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1949 Studebaker Truck - No Faker, StudebakerWritten by on January 22, 2007 Contributors: D. Brian Smith Dwight Hamann's '49 Studebaker
Folks either know about Studebakers or they don't. The old guys-the real old guys-say Studebakers haven't been any good since they took the tongue out. For those of you who don't get it, the expression refers to the tongue in a horse-drawn wagon.
The origin of Studebaker pickups can be traced back to 1852 in Placerville, California, where John Mohler Studebaker sold his first wheelbarrow. John's device looked like a wood-floored pickup bed on two wheels with no engine. In 1858 "Wheelbarrow" Johnny sold his manufacturing business and joined his brothers in South Bend, Indiana, to build wagons for the U.S. Army. By the end of the Civil War, the Studebaker brothers had become multimillionaires, and Studebaker was the world's dominant name in horse-drawn vehicles. By 1870, John's youngest brother, Jacob Franklin Studebaker, had established the world's first Studebaker dealership in St. Joseph, Missouri.
Our story about St. Joe resident Dwight Hamann's 1949 Studebaker pickup begins 155 years later.
While driving through the outskirts of St. Joe, Dwight spotted the Studebaker pickup abandoned in a field. Its second owner parked the Stude there in '70 after driving it since '57. Dwight paid the guy $200 and hauled it away-after removing a big tree that had grown up between the frame and engine, that is.
Dwight started the project by grafting a '70 Nova subframe onto the truck's nose and stuffing a 402-inch Chevy big-block engine into it. Dwight told us "life gets in the way," so his progress on the truck didn't always move as fast as he would have liked it to. Dwight was kicking around a lot of the '49 Stude's major components for a project like this. The pickup's Ford nine-inch rearend is from a '69 Cougar Dwight stripped several years ago. For rear disc brakes, he robbed a set from an 8.8-inch Ford Explorer rearend and hogged them out to fit.
Dwight originally ran a TH350 behind his "rat" motor until the 350 snapped in half while shifting into high. Not wishing to continue snapping trannies into halves, Dwight upgraded to a beefed 200R four-speed auto from Pro-Street Transmissions in Independence, Missouri.
Dwight's 402-inch big-block engine was running in a '68 Camaro. Long story short, someone wanted the Camaro, but Dwight didn't want to part with his trusty 402. He yanked the motor out and shelved it until the Studebaker came along. The "rat" motor was kind of tired, so before he could drop it in the Studebaker, he had to rebuild it. Dwight hauled his core motor up to Leaverton's Auto Supply in St. Joe, where the block was hot-tanked and bored to 0.30-over for a set of 9.75:1 Keith Black pistons fitted with Sealed Power rings. Cam bearings were knocked in, readying it for Steve Schott to slip in a Lunati bumpstick with a 544 lift and 230 duration. The cylinder heads were plugged with triangle-cut stainless steel valves, with a Power Plus intake manifold gapping the intake valley. For carburetion, the Studebaker uses a 780-cfm Holley with a K&N filter. Jet-Hot coated Dynomax headers dump into a pair of Flowmaster mufflers.
Dwight does auto body and paint work for a living. The average person might think Dwight's color choice was an easy decision. In reality, that wasn't the case. Dwight sprayed everything from orange, to red, to green on beat-up Studebaker fenders before he arrived at the brilliant pearl blue finish that graces his truck today. If you'd like to use this blue on your truck, it's a PPG fleet color, paint code number 190107, with PPG DBC 2042 clear on top.
Before Dwight painted the Stude, he had to unwind years and years of rust and abuse. Of course, when you pull a truck out of a field, you may have to repair a few bullet holes. After Dwight got the cab and front end ready for paint, his next move was to prepare the bed. Unlike 1852 Studebaker wheelbarrows, the '49's bed is steel. This, along with the absence of running boards, is where Studebakers got the jump on trucks of their day. Dwight shaved the stake holes and frenched the antenna for his Pioneer sound system with MP3 player into the front passenger-side stake hole. He cut out the Stude's steel bed floor. Then Dwight laid in a sheet of steel, welded it in and shot the bed with blue-tinted spray-in bedliner.
Dwight's '49 Studebaker pickup is as sweet as they come. In the eyes of many people, these trucks are in a category all their own. Think about it, how many trucks can you name that look like they came from the factory with a chopped top and a lowered stance? In the first three months Dwight's Studebaker was running, he put over 7,000 miles on it. Dwight says, "The fun thing about building the old girl is always having someone check her out, admire her, or just plain shoot the bull."
Hey, who knows, maybe someday a guy will walk up to Dwight and say, "Yep, 155 years ago my great great grandfather Jacob Studebaker opened up the world's first Studebaker dealership right here in St. Joe."
More Photos From This Article View Slideshow
A brand-new reproduction Studebaker tailgate from Mac Tool & Die of Moberly, MO, splits up a pair of '93 Caddy taillights. Dwight incorporated a hidden hitch into the custom roll pan.Steve Schott built the '49's Lunati-cammed 402-inch big-block Chevy. The oil pan holds six quarts. The A/C compressor is a fully polished Sanden 508.Replated original emblems trim the '49. All the chrome plating is by Complete Bumper of Kansas City, KS. Thanks, Fred!Rolling stock consists of Chevrolet Rally Sport wheels shod with BF Goodrich T/As. Check out the tri-bar spinner.A four-spoke Camaro steering wheel on a Buick Century tilt column faces Dolphin gauges clustered in an instrument panel Dwight fabricated. Under-dash ARA air conditioning keeps the Stude's cab cool on muggy Missouri summer days.It's not kangaroo-Rick's Upholstery in St. Joseph stitched Australian steer-hide leather to cover Dwight's '90 Sable bucket seats with fold-down armrests.Modern conveniences abound in the cab, including power windows with keyless remote locks. Look above the passenger side's leather door panel, stitched by Rick Angst, and you'll notice Dwight eliminated the '49's vent windows with one-piece tempered glass from Render Auto Glass in St. Joseph. In addition, Render supplied the laminated glass windshield halves that replaced the '49's original bullet-ridden windshield.


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Designed after the popular Leopard Stool, this piece features X-style legs, much like empire furniture, and rosette corners for an ornate touch. Storage space under the seat makes this piece versatile and stylish. It is your choice of a red, ivory or leopard pattern. The frame is hand carved, making each piece unique. This piece will make a great bedroom bench, piano bench, foot rest, additional seating, and a perfect gift for anyone.
From the Style at Home with Margie Collection.
The frame is made from MDF (medium density fiberboard) and wood. The seat is made from 60% cotton/40% polyester with a 100% polyurethane fill. This piece measures 19-1/4"H x 25"L x 16-3/4"W and weighs 19 lbs; storage dimensions 22" x 13" x 2-1/2". 200lbs weight capacity. Use Wood Lemon Oil Polish or Clean with a (clean) damp cloth, dry with a (clean) soft cloth. Spot clean fabric only using cold water (up to 85 F). Medium level of assembly required (approximately 15 minutes). For indoor use only. Made in China.


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Mesquite Smokehouse Beef Tostaditos
- Shred Mesquite Smokehouse Beef Brisket; set aside.
- In a large sauté pan, heat 2 tablespoons of canola oil over medium high heat. Add corn tortillas and cook 1-2 minutes on each side. Remove and stack tortillas on a warming plate in a 150 degree oven to keep warm.
- Wipe out the pan. Add chili beans and heat over medium heat until warmed through. Remove from heat.
- Spread a large spoonful of beans evenly on a tortilla and top with lettuce, tomato, avocado, cheddar, brisket, Monterey jack, and jalapeno, and then serve.


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See All Contributors »
Anyone have info on WBB recruits for 2007?
ISU has signed two. Here are a few articles about them.
I thought we had some girl from DMACC coming in too maybe? At least that is what my roommate who referees some JUCO games told me once and apparently the girl we recruited/were recruiting or whatever was pretty good. I'll have to get some more info on this...
Kelsey Bolte from Battle Creek-Ida Grove who is a WBCA All-American
Jocelyn Anderson (mentioned in the first article I linked) is the DMACC player. Here's another article on her:
According to the NJCAA site, she had 15.3 ppg, 9.4 rpg, 1.8 apg, 5.2 bpg, and shot 63.4% from the field.
Thanks to all for the WBB recruit info.
Originally Posted by mred
Jocelyn Anderson (mentioned in the first article I linked) is the DMACC player. Here's another article on her:
According to the NJCAA site, she had 15.3 ppg, 9.4 rpg, 1.8 apg, 5.2 bpg, and shot 63.4% from the field.
That's who it is. She's #44 in this pic: http://www.library.dmacc.cc.ia.us/At...l/2006team.asp
She's 6-3 and my roommate says she just dominated the 2 games he saw of her this season. Looks like a good signing.
Jared Homan's sister Megan who is 6-3 also plays on that DMACC team.
Amanda Zimmerman from Huxley is a recruit, but I don't know if it is for 2007. She and Bolte were both first team all staters.
Zimmerman is just a sophomore. Well have to wait a couple of years for her.
Originally Posted by tellmac
Anyone have info on WBB recruits for 2007?
Jocelyn Anderson, 6-4 C/F Des Moines Area CC, Praire Valley HS,
Kelsey Bolte, 6-1 G Battle Creek-Ida Grove,
Alexis Yackley, 5-7 PG Sully Buttes, South Dakota
Ashley Arlen, 6-1 F/G Cascade
Amanda Zimmerman, 6-2 F/C Ballard
Iowa and UNI have been leaning heavily on instate recruits lately. Fennelly has taken 1-2 from Iowa each year, and filled in with Mo. and Minn. recruits in recent years. But Bill has taken the cream off the top.
Rivals or Scout needs to get off their arses and start ranking high school girls. Not saying they need a top 150, but atleast give us some position rankings, regional rankings, something.
Originally Posted by Drive4cy
Rivals or Scout needs to get off their arses and start ranking high school girls. Not saying they need a top 150, but atleast give us some position rankings, regional rankings, something.
Actually Scout has a list (commonly called hoopgurlz) Here are some other sites I go to - they are often regional and not comprehensive. Girls have to go to specific tournaments or camps to get noticed nationally. ISU recruits aren't usually on these lists. Bill usually doesn't recruit the nationally ranked girls, choosing instead to develop local talent - I'd like to discuss that approach, but, not now.
Sibyl's Recruiting Site http://web.utk.edu/~smarshal/2007.htm
BlueStar http://www.bluestarbb.com/
All-Star Girls Report http://www.michaeltwhite.com/
(some free info - requires a subscription for lots of promised content - not me)
Hoopgurlz.com seems to be a Scout affiliate - http://girlshoops.scout.com/
HuskyNan's - UConn fan who has put together a whole bunch of links - takes some work, but, you can see who other programs are looking at.
Weve got a pretty good football conference, and weve got a pretty good conference overall. Were still walking around with our heads held high and our chest out, about that. Paul Rhoads
One more....newcomer next year. Brittany Lange is a transfer from Creighton who sat out this year. She is a 5 10 guard from Sac City. Brittany holds the Iowa High School record for 3 point shots made per game at 3.56 and is second in career 3 point shooting in Iowa High Schools with 260.
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Hi everyone
Just wondering what everyone thinks of the idea of having remote .vcf support.
The ability to create a new Address List in Zimbra, but it actually syncs with a .vcf. In terms of the Zimbra interface, it could operate in exactly the same way as subscribing to remote calendars.
I think that would be mega-cool
Anyone else think that would be cool?
I posted about this in /etc (http://www.zimbra.com/forums/etc/215...cards-vcf.html) but thought I'd put in a proper feature suggestion here.
At the moment we have a few .vcf files that we periodically download to refresh various address lists. The .vcf files are generated from our company contacts database on our intranet server (PHP/MySQL), and this works really well because you can store many individual contacts within a single .vcf
The connection to our intranet is obviously SSL and protected by HTTP basic auth.
dkarp made an excellent point in my other thread though... there's no unique ID in the VCard spec. Which would mean the entire address list would have to be cleared and re-loaded from the VCard file.
Whereas with .ics you can update specific events because each event contains its own ID.
I think remote .vcf files could be a really cool feature. It would be cool for us anyway , having our various company email lists stored in Zimbra and periodically refreshed with new data.
Thanks, B


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Dr. Rob Morgan, Department Head
Office: 104 Alston Hall
In addition to completing the specific prerequisites included in the descriptions of the following courses, all students seeking to enroll in a 300- or 400-level course in the Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration must have attained junior standing (61 semester hours).
All C&BA students must, prior to seeking to enroll in any 300- or 400-level C&BA course, complete or be enrolled in the following prerequisites: EC 110 and EC 111; MATH 112 and MATH 121, or MATH 115 and MATH 125; CS 102; AC 210; ST 260; and LGS 200 (or their equivalents); and at least 4 hours in natural science, 3 hours of fine arts, literature, or humanities, and 3 hours of history or social and behavioral sciences. Failure to fulfill all prerequisites prior to enrolling in a 300- or 400-level C&BA course will result in administrative disenrollment from that course.
HCM 370 Introduction to Health Systems. 3 hours.
Prerequisites: EC 110, AC 210, and LGS 200.
Detailed study of components of the health care delivery system in the United States. The course emphasizes history, roles, and interactions of the various providers, consumers, and governments.
HCM 371 Analysis of Health Care Systems. 3 hours.
Prerequisite: HCM 370. May be taken with HCM 473.
Analysis of operations within health care institutions.
HCM 472 Legal Aspects of Health Care (also LGS 472). 3 hours.
Prerequisite: HCM 370. May be taken with HCM 473.
Examination of the broad areas of the law that have an impact on the operation of health care institutions.
HCM 473 Survey of Issues in Health Care Management. 3 hours.
Prerequisites: Senior standing and HCM 370.
Corequisite: HCM 371.
Examination of current issues in health care, including health care policies and their effect on the health care industry.
HCM 475 Principles of Managed Health Care. 3 hours.
Prerequisite: HCM 370.
This course examines the fundamental tenets and practice of managed care organizations as well as current issues and potential developments in the management of health care.
HCM 476 Principles of Long-Term Care. 3 hours.
Prerequisite: HCM 370.
Corequisite: HCM 371.
The focus of this class will be on organizational platforms for delivering long-term health care, licensing and regulatory issues facing long-term care and operational and strategic issues facing long-term care.
HCM 477 Principles of Ambulatory Care Management. 3 hours.
Prerequisites: HCM 370 and HCM 371.
The purpose of this course is to help students understand the management issues in today's ambulatory care sector.
HCM 491 Independent Study in Health Care Management. 1-3 hours.
Students may earn degree credit for only one independent study course (491).
HCM 492 Internship. 1-3 hours.
Prerequisites: For HCM majors only and HCM 370 and HCM 371. May be taken with HCM 473.
Supervised administrative work experience in the health care industry.
HCM 497 Special Topics. Three hours.


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September 26, 2012 | 953 views
Teaching kids to stand up
9E principal writes book about bullying
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Dr. Karen Siris, the principal of Boardman Elementary School in Oceanside, has long been a champion of trying to stop bullying in schools. She created anti-bullying programs in Oceanside and serves on the taskforce for the state's Dignity for All Students Act, a new anti-bullying law.
So it makes sense that Siris would co-author a book about students working together to stand up to bullies.
Siris co-wrote "Stand Up!" with Boardman parent Lisa Roth, an allergist with an office in Lynbrook. Roth had previous experience publishing a children's book. When her son was in kindergarten, it was suggested that parents not bring in cupcakes and sweets to celebrate their child's birthday, but do something special.
"And I took that very seriously as a parent," said Roth. "I said, I'm not going to bring in sweets. What can I do that's meaningful and will add value to my son and the class. And I figured, let me read a book. Then I said no, I'm going to write one."
Roth read her book, "The Magical Journey," on her son's fifth birthday, and she said the teachers cried. "It's really a dialogue from a parent to a child [to teach them about] different values and morals and ethics," said Roth.
Siris had met Roth through the school, and turned to her when the idea came to write a book. Roth's friend Marsha Levitin, an artist, illustrated her first book and the two asked her to illustrate "Stand Up!" as well.
"Lisa gave me quite a challenge when she said, 'Why don't we do it from the knees down?'" Levitin said.
The book is from the perspective of a nameless student who sees a bully, Alex, picking on a girl, Jamie. The narrator decides to get a group of students who care about people together to help Jaime. Instead of one student standing up to Alex, the group does. They eat lunch with Jamie and befriend her, coming to her aid when Alex comes to make fun of her. The group standing up to him makes Alex realize that being a bully is wrong.
Siris and Roth finished writing the book last summer. The time since then was taken up by Levitin: researching for her illustrations and then creating them all. Each was a 13-inch by 13-inch pastel drawing, and she created 24 unique ones for the book.
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KeywordsAlex Costello, Oceanside, 11572, Dr. Karen Siris, School 9E, Lisa Roth, Marsha Levitin
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As reigning Australian Open champs top seeds Roger Federer + Serena Williams own the first leg of the Calendar Slam and are faves to grab the second leg in Paris. They both played their first round matches today and debuted new gear from Nike.
The Swiss stylist began the defense of his Roland Garros crown easily defeating Peter Luczak 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 in his typical, sweatless style. His stats told the tale: 34 winners/11 errors, 7 aces, and 71% success on first serves deliveries winning 80% of the time.
So what new styles was Fed working during this drubbing?
There isn't much you can do with menswear especially with someone who tends to stay with the classics like Fed. However, I was loving the henley-style tops he was wearing during the warm up tourneys because it was a nice change up from the polos he's always outfitted in by the Nike designers. That style is a nice compromise between a polo and a t-shirt. Oh well, it's a hard habit to break I guess.
ReRe had a bit more trouble in the opening set of her first round match, particularly with her serving, but showed her world-class quality in the second closing out Stefanie Voegele 7-6 (2), 6-2. She managed 28 winners against 22 errors, threw down 10 aces, and converted all 3 break point chances against her Swiss foe.
Here's a closer look at the 12-time Grand Slammer's stylish gear for her campaign, sans the sexy knickers:
I love this dress although, as I tweeted during her match, it seems a bit more Oz Open than Roland Garros. But it's fun, bright and the pleated trim is a pretty touch.
I say ReRe wins the Williams battle of the knaughty knickers over sister Venus pants, er, hands down.
UPDATE: I found it! Here's the short style Fed is wearing - the All Court Men's Woven Tennis Short. And yes it matters that much to me.
[Photo(s): TennisWarehouse.com, Nike.com, Getty Images]


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Plus Blog
August 20, 2014
As we attempt to close our overstuffed suitcases for the flight home, we are very pleased that Plus too is overflowing with goodies from this years International Congress of Mathematicians in Seoul.
From the excitement of the announcement of the Fields medallists to meeting mathematicians from around the world, we've had a brilliant time. We've still got a few articles and podcast yet to publish, but for now, you can find all our coverage from ICM 2014 here.
Thank you to all mathematicians for their talks and to those who generously gave their time for interviews and explanations. A huge thank you to the local organisers of the conference, the staff at the media office and the many enthusiastic and helpful volunteers who made the event such a success. Thank you!
August 20, 2014
"Ingenuity", "far reaching vision", "unerring sense", "deep curiosity" — and best of all, "extraordinary creativity". These are some of the words that have been used to praise this year's Fields medallists at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM). These words aren't specific to maths. They could be used to describe anyone whose work is about discovery and beauty; writers, poets, or musicians for example. If there has been one overarching theme at this ICM, it's just how creative a subject mathematics is. To imagine what has never been imagined before, spot new connections, look at things in a new light and find hidden patterns lies at the heart of doing maths.
A great example is Fields medallist Manjul Bhargava, who in a flash of inspiration discovered that a centuries' old maths problem could be solved using a Rubik's cube, reducing long and tedious calculations, quite literally, to child's play. But singling out specific examples gives the wrong impression: discovering the undiscovered and creating new ideas is central to the work of every mathematician, whether they are presenting their work here at the ICM or working away at home.
What guides these creative minds is often a sense of beauty. "There is an aesthetic side," says Phillip Griffiths, winner of this year's Chern Medal. "You find out what the most harmonious properties of a [mathematical] structure are, and then you let those guide you." You might be wrong, of course, things might be more complex, or perhaps even simpler, than you think, but still, it's often aesthetic considerations that lead the way.
The creative aspect of maths is one of mathematics' best kept secrets. If you didn't have an inspiring teacher at school, then you probably think that maths is all about repetition with no room for imagination and exploration. "Many teachers still teach that way; here is the problem, here is how you solve the problem," says Martin Grötschel, Secretary of the International Mathematical Union. "So what you do is learn recipes, how to solve a quadratic equation, etc. But you are not taught why and how you get to this equation. The really successful countries, where maths education has improved a lot, have taken the approach of teaching students to figure out for themselves why things go this way or the other way." (You can listen to our interview with Grötschel here.)
Fields medallist Bhargava suggested something similar to us: perhaps maths students, rather than learning how to apply "finished" mathematical tools, should be allowed to play with maths problems that have inspired past masters, to develop their mathematical intuition and get a sense of the excitement and adventure of doing mathematics (see our interview with Bhargava to find out more) — the sense of discovering, and shaping, something new.
A lot of research is currently going into finding out how to best teach maths at school, part of it supported by the International Mathematical Union. Luckily we know lots of teachers who are passionate about creativity in maths. And we are currently involved in a project that aims to foster this creativity, an effort that has resulted in the website Wild Maths. Equally luckily, we know lots of mathematicians who are passionate about communicating the essence of maths to a wider audience (Bhargava is one of them). So perhaps it won't be long until mathematics' best kept — and most exciting — secret becomes public knowledge.
August 13, 2014
One of the reasons we love maths is that at its core it doesn't care about who you are, where you are from, the language you speak, the colour of your skin or your gender. Mathematics is a universal language. We feel this as people doing mathematics. But as we attend conferences, read journals and interview the many wonderful mathematicians we meet, we are reminded that as women we are in a minority.
This is not to say, however, that there are not brilliant women mathematicians. Quite the contrary. We have been lucky enough to with and reported on the work of many – Corinna Ulcigrai, Julia Gog, Helen Mason and Nathalie Vriend to name just a few.
Maryam Mirzkhani, the first female Fields medallist
But currently in the UK only 6% of maths professors are women, despite women making up over 44% of maths undergraduates (see this paper from the London Mathematical Society). The reasons for this are not well understood but the problem seems to be exacerbated by the small number of women itself: fewer women in the community mean they are overlooked when names are sought for speakers or prizes and the relatively few women are disproportionally asked to sit on committees and participate in other non-research activities at the detriment of their research time. And of course this can be compounded by the broken career patterns and other challenges that stem from child-rearing and family responsibilities.
The under-representation of women at the highest levels of maths has been recognised by learned societies, universities and government resulting in many initiatives, such as the Athena Swan Charter in the UK. Thankfully we now rarely hear of experiences of direct sexism from female mathematicians. Instead for many women, particularly young female mathematicians, there remains an uneasiness about being one of a very few women in a maths department. They have spoken of being "the odd one out" or feeling like "the other" in their work places. More role models – high profile women in the mathematical community – are needed both for younger and established female mathematicians.
So we are thrilled that the brilliant mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani has been awarded the Fields Medal at the ICM 2014 in Seoul, Korea – the first women to be so recognised. Mirzakhani's work is on investigating mathematical surfaces and the geometric structures they can have. She has been recognised for her "rare combination of superb technical ability, bold ambition, far-reaching vision, and deep curiosity" which led to "striking and highly original contributions to geometry and dynamical systems".
Now that the IMU has finally recognised a woman for her mathematical achievements with a Fields medal, we hope that more female mathematicians will be nominated and recognised in the future. It seems fitting that Mirzakhani received her prize from a female head of state, President Park Geun-hye of South Korea, in a ceremony led by Ingrid Debauchies, the president of the International Mathematics Union, and mc-ed by Seon-Hee Lin, a professor from Seoul National University. These four women made up a third of the guests on the stage at the opening ceremony – we hope the recognition of women in mathematics stays at at least this level in the future.
The prizewinners and guests on stage at the opening ceremony of ICM 2014
You can read more about Maryam Mirzakhani and the other Fields medallists, and about the ICM 2014 on Plus.
August 11, 2014
We have set up our temporary headquarters in Seoul, South Korea! We are here to attend the International Congress of Mathematicians, a huge maths conference that happens every four years. We are particularly excited because we'll witness the the award of the Fields Medal, one of the highest honours in maths. The Fields medal is awarded every four years by the International Mathematical Union to up to four mathematicians for "outstanding mathematical achievement for existing work and for the promise of future achievement." (There is an age limit of 40 though, so one half of Plus is sadly already out of the running.)
We will be reporting live on the award of the medals, as well as a range of other prizes that will be handed out, and no doubt meet many fascinating mathematicians to interview. Stay tuned!
Sunset over Seoul.
August 7, 2014
Image © Oliver Labs.
Our image of the week shows a beautiful surface with many singularities, constructed using computer algebra. The image was created by Oliver Labs, using the software Singular and visualised using Surf. © Oliver Labs.
The picture is one of the images that appear in the book 50 visions of mathematics, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications.
You can see previous images of the week here.
August 7, 2014
Most people are aware of the fact that computers work using strings of 0s and 1s. But how do you write numbers using only those two symbols?
To see how, let's first remind ourselves of how the ordinary decimal way of writing numbers works. Let's take the number 4302 as an example. The digit 4 in this number doesn't stand for the number 4, rather it stands for 4000, or 4 x 1000. Similarly, 3 doesn't stand for 3 but for 300 = 3 x 100, 0 stands for 0 x 10, and 2 stands for 2 x 1. So 4302 means
4 x 1000 + 3 x 1000 + 0 x 10 + 2 x 1.
Similarly, 7396 stands for
7 x 1000 + 3 x 100 + 9 x 10 + 6 x 1.
What do the numbers 1000, 100, 10 and 1, which appear in these expressions, have in common? They are all powers of 10:
1000 = 103 100 = 102 10 = 101 1 = 100.
To write a number in decimal notation, you first write it as a sum of consecutive powers of 10 (with the largest power on the left) and then pull out the coefficients of these powers. We can do the same with powers of 2 rather than 10. For example, the binary number 110 stands for
1 x 22 + 1 x 21 + 0 x 20 = 4 + 2 +0 = 6 (written in decimal).
And the binary number 10001 stands for
1 x 24 + 0 x 23 + 0 x 22 + 0 x 21 + 1 x 20 = 16 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 1 = 17 (written in decimal).
You can convince yourself that a binary number only consists of the digits 0 or 1: when you write a number as a sum of consecutive powers of 2, no other coefficients are necessary.
This sorts out the natural numbers, but what about numbers that have a fractional part? To write a number between 0 and 1 in binary, you play the same game using powers of 1/2 instead of powers of 2. For example,
0.75 = 1/2 + 1/4 = 1 x 1/21+ 1 x 1/22.
In binary, 0.75 is written as 0.11. The binary number 0.1001 stands for the decimal number
1 x 1/21+ 0 x 1/22 + 0 x 1/23+ 1 x 1/24 = 1/2 + 1/16 =0.5625.
You can find out more about the positional way of writing numbers here and about the use of 0s and 1s in logical operations here.


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Memphis, TN (Sports Network) - Jacob Karam completed 14-of-18 attempts for 270
yards and two touchdowns to lead the Memphis Tigers to a 37-23 victory over the
Tulane Green Wave in a Conference USA bout at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium.
The win was the second of coach Justin Fuente's career and ended a four-game
losing slide for Memphis (2-8, 2-4 C-USA). Brandon Hayes paced the rushing
attack with 51 yards on 16 attempts. Marcus Rucker reeled in four catches for
55 yards while Jesse Milleson made three grabs for 52 yards and a score. The
Tigers' defensive unit came up big with four interceptions, a fumble recovery,
and three sacks.
Tulane (2-8, 2-4) was unable to overcome its four turnovers which limited its
offense that had produced an average of 51 points per game over the team's last
two outings. Ryan Griffin struggled under center with a season-high three
interceptions and only 211 yards on 25-of-43 passing. Ryan Grant continued to
excel by making 11 receptions for 113 yards and a touchdown. Darion Monroe had
a strong showing on the defensive side of the ball with nine total tackles, two
fumble recoveries, and a defensive score.
Memphis jumped out to an early lead as Karam completed a 15-yard touchdown pass
to Milleson at the 11:19 mark of the opening period. Tulane answered on its
next drive as Griffin led the offense 70 yards down the field on 10 plays
before finishing off the drive with a five-yard touchdown pass to Grant.
Cairo Santos connected on a 43-yard field goal with 57 seconds left in the
first quarter to give the visitors a 10-6 lead after 15 minutes.
The Tigers took back control with just over 12 minutes left in the opening half
as Jai Steib punctuated a 10-play, 75-yard drive with a one-yard plunge into
the end zone.
Santos evened the score at the 8:12 mark of the second stanza with a 43-yard
field goal. Memphis managed to put Paul Henriques in position to make a 24-yard
field goal as time expired to give the home team a 16-13 lead at the break.
Tulane struck first in the second half with a 30-yard field goal by Santos with
just under eight minutes left in the third quarter. Karam wasted no time
answered as he completed a 52-yard touchdown pass to Tevin Jones on the second
play of the Tigers' ensuing drive. Karam's second touchdown pass of the day
gave Memphis a 23-16 lead heading into the fourth period.
The Tigers continued to produce in the fourth quarter. Memphis managed to cap
off a nine-play, 97-yard drive with six points as Hayes made a rare halfback
pass to Reggie Travis for six yards and a touchdown. The Green Wave attempted
to rally back but Tank Jakes picked off Griffin and returned the interception
32 yards across the goal line.
Tulane ended its opponent's 21-0 run with 15 seconds remaining as Monroe
returned a fumble 54 yards for the final score of the contest.
Memphis gained 386 yards of total offense in the contest and held Tulane to 291
The Sports Network


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Thanks to online word of mouth recognizing an immense talent accompanied by a similar frame, Queens native Action Bronson has sprinted to the underground's forefront not even two years since his debut album Dr. Lecter. One of the scene's more dedicated newcomers, this visibility stems from the merits of a strong work ethic, staunch determination to keep the tradition of sharp New York lyricism alive, and bizarre alliances such as freak shows Odd Future and Riff Raff.
Never leaving fans longing for more material, Rare Chandeliers is the latest in Bronson's constant stream of releases, as he matches wits with 2012's possibly most prolific producer Alchemist. Aiming to further the East Coast's rather sudden resurgence heading towards winter, Action Bronson & Alchemist's fusion on Rare Chandeliers results in heavy hitting hijinx easily overshadowing much of their present competition. The former professional chef-turned-rapper's high pitched forceful delivery has steadily improved and his development into a kingpin of trash talk (examples including "Your boy as ill with the phonics as Gary Payton had the pill for the Sonics") also stays equipped with humorous obscure references, giving a random shout out to actor Gerard Depardieu on the unorthodox three parter "Randy The Musical." Likewise, "Dennis Haskins" taunts "Bring Mr. Belding out, that means you getting dismissed" (the Saved By The Bell actor being a real life comrade of Bronson's). This and frequent mentions favoring prostitution only add to Bronson's shockingly entertaining enigma.
Rare Chandeliers achieves its greatest success as Action Bronson and Alchemist seamlessly cater to young and past generations alike. "Modern Day Revelations" and the murky "Blood Of the Goat" have respective contributions from Roc Marciano and Sean Price (both fresh off recent full lengths). These collaborations and the ScHoolboy Q assisted "Demolition Man" establish Bronson's versatility as a continual asset. While generally no stranger to misogyny, "Bitch I Deserve You" is his ode to the Rap game, a creative highlight as is the jazzy "Eggs On The Third Floor" that becomes a one man old school cipher. In sum, the unpredictable wild card factor found throughout this project is sure to propel Action Bronson's riveting albeit still new career to the next level.
DX Consensus: "Free Album" (the highest possible praise for a mixtape)


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First-Gen Camaro Makeover - RetrogradeWritten by David Freiburger on December 1, 2009 The Crusher Camaro Returns, This Time Shedding All Vestiges Of Pro Touring During An '80s Street Machine Makeover.
Here's a typical hole-in-the-hood Camaro. It sits like a truck. The wheels are dated, the valve covers were hip when Reagan took office, and it sucks enough gas to implode OPEC. This represents everything that magazines, and good taste, have banished for 20 years. All told, it's virtually flawless.
This throwback represents the third life for the Crusher Camaro, a '67 that's been around here since we paid $700 for it in 1993. (A brief history appears in this month's Where It All Began column.) We decided to act on our long-standing retro urges and revert the car to the cruise-scene imagery we 40-somethings ached for during our junior high through high school years after mainlining the feature cars in HOT ROD and Car Craft every month. We're talking about the pre-Pro Street days. The car we want for today is like the junk that was built from, say, 1978 to 1982 with lots of ripple effect into the late '80s.
As a bellybutton Camaro, the Crusher seemed like the perfect candidate for street machine greatness, so follow along as we ditch the old billet 17s and modern brakes and revert this junk to '80s style. It's the most fun project we've done in quite a while, and we can't wait to go hit the newly renewed Van Nuys Boulevard cruise scene in the car. Happy days are here again.
Ah, the heart of today's street machine rework. We love our Weiand-blown big-block. Here are the keys to the period look:
A) Sharp readers will note the lack of a fuel pump boss on the block, revealing this to be a Mark V or VI engine and therefore an anachronism.
B) These are Hooker's new Darksides headers that have ceramic coating in black, ideal for the look we wanted. They are PN 2457-3HKR with 2.00-inch tubes and 3.50-inch collectors. They fit perfectly with just one light smack where they kissed the frame. Several applications are offered with the Darksides coating.
C) We used metal-laden body filler to fill the Holley logos on the ends of the heads, since most guys only had stock iron heads in the '80s. These heads lack the stock contours and freeze plugs, but the hidden logos and painted aluminum at least partially conceal the modern heads.
D) You were nobody in the '80s without a set of gold-anodized, lightweight, stamped-aluminum Moroso valve covers. These were among the keys to our whole look, and the T-bar fasteners are the clinchers. The addition of Moroso Perm-Align, rubber-coated, steel-core gaskets and a set of hold-down tabs keep them from leaking like they did in the old days.
E) We chose the satin look for the Weiand 8-71 blower, which makes it more racy and less showy.
F) Most cars of the '70s and '80s used in-line, single-feed Holleys, but we did spot some old HOT ROD feature cars with side-mounted units like our 850 HP-series carbs. We made sure to get the older zinc-chromate finish and not the new shiny versions.
G) Mr. Gasket velocity stacks rule. We got them used on eBay, and only gold anodizing would improve 'em.
H) This is a new Weiand Team G aluminum water pump painted red to hide its identity. Likewise, the March billet pulley (the only short-pump, single-groover we could find) was fogged black to look more like a stamped-steel stock pulley.
Other '80s Gotta-Haves
When bench racing this buildup with a number of motorheads, guys often piped up with the stuff they remembered from the old days, usually starting with, "Oh, and you gotta have..." Here's a list of some '70s/'80s gotta-haves that we left off the Crusher.
• The big, chrome-and-orange Fram HPG-1 fuel filter hanging under the rear bumper (Summit Racing still sells those)
• A Holley Blue fuel pump, also peeking below the bumper (and also still a top seller)
• Your "girlfriend's" garter belt around the tach (how come we never saw girls actually wearing them?)
• Wristbands around the valve cover breathers, because there's no chance you actually had a PCV valve
• A big, feathery roach clip or high school graduation tassel hanging from the rearview mirror
• Speed stickers on the underside of the trunk lid, probably including an Erson Cams decal if you lived near a Super Shops
• A KMET sticker in the rear window (the defunct Mighty Met was the Los Angeles rock station of choice; insert your favorite here)
• Gabriel Hijackers air shocks (with the rabbit sticker in the quarter-windows)
• A Kraco eight-track deck
• Gauges mounted on the cowl
• A Camaro (or whatever brand) tinted banner across the top of the windshield
• Lift shackles on the rear
• A Pete Jackson geardrive
• Dual remote oil filters, either hanging under the front bumper or in a hideously inconvenient spot under the hood
• An oil pressure gauge somewhere under the hood
• A name painted on the quarters or on the back of the rear spoiler, something along the lines of Highway Star or perhaps just a Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon spectrum logo
Rollers And Meats
To pull off the '78 to '82 vibe, you have very few wheel choices: slot mags, Cragar S/S's, Center Line Auto Drags, or Cragar Super Tricks. Perhaps with skilled application you can pull off Western Vectors or Keystone Klassics, but that's a tad sketchy. You can opt for raised white letters to really shout your cause, or you can downplay the look and modernize it a skosh with blackwalls. Radials are a no-no unless you can find early-tread-pattern BFG Radial T/As.
We installed several sets of wheels and tires on the Crusher for three distinct looks. All our mounting and balancing are handled by So-Cal Tire Pros in Burbank, California.
More Photos From This Article View Slideshow
Here's the Crusher as you last saw it in the Feb. through May '03 issues of HRM when it had a 632ci big-block for power and sat on 17-inch Billet Specialties wheels and big Baer brakes. We realize that many of you will think this is way cooler than what we've now done to the car. We can live with that.The interior was fairly ransacked when we started the makeover. Our friend Chad Reynolds had to rewire every circuit in the car except the lights. Note the Lecarra wheel, Auto Meter carbon-fiber gauges (dangling), and '68 houndstooth seats. If you look carefully, you can see the little yellow rubber Camaro keychain, a remnant of the CARS race team of the '90s, that has been with the Crusher for 15-plus years.This is the engine bay after the 632 was removed and the car sat untouched for five years. All the bodywork dust is from when the TV show Overhaulin' used our shop for several episodes.An unseen 2007 to 2008 redo involved installing the GM Performance Parts HT383 small-block built in the story "500 Lb-Ft in Six Easy Steps" that was the Mar. '02 cover theme. The stock crate engine was fed a Comp XE282HR cam, and when it was in the car, it had a Weiand Air Strike intake and a Holley 750 carb.With the iron-headed, XE282HR-cammed 383, a TH400, 4.57 rear gears, 30x9.00 Hoosier radial slicks, and Cragar steel wheels, the Crusher weighed 3,150 sans driver and ran 12.18 at 108 mph in the quarter. It just barely lifted the left front tire. This is how the car looked when the street-machine redo began.This is the "before" shot of our Rat motor. It's a 489-incher (4.280x4.250) that has been used in HOT ROD, Car Craft, and Chevy High Performance. It started life in the story "Pure Grunt" in the June '03 HRM. It uses a Scat Series 9000 cast crank (not the smartest choice for a blown motor, but oh well), SRP forged pistons for 8.95:1 compression, Holley PN 300-554 aluminum oval-port heads, and a Comp 230/236 hydraulic roller cam. It's a supermild combo that makes 660 hp at just below 5 psi boost with the Weiand 8-71 blower 25 percent underdriven.Weiand offers a slick hardline fuel-inlet kit for dual carbs, but no one was that sano in the '80s, so we strung Earl's braided line and blue-and-red fittings all over the engine. A modern Aeromotive fuel system is hidden under the car.Looks killer. We took the car's 10-year-old Griffin aluminum radiator and fogged it with Eastwood Co.'s Underhood Black to make it fade away. So far, with a single electric fan, it's keeping the Rat cool. We also pulled all the decals off the battery to make it blend. The Accel yellow plug wires are a must-have, and they're fed to a clear distributor cap from Summit Racing.
This is supercool. If you find one of the old-style MSD boxes (with the old logo cast in) on eBay or at a swap meet, you can send it to MSD to be rebuilt with modern guts. This old box, complete with the vintage logo, secures the look of the street machine era. Here you can also see the car's big-block heater box.This is the ultimate look of the '80s. Nothing clinches the message like a set of Center Line Auto Drag spun-aluminum wheels and genuine Pro Trac bias-ply rubber. Our combo uses 15x3.5s and 15x10s. The Crusher's Ford 9-inch rearend is 56 5/16 inches flange to flange, and the car has steel, semicircular minitubs, though the springs are not relocated. The 15x10s have 4 7/8 backspacing, which required 1 1/4-inch spacers. The tires are Pro Tracs from Coker Tire in P215/75R15 and N50-15. The fronts measured an observed 27 inches tall with an 8-inch section width. The rears measured 28 3/4 tall and 12 3/4 wide on the 10-inch wheels.To fit the slot mags and the Center Lines on the car and for a more era-correct look, we needed to ditch the 13-inch brakes. We did-and replaced them with a complete front-disc setup from Master Power. These were the easiest installation ever, as the brakes come totally assembled onto the spindles.During the Crusher's recent small-block phase, we had installed Moroso Trick Springs, PN 47150 with a rate of 213 lb/in. Here we swapped to PN 47195 with 250 lb/in. The very heavy nose will still bottom onto our tall front tires in extreme cases, so we need either shorter tires or taller bumpstops.The Cragar S/S wheels, in 15x4.5 and 15x8, give a very classic look that screams retro a bit more than the Center Lines. The rear tires are Hoosier 30.0x9.00 radial slicks that measure 29 1/8 tall and 11 1/2 in section. The front tires are Coker Tire's BFGoodrich Silvertown bias-ply reproductions in 6.40-15, measuring 27 3/16 inches tall and 6 1/2 inches in section width. The Cragars actually fit over front 13-inch Baer brakes by using 1/4-inch spacers. Out back, the stock backspacing of 4 1/4 inches required 3/8-inch spacers.Here's a vibe that smacks of the early-to-mid '70s with some genuine 15x8 Ansen Sprint slot mags (with the very cool curved lips) that we bought for $200 at a swap meet, complete with JC Penney tires. Replacing those here are some of the last raised-white-letter bias-plies, the Mickey Thompson Indy Profile S/S rubber that's now sold exclusively through Summit Racing. We used G60-15s (26 tall, 103/8 section width) and L60-15s (28 5/8 tall, 11 1/2 section width). Sadly, the 3 1/2-inch backspacing on the wheels was totally wrong on the front of the car; 4 3/4 is what was required with these tires.
For rear-wheel spacers, we used these billet bolt-ons custom-made for us by old Funny Car racer Fred Goeske at WheelAdapters.com.The retro makeover also extended to the interior. The Grant PN 838 steering wheel is a foam-gripped, 13.5-incher that was just $25.95 at Summit Racing. It recalls the Superior 500 wheels that were on every street machine of the '70s. For gauges, we chose the Auto Meter original Sport Comp series, as those were the absolute must-haves when we were in high school. The tach is the 3 3/4-incher rather than the later Monster Tach, and the 2 1/16-inch panel-mounted gauges read oil pressure, water temp, and boost pressure. Note our rare speedo delete panel.Finally, we couldn't have a hole-in-the-hood car without having a hood. We bought a gennie steel one from a Craigslist ad and whacked clearance for the blower. Car Craft's John McGann did us the huge favor of painting the hood to match. What do you think, is hoodless the better look, or is it more wicked with the steel in place? We plan to garner opinions as we cruise this thing mercilessly, reliving the street machine years.


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1965 Olds Cutlass Steering System Upgrade - Staying On Path - PHR Project CarWritten by on April 1, 2010 Project Olds Gets A Complete Steering System Rehab With A DSE Steering Box And A Fresh Set Of Links.
Everyone appreciates a nice rack, but not all is lost for the venerable recirculating ball steering box found in most muscle cars. Generally speaking, modern rack-and-pinion steering systems boast lower mass, fewer moving parts, greater durability, and more precision compared to their worm gear-based forbears. Despite what the elitist mainstream car rags would have you believe, however, the average driver would be hard-pressed to discern much of a difference in steering feel and response between a healthy recirculating ball steering system and a rack-and-pinion unit. That might explain why recirculating ball steering boxes survived in several high-end German sports sedans well past the turn of the millennium. Furthermore, the rise of rack-and-pinion systems in the '80s had less to do with enhancing performance, and more to do with the improved packaging they offered in tight front-wheel-drive chassis of the era.
Nonetheless, there's a big difference between a modern recirculating ball setup, and one that's been rotting away for the last 40 years. Although our '65 Olds Cutlass project car has been fitted with a Detroit Speed and Engineering suspension, Baer brakes, and fat R-compound Nitto rubber, all that impressive hardware is useless if the car doesn't want to go where you point it. To ensure that Project Olds clips through the autocross pylons instead of plowing over them, we decided to install a new DSE 600 Series steering box. Unlike the factory GM 800 Series box and its lethargic 20:1 ratio, the DSE unit features a quick 12.7:1 ratio, low-friction gears, and rack-and-pinion valve technology for vastly improved steering response and feel. Plus, the DSE box is 6 pounds lighter to boot. Although it was included as part of the DSE front suspension kit that we installed in the February 2010 issue, the 600 Series unit can be purchased separately for $495.
Equally as important as upgrading the steering box itself is rehabilitating the rest of the steering system. A recirculating ball arrangement relies on a series of linkages and rods to convert output from the steering box into changes in steering angle. Any free-play or distortion in those links or rods leads to sloppy steering and compromised directional stability. Consequently, the beat-up factory pitman arm, idler arm, drag link, and inner and outer tie rods were all replaced with fresh hardware. Furthermore, we installed a fluid cooler to extend the longevity of the power steering pump. Brent Jarvis of Performance Restorations graciously volunteered his services once again for the install. The complete setup bolted right up in one afternoon, and at the end of the day, Project Olds finally had a proper guidance system that would enable it to fully wring every last micro-g out of its cutting-edge chassis.
Loose Ends
In a recirculating ball steering system, the pitman arm attaches to the center drag link on one end, and moves it from side to side as the steering wheel is turned. An idler arm attaches the opposite end of the drag link to the passenger-side framerail. Both the idler arm and pitman arm have joints that allow the drag link to move in a lateral plane. A pair of tie rods connects the drag link to the steering knuckles, which steer the front wheels from left to right. This arrangement yields a total of four ball-and-socket joints on the tie rods, and four fixed joints on the pitman and idler arms, seven of which are lubricated and sealed. As the seals erode and the joints wear out, having so many attachment points dramatically increases unwanted free-play and slop. Rebuilding the steering hardware is very straightforward. After detaching the tie rods from the steering knuckles, disconnecting the rag joint from the steering shaft, unbolting the idler arm from the framerail, and removing the pitman arm from the drag link, everything drops right out.
|DSE steering box
|DSE rag joint
|DSE tie rods, adjusters, and idler arm
|Moog drag link
|Jegs power steering cooler
|Jegs 1/4-inch NPT adapter
|Russell -6AN hose
|Russell -6AN to 1/4 NPT fitting (x2)
|Russell -6AN straight fitting
|Grant steering wheel
|Grant install kit
|PHR Issue:
|'65 Olds Cutlass
|January 2010
|DSE four-link suspension
|January 2010
|DSE front suspension
|February 2010
|Baer front and rear brakes
|March 2010
|DSE brake booster
|March 2010
|DSE steering kit
|April 2010
More Photos From This Article View Slideshow
Factory power steering pumps are notorious for overheating under heavy road race or autocross usage, but ours was in great shape, so we decided to keep it for now. To prevent it from boiling its fluid, we installed an aluminum 15x3 1/2- by 2 1/2-inch cooler (PN 55-60350) right behind the grille. Its finned design features 475 square inches of surface area, and 16 ounces of capacity. The 1/4-inch NPT inlet and outlet fittings were swapped out for -6AN pieces from Russell.The stock steering box is attached to the driver-side framerail with three bolts, which will be reused later on. The old pitman arm doubles as a handle to make supporting the heavy box much easier as the bolts are removed. If reusing the pitman arm, it must be detached from the steering box output shaft using a puller tool, but since plans called for installing a new arm, we left the old one attached.Jarvis says it's a very common mistake to install a new steering box with its input shaft cockeyed. To make sure it's centered, he recommends mocking the pitman arm into place, and marking the box at the points where the output shaft turns farthest to the left, and farthest to the right. Positioning the output shaft directly between these two points will ensure that the input shaft is centered before it's attached to the steering shaft.With the new rag joint slid over the input shaft, the DSE steering box attaches into place using the factory bolts torqued to 70 lb-ft. The splines on the pitman arm and steering box output shaft can only go on in one direction. Jarvis then tightened it down to 120 lb-ft, and installed a new cotter pin. After straightening out the steering wheel, the rag joint was bolted to the steering shaft on one end, and the input shaft on the other.A worn-out idler arm can change the angle of the plane in which the drag link travels, significantly altering steering geometry. The new idler arm bolts to the passenger-side framerail using Grade 8 hardware. The joint comes pre-packed with grease, and has zerk fittings so it can be recharged at any time.The DSE adjuster sleeves included with our front suspension kit allow fine-tuning the length of the tie rods to minimize bumpsteer and simplify the alignment process. In order to get the tie-rod lengths in the ballpark before final alignment, Jarvis set them both to the same overall length as the stock units, which measured 18 inches. It's good practice to make sure that the same number of threads are engaged on each side of the sleeve.With the pitman arm and idler arm in place, we installed a new stock replacement drag link from Moog (PN DS740). A-bodies came equipped with both 13/16- and 7/8-inch drag links from the factory, and Project Olds had the smaller of the two. While the bigger 7/8-inch unit can also be installed, the switch requires ordering up tie rods, an idler arm, and a pitman arm specific to the larger drag link. The tie rods were then bolted to the DSE steering knuckles, which feature two mounting points to help dial out bumpsteer. Ideally, the tie rods and lower control arm should be as close to parallel as possible, which minimizes the disparity in arcs in which both links travel. The lower of the two mounting points on the DSE knuckles proved to accomplish this most effectively.The DSE steering box features an M18x1.5 port on the pressure side, and an M16x1.5 port on the return side. Since power steering pumps operate at close to 1,000 psi of pressure, Jarvis felt it was a good idea to install -6AN stainless steel braided lines using metric-to-AN adapter fittings on the pump. Under extreme conditions, cheap rubber lines can corrode and completely fail.The slim Jegs power steering fluid cooler fits beautifully behind the driver side of the grille, a location which will provide a steady stream of cool air. It was mounted to the upper radiator support using the supplied brackets. Jarvis plumbed the cooler into the return line, right before the fluid enters the pump, in order to maximize its cooling efficiency.
Reusing the stock power steering pump required welding -6AN port adapter fittings to both the pump and reservoir. The final step in the steering makeover is filling the pump up with fluid, and purging air out of the system. This involves turning the steering wheel from lock to lock several times with the engine running. During this process, additional fluid should be added as necessary.Not only does the stock steering box require 5.5 turns from lock to lock, the giant-rimmed factory steering wheel attached to it turns what should be brisk direction changes into fervent saw-fests. To get the most out of the new quick-ratio 12.7:1 DSE box, we installed a new Grant three-spoke Collector's Edition steering wheel.


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1/27/2013 (3 years ago)
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
The picture of Justice Scalia in that hat made me reflect on the need for men who embody the courage and coherence of Thomas More. However, we are going over a Moral Cliff which may make the economic maelstrom look mild in comparison.
Justice Scalia in a Thomas More hat at the Inauguration
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
1/27/2013 (3 years ago)
Published in U.S.
Keywords: politics, political participation, faithful citizenship, Inauguration, separation between faith and life, faithful citizenship, politics, religious liberty, right to life, Thomas More, Deacon Keith Fournier
WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - There was a scene in the 1972 Film, the Godfather, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, which I will never forget. Michael Corleone, played by Al Pacino, is the godfather at the Baptism of his nephew. During this baptism ceremony, he must respond to questions such as "Do you reject the glamour of evil?" and "Do you reject Satan and all his works?" by saying "I do."
While Michael is verbally renouncing evil in response to the questions posed by the priest in the midst of the administration of a Sacrament, his orders to kill rival gang leaders are being carried out with a brutality which reveals the face of evil. Michael's "I do's" in denouncement of Satan and his simultaneous participation in numerous acts of murder reveal an absolute disconnect.
That scene depicts a blatant example of what the Magisterium, the teaching office of the Catholic Church, has decried as the "greatest error of our age - the "separation between faith and life". Of course, other examples of this separation between faith and life are not so obvious. Yet, in their very subtlety, they may be more dangerous. Partly because we grow comfortable with them as we compartmentalize our lives.
How many times have we heard otherwise sincere Catholics engaged in business use the expression "its business" while they justify a failure to inform their business practices with the teachings of the faith. Perhaps we are numbered among them. Or, how many times have we heard Catholics, either in political life or exercising their vote say "its politics" to somehow justify morally incoherent political activity or a vote contrary to the Natural Moral law. "The Doctrinal Note on some questions regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life" issued in 2002 called upon Catholics to be "morally coherent" in the exercise of their citizenship. Sadly, the trends in our last election cycle reveal continuing incoherence. .
I have a fondness for Richmond, Virginia and keep up with what is happening there. While I was engaged in my PhD coursework in Moral Theology at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, my wife and I lived there. I served St. Benedicts Parish in Richmond and commuted to D.C. Among the blogs I read is one written by a fellow lawyer named Kevin Walsh in Richmond called Walshlaw. A January 21, 2013 caught my attention:
"The twitterverse is alive with tweets about Justice Scalia's headgear for today's inauguration. At the risk of putting all the fun speculation to an end . . . The hat is a custom-made replica of the hat depicted in Holbein's famous portrait of St. Thomas More. It was a gift from the St. Thomas More Society of Richmond, Virginia. We presented it to him in November 2010 as a memento of his participation in our 27th annual Red Mass and dinner."
The picture of Justice Scalia in that hat made me reflect on the need for men who embody the courage and coherence of Thomas More. Over the last couple of weeks I have heard from many disillusioned men and women expressing a deep concern over the crisis we face as a Nation. We allegedly avoided the so called fiscal cliff in the United States. However, we are going over a Moral Cliff which may make the economic maelstrom look mild in comparison.
Marriage is under assault as Courts and legislatures are used by cultural revolutionaries who seek to redefine the institution out of existence. The taking of innocent life in the first home of the womb continues unabated. Organizations such as Planned Parenthood which lead the war on the womb are now bragging over their new found clout in the political ruling class.
The Church's outreaches to the sick, the poor and the needy face the boot of a hostile federal government. The HHS regulations through which the Affordable Care Act will be enforced violate religious freedom. Catholic Christians know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ demands a response which goes beyond the walls of our Church buildings. We are our brother and sister's keeper.
We do not reach out to people in need because they are Catholic; we reach out to people in need because we are Catholic. No HHS regulation will compel us to violate our deeply held religious beliefs. No Presidential administration can compel us to stop caring for the poor, the sick and the needy. Clearly, the next few months are leading to an historic Church/State showdown in the United States of America.
On Oct 31, 2000, Blessed John Paul II, responded to petitions from the faithful across the world and issued an apostolic letter, Motu Propio, (on his own authority) proclaiming Thomas More the Patron of Statesmen and Politicians. The letter was addressed to "the Bishops of the Catholic Church and, in a particular way, to Catholic politicians and all lay members of the faithful called to participate in the political life of democratic societies."
Blessed John Paul II wrote "Precisely because of the witness which he bore, even at the price of his life, to the primacy of truth over power, Saint Thomas More is venerated as an imperishable example of moral integrity. And even outside the Church, particularly among those with responsibility for the destinies of peoples, he is acknowledged as a source of inspiration for a political system which has as its supreme goal the service of the human person."
"Whenever men or women heed the call of truth, their conscience then guides their actions reliably towards good. Precisely because of the witness which he bore, even at the price of his life, to the primacy of truth over power, Saint Thomas More is venerated as an imperishable example of moral integrity. And even outside the Church, particularly among those with responsibility for the destinies of peoples, he is acknowledged as a source of inspiration for a political system which has as its supreme goal, the service of the human person."
The England of the sixteenth century was in the midst of a serious crisis of politics, culture and faith, much like the times in which we now live. In 1534 all citizens who were of age were required to take an oath called "The Act of Succession". It acknowledged that King Henry VIII was married to Anne Boleyn, even though he was not. His desire to divorce Catherine was not sufficient to make that marriage null and his attempt to use his political power to change the objective truth was unsuccessful.
So, the King used the power of his office to promulgate an unjust positive Law by which he proclaimed that he and Anne were lawfully married. He declared himself to be the Supreme Head of the Church in England, thus abrogating to himself the authority to determine that his lawful marital bond was dissolved and denying the authority of the successor of the Apostle Peter.
The Pope refused to collaborate with Henry's demand that he grant him an annulment from his lawful marriage so that he could pursue a different woman as his wife. He would not affirm Henry's decision to place his disordered desires over the objective truth. Thomas More knew the order of truth and applied a hierarchy of values in both his personal life and his public life. He lived as a faithful Catholic Christian, demonstrating a unity of life and moral coherence. He stayed faithful to the Truth.
In 1532, knowing that he could not enforce the declaration of his temporal King to usurp the authority of the Church which had been granted to it by the King of Kings, he resigned his political position. He tried to do so with the kind of integrity that had characterized his entire life. He withdrew from public life and bore the ridicule and taunts of those who once praised him. He offered the suffering to the Lord by joining it to the Cross of the Savior. He then tried to continue to care for his beloved family, the domestic church of the home, by teaching them how to live lives of virtue and simplicity.
He had lost his prestige and his considerable financial resources, but he gained the peace which always comes through fidelity to the Lord. His hopes for a life with his family, lived in simplicity and fidelity to the Church, were short lived. The King, by now drunk on his own power, insisted that Thomas take the oath under the Act of Succession, thereby acknowledging the legitimacy of his marriage to Anne and his authority over the Church.
Thomas would not do so because he refused to violate his truly formed conscience. So, the King had his former counselor imprisoned in the Tower of London. There he underwent intense tortures of both body and soul. These came not only from the henchmen of the State but even from some within his own family and circle of friends who failed to understand his actions because their minds had been dulled by compromise.
At the time, few would have even noticed if Thomas had succumbed to the Royal request. He could have "justified" the action through the exercise of his well honed rhetorical and logical skills by calling it a merely perfunctory action. He could have thereby restored his political position, some would have argued, in order to try to influence the King for the good over the long haul. He could have had his substantial properties restored if he had just sworn that oath, others would say, in order to provide material safety for his beloved family. Instead, this man who loved life, loved his family, loved his career and properly loved the world and all of its goods, loved the Lord first and would not compromise the Truth.
He was a Christian man who shows us the way to living a unity of life in the midst of the creeping darkness and distractions of our own age. He held in harmony his vocation as the father of a family with his profession as a lawyer and his service in the highest of Political offices. He knew that there is a hierarchy of values which bring with them a hierarchy of duties and loyalties. His witness in life and in death challenges us to examine whether we do.
How did he do it? Quite simply, he prayed. He lived in a communion with the Risen Lord as a faithful son of the Church which is His Body. He was truly in love with the Lord and chose to live in the Heart of the Catholic Church for the sake of the world. He teaches us, that the Christian vocation requires our constant response to the Lord's invitation to follow him and that we cannot get by on yesterdays' decisions.
During the brief time which he had with his family, after attempting to quietly resign rather than violate his formed conscience and before he was imprisoned, whenever his wife or children complained about their lack he would tell them that they could not expect to "go to heaven in featherbeds". He taught them regularly to reflect upon the privation and sufferings of Jesus on our behalf and he prayed with them for the grace to join their own to Him on the Cross. He would not compromise the truth.
Thomas More was a morally coherent Catholic Christian man. That is the lesson of his life and of his Martyrs death. He beckons millions, across the expanse of time unto today, to follow his example as he followed the example of the Lord. This champion of heroic courage in the face of a State which has lost its soul never wavered in his fidelity to the Truth. He would not betray the truth or compromise it on the altar of public opinion or for political opportunism. He knew that to do so would not only have dishonored God and led his family and so many others astray, but that it would have given tacit assent to the emerging despotism of his age.
He was brought to trial for his fidelity to the Truth. Oh, as is always the case with persecution against Christians, it was framed as a charge against the "positive law". There, this outstanding lawyer defended the Truth for which he would later give his life. Thomas used the occasion of the Courtroom, where he had practiced his trade, to defend the Truth and its obligations in the temporal order.
In the eloquent words of Blessed John Paul II, who proclaimed him not only the Patron of all lawyers but the Patron of all politicians, "he made an impassioned defense of his own convictions on the indissolubility of marriage, the respect due to the juridical patrimony of Christian civilization, and the freedom of the Church in her relations with the State."
He was found guilty, even though he was a guardian of true innocence. That unjust verdict brings shame upon every unjust tribunal and misuse of governmental power. Thomas More was martyred for his moral coherence, his fidelity to the Catholic Christian faith. He was beheaded by the minions of a temporal leader who had abused his office and wielded the awful sword, the power of the State (which has as its very source God Himself) to inflict evil against those who refused to bow down in idolatrous worship of lies.
Thomas faced his executioners with the very same dignity he had shown in life, speaking with humor and affection to them even before they beheaded him. After his death it was found that he had left these words in the margin of his Book of Hours: "Give me your grace, good Lord, to set the world at naught...to have my mind well united to you; to not depend on the changing opinions of others...so that I may think joyfully of the things of God and tenderly implore his help. So that I may lean on God's strength and make an effort to love him... So as to thank Him ceaselessly for his benefits; so as to redeem the time I have wasted..."
We need to reflect on how we are living our own Catholic faith in the midst of an increasingly hostile age. We face a similar challenge to that which faced St. Thomas More as our culture continues its decline. The attacks on true marriage are increasing in their severity. We are being invited to compromise for our own convenience and tempted to accept the rulings of Judicial Oligarchs and Alchemists who think that they can change the nature of this institution by the stroke of a pen.
Their collaborators in political office, some of whom are apostate Catholics, are now beginning to wield the figurative sword of temporal power against us. The recent HHS Mandate which threatens the fundamental human right to religious freedom is the tip of an iceberg. The truths taught by the Catholic Church, and revealed within the common patrimony of the Natural Law, are rejected in an age struggling under what was called by Pope Benedict XVI a "Dictatorship of Relativism."
The most egregious example is the rejection of the truth concerning the dignity and inviolability of ever human life. This fundamental Right to Life is taught by the Natural Law and confirmed by medical science. Yet it is denied by those in control of the power of the State, and the blood of the innocent flows. Thomas More's example calls us to live a unity of life. He calls us to moral coherence and integrity. He calls us to the opposite of retreat; he calls us to courage.
We need New Thomas Mores for this age.
By Marshall Connolly (CALIFORNIA NETWORK)
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This week featured several new Hip Hop releases debuting in Billboard's Top 200 Albums charts. Big Sean had the highest debut of all Hip Hop artists with Hall of Fame, earning a spot at #3 overall with Juicy J's Stay Trippy arriving right behind him at #4. Goodie Mob also premiered its latest album, Age Against the Machine, landing in the final slot of the Top 30.
Strange Music's Krizz Kaliko also had a debut this week with Son of Sam, a project that hit at #57 with just under 8,000 units sold. "I always keep titles for songs and albums kind of in the chamber," Kaliko said during a recent interview with HipHopDX. "And I always wanted to do an album called Son Of Sam because Son Of Sam is just me. That's what it means. My family name is Sam Watson, so that's my legal name, my government [name]. To me, it meant more of me." Kaliko has also said that this album will allow him to shine as a solo artist in a different way than he has in the past. "A lot of people know me from Tech N9ne's music from the last 13 years you know," Kaliko said. "So I've always been kind of his co-writer, his sidekick, his hypeman...So I always wanted to do an album called Son Of Sam because it felt like to me a little bit of a liberation, not that I needed to be freed from that because that's been a system that groomed me into being Krizz Kaliko. I'm giving you more of me and that's pretty much where the title came from."
Outside of new releases on the Billboard Top 200, there was also a significant jump from an artist who has been on the charts for months. Justin Timberlake made that leap with 20/20 Experience, an album that currently sits in the #6 spot. This was a meaningful move after being in the #22 spot just a week ago. For JT, the new position in the Top 6 comes after one of the most acclaimed performances at this year's MTV Video Music Awards, where he was the recipient of the Video Vanguard Award. Timberlake followed that show by appearing on several radio stations promoting his next album, The 20/20 Experience 2 of 2, scheduled for a September 30 release. The album is set to feature Jay Z and Drake.
Big Sean Gets More Notoriety With Hall Of Fame
Big Sean's new album, Hall of Fame, landed the rapper in the #3 spot in its first week out with approximately 72,000 units sold. This is a drop from the first week sales of his last effort, 2011's Finally Famous, which sold 87,000 in its first week to land in the #3 slot as well. The Michigan rapper spoke about what Hall of Fame means to him during an exclusive interview with HipHopDX published August 29. "I really tried to step it up on this Hall Of Fame—from the "Beware" video, to "Fire" with Miley Cyrus and the album packaging," Sean said. "We tried to do everything on a higher level and still be ourselves…still be cool. So I'm just excited about this project, and I feel like the next one's gonna be even better. I'm 25-years-old, and I'm livin'."
Juicy J Stays Strong With Stay Trippy
Juicy J's Stay Trippy placed at #4 this week selling 64,000 units in its first week. Juicy J spoke about the album in May, saying that he had many songs to pick from before finalizing the effort. "It wasn't like this person had to be on this one or that person had to be on that one," Juicy said. "I was just doing songs. I would go in the studio and say, 'Let's do a song.' Sometimes I release stuff on the Internet. Sometimes I may save it for an album. It was just done. [I'm at] 75 records right now." Whatever strategy Juicy went with in the end seems to have worked for his fans, helping J land in the Top 5 for the week with this Kemosabe Records/Columbia release. Stay Trippy features guest spots from Pimp C, Trey Songz, Wale, Wiz Khalifa, Yelawolf and Justin Timberlake, to name a few.
Goodie Mob Rages With Age Against The Machine
Goodie Mob's Age Against the Machine positioned the group in the #30 spot with approximately 13,000 units sold. The group released this critically acclaimed album with the assistance of guest features from T.I. and Janelle Monae, but the focal point of the album remains the group's chemistry after being separated for years. With Cee Lo, T-Mo, Khujo and Big Gipp, the album brings back some characteristics that are reminiscent of the group's early days while also developing new sounds in the process. Cee Lo spoke about this in June 2012, when he confirmed that the quartet was working together again. "The Goodie Mob, we definitely are reunited," Cee Lo said in an interview with MTV. "And we've been working on that album really vigorously and it's coming out very well...I think people are going to be very pleased. You know our core audience and also this new audience that we are aspiring to acquire."
Hip Hop Album Sales: The Week Ending 9/1/2013
#3. Big Sean - Hall of Fame - 72,000 (72,000)
#4. Juicy J - Stay Trippy - 64,000 (64,000)
#5. Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines - 55,000 (392,000)
#13. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - The Heist - 25,000 (1,042,000)
#14. Jay Z - Magna Carta Holy Grail - 24,000 (937,000)
#44. A$AP Ferg - Trap Lord - 9,000 (41,000)
#46. Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d. city - 9,000 (1,020,000)
#49. Earl Sweatshirt - Doris - 8,000 (57,000)
#53. J. Cole - Born Sinner - 8,000 (587,000)
#56. Krizz Kaliko - Son of Sam - 8,000 (8,000)
* data comes from Nielsen Soundscan, rounded to nearest thousandth for units above 10,000, nearest hundredth for units below 10,000. Each week, HipHopDX presents top albums in Hip Hop/related, and five notables.
Will EPMD's Strictly Business reach a Top 10 placement with their 25th Anniversary release? Stay tuned to HipHopDX.
RELATED: Big Sean Dissects "Hall Of Fame," Says He "Hates Battle Rapping"


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By Suzanne Ross
September 22, 2003 12:00 AM PT
You arrive at your office in the morning, sit down, look at your to do list and wonder how you're going to get it all done. If only you had a tool, a genie in a bottle, anything that would help you get more done in less time. And caffeine is out; you gave that up last week.
Microsoft researchers haven't perfected the genie, but they've found a tool that can increase your productivity by 9 to 50 percent and make your work day easier. And you can begin using it right away.
The researchers conducted user studies that proved the effectiveness of adding a second or even third monitor to your workstation, creating a wide-screen effect. In addition, they found out how the operating system needs to change to accommodate a larger screen area.
Their work encompassed changes needed in the next version of Windows, as well as looking forward to when wide screens would no longer mean side-by-side single monitors, but would instead take many different forms. They even developed a prototype wide-aspect monitor to test their ideas.
I'll Never Go Back!
Give someone a second monitor, let them use it for while, and then try to take it away. It just isn't going to happen. They'll never go back to a mono display. Researchers in the Visualization and Interaction for Business and Entertainment group (VIBE), found that increasing a computer user's display space made it easier for them to complete their tasks.
They started by conducting user studies on a monitor designed and built by Gary Starkweather, who also invented the laser printer. Starkweather likes to remind people that the average display size is not much bigger than an 8-by-11 sheet of paper. He asks, "What if I took away your desk, and gave you one that was only 8-by-11? How easy would it be for you to work?"
The monitor that Starkweather built, code named Dsharp, is 42" wide. He used three XGA DLP projectors, each with a 1024 x 768 resolution, and set them into a curved Plexiglas panel, resulting in a 3072 x768 resolution display. The display was curved to avoid distortion at the farthest fields of vision.
"Typically, if you just project something on a curved screen it looks like you're projecting it on the bedroom drapes or something," said Starkweather. "I had to use some special mirrors to distort it back so that I got a fairly smooth image."
The research study required users to complete several different tasks, switch from one task to another, and remember data. None of the study participants had used multiple monitors before.
The first study revealed that the users' productivity increased by 9 percent. Further studies showed even greater increases - at times up to 50 percent for tasks such as cutting and pasting. Mary Czerwinski, the VIBE research manager, is excited about her group's discoveries, asking, "If you're able to squeeze 10 percent more productivity out, do you know how much money that will save?"
One of the user studies that the VIBE group did required users to navigate through a series of doors, and then back their way out. They wanted to test the user's ability to remember a series of actions on a small display versus a large display.
"The interesting thing is that they try to get it right. We found that memory capability is considerably improved on a big display over a small display. There's something about engaging the peripheral vision that improves your spatial memory of what has gone on," said Starkweather.
Women Need Their Space
An unexpected finding during the user studies will greatly benefit women. "We had users go through a maze on the computer to find out which cues in a large display will help users access spatial memory. We stumbled on these gender differences," said Czerwinski. "We thought that smooth optical flow cues were what helped women perform better while navigating through the mazes. And sure enough, when we ran the study comparing how people performed during a smooth animation versus when they faded in and out of the scene, we found that women did a lot better. The men preferred the smooth animation, but the choppy animation didn't bother them or slow them down as much as it did the women."
"It might be that there are other cues, but traditionally women aren't wired the same way as men to navigate long distances and be able to manipulate spaces in their heads as adeptly as men do," explains Czerwinski. "Any one female can be just as good as or better than a man at spatial navigation tasks, but on average females are a little worse. So we need to support females with big displays, with wider fields of views when they're doing intense navigation tasks. They've been at a disadvantage in any 3D system, but just give them a wider field of vision and smooth graphics, and they're good to go."
Software Innovations To Support Multiple Monitors
There's more to enhancing screen real estate than the hardware. Every facet of the software needs to be examined and tested. One of the items on the list is the cursor. If you are switching from task to task, and sweeping your cursor across dual monitors, or even a seamless wide screen, chances are you might lose track of it.
Researchers Patrick Baudisch and George Robertson have designed some new behaviors for the common cursor. "Patrick and I have both been exploring mouse and cursor issues to make it easier to track on a large display. The basic problem is that you have to move the cursor such a far distance from one edge to another that you set your acceleration point really high. But if you move it too fast you can lose track of it," said Robertson. "We wanted to add some mechanism that keeps it visible. The high-density cursor was the best." Their user studies showed a 7 percent increase in performance on a task.
If you are using two monitors you will have the physical edges of the monitors smack dab in the middle of your viewing space. The separate halves of a document opened across the great divide might not line up. Baudisch developed a program that allows users to adjust how the monitor shows windows that are stretched across multiple screens.
In Windows, when you hit the maximize icon, the default for a single monitor is to maximize it to the entire screen. The default behavior built into display cards for multiple monitors usually corrects this so that the window only maximizes to a single monitor size. But what if you do want to use the entire space? As people get used to having the extra space, chances are they'll want to spread out. Robertson is exploring ways to solve this, too.
Looking Ahead
Researchers at Microsoft have two tasks. One is to discover the technologies that fit into our world within the next two to three years, and the second is to think of the breakthrough technologies that we will be using five to ten years from now.
When considering the change to a large display, several challenges come to mind. What will a computer display look like in the future? How do you view incoming data? How do you organize your files - because you'll probably have many more windows open?
Let's start with the monitor itself. The rise of computers has tethered us to our chairs, because that's where the monitor resides. Starkweather has a vision for a monitor that won't tie you to your desk. He is imagining and working toward a way to tile smaller monitors that you can configure on the fly.
"I'd like to think I could have a display that went around my door sill, I'd like to have something that flexible. Whether anyone does it that way is not the point. It's just that I'd have the architectural freedom to do that, whereas today I don't," said Starkweather.
Starkweather's tiled monitor would allow you to have a big display and use the whole space, or only use portions of it depending on your need. Several people could even share one large display.
You could order up a custom display to fit the odd space in your basement where you want your teen to play online games, or put a long narrow display along one wall for your spreadsheets, with a short, fat display on another wall for your novel-in-progress.
Now let's move on to considering incoming data, which might be an email notification, or an appointment reminder. If you're staring at a spot at the computer that's at the far left edge of your display, you might miss an important notification if it pops up at the far right edge. HongJiang Zhang, the assistant managing director at Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA), has worked on a system to track the gaze of a user so that the computer can place an alert where you'd most likely notice one. He inserted a small video camera into the display. The camera tracks the user's gaze and communicates with the notification software to move alerts to where the user is looking.
How do you organize your data? Don't groan, it must be done. More space might make it easier; however, if you're working on a large screen and switching between spreadsheets, your online research, the company report, your inbox, a collaborative workspace or two, and maybe a game of Solitaire, how do you track it all? The VIBE group wanted to find out if there were some ways to improve the taskbar for a larger display area.
They came up with a few projects, one of which is code-named Scalable Fabric. Scalable Fabric lets you put the windows that you're not working on into the periphery of your screen. Instead of text on a taskbar, you can see a mini version of the whole page.
"We don't minimize in the old sense. The window is not hidden, it's just smaller. When you want to bring it back it comes back into the focus area. When you drag it near the periphery the window gets smaller," explains Robertson.
The VIBE group was formed when researchers who were working in several disciplines across Microsoft Research had a vision to improve the user experience. Now their vision will not only widen yours, it will help you get more done in less time - even without a genie.