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Talks about Shelby County municipal schools end; judge's ruling requested
Mediation talks over new municipal school districts ended without agreement Friday, and the sides now expect U.S. Dist. Judge Samuel "Hardy" Mays to issue a ruling next week on the constitutionality of the state laws that enabled Shelby County suburbs to pursue separate districts.
"We just came to a consensus that we weren't going anywhere, we were deadlocked and that we would go ahead and let the judge make his ruling on the first part of the case," said Bartlett Mayor Keith McDonald.
Shelby County Commission member Walter Bailey and chairman Mike Ritz, a Germantown resident, each said they approached the talks "in good faith" and remained open to engaging with the state and suburbs in the future.
"When we began the negotiations, we thought the parties were awfully far apart, but we wanted to try," Ritz said. "We'll see how the judge rules, and whichever side wins or loses, we will move on from there."
Mays has planned some time off beginning next week, and those familiar with the talks said the judge indicated he would issue a ruling early next week.
The commission, city of Memphis and Memphis City Council want the judge to strike down a provision in a 2011 schools merger law that allows for the lifting of the statewide ban on new municipal school districts (MSDs) in circumstances that currently only apply in Shelby County.
They also want the judge to declare as unconstitutional subsequent 2012 laws that enabled suburban municipalities Arlington, Bartlett, Collierville, Germantown, Lakeland and Millington to overwhelmingly approve new school districts in August referendums.
The suburbs have fought the schools consolidation that will result from Memphis City Schools transferring its operations to suburban Shelby County Schools after this school year; the case landed in federal court with a 2011 lawsuit by suburban interests aimed at thwarting that forced consolidation.
Mays presided over a trial in September on state constitutional challenges to the new municipal school district laws, and attorneys are busy filing arguments and lining up expert witnesses for a Jan. 3 trial over whether the laws will lead to more segregated public schools in the county and violate federal civil rights provisions.
Mays has made it clear that, if he finds the laws unconstitutional, he will not hesitate to nullify the referendums and the Nov. 6 municipal school board elections that are set to be certified on Monday by the Shelby County Election Commission.
Talks commenced Monday, with the sides agreeing to further discussions on Wednesday, but with smaller groups of representatives. Bartlett Mayor McDonald, along with mayors Sharon Goldsworthy of Germantown and Mike Wissman of Arlington, also a member of the unified school board, represented the suburbs, along with attorney Nathan Bicks of the firm Burch Porter & Johnson. The County Commission was represented by commissioners Steve Mulroy and Walter Bailey, both lawyers, along with Leo Bearman, a lead attorney for the Baker Donelson law firm.
The state, also a party in the case, was represented by Kevin Steiling and Ross Dyer from state Atty. Gen. Bob Cooper's staff, and Stephen Smith, assistant commissioner from the state Department of Education.
The sides agreed to return to the table Friday morning, but agreed after an hour that further discussions were futile and informed Mays they would wait for his ruling.
"They never pushed for anything except saying they couldn't basically give us autonomy," McDonald said of the County Commission's side. He said based on the overwhelming votes from suburban residents for municipal schools, the outlying leaders didn't believe they could give much ground, saying "local control definitely was" a strong position for the suburbs.
Former Memphis City Schools board president Martavius Jones was not involved in the mediation talks but said he and others opposed any concession on the key constitutional question of whether the Shelby suburbs would be receiving a privilege unavailable to other municipalities in the state.
"I would just be totally surprised if the judge finds it constitutional," Jones said.
Mays could uphold the 2011 provision allowing the statewide ban to be lifted on new municipal school districts in Shelby County, but strike down the 2012 laws that enabled the referendums and school board elections to occur this year rather than after the Memphis City Schools-Shelby County Schools merger is complete in July of 2013.
Most involved said Mays offered no hints on which way he is leaning.
"I'm sure if you talk to their side, they probably feel confident in their case," said Wissman, the Arlington mayor and unified school board member. "If you talk to our side, we feel pretty confident in ours.
"There's no way in heck I want to try and predict what the judge is going to do."
Mays, appointed by President George W. Bush in 2002, was a fixture in Shelby County Republican politics before serving as gubernatorial chief of staff for former Republican Gov. Don Sundquist.
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The system provides a way to use a single RF channel in a cellular, RF meter reading system. In order to avoid adjacent cell concentrator interference while reducing the overall time required to perform repetitive tasks such as meter reading and performing load survey reads, the system has each of the concentrators send out a general command to all of the meter interface units ("MIUs") in its cell, and the MIUs then each send back their data in turn. In order to accomplish that result, the MIUs in each cell are preprogrammed to transmit a preset time period (different for each MIU in a particular cell) following receipt of the general command requesting data.
1. A cellular based, fixed network AMR system which comprises:
(a) a plurality of concentrator units which are each located in a fixed position;
(b) at least two cells, each containing a concentrator unit which is able to use RF communications to transmit to meter interface units ("MIUs") within the cell and to receive RF communications from MIUs within the cell;
(c) means within each of said MIUs for transmitting data to said concentrator unit in said cell in a serial fashion such that upon receipt by said MIUs of a command from the concentrator unit within said cell to transmit data, each of said MIUs will transmit its data to said concentrator serially, each of said MIUs transmitting its respective data in a predefined time slot, such that only one of said is in each cell is transmitting its data at any time and;
(d) means associated with each of said concentrators for sending a unique number to each of said MIUs, said unique number being representative of how long each of said MIUs should wait before transmitting a reply to a general request for data transmitted by said concentrator, said unique numbers being selected to provide each of said MIUs with a time period for transmission which is at least as great as the time required by that MIU to transmit its data to said concentrator and to insure that each of said time periods further includes additional guard time, thereby preventing MIUs which are adjacent in transmission time from interfering with each other's transmissions;
whereby more than one MIU is able to respond to a single request for data from said concentrator without need for said concentrator to make more than one call for such data.
2. The cellular based, fixed network AMR system of claim 1 wherein each of said MIUs comprises means for retaining data which is representative of the time following the transmission of said general command to transmit data by said concentrator for each of said MIUs to send its respective data to said concentrator, whereby each MIU waits for its assigned time slot to respond to said concentrator, so only one of said MIUs in each said cell will be responding to said generalized command to transmit data at any time.
3. The cellular based, fixed network AMR system of claim 2 wherein said means for retaining data in each of said MIUs comprises a programmable read only memory within each of said MIUs.
4. The cellular based, fixed network AMR system of claim 1 wherein each of said MIUs comprises means for receiving said unique number and means for storing said unique number.
5. The cellular based, fixed network AMR system of claim 4 wherein said means for storing said unique number comprises a non-volatile memory.
6. In a cellular based, fixed network AMR system of the type comprising:
(a) a plurality of cells, each having a concentrator unit therein; and
(b) a plurality of MIUs within each of said cells, means associated with each of said concentrators for sending a unique number to each of said MIUs, said unique number being representative of how long each of said MIUs should wait before transmitting a reply to a general request for data transmitted by said concentrator, said unique numbers being selected to provide each of said MIUs with a time period for transmission which is at least as great as the time required by that MIU to transmit its data to said concentrator and to insure that each of said time periods further includes additional guard time, thereby preventing MIUs which are adjacent in transmission time from interfering with each other's transmissions and means contained within each said MIU for serially responding to an individual request for data which is transmitted by said concentrator, whereby a plurality of MIUs will each respond to a single request for data from said concentrator, with each of said MIUs responding only within a predetermined time slot associated with that particular MIU.
7. The cellular based, fixed network AMR system of claim 6 wherein said means contained within each said MIU for serially responding to a request for data which is transmitted by said concentrator is comprised of a non-volatile memory.
8. The cellular based, fixed network AMR system of claim 7 wherein said concentrator includes means for transmitting data to each said MIU in the concentrator's cell for identifying to each said MIU when it should serially respond to a request for data which is transmitted by said concentrator.
The present invention relates to automatic and remote meter reading systems, of the type used in the utility industry. In particular, the invention relates to radio frequency ("RF") systems used to communicate with metering devices of the type used in the utility (i.e., gas, water, electricity, and heat) industries.
Heretofore, devices of various types have been used for automatic meter reading ("AMIR") and for Remote Meter Reading ("RMR") by RF means. Such devices have included handheld reader/programmers, vans which contain RF reading equipment, and fixed RF network systems, together with computerized equipment for reading and storing meter readings. The prior art devices operated both in an unlicensed mode and on licensed RF channels.
As used herein, the various types of RF systems will be referred to as being of type Class 1, which means that the RF equipment is full duplex; Class 2, which means that it is half-duplex; Class 3, which means that it is a so-called one and one-half way system; and Class 4, which means that it is a one-way system. By way of example, a battery operated RF system of the type which was heretofore used to read gas utility meters required that the equipment go to "sleep" between reads in order to conserve battery power. When a van passed through the area, it sent out a "wake-up" signal which caused the Encoder/Receiver/Transmitters (i.e., the ERTs) in the area to respond by transmitting encoded signals containing the metering data and any stored tamper signals. Using the above definitions, these ERT units were Class 3 devices. When similar devices were introduced into the electricity industry by companies like Schlumberger Industries, Inc., they were changed from battery operation to AC operation in order to take advantage of the fact that electric power was available. Initially, such devices as the Schlumberger R-200 operated with a "wake-up" signal from the van, and that signal caused the R-200 ERT to send out the encoded signals to the van in a Class 3 mode. Later devices, such as the Schlumberger R-300 Encoder/Transmitter, made use of the available AC power to continuously transmit without the need for a "wake-up" signal, i.e., they operated in a Class 4 mode.
A limitation of the foregoing devices, however, is that either Class 3 or Class 4 operation is limited to AMR applications, i.e., they can be used to encode and transmit metering data, but as they are not two-way systems, they cannot be used for a variety of applications in which utilities have expressed interest.
By way of example, utilities use AMR systems in order to allow for timely reads of customer's meters on a scheduled and/or demand basis, without requiring access to the customer premises. However, in Class 3 and Class 4 operation these applications are of limited use as either a van or a meter reader with a handheld RF meter reader must be sent out to the area where the meters are located, due to the relatively short range of the RF transmissions. Due to the increasing demand for new features, such as outage detection reporting, tamper detection, remote disconnect, and other distribution automation and demand side management ("DA/DSM") applications, two-way systems (i.e., Class 1 or Class 2), in which specific meters can be addressed and can respond, have been desirable.
While such two-way systems could be developed using the same type of van or handheld technology, it makes more sense to develop fixed network two-way systems, so that a request to read a particular meter from a central office would not require that anyone be dispatched to the area by van (or with a handheld) to actually read the meter. Due to the cost of fixed network systems, there has been a continued demand to support functions other than basic meter reading and to support a large number of different metering devices, i.e., electric, water, gas, and heat metering devices, as well as a large number of meters, in order to help spread the cost of the fixed network.
An approach which has been taken in fixed network systems is to use a cellular arrangement of "concentrators" which can communicate with the meters or meter interface units ("MIUs") within their respective cells. As will be understood by those skilled in the art, each cell typically contains a single concentrator along with several hundreds, or thousands, of MIUs. This scheme has a number of limitations if each MIU is a full two-way communicating device and a request/answer scheme is used to read each of them, with each transaction requiring that the concentrator initiate the transaction by requesting that a specific MIU answer the concentrator's request for a meter reading. Serial polling of MIUs, using a request/answer scheme, even to simply obtain meter readings, is extremely time consuming. Further, as each concentrator is provided with a radiating system located in an optimum position to ensure the concentrator's coverage within its cell, i.e., by placing the antenna in a highly elevated location, it is likely that the concentrators of neighboring cells will "hear" each other and cause interference if they are using the same RF frequency at the same time. In the past, this has meant that either more than one RF frequency must be used, which leads to further expense on the part of the utility, or that some type of time division channel access be used. In the former case, the need for multiple RF channels has been cost prohibitive, while in the latter case, the time multiplexing further adds to the time that it takes to simply poll the meters for AMR purposes.
Due to the number of transactions per cell, which is comparable to the number of meters in the case of AMR, but increased by any additional system demands, i.e., load survey, and due to the time it takes for a request/answer transaction, each concentrator will keep its RF frequency ("channel") busy for a period of time during which no other relatively close cells can use the same RF channel. Thus, when using the fixed network schemes of the prior art on a single channel, there were limitations as to the number of cells which could be read on any given day. In certain geographical areas it is difficult to meet the requirements of simply performing the basic AMR operation, together with a limited amount of load survey operations in a reasonable amount of time. Further, all fixed network cellular systems required a rather complex scheme for handling the concentrator access to the channel, and the schemes used were strongly dependent upon cell configuration.
Based upon the foregoing considerations, the number of readings which could be performed by the cellular configurations of the prior art were limited based upon the number of MIUs in the cell, the time taken for each transaction, and the applications, i.e., AMR and load survey, which needed to be performed. They were further limited by the geography of the territory, as geography often determines the distance between concentrators.
In view of the foregoing problems, a new approach to using a fixed network system is required.
In contrast to the strict request/answer single channel schemes of the prior art, in which the concentrators from adjacent interfering cells could not be used simultaneously, the present invention uses a unique system approach to optimize the primary concentrator time consuming tasks of AMR and load survey.
In the preferred embodiment of the present invention this is accomplished by eliminating the use of the individual request/answer scheme of the prior art in which each MIU was individually polled by the concentrator within its cell to obtain its stored meter reading, with similar polling occurring for both metering and load survey applications.
Instead, in accordance with the present invention, for each AMR schedule and/or load survey schedule, the concentrator in each cell transmits only once, at the beginning of the schedule. That transmission is a general call to all of the MIUs in the cell to respond with their respective meter readings. By having the concentrators in adjacent cells simultaneously broadcast their general request for all MIUs to respond, any adjacent cell concentrator interference is eliminated. In accordance with the present invention, the MIUs within each cell are programmed to transmit their response to the concentrator's MIU request in a serial fashion, i.e., each MIU is assigned a separate time to respond to the concentrator's request. These times are individually indexed, thereby avoiding MIU/MIU interference within each cell. As the definition of a cell means that MIU-to-neighboring-data concentrator unit ("DCU") interference should not exist, the scheme of the present invention provides for simultaneous use of a single channel by adjacent cells.
In an alternative embodiment, it is possible to have potentially conflicting DCUs controlled by the utility's central office to space out the transmissions of their general calls to the MIUs, and, if desired, to program the MIUs in each cell to respond only to the general request of the DCU in its own cell.
In the Drawing:
FIG. 1 illustrates a typical fixed network cellular system of the type referred to herein;
FIG. 2 is a flow chart which shows the prior art method of interrogating MIUs by a DCU;
FIG. 3 is a Table which illustrates the problems with performing MIU reads using the conventional request/answer scheme of the prior art;
FIG. 4 is a timing diagram further illustrating the problem of performing MIU reads using the conventional request/answer scheme of the prior art;
FIG. 5 is a timing diagram which illustrates the way the present inventive method operates in performing reads and/or load survey operations;
FIG. 6 is a table which illustrates the manner in which the present inventive method is able to save a substantial amount of time in performing MIU reads;
FIG. 7 is a table which illustrates the way the present inventive method is able to save a substantial amount of time when load surveys are being performed;
FIGS. 8 and 9 are tables which illustrate the way the present invention can be used with a mix of Class 2 and Class 4 MIUs; and
FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an MIU in accordance with the present invention.
As described above, the present invention relates to an automatic meter reading ("AMR") system of the type used for reading utility (water, gas, electric, and/or heat) meters by using a fixed RF network.
Referring to FIG. 1, a portion of a fixed RF cellular network 10 is shown. The portion of the network 10 which is illustrated is comprised of nineteen cells, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48. However, those skilled in the art will recognize that an actual network could be comprised of either a fewer or greater number of cells.
Each of the cells in the network 10 typically contains a single Data Concentrator Unit ("DCU"), such as the DCUs which are shown schematically by the antenna symbols 50, 52 shown in the innermost cell 12, and in adjacent cell 14, respectively. Further, each cell will typically have a large number, i.e., from hundreds to thousands of Meter Interface Units ("MIUs"), such as the MIUs 54, 56 which are in cell 12.
As will be recognized by those skilled in the art, given the adjacent locations of various cells, i.e., cells 12, 14, each containing relatively high powered DCUs 50, 52, respectively, if the DCUs are using the same RF frequency at the same times, there is a good possibility that there will be DCU/DCU interference. This is particularly true given that some overlap of adjacent cells is necessary in order to insure proper geographic coverage of all areas within each of the cells. In fact DCUs in cells as far away as two cell diameters (referred to herein as "relatively adjacent" cells), i.e., cells 12 and 48 (as shown in FIG. 1), can interfere due the high power of the DCUs and their geographical locations.
The prior networks avoided this type of problem either by using different RF frequencies for adjacent (and relatively adjacent) cells, or, alternatively, using time displacement of transmissions in adjacent (and relatively adjacent) cells. Unfortunately, when one is operating a two-way (Class 1 or Class 2) system in which both the DCUs and the MIUs are able to initiate RF communications, the number of RF frequencies (channels) which must be employed in order to prevent DCU/DCU interference is quite large, i.e., due to the potential for DCU/DCU interference between the DCUs in relatively adjacent cells, about nineteen different RF frequencies would be required in a typical network cell configuration, as shown in FIG. 1. As can be readily understood, it is very costly to obtain licensing for nineteen channels and to maintain equipment which could be operated on nineteen different channels. On the other hand, the use of one RF channel together with time displacement would require that as much as nineteen times the time for a single cell would be needed.
Referring to FIG. 2, a flow chart illustrating the procedure used to perform various functions is shown. In a "typical" highly populated system, as depicted in FIG. 1 and explained more fully with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4, there might be about 2,000,000 MIUs. These may be comprised of MIUs for reading gas, water, electricity, and/or heat meters, and they are all assumed to be operating in a Class 2 mode. By way of example, there may be about 6,000 meters (gas, water, electricity, and/or heat) per concentrator (i.e., 6,000 MIUs per cell).
Referring to the flow chart shown in FIG. 2, heretofore the usual method of reading Class 2 (or Class 1) two-way MIUs was for the DCU to determine if there were any MIUs waiting to be read as shown at 102. If any MIUs needed reading, and if no other MIUs were requesting service, i.e., load survey, tamper reporting, etc., then the DCU would send a request to the next MIU scheduled to be read (block 104), and it would await the response from that MIU, and it would process the response (block 106). If there was an MIU which was requesting service (block 108), then that MIU's request would be processed (block 110) prior to continuing with the reading of unread MIUs.
With reference to the timing diagram of FIG. 4, in the meter reading cycle of the prior art, the DCU transmitted a request (at 120) to MIU1 to send its reading to the DCU. Next MIU1 sent its reading to the DCU (at 122), and then the DCU sent an acknowledgment signal to MIU1 (at 124), thereby completing he request/answer sequence for MIU1. Thereafter, the DCU performed the same sequence with MIU2 (at 126, 128, 130), MIU3, etc.
Referring to the Table in FIG. 3, if it takes a certain amount of time, τra, for a DCU to make a request of each MIU in its cell for a reading, for the selected MIU to answer the requesting DCU, and for the DCU to acknowledge the response of the MIU, then the number of readings per month will be limited. By way of example, for a τra of 405 minliseconds (ms), 2.469 MIUs can be read per second. As there is a statistical probability that any given read might not be successful, FIG. 3 assumes a 90% success rate for each reading attempt, which brings the effective MIU read rate down to 2.222 reads per second. Given that there are 2,000,000 MIUs in the territory, and assuming that there is an 85% reliability rate on readings, then there are 5,760,000 reading periods available for all purposes. However, if each MIU must be read once per month, simply to perform monthly billings, then 2,000,000 of the available readings are already used for billing (AMR) purposes alone, leaving only 3,760,000 time slots available for all other purposes. Thus, if load survey was desired, with each MIU involved in load survey to be accessed once every 15 minutes during the month, only about 1,300 MIUs could be involved in load survey out of the 2,000,000 MIUs in the territory. As will be recognized by those skilled in the art, this means that only about 0.065% of the MIUs in the territory could be involved in load surveys--a very small number given the cost of a fixed network system.
Another way of looking at it is that 34.7% of the available meter readings in a given month (30 days) are used solely to read each meter for billing purposes alone. That means that more than 10 days per month will be occupied to simply perform meter reading for billing purposes.
From the foregoing analysis, it was determined that while Class 1 and Class 2 systems provide the capability of supporting a "request-answer" form of communications, the time required to perform such communications is simply too great for a large scale deployment of MIUs to operate in a satisfactory manner. Yet, absent the capability for a large scale deployment, the cost of a fixed network system could be hard to justify.
With reference to FIG. 5, in accordance with the present invention, rather than using an individual "request-answer" system to perform MIU readings, each MIU in each cell is assigned a unique time displacement number, ni. Each of the MIUs in each cell is programmed to receive a single, general meter reading request from the cell's DCU. Then, based upon the time it takes for a single MIU to send its normal reply, and allowing for some additional "guard time", for a total time of τres per MIU, each MIU will respond in turn to a DCU meter reading request by waiting for ni *τ seconds, and then sending in its meter reading. As will be obvious to those skilled in the art, the use of this technique means that if each meter reading request of the prior art took (approximately) τra seconds (bearing in mind, that each prior art meter reading request had to uniquely identify the specific MIU being queried, and to acknowledge the MIU, whereas the general meter reading request of the present invention is simply a request for all meters in the cell to reply (in a predetermined order) with their respective meter identifications and readings), then the amount of time required to read all N of the MIUs in any cell would go from (approximately) N*τra to approximately (N+1)*τres (allowing for τres as the time for the DCU to make their general request). As τres is typically less than one-half τra, a substantial amount of time can be saved using the present invention. More importantly, however, is the fact that the DCUs in each of the cells, including adjacent cells, could be programmed to each make its general request for readings at either the same time, or, alternatively, they may be sequenced so that each DCU makes its request serially before any of the MIUs begins to answer the requests. This would entail a very short wait by the first MIU in the first cell to receive the general call for a reading (i.e., on the order of 19*τres) with a shorter wait on the part of the first MIU in each succeeding cell. Consequently, there will be no DCU/DCU interference as all of the DCUs would be broadcasting the same message at the same time, or, alternatively, when no other DCU or MIU is transmitting. Further, there would be no other interference, as the MIUs broadcast with lower power than the DCUs. Thus, a very important feature of the present invention is that even though only a single channel is used, adjacent cell interference is substantially eliminated, due to the extremely limited number of times that a DCU must transmit, thereby allowing not only for greater throughput on a per cell basis, but also on a per system (territory) basis.
Referring now to FIG. 6, if τres is approximately 210 ms (i.e., the one-way time for each MIU in a cell to respond to a general DCU reading request), and allowing an additional 125 ms slot per MIU reading for outage detection readings ("ODR"), tamper-detection readings ("TDR"), and DCU processing of responses, there would be a net reading rate of about 2.985 reads per second. Consequently, it would take approximately 2,010 seconds (33.5 minutes) to read each of the 6,000 meters in a cell. Thus, even if a conservative reading failure rate of 30% was assumed, and an overall success rate greater than 99% was desired, it would be necessary to read each MIU seven times, i.e., 14,070 seconds (3.908 hours), to be assured of having properly read more than 99% of the MIUs in each cell.
Given the above assumptions, there would (on average) still be 1.312 unread MIUs per cell, or about 437.4 MIUs out of the total population of 2,000,000 MIUs which have not been read successfully. It is assumed that these MIUs could be read by the conventional "request-answer" mode described in FIGS. 2, 3, and 4, with a "request-answer" time period of about 405 ms (allowing for a 90% success rate). This additional two-way reading of the hard to read MIUs would add (for the entire 2,000,000 MIU population) only an additional 196.83 seconds (0.055 hours) per cycle. Thus, the entire MIU population could be read using the system of the present invention with a success rate greater than 99%, and the unread meters could be read using a normal two-way "request-answer" exchange in a little over 3 minutes for all of the cells. Note, that this extra time assumes that only one DCU is active at a time, notwithstanding that only 1 out of about 19 cells could possibly interfere with reasonably adjacent cells.
As will be obvious to those skilled in the art, as the present invention eliminates any potential for DCU/DCU interference, the number of cells in the system is no longer a relevant factor in determining the time to read all of the MIUs in a system. Consequently, a substantial amount of time will be available for other functions, such as load survey and on-demand reading. With reference to the Table in FIG. 7, it can be observed that by having a general "load survey" request which goes out to those MIUs which have been programmed to respond to such a request by sequentially sending out their load survey data, it is possible to have 1% of the MIUs in a cell respond to load survey requests every 15 minutes by using only about 15.85% of the time available per day.
Referring to FIGS. 6 and 7, it can be seen that by using the present inventive method, both AMR reading (3.963 hours/day) and load survey applications (3.804 hours/day) can be accomplished in 7.867 hours per day in a cell containing 6,000 MIUs. Thus, less than one-third of the time available needs to be spent performing both AMR and load survey applications, thereby leaving a substantial amount of time for other desired functions.
Referring now to FIGS. 8 and 9, the use of the present invention with a mix of Class 2 MIUs (25%) and Class 4 MIUs (75%) is shown. As indicated, the total time required to perform both AMR and load survey for 6,000 MIUs (1,500 Class 2 and 4,500 Class 4) would be only about 7.42 hours per day, leaving more than 61% of the day available for other functions.
Turning now to FIG. 10, a simple block diagram of an MIU 150 in accordance with the present invention, is shown. The MIU 150 is attached to a meter 170, which may be any type of utility meter (water, gas, electricity, or heat) which includes an appropriate pulser, encoder, tamper detection sensor, outage detection sensor, or other electronics, including registers, mass memory, etc.
The MIU includes a processor 158 which is typically a microprocessor, which is connected to RAM 160 and a read only memory, which may be comprised of the programmable read only memory 162. The RAM 160 may contain some non-volatile memory for storing parameters in the event of a power outage (i.e., meter readings, tamper detections, etc.). The processor controls, and communicates with, a receiver 154 and a transmitter 156. Both the receiver 154 and the transmitter 156 are connected to a suitable antenna 152, which may be either external or internal, or which may be formed as part of the circuit board on which the MIU's circuitry is mounted.
As explained above, the MIU 150 is either a Class 1 or Class 2 (two-way) MIU. Typically, the MIU 150 includes an identification number which is stored in a non-volatile memory, such as the PROM 162, which uniquely identifies the MIU 150 in the system. A DCU can communicate with the MIU 150 and based upon the software which is in the MIU's PROM 162, the MIU 150 can perform various functions, such as meter reading, load survey reporting, etc. Consistent with the present invention, a number, representative of the offset time which the MIU 150 should wait after receiving a general request for a meter reading from the MIU's cell's DCU prior to transmitting the reading of the meter 170, can be stored in the PROM 162, and changed as needed by the DCU. Similarly, other data, i.e., whether the MIU 150 is to be included in a load survey application, and, if so, how long it should wait after receiving a general command to transmit load survey data, can also be stored in the PROM 162.
As will be obvious those skilled in the art, numerous changes can be made to the MIU 150 without departing from the spirit or intended scope of the present invention, and the simplistic block diagram illustrated in FIG. 10 was meant only to show one possible method of building an MIU 150 having the minimum functionality required by the present invention.
By way of example, the MIU 150 is shown to include a receiver 154. While a Class 3 MIU also includes a receiver, the receiver in a Class 3 MIU is not adapted to be able to download a number representative of the time delay for a Class 3 MIU to have to wait until transmitting a response to a DCU. Similarly, a Class 4 MIU contains no receiver. Consequently, for a Class 3 unit to be able to operate in accordance with the time delayed transmission of the present invention, it would have to be programmed either with a reader/programmer or by replacing its PROM 162. Alternatively, these units, operating in Class 3 and Class 4, are able to transmit randomly, as explained in conjunction with the discussion herein relating to FIG. 9.
As will be apparent to those skilled in the art, numerous other changes can be made without departing from the spirit or intended scope of the present invention.
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text: Tweet photo by Alex Parks (Flickr CC) A lot of money and resources go into making our homes warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. How can we minimize the amount of power we use for climate control? For example, 1/3 of all energy consumed in Germany is used to heat or cool homes. This can be quite an expense and is a significant source of climate change driving greenhouse gases. People have been insulating their homes for thousands of years with grass, mud and other natural materials. Now we use fiberglass, foam insulation, special glass in more developed areas, while houses in poorer, hotter places are sometimes still insulated (and quite effectively) with loam – typically a sand/silt/clay mixture. Some architects are working on glass houses that would be suitable in all climates and require neither heating nor cooling. The only requirement would be that those who live in them don't throw stones. Other ways to decrease your home's energy bills include installing solar panels, energy-efficient light bulbs and replacing old appliances with Energy Star-rated ones. Another thing to consider is what to do with your home while you're not living in it. For example if you are away on vacation or for work, switch off your appliances and electronic devices. This means not just setting them to standby, but switching the power point off (if you live in the UK or Ireland, for example) or simply unplugging them from their electrical outlets. In the kitchen, the most obvious targets are the kettle, toaster, coffee machine and microwave. After emptying the fridge and freezer, you can switch off these appliances, too. The oven, dishwasher and washing machine can also be unplugged but may require a little more effort: in most kitchens, these appliances have to be pulled away from the fixtures to reach the plug. –The Ecologist For more on this topic read the entire article in The Ecologist and for some general energy-saving tips for the home, see this report from My Fox Detroit. The following short video from Deutsche Welle's Global Ideas looks into past, present and future ways of insulating homes around the world: SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER Thank you, your sign-up request was successful! Please check your e-mail inbox. Given email address is already subscribed, thank you! Please provide a valid email address. Oops. Something went wrong. Please try again later.


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It's easy to get excited about the Kinect for Xbox 360 ($149), an add-on that lets you ditch the controller and play with your whole body. When you dance, your character dances. When you jump, he jumps. When you turn your hands in a racing game…you get the idea. But is this the next big thing or just a fad? We wanted to find out by hosting a Kinect party. As it turns out, everyone had a good time, but we also see plenty of room for improvement.
Check out the video below and let us know what you think. And don't forget to check out some of our favorite Kinect hacks further down.
The conclusion we came to is that while the Kinect is pretty awesome, nothing beats a controller for navigating through menus. It also seems like something that is a lot more fun if you have more than one person around to play it. But only a few of our tester games allowed for multiperson play (at the same time, anyway). Read on for more impressions.
You've probably heard this already, but you need to have have a fairly large space to play the games in. Will younger gamers in dorm rooms or efficiency apartments have enough room? What about areas where small living rooms are the norm? It's definitely an issue. And, as always, the hardware is only as good as the games that take advantage of it.
However, there may be other reasons to pick up a Kinect. If you're a DIY type, a fiddler, a hacker, there are a ton of cool things you can do with a bit of programming skill. Now that there's an open source driver that allows you to access the Kinect from a computer — no XBox needed — people are having all kinds of fun. Sure, Microsoft seemed miffed at first, but now they're warming up to the trend and even excited by what they see. Open source will do that to you…
Here are our favorite Kinect hacks:
Make Any Surface Multitouch
From Pattern Studio; Via Reddit by way of CrunchGear
iRobot + Kinect = World Domination
Via Geeky Gadgets
Shadow Puppets
From Design I/O; Via GottaBeMobile
Record 3D Video
From KinectHacks; Via Mashable
Share your favorite hacks in the comments.


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Posted at: 04/26/2013 4:33 PM
Updated at: 04/26/2013 4:47 PM
New Mexico Philharmonic guest conductor Andrew Grams previews their upcoming ballet concerts at Popejoy Hall.
New Mexico Philharmonic
"The Rite of Spring"
Saturday, April 27 at 6 p.m.
Popejoy Hall
This Good Day New Mexico segment may include paid advertising content. It is not affiliated with KOB-TV's News Department.


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Arlington Park trims stakes schedule by $300K
Arlington's 2013 stakes schedule, which was released Tuesday, nearly mirrors the 2012 schedule, with one fewer stakes race scheduled this year and a reduction of $300,000 in stakes purses.
2012, Arlington hosted 26 stakes worth $5.8 million; this year, there are 25 stakes worth a total of $5.5 million. Two $100,000 Illinois Owners Stakes were dropped from the schedule, and the Arlington-Washington Lassie, which lost its Grade 3 status, took a purse cut of $50,000 down to $100,000. Six Illinois-bred stakes in June were trimmed to $100,000 this year from $125,000. One race, the Arlington Classic, had its purse boosted for 2013, from $125,000 to $150,000, while a new stakes, the $75,000 Hatoof – run as an overnight stakes in recent seasons – was added to the Arlington Million Day program.
The 2013 Million will be held Aug. 17, keeping its same spot on the calendar. Supporting the Million are the $750,000 Beverly D., the $500,000 Secretariat, the $400,000 American St. Leger – which was introduced to modest reviews in 2012 – and the Hatoof.
As usual, open stakes are few and far between during the meet's early portion, with Arlington – as per the strategy of its parent company, Churchill Downs Incorporated – loading the schedule with multi-stakes days. The first comes May 25, when the card includes the Hanshin, the Matron, and the Arlington Classic for the first time; there is not another open stakes at the meet until the Chicago Handicap on June 29.
Million Preview Day, which includes the Arlington Handicap, the Modesty, the American Derby, and the Stars and Stripes, is scheduled for July 13 in 2013.
* An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the Arlington Classic had its purse reduced by $25,000 for 2013.
Great track to watch the races. Too bad the product is inferior. Generally, 75-80% of their cards consist of maidens and cheap claimers (mostly conditioned).The State refuses to allow slots at IL tracks thus worsening the situation.
Maybe they could cut the artificial/taped crowd noise on the simulcasts of the races. It tends to cheapen an already subpar product.
I love the 5 horse fields they have.
Good luck to Arlington Park and its fans. I enjoy follwoing and visiting Arlington. I hate to see the purse reductions as the field quality will drop due to fewer ship ins.
Perhaps if CDI put as much energy and effort into their racing product at Arlington Park as they do to sticking to Hawthorne via the races date disputes and leaving the Illinois Derby out of the Derby campaign....they'd be in a better position. Karma??
I've been going to AP for 15+ years and their stakes schedule still baffles me. There's only two days that are exciting at all to the average player: Million Preview Day and Million Day. If they were to separate the three G1s to three different weekends in August the races wouldn't be swallowed up into each other.
Wonderful track from a patron stand point, pitty what IL racing has become. Just a pitty.
churchill is treating illinois pretty badly. the AP synthetic racing is boring.
Just like Barnum and Bailey. CDI has their show on the road.
The St. Ledger is a joke they should use the 400k and make four 100k stakes. The month of no open stakes is an absolute joke


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Robert A. Brown
Just another weblog
Monthly Archive for January, 2012
A Crucial Year
It is the year of THE election. I read numerous op-eds & articles that suggest the economy is on the cusp of a recovery or collapse. The polarized politics means that it will go one way or the other depending on the election results. It seems to me both parties are true believers in their […] [Read More]
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In AutoCAD 2011: Tips, Tricks, and Industry Secrets, Jeff Bartels shows AutoCAD users how to become more efficient power users, reducing the amount of time it takes to accomplish a task, increasing profit margins, and strengthening marketplace competitiveness. The course covers everything from shortcuts used in geometry creation, to program customization, to real world solutions to common problems. Interface customization, block and reference management skills, and express tool usage are also covered. Exercise files are included with the course.
In a production environment, a large CAD project can involve many drawings, each being worked on by the members of a project team. With multiple people getting in and sometimes not getting out of the drawings, you may have trouble accessing some of the files. In this lesson we'll learn how to identify which team member has possession of a drawing. On my screen I've a drawing that represents a proposed parking lot in my overall CAD project. Let's say that several of the other project drawings I have tried to open have been coming up in a read-only state. This usually means that someone else is currently working on those files.
If I'd like to identify the owner of a specific drawing, I'll use the command whohas. This command works just like the Open command, except its job is to tell me who has possession of a file. I'm going to navigate into the Exercise Files folder, I'll jump into Chapter 8, and I'm going to select the current drawing. Now this a little anti-climactic, because AutoCAD is reminding me that I'm in this file. If however I was working with a group of people, I could easily identify the owner of any CAD drawing on the network. So the next time one of your project drawings comes up read-only, try using the whohas command to find out whose taken possession of that file.
Once you identify the owner, you can then follow-up with them to determine when you can get access to that drawing.
There are currently no FAQs about AutoCAD: Tips, Tricks, and Industry Secrets.
Access exercise files from a button right under the course name.
Search within course videos and transcripts, and jump right to the results.
Remove icons showing you already watched videos if you want to start over.
Make the video wide, narrow, full-screen, or pop the player out of the page into its own window.
Click on text in the transcript to jump to that spot in the video. As the video plays, the relevant spot in the transcript will be highlighted.


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Q&A With Trent Dilfer
Trent Dilfer, 38, won a Super Bowl as the quarterback for the Baltimore Ravens in the 2000 season and is currently an NFL analyst on ESPN. Dilfer's an avid golfer (his low round is a 62), and in a recent conversation with Senior Travel Editor Matt Ginella, he tells us his best story of competing against a PGA Tour pro, shares advice on golf in Tahoe and, with the NFL playoffs at their peak, gives his take on former Ravens teammate Ray Lewis.
What's you first memory of golf?
When I was in junior high, a buddy and I were starting to get into some trouble. That summer, before my freshman year, every morning my mom would take us out to this golf course about 15 miles from our house, Rolling Hills in Watsonville, Calif. It's an old public track. I used my grandma's golf clubs, and my buddy had a few irons and a wood from his grandfather's set. Mom would give us five bucks; in 1984 that was a decent amount of money, and she would drop us off in the morning and pick us up at dark. I was always Tom Watson, and my buddy was always Jack Nicklaus. We skanked it around until we learned how to actually get it in the hole. We both fell in love with it.
Who won more, "Watson" or "Nicklaus"?
I think Nicklaus got an early lead, but Watson won more in the end.
Why did you like Watson?
I found out he was a Stanford guy -- not that I love Stanford, but I was from the area. I loved his aggressiveness. Back then he was known for ramming every putt three feet by the hole if he missed it. That's how I learned how to putt; he was my guy. I loved his mentality. I loved that he played good in bad weather.
I see that you have five top 10s in the American Century Championship in Tahoe. You're getting close. Do you prepare for that as though you're a professional golfer prepping for a major?
Yes. The best I can -- and my family would attest to this -- everything I do in golf is to prepare for that tournament. It's not enough based on the fact that I haven't won it, and I'm not nearly the player I was five years ago. I have so many injuries, physically I just can't repeat fundamentally sound moves of my golf swing. What's interesting, and what has got me in trouble there, is that I've never made enough putts. I've gone into the tournament putting great and just haven't holed enough putts. It's the strength of my game, chipping and putting, but I miss a lot of short ones up there. It's not a nerves thing. I haven't been able to figure it out.
You received the 2009 John Brodie Award in Tahoe (which recognizes accomplishments in a chosen profession and the sport of golf), and you wore his No. 12 with the 49ers. Obviously there's some connection there.
Chris Chandler and I have been very close friends forever, and Brodes is Chris' father-in-law. Years ago I was playing pretty good in football, I was playing pretty good in golf and I was thinking I was a hotshot. Brodes pulled me aside one night after a practice round at the Black Diamond tournament in Florida. He had me in my golf spikes, and he was coaching me at football. He was yelling at me on the putting green, "Do this, do that," he was working on my drop, he was just grinding me in my golf outfit, teaching me how to be a better football player. We get done and we have a beer, and he looks at me and he says, "You're a par-shooter as a football player, and you're a par-shooter as a golfer. That isn't good enough." I was a plus-1 or something, and I was a pretty good football player, but that message resonated with me. I wasn't working on the right things. It was that year that I started working on my golf swing; it was that year I started applying the principles of golf and football together, the mental and the emotional and the technical. I had a great football season, and then I won the Black Diamond tournament. I shot 65-67 in the qualifier and beat [Rick] Rhoden on the last hole of the shootout. That was the height of my golfing career. That was when I learned how to go low. A couple of years later I shot a 62 in San Diego to win that tournament, and that's really when I started being sound in all three of those areas: My mental game had to be sharp, my emotional game had to be sharp and my technical game had to be sharp in both football and golf.
Is the Champions Tour a possibility for you?
I don't know. I met with Laird Small at Pebble last year. I told him, "I'm back to being a par-shooter. That's really where I am. I can go out and be around 75 to 70, but the 65s are few and far between." I asked Laird, "What's it going to take?" He identified a few major technical issues that I would have to fix. I just can't hit the ball out of my shadow anymore. I stand up at the ball at impact. I've still got to practice during the football season, and that has really been my issue. My life is too full to dedicate the time to do that right now. My girls are getting older, and they're kind of recognizing that I need a competitive outlet. Maybe this article will be my motivation to go out and start pounding balls and working on my short game during the football season. I've torn both Achilles tendons, I have major bone spurs in my left ankle, I have 12 different shoulder separations, so I have some physical issues that I have to correct before I can get my golf swing the way I need it. But I have the resources to do so, and maybe one of these days I'll get around to doing it.


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Building considered total loss following overnight building fire
TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - A building is considered a total loss after a fire broke out late Saturday night.
Capt. Barrett Baker with Tucson Fire tells KGUN9 that crews responded to a two-alarm building fire in the 3900 block of East Ft. Lowell Road.
The crew reported the fire was inside the wall and that the structure itself was on fire, not the contents inside, said Baker.
Flames were visible from the exterior, with heavy fire coming out of the vents and eaves of the building.
Once most of the flames were extinguished, firefighters were able to use long extension ladders to gain access to the attic space from the outside and extinguish any remaining hot spots.
There were no injuries reported, said Baker.
The cause of the fire was determined to be wood material that had been in the fire place earlier in the day that was moved out of the fireplace and up against the building on the outside, said Baker.
The wood burned under the frame stucco wall and into the void space around the fire place.
The building is considered a total loss due to the heavy fire damage in the attic.
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Brand New Luxury Apartment Homes in San Diego! Carmel Pacific Ridge is an inspired living experience that surrounds you with encounters, amenities and luxuries. All in abundance. Spacious one, two and three-bedroom homes surrounded by panoramic views of San Diego and the Pacific, filled with contemporary finishes and modern details. Just outside, retreat is calling-the pools and cabanas, the candle-lit loggia, the wine bar, the bocce court, the hillside retreat, the nooks and gardens, choose your escape. Carmel Pacific Ridge gives you endless opportunities to play, indulge, retreat, gather and live-every day. It truly is home above all. Text PACIFIC to 47464 for More Information! (Msg and Data Rates May Apply).
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By John J. KruzelAmerican Forces Press Service
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY, Va., May 21, 2007 A black and white photograph with Arlington National Cemetery as the somber yet sublime backdrop captures a lone mourner kneeling before a headstone among seemingly endless rows of pale grave markers.
This poignant image and others are spread across the pages of "Where Valor Rests: Arlington National Cemetery," a new book that debuted May 18 here. The 191-page book embodies the culmination of a two-year effort by Arlington National Cemetery Commemorative Project, Inc., in conjunction with National Geographic, and Rich Clarkson and Associates.
In the cemetery's information center, the commemorative book that salutes members of U.S. armed forces who now rest here was presented to five military families representing each of the service branches.
"I go to see him every month with my kids, because I feel at peace. I feel like he's here," said Laura Youngblood, who lives in Columbus, Ohio -- an eight-hour drive from where her husband, Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Travis L. Youngblood, is buried.
"I sit by the headstone and just feel whole again," Youngblood said. "He was my children's father, he was a son, a brother. To other people he may be a number, but my husband was my husband."
The sailor, who is survived by Laura Youngblood and their young son, Hunter, and daughter, Emma, was killed in July 2005 by an improvised explosive device in Iraq. Laura and her wide-eyed children accepted a personalized copy of "Where Valor Rests" on behalf of families who have lost Navy sailors during the war on terrorism.
"Many people passionately labored to develop a befitting gift to fill an astronomical void left by the untimely departure of the irreplaceable men and women known simply by most as mom or dad, or my brother or sister, or my husband or my wife, my son or my daughter," said retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Carl H. McNair, chairman and president of the Arlington National Cemetery Commemorative Project, Inc.
"This gift had to convey our nation's admiration while acknowledging the enormous pain and loss the ultimate sacrifices bring to those left behind," McNair said. "To our distinguished visitors and those similarly situated, this gift had to assist your families in healing, by bringing the spirit and fond memories of your brave loves ones resting here in the serenity of Arlington, a little closer to home."
McNair then announced that Arlington National Cemetery Commemorative Project and its partners will donate 5,500 copies of "Where Valor Rests" "to those serving on land, sea and in the air."
Accepting the book on behalf of Army families was Army Command Sgt. Maj. Debra L. Strickland, wife of Army Sgt. Maj. Larry Strickland, who died when American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. Mike and Jacqueline Chavis received the book for families of fallen airmen; their son, Air Force Airman 1st Class Lee Bernard Chavis, died October 2006 when a sniper shot and killed him in Baghdad.
Marine Capt. Brian Letendre died in May 2006 during combat in Iraq, and accepting the book on behalf of Marine families was his widow, Autumn Letendre, and their son, Dillon. Representing the fallen Coast Guardsmen was Patricia Bruckenthal, whose husband, Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Nathan Bruckenthal, was killed in April 2004 by a suicide bomb attack off the coast of Iraq.
Each of these servicemembers received a military funeral and is interred at Arlington National Cemetery.
"When you think about Washington, D.C., it's a region filled with monuments and memorials that tell the story of our nation's history," said Pete Geren, acting secretary of the Army. "Across the river, you have the Jefferson Memorial, the memorial that tells story of the godfather of the intellectual foundation of this country. Across the mall there is the Washington Monument. The father of our country – first in war, first in peace, a general and president.
"The Lincoln Memorial, the person who helped hold this country together when those among our brethren tried to tear it apart," Geren said. "Across the mall is the memorial to Franklin Roosevelt who led this country through one of its greatest crises in history, and defeated the fascist powers that tried to destroy all that we stood for.
"Then you cross the river and you think, 'Where does Arlington Cemetery fit in this tapestry of American history, this story of the life of this great experiment in democracy?'" he said. "Arlington Cemetery connects all of those memorials; it connects all of those monuments.
"Arlington Cemetery represents the soul of America," Geren said.
"Where Valor Rests" includes text by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Rick Atkinson describing the cemetery's nearly 150-year history, and photographs from every corner of the 624-acre grounds shot by some of the nation's leading photographers and best military photojournalists.
At the debut here, enlarged photos portraying the cemetery during each of the four seasons were on display – a wide-angle picture of 4,500 visitors attending the Easter sunrise service; red, white and blue fireworks bursting above the cemetery's tree line, splattering white headstones with luminescent hues; cold, dark marble markers peppered throughout patches of fallen leaves or blanketed by fluffy snow.
On the glossy pages of "Where Valor Rests," servicemembers young and old are captured in rare, tender moments. A World War II veteran wipes away tears with his wrinkled hand during a dedication ceremony to his fallen brothers-in-arms. His tuft of silver-gray hair is covered by a hat stitched with the words, "Battle of the Bulge: Delaware Valley Chapter."
"Visually, (Arlington National Cemetery) is a very striking place -- the rolling hills, the long lines of headstones. It creates something that at every hour of the day will look different," said photographer David Burnett. Burnett's images – taken with a Speed Graphic camera popular with press photographers in the 1940s during last year's Memorial Day events, including the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns -- make up the book chapter titled "Ceremony."
"There's a lot of symbolism in what's here that you're always aware of and trying to incorporate that into some of your pictures," he said. "There's something here that you know is going to outlast all of us. There's a permanence and strength to it."
The image Burnett is most fond of features rocks lying atop a headstone's ivory arch. The headstone marks the grave of a servicemember whose inscribed name is out of focus and illegible in the image.
"I was touched by the way the stones were put up here, which is a little symbol of remembrance," he explained. "I didn't want it to be just about the name. It's one guy, but it could be anybody."


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recipe: mango pineapple juice
Monday, January 7, 2013 at 11:00AM
1 large ripe pineapple—about 3 lbs
3 large ripe mangoes—about 3 pounds total
fresh ginger—about a 2" piece
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
crushed ice
1. Peel and core the pineapple. Set aside one slice of the pineapple and cut the pineapple and mangoes into chunks for juicing.
2. Peel the ginger, grate, and set aside.
3. Using a juice extractor, juice the fruit chunks and ginger into a large glass measuring cup and whisk in the vanilla.
4. To serve, quarter the reserved pineapple slice, pour the juice over crushed ice and garnish with the quartered pieces.
sandra | 1 Comment | 7 References |
tagged Spring 2013, juice, recipe in how to


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Bryan Adams' Hit-Heavy Fox Show
By Jeremy Essig
Lightning Bolt's Sharp New Sound
By Jason Robinson
Fleetwood Mac Back with Classic Lineup
By Hans Morgenstern
Here's Who's Making STL Noisy This Spring
By Joseph Hess
Beatles Sister Louise Harrison Departs the Midwest
By Peter Gilstrap
By Julia Burch
Working Class Dogs to Honor Rick Springfield
By Jeremy Essig
Torche Gets Back Into Its Heavy Groove With Restarter
By Nathan Smith
"Next year, man, definitely. 2001, for sure," he says.
Still -- are relations between Wyclef and his bandmates so strained that he really has to ask them on record to give him a call?
"No, man, that's just me, you know?" he says. "It's, like, the way I wanted to set up the record. A lot of people think, "Yo, when's the next Fugee record?' So I said, I'm going to start the record by calling Pras and Lauryn and talking about that stuff."
Of course, it's not as if Wyclef doesn't have anything else on his plate these days. He's just signed with Clive Davis' J Records to oversee his own label, appropriately called Clef Records, for which he will find, sign and produce new bands. Also in the works are more collaborations like the ones that have enjoyed lots of airplay in the last year or so: Whitney Houston's "My Love Is Your Love" and Santana's "Maria Maria."
The hardest thing, Wyclef says, is keeping his approach to his own records separate in his head from the way he looks at these all-star collaborations.
"For one of my projects, I get lowdown and dirty, you know? 'Cause Clef don't give a fuck," he says. "Musically, I like to break barriers and go crazy. I think when you're working with an artist like a Whitney or Carlos, you have to go into the other head. I have a producer's head, too, you know? When I go inside to the producer's head, I look at Whitney, and first, I'm a fan, so I know the history of her music, and I think, what can I give her that can bring her to the next level but that the music stays credible and hard? That's where I come in. So I would make all the top chords real pretty, but the drums, once again, the beat and the bass, we would always make harder.
"Doing all these things I get to do these days is cool. I'm like a kid in a candy store."
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Lisa Marie Presley is joining the Brangelina club, announcing that she is pregnant with twins. Elvis' third and fourth grandchildren will be arriving this fall. Twins run in the family: the King himself was a twin, and Lisa Marie's mom Priscilla has younger brothers who are twins.
Priscilla told Entertainment Tonight, "She wanted it really to be kept a secret for a long time, you know, and I think women should, because they should be able to announce what they're having and when it's time to make the announcement."
Earlier this year, Lisa Marie was forced to announce she was pregnant after the media attacked her for her weight gain. Elvis' only daughter then blogged angrily about the situation on her Myspace page.


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Florida Execution
Florida Executes Man Who Killed Wife, Young Boy
A Florida man who stabbed his wife and her young son to death nearly 30 years ago is scheduled to be put to death Wednesday.
U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Florida's Use Of IQ Rule For Death Row Inmates
Siding with a Death Row inmate convicted of killing a pregnant woman in 1978, the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Florida's use of a "rigid" IQ score in determining whether defendants should be shielded from execution because they are intellectually disabled.
Central Florida Killer Executed
A central Florida man convicted of killing his cousin and his cousin's wife is scheduled to put to death on Wednesday.
More Last Minute Appeals Possible Ahead Of Chavez Execution
The convicted murderer of nine-year-old Jimmy Ryce, Juan Carlos Chavez, has less than 19 hours to live and his lawyers are spending those hours fighting to extend his life through last minute appeals.
Florida Inmate Executed For Illinois Woman's Murder
A Florida inmate who has been on Death Row for 27 years ended his sentence Tuesday evening. William Happ was put to death by chemical injection at Florida State Prison for the 1986 strangulation murder of Angie Crowley.
Serial Killer/Rapist Gore Executed Tuesday
After 23 years on Florida's death row, Marshall Lee Gore, a former escort service owner who killed two women, was executed by lethal injection Tuesday evening.
Temporary Stay Of Execution Granted For Miami Killer
A South Florida man convicted of murdering an exotic dancer 25 years ago has been granted a stay of execution less than two hours before he was scheduled to die by lethal injection.
Man Convicted Of Killing Dancer To Die Monday
A South Florida man convicted of murdering an exotic dancer 25 years ago is scheduled to be put to death on Monday.
Court Lifts Execution Stay For Mentally Ill Mass Killer
A federal appeals court has lifted a district judge's stay of execution for a South Florida man convicted of more than half a dozen murders.
Fla High Court: Ferguson Sane Enough For Lethal Injection
The execution of mass killer John Errol Ferguson will take place later this month after the Florida Supreme Court ruled he is sane and can therefore be executed by the state for the murders of eight victims more than 30-years ago.


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What are your duders favorite seeds? Please say what version of Minecraft the seed is for and a description.
Mine is 404. There's a gravel patch near the ocean. When you hit or place a block on it the whole thing collapse. It opens up a huge cave. There's a 404 challenge where you have one day to collect resources from up top. As soon as it's night you must return to the hole and survive underneath in the caves. It's a fun thing to do when you're bored and or with friends. This works for 1.7.3 but I have heard of it working in later versions. So try it!


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By John J. KruzelAmerican Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, June 16, 2009 Anticipation is the key to readiness, the chief of the combatant command responsible for the military role in homeland defense said today.
Air Force Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr., commander of U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, said that when he took over the reins more than two years ago, he modified the Northcom mission statement to reflect this notion.
"When I took command, I added one word to the mission statement, and it was 'anticipate,'" Renuart told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies here. "And it forces you to think differently about planning, preparation and prevention. It forces you to think about resiliency."
Northcom, which was established about a year after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, is responsible for an area of operations that includes the United States, Canada and Mexico. It serves as a "one-stop-shopping" point for military support in case of an attack on American soil.
NORAD is a joint U.S.-Canadian command established 51 years ago to defend against nuclear-armed Soviet aircraft entering North American airspace. Decades later, the command's mission has expanded to include early detection of threats via air, space, land and sea.
Reflecting NORAD's level of anticipation is the number of flights the command identified as suspicious and responded to last year. It cited 278 aircraft as "targets of interest," so-called because a pilot fails to communicate or use proper transponder codes, follows a flight plan incorrectly, or behaves in some way to cause concern.
"On September 10, 2001, we didn't necessarily have that same focus and we certainly didn't have the capacity to respond across the nation in the way we have today," Renuart said.
During 78 of those instances, NORAD scrambled fighter jets to respond to or intercept the suspicious aircraft. About 50 of these flights were diverted to alternate air fields, where the pilots were greeted by law enforcement agents.
One infamous case this year was that of Adam Dylan Leon, a 30-year-old Canadian who hijacked a Cessna 172 from a flight school in Ontario and flew across the midwestern United States in hopes of provoking NORAD responders to shoot him down in an attempted suicide, officials said.
"Certainly, we have that capability (to shoot down aircraft), and each of our fighters is armed every day when they fly," Renuart said. "But we also have a process of command and control and communication and coordination that allows us to learn a lot about that person as this event is occurring."
The sheer number of participants speaks to NORAD's level of preparation and coordination. Teaming up to deal with the stolen Canadian flight were American and Canadian NORAD agents, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, U.S. Transportation Security Administration, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, NAV Canada, the White House, U.S. Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, and oddly enough, the pilot's ex-girlfriend.
"We were able to have this dialogue while this event was occurring, while we had fighters -- and by the way while we had customs and border patrol -- shadowing this guy as he continued south," Renuart said, noting that the pilot landed safely on a small road in southern Missouri.
"Interestingly, when he landed, I was talking on this conference to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police hostage negotiators, who were with this guy's ex-girlfriend, who was texting him on his cell phone to say, 'Land safely. Don't go anywhere. Someone will be there,'" Renuart said, adding that the command then handed off control to local authorities.
The general emphasized that his commands fastidiously adhere to the rules outlined in the Posse Comitatus Act, a federal law that restricts the government from using the military for law enforcement.
"There are some who believe that somehow we have created this command to exercise military authority in the homeland, and that is not the case," he said. "Trust me, I've got about 16 lawyers that follow me around everyday just to make sure I don't trip over that line.
"The art form in this is to ensure that you can be leaning on the edge of that precipice to provide the right support," he continued, "but not trip off and invade the rights and safeties that are guaranteed by our Constitution to our civilians."
Related Sites:U.S. Northern CommandNorth American Aerospace Defense Command
Related Articles:Disjointed Security Threats are New Normal, Commander Says


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The Hare and the Tortoise. The tortoise crosses the finish line ahead of the hare. Slow and steady wins…
"Snapping turtle."-Whitney, 1902
Posessing a nearly perfectly hemispherical shell, the American box turtle ranges from Canada to Florida.…
Ranging throughout the Northern and Middle States, Blanding's box-tortoise measures seven to inches…
A pair of turtle doves roosting on a branch.
A pictorial banner illustrated with a bear and elephant holding up a cloth banner.
The Hawksbill turtle is a sea turtle with many distinguishing characteristics. It has a beak like mouth,…
The imbricated turtle at sea.
Averaging six inches in length, the mud-tortoise is evenly distributed throughout the United States.
The musk tortoise draws its namesake from its strong musky odor. It is found from Maine to Florida.
A tortoise.
A frame surrounded by various reptiles.
The underside of a turtle or tortoise shell.
Skeleton of a tortoise, seen from below, the plastron having been removed. (ca) carapace.
The underside view of a tortoise skeleton.
Common around New York and the surrounding regions, the red-bellied terrapin averages ten to seventeen…
The salt-water terrapin lives in salt or brackish water along the sea-coast, buying itself in the mud…
The smooth terrapin is found from Rhode island southward along the eastern coast of the United States.
An illustration of a tortoise reaching his goal along a long path.
An illustration of a tortoise with a top hat and an umbrella.
"This species lives in stagnant water, and is altogether remarkable for its singular appearance."
A Box Tortoise
A tortoise having plastron hinged, so that the shell can be made to close upon entirely conceal the…
Primarily nocturnal, the matamata tortoise of South America feeds on small reptiles and fish.
"They are very abundant in Europe. Their flesh is eaten in many countries."
Feeding primarily on worms and insects, the spotted tortoise averages three to four inches in length.
An illustration of a turtle on a log.
"The river-tortoises only rarely come on land. The toes are united up to the claws by broad, flexible…
Hawk's-bill Turtle (chelonia imbricata).
An imbrcated turtle on land.
An imbricated turtle, flipped onto its back, revealing its underbelly.
The leatherback turtle (once known as the leathery turtle) is remarkable among turtles for its shell;…
"Turtle is, in zoology, the popular name for any species of the Cheloniidæ. They may be distinguished…
Skeleton of a turtle.
Inhabiting freshwater areas of the United States, the snapping turtle feeds on frogs and fishes.
"The turtle, adapted for swimming and diving, the extremities being relatively larger than in the seal,…
An illustration of a domestic turtle-dove.
Sometimes referred to as the fresh-water terrapin, the wood-terrapin ranges from Canada to Pennsylvania.


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World Bodypainting Festival
From: 2016.07.02 To: 2016.07.08
Official website:
Celebrating the human body in full color, the World Bodypainting Festival has become the biggest art event of its kind since its founding in 1998. Thousands of visitors gather in Seeboden, surrounded by idyllic mountains and lakes, to admire the stunning artwork and equally captivating nude "canvases". The festival begins with the WBF Academy offering body art workshops for artists looking to hone their skills. The main days of the festival are from Friday to Sunday in the "Bodypaint City". Artists from 40 nations worldwide start painting in the public park at 11am and later in the day the artwork is judged by a professional jury. The World Awards are given in 4 main bodypainting categories - Brush/Sponge - Airbrush - Special effects - UV effects In addition to art, the days are filled with lots of music and shows. But the hottest ticket in town is the BodyCircus fantasy ball. Guests arrive to the medieval Sommeregg castle in full fantasy costumes combined with bodypainting, decoration and masks and extreme make up. International Dj's keep the stone walls thumping on 3 levels complete with visuals, costume prizes, percussion, shows and entertainment until the early morning hours. It's the perfect end to an unforgettable feast of the eyes.
Main album


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Hey Jeff, thanks fo the add to your friends list. It is nice to meet you and I hope you are having a great week. Be safe out there and have a great weekend. Take care and keep in touch.
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thanks for the add stay safe and keep in touch
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better watch out, shouldnt give beer to boys! LOL! (yankee3)!!!
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Thank you for the invitation. Take care and as always, stay safe.
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Thanks Jeff for the add, stay safe and God bless.


text: Digging volleyball camp at Lee County Jun. 20, 2013 @ 02:18 PM Login Subscribe or link to print subscription Submitted photo Lee County High School hosted a volleyball camp this week and had a great turnout of young players. The camp was a great week of learning all the skills of volleyball. A tournament was played on the last day of camp. The ladies worked very hard all week and the future of volleyball in Lee County looks promising. Lee County High School tryouts will begin Aug. 1 and players must have a current physical to try out.


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Light Space & Time Online Art
Gallery announces an art call for the gallery's 4th Annual "Animals" Juried Online
Art Competition for the month of July 2014.
The gallery invites all 2D and 3D artists (including photographers) from
around the world to make online submissions for possible inclusion
in the Gallery's August 2014 online group art exhibition.
For this theme, Animal subjects would
be considered to be any 2D or 3D art that includes mammals, birds and any
animals that may live in the water. We will accept art on this subject that is
either representational or abstract. The
deadline to apply to this art competition is July 27, 2014.
Winners receive extensive
worldwide publicity and promotion. For further information and to apply online http://www.lightspacetime.com
Hello. I am new at this, but my artwork is all about animals. Where do I go to get details of how to submit work.
Leslie B
© 2015 F+W All rights reserved.Use of this site signifies your agreement to the Terms and Privacy Policy, updated March 2007


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Want to set your local edition?
Select an edition for more focused local news coverage when you visit mlive.
Don't worry. You can change this setting at any time to another local edition.
Does government over reach include the government mandating "free contraceptives"? Why should women expect other people to pay for their choice of contraception?
What are the primary functions of local government? Take care of those and everything else is a bonus depending on available funding.
Fee for service is another option for extraneous government services.
We simply need to prioritize the city budget. Put police, fire and infrastructure at the top with all of the extra crap at the bottom of the list. When you run out of money eliminate line items at the bottom.
It's hard to leave a cult even when polling data says you should.
It is time to drug test Rick.
Romney never said that the automakers should not receive federal aid. He did say that the companies should go through a normal orderly bankruptcy process with the federal government being the lender of last resort.
GM and Chrysler did go through bankruptcy but in a manner that ignored property rights and contract rights. Forget the taxpayer dollars, the most expensive part of this deal was the destruction of the US reputation as a safe, orderly place to do business.
7.5% of pretax profits goes to charity. This is known as a charitable contribution or, if you an occupier, a scheme to avoid taxes. If a oil company were to do the same thing, occupiers would call the deduction for the charitable contribution a "subsidy".
If you want to argue with someone that buys ink by the bucket you have to spend some money to gt your argument out there.
Any other view of free spech gives too much power to media outlets. I fail to see any reason that political speech should favor one side of the aisle.
When activists target corporations should the corporations not spend money to respond?
I love it when people like Ben Cohen advocate the restriction of free speech. It is nice to know that these people are in favor of silencing those that disagree with them. It makes it very clear that these people are totally bereft of defensible ideas for the improvement of our society.
Maybe we should address the relationship between increaseing government aid and the increasing cost of a college education. As government aid increases, tuition increases. The higher education bubble needs to burst.
Students need to act as informed consumers and choose colleges that provide the best value.
There is a difference between an evolving stance on issues and spinning like a weathervane.
Obama made a politcal cacluation. He used to be for it, then he was against it, now he is for it. This is an issue that may help distract voters from the economy and th failure of Obama's policies.
Most conservatives I know are not that concerned about the issue of gay marriage. Their primary concern is that the issue is decided through the political process and not the courts. The last thing we need is a festering issue like Roe v. Wade.
"Here's why: The big story in manufacturing in the past 60 years or so has been an astounding increase in productivity. It takes just 177 manufacturing workers today to perform the same amount of work that required 1,000 workers in 1950, according to data complied by Chicago Federal Reserve Bank economist William Strauss.
The reason is that manufacturers are investing heavily in robots, computers and other equipment that displace humans."
Rick is officially a Luddite. That argument has been around since the beginning of the industrial age. According to that reasoning, we would be better off eliminating all labor saving devices in order to necessitate more workers.
Capital investment and lower worker count per plant are the future. Most of the job loss in manufacturing has been due to productivity gains. The idea is to make this the best area to locate those plants and increase the count of production facilities. Eliminating the PPT is one way to do that.
"Advocacy groups reviewing the state plan and federal response said the U.S. Education Department wants to see Michigan do more to close the achievement gap between successful and struggling students, especially inner-city minorities."
If they follow the usual model, they will try to limit achievement at the upper end. That is usually easier than instilling a work ethic and desire to succeed in the lower achieving groups.
While they are at it, perhaps they could propose an amendment to eliminate freedom of association.
Rights for me but not for thee.
This reasoning would also lead to the abolition of the pooling of resources to fund political speech.
The Grand Rapids Press would be restricted from printing editorials that reflected the corporate interest of the paper.
Too much free speech is always better than too little. The best way to limit corporate influence in government is to elect honest representatives. That is just another way to say that we need wholesale turnover of teh current crop.
Do you suppose the major news organizations have corporate structures?
Free speech and freedom of the press only have meaning to these people if they do not object to your point of view.
A corporation is simply a group of people that choose a structure to make money or even to act as a nonprofit. Corporations do not exist without people that have ownership stakes. Just because a corporate structure exist should not restrict the free speech rights of the stakeholders.
Why aren't these corporations investing? Perhaps there is a less than favorable environment for investments.
Tax receipts increase when dollars move. We do not tax wealth; people like the Kennedys made sure of that.
The reality is that the one percent has less income in the form of wage earnings, capital gains, dividends and interest.
The people that actually pay taxes are not doing well in this economy and higher taxes will not help at all.
At any level of taxation, we have historically averaged 19 - 20% of GDP in tax revenue. Our 14 -15 % tax revenue to GDP that we are currently running is the result of economic stagnation not under taxation. If the administration takes the breaks off the economy and gets spending down to 19% of GDP we will be able to defuse the debt bomb, provided we deal with entitlement spending. At current tax levels we did reach 21 to 22% of GDP during the Bush administration.
Corzine lies to Congress about where the 1.2 billion dollars went. An email trail exist that shows he approved the transfer. He is free and is currently one of Obama's biggest bundlers.
Eric Holder lied to congress about what he knew about fat and furious. Email trail documetns the lie.
Meanwhile, the Roger Clemens trial for lying to congress about steroid use continues. Is it possible our priorities are messed up?
Germany is pulling the plug on all of their solr subsidies. They got tired of throwing money down a hole.
The mayor should give some thought to spending taxpayer money wisely. High priced energy does not seem to fit the bill.


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Question Details:I am not employed and I have been a stay at home wife and mother in Jackson County, MO for 11 years. Should I wait to file for a divorce until I am employed? If he decides to file first, can he be held responsible for paying for both our legal fees since I am not employed? I have kept good notes of his hostile and threatening behavior towards me. I have left twice for a few months but came back because I am scared to go through with a divorce having never been on my own and I don't want my son to go back and forth between us. But I am fully convinced that staying with him out of fear is not good either.
If there is enough money -- assets and/or income -- it might well be possible to get a court to force your husband to pay your attorney's fees. On the right facts, some attorneys will take a case under these conditions, although you would still be contractually liable for the fees if it didn't happen.
It isn't at all unusual, at the beginning of a divorce in a case like yours, for the stay-at-home mother's attorney to file a motion for temporary child support and alimony, and attorneys' fees. Your inability to pay -- and your husband's ability to do so, would be among the things a court would look at here. Better family court judges won't let men in your husband's position gain an unfair advantage by having a lawyer while their wives are unrepresented.


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Mediaite offers a list of ten quotations and challenges you to figure out which ones were made against interracial marriage and which were made against same-sex marriage. It's pretty tough because the arguments are almost word for word the same. To wit, a statement from the ruling in State v Jackson, MO in 1883:
"They cannot possibly have any progeny, and such a fact sufficiently justifies those laws which forbid the intermarriage of blacks and whites."
And this, from Bob Jones University in 1998, speaking of interracial marriage:
"Although there is no verse in the Bible that dogmatically says that races should not intermarry, the whole plan of God as He has dealt with the races down through the ages indicates that interracial marriage is not best for man."
And especially this, from a brief filed in Loving v Virginia:
"I believe that the tendency to classify all persons who oppose [this type of relationship] as 'prejudiced' is in itself a prejudice," a psychologist said. "Nothing of any significance is gained by such a marriage."
I can't tell you how many times I've heard recently how terribly unfair it is to call those who oppose marriage equality bigots.


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Article ID: 326095 - View products that this article applies to.
This article was previously published under Q326095
This article has been archived. It is offered "as is" and will no longer be updated.
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When you try to replicate the COM+ catalog from one Windows 2000 Server to another with Windows 2000 Server with .NET Framework installed on the source computer, COMREPL does not respond.
This behavior occurs when the COMREPL utility tries to incorrectly export the .NET utilities library application.
If you view the comrepl.log file that is located in your Winnt\System32\Com\Replication folder on the destination server, you see that the computer does not respond when it tries to install the .NET Utilities application.
Service Pack InformationTo resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Microsoft Windows 2000. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
(https://support.microsoft.com/kb/260910/EN-US/ )How to Obtain the Latest Windows 2000 Service Pack
Hotfix InformationTo resolve this problem, obtain the Microsoft COM+ Rollup Hotfix 23. For additional information, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
330081A supported fix is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to correct the problem that is described in this article. Apply it only to computers that are experiencing this specific problem. This fix may receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, Microsoft recommends that you wait for the next Windows 2000 service pack that contains this hotfix.
(https://support.microsoft.com/kb/330081/EN-US/ )INFO: Availability of Windows 2000 Post-Service Pack 3 COM+ Hotfix Rollup Package 23
To resolve this problem immediately, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the fix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services phone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;CNTACTMSNOTE : In special cases, charges that are ordinarily incurred for support calls may be canceled if a Microsoft Support Professional determines that a specific update will resolve your problem. The typical support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for the specific update in question.
To work around this problem, run COMREPL before you install the .NET Framework on your source computer.
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was first corrected in Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4.
Article ID: 326095 - Last Review: October 26, 2013 - Revision: 1.6