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There is an increasing number of Ambient Intelligence (AmI) systems that are time-sensitive and resource-aware. From healthcare to building and even home/office automation, it is now common to find systems combining interactive and sensing multimedia traffic with relatively simple sensors and actuators (door locks, presence detectors, RFIDs, HVAC, information panels,
Ambient Intelligence (AmI) systems are found in a broad number of domains. Typically, they target smart homes, assisted living, health care systems, shops and business or leisure activities [
AmI systems involve different operations such as perceiving the state of the environment via several sensors, executing reasoning algorithms to process the sensors data and acting upon the environment using different kinds of controllers. In addition, these operations must be carried out in an adaptive and ubiquitous way [
This is especially true for AmI applications with timing requirements or with additional resource-related non-functional requirements, e.g., limited resource capacities and resource usage costs, since a broader number of requirements must be met, beyond their functionality, related to latencies, synchronization of distributed operations, Quality-of-Service (QoS) levels, management of physical resources,
Addressing such limitations, this paper presents the Flexible Time-Triggered Middleware Architecture (FTT-MA), going beyond previous works on particular aspects of the architecture [
FTT-MA is a middleware infrastructure aimed at AmI systems that require: (1) the timely execution of their activities and (2) the flexibility to adapt dynamically according to resource-oriented policies (e.g., load balancing or battery management) or reconfigure at run-time according to changes in the system composition (e.g., joining/leaving nodes or services). It is a time-triggered middleware architecture and, as such, it allows developers to focus on the functionality of the applications separately from synchronization (triggering) and resource management (adaptation) issues. Among time-triggered architectures, this one has the unique feature of supporting reconfiguration / adaptation of the applications at run-time since the scheduling of the time-triggered components is carried out online. Thus, changes in system requirements or composition can be readily accounted for. To the best of our knowledge, this feature is not currently supported by any other time-triggered middleware architecture, which are based on static cyclic schedules.
Moreover, FTT-MA also extends the previous works on FTT protocols since it takes a broader view of the system, integrating a variety of resources that are orchestrated together, as opposed to such protocols that focused only on the network resource, e.g., FTT-CAN [
The flexibility of FTT-MA also extends to the fact that it inherently supports heterogeneous components exchanging heterogeneous data types, such as sensor and control data, video streams and alarm messages, but it also supports the management of replication, scheduling the execution of a set of replicated tasks while optimizing the use of the distributed system resources in order to adapt to changes in the functionality at run-time and cope with transient faults. An implementation prototype of FTT-MA that uses CORBA as distribution middleware is available as open source at [
The rest of the paper is structured as follows: Section 2 describes some related work; Section 3 covers the design of FTT-MA; Section 4 describes the methodology used for developing applications with FTT-MA; Section 5 describes an example implementation of the proposed middleware that uses CORBA as distribution middleware, the so-called FTT-CORBA, and it proposes a use case application that eases the understanding and the usage of FTT-MA; finally, Section 6 draws the conclusions and presents some future work.
There are several middleware architectures that address AmI specific requirements. A discussion about the main requirements that middleware technologies must fulfill to adequately support the development of AmI systems can be found in [
The authors have found in the literature several works that survey existing high-level middleware architectures aimed at providing appropriate software infrastructures for these systems. Most of them, such as [
Other issues must be considered, such as the development and deployment of AmI systems as well as higher-level functionalities. In particular, the work in [
In the domain of control and real-time systems an expression that is gaining wider acceptance is
Some authors have provided solutions to cope with the management of timing properties in distributed systems and the use of their infrastructure/resources through classic control theory [
Finally, a large number of middleware architectures provide their users,
In conclusion, to the best of our knowledge, most middleware architectures for AmI systems do not consider timing, including synchronization, and resource-aware issues, implying reconfiguration and adaptation, in an integrated way. Event-triggered architectures address relative timing issues and are inherently flexible. On the other hand, time-triggered architectures focus on time synchronization at the cost of flexibility. In spite of the decades-long discussion thread between these two paradigms, we believe, as in [
This work is inspired by the Flexible Time-Triggered (FTT) paradigm [
Previous works on the FTT paradigm initially applied it to control communications, only, directly at the data link layer on top of Ethernet and CAN networks for hard real-time systems. Later, the paradigm was extended to also control tasks in the end nodes, either directly [
FTT-MA aims at applications that are mostly periodic, even though aperiodic operations can be included, too. More specifically, FTT-MA: (1) ensures the time synchronization of the operations in distributed applications, (2) allows the coexistence of different distributed applications over the same infrastructure (devices and network), (3) manages the communications by using several priority levels and (4) monitors and manages the physical resources (e.g., CPU, memory, battery and network) available in a distributed system. Finally, FTT-MA also (5) provides flexibility to carry out changes of the applications at run-time and (6) eases the implementation of fault-tolerant applications by managing replicated services and devices.
According to the FTT paradigm, time in FTT-MA is an infinite sequence of fixed duration time slots called Elementary Cycles (EC). The EC parameter defines the time granularity in the distributed system. Therefore, the EC must be selected carefully at design time taking into account the timing requirements of the applications to be executed since it cannot be adjusted on-line. A short EC will provide a fine temporal granularity and facilitate the adjustment of the timing parameters during reconfiguration/adaptation phases. On the other hand, a longer EC will incur in a lower associated overhead. Note that there is signalling traffic sent every EC and the percentage of the EC effectively available for data exchange is smaller for shorter EC durations. These overheads are platform-dependent and practical prototypes have been built with EC durations ranging from few to tens of milliseconds.
Applications in FTT-MA are composed of a sequence of ordered tasks, whose order is defined by a directed graph (see
Each task is parameterized with its timing requirements, e.g., deadline and offset. FTT-MA uses this information to generate the task activation triggers as shown in
FTT-MA is designed to operate on top of LANs capable of doing physical multicast, such as Ethernet or IEEE802.11. Actually, it uses multicast messages to activate the tasks instances in the devices of the distributed system, emulating a software bus. Furthermore, FTT-MA provides a particular service, the so-called FTT-Event Channel, to decouple task activations and data messages produced by the tasks. This service avoids collisions in the software bus at run-time and ensures synchronism when a shared communication medium is used to connect the distributed system nodes such as IEEE802.11.
The architecture has been designed as a set of services that collaborate among them (see
The proposed architecture is composed of three layers: (1) the System Management Layer which elaborates on-line the execution plan that the FTT Dispatcher enforces, (2) the FTT Layer which triggers the operations of the distributed system and manages the access to the data distribution channel, and (3) the Application Services Layer which implements the services that provide the functionality of the system, e.g., as CORBA methods.
This layer executes the centralized services devoted to the management of the distributed system and the interaction with the users. More specifically, the services included in this layer are: (1) the Application Management Service (AppMan), (2) the System Monitoring Service (SysMon) and (3) the Scheduling Service (SchedSer).
AppMan provides an interface to allow loading and unloading applications at runtime, modifying the parameters of a running application and monitoring the status of both applications and distributed nodes.
Whenever the AppMan receives a request, the model of the loaded applications is updated, and the new specifications are delivered to SchedSer. AppMan can also execute an admission control test to analyze how the change would affect the behavior of the applications and authorize or reject it in order to avoid unstable or overload situations. The use of the admission control module is optional and the algorithms it executes depend on the working policies selected for a specific system. Section 3.5 discusses briefly some simple admission control policies that have been implemented in the current prototype.
SysMon is responsible for gathering information related to the status of the distributed system nodes. More specifically, this service collects two kinds of data: (1) related to the deployment of the system,
Finally, as referred above, SchedSer is responsible for generating the tasks activation table that executes the distributed applications. The SchedSer is triggered when there is a modification in the applications or the SysMon detects any event, e.g., a device has a low battery level. In both cases, the scheduling process is performed in two phases: (1) allocation and (2) prioritization. As outcome of the rescheduling process, SchedSer generates a new table defining in which moment each task instance has to be activated and its priority level. This table will be used by the Dispatcher at the underlying FTT layer to synchronize the activation of the distributed task instances. Tasks period adjustment is used to enforce an upper bound on the activations table.
Since some tasks may be replicated in more than one device during the allocation phase, SchedSer selects which task instances to activate from all instances available that provide the same functionality in a specific system. This process is performed automatically according to an allocation policy selected by the user, e.g., using the node with the highest battery level, keeping a balanced battery level at all nodes or selecting the available node with the highest processing capacity. In FTT-MA, the allocation policy has been designed as a pluggable component, allowing users to select from several alternatives according to the requirements of their system and applications. This is also an extensible approach that eases the implementation of new allocation policies that optimize the usage of the system resources in specific situations.
After allocation, the prioritization phase assigns to every task a priority level at the executing node. Similarly to the allocation policy, the prioritization policy is also a pluggable element,
The FTT layer is responsible for synchronizing the distributed tasks instances and the applications, managing not only the activation of the tasks instances themselves, but also the data exchange among them. This layer is located between the centralized management services and the services located at the distributed nodes. The FTT layer is comprised of four services, two centralized services located at the Orchestrator: the Event Channel and the Dispatcher, and two services replicated in each distributed node: the Federated Event Channel and the Activator. The services in this layer use the multicast software bus.
The Dispatcher, along with the Activators, is responsible for triggering the tasks of the distributed system in a synchronous way enforcing the task activation table provided by SchedSer. This table indicates the Dispatcher (1) the time lapse until the next activation of each task instance, (2) the priority associated to that instance in the distributed node, (3) the execution period and (4) the remaining number of activations, if applicable. This table is used by the Dispatcher until SchedSer generates a new table upon modifications in the functionality or an event is detected by SysMon.
The Dispatcher executes periodically every EC. During each EC the Dispatcher reduces the timer (in EC units) for the next activation of each task instance in one unit. If this timer reaches 0, the dispatcher selects that instance for activation in the current EC. Should the task need to be executed again, the Dispatcher will update the timer for the next activation using the period (in EC units) associated to the application that task is part of.
After selecting the task instances that must be activated, the Dispatcher sends a multicast message to all the Activators in the distributed system with their identifiers and priority values. Activators, which are executed at the distributed nodes, receive these messages and check whether the identifiers in the activation message match any of the task instances deployed in their respective node. In such case, the activator executes the task instance at the designated priority level.
Most frequently, distributed tasks need to share data among them in order to fulfill their functionality, for example, a sensor that acquires data sends this information to a controller. In CPU-bound applications,
Messages in the Event Channel are sent using a bottom-up approach. In other words, when a task instance has data to share, it sends a data token to the Federated Event Channel, which is executed locally. To identify different kinds of data tokens, each data token must refer to a topic identifier. The Federated Event Channel holds all data messages that need to be sent. Similarly, if a task instance wants to receive a message, it subscribes to a topic ID in the Federated Event Channel, specifying the kind of data tokens it is expecting to receive.
Since the Event Channel and the Dispatcher are centralized in the Orchestrator, they share the same clock. Thus, the Event Channel may place data messages in the interval between two consecutive activation messages avoiding collisions that may affect synchronization. In order to schedule the transmissions, the Event Channel first polls the Federated Event Channels at the distributed nodes for data tokens in their output queues. After polling, the Event Channel orders the messages according to the priority of the different topics. Finally, the Event Channel commands the Federated Event Channels to send their data tokens, using reliable multicast messages [
Also, the Event Channel calculates the remaining time until the next activation message and sends it to the Federated Event Channel along with the command to start sending a message. If the Federated Event Channel is able to send the full message before time expires, it notifies the Event Channel, who will select which is the next message to send. Otherwise, the Federated Event Channel notifies of the failure to the Event Channel, and the unsent part of the message (unsent packets) is kept in standby until the next EC (see
The FTT layer is the most important layer of the architecture, providing determinism, as it enables not only the timely and synchronous execution of distributed applications, but also the synchronous distribution of data tokens among tasks, following a fixed priority policy.
The instances of the tasks that compose the distributed applications are located at the Application Services Layer. Each task instance is an implementation of a task deployed at a particular distributed node. The technology used to implement task instances must provide mechanisms to ensure that the Activators can execute them and modify their priority according to the requirements.
FTT-MA allows the execution of special applications that provide specific services to the architecture, the so-called Architecture Intrinsic Applications. These applications, similar to the services and daemons executed in operating systems, share the execution environment at the distributed nodes with the applications loaded by the users. Consequently their execution must also be scheduled. However, these applications execute specific task instances implemented directly at the Activators and are activated by means of reserved task identifiers.
The current version of FTT-MA defines two Architecture Intrinsic Applications: monitoring and time synchronization. The monitoring application orders the Activator to gather the current status of the physical resources at the distributed nodes,
The time synchronization application is used to synchronize the clocks of all the distributed nodes. This application sets the time of the clocks of all the distributed nodes to the time of the central clock executed at the Orchestrator.
It has already been mentioned that FTT-MA offers an optional admission control mechanism to prevent that changes in the requirements lead to an invalid execution of the system, e.g., violating QoS parameters of the applications such as bandwidth or deadlines. This module is part of the application management service that interacts with the users and can be turned on or off as desired.
The admission control module takes advantage of the centralization of SysMon to access the status information of the distributed nodes. It uses this information to analyze the stability of the system with the new configuration in terms of schedulability, and availability of memory and bandwidth. The admission algorithms are based on a mathematical model, such as that described in detail in [
The implementation of FTT-MA imposes three main requirements on the underlying technology: (1) task encapsulation, (2) availability of fixed priority scheduling mechanisms at the distributed nodes and (3) availability of reliable multicast communications.
Task encapsulation is required to treat task instances as individually executable entities. Encapsulation is a common characteristic in object-oriented languages, such as Java, C++ or C#, as well as in object-oriented, component-oriented, or service-oriented middleware architectures, such as CORBA, ICE or Web Services.
Fixed priority schedulers are needed at the distributed nodes whenever the FTT-MA prioritization module is used. This module may use several policies to assign each task instance in an application a specific priority level according to its timing requirements. These priority levels are sent to the Activators, who should execute the task instance at the priority level provided by SchedSer. This is not a restrictive requirement, since fixed priority schedulers are available in most operating systems as well as in many virtual machine engines, such as Java.
Finally, communications inside FTT-MA have been designed following the software bus paradigm, where remote nodes are capable of receiving the commands from the network master with small jitter values. This kind of communications requires the support for physical multicasting in the network. Moreover, it is important to prevent messages from being lost; thus, the reliable multicast protocol [
This section briefly presents a methodology aimed at fully exploiting the capabilities of the presented architecture. This methodology, which eases the development and deployment of FTT-MA systems, is supported by a tool developed by the authors, the so-called FTT-Modeler [
As depicted in
The first phase of the methodology consists in partitioning the functionality of each application into individually executable entities exploring inherent concurrency. The criterion to guide the partitioning process may vary depending on the applications; nevertheless, it is possible to identify a set of golden rules that may guide the designer. For example, if a part of an application is physically linked to the hardware, e.g., acquiring data from a sensor, that part should become a task. Similarly, if a specific functionality can be parallelized to improve performance that functionality should also become a task. The same is also valid for critical functionality that can be replicated in the system to improve fault tolerance. Finally, a functionality that is used several times by one or many applications should also become an individual task, as this will improve the maintainability of the system.
Once tasks have been extracted, applications are weaved together by establishing the precedence relationships between tasks, messages and their timing properties,
The second phase of the methodology is devoted to the deployment of the distributed system. In FTT-MA, this refers to the allocation of the task instances to the nodes of the distributed system. In this process it is important to consider the dependencies that some tasks have with respect to specific nodes, e.g., a sensing task must be deployed in a node with a particular sensor or hardware. Furthermore, tasks intended to be executed in parallel or as back-up instances should be deployed in different nodes.
The third phase aims at selecting the configuration parameters of the middleware architecture, namely, the EC, the polling period and the allocation and prioritization policies to use. The selection of these parameters varies according to the applications; for example, an EC value of 40 ms could be well suited to support a video application that shows a video stream to the users with a rate of 25 frames per second. However, if a 5 ms feedback control application is to be supported together with the referred video stream then an EC of 5 ms should be used. In practice, the EC should be set to the largest value that allows expressing periods and offsets of interest to the system as integer multiples of such value. The FTT-Modeler tool also provides an editor for the creation of deployment models, including the parameterization of the FTT-MA architecture.
FTT-MA has been designed to be deterministic as typical time-triggered architectures. As a consequence, it is possible to simulate its behavior once the application and deployment models are ready. This is the focus of the fourth phase being devoted to the simulation and early validation of the designed applications. The simulation engine implemented in FTT-Modeler allows designers to obtain information from the designs and foresee how the distributed system will behave at runtime with good accuracy.
Once the initial design has been validated, task instances must be implemented and deployed on the nodes according to the plan. Typically, the implementation of a task instance will involve some structural code that can be easily converted to a template and automatically generated, e.g., creating a new CORBA object or a new Java class extending Thread. Since the FTT-Modeler tool has been implemented using MDE techniques, it enables the generation of the structural code of a task instance as well as start-up scripts using model-to-text transformations. Currently, FTT-Modeler is capable of generating the skeleton for task instances compatible with a specific implementation of FTT-MA that uses CORBA as distribution middleware, called FTT-CORBA (see Section 6). The behavior of the distributed system can be monitored using the interface provided by AppMan, in the system management layer.
Currently, there is an FTT-MA implementation available, known as FTT-CORBA [
In order to validate the proposed middleware architecture, the authors implemented FTT-MA using CORBA/CORBA-RT as underlying technology, the so-called FTT-CORBA [
The FTT-CORBA implementation is comprised of two executables: the Orchestrator and the Clerk, which implement the centralized and decentralized services of the FTT-MA architecture respectively. In addition to the decentralized services, the Clerk also implements the connection with the task instances.
The external interfaces of both Orchestrator and Clerk have been implemented as standard CORBA methods (e.g., the Application Management Service interface), while interfaces between internal services have been implemented using shared data structures. CORBA requires that a client that invokes a method knows in advance the stubs of the method, for that reason during start-up Clerks have to create the links to the task instances deployed at their distributed node by using the CORBA DII (Dynamic Invocation Interface), which requires the name of the CORBA object containing the task instance, the name of the CORBA method where the task instance is implemented and any parameters that should be provided to the method. All this information is loaded into the Clerks using configuration files generated by the FTT-Modeler tool.
It is important to note that FTT-MA allows combining several technologies to activate the tasks of the distributed system by means of Clerks that use different technologies (e.g., a Clerk could activate CORBA objects whereas another could activate an OPC component or even an ICE object). Furthermore, the selected implementation technology impacts the performance of the architecture itself. As for FTT-CORBA, the authors have measured the performance of the middleware in terms of task activation jitter for periodic tasks and communication latencies. The results of the laboratory tests [
This subsection presents a simple synthetic case study aimed at showing the capabilities of FTT-MA. It does not only illustrate how the FTT-MA middleware works, but also the methodology users should follow in order to develop applications on top of FTT-MA.
The proposed case study uses FTT-MA as backbone for the implementation of an information monitoring system in trains. The TCN standard [
This case study illustrates how FTT-MA may be used as middleware for building train wide applications. It focuses on the six objectives previously mentioned in this article, namely: (1) time synchronization of the operations in a distributed system, (2) graceful coexistence of several distributed applications over the same infrastructure (network and devices), (3) coexistence of different kinds of communication traffic (
The proposed case study system is aimed at logging train status information in a database. As shown in
The proposed case study has been split into several FTT-MA applications and tasks. All FTT-MA applications and tasks that comprise the case study; along with their characteristics and time parameters are described in
As shown in
Application tasks have been organized into four, simple, FTT-MA applications, as depicted in
One of the most relevant characteristics of FTT-MA is the capability of synchronizing the activation of several tasks at several distributed devices according to a predefined schedule prepared by SchedSer. However, when several tasks are triggered simultaneously, the responsibility of handling their effective activation is delegated to the operating system at the distributed devices. Nevertheless, FTT-MA allows using the application reference offsets as design parameters to de-phase the applications activations, adding more real-time control to the distributed system. The correct selection of the applications reference offset values, which impose concrete offsets to their tasks according to their specified relative offsets, is an important issue in the configuration of FTT-MA systems. Whenever application offsets are required, an FTT-MA application must also be selected as time reference for the offset definition of the remaining applications. In this case study application, the
Once distributed applications, along with their composing tasks, have been defined, the next step is planning the number of instances of each task to be deployed at every device of the distributed system. Different strategies for the deployment of the task instances will lead to different middleware behavior; thus, the deployment must be carefully designed. In the proposed case study, tasks are tightly coupled to the nodes due to hardware restrictions; however, not all the tasks are intended to behave in the same way. As shown in
Some tasks, such as
Finally, tasks not handled by FTT-MA are deployed in the passenger vehicles independently. It is important to note that, since their activation is not handled by the middleware their execution is expected to be concurrent and asynchronous.
FTT-MA provides several parameters that allow the users to fine tune the behavior of the distributed applications once deployed. These parameters include the EC, the allocation and prioritization policies, and, if applicable, the priorities of the distributed tasks and data topics.
The EC should be set to a common divisor of all the periods of the different tasks extracted from the application requirements. In this case study, considering the time parameters shown in
Allocation and prioritization policies are used to define how the scheduling service of the FTT-MA selects the task instances to execute and how priorities are managed locally at the distributed nodes. This is particularly important when several task instances are deployed in more than one node to implement fault-tolerance or load balancing protocols. The proposed case study does not include any of these requirements; therefore, the default policies are selected,
Finally at this phase, priorities must be assigned for each task and each data topic. Task priorities define how the operating systems execute the tasks in case of concurrent execution. Topic priorities define the order in which the FTT Event Channel sends the messages through the network. The priorities selected for the tasks in the case study application are shown in
Before deploying the distributed applications to the train, an early simulation of the behavior of the system should be done to prevent errors that could be easily corrected in earlier stages. The simulation of distributed applications on top of the FTT-MA middleware can be easily carried out due to the unique characteristics of FTT-MA, particularly, using the EC as main time reference. When the distributed system involves the dynamic reconfiguration of the system, like in this case study, the simulation should also include the events that trigger the reconfiguration so that the final behavior can be studied in detail.
The results of the use case application simulation, including the locomotive vehicle and two passenger vehicles, are shown in
Regarding communications, the diagram depicts the usage of the network, managed by the FTT Event Channel. It is important to note that the FTT Event Channel is capable of preempting low-priority traffic (video stream, in the example) with high priority traffic (alarms). In the diagram the trigger messages sent by the Orchestrator have been omitted for the sake of figure readability; however, activation messages are sent at the beginning of every EC, whenever a task must be triggered. Finally, the diagram provides some information of the dynamic behavior of the system, showing how the Video application (and consequently the
This case study has demonstrated how the FTT-MA architecture can be used for the implementation of synchronous distributed applications. More specifically, the example has shown how FTT-MA is capable of synchronizing applications, enabling its coexistence and preventing collisions. In addition, the example described how different kinds of traffic can be defined and managed by the proposed middleware, and how different execution policies (
The example could be further refined by adding fault-tolerance to the logging application. To do so an extra distributed node could be connected to the WTB and to the database, using a different task instance of the
In this paper the authors have presented a time-triggered middleware architecture suitable for ubiquitous applications, the so called FTT-MA. This architecture enables developers to focus on the functionality of the applications separately from other issues such as: (1) meeting temporal constraints,
The paper also presented a methodology and a tool to help designers and developers of applications to fully exploit the capabilities of the presented architecture. Namely, this tool eases the development and deployment of FTT-MA applications as well as their operation at run-time. Finally, a use case application has been provided to validate FTT-MA and the associated methodology.
Regarding future work, we will address the fault-tolerance of the Orchestrator, which is currently a single point of failure, possibly using a semi-active replication mechanism. Another aspect that we wish to address in future work is the development of gateways to allow the connection of legacy equipment that is not FTT-MA compliant to an FTT-MA system.Currently, there is an implementation of FTT-MA for tasks wrapped as CORBA objects, called FTT-CORBA. This implementation is available as open source software at [
This work has been partly supported in part by the ARTEMIS JU through the CRAFTERS project (grant no. 295371), by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) under project DPI2012-37806-C02-01 and by the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) through grant EHU11/35.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
FTT-MA application graphs model in UML
FTT-MA architecture.
Event channel protocol.
Methodology for application development and deployment.
Screenshot of the FTT-Modeler tool.
FTT-MA governed TCN bus.
Graphs of the TCN applications.
Simulation results for a train including a locomotive and two passenger vehicles.
Description of the FTT applications of the TCN use case.
|Main Log
|Periodically get the status of all the TCN vehicle buses and store the information in the database. All data gathered by the rest of the applications will also be stored.
|100 ms
|People Count
|Get the result of the people count algorithm in a vehicle
|2 min
|10 ms
|Process Alarms
|Check if any alarm has been triggered in any vehicle and reconfigures the application
|50 ms (when active)
|40 ms
|Get the next set of video frames recorded by the video server in a vehicle
|50 ms
|10 ms
Main Log application is used as reference for offset management.
Description of the tasks of the TCN application.
|Get Status
|Get the last measurements from the sensors connected to the TCN vehicle bus
|All vehicles
|Get People Count
|Get the result of the people count algorithm in a vehicle
|Passenger vehicles
|Get Video Stream
|Get the next set of video frames recorded by the video server in a vehicle
|Passenger vehicles
|Process Alarms
|Check if any alarm has been triggered in any vehicle and reconfigures the application
|SmokeAlarm OverloadAlarm
|Log Data
|Store the status of the trains to the database
|StatusData PeopleCount SmokeAlarm OverloadAlarm VideoStream
|Check Smoke
|Monitor the status of the smoke detector and generate an alarm if triggered
|Passenger vehicles
|Check Overload
|Monitor the status of the overload detector and generate an alarm if triggered
|Passenger vehicles
Priority values associated to each task.
|Get Status
|All vehicles
|1 (repeated in all vehicles)
|Get People Count
|Passenger vehicles
|1 (repeated in all vehicles)
|Get Video Stream
|Passenger vehicles
|N (one per passenger vehicle)
|Process Alarms
|Log Data
|Check Smoke
|Passenger vehicles
|N (one per passenger vehicle)
|Parallel (not managed)
|Check Overload
|Passenger vehicles
|N (one per passenger vehicle)
|Parallel (not managed)
Size and priority values associated to each data topic.
Time calculated for a 100 Mbps Ethernet LAN;
Calculated with EC = 10 ms.


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Ask a Photographer!
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Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 6,404
Originally Posted by
I do my own regular editing; would not allow anybody else to edit without a written agreement. My main reason partly is I do not care for later prettification; come already as you would like to be.
Axelai, receiving raw profiles instead of processed ones by default is obnoxious, I think.
Did they tell (or you ask) why they were not giving processed files?
They could have if they wanted to, but it was just sort of... easier to give me the raws on a flash drive, I guess.
Did you specifically ask to them clear the skin even jokingly? If so, then that may be reason to avoid skin editing. That could be due to lack of such experience, or prospect of offending you due to too much or too little editing. In any case, giving raw files would be an, well, three, exceptions for various reasons.
Its not that they avoided it. Its just that the photographers I'm friends with and have worked with more of edit the lighting, effects, etc, and not exactly skin blemishes. I didn't bring it up to them, since with my two friends, they know I'm just going to edit that myself, and they'll go from there if they want to.
Originally Posted by
More like an exception. All the photographers I know edit their pictures themselves and consider it to be part of their work.
I'm a bit touchy myself on the subject and highly prefer when the cosplayer asks me for specific edits (I always send the set to the cosplayer before publishing, so that he can say when something doesn't fit him).
Understandable. Thats the vibe I was getting, which was why it was so odd to me since I usually edit them myself. That might just be a trust thing with my photographers, though, as they're my friends as well.
Originally Posted by
I do my own photo editing and retouching, and I have had no problems from cosplayers I have shot. They have all been very happy to receive photos that were not your typical "con photos." Only once did I get a request for additional skin retouching, because the retouching was not adequate to deal with "shiny foreheads."
Your case, where you were handed the unretouched photos, is not something I would ever do, nor do I think any experienced and well-known photographers in the con circuit should do.
Er... okay. I mean, I understand why you wouldn't, nor would I ever ask any photographer other than my friends, but I do think it is somewhat rude to say no one should do things just because you don't. I do believe my own edits on the photos came out good, and my photographers liked my edits and kept them. If there were a problem with it, they'd have not given me permission in the first place.
Thank you everyone who responded. I know what my friends and I do is not the norm now.
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text:
Grilled Sour Cream-Marinated Shrimp
At an Indian restaurant, this dish might be cooked in a tandoor oven, but Suvir Saran loves to char the shrimp on the grill. Instead of marinating shrimp in homemade yogurt that's been drained for hours, as is traditional, Saran opts for sour cream—it's not only faster, but he thinks it's tastier.
Slideshow: More Shrimp Recipes
- Total Time:
- Servings: 4
- Time(Other): plus 3 hr marinating
- 1 cup sour cream
- 6 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon cracked white and black peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
- 16 jumbo shrimp, shelled and deveined
- Salt
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 1/2 teaspoon chat masala, for sprinkling (See Note)
- Lime wedges, for serving
How to make this recipe
In a large, shallow dish, whisk the sour cream with the garlic, cumin seeds, garam masala, peppercorns, ground cumin, ginger and turmeric. Add the shrimp and coat thoroughly with the marinade. Cover and refrigerate for 3 hours.
Light a grill. Remove the shrimp from the marinade and thread onto skewers; season with salt. Oil the grates and grill over high heat until almost cooked through, 2 minutes per side. Brush the shrimp with the butter and grill until glazed and just cooked through. Sprinkle the shrimp with the chat masala and serve with lime wedges.
Chat masala is a spicy, tangy Indian spice blend. It is available at Indian markets and at kalustyans.com.
Suggested Pairing
Gewürztraminer's spice-box aromas make it a good partner for Indian dishes (such as these aromatic shrimp). Try one from France's Alsace region.


text: wow Chris Heidelberg totally opposite my work place where any respondent information disclosed means a possible 5000 dollar fine for me and a possible ten years n jail. I work for Statistics Canada. everything in aggregate nothing disclosed. and consent is basically legally required mean you can not refuse to participate. these above comments are not official and only me talking informally on an email list and I in no way can represent my employer in my own words Peter Timusk B.Math(2002) BA (2006) Tel: 001-613-729-8328 Community Informatics Practitioner Email: ptimusk at sympatico.ca Yahoo ID: crystal_computing Skype ID: peter.timusk ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Nothing I write is intended to be representative of my employer, or our clients. Nor do I alone speak for my unions. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Feel free to learn more about me at www.crystalcomputing.net Computer ethics studies at www.webpagex.org blogs http://logbook.crystalcomputing.net <- computers http://notebook.webpagex.org <- school work On 18-Dec-07, at 7:32 PM, Heidelberg, Chris wrote: > I sent cover letters with consent forms; I used my iPod as an audio > recorder; I used my professional Canon XL camera to video tape > consent; > I used text messaging; I used Facebook; I used my weblogs; and I used > electronic mail too to demonstrate the many ways that edutainment and > convergence could be utilized. At the end of the day, the > combination of > email interviews, audio and video conversations; and the blogs were > utilized for both consent and verification of all interviews and > follow-up conversations. > > I utilized multiple online sources to publish my data with advanced > consent of my subjects for my qualitative study, and my subjects > required that I use their identities because they were media > professionals in multiple cities. I utilize video and audio > interviews, > but everything revolved around the convergence of the Internet where I > sent all questions, received responses, conducted interviews, made > follow up calls, and clarified all responses via email before > posting my > results. > > In fact, my entire dissertation was based on open sourced research, so > anonymity was not an issue for my study. As a producer, writer and > director, I am used to using anonymity for certain types of stories > but > my case study was also very ethnographic in nature and the subjects > were > made aware that the research would be open from the beginning. This > type > of study may have been more difficult for folks who do not work in the > media industry but my subjects had no problem speaking on camera or > via > the Internet. > > My topic was Edutainment & Convergence: How Can Entertainment > Techniques > and Technology Be Utilized In Higher Education From The Perspective Of > Entertainment Professionals. > > You can check out the summary of the findings in a few weeks. I am > celebrating the holidays, but the research will continue. This thing > snowballed and now I new potential subjects finding me because I > work in > the business. >


text:
Top Retailer Short Squeeze Plays for Stock Traders
A short squeeze takes place when an excessive amount of short sellers have shorted a stock, the stock comes out with good news, and the price of the stock spikes by an excessive amount, because all the short sellers have to scramble to cover their positions by buying in their shares, often due to the fact that they are getting margin calls.
Potential short squeeze plays have several metrics for comparison purposes. One of the most popular metrics is the Short Interest Ratio, also known as the Days to Cover. What this measures is the number of days it would take the short sellers to cover their positions based on the average daily trading volume. The longer it would take to cover, the higher the ratio. Another analysis is the number of shares short as a percentage of float. The higher the percentage, the greater the chance that an upside shock would drive up the price.
The retailer sector has many short squeeze plays to choose from, whether it's retailing technology or retailing food. Here are some examples. Shown is the name of the company and the short interest ratio, in other words the number of days it would take the short sellers to cover their positions based on recent volume.
Roundy's (RNDY) 18.4
Safeway (SWY) 16.1
Saks (SKS) 12.8
RadioShack (RSH) 11.6
GameStop (GME) 7.6
Barnes & Noble (BKS) 7.3
J.C. Penney (JCP) 7.3
Any positive news could cause these stocks to skyrocket.
If you like interesting stock lists like this, check out the many free stock lists at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.
Disclosure: Author didn't own any of the above at the time the article was written.
The following article is from one of our external contributors. It does not represent the opinion of Benzinga and has not been edited.
Posted-In: Dividends Markets Trading Ideas


text:
Clubs and Programs - Junior High Science Fair
Science Buddies Website
Free Science Fair Project Ideas,
Answers and Tools
for Serious Students
A Science Fair is held every year with Junior High participants from both 7th and 8th grades.
Mrs. Cindy Hamilton, our Junior High Science teacher, works with all students to teach them how to create an experiment using the process of the Scientific Method.
The 8th grade students did an impressive job on this year's Science Fair.
The students started working on their Science Fair projects the first week of school and their projects came to fruition on November 17th, 2011. In order to complete this project, the students needed to use the scientific method, write a 700+ word research report about their project, complete the experiment, chart and graph the results, and finally present it to the class. The projects were displayed in the gym for the school students to walk around and ask the Junior High Scientists what their projects were about. At 2:30 pm, the 8th grade students gave their presentations to the teachers who judged the projects. These results end in either a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place ribbon awarded to each project.
The 7th Grade students took place in the 1st Invention Convention project. The students were challenged to create and solve an everyday problem through an invention they had to create. This had to be their own unique idea! Research was done on how the invention would work to solve the problem. Each invention required a detailed set of materials and procedures so this invention could be replicated. Finally, it had to WORK! The students used their creativity to make INCREBIDLE inventions!
Pictures of the Junior High Science Fair 2011-2012


text:
Pedaling his way through life toward health
Eric Stockley has logged thousands of miles in faraway places, seeing the world from the seat of his bicycle. Cycling is his hobby, passion, social outlet and mostly his salvation from the coronary disease that first struck when he was just 29. After undergoing bypass surgery, doctors warned him he was at serious risk for a heart attack.
British-born, Mr. Stockley grew up in Leeds, a city many Americans associate with the British rock group, The Who, and their "Live at Leeds," concert recorded for the eponymous album in 1970. Mr. Stockley, 19 at the time, says today he "regrets not shelling over the $2 for the ticket." He has no regrets, though, about trading his British citizenship for an American passport a little more than a decade later.
After graduating nursing school, and married with two small children, he looked for an "8 to 5 job," he says. He found it at what was called at the time "The VD Clinic," where he practiced hands-on medicine: reading slides, performing spinal taps and administering drugs to patients. His career in public health was launched. When the AIDS epidemic spread across the globe, he said, "(sexually transmitted diseases) became serious business." Today he works for the Charlotte County Health Department in AIDS prevention education, performing outreach on other public health issues.
He first saw his adopted country from a bike. He flew from the UK to Miami to pedal solo the first leg of a tour around the world. He rode from Southern Florida to El Paso, Texas, headed north and crossed into Canada, turned around and headed south again. He recalls celebrating his 31st birthday in Pinion, a high village in Southern New Mexico. The tourism slogan for New Mexico is "Enchantment USA," and Mr. Stockley was thoroughly enchanted with New Mexico and the United States.
After leaving the U.S., he rode across Mexico, Central and South America. In the spring of 1982, he went to The British Embassy in Lima, Peru, to collect his mail and learned that the United Kingdom and Argentina were at war over the Argentine invasion and occupation of the Falkland Islands. His countrymen advised that further travel in South America would be risky.
By 1988, he was American citizen.
Within one year of working for a mental health clinic in Texas, he was made the director of mental health for nine Texas counties. While living in Lubbock, Texas, he came across a newsletter from a California group known as S.C.O.R. (Specialized Coronary Outpatient Rehabilitation). He found a cycling club that encourages the sport as therapy for people with heart diseases and started to ramp up the miles. Endurance, not speed, is where he shines, always a top contender in the club's 24-hour races. In 1994, he was a member of the S.C.O.R.-sponsored team of Race Across America, pedaling 2,901 miles. He still chuckles when he recalls, "We beat two teams without cardiac issues."
In 1985, the day after his 45th birthday, when while working out in a Tampa gym, his genes caught up with him. After he collapsed, a bystander performed CPR. Angioplasty surgery was performed, and doctors placed a defibulator in his chest. Since then, he says, the device has shocked his heart back to life "four or five times."
Soon after that he was back on his bike, planning the next route of his world tour. Three years ago, he biked through China. Last year he rode with a group in India. Three months later, he logged 10,000 miles in Australia.
Today, the Port Charlotte resident rides close to home with his own version of S.C.O.R., preferring Specialized Cardiac Outdoor Recreation as a friendlier, more inclusive acronym. The local S.C.O.R. is organized within the larger Peace River Riders Bicycle Club. Mr. Stockley says there are about 12 regular S.C.O.R. riders. None of them, he says, are "cardiac cripples." Some turned to biking for relief from arthritic pain, to counter the effects on the body from diabetes and even for weight loss. When they first started riding, he says, "We were giving each other high fives after riding five miles. Today, less than a year later, he says the group "easily rides 20-25 miles." He says there's no pressure to keep up, no one's ever left behind and there's plenty of socializing, too.
He extends an invitation to all to join them in riding scenic routes throughout Charlotte County in this country he calls, "the finest place to live in the world." ¦


text:
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text: Don't forget that the Metals in Construction 2012 Façades Conference begins this Thursday, February 16th where partner, Federico Negro will present a case study on digital collaboration alongside Method Design's Reese Campbell. Even though the Day 1 Conference is completely sold out (sorry folks!), registration for Day 2 Workshops are still available including a Revit Design workshop that will be taught by partner David Fano. If you've already registered for the conference, we look forward to seeing you there!


text:
CSR Racing Answers for iPhone - iPadHome / iPhone - iPad /
Game Questions & Answers (Q&A) service lets you ask questions about video games for game consoles or PC games. So ask your CSR Racing question for iPhone - iPad and get answers from real gamers or answer questions and share your insights and experience with the rest of the gaming community.
- Developer: Naturalmotion
- Publisher: Naturalmotion
- Genre: Action
- Release: Jun 28, 2012
- ESRB: Not Set
Question & Answers
Best car for tier 5?
Im debating on either getting the cobra or the z4
Answer from: Errol
Audi csr ultra best car I beat the their 5 leader with it then got his car
Answer from: anonymous
If you can't pay audi r8 ultra csr, mustang cobra jet.
Answer from: julz
Z4 i think was the best car... but it seems the speed limit allow only 220 mph... i dont for the others...
Answer from: Petasterix
With all L5 cars you can beat Errol. It is easier with Audi R8 ultra, but it is possible with any car, even with Mustang Cobra Jet which speed limit is 215.
Answer from: CSRman
BMW z4 tops at 220.
Answer from: Mofoboom
Mustang cobra jet is the best it's the cheapest, best grip, and best power and it's actually the fastest accelerating car in the game which is really what is important in drag racing not speed!
Answer from: FastCar222
I've had the BMW z4 up to 222 mph. It's almost unbeatable if driven correctly. You can't shift when it tells you, however...you've got to shift early.
Answer from: CSRperson
Audi R8 LMS ultra for sure... no hesitation.
Answer from: Mydlak
I went with the mustang cobra jet, I am pretty consistent at 7.96-8.1's
Answer from: anonymous
Without paying gold, my opinion was the mustang cobra jet, but after playing about half the tier i'm starting to lean towards the bmw z4 model. Obviously the best car in the tier totally is the audi r8 lms ustra csr, but for a cheaper (although still gold) option, I'd say the tier 5 mclaren.
Answer from: JayGabbana
I recommend the Mclaren MP4-12C, it's worth every penny. When u start to upgrade it little by little, you'll remember me. It beats EVERY single car in the game.
Answer from: Meanpoutine
Never was able to get under 8 without tuner help with a r8 ultra ... cobra can do 7.9 without any help.. i did 7.6 sec with 2 mods the engine and nitrous but that cost me 2 gold for a single race.. ouch
Answer from: Bar czar
If you're not getting under 8 with Audi then your shifting wrong and probably spraying wrong too. My pr with an untuned Audi is 7.88. Tunes gets u to the 7.6 range. I'm building my mustang now and I've learned that the take off on that thing is ridiculous so maybe my pony will be able to beat my pr.
Answer from: Tiger
Z4 is what I used. Great car mine has 664 points.
Answer from: Drag King
No doubt it's Audi R8 RMS Ultra, but my second car is excellent too, it's mustang cobra jet, with 701 upgrade points, max audi is: 699, but u need to use tune up if you want to race errol using mustang, because mustang max speed is: 215 mph, audi is: 220, errol's audi: 226-227
Answer from: Nolan Conyers
My best times in the Mustang Cobra jet is 7.37 @ 189.60 mph ...but i'm consistent 7.45 & 50's
Answer from: easyrider_au
Hard to believe you're doin 7.37's Nolan. I'm using the tuner, nitro and tyre guys and perfect starts and my best is 7.564. I'm in the top 50 too.
Answer from: BentleyMax
"Bar czar.... 7.88 is very impressive for an untuned car, unless you mean 7.988 or you are talking about the audi csr ultra, otherwise i believe the Cobra is the best. My best time, untuned, is 7.928, and I can consistently run 7.93x and lower (probably 9 out of 10 races).
Answer from: Misterdeivid
Mclaren is great for cashing money in, mustang cobra jet best value for money, Audi is best and easy to drive but expensive, z4 is great but difficult to master
Answer from: vformuzal
I have both the BMW z4 @ 704 and Audi R8 @ 701. Both updated to the max. The BMW beats the Audi consistently by .2 seconds. My best quarter mile on the BMW is 7.44 and Audi 7.65 fully tuned. Untuned I can do 7.65 on the BMW and 7.86 on the Audi R8. BMW wins every time, even beating the Audi R8 RMS Ultra.
Answer from: Divert25
The best car is definitely the z4. I ran 7.299 with it. The z4 achieves almost 220mph in the 1/4 mile race. So far none of the other cars can do this. For the 1/2 mile definitely the Mac claren mp4 -12c.
Answer from: Divert25
The top speed for the Audi CSR Ultra is not 220. It is 227mph. The BMW Z4 is 220mph. The Mac Claren MP4 is over 245mph. Someone said the BMW Z4 is difficult to master. In my opinion it is not. The trick is to perfect shift at launch and shift IMMEDIATELY into 3rd gear. Let it hold for a second and a half and switch into 4th and hit the NOS button and then perfect shift from there. Untuned, I have run 7.63 @ 205.9mph using what I described above.
Answer from: P suits
I have got less than 7.85 with both the z4 and the r8 lms ultra, both with no tunes
Answer from: P suits
7.834 with BMW z4 no tunes
Answer from: Infiniti csr
Audi r8 ultra - highest mph - 227
Bmw z4 - highest mph - 220
Mustang cobra jet - highest mph - 215
Audi r8 ultra csr - highest mph -235
I am having BMW Audi mustang fully upgraded.First I was having mustang and loss the final boss and I having BMW and beated the boos
Answer from: TheBro
As of now here are the best times for each car
Audi R8 LMS Ultra: 7.892
Mustang Cobra Jet: 7.885
BMW Z4 gt3: 7.862
Mclaren MP4-12C: 7.899
Pagani Zonda R: 7.843
*NOTE these times are all without tuning*
Answer from: Rick40
BMW Z4- 7.66 is the fastest 1/4 tuned w/o perfect launch, no tires or nitrous. I found that if you hold accelerator down until start clock is just starting to count down from. 2-1sec let go of acc. And you get a perfect launch. 221.697mph is my top speed with Z4, i physically see the top speed hit 222 mph but it never registers that speed.
Answer from: Swanny
Z4 untuned is my fastest car at 7.830. I let the revs drop in the middle of the "2" on the count down. Shift. Stay in 2nd for a moment. Hit nitro half way through 3rd. Hit nitro right on 3rd and you'll do around 7.87, so need to wait a small moment
Answer from: Powertool42
The fastest is by far the z4. With a perfect launch 2 lights shift to 2nd what your elms not the lights. When it starts to rise shift to 3rd and 4th before the green lights come on and nitro soon as you shift to 4th. Perfect shifts to 5th and 6th. My fastest time shifting like this is 7.806 with no tuning. With tuning in season mode is 7.457
Answer from: Ron79
I got all tier 5 cars expect lms ultra csr. I think the best car to drive in 1/4 mile now is z4 (before Feb's update, it was cobra jet) I can do 7.73x without any tunes. 7.55x with engine tune. 7.42x with both engine and tire. I didn't do fully tuned so often, I only did this when I met lms ultra csr also fully tuned. Now my best record is 7.382
Answer from: Rocnas
BMW z4 my time 7.378
Answer from: Rocnas
New record today with BMW Z4 7.375
Answer from: Flawless-2384
Best car untuned is BMW Z4 GT3 best time 1/4 mile 7.780 , its tricky but is the best one, you must have a perfect launch and when reaching to 2nd double shift in green light to 3rd then shift to 4th and push the nitro at same time and youll see.
Answer from: vformuzal
My best time now is 7.36 with the BMW. Some people break 7.2. Anyone know how to get a 7.2 second quarter mile? Thanks in advance.
Answer from: andydyke
Z4 seems to be the fastest based on what ive seen, just tuning mine now! pretty much maxxed out the cobra jet 7.806 untuned and 7.359 with all 3 performance upgrades
Answer from: juliancito
I did 7.801 with the BMW Z4 GT3 untuned. I haven't registered similar with the Audi R8 LMS ultra (7.899) but looking forward to fully upgrade my Mustang Cobra Jet. But definitely the correct technique marks the difference.
Answer from: Alien_Illuminat
I'm just entering tier 5, but my expertise in drag racing actual cars at the track, I'd say the Cobra Jet SHOULD have the most potential, but just MUCH HARDER to get there, as where German engineered cars are easier to push & get more consistent times. For instance, in my '05 GTO, with only bolt on mods, I could get 12:8 when all things perfect, but mostly got 13.015. In my stock '04 M3, I'd get a consistent 13.01. I just gorge Cobra Jet (CSR), waiting on delivery, lol. I think I'll get all 3 before modding the Cobra.
Answer from: Zzee
My best with untuned Z4 is 7.717. I'm pretty sure you cannot go under 7.700 without tunes. Divert25 said that you should switch immediately to 3rd gear and you can do 7.65x. That doesn't work without tuned engine, your revs will drop too much. With tuned engine revs don't drop: I've done 7.539 with that method. I don't use tire or nitro tuners because they cost gold. By the way, I think it's impossible to go under 7.780 with any other untuned car - Z4 is supreme!
Answer from: BL4CK_L30P4RD
Got The Audi R8 LMS Ultra CSR with Full Stuff : S5/705 its The best!
Answer from: Paulie21
No team I'm running consistent 7.778-7.790 with my Z4 never losing to any other car unless they have at least one tune team going. My best, no team, is 7.764. Best challenge comes from the ruf it's late acceleration is incredible, followed closely by the Audi ultra. no other cars can come close w/o use of team. Z4 is king of racing no tune team.
Answer from: Yoshimitsu
So what do u think, which one is the best (prefer Multiplayer races), Audi LMS Ultra, Ford Mustang Cobra Jet or BMW Z4 GT3??? (R8 LMS ultra CSR is to expensive for me!)
CSR Racing - Gameplay
- Added on: Aug 21, 2014
CSR Racing - App Review Trailer
- Added on: Aug 21, 2014
CSR Racing - IOS Trailer
- Added on: Aug 21, 2014
CSR Racing - Gameplay Review
- Added on: Aug 21, 2014
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text:
Nova's award-winning Paul Murray wants to catch the ear of young listeners eager to chat.
At the ripe old age of 25, Nova broadcaster Paul Murray has already notched up a number of firsts.
As a 15-year-old, he was Triple J's youngest music presenter, co-hosting the Saturday night request show with Catriona Rowntree in 1994. He landed the job when a Triple J programmer happened to hear him calling sports results over a PA system at a little athletics carnival in Ryde.
At 21, he was 2GB's youngest anchor, presenting a one-hour news wrap at the end of each day. In 2002, he became the first news reporter from FM radio to win a coveted Brian White Award for excellence in journalism, usually the exclusive domain of more seasoned journalists from news talk stations. He followed up last year with a Raward nomination for best current affairs commentator, finding himself listed alongside such AM talk heavyweights as Alan Jones, Derryn Hinch, Neil Mitchell and Ray Hadley.
This year Murray is attempting another first: a commercially successful nightly FM news talk program for the under 30s. Phil O'Neil tried to do it on Triple M last year but failed to build a solid audience.
"It's the missing link in the market," Murray says. "AM talk hosts are catering for listeners in their 50s or older and there's a massive gulf when it comes to offering younger people news and talk. But the reality is young people are smart, pay taxes, vote and have an opinion. They just don't express it by ringing AM talk-show hosts. No one has found the answer yet but it will be discovered and here's hoping I'll be the one to do it."
Of course, Triple J has been doing it for years but perhaps not getting the sort of rating commercial radio expects.
After the success of Murray's Sunday night current affairs program, Nova has expanded it to five nights a week. He has added more humour to the mix, creating a flexible news-based show that can either deal with topics in a serious, traditional way or skate off into the ridiculous if there's not much news about.
He's not hampered by a lack of top-name guests, often providing their voices himself. It doesn't seem to bother him or listeners that he's only an average mimic. "This show isn't a comedy show and it isn't a talk show. It's a topical show. It covers all the events of the day whether it's me doing stupid voices and news sketches or asking callers what they think," he says.
Murray is a strong defender of the FM news style, which he says is often unfairly dismissed as a rehash of entertainment magazines. "More people get their news from FM radio than AM stations. It is a legitimate form of news, covering sometimes very complex issues by using common everyday language. It's a way of reaching people who may not have a high interest in politics and business but still want to know what is going on."
Murray, who lists politics, wrestling and old Chevy Chase movies as his main interests, says: "Not many people can say, 'I'm living the dream,' but it's seriously what I'm doing."
The Paul Murray Show can be heard Sunday to Thursday, 10pm to midnight.
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text:
Why does CO2 get most of the attention when there are so many other heat-trapping gases (greenhouse gases)?
Global warming is primarily a problem of too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This carbon overload is caused mainly when we burn fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas or cut down and burn forests. There are many heat-trapping gases (from methane to water vapor), but CO2 puts us at the greatest risk of irreversible changes if it continues to accumulate unabated in the atmosphere. There are two key reasons why.
CO2 has caused most of the warming and its influence is expected to continue
CO2, more than any other cf driver, has contributed the most to climate change between 1750 and 2005.[1, 2, 3] The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a global climate assessment in 2007 that compared the relative influence exerted by key heat-trapping gases, tiny particles known as aerosols, and land use change of human origin on our climate between 1750 and 2005.[3] By measuring the abundance of heat-trapping gases in ice cores, the atmosphere, and other climate drivers along with models, the IPCC calculated the "radiative forcing" (RF) of each climate driver—in other words, the net increase (or decrease) in the amount of energy reaching Earth's surface attributable to that climate driver. Positive RF values represent average surface warming and negative values represent average surface cooling. CO2 has the highest positive RF (see Figure 1) of all the human-influenced climate drivers compared by the IPCC. Other gases have more potent heat-trapping ability molecule per molecule than CO2 (e.g. methane), but are simply far less abundant in the atmosphere and being added more slowly.
Figure 1. How Does CO2 Compare To Other Climate Drivers?
Carbon dioxide (CO2), more than any other climate driver, has contributed the most to climate change between 1750 and 2005.[4]
CO2 sticks around
CO2 remains in the atmosphere longer than the other major heat-trapping gases emitted as a result of human activities. It takes about a decade for methane (CH4) emissions to leave the atmosphere (it converts into CO2) and about a century for nitrous oxide (N2O).[3] In the case of CO2, much of today's emissions will be gone in a century, but about 20 percent will still exist in the atmosphere approximately 800 years from now.[3] This literally means that the heat-trapping emissions we release today from our cars and power plants are setting the climate our children and grandchildren will inherit. CO2's long life in the atmosphere provides the clearest possible rationale for reducing our CO2 emissions without delay.
What about water vapor?
Water vapor is the most abundant heat-trapping gas, but rarely discussed when considering human-induced climate change. The principal reason is that water vapor has a short cycle in the atmosphere (a few days) before it is incorporated into weather events and falls to Earth, so it cannot build up in the atmosphere in the same way as carbon dioxide does.[1, 2]
Too much of a good thing: the carbon overload
Earth receives energy that travels from the sun in a variety of wavelengths, some of which we see as sunlight and others that are invisible to the naked eye, such as shorter- wavelength ultraviolet radiation and longer-wavelength infrared radiation. As this energy passes through Earth's atmosphere, some is reflected back into space by clouds and small particles such as sulfates; some is reflected by Earth's surface; and some is absorbed into the atmosphere by substances such as soot, stratospheric ozone, and water vapor (see Figure 2 for relative proportions).[4] The remaining solar energy is absorbed by the earth itself, warming the planet's surface.
Figure 2. Heat-trapping Gases in the Atmosphere
The molecules depicted in the inset box represent heat-trapping gases, such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide. The number of incoming and outgoing arrows are proportional to the balance between incoming and outgoing energy.[2] Data source: IPCC 2007; Figure: Union of Concerned Scientists.
If all of the energy emitted from the Earth's surface escaped into space, the planet would be too cold to sustain human life. Fortunately, as depicted in Figure 2, some of this energy does stay in the atmosphere, where it is sent back toward Earth by clouds, released by clouds as they condense to form rain or snow, or absorbed by atmospheric gases composed of three or more atoms, such as water vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), and methane (CH4).
Long-wave radiation absorbed by these gases in turn is re-emitted in all directions, including back toward Earth, and some of this re-emitted energy is absorbed again by these gases and re-emitted in all directions. The net effect is that most of the outgoing radiation is kept within the atmosphere instead of escaping into space. Heat-trapping gases, in balanced proportions, act like a blanket surrounding Earth, keeping temperatures within a range that enables life to thrive on a planet with liquid water. Unfortunately, these gases—especially carbon dioxide—are accumulating in the atmosphere at increasing concentrations due to human activities such as the burning of fossil fuel in cars and power plants, the clearing of forests for agriculture or development, and agricultural practices.[4] As a result, the insulating blanket is getting too thick and overheating the Earth as less energy (heat) escapes into space.
Long-term perspective
Antarctic ice core records vividly illustrate that atmospheric CO2 levels today are higher than levels recorded over the past 800,000 years (see Figure 3).[5] Atmospheric CO2 levels have risen 36 percent in the last 250 years, with half of that rise occurring only in the last three decades.[4] CO2 (and other gases emitted from industrial and agricultural sources) trap heat in the atmosphere, so it is no surprise that we are now witnessing an increase in global average temperature. In the same way that CO2 emitted long ago is now contributing to the changes in climate we are already experiencing today, the emissions we are currently releasing will help determine the climate future our children and grandchildren experience.
Figure 3. CO2 History Over the Ages
Composite record of Antarctic ice core carbon dioxide concentrations and the modern (1959-2007) atmospheric carbon dioxide record from Mauna Loa Hawaii. Data Sources: Supplementary information two for Luthi et al (2008) [5] and Mauna Loa data from [6]; Figure Union of Concerned Scientists.
[1] Note that human activities provide a small indirect influence on water vapor through methane (CH4) emissions that undergo chemical transformation in the stratosphere, thus creating the byproduct of water vapor. Another indirect influence is that human-induced global warming has increased the tropospheric air temperature, which can now hold more water vapor (around 4% increase since 1970) which in turn traps even more heat amplifying the warming.[2]
[2] Trenberth, K.E., P.D. Jones, P. Ambenje, R. Bojariu, D. Easterling, A. Klein Tank, D. Parker, F. Rahimzadeh, J.A. Renwick, M. Rusticucci, B. Soden and P. Zhai, 2007: Observations: Surface and Atmospheric Climate Change. In: Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Solomon, S., D. Qin, M. Manning, Z. Chen, M. Marquis, K.B. Averyt, M. Tignor and H.L. Miller (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA.
[3] Forster, P., V. Ramaswamy, P. Artaxo, T. Berntsen, R. Betts, D.W. Fahey, J. Haywood, J. Lean, D.C. Lowe, G. Myhre, J. Nganga, R. Prinn, G. Raga, M. Schulz and R. Van Dorland, 2007: Changes in Atmospheric Constituents and in Radiative Forcing. In: Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Solomon, S., D. Qin, M. Manning, Z. Chen, M. Marquis, K.B. Averyt, M.Tignor and H.L. Miller (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA.
[4] Somerville, R., H. Le Treut, U. Cubasch, Y. Ding, C. Mauritzen, A. Mokssit, T. Peterson and M. Prather, 2007: Historical Overview of Climate Change. In: Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Solomon, S., D. Qin, M. Manning, Z. Chen, M. Marquis, K.B. Averyt, M. Tignor and H.L. Miller (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA.
[5] Keeling, C.D. and T.P. Whorf. 2004. Atmospheric CO2 records from sites in the SIO air sampling network. In Trends: A Compendium of Data on Global Change. Oak Ridge, TN: Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center; Petit J.R. et al. 1999. Climate and atmospheric history of the past 420,000 years from the Vostok ice core, Antarctica. Nature 399:429–436; Siegenthaler, U. et al. 2005. Stable carbon cycle-climate relationship during the late Pleistocene. Science 310:1313–1317; Lüthi, D., M. Le Floch, B. Bereiter, T. Blunier, J-M. Barnola, U. Siegenthaler, D. Raynaud, J. Jouzel, H. Fischer, K. Kawamura, and T. F. Stocker. 2008. High-resolution carbon dioxide concentration record 650,000–800,000 years before present. Nature 453:379-382, doi:10.1038/nature06949.
[6] Keeling, R.F., S.C. Piper, A.F. Bollenbacher and J.S. Walker. 2008. Atmospheric CO2 records from sites in the SIO air sampling network. In Trends: A Compendium of Data on Global Change. Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, Oak Ridge, Tenn., U.S.A. Also accessed online September 2008 at >The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center&website.
Summary prepared by B. Ekwurzel (UCS) and reviewed by M. Baker (University of Washington), N. Cole, P. Frumhoff, and S. Shaw (UCS).


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Easy Way to Plan For Retirement
5 Questions That Can Determine Your Financial Future
We're happy to present this post from our friends at DailyWorth. Planning for your retirement is easier than you thought!
Sailing around the world, gardening from sunup to sundown, long walks on the beach. Thinking about retirement can seem surreal and even silly when most of us are so caught up in the day-to-day grind of life. However, it is important to take time to think about it — and the earlier the better! — to develop a plan that will truly help you make your dreams for retirement a reality.
RELATED: How Much Do I Need to Retire?
An easy way to think about retirement planning is to ask yourself — and your spouse, if applicable — the five W's: Who? What? When? Where? Why? Your answers will provide the basis, then answer the sixth and final question of how you will achieve your goals.
Who? Who are the most important people in your life? Your spouse? Your children? Your grandchildren? Your business partner? Your pastor? Yes, retirement is about what you want, but retirement planning should also include thinking about the future financial needs of your loved ones and any other financial goals you might have before and after retirement. And as unpleasant as it is, you should also consider the potential financial strain that your and/or your spouse's death, illness or long-term care could cause. Then consider the value (and cost) of using insurance products to protect your priorities and your family's well-being.
Read on for more.
What? As in, what assets do you have to work with (savings, investments, property) and what other potential sources of income you might have in the future (such as Social Security, company pensions, inheritances, sale of real estate).
When? When would you ideally not have to work anymore? Until what age do you think you will work? It is good to have two retirement ages in mind so that you can have a savings target range rather than one number that may potentially be unrealistic.
Where? Where do you see yourself living in retirement? Do you want to stay in your home, downsize — or upsize? Do you imagine yourself staying local or moving to another state (or country) where the cost of living is more or less? Will you still have a mortgage?
Why? This is the most fun to think about. Why would you want to save for retirement? What would you do with your time and money if you had more of it? Travel? Remodel your home or buy a new one? Dedicate yourself to a hobby or learn a new skill? Spoil grandkids? Why is it important to ask yourself these questions? Because you need to have an idea of what your ideal retirement could cost over a period of time that might last 30 years. Then you can figure out the amount you need to save in the meantime in order to support your lifestyle and not outlive your money, taking taxes, inflation and your other financial goals into serious account.
Ok, so now for the final question: How? How will you save enough money to provide the income you need for a long, comfortable retirement and achieve other financial goals you and your family might have? The answer is likely a combination of funding retirement (401(k)s, IRAs), education (529s) and brokerage accounts, leveraging home equity, and purchasing annuities, life, disability and long-term care insurance. Retirement dreaming can be fun, but retirement planning is serious business that deserves attention sooner than later. It may be worth the cost of working with a fee-only Certified Financial Planner (CFP) to go through these questions and others with you and develop a customized plan to help you and your family achieve your goals for retirement, before and beyond.
— Jocelyn Black Hodes
Check out these smart stories from DailyWorth:
Act Your Age: A Decade by Decade Guide to Saving
Help! I'm Running Out of Money!
Your DIY Financial Planning Guide
Can I Lose My 401(k)?


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Here's a quick-hitting recap of key performances and news from the second week of the NFL season, complete with in-depth fantasy analysis.
Reality for Rex Grossman owners: The bottom line for Rex Grossman and the Bears is that they are now 3-0, and the quarterback threw a key touchdown pass right after the two-minute warning to win the game. But for fantasy owners, there should now be a clear difference between what Grossman can do for the Bears, and what he can do for fantasy teams. A healthy Grossman can certainly lead the Bears to many wins, but he is not going to post great numbers too often. Even coming off his four-TD performance in the second game, it's clear Grossman is no fantasy superstar. He's a good reserve who is worth starting when the matchup is right. In the first two games, Grossman faced defenses which have been very vulnerable in the secondary so far this season, and Chicago's first two opponents clearly did not game plan with Grossman as a major threat in mind. The Vikings came out much more wary of Grossman Sunday, and pressured him often. Grossman threw a pair of interceptions and also made other some questionable throws at times that could have been picked off. Based on one game last week, Grossman was indeed not the next coming of Brett Favre as advertised by some Bears backers. But for fantasy purposes, he isn't terrible, either, and keep him on your roster as a top backup for a better, more established fantasy starter.
Steve Smith returns: If you didn't start Steve Smith this week because you were still worried about his hamstring, don't beat yourself up over it. Just be glad Smith played much better than expected, and now you can be confident starting him going forward, instead of worrying about his status as you may have done for the past three weeks. Smith made an instant impact in his return to Carolina's lineup, catching seven balls for 112 yards when it was thought he might not even play, and if he did, there were major concerns that his effectiveness and production would be limited. But Smith showed that taking off the first two weeks and getting more rest was a great idea for him, even though it may have hurt some fantasy teams in the process. It might be hard to trade Smith right now, because some other fantasy owners will still worry about the recurrence of his hamstring problems. You likely won't be able to sell high on him and might not get proper value in return. So be happy he played well this week, and look forward to using him more for fine production in the near future. If Smith explodes next week against New Orleans, he'll have two fine performances to show, and you'll have the luxury of dealing him away if his health still concerns you, or keeping him for more excellent totals. But you can worry about that next week. Smile and get ready to plug him in for your fourth fantasy game.


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The Recruiting Yearbook is the most important issue of the season. Only after the smoke clears, the competition ends and letters of intent are signed, do players provide candid interviews about why they actually chose the Georgia Dawgs over the competition. Also, it's an NCAA violation for college coaches to discuss any recruit before he signs, so we take the time to interview the coach about every player, again, after Signing Day.
We must put in our orders to the printer now. You won't get a second chance; once the yearbooks are all printed, it will be too late! Don't miss out.
The Dawgs Recruiting Yearbook includes:
- Projected positions from college and high school coaches.
- In-depth biographies on each player, including personal interviews and the best photos available.
- Find out why each player chose the Dawgs over the rest.
- Ratings from the nation's finest football scouts.
- Find out how Georgia class stacked-up against the nation and the rest of the SEC.


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Highland Alpaca is now located at 221 South Broad St. in Grove City. After puchasing the busines from Fay and Jenn, we remodeled our store front at Nelson's Flower Shop and now carry one of the largest selection of alpaca garments, toys, outerwear, and home grown yarn in northwestern PA. This is your chance for extended store hours and location convenience. Store hours are from 9:00-5:00 Monday-through Friday 9:00-5:00 and Saturday 9:00 until noon pm. Looking for something special? Give us a call. Bryan and Lynn Dick Highland Alpaca/ Nelson's Flower Shop724-458-9570
While our farm store has now moved to Nelson's Flowers at 221 South Broad St., you can still view the selection and variety of merchandise available now in Grove City.Come Visit us at the Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center March 4, 5, and 6. We will have a large display of one of a kind alpaca blended yarns, as well as alpaca sock, scarves, and a limited supply of luxurious alpaca garments. Stop the Grove City Store or visit us at the Knit and Crochet Festival!
221 S. Broad Street, Grove City, PA 16127 | 724-458-9570 | email@example.com


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THE SQL Server Blog Spot on the Web
In my last blog post I explained the principles of Replication Services and the possibilities it offers in a BI environment. One of the possibilities I described was the use of snapshot replication as an ETL extraction tool: "Snapshot Replication can also be useful in BI environments, if you don't need a near real-time copy of the database, you can choose to use this form of replication. Next to an alternative for Transactional Replication it can be used to stage data so it can be transformed and moved into the data warehousing environment afterwards. In many solutions I have seen developers create multiple SSIS packages that simply copies data from one or more source systems to a staging database that figures as source for the ETL process. The creation of these packages takes a lot of (boring) time, while Replication Services can do the same in minutes. It is possible to filter out columns and/or records and it can even apply schema changes automatically so I think it offers enough features here. I don't know how the performance will be and if it really works as good for this purpose as I expect, but I want to try this out soon!" Well I have tried it out and I must say it worked well. I was able to let replication services do work in a fraction of the time it would cost me to do the same in SSIS. What I did was the following:
Fortunately I was able to create the SSIS package with the desired functionality. I have made a step-by-step guide that will help you configure the snapshot replication and I have uploaded the SSIS package you need to execute it.
Configure snapshot replication
The first step is to create a publication on the database you want to replicate. Connect to SQL Server Management Studio and right-click Replication, choose for New.. Publication…
The New Publication Wizard appears, click Next
Choose your "source" database and click Next
Choose Snapshot publication and click Next
You can now select tables and other objects that you want to publish
Expand Tables and select the tables that are needed in your ETL process
In the next screen you can add filters on the selected tables which can be very useful. Think about selecting only the last x days of data for example.
Its possible to filter out rows and/or columns. In this example I did not apply any filters.
Schedule the Snapshot Agent to run at a desired time, by doing this a SQL Agent Job is created which we need to execute from a SSIS package later on.
Next you need to set the Security Settings for the Snapshot Agent. Click on the Security Settings button.
In this example I ran the Agent under the SQL Server Agent service account. This is not recommended as a security best practice. Fortunately there is an excellent article on TechNet which tells you exactly how to set up the security for replication services. Read it here and make sure you follow the guidelines!
On the next screen choose to create the publication at the end of the wizard
Give the publication a name (SnapshotTest) and complete the wizard
The publication is created and the articles (tables in this case) are added
Now the publication is created successfully its time to create a new subscription for this publication.
Expand the Replication folder in SSMS and right click Local Subscriptions, choose New Subscriptions
The New Subscription Wizard appears
Select the publisher on which you just created your publication and select the database and publication (SnapshotTest)
You can now choose where the Distribution Agent should run. If it runs at the distributor (push subscriptions) it causes extra processing overhead. If you use a separate server for your ETL process and databases choose to run each agent at its subscriber (pull subscriptions) to reduce the processing overhead at the distributor.
Of course we need a database for the subscription and fortunately the Wizard can create it for you. Choose for New database
Give the database the desired name, set the desired options and click OK
You can now add multiple SQL Server Subscribers which is not necessary in this case but can be very useful.
You now need to set the security settings for the Distribution Agent. Click on the …. button
Again, in this example I ran the Agent under the SQL Server Agent service account. Read the security best practices here
Click Next
Make sure you create a synchronization job schedule again. This job is also necessary in the SSIS package later on.
Initialize the subscription at first synchronization
Select the first box to create the subscription when finishing this wizard
Complete the wizard by clicking Finish
The subscription will be created
In SSMS you see a new database is created, the subscriber. There are no tables or other objects in the database available yet because the replication jobs did not ran yet.
Now expand the SQL Server Agent, go to Jobs and search for the job that creates the snapshot:
Rename this job to "CreateSnapshot"
Now search for the job that distributes the snapshot:
Rename this job to "DistributeSnapshot"
Create an SSIS package that executes the snapshot replication
We now need an SSIS package that will take care of the execution of both jobs. The CreateSnapshot job needs to execute and finish before the DistributeSnapshot job runs. After the DistributeSnapshot job has started the package needs to wait until its finished before the package execution finishes. The Execute SQL Server Agent Job Task is designed to execute SQL Agent Jobs from SSIS. Unfortunately this SSIS task only executes the job and reports back if the job started succesfully or not, it does not report if the job actually completed with success or failure. This is because these jobs are asynchronous.
The SSIS package I've created does the following:
Quite simple and the package is ready to use as standalone extract mechanism. After executing the package the replicated tables are added to the subscriber database and are filled with data:
Download the SSIS package here (SSIS 2008)
In this example I only replicated 5 tables, I could create a SSIS package that does the same in approximately the same amount of time. But if I replicated all the 70+ AdventureWorks tables I would save a lot of time and boring work! With replication services you also benefit from the feature that schema changes are applied automatically which means your entire extract phase wont break. Because a snapshot is created using the bcp utility (bulk copy) it's also quite fast, so the performance will be quite good.
Disadvantages of using snapshot replication as extraction tool is the limitation on source systems. You can only choose SQL Server or Oracle databases to act as a publisher.
So if you plan to build an extract phase for your ETL process that will invoke a lot of tables think about replication services, it would save you a lot of time and thanks to the Extract SSIS package I've created you can perfectly fit it in your usual SSIS ETL process.
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I am trying to get your SSIS package, but somehow i am stupid, and can not see the design and go into the steps of your Extract.dtsx.
How can i get to the design of it?
Hi Marlene,
I have just checked the package again and I can open it and see the design without problems. Please note that it's a SSIS 2008 package so you wont be able to open it in SSIS 2005!
I like this site. Keep it working every day.
Hi Jorg,
Nice blog. I have a Source system which is providing Real time production data on the equipments at the Mine. Some tables are unloaded and loaded again, some tables are updated , some table deleted a slot and reloads. I am using T-SQL to bring the data from these tables to a staging area. For such a scenario which replication should I use as I am copying the exact same data of the source to the stage. Currently I employ methods to check latest timestamp record at staging and bring from source only those records which are greater than timestamp. Also for code table I use "truncate insert into " mechanism.
Please advise me on this
I like the post very much!
Could you tell something about the performance when using an Oracle source? (Keeping in mind the Oracle Connector by Attunity with it's blazing performance!)
Hi Jorg,
I have downloaded the SSIS package, but not able to view the design. Can you please provide me .dtsx package with design.
Karthik Vadla
can you please share the sample ssis package for the above.
Thanks in advance...