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Results 61 to 64 of 64
What if it were not food or music and just, as people said, DLC, as DLC is DLC.
Like selling games as DLC for DLC.
- Join Date
- Jun 2012
- Posts
- 4
I don't think E3 is unsalvagable. I agree it doesn't reflect the current gaming industry but some changes like showing actual gameplay, talking about game design out in the open, and respecting gamer culture and the consumer would go a long way.
- Join Date
- Aug 2012
- Location
- Philadelphia, PA
- Posts
- 2
My point is that all this shit has value. Value that is determined by a vague negotiation between the masses of consumers and the companies that produce the shit. So what makes a burger and fries different from a game and some DLC? If people are willing to buy a burger for the price of a burger, then the fries are going to cost more.
The whole concept of *DLC* in gaming is something that is new, but as has been said before, expansion packs have been around forever, and they are essentially the exact same thing. Day-one or not. Whether the development occurs before, during, or after, if the company determines that there is a cutoff to what development time has a reasonable return on it from the base price of the original product, then all the rest is going to be extra. Allow me to present a very early example that really wraps all this into one, from Wikipedia:
Originally Posted by Wikipedia
If you'd like to read more about the extra content that Sonic 2 and Sonic 1 enjoyed, here is the article itself.
To speak in terms of games today, I think it's nice that we have the choice. I do believe companies are creating more than they normally would with the advent of DLC, but instead of it necessarily costing us (consumers) more by increasing original product price, we can choose whether or not we want the fries and soda. For instance, paying $60 for both Starcraft 2 and Battlefield 3 was fine for me. I've enjoyed both games fully (in fact, Starcraft has reallllly stretched its value. After all this time, I'd say if I had paid $125 I would not regret it. But I don't represent the rest of the market), I bought the BF3 Premium pass, and I'm completely ready for the SC2 expansion. Blizzard's constant support for patching and perfecting Starcraft is really impressive to me, but they are paid well for it by every huge tournament that is held for the game.
On the other hand, I haven't bought a damn thing that Bioware has put out for Mass Effect 3, and I don't plan on it unless it is VERY well-reviewed single player content. I didn't buy the game for multiplayer, I didn't enjoy the bit of multiplayer that I tried, and I was actually pissed about it entirely because I thought it would take away from the single player. Little did I know that they would make an excellent single-player campaign anyway and continue to appease their fan base by providing extra content for free, while supporting the multiplayer by releasing paid DLC for the people who do enjoy that sort of thing. In the end, I got the burger I wanted, the people who like multiplayer/fries got what they wanted, and Bioware/EA is getting their money. Who is getting the shit end of the stick here?
EDIT: Just realized that Hypernetic, original poster of the fast food analogy, is also a Philadelphia resident. Small world. I mean really, the underused forums of a British PC gaming blog... and I agree with this person, of all things. Let's get naughty.
Last edited by mittortz; 23-08-2012 at 10:42 PM.


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Even in the most volatile environment, companies do not face a constant rush of golden opportunities. Instead, periodic golden opportunities are interspersed among many smaller chances. The trick is to keep in the information flow, talk through alternative scenarios, and keep discussing possible opportunities as a management team to decide identify the most attractive.
In the case of Itaú, the golden opportunity came with the privatization of state-owned banks beginning in the mid-1990's. The Federal Government decided to privatize most public companies in telecommunications, energy, and banking to attract capital to these sectors after years of underinvestment. Roberto Setubal – a member of one of the families that controlled the bank – was appointed Itaú's CEO in 1994 in the midst of this privatization. In addition to a variety of operational positions in the bank, Roberto Setubal had received a masters degree in engineering from Stanford University, and apprenticed under John Reed, the legendary former CEO of Citibank. Setubal's breadth of experience helped him to quickly realize that the privatization process was a decisive opportunity for the bank's future.
Between 1995 and 2002, Itaú purchased eight large banks. Major competitors, including Banco Bradesco and Unibanco, were less aggressive in acquiring assets during the privatization period. Itaú's ability to see this opportunity was not the result of luck. Rather, the top management team had actively gathered and processed data to identify and evaluate potential opportunities:

subset: commoncrawl


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The svgalib-devel package contains the libraries and header files
needed to build programs which will use the SVGAlib low-level graphics
Tue Aug 29 12:00:00 2006 Hans de Goede 1.9.25-3
- FE6 Rebuild
Mon Jul 17 12:00:00 2006 Hans de Goede 1.9.25-2
- Don't have a different defaultcfg on i386 vs x86_64, having the same
defaultcfg makes paralel installs possible, add notes about certain settings
being only valid on i386 to the defaultcfg and patch the config file parser
to ignore i386 only configfile settings on non i386.
Sat Jul 15 12:00:00 2006 Hans de Goede 1.9.25-1
- New upstream release 1.9.25
- Drop ancient Provides: libvga
Mon Feb 13 11:00:00 2006 Hans de Goede 1.9.24-2
- Bump release and rebuild for new gcc4.1 and glibc.
- add %{?dist} for consistency with my other packages
Thu Jan 5 11:00:00 2006 Hans de Goede 1.9.24-1
- New upstream version, drop merged patches.
Tue Aug 16 12:00:00 2005 Hans de Goede 1.9.21-5
- Merge with upstream, drop merged patches, fix dark vga modes on radeon.
Sun Aug 7 12:00:00 2005 Hans de Goede 1.9.21-4
- Add patch 9 which fixes 320x200x256(mode 5) on atleast radeons and probably
others too.
Fri Aug 5 12:00:00 2005 Hans de Goede 1.9.21-3
- Add patch 8 to try to fix compilation on ppc.
- PPC has issues with the use of iopl ioperm inb and outb
functions, upstream has svgalib working on PPC afaik?
- Disabling PPC builds for now, will look into this together with upstream.
Wed Aug 3 12:00:00 2005 Hans de Goede 1.9.21-2
- I've been working with upstream to get most patches intergrated, so
most patches are gone now.
- Reviewed and fixed the entire source tree for 64 bit cleanness.
- While working with upstream I've been busy fixing some bugs and improving
security in nohelper mode. From now on /dev/mem gets closed immediatly
after getchipset (vga_init) has been called. Lots of work has been done
to keep all functionality and api & abi compatibility intact, even
while /dev/mem is no longer available. This does however mean that
in nohelper mode runinbackground and emulated paging (ppc or secondary card)
are only available on 2.6 kernels now.
- Made nohelper mode configurable from the configfile, if the user wants he
can build the kernel module from the svgalib-srcs and use this with the RPM
packaged libs, all this has not been released by upstream yet. The merged
part of all this is in patch 0, patch 4 and 5 contain work which still needs
to be merged.
- Patch6: set some sane default in the configfile.
- Patch7: remove options not available on non-i386 from the configfile when
building for non-i386.
Fri Jul 1 12:00:00 2005 Hans de Goede 1.9.21-1
- Yet another attempt at getting svgalib into Fedora Extras (formerly .us).
- Upstream has reintroduced suid root use in 1.9.20 as an alternative to the
helper-kernel-module. This allows us to build a sane (kernel module free)
package of the 1.9 (devel) versions. The 1.4 (stable) versions haven't
seen an update in ages and don't support most modern cards -> Update to the
latest upstream devel release 1.9.21 .
- Split the Debian patches in some sane parts, redo against 1.9.21 where
- Don't patch Makefile.cfg instead just pass the nescesarry options to make
in %build and %install.
- Reintroduce %_smp_mflags, this seems to work fine with 1.9.21 .
Tue Jul 27 12:00:00 2004 Hans de Goede
- Removed unnescesarry and wrong Requires(%post,%postun)
- Fixed ExclusiveArch
- Removed the Packager tag
- Removed %_smp_mflags, this doesn't work
- Modified patch2 so that only the real manpages and not the
patch backups get gzipped and installed, renamed patch
to svgalib-1.4.3-man to reflect this change.
- Removed 0-INSTALL from docs
- Don't use README.* this also puts patch backups in the docs
- Moved README.patches from svgalib to svgalib-devel
- Removed unnescesarry creation of dirs in %install, the Makefile creates
most for us.
- Removed %preun removing /etc/vga/fontdate and /etc/vga/textregs,
instead made them owned by svgalib using %ghost
- Made files in /etc/vga %config(noreplace)
Fri Jul 16 12:00:00 2004 Hans de Goede
- new RPM on base of the original RH 6.2 SRPM, all the patches from the
latest debian pkg, and parts from the first fedora releases by Andreas.
Tue Sep 2 12:00:00 2003 Andreas Bierfert <andreas.bierfert[AT]lowlatency.de>
- Added severn compile fix provided by Michael Schwendt (#444 #6)
Sat Aug 30 12:00:00 2003 Andreas Bierfert <andreas.bierfert[AT]lowlatency.de>
- Fixed stuff from #444 #4 :)
Sun Jul 13 12:00:00 2003 Andreas Bierfert (awjb) <andreas.bierfert[AT]awbsworld.de>
- Fixed minor rpmlint warnings
Tue Jul 1 12:00:00 2003 Andreas Bierfert (awjb) <andreas.bierfert[AT]awbsworld.de>
- Initial RPM release.
Thu Feb 3 11:00:00 2000 Bill Nottingham
- handle compressed man pages
Tue Jan 18 11:00:00 2000 Bill Nottingham
- update to 1.4.1 final
Wed Dec 8 11:00:00 1999 Michael Maher
- built pre release of 1.4.1
Mon Sep 13 12:00:00 1999 Bill Nottingham
- strip binaries
Fri Aug 27 12:00:00 1999 Bill Nottingham
- update to 1.4.0, sort out patches
Sun May 16 12:00:00 1999 Jeff Johnson
- don't remove old binaries (not from BUILD_ROOT!) during install (#2735).
Wed Mar 31 12:00:00 1999 Preston Brown
- moved temporary svgalib files to /var/lib/svgalib
Sun Mar 21 11:00:00 1999 Cristian Gafton
- auto rebuild in the new build environment (release 2)
Sun Aug 23 12:00:00 1998 Jeff Johnson
- verify dumpreg is not setuid (problem #760)
- specfile fiddles
Thu Jul 30 12:00:00 1998 Cristian Gafton
- upgraded to 1.3.0
- security patch
Thu May 7 12:00:00 1998 Prospector System
- translations modified for de, fr, tr
Thu Apr 30 12:00:00 1998 Cristian Gafton
- devel package moved to Development/Libraries
Mon Apr 6 12:00:00 1998 Erik Troan
- updated to svgalib 1.2.13
- uses a build root
Mon Nov 3 11:00:00 1997 Michael Fulbright
- removed Mach64 from configuration, as the driver does not work
Tue Oct 14 12:00:00 1997 Donnie Barnes
- spec file cleanups


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Gallardo belts one of five Brewers homers in rout
Club is first team since 1958 to go deep five times, hit three triples
MILWAUKEE -- One day after being blanked by Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers, the Brewers erupted for five home runs and three triples, a feat last accomplished 55 years ago.
Yovani Gallardo scattered three hits over seven innings and was one of five Brewers to homer as Milwaukee continued its dominance over the Pirates with a 10-4 rout on Monday night at Miller Park.
The last time a team hit five homers and three triples in a game was May 13, 1958, when the San Francisco Giants beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 16-9, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Willie Mays had two homers, two triples and a single in the game.
"That's just the kind of guys we have here, they do it all, they hit for power and for average," Gallardo said. "It's always exciting to see the guys go out there and swing the bats."
While the legendary Mays did most of the heavy lifting for the Giants on that day, the Brewers had more balance, getting homers from Gallardo, Jean Segura, Norichika Aoki, Carlos Gomez and Yuniesky Betancourt. Martin Maldonado, Segura and Gomez all tripled as the Brewers improved to 70-24 against Pittsburgh since 2007, including 45-7 at Miller Park.
"There's no question about it, you know, it's the one through the nine, even the pitcher," said Gomez, who is batting .349 with four homers.
The win ensured that the Brewers (13-11) are only the fifth team since divisional play began in 1969 to open a season 2-8 or worse and still finish April with a winning record.
Gallardo (3-1) needed 47 pitches to get through the first two innings, but settled down and allowed only two runs, one earned, with two walks and five strikeouts. He improved to 10-2 in his career against the Pirates.
"Glad he went the length that he did," manager Ron Roenicke said. "He struggled with his command early, then he got the rhythm and started throwing strikes, and finished, I thought, outstanding."
The right-hander retired the final 13 batters he faced.
"In that situation, we have the lead," Gallardo said. "It's just a matter of throwing strikes. Make them put the ball in play. The last thing you want to do is put guys on, then something bad can happen.
"As the game went on, I was able to find that rhythm and stick with it throughout the whole game."
Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle acknowledged that Gallardo was able to settle down after a rough start.
"He was effective staying away from big innings," he said. "He competes, and that's what kept him going in the middle of that game, and gave them the needed innings.
"That's why he's establishing himself as a good young pitcher," he said. "He did not have his best stuff tonight, and still went out there and pitched a professional game."
One day after losing, 2-0, and managing only four hits in Los Angeles, the Brewers battered Pittsburgh starter Wandy Rodriguez (2-1), The left-hander lasted only 3 2/3 innings, giving up seven runs on six hits and four walks while striking out two. His ERA climbed to 3.91 after beginning the game at 1.66.
After Pittsburgh took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, the Brewers scored five runs in the bottom half of the inning to take the lead for good. Aoki led off with a walk and scored on Segura's second homer of the year.
Ryan Braun then hit his first double since April 8 and Jonathan Lucroy walked, but was picked off first by catcher Russell Martin.
Rodriguez then walked Rickie Weeks and Gomez to load the bases. Betancourt's groundout allowed Braun to score for a 3-1 lead. Maldonado then singled to score both Weeks and Gomez to make it 5-1.
The other four teams to have winning records in April after slow starts all opened the season 2-8 like this year's Brewers: the 1976 Dodgers (10-9 in April), the '77 Yankees (11-9), the '85 Twins (11-9) and the 2011 Rays (15-12).
The strong rebound from the slow start has Roenicke optimistic. Cleanup hitter Aramis Ramirez is preparing to return from a sprained left knee this week and slugger Corey Hart hopes to come back from knee surgery when he's eligible to come off the disabled list on May 30.
"The way we started, I thought it would be a long time before we got back to .500," Roenicke said. "Now I'm looking at this as trying to win as many games as we can until we get everybody back. With the addition of [Kyle] Lohse to the starting staff, if we can score some runs for him, he's going to be a huge addition to the team, and I see us being good."
Joe DiGiovanni is a contributor to MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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BATH's coaching triumverate of Mike Ford, Neal Hatley and Toby Booth have agreed extensions to their contracts at the Rec - with former Newport Gwent Dragons head coach Darren Edwards joining the club as a first-team coach.
Edwards, who will focus on the club's individual skills programme, enjoyed a 12-year playing career, predominantly with London Welsh and London Irish and was also appointed Wales U20 coach while at the Dragons, before taking the head coach's role there in 2011.
"I can't wait to get started at Bath," said Edwards. "They have a fantastic and dynamic young squad, who have masses of potential to build on. It's a really exciting time to be joining the club, and I'm looking forward to helping them reach the ambitions they have over the coming seasons."
Ford, Booth and Hatley, who led the team to the Amlin Challenge Cup Final and fifth place in the Aviva Premiership last season, have all signed a year's extension on their current contracts, seeing them stay at the club until at least the end of the 2015/16 season.
Head coach Ford said: "We're thrilled Darren has agreed to join us. He's got a wealth of experience on both the playing and coaching side, and will add another dimension to our coaching team.
"We made huge progress as a squad last season, but only really scratched the surface of what this group of players can do. Toby, Neal and I are all very excited to continue shaping the future of this great club.
"We want to build a team culture on and off the field that will create success, and we have definitely made great inroads into that.
"I know I speak on behalf of all four of us when I say we are dedicated to the club and can't wait for the new season to start so we can pick up on the momentum gained and carry on our improvement as a squad."


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Prevention Coordinating Team
Roles and Responsibilities
The Prevention Coordinating Team is the core planning and process group. The members are responsible for the overall design and implementation of the system components and for identifying on-the-ground strategies and support needed for system integration.
- Serve as the core planning and process group
- Responsible for the overall design and implementation of the system components
- Work with the strategy team to determine priorities
- Coordinate the work of the workgroups
- Manage the overall work plan
- Develop strategies to integrate prevention efforts in to agency and school services and activities
- Report progress to strategy team and commit to regular communication plan
- Keep the vision - how will this impact our community and our residents
Team Members
Countywide Prevention Coordinator
Countywide Domestic Violence Coordinator
Countywide Gang Prevention Coordinator
Department of Administration for Human Services
Department of Neighborhood and Community Services
Department of Family Services
Fairfax County Police Department
Fairfax County Public Schools
Fairfax County Public Schools, After School
Fairfax County Public Schools, Alternative Schools
Fairfax County Public Schools, Student Safety and Wellness
Fairfax County Public Schools, Student Services
Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board
Health Department
Juvenile & Domestic Relations District Court
Neighborhood Community Building Coordinator


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Work is set to begin in earnest this month on the restoration of an historic building which was devastated by fire.
The Grade II-listed Victorian Sergeants' Mess was left a smouldering wreck after fire started in the roof in April.
It spread through the first floor but the building was saved.
The estimated cost of making the building watertight has been put at £800,000.
Developers Taylor Wimpey have planning permission to convert the building into four homes.
A spokesman for the firm said: "The scaffolding around the Sergeants' Mess is almost complete and further intensive cleaning up the fire-damaged parts of the building will commence in mid-August. "


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get your projects together, make a list and take pictures of each one.
Follow http://www.patchworktimes.com/
I now have 12 projects done for the year, I added a couple extra,
and that is 12 projects not stashed in the closet and there are still two more months.
I did get 10 blocks close up.
|Looking Out Or Looking In
|Trick or Treat Bowl
|Little Pumpkins
|Mug Rug


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We are therefore considering a primitive Christian custom. It most certainly agrees with the mind of Jesus. What He says (Matthew 6:3 and 4) about giving alms in secret is here beautifully fulfilled. It is a different kind of giving than a public donation, which one often gives in order to read his name in the list of receipts. The real purpose of this offering should be constantly kept in mind in all of our churches; the money should not be used to meet general church expenses, or the joy of giving will be lost. Where the collected gifts are used exclusively for alleviation of need among the brethren, this Christian custom is hallowed in a Biblical manner, and can create great blessing in our churches. This does not, of course, mean that other special offerings, such as for missions, cannot be placed in these boxes; these are usually announced beforehand. -- Neff
In Holland it does not seem to have been the original practice to collect alms during worship services, nor were alms boxes found at the meetinghouse door. Sometimes the deacons received gifts before the service. During the middle of the 17th century the alms box at the door was general. At the same time or somewhat later it became the practice in many Mennonite congregations to have the deacons collect alms during the services in a little velvet bag attached to a stick, as was usually done in the Reformed churches. This practice is still found in some of our congregations, but usually the alms are now dropped in boxes at the church door. In a great number of congregations the deacons formerly collected gifts by visiting the members of the congregation in their homes. The alms were and are usually separately managed, but in some congregations they go into the general treasury. -- vdZ
In the early Mennonite settlements in Pennsylvania (1683 ff.) and Ontario (1786 ff.) the custom of placing "alms" boxes at the exits of the meetinghouses was continued, and is still followed in the more conservative congregations there to this day. However, it also became the custom in many congregations in these regions and in daughter settlements, as is in general practiced by all congregations of the (Old) Mennonites, Amish Mennonites, and related groups, to receive an "alms offering" for the poor of the congregation at each communion service in connection with the observance of the ordinance of feetwashing. This fund is traditionally administered by the deacon, who is thought of as the custodian of the "alms" fund.
The use of the alms box at the entrance of the church must have been a very old practice among the Mennonites of Prussia and Russia, dating back to early days in the Netherlands. In many of the Canadian churches the alms box is still to be found, although the use of a collection plate in raising an offering is predominant. -- HSB
See also Offerings
Mennonitische Blätter (1886): 30.
Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. Mennonitisches Lexikon, 4 vols. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe: Schneider, 1913-1967: v. I, 36.
Zijpp, N. van der. Geschiedenis der Doopsgezinden in Nederland. Arnhem: Van Loghum Slaterus, 1952. Reprinted: Delft: Familie Van der Zijpp, 1980: 114-115, 123-125.
|Christian Neff
|Nanne van der Zijpp
|Harold S. Bender
|Date Published
Cite This Article
MLA style
Neff, Christian, Nanne van der Zijpp and Harold S. Bender. "Alms." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1953. Web. 24 Aug 2017. http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Alms&oldid=132622.
APA style
Neff, Christian, Nanne van der Zijpp and Harold S. Bender. (1953). Alms. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 24 August 2017, from http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Alms&oldid=132622.
©1996-2017 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.


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Don't tell anyone, but Massachusetts is kind of a big nerd. We simply love science and nature. You could say it's in our nature, with scenic roads like the lovely Mohawk Trail, 1500 miles of postcard pretty coastline, and some of America's most brilliant fall foliage. We could spend hours at the Museum of Science, the Harvard Museum of Natural History, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and wish we could live at the Franklin Park Zoo or maybe the Butterfly Place, surrounded by colorful creatures. And don't even get us started on the New England Aquarium, fully renovated in 2013.
June is rivers month. Check out the 2014 Massachusetts Rivers Months Calendar.
Boston Public Garden
Franklin Park Zoo, Boston
Outdoor Adventure: It's all here
Looking for fun things to do and see in Massachusetts?
Get some outdoor adventure ideas
Mass Audubon's Broadmoor Wildlife Sanctuary
Broadmoor's nine miles of walking trails guide you through a variety of field, woodland, and wetland habitats. A quarter-mile, universally... more+ 0 saves
Mass Audubon's Broadmoor Wildlife Sanctuary
280 Eliot Street
508-655-2296+ 0 saves
Outdoor Adventure: It's all here
Looking for fun things to do and see in Massachusetts?


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BLACKBURN Rovers boss Gary Bowyer believes Paul Robinson can earn a remarkable England recall.
Robinson, who retired from international football in 2010, has been in fine form for Rovers since recovering from a blood clot on his lung that threatened his life.
And that form has sparked reports of a Three Lions return for the 34-year-old and a possible place in their World Cup squad for this year's tournament in Brazil.
And if Robinson, who has won 41 England caps and kept four clean sheets in five matches at the 2006 World Cup, can be lured out of international retirement he would receive the full backing of his club boss.
Bowyer said: "If it was to happen everybody connected to the club would be absolutely delighted for him after what he's been through in the last year or so.
"And why shouldn't they ask him? He's played many a time for his country, there is not a massive number of talented English goalkeepers and Robbo is now back fit and playing so well.
"It's not up to me but if there was a chance I would not dismiss him."
England manager Roy Hodgson seems certain to take Joe Hart and Ben Foster to Brazil but the third goalkeeping spot is up for grabs.
After 13 months on the sidelines Robinson returned to the Rovers team for their FA Cup third-round tie at home to Manchester City on January 4.
He impressed in the 1-1 draw with the Premier League side and has since kept three clean sheets in five Championship games and produced a man-of-the-match display in Saturday's 0-0 draw with Middlesbrough.
Bowyer said: "His performances have spoke for themselves.
"On Saturday we really needed him and I was delighted that he was able to produce the quality that he has always shown throughout his career.
"You don't play as often he has done for his country without having the awesome ability that he showed on Saturday."
And Bowyer believes Robinson's two Rovers understudies Jake Kean and Simon Eastwood have the perfect role model to learn from.
"We are blessed to have three goalkeepers who are really pushing each other to get that number one jersey," said Bowyer, who also paid tribute to the work done by Rovers goalkeeping coach John Keeley.
"Paul has got it and the experience he can pass on to the young keepers is invaluable.
"At the same time they also have to note how mentally tough Robbo is and put that into their game as well.
"To have gone through what Robbo has gone through shows just how tough he is."


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Setting the stage:
I have never been as excited for the second week of the NBA season as I am for this coming week! Why? For the first time, I will be frequenting the Target Center for some Timberwolves action! Yes!! I will be in town for the Wednesday and Friday games this week, so if anyone is interested in grabbing a Teddy Bruschi or Charles Brewkowski before or after either game, please do shoot me a note here or on Twitter.
Aside from that shameless promotion, the Timberwolves are coming into the week off of a promising week – going 3-0 with a dramatic home opener, a blowout against OKC, and a solid road win at MSG – despite giving up a big lead – on Sunday. As it always seems to be with the Wolves, with the good comes a little bad, with the team announcing that Ronnie Turiaf has a fractured elbow and is out indefinitely. That will put Gorgui Dieng in the spotlight early on in his rookie season and he'll need to step up and contribute behind Nikola Pekovic.
The Wolves enter the week looking like an offensive juggernaut, averaging 110 points per game through the first three. The team is also top 10 in the league in rebounds and assists per game, at 43 and 23 respectively. Kevin Love and Ricky Rubio are leading the way in the box score, but it has been solid contributions from the entire rotation that have helped the team to its 3-0 start.
Let's see if this can continue into week two. Here are a few thoughts for each game this week.
Game 4: Monday, 11/4, 6pm – Timberwolves @ Cleveland Cavs (TV: FS North)
The Wolves will travel to Cleveland off of Sunday night's game at MSG, with the opponent having an off day to recover from Saturday's game against the Pacers. The Cavs are off to a slow start this season, entering the game 1-2 thus far. They are near the bottom of the league in scoring at only 85.3 ppg. Kyrie Irving is leading the team in scoring and assists but his shot is a bit off right now. Somewhat surprisingly, the Cavs have gotten minutes from Anderson Varejao and Andrew Bynum, who may make things a little tough in the paint.
Opponent to watch:
Kyrie Irving – While there are a few intriguing storylines with the Cavs (Michael Bennett and Bynum particularly), I'm giving the nod to Irving for this go-round given the overall excitement he can create and the speed in which he can play at. Hopefully Rubio can contain Irving and/or Kyrie's shot remains off for one more night.
I'm not predicting a loss until the Wolves drop a game. I wouldn't be surprised though if the team falls here, given the back to back schedule. How is that for hedging bets? A big game from Kevin Love puts the Wolves over. Final score: Timberwolves 98, Cavs 92
Game 5: Wednesday, 11/6, 7pm – Golden State Warriors @ Timberwolves (TV: FS North)
I visit the Twin Cities with the Warriors in tow from Philly. Not really, they should already be in town. Wednesday's game at Target Center is the middle game for Golden State's three game road swing. This is one of the most exciting teams to watch in the NBA and we can expect a high scoring affair. Klay Thompson dropped a cool 38 points on opening night and the Wolves will need to find a way to contain him and Stephen Curry. The Wolves frontcourt is also going to have to find a way to slow down David Lee, who put up gaudy stats in week one.
Opponent to watch:
Andre Iguodala – Many Wolves fans have clamored for AI2 for years (I'm not one of them) and Wednesday is another opportunity to see him play at the Target Center. Through the team's first three games, AI2 has not been scoring much, but that isn't necessarily what GS needs from him. He is however, filling out the box score, contributing in all aspects of the game – passing, rebounding, steals, and blocks.
The highest scoring regular season game in NBA history (without overtime) was on 11/2/90 between the Warriors and Nuggets. The teams combined for 320 points. The bar is set for this game, make it happen! Final score: Timberwolves 130, Warriors 122
(I have never, ever predicted 130 points for an NBA team. This will be a special night all-around.)
Game 6: Friday, 11/8, 7pm – Dallas Mavericks @ Timberwolves (TV: FS North)
The Mavericks will visit the Target Center on Friday night, coming off of a nationally televised game Wednesday night in OKC. The team made several, significant moves in the offseason and to this point, it has paid off. They finished the first week of the season 2-1, with wins at home against Atlanta and Memphis, and the loss coming on the road in Houston. Dirk Nowitzki and Monta Ellis are off to hot starts, each averaging more than 20 ppg.
Opponent to watch:
Dirk Nowitzki – My eyes are going to be on Dirk, as I have never seen him play in person. He may have lost a step, but I'm intrigued to see just how sweet his offense looks in person.
I'm confident that the Twolves will win this game. That's never a good thing. It will likely be the polar opposite of Wednesday's game against GS though. Rubio shines in this one and I get to gloat about it all the way back to NJ. Final score: Timberwolves 96, Mavericks 88
Game 7: Sunday, 11/10, 8:30pm – Timberwolves @ LA Lakers (TV: FS North)
The Wolves head west to take on the Lakers Sunday night to start a back to back against both LA teams. The Lakers will come into the game off of a three game road trip that took them through two-thirds of Texas and New Orleans.
This will be Wolves' fans first opportunity to see the almighty Wes Johnson in purple and gold. Have I mentioned him in the past? I think I have. While we won't see Kobe Bryant, I still think this team can tread water for a while. This past Friday night, the team stayed with Duncan-less Spurs and almost pulled it out.
Opponent to watch:
Wes Johnson – Just kidding, unless you want to induce a coma.
Pau Gasol – This will be a tough match for Pekovic, given Pau has returned to the middle of the floor. Pau is putting up solid numbers early on in the season. With Kaman as the backup, we might see a little more of Kevin Love at the Center spot, as Pekovic and Dieng will have their hands full.
I expect a big night from Kevin Martin and Corey Brewer going against the Lakers' wings. Final score: Timberwolves 103, Lakers 94
A pretty busy week for the Wolves lies ahead, with four games in seven nights. The countdown has already begun for my trip to the Twin Cities. Looking forward to meeting as many of you as I can over anything but a Martina Navratibrewski (because you can't have more than 'ski' at the end of the root word).
Here's to hoping the Pups continue their winning ways! Please don't let me be there for the first loss. Please! Let's go Wolves!


text:
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/1/2014 (1314 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
CALGARY -- Paul Maurice is still undefeated this morning as head coach of the Winnipeg Jets.
The Jets won their second game in a row here Thursday night since Maurice took over from Claude Noel behind the Jets bench last Sunday, dumping the hapless Calgary Flames 5-2.
Add last night's victory to an equally dominating 5-1 win over the Phoenix Coyotes in Maurice's debut Monday at the MTS Centre and a Jets team that has struggled all season long to string consecutive wins together suddenly has two in a row to improve to 21-23-5.
Yes, it bears noting, both wins came against struggling opponents. Phoenix had lost four out of five coming into Winnipeg and looked every bit on Monday like a team down on its luck. And with the loss to the Jets, the Flames set a new franchise record for futility at home, losing their seventh straight at the Pengrowth Saddledome in an unspeakable run that has seen them outscored by a cumulative 22-4.
Still, if the primary motivation for relieving Noel of his duties was because he was unable to extract consistently winning performances from this Jets team -- and it was -- and the earliest returns thus far would suggest the Jets braintrust might be on to something.
"We did a good job using our speed and I think that's been the key for us the last couple games," said Jets forward Blake Wheeler, who was one of six Jets who had two-point nights.
"But it's two good games. I don't think we can get ahead of ourselves. We have a long ways to go. We're back to playing the way we want to be playing. But the key now is to stay with it."
Buff still shining
With a first period goal that put the Jets up 2-0, Dustin Byfuglien now has one goal and three assists in his last three games since moving up to wing and looks increasingly comfortable with his new role as the ultimate power forward.
While Byfuglien continues to see time on the blue-line as a forward, he's spending most of his time lately playing wing on a line with Olli Jokinen and Devin Setoguchi and it seems unlikely that will change anytime soon.
Maurice was gushing with his praise when asked prior to last night's game for his thoughts on Byfuglien playing a hybrid role for the Jets.
"He's a dominant force up front and he's a dominant force on the blue line. From what I've seen, he does things that other coaches would never be able to teach....And if you can't teach it, you can't defend against it."
The Kid is all right
With Winnipeg's third goal of the game in the second period last night and an assist on Jacob Trouba's third-period marker, rookie Jets forward Mark Scheifele now has 16 points in his last 17 games.
Scheifele has been playing of late on a line with Wheeler and Chris Thorburn and the line seems to have developed some quick chemistry. Wheeler's goal-mouth pass that set up Scheifele's goal was a thing of beauty and the normally workmanlike Thorburn was all over the score-sheet with a pair of assists.
"They're smart players," Scheifele said of his linemates. "They're big, they move the puck well and we're getting more used to each other. I think it's a big thing."
Olli Jokinen Right at Home
While the Jets forward spent the week downplaying his return to an arena where he spent the better part of four seasons with the Flames, Jokinen certainly played like he was enjoying the experience.
Jokinen set up Byfuglien for Winnipeg's second goal of the game midway through the first period and then scored one of his own on a knuckle-puck at 17:31 of the second period to put the game out of reach at 4-0.
In addition to Jokinen, Thorburn, Scheifele and Wheeler, other Jets players with two-point nights were Andrew Ladd, who had two assissts, and Bryan Little, who had a goal and an assist.
firstname.lastname@example.com Twitter: @PaulWiecek


text:
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text:
Staffing & Recruitment
The Staffing section contains information pertaining to employment policies and guidance. This section contains a "Messages and Memorandums" area that provides access to information regarding Time-in-Grade restrictions, Detail of Employees, Military Spouse Preference, Executive Order 12721, Family Member Employment, RIF, VERA, VSIP, and other miscellaneous information. This section also provides a link to related staffing articles in PERMISS.
Related Links ----------------------------------
30 Day Suspension of Civilian Employment Offers
Reservation of In-Sourcing Approval Authority
The Delegation of Authority Matrix
Army Civilian Service Employment Site
Messages and Memorandums ----------------------
Memo Topics
- Detail Of Employees
- Military Spouse Preference
- Executive Order 12721
- Family Member Employment
- Reduction in Force (RIF), Voluntary Early Retirement Authority (VERA), Voluntary Separation Incentive Pay (VSIP)
- Priority Placement Program
- SHARP Guidance
- Pathways Programs
- Veterans
- Scholarship and Fellowship Programs
- Miscellaneous Guidance
- Sunset Guidance


text:
The ground floor of the villa comprises a spacious living and dining area with open fireplace as a room divider as well as a further room, suitable as a bedroom or workroom. The upper floor consists of a spacious master bedroom with dressing room and large bath, 2 further bedrooms and another bathroom.
Some of the assets of this property are:
Floor covering made of antique sandstone; Gas heating; Lighting and automatic irrigation in the garden; Oiled parquet; Underfloor heating in all rooms with individual control; Alarm system, video intercom; Electric rolling shutter; Preparation for solar system and air conditioning
The property is situated in an absolutely tranquil surrounding at the Ölberg with a view over green landscape. Stores for the daily need, pharmacies, schools, kindergartens and doctors all can be found in the immediate vicinity. Regional bus lines have nearby stops.


text:
The back-to-school season is an exciting time -- but it can also be expensive.
We've teamed up with DentalPlans.com, a money-saving alternative for those without dental insurance, to help you defray the costs, so you can focus on the fun that a new school year brings.
You can enter to win a back-to-school prize pack just by pinning your favorite money-saving tips on Pinterest. It's our #FinPin for Summer's End contest!
The prize pack includes:
- A $75 gift card to Dentist.net to buy dental goodies of your choice -- so your kids can go back to school with bright smiles!
- A $200 gift card to Chili's -- so your family's last supper this summer is on us.
- $200 cash to spend on your back-to-school shopping spree.
Here's how to enter:
- Follow DentalPlans.com, Dentist.net and Bankrate.com on Pinterest.
- Pin links to three of your favorite money-saving tips or articles on one of your Pinterest boards. One pin/ link must be to a Bankrate article.
- Comment on this blog post with a link to your Pinterest board containing pins linking to the money-saving articles.
We'll select a winner at random.
The winner will be contacted through the email address used to sign in to comment on this blog post.
You can find the Official Rules here.
Good luck!
We have a winner! Congratulations to Tamyra from Virginia!
Thank you to everyone who participated. We enjoyed checking out your boards. We'll keep the contests coming!


text:
Schiaparelli Fall 2014 Couture
Marco Zanini's second foray into haute couture was closer in spirit to the legendary designer herself than his debut collection, complete with a draped evening dress of singing Shocking Pink velvet, Elsa Schiaparelli's signature color. It was a hue that she loved, because, in her words, it was the only pink "with the nerve of red." "To be honest, in my first season I was a little afraid, " Zanini explained of his elegant but tentative initial steps. "The legacy of the house is such a strong one and so many designers have quoted from it." But during fittings in the whimsically decorated salons on the Place Vendôme where Schiap herself once concocted her madcap collections, he noted that this season he had embraced a new creed. "Moderation is not Elsa's formula!" he laughed. "Her language is bold, provocative, sensational, even. Yet subtle and multilayered."
And so, in this show he paid overt homage to Elsa in touches such as the strong tailoring that focused on exaggerated shoulder lines, unconventional color mixes (Zanini's were based on a collection of early-twentieth-century Kodachrome photographs that he had fallen in love with), and the playful and enchanting hats. These were the work of Stephen Jones; Zanini spent days in Jones's London atelier, creating a different hat—many based on the idea of a turban—to match every look in the show. "The hat is an integral part of the entire proportion and silhouette," Zanini explained, and they included a conical "paper" party hat (actually lavished with costly Lesage embroidery), and a black felt platter with a twist crown, pierced with Saint Sebastian's arrows.
Zanini also translated what he describes as Schiap's "smart humor," and sometimes disquieting surrealist touches into the prints and textile experiments that focused on the idea of urban creatures—dogs, squirrels, moths, pigeons, and even rats— these latter unmentionables appearing, on closest inspection, as a motif writing in a gleaming black panne velvet used to create an asymmetrically draped evening dress worn with feather "bangs" and dramatic matte black crocodile gauntlet gloves.
Throughout the collection the flat, pointy-toed ankle boots gave a modern stance and attitude, and luxurious purses—with sable handles, say, or gilded baroque locks based on a 1930s embroidery design by Lesage—were worn crushed to the chest.
As Zanini noted, Schiap "amused and shocked women but ultimately adorned them to highlight individuality," and he made sure that in his lively and inventive collection each of his girls had a strong, personal and quirky look, from the gamine in the lavishly embroidered purple jumpsuit, to the glamorous siren in spirals of black and gold sequins, to the latter-day zazou in her broad-shouldered zoot suit with widest pants—a playful, Schiap-era take on the couture's sophisticated "Smoking."


text: That is not the way your instructor wants you to do the problem. In fact I would really hope that he wouldn't give a passing grade to it. The entire purpose of all the assignments you have shown us so far has been to teach you about loops. Stop trying to avoid it and actually experiment. I don't know the reason you are taking a class in programming, but sincerely, if you don't change your approach to problem solving you re not going to make much progress.


text:
THE SQL Server Blog Spot on the Web
It really has been a long time since I posted anything of value here. Yes, a lot of that is by my own choice and some of you might be wondering if I've given up on SQL Server. No, haven't, it remains a vital tool for me. But I have become more of user of the product in last couple of years rather than somebody who is "internals guru." To be frank, going from technical trainer to University professor has had a lot to do with that. I tend to caremuch less now about squeezing cycles out of execution times than I do about being able to produce meaningful work. Well, as meaningful as Academia is anyway.
Something happened yesterday that maybe you didn't know about.You might be left saying "and I care why?" too. No, as far as I can tell, no new bits shipped. No, nobody has discovered a new way of using hash indexes to improve query performance. And no, those rumors SQL Server running on Linux didn't come true.
Microsoft Research simply published a research paper.
But this isn't just a paper methinks. It is the paper myside of the world (the arcane place where statistics, geography and businessoverlap one another) needs the rest of world to really grok. I've been saying for years that "maps are data too" and reminding people of Tobler's first law[1].The glassy eyed mouth breathing reception to it has been… less than inspiring.
A single paper may not change that much, but even if only afew of the folks that see this blog post spend the few minutes to takes readthe paper and consider the implications of it… I believe the results could really push forward acceptance of Spatial Business Intelligence and our economyalong with it. How? BI has already an even more essential part of how America leverages technology for competitive advantage today. We make more effective and efficient use of capital because of it. Adding a Spatial dimension to the mix can help us not only what consumers to, but also what factors arising from culture and clustering drive those processes.
Enough talk. Go. Read. Think. Innovate.
"Learning Location Correlation from GPS trajectories": http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/default.aspx?id=121308
[1] "Everythingis related to everything else, but nearer things are more related than moredistant things." Sort of like your desire to drink the cold beverage-of-choice alreadyin your refrigerator compared to having to go buy said beverage, bring it home,cool it down and then drink it.
Cross-posted from Spendid Isolation
After a few
months of silence, I am happy to say that I am returning to regular duty in the
Microsoft Technical space. The last eight months have been very difficult ones
between health issues and the economy. However, I feel like now is the best
time to start making a personal investment in community building again. Therefore,
to that end, I am pleased to make the following announcements.
Working with
the other leaders of The Sioux Falls .NET user group, I have taken on
responsibility for getting The Sioux Falls chapter of the Professional
Association for SQL Server up and going. As you know, SQL Server is just as
much my passion as helping others learn and grow are. I am very excited about
this opportunity. We will soon be announcing an organizational meeting for
those of you interested in attending.
Second, as
many of know, I had a great run with DevelopMentor as one of their SQL Server instructors. So when I read Ted Neward's post about the company, I felt sad.
In much the
same way he does, I feel warmly about people like Dr. Sumida and the Niels
Berglund. Indeed, I remember my night with "Scary Ron" and agree --
it had a lot impact on me! So much of what Ted has to say resonates deeply with
me -- especially the bits about what it meant to be part of that culture.
Honestly, that is what I found to be so great about being there.
Sadly, the
economic reality of 2009 meant that I could not continue to be part of DM going
forward. While there has been a lot of back-and-forth DM's economic future today ,
there is no doubt in my mind that they will continue to be successful thanks to
the hard work their instructors and back office staff.
Still, I
love to learn and share what I have learned with others. That is why, today, I
am pleased to announce that I have joined the Technical Staff of PluralSight. Again,
I feel blessed to be working with "the best of the best" folks like
Fritz Onion, Dan Sullivan and many others. This is also a great fit for me
since I can work on developing on-line delivered content, cutting down on
travel while I work on getting practical experience and data for my Doctorate
research. Of course, getting my health back the best it has been in years
benefits too.
Last but far
from least, I am happy to say that Joe Olson has let me know that I will be
speaking at the Heartland Developer's Conference again this year. Of all of the
conferences I have done, HDC is the most rewarding and important to me since it
directly affects the developers in my community first. This year's talk will be
very different for me: rather than doing a deep dive into some facet of the
technology stack I will be talking about "how to (and not to) give a
Maybe a
little of "Scary Kent" will finally come out. I'm +1 with that.
If you are wondering if I am still alive, the answer is: you betcha! Today I am happy to announce that a long-term goal of mine is starting to take shape. You can read more about that at: http://sfdnug.com/blogs/splendid-isolation/.
Yes, I will still be blogging my SQL Server specific content here too.
SQL Server 2008 R2 sounds very interesting from what I've heard and read about so far. Let's see if they can keep on delivering!
Yesterday I was mulling over the SQL Server tweets and read one by Michelle Ufford (aka SqlFool). She was answering another developer's questions about the use of Common Table Expression in which she asked if it was possible to have multiple CTEs in a single query.
Yes and No.
No in the sense that you cannot nest CTEs. That is, a CTE cannot be written such that its results into another CTE which in turn feeds the query in question.
Yes in the sense that you can define multiple CTEs as "peers." That is, you can have as many CTEs as you like -- each separated by a comma -- which feed a query.
This is more than just syntax and semantic sugar. Remember than one of the use cases for a CTE is to write an executable query where you can re-use a resolved result set over and over again without rewriting its query each time as sub-queries. There may be cases where you need to do that with more than one feeding query too.
Here's an example. Sure, there's other ways to write this, but it demonstrates the use of peered CTEs. Let us say we have table that represents students scores on an exam. Each time the class runs, a new generation of the test is issued. Ideally, the student scores on the test should be statistically similar for each class assuming a normal distribution of students. You decide to see if that's really the case. You decide that you would like to know how many students scores from the third test generation were between the average score less one standard deviation from the first generation and the average score plus one standard deviation from the second .
Let us start the query by generating some data in a table variable:
create table #t(id int not null primary key clustered,score decimal(5,2) not null,generation tinyint not null);declare @score float=1.0;declare @group tinyint = 0;declare @index smallint = 1000;while @index > 0 beginset @score = 100*RAND();set @group = RAND()*5+1;insert into #t values (1000-@index,@score,@group);set @index -= 1;end;
You've heard about CTEs and wonder "Might they might help in this case" That really is an interesting question. Here is one way to solve the problem using CTEs:
-- find the means and S for the first two generations of data-- (shows using peer CTEs)-- on my test machine, total sub-tree cost is 0.02304924with g0(a,s) as (select AVG(score),STDEVP(score) from #t where generation=1), g1(a,s) as (select AVG(score),STDEVP(score) from #t where generation=2)-- find the number of criteria matching recordsselect COUNT(score),avg(score),stdevp(score) from #t,g0,g1where generation > 1group by g0.a,g0.s,g1.a,g1.shaving avg(score) between g0.a-g0.s and g1.a+g1.s;
And another using sub-queries:
-- with subsqueries instead-- on my test machine, total sub-tree cost is 0.0197593select COUNT(score),avg(score),stdevp(score) from #twhere generation > 1having AVG(score) between (select AVG(score)-STDEVP(score) from #t where generation=1) and (select AVG(score)+STDEVP(score) from #t where generation=2);
So here's where this gets interesting. Which of these two queries has a lower query cost and why? If the hairs on the back of your neck started rising with the CTE-based query after reading the where clause... GOOD, they should have. What we have done there is creating a Cartesian product. Most DBAs and Developers would cringe at that. After all, aren't you bringing as many rows into scope as the product of the sizes of the base table and the two result sets from the CTEs? Yes, you are. But even so, 1000x1x1 is still just one thousand. The problem is that the query engine does not really grok that. If you execute the two plans sequentially with "show actual plan" turned on, you'll see that the CTE-driven plan has a considerably higher cost that the sub-query plan. Why? You have probably already guessed! It is the expense of doing the Cartesian product.
The actual plan shows us this nicely:
Click here see picture. For some reason, inserting the IMG tag here causes IE to freak out. Yuck!
1: Yes, yes, I know, I know. Statistically this is not really meaningful. You should be using Student's T-Test comparing each group individually. It is just an example used here to help people understand the peer CTE concept. Before sending me a whiney email, statboy, just keep that in mind.
As for me, right now my top priority is getting healthy again and to keep on chipping away at my Doctorate. I have accepted an Adjunct professorship with Colorado Technical University here in Sioux Falls where I will be teaching classes in business and computer science. In July, I should be going to the Institute for Advanced Learning ( http://www.instituteforadvancedstudies.com/ ) in Colorado Springs to start the long road towards dissertation. It is odd to being that again, but I am feeling much better about getting that done.
There are some other opportunities too. I have been approached by other companies to help with consulting and training opportunities. So, despite the bleakness of the current economy, I am feeling pretty good. Of course, it helps when you have a strong support network backing and I am certainly blessed to have that going full on for me now.
In a few days, I am hoping to introduce a new personal web site with blog and wiki features. The focus of the site will be in the technologies and practices I am most interested in: business intelligence, data mining, F#, XML, .NET, leadership and, of course... things gourmand! I will still be posting here from time to time as well when something relevant comes up.
Looking out my window, I see clear skies and smell a warm breeze. A purring gray cat is asleep on my lap. As Suzuki-Roshi taught, "Just to be alive is enough."
I had the pleasure of mentoring a very good class last week. One feature in SQL Server 2005 they really liked was table partitioning. In brief, this technology allows a table to be fragmented over n-many file groups that consist of one or more database files. There a couple of very good reasons to do this: for transactional tables, it takes fewer resources to backup, restore since only the active parts of the database are written to specific file groups. Second, if the partitioning is aligned to anticipated, commonly used queries, the data access engine will have to read a minimum amount of index and tabular data to complete them. That means that I/O is reduced and queries complete faster and cheaper.
That is, at least, the theory. However, a demonstration of table partitioning illustrated a two other interesting effects. First, a well-designed partitioning schema can produce lower cost, non-parallelized query plans that same designed tables. Second, even queries that would not benefit from the partitioning design can still show considerable improvement.
Let us start with the design of the database. For our purposes, this database will host a single table -- one that records the line items of sales transactions. In a real database, this design may or may not be appropriate. However, we are interested in showing how the concept works. Following is the create database statement used. Notice that we have file groups distributed over three name drives. In my case, I am using a USB hub with three USB 2.0 memory sticks plugged into it[i]. We will create a non-partitioned version of the table on drive "D." We will distribute the transaction log over three files on drives D, F and G. We will also create sixteen file groups each containing a single file. We will eventually create the partitioned table over these file groups.
create database [xmlazon] on primary( name = N'xmlazoN',filename = N'd:\xmlazon.mdf',size = 224mb,maxsize = unlimited,filegrowth = 1mb ),filegroup xmlazon_fg0(name = N'xmlazon_f0',filename = N'd:\xmlazon_f0.ndf',size = 64mb,maxsize = unlimited,filegrowth = 1mb ),filegroup xmlazon_fg1(name = N'xmlazon_f1',filename = N'd:\xmlazon_f1.ndf',size = 32mb,maxsize = unlimited,filegrowth = 1mb ),filegroup xmlazon_fg2(name = N'xmlazon_f2',filename = N'f:\xmlazon_f2.ndf',size = 8mb,maxsize = unlimited,filegrowth = 1mb ),filegroup xmlazon_fg3(name = N'xmlazon_f3',filename = N'g:\xmlazon_f3.ndf',size = 8mb,maxsize = unlimited,filegrowth = 1mb ),filegroup xmlazon_fg4(name = N'xmlazon_f4',filename = N'f:\xmlazon_f4.ndf',size = 8mb,maxsize = unlimited,filegrowth = 1mb ),filegroup xmlazon_fg5(name = N'xmlazon_f5',filename = N'g:\xmlazon_f5.ndf',size = 8mb,maxsize = unlimited,filegrowth = 1mb ),filegroup xmlazon_fg6(name = N'xmlazon_f6',filename = N'f:\xmlazon_f6.ndf',size = 8mb,maxsize = unlimited,filegrowth = 1mb ),filegroup xmlazon_fg7(name = N'xmlazon_f7',filename = N'f:\xmlazon_f7.ndf',size = 8mb,maxsize = unlimited,filegrowth = 1mb ),filegroup xmlazon_fg8(name = N'xmlazon_f8',filename = N'g:\xmlazon_f8.ndf',size = 8mb,maxsize = unlimited,filegrowth = 1mb ),filegroup xmlazon_fg9(name = N'xmlazon_f9',filename = N'f:\xmlazon_f9.ndf',size = 8mb,maxsize = unlimited,filegrowth = 1mb ),filegroup xmlazon_fgA(name = N'xmlazon_fA',filename = N'g:\xmlazon_fA.ndf',size = 8mb,maxsize = unlimited,filegrowth = 1mb ),filegroup xmlazon_fgB(name = N'xmlazon_fB',filename = N'f:\xmlazon_fB.ndf',size = 8mb,maxsize = unlimited,filegrowth = 1mb ),filegroup xmlazon_fgC(name = N'xmlazon_fC',filename = N'g:\xmlazon_fC.ndf',size = 8mb,maxsize = unlimited,filegrowth = 1mb ),filegroup xmlazon_fgD(name = N'xmlazon_fD',filename = N'f:\xmlazon_fD.ndf',size = 8mb,maxsize = unlimited,filegrowth = 1mb ),filegroup xmlazon_fgE(name = N'xmlazon_fE',filename = N'g:\xmlazon_fE.ndf',size = 8mb,maxsize = unlimited,filegrowth = 1mb ),filegroup xmlazon_fgF(name = N'xmlazon_fF',filename = N'd:\xmlazon_fF.ndf',size = 32mb,maxsize = unlimited,filegrowth = 1mb )log on( name = N'xmlazon_log0',filename = N'd:\xmlazon_log0.ldf',size = 74mb,maxsize = 2048gb,filegrowth = 10% ) ,( name = N'xmlazon_log1',filename = N'f:\xmlazon_log1.ndf',size = 74mb,maxsize = 2048gb,filegrowth = 10% ) ,( name = N'xmlazon_log2',filename = N'g:\xmlazon_log2.ndf',size = 74mb,maxsize = 2048gb,filegrowth = 10% );
Now we can turn our attention to the two versions of the table in question. First, here is the non-partition version. It is a basic table design illustrating some of the basics of good design such as using the smallest possible data type and having clustered index on the table.
create table dbo.saleDetail ( customerID smallInt not null , orderDate smallDateTime not null check(orderDate > '2005-10-06') , orderLine tinyint not null check(orderLine > 1) , productID smallint not null , quantity smallint not null check(quantity > 0) , unitSalePrice decimal(7,2) not null check(unitSalePrice > 1.0) , lineTotal as quantity*unitSalePrice persisted constraint pkSaleDetail primary key(customerID,orderDate,orderLine));
The partitioned version of the table depends on both a partitioning function and partitioning scheme. The partition function is simple. Based on an input data type (SmallDateTime in this case), it returns a whole number. Think of it as being like a CASE ... WHEN statement with a twist. The values listed in the body of the function act as delimiters. When a value enters the function, it is compared with the entries in the function value. In our example, the value 7 October 2005 returns one, whereas 1 January 2006 returns two and so on.
create partition function quarteringFunction(smallDateTime) as right for values ('20060101','20070101','20070201','20070301','20070401','20070501','20070601','20070701','20070801','20070901','20071001','20071101','20071201','20080101','20090101');
The partition scheme is also straight forward as this object actually invokes the partitioning function and uses the result to return a file group name on action statements:
create partition scheme quartersToFileGroups as partition quarteringFunction to(xmlazon_fg0,xmlazon_fg1,xmlazon_fg2,xmlazon_fg3,xmlazon_fg4,xmlazon_fg5,xmlazon_fg6,xmlazon_fg7,xmlazon_fg8,xmlazon_fg9,xmlazon_fga,xmlazon_fgb,xmlazon_fgc,xmlazon_fgd,xmlazon_fge,xmlazon_fgf);
For example, if a row is inserted with a date of 7 October 2005, the partition function returns one and the partition scheme cues to the data engine to write to file group xmlazon_fg0.
The table definitions are nearly identical, however the partitioned table must be created on the partitioning schema and must have the partitioning column value passed in:
create table dbo.saleDetail2 ( customerID smallInt not null , orderDate smallDateTime not null check(orderDate > '2005-10-06') , orderLine tinyint not null check(orderLine > 1) , productID smallint not null , quantity smallint not null check(quantity > 0) , unitSalePrice decimal(7,2) not null check(unitSalePrice > 1.0) , lineTotal as quantity*unitSalePrice persisted constraint pkSaleDetail primary key(customerID,orderDate,orderLine)) on quartersToFileGroups(orderDate);
As for test data: I wrote a little C# application that generates an ADO.NET DataTable with about two and half million rows t in it, then wrote that data to the non-partitioned version. To make repeating the test a bit easier and more stable, I then used the BCP program to dump the data to native, binary file. I can then load the file using the BULK INSERT statement:
bulk insert xmlazon.dbo.saleDetail from 'd:\saleDetails.raw' with(batchsize=100000,dataFileType='native',tablock);
Loading the entire file into the non-partition table took, on average, about 74 seconds. Loading into the partitioned table took, again on average, about 113 seconds, or about 52.7% longer. This makes sense: each of the inbound rows needs to resolved to a file group using the partition scheme (and thus the partition function).
I wanted to begin testing by using a query that should take maximum advantage of the partitioning concept. The following query against the non-partitioned version of the table selects about 2.78% (69,584) row from the database. Since I am running on a dual-core machine I used the MAXDOP option emulate a having a single CPU. Data is read from the table using a Clustered Index Scan.
select productID,quantity,lineTotal from dbo.saleDetail where orderDate between '2007-11-23' and '2007-12-26' option(MAXDOP 1);
We can increase MAXDOP to two easily enough:
select productID,quantity,lineTotal from dbo.saleDetail where orderDate between '2007-11-23' and '2007-12-26' option(MAXDOP 2);
Running these same queries against the partitioned table yields dramatic differences. The following table summarizes the results for all four of the test query versions:
Non-Partitioned, Non-Parallelized
Non-Partitioned, Parallelized
Partitioned, Non-Parallelized
Partitioned, Parallelized
Initial row count
Total plan IO
Total plan CPU
Total plan Cost
While the numbers tell a large part of the story here -- mainly that partitioning the table dramatically reduces the plan costs in all categories -- there is something else you need to see. Here are the plan tree texts for the partition table queries. The MAXDOP 1 listing is first:
Compute Scalar(DEFINE:([xmlazon].[dbo].[saleDetail2].[lineTotal]=[xmlazon].[dbo].[saleDetail2].[lineTotal])) Clustered Index Scan(OBJECT:([xmlazon].[dbo].[saleDetail2].[pkSaleDetail2]), SEEK:([PtnId1000] >= (13) AND [PtnId1000] <= (14)), WHERE:([xmlazon].[dbo].[saleDetail2].[orderDate]>='2007-11-23 00:00:00.000' AND [xmlazon].[dbo].[saleDetail2].[orderDate]<='2007-12-26 00:00:00.000') ORDERED FORWARD)
Compute Scalar(DEFINE:([xmlazon].[dbo].[saleDetail2].[lineTotal]=[xmlazon].[dbo].[saleDetail2].[lineTotal]))
Clustered Index Scan(OBJECT:([xmlazon].[dbo].[saleDetail2].[pkSaleDetail2]), SEEK:([PtnId1000] >= (13) AND [PtnId1000] <= (14)), WHERE:([xmlazon].[dbo].[saleDetail2].[orderDate]>='2007-11-23 00:00:00.000' AND [xmlazon].[dbo].[saleDetail2].[orderDate]<='2007-12-26 00:00:00.000') ORDERED FORWARD)
Here is the MAXDOP 2 plan:
Compute Scalar(DEFINE:([xmlazon].[dbo].[saleDetail2].[lineTotal]=[xmlazon].[dbo].[saleDetail2].[lineTotal])) Clustered Index Scan(OBJECT:([xmlazon].[dbo].[saleDetail2].[pkSaleDetail2]), SEEK:([PtnId1000] >= (13) AND [PtnId1000] <= (14)), WHERE:([xmlazon].[dbo].[saleDetail2].[orderDate]>='2007-11-23 00:00:00.000' AND [xmlazon].[dbo].[saleDetail2].[orderDate]<='2007-12-26 00:00:00.000') ORDERED FORWARD)
Yes, you are right -- they are exactly the same plan. Here we have such low-cost access to the data that parallelizing the plan does not help reduce its cost. This can be very helpful in situations where you find that you running into issues with CPU load. It also demonstrates one of the good side-effects of using partitioned tables.
All of this is well and good you might be thinking but what queries that run "against the grain" of the table partitioning design? Is there some downside to it? Well, to test that, consider the following query. It has been designed to read all of the data in table, not just some parts of it:
select distinct sd.customerID,sd.productID,COUNT(sd.productID),SUM(sd.lineTotal) from dbo.saleDetail sd group by sd.customerID,sd.productID with rollup order by sd.customerID,sd.productID option(maxdop 1);
The following table summarizes the statistics for the combinations of parallelization and use of the partition table:
Initial Row Count
Final Row Count
Total IO
Total CPU
Total Cost
As you can see, while this query would not seem to benefit from table partitioning, it actually does. This demonstrates the second side-effect of table partitioning. Since partitioned tables can be spread over many file groups, the data engine may be able to access data resting in tables and indexes more effectively. In some cases, this affect can out-perform parallelization when compared to non-partitioned tables. However, partitioning should not be considered a "silver bullet" for solving all performance issues as there is a demonstrated impact in insert -- a thus a like similar impact on update and delete -- performance as well.
Source code and data are available for download on request, use use the contact feature here.
[i] Think a RARID. A redundant array of REALLY inexpensive disks.
First up, my article Hierarchy ID has been published in MSDN Magazine. Its also available on the MSDN Web Site at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc794278.aspx.
Second, my recent interview with Dr. Greg Low and his world famous "SQL Downunder Podcast" is now avaialbe at http://www.sqldownunder.com/PreviousShows/tabid/98/Default.aspx. In show #39, Greg and I talk about the Spatial features support in SQL Server 2008.
Lastly, just a reminder that the Heartland Developers' Conferences (http://www.heartlanddc.com/) are just around the corner. There's going to be a lot of great content at these shows and I'm looking forward to them. I'll be giving a talk about the Spatial features in SQL Server 2008.
The short answer to that question is "it depends." In most of the pay-for-license editions of Visual Studio you can use the Report Viewer controls to do that. For example, you can create a new C# Windows Forms project, then drag and drop a Report Viewer control on the form. After you have created the report you want, you will find an "RDLC" file in that project. RDLCs are, essentially, RDL files designed for use with the Report Viewer control. The good news is that these can be used Report Manager in most cases if you: a.) rename the file with an extension of RDL instead of RLDC before uploading and b.) reconfigure the connection string used by that report to a shared connection defined within Report Manager. However, the Expression Version of Visual Studio does not support this. True, you can look for, enable and use the Report Viewer control, but you will not be able to design a report in the Express SKU.
So what to do, what to do? Your best bet today is download and install the Report Builder 2.0 tool. Robert Bruckner, a member of the SQL Server team specializing in Express/Advanced Services edition, has a blog post (http://blogs.msdn.com/robertbruckner/archive/2008/08/25/ReportBuilder-20-RC1-Release.aspx ) about this tool and a download link. I tried this new tool today. It feels very much like the Report Designer in SSRS2008 - a good thing indeed. When you save a designed report, you get an RDL file. Based on what Mr. Bruckner says in blog, I believe this tool has been target to help solve the riddle at hand.
I am currently building a VPC with SQL Server 2008 Express Edition with Advanced Services to see if some version of this tool is included with it. If so, it looks like we have a good solution for low-cost reporting in hand.
By the way, if you are using the new AdventureWorks2008 OLTP database, you might want to check out this "issue" (http://www.codeplex.com/MSFTDBProdSamples/WorkItem/View.aspx?WorkItemId=7427) I found with "[HumanResources].[vEmployeeDepartment] .Your votes would be appreciated.
Lookup. For many SQL Server Integration Services Developers, it's the transformation we most love to dislike - especially if you are using it against data living on remote server not on the same local network as the host running your package. This combination of circumstances sometimes drives us to some very inventive things. In this post I want to look at a situation I ran into a few months ago, how I addressed that situation with SSIS90 and how SSIS100 improves on that.
For the sake of keeping things simple, let us start with a scenario. You have a list of 5,000 email addresses in an XML file. You need do a look-up of those email address and get the person's name and mailing address. You will write that to a CSV file. This is trivial task using SSIS. Where SSIS90 runs into a problem is when the server you are performing the look-up against is on the far-end of a network connection. Following the best practices of SSIS development, supposed your look-up task was based on a SQL statement that specified only the columns of interest. However, what do you do about the rows of interest? In SSIS90, there is not much you can actually do easily.
Remember that unless you use a memory restriction, SSIS90 fully populates the look-up cache with all of the records in the look-up query before processing. That is a double-edge sword: it definitely increases the "wait time" before a data flow task starts processing records. This is especially true if you are pulling data from a remote source with a slow network connection. Yet, the once the data flow starts, the records are processed at blistering speeds.
A straightforward solution to this situation is to use SSIS's ability to serialize buffers to a file - also known as RAW files. In this case, an initial streaming of the lookup data in made into a RAW file. That RAW file is then used as a data source in a second package. The RAW file is "join merged" with the XML source. This effectively provides the same functionality as the look-up did in the previous package. Take care not assume that the RAW file will have all of the needed information - after all, people can move and new email addresses could be added at any time. Therefore, you should when you are designing the package, you should handle unmatched records using the lookup transformation. In addition, you should update the RAW file with the updated data.
In SSIS100, the idea is fundamentally the same, but the tasks are slightly different. The problem being addressed is that there is no obvious way to serialize a look-up cache to a file (aside from the aforementioned technique that may not be at all obvious.) Neither is using a "merge join" as a way of doing a "look-up." The SSIS team has added a new transformation - the Cache Transform -- and modified another - the look-up - to make it more obvious how to serialize the cache.
The Cache Transform component itself is simple enough: within a given Data Flow, you connect this component to a path and it writes the buffers from that path to a new version of the raw-file format know as a Cache-Raw file (or CAW, its file extension.) Like a normal RAW file, the output contains the binary version of the data. It also contains an index covering one or more of the columns. This indexing helps the look-up component efficiently use the cached data. When using this to solve our slow data problem we would run a one-time process to initialize the cache from a data source.
The Look-up component in SSIS100 is expanded to accommodate using the Cache-Raw file. As before, this component can be configured to use an OLE-DB data source. However, it can also be configured to use a Cache-Raw file instead. This can dramatically improve the performance of data flow since it eliminates the start-up delay in acquiring the data. However, there is still the possibility that they cached data may be stale or missing desired matches. Another new feature in the SSIS100 look-up is the ability to direct rows that were not found in the look-up to a new data path. You could "kind of" do this in SSIS90 if you assume that the only row-level error was a failure to find a match. In the new design, rows not matching from the Cache-Raw file could be redirected to another look-up configured to read recently updated data from the remote database.
One thing to keep in mind about the new look-up transform is that it does not seem to maintain the Cache-Raw file automatically. What you should do is re-direct the no-match rows to a traditional look-up. As your complete processing in the data flow, add a second Cache Transform that writes the union of the matched rows and the not-matched but by then looked-up rows. You will need to name that CAW file something other than what you used as source, of course. The File Task can be used to delete the old version of the Cache and rename the new file to the name you used when configuring the first look-up.
Examples of how to build the packages discussed in the post can be downloaded from http://gosqlserver.net/downloads/ttfnfssis100part2.zip .
You have to give credit where credit is due, and I certainly have to give credit to Kirk Haselden et al and their book Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Integration Services. That book -- and some of trial and error -- taught me a lot about how to tune data flow tasks for better performance. The folks at Simple Talk have part of the book online and specifically about tuning data flows (http://www.simple-talk.com/sql/sql-server-2005/sql-server-2005-ssis-tuning-the-dataflow-task/). If you aren't all that familiar with the tuning of SSIS 2005 data flows, it's a great piece to read before going at the rest of this article.
I'd love to say that you don't need to worry about data flow tuning in SQL Sever 2008 Integration Services (SSIS100), but I can't. What I can say is you need to focus less on CPU allocation and utilization. As noted in the aforementioned article, in SSIS 2005 CPUs are allocated statically as the data flow task initializes. Basically, this means that if the optimizer for SSIS 2005 determines that it only needs one or two CPUs to execute the data flow, that is all it would ever use even if more CPUs were available to work the data flow. What change for SSIS100 is that CPU are now dynamic scheduled based on amount of "flow pressure" and all available CPUs are utilized. "Slower" tasks can now get more CPU time.
Why did the SSIS team decide to use static scheduling in SSIS90 but dynamic scheduling in SSIS100? The answer is simple: back in 2002 to 2004 when SQL Server 2005 was being planned and developed, multiple CPU hosts were not as common as they are today. When you only have one or two CPUs to work with, static schedule is easier and has the least execution plan generation time and cost. However, now that most production-level hosts have four or more CPUs to work with, dynamic allocation is a more efficient solution. On multiple CPU machines, this change enhances performance considerably in many cases. On the downside, on single CPU machines, performance may actually degrade some, so it is certainly something you want to know about and consider.
The RTM version of SQL Server 2008 and recently release of the CLR updates with Visual Studio 2008 SP1 gave us the SqlGeometryBuilder and SqlGeographyBuilder classes to work with. These are very handy, simple APIs but, well, lets just say that the documentation on them is a bit lacking (Isaac Kunen's as some discussion of them at Our Upcoming Builder API). This morning, I wanted to write a few bits of .NET code that did the same work as this T-SQL statement:
declare @p geometry = geometry::STGeomFromText('MULTIPOLYGON(((-77.054700 38.872957,-77.057962 38.872620,-77.058547 38.870079,-77.055592 38.868840,-77.053217 38.870656,-77.054700 38.872957),(-77.056972 38.870639,-77.055851 38.870219,-77.054875 38.870864,-77.055452 38.871804,-77.056784 38.871655,-77.056972 38.870639)),((-77.056408 38.875290,-77.056947 38.875224,-77.057466 38.873598,-77.057273 38.872737,-77.055335 38.873020,-77.055499 38.874058,-77.056408 38.875290)))',4326);
The trick here is how do you delimit the rings of a polygon and how do you make a collection? It helps to keep four simple rules in mind:
Keeping all that in mind, here's example method for constructing the geometry shown above:
private static SqlGeometry CreateMultipolygon() { // Create a new Geometry Builder to work with SqlGeometryBuilder gb = new SqlGeometryBuilder(); // Set the Spatial Reference ID to 1 gb.SetSrid(1); // Start the collection gb.BeginGeometry(OpenGisGeometryType.MultiPolygon); // Start the first element in this collection gb.BeginGeometry(OpenGisGeometryType.Polygon); // Define the first element (figure) gb.BeginFigure(-77.054700,38.872957); gb.AddLine(-77.057962, 38.872620); gb.AddLine(-77.058547, 38.870079); gb.AddLine(-77.055592, 38.868840); gb.AddLine(-77.053217, 38.870656); gb.AddLine(-77.054700, 38.872957); // End the first element (figure) gb.EndFigure(); // Define the second figure gb.BeginFigure(-77.056972, 38.870639); gb.AddLine(-77.055851, 38.870219); gb.AddLine(-77.054875, 38.870864); gb.AddLine(-77.055452, 38.871804); gb.AddLine(-77.056784, 38.871655); gb.AddLine(-77.056972, 38.870639); gb.EndFigure(); // End the first polygon gb.EndGeometry(); // Define the second polygon gb.BeginGeometry(OpenGisGeometryType.Polygon); gb.BeginFigure(-77.056408, 38.875290); gb.AddLine(-77.056947, 38.875224); gb.AddLine(-77.057466, 38.873598); gb.AddLine(-77.057273, 38.872737); gb.AddLine(-77.055335, 38.873020); gb.AddLine(-77.055499, 38.874058); gb.AddLine(-77.056408, 38.875290); gb.EndFigure(); gb.EndGeometry(); // End (close) the collection gb.EndGeometry(); // Return that as a SqlGeometry instance return gb.ConstructedGeometry;}
I am going to get myself in trouble (again) by saying this but SSIS isn't a Business Intelligence tool as much as it is a developer tool. If you are like me, you have written a lot of code does, basically, the following:
Sure, my toolset has changed over the years from COBOL to Perl, Expect and QuickBasic to VBScript to C#, but the basic tasks have not. That is probably why I never warmed up to SQL Server 2000 DTS. The idea of extract, load and transform never really worked for me. I wanted streams, not tables.
So when SSIS debuted with SQL Server 2005, I decided to make the effort to learn it to the best of my abilities. Yes, it is a great tool but like any tool, it does have some shortcomings:
Over the next few posts, I want to talk about the new features in SSIS 2008 that help address these shortcomings in SSIS 2005. However, if you saw my recent talk in Omaha, you already know the story. But as of this morning, you can get the bits too! Just browse to http://www.4shared.com/dir/7670149/a1b13c97/Omaha_SQLBI_User_Group.html and, when prompted for a password, enter "SQL4You" (sans quotes, of course). My presentation and bits are in the file labeled "ug_wnissis100.zip"
Sudhir Gajre's excellent performance tuning for SQL Server 2005 deck is also available from that site.
drop table dbo.shapeParts
create table dbo.shapeParts(
shapePartID tinyint not null identity(1,1) primary key,
shapeID tinyint not null,
shapeQuad tinyint null,
shape geometry not null);
insert into dbo.shapeParts values
(1,0,geometry::STGeomFromText('POLYGON((0 1,1 1,1 2,0 2,0 1))',1));
insert into dbo.shapeParts values
(1,1,geometry::STGeomFromText('POLYGON((1 1,2 1,2 2,1 2,1 1))',1));
insert into dbo.shapeParts values
(1,2,geometry::STGeomFromText('POLYGON((0 0,1 0,1 1,0 1,0 0))',1));
insert into dbo.shapeParts values
(1,3,geometry::STGeomFromText('POLYGON((1 0,2 0,2 1,1 1,1 0))',1));
create spatial index shapeindex on dbo.shapeParts(shape)
using geometry_grid with (
bounding_box =(0, 0, 2, 2),
grids =(level_1 = low,level_2 = low,level_3 = low,level_4 = low),
cells_per_object = 1)
declare @g2 geometry = geometry::STGeomFromText('POINT(1 1)',1);
select top(1) *
from dbo.shapeParts with(index(shapeIndex))
where (shape.STContains(@g2)=1)
or (shape.STIntersects(@g2))=1
Under certain conditions, spatial indexes support the following set-oriented geography methods: STIntersects(), STEquals(), and STDistance(). To be supported by a spatial index, these methods must be used within the WHERE clause of a query, and they must occur within a predicate of the following general form: geography1 . method_name ( geography2 ) comparison_operator valid_number To return a non-null result, geography1 and geography2 must have the same Spatial Reference Identifier (SRID). Otherwise, the method returns NULL.
Msg 8635, Level 16, State 10, Line 2The query processor could not produce a query plan for a query with a spatial index hint. Reason: Could not find required comparison predicate. Try removing the index hints or removing SET FORCEPLAN.
"Thank you for the bug submission. Spatial indexes match only WHERE/ON clauses made of single atomic predicates or ANDs thereof -- not ORs. We also do not infer that STIntersects here is redundant."


text:
Are you a fitness fashionista or looking to become one? Cult of California recently had a launch party for their collection and it was pretty awesome. Held at the infamous Writer's Room in Hollywood, invited guests were treated to black licorice flavored candy, music by Betty Ninja and the Nunchix, and a runway show.
Jen Wilder, the designer behind Cult of California, has given us fitness apparel you won't be afraid to wear at yoga, Zumba class, or running errands. The line is definitely fierce with edge. I have a lot of favorites…don't think I can choose just one. Check out the collection today…oh…and they are now accepting pre-orders!


text:
The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study is one of the largest investigations ever conducted to assess associations between childhood maltreatment and later-life health and well-being. The study is a collaboration between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kaiser Permanente's Health Appraisal Clinic in San Diego.
More than 17,000 Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) members undergoing a comprehensive physical examination chose to provide detailed information about their childhood experience of abuse, neglect, and family dysfunction. To date, more than 50 scientific articles have been published and more than100 conference and workshop presentations have been made.
The ACE Study findings suggest that certain experiences are major risk factors for the leading causes of illness and death as well as poor quality of life in the United States. It is critical to understand how some of the worst health and social problems in our nation can arise as a consequence of adverse childhood experiences. Realizing these connections is likely to improve efforts towards prevention and recovery.
Learn About the ACE Study
The initial phase of the ACE Study was conducted at Kaiser Permanente from 1995 to 1997. More than 17,000 participants completed a standardized physical examination. No further participants will be enrolled, but we are tracking the medical status of the baseline participants.
Featured Items
Podcast: Bad Memories
New Paper: Adverse Childhood Experiences reported by adults—Five States, 2009
- Page last reviewed: May 13, 2014
- Page last updated: May 13, 2014
- Content source:


text:
Looking for more information about Tonie Frederika Kaufmann Soep?
Search through millions of records to find out more.
Search through millions of records to find out more.
December 8, 1895 — Amsterdam, Netherlands
Tonie's parents came to the Netherlands from Germany in the 1880s, and their six children were born in Amsterdam. As a child, Tonie studied the piano, and she excelled in French. When she married Abraham Soep, a diamond manufacturer, Tonie adopted her husband's observant Jewish practices. Their three children were born in 1919, 1923, and 1924.
1933-39: Tonie's husband served for many years as the president of the Amsterdam Jewish community. The Soeps had a large and comfortable home. Tonie and Abraham often traveled abroad together, and each summer the family rented a home at the seashore in Zandvoort. The Soeps enjoyed spending their weekends in the company of their many relatives.
1940-44: The Germans occupied the Netherlands in 1940. One year later, Abraham was appointed to the Nazi-imposed Dutch Jewish council. The Soeps were deported in 1943 and eventually sent to the Bergen-Belsen camp, where the Germans wanted to use Abraham's expertise to help set up a diamond factory. When the "diamond plan" collapsed, the diamond workers were deported to death camps, with the exception of the Soeps and one other family who were kept alive should the Germans again need their business connections.
Tonie was liberated from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in April 1945.
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text:
|Alden-Rothenberg Men's & Women's Cross Country/Track & Field Coaching Chair
Tim Springfield was named the Director of Track & Field/Cross Country in June of 2013. He previously served as the Interim Director of Track & Field/Cross Country during the 2012-13 campaign.
Springfield, who also serves as head coach of the men's cross county team, led the Bears to several impressive team and individual performances during the 2014-15 season. On the women's side, Brown boasted the top first-year athlete in the country in two events, as Natalie Schudrowitz was the top first-year steeplechaser in the NCAA and Josie Natrasevschi was the top first-year discus thrower in the NCAA. On the men's side, the Bears placed third overall at the Ivy League Indoor Championship, marking the program's best finish since 2001.
Under Springfield's direction, the men's team finished third overall at the 2013 Ivy League Heptagonal Outdoor Track & Field Championships, which equaled the best outdoor team finish in program history.
Individually, Springfield and his staff coached the Bears to 12 school records between the 2012-13 indoor and outdoor seasons, including at least one record in every event group. The track & field team also posted a total of 58 top-ten performances on the Brown all-time list, a reflection of the staff's remarkable impact on the program's record book over the past year. Springfield has made an immediate impact to the distance program since his arrival in 2010. In 2011, the cross country team improved from eighth to fifth in the NCAA Northeast Region and eighth to fourth in the Ivy League. At the 2011 Heptagonal Cross Country Championships, Brown had two runners earn first-team All-Ivy honors, equaling the best in the league.
In track, eight men's distance runners have qualified for the first round of the NCAA Championships and two athletes have advanced to the NCAA National Championships. In 2012, Cross Country and Track All-American Dan Lowry broke a twenty-five-year-old school record in the 5000m, running 13:34.49 and qualifying for the U.S. Olympic Trials. In just three seasons, Springfield's athletes placed 34 marks on the all-time Brown top-ten list, including 4 school records (1000m, 5000m, 4x800m, DMR).
Before coming to Brown, Springfield coached at the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota) and at the University of Wisconsin.
At St. Thomas, Springfield had a hand in 53 conference team titles over a span of 13 years for men and women in cross country and track. His women's distance medley relay was the 2010 DIII National Champions, and his athletes established 32 school record performances in 11 middle- and long-distance events. He also coached 14 different middle- and long-distance runners to 45 All-American awards. For his efforts, Springfield was named the Division III National Men's Assistant Coach of the Year in 2009.
Springfield also served as an Adjunct Professor of English at St. Thomas, teaching literature and writing.
Prior to his tenure at St. Thomas, Springfield was an assistant coach at the University of Wisconsin, during which time the Badgers won six Big Ten Cross Country titles, two Big Ten Track titles, and one NCAA National title. Among the athletes Springfield helped recruit to Wisconsin were two eventual NCAA champions.
Springfield competed collegiately at the University of Virginia, where he was a cross country All-American and led his team to an ACC team title and a 5th place national finish. He also broke the Virginia school record in the indoor 5000m and was twice ACC runner-up. As a freshman at Virginia, he earned a spot on the USA Junior National Team and competed in the 1500m at the Junior Pan-American games in Venezuela.
He graduated with a degree in English Literature from Virginia and also holds a graduate degree in Literature from the University of Wisconsin. As a post-collegiate, he placed 6th in the US Cross Country Championships.
Springfield is married and lives with his wife Mary Heather Smith in Providence.


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Hal Sparks (Special Event)
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Currently starring in the Disney XD show, LAB RATS, actor/comedian Hal Sparks began his professional career as a teenager in Chicago. As a member of the famed Second City Troupe, his quick wit and affable personality quickly gained him recognition and acclaim and he was named the "Funniest Teenager In Chicago" by the Chicago Sun Times. Sparks went on to host the Emmy Award- winning "Talk Soup" on E! Entertainment Television, winning rave reviews from fans and critics alike. He starred for five seasons on Showtime's hit series "Queer As Folk" and appeared in the films "Extract," "Spiderman 2" and "Dude, Where's My Car?" Sparks recently starred in his own one hour Showtime comedy special, "Charmageddon," which is now a best-selling DVD. He is a star commentator on VH1's popular "I Love the 80's" series and can be hear every Wednesday on the nationally syndicated "Stephanie Miller Radio Show." Hal is also a pop culture expert and regularly appears on such shows as "Joy Behar" and CNN's "Your Money." His numerous other television appearances include "The Tonight Show," "Larry King Live," "Charlie Rose," "Good Morning America," "The View," "Jimmy Kimmel" and MTV. In addition to a busy acting and stand-up career, he is an accomplished musician. Hal and his band, Zero 1, recently released their debut album.


text:
Dental care for older people is much the same as for younger adults.
But older adults do have concerns that younger adults do not. These include
caring for dentures, having trouble holding a toothbrush, having gum disease,
having tooth decay on the roots of teeth, and replacing missing teeth and
broken fillings.
Dentures are "false teeth." They can replace all the teeth in your
mouth (complete denture) or only some of them (partial denture). If you need
dentures, your dentist will measure your mouth and take impressions to create
You should care for your dentures as you would your teeth. It's
also important to continue to care for your gums. Brush your gums, tongue, and
the roof of your mouth (palate) every day with a soft-bristled brush before you
put in your dentures. Continue to see your dentist on a regular basis.
To care for your dentures:
To care for your teeth and gums:
Older adults with
arthritis sometimes have trouble brushing their teeth
because they cannot easily hold the toothbrush. Their hands and fingers may be
stiff, painful, or weak. If this is the case, you can:
You may also be able to buy specially designed toothbrushes,
toothpaste dispensers, and floss holders.
To keep your teeth and gums healthy:
Many older adults have a fixed income and feel that they cannot
afford dental care. But most towns and cities have programs in which dentists
assist older adults by reducing fees. Contact your area's public health offices
or social services for information about dental care in your community.
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Last Revised:
January 7, 2013
Healthwise Staff
Medical Review:
E. Gregory Thompson, MD - Internal Medicine & Arden Christen, DDS, MSD, MA, FACD - Dentistry
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text:
The Cyber-Tooth Tigers are plotting to disrupt the World Wide Web. Help Agents Glitch and Suge pull the plug on their preposterous plans! Then try out some more missions. You are quite the detective now after a summer of sleuth lessons. Go for it.
- FFFBI Mission: Rainforest Undercover
- FFFBI Mission: I Left My Art in San Francisco
- FFFBI Mission: Greenback Blues
- FFFBI Mission: Operation GAS – Chicken
Talk the Talk Word of the Day: Snoop – To look around for information in a sneaky way.Print This Post


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Night and weekend penalty rates must reduce or go, say retailersClay Lucas
Published: November 20 2012 - 3:00AM
RETAILERS want Sunday pay rates cut by up to $8 an hour.
Associations and organisations representing most retailers will tell Fair Work Australia that penalty rates - in recognition of working unsociable hours - should be cut or abolished.
Unions last week argued that current pay rates and penalties must be protected.
The National Retail Association, among employer groups to appear at Fair Work Australia on Tuesday and Wednesday, says penalties are more suited to the Australia of the 1960s, when almost half the nation worked in production industries and few worked weekend shifts: ''Typical manufacturing working arrangements … generally involved a Monday-Friday working week.''
Retail workers are paid double time on Sundays, and the association says this should be cut to time-and-a-half. The association says penalty rates for those who work past 6pm on weekdays should also go.
Bianca Seeto, deputy chief executive of the National Retail Association, said part-time provisions also needed changing because they led many employers to hire casual staff instead of permanent part-timers.
The Australian Retail Association says that Saturday penalties should also be abolished.
Joe de Bruyn, national secretary of the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association, said there had been ''wave after wave'' of employers trying to erode conditions. ''Employers say that people want to work evenings and weekends. They say people would still work evenings and weekends if the penalties were lower. But who have they asked? Certainly not their employees,'' he said.
This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/national/night-and-weekend-penalty-rates-must-reduce-or-go-say-retailers-20121119-29m6r.html


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Dark Lord
Jamie Thomson
Review by Alina
This book is about a boy named Dirk Lloyd (not really).His real name is Dark Lord. He comes from the Darklands.He comes to small town on Earth. People think he is insane. He gets sent to the hospital because the doctors think he has a concussion or Posttraumatic Stress.
He gets sent to a family (the Purejoie's).A family with a son (Christopher), mother, and father. Christopher, Sooz (a Goth), and Dirk become friends. He has to face many challenges along the way. Like school, being the weird one, consequences, and girls. A very good book. I would recommend it.
The library does not currently own this title. It will be ordered. Keep checking the catalog.