text:
Two children hurt after ATV they were on hits fence
Published: Thursday, July 24, 2014 at 8:58 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, July 24, 2014 at 8:58 p.m.
An ATV carrying two children, 7 and 8 years old, crashed into a fence on private property, injuring them, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
The two children, Carson Sherouse, 7, of Gainesville, and Clay A. Forney, 8, of Trenton, were riding the 2009 Peace Sports ATV on private property at 12351 NE 10th Ave. in Levy County, a few miles east of Chiefland, at 1:10 p.m. Thursday, according to a report by FHP Trooper Alan. O. Harrison.
Carson was driving along a barbed-wire fence, when the ATV got too close to a fence post, causing the ATV to overturn and travel through the fence, ending up upside down, FHP reported.
Both boys were thrown off the ATV. Carson was taken to the UF Hospital at Shands in serious condition, and Clay received minor injuries, according to FHP, which reported that neither boy was wearing a helmet.
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.


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word used to descirbe someone who is of asian descent, not used as a racial slur.
damn, that panda over there is hot.
Beküldő: 808kick 2006. december 6.
The point at which a woman orgasms several times, and a man is shot out of the vagina directly into a wall. Also a furry black and white animal.
My bitch pandad me into the living room.
Beküldő: Teh p00py 2003. április 10.
A woman who is slightly overweight but still very attractive.
That waitress has just the right amount of cushioning, she is such a panda.
Beküldő: My00t8 2007. április 10.
Roaming through the woods, evading enemies (police), eating pandacakes in his Panda food shack, wearing nothing but black and white, this Panda lives on. Secksay beastie.
Look! It's a Panda!
My god, he's sexy.
My god, he's sexy.
Beküldő: Beva 2007. január 15.
night creature with black hearts and ravenous teeth that glow in the dark feasting on bums that sleep in the park. they'll hide under your bed. they'll rip you butt to shreads. The Chinese believe if you find a discarded panda tooth you have the power to summon GODZILLA. Like a shark pandas have huge teeth which are used to grind through bone candy and fences
"Hey look at that panda over there with his nasty teeth"
Beküldő: Carly2010 2006. augusztus 7.
one who panders to other people and/or their interests
wow i don't really like singer-songwriters, but i have mad boners for this kid who does, so i downloaded a load of music by ryan adams and cameron mcgill and rhett miller. i'm such a panda.
Beküldő: ana b. 2006. április 2.
panda used in conjunction with the word 'sexual' originates from an unknown south park episode featuring the comment 'sexual harrasment panda!" and has thus been used to describe anything that has high sexual status or value
that girls a proper panda
your tight top is well panda
your tight top is well panda
Beküldő: sam 2004. április 24.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Sunny days, high-energy nights and strikingly illuminated festival stages make the summer season bright in Montréal. The city ignites with a sparkling line-up of entertainment in July and August – get ready to laugh, dance, groove and be dazzled at these big festivals and more this summer. The one-and-only Montréal International Jazz Festival officially ignites the height of summer festival season June 26-July 5. Incredible talent graces historic night clubs and Place des Arts stages while downtown's Quartier des Spectacles bustles with unmissable free outdoor shows, including the grand finale on July 5: a stylish, bluesy tribute to the late, great B.B. King. More music lights up the town as Festival International Nuits d'Afrique welcomes traditional and ground-breaking musicians from Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America and right here at home, July 7-19. Discover your new favourite indie, electronic and hip hop artists at MEG Montréal, July 23-August 2, and take a ride on the late-night MEG party boat. Osheaga Music and Arts Festival crams the biggest names and the brightest emerging artists in indie-pop, rock, hip hop and electronic music into three amazing days on Île Sainte-Hélène, July 31-August 2 – this year see Florence + The Machine, Kendrick Lamar,… / Read More →
Search Results
Results for Odysseo
Things to Do in Montreal: May 10-16
With the sweet scent of spring blossoms in the air, Montreal begins a new season of activity and entertainment, not to mention plenty to please every mom for Mother's Day, whether that's being outdoors, going to the ballet or the theatre, eating fabulous food, taking in some art, or rocking out to live music…


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Steve McIntyre is the New Debian Project Leader
The results of the election are confirmed: Debian veteran Steve McIntyre has won the Debian Project Leader (DPL) election in the third round of voting.
McIntyre campaigned for DPL in both 2006 and 2007, and has worked on the free operating system since 1996. This time it finally worked and McIntyre will be taking over as DPL from Sam Hocevar (who did not stand for reelection) April 17. McIntyre had two strong competitors in Raphael Hertzog and Marc Brockschmidt. A total of 1075 developers were eligible to vote – more than ever before – and some 49 percent of them actually cast a vote. The ballot is based on the fairly complex Condorcet system. The voters rank the candidates and the winner is the majority choice. The Debian project page has details of the voting and the election results.
In his election campaign Steve McIntyre had focused on improving communications between developers and still regards this as the main issue confronting the free distribution. The new project leader will be responsible for the next stable version 5.0, Codename "Lenny", which is due for release later this year. The DPL holds office for a period of one year following which the next elections are held.
Issue 187/2016
Buy this issue as a PDF
Linux is the Largest Software Development Project in History
But if you are not using the latest Linux kernel, your system is insecure.
Linksys Says Yes to Open Source Firmware
Home routers will give room for custom firmware but still comply with FCC rules
OwnCloud Founder Resigns
Frank Karlitschek will continue to lead the open source ownCloud project
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS released
"Xenial Xerus" comes with a new packages format and several improvements for the enterprise.
MS Visual Studio Code Editor is Available for Linux
Linux users can now download and install the Windows code editor
Open Container Initiative announces Image Format Project
New initiative will address security and interoperability concerns around container technology.
Red Hat Lures Developers with Free RHEL and Container Development Kits
Developers can use RHEL as a development platform without a subscription fee.
Microsoft Brings the Linux Command Line to Windows
Windows users will soon have native access to the Bash shell.
Internet Research Group Proposes Better Email Standard
Improvements to SMTP will provide better guarantee of confidentiality
New Nvidia Driver Offers Wayland Support
Graphics vendor embraces new reality in Linux graphics


text:
Endless Summer
You're invited… to the fourth annual Endless Summer Party to benefit The Faison School for Autism! This "White Haute" event will take place on September 11, 2015 at Historic Tredegar and features music by the acclaimed Right On Band. Attended by over 400 people, this has grown to be quite a party over the past few years supporting a wonderful cause.
The Endless Summer Party is hosted by the Junior Board and all funds raised go directly to support the life span of services that The Faison Center provides for individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities.
For more information, please visit www.faisonendlesssummer.com or call (804) 612-1954.
For tickets and sponsorships, click here!


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Dean Baker: Donald Trump passed the threshold of committed delegates that gives him a lock on the Republican Party presidential nomination. It's worth considering what led to Trump's rise in the first place.
Activists are indicating it's going to be a long, hot summer of civil disobedience in British Columbia.
Josh Solomon is a reporter for the Medill News Service.


text: I just got a 2006 specialized langster single speed and did a bunch of work to get it back to good riding condition. I wrapped the bars and would like to replace the hood covers, but I'm not sure which ones to order. I don't think these are the original levers. I think they might say shimano 105 on them but the lettering is pretty worn down. Anyone know which hoods I should order? Picture below.


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Promoters of Oklahoma City's I-240 area look to Fort Worth, Texas, for an example
Envision 240 leaders are looking south for a glimpse of a possible future for the Interstate 240 corridor.
They're encouraging property and business owners along I-240 between I-44 and I-35 to get aboard — literally. A bus tour of the Camp Bowie District in Fort Worth, Texas, is tentatively set for March 28.
The Fort Worth district, along Camp Bowie Boulevard, "is dedicated to beautification projects ... promoting and driving traffic to its businesses, spurring economic development, and hosting special community events such as the Fort Worth Music Festival, Camp Bowie Christmas, Glory Days Classic Car Show and more." See the website at campbowiedistrict.com.
Envision 240 is the now yearlong effort by Urban Land Institute Oklahoma, the South Oklahoma City of Commerce and the Oklahoma City Planning Department to consider ways to rejuvenate retail business and improve the appearance of the 4-mile stretch of I-240.
It started with meetings of business and community leaders and representatives of adjacent neighborhoods that led to a study, available at www.okc.gov/planning/envision240/reports.html.
Now, promoters are working specifically with property and business owners "to find out what their needs are, to dive into the ULI (Urban Land Institute) report more, to see if there's an opportunity to move forward," said Elaine Lyons, president of the South Oklahoma City Chamber.
Consultant Tom Gray of Smith & Gray Co. in Edmond said the formation of a business improvement district or tax increment financing district would be helpful in coordinating and funding any organized effort. Gray is working with Vince Howi, Smith & Gray project manager. Kim Cooper-Hart, urban planner with the Oklahoma City Planning Department, said the aim is to have a steering committee in place by June.
Goals set
The Envision 240 report outlined three goals:
• "Re-tenant the area's viable big- and mid-box stores. Large vacant spaces don't leave a good impression on residents or potential new tenants. Plus, they aren't generating income for the building owner to make improvements or repairs."
• "Reinvest in the area's best retail centers and nodes. The currently good nodes are a worthy investment to attract shoppers and businesses. The depressed and less productive centers can be candidates for revitalization investment — but only if the surrounding areas keep up a good backdrop."
• "Redevelop outmoded retail for other uses, such as employment center civic and cultural amenities, residential and/or mixed-use centers. What goes on inside a building will change over time; what worked 10 years ago may not work today. Shopping mall conversions are taking place all over the country, generating new investment and creating new activity centers in what were once underutilized and blighted spaces."
Southside developer P.B. Odom III said that a decade ago I-240 was "far more in need than it is today" and that Envision 240 is an effort to coordinate and bolster trends that are already under way.
The closing of Ultimate Electronics, 515 SW 74 along the interstate in 2011 and the recent acquisition of the property for US Foods' Chef'store is an example. A plan for expansion near 240 Penn Park, where Odom has land, is another.
Complexes criticized
Odom pointed to 1970s-era apartment buildings that some see as detracting from I-240's appearance and potential: As the area continues to improve, "they will be gone," Odom said, because "the land will become too expensive" and someone will acquire them, raze them and bring the land to a higher use.
Odom said any reluctance about a coordinated effort comes from those with no long-term interest in the area.
"We have been in business over 75 years, so our thinking is generally compatible and in line with the city and state, and even the federal government, for that matter."
Fort Worth tour
For more information about the March 28 tour of the Camp Bowie District in Fort Worth, Texas, call the South Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce at 634-1436.


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In our office the setup is like we have a UBUNTU server with DHCP Server connected to all the PCS via 24 port and 8 port DLink switches. How can I find all the PCS(with client name, ip and mac address)in the network??
When I do "vi /var/lib/dhcp3/dhcpd.leases", I get all the ip addresses for the switches.
I have used "arp-scan --interface=eth0 --localnet" to get all the IPs and MAC Addresses in my local network. I couldn't find any option to diplay client name.
Also I would like to assign particular IP for a particular PC. I have done the changes in the dhcp.conf file but it is not working as they are not directly connected to DHCP-server(DLink switches in between). How can I assign IPs for PCs in this kind of setup.
Thanks in advance


text:
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February 7, 2012
Following a few guidelines when selecting and using GMAW equipment and consumables can help improve productivity and quality in your welding operation.
March 7, 2011
A reliable process for heavy-duty applications, self-shielded flux-cored welding (FCAW-SS) has its challenges. Here are some FAQs about these challenges and suggestions for overcoming them.
January 6, 2010
Think GMAW guns and consumables don't have an impact on your final weld? Think again. By separating the myths surrounding GMAW guns and their consumables from the facts, you can ensure you're not compromising performance or weld integrity.


text:
My parents are both crafty and I guess I always thought it was in my genes! Granny Creaser taught me to crochet when I was about 11 yrs old. I am always looking to start (or finish, lol) a project!
Take Craftsy with you!
Craftsy Apps for iOS and Android. Read more »


text:
Recent Forum Posts
View More
Recent Comments
- 10 months ago I would get an otterbox case, handsfree set, car charger...if possible a couple of the last one Posted via the Android...
- 1 year ago Since I'm currently trying to be a dad, this would make me status as the cool dad possible!! Posted via Android Central...
- 4 years ago I would be thankful to win either one!!!! PICK ME PICK ME!!!
- Member for
- 5 years 4 months


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Nice presentation, Ex! 943 kills, too. You're quite the eBayer! Have you seen any 52CM SST's underneath all that stuff in your garage?
Nice presentation, Ex! 943 kills, too. You're quite the eBayer! Have you seen any 52CM SST's underneath all that stuff in your garage?
Racer Ex..."Don't know if the shop is under new ownership. If not feel free to shoplift stuff and break bottles in his parking lot."
I have to say I'm bad with sharp objects lately. Cleaning up the garage talking to Hermes and had a razor blade I was going to chuck in my hand while I was moving some other stuff around the bunch. "Shwack"...nice slice in the heel of my palm. My finger still isn't 100%. I should just cut my hands off and have them replaced with some titanium jobs.
Racer Ex, don't tell anybody, but I'll be taking a swing at the Fusion 3 set.
And be careful with the digits and such.
It's snowing.
62 degrees, light wind, sunny. I'll be on a circuit race course with other W4's in about three hours. In four hours I'll be a quivering puddle of goo!
Racer Ex..."Don't know if the shop is under new ownership. If not feel free to shoplift stuff and break bottles in his parking lot."
I wish our 55+ races started that late in the day. I am NOT a morning person. Have fun!
"Real men wear pink."
See my cycling photos at http://www.pbase.com/cleavel/bicycling
See my bikes at http://www.pbase.com/cleavel/mybicycles
Visit my blog at http://cleavesblant.wordpress.com/
Lightning Velo Cycling Club: http://www.lightningvelo.org/
They cancelled tomorrow's crit, it was supposed to be some huge storm. But it came in warmer than expected, so even though it snowed all day and there is snow on all the grass & trees, the roads are not snowy. I guess that means I get to ride outside tomorrow, after my crit-replacing indoor LT test on my TT bike, ouch.
Watching Paris- Nice on TV. Why not a " best old rider jersey"?
oldschool areodynamic brick
By the way... Paris - Nice, stage 7, 140 miles big climb in the middle, ave speed 25 mph... There's a bit of a difference between these guys and me.
there is no signature.
Did you see the leader do the face plant in stage 3? He hit a left hander a little too hard, ran over a lane marking, and hit the deck. That was the race for him. It was a good case study in paying attention and riding within yourself.
Sky look fearsome.
Where are you guys watching this? Is it on TV and I forgot to record it? ???
For me its been on channel 81 - nbc sports network, which used to be some independent thing earlier. I've been watching the rebroadcasts in the evening.
there is no signature.
thanks! running off to look at channel lineup.
That face plant was something... he broke some teeth, right?
"If you're riding less than 18 MPH up a 2% grade please tell people Coggan is coaching you."
Going to eat sushi and get mildly drunk. Tomorrow is a busy day.
I am allergic to fish (boo) but I am eating lamb chops that I grilled outside with green beans and red wine.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. Aristotle
Cat: Killer


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Mar 7, 15 •
584 Views •
Elaine Schwartz • No Comments
Our Posts Roundup Sunday 3.01.15 Handy notes from Warren Buffett…more Monday 3.02.15 The basics of Greek tax evasion…more Tuesday 3.03.15 Insight about airline queues...more Wednesday 3.04.15 Why we subsidize Brazilian farmers…more Thursday...... [read more]
Sep 4, 14 •
1259 Views •
Elaine Schwartz • No Comments
Half of the Valley Fair Mall is in Santa Clara, CA while the other half is in San Jose. Because San Jose has a minimum wage of $10.15 while Santa Clara's is $8.00, the stores at the mall have a problem. Minimum Wages Issues For some stores, the big...... [read more]
Jan 6, 13 •
570 Views •
Elaine Schwartz • No Comments
Yesterday morning, my 4 mile walk seemed faster than usual because I listened to Lisa Turner talk about Laughing Stock, her organic farm. Interestingly, her conclusion focused on profit. Here are some of the stories from the econtalk podcast. She started by...... [read more]
Oct 18, 12 •
723 Views •
Elaine Schwartz • No Comments
The marketplace affects where we can and cannot fly. If you need to travel between Lima, Peru and Atlanta, you can thank asparagus lovers. More than passenger traffic, Delta values the route because of its asparagus cargo. (While China is by far the...... [read more]
Sep 26, 12 •
681 Views •
Elaine Schwartz • No Comments
Aluminum recycling is in the news because of a break-up. Together, Alcoa and Novelis (owned by HindalCo, an Indian firm) had been collecting and recycling cans–40 billion last year. But no more. Now, competing for used cans, each firm will do it alone....... [read more]
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Atmospheric music
5 Days a Stranger is a point-and-click adventure game that was made in 2003 by Fully Ramblomatic. This game was the first adventure game I ever played and is still one of my favorites.
Cat burglar Trilby got more than he bargained for when he broke into the DeFoe mansion. He has been locked inside with four other people by an invisible intelligence; one that will do anything to keep them there. Even murder...
Gameplay is fun and the puzzles can be somewhat difficult. This game was made with an adventure game scripting system called AGS. Definitely a game worth playing.
NOTE: The cutscenes in this game are VERY gory and bloody. So this game is not for the squeamish. You could always read the walkthrough before you play the game so you won't be surprised.
If you enjoyed 5 Days a Stranger, the sequel is also on the site here.
Yatzee has now released a Special Edition for this game, free of charge. The Special Edition includes author commentary, a new 'interview' scene, 3 concept sketches, and all 4 music tracks in midi format. You can download it from the same page as the regular version.
Review by: Fawfulhasfury
More screenshots
Editor's rating:
Rock on!
Good stuff
(41 posts)
Contains high level of violence, and many disturbing scenes.
Safe for ages: 18+
The Next replica hublot king power chronograph to depart this collaboration will probably tag heuer replica be as with the summer season in the exclusive edition of 3,500 pieces. The special tips from the high-tech watch fake montblanc sport watches are the arrangement in the chronograph's Panerai Replica Watches buttons close to the dial, echoing design in the change buttons swiss replica hublot watches round the automatic transmission selector lever inside the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren super fancy car.


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Category:Developing Qt::Qt Planning
From Qt Wiki
English | فارسی
Welcome to Qt Planning wiki! You can find more info from links
Qt Roadmap process
- At Qt_Public_Roadmap_Process you can find information about how Qt roadmapping is going to happen and who are the contact persons.
Qt Roadmap
- At Qt Public Roadmap you can find a Qt Roadmap overview (Qt Release Roadmap plus detailed module information per release).
Qt Bug Tracker
- From the bug tracker link (to be added here) you can find link to Jira where module-level roadmaps will to be found.
Meetings calendar
Pages in category "Developing Qt::Qt Planning"
The following 5 pages are in this category, out of 5 total.


text:
StartUpHire is the place to find Lucene/Solr Community Manager jobs. Review the list of Lucene/Solr Community Manager career opportunities to the left. These Lucene/Solr Community Manager jobs represent some of the most rewarding careers available.
You can refine your job search for Lucene/Solr Community Manager career opportunities by adding a job title, company name, or keyword to the search box above … or click the "Advanced Search" link for more options.
Don't see the employment opportunity you're looking for? Check back soon for more Lucene/Solr Community Manager jobs, or sign up for an email alert (link below) to receive periodic updates on new Lucene/Solr Community Manager jobs.
Location: Anywhere USA Department: Product Management Founded in 2012 by the people behind the Elasticsearch and Apache Lucene open source projects, Elastic provides real-time insights and makes massive amounts of structured and unstructured data usable for developers and2/22/2016 Mountain View, CA Save This Job
The Full Stack Software Engineer collaborates with a team to build engaging and effective shopping experiences for Etsy's community of buyers.5/20/2016 Brooklyn, NY Save This Job


text:
John Dewey and the Universality of Scientific Inquiry
Logical consequences are the scarecrows of fools
And the beacons of wise men.
-- Thomas Henry Huxley, Animal Automatism
B y the seventh decade of the nineteenth century, the United States had evolved the world's first successful international immigrant culture. It had been inspired by great naturalists such as Jefferson, Adams, Franklin and Paine; nourished by immigration; forged by revolution; and tested by civil war. It was a vigorous culture that tended to produce an abundance of inquiring minds, technical expertise and entrepreneurial spirit, but few of the truly great whose ideas were destined to change the world. One such, however, was John Dewey, the small-town boy who was to become America's first internationally renowned philosopher.
John Dewey was born in Vermont the year On the Origin of Species was published, and died almost a century later. During that period he witnessed and contributed to fundamental changes in human civilization. In his lifetime he became one of the world's greatest educators. He earned a reputation as his country's most original philosopher. He was, in fact, the major contributor to the only authentic American philosophy yet devised. In addition, his published works on the nature of ethics and morality, logic, psychology, art, religion, science and democracy offer us insights surprisingly useful as guides to solving the current crises of humanity.
Dewey was a contemporary of Ivan Pavlov but, unfortunately for the growth of human understanding, the two thinkers seem not to have encountered one another in any meaningful way. Both were deeply influenced by the theories of Herbert Spencer and would have been natural and mutually enriching allies. Dewey's major contribution was the spelling-out of a comprehen-


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Drove about 70 miles roundtrip when upon entering town had sudden Total oil pressure loss and knocking come from engine. NO previous leaks and oil levels fine when checked about one month previous to incident. Truck has been running Great before this...??????
by LeoAngel in Little Falls, MN on April 11, 2014


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The X10.93 is a Silver nickel plated chain with solid plates and pins for use with 10-speed Campagnolo, Shimano and Sram drivetrains.
You can't go wrong with KMC chains. I've never been disappointed by one. Don't bother paying more for something that won't work as well.
great chain no problems after 250 miles shifts great on my shimano 10sp
I was having bad luck with the HG95 (XT) chains on my Shimano XT 10spd drivertain. The rollers would wear out at a significantly faster rate than I expected, so I bought this chain having previously used KMC on my 9spd road bike. I am getting much more life out of these chains than I was with the HG95 chains. I know these have a stronger sideplate design, which helps prevent stretching, but I'm not sure why the rollers specifically on these KMC chains are much better than the Shimano rollers. Regardless of the reason, these work significantly better. Are they heavier? Yes, slightly. Are they stronger? Heck yes! And of course there's a huge bonus with these KMC chains: Missing link! Easy installation, easy removal. I like these cheaper KMC chains not just because they work, but at the price point, I can replace them more often because they're cheaper, which means better longevity on my cassette and chain rings. One thing I do recommend, add your own chain lube from the get-go. The factory oil on these chains is very 'gummy' and can easily attraction dirt. 5/5 stars.


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I was on the trail the other day doing a pretty hard 9 mile ride on my 2006 Fisher Cake 2 DLX, which is a bike I really like. I took my bike home and when I tried to put the rear wheel back on, I realized that there was something wrong with the spacing and it wouldn't fit. I noticed that there was a big dent on the left chainstay and this had bent the frame. I was angry at myself for not knowing when this happened, etc.
I basically have two options. I work at a Trek/GF shop and I've called our rep and asked him what I can do. They're going to give me $84 to use on whatever I want. The first option is to get a new swingarm. The swingarm I have now is aluminum on the chainstays, with carbon seatstays. All they have are full carbon ones. I kind of don't want this, because I do abuse the bike a little bit with 3 foot drops and whatnot. This would be $210 including the $84 I get from them.
If I were to go with this option, I would be able to spend about $300 on upgrades, such as a King headset, etc.
The second option is to get a new HiFi (base model) and switch the stuff from my Cake (XT with a Fox fork) to the HiFi. For me, this option would be $720 plus tax. I would not have money left over to upgrade.
I like the Cake, but the HiFi is good too, with the G2 geometry. The only thing that makes me want the HiFi is the fact that the swingarm is carbon, which worries me, probably irrationally.
I've sold my Karate Monkey to finance either of these options, so either of these will be my only mountain bike now. This is fine, because the KM was always too hard on my wrists and arms on the trails, which is all I used it for.
What do you guys think? I would love any constructive criticism, but am leaning toward buying the swingarm.
Either of these will be ordered Monday.


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The stock goes down & they think they know something. Most of what is said by those who want the stock to go down is based on BS & they know it. It's like Chia but on the short side, lol.
Not all shorts are idiots, but the ones that plaster the board with dumb comments and ridiculous claims certainly are obnoxious.I am short AZO and for good reason. Negative equity value, huge debt, insider selling. And that's just the beginning. I have yet to hear one long try to explain how AZO is worth remotely near the $8 billion market cap. I bet I get another "get in the zone" or "i wonder how many people on this board use synthetic motor oil?"These are derivative arguments. AZO doesn't have a monopoly, and in fact, they face more competition than ever as AAP and ORLY grow rapidly. Not to mention Wal-Mart, Target, and others also sell automotive supplies, and for less.I want one solid fact why this stock is a buy today.
Thats what I do! I am not an idiot, I just don't take long positions.
Mostly what we know is that we made a lot of money watching AZO drift down from 167. :)


text:
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[March 09, 2014]
Bills would fix unintended consequences of internet cafe ban [Tampa Tribune, Fla. :: ]
(Tampa Tribune (FL) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) March 09--TALLAHASSEE -- A year after the Florida Legislature approved sweeping legislation that led to the closing of Internet cafes and senior arcades across the state, some lawmakers are hoping tweaks to the law might help fix some of the unintended consequences.
Two Senate bills have been filed to address arcade games, such as those found at bowling alleys and Chuck E. Cheese, which might have gotten swept up in the frenzy to pass a bill shutting down so-called Internet cafes.
The first bill -- proposed Senate committee bill 7052 -- amends the portion of the law that deals with amusement games. The measure, which is part of a larger piece of legislation aimed at the state's gaming system, defines an amusement game as something operated "only for bona fide entertainment of the general public." The measure allows players to use several different types of currency, including coins, tokens, cards or coupons, to operate the game. That's a change from the measure passed last year, which said games should only be coin-operated.
The proposal also bumps up the amount a player can receive per round to $5.25 from 75 cents.
"It's intended to minimize the unintended consequences from last year that put unintended restrictions on Chuck E. Cheese, Dave & Buster's, bowling alleys and things of that nature," said state Sen. Garrett Richter, R-Naples, chairman of the state Senate gaming committee.
The proposed changes don't necessarily come as a surprise.
In December, Richter hinted that such a proposal might be in the works -- especially after some lawmakers complained the crackdown on Internet cafes and adult arcades could be hurting more family-friendly companies.
In September, state Sen. Jack Latvala, R-St. Petersburg, told the gaming committee he had been contacted by the owner of a "claw" machine business who was forced to remove the arcade-style game from in front of more than 100 stores. He also said the Department of Business and Professional Regulation threatened criminal action against a bowling alley unless arcade games were removed.
Richter said the gaming committee's office "has been contacted by people on both sides of the issue" and took all of the opinions into account when drafting the measure.
The proposed committee bill does, however, continue to prohibit arcade games that may mimic a slot machine. The proposal clearly states "video poker games or any other game or machine that may be constructed as a gambling device" aren't allowed.
The House has proposed its own gaming overhaul bill, which doesn't address arcades.
"We passed a bill last year that did," said House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel. "We thought, and our sheriffs' offices and state attorneys agree with us, that it gave them the authority to shut (Internet cafes and adult arcades) down. It's our understanding they're starting to come back up again. I don't know what we actually need to do to clarify the law." The proposed Senate gaming bill isn't the only piece of arcade-related legislation floating around the Capitol.
Senate Bill 668, sponsored by state Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, also looks to change the portion of the law that deals with arcade games.
Like the Senate gaming proposal, Stargel's bill allows players to use other types of currency beyond coins to operate the games; increases the maximum payout to $5.25 from 75 cents, and allows machines to be placed in bowling alleys, hotels or restaurants.
Stargel's measure is scheduled to go before the Senate gaming committee at 2:30 p.m. Monday.
firstname.lastname@example.com 239-263-4805 ___ (c)2014 the Tampa Tribune (Tampa, Fla.) Visit the Tampa Tribune (Tampa, Fla.) at www.tampatrib.com Distributed by MCT Information Services
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text:
Funding via Edpyme Alternativa
This is her first loan with MFP. Rocío is pleased to know that she has financial support. She also enjoys being part of her Communal Bank because all of the members are responsible and supportive. Rocío thanks everyone responsible for approving her loan request since the funds will be useful in advancing her business. The loan she is requesting will be used to buy more trout that she can bring with her to Lima.
Success!! The loan was 100% repaid


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Tape Dispensers local companies in Oregon OR- Displaying all 8
Rocket Industrial serving Oregon
Pressure sensitive tape dispensers are distributed at Rocket Industrial Packaging. Our tape dispensers are used for box sealing and packaging. We have several tape dispensers for you to choose from that will best suit your needs.
Products: Dispensers: tape; dispensers: gummed tape; dispensers: pressure sensitive tape; anti-static foam packaging; bags; bags: anti-static; bags: barrier; bags: biohazard; bags: black conductive; bags: bulk, anti-static; bags: conductive; bags: evidence; bags: garbage; bags: gusseted; bags: hazardous waste; bags: layflat; bags: mattress; bags:..
Tape-Rite Company, Inc. serving Oregon
Tape-Rite provides tape dispensers. We are a converter of adhesive tapes. By this we mean that we purchase tape in bulk and cut it to specified sizes in our premises shop. We are able to ensure you only highest quality products sold at competitive prices because we source and cut everything ourselves. Tape-Rite holds a large inventory..
Products: Dispensers: tape; dispensers: gummed tape; dispensers: pressure sensitive tape; tape dispensers; abrasive tapes; adhesive film; adhesives: film; adhesives: high temperature; adhesives: pressure sensitive; adhesives: pressure sensitive products; cloth: adhesive; converters: tape to tape; custom die cutting services; die cutting; die..
Alliance Rubber Company serving Oregon
This 2" x 55 yd clear tape is perfect for most packaging needs.
Products: Dispensers: tape; tape dispensers; advertising novelties & specialties; advertising specialties; advertising specialties, wholesale; armbands; bags: bubble; bands: pallet; bands: plastic; bands: rubber; bands: stretch; bar code labels; bracelets: rubber, custom printed; bubble mailers; bubble wrap; cable wrap; chemicals & allied..
Boatman Marking Inc serving Oregon
Tape dispensers come in a variety of types depending on the use. At Boatman Marking we have tape dispensers for paper tape and PVC tapes. Our tape dispensers are high quality for a rough environment. We carry the line of Better Packages brand of tape dispensers for industrial applications. We also carry the tapes and box tapes for..
Products: Dispensers: tape; dispensers: gummed tape; tape dispensers; bags: anti-static; bags: poly; bags: polyethylene; films: shrink wrap; glue: carton closing, hot melt; heat sealer: impulse, hand operated; heat sealers: impulse; industrial machinery & equipment wholesalers; industrial supplies, wholesale: staplers & tackers; machinery: heat..
Merchants Paper Co Portland, OR
Products: Dispensers: tape; tape dispensers; bags: film; cutters: box; cutters: paper; cutters: tape; dispensers:..
Zepak Corp Wilsonville, OR
Products: Dispensers: tape; tape dispensers; bags: mail; bags: mailing; bags: packaging; bags: shipping; packaging..
Albany Box Company Albany, OR
Products: Dispensers: tape; tape dispensers; bags: poly; bags: polypropylene; bags: retail, shopping; bands:..
Rose Paper Products Inc Salem, OR
Products: Dispensers: tape; tape dispensers; bags: printed; containers: foam; containers: paper; containers:..
Top quality manufacturers serving Oregon OR have been highlighted in this comprehensive source of industrial information. A broad range of DISPENSERS: TAPE manufacturers has been compiled in this industrial directory designed to provide information on leading, quality oriented manufacturers serving Oregon OR.
Cities being served include: Albany, Ashland, Astoria, Beaverton, Bend, Boring, Canby, Central Point, Clackamas, Coos Bay, Corvallis, Cottage Grove, Dallas, Eugene, Forest Grove, Grants Pass, Gresham, Hermiston, Hillsboro, Hood River, Klamath Falls, La Grande, Lake Oswego, Lebanon, McMinnville, Medford, Milwaukie, Newberg, Newport, Ontario, Oregon City, Pendleton, Portland, Prineville, Redmond, Roseburg, Salem, Sandy, Sherwood, Silverton, Springfield, Sweet Home, The Dalles, Tigard, Tillamook, Troutdale, Tualatin, White City, Wilsonville, Woodburn.
Area codes being served include: 503, 541.
Tape Dispensers local companies in Oregon OR - Displaying all 8
Tape Dispensers - Companies Serving:All States
Alabama AL (5)
Arizona AZ (7)
Arkansas AR (5)
California CA (18)
Colorado CO (5)
Connecticut CT (7)
Florida FL (11)
Georgia GA (7)
Idaho ID (5)
Illinois IL (12)
Indiana IN (6)
Massachusetts MA (5)
Michigan MI (6)
Minnesota MN (7)
Missouri MO (5)
New Hampshire NH (5)
New Jersey NJ (14)
New York NY (10)
North Carolina NC (6)
North Dakota ND (5)
Ohio OH (7)
Oklahoma OK (5)
Oregon OR (8)
Pennsylvania PA (11)
South Carolina SC (5)
Tennessee TN (6)
Texas TX (12)
Washington WA (5)
Wisconsin WI (9)


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I was just asked a question on how to pass usernames between web servers (Domino/WP/WAS to another non-IBM web server that needs awareness) if the environment has Siteminder deployed. The easiest way to pass valid usernames in an environment with Siteminder is using Agent Responses configured on the target agent(s). The response basically adds a custom field to the HTTP header which can then be parsed/looked up from the JSP/PHP/.NET/CGI/Python web page. The response can gets its value from an LDAP Attribute or can compute a value, which could be the user DN used by Sametime. Refer to my Siteminder articles on developerWorks for more information on Agent Response.
For example - PHP page could use $_GET['http_customvar'] or request.getHeader("http_customvar") in Java.
Here customvar is the name of the Agent Response variable being configured for the agent (and we use http_cutomvar to refer it on the target web servers).
Raj Balasubramanian, ISSL
[Read More]
InsideLotus - Lotus, Portal and Social Collaborative Software
ST Awareness on a non-IBM web server with a twist...
TedStanton 0600014754 864 Views
SpamGuru Blog Polling Question ??
TedStanton 0600014754 Tags:  spam 8 Comments 2,471 Views
IBM Workplace and Fighting SPAM
TedStanton 0600014754 Tags:  spam 4 Comments 2,309 Views
Since blogging for InsideLotus, I've posted a couple of entries regarding spam and different levels of spam. It wasn't until a recent seminar with some anti-spam vendors and IBMers, that I really grasped the impact spam is having in today's e-commerce. Before I continue, I should first give my definition of spam.
"Any unwanted commercial email usually sent in bulk where the sender can gain a profit."
One aspect of spam that I can't seem to draw a conclusion from is how does one define internal email. Obviously, I use Lotus Notes and IBM Workplace as my mail client and receive both internal and external SMTP mail. Now I don't consider any news letters or broadcasts from internal employees spam, but some users do consider this spam. On the other hand, I also have some email accounts with ISP's. The question is, where do you draw the line with internal email in that case? I would like to get the feedback of all the readers of this blog, concerning your thoughts on whether internal email can be considered spam.
Fighting spam is now a million dollar business. To put things into perspective, more then half of all email sent is spam related. Most anti-spam activists agree that the goal is to protect the end user from fraud as well as the time it takes to weed through spam email. Surveys show that some users spend up to 30 minutes a day sorting through email. One method of fighting spam is to allow the end user to decide what they consider spam. Personally, I like the idea of being able to vote on email that I consider spam. Then I leave it up to the server to sort my mail for me and deposit my spam voted mail into a junk folder for me. Some ISP's have incorporated this method and I am glad to see that IBM Workplace has also developed a similar method known as SpamGuru.
So if your serious about fighting spam, I suggest that you try IBM Workplace Messaging junk filtering.
Ted Stanton[Read More]
On XForms, XPath, CSS, Brevity, Syntax And More
TedStanton 0600014754 1,033 Views
The always interesting Mark Birbeck of formsPlayer has a nice article up on his blog.
Ostensibly it's about "CSS, the XForms Dependency Engine, and 'Dynamic Infosets'", and he starts out by asking why there are 2 main languages (CSS and XPath) for selecting and addressing nodes within a DOM. It's a good question, and one that many have asked before. The piece is probably the definitive consideration of the question and he's a great guide, walking us through all the issues involved.
What is more interesting to me is the wider point that he goes on to make as he lurches into a very useful discussion of how we design languages and layer and model our systems. Almost in passing he addresses an issue I find most fascinating which boils down to importance of ease of authoring and syntax in technology.
The mental makeup of human beings means that brevity matters and "intuitiveness" becomes a concern. So long as the length of phone numbers was low, they were easily memorable, these days however, with 10+ digit dialing, we rely on Caller Id and programming numbers into our phones. Thus our cognitive faculties and our short-term powers of recall come into question. Being able to control the nicknames and identifiers we use in our buddy lists is a very significant factor in the spread of instant messaging and now applications like Skype. Identifiers matter significantly in this respect. The simplicity of a URI as a key, and memorable tenet, of the web architecture is a similar case in point.
From another angle on the issue, consider that not everyone can tilt their heads enough to handle the parentheses of a typical Lisp program. Most programmers can, on the whole, and some, like the Paul Grahams of the world, even wear it as a badge of honour. Of course a good computer science program should expose budding engineers to this way of thinking and many do. But these, like the Smalltalk gurus and others, are sadly outliers in the software landscape. I would hazard here that the largest impediment to the widespread adoption of the elegant programming model of Lisp is not that something like recursion is difficult to understand but rather the dissonance that the proliferation of parentheses can cause when Jane Programmer scans a listing in an editor. Vacant stares and cognitive overload ensues.
Marc Andreessen will be remembered for many things; amongst others: Mosaic, Netscape, the AOL merger, a little dotcom hubris some might say, but simply youthful exuberance I would say, evidence in the flesh of what a monopoly like Microsoft can do when provoked, and a pointer, along with Jim Clark, to the role of gravity in deflating bubbles ala Great Crash).
Historians will point to all that and more. For me though, his choice of the syntax for the hypertext link is his most lasting contribution to technology and to mankind in general. Others argued otherwise at the time and would have foisted semantic doodles on us. The "View Source" impulse that has led directly to the success of the web, that great conversational engine, would have been stymied by much head-scratching by the eveyrday people who created many a homepage circa 1995-1999. Those much mocked homepages were wonderful assertions of identity, and the lowered barriers to entry enabled many people to land their flag on this here internet where they, their friends, parents and children now live, shop and commune. If he ever receives an honourary knighthood from King Charles, his coat of arms should read
Mozilla Hyperlink AndressonIt is the succint expression of the ethos of simplicity in human history.
In this vein, I was perplexed that in XPath 1.0, it is better, or rather less ambiguous, to write true() rather than true. In other words, it is recommended or even required that we treat booleans as functions and not as literals. Indeed everything is a function and as we know functions need parentheses to indicate their arguments. This always trips me up and maybe this is no longer the case in XPath 2.0. Who knows? I certainly haven't cared to look. What is true is that the cognitive impedance this caused me on my first date with the language will forever taint it in my eyes even though I have daily dealings with it.
If you had to say huh? when you did your first view source of a web page, would you have gone with that newfangled web thing or would you have written it off as one of those overly complicated buzzwords that you would look at later "when you had more time"? First impressions and snap judgments (ala Blink) count surprisingly much in these things.
One of the things that I keep thinking we need, and that I hope someone with an itch will build, is a nice XPath expression editor, a component that parses XPath and walks you through the processes of adding conditions and formulating expressions. Maybe a wizard or something, with selectors for picking the various kinds of things that are typical when building forms applications e.g. this field should be less than the value from this other field. A component that would let you add a library of custom XPath functions that could implement additional rules. Each of these libraries would be able to specify their editors but most could just be simple drop-down lists. It's not a big thing to do and you can sketch out a nice design for such a component and knock it out over a weekend. Make it open source it and be done with it.
Still, my focusing on the critical necessity of such a component is simply a recognition that hand-authoring XPath can quickly turn into a nightmare of missed parentheses, predicates and selectors. It is true that authoring in XPath doesn't require as much head scratching as say XSLT, in which context I first encountered the language, and which mere mortals like me will never understand even as I used to write in Lisp. But it is something that raises the bar quite high for the average author. In contrast there is something strangely satisfying about editing a style sheet (or maybe it's just that I've grown accustomed to that over the years). Something like this I expect is what lies behind the impulse for Web Forms 2.0, and the WHATWG, a pragmatism borne of weighing programmers' familiarity with scripting languages and a tenacious devotion to backward compatibility.
More generally though, the issue is that getting general users to author structured content is a big problem, indeed it is a nigh insoluble issue. And all the software that we produce cares very much about structure. The wonder of the spread of HTML and XML is that, ever since Berners-Lee, Bray and others unleashed their projects on us, human beings have adapted to angle brackets, < >, and now don't see them as much ado about anything. The same thing goes with CSS, the tradeoff that was made for syntax is now bearing fruits.
Thus, one of the main questions that will determine the adoption (or lack thereof) of XForms or Web Forms and their ilk is the perplexing matter of whether human beings in the next decade will become as inured to writing true() in an expression as they have become with the angle brackets of html and xml. Put a different way, it could well be something completely orthoganal to the merits of the underlying technology that will determine the outcome: it will be the appearance of the kind of code you see when you do View Source on the first cool forms application you encounter. I'm suggesting then that the language acquisition cost and what I'm terming the cognitive impedance in the average human being of parentheses for functions, and forward slashes for selectors will determine the adoption rates of XForms technology.
I see a bright future in which that much maligned Forms "programming model" that is at the core of the Lotus Notes platform could be brought to the web platform leveraging the native primitives of the Web style (hypermedia, uris, linking etc). XForms is singularly well suited to do this. For those unfamiliar with Notes/Domino, my handwaving elevator pitch is that it is a platform essentially founded on the fundamental insight that a huge class of applications can be built based on just a few compositional building blocks: Forms, Views a standard file format, the note in Notes terms. The brouhahas made about messaging, security, directory services, and all that paraphernalia that marketing people throw about when they pitch the platform to you are all syntactic sugar around the core competency of Forms and Views and the client and server processes that can manage them. A whole cottage industry of business partners are doing very fine thank you building custom and evolvable applications for businesses, small and large, everywhere. The fact that email can be construed as a forms application is just a side benefit and detracts from the real focus of the platform. This is much misunderstood by people whose only encounter with Notes is as a Mail client. It's really just a forms and view app for people and processes. Incidentally this same platform is most likely what is funding my current work and much of the IBM Software Group, even as resources are spent on other "sanctioned" and more "strategic" approaches. C'est la vie.
One thing I've noticed is that many people seem to want to ignore the lessons learned from the Notes world over the past 15 years and and behave as if the forms space is terra incognita - a brave new world indeed. On the contrary, the Forms problem and the wider Process problem is nothing new. These are things that have been with us almost from the time that societies became organized and larger communities formed as Barry Briggs has pointed out. Whenever I plumb those depths however, I am reminded of the notion that Joel Spolksy so eloquently coined that in software it it easier to write code than to read code. In software terms, 15 years is an eternity hence we are fated to reinvent and rewrite anew old software. Just look as WS-* as opposed to Corba. Sometimes I almost despair at this notion, since it bespeaks a total lack of curiousity and historical memory even with those who are sitting in the same building who have learned comprehensive lessons about the many problems of forms: evolvable schemas, metadata, annotations and the like.
Of course I'll continue to build the tools, the processors, the renderers and the infrastructure plumbing to to make the forms dream an easier reality. I'd still argue that adoption will ultimately come down to whether the View Source impulse can be leveraged and whether the average Joe will get turned off by things like true() instead of true. If I were inclined to be a research type, I'd imagine a case study or paper titled something like
"The Importance Of Syntax In Technology Adoption - Historical Insights From The Trenches 1940-2005"A more prescient Historian of Science would note that the issue of notation in mathematics is similarly a longstanding area of concern. A linguist would add insights about how different societies adapted different writing systems and the impact on the writing system on cognition and development. Anthropologists, sociologists or psychologists would have much to say in this vein.
Technologies like XSLT and XForms which are the prime users of XPath are in still in their infancy (as are some of the other takes on this problem space from Adobe and Microsoft). Despite having many implementations at its launch, XForms is still ambling towards its inflection point and I'd hazard that the majority of XForms templates and transactions are machine-generated. Fair enough perhaps. Wearing my prediction hat however, it will be very interesting to see what happens 6 months after the default installation of Firefox includes its XForms extension. We're going to see the same thing in microcosm now that Mozilla have announced that Firefox 1.1 will include SVG which has a more limited utility for mass audiences. With very little tongue in cheek, I'd wonder what contact with a massively vaster audience of form authors will do to XForms implementors. I'd lay bets on the first XForms engine that implements a "quirks mode" for their XPath evaluation engines to dealt with common patterns of mistakes in hand-authored forms. It will be a case of omitted parentheses rather than browser tag soup that will cause much fretting in mailing lists the world over. I wonder whether Peter-Paul Koch will then have to add an XForms or XPath section on his invaluable site that documents browser quirks. The litmus test will be the teenager doing a summer job in a lawyer's office who is asked to write a little forms application to help some workflow. If parentheses make their eyes glaze over, I doubt I'll be proved wrong (although I hope to be), about whether XForms would be used for that custom application. If the typical simplified wiki syntax (whatever Jotspot or SocialText are using) is more intuitive, that will be what gets used.
The other point Birbeck raises, and here the argument is much stronger, is about the tradeoffs that designers consider when it comes to seperating the processing, addressing, eventing and styling models. He speaks to an architectural truism whatever the domain in question. This is where his clarity of thought comes to light. A clarity that stems from being one of the exalted "Invited Experts" on the XForms and HTML W3C working groups, and having an innovative product that daily explores this landscape,
If, for example, you started off in the mad, slapdash world that was early browser development, you might opt instead for a very pragmatic viewpoint on these issues. That's the kind of weighing that has characterized the Mozilla folks. Håkon Lie, Hixie of Opera, fall into this category even if they appear to take it to almost militant extremes at times. Still I see where they are coming from. Your take on these things is coloured by contact with the millions of end-user authors and the daily reality of tag soup.
I've only spoken with the Opera folks a couple of times and always forgot to ask them the burning question I have. How difficult is it, by the way, to add an XPath engine to a browser? I've always assumed that the real reason (as opposed to the stated reason, "we have everything we need in scripting and css") for Opera's almost visceral objection to XForms has been a concern over footprint since the same codebase is used on desktop and pervasive clients. But with the necessity of XML engines in browsers(with the now indispensable XMLHttpRequest) and Moore's law at work on your more limited clients, at what stage do protestatations about XPath (and hence XForms which is a dependency engine over and above XPath) become simply bywords for inertia? As a very conservative software engineer personally, I am similarly not inclined to jump on bandwagons just because they are in vogue. Still I'm interested in the architectural thinking that lies behind their position.
If, on the other hand, like Birbeck, you've drunk the XForms Kool-Aid, you'd be a generalist and will be inclined to see almost everything through rose-tinted glasses in terms of seperation of model from UI and from eventing and actions. You might recite MVC chapter-and-verse as you lull yourself to sleep at night, self-satisfied at your specification. The irony is that the visual effect of mere parentheses on an average teenager could cut short your sweet dreams of empire building.
Of course it's not always so cut and dry, sometimes you're just in the middle, trying to figure out which of the 45 latest buzzwords you're expected to spout fluently tomorrow to get a raise that beats inflation - or even a promotion. Or maybe you're just trying to code for food and get some real work done by helping a doctor's assistant keep track of HMO paperwork more efficiently or something of that sort. Oh well. Food for thought in any case.
Koranteng Ofosu-Amaah
Workplace Forms Development[Read More]
ST Awareness on a PHP page
TedStanton 0600014754 3 Comments 3,207 Views
I get asked a lot about how to implement awareness on a non-Domino/non-WebSphere platform. The key is to ensure that the target platform supports scripting metaphor to read cookie data. To illustrate this point, I have a PHP page hosted on a PHP server to get the LTPA cookie and build the awareness into the page using STLinks (just like in Domino or in a JSP). The only key concept was that I had to build in a custom cookie to pass the user DN (distinguished name) in a un-encrypted cookie, so that the PHP page can get the user DN from a cookie and the token from LTPA cookie to login to Sametime. Ofcourse, the PHP server was accessed using the fully qualified hostname and was in the same Internet Domain as the Sametime/Portal server.
I set the variable for the user by
Note that UserDN is a custom cookie that was set by my WAS server.I then get the LTPA cookie using the following
$r = ereg_replace("[ ]","+",trim($_COOKIE['LtpaToken']));
Everything else is setup the standard STLinks way (follow the ST Links documentation, if you need further clarification). You can peruse the actual PHP file here. On some browsers, you might want to use the "view source" option to actually see the code, if the file doesnt download by default.
I tested this with PHP running on a Suse Linux box accessing it from my IE browser on Windows XP.
The same rules of applet restrictions apply if you are using Mozilla/Firefox. Please follow the STLinks documentation to setup th enecessary files to make it work with Mozilla.
Full code of the php page
I have another sample using IIS/ASP.NET that I will post in a few.
In the meantime, bring "light" to a name on a PHP page :)
Raj Balasubramanian, Software Services for Lotus
[Read More]
Cultural Sensitivity in Technology
TedStanton 0600014754 835 Views
The 'Coltrane' release of Lotus Freelance Graphics, the 1998 version bundled with Lotus SmartSuite, was famously held up for a month when it was found out that one of the clip art images had a tiny 20 pixel image of Taiwanese currency (rather than mainland Chinese currency). Or was it the other way round? An eagle-eyed QA engineer had discerned the offending image. Needless to say, this was something that would cause offense and/or affect purchasing decisions in the involved markets.
I was a little canary in that Freelance mineshaft (or was it a minefield?) when a couple of months earlier in the project I had discovered a seriously outdated map of Africa when integrating new clip art into the product. I wrote one of the sprs of which I am most proud titled something like: "Upper Volta should be Burkina Faso". The spr also made a brief mention of the fact that as far as I could tell there were similar problems in our maps with the names of the states from the former Soviet Republic which had changed earlier in the decade. I believe that my spr was deferred to a later release; it was too late in the product cycle and we'd have had to go back to the company we licensed the art from and so forth. As it turned out however, with the advent of China/Taiwan flag issue, the entire suite was delayed as the test team had to painstakingly go over all the clip art and other areas of the product vetting for similar outrages that could endanger sales.
Incidentally the acronym, spr, stands for "Software Problem Report" in Lotus's parlance. After a decade of indoctrination, I still tend to use spr rather than the more clinical, "defect", which is the favoured term at IBM, or bug which is the more widely-used term generally. You can still tell whether someone has the 'old Lotus' DNA rather than the 'new Lotus/IBM' variety by the terminology they reflexively use. For a dissection of recent linguistic trends in technology see this earlier post.
As a further aside, the Lotus spr database is actually one of the most successful and useful applications of Notes technology ever and in a similar manner, the Bugzilla project is actually one of the best things to have sprung out of the Mozilla effort. Certainly it was more useful than the Gecko suite until the M7 milestone was reached years ago. There must be some kind of software law at work here, something analogous to Zawinski's Law on software expanding until it can support email (and now feed technology) and so I'll coin it as Koranteng's First Law of Software Systems:
A software platform reaches its tipping point once it can serve as a bug reporting system.Intuitively this makes sense, once developers can view, file and retrieve bug reports using their own products, they will be more likely to use them and their confidence in their mission will improve dramatically.
Back to my topic though... I'm sure that the artists who created the clip art in that design firm had no subversive intent; they probably used outdated stock art as their source material. Still sometimes you wonder at these things and, in this vein, I'm reminded of the Nobel Prize-winning Portuguese author, Jose Saramago's wonderful novel, The History of the Siege of Lisbon, in which a copy editor proof-reading a historical novel defiantly changes a crucial word in the text changing the outcome of a famous historical battle from a miserable defeat to victory. A masterful alternate history of Portugal then develops and its culture is fully reimagined. I'm sure that bored developers sometimes slip similar things into their products, and not just serendipitous Easter Eggs.
More seriously though, the Freelance incident (or similar incidents relating to any new release of dictionaries or thesauruses from Microsoft) go beyond the cultural sensitivity of which this post is concerned into the rarefied realm of political sensitivity. The same thing goes when choosing product names: you don't want mere mention of your product to cause snickering or offense. A misconceived name or culturally-insensitive feature can be a black eye that will chasten even the most high-flying company. More worrying is that this can translate to a serious financial impact (well beyond a month's lost revenue for the suite) if proper attention isn't paid.
Internationalization however is a mostly thankless, and oft-neglected task even as I've outlined its importance. From a developers standpoint, you first think about it mostly in terms of dealing with resource bundles and having to put all your resource strings into seperate files for different languages. This is a pain because you probably started with a little prototype of a user interface and now you're being asked to find all those hard-coded strings and to "do the right thing". Plus it typically becomes an issue only late in the game when the real interesting work is over and you're ready to think about the next big thing. Instead, you're grudgingly forced to worry about handling different writing systems, dealing with bi-directional text, or that old favorite: the various "special characters" in the wide variety of programming languages, file formats, protocols or operating systems in your software. Those best at this task are akin to forensic investigators and must possess considerable patience and attention to detail.
If, for example, your software mangles names with accents, you'd have real trouble selling in France. Similarly with ampersands and apostrophes - which have significance in SGML and its derivatives (HTML, XML etc). And don't get me started about wider character sets and encoding issues... As an ironic case in point, while developing Lotus K-station, one of our best business partners was somewhat stymied in his development and extraordinary evangelism of our product because, in its earliest release, it couldn't handle the ampersand in his company's name. Luckily for us, he temporarily renamed his organization in his LDAP directory; Sun & Son became Sun and Son until we worked out the quirks. To this day, I always make sure to test whatever product I work on with that organization name. It's surprising though, how often this kind of problem recurs.
In this internet era, most technology, and certainly all software development, has to have global concerns in mind. It is said that the sun doesn't set on an IBM project and I work with a very diverse set of colleagues the world over. Presumably the benefit of such a widely dispersed and diverse workforce should be to mitigate the likelihood of issues in this area. As my current project has been going through translation and localization testing of late, I've been thinking a lot about how we handle internationalization.
The old Lotus process was a more decentralized one, each product group had an internationalization team seconded to it. Members of such teams were domain experts and knew the product inside-out in addition to being localization gurus. This had many benefits, the team was involved from the very beginning in the product development cycle and could give crucial design feedback very early and iteratively. Your first prototype was immediately critiqued from their standpoint. The obvious downside of decentralization was the lack of uniform standards - chaos that our translation teams couldn't bear. Some products were very easy to localize, others were, to put it politely, far less so.
As we transitioned to the more centralized IBM globalization process, we got the benefits of uniform standards and greater resources. More languages could be supported in the initial release and you could at least point developers to documentation about the processes to follow instead of ad-hoc stumbling about. Still this was at the expense of the loss of domain expertise, sensitivity and a much slower feeback loop. Some of the test teams would be barely getting up to speed with the product by the end of the testing phase. Localization concerns would sometimes surface too late in the game and would cause much unnecessary reworking and product delays. These things are tweaked, as all processes are, and in recent years, I've seen a push towards re-enabling more domain expertise in the internationalization teams which has been very useful for our product development.
I'll lay out a brief example then, that I think is illustrative of the kinds of things we're dealing with here I hope it can tease out the technical, design and business issues that can arise...
I embarked over the past couple of weekends on a mass digitization project and scanned, retouched and uploaded 2000 or so old photos from shoeboxes under my bed. The technology involved in this exercise was scanner hardware and image aquisition software, the bundled Adobe Photoshop Elements for color adjustment and red-eye correction and a couple of online photo-sharing services: Yahoo Photos and Flickr (I started the day Yahoo's acquisition of Flickr was announced).
The first thing I very quickly noticed: somehow all the photos that I uploaded to Yahoo Photos turned out darker than on Flickr (the services both resize uploaded photos). The photo-resizing algorithm used by Yahoo Photos was giving worse results. This was noticeable to me because a large number of photos featured darker-skinned people such as myself. The originals were fine and where there were lighter skin tones everything looked good, but with darker skintones, the resized photos were not so good. This meant that if I didn't believe in the virtues of Save Lots of Copies Everywhere (SLOCE), I would have leant towards Flickr and stopped using Yahoo Photos.
Secondly, I don't have Flash installed on my Mozilla browsers and so my experience of the Flickr website was very different from that of my family and friends who started looking at the photos with Flash on Internet Explorer. There were immediate complaints about the first bunch of photos. It turns out that images that are rendered in the Flash plugin have a slightly darker tinge than the images rendered directly by the browser itself. This is not normally noticeable but again this exacerbates contrast issues when darker skintones are in evidence as in this case. This was made worse when users tried the slideshow feature because the background of a Flickr screenshow (also implemented in Flash) is black worsening the contrast further.
Thirdly, when retouching photos, the Quick Fix or Auto Correct options in Photoshop seemed tailored for lighter skintones so I was constantly having to do manual tweaking of my photos. Now this is not a big deal for a few photos and indeed it's fun to fiddle with photos but after a couple of hundred images, it gets tiresome. I found mysef longing for "smarter" recognition by the software or for at least, a nice 'dark skin' option that I could set in a preferences dialog. In short I started considering using different software instead of Adobe's.
Now I mention these nitpicks on otherwise excellent and useful products because of the design issues they raise. Technology is simply a tool in aid of people and as human beings we live in different society and cultures. We find that different cultures adapt technologies in different ways to suit local preoccupations and concerns. And I certainly had my own localized concerns these past weeks.
Even when the technical 'fixes' are easy there are design issues and economic tradoffs that also arise. True, Macromedia could implement better JPEG rendering in Flash but that comes at a certain expense - a good renderer is a hard thing to write (even if they could license the photo-rendering from the Mozilla folks). Also what they have appears to be good enough for most people (except me obviously). When do you decide that your product is good enough and stop pandering to the Long Tail? Can you afford to do that? Or are you missing out on a vast market opportunity?
Yahoo Photos could certainly implement a better photo-resizing algorithm although presumably there's a performance penalty to be paid if you use a more color-accurate algorithm (or perhaps a larger resultant image size). At the kind of intenet scale that the Yahoo service operates on with tens of millions of users and photos, this could potentially seriously affect the scalability of their platform. Conversely, if all Yahoo users switched en-masse to Flickr which uses the more expensive algorithms, would that platform be able to handle it? Or would it generate a case of teething problems and turn users off because of poor response times?
Similarly Photoshop could implement a slight variant of their various Quick Fix and AutoCorrect features that were more attuned to my kind of skin colour (indeed I assume that photographers in Africa have written macros or filters that do such a thing). How best though, to phrase a global preference in an options dialog in Photoshop? "Adjust for darker skintones"? Documentation writers would have a field day finding the right verbiage for such an option. Also what about usability? If you add all these preferences to your product what will your user interface look like? Try typing about:config in a Mozilla browser to get a sense of the kind of complexity that modern software developers have to cope with.
If there was a huge market for these products and services in Africa the issues I faced could be a real problem for the companies in question (although this is unlikely given the low internet penetration rates and the likely widespread software piracy). There would be demand not just for local language versions (say a Swahili language version in Kenya) but also for tweaks that would make these services more closely attuned to the prevailing culture and, in this case, ethnic backgrounds. Thus photographers in Africa over the past 150 years have had to deal with brighter sunshine, higher contrast as well as darker skintones when processing their photos as photography has gone through its various evolutions and has now moved into the digital realm. The people who install photo laboratory hardware in Ghana where I come from, always have to recalibrate their equipment to deal with the kind of skin tones that are present in the local market. The factory defaults simply won't do. I've had better results developing film in Ghana than in the US because I often forget to tell the labs here that they should "watch for skintones". I'd expect then that software that were truly local (and all web software should be local or adjustable to fit local concerns) might sometimes need not just run-of-the-mill language changes or even writing system changes but also, as seems needed here, algorithmic adaptations.
As software designers, we try to engineer simplicity and refrain from overwhelming users in their interaction with our services and products. Software is not the user's main focus, it's rather its use that is most important for the user, for the business and for society as a whole. Yet there very real concerns in the application of technology in different cultures. So the next time you see a vaguely-worded so-called "Turkish option" somewhere in your application's configuration dialogs, know that someone somewhere was likely adapting their product for a local market. Join me though in saluting the developers, testers, product managers and designers who collectively worked together to come to that solution. I'd hazard that the tweaking of the product was to fix a deal-breaker in some market.
Finally, for what it's worth, I find endlessly fascinating this notion that cultural sensitivity in technology sometimes necessitates algorithmic adaptation. Maybe though, iterative adaptation in response to local environments - evolution in short, is the name of the game. Perhaps that's simply the way things should be.
Koranteng Ofosu-Amaah
Workplace Forms Development, Lotus Software[Read More]
Cool Tool - Teamstudio Script Browser
TedStanton 0600014754 682 Views
The folks over at Teamstudio are at it again. This time with a free utility to help you with your LotusScript coding efforts, called Teamstudio Script Browser. It lets you browse ALL of your script in the database all at once, find out where code is referenced by other code, and browse to it in Domino Designer.
I'm sure the Domino developer community will be quite grateful for this useful tool. (And be sure to check out their other Domino development tools, which have always been first class!)
Chris Reckling
Sr. Product Manager, IBM Workplace Application Development
[Read More]
Integrating Lotus Notes with IBM Workplace Client Technology
TedStanton 0600014754 Tags:  workplace 1,500 Views
VB Users - Don't Feel Abandoned!
TedStanton 0600014754 3 Comments 1,540 Views
I don't usually like to do this type of competitive blog, but considering all the FUD that Microsoft has been dishing out lately with their "Notes integration" seminars and the previous "LotusScript is going away" blather, I've been pushed to the edge.
Microsoft will soon stop official support for Visual Basic 6, at the end of March. To be fair, it is the free support that is ending, the product itself will be supported for some time to come meaning that your apps will continue to run on Windows, but the development environment will not be updated - i.e. no VB7 is forthcoming as of this writing.
Recently, there has been an outcry by a group of developers that was reported in various online trade mags, including in eWeek here and here, and Cnet. They've realized that VB.Net isn't really VB at all, and that the migration path isn't all that smooth. VB.Net isn't just an upgrade to VB6 - it's a rip and replace. While Microsoft has an impressive set of documentation on their website about migration to .Net and some tools to help with it, apparently the transition isn't all that smooth.
This website captures some of the sentiment from the public: Visual Basic.Not. I guess the title says it all.
Contrast that to the IBM model, where you can continue to build and deploy Notes and Domino applications and optionally integrate them into IBM Workplace at your own pace. And lest you actually believe MS when they say they can migrate your Notes/Domino applications, you might heed the same advice as in the VB migration article cited above. It ain't easy or foolproof.
So, with that in mind... as long as you are going to have to migrate off of Visual Basic, you might as well look at the alternatives:
1. Move to Domino Designer and LotusScript. You can continue to use your code and call your COM components on Windows, in a LotusScript agent. Plus, it's cross-platform - everything from a PC/Windows to Linux to iSeries to a zSeries mainframe! There are a lot of VB apps that could easily be re-implemented in Domino and take advantage of the industrial strength security model, offline usage, robust and scalable database store, etc. Plus, it's not that hard to pull the application data from wherever it is today into Domino.
2. Move to Java. As long as you have to learn a new language, you might as well learn a proven standard. Plus, Eclipse provides plenty of tool support, as does Rational Application Developer. There seem to be a lot of VB to Java tools offered if you search for them. I have no idea how well they work, but they're out there.
3. Try out Workplace Designer, when it is available later this year. This tool for IBM Workplace will let you use JavaScript to code logic, while providing high level functions out of the box that speed development time.
Anyone out there want to share a successful VB to Notes/Domino migration story? or VB to J2EE?
Chris Reckling
Product Manager, IBM Workplace Application Development[Read More]
Domino Access for Microsoft Outlook (DAMO)
TedStanton 0600014754 Tags:  domino 2 Comments 18,417 Views
What People Earn
TedStanton 0600014754 899 Views
The annual issue of Parade's Magazine "What People Earn". came in my Sunday Boston Globe last weekend, and as usual it did not disappoint. Not only do I get some good insight into various jobs and what they pay in the US, but it's also a great source of overall labor statistics.
Yes, the economy in the US did improve, creating 2.2 million jobs in 2004, but it was still too few to replace the 2.4 million lost from 2001 through 2003. Productivity improved, corporate profits rose, interest rates remained low, and we had relatively low inflation. Looking to the future, job growth will continue to be erratic, with a projection of 2.1 million jobs in 2005, and employers will likely continue to look to temporary or contract workers in the near term.
Where is strong hiring expected? Financial services, energy construction and health care. They also single out information technology security as having more vacancies than job seekers, and this market is expected to grow by 14% a year to more than 2.8 million jobs in 2008.
So what did people earn? Once again, I am amazed at some of the salaries. For example, several teachers are pictured with salaries of less than $25,000 per year, yet a teacher in Stockton California, which is not an expensive area, receives an $88,000 salary -- a wide disparity. The only IT worker, called an "Info Systems Analyst," in New Jersey receives an income of $55,000. A couple of jobs related to the huge growth in real estate prices, mortgage broker and real estate broker, are listed at $280,000 and $600,000, respectively. Wow!
And if you're trying to steer your kids toward majors that will help them earn a buck on graduation, stay away from psychology, which has a starting salary of $28K, or English, at $32K. Steer them toward computer engineering ($52K) or economics ($40K) or maybe no college at all -- go right to real estate.
- Barbara Bowen, WW Certification Program Manager, Lotus Software[Read More]
IBM Workplace Services Express -- Up to 20 user licenses free
TedStanton 0600014754 540 Views
At Lotusphere 2005, Dr. Ambuj Goyal announced in the opening session that ALL Lotus customers would be granted licenses for the hot new IBM Workplace Services Express. Today, the details of this promotion are now available on ibm.com.
This offer is available now in North America and South America (including Caribbean nations), Australia, New Zealand, China, Taiwan and Korea. It will be available soon in other countries; please check back for updates.
--Ed Brill[Read More]
I couldn't have said it better myself...
TedStanton 0600014754 3 Comments 809 Views
Tom Duff gets it. And so should you. Every Domino developer should go read his article on e-pro's website. As a product manager for IBM Workplace tools, I live this stuff.
We are trying to make developers more productive when using Domino tools, as well as allow them to expand their skills into J2EE - but only on their own schedule. IBM Workplace Designer will provide a smooth transition to J2EE and let Domino developers (and others with similar skills) build components for IBM Workplace - browser first, and Workplace Client later.
You'll be hearing more about Workplace Designer soon. In the meantime, check out the application development area on developerWorks.
Chris Reckling
Sr. Product Manager, IBM Workplace Application Development[Read More]
<b>Linux on the Client....</b>
TedStanton 0600014754 820 Views
To kick off my shot as a guest blogger on InsideLotus, I thought I would share with you some insight into what we are seeing in the marketplace for Linux as a client environment as well as Lotus' response to this opportunity. A few weeks ago, I got the opportunity to hit the floor at Linuxworld Boston. This was my first Linuxworld and with our new missions of the Lotus Workplace Project Office and Business Transformation teams, I thought it would be an interesting chance to see how the industry is growing first hand.
Having been in the software industry over 20 years, I find the Linux market quite refreshing. Linuxworld reminded me a bit of some of the Comdexes I went to in the early days of PC Software. Larger players are coming out in force, but there still seems to be a wild west feel and electricity in the air -- there are new fortunes to be made and new companies trying to establish themselves. As I toured the floor, I was on the desktop hunt to see whether Linux on Client was gaining momentum. I was quite pleased with what I saw. Several companies were touting Linux client, and I was impressed with the support and announcements made by Novell, Sun, Redhat and the OpenOffice organization. Sun was announcing a new release of their Star Office suite that looked very slick. One of the issues that we continually run into with accounts and Linux discussions are how they can support their Microsoft macros on Linux. Sun demoed to me some of their new macro translators, and I was very impressed with the progress they appear to have made. Next stop was to the Novell booth, where I got a chance to talk to them about their new desktop environment. It was great to hear Novell folks tell me that they have moved to Linux on the client for all of their employees and they have also moved 8 major accounts over as well. We shared some thoughts on migration methodologies, and I had a good chat with their services teams.
Next stop was the Redhat booth, where I got to take a look at their new desktop that is coming out in association with their Redhat 4.0 release. Redhat is focusing hard on the usability of the environment, and I was pleased with the work that they had done around file system representation and navigation as well as simplifying network connectivity. Not to be derogatory, but they are really focused on taking the Geekiness out of Linux. I fondly recall my days of UNIX shell commands, but in order for Linux on the desktop to gain traction it has to be easy enough for the account rep to download their latest sales presentation from a bad connection in a crappy hotel room on the road.....it has to work in the real world.
Of course, Art Fontaine and Nalu Reddy had our booth hopping. We had the Workplace Client on stage, and there was a massive IBM presence. This was a good show to cut our Linux teeth on for Lotus and Linux, and I felt very positive from the comments I got from other vendors, press and analysts welcoming our presence and our investment in this space....all definitely want us to be successful and feel that Workplace can be a killer app to validate Linux Client directions. To help communicate the strength on our commitment to this space, on Thursday that week we announced an investment of $100M across our software family specifically focused on Linux support. I got to do a few interviews and analyst meeting with Surjit Chana, our new Workplace VP, and I was very pleased with the positive vibes and support that we got from those we talked to.
So I left the Hynes Center feeling very good about our opportunities and the Linux path that we are on. It is still early days, but the pioneers are out there making their land claims and it looks like early adopter customers are willing to start the transition. Always on the technical forefront, I have just put my request in to the support guys to sign me and my diehard machine up for the journey, so there will be another Linux client convert in a few short weeks. I'll try to take some time in future blogs to let you know how it's going.
Till next time.....
Steve Robinson
Vice President, IBM Software Services for Lotus
[Read More]
The Long Tail Of Software
TedStanton 0600014754 602 Views
It's always gratifying when people independently grapple with the same ideas as you and come up with different perspectives. Even better is when this becomes a conversation such as the blogosphere can serve up and aggregators can monitor...
I've recently been ruminating about People, Processes and Things and so, I was immediately drawn to Joe Kraus, erstwhile of Excite and Jotspot founder, who delivers a wonderful essay and insightful presentation (PPT) about The Long Tail of Software. Read it for the concentrated insight and great care with which he makes his argument - borne of the practice he's gained pitching his company for the past few months.
Handwaving a bit here, he essentially takes on Barry Briggs' notion of The Decade of Process - anointing the primacy of processes in business, and adds the key insight of the necessity of lots of customization (since no two businesses do things the same way) and also that processes continually evolve. Then he melds it with one of the most successful memes in technology of the past year, The Long Tail concept, lovingly detailed in Wired, pondered in a blog and due, for a book, and triumphant tour ala Malcolm Gladwell or Jared Diamond real soon now.
Having seen great demos of Jotspot and the way it handles schema evolution, about the only thing missing in the product is an explicit addition of tagging and metadata ala del.icio.us for it to be buzzword nirvana. It's almost there. I'll try not to be too flippant nor indeed, something of an echo chamber, since I obviously think there's the kernel of a very powerful notion here. Annotating and customizing business processes seems to be an interesting space in today's software world.
Suffice to say that this bears attention especially since the venture capitalists haven't drenched this sector as yet. I'd hazard though, that a pitch like Kraus's could well be the spark that makes things combust, especially when there are so many memes to mine. The big integrators and consulting firms have long been in this space as have any of the platform vendors and they will be tenacious competitors. I'd hazard that Jotspot or SocialText are already keenly watched by those who do strategy and marketing, if only so that sales teams have a response ready for competitive bids. For larger businesses, it has always been ease of integration with existing infrastructure that matters when it comes to purchasing decisions.
The insight of the Long Tail though is that there are huge opportunities in targeting small and medium businesses, the kind that the big guys only pay lip service to. It's more than enough of a market even if you don't get the WalMarts. Incidentally, Paul Graham touches on this almost in passing recently.
All this of course is predicated on accepting the primacy of the "process" view of things, I've argued that the "people" view (communication and group-forming) might be another lucrative area to focus on, and a viewpoint potentially more exciting or motivating for developers. Tradeoffs like these are the stuff of engineers or historians, entrepreneurs or CEOs, however, have to bet on something.
Lastly, wearing my prediction cap, leverage will be everything in this oncoming scramble. Web-native software (i.e. software that is easily addressible and customized) will be the fastest mover in the space. The usabilty issues in evolving schemas and handling annotations are going to be the key differentiator. There should be lots of give-and-take in the software that ensues because real world processes are forgiving. There's always someone who knows how the process is meant to work no matter what the rulebook says. Our research folks and product development teams are going to be burning the midnight oil and that's a good thing. Kudos to Krause and others for the exhilarating glimpse of what is to come. Like Miles Davis said, "I love tomorrow".
Koranteng Ofosu-Amaah[Read More]


text:
What the numbers are showing us
How average people are building great wealth
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celebrates an impressive re-entry into the public markets,
investors are chewing over a clear theme. Both GM and
Ford (
are far healthier companies, with much leaner cost structures and
the ability to generate sharply improved profit margins as industry
volumes rebound. In their shadow, key auto parts suppliers are also
now in fighting shape after being bruised and battered in the
economic freefall of 2008. The new adage for the industry: "what
doesn't kill you makes you stronger."
How bad did it get for these auto parts suppliers? Domestic auto
makers produced 15-16 million cars and trucks every year from 2001
to 2007. That figure fell to 12.5 million in 2008 and just 8.5
million in 2009. Years of steady profits were offset by massive
losses in 2008 and 2009, and a number of these firms flirted with
bankruptcy. For a short while, many of their stocks traded below
$1. In a testament to just how much they have changed, all of the
key players are likely to be nicely profitable again this year,
even though the industry will produce just 11.5 million units.
Looking ahead into 2011 and 2012, industry unit volumes are
expected to rebound to 12.5 million and 13.5 million, respectively,
according to Citigroup. And that could prove to be conservative.
That's because domestic auto makers are starting to take back
market share
, which means a rising swell of business for the firms that make
seats, transmissions, suspensions and the like.
Shares of auto suppliers have rallied sharply in the past year, but
remain very reasonably priced in relation toearnings …
GM exposure
With GM's successful
in the news, customers may start to flock back to the auto maker in
droves, now that they see it as healthier. That hasn't been the
case recently. Ford announced that October sales rose +19% from a
year ago, while many other auto makers also posted double-digit
gains. GM saw a more modest +3.5% sales boost in October.
As a self-professed car nut, I had been a big fan of Ford Motor,
noting that its new models were compelling and shouldyield market
share gains. [
Read my analysis here
These days, I'm starting to pay closer attention to GM as it starts
to build out its impressive new product portfolio. The Buick
division is a big hit in China, Cadillac is unveiling a strong set
of new cars that can go head-to-head with anything made in Germany,
and the Chevy and GMC truck divisions should eventually see a major
profit rebound when the U.S. construction industry picks back up.
But rather than buying shares of GM, you might want to focus on the
auto parts suppliers with the greatest exposure to this erstwhile
titan. Shares of many of these names remain cheap, and a resurgent
car market could lead these stocks to nice gains.
Here are a few key names...
If you're talking about GM's pickup trucks, then you're talking
Lear (
, which makes seats and electrical systems for GM's GMT 900 truck
platform. Lear has been on a tear lately, delivering quarterly
profits that were more than twice as high as analysts had expected
in each of the past two quarters. A -$2.00 a share loss in 2009 is
likely to morph into an $8.00 a share profit this year. A little
back-of-the-envelope math that assumes industry volume hits 14
million by 2013 could
earnings per share (EPS)
north of $12 for Lear. Shares trade for just seven times that view.
American Axle (
has even greater exposure to GM, with more than two- thirds of its
business from the company. (It was once an in-house division at
GM.) The company makes axles and drivetrains, primarily for large
vehicles. The company has also handily exceeded forecasts in each
of the past two quarters and also notes that
is rising fast. That led JP Morgan to recently upgrade shares to
, with a $14 price target -- +25% above current levels. Yet the
analysts note that shares could surge closer to the $20 mark within
a few years as GM's sales volume rebounds. They add that American
Axle is on track to boost EBITDA +30% next year to around $370
million, and it could hit $500 million within a few years.
Action to Take -->
Tenneco (
Johnson Controls (
also have a high degree of exposure to GM. As noted earlier, all of
the shares in this sector have rallied throughout 2010, and would
be vulnerable to a pullback if auto and truck sales don't continue
to rebound in 2011 as many expect.
Stocks in this group appear quite inexpensive, especially in terms
of potential EBITDA generation. How auto industry sales fare in the
next few years will determine how much more upside these stocks
-- David Sterman
David Sterman started his career in equity research at Smith
Barney, culminating in a position as Senior Analyst covering
European banks. David has also served as Director of Research at
Individual Investor and a Managing Editor at TheStreet.com. Read
Disclosure: Neither David Sterman nor StreetAuthority, LLC hold
positions in any securities mentioned in this article.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
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text:
I'm looking at a Specialized AWOL frame right now (http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bik...-comp-frameset), which seems to meet most of my criteria for a winter/rain bike. However, one thing is throwing me for a loop: It's got a split seatstay, so you can install a belt drive on it.
Does anyone know if a design like this compromises the strength of a frame for clydesdale-weight riders?


text:
Miriam Christian Edwards
Well-known Athenian Miriam Christian Edwards is again teaching in Athens. A founder and past president of Athens Music Teachers Association, Edwards has taught at Bethel College as well as pre-college schools and has maintained private studios in Athens, Marietta and Atlanta.
Edwards holds a Master of Music Education degree and has taken further studies at the University of Georgia. She is past state piano chairman for Georgia Music Educators Association. She has been the pianist in Bethel Trio, choral accompanist under the direction of David Butolph of the Manhattan School of Music, chamber orchestra pianist under the baton of Guy Frazier Harrison, Conductor of Oklahoma City Symphony, and rehearsal pianist for Atlanta Municipal Theater Opera in the Park, and has been church organist for a number of denominations in the Athens area.
She has appeared as soloist with the Marietta Community Symphony, the Jackson Symphony of Jackson, Tennessee and University-Civic Symphony of Athens.
Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Monday, June 2, 2003.
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