text:
|Publication number
|Publication type
|Application number
|Publication date
|Nov 3, 1981
|Filing date
|Sep 24, 1979
|Priority date
|Sep 24, 1979
|Publication number
|Hans Richter
|Original Assignee
|Hans Richter
|Export Citation
|BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan
|Patent Citations (3), Referenced by (24), Classifications (18)
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet
The present invention generally relates to a motor-driven manipulating instrument adaptable for being programmed to repeatedly execute a predetermined series of spatial movements. In particular, the present invention is directed to a novel apparatus for generating a series of signals indicative of the specific movements of the instrument, which signals are adaptable for establishing a control program to control the drive motors and hence the movement of the instrument itself.
A manipulating robot instrument usually includes a control arm assembly formed from a plurality of attached members, with a hand attached to an end of the arm assembly for performing predetermined manipulations. For example, the hand may be employed in precision welding of two auto body parts to one another, thereby freeing a human operator from performing the repetitive and often boring task. However, in order to perform such work tasks, the robot hand must be able to precisely and repeatedly follow a predetermined spatial track.
One such known rotor assembly includes a composite arm assembly which can perform linear movement along two mutually perpendicular axes as well as rotation about one of the axes. As a result, the arm assembly is capable of executing a swiveling movement by combining the linear and rotative movements discussed hereabove. Furthermore, a hand member attached to such a known robot arm assembly can be rotated about an axis extending in the axial direction of the arm assembly as well as being rotatable about separate axes extending perpendicularly to each of the mutually perpendicular axes, respectively. Finally, a plurality of separate drive motors are arranged for driving the various component members of the arm assembly as well as the attached hand member.
In order to control the movement of the arm assembly, a control program is required for actuating the various drive motors in a predetermined sequence. In the known robot arm assembly, the desired track is usually divided into a series of linear sections, allowing the track curve to be approximated by straight-line linear movements which can be mathematically programmed. However, such mathematically originated programs are very complex and costly and, more importantly, can only roughly approximate the desired track.
In an effort to provide an assembly which more faithfully reproduces the desired spatial track, a further known robot arm assembly suggests that an elaborate template assembly surround the composite robot arm and hand assembly. The template assembly is formed from a plurality of seperate members which are positioned to follow the precise movements of the aggregate robot arm assembly. The template assembly carries a plurality of switches which are selectively activated upon contact with the various components of the rotor arm assembly. When activated, the switches close an electrical circuit which provides a signal indicative of a specific robot arm movement; with the signals being used to establish a control program for actuating the robot arm drive motors.
The exceedingly complicated layout of the above-referenced template assembly greatly increases the cost of programming the robot arm. In addition, an unavoidable time play must exist between the movement of the individual rotor arm members and activation of the various switch members, resulting in a significant variation between the actual movements of the rotor arm and the program generated by actuation of the switches. Furthermore, a further error or fault in programming is directly caused by the dead weight of the template itself, which dead weight can result in switch activation without a corresponding movement of the robot arm. In fact, actual tests have shown that such programming faults tend to lead to the robot arm following so-called jumpy or step curves rather than the continuous curves often required in welding operations or the like. The outlay required to compensate for such jumpy or step movements have made the use of a template commercially unacceptable.
As will be discussed in detail hereafter, the present invention provides an apparatus capable of precisely following the manual manipulations of a robot arm assembly and of generating a signal corresponding to such manipulations, which signal is adaptable for establishing a control program to control the robot arm drive motors for repeatedly manipulating the arm assembly.
An object of the present invention is to provide a programming device capable of accurately detecting manually actuated movements of a robot arm assembly and generating electrical control signals indicative of such movements, which signals are adaptable for establishing a control program for operating drive motors to accurately repeat the manually actuated movements.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a programming device in the form of a handle having a rigid center portion attached to the robot arm assembly and an outer sleeve attached to the center portion via a plurality of separate flexible blade portions, with separate force detecting transducers mounted on each of the respective blade portions.
A yet further object of the present invention is to provide a programming device capable of generating an electrical signal in response to linear and/or rotative manipulation of the composite robot arm assembly.
Each of these objects, as well as additional objects, is achieved in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, wherein a handle-shaped device includes a center portion rigidly attached to a motor drive rotor arm assembly. The handle-shaped device further includes a sleeve-shaped member surrounding and connected to the center portion via a plurality of separate blade portions, wherein a first plurality of blade portions extend parallel to a longitudinal axis of the handle-shaped device and a second plurality of blade portions extend along the contour of the device and transversely to the longitudinal axis. A force transducer in the form of a wire strip is mounted on each blade portion. During operation, an operator merely grasps and moves the sleeve-shaped member to manually manipulate the rotor arm attached thereto. Because the sleeve-shaped member is attached to the rigid center portion via the flexible blade portions, initial movement of the sleeve results in expansion of at least one of the flexible blade portions and a corresponding expansion in the wire strip mounted thereon. As a result of expanding or stretching the wire strip, it is possible to alter the resistance of the wire to current flowing therethrough. This, in turn, results in the charging level of a control current flowing through the wire. By carefully noting the changing current levels flowing through the various wire strips, it is possible to accurately detect and reproduce the various linear and rotative movements of the handle-shaped device and robot arm assembly attached thereto.
The detailed operation of the present invention will become apparent from a reading of the following specification taken in conjunction with the attached drawings, wherein similar elements are designated by similar reference numerals.
The present invention can be best understood in conjunction with the attached drawings, wherein:
FIG. 1 shows a schematic representation of a manipulating instrument including a programming apparatus formed in accordance with the present invention;
FIG. 2 shows a partial longitudinal cross-section of the programming device formed in accordance with the embodiment shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 shows a sectional view taken along a section line C-D in FIG. 2;
FIG. 4 shows a sectional view taken along section line A-B in FIG. 2; and
FIG. 5 shows a partial longitudinal cross-section of an alternate programming device.
The preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to FIGS. 1-4, respectively. Movements will be described with reference to Cartesian co-ordinates designated by the mutually perpendicular axes X, Y and Z. In addition, rotary movements about the X and Y axes will also be discussed hereafter. While a Cartesian co-ordinate system has been employed for describing the present invention, it is evident that the present invention need not be limited to the Cartesian coordinate system but could be described with reference to Polar co-ordinates or the like.
Referring now to FIG. 1, a manipulating instrument or robot is generally designated by the numeral 22. Robot 22 includes a composite arm assembly 26 and a composite hand assembly 27 attached to an end portion of arm assembly 26. The movements of arm assembly 26 can be divided into separate linear components extending in the directions of the axes X', Y' and Z' as best shown in FIG. 1, wherein axis X' extends parallel to the longitudinal axis through arm assembly 26. In addition, arm assembly 26 can achieve rotary motion about the Y axis as designated by the arrow dy'. Hand assembly 27 includes a first member 27a which can perform rotary movement about the X' axis as denoted by the arrow dx'1 in FIG. 1. Hand assembly 27 includes a second member 27b capable of performing rotary movement about the Z' axis, as denoted by the arrow dz'. Finally, hand assembly 27 includes a third member 27c which can perform rotary movement about an axis extending parallel to the X' axis, with this rotary movement being denoted by the arrow dx'2. Each of the hand assembly members 27a-c as well as robot arm assembly 26 is individually powered by a separate motor assembly to allow for individual movement of the various arm and hand members as required to move a point P to a tool 25 attached to hand assembly 27 along a spatial curve generally designated at 24.
An apparatus capable of precisely detecting both linear and rotary movements of arm assembly 26 and hand assembly 27 is generally designated at 23. As will be described hereafter, the apparatus functions as a programming device, in that apparatus 23 provides output signals adaptable for establishing a control program for operating the various motor assemblies to control the movements of the various arm and hand members described hereabove. The linear movements of apparatus 23 will be described with reference to the Cartesian co-ordinate system designated by the X, Y and Z axes shown in FIG. 1. In addition, apparatus 23 is capable of performing rotary movements about the three mutually perpendicular axes as indicated by the arrows dx, dy and dz, respectively.
Referring now to FIG. 2, a longitudinal cross-sectional view of apparatus 23 is shown, wherein the left hand portion of FIG. 2 provides a cut-away view of a center portion 13 and surrounding sleeve member 14, while the right hand portion of FIG. 2 shows only a cross-sectional view of sleeve 14, with center portion 13 shown in the form of a top view.
Apparatus 23 takes the form of a handle-shaped member, wherein the center portion 13 is rigidly attached to hand member 27c and the longitudinal axis of apparatus 23 substantially corresponds with the Z axis of the above-described Cartesian co-ordinate system. The sleeve member 14 surrounds the center portion 13, with a first end portion of sleeve 14 being attached to center portion 13 via four spaced blade members 15, 15', 15" and 15'". Likewise, sleeve 14 includes a second, opposite end portion which is attached to center portion 13 via four additional blade members 16, 16', 16" and 16'". Each of the four blade members 15, 15', 15", and 15'" are circumferentially spaced substantially 90� relative to one another and are arranged about the Z axis extending longitudinally through center portion 13. In a like manner, the four blade members 16, 16', 16", and 16'" are also circumferentially spaced substantially 90� relative to each other about the Z axis extending longitudinally through center portion 13. Each of the blades members is formed of an elastically-deformable material which, in a preferred embodiment, may comprise a metal such as steel or the like. However, plastic materials capable of elastic deformation may also be employed, for example, but not limited thereto, those materials sold under the trademark "NYLON or DELRAN". It is considered within the scope of the present invention to substitute other materials for the blade member, provided such materials are capable of the type of elastic deformation discussed hereafter.
Turning again to FIG. 2, the four blades members 15, 15', 15", and 15'" include a pair of blade members 15 and 15" positioned on opposite sides of center portion 13 from one another and a further pair of blade members 15' and 15''' also positioned on opposite sides of the center portion 13 from one another. For purposes of explanation only, it will be considered that blade member 15 substantially faces arm assembly 26, while oppositely disposed blade member 15" faces away from arm assembly 26 and substantially in the direction of tool 25. In a like manner, the further blade assembly includes a plurality of four separate blades, with blade members 16 and 16" positioned on opposite sides of center portion 13 from one another and blade members 16' and 16''' also positioned on opposite sides of center portion 13 from one another. Furthermore, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, each of the blade members 16-16''' is axially aligned respective blade members 15-15''' as shown in FIG. 2.
A first set of data producers is fixedly attached to each of the blade members 15-15''', while a second, separate set of data producers is attached to each of the blade members 16-16''', respectively. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, each of the data producers comprises an expandable strip of wire extending parallel to the longitudinal axis Z formed through apparatus 23. As will be described hereafter, each of the strips functions as a transducer to provide an electrical signal indicative of the expansion of the particular strip. In particular, blade members 15 and 15'' include the expanding strips designated 7 and 8, while blade members 15' and 15''' carry the expanding strips designated 2 and 1, respectively. Likewise, the blade members 16 and 16'' carry the expanding strips designated 6 and 5, while the blade members 16' and 16''' include the expanding strips 4 and 3, respectively, wherein expanding strips 3-6 are shown in parentheses in FIG. 3.
In addition, two additional blade members 17 and 17' are attached to surface portions of center portion 13 positioned substantially half-way between blade members 15-15'" and 16-16'", respectively. Each of the blade members 17 and 17' extends substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis Z passing through center portion 13, with free end portions of the blades 17 and 17' facing each other. Expandable measuring strips 9 and 10 are fixedly mounted on blade members 17 and 17', with a bolt 18 being attached to sleeve 14 and projecting into snug engagement with recessed end portions formed on blades 17 and 17'.
A further pair of confronting blade members 20 and 20' are also mounted on center portion 13 as shown in FIG. 2. In particular, each of the blade members 20 and 20' extends along the contour of center portion 13 in a direction substantially transverse to the longitudinal axis Z, with the free end portions of blade members 20 and 20' facing one another and with a pair of expandable wire measuring strips 11 and 12 mounted on the blades 20 and 20', respectively. Finally, a bolt 19 is fixedly attached to sleeve 14 with an end portion of bolt 19 snuggly engaging a pair of recesses formed in free end portions of blades 20 and 20', respectively. Finally, duct 21 extends longitudinally through the interior of center portion 13 housing one or more electrical wires extending therethrough. As is well-known in the prior art, electrical current can be sent through each of the measuring strips 1-12, with the resistance of each strip to the flow of electrical current being directly related to the deformation of the particular strip. This means that a predetermined reference signal can be sent through the electrical wires extending through duct 21, with the reference signal passing through the expanding measuring strips 1-12 attached thereto. If a particular measuring strip is caused to expand due to the deformation of a particular blade member attached thereto, resistance of the measuring strip to the flow of electrical current will vary in accordance therewith. As a result, the particular input reference signal will also be altered in a manner directly corresponding to the degree of expansion encountered by the measuring strips.
The altered output from the deformed measuring strips can be fed into a conventional computer assembly capable of interpreting the change in signal level and establishing a control program which can be used for driving the various electrical motors employed to move arm and hand assemblies 26 and 27, respectively. The preparation and execution of the control program makes up no part of the present invention and is therefore not described in detail herein.
The operation of the present invention will now be described with reference to FIGS. 2-4 in particular. If it is desired to have hand assembly 27 move along the X axis, an operator need merely grasp and move sleeve 14 in the direction of the arrow x, which results in the bending of the particular blade members 15 and 16 and the lengthening of the measuring strips 6 and 7 mounted thereon. As a result, resistance of the strips 6 and 7 to the predetermined reference signal extending therethrough will be altered, thus providing an output signal indicative of movement in the X direction. If it is desired to move hand 27 in the opposite direction, the pressure exerted on sleeve 14 results in the bending of blade members 15" and 16" and the expansion of measuring strips 5 and 8 mounted thereon. This, in turn results in a change in the resistance of strips 5 and 8 to the flow of electrical current therethrough, which is indicative to the degree of bending of the respective blade portions. In a like manner, if it is desired to move hand assembly 27 in the Y direction, proper movement of sleeve 14 results in the bending of blade members 15' and 16' and a corresponding lengthening in the measuring strips 2 and 4, respectively. Likewise, if it is desired to move hand assembly 27 in the opposite Y direction, an operator need only grasp and press sleeve 14, resulting in the bending of blade members 15''' and 16''' as well as the lengthening of measuring strips 1 and 3, respectively.
If movement in the Z direction is desired, sleeve 14 is pushed upwardly as shown in FIG. 2, whereby bolt 18 is caused to press against and deform blade member 17, resulting in the expansion of measuring strip 9 and the change of a reference signal flowing therethrough in a manner similar to the operation of strips 1-8. If, on the other hand, sleeve 14 is pulled downwardly, bolt 18 will abut and bend blade member 17' causing an expansion of measuring strip 10 mounted thereon.
As a result of the positioning of measuring strips 1-10, it is possible to detect linear movement of sleeve 14 along each of the axes X, Y and Z, respectively. It is, of course, evident that linear movement between the various axes can also be detected through the expansion of a combination of the various measuring strips. For example, movement in the direction of the arrow 28 as shown in FIG. 3 will result in the expansion of the particular measuring strips 1, 3, 6 and 7, respectively, which will generate specific output signals which can be used to establish a program for actuating the drive motors to result in hand 27 moving in the direction of arrow 28.
The rotary motion dy about the Y axis is achieved by grasping and turning sleeve 14 whereby blades 16 and 15''' are bent, causing an expansion of the measuring strips 6 and 8, respectively. In a like manner, rotary movement in the direction opposite to dy results in the expansion of measuring strips 5 and 7, respectively. For rotary movement dx about the X axis, the measuring strips 1 and 4 are caused to expand, while rotation in the counter dx direction results in the expansion of measuring strips 2 and 3, respectively.
Finally, in the case of rotary movement dz about the Z axis, bolt 19 engages and bends blade member 20', causing expansion of measuring strip 12 mounted thereon. In a like manner, rotation in the counter dz direction, results in bolt 19 engaging and bending blade member 20, resulting in the expansion of measuring strip 11 mounted thereon. Naturally, an intermixing of the various rotary movements is possible, as well as an intermixing of the rotary and linear movements discussed hereabove.
In the preferred embodiment of the present invention described hereabove, each of the measuring strips 1-12 functions as a passive transducer having a variable resistance to the flow of electrical current, which resistance is dependent upon the degree of expansion of the particular measuring strip. During operation, a predetermined or referenced current is supplied through the various measuring strips, with the change in resistance causing a corresponding change in the reference current. It is also possible to utilize transducers which detect the change in inductance and/or capacitance rather than measuring the change in resistance as employed in measuring strips 1-12. If inductive transducers are employed, each of the transducers is mounted on a blade member and is attached to a capacitor, whereby deformation of the blade results in a corresponding change in the inductivity of the transducer mounted thereon. Such inductive transducers are also considered to be passive, in that, a reference signal must be initially provided through the various transducers. It is also possible to replace the passive transducers disclosed hereabove with active transducers which are capable of generating electrical signals as a direct result of the electrical and magnetic properties inherent in the materials forming the transducer strips themselves.
In a further embodiment of the present invention, each pair of parallel extending, oppositely disposed measuring strips can be replaced by a single measuring strip which is capable of generating a first signal indicative of the expansion of the measuring strip and a second, further signal indicative of the compression of the measuring strip. As a result, the expanding measuring strips 1-8 which become operative in pairs to detect the rotary movements about the X and Y axes, respectively, can be replaced by two measuring strips arranged at substantially right angles to one another, with the measuring strips providing variable changes in the resistance to the flow of electrical current depending upon the particular direction of rotation of the sleeve 14. In other words, a change in the resistance of the measuring strip to rotation in the dx direction would differ from the change in resistance of the strip to rotation in the counter dx direction.
In a further embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to substitute a plurality of switches for the expanding measuring strips 1-12, whereby the switches generate positive or negative signals indicative of the various movements of the apparatus 23. However, data producers such as the expanding measuring strips 1-12 are preferable in their ability to measure the magnitude of the various forces acting on sleeve 14 and center portion 13, whereby the magnitude of the relevant force applied to the hand assembly 27 can be measured and converted into a control program for operating the various drive motors to manipulate instrument assembly 22.
The following table lists the various movements which an operator may perform on sleeve 14 and attached center portion 13, resulting in the corresponding movement of attached arm 27. The table also indicates which measuring strips will be expanded as a result of the various movements of the apparatus 23.
A further embodiment of the present invention is disclosed in FIG. 5, wherein a sleeve 14 surrounds and is relatively movable with respect to a center portion 13 rigidly connected to hand member 27c. Sleeve 14 is provided with two first stops 28 and two second stops 29, wherein stops 28 adjoin without play a ball 30 and stops 29 adjoin a ball 31. Ball 30 is supported by a first spring member 32 which, in turn, is clamped to center portion 13 at a point generally designated 34. Ball 31 is likewise supported by a second spring member 33 which includes an end portion clamped to center portion 13 at a point 35. The ball-carrying end portions of springs 32 and 33 point in opposite directions, as shown in FIG. 5. In addition a pair of inductive-type data producers 40 and 41 are mounted on opposite sides of spring 32, while a pair of inductive-type data producers 42 and 43 are mounted on opposite sides of spring 33, respectively. Each pair of oppositely disposed data producers 40, 41 and 42, 43 receives an electrical current. If a force is exerted on sleeve 14 in the direction of the X axis, springs 32 and 33 will be deformed toward transducers 40 and 42, causing these transducers to be detuned by identical values in one direction with the remaining transducers 41 and 43 being detuned by identical values in the opposite direction. Likewise, if a force is exerted on sleeve 14 in a direction opposite to the arrow x, the transducers 41 and 43 are detuned by identical values in one direction, with the remaining data producers 40 and 42 being detuned by different identical values in the opposite direction. When a force is applied to the sleeve 14 about the Y axis in the direction dy, transducers 40 and 43 are detuned by identical values in one direction, while the remaining transducers 41 and 42 are detuned in the opposite direction by identical values.
In a further, not illustrated system can be arranged between sleeve 14 and center portion 13 for matching the components 28-43, which system is offset at a substantially 90� angle relative to the above-described system with elements 28-43 and which allows for the detection of forces within the Y axis to cause rotation of the sleeve 14 in the direction dx. It is noted that sleeve 14 is fastened at a point 39 to a spring 38 which carries a ball positioned within a slot 37 formed in the center portion 13. In addition, a pair of inductive-type transducers 44 and 45 are positioned on opposite sides of spring 38. If a force is exerted on sleeve 14 in the Z direction, transducers 45 is detuned in one direction while transducers 44 is detuned in a further, opposite direction. If a force is exerted in a direction opposite to the Z arrow shown in FIG. 5, the inductive-type transducer 45 is detuned in one direction, while the remaining transducer 44 is detuned in the opposite direction. Likewise, if a force is exerted in a direction opposite to the Z direction shown in the arrow, the transducers 44 and 45 are also detuned in the opposite direction.
A torsion rod 49 extends substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of sleeve 14, which longitudinal axis also corresponds to the Z axis. Torsion rod 49 includes a first end portion attached to a transducer 48 and a further, opposite end portion clamped to center portion 13. Transducer 48, in turn, is attached to a folding bellows coupling 47 which engages sleeve 14, with coupling 47 being capable of transferring only turning forces. During operation, if sleeve 14 is caused to turn in either direction about the Z axis, transducer 48 is detuned in one of two oppositely disposed directions because transducer 48 is caused to change its axial spacing from center portion 13 as torsion is applied to rod 49.
In the embodiment disclosed in FIG. 5, data producers 40-45 and 48 comprise tuned circuit elements wherein the inductance and capacitance of the circuit elements can be altered by adjusting the physical distance between the coil springs 32, 33 and 38 and the respective circuit elements mounted on either side thereof. The resulting change in inductance and/or capacitance results in the effective detuning of the circuit, which detuning can be used as a basis for establishing a conventional program for controlling the drive motors attached to the arm and hand assemblies 26 and 27, respectively.
The table shown below lists the various movements and indicates which of the data producers 1-12 generate signals as a result of these movements.
______________________________________Movement Signal generation at______________________________________linear +X 6 and 7 -X 5 and 8 +Y 2 and 4 -Y 1 and 3 +Z 9 -Z 10rotary +dx 1 and 4 -dx 2 and 3 +dy 6 and 8 -dy 7 and 5 +dz 12 -dz 11______________________________________
The present invention is not to be limited to the abovedescribed embodiments, but is to be limited only to the subject matter defined in the following claims.
|Cited Patent
|Filing date
|Publication date
|Aug 25, 1969
|Mar 7, 1972
|Harper Associates Inc
|Automatic work-repeating mechanism
|May 3, 1974
|Apr 20, 1976
|Mette Klaus Hermann
|Robot control device
|May 1, 1978
|Feb 5, 1980
|Tokico Ltd.
|Industrial robot
|Citing Patent
|Filing date
|Publication date
|Dec 24, 1980
|Jan 4, 1983
|Nordson Corporation
|Manually programmable robot with power-assisted motion during programming
|Dec 11, 1980
|Oct 4, 1983
|Hitachi, Ltd.
|Method and apparatus of robot teaching
|Dec 8, 1981
|Apr 16, 1985
|Zymark Corporation
|Robot tool system
|Nov 16, 1982
|Jan 28, 1986
|La Calhene, Societe Anonyme
|Oct 25, 1985
|May 26, 1987
|Kabushiki Kaisha Kobe Seiko Sho
|Explosion proof construction of motor robot
|Dec 4, 1984
|Nov 10, 1987
|Aida Engineering, Ltd.
|Playback system grinding robot
|Nov 27, 1985
|Jan 12, 1988
|Avp Robot Ab
|Device for carrying and adjusting a tool
|Jun 20, 1989
|Jan 15, 1991
|Gmf Robotics Corporation
|Electric robot for use in a hazardous location
|Feb 3, 1989
|Jan 22, 1991
|Cincinnati Milacron Inc.
|System for compensated motion of coupled robot axes
|May 3, 1990
|May 26, 1992
|Spar Aerospace Limited
|Human-in-the-loop machine control loop
|May 14, 1992
|Nov 8, 1994
|Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd.
|Emergency shutdown system for controlling industrial robot
|Aug 17, 1994
|Mar 12, 1996
|Kawasaki Jukogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
|Industrial robot
|Nov 22, 1994
|Nov 12, 2002
|Fanuc Robotics North America, Inc.
|Electric robot for use in a hazardous location
|Mar 1, 2002
|Feb 11, 2003
|Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
|Device and method for testing sheet metal deformation
|Oct 14, 2004
|Feb 13, 2007
|Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
|Motorized adjustable x-ray apparatus
|May 8, 2006
|Oct 21, 2014
|Protedyne Corporation
|Automated laboratory system
|Dec 18, 2001
|Aug 15, 2002
|Michael Paschetto
|Automated laboratory system and method
|Oct 14, 2004
|Jun 2, 2005
|Udo Heinze
|Motorized adjustable x-ray apparatus
|May 8, 2006
|Sep 14, 2006
|Protedyne Corporation
|Automated laboratory system
|Oct 14, 2004
|Jun 10, 2009
|Motorized adjustable x-ray apparatus
|May 4, 1984
|Nov 21, 1984
|Johan Massee
|Forming machine
|Dec 15, 1987
|Aug 24, 1988
|N.V. Titan-Baratto S.A.
|Embroidery machine
|May 22, 1989
|Feb 7, 1990
|Spar Aerospace Limited
|Human-in-the-loop machine control loop
|Dec 7, 1982
|Jun 23, 1983
|Hutchins, Burleigh, M.
|Robot system with interchangeable hands
|U.S. Classification
|414/730, 901/4, 318/488, 318/568.14, 700/260, 901/46, 318/568.16, 901/9
|International Classification
|Cooperative Classification
|European Classification


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Body & Soul
Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Meghan Don, author of The New Divine Feminine. The most beautiful thing for the human being to know is a natural confidence and self-worth, and yet, knowing our innate Goodness has not and does not come easy to us, no matter who we are, or our worldly achievements. My own journey with this has been long and ongoing and it intrigues me as to when confidence and self-worth are naturally present or when the lack of both show up. The question becomes, where do they reside and what makes them appear and disappear? Women especially seem to be affected by this not-so-merry-go-round as many of us are still carrying the patriarchal wounds and/or the paradigm deep in our souls. We can point to the outer world as the culprit, but as we know,... Read this Post


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Taking a massive hit of LSD and tripping balls for several hours straight.
Angelos put so many hits of LSD into my fruit salad and now I'm going to be riding the Julius express.
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Book your room at Residence Progresso
Get an overview of this hotel3-star aparthotel near Sea Life Jesolo
Situated by the sea, this aparthotel is within 1 mi (2 km) of Piazza Marconi and Sea Life Jesolo. Piazza Drago and Jesolo Museum of Natural History are also within 15 minutes.
Property Features
A 24-hour front desk, tour/ticket assistance, and multilingual staff are available at this aparthotel. Free on-the-go breakfast, free WiFi in public areas, and free self parking are also provided. Other amenities include a garden.
Room Amenities
All 12 apartments offer free WiFi, satellite TV, and kitchenettes with refrigerators. Hair dryers, safes, and showers are among the other amenities that guests will find.Would you like to give us feedback? Share it! Opens in a new window
Residence ProgressoVia Dante Alighieri, 5 Accesso Al Mare Lido di Jesolo Jesolo VE 30016
Hotel Amenities
Hotel Amenities
Guests can enjoy a complimentary breakfast each morning. High-speed wireless Internet access is complimentary. For a surcharge, the property provides a roundtrip airport shuttle (available on request) and an area shuttle. This Jesolo aparthotel also offers tour/ticket assistance, multilingual staff, and a garden. Onsite self parking is complimentary. Guests can use the outdoor pool at a partner hotel.
- 24-hour front desk
- Airport transportation (surcharge)
- Area shuttle (surcharge)
- Babysitting or childcare (surcharge)
- Breakfast available (surcharge)
- Free breakfast
- Free self parking
- Free WiFi
- Garden
- Multilingual staff
- Number of buildings/towers - 1
- Number of floors - 2
- Total number of rooms - 12
- Tours/ticket assistance
- Train station pickup (surcharge)
Family Friendly Amenities
- Babysitting or childcare (surcharge)
- Cribs/infant beds (complimentary)
- Free Wi-Fi
- Full-sized refrigerator/freezer
- Kitchenette
- Rollaway/extra beds available
Available in all rooms: Free WiFi
Available in some public areas: Free WiFi
Free self parking
Room Amenities
- Air conditioning
- Bidet
- In-room climate control (air conditioning)
- Free toiletries
- Cookware, dishware, and utensils
- Free cribs/infant beds
- Daily housekeeping
- Free WiFi
- Full-sized refrigerator/freezer
- Hair dryer
- In-room safe
- Kitchenette
- Phone
- Private bathroom
- Rollaway/extra beds available
- Satellite TV service
- Shower only
Where to Eat
Guests are offered a complimentary on-the-go breakfast each morning. An additional buffet breakfast is served daily (subject to charges).
Hotel Policies
Check-in time starts at 2 PM
Special check-in instructions:
Check-out time is 10 AM
Payment types
- Pets allowed
- Restrictions apply
- For more information contact the property at the number on the booking confirmation
You need to know
Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on hotel policy.
Government-issued photo identification and a credit card or cash deposit are required at check-in for incidental charges.
Special requests are subject to availability upon check-in and may incur additional charges. Special requests cannot be guaranteed.
Optional extras
- Fee for buffet breakfast: EUR 7 for adults and EUR 5 for children (approximately)
- Airport shuttle fee: EUR 59 per vehicle
- Cribs (infant beds) are available for an additional fee
- Rollaway beds are available for an additional fee
Hotel Name
- Residence Progresso
- Residence Progresso Aparthotel
- Residence Progresso Aparthotel Jesolo
- Residence Progresso Jesolo
We should mention
Cash transactions at this property cannot exceed EUR 2999.99, due to national regulations. For further details, please contact the property using information in the booking confirmation. Guests can arrange to bring pets by contacting the property directly, using the contact information on the booking confirmation.


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|By Sheldon Sargent
Article Rating:
|July 11, 2001 12:00 AM EDT
I've been out of the hard-core development team dynamic for more than a year now, so I was a little hesitant when CFDJ approached me about writing this article. Nevertheless, I have traveled to various ColdFusion shops around the globe and worked with numerous development teams.
The majority of these shops have a tight-knit group of developers, who eat and sleep CF and Web development. Others have one or two developers who happen to have heard about a cool technology that allows integration with powerful back-end systems with an easy-to-use, tag-based language, and have let CF lead them to the mountaintop. And then there are those shops filled with developers who swear they are top-notch but don't really have a clue as to when not to use pound signs.
But even those shops at the high end of the CF development spectrum can have environments that are not conducive to good coding practices. Managers, as well as developers, need to understand the crucial aspects of the development environment: team, architecture, and methodology. This article is an attempt to level the playing field, so that even the worst coders are in an environment that will help elevate their game.
Although an understanding of the development process is fundamental to successful Web development, that discussion is beyond this article's scope. Rather, my focus is on facilitating this process. Rudimentary to this facilitation are the provision and protection of three distinct environmental areas: development, testing/staging, and production. Obviously, this article focuses on development, but it is important to stress the staging - which can be broken down further into quality assurance (QA) and user acceptance testing (UAT) - and production areas.
You should stage all good production code before going live. I learned this fundamental precept in the early days at WashingtonPost.com, where our access actually included storyboarding, development, staging, and production.
The staging/testing/QA server provides a platform to make necessary code revisions without touching "live" code. Following good principles, the staging server platform mirrors the production platform, and contains a frozen copy of the production code and database. This provides backup systems for disaster recovery, allowing full code migration to production, and extra resources to scale the site during unexpected load hikes.
It seems common sense to divide your development life cycle - at a minimum - into the development and production phases. However, you would be surprised - or maybe you wouldn't - at how many sites develop and modify code on production servers, data, and source code.
Again, good practice is to code and test functionality in development, and then migrate this functionality to a staging area for QA and/or UAT. Once approved, this code base should be frozen - then pushed to production. We never, ever want to modify production code! And code should never move from production to development - code should be copied from the staging server to development for code revisions. Let's not continue to bemoan such sites but rather proceed in breaking down the ideal development environment architecture.
The Development Server
The first step in achieving the optimal development environment is dedication: management must make the necessary expenditures for dedicated resources - human, hardware, and software. The development team and their IDEs are only part of this environment. (We will cover those later in the article.) For now, let's focus on the development server.
The ideal development platform will completely mirror the production architecture but usually on a single box. Say your production environment includes three systems: two Compaq 1850R servers running Windows 2000 Server, IIS 5, and CF 5, and a Compaq 3000 running Windows 2000 Server and SQL Server 2000. Then your development server should be a Compaq 1850R running Windows 2000 Server, IIS 5, CF 5, SQL Server 2000, and some source control software. (We will cover source control in a minute.) Some small shops can only budget for a small development server, but even a desktop HP system should be adequate for these shops.
Nevertheless, if budget permits, align the development systems parallel to production. This provides your developers with a simulated production playground, and provides extra machines for swapping in the event of catastrophic hardware or system failures. Mirroring the production architecture in development also helps eliminate hardware as a possible source for bottlenecks - and we all debug our code and eliminate bottlenecks, don't we?
Please refrain from implementing a Windows-based development environment for a Solaris production environment. If you realize most Web development tools are Windows-based, these only need to reside on your developers' desktops. So if your production system is a Solaris or Linux solution, your development system(s) should be also. Your developers' desktops should be the only Windows systems in the environment.
The Developer Desktop
What's more debilitating and frustrating to a developer or graphic artist than having to be creative on a slow, antiquated machine? In a perfect world, each developer and/or artist would have a fast, powerful desktop machine with the fastest available processor, ample RAM, and hard-drive space. For CF developers, this machine should not only include a licensed copy of CF Studio, but it should also be a miniversion of the production system.
This means each developer should be working with a local copy of the production source and data. In my last development team, each developer had his or her own copy of CF Studio, a CF server, a Web server, and a local copy of the database. The single-user edition of CF Enterprise that's bundled on the CF Studio CD is provided for development purposes. Developers can integrate this with Peer Web Services on their desktops and code against Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Personal Edition. The Personal Edition comes with both the Standard and Enterprise editions and is not sold separately. It is powerful enough for desktop development.
Obviously, if you have an Oracle shop, you'll want Oracle's developer editions - you want to keep your development, staging, and production environments as homogeneous as possible.
This configuration is ideal because the developers can work independently on local copies of source code and data instead of trampling one another on the development server, or worse, contaminating your production database. In order to do this properly, protect the code on the development server with enterprise-level version control software.
Most small shops use freeware versions, such as GNU SCCS (www.gnu.org) and ComponentSoftware's CVS (www.componentsoftware.com). Larger players in the change management or version control space are Perforce P4 (www.perforce.com), Merant PVCS (www.merant.com/products/pvcs/), Starbase StarTeam (www.starbase.com/products/starteam/), and Micro- soft Visual SourceSafe (http://msdn.microsoft.com/ssafe/). Although I have encountered Visual SourceSafe at most of the shops I have visited, more CF shops are turning to PVCS solutions.
The key features for change management are versioning, document comparison and merge, rollback, and deployment. Integration with your IDE, or integrated development environment, is a plus that will help win over your developers - and winning them over is just what you'll have to do if you have not already implemented a version control solution. Whichever change management system you deploy, the client software must make its use relatively easy in order for developers to consistently use it.
Frameworks and Methodology
Application frameworks and coding methodology coincides with change management and source control. Developers need good application frameworks to form a solid structure within which to properly code cohesive sites. CF has its own Application Framework instantiated with Application.cfm and OnRequestEnd.cfm; but this framework is really a building block for focusing on Session and Client variable management and some rudimentary application-level security. It does not address the larger, more prevalent issues of code reuse and symmetry, teamwork efficiency and productivity, commenting and documentation, and so on.
Furthermore, a sound application framework provides some base functionality fundamental to the site. This fosters code reuse, as developers can focus on retooling or customizing that piece of functionality instead of reinventing the wheel each time.
Methodologies provide guidelines for coding the application structure. A methodology is composed of standards. It dictates how to code the site or application so that your code is legible, manageable, and reusable. A good methodology reads easily and is documented thoroughly. It is stern enough to keep developers focused, yet flexible enough to allow developers to grow as they learn.
Application framework and methodology are essential to good rapid application development. However, most shops are guilty of coding without one or both.
A Familiar Scenario
You're an IT or Web shop manager of a team of three Web developers. Your team is pretty strong in fundamental CFML and quickly grasping the advanced concepts. Now you have the opportunity to hire what you perceive is a hotshot. You've heard this developer's name all over the CFUG meetings and you leap at the opportunity to enhance your staff.
This developer comes on board and right away begins to affect the team. However, instead of leaving his bags (bad coding habits) at the door, he starts littering your source code with his own unique indentation style, his own custom tags, and so forth. The code he writes is advanced stuff, but he neglected to comment the code, so your other team members cannot learn by his examples, debug his code, or make any editions without his hand-holding. What should you do?
The Other Side of the Story
You are the hired gun, and, upon walking into the place, you notice their staff is still coding at the CF 3.11 level - their code is full of pound signs, needlessly complex syntax, and deprecated tags. You remain humble, sit in your cubicle, and begin to do your thing. Your tasks are simple and the coding is basic - to you. You are pleased with your work so far, but at the next monthly meeting, you are reamed for your nonstandard methods and lack of comments, and accused of changing the entire application. Do you leave or stay?
A Slightly Different Scenario
Again, same setup as the first scenario, you're this same IT or Web shop manager of three. You decide to send your hungriest developer to a local Advanced ColdFusion Development course, figuring she will be able to pass the lessons on to the rest of the staff. Instead, she takes what she has learned and finishes the next major application revision with advanced methods. However, she now realizes her increased marketability, and serves you notice in lieu of a more lucrative position. She leaves without sharing her onion or documenting the code enhancements she just made. Now what do you do?
There are numerous scenarios to spin through, but I think the point is now obvious. A good application framework and methodology could have remedied all three scenarios. A sound application framework and clear, well-documented methodology would have facilitated the hired gun's adjustment to the team dynamic. Certainly some of his coding style could have enhanced the framework, providing impetus for upgrading the current methodology.
In the case of the hungry developer, providing good documentation for every code revision or even mandating a comment section at the head of each template as part of the coding methodology would allay this situation. If the developer jumps ship, then the rest of the team doesn't have to remain in the dark. The knowledge transfer has already taken place.
Where should shops turn for an application framework and/or methodology? iiFramework (www.iiframework.com) is a popular CF application framework. Other object-oriented CF application frameworks include SmartObjects (www.smartobjects.com) and cfObjects (www.cfobjects.com). Fusebox (www.fusebox.org) is the most popular CF methodology. Spectra is Macromedia's answer to the CF application framework and methodology paradigm. (Many readers are aware that version 1.5.1 is the last feature-additive release of Spectra as the core components are being melded into the next major release of the CF server.) Each of these has its share of strong points and shortcomings.
Patrick Steil does a great job comparing Fusebox, Allaire Spectra, and iiFrame-work in his article, "Rad++' Propel Your ColdFusion Project with Application Frameworks" in CFDJ (Vol. 2, issue 11). See Benjamin Pate's "Introducing Smart-Objects: Build Extendable, Reusable, Object-Based Components Using CFML," article in CFDJ (Vol. 2, issue 8) for an object-oriented CF framework primer.
The Weakest Link
The most important part of the development environment is the team dynamic. Like the proverbial chain, a development team is only as strong as its weakest developer. That said, the importance of a Web development team composed of technically sound individuals cannot be over-emphasized. There are three key members of the Web development team: Web/CF developer, graphic, and database.
At a minimum, a good Web developer today is well versed in HTML 4, Dynamic HTML (DHTML), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and ANSI-SQL. It is not enough to simply know about deprecated tags, such as the FONT tag, but in knowing how to correctly code cross-browser, inline style syntax is fundamental.
A strong Web developer has mastered complex DHTML and JavaScript routines - having built a vast library of eye-catching mouseovers, flying layers, and so on - and possesses some fundamentals of server-side languages such as CFML, ASP, JSP, and Java.
The complete Web developer is one who not only has mastered all of the above prerequisites, but whose lunch pail also includes the full Web development smorgasbord and Internet alphabet soup: XML\XHTML,WAP\CHTML\I-Mode, LDAP, SSL, and so forth.
Building upon that weak link, the consummate CF developer has mastered all of Ben Forta's tips and tricks, understands the complexities of structures and WDDX (Web Distributed Data Exchange) packets, and understands the intricacies of advanced caching techniques, load distribution, and session management. The well-rounded CF developer contributes to the community by actively participating in local ColdFusion Users Groups (CFUG).
The CF developer is the MVP of the development team, so it would behoove the good IT manager to have several MVP candidates on the team. To ensure MVP status, Macromedia has developed two certification offerings as part of its Macromedia Certified Professional Program (MMCP): Certified ColdFusion Developer and Certified Web Site Developer.
For a complete listing of CFUGs, visit the Allaire Web site at http://devex.allaire.com/developer/usergroups/; for more information on WDDX see www.openwddx.org/; for more information on ACP, see www.allaire.com/services/training/certification/index.cfm.
The final team members are the graphic artist and database administrator. Typically, the CF developer fills one or both of these roles as well, however, the team will function more productively if each member focuses on the area of his or her specialty in designing/developing the site or application. A great number of CF developers can animate images in tools like Macromedia Fireworks or crop photos with Adobe Photoshop. However, there is no substitute for a true graphic designer who can take an idea from charcoal and sketchpad to full-length Flash animation in a few hours.
Likewise, there is no substitute for a good DBA to manage your database. For dynamic Web applications, nothing is as vital and volatile as the data in the database. It is indeed the backbone and life of the application. Take it from a former CF Developer/SQL Server DBA, you don't want your CF developer writing code and worrying about Database Maintenance Plans, truncating logs, proper replication scenarios, or any other DBA functions.
We have a saying in the industry: "Let the Database and Web Server do their jobs, and let ColdFusion do its." The same goes for the development team - let each member do his or her job and focus on his or her specialty. However, separation of power does not equal segregation of force. Dividing the Web team along duty lines is not a call to build up walls, put on blinders, or break the lines of communication.
Communication is the key to success in any relationship - Web development is no different. Part of letting the database do its job is the CF developer asking the DBA to create a stored procedure on the database to replace a long-running query.
Tools of the Trade
The key to rapid application development is accessibility to tools that help you effectively build and deploy powerful, high-end applications quickly. There are a myriad of Web development tools, or integrated development environments (IDE), and graphic suites out there to help attain this goal. I started my Web development career with Notepad, then moved on to Kenn Nesbitt's WebEdit, and Nick Bradbury's HomeSite - acquired by Allaire in 1996.
Today, the industry is crowded with good WYSIWYG editors, such as Micro-soft's FrontPage 2000 and Adobe's GoLive. I won't even go into the numerous Java IDEs. (Sorry, I did not intend this to be a biased product review, but there are really only two IDE choices for serious CF development: UltraDev and Studio.)
When it comes to graphics, artists usually pick their poison and stick with it. Adobe Photoshop (www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/main.html) continues to be the industry standard for traditional graphics and photo retouching, shadowed by CorelDraw 10 Graphics Suite (www3.corel.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic+FTContentServer?pagename=Corel/Product/Details&id=CC1IOY1YKCC), Ulead PhotoImpact (www.ulead.com/pi/runme.htm), and Macromedia Freehand (www.macromedia.com/software/freehand/). Macromedia's Fireworks 4 (www.macromedia.com/software/fireworks/) has become the favorite among Web developers for Web graphics creation, animation, optimization, and integration.
Macromedia solidified its spot atop the IDE market with the release of its Dreamweaver UltraDev. UltraDev takes Dreamweaver to the edge by complementing the robust Web design engine with support for such data-driven languages as CF, ASP, and JSP. UltraDev integrates with ColdFusion Studio to provide an unparalleled combination of database and debugging tools - and visual development environment to help rapidly design and deliver powerful applications.
For traditional CF development, ColdFusion Studio is the best - hands down! ColdFusion Studio is the de facto CF IDE - pardon the pun. Allaire built Studio on its award-winning HomeSite HTML editor and added features such as full CFML (ColdFusion Markup Language) support, Remote Data Services, a CSS editor, and Source Code Control support. Studio's Project metaphor integrates with any Microsoft Source Code Control (SCC) API-compliant versioning software to help facilitate team coordination on all applications: simple or complex. Again, Macromedia has done a great job of integrating its leading tools - Studio for CF development, UltraDev for visual development - into one sweet package, ColdFusion 4.5 UltraDev 4 Studio.
As I said, CF Studio is my tool of choice for CF development. However, I am increasingly finding Dreamweaver UltraDev and Fireworks on more developer's desktops, and Photoshop on graphic artists' Macs, at each shop I visit.
The optimum CF development environment has dedicated human, hardware, and software resources. Developers use industry-leading IDEs to develop against local resources and within a versioning system on the dedicated development server. The staging server gets a copy of this code base for testing, where it is frozen upon acceptance for migration to production.
Your job as an IT or Web shop manager is to make this development environment conducive to your developers' efforts. Your job as CF developers is to use standards-based methodologies within application frameworks to help facilitate the rapid application development process.
The cloud market growth today is largely in public clouds. While there is a lot of spend in IT departments in virtualization, these aren't yet translating into a true "cloud" experience within the enterprise. What is stopping the growth of the "private cloud" market? In his general session at 18th Cloud Expo, Nara Rajagopalan, CEO of Accelerite, explored the challenges in deploying, managing, and getting adoption for a private cloud within an enterprise. What are the key differences between wh...
Jul. 29, 2016 09:45 AM EDT Reads: 2,116
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SYS-CON Events announced today that Venafi, the Immune System for the Internet™ and the leading provider of Next Generation Trust Protection, will exhibit at @DevOpsSummit at 19th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 1–3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Venafi is the Immune System for the Internet™ that protects the foundation of all cybersecurity – cryptographic keys and digital certificates – so they can't be misused by bad guys in attacks...
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In addition to all the benefits, IoT is also bringing new kind of customer experience challenges - cars that unlock themselves, thermostats turning houses into saunas and baby video monitors broadcasting over the internet. This list can only increase because while IoT services should be intuitive and simple to use, the delivery ecosystem is a myriad of potential problems as IoT explodes complexity. So finding a performance issue is like finding the proverbial needle in the haystack.
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Machine Learning helps make complex systems more efficient. By applying advanced Machine Learning techniques such as Cognitive Fingerprinting, wind project operators can utilize these tools to learn from collected data, detect regular patterns, and optimize their own operations. In his session at 18th Cloud Expo, Stuart Gillen, Director of Business Development at SparkCognition, discussed how research has demonstrated the value of Machine Learning in delivering next generation analytics to imp...
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The 19th International Cloud Expo has announced that its Call for Papers is open. Cloud Expo, to be held November 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, brings together Cloud Computing, Big Data, Internet of Things, DevOps, Digital Transformation, Microservices and WebRTC to one location. With cloud computing driving a higher percentage of enterprise IT budgets every year, it becomes increasingly important to plant your flag in this fast-expanding business opportuni...
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Identity is in everything and customers are looking to their providers to ensure the security of their identities, transactions and data. With the increased reliance on cloud-based services, service providers must build security and trust into their offerings, adding value to customers and improving the user experience. Making identity, security and privacy easy for customers provides a unique advantage over the competition.
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You think you know what's in your data. But do you? Most organizations are now aware of the business intelligence represented by their data. Data science stands to take this to a level you never thought of – literally. The techniques of data science, when used with the capabilities of Big Data technologies, can make connections you had not yet imagined, helping you discover new insights and ask new questions of your data. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Sarbjit Sarkaria, data science team lead ...
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text:
Treasury Yields Rise From 2013 Low Before $21 Billion Auction
Treasuries fell on speculation the rally that pushed 10-year yields to the lowest in 20 months went too far too fast before today's $21 billion auction of the securities.
The 10-year auction yield is poised to be the lowest since May 2013 as a slump in commodities price has damped the outlook for inflation. Treasuries have gained 1.5 percent this year, after returning 6.2 percent last year, the most since 2011, according to Bloomberg U.S. Treasury Bond Index. Commodities prices fell to a 12-year low, fueling speculation the Federal Reserve will take a cautious approach to raising interest rates.
"Ten years at these low yields will be a test to see where demand is," said Charles Comiskey, head of Treasury trading at Bank of Nova Scotia in New York, one of 22 primary dealers that trade with the Fed. The central bank is "still on track for the rate hike and beginning lift off in the middle of this year."
The U.S. 10-year yield rose two basis points, or 0.02 percentage point, to 1.93 percent at 11:36 a.m. New York time, after falling to 1.8622 percent earlier, matching the low on Oct. 15 that was the least since May 2013. The 2.25 percent note due in November 2024 traded at 102 26/32, according to Bloomberg Bond Trader prices.
Thirty-year yields touched 2.46 percent, the lowest since July 2012, when they set a record low of 2.44 percent.
Bond Rally
A worldwide rally in sovereign bonds pushed the effective yield on securities tracked by the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Broad Market Sovereign Plus Index to 1.21 percent yesterday, the least in data going back to 1996.
Treasuries investors turned bearish in the week ended yesterday, according to a survey by JPMorgan Chase & Co. Investors increased the proportion of net shorts to nine percentage points, from zero the previous week, according to the survey.
Outright longs were cut to 13 percent, from 17 percent the previous week. The figure represents the least longs since Oct. 27. Outright shorts, bets the securities would fall in value, rose to 22 percent, from 17 percent, which had been the least since February.
The $21 billion of 10-year Treasuries scheduled for sale today yielded 1.94 percent in pre-auction trading. That would be the lowest level at the monthly auctions since May 2013.
Debt Sale
At the previous sale of the benchmark securities in December, investors bid for 2.97 times the amount of debt offered, the highest since March 2013.
The U.S. sold $24 billion of three-year notes yesterday, and it plans to auction $13 billion of 30-year bonds tomorrow.
Government bonds have surged this year as oil tumbled more than 55 percent since June and copper sank to the lowest since 2009, dimming the outlook for consumer prices.
The Bloomberg Commodity Index reached its lowest level since 2002. Crude oil futures declined 0.5 percent to $45.82 a barrel in New York, after reaching the lowest level since April 2009.
The difference between yields on 10-year Treasuries and similar-maturity Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, a gauge of market expectations for consumer prices, was at 1.53 percentage points, the least since 2010.
Fed officials said they plan to raise interest rates later this year after holding their target for the federal funds rate at virtually zero since December 2008 to bolster economic growth.
Inflation Watch
"There's no meaningful sign of inflation yet and that will keep the Fed from moving forward the date of the first hike," said Ian Lyngen, a government-bond strategist at CRT Capital Group LLC in Stamford, Connecticut.
Slower inflation may also prompt central banks to extend stimulus, keeping down borrowing costs to fulfill their mandates. The European Central Bank may make a decision on whether to start buying government debt as soon as its Jan. 22 meeting, Executive Board member Benoit Coeure was quoted as saying in an interview with Die Welt.
The Bank of America sovereign index has returned 3.1 percent in the three months ended yesterday. The MSCI All-Country World Index of shares advanced 3 percent, including reinvested dividends.
U.S. debt maturing in five years yielded more than similar maturities in 19 developed nations, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The U.S. notes yielded 1.37 percent, while yields were at negative levels in Switzerland, Japan and Germany.


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OSI-Approved Open Source (320)
- GNU General Public License version 2.0 (228)
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- Artistic License (5)
- Adaptive Public License (4)
- Apache License V2.0 (3)
- Common Development and Distribution License (3)
- GNU Library or Lesser General Public License version 3.0 (3)
- Open Software License 3.0 (3)
- Common Public License 1.0 (2)
- Computer Associates Trusted Open Source License 1.1 (2)
- Eclipse Public License (2)
- Public Domain (12)
- Other License (8)
- Creative Commons Attribution License (3)
- Grouping and Descriptive Categories (345)
- Linux (345)
- Windows (222)
- Modern (145)
- Mac (119)
- Other Operating Systems (25)
Home & Education Software
Psychology Experiment Building Language
PEBL (Psychology Experiment Building Language) is a system designed for creating psychology and neuroscience experiments and tests. It is cross-platform, with the intention to run the same experiment, unchanged, on Linux, Windows, and Macintosh PCs.402 weekly downloads
xoscope: digital oscilloscope
xoscope is a digital oscilloscope using input from a sound card or EsounD and/or a ProbeScope/osziFOX and will soon support Bitscope hardware. Includes 8 signal displays, variable time scale, math, memory, measurements, and file save/load.150 weekly downloads
Linux Knowledge Base and Tutorial
The Linux Knowledge Base and Tutorial (LINKBAT) is a web-based, unified knowledge base and tutorial with the goal of educating users about Linux.34 weekly downloads
Sistem Informasi Adminstrasi Manajemen26 weekly downloads
File-Spector : Binary File Analyser
File-Spector is a small, fast and easy to use binary file analyzer and Inspector. It allows the users to format a complete binary file structure and then use it to read any binary file that matches the specified format.21 weekly downloads
STM: Student/Teacher Manager
Student Center is a web based student and teacher portal with the ability to organize homework assignments, display news, and show other relevant information. This project includes the use of PHP5, MySQL, a template system, and LDAP authorization.30 weekly downloads
Open Finite Element Analysis
Develop finite element stress analysis programs, that work with free cad systems(Maybe QCad). Right now there's only a 2d gridded structure analysis prog with a crappy interface, written mainly in octave.18 weekly downloads
School Management System
SMS is a free open source software and its aim is to computerize the School Management System in Afghan Schools10 weekly downloads
An open source middleware plaform, Mission Critical and Near Real-Time, able to supply the abstraction layer and the services needed to develop reliable and real time distributed applications.8 weekly downloads
Single-honeypot is a powerfull tool, for security interest about the estudies of techniques of breaking systems. This is, a singular or little honeypot for test your networks for hostiles visitors. This made in perl script. Simulate different servi13 weekly downloads
OpSim - Open Source Process Simulator
An open source process simulator11 weekly downloads
UWF Unmanned Systems
The is the location for the ongoing unmanned systems projects at UWF. Visit the forums at: https://sourceforge.net/apps/phpbb/unmanned/9 weekly downloads
Clean Bible (Hebrew&Greek)
Hebrew Bible was written without vowels, Gospel without spaces. They were added at about 1000 A.D. Inserting vowels/spaces in other ways we get tens new Holy Bibles!! This project is tools for study of the alternative translations of the Lost Book.6 weekly downloads
Talking Bible Project
The Talking Bible Project takes biblical text and converts it into speech. Uses open source Festival TTS engine. Voice recognition\control planned6 weekly downloads
quest, quintessence, quality6 weekly downloads
I Ching
The old book of changes ("I Ching" in Chinese) was born as a binary oracle (Yin/Yang) and evolved to become a wise sacred book. The I Ching application provides random hexagram generation to consult each of the 64 different I Ching configurations.5 weekly downloads
This is a thesis templet for Beijing Normal University, coded in LaTeX. It is designed for bachelor's degree, master's degree as well as doctor's degree. As planned, it is adapted to various platforms.4 weekly downloads
OmniHelp tripane on-line help viewer
A joint effort to provide system level support for the LegoŽ Mindstorms v2.0 USB IR Tower under Linux and possibly other Unixes; in the form of a linux kernel driver. Eyes also looking towards userspace tools (our own config utilities, and patches for 32 weekly downloads
Virtual TI Pro
Virtual TI emulates nearly the entire line of Texas Instruments graphing calculators, and offers features that speed up both debugging and testing of calculator programs. Windows version is quite stable but the Linux/OSX version is only in planning.3 weekly downloads
fast powerful CALC
The fast powerful CALC is a desktop scientific calculator, still is under development and tests. The objective is offer a good and easy to use mathematical tool. I hope you enjoy it.3 weekly downloads
gtkvoc - learn vocabulary easier -
gtkvoc helps students to learn vocabulary of a foreign language. Students have to set their vocabulary list into a text document and the soft allows them to view, be interrogated in many diferent ways and edit the list of vocabulary. It can be used on bo3 weekly downloads
It is the java language implementation of the "BOOZER" Program originally developed by Dr. William Fletcher. It was originally written in ALGOL 60 in 1977, the original source can be found in Fletcher's book "An Engineering Approach to Digit design"3 weekly downloads
Elena es un lenguaje de programación que trata de expresar los algorítmos de una manera más natural en código. Sus módulos interactúan como librerías o archivo principal. Está principalmente diseñado para la enseñanza.2 weekly downloads
Find as much words you can in a schema (game console based).2 weekly downloads


text:
Crazy Substitute Teachers
Enjoy, NG4.03 / 5.00 2,636 Views
Vacuum Salesman
This dude and his Megazord vacuum cleaner4.01 / 5.00 2,898 Views
Markiplier Animated | Mark Of The Survey Corps
This took far too long to make...3.96 / 5.00 7,511 Views
Get back in the fridge hobo!
Haha, that was great. Definately getting better.
Once again you have managed to suprise me with this rediculous series!
I loved the "Get back in the fridge, hobo!" comment you finished it off with. Perfect!
Infinity to the one millionth power squared cubed out of the tiniest possible number minus infinity to the one millionth power squared cubed.
liked it but..
this was still great but i think it could of been better if youd made it a bity longe. Number six is by far still the best.
I love it :D
I really like this episode, because it has something for everyone. It's slapstick, random and at the same time intelligent and satirical. I don't really have any criticisms at all ^^