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Football Contest
Davids, Miller reelected, but now find themselves in minority
By David Phillips
Wednesday, November 14, 2012 4:10 AM
Voters in the area reelected Rep. Greg Davids and Sen. Jeremy Miller by healthy margins, but the two Republicans will find themselves in the minority when they return to the Capitol in January as both the House and Senate in Minnesota flipped from Republican to DFL control as a result of the statewide vote last week.
Davids beat DFL challenger Ken Tschumper with 58.2 percent of the vote in District 28B. He carried every precinct in Fillmore County except Holt Township, Lanesboro, Mabel and Peterson.
Miller polled 57.1 percent of the vote in the district against Jack Krage. He carried all precincts in Fillmore County except Canton Township, Lanesboro, Mabel, Newburg Township and Peterson.
Davids said he was pleased with the way the vote went in his district, which now includes his former home. He said voters responded to his message of turning a shortfall into a surplus, working with both sides of the aisle and prioritizing state budget issues to aid areas such as K-12 education and public safety.
"We worked very, very hard and we were very pleased with the results," said Davids. He added that he was "blessed" with a good group of volunteers, adding "you know, you don't do it by yourself."
As far as the statewide results that changed the House from a 72-61 Republican majority to a 73-61 DFL majority, Davids feels the constitutional amendments on the ballot hurt the Republicans, particularly in the second and third ring suburbs, where his party lost a lot of seats. They "brought out a lot of folks to defeat those" and they likely didn't support Republican candidates, he said.
"The people are always right; the people have spoken," said Davids.
In his 20-year legislative career, he has spent 10 years as part of the majority and 10 years as part of the minority. He said he prefers the majority, but has no problem working in the minority.
He has established a good relationship with the other side of the aisle, he said, citing the Minnesota House Taxes Committee that he was chairman of for the past two years. He noted the committee always heard DFL provisions first.
"They've seen that I have been able to operate in a very bipartisan way as tax chair," he said.
Although he has operated as a member of the minority party previously, the new alignment will be "unfamiliar territory" as this will be the first time in his legislative career in which both branches and the governor are all controlled by one party. When one party controls too much, there is a tendency for overreach, something he has seen in the past from both parties.
However, his take on comments from the new majority leaders is that they will take a cautious approach, realizing that the governor's tax plan "won't fly in this fragile economy." He says he intends to work with the majority party and "hope to do some good things for southeastern Minnesota" during the next two years.
"You have to build relationships," he said. "They will pay off in the end."
Miller's second term
Miller said it's an honor to be reelected to serve the people of Fillmore, Houston and Winona counties in District 28.
"Our win is the result of working hard, working together and getting things done for our district and the state of Minnesota," said Miller.
Miller was first elected two years ago when Republicans took control of both chambers of the Legislature for the first time in 40 years. However Tuesday's election reversed that as the Senate went from 37-30 Republican to 39-28 DFL as a result of voting last week.
Miller said the turnaround won't change his approach much as he will continue to listen to the people and work together with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to get things done.
"It's not good for any party, Democrat or Republican, to have complete control of the Legislature and governor's office," said Miller. "It's important to have checks and balances, but the reality is Minnesota now has one party in full control. The good news is that the state of Minnesota is in much better financial and economic position today compared to two years ago."
He pointed out that in less than two years, the state went from a budget deficit of more than $6 billion to a budget surplus of more than $1 billion. The state's unemployment rate dropped from more than 7 percent to under 6 percent.
"This is the result of being fiscally responsible, reforming state government, and promoting policies that encourage job growth and economic development," said Miller.
He said his priorities for the 2013 legislative session are jobs and the economy, fiscal responsibility and education, noting that he will also continue to support senior citizens, veterans and the most vulnerable.
Federal offices
Incumbents also fared well at the federal level as local voters nearly mirrored the state in supporting President Barack Obama, Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Rep. Tim Walz.
A total of 52.5 percent of Fillmore County voters supported Obama, which is just shy of the 52.6 percent support he had statewide in Minnesota. His strongest support was in the eastern and southern portions of the county.
Klobuchar had the support of 64.7 percent of Fillmore County voters, which compares to her 65.2 percent mark statewide. She didn't lose a single precinct in the county.
Walz polled better in Fillmore County with 61.2 percent of the vote than the rest of District 1, where he had 57.5 percent of the vote. Only Fillmore and Jordan townships failed to give him a majority in Fillmore County.
Voters in Minnesota shot down both constitutional amendments on the ballot. This was the only item on the ballot in which Fillmore County voters didn't mirror the state.
The marriage amendment, which was voted down statewide with just 47.7 percent support, was supported by 56.9 percent of the voters in Fillmore County. All precincts in the county except Harmony, Lanesboro and Peterson favored the measure.
The amendment also failed in the city of Chatfield, which had more yes votes than no votes, and Carrolton Township, where voters evenly split between yes and no votes. The vote totals in these two precincts fell below the 50 percent threshold because a small number of voters didn't vote on this issue, meaning their votes counted as a no vote. In voting on constitutional amendments, yes votes are taken as a percentage of the entire number of voters, even those who didn't cast a vote on the issue.
The most support was in Fillmore Township at 72.6 percent. Lanesboro was at the other extreme with just 37.9 percent in favor.
The county followed the state trend in the voter ID amendment, voting it down with just 36.7 percent of the voters supporting it, less than the 46.4 percent it received statewide. The only precinct in Fillmore County that had a majority of yes votes was Sumner Township, where 52.5 percent of the voters favored it. Fewer than a third of voters in Amherst Township, Bristol Township, Harmony Township, Lanesboro, Newburg Township, Norway Township and York Township supported this measure.
An estimated 90 percent of the registered voters in Fillmore County participated in the election last Tuesday. The percentage of voters compared to eligible voters in the county is unknown, but the secretary of state's office estimates that it is 76.1 percent statewide, again making the turnout in Minnesota one of the highest, if not the highest, in the nation.
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Has the president done enough to condemn the hate groups, such as the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists rallying in Charlottesville, Virginia?
Not sure
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Shopping Guide: Brighten Up Those Blue Jeans
Roo Panes, a 23-year-old musician from England, sent a demo to Burberry. Soon, he was chosen for the brand's online series of exclusive acoustic videos. And, now, he'll be heading to his first Met Gala and sitting at the Burberry table with plenty of other beautiful men and women who've already made it in the world of style.
The pre-black-tie uniform: Leather jacket, songwriting notebook, jeans.
15 of the Best Derby Shoes for Now

subset: commoncrawl


text: This beautiful trunk is custom-made by Piaget from poplar wood and leather, in your choice of 20 colors. The trunk can hold up to 51 of your favorite watches and even comes with a travel case for your three favorites. Choose your own color palette - or even engrave this beauty - for a lifetime of timepiece enjoyment. It's totally inspired, if I do say so myself.


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— January
By Ben Ellison
Gold Rush!
|Part 2: The big rush, though, is in the "medium data and control" family.
Megayacht-system designer Palladium Technologies has even devised a way to dump 0183 messages into Ethernet and pull them out again on the ship's computers. Ethernet is quickly becoming the standard for what I call "big data": display-to-display radar and chart sharing, for instance. It underlies Furuno's NavNet, Northstar's i2, and Garmin's MarineNet; rumor has it that other big players will soon follow. Ethernet is a fast and able pipeline, but do not make presumptions based on its roots in the computer world. While PC-centric companies like Palladium, VEI, and Nobeltec are using Ethernet to build flexible and redundant computer nav systems, none of the dedicated hardware using Ethernet supports a PC connection—until now. That's why Furuno's just-announced relationship with charting software MaxSea is noteworthy, promising PC access to NavNet's big data stream. Also deserving future coverage are the new Ethernet-based radar scanners being adopted by Nobeltec, Garmin, Maptech, and even Lowrance.
The big rush, though, is in the "medium data and control" family. These are networks like Brunswick's SmartCraft, NMEA 2000, and many more that are all based on an industrial standard called CANbus. Call it "medium" because it will handle many more small talkers and listeners than the 0183 family but certainly not radar or charting. Add "control" because, unlike the other two families, CAN (Control Area Network) has built-in prioritization and error-handling good enough for mission-critical work like digital shift and throttle. All electronic engines seem to use some form of CANbus, usually J1939, and (as you can see in "New Products") it's being adopted for systems as diverse as charger/inverters and remote monitoring. CANbus is everywhere.
The good news: It's fairly easy to make any flavor of CANbus communicate with any other flavor, though it may require a translator box called a gateway. The bad news: It's not clear which companies will do this, or when. For instance, those electronic engine displays that are becoming common at big boat helms are very informative, but wouldn't it be neat if a single plug could send all that data into your integrated nav system for a more flexible and stylish display, plus added calculations like combining fuel flow with boat speed to give you miles per gallon? On a smaller-boat scale, that's just what's illustrated by the Navman/SmartCraft screens shown at the beginning of the article. Yes, these two companies both belong to Brunswick, but SmartCraft networking can purportedly be licensed by anyone, even another engine manufacturer, and relationships have been announced with Onan (gensets), Faria (instruments), and DNA (digital switching).
And what about the big daddy of nautical CANbus, the industry-standard NMEA 2000? Numerous engine manufacturers, like Yamaha (with the just announced Command Link), Suzuki, and Volvo Penta, say they will support it eventually, but none does yet. I did watch as a Maretron 2000 compass was plugged into Simrad's version of 2000, SimNet, where it was automatically recognized and made available as a backup-heading source if the first one failed. That's solid gold in terms of easy installation, redundancy, and the opportunity to mix manufacturers. However, the connection had to be made with a special patch cable because Simrad is using its own 2000 plug and cable design instead of the NMEA standard. And Raymarine has its own SeaTalk2 (2000) cable design, and so now does Lowrance with LowranceNet (also NMEA 2000). I'm hoping the different plugs make more sense than all the different names being applied to the same basic network, but it will take more "panning" to figure out and another column to explain.
Next page > Electronics Q&A > Page 1, 2, 3
This article originally appeared in the December 2004 issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.


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Kroger Supermarkets Cuts Average Check-Out Lane Wait Time to 26 Seconds
Not to call anybody out here, but you know how long it takes to check-out at Wal-Mart and some grocery stores in general. Wal-Mart always seems to only ,literally, have just a few lanes open at peak traffic times and it can be absolutely exasperating. Kroger Supermarkets has solved that problem with infrared cameras -- the same cameras used for tracking people by law enforcement and the military.


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21.5-inch iMac (Late 2013) Review: Iris Pro Driving an Accurate Displayby Anand Lal Shimpi on 10/7/2013 3:28 AM EST
127 Comments
Back to Article
g1011999 - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkFinally. I check anandtech several times recently for Iris Pro based iMac 21" review. Reply
malcolmcraft - Thursday, October 09, 2014 - linkIt's nice, I agree. But for a full-size work station I'd not recommend Mac. /Malcolm from http://www.consumertop.com/best-desktop-guide/ Reply
Shivansps - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkI suspecting that the big loss in performance on high details compared to 750M may be related to L4 eDRAM running short than driver issue, as AA, Intel never had good performance with filters, they support hardware x2 AA yet? Reply
tipoo - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkYeah, doesn't AA hammer bandwidth? The eDRAM helps performance, but it's still quite low compared to what the other cards are paired with, even in best case scenarios. Reply
IntelUser2000 - Tuesday, November 12, 2013 - linkI don't think its just that. Compared to the competition like the Trinity's iGPU and the GT 650M, the texture fill rate is rather low. That impacts performance not only in texture bound scenarios with settings cranked up but anti-aliasing as well. The fillrate of the top of the line Iris Pro 5200 is about equal to Trinity while the version in the iMac would fall short. The GT 650M is 40% better than the top of the line Iris Pro and over 55% better than iMac version.
There's also something to be desired about Intel's AA implementation. Hopefully Broadwell improves on this. Reply
IanCutress - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkInterestingly we see Crystalwell not have any effect on CPU benchmarks, although we can probe latency as seen before. Reply
willis936 - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkThis seems counter intuitive. It's acting as a CPU+GPU shared cache correct? Intel architectures are relatively cache bandwidth starved and you'd think that 128MB of L4 would help keep the lower levels filled. Reply
Flunk - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkPerhaps it means that the assumption that Intel architectures are relatively cache bandwidth starved is faulty. Reply
name99 - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkOr that the working set of most benchmarks (if not most apps) is captured with a 4 or 6MB cache?
Caching's basically irrelevant for data that is streamed through. Reply
tipoo - Thursday, October 10, 2013 - linkThe L4 is pretty low bandwidth for a cache though. Reply
elian123 - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkAnand, could you perhaps indicate when you would expect higher-res iMac displays (as well as pc displays in general, not only all-in-ones)? Reply
solipsism - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkBefore that happens Apple will likely need to get their stand-alone Apple display "high-res". I don't expect it to go 2x like avery other one of their display; instead I would suspect it to be 4K, which is exactly 1.5x over the current 27" display size. Note that Apple mentioned 4K many times when previewing the Mac Pro.
Also, the most common size for quality 4K panels appears to be 31.5" so I would't be surprised to see it move to that size. When the iMacs are to get updated I think each would then most likely use a slightly larger display panel. Reply
mavere - Monday, October 07, 2013 - link~75% of the stock desktop wallpapers in OSX 10.9 are at 5120x2880.
It's probably the biggest nudge-nudge-wink-wink Apple has ever given for unannounced products. Reply
name99 - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkWhy does Apple have to go to exactly 4K? We all understand the point, and the value, of going to 2x resolution. The only value in going to exactly 4K is cheaper screens (but cheaper screens means crappy lousy looking screens, so Apple doesn't care). Reply
jasonelmore - Monday, October 07, 2013 - link4k is 16:9 ratio, to do a 16:10 right, they would have to do 5k Reply
repoman27 - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkiMacs have been 16:9 since 2009, and 3840x2400 (4K 16:10) panels have been produced in the past and work just fine. Reply
repoman27 - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkApple is pretty locked in to the current screen sizes and 16:9 aspect ratio by the ID, and I can only imagine they will stick with the status quo for at least one more generation in order to recoup some of their obviously considerable design costs there.
Since Apple sells at best a couple million iMacs of each form factor in a year's time, they kinda have to source panels for which there are other interested customers—we're not even close to iPhone or iPad numbers here. Thus I'd reckon we'll see whatever panels they intend to use in future generations in the wild before those updates happen. As solipsism points out, the speculation that there will be a new ATD with a 31.5", 3840x2160 panel released alongside the new Mac Pro makes total sense because other vendors are already shipping similar displays.
I actually made a chart to illustrate why a Retina iMac was unlikely anytime soon: http://i.imgur.com/CfYO008.png
I listed the size and resolution of previous LCD iMacs, as well as possible higher resolutions at 21.5" and 27". Configurations that truly qualify as "Retina" are highlighted in green, and it looks as though pixel doubling will be Apple's strategy when they make that move. I also highlighted configurations that require two DP 1.1a links or a DP 1.2 link in yellow, and those that demand four DP 1.1a links or two DP 1.2 links in red for both standard CVT and CVT with reduced blanking. Considering Apple has yet to ship any display that requires more than a single DP 1.1a link, and all of the Retina options at 27" are in the red is probably reason alone that such a device doesn't exist yet.
I also included the ASUS PQ321Q 31.5" 3840x2160 display, and the Retina MacBook Pros as points of comparison to illustrate the pricing issues that Retina iMacs would face. While there are affordable GPU options that could drive these displays and still maintain a reasonable degree of UI smoothness, the panels themselves either don't exist or would be prohibitively expensive for an iMac. Reply
name99 - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkOR what you chart tells us is that these devices will be early adopters of the mythical (but on its way) DisplayPort 1.3?
Isn't it obvious that part of the slew of technologies to arrive when 4K hits the mainstream (as opposed to its current "we expect you to pay handsomely for something that is painful to use" phase will be an updated DisplayPort spec? Reply
repoman27 - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkUnlike HDMI 1.4, DisplayPort 1.2 can handle 4K just fine. I'd imagine DP 1.3 should take us to 8K.
What baffles me is that every Mac Apple has shipped thus far with Thunderbolt and either a discrete GPU or Haswell has been DP 1.2 capable, but the ports are limited to DP 1.1a by the Thunderbolt controller. So even though Intel is supposedly shipping Redwood Ridge which has a DP 1.2 redriver, and Falcon Ridge which fully supports DP 1.2, we seem to be getting three generations of Macs where only the Mac Pros can actually output a DP 1.2 signal.
Furthermore, I don't know of any panels out there that actually support eDP HBR2 signaling (introduced in the eDP 1.2 specification in May 2010, clarified in eDP 1.3 in February 2011, and still going strong in eDP 1.4 as of January this year). The current crop of 4K displays appear to be driven by converting a DisplayPort 1.2 HBR2 signal that uses MST to treat the display as 2 separate regions into a ridiculously wide 8 channel LVDS signal. Basically, for now, driving a display at more than 2880x1800 seems to require multiple outputs from the GPU.
And to answer your question about why 4K, the problem is really more to do with creating a panel that has a pixel pitch somewhere in the no man's land between 150 and 190 PPI. Apple does a lot of work to make scaling decent even with straight up pixel doubling, but the in-between pixel densities would be really tricky, and probably not huge sellers in the Windows market. Apple needs help with volume in this case, they can't go it alone and expect anything short of ludicrously expensive. Reply
name99 - Tuesday, October 08, 2013 - linkMy bad. I had in mind the fancier forms of 4K like 10 bits (just possible) and 12 bit (not possible) at 60Hz, or 8bit at 120Hz; not your basic 8 bits at 60Hz. I should have filled in my reasoning. Reply
elian123 - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkAlso wondering when (and where) the 4770R will ever turn up. Reply
elian123 - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkWell, one thing Google shows me is that Gigabyte has shown (though not announced) a Brix with 4770R: http://blog.laptopmag.com/gigabyte-brix-iris-graph... and http://www.pcgameshardware.de/CPU-Hardware-154106/... Reply
mavere - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkI think it'd make for a pretty sweet Mac Mini. Reply
Penti - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkInteresting to see were Apple wants their starting point to be.
Obviously they don't want that much choice in their iMacs, still waiting to see what they do with their mac mini's too.
Can't help but wonder if you can actually separate the glass and LCD though, has anybody tried? What technique and adhesive does LG/Apple use here? Has anybody tried to run another LCD-panel from the newer iMacs (2012/13)? Older panels might actually be drivable, would be a paint to rebuild a new iMac for those though. Reply
Dennis Travis - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkEverything I have read says it's one integrated unit with the Glass/LCD together. I am also interesting and will keep looking but it does not look possible so far. Reply
Dennis Travis - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkOops Interested! :D Grin Reply
Penti - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkIt's sold as one unit, but obviously it's bonded with an adhesive, depending on how it might not be possible to separate the two. It should maybe be able to drive older iMac displays though. But those are a few mm thicker. Reply
Dennis Travis - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkKnowing Apple you would probably crack the glass if you tried. Reply
Penti - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkAs it's gapless the adhesive covers the whole panel which probably ruins it anyway, or will be hard to clean as you can't really use (strong) solvents on the LCD, but it's fully doable on phones which also adheres the screens with adhesive. Would be interesting to know if that kind of adhesive can be loosened by heat though. Plus it would probably be harder then a small screen here. Reply
pdffs - Monday, October 07, 2013 - link"I've heard some developers complain about this in the past, partly blaming it on a lack of lower level API access as OS X doesn't support DirectX and must use OpenGL instead."
Wait, doesn't OpenGL get you *closer* to the hardware than DirectX?? Reply
A5 - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkNot really, no. They're at about the same level of abstraction since they both sit above the driver stack. Reply
Flunk - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkThere is also the issue that the driver sits farther up the stack than it does in Windows. Mach being a hybrid microkernel and all. I'm sure they can close the gap with a lot of work, but it doesn't erase the fact that Mac OS's basic structure is not designed to provide direct hardware access. Reply
overzealot - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkThe Windows kernel is also a hybrid microkernel. Reply
bestham - Monday, October 07, 2013 - link"Storage & Fusion Drive – By default all of the iMacs come with a 3.5" mechanical hard drive." The physical harddrive size is differentiated between the 21.5" and the 27". I suspect that you already knew this but it slipped. Reply
Anand Lal Shimpi - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkThank you, fixed :) Reply
rootheday3 - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkMy opinion: Many games look pretty good at medium and it is not clear that the compromise in frame rate is worth it to push for higher settings vs running at medium with higher resolution.
Regarding the Iris Pro gaming results - the jump from 13x7 medium (where Iris seems to have plenty of power to spare) up to 16x9 high/very high - this is a change of two variables: both resolution and settings.
Can you rerun some of the gaming tests at 16x9 medium (or maybe native panel resolution - 19x10 medium where 13x7 results were close to 60fps) to see what that shows? Reply
rootheday3 - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkone other question - is there any ability to OC the IGP in the bios? Typically Intel gpus have a fair bit of OC headroom and it would be interesting to see:
1) what kind of performance/playability can be extracted
2) to what extent the igp clock frequency is the limiter on Iris Pro vs cpu, memory bandwidth, etc. Reply
jeffkibuule - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkThis is a Mac! There is no bios, never has been. Reply
DanNeely - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkEveryone who isn't an annoying pedant conflates bios and uefi in general usage. Reply
repoman27 - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkAnd everyone who isn't an annoying pedant would also realize that jeffkibuule meant, "There is no [user accessible BIOS/EFI/UEFI], never has been." Reply
BiggieShady - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkNice iris vs. geforce gaming comparison. I would love to see temperature and fan speed comparison. Reply
name99 - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkIt is crazy how cool these things run. I have a late 2012 27" i7 iMac and there is no part of it that is close to hot. The fan dumps hot air through a single hole which is very cleverly hidden below the hinge of the base so you don't even feel that unless you really look for it.
Even when I've run the thing at max performance, having eight Mathematica kernels running in parallel for fifteen min or so, there's no obvious heating and no obvious fan noise.
The difference with even as recent as the 2007 iMac (my last model) is night and day. Part is the much more efficient CPUs, part is also the much more efficient display. Reply
odaiwai - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkHow do you see the actual CPU current speed on an intel Mac? I've been looking for a utility to do that for ages. Reply
abazigal - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkAll this points to the possibility of a 15" retina macbook pro using only integrated graphics, which means comparable performance, with even longer battery life.
Fun times ahead! Reply
dylan522p - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkProbably only low end MBPr will do that this year, but next year if 6200 or whatever the Broadwell graphics are improved enough then very likely that could happen. Reply
tipoo - Thursday, October 10, 2013 - linkI hope they go the other way with it. GT3e for the 13" duo (especially for the retina, that would be a boon),and keep higher end discreet graphics in the larger models. Reply
lefty2 - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkYou forgot to mention that the fusion drive is not supported by Windows (if you are using bootcamp)
"If you partition the drive, the new partition will not be part of the logical-volume group that Fusion Drive uses, so it will not benefit from the speed of the SSD"
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57549766-263/... Reply
ananduser - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkMan that Iris looks a lot worse in reality than I expected it to be. You really have to crank down the resolution and details to get some decent gaming performance. Then again this is the base imac, it's got compromise written all over it. Reply
CharonPDX - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkCorrection: You state "By default all of the iMacs come with a 3.5" mechanical hard drive."
iFixIt has shown that the 21.5" iMacs now come with 2.5" mechanical hard drives by default, not 3.5". Reply
AlValentyn - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkLooks like my 2010 Mac Pro with 3.33 Hex core is still going strong. Finally going to add an SSD to it, and now I'm just waiting to see what AMD's R9 series GPU's are like.
It is impressive to see how well these iMacs are doing these days though. :) Reply
mikk - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkThe difference to the 55W Macbook Iris Pro is so big in some tests that we can't explain it with a 10% lower GPU frequency. Anand once again failed to give us readers proper system infos. You have to learn that 8GB DDR3-1600 is not enough because it can be 2x4 GB in dualchannel or 1x8GB in singlechannel. Reply
Anand Lal Shimpi - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkAll modern Macs ship in dual-channel mode.
It's not just GPU frequency but turbo residency, which is lower on the 4570R for some reason. Reply
thunng8 - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkThere is no 55W Macbook Iris Pro.
It was an Intel supplied development board - not even in laptop form factor. Reply
coolhardware - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkTypo on last paragaph of page 4:
'Doing *to* brings the price of the entry level 21.5-inch iMac up to $1499...'
Interesting to see another look at Iris Pro. The current generation continues to leave me a bit disappointed, I had such high hopes for it. Here's hoping that Intel makes some significant strides in the next generation (i.e. signigicantly more than 10-15% improvement) Reply
Anand Lal Shimpi - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkEdited :)
I suspect Broadwell will improve things once again, but Intel seems to be consistently one generation behind what we actually want for that generation. Reply
tipoo - Thursday, October 10, 2013 - linkAs soon as Broadwell comes out I'm sure we'll all be on the "wait for the actual new architecture" boat, such is technology :P
But if Broadwell packs twice the EUs and the eDRAM bandwidth to feed it, that would be quite nice on the GPU side. I just hope they can improve the CPU side more. Reply
farhadd - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkThe high end 27" imac is a 775M. Reply
kwrzesien - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkAnand, typo in the specs chart on the first page.
The top 27" model graphics should be "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 775M (2GB GDDR5)". 775M instead of 755M. Reply
Anand Lal Shimpi - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkEdited, thank you! Reply
squirrelboy - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linki'm again baffled by this. who in their right minds would pay 1,3K for something with a low-end i5 and an iGPU? those specs belong in a $500 laptop. i really can't wrap my head around why anyone would do this. think of all the hardware you could get for that money! you'd be looking at an i5-4670k + gtx770 Reply
saarek - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkThe problem is that you are looking at this from a technical spec based point of view.
It is true that you can build a more powerful computer for less, some may argue far less. Still, these calculations usually fail to take account of the design of the chassis, build/material quality and value of the overall design of the iMac/MacPro/Whatever other Apple product you can think of.
One must consider that the average person does not wish to build their own computer and is not interested in a specification check list.
Most people want a fast, reliable and user friendly computer and are willing to pay a fair price for this experience. The entry level 21" iMac is a perfect fit for the large majority of the market. Reply
DukeN - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkYes, you need to look at it from an iDouche point of view.
Besides, you can't put an intrinsic value on having an iFaeces Pro on your desk so you can look cool and smug, and feel good when you see all the Apple commercials on TV. Reply
nerd1 - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkSo your logic is "average' person is ignorant. It's sad the apple's sales proves that.. Reply
web2dot0 - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkI guess if you think people who spends $100 for jeans are "idiots", "ignorant". You are correct. But that doesn't mean that designer jeans manufacturer stops making them. In fact, they are highly profitable.
They are also not idiots.
The #1 reason why people why designer jeans is because THEY LOOK BETTER. They all do the same thing .... cover your crotch. But there's value in style .... if you don't care of it, it doesn't mean that other people who value it are "ignorant" or "idiot".
That's alot of idiots running around the earth ..... have you thought maybe it's the other way around? Reply
squirrelboy - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linki guess i'm too rational to prioritize computer design above price/performance. if i want a pc for general office tasks, spending more than €400 seems like a waste of money. If i were to spend 1,3K on a pc, i'd prefer it to be good at it's purpose. i dont look at the pc, but at what it displays on the screen. Reply
web2dot0 - Saturday, October 12, 2013 - linkYour ignorant comment tells me that you walk around like a caveman. Why buy shampoo? Make sure own. Why why toothpaste? Make your own.
Why go out to eat? Stay home, it's cheaper. It's all about what goes into your mouth right?
Idiot Reply
foolio5 - Monday, October 14, 2013 - linkYour analogies are poor. Reply
tipoo - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkThe 21 inch IPS display costs something too. Reply
nerd1 - Monday, October 07, 2013 - link21" 1080p display are dirt cheap nowadays. Reply
Dug - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkNot a calibrated IPS Reply
Calista - Tuesday, October 08, 2013 - linkThey have become pretty inexpensive nowadays. A Dell 21" Dell Ultrasharp IPS-screen is only 40-50 USD more expensive than the cheapest TN-panel. Still don't think people are fair when complaining about the cost of the iMac. It's quiet, it looks good, it holds a great resale value. A lot of people would think twice about dropping $500 a month of their car, why not spend a few extra quid on a computer? Back in the days a computer was expensive, now it's so cheap it's almost silly. Reply
repoman27 - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkNot that I'd buy a base model 21.5-inch iMac, but I think most consumers could care less about their CPU and GPU specs and are looking more at the overall package. For most office desk jockeys, school computer labs, customer use / internet kiosks, parents, etc., the iMac probably makes more sense than a custom built overclocked gaming rig.
It also depends on how much you value what you get in said package. The i5-4570R is essentially an i5-4430S with Iris Pro 5200, so it's likely a $240-270 part. Then there's the rather well calibrated 1920x1080 IPS panel which would run another $150 or so. The keyboard and mouse that are included have a combined retail price of $138. Then there's the 3x3:3 802.11ac Wi-Fi plus Bluetooth 4.0, Broadcom GbE NIC and SDXC UHS-I card reader, Thunderbolt, 720p camera, dual microphones, built-in amp and stereo speakers, plus whatever value you put on OS X and the bundled iLife suite. Reply
Flunk - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkScreen, form-factor, OS. Performance isn't the number one concern for many people. Reply
Dug - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkSomeone that wants everything built in that doesn't sound or look like a piece of crap.
Add up everything that is included and it's not that expensive. Especially when you consider the cpu is quad core (almost all laptop i5's are dual core), 802.11ac, dual mics, webcam, speakers, bluetooth, sdxc, thunderbolt, wireless keyboard and trackpad, a calibrated IPS monitor, and the best part is no noise and only one cable with no power brick. Try and do that with any diy build and tell me how much it is. Reply
KoolAidMan1 - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkIPS screens aren't cheap, nor are AIO designs. Dell, HP, and Lenovo can't get lower prices when they try to compete in specs or display quality either.
A $500 laptop isn't going to have a good display, keyboard, or trackpad either, and resale value is going to be nothing. Comparing a trash laptop to something with much higher quality components that holds value over time doesn't make sense. Reply
robsparko - Tuesday, October 08, 2013 - linkThis argument is getting old and inaccurate. People don't always want laptops. Additionally, bottom of the barrel hardware has a very short life span. Sometimes, it is nice to have a well integrated AIO without cables running everywhere. Sure, not everyone wants a computer that will last 3+ years and that is perfectly fine.
But, just for fun, here's some pricing from NewEgg parts I believe would be of similar quality to an iMac. Yes, you can find cheaper cases/PSU/etc, but an iMac isn't built using the cheapest components. Likewise, feel free to buy a Dell! But, to call people who buy an iMac ignorant/ out of the mind/ etc is just proving a lack of insight into the situation and market pricing.
250 i5 cpu w/ IRIS (good luck finding it! NewEgg's uses HD4600)
150 mobo
75 case
75 psu
235 IPS 21.5" lcd
65 hdd
50 webcam w/ mic
75 ram
140 windows
65 wireless kb/mouse
35 speakers
?? shipping/tax
?? Time to built
1215 Total + extra Reply
Calista - Tuesday, October 08, 2013 - linkWhat you did is a game created to let Apple look good. I made a similar list with parts from Newegg. It was only $1150 but included a Shuttle case, a 27" IPS-display from Dell, a 240 GB Intel SSD and 16 GB of RAM. And Windows 8 Retail obviously. A similar config but with a 21" display from Apple was $1870. The 27" iMac with similar configuration was almost $2400, i.e. twice as expensive as the PC. Reply
web2dot0 - Saturday, October 12, 2013 - linkLet me guess, your parts are the same part quality as Apple's ? :)
The case isn't worth anything, a calibrated monitor isn't worth anything, AIO isn't worth anything, fusion drive isn't worth anything, .... That's cool.
I can play that game too jackass Reply
foolio5 - Monday, October 14, 2013 - linkAre you really equating an inflated price to higher quality parts? Quick tell me the difference between Kingston and Samsung Ram! How do you know his PSU isn't a Seasonic? What exactly is the brand HDD Apple uses? I heard this all the time about quality parts when everything Apple uses is Samsung or Foxconn. Yes Foxconn... the epitome of quality OEMs!
You are adding a lot of money for having an AIO. He is using a Dell 27" IPS, that should clue you into the fact that it is an Ultrasharp which is calibrated, also hes using an SSD so again tell me how a Hybrid beats out an SSD.
Lastly, are you 12 or something. Your name calling is immature. Reply
abazigal - Tuesday, October 08, 2013 - linkI would (if I didn't already own a 2011 27" imac), which I found to be worth every cent.
It makes perfect financial sense when you realise that you are not so much buying a computer, as you are getting an integrated solution that's ready to use right out of the box. I find that Macs come with excellent functionality without me having to spend much time setting it up.
Already, it comes preloaded with the excellent iLife suite, a great pdf annotation reader (preview), a stable OS that continues to run smoothly 2 years on without me needing to do anything to maintain it, entry to the Apple ecosystem, and access to fairly inexpensive Mac software.
Then, there is the good aftercare service. Once, my Imac developed screen issues. I made a call to the service centre. 20 minutes later, an appointment was made. They came down to my house the next day, brought it back for servicing, and delivered it back to my house 2 days later. Problem solved with minimal effort or stress on my part.
So in the end, the extra that I am paying is well worth it for the promise of a seamless and hassle-free computing experience. Which I value more than if I were to simply build a desktop using parts sourced individually (and then having to deal with all the troubleshooting on my own subsequently). Reply
Res1233 - Wednesday, October 30, 2013 - linkMac OS X is the main reason I buy macs. I have a feeling that you are right about most mac users having no clue what they're buying, but I could go on for hours about the advantages of OS X (geek-wise). No, hackintoshes are not an option if you want any kind of reliability, so don't even go there. If you force me to, I will explain my reasoning in depth to practically anandtech-levels, but I'm not in the mood right now. Perhaps another time! :) Reply
tipoo - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkWhat are the chances of the 13" Pro duo getting Iris Pro 5200? I'd really love that. Reply
Bob Todd - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkHave they announced any dual core Iris Pro parts? I know the original SKU list just had them in the quads. I still assume the 13" rMBP will get the 28W HD 5100 (hopefully in base configuration, but there will probably be a lower spec i5 below that). Reply
Flunk - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkIt's unsure, a new part could be announced at any time. Intel has even made variants specifically for Apple before. Reply
tipoo - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkIt shouldn't have to be dual core to be in the 13" pros though. Intel has quads in the same TDP as the current duals in it. A quad core, with GT3e, that would make it an extremely tempting package for me. Reply
Sm0kes - Tuesday, October 08, 2013 - linkI think anything but GT3e in the 13'' Macbook Pro is going to be a disappointment at this point. How their 13'' "pro" machine has gone this long with sub-par integrated graphics is mind boggling. The move to a retina display really emphasized the weakness.
I'd also venture a guess that cost is the real barrier, as opposed to TDP. Reply
tipoo - Thursday, October 10, 2013 - linkPerhaps. Yeah, the 13" has been disappointing to me, I love the form factor, but hate the standard screen resolution, and the HD4000 is really stretched on the Retina. If it stays a dual core, I don't see a whole lot of appeal over the Macbook Air 13" either. To earn that pro name, it really should be a quad with higher end integrated graphics. Reply
Hrel - Monday, October 07, 2013 - link"This is really no fault of Apple's, but rather a frustrating side effect of Intel's SKU segmentation strategy."
So I take it I'm not the only one infuriated by the fact that Intel hasn't made Hyperthreading standard on all of it's CPU's.
I remember reading, on this site, that HT adds some insignificant amount of die area, like 5% or something, but is capable of adding up to 50% performance. (in theory). If that's the case the ONLY reason to not include it on EVERY CPU is to nickel and dime your customers. Except it should really be "$100" your customers since only the i7's have HT.
Isn't the physical capability of HT already on ALL cpu's? It just needs to be turned on in firmware right? Reply
DanNeely - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkWith the exception of IIRC dual vs quad core dies and GT2 vs GT3 graphics almost everything that differs between CPUs in a generation is either binning or disabling components if too few dies with a segment non-functional are available for the lower bin.
Intel could differentiate its product line without doing any segment disabling on the dies; but it would require several times as many different die designs which would require higher prices due to having to do several times as much validation. Instead we get features en/disabled with fuses or microcode because the cost of the 'wasted' die area is cheaper than the costs associated with validating additional die configurations. Reply
Flunk - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkActually the GT2 is just a die-harvested GT3. Intel only have 2 and 4 core versions and crystalwell is an add-on die so there are essentially only 2 base dies, at least for consumers.
I do agree about the hyper-threading, there is really no need to disable it. It's not like it really matters in consumer applications anyway. Reply
rootheday3 - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkI don't think this is true. See the die shots here:
I count 8 different die configurations.
Note that the reduction in LLC (CPU L3) on Iris Pro may be because some of the LLC is used to hold tag data for the 128MB of eDRAM. Mainstream Intel CPUs have 2MB of LLC per CPU core, so the die has 8MB of LLC natively. The i7-4770R has all 8MB enabled but 2MB for eDRAM tag ram leaving 6MB for the CPU/GPU to use directly as cache (how it is reported on the spec sheet). The i5s generally have 6MB natively (for either die recovery and/or segmentation reasons) but if 2MB is used for eLLC tag ram, that leaves 4 for direct cache usage.
Given that you get 128MB of eDRAM in exchange for the 2MB LLC consumed as tag ram, seems like a fair trade. Reply
name99 - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkHT adds a pretty consistent 25% performance boost across an extremely wide variety of benchmarks. 50% is an unrealistic value.
And, for the love of god, please stop with this faux-naive "I do not understand why Intel does ..." crap.
If you do understand the reason, you are wasting everyone's time with your lament.
If you don't understand the reason, go read a fscking book. Price discrimination (and the consequences thereof INCLUDING lower prices at the low end) are hardly deep secret mysteries.
(And the same holds for the "Why oh why do Apple charge so much for RAM upgrades or flash upgrades" crowd. You're welcome to say that you do not believe the extra cost is worth the extra value to YOU --- but don't pretend there's some deep unresolved mystery here that only you have the wit to notice and bring to our attention; AND on't pretend that your particular cost/benefit tradeoff represents the entire world.
And heck, let's be equal opportunity here --- the Windows crowd have their own version of this particular fool, telling us how unfair it is that Windows Super Premium Plus Live Home edition is priced at $30 more than Windows Ultra Extra Pro Family edition.
I imagine there are the equivalent versions of these people complaining about how unfair Amazon S3 pricing is, or the cost of extra Google storage. Always with this same "I do not understand why these companies behave exactly like economic theory predicts; and they try to make a profit in the bargain" idiocy.) Reply
tipoo - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkWow, the gaming performance gap between OSX and Windows hasn't narrowed at all. I had hoped, two major OS releases after the Snow Leopard article, it would have gotten better. Reply
tipoo - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkI wonder if AMD will support OSX with Mantle? Reply
Flunk - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkLikely not, I don't think they're shipping GCN chips in any Apple products right now. Reply
AlValentyn - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkLook up Mavericks, it supports OpenGL4.1, while Mountain Lion is still at 3.2
Good overall improvements in the Developer Previews alone. Reply
tipoo - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkML supports a higher OpenGL spec than Snow Leopard, but that doesn't seem to have helped lessen the real world performance gap. Reply
Sm0kes - Tuesday, October 08, 2013 - linkGot a link with real numbers? Reply
Hrel - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkThe charts show the Iris Pro take a pretty hefty hit any time you increase quality settings. HOWEVER, you're also increasing resolution. I'd be interested to see what happens when you increase resolution but leave detail settings at low-med.
In other words, is the bottleneck the processing power of the GPU (I think it is) or the memory bandwidth? I suspect we could run Mass Effect or something similar at 1080p with medium settings. Reply
Kevin G - Monday, October 07, 2013 - link"OS X doesn't seem to acknowledge Crystalwell's presence, but it's definitely there and operational (you can tell by looking at the GPU performance results)."
I bet OS X does but not in the GUI. Type the following in terminal:
sysctl -a hw.
There should be line about the CPU's full cache hierarchy among other cache information. Reply
Anand Lal Shimpi - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkGood call - unfortunately no, Crystalwell isn't reported there either. Reply
Dman23 - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkGreat review! Thanks for taking the time to review the New iMacs. The Iris Pro 5200 looks extremely interesting. Reply
Guspaz - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkIt's amusing to me that the 27" iMac is smaller and thinner than my Dell 27" monitor (the U2711), even though the iMac is a full comptuer while my U2711 is just a monitor. Reply
1andrew - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkThe iMac's have a great display and Target Display Mode is a cool feature. I would really like to see them expand it to non-Thunderbolt/Apple devices. I would love to play my 360 without needing a second display. Reply
twistedgamez - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkwhy don't reviewers test dota2? i know it's not a particularity intensive game, but lots of people play it (often 10 x number of players of the second game on steam) and lots of people would like to know how it performs, especially when you up the resolution, and lots of people only play dota2 so its not particularly easy to judge its performance when seeing metro/tr performance on lower resolutions
but other than that, a great review! Reply
bluevaping - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkI know you guys wanted to get a review out, but I think you will see a jump in performance with the upcoming Os X to be released next month. I bet there will be better optimized drivers and support for Open Cl 1.2 and Open GL 4.0 Reply
jasonelmore - Monday, October 07, 2013 - link+$250 for nothing but a 128gb ssd for fusion drive is rape. Reply
repoman27 - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkWell, in the US, it's only a $200 adder. And it's a rather performant PCIe based SSD. Have you priced out an alternative that's as fast or faster for less money? Don't get me wrong, Apple maintains a 36% gross margin which is probably considerably higher than, say, Newegg's, but what were you really expecting for this type of CTO option? Reply
nerd1 - Tuesday, October 08, 2013 - linkYou can get 256 sata3 ssd at much less than 200. They are also charging 200 for extra 8gb of ram. Reply
repoman27 - Wednesday, October 09, 2013 - linkYes, you can get a considerably slower SSD with a crappy controller and lower endurance NAND for less money than Apple's offerings.
The RAM is another matter entirely. It's unfortunate they made it such a hassle to upgrade the RAM yourself in the 21.5" model. Reply
foolio5 - Monday, October 14, 2013 - linkSammy 840 EVO 128 GB SSD is $99 bucks and up there in the speed/longevity department. Reply
akdj - Tuesday, October 15, 2013 - linkSammy 840 will read about half the speed of the new PCIe SSD in the 2013 iMac. It'll be at least twice as quick. These aren't 2.5" SATA3 drives. They're PCIe. Big difference. Small price to pay for the upgrade. You'll never know you don't have a 1.15 TB SSD in there for most consumer workflows. They. Flat. Fly. It's a bargain. That said, I'm with you on the RAM. $100 for 16 seems fair and nicely set for three-five years. While still being able to sell it for 50% after a half decade :-) Reply
djscrew - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkputting a hard drive in, even at a base level, should be considered a crime to computing in this day and age... a 256 gb ssd should be stock... for a company that pushes quality and doesn't concern itself as much with price, apple should have ditched the hdd this generation Reply
saarek - Tuesday, October 08, 2013 - link256GB is not enough memory for a large proportion of computer users, a more realistic and useful answer would have been for Apple to have made the 1TB Fusion drive the default option. Reply
iwod - Monday, October 07, 2013 - linkI Hope Apple can cut cost in their next model some where and put in SSD as Default. Reply
idget - Tuesday, October 08, 2013 - linkPersonally I prefer the design of the '09 models. Sure it doesn't look "pretty" as these ones (subjective), but I feel that on the imacs, Apple's "thin is good" mentality is annoying.
The "bulge" at the back looks ugly. Also because it's so thin, everything is moved to the back, including the sd card slot, which I feel is better on the side of the computer. It's a pain having to reach around the computer (especially on the 27inch). Also it needs more usb ports
I feel that Apple has gone for looks and forgot function on these imacs Reply
alpha754293 - Tuesday, October 08, 2013 - linkHow much power does it consume at full load and at idle? Reply
MF2013 - Tuesday, October 08, 2013 - linkI'm not sure if the graphics comparison to the DDR3 version of the GT 750m is fair. The DDR3 cripples the graphics performance, and while I don't know what the sales volume numbers are, my impression is that most 750m's that ship do so with DDR5. Also, anybody who games and cares about GPU performance, and is the least bit informed, would make sure to get the DDR5 version. And it's not like the DDR5 version is expensive- the Lenovo y500's that occasionally go for sale around $830 have 2GB of DDR5.
So all this demonstrates is that Iris Pro graphics can compete with bandwidth crippled discrete graphics. But if you don't care about gaming, you shouldn't care about whether the integrated graphics are competitive with discrete GPUs. And if you do care about gaming, this performance is still not good enough. The positive tone of this review doesn't seem justified. Reply
speculatrix - Tuesday, October 08, 2013 - linkI just hope you never have to have it repaired out of warranty. Reply
mschira - Tuesday, October 08, 2013 - linknice review, and interesting to see that with Crystallwell there is an integrated GPU that does have acceptable performance.
Will be interesting to see in a 13" MBR.
What would also be interesting are performance comparisons of the new real GPUs if and how much better they are than the 2012 level.
GPU performance is still a bottleneck for iMacs I think (i.e. gaming).
M. Reply
mschira - Tuesday, October 08, 2013 - linkCould one buy a super fast USB3 SSD and build ones' own fusion drive on the cheap?
M. Reply
name99 - Wednesday, October 09, 2013 - linkYes --- if you're willing to be daring.
Essentially you'd need to boot off a third drive (or the network) then use diskutil cs commands to create an LVG then an LV tying the two drives together. There are instructions on the web giving details.
On a different point, I don't think Anand is correct in saying that Fusion works better than other hybrid solutions because it tracks blocks. I think the real answer is that it does a MUCH smarter job of tracking file "temperature". OSX has, since about 10.3, tracked file temperature (which is essentially a combination of how large the file is and how often it's accessed). This was done back then (and is still done) to move the hottest files to a small "hot files" area at the start of a disk for the obvious performance reasons.
Details here:
My guess is that Fusion essentially hooks into this mechanism, and just redefines the constants controlling how large the hot file area is to have it cover all of the SSD (minus of course the area for file system metadata, the area that is reserved for fast writes, and so on).
I can't think of any realistic situation (within pure OSX) where tracking by blocks rather than files is useful, and it would require a whole new way of looking at the problem. I think the obvious way to test this would be to look at the behavior of VM images which, assume, as a whole don't count as hot because they are very large, but which do have hot blocks inside them. If you look at IO when, say, starting up a VM, do you see all the IO coming from the HD, or do you see it all come from the SSD, with HD accesses coming later once the VM is booted and we're now pulling in less frequently accessed blocks? Reply
Risas - Thursday, October 10, 2013 - linkWhat a silly review and comparison. Apple vs Apple, conclusión: the Moore's law still works.
CPU performance: It look like Apple made any work instead of changing the Intel CPU, Apple CPU performance comparison? there's no other comparison of the Intel's CPUs? Just look at them, what to spect?
And over and over... Apple iMAc vs Apple iMacs, who wins? Apple, of course.
Final words..."Apple continues to have the strongest Mac lineup of its history" Does any other have MAC lineups? Of course no, as it's a monopolistic stuff. So It's unnecesary to say what's obvious.
Apple's Haswell?? yo write the article as if Apple did anything on the Haswell desing or manufacture.... Maybe Intel have to say something about it...
And here is what really matters: The iMac's industrial design is beautiful.
No complains about the small breaking-wrist keyboard or any thing as Apple fights againts Apple it wold be always a winner: Apple. Reply
Commodus - Thursday, October 17, 2013 - linkI'd say the Apple vs. Apple comparisons are valid because of the limited all-in-one market. It's hard to find something comparable; a lot of iMac alternatives are either budget models or use significantly different components (see the ASUS Transformer AIO or Lenovo IdeaCentre A730 as examples). The company practically dominates the category, at least in North America and Europe. Reply
Haplodepatrijn - Thursday, October 10, 2013 - linkDoses this mean we can finally use the GPU render in Blender ? Reply
shweetuant - Friday, October 25, 2013 - linkHi
If I am planning to install Windows 7 64-bit as virtual running side by side with OS X. Is the default 8GB of ram sufficient? Reply
kkirk - Tuesday, December 03, 2013 - linkI was wondering if there will be a late 2013 Macbook Pro 15" review coming soon? Reply


text:
Hollywood.com at Sundance 2013: 10 Movies We're Dying to See
This year, Hollywood.com will once again be jetting off to Park City, Utah for the prestigious Sundance Film Festival. For 10 days, the small mountain town becomes the epicenter for all things movies, with A-List stars and filmmakers from around the world congregating to get their taste of independent cinema.
Sundance plays host to movies big and small, with comedies starring our favorite funny people, dramas sporting famous faces ready to blow us away, and complete unknowns ready to emerge as the next Beasts of the Southern Wild. Just because you've never heard of the director, lead actor, or lead actress doesn't mean the movie and its crew won't be walking the red carpet at the Oscars next year. This is where the journey begins.
To prepare you for the discoveries to come, our two correspondents on the ground in Park City, Matt Patches and Brian Moylan, sifted through the hundreds of films playing the festival to whittle down a list of their most anticipated list. The top 10 has a little bit of everything — check out their picks and keep your eyes peeled for more Sundance coverage to come:
We've seen Adam Scott and Amy Poehler fall in love on Parks and Recreation, but can we buy them as adversaries? Scott plays a befuddled guy (and inspiration for his shrink's self-help book) who is trying to broker peace between his long-divorced mother (Catherine O'Hara) and his father (Richard Jenkins), who is married to the zany Poehler. If this is half as funny as it sounds, it will be the funniest movie of the festival. — Moylan
Ass Backwards
Every Sundance has its handful of breakouts and with a costarring role in the David Sedaris adaptation C.O.G. and a prominent part (as well as co-writer credit) on the midnight premiere Ass Backwards, that festival star could be Casey Wilson. She's due for it too: a brief stint on Saturday Night Live led her to become a regular on Happy Endings, and now she has her own flick. Ass Backwards, which follows two women who "both tied for dead last in their hometown beauty paganent" way back when, sounds twisted in all the right ways. — Patches
Before Midnight
This past summer, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, and director Richard Linklater headed to Summer to shoot the third entry in their "Before trilogy," the story that began with a romantic chance meeting in 1995's Before Sunrise and resurfaced for 2004's Before Sunset. Can the trio continue the magic by having the intertwined lives of Celine and Jesse connect again? With a heap of emotion invested in the fictitious pair, I sure hope so. — Patches
Blue Caprice
Sundance's NEXT category features a slate of low, low-budget films contending with the star-driven movies that have now become a staple. They're usually amazing too, which is why I'm keeping an eye on Blue Caprice, a black and white docudrama that puts us in the middle of the 2002 Beltway sniper attacks, all from the perspective of the shooters. My heart is racing already. — Patches
The East
Brit Marling and director Zal Batmanglij blew attendees minds in 2011 with their cult sci-fi thriller Sound of My Voice and they return this year to Sundance with a project that's equally mysterious. The East focuses on a contract worker infiltrating an eco-terrorist group — not too dissimilar sounding from Sound of My Voice. Marling returns, joined this time by Ellen Page and Alexander Skarsgård. A larger scope should give Batmanglij more playing room, and even more of a chance to repeat their previous success. — Patches
Kill Your Darlings
Daniel Radcliffe makes his first Sundance appearance playing poet Allen Ginsberg during his days at Columbia University. With a bevy of great actors (including Dane DeHaan, Ben Foster, Michael C. Hall, Jack Huston, Elizabeth Olsen), Kill Your Darlings may approach the biopic with recognizable indie sensibilities, but it's on our radar just to see if Radcliffe has a real dramatic life after Potter. — Patches
What do we want for Sundance? Socially conscious indies from around the world that make us think while being entertained, right? Well, that and pictures of celebs in ski gear. No one will be skiing in this Chilean movie where Gael Garcia Bernal plays a real-life ad man in the '80s who engineered a campaign to get voters to oust dictator Augusto Pinochet. This checks off every box in the Sundance requirements while seeming original at the same time. — Moylan
Prince Avalanche
After two misses with Your Highness and The Sitter, David Gordon Green returns to his indie roots for Prince Avalanche. Pairing two actors I can't help but love, Paul Rudd and Emilie Hirsch, the film should meld the director's penchant for comedy and past character study work. If it's a happy medium, it should be one of the festival's best. — Patches
The Spectacular Now
The addiction drama Smashed was one of the best movies to play 2012's festival. Director James Ponsoldt returns to Sundance with his next, The Spectacular Now, adapting similar themes (alcoholism appears to be an important part of the tale) to a story of adolescent relationships. Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley, two up-and-comers with thoughtful work to their names, star, giving us hope that the movie digs deeper into youth culture than most Hollywood films would even allow. — Patches
Two Mothers
What's the only thing better than a movie about a woman falling in love with her best friend's son? A movie about two best friends falling in love with each other's sons! When the two mothers are played by Naomi Watts and Robin Wright (no more Penn) and directed by Anne Fontaine, it's sure to be a deep psychological insight about love and longing rather than the rom-com set up it sounds like. — Moylan
What movies are you looking forward to hearing more about? Check out the films announced to play Sundance and tell us!
Follow Matt Patches on Twitter @misterpatches
[Photo Credit: Benaroya Pictures]
Sundance Post-'Beasts': The Festival Is More Important Than Ever
'Upstream Color': The Mysterious Sundance Premiere 10 Years in the Making — TRAILER
Joseph Gordon-Levitt To Host 2013 Sundance Film Festival Awards Ceremony
Megan Fox's 12 Hottest Moments (Moviefone)


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Style A to Zee: Changing Shape
Bathing-suit season is upon us, but fear not. No matter what your size or how you like your sun (filtered through a palm tree, under a very-now big swoopy hat, or straight-on poolside—slathered in 1,000+ SPF, of course), ELLE Shops has you covered. We've arranged our swimwear guide by diverse global locales, highlighting the biggest trends—from sailor stripes and monochrome to juicy fruit prints and sporty color-blocking—as well as the picture-perfect hotels at which to try them out. All that's left for you to do is pick your region and resort. The Dead Sea or Sri Lanka's Weligama Bay? On second thought, why choose? Do both! After all, you'll be properly suited.
MORE: To shop more of our editors' favorite beach attire, check out our specially curated ELLE + RueLaLa swim boutique!
Wear It At: Antibes, France
Hotel Du Cap-Eden-Roc: During its 141-year history, this quintessential French Riviera hotel has provided luxe sanctuary to everyone from the Fitzgeralds to the Jolie-Pitts. Expect a waiting list for all 67 glamorously appointed rooms—the property just reopened after a four-year, 45 million–euro renovation.
Laze by: The cliffside infinity pool
CANNES Do!


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TRIBUTE has been paid to a village school's headteacher after it was rated 'outstanding' by Ofsted inspectors.
Hoddlesden's St Paul's Primary School was given the top ranking with lead inspector David Law proclaiming: "The headteacher's excellent leadership is unfaltering in expecting the very best for every pupil."
And East Rural councillor Julie Slater, also a governor at the Bayne Street school, said headteacher Bernie Bickerton had done a fantastic job.
She said: "We were absolutely delighted with the Ofsted report.
"It takes a lot to get an outstanding Ofsted, especially with this being a village school.
"Mrs Bickerton took over a school that wasn't doing as well as it could and now we have come out on top.
"She is an excellent head. As governers we do challenge her but she has always got the answers. We are all very proud and elated at the outcome."
Coun Slater said she hoped the report would put pressure on the council to expand the school.
She said: "I hope that through getting the outstanding, the council will look favourably on our bid to get a new classroom. We want to remain outstanding and the only way we can do that is if we have the space required."
The report, which saw the school improve on its previous 'good' rating, also said: "Teaching is outstanding. Classrooms buzz with excitement. Pupils say lessons are fun and they respond eagerly to the stimulating activities teachers provide. Behaviour is outstanding. Pupils are exceptionally polite, helpful and always eager to do their very best."


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It's that time of year again when the Island truly comes alive.
With the season broken in nicely, the notorious wildlife of Eriska is making it's triumphant return for 2014 bringing with it the magic that makes Eriska special to so many of our guests.
Though our friends in the animal kingdom never truly left us - most notably Bertie and his friends, who suffered through thunder storms and gale-like winds all winter to get their daily helping of peanuts and milk - the rest of the island natives are beginning to come out of hiding
Otter Point, in particular, is showing signs of life with our cheeky semi-aquatic compatriots frequenting our stony-shores. Many of these playful creatures have been spotted by guests over the last few days, as well as island resident Mrs B who was lucky enough to capture the above pictures for us.
As suggested by it's name, Otter Point is a sight notorious for spotting otters and last year become home to the bronze sculpture, Wache, that was placed in tribute to mark Eriska's 40th year as a hotel, making it an increasingly popular spot for our guests.
Wache, our bronze otter sculpture, was made by Kenneth Robertson last summer using advanced techniques to give it its flawless life-like shape that was moulded to fit a particular rock at Otter Point.
It was placed as a "Guardian to the Island" to mark Eriska's 40th year and subsequently named by our competition winner, Dr. Joe Myers, who came up with the name "Wache" which is an old Scots terms meaning "Eternal Watcher".
Since his placement on the island, Wache has become a popular sighting point for our guests and is frequently mistaken for a real otter to approaching visitors!
Tips for Spotting Otter's on the Island
Eriska's coastal environment is ideally suited to otter's habitation.
Our natural habitat remains untouched by urban development, water pollution or the use of pesticides. Our island location is remote from main roadways and our coastal and land environments offers food on tap: fish and shellfish as well as birds and small mammals.
Here's some handy hints to have the best chance of spotting them:
Look for their ideal location: clean water, vegetated banks with available prey.
Look out for their distinctive webbed toe prints, or their distinctive odour (likened to jasmine tea!)
Dawn explorers will have the best chance of spotting them.
Be still and patient, or walk quietly; keeping upwind (wind can carry your scent which may alert them to your presence)
Other Otter Locations near Eriska
The west coast of Scotland is well known for offering sightings of wildlife not commonly seen in bigger towns and cities. From Oban there are a selection of boat tours dedicated to sea-life watching as well as frequent ferries to the Isle of Mull who's coastline is littered with Otters when the tide is in.
However, for those not too fussed about trying to catch a distant glance of Otter's in their natural habitat, the Scottish Sea-life Sanctuary in Benderloch homes a few and even hosts a couple of "Meet and Greet's" throughout the day to give you a closer look and learn more about their eating and living habits.
So for those in the area in the near future, we would definitely recommend taking your chances out by the coast to try your luck at spotting one of these fantastic animals and visit Wache who continues to guard the island at Otter Point!


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- Natalie Lacuesta Byrum
Different individuals deserve different experiences. Not a novel idea, but digital marketers continue to face the challenge of how to execute this concept today.
With enhanced Adobe Digital Marketing Suite integrations, the latest release of Adobe Scene7 lends way to a sigh of relief, allowing businesses to easily scale and deliver more relevant and personalized experiences to their customers. As an integral part of Adobe's Web Experience Management solution, digital marketers can add Scene7 marketing banners into page templates through a simple drag-and-drop configuration. Leveraging comprehensive visitor data from Adobe Test&Target and Adobe CQ, Scene7 will dynamically assemble the right content combination for the visitor on demand.
Read the complete post at the Adobe Digital Marketing blog.


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Authors: Fran Hazeldine, Head of Strategy and Pelle Sjoenell, Executive Creative Director, BBH LA
[slideshare id=13692036&doc=plannercreativesurveyresults-120719040321-phpapp02]
A few weeks ago we asked Planners and Creatives from a range of agency backgrounds to fill out a short survey about the Planner / Creative relationship.
As promised, we've got some results to share. If you like your slides with added innuendo, our Planningness presentation is available here. But it's quite minimalist and really needs the voice over, so we've summarized the main findings below.
A few notes on the sample
The 324 respondents were a mixture of self-selecting BBH Labs readers, people from our extended professional networks and anyone else we could persuade to take part. So there are probably all sorts of research effects that mean you shouldn't take any of the results as hard fact – more food for thought and discussion.
What do we know about the survey respondents? Not surprisingly, we had more Planners than Creatives. And the Creatives tended to be more experienced and male. There was also a heavy North American and European skew across the board.
But despite collecting a mass of demographic info, the results we're sharing are not split out by gender, age or region. We tried cutting the data along these lines, but any variation was remarkably unremarkable. So instead we've focused on the simple comparison between Planners and Creatives, which turned up some much juicier stats. (more…)


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Three years ago in the midst of the financial crash, Sarah Mower, the British Fashion Council's ambassador for emerging talent and a writer (she was awarded an MBE for it), in conjunction with the British Fashion Council, set up what she called "the London Showrooms". A temporary salon during Paris Fashion Week for young UK designers not yet ready to pay for their own showrooms around the world, or organise them, but eager to reach those among the international fashion body who might not have made it to the London shows because of budget or time.
It was a big success, and since then she has introduced such showrooms in Los Angeles, New York and Hong Kong, as well as another in Paris for menswear, and potentially one in Tokyo this year. Read more


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Heroes 6 dev goes bankrupt, blames Ubisoft
First, the news (more at the link):
An anonymous person operating under the rather flamboyant username of Derpson, who claims to be an employee of Black Hole Entertainment, has submitted his/her own very acrimonious account of Heroes VI's rocky development at HC, which - among many other things - states that Black Hole is no longer working with Ubisoft and is facing its end. The original post as of now has been deleted by its own creator without any explanation, but it is still fully preserved in adriancat's quote.
I'll paste the original post here and highlight some interesting things:
"Hi Guys. Several months have passed since the release of Heroes 6, and because there are so many questions from you regarding BH which UBI seemingly ignores, I feel it's time that I give you some information.
I worked for Black Hole during the whole H6 development. For us, it was a dream project as we were real fans of the Heroes series, having played it since the original King's Bounty on Commodore 64. And I can tell you it was the UBI producers who didn't keep their deadlines, and that was what led to a total failure of the whole development. Back in 2008, during the contract negotiation process, UBI business decision makers didn't want to hear about making it into the contract that in case of any UBI delays there would be any penalty for UBI. This was a stupid decision of a business development boss (she said "UBI would never be late with any deliverables".... HAHAHA). And that led to an awkward situation where the whole development got snowed up... but the UBI producers kept telling Black Hole that "no worries, guys, there would be more time and budget, just do what we say". It was then that one faction, Academy had been removed from the content list, as well as many other things. And then, at half of the development, Romain suddenly quit, Erwan was removed from the project - he was "elevated" to the position of Might and Magic Brand Director, which meant his direct involvement in the development was over -, and BH was left there with the blame. Just an example, the final story script - which was UBI responsibility - was delivered to BH after 27 months... while originally there was 24 months for the whole development. No comment.
As for BH commitment, BH used up all its 6 months reserves just to be able to finish the project... this was more than 1 million Euros!!! And they (we) did this knowing it would never be payed back, as royalty would only be paid after 2M Heroes sold at full price. We all knew 2M copies would never be sold (neither at full price nor at reduced price), still we wanted to finish the project. During the last 10 months, our full team worked 24/7, without any chance for compensation... and because of this, we didn't have any resources to find other projects and make sure BH would survive after the release of Heroes 6. In the meantime, our new UBI producers kept telling that "the BH team is not working during the nights and weekends, and is not committed to the project at all...". I can only say, just ask any of the BH team members of their commitment...
As for the many bugs: Heroes 6 is a gigantic project, with 1.5-2 million lines in the source code. This is bigger than most RPGs. Such a project can only be finished with good quality if there are several years and a huge budget (i.e. Blizzard games), or if there is a strict design lock date after 7-9 months of the start of development... in case of Heroes, the UBI guys were adding new ideas and were changing existing features during the whole development, even at the last months, so it was simply impossible to make a stable game for release. Just see what they are now doing with patch 1.3 (BH is not involved in that at all btw.). They cannot release a simple patch with a few smaller fixes in time, they are already in a 2-3 weeks delay. This is because the code is extremely complex, and UBI does not have the team to overview it and make it work in time, even if the Limbic guys are really great (and no, they are not involved in the Heroes development from the project start, they joined like 20 months later).
Some examples of what BH added to the game at their own cost, just to make the game better:
- Town screen (we hate the current version, but it is still better then the "let's make a screen shot from the adventure map 3D town and use it as a town screen" that UBI wanted - we could have made a much better one, but didn't have money and time).
- Additional ingame cutscenes (I know cutscenes are not great, but again, we received the story after 27 months... we only had a couple months to make the cutscenes from scratch, and a very limited budget - and I think that the overall visual quality of the game proves to anyone that we could have made really great cutscenes if we had had the time and budget).
- 300 unique Combat Maps (there were 20 in the contract)
- 3D animated Main Menu (UBI wanted a simple still image)
- Additional NPCs
- Campaign Overview Map (Campaign Window)
- and many more........
And what were the UBI decisions:
- Less resources
- No fullscreen town screens
- Only five factions (as a consequence of the continuous delays of UBI deliverables)
- Creature pool
- and many more such "great" changes.........
This project cost Black Hole its existence... while UBI is making profit on Heroes 6.
And just some more thoughts: UBI EMEA were working with four 3rd party developers during the Heroes development:
- Capibara - They made the really good (and financially successful) Clash of Heroes. The are not working with UBI anymore.
- Eugene Systems - They made R.U.S.E. They are not working with UBI anymore.
- Black Hole - They made Heroes 6. They are not working with UBI anymore.
- Techland - They made a 47% game for UBI (Call of Juarez: The Cartel - http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/ca...rez-the-cartel) - They are still working with UBI EMEA on a big project.
We heard the UBI guys blame those developers (and Nival) many times... I guess BH was blamed the same way to those developers.
It is always the developer who is responsible...
Just some food for thought.... Thanks guys for reading."
The most interesting part to me is the one about Black Hole using its financial reserves to improve and finish the game. I understand they were fans, but it seems irresponsible. Perhaps they knew they were screwed anyway?
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- Jun 2011
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Your last game received a poor critical reception and drew lots of ire from long term fans of the franchise.
Think you're going to have any publishers falling over themselves to offer you a contract?
It could just be that they were fans. But one can begin to imagine reasons.
Andrew Vajna was backing them financially in the past. Maybe they aren't lost yet.
I would totally fund a Kickstarter project for (spiritual successor of) Heroes of Might and Magic. I have issues with Heroes 6 (to the point where I haven't bought it !), but without a publisher in the way they would be able to comunicate openly.
Last edited by b0rsuk; 18-04-2012 at 08:41 AM.
As CMaster said, Black Hole have never really had much of a success in the past. Nival seemed to come out of it okay (although they now have a division working on a Facebook game of a 1C property, so take that as you will).
He seems to be thinking that one project for a company means they must keep working for them. Maybe Capybara wanted to focus on their own things? Same with Eugene - chances are we won't know. I'm not absolving Ubi of any responsibility, because if what's been said is true then they are partially (at least) responsible for the flop that was M&MH VI.
But hey, Blue Byte and Related Designs seem to be doing okay (one's wholly owned whilst the other is partially owned by Ubi), so I don't think it's entirely the fault of Ubi here.
- Join Date
- Jun 2011
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Settlers is quite apt since like Heroes, both were basically franchises which had seen the last couple of games flop. BlueByte simply shifted their target audience which seems to have worked quite successfully for them. BH didn't, which was guaranteed to fail (half the audience wanted a clone of HoMM III, the other half complain bitterly when given a clone of HoMM III).
Eugene went and published Wargame with FOCUS. They seem to be much happier.
I wanted to like Heroes 6, but the U-Play shit made it absolutely unplayable for me. I am very sorry for the developers, but on the other hand I am glad to see the horrible, mangled version not doing well. It can only mean improvement for future titles.
How nice that Nalano is always around when BIG game publishers are mentioned :-). He's totally not a sock puppet !
Last edited by b0rsuk; 18-04-2012 at 11:46 AM.
Dude. No.
This is me pointing out that Black Hole signed a stupid contract where they were obligated to fulfill an open-ended commitment that they could only complete so long as they could assume Ubisoft weren't going to be dicks. Ubisoft had (has) no particular reason not to be dicks, and indeed it looks like they stole the top employees and exploited the rest until there was no company left to pay royalties to.
It's like putting your hand in an alligator's mouth with the expectation that it would be nice enough not to bite it off. Why? Why would you do that?
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- Jun 2011
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All that's left is debating how to make contracts fairer, and that sounds to me like a B2B oversight agency.
I don't see the pattern. Nalano is always around everywhere.
Settlers 7 is the third best Settlers ever imo, after 1 and ultimately 2 (2 is best received in its 10th anniversary form and thus the ultimate form imo).
Ubisoft finally get that its not about building lots of soldiers and sweeping them about and are giving bluebyte breathing room, and its not about reaching arbitrary tiers of technology either. Its about logistics, its nearer to the detail heavy 4X like X series or Distant Worlds than Warcraft 3.
I feel sorry for the Heroes developers, i knew those games were getting worse,I didn't realise it was ubisofts fault.I am once again writing a blog, vaguely about playing games the wrong way
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18-04-2012, 08:24 PM #20I am once again writing a blog, vaguely about playing games the wrong way
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Trib Cup: Moon girls soccer captured program's first state title
Bill Pfeifer made the long trek to the back of the school bus as his Moon girls soccer team made the journey home after losing to Mars, 2-1, in the WPIAL Class AA championship.
Little did he know that a 15-foot walk would serve as the catalyst for what would lead to a state championship title.
"It got them in the right frame of mind that the season wasn't over," Pfeifer said. "I wanted the girls to know there was more out there for them in the big picture.
"I wanted them to know I believed in them and was proud of them and that it's not every day that teams even get to the WPIAL title game."
Moon rebounded from the WPIAL championship loss to reach the state title game and defeat Archbishop Wood, 1-0, and finish the season with a 24-2 record. The Tigers' rise from agony to utter elation in a two-week span is a reason why Moon is ranked seventh in Class AAAA in this week's Trib Total Media/WPXI High School Sports Award standings.
Pfeifer's words resonated throughout the then-gloomy passengers on that bus ride. One of the team's best offensive players, senior Antonia Grese, took Pfeifer's words to heart and immediately saw her teammates' spirits lifted.
"I'll never forget when he sat right next to me and said 'Do you guys want to quit now or do you want to use this as motivation?' " said Grese, a 29-goal scorer. "I think we answered that in the next practice. We were sad, but we practiced harder than ever. We never wanted to feel like that again."
For the next two weeks, the Tigers endured upbeat, physical practices and a dominant state playoff run in which they outscored the opposition, 12-1, en route to the program's first state crown.
"We never wanted to feel the way we did after WPIALs, and I think that's the mentality we had in every practice and game," Grese said. "This is the best way to end the season … to end anything, actually, for all the seniors on the team.
"You can't get any better than state champs."
This season, the stingy Tigers defense was led by seniors Christine Barthen and Michaela Gutierrez as well as outside backs Katie Valach and junior Sydney Schipani, who teamed with goalkeeper Nicole Falcione. Gutierrez was moved to the center back position after Kelsea Schoeneweis suffered a broken leg in the final regular-season game.
Senior midfielders Marissa Clough and Taylor Dornin played key roles down the stretch and were matched up against several all-district players throughout the state tournament.
"It was really a once-in-a-lifetime thing for the kids this year," Pfeifer said. "When we came back to the school from Hershey, we had fire trucks and police cars escort us to the school, and there had to be a thousand people waiting for us.
"It's something they'll never forget playing for your community. The smiles on their faces was amazing."
Besides all the wins and accolades on the field, what impressed Pfeifer most came earlier this week when he reviewed all of the girls' report cards. Sixteen players finished with grade point averages of 4.0 or better for the fall semester, and the overall team GPA was 3.7.
"They don't like doing just well," Pfeifer said. "Whatever they do in life, they're going to do well. I couldn't be prouder of these kids.
"They like to be challenged. They don't like to be told no."
Brian Graham is a freelance writer.


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This Saturday the National Aquarium's security team received a special alert from the North Pole: Santa Claus was dispatching a group of Extra Santas to bring holiday cheer to Baltimore's Inner Harbor, and he wondered if they could come to the Aquarium! Of course – the National Aquarium would do anything for Santa Claus! The pack of traveling Santas descended on Pier 3 and spread some holiday joy to surprised guests as they arrived to visit the Aquarium. It was a fun sight for Aquarium staff and visiting families, and it brought the holiday spirit to life in Baltimore's Inner Harbor!
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A sea of santasPublished December 14, 2009 National Aquarium , News Leave a Comment
Tags: baltimore santas, holiday spirit, santa claus, sea of santas


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Linkage we're liking:
- They're rarely redder than right now, and Wimbledon calls for a grand slam of strawberries. –Food Network UK
- Alcohol re-mix: cool off with strawberry wine. –Guardian
- Cherry soup for the summertime soul.–Latartinegourmande
- What in the world is agretti? Learn all about this seasonal surprise find. –Food Blogga
What summertime fruits are you most excited about?
For all things summer, check out Cooking Channel's Guide to Summer Grilling: