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Are your days of being wild, wicked, and wanton long gone? Have you ever really lived - and loved - that way, anyway? Or does your inner romantic only come alive when you're flipping through the pages of your favorite bodice-ripper?
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Hampton Inn Hotel Detroit/Belleville-Airport Area
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Hampton Inn Hotel Detroit/Belleville-Airport Area
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When you stay at Hampton Inn Hotel Detroit/Belleville-Airport Area in Belleville, you'll be in the business district and convenient to Yankee Air Museum. This hotel is within the region of Ypsilanti Water Tower and Eastern Michigan University.
Make yourself at home in one of the 90 air-conditioned rooms featuring refrigerators and microwaves. 32-inch LCD televisions with satellite programming provide entertainment, while complimentary wireless Internet access keeps you connected. Private bathrooms with bathtubs feature complimentary toiletries and hair dryers. Conveniences include desks and coffee/tea makers, as well as phones with free local calls.
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The above list may not be comprehensive. Fees and deposits may not include tax and are subject to change.Show all hotel policy Show less hotel policy


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I'm usually turned off by the Olympics. It's all just too serious. Which is why it was so refreshing to read about kids involved in an extreme sport who clearly enjoy what they're doing. I can't wait to tune in and watch Danny Kass go for the gold in snowboarding. Thanks for a wonderfully written article.
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Fairfield, Conn.Continue reading the main story


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United States District Court, Ninth Circuit
November 6, 2013
GOLDYN COOPER, Plaintiff,v.SCOTT HEATLEY, et al., Defendants.
DALE A. DROZD, Magistrate Judge.
Plaintiff is a state prisoner proceeding pro se with a civil rights action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against defendants Dr. Scott Heatley, Dr. H. Walter Pepper and Terri Weinholdt. On August 15, 2013, defendant H. Walter Pepper filed a motion to dismiss plaintiff's complaint for failure to state a cognizable claim against him. When plaintiff failed to file a timely opposition to the motion, the court ordered plaintiff to file his opposition or statement of non-opposition within thirty days. (ECF No. 28.) Following plaintiff's September 30, 2013 request for an extension of time, the court again ordered plaintiff to file his opposition. (ECF No. 30.) On September 30, 2013 and October 17, 2013, plaintiff filed statements of non-opposition to defendant Pepper's motion to dismiss. (ECF No. 29 at 2 and 31.)
In light of plaintiff's statement of non-opposition to the granting of the pending motion, IT IS HEREBY RECOMMENDED that:
1. Defendant H. Walter Pepper's August 15, 2013 motion to dismiss (ECF No. 22) be granted;
2. Defendant H. Walter Pepper be dismissed from this action; and
3. This action shall proceed as to defendants Scott Heatley and Terry Weinholdt only.
These findings and recommendations are submitted too the United States District Judge assigned to the case, pursuant to the provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(l). Within fourteen days after being served with these findings and recommendations, plaintiff may file written objections with the court. The document should be captioned "Objections to Magistrrate Judge's Findings and Recommendations." Any response to the objections shall be filed and served within fourteen days after service of the objections. Plaintiff is advised that failure to file objections within the specified time may waive the right to appeal the District Court's order. Martinez v. Ylst , 951 F.2d 1153 (9th Cir. 1991).
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Answer: To let a community of investment professionals, who have more up-to-date information on the 500 stocks than you do, and the resources to put that perspective together, do it for you.
This is not a new idea. Back in the 1980's before there were any ETFs, Professional Investment organizations wanted to have the means to invest in the index as an equity instrument. Major brokerage houses, predecessors to today's "investment banks," put their quant analysts to work to create "baskets" of specific stocks that had price movements highly correlated to the index. They created proportionally-engineered investments in fewer than 100 stocks that could proxy for the market average, instead of having to manage all 500.
It was a logical next step to try to forecast coming prices of the average by forecasting the basket's components. But no marvelous reputations were able to be built on this idea.
Now the challenge is easier. Just forecast the index-tracking ETF, SPDR S&P 500 (NYSEARCA:SPY).
Some of the same proportional-holdings "basket" approaches are in use today. Yet, we still don't see any "King of the SPDR-Price Forecasters" reputations being trumpeted.
There continues to be no end of relatively vague opinions about the S&P 500 index's coming price, based loosely on a plethora of S&P 500 EPS estimates. It seems the public's memory retention of EPS numbers is much less keen than their recollection of errant price forecasts.
Every professional investment manager feels he/she has to have a "macro" market forecast, but since it is so easy to take a market position these days by investing in ETFs, precise definitions of the outlook are easily deflected into far more interesting specific investment ideas. Still, the macro need continues to lurk in the background.
Instead of the notoriously fuzzy-result approach of guessing about an S&P 500 price based on a guess of an "appropriate" market P/E multiple, further based on an assembled aggregate of (basket-component) EPS guesses, let's look at a far easier to track approach, using "Intelligent Behavioral Analysis."
That is accomplished by looking to see what the market-making community is willing to pay for protection against unwanted market-average index price moves, and how they are structuring their hedges. That need arises continually in the course of putting firm capital at risk as they provide "market liquidity" to get client trade orders "filled." Correctly done, analysis of the hedges tells just how far up and how far down they think prices have a reasonable chance of going, in the next few weeks to months.
Currently there are several S&P 500 ETFs. If they don't all give the same forecast, which may be the best to use? Here are the choices: Grand-daddy of all is the SPDR S&P 500, the ETF that started that whole movement. Next came ProShares Ultra S&P 500 (NYSEARCA:SSO), which introduced the notion of 2x leveraged price motion into the game. A new competitor emerged on a see-you-and-raise-you-one basis with Direxion Daily S&P 500 Bull 3x Shares (NYSEARCA:SPXL), and ProShares countered with its own 3x Ultra S&P 500 (NYSEARCA:UPRO).
We exclude the inverse, or short-position structured S&P 500 ETFs since they have their own peculiar liabilities, and do not add anything useful to our exploration.
The following table provides a conventional analysis look at the choices, along with the index itself (SPX), the basis for comparison.
SPY, intended to be priced at 1/10th of the index, has achieved a sizable following since its introduction ten years ago, with nearly $150 billion invested. That compares with the largest Equity investments of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Exxon (NYSE:XOM) at $438 billion and $380 billion, respectively. But SPY's nature is quite different, with a daily trading value of $18 billion, meaning its entire holding can be turned over in 8 trading days, compared to 71 days for AAPL, and 388 for XOM. A market year consists of 252 trading days.
So SPY is a highly-liquid chip for portfolio managers seeking market exposure, influenced daily by quite short-term attentions. Its levered variants understandably have even shorter attention spans. And deservedly they have attracted less capital and fewer, if more intense, attendees. Their turnovers run only 2½ to 3 days.
But with all this liquidity, how well do they mirror the Index itself? That is revealed by the table's column of 3-year R2, or correlation of price change moves by each ETF with those of the index. A 100.00 correlation is perfect, and 99.+ is too near perfect to find any argument with. All track the daily directions extremely well, as the following picture illustrates. The yellow SPX line totally obscures the purple SPY line. And the others simply reflect the impact of leverage over time.
source: Yahoo.com
Indeed, this picture illustrates the desirability of using the increased focus of the leveraged ETFs as a more precise measure of the index's price change. That sensitivity is further heightened by the volume of daily trading relative to the capital committed to the instruments, the 2-3 day turnovers.
We will pursue that notion as we examine the forecasts of market professionals, as implied by Intelligent Behavioral Analysis. As suggested by the above picture, the different ETFs, and the Index itself, produce slightly different appraisals. Let's look at how those price range forecasts have trended in recent days for the Index, SPX.
The Index is not directly tradeable by the investing public as an equity investment. There are index futures that are tradeable as a commodity, and market professionals tend to focus on those because of their economy of capital commitment. Along with that economy comes an intense day-by-day management requirement that professionals are driven to accept, but is usually appraised by public investors to be too onerous and complicated, and thus dangerous, to be bothered by.
A more manageable instrument is SPX listed options, which are exchange traded. But lacking any direct access to the underlier, the index, they appear to most public investors as an unduly complicated avenue to pursue, particularly when SPY tracks the index essentially perfectly, and options on SPY are actively and simply traded.
The "inside" S&P market and forecasts
So there are really two markets of trading activity for the S&P 500, an "inside, wholesale" one used almost solely by (sell-side) market professionals on SPX, and a "public, retail" one used by investment management professionals and individual investors, operating around the SPY ETF.
Since SPY tracks the SPX so near-perfectly, this condition persists because differing operational considerations make it practical. For the sake of completeness, we will examine both markets and their forecasts.
Here is what the hedging activities in the SPX market imply as price range forecasts, day by day over the past 6 months:
(used with permission)
You will note that SPX's forecast ranges, the vertical lines, actively move as new influences are considered by pro market participants, always attempting to sense what may be coming next. The heavy dots are the end-of-day [eod] prices at the date the forecasts were made, and separate the forecasts into upside and downside potentials.
During this 6 months, the balance between upside and downside favors the upside, but this is not always the case. We measure this balance with a metric we call the Range Index, whose numeric value is that percentage of the whole range that currently lies below the market quote.
The Range Index, when a small number, indicates limited downside likelihood, and an expansive upside potential. The range size, or overall uncertainty from bottom price to top price, gets lost in the Range Index metric, but is picked up directly when examining the price gain prospect. There the top of the forecast range can be used as a sell target. (Can you say "return potential"?) Similarly, the downside complement ("risk exposure"?) is the price drawdown threat (to a long investor).
As market prospect perceptions evolve, the upside-to-downside balance may shift, producing Range Indexes of varying sizes. Over the past 5 years (1261 market days) this is what the distribution of SPX RIs (now at 18) has looked like:
The sell-side community is a far more tightly-knit body than are the buy-side professionals, and they tend not to have any meaningful presence of less-informed and well-capitalized individual investors. So their outlook may differ somewhat at times from the "other side of the street."
That side is best reflected by the past 6 month forecasts for SPY, seen here:
Its current Range Index, 43, is less optimistic than the SPX's 18, and its past 5-year distribution has looked like this:
The principal difference in the two outlooks lies in the downside, where a SPY downside of -5 ½% is being held possible, instead of the SPX -2.2% considered likely enough for pros to spend (otherwise profit) money protecting against.
The difference, of course, is that if you as an individual no longer have any influence over your government's actions and policies, it is easier to be more fearful than those who do.
What benefits can these forecasts produce?
This next table probes those differences of range size and current Range Indexes for the Market Index and the 4 ETFs in question. It also presents the history of outcomes of prior Range Index experiences, when put under a standardized portfolio management discipline as a comparative test.
The SSO's range size and Range Index are not significantly different from those dimensions in SPY. This is not comfortably logical, but serves to remind us that we are dealing with human perceptions (a "soft science") rather than with nature's physical outcomes (the "hard sciences"), where surprises are less frequent.
In contrast to SSO, range sizes for the (3x) ETFs are notably larger than SPX or SPY. But the downsides are quite similar in size to that of SPY. Appropriately, the upsides are more expanded, reflecting the leverage potentials. But again, there is no hard and fast "rule" that an ETF built to function with (3x) the price sensitivity of a single ETF, has to be viewed as a "full" (3x) larger variance, by observers whose minds are grappling at the same time with other mysteries.
Now let's look at the right-hand side of the above table. It portrays what has been the experience averages of that number of each ETF's prior Range Indexes (at the current level) when put in a test-tube where the top price of the forecast range at the time was set as a sell target, and each experience was limited to a maximum holding period of 63 market days from the date of the forecast.
The test's operating rules force a closeout of any position on the first day that its eod price is at or above the sell target, and failing that occurrence, closed at the end of the 63rd day. Win ratios measure the proportion of closeouts at prices higher than position inceptions at eod prices the day after the forecast. Annual rates of return are calculated as the nth root daily average of days held, of the geometric mean of all sample RI experiences, then raised to the 252-day market-year power. If the calculation specifics are puzzling, just accept that results have been correctly and carefully produced.
Going through SPXL's data as an illustration, its current Range Index of 32 has appeared 116 times in its available 1139 days of the past 5 years. Of that sample, 7 out of every 8 (87%) produced a gain at their closeout, and the average net gain of all 116 was 8.7%. The average number of days required for capital to be committed was 33, so an annual rate of gain of 90% was achieved.
Qualitative evaluations of these results include considering the win ratio (87%), the annual rate of net gain (+90%), its prospective reward-to-risk ratio by a comparison of the sell-target gain potential (11.7%), divided by the average worst-case price drawdown from position commitment price in all 116 sample experiences (-10.5%) or 1.1. And the history of average % payoff gain achieved (8.7%) divided by the promised sell target gain of 11.7%, or a figure of merit (or disappointment) of 74%.
But not all portfolios serve the same mission
Differing investment objectives can make these various qualitative measures more important or less significant, and varying thresholds of significance can enter into the investor's preference choices. So we try to provide as rich a description of what has happened in the past as is practical for comparative purposes.
One last dimension that is often helpful in developing perspective is to simply look at what has been the actual price performance experience over the last few years, following many levels of Range Indexes.
In illustration, here is the array of annual rates of price change for UPRO's 1065 available Range Indexes in the past 5 years. The table is set up from RI extremes at top and bottom, to cumulate to the mid-row blue line average of all experiences. The columns measure increasing-length weeks of 5 market days, from the date of each forecast.
The magenta total of 261 Range Indexes (at 35 or less) experienced 1-month (20 market days) price changes at an average annual rate of +123%, at two months after forecast at +68% and at 3 months of +85% or +83%. Its typical annual rate of gain over the 4+ years was around 42% from all Range Index experiences. Range Indexes over 40 experienced price gains at only 3/4ths (+29%) of the overall rate when held for 3 months.
Range Indexes lower than 38 tended to provide price change opportunities averaging significantly above the blue-line norm.
Comparable measurements for SPXL have not offered as attractive prospects in the 2 to 4 month holding period experiences at present RI levels, as have UPRO.
Intelligent Behavioral Analysis, relying on the informed judgments of economically highly motivated, experienced professionals, can and do lead to productive preferences between selection candidates for investment or reinvestment of capital in portfolios of equity and ETF holdings. The self-protective actions of these individuals provide insights into information often not available to "buy-side" investors. Important in that process is a sense of how "order flow" of price and volume emphasis by buyers and sellers of specific securities is trending. Aggregated, such senses in key "market-leader" names undoubtedly has future price influence on ETFs tracking various market indexes.
The implied forecasts from this style of analysis has over a decade of live-experience evidence that such insights can be predicatively productive.
Additional Disclosure: The author has an investment interest in the website blockdesk.com which, while not yet open to the public, is in conversion from being a delivery medium of information to institutional investors to a new life of providing similar help to do-it-yourself investors. Both brief and extended-time subscriptions for single or multiple issue inquiries should be at quite reasonable and manageable costs for individuals. Announcement of its opening is hoped for in the 4th quarter of this year.
Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.


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It occurred to me this morning that, when I play political "word association," the results are interesting. The game is to think of big events in America, past or present, and then associate a political party name with them, whether because the party was in power at the time or is associated with the ideology. Here goes:
The Bookworm Room 7/17/16 — the "I'm all riled up" edition and open thread
Blacks and Muslims should be angry at their criminal cohorts, not at us. In the context of an article about political correctness, Andrew Klavan said something I've been struggling to say for some time. He acknowledges that blacks are on the receiving end of much more police activity, something frustrating and insulting to law-abiding blacks, but that's because the black community's bad eggs commit a disproportionate amount of American crime. Likewise, because children have big mouths, perfectly nice Muslim kids in school find themselves being called terrorists, reflecting the fact that acts of mass violence all over the world come primarily from their co-religionists. That's certainly not nice, but Klavan says that law-abiding blacks and Muslims are putting blame in the wrong place:
It seems to me if you are an innocent black person being troubled by the cops, if you are an innocent Muslim under suspicion from your neighbors, the people you should be angry at, the people to blame, are not the people acting on rational suspicion. The people at fault are the bad guys who have drawn that suspicion unfairly onto you.
A black man targeted by the police shouldn't be angry at the police. He should be angry at the thugs and criminals who look like him and make his race a target. And before Muslims blame non-Muslims for the prejudice against them, maybe they ought to look to — and openly condemn — those Muslims who have given their religion a very bad name indeed.
The problem is prejudice, yes. But it's the tribal prejudice that says we should blame others before we blame "our own." "Our own" are the good guys, no matter what race or religion we are.
Someone should read those words out loud at the Republican Party Convention. They're very important.
[VIDEO] This is why voters picked Trump over the GOP
Bill Whittle's indictment in this video isn't the Left, it's the GOP — the gutless, passive political party that purports to represent conservative interests but that will always bow down to their Leftist overlords. After watching this video, read this post, take its marching orders, and get proactive.
Will Ted Cruz be able to save conservativism even if he's not the candidate?
It appears that Ted Cruz still has a few tricks up his sleeve, not to get into the White House in 2017, but to force Donald Trump to sign onto a conservative agenda:
Senator Ted Cruz's supporters are mounting an effort to seize control of the Republican platform and the rules governing the party's July convention, the first indication that Mr. Cruz will not simply hand his delegates over to Donald J. Trump.
In an email sent Sunday to pro-Cruz convention delegates, a top aide to the Texas senator wrote that it was "still possible to advance a conservative agenda at the convention."
"To do that, it is imperative that we fill the Rules and Platform Committees with strong conservative voices like yours," wrote Ken Cuccinelli, who was the campaign's former delegate wrangler and a former attorney general of Virginia. "That means you need to come to the national convention and support others in coming, too!"
Mr. Cruz is planning a Monday evening conference call where, as Mr. Cuccinelli writes, Mr. Cruz's former officials plan to "discuss what we can do at the convention to protect against liberal changes to our platform, and how we can right the wrongs in the rules from 2012!"
The "wrongs" Mr. Cuccinelli was referring to are the changes pushed through at the last convention by supporters of Mitt Romney that would have made it harder for a candidate's name to be placed in nomination.
But Mr. Cruz's supporters and other conservative activists are also deeply concerned about Mr. Trump's general election agenda, and want to ensure that he does not alter the party's platform. Since locking up the nomination last week, Mr. Trump has made clear he intends to run a populist campaign against Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, indicating he is open to higher taxes and an increase in the minimum wage.
But Mr. Cuccinelli said Mr. Cruz, who has been silent since withdrawing from the race last Tuesday, had no intention of trying to rewrite convention rules in an effort to deny Mr. Trump the nomination.
"It's important that this not appear as though we are pulling at stunt at this convention," he said, adding that the goal is to advocate for policies preferred by the sort of hard-line conservatives who backed Mr. Cruz's campaign.
"This is about protecting movement conservatism," he said, pointing to party planks on abortion and saying the delegates should consider language regarding transgender bathroom access.
"We want to have girls go in girls' bathrooms," he said, highlighting an issue on which Mr. Trump has broken with social conservatives by supporting the rights of transgender people to use the bathroom of their choice.
Read the rest here. As I read this, Ted Cruz is doing what he's always promised to do: Try his best to protect constitutional conservativism in the United States of America. A Trump presidency would certainly be more palatable if he were constrained to follow core conservative ideas. (Although, thinking about it, it's hard to imagine anything constraining Trump.)
I didn't leave the Republican party; the Republican party left me *UPDATED*
Having thought about it a lot, I'm about to commit what many will believe is heresy: I believe conservatives should suck it up and vote for Trump so as to avoid a hard Left presidency. Trying to save the Republican party at this juncture is an intellectual and practical dead-end, akin to doing CPR on a pulse-free heart attack victim even as the sarin gas is leaking under the door, through the keyhole, and over the transom.
As a predicate to my argument, let me say two things. First, the more I know of Trump as a person, the less I like him. He is rude, crude, coarse, mean, and vicious. I think that he speaks to everything that is low in the human condition. Second, I deeply respect those who are stating a principled opposition to a Trump presidency, men such as David French, George Will, and Ben Sasse.
Respecting them, though, doesn't mean that I think these men, and other like-minded people, are making the right call. From where I sit, the mere fact that Donald Trump was nominated means that the Republican Party is already dead. We can drag it around for a bit, and dress it up nicely, but it's still a rotting corpse and one that cannot be resuscitated.
Perhaps my different take comes about because, unlike French, Will, Sasse, or other prominent members of the #NeverTrump crowd, I am not a lifetime Republican. The party doesn't hold any emotional resonance for me. I wasn't there intellectually during the glory days of Eisenhower or Reagan. I came to conservativism at the beginning of the 21st century by dint of very hard intellectual work.
Reaching conservativism meant that, after a lifetime of unthinkingly checking the boxes next to every Democrat candidates' name, I had finally figured out that no Democrat policies worked to achieve the promised goals — and, indeed, that all of these policies were counterproductive:
Thinking out loud about Trump and the state of conservativism in America
I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the whole idea of Donald Trump as the presumptive Republican candidate for president in the 2016 election. In analyzing his (to me) unexpected victory, it's easy enough to point fingers at the media, which gave him unlimited air time; at Fox, which turned into his personal campaign channel (and lost its rating status to CNN as a result); and at those cross-over Democrats in open primaries who, out of principled conviction or pure mischief, gave him the delegates he needed.
Nevertheless, Thomas Lifson, one of the smartest men I know, is on to something more profound when he says that Trump represents a sledgehammer that voters have taken to an irredeemably corrupt political system:
Let's face it: America has been locked into a downward spiral under the permanent grip that a corrupt system has had on power. Politicians bent on reform, representing voters demanding it, arrive in Washington, DC only to discover the impossibility of breaking the hold on the levers of governance of lobbyists, bureaucrats, and politicians in their pockets. Washington, DC thrives, becoming the richest city in the country, as most of the rest of the nation stagnates and declines. Businesses discover that it is far more important to cultivate government support than to innovate. Rent seeking becomes the path to riches.
Ted Cruz, who deserves enormous credit for suspending his campaign last night, swallowing his anger over Trump's escalating personal attacks on him and his family, has demonstrated the futility of reforming the federal government from the inside. A man of fierce intelligence and determination, he ran into a buzz saw in the Senate, and became the most hated man there in decades. He stood up for principle, but was unable to move Congress in his (and conservatives') direction.
A strong majority of Americans across the ideological spectrum understand how broken the system is. Something like two-thirds of the electorate realize that the federal government is working to protect those who grease its wheels and feather its nest. Nobody exemplifies this corrupt system better than Hillary Clinton, now the Democrats' presumptive nominee (again, barring black swan events).
Separate from Trump's politics, which are an ever-evolving swirl of conservative and Progressive ideas, Trump didn't just criticize the existing system, he alternatively savaged and exulted in it. He rode roughshod over political correctness, but he also boasted that as an active participant in America's political corruption from the other side (the business, not the political side) he knew how to deal with it. He simultaneously represented himself as both player and destroyer.
Looking at Trump's political views. . . . Let me begin again, given that Trump's political views change with the polls and the interviewer's questions. He also lies about them, as he's done regarding illegal immigration. He railed against it, but he's always been an amnesty kind of guy. Still, given what seem to be his sort of fixed political views for the time being, here are what I see as the most optimistic scenario of a Trump presidency:
[VIDEO] House Republicans begin to strike back
I found this in my inbox:
I'm not in love with it, but I think it's a good, smart start: It uses Obama's own words against him and suggests that he comes back to the Constitutional fold. As I said earlier, conservatives and Republicans have two years in which to educate Americans, or else the imperial presidency will be the new status quo.
(Is that whirring noise I hear the sound of George Washington spinning in his grave?)
Found it on Facebook: Everything that's wrong with a poster from the Left
One of my Democrat Facebook friends put this poster up on her feed:
It's a fascinating looking-glass view at the world, insofar as it sums up most of the last 14 years in a way precisely the opposite of the way in which conservatives see those years. The praise for the Democrats is like looking at the glassy surface of a pool, only to discover the rot that lies beneath it.
I. Let's see what lies beneath those "Democrat miracles":
So what exactly is happening in November?
Dueling pundits, spotted at Power Line:
Is the House GOP leadership being blackmailed into voting for amnesty?
People are asking why, with a potentially successful midterm election coming, the GOP has decided to go forward with amnesty, even though (a) only 3% of Americans care about the issue and (b) the base is strongly opposed to the GOP's plan. On its face, this seems like an insane thing to do, since it can destroy the Republican party in two ways, first, by denying it success in the 2014 midterm and, second, by creating a permanent Democrat constituency.
I think that Glenn Reynolds might inadvertently have provided the answer by juxtaposing two posts:
(Links to the two posts referenced are here and here.)
Has the GOP House leadership been threatened into sabotaging the 2014 midterms? To answer that, consider that the NSA trolls indiscriminately for all cell phone and internet content. The sheer volume of information means that it's unlikely that the NSA can review it in real-time so as to prevent an imminent attack. The best way to use that information is to pick a target and then, having isolated the target, to go back into the saved data and to fined content that damages the target.
Once the NSA has completed its targeting data troll, GOP politicians who have had affairs, used drugs, engaged in illegal transactions, etc., might find themselves facing a government official who says something along the lines of "Nice life ya' got here. Shame if something happened to it. Kinda like the something that happened to Dinesh d'Souza, if you know what I mean."
Yes, I know that sounds like paranoid wacko stuff. But consider that just five years ago, we would have dismissed as paranoid wacko stuff all of the following: IRS persecution of conservative political organizations; NSA spying indiscriminately on email and cell phone, as well as on the House of Representatives and media members; the Department of Justice engaged in gun-running; video makers getting imprisoned as Free Speech martyrs to hide an administration's failure to prevent a terrorist attack; nuns being forced to pay for birth control and abortifacient pills; deals with Iran that effectively allow it to become a nuclear nation; and a president who uses executive orders, not to effectuate executive duties, but instead to nullify existing law or to create non-existent law out of whole cloth.
Given an administration that views the Constitution as a hindrance, why shouldn't we believe that it's engaging in the tried and true communist tactic of spying on opponents, getting dirt on them, and then using that dirt to force them to act against their interests?
The Hillary factor
Roger Simon has warned conservatives that they're taking their eye off the ball — and the ball is Hillary Clinton. While we conservatives are fighting our internecine Rove versus Cruz arguments, Hillary is continuing to amass power. It's not just that the New York Times is whitewashing Benghazi on her behalf, says Simon. Instead, it's that she, unlike Obama, actually has the political chops (including the political husband) to consolidate socialist gains in American government:
The principal enemy for the right and the center-right is now Hillary Clinton, the vastly favored frontrunner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. She is so far in front, in fact, that her competitors are not even in hailing distance. Hillary is the one who can consolidate and solidify the "gains" of the Obama era in a way Obama himself never could because she is much more politically savvy — Obama was only savvy about getting elected, not governing — and has the backing of her even more politically savvy husband. Hillary is the one who can fully remake the United States into some version of Western Europe or, yet more frighteningly, China, a permanently stratified state capitalism governed by quasi-totalitarian bureaucrats. (We can call this system Soros Marxism, meaning a ruling clique of increasingly rich corporate czars employing a propagandistic veneer of socialist equality to keep the power and wealth for themselves.)
With that in mind, how does one explain the fact that Richard Cohen, an ardent Progressive, has penned a column telling everyone that Hillary may have been harmed by Obamacare? He argues that, if people don't like Obamacare, they won't like her. That argument is a red herring. The facts on the ground are that Hillary kept away from Obamacare. Her own dreams of socialized medicine notwithstanding, she had the smarts and political savvy to recognize early on that Obamacare, an unholy marriage of government and insurance companies, would be DOA and start to smell very quickly. My take on Cohen's overacted hand wringing it is that he thinks the best thing to happen now is for conservatives to leave Hillary alone, so that she can continue to aggregate political power. "Move along! Nothing to see here. Pay no attention to the woman behind the curtain."
So yeah, I think that Cohen's article, to the extent it tries to distract attention from Hillary, proves that Simon is correct. The Left wants Hillary to be left alone so that she can get ready for her spectacular, pre-paved emergence on the political scene.
I think, though, that Simon errs in one thing, which is his belief that the internecine war in the Republican party doesn't matter. Instead, it matters a great deal. Conservatives aren't stupid. They know that, if another Democrat — any Democrat — gets the White House, we'll be irrevocably on the pathway to becoming Greece. There will be no turning back. Knowing that, conservatives are taking a stand as to how to block that possibility: with Tea Party, constitutional firebrands or with establishment, appeasing RINOs. That the latter might do nothing at all to block the possibility is not something their supporters are considering. Instead, their analysis is that the MSM has so terribly damaged the Tea Party brand that it cannot possibly win, so it's better to back RINOs who are imperfect but might win.
The Big Lie is already making the truth irrelevant; or, Republicans are once again waiting for the manure shower
A friend sent me a very funny email. I don't know if the numbers are precisely accurate, but I do know that they're accurate enough to serve a larger truth, namely America's overwhelming turn in 1942 from a peacetime nation into a fully armed, fully operational wartime nation. In this way, the facts stated distinguish themselves from the Progressive concept of "truthiness," which means "fake, but [God alone knows how] accurate":
During the 3-1/2 years of World War 2 that started with the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and ended with the Surrender of Germany and Japan in 1945, the U.S. produced 22 aircraft carriers, 8 battleships, 48 cruisers, 349 destroyers, 420 destroyer escorts, 203 submarines, 34 million tons of merchant ships, 100,000 fighter aircraft, 98,000 bombers, 24,000 transport aircraft, 58,000 training aircraft, 93,000 tanks, 257,000 artillery pieces, 105,000 mortars, 3,000,000 machine guns, and 2,500,000 military trucks.
We put 16.1 million men in uniform in the various armed services, invaded Africa, invaded Sicily and Italy, won the battle for the Atlantic, planned and executed D-Day, marched across the Pacific and Europe, developed the atomic bomb and ultimately conquered Japan and Germany.
It's worth noting, that during the almost exact amount of time, the Obama administration couldn't build a functioning web site.
To me, living in my head as I do, a head filled with news and political commentary, the above is both funny and devastating. It puts into perspective the pathetic disaster that was the Obamacare exchange launch and should remind everyone that a government this bad at one thing is almost certainly also a government incapable of performing the most basic functions . . . such as protecting us from our declared enemies.
Immediately after getting the above email, I read that the New York Times is working hard to re-write the Benghazi slaughter so as to clean up both Hillary's and Barack's reputations. And I know, and you know, that even though the New York Times is losing subscribers like mad, that fact is kind of irrelevant, because the Times still the news source for all sorts of other newspapers across America. Go ahead. Check out your morning local rag. You'll see that at least one story comes direct from the Times or from the Washington Post or from the Associated Press. As Conan proved in a funny, fluffy video, no matter the outlet, the story's always the same.
The Obama administration is now boasting that one million people signed up for Obamacare in December. Maybe it's true; maybe it's not. The two things we know with certainty are (1) that the media won't press for the truth and (2) that the media will work as one in the coming months to shill for Obamacare. The glitches are over; the wonders are on their way.
Yes, we who have not drunk the Kool Aid know that Obamacare will collapse under its own weight, but that doesn't matter. All that the media hustlers need to do is keep those plates spinning until the day after the November 2014 election. After that, they're home free no matter what happens.
And please don't look to the Republican Party for help. It's so busy trying to take out the Tea Party (it's bad for business, doncha' know?) that it's ignoring the most wondrous political opportunity handed to it since . . . well, since never before. Rick Moran sounds the warning, but don't expect the money guys in the GOP to hear that tocsin:
Are Republicans smart enough to counter this propaganda with nightmare stories about sky-high premiums, the cancellation of perfectly good insurance policies, website errors, and other tragic experiences that ordinary people have had with Obamacare? Democrats couldn't accuse them of cherry picking bad news when they're cherry picking good news.
This is a long-term war to be played out over the coming years. What I don't see yet is a commitment from the national Republican Party to engage the resources necessary to counter the Democrats move for move. There doesn't appear to be a plan in place which means they'll be improvising on the fly. That just won't cut it.
With the Obamacare website now largely operational, the first phase of the battle is over. But unless the GOP stays on its toes, they are likely to be buried by the administration PR machine.
The Leftist PR machine is gearing up hard. Moreover, with this video as a graphic illustration, please remember that the agile Democrats are already on the move, while the Republicans are the ones sitting in the car:


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Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster and the Beanstalk
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Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster and the Beanstalk is the only Tiny Toon Adventures-related video game released on the Personal Computer. It was developed and published by Terraglyph Interactive Studios in 1996
There is a PlayStation game called Tiny Toon Adventures: The Great Beanstalk that is very similar to this game.
If one was take the old Jack and the Beanstalk story and add Tiny Toon Adventures, you will get exactly what makes Buster and the Beanstalk. The object of the game is help two stars from the show, Buster Bunny and Plucky Duck, get into the Giant's castle. This is done by finding pieces of the keys needed, which is found by using hints given over a loudspeaker (by Babs Bunny). Players point and click on objects found in each scene of the game, using those hints. If they find the right object told in the hint, they find a piece of the key they need.
There are three total keys to build on easy mode, but changing it to hard can give the player a longer adventure. But if a player gets stuck, The beautiful, magical fairy princess (aka Babs Bunny) gives the heroes at the beginning of the game a magical cell phone that they can use to get unstuck.
However, Elmyra Duff takes the role of a magical witch that can capture Buster and Plucky, hindering their quest for a bit.


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Sandy Carter: Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) -- Off the Record
One of my FAVORITE SOA Customers -- Standard Life speaks about IMPACT 2009!
SOASOA 060000JRQN 3 Comments 3,027 Views
At IMPACT 2009 on Day 1, it is all about our customers and their success stories. We just heard from our customer, Russell Irwin of Standard Life talk about his company's soa journey and I thought it would be great to get a follow up Q & A to glean more insights.
Sandy: You have a world-famous story on the value of reuse in an SOA environment. Can you start by giving us a few numbers?
Russell: To date our SOA has realised a value of £26M pounds, around $40M dollars. This is objective and conservative. It represents the value of our SOA approach over the cost of alternatives in development terms. We have not included the additional operational savings yet in our metrics. In Standard Life we sometimes debate the size of the saving, but not whether the saving is real. It is growing, the measures are all moving in the right direction. We log and measure through our software Framework and accompanying Infrastructure, so here come the numbers !
To date (August 2004 - March 2009) 227 service consuming apps in production
569 services in the catalog, where a service has to mean something to the business e.g. 'Provide Customer Information' is a valid service, while 'Fetch Parm7 Yabba-Dabba Doo' is not
Service re-use is consistently running at around 50%
~1.25 million service calls per day,
~ 300 SOA developers
1493 instances of reuse (where a service is used > once)
Multiplied by the cost of developing a typical bespoke service means £26 million sterling / nearly $40 million dollars
Or 2500 Honda Civics, or 200,000 fruit-based MP3 player-pods...
Sandy: Can you tell us how your SOA deployment has evolved over time?
Russell: We have been actively committed to SOA for 10 years. We started by getting the governance model, technology patterns, Software Framework, roles & responsibilities clear. We then began our work with some simple, but popular, services to illustrate the benefits of the approach and secure advocation and support from colleagues in Development and Business areas. The governance model has remained consistent throughout, so the costs to run our SOA remain fairly constant while the throughput and traffic has grown strongly. This offers exceptional efficiency gearing across our work. We now have an engaged community of some 300 developers who are very supportive of the overall governance and supporting patterns.
Sandy: What recommendations would you have to companies just starting their implementation of SOA?
Russell: In summary, smart SOA is working ! If you have already started your SOA journey, stick with it. If you have not started, start small with some services you know will get used, they don't have to be the holy grail, think of the high volume traffic. Adopt a rigorous approach with strong SOA leadership and robust technology patterns. Measure as much as you can and report business value to your sponsor, not architectural purity. Report those measures in terms that your business will appreciate. Celebrate success ! Choose your technology partner carefully. And be clear on your governance model, roles and responsibilities throughout.
Sandy: What do you see in the future for Std. Life in terms of its involvement with SOA?
Russell: Smart SOA is working. We are committed to it. It has been a great success for us in the UK and we can now look to share the approach in our other markets.
Russell, what a great SOA success story and so happy to have you here at IMPACT! Thanks.[Read More]
SOA for Dummies!
SOASOA 060000JRQN 6 Comments 2,946 Views
I love the "for dummies" series. You can learn about anything in a "for dummies" book! Since I travel around the world with the SOA Executive Summits, I still hear from many customers that they need a very simple way to explain SOA.
Because of these requests, when Carol Barodi (yes, the author of Internet for Dummies) approached us on sponsoring a book on SOA for dummies we jumped at it. She partnered with Judith Hurwitz, both well respected authors. and they have written "SOA for Dummies", a special IBM Edition. SOA for Dummies IBM Edition covers what SOA is, why it matters, how it can impact businesses, how to get started with SOA, and what one IBM customer has done with SOA.
You can request a FREE copy of SOA for Dummies – IBM Edition by responding to my blog or by emailing me at email@example.com!
You'll also want to check out the latest SOA enablement resources including a SOA Best Practices: Real World Lessons Learned webcast scheduled for August 10. You will hear European IT industry authorities Macehiter Ward-Dutton and Freeform Dynamics discuss in detail the findings from their collaborative SOA analysis: SOA—Lessons from the Front Line. Register today for this informative webcast on ibm.com/soa!!!
[Read More]
Jeremiah - Social Media Guru -- At IMPACT 2009! Hear what's on his mind!
SOASOA 060000JRQN 2,905 Views
Social Media Guru at IMPACT 2009!
I got to know Jeremiah at a Social Media thought leadership event in the Valley. He is truly a leader and visionary in this space. I had the pleasure of interviewing Jeremiah and wanted to share what he has planned for IMPACT 2009!
Sandy: How has the economic downturn changed the way people leverage social networkingJeremiah: Our Technographics Research shows an increase in adoption of social tools from 2007-2008, in fact some pretty large jumps in behaviors. Basic common sense and logic tells us that social media usage for consumers will go up during a recession. Why? People will want to connect with others during crises, build personal brands, learn new skills by reading blogs. Also those who are in between jobs will have more time and certainly need to connect with others to find new job opportunities. Furthermore, we've found that 53% of marketers have decided to increase their social media spend during a recession on social, however it's important to note we're not talking about sizable budget amounts, these are still small potato budgets –all things considered.
Sandy: Is social media superficial branding, or does it truly change the company?Jeremiah: Sadly, many companies are slapping social features on their corporate websites or launching blogs –yet they are not walking the talk. Many brands don't truly live an open an transparent workstyle, and as a result, customers see right through it. This research is telling, corporate blogs aren't trusted by consumers.
Sandy: What is the biggest finding from the many interviews you've done with corporate social media teams, what's the one trend you're finding? Jeremiah: Many companies are starting to get organized and are appointing key roles, such as the social media strategist and a handful of community managers. These specific roles, while often perform other traditional marketing tasks, are key to delivering true social media programs to the market. Why? Like all business programs, internal champions are still needed for success –especially new mediums
Sandy: On a lighter note, what's your take on the Ashton Kutcher @aplusk and CNN @cnnbrk race to 1 million followers?Jeremiah: While silly and trivial, this is a true milestone that Twitter and other social tools are about to go mainstream with media coverage. This however, doesn't suggest they are mainstream tools, as they don't have mainstream adoption.
Sandy: How do you feel about celebrities using Twitter? Oprah has 92,000 followers before she ever posted 1 tweet, are celebrities changing the way Twitter is being used and any lessons to be learnt by companies?Jeremiah: Expect celebrities to monetize this microblogging tool far faster than Twitter themselves. They will extend this tool to help their sponsors reach new audiences, pimp their own shows and content, and use it to broadcast content. Most celebrities won't understand the true dialog opportunities and will use it like their other tools –broadcast. As a result, early adopters of Twitter will move on, and create a new community that hasn't become saturated.
Sandy: You will be at IBM IMPACT in Vegas next month talking about the importance of social networking for today's commerce opportunities. Would love to get a sneak preview on this session.Jeremiah: Social Network adoption is one of the highest participated social activities by consumers –as a result, brands want to be there. In my session we'll talk about what works, and what doesn't. I'll have some practical examples and best practices, and will make it interactive. I hope folks show up, and Tweeting is certainly encouraged!
Gang, come and see us at IMPACT. We have some great social media adventures planned like blogger box seats, Paint your Facebook, and more! Sign Up Here!
P.S. As everyone knows, Jeremiah's puppy is famous and no blog would be complete without a picture![Read More]
IMPACT 2008! Techy conference!
I have been working non stop on IMPACT 2008! We are getting ready for 6,000 of you to come learn, network, and have some fun!
Why is it so cool? A must come event! Check this out!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txJz-gR-3go
First there are No Chart Zones, Stump the Architect, certifications, and more.
Second, there are over 500 classes available for you to deepen your technical skill. Just for SOA enabled by Web 2.0, here is what we have in place! The Web 2.0 roadmap highlights how IBM products and open source initiatives can enable Web 2.0 innovations in the enterprise. The Web 2.0 curriculum at IMPACT 2008 has sessions designed to help architects identify how the cultural and technical components of Web 2.0 are likely to affect their organizations, as well as how to use existing and new technologies to support them. In addition, application developers can select from a number of sessions, from entry level through advanced, on ways to weave Web 2.0 technologies like REST, AJAX, Feeds, Assembly, JSON/XML and other technologies into your software applications. Learn how to build and deploy applications on the Web quickly by participating in our hands-on labs using IBM tools. Take the opportunity to see how rapid development and service reuse can help your enterprise stay one step ahead in a rapidly changing global marketplace. Please join IBM Distinguished Engineers Marc-Thomas Schmidt, Jerry Cuomo, Kyle Brown, Jason McGee, and Rob Will and a host of leaders from across the IBM labs to learn about our Web 2.0 strategy.
Web 2.0 Roadmap
And Finally, we have great IBMers for you to meet and greet like Rob High, Jerry Cuomo, Craig Hayman!!!!
I hope to see you there!
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Meet the Experts: IBM IMPACT 2008 Session Previews
SOASOA 060000JRQN Tags:  virtualization soa businesseventprocessing websphere bpm runtime 2,817 Views
We've just completed some preview videos of IMPACT speaking sessions that I wanted to share!
The videos really give you a flavor of the event. We have three outstanding IBM technical experts talking about their upcoming sessions at IBM's IMPACT 2008 :
Kyle Brown on Business Event Processing
You can view all the IMPACT videos on YouTube IMPACT TV.
To learn more about IMPACT sessions, click here.
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Playing the Game !
Hey Gang! I am here in Asia Pacific. I have been to Japan, Korea and am now in China. I love Asia -- the people, the food, the culture! One thing that I learned in Asia many moons ago, was the game. Gaming is very big here. It is the way people play, relax and learn. To that end, we announced here in Asia the introduction of learning SOA and BPM through serious gaming. 12 Universities here are accepting the challenge of being bold enough to test this out! The universities are: Beijing Institute of Technology (China) BUAA (China) Chuo University (Japan) Harbin Institute of Technology (China) Keio University (Japan) Peking Unversity (China) Singapore Management University (Singapore) Sun Yat-sen University (China) Tongji University (China) Tsukuba University (Japan) Waseda University (Japan) Wuhan Unversity (China) Why Serious Gaming? Well now is the generation of Xbox. Who is Generation X-box? (or Digital Natives if you dont want to use Xbox). According to the Entertainment Software Association, in 2007 the average game player is 33 years old. 47% of all gamers fall in the 18-49 age range. 24% are over 50. The average age of MBA students varies by school, but generally late 20's for full time program, late 30's for exec. mba here are already more Gen X & Gen Ys, the "digitial natives" than there are baby boomers! We at IBM are trying to use games with a curriculum to help students learn and have fun! Our mandate -- have fun and • aggressively ignore any hint of formal instruction • lean heavily on trial-and-error (afer all, failure is nearly free, you just push "play again") • includeslots of learning from peers but virtually none from authority figures • is consumed in very small bits, exactly when the learner wants, which is usually just before the skill is needed • allow for people to take risks in a safe environment • allow for players to achieve a skill or talent which is not only meaningful but perceived as having value So we announced Innov8 at IMPACT 2007 and then GA ed it to universities in November. With INN0V8, we started with the objective of providing an immersive experience that simulates real life, with key 'teaching moments'. It is fundamentally different from traditional e-learning. For me, learning occurs through dialog with other characters - in primarily peer roles, and self-discovery, via trial-and-error, in the mini games contained in the game. Each mini-game is preceded by a tutorial that explains how the game works... just in time!! The experience is risk free.. you can drive the fictional company into the ground without major penalty and so our goal is that we teache real world skills that our customers have told us they value... and are in short demand.. Why don't you try this out and see what you think! Click here to play the INNOV8 preview video.[Read More]
Happy SOA New Year!
Happy SOA New Year!!! Another fun SOA case study ! What is SOA? The most common analogy used to describe SOA is that of building blocks. Imagine standing side-by-side a toy car, and one built using Lego® blocks. The toy car represents a traditional IT application, and the one built of blocks represents an assembled application using SOA services. Both have the same basic function, but the car built of blocks can be easily modified – or even re-assembled into something completely different such as a toy airplane. An SOA Example: HousingMaps.com A good example of a composite SOA-driven application is HousingMaps.com. This consumer facing web application takes information from Craigslist about houses for rent or for sale and merges it with location data from Google Maps. The result for users is a location-based view of all the properties for rent or sale within a specific geography. Users can click on any spot in the map to see the detailed property listing from Craigslist. The application works because both Craigslist and Google chose to expose portions of their applications as services using standard protocols. If their respective applications were completely self-contained in the model of traditional IT applications, then the only way to achieve HousingMaps functionality would be to write an entirely new application from scratch![Read More]
IBM Signs MOU to Launch Tender Offer to Acquire ILOG
SOASOA 060000JRQN 2 Comments 2,567 Views
I am pleased to inform you that IBM and ILOG have just announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding for IBM to acquire ILOG through a cash public tender offer. ILOG is a leading provider of software designed to help companies make better, faster business decisions.
Once the transaction closes, ILOG will supplement our Business Process Management (BPM) Enabled by SOA initiative through its software, 3,000-plus customers in 30 countries, more than 500 partners, and strong marketing expertise. ILOG's products include the market's leading Business Rules Management System, as well as innovative optimization and visualization tools, and supply chain application assets and middleware.
ILOG's leading-edge technologies strengthen our own solutions in several key areas:
Business Rules. Business rules describe the operations, definitions and constraints that companies use to achieve their goals. IBM currently delivers rules capabilities through the IBM BPM Suite
Optimization. Optimization software uses mathematical algorithms to identify the best use of resources to achieve business goals. Optimization, for example, can help power companies better manage power supplies, saving money and reducing carbon emissions. Supply chain management extensions leverage ILOG's technologies to improve supply chain efficiency and business performance.
Visualization. Visualization software enables building interactive user interfaces for displaying large volumes of data in a manageable form to speed effective decision-making. One Spanish telecommunications group, for example, uses visualization software as part of an early warning system aimed at monitoring illegal activities. An IBM partner since 1996, ILOG already benefits IBM through its compatibility with software like WebSphere Business Events.
We anticipate that we can use ILOG's technology to add significant capability across our entire software platform. This includes improved rules and business optimization capabilities for Information Management offerings, better visualization for Lotus and Rational products, and enhanced optimization within Tivoli solutions. ILOG's optimization products, along with their supply chain management extensions, will also support key practices in Global Business Services, such as the Center for Business Optimization.
When completed, this acquisition will strengthen IBM's business process management, service oriented architecture (SOA) and overall software leadership. ILOG plus IBM will provide customers with unbeatable combined value through a more complete and integrated set of offerings.
Read more about this here.[Read More]
IMPACT: DAY 1 Kickoff!
SOASOA 060000JRQN Tags:  network soa ibm_impact soa_conference social 2,445 Views
Today was truly an incredible day at IMPACT! I arrived this morning at the MGM Boxing Arena to learn that we had 6,000 people in attendance at the conference. This morning's session was a chance for us to connect with our customers, partners, analysts and press. It's hard to believe that this is only the second annual IMPACT conference. The sheer volume of customers has grown by nearly 50 percent in the past year. Indeed, interest in SOA among companies of all sizes in all industries continues to rise at an increasingly rapid pace.
I want to share with all of you, some of the exciting news we talked about today.
Here's a quick summary with links to more information:
Please join us on the Network and share you thoughts & experiences.
And don't forget to join this week's SOA JAM. We want to hear from you!
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Dressing up Social Media with My Virtual Model. Check them out @ IBM IMPACT 2009
SOASOA 060000JRQN 2,409 Views
My Virtual Model enables consumers to "try on" clothes online and this is a business model after my own heart! For companies, using My Virtual Model technology improves their bottom-line profitability by increasing revenues while cutting costs. As an IBM SOA business partner, MVM will be at IMPACT 2009.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Louise Guay, the MVM co-founder and wanted to share her insight!
Sandy: This year will be your first trip to IMPACT! What are you most looking forward to?Louise: I hope that I will have the chance to share our experience of social centrality and target advertising with the participants. The moneytisation of the social shopping and networking is "le sujet de l'heure" and we have an experience conducive to it! We can provide in the core of the shopping experience of merchants a usage of social media (Show me me how people like me wear this product!) and how the users can buy the entire look with a buy all button. Once the users register their profiles (their 3D models of themselves with a picture of their faces), ads can be targeted to them via banners or in emails or when they make their model appear on a product page. We have also an amazing network driving new clients to our merchant clients.
Sandy: I know that My Virtual Model has incorporated Social Media within the online shopping experience for Sears, Cosmopolitan and others. What is the reaction from customers and users?Louise: Merchants are anxious to make a sound usage of social media. From a merchant perspective these times command a strong metrics oriented results, we also know that users trust more and more their peers comments. Imagine if they can see their peers wearing what they like and would wear also. They can choose seeing it on similar peers body types or same ethnicity or any physical affinity they have with peers! It influences their purchases and drives strong recommendations. It is an effective outfitting approach. Publishers want to go from mass media to personalized media. My Virtual Model brings each and everyone of their readers to literally try on their fashion picks and hints and all the trends presented regularly in their magazines.Users are more and more visual and very involved in the process. They already rate products. If they can see the products on themselves and on others people similar to them it has a direct impact on their decision to purchase. It boosts their confidence in their styles, their looks and their tastes and preferences. Confirmed in their personalities they feel good to go and get what makes them look great. When we install our product on a publisher/media site like Cosmopolitan, users read fashion tips and trends and are always wandering what it will look like on them and where can they get it? These questions are answered by the virtual models of the users and the comments of other users on their models.
Sandy: What are some of the more popular elements of social media that users have really loved within the new My Virtual Model experience?Louise: Users enjoy discovering their personal styles. They also develop friendships, affinities of interests and support the efforts of others. Many great talents appear and are encouraged by the Community. Users love to create looks, publish them on their public page and get rated by other users. They also appear in the most recent and popular looks of the Community and rate other users looks. They love to click the "Try On Outfit" button and wear on their model an outfit created by another user. It is a great way to shop and buy outfits. It is quick and highly efficient. They love to describe their looks and tell a story about their looks. They also love to see how each item of their looks is worn by other users utilizing the feature "More looks featuring this item "
Sandy: Why did you choose to base this on WebSphere Commerce?Louise: WebSphere is well know for it's foundational excellence and architecture of openness to integrate 3rd party applications that are user centric. By choosing WebSphere we were able to concentrate on what we do best, and leverage a powerful and robust ecommerce platform to create an innovative and solid shopping experience.This is exciting and thank you for stopping by and sharing your insights! I am looking forward to seeing you in Vegas next month @IBM IMPACT 2009[Read More]
Countdown to IMPACT 2008--Ready, Set, GO! April 6-11, 2008
Recently, Forrester Research published a telling report on SOA Adoption. According to Forrester's latest survey data, "the IT industry is continuing its strong adoption of service-oriented architecture (SOA)." And satisfaction with SOA implementations continues to run high. Why? Because SOA continues to help businesses solve real business problems.
IBM's IMPACT conference offers the proof of the Forrester data. Check out the number of customer speakers that will be there to talk about their SOA implementations. This is one of the conference highlights that is truly superior.
The list of companies is right out of the Fortune 500: Aetna, AllState, Bank of America, Countrywide, Harley Davidson and more. Its a rare opportunity to hear actual customer case studies and SOA best practices.
And there's more...
And just for fun...
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What is a KAI?
SOASOA 060000JRQN 2 Comments 2,303 Views
Well I do use a perfume.....KAI ! I love it ... but that's not what I am talking about here. Here I am talking about our pioneering Key Agility Indictors! How did this come about?
Well, I was touring Europe on our SOA Executive Summit tour and I had multiple customers come to me asking me about how to measure the agility of SOA. So we started thinking about it and talking to industry leaders and decided to really look at how to measure this concept. Since the concept of KAIs was born. But don't toss out those KPIs...(key performance indicators) because I believe that a great business uses both KPIs and KAIs. It the combo that is the killer combo! Bola on my team has been working on a great team to focus here.....
So I know you guys are looking for the newness here. What is "new" is that we have assimilated/selected a combination of open standard metrics and business drivers which I believe that together provide mechanism for evaluating agility. In addition, we have identified leading practices associated with those KAIs and incorporated them into process flows which allow us to quickly work with our clients in achieving their strategic objectives. What is also "new" is that we have collected this KAI data from thousands of organizations globally and provided them to our practitioners in a single view where they can create their own industry peer group comparisons. This view is available through an internal tool called the IBM Benchmark Wizard. Using the IBM Benchmark Wizard, practitioners have real time access to over 1,200 cross industry performance metrics; 1,100 qualitative business drivers; 700 leading practices statements, 1,600 case studies and data from over 16,000 companies from over 70 countries!! So now we can work with customers to benchmark their agility!
It is not our intent to create new proprietary metrics to measure agility. To do so would be a departure from our commitment to open standards for performance measurement. We are committed to open standards in benchmarking. Our open standards approach drives data quality by ensuring that all organizations measuring performance are doing so using one common set of process and activity definitions. We invest in the Open Standards Benchmarking CollaborativeSM and the supporting Process Classificaiton Framework facilitied by APQC, a not for profit research organization and an IBM partner for benchmarking. The open standard approach and framework for measuring performance provides objectivity, comparability and quality data by which organizations can compare.
Please read this first white paper on the Business Metrics of KPIs and KAIs...and tell me what you think!
Visit Supply Chain Agility Paper
I really want to hear from you!
Sandy[Read More]
CIO: Is Santa the Original SOA Architect
Thu, Dec 13, 2007
Is Santa the Original SOA Architect?
Posted by: Sandy Carter IBM in Soapbox
It's the most wonderful yet hectic time of the year as consumers vie for mall parking spaces and also spend their precious lunch hours shopping online. Meanwhile, vendors are busy carefully managing and monitoring inventory and their supplier relationships to ensure their goods are delivered to stores and homes on time. Of course, an SOA could help these vendors streamline, integrate and manage their various CRM, ERP and SCM applications. Ideally, this integration through the SOA would help ensure that customers are satisfied and retailers have a successful holiday season. For many retailers, however, it's not an easy task to oversee the manufacturing and timely delivery of goods in a highly competitive, global marketplace – all during a finite period of time. With this in mind, perhaps we could all learn some important lessons about building a service oriented architecture by taking a closer look at one of the first and most successful SOA projects. This project is representative of a Smart SOA strategy, is based in the North Pole and was initiated by Santa Claus to better manage his workshop. Here are 10 reasons why Santa's SOA is exemplary:
1. Global: the infrastructure follows the sun in order to deliver goods to its client base in a timely manner.
2. Cross-company effort: the SOA bridges the gap between the executive office (Santa) and staff (elves) to execute on common goals.
3. BPM support: has built in business process management (BPM) capabilities to streamline and ensure consistency of toy manufacturing and distribution.
4. Flexibility: enables The Workshop to easily anticipate and respond to sudden spikes in end-of-year activity without resulting in any hiccups in workflow.
5. Reusability: the SOA takes advantage of reusable services so that employees can accommodate consistent customer requests (dolls, teddy bears) as well as easily manage and integrate new requests (Wii, DVD player) using the same, proven best practices.
6. Standards-based: enables Santa to protect existing investments such as the home-grown shipping and distribution application while allowing the infrastructure to integrate the latest CRM tools to manage a client base that completely turns over every few years.
7. Unified communications: supports UC by integrating and identifying the individual letters delivered via various communications methods such as email, traditional postal carriers, in person requests delivered to Santa's helpers in the mall, and inquiries sent via Santa's website. Additionally, the SOA infrastructure will be able to support future demands for text, instant messaging, and click-to-call capabilities.
8. Security: ensures the protection and sharing of confidential information including the list of who's naughty and who's nice.
9. Competitive advantage: consistent and timely delivery of requested toys has resulted in a satisfied customer base and a dominant market position.
10. Everybody knows that SANTA is an acronym for the North Pole's SOA approach: Strategic Architecture, Not Tactical Achievements. Not only has Santa mastered the creation of a successful SOA, he's also the ideal employee because he gets the job done, is a well respected leader with longevity and experience, and is satisfied with a cookies and milk end-of-year bonus.[Read More]
Join IBM's SOA Jam, April 7- 10!
SOASOA 060000JRQN Tags:  virtual_community impact_conference soa_jam 2 Comments 2,217 Views
Great news--- I found a way I can connect with all of you in the virtual world via the web! Get ready for the upcoming SOA Virtual Jam.
Join us online for IBM's upcoming SOA Community exchange. Now you can join the SOA Jam at IMPACT and let us know your thoughts on best practices as well as your questions & concerns.
During next week's Impact conference, you can join the 72-hour SOA Jam, hosted on IBM ThinkPlace technology, and participate in a global and local discussion about all things SOA. We'll have PC's available at the conference so you can log-on and network, or you can log on from the convenience of your laptop.
Simply register at: http://services.alphaworks.ibm.com/SOAJAM
I look forward to participating in the discussions with all of you!
Learn more about the SOA Jam on the IMPACT website. Click here!
The jam is open to everyone: customers, IBM Business Partners, University professors and students, analysts, the press, industry + IBM experts. Through the Jam's different discussion forums, you'll have to opportunity to interact with expert moderators as well as thousands of people around the world who are interested in accelerating the conversation around SOA.[Read More]
March Madness and SOA
SOASOA 060000JRQN Tags:  people process information 2,213 Views
Who is a basketball fan? I am a huge Duke fan and anxiously await every March for the basketball season!Usually I get to go to some round 1 or 2 games but this year will have to be satisfied with the TV!
March Madness reminds me of SOA in the real world. March madness is all about people, information and process -- just like SOA! The people the fans are critical to the game. They sometimes mean the difference between success and failure! In SOA, the people and human workflows are critical to the success of an implementation. Building composite applications and being able to easily leverage standard and reusable business services and present them to the right users at the right time! How value to your business!
For Information, in basketball understanding and knowing the stats and the strengths and weaknesses of your oponent is crucial to success. Just like in SOA. Having the right quality of information about your customers, or your products gives you a competitive leg up and SOA can help you separate information from implementation for reuse across the enterprise, centralize maintenance and control to improve data quality, and Provide processes with consistent information, in real-time, regardless of location.
And finally Processes -- the rules of the game! You must follow the process in order to win! You need to be flexible in your game to stay within the bonds. Just as our customer survey shows, Process , or BPM is crucial to success in SOA. It aligns the business and IT together and drives toward a common end goal!
What are your thoughts? Who is watching March Madness? Who is doing SOA?[Read More]