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Developers at Google really love video games. There was the recent April Fool's Day prank featuring 8-bit Google Maps. It's also hard to forget the clever tribute to Star Fox 64 (search "do a barrel roll" to find out).
Google's latest gem is another Easter egg tied to search. Head to their main page and search "zerg rush."
A series of lower-cased o's from the Google logo march down the screen, attacking and destroying search results. Health bars next to each result indicate how long before they disappear.
Users can fight back, of course, by clicking on the hordes of menacing vowels to knock them out. A counter on the upper-right corner tracks actions per minute and the number of attackers killed.
Fans of Blizzard's PC strategy series StarCraft are well aware of the "zerg rush." For those new to the term, it's a tactic used when playing as the Zerg, a race of insect-like creatures. A "zerg rush" involved creating countless, low-cost and weaker "zerglings" in an attempt to overwhelm an opponent with sheer numbers.
Mike Snider began covering the video game industry during the Super Nintendo-Sega Genesis clash in 1992. An original pinball wizard, he eventually was seduced by Robotron: 2084 and Tempest. These days he is a fan of action/shooters and lives out his Keith Moon fantasies playing a mean drum kit on music games. More about Mike.
Brett Molina has been writing about video games for USA TODAY since 2005. He is well-versed in Madden NFL, the fighting genre and first-person shooters. The first video game he played was Asteroids at a local arcade. He has been hooked ever since. More about Brett.


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Live Commentary
FULL TIME! The Netherlands record a resounding 6-0 victory over a timid Northern Ireland side, handing them the perfect send-off into EURO 2012. That's all from me tonight, thanks for joining me and stick around for goal.com's full match report!
90' + 1'Ooh Heitinga has the chance for a seventh, but his volley is scuffed.
90'Two minutes of extra time remain, as the Dutch win a corner.
89'Stijn Schaars concedes a free kick with an unnecessary handball. Not too much confidence oozing from the Sporting Lisbon midfielder, deputising at left-back.
88'David Healy grabs his side's second attempt on target of the night, but the attempt is timid and Stekelenburg collects.
87'No he hasn't - he's just covered it with his brand new jersey. The Tottenham man tries for goal from range, but though the attempt is by no means a poor one Caroll is untroubled.
84'Van Der Vaart seems to have passed on the armband, but to who I have yet to determine. Either that or he's lost the thing...
83'Northern Ireland have the ball now, as the visitors look to salvage a goal from this one-sided affair.
82'SubstitutionArjen Robben Luciano Narsingh
81'SubstitutionShane Ferguson David Healy
81'David Healy comes on for Shane Ferguson.
80'The ArenA is buzzing now - can the hosts fire themselves into seventh heaven ahead of the tough group stage that awaits them next week?
78'Assist Ibrahim Afellay
78'SubstitutionJetro Willems Stijn Schaars
78'Goal Ron Vlaar
Goal! It's six and the goal comes from the most unlikeliest of players - Feyenoord centre-back Ron Vlaar rises above the crowd on a Dutch corner and sends a thumping header into the back of the net. 6-0!
77'Robben cuts in from the left, beats his marker, but sends his right-footed effort way over. Meanwhile, Jetro Willems makes way for Stijn Schaars.
75'Aaaaaah inches from number six! Van Der Vaart picks it up in midfield, before unleashing a cannoning left-footed effort. The ball hits the post, and with the most agonising of spins bounces across the goal mouth, past the other post, and behind for a goal kick.
74'Afellay looks to split the NI defence with a through ball, but the pass is a poor one.
73'Just a little statistic as the game's tempo lowers; seven of the 23 players in the Oranje squad currently ply their trade in the Eredivisie. Comparatively, all but four of Spain's charges feature in La Liga, while no England player is on a foreign clubs' books.
71'Dirk Kuyt looks set to fill the left flank, with Afellay being pushed into the central playmaker role. Bert Van Marwijk seems to be giving the Barcelona man as much game-time as possible, following his recent return from a long-term injury.
70'SubstitutionWesley Sneijder Dirk Kuyt
70'Dirk Kuyt comes on, and it's Wesley Sneijder who comes off. McGivern meanwhile registers his side first attempt on target.
69'Corner to the Netherlands, and Roy Caroll makes a mess of it! The veteran fumbles the ball, allowing Ron Vlaar a rare attempt at goal. The ball flies wide, however.
68'Dirk Kuyt is about to enter the fray...
66'Afellay sends a low delivery across the face of goal, but no one is on hand to convert.
65'OOHHH close, and that would've been a ripper! Willems picks out Sneijder in the box, who turns his marker only to see his speculative attempt fly inches past the post.
64'Afellay again makes poor contact, failing to beat his marker in the box with his team-mates lurking in front of goal.
63'A poor back-pass from Afellay gifts the visitors the chance to surge forward. There's no incisiveness however, and the danger seems to have faded.
62'SubstitutionMichael Duff Rory McArdle
61'Defending Northern Ireland's goal is veteran stopper Roy Caroll, who was once on Manchester United's books. The glovesman currently plies his trade at Greek side Olympiacos, making him the only player in his nation's squad to play outside the British Isles.
60'Jetro Willems seems to have suffered a knock to his hand - undoubtedly unpleasant but clearly much more favorable than an ankle or knee injury.
59'So, Van der Vaart seems to have been handed a more holding role for the night, with Sneijder still the no. 10 of the Oranje. The Tottenham man is the most capped player in the Dutch squad, with 96 senior appearances to his name.
57'SubstitutionRobin van Persie Klaas-Jan Huntelaar
57'SubstitutionMark van Bommel Rafael van der Vaart
56'SubstitutionAndy Little Niall McGinn
56'Huntelaar and Van Der Vaart come on, and it's Mark Van Bommel who makes way for the latter, passing on the armband in the process. Huntelaar comes on for RVP in a like-for-like switch.
55'Though they have conceded again, the visitors look more eager to go for goal.
52'Two men on the verge of a hat-trick now... will they get the chance to grab it or will Van Marwijk choose to bring on the likes of Huntelaar and Kuyt?
51'Assist Robin van Persie
51'Goal Ibrahim Afellay
GOOOAAAL! 5-0! Afellay grabs his second of the night with a thundering finish. Robin van Persie lays it off for the Barcelona man, who leaves Roy Caroll absolutely helpless.
51'Great pace from Jetro Willems! The youngster is caught out by a through ball, but uses his electrifying speed to recover. Positive stuff from the left-back.
50'Oliver Norwood concedes a free kick from a good length out, but the Dutch opt to play it short rather than go for goal.
48'The visitors look more positive following those substitutions, with visibly more pressure being applied in the midfield.
46'SubstitutionGrant McCann Josh Carson
46'SubstitutionDaniel Lafferty Ryan McGivern
46'SubstitutionLee Camp Roy Carroll
46'Josh Carson, Roy Caroll, and Ryan McGivern have come on for the visitors at the expense of Grant McCann, Lee Camp, and Daniel Lafferty. The hosts remain unchanged.
46'The teams are coming back onto the pitch. I'll inform you of any substitutions in just a minute...
It really has been one-way traffic here, with Northern Ireland not getting a sight of the Dutch goal. I look forward to seeing the manager's moving going into the second half - will Michael O'Neill try his luck and bring on David Healy? And will Bert Van Marwijk grant some of his younger stars a cameo? We'll know soon enough.
45'Half-time in Amsterdam as The Netherlands go into the break with a resounding and deserved 4-0 lead. See you in 15!
44'The Dutch are knocking at the door here, with Robben, Affelay, and Van Der Wiel all having a crack at goal. The latter draws a particularly fine save from Camp.
40'Robben has a crack for the fifth! The winger cuts in from the left, before testing Camp with a palm-stinging effort.
38'Willems appears to have taken a knock, but looks set to play on nonetheless.
37'Assist Robin van Persie
37'Goal Ibrahim Afellay
Goal! 4-0! Van Persie picks up the ball in the box, and unselfishly tees it up for the onrushing Afellay, who converts in clinical fashion.
33'So close to the fourth! Van Der Wiel's low delivery across the box is unmet, which sees Willems pick up the ball at the other end. The youngster has a crack, but can only hit the side netting.
31'And it very nearly pays off immediately! The winger sends in a low cross from the right, but RVP's attempt at a stylish back-heel doesn't come off.
31'Arjen Robben and Ibrahim Afellay seem to have temporarily swapped births, with the latter now occupying the right flank.
29'Penalty Goal Robin van Persie
Goal! The striker finishes with aplomb, rifling it into the bottom right corner as Camp goes the other way. 3-0!
28'Penalty to The Netherlands! Ferguson handles the ball in the area, and the referee is quick to point to the spot... RVP to take.
27'Sneijder!!! The playmaker looks to be through on goal, but with defenders charging at him the Dutchman just can't get the final touch from 6 six yards out.
26'Jetro Willems, the left back called up to deputise for club team-mate Erik Pieters, looks to charge forward on one of his mazy runs. No way through however, as NI look to defend in numbers.
24'Ooooh close offside call - Robben is released by Sneijder but the Bayern man is inches offside. Correct call by the linesman.
23'Afellay has a crack from range, but its the photographers in the media zone behind the goal who appear to be the target...
21'All Netherlands now as the visitors look to park the bus. Can they survive the Oranje onslaught, or are we in for a thrashing... the home fans seem to be calling for the latter, and who can blame them following that dismal showing against Bulgaria last Saturday.
20'Afellay sends a low delivery into the six-yard box, but Van Persie cannot get to it.
18'NI enjoy a short spell of possession... can they claw themselves back against the hungry hosts?
16'Yellow Card Lee Hodson
15'Goal Wesley Sneijder
OOOOOOH GOAL! Wesley Sneijder curls home the hosts' second with a wonderful free kick! Michael Duff had picked up the game's first booking with a reckless leg on Van Bommel, and the Inter man punishes the visitors with style from the resultant free kick!
14'Yellow Card Michael Duff
11'Assist Wesley Sneijder
11'Goal Robin van Persie
GOAL! Robin Van Persie opens the scoring with a pinpoint header! Wesley Sneijder plays the corner short, and sends a curling cross towards the forward on the return, who heads home with ruthless accuracy. 1-0 Netherlands!
10'And its Van Persie who has a crack! The Arsenal star sends a curling effort towards the far corner, but the ball fails to get through a wall of NI defenders.
8'Arjen Robben is released towards goal, and is brought down just outside the penalty box. The Oranje free kick specialists are lining up for this one...
7'Wesley Sneijder picks up the ball outside the box, and opts to test Camp with a long range effort. The NI stopper is untroubled however, and collects with ease.
6'NI win the game's first corner, but Ron Vlaar is on hand to head the ball to safety.
5'Arjen Robben truly is a fan's favorite in Holland - the home crowd seems to come alive every time he's on the ball. No moments of brilliance from the forward yet however...
3'The visitors look content sitting back in these opening exchanges, allowing the Dutch to build with short passes. Afellay attempts a cross from the left wing, but the ball disappears behind the goal-line.
2'Netherlands take possession quickly, and look to get an early breakthrough with a long ball towards Arjen Robben. It's overhit however, and Lee Camp collects.
1'Northern Ireland get us underway, kicking from right to left.
Moments from kick-off now, and the atmosphere is nothing short of electric - will the Dutch get their perfect Euro 2012 send-off or are we in for a classic David vs. Goliath upset?
All set here in Amsterdam as the national anthems, performed by what looks like at least a 50-man orchestra, echo through the ArenA...
It is clear who carries the 'underdog' tag tonight – Northern Ireland sit 87th in the FIFA standings, while today's hosts find themselves in fourth place. Such rankings have been irrelevant during this past internationals week however, Switzerland's 5-3 victory over Germany and Bulgaria's late winner in a 2-1 defeat for the Dutch last Saturday both noteworthy upsets.
The Netherlands' current form sheet is hardly inspirational. The Dutch have won just one of their last three, their 2-0 win over Slovakia having been preceded by losses to Bayern Munich and Bulgaria. Northern Ireland's recent results are arguably even more disappointing. Just six points were collected in their unsuccessful quest for Euro 2012 qualification, while their last outing - a friendly against Norway - saw the Green and White Army concede three goals without response.
Full Lineups: Netherlands (4-2-3-1): Stekelenburg; Van Der Wiel, Heitinga, Vlaar, Willems; De Jong, Van Bommel; Robben, Sneijder, Afellay; Van Persie Northern Ireland (4-5-1): Lee Camp; Hodson, Duff, McPake, Lafferty; Little, Clingan, McCann, Norwood, Ferguson; Grigg
Little surprise from either side then, with Van Persie getting the nod ahead of Huntelaar perhaps the biggest talking point from a Dutch perspective. One notable absence for the visitors is striker David Healy, the nation's top scorer and the most capped player in the squad.
Good evening and welcome to Goal.com's LIVE coverage of tonight's international friendly between The Netherlands and Northern Ireland. My name is Renger Dotinga and I will be talking you through the action as it unfolds at the Amsterdam Arena.

subset: commoncrawl


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|SAVIOUR BALZAN | Sunday, 03 August 2008
SCANDALOUS is too kind a word
When Lawrence Gonzi wakes up to read MaltaToday he will probably say: "No not again. This Saviour must be obsessed with me."
Hurrah, hurrah, it is Joe Said!
Any comments?
MaltaToday News
Mater Dei's million- euro haemorrhage
From human rights abuses to Group 4 – Joe Psaila
Yes, everything is possible. Just send Gonzi an email...


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Leicester, UK (SPX) Nov 05, 2007
A University of Leicester astrophysicist is playing a pivotal role in a mission that seeks to study the origins of the universe. Professor Martin Turner of the Department of Physics and Astronomy is Co-Principal Investigator on XEUS - a next-generation X-ray space observatory.
XEUS, which stands for X-ray Evolving Universe Spectroscopy, aims to study the fundamental laws of the Universe. With unprecedented sensitivity to the hot, million-degree universe, XEUS will explore key areas of contemporary astrophysics: growth of supermassive black holes, cosmic feedback and galaxy evolution, evolution of large-scale structures, extreme gravity and matter under extreme conditions, the dynamical evolution of cosmic plasmas and cosmic chemistry.
Professor Turner is also Chair of the XEUS International Steering committee. He said: "XEUS is an X-ray observatory 30-50 times more sensitive than XMM-Newton, which will be placed 1.5 million km from Earth, beyond the Moon, at the second Lagrangian point, a quiet stable location where the instruments can observe the universe undisturbed.
"Because it is so large, the observatory has two spacecraft. The five-metre diameter X-ray lens is in one, and the instruments in another. The two spacecraft fly together, 35 metres apart, to keep the instruments at the focus of the lens.
"XEUS has been selected for study by ESA as part of its Cosmic Vision programme. If the study outcome is successful it will be launched on Ariane 5 from Kourou in 2018.
"We have been developing the XEUS concept for an advanced X-ray observatory, for many years. This acceptance by ESA is a major step forward for X-ray astronomers all over the world."
"The million degree universe, where gravity is the main source of energy, is the finest physics laboratory we have. XEUS will help us find out about the behaviour of matter under extreme conditions of temperature, pressure, and gravity. It will also let us study the influence of black holes on the formation of galaxies and stars; and ultimately planets and ourselves."
Dr Richard Willingale, of the University of Leicester and chairman of the XEUS telescope working group said.
"XEUS will use new lightweight silicon optics to make the lens, the same material used to make silicon chips; one of the instruments has sensors cooled to within a tiny fraction of absolute zero to study the chemistry and physics of matter surrounding black holes."
Various international Space Agencies have expressed interest in cooperation in XEUS and discussions will start by the end of the year to ensure the earliest involvement in study work.
All the candidate missions are now competing in an assessment cycle which ends in 2011. Before the end of the cycle, there will be an important selection foreseen in 2009. At the end of this process, two missions will be proposed for implementation to ESA's Science Programme Committee, with launches planned for 2017 and 2018 respectively.
The selected missions fit well within the themes of ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 plan. The themes range from the conditions for life and planetary formation, to the origin and formation of the Solar System, the fundamental laws of our cosmos and the origin, structure and evolution of the Universe.
"The maturity of most of the proposals received demonstrates the excellence of the scientific community in Europe. This made the task of the SSAC very difficult but we believe that the set of selected missions will shape the future of European space science," said Tilman Spohn, chairperson of the SSAC (German Aerospace Center, Berlin). "The next decade will indeed be very exciting for the scientific exploration of space."
According to the chair of the Astronomy Working Group (AWG), Tommaso Maccacaro, (INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera) "The chosen candidates for astronomy missions show very promising and broad scientific return and have received excellent recommendations also from external referees."
"Technical feasibility and potential for successful cooperation with other agencies are two factors which are clearly evident in the Solar System missions that have been chosen," added Nick Thomas at the Physikalisches Institut, Universit�t Bern, chair of the Solar System Working Group.
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MIT Develops Tractor Beam For Cells
Boston MA (SPX) Oct 31, 2007
In a feat that seems like something out of a microscopic version of Star Trek, MIT researchers have found a way to use a "tractor beam" of light to pick up, hold, and move around individual cells and other objects on the surface of a microchip. The new technology could become an important tool for both biological research and materials research, say Matthew J. Lang and David C. Appleyard, whose work is being published in an upcoming issue of the journal Lab on a Chip.
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text: I was walking around today and I saw a motorcycle on the sidewalk (Not uncommon). Now this guy was going real slow and weaving in and out of the people trying to use the sidewalk to actually walk on it. Then... all of a sudden you heard this VROOOMZ as this guy gunned it up the handicap ramp on the skywalk, nearly running over this couple. I thought I've been around to see everything but this completely took me by surprise. A full fledge motorcycle going up a skywalk =/


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News You Might Have Missed: 1 April
– Activision has announced a new Spider-Man game called Spider-Man: Edge of Time, pictured.
– MegaMan co-creator and ex-Capcom producer will announce his two new companies, Comcept and Intercept, on Monday.
– The first, brief trailer for Saints Row 3 has been released.
– Metacritic doesn't plan to reinstate its controversial developer rating system.
– Sony Online Entertainment has canned MMO The Agency and cut over 200 of its staff.
– Platinum Games has rallied to "ignite a Japanese games revival".
– MMO Allods Online expects to officially launch in Europe "very soon".
– Cryptic has announced that user content generation tools, aka the foundry, are making their way to Star Trek Online.


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METAL/NONMETAL MINE FATALITY - On December 10, 2013, a 27-year old deck hand with 4 years and 8 months of experience drowned at a dredge operation. He was working on a dredge that had a barge attached to it. The victim stepped on the barge and fell into the water.
Task train all persons to recognize all potential hazardous conditions and ensure they understand safe job procedures for elimination of the hazards before beginning work. Always wear a life jacket where there is a danger of falling into the water. Remove snow and ice from work areas. Ensure safe access is provided where persons are required to work or travel. Maintain three points of contact. Install and use lifeline tie-off runs and fall protection. Provide communication devices and establish procedures requiring persons to alert coworkers when they are outside the dredges handrails.
|Submit your own suggestion for a remedy to prevent this type of accident in the future.
Please specify if you wish your submission to be anonymous or whether your name may be used. Please include the year of the fatality and the fatality number.
This is the 22nd fatality reported in calendar year 2013 in metal and nonmetal mining. As of this date in 2012, there were 16 fatalities reported in metal and nonmetal mining. This is the 1st Other (Drowning) fatality in 2013. There were 0 Other (Drowning) fatalities in the same period in 2012.
The information provided in this notice is based on preliminary data ONLY and does not represent final determinations regarding the nature of the incident or conclusions regarding the cause of the fatality.
For more information:
MSHA's Fatal Accident Investigation Report - Not Available Yet.


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All Android applications categories
For the guy who drove around in a Mazda MX5 – his fate was already decided.
He left school in the millennium and decided he wanted to chase the limelight and become an actor – so like most out of work actors he started working in a bar and a call centre to cover his drinking habits! On his rare days off he would spend time at his friends barbers. His friend constantly told Alex about how relaxed the hairdresser lifestyle is - and how many women he could pull if he became a female stylist. After a long hard think…2mins, Alex joined a unisex salon in Manchester, and started right from the bottom, sweeping hair, making brews and generally being bossed around.
Luckily for Al he got taken under the wing of a Vidal Sassoon trained stylist and he was doing graduated bobs and asymmetric cuts' in no time.
Al says 'when I was training, I would cut and colour all my friends and families hair in my mum's kitchen, not too good when she was trying to cook!'
After what seemed like a decade of grafting Alex made it as a stylist, but he soon wanted a new challenge, so decided to move his talents to mens hairdressing which he continued to do until he could save up enough to take a year out and going travelling with his girlfriend Kim.
'While I was away, I had a lot of time to think about what I wanted to do with my life, and I knew I didn't want to work for anyone – I wanted to be my own boss, so I thought about what kind of salon I wanted to open and how I was going to make that happen' Alex recalls.
Whilst living in Australia Alex worked at a quirky Men's Hairdressers in a corner of Sydney. He really liked the relaxed feel about it and felt that they had something unique. He got himself a notebook and started writing down all his ideas;
If Carlsberg made men's hairdresser….?
Alex said 'My priorities were to always create a unique experience for the client whilst still having an amazing place for someone to work. I wanted the place to look Boutique, Vintage, Relaxed and Quirky with self-indulgent features like Men's Magazines and the latest computer consoles'
After an incredible trip, Alex was ready to get to work on opening his own salon. He borrowed the money he needed to make it happen from his Grandparents, and with the help of his friends he set up
'All I can say is all our hard work paid off and the salon is better than I could have ever imagined, and I would like to thank my friends and family for helping me to make this possible, especially all the unpaid work I got out of my douche bag best mate Dunny!'
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Thanks for helping us associate the correct Pornstars to this video!
Помогите нам: эти порнозвезды присутствуют в этом видео?
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The Latest News On The API Economy
Searching: No Search Term , Filtered By API: "Factery"
Mine the Information Behind the Search with These APIs
Life on the web is full of search terms and human filtering. Even good results often require some effort to determine which has the information we seek. There are several services attempting to help with this problem and they're making their applications available via API.
Use the Factery API to Get Important Text From Searches
Factery is a search API with a twist. Instead of links, it returns facts. Actually, it returns links, too. But the real interesting stuff is that it extracts the sentence or two that best answers a user's search.


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Expectations are always high coming out of spring training and going into the preseason. As a coach you hope and expect that kids are going to step up and improve in areas where you need that to happen for your team to be successful. For this team that just hasn't happened like it needs to, particularly at quarterback, the most important position on the field.
Quarterback is where a team's success starts offensively, but in fairness to the quarterbacks they haven't had the kind of support around them they need to be successful. When you are borderline, at best, at the quarterback position, you need all of the help you can get and they have not gotten it.
This season Auburn changed offenses and brought in a new coordinator. I think what the Tigers are doing offensively is fine. It is not what they are doing, it is how they are doing it. Scot Loeffler can call a masterful game and if the plays don't get blocked properly they are going to look bad because people in this conference will make you bad.
With what the Tigers are trying to do offensively it is not a finesse game, and that means the guys on the line need to dominate at the line of scrimmage. That isn't happening for the Tigers. Auburn's style of offense is not a lot different from what they are doing at Georgia, Alabama, Florida, LSU, South Carolina and other places in this conference as well as other places around college football that are having success this year.
As a coach you would like to wave a magic wand and make it get better immediately, but the fact remains that the Tigers are playing with a true freshman at right tackle, a redshirt freshman at left tackle, a sophomore at center and a sophomore right guard along with a senior who isn't playing very well at left guard. This is a problem area for the 2012 Tigers. I think those guys are going to be good players in time, but right now it looks to me like their heads are spinning and there are not enough older guys around them to make the chemistry what it needs to be to win.
When you break down at the line of scrimmage, it is hard on the quarterbacks, hard on the running backs and is hard on the wide receivers because the quarterback doesn't always have time for them to run their routes and get the ball to them. That is where this team is right now as it starts the second half of the season this week at Vanderbilt.
I don't think there is anything wrong with Auburn's running backs. In fact, I thought Tre Mason played a heck of a game on Saturday vs. Ole Miss. I thought he made a lot of yardage after contact.
Combine the blocking issues with the quarterback play that needs to improve along with too many turnovers and too many negative plays that put the offense behind the chains and those are things this offense can't afford to do.
Defensively, what I see is a team that has made some strides in certain areas, but still has plenty of room for improvement. The Tigers are struggling at linebacker and something that really stands out with this defense is that it isn't creating turnovers. The team has intercepted just one pass this year and has come up with just six turnovers, which is a big problem.
There is just one solution to what is ailing this team and that is for the coaches and players to be as positive as they can be and keep working. If the players will continue to do that things will change for the better because there is nothing wrong with the coaches or what the Tigers are trying to do on offense, defense and on special teams.
This team should be better six games into the season than it was vs. Clemson and I think they are better, but other teams around the league should be getting better, too, so Auburn needs to keep pushing hard to eliminate the mistakes that have plagued this team, find a way to have some success and build on that.
In 2010, when the Tigers won every game, that group believed it was going to win every time it took the field and played that way. It seemed like every break went their way and this year it seems to be the reverse. An example of that is in the national championship game Dyer rolled over a tackler and his knee never hit the ground. He kept on running and set up the game-winning field goal vs. Oregon. Against Ole Miss, on a similar play in the fourth quarter when Auburn was about to get the ball back with a chance to tie the game, the Ole Miss player rolled over the tackler, kept on running and went 50-plus yards for a touchdown.
Combine the way the Tigers are playing along with what I think has been a challenging schedule and you have a team that is struggling to win football games.
From the Mailbag:
Dear Coach:
Just wanted to let you that my Nancy and I agree with you all the way (Oct. 9th Dye-Log). There are a lot of Auburn people in Guntersville and we bleed orange and blue. Best wishes to you and yours.
War Damn Eagle
Larry and Nancy McCalister
Thanks for the note. I am glad you are enjoying the column.
(If you have a question or a subject you would like me to write about in future columns, you can email it to firstname.lastname@example.com.)
Editor's Note: This is part of a series of columns that College Football Hall of Fame member Pat Dye is writing for AUTigers.com about the game he played and coached. An All-American player at Georgia and one of the top head coaches in SEC history at Auburn, he also served as a head coach at East Carolina and Wyoming. Dye writes three columns for AUTigers.com--The Dye-Log, the Dye-Gest and Pat's Picks.
Pat Dye's Crooked Oaks Hunting Preserve and Lodge


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By Ira Green for MSNsportsNET.com
August 31, 2008
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University men's soccer team concluded the West Virginia University Classic, tying Duquesne, 0-0 after two overtimes, on Sunday afternoon at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium, in front of 876 fans. The game, which was televised on WVPBS, is the first of three men's soccer contests WVPBS will carry.
The Mountaineers (0-1-1) came out aggressive in the first half. Early in the game, freshman Alex Silva led a break and found junior Gift Maworere streaking up the right wing, but Silva's pass was just too long for Maworere to be able to make a play. WVU threatened time after time, but could not finish.
"I thought we played better today," Head Coach Marlon LeBlanc said after the game. "We tried out a new formation, and I think we were more organized. We seemed a bit more structured, but we still didn't capitalize on the opportunities that we had."
WVU came out firing again in the second half. Sophomore Dan Hagey, who led all players with three shots in the second session, had a great opportunity about 10 yards past the 18-yard box at the 81:28 mark, and struck a ball that went just wide of the net. The Mountaineers continued to press as Hagey and freshman Adam Mills fired back-to-back shots.
Another opportunity came right before the end of regulation as Mills crossed the ball to freshman Raymon Gaddis, with junior Mo Travis trailing, but could not find the back of the net.
Redshirt-sophomore Zach Johnson and the defense also played a tough game against a physical Duquesne squad. The Dukes only put four shots on-goal and had trouble getting past junior Jason Bristol and the back line.
Prior to the 2 p.m. contest, Binghamton took a victory against Lafayette, 2-1.
Following the contest, the coaches picked an all-tournament team, featuring the MVP of the Classic, Stefan Lundberg from Duquesne. Lundberg tallied a goal and four shots on net in the two-day event.
On Friday, Sept. 5, the Mountaineers will travel to Akron, Ohio, for the University of Akron Tournament. The first opponent WVU will face is tournament-host Akron at 7:30 p.m. EST.
WVU Classic All-Tournament Team
MVP – Stefan Lundberg (Duquesne)
Bryan Matthews (Duquesne)
Alex Trujillo (Duquesne)
John Strosser (Duquesne)
Darren McAllister (Binghamton)
Andy Tiedt (Binghamton)
Jason Stenta (Binghamton)
Stephen Macurdy (Lafayette)
Steve Ference (Lafayette)
Jason Bristol (West Virginia)
Zach Johnson (West Virginia)


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Mediterranean charter tips
We North American sailors tend to take our away sailing vacations in the Caribbean, where the charter companies are well known through advertising and magazine articles. And its certainly not hard to find a fellow sailor whos been there, done it, and cant tell you enough about it. Thats the good news. Weve also come to expect, and get, a high level of service and a certain amount of hand-holding from these companies.
Lets talk about Mediterranean charters, keeping in mind that December isnt too early to do your planning; many charterboats are booked at the European winter boat shows, and the boats are, of course, finite in number. While increasing numbers of U.S. sailors are chartering in the Med, it is first of all Europes primary summer playground, especially Turkeys Turquoise Coast and the increasingly popular coast of Croatia; the demand is high. You may, or may not, need a sailing license; the question of licenses remains a moving target to a certain extent. There may be other paperwork. You may, or may not, have problems getting a response to your phone calls or e-mails to European companies.
If you book with a U.S.-based companyThe Moorings and Sunsail both have numerous bases in the Medthe process will go as youve experienced with a Caribbean charter. Your questions will be answered, the paperwork will be dealt with, and your boat will have appropriate numbers of sheets and towels. The staff at the base will hold your hand to the extent you require.
But if youre looking for a charter out of a different port, say, or if you simply cant find a bareboat at the right timewell, thats where a charter broker can be your new best friend. I talked with Steve McCrea, who keeps up on the subject for Ed Hamilton & Company. As a broker, Steve maintains a knowledge base you can tap into and can help you make a choice based on time of year plus sailing conditions plus your requirements. You might think of it as one-stop shopping, in which it takes one call (for you) to find a boat, get information on a company thats unfamiliar to you, deal with any paperwork, and get your questions answered. E-mail Steve (firstname.lastname@example.com) or call 800-621-7855. Another useful contact is Nigel James Yacht Charter in England (nj-yacht.com); check yachtcharterguide.com for other options.
A broker cant get you a boat for less than the published rate, but he or she can save you money and time by doing the investigating, recommending reliable companies, and doing the due diligence in finding a combination of boat, place, and time that fits your needs. Is chartering in the Med worth the extra effort? You betcha. Good planning will keep you out of the worst of the crowds and in the best of places.


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Join The Conversation
Jun 6 Posted 6 years ago
In my opinion the only way to measure ROI at least partially for social media campaign is the use of Facebook application like coupon generator. Customers then gain some small discount while presenting or entering on the website a unique discount code. Only then you can be (almost?) sure what your effectiveness is.
Other way is to make some small research, some survey asking about the source of information of brand awarness.
Besides its rather impossible to measure it precisly.
Apr 27 Posted 6 years ago
Thanks so much for your note Chris! I think you really have something here. I have found it easier and easier to get clients to understand that ROI isn't all about the numbers.
Now that SMM is IN YOUR FACE C-level execs are having a harder and harder time ignoring it.
I like to lead with "your brand is being discussed online. do you want to be involved in the discussion or not? because whether you are, or your not, customers are talking."
Apr 21 Posted 6 years ago
Very, very true. Social Media just better hope that it goes the the way of TV spots -- people just buy them and don't care that they can't measure the return.
Social Media may garner that kind of clout, but it may not. It's competing in the online realm where people demand more defined measures of results -- particularly financial results.
It will be interesting to watch unfold.
Apr 21 Posted 6 years ago
I completely agree with your post. All the other metrics mentioned by the author are valid, they just aren't ROI. As Social Media becomes less about hype and fear not doing Social Media, and more about financial results, industry participants are receiving more pressure from managers to show quantifiable dollar results. Since Social Media guru's have no answer for how much cash is being generated via their campaigns, they have no choice but to make up new metrics and push them as a new form of results, which is fine.
As the author stated new media: new metrics. However, the question of how much cash ROI is still unanswered. Expanding the definition of ROI to include "tweets", "likes", and "engagements" doesn't address what managers really care about when it's time to file the 10-K (financial results). Industry participants attempts to justify expenditures by convincing managements that there is similar value in new (Social Media) metrics, as financial metrics not only laughable -- it's also annoying. I would feel so much better if my Social Media consultant just flat out said "I have no idea what your ROI is going to be in financial terms", done! Don't try and sell me on an increase in "likes", "likes" are cool, but really, I care about increases in cash.
What do you say to a client who is upset because they spent 100k on Social Media, saw a huge spike in Social Media metrics, but sales were flat three or six months after the campaign?
New metrics, while useful, are no substitute for financial results. You can't fund payroll with "likes", you can't finance capex with "tweets", and you can't make interest payments with "engagements".
It will be interesting to see how it plays out. Will Social Media campaigns, like TV ad campaigns be accepted as necessary even though you can't measure whether or not your sales went up because you spent that extra 100k for Conan spot -- or will managers lose patience with the industries inability to prove that it adds value (in the financial sense).
Finally, I find it interesting that the author failed to address your post. It's the most opposed to her thesis, which gives ample opportunity to address the concerns of those opposed.
To the author:
"I understand your point but I'm saying that the rules are changing with regard to how we measure ROI completely. It's no longer how much did I spend, how much did I make, what's the return on that investment."
Sorry, but you're wrong, IMO. It's the people in the business of selling Social Media that are trying to push this view -- I don't think anybody is really buying it though. I'm guessing the vast majority of people on Wall Street and Main Street care much more about their financial ROI than their Social foot print. The two may be correlated, but that has yet to be proven.
Mar 31 Posted 6 years ago
Return Of Investment or Return Of Objective (ROI or ROO)
Great post Jacquie but wanted to explore another way in measuring social media marketing. ROI has an established and understood meaning and using "ROI" as a synonym for "results" can get a little hairy. Marketers that promise ROI may be setting expectations that cannot be delivered by social measures.
Financial metrics are just one way to evaluate social marketing programs. Social media can bring a variety of advantages to organizations, both for short and long-term success. To accurately asses the impact of their social media marketing efforts, marketers must align their objectives, metrics, targets, and strategies with a "balanced scorecard".
A balance scorecard brings other perspectives into focus, not solely measured on financial metrics. Dr. Robert S. Kaplan and Dr. David P. Norton's, The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action, explains in their book that an effective social media marketing balanced scorecard considers metrics from four different perspectives:
Financial: Has revenue or profit increased or costs decreased?
Digital: Has the company enhanced its owned and earned digital assets?
Brand: Have consumer attitudes about the brand improved?
Risk Management: Is the organization better prepared to note and respond to attacks or problems that affect reputation?
To properly assess your social media marketing programs, other perspectives must be accounted for when determining short and long-term success.The true measure of ROI is how successful you were in meeting your business and communication objectives, that what should determine your success of the SMM campaign.
I recently read an analogy that said,
Direct marketing is like getting the consumer wet by directing a hose and spraying water on him or her; brand marketing is a fog that constantly envelopes the consumer and gets them damp over time. You can measure the water coming out of a hose, but how do you measure fog?
But clients want to hear concrete number and your SMM ROI formulas. They give clients a sigh of relief that their precious marketing dollars haven't gone to waste. If clients understood how marketers can accurately measure SMM, I think our job would be easier to get them on board with Social Media than to constantly persuade. Please read my blog and share your thoughts.
Mar 8 Posted 6 years ago
Thank you for putting this ROI-discussion back into proportion. Apart from this, this is nothing new: even before social media it has been tricky to evaluate, which part of corporate communications lead to whatever results.
Mar 5 Posted 6 years ago
Thanks Erik!
I agree that it should be "return" and I love that you pointed out the difference between the concept of "return" vs "revenue". I can definitely use that with some of my more "passionate" commentors :)
Mar 2 Posted 6 years ago
..in my younger years I learned that R in ROI is for return and not for revenue. I guess that has not changed yet doenst matter in what century of x.0 we all live.
Feb 26 Posted 6 years ago
"Return on Investment" is return on investment. Final.
If "return" is measured in dollars, you must calculate it with dollars.
If you'd like to say that you now want to calculate "return" in terms of "connections," "tweets," "likes," "followers," "customer satisfaction score," etc., then you're really measuring something else - not ROI. This is fine, if that's what you want. But I promise that the vast majority of investors don't want just a good feeling at the end of the day. They want their money back (their investment), and then some (the return).
Also, please be careful about formulae that add dollars to number of new clients (or any other non-dollar figure). This produces a percentage in the end that is meaningless.
Your bottom-line point, that we can examine our effectiveness in using investment dollars to produce "social good," "customer engagement," "idea generation," etc. is wonderful (albeit not necessarily new). But at some point in any business that is run with the intention of not going bankrupt, someone somewhere in the firm will have to translate "customer engagement" or "idea generation" or any other non-dollar concept into a dollar figure that represents or leads to either revenue production or cost savings. This dollar figure will then be compared to the investment to see if the investment is cost-effective. Or, for example, with "social good," the firm might decide that this is a charitable contribution irrespective of the bottom line. Again, a fine decision that some investors (the socially conscious type) might agree with to some extent.
But as I was told once by a brand manager at Kodak during a meeting where we tried to push a project that would create additional goodwill for the firm, "let me know how it moves boxes!" He was willing to fund our venture for a smaller amount on the basis of a charitable contribution, but for the amount of money we were asking for, he wanted validation that the investment would be cost-effective. That it would produce revenue, that is, move boxes off the shelf.
The media may be different, but ROI truly remains the same.
Thanks for sparking some lively discussion. :-)
Feb 23 Posted 6 years ago
Hey there, thanks for your note.
That's an interesting question. How long have you been running this initiative? I think that when you're trying to convert a current customer/client base you'll have to give it several months before you see that those efforts are getting any traction.
In the meantime, you're improving your connection with the online community so it's a win/win.
In the meantime you could define what the end-goal of the initiative is. If it's to convert 60% of your customers in 4 months then that's something you can gauge. If it's to garner new customers then define what the market share you hope for is so that you can gauge that as well.
There are a bunch of ways to measure your ROI in this case. You just have to determine what the main purpose of the campaign is in order to do so.
Good luck!
Feb 22 Posted 6 years ago
I'd be interested in your ROI thoughts for government since governments don't have revenue. Our ultimate goal is to use social media to do more with less. We want to move customers from more expensive channels (ex 1-1 conversations via phone) to social media/web based alternatives (1-many conversation). However, my experience has shown that rather than creating a fundamental shift in channel traffic we are just seeing a whole new set of customers. Not debating the pro/con of the new customers but it makes calculating ROI somewhat difficult because most advantages seem qualitative and not quantitative.
Feb 21 Posted 6 years ago
Hey Brad,
I understand your point but I'm saying that the rules are changing with regard to how we measure ROI completely. It's no longer how much did I spend, how much did I make, what's the return on that investment.
Social media changes that in that it allows for ROI to be measured from more than marketing perspective. i.e. how are we engaging with our clients? How are we building brand recognition (since sales from brand recognition cannot be attributed to just one campaign but to an entire philosophy how is that measured? I don't know that it matters necessarily that it is measured.)
Perhaps focusing on ROI is misdirected. Maybe we should simply say "we're putting this out there and we'll revisit our numbers after 3 months to see if things are better, the same or worse." Maybe that's how it's all going to be measured in the future.
I dont think there are right or wrong answers. I think that the discussion has to continue and, like others have mentioned, we may not have a formula for years to come.
Feb 21 Posted 6 years ago
Thanks so much for your comments Tristan. I'm off to read your article. I love all this stuff and I really enjoy the fact that going off-grid on the rules is how things are moving forward.
(i've never been much of a rule follower :)
Feb 7 Posted 6 years ago
Mike and Jackie -
I'm really happy that we're focusing on this issue, as I think it's the biggest one in all of social media marketing at the moment. Jeremiah Owyang agrees. I tend to agree with Mike that there is a lot missing in these equations, but I do believe that they get the high-level picture right. Most importantly, Jackie should be applauded for generating a lot of interest around an important topic!
Mike, you're 100% right that there is a lot that goes into measuring ROI in social media marketing before you can even begin to apply formulas. The problem is primarily one of attribution--specifically, who gets credit for sales that you make? Social media marketing efforts tend to be intent-generating rather than intent-harvesting, and social media marketers often get shafted by paid media (especially search marketing) when it comes to getting credit.
I've done a lot of work around this...if you're interested feel free to read my most recent post on this topic from back in December. ROI can be measured--marketers just need to be smart about the tools and methodologies they choose.
All the best guys and gals; keep hammering on this topic as it needs the attention!
Feb 3 Posted 6 years ago
Nice article Jackie but I think Social Media ROI is a bit more complex (indeed, al ROI is). The main issues is see with the above is directly linking increased revenue to social media activites. I am not saying that social media does not increse revenue, but the above formulas do not seem to acknowledge that social media is often one of many channels that contribute to increase revnue.
For instance, in the Old Spice campaign that you mentioned ("sales of its Body Wash more than doubled!"), the above formulas do mention tath the campaign also relied very, very heavey on :30 TV Spots (national ad buys) and print ads (national magazine buys). Don't get me wrong, the social media aspect of Old Spice was brilliant--pricely b/c it was seemless intergrated with the TV and Print, etc. The above formula doesn't seem to acknowledge this. Is seems to get given all the revenue credit for Old Spice to social media.
I don't have the answer..this is really really complex stuff. A formulate would have to be something like ROI = (revenue CLEARLY FROM SOCIAL MEDIA - investment IN SOCIAL MEDIA PROGRAM) +etc, etc / SOCIAL MEIDA PROGRAM investment * 100. But how a brand can cleary say "this sale is came from from somone that follows us on Twitter" and "This sale came from somone who day out TV ads during the last episode of LOST" is beyond me. Really complicated stuff.
Feb 2 Posted 6 years ago
Thanks for your response Jacquie - I agree, new media, new measurements. I think that finding the right measurements will take a little time and a lot of people like you exploring the issues. I'm sure some of the traditional ROI equations for specific industries and media formats were years, if not decades, in the making.
Forward momentum with this will benefit both businesses and consumers!
Feb 1 Posted 6 years ago
Hi Mike
Thanks for your note. You bring up some great points. I wrote the article based on my own experiences and discussions with companies, some of whom have had successful campaigns and some, not so much.
I can understand how someone may assume this is a pitch piece based on your comment but I really wrote it as more of a warning to companies to make sure their strategist knows what they're doing before they go down that road.
I think you can measure social good or goodwill. It's used often when measuring a the worth of a company for sale. You can also measure customer engagement if you define it as engaged in the conversation on a social media network like Facebook or Twitter. So too can you measure employee satisfaction.
So, while I understand that, in a traditional marketing sense, some would consider these parameters "fuzzy" the new language we are creating with social media suggests otherwise.
That new language, new way of thinking and new way to measure is what this article is about.
Simply because something has always been done one, particular way doesn't mean that, in a new scenario, it needs to be done that way still. New media, new measurements.
However, this is all just opinion and I respect yours and thank you for your note. I am sure you will have many people who agree.
Feb 1 Posted 6 years ago
Thanks Janet!
I really appreciate that. I'm going to be putting a new piece up tomorrow so stay tuned :)
Aloha to you too (are you in hawaii you lucky girl? ah, to be warm would be lovely ;)
Feb 1 Posted 6 years ago
As a social media marketer with an engineering background, I have to mention that not one of the equations presented in the article is meaningful without an explanation of the ways to measure the social parameters that have been identified in each. For example, how do you measure social good? How about customer engagement? Idea generation? You can make up some measurement for each of these at your own risk if you're taking them seriously as indicators of the success of your social media initiatives. When you balance them against the bottom line, better pray that your measurement methods provide results that are in the ballpark.
This is an ongoing issue with social media and the reason why most people are reading this article - measurement techniques are necessarily fuzzy. For a brick and mortar retail operation, a 2700% increase in Twitter followers could lead to thousands more sales, or it could lead to none (you have a bit more leverage if you're selling online and can measure how many Twitterers are making purchases at your website). Chances are pretty good that's it's a positive sign of people recognizing your brand, but creating an equation that pits these statistics against how much you actually spent on your campaigns is pretty reckless. It comes down to measuring total sales before and after implementing social media initiatives, and even then there could be other market factors involved in any changes.
I'm an optimist and I love to see this being explored. My opinion is that it is not nearly so cut and dried as Jacquie suggests. This article is coming across to me as a fear inducing pitch to hire a social media consultant, and a bit of an attack on the uninitiated and inquisitive folks who are learning the ropes. Jacquie's hard and fast approach here and the idea that if we don't get these equations, social media is not for us, is pretty short-sighted. I suggest a part two of this article that explores specific measurement methods and discusses their viability.
Feb 1 Posted 6 years ago
Jacquie, aloha. As I was reading yor article, I found myself nodding. When I read you last paragraph, I broke into a big smile. Thx for a great start to the day. I found you through a tweet so am off to share your "words of wisdom" the same way. Aloha. Janet
Jan 31 Posted 6 years ago
I like that Keith! "I know I want it I just don't know what it is I want".
Thanks for your comment.
Jan 30 Posted 6 years ago
Great article, definitely agree 100% about the lack of ROI in social media. I think it's much like the early days of SEO and online marketing, companies have no idea what they are getting but just know they want to be a part of what's trending.
Jan 29 Posted 6 years ago
I hope you found it helpful! Thanks for reading and leaving a comment. It makes me happy :D
Pass it on to anyone you think might benefit from the information.
Jan 29 Posted 6 years ago
Hey Jeff,
I don't know any of the details behind the campaign but I think it would be worth finding out the process. It's a brilliant campaign, laughs at the industry, is super memorable. On the social media side it has to be said that they did have a traditional marketing campaign to set it all in motion but still...great results.
I was thinking of drilling down a case-study to see how everything came together for a campaign, maybe I'll choose Old Spice :) (that's for the idea!)
Jan 28 Posted 6 years ago
OK that makes a lot of sense when you think about it.
Jan 28 Posted 6 years ago
Great article! Too many businesses and organizations approach social media haphazardly -- lacking any sort of strategy or plan to measure the results.
I especially liked the Old Spice anecdote. It would be interest to hear the whole story behind that campaign. Do you know any details?
Jan 28 Posted 6 years ago
Exactly! I completely agree. A great social media strategist will sit down and set out the goals of the project along with the company. Just like every social media campaign is different so should every individual project.
Sometimes companies don't even know what they want and, that too falls on the strategist. (those are the ones I love the most because I get to help direct the campaign in a more creative way :)
Thanks so much for your comment!
Jan 28 Posted 6 years ago
You've basically said the same thing. In your formula the money you put in is the investment and the money you made from the results is the revenue. So, in mine, money you made less investment divided by the investment x (times) 100.
If the return is $50,000 and you invested $10,000 then the equation looks like this: ($50,000 - $10,000) / $10,000 X 100. For a total ROI of 400%.
Jan 28 Posted 6 years ago
I always thought that ROI is calculated by substracting the money you put into lets say ad campaigns from the money you made from the results of those campaigns.
Can you explain why we should do it like this ? (revenue - investment) / Investment * 100
Jan 28 Posted 6 years ago
A good post. I think the main thing for any company is to remember to define at the start of the project what success will be - increase in sales, brand awareness, X amount of people on a mailing list. That makes life so much simpler for all involved.
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tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8975419522980959048.comments2012-12-03T19:58:07.252-05:00Mother Clucker - One Mother's View of the WorldFlanhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8975419522980959048.post-2510288345245211372012-12-03T19:58:07.252-05:002012-12-03T19:58:07.252-05:00Hi, I came across your site and wasn't able to get...Hi, I came across your site and wasn't able to get an email address to contact you about a broken link on your site. Please email me back and I would be happy to point them out to you.

Thanks!

Aaron Grey
email@example.com
Aaron Greyhttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8975419522980959048.post-53199336267703425942010-04-06T06:20:12.020-04:002010-04-06T06:20:12.020-04:00I could not agree more and I often end up in conve...I could not agree more and I often end up in conversations with people about this. Many members of my family are waaaaaaay more conservative than I and they love to go off on the death panel thing. It is so wrong.

Single payer baby - it is the only way to go.Franhttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8975419522980959048.post-1269692619383275882010-03-24T22:03:46.645-04:002010-03-24T22:03:46.645-04:00Thanks and Great! And you are now important to ...Thanks and Great!

And you are now important to me too...I was telling my husband about you. Too bad you live all the way on the other side of the country. I assume you still live in CA. I never did go to therapy for this, so maybe we can be our own support group.

Click on my name and read the story I wrote about my attack.

I do have a couple of funny storiesIlene Flannery Wellshttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8975419522980959048.post-11940603399933010912010-03-24T21:48:12.161-04:002010-03-24T21:48:12.161-04:00Joined! Excellent post Ilene. Thank you for the ...Joined! Excellent post Ilene. Thank you for the dialog today. It was definitely healing - so that makes you kind of important to me now:DBlondetwithttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8975419522980959048.post-85716045413296026052010-03-17T21:32:41.212-04:002010-03-17T21:32:41.212-04:00Thank you Fran!Thank you Fran!Flanhttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8975419522980959048.post-84262373710352945282010-03-17T21:13:40.406-04:002010-03-17T21:13:40.406-04:00I read this again and once more tears made their w...I read this again and once more tears made their way to my eyes. You have given us such a picture... I am struck by the dignity given to Paul when he was at the nursing home. I am glad that he got to have some time there, in a place where he could watch his movies and be "The Governor." And I love the way you close this post.Franhttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8975419522980959048.post-36064456945112432842010-02-27T16:10:35.072-05:002010-02-27T16:10:35.072-05:00Well said, Ilene! I hope President Obama gets to r...Well said, Ilene! I hope President Obama gets to read it personally. You rock!juliab10of10https://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8975419522980959048.post-45875800239456140512010-02-26T23:40:21.749-05:002010-02-26T23:40:21.749-05:00Ilene, I'm so proud of you and your ability to...Ilene,
I'm so proud of you and your ability to put it all into words.Monica Leggetthttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8975419522980959048.post-58883887996084840282010-02-26T21:18:05.620-05:002010-02-26T21:18:05.620-05:00How wonderful is this? Really wonderful! I'm h...How wonderful is this? Really wonderful! I'm here because I am a friend of Fran's at Facebook and found her link to your letter to the President. And then I had to come to this entry, because you said to!susan s.https://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8975419522980959048.post-68902827739748140622010-02-26T19:55:39.868-05:002010-02-26T19:55:39.868-05:00Vierotchka, I was so excited to click on your nam...Vierotchka,

I was so excited to click on your name and saw where you were from. You see, Paul and I were born at Clinique du Bois Gentile in Geneva, Switzerland!

I am just blown away by this coincidence. You are the first person to comment on my blog that I absolutely have never been acquainted with before. Fran knows my sister, Monica, so even though I don't know Ilene Flannery Wellshttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8975419522980959048.post-47589241626698370052010-02-26T19:19:09.288-05:002010-02-26T19:19:09.288-05:00What Fran said.What Fran said.Vierotchkahttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8975419522980959048.post-52215749884940822972010-02-26T17:52:09.293-05:002010-02-26T17:52:09.293-05:00Oh my - I do not know what to say, but oh my. And...Oh my - I do not know what to say, but oh my.

And thank you.

You are truly a light in the world.Franhttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8975419522980959048.post-33746356748403580682010-02-26T15:56:04.635-05:002010-02-26T15:56:04.635-05:00WOW - what a great letter, wow wow wow. I am goin...WOW - what a great letter, wow wow wow.

I am going to link to this on my FB page. You have said so much here that needs to be said, what a voice.Franhttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8975419522980959048.post-51517960914416459662010-02-01T11:08:07.537-05:002010-02-01T11:08:07.537-05:00Hurray for Paul. He makes a perfect poster child ...Hurray for Paul. He makes a perfect poster child (love this picture) and Ilene, you are an amazing advocate for mental illness.
Hugs, MonicaMonica Leggetthttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8975419522980959048.post-75492697479510573412010-01-28T16:27:23.593-05:002010-01-28T16:27:23.593-05:00Thank you for all you are doing. It is appreciated...Thank you for all you are doing. It is appreciated and important. DJDJhttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8975419522980959048.post-89092946027880294962010-01-24T01:12:10.832-05:002010-01-24T01:12:10.832-05:00You've done it again Ilene. This is a great m...You've done it again Ilene. This is a great metaphor for what happened in the 60's and you really summarized how it is still continuing today.Monica Leggetthttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8975419522980959048.post-45769961811375063532010-01-04T10:46:22.421-05:002010-01-04T10:46:22.421-05:00Info on some of Murdoch's holdings which I wil...Info on some of Murdoch's holdings which I will be boycotting...

Books

Imprints, primarily under the HarperCollins umbrella, include -

 * HarperCollins
 * Perennial
 * Cliff Street Books
 * The Ecco Press
 * Quill
 * HarperAudio
 * Regan Books
 * Amistad Press
 * William Morrow
 * Flanhttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8975419522980959048.post-15857437789689300242010-01-01T17:01:06.784-05:002010-01-01T17:01:06.784-05:00Ilene, You have summarized in a very human way, wh...Ilene,
You have summarized in a very human way, what we all experienced as Paul's brother. There was a need to reach out and be a part of his life, as well as the pain of seeing him live his life within the confines of "the system". If you multiply our experience by the number of people who have a schizophrenic family member, there are a lot of people living in pain. If Monicahttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8975419522980959048.post-40080261523241847622009-12-30T14:36:30.499-05:002009-12-30T14:36:30.499-05:00Hey Ilene, holiday greetings. Love the post/articl...Hey Ilene, holiday greetings. Love the post/article. I'd like to know more about what's better about the hospital setting because for many of us that has bad connotations. It sounds like your twin had a good hospital while he was there? Anyway, this is a side of your life I never saw and it's great to have it filled in. Keep up the posts! Jean firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8975419522980959048.post-69398736496010997812009-12-30T11:11:57.964-05:002009-12-30T11:11:57.964-05:00Hi Ilene, I had wondered why you and Bill had move...Hi Ilene, I had wondered why you and Bill had moved from Wisconsin to New York and now I understand. It was wonderful to see you both again at the Vertebrats reunion in October.

I'm happy you are both doing so well back east. Being a NY/NJ girl, the pull to come home gets stronger for me, the closer I get to retirement. My brother Matt is back on the radio again in Florida. He'Mary Ellenhttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8975419522980959048.post-25787606317345072802009-12-29T15:50:55.664-05:002009-12-29T15:50:55.664-05:00Wow Ilene...what a powerful post....thank you so v...Wow Ilene...what a powerful post....thank you so very much for writing it. You don't really know me but we've crossed paths as Vertebrats fans.....I just read every post you've written and am looking forward to more! With all the best for the New Year.....Cynthiathe sandwich lifehttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8975419522980959048.post-50358705330914834142009-12-06T15:20:16.376-05:002009-12-06T15:20:16.376-05:00Your points are clear and concise. One sentence ...Your points are clear and concise.
One sentence about Paul's poor delivery of care- not treated for cancer on time?
I know there is so much more to say.
It's hard to pick and choose the points to make it concise enough.
Perhaps a second line once someone is engaged in the conversation.
Elevator Speech.
Back up info.
Really specific info.
The link Monica Leggetthttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8975419522980959048.post-10001593945769568152009-12-06T00:15:58.939-05:002009-12-06T00:15:58.939-05:00Ilene, you have such a refreshing sense of humor. ...Ilene, you have such a refreshing sense of humor. You go girl! And I can picture the whole thing happening! It reminds me of the night when I was getting undressed in a pitch black bedroom and I bent forward to take off my shoes and hit my face into a wooden chair near my bedside. Ouch!Monica Leggetthttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8975419522980959048.post-11765200391703132642009-12-05T11:30:31.534-05:002009-12-05T11:30:31.534-05:00Sounds pretty good. It might help if people knew w...Sounds pretty good.
It might help if people knew what "IMD" stood for.
(inpatient medical delivery?)
Also, it might help to compare it to something - excluding diabetes for example.

otherwise, and those aren't even really necessary - good job.katherinehttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-8975419522980959048.post-58083690490457948892009-12-04T00:40:57.078-05:002009-12-04T00:40:57.078-05:00Loving your clucking! My teen son (the 'rotten...Loving your clucking!
My teen son (the 'rotten' kid who won't friend his aunt) wrote a very interesting paper on the whole hip-hop fashion thing that may shed some light. I will see if I can send it to you.Melaniehttps://firstname.lastname@example.com


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|By Kevin Benedict
Article Rating:
|May 16, 2014 12:06 AM EDT
I had the privilege this week at the M6 Mobility Xchange of getting to know mobility guru and expert Jack Gold. In this interview we talk about his views on wearables, the Internet of Things, enterprise mobility and mobile strategies. Enjoy!
Video Link: http://m6mobilityxchange.com/
DX World EXPO, LLC., a Lighthouse Point, Florida-based startup trade show producer and the creator of "DXWorldEXPO® - Digital Transformation Conference & Expo" has announced its executive management team. The team is headed by Levent Selamoglu, who has been named CEO. "Now is the time for a truly global DX event, to bring together the leading minds from the technology world in a conversation about Digital Transformation," he said in making the announcement.
Jul. 28, 2017 08:15 AM EDT Reads: 2,187
As businesses adopt functionalities in cloud computing, it's imperative that IT operations consistently ensure cloud systems work correctly – all of the time, and to their best capabilities. In his session at @BigDataExpo, Bernd Harzog, CEO and founder of OpsDataStore, presented an industry answer to the common question, "Are you running IT operations as efficiently and as cost effectively as you need to?" He then expounded on the industry issues he frequently came up against as an analyst, and ...
Jul. 28, 2017 07:45 AM EDT Reads: 387
Everything run by electricity will eventually be connected to the Internet. Get ahead of the Internet of Things revolution and join Akvelon expert and IoT industry leader, Sergey Grebnov, in his session at @ThingsExpo, for an educational dive into the world of managing your home, workplace and all the devices they contain with the power of machine-based AI and intelligent Bot services for a completely streamlined experience.
Jul. 28, 2017 07:30 AM EDT Reads: 704
SYS-CON Events announced today that SkyScale will exhibit at SYS-CON's 21st International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on Oct 31 – Nov 2, 2017, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. SkyScale is a world-class provider of cloud-based, ultra-fast multi-GPU hardware platforms for lease to customers desiring the fastest performance available as a service anywhere in the world. SkyScale builds, configures, and manages dedicated systems strategically located in maximum-securit...
Jul. 28, 2017 07:30 AM EDT Reads: 718
"Outscale was founded in 2010, is based in France, is a strategic partner to Dassault Systémes and has done quite a bit of work with divisions of Dassault," explained Jackie Funk, Digital Marketing exec at Outscale, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 20th Cloud Expo, held June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY.
Jul. 28, 2017 07:15 AM EDT Reads: 1,366
In the enterprise today, connected IoT devices are everywhere – both inside and outside corporate environments. The need to identify, manage, control and secure a quickly growing web of connections and outside devices is making the already challenging task of security even more important, and onerous. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Rich Boyer, CISO and Chief Architect for Security at NTT i3, discussed new ways of thinking and the approaches needed to address the emerging challenges of security i...
Jul. 28, 2017 07:00 AM EDT Reads: 490
"With Digital Experience Monitoring what used to be a simple visit to a web page has exploded into app on phones, data from social media feeds, competitive benchmarking - these are all components that are only available because of some type of digital asset," explained Leo Vasiliou, Director of Web Performance Engineering at Catchpoint Systems, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at DevOps Summit at 20th Cloud Expo, held June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY.
Jul. 28, 2017 06:45 AM EDT Reads: 1,321
"We were founded in 2003 and the way we were founded was about good backup and good disaster recovery for our clients, and for the last 20 years we've been pretty consistent with that," noted Marc Malafronte, Territory Manager at StorageCraft, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 20th Cloud Expo, held June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY.
Jul. 28, 2017 06:30 AM EDT Reads: 1,261
"At the keynote this morning we spoke about the value proposition of Nutanix, of having a DevOps culture and a mindset, and the business outcomes of achieving agility and scale, which everybody here is trying to accomplish," noted Mark Lavi, DevOps Solution Architect at Nutanix, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at @DevOpsSummit at 20th Cloud Expo, held June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY.
Jul. 28, 2017 06:15 AM EDT Reads: 1,285
"DivvyCloud as a company set out to help customers automate solutions to the most common cloud problems," noted Jeremy Snyder, VP of Business Development at DivvyCloud, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 20th Cloud Expo, held June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY.
Jul. 28, 2017 05:45 AM EDT Reads: 1,294
Kubernetes is an open source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. Kubernetes was originally built by Google, leveraging years of experience with managing container workloads, and is now a Cloud Native Compute Foundation (CNCF) project. Kubernetes has been widely adopted by the community, supported on all major public and private cloud providers, and is gaining rapid adoption in enterprises. However, Kubernetes may seem intimidating and complex ...
Jul. 28, 2017 04:15 AM EDT Reads: 1,633
While the focus and objectives of IoT initiatives are many and diverse, they all share a few common attributes, and one of those is the network. Commonly, that network includes the Internet, over which there isn't any real control for performance and availability. Or is there? The current state of the art for Big Data analytics, as applied to network telemetry, offers new opportunities for improving and assuring operational integrity. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Jim Frey, Vice President of S...
Jul. 28, 2017 03:15 AM EDT Reads: 1,818
"DX encompasses the continuing technology revolution, and is addressing society's most important issues throughout the entire $78 trillion 21st-century global economy," said Roger Strukhoff, Conference Chair. "DX World Expo has organized these issues along 10 tracks with more than 150 of the world's top speakers coming to Istanbul to help change the world."
Jul. 28, 2017 02:00 AM EDT Reads: 966
"We focus on SAP workloads because they are among the most powerful but somewhat challenging workloads out there to take into public cloud," explained Swen Conrad, CEO of Ocean9, Inc., in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 20th Cloud Expo, held June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY.
Jul. 28, 2017 02:00 AM EDT Reads: 1,684
"As we've gone out into the public cloud we've seen that over time we may have lost a few things - we've lost control, we've given up cost to a certain extent, and then security, flexibility," explained Steve Conner, VP of Sales at Cloudistics,in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 20th Cloud Expo, held June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY.
Jul. 28, 2017 01:30 AM EDT Reads: 1,346


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Thanks everyone!
I wanted to celebrate my 600th sale but this night a combo happened and I woke up with the counter at 602!! Not bad at all!!! Thanks all the buyers!
i would give exposure to selected less known authors that deserve more attention/sales, not to authors that already sold 1.000.000 $
in July I have uploaded and already sold mostly sound effect and logos. income are low but it is the best selling month since 4 years for me. in any case, stats from http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/audiojungle.net are not encouraging at all. i saw the situation is the same for other marketplace… question is: is there a stock site which is increasing and not drowning? or is it just a temporary situation?
I tried but they did not adapt to my impacts SFX… i needed something much more simpler. however, creattive, i'll have a look at your logos and i will try to sound design something spcific. they are really nice!
I tried but they did not adapt to my impacts SFX… i needed something much more simpler. however, creattive, i'll have a look at your logos and i will try to sound design something spcific. they are really nice!
thanks! i'll have a look…
(uploads are in progress…)
I would like to join a videohive author that already have published a logo that can suit my sound effects. I will download the video preview and will replace the audio with mine. I'll then upload the resulting video on my youtube channel:
and set up a cross promotion of both items.
these sounds effects are online since a few weeks and already sold several times! i'd like to boost the sales… of course if someone would like to make a new template with this sounds he's more than welcome!
great new entries! judges will have an hard time!
I never find the "right" synth sound… especially if it's a complex pad or some weird sound. i usually browse presets and then try to adapt to my needs. but it's very time consuming! regarding guitars/drum/bass… i managed to assemble some template with "standard" FX and mix level. it works pretty good. but i agree it's a nightmare to get the specifi sound you want. maybe the easiest are my acoustic instruments (standard and weird – have a look if you want…). i just place them in front of my mic and hit record, no particular tweak or optimization. quality is alsways amazing and i wonder why… (high end mic and pre helps, probably!)


text:
Railways to get £8bn investment
Plans for £8bn of investment in Britain's railways have been announced by the government.
The government is buying about 2,000 new carriages to tackle overcrowding, electrifying some lines, and pressing ahead with the Thameslink programme.
Yet only 650 of the new carriages will be available by 2014 - less than the 1,300 announced by the last government, while Thameslink is delayed two years.
Labour has called the plans "nothing more than one long series of delays".
Meanwhile, proposals to modernise the London-Swansea line are still on hold and it will be the end of the decade before the investment is complete.
Passengers also face above-inflation rises in ticket prices to help pay for the investments.Commons spat
"Commuters will see their fares rise by 3% above inflation next year and they now face waits of up to a decade for the new trains that will ease overgrowding and speed up journeys," said the shadow transport secretary, Maria Eagle.
She also accused the government of delaying Crossrail and the Thameslink upgrade, as well as the replacement of the old Intercity 125 long distance trains.
Her comments came in response to the official announcement of the plans in the House of Commons by Transport Secretary Philip Hammond.
Defending the plans, Mr Hammond said the last government's promise of new rolling stock amounted to "not so much a plan as a press release".
The minister acknowledged that the decision to raise the regulatory cap on fare increases was bad news for commuters.
"But this is one of the tough decisions that we have had to make in order to protect the investment programme in our railways," he said.
Details of the plans include:
- delivering 2,100 new rail carriages by May 2019, increasing capacity by 17%, creating space for an extra 185,000 passengers
- 650 of these carriages will be delivered by 2014; the previous Labour government had promised 1,300
- up to 1,200 carriages for the Thameslink programme (Bedford to Brighton through London) although the programme will be completed two years later than planned
- 600 carriages for the Crossrail project (east to west through London)
- electrification of commuter services on the Great Western route between London and Didcot, Oxford and Newbury over the next six years
- electrification of the lines between Liverpool, Manchester, Preston and Blackpool
- but electrification of the London-Swansea line has been delayed.
Patrick Butcher, finance director at Network Rail, which owns all of Britain's rail infrastructure, was pleased with the announcement.
"We welcome the fact that the government recognises that the railway plays an important role in driving economic growth and this investment proves that," he said, after Network Rail announced half-yearly profits of £299m - more than double the amount it made in the same period last year.
The rail industry is an odd beast. Although train companies can introduce new carriages at their own expense, they're under no obligation to tackle overcrowding (apart from the Chiltern franchise).
And with franchises generally lasting seven or eight years, the companies argue they don't have time to recoup the cost of their investment.
So at the moment, ministers decide where extra carriages go.
And in a slightly perverse twist, although train companies will welcome the extra carriages, they'll also want more money from government to run them.
That's why the government hasn't announced exactly which franchises will benefit - because it wants to negotiate the price.
A review of the franchising system is underway at the moment - and it might well lead to what the train companies want: longer franchises, with more freedom to decide where and when to run trains.
As for today's announcement, passengers know they're going to be helping to pay for it with higher fares.
And while fares will go up in January, the improvements will take much longer. On top of that, while every passenger will see fares rise, not everyone will see the direct benefits of investments.
Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT union, called the plans "classic political smoke and mirrors".
"The reality is that the inflation-busting fare increases kick in within weeks while the infrastructure and upgrade works we need to drag the UK's railways out of the slow lane are light years away," he said.New carriages
The government had put many rail investment schemes on hold while it decided which it could afford in the face of budget cuts. It has now been announced that more than 2,000 new carriages are being bought, with 1,850 of them being used to provide extra capacity.
Those carriages will not arrive instantly though - they will not finish coming into service until 2019.
Transport Secretary Philip Hammond admitted that it was a "rolling programme" but said passengers would start to see the benefits "within the next few months".
Some 600 of the new carriages are for Crossrail - the new line being built east-west across London. There are also up to 1,200 for Thameslink, the north-south link across London, and 650 will be given to different franchises around the country.
Those 650 carriages will be used to serve commuters travelling into the big cities.
But the government cannot say precisely which franchises will get what.
Although the new carriages will be given to the franchises, and represent good news for passengers - the train companies will want extra money from the government to run them.
So ministers will now negotiate with franchises to get the best deal they can - and that will determine in part where the carriages go.
Those carriages will increase capacity on the network by 17%, enabling an extra 185,000 passengers to be carried at any one time.
Electric trains
The Thameslink project is also going to go ahead in full. This will eventually double capacity on the route from Brighton to Bedford, allowing up to 24 trains an hour.
Work on the scheme is already under way, but there had been question marks over whether the rest of the stages would go ahead.
It will not be completed though until 2018 - two years later than planned. That delay means the engineering work is easier, and cuts costs.
There is also news that lines in the north west from Manchester to Liverpool and Manchester to Blackpool are going to be electrified.
Electric trains have an operating cost roughly half that of their diesel equivalents. They are also more reliable and can fit more passengers on board.Fare rises
But the long-awaited electrification of the London to Swansea Great Western route is still not happening.
The government is deciding whether to replace the intercity fleet with electric trains, or electric-diesel hybrids. Whatever it decides will determine what happens to the electrification of the route into south Wales.
Meanwhile, passengers face an average fare rise of 6.2% in the new year, with some commuters seeing their tickets go up by as much as 12.8%.
The government says these fare rises are necessary to safeguard the investment that has just been announced.
Rail customer watchdog Passenger Focus said passengers would welcome the investment plans.
"This is just what rail passengers want to see - long-term, sustained investment. It also gives passengers a clue where some of their fare rise money will be going," the watchdog's chief executive Anthony Smith said.
But he added the industry would have to continue to work hard to deliver "a value for money service".


text: On Thu, Aug 30, 2007 at 11:07:29AM +0200, Albert Shih alleged: > Hi all, > > > Stupid question from a newbie. > > I'm suppose to manage a cluster torque/maui, but when the are some problem > I don't known the tools (like grep/vi) and where to find the problem. Hire a consultant? A cluster is not a simple thing. I don't know how anyone would do it without strong Unix skills. > For example : > > Actually I've a user submit through qsub a job, this job don't > start. I think I known the reason. But how/where can I find some > information about this job ? If a job isn't started, then you ask the scheduler about it. 'checkjob $jobid'. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 189 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.supercluster.org/pipermail/torqueusers/attachments/20070830/a367ae6e/attachment.bin


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« Book Sale | Main | Back from a Week in the Finger Lakes of NY »
July 14, 2006
Jim Starkey: Introducing Falcon (the video and the podcast)
This past Monday the Boston MySQL meetup featured Jim Starkey, a database guru who's hard at work coding a new database storage engine (code named Falcon) for MySQL.
This is a great presentation, Jim throws in a lot of database history and insight into working with MySQL. I left the camera on for the first bit of the Q/A. Also very good stuff.
I put in some extra video production effort this month. The video includes superimposed slides for better readability. Sheeri bought a new mic last month which captures the audience feedback better than in the past, seems to work well.
You can get the Quicktime here or here. Google video coming shortly.
Oh, and for folks who want it as a podcast (audio only), you can get that here.
As usual, thanks to Martin at kbglob for donating bandwidth.
Posted by mike at July 14, 2006 8:07 AM


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Patricia Beller, LCSW-R
Licensed Clinical Social Worker-R
88 Terry Road, Smithtown, New York 11787
Whether a child, adolescent or adult, you do not need to be held hostage by your anger. Using a solution focused approach I will work alongside you to set goals to address your specific problem. In our sessions, I will help you to identify the triggers that lead to your anger. You will also learn ways to manage your anger by changing how you think and react about the situation. I will assist you in identifying how to cope with stress through relaxation techniques, mindfulness and exercise. You will learn new ways to express your anger through assertiveness training so that you can communicate your needs without aggression.


text:
Hello, does anyone have any recommendations for the best themesforest themes to showcase mobile apps?
thanks hugely, Elaine, http://thechocolatelabapps.com
Are you wanting to showcase your own app or make a site showcasing lots of different ones?
If its just your own app i like this one http://themeforest.net/item/appland-parallax-app-landing-wordpress-theme/5101199
There are a lot more under http://themeforest.net/category/wordpress/technology/software
For reviewing or showcasing lots of apps then any blog theme would do the job.


text:
April 23, 2014
AHS failing on wait times in Edmonton and area
EDMONTON, AB (April 23, 2014): Wait times for several key procedures, as well as other critical performance benchmarks, are well below targets and getting worse in Edmonton and area, according to new data obtained by the Wildrose Official Opposition.
The data, obtained through Freedom of Information Legislation, shows that a vast majority of wait times for surgical procedures, treatments and other performance benchmarks tracked by Alberta Health Services continue to exceed maximum targets.
Not only are wait time targets being missed, but only one of the 12 procedures currently missing their wait time targets is actually improving. Wait times for the other 11 procedures are either staying the same or getting longer. Only three benchmarks are currently hitting their targets.
The data is contained in the 68-page AHS' monthly performance report for Edmonton zone dated December 20, 2013.
"The majority of patients in Edmonton clearly aren't getting the health care they need, when they need it," Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith said. "Virtually all the indicators we've obtained show wait times for important procedures and treatments going in the wrong direction. It's another example of how Albertans continue to pay more and more for health care while getting worse and worse results."
According to the data, wait times for cataract surgery, hip replacements, knee replacements, coronary artery bypass graft (level 3 urgency and "other scheduled surgeries" are all missing their targets and getting longer. Both the percentage of patients discharged from emergency within 4 hours and the number of people waiting in acute care for continuing care are also missing their target and getting worse.
A full visual representation of the data can be seen here.
Over the last two weeks, Wildrose has uncovered unprecedented levels of taxpayer waste inside AHS. Between April 2012 and September 2013, AHS spent $250 million on outside consultants for things like reputation reports and executive coaching. Between January 2011 and January 2013, AHS sole-sourced $1 billion in contracts in violation of their own policies.
Wildrose Health Critic Heather Forsyth says the Edmonton wait time data shows how waste and mismanagement in AHS is affecting front-line care.
"When money doesn't make it to the front lines, patients suffer," Forsyth said. "As we have demonstrated, AHS wastes hundreds of millions of dollars on bureaucratic make-work projects that do nothing to help patients. It's time for AHS to reprioritize and make sure dollars are going towards treating patients, not hiring consultants."


text:
Whether it's Google making it so results are displayed as we type them in, or some other web-innovation, we all know that the way information is displayed on the web is constantly changing.
That's what makes Google Realtime so cool.
Google Realtime is basically an automatically updating newsfeed that displays the latest results on a given topic. It gathers its results from various social media websites (like Twitter, Facebook and more) and presents them to you without the need to keep searching. It's cool, because Realtime not only shows you the web's train of thought, but clues you into news – sometimes as it's happening!
Here's the skinny:
Browse over to Google.com and click on More, located at the top. You'll see Realtime – click it.
At the Google Realtime page, type in something you want to keep tabs on in the Search Box. I chose New York Blizzard 2010, because it's topical. Now click Search.
The results will pop up on the next page. Pay attention to the feed results, because new ones will be appearing on a fairly regular basis. If you see one you like, click its link.
P.S. On the left side of the screen, you'll see location options, enabling you to see what people are saying about your selected search topic in other parts of the world. You can choose Anywhere (offering the most results), Nearby (using your Google location) or Custom Search (just type in a location and search).
How unbelievably cool!


text:
31 May 2005 - DECLARATION on DARFUR adopted by THE NATO PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY*
1. The members of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly are deeply concerned about the security situation in Sudan's western region of Darfur, which the United Nations has described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
2. The Assembly applauds the African Union's efforts to help end the conflict in Darfur and strongly supports the international community's efforts to achieve peace there.
3. The NATO Parliamentary Assembly therefore unanimously supports the decision, on 24 May, by the North Atlantic Council on initial military options for possible Alliance support to the African Union's mission AMIS II in the Darfur region of Sudan.
4. The NATO Parliamentary Assembly welcomes the substantial financial assistance provided to the African Union mission AMIS II by the European Union.
5. The NATO Parliamentary Assembly encourages the European Union and NATO to work together in a spirit of cooperation and complementarity to provide the requisite logistical and financial support in areas such as strategic airlift; training in command and control, in operations planning, in the use of intelligence and in police.
6. The Assembly welcomes in that context the joint announcement by Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, NATO Secretary General, and Javier Solana, EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, at the United Nations-African Union donor's conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, that both the Alliance and the European Union are ready, together with other partners, to help the expansion of the African Union's presence in Darfur and calls for its speedy implementation.