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|By Jeremy Geelan
Article Rating:
|February 5, 2007 04:45 AM EST
I wonder how many people, as I did, found themselves thrown into confusion by the death last week of Jean Ichbiah (pictured), inventor of Ada.
Learning that the inventor of a computer programming language is already old enough to have lived 66 years (Ichbiah was 66 when he succumbed to brain cancer) is a little like learning that your 11-year-old daughter has grown up and left home or that the first car you ever bought no longer is legal because it runs on gasoline in an age where all automobiles must run on water. How can something as novel, as new, as a computing language possibly already be so old-fangled that an early practitioner like Ichbiah can already no longer be with us?
The thought was so disquieting that it took me immediately back to the last time I wrote about Ichbiah, and indeed about Ada Lovelace for whom his language was named. It was in the context of my quest a couple of years ago to identify the Top Twenty Software People in the World.
It began as an innocent enough exercise, inadvertently kick-started by Tim Bray writing in his popular "Ongoing" blog about how he rated Google's Adam Bosworth as "probably one of the top 20 software people in the world." Already famous for Quattro Pro, Microsoft Access, and Internet Explorer 4 even before he joined BEA as VP of engineering in 2001, when BEA bought Crossgain, the company he'd by then cofounded after leaving Microsoft, Bosworth went on to become BEA's chief architect before leaving to join Google. Definitely a shoo-in for the Top Twenty then. But the question naturally arose - or at least it did in my mind - who are the other 19?
I knew that it would not be easy to answer, and not because there are too few candidates but because there are too many. The names of today's leading i-technologists - whose collective smarts Internet technologies rely on for their unceasing innovation and ingenuity - trip off most people's tongues in a heartbeat: just think of Sergey Brin, Bill Joy, Linus Torvalds, Tim Berners-Lee, James Gosling, Anders Hejlsberg, Don Box, Nathan Myhrvold, W. Daniel Hillis, Mitch Kapor... all clear members of the "technorati" or "digerati" - call them what you will - the undisputed aristocrats of the online world.
But what about those who came before, the precursors of the current crop of talent? I wrote at the time:
"Can a list of the Top 20 i-Technologists possibly be compiled that doesn't cause the online equivalent of fistfights when published? Obviously not. But that shouldn't deter us from trying."
My inbox soon began to fill up with a deluge of nominations, and within days I was able to list forty mind-bogglingly gifted candidates, as follows (click on the name for a brief description of the individual concerned):
- Tim Berners-Lee: "Father of the World Wide Web" and expectant father of the Semantic Web
- Joshua Bloch: Formerly at Sun, where he helped architect Java's core platform; now at Google
- Grady Booch: One of the original developers of the Unified Modeling Language
- Adam Bosworth: Famous for Quattro Pro, Microsoft Access, and IE4; then BEA, now Google
- Don Box: Co-author of SOAP
- Stewart Brand: Co-founder in 1984 of the WELL bulletin board
- Tim Bray: One of the prime movers of XML, now with Sun
- Dan Bricklin: Co-creator (with Bob Frankston) of VisiCalc, the first PC spreadsheet
- Larry Brilliant: Co-founder in 1984 of the WELL bulletin board
- Sergey Brin: Son-of-college-math-professor turned co-founder of Google
- Dave Cutler: The brains behind VMS; hired away by Microsoft for Windows NT
- Don Ferguson: Inventor of the J2EE application server at IBM, now with Microsoft
- Roy T. Fielding: Primary architect of HTTP 1.1 and a founder of the Apache Web server
- Bob Frankston: Cocreator (with Dan Bricklin) of VisiCalc, the first PC spreadsheet
- Jon Gay: The "Father of Flash"
- James Gosling: "Father of Java" (though not its sole parent)
- Anders Hejlsberg: Genius behind the Turbo Pascal compiler, subsequently "Father of C#"
- Daniel W. Hillis: VP of R&D at the Walt Disney Company; cofounder, Thinking Machines
- Miguel de Icaza: Co-founder of Ximian, now with Novell
- Martin Fowler: Famous for work on refactoring, XP, and UML
- Bill Joy: Co-founder and former chief scientist of Sun; main author of Berkeley Unix
- Mitch Kapor: Designer of Lotus 1-2-3, founder of Lotus Development Corporation
- Brian Kernighan: One of the creators of the AWK and AMPL languages
- Mitchell Kertzman: Former programmer, founder, and CEO of Powersoft (later Sybase)
- Klaus Knopper: Prime mover of Knoppix, a Linux distro that runs directly from a CD
- Craig McClanahan: Of Tomcat, Struts, and JSF fame
- Nathan Myhrvold: Theoretical and mathematical physicist, former CTO at Microsoft
- Tim O'Reilly: Publisher, open source advocate; believer that great technology needs great books
- Jean Paoli: One of the co-creators of the XML 1.0 standard with the W3C; now with Microsoft
- John Patrick: Former VP of Internet technology at IBM, now "e-tired"
- Rob Pike: An early developer of Unix and windowing system (GUI) technology
- Dennis Ritchie: Creator of C and coinventor of Unix
- Richard Stallman: Free software movement's leading figure; founder of the GNU Project
- Bjarne Stroustrup: The designer and original implementor of C++
- Andy Tanenbaum: Professor of computer science, author of Minix
- Ken Thompson: Co-inventor of Unix
- Linus Torvalds: "Benevolent dictator" of the Linux kernel
- Alan Turing: Mathematician; author of the 1950 paper "Computing Machinery and Intelligence"
- Guido van Rossum: Author of the Python programming language
- Ann Winblad: Former programmer, cofounder of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners
It was at this point that the name of The Father of Ada was thrown into the hopper, along with that of Ada Lovelace herself. How could I possibly not have already included Jean Ichbiah, many wrote to say? Indeed the one new submission was more indignant than the next, and I soon expanded the list of candidates from forty to one hundred, by adding the following sixty:
Gene Amdahl: Implementer in the 60s of a milestone in computer technology: the concept of compatibility between systems
Marc Andreessen: Pioneer of Mosaic, the first browser to navigate the WWW; co-founder of Netscape
Charles Babbage: Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge in 1828; inventor of the 'calculating machine'
John Backus: Inventor (with IBM) of FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslator) in 1956
Kent Beck: Creator of JUnit and pioneer of eXtreme Programming (XP)
Bob Bemer: One of the developers of COBOL and the ASCII naming standard for IBM (1960s)
D J Bernstein: Author of qmail
Fred Brooks: Co-creator of OS/390, helping change the way we think about software development
Luca Cardelli: Implementer of the first compiler for ML (the most popular typed functional language) and one of the earliest direct-manipulation user-interface editors
Vincent Cerf: "The Father of the Internet," co-inventor with Robert Kahn of the first Internetworking Protocol, TCP
Brad Cox: Father of Objective-C
Alonzo Church: Co-creator with Alan Turing of the "Church-Turing Thesis"
Alistair Cockburn: Helped craft the Agile Development Manifesto
Edgar (Ted) Codd: "Father of Relational Databases," inventor of SQL and creator of RDBMS systems
Larry Constantine: Inventor of data flow diagrams; presented first paper on concepts of structured design in 1968
Ole-Johan Dahl: Developer (with Kristen Nygaard) of SIMULA, the first object-oriented programming language.
Tom DeMarco: A principal of the computer systems think tank, Atlantic Systems Guild
Theo de Raadt: Founder of the OpenBSD and OpenSSH projects
Edsger W. Dijkstra: One of the moving forces behind the acceptance of computer programming as a scientific discipline; developer of the first compilers
Brendan Eich: Inventor of JavaScript; Chief Architect of the Mozilla Project
Robert Elz: University of Melbourne Department of Computer Science
Richard P. Feynman: Legendary physicist and teacher, teacher of Caltech course 1983-86 called Potentialities and Limitations of Computing Machines
Bill Gates: Chief Software Architect (and Lord High Chief Everything Else) of "the world's #1 company" (Hoovers.com)
Adele Goldberg: Developer of SmallTalk along with Alan Kay; wrote much of the documentation
Andy Hertzfield: Eazel developer and Macintosh forefather
Grace Murray Hopper: Developer of the first compiled high level programming language, COBOL
Jordan Hubbard: One of the creators of FreeBSD; currently a manager of Apple's Darwin project
Jean D Ichbiah: Principal designer, Ada language (1977)
Ken Iverson: Inventor of APL, later J
William Kahan: "The Old Man of Floating-Point;" primary architect behind the IEEE 754 standard for loating-point computation
Robert Kahn: Co-inventor with Vincent Cerf of the first Internetworking Protocol, TCP
Mike Karels: System architect for 4.3BSD
Alan Kay: Inventor of SmallTalk
Gary Kildall: Author of the archetpical OS known as CP/M (control Program for Microcomputers)
Donald Knuth: "Father of Computer Science" - author of The Art of Computer Programming; inventor of TeX, allowing typesetting of text and mathematical formulas on a PC
Butler Lampson: Architect of Cedar/Mesa; Implementer of Xerox Alto
Robert C. Martin: Agile software development proponent; CEO, president, and founder of Object Mentor
Yukihiro Matsumoto ("Matz"): Creator of Ruby
John McCarthy: Creator, with his graduate students, of Lisp
Doug McIlroy: Head of department at Bell Labs where UNIX started
Bob Metcalfe: Creator of Ethernet
Chuck Moore: Inventor of Forth, a high-level programming language
Andrew Morton: Linus's No. 2 in the kernel group
Ted Nelson: Creator of the Xanadu project - universal, democratic hypertext library; precursor to the WWW
Kristen Nygaard: Developer (with Ole-Johan Dahl) of SIMULA, the first object-oriented programming language.
Peter Pag: Pioneer of 4GLS (1979); developed Software AG's Natural
Bob Pasker: founder of WebLogic, author of the first Java Application Server
Benjamin Pierce: Harvard University faculty member for 49 years; recognized in his time as one of America's leading mathematicians
P J Plauger: Chair of the ANSI C committee
Jon Postel: "The 'North Star' Who Defined the Internet"
John Postley: Developed Mark IV (1967), the first million dollar software product, for Informatics
Martin Richards: Designer of the BCPL Cintcode System
Martin Roesch: Author of the open-source program Snort in 1998
Gurusamy Sarathy: Heavily involved in maintaining the mainstream releases of Perl for the past 7 years
Carl Sassenrath: Author of REBOL, a scripting language
Guy L. Steele: Author of athoritative books and papers on Lisp
W. Richard Stevens: "Guru of the Unix Gurus"; author and consultant
Ivan Sutherland: Considered by many to be the creator of Computer Graphics
Avadis (Avie) Tevanian: Chief Software Technology Officer, Apple
Guy (Bud) Tribble: One of the industry's top experts in software design and object-oriented programming
Patrick Volkerding: Creator of Slackware Linux
Larry Wall: Author of Perl
John Warnock: Inventor of PostScript; CEO of Adobe Systems
Michael "Monty" Widenius: Creator of MySQL
Nicklaus Wirth: Inventor of Algol W, Pascal, Modula, Modula-2, and Oberon
Stephen Wolfram: Scientist, creator of Mathematica
Jamie Zawinski: Instrumental in the creation of Lucid Emacs (now XEmacs)
Now we all know that there are others, that this list of 100 candidates barely scratches the surface, so....have at it: who's been left out? Once I have compiled a definitive list of, say, 150, I will devise a means by which we can vote and decide once and for all which 99 should join Adam Bosworth (who, for the record, loathes the whole idea of any such exercise, as does Tim Bray - who calls such popularity contests "moronic"; both would I am quite certain wish me to record here that this entire exercise owes nothing to their actual input, only to Tim's blogged remark en passant all those years ago...)
Over to you!
|Justin Hart 02/18/07 11:20:16 PM EST
Vint Cerf's name is Vinton Cerf, not Vincent Cerf.
|pvdg 02/09/07 07:20:28 PM EST
I'd begin with:
N°1 : Charles Babbage (designed the first computer)
|pvdg 02/09/07 07:09:09 PM EST
What about Seymour Cray?
Bill Gates was a "hero of i-Technology" and I didn't know? What technology did he invented?
|kjell krona 02/06/07 01:03:36 PM EST
In your list of IT heroes, I am missing some of the important people involved in the Graphical User Interface, as first instantiated in Macintosh UI (and later was copied by Microsoft):
- kjell
|Lars Arvestad 02/06/07 06:04:03 AM EST
|| m6 commented on the 6 Feb 2007:
The word "hero" should of course be used sparingly, and probably not in adjunction to "tech", but JWZ holds his place among the Big Hackers, IMHO.
Some of his accomplishments, in no particular order:
|fm6 02/06/07 05:15:53 AM EST
Can someone explain to me why Jamie Z is a hero? I only know him from reading his comments in the Netscape keyboard resource file when I was trying to get the browser to behave under Linux. These left me with a permanent dislike for the dude: instead of explaining the format of the file, he put in lengthy sarcastic (and misinformed) rants about the "mistakes" made by various Unix vendors in designing their keyboards.
|Ron Blessing 02/05/07 01:36:09 PM EST
Every time I see one of the computer Hall of Fame articles in a magazine
...Ron Blessing
|Grady Booch 02/05/07 11:45:30 AM EST
I'm quite flatted that you've numbered me among your top twenty all-time technology heroes.
As for the Renaissance jazz bit, I play the Celtic harp, on which I perform a number of medieval and renaissance pieces. I once had an instructor who taught me some great improvisational skills, and thus the phrase, Renaissance jazz, for I like to do riffs off of really old themes.
I think I would have been an itinerant musician or a priest if I were not doing software :-)
|InOtherNews 02/05/07 08:34:39 AM EST
Yakov Fain has devised his own version over here: http://yakovfain.javadevelopersjournal.com/who_are_the_heroes_of_itechno... in case anyone wants to take a look.
|More Nominees 02/05/07 06:19:39 AM EST
There's a great supplemetary list by Mark Hinkle here: http://www.encoreopus.com/content/view/334/35/.
Among the new names he adds are Jarkko Oikarinen, Bram Cohen, and Jerry Yang & David Filo, the founders of Yahoo!
|i-net user 02/05/07 01:21:03 AM EST
Congratulaions, you have just insured that I will never willing used AJAX in any of my projects. Your pop-over add that blocks the article is annoying at best.
|Barry Threw 02/05/07 12:54:00 AM EST
Vannevar Bush
|kelley meck 02/04/07 11:44:05 PM EST
You have to include Claude Shannon, and you might want to consider Oliver Selfridge. Shannon was the mathematician who figured information theory, and Selfridge started everything behind neural networks--which have never caught up with modal programming, but whose promise is unbounded.
|Lee Butler 02/04/07 09:34:23 PM EST
You should also remember Michael J. Muuss. He developed "ping" and was instrumental in some of the developments of TCP/IP and Unix in the early days. He worked at the Army's Ballistic Research Laboratory.
|Carsten Schlemm 02/04/07 08:19:22 PM EST
|Troy Angrignon 02/04/07 07:55:13 PM EST
Jeremy, great post. Here are my additional nominations:
|w3c 02/04/07 07:25:58 PM EST
I would nominate Dave Raggett (W3C). Over the years, Dave has been involved in the design of many important Web Technologies, starting with HTML (tables etc.), CSS, VoiceXML, MathML and XForms. He's also the author of Tidy, an important tool for Web developers.
|Mike Radow 02/04/07 07:01:24 PM EST
Nomination for ''all-time hero"...: "Paul Baran" ( go to www.google.com ) He invented _packet-switching_ ( funded by DARPA ) for the ArpaNet.
|Mike Radow 02/04/07 07:01:24 PM EST
Nomination for ''all-time hero"...: "Paul Baran" ( go to www.google.com ) He invented _packet-switching_ ( funded by DARPA ) for the ArpaNet.
|Mike Radow 02/04/07 07:01:24 PM EST
Nomination for ''all-time hero"...: "Paul Baran" ( go to www.google.com ) He invented _packet-switching_ ( funded by DARPA ) for the ArpaNet.
|Mike Radow 02/04/07 07:01:09 PM EST
Nomination for ''all-time hero"...: "Paul Baran" ( go to www.google.com ) He invented _packet-switching_ ( funded by DARPA ) for the ArpaNet.
|Mike Radow 02/04/07 07:01:08 PM EST
Nomination for ''all-time hero"...: "Paul Baran" ( go to www.google.com ) He invented _packet-switching_ ( funded by DARPA ) for the ArpaNet.
|Mike Radow 02/04/07 07:01:04 PM EST
Nomination for ''all-time hero"...: "Paul Baran" ( go to www.google.com ) He invented _packet-switching_ ( funded by DARPA ) for the ArpaNet.
|a VMS afficianado in days past 02/04/07 06:20:43 PM EST
Dave Cutler, while quite brilliant, was hardly the "brains behind VMS". He worked on it, sure. And he contributed a lot. But he didn't create it and wasn't in the early architectural planning; he came along later. Maybe you should say he was "a major contributor to VMS" to be accurate.
|ccrmalite 02/04/07 05:34:16 PM EST
When discussing the heroes of "I-Technology", no list would be complete without Max Mathews, the pioneering creator of the first digital music systems at Bell Labs in the 1950s upon which all digital music software and research was based. These days, imagining a computer system without music seems impossible yet without Max's work on the Music I-Music V computer music languages, we wouldn't be rocking out on our iTunes while reading this article, let alone creating digitally based music of any kind. For those who don't know Max, remember the end of Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey", when a dying HAL sings an homage to Max's influential early recording of "Daisy," signifying one of the computer's earliest memories. Kubrick got it right, I strongly suggest you add Max to your list.
|Andy Poggio 02/04/07 04:43:00 PM EST
Please add Doug Engelbart to your list of heros of i-Technology. If you are unfamiliar with his work, just Google his name or "mother of all demos". Doug and his group at SRI international pioneered many of the things we now take for granted, e.g. hypertext networked documents, videoconferencing, collaborative work, and the mouse.
|an0n 02/04/07 04:25:26 PM EST
Presper Eckert (ENIAC)
Agree this is in part a popularity contest. Some of the ones on the original list were influential tech CEOs or Chief Architects in their time, but does that Hall of Fame material?
And if you say "Myrhvold", I think you must also say Bruce and ESR....
|Andrew 02/04/07 12:33:44 PM EST
Ed De Castro deserves to be on the list as the inventor of the personal computer - The PDP8 was my first personal computer, even if not yours :-)
|Jeff LaMarche 02/04/07 11:26:11 AM EST
Grace Hopper did not invent COBOL. She absolutely 100% should be on the list, but she should be on the list for what she did do. She invented a language called FLOW-MATIC, which was then later used as the starting point by COBOL, which was (quite obviously) designed by committee wthout any further input from Admiral Hopper. She later used COBOL, but she had no direct participation in COBOL.
Much more important, though, she came up with the groundbreaking concept that computer programs could be written in a more English-like language rather than in machine code, something we all take for granted now, but which really was one of the key enablers that allowed computers to become what they are today.
|Fellowship 02/04/07 08:28:41 AM EST
>> There is no genius in JUnit, unless you
Didn't Beck become an Agitar Software Fellow a while back? Alberto Savoia, co-founder and CTO of Agitar specifically called him "one of my heroes" - here's a link to the announcement back in '04: http://www.agitar.com/news/pr/20040802.html
|Jeremy Epstein 02/04/07 05:03:06 AM EST
Here's a few key people I think should be on the list:
Steve Bellovin - author of USENET, security researcher, author of the seminal book (with Bill Cheswick) on firewalls
David Bell & Len LaPadula - developed the multi-level security model used to represent military security
Gene Spafford - leader of CERIAS at Purdue Univ, which spun off numerous security product companies (e.g., Tripwire, ISS)
Roger Schell - very early proponent of attacker models; first penetration tester; architect for highly secure systems
|jim scandale 02/04/07 03:58:03 AM EST
there are an awful lot of what I would call purely hardware people. No doubt that they contributed greatly but "software people" they're not.
|"Inventor of the Internet" Missing 02/04/07 03:08:29 AM EST
Shouldn't Al Gore get a token place in the list?
"During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."
Bertrand Meyer not on the list? (Eiffel and Design By Contract)
|Eric Sarjeant 02/03/07 03:33:40 PM EST
I think Ward Cunningham, the creator of the "Wiki" deserves to be added to the list. If not the top 40, then surely the next 60.
|Kelly 02/03/07 03:32:09 PM EST
Overall, a very reasonable list. Lots of luminaries there. Then I saw "Kent Beck, creator of JUnit and pioneer of XTreme Programming" Ergh! Sorry, I just vomited a little bit, in my mouth... Give me a break! JUnit took what? An afternoon to come up with? There is no genius in JUnit, unless you count the hype machine that culimated in Kent Beck's name appearing on this list.
|Wolbdrab 02/03/07 03:31:08 PM EST
Glad to see John von Neumann and John Backus recommended.
|HTMHell 02/03/07 12:49:33 PM EST
I would challenge Tim Berners-Lee's positin on this list since it is HTML that has also brought us the Browser Wars, and the subsequent HTML writer's hell of trying to get a page to display properly on all the popular browsers, and all versions thereof.
The name HTML - Hyper Text Markup Language, implies a rich set of features that don't exist in reality
|chiew 02/03/07 12:48:17 PM EST
Richard Stevens is the most deserving of inclusion in this entire list: everything is based on TCP/IP.
|Knoppix Lover 02/03/07 12:45:47 PM EST
Has anyone nominated Karl Knopper yet - "Mr Knoppix"? Ah yes they have, I see, he was in the first 40. Quite right!
|Dissenter 02/03/07 12:43:49 PM EST
Donald Knuth!? Knuth, like a lot of those listed, are just Ivory Tower acadamics with no real applications in industry
|rusty0101 02/03/07 12:42:17 PM EST
Arguably Bill Gates did more for personal computers than most anyone else out there. I would have to point out however that most of what he has done is related to his business ability rather than his software writing abilities.
|solarrhino 02/03/07 12:38:47 PM EST
You know, when I looked at this list, I found myself disappointed. Sure, there are some big important guys, but software is more than about applications and the big picture. It's also about the technology, and creating new abstractions. And in a lot of ways, the guy who first invented debugging is a lot more important to the success of computer science than anybody listed there.
It may be because I'm an old fart, but I remember the excitement of learning each new abstraction, either as I discovered it, or as it was invented. And it seemed to me that the creation of those abstractions are the really great deeds of computer science. Maybe nobody knows who had those break-through moments first, but I'm sure that they occured, and they seem to be to the the Great Moments in computer science.
1) The first guy to think "I shouldn't have to rewire, I should be able to write instructions that rewire it for me" - i.e., the assembler moment
2) The first guy to realize "I'm not just re-wiring this, I'm describing an procedure for it to use" - the FORTRAN moment
3) The first guy to ask "Why can't I used the same procedure from different places in my code" - the subroutine moment
4) The first guy to say "I should be able to use the subroutine in the program it already knows" - the library moment
5) The first guy to ask "Why do I have to be the one writing down the results?" - the printer moment
6) The first guy to realize "This isn't just a calculator, it's also a controller!" - the embedded moment
7) The first guy to realize "This isn't just a calculator, it's also a storage system!" - the database moment
8) The first guy to realize "This isn't just a calculator, it's also a communication system!" - the network moment
9) The first guy to realize "I'm not just submitting instructions for it to process - it's submiting instructions back for me to process!" - the interactive moment
10) The first guy to think "Why can't it do something else while its waiting?" - the multitasking moment
11) The first guy to think "Why can't it show me more context while I work?" - the full-screen moment
And finally...
12) The first guy to think "Man, why can't this thing show me some chicks?" - the porn moment
|More Here 02/03/07 12:34:30 PM EST
How about pioneers like George Boole, John Louis von Neumann, and the 'Forgotten Father of the Computer' John Vincent Atanasoff?
|bach_hoang 02/03/07 11:50:51 AM EST
It's nice to see some of the names (from the 70s) of those who advocated "open" systems (V Cerf, B Metcalfe, etc) from
|Robert Sawken 02/03/07 11:24:59 AM EST
You need to add Ken Olson founder of Digital Equipment Corp. DEC owned the then mini computer market in the 70's and 80's
The people from DEC and RT-11, TOPS10, VAX, VMS, DECNET are some the major contributors in hardware and software like X-Windows, early Networking, first clustering, wrote much of Windows NT and are the senior developers and architects in a lot of today's technology industry...
|Robert Sawken 02/03/07 11:24:57 AM EST
You need to add Ken Olson founder of Digital Equipment Corp. DEC owned the then mini computer market in the 70's and 80's
The people from DEC and RT-11, TOPS10, VAX, VMS, DECNET are some the major contributors in hardware and software like X-Windows, early Networking, first clustering, wrote much of Windows NT and are the senior developers and architects in a lot of today's technology industry...
|queZZtion 02/03/07 09:36:50 AM EST
Where's Steve Jobs????
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text:
Jammer's Review
Star Trek: The Next Generation
"The Perfect Mate"
Air date: 4/27/1992
Teleplay by Gary Perconte and Michael Piller
Story by Rene Echevarria and Gary Perconte
Directed by Cliff Bole
Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan
The Enterprise provides transport for the ambassador (Tim O'Connor) of a world that's attempting to negotiate with a neighboring system the end of their long-standing conflict by way of special negotiations and reconciliation ceremonies. The ambassador has brought aboard mysterious cargo that will be used in these negotiations. It turns out the cargo is actually an empathic metamorph — an exotic woman named Kamala (Famke Janssen) who has the unique ability to sense what a mate wants and be exactly what he wants her to be.
Her entire life has been in preparation for an arranged marriage; she is to be a gift in these negotiations (though the episode is very clear that she does this of her own free will and is not a slave). Kamala was supposed to spend the trip in stasis, but the meddling of some mischievous Ferengi releases her prematurely, leaving her with several days to spend aboard the Enterprise, where she attracts a great deal of attention.
First, let's get this out of the way: The Ferengi (including one played by Max Grodenchik, the future Rom) are an egregiously dumb piece of business here. They provide their typically annoying and contrived role. Why are they so easily able to access the cargo bay, which is supposed to be under lock and key because of the special cargo? Simply because the plot requires it, just like it requires the Ferengi later to bumble their way into accidentally knocking down the ambassador and putting him in a coma, requiring Picard to step in and carry out the negotiations.
But forget about the Ferengi. "The Perfect Mate" is really a story about Picard, and the relationship that he has — or, more to the point, doesn't have — with Kamala in the course of the days leading up to the arranged marriage. Kamala's diverse education has prepared her for all possibilities, and her empathic nature allows her to adapt to almost any situation. What's interesting here is not just that Picard finds that Kamala may actually be exactly the kind of woman he needs, but that Picard may be exactly what Kamala needs in return. The fact that Kamala will miss out on a much richer, fuller life aboard the Enterprise, instead being a diplomat's trophy wife, is not lost on her.
What we have here are two people trapped between their duty to the greater good and the possibility of a meaningful relationship. And what most struck me about this episode was the unspoken but clearly conveyed message that a man like Picard is essentially destined to a life of solitude because his responsibilities as a starship captain do not allow him to make a relationship a priority. Here's a man who's the paragon of integrity, sometimes at the expense of his own personal happiness. That all sounds like a cliche, but in its quietly effective and unassuming way, this is a character study examining that sacrifice.
Previous episode: Cost of Living
Next episode: Imaginary Friend
44 comments on this review
"I'll be in Holodeck Four."
And it aint the Ferengi.
Seriously, this is a 2 star show. Maybe 2 and a half.
One thing I didn't like about it was the casting of a young hottie for Picard's love interest. Why are tv shows always casting young women for older actors?
It just felt off to me. In a year they would wisely cast an age appropriate actress in "Lessons" with Neela Darren.
Lots of interesting subtext:
-I think this was Famke Janssen's debut and then eight years later her and Patrick Stewart team up again for the X-Men films.
-Love the hilarious holodeck line, which was the one time it was pretty explicitly stated that the holodecks were used for sex, but that Riker uses it for that purpose was an interesting quirk.
-Geordi's throwaway line later references the dolphins that the TNG Manual said were onboard.
This episode reminds me of the reasons I don't buy The Game. Picard is able to resist a woman that no other man on the ship can resist; but not a video game? (it was unclear to me whether the whole crew is smitten because she is their perfect woman, or if she actually has some magical/chemical/whatever force that actually has a controlling influence, but either way, Picard resists it).
I like this one a lot more as an adult than I did as a child; likely because the concepts of loved-and-lost, and the great subtle performances did not register with me at that age.
There was really no purpose for them. There was no reason for Kamala to be in the cocoon - they could have made a mysterious request to have her transported to quarters from the beginning. Captain demands that the identity and purpose of all passengers be known to him, there's a conflict with the ambassador, who then informs the Captain who is coming aboard, and there you go.
The beginning actually made me angry - it was another episode where you really can tell the show was written by people who have never worked in positions of authority. You simply require that all cargo be disclosed and lock the doors they go into. No questions need to be asked. You're not being "mean" by doing so.
And the ambassador could have tripped in the holodeck or something.
But back to the substance of the episode. Yeah, great. We see Captain Picard in a situation that truly challenges him, and the tension, the resolution and subsequent tragedy of it packs a real emotional punch.
Also, this is perhaps the closest any tv episode has been to actually convincing me that two people fall in love in a 43 minute tv episode. Kudos.
I forgive them for not going into the ethics of the situation deeper than they could. I was hoping for the second conversation with Dr. Crusher to go a little deeper, but it was helpful in its way - perhaps giving a hint that relationships built on shared experience go deeper than ones based on telepathy.
An interesting way to go into the ethics would have been to do something I find they do not do enough in Star Trek: portray aliens has having different natures than "human" nature (I always cringe when Guinan advocates "human" nature - shouldn't it be "humanoid" or something like that?). Maybe it's not unethical, because she actually does fulfill her role by doing what she does in a way that humans can't entirely relate to. But then again, they can barely be bothered to make the aliens look different from humans, so I guess it goes the same way for the insides. They had to have her learn how to think differently. Which means her actions are culturally enforced and unethical. Which, granted, ends the episode on a relatively profound note, as this casts a small shadow on the practices of the federation. I don't think they made the wrong decision - it's just that the episode skillfully leads you to doubt it enough for there to be something at stake.
After writing all that, I almost want to give it 4 stars. Damnit, Ferengi!
I think he stayed, they made love, and that's when she bonded. It actually seemed pretty clear to me that that's what happened, but no one else has mentioned it.
I think also that when the ambassador asked how the captain could resist, he was just dying to say "I DIDN'T!", but instead held it all in and just wished him on his way rather than address the question and have to lie.
This episode has many other flaws: the clumsy use of the Ferengi in moving the plot; the unsecured cargo bay, and (biggest of all for me) the fact that nobody thought to simply have a female chaperone for Kamala.
All that said, Famke Janssen was outstanding. Her performance hit exactly the right notes each time - from her open and confident demeanor on her emergence to her gregariousness in Ten Forward, she was utterly believable in what could have been a very hokey role. Stewart's Picard - as we all have come to expect - was just as effective in his task of showing the gradual erosion of his carefully constructed walls.
The sidebar discussion about free will was also compelling considering the relatively small amount of screen time devoted to it.
3 of 4 stars seems fair to me, on the strength of the two leads alone.
Thanks for this site!
I totally expected him to say it was because he respected her or something, but he doesn't answer the question, so we're left to wonder.
Probably one of the best examinations of Picard in the whole series. Stewart is phenominal in this.
And I even laughed in a couple of places. Outrageous!
I think he stayed, they made love, and that's when she bonded. It actually seemed pretty clear to me that that's what happened, but no one else has mentioned it."
Oh yeah, of course. But every time I watch it I decide something else. I keep waiting for Picard to give more away one way or the other--and he doesn't.
Today, I think it went as you describe.
yeah the "I'll be in holodeck 4" line was funny, but I suspect on a ship of 1000 the holodecks are pretty much in use all the time and scheduled at least a bit in advance. Holodeck 4 was surely not just waiting empty in case Riker "needed it".
Plus the supposedly profound bits with Picard I think were simply the metamorph finer-tuning herself to Picard's desires, not poignantly realising what she was missing, and then the Picard scenes were simply him being taken in (or resisting being taken in) by this, regardless of whether she was consciously being manipulative or not. But I don't think it was a great character study - not that I wish to fight with anyone who does.
Not wanting to offend... but does Jammer's high rating for this one have to do with the fact that the aliens of the week look like the DS9 Trills?
Still the ensuing shenanigans balanced things out to make the story enjoyable. The ten forward scene was played out perfectly, ending witha turned on Worf who couldn't help himself. 3 and a half stars.
No one dies in this one, but it's still a brutal ending, especially if you believe, as I do and as some commenters above have suggested, that Picard stayed and slept with Kamala and that is what led to their bonding, which leads to Kamala's permanently being with a man she is not meant for. Unlike "The Masterpiece Society's" fairly forced tragic ending, the one here feels genuinely earned because each step (aside from the inciting scenes involving the Ferengi) feels natural and inevitable. Picard goes to Kamala because he is concerned that she is going to be married against her desires and he wants to save her from that fate; and in the process, he *creates* the scenario wherein she is bonded against her desires. Each scene plays delicately, as Picard tries to balance the demands of his conscience with his duty with his desires with *her* desires, and tries to figure out which of her desires are really just reflections of his. Kamala slowly works her way through his walls and in the process "discovers" herself, though the self she discovers is really one she creates, and one that dooms her to a life of duty. Their combined impulse to allow Kamala (and Picard) to have something for themselves outside of duty is what leads to their bonding, which is what leads to Kamala knowing Picard's sense of duty and being unable to defy it.
Stewart is amazing, of course, but Famke Janssen is extraordinary too. I read on Memory Alpha that she was the first choice to play Jadzia but had to drop out -- and it almost hurts to read that. Watching her in this episode, I feel like she could play the conflincting impulses from many previous hosts convincingly and effectively, or at the very least turn on a dime from one to another, in a way that Farrell never managed. Sigh.
Love her part as Kamala here. Who wouldn't fall for her? Picard not answering that final question says it all.
Lemme guess, you're all male.
Doesn't it sadden ANY single one of you that civilizations who develop the technology to travel the stars, still use women as pawns in war&peace? Annoying, outdated, sexist, stupid. Zero stars.
@William B: Your comments are very insightful. Thank you for sharing your perspective. I find your interpretations and ratings to be spot on.
I agree with both of you about the Ferengi. When the cold open mentioned an alien race transporting valuable goods and suddenly a Ferengi vessel in distress appears, I was prepared for the worst. Luckily, this episode took a turn for the best and I really enjoyed the ride.
William mentions that Picard creates the situation that he fears: the one in which Kamala is bonded against her desire. Picard also creates the situation he desires: that Kamala makes a choice to become her own person. Throughout the episode Kamala acts as a mirror to whatever potential mate she shares a room with. In her final conversation with Picard, Kamala reveals that she has chosen to bond herself to Jean-Luc. In that moment Kamala stands in front of a full-length mirror and we see her reflection, not Picard's or anyone else's. In that moment Kamala has become her own person by making a choice for herself.
However, isn't this exactly the behavior that mirroring Picard would produce? Kamala's self-awareness, her personhood, is gained *because* she mirrors Picard. Before Picard arrived she didn't know she had a choice to act for herself and become her own person, she simply wantonly mirrored every man she came in contact with. Yet, wantonly mirroring Picard is what drove her to this realization.
When thinking of the causal sequence I picture the infinite regress of a hall of mirrors, which is a perfect metaphor for what Kamala becomes. She becomes herself because she chooses to bond with Picard because she emulates Picard who upholds freewill but who is bound to duty. In a way, Kamala's marriage to the Ambassador is a metaphor for Picard's love life. She is herself because of him and she is giving herself to duty and responsibility and he is acutely aware that his actions made her that way.
Kudos to Patrick Stewart during those last few scenes. The subtle emotions visible on his face were perfect to be ambiguous about what happened the previous night and whether he knows the extent of his influence upon Kamala's decisions, but suggest he is fully aware of what he has done.
What's "annoying, outdated, sexist, stupid" is the way that you accuse us of "all being men" as if male genitalia is just cause for anger. That outburst reads like a caricature of the irate, irrational misandrist. You do your own feminist ideology a disservice.
Which leads to interesting free will vs biology arguments. Kamala was being "forced" to become independent, so was she really becoming independent at all? Or was she simply following her instinct and only "pretending" to be thinking for herself? Isn't her personality just an extension of what Picard wanted and not real? But in the end, does it actually matter? We want our kids to become independent and think for themselves, but it's still with our guidance. You can't make a child completely an independent person; they will always have some remnant of their upbringing as part of them.
So should Picard have felt guilty at all? He spent his time trying to be as dull as possible to keep from imprinting himself on her, and yet it happened anyway. He was all righteous about keeping her an independent person, and then he went and formed her in his image. Shouldn't he have realized that would happen? And shouldn't he have avoided her entirely? Isn't he just being hypocritical? Does he just feel loss at the end, or does he feel bad that his attempt to give her a life outside of imprinting was itself an imprinting?
The fact that these issues are shown rather than told is part of what makes this episode pretty good. And the fact that it's all told as a great character story between Picard and a guest character, with fantastic acting from both, also makes the episode pretty good. And the fact the Ferengi... well, I'm having too good a time being positive so I'll just ignore that part.
As for the "did they or didn't they" question, I am firmly in the didn't they camp. First of all, I hate the accidental/sympathetic adultery trope. There's nothing accidental about it; you know what you're doing. There's enough time between the first moment of passion and the final act that the knowledge of what you're doing will creep in. And if you don't want to do something, you won't. You'll stop it. Heck, even a horndog like Riker managed to break away even after getting an impassioned kiss. So no, I have no sympathy for the "I didn't mean it to happen" excuse.
Which is important, because the episode then eliminates this possibility. Kamala specifically mentioned that she learned the meaning of duty, and is willing to sacrifice her desires in order to do the right thing... and that she learned it from Picard. Given that, how could they possibly have had sex? She would have imprinted on Picard's desire to throw away duty in favor of personal desires!
Seems pretty cut and dry to me.
That said, it's not like they didn't share a personal connection. It's possible to share a deep emotional bond with someone without it being physical, and it's likely that that is what happened between them. Perhaps he did stay, at least most of the night, but did not retire to the bedroom. That's why he didn't answer the ambassador at the end. He resisted her physically, but not emotionally.
OK, one final thought directed at those complaining that this is some kind of sexist fantasy. Huh? First of all, they did mention that males could get this power too, but just didn't focus on them (since the plot didn't need them). More importantly, the plot had nothing to do with a adolescent male fantasy. And isn't that more important?
I mean, Star Trek is just some liberal adolescent fantasy. It's some magical land where all problems are solved and there's peace and harmony and no difficult problems and you get to do cool stuff like gallivanting around the galaxy on a magic starship. How is that not an adolescent fantasy? And yet, none of us care, because the stories themselves aren't. The adolescent fantasy is just a backdrop for an interesting tale and interesting stories. And that's the case here.
I would probably make a similar statement (as others have) about her claim to have 'bonded' to Picard. As far as I can tell, there's no way to know whether she's correct (and if this 'bonding' idea is real in-universe at all), or if the claim is simply an automatic response to Picard's innermost wishes. The truly sad thing about it is, just as we don't really know, it would seem she doesn't really know either! A being like this could never have a meaningful notion of 'self'. I'm pretty sure that's the saddest thing that was ever sad.
It also means now I'm attached to her too. So her fictional power penetrates the 4th wall. This is clearly pure fact.
I agree that Janssen's performance was great -- especially how she changed her voice and mannerisms in the scene with the "ebullient" miners. As others have pointed out, the role of free will in someone who has basically been raised from birth to fulfill a particular function, and on whom an entire planet pins their hopes for peace, is questionable. Especially given that her mate-to-be makes it a point to say that the trade agreements are a much bigger concern to him than the "gift," I was expecting Picard to offer Kamala an out. Even if he'd just said, "It won't be easy letting down your people, but peace can proceed without you having to make this sacrifice to duty. You do have options." Or something to that effect.
As pretty as Kamala appeared in this episode, I couldn't help thinking that "an empathic metamorph" would not make the ideal mate for a mature man with a strong sense of self. This reads more like a 13-year-old boy's fantasy of the ideal girlfriend. There exist women (and men, I suspect) who so want to be in a relationship that they will mold themselves in accordance to what they perceive as the other person's interests, hobbies, attitudes, etc. Ugh! What a turnoff. The dating advice "just be yourself" has merit. Ideally, you find someone who shares some things with you and differs in other things -- perhaps even challenges you in some respects. That's what really makes for attraction, in my opinion.
First, what I like - I like that they took the time to do some serious character work in this episode. The scene that really stands out for me is the one with Picard and Crusher where Picard lets his feelings for Kamala be known. It's a great piece of development for both characters as well as a great window into their relationship. The acting is also very good all around. There's some really great performances here, and not just from Patrick Stewart. Finally, there's some decent enough humor - the holodeck line and Data's antics when he plays chaperon to Kamala.
But there's the bad - obviously starting with the Ferengi. You know, this is their first true appearance in almost two seasons. They had cameos in "Future Imperfect" and "Unification, Part II," but this is really their first time in major roles since the dreadful "Ménage à Troi." And, of course, they're still their stupid, bumbling, caffeine-overdosed selves. And, of course, poor Max Grodénchik has to suffer through yet another stupid Ferengi role before getting to play Rom. Maybe they could have worked in this story if the writers had allowed them to have some dignity.
But the Ferengi aren't the biggest problem with "The Perfect Mate." The biggest problem is this - "the unspoken but clearly conveyed message that a man like Picard is essentially destined to a life of solitude because his responsibilities as a starship captain do not allow him to make a relationship a priority." I got to admit that I am so sick and tired of this kind of "message" in Star Trek. Leaving DS9 aside (which actually doesn't do this), every other series seems hellbent on saying that Starfleet officers simply cannot have committed long-term romantic relationships. What a crock of shit! You can have a life of duty and still have relationships. It just takes a writer with the ability and the willingness to write that relationship convincingly. But so many Trek writers seem perfectly content to simply write romance-of-the-week stories and not even attempt something more challenging - like a relationship spanning multiple episodes. The only non-DS9 examples I can think of are Paris and Torres on VOY and possibly O'Brien and Keiko on TNG (if you can count them as they're only recurring characters here). Does Kirk ever get a committed relationship? No. Do any of the TOS crew ever get one? No. Do any of the TNG crew get one? Well, Riker and Troi finally get married in "Nemesis." But does that really count? Do any other VOY characters get one? I suppose Neelix and Kes qualify, but the writers never really did anything with them. Do any of the ENT characters get one? There's the Trip/T'Pol relationship. But that was so fucked up that it's almost not worth mentioning.
And therein lies the greatest weakness with "The Perfect Mate." I'm expected to believe that Picard and Kamala have so thoroughly fallen in love with each other in just a few days that she's going to spend the rest of her life pining away for him? That might, might, work if we ever had another mention of her and how she affected Picard in a future episode. But, of course, we all know that by the time the next episode rolls around she'll be completely forgotten. Obviously the end of the episode is supposed to be gut-wrenching in that we're supposed to be crushed by the fact that Picard and Kamala didn't end up together. But, come on now, did anybody honestly expect they would? Maybe if they had actually had the ambition to make this a long-term (meaning multi-episode) relationship, then the tragic end of it would have felt tragic to me. As it sits, however, it leaves me feeling cold.
Ultimately, while superbly acted with a few other good bits thrown into the mix, "The Perfect Mate" is just another predictable romance-of-the-week. It could have been so much more
The ones they did do on DS9 like "Second Sight", "Meridian" and "A Simple Investigation" mostly all sucked. Even if some people weren't huge fans of every single one of DS9's long term relationships, they all fared better than romance of the week episodes (IMHO).
I also really liked Paris&Torres and Seven&Doc/Janeway&Chakotay had some nice building (though that was a really hard FAIL at the end there guys!!!). Voyager wasn't nearly as bad as TNG with this.
I WILL say I'm glad you gave this a 6/10 because while it was still a "romance of the week" it was one of the best of those. The only one I think was better was DS9's "Rejoined". And maybe it was tied by Voyager's "Counterpoint". I think the big thing that "Rejoined" and "Counterpoint" did was give the characters back story together.
I think this might be the most effective episode where they met and romanced and parted in the span of an hour. So that's pretty impressive. But I still think a 6/7 out of 10 is fair.
On the downside we have the Ferengi as a crude and wholly unnecessary plot device that could easily have been dispensed with.
"I'll be on holodeck 4" indeed. 3 stars.

subset: commoncrawl


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Zimmerman: "He looks black."
NBC's edit was a savage violation of not only the norms of journalism, but of basic human decency. NBC has issued a weak apology but zero explanation for how a mainstream, powerful, well-funded news organization could do this.
Crafting a narrative that allows you to seize power, or hurt your political enemies now appears more important to both right and left than what Plato called the most crucial task:
"Crucial indeed is the struggle, more crucial than we think -- the choice that makes us good or bad -- to keep faithful to righteousness and virtue in the face of temptation, be it of fame or money or power, or of poetry -- yes, even of poetry."
Or, I might add, journalism.
Arrest George Zimmerman. Not because I know or you know his actions were a crime, but because the legal process is only way we can possibly know the truth.
And without truth, there can be no justice.
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Thoroughbred Owner & Breeder Incorporating Pacemaker is the leading horseracing and bloodstock magazine in Europe.
Each issue is packed with exclusive articles on the big issues and personalities by the best writers in the business, global news reporting and stunning photography.
The glossy monthly contains unbeatable coverage of the major thoroughbred sales worldwide and a comprehensive global results section.
Whether you're an industry professional or just a committed enthusiast, Thoroughbred Owner & Breeder is essential reading.
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How to delete the Recycle Bin icon from your desktop
In Microsoft Windows XP, you can easily remove My Computer and other icons from your desktop using the Desktop Properties dialog. That said, you can't do the same for the Recycle Bin.
Here's how you can remove the Recycle Bin from your Windows XP desktop:
The implementation of the following tweak involves the manipulation of the Windows registry. This is an advanced task that if done incorrectly can render your operating system useless and cause a severe data loss. Implement this trick at your own risk.
- First of all, make a backup of the registry file. Use the instructions provided in section 2 here.
- Open the registry editor by navigating to Start >> Run, typing regedit.exe and hitting enter
- Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
- Delete this key: {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
- Restart, the Recycle Bin has now gone from your desktop
Category: Windows XP


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Diagnosing scan errors using the Data Insight Scanning dashboard
Created: 17 Oct 2013 • Updated: 23 Oct 2013
Video: This how-to video describes how you can use the Data Insight Scanning dashboard to understand the common scan errors. It also features troubleshooting steps that you can take to circumvent these error conditions.
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Tel: 212-373-3017
Fax: 212-492-0017
New York
1285 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10019-6064
Carl has particularly extensive experience representing private
equity firms and their portfolio companies. Over the past three
years alone, Carl has advised his clients in connection with over
100 completed M&A transactions. Carl's principal private equity
clients include:
Carl has particular expertise representing buyers of financially
distressed and bankrupt companies, including the purchase of
enterprises from bankruptcy estates. He also has broad experience
in advising on public company acquisitions, both negotiated and
contested. Carl's practice covers a wide cross-section of
industries. Recently, Carl has been particularly active in the
areas of healthcare, defense, power generation, information
technology and traditional manufacturing and distribution
Writing and speaking on corporate governance, Carl has been a
lecturer for the Practising Law Institute on the subject of proxy
solicitation and corporate governance. He is also a former member
of the Committee on Securities Regulation of the Association of the
Bar of the City of New York.
Carl was an editor of the Yale Law Journal.
J.D., Yale Law School, 1978
B.A., State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1975
New YorkDistrict of Columbia
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Lovely Victorian Gorham sterling silver napkin ring. Ring measures 1 1/2" tall X 1 5/8" in diameter, and weighs 19.4 grams. Monogrammed in script M. L. W., the napkin ring is marked on the inside with the hallmarks for Gorham, "STERLING", and "735L". The napkin ring is in good Victorian condition with age appropriate wear.
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Pinelands Library
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
With our transition to a new cataloging system complete, we're happy to invite you to explore our new and improved services!
Monday, November 16, 2015
From toasters to televisions, Consumer Reports is your guide to smarter shopping! You can find the print magazine at our branch locations, but did you know you can also access Consumer Reports online?
Monday, November 16, 2015
Coloring: it's not just for kids! The adult coloring craze is picking up speed, and we are joining in the fun! Join us at Evesham, Maple Shade, or County Library.
Sunday, November 15, 2015
Whether you enjoy board games, card games, or video games there's something for everyone this Saturday at six of our library locations!
Monday, November 9, 2015
Ready to download your first eBook or eAudiobook? Visit the OverDrive page to get started with your device.


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I am getting the error "SFE-874 Unexpected CPP_LANG_SWITCH" with version 7.1.1 of Spectre. I cannot find documentation on this error anywhere. Also, this does not seem to be related to a "simulator lang = spectre" call. Is anybody familiar with this error message?
I have only found one report of this message, and that was from an internal Cadence CCR. It didn't give much detail, and it was from 3 years ago (it was not the primary problem discussed in that CCR).
The best thing is to contact Cadence customer support with the testcase, and then we can investigate. I don't think it's expected behaviour...


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With 1.7 million freelancers, we'll match you with the perfect talent.
The client has made the following changes to the job.
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a different location.
I am looking for an experienced resource to develop a social networking app on the Android platform. If successful, the application will be ported to the iOS platform so experience with both platforms are essential. I prefer application development on Google's app engine.
I am very technical and would like engineers of the same caliber. Prior work must be submitted before acceptance of the project. The details of the social networking app will only be provided once a developer is chosen .
The developer will need to build an app with a (1) home screen; (2) sign-up / log in feature, users should have the ability to "add" other users, "search" for other users based on name or e-mail address or other features, and create a "profile." Users should have the ability to take a picture or upload a picture as their "profile" photo and send 'private messages' to other users from within the app. Users should also be able to "post" text comments...
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text:
indigo medium grey 'Rambler' faded jeans
designer's notes
Combine the finest cotton with masterful construction and you have Donwan Harrell's PRPS denim. What more could a denim addict ask for?
color: Indigo Medium weight faded denim Button fly with button closure at belt looped Five pocket construction Straight leg with 14'' opening 9'' rise 36'' inseam Approximate measurements taken from a size 32, and may vary by size 100% Cotton; Machine Wash; Imported; style# 334306501


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November 29, 2015
SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) -- Senator Joe Biden has revisited his boyhood town of Scranton, Pennsylvania, with his 91-year-old mother.
Pennsylvania is one of the battleground states this fall. Scranton itself has many Democrats, but they're socially conservative and largely spurned Biden's running mate, Barack Obama, during the primaries.
Biden's brother, Jimmy, joined him and their mother at the three-story home where they lived until 1953, when the family moved to Delaware. He was 10 when they left Scranton and says it's where his family values and his Catholic faith melded.
Biden attended Scranton's Italian festival with Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, where he urged support for hurricane victims and promised a return trip. Earlier, Biden canceled plans to march in a Labor Day parade in Pittsburgh because of Hurricane Gustav.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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Fashionhunters track sartorial trends, spend days lurking undercover in dry cleaners and get involved in highheel chases, all in attempt to follow suit. Pursue style with today's Groupon from Samuel Windsor. Smooth with style and comfort, these two piece suits are made up of a single breasted jacket and threequarter lined trousers, tailored to swathe the male figure in fine panache. To provide a boardroombolstering look the jackets are made from 100% new wool, with a traditional halfcanvas fitting while the trousers are centre creased for a look so timeless it stops digital watches. With a range of classic colours including Oxford blue, black, tonic grey, dark grey, and dark navy, and a variety of sizes and lengths in the fold, busy bodies of all shapes can be dressed suitably for all occasions. The Specifics The Jacket • 100% pure new wool • Traditional halfcanvas construction • Singlebreasted • Choice of two or threebutton front fastening • Fourbutton working cuffs • Highnotch or peak padded lapel • Two covered waist pockets • Single lapel pocket with striking blue lining Jacket Sizes • Chest 38", 40", 42", 44", 46", 48" • Length Short, regular or long The Trousers • One quarter angled side pockets • Centre crease • Belt loops • Two rear pockets • Concealed zip • Threequarter lined Trouser Sizes • Waist 30", 32", 34", 36", 38", 40", 42", 44" • Leg length 29", 31", 33" More About Samuel Windsor A specialist in classic, yet stylish, gentlemen's formalwear, Samuel Windsor use quality materials and tailoring to ensure the suited and booted look is all tied up. Providing plenty of clothes to jazz up male forms and wardrobes, traditionally cut suits are complemented with an array of shirts, jumpers, ties and accessories from their online store and catalogues. Experts in keeping toes tapping, the company also specialises in handmade leather shoes forged and cobbled from the finest Italian leather, as well as providing Chelsea boots and moccasin slippers. How It Works 1. Buy your Groupon 2. We email you the voucher after the deal ends 3. Voucher activates on Monday 5 December 2011 at 8pm 4. Go to https//swshoes.co.uk/groupon/swgroupon.cfm 5. In the checkout, enter your voucher codes All Groupon coupons Shopping Fashion Mens fashion Fashion products Goods Shopping Mens fashion Goods Fashion products Goods Further deals in this category 1. BigBoy Giant Beanbag With Choice of Ten Colours for €59 from Infurn 53% Off 2. Stay Sharp with Designer Clothing and Accessories Such as Shirts, Ties and Jumpers Worth up to €60 for €25 at Louis Copeland Sons 3. Bottle of Red or White Fine Wine in Wooden Gift Box Plus Wine Accessories and The "Wine Bible 2011" for €22 from Grape Gifts 76% Off 4. Pair of Atli KB Heavy Duty Tyre Snow Socks for €44 at Boomclick 51% Off 5. One €17 or Two €28 Memory Foam Core Pillows from Silentnight Up to 77% Off Further deals in this city 1. Five Year Panda Internet Security Package 2012 for €9.80 from Panda Internet Security 94% Off 2. RAC ReverseSafe Parking AID System with Invisible Sensor and Distance Display for €46 from Car Audio Centre 74% Off 3. Stainless Steel Automatic Sensormate iBin for €55 from iLocalFurniture €132.22 Value 4. Multibot Robot Vacuum Cleaner for €189 from Paranello.com 58% Off 5. One €19 or Three €49 Night Stay for Two at Choice of Over 1,600 European Hotels with Holiday Plus Further deals in Ireland 1. Beyond Laser Teeth Whitening Treatment for €99 instead of €250 at The Derma Clinic 2. Round of Golf With Lunch For Two for €55 at Knightsbrook Hotel, Co. Meath Up to €120 Value 3. Three 30 Minute Sessions of Power Plate Training for €18 at BodySmart Value €60 4. Universal Contour Full Body Wrap and Platinum Foot Spa Session for €36 at The Hair Tanning and Beauty Centre €90 Value 5. One €19.50 Or Two €36 Sterling Silver Earrings With Swarovski Crystals from SilvexCraft Up to 66% Off Further deals in other categories 1. Two Tickets to Any Show With Two Bottles of Beer for €24 at The Laughter Lounge 60% Off 2. Special Car Valet With Hand Wax and Polish for €22 at Auto Beauty Club Up to 66% Off 3. Get Fit and have Fun with Six Exercise Dance Classes of your Choice including Hip Hop, Ballet and Aerobics at the National Dance Academy for €28 instead of €70 4. €198 instead of €695 for Permanent MakeUp Treatment on either Eyebrows, Eyeliner, Lip Liner or Beauty Spots at Zenergy Save 72% 5. Attic Insulation Using BioFoam for €1999 with Complete Insulations 50% Off
100% Wool Two-Piece Men's Suit for €139.99 from Samuel Windsor (67% Off)
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In a Nutshell
Formal wear specialists Specialists in tailoring and handcrafted leather shoes The Deal 100% pure new wool Single breasted jacket and three-quarter lined trousers Traditional half-canvas construction Choice of colours from Oxford blue, black, tonic, grey, dark grey and dark navy Choice of two or three buttons Delivery included
The Fine Print
Expires 29 December 2011. May buy multiple. Limit 1 per redemption. Valid from Mon 5 December 2011 at 8pm. Order online at: www.swshoes.co.uk/groupon/suitoffer.cfm using Groupon voucher codes. Includes postage. Allow up to 7 working days for delivery. See the rules that apply to all deals.


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|Reviews for One Year Stand
| Chris594 chapter 21 . 11/18
| Chris594 chapter 1 . 11/17
Great start. I'm going to love this.
| ajachowder1 chapter 21 . 6/2
This was so cute! ()
This was a wonderful story that I read nonstop for a whole day. Defiantly going in the favs.
| Regina Rein chapter 21 . 3/6
I was reading it since last night and I could not stop reading it until this morning. And then I went asleep before I could review.
Anyway I love this story. Amazing. Really :))
It started with a sillyness of cucumber dress and I somehow find it 'uh...'
But with the same type of scene recurring because of the personality of the protagonist, I now find it endearing. It was cute of her how she thinks like a kid, even tho she was a doctor.
And I actually a bit shock when you somehow make it known that Kevin Lee (I love the name btw, it is cute!) is a mafia boss. Like... You make it as a given that it was a well-known fact. Is something like that supposed to be a common news? Why the police has not captured him yet since he was apparently, so famous?
Idk about mafia's life but my logic defied me to accept your setting just yet. Well... Tho how it seemed unfit with reality in my eyes, it didn't stop me from enjoying the story.
Also, Jess' job as a doctor, it was there but more of like a background. But you keep it up with how Jess' imagination revolve around her experience with medical-thingy, so I was glad that it fit her background. Your character is well-made.
And it is not only for Jess, it also goes for other character like Logan.
Seriously, I love Logan! It was cute... The whole thing with him. From the date, to the necklace, and everything. What I don't understand is why he helped Kevin gained Jess back (or is it vice versa?) when he claimed he despised Kevin Lee.
I love it when you keep it in one POV and stay true to it by explaing only from her eyes. When you switched POV to Kevin's, I thought Jess was died for sure but no. She was coma.
And then she pregnant. A bit paused there. How in the world... Did you just suddenly give a given fact again?
And I searched for a clue. And then it hit me. It was... A bit clever of you. The swell... The 'not just fat'
It was terrific!
And the letter... Aww
And then... It was... Ended.
I could not believe it. It is the end already? I meant I am perfectly understand if the scene was not closed with a marriage scene. But I thought something else was in preparation.
I was disappointed at the abrupt ending. If there was not an epilogue chapter, I thought the last chapter could be longer to smooth out the ending. Idk what kind of closing scene I was expected but certainly not like that.
And Sean's death too... A given fact that Jess suddenly know. I thought it would be better if you showed us how she knew it...
All in all, the mix of well-made characters, the flow of the story, their own quirks, romance, unexpected comedy due to Jess' personality, and the consistency of the POV made me fall in love with the story. So faaav this.
| Batman is exotic chapter 21 . 1/8
Okay so here I go, this is one of my all time favorite stories. I've read it at least 10 times. I haven't signed onto fictionpress in months to read but then I remembered your story and went searching desperately through my favorites to find it and when I reread it...ohhh...myy...goooooshhh. I fell in love all over again. There is just something about this story that is just so amazing to me. No matter how many times I read it I always fall desperately in love with the characters.
| Kalift chapter 20 . 12/18/2014
Good Story.
| BleedingInLove chapter 21 . 7/8/2014
I didnt even know this was the latest chapter till 5 secs ago, weaknesses of being enamored with an awesome story DX
| beverlyamethyst16 chapter 21 . 7/4/2014
Hi! Well I totally fell in love with this story. Amazing! It's just so good ! All the characters... the plot line... everything. Surprising how little actual sex there was for a story centered around one night stands haha. But that's actually kind of refreshing :)
Loved it!
| BooksInInk chapter 20 . 5/21/2014
I really did love this story, but when she got pregnant, it was a bit of a disappointment. I really dislike it when the main girl is pregnant. Other than that, the story was absolutely amazing! You writing style is very good, and I totally fell in love with Kevin! 3
| Varjo chapter 21 . 3/5/2014
X_X Omg... I love this story so much!
| Wickedforlife chapter 3 . 2/17/2014
A mafia boss named kevin lee? Really? And do you know how common that name is? In 5th grade we had Kevin Lees in the same classroom.
| chimerica chapter 21 . 2/3/2014
I loved this story. Now to stalk your profile and hope you've written spin-offs featuring some of the other characters, like Logan or Ben! :)
| chimerica chapter 16 . 2/3/2014
Honestly, I love Logan. He justs becomes more and more lovable with every chapter. But he definitely isn't right for our bubble tea fanatic. Nope, Logan is more suited for Rita. :)
| Guest chapter 21 . 1/2/2014
Is Kevin Lee an actual person? Or is he just a fictional character? Someone please answer!
Also, near the ending (chapters 19-20), does Kevin shoot Jess and then shoot Sean Kenza, while he's in shock? Does Sean Kenza or Ben Kenza die? (In Chapter 21 Jessica says "...Does Ben Kenza want revenge?...", meaning he's still alive, but you don't actually explain.
Despite these little confusing parts for me, I still loved reading this story and think you are an amazing writer. The way your writing flows is just magnificent and I'll be sure to check some of your other stories. Keep up the great work!
| Belly boo1099 chapter 21 . 12/29/2013
no offence but yeah your right not my favourite ending but good none the less. I quite loved reading this story, i had trouble putting it down. the necklace rule was pretty cool and creative! Also i was wandering if they was going to make a sequel (i doubt it but...) you know about their married life and the baby and such. but anyway lovely story, keep on writting!


text:
Tim Lammers, Staff Writer
CNN Money
Black Friday sales soared on portable devices.
Investing in better apps and mobile shopping sites paid off for retailers this year, IBM said Saturday, and digital sales were up 21.5% from last year.
Another report from Adobe said Americans spent more t...
iStock Image
The number of adolescent deaths from AIDS has tripled in the last 15 years despite efforts to curb infections, with the majority of cases reported in sub-Sahara Africa, the United Nations Children's Fund announced Friday.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Tracy Morgan says his life will never be the same after a near-fatal car crash in June 2014 -- and that's not necessarily a bad thing.
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An israel design.
This great custom product in black from our department Accessories and Messenger Bag category can be printed just for you in the size and style you like. The design Israel was created by wintergefuehl and uploaded to Spreadshirt for you to have printed on a Messenger Bag. Next to a host of other great customized designs, you can find this Israel design in Spreadshirt's Countries & Flags category. If you are interested in topics like Israel or Jerusalem, then you'll love Israel designs by wintergefuehl. Spreadshirt also offers a huge selection of custom t-shirts, hoodies and accessories for the category Countries & Flags as well as top Jewish clothing. wintergefuehl's designs have already impressed many of our customers, so we are sure that we've got right stuff for you! Spreadshirt is your destination for great designs of all kinds – whether it's Israel, Jerusalem or Jewish. We are sure that you will find something nice in our shop, there are many amazing custom Countries & Flags t-shirts, hoodies, or accessories for you to find! Tags: Design ID: 3677806
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still to fill


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Arizona State Sun Devils
Mel Kiper Jr.: ASU's Sutton, Bradford could be taken on second or third day of draft
With the NFL Draft just two weeks away, scouts and general managers are fine-tuning their draft boards and making final observations on prospective players for their franchises.
Arizona State will be represented in this year's draft by at least two players, defensive tackle Will Sutton and linebacker Carl Bradford, according to ESPN NFL Draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr,.
Sutton could have left for the draft last year, but elected to stay in school his senior season. Sutton has been working on losing weight as the draft approaches, weighing in at 315 pounds at the Senior Bowl and at 297 pounds at his Pro Day.
When asked about how Sutton's weight shift will affect his draft stock, Kiper said that an NFL team could take a chance on Sutton during the second or third day of the draft.
"The ups and down of the way the weight went and the way he performed on the field this year was not the level we had seen," Kiper said in a media conference call Wednesday. "I think somebody is going to maybe try to balance it out and say, 'If we can get him at the right weight, get him back to the way he was and rotate him in there, you got a guy that can make some things happen behind the line of scrimmage.' I think somebody maybe in the third or fourth round will take a look at Sutton."
In his four years at ASU, Sutton totaled 45.5 tackles for loss, 20.5 sacks and twice won the Pat Tillman Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year Award.
In 2012, Sutton and Bradford's combined 44 tackles for loss were the most for a pair in ASU history and they became the first Sun Devil duo since 1994 to post double-digit sacks in the same season.
The two didn't quite reach the same marks in 2013, combining for 32.5 tackles for loss; Bradford had 8.5 sacks and Sutton had four.
Bradford, a 6-foot-1 linebacker, finished his career in Tempe with 40.5 tackles for loss and 21.5 sacks.
"I think Bradford is a little underrated and a little under the radar," Kiper said. "I think he can help you off the edge and he can really do some things from a mobility standpoint and an athletic standpoint. I think third or fourth round for him."
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ASU Football Audio
Todd Graham, ASU football head coach
Friday November 27
Todd Graham is preparing his team for one last regular season game.
Todd Graham, ASU football head coach
Friday November 20
Todd Graham discusses how the Territorial Cup will affect recruiting.
Jeff Van Raaphorst, Sun Devil football analyst
Friday November 20
Jeff Van Raaphorst says the team that executes better will win the Territorial Cup.
Jake Plummer, former ASU and Cardinals quarterback
Thursday November 19
Jake Plummer describes what it is like to play for the Territorial Cup.
Todd Graham, ASU football head coach
Friday November 13
Todd Graham addresses his reasoning for not playing his backup quarterback.


text: > View Product Details Please select the size of the product. Please enter valid quantity. Puma dark shadow grey and black suede 'Classic Eco Trail' sneakers overview details Retail: $65.00 Reduced: $47.99 30% Off : $33.59 color : We're sorry. This style is sold out. Dark Shadow (Grey) / Black With superior comfort, state-of-the-art materials and sleek designs, Puma footwear starts with sport and ends with fashion. Color: Dark Shadow (Grey) / Black Soft suede upper Rounded toe Lace-up vamp Manmade lining with moderately cushioned insole Rubber sole with traction Suede / Rubber; Imported; style#322403901


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Monday, November 30
By BlackAmericaWeb.com
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By Mason & Coco in the Morning!
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882 Views 2 Replies Latest reply: Feb 10, 2009 11:33 AM by Bill Rising
Allan Sampson Feb 8, 2009 7:05 PM
Re: calendars out of sync on iPhone in response to Bill Rising SolvedIf your MobileMe online calendars and calendar events are correct, turn off over the air syncing for calendars with your MM account on your iPhone.
Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars. Select your MM account. Turn Calendars off.
This will erase all calendars and calendar events from your iPhone.
Follow this by turning Calendars back on.
Bill Rising Feb 10, 2009 11:33 AM
Re: calendars out of sync on iPhone in response to Allan SampsonThis did indeed fix the problem. It didn't even occur to me to look inside the account information for the MobileMe [ed. remark: awful name] account.
Thanks a bunch.


text:
There is a reason why I always wait until the 82nd game of the season is in the books before deciding on my postseason awards choices. Three words: What's the hurry? This is a lesson I learned way back in 1999 when I was covering a late regular-season game at the Alamodome during the lockout-shortened 50-game season. There were still three of four games left, and I was sitting alongside a veteran reporter from USA Today and asked him which way he
Bernucca: My annual NBA award picks
I write this column every year two days before the regular season ends, and I usually get right to the point. But this year I am going to start a little differently. So let me get one item off my chest and out of the way: Michele Roberts is way off base. The new executive director of the NBA Players Association tried to reinvent the wheel this week when it was reported that she is instituting the Players Choice Awards, which will
Tweet of the Day: Concern Sets in as Anthony Mason Fights for Life After Heart Attack
Former NBA power forward Anthony Mason is in critical condition after suffering heart failure and a heart attack. Longtime New York-based NBA writer Peter Vecsey broke the news with a tweet around in the late afternoon. [Read more…]
Bernucca: Handing Out My Midseason Awards
One of the biggest knocks against the NBA is that when the season starts, there are only five or six teams that can truly win the championship, making the regular season and the early playoff rounds interminably tedious. Not this season. As we reach the midway point – 18 teams have played at least 41 games, another nine have played 40 – there are no less than a dozen teams with legitimate title aspirations, including a handful that haven't been in the
Levi: Who will win NBA's Sixth Man Award? Handicapping the field
Every year, one of the more entertaining conversations around the NBA surrounds the race for the Sixth Man Award. While it's never about the most shimmering and glamorous of superstars, the talk always turns to the most precious of commodities – a guy who can come off the bench and consistently inject life into his team. The award has gone to characters such as J.R Smith and Anthony Mason, stars such as James Harden and Kevin McHale, and champions such as Toni
Not surprisingly, Jamal Crawford wins Sixth Man award
One of the consequences of the Donald Sterling scandal was that it delayed the official announcement of the Sixth Man Award winner. As the racism controversy was at its peak, the NBA postponed plans to present the award to Jamal Crawford, but news of the delay was reported far and wide. Today, there is enough calm in El Lay to finally make things official. Congratulations, J.Crossover. [Read more…]
Sheridan's Postseason Awards Ballot: Durant is MVP, Thibodeau is Coach of the Year
In a break with tradition, I am casting my NBA awards ballot after the 81st game, not the 82nd. It's a rarity, but this season I will not hem and haw and sleep on it until the afternoon after the final day of the season. You're welcome. I have been an official NBA postseason awards voter for nearly a decade, and it would have been longer if not for a rule at the Associated Press, where I worked from 1987-2005, forbidding
Chris Bernucca's Postseason Award Choices
Transparency is a two-way street. For years, NBA media members – echoing the sentiments of its passionate fan base – wanted more transparency from Commissioner David Stern and his executive staff. Whether it was a lottery drawing, a suspension in the playoffs or a referee scandal, folks felt like they were entitled to an explanation. And they were. Stern grudgingly came around. He arranged for the media to meet with referees prior to the season about rules changes. He allowed the media