E93). Here are the official ordering and pricing guides for the 2013 M3 (download PDF below), which shows few changes other than a $200 retail price increase over the 2012 M3 models. Production of the 2013 M3 will begin in July for deliveries beginning late August – early September.
The E92 M3 coupe will be produced until mid-2013 and the E93 M3 until a few … CONTINUED
BMW UK has released a video teaser for the new limited BMW M3 M Performance Edition coupe models that it will offer for the UK market. Each M3 M Performance Edition model will feature an unique Frozen (matte) paint color – Frozen Blue, Frozen Red, and Frozen White. Just ten units of each color will be produced, for a total of only 30 cars.
BMW recently launched the M Performance Parts catalog for the F20 1 series, F30 3 series, and F10 5 series, but has yet … CONTINUED
Now that the new M6 coupe/convertible and M5 have all debuted, our thoughts often turn to the next M3 – the F80. And although we've previously rendered the F80, here is our take on what the next generation M3 may resemble now that the M6 has been revealed. So far, the multitude of F80 M3 spy photos / videos we've posted have not been very telling in terms of the lower front bumper design, but we've used our imagination based on the new M6 and M5 … CONTINUED
VAC Motorsports has put together an impressive dedicated M3 track car build for a customer, in which they managed to drop several hundred pounds off the factory M3′s weight – to just 3200 pounds.
The build was done to the customer's specs, down to the color scheme, and all the work was done in-house. Here's the full specs of the build.
Some highlights:
-3230lbs ~400lb savings
-Grand Am spec cage with L/R NASCAR door bars and dash bar. Done 100% in house.
-Lexan ¼ windows
-VAC race seat install … CONTINUED
An exclusive new BMW M3 Coupé Frozen Silver Edition model has been announced as part of BMW M GmbH's 40th anniversary year. Just 100 of the high performance coupés will be sold in the UK and the model features unique content to make it a truly collectable item.
The new BMW M3 Coupé Frozen Silver Edition features BMW's class-leading 420hp V8 engine with power transferred to the road via the standard seven-speed M DCT transmission and variable M differential. The car comes with a 10mm lowered suspension … CONTINUED
An M3POST member shares with us his european delivery journal, recounting the experience of picking up his stripped down basic configuration E93 M3 coupe in Individual Fire Orange exterior.
We've seen all variety of frozen (matte) colors on BMWs since the trend started a couple of years ago, but this is the first time we've seen it in one of our favorite BMW blues of all time – Estoril Blue.
What makes this color on the car even more unique is that it wasn't achieved with a vinyl wrap, which has been the preferred method for applying a matte color to a car, but was actually a full respray of the car.
Other modifications on … CONTINUED
We've previously featured an Atacama Yellow M3 sedan and now here's the first E93 M3 convertible in Atacama Yellow.
Atacama yellow is currently only available on the Z4 and must be ordered as a BMW Individual color for any other models, including the M3. The yellow looks great against the contrasting carbon fiber and black aero piece and wheels. Check out the full set of photos inside.
Here's a great road trip journal featuring an M3, 4000 miles of travel, Tail of the Dragon, and a high performance driving event at Homestead track.
M3POST member LM3 traveled from Michigan to Florida and back in his E90 M3. He documents the more interesting parts of the trip for us through words, photos, and videos. Check it out inside.
We had the chance to speak to BMW NA M Brand Manager Matt Russell and BMW M Marketing Director Thomas Schemera at the 2012 NYIAS about many things M. We covered some hot topics/models, including the M5, M6, M3 (current and future generation) and M Performance Automobiles.
Can you tell us about the changes to the 2013 M5 from the 2012 M5? Why the wait for the 2013 model year for the US market?
It's nothing major. It's small things; it's electronics underneath, little computer things. … CONTINUED


text:
Patti Wukovits
New York
M.O.M. of Kimberly (age 17 years)
Kim Coffey
One afternoon in 2012, Patti's daughter Kimberly, a high school senior, texted her feeling feverish and achy. Kim's doctor thought she had the flu and asked them to come in the next day. By morning, Kim had a rash on her ankle. She was rushed from the doctor to the ER, but her organs were already failing. Eight days later, Patti and her husband John had to say goodbye. Kim passed away just one week before her senior prom and graduation.
Kim was vaccinated. While current vaccines cover most strains of the disease, they do not cover the B strain. Patti works with NMA to educate others about the disease and its symptoms, and she hopes one day, vaccines will be available with broader protection.


text:
Insurance Services
Find Out More
Featured Service
Risk Assessment Program
Our MTSC Division is offering a new Risk Assessment Program that utilizes our staff of qualified Safety Consultants and Field Representatives.
We will provide you with Loss Analysis and Exposure Development, a site visit and first hand observations, results focused recommendations and a closing conference
for additional information and advice. We will also re-visit the site after a suitable amount of time, and report on recommendation compliance and improvements.
Find out More


text:
Wreath Fundraiser - Our 25th Year!
Buy a wreath! Make a donation! Take a class! Be a wreath-making volunteer!Read More…
Phone: 503-823-PLAY (7529)
Fax: 503-823-6007
1120 SW Fifth Ave., Suite 1302, Portland, OR 97204
Forest Park - more than 5,000 acres of greenspace & trails
Tideman Johnson Natural Area is a small, lush greenspace off the Springwater Corridor
Urban Forestry cares for thousands of trees in parks, natural areas & along city streets
Managing 46 community gardens citywide


text:
8025 Ardrey Kell Road, Suite 103
Charlotte, NC 28277
(704) 246-8271
Price: from $35
Ages: 4 and older
Small Hands Big Art is a child's art studio located at The Fountains in south Charlotte. It offers classes, workshops and open studio times with age-appropriate projects in painting, drawing, collage, clay and printmaking. A holiday season schedule could include photo embellishment, hand-crafted ornaments and visions of sugar cookies hand-decorated with colorful, sparkling confections. Last year, a PJ party featured gift making inspired by the film "Polar Express" and Charles Dickens projects. The studio director will facilitate the projects from start to finish, enabling the kids freedom to express their creativity. The little ones will come home completely messy, bearing a one-of-a-kind creation of love.
6801 Northlake Mall Drive
Charlotte, NC 28216
(704) 494-4403
Price: $10 to $25
Build-A-Bear Workshop was founded in 1997 and operates more than 400 stores worldwide. It's more than bears, though. Pick from more than 30 varieties of furry creatures including zoo animals, bunnies, dogs, cats, Hello Kitty and Angry Birds. The kids will move through eight animal-making stations: Choose Me, Hear Me, Stuff Me, Stitch Me, Fluff Me, Dress Me, Name Me and Take me Home. There are possibilities galore in customizing and personalizing for your gift recipient. If grandpa is a veteran, dress the animal in a service uniform. Dress and accessorize the bear in Christmas attire and it will make a beautiful centerpiece for the holidays. Or, dress the bear to match the color scheme of a room. The bear will go home with a birth certificate and a carrying case.
7828 Rea Road
Charlotte, NC 28277
(704) 544-4848
Price: $6 per hour, per person for studio time/$1.50 to $50 for pottery piece
Create heirloom holiday gifts at the Dish It Out pottery painting studio in the Stone Crest Shopping Center. Design and paint a holiday plate, ornament or pick from its vast supply of pottery pieces. Consider scheduling a "Nutcracker Ballet" party in which guests may paint nutcracker figurines, plates or ball ornaments. A stocking and candy cane are two new ornaments for this year. Hand prints on plates, ornaments or mugs are popular gifts for grandparents. The studio will glaze and fire these treasured pieces of art, to be picked up at a later date. Make a mosaic masterpiece using 36 colors of chips for picture frames, mirrors or plaques. Family reunions are popular here during the holidays, or make the homemade gifts at home with a party-to-go in a box. Pottery, paint, brushes and color chart are included in the box; return the pieces for glazing and firing.
Sew Fun Parties
Holiday Sewing Workshop
8155 Ardrey Kell Road
Charlotte, NC 28277
(704) 254-9111
Date: Nov. 30 – 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Price: $15 per person ages 6 and older
Sew Fun Parties is conducting a holiday sewing workshop. Learn new skills, sewing terms, basic seaming and how a pattern works. The skills acquired will last a lifetime, and the project is the gift. Kids, and that includes boys, will design and sew a gift bag. Each participant will use a speed-adjustable sewing machine perfect for those with no experience. The price includes high-end cotton fabric, ribbons and other trimming. It also offers group sewing sessions for adults, Girl Scouts and Y-guides. For those needing extra individual attention, private lessons are available for $40 per session. If your child has a December birthday, schedule a sewing party, and each participant will go home with a unique present to gift.
159 N. Trade St.
Matthews, NC 28105
(704) 844-7098
Matthew Holiday Haus sits just 20 minutes from uptown Charlotte. Back in 1902, this 110-year-old building was a mercantile store. There's always a warm feeling and a good smell as the customer walks through the front door onto the original wooden floors. Customers in and around town visiting grandchildren make it a point to stop by before returning home. If the artsy scene's offerings are not your idea of a homemade gift, let the kids select and personalize one of the shop's hundreds of Old World ornaments. Fill a cheery basket with an ornament, Crabtree and Evelyn products, Christmas napkins and tea. If the gift recipient is a sports fan, select from its hard-to-find ornaments and personalize with a sharpie. Get there early, though, they sell out every year. Buy and personalize a charming mug, then fit it with a candle and Christmas tea.


text: Why not grated? The information on Wholefoodsmarkets.com indicates that it is a semi-firm cheese, and the nutrition information says that a serving is 1 oz. GRATED! Is your memory of it that it is too soft to grate? Is it about the same consistency of regular Mozzarella, or softer? -----Original Message----- in your post you mentioned that the Italians called it (fresh buffalo cheese)probatura. you said grated? was the information you used the translation of what was said? (reason -- curiousity and the fact that I worked in Naples area for 7 years LOVE mozzarela di bufala, which is fresh buffalo milk cheese, and cannot figure grating it -- even after 3 days which is the last day it is considered fresh) Arianwen ferch Arthur


text:
The Ghost of Thomas Kempe
Penelope Lively
The Ghost of Thomas Kempe
Penelope Lively
James is fed up. His family has moved to a new cottage - with grounds that are great for excavations, and trees that are perfect for climbing - and stuff is happening. Stuff that is normally the kind of thing he does. And he's getting blamed for it. But it's not him who's writing strange things on shopping lists and fences. It's not him who smashes bottles and pours tea in the Vicar's lap. It's a ghost - honestly. Thomas Kempe the apothecary has returned and he wants James to be his apprentice. No one else believes in ghosts. It's up to James to get rid of him. Or he'll have no pocket money or pudding ever again.
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An Evening Prayer Lyrics - Jim Reeves
Review The Song (7)
If I have wounded some poor soul today,
If I have caused one foot to go astray,
If I have walked in my own wilful way,
Dear Lord, forgive.
If I have uttered idle words in vain,
If I have turned aside from want or pain,
Lest I offend some other through the strain,
Dear Lord, forgive.
--- Instrumental ---
Forgive these sins I have confessed to Thee,
Forgive the secret sins I do not see,
Guide me, love me and my keeper be,
Dear Lord, forgive...
Click here to submit the Corrections of An Evening Prayer Lyrics
Please Click Here to Print An Evening Prayer Lyrics
Thanks to -email@example.com for submitting An Evening Prayer Lyrics.
One of My Favorite Hymns | Reviewer: Morris Rainville | 4/26/13
I used to listen to WBZ-Boston,in the very early thirties,and every Friday morning at 5:50AM this hymn tune was played on the organ as it was played just before station break. I used to look forward to listening to it as a youngster,and even now,and have memorized it. The lyrics are the very expression of my Christian belief.
My grandfather's favorite | Reviewer: A granddaughter | 5/24/10
An Evening Prayer was one of my grandfather's favorites. He was a Presbyterian minister in Mandan, North Dakota. He died in 1949 when I was 4, but my mother told me this was one of his favorites and that he had a lovely tenor voice. I'm so happy I found it online! I was unable to listen to the song, but I'm thrilled that the lyrics match the ones (all 4 verses) I have written down because I have lost the hymnbook -- no idea who wrote either words or music.
An Evening Prayer | Reviewer: marlene pederson | 1/23/09
The Music and Lyrics to this Hymn were written by: C. Maud Battersby and the arrangement was done by Charles Hutchison Gabriel in 1911. I have the copy of the hymn somewhere in my files and I believe it was in the date was the late 1800's. The Instrumental can be found in the
Christian Classics Ethereal Hymnary #586
African American Heritage Hymnal. #366
African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal. #339
song theft? | Reviewer: Phillip McGee | 9/23/08
If the "Anonymous" writer of 4/27/07 knows the original writer, Cliff Ferking who had this song stolen in the 40s. and you show the song written in 1911 are we talking about the 1840s? No wonder he's anonymous, he is very old and probably has forgotten his name!
An Evening Prayer | Reviewer: Anonymous | 4/6/08
This Hymn was written by C. Maude Battersby in 1911
If I have wounded any soul today,
If I have caused one foot to go astray,
If I have walked in my own willful way,
Dear Lord, forgive!
If I have uttered idle words or vain,
If I have turned aside from want or pain,
Lest I myself shall suffer through the strain,
Dear Lord, forgive!
If I have been perverse or hard, or cold,
If I have longed for shelter in Thy fold,
When Thou hast given me some fort to hold,
Dear Lord, forgive!
Forgive the sins I have confessed to Thee;
Forgive the secret sins I do not see;
O guide me, love me and my keeper be,
Dear Lord, Amen.
third verse | Reviewer: Barry Bailey | 5/15/07
If I have been perverse or hard or cold
If I have longed for shelter in Thy fold
When Thou hast given me some fort to hold
Dear Lord, forgive
An Evening Prayer | Reviewer: Anonymous | 4/27/07
I knew the man who composed the lyrics to this song. He had the words stolen from him back in the 40s. He was a friend of the family, named Cliff Ferking. I've always loved this song. My mother used to sing it to us when we were kids.
The following area is only for review, if you want to submit the lyrics or the corrections of the lyrics, please click the link at the end of An Evening Prayer Lyrics.


text:
It's our job to give customers a story to tell, not tell it for them…
Posted on November 12, 2014 16 Comments
"Guinness is lovely but it will always be the same, a (delicious) black and white drink – simple and unchanging. Subway do nice sandwiches.
Lego make little bricks.
The work of housing associations, councils, the NHS and other government departments is about our lives: it's dramatic, it makes a difference to the way we live every day and the stories are changing and fascinating.
Being important doesn't mean being tedious. Having serious intentions doesn't stop you from being entertaining." – Helen Reynolds
I used to dread people asking me what I do for a living.
If you work for a Housing Association you'll know the feeling. Most people will simply look blank and confused at your explanation. They search around for a bit, visibly straining as they try to understand. There's almost always an awkward silence before they suggest:
"Is it a a bit like council housing?"
"Well, yes. It's a bit like council housing."
The conversation quickly moves on to talk about anything – anything – other than housing associations.
I gave up describing myself as working in housing about three years ago. I started to say I worked for a charity.
Charity is a great word.
It says you must be a decent sort of person. And it travels well.
Charity works as well in Asia or Africa as it does down your local pub. It says you are interested in people. That's always a good thing.
A couple of years ago I did a brief social experiment about how the housing sector talked about people online. The results were telling:
Less than 8% of the stories we told were directly about the people living in our homes and communities.
On November 12th it was #HousingDay – which aims to celebrate those very people and their achievements. The first event in 2013 reached thousands and trended on Twitter.
Ade Capon , the founder of the campaign says for 2014 he'd like to inspire and engage customers to create and send their own stories – capturing their aspirations and ambitions.
Ade is a very modest guy who has used the power of social media to create something that a whole sector was previously incapable of.
Cynics have accused #HousingDay , and similar campaigns that it has inspired, of being mere window dressing. A bit of digital fluff that gets sector people talking to each other but fails to make wider social impact.
I disagree. Anything that tries to shift the narrative away from sloganeering and messaging towards conversation and story telling has to be applauded.
As I posted recently- there are nearly 4 million people living in social housing but we hear little from them. That's why the narrative for social housing gets so little traction. It's largely a campaign run by social housing professionals for social housing professionals.
However things are changing – the past 12 months has seen a range of customers starting blogs , campaigns and websites. Their voice is beginning to take centre stage.
The organised customer involvement movement which consists of formalised committees and bodies has failed to adapt to the digital age. I predicted three years ago that they would be replaced by a self organised movement of individuals who use social technology to seek wider change.
This is scary to many but we should find it tremendously exciting. Our organisations are not important in themselves and we should welcome the digital freedoms being explored by customers.
People will listen to any story if it is engaging enough.
My own blog started out talking to a housing audience. Today over 80% of subscribers are not from a housing background. I've learned that if you talk about the difference you make rather than what you do – people will engage.
And if you listen to them too – and build a conversation rather than a broadcast – people will share ideas with you.
Housing , much like health , care and support has a journey to go on.
- We have to engage hearts and minds not through obsessively pushing a "message" – but by developing a lifelong relationship with people. Relationships built upon hectoring or shouting are not sustainable.
- We need to identify shared passions and interests and continue having social conversations – on and offline.
- We have to stop the seemingly endless rounds of awards ceremonies too. Apple , Google and Microsoft are some of the most valuable brands in the world but I never hear them going on about the awards they have won. Assuming they even enter awards in the first place. They let the people who have bought into their story do the talking.
It's interesting that Helen Reynolds used Lego as a comparison.
Lego make interlocking plastic bricks.
- What they are known for is their innovation and the creativity they inspire in people.
- They have kept themselves endlessly relevant to different generations by keeping the story alive through video games , clothing, even theme parks.
- They have founded a lifelong relationship with people through exceptional design and a focus on , guess what , the customer.
I work for an organisation that exists to do more that put bricks together. It tries to unlock potential in people.
Let's put that centre stage.
Lessons in Customer Experience from Apple
Posted on November 5, 2014 8 Comments
Apple has a clearly defined mission of creating products that are "insanely great."
Simply stating that ambition achieves little. It is Apple's commitment to its values, such as integrated architecture and clean design (even on the inside of the device where no one will see it), that defines its products in the marketplace.
That's what makes Apple the most valuable company in the world – Greg Satell
In 2012 I publicly deserted Apple – announcing I was fed up with their arrogance. I crossed the divide to Android. People had quite a laugh about it on Twitter – many predicting I'd be back in 12 months. They were wrong though.
I was back in six.
I'm not an Apple fanboy. Far from it. Organisations are just a bunch of people. And they carry with them the same unique strengths and flaws that exist in all of us.
But something was different during my six months away. It just didn't feel the same.
The best brands and organisations draw an emotional response from us – we become attached to how they make us feel. And we'll almost always choose how something feels over any other factor , including cost.
Yesterday I visited Apple in London as a guest of Housemark.
Apple have a notoriously secretive culture so we were asked not to photograph our visit and not to use social media. (That's some ask for me – I was told off within five minutes for trying to post to Instagram…)
For that reason and out of respect to our hosts I'm not revealing anything here that isn't already in the public domain. I've included a couple of quotes but paraphrased them.
Every great organisation I have visited has a distinct culture and Apple are no different.
As I explained in my last post – this is one of the reasons people may dislike you. Many people , whatever they say , actually like the bland and the mediocre . They are suspicious of those pushing forward.
And you certainly don't get to be the biggest brand on the planet without pushing forward and upsetting a few people.
What can we learn?
Keep it simple , simple, simple:
Apple are obsessive over keeping things simple – the very thing some of their detractors despise.
Unlike many parts of the public sector, which revels in its own complexity, Apple have recognised that people fundamentally love simplicity and great design. So they shape their business around that purpose.
They focus on doing a small number of things exceptionally well. Their entire product range can fit on one slide. They got to be the biggest by doing the least.
By comparison, most of us focus on doing lots of things in very average ways.
Relentlessly focus on your customer experience:
I've visited so many organisations over the past fifteen years and everyone talks about the importance of customer experience.
Few actively demonstrate it. Fewer still make it their single focus. Apple show end to end design around the customer.
- The first experience of walking into a store.
- The lack of signage which encourages you to talk to a member of staff.
- Even obsessing down to the quality of the packaging (how can it be improved and made more beautiful?)
The belief is – focus on the end user at all times rather than what everyone else is doing. Profit will follow if you stick to that purpose.
Steve Jobs was notorious for his disdain of focus groups. Apple claim though to listen very carefully to what customers want. What they don't do is let customers design the products for them.
It's through this extensive study of customer needs that they know how to make the experience easy for new users, while also meeting the needs of those who are more sophisticated. As my Mum said to me at the weekend "I can't use the internet but I can use the iPad."
Innovate as fast as you can. Then innovate again:
Through having control of their supply chain Apple can introduce changes more quickly than others. The ethos is to develop initial product within 1- 3 months and then refine it.
This seems a world away from most of our delivery where service change can take not just months but years.
As Cris Beswick has said – only 3% of UK companies are able to get ideas to market in less than six months. It's not what they are doing that's any different, it's how they are doing it.
Many in the public sector focus on big organisational change which they then become too frightened to ever implement. Apple talk of the "relentless pursuit of incremental innovation" which many often ignore.
If you've got a year long project it probably won't ever happen or it'll be out of date before delivery.
It's the mantra we are trying to install at Bromford: Start small , test quickly and ditch it if it doesn't work.
A final question to Apple as we left the building: "What are you then? A tech company?"
The answer:
"No – a customer experience company."
I wonder how many of us would describe ourselves that way?
How your culture can promote innovation
Posted on October 24, 2014 14 Comments
"Organisational culture is the sum of values and rituals, which serve as 'glue' to integrate the members of the organisation." – Richard Perrin
I spent a wonderful day in Belfast this week with a group of Housing Organisations. It was refreshing as I got to talk not about tech and social media – but of leadership and culture.
We often bemoan the lack of adoption of innovative practices across the public sector and local government. But less often do we examine the reason why.
One of them is they just aren't ready for the latest innovation.
The culture of some organisations is superbly designed to repel anything new. Even if you let it in the organisational antibodies would surround it – killing it in no time. Like the common cold – you may get away with being a bloody great irritant for a while – but against a strong body you've no chance long term.
I've been lucky enough to visit lots of organisations doing presentations on the Bromford culture - usually with my co-presenter Helena Moore (who recruited me long ago and did many of the slides above).
We date our cultural journey from about 2000 – although truth be told a lot of the way we do things were laid out well before then.
Here are four things I've picked up about culture and innovation along the way:
Leadership is critical
You simply cannot create a culture of innovation if your leadership is not on side. As I've said before , if you've tried to change executive attitudes and the CEO still doesn't get it – you have only one option.
Leave the company.
It's a noble task to continue the fight – but futile. Find somewhere where your energy and passions will be put to better use.
The private sector is not more innovative than the public sector.
There's good and bad in both. However the private sector has got greater self belief and tends to source ideas better from customers and colleagues. The public sector , which can be prone to increased bureaucracy and risk aversion, is more likely to smother people's natural creativity. When you've had an idea crushed for the 100th time it's only human to stop telling people about them. Value all colleague and customer ideas – and have a disciplined approach to testing them out.
Being publicly funded is no excuse to be as boring as hell.
Mission and values set a tone for creativity.
If you're doing it right they become more than words on paper. They become a call to action and set a behaviour for the organisation. We ditched our mission and values when we realised they were exactly the same as hundreds of others. We asked colleagues to come up with something that they could believe in and remember.
They came up with the DNA – Be Different, Be Brave , Be Commercial , Be Good. They've been made hashtag friendly so people use them in social conversations. Others have attached their own personal meaning to the words.
Language matters.
It defines us. At Bromford we don't use the word department (it's team) we don't call people staff (they are colleagues) , we don't say tenants (they're customers). I'm frequently challenged on the latter when I use it on Twitter. But I have been for over 10 years! Let your organisational language evolve for you and ignore those who sneer or pick fault. Be different.
Never believe your hype.
No matter what awards you win. No matter how many customers say you are brilliant – never ever believe it. The right cultures blend respect for their tradition with a healthy paranoia about the future. Your history counts for nothing tomorrow.
On 24th October is was our Bromford Bash – a gathering that we feel is culturally important enough to bring 1200 colleagues together.
It was the last event where Mick Kent will be our CEO. He's moving on to new adventures in January.
CEOs come and go these days but Mick has headed up Bromford for 30 years. That's longer than many of our customers and colleagues have been alive. He's been an immense keeper of the culture.
He's one of the few CEOs I could confidently pitch an Innovation Lab to with the words "Look , 75% of what we do will fail". But I knew I wouldn't be shown the door.
Innovation is most likely to take hold where strong leadership coexists with healthy financial viability and a well managed approach to risk.
As Mick said on Twitter recently "I never wanted us to be like everyone else …always proud to be different".
What a journey.
I guess the next one has just begun.
We need less talk about innovation and more about mediocrity
Posted on October 10, 2014 21 Comments
"The only way to get mediocre is one step at a time. But you don't have to settle. It's a choice you get to make every day." – Seth Godin
In my last post I named innovation as the most overused word of 2014.
It's consistently misapplied to things that really aren't innovative at all. Plus there's now a surfeit of Labs , Accelerators and Hubs that have turned innovation into an industry all based around – umm – being innovative.
But as self serving as the innovation industry is becoming there's a much bigger problem.
Ever since I made THAT comment about drones – I've been asked more about the return on investment of innovation than I have in the past 10 years.
So what makes us question its value? Why do we apply scrutiny to people working in innovation in a way we don't to other functions like Operations, IT, Communications, HR or Finance?
Maybe it's human nature to pay a lot more attention to new things whilst ignoring the waste we build up around us. When things have been around forever we stop noticing there are almost always better ways of doing things.
Here's an example:
Something new:
Bromford announce an Innovation Lab with a fairly modest investment (four full time colleagues at a cost of less than 1% of total surplus). But despite only being a few months old we've had calls to externally publish our business plan, targets, costs and outcomes. The leadership of Bromford has been called into question for allowing such apparent waste.
Something old:
There are 1700 housing associations registered in the UK. So that's 1700 CEOs. And probably about 5000 boards as each HA seems to have at least two or three. That simply cannot be efficient. But no one questions it.
Now expand that thinking.
Across the NHS, which is at breaking point even though it employs more people than the entire population of Estonia.
Across Local Government , care , support and the welfare to work sector.
Now include the funders , think tanks and all the industry bodies.
Virtually all of them will have their own network of offices with their own IT, Communications, HR and Finance functions. Most were built with pre-digital thinking and with little thought about collaboration.
And if we looked closely at those hundreds of thousands of organisations with their billions of pounds of funding we'd be able to deduce three things:
- One third would be excellent – and have a high capability and confidence when it comes to innovation.
- One third would be average – although they think about innovation they only occasionally transform thought into action.
- And one third would be absolute rubbish.
So I've a plan. Let's continue to challenge the self proclaimed innovators.
They should publish their outcomes and their costs.
They need to lead the way when it comes to transparency.
But why let mediocrity off so lightly?
- Let's start questioning the organisations that exhibit no commitment to innovation.
- Let's challenge the publicly funded bodies where innovation is not addressed in their strategy or values.
- Let's see what resources organisations are allocating to disruptive thinking.
And let's ask them whose responsibility it is to act upon bright ideas from the public and their staff – and ensure they get explored.
Mediocrity isn't an accident. Let's declare war on it.
Robot Revolution: Our disappearing jobs and the future of work
Posted on August 19, 2014 2 Comments
"Imagine a pair of horses in the early 1900s talking about technology. One worries that all these new mechanical muscles will make horses unnecessary.
The other reminds him that everything so far has made their lives easier.
Remember all that farm work?
Remember running coast-to-coast delivering mail?
Remember riding into battle?
All terrible.
These city jobs are pretty cushy — and with so many humans in the cities there are more jobs for horses than ever"
Humans Need Not Apply – C G P Grey
Sometimes the threat to your industry is not the one that is directly in your line of vision, but the one at the periphery. You might not even recognise it as a problem.
The social housing sector is a good example , believing as it does that planned welfare reforms are the single biggest threat.
10 years from now that sector will look back and see it for what it was – a minor external distraction.
The real disruptive influences will be a rapidly ageing society , a pace of technological change that it failed to embrace , and the disappearance of the jobs that employ their tenants.
People aren't dying as much as they used to. And the robots have arrived to do all their work for them.
The rise of the robots is articulated brilliantly by CGP Grey in Humans Need Not Apply. In it we are reminded that those horses never did find new jobs. The equine population peaked in 1915 – and it was all downhill from there.
Worryingly it makes the point that us humans are now the horses – and the new jobs that are being created are not a significant part of the labour market. This has potentially dire consequences. Not least for social housing.
We already know that levels of unemployment are disproportionately high among social housing residents. Many housing associations do work around increasing employability and volunteering – usually as a sideline rather than as part of core business.
But getting people into work only solves half the problem. Many of those jobs – often low paying and part time – simply won't be around for much longer. They will be the first to get automated by the bots.
From driverless cars to drone deliveries – the potential impact is enormous. But this is not a mainstream topic of conversation in health , housing and social care. Indeed – if you do talk about it you are likely to be dismissed as a bit of an oddball.
Who is doing the joined up thinking about what happens in communities where less people are working?
If there's a criticism of this line of thought – it's that it focuses on the negatives rather than the wonderful opportunities.
Take Baxter, who was created to take manufacturing duties from humans. But , the creator Rodney Brooks has contended that the robot won't lead to lost jobs. On the contrary, he believes Baxter could be the salvation of workers, who would otherwise succumb to Chinese competition. Indeed , the International Federation of Robotics has reported that the one million industrial robots currently in operation have been directly responsible for the creation of close to three million jobs.
So what are the jobs in our communities that need protecting? And how could we deploy technology to retain vital local services?
And then there's Paro , a therapeutic robot that is used widely in Japan but is now being tested by the NHS. Paro allows the benefits of animal therapy to be administered to patients in care facilities. Far from being a toy, Paro stimulates interaction between patients and caregivers and has been shown to improve relaxation and motivation.
How could this new breed of companionship robots help communities at risk of isolation and loneliness? How could we combine real world active networks with these sociable robots?
Instead of ignoring this , or dismissing as science fiction – it's time we brought the conversation mainstream. We need to start racing with the machines rather than ignoring them.
Really we have three options:
- We start to reimagine communities and what meaningful work and play looks like in the future. We begin long term planning building from the skills already in the community. We embrace technology and develop local frameworks that enable people to do better things.
- We forget the idea of work in abundance and start an argument for a Universal Basic Income (in essence – we guarantee every citizen a flat basic allowance, which would be unaffected by any earnings they gained on top of it). Matt Leach has written an excellent post on this concept , which admittedly would take huge political will to achieve.
- We do nothing. And we stumble into a world of disappearing jobs and fail to imagine a better future. We are left with increasingly marginalised communities with reduced income, less active lifestyles and all the resulting health problems.
Truthfully we need more than a robot revolution.
We need a revolution in the way housing , health and social care approach their work.
A shift away from siloed approaches where we might be ignoring the real threats – as well as the many opportunities. We need a radical vision for connected communities and a network of innovators and entrepreneurs to help drive us forward.
This will be painful as it means challenging a lot of vested interests, breaking through the 'sector think' which has existed for decades.
None of our organisations are special. None are irreplaceable.
We have to think and act very differently if we are to avoid a future where humans need not apply.
Our Twitter only recruitment: An update
Posted on July 11, 2014 9 Comments
It's two months since we announced our Twitter only recruitment so I thought it was time for an update. We've been pretty much overwhelmed by the number of people who registered an interest in the Lab.
We had over 14,000 views of the material and are still getting enquiries. The follow up conversations took a lot longer than we thought!
People have questioned me on whether this is actually a more complex way of recruiting than the conventional model.
The answer , undoubtably, is yes.
Just like comms and marketing , recruitment used to be pretty simple. You broadcast your message and waited for the bite. Then you reeled it in.
Social media – and social recruitment – are not about broadcast. They are about the conversation , the slow burn of relationship building. People challenge you. People suggest ideas.
You question whether what you are building is right.
In a conventional recruitment no-one would dare challenge your ideas. They know that expressing dissent is the first sign of a troublemaker.
But in a social recruitment, where chats are conducted away from the shackles of forms and questions and personality tests , the relationship gets democratised.
Welcome to recruiting through the network.
I want to publicly thank everyone who took time to speak to us. Your input has been invaluable in shaping the pipeline of the Lab and the way we go about making the network operate. Thanks to everyone who has shared the material about the recruitment too – your support is incredible.
So what have we learned?
- A lot of people want to work with us in some capacity but not in a full time role based in the Midlands. Only a few people expressed an interest in full time work for one employer and this has led us to reshape the idea of three roles.
- There was a lot of interest in doing some work at mutually agreed times and the development of a retainer based – or time limited – relationship.
- Peoples skills and experience are a lot wider than the rather narrow confines I put around Data, Design and Digital
So the challenge for me over the past few weeks has been to redesign something that makes use of the great talent that is out there in the network.
So what are we doing?
Firstly – we've decided we really need a full-time design role – and it's the one that lends itself least to remote working. So we're going to advertise this role for two weeks only with interested applicants going through the existing Bromford recruitment approach. You can find details of this role here. People who previously expressed an interest were given an exclusive preview but new applicants are welcomed. Give me a shout if you want to chat about it.
Secondly – we are developing opportunities for people that have a specific expertise that we need coaching in. These are likely to be commitments of a few days of time spread over a period between 3 months and a year. These will be available to people regardless of geography. The bulk of the people who expressed an interest first time around fall into this category and will work with me to shape it.
Finally we are developing a way that we can commission the services of people on a one-off basis. So for instance – a problem enters the Lab that we don't have the skills to host and we need to bring in the network to do it for us. Many people suggested this might be done on a more creative basis than simply employing someone . For instance , we could develop an incentivised challenge to solve a specific problem.
This is an incredibly exciting time for everyone involved in the Lab.
Thanks for your support!