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End-to-end asymmetric link capacity estimation?
Ling-Jyh Chen, Tony Sun, Guang Yang, M. Y. Sanadidi, Mario Gerla
Computer Science Department, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Abstract. Knowledge of link capacity is important for network design,
management, and utilization. With the increasing popularity of asym-
metric link technologies (such as DSL, 1xRTT, and satellite links), it is
desirable to have a capacity estimation technique, which can simulta-
neously measure forward and backward direction link capacities on an
Internet path. Moreover, this estimation must often be "sender only",
because of receiver limitations or lack of standards. In this study, we
propose a simple, fast and accurate technique, called AsymProbe, to es-
timate asymmetric link capacities. AsymProbe is a "sender only", round
trip procedure. It achieves asymmetric link capacity estimation by strate-
gically altering the ratio of probe and acknowledgement packet sizes. Us-
ing simulation and testbed experiments, we validate AsymProbe with a
variety of network configurations. The results show that AsymProbe can
correctly estimate the asymmetric link capacities as long as an appropri-
ate packet size ratio can be employed.
1 Introduction
Knowledge of link capacity is particularly important for network design, manage-
ment and utilization. A simple and accurate scheme for capacity measurement
and monitoring is becoming increasingly desirable, especially for emerging tech-
nologies and applications such as overlay, peer-to-peer (P2P), sensor, grid and
mobile networks. A successful capacity estimation solution will need to encom-
pass speed of execution, simplicity, accuracy, and extendibility beyond the limits
of traditional networks, in particular the increasingly popular asymmetric access
methods to the Internet, e.g. DSL, cable modem and satellite links. It is also of-
ten imperative to carry out the estimation in a round trip, "sender only" fashion.
This is because the receiver is not powerful enough to implement the estimation
algorithm. It must, however, participate in the response to probe packets.
Several capacity estimation methods exist, including CapProbe [4], which is
sender only and fast. However, sender only methods so far have addressed sym-
metric path extimations, ie, the minimum capacity is the same in both directions.
Yet, asymmetric links do exist; moreover, many applications are intrinsically
asymmetric too and thus can benefit from the knowledge of such asymmetries.
?This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation
under Grant No. CNS-0435515.
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For example, in multimedia streaming and file downloading, bulk data is trans-
mitted only in the forward direction, consuming much more bandwidth than the
control traffic in the reverse direction. In this case, the knowledge of one-way
capacity on the forward direction link is mandatory, as it is a much better predic-
tor of the streaming or downloading rate, than the blindly measured round-trip
bottleneck capacity, accounting for the cases when the forward link has larger
capacity than the backward link.
Previous approaches on capacity estimation can be divided into two cat-
egories: one-way probing (e.g. Pathrate [1]) and round-trip probing (e.g. Cap-
Probe [4]). In [4], a thorough comparison of modern capacity estimation methods
was presented, where CapProbe was especially singled out as a fast and accurate
capacity estimation mechanism addressing both wired and wireless links. How-
ever, limited by its round-trip nature, CapProbe only works well on symmetric
links. When operating on an asymmetric link, CapProbe measures the narrower
capacity of the two directions. It cannot distinguish the respective capacities of
the forward and backward links.
Even though capacity estimation for asymmetric links can be achieved by
conducting single direction capacity probing (e.g. Pathrate) for the two direc-
tions separately, this estimation strategy is often considered undesirable, as it
imposes unnecessary computation overhead and complexity on the receiver (eg,
the mobile host). Moreover, it requires compatible software and consistent com-
putation methods in both hosts. To simplify the process of estimating asymmet-
ric link capacities, round trip capacity probing is still the most desirable solution.
Still, existing method like CapProbe, lacked such a capacility, modifications are
needed to add support for accurate capacity estimations of asymmetric links.
To this end, in this study, we propose and evaluate a round trip technique
for estimating asymmetric link capacities called AsymProbe. AsymProbe is engi-
neered based on the well proven CapProbe mechanism. Through careful selection
of probe and acknowledgement packet sizes, AsymProbe can successfully provide
simple, fast, and accurate capacity estimates for asymmetric links.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In section 2, we survey and
summarize work related to this study. An in-depth description of AsymProbe
follows in Section 3. In section 4, we evaluate the accuracy of AsymProbe in esti-
mating link capacity through series of NS2 simulations. In section 5, we present
results from our testbed experiments to validate the capability of AsymProbe.
Section 6 concludes the paper.
2 Background and Related Work
Previous research on capacity estimation relied on either delay variations among
probe packets as illustrated in pathchar [3], or dispersion among probe packets
as described in Nettimer [6] and Pathrate [1]. The analysis in [1] clearly revealed
that the dispersions distribution can be multi-modal without multi-channels,
and that the strongest mode in the multimodal distribution of the dispersion
may correspond to either (1) the capacity of the path, or (2) a "compressed"
Page 3
Fig.1. (a) under-estimation caused by "expansion" (b) over-estimation caused by
"compression" (c) the ideal case. (T?: Measured dispersion; Tqueue: Queueing delay)
dispersion, resulting in capacity over-estimation, or (3) to the Average Dispersion
Rate (ADR), which is lower than the capacity.
Other tools such as pchar and clink [2] use variations of the same idea as
pathchar. Pchar employs regression techniques to determine the slope of the
minimum RTT versus the probing packet size. However, pathchar-like tools have
limitations with respect to the speed of estimation process as shown in [4].
CapProbe [4] is a recently proposed capacity estimation technique shown to
be both fast and accurate over a large range of scenarios. When a back-to-back
packet pair is launched into a network, it is always dispersed at the bottleneck
link according to the bottleneck capacity. If such dispersion is preserved until
the pair arrives to destination, it identifies the bottleneck capacity (as shown in
Fig. 1-c). Unfortunately, the dispersion can be either expanded or compressed,
where "expansion" of dispersion leads to under-estimation and "compression"
of dispersion leads to over-estimation of the capacity, as shown in Fig. 1-a,b.
To overcome this problem, CapProbe combines the use of dispersion and
end-to-end delay measurements thus filtering out packet pair samples distorted
by cross traffic. Whenever an incorrect value of capacity is estimated, either the
first or the second packet, or both, have been delayed by cross traffic. In this
case, the sum of the delays of the two packets in the packet pair, called the
delay sum, includes some queuing delay. A delay sum that does not include any
queuing delay introduced by cross traffic is referred to as the minimum delay
sum. The dispersion of such a packet pair sample is not distorted by cross traffic
and reflects the actual capacity. A valid sample can easily be identified since its
delay sum is the minimum among delay sums of all packet pair samples. The
capacity is then estimated by the equation:
Page 4
where P is the sampling packet size, and T is the dispersion of the sample packet
pair with the minimum delay sum.
The majority of the existing capacity estimation tools, including the ones
discussed above, are inherently round-trip based. They estimate the narrowest
capacity on the round-trip path. These techniques encounter severe constraints
when measuring link capacities of increasingly popular asymmetric links, such
as DSL, cable modem and satellite links where the forward link capacity is very
different from the backward link capacity. In this study, we propose AsymProbe,
a novel scheme that measures asymmetric link capacities in the round trip fash-
ion. Details of this proposed approach will be presented in the following sections;
evaluation of AsymProbe will be discussed in the simulation and experiments
3 Proposed Approach: AsymProbe
In this section, we present AsymProbe, a novel capacity measuring technique
that allows to measures the capacity of either the forward or backward narrow
link on the path. The basic idea of AsymProbe stems from the observation that
the measured dispersion in the original CapProbe can be introduced either in
the forward or backward direction of an asymmetric link. When probing and
acknowledgement packets are of same size, the measured dispersion is good for
estimating the round-trip bottleneck capacity, since the narrowest link along the
round-trip path gives the largest dispersion to the (probing or acknowledgement)
packet pairs. One can then easily estimate this capacity by applying Eq. 1.
Fig. 2 depicts the packet pair interactions in an asymmetric link scenario,
with link capacity C1on the forward direction link and capacity C2on the back-
ward direction link. The probe packets are sent back-to-back with packet size
P1on the forward direction link (from A to B); the acknowledgement packets
are sent immediately upon receipt of probe packets with packet size P2on the
backward direction link (from B to A). Suppose T1and T2represent the respec-
tive dispersions of probe packets and acknowledgement packets when they are
sent back-to-back on the link; from the definition of Eq. 1, T1and T2can then
be derived as T1=P1
C1and T2=P2
Fig.2. Interaction of probe packets in asymmetric link scenarios
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Table 1. Estimate asymmetric link capacity by varying packet sizes (ideal case without
cross traffic and any queuing delays)
Probe (P1) and ACK (P2)
Packet Size
Dispersion T?
T?→ max(T1,T2) C?
Capacity Estimation
1and C?
2= min(C1,C2)
The dispersion measured at the end host A, denoted as T?, is the dispersion
between back-to-back acknowledgement packets. Suppose T1> T2, this means
that measured dispersion T?equates to T1. We assume that host B immediately
acknowledges the probe packets without incurring additional queuing delay, else
the min sum condition would be violated and the pair discarded. On the other
hand, suppose T1< T2, then T?reflects T2instead, i.e. the dispersion generated
on the backward direction link prevails. Therefore,
T?= max(T1,T2) (2)
By varying the packet size ratio between the probe and the ACK packets,
and observing the forward link capacity estimate (C?
backward link capacity estimation (C?
the correct capacity estimations for both directions of the link. For instance,
suppose C1> C2and the initial packet size P1= P2, it can be concluded that
T2> T1becauseP2
T?measured equates to T2. Therefore, C?
C1. The estimated capacity is the round-trip bottleneck link capacity on the
asymmetric link (the minimum value of C1 and C2), which is exactly is what
CapProbe estimates as presented in [4].
However, by increasing P1gradually, C?
creases and approaches C1gradually. When P1increased toP2×C1
to C1and C?
(i.e. T1> T2, since
asymmetric link capacities. Table 1 below details this relationship.
Based on the relationship presented in the table, the AsymProbe algorithm
consists of four phases, of which the first three phases are Probing phases, and
the last is the Decision phase. Two packet sizes are used in the probing phases:
Pmaxand Pmin, which are chosen carefully by taking network and system issues
into account. In the first probing phase, P1and P2are both set to Pmax. Thus
we estimate the bottleneck capacity, Clow, of the round trip path. In phase 2
and 3, (P1,P2) are set first to (Pmax,Pmin) and then to (Pmin,Pmax) in order to
1, which is
T?) and the
2, which isP2
T?), the source node can obtain
C1. From the discussion above, the end-to-end dispersion
T? = C2 and C?
2remains equivalent to C2, but C?
2converges to C2. Conversely, after P1increased to larger thanP2×C1
T? < C2. This simple relationship between the estimated capacity (C?
2) and the varying packet size can be harvested for the accurate estimation of
C2), T?will reflect T1. As a result, C?
T? = C1and
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Fig.3. AsymProbe Algorithm (The Decision Phase)
estimate the forward and backward link capacities respectively. We use C[i][1]
and C[i][2] to denote the estimation results of C?
In the fourth phase, namely the Decision phase, a decision algorithm is per-
formed to determine the estimation results of both direction links from all C[i][1]
and C[i][2] as shown in Fig. 3. However, it should also be mentioned that the
capability of AsymProbe in determining the larger capacity is mathematically
bounded by the maximum ratio of packet sizes between probe and acknowledge-
ment packets, i.e. the max of
of all 3 phases are equal, and we know a priori that the link is asymmetric, then,
the packet size ratio is not sufficient large to provide an accurate capacity esti-
mation of the larger link. Therefore, AsymProbe is unable to estimate the actual
capacity in the direction with higher speed, but will indicate that such condi-
tion has occurred and report a "lower-bound" (i.e.Pmax
instead. In this case, one-way capacity estimation tools (e.g. one way version of
CapProbe or Pathrate) can be applied to accurately measure the capacity in
this direction - if this solution is feasible within the scope of the application. In
section 5.4, we discuss another extension of AsymProbe to this problem.
1and C?
2in the i-th phase,
P1. Specifically, if the capacity estimates
Pmin×Clow) of the capacity
4 Simulation
In this section, we present simulation results that evaluate the accuracy of ca-
pacity estimation of AsymProbe on paths with asymmetric links. AsymProbe is
implemented in the NS-2 simulator [8]. Fig. 4 depicts the simulation topology
that represents a commonly seen scenario nowadays with an asymmetric DSL
link. All links are symmetric 100Mbps Ethernet links except the one between
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Fig.4. Last-hop ADSL scenario. The link capacities are 100Mbps for all links, except
the asymmetric DSL link between D and E (D → E : 128Kbps;E → D : 1.5Mbps)
Table 2. Simulation results of AsymProbe in last-hop DSL scenarios (Unit: Kbps)
Cross Traffic
AsymProbe from A AsymProbe from B CapProbe
128 none
128 1500 1505 128.057128
128.0621500 1500128 128
Poisson (B → C, rate=300Kbps)
Poisson (B → C, rate=750Kbps)
Poisson (B → C, rate=1500Kbps)
Poisson (C → B, rate=25.6Kbps)
Poisson (C → B, rate=64Kbps)
Poisson (C → B, rate=128Kbps)
12815001500 128128
1281500 1500128 128
1281500 1500128128
1281500 1500128 128
128.00615001500 127.936128
127.988 15001483.143128.039 128
node D and E, which is an asymmetric DSL link with 1.5Mbps downlink capac-
ity (from E to D) and 128Kbps uplink capacity (from D to E). Nodes to the
left of node D (namely A and C) belong to a home networks, while nodes to the
right of node E are on the Internet.
The AsymProbe estimation is performed on the path between node A and B.
In addition to the AsymProbe flow, various types of cross traffic were generated
on the DSL link to test AsymProbe robustness. The cross traffic types used were
FTP and Poisson based UDP traffic of different rates. For the Internet segment,
long range dependent (LRD) traffic is created between node E and F in both
directions. The LRD traffic is composed of 16 Pareto flows with alpha = 1.9 [7],
and the overall rate of LRD traffic is 60Mbps in each direction.
The maximum and minimum AsymProbe packet sizes, Pmaxand Pmin, are
set to 1500 bytes and 100 bytes respectively. For the various cross traffic configu-
rations described in Table. 2, AsymProbe is independently initiated from both A
and B; results obtained from AsymProbe are then compared against CapProbe
as summarized in Table 2.
Page 8
Fig.5. Testbed for NIST Net experiments
From the results shown in Table 2, AsymProbe is able to estimate the correct
link capacity in both directions for all test cases; whereas CapProbe can only es-
timate the bottleneck link capacity of the round-trip path. Moreover, simulation
results also show that AsymProbe works when placed on either the end-client
(node A) or the Internet server (node B). The results are consistent in both
It is also worth mentioning that since the link capacity ratio of the simu-
lated scenario is 1.5Mbps/128Kbps, it is smaller than the packet size ratioPmax
AsymProbe is thus able to measure the correct link capacities. However, if we
decrease the packet size ratio (e.g. increasing Pmin in order to avoid the fine
time resolution problem as described in [5]) and obtain a packet size ratio that
is larger than the link capacity ratio, AsymProbe will only estimate the correct
capacity of the narrower link and output the other direction link as a lower
bound estimation, defined as
estimation tools can be launched.
Pmin× Clow. In such case, one-way link capacity
5 Experiments
In this section, we present testbed and Internet experimental results to further
evaluate AsymProbe. We first perform a set of experiments on a "controlled"
testbed to calibrate and verify the correctness of the AsymProbe scheme and its
Linux implementation. We then move to Internet measurements for an evaluation
in the diverse and realistic scenario.
5.1Testbed Experiments
The testbed experiments are performed in the configuration shown in Fig. 5.
The NISTNet emulator [9] is used to set up the asymmetric bottleneck link of
various capacities. A backlogged file transfer session is generated from the FTP
server to the client as cross traffic. This FTP connection shares the bottleneck
link with an AsymProbe connection that traverses from host A to B.
For reasons we will discuss shortly, we choose 1500 bytes and 500 bytes as
the maximum and minimum packet sizes in this set of experiments, respectively.
Thus we have
and Table 4, in which we may see that when the forward/backward (Table 3)
500= 3. We present the experiment results in Table 3
Page 9
Table 3. NIST Net results on High/Low
asymmetric links (Unit: Mbps)
1.063 1.0640.981
1.0641.065 0.981
1.063 1.063 0.985
2.010 1.0630.979
2.015 1.0620.979
2.0101.064 0.979
3.0121.065 0.983
≥3.611 1.064
≥3.609 1.061
≥3.611 1.062
F: Forward Link; B: Backward Link
Table 4. NIST Net results on Low/High
asymmetric links (Unit: Mbps)
1.063 1.0650.981
1.0651.064 0.981
1.0651.065 0.979
1.064 2.0150.979
1.062 2.9970.983
1.063 3.0180.985
≥3.610 0.981
≥3.610 0.979
≥3.611 0.979
F: Forward Link; B: Backward Link
or backward/forward (Table 4) capacity ratio is below 3, AsymProbe measures
both forward and backward capacities very accurately. When the ratio increases
beyond 3, only a lower bound can be obtained in the direction with the larger
5.2 Internet Experiments
In addition to the controlled testbed experiments, we also perform a set of In-
ternet measurements to evaluate AsymProbe in a more diverse and realistic
scenario. In this set of experiments, again we have
the asymmetric links we have found, provided by DSL1and Cable2companies,
all have a higher down-link/up-link capacity ratio than 3. As presented in Table
5, AsymProbe captures the up-link capacities accurately, while only obtaining
lower bounds for the down-links.
500= 3. However,
5.3 Discussion
From the simulation and experiment results above, AsymProbe is capable of
estimating asymmetric link capacities, as long as the capacity ratio of the forward
and backward links is within the range of the packet size ratio of the employed
probe and acknowledgement packets. In order to increase the estimation range
of AsymProbe, the packet size ratio should be as large as possible. However, this
ratio is bound by implementation.
1DSL 1 is provided by Verizon: http://www.verizon.com; DSL 2 is provided by Hinet:
2Cable Modem is provided by Comcast: http://www.comcast.com
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Table 5. Internet results on asymmetric link
Claimed Capacity Estimated Capacity
DownUp# DownUp
DSL 1 1.5 Mbps 128 Kbps
1 ≥ 379 Kbps 132 Kbps
2 ≥ 382 Kbps 132 Kbps
3 ≥ 380 Kbps 132 Kbps
1 ≥ 1.49 Mbps 565 Kbps
2 ≥ 1.53 Mbps 567 Kbps
3 ≥ 1.51 Mbps 558 Kbps
1 ≥ 721 Kbps 247 Kbps
2 ≥ 730 Kbps 255 Kbps
3 ≥ 723 Kbps 248 Kbps
DSL 2 3 Mbps 512 Kbps
Cable Modem3 Mbps 256 Kbps
Specifically, the maximum size of the employed packets must be bounded
by the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU), which is the largest size of an IP
datagram allowed to transmit on the path without fragmentation. The size of
MTU may vary greatly in different system configurations. However, practically
it is set to 1500 bytes in most networks. Packets larger than MTU will be seg-
mented into smaller fragments for transmission and then reassembled on the
receiving host. Therefore, using packets larger than MTU is not appropriate for
CapProbe-based capacity estimation techniques, since the dispersion measure-
ment no longer reflects the bottleneck capacity.
On the other hand, the minimum size of AsymProbe packets is also bounded
in accordance with the supported time resolution on the estimating host. This
is due to the fact that a packet pair with a smaller packet size will result in
a smaller inter-packet dispersion, which in turn requires a finer time resolution
to be measured accurately. Assume the capacity of the narrow link is C and
the probing packet size is P, the dispersion time (and also the clock granularity
needed for accurate estimation) that needs to be measured is T = P/C. Table
6 shows the required clock granularities that are needed for different probing
packet sizes and narrow link capacities.
Table 6. Required time resolution for accurate estimation
Packet Size
Narrow Link Capacity
1 Gbps 100 Mbps 10 Mbps 1 Mbps
100 bytes0.0008 ms 0.008 ms 0.08 ms 0.8 ms
500 bytes0.004 ms 0.04 ms0.4 ms 4 ms
1000 bytes 0.008 ms0.08 ms 0.8 ms 8 ms
1500 bytes 0.012 ms0.12 ms1.2 ms 12 ms
Page 11
It is clear that the time resolution of an end host relies on the hardware
speed and the operating system. A system with fast processors and I/O inter-
faces can provide a finer time resolution. Additionally, [5] also shows that the
accuracy of CapProbe-based capacity estimation is tightly related to the runtime
execution mode. With kernel mode implementations, the capacity estimation is
faster and more accurate than with user mode implementations. Kernel mode
implementations also provide better time resolutions. Therefore, kernel mode
implementations can use smaller packets for capacity estimation than the user
mode implementations.
In the presented testbed experiments, the employed packet sizes are bounded
with 1500 bytes as the maximum and 500 bytes as the minimum. The value of
1500 bytes is determined by the MTU on the path, whereas the value of 500
bytes is the minimum packet size which can measure the dispersion accurately
with the provided machine time resolution. Thus it is only capable of estimating
an asymmetric link with capacity ratio up to 1500 : 500, namely 3 : 1. For those
links with even higher "asymmetric ratios" (e.g. 1.5Mbps/128Kbps DSL links
or 400Kbps/64Kbps satellite links), it is necessary to increase the packet size
ratio by either increasing the maximum packet size or decreasing the minimum
packet size. In such cases, using a faster machine or switching from user mode
to kernel mode can help.
If all of the above procedures do not work, one can resort to one way capacity
estimation as mentioned in Section 3. This, however, requires full implementa-
tion on the receiver. If the receiver does not cooperate, a possible solution is
to use a packet "train" probing concept as suggested by other researchers [1].
The intent is to replicate the effect of a "long" probing packet without paying
the penalty of reassembly at the host. To illustrate the technique, consider for
example the situation of an asymmetric satellite link with 15Mbps downlink and
128Kpbs uplink capacity. The server in the Internet must determine the down-
link speed to deliver the proper content to a mobile user. The downlink capacity
estimation can be achieved by transmitting a train of 10 consecutive 1500 byte
packets, with a Probe leader and Probe trailer. As before, the two Probe pack-
ets each trigger a 100 byte packet probe response from the receiver. The train
dispersion in the forward link is preserved in the ACK dispersion measured by
the sender after the round trip and provides the desired estimate. Basically, this
scheme is an extension of AsymProbe, where the source experiments with trains
of increasing length until success. As pointed out in [1], the longer the train, the
less dominant the mode corresponding to the forward narrow capacity. Conse-
quently, the less frequent the train samples where no delay/interference occurred
along the path and thus the less accurate the measurements. The measurement
however, provides a conservative (lower bound) estimate of the narrow forward
capacity, which can be progressively improved as more and more samples are
collected. By the way, the "average" capacity measurement (as opposed to min
sum measurement) was shown to converge for large train length N to a value
between the narrow link and the residual link bandwidth. As expected, the lower
the utilization, the faster the min sum measurement convergence [1].
Page 12
6 Conclusions
In this paper, we studied asymmetric link capacity estimation and proposed an
extension of CapProbe, namely AsymProbe, to estimate asymmetric link capac-
ities. By strategically altering the ratio of probe and acknowledgement packet
sizes, AsymProbe can simultaneously measure the link capacities of both forward
and backward direction links. Through simulation and testbed experiments, we
validated the accuracy and capabilities of our proposed approach.
The unique advantage of AsymProbe is the ability to measure capacities from
the server using a round trip method that does not require the cooperation of
the receiver (which may have limited processing power or may be altogether
unaware of AsymProbe). Moreover, the technique is extremely fast, thus it is
suitable for mobile receivers that experience rapidly varying, often asymmetric
Internet connectivity. The simplicity, accuracy, and speed of AsymProbe make
it ideal in real deployments where online and timely capacity estimation is re-
quired. Better service can be provided by estimating both forward/backward
direction path capacities. Typical applications feature the efficient transfer of
multimedia files over rapidly varying Internet paths (which may include wire-
less segments). Popular examples are P2P streaming and file sharing, overlay
network structuring, and intelligent vertical handoff decision.
1. C. Dovrolis, P. Ramanathan, and D. Moore. What do packet dispersion techniques
measure? In Proc. of IEEE Infocom 2001.
2. A. B. Downey. Using Pathchar to Estimate Internet Link Characteristics. In Proc.
of ACM SIGCOMM 1999.
3. V. Jacobson. Pathchar: A tool to infer characteristics of Internet paths.
4. R. Kapoor, L.-J. Chen, L. Lao, M. Gerla, M. Y. Sanadidi. CapProbe: A Simple and
Accurate Capacity Estimation Technique. In Proc. of ACM SIGCOMM 2004.
5. R. Kapoor, L.-J. Chen, M. Y. Sanadidi, M. Gerla. Accuracy of Link Capacity Es-
timates using Passive and Active Approaches with CapProbe. In Proc. of ISCC
6. K. Lai and M. Baker. Measuring Bandwidth. In Proc. of IEEE INFOCOM 1999.
7. M.S. Taqqu, W. Willinger, R. Sherman. Proof of a fundamental result in self-similar
traffic modeling. SIGCOMM Computer Communications Review, 27: 5-23, 1997.
8. Network Simulator (NS-2). www.mash.cs.berkeley.edu/ns/
9. NIST Net. http://snad.ncsl.nist.gov/itg/nistnet/


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Dec. 5, 2014
The Upshot; expected defeat of Democratic Sen Mary Landrieu of Louisiana in upcoming runoff election would complete demise of once solid Democratic Deep South; end of era marks generational shift along racial and cultural lines. MORE
Dec. 2, 2014
Federal judge overturns one conviction against Maureen McDonnell, former Virginia first lady, but affirms several other corruption verdicts against her and her husband, former Gov Bob McDonnell. MORE
Nov. 23, 2014
Church Hill section of Richmond, Va, 18th century residential enclave, offers some of city's most appealing shopping and dining adventures. MORE
Nov. 21, 2014
Op-Ed article by Republican Ed Gillespie credits his proposal to replace Affordable Care Act for his strong showing in Virginia Senate race against Democratic incumbent Mark R Warner; urges Republican senators to take up his plan to pave the intellectual way for a positive health care alternative that a Republican presidential nominee can then take to the electorate. MORE
Nov. 19, 2014
Compromise government plan will allow hydraulic fracturing for natural gas to go forward on privately controlled land in George Washington National Forest, which rises in the mountains west of Charlottesville, Va; 90 percent of forest remains closed to fracking and conventional drilling. MORE
Nov. 19, 2014
Authorities in Virginia conclude that case of missing University of Virginia student Hannah Graham, whose remains were later discovered, is a homicide; Jesse L Matthew Jr has been charged with her abduction with intent to defile. MORE
Nov. 8, 2014
Republican Ed Gillespie concedes defeat in Virginia Senate race to incumbent Democratic Sen Mark R Warner, saying gap of 16,700 votes is too great to make up in a recount. MORE
Nov. 6, 2014
Republican Senate victories in Colorado and North Carolina and near miss in Virginia surprise both Democrats and Republicans, who believed the states were trending Democratic; results are causing leaders of both parties, and those with their eye on the White House, to re-examine their assumptions about the electoral map. MORE
Nov. 3, 2014
Businessman and philanthropist David Rubenstein donates $10 million to Virginia estate of Pres James Madison; funds will be used to restore mansion to its original 1817 appearance and provide more information about Madison's slaves. MORE
Nov. 1, 2014
Virginia Judge Anthony Trenga rejects federal government's effort to dismiss a lawsuit over the constitutionality of federal no-fly list on grounds that suit would expose state secrets; suit was filed by Gulet Mohamed after his apparent placement on list left him detained by Kuwaiti authorities. MORE
Oct. 28, 2014
Virginia says it plans to remove Trinity Industries' guardrails after it failed to meet state deadline to supply documentation for new crash testing; firm's rail heads, which meant to reduce damage in a collision, are suspected of having a defect and have been banned by 13 states. MORE
Oct. 25, 2014
Remains of woman found near Charlottesville, Va, have been identified as those of Hannah Graham, Univ of Virginia college student missing since September; hospital worker Jesse L Matthew Jr, last person seen with Graham, has been charged with her abduction. MORE
Oct. 21, 2014
Jesse L Matthew Jr, charged with abduction of University of Virginia student Hannah Graham, missing since mid-September, is indicted in abduction, sexual assault and attempted capital murder of woman in Fairfax, Va, in 2005. MORE
Oct. 20, 2014
Owners of seven old nuclear reactors in Pennsylvania, Virginia and South Carolina are preparing to ask for permission to run them until they are 80 years old; nuclear proponents say extending plants' lifetimes is more economical than building new plants. MORE
Oct. 19, 2014
Human remains are discovered outside Charlottesville, Va, by search crew looking for Hannah Graham, 18-year-old University of Virginia student who disappeared in September; identity of remains has not yet been confirmed. MORE
Oct. 15, 2014
Concern is mounting over safety of guardrails sold by Trinity Industries, as Virginia threatens to stop buying them, and will consider removing them unless manufacturer performs new tests; firm's guardrails have been at center of safety concerns raised by other states, including Missouri and Massachusetts. MORE
Oct. 8, 2014
United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit rules that Virginia state legislators packed too many black voters into one congressional district in order to make adjacent districts safer for Republican incumbents. MORE
Oct. 7, 2014
Supreme Court lets stand appeals court rulings allowing same-sex marriage in five states in a move that may signal the inevitability of a nationwide right to such unions; development clears way for same-sex marriages in Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin. MORE
Oct. 7, 2014
Gay couples in Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin rush to get married after Supreme Court refuses to hear any of the same-sex marriage appeals before it; same-sex marriage bans are almost certain to be overturned in six other states as a result of the ruling. MORE
Oct. 4, 2014
Many students at University of Virginia are unsettled and nervous after police charge Jesse L Matthew Jr in connection with disappearance of co-ed Hannah Graham, and say that he may be linked to 2009 murder of Morgan D Harrington and sexual assaults; case highlights vulnerability of women in college communities. MORE
Sep. 30, 2014
Police in Virginia say arrest of Jesse L Matthew in connection with missing University of Virginia student Hannah Graham has given them a lead in the unsolved 2009 killing of Virginia Tech student Morgan D Harrington. MORE
Sep. 27, 2014
Jesse Leroy Matthew Jr, suspect in the disappearance of 18-year-old University of Virginia student Hannah Graham, is flown back to Charlottesville, Virginia, from Texas to face abduction charges. MORE
Sep. 25, 2014
Jesse Leroy Matthew Jr is arrested in Galveston, Tex, suspected in the abduction of University of Virginia student Hannah Graham, 18, who has not been seen since she disappeared on Sept 13; he was last person seen with her. MORE
Sep. 16, 2014
Democrats see social issues as potent for same reasons Republicans once did, using them as tool to both stoke concerns among moderate voters, especially women, and motivate their base; in Virginia, North Carolina and Colorado, important swing states, Democratic senators have hammered GOP opponents on issues related to contraception and women's rights. MORE
Sep. 9, 2014
Virginia Gov Terry McAuliffe, who in June ordered his cabinet to devise plan to expand Medicaid unilaterally, announces that only 25,000 uninsured Virginians will be receiving coverage, far fewer than 400,000 he has said are eligible if state expands Medicaid under Affordable Care Act; move is sign of how McAuliffe has been forced to retreat after losing fight with Republican-dominated General Assembly. MORE
Sep. 6, 2014
Politicians and citizens alike across Virginia are reeling from sweeping and widely unexpected guilty verdicts following convictions of former Gov Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen on multiple counts of conspiracy, bribery and extortion; politicians are pondering new ethics rules in a state with notoriously lax ones, and the potential political fallout if state legislators do not substantially limit gifts to public officials. MORE
Sep. 5, 2014
Former Virginia Gov Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen are convicted of corruption in federal court; McDonnell weeps after being found guilty on 11 counts of conspiracy, bribery and extortion, ending trial that shattered his political career and peeled back his private life to the bone; both McDonnells now face years in prison. MORE
Sep. 3, 2014
Judge James R Spencer, overseeing corruption trial of former Virginia Gov Bob McDonnell, rejects defense's argument that McDonnell's acts on behalf of businessman Jonnie R Williams Sr were trivial courtesies and not official; case is in hands of jury. MORE
Aug. 30, 2014
Trial of Virginia Gov Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen ends with jurors being asked to decide between portrayals of McDonnell as corrupt politician who traded his office for luxury goods or hapless husband caught up in a mess created by his wife's greed. MORE
Aug. 29, 2014
Lawyers in the corruption trial of former Virginia Gov Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen debate how Judge James R Spencer should describe bribery to jurors; debate is also a preview of closing arguments, and for the defense, a hint of grounds for an appeal in case of convictions. MORE
Aug. 28, 2014
Lawyers defending Maureen McDonnell at corruption trial for her and husband Bob McDonnell present a portrait of former first lady of Virginia that is embarrassing and at times even humiliating; unusual defense presented by former Virginia governor's lawyers has been criticized as callous, but legal experts say it is more likely a tactic that both teams have agreed on to rebut government's case. MORE
Aug. 27, 2014
Former Virginia Gov Bob McDonnell ends five days of testimony in corruption trial with apology for accepting so many gifts and so much money, but emphatically denies that he conspired with his wife Maureen to sell his office; prosecutor and McDonnell have heated exchanges about a loan proposed to McDonnell at a highly favorable rate by businessman Jonnie R Williams Sr. MORE
Aug. 26, 2014
Former Virginia Gov Bob McDonnell, on trial for public corruption, contends that he knew little about lavish gifts from supporter Jonnie R WIlliams Sr, CEO of vitamin company Star Scientific; he has emerged as star witness in his own defense, and how the jury views his testimony may determine whether he is found guilty of charges that could land him and his wife Maureen in prison. MORE
Aug. 26, 2014
Soldier identified only as her rank of sergeant first class shoots and kills herself at Fort Lee in Virginia. MORE
Aug. 23, 2014
Former Virginia Gov Bob McDonnell, in his final moments under defense questioning at his corruption trial, strongly denies he had corrupted his office; says any blame for his travails should be put on him, and not his wife, who has been pilloried by his defense team for couple's relationship with wealthy donor who showered them with gifts. MORE
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General Information on Virginia
Official Name: Commonwealth of Virginia
Nickname: Old Dominion
Capital: Richmond
Largest City: Virginia Beach
Admitted to Union June 25, 1788
Land Area and rank: 39,594 square miles; 37th
Postal Abbreviation: VA
Web site: Virginia.gov
Scott Walker and Dogs … He's No Ronald Reagan
Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, a possible candidate for president in 2016, is allergic to dogs, putting him at odds with his hero, Ronald Reagan, a canine enthusiast.
April 1, 2015, Wednesday
The Editor Who Went to War
How Thomas Drummond, an Iowa newspaperman, ended up at the head of one of the last battles of the Civil War.
April 1, 2015, Wednesday
Virginia: Suit Seeks to Prevent College From Closing
State authorities filed suit to block the closing of Sweet Briar College, giving a boost to alumnae and faculty who are fighting to save the 114-year-old women's liberal arts institution.
March 31, 2015, Tuesday
Virginia: More Training Ordered for Alcohol Control Agents
Gov. Terry McAuliffe is ordering Alcoholic Beverage Control agents to be retrained after an arrest that left a University of Virginia student bloodied and shouting allegations of racism.
March 26, 2015, Thursday
Matthew Crawford and How to Survive Brain-Eating Distractions
This philosopher-mechanic's newest book, "The World Beyond Your Head," takes on the idea of the mind extended and fragmented by technology.
March 26, 2015, Thursday
Did My Great-Grandfather Beat Robert E. Lee?
At the Battle of Fort Stedman, one of the last decisive engagements of the Civil War, my ancestor was a hero, a deserter, or both.
March 25, 2015, Wednesday
Police Find No Evidence of Rape at University of Virginia Fraternity
The announcement came four months after a now-discredited report in Rolling Stone magazine of a gang rape at a fraternity rocked the campus.
March 24, 2015, Tuesday
Anger and Activism Greet Plan to Shut Sweet Briar College
The decision to shutter the college, a women's liberal arts school in Virginia, has stunned students, teachers and alumnae, some of whom are rallying to try to save it.
March 23, 2015, Monday
$200 Million to Help Food Stamp Recipients Find Jobs
Pilot projects in 10 states will train recipients and offer services like transportation and child care, the Obama administration announced on Friday.
March 21, 2015, Saturday
A Governor Faces Down the Gun Lobby
West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin risked the wrath of gun rights adherents when he vetoed a bill that would have allowed West Virginians to carry a concealed weapon without a permit.
March 20, 2015, Friday
Ted Cruz Announces Presidential Run
Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, formally announced his 2016 presidential bid on Monday at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.
A Bid to Save Sweet Briar College
The liberal arts institution in rural Virginia, one of a dwindling number of women's schools, will close at the end of this term.
Scenes From West Virginia Train Fire
Video shows the fireballs erupting from a train that derailed in West Virginia on Monday while carrying millions of pounds of oil.
Ex-Governor of Virginia Apologizes
Bob McDonnell, former governor of Virginia, thanked the judge for showing mercy with his sentence of two years in prison and apologized for his mistakes in life, saying, "I am a fallen human being."
Voters Around the Nation on Election Day
Voters in Manchester, N.H., Manhattan Beach, Calif., Overland Park, Kan., Greensboro, N.C., Arlington, Va., and Miami spoke out from polling stations on Tuesday.
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Don Chan Palace
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TripAdvisor Reviews Don Chan Palace Vientiane
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Travelling Solo
... then I always educate them on where her home town of Kuinre is :)); a Lao-born retired nurse named Pooky living in the the UK who took me to meet her cousins and toured me around Vientiane for the remainder of the day - how interesting is that?
2. I get to eat everything I order myself.
No sharsies means it's all mine and I don't have to negotiate what we're going to eat. And I can chow down when and where I want! (I'm trying to look on ...
Successful visa run!
Yay! I successfully got my Thai visa and will be back in Chiang Mai tomorrow morning! I walked around Vientiane a bit. I got a ride from a random Korean ahjumma I met at a Korean supermarket where I was asking for directions. She said tuk tuks in Vientiane are really overpriced, and the sidewalks aren't well developed around the city. She said she's amazed by tourists who walk around in the heat with little shades to go around! It was so nice ...
Arctic cold, or hot and humid sir?
... were both shattered.
We got about another hour of sleep before venturing downstairs for breakfast, it was quite busy so we opted for a table outside. After breakfast we asked at reception to see if they could book us a ticket on the bus to Vientiane the same day, she asked if we wanted the 9:30 bus, we said yes, it took us a moment to realise it was 8:40, and we needed to get a refund for the hot air balloon, so Kirsty ventured out into the rain to the ...
The Generosity of Strangers
... to lift the kayak over rocks to access the next chamber, it was at this point we realised that our kayak had a crack and we were taking on water. We made it back to the cave entrance and heaved the kayak on to the rocks, it then slid back in and sank... got back just in time!
We finished the day off by visiting Xieng Liab Cave, this was trickier than we had imagined as the roads were rough and the main enterance was blocked. As we were staring at the road sign ...
Charitable,croissant-filled cycling...Vientiane!
... I had been warned by fellow travellers that Vientiane does not have much to offer, so I had planned just the one full day here. After checking into the nicely quaint 'Souphaphone' guesthouse in the city centre, I decided to go for a little wander to get my bearings... I'd been recommended a few good French bakeries to frequent... So that was obviously top of my list! I enjoyed indulging in a little guilty pleasure...a hugely gluttonous piece of chocolate ...


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Discover a selection of top forums cars! path on the internet. Come to share your passion on forums cars! path and meet other fans of cars! path. Then, why don't you create your own forum of cars! path ?
Here at rF BNB, we use a Bank System to build up our cars of our dreams..You will earn a weekly paycheck of $6, 000, plus other things you decide to sell!
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An automobile club for the enthusiast who enjoys the last of the big GM cars. The rear wheel drive B and D bodys.
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New ep forum. May be temporary or permanent depending on how things play out. All are welcome. I'm not sure if all the levels are gone, but I have all the ones that were there a few weeks ago backed u
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This is the forum for our clan " Runners " talking there, so enjoy!
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The home of the WRM Online Racing League, the best independent media coverage on the Xbox One covering Forza Motorsports and Project CARS, we call it Words With Pictures Attached
Home of the Virtual LMR Team
We are a group of RC Enthusiasts in Singapore. Join us for our weekly RC Meet ups and ad hoc RC meets!
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SOUTH COAST COUGARS, The Club for all Ford / Mercury Cougar owners!
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The Independent Road is a process developed for the book Better Than Retirement - Redefine Your Relationship with Work by David Ryan and Rich Hessler. Are you ready to step on to The Independent Road to find your unique path to living life as you
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A place for Northern Nevada residents to get together to talk about car sim racing. Forza 5, Project Cars, iRacing, Assetto Corsa, rFactor 2, Gran Turismo and more.
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A group of christian friends, supporting each other along the path to a healthy lifestyle.
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A forum for all Wisconsin area auto enthusiasts
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Car and Truck Club in the central Florida location.
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Free forum : Showcasing the North East Modified Racing activities on the East Coast. . . Racers, Builders and Fans of the various racing series, cars and tracks. . . Gather here for your healthy addic
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An inclusive environment for black women to congregate and discuss that which pertains to them spiritually, holistically, and emotionally on a natural level.
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text:
The Real Risks of Obama's BlackBerry 273
from the for-certain-values-of-real dept.
We've improved Slashdot's video section; now you can view our video interviews, product close-ups and site visits with all the usual Slashdot options to comment, share, etc. No more walled garden! It's a work in progress -- we hope you'll check it out (Learn more about the recent updates).
Filed under: Gaming
Permalink | Email this | Comments
Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
10 Gig Ethernet specialists Chelsio and NetXen are targeting IBM servers - and in particular IBM's BladeCenter systems - for network acceleration and virtualisation.
Insurgents in southern Thailand have begun using keyless-entry systems from cars to trigger bomb explosions after authorities took to blocking mobile-phone signals.
Who goeth a-borrowing goeth a-sorrowing. -- Thomas Tusser


text:
Worldwide Locations
This is the first installment of Asia Society's Sustainability Roundtable, a regular feature on the re:ASIA blog featuring insight and analysis on current events from our team of sustainability experts. This week, we asked our roundtable to reflect on last week's G8 summit, which took place May 26-27 in Deauville, France. How did the summit address issues such as nuclear safety, climate change and the ongoing bioenergy debate?
Friday Times Editor-in-Chief Najam Sethi says journalists are both part of the problem and the solution in Pakistan.
"Politicians in Tokyo are lollygagging and bickering over partisan issues instead of offering practical ideas for rebuilding the devastated regions," says Asia Society Associate Fellow Alexandra Harney.
Veteran Indian journalist Gautam Adhikari will appear at the Asia Society in New York on Thursday, June 2, to discuss his new book, The Intolerant Indian: Why We Must Rediscover A Liberal Space.
The word "dictator" sets off a fit of pique on an international stage.
For one night in New York, a legendary martial arts discipline takes center stage.
Three internship opportunities with the award-winning online team at Asia Society.
Legendary martial arts master put their discipline in context on the Asia Society stage.
A cross-cultural theatrical hybrid depicts the situation of Chinese immigrants living and working in industrial Italy.
Hassan Abbas, Asia Society's Bernard Schwartz Fellow, writes for CNN.com
©2015 Asia Society | Privacy Statement | About AsiaSociety.org | Terms & Conditions | Contact
Asia Society takes no institutional position on policy issues and has no affiliation with any government. All views expressed in its publications and on its website are the sole responsibility of the author or authors.


text:
Kinect for Windows SDK beta
Coming later this spring, the Kinect for Windows SDK is a programming toolkit that will enable researchers and enthusiasts easy access to the capabilities offered by the Microsoft Kinect device connected to computers running Microsoft Windows 7.
Microsoft Tag
Microsoft Tag connects real life with the digital world. Microsoft Tags are small, colorful codes that can be printed, stuck, or displayed just about anywhere. When you snap a Tag with the camera on your internet-enabled phone, additional information or experiences are automatically opened on your phone. There is no fumbling with URLs or texting short codes. Microsoft Tags can make product packages, posters, print-based ads, magazine articles, exhibit signage, billboards, storefronts, business card, or just about anything else, interactive.
Songsmith generates musical accompaniment to match a singer's voice. Just choose a musical style, sing into your PC's microphone, and Songsmith will create backing music for you. Then share your songs with your friends and family, post your songs online, or create your own music videos.
The WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is a rich visualization environment that functions as a virtual telescope, bringing together imagery from the best ground- and space-based telescopes in the world to enable seamless, guided explorations of the universe.
Personal Web Site
- Microsoft Research Redmond
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052 U.S.
(800) 642-7676
- Royal Society Brian Mercer Award for Alglave
Microsoft researcher Dr. Jade Alglave has received the prestigious Royal Society Brian Mercer Award for Innovation for her work on multiprocessor technology, which led to the development of .cat, a standard verification format for hardware chips.
Thu, 26 Mar 2015 16:00:00 GMT
- Diversity in data science: Microsoft Research's summer school aims high
Committed to increasing diversity in computer science, Microsoft Research Data Science Summer School is an eight-week effort to introduce large-scale data analysis to undergraduate students in the New York City area.
Tue, 24 Mar 2015 14:30:00 GMT
- Machine Learning, Computational Science, Networks and Programming Converge in Cambridge
Dave Coplin, chief envisioning officer of Microsoft UK, and Dr. Kenji Takeda, of the Cambridge research lab, discuss the future of big data and its potential impact.
Mon, 23 Mar 2015 19:00:00 GMT
- Cryptographer's challenge: Keeping genetic secrets while advancing genetic research
Microsoft researcher Kristin Lauter is at the forefront of a push to make sure human genome data can be securley stored, accessed and used for research -- without falling victim to prying eyes.
Fri, 20 Mar 2015 16:00:00 GMT
- Lab of Things Enables Research and Teaching
An update on the creative and noteworthy ways students and researchers are using the flexible Lab of Things platform for connected devices.
Tue, 17 Mar 2015 16:00:00 GMT
- Dataset for Inferring Missing Entity Type Instances for Knowledge Base Completion
This is a dataset that can be used for training and evaluating knowledge base completion approaches for inferring missing entity type instances. We construct our training snapshot by taking the Freebase snapshot on 3rd September, 2013 and consider entities that have a link to their Wikipedia page. The development and test data consists of facts that were added to the 1st June, 2014 snapshot of Freebase. To get negative data, we make a closed world assumption treating any unobserved instance in Freebase as a negative example. Unobserved instances in the Freebase snapshot on 3rd September, 2013 and 1st June, 2014 are used as negative examples in training and testing respectively.
Thu, 19 Mar 2015 02:03:15 GMT
- Microsoft Research Project Colletta
Project Colletta is an extension of the Windows UI that supports lightweight management of the user's activities through tagging.
Fri, 13 Mar 2015 20:03:31 GMT
- MSR Demosaicing Dataset
The Microsoft Research Cambridge demosaicing data set consists of set of raw images, and their downscaled versions which can be used for learning and evaluating demosaicing (and possibly other tasks like denoising), both in linear-space and color-space.
Sun, 01 Mar 2015 00:29:14 GMT
- Image Composite Editor (32 bit)
Image Composite Editor (ICE) is an advanced panoramic image stitcher. Given a set of overlapping photographs of a scene shot from a single camera location, the app creates a seamless high-resolution panorama. ICE can also create a panorama from a panning video, including stop-motion action overlaid on the background. Finished panoramas can be shared and viewed in 3D on the Photosynth web site, or saved in a variety of image formats.
Wed, 25 Feb 2015 23:19:38 GMT
- Image Composite Editor (64 bit)
Image Composite Editor (ICE) is an advanced panoramic image stitcher. Given a set of overlapping photographs of a scene shot from a single camera location, the app creates a seamless high-resolution panorama. ICE can also create a panorama from a panning video, including stop-motion action overlaid on the background. Finished panoramas can be shared and viewed in 3D on the Photosynth web site, or saved in a variety of image formats.
Wed, 25 Feb 2015 23:08:30 GMT


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Joanne M. Murray, Esq.
Antheil Maslow & MacMinn, LLP
Happy New Year! 2015 promises to be a busy year, starting with the opening of the new Bucks County Justice Center in mid-January. The Justice Center will provide our community with access to justice in a secure, state-of-the-art environment. BCBA has worked hard with County judges and officials to make sure that our members have convenient access to the facility, along with a comfortable lounge where you can relax and/or work during breaks between court appearances. Due to the tireless commitment of BCBA's Past Presidents, our County's judicial history will be preserved when judicial portraits are moved to the new Justice Center and displayed along with new portraits of other judges. These portraits will be exhibited throughout January at the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown.
Our first 2015 event will be the annual Opening of the Assizes cocktail reception. This year, we'll honor our jurisprudential roots by celebrating the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta with a decidedly British theme. The party will be preceded by a special meeting of the membership to revisit the recent amendments to BCBA's Bylaws. You will be receiving an official notice of this meeting shortly, and I encourage you to attend.
Our Membership and Member Services Committee, led by Chair Dan Keane, continues to work with BCBA staff to find new ways to provide our members with high quality services and benefits to ensure that our members get the most value for their dues dollars. A key member benefit remains the opportunity to attend high quality CLE programs presented locally. Our CLE schedule is packed with informative programs in key substantive areas, thanks to the efforts of MCLE Committee Chair Sean Corr and his team and all of the BCBA committee, section and division chairs. Many of these programs provide useful tips that are specific to Bucks County practice. If you take all of your required credits through BCBA, the member discount for these CLEs will cover most of your annual dues. We will continue to offer "marathon CLE days" at the end of each compliance period where you can earn six credit hours in one day. The annual Bench-Bar Conference provides another convenient opportunity to obtain CLE credit. This year, we will return to the Hyatt Regency in Cambridge, Maryland, and the Bench-Bar Conference Committee, under Kyong Growney's leadership, is committed to making the conference a memorable and valuable experience. Please consider attending.
There are many other reasons to be a member of the Bucks County Bar Association. BCBA membership provides opportunities for professional and practice development through networking events with members, judges and government officials. We offer discounts on useful products and services. Membership comes with a free subscription to the Bucks County Law Reporter, with published judicial opinions and legal notices. Members also receive a free subscription to The Writs, BCBA's quarterly magazine with a new and improved look. Consider taking advantage of the affordable opportunity to advertise in these publications so that colleagues are aware of your practice areas and firm news.
I look forward to working with our Officers (Vice President/President-Elect Grace Deon, Treasurer Marijo Murphy and Secretary Jessica Pritchard), our Board of Directors, the Chairs of all of the Committees, Sections and Divisions, and BCBA's staff, under the skilled supervision of Executive Director Deanna Mindler, to make 2015 a year of continued growth and commitment to excellence. I welcome your input and suggestions – feel free to call or email me any time. Thank you for choosing to be a member of the Bucks County Bar Association.
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4/1/2015PBI Group Cast "Steve Stark: (A) Legal Writing & Persuation in Smart Phone Age (B) Speaking to Win"
4/2/2015PBI Video Replay: Ethical Issues in Federal Tax Rep: Serving Your Clients While Protecting Yourself
4/3/2015Good Friday - Office Closed
4/7/2015PBI Group Cast "CLE Ethics Fun with Sean Carter"
4/8/2015Civil Litigation Section CLE
3/11/2015Orphans' Court Manual Now Available!!!
1/6/2015Committee, Section and Division Sign-Up


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Digitizer software vs. reader/writer decision
I have a brother machine and need to decide which software and reader/writer to go with. I have choices of the following software:
1.- Sierra Embroidery Office 7.5
2.- Wilcom ES 8.0
3.- Husqvarna Viking VIP Professional
4.- PE Design 6
1.- PED Basic
2.- Amazing box
3.- Amazing box II
Which software should I pick and which reader/writer to buy? Keep in mind that I have a brother machine.
Thanks a lot!
Do you plan on digitizing your own designs from scratch? PE Design is really expensive. I think the last time I checked it was around $1200. I wouldn't invest in Viking software for a Brother machine.
You also have the choice of Embird. The basic Embird program is a little over $100, and you can buy plug ins to do what you specifically need. With the main Embird program you can combine designs, resize, recolor, etc. Embird will interface with the Ultimate Box.
How do you get designs to your machine? My Brother is old enough to use a little memory card (thus the need for the reader/writer box), but I think most of the newer ones use either floppy disks or a USB memory stick, and some connect directly to your computer with a USB connection.
My machine is Brother HE-120 which use proprietory memory card.
I just tried EMbird Plus V8.0. There are some neat features in EMbird, and it's maybe the easiest to learn.
I think I will go with EMbird and buy a Ultimate box.
Does anyone know what's the difference between Embird 2006 and Embird Plus V8.0?
Thank you very much!
Does your Brother machine have a USB port? If so, you do not need a card reader/writer box like PED Basic. If you don't have a USB port, then I strongly suggest AGAINST purchasing PED Basic. It is a waste of money and very limited. You will be better off with one of the Amazing Boxes but I don't know the difference in the two.
As for embroidery editing software, PE Design is very expensive. Unless you want to do some serious digitizing, you really don't need it since there are so many other good editing programs for much less money. Embird is one of them. There is another good one called BuzzEdit by BuzzTools. The one that I use is SewWhat-Pro and it is by far the least expensive but can do everything the others do except digitize. I would suggest before you purchase embroidery editing software (which you absolutely will need to do if you want to be able to merge designs, convert formats, resize, rotate, or edit in any way) you should download the trial versions of the software I mentioned above. They all offer 30 day free trials and that way you can find out which one you like the best and which one you find the easiest to use before you make your purchasing decision. You don't want to make a mistake because it is an investment. As I said before I use SewWhat-Pro and I really LOVE it. It is so easy to use and can do just about anything I want to do with my designs. There is also a great SewWhat-Pro Yahoo group you can join that is very helpful. If you ever have a problem, just post and you will get a reply almost immediately! The customer support is fabulous. You can download the free trial of SewWhat-Pro at www.sandscomputing.com or www.stitchesinmotion.ca.
Good luck!
Mary Anne


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A fashion statement
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Book your room at Hotel Gregoriana
Double RoomMax Occupancy: 3 guests (up to 1 infant)
Deluxe Double Room, BalconyMax Occupancy: 4 guests (up to 1 infant)
Single RoomMax Occupancy: 2 guests (up to 1 infant)
Double Room Single UseMax Occupancy: 2 guests (up to 1 infant)
Hotel in Rome (Rome City Centre) near Spanish Steps
Located in the heart of Rome, this hotel is within walking distance of Sistina Theater, Spanish Steps, and Trevi Fountain. Also nearby are Villa Borghese and Pantheon.
Hotel Features
Hotel Gregoriana offers a complimentary continental breakfast. Other amenities include complimentary wireless Internet access, complimentary high-speed (wired) Internet access, and limo/town car service.
Room Amenities
LCD televisions in guestrooms come with satellite channels. Bathrooms feature bathtubs or showers, designer toiletries, and bidets.Information missing or incorrect? Tell us!
Hotel Amenities
Hotel Amenities
Guests can enjoy a complimentary breakfast each morning. Public areas are equipped with complimentary high-speed wired and wireless Internet access. For a surcharge, a roundtrip airport shuttle (available on request) is offered to guests. This Rome hotel also offers tour/ticket assistance, dry cleaning/laundry services, and limo/town car service.
- 24-hour front desk
- Babysitting or childcare (surcharge)
- Airport transportation (surcharge)
- Total number of rooms - 22
- Number of floors - 5
- Babysitting or childcare
- Free breakfast
- Dry cleaning/laundry service
- Elevator/lift
- Tours/ticket assistance
- Free WiFi
- Free wired high-speed Internet
- Limo or Town Car service available
- Luggage storage
- Offsite parking reservations required
- Year Built 1977
- Number of buildings/towers - 1
Available in all rooms: Free WiFi , Free wired high-speed Internet
Available in some public areas: Free WiFi , Free wired high-speed Internet
Offsite parking reservations required
Room Amenities
- Room service (limited hours)
- Free cribs/infant beds
- Climate control
- Air conditioning
- Phone
- Minibar
- Daily housekeeping
- Designer toiletries
- Private bathroom
- Free toiletries
- Hair dryer
- Bathtub or shower
- Bidet
- Slippers
- In-room safe
- Satellite TV service
- Free WiFi
- Free wired high-speed Internet
- Blackout drapes/curtains
- Down comforter
Where to Eat
A complimentary continental breakfast is served each morning between 7:30 AM and 10:30 AM.
Room service (during limited hours) is available.
Hotel Policies
Check-in time starts at 2 PM
Minimum check-in age is 18
Check-in time ends at midnight
Special check-in instructions:
Check-out time is 11 AM
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Pets allowed
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Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on hotel policy.
Government-issued photo identification and a credit card or cash deposit are required at check-in for incidental charges.
Special requests are subject to availability upon check-in and may incur additional charges. Special requests cannot be guaranteed.
- No onsite parking is available.
- A tax is imposed by the city: EUR 4 per person, per night, up to 10 nights. This tax does not apply to children under 10 years of age.
- Airport shuttle fee: EUR 60 per vehicle
We should mention
Cash transactions at this property cannot exceed EUR 999.99, due to national regulations. For further details, please contact the property using information in the booking confirmation. Only registered guests are allowed in the guestrooms. Guests can arrange to bring pets by contacting the property directly, using the contact information on the booking confirmation.


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false drawer fronts on bathroom vanities?
Or should I eliminate those and make the doors taller? Which is better or considered to look nicer?
Will the false front match the door style? I don't like the tall doors and might not like just a plain slab front. Depends on the style and the finish. We have this vanity in a 36" and the panel runs across the entire front.
This is a personal choice. It would be best if you could see both versions side by side. ie one with the false drawer front, and one with just doors. If not in real life, even drawing it out on graph paper might help!
We had our guest vanity made with just the doors, and one added benefit is that it really increases your access to stuff under the sink. We had a pullout drawer made, so no more awkwardly laying on floor to reach stuff in the back!
Draw your choices up on paper as Raehelen suggested. It doesn't have to be perfect. Just for you to get a feel. That is how I made my decision.
Here is my full height vanity door and under sink area with pullouts. It is a frameless cabinet. Never had one before. It has a nice 3" rail inside at the top of the opening. Maker said he does that to add a better finish. Hides the under part of the sink a bit more too. I have yet to get the counter and sink in.
Here is my full length door (I it wasn't matched as well as I'd like with the drawers, but it was from the same veneer I am told, and my peps thought it would be impossible to get it better.)
You can see the top rail that is about 3" wide running across the top of the opening, extending down below the top of the vanity. With pullouts similar to what Raehelen referred to having in her vanity:
I would prefer the tilt out drawer to put rings, toothbrush, etc., in. I did not win the discussion on ours as hubby did not want to increase the price of the cabinets. Mine will have false front but I will use the handle to hang small hand towel on.
Full length doors will make it easier to access the plumbing, and so I used those when I designed my mother's vanity - partly because my father and I were installing the plumbing. I also think that they look better. I gave her four drawers beside the doors, and it looked balanced.
I do prefer a drawer, for several years now I've been making the sink drawer a "U" shaped drawer to fit around the sink tailpiece.
You still get a full-length pull out drawer on slides, but instead of it being a "complete" drawer, you just get a few inches of drawer space in front of the drain tailpiece as well as a few inches on both the left and right sides of the sink tailpiece.
Much does indeed depend on the sink dimensions.


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Thunder Down San Antonio 106-97 - Match Report
|Thunder Down San Antonio 106-97 - Match Report
San Antonio was scorched by Russell Westbrook for 26 points as the Thunder defeated the Spurs 106-97 in NBA action on Sunday.
Oklahoma City was the ATS victor, as they covered the -2.5-point spread as a favorite. Over-Under bettors who played UNDER the total of 208 were rewarded at the payout window.
Oklahoma City got 25 points from Kevin Durant and another 15 points from Reggie Jackson. Russell Westbrook contributed 7 assists, while Kevin Durant cleaned the glass with 10 rebounds.
San Antonio got 23 points from Manu Ginobili in a losing cause and another 10 points from Tim Duncan. Boris Diaw contributed 6 assists for the Spurs, while Tiago Splitter had 8 rebounds.
The Thunder hit the break winning 57-53 before taking care of business in the second half.
Oklahoma City won the battle of the boards, outrebounding their counterparts 52-36.


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Tassos Restaurant
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Beyond Tephlon and Unhealthy Non-stick
I am looking for a Non Tephlon, healthier alternative pan in which one could make pancakes without using an enormous amout of butter. Also, non tephlon baking sheets.
I have a Le Cueset pan (enamel?) and while it is great for some cooking, it is not ideal for pancakes and some other dishes. I also have a cast iron pan and that was ok for the pancakes with a good amount of butter, but I left the pan in my sink to soak and was later greeted with a rusty ring on my ss sink. It came off, but I was not happy about it. I have a pampered Chef stone baking sheet that I like, but I can't imagine having 4 of them since they are so heavy, but I do like to have multiple cookie sheets on hand.
Any ideas for an alternative?
Thanks. I know you will have solution!
I switched to rice bran oil as you need less/it coats really well/is healthier/and allows high heat stirfry/sizzling chicken pieces...so pancakes should be a breeze I'd think.Very little need to scrub to the point of sore shoulders anymore. I use the regular stainless now for the most part.
For baking, I use commercial half sheet pans or what we home cooks think of as a regular size cookie sheet. If I want to use them as non-stick, I use silpat baking mats in the pan. No sticking. I haven't, however, considered the health consequences of silpat, which is strange given my affliction for all things organic and earth-friendly.
I can't offer suggestions for pancakes. I don't have a cast iron pan large enough, and I know my enamel or enamel-like frying pans wouldn't be the best. We use a large non-stick griddle pan or an electric griddle.
I use my cast iron skillet, I can only do 3 pancakes at a time, but that's what warming drawers are for.
I don't mean to offend, but I think you may not know how to treat your cast iron pan right, you should not need to use a lot of butter. I use one or 2 spritzes of oil for a double recipe of buttermilk pancakes.
Re-season your pan. This entails heating it on the stove, adding a high temp neutral oil, like peanut. Rub the oil around with a cotton rag or a wad of paper towels. Stick the hot smoking pan in a hot 350 oven for 45 minutes, turn the oven off. Leave it in there to cool.
After this, never let it soak in your sink, soaking is the enemy of seasoning and as you found out, really bad for your sink. And, don't use soap. If you have to use soap, you may need to re-season. After you use the pan, wipe it out with a paper towel, then run it under the tap, to rinse rinse it. You can aid the rinse with a soapless scrubby. If it still looks dirty or has a lingering odor, think fried fish, then put in 1/4 inch of water, bring to a boil, dump the hot boiling water, rinse and put the pan back on a burner to dry or dry it with a rag. cast iron cannot air dry, air drying = rust. If there is stuck on stuff, dump a handful of salt in the pan and scrub with the salt and a nylon bristle dish brush. A clean pan should look shiny and smooth, if it looks dull and dried out, it needs to be re-seasoned. I probably cook 70% of our meals in my two large cast iron skillets, last night I made roasted brussel sprouts with chili oil and agave nectar, washed as I told you and this morning we will be scrambling eggs for breakfast burritos.
In my house, no one is allowed to clean the cast iron pans except me, because they screw it up. If I am not around to clean it, it must just stay on the stove burner. I find if I have a cold pan to clean the pores of the metal are more open and so some of the seasoning seems to leach out. For cold pans, after boiling and drying, I wipe with a thin coat of oil and heat on stove top, skipping the oven part.
I use regular aluminum rimmed cookie sheets (from the restaurant supply store, about $6 each) and line them with parchment paper. You can get parchment in flat sheets, cut to fit the pans, at King Arthur Flour (NAYYY).
On parchment I can usually bake twice (so, load up the cookie sheet 2 time from the same batch) unless its chocolate chip, because those leave tiny bits of chocolate on the paper. I think it's $20 for 100 sheets of parchment ... It's cheaper at the restaurant supply shop but the quality wasn't as good.
I agree with Localeater - cast iron is a splendid cooking tool when properly cared for. I agree that teflon and other chemical coatings are undesirable. Getting a cast iron pan up to speed is not that hard and it's definitely worth it for their ease of cooking and peace of mind with no chemicals.
I do use soap on our cast iron pans, but it is very brief: a quick scrub, then hand dry and a light coating of oil as needed. Over time the seasoning will build up and the pan attains a dark luster. That's when you know you are in good shape.
We have Lodge cast iron skillets in 3 sizes and they all enjoy regular use. Scrambled eggs and pancakes glide right out and cleanup is a breeze.
For cookie sheets, we use the double-layer ones and a thin schmear of butter and have never had anything stick. Cookies are DH's department (lucky me!) and he swears by the double-layer uncoated cookie sheets.
I applaud you for seeking out alternatives - that is a worthy thing to do!
I have an enameled cast iron pan that works great and is non-toxic. Just a touch of oil and there you go. Don't know if you can find a griddle that is enameled, though.
And yes, don't soak your cast iron. Good, well-seasoned cast iron is the best non-stick surface there is.
Don't worry about butter: get some good grass-fed butter and eat lots of it! It's good for you! The myth of low-fat being healthy is finally starting to be found out for what it is: baloney.
"Don't worry about butter: get some good grass-fed butter and eat lots of it! It's good for you! The myth of low-fat being healthy is finally starting to be found out for what it is: baloney."
deedles: go Weston a. Price !!!!!
a great book is REAL FOOD by Nina Planck
...about to cook pancakes w/lots of farmer butter...YUM
I'm with you Eatrealfood! Weston A. Price nailed it.
I'll check that book out. I'm experimenting with fermented food now... just made my first batch of sauerkraut a week ago... it's doing it's thing on the counter and should be ready to eat in another week or so...
Thank you for your suggestions about rice bran oil and cast iron skillets. I will season my pan and give it another try.
Breezygirl - I never wanted to try the Silicone mats because of the bad implants uncovered in the 90s, but from what I've read, its not the same type of silicone. Who knows?
Deedles and EATREALFOOD - I'm a believer in butter. Margarine tastes awful aside from the health concerns.
Has anyone tried Cuisinart GreenGourmet? Some reviews says you need to cook with alot of oil to make eggs, pancakes, etc.
Thanks for your help!
We have the Green Gourmet omelet pan and scramble eggs in it every day. We use a little olive oil. A few times a year we get a little sticking, usually after someone cooks meat in it, but I clean it with baking soda and it's perfect again. It looks brand new after three years, pretty good for a non-stick.
I haven't tried pancakes, but I think it'd be fine. When I got my glass cooktop, I switched from a cast iron griddle to a heavy Anolon pan for pancakes. I wipe it with an oily paper towel between pancakes. I think that's all the GG would need too.
I bought a set of Minerale steel pans... not quite as heavy as cast iron but still require a little know-how (ie: no soap, no soaking, establish seasoning). Check out the cookwear forum, there are some good ideas there.
Although I like my pans (my 6" is seasoned nicely thanks to always cooking scrambled eggs with butter in it), I've had a hard time with the larger pans (9", 12") as I tend to use those for non-fatty foods (think sauces) as well as fatty. When I make tacos, for example, I wreck the seasoning easily (too acid?).
I got these to try to avoid teflon. I must say, though, I bought a Le Cruset crepe pan with a coating and it is such a breeze compared!
BTW, I also don't let anyone else wash the pans! They'll mess them up!
Here is a link that might be useful: cookwear forum
For pancakes you might consider getting one of those two-burner cast iron griddles. I have one and it's the nuts since I can set up a production line on it and by the time the first one I've poured out needs to be flipped I am finished pouring on the additional ones.
One thought about cast iron: I am not big fan of the Lodge pans at all. They are coated with some proprietary coating (was assured by Lodge that it is both Kosher and Vegan) to make up for the fact that modern cast iron is nowhere near as smooth as vintage pieces. I absolutely loathe that coating! Lodge explained I could get it off by un-seasoning the pan and I plan to do so on my only pan (one of those ridged grill-pans that creates my DH favorite burn marks). Lodge said the preferred removal method was to run it through a self-cleaning oven cycle, but since I don't have one of those a second method is heavy-duty oven cleaner.
You can often find the much-more preferrable vintage cast iron in second hand or thrift shops, or buy it on eBay. The occasional collector's item piece is pricey but most vintage cast iron is dirt cheap - and better than modern stuff because it is much, much smoother and lighter weight, too. Griswold is a a very good brand (though a bit pricier than the more-common Wagner which is still very fine.) Unnnamed pieces are OK, too, if they meet your size needs. They will also generally be much cheaper as they have no price premium for the collectors. A little time spent looking at current and sold listings on eBay will give you an idea of what the range of prices ought to be. Shipping is high for cast iron, of course, because of the weight. An important point is whether the bottom is perfectly flat, not even slightly warped. This is doubly important if you are using an induction range. Even a small decorative ring on the bottom of the pan will make the induction less powerful.
I am a CI heretic: I wash my pans with hot water and dish soap after every use. Most of mine are on their third and four generations of use and I can tell you for sure my Gran, and Mother always washed their pans with soap, so I continue to do that. I wash them by hand of course, and dry them right away. I have had to re-season a pan only rarely and generally due to very long dis-use, or after the occasional spousal-error. I usually de-season and then re-season any CI pan that I buy from eBay or a thrift shop. Don't really have to, just makes me feel better to know it's my own accumulated old fat on the cooking surface. If you have a pan with an unspeakable amount of exterior crud you can remove all the seasoning and grease in an electrolytic bath. That's really taking it back to zero, and it then requires a more-intense reseasoning process. (Same thing but multiple rounds of greasings and heatings to get back to good temper.)
On the subject of cookie sheets: I use butter wrappers to grease the pan - I save all the empties in the freezer all year, so I'm always ready for a cookie binge. I don't like parchment paper because it is coated with silicone. It may be silly but I don't think that's good idea for my health or for the world's.
Yes, those who think that parchment is natural ought to take a closer look at what's in it these days. I bought parchment for the first time in a long time recently, and the surface sure as heck isn't paper.
I must confess I've never found any type of nonstick pan one iota easier to clean than good quality stainless.
You are correct, the surface of most parchment paper is impregnated with silicone. However, before anyone panics, the silicone used seems pretty inflexible (the paper is stiffer than you'd expect based on its thickness). In my mind, less flexible = less phthalates, and phthalates are the evil part of plastic.
Besides, if I let the cookies sit directly on the aluminum then they'd probably pick up aluminum and isn't that linked to Alzheimer's? (That was tongue in cheek). I linked an article below that talkes about silicone in baking materials (including silicone baking pans and silicone impregnated parchment paper).
Here is a link that might be useful: Article on safety of silicone in parchment paper
SCANPAN is the way to go. They are a ceramic titanium alloy with a pfoa free non stick surface. I hesitate to call it a coating or a surface because it is impregnated into the pan itself. The pans heat extremely evenly and brown beautifully. The non stick part of the pan is so hard that if you see marks in the pan it's from the utensil, not the pan scratching. You can use metal utensils on the pan it they will not harm the pan. You can also use the pans in teh oven, up to 550 I believe. The pans are made in Denmark, so no china here. They also have a lifetime warranty from the manufacturer. I have a collection of over 50 pots and pans of various construction. The two SCANPANs that I have get used on a daily basis. I cook a full dinner for my family on a daily basis and bet the heck out of my cookware. These have stood the test of time, easily. Scanpan does have several different "lines" one has stainless steel on the exterior. Some of the others are black on the exterior, yet have different handles. The ones that have black, plastic looking handles, are the same pan as their more expensive brothers and can still be used in the oven without fear of melting.
I use a cast iron griddle for pancakes. A tiny dab of butter or oil before I start is good enough for the whole job.
My spouse insists on using the teflon still.
And yes, absolutely wash cast iron with soap and water! Otherwise it's gross. :) If it's properly seasoned you'll need EZoff to damage it--the seasoning is the same as the baked on oven black stuff after all.
I like my aluminum airbake pans for cookies, and use "If you care" parchment paper to line them. I also use the same brand of muffin liners. Both are sold at Vitacost, linked below. They're wonderful for their nonstick quality.
I save bacon grease drippings to oil my cast iron cookware. It does great things for the pans, and gives a yummy flavor to things like pancakes and cornbread. MMMMMmmm. I warm the pans on the stovetop after washing them to dry them out, and then rub a little grease into them while they're still warm.
Here is a link that might be useful: Unbleached parchement baking paper at Vitacost
Wow! I just really got an education on cast iron pans and seasoning! I'm not the original poster, but thanks so much. I never knew all this. I may have to give cast iron a try again. I was given a cast iron pan as a wedding gift years ago and tried to follow the directions to season it, but I think they weren't as good as explaining what to do as several of you allc here! I think I probably let it air dry--I believe it rusted right away and I got rid of it. I always like to know the reason to do or not do something--it helps so much.
By the way--for those of us not as up-to-date on the latest in cookware safety as we are tile backsplash styles, (LOL), can any of you explain why the non-stick coating are unhealthy? Is it like the BHA in plastics?
By the way-are all that plastic microwave cookware unhealthy, too, or just certain kinds? Thanks!
"Yes, those who think that parchment is natural ought to take a closer look at what's in it these days. I bought parchment for the first time in a long time recently, and the surface sure as heck isn't paper."
There are parchment papers that are silicone-free and chlorine-free. You shouldn't judge an entire category by the one particular brand you happen to have at home.
Agree heartily with cast iron and carbon steel. Here is a snippet from a post I wrote earlier (linked at the end)
People always say to buy vintage Griswold or Wagner, which is a fine idea. However, a company called American Culinary bought all the rights and molds for BOTH of those companies, and is in business making NEW smooth cast-iron cookware. I do not have direct experience, but I wouldn't mind giving them a try. They are cheap enough; an 8" polished Wagner skillet is only $17.50.
Of course, the carbon steel pans I wrote about earlier are very, very smooth inside.
Here is a link that might be useful: New Wagner/Griswold maker
We use either a cast iron griddle pan or a tri-ply (aluminum for heat conduction sandwiched inside stainless steel) for pancakes and french toast and don't need much butter to keep then from sticking. Part of the trick with stainless and not sticking is getting the pan hot enough before cooking. When you sprinkle some water on the pan, the drops should dance across the surface and evaporate quickly.
I've never found that I need to soak cast iron. If it's well seasoned, it should clean up easily.
For cookies on sheet pans, we use stainless steel and parchment paper. For other baking like cakes or muffins, we spray with Baker's Joy which is a mixture of oil and flour that prevents sticking with a very thin coat.
Omelets is the only time I miss Teflon. Mine usually turn into scrambled eggs because I haven't gotten the trick of keeping them from sticking.
". . . can any of you explain why the non-stick coating are unhealthy? "
I am posting a link (below) that explains this far better than I can.
My personal experience--- Ten or so years ago, I was in a sewing class where 25 people were using irons to press fabric on non-stick teflon or silicon "pressing sheets" that are very similar (or identical) to the ones sold for baking.
Within five minutes, I started developing symptoms that felt like a flu taking over my body. My throat got dry and scratchy, overall malaise. ( A few hours later, I rode home with a friend and she noticed my voice was raspy.) I left the room to get some water.
Upon returning to the classroom, the fumes hit me. It was the out-gassing from all those pressing sheets. I was sick for quite a few days before the symptoms went away. Years of sewing and pressing on synthetic fibers probably set me up for this reaction. After that, I started doing research and found the web site I linked.
I had noticed, in Clotilde sewing notions catalog, that they advised customers to NOT buy their pressing sheets if they kept birds in the home. After that episode, I called the catalog company, asked about that, and they said 'out-gassing fumes' were too much for a bird's respiratory system and it could/might/would kill them. Better to give the warning and not sell a product, than be held responsible.
After that, I got on the Internet and started searching. That was when I found the web sited linked below.
I got rid of the few Teflon skillets we owned, I stopped baking any frozen food that came in a plastic tub which was meant for an oven, I won't even microwave in them, etc. (it all gets transferred to a pyrex glass dish. I also stopped using irons that have a non-stick surface.
Teflon has been replaced with something else, which may well take thirty to forty years before it is deemed unhealthy by the government.
I now only cook on cast iron or my All-Clad Tri-Ply stainless, bake in glass or metal; anything that is not non-stick. I won't even use those silicone baking things.
Here is a link that might be useful: Canaries in the Kitchen
My reason for not using Teflon isn't particularly related to health.
I get use to a pan and I like having things that last a long time - so I found the short life span of Teflon and other non-stick coated pans annoying.
I also find it unpalatable that the bits of non-stick coating that flake or are scratched off the pans are mixed into the food even if I can't see the bits but know it must have been happening because coating has disappeared.
>There are parchment papers that are silicone-free and chlorine-free. You shouldn't judge an entire category by the one particular brand you happen to have at home.
Yes, this is very true, and I should maybe have been more specific, but I think most people just assume that if it says "parchment paper" it's parchment paper. I can't get any of the real kinds locally, need to order online.
I love my stainless steel pans with glass lids. I have all Princess House pans. LOVE THEM! I also bake all my cookies on Pampered Chef stones. I use butter (real butter - never margarine) to make pancakes. I don't think real butter is bad for you. But I also don't think real sugar is bad for you, or real milk!
Another cast iron fan here. I also have a few pieces of French carbon steel, which are way cheaper than premium ss, or other fancy French cookware. Like others, I prefer vintage CI, and I season mine with a high-smoke-point oil (grapeseed) and bake it for an hour or so at 450F. Lower temps won't allow the oil to properly polymerize and penetrate the iron structure. Only if you have a really hard baked on seasoning can you wash them with soap without risking damage. Lower temp seasoning may not be so durable.
I have the same opinion of teflon/non-stick as clouds_swift - I consider it a temporary product, while cast iron is multi-generational.
Depends on what you mean by "best," I think.
Cheap = haunt flea markets, antique shops/swaps, estate sales, garage/rummage sales, Craigslist, etc.
Fast = eBay for Griswold
Fast and cheap = non-vintage Wagnerware
(Note: American Culinary Corporation owns the rights to Wagner and Griswold, but they evidently are only selling Wagnerware at this time.)
There is often a misconception about cast iron because we've all seen the commercials re non-stick pans with the eggs sliding around in them. Cast iron does not generally do that unless you float something in a sea of oil, but properly seasoned cast iron is truly non-stick.
I've been cooking on the same Griswold cast iron pans for over 40 years and my parents before that. When done cooking, while still hot, scrape the surface with the edge of a spatula with a few swipes to loosen bits of food. Try to wash it when the pan is at least warm simply for ease of cleaning, but it does not affect the seasoning if cleaned cold; it just takes longer to clean. If you want to use soap, fine, but I never do, just very hot water. A properly seasoned pan does not get "gross" or "gunky." The real trick to keeping the seasoning is to never scrub it with something abrasive. No scrubbies! I use a soft round brush that is soft enough so that if you scrub hard with it on the palm of your hand it does not hurt... and then I wash the brush with soap and water, not the pan.
After a while the seasoning builds up until the bottom of a dry pan has a dull sheen and is baby bottom smooth. At that point, you have a properly seasoned pan and nothing will stick to it that you have to scrape at more than once.
I do use butter and oil. A tiny dab or a few drops. You just need enough to "shine" up the bottom of the pan.
From cooktop to sink to clean takes me about 2 minutes. Once absolutely dry, place cloth between pans if you stack them and they are ready for the next time.