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It's tough not being accepted by your parents for being gay. It's even tougher when your father is a lawmaker and he's voicing his anti-gay opinions in a public forum in support of a constitutional amendment banning marriage equality. That's what's happening to 43-year-old Chris Smith, son of Indiana Representative Milo Smith. While he's been out to his father for the last 23 years, his sexual orientation isn't a major topic of conversation in the family, and clearly, his father's conservatism on the subject runs deep: despite living with a gay loved one in the family, he played a critical role in a vote that would deny people like his son one route to build a family of their own.
The situation is in a strange way reminiscent of the Cheney family feud taken public last year, with lesbian Mary Cheney supporting marriage equality, while her sister Liz doesn't; again, despite having a lesbian in the family. Their father, notably, isn't a strong proponent of marriage equality either, and has sided with Liz in public statements. These kinds of family tensions don't just make for awkward holidays: they also highlight troubling social and political divisions in the United States, for the same kinds of arguments are happening on a smaller scale in households all over the country.
In the case of the Smiths, Chris released a tempered and fairly neutral statement in response to his father's vote, noting that he knows his father loves him, but also believes that his father's views are unlikely to change after decades of knowing his son and having an opportunity to change his mind on the subject of gay civil rights. His statement, he says, was aimed at gay Indianans who might appreciate some solidarity in a troubling time — while the state already has a law on the books banning marriage equality, constitutional amendments are much more difficult to challenge legally, and thus can become calcified in place.
He lives in California, where he hasn't chosen to marry his partner — but it's clear he felt conflicted and unhappy to see his father voting to take that choice away from other LGBQT couples who might want to marry now or in the future. Chris also noted that his father's religious views have become more extreme in recent years, reflecting a resurgence in the religious right; undoubtedly, his vote was influenced by his associations with conservative Christianity. The religious right has played a significant role in initiatives to limit marriage equality and other civil rights for the LGBQT community, and this isn't the first family that has split along political and religious lines on this issue thanks to religious pressures.
Both Smiths insist they have a strong relationship and love each other deeply, but their accidental public feud speaks to a deeper problem. Across the country, parents and children (as well as siblings) are disagreeing on basic human rights and civil rights issues like these; a decade ago, these kinds of discussions were unthinkable, and now, the conversation is being forced — and some people aren't ready to have it.
How do you respond when a family member says you are loved, but your relationship isn't sacred or of equal value to other kinds of relationships? A growing number of Americans are asking themselves that question.
Read more: Indiana politics, marriage equality
Photo credit: Kevin Dooley.
Why is this any of our business? I am really getting tired of the rich and famous announcing they are gay. It is none of my business, keep it to your self!
He may be "loved" but he has never been accepted. That is what is truly sad.
One has the right to believe what one wishes and even though others do not share the same beliefs our country insures our rights to believe as we so choose and conversely, not to. One is free to act on ones beliefs as one sees fit but not to dictate how others act based upon ones personal belief. Because ones beliefs are not proven fact that is why they are called beliefs. Ones beliefs should not be used to dictate the law.
No matter how strongly one holds ones beliefs they remain unproven therefore to argue ones point based upon ones beliefs is wasted effort. Without evidence to support ones position ones point is moot.
It is sad when beliefs differ within ones family. Hopefully the parties can respect each other enough to find common ground elsewhere and maintain a loving relationship. All too often that is not the case. Maturity and respect are sorely lacking.
Good for you Chris Smith, I love it.
Thanks for sharing!
P.S. If you preach illogic on a public forum, questions and criticisms are bound to come. You cannot expect others to blindly accept your claims unless you can show there's substance behind it. The more you resent questions & lash out at questioners, the more false your philosophy appears.
As usual you sidestep all questions and run off in a huff. I would be really surprised if you ever started thinking for yourself one day. Oh well
For the record, heres just a few of my questions you repeatedly avoided on this forum. There were plenty by others too.
-If spirit is all that matters, why care what happens in the physical world at all?
-If on the other hand the physical world does matter, why does god never help the innocent who suffer through no fault of their own?
-If god is all about spirit, why are you & god both obsessed with other peoples sexual activities?
-If sex is spiritual, how is it that animals are "not spiritual"?
why is it everytime there comes a topic that will require some real thought , some one has to screw things up with the religious crap? it's a lot of stuff written by men . no one has proof that a god wrote any of it. Christians are like muslims , if you don't believe it what they say your dammed .so you can not be an intelligent self thinking individual , you must be a sheep , and follow blindly everytime the bell rings . if you need that crutch and excuse then by all means believe in your what ever.but it doesn't make you any better than me if I don't . infact I really feel sorry for you religious ones . must be terrible not to be able to think for yourself . and to stomp all over a childs happiness just because of some book or idol. I really don't think you were much of a real parent anyway.you were just going thru the motions.
Ron G, if people misconstrue what you say, perhaps youre not as clear as you think you are, or youre misconstruing questions. Some people are asking questions because they want an answer. For example, you say Gospel is Good News, but how can you reconcile that with the crimes God commanded his people to commit? How is genocide good news? I think thats a valid question, and its one that many, many religious people sidestep. Youre doing what all the churches Ive attended did each time I asked a question. In one church, the ministers wife used to cross the street when she saw me so she wouldnt even have to say hello.
As for deliberately misconstruing what the Bible says Ive seen that done by people of faith more times than I can count, so its not just those who dont follow your teachings.
My partner and I have heard this from his preacher grandpa and family. His mother has old me many many times over our 12 years together but she doesn't support our love.
But loves me she prays everyday her two sons will find the right straight way and myself and the other partner of his gay brother would just be friends
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Nordstrom Promotions & Deals
Sears Coupons & Deals
Panasonic Coupons & Deals
JCPenney Coupons & Deals
Target Coupons & Deals
OverHalfSale is doing their first ever Mystery Bag Extravaganza. They have put together goodie bags at a bargain prices. For only 19.99 you get a bunch of mystery prizes that might include: sunglasses, tank tops, electronics, homegoods, toys, etc.


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Album Rating: 5.0 | Sound OffMadonna is a Marketing product? Not a real artist? Well...Probably...But like it or not Madonna is the most successful and influential female artist of the 80's.
My favourite songs here are Holiday, Like A Virgin, Live To Tell, Papa Don't Preach, La Isla Bonita and Like A Prayer
Album Rating: 5.0This album rocks.
You should start your review with the 5/5 rating of "Justify My Love" so people know you're out of your fucking mind.
Ray of Light and Beautiful Stranger arent on this so i dun care
Digging: The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation - Succubus
Borderline, Live To Tell and La Isla Bonita are the best.
Bands: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z


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Venue: Sylvania United Church of Christ
Location: Sylvania
Address: 7240 Erie St.
Event Website: http://www.sylvaniaucc.org/nurture_sinc.html
Description: Professor Robert J. Russell is the Founder and Director of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, and the Ian G. Barbour Professor of Theology and Science in Residence at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. He is the author of Cosmology from Alpha to Omega: Towards the Mutual Creative Interaction of Theology and Science (Fortress Press, 2008). His current research topics include: resurrection, eschatology and scientific cosmology; quantum mechanics, biological evolution and divine action; evolution, theodicy an Christology; philosophical assumptions in contemporary scientific cosmology and their theological roots; time and eternity from a Trinitarian perspective in relation to time in physics. He is ordained in the United Church of Christ. Free and open to the public. Reception to follow. Part of the church's Scientists in Congregations Faith and Science Speaker Series. Reception to follow.
Sylvania United Church of Christ
7240 Erie St.
Sylvania, OH 43560
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At Percona Live last week, someone showed me a graph from their Cacti monitoring system, using the templates that I wrote. It was the buffer pool pages read, written, and created. He asked me if the graph was okay. Shouldn't there be a lot more pages read than written, he asked? It's a great question. […]
Just hours left until Percona Live sells out!
We're seeing a spike of last-minute ticket sales for Percona Live New York. Meanwhile, we're assembling bags and unpacking t-shirts at the venue. If you want to come, buy your ticket now — we're rapidly selling out the remaining tickets! Remember, if all the tickets are sold, you can still come to the evening event […]
Free Percona Live tickets and Percona Support contract!
Just a couple of announcements for Percona Live: we're giving away free tickets through Engine Yard, and we've arranged our evening open-bar event. For a chance to win a free ticket, check out the guest blog post I wrote for Engine Yard on how to make Rails migrations faster and safer. In other news, Percona […]
InnoDB compression woes
InnoDB compression is getting some traction, and I see quite contradictory opinions. Someone has successful deployments in productions, and someone says that compression in current implementation is useless. To get some initial impression about performance I decided to run some sysbench with multi-tables benchmarks. I actually was preparing to do complex research, but even first […]
Scaling problems still exist in MySQL 5.5 and Percona Server 5.5
MySQL 5.5 and Percona Server 5.5 do not solve all scalability problems even for read only workloads. Workloads which got a lot of attention such as Sysbench and DBT2/TPC-C scale pretty well a they got a lot of attention, there can be other quite typical workloads however which do not scale that well. This is […]
Flexviews is a working scalable database transactional memory example
http://Flexvie.ws fully implements a method for creating materialized views for MySQL data sets. The tool is for MySQL, but the methods are database agnostic. A materialized view is an analogue of software transactional memory. You can think of this as database transactional memory, or as database state distributed over time, but in an easy way […]
The case for getting rid of duplicate "sets"
The most useful feature of the relational database is that it allows us to easily process data in sets, which can be much faster than processing it serially. When the relational database was first implemented, write-ahead-logging and other technologies did not exist. This made it difficult to implement the database in a way that matched […]
Finding an optimal balance of I/O, CPU, and RAM for MySQL
For a long time I've wanted to know how MySQL scales as you add more memory to the server. Vadim recently benchmarked the effects of increasing memory and CPU core count. He looked for a balance between utilizing the hardware as much as possible, limiting the system complexity, and lowering the price-to-performance ratio. The outcome […]
Using any general purpose computer as a special purpose SIMD computer
Often times, from a computing perspective, one must run a function on a large amount of input. Often times, the same function must be run on many pieces of input, and this is a very expensive process unless the work can be done in parallel. Shard-Query introduces set based processing, which on the surface appears […]
Checking the subset sum set problem with set processing
Hi, Here is an easy way to run the subset sum check from SQL, which you can then distribute with Shard-Query:
CREATE TABLE `the list` (
`id` bigint(20) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`val` bigint(20) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
KEY `id` (`id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM;
SELECT val as `val`, COUNT(DISTINCT (id)) as `cd`
FROM test.data as d WHERE val in (-2,-3,-10,15,15,16)
GROUP BY val;
| val | cd | CNT |
| -10 | 1 | 1 |
| -3 | 1 | 1 |
| -2 | 1 | 1 |
| 15 | 35417088 | 35417088 |
5 rows in set (40.20 sec)
Notice there is no 16 in the list. We did not pass the check. There are enough 15s though. The distinct value count for each item in the output set, must at least […]


text: http://askubuntu.com – Okay, so heres my problem. I recently started migrating several services to individual VMs on my box, using VirtualBox 4.1. I created a new VirtualBox VM with guest type "Ubuntu (64 Bit)". I've already done this before and it worked like a charm. I then installed unbutu server (12.04) from the exact same dvd image. All the time I thought that it should have installed x64. I already put a few hours work into the new VM, migrating the webserver and mail system etc. Today I tried installing a x64 piece of software and it suddenly told me that it needed x64 and I had only i686. I checked uname (HowTos)


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packin' heat
Joined: Nov 2006
Location: NYC
Oddometer: 1,113
packin' heat
Joined: Nov 2006
Location: NYC
Oddometer: 1,113
9/15/11 (Thursday)
Daily mileage: 225 miles
Overall average: 25 mph
Getting out later this morning from the lakeview lodge I noticed my rear tire was leaking air slowly so I filled it back up. Should last me the day.
The riding through was the national forest today was somewhat lackluster compared to the adventurous trails in Nevada. Not complaining, but just sayin'.
I did manage to barrel full speed through a barb wire fence. I was going downhill off the mountain road back into the main gravel road and at the last minute noticed it too late. The bike tore through the fence and I ended up going over the bars. Got up and composed myself. There was no damage to the bike.
The TAT is defarkling my bike. To date I've lost my zeta heel guard, a rear zeta disk guard and both my handguards. Lost the left one on this spill.
An interesting views along the way
The next section of interest was through a valley of dead trees. Getting up to that point required me to reroute several times due to downed trees or purchased land. My policy in Oregon is the path of least resistance. There's a ton of roads here so why not go around.
There was interesting powerline road section that at some points were super rocky. At certain points I would stop to take pictures and literally hear them sizzling above me.
In a valley of dead trees, I got stuck on a couple of logs and had to lift the bike over. My rear tire had also gone completely flat at this point so I wasn't getting the grip and clearance needed to hop over them.
After following some previous tracks I navigated through the section and exit through a gate that led me to the in forest road.
Got out the compressor and inflated the tire and found a small hole which i quickly plugged up. A gentlemen in a small pickup stop to ask if i needed anything as the repair was taking place. I said no but thanked him for stopping.
During the last couple of hours leading up to that valley, the sky had become overcast and the temperature had dropped noticeably.
The ride from here to silver lake was chilly. When i arrived there I got gas and ate at the plum creek deli. It was an interesting little establishment ran out of a parked and converted rv with a gas grill out front and a big teepee. There was also a Norwegian and us flag flying out front.
I ordered a bacon cheeseburger and fries and a big eight grade kid name Patrick prepared it. He said they get slot af advers coming around but I was rare in being a solo rider. That was the second time I heard that. We talked about hay, the big group of British adv riders that stopped by earlier in the season, guns, his want of his own motorcycle, and firefighting.
After my delicious burger which helped warm me up, I put on my fleece pullover under my jacket, hopped on with the intention of riding another 60 miles to crescent lake.
Unfortunately, I had grossly miscalculated my rate of progress and ran into several reroutes due to purchased land. It was 6:05 when I started and at 6:45 I finally made it to the entrance of the Fremont national forest. After going about a mile into the entrance, I decided to turn around and get on the main highway to crescent. It was freezing out and all I could think of was a nice warm room.
getting darker
darker still
even darker
After finally arriving at crescent lake, I calculated I had missed about 50 miles of trail. I was bummed as I should've just stayed in silverlake for the evening, but I already made reservations in crescent lake a day earlier. Someone tell me, Did I miss alot of good trail from silverlake to crescent? If it was anything like what I rode earlier today, I don't think I missed much.
simonpig screwed with this post 03-05-2013 at 08:42 AM
packin' heat
Joined: Nov 2006
Location: NYC
Oddometer: 1,113
9/16/11 (Friday)
Morning. Crescent Lake Cabins are sweet.
My plan for today was to visit the umpqua national forest and the hot spring located there.
Rode over to crescent from crescent lake to get gas, and again noticed my rear was low on air. At this point my rear tire is looking rough. There's cracks around the knobs so there could be any number of leaks residing on it. Filled it up more than usual this time.
Getting to the spring took me up elevation for a bit and And to a pedestrian bridge leading to springs.
I met a couple on the brief hike over who were on vacation from Arizona. Cece and Shaun had 2 weeks off and were recommending I check out kentucky falls next to Florence. Shaun was a pretty sociable guy. When we got to the spring he would offer every bather there grabs at their tillamook cheese and crackers which they obtained on the factory tour earlier.
The soak was amazing. It made the soreness in my left shoulder from yesterday's chilled ride melt away. There was a total of 6 pools there that got cooler the farther down you descended the Rock staircase. The one above mine was taken a older scruffy looking mountain man and another pool housed under a wooden canopy by a young hippie couple. They were all in the buff soaking and getting out to grab the occaisional cracker and cheese. I brought my swim trunks just in case but decided to hang loose, to save from having to dry my swim trunks.
It was liberating to be soaking in the buff on the side of a mountain surrounded by Trees and cool fresh air with the sound of the river running below. This is the Oregon I had envisioned. It wasn't to be found on the TAT up to this point.
After soaking for 45 minutes and hiking out, I ran into 2 couples who had a flat the night before and decided to camp out. There was another guy, Jimmy was was acting as a fixer, whom I had met earlier getting to the springs. Jimmy at first asked me if I could ride down to a gas station with a Jerry can to get gas since one of the guys truck ran out of gas. The other guys car had a flat tire. I had all the tools needed to plug a tire and inflate it, and so I did. Both of the guys were on military rr from Iraq, so it was the least I could do.
Jimmy was from Michigan, but his playground was in Venice beach Cali. He is a musician there. Somehow he was able to hitchhike all the way to Oregon and would be hitchhiking a ride back at some point. It seems like he had been camping out there for awhile.
One couple, Travis and his girl Alia were both from Oregon and endorsed it over the other many states they traveled to some of which included Montana and Wyoming.
After fixing the tire the group thank me and I roll away. It was around 5 pm at this point and I head south to Crater Lake and enjoy the view.
Did I mention that the last couple of days felt the the end of November? It was chilly. I was getting all sore from the chills. Had to bust out the balaclava.
Crater lake is pretty cool. I enter from the north entrance and slowly make my way south going counterclockwise around the big water filled hole hitting the different vistas along the way.
Click below image for the Crater Lake Expedition Video... The Pig has landed!
After having my fill, I exit through the south at mazama village. There I stop in at annie's restaurant for a dinner buffet before setting out for my cold-as-balls ride to the union creek cottage and rv park.
It's a comfy place to rest my head for the evening.
simonpig screwed with this post 03-05-2013 at 08:48 AM
Chopper Rider
Joined: Jan 2005
Location: On a set of 50,000 mile tires.
Oddometer: 15,038
Nope, not a thing...you're doing fine.
Be sure the safest rule is that we should not dare to live in any scene in which we dare not die. ~Lewis Carroll~
packin' heat
Joined: Nov 2006
Location: NYC
Oddometer: 1,113
Awoke this morning and started on the last couple of days reports on the iphone. Live reporting really takes consideration and time. Everyday I've been trying to write the first thing in the morning and its really taken up the last minute of checkout at 11. Its not different this morning.
After getting all my crap together, I go down to lash it all down. On the way out, I notice a really nice old school hot rod with a ford emblem and exposed engine block. The owner, Bill, approached me and asked me about my trip. He's maybe in his late 60s or early 70s. He asks about my trip and makes recommendations for road to take while on my way back east. He and his wife Lynda, who is smoking a Marlboro red, seem to be an adventurous couple. He use to ride dirtbikes and was telling me about Death Valley and that I should take the Sonora Pass back. We walk over to his hot rod he built up from parts either meticulously gathered from swap meets or hand built himself. It's a beautiful machine with a nice low grunt. He remarks that it's the smallest v8 made. Don't know much more than that, but I do know something special when I see it. After a thorough going over of the map, we say our goodbyes and they roar off in the V8, after detaching the small trailer from it.
After heading south for 11 miles to Prospect from Union Creek to get gas, I head back up 35 miles to pick up the trail I left off yesterday (around mile 285). It's funny, but its easier to run out of gas in Oregon than in any other state. That's what it seems like anyway. The gas stations are few and far between especially once you get in the national forest.
The trail today took me up through some mountain passes and back down and then back up again. There are some mountain roads that have been closed so I had to reroute the long way around the mountain.
Visiting the worlds tallest sugar pine
Around mile marker 365, I start to realize that I don't have enough gas to make it to the 426 mile point so I reroute to a bigger road and finish the day in Canyonland. I have been missing a lot of the trail here in Oregon, but for some reason, I don't really feel like I'm missing anything. Maybe it's that I'm starting to get lazy, or the TAT is taking its toll on me, but drifting along seems fine to me. For sure, tomorrow will be the last day as I make it to Port Orford and thus, my TAT trip will end, and the trip back begins.
simonpig screwed with this post 03-05-2013 at 08:50 AM
Joined: Oct 2007
Location: Backwoods of Kentucky
Oddometer: 364
Dang, I gotta make it out to Oregon some time ! Great Ride Report by the way !
The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
Studly Adventurer
Joined: Mar 2006
Location: Phoenixville
Oddometer: 714
it has been a awesome ride thus far...but i do get it, u feeling the TAT and getting tired.....pull up the socks for one more time breathe the air, because once ur done with this ride.....u will rememeber it for years to come...
there will be times when u will drift off on a mundane day at work, dream about the adventures u had.....
Chopper Rider
Joined: Jan 2005
Location: On a set of 50,000 mile tires.
Oddometer: 15,038
The old sugar pine just keeps getting bigger, saw it for the first time in probably 1977 or so.
Can't wait for the next installment!!
Be sure the safest rule is that we should not dare to live in any scene in which we dare not die. ~Lewis Carroll~
Joined: Sep 2010
Oddometer: 29
Simonpig, you found the first barbed-wire gate I was talking about. It was lurking in the shadows. My skid mark wasn't as long as yours coming down the hill. I stopped just in time and my front wheel was resting against that same gate. I may post a picture if I get a chance.
The second gate, just before Silver Lake, was a different story. I had a similar ending as your picture except I went through it instead of over it. Ouch ouch ouch. I'll see if I can find a close mile marker on my GPS and post back later.
Joined: Jan 2011
Location: Right Here, Right Now
Oddometer: 401
Simon, I went back thru Lake City the other day on my way south and visited with Venice and (insert husbands name here) They said "Hello" and I got a nice picture of her for you. As soon as I get some good internets I will send it to you. Happy Trails man!
Gnarly Adventurer
Joined: Jun 2008
Location: S.E. Michigan
Oddometer: 493
The barbwire was a close call!! Thankfully it wasnt worse.
Dude, youve become a trail master! Even fixing flats on cars!
Beastly Adventurer
Joined: Dec 2005
Oddometer: 2,654
Why the non stock front fender?
Inquiring minds want to know>
ADV Relay Rider 08 (The Texas Connection)
Ride Pooie Ride
Don't stop riding until you get to the crash , you might save it!
packin' heat
Joined: Nov 2006
Location: NYC
Oddometer: 1,113
Whats up dudes. Im in SF now and gonna go hit up oreillys to get some oil. I owe you one last ride report but dont have a monitor. Thanks for following this thread. It is really a great experience to reflect everday on things that went on around me, and also to get your realtime advice. Its definitely not as lonely, thats for sure.
packin' heat
Joined: Nov 2006
Location: NYC
Oddometer: 1,113
packin' heat
Joined: Nov 2006
Location: NYC
Oddometer: 1,113
Right on. Go ahead and post it up here.
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Afghans fighting alone in contested border area
NARI DISTRICT, Afghanistan This former American military base in northeastern Afghanistan was a critical launching pad during the troop surge to fight Taliban militants, but the pace of fighting in this key border area remains high even after the Afghan military has taken over.
The base in the Nari district of Kunar province was once called Forward Operating Base Bostick and sits at the bottom of a picturesque river valley flanked by terraced farms and high mountain ridges. It is now controlled by the Afghan National Army, who is solely responsible for maintaining security in northern Kunar and Nuristan along the Pakistan border.
These provinces remain a strategically important, but contested, front in the ongoing war. Added to that is the rising tension between Afghanistan and Pakistan over recent cross border attacks. The Afghan security forces are facing their first summer fighting without American ground or air support, and the insurgents struck a deadly first blow by overrunning an outpost near the main base in Nari district earlier this spring, killing 13 Afghan soldiers.
Two years after the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division launched multiple operations in Kunar to clear out entrenched Taliban safe havens, the brigade returned with a small contingent of advisers to guide the Afghans as they fight in one of the country's most difficult regions.
U.S. Army adviser Capt. Blake Richter, a 31-year-old from Savannah, Ga., knows the Kunar River valleys and the danger that they contain. His unit, 1st Battalion, 32nd Cavalry Regiment, was based at Bostick during the troop surge in 2010.
During the surge, coalition forces targeted key Taliban leaders and opened up valleys where the Afghan government had no presence before, but the insurgency still remains highly active in these areas on the border.
For Richter, it wasn't a surprise that Afghan soldiers were encountering the same fight the Americans battled two years earlier. The smuggling routes from tribal areas of Pakistan remain the same and militants use the historical fighting positions they've always used to gain high ground in the mountains.
"I have spent a lot of time up here and I understand how tough it is up here. It's hard for these people."
The base sits at the end of the Afghan military supply route, which makes maintaining and equipping their units difficult. Their generators run a few hours a day, but there's a wood-fired bakery making fresh bread daily and the Afghans planted small patches of flowers around the buildings. They maintain a medical clinic that stays busy treating Afghan soldiers and police who are wounded in firefights and by roadside bombs.
The last American unit handed over the base to the Afghans in November, but the advisers make regular visits to check on the two kandaks based in Nari, who are labeled as being able to operate independent of coalition forces.
Still the Afghan military leaders lament the lack of resources they have in Kunar and Nuristan, where the terrain makes any large movement of troops difficult. After their outpost was overrun in April, the ANA soldiers had to walk the three-hour trek to reoccupy and reinforce the outpost. They have D-30 Howitzers that they can use to defend their mountaintop outposts, but Lt. Col. Shah Mirwais, commander of the 3rd kandak, 2nd Brigade of the 201st Corps, said more firepower is necessary to fight in the mountains.


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President Obama is expected to sign two executive orders that will impose additional compliance obligations on federal government contractors. The first order will reportedly bar federal contractors from retaliating against employees for discussing pay issues with co-workers. The President is also expected to sign a second executive order directing the Department of Labor to promulgate rules requiring federal government contractors to provide compensation data based upon the race and sex of their employees. These requirements (applicable to all employers) are also contained in bills currently pending in Congress.
These executive orders continue a trend by the administration to place new requirements on the federal contracting community similar to pending federal legislation. In February, for example, President Obama issued an Executive Order to increase the minimum wage for employees of federal contractors and subcontractors to $10.10 an hour after a bill that would have imposed such a requirement on all employers failed to pass Congress.
DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.
© Proskauer - Government Contractor Compliance & Regulatory Update
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Sony A77/A65 SLT Hands on Review
Just up, as promised, a hands on review on the Sony A77 and A65 SLt cameras. Click the image below or use the menu above to get to the review.
Posted on January 23, 2012, in My Work and tagged a65, a77, camera, field, hands on review, photographer, photography, picture, pictures, review, slt, sony. Bookmark the permalink. Comments Off on Sony A77/A65 SLT Hands on Review.


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Palliative Care Center
Topic Overview
What is palliative care?
It is hard to live with a serious illness. You may feel lonely, angry, scared, or sad. You may feel that your treatment is doing more harm than good. You may have pain or other disturbing symptoms. Palliative care can help you and your loved ones cope with all of these things.
Palliative care is a kind of care for people who have serious illnesses. It is different from care to cure your illness, called curative treatment. Palliative care focuses on improving your quality of life—not just in your body, but also in your mind and spirit. Sometimes palliative care is combined with curative treatment.
The kind of care you get depends on what you need. Your goals guide your care. Palliative care can help reduce pain or treatment side effects. Palliative care may help you and your loved ones better understand your illness, talk more openly about your feelings, or decide what treatment you want or do not want. It can also help with communication among your doctors, nurses, and loved ones.
Why would I want palliative care?
Palliative care providers are interested in what is bothering you and what is important to you. They want to know how you and your loved ones are doing day-to-day. They understand that your illness affects not just you, but also those you love.
Your palliative care providers will ask questions about how your illness affects your emotions and spirit. Then they will try to make sure that your medical care meets your goals for your body, mind, and spirit. They will also help you make future plans around your health and medical care.
You might see a palliative care provider just once or maybe more often. He or she will work with your other doctors to give you the best care possible.
How is palliative care different from hospice care?
Palliative care is for a person of any age who has a serious illness. For example, you may want palliative care while you are getting treatment for heart failure. Palliative care could help you manage symptoms or side effects of treatment so that you will feel better.
Hospice care provides medical services, emotional support, and spiritual resources for people who are in the last stages of a serious illness, such as cancer or heart failure.
WebMD Medical Reference from Healthwise


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Join us for a unique, fun, amazing celebration and exclusive first look at the newly renovated SETLC. Special guests will include Venus and Serena Williams, the Master of Ceremony James Brown Network Broadcaster CBS Sports & News, and Live Entertainment featuring Motown Revue Stage & DJ Stage.
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Harshvardhan Patil, the co-operative housing minister, has dissolved the controversial Venus co-operative housing society's elected body and appointed an administrator.
The society came into limelight due to two illegal tenants, Snehal Poojari, in chief minister Prithviraj Chavan's flat (No. B-201) and Tarana Singh in Congress MP Hussain Dalwai's flat (No. B-301) in same building.
"The decision to dissolve the society was deliberate because we opposed illegal tenants occupying the flats of the CM and the MP. They were staying here illegally and troubling other residents. The chief minister has put pressure on the co-operative housing minister and dissolved our society and appointed an administrator," said a resident of the society.
Sources said that after the dna report, Chavan evicted his tenant, 23-year-old Snehal Poojari. And, Tarana Singh has shifted to another flat in the same building.
"They had not entered into any legal leave and license agreement, nor obtained a police NOC. If something untoward happens, who will be responsible? As a precautionary measures, we registered a police complaint and these girls threatened us taking the CM's name. They even complained against us in the registration department. We also have filed a complaint with the registration department and are expecting a stay on the minister's order," said another member of the society.
When contacted, both the chief minister and the co-operative housing minister were not available for comment.


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Exclusive: Clinton to be named UN special envoy on Haiti
- By Laura RozenLaura Rozen writes The Cable daily at ForeignPolicy.com.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton will be named a U.N. special envoy on Haiti this week, sources close to the United Nations tell The Cable.
A UN official confirmed to The Cable that there would be a formal announcement on this Tuesday.
The Clinton Foundation did not immediately respond to queries; nor did the White House.
Clinton traveled with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to Haiti in March, on his fourth trip to the impoverished island nation of nine million people.
"I've been following this country for more than three decades," Clinton told the Miami Herald. "I fell in love with it 35 years ago when Hillary and I came here. I think I understand what its shortcomings have been but I've always believed most of its problems were not as some people suggested; cultural, mystical. I think they were subject to misgovernment. They were either oppressed or neglected and they never had the benefit of consistently being rewarded for effort in education, in agriculture, in industry and in any area. And, therefore, they were forced to become incredible, if you will, social entrepreneurs and to make the most of daily life."
"The message I want to send to the rest of the world is what … the factory owner told me today," Clinton further said. "'These people work hard and they work smart. … Tell the world Haiti is a good place to invest'."
Haiti is important to the former president, a former Clinton administration official said, and was the first place his administration intervened abroad. In 1994, Clinton ordered the U.S. military to intervene in Haiti to restore Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power several years after the former president was ousted in a military coup. The UN took over the lead on the peacekeeping mission in 1995, and some 9,000 UN peacekeepers currently remain in the country. Hurricanes last year killed an estimated 800 people in Haiti and caused an estimated $1 billion in damage.
Obviously, Clinton has good relations with the African-American community; he had a history with Haiti when he was the governor of Arkansas; and it was one of the first issues that bubbled up when he was president, the former official said.
Clinton's March visit to Haiti, where he remains popular, came as four south Florida lawmakers met with Department of Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano, seeking temporary protected status for some 30,000 Haitians who had been scheduled to be deported back to Haiti.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Haiti last month, where she pledged an additional $57 million in U.S. aid for the Caribbean country as part of a $324 million Inter-American Development Bank aid package.
Related Stories
Briefing skipper: Haiti, START, Mitchell, South KoreaJosh Rogin
Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.
A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.
Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C.| The Cable |


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FOX Sports Exclusive
Week 5 Thursday LU Calls
When you casually reviewed the Thursday night schedule at the end of the preseason, I'm fairly certain that you whizzed right past this Week 5 matchup between the Rams and Cardinals. Sure, you were looking forward to tracking potential Larry Fitzgerald points.
You certainly weren't anticipating a matchup between an undefeated Arizona squad and a 2-2 Rams squad under Jeff Fisher. Let's set the table.
The Cardinals won three of their first four games by four points or fewer, adding a blowout home win over the Eagles for good measure. The Rams eked out narrow wins over the Seahawks and Redskins by a combined nine points, narrowly lost to the Lions in Week 1 after leading much of the game and fell in an uninspired game against the Bears in Week 3 by 20 points.
Now that you've caught up, it's time to assess the Week 5 opener.
On paper, it's a fantastic matchup for Ryan Williams of the Cardinals. The Rams have allowed 130 total yards and 1.25 touchdowns per game to opposing running backs. When you add the rushing efforts of quarterbacks and end-arounds, the Rams have surrendered 135.6 rushing yards and 1.5 touchdowns per game.
However, the Cardinals have been unable to run the ball effectively. Williams produced just 26 yards on 13 carries in Week 4 against the Dolphins. The Cardinals have averaged just 68 rushing yards and 0.5 rushing touchdowns per game. To be fair, Williams and the Cardinals have faced the Dolphins, Eagles, Seahawks and Patriots in the first four weeks. I'll tag him as a mid-RB2 this week.
Let's move to the Rams backfield, where Steven Jackson had the best scoring opportunity that he may see all year in Week 4. Unfortunately, his three-yard run was nullified by a penalty, and the Rams later scored on a fake field goal (Danny Amendola owners received a gift). Jackson has played through a groin injury to the tune of 3.3 yards per carry. He's yet to eclipse 60 rushing yards in any of his four 2012 starts.
The Cardinals have allowed the ninth-fewest fantasy points to running backs at the quarter-pole. I'm fearful that the short week forces Jackson to cede some of the Week 5 workload to Daryl Richardson. As a result, Jackson rates no better than a back-end RB2 this week.
The Rams have successfully stifled opposing passer through four weeks. To date, St. Louis has surrendered the 11th-fewest passing yards (213.5 yards per game) and just two touchdowns against eight interceptions. Overall, the Rams rank seventh in fantasy points against quarterbacks. Kevin Kolb has found his pace in the past two weeks, gaining comfort and consistency downfield with both Larry Fitzgerald and Andre Roberts. Kolb has averaged 273 passing yards with five touchdowns and two interceptions in the past two weeks. He's a lower-end QB2 this week.
Fitzgerald slides back into a low-end WR1 slot this week, but he will draw coverage from noted agitator Cortland Finnegan. The aforementioned Roberts, who is tied for the league lead with four touchdown receptions (6.3 targets per game), rates a high-end WR4 option this week.
Conversely, the now-celebrated Arizona pass defense ranks fifth against quarterbacks, having surrendered 280 passing yards and 0.75 passing touchdowns per game. Sam Bradford's a no-go in fantasyland, but he'll get his normal support from wideout Danny Amendola. Amendola has averaged 11 targets per game, producing 87.8 receiving yards and 7.8 receptions per game. He's on the board as a low-end WR2 this week.
Tight ends have been invisible against these squads. Both teams rank in the top 10 in terms of points allowed against tight ends with just a single touchdown scored (against Arizona).
I would be remiss if I failed to celebrate two of the early MVPs from these teams. Greg Zuerlein was the story behind the fake field goal touchdown toss last week. Zuerlein converted field goals from distances of 48, 58 and 60 yards to fuel the Rams' victory over the Seahawks. He's perfect on eight field goal attempts this season. Opponents have kicked 11 field goals against the Rams, including two long-distance conversions over 50 yards.
Jay Feely is also on the board this week against the Rams. Feely has converted each of his seven field goal attempts and 10 PATs to date. He's worth consideration off of the waiver wire for owners facing Week 5 Byes.
Finally, the Cardinals rank third in scoring defense at 15.3 points allowed per game. They have generated nine turnovers and 16 sacks (second to Cincinnati). Look for Sam Bradford to be under duress in this contest, as the Rams have already surrendered 14 sacks. The Cardinals are a strong fantasy option this week.
The Rams are tied for 17th in total defense at 22.8 points allowed per game. St. Louis has generated eight turnovers (all interceptions), but just six sacks despite the presence of Long and Quinn on the defensive front. Like the St. Louis offensive line, the Arizona front has been leaky. Opponents have registered 14 sacks. Through four games, Kevin Kolb has been efficient and has done well to protect the ball. With persistent pressure in this road tilt, the St. Louis secondary will have an opportunity to make plays. The Rams rate a "Sleeper" tag and spot play for Week 5.
How does it finish? Zuerlein may supplant Sebastian Janikowski and lay claim to the "Super Jock" tag.
More Stories From Michael Harmon
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Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud scored a dramatic late equaliser against Everton to help his side battle back from two goals down to draw 2-2 in the Premier League clash at Goodison Park on Saturday.
Arsene Wenger's side looked set for another chastening defeat against one of their rivals for a top four finish after finding themselves deep in trouble before half time. Strikes from Seamus Coleman and Steven Naismith ripped apart an Arsenal defence which had been demolished on their visits to Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool and Everton last season.
But Arsenal staged a brilliant late revival to suggest that their squad is made of sterner stuff this term, with midfielder Aaron Ramsey finishing from close range with seven minutes remaining before France striker Giroud capped the gutsy fightback by heading home in the final minute of normal time, Sport24 reported.
It was an agonising finale for Everton, who had made two changes from the side, which drew with Leicester on the opening day as Coleman and Kevin Mirallas came in for John Stones and Aiden McGeady.
Wenger included World Cup winners Per Mertesacker and Mesut Ozil for the first time this season, while Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Nacho Monreal made their first starts, the report added.


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Leadership Bonus for September goes out to Ma Yun, known in the West as Jack Ma, a former schoolteacher who is best known as the founder and Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group Holding China's e-commerce company Alibaba, now the wealthiest man in China.
Alibaba's IPO last Friday set a record for US Technology companies, raising over $21 billion, and reflecting a market cap of $231.4 billion. This is now the largest largest-ever U.S. technology IPO. The company's business model generates strong free cash flow, and does not require a lot of capital, which is a very attractive model for investors. It represents lower risk, and very high returns.
Alibaba is the disruptor of the disruptors. Not only has Mr. Ma provided leadership to create the worlds largest ecommerce site, surpassing revenues of Amazon and Ebay combined, but his Alibaba (BABA) has also developed the first big B2B ecommerce portal.
Alibaba accounts for about 80 percent of all online retail sales in China, where rising Internet usage and an expanding middle class helped the company generate gross merchandise volume of $296 billion in the 12 months ended June 30.
Leadership Blunders this month is awarded to Centerplate (ex) CEO Desmond Hague. Centerplate is a catering company that services sports and entertainment venues around the country, such as Levi's Stadium in San Francisco. The company has experienced growth under the leadership of Mr. Hague, who assumed CEO responsibility in 2009, but that all came to an end this month for Mr. Hague.
Mr. Hague's departure from Centerplate resulted from an act of cruelty to a dog, which was captured on video taken from a downtown Vancouver B.C. condominium elevator. In the video, Mr. Hague can be seen abusing a dog on a leash. I have chosen not to post the video due to its violent nature.
What he evidently thought was an act committed in the privacy of an elevator turned out to have been an act seen by millions via the internet. While the reasons behind why he was mistreating the dog in this cruel and inhumane manner have yet to be determined, thanks to building security passing the video to the British Columbia chapter of the S.P.C.A, calls for Mr. Hague to apologize, repent, and seek rehabilitation have been received from all over North America.
Some of the lessons learned include…
- Trust that takes a long time to build can be destroyed in an instant. A leader needs to be consistent in character and integrity and to establish trust. That trust is fragile, and under constant surveillance and testing. When a leader falters, trust is on trial. In this case, his friends and colleagues decided he couldn't be trusted.
- Having a 'dark and private' side to one's personality doesn't work if it is vastly different than the public profile shown at work and online via social channels. It's important to be consistent in character at home, at work, at play.
- This type of event could happen to anyone. Leaders are under great pressure to perform optimally for their stakeholders, and it's very important to be aware of your emotions at all time, and never allow this raging emotion to emerge in any situation.
If you are a leader, and have two sides to your personality, one at work, and one (darker side) when you think you are in private, you are only fooling yourself. I suggest cleaning up your act if that reflects your reality, and getting professional help if necessary. The video demonstrates a very troubled side to Mr. Hague's character, one that is obviously frustrated and angry. Unfortunately he decided to vent his frustration on the helpless and dependent dog, who could offer no defense.
This unfortunate event has become very public thanks to the internet, and has cost Mr. Hague his job. He is most likely very embarrassed, and is probably something he wishes never happened. He probably would like a mulligan, a 'do over' that would somehow set the record straight. But when things like this happen, there are consequences.
Mr. Hague has to face family, friends, former stakeholders in his former company Centerplate, and others, and explain his bizarre behavior, repent, seek rehabilitation, and put this behind him. With a good rebuilding plan he can recover, and contribute his skills as a trusted leader going forward. That would be my hope, and I wish him well.Share This:


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A network selection system that includes a mobile terminal in communication with a first network, a second network in communication with the first network and an application layer triggering mechanism that determines which one of a plurality of triggers is required in a certain set of circumstances to provide a particular application.
1. A method of handing over from a first network to a second network, comprising:
operating a mobile terminal via a first network;
evaluating the handing over based on a state of an application and at least one criteria of either said first network or a second network, when the application is running on the mobile terminal;
initiating a trigger that causes a handover from said first network to said second network so that said mobile terminal operates via said second network.
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a mobile terminal in communication with a first network;
a second network in communication with said first network;
an application layer triggering mechanism that determines which one of a plurality of triggers is required in a certain set of circumstances to trigger a handover of the mobile terminal from communication with the first network to a communication with the second network based on a state of a particular application running on the mobile terminal.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of wireless networks.
2. Discussion of Related Art
The wireless networks of today are homogeneous. There are many different types of wireless networks available today like mobile, such as the networks known as 2.5 G, 3 G etc., wireless LANs, such as the networks known as 802.11 and HIPERLAN, and short range wireless, such as the network known as Bluetooth, etc. However, there is no interoperability between these wireless networks. In other words, the user of one network is not able to seamlessly handover to another type of network. It is envisioned by the present invention that it will be possible in the future to seamlessly handover between heterogeneous networks. In such a heterogeneous environment there is need for mechanisms that allow seamless transition between different networks.
Traditionally, handovers between networks are initiated on the basis of the received signal strength, which is measured at the network and the mobile device. However, the present invention envisions that in the future heterogeneous environment the decision of when and where to handover will most often be made by application layer entities, especially in the case of vertical (intra-access technology) handovers.
In order to support such a seamless environment, the present invention requires mechanisms that allow devices to seamlessly handover between heterogeneous networks and allow services to adapt to changing network conditions. Although the present invention can encompass various techniques to realize the seamless handover, the description of the present invention focuses on the application level triggering mechanisms for seamless mobility.
A typical heterogeneous network environment 100 is schematically shown in
While it is possible to initiate the handover processor manually via the mobile terminal, it is preferred that a process is developed where the handover is done automatically. In the case of automatic handover, it is very important for the mobile terminal 102 to know when to do the handover and to which network in a heterogeneous environment such as shown in
A second factor to consider is that some information is locally available on the mobile device. Such information can include information about the geographical location of the mobile device, signal strength with the current point of attachment, signal strength of the target network, type of applications that are running along with application specific, QoS, bandwidth, security requirements and battery consumption level etc.
A third factor to consider is that user context information is required in order to make effective triggering decisions. This context information will include user preferences for services and networks depending on different factors such as location, time, nearby people, battery resources etc, information about user schedules/agendas, activity e.g. running, walking, driving a car etc and past usage behavior. This context information may be stored locally on the mobile device or it may reside on some database in the network. It should be noted that the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Seamoby working group has proposed an IP level context transfer along the forwarding path of a mobile node in order to provide seamless mobility (see the charter archive maintained by the IETF. In its standardization efforts, Seamoby discusses AAA context transfer between AAA servers as the mobile terminal moves between different IP subnets. In addition, the IEEE802.11 Task Group f has standardized the inter-access point protocol, which will exchange user context information transfer between the new access point (AP) and the old AP (see IEEE Std 802.11f/D2.0, Draft Recommended Practice for Multi-Vendor Access Point Interoperability via an Inter-Access Point Protocol Across Distribution Systems Supporting IEEE802.11 Operation, July 2001). Note that the access point has a station functionality and provides access to the Intranet and the Internet via wireless medium.
A fourth factor is that the user may be running different services on the mobile terminal that need to adapt to the new network conditions. For example, a video conference between two mobile users on a cellular network will have different parameters as compared to a video conference between the same users if they handover to a wireless LAN network. Mobile IP guarantees session continuity but does not provide service adaptability. See the draft proposal by D. Johson and C. Perkins, "Mobility Support in IPv6," available from the archive maintained by the IETF.
A fifth factor is that battery resources are very critical for a handheld device because of limited battery capacity. In the past a number of approaches have been adopted for enhancing battery performance as well as to make the applications themselves battery aware. In a heterogeneous environment there will be a large number of access networks that a mobile device can potentially connect to. Software Defined Radios may be the key enabling technology in providing this type of connectivity. See K. C. Chen, R. Prasad, H. V. Poor, "Software Radio," IEEE Pers. Mag., vol. 6, no. 4, August 1999. The problem is how the mobile device knows when to scan for which access network types.
Based on the above-described systems, there is no technology at this time that can provide seamless handover to other networks in next generation wireless networks.
One aspect of the present invention regards a method of handing over from a first network to a second network that includes operating a mobile terminal via a first network, evaluating at least one criteria of either the first network or a second network and initiating a trigger that causes a handover from the first network to the second network so that the mobile terminal operates via the second network.
A second aspect of the present invention regards a network selection system that includes a mobile terminal in communication with a first network, a second network in communication with the first network and an application layer triggering mechanism that determines which one of a plurality of triggers is required in a certain set of circumstances to provide a particular application.
Each of the above aspects of the present invention provides the advantage of having a mobile terminal itself acquiring the information required to make an effective handover decision.
Each of the above aspects of the present invention provides the advantage of acting as a triggering mechanism, such as for context transfer mechanisms proposed by the IETF Seamoby working group.
Each of the aspects of the present invention provides the advantage of pre-authenticating a mobile terminal with the target network before the actual handover takes place.
Each of the above aspects of the present invention provides the advantage of authenticating context transfer between the AAA servers of the source/destination networks.
Each aspect of the present invention provides the advantage of allowing running services to adapt to a new network situation.
Each aspect of the present invention provides the advantage of allowing for a trigger for direct pre-caching between the service provider and the nearest cache server or for cache handoff mechanisms.
Each aspect of the present invention provides the advantage of providing a user a more seamless experience by triggering pre-authentication, pre-caching and service adaptability before the actual handover takes place.
Each aspect of the present invention provides the advantage of providing substantial saving of battery resources on a mobile terminal.
The present invention, together with attendant objects and advantages, will be best understood with reference to the detailed description below in connection with the attached drawings.
The following description of the method of the present invention will be with respect to a heterogeneous environment such as the environment 100 shown in
In accordance with the present invention, a mobile terminal, such as a lap top computer, a PDA or the cell phone 102 shown in
An algorithm for an application layer triggering mechanism is shown and described in
There are four types of triggers contemplated: 1) a pre-authentication trigger signal 202 (PT) that triggers pre-authentication initiation of the mobile terminal with the handover target network(s), 2) a service adaptability trigger signal 204 (ST) that signals an application that it can perform any necessary adaptation in anticipation of an impending handover, 3) a pre-caching trigger signal 206 (CT) that sends a trigger signal to a cache management system in order to pre-cache content at the cache server nearest to the target base station and 4) a handover trigger signal 208 (HT) that initiates the handover process with the target network.
A certain set of criteria need to be met in order to signal one or more of the above-mentioned trigger signals. This set of criteria corresponds to the many different aspects that need to be considered before making a triggering decision. The triggering mechanism 200 evaluates these criteria in parallel. The results of this evaluation are combined to determine a composite triggering criteria. If the composite triggering criteria are satisfied, then the triggering mechanism 200 checks the remote (target) network signal criteria and if that is also satisfied it may initiate one or more trigger signals with or without user input depending on the situation or pre-defined settings.
In operation, the triggering mechanism 200 is started at step 210 and results in application criteria 212 being defined as the set of application specific conditions that must be met in order to initiate a trigger. Upon defining the set of application specific conditions, the triggering mechanism 200 performs a query at step 214 as to whether a particular application state is present. For example, if the application state corresponds to "No applications running" and designated as A000, then the triggering system saves the state information per step 216. With identification of state A000, pre-authentication, service adaptability and pre-caching triggers are not needed because they are only relevant when an application is running.
In case of an incoming application, either a non realtime application or a real time application, the mobile terminal always connects to the access network, which supports a paging mechanism. Currently, a mobile communication system supports a paging scheme, which ensures that the mobile terminal is always connected to the mobile communication system when it is a dormant mode. Consequently, all incoming applications will reach to the mobile terminal through the mobile communication system, and then an appropriate access network will be selected based on the application requirement described above.
Should the application state be determined to correspond to "Non realtime application running" and designated A100, then other application specific criteria, such as cost criteria 218 and QoS criteria 220 are evaluated in parallel with one another. Should the application state be determined to correspond to "Realtime application running" and designated A300, then the location criteria 222 is also evaluated in parallel with the cost criteria 218 and the QoS criteria 220. Examples of realtime applications are streaming audio/video or audio/visual call, etc.
The location criteria 222 depend on location related information in order to make triggering decision. The location criteria look at such factors as:
As shown in
For example, if a real-time application is running and the user is moving away from the current point of attachment at a certain speed and is about to reach the limit of wireless coverage for the current point of attachment, then the trigger mechanism 200 can trigger pre-authentication trigger signal 202, service adaptability trigger signal 204 and pre-caching trigger signal 206 should the location criteria be met per step 224. If the location criteria are not met by the real time application, then the application state information will be saved per step 226.
Cost criteria 218 depend on application specific costs associated with different networks. For example, cost criteria 218 may look at such factors as:
QoS criteria 220 depend on application specific QoS information. In reality, QoS information can be constantly changing due to different factors such as the number of users using a network and the type of services being used. For example, a wireless LAN network at an airport will have constantly changing QoS information depending on the number of people using the network and the time of day (e.g. rush hour) etc. In such a scenario, if a handover decision is based on QoS information, and the QoS information suddenly degrades after the handover, it will lead to the mobile device constantly handing over to different networks in search of better QoS information and will lead to a Ping Pong effect. The problem becomes even worse if many mobile devices try to handover based on a QoS information at the same time because it will lead to dramatically changing QoS information based on available networks in that area.
In order to avoid the above-mentioned problems, two possible solutions are employed. First, the target base station can tell the mobile device interested in handover about its best case QoS information, its average QoS information, its worst case QoS information and a measure of the degree of stability of its QoS information. The mobile device can then make its decision based on this information. A second solution is to have the base station support a resource reservation scheme in which bandwidth resources can be reserved for mobile devices that have specific QoS requirements. The mobile devices that make handover decision based on QoS information can be assured of bandwidth availability on the target network.
With the above solutions in mind, the QoS criteria 220 looks at such factors as:
As shown in
In the case of the network criteria 236, it evaluates the target network for the purpose of handover. Important factors in the network criteria 236 include:
The network criteria 236 are evaluated in step 244 and are met if the target network(s) are better than the current network. If the network criteria 236 is not met, then the application state information will be saved per step 246.
The user context criteria 238 depend on the user context information. Such user context criteria 238 may look at such factors as:
The user context criteria 238 is such that it is appropriate to select one of the variety of triggers. For example, if the user's preference is to always handover to the high bandwidth network with best QoS when he is using his mobile device for business (e.g. user location is in office, talking to boss etc.) and select the least costly network when the user is using his mobile device for personal use (e.g. user location is in house, user is on vacation etc.), then a network handover trigger and any additional triggers that may be required will be selected if those criteria are met per step 248. How the context information is to be interpreted for making triggering decisions may be decided by the user himself (manually), by the operator depending on past history or any other heuristics. If user (context) criteria 238 are not met, then the application state information will be saved per step 250.
Local signal criteria 240 look at signal strength of the current point of attachment. Some possible signal strength states are: 1) SL000—No signal; 2) SL100—Extremely bad signal; 3) SL200—Poor signal; 4) SL300—Acceptable signal; 5) SL400—Good signal and 6) SL500—Excellent signal. Local signal criteria 240 is evaluated at step 252 and is satisfied when the signal strength with the current point of attachment becomes poor or worst (states <SL300).
The local signal criteria 240 is a qualitative criteria, which is derived from a quantitative criteria that is specific to access technology. For example, a good signal strength is specified by the vender and the operator depending on the wireless system (e.g., 6.1 dB). Note that should the local signal criteria 240 not be met, then the application state information will be saved per step 254.
The battery criteria 242 look at battery usage information in order to make a triggering decision. Battery criteria 242 look at such factors as:
The battery criteria 242 are evaluated at step 256 and satisfied if battery resources can be enhanced by handover to a different network. If the battery criteria 242 are not met, then the application state information will be saved per step 258.
All the criteria 212, 222, 218, 220, 236, 238, 240 and 242 are continuously evaluated and results in the evaluation being sent to the composite trigger selector 272, which determines what type(s) of trigger(s) may be required. Only if the composite trigger selector 272 determines the need for one or more triggers, then a remote signal criteria 260 is applied. This helps in saving battery resources on the mobile device because the mobile device does not have to scan for target networks at all times. In particular, the remote signal criteria 260 look at signal strength of target point(s) of attachment. In the remote signal criteria 260, remote signal states are defined. Examples of such remote signal states are given below:
Should the remote signal criteria 260 not be satisfied, then the next available network will be identified per step 262 and the remote signal criteria 260 will be applied to that network. Should the remote signal criteria 260 be satisfied, then a cost of handover criteria 264 will be applied.
The cost of handover criteria 264 compares the cost of handover in terms of effort required to do the handover versus the advantage of handing over to the new network. This criteria will not be evaluated for user initiated handover requests. This criteria will be effective in cases where the current network and the target network are very similar to each other. For example, if a mobile device is connected to a WCDMA base station of one operator and another WCDMA base station of other operator has slightly better QoS, than this criteria will deny the handover request. If the handover request is denied, then the next available network is identified in step 262 and the remote signal criteria 260 and the cost of handover criteria 264 are applied to the network in the manner described above. If the handover request is accepted in step 264, then it is determined in step 266 whether or not the triggering process should be performed automatically or manually. If the triggering process is to be done manually, then the user initiates handover per step 249 by deciding when and which networks participate in handover. The manual handover input is gathered through some user interface per step 268. In practical systems, the user will most likely be asked for manual selection in case of handover triggers only.
Once the triggering is entered either manually or automatically, the triggering is initiated per step 270 so that either the pre-authentication trigger 202, the service adaptability trigger 204, the pre-caching trigger 206 or the handover trigger 208 is initiated.
Note that the above example regards the situation where all criteria are satisfied. Such a situation will not occur often. Instead, there will often be times when the various criteria are in conflict with each other. Therefore, there is a need for a composite trigger selector 272 that can evaluate the recommendations of the various criteria and determine which triggers are required at that point.
The various criteria evaluators will send their recommendations (in favor or against handover) to the composite trigger selector 272, which will make the final decision based on whether the criteria are met per step 274. If the criteria are not met then the process is returned to step 210 per step 276. As shown in
Table 1 below shows a sample prioritization scheme for different criteria in favor of handover. The criteria priority is a number ranging from 0 to 100 that quantifies the relative importance of a certain criteria and the dependency. The criteria priority is used to resolve conflicts between conflicting criteria. Also some criteria will have more importance than others. Assigning a certain priority to each criterion will help in resolving these conflicts and make correct triggering decisions. Initial values for criteria priorities will be determined by the operator after extensive testing/simulations and statistical analysis. The criteria priority may however, change over time based on user's own preferences or context.
Such prioritization schemes for different criteria will be very dynamic and defined by the operator as well as the user's own preferences and context.
If the handover is user initiated, then the target network signal level is tested to see if it is acceptable. If it is acceptable, then handover to the new network is performed irrespective of other criteria. In all other cases, it is determined whether to stay with the current network or to handover to a new network based on the factor NAFT(i) and NAFL that are derived from the following formulas:
Assuming there are N handover target networks and TSFi is the Target Signal Factor for target network 'i' and is a numeric representation of signal strength of target network 'i', the algorithm for handover target selection is as follows:
Assuming there are Y acceptable handover target networks, then
For i=1 to i=Y {If((NAFTi�TSFi for Acceptable Target (i))>NAFL) then do handover and any necessary triggers. In other words, handover is done with the first network to satisfy the equation.
The pre-authentication arrangement controller 306 will be able to arrange the authentication with different access networks and content service providers before the mobile terminal, such as a lap top computer 314 establishes connection with an access network. Therefore, the pre-authentication arrangement controller 306 will send the user's necessary information to different access networks and content service providers in advance. The cache server 310 will cache current application content/data before the handoff occurs in order to have seamless communications and maintain the quality of service (QoS). The external database server 304 stores access network location map information and network context information. The external database server 304 will correct access network location map information and network context information from its experience, which the external database server 304 handles previous handovers and Mobile IP binding (home agent and foreign agent) information. In addition, the external database server 304 can communicate with different access networks to correct some location and context information. To realize the access network location map, an approximate location map based on the Mobile IP update binding is contemplated based on the article "Method and Associated Apparatus for Location Detection, Paging, Authentication, Association and Activate Access Network in Heterogeneous Access Networks, by F. Watanabe et al., currently apply to IPR and is the subject of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/354,568, filed on Feb. 6, 2002, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/120,164, filed Apr. 10, 2002, entitled "Using Subnet Relations to Conserve Power in a Wireless Communication Device" and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/119,558, filed Apr. 10, 2002, entitled "Using Subnet Relations to Determine Paging Areas in a Wireless Communication Device", the entire contents of each of which is incorporated herein by reference.
In order to make advance arrangement such as pre-authentication, service adaptation, pre-caching before the handoff, the following process will be performed in a trigger module component 400, as shown in
After the kind/class of application is detected, triggering criteria are checked from the context external information database 406, the context local/internal information database 408 and the current access network signal level 409 that measures the current active access network signal level. The context external information database 406 stores necessary information, which is obtained from the external database server 304 at the access network shown in
The context local information database 408 will store the mobile terminal information, which is available locally, such as application battery consumption check 420, user context 422, application cost 424, and application QoS requirement 426. The application battery consumption check 420 indicates how much battery the specified application will consume based on the coding, access network card usage, CPU etc. The user context 422 includes the user preference, e.g., which access network is the user's preference, which application is the user's preference, and which method is the user's preference. The application cost 424 indicates the price of application costs when we use. The application QoS requirement 426 indicates what level and what kind of QoS requirement are necessary to support the specified application.
After each criteria is evaluated, recommendations are sent to the composite decision 428 where final evaluation and triggering decisions are made. If the triggering criteria are met, we may make a trigger request to the access network based on the total evaluation. Often, some criteria will be met while others are not. In this case, the composite decision 428 makes a decision to send a trigger request, which is transmitted to an application running on the mobile terminal, the access network, service operator or content service provider etc.
In some cases, the user may initiate the handover request or pre-authentication request, service adaptation request and pre-caching request. These kind of user's explicit requests are handled by the user request 430. After the decision is made at the composite decision 428, the network interface card (NIC), which meets criteria, is selected at the NIC selection 432. One or more NIC can be selected at the NIC selection 432. If the selected NIC does not have enough signal level, other access network signal levels will be checked at the other access network signal level 434. Furthermore, the cost of handoff check 436 will compare the cost of handoff in terms of effort required to do the handoff versus the advantage of handoff to the new access network in a manner described previously. Finally, the user can select which access network (NIC) to use at the user network selection 438.
In concert with the NIC selection 432, a NIC switch off 439 switches on/off the NIC for a particular access network. The switching on/off of the NIC is relayed to the Tx/Rx 441, wherein each Tx/Rx is a transmitter and receiver of packets for different access networks.
Another case is when the user sets up the NIC selection automatically, the automatic network selection 440 will select the best possible access network.
Then, one of the following requests from the request information component 442, decided upon by the composite decision 428, such as pre-authentication request 444, service adaptation request 446, handoff initiation request 448, and pre-caching request 450, will be transmitted to the appropriate destination through the message analyzer/creator 452. The appropriate destination means that pre-authentication request 444 has to be transmitted to the pre-authentication arrangement center 320, for instance. As shown in
To update the context external information database 406 and the context local information database 408, the mobile terminal, such as cell phone 102 or lap top computer 314, which includes the trigger module component 400, will obtain information from the network context information database 308 at the access network 318 and the external database server 304 located in the service operator 312 shown in
As shown in
At the external database server 304, information about access network location map 708 and network context information database 710 is stored. The access network location map 708 has network structure information that is obtained from the access network operator and GPS of mobile terminal. Network context information 710 will include the access network condition information, which contacts with the service operator 312. The mobile terminal, such as cell phone 102 or lap top computer 314, can obtain other/future/target access network context information through the service operator 312 through the current access network.
The foregoing description is provided to illustrate the invention, and is not to be construed as a limitation. Numerous additions, substitutions and other changes can be made to the invention without departing from its scope as set forth in the appended claims.
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In Depth with Francis Rose features daily interviews with top government executives and contractors. Listen live from 4 to 7 p.m. or download his archived interviews below.
In Depth interviews - July 26
Friday - 7/27/2012, 1:53am EDT
This is the In Depth show blog. Here you can listen to the interviews, find more information about the guests on the show each day and links to additional resources.
Today's guests:
Ted Jung — Program Executive Office Integrated Warfare Systems, Naval Sea Systems Command
The Navy makes heavy use of electromagnetic waves. Whether it's a 60s-era Slick-32 or a high-powered microwave, the Navy relies on its acquisition community to keep its technology costs down.
Ted Jung is the technical director for surface electronic warfare for the Program Executive Office Integrated Warfare Systems at the Naval Sea Systems Command. Jung was one of the winners of the Naval Acquisition Excellence award.
Jim Lewis — Director and Senior Fellow, Technology and Public Policy Program, CSIS
Years of debate and compromise on a cybersecurity bill in the Senate are close to culmination. The Senate is close to voting on a bill that's a combination of several pieces of legislation from several different committees.
Even if the Senate does pass the bill, "what comes next" isn't entirely clear. Jim Lewis, the director and senior fellow of the Technology and Public Policy Program at the Center For Strategic and International Studies, joins In Depth to discuss how the bill will likely fare in the House.
Senate advances cyber bill (related story)
Robert Goldenkoff — Director of Strategic Issues, Government Accountability Office
You and your federal colleagues make a lot more — or a lot less — than your counterparts in the private sector.
It all depends on who's analyzing the numbers and how they're doing it. A recent Government Government Accountability Office report found that widely divergent research and reporting methods across a half-dozen different studies make it difficult to generalize or made decisions about future pay adjustments.
Robert Goldenkoff, a director of Strategic Issues at GAO, joins In Depth to discuss the implications of the report.
Federal pay statistics are easily manipulated, GAO reports (related story)
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