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Cars Coming (and Going) Soon: Goodbye to Compass and Town & Country, Hello to SRT Dart
In the category of things that are long overdue, let's place this:
Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne has confirmed that the Jeep Compass and the Chrysler Town & Country will end production. I'll pause for a collective cheer.
While speaking at the Chrysler Belvidere Assembly Plant, Marchionne said the Compass will continue to be built at the facility through August 2014, at which point it will be replaced by a new model. He also said the Grand Caravan will be the automaker's only minivan moving forward. Marchionne also let slip his company's intent on the development of a Dodge Dart SRT model, saying the performance-oriented vehicle is coming just as soon as they figure out how big an engine to put in it.
Car Industry News, Car Minded, Cars Coming Soon, Domestic Cars, General Chat, Trucks & SUVs


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Interested in becoming a Trained Storm Spotter before the upcoming severe weather season? The National Weather Service will be in Bryan to conduct SKYWARN training at the EOC in Downtown Bryan.
With spring just around the corner, its time to start thinking of warm, sunny afternoons...but also severe weather season. Interested in severe storms and possibly want to learn more and become a certified storm spotter? The Houston / Galveston office of the National Weather Service will be in Bryan holding two SKYWARN classes to do just that. You have two opportunities on Wednesday to catch one of the three hour classes.
When: March 21st, 2013
Time: Session 1: 1:00pm - 3:30pm / Session 2 6:00pm - 8:30pm
Location: Brazos County Community EOC: 110 North Main, Suite 100 (in Downtown Bryan)
Cost: Free
Contact Information: Amy Zaragoza, firstname.lastname@example.com, 979-821-1000

subset: commoncrawl


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Runs at Lake Lurleen benefit Children's Hands On Museum
Published: Wednesday, December 5, 2012 at 3:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, December 4, 2012 at 11:33 p.m.
TUSCALOOSA | It started as a way to give back to a community close to his heart and a way to help a grieving family preserve the memory of a lost child.
Nicholas Wilson Tashka Trail Run
When: 7 a.m. Saturday (50K will end around 3 p.m.)
Where: Lake Lurleen State Park, Coker
What: 50-kilometer, 25K and 4-mile run
Admission: $3 for ages 12-61; $1 for children ages 6-11 and seniors ages 62 and older; free for children under 6
Benefit: Children's Hands On Museum, in honor of the late Nicholas Wilson
Cost: Registration for the race is closed; donations to the fund can be made at the park on race day or in Nicholas Wilson's name by calling the museum at 205-349-4235.
More information: Visit www.tuscaloosatrackclub.com
Four years ago, Walt White and Mike Higgins, members of the Tuscaloosa Track Club, spearheaded the establishment of the Nicholas Wilson Tashka Trail Run. It's a novel event, combining races of 50 kilometers, 25K and a 4-mile run, distances that fit most any veteran's, or even beginning runner's, comfort zone. It's a trail run held in Coker at Lake Lurleen State Park, an event that since its inception has drawn hundreds of runners and, along with donations, raised more than $20,000 for the Children's Hands On Museum.
This year's event, the fourth consecutive, will begin at 7 a.m. Saturday. Although the deadline for entry was earlier this week — there is no race day entry — the cost was $50 to compete in the 50K and 25K and $30 to compete in the 4-mile run. Those registered may pick up their race packets at The Athlete's Foot from 5-8 p.m. Friday or on Saturday morning at Lake Lurleen starting at 6. Donations can still be made, including at the race site.
"One of the reasons I came up with it to begin with was because I've been running in these races for years, since the early 1970s," said White, the co-race director along with his wife, Alison. "It was just a way to give back to a sport that I really like and I really enjoy. Instead of always being the participant, I wanted to be a race director and be on the other side of the race and provide an event for other people. We found a good cause in CHOM and in making it a memorial race for a special family. It's been very rewarding for all of us involved."
The event honors Nicholas Wilson, the son of track club member Eric Wilson and his wife, Julie. Nicholas died in 2008 as an infant. The Wilsons suggested the museum benefit because of the joy it brings to their other son, Ethan, and other children.
The race has averaged 170 runners per year, drawing participants from Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi and Tennessee.
"The 25K is 151⁄2 miles, which isn't too difficult for people who run marathons, but the 50K is 31 miles. That's for people looking for things beyond the marathon, especially on the trails, which make it a little more challenging," White said.
The races cover a lot of miles and are staffed by a lot of volunteers, many of whom will camp out at the park the night before. Runners in the 50K won't finish until midafternoon. A race committee of 10 helps run it. A host of volunteers, including the Tuscaloosa Radio Club, the Mt. Olive Fire and Rescue, timers and station workers help make it a memorable experience.
"As far as difficulty, it wouldn't be considered a difficult course. It's very runner-friendly," White said. "It's constantly up-and-down, but there are no major steep climbs or descents. It's a good course for those just getting into trail running. It's not like running on the roads. There's rocks, roots, holes. You have to be aware of what you're running over. It's also very scenic."
And it's all for a great cause.
"I think it has been a great way for us to give back to the community," Julie Wilson said. "When Ethan was little, he loved going to CHOM — he still does, though he's a little bit older now. I just know what a great place it is and how much Nicholas would have loved it, too. This has been a great way to keep his memory alive."
This article has been amended to correct Saturday's start time to 7 a.m.
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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GRAND COUNTY - The family of Christopher Norris, who died in January at Winter Park Resort after being caught in an avalanche in the Trestle Trees area, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Grand County District Court.
The complaint has been filed against Intrawest Winter Park Operations Corporation, which manages and operates Winter Park Resort.
The complaint alleges that Winter Park officials knew or should have known about the slopes within the boundaries of the Winter Park Resort that could have been prone to avalanches. The document also states that the resort knew about avalanche warnings that day and that they should have known the Trestle Trees area was likely to experience avalanches and therefore was not safe.
Winter Park Resort officials "had the duty to close those areas within its boundary which it knew or should have known posed an avalanche hazard to skiers under the conditions existing on January 22, 2012," according to the complaint.
Intrawest officials in Denver referred inquiries to Winter Park Resort, which did not respond to three phone calls beginning May 18 seeking response to the lawsuit's allegations.
Salyndra E. Fleury is the surviving spouse and has hired attorney James Heckbert, of Burg Simpson Eldredge Hersh and Jardine, P.C., who is working from Steamboat Springs.
"There were avalanche warnings in the backcountry, and they were telling people to go to the safety of ski areas where they control avalanches," said Heckbert in a phone interview May 17.
"Ski areas are the experts. There is inherent risk as a part of skiing. You may hit a rock - that is part of skiing in a ski area, that is inherent risk. An avalanche is not part of the inherent risk in a ski resort," he said.
The Trestle Trees were not roped off, and signs were not posted showing the area as closed, he said.
The next step in the process is for Winter Park to respond to the claim as part of the discovery process.
The Colorado Ski Safety Act states that "no skier may make any claim against or recover from any ski area operator for injury resulting from any of the inherent dangers and risks of skiing."
The Act also states the limit of liability attributable to non-economic loss or injury is $250,000.
According to The Colorado Avalanche Center, Norris' death was the second avalanche-related fatality of the Jan. 22 weekend. The Colorado Avalanche Center's website warned of high avalanche danger all weekend and cautioned, "Triggering avalanches is likely on any snow-covered slope 30 degrees or steeper that did not slide during the natural cycle yesterday. The natural
avalanche cycle has largely run its course, so I will drop the Avalanche Warning, but natural avalanches are still possible today. Triggering slides will be easy today, and some of them will be bigger than what we have seen so far this winter."
Kristen Lodge can be reached at 970-887-3334 ext. 19610


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Technical ArticlesSupplier:
OMEGA Engineering, Inc.
OMEGA Engineering, Inc. has published these technical articles:
(Humidity and Moisture Sensing)
From this Article:Monitoring relative humidity in a lab can be challenging. Choose the most simple and powerful way by using wireless transmitters.... (View Full Article)
(Gas Sensing)
From this Article:Top 5 conditions and substances your air quality system should be monitoring.... (View Full Article)
(Gas Sensing)
From this Article:Ambient air contains life supporting oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and chemicals that can harm you and your employees.... (View Full Article)
(Sensing and Measurement Instruments)
From this Article:If you are involved in HVAC installation or maintenance, or if you work with air flow in an industrial process, lab, or research facility, then you will want to know about the new FMA1000 Air... (View Full Article)
(Calibration Instruments, Standards and Reference Sources)
From this Article:This article from OMEGA Engineering discusses the temperature sensors employed in manufacturing and temperature recording, including why and how frequently sensors need calibrating. Calibration... (View Full Article)
(Calibration Instruments, Standards and Reference Sources)
From this Article:The most sophisticated industrial equipment will not be very useful unless it is calibrated. Through calibration, adjustments made to a piece of equipment ensure that it performs as expected-that it... (View Full Article)
(Data Acquisition Products)
From this Article:A data/chart recorder is an electronic instrument that keeps track of various measurements required in industrial and laboratory environments. Broadly speaking, it is used to record: - process... (View Full Article)
(Temperature Sensing)
From this Article:One of the most effective methods of making non-contact high temperature measurements in industrial applications is with a fiber optic infrared probe. These devices typically consist of a lens probe... (View Full Article)
(Flow Sensing)
From this Article:In 1842, Christian Doppler discovered that a stationary observer perceives a sound to have shorter wavelengths as its source approaches, longer wavelengths as its source recedes. The Doppler effect... (View Full Article)
(Force Sensing)
From this Article:Each installation is unique; consult a structural engineer when in need of very high accuracy, long-term stability, custom applications and specifications, and when using varied R&D environments. In... (View Full Article)
(Sensing and Measurement Instruments)
From this Article:If you're ready to measure pH with a wireless device then this informative article is for you. This article discusses the 3 must-have features in a portable data logger for pH measurement.... (View Full Article)
(Temperature Sensing)
From this Article:LSST design team wanted to use a custom thermal control system installed on the back surface of the mirror to maintain a uniform temperature throughout the structure at all times. Precision... (View Full Article)
(Calibration Instruments, Standards and Reference Sources)
From this Article:The UV1000 Universal Verbalizer from Omega Engineering provides an entirely new way for engineers, technicians, and operators to monitor measurement and control information on the plant floor or in... (View Full Article)
(RF, Microwave, and Wireless Components)
From this Article:Handheld infrared thermometers are very popular for making on the spot non-contact temperature measurements with little or no setup. These devices are completely self-contained and require no... (View Full Article)
(Wire and Cable)
From this Article:At a manufacturing plant outside Philadelphia one hot day last summer, HVAC installers were preparing to measure the cool fruits of their labor. They inserted a thermocouple probe into a gleaming new... (View Full Article)
(Networking Equipment)
From this Article:Remote monitoring is ideal for applications in dangerous or harsh environments where conditions are relatively safe. In this article you will learn the pros and cons of remote monitoring.... (View Full Article)
(Pressure Sensing)
From this Article:A new line of Micro-Machined Silicon pressure transducers, the MM Series from Omegadyne, Inc., Sunbury, OH, promises to revolutionize a product category in which custom design requirements and long... (View Full Article)
(Calibration Instruments, Standards and Reference Sources)
From this Article:We are all familiar with wind tunnels and have seen films or photos of their use in aircraft and spacecraft design as well as in automobile ads touting the aerodynamic features of this car or that. In... (View Full Article)
(Temperature Sensing)
From this Article:Temperature is certainly among the most commonly measured parameters in industry, science, and academia. Recently, the growth of wireless instrumentation technology, along with some clever... (View Full Article)


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The Morning Ledger: Companies Cheer Renewed Tax Credits
The Morning Ledger from CFO Journal cues up the most important news in corporate finance every weekday morning. Send us tips, suggestions and complaints: firstname.lastname@example.com and firstname.lastname@example.com. Get The Morning Ledger emailed to you each weekday morning by clicking here.
Fourth-quarter earnings may look a little rosier for some companies thanks to some of the tax credits squeezed into the fiscal cliff deal. Technology and drug companies are cheering the decision to retroactively extend the R&D credit, which expired in 2011. And financial firms could get some tax relief from the extension of a credit for overseas financing activities, CFOJ's Emily Chasan writes.
Other companies have been maneuvering to avoid being hit by tax increasesGoldman Sachs handed directors and executives — including CEO Lloyd Blankfein — a total of $65 million in restricted stock just hours before the higher tax rates took effect, the WSJ reports. Blankfein, President and Chief Operating Officer Gary Cohn and outgoing CFO David Viniar each received total vesting of 66,065 shares worth $8.4 million. Goldman joins a long list of companies — includingCostcoLas Vegas Sands and Dillard's – in doling out accelerated special dividends at the end of last year.
Meanwhile Moody's warned that the fiscal cliff deal didn't do enough to cut the deficit, the WSJ notes, saying that "further measures that bring about a downward debt trajectory over the medium term are likely to be needed to support the AAA rating." Business leaders seemed to agree. "There's a bit of a reaction of, 'Is that all there is?' Because there's a lot that remains to be done," John Engler, the president of the Business Roundtable, told the Washington Post. Martin Regalia, chief economist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, worried that the deal — by locking in current marginal tax rates — will complicate efforts to reduce rates and eliminate deductions as part of a broader tax overhaul.
The shortened week means that we get the ADP jobs report on the same day as weekly claims. The December ADP survey is expected to show 150K private sector jobs created – up from 118K in November. And weekly jobless claims are seen rising to 363K from 350K last week.
Markets flash. Asian markets ended mostly high, but Europe is lower as the initial euphoria from the fiscal cliff deal gives way to concerns that lawmakers have just kicked the can down the road. DJIA futures are flat.
Low rates drag down corporate pension funding. Despite a rising stock market and enhanced employer contributions, corporate pension plan funding levels declined again in 2012, leaving most plans significantly underfunded, reports Emily Chasan. In a Towers Watson review of the 429 largest U.S. companies that sponsor defined benefit plans, corporate pensions were only 75% funded in aggregate, down from 78% in 2011. Though pension assets performed better during the year, it wasn't enough to offset the increase in liabilities stemming from low interest rates used to calculate outstanding pension obligations.
BofA aims to ramp up corporate lending.Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan tells the FT that he's directed bankers to be "more aggressive" in lending to companies. His comments come amid new-found confidence at the bank. BofA ended 2012 as the best performer in the DJIA, with a 109% increase in the stock, the FT notes. Mr. Moynihan also signaled that BofA wants to settle outstanding lawsuits. "Our job is to get them put away at a reasonable basis for shareholders," he said.
Google revs up social-network push. Googleis gaining ground against Facebook thanks to a controversial tactic: requiring people to use the Google+ social network, writes the WSJ's Amir Efrati. People who create an account to use Gmail, YouTube and other Google services are also being set up with public Google+ pages that can be viewed by anyone online. It's part of an aggressive push by CEO Larry Page to prevent Facebook from dominating the social-networking business. The integration has helped jump-start Google+ usage and executives say more integration is coming. "Google+ is Google," says Vice President Bradley Horowitz. "The entry points to Google+ are many, and the integrations are more every day."
Ethan Allen turns the tables on China. Ethan Allen and Ashley Furniture are doing something different—exporting U.S.-made sofas and furniture to China, writes the Journal's James R. Hagerty. Most furniture Ethan Allen sells in China is made in its seven plants in the U.S. and Mexico. Ashley mostly relies on furniture made at its own plant near Shanghai and elsewhere in Asia, but it ships small amounts from its eight plants in the U.S. Shipping furniture from North America to China seems counterintuitive, given the distance and China's network of furniture factories and parts suppliers. But Ethan Allen CEO Farooq Kathwari says Chinese furniture plants aren't set up for customized upholstery choices that Ethan Allen emphasizes. For now, he said, Ethan Allen can handle that custom business from North American plants.
Why Zipcar was stuck in a rut. Zipcar's proposed $500 million sale toAvis Budget appears to represent an entrepreneurial high point. But a sale at $12.25 a share is less than half what investors were paying immediately after its IPO, notes the WSJ's Dennis K. Berman. Zipcar CEO Scott Griffith saw a potential $10 billion market, but Zipcar's problem was that it didn't have the resources to test that thesis, Berman says. Cash on hand at the end of September was $65 million. It had already borrowed $97 million to finance its cars. To expand deeper into Europe would take more resources than the company had at its disposal. That's why Avis Budget's entry could transform what Mr. Griffith called a "business model company" into a money-making enterprise.
Utilities scramble to cope with waning electricity use. Americans are using more electronic gadgets, but their electricity use is barely growing, posing a daunting challenge for the nation's utilities, the WSJ says. Companies likePublic Service Enterprise Group andNortheast Utilities are pouring money into high-voltage transmission lines because regulators let them to collect above-average returns on those outlays to boost investment in aging power networks. Others are slashing spending, including Exelon, which is cutting investment in nuclear-plant expansions by more than $1 billion and in renewable-energy projects by $1.3 billion from now until 2015 as it tries to avoid a credit downgrade. "Even with all the actions we've taken, our balance sheet is stressed…and we have no other meaningful levers to pull," Exelon CEO Chris Crane told investors in November. He added that the company might have to slash its dividend.
Al-Jazeera bolsters presence in U.S. Al-Jazeera is buying Al Gore's Current TV in a move that will boost the Qatar-based broadcaster's footprint in the U.S. Terms weren't disclosed, but analysts estimated the deal could be worth as much as $500 million, Reuters reports. Just buying Current doesn't guarantee instant distribution, the Los Angeles Times notesTime Warner Cable, which offered Current in roughly 10 million of its homes, is dropping the channel. Without Time Warner Cable, which is the largest distributor in New York City and Los Angeles, Current TV is in only about 50 million homes.
China's services sector on the upswing. China's services industries expanded at the fastest pace in four months, adding to manufacturing gains that may help sustain an economic rebound this year, Bloomberg reports. The non-manufacturing purchasing managers' index was at 56.1 in December after a 55.6 reading the previous month. A reading above 50 indicates expansion.
- Progress Software hired Chris E. Perkins as its chief financial officer. He succeeds Melissa H. Cruz, who plans to retire after assisting with the transition, according to a press release. Mr. Perkins was most recently CFO of Eclipsys Corporation. Ms. Cruz was hired as CFO in July 2012 with a base salary of $375,000, a bonus target of $275,000, and a 115,000-share stock grant, according to an 8-K.
- Beacon Roofing Supply elevated Chief Accounting Officer Rick Welker to acting chief financial officer. He succeeds David Grace, who retired at the end of 2012. Mr. Welker joined Beacon in 2004 as controller and was promoted to chief accounting officer in 2011. The company has hired a recruitment firm to assist with the search for a permanent CFO. Mr. Grace received compensation in 2011 valued at $1.3 million, according to the most recent proxy filing available.
- Endologix hired Shelley B. Thunen as its chief financial officer. She succeeds Robert J. Krist, who is retiring. Ms. Thunen was most recently associate general manager of Alcon LenSx Inc. Mr. Krist received compensation in 2011 valued at $444,584, according to a proxy filing.


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PCD Twisted Helical End Mill features reduced cutting resistance
Chukyo has developed the Eco Helix, a twisted shaped PCD helical end mill with blade edges that exhibit minimal cutting resistance when machining parts.
Chukyo has developed the Eco Helix, a twisted shaped PCD helical end mill with blade edges that exhibit minimal cutting resistance when machining parts.
Panasonic is going to release an electric steam mask for the face called Booster Mask EH-XM10 on November 28 from the Panasonic Beauty Premium series.
The price will be 40,000 yen.
Are 2-in-1 tablet PCs in fashion for this season? NEC's new LaVie U is already the 3rd 2-in-1 product that we've reported about within a month.
NEC announced the release of new Android tablet series - LaVie Tab S.
They will start selling the non-SIM-locked LET/3G model LaVie Tab S TS708/T1W for about 39,800 yen in late December and the Wi-Fi/non-LET model LaVie Tab S TS508/T1W for about 32,800 yen sometime between late November and early December.
Green House is going to release a camera strap bag called "INSTRAP" for 2,500 yen in late October.
INSTRAP is a shoulder strap for a DSLR or mirrorless camera, which comes with a pouch to store camera accessories such as a lens cap and memory card.
There are 2 sizes available.
Fujitsu is going to release the 10.1-inch, 2-in-1 ARROWS Tab QH55/S for about ¥123,984 (~$1,240) yen in mid-December.
Terrie's Take is a selection of Japan-centric news collected and collated by long-time resident and media business professional Terrie Lloyd. AkihabaraNews is pleased to present Terrie's learned perspective; we all could use another take on the news - here's Terrie's:
World's Most Popular Manga/Anime Clones Jenga!
We said it before: the popularity ranking might be debatable, but there's no doubt that Hajime Isayama's now 5-year-old serial - his first at that - certainly has been the most visible franchise of the past year.


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Dienhart: Snap reactions to afternoon games
BTN.com's Tom Dienhart is offering his thoughts and analysis from every Big Ten game today. In this post, you can find his Snap Reactions from the Big Ten's four afternoon games. Here are his Snap Reactions to the three early games. See what Dienhart has to say about Michigan State, Nebraska, Northwestern and Penn State's victory here.


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News 12 First at Five / Thursday, Oct. 4, 2012
AUGUSTA, Ga. -- It's an ongoing problem in some schools, and now, it's reaching kids at an even younger age.
Bullying can come in many forms, but when things get physical, what should parents do to make sure their kids are safe?
Regina Djigal is the mother of a third grader who is being bullied at Meadowbrook Elementary.
"He doesn't understand why this is happening," she said.
Her son is a straight-A student. She says he won a citizenship award and pretty much keeps to himself.
"I teach them you go to school, you keep your hands to yourself, you keep your mouth shut and you do your work, which is to learn," Djigal said.
But, for the past three weeks, her son has been the victim of three separate attacks by bullies, two of them leaving him bruised and beaten.
"My son came home and he was crying. I asked him what was wrong and he said that three little boys had jumped him on the way home from school," Djigal said.
Dr. John Felton, principal at Meadowbrook Elementary, says the kids involved in the incidents were suspended according to the school's code of conduct.
Djigal admitted, "The principal did as much as he could do."
But she's worried it won't be enough, saying, "I'm scared of losing my child. I'm scared that he will have to become one of these people just to defend himself."
And, as a single working mom with four kids, changing schools isn't an option.
"That's actually like we're being penalized for him being bullied," she said.
Richmond County educators say part of the problem is the loss of funding for programs that used to help students who acted out.
"Once before in Richmond County, we had what we called a 'PASS' program," Felton said.
Instead of suspension, the PASS program used to send elementary students to another school for a few weeks, complete with discipline, continued education and counselors on hand to help address and redirect behavior issues.
"The program was very effective at that time," Felton said.
But since federal funding for the program was cut and the state does not fund in-school suspension for elementary students, the only option is out-of-school suspension.
The principal says when the students involved in the bullying return from suspension, they will be placed in a different classroom. They also offer counseling for both the victim and the bullies.
Alternative school is not an option for these children because the alternative school in Richmond County is only for sixth through 12th graders.


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This form should be utilized by Undergraduate Students who would like to change a course from a graded basis to an audit basis, or who would like to change a course from graded basis to a credit/no credit basis.
Note: Graduate Students must complete the Graduate Student Request Form within MyUNIverse to request this change.
Please see our Dates to Observe for more information.


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Follow all the action as Dumbarton travel away to Alloa Athletic at Recreation Park in the Scottish Division 2 on 17-Apr-2010. The match kicks off at 15:00
Alloa Athletic v Dumbarton Live
Source: DSG
Source: DSG
Manchester City's Joe Hart will be the first English goalkeeper to play in Serie A after completing a loan move to Torino.
Transfer deadline day is the opportunity for clubs to make that last-gasp signing that could shape their season, but it
England pair Joe Hart and Jack Wilshere look set to leave their clubs on loan in search of regular first-team
The draw for the greatest club competition in the world took place on Thursday 25th august and produced some interesting ties.
The latest gossip and rumours from the newspapers and online: Arsenal are to consider loan offers for
Ahead of the transfer deadline on Wednesday, here football.


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I'm sure like many of you out there you have experienced the same frustrations that I have when trying to install Linux or BSD on a laptop. We need a new approach.
There's always some little piece of hardware that doesn't quite work or some feature that is only half implemented. Nowhere is this more obvious than when dealing with a laptop. So many laptops are arcane mysteries in how they are constructed. Sometimes it's just an awful chore just to get the thing to work right. Now I understand that some of the hardware is "unsupported" on free software; but I don't think this is good enough.
So many laptops are arcane mysteries...it's just an awful chore
Obviously, there is a deficiency in the free market if a proper product has not yet been designed. Laptops are not a new innovation; they have been around for a while now and are quite a common sight. I have been running Linux on laptops since the late nineties and I remember how hard it was then. And yes, I admit things have improved in recent years, but I'm still not happy.
And I shall tell you why.
My wife is an avid fan of Apple Macintosh Computers. To tell the truth she has four of them; an old G3 iMac, 2 iBooks, and a G4 Powerbook. Now whether you like Apple or not, one thing is clear: their products just work. When you install MacOS X on any of their products there are no software-hardware issues. When you plug in a wireless card it automatically configures, the same goes for external displays. Unlike XOrg or XFree you don't have to hack the xf86config or xorg.conf files to get it to work.
I know there are people who will say "But it's easy for Apple, they control the whole hardware-software stack from top to bottom", so they can deliver this level of usability.
And those people are right!
A friend of mine just bought himself a new MacBook and after being a Linux user for some years he was astonished by how well it works. Now you might ask what any of this has to do with free software, well come closer and I shall tell you...
The biggest thing holding back free software today is the lack of free hardware!
Maybe we need to look at the problem in a new way
So, what can we do about it. This is what the Apple example has to show us. Apple products work so well because Apple controls the whole shooting match. It's time for the free software community to do the same. As individuals we are all too small of a concern to bother the manufacturers, but as a community we are far more significant. How hard can it be to set up a foundation or an organization to drive forward the principle of the Open Laptop and the Open Desktop. Apple does not actually manufacture computers anymore, they just design them. Look at any of their products; it says it right on the back.
Why can't we be both the vendor and the customer
They design the products and then farm the work out to the sub-contracting manufacturers in the Far East and elsewhere. Now Apple controls the specification and they are able to get the component manufacturers to hand over their technical specifications because they buy in bulk. Then they can write their own drivers for the hardware in order to make them work as they see fit.
Can we do this also? Surely we can agree on a baseline specification for a design and then work together to create it. If Apple can do it, and do it at a competitive price, then surely so can we.
So what do we need?
We need to decide what kind of hardware such devices should have, and it's important to remember that we can start from a clean slate so-to-speak. When Apple were moving over to Intel processors they decided not to use the old fashioned BIOS on most x86 computers in favour of Intel's relatively new EFI system. Since we are designing these systems for free-software we can adjust the source code as we need to to support the hardware we decide to use. For example we can tune the software to a certain hardware build. We already see this happening in the embedded computers space.
Often people complain when we have to pay the Microsoft Tax on our computers and we never seem to get that money back. Well, there will be no OS Tax on these computers.
Now obviously there is far more to this than meets the eye, lots of organisation will go into such an enterprise and it will not be easy, but I have no doubt that the free software community can rise to the challenge here and produce a free-hardware computer that "just works" so to speak.
I would like to hear everybody's thoughts on the matter and let's see if we can get something to happen....
Great idea!
This is one of the major problems that I am having with the previous two Dell machines that I've owned, first a desktop and currently a laptop. I am quite nervous about adding linux not because of the quality of the software, but rather the compatibility issues that are inherent because of those deterrants that large corporations have put in place. It is more than a little frustrating. The idea of dictating terms rather than being dictating them to these companies is going to be a rough ride but unless people band together, then nothing can be achieved.
hear! hear!
hear! hear!
I told Dell, when they asked wat I would like them to shange.
Delinx.... No M........W......Oem (I sayed) That is not even a real Os. It is an speciallmade Osdrivsotware for Dell (as HP/Compac PBell have)
Just the same as with aple/macOsX Made for the hardware inside. But they are one HwareSware made fore egother.
PC brands and M...W... are not one. Only M..W.. is very big. So PC brands opens for M..W.. To get that OEM. (only Witsh Hardware is inside?) Shange the mainbord.... OEMps not open for you enymore..
Think Dell is the mosed closed laptop there is, but maybe that is why they are the one to open. My experions whit Dell is the best till now, hp, pBell, and an other few, were not so closed but helpdesk...aaahhhh!!.
A dell came to me and opend no mather wath, even after fu..ing her up, by giving her a linux that dit not work for her. She opend to tell me: "Call the center, they will help" And they did.
Send me the oem and no problems.
When you have a Dell just ask for the cd they have for your Laptop. So you can do wat you want. If it goes bad.You do not even have to wait for the oem. You have it.
I?... Dreaming....Delinx .. Open.
Devil's Advocate
I'm a big fan of open source and have been using Linux and FreeBSD for quite some time. Needless to say this idea seems promising, but there are certain aspects that seem to be unrealistic. First, who's going to shell out the millions necessary to fund the mass production of hardware? The community? Ok, but how many of them are going to want some standardized machine? It would cost several million dollars (maybe more) to fulfill the needs of the open source community and three months after it's built something new will come out and people will stray. The reason Linux is so successful is for the compatibility of x86 architecture, once this becomes proprietary then the allure is gone. Granted, Linux will still be available for x86 and probably won't loose support, but I am curious how many die-hards will support the development process for a limited system (hardware).
I understand the idea of stripping OS costs, but if someone is that concerned about it all they have to do is 1. build the machine themselves (takes a couple of hours) or 2. go to a retailer that builds them for you. In either case you can obtain a computer without an OS.
Is this an idea to place one of these "Open Architecture" computers in every Be$t Buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart, and whatever other evil empire you can think of? If it is, well then... I don't think these companies like associating with businesses that don't turn profits. So you pretty much screwed there, unless of course you are thinking that this could be a money making opportunity by undercutting the prices of M$ and Apple to obtain profits, in which case it's not really "open" anymore is it?
This is sort of the idea that you are talking about
This was an attempt at a video game console
Please don't get me wrong, I am always looking for new and innovative products of open source and I would probably jump on board if some well thought out stucture was implimented.
"unless of course you are
"unless of course you are thinking that this could be a money making opportunity by undercutting the prices of M$ and Apple to obtain profits, in which case it's not really "open" anymore is it?"
Making money doesn't make hardware or software open. The FSF is adament about this. Also re: SuSe, Red Hat, Ubuntu (soon)
http://www.opencores.org/ has been hosting open hardware for quite a while. Just buy an FPGA and burn your open hardware onto a chip (or pay millions for silicon).
Open hardware is quite doable, in fact, it's already in use by many.
The tough part is actually coming up with the manufacturing.
its happening
Check out www.system76.com and a search shows there are a few other companies building with linux in mind
I would have to agree
I think this is a wonderful idea, having more hardware "standards" free and open would truly make a world of difference (especially for device driver developers). However, I can imagine getting this implemented will be, well... quite difficult. In contrast to software, where it is entirely virtual and be modified, re-compiled, and installed very easily, hardware is quite different. This is not a problem, but something that needs to be kept in mind. If we could get hardware designers (and more importantly, their management) to see and agree with the true benefits of "open source", it would make our job much easier.
If a project such as this were to take off, I envision it being something of a "slow-n-steady" type of deal, I believe it will take a long time before we would actually see the fruits of our labor paying off in regards to solving the problems previously mentioned. This is certainly not a reason to not try and start such a task, but I suppose the main question on my mind is... where do you begin???
Sortof done already.
http://system76.com build laptops that run Ubuntu, and nothing else. Although I have a sneaky suspicion non-free software comes with these machines, maybe they can be convinced to install gNewSense as an option? :-)
Open source... chips?
It seems to me that to have open source hardware you'll need a good open source "bios" - perhaps even flashing the Linux kernal.
With the majority of hardware compatablility issues occuring with implementation hacks by the hardware designer - to have a true open source hardware; the motherboard would need to be desinged by someone unwilling to cut corners; and work with established hardware standards.
It would never be cutting edge, and that would ultimately make it an unprofitable business venture. and you need those profits to keep producing hardware.
Open source bios ..
An OSS bios .. Like linuxbios you mean?
As for the 'unwilling to cut corners' bit - I'm unconvinced that is the problem. Stories I've heard in other places suggest it's the fact that (embedded) manufacturers have lawyers skittish of OSS development practices and a (misplaced) sense of proprietary software giving them a business edge that is causing a lot of hardware to have proprietary bits attached to them.
Do some research
"I would like to hear everybody's thoughts on the matter and let's see if we can get something to happen...."
I think that if you'd done a bit of research first, you could have written a more useful article. Please allow me to bootstrap your efforts:
Wikipedia Entry on OSS Hardware
At those links, you can find everything from designs for USB controllers to mainboards to 3D GPUs to high performance CPUs. In some cases the designs can be realized on FPGAs or ASICs, while others require the use of a cutting edge chip-fab.
The OSS community has been pursuing this dream for several years now. What it needs is *not* unfocused calls to action, but more exposure of the efforts already underway.
It's already being done
You can order IBM laptops with Redhat on them. HP does the same. Dell does it as well. Plus lots of little vendors do tyhe exact same thing. All you have to do is ask. You would be surprised that you don't live in 1995 anymore. Windows tax isn't anymore extra cost than 20 bucks per PC btw. You probably spent more on coffee last week and all you got back was urine from that investment.
Or here's a novel thought. Buy a mom and pop PC with nothing but the hardware itself and install whatever you want. It's not rocket science.
Here's a question for you, why does your wife have four laptops? Is it because the Mac tends to date itself really quickly, because you have almost have no choice but to upgrade the entire system rather than bits and pieces. Anyhoo, four laptops if that doesn't stink of dumb american consumer I don't know what doesn't.
I'd definitely be interested.
I love your idea and I would definitely like to support it. I think it's possible to do it if we can get enough people interested. Let me know how I can get involved. You can email me at kevindalvi at gmail dot com.
Kevin Dalvi
OpenSPARC - start from here...
You can start here, a full processor specification under GPL
If you are interested in free hardware, you should check out the Arduino project. The Arduino is the free computer that you describe in the article, albeit a very small one. It is based around a 16MHz Atmel AVR ATMEGA8 microcontroller. It only has a USB connection and a bunch of analog and digital I/O pins.
But this thing has more processing power than the first computer my family owned in 1986. That one cost almost US$5000, the Arduino costs US$30. You can build one yourself for less than US$10. The whole development environment and libraries are free software, available under the GNU GPLv2 (now that Sun released Java under that license [source]
Yes, its a small start, but there are some very important lessons being learned here. First off, how to create a manufacturing and supply chain for free hardware. That's already working, you can buy the Arduino readily in North America and Europe. More work is being done along these lines in Colombia, South Korea, and other places.
Also, just like free software is architected and built in a very different manor than proprietary software from giant companies, free hardware is developed in a very different manor than hardware designed and built by giant companies. So that means we should not be purely thinking of imitating the models we see in the proprietary hardware world. Instead we need to find which models work best for free hardware.
A point
Should I raise a point ?
With regards to software engineering, you pay the IPR and the hours spent on the project only. You can easily release both for free.
But hardware is made of chips and wires...
So do you want to provide for free the engineering part (under any GNU licence) and release plans which would be built by who ?
Or, going further, do you want to engineer CPU, GPU ?!
(english grammar should be also under free licence to let me improve it...
a french guy)
Small steps?
As a lot of the other people who have dugg this story (http://digg.com/linux_unix/OK_we_have_free_software_How_about_some_free_hardware) have commented, it would be very difficult to compete against the big beasts of industry such as Intel or AMD.
It is a great idea, but would it not be better to start smaller and expand from there. Starting with individual components? I for one would buy an open source sound card or network card if I knew it would offer greater compatibility with my OS. At present I have to wrestle in with compiling ALSA in order to get any of the newer sound cards working, or more often than not have to buy older legacy hardware.
I'd be interested as well
I'll be graduating with a BS in computer engineering this Spring and I'd definitely like to get in on a project like this. I have experience in system design and low level software. I have already created my own 8086 microcomputer ;) I will keep a lookout for this project and would like to contribute!
Time for a Hardware Co-op
I agree this is a good idea.
Is there anything like this already? Are there any companies running co-op model business for computer hardware, where the users can pool resources to support existing hardware manufacturers that are working with open standards (open drivers, open designs, etc. no sense in reinventing the wheel!) and then create/commission new designs where there exists a lack in the market (video cards come to mind).
It would definitely be the next big step in freeing information to have some sort of patent (GPL for hardware) that allows people open access to the hardware designs and allows them to build on and improve those designs provided that the design of their improved product remains open.
I think it is a job for a co-op or non profit. Wall Street isn't going to be too keen.
Agree on best hardware
Very good idea. I think we should agree on what hardware to use. Have a list of hardware components that are popular that we agree will definately work no matter what. Just a list of all the different components, a high-end brand and a budget/value brand. If we come together and tell the hardware manufacturers that the whole Linux community will recommend this hardware for those building or buying systems, I think they'll listen, especially if you have corporations that use Linux that support us. Corporations using Linux don't want to worry about hardware issues. Then we, when we build our systems, know which components to pick from and not worry about hardware compatibility issues. But just like the author said, unity is what is needed. There has to be a central list of hardware components that go on a website and are GUARENTEED by manufacturers to be open and by the kernel Linux developers to work without compatibiliy issues. You'll see a ton of people go to that website and depend on it when building a system.
Great idea, uh....who has the money?
Sounds great! We open source users just need to pony up the hundreds of thousands of dollars for assembly plants, hire workers, comply with environmental laws, etc. Anyone have a couple million lying around they're not doing anything with?
The idea with software is that it costs intellectual time, but it doesn't require any capital. Programmers can write the software but they don't have to fund the production of the software, they just do it themselves. But with hardware you actually need to pay for materials, hire workers, etc. Anybody want to do hardware guarantees for cards they didn't solder? Any takers?
Don't mean to be too sarcastic, but the wall between software and hardware should be apparent.
I have thought this for a
I have thought this for a long time. You are absolutely correct about controlling the hardware. Linux is never going to get ahead of the component curve and the acceptance curve until it works with the components on the system.
My idea would be to setup an organization which gets together as many of the open components as possibly. Then once those pieces of hardware are found we go to the manufacturers and get them to open up any of the other pieces of hardware we need. The best thing you could do is get pledges from people to buy the completed systems. Then you could go to the hardware companies and work with specific numbers for the order.
I've actually been thinking about this lately ...
With so much technology available today, I see know reason why this cannot be accomplished.
Please keep me posted, I'd be willing to help as my schedule permits.
Bill Wood
bill dot wood at corp dot grandecom dot com
It's a start, but...
It's a great idea, and it could go places, but there are some fundamental issues that would need to be dealt with before any planning could be done...
The biggest one is what makes open source so great (in my mind anyway), and that is the varied user base. You say that "we" should work together to build this, and I agree, but that is where the problem starts. Apple can do it because they are a company united towards a common goal. They have people who argue back and forth about certain pieces of hardware, just like us, but they also have someone who can step in and say "just pick one already", whereas we don't. Should we use this part, or that part? Without someone to moderate, the argument could go on forever. For examples, look at all the forks we have now, because two people (or groups) wanted to do something two different ways...
Now, I know I sounded kinda down there, but I really DO see it as a positive; the more different ways to do something, the better. It just becomes a problem when trying to design a unified system.
There are other, smaller problems, but why worry about those until the elephant has been cleared from the room???
I have seen more companies in the last year start offering systems with Linux installed and configured, and quite a few of them even give you a choice between a few different distros. Sadly, most of the places are smaller companies, so they can't offer the huge array and discounts that, say, a company like Dell can. Even still, it is a step in the right direction, and I wouldn't be surprised to see "big box" stores like Best Buy and Walmart offering computers with Linux preconfigured within 10 years or so...
I'm in
Here's a suggestion for you. To get some fast results, go to Newegg and pick the following items:
Two desktop cases, one cheap and one a little higher-end.
Two motherboards, one that supports Intel procs and one AMD.
One popular brand of sata hard drives.
Four video cards, one cheap and one expensive, one from ATI and one from NVIDIA.
Post the results and use that as a starting point, give the linux community 3 or 6 months to argue, and then get to work forking your favorite distribution to work perfectly with the hardware you've chosen. The new dist should not even be compatible with anything but the selected hardware.
This is an idea who's time has come.
ceasarrr, What? I can't
What? I can't understand what you wrote.
I'd buy an open laptop if it existed.
Damn son!
The idea sounds great, but economic and buisness side seem faulty, but I'd love to get it going!
Email me at [email protected] if you're like, calling for volunteers or someting!
Good eye
Im in. Just contact me.
This is brilliant.
PURSUE THIS. With the proliferation of ever more devious DRM schemes, political pushing to restrict """innapropriate""" content, and the increasing cephalization of global information control, the danger of an Orwellian Total Information Awareness state looms menacingly upon the minds of all but the most trusting wage slaves.
However, be careful.
As the impossibility of software-based control becomes evident, the, ahem, Powers that Be will be soon looking to control information based on what they've always been best at controlling- the means of production. Why encode DRM into MP3's when you can have a parallel system running in the heart of every machine, affirming the """validity""" of everything done on the system (at least while online...). If these conspiratorial fears at all mirror the actual intentions of the souleaters, you'd do best to take a very cautious and strategic approach to this.
(another)However- Do not have fear. Fear is the mind killer. You must do this. Even if it isn't the only hope for humanity, it would massively advance the state of popular computing, allowing for unprecedented control over the technological implements we allow to consume our reality.
With the twin insanities of consumerism and planned obsolescence turning our world into a giant heroin addiction where the smack is torn from our own bodies, something like this could light a flare of autopoeisis in the structure of tool-making and use, a flare that could, through shining efficiency, expose the illusion of growth in ways people have not yet learned to ignore.
Please. Your soul will be truly blessed if you make this your life's work. I will help how I can.
I agree. This is a great idea!
Here's a start?
Here's a start?
Design by consensus? I'm skeptical.
An incredible idea, in theory. One I would love to see, but I'm skeptical.
The big challenge for something like this would be resolving the religious battles over the various trade-offs involved. Software is a slightly different proposition, for which the source is malleable, and readily forked to suit. Designing a notebook computer that is similarly flexible would be an industrial design nightmare -- you'd either have to piss of a lot of people (i.e. no consensus) OR you'd have a hideous mess of a machine.
One of the reasons that Apple can pull this off is that somebody, somewhere is deciding. Now, sure, they can be wrong sometimes (and sometimes they are) but they're also measuring "right" and "wrong" by measuring the market. By and large, open source software measures "right" and "wrong" according to the religious beliefs of whichever group of developers happens to be in power, and it's usually to serve their bleeding-edge geek preferences.
The working group would probably spin their wheels for months simply debating the license under which to release the specification.
Now, if you took the Dave Winer/RSS approach, and had one or two smart people come up with the spec, take limited feedback, give the spec away out of the goodness of your heart and then evangelize the hell out of it, you might have something. You'll piss a lot of people off in the process (like Dave), but then, so do Apple/Dell.
Free hardware is a great
Free hardware is a great idea. I wonder though... you mentioned Apple contracts out the computer manufacture to the "Far East and elsewhere", but I would hope that a project sharing the ideals of the FOSS movement would not "buy in bulk" from sweatshop operations.
Open Source Designs
This is a fantastic idea. For those of us unqualified to design hardware, we can vote with our wallets. We can choose to buy hardware that avoids blobs and runs without issue.
This is a fascinating idea
I would definitely be interested in this sort of idea. This has been my major hurdle towards adopting Linux on a full-time basis.
There is lots of hardware
There is lots of hardware that works perfectly fine with Linux (ie: http://www.linux.org/hardware/).. There is also companies that sells Linux compatible computers (http://www.linux.org/vendor/system/desktop.html).
i've heard about this for a long time...
but the fact is who will control the purchase of items?
how can you ensure that it doesnt turn out to be the next microsoft with the kind of integration one can?
cant they?
suddenly the green twitch in the eye for greed turns out in whoever controls this and turn it against the consumer vendors
New addons
When one thinks of the installed base of 800M MS end user systems out there, it is pretty obvious that any manufacturer creating a new bit of add on hardware is going to go for the MS market first, the MAC market second and the Linux desktop last if at all because of open drivers.
Laptops, like Internet mobile phones are consumer devices, which means they are high priced and need to be replaced by the latest new feature model.
For a world market, it would make sense to standardise on a Taiwanesse/Chinese clone, using a consortium of Linux box makers to give the manufacturer a large market.
The main problem with the IBM PC design, is that it is old. circa early 80's, and has restrictions in its architecture that make it impossible to take full advantage of today's interface and media advances, let alone future innovations. Linux has gone a long way to ameliorating the shortcomings of the design, but can only do so much.
Since Linux is at its 15 year cusp, where acceptance is increasing exponentially, box sellers may be better off focusing their efforts on hardware that has been designed with Linux or UNIX in mind. This would give the add on manufacturers a defined market for non Windows hardware, making the possibility of open drivers a more achievable objective.
It would also fit in with people's desire to have the next best thing, and for them to see Windows as old hat. Something we in the know have been saying for years.
I suggest we focus on lobbying IBM to build us an inexpensive Cell architecture laptop, use the existing PS3 as our desktop, and Cell blades as our server of choice.
This strategy will give us all a far better computing platform than the outdated IBM PC, and rapidly allow us to move to a much higher level of computing where 3D, natural Language, and handwriting recognition and response, are sustainable goals.
Kind regards
Stomfi, Australia
You CAN get the hardware free
We make FileEngine, a Linux based file server designed for small businesses. We give the server away when a customer subscribes to a service contract. It's about $8/day. Unlimited users, 100 DVDs (for backup) and a UPS are included. So is shipping, installation, integration, monitoring, disaster recovery and replacement (if it breaks.)
Kim Brand
Managing Partner
Server Partners, LLC
Not that hard a project, just lots of startup cash needed
This isn't a hard problem. Asian contract manufacturers will build anything you ask them to. For money they will help you design it too.
If the goal is a laptop that runs Linux correctly the path is fairly simple. Design a generic laptop by picking off the shelf subsystems known to have zero compatibility issues. Ask the subsystem maintainers which chipset has the most stable support at the moment in the popular distributions and spec those parts, i.e. WiFi, ethernet, sound, video, etc. Make a couple of simple variations in display, weight, battery, etc and have some boxes built. Get a firm commitment that no component substituitions will happen without going back and ensuring compatibility.
Buy some ads and sell some boxes.
Profit. Hopefully.
It doesn't have to be some "Open Design" debated for years by 'the community' who wouldn't be able to pony up the money to have a run made anyway, it needs an investor to see a market and sell a product into it.
Any of the established design/marketing houses could do the exact same thing, but of course they won't for fear of Microsoft. It means there is a market (small but probably large enough to support a lean outfit) that none of the established competitors can enter just waiting for someone to tap it.
Outfits like Emperor do what they can with the stuff others make but they tend to end up loaded with proprietary crap that makes them brittle when upgrading or switching to a different distro. Only a machine designed from the start to support Linux is going to do it trouble free. But by the same token since ALL off the shelf components already support 'Doze a linux laptop would still have the option of dual booting.
OLPC is the way to the Free Computer
The very reason for this culture of closed hardware is Microsoft uses this to pressurise OEMs to deny entry to competing products.
Case in point - IBM OS/2. Why did it fail? Exactly 2 reasons:
1. Drivers for hardware were hard to come by. You had to wait for IBM to write drivers because no vendor supplied native OS/2 drivers with their hardware. Why did this happen? Because Microsoft pressurised all hardware vendors to not build OS/2 drivers at the cost of losing the ability to write Windows 95 drivers.
2. The IBM PC division suffered great losses in time to market because Microsoft refused to provide comparatively priced OEM copies of Windows 95. The impasse caused IBM to pay Microsoft huge fines and, despite this, receive OEM copies way after all other OEMs were shipping with Windows 95. Net result: IBM had to take huge losses.
The Free Software community should expect exactly this to happen. It is one way to raise the barrier to adoption and ensure that Microsoft Windows is what the typical OEM preinstalls on all shipped PCs.
There will be hardware that is designed around open specifications and standards of course. Network cards, USB mass storage devices etc. will remain supported because of they are built to open specifications and standards. However, there will also be hardware for which no standards exist. Support for these will always have to be reverse-engineered.
There are no easy ways around this. The Free Software community will have to continue reverse-engineering hardware after-the-fact and introduce support considerably later than Microsoft supports such hardware.
The OLPC is a huge move towards making a free computer a reality. The OLPC is also one platform that is, and will hopefully remain, free from Microsoft monopoly. Expect Microsoft to attack every country and educational organisation who adopts this. Expect Microsoft to throw all kinds of hurdles in the way of OLPC to slow/deter adoption. Even at this very moment Microsoft is working hard to get Windows to work on the OLPC.
Because what the OLPC means is a new generation of individuals no longer constrained by the Microsoft monopoly. These individuals will have grown up on Free Software, open standards and will have no Microsoft legacy to overcome. The OLPC is the ultimate weapon with the Free Software community.
Support OLPC with all you've got.
Simply because our status-quo today has been cleverly engineered by a monopoly.
Don't dream, act.
Opportunities are at hand for anyone who wants to help bring open design, open standard hardware to life. All of the problems mentioned here are being worked on. We can always use more help.
At the Open Graphics Project, we are now testing prototypes of our first real hardware product: the OGD1P Open Graphics Development board. Want an FPGA-based board on which a production-ready graphics engine can be developed? This is is it. Leaders who can get noisy project members to bring their debate to a conclusion and settle on a decision? We have grown them, as every successful open source project has had to. License terms to balance the interests of the volunteer contributors with the businesses necessary to manufacture and distribute the products? We think we have acceptable compromises that will do until someone devises something better.
Open hardware is in somewhat the same position as the GNU project was before the Linux kernel came along. We have pieces, but not a complete set of pieces that can build a complete computer capable of running on its own. That is the key milestone we must direct our efforts at.
At OGP, we know we can't solve all the problems ourselves, but we can contribute best by focusing all our attention on the task we've carved out, so that we can deliver a mature piece, ready for integration with the rest of the system -- whether the system is partly proprietary (for now) or fully open (when that becomes possible).
To anyone who wants open hardware, and isn't already working on it, I say join us, or join some other project that better suits your preferences and talents, or start a project for some important piece of the system that isn't already being worked on. You don't even have to work on hardware; you can write the associated drivers and debuggers, you can write manuals and standards, you can research user needs, you can line up suppliers and manufacturers, you can maintain web sites and CVS trees, you can help figure out what license terms would work best for open-design hardware, you can get people to reach consensus and keep the project on track. Wherever you decide to take a hand, you'll be helping all of us.
Jack Carroll
Member, Open Graphics Project
Linux Laptops
Goto Google and search for "Linux Laptops"
I think you will find that their out there, finding them is the problem.
Nice idea, but...
The big issue isn't so much specifying things, it's getting a chip vendor to step up to the plate and support the product under Linux in addition to Windows. Apple gets to do what they're doing because they get access to the critical programmer information for the parts or have the vendor supply drivers for them. The biggest impediment in the case of laptops (and even desktops) is that they won't give out information or drivers to us. Broadcom's a BIG offender in this realm, citing FCC requirements because of the software controlled radio modem. This, is BOGUS, considering that we've got all kinds of open source drivers for Atheros, Ralink, and ZyDas WiFi chipsets- and they have the same concerns and they're open sourced. And, don't get me started on 3D support or WinModems...
It boils down to you're going to need to get them to wake up or come up with your own silicon- which is easier said than done. I'm not going to tell you you shouldn't try to do this (because this might just be the thing to wake up vendors...) but don't be surprised if it's not all one big uphill fight all the way to the first couple of product designs.
Let's make a list of people who are interested.
How about we make a list of people who are interested and get the ball rolling.
Please reply to kevindalvi at gmail dot com or just reply to THIS post if you are interested.
Once we have the list, we can proceed to the next step which would be determining exactly what needs to be done followed by research and reality checks.
Look forward to hearing from all of you!
Kevin Dalvi
Self-build kits
Perhaps many would like to build our own Linux PCs but would like to be sure that they will work before buying the components and may not have the time or knowhow to research the compatibility of each item for ourselves. So I suggest some standardised designs and possibly enough organisation to allow some bulk purchasing of components to bring the prices down. I think community projects working with young people - getting them into work and so on - might pick up on it - small scale assembly of PCs for community and individual use, learning some skills and so on.
Thanks for raising the subject - have been thinking about this for a while. Andrew
Free wheels
After the free computer I would like to have a free car.
Irony or not?
I can't tell whether you were trying to be sarcastic, but the truth is that a free car is quite a feasible goal. This may be important in breaking through some of the obstacles that exist in innovating newer, greener, more efficient cars.
Unfortunately, due to regulatory considerations and the corporate politics of existing auto manufacturers, there is extremely little innovation going on in automotive design, despite the fact that our present technology is far behind where we need to be to encourage more sustainable development.
In some parts of the world, people can simply forgo cars, but I live in a part of the USA where that's just not realistic. Some kind of independent transportation is essential, and I think the answer isn't 'no cars', but rather 'better cars' (meaning safer, more fuel efficient, and non-polluting). I also think it's technically possible, but it's unlikely to happen in the next 50 years if mass-market auto manufacturers are the only ones supporting innovation.
Anyway, I'm digressing a bit. The point is that, unlike spaceships or airplanes, prototype cars are generally cheap enough to build that upper-middle class individuals or small groups of lower-middle class individuals (e.g. students or club members) could build them. There are plenty of racing teams in Texas (where I live) that have all the necessary skills, equipment, and materials to do it.
You just need to find one interested in open hardware.
[EDIT: I should just add that I do not mean zero-cost cars. Free cars will probably cost a bit more than proprietary ones for quite some time, even once they become available. The cost to build issue is relevant to engineering a free design, because you must build prototypes]
Manufacturing services
There is a common myth that "hardware can't be free because it's not zero-cost to replicate", but the truth is that this confuses two issues which can be separated: the engineering design process (which certainly can be free, since designs are software) and the manufacturing process, which does indeed have costs, but they are much lower than the monopoly-based pricing of non-free designs.
In fact, the processes that manufacture consumer electronic components are essentially printing processes: lithography and etching (for both chips and PCBs), and assembly is highly automated with pick-and-place robots and oven-based soldering (for surface mount components). In fact, much of the cost savings associated with SMT manufacturing is precisely that it is easier to do with automated equipment (than "through-hole" PCB assembly).
The critical question for free-hardware manufacturers to ask is simply this: how much does it cost to tool-up for a run of parts? This translates to the impact on your margin for short runs, as you will expect with a product which initially reaches only a small market. Or in other words, it tells you how much of a premium you're going to have to charge customers for the short run; or how many customers you need to have lined up in order to make a run profitable at a given price.
This is a very different question from what it costs to engineer a new product, and that cost is substantially reduced (possibly to zero) by commons-based peer production, facillitated by free-licensing the design.
The impact of hardware replication cost on engineering comes down to this question: "what will I have to spend on the manufacturing costs of engineering prototypes in order to test my design?" For well-understood technologies such as computer equipment, where the principle concern is the complexity of the design, rather than fundamental unknowns in the technology, the answer is "not much", because good simulators exist which can be relied on to thoroughly predict the behavior of important categories of equipment.
It's more of a problem for emerging technologies and "big hardware". E.g. it will be a considerable problem for a new airplane or spacecraft design, because you're going to have to actually build and fly prototypes that may cost anywhere from $100,000 to $100,000,000 to build.
But for computers? It's not so bad. For the Open Graphics project, the group has decided to build a series of boards with FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Arrays -- this is sort of like a flash memory that encodes a working logic circuit instead of data) chips on them, that they can use to implement their gate-array design for the graphics processor. They are getting a short run of these made, and the individual cost will be approximately $1000.
Once this stage is complete, they expect to do a much larger run of ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit -- a fixed logic circuit that can be easily customized for short run replication, but can't be re-programmed after manufacture. It's possible and common to have an ASIC implement a circuit prototyped in an FPGA) chips, and manufacture boards for consumer sales. These will be much more competitively priced (in principle, they could be cheaper than proprietary competitors, though in practice the premium due to manufacturing in short-runs will probably drive the cost higher).
There's no reason to believe that the situation will be very different for any other subsystem you commonly find in computers. Everything from motherboards to hard drives is subject to pretty much the same kinds of manufacturing considerations.
As with software, you will find a number of motivations for people to be involved in the engineering process of these product designs. One factor is customer-participation ("I need it, therefore I will help design it") or "scratching an itch". Another is the potential to make money from the manufactured components (even with free design, manufacturers involved in the engineering process will have a market advantage). Yet another comes from talented people who want to demonstrate their skill or who feel a desire to see the technology liberated.
Once the design is available, though, manufacturing is a no-brainer. It's obviously cheaper to manufacture an existing design, especially if there are no licensing fees, and so the short-run issue is really your only problem. As the manufacturing technology becomes more flexible, it becomes increasingly profitable and as the tooling costs drop, there will be more potential manufacturers. So, at some point, it's inevitable that we'll see open hardware based on free-licensed designs marketed and sold.
The idea in this article is exactly what I have in mind on solving the nagging issues of compatibility. I also understand the concerns some of the writers above wrote on the cost of producing hardware. But I think it possible to reduce the cost if we can get enough demand. I feel that any hardware manufacturer can be persuaded to produce open-hardware if the community can put down a pre-order big enough to convince it of a market.
Controlled hardware doesn't have to mean open hardware.
You can gain the benefits of controlled hardware by simply controlling the buyers choice of hardware (voluntarily of course). If you limit the choice to mass-produced Windows compatible hardware then you keep the price down too. This is exactly what Apple have done during the move to Intel CPUs.
It would be interesting to ask Asus (who I think make the MacBook) if they have an exclusivity agreement with Apple. If they don't then we could try asking for the full hardware documentation, or at least some assistance perfecting open source drivers, so they could sell more Laptops.
A fully open hardware architecture would be nice but as all those already working on open hardware (and BIOS etc.) will tell you, that's a long way off.
Getting good open source drivers for the excellent Apple hardware achieves everything we need today and if you can buy that same hardware direct from the manufacturer then it should be a lot cheaper than the equivalent Mac model.
Controlled hardware doesn't have to mean open hardware
The above was me - no longer an "Anonymous coward".
Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it. Change will happen. Gradually, then suddenly. (Gandhi/Hemingway)
Couldn't we just do a specification
Instead of actually manufacturing the Open Desktops, couldn't we just write up a specification? List out the parts and call it Open Desktop Specification 1.0, and then let the many thousands of PC venders sell it?
It is a great oportunity to enhance the quality of harsware also. There are some terrible hardwares on market.
Dont blame *NIX for your laptop not working
The reason your laptop does not work is because the hardware companies refuse to support Linux. This is a simple task that companies like ATI refuse to take upon themselves. ATI actually provides drivers for their hardware that will not work properly under linux. ATI recommends you not use their drivers, for their own hardware, when using linux, unless there is no other choice.
If you use linux, you need new hardware less often, if you use Vista, you need to go out and buy a new computer.
here is the new approach..
Either use open source hardware or buy from hardware folks that support linux(NVIDIA). This is the most important issue having to do with linux today in regard to Linux becoming the main Desktop platform.
"As we open our newspapers or watch our television screens, we seem to be continually assaulted by the fruits of Mankind's stupidity."
-Roger Penrose
Open Hardware Conference-Camp
this is a pre-call for an open hardware conference-camp to happen in Zaragoza, Spain, in Novemeber later this year. The Society for Free Cultural Innovation - Gohan, will host this event that will invite designers, engineers, etc to team up and build up computers together. We expect to have two different development lines:
- microprocessor based computers
- FPGA based computers
Follow www.gohan.cc in the following weeks or send an email to info [at] gohan.cc if you want to get further information as soon as we have it available.
this is new
it is good to know about softwares and its usage
Its not Free. And not Open.
But most Linux people seem to be pleased,now Dell is taking the step to sell Linux preinstaled computers.
And sure, fore Dell it will be to make profit out of it. But the standard computer user now can profit from Dell. OK again you have to pay something for the extra suport. Only this suport you can realy call on the moment you are haveing a problem. You do not have to sit and wait for some help.
This can be a big step. With more people useing Linux the bigger the comunity can grow. Right now Linux can use Dell, to grow. And then.......O no I am dreaming again....Delinx.
Where did I see that???
yep,I know its a Dell page. Well....:
That one is not.
NotOpenNotFreeMaybe THE Beginning?


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Ryan Hudson – snowboarding changes lives
Ryan Hudson grew up in circumstances that could have easily crushed his dreams and hopes of opportunity, but through snowboarding, Ryan was able to rise above the challenges thrown at him and embrace a lifestyle that has allowed his driven personality to flourish. Snowboarding is many things to many people, and to Ryan, it's a passion that has unlocked amazing doors, including a move to Utah and a recent trip to Tailgate Alaska. With Ryan's current motivation and work ethic, we're positive this is only the beginning for him. Thanks for sharing your experience with us, Ryan.Read More


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The time frame for this story is 1915. From about 1900-15 many cars were being manufactured and purchased by many folks including those who lived in Redwood Falls. Cadillacs, Fords, Nashs and Studebakers were rolling through the streets of town and through the streets of other towns. The roads in town and between towns were not very good. They were all dirt, and when it rained, they were muddy roads. Road maps were also becoming popular. These cars were at first a real novelty but soon people all over the country realized their importance. Automo-biles, it seemed, became very popular overnight, and everyone wanted one. Everyone it seemed wanted to become a car dealer, too, while others realized the importance of repair shops and garages for repairing these automobiles. Gas stations soon started popping up on every corner in town. In Redwood Falls the first garage constructed for repairing automobiles was built by Lobdell and Francois in 1911. The Falls Theatre was later built on the site of Lobdell's garage. In Fall 1911 there was a Glidden Automobile Tour that started in Redwood Falls. "On Monday morning 25 years ago [1911] this week, 100 passengers left this little community in 23 cars, among them a Cadillac, Buick, Ford, Chalmers, Brush, Kloped, E. M. F. (Every Morning Fix, according to the funsters of the period), Flanders and Imperial. "They were led by the Pathfinder machine piloted by Dr. E. A. Lyman and R. A. Cooper, who were allowed a maximum speed of 30 miles an hour but were cautioned to maintain a uniform mile-age of between 15 and 20 miles in hours during the trip. "The trip took three days, being routed through Morton, Olivia, Cold Spring, St. Cloud, back south to Minneapolis and from there to Glencoe and by something approximating the present route from there to Redwood Falls. "Julian and Ingolf Stens-vad, F. R. Lobdell, L. P. Larson, H. F. Swalm, Dutch Francois, F. H. Shoemaker, W. G. Weldon, R. A. Cooper, F. G. Hubbard, W. R. Rob-erts, O. W. Grapp, Gus Schildknecht, Rud Stens-vad, E. A. Lyman, Joe Gerby, Fred Murset, Dr. W. A. Brand, A. C. Dolliff and Miss Zelma Thune the "only lady driver" were immortalized by the artist accompanying the travelers. Their caricatures appeared in Twin Cities papers and in the Redwood Gazette." By 1915 numerous cars had been purchased, and their owners were clamoring for some place to store them. Charles E. Lamberton came up with the solution. Back in 1915, homes did not have carports or garages attached or unattached to them. Only a few folks had a barn or a shed large enough to store their auto. Mr. Lam-berton opened a garage. In an article published in the Redwood Gazette, August, 1915 it states "last Monday a deal was closed whereby Chas. E. Lamber-ton became owner of a lot 60 x 120 feet upon which the old livery barn south of the Kahler House now stands, and Geo. Arnold became owner of the lot on the corner with a 60 foot frontage on Washington Street, and including half of the lot formerly owned by Lamberton on Fourth Street.
Page 2 of 2 - "Both men will construct new buildings of cement blocks, one story in height. "Mr. Lamberton will have concrete floor space approximately 60 feet square and a small basement to provide for heating plant. This building will be located upon the lot where the old livery barn now stands and will be used for a bus barn and office. "Mr. Arnold has begun the work of filling in the lot and constructing the foundation and expects to have the building completed with three weeks. The floor space will be either 60 x 40 feet or 60 x 60 feet. As soon as this building is completed the old barn will be destroyed and the work of construction of Mr. Lam-berton's building started. Both buildings will front on Washington." The Kahler Hotel and the Ramsey Hotel on the southwest corner of Washington and Third Streets were one in the same building. In other words Mr. Arnold's building and Lamberton's new building were located west across Washington Street from the Redwood Falls Hospital. By the way, the hospital was also built during the year 1915 and was opened for business that fall in October. Does anyone know if Mr. Arnold's building was later occupied by the Anderson's John Deere business? What follows is a brief family tree on the Lamberton family of Redwood Falls. Charles E. Lamberton was born April 20, 1866 in St. Peter, Nicollet County, the son of Alfred John Lamberton and Helen M. Pratt. Charles E. Lamberton married Lillian McQuat April 19, 1888 at St. Peter. By 1895, Charles E. Lamberton had moved his family to Redwood Falls. He and his wife became the parents of; Helen, Agnes, John K., Wilbur H., and Walter D. Charles Edwin Lamberton died June 21, 1917 in Red-wood Falls. Wilbur Harkin Lamberton was born July 21, 1900 in Redwood Falls. He married Helen Elvig and had two children: Margaret Ruth Lam-berton ('53) and Charles "Chuck" Lamberton ('56), both graduates of RFHS. Wilbur Harkin Lamberton died Nov. 20, 1967 in Redwood Falls. In 1931, Hillger brothers bought the Lamberton business and building, and in 1937 they tore down the old Lamberton building and erected a new building on that site. Today, Hillger's Garage is gone, too. Do you remember Hillger's Garage on Washington Street? Oscar, Herbert and Clarence Hillger operated a Dodge and Plymouth Sales and Service Garage. All three were master mechanics and did general car and truck repairing and motor reboring. The next time you hit town, try and locate the site of Hillger's old garage stand.
Location, ST | website.com


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1984-01-01 Char-Koosta News
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Quarterly is next week The year's first quarterly Council meeting will be next Friday, Jan, 6, in the Council Chambers in Pablo. Highlight of the meeting will be the selection of a new Council Chairman, made necessary partly by the resignation of Tom Pablo. The new Council will also be sworn in. This all commences at 9 a.m. Lunch will be served. Sergeant- at- arms People interested in being sergeant-at-arms for the Tribal Council should notify Fred Houle, Jr., before the Jan. 6 quarterly. NEWSPAPER OF THE SAUSH, PEND cTOREILLE AND KOOTENaT TRIBES OF THE FLATHEAD INDIAN RESERVATION, WESTERN MONTANA THE SHOOTING MONTH VOLUME 12 NUMBER 16 JANUARY I, 1984 Three new councilmen to be sworn in Three of five Council seats up for grabs in December will be filled by new people this month. In St Ignatius, Ron Therriault beat incumbent Noel Pi-chette; in Arlee, Kevin Howlett beat incumbent John McClure; and in Hot Springs, Mickey Pablo will take over from his father, Tom Pablo, who declined to run for re-election, citing ill health. Pablo's incumbent Vic Stinger won again, as did Dixon's Sonny Morigeau, who received more votes than anyone, something he did back in 1979. Morigeau didn't carry his district, however. The table below tells the rest of the story. Not quite a thousand Tribal members voted - about 967, including an unprecedented 144-plus absentee and'questionable' ballots. As noted in a letter to the editor in this issue, all the winners received more than 50% of the votes cast, thanks, in part, to the institution of primary elections in 1981. The five winners of the December 17 election, along with the five whose seats will be filled by them for two more years, will be sworn in at the Jan 6 quarterly meeting in Pablo. Highlight of the meeting's informal agenda will no doubt be the selection of a new Tribal Chairman, in the wake of Chairman Pablo's resignation. itius rings/ Prairie e/ nable (See page two w CU o es fi WO m s o fia m Cfl « - g fi es fi o m o ente :stîo ca "« for write-in*.) Pab *j Cfl Q s "o Pm J Cl] X> 3 3 o O H John McClure (ine) m 50 69 15 19 55 55 18 70 443 S. Kevin Howlett m 37 101 18 39 84 33 62 70 534 Victor L Stinger (ine) 91 m 109 18 26 74 48 11 61 504 Catherine R Mathias Hamel 87 64 17 31 66 40 69 80 476 Noel J. Pichette (ine) 3Ï 72 12 25 45 33 49 61 400 Ron Therriault 110 51 pli 23 29 94 53 31 81 574 Elmer Sonny Morigeau (ine) 105 52 94 14 41 77 48 57 90 578 Robert A McCrea 69 35 74 m 17 60 39 23 49 386 Michael T.Pablo 100 63 101 20 1 w 81 43 12 55 504 ' Kenneth R Fried- lander, Jr. 70 22 66 15 M 50 43 66 83 439
Object Description
|1984-01-01 Char-Koosta News
|Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation.
|Salish Indians --Newspapers.; Kutenai Indians --Newspapers.; Pablo (Montana) --Newspapers.; Kootenai Indians
|Three new councilmen to be sworn in; More ideas about what makes a good councilman; SKC courses begin next week; Bombs and Indians: SKC addresses the Cold War; Dupuis appointed MOA delegate; A new Bourdon; New Year's Day dinner; Camel keeps title with TKO; TERS mentioned in Indian basketball roundup story; Floyd A. Dupuis, obituary; Joseph Morigeau, obituary; Jerome Hewankorn, obituary; It's winter for sure when Plassie comes a-calling with a Coyote story; What's WIC; Bingo is growing fundraiser on reservations; An interview with Joe Antiste
|Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Indian Nation
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|Date Digital
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|Copyright (c) Salish and Kootenai Federated Tribes, all rights reserved.
|Contributing Institution
|Salish Kootenai College
|D'Arcy McNickle Library
|Vol. 12; No. 16
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|Digitized at the University of Montana Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library; Scanned as master TIFF using Bookeye 3 scanner at 400 ppi, 8 bit grayscale; Optical Character Recognition with Abbyy FineReader Corporate Edition; Derivatives created using Photoshop CS
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HUNTSVILLE, Texas – The Texas A&M – Corpus Christi golf team will embark on its third tournament of the fall season on Monday, Oct. 8, when it takes part in the Harold Funston Invitational, hosted by Southland Conference foe Sam Houston State. The 54-hole Invite will be held over the course of two days, with the first 36 holes on Monday and the final 18 on Tuesday.
The Islanders will be one of 12 teams at the event and one of three Southland squads, joining host SHSU and Lamar. Future Southland opponents Houston Baptist and New Orleans will also take part, with Alabama State, Saint Edward's, Texas Southern, Texas-Pan American, Tyler Junior College, Western Texas College and Jacksonville College rounding out the field.
Raven's Nest Golf Course will provide the host course for the event. It will be laid out for a par-71 and is slated to play at 6,067 yards. Play begins at 8 a.m. Monday with a shotgun start.
A&M – Corpus Christi will alter its lineup slightly for the third event of the season. Junior Cristina Reynoso will make her first appearance of 2012-13 for the Islanders, and will be joined by seniors Nikki Dunn and Taylor Slagle, junior Krista Fenniak and sophomore Vanessa Johnson. Johnson is coming off the finest effort of her career, with a seventh-place finish at the ORU Shootout last week.
For all the latest on Islanders Golf, be sure to follow the team on Facebook (IslandersGolf) and on Twitter (@IslandersGolf).


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إرفنج ضد ليبستدات
Defense Documents
David Irving, Hitler and Holocaust Denial: Electronic Edition, by Richard J. EvansTable of Contents
|<< 1.2 Material instruction...
|< 1.1 Purpose of this Repo...
|1.4 Curriculum vitae >
|1.6 Argument and structu... >>
1.3 Author of the Report
1.3.1 I am a recognized authority on modern German history and have been teaching and researching it for the last thirty years. Since I began researching for my Oxford D.Phil. dissertation in 1969, I have acquired an excellent knowledge of German: I wrote my book Kneipengespräche im Kaiserreich: Die Stimmungsberichte der Hamburger Politischen Polizei 1892-1914 (Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek bei Hamburg, 1989) in German myself, and I have lectured in German at numerous German universities and on various public venues. As a result of my book on the Hamburg cholera epidemic of 1892 ( Death in Hamburg: Society and Politics in the Cholera Years 1830-1910 (Oxford University Press, 1987; German edition 1990) I was invited to deliver the principal address in German at the centenary commemoration in Hamburg City Hall in 1992. I have made numerous radio and television broadcasts in German, for North German Radio and other stations as well as for the BBC World Service, and my work on Hamburg was the subject of a 45-minute television programme, featuring interviews with me in German, in 1989 ( Mr. Evans geht durch Hamburg, NDR 3).
1.3.2Because my research has necessitated lengthy periods of research in German archives and libraries, I have spent a great deal of time in Germany over the last thirty years, including eighteen months as a Hanseatic Scholar in Hamburg and Berlin in 1970-72, eighteen months as a Research Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at the Free University of Berlin in 1981, 1985 and 1989, and various periods as a Research Scholar or Senior Scholar of the German Academic Exchange Service. I have also twice been a resident member of the Institute for European History in Mainz. My work has taken me to virtually all major German towns and cities, including Bamberg, Bochum, Bremen, Coburg, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Erfurt, Essen, Frankfurt, Karlsruhe, Leipzig, Magdeburg, Munich, Potsdam, Schwerin, Stuttgart, and so on. I am familiar with Germany and the Germans as well as with the German language.
1.3.3 My research has ranged widely over German history in the last three centuries. It has become well known for the thoroughness and comprehensiveness of its use of unpublished manuscript material. Much of it has concentrated on the nineteenth century. Some of my most important work, however, has also dealt with the Second World War. In particular my book Rituals of Retribution: Capital Punishment in Germany 1600-1987 (Oxford University Press, 1996), based on unpublished manuscripts and typescripts in 26 archives, contains three Chapters (pp. 613-737) on the 'Third Reich', of which Chapter 16 (pp. 689-737) deals exclusively on the war years 1939-45, using particularly files of the Reich Ministry of Justice in the German Federal Archive (Bundesarchiv) in Koblenz. More recently, my current work on the history of German criminology has led me to use material in the Institut für Zeitgeschichte (Institute for Contemporary History) in Munich.
1.3.4 I am also familiar with the printed and published documentation of the 'Third Reich', which is extremely voluminous. I have used some of it in my published work, but I have also made use of it in my teaching: since 1972 I have been teaching a document-based Special Subject on the 'Third Reich', first at the University of East Anglia, then at Birkbeck College, University of London, and from the year 2000 in the History Faculty at Cambridge University.
1.3.5 I am internationally recognized as an authority on modern German history, including the history of Germany during the Second World War: six of my books have been published in German, and my work has also been translated into French, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Swedish, and other languages. I have given over two hundred lectures and conference or seminar papers at universities and other venues in many countries, including Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, and the USA.
1.3.6 I am also recognized as an authority on historiography, that is, on historical theory and method. In particular, my book In Defence of History, published by Granta Books in 1997, has attracted widespread praise. It has been described by Bernard Crick as 'a rare intellectual achievement, speaking lucidly to both historians and to the general reader', and according to Sir Keith Thomas (President of the British Academy) 'deserves to be essential reading for coming generations'. It was praised in the Daily Telegraph, the Guardian, the Financial Times and other newspapers as a strong defence of the idea of objectivity in history. It was published in a revised edition by W. W. Norton & Co., New York, in 1999, has been translated into German ( Fakten und Fiktionen: Über die Grundlagen historischer Erkenntnis, Campus Verlag, 1998) and Korean, and is contracted to appear in translated editions in Japanese, Portuguese, Swedish and Turkish.
1.3.7 My books have not only been widely translated, they are also widely read in comparison to most academic texts. Death in Hamburg in particular has sold an estimated 13,000 copies in the German edition and 8,000 in English. In Defence of History went through three editions in hardback before its publication in paperback and has sold over 10,000 copies. Rituals of Retribution has been published in a paperback edition by Penguin Books. Three of my books in German have been produced by a commercial publishing house (Rowohlt Verlag) and published as trade paperbacks. I have always made a point of trying to appeal to a wide readership.
1.3.8My work has won a number of prizes and awards in Britain, Germany and the USA, including the Fraenkel Prize for Contemporary History, the Hamburger Medaille für Kunst und Wissenschaft, the William H. Welch Medal of the American Association for the History of Medicine, and the Wolfson Literary Award for History. I am a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1993.
1.3.9 My reputation as a recognized authority on Germany, German history and the theory and practice of history has led to frequent invitations to broadcast on the BBC, in particular Radio 3 and Radio 4, on programmes including Kaleidoscope, Front Row, Start the Week, In Our Time, Nightwaves, and Today.
|<< 1.2 Material instruction...
|< 1.1 Purpose of this Repo...
|1.4 Curriculum vitae >
|1.6 Argument and structu... >>


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Siskiyou Motor Speedway racing action took place on June 8 at the Siskiyou Golden Fairgrounds in Yreka.
The main racing event of the night was the Mike Caveye Memorial race. Ryder Boswell took the top spot to earn his first main event win. Bob Burkett came in 2nd while Colter Boswell was 3rd. In the Super Sport/ Sport Mod main event, Lenny Toolanen earned a 1st-place finish while Donny Bottoms was 2nd and Doug Franklin 3rd.
This Saturday is School's Out night at the speedway. Gates open at 5 p.m. with races starting at 7 p.m.
_ Daily News staff
Location, ST | website.com