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SAN JOSE -- Santa Clara County's retirement benefit debt has ballooned in recent years as officials tried to deflate it while avoiding a legal fight with its unions over the costly perks.
In 2007, when debt on its state-run employee pension plans had reached a worrisome $1 billion, the county gambled $392 million in bond proceeds in a bid to buy it down. As county officials explained at the time, "It's the equivalent of taking a second mortgage on your home and putting it in the stock market."
Then markets tanked, and despite its current rebound county officials admit that Great Recession losses will make it harder just to break even when they're paid off in 30 years. The state's retirement system is raising annual rates on its plans 50 percent in 2016 to deal with pension debt, which it now reports has grown to more than $1.5 billion for the county.
Gary Graves, the county's chief operating officer, said what happened after the pension obligation bond sale "was kind of a worst-case scenario." Though it was to be the first of three, county officials aren't eager to make that bet again.
"Like any investor," Graves said, "you wish you had the crystal ball."
But pension debt is only half the problem. In the years since the county sold the pension obligation bonds, its debt on retiree health benefits doubled to $1.8 billion. That figure has more than quadrupled over the past decade as the county stopped making the full yearly payments needed to cover the promised perk, citing other priorities amid tight budgets. County officials now are talking about ramping up payments toward the benefit by $10 million over each of the next five years, a tough goal when they already face a shortfall of $67 million in the upcoming budget. Officials plan to chip in surplus property sale proceeds and tax revenues from former redevelopment agencies, but admit it may not be enough.
"We're so far down," Graves told the Board of Supervisors at a recent meeting, that "we have a long way to go."
Different paths
Government retirement benefits have been headline news in Silicon Valley in recent years. A civil grand jury last year reported that the growing taxpayer cost of guaranteeing risk-free public employee retirement benefits more generous than those offered privately employed workers has eaten into budgets for programs and services. It urged local officials to trim benefits and raise employee contributions toward them.
But Santa Clara County has avoided the confrontational path taken by its largest city, San Jose, which maintains a municipal retirement system rather than one run by the state. City leaders in the county seat, facing retirement costs that more than tripled over a decade, took a more aggressive stance in seeking pay and benefit cutbacks from the city's unions, including a nationally watched ballot measure to trim pensions last June.
That has already shaved $400 million off the city's nearly $3 billion unfunded retirement debt and more than $30 million off the yearly bill. But those actions face legal challenges from city unions that say the city violated their benefit and bargaining rights, which could undo the gains.
Supervisor Dave Cortese said the county has cut deals with unions including unpaid furloughs and higher contributions toward benefits that have saved almost $1 billion over four years. And the county, he said, even imposed cuts on a union that wouldn't go along.
"We're not interested in litigating with our employees," Cortese said, arguing retirement debt would only grow during a long court fight. "We think we can get the outcomes we need without doing that. I think we've been very aggressive in the process negotiating those contracts."
Services impacted
Critics say the county hasn't done enough to trim the costly benefits, allowing retirement debt and costs to grow, consuming funds that otherwise would go toward programs and services, requiring tax hikes to help cover the bill and burdening future generations of residents.
"This was pretty much the sole reason we did not support Measure A, the sales-tax increase in the county last November," said Matt Mahood, president of the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce. "They have not addressed their long-term employee pension and health care benefits. It is simply not sustainable."
County supervisors disputed that the new tax is paying for retirement plan debt. Cortese conceded that surplus funds the county plans to put toward retirement benefit debt could otherwise be spent on programs. But he said the county isn't cutting programs to pay for retirement. The county, he added, has more funding options than cities like San Jose that have been forced to make dramatic cuts amid rising retirement bills.
"Is that making those funds unavailable for other services? Sure," Cortese said. "But you're not talking about cutting services, just not increasing services until such time as we've licked this problem."
More benefit cuts are coming, at least for new hires. Pension reform legislation that Gov. Jerry Brown signed last fall increased retirement ages and decreased pension formulas for new hires in governments like the county covered by the state system. The legislation also calls for employers like the county to negotiate bigger pension contributions from employees in coming years.
"There's no band playing a variety of loud music around this," Graves said. "But these reforms are impacting the way employees are compensated."
Risky strategy
The idea behind the pension obligation bonds was that by using a form of arbitrage, the county could shrink pension plan debt while paying less in interest than it would have in extra payments to the California Public Employees' Retirement System over 30 years.
But the strategy's success depends on market performance, and losses soon after the bonds are issued raise the returns needed to break even over the remaining years of the debt. Pension obligation bonds already have burned several governments. A 2010 city audit concluded Oakland lost $250 million from 1997 pension obligation bonds. Stockton also issued pension obligation bonds in 2007, and its costs have been cited as a factor in that city's bankruptcy.
But Santa Clara County officials were so confident of their strategy in 2007 that the same day they approved the bonds, they boosted pension formulas, a move supposed to be covered by extra employee contributions but which added $153 million to the pension debt.
Moody's Investors Service in March downgraded the county's pension bonds, citing risk factors including weakened fund reserves due to chronic budget deficits. County officials aren't looking to sell any more.
"The way the market declined, I don't think there's any appetite to do that," said Finance Agency Director Vinod Sharma. "It is very difficult to recover the losses if you incur them early on."
Graves said time will tell whether the city's or county's strategies prove more effective.
"I'm not going to tell you which is right and which is wrong," Graves said. "We're not going to know the answer until a long time down the road."
Contact John Woolfolk at 408-975-9346. Follow him on Twitter at Twitter.com/johnwoolfolk1.
Santa Clara County
TOTAL annual retirement
costs over 10 years
Includes pension, health care (about a fifth of current total) and employee contributions.
2003: $240 million
2006: $393 million
2012: $508 million
2013: $533 million
10-year increase: 122 percent
Source: Santa Clara County
Santa Clara County
retirement plan debt
The estimated gap between promised benefit costs and money set aside to pay for them, known as the "unfunded liability." Figures are adjusted annually to reflect changes including investment performance, benefit increases and demographic experience.
2007: $1.15 billion (includes $153 million liability for pension formula increase approved that year)
2011: $1.56 billion
Health care
2003: $425 million
2006: $845 million
2012: $1.86 billion
Source: CalPERS, Santa Clara County


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The Ring of the Nibelung - Twilight of the Gods
Richard Wagner (1813 – 1883)
The third day
A scenic festival in three days and an eve; First performed on 17th August, 1876 in Bayreuth; Premiered at the Deutsche Oper Berlin on 6th October, 1985
In German with German surtitles
|Sir Simon Rattle
|Donald Runnicles (12.01.2014)
|Götz Friedrich
|Stage-design, Costume-design
|Peter Sykora
|Choir Conductor
|William Spaulding
|Lance Ryan
|Markus Brück
|Eric Owens
|Hans-Peter König
|Evelyn Herlitzius
|Susan Bullock (12.01.2014)
|Heidi Melton
|Anne Sofie von Otter
|1st Norn
|Ronnita Miller
|2nd Norn
|Ulrike Helzel
|3rd Norn
|Heidi Melton
|Martina Welschenbach
|Ulrike Helzel
|Dana Beth Miller
|Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin
|Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin
"This RING was produced in Berlin in 1984 and 1985. The Orwellian year of "1984" had long become obsolete. We had not only reached it, gone way beyond! But this was not the only reason why the concept that had functioned so well in London was to be, and simply had to be, comprehensively overhauled. The Berlin "Time Tunnel" ultimately intended nothing less than to obey the words of Gurnemanz, Wagner's words to Parsifal:"Du siehst, mein Sohn, zum Raum wird hier die Zeit ( As you can see, my son, here space becomes time)." In this tunnel we sometimes managed to transform the different times, the history of the time that the RING shapes and depicts into a definite event or play in a given space. And we could find and say more with it: all that has been, can be again. And all that will be, has already been, maybe different, but certainly similar. The beginning is the end, and the end will always be another beginning. This idea became a concrete image in the initial scene of RHEINGOLD and in the final scene of GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG. The disguised Gods are sitting on the stage in their shrouds looking like lemurs. And this image works for a minute and a half, without any music, before the e minor sets in. This was the greatest apprehension of all: I really assumed that the Berliners would bring on their catcalls after ten seconds, "start playing! Where are the orchestra lights! Has a tuba gone missing, or what?", or something like that. But it was incredible: they did work, these one-and-a-half minutes of absolute silence. And into this silence, this tortuous, impossible silence, the first sound fell. The music developed in its construction of sound steps, harmonies, melody and rhythm – the creation of European music, if you will, at the beginning of the entire RING. The Gods arose and began to play the play, possibly as if they had played it often in the Past and as if they ever want to gain new experiences with each re-enactment. Isn't this the actual intention of the theatre? When at the ending of GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG everything has been burnt and destroyed, when the Rhine in the shape of a gigantic white cloth covers all of it, they have gone back to sitting there, as in the beginning, ready to play their parts in the play once again, perhaps ever and again. Are we, while they are doing this, while they continue to do this, are we getting any wiser, any richer? The director leaves the reply to his question to you." (Götz Friedrich, 1985)
"Initially the Norns are seated between red cords that look as if they were telephone cables mad to seem archaic. Siegfried's leaving Brünnhilde optically corresponds with the last image in Siegfried: white ashes are strewn over the stage, like a large nuptial bed that is now being abandoned. The world of the Gibichungs is shaped by glass pillars of distorting lenses that signalize the inversion and awry-ness of everything human in the late days of civilization, as in the London concept. Siegfried enters such a world looking like Dustin Hoffmann, the "Midnight Cowboy". It really doesn't matter whether the potion of forgetfulness has actually been mixed for him. Siegfried, mirroring his Grandfather's hopes, has already been stigmatized upon his stepping into this world." (Götz Friedrich, 1990)
"Götz Friedrich was always challenged while dealing with Time. He anticipated the RING as a perspective on the turn of the millennium. The time phenomenon is part of his concept, the structure behind it is the score. It has rarely been the case in the past twenty years that the RING was produced in such a thoroughly musical manner, and in spite of the unconventional setting, so true to the original work. In GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG Götz Friedrich in some phases realizes the apotheosis of the music on stage, which is nothing else than the Geburt der Tragödie aus dem Geiste der Musik (the birth of Tragedy from the spirit of Music), as Nietzsche evoked it." (W. Bronnenmeyer, Nürnberger Zeitung)
Accompanying Programme
Accompanying Programme
Pre-performance lecture (in German): 45 minutes prior to each performance

subset: commoncrawl


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NARROWSBURG, NY - The National Park Service unit, Upper Delaware Scenic & Recreational River (UDSRR), is opening a new visitor information center in Lackawaxen, in partnership with the Eagle Institute/ Delaware Highlands Conservancy. The house at the turn to the Roebling Bridge, open each winter for bald eagle information, will be open through the summer offering highlights about attractions in the whole Upper Delaware Corridor.
Carla Hahn, Managing Assistant for the UDSRR, said that the new center helps to fill the gap created when the information center in downtown Narrowsburg had to be closed last year due to budget restraints. The Park Service already owns what is known as the Margold House in Lackawaxen, where the Eagle Institute is a winter tenant.
Volunteers from Delaware Highlands Conservancy will help staff the center this summer, providing information both about eagles and other attractions. The Zane Grey Museum will also be open in Lackawaxen. The Park Service also features the toll house on the New York side of the bridge, which contains information about the Delaware & Hudson Canal, as well as the bridge itself, which originated as a canal aqueduct.
••• New superintendent
Kris Heister, the newly selected superintendent for the National Park Service unit, UDSSR, introduced herself at the Upper Delaware Council (UDC), June 5th, where Hahn was speaking. Heister begins her duties July 14.
A native of Bellefonte, PA, near State College, she said she is not a "city girl." her husband is an avid fly fisherman. They are looking at buying a house in the area, and plan to be here long term.
She promised she will be "digesting" the River Management Plan that oversees the unique status of the UDSSR within the National Park System. Heister said she comes with no preconceived notions about the UDC, and prefers to work collaboratively. She said she knows there are multiple ways to achieve conservation of the Upper Delaware.
Andy Boyar, UDC Chairman, wished her "a very successful tenure here."
Malcom Wilbur has been Acting Superintendent since Superintendent Sean McGuiness retired in early 2014.
Location, ST | website.com


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High Tatras / Vysoké Tatry > Krivaň > Climber's Log
Krivaň Climber's Log
[ Sign the Climber's Log ]
|Kamil Slimak
|Route Climbed : Marked Route from Strbske Pleso via Jamske Pleso lake
Date Climbed: Jul 8, 2016
|I have been amazed by the views from the summit, great weather and first meeting with the whistler in Tatra Mountains so far.
|Posted Jul 13, 2016 10:36 am
|Kriván, 2494 m
Date Climbed: Aug 16, 2009
|Early climb before heading back to home.
|Posted Nov 8, 2011 7:06 am
|From Tri Studnicky
Date Climbed: Oct 2, 2011
|Easy hike from Tri Studnicky. It was a sunny Sunday so there were many people on the trail. Went down the blue then red trail back to Strbske Pleso.
|Posted Oct 10, 2011 2:12 am
|From Tri Studnicky
Date Climbed: Sep 4, 2011
|Easy route, but lot of people on the summit.
|Posted Sep 17, 2011 5:08 pm
|Konrad Sus
Date Climbed: Aug 30, 1993
|Nice trip
|Posted May 15, 2011 8:04 am
|Tri studnicky
Date Climbed: Oct 30, 2010
|Great weather, 200 km visibility from the top. Better to start early, later it's really crowded.
|Posted Nov 12, 2010 6:37 am
|From Tri Studinicky
Date Climbed: Aug 23, 2008
|Regular summer route. Lots of people. Nothing interesting really happens on the way to the summit.
Descent - back to Tri Studnicky, with a small modification like "cutting down" the road.
Climbed with Igi.
|Posted Jan 12, 2010 6:14 pm
|Tri Studnicky - Jamske pleso - Krivan - Tri Studnicky
|My first hike in High Tatras, during weekday, not too many people. Was really amazing, though i would not recommend it in summer peak period.
|Posted Aug 27, 2009 6:55 am
|My first climb alone
Date Climbed: Jul 14, 1986
|It was my first climb alone to a major peak, at age 16. I started the ascent from the valley Biely Vah/Fehér-Vág from elevation of 1255 m. And became really exhaused by going up.
|Posted Jun 13, 2009 1:26 pm
|another day with splendid weather
Date Climbed: Sep 13, 2005
|Last day in a 5 day trip through the igh Tatras. Raced up Krivan and raced back to catch the train. I have to get back to these mountains.
|Posted Mar 21, 2009 4:03 pm
|There were Better Days!!!
Date Climbed: Jun 30, 2007
|It was my third conquest herewith my Family.
Hiked from Strbske Pleso on the normal hiking path.
Descended on the same way. Easy trip.
Cloudy, foggy weather with light rain.
No view at all, only a few photos taken.
|Posted Sep 26, 2008 7:38 am
|Lots of people...
Date Climbed: Jun 28, 2008
|Posted Aug 29, 2008 7:08 am
|an ermine
|was there, on the very top
|Posted Aug 28, 2008 6:12 pm
|From Tri studnicky
Date Climbed: Jul 11, 2008
|Sunny day, many climbers. We met a small bear in the forest!
|Posted Aug 25, 2008 3:44 pm
|From Strbske pleso
Date Climbed: Jul 12, 2002
|It was inversion and I started out at down alone, the whole route without people. I was alone on the top and below me were only white clouds. Fantastic ascent!
|Posted Jul 19, 2008 9:08 pm
|from Strbské Pleso
|Hot sunny day,lot of people,nice view.
|Posted Dec 3, 2007 12:57 pm
|Tri Studničky - Kriváň - Jamské pleso - Tri Studničky
Date Climbed: Oct 21, 2007
|First time. Wonderful view on the High and Western Tatras. Snow was already present (about 60 cm on the south slopes), had to take care on the ridge section. Not many people climbed that day.
|Posted Oct 24, 2007 5:24 am
|from Tri Studnicky
|it seemed to me very long and boring way..But views from the summit exellent!!
|Posted Aug 27, 2007 1:55 pm
|From Tri Studnicky
Date Climbed: Sep 22, 2005
|Nice route, but quite a lot of people on the summit ...
|Posted Aug 19, 2007 6:35 pm
|Sweating like a Pig
Date Climbed: Jul 10, 1998
|It was a very hot summer day in 1998 when I made my way up to the Krivan peak. I lost a lot of water and used up all my water (several bottles) I carried in my backpack. I had to fill up my bottles several times on my way down at spring wells, whenever I came across them.
|Posted Jul 30, 2007 2:56 am


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Hugo Chávez Frías, President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, speaks to the media during a press conference after speaking at the General Assembly. 24 September 2009 , Photo Credit: Courtesy of United Nations
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says he's had a phone conversation with his election rival a day after defeating him at the polls.
Chavez says in a message on Twitter that the conversation with Henrique Capriles was "pleasant." He also says that he's calling for national unity that includes, in his words, "respecting our differences."
Capriles campaign manager Armando Briquet notes that this is the first time that Chavez has called the opposition leader by his name. Throughout the campaign, Chavez called Capriles only by disparaging names, among them "the Yankees' candidate," "the rich guys' candidate" and "the candidate of the past."
Chavez won Sunday's vote by a margin of about 11 percentage points.


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We are twelve quilt artists who have embarked on an art challenge together. We're from different places throughout the world and our artistic styles vary, but we share a love of art quilting and a desire to play, experiment, learn, and grow.
For four years, we each made a 12x12 inch quilted art piece on a designated Theme or Colorplay palette. For 2012, we decided to change things a bit. We made rectangular pieces, 20x12 inches. Sweet, our final 2012 challenge was revealed on 12 December 2012 - 12/12/12! The results are showcased on the Quilt Gallery and Artist Gallery pages of this website.
Share |


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$util.date("MMMM d, yyyy",$topLevel.timeZone)
From soda to tea, water to lemonade, coffee to beer; May 6th unofficially pays toast to all the different ways people can quench their thirst!
Let us know your favorite beverages below, and be sure to vote in our poll as well!
Click Here to access the online Public Inspection File
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A group of legislators is proposing to name the western span of the Bay Bridge after former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown.
Assembly Concurrent Resolution 65 recognizes Brown's accomplishments, which include two terms as mayor of San Francisco, by naming the western span the Willie L. Brown Jr. Bridge.
"He was able to bridge all kinds of people and I think he is very deserving of this," said Assemblywoman Cheryl Brown, D-San Bernardino, a co-author on ACR 65.
The new eastern span of the Bay Bridge is due to open later this year. The project has been embroiled in controversy involving faulty materials and questionable testing procedures.
Brown was mayor of San Francisco when Gov. Pete Wilson signed legislation doubling tolls of five Bay Area bridges to pay for seismic upgrading and repairs on the Bay Bridge in 1997. Brown battled with lawmakers over the design and location of the bridge, which led to years of delays. In a column in the San Francisco Chronicle in February, Brown said it was worth the wait.
Assemblyman Isadore Hall, D-Compton, and 10 co-authors introduced the resolution Wednesday to name the western span after Brown.
"Willie Brown has been a trailblazer in so many ways," said Chris Holden, D-Pasadena. "(He) has touched so many lives in a positive way."


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€70m fund for EU biotechs
20.09.2012 - The European VC firm Wellington Partners has announced the first closing of a fund exclusively dedicated to investments in EU life sciences companies.
Money for life science companies is coming back to Europe. After Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners scored €125m for its fourth life sciences fund and Index Ventures announced to put €150m into life sciences companies, now, Wellington Partners (London, Zurich, Munich) has attracted commitments of over €70m for its new Wellington Partners IV Life Science Fund. With a target size of €120m, the venture capitalists expect it to be significantly larger than the previous Wellington Partners III Life Science Fund, which raised €78m. Investments will focus on European companies developing innovative medical devices, diagostics and biotechnology.
According to Wellington's investment team, the new fund attracted investors from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Benelux, France, the UK, the US and the Middle East, among them the European Investment Fund (EIF), LfA Förderbank Bayern, Austria Wirtschaftsservice GmbH and certain large family offices.
Dr. Rainer Strohmenger, General Partner at Wellington Partners, said that the closing was a "big success in a challenging financial environment". For investors who are willing to act anti-cyclically, the sector would "provide the opportunity to generate outstanding returns."
Wellington Partners' portfolio already comprises some successful European life sciences players, amongst them Swiss Actelion or German mtm laboratories, which was swallowed by Roche last year for up to €190m. Other players include: Cancer vaccine developer immatics, medtech company Invendo Medical, diagnostics specialist Oxford Immunotec, and heart valve developer Symetis.
© eurobiotechnews.eu/tghttp://www.european-biotechnology-news.com/news/news/2012-03/wellington-partners-closes-eur70m-fund.html


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SAN JOSE -- San Jose Police Chief Chris Moore on Thursday denied Casino M8trix' plans for eighth-floor gambling in the top level of the $50 million reinvention of the Garden City Casino card room that opened near the airport in August.
Moore's decision, rendered in his last days before retiring this week, was not surprising. His department's gaming administrator had leveled a scathing assessment in November of the potential problems to effectively monitoring multi-level gambling, which also drew opposition from nearby one-story rival Bay 101 Casino.
It's another setback for the card room, which opened four months behind schedule after police permit approval took longer than owners expected. Moore in late July allowed M8trix to open with ground-floor gambling only and said he would consider the top-floor issue later. The card room later filed a claim for damages with the city over the delayed opening.
"We are disappointed in the chief of police's decision because we were looking forward to bringing something luxurious and unique to San Jose and the Bay Area," said M8trix representative Sean Kali-Rai. "The eighth floor gaming would have been the 165-foot icing on the cake, or casino in this case."
Moore would not comment on his ruling and referred to his report in which he concurred with the gaming administrator that multi-level gambling would, among other things, "have an adverse effect on public health, safety and welfare" and on the department's ability "to effectively administer and enforce" city card room laws.
San Jose law restricts card room gambling to "a single ground-floor level of each permitted card room or to such other areas of a permitted card room as may be approved pursuant to the card room permit amendment procedure."
Richard Teng, administrator of the police department's division of gaming control, explained in his November assessment that the reason for the ground-floor restriction is to allow for surprise inspections where officers can quickly enter the card room from the street and circulate on the floor before being detected by staff.
Teng's concern was that access to the eighth floor, which offers panoramic views of the city, is available only through two elevators and an interior stairwell.
"The opportunity to conduct surprise, unannounced inspections will be compromised and largely lost when inspectors have to wait for one or two elevators to take them to the eighth floor or climb up 16 flights of stairs in order to reach that floor," Teng wrote.
Once they get to the eighth floor, Teng added, the inspectors would face additional "barriers," including a reception desk and doors that separate the gaming area from the lobby.
The card room argued that surveillance cameras could aid officers in monitoring gambling operations. But Teng countered that surveillance systems are not fail-safe and that the card room's camera and recording equipment has "failed upon occasion." What's more, he said "no electronic surveillance system can substitute for the on-the-spot observations of a trained inspector who is on the premises unannounced."
The card room accused the Police Department of not giving it a fair chance to develop a workable solution. But options for appeal beyond filing a lawsuit are limited as the chief's decision is final under city law.
"There has been a lack of collaboration on the part of the city," Kali-Rai said. "At this point we will re-evaluate our options -- one of them being waiting until a new business-friendly police chief is appointed and try and work with him or her in achieving a win-win solution."
Contact John Woolfolk at 408-975-9346. Follow him on Twitter at Twitter.com/johnwoolfolk1.


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For those of you that follow my blog, you must have noticed that I'm a Mandriva user. Recently though, I took an interest in Ubuntu: I installed version 7.04 on a laptop, and it did look interesting, enough to make me doubt my commitment to Mandriva's products.
Thus, when 7.10 came out with a bang in the media, and I got another laptop to de-borgify, I downloaded the Ubuntu 7.10 ISO along with the install CD for Mandriva 2008.0 Free.
So, I did a test drive, trying to level the field as much as possible. Here are the results.
Test hardware and distributions
I tested the latest version of both Mandriva and Ubuntu on various desktop and laptop systems with various hardware configurations (and with them, the distribution it ended up running):
- Packard Bell laptop, Celeron M, 512MB of RAM, integrated ATI graphics. Troublesome sound and wi-fi card. Running Ubuntu 7.04.
- Dell laptop, with SATA hard disk drive, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, Athlon64 X2 mobile, discrete ATI graphics. Running Mandriva 2008.0 first, then finalized with Ubuntu 7.10.
- Personal workstation, discrete NVIDIA graphics, 2GB of DDR RAM, Athlon64 X2. Running Mandriva 2008.0.
- Job workstation, discrete low-range NVIDIA graphics, 1.5GB of DDR RAM, Sempron64. Running Mandriva 2008.
- Job workstation (assistant), discrete low-range NVIDIA graphics, 768MB of DDR RAM, Sempron64. AGPGART detection problems on cold boot, running Mandriva 2007.1.
- Test workstation, various graphics cards, 512MB of DDR RAM, AthonXP. Running both Mandriva 2008.0 and Ubuntu 7.10 (dual boot).
- Dell laptop, SATA, 2GB, Core2 Duo, NVIDIA graphics. Installed Ubuntu 7.10 first, now running Mandriva 2008.0.
To those telling me I didn't test enough generic hardware, please direct your messages to /dev/null :). These systems have various levels of power and resources, and different hardware add-ons. Some are very close and allow direct comparisons, first between revisions, then between distributions in general. The following article is written based upon my experience with running and tweaking these systems.
Discovering Ubuntu
I had tried Ubuntu a few times before: version 5.04 and 6.10 notably. I must say that, at that time, it felt awkward, unstable (hard crashes) and slow compared with my Mandrake/Mandriva system. A little while ago, I had to overhaul my colleague's laptop; at the time, I decided that I had better use the most well-known distribution out there, and I downloaded Ubuntu 7.04. This choice helped me compare Feisty (7.04) with Gutsy in this blog entry.
Installing Ubuntu Gutsy
Installing Ubuntu Gutsy (7.10) from the LiveCD was indeed comfortable and felt very stable: since the LiveCD worked, I knew that most of its hardware worked. I hit a snag, though: I wanted to keep a small Vista partition around (just so that support didn't become a hassle in case of hardware problems), yet Ubuntu allowed me limited options: shrink the Vista partition and create swap and "/" partitions, use the whole disk for swap and "/", or do everything manually. The manual interface was quite limited in my opinion, but still allowed me to do the job (I really, really wanted a separate /home partition). After a few more questions, the install process started—fast.
There was no difference between 7.04 and 7.10—the installer remained identical. So, if you've installed 7.04, you should be able to install 7.10 without a problem (barring possible regressions).
Running Ubuntu Gutsy
First of all, I was impressed with the great level of integration the desktop showed: installing proprietary hardware drivers was a snap (required for wi-fi and graphic cards), adding new software was really easy, most (if not all) settings were sensibly located, and all the hardware was well configured.
The wifi saga
The wifi card, which was using the rt61 driver without success, had problems: networks could be detected but not connected to, and WPA support shone by its absence. Moreover, even when not used and uninstalled, the wifi card would eventually hard-lock the system (!).
Thus, I had to physically remove it from the system, and replace it with a Belkin wifi key...
...which was recognized, installed, configured and used in as little time as it takes to plug the key in, select a network in the network manager, and paste the WPA public key when prompted for it. On that account, the Ubuntu system had me bluffed.
Installing that same wifi key under Vista required me to manually extract essential files from the installer package, and shove it down Vista's throat—literally.
Another problem I had was with the sound chip: for it to work properly, I had to install the Linux development packages, compile the latest version of ALSA, and install it—no problem (this is most likely to be a non-issue with 7.10 anyway, due to the upgraded kernel, which comes with a more recent driver version for this sound chip, as is confirmed by some posts on the Ubuntu forums—however, I can't dist-upgrade this laptop to 7.10 as I don't have constant access to it any more).
While installing Ubuntu 7.10 on the first Dell everything went the same way—except, the Ubuntu progress bar isn't visible (incompatible kernel framebuffer?). The hardware is otherwise entirely recognized and installed. On the second Dell laptop, however, I again had sound trouble—solved with an ALSA upgrade to 1.0.15.
ATI/AMD recently released a much better driver than what they proposed before: fglrx version 8.42.3 not only improves stability and performance from the RADEON 9500 up, it also adds support for Composite and AIGLX across the range! However, I just couldn't make it work on either laptop—making Compiz unusable on these machines. Driver versions provided through all (whether 7.04 or 7.10, official, universe or multiverse) Ubuntu repositories were too old.
All in all, Ubuntu 7.10 was functional out of the box, and very well optimized with only a little digging required to make it fit perfectly with the system it was installed on.
However, I soon hit a wall: Ubuntu is so graphically advanced that the command line is almost unreachable—which I soon found quite annoying: no "root" account, manual overrides in config files don't always work, and several operations that should not require a reboot, well, did.
This was true for Ubuntu 7.04, and it still holds true for 7.10, although a few new wizards have appeared to make the transition a bit easier—so, for a few things, this darned command line isn't necessary any more. Moreover, instead of enabling desktop effects voluntarily, the system automatically detects what the hardware can support, and loads Compiz directly. A tab has been added to the appearance panel, which allows the user to dynamically switch desktop effects between disabled, on and maximum, instantly.
Mandriva 2008.0
Install it!
I didn't perform a dist-upgrade of any of my Ubuntu systems; I hear that it may work, or not. On a Mandriva system, there are similar problems: upgrading a distribution is not always safe (as a matter of fact, upgrading from 2007.1 to 2008.0 trashed some of my RPM databases so hard they ended up impossible to restore). On the other hand, Mandriva still defaults to a "small" root partition, keeping "/home" untouched: reinstalling a similar selection of packages will have you back into your usual work environment in not much more time than the upgrade would have taken.
While Mandriva's installer wizard feels a bit "drier" than Ubuntu's, it is more powerful in many aspects: a hybrid CD-ROM allows you to install either 32- or 64-bit version, in many different languages (available language selection is on par with Ubuntu's). In my opinion, the left-hand progress list (visible during the installation) gives a better idea of what is left to do compared with Ubuntu's method of saying... nothing.
The partitioning utility also gives you the ability to shrink existing partitions, use the full disk or go manual; but then, the manual interface gives you a visual representation of existing partitions, and provides you with an "Expert" mode (under which all known partition types are available); the "auto partitioning" button will save you a lot of hassle. Essentially, when you have freed enough disk space, pressing the button" will instantly create "/", a swap and a "/home" partition. It may also ask you for a "/usr" partition (recommended for server use).
You then create the root and a user account, select your packages (default selection is good enough for most) if you want a fully manual install, or, if you have access to all of the "main" repository, a complete KDE, or GNOME, or "alternative" environment (Enlightenment, Xfce, IceWM are available too) before going to a recap of what will be configured; here, you can set up all network connections, the X server, printing capabilities, security, running services... Or just leave them to default and start the install.
Using Mandriva
For the sake of comparison (and because I just like it), I configured Mandriva to use GNOME instead of KDE; while not the default window manager, GNOME is not a second-class citizen under Mandriva. The biggest difference between the two is that the GNOME control panel has been removed—you are supposed to go through the MCC for most tasks. GNOME-specific settings can still be found under the "system" menu, and are fairly consistent across both distributions.
Setting Mandriva up
However, the real strength of Mandriva is that, while it is perfectly possible to use it full-time with a GUI, most of its tools and functions are also available in command-line mode: you can run a Mandriva system through an ssh session with little in the way of difficulties, and several script managing daemons reduce reboots to a bare minimum (i.e., for kernel updates or improperly reset hardware state).
Updating sound drivers will require a mere "service alsa restart" to look for (and list) applications using sound, save mixer settings, unload all sound-related modules, reload current modules, and reload mixer settings. Same with HTTP, Samba, CUPS... Similarly, tools to configure network connections, X settings, 3D effects settings, mouse and keyboard settings, locale settings, etc. provide an ncurses interface with very similar features to those ones found under their X counterparts.
Moreover, Mandriva got lauded for their clever little applet for 3D configuration back when 2007.0 came out; in version 2008.0, you have a choice: no 3D (!), Metisse (a Project Looking Glass-like system), and Compiz—the latter can be used in "native" mode (AIGLX) or through Xgl. Compared with Ubuntu's, it is thus far more powerful, yet a bit less practical as it requires you to close the session when switching effects on or off (this is probably due to Xgl and Metisse concerns, as both would require a session restart anyway).
However, not all is rosy. Several niceties found under Ubuntu, like the Wifi manager or automatic sensors detection, have to be installed manually; read/write NTFS is on by default but has to be enabled through the partitioning utility (it will download and install ntfs-3g by itself), or install ntfs-3g yourself (but then, you can install it from sources, or install the slightly outdated one in the repositories); configuring new repositories is still a bit of a hassle, even though the repository manager has gotten much more efficient and streamlined over its 2007.0/2007.1 predecessor.
I also plugged the Belkin Wifi key into a Mandriva system. Nothing happened; so I went into the Mandriva Control Panel, and chose "Add a Network Connection". Selecting Wireless, it asked me what hardware I wanted to install, citing two detected devices (both referred to the same hardware, but only the second answered—the wizard was basing itself upon udev...); it then downloaded its firmware, loaded the module, asked me for network details, and I was browsing with the best of them.
Many tools are provided to make configuration easier: the smart package manager works a lot like Synaptics, and can advantageously replace urpmi; the MCC covers most administrative tasks you may need; and several utilities, which had for a long time been awkward to use, got reorganized, slimmed down and fixed—and most retain their ncurses-based interfaces.
Personally, I prefer Mandriva's hardware manager over Ubuntu's: more details, more features. Still, most hardware installations will require a form of user intervention, while Ubuntu took Plug'n'Play to a new level.
Mandriva vs. Ubuntu: a matter of performance
What defines performance? Is it measurable? Or does it depend on several factors? I will sum up what I found out about both distributions here. Of course, your mileage may vary; I didn't do precise measurements, but I did submit both systems to inexperienced GNU/Linux users, and introduced them to it. For me, performance is not how much HP a system outputs; it's about how fast it allows you to do something.
As I said, to level the playing field, both distributions are using the GNOME desktop (and it just so happens that both Mandriva 2008.0 and Ubuntu 7.10 use GNOME 2.20). This gives Ubuntu an edge, as it is natively designed around GNOME, while Mandriva is by default installed with KDE.
Boot time
Both boot reasonably fast; on identical hardware, there is no clear winner. As mentioned, Ubuntu 7.10 had trouble displaying a progress screen on an ATI 1100 IGP—but X loaded normally. On the other hand, Unbreakable X made sure I would get an X server anyway. The screen problem could come from an incompatible ATI kernel framebuffer; since Mandriva uses a generic VESA one, it is less prone to this kind of problem.
No system is ever perfect; as such, it is always useful to be able to track what happens to a system at boot, and to see where it freezes. Now, both Ubuntu and Mandriva provide a loading bar at boot. However, Ubuntu will remove it only in case of a problem (or it will freeze while keeping you in the dark), while Mandriva allows you to see hardware detection and daemon loading messages with a key press.
Mandriva 2008, with its service set-up interface, allows easier tune-up than Ubuntu; you can disable services you don't want to load at boot time, speeding up the process. For example, if you don't use a local printer queue, why would you need cups, and if you have one but not an HP printer, what is the use for hplip?
While Mandriva doesn't provide Unbreakable X, in case X won't load, the dm daemon provides debugging information and loads an ncurses interface so that you can reset X.org. In the worst case scenario, you can delete X.org's config file; X will rebuild a basic one, dm will try loading it thrice, then ask you to manually configure X. More often than not, it's a matter of accepting autodetected values, and letting dm restart.
I was also confronted with some strange behaviour: when trying to set up the login screen with a navigator (so that users could merely click on their profile), Ubuntu would sometimes load it, sometimes not. Mandriva didn't fret; moreover, the complete separation of root and other accounts allows for a no-password connection to a user account, while still protecting sensitive areas with a password.
In short, Mandriva allows you to start your session faster than Ubuntu with only a few tune-ups. On default settings though, both are created equal.
First use
Ubuntu 7.10 comes with everything out of the box: network manager, updates notifier, power saving features, hardware sensors, NTFS read/write configuration and installation, proprietary drivers and applications management... As soon as you're done installing Ubuntu, you can use it fully. On top of extended compositing capabilities and read/write for NTFS, 7.10 brings refinement and a more contrasted wallpaper, on top of some extra speed and smoothness.
Mandriva 2008, on the other hand, requires some fiddling to perfectly fit with what one would expect of it. Don't get me wrong, most useful applications are here, and installing any complete environment is but a meta-package away. Hardware sensors don't come out of the box: you need to run lm_sensors to get them all, and then you have to set up the applets... While Ubuntu also provides lm_sensors, "easy" sensor modules (such as Athlon64 internal CPU sensors) are detected and loaded.
As such, this is an overwhelming victory for the Ubuntu camp: Feisty Fawn was already quite good, but Gutsy Gibbon sure squeezes the juice out of your hardware right away.
Mandriva's shortcomings
Mandriva was long decried for its awkward graphical installer, rpmdrake, which required four separate interfaces to work: an installer, an uninstaller, an updater, and a repository manager. Starting with version 2007.0, these interfaces were merged, and in version 2008.0 add/remove became one while updates added a different layout for extra information. It also took a page out of Ubuntu's book by adding an "add/remove program" icon to the application menu. Ubuntu still has the edge in speed here, thanks to Synaptics (although Mandriva provides smart, which is essentially Synaptics for RPM, but not used by default), and also a user-rated application search engine, where Mandriva merely sorts packages by use, categories and sub-categories.
Another problem with Mandriva was that you either loved the themes, or hated them. In version 2008.0, the "Ia Ora" themes are still present, but the fonts have changed: Red Hat's Liberation fonts are used all over the place. They bring a crispier display, save on screen real estate and don't get blurry when filtering is on—even subpixel filtering looks better. Of course, the scary looking monster of 2005LE is history; icon sets are slick and gained some more contrast; and opening sounds are less intrusive (to me) than Ubuntu's.
Both distributions can deal with various uses; Mandriva comes with a very large repository of user-contributed free software, but Ubuntu dwarves it easily. Please note, however, that when you reach over 20,000 packages (as is the case for Mandriva, too), there is very little chance that you can't find what you're looking for.
Ubuntu's shortcomings
Using a system for the first time sure gives you a lasting impression, and I can't fault people for using Ubuntu: on the matter of ease of use, it sure beats any other operating system I've seen—Mandriva included. However, you can very well use Mandriva with its default settings—and don't forget that this is the free edition! Powerpack comes with a different set of applications pre-installed, which may reduce some of the gaps found here.
There is also one area where Ubuntu 7.10 proved slightly trickier than both Mandriva and Feisty Fawn: the installation of the Flash plugin. Mandriva and 7.04 rely upon Firefox's integrated plugin search system, which works much, much better in 32-bit mode than Ubuntu's wizard (it crashed on me; I had to use Synaptics to install it, and restart Firefox to use it); on the other hand, Ubuntu 7.10's wizard has the advantage of providing Gnash as a fallback option (which works for 64-bit), while Mandriva leaves you guessing as it provides it too (and a plugin for Konqueror, too), but you will have to install it yourself.
Non-free drivers
If you want to install proprietary drivers (essentially, 3D drivers), both are pretty much a wash: Ubuntu provides a manager that seats on your notification area, while Mandriva will merely inform you that a proprietary driver is available if you care to use it, if it appears on a repository when you configure X.org. Thus, Ubuntu makes it a bit easier, but on the other hand, Mandriva gives you a bit more options to tune up either drivers (typically, Freedesktop's Ati drivers provide EXA and Composite acceleration; the latter is enabled by default, not the former).
Mandriva—just tweak it
But then, here is where Mandriva pulls slightly ahead: due to its older roots, Mandriva doesn't let the command line fall into disarray; setting up a new graphics driver should be done with X turned off, and there, merely by allowing easy management of daemons and services and a fully fledged root account, setting up a new driver, while not being a breeze, is at least possible without too much head scratching... And a lot less reboots.
Ubuntu provides several versions of the proprietary ATI driver: version 8.37 takes care of "older" hardware, while 8.41 is there for RADEON HD. However, version 8.42 came out recently, and it brought many, many improvements to ATI cards from the r300 up—including AIGLX support, and I wanted to see Gutsy Gibbon in 3D. Mandriva comes with several versions of the fglrx driver, but also with current 6.6.3 r300, abandoned avivo, and nascent radeonhd driver—and if that's not enough, a CVS extract of future 6.7.0 r300.
Installing a driver myself proved inconclusive. Unbreakable X was, I suspect, reversing every and all changes I made to X to make the system work with the new driver. I did try to build a package, then to install it manually, then to find a pre-built package: nothing. Well, maybe in a few weeks...
On the other hand, I have the bad luck of owning a very fickle digital flat panel—a Viewsonic vx2025wm—which is known for a very moody numeric connection. NVIDIA driver versions past 97.55 would constantly make it go black and show an "out of range" error—luckily, Mandriva sticking to age-old rules of logs and using existing low-level systems made overriding NVIDIA's blob's failing detection routines not a breeze, but not a harder fight than it needed to be—something I couldn't fathom ever happening under Ubuntu without turning off Unbreakable X—in which case Mandriva's error detection and fall-back systems just rule.
Moreover, for business use, Mandriva's numerous installers (found inside its Mandriva Control Center, MCC for short) are extremely useful: installing several printers, be they connected locally, over a network, or connected to a networked machine, is a breeze; Samba configuration requires zero config file editing; network management can be done through the same applet Ubuntu 7.10 provides, but also through several wizards that allow any type of network connection known to man to be configured.
Well, finally, what can be said? Both distributions have their pros and cons. Mandriva has recently consolidated its product lines and offers, allowing users afraid to be on their own the reassurance of paid for support while leaving a very convincing offer available to free software users, while Ubuntu is appearing more and more often pre-installed on consumer computers—and version 7.10 should be even easier to pre-install.
I would close this little comparison with what I think those distributions are for: Ubuntu (and 7.10 more than ever) is good for a no-nonsense, powerful, integrated system where everything works out of the box with minimal or no support, while Mandriva is more for the curious user, even if a beginner, who doesn't want to waste too much time installing a working system, and then tweaks it the way he wants it to be. However, of the two releases, I find Mandriva 2008.0 a bit more polished than Ubuntu: some translations are missing in Gutsy Gibbon, and the welcomed Flash/Gnash installer just didn't work. It may need a few more updates to work, while Mandriva 2008.0, for once, worked well right out of Release Candidate status.
Correcting some facts about Mandriva 2008.0
First, thanks you for this interesting review. We'll look at some of the point you raised for next Mandriva release.
However, I'd like to correct some errors in your article about Mandriva 2008.0 and ask some questions :
-it might have been more interesting to compare Ubuntu LiveCD installer with Mandriva One Live-install and Ubuntu installer with Mandriva "standard" installer (called DrakX). There is even a Mandriva One 2008.0 GNOME release to make sure comparison is fair, specially when you are stating Mandriva is not completely ready after installation.
-draksound should be able to help you reconfigure your sound card. But I'm not sure it will kill programs still using sound card when you want to switch sound drivers.
-the rpm database corruption is still under investigation but it appears to be only for people who did a 2007.0 initial installation and then upgrade to 2007.1 and to 2008.0 (or directly to 2008.0). Fortunately, we have been able to duplicate it in our office yesterday (friday), after more than one month trying to find what was causing it and why we could duplicate it (and fixing a bug you can't duplicate can be very hard). More information is available at
-GNOME control center interface (often called shell) is not "removed" from Mdv 2008.0, we just have hidden it from default menu (just like Fedora or upstream GNOME), because we felt it would confuse user to have both Mandriva Control Center (for system "administration") and a separate desktop control center.
-about NTFS/NTFS-3g, it should have been automatically configured by default for NTFS partitions detected at install time. Was it not the case ? Or did you plugged a NTFS drive after installation ? (We know there was a bug for Mandriva One ISO images which are lacking ntfs-3g, it will be fixed for 2008.1).
-about Wifi, net-applet is automatically installed and configured by default and it handles Wifi network transparently (and it includes now a Network Center with a quick summary and fast way to change wifi network). You didn't got the "automatically working" wifi when you plugged your USB wifi key because you used installation which only install software relevant to your current hardware at install time. If you had installed a Mandriva One image, you would have had wifi firmware pre-installed by default (since they must been supported at boot time). It is a trade-off between installation vs liveCD. You obviously wouldn't like ton of useless packages installed by default on your system for hardware you don't have. But I agree net-applet should try to warn you it detected a new hardware and ask you if you want to configure it.
-what was the problem with configuring ftp repository ?
-stating that Ubuntu has an edge because Mandriva is shipping KDE by default is a little too extreme, IMHO. It might have been true 7 years ago, for Mdk 7.2, but since then, situation has evolved a lot. We are committed to support BOTH desktop environments (which is why we make sure to include features in both environments when it is relevant), which is why you are asked at install time which environment you want to install. Not modifying GNOME a lot, compared to upstream, is a design choice : we prefer to stick to GNOME upstream as much as possible and modify it only when it is relevant.
-I agree sensors are not configured by default by installer. I'll forward this request, but I'm not sure it will be done (not everybody is monitoring their system sensors ;)
-Mandriva fallback for X not working is not using a fallback X server because sometime, even a VESA server would not work (try on old i810 systems ;). Using ncursing might not be pretty, compared to Ubuntu solution, but we know it will always work. Moreover, this feature is available for 4 or 5 years in Mandriva / Mandrake distributions..
-Changing X driver can be done while X is running, you don't have to fallback to text mode first.
-Liberation fonts are NOT used all over the place for the desktop. They are only used as Microsoft fonts substitute for web pages under Firefox / Konqueror. All desktop applications are still using DejaVu font by default ! What you probably noticed is font rendering improvement, thanks to hard work of freetype team.
OK, fair enough...
...but then I really, really, really couldn't afford to download and burn the several gigabytes of CD-ROM and DVD-ROM images and test them all. Talk about floorin' a FTP!
I don't use draksound to reconfigure my sound card, usually - but then, I find "service alsa (re)start" useful enough for most of my uses (as in, updating ALSA). By the way, a suggestion: a 'dkms-alsa' package, installing a more recent version of ALSA would be damn useful.
The rpm database corruption has, indeed, occurred on a 2007.0 upgraded to 2007.1 thenupgraded to 2008.0.
The 'hidden' Gnome CC was not a problem - I just mentioned it because it was, well, different.
As for ntfs-3g, no, it wasn't the case on USB disk drives formatted in NTFS - and unfortunately, it's not very easy to overcome.
The network center: yes, I've discovered it too after writing the article. It's nice - but it would need a bit more polish: hardware-deactivated cards (those with a switch) appear as 'eth1' and are not obvious enough; moreover, it would probably be better to invert the tray's icon right-click and left-click behaviour, or have the wizard pop up when clicking a "advanced..." option.
The FTP repository was probably just off-line at the time of testing...
Ubuntu uses GNOME - to the exclusion of everything else (Kubuntu is often seen as 'Ubuntu with KDE glued on it'). I'm not saying that Mandriva doesn't support both desktops, just that Ubuntu supports GNOME very, very, very well.
I know that a fallback to VESA doesn't always work (Ati Rage Mobility chips have dodgy VESA implementation too ;) - so I'm not critical about it (on the contrary, I like it a lot!)
I know it is possible to change X drivers without switching to text mode first, but - dixit several programmers in Nouveau and r300 projects - it's better...
As for the font, well, the DejaVu fonts must have been changed a lot because their width/height ratio has changed - if it comes from work on Freetype rendering, all the better, I'm not one to complain. On the other hand, go and tell Liberation Sans apart from DejaVu Sans, on a 12pt size... You'll understand my mistake, then.
Merci pour toutes ces précisions :)
A computer is like air conditioning: it becomes useless when you open windows.
one thing I didnt stand with ubuntu
As a Mandriva user, I really tried ubuntu in a fair way and as such, I really like your article which does the same.
But one thing I didnt stand is the lack of cooperation of the 2 desktops, KDE and GNOME. In mandriva install a KDE app using GNOME, or a GNOME app using KDE, and you get zero problem.
I installed ubuntu but wanted to keep on using kmail, as my mail and configurations were done for this app. Well, after installation, it just doesnt appear in the menus. I discovered I had to actually go into an advanced menu and manually activate the kmail menu.
I found that gross and unproductive. It may seem a silly point to complain about, but it was the spirit of this problem that was really chilling. I mean, if I install an app, it's because I want to use it, why does the system try to prevent me from using what I want?
Encryption is King
Thanks for a well considered comparison. Indeed there are now quite a few top notch distros and I suppose in the end its a matter of personal preference after having prioritised the pros and cons of each. After defecting from Xandros a few months ago I considered both Mandriva and Ubuntu but the latest Gutsy release has one feature that gives it the edge - the ability to encrypt the partition or drive and which seems little publicized but which I found here http://users.piuha.net/martti/comp/ubuntu/en/cryptolvm.htm. I'm not sure that this be done on Mandriva or not but I think all the major players ought to consider this.
...is supported at the kernel driver level. Mandriva still supports cryptoloop (use of the kernel LVM encryption on a loopback device), but it is considered obsolete - you should use LUKS instead.
A computer is like air conditioning: it becomes useless when you open windows.
It's in the errata
Mandriva currently supports both but loopback-based encryption system is going to be deprecated.
Mandriva's Draknetcenter
Mandriva's Draknetcenter network configuration-tool lets you configure a wifi-card just as easy as ubuntu and on top of that gives you much more options (just open the advanced section), I had much less problems setting up my wpa-protected wifi-network on Mandriva than on Ubuntu, which didn't give me an option to use wpa when setting up the network manually (I use fixed IP-Adresses and therefore prefer to configure my network by hand).
This is a problem with ubuntu in my opinion: it tries to dumb the system down in many places, making it unneccesarily hard to configure something manually, either you go the ubuntu-way or you go nowhere.
Just one thought on themes: not everyone likes Ubuntu's brown either, and it is easy to change themes on both distributions.
I would prefer Ubuntu for a new user who just wants to have a running system for his day-to-day tasks, but I personally prefer Mandriva, because I find it easier to configure it to my personal needs.
Two things in Mandriva that nobody seems to mention are the drakwizards and msec, the drakwizards let you set up many network-services, while msec lets you secure your system.
Back before Mandriva(Mandrake) 9.0 rpmdrake (the graphical package installer) was one application as it is now again, so this four seperate apps was not always the case, btw. it was still one app (rpmdrake), there were just four seperate links to it (starting it with different parameters), but yes the new interface is definitely much easier to use (like it was back in the old 8.2 times :-)). Personally I can't say that synaptic is really that faster and to be honest I don't find smart that much smarter than rpmdrake, btw. synaptic is available for Mandriva, just look in the contrib repositories.
On speed...
...urpmi is only able to download one package at a time. When you have 190 packages of a few kilobytes each to download, synaptics' and smart's ability to start 2 simultaneous downloads allow for a much better use of available bandwidth.
And yes, I noticed after posting that synaptics is also available for Mandriva.
A computer is like air conditioning: it becomes useless when you open windows.
sorry ?
How could downloading two files at once be faster than downloading one file at a time ?? Your bandwidth is the limit... Suppose your bandwidth is 1MB/s : downloading two 1MB files will take 2s, whatever method you choose... However, I agree urpmi first download all the files then install them : it should be possible to download one file & install the previous downloaded one at the same time.
...are part of any Internet transaction; when setting up a transfer, you can have several seconds of delay when a transfer is started, during which bandwidth is unused - at all. By starting several transfers simultaneously, you ensure that bandwidth is used all during the transfert.
Moreover, if downloads take place from several sites, you remove one possible strangle point: the server's maximum available (or allocaed) bandwidth to your download.
As such, downloading several files at the same time optimize your available bandwidth - and this improvement can speed up downloads at least a little, and at best incredibly.
A computer is like air conditioning: it becomes useless when you open windows.
Nice, now why don't you
Nice, now why don't you compare Ubuntu to Mandriva One instead of Free?
For one very simple reason...
...being that Mandriva One and Free differ on one very simple point: One comes packaged with non-Free drivers, and is a LiveCD with install capabilities. That's all there is to it - oh, and the Ia-Ora theme is a different colour in One.
Mandriva One is best matched against Kubuntu + non-Free drivers - I don't really see the point in comparing those once installed on a system.
A computer is like air conditioning: it becomes useless when you open windows.
Ubuntu has powerful command line tools
Nice article. I used Mandrake/Mandriva on my primary systems for years, and eventually switched over to Ubuntu with 6.06. What eventually made me switch was just that Ubuntu had a bit more support for 3rd-party software, as a Debian derivative. I found that while Mandriva was quite good, it had its own ideas of where to put different libraries, which meant tracking down the right switches to feed configure scripts, and all sorts of other things, when there's already a .deb available.
Anyway, the main thing I wanted to point out is that Ubuntu has not let the command line environment slide in any way at all. It's just different. It is rooted in the "Debian way" of doing things, rather than having Red Hat roots. Yes, it's unfamiliar at first, and yes, some of the tools are different or missing, but it's no less powerful. Reconfiguring X can be done with dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg. You can get a root account by simply using sudo passwd, and setting a root password. Yes, Ubuntu installs a minimal shell environment by default, but all the power tools are an apt-get away. And if you try to run a shell program that isn't there, most of the time it'll tell you what package to install to get it! The shell is hardly a second class interface in Ubuntu.
I'm not sure what manual overrides in shell files aren't working for you, or what required a reboot--about the only time I have to reboot is related to incompatible hardware drivers. The config files all take changes the same way, but often the actual files you change are different in Debian systems.
In all, I do like the way Mandriva sets up the shell environment by default--aliases for ls -l, lots of tools and automatic system checks. I just thought I'd point out that Ubuntu is no slouch. We've even been using it on servers--we have probably a dozen running various versions of Ubuntu, none of them with X. Certain things make them much nicer to administer for our needs--a2ensite for quickly enabling/disabling Apache virtual hosts, for example.
Well, dpkg-reconfigure only
Well, dpkg-reconfigure only take care of configuring a single package, which mean you cannot do high level operations, like setting a complete gateway, or a mail server with postfix + clamav + amavis ( as this need to modify 3 single packages ), and I doubt dpkg-reconfigure can install on demand needed package, like XFdrake does ( well, it can, but this is likely be forbidden by policy ). That's not the goal of this tool.
It would be nice to have such wizards for debian, and from what I have seen, macosX does this quite well.
And well, debian people always refused to enhance the default configuration of some console tool ( like having vim using syntax on by default, or grep --color, or various tricks like that with less ), so they are not really a perfect exemple of "treating the console as a first class citizen". i think ubuntu could be much improved in this regard.
Thanks from an ubuntu user
Thank you for this great review
You should mention that ubuntu is a reelly young distro
And that's exiting to be a part of this project
A tip for you
To install restricted codecs, falsh plugin, rar ...
Juste install ubuntu-restricted-extras
Mandriva can be customised more when installing
First off thanks for such a great article. It's refreshing to see an open-minded review. I too use both Mandriva 2008 and Ubuntu 7.10, and whilst both have their advantages and disadvantages one of the things that Mandriva has that Ubuntu doesn't have is the ability to customise the software you install. For example I prefer using Epiphany rather then Firefox as my web browser. Mandriva gives me the ability to deselect Firefox from the installation and to select Epiphany in it's place. Ubuntu on the other hand pre-installs Firefox whether you want it to or not.
However this is just a minor thing and any software you want which is not included in the default installation of Ubuntu can be easily added afterwards :). One of the joys of Linux is the freedom of choice it gives the end user, and with such great distro's such as Ubuntu and Mandriva those choices can be hard to make at times. Anyway enough rambling from me, thanks once again for such a great article :)
too much choice
Many people keep making reference to the freedom of choice that free software provides and in particular the large number of Linux distros. I The trouble is that the distros are all so similar in the fundamentals, but very different in the fine details, and this makes the choice very difficult to make. There are so many variables to consider, and no large important differences that would make the choice clear cut. I find myself continually oscilating back and forth between different distros. Really I would prefer no choice to these very difficult choices. No matter which distro I pick for the moment within a week I am beginning to think I made the wrong choice and I make a new choice.
so you'd rather have none?
Well then, I have a nice computer to sell to you: it has an operating system that displays its files in several trees based on disk drives, mapping network connections to virtual disk drives if I need them, and the tree goes top to bottom.
If you want to display your files in a single tree, you can't; if you want to connect to network shares through the share's protocol, you can't; if you want to browse the Web with an image-less browser, you can't; if you want to use an interface in a different language than the one installed, you can't; if you want to install unapproved drivers, you can't; if you want to use keyboard shortcuts to do some actions, you can't; if you want to automate some actions through scripts, you can't.
Welcome to Microsoft Windows. Where do you want to go today? <click> unknown file type. Do you want to browse the web and install virii-infested malware to try and open it? <no> are you sure? <yes> Installing web application, bypassing malware checker <cancel> system error: user has performed an illegal operation. Please reinstall Windows.
Of course, when you don't have any choice, you put up with this.
A computer is like air conditioning: it becomes useless when you open windows.
Mandriva 2008 tossed to the shelf
I'm new to linux, have distro-jumped for about a 1.5 years, and settled on Mandriva One 2008 for it's overall packaging, appearance, and feel it had to it. I don't require much, but do want to be able to watch movies and other media on my home PC. Mandriva now sits on the shelf, unused, staring jealously down on me as I happily hum along with LinuxMint 4.0. Not my first preference, but noone was able to help me through my soundcard issue. During the boot process (black screens) my soundcard would activate and a loud squeeling would come from the speakers. The mic had been turned on which picked up room noise, the speakers turned on and spit the sound from the mic out, and that sound fed directly back into the mic. A wicked loop of feedback. The only real suggestion I got on the forums? To mute the mic. What sort of nonsense is that? I need to be able to video chat with my son on the other side of the US, and that requires a functioning sound card with nothing disabled nor muted. Ubuntu installed smoothly and properly detected as did Mint, but Mint didn't require tweaking anything and...just worked. I'd still like to get back to Mandriva One, but the sound card issue is beyond me and I didn't have access to anyone that could help.
'mute the mic' - a very sound advice, actually!
ALSA provides 2 settings by input device: capture, and playback. Muting the mic would make the mic still pick up sound, but captured sound would not be fed back to the speakers! So, muting the mic is a VERY good idea - unmuting it is useful for debugging (it allows you to test that your mic actually works), but you will usually keep it muted (probably what Mint does).
You may take this Mandriva CD off the shelf now.
A computer is like air conditioning: it becomes useless when you open windows.


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Dunc's Deal Alert
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Asus SABERTOOTH P67 REV 3.0 - New P67 B3 Revision
Intel P67 Based Military-grade Motherboard with Thermal Armor
This motherboard supports Intel second generation Core i7/Core i5/Core i3 processors in the LGA1155 package, with memory and PCI Express controllers integrated to support 2-channel (4 DIMM) DDR3 memory and 16 PCI Express 2.0 lanes. This provides great graphics performance. Intel second generation Core i7/Core i5/Core i3 processors are among the most powerful and energy efficient CPUs in the world.
SABERTOOTH P67 brings multi-GPU configurations through both SLI and CrossFireX. This motherboard features the powerful Intel P67 platform, optimizing PCIe allocation in multiple GPU configurations. Expect a brand gaming style like you've never experienced before.
- Intel® LGA1155 socket for Intel® 2nd Generation Core™ i7/ Core™ i5/ Core™ i3 Processors
- Intel® P67 Express Chipset
- TUF Thermal Armor - Total Airflow-Boosting Heat Dissipation
- TUF Thermal Radar - Real Time Temp Detection and Heat Removal
- TUF Components [Alloy Choke, Cap. & MOSFET; Certified by Military-standard] - Certified for Tough Duty
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TUF Thermal Armor
Total Airflow-Boosting Heat Dissipation. The TUF Thermal Armor is the world's first ever thermal design for the entire motherboard, not just for select critical areas. It safeguards the system against hot air generated by connected cards and components, keeping temps down. With its sophisticated and agile integrated shunt design, the Thermal Armor improves cool air circulation, directing it towards every important part for a complete motherboard cool down. It effectively conducts hot air away and out of the case through special airflow channels, contributing to enhanced system stability and extending component lifespan!
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Herald the Arrival of a New Digital Power Design Era. The new ASUS DIGI+ VRM design upgrades motherboard power delivery to a digital standard. The 8+2 digital architecture provides the highest power efficiency, generating less heat to enhance longer component lifespan and ensure minimal powerloss. With ASUS DIGI+ VRM, users can easily adjust power phase performance, enabling new PWM voltage and frequency modulation controls. Digital 8+2 power phase design also expands the modulation spectrum for improved stability and lower VRM switching noise by dynamically detecting system load, empowering users with superior flexibility and perfect precision to ensure optimized performance, extreme system stability, and greater power efficiency.
Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz LGA1155 8MB Cache Processor (BX80623I72600K)
With faster, intelligent, multi-core technology that applies processing power where it's needed most, Intel Core i7 processors deliver an incredible breakthrough in PC performance. They are the best desktop processors on the planet.
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Patriot Memory 8GB (2 x 4GB) Viper Xtreme Series PC3-15000 1866MHz CL9 Division 2 Edition (PXD38G1866ELK)
Patriot's Viper Xtreme Series, Division 2 Edition memory kits are designed for Intel's® 2nd Generation Core™ processors. Engineered for PC Gamers and enthusiasts the Viper Xtreme Division 2's utilize a custom designed heatshield solution with an outer shield built around a copper core to provide enhanced cooling. Each module has 6 grams of copper at its core paired with extruded aircraft-grade aluminum outer shield. Built from only using the highest quality pre-sorted IC's available, they are rigorously tested and validated on the Intel® 6 Series platform to achieve maximum performance and stability. These modules are engineered to reach PC3-15000 (1866MHz) at 9-11-9-27 timings and are available 4GB kits (2 x 2GB) and 8GB kits (2 x 4GB). Each module is 100% hand-tested to quality assurance and is backed by a full-lifetime warranty and industry leading customer service.
- Product Description
- ASUS SABERTOOTH P67 - 3.0 B3 - motherboard - ATX - LGA1155 Socket - P67
- Product Type
- Motherboard - ATX
- Chipset Type
- Intel P67 Express
- Processor Socket
- 1 x LGA1155 Socket
- Max RAM Size
- RAM Supported
- 4 DIMM slots - DDR3 , non-ECC , unbuffered
- Storage Ports
- 2 x SATA-600 (RAID), 2 x SATA-600, 4 x SATA-300 (RAID), 1 x eSATA-300, 1 x powered eSATA-300
- USB / FireWire Ports
- 2 x USB 3.0 + 1 x FireWire + 8 x USB 2.0 + ( 2 x USB 3.0 + 1 x FireWire + 6 x USB 2.0 via headers )
- Audio
- HD Audio (8-channel)
- Gigabit Ethernet
- Microsoft Certification
- Compatible with Windows 7
- Product Type
- Motherboard - ATX
- Chipset Type
- Intel P67 Express
- Processor Socket
- LGA1155 Socket
- Max Processors Qty
- 1
Supported RAM
- Max Size
- Technology
- Bus Clock
- 1800 MHz, 1600 MHz, 1333 MHz, 1066 MHz
- Speed
- Supported RAM Integrity Check
- Non-ECC
- Registered or Buffered
- Unbuffered
- Features
- Dual channel memory architecture
- Type
- HD Audio (8-channel)
- Audio Codec
- Realtek ALC882
- Compliant Standards
- High Definition Audio
- Network Controller
- Intel 82579
- Network Interfaces
- Gigabit Ethernet
Expansion / Connectivity
- Expansion Slots
- 1 x CPU , 4 x DIMM 240-pin , 2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 , 3 x PCIe 2.0 x1 , 1 x PCI
- Storage Interfaces
- SATA-300 -connectors: 4 x 7pin Serial ATA - 4 devices - RAID 0 / RAID 1 / RAID 10 / RAID 5 , SATA-600 -connectors: 2 x 7pin Serial ATA - 2 devices - RAID 0 / RAID 1 / RAID 10 / RAID 5 , SATA-600 -connectors: 2 x 7pin Serial ATA - 2 devices , JMicron JMB362 : SATA-300 -connectors: 1 x 7pin eSATA, 1 x 11pin eSATAp - 2 devices
- RAID Features
- Intel Rapid Storage Technology
- Interfaces
- 1 x PS/2 keyboard / mouse , 1 x FireWire - 6 pin FireWire , 1 x LAN (Gigabit Ethernet) , 2 x USB 3.0 , 8 x USB 2.0 , 1 x TOSLINK , 1 x audio line-out - mini-jack , 1 x audio line-in - mini-jack , 1 x microphone - mini-jack , 1 x audio line-out (side surround) - mini-jack , 1 x audio line-out (rear) - mini-jack , 1 x audio line-out (center/subwoofer) - mini-jack
- Internal Interfaces
- 2 x USB 3.0 , 1 x FireWire
- Power Connectors
- 24-pin main power connector, 8-pin ATX12V connector
- BIOS Type
- BIOS Features
- DMI 2.0 support, WfM 2.0 support, Multilingual BIOS, ASUS MyLogo2, ASUS EZ Flash 2, ASUS O.C. Profile, ACPI 2.0a support, SMBIOS 2.5 support, ASUS EFI BIOS
- Sleep / Wake Up
- Wake on LAN (WOL), wake on ring (WOR)
- Hardware Features
- Jack retasking, ASUS Anti-Surge Protection, MemOK!, 8+2 Phase Power Design, ESD Guards, TUF Engine!, Q-DIMM, Q-LED, Q-Slot, CrashFree BIOS 3, ASUS Q-Connector, audio jack detect technology, ASUS Q-Shield, Intel Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) support, NVIDIA Quad SLI Technology Support, Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0, TUF Thermal Armor, TUF Thermal Radar, ASUS DIGI+ VRM, AMD Quad CrossFireX technology support
- Cables Included
- 4 x Serial ATA cable , 1 x SLI bridge
- Software Included
- Drivers & Utilities, ASUS Live Update, ASUS AI Suite II
- Compatible with Windows 7
- "Compatible with Windows 7" software and devices carry Microsoft's assurance that these products have passed tests for compatibility and reliability with 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7.
- Compliant Standards
- Plug and Play, ACPI 2.0a
- Width
- 30.5 cm
- Depth
- 24.4 cm


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I used to play softball as a kid, but haven't played or seen it played on a competitive level in years. I am curious to see how fast a decent pitcher can pitch the ball? Also, how much does pitch speed change from high school to college?
Obviously, there are exceptions with some pitchers (for instance, a pitcher I played with growing up was hitting 60 mph in 16u ball but then kind of plateued). But here's an opinion to start things off...
Average Pitching Speed
Top Pitching Speed
That's perfect. Thank you. I underestimated pitchers at all levels apparently. That's fast!! I want to get a radar gun and see how fast I can pitch...might be embarrassing, but would definitely be interesting.
The Women's College World Series blows me away every year. I played against some tough pitchers, but the teams that make it to Oklahoma City are on a different level. For the past few years, many of them have been Olympic team material. They throw incredibly fast.
I've heard it said many times that the top pitching speeds from 42 feet away for college softball equates to somewhere around 100 mph fastball from Major League baseball's 60 feet and 6 inches. I believe it. Especially standing in against Jennie Finch--her stride off the mound takes that 42 feet down to 38 by the time she releases!
That's crazy. Good for the girls though!! Clearly, I need to catch a softball game this season. We didn't have softball at Richmond so I missed out. Do you know what colleges have it out here in California?
I know University of San Diego has a team as well as UCSD. Historically, UCLA is the dominant college team in Califonia and, for that matter, the nation. They have won the Women's College World Series 10 times (the most of any school). Cal, Fresno State, and Cal State Fullerton all have a tradition of having very strong programs.
But there are a too many schools out there that have softball programs to list. California has been a long-time leader in fastpitch (but the rest of the nation is catching up). It'd be cool if you caught a game. The girls out there can play!
It sounds like UCLA for softball is like the University of Maryland for lacrosse. UMD also has 10 NCAA championships, 7 of which were back to back from 1995-2001. UMD has won one since 2001 though. It's been good for the sport to have some other teams win, but UMD will always be a solid and respected program. I'm definitely interested in catching a game...I need to see these pitchers bring the heat after hearing so much about it
Come Spring...I'm in for a softball game!
We had the radar gun out at pitching practice earlier this week. My 13 year old daughter is topping out at 63 mph. Danielle Lawrie, who throws for the University of Washington Huskies, is her favorite pitcher right now. We got to see Danielle pitch twice last season -- once in a good victory over Stanford in Seattle, and once when the Canadian National Team was in training. She's a great role model for the younger Canadian pitchers!
Wow! That's awesome. Your 13 year old daughter must have a great arm. Does she play a lot? I'll have to keep my eye out for Danielle Lawrie, but she sounds like a great player and a good role model. I haven't been involved or in the know really about softball since I stopped playing in high school. It is a great sport though. I'm excited to learn more about it and how it's developed over the years.
"My 13 year old daughter is topping out at 63 mph."
Time to get your gun calibrated.
At 6'1", she's the real deal. A Provincial Championship and a medal at National Championship are the goals for this season. She was hitting 52 mph when she was U12, 58 when she was U13. She is also the first player ever to hit a Grand Slam homerun in the Little League Softball World Series (Canada vs Oregon in 2006). She put the ball well over the 209' fence on the main diamond at Alpenrose Park in Portland.
Anyway, good coaching and hard work payoff. We are in the gym 3 to 4 days a week right now, preparing for the upcoming season. Maybe we'll see you at the diamond...
Wow. That's cool. I would love to hit a homerun over the fence. It sounds silly, but it's one of those things I've always wanted to do. That's great though. Good for her. How does she train?
The team begins training in the fall. Right now, they are doing core and strength training twice a week. Piitchers are throwing 3/4 days a week. Team practice is once a week, and optional hitting and defence is twice a week. It's a pretty busy schedule, particularly when most of the players are invilved in other high level sports or activities. But of course, when you set a goal, you have to work hard to achieve it!
Yeah that is definitely a lot, but you are right about having to work hard to achieve your goals. Does she play any other sports? I remember having a similar schedule for soccer, but as it turned out, I ended up deciding to play lacrosse in college.
She also plays soccer, but not at the top level.
Lacrosse is huge here. Many boys and young men play, and there is a growing number of girls playing. My buddy Mike Simpson was the first head coach of the Minnesota Lacrosse Team in the NLL a few years back. That was after leading the Victoria Shamrocks to a Mann Cup title in 1997 as Captain of the team.
Where did you play your lacrosse?
ACTIVE is the leader in online event registrations from 5k running races and marathons to softball leagues and local events. ACTIVE also makes it easy to learn and prepare for all the things you love to do with expert resources, training plans and fitness calculators.


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Junction Box Antiques
We are a small antique shop located in West Gippsland, north of Warragul on the main road to Mount Baw Baw. We sell vintage, industrial, and retro technology items, including telephones, radios, the occasional stove, drive in speakers, kitchen furniture, ceiling lights and lamps, and a wide variety of other antique and vintage items. We specialise in the restoration of 1950s and 60s laminex tables, vinyl chairs and kitchen dressers.
2965 Main Neerim Road
Neerim Junction VIC 3832
Phone: 03 56284144
Mobile: 0417847067
Fill in the form to contact dealer.


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I was just out driving around the other day and went in that little back area with the little circular drive.
I haven't been back there in 15 years and it amazed me how much space there is back there being used for absolutely nothing. Nice little pond, good open area's, but best of all, great wooded area's just dying to be a frisbee course.
I know DSMWW is kind of down on the maintenance of the current course just because it is such an unbelievable hassle, but I also know that they enjoy having the park used and enjoy working with the Des Moines Club.
It might be worth talking to them about relocating the baskets to the back area of the park where maintaining won't be such a nightmare, and we can have a much much better course.


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Free parenting classes offered
Published: Saturday, September 21, 2013 at 10:59 p.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, September 21, 2013 at 10:59 p.m.
Free parenting classes are being offered in Houma and Thibodaux.
Bayou Council Behavorial Health Services has scheduled presentations for 10 a.m. to noon at the Terrebonne Parish District Attorney's Office on Wednesdays starting Oct. 2 and ending on Oct. 30.
Sessions will also be held at the Bayou Council office in Thibodaux on Thursdays starting Oct. 3 and ending on Oct. 31.
Participants must attend all five sessions. For information, call 446-0643.
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.


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Jamie G. Austin, 55
Published: Sunday, November 4, 2012 at 8:37 a.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, November 4, 2012 at 8:37 a.m.
FLAT ROCK — Jamie G. Austin, 55, of Flat Rock, went to be with the Lord Friday, November 2, 2012, at Elizabeth House, after a graceful two-year battle with cancer. A native and lifelong resident of Henderson County, he was the son of the late George E. and Barbara S. Austin. He was a respected team leader with General Electric, retiring in 2012 following 35 years of service. He was a member of Zion Hill Baptist Church.
Survivors include his loving wife of 13 years, Angela B. Austin; his son, Mitchell B. Austin and his wife Kim of Mills River; two sisters, Joni A. Ward and her husband Gerald of Zirconia, Gina A. Wheeler and her husband Michael of Barnardsville; his mother- in-law, Joan McGraw of Zirconia; his sister-inlaw, Karen B. Watkins and her husband William of McKinney, Texas; many loving nieces and nephews, great nieces and nephews; and his loving, four-legged sidekick, Prissy.
A funeral will be at 11:00 a.m. Tuesday in the Forest Lawn Funeral Home Chapel. The Rev. Blair Stewart will officiate. Interment will follow in Forest Lawn Memorial Park. The family will receive friends from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Monday in the Forest Lawn Chapel.
Memorials may be made to Four Seasons Compassion for Life, 571 S. Allen Road, Flat Rock, NC 28731, or American Cancer Society, 120 Executive Park, Building 1, Asheville, NC 28801.
A guest book and sympathy cards are available at www.forestlawnhendersonville.
com. Forest Lawn Funeral Home is assisting the family with arrangements.
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.


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Colorado Mountain College's Edwards campus houses a pottery studio with five kilns, 10 high-quality potter's wheels and more. The faculty offers classes for all levels of students, from beginners to professionals.
"It's an amazing studio that is open to the community," said Colleen Everett, who leads the ceramics program at CMC. "The students have access to an outdoor reduction gas glaze firings, soda and raku kilns as well as traditional electric kilns."
This well-maintained studio is open for classes, workshops and more. Each class costs about $20 per week for studio use and faculty instructions. It is a great place to meet new friends and connect with excellent instructors, said Everett, who leads the ceramics program at CMC. Named "Teacher of the Year" in 2011, Everett received her ceramic degree at the college of design, architecture and art at the University of Cincinnati. Her work can be found in the White House Collection, the Smithsonian and many corporate and private collections. Everett's art pieces have been shown in the Contemporary Crafts Museum, NYC, Springfield and Seattle Art Museums and galleries across the country.
Autumn classes begin on Oct. 23, and you can register by calling 970-569-2904 or online at www.coloradomtn.edu. Or friend them on Facebook (CMC Clay Studio) to keep current with the schedule.


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Who Is Right - the Hardware or the Software?
By RickRamsey-Oracle on Oct 10, 2013
Michael Palmeter and Renato Ribeiro enjoy a good duel. Michael represents Oracle Solaris. Renato represents SPARC servers. Watch and listen as they argue their case on two questions of interest to sysadmins. Taped at Oracle OpenWorld 2013.
What Determines Performance - The Hardware or the Software?
Michael Palmeter vs Renato Ribeiro
Is the hardware or the software more important to the performance of a system? Oracle Solaris product director Michael Palmeter goes mic-to-mic with Renato Ribeiro, Oracle SPARC Director. Taped at Oracle OpenWorld 2013.
What Kind of Scalability is Better - Horizontal or Vertical?
Renato Ribeiro vs Michael Palmeter
Is Oracle's approach to large vertically scaled servers at odds with today's trend of combining lots and lots of small, low-cost servers systems with networking to build a cloud, or is it a better approach? Michael Palmeter, Director of Solaris Product Management, and Renato Ribeiro, Director Product Management for SPARC Servers, discuss.
photo of 2005 Fat Boy taken at Little Big Horn National Monument by Rick Ramsey
- Rick
Follow me on:
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Personal Twitter | YouTube | The Great Peruvian Novel


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MOUNT DIABLO -- As the night sky filled with orange flames, Ken Pridmore chopped and cut. For 24 straight sleepless hours, the Cal Fire captain and his crew of inmate firefighters battled Mount Diablo's steep terrain, trying to control the Morgan Fire.
"If there's work to be done, it keeps you going," Pridmore said. "But if you stop for a second, that's when you get beat."
It's the season of adrenaline and fatigue for Pridmore and other firefighters -- a season that so far looks to be the toughest in some time. While the Morgan Fire was news in the Bay Area for just a few days, Pridmore and his 13-man crew from the Delta Conservation Camp in Solano County remain on the mountain a week later, working 12-hour days to mop up hot spots. After a few more days of rehabilitation work, they will finally be done -- and off to fight the next big blaze.
Working up to three or four days without sleep, fire crew members catch naps when they can, maybe 10 minutes in the fire engine or against a tree, said Capt. Nick Luby of the Oakland Fire Department.
And forget about hot meals until the shift is over. Regular servings are MRE (Meals Ready to Eat) and snacks and water stored in the firetrucks, firefighters said.
Working last week at Camp Parks in Dublin, a base camp for Morgan Fire crews, Luby tried to track how long he'd been awake.
"Is it 24 hours or 36? I'm so tired I can't do the math," he said. "There's a reason they use sleep deprivation as torture."
Luby, a 14-year fire veteran, was eating ice cream with his daughters, having just returned from two weeks at the Corral Fire in Humboldt County, when he got the call to prepare for the blaze on Mount Diablo.
"Some summers are great, where there's not a lot of incidents and you get to stay home with your family," he said. "Then there's summers like this."
Arriving early and spurred by abnormally dry conditions, this Northern California wildfire season has been busy. According to Cal Fire, the state so far this season has had 36 percent more fires on state lands than during the same period in 2012.
"We had one of the driest rainy seasons ever last winter," Cal Fire spokesman Dennis Mathison said. "All you need is a spark and you're off and running."
No one knows that better than the fire gypsies who spend the season moving from one blaze to another. Nearly all Bay Area fire departments take part in the California Emergency Management Agency's Master Mutual Plan, which directs local crews to fires on state and federal lands.
Mark Tait, of Danville, a lieutenant with the East Bay Regional Park District's fire department, doesn't get much time at home during the high season.
He barely had time to wash clothes and repack after 11 days at the Aspen Fire in the Sierra before he was moved to the Rim Fire in and around Yosemite. Then, after just a few days off, he was called to Mount Diablo.
He has worked all but three days in the past month.
"It's really tough mentally," Tait said. "You're living out of a bag for 14 days at a time. ... You're putting your life on hold. You're missing stuff that you're never going to get back."
For Tait's 15-year-old daughter, Carey, fire season comes at the worst time.
"He always ends up going away right at the beginning of the school year," she said. "It's weird to not have him here."
According to Santa Clara County Fire Battalion Chief Kendall Pearson, thanks to budget cuts and staffing shortages, much of the manpower burden during wildfire season is shouldered by the firefighters who remain back at the station for days at a time.
"When these guys go off, we're scrambling to keep guys here at home," Pearson said. "We still need to serve our communities."
According to the National Interagency Fire Center, more than 550,000 acres of state and federal land have burned in the state in 2013. With little rest in between, the season can be physically draining.
San Ramon Valley Fire District firefighter-paramedic Lucas Hirst battled not only the flames but a sinus infection from breathing noxious smoke and poison oak at the Rim Fire.
"You're run-down a little," Hirst said. "But we signed up for it. We're not going to go home and rest knowing our guys are in a firefight. We can't just leave them behind."
The missed birthdays and anniversaries, and the toll on physical health, are worth the demands, firefighters say, if it means saving homes, gaining experience and assisting their colleagues.
"We all want to help somebody," Hirst said. "I'm giving back. ... It's that internal reward."
After Mount Diablo rehabilitation efforts, Cal Fire's Pridmore expects to go south in the fall, where fierce Santa Ana winds will wreak the usual havoc.
But how long the season will run lies at the whim of the weather.
"We'll see what Mother Nature brings," he said.
Contact Jeremy Thomas at 925-847-2184. Follow him at Twitter.com/jet_bang.