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D820 Red
D820 Red
Android™ 4.4.2 KitKat®
Full HD IPS Display
Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ Quad-Core Processor
8 MP OIS Camera
Long-lasting 2,300 mAh Battery
More Light, Less Shake
Nexus 5 has a 8 MP OIS camera that incorporates advanced technology to shoot vivid imagery with a wide range of color and light intake. And while you're holding the camera, Optical Image Stabilization will steady the shot even with shaky hands, so your photos and videos will come out sharp and clear.
Capture Extraordinary Moments
Life is remarkable. Take home the best of it with help from imaging features like HDR+, combining multiple exposures for one perfect shot with vivid daytime and sharp nighttime images—or Photo Sphere, which creates unmatched, immersive 360° views so you can capture and share the full story.
Brilliance at your Fingertips
The 4.95" (445ppi) Full HD IPS display lets you see details in vivid, lifelike color—making it a great canvas for your best shots. Plus, advanced in-cell Display technology uses fewer layers, allowing for sharper visuals with less glare and two times faster touch response.
Long Live Power
Fast 4G LTE and Wi-Fi® connectivity combine with cutting-edge power from the quad-core Snapdragon™ 800 processor and newly envisioned Android™ 4.4.2 KitKat®, so you can race through games, zip around the web, and switch between apps at the flick of a finger. And, do it all throughout the day with a high voltage 2,300 mAh battery.
Simple, Modern Contour
Precision-built from strong materials, Nexus 5 has a minimalistic design, which provides unique contrast with a sophisticated high gloss front and matte soft touch rear finish.
Ask Anything
Say "OK, Google" to start a voice search, send texts, get directions, or play music. Then, swipe to check Google Now™ cards and find the latest information personalized for you.
Find Your Way
Redesigned Google Maps™ makes navigating your world effortless. Detect and avoid a traffic jam, explore an unfamiliar town, or uncover a new local favorite—find the top places to eat, shop, play, and more.
Made for Sharing
Google Hangouts™ brings conversations to life with photos, emoji, and free group video calls. Easily share with friends and family on Google+™ or other social media.
Live Wirelessly
Use Nexus 5 with Chromecast™2 to send favorite content to a big screen, wirelessly. Add a Nexus Wireless Charger, and you may never have to plug in again.
Wireless Charging
Nexus 5 makes it easy to stay connected and on-the-go with the integrated wireless inductive charging back plate. Just set the Nexus 5 on top of the pad (sold separately) and it charges instantly!
|Smart Phone
|Form Factor
|Android™ 4.4.2 KitKat®
|2.26 GHz Quad-Core Processor, Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 800 MSM8974 Chipset
|800 MHz/1900 MHz (CDMA), 1900 MHz (LTE), 850/900/1800/1900 MHz (GSM) and 850/1900/2100 MHz (UMTS)
|LTE CAT 4, HSPA+ 21 Mbps*
|Data Transmission
|EDGE, EVDO, GPRS Class 10, UMTS, HSPA+, WCDMA, LTE Bands 25/26/41*
|5.43" (H) x 2.72" (W) x 0.34" (D)
|4.59 oz
|4.95" (1920 x 1080) Full HD IPS Display
|Touch Screen
|Battery Capacity
|2,300 mAh
|Total Internal Memory
|16 GB or 32 GB eMMC
|Wireless Charging
|With Optional Accessory
|Hearing Aid Compatibility Rating
|All listed frequency support is network/carrier specific. Roaming capability and network frequency support may not be available. Check with your network provider to see if and to what extent they offer support for this device.
|Android™ Platform
|Android™ 4.4.2 KitKat®
|User Experience
|Revamped minimalist design (updated dialer and messaging, flatter icons) updated lock screen and core Android apps, payments tab, printer support, streamlined location/GPS options, redesigned App Tray, QuickOffice availability, and more
|Preloaded Google™ Apps
|Chrome™, Google Drive™, G+ Photos, Gmail™, Google Search™ (Google Now), Google Settings, Google+™, Hangouts™, Google Keep™, Maps™, Play Books, Play Games, Play Magazines, Play Movies & TV, Play Music, Play Store, Google Wallet™, and YouTube™
|Wi-Fi® Connectivity
|802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
|Bluetooth® Version
|Wi-Fi Direct® File Sharing
|Android™ Beam
|Send Contacts, Pictures, Videos, Audio, and Web Pages via Android Beam and Bluetooth® Wireless Technology
|Qualcomm Enhanced Location Service
|Aids in determining device location and helps conserve battery power when using location-based apps
|4.95" (445 ppi) Full HD IPS Display for Optimal Viewing
|Video Player
|With Touch Lock and Resume Play Function; supports MP4, 3GP, and 3G2 formats
|Music Player
|With Support for MP3, AAC, AAC+, and WAV Formats
|USB and Bluetooth® Tethering
|Share your phone's Internet connection with your computer*
|USB cable required (included)
|Rear-Facing Camera
|8 MP OIS Rear-Facing Autofocus Camera and Camcorder with LED Flash
|Front-Facing Camera
|1.3 MP Front-Facing Camera and Camcorder
|Optical Image Stabilization
|Helps keep the image stable while holding the camera, for less blur in photos, less shaking in videos, and improved clarity in extremely low-light conditions
|Camera Resolutions
|Up to 3280 x 2464 pixels*
|Digital Zoom
|Store location information with photos and videos
|Intelligent Auto
|Automatically identifies a scene's characteristics and adjusts camera options such as aperture and shutter speed*
|Video Resolutions
|Up to HD 1080p (30fps)
|Available on rear-facing camera or camcorder only
|Available in both camera and video modes
|Connect to Social Networks
|Send quick updates to Google+, Twitter®*, Facebook®*, and other social networks
|Multilanguage Support
|Downloaded from Google Play™
What People Are Saying
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shoppers recently viewed this!
Pig of the Month BBQ
Mustard Ribs and Sauce
- Servings:
- Two 2lb ribs + One 12oz bottle
Qty: 1
- 1
- 2
Description: Pig of the Month mixes mustard, sweet molasses, and cayenne pepper to make the secret sauce for these slow-smoked ribs. They're easy to heat up on the grill or in the oven and made with all natural ingredients, traditional cooking methods, and heritage breed pork.
Here's what you get:
2 racks of fully-cooked Mustard style baby back ribs (2 lbs each)
One 12 oz bottle Mustard BBQ Sauce
Simply re-heat ribs in the grill, microwave or oven
Refrigerate or freeze immediately
Refrigerate for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 6 months
Brand: Pig of the Month BBQ
Origin: United States

subset: commoncrawl


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Are Science and God Incompatible?
A barrage of recent books, newspaper and magazine articles, videos, public lectures, and even a widely-viewed documentary will have you think that science has by now disproved the existence of God. And some of the people making these claims are well-known scientists, such as the British biologist Richard Dawkins, who has made a career of arguing that modern science makes religion obsolete. But in fact, these pronouncements are premature, and the last time that science won decisively against religion was as far back as the 19th century.
Starting in 1829 and continuing throughout the 1800s, discoveries of Neanderthal remains in Belgium, Gibraltar, and Germany have shown that humans were not the only hominids to occupy Earth, lending strong support to the then-emerging theory of evolution. Published by Charles Darwin in 1859, evolution dealt a deadly blow to creationism—the belief that organisms were created, rather than evolved from lower animals. And in 1851, Leon Foucault, a self-trained French physicist, proved definitively that the Earth rotates—rather than staying in place as the Sun went around it, as might be inferred from Scripture—using a special pendulum he had devised, now named after him, whose circular motion caused by the Earth's rotation he demonstrated dramatically to a large audience in Paris. Equally, geological discoveries made over the same century dealt a death knell to the "young earth" theory. We now know that the Earth is billions—not thousands—of years old, as some had thought by counting generations back to the Biblical Adam. All of these discoveries devastated literal interpretations of Scripture: that the Earth and its plants, animals, and humans were all created over six days, a few score generations ago, and that the Sun rotates around a static Earth, viewed as the center of all creation.
But has modern science proved that there is no God, as some scientists are now claiming? The answer is a resounding no! Science is a wonderful undertaking: it teaches us about life, the world, and the universe. And it has brought us immense amounts of information: Human knowledge is said to double every few years. But none of it has so far disproved the existence of some kind of supreme force that exists outside our universe—a force some people choose to call God.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, with the formulation of Einstein's theories of relativity, as well as quantum mechanics and quantum field theory, progressing hand-in-hand with experimentation in extremely powerful particle accelerators such as CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC), we have discovered much about the physical universe. Through these massive experiments, buttressed by theoretical calculations, we have learned what happened even a tiny fraction of a second after the Big Bang. But paradoxically, what we've learned only provokes new questions, raises new mysteries, and makes us wonder: What caused it all?
We know that 13.7 billion years ago, an immense burst of energy, whose nature and source are completely unknown, launched our universe. The "God particle"—the Higgs boson discovered two years ago in the LHC, causing great excitement in scientific circles—came into being closely after the Big Bang and miraculously gave itself and other primeval particles mass. This mass would mysteriously bunch together in just the right way to make stars, planets, living creatures, and ultimately conscious, sentient humans wondering about where they came from. The mechanism that formed the universe is so precise, so complex, so incredibly fine-tuned and highly improbable, that it begs the question of the existence of a supreme intelligence that brought it all into being. Based on only one of the many parameters of a life-giving universe, the probability that such a cosmos would appear by chance is much smaller than that of winning the jackpot in the Mega Millions lottery on every single day for more days than the age of the universe.
On planet Earth, condensed from clouds of matter created in earlier stars, primitive life forms emerged through a process we have absolutely no understanding of and could never replicate in the lab. Many millions of years later, complicated eukaryotic cells came into being—far more complicated and intricate in structure than the earliest cells. These had a nucleus, in which the information-bearing DNA molecule plays a role. They could replicate, and they evolved into more advanced creatures as the millennia passed. And then finally intelligent, thinking beings came into the world, creating language and art and music and science and technology and law and architecture and philosophy and mathematics. Could all of this have emerged by chance out of sheer nothingness? The probability of it all is extremely close to zero.
Amir D. Aczel is a mathematician, science writer and the author of, most recently, "Why Science Does Not Disprove God"


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ARREST: James Miller. The public address announcer for the Oklahoma City Thunder NBA basketball team has been arrested on complaints of lewd or indecent acts with a child under 16, police reported Thursday. James Allan Miller, 41, of Harrah, is accused of three counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child under 16, according to a probable cause affidavit filed Thursday in Oklahoma County. Miller is also a speech teacher and tennis coach at Harrah High School, said Phil Stewart, the district's resource officer. He was taken into custody by Warr Acres police while attending a meeting at Putnam City High School. School officials placed Miller on paid administrative leave Thursday pending the outcome of the investigation. He was booked in to Oklahoma County jail Thursday, a jail official said. ORG XMIT: 1205102226327282
GARVIN CO., OK-A former Oklahoma City Thunder announcer, already accused of multiple sex crimes, was charged with lewd molestation in Garvin county.
44-year-old James Miller turned himself into Garvin County authorities Friday. He was charged with two counts of lewd molestation relating to an incident that occurred in Stratford in 2004. Miller entered a plea of not guilty and was released on a $50,000 bond.
Earlier this year Miller was charged with six counts of child sexual abuse in Pontotoc county and two counts of lewd acts to a child under 16 in Oklahoma county.


text: Although he didn't create any famous characters or have long runs on any well-known comics titles, Alex Toth is revered among comics artists for his sparse yet eloquent drawing style and his storytelling techniques. In animation, his character designs for shows such as Space Ghost and Jonny Quest have influenced many a modern cartoonist. Inducted 1991


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We Have Moved!
Current Active Characters
Time Stamp
[align=right][b]DATE MONTH 2014
TIME OF DAY[/b][/align]
Listed At:
Affiliated With:
Skin and Graphics by Chele of RPG-D
Coding help by kismet, Revo. and Lint Roller of RPG-D
Date: October 2014
40-45's | Heavy Rain | Windy
We've moved hosts, join us on our new site!
-- Interview with spotlight winner Keiran Zanetti
-- New Site wide plot involving a new Sect, The Seven Sins. Find out how to get involved!
-- General Site Updates 14/05/12 here


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There are certain neccesities that should be on your back to school shopping list that may not be there. And I don't mean the big things like laptops, textbooks or a bag. These are the types of items that you don't know you need until you've experienced the downfall of not having them. Like sitting in class with soggy socks, realizing you didn't do that day's assignment because you forgot and you can't focus on what the professor is saying because on top of all that, you're starving and can think of nothing else but a big juicy cheeseburger.
Three little inexpensive items can save you from all that:
Rain Boots
This may be the MOST helpful item you purchase in your ENTIRE college career! It may not seem so now, but when you have to travel to school or your campus is very large and you have to walk to class in the pouring rain you'll be remembering my words: BUY RAIN BOOTS! Having soaked feet and socks is already bad, but having to stay on campus all day long with those soggy things is the most distracting and uncomfortable thing EVER!
One thing college students forget to do is EAT! Mom's not there to cook your meals and make sure you've had a hearty breakfast so it's really important for YOU to remember, Snacks are a great help. Just carry around some cookies, a sandwich, some veggies, anything that you like to snack on; every day! Hunger will surely distract you from your lesson, ESPECIALLY a boring one! Plus, it's super embarrasing when your stomach starts to grumble REALLY LOUD and everyone stares at you!
Although you may think you'll remember everything, YOU WON'T! Carry around a daily planner to jot down anything that's important. Whether it be due dates for papers, readings for that day, an appointment with your advisor or making a note to call Mom that day, WRITE IT DOWN! You'd be suprised how quickly and easily you can forget things. This way, just check your planner every night and make sure you did everything you had to do that day. Though they may seem simple and obvious, a lot of people don't realize they need these things. Don't wait until you actually NEED them, have them ahead of time to save yourself!


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Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States, where thousands of eager shoppers ignite the Holiday Shopping season.
Before you hit the crowds, and experience the mania first hand, here are a few tips to make your shopping day successful.
1. Have a shopping route. Knowing where you're going to go and what time you need to get there, will help you snag the best deals. If there is a deal you simply can't miss out on, make that store your first stop, then plan from there.
2. Make a gift list. Start making a list now, of people you need to buy for. Next to each of those people, write a MAXIMUM amount your willing to spend. Then, search gift options BEFORE you shop. This way, you won't buy things you don't need and spend more than you intended. Need Gift Ideas? Check out the links below to find out the best deals for Black Friday 2008.
3. Shop with a friend. Having a shopping buddy will help ease stress during the mayhem. Plus, shopping with someone else ensures for a good time and a lunch buddy after a full day of shopping.
4. Use the Internet. As SmartMoney.com suggests, searching the deals before you head out, is sure to give you an advantage over other shoppers. Check out the bargain hunting site Dealnews.com to gain an edge over your shopping competitors. Other sites to check out? Visit the links below to search Black Friday deals around the Web.
5. Use Your Cellphone to Compare Prices. Price comparison is as easy as a text message away. Slifter, a free service, can help you pick out the best deal around, without you ever leaving the store. How does it work? Make a phone call, send a text message, or log onto the Web, provide pertinent information about your item, and you're done. From there, Slifter uses search engines to provide the best possible prices around town for the specific item. (***Note: Remember, all cell phone fees apply when using these services.)
6. Keep Your Personal Information Safe. Whether you're shopping in a store, or online, it's important that you protect your identity. SmartMoney.com recommends shopping with only the credit cards you know you'll be using. If you plan to use checks, take individual checks, and leave your checkbook at home. Also, keep your social security card at home, if it is something you would normally carry with you. When shopping online, be sure you have anti-virus software enabled as well as firewall protection. This will ensure that cyber thieves can't obtain your information while shopping.
Search Black Friday Deals Now:
Look for more helpful information, from SmartMoney.com.


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Trudeau leaves today for first official visit to China
WHITBY — If Whitby's Makenzy Pierre-Webster had run the 100-metre dash in...
Khloe Kardashian has claimed no one in her family cares about her filing...
Ryan Lochte back to Brazil to be interviewed by police isn't going to...
Fitbit makes exercise even more of a game
DURHAM -- The LOSSA football league crowned its champions in both the Tier I and Tier II senior and junior divisions, as the finals played out at Civic Fields in Oshawa.
Tier One Senior Championship
Donald A. Wilson 42, Holy Trinity 20
Each year, the LOSSA football coaches are asked to submit their nominations for the league's Most Valuable Player at the end of the regular season. The presentation is then usually made following the conclusion of the league final. The fans in attendance at this year's championship will not be disputing the coaches' selection for 2012 Tier I. The award went to Andrew Smith of the Donald A. Wilson Gators. Smith's effort was among the best all time in a league final. All he did was score each of the five Wilson offensive touchdowns. He played a big role in the sixth touchdown, a pass interception returned by Christian Rose, as he delivered the key block on the play. Late in the fourth quarter, with the game decided, he added an interception to his game stats.
The Titans found themselves in a deep hole early as they trailed by 21 before the game was eight minutes old. The Gators took advantage on two Titan turnovers (a loss on downs and the Rose interception). To their credit, the 2010 Metro Bowl champions fought back and reduced the lead to seven on a pair of touchdown runs by Blair Winner in the second quarter. Sandwiched between the Titan touchdowns was a key fumble turnover by the Gators on the Holy Trinity one yard line. The seven-point deficit, however, would be as close as the Titans would get as Smith scored in the final minute of the first half to up the margin to 14. From that point, the Titans would score six additional points on a pair of field goals by Joe Mastromarco (38 and 17 yards), however both times the Gators responded with a Smith touchdown. Christian Rose successfully converted all six touchdowns while Mastromarco delivered the point after on both Titan majors.
The title for the Gators was their fifth in the past six seasons, a remarkable accomplishment for a school which was only opened in 2004. Holy Trinity, who entered the league in the same year as Wilson, has now reached four Tier I senior finals in the past five seasons. The Gators will now attempt to defend their 2011 Metro Bowl title and extend LOSSA's Metro Bowl title streak to three. Their semifinal opponents will be Huron Heights (York Region) on Wednesday, Nov. 21 at Centennial Stadium in Toronto.
Wilson: Andrew Smith 5TD; Christian Rose TD, 6C
Trinity: Blair Winner 2TD; Joe Mastromarco 2FG, 2C
Game MVPS:
Donald A. Wilson: Andrew Smith (offence); Brandon Hatzes (defence)
Holy Trinity: Blair Winner (offence); Luke Elson (defence)
League MVP: Andrew Smith (Donald A. Wilson)
Tier Two Senior Championship
St. Mary 31, Sinclair 0
The St. Mary Monarchs completed a sensational turnaround season as they captured the Senior Tier II championship with a 31-0 win over the Sinclair Celtics.
In 2011, the Monarchs program suffered through a winless season in which their two programs (junior and senior) were outscored 314 to 71. They were prepared to carry on in Tier I, however a declining enrollment left them with insufficient numbers to field a junior team, a prerequisite for continuing in Tier I. Reluctantly playing in Tier II, the Monarchs would dominate their opposition as they scored 257 points while allowing a miniscule three in the seven games that they played. Each game was won by at least 26 points.
In the championship game, Nathaniel Fermin put the Monarchs on top midway through the opening quarter with a 15-yard scamper. Two minutes later Mekai Clarke was on the receiving end of a 21-yard touchdown strike. Fermin then unleashed a 53-yard gallop to extend the Monarch lead to 21. The Celtics found themselves with an opportunity to reduce the deficit when Darryl During scooped up a fumble and carried the ball 63 yards to the Monarch two-yard line. However, on the next play the Monarch defence came up big and recovered a Celtic fumble. In the final two minutes of the half, the sure-footed Tyler Decarios split the uprights from 36 yards and Damien White, on a keeper, reached the house from the two. There was no scoring in the second half.
St. Mary: Nathaniel Fermin 2TD; Mekai Clarke TD; Damien White TD; Tyler DeCarios FG, 4C
St. Mary: Nathaniel Fermin (offence); Matt Guevremont (defence)
Sinclair: Garrett Arsenault (offence); Justis Croasdale (defence)
League MVP: Trey Campbell (O'Neill)
Tier One Junior Championship
Pickering 19, Holy Trinity 18
The Pickering Trojans and Holy Trinity Titans were meeting for the third time this season and given the fact that the two previous games had seen one point differences in the final quarter, one should not have been surprised when the teams were once again engaged in a one-point game through the final 12 minutes of play.
The Titans had opened up a 12-0 lead on a first-quarter touchdown run by league MVP Nathan Jones (32 yards) and a second-quarter fumble recovery in the end zone by Mikey Akeson following a Trinity punt. Thirty-seven seconds following Akeson's touchdown, Darnel Jarrett unleashed a 51-yard run to cut the lead in half. The first half concluded with Justice Johnson being forced out of bounds at the Titans two-yard line.
Following intermission, Johnson returned the second-half kickoff 65 yards to knot the score at 12. His convert gave the Trojans their first lead of the game. Trinity responded with a touchdown by Nathan Jones, his second, from two yards out with just over three minutes remaining in the third quarter. Less than two minutes later, the Trojans recaptured the lead on a 26-yard run by Kesean Bennett. Bennett's run was set up by a 29-yard carry by Jarrett. The fourth quarter saw the teams exchange possessions until the Titans started their third long drive of the game and moved the ball deep into Pickering territory. With 29 seconds on the clock, the Titans were inside the Trojan 15-yard line, and coach Lyons called for a game-winning field goal attempt. The attempt was blocked and the junior Trojans narrowly escaped with their record 10th LOSSA football title.
The victory earns the Trojans a berth in the Ontario regional junior football championship. They are scheduled to host Assumption College School (Brantford) in quarter-final play. The game is tentatively scheduled for Friday, Nov. 16 at noon. Location will either be Pickering High School or Oshawa Civic Field.
Pickering: Justice Johnson TD, C; Darnell Jarrett TD; Kesean Bennett TD
Trinity: Nathan Jones 2TD; Mikey Akeson TD
Pickering: Darnel Jarrett (offence); Treshaun Abrahams (defence)
Holy Trinity: Nathan Jones (offence); Michael Drake (defence)
League MVP: Nathan Jones (Holy Trinity)
Tier Two Junior Championship
Ajax 5, J. Clarke Richardson 0
The Ajax Rams held off a furious final-minute drive by J. Clarke Richardson to capture the Tier II junior championship.
The two teams fought to a scoreless draw through the opening half of play. Richardson controlled the opening quarter of play by effectively neutralizing the Ram offense. The Rams were kept deep in their end of the field thanks to a couple of strategically placed punts by George Goudogianis. The second quarter saw the Rams step it up a notch offensively, however the Storm defence came up big with a fumble recovery by Tevin Lawrence and an interception by J'van Manhertz, keeping the game level.
Ajax, led offensively by league MVP Trey Humes, was finally able to move the ball into field-goal position with just over two minutes remaining in the third quarter. Tristen Wilson was called upon to kick a field goal which broke the tie and gave the Rams a slim three-point cushion. Pinned deep in their own zone with five minutes remaining, Richardson elected to concede a safety and rely on their defence getting the ball back. The two points credited to Jacob Harrison extended the Ajax lead to five. Richardson was able to get the ball back with a minute remaining when Wahid Ibrahimi recovered a Ram fumble. The Storm then quickly marched the ball down inside the Ajax 10-yard line with 20 seconds remaining. Needing a touchdown for the win, the Ram defence held strong as a Richardson running play fell five yards short of the house, giving the Rams their second Tier II title in the past five seasons.
Ajax: Tristen Wilson FG; Jacob Harrison SFT
Ajax: Trey Humes (offence); Alfred Green (defence)
Richardson: Tevin Lawrence (offence); Josh Wiggins (defence)
League MVP: Trey Humes (Ajax)
Location, ST | website.com
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text: Faculty Details Start a new search Back to search results Profile Linda M. Hagan Ph.D., M.A., APR Title Chair and Professor Departments Business Communications Doctor of Management Management Marketing Hide All Education Phone (248) 679-1403 Email firstname.lastname@example.com Brief Description Linda M. Hagan, Ph.D., serves as the Chair of the Business Communications Department and the Director of the Doctor of Management in Executive Leadership at Walsh College. She also teaches graduate courses in strategic and leadership communication, management communications, public relations strategies, and undergraduate courses in business communications. Before joining Walsh College as a Professor in August 2007, Dr. Hagan was an Assistant Professor and Director of Off-Campus Programs in the Department of Advertising, Public Relations, and Retailing in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences at Michigan State University, in East Lansing, Mich. She also has taught at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, N.Y., and at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she earned a Ph.D. in Communication with an emphasis in Public Relations and a cognate in Strategic Management. Dr. Hagan earned a Bachelor of Business Administration with a major in marketing from Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Mich., and a master's degree from the University of Arizona in Tucson. She is the author of several professional journal articles focusing on organizational communication, ethical communication practices, and communication assessment. She also frequently writes articles for local newspapers on the importance of communication in the workplace. Dr. Hagan's research interests, primarily specializing in qualitative research methods, include corporate reputation, organization-public relationships, and strategic leadership communication. With over 15 years of corporate experience, Dr. Hagan worked for Volkswagen of America Inc. in Troy, Mich., in corporate public relations and as a District Sales Manager for Audi of America in San Francisco. She was a Publications Consultant for Land Rover North America, in Lanham, Md.; and developed Centre Lines, the publication for U.S. Land Rover dealers. Her first professional position was as a Marketing Representative in the Display Advertising Department for The Detroit News. Dr. Hagan regularly conducts seminars and workshops on leadership communication to professional associations and community groups. She is a member of the Academy of Management, an accredited member (APR) of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), and an active member of the PRSA Detroit Chapter. She is a former Board of Directors member of the PRSA Detroit Chapter and co-chair of the PRSA Detroit Ethics Committee and continues involvement with the Ethics Committee and Senior Council. Dr. Hagan earned Toastmaster International Competent Leader and Competent Communicator levels and is a member of Toastmasters Walsh College-Novi. Last updated: July 2016


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There's no sex like Vday sex, right? Warning: this scavenger hunt has nothing to do with the Pascua egg hunt you're used to. Have you and him write down sexy requests on a couple of post-it notes. Try things like "full body rub down," "role play," or "kiss every inch of my body." Post the notes in random places throughout the house (inside the kitchen cabinets, on the bathroom mirror, etc). Give each other one minute to find as many post-its as you can. Which ever ones you do find…well, you know the rest. Time to turn up the fuego!
All the moves you've been mastering at ballroom dancing or zumba will come in handy now. Play your favorite artist, move the sofas aside, and have you and your guy dance the night away!
Decode His Date Drink


text:
Elizabeth Peterson, MFA
Looking down the grocery store aisles, you'll see cartons of milk, bottles of juice, and many other products packaged with attractive labels. But, how do you know if you are selecting a healthy drink for your kids? Here are some tips for your next trip to the grocery store.
Milk is a great source of calcium for your kids. The United States Department of Agriculture offers these recommendations of how much milk to drink:
Have your child drink fat-free, unflavored milk after age 2. If your child is used to drinking whole milk, slowly transition to low-fat milk. Unflavored milk is also a great choice because it does not have any sugar added.
Milk is a great way to help your child get calcium. One cup of milk contains about 300 milligrams (mg) of calcium. If your child is lactose intolerant or if you prefer to give your child soy or rice milk, check the label to ensure it has the nutrients your child needs. These beverages do not naturally contain calcium or other nutrients in dairy milk, but some varieties are fortified. Also, work with your child's doctor to come up with a diet that meets your child's calcium needs.
Note: Babies under 1 year of age should only drink breast milk or iron-fortified formula.
If your child is longing for something sweet to drink, 100% fruit juices are a healthier alternative than sodas, fruit drinks, or sweet, fruity caffeinated teas. However, pediatricians warn against allowing your child to overindulge in fruit juices, as their high sugar content contribute to conditions like obesity and tooth decay.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), children 1-6 years old should limit their fruit juice intake to 4-6 ounces (118-177 milliliters) per day. For children aged 7-18, juice intake should be 8-12 ounces (236-354 milliliters) per day. Juice should also not be introduced to an infants diet before 6 months of age. The AAP also suggests you encourage your child to choose whole fruit over fruit juices to meet their recommended daily fruit intake.
Water is always a healthy choice. In fact, the US Department of Agriculture's MyPlate initiative encourages everyone to drink more water and leave the sugary drinks behind.
If your child is active, more water will be needed. Fortunately, water contains no fat, no sugar, no caffeine, and no calories. How much water each child needs varies greatly due to activity level and climate. Adequate water consumption does affect our bodies, right down to the cellular level. If your child is not fond of water, try mixing water and fruit juice to add some flavor. Also, many healthy food choices are good sources of water such as fresh fruits and vegetables.
Obviously, it will be easier to monitor your young child's beverage options. But your child may be more likely to continue healthy beverage habits into adulthood if they are learned early at home. One of the most effective ways of teaching healthy choices is by being a role model. Try opting for low-fat milk or water over coffee, sodas, or other beverages.
Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
Choose My Plate—US Department of Agriculture
Dietitians of Canada
Health Canada
American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Nutrition. The use and misuse of fruit juice in pediatrics.
How much food from the dairy group is needed daily?
United States Department of Agriculture, ChooseMyPlate website. Available at: http://www.choosemyplate.gov/food-groups/dairy-amount.html. Accessed May 14, 2014.
NHLBI integrated guidelines for pediatric cardiovascular risk reduction. EBSCO DynaMed website. Available at:http://www.ebscohost.com/dynamed. Updated February 12, 2013. Accessed May 14, 2014.
Water, water, everywhere. Food Literacy Partners Program website. Available at: http://www.ecu.edu/cs-dhs/fammed/customcf/resources/nutrition/hydration.pdf. Published July 2004. Accessed May 14, 2014
Why drinking water is the way to go. The Nemours Foundation website. Available at:
http://www.kidshealth.org/kid/stay_healthy/food/water_p6.html. Updated October 2012. Accessed May 14, 2014.
Last reviewed May 2014 by Michael Woods, MD
Please be aware that this information is provided to supplement the care provided by your physician. It is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. CALL YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER IMMEDIATELY IF YOU THINK YOU MAY HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new treatment or with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
Copyright © EBSCO Publishing. All rights reserved.


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rip 1
verb (rips, ripping, ripped)
1 [with object and adverbial of direction] Tear or pull (something) quickly or forcibly away from something or someone: a fan tried to rip his trousers off during a show figurative countries ripped apart by fighting
More example sentences
- She extended the claws on both her hands, then, in a sudden movement, grabbed each end of the tangle and pulled, ripping it apart.
- He felt as if he was throwing up everything inside of him, his insides being ripped, pulled, torn out.
- He fetched the keys from his pocket, grabbing them and ripping them out quickly, wasting no time.
1.1 [with object] Make a long tear or cut in: you've ripped my jacket
More example sentences
- I decided to wear my favorite pair of blue low rider jeans, which were ripped at both knees, along with a normal yellow t-shirt.
- He was wearing his favorite jeans that were ripped down the left knee.
- He was wearing ripped jeans and his now-fraying Peter Pan t-shirt.
1.2 [with object] Make (a hole) by force: the truck was struck by lightning and had a hole ripped out of its roof
More example sentences
- He felt like a hole had been ripped in his chest.
- Across the way, he saw the reason there was no atmosphere in the dome: a large hole had been ripped in the outer wall.
- He was now wearing his shirt again; a large hole had been ripped where the snake had struck.
1.3 [no object] Come violently apart; tear: the skirt of her frock ripped
More example sentences
- She hit and hit until she'd gotten through to the picture itself and then it finally was heard ripping apart.
- The hiss turned into a scream, this one more like a ship's keel ripping apart under pressure than a triumphant blood-chilling cry like before.
- Sasaki huddled against the hot grains of sand, gritting her teeth, curled up in a ball and hugging her shoulders as if to keep herself from ripping apart.
2 [no object, with adverbial of direction] Move forcefully and rapidly: fire ripped through her bungalow
More example sentences
- A shock of electricity ripped through me, making my muscles jerk and my hands clench; he caught me as my knees gave out.
- Merlin's head rocked back from the force of the impact and an explosion ripped through his ears.
- As each flash ripped through the reddened sky, the force of the angry discharge made him gasp in awe.
3 [with object] Computing Use a program to copy (material from a CD or DVD) on to a computer's hard drive.
Example sentences
- There have been hi-fi units equipped with hard drives, but nothing beats a personal computer for ripping and managing an audio collection.
- Media encoding for home and professional use is becoming more popular, as more users rip audio to their hard drives, or edit home movies.
- Typically, you'll need separate software to do specific tasks, such as burning DVDs, ripping audio, and of course burning CDs.
1A long tear or cut: there was a rip in his sweatshirt
More example sentences
- A jagged piece of basalt had torn a fresh rip in the hem of her robes, and a gash from the same rock was bleeding freely.
- There were rips, tears, and dirty patches all over them.
- His one-time shirt and breeches were now littered with rips and tears, and his body sorely needed a bath.
1.1 [in singular] An act of tearing something forcibly: he seemed to be saying with each rip of a page—how dare she enjoy reading books?
More example sentences
- Time seemed to slow down as she fell, and as she hit the ground she felt the rip and tear of ligaments, heard the crack of bones shattering.
- He could feel the rips and tears, the little cuts opening under the movement of the shrapnel.
- I cringed and quickly scooted across the floor, hearing the rips and tears of my gown from the nail heads in the wood.
2North American informal A fraud or swindle; a rip-off.
Example sentences
- If you think it's a rip, don't buy it!
- The food is above average, wine list is good, but it's a rip for sure.
- I've seen stores selling 2000 point cards for over 25 bucks! What a rip!
let rip informal
- Do something vigorously or without restraint: the brass sections let rip with sheer gustoMore example sentences
- Bank of England independence and the introduction of fiscal rules after 1997 told the markets that Labour would not allow inflation to let rip, and would exercise fiscal discipline.
- The giant grunted, his slow brain deciding when he would let rip and smother Glaucus in a deadly embrace.
- It is said that the losers during the last days of a battle often let rip in appallingly brutal ways.
- 1.1Express oneself vehemently or angrily: Charlie felt he had suffered enough insults and suddenly let ripMore example sentences
- And as he was lyin' there, half dozin' and thinkin' about things, he suddenly let rip a big stale Guinness fart that rumpled the bedclothes.
- It suddenly slowed up, crackled with blue electricity and let rip with a sizzling blue column of energy, followed by the plasma being dumped from the engine, completely frying the ship's shields.
- Now he is letting rip on drugs, Labour, his new record company and the race for London mayor.
let something rip informal
- Allow something, especially a vehicle, to go at full speed: we'll get on to the motorway and let her ripMore example sentences
- If that RX has been sitting a long time, then those rotary seals will go out the first time you let it rip on the highway.
- Drivers upset at being stuck in traffic let it rip when the road is clear.
- 2.1Allow something to happen forcefully or without interference: once she started a tirade, it was best to let it ripMore example sentences
- Both movies would have been better if maybe they had let it rip, instead of sticking to their "This is how it would have truly been" conceit.
- He realized the joy of being able to come into a game and throw whatever you wanted as hard as you wanted, just let it rip and not fret too terribly much over pitch selection.
- The cause of genuine competition has never been best served by just letting markets rip.
- 2.2Utter or express something forcefully and noisily: when I passed the exam I let rip a 'yippee'More example sentences
- Only recently have I really understood this and also understood when it's good to let those emotions rip and when to hold back and keep things balanced.
- I remember it like yesterday: getting up there, taking a deep breath like I do now, and just letting it rip.
- Once he has walked through a bulkhead door leading out of the landing bay, Halkari lets his anger rip.
Phrasal verbs
rip into
- informal Make a vehement verbal attack on: he ripped into me just for going into the caravanMore example sentences
- Using the framework of the division of class, it rips into gender relationships with passionate honesty and superb brutality, challenging assumptions and uncovering uncomfortable truths.
- Chomsky rips into the scam of wiping the U.S. government's slate clean.
- Bullying sergeants ripping into their soldiers might make good television, but the British army fears the reality TV show Lads Army is having a disastrous effect on efforts to recruit new troops.
rip someone off
- informal Cheat someone, especially financially: she thought he was ripping her off over her royaltiesMore example sentences
exploit, take advantage of, victimizeinformal do, diddle, con, bamboozle, rob, shaft, sting, have, bilk, rook, gyp, finagle, flimflam, put one over on, pull a fast one on, take for a ride, lead up the garden path, sell down the river, pull the wool over someone's eyesAustralian informal pull a swifty on
- It's not possible to get rich quick in the space of time that they're talking about, and do it without cheating or ripping somebody off.
- I used to be furious at them because they kind of ripped us off financially too, but what can I say?
- Whatever you do, don't seek to change a booking because you will be ripped off.
rip something off
- Steal or plagiarize something: they have ripped off £6.7 billion the film is a shameless collection of ideas ripped off from other moviesMore example sentences
- Look at this common blog style - should we not then say it was ripped off or stolen?
- His ideas have been ripped off for years and years, and with increasing frequency.
- I must confess, a lot of my style is ripped off from The Simpsons.
rip something up
- Tear something violently into small pieces so as to destroy it: he ripped up her pile of old lettersMore example sentences
- If a potential employer mentioned to me that my work strongly resembled another designer's, I would rip the piece up right in front of them.
- So I ripped it up and threw the pieces into the river.
- One in ten Brits admit to simply throwing financial documents in their bin without shredding or even ripping them up, putting themselves at serious risk from 'bin-raiding' fraudsters.
Late Middle English (as a verb): of unknown origin; compare with the verb reap. The noun dates from the early 18th century.
Words that rhyme with ripblip, chip, clip, dip, drip, equip, flip, grip, gyp, hip, kip, lip, nip, outstrip, pip, quip, scrip, ship, sip, skip, slip, snip, strip, tip, toodle-pip, trip, whip, yip, zip
For editors and proofreaders
Line breaks: rip
rip 2
1A stretch of fast-flowing and rough water in the sea or in a river, caused by the meeting of currents.
Example sentences
- The onslaught of the Trojan army is 'charging in as a heavy surf roars in against the rip at a river's mouth.'
- It's like jumping into the ocean, with the waves crushing, and if you go too far out, you might be caught in a rip.
1.1 short for rip current. he felt the gut-wrenching tug of the rip as he approached the shore
More example sentences
- Why didn't I know about this before I entered the water, and we did check out the beach at the time, and there were no signs warning of the dangers of rips or sandbars, or any of the water conditions.
Late 18th century: perhaps related to rip1.
For editors and proofreaders
Line breaks: rip
rip 3
nouninformal, dated
1An immoral or unpleasant person: 'Where is that old rip?' a deep voice shouted
More example sentences
- They didn't see, and didn't want to see, the unregistered brokers and the rips - or at least, they didn't see them while the unregistered brokers were working and the rips were being charged.
1.1A mischievous person, especially a child: I spent hours making those skirts for you two little rips
More example sentences
- You're already bad as the rest of these insolent little rips.
Late 18th century: perhaps from rep, abbreviation of reprobate.
For editors and proofreaders
Line breaks: rip
From Latin requiescat (or, in the plural, requiescant) in pace.
For editors and proofreaders
Line breaks: RIP
Definition of rip in:
verb (rips, ripping, ripped)(usually rip) [with object]
Rasterize (an image): once you are happy with the image, you can rip it out
More example sentences
- At $50, it's a bit expensive for a copy-only application, but it rips images for storage, too.
1970s: abbreviation.
For editors and proofreaders
Line breaks: RIP
Definition of rip in:
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text: Angelina Fiber is a very fine, unique fiber (10 denier). It is incredibly luminescent, and it has an extremely soft hand. Imagine diamond-like dew drops on a spider's web and the iridescence of butterfly wings! Angelina comes in multiple colors that can be mixed and bonded to a glistening, shimmering, colorful accent to any project. The heat bondable Angelina, which is called "Hot fix", will bond only to itself, not the paper, other fabric or your ironing board. These fibers are polyester which makes them washable (gentle hand washing is recommended), dryable (lay flat to dry), and dry cleanable. Heat bonding instructions: Simply place a small amount of Angelina fiber between two sheets of tissue paper, tracing paper or parchment. Heat iron to "silk" temperature setting and no steam. Approximate bonding temperature is around 225 degrees Fahrenheit. Gently, with little pressure, move the iron back and forth, for a few seconds, checking frequently on the bonding progress by lifting the top paper. If it has not bonded, either iron it again or increase the temperature on your iron. Be careful not to "fry" (change the color and dull the sparkle) the Angelina fiber with too much heat, pressure or the amount of time your iron is in contact with it. Sold by the 0.5 oz bag, Heat Bondable Angelina Fiber - Mint Sparkle.


text:
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Friday, 5th October, 2012, 03:47 PM #1
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How Magical or Non-Magical Should the Monk Be?
While I like the Monk to actually have abilities to punch with Lightning damage on their fists, to do short range teleports, heal themselves, float through the air and do fire damage over a small area close to them. Such that they could conceivably replace the Swordmage class. I feel that others probably won't like a really magical Monk. But the problem with a Monk whose abilities are more grounded and less magical, is that they start to get too close to the Fighter, such that one could effectively play a Monk by just using a Fighter.
So where should the limits on the dials between non-magical and magical for a Monk be? Thinking back to the traditional 1e Monk, most of their really magical abilities were more "utility" abilities, except for perhaps Quivering Palm. But the Monk from 1e to 3e, is what I always felt was too rigid even if they were influenced by Wu Xia from the late 70's and early 80's. 4e Monk was in many ways very inspired by videogames (there literally was a power like Ryu/Ken's spinning kick from Street Fighter 2) and other outside sources, which some may feel is great and others not. I personally liked how 4e just said the Monk was psionic, since in 3e I felt the Psychic Warrior was often a better Monk than the Monk.
But ideally what's the optimum balance between the 2 extremes of mystical and more low-key?
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Friday, 5th October, 2012, 04:55 PM #2
A 1e title so awesome it's not in the book (Lvl 21)
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The balance? Offer both options.
Internal monks use ki to improve their bodies, so they can run faster, jump higher, punch harder, and dodge or shrug off damage.
External monks are a bit more fragile, but can punch fireballs, create whirlwind kicks, and float in yoga pose then teleport.
Put a big bold sidebar saying, "The external monk might not be available in all settings. Check with your DM."
Most people will mix and match powers.
Ryan "RangerWickett" Nock
Director of the ZEITGEIST campaign saga.
The most cinematic adventure path for 4th Edition and Pathfinder.
The final adventure is now available - Avatar of Revolution! As the grinding gears of the Gyre draw the world toward its oblivion, people of every nation, culture, and creed yearn for liberation. The villains need only complete a ritual at Axis Island to impose a thousand years of perfect obedience, but civilization has seen and rejected the future they offer. Though it may be their doom, they choose revolution. For Pathfinder and D&D 4e.
Friday, 5th October, 2012, 05:30 PM #3
Defender (Lvl 8)
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I like monks to have more 'magical' type abilities, but I like those abilities to reinforce the story of the class, not be a generic gish. More of a jedi without the lightsaber than anything. They should have physical and mental abilities the are clearly beyond the realm of the mundane, but very different from the normal 'magical' classes. I agree that earlier editions of the game had trouble with executions of the monk concept, but I kind of like the flavor the those classes. I don't really want them doing 'lightning fists' per se, though at higher levels going insubstantial, short teleports, and even something like Sith lightning is not beyond the pale.
Friday, 5th October, 2012, 05:45 PM #4
Spellbinder (Lvl 16)
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I look at a monk as drawing power from within (psionic), which may or may not manifest in overtly supernatural ways.
"Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Lose"
Friday, 5th October, 2012, 06:04 PM #5
Grandmaster of Flowers (Lvl 18)
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Both. This is why I like power structures. You want your monk to look supernatural? Take the lightning powers. You want your monk to be a wire-fu maniac? Take the wire-fu powers. You want your monk to be mundane but skilled and tricksy? Take the mundane-appearing powers. Then leave it up to the player and the DM what they want to play in that game.
Friday, 5th October, 2012, 06:07 PM #6
Cutpurse (Lvl 5)
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I never liked Monk as a class archetype.
I always loved to play martial artists/brawlers though.
I want unarmed combat to become a viable option for all melee classes in D&DN. With this flexibility it will be easy to build a feral Wolverine-style brute, tavern brawler, or even mystical oriental monastic martial artist.
I really don't want to be limited to Shaolin theme with my unarmed fighters again.
Friday, 5th October, 2012, 06:29 PM #7
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I would like a cleaned up 1st Ed Monk-deal.
Key features I would like are (in no particular order):
-Resistance to mind-affecting effects.
-Ability to heal themselves.
-Increased speed.
-Fall great distances unharmed.
-Dodge missiles/area effects.
-Commune with animals and plants.
-Metabolic control (like the Bene Gesserit, neutralise disease/poison in their system, etc).
And most importantly: no mention of Ki.
Friday, 5th October, 2012, 06:57 PM #8
Grandmaster of Flowers (Lvl 18)
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Level 1 through 5: normal skilled guy with martial arts training and strong will power
Level 6 and onward: ageless mystic with ki fists and teleport jumps.
My beard is hairy.
Friday, 5th October, 2012, 07:04 PM #9
Myrmidon (Lvl 10)
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I think @Neonchameleon has it right - monks are the perfect class for the kits they've been adding to classes. Call them "styles" or "paths" and give them goofy pseudo-martial-arts names like "Red Fist Style" that can be refitted for individual campaigns. I'd actually make them fairly distinct, and leave the possibility of mixing and matching on the DM's side (so players weren't tempted to make an "uber" monk by picking the most powerful maneuvers from each style).
My only question would be what the core mechanic should be (if any). I don't like stealing CS from the fighter, and I feel like some sort of combo system (Flurry of Blows) would be a good way of modeling this. (I wrote a whole thread with an attempt at this a while back but in retrospect I'm not sure it's the best way of going about this.)
Friday, 5th October, 2012, 08:12 PM #10
Acolyte (Lvl 2)
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If you're using your fists to fight people with proper arms and armour, then you'd better be using magic.
Though it doesn't need to be blatant or flashy.


text:
The final curtain has fallen on San Jose Repertory Theatre.
After 34 years, the South Bay's major theater company -- one of a handful of organizations that provided the area with cultural distinction -- has closed its doors in the wake of its latest financial crisis. Theater officials announced Wednesday that the troupe has shut down operations and will file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy immediately.
"I'm just devastated right now," said producing artistic director Rick Lombardo, "for the community, for our staff, for the artists."
News of the theater's death sent shock waves throughout the valley's tight-knit arts community. "This is disastrous," said Lisa Mallette, head of City Lights Theater Co. in San Jose. "Losing its flagship nonprofit live theater company will be a very real tragedy for the entire South Bay community."
The cash-strapped company's board of trustees said the move was taken reluctantly after a long, hard struggle to stay afloat. The board considered an emergency fundraising campaign but decided the finances were too much of an uphill battle going forward.
"It's heartbreaking that the Rep can't survive, but the reality is that the community just doesn't have the drive to support it," said Paul Resch, the vice president of the board. "The money just wasn't there. No one wants to give to an organization that is in trouble. We went from crisis to crisis, and there was no cash buffer."
Founded in 1980 on a shoestring budget, the Rep, which presented a mix of seven dramas, comedies, musicals and classics annually, has been financially flailing in recent years. In 2006, on the edge of insolvency, the theater, which had a $5 million annual budget and 51 employees, turned to the city for a $2 million bailout that later was restructured into a long-term mortgage-type loan. Auditors' reports have long warned of the company's instability, as the Rep faced a triple-whammy of flagging ticket sales, slumping donations and rising costs. Subscribers had slid from 11,000 in 2006 to 5,500.
Theater officials estimate total debt at about $3 million but stress that cash flow was the real obstacle.
"They've had a lot of ups and downs over the years, so I can't say I'm entirely surprised, but I am very disappointed," said San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed. "I was hoping they would pull out of it."
As for the fate of the iconic blue theater building, which the city owns, officials say there is every intention of maintaining the 535-seat venue as a cultural gem of the downtown. Currently, the space is occasionally used by local arts events such as the San Jose Jazz Festival and the Cinequest Film Festival.
"There are a lot of creative possibilities," said Kerry Adams-Hapner of the city's office of cultural affairs. "We want to keep the building alive."
Some observers complain that the Rep never connected deeply enough with its audience. Several recent productions, such as the Indian call center drama "Disconnected," drew poor ticket sales. Others suggested the Rep's programming didn't incorporate enough minority themes or playwrights.
"This is what happens when your theater is deliberately indifferent to the diversity of your city," said director and scholar Tlaloc Rivas.
South Bay organizations have long struggled to get out from under the shadow of high profile San Francisco arts groups with deep pockets and high-society patrons. And San Jose Rep wasn't alone in fighting the tide of red ink. Ballet San Jose has undergone several fiscal crises. Shakespeare Santa Cruz went under last year and then managed to come back to life. American Musical Theatre of San Jose folded in 2008.
"This is a wake-up call for all San Jose arts organizations," said Peter Allen, a San Jose Arts Commissioner. "The salad days aren't coming back."
Rep founder Jim Reber has long bemoaned the struggles facing arts groups in a tech hub.
"It's a shame that there is not enough support for the arts in this community. But there aren't enough big donors who step in to save the day," he said. "What we need is a few white knights charging in to save the arts."
Reed agrees that big-ticket donors for the arts are hard to come by in the valley.
"There's a lot of philanthropic money in this valley," he said, "but there's not as much as you might think because a lot of that money gets invested globally and not locally."
Pending completion of the Chapter 7 liquidation process, it remains unclear whether patrons will be refunded for tickets already purchased. A production of Joe Penhall's drama "Landscape with Weapon" was due to open June 19.
TheatreWorks in Mountain View has offered to let Rep patrons exchange their tickets for "Landscape with Weapon" for "Marry Me a Little" at TheatreWorks. Some exchanges may also be available for those holding tickets for next season.
The city may also have to eat much of the $2 million loan it made to keep the Rep afloat, as it did with a $1 million bailout for the American Musical Theatre. However, Adams-Hapner said the city will work to recover at least a portion of the funds.
Many see the loss to the fabric of the valley's cultural life as far bigger than any dollar amount. Long a cornerstone of the cultural scene, the Rep, which at its peak could cast such big names as Holly Hunter and Lynn Redgrave, was a symbol of the creative pulse of the South Bay.
"Its vibrant and adventuresome productions have given a technology-driven city an artistic soul," said Robert Kelley, artistic director of TheatreWorks. "What a tragedy to lose this pillar of the arts in the Bay Area."
No one was harder hit than Reber, the company's founder.
"It's a total shock," he said. "I can't make sense of it. I feel numb. It can't be real."
Contact Karen D'Souza at 408-271-3772. Read her at www.mercurynews.com/karen-dsouza, and follow her at Twitter.com/karendsouza4.


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E3:7 Game Changer
"I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power"
Ephesians 3:7
August 11th
2-5 pm
Cost: FREE
Ages: 7-16
South Belt Fields
9400 Hall rd.
Houston, TX 77089
The Clinic will be led by Iver McDonald (University of Oklahoma), Krystal Williams (San Jacinto Junior College & Texas Southern University), and Sharonda McDonald (Texas A&M University, Current LSU Assistant Coach). They will be joined by former collegiate softball players and current high school and college coaches.
*The clinic will include hitting, defense, and speed and agility. Bring water and all softball equipment.*
*Parents will also get the opportunity to hear from Rhonda McDonald about raising three girls who all competed for Christ at the Division I level!
RSVP to Iver McDonald at email@example.com by August 8th -RSVP must include name and age of each player-
If you would like to volunteer or make a donation(balls,tees,monetary) please contact Iver McDonald at email@example.com
Please RSVP at firstname.lastname@example.com
RSVP at email@example.com
E3:7 Game Changer Head Coaches Alicia Jones (Jackson State University) Angela Piedras (St. Petersburg College, Pearland High School Pitching Coach) Ashley Lara (Sam Houston State University) Ceci Goforth (Caldwell College) Danyell Hines (University of Florida) Dee Douglas (Louisiana State University) Iver McDonald (University of Oklahoma, Impact Gold-McDonald Head Coach) Jazz Jackson (Louisiana State University, Impact Gold) Kara Rau (Texas A&M University) Krista Sitka Roventini (University of Texas-San Antonio) Kristina Gutierrez (Midwestern State University) Krystal McDonald Williams (Texas Southern University) Lauren Garza (University of Houston- Victoria, Mystixx 14U- Assistant Coach) Mayra Hi (Texas Women's University, Impact Gold-McDonald Assistant Coach) Nicole Andrade (San Jacinto College, Firecrackers 14U Head Coach) Perry Smith (Texas State University, Barbers Hill High School Head Coach) Riz Ruvalcaba (Mclennon Junior College) Sharonda McDonald (Texas A&M, Louisiana State University Assistant Coach) Tanelda McDonald (Mississippi State University) *Head coaches will be assisted by current high school and college players as well as former college players. *
Only a few more days to sign up! Don't miss out!
ACTIVE is the leader in online event registrations from 5k running races and marathons to softball leagues and local events. ACTIVE also makes it easy to learn and prepare for all the things you love to do with expert resources, training plans and fitness calculators.


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Buying the Basics: 5 Terrific Chef's Knives
That said, when exploring your options, these five knives are a terrific starting point. Ranging in price from $25 (budget) to $296 (total splurge), these knives are the most frequently recommended by both Kitchn editors and readers.
1. Victorinox 40520 Fibrox 8-Inch Chef's Knife, $24.98 from Amazon
Editor Review: "These Victorinox knives are great deals -- inexpensive, sharp, and long-lasting. We've mentioned these knives before; they are the choice of many chefs. This 8-inch knife is just the right size for my hands, but they also come in a larger 10-inch size." - Faith, Executive Editor of The Kitchn* * *
2. Wüsthof Classic Hollow-Ground Santoku Knife, $69.95 - $79.95 at Williams-Sonoma
Editor Review: "I love the nearly-straight knife edge with its slight rounded tip. The blade itself feels long enough that I can accomplish whatever slicing task I have before me, but not so long that I worry about accidentally stabbing the person across from me while dicing onions. The flat part of the blade is wide enough for me to easily scoop sliced vegetables off the cutting board and into a prep bowl. The handle fits snugly in my palm. - Emma, Associate Editor of The Kitchn* * *
3. Global 8" Chef's Knife, $115 from Sur La Table
Reader Review: "I received a Global chef's knife as a present a year or two ago, and I am still madly and desperately in love with it. If they weren't almost prohibitively expensive, I'd probably own the whole set, including the steak knives. I use my Global all the time - it is so beautifully balanced, and very nice to look at too. Prior to the Global I had used miscellaneous Henckels, which are also quite nice but I think I've become a Global user for life." - NDK* * *
4. Messermeister Meridian Elite 10-Inch Kullenschliff Chefs Knife, $142.73 from Amazon
Reader Review: "My 10" Messermeister Chef's knife [is my favorite tool]. It's the perfect knife for my hand, the fit, weight and balance are perfect and I just love it. So much so, I have two: one for the country and one for the city." - John and Jenny* * *
5. Chef's Knife by Coltellerie Berti, $296 from Didriks
Editor Review: "For a few days, I diced, chopped and minced all matter of fauna and flora with this excessively expensive and astoundingly beautiful knife. Its weight will melt a melon into two halves. It also happens to be handmade in Italy by a family-owned company who know what they're doing with blades. Surely, it's for when you hit the lottery, but should that happen to you, lucky friend, here's a fun little splurge." - Faith, Executive Editor of The Kitchn
Readers, what chef's knife do you use?
Related Kitchn posts about knives:
• How To Learn Basic Knife Skills: The Video
• Choose the Best Knife for Your Cooking: Advice from Chef Samin Nosrat
• Help Us Find a Really Good Cheap Knife
• What Is the Best Chef's Knife?
• How Do I Find a High Quality, Affordable Chef's Knife?


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- Vitamin Guide
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Cannellini beans are sometimes referred to as white kidney beans and are related to navy and great northern beans.
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Are Proprietary Databases Doomed?
By allanp on Dec 10, 2007
All that has changed. OSDBs now boast the necessary features and robustness to support commercial databases hundreds of Gigabytes in size. And a growing trickle of competitive benchmark results shows them performing more than acceptably well against their better-established cousins, while offering significant benefits in Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
What does this mean for proprietary databases? Are they doomed? And more importantly, are there opportunities for end users to benefit from the rise of OSDBs? I will explore these topics in a multi-part blog:
- Feature Stagnation In The Traditional Database Market
- License Costs: the Soft Underbelly of Proprietary Databases
- The Looming Open Source Database Tsunami
- The Perfect Storm for Proprietary Databases
- Proprietary Counter Strategies
- Conclusion
1. Feature Stagnation In The Traditional Database MarketWhen I joined Sun in the late 80s, choosing a database was still an important issue for end users. Large customers routinely issued tenders for databases as well as for computer systems, and, to help in the selection process, customers often staged performance bakeoffs between competing database vendors using home-grown benchmarks.
In the 90s, fierce competition led to a rapid explosion in features as well as dramatic improvements in performance. Sun in particular invested a lot of engineering effort in working with the major database companies to improve performance and scalability. At the same time, a variety of new technologies appeared, many claiming they would knock the relational database from its throne. Distributed databases, object relational, shared nothing, and in-memory database implementations all made cameo appearances. Relational databases simply absorbed their best features and continued to rule. Simple database features like triggers and stored procedures gave way to more sophisticated technologies like replication, online backup, and cluster support.
By the turn of the millenium, relational databases had already pretty much met the essential requirements of end users, and proprietary database companies were either pointing their vaccuum cleaners toward other interesting money piles, or losing the plot entirely and sailing off the edge of the world. Today, database releases continue to tout new features, but they're frosting on the cake rather than essentials. No-one issues a tender for a database unless they have unusual requirements. No-one loses their job because they chose the wrong database. And it's been that way for years.
Put very simply, the database has arguably become a commodity.
2. License Costs: the Soft Underbelly of Proprietary DatabasesDatabases may have become commodities, but selling them is still very profitable. Historically, as CPU performance increased with faster clock speeds, users continued to pay the same price for database licenses on the newer, more powerful systems. But that all changed as the industry moved to multi-core CPUs. As we will see, the licensing policies adopted by proprietary database companies have ensured that license charges have increased steeply as a result of this revolution in processor chip technology.
Some years ago, chip manufacturers began turning to multi-core CPU designs as a way of continuing to drive improvements in CPU performance. As it becomes more difficult to increase the transistor density of CPU chips and increase clock speeds, multi-core chips offer a simple alternative by packing more than one core on a single chip running at a lower clock speed. At the same time, proprietary database vendors began basing license charges on the number of cores in a system.
A practical example is Sun's dual-core UltraSPARC-IV chip. It replaced the single-core UltraSPARC-III chip at the same clock speed. By delivering two cores instead of one, the UltraSPARC-IV offered twice the performance of its predecessor. A typical system was the popular UltraSPARC-IV-based Sun Fire V490 which included four dual-core chips (eight cores). This system replaced the Sun Fire V480 with four single-core UltraSPARC-III chips. The customer received twice the CPU performance for the same hardware price.
Not so for the Oracle database price, though. Based on per-core licensing, the new system was now treated as an 8-core system instead of a 4-core system as previously. And worse, users were forced to a significantly more expensive database edition if they deployed systems with more than four cores. So, compared to the V480, the V490 now attracted a much higher per-core charge, on top of the requirement to pay for twice as many core licenses.
The following table illustrates the extraordinary windfall received by Oracle:
|Relative Performance
|Relative Hardware Price
|Database Core Licenses Required
|Relative Core License Price
|Relative Database License Price
In the face of considerable pushback from the industry, Oracle responded with "discounts" for the second core in a chip. In the case of the V490, that meant the discounted database price was still four times the license charge for the V480!
So while users continued to enjoy more powerful and more feature-rich hardware at the same or lower price, they were paying a lot more to use the same database software on the new hardware.
The situation prompted comments like those from Stephen Elliot, an enterprise systems analyst at IDC, who anticipated increased pressure on Oracle to be more flexible with pricing, and reported that "Oracle is becoming the lone force on the processor issue". Since that time, under pressure from Microsoft, which introduced per-chip database licensing back in Feb 2005, Oracle has continued to tweak its licensing model, but so far without making wholesale changes.
It should be noted that Oracle is not alone in following this path - similar anomalies apply to the pricing of IBM's DB2 database. Nor is Microsoft the only vendor to embrace a per-chip pricing strategy - as long ago as 2005, the Register reported that BEA was adopting the same per-socket licensing model as Microsoft and VMware, and noted that "the software maker's move puts it in prime fighting position against Oracle and IBM, which have been slow to adjust their pricing models for new chips from AMD, Intel and others." According to Ashlee Vance in July 2007, "Most software vendors have had the decency to settle on a per-socket basis for their pricing schemes, ignoring the number of cores per chip. Meanwhile, IBM and Oracle, the vendors with the most to lose, prefer to keep you in a state of pricing confusion."
Anecdotally, some companies are finding that database licenses have become their single biggest IT cost. The impact is probably greater on small and medium-sized companies that don't have the same ability to command the hefty discounts that larger companies typically enjoy from database vendors. A colleague related a story that illustrates the issue. His brother worked for a 200-person company that decided it was time to upgrade their database applications. They set out to deploy a well-known proprietary database until they discovered that the database license fee was going to exceed their entire current annual IT budget! They ended up deploying an open source database instead.
3. The Looming Open Source Database TsunamiIn August 2007, Tom Daly revealed the results of a SPECjAppServer2004 benchmark based on an entirely open source software stack, with PostgreSQL running on a Sun Fire T2000 server and the Glassfish Application Server on two Sun Fire X4200 servers. The announcement was revealing for two reasons:
- It showed PostgreSQL capable of supporting more than 6,000 concurrent users on a commodity hardware platform
- The benchmark result was within 10% of a published result from an HP/Oracle configuration costing more than three times as much. The major reason for the huge price difference was the cost of Oracle (at $110,000 compared to PostgreSQL $0).
For the record, it should be noted that the SPECjAppServer2004 benchmark does not include a pricing metric, so these are not official prices. Nonetheless, since benchmark configurations clearly cost actual money, it seems reasonable to assess the prices involved. In this case, all hardware and software prices were drawn from publicly-available sources.
Open source databases still do not scale as well as proprietary databases, but they now perform well enough to manage a broad range of challenging applications. End users who previously saw OSDBs as primarily suitable for simple low-volume applications are now able to reasonably consider them for departmental database server deployments.
Do OSDBs have the features needed for serious deployment, though? 12 months ago, Forrester Research released a report suggesting that eighty percent of applications typically only use 30 per cent of the features found in commercial databases, and that the open source databases deliver those features today. While Forrester noted that OSDBs still lag for mission critical applications, those holes are likely to be plugged as bigger players announce 24x7 technical support and service (as has already happened, for example, with PostgreSQL).
A recent survey of Oracle users showed 20% having open source databases larger than 50 Gbytes and two thirds citing cost as the driver to adoption of open source. Open source database adoption is still relatively small. Does that mean OSDBs should be dismissed? Not according to a Gartner analyst, quoted last year as saying "We think it is a big deal. Granted, in the DBS market right now, they are very small players. Remember about 10 years ago, Linux in the market was a very small player? Not so much, anymore."
The comparison may be apt. With the combination of essential features, improved performance, robust support, and compelling price, OSDBs today bear a striking resemblence to Linux a few years ago. Many believe that the wave looming on the horizon is a tsunami. Time alone will tell.
4. The Perfect Storm for Proprietary DatabasesUnderneath major end-user applications like ERP and data warehouse software, every major hardware and software component is now subject to commodity pricing. As we have seen, each year hardware prices continue to decline while processing power increases. At the same time, leading operating systems like Sun's Solaris and Linux are now open source and can be deployed for free. The same is true of most other components of the software stack, including virtualization software, databases, application servers, web servers, and other middleware. Even Sun's UltraSPARC T1 and T2 chips and RTL have been open sourced, allowing community members to build on proven hardware at a much lower cost.
Why, then, is proprietary database software becoming more expensive while everything else reduces in price? End users normally expect to benefit from the cost savings resulting from improvements in technology. I am writing this blog, for example, on an affordable computer that would easily outperform expensive commercial systems from just 10 years ago.
It seems difficult to resist the conclusion that proprietary database companies have managed to redirect a good chunk of these savings away from end users and into their own coffers. Successful as this strategy has been, though, it could ultimately backfire. The more expensive proprietary databases become, the more attractive lower cost alternatives appear.
A number of forces are currently at work in the market:
- The momentum around open source software has continued to build, and many open source products, while not as capable as proprietary alternatives, have become "good enough" to replace them. This is also true of open source databases.
- Large technology suppliers are beginning to bundle OSDBs, with the result that customers are able to take out support contracts with established companies as well as startups. Sun, for example, ships and supports PostgreSQL.
- Benchmarks are beginning to feature OSDBs. Thus OSDBs are starting down a path that has been trod by proprietary databases over many years. Benchmarks can be expected to highlight the capabilities of OSDBs, accelerate the process of OSDB performance improvement, and, increasingly, expose the price difference between OSDBs and proprietary databases. And as the scalability of OSDBs increases, benchmarks will be published on larger systems, opening up an even wider gap in database pricing.
- The sweet spot in the hardware market is a two- to four-chip server. With the advent of quad-core chips from Intel and AMD, and the 8-core UltraSPARC T1 and T2 chips released by Sun, such systems have become powerful enough to carry out processing that required much larger and more expensive systems in the past. The pricing chasm between low cost hardware and high cost proprietary databases continues to widen.
For example, the UltraSPARC T1-based servers, the Sun Fire T1000 and T2000, shipped with 8 cores on a single chip. The recently-released single-chip, 8-core UltraSPARC T2 servers, which deliver twice the performance at roughly the same cost, now attract a DB2 license charge that has increased 66% compared to the T1 platforms. So IBM has taken the opportunity to significantly hike the price of the database software on that platform, even though the number of chips and number of cores has not changed.
At the same time, 8-core UltraSPARC T1 servers attracted a 2-core license charge from Oracle (a very reasonable pricing decision on Oracle's part - see this table which is referenced from here). At the time of writing, Oracle has not announced a final decision on pricing for the T2 platform, but it is unlikely that Oracle will be able to resist the temptation to emulate or even outdo the cynicism of IBM. Why such a pessimistic expectation? Because the same table referred to above announces that the 1.4GHz UltraSPARC version of the older T1 servers will be subject to a 0.5 multiplier instead of the 0.25 multiplier that applies to the 1.0 GHz and 1.2 GHz versions of the same platform. So a simple 17% clock speed increase in the hardware, with no other changes at all, prompted Oracle to double the license charge!
To be fair to Oracle, since the UltraSPARC T1 and T2 platforms are single chip systems, customers can purchase Standard Edition and Standard Edition One licenses for them at greatly reduced prices. But these editions do not offer the full Oracle feature set, and in particular they do not offer the parallel processing capabilities essential for efficient processing on the 32-way T1 and 64-way T2 platforms; if customers want parallel capabilities they must purchase the vastly more expensive Enterprise Edition with its core-based licensing and inexplicable and inconsistent "discounts".
- Web 2.0 is gathering momentum, and the new breed of companies leading the charge are largely ignoring proprietary databases for their deployments. Probably much of the scepticism relates to the cost implications.
In the past there has been no real alternative to proprietary databases. That has changed, at least for new applications that have no legacy database dependencies. The relative proportion of hardware and software purchase prices has been changing, too, and for some years software has gradually been consuming ever-larger slices of the pie. In recent times the pace has accelerated, though, as commodity-priced hardware has become much more powerful and database prices have increased.
For the most part, customers still have not entirely woken up to these trends. But if they ever do, we may see a significant shift in the database market. Is it possible that the perfect storm for proprietary databases is brewing?
5. Proprietary Counter StrategiesProprietary Database companies are not without ways of responding to the challenge from OSDBs. Here are a few possibilities.
- Strategy 1: Resistance is Futile - You Will Be Assimilated.
Picking off your competitors can get a lot easier when they are open source companies, because most of them struggle to address a major discrepancy between their penetration and their annual revenue. Putting it another way, they have plenty of users but very little revenue to show for it. Hey, their product is free, after all! So far, not many people have figured out how to become absurdly rich by giving away software.
Buying a competitor gives you access to their Intellectual Property (IP) and their customer base. Sometimes it simply eliminates a competitor from the marketplace. Either way, playing the Borg can be an effective way of reshaping the market in your favor.
Note that Oracle has already made some raids across the border, having acquired InnoBase, maker of InnoDB, MySQL's most popular transactional engine, and Sleepycat Software, maker of Berkeley DB, another transactional engine used with MySQL. In response, MySQL has scrambled to introduce Falcon, a transactional database engine of its own.
Any of the major proprietary database companies could reasonably play the role of the Borg in this scenario, though, since all of them have very deep pockets. MySQL is probably the most vulnerable to takeover, since it's privately held. PostgreSQL may be more difficult to silence, since it is developed by an active community rather than a single company. But in either case, even if you pick off the company or the key community contributors, you haven't removed the IP from the market because the database is open source.
- Strategy 2: Bait And Switch. Offer a cut-down version of your own proprietary database for free, primarily targeting developers and companies doing pilot implementations. The idea is to make it easy for people to develop on your platform, then charge like wounded bulls when they deploy in earnest.
All of the major proprietary databases have free cut-down versions. Oracle Lite supports databases limited to 4 Gbytes of disk and 64 concurrent connections. Microsoft's Sql Server Express Edition supports one CPU only, 1 Gbyte of memory, and 4 Gbytes of disk. IBM's DB2 Express-C supports 2 processor cores, 2 Gbytes of memory, and unlimited disk.
These database editions are free, but they are not open source. The pricing policy could change overnight. And, as outlined above, each has restrictions that limit their usefulness for deployment.
- Strategy 3: Revenue Pull-Through. Include the database as a bundle with other pieces of your software stack. Focus the customer's attention on buying something else, and chances are they won't notice or won't care that they've bought your database as well.
- Strategy 4: Business As Usual. If you wait long enough, perhaps open source databases will stumble or be acquired by someone. Maybe their fall will be as meteoric as their rise. Or maybe the Borg will show up and assimilate them before they build too much more momentum. Either way, it will be one less competitor to worry about.
If you think a wait-and-see strategy sounds implausible, history shows that when they can't make up their minds how to respond, a lot of companies (and countries for that matter) do little more than sit on their hands. Australia's first ice skating gold medalist, Steven Bradbury, demonstrated how to win this way in spectacular fashion at the 2002 Winter Olympics. (Actually the last comparison is not entirely fair to Steven Bradbury - although he did win because the other contestants all stumbled, Bradbury's presence in the final was an achievement in itself that clearly demonstrated his ability and commitment.)
- Strategy 5: Reduce Prices. Much of the imperative for a migration to OSDBs will be removed if proprietary database companies drop their prices significantly. The excellence of proprietary databases is certainly not under question - I can personally attest to the performance, scalability, rich feature set, and robustness of both Oracle and DB2, for example. The search for alternative databases is largely driven by the need for pricing relief. OPEC discovered in the 1970s that inflated oil prices led to both energy conservation and a search for alternative energy sources. When OPEC soon reduced prices again, much of the impetus behind alternative energy disappeared in the West (sadly).
This strategy is only feasible if proprietary database companies derive most of their revenue from other sources. Oracle is probably the most vulnerable here.
Price reductions, if they are large enough and sustained enough, are likely to do more to slow down OSDB penetration. But I suspect that proprietary companies, if they are to do it at all, will need to reduce prices soon; if enough momentum builds around OSDBs we will reach a tipping point where it won't matter any more (witness the rise of Linux).
6. ConclusionAre proprietary databases doomed, then? Not at all. Even if proprietary database companies pull no surprises, they won't fade away anytime soon. Too much legacy application software currently depends on them. Until ISV applications - like SAP's R/3, for example - support MySQL and PostgreSQL, end users will be wedded to proprietary databases. (Note, though, that SAP does support its own free and open source MaxDB database with R/3). As Oracle builds its software portfolio, too, more applications will ship with the Oracle database bundled. And for the forseeable future, proprietary databases will be the platform of choice for the largest mission-critical database deployments.
Make no mistake, though, open source databases are coming. For established companies it's more likely to be an evolution than a revolution. We will probably see a gradual OSDB surround, where new applications and deployments are increasingly based on OSDBs, driven by the cost savings. In emerging markets, though, it's looking more like a revolution. Last year I met with a small number of high-adrenaline companies in India, a market undergoing very rapid growth. They were openly dismissive of proprietary databases. One company had a small installation that was described as a "legacy" application due for replacement by an open source database. This is the scenario playing out today at high fliers like Google, Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr.
How can you take advantage of the rise of OSDBs? Here are some suggestions:
- If you're considering a new database deployment, examine the possible cost savings of an OSDB.
- If you're an established proprietary database user, don't simply throw out your database. Take the time to establish the feasibility and quantify the benefits of an OSDB solution before making a change.
- If you're unhappy about the prices you're paying for database software, let your supplier know - the more senior the contact, the better. Suppliers do listen to their customers! As a side note, if you're a proprietary database customer looking at OSDBs, you don't need to make a big secret of it. I know of situations where proprietary database suppliers offered deep discounts to keep a customer away from OSDBs!
Perhaps the last word should go to The Economist. The following observations, reported in January 2002, may well prove prescient: "if software firms continue to think they can cash in on every new increase in computer performance, they will only encourage more and more customers to defect. And today, unlike a decade ago, open-source software has become just too good to be ignored."
What do you think? Feel free to let me know at firstname.lastname@example.com.