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Senior Member
Sure wish i didnt have to work all the days the playoffs are happening but i AM requesting off the day for the world finals cant wait for that
Gonna watch it with my girlfriend.
Junior Member
I'm going to be watching this week's games from home, probably with snacks and coke. I'm flying from Memphis to Los Angeles to watch the finals live.
Watching the group stage and playoffs on my 46" tv, with a few friends on Teamspeak. Then gonna watch the world finals with a bunch of people at my friend's house.
YMIG Exclusive
Listening to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV0wPBYDQ6Y on repeat while I wait. Then using my dual screens to watch it while I play some ranked.
With 12 straight hours of games on day one, I'm preparing a lot of energy drinks and tea.
i'm going to college like a good student //sleeping in all my classes because i stayed up all night playing league
Alright I have everything planned! I am from Australia so the games will start from midnight until 11am The group stage will start at midnight and finish at 11am on friday. I will wake up earlier at 6am to watch CLG.EU play. Then I will take the train to work instead of using the car so I can watch the game on my phone on my way to work! And from 8.30am until the last game of the day, I will be listening to the stream on my phone at work (my colleagues will think that I am listening to some music!). The next 2 days will be during the week-end so I will be watching all the games at home! I hope everyone is as excited as I am !! I can't wait for the games!. May the best win (CLG-EU)!!!!!

subset: commoncrawl


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Sporting, Touring, and the City – every one of them an adventure. Whether it's style or practicality these conveniently grouped accessory selections make sure you're fully equipped for the journey ahead. Accessories are also available individually – so you can tailor Range Rover Sport to your own unique tastes and requirements.
From family outings to the coast to extreme water sports and skiing and snowboarding, the opportunities for sporting adventures all year round are endless. Useful accessories like the full length roof rails and crossbars, or the aqua sports carrier, lamp guards and a bumper styling cover that protect the vehicle, will help you make the most of them.
Adventure off the beaten track is better when you're well equipped. Accessories include a Heavy to Heavy Duty Multi-Height Tow Bar, rear mounted bike carrier., front rear mud flaps and a loadspace protector.
Accessories like practical side steps, stylish alloy wheels and body side mouldings are designed to meet the challenges of the city – sometimes the most demanding place on earth.
Jaguar Land Rover Limited: Registered Office: Abbey Road, Whitley, Coventry CV3 4LF Registered in England No: 1672070


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Take the door off, take the trim off. Cut the opening so that it is almost end to end and top to bottom. Get trim and re-trim it, and get new doors, and now you have good access to all of the space in there. Insid, have a center section for hanging coats, with a shelf over them and cubbies on either side, with space to one side to hold the vacuum cleaner. Get hinged doors and attach baskets on the inside of the doors for yet more storage - hats, gloves, shoes….small stuff. |
I love it! We have several closets that are this way and this is an excellent way to see what is back there. Hmmm. Might need to look at the entry hall closet tomorrow. |
That is exactly what we did in all three bedroom closets and the main floor closet of our old home. It was so much more functional and easier to reach and see the items inside. I would not hesitate to do it again if we ever move to a house with similar closets. |
- Posted by lazygardens (My Page) on Sat, Jul 12, 14 at 6:34
A different thought ... if you hang things on either side you will have them protruding into the entrance be about 6-10 inches (depending on puffiness of the coats) 1 - re-do the door so you have enough depth on one side to hang coats and a shallower side for shelves. Close off a bit to shift the opening left or right and re-hang the door as a "barn door" by moving the hardware to the outside on a small fale beam (or make a barn door ... plenty of plans on the Internet) 2 - The "coat" side would have rods spaced for the coats you have, and a space underneath for boots and shoes, and deep shelving all the way to the top for luggage and 3 - Install "L-shaped" shelving - about 10-12 inches deep on the side and 4-6 inches on the back for storing smaller things, or put shelves on the left and use the back wall for hanging shoe pockets and other flat things. 4 - Custom fit one spot for the vacuum and the hose, with a hook to hold the hose if it's a canister. |
I think it is brilliant! |
Before you cut any openings, familiarize yourself with standard door sizes. Not much fun to get a huge door opening and then have to pay for custom-size doors. |
mclarke makes a very good point. But all that closet is is three pieces of wallboard, so it shouldn't be difficult to widen that doorway, which is too small anyway. It'll look MUCH nicer, be a bonus for re-sale, improve your storage abilities and access to the stuff…IMO, a very worthwhile improvement. Get doors that open outward, not hanging sliding doors, which are such a pain. |
- Posted by nosoccermom (My Page) on Sat, Jul 12, 14 at 8:38
Nice bike! |
- Posted by williamsem (My Page) on Sat, Jul 12, 14 at 9:57
Wow, great feedback! Tibbrix, I'd considered just enlarging the opening. At this point I think DH would pack up and move out until the mess was finished! I'm sure I'm capable of learning how to cut through the studs, add support for the opening, retrim, and hang doors, but most of those will be new for me (though it would be a good excuse to get the miter saw I've been eyeing!). It will take me weeks, and I'm not willing to get the contractor involved in yet another project, this house isn't worth it. Not entirely ruling it out though, I need to do some sketches to see what I'd gain vs this plan first! Momof2 and geokid, thanks for the feedback! Glad to hear it is indeed functional. Lazygardens, I think a barn door would be tight if it fits at all, and would require a much smaller opening than I currently have to have a chance at working. The current closet has about 24 in of depth, the coats only protrude 21 in and the rest is clearance space to get them out (in theory). Adding the 2.5 in of trim, they will stick out about an inch on each side. I did think to measure that, lol! I'm having a really hard time envisioning your idea, what it translates to in my head seems like not much hanging space and a lot of open space between the shallow shelves and the door, I don't think I'm picturing it right. Thanks, greywings! Mclarke, great advice! Tibbrex, I had though about bifold doors if I decide to tackle widening the opening, I'll have to see what regular doors would mean in terms of the ability to open them and move around them in the small foyer area. Nosoccermom, I'll tell DH you like his bike, thanks! The summers he rides, he gets pretty serious and can go 50-100 miles at a time. |
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Less than one year ago, heavy rains flooded Chapel Hill and Carrboro. Are we in for another round this week?
National Weather Service senior forecaster Scott Sharp says the possibility for flooding is certainly out there.
"The showers and storms today will just prime the pump for additional showers and thunderstorm activity we're expecting later (Tuesday) and more so during the day on Wednesday and Wednesday night," Sharp says. "We're looking at rainfall totals during the course of the day today and early this evening probably anywhere from a quarter to maybe a half an inch across the Triangle. The highest potential for heavy rainfall will be late (Tuesday) through Wednesday into Wednesday evening as we pick up an additional inch to maybe two inches of rainfall during that time period."
***Listen to the Interview***
More than seven inches of rain fell on Chapel Hill-Carrboro on and around June 30. Bolin Creek overflowed flooding East Gate shopping center, Camelot Village apartments, Chapel Hill Town Hall, Granville Towers and many other places.
A flash flood watch is in effect from Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. until Thursday at 6:00 a.m.
"We are expecting the weather conditions to start to improve by Thursday–maybe after lunchtime or so," Sharp says. "It looks like right now Friday into Saturday it looks like we should see much better, more tranquil weather conditions during that time."
Remember: a watch means flooding is possible; a warning means flooding is happening or imminent.
http://chapelboro.com/news/weather/flash-flood-watch/Four North Carolina legislators will hear the financial concerns of educators and members of the community Monday night at Culbreth Middle School.
Senator Valerie Foushee, Representative Verla Insko, Representative Graig Meyer, and Representative Jon Hardister will be in attendance.
Assistant Professor of Law at UNC, Deborah Gerhardt, and Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools PTA Council President, Jeff Hall, spoke with Ron Stutts on the WCHL Monday Morning News about the town hall meeting.
***Listen to the Interview***
http://chapelboro.com/news/pre-k-12-education/education-town-hall-salary/**UPDATE: The OWASA Board meeting scheduled for Thursday night (see below) has been cancelled. The Board will accept public comment on their Draft Strategic Plan at their meeting Thursday, February 27. (To read the plan, again, see below.)
ORANGE COUNTY – UNC will test its emergency sirens today, Tuesday, February 11, between 12:00 and 1:00 p.m.
The test was originally set to take place in late January, but got postponed because of the snow that hit the area.
You'll hear the sirens if you're on campus, downtown, or near the Friday Center or Carolina North. The purpose is to test the Alert Carolina system; UNC will also send a text message to about 50,000 cell phones registered by students, faculty and staff.
Carrboro town manager David Andrews has named Carol Anderson Dorsey as the town's new human resources director. Dorsey has spent the last five years as human resources director for the city of Oxford, NC; her prior jobs included serving as director of human resources for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro YMCA.
A total of 85 candidates applied for the position, representing 16 different states.
The Orange Community Players will open their 2014 season in February with "Steel Magnolias," the acclaimed story of six very different Southern women whose tight friendship carries them through joys and tragedies.
"Steel Magnolias" runs from February 13-16 at the Central Orange Senior Center in Hillsborough. You can purchase tickets at the Senior Center, or online at OCPNC.com.
The OWASA Board is inviting you to come ask questions and comment on their Draft Strategic Plan at a meeting on Thursday, February 13, at 7:00 p.m. in the OWASA Building on Jones Ferry Road.
You can also send your comments and questions via email or by letter or fax. Send an e-mail to firstname.lastname@example.com; send a letter to 400 Jones Ferry Road, Carrboro, NC 27510; or send a fax to 919-968-4464.
Click here to read the draft strategic plan.
Chapel Hill town government is moving out of Town Hall! (Part of it, at least.)
Renovations are about to begin at Town Hall, to repair the damage from last year's flood and make some other layout changes to improve customer service. In the meantime, the mayor's office has moved to the Chapel Hill Public Library, along with the office of the town manager and seven other Town staffers.
Everyone will move back into Town Hall when the renovations are finished. Town Council chambers are expected to reopen in September; other building areas will be addressed in phases after that.
Other town officials who are temporarily moving to the library: mayoral aide Mark McCurry, Assistant to the Town Manager Jason Damweber, Policy and Strategic Initiatives director Mary Jane Nirdlinger, Sustainability Officer John Richardson, Economic Development Officer Dwight Bassett, Organizational Effectiveness Coordinator Rae Buckley, and Administrative Assistant Peggy Paumer.
This weekend, the campus organization VDAY Carolina is staging a bilingual production of Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues" to benefit the Orange County Rape Crisis Center.
Shows run from Friday, February 14, through Sunday, February 16 at Hanes Auditorium, with two shows each on Friday and Saturday–one in English and one in Spanish.
You can buy tickets at Union Box Office, over the phone or online. For ticket information, visit VDAYCarolina.web.unc.edu.
Thursday, February 13, UNC's FedEx Global Education Center will host the world premiere of "Ice Music," a multimedia creation by the artist Brooks de Wetter-Smith. "Ice Music" examines the beauty and the importance of ice in our world, featuring de Wetter-Smith's videography and photography, a new musical composition by Lowell Liebermann, and dance choreographed by Carey McKinley.
"Ice Music" will premiere at 8:00 p.m. on February 13, in the Nelson Mandela Auditorium at the FedEx Center as part of UNC's Process Series. On Friday the 14th, there will be a workshop presentation and discussion at 4:00 p.m., also in the Mandela Auditorium.
For more information, click here.
You're invited to a public information meeting on Thursday, February 13, to discuss Orange County's "Agricultural Support Enterprises" program.
The program is designed to help farmers generate additional income by expanding the types of activities they may pursue on their farms. It's been in development since 2001; Orange County is currently considering amending the Unified Development Ordinance to adopt it.
The meeting will take place at 6:00 p.m. in the Food Lab of the Environmental and Agricultural Center, located at 306 Revere Road in Hillsborough.
Protect your cats and dogs by coming to a Microchip Clinic on Thursday, February 13, from 3-5 p.m. at the Orange County Animal Services Department on Eubanks Road.
Microchips will cost $25 per pet, which includes registration with 24PetWatch's national database. The Department will also offer one-year rabies vaccinations as well, for $10 per pet.
For more information, visit OrangeCountyNC.gov/AnimalServices.
http://chapelboro.com/news/news-around-time/week-orange-county-weather-permitting/CHAPEL HILL- Flooding on June 30 caused major damage to the first floor of Chapel Hill Town Hall, and repairs could keep much of the building closed until next summer.
But Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt and Town Manager Roger Stancil are encouraging the council to consider this as an opportunity instead of a crisis, asking them to rethink the layout of town offices, with an eye to expediting the permitting and review process.
The price to rebuild the flooded business offices and council chamber would be approximately $249,000, but Kleinschmidt says that for just $430,000 more, the town could create a user-friendly permitting center on the ground floor that would make it easier for developers and homeowners to get projects reviewed by town staffers.
The council has a long-term plan for $4.2 million dollars worth of renovations to Town Hall, but officials say that plan is unfunded and not high on the town's list of priorities.
However, Business Management Director Ken Pennoyer says spending an extra $430,000 now could indefinitely delay the need for large-scale renovation. He says the money could come from the town's fund balance or bonds issued next July.
Some on the council say they want more information before committing the extra money, especially as the remodeling plan does not currently include the cost of stormwater infrastructure improvements to make sure the flooding doesn't happen again.
The council is waiting on a report from Public Works detailing the causes of the flooding before making any final decisions.
http://chapelboro.com/news/local-government/council-considers-revamp-for-flood-damaged-town-hall/CHAPEL HILL- The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools board will discuss school culture, stress and student discipline at tonight's meeting.
Superintendent Tom Forcella writes in a memo to the board that a disproportionate number of minority students in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City schools face discipline or suspension. School officials will review data on race and discipline, with an eye to crafting new policies designed to end the disparity.
In addition, school board members will review the results of a student-led survey of juniors and seniors that highlights academic pressure in the district's high schools. The recommendations from that survey include dropping class ranking, holding students more accountable for on-line courses, and encouraging stress reducing activities throughout the school day.
The board will also review the district's three-year plan for gifted student education.
The board meets at 7 o'clock in Council Chambers at Town Hall.


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Secretary Gates left opponents of Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell repeal hardly any pegs on which to hang their hats. He also tried to goose the Senate into action this year with the threat of 'judicial fiat' of sudden repeal.
If Senate GOPs were to listen to the John McCain of 2006, they'd have no other way to vote but for repeal:
And I understand the opposition to it, and I've had these debates and discussions, but the day that the leadership of the military comes to me and says, Senator, we ought to change the policy, then I think we ought to consider seriously changing it because those leaders in the military are the ones we give the responsibility to.
Of course, McCain today suggests "the policy is working" with no regard for the ruined lives left in its wake, and with no clear understanding of how the policy operates in the military today.
Greg Sargent details the crumbling battlements repeal opponents have to hide behind:
One of the key findings in the report is that a whopping 74 percent of spouses of military service-members say repeal of DADT would have no impact on their view of whether their husbands or wives should continue to serve. This number comes by way of a Congressional staffer who attended a private briefing that the report's authors, Defense Department officials Jeh Johnson and Carter Ham, gave to Senate Armed Services Committee staffers this morning.
This finding is important, because it undercuts a key argument made by repeal opponents: That having service-members mingle with gay colleagues could worry their families.
Also, it seems like the Marines are actually coming around:
According to the source, while the report does find that concern runs high among Marines, it also finds that 84 percent of Marine combat corps combat arms units who said they thought they'd worked with homosexual service-members in the past found the experience either very good, good, or neutral.
Congressman Joe "You Lie!" Wilson thinks DADT repeal shouldn't be rushed: that's his excuse for punting it into the next (GOP-controlled) House of Representatives.
"Using the last days of a lame duck Congress to hastily repeal 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' would be highly irresponsible. Today's Pentagon report must be thoroughly examined by the committees of jurisdiction to determine potential impacts on military recruitment, readiness, and morale. Lawmakers and military leaders need to have as much information as possible before any action is taken on such a significant military policy."
Elaine Donnelly, in an almost comical appearance with MSNBC's Tamron Hall this afternoon, seemed to attack the lack of definition in the Johnson-Ham report for two terms at the center of the debate for 18 years: "unit cohesion" and "readiness."
It seems that, despite Secretary Gates description of delay as 'irresponsible' today in his press conference with Admiral Mullen, and despite the in-depth nature of the report and its accompanying analysis, opponents of DADT repeal have two things to hang their hat(e)s on:
1. The report is terribly flawed.
2. We need more time to study it in detail.
Does anyone else see tension between these two arguments?? I mean, if the report is flawed, why not simply vote against repeal and be done with it? Why take more time to study a flawed report?
Of course, these aren't reasonable objections and, as such, shouldn't be held up for examination for logical consistency. I just think repeal opponents have reached funny-papers status. They remind me of the kid who says, "This ice cream really sucks, can I have more please?"


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Watch Free TV Online
The Internet and the computer are powerful tools. Nowadays, it seems like we can use them for almost anything – listening to music, reading the news, doing homework, contacting someone – almost everything. Another one of those things that the computer and the Internet allows us to do is watching movies and TV shows. Ever miss out on those movies because of their limited schedule? Ever miss out on your favorite TV shows because of their timeslots? Ever missed out on watching movies or your favorite TV series because you just didn't have the time? You don't have to worry about that anymore because of Project Free TV.
Is it Really Free?
The straightforward answer is YES! It's all for FREE. There are no subscription fees, no hidden charges, no micro transactions and no payments to access any exclusive content. You can access all content for free. While some sites charge subscription fees or membership fees, Project Free TV doesn't. If you register, you can access the exclusive forums and get newsletters via email. Regardless if you register or not, you can still watch all the movies and TV series episodes for free.
Where can I Find it?
You can access all of the episodes of your favorite TV series and movies by going towww.projectfree.tv and watch it online.
Why Watch TV Online?
Convenience is the short term answer. You can't deny that there have been times that you missed out on watching an episode or two of your favorite TV shows. Because of their specific timeslots, you have to turn on your TV just to watch that single episode. However, when you watch TV series online, you can not only watch one episode, but you can even watch multiple episodes in one sitting if you're planning to catch up. Your friends are watching the Walking Dead but you missed out on the past seasons? Not to worry. Going online and watching one whole season will allow you to catch up.
All the Good Things of Watching Online
Tired of TV advertisements that only take up valuable minutes of your watching experience? If you watch your TV shows online, you won't have to look at those pesky ads anymore. You won't have to skip them because there aren't any ads to begin with – with how watching TV series online works, the advertisements are long gone from your sight. You won't have to wait for those late night schedules when it comes to watching TV series. Watching online also gives you the freedom to watch your favorite TV shows anytime and anywhere.


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Will Windows 10 Have An Impact On Tablets?
CCS Insight has said that, while Microsoft's share of the tablet market is expected to grow, Windows 10 will have "little impact" before the end of 2016.
CCS has cast its eye over tablet sales, and said that while the market saw minimal growth in 2014, sales are likely to increase by 28 percent in 2015.
The growth will largely be driven by Android, thanks to affordably priced tablets running Google's software, while Apple is expected to continue to woo those in the market for a high-end device.
Apple will also grow its position in the business tablet market, CCS expects, thanks to its partnership with IBM.
However, CCS stressed that Microsoft should not be overlooked. Sales of Windows-based tablets won't see huge growth this year, but will gain a bigger share of the market.
Marina Koytcheva, CCS director of forecasting, said: "We expect Android to continue dominating the low-end and mid-range market, with Apple taking the lion's share of the high-end.
"But Windows is gaining a bigger slice of the pie, albeit from a very low level, and should not be overlooked."
Koytcheva added that Microsoft's decision to scrap its licence fee for Windows devices under 9in is a major factor.
"It has given Windows fresh impetus, as it has spurred manufacturers to produce a better range of devices at a variety of prices, as low as $99 for HP's Stream 7, for example," she said.
Windows 10 is expected to make its debut on 21 January, but isn't likely to have much of an impact, according to CCS.
"Microsoft still runs the risk of failing to convert the wide availability of cheaper Windows tablets into strong growth in unit sales before 2017," Koytcheva said.
"Windows 10 will take time to make its mark, and developers will need a few months to perfect applications for the new platform. We expect Windows 10 to have little impact on tablet sales before late 2016."
Microsoft Releases First Windows 10 Update
Microsoft has issued the first update for Windows 10 Technical Preview, launching its fast-paced release strategy.
The update, designated as Build 9860, followed the Oct. 1 release of the preview, which Microsoft has offered businesses and technology enthusiasts to give potential customers a look at the work in progress and collect feedback during development.
The Oct. 1 version of Windows 10 was labeled Build 9841.
"Sometimes [updates] will be more frequent and sometimes there will be longer gaps, but they will always be chock full of changes and improvements, as well as some bugs and things that are not quite done," wrote Gabe Aul, of Microsoft's Operating Systems Group on a company blog.
Aul said that Build 9860 had been handed to his group only a week ago, and repeated earlier warnings by other Microsoft managers that the preview remains incomplete and unpolished.
Although rapid iterations are nothing new to preview or beta software, Microsoft plans to accelerate the delivery of updates — ones that will include not only security patches and performance fixes, but also new features — once Windows 10 officially ships in mid-2015.
Updates will ship as often as monthly for consumers, while businesses will be able to choose between that and two additional tempos that Gartner has tagged as "near-consumer speed" and "long-term servicing." The former will roll up the "consumer-speed" updates every four to six months to versions that fast-acting enterprises will test and deploy, while the latter will remain feature- and UI-static for as long as two to three years, receiving only security updates.
Other analysts have contended that Microsoft is pushing frequent updates to Windows 10 Technical Preview as much to test the process — both the back-end Windows Update service and the Windows 10 clients' ability to absorb the changes and smoothly install the updates — as for the company's stated reasons of gathering feedback and offering users an early look.
"Changes in Windows Update were put in place to make this possible," Wes Miller, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, said in an interview earlier this month. "The biggest question for Microsoft is how the updating process works with the Technical Preview."
In the preview, customers have an update frequently choice of only "Fast" or "Slow."
Build 9860 will be delivered automatically to most PCs running Windows 10 within days, but users can manually initiate the process by going to "PC Settings," choosing "Update and recovery" and then "Preview builds," and finally clicking the "Check Now" button.
Aul said that the download would weigh in at between 2GB and 2.7GB, and that the reboot, the reconstruction of the OS's search index, and the syncing of OneDrive would take "longer than normal" and "some time."
Microsoft will ship a second consumer-oriented preview in early 2015, but it's virtually certain that the firm will provide more-or-less-monthly updates to the Technical Preview between now and then.
Sharp Has Developed An LCD Panel That Can Come In Any Size
October 10, 2014 by mphillips
Filed under Consumer Electronics
Focusing on use in car dashboards and consoles, Sharp has come up with an LCD panel that can be cut to almost any shape.
Conventional LCD panels are rectangular — something that's required because the tiny chips that drive each pixel of the display are fitted along the edge of the glass panel on which the screen is made. In Sharp's new screens, the chips are embedded between the pixels, which offers more freedom in screen shape.
There's still a requirement for a single straight edge but the rest of the screen can be cut with, say, curved sides so the display completely fills the dashboard area in front of the driver.
Sharp is showing several prototype displays at this week's Ceatec expo in Japan. One, intended for use in the central instrument console, has cutouts for buttons while another has a wavy top that curves around three on-screen dials.
Another advantage of the technology is that because the driver chips are embedded alongside the pixels, the space between the edge of the screen and the edge of the glass is very thin, allowing the screen image to go almost right up to the edge.
Sharp, which is a major manufacturer of liquid crystal displays, said the technology is ready for mass production — it's just waiting for orders from car makers.
But don't expect them next year. Because it takes several years to take a car from concept to commercialization, the screens won't likely be appearing in production models for the next three to five years. Sharp said they'll cost more than rectangular LCDs, but it wouldn't say how much of a premium they will carry.
Should Nintendo Hit The Reset Button?
Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto doesn't want to make games for "passive" people; the attitude that games ought to be to be a roller-coaster ride, to entertain without challenge, is, to his mind, "pathetic". That was the message from the legendary game designer in an E3 interview with Edge magazine, published in this month's edition; it's been presented by other news outlets as a sign of a Nintendo U-turn, moving away from the casual market it sought with the Wii and the DS in favour of re-engaging core gamers.
That's exactly the sort of message that most of the games media wants to hear, of course. The media, after all, speaks exclusively to core gamers; casual players generally don't bother with specialist media. "Nintendo has seen the error of its ways and realised that the only people worth making games for are you, my dear brethren!" is a crowd-pleaser of a message; but it's also a pretty big leap to make from the comments Miyamoto actually made.
First, the context. Edge had just challenged Miyamoto over the fact that his prototype games at E3 were all somewhat difficult to play. They used the Wii U GamePad in new ways which it took a while to get accustomed to; the question implied in the text of Edge's interview isn't about casual games at all, but about the difficulty level of the prototypes. Miyamoto's response does make clear a mental distinction between different types of game consumer and a preference for those who enjoy some challenge in their entertainment, but to extrapolate that into a U-turn in Nintendo's development priorities is an overreach.
In fact, Miyamoto's comments – equating passivity with "the sort of people who, for example, might want to watch a movie. They might want to go to Disneyland. Their attitude is 'OK, I am the customer; you are supposed to entertain me'" – are punching in a number of directions at once. Certainly, he's frustrated by people who play games without ever really engaging with them as a challenge; I doubt he's a fan of free-to-play systems that allow you to pay money to bypass challenges. Equally, though, those comments are an attack on some approaches to AAA game design; barren technological wonders which serve as little more than on-rails galleries for artwork and pale narrative. Miyamoto isn't saying "casuals have ruined the market"; far from it. He's saying that there are consumers who demand spoon-fed entertainment at all points of the spectrum from core to casual, and that he doesn't want to make games for any of them. (It's also worth noting that he's not really blowing his top over this; "pathetic" doesn't carry the same kind of stinging indictment in Japanese that it does in translation.)
Later in the Edge interview, Miyamoto veers back to similar territory when he talks about the proliferation of mainstream game-capable platforms like iOS and Android devices. While adamant that Nintendo needs to continue to make hardware as well as software, he's delighted that these new platforms exist, because they provide an "on-ramp" for consumers who haven't engaged with games before. Nintendo previously saw itself holding a responsibility to try to open up new demographics for the games industry; now it seems that we've reached a tipping point, technologically and culturally, where that's happening by itself.
Edge speculates that this means Miyamoto (and hence Nintendo) believes that the window has shut on making games for entry-level gamers. Titles like Brain Training, which opened up the DS to a huge audience of people who had rarely if ever played games before, may now be pointless; the consumers they ought to target are all playing games on their phones and tablets, so there isn't an addressable market remaining there for dedicated hardware and more expensive (non-F2P) games. This is fair analysis, and indeed, it probably features in Nintendo's thinking; let iOS serve as the entry level for new gamers and then hope that those who enjoy the experience will ultimately upgrade to the superior offerings available on a dedicated console.
At the same time, though, Nintendo itself has a conception of "casual" and "core" that probably isn't shared by the majority of sites reporting Miyamoto's comments. Miyamoto talks not about themes but about enjoyment of challenge as the distinction between the two groups. To him, a supposedly "adult" game full of blood and ripe language could be utterly casual if it spoon-feeds players with dull, linear gameplay. Meanwhile, a brightly coloured Mushroom Kingdom epic could qualify as "core" if it challenges players in the right way. Consequently, Nintendo's family-friendly IP and the broad appeal of its themes is entirely compatible with a focus on "core games", to Miyamoto's mind. What he's talking about changing is something at the root of design, not the thematic wallpaper of the company's games; he wants to challenge people, not to force Nintendo's artists to remove all the primary colours from their Photoshop palettes.
Viewed in this light, Miyamoto's comments are an earnest and down-to-earth appraisal of Nintendo's present situation; still recovering from the heady days of the Wii and figuring out how much of that flash-in-the-pan market is really sustainable, but knuckling down to the challenge of entertaining and delighting (and of course, selling to) those within the audience who really enjoyed games rather than latching onto the platform as a fad. Contrary to the more excitable reportage on his comments, Miyamoto is promising no major changes to Nintendo's approach; rather, he's re-committing himself and the company to the same course of action which delivered games like Mario Kart 8, a title firmly within the family-friendly Nintendo tradition and absolutely celebratory of challenge and good design.
"Core gamer" is a phrase that's picked up a strong whiff of soi-disant elitism and exclusion over the past few years; the phrase "as a core gamer…" in a forum post or comment thread is this odd little corner of society's equivalent of "I'm not a racist, but…", indicating a post that's probably going to brim with self-important awfulness. The bête noire of the core gamer is the "casual", and just as any move by a game creator or publisher to cater to "casuals" is despised and derided, any prodigal son who declares their abandonment of the casual market and return to the core is greeted with an I-told-you-so roar of delight. This is a thin sliver of the market overall, of course, but a noisy one; as such, it's worth reiterating that what Miyamoto absolutely did not say is that Nintendo is resetting its course to please these people. Nintendo, for many years to come, will still be a company defined by games that are broadly appealing, generally family-friendly and enormously accessible. Under Miyamoto's watchful eye, they'll also be challenging and engaging; but anyone taking his comments on "passivity" as near-confirmation that we'll see Grand Theft Mario down the line is utterly misreading the situation.
Is The Wii-U Making A Comeback?
A new survey commissioned by IHS in partnership with Gamer Network has shown that E3 gave a huge boost to the number of people interested in buying a Wii U, with purchasing intent growing by 50 per cent over the course of the event.
Around one thousand core gamers were surveyed on various purchase intentions before and after the LA show, revealing that, whilst Nintendo's platform started out with the lowest number of people looking at buying it, it saw the biggest benefit from the show's exposure. 20 per cent of respondents now intend to buy the machine, equal to those who are looking at an Xbox One, which saw a seven per cent increase in popularity.
Sony's PS4, a clear leader going in to E3, lost ground to its competitors, sinking below 30 per cent of respondents.
In terms of anticipated games, consumers are champing at the bit for 2015′s third-party releases, with Warner's Arkham Knight leading the charge with an incredible 60 per cent of those surveyed intending to buy the game for at least one platform. Gamers are slightly less excited for 2014′s titles, but Activision's Destiny is the narrow leader for this year, edging out AC: Unity and GTA V with just under 50 per cent. Both Battlefield Hardline and CoD: Advanced Warfare are lagging behind slightly.
As might be expected, purchasing intent is higher amongst first-party exclusives for current platform owners. On PS4, Uncharted 4 was the most popular game both before and after E3 with 76 per cent of PS4 owners expected to buy it. On Xbox One, it's Halo which pays the piper, garnering support from 77 per cent of One owners. Over on the Wii U and amazing 89 per cent of owners expect to buy the new Zelda game when it's released. None of these platform-exclusive heavy hitters will land until 2015 at the earliest, which IHS predicts will increase pre-Christmas reliance on multi-platform games for Microsoft, Sony and, to a lesser extent, Nintendo.
"Although there are other exclusive titles coming in 2014 or already available," the report reads, "none hold the influence that these leading titles have in terms of selling console hardware, with the exception of Mario Kart 8 for Wii U. As a result, the success of console sales this holiday shopping season will depend more heavily on the total value and content proposition including exclusive content offered by multi-platform games rather than a single, very influential system-selling exclusive. This factor will impact the marketing strategies of the platform holders as we move into 2014′s main shopping season."
NASA Upgrades The Robonaut In Space
July 24, 2014 by mphillips
Filed under Around The Net
The 300-pound humanoid robot working on the International Space Station is getting several upgrades, including new processors and software, in preparation of having a pair of legs attached to it.
Robonaut 2, also known as R2, is the legless but humanoid robot that has been working on the space station since 2011.
"Commander Steve Swanson focused his attention primarily on mobility upgrades for the station's robotic crew member, Robonaut 2," NASA reported on its website. "Since arriving aboard the station in May 2011 during the STS-134 space shuttle mission, Robonaut has been put through a series of increasingly complex tasks to test the feasibility of a humanoid robot taking over routine and mundane chores or even assisting a spacewalker outside the station."
In March, SpaceX, a commercial space flight company that runs cargo missions to the space station, brought up a pair of robotic legs for Robonaut.
Once the legs are attached to R2′s torso, the robot will have a fully extended leg span of nine feet. That will give it "great flexibility" to move around the inside and outside of the space station, according to NASA.
The robot has 38 PowerPC processors, including 36 embedded chips, which control the robot's joints. Each leg has seven joints and a device on its foot, dubbed an end effector, a tool that enables the robot to use handrails and sockets.
Since Robonaut was unpacked and set up on the station in 2011, astronauts have run experiments to see how the robot functions in space. NASA scientists also have been working with astronauts onboard the station to get them to use the robot and put them at ease with it.
So far, the robot, which can communicate using sign language, has been able to correctly press buttons, flip switches and turn knobs. It also has worked with tools, using an air flow meter and an RFID inventory scanner, according to NASA.
In preparation for attaching Robonaut's legs, the astronauts installed new processors and replaced fans, a power distribution board and other components inside the robot's torso.
Last weekend, NASA's robotics team on the ground remotely deployed software for the robot's new processors. NASA has not specified what type of processors or what software has been added.
NASA originally planned to install and test the robot's legs in June, that didn't happen and a new installation timeframe has not been announced.
Did Mario Kart Save The Wii U?
June 23, 2014 by Michael
Filed under Uncategorized
The Wii U has struggled since its launch nearly two years ago, but the console is ready to pull a 3DS-like resurrection, Nintendo of America executive VP of sales and marketing Scott Moffitt stated.
The 3DS stumbled at launch, enduring sluggish sales until Nintendo instituted a drastic price cut on the hardware. While Moffitt noted the impact of the price cut, he said a pair of first-party releases was another key driver in reversing the handheld's fortunes.
"We had the price cut in August [2011], and then we had Mario Kart 7, Super Mario 3D Land, which really drove sales that first holiday, and on 3DS we haven't looked back," Moffitt said. "So we've had momentum ever since that first holiday and we've got now 260 some games in the library and some of the best, most highest rated, most highest quality content we've ever had on that platform. Everything we launched seems to do above forecast and surprises us on the positive side."
The situation with the Wii U is similar, Moffitt said, adding that the console is about to reach a very similar tipping point.
"As I look at what we have coming this holiday, now with Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros, plus the innovation of Amiibo, I think we are right at that tipping point where we have a lot of great content that is about to be released for that platform that's going to tempt gamers into buying the system," Moffitt said. "From the comments I'm reading online, and following gamers' comments, I think there are a lot of people that are going to have a hard time resisting buying a Wii U once Smash Bros comes out. I think that's going to be a major hardware driver for us. So that's the narrative we hope that plays out and that I think we are starting to see play out."
One avenue that Nintendo won't be pursuing to spike Wii U sales is an unbundling of the GamePad, Xbox One Kinect-style. Both companies pitched the peripherals as essential components of their visions, but when Xbox One sales lagged, Microsoft found the demands of potential customers more convincing than their original plans. While Moffitt said Nintendo is still working to create gameplay experiences that demonstrate the true benefits of the Wii U GamePad, he said removing it from the hardware bundle is not in consideration.
"We think GamePad is the only innovation that's come in this new generation of consoles. So we have the only real point of difference. Certainly graphics are faster, graphics are better. This is not a real innovation for gamers. We are fully committed to leveraging the GamePad, to keeping it bundled with the system."
As for the problem of third-party support for Wii U, Moffitt namechecked the continued efforts of partners like Sega, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, and Activision. While some big companies who have dropped the system, Moffitt understood why that would have happened and acknowledged it was Nintendo's problem to fix.
"It's all about driving the install base and so that's our work to do, right? We need to get to a critical mass where it makes financial sense for them," he said.
Moffitt added that third-party games don't all come from the big AAA publishers. He touted the company's efforts in lowering the barriers to entry for indie developers looking to publish on Nintendo platforms.
"We talked to a lot of them before launching the Wii U and we addressed some of the issues that really were holding some of them back from developing realistic content on our platform," Moffitt said. "At least for the indie community, we've become a lot easier to do business with and we're seeing a steady flow of content now."
However, those efforts were largely invisible at E3. Where Microsoft and Sony devoted sections of their booths to indie developers working on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 respectively, there was no such equivalent in Nintendo's booth.
"With any show, you have choices to make," Moffitt said. "Every time I go down to our booth floor and see how many people are waiting to play Super Smash Bros, when I look outside at the Best Buys… Last night we had four hours of game play on Super Smash Bros. and we had 1,000 people in line. We had to turn people away. So it's a tough choice for us as a platform holder. We don't have enough game stations down there on Smash Bros. We try to feature as much content as we can in the limited space that we have. Right now we just have a lot of demand for Super Smash Bros. We could have used 10 more game stations on that game alone. Choices have to be made."
Finally, Moffitt weighed in on the VR trend. While Nintendo has a distant history in the field with the Virtual Boy headset, Moffitt suggested Nintendo was taking a wait-and-see approach toward returning to it
"What I'd say is it's appealing technology," Moffitt said. "It's interesting. We're going to follow it closely to see where it goes. It's got a lot of advantages. It's got one disadvantage relative to what we know is often very fun for gamers, which is playing games socially in a living room. This is a very single player solitary gaming experience. Not all of our games are fun to play with multiple people in a living room in front of a game console but it doesn't lend itself to that kind of an experience as well as what Wii U does now. That would be a disadvantage of going in that direction. Could it be a nice addition to our hardware platform? Sure."
Amazon Claims Mayday Button On Fire HDX Tablet Is A Hit
June 16, 2014 by mphillips
Filed under Consumer Electronics
Amazon is bragging that its Mayday tech support button on the Fire HDX tablet has become the most popular way to get 24/7 tech help, with an average response time of just 9.75 seconds.
When the Mayday button was announced with the Fire HDX eight months ago, Amazon said its response time goal was 15 seconds or less.
Amazon Customer Service Director Scott Brown said in a statement that the Mayday concept is working well and has helped revolutionize tech support.
About 75% of customer contacts regarding the Fire HDX come via the Mayday button to get a tech response. A tech then appears in a live video stream on a portion of the display (although the tech cannot see the customer). The tech can then make notations on a user's display or help a user navigate through a process.
Amazon touted the lighter side of instant tech support using Mayday in a statement. Customers have asked tech advisors to draw on their screens, including everything from happy faces to rainbows, unicorns, fire-breathing dragons and aliens. One customer asked a tech adviser to sing happy birthday to someone receiving the Fire HDX as a gift as the person was receiving it.
Some tech advisors have even received date requests and marriage proposals, Amazon said.
There's also a more serious side to the concept, analysts said: The Mayday button's popularity should be a wake-up call to product manufacturers, many of whom suffer low customer-service ratings and should consider more personal contact with users.
"Companies could learn a lot from the way Amazon does customer service," said Jack Gold, an analyst at J. Gold Associates. "The focus Amazon has on customers, and has had for years, is often what makes users so sticky to them. It's true of their general Amazon Web site, too. Consumers love good customer service."
Gold said that what Amazon's done with Mayday is not completely new, as enterprises have provided remote screen control, without video streaming, to IT help desk personnel serve users for years. "Remote control is not as slick as the Mayday button, and Amazon has made it work fast and easy," he said.
Philips Electronics Wants The Wii U Banned
Philips is looking to get Nintendo's Wii U games consoles banned in the US.
Philips has patents in its sights and it said that those patents belong to it and are being used without permission.
The firm has filed a complaint for patent infringement with the US District Court for the District of Delaware, and that has been published on Scribd.
The complaint accuses Nintendo of infringing two Philips patents, and Philips said that they are used in the Wii console and its peripherals. It is pushing for a US sales ban.
The patent numbers at issue end in 379 and 231. Philips claims that it alerted Nintendo to its infringing use of 379 as early as 2011. It registered patent 231 last year and the patent covers interactive device pointing, which is rather a key element of the Wii experience.
Philips is asking for a ban on Wii U sales in the US and monetary damages. The impact on Nintendo could be significant if a sales ban in put in place. So far we have not been able to get a response from the company.
The Philips complaint identifies a long list of infringing hardware. "The infringing interactive virtual modeling products of Nintendo include but are not limited to motion-controlled gaming consoles and motion-detecting devices such as the Wii video gaming systems and related software and accessories including, for example, the Wii console, Wii Remote Plus Controller, Wii Remote Controller, Wii Nunchuk Controller, Wii MotionPlus, Wii Balance Board, Wii U console, Wii U GamePad, and Wii Mini," it says. "The infringement by Nintendo has been deliberate and willful."
Philips has requested a jury trial.
Apple Offers To Fix Defect In Older iPhones
Apple Inc has said that it will replace faulty on-off buttons on the iPhone 5, a rare glitch that it said on Friday affected "a small percentage" of the previous-generation smartphones.
Apple said on its user-support page that "iPhone 5 models manufactured through March 2013 may be affected by this issue," in which the button, also known as a sleep/wake mechanism, stops functioning or works only intermittently.
It did not say how many phones were shipped with the faulty mechanism. Owners can type in their iPhone serial numbers on Apple's website to see if their phones qualify for a fix, then either take their gadgets to a store or mail them in to be repaired.
"Apple will offer the service free of charge to iPhone 5 customers with models that exhibit this issue and have a qualifying serial number," spokeswoman Teresa Brewer said in a statement on Friday.
Apple rarely initiates large-scale repair programs for its products, and iPhone glitches are rare. The company prides itself on hardware engineering and design, particularly for a flagship phone that yields more than half its revenue.
In a 2010 incident dubbed "Antennagate," the company famously admitted that its iPhone 4 may experience signal loss when handled a certain way. The company subsequently offered free phone casings to correct the issue.
Apple began selling the iPhone 5S and the cheaper 5C in late 2013. In the first quarter, it moved a better-than-expected 43.7 million phones, helped by the gadget's increasing popularity in markets like Japan and China.
Federal Judge Blocks Typo Keyboard Sales As Fight Continues With BlackBerry
A California judge has granted BlackBerry's wish to temporarily stop sales of an iPhone keyboard made by start-up Typo Products while the two firms spar over copyright infringement allegations.
BlackBerry had petitioned the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in late January to block sales of the Typo keyboard because it was an "obvious knock-off" of the keyboards on its phones.
In a ruling issued late Friday, Judge William Orrick said "BlackBerry has established a likelihood of proving that Typo infringes the patents at issue and Typo has not presented a substantial question of the validity of those patents."
The court's decision will be a blow to Typo, which had asserted that its keyboards were sufficiently different.
The Typo keyboard was first unveiled in January and is designed to slip onto an iPhone 5 or 5S like a protective case. It costs $99 and has received attention in part because Typo is backed by U.S. TV and radio personality Ryan Seacrest.
BlackBerry quickly moved to sue Typo claiming its keyboard was a copy of those found on BlackBerry handsets.
The company currently sells several phones with a physical keyboard and plans to launch at least one more later this year.
Earlier Friday, CEO John Chen said BlackBerry would launch a new model called the Q20 "Classic" later this year that includes the trackpad and 'Menu,' 'Back,' 'Send' and 'End' buttons along the top of the keyboard that helped make the company famous.
As a next step in the California case, BlackBerry will have to post a bond with the court that would cover Typo's losses should it eventually be decided that Typo's keyboard does not infringe on BlackBerry's patents.
Typo has a week to come up with a detailed accounting of how much money it could lose as a result of the injunction.
Typo could not immediately be reached for comment.
The case is 14-00023, BlackBerry vs Typo Products, at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco.
PC Security Industry Tries To Save Windows XP
It looks like the security industry has seen money in propping up the elderly Window XP software. Malwarebytes has released Anti-Malware Premium, a new tool designed to protect home PCs against what it calls advanced criminal software which traditional anti-virus cannot detect.
However, what is interesting is that the outfit is claiming that it will support XP users for life. Apparently, they make up 20 per cent of Malwarebytes' user-base and could be at greater risk when updates stop on April 8. So it could be marketing, but it could indicate that Redmond might have difficulty killing off the OS if it is being propped up by the security industry.
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Premium apparently uses Anti-Rootkit technology, which rips out and fixes the damage done by malicious software hiding at an extremely deep-level in the operating system. Premium has added updated malicious URL blocking and enhanced protection from unwanted programs such as aggressive adware and toolbars. A new user interface and ultra-quick threat scan, ensure the product is easy to use.
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Premium is available from the online store for an annual subscription of $24.95, and provides coverage for up to three PCs. Users with existing lifetime licenses for Malwarebytes Anti-Malware PRO will receive a free upgrade to the new product.
Will Nintendo's Long Term Strategy Work?
Nintendo has issued a detailed and far-reaching response to the pervasive concerns about its future as a business.
In a meeting with investors, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata outlined the company's strategy in both the short-term and as far ahead as 2016. From changing the fortunes of the Wii U to evolving the way we think about game consoles as a concept, Nintendo displayed striking candour in its attempt to allay the criticisms it has received since it drastically reduced its sales forecasts earlier this month.
However, Iwata was clear about one thing from the outset: regardless of what followed, there are certain aspects of Nintendo's business that will not change, namely the frequently proposed idea that it should take its IP stable to new platforms.
"Dedicated video game platforms which integrate hardware and software will remain our core business," he said. "Naturally, we are moving ahead with research and development efforts for future hardware as we have done before, and we are not planning to give up our own hardware systems and shift our axis toward other platforms.
"Dedicated video game platforms which integrate hardware and software will remain our core business… We are not planning to give up our own hardware systems and shift our axis toward other platforms"
"From a medium- to long-term standpoint…we don't believe that following trends will lead to a positive outcome for Nintendo as an entertainment company. Instead, we should continue to make our best efforts to seek a blue ocean with no rivals and create a new market with innovative offerings."
Here are the key points from Iwata's presentation
The Wii U is Nintendo's top priority
It is no secret that Nintendo has struggled to repeat the success of the Wii with the Wii U, but Iwata reassured investors that it has no intention of abandoning its ailing console. The possibility of a further reduction in price was ruled out immediately, with Iwata instead emphasising the company's ongoing failure to adequately demonstrate the value of the GamePad controller, and to distinguish the console from its hugely popular predecessor.
"By looking at the current sales situation, I am aware that this is due to our lack of effort," he said. "Our top priority task this year is to offer software titles that are made possible because of the GamePad… We have managed to offer several of such software titles for occasions when many people gather in one place to play, but we have not been able to offer a decisive software title that enriches the user's gameplay experience when playing alone with the GamePad. This will be one of the top priorities of Mr. Miyamoto's software development department this year."
Iwata offered a strong first-step by setting an official May release date for the release of Mario Kart 8, but he also indicated that Nintendo's development teams would focus on the GamePad's near-field communication (NFC) function – the same basic technology as that used in lucrative franchises like Skylanders and Disney Infinity. Iwata promised more details of its plans for NFC at E3 in June.
The end of "device-based relationships"
While many have cited the Wii U as evidence of Nintendo's failure to respond to the changes in the games industry since the launch of the Wii, Iwata stated that the company has already laid the foundations for a fundamental shift in the way it thinks about its products.
Before now, Nintendo had "device-based relationships" with its customers. This was mitigated somewhat by the strength of its software IP, but fundamentally the link with any given consumer followed the lifecycle of each piece of hardware. "We became disconnected with our consumers with the launch of each new device as we could only form device-based relationships," he said.
However, the Wii U saw the introduction of "Nintendo Network IDs," an attempt to create "account-based" customer relationships that could continue across different hardware platforms and generations. In the future, Iwata said, "connecting with our consumers through NNIDs will precisely be our new definition of a Nintendo platform."
With this in mind, Iwata was able to put an end to the speculation around Nintendo's strategy for smartphones and tablets. He made it quite clear that Nintendo has no plans to release its games on smart devices, but it does intend to use them as a way to communicate and build relationships with new audiences. Iwata offered few details of how the company intends to accomplish that goal, but he indicated that it would include a mobile app that leveraged Nintendo's existing IP to raise awareness of its hardware and software.
"I have not given any restrictions to the development team, even not ruling out the possibility of making games or using our game characters. However, if you report that we will release Mario on smart devices, it would be a completely misleading statement. It is our intention to release some application on smart devices this year that is capable of attracting consumer attention and communicating the value of our entertainment offerings."
Flexible pricing for existing and emerging markets
The existence of NNIDs and account-based relationships will also give Nintendo the ability to alter the way its products are sold. Iwata highlighted the company's role in establishing the model of selling a console for several hundred dollars and individual games for fifty or sixty dollars, but Nintendo now recognises that this model is no longer viable in the long-term.
The first aspect of this that Nintendo intends to challenge is the fixed price-point of software. Iwata suggested a system where the price of a games could be tailored to individual customers based on their NNIDs: someone who purchased five games in a year might pay less and less for each one, for example, or there might be incentives tied to recommending a game to a friend.
"If we can achieve such a sales mechanism, we can expect to increase the number of players per title, and the players will play our games with more friends. This can help maintain the high usage ratio of a platform… Nintendo aims to work on this brand-new sales mechanism in the medium term, but we would like to start experimenting with Wii U at an early stage."
"While we will continue to devote our energy to dedicated video game platforms, our first step into a new business area is the theme of 'Health'"
This flexibility will also extend to emerging markets for gaming across the world. Nintendo is a globally recognised brand, but Iwata conceded that the price of its products has put them beyond the reach of people in certain countries. While Iwata didn't mention any specific regions, he is likely referring to countries like Brazil and India, where the interest in gaming has increased in concert with the disposable income available to the population.
"To leverage Nintendo's strength as an integrated hardware-software business, we will not rule out the idea of offering our own hardware for new markets. But for dramatic expansion of the consumer base there, we require a product family of hardware and software with an entirely different price structure from that of the developed markets.
"We aim to connect with consumers who do not own Nintendo's video game systems yet, which will play an important role in cultivating new markets. Once we can establish such a connection with consumers in these nations, we will be able to use smart devices to share our information as well as important content distribution infrastructure. We plan to take significant steps toward such a new market approach in the year 2015.
Going beyond games
There may be no chance of playing Super Mario World on an iPad anytime soon, Iwata did state Nintendo's interest in making money from its IP outside of first-party video games. Nintendo has always been very cautious of damaging its iconic characters through excessive merchandising and licensing, but one need only look at Rovio's Angry Birds to see how much profitable such deals can be. Indeed, Iwata attributed the strength of Nintendo's IP stable to that very reluctance, but, he said, "we are going to change our policy going forward."
"To be more precise, we will actively expand our character licensing business, including proactively finding appropriate partners. In fact, we have been actively selling character merchandise for about a year in the U.S. Also, we will be flexible about forming licensing relationships in areas we did not license in the past, such as digital fields, provided we are not in direct competition and we can form win-win relationships.
"By moving forward with such activities globally, we aim to increase consumer exposure to Nintendo characters by making them appear in places other than on video game platforms."
Nintendo's new business idea: Health
Iwata closed the presentation with Nintendo's planned entry into an entirely new area of business, one that will provide the "blue ocean" the company so desperately needs.
"While we will continue to devote our energy to dedicated video game platforms, what I see as our first step into a new business area in our endeavour to improve [quality of life] is the theme of "Health." Of course, defining a new entertainment business that seeks to improve [quality of life] creates various possibilities for the future such as "learning" and "lifestyle," but it is our intention to take "health" as our first step."
Again, exact details of what this focus on health will entail were not provided, but Iwata described the concept as "an integrated hardware-software platform business" that will use the company's experience making products like Wii Fit, Brain Age and the Touch Generations series as a springboard for a more pervasive and persistent initiative.
"We will be able to provide feedback to our consumers on a continual basis, and our approach will be to redefine the notion of health-consciousness, and eventually increase the fit population… I feel that not only can this [quality of life]-improving platform utilise our know-how and experience about video game platforms, but also we can expect it to interact with games and create a synergistic effect.
"While we feel that this is going to take two to three years after its launch, we expect the [quality of life]-improving platform to provide us with new themes which we can then turn into games that operate on our future video game platforms, too. Once we have established such a cycle, we will see continuous positive interactions between the two platforms that enable us to make unique propositions."
Iwata promised to announce more details this year, and confirmed that the new business will officially launch during the fiscal year ending March 2016.
Does Nintendo Need Smartphones To Survive?
Nintendo blew it. That much is clear, and even Satoru Iwata doesn't debate it – Nintendo blew it. The financials could be much worse, but the unit sales? Way, way below targets, and in the case of Wii U, way below sustainability. Nintendo blew it! Shout it from the rooftops, if you can find space on a rooftop next to all the people who are already shouting it, with altogether too much peculiar jubilance in their snide, told-you-so voices.
Nintendo blew it. Blew what, though? That's a tougher question. The company's year has been a lot more complex than anyone is giving it credit for. In 2013, Nintendo was proud owner of the best-selling console in every major territory worldwide, and launched an enviable range of first-party software titles that sold over a million copies each – more than any other publisher out there. The company retained its crown as the biggest platform holder and the biggest software publisher in the business.
Yet, Nintendo blew it, because it also had a platform that utterly under-performed even the most conservative of estimates – a console that, on its current trajectory, is set to undershoot the low bar set by the GameCube and become the firm's worst performing home console ever. Moreover, Nintendo blew it in a subtle but crucially important way – with startling incompetence for a company of its size, the firm predicted sales figures for both the 3DS and the Wii U which were absolutely ludicrous and then failed to revise them as the year carried on, meaning that even the solidly performing 3DS has undershot its targets, while the Wii U looks even worse than it ought to (which is pretty bad to begin with).
"Nintendo's stock didn't tumble too badly after it revised its guidance, largely since nobody with a clue actually thought the firm was going to hit its targets anyway"
This latter aspect has made the coverage of Nintendo's situation even more negative than it would already have been (and there are plenty of people waiting to pile onto the company at the slightest provocation), since it covers up the success of the 3DS and its software line-up – seriously, 3DS has had an amazing year for software and is now set up with a library that effectively secures the console's future – in a heavy smearing of corporate incompetence. It has also, understandably, deeply annoyed shareholders, because they rely on companies making accurate predictions to figure out whether or not to pick up stock in a firm. That said, Nintendo's stock didn't tumble too badly after it revised its guidance, largely since nobody with a clue actually thought the firm was going to hit its targets anyway. Incidentally, the company's stock price is about 50% higher today than it was 12 months ago, in line with the rise in the Nikkei 225 index – which means that Japanese investors, at least, are rating the company as broadly neutral rather than actually negative.
Still, Nintendo blew it, and that means lots of people are making angry noises. Iwata must go, say some; Nintendo must exit hardware, say others; time for Mario on smartphones, say still others. The owners of all of those voices are going to be disappointed – not least, I believe, because very few of them actually understand Nintendo as a company or the Japanese corporate environment in which it operates. They don't understand that activist shareholders don't mean a tuppenny damn to a company whose shares are largely held by a combination of the founding family, the senior staff and (more significantly still) the complex web of interrelated share- and debt-holdings that connects Nintendo with Japanese banks and other corporations, none of whom have the slightest concern in being "activist" except in the most extreme of circumstances. An earnings miss? Pah! Japanese corporations routinely missed annual earnings every year for decades after the Asian Financial Crisis of the early 1990s, but shareholder pressure to change top management never materialised then, and it won't materialise now. Iwata is secure until he does something sufficiently wrong to have a taint of scandal around it, and that's deeply unlikely to happen.
Exiting hardware? Absolutely no chance. Nintendo's primary view of itself is as a toy company and its core business model is selling hardware (generally profitably) and then selling software that runs on that hardware (extremely profitably). The synergy between the company's hardware side and its software side is legendary, as is the extent to which each Nintendo platform is designed with the requirements of planned first-party software in mind. For that reason alone, it's likely that the Wii U will eventually have a clutch of startlingly excellent games, matching last year's critically acclaimed Super Mario 3D World in quality – although whether that will actually do anything to resuscitate sales is another question entirely. The point is that this approach isn't going to change; the inertia behind Nintendo as a hardware company is immense, and moreover, despite this year's earnings miss, it's largely working. Nintendo is, pretty much every year, the largest and most successful game software company in the world. Would it retain that crown on someone else's hardware? If you rush to answer "yes!" to that question, either your crystal ball gazing skills are excellent or you haven't thought about it hard enough; I don't think there is a good answer to that question right now, and I know Nintendo will be eyeing Sega's post-hardware decline and thinking about its own potential fortunes as one-among-many on a smartphone app store. Right now, Nintendo has around 40 million 3DS owners who are keenly anticipating future first-party releases from the company – keenly enough that they start to agitate and make noise if there's ever a gap in the release schedule. Would that be true on iOS, or Android, or even on a competitor's console platform?
"one of the company's failings, in some regards, is that it still doesn't really have a global outlook, with Nintendo of America and Nintendo Europe being rather stunted"
How about a limited engagement with smartphones, then, even if they wouldn't make the leap entirely? That's plausible. Nintendo's primary point of reference for its product decisions is Japan – one of the company's failings, in some regards, is that it still doesn't really have a global outlook, with Nintendo of America and (even more so) Nintendo Europe being rather stunted local offshoots whose actual contribution to the firm's planning and success is pretty obviously minimal. In Japan, smartphone games are a huge sector, and interestingly, there's seemingly more of a market for premium-priced games than there is in the west, where free-to-play is increasingly the only show in town (although premium-priced games are carving out an interesting niche there too). There is, I believe, some potential for Nintendo to start putting Virtual Console titles on smartphones, perhaps initially through a tie-up with one of Japan's carriers. However, I'd expect this roll-out to be slow and careful, with Nintendo incredibly mindful of the possibility of damaging its core brands by launching Mario or Zelda games tainted by emulation problems or crap touchscreen controls. Still – it could happen, and is by far the most likely of the "demands" being made of the firm to actually be met in some limited form.
If Iwata isn't going to go (he's not), Nintendo isn't going to exit hardware (they're not) and the company's future isn't on smartphones (it's not, although some cautious toes in that water may be seen in time), then what is Nintendo's reaction to its present situation going to be?
I've stated this before, but it bears repeating – Nintendo has incredibly, insanely deep pockets. The firm has set aside a vast war chest over the course of its successful years, and it can easily ride out even the complete failure of a console platform, supporting that platform sufficiently to satisfy consumers while quietly working on a replacement. That's what Satoru Iwata told me Nintendo would do if the Wii failed completely – they'd make something else and try that instead – and I see no reason why that logic would have changed. If anything, the firm's financial position is even stronger now than it was then.
What will Nintendo make? There's a lot of speculation around that, but most of it is evolutionary. A faster, more powerful DS / 3DS style handheld. A Nintendo tablet, capable of handheld gaming and being hooked up to a TV. A full-spec next-gen console built to rival the PS4. All of these are options for the company – the tablet computer one is even an interesting one, combining as it does the handheld market (which Nintendo always dominates) with the home console market (where it's hit and miss). However, they all miss the crucial ingredient which Nintendo actually requires to bring itself back to success – surprise.
"Nintendo needs the element of surprise. It surprised the hell out of everyone with the DS, it surprised everyone with the Wii"
Nintendo needs the element of surprise. It surprised the hell out of everyone with the DS, a daft, stupid idea for a handheld console that everyone expected to be trounced by the much more comprehensible PSP. It surprised everyone with the Wii, a weird, tiny, underpowered system with a controller that looked nothing like we expected – so odd that it led me to rather bluntly ask Iwata what he planned to do if everyone hated it and the system flopped, hence his comment above. The DS is the best-selling console in history (or at least, tied for that honour with the PS2); the Wii trounced the Xbox 360 and PS3 in the last generation of hardware. Nintendo does exceptionally well when it surprises people. It creates a clear gap between itself and the competition and makes "the Nintendo Difference" into more than just a silly slogan. Even those who own a more "mainstream" console end up wanting a Nintendo one too, because it's so interesting and different, while those from outside the core gamer market find themselves intrigued by the very peculiarity and curiosity of the devices and their software.
3DS and Wii U fail the surprise test. They're practically indistinguishable from their predecessors, both in appearance and in branding. 3DS suffered terribly from being mistaken for a new version of the original DS hardware; the Wii U, I suspect, is doing even worse, with many consumers not realising that it's a new console entirely and not a new controller for the Wii. There's been a disastrous failure of communication, branding and marketing, which has compounded the more basic error – assuming that the success of the Wii meant people wanted more of that kind of thing. Nintendo's strength is providing people will surprises, things that look daft to begin with and then turn out to be precisely what we always wanted and never realised. If it's to successfully come back from its present mess, it needs to do so by surprising us, not by following along the dull path analysts would now demand of it.
That, I earnestly hope, is what the company is working hard on in Kyoto right now. I don't want Nintendo to abandon the Wii U, and I don't think that will happen. The installed base is small, but big enough to be worth caring about, and the console still has the makings of a profitable platform, albeit a niche one. However, alongside continued support for the Wii U (and hopefully, a drastic change in marketing and branding), Nintendo is hopefully also working on something else; something more important and simply more Nintendo; its next big surprise.
Will Nintendo Move To Smartphones And Tablets?
Nintendo reportedly is looking to mobile devices to save its struggling business, after it admitted last week that the Wii U isn't selling.
On Thursday, Nintendo slashed its Wii U sales forecast, acknowledging that despite previously expecting to shift nine million units between April 2013 and March this year, it now expects sales of just 2.8 million. Nintendo's 3DS console isn't selling well either, leading the firm to admit that it expects to post a $240m annual loss.
These clearly are signs that Nintendo is losing its appeal in the gaming market, and although there are still many dedicated Wii U gamers out there, the firm is struggling to compete against the Sony Playstation 4 (PS4) and Microsoft Xbox One games consoles.
It seems that Nintendo is starting to realize this too, and it admitted over the weekend that it might look to mobiles and tablets to save the future of the company, following rumors that the firm may be planning its own Android tablet for educational use.
Although the company had previous said that you're unlikely to ever see Mario Kart running on an iPhone, Nintendo president Satoru Itawa hinted that the firm's stance on mobile devices has changed, with the company exploring the possibility of bringing its titles to smartphones and tablets.
"We are thinking about a new business structure. Given the expansion of smart devices, we are naturally studying how smart devices can be used to grow the game-player business," Itawa said.
"The way people use their time, their lifestyles, who they are have changed. If we stay in one place, we will become outdated."
However, Itawa admitted, "It's not as simple as enabling Mario to move on a smartphone," hinting that the firm will develop dedicated games for mobile devices, rather than porting those it already has.


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Teach English in Medan, North Sumatra - Indonesia
Posted By: SYNERGY International Training and Consultancy (SITC) <email@example.com>
Date: Monday, 14 July 2014, at 6:44 a.m.
Teach English in Medan, North Sumatra - Indonesia
SYNERGY International Training and Consultancy (SITC), based in Medan, North Sumatera, Indonesia, is currently looking for highly motivated Native English Teachers to start in August/September 2014. We provide all levels of English language tuition to children and adults. Our aim is to prepare students for the Cambridge English exams, from YLE to CAE, as well as university entrance level examinations, such as IELTS, OET, SAT, TOEIC and TOEFL. We are particularly interested in teachers with experience in preparing students for university entrance level examinations, although further training can be given to teachers with experience at other levels.
One year renewable contract
Competitive salary
Visa, Work Permit and Foreign Workers Tax paid by us
End of contract bonus equal to one month's salary
Flight allowance reimbursed on completion of one year contract
25 days paid leave plus Indonesian national holidays
Medical insurance or an allowance towards the cost of medical insurance
5 days paid sick leave per contractual year
Housing allowance to help towards the cost of accommodation
Help in finding suitable accommodation
On-going support to help you adapt culturally to the new environment
Free Internet access on school premises
Progressive teacher training to ensure professional competency at all levels.JOB REQUIREMENTS:
Minimum BA degree
CELTA or equivalent language teaching certificate
Minimum of one year's teaching experience
Culturally aware and able to be flexible and adapt to cultural differences
Professional in appearance and behaviorIf you are interested in joining us, please e-mail your resume to email@example.com , together with a cover letter detailing your current contact details and telephone number, your working history to date, the level and age groups you prefer to teach, your reasons for wanting to come to Indonesia, your date of availability, and a suitable date and time for a skype interview. We will also need a copy of the information page of your passport for visa application procedures.
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Friday, July 4, 2014
This Friday, July 4, 2014 aerial photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard shows flooding caused by Hurricane Arthur on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Arthur struck North Carolina as a Category 2 storm with winds of 100 mph late Thursday, taking about five hours to move across the far eastern part of the state.
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Our Story
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The site itself is absolutely breath-taking, the staff is ridiculously friendly, and the food was truly delicious!! Everything is all inclusive there and we were able to have a whole weekend event rather than just one special day. It allowed to spend quality time with friends and family that was priceless. My wedding would not have been my dream come true if it weren't for this place. I couldn't have been happier with everything they offered.
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Located on 104 acres of redwood forests in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Amphitheatre of the Redwoods at Pema Osel Ling hosts destination wedding venues, ceremonies and receptions, retreats, and parties. Our eco-friendly retreat center features two choices for your wedding ceremony and reception, indoor and outdoor meeting areas, a wide range of overnight accommodations, a full-size lap pool, and a commercial kitchen that provides personal catering. Our rates are reasonable, and our friendly, supportive staff is available to assist you and your group with all aspects of your visit...
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Originally Posted by Smack81 Don't know if you're a fan of Big Thunder, but if I'm sitting next to someone I know when I ride it, we always try to ram each other around. The ride does that pretty well all by itself, but it's still fun to smash around. That doesn't sound like fun...I'll go have a car accident if I want to smash around and walk away with bruises...
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I have been an avid practitioner and teacher of yoga for most of my adult life. I started first with Astanga yoga (by following the vigorous series of postures out of a book) and then, when I moved to New York, I regularly practiced Jivamukti yoga (which is a multi faceted study of ancient yoga principles as applied to modern life). For many years I also studied African and Afro-Carribean dance, and I pondered the cosmic connections between yoga and rhythm as I learned to move in sync with my breath and the beat.
Since 2007, I've become deeply immersed in Buddhist meditation techniques, and I keep up a regular meditation practice of an hour or so each day.
I began teaching yoga in 2007 and becoming a teacher has been a natural culmination of my lifelong exploration of humanity, and the mind-body phenomenon that makes us special.
I've always been driven by a quest for spiritual understanding, and my curiosity led me on a six-month study of yoga and Tantric philosophy in the land where it was born: India. Apart from the magical subcontinent, I've spent several years living in Spain, Japan, Ghana and Costa Rica and many more years frequently traveling throughout large parts of Europe, Asia, West Africa, the Carribean, and Latin America. My travels have informed my learning as much as my formal study of the world's great spiritual traditions, such as, Tibetan Buddhism, Hinduism, astrology, universal mythology, animism, and the mystical practices of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. What I have learned from it all is that we are each a distinct expression of a common divinity.
But I've also learned that expressing our common divinity is difficult, if not impossible, given our modern urban living conditions. So I focus my teaching on creating the conditions for a healthy body and a clear mind. I teach how to use the breath and conscious movement in order to access and release an inner wisdom that you might not have known you already have. With this in mind, my teaching will variously combine challenging physical practice, calming meditation, therapeutic stretching, and careful breathing techniques.
I have had the great fortune to study with numerous master teachers including Dharma Mittra, Amma, Duncan Wong, Sharon Gannon, David Life, S.N. Goenka, Richard Gonzalez, Peniel Guerrier, Amit Singh, Chamtrul Rinpoche, Dwight Garcia, and Ann Robideaux. My formal training includes:
- Certification in Yogic Arts (synthesis system of vinyasa yoga, Buddhist martial arts and Thai massage) by Duncan Wong
- Certification to Teach Children's and Family Yoga by Asana Alphabet
- Vipassana 10-day silent retreats, with S.N. Goenka
- Adjustments, Ayurveda and Yoga Intensive with Amit Singh in Rishikesh, India
- Dream Yoga, 37 Practices of A Bodhisattva and Tibetan Vajra/Tantra Meditation, Seminars with Chamtrul Rinpoche in Dharamsala, India


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- Nov 9:
- Prep girls volleyball: Wallace leads Branson to MCAL pennant
- Nov 7:
- Prep volleyball: Branson beats Marin Catholic in MCAL semifinals
- Nov 5:
- Marin briefs: Marin Catholic, Drake girls volleyball teams advance to league playoff semifinals
- Nov 4:
- Prep girls volleyball notes: Mathews a key for Marin Academy at the net
Honor roll
Branson swept the week against two MCAL playoff teams, including handing Redwood its first league loss. Sarah Wallace had 32 kills, Grace Roberts-Burbank had 16 kills, Jordan Winters added 14 kills while Michelle Pereira had 29 digs against Redwood.
Redwood split its two games this week holding on to a tie for first place. Bailey Osborn had a big week with 30 kills in the two games combined.
In Terra Linda's win over Tam, Julia Barzman had 26 assist, eight digs and six aces, while Makaela Keeve added 12 kills.
In Drake's win over Terra Linda, Jenny Huezo had 26 assists, Kiki Romanik added eight aces while Lexie Lamb and Avery Neil had 10 kills each.
San Rafael ended its season by splitting its games this week. In the win over Tam, Kimber Camgros had 23 kills and five aces while Emily Caruso added 25 assists.
San Domenico defeated Gateway 3-1 thanks in large part to Daria Jackson, who had 15 kills and 10 aces.
Contact Brian Sanchez via email at email@example.com


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Gear Question
Alex Dauenhauer
I heard the toe straps come up off the toe...
I heard the toe straps come up off the toe for some riders. Can anyone confirm or deny this?
Kris McGregor
If the toe straps are coming off, then these people do not have their strap tight enough and its not sitting proper on the boot. I have Contacts and Forces and I have had no problems with the toe strap slipping or coming off. It is made up from a synthetic material and it holds quite well. So to answer your question.... No they will not slip as long as they are set up proper to your boot
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