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Phase I/II Pilot Study of Mixed Chimerism to Treat Inherited Metabolic Disorders
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The goal of this research study is to establish chimerism and avoid graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD) in patients with inherited metabolic disorders.
Condition | Intervention | Phase |
Hurler Syndrome (MPS I) Hurler-Scheie Syndrome With Early Neurologic Involvement and/or Sensitization to Enzyme Replacement Therapy (ERT) Hunter Syndrome (MPS II) Sanfilippo Syndrome (MPS III) Krabbe Disease (Globoid Leukodystrophy) Metachromatic Leukodystrophy (MLD) Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD and AMN) Sandhoff Disease Tay Sachs Disease Pelizaeus Merzbacher (PMD) Niemann-Pick Disease Alpha-mannosidosis |
Biological: Enriched Hematopoetic Stem Cell Transplantation/novel platform technology |
Phase 1 Phase 2 |
Access to an investigational treatment associated with this study is no longer available outside the clinical trial. More info ...
Study Type: | Interventional |
Study Design: | Endpoint Classification: Safety/Efficacy Study Intervention Model: Single Group Assignment Masking: Open Label Primary Purpose: Treatment |
Official Title: | Phase I/II Pilot Study of Mixed Chimerism to Treat Inherited Metabolic Disorders |
- Production of missing enzyme at levels greater than or equal to 10% of normal [ Time Frame: Day 180 post transplant to three years ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
- Enriched Hematopoetic Stem Cell Engraftment [ Time Frame: One month to three years ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
Estimated Enrollment: | 30 |
Study Start Date: | April 2011 |
Estimated Study Completion Date: | April 2028 |
Estimated Primary Completion Date: | April 2025 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure) |
Arms | Assigned Interventions |
Experimental: Enriched Hematopoetic Stem Cell Transplant |
Biological: Enriched Hematopoetic Stem Cell Transplantation/novel platform technology
Bone marrow will be processed via a new technology which will enrich hematopoietic stem cells and graft facilitating cells. Monitoring for chimerism will be done at key time points.
Detailed Description:
The objective for the study is to establish chimerism following reduced intensity conditioning with no grade III/IV GVHD. The primary endpoint we will follow is production of the missing enzyme at ≥ 10% of the normal level at day 180 post-transplant in > 90% of patients.
Genders Eligible for Study: | Both |
Accepts Healthy Volunteers: | No |
Inclusion criteria:
Patients must have a confirmed diagnosis of inherited metabolic disorder / inborn error of metabolism. Diagnosis should be confirmed by appropriate test(s) (enzyme and/or mutation analysis) before study entry. Patients must not be eligible for myeloablative chemotherapy as a preparative regimen for transplant due to age, co-morbidities or organ dysfunction.
Inborn errors of metabolism / Inherited Metabolic Disorders (IMD) eligible for this study include the following:
- Hurler Syndrome (MPS I)
- Hurler-Scheie Syndrome with early neurologic involvement and/or sensitization to ERT
- Hunter Syndrome (MPS II)
- Sanfilippo Syndrome (MPS III)
- Krabbe Disease (Globoid Leukodystrophy)
- Metachromatic Leukodystrophy (MLD)
- Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD and AMN)
- Sandhoff Disease
- Tay Sachs Disease
- Pelizaeus Merzbacher (PMD)
- Niemann-Pick Disease
- Alpha-mannosidosis
Patients must have adequate function of other organ systems as measured by:
- Creatinine less than or equal to 2.0 mg/dl and creatinine clearance ≥60 cc/min/1.73m2. Newborns must have a creatinine clearance ≥ 25 cc/min. For babies less than or equal to 3 months of age, the raw value on glomerular filtration rate (GFR) must be ≥ 1 cc/kg/min.
- Hepatic transaminases (ALT/AST) 2.5 x normal, bilirubin <2.0mg/dl
- Normal cardiac function by echocardiogram or radionuclide scan (ejection fraction or shortening fraction >80% of normal value for age)
- Pulmonary function tests (PFTs) demonstrating forced expiratory volume at one second (FEV1) of ≥50% of predicted for age. If child is too young or unable to perform PFTs, crying vital capacity result of >50% of normal value for age or resting pulse oximeter >92% on room air or clearance by pulmonologist will be required.
- Patient must have a related donor (identical or mismatched for 1, 2 or 3 Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA)-A, -B or -DR loci).
- Patient, and parent, or legal guardian must have given written informed consent according to FDA guidelines.
- Patients must have a minimum life expectancy of at least 6 months.
- Female patients of childbearing potential cannot be pregnant or lactating/breast-feeding and must be either surgically sterile, postmenopausal (no menses for the previous 12 months), or must be practicing an effective method of birth control as determined by the investigator (e.g., oral contraceptives, double barrier methods, hormonal injectable or implanted contraceptives, tubal ligation, or partner with vasectomy).
- There is no upper or lower age limit for this study.
Exclusion Criteria
- Patients with uncontrolled seizures, apnea, evidence of recurrent or uncontrolled aspiration, or need for chronic mechanical ventilation.
- Patients with allogeneic stem cell transplant with cytoreductive therapy in the past 6 months.
- Subjects must not have had previous radiation therapy that would preclude total body irradiation (TBI) (as determined by radiation therapist)
- Uncontrolled infection or severe concomitant diseases, which in the judgment of the Principal Investigator, could not tolerate reduced intensity transplantation.
- Subjects with a positive human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) antibody test result
- Subjects who are pregnant, as indicated by a positive serum human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) test
- Subjects whose only donor is pregnant at the time of intended transplant
- Subjects of childbearing potential who are not practicing adequate contraception as defined by the investigator at the site
- Jehovah's witnesses being unwilling to be transfused
- Patients that have any comorbid condition which, in the view of the Principal Investigators, renders the patient at too high a risk from treatment complications and regimen related morbidity/mortality.
- Lack of related donors
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01372228
United States, North Carolina | |
Duke University Medical Center | |
Durham, North Carolina, United States, 27705 |
Principal Investigator: | Joanne K. Kurtzberg, MD | Duke University |
No publications provided
Responsible Party: | University of Louisville |
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: | NCT01372228 History of Changes |
Other Study ID Numbers: | ICT-14070-010611 |
Study First Received: | June 10, 2011 |
Last Updated: | January 22, 2015 |
Health Authority: | United States: Food and Drug Administration |
Keywords provided by University of Louisville:
hematopoietic stem cell transplant, chimerism, leukodystrophy |
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
Leukodystrophy, Globoid Cell Mannosidase Deficiency Diseases Metabolic Diseases Niemann-Pick Disease, Type A Niemann-Pick Disease, Type C Niemann-Pick Diseases Pick Disease of the Brain Sandhoff Disease Tay-Sachs Disease Adrenal Gland Diseases Brain Diseases Brain Diseases, Metabolic Brain Diseases, Metabolic, Inborn Central Nervous System Diseases Communication Disorders |
Connective Tissue Diseases Delirium, Dementia, Amnestic, Cognitive Disorders Demyelinating Diseases Disease Endocrine System Diseases Genetic Diseases, Inborn Genetic Diseases, X-Linked Hereditary Central Nervous System Demyelinating Diseases Heredodegenerative Disorders, Nervous System Language Disorders Lipid Metabolism Disorders Lymphatic Diseases Lysosomal Storage Diseases Lysosomal Storage Diseases, Nervous System Mental Disorders |
ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on May 05, 2015


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Posted December 29, 2012
Well, for $3 I got it. I don't expect it to be anything more than a mediocre shooter masked by gimmicky visuals, but I'd regret not having the chance to try it out. It's really a shame that this sort of thing happens.
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Front On a kitchen counter Straight-on view Photos (3) Video View larger SiriusXM TTR1 Internet clock radio Item #: 220SXMTRIP 33 Reviews This item is no longer available. Original Price: $79.99 Shop all Satellite Radio for Your Home Need help? 1.888.955.6000 Email Chat Ask an expert advisor No pressure, no commission — just lots of good advice from our highly trained staff.
by Ralph Graves You can listen to your favorite satellite radio programming over your home Internet network with the TTR1 tabletop radio. Its low-profile, small-footprint design lets you place it almost anywhere in your home or office it even has a built-in alarm clock if you want to use it in your bedroom. Your favorite SiriusXM programming, via the Internet Connect the TTR1 to your wired or wireless network and you can listen to your favorite stations via your SiriusXM Internet Radio subscription. And since you're streaming satellite radio over the Internet, you won't need to set up an external antenna. Simple operation The TTR1 works just like a traditional table radio simple knobs let you tune in your channels and adjust the volume, while ten preset buttons let you store your favorite channels for instant recall. You can see track and station info on the display while the TTR1 fills your room with sound. A handy remote lets you control the action from across the room. You can use the TTR1 to play other sources through the aux input, while RCA outputs let you connect to your home stereo. SiriusXM Internet Radio subscription required. Note: TTR1 cannot receive non-SiriusXM Internet radio stations nor other online streaming music services. Product Highlights:Internet radio receiver for SiriusXM Internet Radiodual 2-way speakersEthernet and Wi-Fi® Internet connectivitydigital clock with dual alarmsLCD displaydisplay brightness automatically adjusts to the light in the room10 channel presetsparental controls to lock out channelsminijack auxiliary inputminijack headphone outputremote controlAC power adapter11"W x 7-1/4"H x 3-3/4"Dwarranty: 60 daysOur 60-day money-back guaranteeNote: TTR1 cannot receive non-SiriusXM Internet Radio stations nor other online streaming music services.
SiriusXM TTR1 Written By DonC, Greenville, SC on Sunday, December 22, 2013 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Great radio. Good sound. Pros: I can listen to the music I enjoy in my house. Cons: The remote works great and I use it because the radio is across the room from my desk, but the buttons are hard to read.
Returned it, Sirious says radio ID not valid. Written By Anonymous, New Yok on Sunday, November 24, 2013 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Tried for hours to get this radio registered/activated. For whatever reason the embedded ID code that Sirius needs to register the radio was unusable, too many digits they said. Incredibly frustrating. I have to wonder, since this radio is made by Sirius, how could they screw this up? Pros: Can't say, without the registration it's just an expensive, silent black box. Cons: Ditto.
Love it. Written By Bonnie B, Wellington,Nv on Thursday, November 14, 2013 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) It has a great sound, Was easy to set up. For it size really puts out the sound and very clear sounding . Pros: Sounds terrific Cons: none
SiriusXM TTR1 review Written By Allen W., Corsicana, Texas on Tuesday, October 15, 2013 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) What can I say about this GREAT radio? A very good radio for the kitchen, bedroom, or outside patio. I was surprised on the size of this radio ( wee bigger than what I was expecting, But a good size overall wherever you may put it.) It`s a GREAT radio for my kitchen, I am getting another one next month for my bedroom nightstand. Pros: VERY easy interface, VERY user friendly. Easy setup. UPPER case, lower case, numbers and key broad symbols. ( ABC abc 123 #$% ect.. ) Took me like 3 too 5 mins. to setup. My Wi-Fi info then my SXM UN &PW nothing to it, I didn`t need the setup booklet at all. Cons: The remote , Nothing wrong with the remote at all. But I`m nit picking a bit here. The remote is jet black and the text words,numbers are in DARK GREY, VERY hard to see the writing on the remote. It`s okay after you get use to where all the buttons are. Another + ( plus ) is you can be like 10 too 15 feet away to change your pre-sets.
SiriusXM TTR1 Written By PB in VA, Northern Virginia on Monday, September 23, 2013 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Nice little radio, has a bit of a retro, old school transistor radio look to it. As others have noted, it is relatively easy to set up though I did encounter a technical glitch or two that required re-starting the process over again, but once I successfully linked the online service to my existing radio account and then managed the wifi connection, it has worked like a charm ever since. The remote is tiny and poorly marked, the station switching can be slow, and the sound is fine if a little thin. Plus you max out on the volume pretty quickly. All that said, it is very nice and unobtrusive, providing great background music in the kitchen, office and back deck, just don't expect to have your hair blown back by the speakers. I have a 4 or 5 year old no-name boom box dock for my Onyx XM head unit that has nice deep bass and just a more substantial room-filling sound and is only slightly larger than the TTR1, but I am slave to the antenna and placement restrictions with that unit, so the TTR1 is a great alternative in the house where it's not always possible to get aligned with the satellites.... Oh, and as always, dealing with Crutchfield was terrific, the order placement process and shipping could not be more seamless. I received the radio the very next day as I always do when ordering from Crutchfield. Pros: Very portable and has worked in all parts of the home and back yard, a good alternative if obtaining the satellite signal is a problem or you're tired of dealing with 25 foot long antennas... Cons: Thin sound compared to other portable players, the remote is tiny and poorly marked, station switching can be slow even with strong wifi signal.
Great Radio! Written By Bob, Pompano Beach, FL on Friday, August 30, 2013 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Easy set-up, great radio ang good price. Pros: Set-up Cons: None
SiriusXM Table Radio Written By Rick, Taunton MA on Saturday, August 17, 2013 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Have XM in my car and wanted to enjoy the same music at home. Table radio is more than I could have hoped for. It is also a clock radio. Sound is cler and deep. Set up was a breeze. Pros: Love it Cons: There are none
SiriusXM TTR1 Written By Joe, San Diego, CA on Saturday, December 29, 2012 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Excellent product; high quality with excellent sound. Crutchfield is an excellent company to do business with. This is the second product that I have ordered from them and not only do they have exceptional customer service, they include a signed letter from the CEO of the company with each order with a personal "thank you" for your business. It's a nice touch and I would highly recommend this company for any electronics orders. They are top notch!
SeriousXM TTR1 Written By Alan C, Eugene, Oregon on Friday, July 13, 2012 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Good radio, works well. Setup was easy and the unite seems reliable and well built. Pros: Easy to use and setup. Reasonable audio from its built in speakers. Cons: Distorted audio from the line output. The display illumination should be able to be turned off at night if the user wishes.
Best radio ever Written By JN, Salt Lake City, UT on Wednesday, June 06, 2012 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) This radio is the perfect alarm clock ever! Set it once, and forget about it. It pleasantly wakes me up each morning with my favorite music, gently easing into my day. This unit is sturdy, well made and looks nice. You must have a strong internet wireless signal for it, so make sure you get your internet service provider to up the signal to accommodate for it. Set up was easy on the radio part. The only problem I had was finding technical support on the Sirius end. Make life easier and ask for a Supervisor on the Sirius end or you will be homicidal. They repeatedly requested a radio ID number that didn't exist. I called them three times. The fourth time I pressed the selection button to discontinue service and miraculously was directed to a very wonderful Supervisor who had me working within 2 minutes - it's been beautiful music since! Pros: Well made, sounds great, great alam, easy to operate Cons: Sirius technical support
SiriusXM TTR1 Written By Gene and Nancy, Dozier, Alabama on Saturday, March 17, 2012 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Little complicated as far as setting or programming the buttons when you don't know what or where the stations are for folks over 75, but when you get Watercolors going you got the best. what else can i say. wonderful sound right out of the box. including information about available xm stations would be helpful. getting the station numbers from my automobile has been helpful. Pros: wonderful sound for a very good price, looks good also. bet we surprise folks listening to watercolors here in Alabama most of the time. does a good job on country and especially bluegrass. Cons: for over 75 folks took us a little time to get her operating but worth the time and worth the money.
SiriusXM TTR1 Written By Anonymous, Lincoln, NE on Monday, February 27, 2012 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Really like radio. Sometimes radio shuts off. Possibly when it was trying to find satelite.
* * Beware before buying * * Written By RogerH, Plymouth Meeting, PA on Wednesday, February 08, 2012 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) This radio streams off the internet... The brilliant people at SiriusXM have set streaming to timeout every 30 minutes. Talking to tech support in the Philippines is extremely frustrating. It took several calls till they were able to figure out that their timeout is 30 minutes, they have little or no interest in changing their system! ! ! Pros: Great radio while it is streaming. Cons: The radio will shut off every 30 minutes when the signal is cut off!
Slow poke Written By vitaman, Atlanta, GA on Saturday, February 04, 2012 The slow station changes make this radio not useable. I am used to a Tivoli table top which changes stations almost instantly. I sent it back.
Sirius Tabletop Radio Written By A Samit, Philadelphia, PA on Saturday, February 04, 2012 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) The only way to go. Now have 3 Sirius radios - car, home, office. Great sound. Great selection. Pros: Easy to set up, easy to use. Cons: Sometimes, different selections are played at varying volumes - 1st one will be fine, next too loud, third too soft. Sirius could do a better job at broadcast end so volume would not have to be adjusted so frequently. Otherwise, just great!
SirusXM Table Radio/Tabletop Radio w/wifi Written By ChasB, Ontario, CA on Thursday, February 02, 2012 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Radio was placed on back-order, shipped within 11 days. Excellent product, easy to setup. Great sound and it looks Great on the kitchen counter. My wife loves it too! Pros: What a great sound out of something this small. Cons: Could use automatic volume control when commericals air. The volume increase to loudly with each commerical.
Siriusxm internet clock radio Written By RichardM, Corona Calif on Saturday, January 28, 2012 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Came across this radio in the Crutchfield mag. It had all the features I was looking for in a clock radio with Siriusxm. Had to wait for it to be in stock to recive. well worth the wait. Sound is great, easy to set up wireless. Headphone jack is a plus. Pros: wireless capable, 2 alarm settings, plus preset stations easy to set up Cons: preset buttons could be illuminated
SiriusXM TTR1 Internet clock radio Written By Amos, Cleveland, Ohio on Monday, January 16, 2012 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Excellent table-top radio; easy to set up; great build quality and excellent small-box sound. Radio does NOT get internet radio stations other than SiriusXM which, if it had, would have been a great feature (online literature does say that but I missed it) Pros: Sound and build quality are excellent Cons: need to drill down through a couple of menu levels to activate the Aux input for listening - minor issue but it would have been nice to get Aux access with the simple push of a front panel button
Superb SiriusXM in home radio ! Written By Joe, North Oakland County Michigan on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 Extremely easy to set up and once your set, you can customize 10 preset channels. The WiFi connection is error free and crystal clear. No drop outs. You can protect the WiFi just like your other devices. If you wanting SiriusXM as your primary radio source, this is an absolutely great radio. Extremely well built and very attractive with your other stereo components. Has Aux in and out connectors and headphones. I would have given the TTR1 a "5 star" rating butthe remote killed that ! Pros: Sounds like a premium desk top radio ! Endless music that is commercial free. It's well worth the monthly membership fee to get SiriusXM via the Intwernet. Cons: The small remote is "absolutely useless" ! Grey letters on shiny black buttons is horrible. I threw mine in the "junk box" with my extra cables and gizmos.
Amazing Radio, Poor remote Written By Billy C, Framingham Ma on Thursday, December 29, 2011 Have sirius in the car and am delighted to finally get it in my home,A treat for all of us...Thank you... Pros: Great sound ,nice choice of channels, easy setup. We love it..... Cons: Printing on remote almost impossible to read as is the print on the radio, thats about it.....
TTR1 Written By Ed, Bellmore NY on Wednesday, October 12, 2011 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) This radio is easy to set up and works really great. Just be forewarned,if you have a free internet radio account with your sirius subscription it WILL NOT WORK on this radio.The free internet radio sub works just great on your computer but when you try and sign in with this radio it tells you "Premium subscription required". Sirius will not let this radio work on your account unless you pay them $2.99 extra per month. If you get real irate with them they will give you a 1 time promotion of $15 for the first year of internet radio but after that year be prepared to pay the $2.99 a month. Don't get me wrong $2.99 is great compared to the $14.99 they charge per month for a regular sirius or xm radio. If you gotta have your Howard or NFL fix then this is for you. If you don't want to pay anything then you will have to go with the logitech squeezebox
Great Radio Written By Dave, Lemont, IL. on Friday, September 23, 2011 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Finally what I was looking for to bring my SiriusXm into the house. Have not turned it off since I took it out of the box. Easy and quick to set up and use. Would recommend this to anyone.
Great Radio Written By vermont57, Boston on Thursday, March 10, 2011 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Great Internet radio. Set up was very easy and quick (I use a wired Ethernet connection, also works with a wireless connection). Sound is excellent and it looks nice. The only disapointment is that you cannot pause or rewind like you can on some of the other Sirius plug & play radios. I highly recommend this Sirius TTR1 Tabletop Internet Radio.
TTR1, a great product Written By LyndMc, Pittsburgh, PA on Sunday, January 30, 2011 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) I purchased this unit as a gift for my wife who loves to listen to radio during the day and HATES commercials and the standard jibberish that comes with the local radio station morning shows. Pros: Setup is easy, operation is easy, the remote is kind of fragile I'm afraid, no need to bring in your car unit and set up the docking station, less expensive that a docking station, no external antenna required, over all a good purchase. Be advised that you cannot get every station that you can get in your car. I don't think that you will complain though, there is plenty to hear. Also be aware that you can get a car unit, pay the same price for programming and get more stations in your car. I am going to add an auto unit, why not! Also remember, you need WiFi to use this, but today most have it anyway. Cons: none really, but I do prefer more treble than this unit produces since I can't hear high pitch as well as most, the normal user probably would not notice.
best radio ever! Written By BertR, Ocala, Fl. on Thursday, January 27, 2011 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) This radio is the answer for anyone who lives in a fringe area, or a place that gets very few broadcast stations. But you must have a decent broadband connection. The radio is solid and well made, and the sound is very good, even for music .Set-up is a snap! For the money, it's a winner!
Sirius Internet Clock Radio Written By Anonymous, Los Angeles, CA on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) This Sirius Internet clock radio provides some good sound for such a small unit. It occasionally loses its signal over the internet for a second or two, but, generally speaking, is pretty reliable. I am very happy with hit and would recommend it to others. It is nice to get Howard first thing in the morning without having to turn my Sirius on manually.
SiriusXM TTR1 Written By Ned, Port Washington N.Y. on Tuesday, January 18, 2011 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) This radio is quite a bit better than I expected the sound is great and the connecting to wi-fi easy I have already recomended it to several friends that have been to my house.The best part no ant wires to run from the roof thanks
excellent product Written By molanza, hellertown,pa on Thursday, November 11, 2010 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) this radio works as advertised . Hooked it up to sirius internet service using their 30day free trial. I used the wireless connection that it comes with and it plays great all over my house;love the fact you don't need an antenna and the sound is great all over my house.Being a non-tech person it took awhile until I found out how to connect it wirelessly to my cisco valet router. did not realize the router had a manual way of inputting a device such as this radio instead of using the usb key that it comes with. using wired connection of router is a snap;still prefer wireless. Radio has a great sound even at high volume. Very happy with this purchase.
Great product for satellite radio home listeners Written By Moshpit, Tempe, AZ on Tuesday, October 05, 2010 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) I have been a Sirius subscriber for more than four years using the same plug-and-play receiver until it recently died. As a replacement, I needed a Sirius home product that can play non-stop without having to search for a satellite signal, has a great sound, and can also perform as computer/mp3 player speakers. The TTR1 fits the bill perfectly. it was easy to install and configure with my broadband router. Unlike listening through the web where it stops playing if you do not click your mouse cursor on the player controls, the TTR1 plays non-stop after it automatically installed the latest firmware update. It does require the Premium internet radio feed; however, it is well worth the investment since I listen to it everyday. The only negative is the remote control, which is thin and easy to break if you are not careful.
Delightful product Written By Bruce, Arlington, VA on Saturday, July 24, 2010 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Sound quality is better than via satellite (less compression), and while not all sat. channels are on Sirius Internet Radio, there are some that are unique to SIR. Best of all, if the Sirius satellite subscription to which you're adding SIR also has Best of XM, then you get those Best of XM channels on the TTR1 as well. Has a real AC power cord (not a power brick or wall wart) and doesn't take up lots of table space because it's more tall than deep. Software updates come automatically via Sirius. I was able to configure it for my private WPA2 WiFi network entirely wirelessly (though you need to enter the network info manually if your network is "private"; the instructions clearly describe the manual process; just note that the setup wizard can't discover closed networks by itself).
Nice Product Written By tim, Oh on Friday, January 22, 2010 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) Product works great, portability is nice feature; there is some latency, not sure if it is my network or the product itself. ALSO, for the setup, it appears after alot of trial and error, that you need to use an ethernet conneciton to establish the sirius internet ID, and then turn on wireless. I tried to get everything setup first via wireless and kept receiving a failure error; once I plugged in ethernet cable, the sirius internet log on worked; only then could I turn on wireless and make use of the portability.
Does the Job Written By John, Massachusetts on Saturday, January 16, 2010 This radio is stylish and it works well. Good sound and the wifi idea makes it easier to listen anywhere in the house without having to worry about a satellite signal.
Fantastic Written By Henry, Long Island, NY on Tuesday, December 22, 2009 Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?) How does it sound? It sounds exactly as described - it's meant to be a tabletop boombox. Don't expect real high fidelity. It has both a headphone jack and line out jack. This radio works with a broadband Internet connection without the need for an outdoor satellite antenna. It has a nice display and functions as a clock radio, although it's a tad big for the nightstand. You will need to purchase Internet streaming ability from Sirius in addition to your radio account. Enter the IP address of your choice or select dhcp via wired or wireless. It connected right away via WEP. If you have MAC address filtering, you can retrieve the address via the menus. The tuner works similar to that of a dashboard radio with a turn and push to click dial. Be advised that automatic time setting is on by default. The display has a wonderful signal strength indicator. There is no option for batteries, so you will need an AC outlet and the radio is amazingly heavy for a small box. There is an input jack for a CD player or iPod, but no interconnection cables are provided. The display presents the channel name and song name with a nice volume control knob. You'll need a solid, reliable broadband connection to operate this radio else you will hear dropout's and interruptions. This is not the fault of the radio. Test out the streaming audio on your computer first.


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I am currently posting old material to the blog. Some of them are entries that somehow were accidentally saved as drafts (so the news article may be a tad old). Other entries feature material that I never got around to publishing. Please be patient with me. I am finally updating the site and I hope you all enjoy the new(ish) material.
22 Jul
Join our facebook group!
You can join our Facebook group here. Although everything on the blog is mirrored there, a lot of stuff is posted on Facebook by other users that is not published here. You can sign up for the newsletter here, so you're notified when new material is published, but if you wanna get truly lost, you need to join the Facebook group too! There, also, you can submit your own stories and photos to share with the rest of us.
6 Nov
Williams Grove Amusement Park
Williams Grove Amusement Park is located in Mechanicsburg, PA, right down the road from the Williams Grove Speedway and the Williams Grove Steam Engine Association. The Williams family began hosting picnics here in 1850, eventually becoming the Mechanicsburg Fairgrounds. The first rides were built in 1928 and the Speedway opened in 1938.
The biggest change came in 1972 when the park was purchased for 1.2M and many rides were imported from the defunct Palisades Amusement Park which closed that year (the year after I was born!) The park continued entertaining locals thru the 80s when a steel roller coaster was built, and received various face lifts and changes in rides as many parks do. By 2005 attendance was dropping and the owners decided to invest in the speedway instead. The park closed in 2005 and there have been various attempts to sell the property since then with no luck. All the rides except the Cyclone roller coaster were sold off. The Cyclone was built in 1933 and was considered ground breaking for its day with a 60 foot drop and top speeds of 45 MPH. Now the coaster is overgrown with vegetations, and is in a state of decay. The grounds are still maintained and in good condition though most of the buildings are not in very good shape are 10 years of non-use.
See all my pictures here
6 Nov
HolyLand USA (Waterbury, CT)
HolyLand USA was a biblical theme park in Waterbury, CT. Built in the 50s it features numerous… what i can only describe as large scale dioramas, depicting various famous events in the Bible. The park sits on 18 acres on a hill that overlooks Waterbury, and its main focal point is a 58 foot cross, replaced in 2008 with a steel cross 50 ft tall. The park has been closed for 30 years and the passage of time has not been kind to the exhibits. In fact they look better than one would think after 3 decades of weather and no upkeep. The property is owned by the mayor and is still … i wouldn't say maintained, but they try to keep the brush cut back and theres recent memorial bricks in the newly constructed cross base. For more details read about it at the link above on wikipedia. All my pictures are here
16 Nov
Fire on Clausland Mountain near tunnels of Tweed
A fire on Clausland Mountain is finally under control after more then 24 hours. Several homes were threatened, but local firefighters were able to prevent any damage to them. The mountain is more than 300 acres of woodlands with hiking trails thru out. The mountain is home to the Bluefields Rifle range, more commonly known as the tunnels of tweed
30 Oct
A settlement is reached in Centralia
The story of Centralia, the town which has had a coal fire burning beneath it for fifty years is the stuff of legend. I won't retell the story in this post but search for it in the search box and you'll find numerous posts about it. In short, the town decided to burn its garbage in 1962 and it lit a coal vein on fire which still burns to this day. Thousands of residents moved away, the local highway was ruined and a bypass built, and now after decades of fighting, the remaining residents (all seven of them) have made a deal. They will get a settlement of 218K and get to remain on their land but upon their death the state takes it by right of eminent domain. There had long been pressure on them to sell but they resisted because of the value of the coal that could be mined once they sold. Now those issues are resolved.
When the fire will stop burning, no one knows.
16 Sep
The Sinking of the Titanic game
I was with my girlfriend, browsing a townwide garage sale looking for items we could use in cosplay when I came across this game. I often run across things at garage sales that make me say "OH! that is so cool! I want that!" Like a Goofy doll in a kilt. Or old license plates. Or an old fashioned typewriter. My way of avoiding making impulse buys is to take pictures of them, perhaps post them on social media and then walk away. If I'm ready to leave and still really want it, I'll consider buying it. Besides, as a friend pointed out, my girlfriend can see Goofy in a kilt any day. (I think that's a reference to the fact that I wear kilts, I'm not sure)
More often than not, any item you see at a garage sale, even an antique, can be found at another garage sale. It may not be in as good condition or the price may not be as good, but you'll find it again if you are persistent enough. Periodically though, you find something so unique that you know you will never ever find it again, and The Sinking of the Titanic board game is such an item.
Made by IDEAL games in 1976, it is a "game you play as the ship goes down… then face the peril of the open sea!" (If they made this game today they would say it in ALL CAPS with 4 exclamation points!!!! That's the only way to convey anything urgent in 2013. That, or else they'd tweet it.) The cover of the game depicts a lifeboat full of survivors set against a backdrop of the S.S. Titanic at a 35 degree tilt as it sinks below the ocean waves, with numerous lifeboats being lowered or floating in the water. Unlike the James Cameron film, there's virtually no one at the rails of the ship nor do we see any bodies in the water. So right off the bat I am dubious of the realism of this game. Then there's the life boats being lowered by ropes which are at an angle incongruous with gravity and the angle of the ship's bow. And what's with the other large ship in the background? I am pretty sure the Carpathia didn't arrive till long after the Titanic sank. Am I quibbling? I haven't even started.
Before I go into the gameplay, let me clarify something. The game I bought was released in 1976 and was met with instant criticism by the British public. There was controversy over the use of the name Titanic, due to the fact that, you know, lots of people died and stuff. Now, a moment ago, I said that "you'd never see this game again". Well, in this era of eBay and Amazon sellers, yes, you will. I found three copies on Amazon being sold for roughly $100. But I also found this game. Apparently after all the protests, IDEAL pulled the original Titanic game from the market but then immediately re-released it with a new name: Abandon Ship. You can read a review of Abandon Ship here but it is otherwise identical to the Titanic game in every aspect and features the same graphics and artwork.
In 1998 Universal Games released ANOTHER game based on the Titanic event, but the goals and game mechanics of that version are nothing at all like the game I am about to discuss. The handful of reviews on Amazon are generic (though amusing), but the board game geek review is fiercely negative. The game play requires you to collect certain items to be able to gain access to first class and eventually the lifeboats in order to survive. Lovely. If I wanted to be denied access to the upper level till I got the blue key, I'd be playing Resident Evil, OK?
You'll understand more as I get into the game in depth, but as a game, Abandon Ship makes much more sense than The Sinking of the Titanic. I'm a purist, I want my board games to make sense. That's why when I play Payday I make sure to make pretend phone calls to the children when they don't have enough money to pay a bill. I ask them how it feels to be a deadbeat. Don't even ask me how we play Operation in my house. OK, you didn't ask, but I can tell you that it involves gauze pads and there's a $200 deductible. Payable in cash, out of the children's allowance.
Anyway, back to the Titanic. There are 3 distinct parts to the game. Escaping the ship, survival at sea, and survival on an island until a rescue ship arrives. The island is apparently infested with hungry baboons and even hungrier cannibals. Periodically, monsoons will come to the island and wash away your supplies. Last time I checked, there are no islands in the North Atlantic that feature indigenous baboons or cannibals, and I'm pretty sure monsoons aren't all that common either, so to have them in a game about the sinking Titanic is ludicrous. Remove the Titanic and put the game in the South Seas and it makes a lot more sense.
I would have predicted that the concept for a lost-at-sea game was developed and then later converted to incorporate the famous Titanic name. It reminds me of how a book or story is adopted to became a story of a character totally unrelated to the original work. For example, both Die Hard and Die Hard 2: Die Harder are based on books published 10-15 years prior to the films' release and adapted to suit the filmmakers' desires. Die Hard is based on Nothing Lasts Forever, about an aging detective who is at a Christmas party when terrorists take over the building. The terrorists, their motives and the hero of the story are very different from what we see in the film, but the basic plot structure is the same. Die Hard 2 is based on a book called 58 Minutes, about a totally different NYPD detective who is at JFK to pick up his daughter when a terrorist shuts down the airport and he has to defeat the villains before his daughter's flight runs out of fuel. I've read 58 Minutes and it is a good read but I much prefer Die Hard 2 because it gives us the ridiculously coincidental and unnecessary plot element of having Walter Peck–I mean Dr Hathaway–I mean Richard Thornburg being on the same flight as Holly McLane, BUT WE GET TO SEE HIM TAZED IN A BATHROOM STALL, which is very, very satisfying.
In this case it was the complete opposite. It was released as a game about a very specific incident, which was then removed and re-released as a generic ship survival game. But I digress. Back to the game.
There are 18 survivors in the game, but you don't play as specific passengers or crew. As a ship's officer, you move around the ship gathering food, water and passengers into lifeboats. (I almost wish that you could play a specific passenger, but then someone would have to be randomly chosen to play the Irish character, who can't start playing until round five because he's in steerage with the rest of the poor passengers.) A word of warning: there are no people of color in this game. No Hispanics either. Everyone is white except for on Asian character named Long Fong. Yes. You read that name correctly. Passengers/crew include Fifi the Maid, Sigfried Fraud, Dr Vapors, Rev Parrish, Lord Upton, Lady Upton, Miss Prissy (who reminds me of Hermoine in the first Harry Potter film) and Diamond Jim Walker. Whoever drew him, was creative enough to draw him from Texas as the stereotypical ugly American abroad.
The game board is split between the Titanic layout and the ocean seas and is hinged around a center pivot. Each time a 1 or 6 is rolled you "sink" the ship by tilting it further and further until compartments are below the water line. Eventually the ship flips and sinks. You draw passengers randomly, meaning you'll pass stateroom 13 to get to stateroom 18 only to later have to return to get the passenger in stateroom 13. I picture Fawlty Towers, with Basil saying "I'll be with you in a minute, Major."
Above: the game board at the start.
Below, the Titanic has started to sink and Celine Dion is waiting in the wings.
To "win" the game you must have at least 2 surviving passengers/crew and 2 water and 2 food and make it onto a rescue ship. As you run about the ship you can decide at any time to head to the lifeboats, abandoning the remaining crew and passengers to their watery fate. The game teaches important lessons about self sufficiency and personal responsibility so it should go over well with Libertarians and Tea Party members. After making your way to the lifeboat it is launched and part two of the game, survival at sea, begins. If the last lifeboat is launched without you or if the Titanic sinks, you "leave without a lifeboat" which is a polite way of saying you just lost the game. Well not officially. You lose all your passengers, food and water and are now swimming. If you are swimming you may board a lifeboat but under no circumstances are you allowed to swim to an island. Because that would just make sense.
While at sea, you play sea adventure cards. Cards can give you food and water or you can lose food and water. You can even lose passengers to an octopus. One card says "land a tuna, add one food token". Another says "it is raining, it fill one cask of water." Then there's this card:
Isn't this a fun game! Hey kids let's play the game where everybody dies but not before they eat Fluffy and Mr Tickles! And kids, no complaining when dad takes your food and water when he lands on the space next to you. It's in the rules, I can do that. Survival of the fittest, should've eaten your brussels sprouts, maybe you could've fought me off.
Finally comes part three: surviving on the island. You'll play Island adventure cards that involve baboon and cannibal attacks. My favorite is "its 150 degrees! One of your casks of water evaporates". Ok, remember what I said before about credibility and how this takes place in the North Atlantic, right? During iceberg season? Yeah I don't think it gets to 150 degrees in the South Seas either. Besides if you are stupid enough that it's 150 degrees and you have only enough water left that it evaporates, you deserve to die. We'll make a game about you called The Darwin Effect.
As players progress through the ship, fight the cruel seas and avoid mal-contented natives and island creatures, the Titanic is still sinking on the board. When it finally sinks completely, the board reveals a rescue ship, which players must now get back into their boats to reach. Apparently it has no boats of its own to come get you off the island, so if your boat was used to make a bonfire to signal a rescue ship, it sucks to be you. You get to stay with the cannibals and baboons.
Just beware of your mother when you go to board the rescue ship, because she can totally block you to get on board first. It's in the rules. Once you board the ship, you win! Well, if winning means surviving a harrowing ordeal, and losing all your possessions, and probably most of your family.
I eagerly await IDEAL's next game and I'm going to help them out with three games that fit their mindset.
First is Katrina: Escape from New Orleans. Players have to find food and water and make it to the Superdome, where they get to sit around and do nothing but play board games and take turns taking a crap behind a potted plant. If you're playing this game you really don't want to be the host for game night. One player is randomly chosen to be the old person left behind in the nursing home and can't begin play till turn 7 when the water is already at hip level. Good luck grandpa, you will be remembered fondly.
Next is Deep Water, based on the true life story of two divers in Australia who surfaced only to find their dive boat had left without them. This game comes with only 3 playing pieces: a single die, a floating shark fin and a packet of ketchup. The game can only have two players, no more, no less. To play you sit in the tub together. Every 60 minutes, each player rolls the die. On a roll of one, you drown. If you drown, you have to sit motionless with your eyes closed for the duration of the game. The other player may not quit! That's cheating. On a roll of two you are eaten by sharks and the player must do the same thing as if they drowned, only now they have to pour ketchup on themselves. Realism folks, remember what I said earlier. On a roll of 3-6 you tread water. The surviving player continues to roll every 60 minutes until either you die or 6 hours pass, in which case you both die anyways of hypothermia and the game is over.
Finally is a game based on 9/11 (but we can't call it that unless the board game company gets the license from Rudy Giuliani). In the game you play a first responder. The game starts at 8:46 AM. Players roll a die and on a 1 they have cancer. If a player develops cancer on their turn they roll a die and on a 1 they die from cancer. The game is spent filling out insurance forms, waiting for the Zadroga Act to pass at 10:28 AM. If you make it to 10:28, congratulations you win! Your medical bills will be paid for!
NOTE: yes these game ideas are in bad taste, THATS THE POINT. The Titanic game is in bad taste and was rightfully rejected by the British public in 1976, much like the games I invented would be set the internet on fire with negative comments. also I know this blog is about weird stuff found in NJ but I found this game in Nj and it's weird, so… it totally fits.
7 Sep
The Binghamton Ferry
NY harbor is known as the birthplace of steam ferry travel. The first successfully recorded operation of a steamboat ferry was the North River Steamboat, operated by Robert Fulton, which ran from NY to Albany starting in 1807. Four years later, regular ferry service began running to and from Manhattan. Before rail tunnels under the Hudson were established, the railroads terminated in Hoboken, making ferry travel vitally important for anyone attempting to reach NYC. Nearly 400 different double ended ferries operated in the NY harbor during the 19th and 20th centuries, with a peak of 150 ferries actively operating in the early 1900's. This webpage offers a detailed look at the history of ferry travel across the Hudson and has many pictures of the steam ferries in operation.
The Binghamton was one of 6 steam ships run by the Hoboken Ferry Company, a subsidiary of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. It was built by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry-dock Company at Newport News, Virginia and was launched on February 20, 1905. The ferry operated from 1905-1968, traveling 2 miles from the Hoboken Terminal to Barclay Street, a twelve-minute journey. She was able to carry nearly 1,000 passengers as well as vehicles. The Binghamton is what is known as a double-ender, meaning cars could drive in one side of the boat and exit from the other. This made for increased speed and efficiency of loading and unloading passengers.
Photo courtesy of "Burger International Photography at http://www.burgerinternationalinc.com via flicker
In 1907, the first of two rail tunnels under the Hudson was completed. By 1937, the Holland and Lincoln tunnels, as well as the George Washington Bridge, had opened up making automobile travel into the city much easier. With these developments, the need for steam ferries diminished and by 1967 the ferry run was closed down. However, ferry service would return to the Hudson river in 1986, with the introduction of the NY Waterway. Small diesel powered boats began runs from Edgewater, Hoboken and Weehawken and now are regularly used by commuters trying to take advantage of lower rents in Hudson and Bergen County.
The Binghamton's second life began when the Erie Lackawanna Railroad sold her to Edward Russo, who planned to convert her into a restaurant. Russo planned to open for business in 1970, but the waters surrounding the pier took a long time to dredge and a tugboat strike caused further delays. Russo would eventually find himself unable to find a suitable person to run his restaurant and he sold the Binghamton to its next owner, Ferry Binghamton Inc. On February 28, 1975 the ship was moved to her current location and opened as a restaurant later that year.
The restaurant featured a popular nightclub and it operated successfully until 2007. Then it was sold to private businessman Donald Kim, who planned to renovate the Binghamton and re-open it. Despite the completion of nearly a million dollars in repairs, damage was spreading faster than the repairs could be made. Kim soon found himself in a lengthy battle with the town of Edgewater over code violations and fines. The expense of the repairs and time spent fighting the town allowed the damage to reach a tipping point and finally, in 2011, Kim filed for a demolition permit.
The impending demolition caused a great deal of consternation due to the Binghamton's placement on the U.S. Department of the Interior's National Register of Historic Places (granted on July 9, 1982). By the summer of 2012 the Binghamton had deteriorated enough that it was actively taking on water. The side that faced the river had nearly been destroyed. Kim decided to sublease the existing pier to another developer who planned to scrap the Binghamton for salvage, including the steel hull, and bring in a new boat to be used as a restaurant.
Then in October 2012 came Superstorm Sandy. The already weakened ship was no match for the intense flooding and winds that Sandy brought. During Sandy, the entire boat was under several feet of water. Pieces of her bow broke off and floated to shore.
Here is a Flickr set of pictures taken after Sandy.
Here is a Video made during Superstorm Sandy.
This news report from CBS news clearly shows the damage done to the river side of the boat.
The following pictures of the Binghamton and immediate surrounding area were taken by Corrine Gehegan, a local podiatrist whose office is next to the Binghamton. They were taken approximately 3 days after the storm had passed and flooding had subsided.
To add insult to injury, a fire broke out on May 19, 2013. There was no damage to the boat, only the pier and dock that extended from the river walk to the ferry. At that time, Kim restated that he planned to demolish the boat. As of August, 2013 nothing has occurred. The boat still sits there, its bow slightly below the water line. When the demolition finally comes, it will be a sad end to a famous and historic ship.
I visited in spring 2013 and entertained thoughts of entry. Aside from the pier being completely unsafe, you could tell from 100 yards away that the boat itself was completely unsafe. One wonders if it can be safely towed, or would it break into pieces? Below are pictures I took in June, 2013.
Here is another video about the end of the Binghamton ferry.
More pictures and info are available on the Binghamton Ferry Facebook page.


text:
Latest Updates
January 31, 2012
Haitian authorities have dropped the case against former leader Jean-Claude Duvalier, who is accused of crimes against humanity during his rule.
January 30, 2012
Wang Lihong, a human rights activist, has been released. She was released on 20 December from Beijing Chaoyang Detention Center.
Press Release
January 30, 2012
Senegal's security forces must stop their violent clampdown on dissent, Amnesty International said today after two people were killed during protests in the city of Podor.
January 30, 2012
One young male protester and an elderly female bystander were shot dead when the gendarmerie opened fire on a crowd.
More Amnesty News and Multimedia
Music and the Arts
Musicians and artists worldwide have been a vital part of Amnesty International's global
efforts to bring human rights to every man, woman and child in the world.


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Wednesday 6th May 2015
Hotel Inca Real Gerneral Torres 8-40 Cuenca Ecuador tel:- 506 2223-8883 fax:- 506 2222-5318 web address:- www.hotelincareal.com/ e-mail:- email@example.com Inca Real :-
Wedding Trivia:VEILBrightly colored veils were worn in ancient times in many parts of the world and were considered a protection against evil spirits Greek and Roman brides for yellow or red veils (representing fire) to ward off evil spirits and demons. At one time, Roman brides were completely covered with a red veil for protection. In early European history, with the advent of arranged marriages veils served another purpose - to prevent the groom from seeing the brides' face till after the ceremony was over. Brides began to wear opaque yellow veils. Not only could the groom not see in, the bride could not see out! Therefore, the father of the bride had to escort her down the aisle and literally give the bride to the groom. Nellie Custis, the daughter of Martha Washington, is credited with wearing the first lace veil.
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text:
AFAIK current situation for proprietary drivers:
fglrx - only stereo.
nVidia - full-feature set, even TrueHD/DTS-HD MA bitstreaming.
I´d like to know the current status of HDMI on Linux.
For this, your card (or IGP) model number/manufacturer is needed + what driver you are using ++ the amount of channels you have.
Obviously for this test you need HDMI capable monitor + HDMI cable.
For example "core i3 hd3000, current opensource, 5 channels".
It seems that this information is very scarce. Is it true that only intel supports 5 channels within opensource drivers?
AFAIK current situation for proprietary drivers:
fglrx - only stereo.
nVidia - full-feature set, even TrueHD/DTS-HD MA bitstreaming.
Are you talking about the audio driver (separate driver, separate hardware block) or the graphics driver (which controls mixing the audio bitstream with the video stream) ?
In the case of fglrx I believe the graphics part is multichannel-capable but the audio driver is stereo-only.
As far as I know (rumors, rumors) radeon opensource has only minimal HDMI support in 2.0.
When installing fglrx instead, can user access all audio channels via HDMI interface? Three examples:
1 When I play multichannel film which I legally own, that was ripped for purpose of playback (because linux is prevented by hollywood to have those bits; I am not aware of any commercial solution) - yet I have the complete box on the shelf with disc with original - and I have fglrx, can I use HDMI to play all streams? (PS. This way seems to be legal in germany).
2 Im using my machine to make a party and I want to make area sound effects by having multiple boxes getting individual signals
3 When I am game and I would like surround gaming
Nothing to do with radeon or fglrx. We're talking about the audio driver here, not the graphics driver.
As Alex said, the register info we recently released should have all the bits required to blend multichannel audio into the HDMI video stream; the issue here is enabling multichannel in the audio driver.
So there is issue and all three cases are not possible? Or how can I understand this?
Last edited by crazycheese; 04-08-2012 at 03:34 AM.
He's saying they need someone with knowledge of both graphics cards and alsa, and they don't have any
Ok, this means more than 2 channel HDMI is not usable with amd hardware.


text: I drove down Bubblehead Road one night and some crazy old naked bastard came running out of the woods with ranch dressing all over his ass. He ran up to my window and started beating off until he shot his load all over my car. He then ran back into the woods screaming "woooooooo" like Ric Flair over and over again. Stay away from Bubblehead Road unless you want some crazy old naked bastard to shoot his load all over your vehicle.


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The original deal pioneer keeps on pinching pennies and cracking wise. No, that price isn't a typo.
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Great use of the shirt color in this one.
Kind of Iron Giantish.. well, at least how Shooter portrayed it
Very much getting a Portal feel from this one. Not exactly, but at first glance . . . Okay, time to play some Portal again. Thanks Woot.
Sort of reminds me of Yoshimi, except the giant robots aren't pink.
I just need to say that this is freaking rad.
Why, yes, I would like a kickass science-fiction shirt with a strong female protagonist. Thank you, Woot.
The bridge in the distance reminds of the Golden Gate for some reason...Or the Brooklyn Bridge. Definitely seen that bridge somewhere!
Ah this is really nice looking. I like the textures and colors that this has.
Dramatic staging leads to memorable, potentially buyable scene
The entire thing reminds me of Ghost Trick:
I feel like I've already seen this shirt or something eerily similar before.
Write up reminds me of the narrator in Bastion. (Best game narration in the history of game narration, btw) I would kill to have that guys voice.
Based on the writeup she doesn't need a bigger gun.
ooooh, splendid.
I wouldn't call that design centered. I'd say that's more like rentered- right centered . Great shirt nonetheless!
I'm trying to figure out what this is supposed to be based on - if anything - but I just keep drawing a blank. It kind of reminds me of The Hunger Games though.
I think that if that gun she's brought is the elec-beam she'll be okay, because I'm totally seeing the Yellow Devil robot from Mega Man.
jadis4742 wrote:Why, yes, I would like a kickass science-fiction shirt with a strong female protagonist. Thank you, Woot.
That head could just as well be alien... aliens vs robots?
Reminds me of Black Rock Shooter The Game OP (search for that on YouTube if you haven't seen it).
Would be a great hoodie.
very cool!
Oh, god...it's not one of those things from War of the Worlds, is it?
g0dsgreen wrote:I feel like I've already seen this shirt or something eerily similar before.
Me, too - something that was either printed or submitted for a derby here. Something with a similar shape and colors, and a similar girder across the top. But as looking back to the beginning of 2009 didn't produce anything, either a) I'm remembering something that didn't print, b) I just plain didn't see it in the thumbnails, or c) I'm hallucinating. All valid possibilities. And it wouldn't necessarily make this derivative, if there were something similar out there. The shape & colors are a natural outflow from the design concept, seems to me.
Since we are playing shirt association game (TM)... stylistically, it reminded me of this design (never printed anywhere ?) by Deadfrog: The character and setting though, definitely gave me a Daisy Kutter vibe: As I have saved the former image to my hard drive for reference, and own The Last Train, I can say that both elements are working in the shirts favor :P
I thought of Deadfrog's design as well. This is a really cool shirt in it's own right
I also guessed Michael Evans from the thumbnail, but I'm really liking Anna-Maria's more cartoon/comic book aesthetics in this particular design. The way the light is textured gives a sense of dust and dirt in the air, and the red eye is a very cool focal point. Great design!
Either a pretty girl or a member of ZZ Top.
This is the story you don't hear about the War of the Worlds because the guys are too ashamed to say that it was she who slayed the first of those maniacal machines.
You've just sparked a potentially brilliant (or horrible) new franchise. Alien vs. Terminators.
reminds me of this:
Design placement looks a little off-center to me, rather than "centered". But it works wonderfully for this design.
This shirt reminds me of the Anime Kino's Journey.
Great looking interesting design.
Don't buy this, I'm waiting for weeks for my dark night shirt. SMART POST SUCKS - 2 WEEKS AND WAITING Two weeks ago it shipped and it is still days away. Woot screws me again. It seems every time I order from Woot I get the slowest shipping in the world. I'm stupid for even buying from them again
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RynoRama wrote:Don't buy this, I'm waiting for weeks for my dark night shirt. SMART POST SUCKS - 2 WEEKS AND WAITING Two weeks ago it shipped and it is still days away. Woot screws me again. It seems every time I order from Woot I get the slowest shipping in the world. I'm stupid for even buying from them again
I'm sorry that you're unhappy with your free shipping. If you do a little searching/reading, you'll find that free shipping generally runs about 1-2 weeks for most everyone--and that's not even counting the holiday shipping delay or the random instances of "let's take a tour of the country on fedex trucks" (though those seem to be super-rare now, admittedly, so yay! there). In its FAQ, woot DOES promise you your item within 5-100 days with free shipping. I guess most people who choose the free shipping are just grateful that 1-2 weeks is much closer to 5 days than 100. I know I am. If the widely- and freely-acknowledged super-slow "smart"post free shipping is not to your liking, I do encourage you to spend the $5 on overnight shipping. Otherwise... well, it's woot. Welcome to woot: where free shipping is slow.
Have you never had anything shipped via Smartpost before? Use a different shipping service if you don't want to wait. Dunno why you're blaming Woot for that.
Hi guys, artist speaking here. Thanks for the super nice comments! To clear up speculations (though, it's sooo nice to read them haha) there is not too much thought behind this except that I love "strong female protagonists" and Science-Fiction - and the whole "girl fighting a giant robot" motive is probably an image that has appeared a hundred times in our pop culture ;-) But I also definitely love the Yoshimi Song (even though I made the reference not super clear by making the robot green instead of pink).
Good work. I'm a big fan of well-used shadows.
Nice . . . in for one.
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Stop LIPA Tax Hike
We the undersigned call upon Governor Andrew Cuomo to insure that any legislation to restructure LIPA include language that will protect the taxpayers of our Town by requiring that LIPA, and all others, abandon all existing Tax Certiorari proceedings against The Town of Huntington. Failure to include this language will expose the residents and businesses of our community to unprecedented real property tax increases. In accordance with the Agreement made at the time that LIPA was formed, there has been no increase in the assessment of the Northport Power Station for over twenty years; nonetheless, LIPA is now seeking over $270 million in refunds from the Town. If LIPA is successful, real property taxes in our School District will increase by almost 60% and other residents of our Town will faces property tax increases of over 15%. This will devastate our community. We call upon the Governor to ensure that his legislation protects our children and our quality of life by requiring LIPA to abandon the Tax Certiorari actions filed in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Anthony Catanzaro
LIPA should pay more for having those polluting ugly stacks in one of the most beautiful areas of Long Island. Please, spend your money finding better energy sources, or while you are wasting it fighting for this, people like Elon Musk will make your company worthless. Invest in the future, stop fighting the past!
william Collins
I own a small business in East North port
I own several commercial buildings in East North port
I live in east north port
A tax increase of this magnitude would crush me and my family. I wouldn't be able to live here. -
Robert Frisone
LIPA continues to take and return nothing. They need to be stopped to save the future of LI.
Recent signatures
Chelsea Eberle
15 hours ago Comments: -
Martin mccabe
1 month ago Comments: -
Lorraine Slayback
3 months ago Comments: -
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All organizations train their people, and most spend significant sums doing so. Yet they generally don't have any idea whether they're getting any business value from training. Beyond teaching new employees the specifics of their jobs, most companies train staff in areas such as leadership, communications, performance management, or lean operations. But they typically measure training's impact by conducting surveys of attendees or counting how many employees complete courses rather than by assessing whether those employees learned anything that improved business performance.
Few companies see sustained benefits from training employees. There are some straightforward steps they can take to do better.
This approach was, perhaps, acceptable when companies had money to spare. Now, most don't. Yet more and more, organizations need highly capable employees—90 percent of the respondents to a recent McKinsey Quarterly survey1 1. "Building organizational capabilities: McKinsey Global Survey results," March 2010. said that building capabilities was a top-ten priority for their organizations. Only a quarter, though, said that their programs are effective at improving performance measurably, and only 8 percent track the programs' return on investment.
The story of one social-sector group, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA), illustrates how organizations can make the most of their outlays for training programs by doing a better job of understanding which of them create business value, and how. The answers are remarkably straightforward and have lessons for retailers, manufacturers, and a range of other organizations as well.
BGCA faced a common problem: a lack of capabilities in a core area—leadership—and a lack of funds to build those capabilities. Further, its donors were far more interested in financing programs directly aimed at children rather than "overhead," such as training. That made it imperative for BGCA to prove the performance impact of any training it undertook.
BGCA is one of the largest nonprofits in the United States. It acts as an umbrella for more than 1,100 local organizations and 4,000 club locations, which provide safe places for young people to learn and participate in athletic and life skills programs. The 1,100 local organizations manage their own resource development, strategic planning, programming, and fund-raising.
In 2007, BGCA found itself facing an incipient shortage of leadership capabilities. The organization has an ongoing growth strategy to expand the number of club locations but anticipated a wave of retirements among current local leaders. Using a capability model that appraised nearly 50 aspects of leadership, BGCA began to address the problem by undertaking a 360-degree assessment of every local leader. Regression analysis helped BGCA to correlate each aspect of leadership with local organizational performance on crucial measures such as growth in membership and funds raised—measures that it already tracked to assess the local organizations as a whole. Four out of the 50 aspects contributed disproportionately to performance: the leader's ability to build an effective board, find and pursue effective revenue-development strategies, use an investor's mind-set toward programs and resource development, and lead with personal tenacity and persistence.
BGCA therefore built its training program around those four subjects. The program involved both intensive classroom work and a project chosen by each local team; projects ranged from implementing new HR processes to deepening the impact of after-school programs. By the end of 2009, over 650 leaders from approximately 250 local organizations had been trained.
Because the program was designed to improve specific organizational-performance outcomes, the process of assessing its impact was straightforward. Where the leaders of local organizations had received training, BGCA compared their pre- and post-training results. More important, it also compared the post-training results against those of a control set of organizations, which had similar characteristics (such as budget size) but whose leaders had not yet gone through the training. The downturn in the economy, as well as preexisting economic differences among cities, complicated efforts to assess gains in membership and fund-raising on an absolute basis. With the use of these controlled pairs, however, BGCA was essentially able to screen out the impact of external factors (for instance, unemployment or differences in local educational-attainment rates) on membership and fund-raising. In this way, BGCA could isolate the effects of the training itself. Besides the quantitative analysis, BGCA used qualitative approaches, such as surveying local board members before and after the training, to assess the leaders' changes in behavior related to board leadership.
On average, locations where the leaders had been trained bested the control group on every performance outcome measured. If all 1,100 BGCA member organizations had matched the level of success achieved by the program participants, BGCA would see more than 350,000 new members and more than $100 million in annual incremental revenue—a 2 to 3 percent increase in the average location's budget, meaningful at a time of precarious funding. Moreover, BGCA determined that it generated more than a fourfold return on the program's costs, including the imputed cost of the participants' time, as well as travel and training expenses (Exhibit 1).
BGCA then compared performance gains among participants and found that the gains of participants in the highest quartile were three to five times the average (Exhibit 2). The high performers typically focused on very aspirational projects; set clear, quantifiable goals; and took the extra step of teaching what they'd learned to the rest of their organizations. Those insights led BGCA to adjust the training curriculum to reinforce the success factors.
Picking the right metrics is the key to creating real value from training. Most for-profit organizations have a longer list of quantitative business-performance metrics than BGCA does. A retailer pursuing better customer service and sales growth, for example, could train employees by getting its managers to provide real-time coaching and to role-model best-practice customer-engagement techniques. Rather than just measuring the managers' time allocation or employee-engagement data—as most would do now—the retailer should measure the impact of its programs through hard business metrics, such as sales, basket sizes, and conversion rates in critical categories or departments. Similarly, a manufacturer might try to improve its operations by teaching plant supervisors lean-manufacturing and coaching skills, but rather than tracking only how many managers have been trained, it should track metrics such as downtime, the overall effectiveness of equipment, or fill rates.
In every case, companies must continually review and revise the links between skills, performance, and training programs. Typically, to determine which metrics should be improved, companies assess their current performance against industry benchmarks or their own goals. Like retailers and manufacturers, most other companies know what kinds of skills are tied to different areas of performance. So a good next step is to conduct an analysis of the relevant groups of employees to identify the most important specific skills for them (as BGCA did) and which performance-enhancing skills they currently lack. To get a clear read on the impact of a program, it's crucial to control for the influence of external factors (for instance, the opening of new retail competitors in local markets) and of extraordinary internal factors (such as a scheduled plant shutdown for preventative maintenance). It's also crucial to make appropriate comparisons within peer groups defined by preexisting performance bands or market types.
By tying the curricula of training more closely to key performance metrics and then measuring its impact on them, organizations can generate greater value from training programs and find useful insights to improve programs constantly.
Jenny Cermak is a consultant in McKinsey's Atlanta office, where Monica McGurk is a principal.
August 2009—Instead of administrative work and meetings, they should focus on coaching their employees and on constantly improving quality.more
May 2009—Employees' own assessments of their learning needs can lead to more effective training programs.more
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Tag Archives: petite computer chair
How to Select the Right Computer Chair
A multitude of jobs consist of sitting in front of a computer typing for eight hours or more a day; then some of us proceed to go home and spend even more time behind the computer. If you fall into this category of having an office job or you spend large periods of time in front of your computer, it is important to have proper seating to ensure productivity and alertness throughout the day. An eight hour work day already seems long enough, but if you are uncomfortable the whole day because of a bad computer chair, it can draw out the day even more. With so much time being spent sitting and typing during a typical day, it is important to take your comfort into consideration when deciding to purchase a new computer chair. Choosing the right chair for you may depend on a number of different factors, but first and foremost above price and all other extraneous determinants, make sure it is going to be something you will feel comfortable sitting in all day.
When selecting your new computer chair, one of the key features you will want to look for is an adjustable height option. Most if not all good computer chairs come standard with an adjustable height option to accommodate for users of varying heights and also to be in proper alignment with computer desks. Not one standard chair height fits all users, which is why it is important to have a chair that is going to be adjustable to meet your height requirement and allow you to keep you feet firmly planted on the floor with your knees bent at a 90 degree angle. Computer desks also come in different shapes sizes and your chair should be able to properly under it. In work environments with higher workstations, an adjustable height option is absolutely necessary.
Another key feature to look for in your computer chair is to make sure the seat is going to be comfortable enough for you to sit on for multiple hours a day. If you prefer a softer sit, look for computer chairs that have a memory foam, gel seat, or triple density foam which are all comprised of durable materials that are designed to conform to your body's natural shape. If you prefer a firmer sit, look for high density foam or a chair with a mesh seat. Both options will give you the firm sit, be durable enough to handle long days of sitting, and will give in a little over time making the seat a bit softer but not enough to give you the feeling of memory foam. Leather seats are also a viable option if you are looking for a little bit of a softer sit. Keep in mind that during the summer if you live somewhere that experiences high temperatures, a leather seat may cause you to sweat more because the material is not as breathable as say a mesh seat. Also take your personal requirements into consideration, if you are of shorter stature consider getting a seat that has a smaller depth than a typical chair to ensure you have one to two inches of breathing room from the back of your knees to the front of the seat. If you are a bigger or taller individual, look into purchasing a big and tall chair which is specifically designed to allow enough seating room and seat depth for those of taller stature.
Having a tilting option on a computer chair is ideal, as it can increase your comfort while sitting. With the ability to lean back throughout parts of the day, you will significantly decrease the chance of developing neck and back pain that may arise from sitting in the same position throughout the day. Chairs that come with a tilting option usually have either a knee tilt mechanism or a spring tilt mechanism. Opt for a knee tilt mechanism over a spring tilt if possible, because a knee tilt mechanism will allow you to tilt back while your feet are flat on the floor which will alleviate pressure on your thighs.
There are additional options that can be added onto computer chairs to make your sitting experience even more comfortable, though not as necessary as the above features. A chair that comes with a ratchet back is a great feature to have, especially if multiple people are using the same chair, as it allows for the back to be raised up and down to provide support in the right areas of the particular individual. Some chairs also come with a seat slider option which is optimal to have for either a single user or if multiple people share the chair. This allows for the user to move the chair's seat forward or back to adjust the seat's depth. The right computer chair for you will not be the same for someone else, ultimately it comes down to if the chair is going to be comfortable enough for you to sit in all day and if it will have enough adjustments to meet your body's needs.
Office Chair Review: Petite ergoCentric Saffron Office Chair!
1. Very customizable.
2. Small seat to fit any petite user.
3. High quality, very durable.
The Thorough Review:
Ergocentric Saffron I Dt- Petite Ergonomic Task Chair EGC-Saffron-I-DT is an absolute value when you combine it's ergonomics, customization, and price. First off, the manufacturer produces a high quality product, so aside from everything, the chair is a great product. On all their chairs, the quality is evident - the parts are strong, the chairs recline smoothly, and adjust easily. This chair is no exception to that, despite its petite size.
A great feature about this chair is the customization of the seat. Many petite users have a hard time finding a small chair that fits them the right way - thus they are uncomfortable and experience pain while sitting. With the Petite Saffron Chair, the options nullify that. There are 3 different seat sizes available that can fit any user, and varying cylinder heights so that a petite user's feet can actually touch the ground - a critical ergonomic principle. The chair is also available with or without arms, to suit the needs of any user.
All in all, this chair really measures up to the standards of any petite office chair needs. Finding the right chair for smaller people no longer has to be an arduous task!
The Ratings:
Ergocentric warrants their chairs for 10 years. And, each chair has a serial number tag on them, ensuring that you can get the right parts for your chair if there ever is any issue. Not that many arise with them...
For a petite office chair, the ergonomic components on this chair are outstanding. This particular model has a smaller backrest, but others in this line offer a tad more ergonomics. Still, getting a petite office chair with ergonomics like this one is a rarity.
Choose from 3 different seat sizes, a bunch of cylinder choices and multiple seat cushions. Not to mention over 40 fabrics. This is a VERY customizable petite office chair.
Overall Rating (Not an average):
Nothing more we can say other than this is a great petite office chair. The customization alone is worth the price - a price that is, at that, a very good value!
Want to know more about how we rate chairs? Check out our Ratings Guide!
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I am a board-certified radiation oncologist and Chief of the External Beam Radiotherapy Service in Memorial Sloan Kettering's Manhattan facilities. I work as part of a multidisciplinary group of specialists to treat patients who have breast cancer and those with cancer of the eye (retinoblastoma and ocular melanoma).
With the exception of 18 months in the early 1980s working at Albert Einstein Hospital to gain experience with breast conservation techniques, I have been at Memorial Sloan Kettering since 1974 when I was a resident.
My clinical research efforts include studies comparing the effectiveness of radiation to observation in patients with low-risk duct carcinoma in situ. I have also developed a novel treatment for elderly women, using single-dose intra-operative radiation therapy, and continue to refine the use of radiation therapy with patients in the prone, or face-down, position, in an effort to improve the long-term cosmetic outcomes and to protect normal tissue in women with breast cancer.
I serve on the breast committee for the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines panel. I am a former chair of the Breast Program Committee for the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and former Chairman of the Breast Committee for the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) Cooperative Group. I have served on many consensus panels, and have written extensively on both breast and eye cancers.
Breast Cancer; Tumors of the Eye and Orbit
MD, New Jersey College of Medicine
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Radiation Oncology
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Would anyone have any insight on how to utilize matched pairs of spherical's to do photogrammetric measurements from said pairs?
I'm keenly interested in learning, but no real "clue" where to start looking.
Would anyone have any insight on how to utilize matched pairs of spherical's to do photogrammetric measurements from said pairs?
I'm keenly interested in learning, but no real "clue" where to start looking.
We listen. We try harder.
Thanks, I'll have to chat with some of my Engineering friends. I'm not trying to really do "modeling", as opposed to extracting actual dimensions from the imagery - more like "crime scene investigation".
But this application may work.
Hello Mike,
As you are probably aware, the accuracy of the measured points is determined by the angle the rays from the images intersect at and if you are using just two spherical panoramas then only a "donut" in the plane perpendicular to the axis between the two panos will have any reasonable accuracy.
The diagram towards the bottom of
gives a graphic for his although it is only 2D, but I am sure that you can visualise this on 3D.
There are companies that provide a photogrammetric solution from spherical panoramas, but they also provide the hardware and are very expensive, but as this is a NN forum I will not mention their names, but there are papers and the like that deal with this subject.
Presumably you are wanting to measure 3D points, but if you wish to use your spherical panoramas to measure in a plane, such as say a floor plan, then creating a Mirror Ball or Hemisphere from your panorama with the centre at the nadir will give you an image in which all the angles from the centre to the points of interest correct.
THANKS! ... and what a mouthfull. I'm thinking this may be far, far over my head ... but I will investigate!
I've talked to Bill at NN and he was truthful in telling me he has no experience with this issue. They are however beginning to represent another product, the iStar ... that I am told will in the future have this capability.
So ... I'm trying to start "wrapping my head around" this ... from a humble photographer's perspective. Or ... decide to hand this issue off to our Engineering Staff :-).
3D modeling is just one extra step than what you needed. Basically you need to identify points in the images and use photogrammetry to solve the co-ordinates in 3D.
Here is one more estabilished solution
We listen. We try harder.
Between your comments, and Hugh's - I'd like to say "the Light at the End of the Tunnel" is beginning to get a bit brighter to this "Engineering/3D Illiterate One".
I've read about the Spheron, and a few other units which candidly ... at a starting price of ~$40K, probably WAY out of my price range.
Thank you both, and any others who might want to chime in to help this "clueless one" ...
Hello Nick,
Thanks for giving Mike the Spheron link.
I did not actually mention this as it is surly a competitor product to your Nodal Ninjas even though it is in a different price bracket at something like £20K.
Their solution uses a rotating camera with a very narrow exposure slit (I think perhaps only one pixel wide) but is perhaps the ultimate in HDR with something like a 24 stop range.
There is another company that is a direct competitor to Spheron and in the same price bracket using a similar solution (i.e. rotating camera), but I cannot remember its name at the moment.
I'll look it up if anyone is interested.
Best regards, Hugh.
Hello Mike,
There are other methods of measuring points for things like crime scene investigations which are definitely off topic in this forum so if you wish to contact me by email I will respond.
I am now retired so don't have any vested interest, but am happy to discuss the topic.
Regarding photogrammetry, a package that is a good photogrammetric solution using "conventional" images and stereo photographs is Photomodeler.
I know that they have talked about rectification from spherical panoramas and will probably provide a solution at some stage in the future, but they are not planning to do this at the moment.
Best regards, Hugh.
Hi Hugh,
This is good feedback. Not only have we had other Nodal Ninja users asking us about this but also iStar users as well. The applications are broad and those in the know certainly have expanded skill sets. For those that are not familiar with photogrammetry the break down of the word itself explains it:
photo = light
gram = drawing
metry = measurement
The applications are very broad - forensics (big market), architectural, surveying, archaeology, military, and the like. Here is an interesting article on photogrammetry versus lidar:
It's all interesting stuff.
Thanks Bill,
I have been involved with photogrammetry for more decades than I care to rember and am always interested in methods of using photographs for measurement so am happy to help if I can.
With respect to the iSTAR, I know that Neil and Cameron plan to develope software for measurement using the panoramic image and now that the camera is finally in the market place after all the setbacks they have encountered that perhaps we will soon see something in this direction.
Personally I would really like to see a solution for getting measurement data from spherical panoramas and think that if there is sufficient interest that it may be possible to persaude the guys at Photomodeler to look at this sooner rather than later.
Another possibility is Elcovision 10 from St Margarethen in Switzerland who's authors may consider providing this functionality - I am waiting to hear their comments.
Best regards, Hugh.
Update on previous message:
I have now heard from Elcovision that they currently support the Spheron panoramas but do not generic spherical panoramas and that although they will probably develop in this direction at some stage in the future they are not planning to in the immediate future.
I would suggest that it may be worth people contacting Mark @ Photomodeler and/or Harald @ Elcovision directly if they see a need for this functionality as my experience is that if feedback comes from a variety of sources it has more impact than if it is channeled through a single source.
As there appears to be some interest in this subject, I thought it would be a good idea to put some information about it on my web site:
Having done this I am really surprised that the developers of photogrammetric software have not included the ability to measure points from Spherical Panoramas because the mathematics is so simple compared with that needed to extract measurements from photographs, particularly if Equirectangular projections are used where simple arithmetic only is required to extract the Horizontal and Vertical angles to the points of interest.
Unfortunately I have not written any software for over a decade and never ventured into manipulating digital images. I have however written a program to automatically computed co-ordinates from theodolite angular measurements from different locations taking into account and weighting for the angles of cut and rejecting observations not within a specified tolerance, so do have a fair idea of what is involved.
What is required is a program to extract the pixel co-ordinates from Equirectangular projections, allowing zooming in and panning around the images, then using the overall pixel dimension of the Equirectangular projections to calculate the Horizontal and Vertical angles by simple arithmetic as shown on:
then use trigonometry to compute the co-ordinates.
Anybody out there willing to take on this challenge?
I am willing to make my source code for computing the intersections available, or providing a pseudo-code program.
Yes Mike, I quite agree that the papers I linked to complicate the subject, in my view unnecessarily, but I think that if you go back to your Engineers with the information I have just published that they may take a new view as getting the Horizontal and Vertical angles from an Equirectangular projection
is really very straight forward and this data is exactly the same as an Engineer/Surveyor would get from observing with a theodolite on site for theodolite intersection with the added benefit that little time is need to make the panoramas, especially with an iSTAR, compared with the much greater time need for the theodolite observations, even with a modern instrument and that unlike with theodolite measurements only you have the imagery to refer back to in the office.
Gentlemen, and I do mean everyone ... I can't thank you all enough for your responses!
So very much to wrap my head around ... I'm trying but LOL, I have a hard time spelling "Engineer" ... :-)
Hugh - I can't help but chuckle to myself a bit.
After reading thru most of your published material ... I actually think it's a bit 'scary' to think there are folks out there this 'smart'.
With deep respect,