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Murray: American flag deserves the utmost respect
April 27, 2013
While delivering fuel to our store in Keenesburg I decided to clean my windows. This was somewhat of a daunting task in that I had been up in the mountains earlier in the evening and it had snowed, and CDOT uses magnesium chloride (Mag) on the roads as a de-icer. Mag is oily and greasy, and very difficult to clean off of windows. Many paper towels later I had somewhat accomplished the task.
Being a conscientious individual, I took my dirty towels over to the Dumpster to discard them. For whatever reason something caught my eye and I turned my flashlight on to see what was within.
There, lying among the discarded boxes and bags of trash, was "Old Glory." Upon further examination I determined the reason She was in there was because the wooden standard to which She was attached was broken.
To my shame, with all of my American ingenuity, I could not figure out a way to get Her out of that despicable predicament. I could not find a way to climb into the Dumpster, and if I did, how would I get back out? I am no longer a "spring chicken." The tools that I had available could not snag or grab Her to hoist Her out.
Alas, Old Glory was destined to be buried unceremoniously in an unmarked grave.
Today, 9-11 still weighs heavy in my heart. Add to that two major situations last week — the bombing in Boston and the explosion in West, Texas — and then to see "The abstraction of the Union … that millions of people would fight for, and many thousands die for," Old Glory, so carelessly cast away, grieved me so.
When a flag is so tattered that it can no longer serve as a symbol of the United States of America, it should be destroyed in a dignified manner, preferably by burning. The American Legion and other organizations regularly conduct flag retirement ceremonies, often on Flag Day, June 14. Also, modern nylon or polyester flags should be recycled due to hazardous gases produced when such materials are burned.
Is this what our great country, the United States of America, has become? To not give an iota as to the relevance, the power, the symbolism of Old Glory? To just cast Her away with the daily garbage? Have we finally lost complete and total respect for the oldest and most beloved veteran of our country that we cannot give Her a proper and respectful send-off?
Not knowing how Old Glory got into that predicament, I cannot cast stones at anyone. But I will ask any and all that, from this point forward, if you are an American citizen or if you love this country, if there is an American flag that has seen better days, please treat Old Glory with respect and have her properly retired.
You wouldn't want to end up in a Dumpster, would you?
Scott Murray is a longtime resident of Weld County, and wrote "View From The Road" articles for The Tribune for many years.
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By Marie Spano, MS, RD, CSCS, CSSD, a member of Welch's Health & Nutrition Advisory Panel.
Are you a muncher, nibbling on small amounts of food throughout the day but skipping entire meals? If so, you may be sabotaging your diet and health. Skipping meals is associated with weight gain, being overweight and cardiovascular risk factors. And, though we could make the most of our snacks by choosing nutrient-rich foods, research shows that chips and soda are the most commonly consumed snacks in America. Don't worry, I'm not going to ask you to give up snacking (after all, I'm a grazer). Here's how you can get back on track while still enjoying your midday munching:
(1) Don't Make Meal Skipping a Habit. The three most common reasons I've heard regarding meal skipping are: (1) There's no time to eat; (2) I want something easy and already prepared; and (3) I'm trying to cut calories. Yet skipping meals is the most frequent reason why people choose less-than-nutritious snacks later in the day. If you're one of those people who ends up so hungry that you can eat a bag of chips in minutes then it's time to start eating regular meals. You don't need to spend copious amounts of time preparing elaborate feasts, but always keep food on hand that you can turn into a meal in minutes, such as better-for-you frozen entrees and cut-up fruit; pre-washed salad greens, nuts, dried fruit and whole grain bread; or frozen veggies, brown rice, chicken and 100% fruit juice for a fruit-filled drink.
(2) Search for What's Missing. The majority of people agree it's important for snacks to be healthy, yet many of us are dining on less nutritious options. Coupled with that is the fact that only 6% of Americans are getting enough vegetables and just 8% are meeting recommendations for daily fruit intake. In fact, two-thirds of Americans are not even getting half the amount of fruit needed each day for good health. So what's the bottom line? We need to make the most of our snacks and choose more fruits and vegetables. Remember that fresh, frozen, canned and dried fruit, and 100% fruit juice all count toward daily fruit and vegetable servings!
(3) Make It Fun and Easy! When your snack looks fun and doesn't take a lot of time to prepare, you are more likely to eat it. How can you make it fun, quick and full of nutrition? Create colorful veggie or fruit skewers. If you love chips, choose a better-for-you bean or lentil chip, which is higher in protein and fiber, and pair it with guacamole, salsa or hummus for more flavor and veggies. And, if you have a sweet tooth, try making ice pops with your favorite Greek yogurt or 100% fruit juice.
Here is my favorite recipe for DIY Frozen Fruit Pops and Easy Breakfast Smoothie Popsicles, both of which are made with Welch's. Here's the great thing about cooking with Welch's 100% Grape Juice: the one-of-a-kind, dark purple Concord grape used to make the juice is one deliciously healthy berry (yes, a berry!). In fact, Concord grapes have a lot of the same heart-health benefits as red wine.
Make sure you eat regular meals and think outside the box when it comes to snack time. And remember, healthy snacking can be scrumptious!
1Song WO, Chun OK, Obayashi S, Cho S, Chung CE. Is consumption of breakfast associated with body mass index. J Am Diet Assoc 2005;105(9):1373-82.
2Snacking in America. The Hartman Group. http://hartbeat.hartman-group.com/article/457/Snacking-in-America-Infographic.
3van der Heijden AA, Hu FB, Rimm EB, van Dam RM. A prospective study of breakfast consumption and weight gain among U.S. men. Obesity (Silver Spring) 2007;15:2463–2469.
4Farshchi HR, Taylor MA, Macdonald IA. Deleterious effects of omitting breakfast on insulin sensitivity and fasting lipid profiles in healthy lean women. Am J Clin Nutr 2005;81:388–396.
5Jenkins DJ, Wolever TM, Vuksan V, Brighenti F, Cunnane SC, Rao AV, Jenkins AL, Buckley G, Patten R, Singer W, Corey P, Josse RG. Nibbling versus gorging: metabolic advantages of increased meal frequency. N Engl J Med 1989;321(14):929-34.
6Stote KS, Baer DJ, Spears K, Paul DR, Harris GK, Rumpler WV, Strycula P, Najjar SS, Ferrucci L, Ingram DK, Longo DL, Mattson MP. A controlled trial of reduced meal frequency without caloric restriction in healthy, normal-weight, middle-aged adults. Am J Clin Nutr 2007;85(4):981-8.
7State of the Plate, 2010 study on America's consumption of fruits & vegetables. Produce for Better Health Foundation. http://www.pbhfoundation.org/pdfs/about/res/pbh_res/stateplate.pdf
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Google Primer Android App
Design-heavy app providing weekly lessons on digital marketing topics. Wrote every line of project code from inception to release. Eight months, on-site with the Google Learn team in NYC.
Design-heavy app providing weekly lessons on digital marketing topics. Wrote every line of project code from inception to release. Eight months, on-site with the Google Learn team in NYC.
Large format interactive touch-screen installations in the "Spotify House" at Cannes Lions Festival.
Developed the 2.0 upgrade for this data-heavy personal organizer app for logging diet, recipes and exercise activities.
Drawing tools and other customizations made to 3D characters in real-time. Users can then purchase their creations which get 3d-printed and delivered to them.
Same AS3 codebase used for iPad and web.
Identical functionality and shared codebase for iPhone and Android. Created and open-sourced an AS3 mobile UI framework created through the course of the project.
User webcam video gets composited into a mock ESPN interview TV segment. First known commercial implementation of browser-based video encoding.
Paperless signature-gathering tool for production companies. Collates to PDF, syncs to Google Drive. $25 in the App Store.
A video voicemail app where users unlock messages from friends by scanning the logo on the Smirnoff bottle using the device camera. The video message plays back superimposed as if it's 'inside' the bottle.
A novel 3D-based home screen/program launcher. To build it, I wrote Android's first opensource 3D framework, min3D
Half a million downloads on Google Play.
FWA Site of the Day
Responsible for full site refresh, including vehicle configurator.
An integrated level editor allows user to deform and texture planets, add obstacles, and draw in the race track by dragging directly on the planet's surface.
Hand-rolled physics. Work in progress.
An animated Mandelbrot/Julia set visualizer presented in an ASCII style in the terminal. This was my toy "hello world" project for learning Rust.
Realtime VJ performance tool. On-the-fly recording and playback of "three-dimensional video" with an emphasis on visual effects.
Android's first open-source 3D framework.
Nominated for Packt Publishing's Open Source Awards; used by Google for their demo games for Google Glass.
Roll your own wiki using Node.js and Google Drive.
I built this as a way to make my programming-related notes available online.
A novel approach to extracting color palettes from illustration/anime styled imagery.
Enables users to control their Mac or PC using touch gestures.
A single project builds to Android and 4 Java desktop executables, sharing custom hand-rolled networking code using UDP sockets.
Open-source client-side library for recording and encoding video and audio in the browser in realtime, with no server-side dependencies.
First and only implementation of its kind.
First-of-its-kind implementation in Flash.
Also, see Spotlight Shadow Caster.
Created for keynote presentation I gave on 3D Flash frameworks at San Flashcisco, Flash meetup group.
Rocks dropping into a viscious pool of lava. A metaphor for the creative process. Or not.
Featured link on thefwa.com.


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Obscura are a band that has stood out from the crowded genre of technical death metal. Although their debut 'Retribution' was something of a cold opener that did little to distinguish them, their second record 'Cosmogenesis' was, and still is, one of the most well-regarded tech death albums of the new millennium. Although this very polished, blistering style of music has rarely piqued my interest, Obscura justifies their technical display by putting intelligence into the songwriting, and makes for one of the style's stronger experiences.
Although they are from Germany, Obscura takes most of their influence from American death metal bands, not least the legendary Death, as well as Cynic. Frontman Steffen Kummerer is evidently influenced by Chuck Schuldiner, many of the riffs and song structures reflect what Death was doing around the time of 'Individual Thought Patterns'. Obscura have polished that sound into something much more modern and complex however. 'Cosmogenesis' is defined by lots of dual guitar work, with one guitar playing a riff and the second guitar going at something equally as technical. From a compositional perspective, the music is very complex and dense. Despite relatively conventional song lengths, and even such 'pedestrian' elements as chorus structures, Obscura rarely lets up their onslaught of fast paced riffs, complicated drums and jazzy bass lines. Steffen's vocals typically evoke a fairly generic death growl, and while there are some Cynic-like vocorder clean singing to give a bit of variety, the vocal aspect of Obscura is definitely not their high point.
Obscura's 'Cosmogenesis' is the first album in a tentative four album concept piece, and seeing as this Obscura is an almost completely different lineup than the one heard on 'Retribution', this is the band's defacto debut. As good as 'Cosmogenesis' is however, the music still feels somewhat conventional for technical death metal. Particularly in regards to the cold, mechanical production, Obscura are not yet a full head above their competition at this point. Regardless, Obscura obviously have technical chops beyond most in metal, but what makes them stand out is their intelligence and complex composition. It's easy to play fast, but Obscura steps up to the plate and delivers a calibre of songwriting that justifies their technical abilities.
This album is a prime example of why technical death metal is superior to most other metal genres. That's normally not something I would say, considering most tech death bands (like Brain Drill) are just over-the-top and annoying with their technicality, and others just aren't heavy or interesting (like Decrepit Birth). But every once in a while, a really, really great tech death band will come along and blow my mind. So far, those bands have been Deeds of Flesh, Abysmal Dawn, The Faceless (post-Akeldama), and now Obscura. Cosmogenesis is Obscura's second full-length album, released last year on Relapse Records, and... wow. Just...
The album starts off with "The Anticosmic Overload", probably one of the weakest songs on the album, yet still awesome, and yet it's the only song a video was made for... don't see how that works, but... I supposed it worked. It was (don't get me wrong) a great start to the album, but nothing particularly stands out about it, aside from the bass (which I'll delve into here in a moment). The riffs and solos here are great and prove this song to be a very nice appetizer for the meal that awaits. After the next song we come to "Universe Momentum", one of the better songs on the record, one that brings in quite a bit of random acoustic moments, which, upon mixed with the bass, sound very jazzy, and at other times remind me of Stormblast-era Dimmu Borgir, minus the black metal vocals. Overall, an awesome fucking song, one of the highlights of the album. Next up, we have "Incarnated". This is my personal favorite song on the album, but I'll talk more about it later, because a great deal of it revolves around the bass guitar. Right now, I'll just say that "Incarnated" is very dark and atmospheric, and flows quite nicely in with the next track, "Orbital Elements". This song is an instrumental that is very reminiscent of "The Call of Ktulu" by Metallica, which isn't a bad thing. Pretty much, you mix elements of "The Call of Ktulu", a little bit of "Hundred Wrathful Deities", (the Evile song released the same year), and a lot of Planetary Duality-era The Faceless, and you get "Orbital Elements". This is one of those tracks that stands out from the others. Skipping over "Desolate Spheres", we get to see the vocoder again in the songs "Infinite Rotation" and "Nospheres". "Nospheres" is one song that shows a slower, darker side to the album, (not that it wasn't already dark). Next, we come to the title track, which is probably the heaviest song here. It's not particularly "heavy", but it does incorporate more chugging riffs that'll get your head banging. Very awesome song. Finally, we come to another highlight of the album, the closing song, "Centric Flow". This song is actually pretty weak (once again, nothing really wrong with it, just nothing that really stands out), up until the halfway point, when it starts getting really amazing. That's around the time when the melody begins to kick in, and we hear an almost... well... I hate to say this when it comes to metal, but... a beautiful acoustic and melodic solo section, very reminicient of "Perennial Quest" from Death. After this we come to another melodic riff, in which we can hear the vocalist rasp "THIS IS... THIS IS... THIS IS THE CENTRIC FLOW!", in a way that sent a chill down my spine. An amazing end to an amazing album.
One of the things that turned me on to this band (and ultimately this album) was the video for "The Anticosmic Overload", in which I witnessed something I had never seen before... a bassist who uses a 6-string fretless bass. A special bass that can be heard throughout the album, (that's right, you can hear the bass throughout 100% of the album), and gives Obscura an awesome style that so far hasn't been topped by any other band I've heard. For a fretless bass, I'm astounded at how extremely well the bassist plays it. Flawlessly. Perfectly. And it sounds purely incredible. The single-most awesome song on the album (made awesome by the bass and the riffs), is "Incarnated", a song that has a melodic edge to it, but a dark verse that features what is probably the coolest bass pattern in any metal song period. The bass goes a completely different route than the guitar, creating a mesmerizing, definitely Area 51 themed sound. It's pretty awesome to experience. We're dealing with one of the most talented bassists in metal here. We should be honored.
Now I'll shut up about the bass already and move on to the guitars themselves. The great production plays a key part here, as every single note is perfectly audible. The guitarists here aren't just playing around. They know what they're doing and why they're doing it. You can go from a faster, more technical side, such as in "The Anticosmic Overload" and "Desolate Spheres", to a slower, heavier, more dark, mystic side, in songs like "Nospheres" and the title track "Cosmogenesis". Of couse, as I've mentioned before, there are plenty of acoustic, jazzy, and creepy interludes like those in "Universe Momentum" and "Infinite Rotation". The riffs and solos throughout the album are incredible, but I'd have to say the most memorable is the last half of "Centric Flow", obviously the most melodic, phenomenal moments on this record.
I'm not much of a drumming expert, but I will say that the drummer knows what to do when. Of course, this is a key factor to all forms of metal, when to play fast, when to slow down, when to build up, and when to go all out crazy. This guy knows what he's doing, along with the rest of the band.
And finally, I want to briefly talk about the vocals. Throughout the record you'll hear a wide range of vocal styles, ranging from an almost black metal rasp that reminds me of David Vincent on the first two Morbid Angel albums, to a Symbolic-era Chuck Shuldiner style. His lows remind me very much of Demon Carcass from The Faceless in their album Planetary Duality, as do the vocoder sections in "Choir of Spirits" and "Nospheres", the latter having a vocoder outtro that sounds very much like the outtro to "The Ancient Covenant" by The Faceless. At some points, he'll even use a clean vocal style (no, don't worry, nothing even remotely like the screamo clean vocals that sound like they haven't gone through puberty yet), these clean vox sound matured and very fitting with the music, just adding to the pure amazing-ness that is this album.
Highlights: The whole thing, really. The only songs that aren't up there with the rest are "Choir of Spirits" and "Desolate Spheres", and even those songs are fucking awesome. The record gets a well-deserved 100%, and plenty of future listens.
In my opinion, this album sounds like a mix between The Faceless' 2008 album Planetary Duality and Death's 1995 album Symbolic. And to me, this album is right up-to-par with Symbolic as one of the best metal albums ever written. I know that may be a bit of an overstatement to some, but... just go buy it and give it a listen. You'll know what I mean.
One of the main stigmas often associated with technical death metal is the allegation of "wankery"; that is, compromising song-writing in the name of showcasing instrumental prowess. Does every techdeath band do it? No. Does it happen at all within techdeath? That is merely a matter of interpretation, opinion and personal bias. I, for one, see not a single but of it in Obscura's sophomore offering, "Cosmogenesis."
The album opens with "The Anticosmic Overload", which serves as somewhat of a template for what is to come (note that I say "somewhat"). The song has plenty of Jeroen Paul Thesseling's fretless bass riffs, Hannes's incredible drumming we saw on Necrophagist's Epitaph album, Steffen's mix of scream and growl vocals, and Christian Muenzner's guitar work (which is significantly different on this album than it was on Necrophagist's Epitaph, namely because he wrote the solos, and not Muhammed). That's where the beginning ends.
Cosmogenesis offers both the expected and the unexpected. On one hand, it's exactly what you'd expect from a 21st Century techdeath band; complex instrumental sections, harsh vocals and shredding solos. On the other, it throws in a wide variety of things you wouldn't expect from Obscura's brand of metal. Two songs ("Choir of Spirits" and "Noosphere") utilize a vocoder - like Paul from Cynic does - and there's even a song when Steffen does some actual clean singing ("Infinite Rotation"). There are sections with acoustic guitars ("Universe Momentum" and "Centric Flow"), and even one song where there is a full 30 seconds of jazz fusion music ("Desolate Spheres"). They even included an instrumental in the mix - "Orbital Elements."
The songs themselves all range from aggressive, fast-paced death metal ("Universe Momentum" and the title track) to more feeling-oriented songs ("Incarnated" and "Noosphere"). Despite their incredibly technical instrument sections, the songs all retain simple, easy to catch structures akin to the usual verse-chorus style that everyone and their dog is used to in music.
In regards to production quality, it's relatively clean. Not so clean as it ended up making the guitars sound like they were done on a MIDI track (cough EPITAPH cough), but it's not as distorted as most death metal bands would have it be. To me, the snare drum in particular sounded a bit too clean, like a "pop" noise every time Hannes struck it. The bass is perfectly audible when it needs to be (eg; when Jeroen plays something deviating from the rhythm guitar), which is exactly how all bass should be if you ask me. Considering the material on this album, the production was perfect.
All in all, Cosmogenesis is an instant keeper. If you were to mix post-1990 Death (especially with Steffen's banshee screams) with Atheist and Necrophagist, you'd get this album. This is exactly how progressive death metal should sound; heavy, atmospheric, technical, and with a strong vocal performance.
Favorites: All of them!
There are tech death metal albums that will have you cringing at the brutality and then there are tech death metal albums that will have you scratching your head as you wonder how they did that. Obscura falls firmly into the latter category, a maze of carefully colliding arpeggios and flowing speed. I like to think of this as the Death album that could have been if Chuck had hired members of Necrophagist to back him up, as the vocals are comparable and it shares the same cosmic/philosophical theme to its lyrics.
As for the mention of Necrophagist, it's no surprise that guitarist Christian Muenzner and drummer Hannes Grossman were members of that other super tech German entity until the past few years. This blazing sophomore album easily surpasses anything from that other band though, for not only can you appreciate its virtuosity, but they also write some fine riffs of the simpler variety. In fact, the dizzying technicality isn't even the forte of this album, it's the solid offering of memorable riffs. Rounding out the band's lineup are Jeroen Thesseling (once in Pestilence) and Steffen Kummerer on vocals/guitars (from some pretty good bands like Black Horizons and Festering Saliva).
This is a consistent sophomore offering, and better than the debut Retribution from a few years back. Tracks like the opener "Anticosmic Overload" will dazzle fans of progressive death metal with their insanely adventurous bass lines and rhythmic classically inspired picking. As for myself I prefer the tracks with really catchy melodic hooks. "Incarnated" has a pretty intense volley of these, as does the slower "Orbital Elements". If you want to simply get knocked on the floor while your head spins like a top, you will likely appreciate displays of insanity like the title track and the album's excellent closer "Centric Flow".
Cosmogenesis is an impressive statement, whether you subscribe for the band's latent musical proficiency or you just want a pretty kick ass death metal album. It is very possible this will transform them into THE go-to European band of this category, and with just reason. The album sounds superb and the amount of effort into creating such a work is evident. But beyond the obvious skills showcased here, the songs are memorable enough to warrant a recommendation.
If you ever watch TV it's likely you've seen or at least seen the commercial for a romantic comedy. You know they always have a particular formula that seems to be followed in every single movie? Well, such is the case with Obscura's newest effort, "Cosmogenesis". It's basically your everyday technical/melodic death metal album that lacks the majority of the elements typically used in death metal. These guys have released the EXACT same album you have heard so many other times by so many other much better bands, by taking elements from different bands and mixing them together.
They have Atheist's jazz influence, they have Decrepit Birth's brutal growls, they have Cynic's vocoder, they have Necrophagist's shredding guitar solos, they have In Flames's melodic guitar riffs, the bass is very high in the mix similar to Cryptopsy, etc. I don't listen to a lot of tech death so I can't paint a perfect picture for you, but this is basically the gyst of what they are doing. In addition, everything is very sloppily done, as if they only wrote this to show everyone how fucking awesome they are. The vocals are forced death growls and weak highs, and the guitar solos are just sweep picked passages without real purpose. While I usually appreciate the bassist being higher in the mix, here he is too high, to the point that he distracts from what is really going on. The song "Orbital Elements" reminds me of Primus at times because of this. The drums are nothing special, because it seems like EVERY tech death drummer is a fucking robot. He doesn't really shine at all here anyway.
Of the positive moments, I think think the opening song is pretty good, and the song "Incarnated" is moderate. I'll also admit the song "Choir of Spirits" has a pretty cool sounding solo. Beware of the tech moments like "Desolate Spheres" where the band pretends they are a real death metal band by doing fast and unmelodic riffage behind blast beats and growled vocals. It still sounds forced though, and by the annoying pinch harmonic riffage in "Infinite Rotation" you'll be ready to turn this off. After the instrumental track, "Orbital Elements" you'll realize that nothing after it is worth hearing really. Every song sounds the same exept for "Noospheres" which is a fucking stupid name for a stupid song.
Don't buy this. This album fucking sucks. Decrepit Birth is the way to go for good modern day tech death.
Obscura's 'Cosmogenesis' is one of those albums that takes a while to actually enjoy, because of it's extremely technical nature, but grows on you in due time. The first thing I noticed about this band was how good the bass player was. Holy shit, this guy is an absolute beast. Any death metal bassists out there need something to learn? Well this band is what you're looking for. Another thing I noticed was the sound of the bass, which is like nothing I've ever heard in death metal. (Except for Steve DiGiorgio on Death's 'Individual Thought Patterns') He plays a 6-stringed fretless bass that sounds outstanding, and really accentuates and differentiates itself from the music, which is cool and different, but adds to the cons of this album:
The bass is simply too audible, and even at times drowns the music out. (Maybe it's just like that because I'm a bass player..) Even during guitar solos, he continues to play extremely complicated baselines, which draw your attention away from the guitar solo, which is supposed to be the point of interest. The vocals are very standard death metal vocals, nothing to special. If you can actually delve into the music and just listen to the guitar, the riffs are great, but like I said before, the bass is to loud.
On the plus side, the musicianship in this album is great. Not your standard technical death metal album. There is alot of groove to it, and you can actually headbang at a steady rate with most of the riffs, but still contains an element of technicality, without taking anything away from the music.
Some great songs on this album include: Anticosmic Overload, Orbital Elements and Cosmogenesis. None of the song on this album are bad as such, but some seem to be filler tracks (which is expected on a band's 2nd album) Like I mentioned before, if you're a good bassplayer with fast fingers and need something to learn, this band is great, otherwise I don't imagine it phasing anyone else.
2009 has not been a great year for metal. The new Suffocation is ok and there have been a few exciting releases(I have yet to check out the new Augury), but overall it hasn't exactly been a banner year for metal, except for this release.
I had never heard of Obscura until a few months ago. I checked out Cosmogenesis and was immediately blown away. These dudes have their shit together and have developed a sound that is, although not completely unique, a very fresh take on an oversaturated genre.
Technical death metal can get tedious when it concentrates more on the technical than the death metal, but here we have a band whose compositions are structured in a way that you can actually remember them after less than ten listens, and yet which retain the technical prowess and musical approach of the tech/death genre. This is in fact a very melodic album with bits that are not heavy at all. In today's death metal scene the sheer inclusion of melody can almost be deemed a progressive element since it so uncommon among modern death shredders. The fusion between beauty and brutality in this release is very interesting and I found it captivated me as much during my first listen as it has during my last.
Cosmogenesis is packed with polyphonies, great lead work and and incredible rythm section. Hannes Grossmann, the drum phenom and Jeroen Paul Thesseling weave in between the maelstrom of the guitars and create quite a soundscape that does more than just accompany. In many ways they lay the groundwork for Muenzer and Kummerer to do their thing. Tracks such as the opener and single "Anticosmic Overload" and "Universe Momentum" are choc-full of catchy yet thoughtful riffs and passages reminiscent of such great bands as Death, Cynic and Atheist. They groove, they grow and they can also pound you with blast beats.
Highlights include the two aforementioned tracks as well as the instrumental "Orbital Elements", "Choir of Spirits" with the robot vocals as well as my personal favorite "Incarnated" with the simple but beautiful melody which comes back in a harsh and clean passage. But these are mere favorites of this scribe. The entire album is well written and well arranged. Basically, these guys did their homework.
Modern metal has very few new bands as exciting as Obscura, so take advantage of it prog-death metalheads. A record like this one doesn't come out every day.
Obscura's 2009 release Cosmogenesis is wrongly categorized as a progressive death metal album. It seems as though most people I've heard that don't like this album don't consider it brutal or heavy enough, and I'd have to agree to fit the genre. However, this is NOT a bad thing, so long as you don't put this album on expecting an onslaught of face-melting evil and harsh music. This album is great in its own right, but it is more of a "regular" progressive metal, somewhat in the style of an Opeth brand of heaviness. Melodies and catchy hooks abound in this very listenable release, and it may act as a decent bridge for metal newbies intimidated by other bands to check out these Germans and then explore other, heavier bands from there.
This album doesn't get repetitive after mutltiple listens because the songs continually change and evolve, the band not forcing themselves to stay "heavy", and in fact, relishing in some acoustic and genuinely calming breaks. The aesthetic of this album definitely is reminiscent of Cynic's "Focus" album, and I do actually see where some people accuse this band of stealing some ideas, but it is done in their own style, with less of an emphasis on the jazzy nature and instead making sure to keep things heavier than their iconic Floridian counterparts. It's unfair to accuse a band of plagiarizing someone's style based on a similar-sounding riff as well, because how many heavy metal bands are guilty of playing the same chunky muted power chords as Metallica without them being called out? Just because a "death metal" band has an acoustic intro doesn't mean they're trying to sound like Cynic. As with many progressive metal bands such as Opeth, one of the downfalls is that they generally follow a heavy-soft-heavy-symphonic outro pattern in every song, which Obscura delightfully strays from, instead mixing up heavy and soft elements in ways that keep it fresh throughout the whole 50 minute album.
Guitarists Steffen Kummerer and Chrisitian Muenzner are technical without being obnoxiously flashy or scene-stealing with endless solos. Instead, they serve the music with notey riffs reminiscent of Necrophagist (which makes sense, since two of the four members used to be in said band) that generally work to keep the listener interested and bobbing his head. One gripe however is that the riffs often follow the same picking rhythm, which, despite the riffs being different notes, sometimes make it sound like the same riff played elsewhere on the guitar. Bassist Jeroen Paul Thesseling is in a word, strange. His style of bass playing always complements the music well, and it's obvious that he's an inspired musician from listening to the effortlessly tasteful licks he pulls out of that fretless bass. With the fretless bass as well, Thesseling is able to do strange microtones and eerily smooth slides on the guitar, lending an entrancing and unique sound to this band's clinical aesthetic. Drummer Hannes Grossmann of Necrophagist fame performs very well indeed on this album, a drummer who knows when NOT to play as well as how to chill in the background and accent the themes of bass and guitar. However, he can shred as well, and his mastery of odd time signatures is apparent, especially in "Orbital Elements", which continually shifts from 7/4, to 4/4, to 3/4 with a triplet feel throughout. As for the vocals, Steffen Kummerer also handles this area surprisingly well for a guitarist. He ranges from clean to aggro-growling, but most of the time it's actually possible to understand what he's saying. His voice isn't overly dirty or meaty sounding either, a midrangey yell rather than the typical Cookie Monster style.
This album is definitely for musicians and those interested in listening to slightly death-tinged progressive metal, not the casual listener looking for something to crank out of his open car window to look cool. The production is considered too clean by some, but if you're not expecting a crushing death metal album, then you'll find a remarkably full-sounding recording with great tone on every instrument. It is quite well-balanced and very professional sounding, with nothing coming to attention to gripe about. I recommend this album for the more open-minded listeners out there who don't care that an album isn't heavy. It's about the quality of the songwriting and musicianship anyway, and Obscura pulled it off on this very listenable album.
This album is like one of those bedroom guitarists that does nothing other play scales over and over again, and play some ridiculously fast licks about eighty or ninety times. While this guitarist usually goes nowhere, and never is in a band, Obscura managed to pull this off (all the while abusing the name of one of the greatest technical death metal albums ever), and get noticed.
If there's one thing I hate about modern death metal, it's that everything has to be so shiny and clean. Nothing can be dirty, down-to-earth, and overall evil or muffled. If there would be another thing to hate about modern metal, it's that everything has to be technical or you're not worth anything to the scene.
So, onto the music, and what do we have here? Over-polished, spotless, super "progressive technical" death metal, of course. Starting off with the virtually useless "Anticosmic Overload" we already have an idea of what this band is out to do. Play fast, technical, and mind-bendingly dull. Even the old bassist of legendary Pestilence, Jerone Paul-Thesseling or however you spell that, is playing stupidly boring tech tricks and supposed "jazz licks".
Next we have something scary, that surprised me, a good riff. "Choir of Spirits" actually starts off with a good riff, even though it's generally a Gorguts knockoff that eventually spindles off into another stupid blast section with growls thrown over the album. So far, this album isn't exactly pleasing to the ears.
So, the guitars of the album are exactly what you expect, technical riffs with a sort of feel that reminds of Death (especially the Death cover, Incarnated...oh what, that's an original?) and other old-school technical death metal bands that did this style right. Where Obscura are playing this hyper-tight riffing with uninspired drumming, bass, and vocals, Death was playing hyper-tight riffing under interesting production, bass lines, drumming, and especially vocals.
Speaking of vocals, this guy is sadly the highlight of the whole damn thing. His highs are really genuinely great, shrieky but mostly mid-ranged with a bit of grit. His lows are boring and monotonous, and of course, which vocal style does he perform more often? Yep, that's right, he does lows. Ugh. Oh, and the damn vocoder vocal on "Choir of Spirits" is just irritating, the whole band is ripping some Cynic riffing off right there, and then the vocals are even impersonating Paul. This guy won't ever shut up, either...and the only time when he does in fact shut his trap, it's on the song that would have needed vocals the most, "Orbital Elements".
The guitars, the bass, and the drums are all easily relatable to three metal albums: Gorguts's "Obscura", Death's "Individual Thought Patterns", and Cynic's "Focus". Every instrument permeates a need to copy, imitate, and virtually copy everything played on those three albums, but also with some interesting ideas on their own...no, not really. Every solo, every riff (from the biggest rip in metal history, Incarnated, to Choir of Spirits' opening riff) is stolen, it's quite obnoxious really.
I wish I had more to say about this album, but I couldn't get past the fourth song without getting a small headache and contracting boredom. But, wait; there is one song here that is actually good. It surprised me, almost terrified me, that Orbital Elements is a good song. Starting off with what sounds like Cynic's "Textures" stupefied, we have a decent intro riff, which then leads into a good riff around the one minute mark, and continues into another Gorguts riff, but with less interesting ideas. So, what we have here is a good song gone wrong.
So, this album is an over-done pile of rip-off artistry. Sure, there is guitar-"wizardry" everywhere, and the album has a very proficient set of musicians, they can't write songs worth their lives without looking at the Atheist, Gorguts, or Cynic posters in their rooms. So, that's it. I recommend this only to those who are obsessed with production, technical stupidity, or a vocalist who won't shut the fuck up.
This review was written originally for htttp://www.MetalNeverLies.com
First things first: Cosmogenesis (2009) is a really cool CD. It has a really cosmic feeling to it all throughout the album, (Oh hey! Maybe that's where the name comes from.) and it definitely got 2009 off to a great start release-wise. Now, this is only Obscura's second full length, but it's great. What else could you expect from a band with top musicians? (Two people from Necrophagist, so you know this is going to be some technical stuff!)
"Anticosmic Overload" is a great start. The riffs are fast and really catchy, and the drumming is insane. Brutal death vocals are present, as well as... What's this awkward sound? Fretless bass? Now I know these guys are the real deal. I'm still getting over the uniqueness and coolness of this fretless bass, when all of the sudden I'm hit in the face by a killer guitar solo with some technical flair. Nice. Okay, I was impressed, so I gave the rest of the CD a listen...
"Choir of Spirits" is awesome. This song has a quite mystic introduction that is enhanced by the fretless bass really well. Then it picks up to a more brutal display of the band's abilities. The chorus is catchy, and the drumwork will keep your head banging. They also use some robot-esque vocals here which reminds me of Cynic a little bit, and that makes me happy. This solo kicks just as much ass as the guitar solo of the first song. "Universe Momentum" and "Incarnated" could have paragraphs about them too, but it's easier to just say that they are solid metal songs with a lot of awesome parts, especially at about a minute into "Universe Momentum": it's brilliantly pulled off. "Orbital Elements" is my favorite track on here, and it's an instrumental. The instruments seems to have an eerie voice to them. The drumwork is tight and dead on. "Universe Momentum" has everything you could ever want from an instrumental song. The bass in this song is probably the most well used out of the entire album.
Of course, the rest of the CD feels complete and offers plenty of insane drumming, killer riffs and solos. The album starts off fast and technical, ventures to slow and melodic, shifts back and forth between those a bit with some progressive parts here and there, and finally concludes with "Centric Flow" It definitely doesn't feel like a 50 minute album, but it is. I guess great song writing and amazing musicianship does that. There isn't a single bad or uninteresting song on this album. The sound is pretty refreshing, and the music definitely has a lot of life to it, as opposed to some similar bands who would be technical for the sake of being technical. Obscura keeps their music emotional and engaging.
The only thing I could imagine people not liking about this release is the volume of the bass because sometimes it distracts from the direction of the songs. This is just a minor flaw, and it doesn't happen too often: about 95% of the album has near-flawless production. Cosmogenesis (2009) is a great album and I will definitely be looking forward to anything new these guys put out. I highly recommend giving this CD a good listen.
Obscura have been one of those "Diamond in the Rough" bands to me ever since I heard Retribution especially the cover of Death's classic "Lack of Comprehension" and after seeing that they have been signed by powerhouse label "Relapse Records" they had their chance at the big time and they did not disappoint.
I found that the album took a massive step forward in the evolution of their sound. I've always been a fan of progressive technical death metal like Quo Vadis, Augury, Neuraxis, etc. and finally there is one band that captures the progressive death metal sound that is outside of Canada. That being said they also added a nice European metal twist.
The riffs are ones that will stick in your head for days. They drive the songs forward in a way that they become unforgettable. The bass reminds me a lot of Cynic in the sense that they bass lines are audible and have that same jazz-fusion style which makes the album stand out among other bands of this genre.
Speaking of Cynic, they also use electronically enhanced vocals in a few of their songs that take you back to the days of the groundbreaking album "Focus" with a modern element integrated into that as well. It's nice to finally hear another band be able to pull off that sound.
In regards to the drumming, something stood out more than anything for me and that is before I purchased this album I was able to see Obscura live. That drummer is absolutely insane he does excellent blast beats, double kicks etc. and the album sounds exactly as it should sound when the songs are played live. That one final aspect is what pushes this album over the top and why it deserves a place as one of the top releases of 2009.
The music on Obscura's "Cosmogenesis" can be described as surprisingly good mixture of Cynic, Death and Necrophagist. Most of the songs are pretty fast and technical, yet melodic and memorable. Imagine a more dynamic and less brutal version of Necrophagist plus melodies and some calm parts and you get the idea.
It takes quite some time to understand what's going on and how the songs are built up, but this album grows with every listen. The vocals are in the standard death metal style, like you would expect, and they are well done (but not extraordinary). Some people try to criticise the "lack of heaviness", or even claim that this band is not metal. That's not true: In fact, this album is much faster, heavier and more metal than for example "Traced In Air" by Cynic. Just listen to the title track and then tell me that this is not metal. I mean, are we talking of the same band? Okay, it might not be as brutal as say Suffocation, but that's no issue, since sheer technicality, variety and a sense for *melodies* are the biggest strengths of Obscura. "The Anticosmic Overload", "Universe Momentum" and "Incarnated" are two songs that show the ability to create songs that are technical, melodic and kick ass at the same time. Especially "Incarnated" with its catchy riff is one of my favourites. "Orbital Elements" is not just the only instrumental on this album but also a really good one and another personal favourite. "Choir Of Spirits" and the title track both show the more brutal side of this band and are simply GREAT, like most of the other songs. Oh, and did I mention that the songs are full of shredding solos? Better not try to count them. Altogether there are only VERY few things that I don't like about this album:
The bass is too loud and sometimes too complicated for its own good. I do understand that this is annoying for many. Less would have been more in this case. Besides, some parts of the songs fail to hold the listener's attention because they are either not memorable enough or too complicated. That's an important thing where they have to improve.
However, "Cosmogenesis" only has some minor flaws; but it's very good and highly recommendable nevertheless.
I'm no fan of modern tech death by any means. As far as I'm concerned, most of it blends into a flurry of diminished sweeping half the time, and most bands don't seem to be able to write a decent song if their lives depended on it (and don't get me started on Beneath the Massacre - a bunch of tapping licks and breakdowns do not a good song make). I do make some exceptions: Origin are catchy, Necrofag are OK in small doses, Outcast tear me a new arsehole, and now Obscura have grabbed my attention (lot of bands starting with O... hmm).
I saw the video for Anticosmic Overload and was mightily impressed; now, in possession of the album, I'm slowly falling in love. Their sound isn't particularly original: mix in Necrophagist with the more old-school tech death à la Cynic, Atheist, Pestilence, and that just about sums it up. The riffs aren't ever unnecessarily wanky, and a lot of them are actually pretty simple (!). But let's step back from my skepticism towards all things technical for a bit: not only can these boys play, but they can sure write a catchy song too.
Every song is chock-full of great and surprisingly catchy riffs, and the solos vary between your standard neoclassical fare and something that sounds much more like something Cynic would do. As far as I can tell, the two guitarists have very contrasting soloing styles (one neoclassical and one more jazz-fusion like), which makes the solos a lot more interesting than hearing the same one every time (I'm looking at you, Necrophagist). The bass supports these riffs fantastically; this is a great example of a fretless bass being used to its full potentialin metal. There are chords, slides, microtonality, you name it. As far as I'm concerned, Thesseling fits this style of playing far better than he did Pestilence's on Spheres. Absolutely fantastic: to boot, the bass is very prominent in the mix without muddying anything up or taking the attention away from the guitars. The drums are what you'd expect from Hannes Grossmann (ex-Necrophagist), but he varies it up a lot more than he did in Necrophagist. The beats are a lot more varied, and he doesn't simply sit back and blast for hours on end. The vocals vary between a high, aggressive shriek and a more guttural growl. Every now and then, he breaks into clean vocals, and manages to do so tastefully at that. There's even a bit of vocoder in Choir of Spirits - naughty!
All of these elements gel in together very well. We actually have a good supergroup here, wow! The songs all have an identity unto themselves, and not once do they sink into excessive repetition or mindless wandering. Highlights of the album for me were Anticosmic Overload, Universe Momentum and the instrumental Orbital Elements.
I am very, very wary when it comes to technical death metal these days, and I still think this album is a cracker. I would recommend this even to those who despise it on principle, just to see an example of modern tech death being done correctly - no showing off, no superfluous elements, just technicality used as a means to fit the end of a song.
What we have here is the death metal version of progressive, which is basically progressive metal/rock with some lower-tuned guitars that have more distortion, harsh death metal vocals mostly in the mid-range and blast beating drums. Even the old hold-over from progressive going back to the 70's are present, such as using a vocoder. The fretless bass also tends to soften the overall sound a little. Other than that, this is a collection of good old progressive standards of off-time jazzy runs and shows of technical prowess, albeit in a death metal setting.
Now with that whole description, it's up to one to decide whether those are good qualities or bad. On one hand, "Cosmogensis" tends to flow very well with little to no choppiness (a problem many progressive bands have, but tastefully avoided here), and even has a few catchy points, but on the other hand there's lots of progressive out there, and lots of progressive death metal as well. Unfortunately the more bands and albums there are in a specific area of music, the less relevant all those bands become, leading many listeners back to the originators. As it stands, the more progressive death metal albums I hear, the more I'd like to go back to the old Death albums.
Originally posted at www.waytooloud.com


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In October I visited this page after being away from it for years. One of the first reviews I saw here was written by bmannzi43 who had just scheduled her surgery. I was so impressed by her bravery that I told myself if she could do it so could I. Watching and seeing her results convinced me that this was something I was ready for.
Now, the daunting task of choosing a surgeon. I knew I did not want to have the work done in Las Vegas where I live. Besides this being a city where so many doctors specialize in breasts, I knew it would be just too expensive for m. I saw Makeitup's review and was so impressed with her results that I considered going to MD., but traveling so far from home without a place to recover was impractical. I saw several reviews here of women who had gone to Mexico or Thailand for their surgery and considered going to Mexico. I just never saw a review of a doctor there that convinced me he would be the one I wanted to do the surgery. THEN I saw JacqE's blog! At first I was just caught up in reading her very entertaining, though thorough, review. Then I looked at her photos and read her comments about her doctor and her recovery and it was suddenly clear to me that Costa Rica and Dr. Arguello were the answers to all my questions.
It has taken me a couple of months to finally write to Dr. Arguello's coordinating liaison but finally did that and heard back from her within just a very few hours with a quote from the doctor for my surgery. I am so excited by this small but oh big step!!
Dr. Arquello sent the quote for a face & neck lift and upper bleph. I am wondering if I might also need a brow lift and/or chin implant? Something I will ask the doctor about when I speak to him.


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|Stefan Bodewig <bode...@apache.org>
|Re: ant bug or user error?
|Wed, 27 Mar 2002 08:52:12 GMT
On Tue, 26 Mar 2002, Paul Kilroy <firstname.lastname@example.com> wrote: > I get the following error when I run "ant foo moo": > BUILD FAILED > /home/pkilroy/antbug/build.xml:4: You must specify the > jar file to create! An Ant bug IMHO. > I think the is related to the fact that ant caches > targets (and their tasks), but the task is "cleaned > up" at the end of the execute method. This pretty much > invalidates the cache for the target. Yes. > -Don't run the target again, it's already been run. or alternatively, don't use cached tasks. We've always said that "ant foo moo" is supposed to be the same as "ant foo; ant moo" which it obviously is not. Stefan -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:email@example.com> For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:email@example.com>
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|Publication number
|Publication type
|Application number
|Publication date
|Apr 13, 2004
|Filing date
|Dec 15, 2000
|Priority date
|Dec 15, 2000
|Fee status
|Also published as
|Publication number
|William J. Beyda
|Original Assignee
|Siemens Information & Communication Networks, Inc.
|Export Citation
|BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan
|Patent Citations (22), Non-Patent Citations (2), Referenced by (15), Classifications (10), Legal Events (10)
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the forwarding of "Caller ID data", defined herein to include any non-verbal information containing a calling party's telephone number, recorded by a call answering device. More particularly, the invention relates to apparatus and systems for recording Call ID data and transmitting the Caller ID data to remote telecommunications devices on demand, to fully or partially automate the dialing process for remotely calling back a message sender.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Caller ID service has become quite common in telephone systems throughout the country. Caller ID service can transmit a data signal together with the ringing signal when a call is placed. The called telephone receives the Caller ID data signal together with the ringing signal.
If the called telephone has the appropriate display, the name and telephone number (sometimes referred to herein as the "callback" number) of the calling party is displayed on the called telephone display.
An obvious purpose for Caller ID data is to facilitate call screening. If the called party does not wish to speak with the calling party, the called party can choose not to answer the phone.
Automatic call answering devices have been available for many decades. Examples include modern multi-media messaging systems, voicemail systems and simple answering machines. Single line devices like simple answering machines couple to the customer's telephone line at the customer's premises. Multi-line devices like voicemail systems may be coupled to subscriber lines at a telephone company central office or at a PBX.
Although the aforementioned types of answering devices are very different, they operate in similar ways. Typically an automatic answering device answers the customer's telephone after a programmed number of rings, plays a prerecorded announcement and records a message spoken by the calling party. Most modern answering devices also record the date and time of each message recorded.
A non-obvious benefit of Caller ID service is that the Caller ID service can be used together with an answering device to determine the phone number of a caller who left a message without speaking his phone number or who spoke his phone number in a manner which could not be understood.
Many Caller ID devices have a memory for storing the names and numbers of at least the last twenty-five callers. Many modern Caller ID devices also have a "callback" option which causes a selected one of the stored numbers to be dialed. The callback option can be used very effectively to return calls to callers who left messages on the answering device without having to write down a number and dial it manually. Unfortunately, this advantageous use of Caller ID data is only available if messages are retrieved at the called number using the answering device physically located at the called number.
Both answering machines and voicemail systems commonly allow customers to retrieve voice messages from virtually any telephone anywhere. When voice messages are retrieved using a telephone having a number different from the number dialed by the callers who left the voice messages, no Caller ID data is available. This situation also exists with cordless phones which, although having the number called by the callers who left messages, were turned off or out of range at the time the message was left.
It is very common for people to call answering devices using cell phones and/or pay phones where, for the reasons described above, no Caller ID information is available. This usually requires the person retrieving the messages to write down telephone numbers of callers who spoke their number and then manually redial the numbers to return the calls.
It would be much more convenient, particularly when using a cell phone to retrieve messages while driving for example, to be able to call back a person who left a message with little manual intervention, for example by simply pushing one button as one would with the call back feature of a Caller ID device, or in some instances with no manual interaction at all.
Some answering devices do collect Caller ID information and allow a person retrieving messages to call back the person who left the message. However, this feature can be very expensive and can result in so-called "trombone connections". For example, if a NY cell phone customer is traveling in CA and retrieves a voice mail message from the person he is trying to meet in CA, an answering device call back feature would result in two coast-to-coast long distance calls, i.e. a trombone connection.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide methods and apparatus whereby a call can be fully or partially be automatically placed from a remote location to a person who left a message on an answering device without causing a trombone connection.
It is also an object of the invention to provide methods and apparatus for transmitting Caller ID data from a called answering device directly to the endpoint of the remote user (i.e., their wireless phone handset, ToL (Telephony-over-LAN) PC client, IP phone, or any digital phone such as an Optiset phone, etc.).
It is another object of the invention to provide methods and apparatus for forwarding Caller ID data on demand from an answering device to a calling device other than the calling (message retrieval) device, such as a call control system (e.g., a central office to which the calling device is connected), a Caller ID device associated with but not necessarily part of the calling (endpoint message retrieval) device, etc.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide methods and apparatus which automate the dialing process with little or no intervention when calling back a message sender.
Still further, it is an object of the invention to be able to retrieve at a remote location, the telephone number of a party leaving a message on an answering device, without having to write the number down or directing attention (as when driving, for example), to remembering the telephone number associated with the message sender.
In accord with these objects which will be discussed in detail below, the methods according to the invention include (a) collecting Caller ID data at an answering device and (b) transmitting (or interchangeably forwarding) Caller ID data to a calling device which is accessing the answering device for the purpose of retrieving stored messages or simply for the purpose of retrieving Caller ID data.
According to one embodiment of the invention, utilizing a telephone device having a redial buffer (or other form of associated Caller ID data storage), Caller ID data is sent to the redial buffer memory (or associated memory) of the telephone device. The redial button on the telephone can then, for example, be used to quickly call back the person who left the message just retrieved. Only one connection is used to call back and the trombone type connection is avoided.
According to another embodiment of the invention, utilizing a telephone device with a built-in or associated Caller ID device, Caller ID data is transmitted to the Caller ID device when the telephone is used to retrieve messages from an answering device or used to simply retrieve Caller ID data from the answering device. The Caller ID device in the telephone can then be used to quickly call back the persons who previously called the answering device regardless of whether they left messages on the answering device. Only one connection is used to call back and the trombone type connection is avoided.
According to another embodiment of the invention, utilizing a telephone lacking a Caller ID device or a redial buffer memory, Caller ID data is transmitted from the answering device to a call control system (such as the central office of the calling phone, a PBX, ToL Gatekeeper, wireless carrier switch, etc.). Assuming for the sake of illustration only a central office type call control system, the central office (according to one aspect of the invention) provides the calling telecommunications device with the option of calling the number identified by caller ID data. This embodiment of the invention also avoids trombone connections.
The apparatus of the invention includes memory for storing Caller ID information and an interface for transmitting the Caller ID information when messages are retrieved from an answering device. In the case of the first two embodiments, the apparatus utilizes memory of the phone being used to retrieve messages and/or Caller ID data. In the case of the third embodiment, the apparatus includes central office equipment for receiving Caller ID data and dialing phone numbers based on the data.
FIG. 1 is a high level block diagram of a first embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 2 is a high level block diagram of a second embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 3 is a high level flow chart illustrating one of the methods of the invention.
FIG. 4 is a high level flow chart illustrating another of the methods of the invention.
Turning now to FIG. 1, an apparatus 10 (according to one illustrative embodiment of the invention) includes a voice message storage and retrieval unit 12, a Caller ID storage and retrieval unit 14, and an interface 16 for accessing the storage and retrieval units. The instant illustrative embodiment of the invention is intended to be coupled to a telephone company central office 2 and accessed with a telephone 4 having either an associated Caller ID device 6 having a call back function, a redial buffer accessed by a redial button 7, or some other memory for storing Caller ID data retrieved from (or forwarded by) apparatus 10.
The apparatus 10 may be located within a central office 2 as part of a voice mail system maintained by the telephone company or it may be located remotely from a central office, such as at customer maintained premises.
The telephone 4 illustrated in FIG. 1 is a wireless phone with a built-in Caller ID device 6 having a call back function and a redial buffer accessed by a redial button 7. Again however, the apparatus 10 can be used with any telecommunications device (not necessarily a telephone per se, for example a computer, etc.), having either an associated Caller ID device with a call back function, an accessible redial buffer, or other associated memory for storing Caller ID data.
The operation of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 is described in more detail below with reference to FIG. 3.
Turning now to FIG. 2, a second embodiment of the invention includes the same type of apparatus 10 as the first embodiment but is intended to be accessed with a telephone 5, such as a pay phone, having no Caller ID device or other "intelligence" for retrieving, storing and/or utilizing Caller ID data that could be forwarded by apparatus 10.
According to this embodiment, a Caller ID storage and retrieval unit 18, some form of redial buffer memory, etc., is provided at the central office 3 serving the telephone 5. It is expected that the telephone company which sells the apparatus 10 or which sells the services of the apparatus 10 will provide Caller ID storage and retrieval units 18 (or some other form of Caller ID data memory and processing capability) at each central office which is coupled to one or more pay telephones from which message and Caller ID retrieval is being supported. For example, it is expected that pay telephones in airports and train stations are likely points from which voice messages may be retrieved and from which connection to callback numbers may wish to be made.
The operation of the embodiment of FIG. 2 is described in more detail below with reference to FIG. 4.
Turning now to FIG. 3, and with reference to FIG. 1, the apparatus 10 of the first embodiment of the invention operates in a manner similar to known answering machines and voice mail systems but for the collection and transmission of Caller ID data.
When a call to the device 10 is received at 20, the device records the Caller ID data at 22 before answering the call. When the call is answered, if no owner code is entered at 24, a prerecorded announcement is played at 26, a message is recorded at 28, and the call is terminated at 30.
If the "owner" of the device enters the proper code at 24, several options may be presented to the "owner" regarding retrieval of message, returning calls, and retrieval of Caller ID data. FIG. 3 illustrates one possible arrangement.
As shown in the illustrative example of FIG. 3, after entering the "owner" code, the owner can retrieve messages at 32. After a message is reviewed, the owner can be given the option at 34 to return the call now or later. Also, the user can be given the option not to return the call at all in which case the exemplary process shown in FIG. 3 continues with message retrieval at 32. The choice of option can be made by keypress or voice response.
If the owner opts to return the call now, the system processes the call at 36 using the Caller ID data associated with the message just reviewed. As previously indicated, according to the invention, "processing" a call (as referred to in FIGS. 3 and 4), means stored Caller ID data may be forwarded to an endpoint telecommunications device or call control servicing device (like a central office), for call completion; rather than making a trombone connection via the answering device. However, it should be noted that the invention does contemplate the possibility of allowing a trombone connection to be made via the answering device. For example, all of the preferred options contemplated by the invention may not available to the user (eg., no memory for storing numbers, etc.); a user at a pay phone using the invention may not have enough change to place another call, etc.
At the end of the call, the system may (optionally) return the owner to the message retrieval menu at 32 if it is determined at 38 that more messages need to be retrieved, otherwise, it may simply hang up at 30.
If the owner chooses at 34 to return the call later, the Caller ID data is transmitted at 40 to the owner. Depending on the type of equipment the owner is using, he may only be able to store one callback number. If the owner's equipment includes a memory large enough to store many numbers, he may continue to review messages and store numbers for later callback.
FIG. 3 is simplified and it will be appreciated that the step of playing messages at 32 will typically be embedded within menu choices such as fast forward, skip to next message, replay message, delete message, save message, etc. It should also be appreciated that the step 40 of transmitting Caller ID data may be transmitted as a batch of numbers or one at a time as suggested by FIG. 3. In either case, the Caller ID data is transmitted to the owner telephone equipment so that it can be utilized to quickly call back the person who left a voice message.
From the foregoing, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the described illustrative embodiments of the invention may be easily installed either at customer premises or in a central office; and may easily be added to existing voice mail systems.
The transmission of Caller ID data from the answering device to the telephone retrieving messages will differ slightly from the manner in which Caller ID data is presently transmitted from a Caller to a called telephone. Caller ID data is now transmitted with a ring signal. In the present invention, no ring signal will be sent to the phone retrieving messages. Nevertheless, the signaling to the telephone preferably utilizes standard protocol so that it is compatible with existing Caller ID equipment. For example, it is presently known to transmit Caller ID data with a Call Waiting signal.
It will be appreciated, however, that a non-standard signaling could be used and would require that the owner's equipment to be modified to use the signaling adopted by the invention. Possible protocols for transmitting Caller ID data include: any digital signal, any ISDN signal, H.450 signal, a third party call control signal such as TSAPI or CSTA, audio tones in the voice band, an SS7 signal or GSM signals on a wireless network.
Turning now to FIG. 4, and with reference to FIG. 2, the system 10 receives a call at 41 and records the Caller ID data at 42 before answering the call.
When the call is answered, if it is determined at 44 that messages are not being retrieved, the recorded announcement is played at 46 and the caller's message is recorded at 48 before the call is terminated at 50. If it is determined at 44 that the code for retrieving messages has been entered, the system 10 transmits Caller ID data at 52 to the central office unit 18. A first message is played at 54 and then the central office unit 18 offers the caller the opportunity at 56 to call the party who left the message.
If the option is chosen at 56, the central office unit 18 processes the call at 58. The processing of the call at 58 is preferably accomplished with a dialer at the central office to which the "owner" is most closely connected, thereby avoiding a trombone connection. However, it is expected by the invention that if such equipment is not available at the central office closest to the owner's call, or the user prefers, a trombone connection may (as indicated hereinbefore) be used as a "fall back".
So long as it may be determined at 60 that there are more messages to be retrieved, messages continue to be played at 54, and the user is given the option at 56 to call the party who left the message.
From the foregoing, those skilled in the art will appreciate that FIG. 4 illustrates only one example of how a call control system (such as central office equipment 18) can interact with the equipment 10 in order to provided Caller ID call back functionality to a caller using a telephone which is not provided with a Caller ID device, redial memory, etc.
It will also be appreciated by those skilled in the art that another method of the invention is to batch load all of the messages and Caller ID data from the equipment 10 to the equipment 18 when messages are to be retrieved thereby freeing the connection between central office 2 and central office 3 while messages are played and calls are returned. In that method, the illustrative central office equipment 18 will look more like the equipment 10.
There have been described and illustrated herein methods and apparatus for transmitting Caller ID data from a called answering device to a dialing device, for example a caller retrieving messages from the answering device or a central office device. While particular embodiments of the invention have been described, it is not intended that the invention be limited thereto, as it is intended that the invention be as broad in scope as the art will allow and that the specification be read likewise.
For example, while the invention has been described in conjunction with the retrieval of messages from a message storage and retrieval device, the invention can be used without such a message storage and retrieval device. For example, the invention contemplates a Caller ID storage and retrieval device which records Caller ID data from callers calling the device and which transmits the Caller ID data to a dialing device on the demand of the owner.
It will therefore be appreciated by those skilled in the art that yet other modifications could be made to the provided invention without deviating from its spirit and scope as so claimed.
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|American Telephone And Telegraph Company
|Arrangement for obtaining information about abandoned calls
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|Klausner Patent Technologies
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|Feb 14, 1995
|Klausner Patent Technologies
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|Ball; Randel H.
|Telephone call screening and answering device
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|Nov 14, 1995
|Reuben; Douglas S.
|Calling number display and recording system
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|Mar 26, 1996
|Rolm Company
|Apparatus and method for relaying calling information to a pager or alternate telephone
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|Apr 16, 1996
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|Jun 9, 1998
|Yablon; Jay R.
|Enhanced system for transferring, storing and using signaling information in a switched telephone network
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|Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
|Telephone answering unit with caller identification and message recording function
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|Cybiotronics, Ltd.
|Voice caller I.D. apparatus
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|Jun 22, 1999
|Nguyen; Vinh H.
|Text teletype writer with caller identification function
|Sep 25, 1997
|Aug 10, 1999
|Bellsouth Corporation
|Method for identifying the source of a facsimile communication
|Feb 10, 1997
|Aug 24, 1999
|Network assisted callback system
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|May 23, 2000
|Estech Systems, Inc.
|Dialing using caller ID
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|Sep 18, 2001
|Lucent Technologies Inc.
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|System and method for providing service transparency for mobile terminating calls within an H.323 system
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|Jan 29, 2002
|At&T Wireless Services, Inc.
|Method and apparatus for providing a caller ID alias
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|Genuity Inc.
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|Method and system for processing a telephone call
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|May 20, 2003
|Agere Systems Inc.
|Telephone number recognition of spoken telephone number in a voice message stored in a voice messaging system
|Beyda, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/738,532, filed Dec. 15, 2000, Methods and Apparatus for Forwarding Caller ID Data From a Call Answering Device Utilizing a Call Control System.
|Beyda, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/738,812, filed Dec. 15, 2000, Method and Apparatus for Forwarding Caller ID Data From a Call Answering Device.
|Citing Patent
|Filing date
|Publication date
|Mar 26, 2002
|Jan 2, 2007
|Siemens Communications, Inc., Boca Raton
|Apparatus and method for providing a secondary messaging system for a ToL communication system
|Nov 7, 2005
|Aug 4, 2009
|Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
|Telephone system having message recording function
|Aug 23, 2010
|Mar 31, 2015
|Tracbeam Llc
|Locating a mobile station and applications therefor
|May 24, 2010
|Jun 16, 2015
|Tracbeam, Llc
|System and method for hybriding wireless location techniques
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|Jan 12, 2016
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|Mar 1, 2016
|Tracbeam, Llc
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|Jan 3, 2017
|Finetrak, Llc
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|Litwin Louis Robert
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|Beyda William J.
|Apparatus and method for providing a secondary messaging system for aToL communication system
|Sep 23, 2002
|Mar 25, 2004
|Mallory Robert Corey
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|U.S. Classification
|379/88.19, 379/210.01, 379/142.01
|International Classification
|Cooperative Classification
|European Classification
|Dec 15, 2000
Owner name: SIEMENS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION NETWORKS, IN
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text:
Hershey's Halloween Candy Monster Mix
I so wish they had Hershey's monster mix Halloween candy when I was trick-or-treating as a kid! But now I get to be the one who hands it out! This delightful bag comes with Whoppers, Twizzlers, Milk Duds, chocolate lollipops, and two types of Jolly Ranchers! There's about 80 pieces of candy in each bag, so it's a monstrous deal!


text:
The Twilight Disciples...Too Little, Too Late (3 of 8) by Jim Henry
This content is part of a series.Jim Henry, Pastor
First Baptist Church
3T0G L. B. MIcLeod Road
Orlando, Florida 32805-6691
Reprinted from Radio Program, "WE BELIEVE"
Program #186, CT 503172
"The Twilight Disciples.. .Too Little, Too Late"
(John 19:38)
Later, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of
Jesus, asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now
Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly
because he feared the Jews. With Pilate's
permission, he came and took the body.
He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who had
earlier visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus
brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about
seventy-five pounds.
Taking Jesus' body, the two of them wrapped it,
with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in
accordance with Jewish burial customs.
At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was
a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which
no one had ever been laid.
Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and
since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
In my second pastorate, in rural Mississippi, we lived not too far from
a little country store, and had to drive over a little narrow, one lane
bridge to get there. One day as I was returning home from that little
store, I saw a carload of men coming toward me. As I waited for them
to cross, I saw them hurl a large sack into the creek, then drive on.
As they passed, I looked for a familiar face, but I hadn't seen these
rough, tough-looking men before. I stopped and went over to the side
to see what it was they had thrown. There, at the edge of the water I
saw the sack and heard yelping, and I realized that they had intended
to drown these puppies.
I had never witnessed this kind of action before, and since I love
animals it hurt me. But then something else happened in my mind. I
began to think, well, if I go down and try to get those dogs out and
the men come back here, anyone as mean as that might come after me.
Then, I thought if I should g ...
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text:
Obama Kicks Off Fund Drive in Chicago
President Barack Obama returns to his hometown of Chicago Wednesday night to kick off what's expected to be a record-breaking campaign fund-raising drive.
Mr. Obama, who formally announced his candidacy last week, will headline three events in the Windy City, raking in money for the Democratic National Committee and his 2012 re-election campaign.
Mr. Obama will first speak at two fund-raising dinners at a pair of upscale Chicago restaurants, with tickets costing as much as $35,800. An estimated 225 donors are expected to attend each dinner event
The president will then rally some of his younger suppporters at a "Gen44″ event at Chicago's Navy Pier. Tickets begin at $100 apiece, and organizers are expecting 2,000 attendees.
Mr. Obama will be joined on his Chicago swing by several VIPs and former White House staffers, including his former chief of staff and Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel. Singer Colbie Caillat is set to perform, and several pro athletes will be on hand, including retired Chicago Bulls point guard BJ Armstrong, retired Chicago Cub Ernie Banks, Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls and Rashard Mendenhall of the Pittsburgh Steelers…


text:
May 10 food drive will help fill pantries
May 10 food drive will help fill pantries
As we all prepare to celebrate Mother's Day, let us remember all the mothers who struggle to provide the basics of food and shelter for their children.
On May 10, the Post Office will be holding its national "Stamp Out Hunger" food drive. This drive helps provide food to those in need in Schenectady County.
In years past, citizens have worked together to make this drive a wonderful success. The people of Schenectady County have been extremely generous in their support of the drive, and postal workers cheerfully work just a bit harder on that day as they collect food to help fill the pantries.
The Schenectady County Food Providers, a group that includes local food pantries and feeding programs, will use the food collected to address the rising hunger challenge in our community.
On behalf of the Schenectady Country Food Providers (Bethesda House, Northeast Parent & Child Society, Safe House, Salvation Army Booth Home, Schenectady Inner City Ministry (SICM) Food Pantry, Scotia-Glenville Food Pantry, St. Luke's Food Pantry, Braman Food Pantry, Our Lady of Fatima Food Pantry, YWCA Services to Families, and State Street Presbyterian Food Pantry) and all those families who need of a helping hand, I say thank you in advance for donating to the May 10 Postal Drive.
Shennan Jarboe
The writer is director of the SICM Food Program and a member of the Schenectady Country Food Providers.
Galway Food Pantry thanks SEFCU for support
The State Employees Federal Credit Union [SEFCU] has long been a supporter of the communities of the Capital Region. The Galway Food Pantry wishes to publicly acknowledge this commitment and our gratitude.
The cutbacks in federal and state aid have proven devastating to all families living below the poverty level, including those in our community. It has also challenged our ability to provide assistance to them. Because of a grant from SEFCU we can continue to provide food to these deserving families.
Our volunteer staff wish to thank SEFCU for their generous support.
Pauline McFadden
Ballston Spa Grant Coordinator
Galway Food Pantry


text:
The online option for viewing is growing in acceptance but still lags far behind traditional cable and satellite.
Less than half of homes have a television or device connected to a television capable of streaming video that is used to stream at any point during a month. The number of homes that can access ESPN simply entering the channel number on the remote, flipping channels or using program guide is more than double the number that have Netflix.
Given the smaller number of people who have the technology to access streaming vs traditional television and the smaller number of people who take advantage of the technology they have, the ability to reach viewers by streaming is a concern.
Viewers are less likely to just stumble upon a game as they do with the established channels and choose to watch.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently posted online viewing numbers for the Sun Belt. The report showed that Missouri at Arkansas State, available only on ESPN3 drew 139,960 unique viewers.
To put those numbers in perspective, the same day that the Red Wolves and Tigers played San Jose State and Air Force drew 128,000 viewers on ESPNU, Purdue and Indiana State had 101,000 viewers on ESPNEWS and Eastern Illinois at Northwestern pulled in 59,000 viewers on ESPNEWS.
While far behind the day's most watched game (Oregon vs. Michigan State with nearly 7.9 million viewers) the numbers for Mizzou-AState show the potential for streaming.
SEC Network, Big Ten Network, Pac-12 Network, CBS Sports, American Sports Network, and the various Fox networks other than Fox, FS1, and FS2 are not reported in national ratings. Those networks are generally assumed to draw lower ratings given the selection of games available and smaller reach of the networks.
Based on the reported networks there are other games on traditional television last year that had average ratings below the audience online for AState and Mizzou.
Tulane - SMU 56,000 ESPNEWS
Tulsa-Cincinnati 61,000 ESPNEWS
Tulsa - ECU 62,000 ESPNEWS
Tulsa-SMU 63,000 ESPNEWS
UCF-Tulsa 67,000 ESPNEWS
Tulane - UCF 73,000 ESPNEWS
SMU - Memphis 77,000 ESPNEWS
UMass - Buffalo 81,000 ESPNU
ULM - Texas State 84,000 ESPNU
Tulane-Temple 90,000 ESPNU
UCF-Cincinnati 101,000 ESPNEWS
Ball State - Ohio 101,000 ESPNU
Central Michigan - Kent State 106,000 ESPNU
Texas State - Ga Southern 107,000 ESPNU
UConn-UCF 111,000 ESPNEWS
LaTech - Rice 113,000 FS1
USF-UConn 121,000 ESPNU
UConn - Tulane 130,000 ESPNEWS


text:
By Pete Daugherty, Cincinnati Enquirer
NEW ORLEANS When Florida football coach Urban Meyer retired for a few minutes last week, he said this:
"I didn't want to be the guy who let it all pass me by, not seeing my kids grow up. When I came to Florida, the chest pains were controlling my life."
He came to Florida five seasons ago. He's staying. It isn't the chest pains controlling his life.
In the space of a weekend, the 45-year-old Meyer went from retiring to taking an indefinite leave of absence to acknowledging Sunday that, ah, um, well, yeah, he'd probably be back on the Gators sideline next fall. He'll be there Friday, against Cincinnati in the Sugar Bowl. Presence makes the heart grow fonder.
A "spirited" practice changed his mind, Meyer said. A coach who two days earlier had admitted that coaching was killing him overruled himself because of one good practice. Meyer has it bad.
It's not a criticism, just an observation. So is this: Football coaches are a breed apart. College football coaches are a sub-breed all to themselves. They're nuts. We say this in the nicest of ways.
ADDAZIO SUPPORT: Florida players excited to follow interim coach
Heart surgeons could be this obsessed. Captains of industry, Wall Street traders, comedians, jugglers and clowns doing their tricks for you. All could be as captive to their work as college football coaches. I couldn't tell you. I don't write about them.
I can tell you about college football coaches, though. They could win a five-year staring contest.
To a college football coach, all problems can be solved by Working Harder. One more practice, one more rep, one more hour watching video. Eating is an afterthought, exercise a dream. Things that make for a normal life are always optional and occasionally forbidden. You can tell when an assistant college football coach is Working Harder: He gains 30 pounds, looks like Casper the Friendly Ghost and has bags that could pass for suitcases under his eyes.
Sam Wyche coached a year at Indiana. Some weeks, Wyche would dispatch a graduate assistant to the campus of the Hoosiers next opponent, especially if it were a rival within reasonable driving distance.
The GA's job was to monitor the other team's coaches' offices. Specifically, to note whether the lights were on. The minute they were not, the assistant called Wyche. That's when Wyche allowed his coaches to go home.
Other coaches simply call those offices, then hang up if somebody answers.
When I was young and knew everything, I covered East Carolina. The Pirates' coach was Ed Emory. He was certifiable. Emory held two-a-day practices in preseason, just like almost every other coach.. . until he found out his first-game opponent was running three-a-days. Emory went ballistic, then shared his madness with his players. Three-a-days.
Jim Young once coached Army in a bowl game with a squad of EMTs standing vigil behind his bench and an ambulance idling in the parking lot. Young spent the pregame on the locker room floor, fighting for breath. When medical personnel suggested a hospital visit, Young suggested they eat spit. Army won the game, by the way.
And so on.
If there is a law of diminishing returns in the college football coaching business, it's news to the coaches. Just give them five more minutes or five more hours of Working Harder watching an A-gap blitz. And we're not even counting the hours spent recruiting, fundraising, dealing with parents and police and professors and eligibility issues and boosters' handshakes. You want to do this? You gotta be crazy.
It's why Meyer could say one day he wanted to quit, and be entirely sincere, then the next day be swayed by a great practice. It's why he's so good at what he does.
Meyer didn't just have heart concerns. He lived for years with a benign cyst on his brain that triggered severe migraines. He even referenced Skip Prosser in explaining his decision to walk away. "After he went down, it really hit me."
But not too hard.
If you're a Cincinnati fan, Meyer's un-retirement is good news. There won't be any win-one-for-Coach motivation on the other sideline. After the news hit Saturday, ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit said, "So much for Cincinnati." So much for Herbstreit's gratuitous analysis.
If you're a Meyer fan or a fan of college football, you hold your breath. The heart wants what it wants. College football coaches know how the game's played, for better or worse.
Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more.


text:
Tracking country statements at the UN
From its beginnings in 2009, the CND Blog has aimed to ensure transparency and provide live records of the discussions taking place at UN drug policy fora. In line with these efforts, we have launched an exciting new add-on to this platform: a series of maps that visually represent country positions on key drug policy issues at the recent UNGASS of 2016.
- Decriminalisation
- Harm reduction
- Death penalty
- Gender
- Sustainable development goals
- Human rights
- Proportionality of sentencing
- War on drugs vs. New paradigms
- Drug-free world
- New indicators
- Treaty reform
- Legalisation / Legal regulation
Please note these maps are produced on the basis of the non-literal real-time accounts available on this site. While all care has been taken to ensure that the information presented here reflects the spirit of official statements, inaccuracies are possible. If you wish to suggest an amendment, please write to us at contact[@]idpc.net.