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Lakeshore Park playground to be constructed in boy's memory
Two nights away from his first tee-ball game, Hank Rappe, a 3-year-old Knoxville boy sporting curly blond locks, seemingly couldn't wait to hit the field to emulate his brothers, Jack, 5, and Luke, 4.
Hank never made it to that game. He died that evening in his sleep of natural causes on April 5, baffling his parents, family and friends from across the country.
Hank's story, though unexpected, has inspired countless tributes, but one in particular will help the memory of the boy, who was characterized as "a man's man" by his father, to live on in a big way.
Drs. Erin Saunders, Chris Testermen
and Kim Quigley — close friends of Hank's parents, Matt and Brandy Rappe — have paired with Knox Youth Sports to inspire the creation of the Hank Rappe Universal Playground at Lakeshore Park to carry on the boy's legacy.
"When something like that happens, you don't really know what to do," said Matt Rappe, Hank's father, an orthopedic surgeon in Knoxville. "One thing led to another one day and my partners called me and said they were interested in constructing a memorial playground in Hank's honor. Swinging was his thing, so we've been super pumped about it."
The playground will be qualified as universally accessible, featuring ramps and weatherproof flooring, meaning those with special needs will have increased access to the recreation area.
"I think folks will hug their children a little tighter when they play here," said Nic Arning, one of the four members of the fundraising committee for the project. "This memorial will impact a lot of people."
The playground has an estimated cost of $200,000 but is still in the funding process, according to Arning.
The medical community has responded admirably as well with financial gifts toward the project and emotional support for the family.
"It's the saddest our family has ever been, but we feel really loved because this cool thing is happening," Rappe said. "You live in a community, but you don't know it until this happens.
"They've really wrapped themselves around us."
Late fall has been targeted as the anticipated opening date pending the completion of the area's funding, with groundbreaking tentatively set for late summer.
"The city would be happy for the playground to be enhanced and made universally accessible," said Jesse Fox Mayshark, communications manager for the city of Knoxville, which will begin a cleanup of the Lakeshore area to aid with the playground. "Projects like this really show (Knox Youth Sports') and these families' commitment."
With the park's culmination, the boy who seemed to "never meet a stranger," according to his mother, will not soon be forgotten by many in the Knoxville area.
"If you go to a KYS function, there are kids everywhere; it's just fun, and that's what Hank was," Matt Rappe said. "He was simply full of life."
Donations to the project fund can be made at http://www.knoxyouthsports.com/playground-fund.html or by contacting Nic Arning at 865-637-1403.
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What's important to hospitals, employers differs
Hospital leaders want respect; businesses desire cost savings
How much health insurers pay is important to hospital executives, but it pales in comparison to provider and hospital relations.
Trust, respect, and good business practices are not universal in the relationship between payers and hospitals, says Brandon Edwards, president and chief operating officer of Davies Public Affairs in San Diego, which recently released its third survey of hospital executives who negotiate contracts with major health insurance companies.
"When it comes down to it, it's not about money to these guys per se. It's about trust. It's about relationships and it's about credibility," says Edwards.
The public affairs group focuses on three industries, including healthcare, and conducts an annual survey that quizzes hospital leaders, such as CEOs, chief financial officers, and managed care directors. For 2009, Davies added an employer survey, and the two surveys show the varied interests of the two groups. The survey of hospital executives found that the top priority for hospitals in 2009 is increasing rates with their largest payer.
The third priority, shifting market share from one payer to another, saw the largest increase from the 2008 survey and highlights hospital executives' dissatisfaction with health insurers and marketplace volatility. (See Figure 16 below.)
"At a large national player, you have to have a philosophy and have the people who can carry out that philosophy who are good at provider relations. If you are treating people fairly, meaning what you say, and carrying through on contracts, you can't have a business strategy that deliberately alienates providers when the dominant value you provide is access to a provider network," says Edwards.
Outliers in the survey
Once again this year, Davies found two outliers in the health insurance industry. Aetna again topped the list of insurers with a positive image and reputation, and CIGNA ranked second. On the other end was UnitedHealthcare, which received an 82% negative rating from hospital executives who took the survey. (See Figure 17 on p. 21.) "In some basic ways, you can say Aetna has become a provider-friendly health plan," says Edwards.
The three phrases hospital executives used to describe UnitedHealthcare were "rigid/inflexible," "difficult," and "dishonest." Sixty-two percent of hospital executives who took the survey ranked UnitedHealthcare the worst health insurer during contract negotiations, whereas Aetna topped the list of best health plans with 28% in that category. (See Figure 18 on p. 21.)
UnitedHealthcare also ranked lowest in reimbursement rates, honesty and candor in contract negotiations, timeliness and responsiveness in contract negotiations, timeliness in processing and paying claims, denial of claims, and fixing claims in a timely manner. (See Figures 19–24 on pp. 22–24.)
Aetna topped the list for positive contract negotiations and ranked high in critical hospital issues along with independent Blue Cross Blue Shield plans.
In a prepared statement, Paul Marchetti, director of Aetna National Networks and Contracting Services in Middletown, CT, said:
Aetna works hard to make it easy for providers to do business with us. We believe we have made tremendous progress in our ability to simplify business transactions, to deliver quality service and information, and to make our business processes as transparent as possible.
We are committed to continuous improvement, and we are pleased the Davies survey results reflect the progress we have made. By being easier to work with and collaborating with the medical community, plan sponsors, members, and legislators, we can help improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of healthcare.
The reason reimbursement rates are not as important as provider relations is that hospitals don't have problems with UnitedHealthcare's reimbursements. Repairing relationships is more difficult than increasing reimbursements, says Edwards.
"Aetna has decided that there is value in good provider relations and a stable provider network, and United, I think, has decided, or behaved like they decided, that it doesn't matter if doctors like them or hospitals like them or if they have good relationships; they are going to squeeze every dollar no matter what," says Edwards.
UnitedHealthcare responds to survey
UnitedHealthcare representative Cheryl Randolph, who is based in Los Angeles, said Davies' "selective, non-scientific" survey misrepresents the insurer's positive relationship with most hospitals. As proof, Randolph said UnitedHealthcare added more than 100 hospitals to its national network last year and now reaches 84% of U.S. hospitals. "Productive, collaborative relationships between hospitals and payers are important if we are going to make progress together in modernizing our nation's healthcare system, and UnitedHealthcare has taken a number of steps to improve how it works with healthcare providers," Randolph said in a statement.
UnitedHealthcare has worked with hospital systems to improve the accuracy and speed of electronic claims submissions and payments, Randolph said. The insurer's primary claims platform pays more than 20 million claims per month, with 82% processed automatically and 95% paid within 10 days.
UnitedHealthcare has partnered with more than 200 hospitals in an effort to improve claim payment accuracy. One example is the Christus Health hospital system in Dallas, where the system and insurer worked together to improve claims accuracy and payment through improved revenue cycle management.
The insurer has also implemented physician outreach through telephone surveys and provider councils and created ways to reduce administrative burdens for care providers through real-time adjudication and claims estimator tools, swipe card technology, and online member personal health records, Randolph said.
"We regularly and actively engage with physicians and care providers to capture extensive feedback, and that dialogue is instrumental in our continuous efforts to enhance and improve our service to them," she said.
Provider relations are important
The survey results show that provider and hospital relations are important to a health insurer's success. "What seems clear if we look at last year's earnings and Wall Street announcements, there seems to be some correlation, if not causation, between good provider relations and membership growth on the commercial side," explains Edwards.
This year's survey was the first time Davies divided independent Blues and Anthem Blues. Edwards says Davies did this to provide a more accurate picture of the plans.
Hospital executives often don't like independent Blues' reimbursement levels and their domination in markets, such as Rhode Island, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. However, hospitals still trust independent Blues to follow through on promises and treat hospitals fairly, says Edwards.
"I think when these guys sit across from an independent Blue, they might not always love them, but they believe them," he says. "That's what stands out so dramatically. That's just not the case for United and, to a lesser extent, for Anthem."
It's money that matters to employers
For its first employer survey, Davies interviewed 400 employers, which consisted mostly of small businesses. Although many employer studies have focused on large or jumbo employers, Davies wanted to provide a greater representation of businesses, because nine out of 10 U.S. employers are considered small.
The emphasis on small employers is evident in some of the results. "For small businesses, these costs can drive whether they make it or not or whether they are able to provide insurance at all," says Edwards.
The employer survey, which was completed by benefit managers and HR executives, found that most employers are pleased with their health plan. Employers were most satisfied in the areas of selection of doctors and specialists, choice of community and regional hospitals, ease of filing claims, enrolling new employees, and information about changes to coverage.
The biggest factor in choosing a plan for the employers surveyed was the cost of premiums. Half of respondents pointed to premiums as the No. 1 factor, whereas physicians in the plan ranked a distant second. Although employee wellness programs have rated highly for large and jumbo employers, the mainly small employer respondents in the Davies survey were not as interested. Only 4% ranked wellness programs as the top factor, and more than one-third placed it as the least important of six choices.
When removing costs from the equation, a mere 6% of respondents pointed to wellness programs as the most important factor. Health plans are not spending much on disease management, prevention, and wellness because most employers are not interested, Edwards says, adding that wellness will have to become a standard piece of benefit design to get small employers interested in those programs.
"Large employers clearly have interest in and value wellness programs, but when you get down to the small business level, it's all costs," says Edwards, noting that five years ago, small employers were most interested in quality, access, and choice.
More than half of respondents also said their health insurance premiums are too high. A similar amount said their premiums have increased over the past 12 months, which was an increase of 17% from last year's survey.
However, nearly half of respondents said the primary cause for rising premiums was not actual medical care. Insurance company profits, malpractice lawsuits, and paying for uninsured care were the top three causes for rising premiums, according to respondents.
"All of those three things are in some way systematic to flaws in the system. They really don't have anything to do with the care of sick people," says Edwards.
Less than 10% of respondents chose government mandates, prescription drug costs, or doctor care as the reason for spiraling costs.
Employers are largely pleased with their health insurers, Davies says. Although they are most concerned about costs, businesses aren't blaming insurers for higher premiums, but rather pointing to the healthcare system in general.
"I did not expect employers to be as positive about the health plan that they had selected overall and yet still as negative about costs and the cost drivers. It's sort of an interesting dichotomy," says Edwards. "What it shows us pretty clearly is that the employers are relatively happy with their health plans, but they view the system as fundamentally broken and they think their costs are too high."
When it comes to health insurer reputation among employers, the disconnect between employers and hospitals is clear. Employers ranked CIGNA, Blue Cross Blue Shield plans owned by Anthem, UnitedHealthcare, and Coventry much higher than hospital leaders.
These results could be partly because the companies are better at employer relations than provider relations, Edwards says, adding that employers are largely pleased with payers, whereas hospitals, physicians, and employees are dissatisfied.
Hospitals need to educate the public, particularly employers, about challenges hospitals face with health plans so the public understands the value of payer behavior and network stability when choosing a health plan, Edwards says.
"The stability of the provider network and how that health plan treats its business partner, I think, ultimately should matter to the employer," he says.

subset: commoncrawl


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IMF predicts Angola budget deficitComment on this story
Luanda - Oil-rich Angola will post a budget deficit this year for the first time in five years, the IMF said Wednesday, citing a dramatic fall in oil production.
The Washington-based lender said Luanda would post a 4.0 percent deficit for 2014 and predicted the country's growth would slow to 3.9 percent, down from 6.8 percent in 2013.
"The overall fiscal balance, which was in surplus in the last four years, is expected to deteriorate substantially in 2014," the IMF said.
It pointed to a 14 percent drop in oil revenues, thanks to unscheduled repair work at some oil fields.
Angola is sub-Saharan Africa's second-largest oil producer after Nigeria and its third-largest economy.
The IMF urged to government to invest oil revenues in developing infrastructure and measures to reduce rampant poverty and inequality. - Sapa-AFP
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Arizona Diamondbacks
D-backs' Towers: crowded middle infield 'good problem' to have
All of a sudden, the Arizona Diamondbacks have a crowded middle infield.
With second baseman Aaron Hill, shortstop Chris Owings and infielder Didi Gregorius in the major leagues, in addition to shortstop Nick Ahmed impressing at Triple-A Reno, D-backs general manager Kevin Towers thinks the team has four MLB-quality middle infielders.
"It's a good problem to have," Towers said Wednesday morning on the Doug and Wolf show on Arizona Sports 98.7. "We'll see how it plays out. I like our options there in the middle (infield)."
Hill has endured a down season in 2014, hitting .250 with five homers. Two years ago, he was one of the better offensive second baseman, winning a Silver Slugger Award after hitting .302 and 26 home runs. Hill is owed $12 million in each of the following two seasons.
"We still like Aaron Hill a great deal too," Towers said. "Aaron Hill's a proven professional hitter… I'm still a big Aaron Hill fan."
On the other side of the diamond, Owings has played good defense and is batting .270 with six steals and five home runs.
In spring training, Owings beat out Gregorius, the incumbent starter, for the D-backs' primary shortstop position. Gregorius rejoined the MLB team after Cliff Pennington landed on the DL. Since his June 3 call-up, he has appeared in six games, going 6-for-20 at the plate with two home runs.
"(Reno hitting coach) Greg Gross I think did a great job with him, kind of got him into a more comfortable stance," Towers said.
The most intriguing name of the group is Ahmed, a second-round pick in the 2011 draft who came to the D-backs in the Justin Upton trade. At Triple-A Reno, Ahmed is hitting .305 with eight steals this season.
"We've got a lot of good options and that's not even mentioning Nick Ahmed, where I get calls every day on him from probably 20 other major league ballclubs that think he's major league ready at shortstop."
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Friday November 6
Topics include UA football, Ken Whisenhunt, and whether a hot dog is a sandwich. It's sports news sk
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Gonzo reminisces about the '01 World Series and takes on Vince in 2001 Dbacks trivia.
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Tony La Russa elaborates on how the Diamondbacks need to improve in 2016.
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Shailss Local Star
Joined 28 November 2012 Sydney, NSW
35 Reviews
Ayurve SpaDay Spas Sydney, NSW
Went for a body massage there and thoroughly enjoyed the session . The staff was polite was friendly and my massage therapist kept asking me if I am comfortable and if I would like attention to specific areas .
The ambience was not great but calm and relaxing . The accessibility of the place is great being in The Myers and their opening hours allow to make appointments after work .
Concord Yoga StudioYoga North Strathfield, NSW
I joined Concord Yoga few weeks back for prenatal yoga classes and am thoroughly enjoying my sessions there . The place offers a very calm atmosphere with great ambience . Lynn , my instructor is fabulous and drives the yoga practice very smoothly .
Would recommend this place for anyone looking for an active yoga experience.
Knickknack CafeCafes Sydney, NSW
Went to knickknack cafe today after hearing rave reviews from work colleagues .. I ordered an avocado toast on multigrain bread and was surprised that it is priced at $9 (pretty high I feel for a toast) . The serving size was huge though with lots of avocado spread and nuts and olive oil but do I really want such a big portion for breakfast .
Not impressed at my first experience but may be will try their coffees and spinach pastry that has been rated well here .
Criniti's Darling HarbourRestaurants Sydney, NSW
Great selection of pastas and pizzas with lots of options to choose from especially for vegetarians . The food quality is good although the prices are a little of the higher side . Its very crowded on weekends so I would recommend making reservations .
Canopy Restaurant & CafeRestaurants Sydney, NSW
I recently started going to this place for my morning coffee. Found the coffee to be always good with deep and nutty richness. They offer a $5 coffee+toast combo with really good quality toast .
Offer a loyalty card as well with a free coffee for every 6 coffees :)
Deck SydneyRestaurants Milsons Point, NSW
Amazing views , spectacular food and fantastic service . The place ticks all the boxes. The staff was friendly and attentive and went that extra step to make us feel special. We had the special for the day "Mushroom risotto" and it could well be the best risotto I had till date .
Happy to go back any time .
Indian Empire RestaurantRestaurants Launceston, TAS
Being one of the only few indian restaurant in the small town of Launceston , the place was pretty crowded with both locals and tourists which is always a good sign . And we were not disappointed . The food was good - flavoursome , authentic and served hot. The breads were specially very nice .
The customer service is however not the best , with the staff of only 2 people taking orders , serving and attending to all the tables .Definitely needs improvement ..
Zia Pina Pizzeria RestaurantRestaurants Sydney, NSW
The worst italian dining experience I had in Sydney . The decor is good old italian and you walk in thinking that you have come to a authentic italian place and you have to think again when you taste the food.
The ravioli pasta was undercooked and there was no stuffing whatsoever , the sauces tasted like they came from some readymade sauce containers and the pizza crust was sloppy and undercooked.
Sails On Lavender BayRestaurants Mcmahons Point, NSW
This place is an absolute stunner both in terms of view and food. The location of this restaurant may well be the best in Sydney with unobstructed views of Sydney Bridge and the harbour .
It ticks all the boxes- amazing views, classy dcor, friendly staff, great wine list and top notch food!
I had their vegetarian assiette (a selection of vegetarian dishes) and absolutely loved it. Their deserts are a must try. The creme brulee I had was lovely ps it came on fire ..
A well deserved five star rating to Sails !!
Mountain Heritage Hotel And Spa RetreatHotels Katoomba, NSW
Lovely old mansion style hotel with amazing Jamison valley views . It has an elegant old world charm with a fireplace in the reception area and antique look furniture . Located close to the Katoomba town center with easy access to all major attractions , it is a perfect place to unwind and enjoy a relaxed stay. The restaurant offers great views and their food is splendid. Loved the distinct preparation and presentation for all their dishes.
Highly Recommended !
Savoy RestaurantTakeaways Katoomba, NSW
Really Great place for a meal any time of the day . The staff is friendly and the service is quick. Lots of options to choose from including pizzas , pasta , sandwiches .
The food was hearty and simple . Really liked their pizza.
My Choice Indian RestaurantRestaurants Sydney, NSW
Small place mostly crowded at lunch time for take awaya and their awesome lunch buffet. I had been here on two occasions for dinner and found the food to be really authentic punjabi. Good selection of veg and non veg dishes in their menus. Value for money !!
Casa AsturianaRestaurants Sydney, NSW
Went here with a couple of friends for a Saturday dinner. The place has an old and rustic look . The food was average but we enjoyed the live Spanish dance performance. The staff is pleasant and have a welcoming attitude.
Overall a thumbs up !
Planet Pizza Gourmet Pizza SydneyTakeaways KINGS CROSS, NSW
Loved the pizzas . The crust is so crispy and the toppings fresh . Yum !
Red Pepper Indian RestaurantRestaurants Melbourne, VIC
Amazing Indian cuisine .
Medusa Greek TavernaRestaurants Sydney, NSW
My First experience of Greek cuisine and Medusa made it really great ! The food was so delicious . I liked the attention to detail they put in the presentation of the dishes.
Max Brenner Chocolate BarCafes Sydney, NSW
Best chocolate cafe in the city . Highly Recommended.
Taste of ShanghaiRestaurants Sydney, NSW
The place was very crowded and we had to wait to get seated . The service was good . The food , we found to be just average . The onion pancakes were good but we were disappointed with the noodle soup that we ordered .


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When I arrived in Nigeria in October, I had this idea – make a documentary to show Nigerians how Champions are made in Track and Field. At London 2012, our great nation had suffered the ignominy of not winning a single Olympic medal, the first time that had happened since 1988! I felt strongly that,
- Home
- Posts made in March, 2013


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1998 GMC Yukon • V8 4WD Automatic • 187,000 miles
I drive a 1998 GMC Yukon. The front heater stopped blowing out air. (You can feel the warmth or cold seeping out, just not blowing) I assumed it was just the blower motor but, my stereo started acting up as well. The stereo seems to work but, the speakers cut in and out, sometimes I can go an entire car ride without them coming on. The lights on the stereo (it is a stock system) are half out and the lights for the heater dials (right below the stereo) do not work. If I smack the dash a bunch sometimes they'll come on.
Is the heater not blowing the blower motor or can something electrical be going on?
Is the heater not blowing the blower motor or can something electrical be going on?
August 26, 2012.
August 26, 2012.
Check for power to the motor. Check the blower resistor as well.
Aug 26, 2012.
Aug 26, 2012.
From what I've read, the blower resistor would mean that the vents only blow on high? I read on another site where someone had this issue and it was a bad fuse inside their stereo. Is that something that can affect the whole dashboard?
Aug 27, 2012.
Aug 27, 2012.
No, not the stereo fuse.
The blower resistor can totally fail or fail on just one or more modes. It needs to be checked with a voltmeter to confirm.
The blower resistor can totally fail or fail on just one or more modes. It needs to be checked with a voltmeter to confirm.
Aug 27, 2012.
Aug 27, 2012.
Electrical problem 2001 Chevy Impala 6 cyl Front Wheel Drive Automatic 132000 miles I have a 2001 chevy impala with a factory stereo. It has FM/AM/CD/Cassette and is malfunctioning...
3 answers • 2001 Chevrolet Impala
Electrical problem 1996 Jeep Cherokee 6 cyl All Wheel Drive Automatic I recently installed an aftermarket stereo and after a week or so it quit working I checked all the ...
1 answer • 1996 Jeep Cherokee
Electrical problem 1984 Other Porsche Models 4 cyl Two Wheel Drive Manual 70,093 miles The stereo won't get any power. I checked the wires and they have no power going to them. The ...
1 answer • 1984 Porsche Other
Electrical problem 1993 Geo Prizm 4 cyl Front Wheel Drive Automatic 93,000 miles installed a 200 watt stereo in my geo and in the process of soldering speaker wires to the radio ...
1 answer • 1993 Geo Prizm


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RELEASED was amazing, I fell even more in love with this series and I couldn't put this book down. I liked where the story went and I liked meeting the new characters and getting to know others better… The ending left me wanting more and the wait for the next book is going to feel really long, because I want book 3 now!
Sanaa is proving to be one of my favorite female leads. Not only is she strong, but she's a damn good fighter. She knows how to do hand-to-hand combat, and she can wield a sword!
FACE TIME, without a doubt, made it into my favourites list, and I cannot recommend this book more. It's a beautiful read that you can absorb yourself fully into, and I'm already waiting to see what story Pajonas will provide me with next.


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Inside you'll find a review for Andy Harnell's comic book series Army of Darkness: Ashes 2 Ashes, which will soon be continued with Shop Til You Drop [Dead]. The story, illustrated by Nick Bradshaw, gives Ash an attempt to redeem himself after misspeaking the words before taking the Necronomicon. He returns to the woods were it all began! Read on for a review…
Army of Darkness
Ashes 2 Ashes
Comic Review
By Jessica Dwyer
I have never been a so-called "normal girl." The reason I know this? Because if I was in a burning building and was trapped in a hallway with two ways out, one being saved by Brad Pitt and leading to a tropical beach and one being saved by Bruce Campbell and having to fight a pack of Evil Dead after jumping from the burning building I'd be running to the man with the chainsaw hand. Yeah baby, I'd take "He of the large chin and arching brow" over Brad Pitt. Why? Cause Bruce Campbell is a God.
Ash will always be Bruce Campbell in my eyes, no matter what Raimi thinks he's doing having some other mook do a "re-imagining" of Evil Dead with some young guy as Ash. I have no idea what he's smoking, what's possessed him (probably a deadite.) Ash is Bruce. You can throw us the crumb that you are still thinking of doing an Evil Dead 4 Mr. Raimi, but you've soiled your spotless rep with me by saying okay to a Colin Farrell look-a-like trying to take on a role that Bruce made his own. Why is Raimi doing a Lucas and trying to improve on perfection (Dead by Dawn was the improved Evil Dead wasn't it?) Heck at least Lucas screwed up his own flicks, he didn't hand it off to some other director. As you can see I needed major comfort after reading that this stuff was going on.
So imagine how happy I am now that there is a another resurgence of interest in Army of Darkness. We have toys, trading cards, and comics spewing forth everywhere, from action figures to a re-issue of the ultra gorgeous John Bolton drawn comic of the film that was released back in 1993. Also being released is the new adventures of our hapless hero Ash, in the first set of a series put out by Devil's Due publishing called Army of Darkness "Ashes 2 Ashes."
"Ashes 2 Ashes" starts with Ash being sought out by The Wise Old Man because if you remember, Ash goofed up and we still have deadites running around. The plan is to destroy the book, once and for all. But to do this they have to go through time portals and such. Also, time is loopy thanks to Ash's goofs. So Old Guy and Ash have to go back to the cabin and Ash has to make sure his past self goes back in time and helps Arthur and Henry The Red fight Evil Ash and his minions. We have Good Ash Vs Good Ash and we have Good Ash Vs. Evil Ash. Lots and lots of Ash. Which is a good thing of course.
The artwork is different in this comic from any I've seen before. It's a neat mix of old and new styles and distinguishes it nicely. Nick Bradshaw is a great artist and he makes this cartoony look work for what was already a living cartoon in the films. The writing is also loyal to the movies dialog, with Ash's one-liners firing right and left.
Each comic has a set of collector covers (the same issue with covers by different artists.) I have mixed feelings about this as it makes it damn difficult to get a single issue when comic stores only get a set number and avid collectors come in and buy every one because they have different artwork on them. But at the same time it's nice to see Ash depicted in each artists style. So it's a double edged sword (or chainsaw.)
I really enjoyed these comics and I'm looking forward to the next installment "Shop Till You Drop" which looks like we get to see some S-mart action.
Shop mart shop S-mart, ya got that??!
Jessica Dwyer


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Rent Rises for the 21st Century
Editorial Staff • West End • 8 Oct 2007
The Welsh Centre, a predominantly brown and faintly musty building on London's Gray's Inn Road, hardly screams glamour. But today it's buzzing with the kind of crowd you'd expect to see propping up at some exclusive metropolitan cocktail bar. Guys in low-slung jeans saunter among slim, silky-haired girls. Famous Basildon blonde Denise Van Outen stalks about in knee-high boots and Siobhan Donaghy, ex-Sugababe, flits through like a pale and lovely, flame-haired ghost. At the centre of the butterfly-bright activity is William Baker, style guru and creative right-hand man to Kylie Minogue, and the director of Rent, the newly adapted 21st-century 'remix' of Jonathan Larson's 1996 multi award-winning rock opera.
Fashion, pop & theatre
Baker, all casual chic in pale knits and designer denim, is feeling less than his best at today's rehearsal. He's spent the previous night DJing at a London Fashion Week after-party and has, he says, the "hangover from hell". It doesn't show. As we discuss his update of a show that took Broadway by storm but never really found its feet in London, he is passionate, articulate and, for all his fashion-fabulous approach to art, deadly serious.
Baker hails from Manchester, but moved to London as a teenager to read theology at King's College – a degree choice prompted not by faith, but by a taste for religious imagery and language. He supplemented his student loan with a Saturday job at one of Vivienne Westwood's boutiques – and it was there, in a fortuitous twist of fate that has transformed both their careers, that he met Kylie. They "hit it off", he began styling her, and the professional relationship blossomed until he was directing her stage extravaganzas, working alongside her musical director Steve Anderson, who has re-orchestrated Larson's songs for this Rent.
It may seem a leap from the pop world to the theatre, but while he admits he's learning on the job, Baker says he feels surprisingly comfortable making his theatre debut. "I've always treated Kylie's arena shows as musicals," he explains. "I approach pop music through the lyrics, so it creates a narrative. I've directed Rent the same way I do a pop concert – staging first, then characterisation, starting with the physicality, the geography and the choreography of it. I always work visually."
A necessary update
Larson's Rent, based on Puccini's La Bohème, depicts the loves, lives and struggles of a group of young, arty East Village Manhattan friends. It's a mix of pop culture and social concerns, the high-energy music and free-spirited, bed-hopping lifestyle offset by poverty, street violence, heartbreak, rent demands and AIDS. That "darkness and light" appealed to Baker, and he is convinced that an update is just what the show needs to make it successful here in London.
"It's always tricky with something contemporary; even after a year it dates, because fashions change, musical tastes change – everything changes so quickly." Accordingly, Baker and Anderson, the show's musical supervisor, have overhauled the score. Gone are what Anderson calls "those Nineties American rock, Bon Jovi-style guitars"; in their place is a "richer, lusher sound" he terms "pop orchestral". The remixed Rent has also been pruned down to a running time of just over two hours, and British actors will speak in their native accents. Also, for the first time in a West End theatre, the production will operate a general admission ticket admission policy, with one-price stalls tickets allocated on a first come, first served basis, just like a gig or pop concert.
But Baker's reasons for wanting to make the show feel enduringly significant run deeper than aesthetics. "I lost a friend to AIDS a couple of years ago," he confides quietly. "I'm a Thatcher kid, so I still remember the 'Don't die of ignorance' campaign, the iceberg shattering and gravestones toppling. Many of my friends are older than me, and some of them lost a lot of people to it. Until recently, I had never experienced that kind of devastation first hand, and I don't know whether I would have done this show if I hadn't lost my friend. If even one person still has to die of AIDS, it's still relevant. The gay community's blasé attitude to disease in general, the promiscuity and irresponsibility about drug-taking and sexual health gives it a strong reason to exist."
Darker, sexier characters
This is, then, a much darker Rent – one where heroin addicts don't perform high kicks, death doesn't arrive laced with sentimentality and HIV therapies have been updated. Baker has also reconsidered the characterisation. "I wanted something very real and very intense. That's difficult to do with a musical, because they're so often all 'ta-dah' and jazz hands," he says.
So Mark, the show's central narrator figure, has gone from being "a bit geeky" to "hot! a confused boy, very attractive and compelling, struggling to express his emotions", while Mimi, formerly an "almost S&M-type nightclub dancer" is now played by Donaghy as a burlesque performer – "a kind of cross between Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge and Kate Moss, a flawed beauty".
Taking on another of the re-imagined roles is Denise Van Outen, who, fresh from a hush-hush business trip to Hollywood, is just starting rehearsals. She plays Maureen, an edgy bisexual performance artist. Looking bronzed and stunning but feeling, with her first-day nerves and a newly fitted invisible brace on her teeth, like "the new girl at school", she's still getting to grips with the part. "Maureen's quite feisty, a bit of a show-off. She likes to be the centre of attention. The idea is to make Rent funkier and edgier and the show's themes, especially AIDS, have changed 11 years later."
Van Outen works it
Does Van Outen relate? "Yeah," she giggles. "I think that's why William picked me. But Maureen's probably a bit more ballsy than me. Like, she'll walk into a room and everyone has to know she's there. I know my television persona's like that, but I'm not so much. Often at parties I'll be hiding in a corner. People are always surprised."
Last seen on the West End stage in 2003 in a reworked version of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black's one-woman song cycle Tell Me on a Sunday, Van Outen's stage credits also come as a surprise to those who only knew her as a television presenter, or from her recent stint as a panellist on Any Dream Will Do. The theatre section of her CV includes A Slice of Saturday Night, Les Misèrables, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Stop the World ¬ I Want to Get Off. But she really razzle-dazzled everyone when she returned to the West End in 2001 to play celebrity murderess Roxie Hart in Chicago, later reprising the role in her Broadway debut.
Van Outen, then, is clearly a grafter – "hard work is my philosophy" – and to get stage-fit for Rent, she'll be walking home to Hampstead from rehearsals every night. "You can't beat the buzz of live performance and I love the discipline of it. When I'm working I don't drink, I never go into smoky atmospheres. Then the minute it's over I head straight for the bar!" Above all, though, she's just glad to be in an acting job – "I never stop counting my blessings".
Nothing's sacrosanct
To judge by the blogging activities of the self-styled 'Rent-Heads' – obsessive fans of the show – Van Outen's not the only one relieved that she's playing bisexual Maureen. Online rumours about the musical's reinvention are rife, with one armchair pundit concerned that the role would be cut altogether. ("NOT COOL MAN!"). Baker, however, has little patience with those who consider Rentsacrosanct.
"I think that's very narrow-minded. Jonathan Larson created something that was very cutting edge and very of its time; what we're doing is making it of this time. I think he would want that – he would want his show to be dynamic and dramatic, he would love his songs being updated and made more powerful. It's not like we're murdering them.
"And anyway," Baker adds, with a persuasively charming grin, "Why do it the same? What would be the point?"
Rent opens on 15 October 2007 (previews from 2 October) at the Duke of York's Theatre. A longer version of this article appears in the October issue of What's on Stage magazine (formerly Theatregoer), which is out now in participating theatres. Click here to thumb through our online edition. And to guarantee your copy of future print editions - and also get all the benefits of our Theatregoers' Club - click here to subscribe now!!
** Our Whatsonstage.com Outing to RENT on 6 November – including a FREE drink & our EXCLUSIVE post-show Q&A – is now SOLD OUT! click here to join the waiting list! **
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text:
Originally posted on Fox Sports West | Last updated 2/28/13
LOS ANGELES, CA - SEPTEMBER 23: Dwight King of the Los Angeles Kings skates against the Phoenix Coyotes at Staples Center on September 23, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. The Coyotes defeated the Kings 3-1. (Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Anze Kopitar scored the tiebreaking goal on a slick pass from Dwight King with 4:48 to play, and the Los Angeles Kings rallied from a third-period deficit for their fifth straight victory, 2-1 over the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday night. Jonathan Bernier made 32 saves for the defending Stanley Cup champions, who tied it with 9:34 left on Jeff Carter's goal during a two-man advantage. King then made a spinning pass from the boards in front to Kopitar, who beat Jimmy Howard for his sixth goal of the season. Howard stopped 27 shots for the Red Wings, who had won two straight after an 0-3-2 skid. Kyle Quincey scored his first goal of the season on a misplay by Bernier in the first period. Los Angeles is on its longest winning streak of the season, winning seven of eight overall after a 3-5-2 start to its title defense. The Kings began with 50 scoreless minutes one day after trading seven-time, 20-goal scorer Simon Gagne to Philadelphia for a conditional draft ...
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text:
The history of the U.S. president
Published On: Oct 21 2011 11:10:05 AM EDT Updated On: Jan 10 2015 11:00:00 AM EST
Today is President's Day! Do you know how many children Jimmy Carter has? What religion did Chester Arthur practice? Find out more information about past and present U.S. presidents here.


text: I have just purchased a 3 yr old pony gelding for dressage. We were doing well he bronc bucked me off for no reason. Then he got a stone bruise. He was on stall rest for a month and is now sound. I have to drug him to ride and hand walk. I put on a saddle on him today not drugged and in 2 walk steps he started bronc bucking. Some people tell me even if he was off for a month, he shouldn't do that is he was truely broken. What do ya'll think? This my first time with a newly broke horse. Is there any good western trainers for young horses around Charlotte, NC?????


text:
Holy cow, I wrote a book!
There appears to be some confusion over whether the maximum
size of the environment is 32K or 64K.
Which is it?
The limit is 32,767 Unicode characters,
which equals 65,534 bytes.
Call it 32K or 64K as you wish, but make sure you include the units
in your statement if it isn't clear from context.
Whenever I write an article explaining that programs should avoid
doing X, I can confidently
rely on
a comment saying,
Microsoft Product Q does this!" as if
to say,
you hypocrite!"
But they're saying "gotcha" to the wrong person.
Because, and I'm sure it's a shock to many people to read this,
I did not personally write every line of software Microsoft ever produced.
(And even if I did write it, I may have written it as a younger
developer, before I learned about said rule.
Because, and I'm sure this is also a shock to many people,
I was once a beginner, too.)
If you find a Microsoft product breaking a rule,
then go complain to that product team.
Complaining to me won't accomplish anything.
I don't have access to their source code, and even if I did,
I certainly
don't have permission to go in and make changes to their code,
nor do I have the time to go in and learn how their product
works and figure out the right place to make the fix.
and I don't know if you all can handle three shocking revelations in
one article,
product teams do not send me every line of code for review.
Indeed, one of the reasons I write here about things programs
should or shouldn't do is because I myself will see a Microsoft
product breaking a rule!
By discussing the problem here rather than in an internal
mailing list, the information gets out to everybody.
And maybe, just maybe, the product team will read the entry and
say, "Oops, I think we do that."
Because (shocking revelation number four) not all Microsoft
programmers are seasoned experts in Win32 user-interface programming.
(Articles where I was consciously tapping my colleagues on the head
my discussion of CallMsgFilter,
the long and sad story of the Shell Folders key,
reminding you to pass unhandled messages to DefWindowProc.
In fact, for every "do/don't do this" article,
I'd say odds are good that
with enough searching, you can
find a Microsoft product that breaks the rule.
And when you do, complain to that product team.
Even the
difference between the tray and the notification area
was in part a response to all the other groups that perpetuate the
misuse of the terminology.)
So when I write something like,
"Applications shouldn't do this", go ahead and insert the phrase
"and this means all applications, including those published by Microsoft."
When I write, "some annoying programs", go ahead and
insert the phrase, "which might even include programs
published by Microsoft".
I'm not going to insert those phrases into every sentence I write.
I'm assuming you're smart enough to realize that general statements
apply to everyone regardless of who signs their paychecks.
Of course, if the consensus of my readership is that
I shouldn't tell you not to do things
until every last Microsoft product has been scoured to ensure that none
of them violate that rule either,
then I can abide by that decision.
I'll just stop posting those tips here and keep them on the internal
mailing lists.
It's much less work for me.
Last time, we saw how
the way Win32 exports functions
is pretty
much the same as the way 16-bit Windows exports functions,
but with a change in emphasis
from ordinal-based exports to name-based exports.
This change in emphasis is not expressed anywhere in the file format;
both 16-bit and 32-bit DLLs can export either by name or by ordinal
(or by both), but the designers of Win32 were biased in spirit
in favor of name-only exports.
But there is a new type of exported function in Win32, known as a forwarder.
A forwarder looks just like a regular exported function, except that
the entry in the ordinal export table says, "Oh, I'm not really a
function in this DLL. I'm really a function in that DLL over there."
For example,
if you do a
link /dump /exports kernel32.dll, you'll see a line
like this:
link /dump /exports kernel32.dll
151 EnterCriticalSection (forwarded to NTDLL.RtlEnterCriticalSection)
This means that if a program links to
the loader silently
redirects it to NTDLL.RtlEnterCriticalSection.
Forwarders are a handy way to accommodate functionality moving from
one DLL to another.
The old DLL can continue to export the function but forward it to
the new DLL.
The forwarding trick is actually better than just having a stub
function in the old DLL that calls the function in the new DLL,
because the stub function creates a dependency between the old DLL and the
new one.
(After all, the old DLL needs to be linked to the new DLL in order
to call it!)
With a forwarder, however, the new DLL is not loaded unless somebody
actually asks for the forwarded function from the old DLL.
As a result, you don't pay for the new DLL until somebody actually wants it.
Okay, we saw that with forwarders, Win32 has diverged from 16-bit Windows,
but when it comes to imports, it's a whole new ball game.
We'll pick up the story next time.
The designers of 32-bit Windows didn't have to worry quite so much
about squeezing everything into 256KB of memory.
Since modules in Win32 are based on demand-paging,
all you have to do is map the entire image into memory and then
run around accessing the parts you need.
There is no distinction between resident and non-resident names;
the names of exported functions are just stored in the image,
with a pointer (well, a relative virtual address) to the name
stored in the export table.
the 16-bit ordinal export table,
the 32-bit ordinal export table is not sparse.
If your DLL exports two functions, one as ordinal 10 and one as ordinal 1000,
you will have a 991-entry table that consists of two actual function pointers
and a lot of zeros.
Thus, you should try not to have large gaps in your ordinal exports,
or you will be wasting space in your DLL's export table.
As I noted above, there is only one exported names table,
so you don't have to distinguish between resident and non-resident names.
The exported names table functions in the same manner as the exported
names table in 16-bit Windows, mapping names to ordinals.
Unlike the 16-bit named export tables, where order is irrelevant,
the exported names table in 32-bit Windows is kept sorted so that
a more efficient binary search can be used to locate functions.
As with 16-bit Windows, every named function is assigned an ordinal.
If the programmer didn't assign one in the module definition file,
the linker will make one up for you, and as with 16-bit Windows,
the value the linker makes up can vary from build to build.
However, there is a major difference between the two models:
Recall that named exports in 16-bit Windows were discouraged (on
efficiency grounds), and as a result, every exported function was
explicitly assigned an ordinal, which was the preferred way of
linking to the function.
On the other hand, named exports in 32-bit Windows are the norm,
with no explicit ordinal assignment.
This means that the ordinal for a named export is not fixed.
For example, let's look at the ordinal that got assigned to the
kernel32 function LocalAlloc in the early years:
Now, some people are in the habit of reverse-engineering
import libraries, probably because they can't be bothered to download
the Platform SDK and get the real import libraries.
The problem with generating the import library manually is
that you can't tell whether the ordinal that was assigned to,
say, the LoadLibrary function was assigned by the
module definition file (and therefore will not change from build to build)
or was just auto-generated by the linker (in which case the ordinal
will change).
The import library generation tools could just play it safe and
use the named export, since that will work in both cases,
but for some reason,
they use the ordinal
export instead.
(This is probably a leftover from 16-bit Windows,
where ordinals were preferred over names, as we saw earlier.)
This unfortunate choice on the part of the import library generation tools
to live dangerously has created compatibility
problems for the DirectX team.
(I don't know why DirectX got hit by this harder than other teams.
Perhaps because game developers don't have the time to learn the
fine details of Win32; they just want to write their game.)
Since they used one of these tools, they ended up linking to
DirectX functions like DirectDrawCreate by ordinal
rather than by name, and then when the next version of DirectX came
out and the name was assigned a different ordinal by the linker,
their programs crashed pretty badly.
The DirectX team had to go back to the old DLLs, write down all the
ordinals that the linker randomly assigned, and explicitly assign
those ordinals in the module definition files so they wouldn't
move around in the future.
There are other reasons why you cannot generate an import library
from a DLL; I'll pick up those topics later when I talk about
import libraries in more detail.
Next time, forwarders.
In the discussions following
why Windows setup lays down a new boot sector,
some commenters suggested that Windows setup could detect
the presence of a non-Windows partition as a sign that
the machine onto which the operating system is being
installed belongs to a geek.
In that way, the typical consumer would be spared
from having to deal with
a confusing geeky dialog box that they
don't know how to answer.
The problem with this plan is that not everybody with
a non-Windows partition type is necessarily a geek.
Many OEM machines ship with a hard drive split
into two partitions,
one formatted for Windows and the second a
small non-Windows partition to be used during
system diagnostics and recovery.
The presence of this small non-Windows partition
is typically not well-known, and it comes into
play only when you boot from the manufacturer's
"system recovery CD".
The upshot of this is that if Windows setup took
the "anybody with a non-Windows partition must be a geek"
it would end up tagging an awful lot of people as geeks
who really aren't.
Now, you might say,
"Well, only geeks install the operating system anyway.
Normal people typically buy a computer with the operating system
The fact that they are running Windows setup proves that they're
a geek in the first place.
Therefore, Windows setup should be optimized for geeks."
Indeed, the premise of this argument—that only geeks
run Windows setup—is true, but only
once you've reached steady state.
In the months immediately following the release of a new
version of Windows,
everybody is installing the operating system,
geeks and non-geeks alike.
(There is also an influx of non-geek people installing Windows
every Christmas.)
Magazine reviewers are writing boatloads of articles
on the new operating system, and the initial setup experience
is the very first thing they notice about Windows.
It had better be smooth and painless.
Now that we've learned what the dllimport
declaration specifier does, what if you get it wrong?
If you forget to declare a function as dllimport,
then you're basically making the compiler act like a naive compiler
that doesn't understand dllimport.
When the linker goes to resolve the external reference for
the function, it will use the stub from the import library,
and everything will work as before.
You do miss out on the optimization that dllimport
enables, but the code will still run.
You're just running in naive mode.
(There are still some header files in the Platform SDK that
neglect to use the dllimport declaration specifier.
As a result, anybody who uses those header files to import functions
from the corresponding DLL will be operating in "naive mode".
Hopefully the people responsible for those header files will
recognize themselves in this parenthetical and fix the problem for
a future release of the Platform SDK.)
Now, what about the reverse problem?
What if you declare a function as dllimport when it
really isn't?
The linker detects this since it sees an attempt to import a
__imp__FunctionName symbol and can't find one, though it
can find the normal FunctionName symbol.
When this happens, the linker raises
warning LNK4217.
It recovers from this error by simply manufacturing a fake
__imp__FunctionName variable and initializing it with
the address of the FunctionName function.
In effect, you've imported the function from yourself.
Your code now goes through all the gyrations associated with
calling an imported function unnecessarily; it could have just
called FunctionName directly.
(There are cases where the linker can be a little smarter.
For example,
if it sees a call [__imp__FunctionName], it can change
it to call FunctionName + nop.
The nop is necessary because the
call [__imp__FunctionName] instruction is six bytes
long, whereas call FunctionName is only five.
The extra nop gets everything back in sync.)
call [__imp__FunctionName]
call FunctionName + nop
call FunctionName
Thus, in both cases where you mess up the dllimport
declaration specifier, the linker manages to recover from your mistake,
and your program does run fine, though the patching up did cost you
in code size and efficiency.
(All this discussion is for x86, by the way.
Other architectures have different quirks.)
Next time, more on import libraries, and exposing some "little
white lies" I've been telling.
When I wrote that
the symbolic name for the imported function table entry for
a function is called __imp__FunctionName,
the statement was "true enough" for the discussion at hand,
but the reality is messier, and
the reason for the messy reality is function name decoration.
When a naive compiler generates a reference to a function,
the reference is
decorated in a manner consistent with its architecture, language,
and calling convention.
(Some time ago,
I discussed some of the decorations you'll see on x86 systems.)
For example, a naive call to the GetVersion function
results in the compiler generating code equivalent to
call _GetVersion@0 (on an x86 system; other architectures
decorate differently).
The import library therefore must have an entry for the
symbol _GetVersion@0 in order for the external reference
to be resolved.
call _GetVersion@0
To correspond to the stub function whose real name is
_GetVersion@0 is the import table entry whose name
is __imp__GetVersion@0.
In general, the import table entry name is __imp_
prefixed to the decorated function name.
The fact that names in import libraries are decorated means
that it is doubly crucial that you use the official import library
for the DLL you wish to use rather than trying to manufacture
one with an import library generation tool.
As we noted earlier, the tool won't know whether the ordinal
assigned to a named function was by design or merely coincidental.
But what's more, the tool won't know what decorations to apply
to the function (if the name was exported under an undecorated name).
Consequently, your attempts to call the function
will fail to link since the decorations will most likely not match up.
In that parenthetical, I mentioned exporting under undecorated names.
Doesn't that mean that you can also export with a decorated name?
Yes you can, but as I described earlier,
you probably shouldn't.
For as I noted there, if you export a decorated name, then that
name cannot be located via GetProcAddress unless you
also pass the decorated name to GetProcAddress.
But the decoration schema changes from language to language,
from architecture to architecture, and even from compiler vendor
to compiler vendor,
so even if you manage to pass a decorated name to the
GetProcAddress function, you'll have to wrap it
inside a huge number of #ifdefs so you pass the
correct name for the x86 or ia64 or x64, accordingly,
as well as changing the name depending on whether you're using
the Microsoft C compiler, the Borland C compiler, the Watcom
C compiler, or maybe you're using one of the C++ compilers.
And woe unto you if you hope to call the function from Visual Basic
or C# or some other language that provides interop facilities.
Just export those names undecorated.
Your future customers will thank you.
(Exercise: Why is it okay for the C runtime DLLs to use
decorated exports?)
The whole point of dynamic link libraries (DLLs) is that
the linkage is dynamic.
Whereas statically-linked libraries are built into the
final product, a module that uses a dynamically-linked library
merely says, "I would like function X from Y.DLL, please."
This technique has advantages and disadvantages.
One advantage is more efficient use of storage,
since there is only one copy of Y.DLL in memory rather than a
separate copy bound into each module.
Another advantage is that an update to Y.DLL can be made
without having to re-compile all the programs that used it.
On the other hand, the ability to swap in functionality automatically
is also one of the main disadvantages of dynamic link libraries,
because one program can change a DLL that has cascade effects on
other clients of that DLL.
Anyway, let's start with how 16-bit Windows managed imports and
exports. After that, we'll see how things changed during the
switch to 32-bit Windows, and then we'll take a look at
the compiler-specific dllimport declaration specifier.
(I already discussed dllexport earlier.)
A 16-bit DLL has not one but three export tables.
(Things are actually more complicated than I describe them here,
but I'm going to skip over the nitpicky details
just to keep everyone's heads from exploding.)
The most important table is a sparse array of
functions, indexed by a 1-based integer (the "ordinal").
It is this function table that is the master list of all
exported functions.
If you request a function by ordinal, the ordinal is looked up
in this table.
The table is physically rather complicated due to the sparseness,
but logically, it looks like this:
The first column in the table is the ordinal of the function,
and the second function describes where the function can be found.
(Notice that there is no function 3 or 4 in this DLL.)
Things get interesting when you want to export a function by name.
The exported names table is a list of function names with their
associated ordinal equivalents.
For example, a section of
the exported names table for the 16-bit window manager (USER)
went like this:
Wait, did I say the exported names table?
I'm sorry, that was an oversimplification.
There are actually two exported names tables,
the resident names table and the non-resident names table.
As their names suggest, the names in the resident names table
remain in memory as long as the DLL is loaded, whereas the names
in the non-resident names table are loaded into memory only
when somebody calls GetProcAddress (or one of its
moral equivalents).
This distinction is
a reflection of the extremely tight memory constraints that
Windows had to run within back in those days.
For example, the window manager (USER) has over six hundred
export functions; if all the exported names were kept resident,
that would be over ten kilobytes of data.
You'd be wasting four percent of the memory of your 256KB machine
remembering things you don't need most of the time.
The large size of the table for exported function names meant that
only functions that are passed to GetProcAddress with
high frequency deserve to be placed in the resident names table.
For most DLLs, no function falls into this category, and the
resident names table is empty.
(Head-exploding details deleted for sanity's sake.)
Since obtaining a function by name is so expensive
(requiring the non-resident names table to be loaded from disk
so it can be searched),
all functions exported by operating system DLLs are exported
both by name and by ordinal,
with the ordinal taking precedence in the import library table.
Obtaining a procedure address by ordinal avoids the name tables
Notice that every named function has a corresponding ordinal.
If you do not assign an ordinal to your named function in your
module definition file, the linker will make one up for you.
(However, the value that it makes up need not be the same from
build to build.)
This situation did not occur in practice, for as we noted above,
everybody explicitly assigned an ordinal to their exports and
put that ordinal in the import library in order to avoid the
huge cost of a name-based function lookup.
That's a quick look at how functions were exported in 16-bit Windows.
Next time, we'll look at how they are imported.
Back in 2003,
M&M offered a chance to win $5000 every summer for life,
but if you looked more carefully, the offer actually read,
"Win $5000 Every Summer For Life*",
and the asterisk at the bottom read, "Maximum 50 years".
That fine print was filled with strange stuff.
For example,
3. Sponsor responsible only for delivery of prize; not responsible
for prize utility, quality or otherwise.
10. Sponsor: M&M/Mars, High Street, Hackettstown, NJ 07840.
One of the prizes was approximately ten pounds of M&Ms.
The logical conclusion: "M&M is not responsible for the quality of
I was reminded of this by the recent flap over
how hard it was for one person to cancel his AOL account.
There was an AOL contest some years back that offered a
chance to "Win free AOL dial-up service for life!",
and it too had limited your life to 50 years in the fine print.
That one would actually be fun, though.
Imagine, in the year 2052, AOL
will still have to keep one modem up and running just for this contest
An import library resolves symbols for imported functions,
but it isn't consulted until the link phase.
Let's consider a naive implementation where the compiler
is blissfully unaware of the existence of imported functions.
In the 16-bit world, this caused no difficulty at all.
The compiler generated a far call instruction and left an
external record in the object file indicating that the
address of the function should be filled in by the linker.
At that time, the linker realizes that the external symbol
corresponds to an imported function, so it takes all the
call targets,
threads them together,
and creates an import record in the module's
import table.
At load time, those call entries are fixed up and everybody
is happy.
Let's look at how a naive 32-bit compiler would deal with the
same situation.
The compiler would generate a normal call instruction,
leaving the linker to resolve the external.
The linker then sees that the external is really an imported
function, and, uh-oh, the direct call needs to be converted
to an indirect call.
But the linker can't rewrite the code generated by the compiler.
What's a linker to do?
The solution is to insert another level of indirection.
(Warning: The information below is not literally true,
but it's "true enough".
We'll dig into the finer details later in this series.)
For each exported function in an import library,
two external symbols are generated.
The first is for the entry in the imported functions table,
which takes the name __imp__FunctionName.
Of course, the naive compiler doesn't know about this fancy
__imp__ prefix.
It merely generates the code for the instruction
call FunctionName and expects the linker to produce
a resolution.
That's what the second symbol is for.
The second symbol is the longed-for FunctionName,
a one-line function that consists merely of a
jmp [__imp__FunctionName] instruction.
This tiny stub of a function satisfies the external reference
and in turn generates an external reference to
which is resolved by the same import library to an entry
in the imported function table.
jmp [__imp__FunctionName]
When the module is loaded, then, the import is resolved to
a function pointer and stored in __imp__FunctionName,
and when the compiler-generated code calls the FunctionName
function, it calls the stub which trampolines (via the indirect call)
to the real function entry point in the destination DLL.
Note that with a naive compiler, if your code tries to take the address
of an imported function, it gets the address of the
FunctionName stub, since a naive compiler simply
asks for the address of the
FunctionName symbol, unaware that it's really coming
from an import library.
Next time, we'll look at the dllexport declaration specifier
and how a less naive compiler generates code for an imported function.


text:
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- Throwback Thursday: Sanu's route to RutgersFormer Rutgers wide receiver Mohamed Sanu did not spend his senior season like most other players. Go back to 2008 and see what kind of path the current NFL player took to Rutgers.
- Oben's Showcase brings out Northeast talentThis past Sunday marked the fourth annual Roman's Soldiers Showcase at the Indoor Sports Pavilion in Randolph. The event, which has become March tradition in New Jersey, is hosted and directed by former NFL offensive lineman and current NFL Director of Youth & High School Football Roman Oben.
- Throwback Thursday: Sanu's route to Rutgers
- Competitive Spring for WilkinsPISCATAWAY, N.J. -- Kevin Wilkins came a long way from the guy that arrived late to Rutgers last spring. The near 300-pound nose tackle finds himself solidly in a defensive line rotation for spring camp, and discussed his role and progress with Scout during the first week of practice.
- Longa Looking For Weakside ImprovementPISCATAWAY, N.J. -- With a season under his belt at weakside linebacker, Steve Longa is looking for marked improvement this spring.
- Competitive Spring for Wilkins
On the Banks
- Is Jon Pollock Bringing Rutgers Next Commit to the Banks?Jon Pollock and Friend Trey Sneed are Heading to Rutgers for a Visit. Is a Sneed Commit imminent? Coming home to the banks with @TreySneedFL #CHOPNation #BacktoRutgers pic.twitter.com/e6ShJ6Brzq— The Hit Man (@kingpollock) April 2, 2015 Rutgers chief Florida recruiter, linebacker commit Jonathan Pollock, is headed back to the Banks, with his friend, RB prospect Trey […]
- Rutgers Basketball: A Facilities Plan Draws NearRobert Barchi speaks, and it's GOOD NEWS Today, Keith Sargeant* and Ryan Dunleavy* broke a story that would be better off appearing on Christmas instead of April 1st. *Click on the links for the full reads. Totally worth it. Robert Barchi said that Rutgers is very close to completing a plan for a major facilities upgrade. The first phase […]
- Is Jon Pollock Bringing Rutgers Next Commit to the Banks?
SNY Rutgers
- Transfer Kiy Hester wears his loyalty on his sleeve with Rutgers tattooKiy Hester has transferred more than once in his high school and collegiate football career, but as he starts spring practice with the Scarlet Knights, he's showing his loyalty in a permanent way (NJ.com, April 2). The inside of Hester's forearm is inked with a Rutgers' scarlet "Block R" logo and a No. 2 for […]
- Chris Laviano hopes to earn starting QB jobRutgers quarterback Chris Laviano played in five games last season as the backup quarterback, but with Gary Nova looking for his spot in the NFL, the starting job is up for grabs this season (NJ.com, March 31). Laviano will compete with Hayden Rettig and Giovanni Rescigno for the starting spot, but he said he thinks he […]
- Transfer Kiy Hester wears his loyalty on his sleeve with Rutgers tattoo
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Daily Archives: November 13, 2012
Rutgers will be joined by Central Florida, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Louisville and South Florida in the Big East's East Division beginning next season, the conference announced Tuesday. The West Division will be comprised of Boise State, Houston, Memphis, San Diego State, … Continue reading
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Senior linebacker Steve Beauharnais, fifth-year senior linebacker Khaseem Greene, fourth-year junior left guard Antwan Lowery and third-year sophomore cornerback Logan Ryan have been nominated by Rutgers for All-American honors. The quartet each has worthy credentials at their respective positions, with … Continue reading
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Rutgers coach Kyle Flood talked about a variety of topics following practice Tuesday, updating an injury report that includes running back Jawan Jamison, right guard Andre Civil and placekicker Kyle Federico and talking about the challenges of facing Cincinnati's high-scoring … Continue reading
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It's safe to say Cincinnati coach Butch Jones has a great deal of respect for the Rutgers football team. "It's going to be a great challenge here Saturday," said Jones, whose Bearcats (7-2, 3-1) will play host to the No. … Continue reading
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Mike Rice shook up the starting lineup and everyone responded, routing Sacred Heart 88-62 as four players scored in double figures and RU held Sacred Heart to 36 percent shooting. Here is my newspaper game story. Here are the thoughts … Continue reading
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Campus Scenes
An Astonishing Lack of Coulter
Our Ann raises some heckles at the University of Connecticut.
Remember this maxim: when a liberal says something outrageous, it's a courageous embrace of First Amendment freedoms, intended to catalyze discussion; when a conservative does the same, it is hate speech. This is the lesson liberals at the University of Connecticut (UConn) were attempting to teach students until last Wednesday, when they went too far by repeatedly interrupting Ann Coulter's remarks. Now, students are rebuking their liberal counter-parts.
"I wasn't irritated in the least, inasmuch as this happens at every campus," Coulter told TAS, adding, "except the prestigious ones in the northeast and campuses in the south, interestingly." She wasn't long into her speech before UConn's sound system interrupted her, belching out the lyrics to cartoon show South Park's song, "Kyle's Mom is a Big Fat *****," as well as the theme song to the classic Nintendo game, "Super Mario Brothers." Coulter's biting humor has elicited heckles before, most notably at University of Arizona, where assailants with terrible aim attacked her with a pie.
In one letter to UConn's Daily Campus, student Douglas Hamel described his disappointment in the way liberal students conducted themselves:
It isn't often that they get the opportunity to ask pressing questions of some whom they so strongly oppose. I can guarantee you that the conservatives on campus would have taken advantage of such an opportunity if we were able to see Michael Moore or Al Franken give a speech and answer questions.
In fact, they did take advantage of their opportunity only a few days earlier, at a university-sponsored speech by Cindy Sheehan. Several conservative students protested outside the speech and then quietly joined the audience. Of those protesters, Benjamin Woodard noted that "as much as they were against her, they knew how to respect her." If anything, the College Republicans benefited from the poor behavior of their liberal cohorts, eliciting not only frustration and outrage by moderates on campus, but also prompting interviews with conservative students on The O'Reilly Factor and mentions by Neil Cavuto on Fox News. Meanwhile, liberal agitators got national press for being incapable of listening to an alternative viewpoint, and proffering a reactionary view.
This should come as a disappointment to those who protested her appearance at UConn, claiming Coulter's jocular and satirical tendencies represented "hate speech." Once news hit that Coulter would be coming to campus, a group called "Students Against Hate" was immediately formed by Eric Knudson, a sophomore journalism and social welfare major, who said of her previous comments, "we encourage diverse opinion at UConn, but this is blatant hate speech."
How Knudson could substantiate that was uncertain -- particularly since he didn't attend the speech to hear for himself. Tom Gaffey, editor-in-chief of the Daily Campus student newspaper agreed that she promoted vile ideas. "It's not that she's a Republican. It's her reputation as a hate promoter," Gaffey said. "If Michael Moore or a crazy, radical liberal who would bring just as poor of a reputation to campus came here, we would be against that too. Can't we bring a more intelligent speaker to campus? Can't we spend our money more wisely?" Gaffey raised no complaint, however, of Cindy Sheehan's appearance.
Though the University of Connecticut does not have a policy specifically defining "hate speech," the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is skeptical about the university's embrace of free speech. For example, the university's student handbook has a loose definition of harassment, consisting of:
...abusive behavior directed toward an individual or group because of race, color, ethnicity, religion, age, sex, martial status [sic], national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, genetic information, physical or mental disabilities (including learning disabilities, mental retardation, and past/present history of a mental disorder), prior conviction of a crime (or similar characteristic). The University...forbids harassment that has the effect of interfering with an individual's performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment.
Ann Coulter may be guilty as charged for offending politically correct sensibilities, but whether the students who claimed to feel threatened by her "hate speech" had a right to prosecute, or rather, to persecute her as bizarrely as they did during her speech is clearly in question. Showing that the complaining students weren't the only ones without a sense of humor, an AP report claimed that she "reversed" a previous position, when stating that denying women the right to vote was a joke. "Liberals cried and cursed and stomped their feet and we had a lot of laughs at their expense," smirked Coulter.
Emily Salisbury of the College Republicans who initially had the idea of bringing "the #1 Conservative Woman" to campus told TAS, "Part of what we were trying to achieve was to bring out a larger audience who wouldn't normally attend a conservative lecture. We got 2,500 people. Next time we have a speaker planned, hopefully we'll draw a larger crowd." Salisbury also indicated that the high turnout negated the initial criticism of bringing Coulter to campus, which was directed at the "self-serving" nature of bringing a high-priced speaker who only represented one political viewpoint. Not only did the misplaced complaints and protests look bad and earn nationwide attention, they also helped the College Republicans advertise their speaker and justify the event.
THOSE ELEMENTS that have helped Coulter remain in the spotlight, her dry, cutting wit and her theatrics were only proven effective by the outrage. "Reagan used theatricality. What's wrong with theatricality? Any good speaker has to be theatrical," she observed. "I don't know why people always emphasize it with me." Perhaps because college students aren't used to a speaker who takes such jabs at her own audience. When asked what her thoughts were on pre-marital sex, she replied, "That's got to be the worst pick-up line I've ever heard." When asked what she would say were she to find out her child was gay, Coulter suggested, "Did I ever tell you that you were adopted?" When made aware that she would not be able to complete her comments, she skipped the rest of her speech to go into Q&A, explaining, "I enjoy engaging in repartee with people stupider than I."
It was Coulter's coolness which earned her the respect of the audience -- as soon as they understood she was engaging in pointed satire, they saw the rabblerousers, who were calling out throughout the Q&A, as being the most hateful. One student remarked, "You know, by calling Ann Coulter's remarks 'hate speech' they're showing how little they have to offer by way of ideas. The speaker was making her point through humor, while the humorless just didn't have a point."
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A look-alike of Michael Jackson on Saturday wowed the "madlang people" and hosts of "It's Showtime" as he performed the King of Pop's hit song "Thriller."
The studio audience were also caught by surprise over the neon lights attached on the costume of "KalokaLike: Face 2" semi-finalist Silver Inabangan. -- It's Showtime, ABS-CBN, September 7, 2013


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Briefly: Business app Blueprint, security app Viper, launch
updated 11:23 am EST, Tue November 5, 2013
Blueprint for OS X free until November 10
Blueprint, a business organizational app, has launched -- offering users an integrative project organizer that can sync with Apple's native apps. Blueprint features the ability to manage projects and track their progress using milestones, and link items together to get a full overview of a contact or project. Task management, note creation, and calendars are included, and imported files and folders can be managed with a drag-and-drop function. Currently available for free from the App Store until November 10, full pricing will be $60. System requirements for Blueprint are OS X 10.7.3 or later, and at least 2GB of RAM.
Viper releases all-in-one security app for home and car monitoring
Viper, an electronics manufacturer, has released its latest security app, ViperConnect. The app allows users to monitor their Viper security devices for both home and car. Viper Home, available from Best Buy for $230, can connect to the app upon installation, which also links to one's Viper SmartStart car security app to create a simplified security system. The app can monitor video (with a $10 monthly subscription) and send notifications of movement or alarm disarming inside the home.
The app can locate where a user's parked car is located when using Viper's car security system. Additionally, users can review the security history, instigate a panic alarm for the home, or arm the home remotely. ViperConnect can be downloaded on iTunes for free, and requires iOS 6.0 or later. An Android-compatible version of Viper Connect is available on Google Play.


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This white paper describes how to configure Oracle VM for SPARC logical domains with multiple I/O domains with Symantec Storage Foundation and High Availability (SFHA). The logical domains are managed by Symantec Cluster Server (VCS) installed in the I/O domains and the logical domains are part of a multi-node SFHA cluster formed between logical domains. This whitepaper starts with converting an existing physical system to support logical domains, describes the steps to export storage and network services to logical domains, and provides steps to install SFHA or VCS in logical domains and I/O domains.
Configuring logical domains and SFHA in OVM for SPARC environment with multiple IO Domains
Created: 10 Apr 2014 • Updated: 28 Apr 2014
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A clerical error has turned a Mat-Su Borough Assembly race into a nail-biter.
Just 23 votes now separate challenger Matthew Beck and incumbent Noel Woods in the race to represent District 2, which includes the Palmer area. Beck co-owns North Star Animal Hospital with his wife; Woods is a retired general contractor who has served one three-year term on the Assembly.
When polls closed Tuesday, Beck had a lot more breathing room. He held a 123-vote lead.
But when the borough's canvassing board started double-checking vote tallies Wednesday, they noticed a mistake, borough clerk Lonnie McKechnie said Thursday.
A borough elections staffer entering results on election night had typed in "114" instead of "14" votes for Beck from a precinct in District 2.
That makes the race too close to call. The borough issued nearly 300 absentee ballots and more than 100 questioned ballots in the precincts that make up District 2.
The borough will probably count votes Oct. 11 or Oct. 12, McKechnie said. The Assembly is scheduled to certify the election results on Oct. 15.
The other open borough Assembly seat, for District 1, was also a close one with Jim Sykes holding a 45-vote lead over Doug Glenn after polls closed but more than 100 absentee and more than a dozen questioned ballots issued.
Reach Zaz Hollander at firstname.lastname@example.com or 257-4317.
By ZAZ HOLLANDER


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FANCY GAP — Virginia State Police responded to a series of four accidents that occurred within two-tenths of a mile on Interstate 77 early Friday.
According to State Police First Sgt. Mike Musser, the string of incidents began at 5 a.m. in the southbound lane at mile marker 2.8 in Carroll County. A flatbed tractor-trailer carrying aluminum framing for solar panels was traveling southbound when rain caused a passenger car in front of the tractor to hydroplane.
"[The driver of] the flatbed jammed his brakes to avoid a collision, and when he did that, he jackknifed and lost his load of aluminum metal on the interstate," Musser said.
The accident caused an immediate backup of about two-tenths of a mile.
"In the process of this, another tractor-trailer ran off the left side of the road, struck an embankment and overturned on its right side," Musser said. The driver of the tractor-trailer was taken to Northern Hospital of Surry County in North Carolina.
"About that same time, a personal use Humvee struck the rear of another car and forced that one into the back of a tractor trailer," Musser said.
He reported that another tractor-trailer ran off the left side of the road, damaging some air lines on the vehicle. "He was disabled in the median," the sergeant said.
Traffic was immediately closed in one lane because of the load of steel on the road. Musser confirmed that the lane was still closed at 10 a.m. Friday, as aluminum was being cleaned off the road.
Further details were to be released by police today, Monday, Musser said.
• See www.galaxgazette.com for updates to this story.
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