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1 DAVID BYRNE AND ST. VINCENT: What an inspired collaboration. Byrne, the onetime Talking Heads frontman who has mastered everything from nerdy funk-rock to Latin jazz, and St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark), whose hypnotic song structures and blistering guitar work have made her one of indie rock's most in-demand acts, teamed up on the album "Love This Giant," which was released last month. It's got everything: big beats, quirky but hooky melodies, strange lyrics and offbeat arrangements with horns ablazing. On Monday, Byrne and Clark bring the tour behind the album to San Francisco's Orpheum Theatre for what should be an indie rock fan's paradise.
Details: 8 p.m.; $63.50-$129; www.axs.com.
2 RICHMOND HOME FRONT FESTIVAL: This year's installment of the annual bash that celebrates Richmond's role in the World War II shipbuilding effort will showcase the historical offerings at the new Visitor Education Center for the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park, located adjacent to the festival grounds at Craneway Pavilion. Other festival attractions include tours of the USS Potomac (Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidential yacht), live music, food and beverage vendors, kids' activities, classic cars and more. On Friday, The Pavilion will host a Rosie the Riveter 1940s USO Dance.
Details: The dance is 6-10 p.m.; $20-$25. Home Front Festival is 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; free; more information and tickets are at www.craneway.com.
3 DIABLO SYMPHONY: The Walnut Creek orchestra is celebrating developments old and new in its season-opening concert Sunday. The season marks the 50th anniversary of the orchestra, said to be the oldest group of professionally trained musicians in Contra Costa County. And Sunday's performance marks the debut of Music Director and Conductor Matilda Hofman. The program, titled "Arabian Nights," includes portions of Shostakovich's ballet "The Age of Gold," Haydn's Trumpet Concerto and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade." The trumpet soloist is Joyce Johnson Hamilton, Diablo's retired conductor.
Details: 2 p.m. Sunday, Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek; $10-$25; 925-943-7469, www.lesherartscenter.org, www.diablosymphony.org.
4 POINT RICHMOND ACOUSTIC: Contemporary folkies Paul Kamm and Eleanore MacDonald, known for their wistful melodies, soaring harmonies and his deft guitar work, open this nifty concert series' new season Friday. East Bay singer-songwriter Megan McLaughlin is on the bill.
Details: 8 p.m.; First Methodist Church of Point Richmond; $15 (tickets sold at the door); www.pointacoustic.org.
5 "SEX, SLUGS AND ACCORDION": With a title like that, how can a gypsy/cabaret/comedy/storytelling show about an hermaphroditic slug go wrong? Jetty Swart, aka Jet Black Pearl, has brought her talents to the Marsh Berkeley for a weekly show through Nov. 14. Did I mention this show is not for the little ones?
Details: 8 p.m. Wednesdays (no show Oct. 31); $10-$50; 415-282-3055, www.themarsh.org.
6 AUTUMN LIGHTS FESTIVAL: Show up at Oakland's Lake Merritt on Saturday evening, and you'll be mesmerized by neon bubbles, electric fireflies, gourds ablaze with haunting designs and a giant snail car. The items are part of the annual Autumn Lights Festival, which is illuminated by the inspired works of local artists. Video works, a silent auction, food trucks and beer and wine also will be part of the festival fun. Proceeds benefit Friends of the Gardens at Lake Merritt.
Details: 6-10 p.m. Saturday, 666 Bellevue Ave., Oakland; $25-$35; www.brownpapertickets.com, www.anotherbullwinkelshow.com.
7 PEPPINO D'AGOSTINO AND CARLOS REYES: There will be so much musical talent on one stage Friday at Pleasanton's Firehouse Arts Center, organizers might need to apply for a special zoning permit. D'Agostino, the world music acoustic guitar wizard, joins forces with renowned Latin jazz harpist and violinist Reyes for what should be a night of mind-bending jams.
Details: 8 p.m.; $12-$25; 925-931-4848, www.firehousearts.org.
8 RANDY RUTHERFORD: The Bay Area musician and storyteller has lost about 70 percent of his hearing, a condition that informs much of his work. His latest comedic solo show, "The Water Is Wide," is about the conflict that develops between Rutherford's real girlfriend and the imaginary woman in his head who helps him cope with his hearing loss. The real girlfriend thinks a vegan diet would return his hearing; the imaginary girl prefers fried bologna sandwiches (I know which one I'm rooting for).
Details: 7:30 p.m. Friday; St. John's Episcopal Church, Clayton; $15; 925-672-8717, www.brownpapertickets.com.
9 GREAT MUSIC FROM GREAT BALLETS: Classical dance fans might want to catch this event, which features concert pianist Gregory Tabolof performing portions of "Swan Lake," "Romeo and Juliet," and other masterworks as Diablo Ballet Artistic Director Lauren Jonas discusses the music's role in and effect on the ballet.
Details: 8 p.m. Friday, Sherman Clay piano store, Walnut Creek; free; www.DiabloBallet.org.
10 LENORA LEE DANCE: The San Francisco company, which blends contemporary dance, martial arts and multimedia effects, celebrates its fifth season this weekend with three works that look at the Asian immigrant experience. The program includes a new piece, "The Escape," about three Chinese women encountering American society in the early 20th century.
Details: 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 3:30 p.m. Sunday; Dance Mission Theatre, San Francisco; $15-$25; www.brownpapertickets.com; www.lenoraleedance.com.
Contact Randy McMullen at firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow him at Twitter.com/randymac57.


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Get an overview of this hotelLuxury villa with restaurant and outdoor pool
Located in the heart of Bang Lamung, this luxury villa is within 6 mi (10 km) of Pattaya Dolphin World, Three Kingdoms Park, and Love Art Park. Alangkarn Theater and Mimosa Pattaya are also within 6 mi (10 km).
Property Features
Along with a restaurant, this villa has an outdoor pool and a health club. WiFi in public areas is free. Additionally, a bar/lounge, a poolside bar, and a rooftop terrace are onsite.
Room Amenities
All 5 villas feature thoughtful touches like bathrobes and slippers, plus free WiFi and flat-screen TVs with satellite channels. Other amenities available to guests include iPod docks, DVD players, and room service.Would you like to give us feedback? Share it! Opens in a new window
Manathai Villa Sylvia Pattaya17/5 Moo 3 Tambol Huayyai Banglamung Bang Lamung Chonburi 20150
Hotel Amenities
Hotel Amenities
Manathai Villa Sylvia Pattaya features an outdoor pool and a health club. The villa offers a restaurant. Guests can unwind with a drink at one of the villa's bars, which include a poolside bar and a bar/lounge. High-speed wireless Internet access is complimentary.
This luxury villa also offers a rooftop terrace, tour/ticket assistance, and barbecue grills.
- 24-hour front desk
- Area shuttle (surcharge)
- Bar/lounge
- Barbecue grill(s)
- Breakfast available (surcharge)
- Free newspapers in lobby
- Dry cleaning/laundry service
- Free WiFi
- Garden
- Health club
- Laundry facilities
- Luggage storage
- Multilingual staff
- Number of buildings/towers - 3
- Outdoor pool
- Picnic area
- Poolside bar
- Restaurant
- Rooftop terrace
- Television in common areas
- Total number of rooms - 5
- Tours/ticket assistance
- Wedding services
Family Friendly Amenities
- DVD player
- Free Wi-Fi
- Laundry facilities
- Outdoor pool
Available in all rooms: Free WiFi
Available in some public areas: Free WiFi
Room Amenities
- Air conditioning
- Bathrobes
- In-room climate control (air conditioning)
- Coffee/tea maker
- Free newspaper
- Desk
- DVD player
- Flat-panel TV
- Free WiFi
- Hair dryer
- In-room massage available
- In-room safe
- iPod docking station
- Iron/ironing board (on request)
- Private bathroom
- Rainfall showerhead
- Room service
- Satellite TV service
- Slippers
Where to Eat
Restaurant and Bar - This restaurant serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Guests can enjoy drinks at the bar.
Room service is available.
Nearby Things to Do
Recreational amenities at the villa include an outdoor pool and a health club.
Hotel Policies
Check-in time starts at 2 PM
Minimum check-in age is 18
Check-in time ends at noon
Payment types
- No pets or service animals allowed
You need to know
Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on hotel policy.
Government-issued photo identification and a credit card or cash deposit are required at check-in for incidental charges.
Special requests are subject to availability upon check-in and may incur additional charges. Special requests cannot be guaranteed.
No pets or service animals allowed
Hotel Name
- Manathai Sylvia Pattaya
- Manathai Sylvia Pattaya Bang Lamung
- Manathai Villa Sylvia
- Manathai Villa Sylvia Pattaya
- Manathai Villa Sylvia Pattaya Bang Lamung
- Villa Sylvia Pattaya
We should mention
No pets and no service animals are allowed at this property.

subset: commoncrawl


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rogerfederer.com - 287 tribute
Navigation with Access Keys
- [Alt + 0] - Startseite
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287 tribute
16.07.2012 | Off Court
See the video tribute to Roger's 287 weeks as World No. 1 by the ATP here.
Greatness redefined!!!! simply out of this world...thank you for being such an inspiration!!
Hi Roger, I dont think any one can ever break your record of 287 weeks as World No 1. Awesome achievement. Well done!!!!!!!!!
Now all people who said that Roger is never going to win anything can sit still and keep their mouths shut. Roger, you are the best! We all admire your strength as in spite of all difficulties you always overcome them with dignity!
Hi Roger!!! Wow, what to say... Its ur long days dream which has come now true..U told tat u never stopped believing on urself, we fans we also never stops believing our Champ Roger.... We enjoy all ur moments with u.... Am always proud to be ur fan.... U r my hero... Hearty Congrats!!!!!! With Love
Roger il migliore per classe , eleganza , correttezza e tecnica......GRAZIE .
congratulations rogee,
Roger, thank you for all those great moments you gave us.
Congratulations !!!! There is no doubt, you are the best ever !!!!!!
Congratulations !!!! There is no doubt, you are the best ever !!!!!!
The game of tennis was made for you ! Congratz Roger!
What a beautiful tribute to you Roger...Congratulations on this wonderful achievement...
May you go from strength to strength.
May you go from strength to strength.


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You are a fan of creative hess ? Come to discover the best forums creative hess on the internet and share your experience with a community fan of creative hess . You can also build a forum creative hess and create your online discussion.
AAF (Ardent Art Forum) offers a safe environment to purchase, discuss, and sell creative services!
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We are a group of women who enjoy tags, psp and friendship. We have daily theme threads, some games, a wonderful chat thread, psp challenges and more! Come check us out! Members MUST be active upon jo
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TheMattVid's website for YouTube and TMV. ZONE discussion!
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Forum for my Creative Team
A place where creativity unites. Welcome to a Medieval Fantasy Roleplay
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When you go beyond the mat, you can see who will survive, and who gets pushed aside. No one who wants it badly enough gets left behind.
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Alabama, SEC Add to Title Pile
By beating Notre Dame, 42-14, in the Bowl Championship Series title game on Monday, Alabama became the first school to repeat as college-football champion since Nebraska in 1995, and the first team to finish No. 1 in the Associated Press year-end poll for the third time in four years since Notre Dame in 1949. And that may be the third-most impressive feat to marvel about from the game. There's the state of Alabama's fourth straight national title and the SEC's seventh in a row. Auburn won the title two years ago, and before the Cotton State started hoarding trophies, Florida and LSU won the prior three titles.
According to Stats Research, no other prior conference has won even four straight AP titles since they were first awarded in 1936. Twice, a conference won three in a row: the SEC, when Alabama won in 1978 and 1979 and then Georgia won the next year; and the Big Ten, when Minnesota repeated right before Ohio State's 1942 championship. Eight other times, a conference won two straight titles, and all but twice, it was the same team winning both times. The only exceptions were the SEC's Auburn and LSU, in 1957 and 1958; and the Southwest's Texas Christian and Texas A&M, in 1937 and 1938. Usually, when a conference went on a title streak it was due solely to its best team repeating as national champion.
The state of Alabama's recent run is equally unprecedented. The prior record for consecutive AP titles won by one state's schools was two, which had happened 11 times, according to Stats. Only once did two different teams from the same state win in consecutive years: TCU and Texas A&M, in the early days of the AP poll.
College football precedes the AP poll, and plenty of other rankings, including the BCS's, have been used to declare champions — breeding all sorts of confusion. But even accounting for many of the disputed champions doesn't lessen the extent to which the SEC's and Alabama's dominance is unprecedented in college football in the past century. You'd have to go back a century to the precursor to the Ivy League's run of eight straight titles of some sort between 1906 to 1913, for anything like seven straight national titles for a conference. (This happened decades before the Ancient Eight formally joined forces in what's now known as the Ivy League.) And even those were shared among schools in different states. Michigan has some sort of claim on a national title each year from 1901 to 1904, the closest thing to the state of Alabama's recent success. Four-peats by Yale and Princeton date back to the 19th century, when fewer than a dozen teams were contending. The current SEC and Alabama dominance are much more impressive at a time when there are 120 full members of the Football Bowl Subdivision competing for a national title.
Hoarding national titles is more familiar in college basketball: UCLA won seven straight titles and 10 of 12 from 1964 to 1975. In pro sports, conference or league dominance means less when there are no more than two competing, but some individual teams have maintained long-term holds on trophies without the four-year limit faced by colleges. In the NHL, the Islanders won four straight Stanley Cups from 1980 to 1983 and the Canadiens won five in a row from 1956 to 1960. The Celtics won eight straight NBA titles from 1959 to 1966. And in the closest analogue to Alabama's four titles shared by two teams, three New York City teams — the Giants, Dodgers and, mostly, the Yankees — won every World Series between 1949 and 1956. At the time the major leagues had just 16 teams — or two more than the SEC alone had this season.


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Sweet Little Lies
When is the last time you told a lie? Nothing major, just a little white lie? If you're anything like me, you lied yesterday about why you were late, or you stretched the truth about the extent to which you read a book, or perhaps you weren't honest about what you did or didn't eat. You are not alone. We all do this EVERY DAY.
I've spent the past five years in a deep self-inquiry and this is one of the most interesting discoveries I've made. It sounds simple but at the most subtle level I've started to notice the vibrational quality of these lies when they enter my mind and leave my mouth. It feels much different than when I am moving from a place of love. There is a complete lack of integrity and I find myself out of alignment with my sankalpa, my deepest intention, which is to speak my truth.


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Nysta #6: Sea of Revenants
He lurks in the dark waters, glowing eyes searching. His breath whispers on the wind and his words bring madness.
When Nysta is shipwrecked on the islands called the Crossbones, she didn't expect to be fighting for her life against draug. And not just any draug. These ones were men, once. Raiders who'd waged a war of piracy down the Caspiellan coast. Raiders who promised their dead bodies to an ancient and terrible force.
For centuries, the Covenant has been held. The Madman had kept his promise and protected the islands. But the Covenant has been broken and the draug now hunt Fnordic and Caspiellan flesh alike.
She'll need to find out why if she hopes to survive. But Temple is an island which guards its secrets. And it has many. One could save her. One could enslave her. And one could drive her mad...
This is the elf Heroic Fantasy was waiting for. Blending the most brutal elements of Westerns and Hardboiled Detective fiction into Heroic Fantasy, the Nysta series offers a new breed of elf unlike any you've ever read.
My ebooks available on Kindle and KindleApps exclusive to Amazon.com
Beyond death, madness awaits.
Nysta #5: The Wall of Darkest Shadow
In the shadow of the Doomgate, a Caspiellan army has massed. Their weapons crave Fnordic blood. Their voices cry for the freedom of their abducted Queen.
On the other side, the defenders are split by betrayal when one of their own seeks to open the Doomgate for Rule. And he's got himself a cleric. On top of that, goblins infest the Wall itself and have turned its warped innards into a trap of death for those who try to enter.
But when everything looks lost, the defenders will be united by a woman. A woman whose fury cannot be contained. Whose spirit refuses to yield. She will crush the fledgling rebellion and lead the Empire's loyal forces in battle against the infamous Black Blades of Cornelia. And she'll kill them all.
Or die trying...
"Great origin story for 2 badass characters! Sex swearing and ultra violence, what's not to like. Four more words required." - Amazon.com
Hemlock and Melganaderna: Trail of the Necromancer
When the Dark Lord falls and Rule holds the world in his fist, the shadows will rise…
The King is dead. Murdered in cold blood. The Lord of Light himself rages at the crime.
Believing Hemlock has enchanted the King's daughter, armies have gathered. Roused to violence, they follow the fledgling necromancer and the woman who loves him. A woman who carries the fabled axe, Torment. They came at first for justice. Then for revenge. Finally, for dominion.
For the Wall of the North is too big a prize to ignore.
But they should have let him go. Should have never followed him toward the Deadlands. Because his coming was foretold since the Night Age. And, with the grimoire of Lornx in his hands, he will bring necromancy back to the world. The dead will heed his call. The Shadowed Gates will open and spill their secrets to him alone, promising magic to rival even the last of the gods.
All he has to do, is take it.
Gritty. Blows you away with in your face emotion and plot. I'm hooked and this is not my usual type of read. - Ike, Amazon.com
Nysta #4: Blade of the Vampire King
The darkest shadows are within…
Urak's Keep.
Once home to an unspeakable evil vanquished by Grim and Rule, it is now haunted by the tragic soul of Gul'Se, immortal wife to the Last of the Vampire Kings.
It is here the Grey Jackets have come, led by Hyrax and a mysterious elf named Willem. Chukshene is also there, drawn by the promise of forgotten knowledge and now driven by the need to recover his stolen grimoire before Hyrax can take it back to Rule. Then there's the necromancer and the axewoman, desperate to flee the land of their birth.
The elf will face evil of all kinds on her path to Urak's Keep. And she will burn with rage. For the darkness which consumes her soul is waking.
And it demands death.
And more death.
I have read all three books, and they keep blowing me away. You can put Lucas Thorn right up there with, Joe Abercrombie, and Andy Remic... - Amazon.com
Nysta #3: When Goblins Rage
Sometimes hate comes in small packages...
The Grey Jackets, Rule's most fanatic of soldiers, have followed her from the ruins of Grimwood Creek and they'd like nothing more than to see her dead.
Turning to the relative safety of an ancient fort in the shadow of the vampire-haunted mountains called the Bloods, the elf finds herself in the company of a mercenary thirsting to test his skills against her own.
And, as if that wasn't enough to contend with, hot on her heels is an army of goblins.
Goblins who appear to want nothing more than to send her screaming into the arms of their god for an eternity of suffering.
Looks like everyone wants the Shadowed Halls to open above her head. But what they never counted on was that when death's gates open, Nysta wouldn't be entering them alone. She'll be taking everyone with her.
Provided, of course, she can rid herself of the fog trying to consume her mind…
If you're not a fan of gritty fantasy and gratuitous violence then this isn't the book for you.. - Amazon.Com
Nysta #2: Duel at Grimwood Creek
And then they heard the chains…
Still reeling from her confrontation with the mysterious Gaket, Nysta must summon all her strength to continue her pursuit of the Bloody Nine. Accompanied by the enigmatic warlock, Chukshene, she quickly finds herself battling even more of the insane creatures which haunt the Deadlands.
There are many chains in the Deadlands. But only one is strong enough to pull her toward that bloody confrontation where she will face Raste in a final and violent duel at Grimwood Creek.
"This is a very different kind of Elf. Think female "Dirty Harry" with pointy ears." - Lynndy, Amazon.com
"Yes, this is a tale of vengeance and woe. It is dark and has swear words in it. It works." - Hippy_Lettuce, Amazon.com
It first reads like a straight-up revenge story ala "Kill Bill," but the surprising ending is something hardcore fans of fantasy can sink their teeth into. - Jason M Hubbard, Amazon.com
Nysta #1: Revenge of the elf
Nysta is a new kind of elf.
When nine killers rode out of the homestead with blood fresh on their hands, they reckoned that would be the end of it.
The lost spellslinger was looking for a way out. He figured Nysta could lead him to safety. And then there was the tragic creature born in the darkest shadows of legend. He reckoned she would fight the greatest fight of all.
But none of them counted on the violence she would unleash. Because in the Deadlands there is no forgiveness. No mercy.
Winter in the Deadlands could be cold. But the revenge of an elf would be colder.
OUT NOW and FREE to read
on Kindle Unlimited
The Unofficial Revenge of the Elf eBook on YouTube by Grimderp Batreps
"Simply magnificent." - Lucas Thorn
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special thanks for creative inspiration to:
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I have 1 MKV file that is H264 AC3 that the audio and video are out of sync. I am using the tsmuxer as the primary encoding settings. If I select the memcoder version in the trancoding folder, then it plays fine. The video is Righteous Kill. I ripped it from the DVD and created the file using HandBreak. I used the same settings for other videos that I have created and those videos all play fine. I think that the first couple of seconds the video starts with no sound and that causes a problem with the tsmuxer, but I cannot be certain.
What can I provide to help with this?


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Laconia takes stand against $42.5M county-backed jail over costs
Rici Greene projected that operating the facility would require 49 full-time employees, 21 more than are currently on the payroll. Personnel costs, which are currently $1.6-million per year would climb by $2.7-million to reach $4.2-million.
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Recap: The 2014 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting
OMAHA, Neb–The devoted shareholders of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway got an earful of wisdom at the company's annual meeting Saturday.
Roughly 40,000 people packed the CenturyLink Center, a basketball arena in downtown Omaha, to hear Mr. Buffett and his business partner, Charlie Munger, speak for hours about the economy, the stock market, and their widely celebrated approach to investing. This year, Mr. Buffett's decision to abstain from voting on Coca-Cola equity pay plan for senior executives was the very first question. But there were plenty of light-hearted moments too.
We live-blogged this year's Buffettpalooza from the first sip of Cherry Coke to the last bite of See's candy. Here's how it all went down:
Here We Go!
Here we go! The Berkshire annual meeting has begun. Sort of. The first hour is set aside for the showing of a movie. Buffett and Munger will hit the stage once it's over, but for now, Buffett has a seat right at the front of this arena facing the stage so he can see the movie. He's sitting near his board, which includes his good friend Bill Gates. (I think I saw Gates, anyway. The press corps is in the rafters.)
Return visitors will recognize chunks of the movie, but this year it seems like there's more fresh content than in recent years. We've seen the Geico camel, an animated video of Warren and Charlie playing hockey, and now they're playing a clip of Warren with the cast from Entourage. We'll get you up to speed on the day's events while it plays.
Lots of Questions
It's safe to say this gathering of shareholders isn't like most annual meetings. While there's a bit of official business to be done, it'll happen several hours from now. In the meantime, Buffett and Munger will field dozens of questions from a panel of reporters, a panel of analysts and from shareholders on the floor of the arena.
We'll Do Our Best
My fingers can only move so fast, and sometimes a question is a dud or a repeat of something that's been asked and answered by Buffett a dozen times before. So we won't include every single question. But we'll get most of them.
Let's Do This
Buffett will have a box of See's Candies with him all day. So will we. Let's do this.
Coke Questions Loom
Likely among the first questions to be raised will be the topic of the compensation for executives at Coke, a company where Berkshire is the largest shareholder. An activist investor had been making noise about what he felt was an overly generous equity-compensation component. Buffett, who has always been vocal about the hazards of overpaying CEOs, elected to abstain from voting Berkshire's shares in favor of the plan, but didn't tell the public about his abstention until after it was over. (The plan passed, by the way.)
Behind the Scenes
As my colleague Anupreeta Das reported earlier this week, it turns out Buffett was expressing his reservations behind the scenes. And now Coke is likely to change the plan.
Buffett's Past Words
But many of the shareholders we talked to say they want to hear about why Buffett decided to abstain instead of voting no. They want to hear why he didn't speak up publicly before the vote. And they want to hear how he reconciles the apparent soft touch he took on the matter with his discussion about executive pay from the 2009 annual meeting, when he said large shareholders in companies should "speak out on the most egregious cases" of CEO compensation abuses.
"The way to get big shots to change their behavior is to embarrass them," he said at the time. "It would act as a restraining factor that might set in corporate America… The restraining factor isn't there right now."
Read the Story
Preeta's Coke scoop is here.
Our Recent Berkshire Coverage
The movie is still playing. So while we're waiting, let's get caught up on some of the other articles we've written in recent days. On our MoneyBeat finance blog, we've covered a (doomed) dividend proposal on this year's proxy, offered some suggestions for tough questions for Buffett and put together a timeline that tracks the meeting's swelling attendance.
'We Love the Managers of B-R-K-A!'
In the video, Buffett just warbled a version of "My Way" with Paul Anka where the lyrics were changed to praise Berkshire employees.
Now they're playing an altered version of YMCA as Nebraska cheerleaders dance in the aisles.
The chorus: "We love the managers of B-R-K-A!"
Let's Give 'Em a Hand
That got a big round of applause.
More Homework
Meanwhile, behind the paywall on WSJ.com, you can read about Howard Buffett, the son of Warren Buffett, who has long been slated to take over the role of chairman (in a non-executive capacity) when the elder Buffett is no longer around. It has some great pictures. We've also written about the cost of hotels and Buffett's Airbnb push, and Berkshire's first-quarter earnings, which came out Friday afternoon.
Buffett, Anka in the House.
Movie's over. Buffett and Munger have taken the stage. Buffett is introducing special guests. The first is Paul Anka.
"We're available for weddings and funerals," Buffett says in the wake of the video.
The second is a shout out to Carrie Sova, who has organized the Berkshire meeting for the past several years as it's grown into a massive gathering.
Now Buffett is talking about Berkshire's first-quarter results. It was not an incredibly interesting quarter. The insurance underwriting results were poorer, but largely because of some unusual items in last year's first quarter.
Now Buffett is discussing the dividend item on the proxy. He's not being kind. He says it was "rather elegantly stated," implying that it was not.
The short version of the story is, it lost very very badly. I only got a brief glimpse at the numbers (we'll get a closer look later) but it only got around 2% of the vote, even when you remove Mr. Buffett's massive stake.
First Question
Now for the first question, via Carol Loomis, on Coke.
Not Going to War
Buffett starts by saying the calculation by the activist investor on the stock dilution from the Coke plan was "wildly off" and says that he'd talked to Coke's CEO about his reservations "right here in Omaha" before the vote.
He says he remains a fan of Coke and its management. "We had no desire to go to war with Coca-Cola. … I don't think going to war is a very good idea."
In the end, his quiet approach beforehand, he says, means "the best result was achieved… we will see what happens in terms of compensation."
'Very Well'
Buffett briefly throws it to Munger, who says: "I think you handled the whole situation very well," and then stops.
Munger, who has long served alongside Buffett as Berkshire's vice chairman, is famously very brief and blunt, and many of the shareholders here know it. So the shortness of his first comment of the day elicits laughter.
Says Buffett: "And Charlie remains vice chairman."
'We Agreed'
Buffett says the only person he talked to about his plan before the Coke vote was Munger. "We agreed on the course of action."
Some technical issues mean I've fallen behind slightly. So, briefly, there was a question about Heinz and 3G that prompted Buffett to say that he would not be adopting the firm's tactics, but would look for more opportunities to work with them.
And then he fielded a question about Obama from a questioner who was not a fan of the president. Buffett, famously, is. No news there.
Buffett then fielded a question about why the company moved the goalposts on how he measures the company's success. We covered this issue here. Briefly, he says he was honest about how the company would do by his five-year metric in the 2012 letter, so he didn't need to rehash it in 2013.
The Berkshire chairman and vice chairman are rehashing their thoughts on intrinsic value and when it's appropriate to buy back shares. This is largely covered in Buffett's past annual letters. Berkshire instituted a buyback for the first time just a few years ago.
Second question from the floor is from a shareholder from Los Angeles. He's asking about buying whole companies versus buying stock, as Berkshire has moved more toward buying companies outright. He wonders how Buffett assures existing owners that his acquisition won't be too disruptive.
"We can't promise never to have a layoff…because who knows what the world holds," Buffett says. "We can promise not to sell their business, however" so long as there's not unending losses or major labor problems.
"We are keeping certain businesses that you would not get a passing grade at business school for our reasons for keeping them," he says.
But Berkshire keeps them because Buffett needs to keep his promises…so he can continue to buy companies.
"As long as we behave properly…really no one will have much luck in competing with us."
Munger says: "It's worked pretty well and we're unlikely to stop."
Buffett: "You can tell he doesn't get paid by the word."
Howard Buffett and Coke
Next question, from a shareholder via Andrew Ross Sorkin: Howard Buffett is supposed to maintain Berkshire's culture. How can we trust that will happen when he serves on the Coke board and apparently didn't object to the pay plan?
Buffett so far is speaking generally in his response to this question. He says when he's been on boards, he's voted for comp plans and acquisitions that he thought were a mistake. And that it's "almost unheard of" for board members who aren't on a comp committee to oppose the comp plan.
Now he's rehashing his general thoughts on why so-called independent directors aren't so independent. It's because they get paid too much.
Safety Value
On Howard Buffett's role as future chairman of Berkshire, the elder Buffett says his son will be in the position to "facilitate change if the board decides a change is needed. It's a safety value."
"Howie is the perfect guy to carry that out," Buffett says.
Cost of Capital
Next question is from the analyst panel, from new participant Greggory Warren of Morningstar. He's asked what Berkshire's cost of capital is and whether future leaders of the firm will be able to exceed the cost of capital.
"We view our cost of capital as the returns we can get from our second-best idea…and we have to exceed that" with our best idea. But he also says he doesn't really trust or believe calculations of cost of capital…and says people who talk about cost of capital often don't know what they're talking about.
"We think we can evaluate businesses" that are available to buy, and measure whether it'd be better to own them or the stocks already in their portfolio. That's how he evaluates it.
A shareholder from the floor is asking about Nebraska Furniture Mart, a Berkshire-owned store. Buffett says it was "not a bargain purchase, but it was a great business."
He says there was another company, a German firm, that was also trying to buy them at the time.
Incidentally, shareholders get discounts for shopping at the original Omaha location of the store this week. And Buffett wants people here to remember that.
"If you want to talk about bargain purchases, we should talk about going out to the Nebraska Furniture Mart."
Future Plans
Buffett said in his latest annual letter that most of the money that's going to his wife upon his death will be invested in a low-cost S&P500 index fund. A shareholder, via Loomis, asks why the money isn't going into Berkshire shares. Loomis said she got the question from numerous people.
On his wife's capital allocation: "That is not a question of maximizing capital. That's just a question of total 100% peace of mind….It is not designed for her to get even larger amounts of capital."
He reminds shareholders that he's giving his Berkshire shares to charity over several years after his death. (Much of it is to the Gates Foundation, in the largest charitable donation in history.)
"On the part I care about maximizing, I have instructed the three trustees to not sell a single share [of Berkshire] until it has to be sold. That's good for 12 years."
Analyst Jonathan Brandt asks about service challenges faced by the Burlington Northern railroad and whether rival Union Pacific is doing better. Buffett says that BNSF has handled more volume than in the past, but there's no question BNSF has had a lot of service problems particularly in the northern route. Buffett said BNSF is spending more money than Union Pacific in terms of attempting to anticipate the kinds of problems that can occur when you can get a big increase in volume on that one route from the boom in the Bakken shale. BNSF has got a lot of trains running on that line that weren't running five years ago.
Buffett and BNSF's Matt Rose said cold weather caused a lot of problems too. Rose said he's never seen winter weather like this with 83 inches of snow in Chicago and over 30 days it went to zero degrees in Minnesota… "things just don't work." Buffett added they are spending $5 billion on capital expenditures at BNSF this year, and no other railroad's spending comes close.
Natural Gas
A shareholder from Omaha asks: If the price of natural gas goes up sharply, how will that affect results at the Berkshire-owned energy company. Buffett says he's not worried about that threat, and throws it to Greg Abel, the chairman and CEO of the unit.
Abel also cites the cold winter for recent results, but says he's "proud" of how the resources were managed. He says renewable energy sources will meet more and more needs of customers, and cost-recovery mechanisms allow pass-throughs of rising costs to customers.
Buffett says he tips his hat to the way Abel has been running Berkshire's energy company.
Exec Pay at Berkshire
A shareholder asks whether Berkshire would increase disclosure about what top Berkshire employees are earning. He says they'll do what the SEC requires and no more. The reason: publishing the info would create envy and make people want to earn more when they see what others make.
Via Becky Quick, a shareholder asks who will replace Munger.
Buffett, who is a few years younger, says: "Charlie turned 90, and I find it very encouraging about how he's handling middle-age."
Buffett acknowledges it's a good question. "They always talk about replacing me, but they never talk about replacing Charlie."
Then he says that he's not discussed it with the board. He's leaving the sense that there may not be a new vice chairman under him when Munger dies.
Then he throws it to Munger, who says the question will be answered in somewhat short order.
"Most 90-year-old men are gone soon enough," Munger says.
Holding Cash
A shareholder up near us in the rafters, from West Des Moines, starts off by asking Buffett to please not move the meeting to Dallas.
Then a question on how much capital comes up to Berkshire from the operating subsidiaries. Buffett likes to keep $20 billion in cash on hand to make sure they're ready for a rainy day, but says it "does not make that much difference" as it's earning the same in either place.
"I know where the cash is," Buffett says, adding he can move it when he needs to.
But that comes after Buffett gets in a zinger about his own mistakes, and says they come in part because he is "more inclined towards action" than Munger. And he asks Munger if that's a fair assessment.
Munger says it's fair. "You once called me the abominable 'no' man."
A shareholder asks, via Loomis, what the company's weaknesses are. Buffett says he probably could be more aggressive in taking cash from some units, and says he has "a clear weak point" in that "I am slow to make personnel changes."
The lack of supervision over subsidiaries will also mean that, at times, "we'll miss something." But it also helps the managers accomplish a lot.
He predicts that someone will do something wrong in the future that will prompt outsiders to criticize the system and say he needs more oversight. "What they won't be able to measure is how much we've been able to achieve with dozens and dozens of people because we gave them that leeway."
Munger adds: "I think a lot of places work better where we create a system of earned trust." Doing any differently, he says, does more harm than good.
An analyst question probes why See's Candies is not showing earnings growth in recent years. Buffett says it's an industrywide issue.
"The box chocolate business is basically not growing," he says, but See's is a well-run company. "We can't do much about increasing the size of the market."
They've tried to have See's expand outside of its home base in the western US, and failed.
"We've done very very very well with See's" over time, he says. And he says it has made a major contribution beyond its earnings: "It opened my eyes to the power of brands. … you can say we made a whole lot of money in Coca-Cola" because of what Buffett learned about the power of brands from See's. He says he's not sure he would have made that Coke investment without that lesson.
"It's main contributor to Berkshire was ignorance removal," says Munger.
Asked by a shareholder on the floor about Bank of America, where Berkshire has made a major investment, Buffett says "that error they made does not bother me."
Bank of America, of course, had to reverse course on a buyback and dividend-increase plan after miscalculating capital levels last month.
Buffett says there are voluminous reporting requirements. "You do the best you can" with them, he said. What matters is "that error did not affect their GAAP."
"It doesn't change my feeling about Bank of America's risk management one iota."
Largest Stock Holdings
From the analyst panel, Jay Gelb of Barclays asks about how much Berkshire could spend on a deal, and asks if some of Berkshire's largest and longest stock positions could be sold to fund an acquisition.
Buffett says, in part, that they can handle most deals without doing so, since they have over $40 billion and are willing to go down to $20 billion.
But "if I needed to, I would…That could happen. Could happen this year, could happen 10 years from now."
He says he has other stocks he'd sell before his largest holdings. "If we were to raise $5 to $10 billion," he said wouldn't sell those.
A shareholder from Italy asks about whether Berkshire should lever up so it could invest more and make more money.
Buffett says that given borrowing costs, it's a good question. And he says maybe they would have done so if they were much smaller.
But he also says that he has $25 billion in cash he'd like to spend and can't find a satisfactory place to put it, so there's no need to lever up.
He also says he "probably" should have bought back some shares when he used Berkshire shares to help do the BNSF deal.
Climate Change
Buffett and Munger say they don't consider the effects of climate change as they plan their investment decisions.
Munger says the climate is clearly changing, but people who think they know exactly how that will shake out are "talking out of their hats."
Yeah, I'm pretty sure he said "hats."
Todd and Ted
Combs and Weschler, Berkshire's two investment managers, are now in line for praise. Buffett says they are "terrific additions to Berkshire" for reasons beyond their investment skills. They manage about $7 billion each, and will continue to shoulder more "as the years go by."
If Buffett Ran the Fed
What would Buffett do differently if he ran the Fed?
"I don't think I would be doing much differently," he says.
He says he believes the Fed has done very well since the financial crisis.
Because the Fed actions have worked, "I would like to say I would have done exactly the same thing," he says. But he acknowledges "I've been surprised at how well it's worked."
"It's an interesting movie because we haven't seen it before, and also because we don't know how it ends."
The Conglomerate Model
Munger and Buffett field a question about whether the conglomerate model will continue working at Berkshire once they're gone. They draw a distinction between types of conglomerates, and say ones that failed often just kept issuing stock and weren't operated the same way that Berkshire is.
"We are a lot more like the Mellon brothers than Gulf + Western," says Munger.
Keystone XL
Someone asks how the oil sands and the Keystone pipeline will affect Berkshire businesses. Buffett says Berkshire's Marmon unit benefits, and a newly acquired unit that helps move oil through pipelines will do more business.
But of course BNSF is a competitor to oil pipelines, and Buffett says the railroad moves 700,000 barrels a day. He says that rail is more flexible for choosing a destination for oil and says he doesn't see a major threat.
"I think the oil sands are an important asset for mankind over the centuries to come, but I don't think it'll dramatically change anything at Berkshire," Buffett says.
About That Bet
Just before a break for lunch, Buffett updates shareholders on a six-year old bet he made with some hedge-fund managers about whether they could pick a group of hedge funds that would outperform the S&P over time.
The first year, the fund-of-funds they assembled did well in a down year. But over the entire life of the bet, the cumulative return of the S&P index fund has been 43.8%, while the hedge funds returned 12.5%.
Now Buffett and Munger are taking an hour break for lunch. We'll take a shorter break and then come back to discuss some of what we heard in the first half.
Shameless Plug
While you're waiting, fell free to check out this excerpt from our MoneyBeat podcast, which we do every Friday, where we discuss the Berkshire meeting.
Some Video While You Wait
When you are done with the podcast, here are some videos from Saturday morning as Berkshire investors streamed into the CenturyLink Center.
Lauren Morrissey, 22 years old, attends her first Berkshire meeting.
A look at the long line leading into the 2014 meeting.
About that Dividend
We blew past it at the start, so let's revisit the shareholder proposal that asked the board to consider paying a dividend. It was roundly defeated, getting less than 2% of the vote.
We wrote about it in advance and said the 2% and 8% levels were important.
Buffett briefly displayed a tally that broke down the vote by holders of the Class A shares and the much smaller Class Bs, which showed little variability between the two classes of stock.
And even removing Buffett's own sizable stake from the calculation failed to lift the number of supporters for a dividend beyond 3%.
The takeaway is that the vocal group of shareholders that want to get a dividend are wildly, wildly outnumbered. This vote handed Buffett another bit of ammunition for the next time he needs to make his case that Berkshire shouldn't pay one.
We're Back
More questions in just a minute. Right now, Buffett is talking about attendance, saying there's "substantially more" people than in any other year. Berkshire told us ahead of time 38,000 people were likely to come.
Energy Future
Buffett is asked by Becky Quick about his investment in Energy Future Holdings, the former TXU. He told investors about the disastrous investment in his most recent shareholder letter.
It was simply a mistake, Buffett says, which is something that will happen from time to time. And he declines a chance to assign a share of the blame for the investment to anyone else at Berkshire.
Looking to the Future
He uses the topic as a chance to discuss the need for Berkshire managers to look to the future and figure out what challenges could undermine their business. Which means we've covered three of these six topics we identified ahead of time. We're batting .500 and we've got a couple hours to go.
Heinz Earnings
Mr. Gelb of Barclays asks about Heinz's earnings power. Buffett says Heinz was "actually a reasonably run food company with about 15% pre-tax margins" before Berkshire and 3G acquired it.
That's "not an unusual margin in the food business," he said. But it'll do better than that under the new management. "The margins of Heinz will be significantly improved from those historical figures," he said, but declined to give a number.
Should Have Waited
Buffett says he spent a lot of Berkshire's spare cash "too early" during the financial crisis.
Buffett jumped in and arranged one-off deals with major US companies during the early months of the crisis, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and General Electric. Berkshire also made smaller investments in companies including Harley-Davidson and Tiffany.
But Buffett said, knowing what he knows now, "We didn't do remotely as well if we had kept all our powder dry" until the very bottom. "The timing could have been improved dramatically."
The only problem, he says, is that he's never figured out how to determine when the market is at the bottom.
That's an interesting perspective, especially since Buffett published a widely read column on why he was buying stocks in October 2008.
Future of Car Insurance
Andrew Ross Sorkin shares a question from an investor wondering about Geico's views on telematics and self-driving cars. Both are hot topics in the auto-insurance industry.
Two years ago, Buffett said he didn't see what the big deal was with usage-based insurance, where insurers use a small device to evaluate how policyholders drive and adjust the price of coverage accordingly. By not publicly saying that it was looking at the technology, Geico stands in stark contrast to all the other major US auto insurers.
Buffett says he still feels Geico can do just fine without it, but sounds more open to the idea of giving the technology a look.
"We think we have a pretty good system but we'll continue to look at many variables," he said. "I feel very very very good about Geico, Geico's management and it's ability to evaluate risk….In my view, there's nobody better.
But Buffett and Munger both say self-driving cars represent "a real threat to the auto insurance industry," presumably because accidents, and therefor premiums, will fall.
"It will be very good for society and it will be very bad for auto insurers," Buffett says.
But Munger says that adoption of the technology may take longer than people think.
You're Welcome
Telematics. Another thing we brought up in our preview. You're welcome!
Looking Outside the US
Morningstar's Warren asks why Berkshire has deployed very little capital outside of the U.S. and whether the U.S. is truly more attractive than other markets? Buffett said they've not turned down the chance to make a big acquisition outside the U.S. because of any feeling that "we'd much rather be doing something in the U.S." He mentioned the recent AltaLink deal with Berkshire Hathaway Energy as an example; AltaLink is based in Alberta, Canada. "We've not had as much luck getting on the radar screen of owners around the world as we've had in the United States," he said. Apart from Israeli metal-cutting equipment maker Iscar, which Berkshire owns, founder or family-owned companies of size that Buffett typically likes to buy from Europe or other continents haven't come calling, he said. "I've been a little disappointed we haven't have better luck outside the country but we'll keep working at it."
Book Value
The next question from a shareholder, via Loomis, is over the comparison Buffett makes of Berkshire's book value versus the S&P. The shareholder says the comparison makes no sense.
Munger fields this one, and is as loquacious as he's been all day. He says the questioner is correct. The comparison makes it difficult for Berkshire to look good, he says. But Buffett likes a challenge.
Looking Back
A younger shareholder says he's not interested in tech, but wants to be an entrepreneur. He asks what Buffett would do if he were 23 years old now, and had no interest in the tech sector.
Buffett essentially says he'd do exactly what he did back when he was 23. He urges young people to find out what their passion is and pursue that.
A question about hotel prices. The questioner says Buffett's efforts to steer shareholders to Airbnb seems to go against the tenets of capitalism.
Buffett points out that Berkshire wants people to come, and "since we want to increase the demand, the proper thing to do is increase the supply."
He says most hotels in Omaha weren't overcharging. But "there were few that were really pushing things…What really bothered me was the three day minimums" that some hotels have imposed.
What he doesn't say is that Berkshire companies like See's, Geico, Borsheims, Nebraska Furniture Mart and even NetJets make money from shareholders who come to Omaha. If more shareholders can afford to come, Berkshire makes more money.
In other words, the capitalist enterprise known as Berkshire wants to encourage capitalists to come and spent their capital. And they're doing it by promoting another capitalist enterprise.
Sounds pretty capitalist to me.
US Taxes
Buffett says Berkshire would never move overseas to reduce its tax bill, as Pfizer is reportedly looking to do.
"We could not have done Berkshire in any other country but the United States," Buffett says. "We don't begrudge the taxes we pay. We've earned a lot of money while paying U.S. taxes."
'That's Cheerful'
A shareholder from Los Angeles asks about whether Buffett disagrees with his mentor, Ben Graham, about how to calculate intrinsic value. Buffett brings up Philip Fisher in his answer, which ultimately becomes a long metaphor revolving around the phrase "a bird in the hand is with two in the bush."
Several factors matter in that comparison, including how close the bush is…and what interest rates are.
The questioner also asked what companies he sees as Berkshire's competition. Buffett says there isn't one.
"I don't seen any competitor to Berkshire," he says. "There are always going to be people competing with us to buy businesses… but I don't see anybody who has a model…that will essentially go after what we're trying to achieve."
Buffett and Munger conclude that others don't try to do what they do because it takes too long.
"The difficulty of being slow is that you're dead before it's finished," says Munger.
"Well, that's cheerful," says Buffett.
Should investors be worried about inflation?
If every person in America were to be handed $1 million overnight, Berkshire would be worse off, Buffett says. EPS would go up, but the value of the shares would go down in real terms, he says.
Munger doesn't seem to be as enamored by the Fed's actions since the financial crisis as Buffett said he was. He says there's some limit that will be reached when "politicians" print and spend endless piles of money. "I will never forget Weimar Germany," he says.
Other people shouldn't either, he warns.
Wall Street
I don't know what just happened. Munger just said that "behavior on Wall Street has enormously improved" since the financial crisis.
That's really not like him. He's usually rather scathing in his criticism of Wall Street.
Send 'Em to the Clink
Both Buffett and Munger say that they think prosecuting people instead of companies is the way to change behavior on Wall Street.
"We probably need some more" prosecutions of people, Munger says.
4 for 6
How would a major, catastrophic derailment impact Burlington Northern? I'd say that's a good question, since we asked it yesterday. (4 for 6!)
The issue, as the Wall Street Journal reported in January that the insurance industry hasn't historically had the capacity to cover the cost of a potential catastrophic train derailment in a large U.S. city.
Or maybe our question wasn't go great, because Buffett says "that's not one that keeps me awake nights."
At Burlington, "we are not getting paid enough" for moving hazardous chemicals like chlorine or ammonia, but is required to by US regulators.
But that doesn't mean the railroads are in danger.
"The four major railroads really have the financial capacity to pay a huge award" if needed, he said.
As an aside, he adds that Berkshire insurance guru Ajit Jain offered "some very high limits to all the major railroads but they don't like his price, presumably."
Sports Teams
Buffett says that if shareholders ever hear that he's bought a large professional sports team, it's time to revisit the succession question.
Which shoots a big hole in that report from April, I suppose.
A 'Forever' Investment
A question from the analyst panel concerns Berkshire's timing in launching its new initative in the commercial-insurance space. Commercial insurance rates appear to be starting a down period. Why enter now?
Buffett and Munger say the timing doesn't really matter, since they are building the business for the long term. Buffett calls it a "forever" investment.
Mortgage Reform
Question is on how the mortgage market should be reformed.
Buffett says the 30-year fixed mortgage "has done a lot for home ownership," and the government guarantee of it helps keep the cost down. So the government needs to "stay in the picture," he said.
There may be a role for private industry to provide more mortgage insurance, standing in front of the government, Buffett says. But he also says Berkshire would not likely be among the participants in that space, since he predicts that others would be more "optimistic" in setting their prices.
Well-known investor Whitney Tilson has a question about 3G, the firm Berkshire partnered with on the Heinz deal. Tilson says he's reading a book about them. Buffett interrupts to let people know the book is for sale in the convention area of the arena.
Buffett says Berkshire is fortunate to be associated with the company. Munger says they're excellent about cutting costs, and that removing costs is "a service to humanity."
Warren Buffalo
This is a dedicated group. To wit: A shareholder says he named his son Warren.
This fact, of course, is of great interest to Buffett, who asks how his son is doing.
The shareholder says he's doing well, but is just a small child and often mistakenly calls his namesake "Warren Buffalo."
Buffett responds: "I've been called worse."
Looking Ahead
Buffett is asked by the shareholder about what Berkshire will look like in 20 years. He says that he doesn't fully know the answer, but says there will come a time when the company has more capital than it knows what to do with.
"What I do know is that we will have more cash than we can intelligently invest in the future," he says. "It's not on a distant horizon. The number is getting up to where we can't intelligently deploy the amounts coming in."
Buffett says the company may buy back shares, but I suspect some Buffettologists will interpret that statement as an acknowledgement that perhaps a dividend isn't out of the question eventually. Despite that vote earlier.
After all, Buffett has said that he hasn't paid a dividend because he believes he can put Berkshire's funds to good use in investments and deals.
"Whatever is done will be done in the interest of the shareholder," Buffett says. "Every decision is based on that principle."
Four-Way Split
A shareholder asks if it would be advisable to split the company into four separate companies to better show the world what the company is worth.
Buffett says that would be a big mistake. "We would lose significant value," he says, including in the areas of capital allocation and taxes.
The shareholder also brings up the dividend question again. It's not clear to me whether he's aware of the vote or the results announced earlier.
But Buffett says he was "surprised" at how many shareholders were happy with the current no-dividend policy.
Nearly Done
And…. that's it for the Q&A. The official shareholder meeting will start in 15 minutes or so. Given that the results of the dividend vote were already disclosed, it's unlikely that there will be any further news, but we'll keep the live blog running just in case there's a newsworthy development.
Board Members Elected
Board members are all re-elected, of course.
Exec Pay
Executive pay vote passes with a very large majority in favor, as expected.
More Pay Questions
Next is a vote on whether the company should hold an advisory vote on pay every one, two or three years.
A shareholder wants to speak. She is in favor of the one-year span and more disclosure on what some other Berkshire managers are making–especially Ajit Jain.
Buffett covered why he was opposed to more disclosure of executive pay than was required by law earlier in the meeting.
The 3-year span gets the most votes.
Greenhouse Gas
Next on the proxy is a shareholder proposal to "establish reasonable, quantitative goals for reduction of greenhouse gas and other air emissions at its energy-generating holdings."
A similar measure got 57,569 votes, or about 8.2% of the vote last year. The Berkshire representative who just announced the results didn't give the number of abstentions, so we can't offer a percentage for this year yet, but the number of yes votes fell to 49,553.
The company will presumably file an 8-K next week with full results.
Last Thing
Last is the dividend proposal. David Witt, a tax accountant from a Cincinnati suburb who proposed it, told MoneyBeat earlier this week that he wouldn't come to the meeting. The measure fails.
And that's it! The meeting is over, but we've got one more tidbit for you. Wall Street Journal videographer Marshall Crook spotted suspended Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez earlier this afternoon. A-Rod declined an interview request but said he was having a nice day and was here to "learn from the best."
Berkshire insured A-Rod's contract with the Texas Rangers, and later, Buffett advised him on one of his contract negotiations with the Yankees.
Running Dry
There are plenty of reporters left in the press box as we try to digest what it all means, but few shareholder are lingering in the arena. The lights are coming up. They're stacking the chairs. The Coke supply has run down. The See's is running short.
Thanks for joining us. See you here next year.


text:
When healthy, Grauer was absolutely dominant in the circle, going 22-2 with an ERA of 0.09 (two earned runs all season). She struck out 274 batters in 152 innings while posting 19 shutouts and leading the Dons to the East Bay Athletic League title. Before an ankle injury ended her season just before the North Coast Section Division I playoffs, the Arizona-State bound junior had pitched four no-hitters, including a perfect game and eight one-hitters.
-- Stephanie Hammon
LINDSEY CHALMERS, California, Sr., pitcher -- A Cal Poly commit, Chalmers' strong pitching was a big reason the Grizzlies shared the EBAL championship and finished 21-5. She had 13 shutouts on the year.
MALIA RIVERS, Heritage, Sr., catcher -- The Bay Valley Athletic League MVP, Rivers hit .595 with 47 hits, 33 runs and a team-high 25 RBIs as the Patriots took second in league play and advanced to the NCS Division I quarterfinals.
KYLEE PEREZ, Alhambra, Jr., infield -- A UCLA commit, Perez remains one of the area's top offensive players. The shortstop hit .618 with 51 RBI, 46 runs and 12 homers for the Diablo Foothill Athletic League champions.
KELSEY RANDALL, Concord, Jr., infield -- Randall keyed the offense for the NCS Division II champions, hitting .530 and leading the Minutemen in runs (32), hits (44) and RBI (23).
NICOLE CURRY, Alhambra, Jr., infield -- The slugger was named DFAL MVP after hitting .474 with 44 RBI, 31 runs and 12 homers. Curry was also a solid fielder, helping the Bulldogs go 23-3-1 overall.
KWYN COOPER, California, Sr., infield -- A versatile athlete, Cooper was a key hitter for a Grizzlies squad that reached the NCS Division I semifinals. She is a repeat EBAL first-team selection.
KIMBERLY GOULART, James Logan, Sr., outfield -- Goulart hit .484 as the leadoff hitter for the NCS Division I champions. She led the Colts in runs (32) and hits (45), earning all-Mission Valley Athletic League honors.
KRISTEN CLARK, Monte Vista, Sr., outfield -- Clark, who is headed to UC Santa Barbara, was the top offensive threat for the Mustangs and an all-EBAL first team selection.
KRISTA WILLIAMS, Amador Valley, Sr., outfield -- Williams, a Northwestern signee, was a spark at the top of the Dons' lineup, hitting over .400. She earned EBAL first team honors for the third straight year.
SHANNON MESTAS, Clayton Valley Charter, Sr., utility -- Mestas was an ace in the circle and key offensive contributor for the DVAL co-champions, mashing home runs in the playoffs and putting up solid numbers all season. She was the DVAL Player of the Year.
ZOE CONLEY, Salesian, Jr., pitcher
KAREN CHAW, Castro Valley, Sr., catcher
ASHLEY LOTOSZYNSKI, Amador Valley, Jr., infield
MEGHAN BRADBURY, Salesian, Jr., infield
JESSICA CATSON, California, Sr., infield
ZOE MARROTT, Campolindo, Fr., infield
JOELLE WILLIAMS, California, Sr., outfield
KIERRA WILLIS, Clayton Valley Charter, Sr., outfield
NIKI KALEIALLI, Freedom, Sr., outfield
KELLY DRAKE, Concord, Jr., utility
Third team
ERIN ENKE, Alhambra, Jr., pitcher
MADISON WILLIAMS, Freedom, Sr., pitcher
MIA MONOPOLI, Acalanes, Sr., catcher
JACEE ALMOND, Clayton Valley Charter, Sr., infield
ALEXIS CARNEY, Bishop O'Dowd, Sr., infield
ALI RAMIREZ, Heritage, Sr., infield
OCTAVIA BOND, Northgate, So., infield
ALYSSA LANZA, Livermore, Sr., outfield
MONIQUE COOK, Concord, Jr., outfield
GEORGIA HILL, Piedmont, Sr., utility


text:
Apply the CAARP Test:
Your research question is "What are the social benefits and liabilities for tribes developing casinos on Indian reservations?"
Which database would be more likely to point you to articles relevant to your topic?
- Sociological Abstracts
- Biological Abstracts
Sociological Abstracts indexes journals that focus on social consequences of human behavior, which is more relevant to your topic.
Biological Abstracts indexes journals in the life sciences, which would not likely cover social aspects of your topic.
Photo source: Flickr - photon_de


text:
It appears this old argument is flaring up again. On Linux.com there was an article discussing some recent posts on the Linux Foundation's Desktop Architects mailing list: Christian Schaller suggested Linus Torvalds should try using Gnome for a month and then report back on his experiences at the forthcoming GAUDEC conference in the UK. Inspired by this I've decided to take up the challenge – all be it in the opposite direction (and I won't be reporting back at GAUDEC!).
I haven't used KDE in well over a year, and when I did I only used it for a few days, so I have very few expectations about what I'm going to find. The reason I've never really tried KDE before is that Gnome hasn't given me any reason to switch: I've always been very happy with it and I guess it might be fair to say I'm something of a Gnome fan. Despite this I promise to try and stay as impartial as possible! I've just installed KDE on this system and this week I plan to report back on my first impressions. I'm hoping that things I might find different or difficult to begin with will be highlighted here and some kind people will point me in the right direction so I can have the best possible experience.
Logging in for the first time seemed to take quite a while to reach the desktop so this persuaded me to compare the two desktops in terms of speed: this first login was a bit of a fluke because when I switched back to compare this with Gnome the second login seemed a lot quicker. In fact I would say that KDE actually feels a bit sharper than Gnome across the entire desktop with applications starting quicker, specifically Firefox – a great start for KDE!
My first major gripe, though, is the desktop pager and keyboard short-cuts! I'm a big fan of multiple desktops and find it to be very useful in Gnome; I'm also a big fan of being able to very easily switch desktops with the keyboard short-cut ctrl+alt+right which is set by default in Gnome. This seems as obvious and important to me as ctrl+alt is for switching open windows - yet in KDE it was not set by default. I've heard this sort of point raised before with people suggesting that Gnome opts for sensible defaults where as KDE expects the user to configure everything just the way they like it; I'm starting to believe this is true! I was able, however, to quickly find the Keyboard and Mouse options menu and set the short-cut myself. At this point in my journey I'm leaning more towards the Gnome way of doing things; perhaps after a month I will have been seduced by the infinite configurability of KDE and the satisfaction of making things just so.
While trying to sort out the above problem I found the System Settings menu which I actually thought was very good, as are all the settings' dialogues throughout: although I'm not convinced they're laid out in the most intuitive way they are very thorough and give quite a few more options than is immediately obvious in Gnome's menus and and applications. For example Kopete's options were clearly labelled and I immediately discovered how to change my screen name and set a display picture, something which is not that apparent in Gaim (although this has been improved in version 2).
I'm also looking forward to giving Konqueror a good work out. I've heard lots of positive things about its speed and the quality of its rendering engine so I'm interested to see what these are like in the real world; not forgetting to mention its reputation as a brilliant file manager! I haven't really had much need for Konqueror yet so you'll have to wait until my final thoughts in a month's time (bet you can't wait!!).
I guess the final point I'll make regarding my first experiences with KDE is that it seems messy: everything looks very busy and I'm finding it quite difficult to pick out individual applications from the K menu, to pick out individual users in Kopete, icons in the system tray etc which makes navigation as a whole a bit less natural. Still I hear it's all customizable so I'll start playing around and see if I can set things up how I like! It would seem to me at this early stage that Gnome makes a lot more sense out of the box...
I realise this was very brief but I've not been using KDE for long! I'll write again in a months time and let you know all the things that have driven me crazy, the things that I've loved, and whether or not I'll decide to stay with KDE.
System Settings
It's worth knowing that System Settings is a customised control centre programme which is unique to Kubuntu, and distributions based on it, such as gNewSense-KDE. You should try out the official KDE control centre, KControl, as well, which you may or may not prefer, to get a proper impression of that aspect of KDE.
distro dependent
Your short biased "review" is essentially flawed. The way a desktop as flexible as KDE is set by default depends (attention!) *A LOT* on the distribution you take for a ride. Do not expect neither Slackware not even the "user friendly" Kubuntu to make the homework for you.
Nevertheless, in distributions where being rock solid barebones (with all my respects to Slack) or marketing fuss matters less than real world usability, KDE sports everything you seemed to yearn. This is mainly the case of PCLInuxOS and, to a certain extent, MEPIS.
Switching Desktops
In KDE, you switch Desktops by pressing Ctrl+F1.....F12. I think this is way simpler than pressing Ctrl+Alt+Right repeatedly.
...By Accident
It might be way simpler, but it conflicts with tabbed applications like Firefox. You see, CTRL+F4 is the shortcut for closing a tab and when you try to do that in Firefox under KDE, you end up staring at Desktop #4.
so use Ctrl+W
The default shortcut for closing a tab within Firefox is either Ctrl+F4 OR Ctrl+W. As Ctrl+W will do the same on both Opera and IE7, it could be argued (in today's most-popular-wins culture) of being a de-facto standard. :o)
Apps and the Window manager are always going to clash on shortcuts. Heck even between Firefox and its own extensions there are conflicts.
Firefox maps Ctrl+Shift+F to re-open last closed tab (very handy)
WebDeveloper toolbar maps it to Display Element Information (even handier). Firefox overrules WDT on that one though.
"all be it" - what the hell is that?
In your very first paragraph, albeit, not "all be it".
Albeit - Even though; although; notwithstanding: "Jonathan holds some strong opinions, albeit he is an idiot."
Thanks...I'll remember that
Thanks...I'll remember that for the future :D (minus the idiot bit!)
Shortcuts and Menus
I changed the default for switching desktops so long ago that I don't remember what it was originally set to, but I find having Alt+Tab for windows, Win+Tab for desktops, and Ctrl+Tab for browser tabs makes them all very easy to switch between.
I agree completely with the messy menus comment. This is one thing I like better about GNOME. I have to switch to just using the program's name in the menu for KDE because the description in parenthesis is very cluttering. And if you leave the default and install GIMP it will appear as GIMP Image Editor (Image Editor). Very annoying. If every .desktop file listed what should appear in the menu in the Name entry like the GNOME apps do everything would be much nicer.
KDE only feature?
One thing I found in KDE: when you put mouse pointer over desktop switcher KDE pops a bubble with list of apps in that desktop. Gnome does not do that (or I could not find the setup for it). I find this to be useful when you forgot which desktop your app is in (saves you from switching between desktops while searching for it).
OpenSuse's Interpretation of KDE
For years I was also a big gnome fan but recently, since the whole Microsoft/Novell get-together I decided to try a new distro - which I fell in love with. PCLinuxOS is everything I have ever wanted but I had to get used to KDE to use it. It didn't take too long but I still find myself going into the Xterm to do a lot of things, because its just more efficient!
But I would recommend to you trying out OpenSuse 10.2's interpretation of both KDE and Gnome. As much as I dislike Novell for their contract with the devil I can't put down the wonderful work the opensuse community has done - I adore their Gnome setup because it is so pretty and serene - and although I havnt spent much time with their KDE setup, it seems that the K-menu is MUCH easier to use. If I knew how I would put their menu on PClinuxOS - and Im sure its easy - if you find out, would you let me know how?
Good luck with this new experience.
Mouse User
While most experts uses the keyboard short-cut, some new users like me prefer to use the mouse (as in desktop).
With this in mind, I am not able to switch virtual desktop in Gnome while in KDE, I can right click on Pager -> Configure Desktop -> Enable Mouse Wheel Over Desktop.
Most of us find this indispensible :-)
Anonymous coward
System Settings
It's worth knowing that System Settings is a customised configuration programme unique to Kubuntu and its derivatives, such as gNewSense-KDE. You should also try out the official programme, KControl, to get a proper idea of that aspect of KDE.
GNU - free as in freedom
Mouse gestures
You can set up mouse gestures in Konqueror the way they work in FFox and you'll see big increase in navigation speed.
Anonymous coward ;))
What strange keys...
Since when does ctrl-alt switch between open windows? I've always used alt-tab to switch windows since the dawn of time, when dinosaurs roamed the earth. This is the default in Windows, MacOS and KDE. Even AfterStep, back when I used that, among many others I had no idea Gnome used ctrl-alt. What an odd duck, I never would've guessed it off-hand.
As far as the first login goes, it always takes a little while longer because KDE sets up its configuration files in your home directory. Every subsequent login is MUCH faster.
If you wanted a more organized K Menu, then openSUSE's version would have been a better choice than Kubuntu. Some have complained about the odd navigation, but a few weeks of using it convinced me that it's a much better way to organize a menu. Far less cluttered, without the endless panes of cascading lists that can reach into infinity.
The best advice I have is to give the KDE apps a chance instead of running your usual Gnome apps within KDE. The magic of KDE comes from the integration of all the apps and utilities. Opening, editing and saving text files in Kate transparently over ftp is a good example of this. I've never been able to do this properly in Gnome.
On the other hand, I still prefer Evolution to KMail for my IMAP mail. Not all the KDE apps are suitable for my needs.
Dead Horse
When will PETA get involved and stop you people from beating this poor dead horse?
No because PETA is too busy
No because PETA is too busy being a terrorist group.
My two cents.
I use KDE at work and Gnome at home. I think Gnome feels better all around, and seems more stable. I like some of the advanced features like KDE's printer control panel (how you can scan a subnet). However, I too feel KDE is cluttered and loaded with tons of things I have no use for. I personally don't like how everything has to start with a "K" either. It can be summed up Gnome feels more like Mac OS X, and KDE feels more like Windows. I am very excited for KDE 4 and hope oxygen and plasma deliver!
Sometimes the visual confusion is related to familiarity
My day-day desktop is Windows, but right next to it, I have a KDE desktop. I work in an environment that demands a WIndows PC - Oh well.
As per your observation, I started using KDE back in the 0.xx days, and got to know it and had no need to change. These days, with the open desktop standards, I find that all the cool aps pulling me towards Gnome work just as well with KDE.
As far as finding the interface messy, I get a little lost in Gnome. I rememer that going from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95 freaked me out, and I found it very tiring and distressing for 10 or 11 years after that (actually a week or so pulled it up, but I am still finding stuff in XP). I think a lot of the usability of the GUI comes from learning the visual cues etc. As another example, OS-X really confuses the hell out of me, but only as I haven't taken the time to sit and learn what the obvious, intuitive intereactions are meant to be like.
All power to the KDE/Gnome battle. We are seeing both environments move ahead in leaps and bounds, trying things out (and failing in some cases), but in general, moving in the same direction: a full featured usable desktop, with shared standards and a choice. Sharing when they can, and competing/disagreeing when the need arises. Any given battle may be won by the other, but they both win by being able be different. The big players can't afford to experiment like this.
Neither work well
I've begun an explanation of why both KDE and Gnome suck on my site.
I don't propose that some other option is better, merely that both projects need work. It seems in my mind that the biggest downfall of both Gnome and KDE is that they each work with the other quite poorly.
Gnome Vs. KDE
I am about a week ahead of you. I am running a triple boot Oubuntu PC (Ubuntu, Edubuntu and Kubuntu) and this is my first experience with K. While I am using Amarok and K3B at home with Fedora Core 6 in Gnome, I wanted to really give KDE an honest trial. So far I am not enjoying it. While many of the programs are excellent (like the aforementioned Amarok and K3B) and the configuarbility will be a bonus in the future, at the present most of the settings are not intuitive for me and I am .... uncomfortable, rubbed the wrong way, grouchy in ways that I can only express in terms that are silly. Like, I am sick to death of K-this and K-that. I know this isn't the real reason, but the reason is hiding beneath that blue desktop somewhere in a subliminal folder. Probably I'll be able to address it later, but this first week hasn't been happy.
I recently set up our users (non technical people) with gnome (ubuntu). One by one they are all asking to be set up with kubuntu.
As someone who used gnome for two years until a couple of months ago, I can ubiasedly say KDE is just all round a better desktop and this despite distros pushing gnome as their default.
The Flipside
KDE is more glitz and eye candy. I started with KDE pretty much because it had that "snazzier" appearance. Later I gave Gnome a more fair trial and I must say I enjoy it's more robust nature over the glitz of KDE.
I believe the reason your "users" are wanting KDE is simply it's glitzier nature and the fact the "grass seems greener". Let them frolick in the KDE fields a few months, break things and decide then.
I personally installed
I personally installed Ubuntu and the Kubuntu on top, so I can use all the main progs in the one desktop.
I wonder how the Kubuntu development will go now that there will be collaboration with Linspire!
Religious wars on the desktop (ARGH!)
I think that both DTEs (Gnoome and KDE) have their good points and bad points. Any time anyone writes/saya/sends up smoke signals saying good *or* bad things about DTEs,browsers, OSs, or the merits of non-splintery toilet paper, the gloves come off and tempers flair. Get over it! The bloody boat sank. Use whichever of the DTEs and/or window managers that works best for you and let the rest of us do the same. Or go buy a Mac any you will have eye candy that you can't mess with or maybe even figure out the obscurely intutitive UI.
Sheesh! Grip a grip people.
Alisdair (but you can call me Al)
My story...
When I first dabbled in Linux some years back, KDE was the default (I've since forgotten the distro I was using back then). I loaded up Gnome and found it (then) to be clunky, slow and feeling like a beta. KDE was much faster and easier to use.
Fast-forward to 2007 and I'm running Ubuntu on a PIII laptop. I loaded KDE (not the Kubuntu DE, mind you - we're talking straight KDE) and found it responsive enough - but cluttered. Sure, I could figure out where stuff was and admit there's a higher level of control options available but, I tend to like one (or two, at most) directions to get to where I need to go. KDE seems to bend over backward trying to make 6 roads to reach the same destination.
The stickler for me, on a laptop that roams, is wireless configurations. In Gnome, I have network-manager. It's perfect and never fails me. It does it all, right in that one little icon. In KDE, I see at least 4 places where I can configure my network connections and, in my case, only one of them worked. I installed the KDE equivalent of NM and, although it first launched and fully resembled the Gnome version, it soon sank and would only display a red "x" and claim it wasn't running. If I can't easily switch between open/hidden/encrypted/shared/LAN/wireless networks using a laptop then the DE is useless to me, no matter how shiny it is.
Leaving Gnome :(
I was a GNOME user and occasional developer since it's first alpha releases. I never bashed KDE but always championed GNOME, but in the last month I have just felt restricted in GNOME (not talking about look and feel), simple things like not being able to type the path to a file in an open dialog, etc. I compiled KDE and gave it a shot (I use a LFS distro and ubuntu). The only gnome/gtk app I still have is GIMP. Configuration in KDE is a little more intimidating but the applications work and I get my work done faster because of them and that is all that really matters to me.
I also took the time to write a simple text editor in QT. QT seems to be a well written library and very easy to use, I've only toyed with it for two weeks so I can't say too much about QT.
Noob view
I'm not sure if my opinion matters here but I'm totally new to this and I have just given up on windows.I'm using SUSE 10.0 with the Gnome desktop but I have also tried the KDE desktop.KDE is just plain more confusing than Gnome. When I install stuff like picasa or Blender I can fumble around and get it to work with Gnome but try as I might I can't get them working in KDE, most stuff just opens up in an editor so I can see it but does not run.Sad to say the main best part of windows was that if you clicked an EXE it just worked, but that was also it's biggest problem.I like Linux but it's so splintered across different distros and flavours that the learning curve for them is more like a vertical line.
It is very difficult to get cozy with it.
I'm not even started on Linux..
I reached this article because I'm still using WinXP and I want to check Linux out. I have Ubuntu and Kubuntu laid before me I don't know which to check out first. After reading all the stuff about it, I still can't decide. Oh well..
I'll put it simply
It's easy really. What you are really deciding on is whether to use GNOME which is what comes by default with Ubuntu or whether to use KDE which is what comes with Kubuntu (hence the K). Are you the sort of person who wants everything decided already and doesn't want to do much tweaking? Go with GNOME or default Ubuntu. Or, are you the sort of person who likes to tweak everything and have lots of options available? If so go with KDE or Kubuntu.
I use GNOME because I had never tried either until I installed Ubuntu. I like GNOME. I gave KDE a try and I didn't like what I saw. But I can guarantee that if I stuck with it for longer I could have made it look just how I wanted it to look and I would have gotten used to it. Because I don't have weeks to spare getting used to a new way of doing things I'm sticking with GNOME.
You have the advantage of being able to choose right off the bat. So look at my questions above and decide what you want to be able to do. Bear in mind that you can install KDE in Ubuntu and try it out. Or you can install GNOME in Kubuntu and try it out. You will always have the choice to change and try and fiddle if you want.
Same as above
I am a network admin for the last 6 years (Windows PC domain) and am looking for a way off Microsoft's extortion list, living in constant fear of the next Microsoft wave of software vulnerabilities and constant barrage of glitches. I too have Ubuntu and Kubuntu iso's for a trial run, but the only differences anyone ever states about these two flavors (Gnome and KDE) are how to make a configuration change or finding a file. What I, and most assuredly, everyone looking for a windows replacement would like to know are the following:
1. Functionality - What can Gnome do that KDE can't and vice versa.
2. ChangeWhat will we loose in switching from Windows?
3. Security - Which is more secure (as far as being hacked, sniffed, storing data about the user activities.)
4. Benchmarks - How do they compare, performance wise, using the same rig and apps vs. each other & windows.
6. Integrity - Can you automate backups/duplications of your personal setting for a reinstall or distributed install at a multiple pc group?
5. Licensed Software - Most likely, the most complicated question but perhaps the most trivial. Everything from CAD programs like SolidWorks to DirectX Only PC games. Will it run our 16 bit, 32bit, 64bit programs, or how do we run them? Will we have to emulate winX on K\Ubuntu or emulate K\Ubuntu on winX. If so, is there a free way or are we saddled with a software vendor solution? Most windows users have at least 1 program they use that someone charged them for and they would like to continue to use that runs as an exe file, and most likely has some graphical or hardware use. Or perhaps we are left to search for an equivalent in the Linux omniverse.
what I like least about KDE
My pet peeve with KDE is the trite way so many of the most-used apps for it are deliberately misspelled or cutely named just so they can start with K, which completely defeats the purpose of having alphabetized menus. So what if the menus are still alphabetical when so much of the stuff all lands in K? Yuck! If I ever decide to use KDE, I'll probably go through and deliberately uninstall and replace as many K-named programs with non-K-named equivalents as I can.
I'm using plain Ubuntu with the default Gnome desktop, rather than Kubuntu with the KDE desktop, mostly because of that one gripe. I also don't seem to find things in the KDE menus as easily as I can find them in the Gnome menus. I'm sure they're all there - just not where I first think of looking.
Other than that, I'm glad someone out there is making assorted flavors so that people with different preferences can all (hopefully) find something they each like. I'm sure many people love the layout and look of the KDE menus & desktop. I even like the looks of KDE - just not actually using it.
for a beginner kde is
for a beginner kde is suitable (looks like windows desktop etc.)
for a pro gnome is best :)
Ya I too hate the K this and
Ya I too hate the K this and K that... I like amarok because it ends in k and not begins why cant all the programs move the K to the end... So retarded... From using Gnome and KDE together... I like gnome way better... the lie that you cant configure gnome as much as you can KDE is annoying it is just harder to go about it which is cool because someone cant come in and change it on you... I love the Gnome one way of doing things it makes sense to someone normal... the 30 ways to do one thing slows me down. I use amarok and k3b and kopete but for the DE Gnome is the best and with 2.20 it is so much better... I hope I am proven wrong with KDE4 but it looks like more glits and less actual usability Gnome makes me more conductive I find myself playing with KDE more than actually doing things. KDE is a toy and not much more which will do good for Linux... If the beauty of KDE4 doesn't draw windows and mac addicts over I don't know what will... for those of us who use computers to work Gnome owns...
I totally disagree... try
I totally disagree... try changing the keyboard short cuts for nautilus? like I am using both windows and linux so to make common i have configured alt + d in the konqueror for address bar... try doing that in nautilus... i am not aware... but i think it is not possible...
try getting windows key to do something like using for shortcuts... but in gnome windows key never get integrated. I tried doing it but cannot make it work...
Try setting the application short cuts in gnome.. you will be limited to 10 only why... because it allows only 10 command short cuts... I know 10 would be sufficient... but the way in which it has to be set is horrible... you have to literally type in keyboard characters like ctrl.. come on...
KDE has its own problems... main being the crashing apps... but it has improved a lot... it crashes very rarely for me... but when it crash.. have to reboot in most cases...
but i wil prefer kde any day... way better than gnome..
Personally I prefer XP to OSX.. No, wait, wrong thread. Hang on. Yes, the iPod is way better than the Zen. Damn it! Wrong thread again! Bear with me, I'll get this.. Yes, Blu-ray wipes the floor with, arragh..
Seriously though, KDE does it for me. It looks cleaner. Yes, the Keverything is annoying but on a mac there is about 54 thousand things called iSomething.
Interestingly though, I'm just upgrading my Kubuntu using the dist upgrade and it's just crashed. A reboot will probably f*ck my setup right up. Nice. Oh well, back to XP so I can google things like "KDE upgrade crash" and the like :)
kde doomed through naming
I am an opensuse and ubuntu user who has been using kde and gnome for quite some time on a number of distributions. I always used to be a big kde fan until I gave gnome a try.
When switching from kde to gnome you realise how trashy all the names of the kde programs are. It is like a bunch of teenage slang talkers got together and named them all, trying to put a K into every name and the random capitalization. I have installed quite a few desktop linux machines over the years and have consistent complaints about having trouble with all the strange names. Image is a big thing for standard desktop users and I think that is going to be KDE's downfall.


text:
FALLON, Nev. — It came down to the final round, and the Truckee girls tennis could not rally.
The Wolverines fell 12-6 to Fallon on Tuesday in a league match. Katey Hamill, however, earned half the wins as the No. 1 singles player went 3-0.
She breezed through Christina Hesselgesser (6-2), Sam Price (6-1) and Kali Strong (6-1). Madison Richey, meanwhile, recorded Truckee's fourth win in singles with a 6-0 victory over Strong.
Taysa Mohler and Diana Rosas and Hannah Schlang and Aimee LaGrandeur each won a doubles match for the Wolverines. Mohler and Rosas dropped Becky Conner and Hannah Perazzo, 6-2, while Schlang and LaGrandeur bounced Perazzo and Debra Beyer, 6-2.
One disadvantage for Truckee was the absence of three starters, according to coach Jessica Putz.
"I was filling some spots to make sure we had a competitive team," she said.
It's been a tough season for the Wolverines, who have managed only one win. The attitude of the girls, though, remains positive, Putz said.
Many of the girls are new to the sport and have kept an upbeat outlook throughout the year. Most of the newbies have teamed up on the doubles court, Putz said, which has led to the veterans taking singles action.
"It's baby steps," she said. "It's a rebuilding year, but the girls are having a great time and that's all that counts."
Hamill, meanwhile, is the undisputed No. 1 player and leader, Putz said. She can swing with most of her competitors and has her sights set on a regional appearance.
"She seems to do very well each time (out)," Putz said.
Looking forward, though, Putz said she wants to improve the girls' consistency. An issue for many of the Wolverines has been spraying erratic shots.
Putz said focusing on the basics will help improve the fundamentals of the newer players in hopes of re-establishing the once dominate program.
"My group is in really good spirits," she said. "I just have a really mellow team and pretty level-headed. They're all out to have a good time."
The Truckee boys tennis team defeated visiting Fallon 14-4 on Tuesday.
Fallon had done well against rival South Tahoe, with whom the Wolverines don't have a regularly scheduled match this year until regional finals. This had the team psyched for a battle.
"It was good to see the team ready to play, coming out strong from the outset," said Truckee coach Marc Pado.
Truckee's three starting singles players, Jake Kamenetsky, Jackson Rohlf and Branden Deeter, all won 6-0. All three doubles also won their sets with ease.
The second round was handed off to those players who often vie for the top seed spots. Joey Murray, Addison Dvoracek and Raphael Antz swept second-round sets.
"We threw together a few new partnerships in doubles, just to mix things up," Pado said.
Up 12 sets to none, the freshman took to the courts and finished the match.


text:
St. James still has a charm that many cities don't, and Taisia Gordon had that in mind when she opened her photography studio back in March.
Located at 116 N. Jefferson St., just a few doors down from the Leader-Journal office, Taisia Gordon Photography LLC, offers professional wedding and portrait photography.
"We've been in the building since the first of the year, but we opened it in March," she said. "We like the small community. I just love doing this, especially working with lots of different people."
Gordon says a great deal of her work takes her out of town, but she hopes to do more local work in the near future.
St. James, in particular, "has a lot of potential," she said. Gordon, her husband and two daughters have lived in St. James for about seven years.
Originally from New York, Gordon's educational and professional background is in natural resources and forestry.
Before taking on photography full time about nine years ago, she spent her 20s in digital mapping and doing wedding photography "on the side."
"I finally decided to leave that and go back to my to creative side," she said.
To contact Taisia Gordon Photography, call 573-263-5641.
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