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On the weekend I rebuilt my media centre with Windows build 7000. This brought the number of Windows 7 machines in the house to four.
Now that I had the Media Centre it was time to investigate one of the cool new features that Windows 7 brings to the party. This is a feature that will be of particular interest to a specific type of mobile user – the kind that takes their work mobile PC home and wants to make use of the resources – such as printers – and media that on other machines in the house.
In Vista this is a pain. Typically the home PCs are not in a domain and each machine has its own set of accounts. Sure they are all on the same Wi-Fi network but if you want to do anything that involves one of the other machines you need to authenticate. In practice this means that if you want to print something that is on the printer connected to the desktop in the study then you will be prompted for a username and password and you need to use an account that is on that particular desktop. Similarly if you want to access the media on your media centre PC in the lounge you browse to a share and you are prompted to log on, which you do with an account from that machine. The alternative to this credential chaos in Vista is anonymous sharing which significantly reduces the security of your home network and, IMO, is not a good idea.
Enter the Homegroup. The homegroup is a new concept in Windows 7 that lets you establish a trusted relationship between the machines that you use on your home network by configuring a shared secret on each machine in the homegroup. On each machine you configure what you want to be shared with the other machines in the homegroup. Once this is set up you can access the specified content on the homegroup machines without authenticating each time you do it. Very clean.
In order to set up a homegroup your machine needs to have the network type for the active connection set to Home. If it is Public (the default) or Work then you cannot create a homegroup. Assuming you have set your network location to home the process for creating a homegroup is as follows. Click the images for larger versions.
In the Network and Sharing Centre click the Choose homegroup and sharing settings link as shown below.
Then click the Create Now button.
Specify what you want to share – below are the defaults.
The wizard will generate a secure password. You can change this after the fact – but I think it is good that a random one is generated as this is likely to result in a more secure password than one that is easy to remember. And you don't need to remember it – you configure it once on each member of the homegroup and then forget about it. (note that this is not actually the password I ended up using – I'm not that stupid). Click finish and your first computer is set up.
Back in the Change homegroup settings you can view or change the password after you have created it. For instance if you add a new netbook to your collection months after initially setting up the homegroup – you can view the password from any of the PCs that are already in the homegroup. If you do need to change the homegroup password you do it by clicking the Change the password link.
This gives a a screen that more or less says "Are you sure? This will completely break your current homegroup and you will need to change the password on all the members" Click on the change the password link to proceed.
This will generate a new complex password. However unlike the initial creation you can choose not to use the autogenerated one and type your own. The little refresh button will generate yet another complex password (which I did after taking the screen shot below – again not that stupid)
Once you have create a home group on the first machine, you then need to join it from the other machines on the network. This is a simple matter of making sure the machine's network location is set to home and then clicking that Choose homegroup and sharing settings link in the Network and Sharing centre. This time t. he machine will detect that a homegroup has already been created on the network. Click the Join button and then enter the password when prompted. Repeat for each machine you want to add.
Once this is all set up the content you are sharing from each machine is available via Explorer:
Via Media Player
And even in Media Centre, which allows one media centre to play content that is actually on another media centre in the house. Here we have media centre running on my tablet accessing the music library on the Media PC in the lounge.
All and all this makes for much simpler sharing between machines on your home network. It is set and forget and it just works.


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Total Items: 0 Current Total: $0.00
Tall Boots
Our finest quality boots are constructed using 100% USA products. The leather is first quality cowhide - this means no range marks (scars) in the finish. The boots are machine sewn, NOT hand sewn. This means all seams are even and equally strong-no weak points to give or break under the stress of wearing.
See our Shaft Size Chart to Ensure A Proper Fit For Your Leg.
Regular and Plus Sizes Available!
Copyright © 1995 - 2015 By The Sword All rights reserved
Contact Us: email@example.com

subset: commoncrawl


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Hidden Chest on top of Athens Opera Hall | Ocean Heart Pieces WLO
Filed under: Athens, Ocean Heart Piece
Target: Chest on Top Opera Hall, Athens (X: 1522, Y: 175)
Pre-quest: None
Reward: Ocean Heart Piece
Game Plan: To get this box, it required you to ride any kind of flying vehicle. Start from the entrance door, you need to move little bit to right corner. (X: 1402, Y: 635) Then from here, ride a vehicle like spaceship, fly to the top of the building. Click on the chest if you see it. 😀 Just like when you do to the quest box on top of Capitol Welling.
Lost of Book Odyssey | Lost book from library | Book of Odyssey
Filed under: Athens, Pet Return Scroll
Target: Villager at Executive House in second floor
Pre-quest: None
Reward: Pet Return Scroll
Game Plan: Enter the Executive House in Athens and go to second floor. Here you will see alone NPC Villager looking for her lost book, click on her to begin the quest. How to find Odyssey Book? Go out from Executive House and find Dairy Cattle in Athens, the Odyssey book is at the far
Wonderland Online Guide on Cursed Palace | Tips to do CP event easy in WLO
Filed under: Athens, Cursed Palace, EXP Potion, Foods, Weapons
In wonderland online we have this event called Cursed Palace, in short term we like to call it CP. Some say it is like instance 😀 long instance to finish XD while others say it is a Wonderland Online Quest. Yeah… it is like quest and instance which is make me feel so enjoy and fun while doing it. 😀 CP in WLO games was inspired by the 12 constellations. That why CP are consisting by 12 palaces and each palace guard by different powerful guardians. After done for 12 palaces it moves to final palace, Large Hall. Here in Large Hall, all fighters combine and form a team with Athena and her guardian Pegasus, Draco, Cygnus, and Andromeda Fighter. We need to defeat them to complete Wonderland Online Cursed Palace.
Wonderland Online Cursed Palace start from 1:00pm Sunday to 1:00am Monday EDT (GMT-4)(You need Registration Voucher = 2 pcs). If you want to do the quest every day, then it will cost 1 star. In my place it start at Monday 1am until 1pm. 😀 So me always do it before I go sleep hehehe… ^^Here I like to share about how enemy or monster battle guide, so you can get Read more


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Following a fiercely fought battle of several days, the Russians eventually finally evacuated Lemberg.
Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are not a subscriber, please click here to read about membership. All our articles have been written recently by experts in their field, more than 95% of them university professors.


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Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Take a Step Back in Time
If you want to participate in a truly unique event that remains the same today as it was 18 years ago when it began, give the Louis Reed Time Trial in Ripon a try.
It takes place Sunday, July 13, beginning at 8:15 a.m. at Barlow Park on the south side of Ripon. It is a 10-mile time trial. There is no entry fee.
Organized by Eric Westhagen, the Louis Reed Time Trial pays tribute to Ripon's bicycle hero of more than a century ago. Ripon hosted the state bicycle meet of the Wisconsin Division of the League of American Wheelmen in 1893 and 1894. The tournament was held on a horse track where Barlow Park is now located. Louis Reed, a Ripon College student, captured four state championship titles and broke a world record time at the 1894 state tournament.
According to Westhagen, the Louis Reed Time Trial is truly "the race for everybody, young and old, and of all abilities and equipment."
For more information, contact Eric Westhagen @ (920)346-8228 or email@example.com
1 comment:
- SwallowPoint said...
Thanks allot for the plug, Rick. The event will be at the same time and place this year, also. That second Sunday in July is JULY 12,2009.
- July 1, 2009 at 5:45 PM
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DownTester is a useful freeware software, which will allow you to test your download speeds, to verify if you are getting as much as you have been promised.Read More
Zamzar one of our favorite online file converter has just added a new feature where users can now convert text, documents and PDF files to MP3 files, making use of the a new feature which allows for text to speech conversionRead More
Skype Call Recorder is a freeware application which which automatically recorders all your Skype conversations and conferences. It saves Skype conversations in compact and widely used format – mp3 files. This tool records P2P Skype calls, SkypeOut calls, as well as calls to Skype Online number. After installing, Skype Call Recorder sits in the system […]Read More
Twitter has the reputation of providing real-time updates for several events and incidents alike, making it very important for getting the latest updates for any ongoing events or incidents, the Mumbai terrorist attacks and the recent Hudson river landing are some of the incidents that were picked up by twitter earlier than any other news […]Read More
Wikipedia is the internet's biggest encyclopedia and you can find articles for almost anything in it, this people driven encyclopedia has millions of articles, many of which we have quoted here in the past. However unlike other popular websites, wikipedia does not have any trending stats, telling users which articles are popular and getting more […]Read More
Google search is smart enough to quickly alert authorities and track flu trends, whenever there is bout of diseases going around a certain area based on the searches, however as a consumer, you too can track, if there are any major diseases or epidemics going around in your city, with the help of a new […]Read More
Every once in a while you may want to reset your router to factory settings, or go to the administration panel of the router to check on the settings or secure your wireless setup, however more often than not, users do not remember their routers password. Each and every router has a default username and […]Read More
Have you ever received a RAR, ZIP or 7z file and have not had any software to unzip or extract the files from those archives to your computer? If you have come across such situations, you can unzip or extract the archives by using a online service called Wobzip, which lets you uncompress files on […]Read More
Quite sometime back we had told you about a service that allowed you to create flowcharts online, this service though was only limited to creating Flowcharts. However another interesting service called Lovely Charts fills in the void allowing users to create Flowcharts, sitemaps, network diagrams, people diagrams, wireframes and more.Read More
Color combinations go a long way in the making of a website design, and there are several times when you come across websites that make use of pretty good colors. Users usually use a color picker tool to get the color codes for a color they like. However there is a much more easier way […]Read More
Quite sometime back we had told you, how you could use Google Calendar to get SMS reminders for your tasks and appointments, however we came across a really keep it simple stupid service that will allow you to setup reminders for tasks you may forget. Remindr is a new service which offers just what its […]Read More
There are tons of social networking sites, but with that there are several users who use the same username you want to signup with the service. The problem is pretty much a everyday issue for many users. So just as you are about to signup for a social networking service, you see a error message […]Read More
SpokenText is a free online service that will allow you to create free text to speech recordings, the recordings can then be easily be downloaded in different formats and used in podcasts. SpokenText allows you to convert text, word documents, PDF files, webpages or even a email to spoken text. There are several options provided […]Read More
Following is a guest post by Praval who is a freelance writer/blogger and works for Uswaretech, a Django Consulting shop as a Web Evangelist and Online Marketer. Not even the creator of World Wide Web, Tim Berners- Lee, would have ever thought that his creation will lead to the formation of the biggest human communication […]Read More
Njouba is a latest search engine released by the founders of PDF Search Engine, the search engine provides users with a easy to use interface to find MP3 files, videos, images, FTP, Books, files on Rapidshare and torrents. The search engine does not host any files on their own and provides you web search results […]Read More


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More from the worlds of incipient libertarianism and absurdity:
- From our own Minnesota backyard, a resident of Mankato (small city about an hour south of Minneapolis) was fined and jailed for replacing shingles on his house without first removing the old ones.
- Here's the sequence: 1) Girl notices baby woodpecker in danger of being eaten by her family's cat; 2) girl rescues baby bird; 3) mother and daughter take bird with them into a Lowes store, fearing the heat in their car would kill it; 4) another shopper, an employee of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, tells them they violated federal law by transporting the bird, since the species of woodpecker is protected under the Federal Migratory Bird Act; 5) upon their return home, they release the bird, which flies away; and 6) two weeks later, the F&WS gal shows up at their home, accompanied by a state trooper, and attempts to serve a citation, which the mother refused to accept — the F&WS later mailed a notice to appear in U.S. District Court for unlawfully taking a migratory bird and was fined $535. If convicted, Capo could face up to a year behind bars. Fortunately, reason prevailed:
Virginia State Police just released the following statement:
"We have confirmed that the US Fish and Wildlife agent requested our presence when they served their federal summons. The trooper stood on the porch and said nothing. We had nothing to do with the charge."
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued this statement at around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, August 2nd:
"On June 13, a special agent with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service observed a woman carrying a cage that contained a woodpecker at a home improvement store in Fredericksburg Virg.
"As possession of a bird may potentially violate the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the agent initiated an inquiry to determine whether a potential violation had occurred.
"Upon speaking with the subject, later identified as Alison Capo, on June 27, the agent determined that no further action was warranted. A citation that had been previously drafted by the agent was cancelled on June 28.
"Unfortunately, the citation was processed unintentionally despite our office's request to cancel the ticket. The Service has contacted Ms. Capo to express our regret. The Service is also sending Ms. Capo a formal letter explain the clerical error and confirming that ticket should never have been issued.
"This misunderstanding was the result of a Service inquiry into possible violations of federal wildlife law. In particular the Service is responsible for the protection of all federally listed migratory birds. The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries did not participate in the inquiry."
- Think the recent budget deal accomplished something, like actual budget cuts? Think again. Read this, from the Cato Institute.
No program or agency terminations are identified in the deal. None of the vast armada of federal subsidies are targeted for elimination. Old folks will continue to gorge themselves on inflated benefits paid for by young families and future generations. None of Senator Tom Coburn's or Senator Rand Paul's specific cuts were included.
The federal government will still run a deficit of $1 trillion next year. This deal will "cut" the 2012 budget of $3.6 trillion by just $22 billion, or less than 1 percent.
- The man (and father of four) hired by the Catholic Church "to monitor church groups to ensure paedophiles did not gain access to children in the church's congregations" has been arrested. The charge? Possession of 4,000 pictures of child porn. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? How can you not love the man's audacity (while deploring his sickness and criminal depravity).
But, Speaking of Lemonade, Department
Radley Balko puts it succinctly:
Someone has (somewhat randomly) designated August 20 as National Lemonade Freedom Day.
Idea is to get your kids to set up a lemonade stand without a permit to teach them about bad laws, mindless bureaucracy, and civil disobedience. There's also a handy Google Maps ap that plots lemonade stand crackdowns around the country.
I will look around for lemonade stands on August 20 and buy some, sugars be damned.
Good Food Abounds Department
Patricia and I ate lunch yesterday at another great restaurant that's pretty close: Tilia in Linden Hills. Check out the menus — some imaginative fare there, and what we had was very tasty.
Again, our recent session.


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Duke Football BIO
71 Casey Blaser
2013: Played in two games, seeing action against Navy and N.C. State ... held out of action early in the season while recovering from surgery performed on August 15, 2013 to repair a broken right hand ... on the gridiron for 17 total snaps.
2012: Did not see game action.
PRIOR TO DUKE: Three-year letterman at South Mecklenburg under coach James Martin ... helped South Mecklenburg to consecutive state playoff appearances in 2010 and 2011 ... first team all-state pick by the Associated Press in 2011 ... graded out at 87 percent for senior campaign while serving as team captain ... first team All-Mecklenburg choice by the Charlotte Observer following senior season ... two-time All-Southwestern Conference selection ... helped North Carolina to a 26-19 win over South Carolina in the 75th annual Shrine Bowl on December 17, 2011 in Spartanburg, S.C.
PERSONAL: Son of Angie and Scott Blaser ... father played four seasons (1983-84-85-86) as an offensive lineman at Newberry College ... born January 5, 1994 ... majoring in sociology.
Casey Videos:
Duke Athletics Teams
Athletic Department
Get InvolvedIron Dukes
Junior Iron Dukes
Legacy Fund
Varsity Club
Young Iron Dukes


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Throughout my research I have often come across conflicts of interest that were so blatant, I nearly choked. Then after a while, I realized how common it is – that it has actually become the norm. Some of these instances are so glaring that it's hard to believe how visible it is for anyone to see – if they look that is and how would they know to do so? They wouldn't and that's the reason this boldness works – who would expect that a Bilderberger – a member of the most secret and powerful organization in the world – is an advisory council member of Transparency International? It's a joke right? Unfortunately, it's not and most of the well funded and significant watchdog, human rights, philanthropy and general do good organizations are full of outrageous conflicts of interest like this. It certainly explains why they've been so incredibly ineffective doesn't it?
If you're not familiar with the legendary Bilderberg Conference, here's a very short and to the point statement about why it's ludicrous to have a Bilderberger involved in oversight or transparency.
There are many other sources of information on the Bilderbergers because of course, any independent investigator wants to know what the most powerful and influential people in the world are discussing. The people gathering information on this group must be independent because the mainstream media doesn't cover this most news worthy organization. There have been leaked lists of attendees in the past and not surprisingly, several media publishers appear on the list.
This is a prime example of a hopelessly conflicted organization and it explains a lot:
POGO – Project on Government Oversight – One board member , David Burnham, was awarded a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship. Another board member, Ryan Alexander, was a program officer for the Rockefeller Family Fund and of course one of the major foundations supporting this organization is the Rockefeller Family Fund. David Rockefeller is a famous Bilderberger.
The two top donor organizations under 'Foundation Support' are listed as 'Anonymous' – this is for the Project for Oversight! There are many more conflicts including the donor Foundations themselves who should appear on their 'Investigations' page rather than the donor page for example: The Ford Foundation which is CIA affiliated. This is well documented and here's a good source of information on it:
On many of these Philanthropy and Humanitarian sites you inevitably come across Soros – the Open Society Foundation which is on this list for the POGO. Soros is a wealthy financier who supports organizations that ultimately serve his interests. He has been convicted of Insider Trading and here is more information on how he uses human rights organizations to his benefit:
Another name on this list I come across frequently in my research:
Carnegie Corporation of New York along with the Ploughshares Fund, which is a funder for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Confused yet? Unfortunately, it only gets worse. Looking up many of the other donor Foundations on this list, I discovered that many were funded by these same organizations. For example, The Connect U.S. Fund – on the website it says:
"The Connect U.S. Fund was created in 2004 and is supported by a donors' collaborative which presently includes the Open Society Foundations, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Ploughshares Fund."
The Arca Foundation, funds the Center for Economic & Policy Research which is also funded by Open Society, Rockefeller Family Fund and the Rockefellers Brothers Fund. Starting to see a pattern? The president of another donor – Colombe Foundation – is also the director of the Ploughshares fund. Do you think they might have similar political interests? The Colombe Foundation, Ploughshares, Carnegie & Ford Foundation all fund the Arms Control Association.
On the subject of Arms, the Ford Foundation, Carnegie Corp of NY and the Rockefeller Foundation have all funded the RAND Corporation – a U.S. Army contractor. There's much to say about this specialized 'think tank' but I'll borrow a short line from their wiki page:
"Since the 1950s, the RAND has been instrumental in defining U.S. military strategy."
Additional donors: William & Flora Hewlett Foundation and The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation both fund the ACA and the RAND Corporation. And yet another donor, the New-Land Foundation, funds the ACA. Pew Charitable Trusts funds the RAND Corporation and is funded by Foundation to Promote Open Society-Soros.
There are many more affiliations that I came across when looking into these foundations – I urge you to do this kind of research on any organization that you support in any way. Take a look at the board of directors and go from there. It's amazing to me what a perfect example this is of how perverse things have become. POGO is an organization whose purpose is to expose the very problems that they embody.
It's a recipe for corruption: An elite group of people using foundations and other so-called NGOs to influence government policy. This pattern is found everywhere and results in financial, political and corporate affiliations that create a shared agenda. This is how the bailouts happened and it is a sign of things to come. We don't make our laws – they do. This elite group who is consulting not with us regarding future legislation but with other powerful people who have shared goals.
What's it going to take for us to stop buying into this?


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BUSI 778 – 3 Credits
Course Description
The CIBER MBA International Consulting Course is a semester-long, international consulting engagement with clients who have contracted with the Robert H. Smith School of Business and our partner schools abroad (such as ORT University and Universidad de Montevideo in Uruguay) to receive management consulting services. The course kicks off with a one-day boot camp in which students will be introduced to critical consulting skills. In addition, a week-long program – including site visits to International Regulatory, Finance and Trade Organizations in Washington, D.C. – will be offered for international partner school students, and will also be optional and available to students in the CIBER International MBA Consulting Course.
The CIBER international consulting projects are offered in collaboration with the partner universities abroad in order to enable students to work across cultures; this results in a fuller understanding of international consulting as well as the beliefs and values held by multiple stakeholders, which will also stimulate novel insights and solutions.
The consulting engagements may cover a broad spectrum of issues in both the traditional functional areas such as finance, marketing, strategy and human resource management, logistics and transportation, and information technology, as well as cross-functional projects investigating, for example, the impact of leading edge information technology on business processes and client relationships in electronic commerce and supply chain management.
The CIBER International MBA Consulting Course affords second year MBA students the opportunity to hone a wide range of skills in a "living case" environment. While working on cross-cultural and cross-functional teams, students will accomplish the following:
- Define the project goals, deliverables, timelines, and processes with input from the client and a faculty advisor.
- Conduct appropriate investigation and analysis using a "systemic" perspective to add value and maximize client satisfaction while maintaining the highest standards of ethical and professional conduct.
- Apply new concepts, tools and frameworks that are being taught in the MBA curriculum and bring to bear knowledge and skills from past work experience and prior education.
- Develop team building and leadership skills (in a partly virtual environment).
- Deliver oral and written reports to the client.


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About POGO's Federal Contractor Misconduct Database (FCMD)
The government awards contracts to companies with histories of misconduct such as contract fraud and environmental, ethics, and labor violations. In the absence of a centralized federal database listing instances of misconduct, the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is providing such data. We believe that it will lead to improved contracting decisions and public access to information about how the government spends hundreds of billions of taxpayer money each year on goods and services. Report an instance of misconduct »
Ranking: 21
ITT Industries
ITT Industries, Inc. supplies advanced technology products and services in several markets: fluid and water management, including water treatment; defense communication, opto-electronics, information technology and services; and electronic interconnects and switches. In 2011, the company split into three distinct, publicly traded companies. Its defense segment spin-off company became ITT Exelis.
Federal Contract $: $3862.6m
Total Number of Instances: 6
Total Misconduct dollar amount: $ 109.7m
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- Website
Instances of Misconduct
1. Woodruff v. Goulds Pumps/ITT Industries (Worker's Compensation)
James Woodruff was an employee of Goulds Pumps when it was acquired by ITT Industries. After his retirement, he filed a claim for Workers Compensation through the New York Workers' Compensation Board because of hearing loss he had incurred on the job. The Board upheld Woodruff's claim for occupational hearing loss and held ITT Industries partly responsible for his compensation award.... more»
2. Illegally Exporting Secret Military Data Overseas (State Dept. Administrative Proceeding)
In an administrative proceeding, the U.S. State Department charged ITT Industries, acting through various subsidiaries, with violating the Arms Export Control Act and the Intermational Traffic in Arms Regulations in connection with the unauthorized export of night-vision products and space remote sensing technical data and defense services. Pursuant to a consent agreement, ITT agreed to pay a civil penalty of $8 million. See related ITT Industries instances, "Illegally Exporting Secret Military Data Overseas (Criminal Prosecution)" and "Illegally Exporting Secret Military Data Overseas (U.S. Army Compliance Agreement)."... more»
3. Bribery by Chinese Subsidiary
ITT Corp. and the Securities and Exchange Commission settled ITT's alleged violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) arising from payments its Chinese subsidiary, Nanjing Goulds Pumps Ltd. (NGP), made to Chinese government officials from 2001 through 2005 to influence the purchase of NGP water pumps. ITT, without admitting or denying the SEC's allegations, consented to the entry of a final judgment ordering the company to pay nearly $1.7 million in disgorgement, interest and civil penalties.... more»
4. Hazardous Waste Violations (Santa Ana, CA)
"Under the terms of a hazardous waste settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, electrical parts manufacturer ITT Industries must pay a $6,750 fine and fund a $25,400 project that will reduce chemical use and the amount of waste generated from its Santa Ana, Calif. plant, In January 2005, the EPA inspected the Santa Ana facility. Based upon a January 2005 inspection, the EPA alleges that ITT Industries committed the following hazardous waste violations: storing hazardous waste without a permit; failure to close containers of hazardous waste; failure to maintain adequate aisle space… ITT Industries has since rectified the violations".... more»
5. Illegally Exporting Secret Military Data Overseas (Criminal Prosecution)
ITT Corp. agreed in March 2007 to pay $100 million and plead guilty to criminal violations of the Arms Export Control Act for allowing the transfer to China of classified night-vision technology. ITT, the Defense Department's leading manufacturer of night vision goggles, was accused of shipping night-vision technology and components without export licenses to an unidentified Singapore-based contractor who then shipped the technology to a Chinese optics firm around 2001. The $100 million penalty included a $2 million criminal fine, a $50 million deferred prosecution penalty (which is tied to the development of advanced night-vision technology), the forfeiture of $28 million to the United States as the proceeds of its illegal actions, and a $20 million monetary penalty paid to the Department of State. As part of the plea agreement, ITT also entered into a deferred prosecution agreement as to two other criminal counts. The government will defer prosecution of those counts for five years in return for ITT accepting full responsibility for its illegal actions and successfully implementing a remedial action plan. See related ITT Industries instances, "Illegally Exporting Secret Military Data Overseas (State Dept. Administrative Proceeding)" and "Illegally Exporting Secret Military Data Overseas (U.S. Army Compliance Agreement)."... more»
6. Illegally Exporting Secret Military Data Overseas (Army Compliance Agreement)
The U.S. Army Suspension and Debarment Official (SDO), on behalf of the Army, executed an Administrative Compliance Agreement with ITT Corp. as a result of ITT's March 2007 guilty plea to violations of the Arms Export Control Act for allowing the transfer of classified night-vision technology to China. The agreement provides for Army oversight of ITT's internal control systems, government contracts and ethics training; requires ITT to periodically report to the Army Procurement Fraud Branch its progress in meeting specific contractor responsibility milestones; and appoints John S. Pachter, a government contracts lawyer who began his legal career in the 1960s with the Army, as an "Independent Monitor" to oversee the administration of the agreement. See related ITT Industries instances, " Illegally Exporting Secret Military Data Overseas (State Dept. Administrative Proceeding)" and Illegally Exporting Secret Military Data Overseas (Criminal Prosecution)."... more»


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Made for love, with love. Constructed of sterline silver, with a 22ct gold plating, The Love Lasso Ring by Zoe & Morgan!
Small - Ring Size L is approx 51mm inside circumferenceMedium - Ring Size N is approx 53.8mm inside circumferenceLarge - Ring Size O is approx 55mm inside circumference is approx 55mm.


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Young Goldie/Interscope
Song: All I Need
After today's dope slate of song releases, All I Need to make my afternoon perfect is a little steamy, bedroom-ready R&B. Well, I'm one lucky man, because Lloyd has chosen today to liberate his latest single.... More
Posted 11 months ago
Artist: Mally Mall
Song: Eat (Remix)
Life is full of difficult decisions: marriage, car insurance, school for your children, keeping your sheets clean when you have a bad girl in your bed. Well, Mally Mall is here to help you with that last one on a remixed... More
Posted one year ago
Artist: Jacquees
Featuring: Rich Homie Quan | Lloyd
Song: Feel It
Last August, Jacquees earned positive reader reviews for Won't Turn It Down, a promo cut designed to be blasted at high volume. Now, the Chris Breezy protégé is back on our pages with a new single and, if you enjoyed... More
Posted one year ago
Featuring: CyHi The Prynce
Song: Me & My Baby
Between getting it in and writing songs about getting it in, I'm surprised Lloyd even has time to eat and sleep. Central as lovemaking may be to his personal and professional life, however, the Young Goldie... More
Posted 2 years ago
Most of us will never know what it's like living the life of a R&B superstar, but luckily the always smooth Lloyd is giving us a look inside his life by opening up his Playboy Diaries. Featuring lead single Sexcapade, the... More
Posted 2 years ago
Featuring: Roscoe Dash
Song: Sexcapade
What's Lloyd been up to lately? Well, it should come as a surprise to roughly no one that the Young Goldie crooner's been having a ton of awesome sex. Not wanting to disappoint his fans, however, he's... More
Posted 2 years ago
Artist: Roscoe Dash
Featuring: Lloyd
Song: Zodiac Sign
What, precisely, is it that makes one relationship succeed, and the next crash and burn? While I'm going to go ahead and guess that the answer is not "the position of the moon and stars," the mechanisms involved are... More
Posted 2 years ago
With such a smooth title you have to admit that Future's Turn On The Lights was destined to be remixed by a R&B star and Atlanta crooner Lloyd has done just that with the Mike Will-produced track. The bouncy,... More
Posted 2 years ago
Sample Text - Sample Link


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Who all has today off?:)
Printable View
Who all has today off?:)
Not me.
From SNL 1999
Kevin Nealon: This Monday, America celebrates what would've been Martin Luther King's 63rd birthday. Most people will get the day off work, except the residents of Arizona who voted against the King holiday, more on this from SNL news correspondant Chris Rock.
Chris Rock: Now there's alot of talk about the people of Arizona being racist. So I went to see for myself, I went to Arizona and I'm walking through the streets of Tucson pushing my little baby brother in a stroller when a white woman comes up to the baby, smiles and says 'Boy what a pretty niglet.' Now if you don't like black people, that's one thing, but what I can't understand is why people in a hot-ass desert town like Tucson, Arizona wouldn't want a day off work. It's not like you have to do something black on that day. You don't have to ready Ebony magazine, you don't have to watch Soul Train, all you have to do is not work. Now if this was an Elvis holiday, they'd take that off. It would be like another Christmas. With big fat white guys coming down chimneys with Elvis jumpsuits on, giving out preyludes. Now, everybody doesn't get Martin Luther King's birthday off, even the states that celebrate, some people still have to work. Now one group that never have to work are prisoners. Criminals. Every ciminal in every jail get's the day off work, which means even James Earl Rey, the man who killed Martin Luther King get's the day off. He's so crazy, he's probably walking around prison saying, "Everybody get's the day off today and nobody even bothered to thank me. " Now what Arizona needs to do is give Dr. King somebody else's holiday. There are so many holidays we celebrate every year that mean nothing. Like Columbus Day. Nobody celebrates Columbus Day, nobody puts three ships in their front yard. First of all, Columbus discovered the West Indies. Second of all, the land he discovered had occupants on it. That's like discovering someone's back yard. All Columbus did was discover a West Indian back yard. He got his little flag and said "I claim this land for Spain." And the West Indians are like, "Hey, Mon, get your darn flag off me lawn now. Move it now!" So Arizona, get your act together and hail the King! Thank you very much.
Also, West Virginia is inaugurating their 34th governor, Joe Manchin, on MLK Day :thumbup:
Here in AZ we'll all be attending a mass KKK gathering at the State Capitol.
This year, we get off Columbus Day and work MLK day.
Next year, they switch (permanently).
Happy MLK day :)


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COLUMBUS – Monday was not the best of days for the Starkville 12-year-old all-star team. With the team only needing one win to put them in the Dizzy Dean championship game, Starkville lost a heartbreaker to Columbus 11-1.
To subscribe to the E-edition, please click here [3].
[1] http://www.starkvilledailynews.com/sites/default/files/baseball_21.jpg
[2] mailto:email@example.com
[3] http://www.starkvilledailynews.com/eedition


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Visit South America and travel through the best of Brazil
Travel to South America and visit Brazil on a journey through its beautiful interior. Discover the heart and soul of Brazil as you travel from the dramatic setting of Rio de Janeiro past the thundering waters of Iguazu Falls and on to the startling array of wildlife in the Pantanal wetlands. Experience the natural wonders and vibrant energy that this welcoming country is known for.
- Experience Brazil's electric energy in Rio de Janeiro
- Gaze into the gushing waters of Iguazu Falls
- Spot Brazil's wildlife in the Pantanal wetlands
- Spend a night snoozing in a hammock
- Sip caipirinhas in a Rio jazz bar
Day 1 Rio de Janeiro
Day 2-3 Iguazu Falls
Day 4-5 Bonito
Day 6-7 Pantanal
Day 8-9 Rio de Janeiro
Meals7 breakfasts, 2 lunches, 2 dinners
TransportOvernight bus, Plane
AccommodationCamping (with facilities) (2 nights), Hotel (5 nights), Overnight bus (1 night)
Included activities
- Iguazu Falls - Argentina side tour
- Iguazu Falls - Brazil side tour
- Orientation tour with your leader
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Important notes
Trip notes
Want an in-depth insight into this trip? Your trip notes provide a detailed itinerary, visa info, how to get to your hotel, what's included - pretty much everything you need to know about this adventure and more.View trip notes
Our Classic Brazil trips score an average of 3.91 out of 5 based on 11 reviews in the last year.
Classic Brazil , May 2015
Rachel Oakeshott
If you want to get a feel for Brazil and all the passion it offers this is the tour for you. Everything from city to jungle and more is provided with this fabulous tour. Iguassu is an absolute must for every Latin American traveller and the chance to see it from both Brazilian and Argentinian sides is wonderful. Thank you Fernanda - you made it very special and memorable for us.
Review submitted 03 Jun 2015
Classic Brazil , May 2015
wendy poulton
A convenient way to experience some diverse parts of Brazil's natural beauty up close.
Review submitted 31 May 2015


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Why Read This ReportIn the nine months since Apple's iPad hit the shelves, Forrester has conducted more than 200 conversations about iPads and tablets with clients through inquiries, one-on-one meetings at Forrester's Consumer Forum, and on-site advisory sessions. We've also conducted three consumer surveys in the US, and a survey of more than 2,300 technology decision-makers at enterprises and SMBs in North America and Europe. This document answers the most frequently asked questions we hear product strategists ask about iPads and tablets.
Tags: Application Development, Client Computing Hardware, Consumer Electronics & Technology, Consumer PCs, Enterprise Mobile Devices, Enterprise Mobility, Go-To-Market Strategies, IT Infrastructure & Operations, Product & Solutions Strategies, Smartphones & Mobile Phones, Tablets, Technology Product Strategies
US $499Add To Cart
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Get objective, pragmatic guidance that helps you make tough decisions and succeed in a complex world. Contact us to learn more.
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- 1. How do you define a tablet?
- 2. How does a tablet differ from a smartphone?
- 3. How does a tablet differ from a PC?
- 4. How will tablets affect PC sales?
- 5. Do we need an iPad app for our product/service/website?
- 6. If we don't build an app, what else should we do?
- 7. Which tablet platforms should we prioritize for development?
- 8. What's the potential for 7-inch tablets?
- 9. Which tablets will be the strongest competitors to iPad?


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Google acquired WIMM to boost smartwatch efforts — now it's Apple's turn
Janko has a nice scoop this afternoon, revealing it was Google, not Apple, that bought the WIMM assets a year or so ago.
In case you're not familiar with WIMM, the company had released a developer-centric smartwatch and then went dark, putting up a cryptic message about a strategic partnership.
Turns out that strategic partnership was likely Google.
With Samsung debuting its smartwatch, the Galaxy Gear, next week and Google now clearly in the game, it looks like it's going to get hot and heavy in the smartwatch space in the coming months.
So the question I have with all the impending action is, What exactly Apple will do? It's not one to follow with a me-too product, and instead it often tries to reinvent a market completely.
Well, here's the problem for Apple. There are going to be lots of innovative approaches, app platforms, and interfaces that are going to be exposed over the next few months around smartwatches, and the very fact that Apple has yet to show us anything could mean the company gets upstaged before it releases something. With each day that passes and potential new entrant, the pressure rises on Apple to produce something completely different.
Now, maybe it will. It has clearly done it before. But if it simply has something similar, say, to Pebble or the forthcoming Galaxy Gear, I think it will have a disappointed audience.
And really, when's the last time the company has debuted an entirely new product category and disappointed the market? A decade? More? I don't even know if I can name a the last disappointment they're so infrequent.
But with each day that passes, the company is seeing expectations rise for its entrance into the wearables space, and with all the big boys getting in before them, it will be interesting to see if they can deliver.


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|calendar>>August 28. 2014 Juche 103
History of Korean Youth Movement
|Pyongyang, August 28 (KCNA) -- The young people in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea have performed heroic feats, to be recorded in the history of the country, under the loving care of the great persons of Mt. Paektu.
After Korea's liberation from Japan's colonial rule, the young Koreans of all social standings rallied themselves around the Democratic Youth League of North Korea (at that time), a mass youth organization, under the slogan "Patriotic Youths, Unite under the Banner of Democracy!" advanced by President Kim Il Sung.
They devoted their efforts and wisdom to building a new country and laid down their lives unhesitatingly to defend the country in the Fatherland Liberation War (June 25, 1950-July 27, 1953).
After the war the youth of the DPRK took the lead in the postwar reconstruction and worked great feats in every period of the revolution and construction. They finished the Haeju-Hasong railway project in 75 days as well as the construction of Ichon-Sepho railway section in time.
Leader Kim Jong Il attached importance to the youth affairs and encouraged the young people to perform admirable feats for the country and the nation, putting forth such slogans as "Let Us Become Reliable Young Vanguard Faithful to the Workers' Party of Korea!" and "Love the Young People!".
Encouraged by his deep trust, the young people built a number of monumental edifices including the Youth Hero Motorway.
On January 26, Juche 101 (2012), Marshal Kim Jong Un sent the young people his autographic letter reading "Prosperous Tomorrow Will be Brought Earlier by Dynamic Footsteps of Youth. Always Straight Forward, Following the Party!" to encourage them to fully display the dignity of the great Paektusan nation.
Inspired by this letter, the young people in the country have taken the lead in creating the Korean speed in scientific researches, sports activities and all other fields.
They are now playing an important role in building a thriving nation under the deep care and trust of the Workers' Party of Korea and the leader.
Copyright (C) KOREA NEWS SERVICE(KNS) All Rights Reserved.


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|flights to Berlin£39.00
|flights to Hamburg£54.99
|flights to Cologne£23.40
|flights to Dusseldorf£28.36
|flights to Stuttgart£49.64
|flights to Hannover£49.64
|flights to Palma£56.73
|flights to Zurich£91.81
|flights to Vienna£56.73
Germanwings is Germany's low cost airline, and has been owned by Lufthansa since 2009. They offer three economy tiers so that passengers can customise their flight experience, a service which they refer to as 'a la carte flying.' The fares start with Basic, which is a no-frills service, and range up to Best which includes premium services such as free hold baggage and snacks. Germanwings flies to over 100 destinations throughout Europe and North Africa, and also handle Lufthansa's domestic service within Germany.
How to Check In
Germanwings allows online check-in between 72 and 3 hours before the flight is scheduled to depart. Travellers flying from a German airport can check-in half an hour before departure. You can also check-in via the Germanwings mobile app. If you have an iPhone this syncs with your Passbook app, meaning that you can access your boarding card offline. The pass will also appear on your phone's home screen one hour before boarding. Handy!
Baggage Allowance and Fees
If you're travelling on the cheap BASIC fare there is no baggage allowance, however you can bring one bag weighing up to 23kg for €15 and a second item for €75. Passengers flying on the SMART (some frills) fare can bring one bag weighing up to 23kg, and purchase a second back for €75. If you opt for the luxurious BEST fare, you can bring two bags weighing up to 23kg: and also have a reserved space in the overhead locker for hand luggage.
Seating – Leg Room, Choosing Seats
There's a fairly standard amount of legroom on Germanwings flights, with seat pitch measuring between 29" and 32". SMART and BEST passengers can reserve a seat free of charge, while BASIC passengers will have to pay a fee to select their own seat. Standard seats can be booked for €10, while extra legroom cost €18: and include a free snack and drink.
Booking Fees
There's a surcharge of €9.90 for credit card or Paypal bookings.
Meals, Snacks, Drinks
Snacks and drinks are available on board, with regional products on offer and a menu that changes each month. BEST passengers can have whatever they want from the menu for free, while SMART passengers are given a free snack, some water, a bar of chocolate, and a drink. BASIC passengers can purchase food and drink from the SkyBistro menu.
On-Time Punctuality
Germanwings is very punctual, with flights arriving and departing as scheduled 89.91% of the time.
|British Airways (BA) flights
|KLM flights
|Flybe flights
|easyJet flights
|Lufthansa flights
|Ryanair flights
|United flights
|American Airlines flights
|Delta flights
|Air France flights
|Aer Lingus flights
|Virgin Atlantic flights
|US Airways flights
|Turkish Airlines flights
|Thomson Airways flights
|Emirates flights
|SAS flights
|Air Canada flights
|Jet2 flights
|Swiss flights
|Aurigny flights
|Thomas Cook Airlines flights
|Norwegian flights
|Iberia flights
|Monarch flights
© Skyscanner Ltd 2002-2015


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New law removes sinkhole coverage in Pasco, Hernando
Robert Lorei
Radioactivity: Live Call-In (Tuesday) | Listen to this entire show:
In a few weeks, Hernando and Pasco customers of state-run Citizens Property Insurance will no longer have automatic standard sinkhole coverage. These consumers only will be guaranteed coverage in event of a "catastrophic ground cover collapse" that results in local governments condemning their property and ordering them to vacate.
Hernando and Pasco homeowners will have to pay extra if they want protection against partial sinkhole damage that doesn't make the home uninhabitable.
The change was made recently by Gov. Charlie Crist and the Legislature when they dealt with the homeownerâs insurance crisis.
Joining us to talk about this change: Ron Broadrick, president, Earth Tech Geotechnical Construction Services; James Funderburk, professional geologist; George Sinn, professional engineer with Central Florida Testing Laboratory.
For a consumer's perspective on this issue, click here.comments powered by Disqus


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Update of DrupalForFacebook.org
I've updated the DrupalForFacebook.org website to the latest version of both Drupal (7.x) and modules/fb (4.x).
The updated tour shows features of the latest version. And as always, this site is a live example. So when you click the facebook connect button at the top of this page, you're using Drupal for Facebook.
If for any reason you need to visit the old version of this site, it's still running, now at www.drupalforfacebook.org/d6. Please refer to that as a read-only site. If you want to post to the forums, please do so here.
If you notice any problems with the upgrade, please let me know. Thanks and enjoy Drupal for Facebook.
- Log in to post comments
Pedro Rocha
Sat, 04/05/2014 - 08:34
Hi Dave, just a small fix:
Hi Dave, just a small fix: the link on the "take the tour" at the main block is ponting to "/content/tour" instead of "/tour"(the link that works and is in the main menu).
Great project!
- Log in to post comments


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Sponsored Links
Game info
83170 plays
Date added: 2014-01-12
Description: Being loyal fans of Minecraft, you are not definitely strange to its creative, adventure and survival modes. Today, Miocraft inspired by the creative mode continues giving you a free environment for building everything, but it's predicted that there are also a lot of surprises here. Don't mind spending a few moments on exploring this wonderful game right away, players! It's revealed that the gameplay of Miocraft is fairly similar to that of the Minecraft creative mode in terms of basic goals. In fact, the players will not be obliged to follow and complete any particular target. Alternately, building every structure which they wish is the most interesting thing during the game. Now, let's mine blocks to gather materials, and then use these for the building process, players! Don't forget to take advantage of available resources at the bottom. Here we go!
Instructions: Use the arrow keys or the W, S, A and D keys for movement.
Use the spacebar to jump.
Use the R key to change weapons.
Use the mouse to hit and place blocks.
Use the number 1 and 2 keys to choose blocks.
Use the spacebar to jump.
Use the R key to change weapons.
Use the mouse to hit and place blocks.
Use the number 1 and 2 keys to choose blocks.
Log-in to add a comment
Ok (86) - 2014-03-30, 11:32CHATO TA TUDO ESCURO
Fabricio234 (667) - 2014-03-16, 17:01i mean who
AwsomKoala (48) - 2014-03-12, 11:59the bluddy game doesn't eaven wor for me
AwsomKoala (48) - 2014-03-12, 11:33THIS GAME is rlly RUBBISH!
Fabricio234 (667) - 2014-02-27, 20:31like
MinecraftKING88 (394) - 2014-02-24, 17:40nO I MEANT THAT I HAVENT SEEN A COMMENT BESIDES MINE FOR 3 DAYS
samurott (192) - 2014-02-24, 11:03even worse then the last 1 i commented on
i_perez (696) - 2014-02-23, 09:57lol


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5.0 Mustang & Super FordsHow To Interior Electrical
Fox Mustang Interior Restoration - Difference Makers
Capping Our Fox-Mustang Interior Restoration With A Series Of Small Parts Nets A Huge Improvement
Next up was a detailer. Thankfully Ford used simple one-step paints back in the Fox days-no clearcoat-and seemingly three quarters of those Foxes were black. Painters and detailers love black because it has more pigment than any other paint. Black goes all the way to the primer, so you can carefully cut off the top layer to expose a much fresher layer beneath. That's what our detailer did for us, starting with a 2,000-grit-sandpaper roughing, followed by buffing with rubbing compound, and finally waxing.
This requires a practiced hand, so don't shop this job strictly on price. A good job will take one man a long day at least, so plan on spending several hundred dollars. Also be aware that only so much that can be done by cutting paint. There is, after all, only so much paint on the car, and not much can be done about crazing or thin spots. The urethane bumpers and other soft spots can also pose problems. They will probably respond best to considerable hand-detailing with rubbing compound and wax.
If you're bucks down, this job is mainly labor-you can tackle it one fender per night in the garage. Some technique is required, and you really do want a good electric buffer for a job this big, but it's a place to save some money while growing your skills, if you're so inclined.
We're tickled with our results. Sure, there are some swirl marks from the compounding, and we spent another day with our Mother's gear, cleaning up little corners missed by the detailer, waxing the door jambs, hitting the plastic parts with spray protectants, and so on. But the transformation is incredible. The DOA paint is now showroom shiny and smooth-and we can still say it's original.


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Sales of general merchandising are forecast to have toiled in spite of aggressive discounting activity, including a "Mega Day" which offered 30% reductions on clothing on the Saturday before Christmas.
Although food sales are expected to have grown by 1.5% to 2% in the three months to the end of December, analysts anticipate that homeware and clothing will have fallen between 0.5% and 1.5%.
The figures are expected to heap pressure on chief executive Marc Bolland, who had pinned Marks' festive hopes on a revamped autumn/winter clothing range advertised by stars such as Helen Mirren.
So far Christmas has proved to be a mixed bag for UK retailers. Next, John Lewis and House of Fraser reported strong figures last week, while a profit warning was issued by Debenhams.
Tesco and Sainsbury's are expected to show it has been a tough Christmas for the "big four" supermarkets when they report this week. Analysts have pencilled in a 0.3% fall in like-for-like sales Sainsbury's, which would break its run of 35 quarters of growth, while sales at Tesco are forecast to have slid between 2% and 2.5% in the six weeks to January 4.
A survey by BDO found sales at mid-market retailers were down 2.2% in December compared with last year.


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Wednesday, 5 March 2014
Abandoning HS2 will not deliver alternative transport options for the North
Cancelling HS2 will leave the North without transport alternatives, says a new report welcomed by Leeds' transport chief.
The chair of Metro, Cllr James Lewis has welcomed a report by the High Speed Rail Industry Leaders Group, published yesterday, which argues that cancelling HS2 would see the North miss out on huge numbers of jobs and significant economic development.
The report claims that cancelling HS2 would not, as critics claim, leave the DfT with a huge fund to plough into alternative transport investment, but would instead see the majority of projected funding going to pay off national debt. The remaining funds would be insufficient to address the needs of the North's cities for increased capacity and connectivity.
The report puts paid to claims that the £42bn allocated to fund the major project, which will see a north-south high speed train line, would be better spent on regional transport projects. It highlights the need for a line to ease pressure on the aging West Coast and East Coast mainlines.
The report highlights the importance of Northern cities such as Leeds in boosting the UK's economic growth alongside London. Report lead Jim Steer, Director of Greengauge 21 said:
"Strong regional centres are essential for the UK's economic growth, creating a better balance with an economy that doesn't rely solely on the capital. This report shows that without HS2 our regional economies will not benefit from connectivity which would boost jobs, tourism and development in cities across the North."
The chair of Metro, Cllr James Lewis welcomed the report's findings, saying:
"HS2 affords Leeds and the wider city region with the opportunity to accelerate growth, create thousands of jobs and increase prosperity – on a scale we have never seen before. This new report supports the argument that HS2 is the only way to ensure that Leeds can continue its rapid development and continue to be one of the major driving forces behind the wider UK economy."
About the report:
The report, written by the High Speed Rail Industry Leaders Group, was published on Tuesday 4th March 2014. A copy of the report is available here: http://www.rail-leaders.com/wp-content/uploads/Great-Britain-Connected-or-Not.pdf
For media enquiries please contact:
Laura Ferris,
Leeds City Council press office,
Tel. 0113 2275472
Email email@example.com
Posted by Leeds City Council press office at 17:48
Apprentices and employers honoured at Leeds Apprenticeship Awards 2014
Caption: Winners of the Leeds Apprenticeship Awards on stage last night with Councillor Judith Blake (far left), deputy leader of Leeds City Council, Cllr Lucinda Yeadon, the council's executive member for leisure and skills, and Cllr Ron Grahame, lead member for employment and skills for the Inner East Area Committee (both far right)
Apprentices and employers enjoyed a night to remember at the Leeds Apprenticeship Awards.
At last night's (Tuesday's) prestigious ceremony, held at Leeds Civic Hall, ten local apprentices and four employers were recognised for the outstanding contribution they have made to the Leeds economy.
Now in their third year, the council-run awards welcomed His Royal Highness The Duke of York KG, who met a number of the nominees at a special reception ahead of the main ceremony.
The reception was part of The Duke's visit to the Leeds City Region, which was organised to encourage more small businesses to recruit apprentices.
Both the awards and The Duke's visit took place during National Apprenticeship Week, which runs from March 3-7.
Among last night's award-winners was 20 year-old Jasmine Cawkwell, who was named Higher Apprentice of the Year.
Jasmine, who works at local law firm Gordons LLP, was praised by the judging panel after her appointment to the Leeds Junior Lawyers division, a role which has never been performed by a non-solicitor before.
Joining Jasmine among the winners was Graham Walters, 22, an apprentice at engineering, IT and facilities firm NG Bailey, who was named an Advanced Apprentice of the Year.
Judges highlighted Graham's ability to take on tasks usually associated with more senior staff as well as his "fantastic personal skills".
Winners of the Intermediate Apprentice of the Year awards included Leeds City Council's Nathan Stevens, 20, who judges said had made a positive impression on everyone around him, and Sandinista Ltd's Tamsyn Barker, 21, who was recognised for her commitment and determination.
The awards also saw the city's small, medium and large employers honoured.
The Bright Screw Company Ltd were named Small Employer of the Year, along with Nexus Telecommunications Ltd.
Arena Group were awarded the tile of Medium Employer of the Year while Large Employer of the Year went to BAE Systems.
Speakers at the awards ceremony included Councillor Judith Blake, deputy leader of Leeds City Council, and Cllr Lucinda Yeadon, executive member for leisure and skills.
Speaking after the awards, Cllr Yeadon said:
"All our award-winners are shining examples of how hard work, passion and dedication can see young people accomplish their goals and be successful in whatever career they choose.
"I hope seeing what our apprentices and employers have accomplished here will encourage even more businesses and individuals in Leeds to get behind the apprenticeship programme both now and in the future."
For details about apprenticeships and opportunities in Leeds, visit www.leedspathways.org.uk/work
A video highlighting the benefits of apprentices for businesses in Leeds is available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qj5RaVM1mc
Full list of award-winners:
Intermediate Apprentice of the Year
-Holly Buxton
Gordons LLPTraining Provider - Chartered Institute of Legal Executives
-Paul Atkinson
Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust
Training Provider - Leeds City College
-Tamsyn Barker
Sandinista Ltd.
Training Provider - Leeds City College
-Edward Green
New Wortley Community Centre
Training Provider – ESG
Professional Creations Ltd.
Training Provider -Leeds City College
-Nathan Stevens
Leeds City Council
Training Provider - Harrogate College
NG Bailey
Training Provider - Leeds College of Building
-Lucy Paine
TelefonicaTraining Provider - Partnership Development Solutions Ltd.
-Jacob Saunders
Sulzer Pumps UK Ltd.
Training Provider – Appris
Higher Apprentice of the Year
Gordons LLP
Training Provider - Chartered Institute of Legal Executives
Small Employer of the Year
-The Bright Screw Company Ltd.
-Nexus Telecommunications Ltd.
Medium Employer of the Year
Large Employer of the Year
-BAE Systems
For more details, contact:
Stuart Robinson
Communications Officer
Leeds City Council
Tel: 0113 224 3937
Email: email@example.com
Posted by Leeds City Council press office at 14:25
Leeds Museums and Galleries chief to reveal favourite pieces from collections in new book
Caption: Pieces from collections chosen by Head of Leeds Museums and Galleries John Roles will feature in a new book.
A new book that will reveal which pieces from collections to grace the city over the years have been chosen by John Roles, head of Leeds Museums and Galleries as his own personal favourites, is to be published this month.
With over 30 years of experience in museums, John, who has been Head of Leeds Museums and Galleries since 2004, will reveal his own selection of appealing and interesting pieces from the council's collections, and provide a personal insight and commentary into the reasons why he chose them, as part of a new 'Director's Choice' series by publishers Scala. Also set to feature in this Director's Series includes 'Chatsworth by the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire', and 'Mauritshuis by Emilie Gordenker'.
With an estimated 1.3 million objects in its rich and diverse collections which have a reputation for their quality, depth and unique nature, John was faced with a number of difficult decisions when making his choices, as he considered displays which have graced sites across the city over the years.
John Roles, Head of Leeds Museums and Galleries said:
"It is a real privilege for me to be given this opportunity by Scala Publishing to select my own favourite pieces from the wonderful collections' which have featured at Leeds Museums and Galleries over the years. Making a decision on which pieces should be included was extremely difficult, and did result in a couple of sleepless nights!
"I hope people find the book an insightful and interesting read, and I look forward to hearing their thoughts on my choices, and questions as to why I left other collections out!"
Notes to editors:
Leeds Museums and Galleries cares for some of the finest collections in the country with their fine arts, decorative arts, natural history and industrial collections having been given Designated status by the government, because of their national or international significance.
Many of the objects and works of art featured in the book are on display across the city at Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds City Museum, Lotherton Hall, Kirkstall Abbey, Temple Newsam House, Abbey House Museum, Thwaite Mills Watermill and Leeds Industrial Museum at Armley Mills. Others are being cared for at Leeds Discovery Centre, the service's state of the art custom built museum store which is open to the public for tours on Thursdays.
The book Leeds Museums and Galleries – Directors Choice by John Roles will be published in March and available to buy from Leeds Museum and Galleries gift shops priced at £9.50.
Leeds Museums and Galleries is the largest local authority-run museum service in England and has one of the larger and most significant multidisciplinary collections in the UK.
Leeds museums and Galleries exists to collect, preserve and interpret historic, cultural and scientific collections and historic sites and use them as inspiration for educating, entertaining and inspiring the people of Leeds as well as visitors to the city.
For more information about the service and its nine attractions visit www.leeds.gov.uk/museumsandgalleries
For media enquiries, please contact;
Colin Dickinson, Leeds City Council press office (0113) 39 51578
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Posted by Leeds City Council press office at 10:31
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Assessment & Strategic Planning
Occupational Services
Some employers have purchased wellness programs expecting to see major changes in their workplaces and in the health of their employees. Only problem Is, while the program was being Implemented the organizational environment remained the same. More than likely, leaders and employees behaved the same and not much changed. If you're one of these companies, It's not too late to take a step backwards and reevaluate. That's where we come in.
In other cases, employers are on the verge of getting real about wellness and what it can mean for their companies. Instead of jumping into a program, we can help you build the foundation you need to make one successful. We provide assurance that our process will optimize the opportunity for your organization and lead to the results you are looking for.
We provide an objective evaluation of the current state of your company around wellness. The assessment includes:
- Senior leader interviews
- Stakeholder meeting
- Employee focus group
- Physical environment analysis
- Review of the company's history, culture, management style, wellness and claims experience
- A formal report with recommendations
Information gleaned from the Organizational Assessment drives the development of the Strategic Plan that will deliver the best results for your company over time. The plan Includes:
- Multi-year roll-out of communications and activities to engage, education and maximize participation
- Program and Incentive design
- Environmental enhancements
- Evaluation plan


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Red Hat Enterprise LinuxDesktop Server For Scientific Computing For IBM POWER For IBM System z For SAP Business Applications Red Hat Network Satellite Management
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Add-OnsExtended Update Support High Availability High Performance Network Load Balancer Resilient Storage Scalable File System Smart Management Extended Lifecycle Support
JBoss Enterprise MiddlewareWeb Server Developer Studio Portfolio Edition JBoss Operations Network FuseSource Integration Products Web Framework Kit Application Platform Data Grid Portal Platform SOA Platform Business Rules Management System (BRMS) Data Services Platform Messaging JBoss Community or JBoss enterprise
By IT challengeApplication development Business process management Enterprise application integration Interoperability Operational efficiency Security Virtualization
Migration CenterMigrate to Red Hat Enterprise Linux Systems management Upgrading to Red Hat Enterprise Linux JBoss Enterprise Middleware IBM AIX to Red Hat Enterprise Linux HP-UX to Red Hat Enterprise Linux Solaris to Red Hat Enterprise Linux UNIX to Red Hat Enterprise Linux Start a conversation with Red Hat Migration services
Courses and training pathsPopular and new courses JBoss Middleware Administration curriculum Core System Administration curriculum JBoss Middleware Development curriculum Advanced System Administration curriculum Linux Development curriculum Cloud Computing and Virtualization curriculum
IT Architecture and Design ServicesStandard Operating Environment (SOE) Strategic Migration Planning Service-oriented architecture (SOA) Enterprise Data Solutions Business Process Management
Issue #12 October 2005
- Adding encryption support to HAL: A user's experience with Fedora development
- Python programming on Linux
- Integrating your applications into the desktop, Part 1
- The state of Java on Linux
- Maintaining an autotools-enabled package
- Performance tuning with GCC, Part 2: Analyzing performance problems
- Using OProfile to analyze an RPM package build
- Remix culture comes to film at the Internet Archive
- Video: Red Hat and TSANet coordinate customer support
- Summit 2006: Not just country
- Video: Red Hat and BEA have no time for downtime
- Video: Red Hat Learning Services get real-world results
From the Inside
In each Issue
- Editor's blog
- Red Hat speaks
- Ask Shadowman
- Tips & tricks
- Fedora status report
- Magazine archive
- Contest
Performance tuning, Part 2: Analyzing performance problems
by Diego Novillo
This is the second of a two-part series about performance tuning. [Refer to Performance Tuning with GCC, Part 1.] Previously, we discussed some of the more common flags available in GCC to select various optimizations. We now turn our attention to performance analysis tools that will help you make sure you are getting the most performance out of your code.
One fundamental fact to always keep in mind when tuning for performance is that compiler optimization is not a silver bullet. Blindly adding different optimization flags hoping for some black magic to make your program faster is usually a recipe for frustration. In most cases performance problems are actually algorithmic. If you choose a bad sorting algorithm, for instance, no combination of compiler flags will be able to fix it (short of a pattern matching the bad algorithm and replacing it with another one).
Furthermore, one of the current hot topics in compiler optimization
research circles is the problem of bad interactions between different
transformations. The compiler takes your code through a pipeline of
more than 100 transformations. Changes made by one of them may impact
negatively on another one, in sometimes seemingly random ways. So,
adding a whole bunch of different
-f flags may do more
harm than good.
The very first goal in performance tuning is to determine what to fix. So, you need tools to analyze the execution of the program. This will provide information on how resources are being used, which will hopefully lead you to the appropriate fix. In an ideal situation, the fix may well be a compiler flag. However, more often than not, changes to the program will be necessary.
When measuring performance, the metric we usually care about is how long it takes for the program to execute. But in a multitasking environment, there are many factors outside your program that may affect its performance. The system may be running low on memory and swapping too much, other higher priority tasks may be running, your program may be trying to use a device in high demand, etc.
So, when talking about timing your application, there are three different times to distinguish:
- The time spent executing your code (user time). If your program is CPU intensive then this is the time you will be trying to minimize.
The time spent by the system executing on behalf of your code
(system time). It essentially measures how
long the kernel spent executing services for your program
write, etc).
- The total time elapsed during execution (wall clock time). Ultimately, this is the time that most matters to you, but it is an amalgamation of several other factors, so it can be misleading. The same application running under a loaded system will take a lot longer than in a mostly idle system. So, when analyzing your code for performance problems, wall clock time should rarely be the focus of your attention.
Measuring time
The simplest way to measure how long your program takes to run is the
time utility:
time ./my-prog
If you are using
bash as your shell, you will see
something like this:
[ ... program output ... ] real 0m8.233s user 0m7.583s sys 0m0.412s
This means that the program executed for a total of 8.23 seconds, out
of which 7.58 were spent executing your code. The system spent 0.41
seconds executing system calls made inside
Notice that the numbers do not seem to add up. What's missing is all
the other activities that go on behind the scenes when the system
executes a program (loading time, context switching, memory
management, etc).
This output tells you that
my-prog is fairly CPU
intensive, so if you are having performance problems, they will most
certainly be in your code or in the libraries used by your code. On
the other hand, a program that makes a lot of system calls may show
something like this:
[ ... program output ... ] real 0m20.081s user 0m2.431s sys 0m17.580s
This particular output came from a program that opens a file, writes to it, and closes it again 3,000,000 times. Notice how the program is now spending 87% of its time making system calls. If we now make the simple change of not opening and closing the file inside the loop.
[ ... program output ... ] real 0m8.467s user 0m1.127s sys 0m7.257s
While we haven't changed the profile of the program (it still spends an inordinate amount of time in the system), we have reduced its runtime quite a bit. Granted, these are rather contrived examples, but they do happen.
Knowing how long the program takes to run is obviously not enough to pinpoint hot spots. You also need to know exactly where the problems occur. There are several mechanisms available, each will have its own innate advantages and shortcomings. It depends greatly on the nature of your application (size, use of external libraries, etc).
Inserting probes in your code
You can get timing information from inside your program by calling one
of a family of timer functions:
getrusage, and
clock. They all return
the amount of time used by the program so far, so the idea is to
insert them as calipers in your code. The first one before entering
the code you want to measure and the second one at the end. For
instance, using
#include <sys/times.h>
compute ()
struct tms t1, t2;
clock_t ut_elapsed, st_elapsed;
times (&t1);
/* Do work */
times (&t2);
ut_elapsed = t2.tms_utime - t1.tms_utime;
st_elapsed = t2.tms_stime - t1.tms_stime;
times and
getrusage are fairly
accurate, while
clock returns only an approximation.
Furthermore, with
getrusage you can obtain more
information besides timing. It also returns generic resource usage
information like memory usage, swap activity, input/output operations,
These functions are useful in situations where modifications to the source are manageable. Typically this means that you are familiar with the code and know which sections you are interested in monitoring. Not surprisingly, this is not often the case. Usually, all one knows is that the program is misbehaving. It would be impractical to add timer calls haphazardly in a large program just to guess where the problem may be. For this, we have profiling tools.
A profiler will automatically collect timing information as your program executes. At the end, all the collected information is aggregated and presented for analysis. There are three popular choices in this area: GProf, OProfile and Valgrind.
This is the traditional profiling tool in UNIX® environments. It
requires the help of the compiler to insert probes in the code. The
theory of operation here is that the compiler inserts timing probes at
every function as it compiles your program. When the program runs,
the probing code generates timing information into a special file,
which can then be analyzed with
To use
- Enable profile code generation with
-pg. This asks the compiler to insert timing probes in every function. Notice that it is not necessary to recompile every file in your application, only those that you want to instrument. It is also important to specify
-pgwhen you are compiling each individual file and when you are linking the final binary. Otherwise, the runtime libraries used by
gprofwill not be linked in.
- Run the application as you would normally do. The new
code inserted by the compiler will write out timing information to a
file named
gmon.out. You should expect your program to run a bit slower, but the overhead is usually not too unpleasant.
- Use
gprofto analyze the file
gmon.out. The default report provided by
gprofis fairly verbose but it is also easy to understand.
As an example, we will use a small application that just eats up CPU time by doing repeated matrix multiplications. To get a binary instrumented with profiling code, execute the following commands:
gcc -pg -O2 -o matmul matmul.c
gprof ./matmul
To produce the following output:
Flat profile: Each sample counts as 0.01 seconds. % cumulative self self total time seconds seconds calls s/call s/call name 100.12 443.81 443.81 24 18.49 18.49 matMult 0.00 443.81 0.00 4 0.00 0.00 timeconversion 0.00 443.81 0.00 1 0.00 0.00 RunStats [ ... Detailed explanation of each column ... ] Call graph (explanation follows) granularity: each sample hit covers 2 byte(s) for 0.00% of 443.81 seconds index % time self children called name 443.81 0.00 24/24 cpuHog [2] [1] 100.0 443.81 0.00 24 matMult [1] ----------------------------------------------- [2] 100.0 0.00 443.81 cpuHog [2] 443.81 0.00 24/24 matMult [1] ----------------------------------------------- [ ... Detailed explanation of each column ... ]
The report is split in two sections. The first one shows a flat ranking of all the functions called, how much total time was spent in the function, how many calls were made to it, etc. The functions at the top of this list are the ones that you want to focus on. Improving the performance of these functions will give you the best returns. Trying to improve functions that do not show up high in this list are just not worth worrying about (of course, this assumes that you are looking at CPU usage).
The second chart, sometimes called a "butterfly" chart, is a call
graph that shows functions ranked by CPU usage together with their
callers and callees. So, for function
matMult ranked in
the first position, the names above it are the callers to
matMult (in this case
cpuHog). If the
function makes any other calls, they are listed below it.
One of the nice things about
gprof is that it is
available almost everywhere. Since it modifies the source code and
uses generic timer calls (roughly what you would do if you were
instrumenting the code yourself), it does not need special hardware
support. This also works against it, though. Since it does require
recompiling your code and works at a fairly coarse granularity, it is
not usable in every situation. In those cases, Valgrind or OProfile
may be better suited.
Valgrind is a program that emulates the x86 instruction set and runs the application under its control. The system is split into a core module that does all the emulation and a set of add-on modules that provide various profiling services: checking for memory references, a cache profiler, a heap profiler, and a data race detector for multi-threaded applications.
While Valgrind will not provide direct timing information about your application, it may give you hints on what could be going on. For instance, when using the cache profiler, you may find that your program is causing a lot of cache misses. Rearranging your data to improve cache locality would probably boost the performance of your application.
For instance, going back to the matrix multiplication program, we can
valgrind to show cache utilization statistics after
compiling with
gcc -O2 matmul.c -o matmul
valgrind --tool=cachegrind ./hog -cpu 1
The output is as follows:
[ ... program output ... ] ==9811== ==9811== I refs: 10,449,449,620 ==9811== I1 misses: 1,715 ==9811== L2i misses: 998 ==9811== I1 miss rate: 0.0% ==9811== L2i miss rate: 0.0% ==9811== ==9811== D refs: 7,987,098,008 (7,606,832,264 rd + 380,265,744 wr) ==9811== D1 misses: 366,400,427 ( 364,930,098 rd + 1,470,329 wr) ==9811== L2d misses: 22,052,577 ( 21,958,898 rd + 93,679 wr) ==9811== D1 miss rate: 4.5% ( 4.7% + 0.3% ) ==9811== L2d miss rate: 0.2% ( 0.2% + 0.0% ) ==9811== ==9811== L2 refs: 366,402,142 ( 364,931,813 rd + 1,470,329 wr) ==9811== L2 misses: 22,053,575 ( 21,959,896 rd + 93,679 wr) ==9811== L2 miss rate: 0.1% ( 0.1% + 0.0% )
Valgrind shows information about the instruction and data cache references for both instruction (I, I1) and data caches (D1, L2d). This information is highly specific to the architecture, of course.
While Valgrind can provide fairly detailed information about the program, it can be extremely slow. Since it emulates and instruments every instruction executed by the program, it may take 20x longer or more to execute. If your application is already slow, the added overhead may be prohibitive.
Perhaps one of the more useful features of Valgrind are
its memory checking tools. When you invoke it with
--tool=memcheck, it will report any out-of-bounds memory
references and memory leaks. Valgrind is also flexible enough that
you can write your own analysis modules. However, it is highly
architecture specific. Currently it has been ported to x86, ppc, and
x86_64 architectures.
Valgrind comes standard with recent Fedora™ Core distributions and it can also be downloaded from http://valgrind.org/.
OProfile is different from the other profiling tools. Instead of working on a single application, OProfile collects system-wide timing information. It does not require modifications to the source code nor does it emulate the instruction set. It uses hardware counters to collect profiling information. Basically, modern CPUs have a set of registers that just count events like instructions executed or cache misses. Whenever these counters overflow, an interrupt is triggered which is caught by OProfile, which records it together with information about the current state of the CPU registers.
OProfile outputs data about samples because that's what it does. It samples the specified hardware counters, and that's the information it gives you. You have to specify which particular counter you are interested in when you start OProfile.
All this collected information can then be retrieved. In particular, one of the saved registers is the program counter. In its most basic usage, when you ask OProfile to display profiling information, it will show a list of all the applications that were running in the system since it started collecting data. Going back to our matrix multiplication application:
sudo opcontrol --no-vmlinux$
sudo opcontrol --startUsing 2.6+ OProfile kernel interface. Using log file /var/lib/oprofile/oprofiled.log Daemon started. Profiler running. $
./matmult -cpu 45[ ... ] $
sudo opcontrol --stopStopping profiling. $
opreport -l ./matmultCPU: P4 / Xeon with 2 hyper-threads, speed 2993.46 MHz (estimated) Counted GLOBAL_POWER_EVENTS events (time during which processor is not stopped) with a unit mask of 0x01 (mandatory) count 100000 samples % symbol name 1981120 99.9890 matMult 215 0.0109 .plt 2 1.0e-04 cpuHog
You may have noticed that OProfile needs a bit more preparation than
the other profilers we've seen. The reason for this is that OProfile
is a system-wide daemon, so you will need root access to
use it. However, the reporting tool,
opreport, can be
used by any user.
Also notice that we had to specify the name of the binary that we wanted to see. Otherwise, OProfile will display information about all the applications running at the time:
CPU: P4 / Xeon with 2 hyper-threads, speed 2993.46 MHz (estimated) Counted GLOBAL_POWER_EVENTS events (time during which processor is not stopped) with a unit mask of 0x01 (mandatory) count 100000 GLOBAL_POWER_E...| samples| %| ------------------ 2145332 38.3077 no-vmlinux 1981337 35.3793 hog 427801 7.6389 libperl.so 244002 4.3570 libc-2.3.5.so 172337 3.0773 vmware-vmx 126713 2.2626 libqt-mt.so.3.3.4 74947 1.3383 Xorg 55229 0.9862 oprofiled 49886 0.8908 libgklayout.so 35876 0.6406 libpthread-2.3.5.so
OProfile is a fairly powerful tool that can help you analyze performance problems that go beyond a single application. For instance, if your application is causing significant kernel activity inside a specific driver, the profile listing will include those modules in the kernel that are being used by your code. Moreover, since it is based on hardware performance counters, it incurs in very little overhead, so it is quite possible to have it running constantly without any noticeable slowdowns.
You will find more detailed information about OProfile in this month's article Using OProfile to analyze an RPM package build. It also comes standard in Fedora™ Core and Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® distributions. For additional information, visit the OProfile project home page.
Tuning your application to perform better is rarely a matter of adding a few obscure set of compiler flags to your Makefiles. Compiler transformations are limited to mechanical changes that are not only limited by strict semantic preservation guidelines, they are also not particularly smart. If your program requires an algorithmic change, no compiler in the world will be able to rewrite that for you.
Most of the time you will be examining your program for hot spots, and
it is important to know what tools can help you. The tools we
discussed in this article will help you isolate problems in CPU-bound
applications. If your application is I/O bound or makes lots of
system calls, then OProfile will probably do a good job at telling you
which OS module is being hit the most. Other tools like
strace (system call tracer) and
ltrace (library call tracer) are also worth exploring.