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Adobe Acrobat 10 review
Posted by
Kathleen Maher on February 7th 2011 |
With the introduction of Acrobat 10, Adobe has fine tuned its positioning of Acrobat to emphasize collaboration and communication in a company's business operations. The company has also added considerable functionality to aid process and management.
Focus is a good thing. The Adobe Acrobat team will concentrate on what it does best—optimizing document work flows for knowledge workers. This latest version expands on the ability of Acrobat Pro to package data into interactive portfolios. Portfolios let users combine documents in their native formats or in PDF with a choice of simple and attractive interfaces. Acrobat has added new designs and templates, but users and developers can also create custom interfaces and use their own art work and backgrounds. Users can add Flash content and, thanks to new functionality from Adobe's integration of the Captivate technology, they can link to web content and create instructional content.
The newest features cluster around collaboration. For instance, Acrobat has enhanced its form creation tools allowing users to create forms from PDFs. In Acrobat X, documents can be more easily distributed, you can request signatures, and monitor who has opened the document, filled out forms, etc. In addition, the data in forms can be collected and analyzed.
Acrobat has added new action tools to take interactivity further and enable users to add step by step processes or instructions via the Action Wizard. So, for instance, users can create documents that include information for team members, with sign-off instructions and information about who has done what with the documents. New security features support permanent removal of information or redaction and has tools to help people be sure they've found information in bookmarks, annotations, metadata and other places they might have otherwise missed. This too might be something people would want to automate with an action—for instance, tell users to read this section and redact it.
Adobe has also been extending the use of the web so that users can collaborate online and use the web to send documents, especially large documents. It has added a SendNow feature that lets users send files that are up to 100 MB for free and up to 2 GB with a subscription to Acrobat.com.
There is a lot more. Acrobat X is a major release, but sometimes it is the simplest things that make a difference. Acrobat has been a very powerful product for users willing to explore all of its capabilities. One of the best things that Adobe has done with this latest version is to put its capabilities up front where people can easily find them. The toolbar has a Create tab on the right side, and on the left side there are three tabs: Tools, Comment, Share. Poking around in these three tabs will help users unfamiliar with the power of Acrobat discover the most commonly used features and put Acrobat to better use. For example, I really liked the ability to create Portfolios which came in Acrobat 9, but I wouldn't always think of using it. It's much more obvious now.
Adobe suggests Acrobat be run on a system with at least a 1.32 GHz processor Windows, XP Home or better, 512 of RAM (1 GB is recommended), and 1024x256 res. As it turns out, I'm writing this using a Netbook with a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor and 1 GB of RAM. It works, but it's not exactly snappy. In particular, it takes a while to create or edit Portfolios.
Continuing the drive toward Suites, Adobe will now offer a suite package for Acrobat that includes Acrobat X Pro, Adobe Presenter 7, Captivate 5, Photoshop CS5, Media Encoder, and LiveCycle Design. The suite will sell for $1,199.
Acrobat X Pro is $499, Acrobat Standard is $299 and all products are scheduled to ship midto late November. Acrobat X will be available in three packages (all prices based on estimates released by Adobe): Acrobat X Standard ($299), Acrobat X Pro ($499), and Acrobat X Suite ($1,199). All Acrobat X products are scheduled to ship within 30 days.


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Lake Park-Audubon girls golf preview
With junior Laynee Cole qualifying for the Class 1A state meet as only the second Raider girls' golf player to do so last year, the Lake Park-Audubon squad is looking to build on that accomplishment.
Cole returns after finishing 67th in the state meet, while her teammate junior Lindsey Olson hopes to add some more LP-A history.
The Raider duo's goal is to make state this season, thus being the first LP-A twosome to do so in school's history.
"Both have worked very hard and both want to get to state," said LP-A head coach Marge Beaudine. "Hopefully we are starting a good trend here for girls' golf."
Over the last two years, the Raiders have consistently had five girls shooting in the low 50's at nine-hole meets.
With Cole making state last year, the bar has heightened.
Each of Kaitlin Ricke, Bobbie Jo Balder and Shania Alder will fill the next three spots on the team. There are also will be a good contingent of younger golfers who will look to crack the varsity lineup, too.
"Our team goal is to finish in the upper tier in the eight-team Pine to Prairie Conference," Beaudine said. "Once one girl got the taste of playing in state, the others can almost taste it, as well. It will be a team effort this year."

subset: commoncrawl


text: On March 15, DaVita®, a division of DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc. (NYSE: DVA) and a leading provider of kidney care services, was recognized with the Patient Safety Improvement Award during the Renal Physician Association's (RPA) annual meeting for the company's innovative CathAway TM program. Each year RPA acknowledges a pioneering initiative to improve the safety of patients with end-stage renal disease. Awardees are selected by a committee of physicians, patients and health care professionals. Dialysis requires access to the patient's vascular system, and some access methods are more prone to infection than others. CathAway's mission is straightforward: eliminate infection-prone central venous catheters (CVCs) and replace them with functioning arteriovenous (AV) fistulas or grafts for safe and effective dialysis treatments. Since its inception in 2008, nearly 12,000 fewer DaVita patients are dialyzing with CVCs. "We're so pleased with CathAway's outcomes and how we've been able to help improve the quality of life of thousands of patients," said DaVita Chief Medical Officer Allen R. Nissenson, M.D., F.A.C.P., who accepted the award on behalf of DaVita. "By decreasing CVC use, we have also helped patients avoid serious complications, including infection, which often result in hospitalization and contribute to mortality. Not only are the clinical benefits of CVC elimination substantial, but the total costs of health care are decreased—a significant savings to taxpayers." DaVita's clinical team also instituted a series of efforts to keep patients from reverting to CVCs because of thrombosis (clotting) while dialyzing with fistulas and grafts. These efforts included emphasizing the link between clinical goals and patient safety in both internal and external communications; reaching out to physicians through educational seminars that include CathAway information; companywide engagement to encourage patients and clinical staff to listen for signs of distress in their dialysis access; and a pilot test of software for monitoring thrombosis risk.


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If you've got something to sell, an excellent way of selling it is through the columns of the Jewish Daily Bulletin. Call Ashland 4-3093 for rates.
One of the darkest pages in German Jewish history was written this week when anti-Jewish riots broke out in Berlin, resembling the first days when the Nazis came to power.
Hundreds of Jews were driven out from cafes and restaurants in Kurfuerstendamm, the fashionable Berlin street, and were mercilessly beaten by uniformed and semi-uniformed Nazis. The Jewish cafe houses were attacked and their windows and furniture smashed. No exception was made by the hooligans with regard to women. Everybody who seemed Jewish was assaulted. Automobiles passing the Kurfuerstendamm were stopped by the Nazi mobs. Passengers of Jewish appearance were dragged out of the car and physically mistreated.
All this took place upon orders of higher Nazi officials. The London press reports that Hitler himself ordered these riots.
Thrown into panic, the Berlin Jews now fear to walk evenings on the streets of the city. The Jewish community of Berlin has appealed to the Jewish population to abstain from appearing in public places in order not to give any grounds for new provocations.
The attacks on Jews on Kurfuerstendamm immediately found an echo in other parts of the Reich. In Wannsee, a bathing suburb of Berlin, Nazis armed with pitchforks invaded the beach and drove out all Jews there. In other parts of the country the Jews were arrested in dozens for "violating the racial principles of the Reich" just because they married non-Jewish girls during the last few years.
The anti-Jewish pogrom in Berlin provoked great consternation abroad. The entire press in London and America condemned the Berlin riots in the strongest possible terms. This universal reception had its effect, but only to a certain extent. It resulted in an order issued by the Nazi authorities to the police to take stronger measures for maintaining order in the city of Berlin. It did not, however, stimulate the Nazi leaders in Germany to issue an order that the anti-Jewish propaganda which led to the Berlin disorders should be abolished in the German press or at least be modified.
The Nazi press, especially such papers as the Stuermer and the Judenkenner, consequently continued their Jew-baiting agitation after the bloody Kurfuerstendamm event even more vigorously. A special anti-Jewish poster published by the Judenkenner was ordered displayed in every office and in all factories by Nazi leaders in Berlin.
The anti-Jewish riots which took place this week in Berlin are the result of the growing influence of Juhus Streicher, Germany's most notorious anti-Semite. While Dr. Schacht, the economic dictator of Germany, continues to urge that Jews be left alone in commerce in Germany, Streicher and his followers are insistent that Jews should not only be ousted also from Germany's commercial life but that they should be confined to ghettos and not be permitted to appear on the streets after ten o'clock in the evening.
The influence of Streicher, hitherto limited to Franconia, where he is the ruler, has recently also grown in other parts of the country, especially Bavaria. It also reached Berlin. As one of the Hitler favorites, Streicher was permitted to build stations all over Berlin where his Jew-baiting organ, Der Stuermer, is openly sold and his anti-Semitic placards conspicuously displayed.
Time was when the Nazi government was ashamed of Streicher's publications and did not permit it to be sold in Berlin, where foreign visitors are observing German life under the Nazi regime. It also did not permit the Stuermer to be sent out abroad, because of its obscene contents.
This time has passed. Apparently aiming to play the same role in Berlin that he does in Franconia, Streicher succeeded in gaining the patronage of Hitler for his publication. Not only is Der Stuermer now sold openly on the streets of Berlin, but special Stuermer units are operating in the capital of Germany, making Streicher popular among the German population in Berlin. This popularity has reached so great a state that during the anti-Jewish riots on Kurfuerstendamm many of the Nazis shouted "Heil Streicher" instead of "Heil Hitler."
The anti-Jewish pogrom this week in Berlin can be attributed chiefly to the fact that Germany is no longer interested in public opinion abroad to the extent to which it was only a few weeks ago. Permitted by England to restore its army and its navy, the Nazi leaders feel that they have practically achieved what they wanted for the time being in the field of foreign politics. Hence, their attention is focussed now on internal politics.
The first victims of this increased attention of the Nazi leaders to the internal problems of the country were the Jews and the Catholics. Simultaneously with the anti-Jewish riots on Kurfuerstendamm and with the increased anti-Jewish propaganda all over the Reich, the Nazi government started a crusade on a large scale against the Catholic church this week. This crusade has reached such a point that the Vatican has been compelled to come out with an open statement against Nazi Germany for the first time since the Nazis are in power. To this statement General Goering replied with an order issued to the authorities throughout the country to arrest any Catholic priest who dares to say a word against the present regime in Germany.
This actual war between the Catholics and the Nazi government will, no doubt, lead to the breaking up of the Concordat concluded only a year ago between the Nazi government and the Pope through the mediation of Franz Von Papen, who is now the German ambassador to Austria. This state of war, which Goering dared for the first time this week to declare in the most vigorous terms against Catholics in Germany, may perhaps lead to a united front between Jews and Catholics all over the world to counteract the persecution of Jews and Catholics in Germany.
A plea for such a united front had been issued a week ago by the Belgium Catholics. The Catholic world in Europe is much perturbed by the fact that the Catholic position in Germany is becoming similar to the Jewish. The question of supporting a world-wide boycott against Germany is now seriously being diiscussed in leading Catholic circles in Europe as one of the measures of checking the strength of the Nazis.
In addition to the anti-Jewish riots on Kurfuerstendamm, Nazis this week invaded a meeting of the Jewish War Veterans in Berlin, provoking a fight. A number of Jews were arrested as a result of this fight, in which the Nazis were driven out from the meeting-hall.
Following the riots on Kurfuerstendamm, an order was issued to all enterprises in Germany that, where employees are to be dismissed, Jewish employees must be the first to go. In this respect no difference is to be made between Jews and people of Jewish descendants or Germans who are married to Jews, the order provides.
The precarious situation of the Jews in Germany and the dark future which is in store for them was discussed at great length this week at the governing council of the High Commission for Jewish and Other Refugees from Germany, which was set up by the League of Nations. Picturing the plight of the German-Jewish refugees outside of Germany and the possibilities that the number of refugees may increase, James G. McDonald, the High Commissioner, demanded that his office be liquidated at the end of this year and be replaced by an office conducted directly by the League of Nations. He expressed his opinion that the League of Nations must take the responsibility for the fate of the refugees from Germany. He pointed out that such responsibility was taken by the League of Nations for Greek, Assyrian, Russian and Armenian refugees and that, therefore, there is no valid reason why the League should remain indifferent to the condition of the exiles from Germany.
The demand of Mr. McDonald was supported by Viscount Cecil. It will be put up on the agenda at the next session of the League off Nations in September. The Norwegian government has definitely promised to support it at the session of the League of Nations. The attitude of other governments remains unknown.
In his report Mr. McDonald disclosed that approximately ten million dollars has been spent during the last two years for relief for refugees from Germany. Virtually all this money came from Jewish relief organizations, such as the American Joint Distribution Committee, the Jewish Colonization Association, and others. The League of Nations itself did not spend a cent for the refugees from Germany.
Over eighty thousand refugees left Germany since Hitler came to power, according to the report. The majority has been settled in different countries, but there are still a good number depending on relief. Mr. McDonald revealed the fact that a fund of ten million dollars is now being raised quietly by a group of Jews in America for the rehabilitation of German Jews in overseas countries. This money will be spent on constructive work only.
One of the major troubles with regard to the refugees from Germany is the fact that no country wishes to admit refugees who have no capital. A report was spread recently by irresponsible correspondents that the Albanian government decided to invite Jewish refugees for settlement in Albania. This report was, however, immediately denied by Albanian authorities who made it clear that no such invitation has ever been extended. They emphasized that only those with capital will be admitted.
A ray of hope—not only for the Jewish refugees from Germany, but also for thousands of Jews from Poland who must migrate because of oppression—was seen in the official announcement this week that the government of Ecuador has agreed to set aside large tracts of land for Jewish colonization in Ecuador. The agreement, according to the announcement, has already been signed by the president of Ecuador. It gives a million and a quarter acres of land to the Jews, facilitating the settlement of not less than fifty thousand Jewish families.
If you've got something to sell, an excellent way of selling it is through the columns of the Jewish Daily Bulletin. Call Ashland 4-3093 for rates.


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Do Life Insurers' Asset Allocation Strategies Influence Performance within the Enterprise Risk Framework?
In this paper we examine the impact of asset allocation strategies on the investment performance of life insurers in the U.S. We are especially interested in comparing the effects of active portfolio management to the effects of passive holding strategies. We define three novel quantitative indices of static/dynamic strategies to represent important dimensions of the active/passive spectrum of investment strategies. The indices are computed from portfolio allocations reported in the firms' annual statement data. Using cluster analysis, we partition the population of life insurers into three groups, characterised by generally having static (passive), dynamic (active) and mixed asset allocation strategies, respectively. There are major differences among the three clusters in terms of risk profile, size and other factors. We model investment performance and allocations among the major holdings of bonds, stocks, cash and mortgages explicitly as simultaneously interacting phenomena. In order to isolate the effect of allocation strategies from the confounding effects of other risks, we imbed a spectrum of enterprise risks, treated as exogenous or predetermined, within the model framework of endogenously interacting performance and asset allocation variables. The strategy indicators are also exogenous variables. We find that the most active cluster enjoys the greatest relative performance, even controlling for allocations among asset classes. The Geneva Papers (2009) 34, 242–259. doi:10.1057/gpp.2009.5
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Volume (Year): 34 (2009)
Issue (Month): 2 (April)
Pages: 242-259
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Piecing & Applique
hand piecing
Templates and Cutting Patches
Mark the seam lines rather than cutting lines when hand piecing. Cut out patches approximately 1⁄4" beyond the marked seam lines.
To make a template for hand piecing, trace the seam (dashed) line of a full-size template pattern on template plastic. To convert rotary cutting diagrams to hand-piecing templates, first draw the shape to scale, then subtract 1⁄4" from every side.
Trace the full-size templates on the wrong side of your fabric using a sharp pencil, leaving at least 1⁄2" between each traced line.
Put patches right sides together matching seam lines. Sew the seam through the marked lines with a short running stitch using a single thread. Begin and end stitching at the seam line (not the edge of the fabric) with 2 or 3 backstitches to secure the seam.
foundation piecing
Make paper copies of each foundation. Sew patches in the numerical order printed on the pattern. Center fabric under #1, wrong side of the fabric to the unprinted side of the paper and pin in place from the paper side.
Turn fabric side up. With right sides together, position a patch of fabric sufficient to cover #2 and its seam allowances so the fabric's edge extends at least 1⁄4" into the #2 area. Pin in place. Set a very short stitch length on your sewing machine (18– 20 per inch or 1.5 mm). Turn the assembly paper side up. Stitch through the paper and the fabric layers along the printed seam line, beginning and ending 1⁄4" beyond the ends of the line.
Turn assembly to the fabric side. Trim the seam allowances to approximately 1⁄4". Press the fabric open to cover #2 and seam allowances.
Repeat this process to complete the blocks or sections, allowing at least 1⁄4" beyond the edge of the paper.
Use a rotary cutter and ruler to trim 1⁄4" outside the seam line of the foundation, creating a seam allowance. If necessary, join sections by matching points and sewing with 1⁄4" seam. Once all the seams around a foundation section have been sewn, remove the paper foundations.
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(jargon, programming) A misfeature of a system, especially a programming language or environment, that tends to breed bugs or mistakes because it both enticingly easy to invoke and completely unexpected and/or unreasonable in its outcome.For example, a classic gotcha in C is the fact that
if (a=b) {code;}is syntactically valid and sometimes even correct. It puts the value of "b" into "a" and then executes "code" if "a" is non-zero. What the programmer probably meant was
if (a==b) {code;}which executes "code" if "a" and "b" are equal. [Jargon File]
Last updated: 1995-04-17


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No matter how hard you strive to recruit and hire overachievers, you may occasionally miss the mark. Given the high cost of turnover, your best bet is to try to reform poor performers before considering termination.
Here are four common types of "problem employees" — and what to do if one of them works for you.
1. The Whiner — He may be an overt complainer or simply someone who puts a negative spin on every idea that's floated. In either case, as his negativity spreads, he brings down morale and productivity.
Action steps: The Whiner often just wants to be heard. Acknowledge his feelings and empathize with him. Never dismiss his emotions (or he'll whine louder). Make it a standard rule that anyone who complains about something must also provide at least one workable solution to the problem — and hold the employee to it when he comes to you to gripe.
Say things like, "I understand how frustrated you are. What are your solutions for resolving the problem?" As you do that, you program the employee to become solution-focused and more likely to resolve issues (vs. whine about them).
2. The Emotional Time Bomb — She bursts into tears or blows up in anger at a moment's notice. This makes others uncomfortable, and they start to avoid her, which impedes teamwork.
Action steps: First off, you want to help an emotional employee settle down; otherwise, she can't cooperate with you. Don't try to rationalize or switch into problem-solving mode. Instead, stay calm, so the employee can mirror your demeanor. Next, let her vent fully.
Say things like, "I can see that you are upset. Let's talk about what's going on." Find out what happened and who else is involved. Acknowledge the reasons for the emotions, and work with the employee to seek solutions. Explain that her behavior is inappropriate at the office, and ask the employee to come to you before she reaches the tipping point of emotional outburst in the future.
3. The Glory Hog — This is the employee who takes credit for other people's ideas or work, yet when things go wrong he's quick to blame someone else. In addition, he demeans others' efforts in an attempt to make himself look good. The result: His co-workers become resentful, and tensions rise. They stop communicating because they don't want their ideas stolen.
Action steps: Ensure that you are giving credit where it's due by getting progress reports from staffers about everything they're working on. Encourage all employees to contribute ideas, and listen to what each person has to say. Additionally, when the Glory Hog boasts about success on a project, ask him to acknowledge the people who helped out along the way. That practice will put him in the habit of sharing credit. If you don't see improvement, meet with him to explain that you value collaboration and you don't condone bragging or dishonesty.
Understand that the Glory Hog often steals credit because he feels insecure, so put his mind at ease by telling him how much you value him. Say things like, "You are a very talented person. Your ability to connect with the clients is exceptional, and we need you on this team."
4. The Slacker — She doesn't take on her fair share of the work. She relies on others to pick up the slack. And she often tends to personal business on the clock. Meanwhile, as co-workers cover for the Slacker to get the job done, they become overwhelmed and stressed out. When her laziness goes unchecked by you, morale plummets.
Action steps: Make the Slacker aware that you know how she spends her time, citing specific examples of where she's falling short of expectations. Assign her more responsibilities, explaining that because she spends so much time on personal activities, she must not have enough work to do. Provide an updated job description or task list, and set clear goals, including a timeline for completion.
Say things like, "I hold you accountable for every item on this list. You are to complete everything on time and accurately. I also want you to refrain from conducting any personal business at work. I expect to see immediate improvements and want you fully up to speed within the next two weeks."
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Today, The Young and the Restless (Y&R) is launching an extensive online fashion and lifestyle magazine, RestlessStyle.com, to coincide with the launch of their in-show print magazine Restless Style. The site offers the latest runway trends, fresh beauty tips and red carpet coverage, in addition to such things as videos, polls, photo galleries and horoscopes. RestlessStyle.com is a destination outlet which provides fashion and lifestyle enthusiasts the opportunity to absorb cutting edge content and fashion coverage. The digital content will run concurrently with the upcoming "Y&R" storylines relating to Restless Style - the print magazine run by Nicholas and Phyllis Newman (Joshua Morrow and Michelle Stafford) and Jack and Sharon Abbott (Peter Bergman and Sharon Case).
George Kotsiopoulos, formerly of The New York Times Magazine, and currently style director at C Magazine, is lending his fashion and style expertise for this venture and will also be appearing on "Y&R" as a fashion consultant. Additionally, lifestyle and fashion writer/editor/reporter Peter McQuaid, who contributes to The New York Times Magazine, InStyle Magazine and The Los Angeles Times, is also joining George for this venture by overseeing and providing editorial content for RestlessStyle.com.
"We love being able to offer this innovative extension of our show not only to our loyal viewers, but to anyone who loves to follow fashion, beauty and trends. 'Y&R' has always had a glamorous edge to it, while still remaining accessible to viewers. We feel this site will offer something for everyone while also providing additional story elements for our fans that will run alongside what you see on the show everyday," said Josh Griffith, executive producer, "THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS."
Furthermore, fans of the daytime drama will be able to see things from the show crossing over onto the site, blurring the lines between reality and fantasy, while engaging users with interactive features such as a slideshow widget, powered by Moblyng (formerly known as Fliptrack), that allows personal photos depicting favorite fashion trends to be uploaded onto the site. Users can also grab the widget and embed it onto their blogs, social networks and websites. The site also allows fans to customize their own playlist from the five different themes - New York Lifestyle, Hollywood Lounge, Summer Stylin', Paris Runway and Restless Style.
(c) CBS Young and the Restless' Restless Style Magazine Premiere Issue
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Timed stock market trades will go awry. Manufacturing lines will grind to a halt. Perplexed executives will hold court before empty conference rooms. These are just a few of the doomsday scenarios that have been tossed out in advance of daylight-saving time, which has been bumped up by two weeks this year by order of the U.S. Congress.
The warnings recall the Year 2000, or Y2K, hysteria that reigned at the turn of the Millennium, when some worried that the computer systems that were programmed to recognize two digit years and that were used to run just about everything would suddenly stop working. But executives and enterprise IT professionals contacted by InfoWorld say that the daylight-saving time (DST) change, while a nuisance, is no Y2K, and they expect few disruptions to their businesses come Monday.
The new, accelerated time change is the result of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which lengthened daylight-saving time in an effort to curb U.S. fuel consumption. IT vendors and industry groups recognized the potential for confusion, with many operating systems and applications programmed to use the old daylight-saving time date, and started warning about potential disruptions from DST just after the New Year.
In a February alert to its members, the IT ISAC (Information Sharing and Analysis Center) said that the new daylight-saving time could "affect all consumers from home users to large enterprises," with problems ranging from missed appointments to system failures where correct time stamps are needed to store, monitor, or operate critical infrastructures. IT-ISAC members were encouraged to identify any systems that were time dependent and request patches for affected systems.
Large platform vendors like Microsoft have also been sounding the alarm on DST in recent months, especially about the impact of the change on older versions of Windows and Microsoft Office. Windows Vista and Office 2007, released in January, are programmed to use the new DST schedule.
"We've heard a wide spectrum of comments from customers," said M3 Sweatt, chief of staff for the Windows Core Operating System Development Group. Some companies have been working on the problem since last November, when Microsoft first issued patches for Windows to address the time change. However, other firms have waited until just recently to tackle the DST change, he said.
"Some companies look at this as an extraordinary situation, whereas some have just incorporated it into their regular maintenance windows," Sweatt said.
One of the companies treating it as an extraordinary event is Microsoft, where administrators designated a whole weekend to roll out DST patches across the company's infrastructure, he said.
More recently, Microsoft set up a Web site for customers with information on the implications of the time change and links to product patches and other advice for consumers, as well as IT professionals.
Despite two years of lead time, however, the daylight-saving time issue only made it onto the radar at many enterprises in the last week or so, after the press began covering the issue more closely, said Patrick Foxhoven, CIO of CentraComm Communications, a managed security services provider in Findlay, Ohio.
"The biggest headache has just been clients contacting us who are concerned because of all the hype," Foxhoven said.
Centracomm said that it was initially concerned about the impact of the daylight savings time change on security event correlation tools that it uses, but has since then received patches from the necessary vendors, as well as infrastructure vendors it depends on like Juniper Networks. Centracomm is ready to go for the DST change, as are the systems it manages for its customers, he said.
But over at Ce De Candy, in Union, N.J., daylight-saving time may result in the burning of some midnight oil before Sunday, said IT manager Rick DePinto.
"It's a big pain in the neck," said DePinto, who said changes to the company's payroll system and a matrix of Microsoft patches still need to be implemented.
Ce De pays its workers hourly and bases the time worked on a time clock system that takes the information from the clocks and uploads the data to the program on a PC, which in turn uploads it to the ERP system on the back end.
"All of these time-related payroll issues have to adjust when daylight savings goes into effect," said DePinto. Unfortunately the instructions Ce De got from the payroll vendor are not clear on what needs to be done. "We've been spending a lot of man hours on this," DePinto said.
Scheduling anything in Outlook is also a problem. Shift schedules and appointments are all done in Outlook and there isn't one simple patch from Microsoft.
"They have a multitude of different patches that you have to download and it is very involved," DePinto said.
For now, changes to Outlook are being done manually at Ce De. Although there is a patch that will push out a change to all the desktops, installing it so complex that DePinto prefers to let his team update the PCs one desktop at a time.
Still, most enterprises are taking the change in stride and betting that disruptions, if they occur, will be minor, according to those interviewed by InfoWorld.
"It is not on a Y2K scale," said Ray Repic chief technical architect at Coca-Cola Enterprises. "The only item that is a bit of a pain is with our calendaring capabilities for people who have scheduled meetings out beyond March 11."
"To be honest, I've been so busy, I haven't even thought about it," said Sean Marsh, CEO of One Mortgage Network. Marsh said that outsourcing much of One Mortgage's IT operations and using service-based software like Salesforce.com has spared him some worry about the DST issue, but he's betting the downside won't be catastrophic even if he's caught unprepared.
"The reality is, a one-hour difference is not going to cripple our company," said Marsh. In a worst case scenario, IT staff can manually update systems that can't be patched, then turn off the daylight-saving time feature so that clocks are changed again when the old DST date comes around, he said.
Ultimately, scheduling will be the biggest problem for companies that haven't addressed the DST issue, so enterprises should make workers aware of the change at the very least and scrutinize appointments and meetings in the weeks in between the new March 11 daylight-saving time change and the old DST change in April.
"The Boy Scout's model is to be prepared, and I think that's a good model for this: Plan ahead and be prepared," Sweatt said.


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At 64, Michael Ignatieff is the rookie among the leaders in this federal election. Stephen Harper has run three national campaigns as Conservative Leader, as has Jack Layton as the head of the NDP. Even the Green Party's Elizabeth May is running her second campaign.
Mr. Ignatieff said he isn't fazed by this. In an interview on his campaign plane on Wednesday as he travelled from Vancouver to Winnipeg, the Liberal Leader said he feels "like a fighter who has done a lot of roadwork - and we're in the ring."
He spent the summer on a bus, the so-called Liberal Express, for what amounted to two 36-day, back-to-back campaigns.
Sometimes his officials had him doing seven events a day - the average was about five. So he said this election campaign - where he has his own plane and he's not dealing with airports and security and where he is met at every stop - is easier than that. "It's just bigger that's all," he said.
His target is Mr. Harper. He barely utters Mr. Layton's name; he said he doesn't think he's worth the fight.
"There are only two people who are going to become prime minister at the end of this," Mr. Ignatieff said. "My focus is on replacing the Harper regime. I'm focusing on Mr. Harper because that, in many ways, is the key issue in the campaign. So, um, I've got a lot of respect for Jack. It's just that I've got to keep my eye on the ball."
Staying focused means he doesn't read polls, which have not been kind at all to him.
"I swear to you," he said. "I don't even look at them. I swear to you. ... we've been on the road for five days. I judge it day by day and I've had five good days."
He insists the start of the campaign was solid, even though Mr. Harper managed to steer the agenda for the first two days by hammering away at the issue of whether Mr. Ignatieff would be willing to govern with the NDP and the Bloc Québécois in a coalition.
Mr. Ignatieff said he has now released two major planks of his family-oriented platform without being drowned out by the Tories, feels he has addressed the coalition controversy and has connected with the crowds.
In addition, he's tried to build a case for defeating the government and taking the country into its fourth election in seven years.
No super strategy around this, he said. Rather, it came to a point, he said, where he couldn't support a government being investigated for possible election fraud, which has shut down Parliament twice and which has been found in contempt for the first time in history.
"So you look at that - how can I describe it? This 2.5- or five-year pattern of disrespect for democracy," he said.
And so here he is.
The last time he was on a campaign plane was in 1968, on Pierre Trudeau's team.
"I was at the back of the bus. I was the gopher. I was doing bags. I mean, I was doing anything they asked me to. The first time I ever went to Vancouver was on that plane," he recalled.
"I was the lowest guy on the totem pole, right? But he was the kind of prime minister who, I remember it very vividly, I was way back, right down there by the toilets, and he sauntered back and he sat down beside me and we talked for 15 minutes."
He asked about the book he was reading, The Heart of Cities by Victor Gruen. Mr. Ignatieff said he was intimidated.
"He was whip smart and I thought, 'Oh my God." I was 21 ... and so here we are."
John Duffy, a long-time Liberal, acknowledges that whether Mr. Ignatieff would perform well under pressure was a "big question going in."
And for the most part, the party is holding together, something a little different for Liberals, who have often been at each other's throats. "There's a very strong sense of unity in the party," says Toronto Centre Liberal MP Bob Rae, a former leadership rival. "Michael's made a real effort to bring people together."
Mr. Ignatieff says he is ready. But there are some who believe the party is not.
"I think Michael is more comfortable in his own skin now, not because of anything more than he has more experience being the leader," said a long-time Liberal associate. "Frankly, I think he has outperformed his campaign thus far. So he is ready, but I'm not convinced the party is ready."
With a report from John ibbitsonReport Typo/Error
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UC research looking at alternative energy capture & storage
UC research looking at alternative energy capture and storage
November 8, 2013
A University of Canterbury chemistry researcher is looking to develop game-changing ways of solving nanotechnology design problems, focusing particularly on developing alternative energy technologies.
Dr Deborah Crittenden has received $300,000 of Marsden funding to elucidate the fundamental principles of biological photosynthesis with a view to designing simpler chemical systems that work on the same principles.
She hopes that this could one day result in households having low-cost, high-efficiency and carbon-neutral solar energy capture, conversion and storage systems on their roofs.
Photosynthesis is the main way of converting light energy from the sun into electrical energy. Its main advantage over other electrical energy generation technologies such as solar panels, wind and geothermal, is that the electrical energy is further converted into chemical energy that can be stored for long periods of time until needed, Dr Crittenden says.
``Depending on how you look at it, photosynthesis is either remarkably efficient, converting almost 100 percent of photons from the sun into electrical current, or remarkably inefficient, only finally storing 3 percent of the total energy arriving on a leaf's surface, with a lot of energy going into making biochemical by-products and heat.
``Our aim is to beat photosynthesis at its own game, designing simpler chemical systems that:
-extract as much energy as possible from arriving photons to prevent this energy being lost as heat,
-retain the same 100 percent photon to free electron conversion rate and convert the electrical energy into chemical energy without wasting energy on biochemical by-products.
``To achieve this, we must first understand how the arrangement of atoms within the photosynthetic reaction centre leads to its ability to absorb light energy and liberate electrons to produce electrical current.
``This behaviour of electrons before, during and after absorption of light by a molecule is governed by the laws of quantum mechanics. Working out how these laws of quantum mechanics apply during photosynthesis sounds like a hard problem – because it is.
``At the moment, there aren't many good computational quantum chemical methods available for modelling the behaviour of electrons before and after absorption of light, and none that can be applied to systems as large as the photosynthetic reaction centre.
``The key innovation at the heart of this research project is developing a new mathematical and computational framework that will allow us to establish the link between molecular structure, photon absorption, electrical current production and the process of storing electrical energy by rearranging chemical bonds.
``The next step will be using this method to work out how to modify the arrangement of atoms to maximise the energy capture, conversion and storage efficiencies.
``This fundamental understanding will underpin the development of new low-cost, high-efficiency and energy storage technologies, which will be of significant environmental and economic importance, as the impact of increasing carbon dioxide emissions and the need to find alternative carbon neutral energy sources becomes ever more pressing.
``Meeting the world's ever-increasing energy needs without increasing carbon dioxide emissions is one of the most pressing scientific and technological challenges of the modern age. Tapping solar energy is a potential solution, but robust, cost-effective solar technology has not yet been realised,'' Dr Crittenden says.
Dr Deborah Crittenden


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Boys soccer: Bemidji's offense sputters in loss to EGF
BEMIDJI – Earlier this fall the Bemidji boys soccer team posted a 2-1 victory at East Grand Forks and Lumberjacks coach Rick Toward was expecting a similar contest Monday when the teams squared off at the middle school field.
The Green Wave duplicated its first-game offensive output when Damian Brooks scored with 2:15 to play in regulation. The Lumberjacks, however, never found the net and East Grand Forks headed west with a 1-0 victory.
"I thought we would score," Toward said."I can't believe we didn't score. We certainly had plenty of opportunities.
Neither team scored until the final seconds of regulation when Cale Mack dribbled deep into the zone and sent a pass through the crease to Brooks who was unguarded outside the left post.
Brooks did the rest as his shot beat BHS keeper Matt Bitter for what proved to be the game's lone score.
The Jacks forced EGF goalie Brandon Johnson to make eight saves and also spoiled a handful of golden opportunities by missing the target with their shots.
Monday's game was Bemidji's eighth in 16 days and Toward believes that his players could use some rest.
"We didn't play with the intensity that we have had during our last few games," the coach said. "I'm not making any excuses but for the past 10 days it's been game and practice — game and practice — game and practice, and I think we're tired.
"It was obvious that we weren't mentally ready on Monday," the coach added.
Bemidji will have a few days to recover as the Jacks are off until Oct. 4 when they head to Moorhead. The regular season will end Oct. 7 at home against Hillcrest Lutheran.
East Grand Forks 0 1 - 1
Bemidji 0 0 - 0
First Half
No scoring
Second Half
EGF-Brooks (Mack) 77:45
Johnson (EGF) 3 5 - 8
Bitter (Bem) 3 3 - 6


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Tuesday, September 30, 2014
The Most Horrorble Time of the Year!
A few of you have actually been here during prior Octobers. If you have, then you know that this is when I forsake all of the cinematic universe with the exception of the horror genre. And I go hard for 31 straight days. It all starts at midnight tonight. If you want to know exactly how long, keep an eye on the countdown above.
As usual, we'll kick things off with a horror classic. Don't worry, it's not all ancient stuff, though. We'll hit some more current fare, too. We'll also try to hit horror from every angle. We'll hit some haunted houses, run from some slashers, twist our mind psychologically, and we'll even get to have a few laughs. We'll throw in a list or two. This year, we've added a few new ingredients to our witch's brew to switch things up a bit. The Thursday Movie Picks that have become a popular feature around here, all have a horror slant to them. We're also hosting the Slasher Cast-a-thon, where bloggers get to create the cast for their very own slasher flick. Details to come this weekend.
I hope you'll join me every day this month. If you do, leave your two cents in the comments section. If you're lucky, you'll come across a movie that will have looking like the couple pictured above.
Posted by Wendell Ottley at 12:00 AM 14 comments: Links to this post
Monday, September 29, 2014
The Equalizer
Directed by Antoine Fuqua.
2014. Rated R, 131 minutes.
Denzel Washington
Marton Csokas
Chloe Grace Moretz
David Harbour
Johnny Skourtis
Melissa Leo
Bill Pullman
Haley Bennett
Alex Veadov
Vladimir Kulich
At Home Depot...er...HomeMart, where he works, Rober McCall (Washington) is the star employee. His bosses and co-workers all look up to him and he'll do anything he can to help out each and every one of them. He is also a man deeply mired in the routines of his life. He has to have everything a certain way. A bit of an insomniac, he finds himself at the local diner at 2 AM every morning. He sits in the same booth, sets up his silverware the way he likes and gets a cup of hot water for the tea bag that he brings from home. He also talks to Elaina (Moretz), the young girl who is always seated at the counter. She also happens to be a hooker. The night she's not there, Robert becomes very worried. When he finds out she's in the hospital after being badly beaten by her pimp, he takes matters into his own hands.
The early parts of the movie are spent developing Mr. McCall's character. We get to see what makes him tick. During this time, Denzel Washington owns the screen, completely selling us on what type of guy McCall is. The first few scenes establish him as definitely having Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. However, it's subsequent scenes during which the point is driven home. It's not necessarily in the acting out of the routines, but in his subtle reactions when those routines are broken. More importantly, we come to realize how much he cares for those around him. This is most ably demonstrated through his conversations with Elaina and his interactions with Ralphie (Skourtis), one of his co-workers down at HomeMart. Washington's supporting cast helps him out just enough, too. Marton Csokas gives us a solidly detestable villain. In her brief screen time, Chloe Grace Moretz also does very well.
For those of us old enough to remember, and to care, the big question is how does it compare to the TV show that it was based on. I am old enough to remember. However, I must confess that I was never a fan of the show. I might have watched it a handful of times and really don't remember anything about it other than the star. This means that, sadly, I've no clue whether or not it does the show proud. I do know that it does the action genre proud. Once it gets going The Equalizer is insanely fun, provided you're not put off by all the blood and guts. The first act perfectly sets up the last two acts. It's a guy we like doing things we wish we could do for the people we care about. Admittedly, there are some late second act scenes that fill in some of our hero's back story, though not very much. The real point of these is to provide something that could be expanded on in sequels. Trust me, this movie clearly wants sequels. To be honest, though, it might be better as a standalone. In either case, it's Denzel showing us all that he can still carry a movie without a big name co-star and still be extremely compelling. That quality is what really makes this an excellent watch.
Friday, September 26, 2014
Really Uncomfortable Movie Summaries, Vol. 1
Every now and again when a Friday rolls around, I get in a silly mood. Yup, this is one of those Fridays. What that means is we're going to boil down the plots of some well-known (and not-so-well-known) movies to their disturbing and/or hilarious core.
I can't say this is a completely original idea. A friend sent me the link to this post years ago on a site called postmodernbarney. It shows a bunch of movies doing exactly what I said we're going to do here. A few examples:
Batman: Wealthy man assaults the mentally ill.
Beauty and the Beast: A peasant girl develops Stockholm Syndrome.
Blade: Obsessed loner stalks minority group.
Deep Throat: Medical anomaly earns woman new friends.
Deliverance: Tourists experience local hospitality.
Demolition Man: In a future where crime is completely eradicated, a black man steals and murders.
King Kong: Endangered animal stolen, shot.
Star Wars: A New Hope: Religious extremist terrorists destroy government installation, kill thousands.
Taxi Driver: Modern dating proves challenging for working class man.
Those are just a few of many. But since I did say I was in a silly mood, I came up with some of my own. Oh, I'm calling it volume one because I think I might do this again. And away we go...
Quick warning first - I can't promise good taste from this point forward. And there might be spoilers.
Now you're ready.
American Hustle: Con-man and his girlfriend rip off the FBI.
Any Given Sunday: Drug addicts play football, expose themselves to female owner.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier: A former U.S. Soldier takes down a government agency.
District 9: Government relocates already quarantined immigrants.
Friday the 13th (original): Campers kill a mentally ill boy and his mentally ill mother.
In Bruges: A child murderer goes on vacation.
Her: Man masturbates while using his computer.
The Hobbit: Terrorist group plots to assassinate a head of state.
The Incredible Hulk: The U.S. Army exploits paranoid schizophrenics, forces them to fight each other.
Law Abiding Citizen: White vigilante targets minorities in positions of authority.
The Matrix: Religious extremists recruit a hacker to destroy the world's computers.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl: A man of ambiguous sexuality tries to get his ship full of sea men back.
Saving Mr. Banks: Big corporation takes advantage of an artist in financial trouble.
Shallow Hal: Man reluctantly comes to the realization he's into plus sized women.
Sky High: Violence erupts at a school for children with special needs.
Spawn: A disgruntled employee battles the company snitch.
Underworld: Couple shunned due to their interracial relationship.
The World's End: Alcoholic goes on a binge, becomes violent.
The Wrestler: Adrenaline junkie stalks both his estranged daughter and a stripper.
You are more than welcome to join in by posting some of your own really uncomfortable summaries in the comments section, or to tell me how bad mines suck. Either way, be creative.
Oh, and congratulate me. This is my 1,000th post!!!
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Monday, September 22, 2014
Back To School Blogathon: Links!
At the end of August, I created the Back to School Blogathon to celebrate kids everywhere making their return to the classroom. The object was for bloggers to create classes uses movie characters that fit into some very well worn archetypes. I won't give a complete rundown on the rules again. To see them, just click here.
A number of you responded with some very interesting classes. Below are the links to them all.
first class is headed up by one of the Marx Brothers. For his second class, he managed to get in someone from a prequel to a classic horror flick. Then, he went completely off the rails for his third class and used nothing but characters from David Lynch movies.
His class includes Robert Downey Jr. before he became a superhero and Jon Cryer before he became one of the Two and a Half Men.
a class run by a couple of action movie icons and includes a quite literal interpretation of the Invisible Girl trope.
an all-female class.
Her class is led by a wizard and a lady who tries to work magic with troubled kids.
whirlwind.supernova's class has a little bit of a musical slant and includes two people with the gift of telekinesis.
Their class includes probably the most unlikely picks for star student and jock.
Alex Raphael joined in on the fun and gave us a teacher from the Japanese movie that's made Jennifer Lawrence a household name...in a roundabout sort of way.
a trio of not-so-bright bullies. The second give us a trio of very intelligent bullies.
As always, I'm not completely a stickler for deadlines so if you put a class together in the next week or so, drop by here and let me know. I'll gladly update this post to include you.
Thanks to everyone that participated this next go round. I'll see you in about a week or so with another blogathon, so be on the lookout.
Posted by Wendell Ottley at 12:00 AM 8 comments: Links to this post
Labels: Back to Shool, Blogathons, Links
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Back to School Blogathon: Class Two
If you've been hanging around here for a few weeks, you might be aware that I'm currently hosting the Back to School Blogathon. Today is the listed deadline. Before it passed, I wanted to get one more post in for it. I posted Class One last week. Today, logically, it's time for Class Two.
Before I start, just a quick note on what I'm trying to do, here. It's actually simple. I'm creating a class using movie characters that fit certain archetypes. For a full rundown on the rules, click here. Now, let's get to it.
Principal Powers
Sky High
(2005)She's tough and fair. Besides, if she can handle a school full of super-powered kids, I think she can handle whatever I'm going to dish out. It doesn't hurt that she's still easy on the eyes after all these years.
Trevor Garfield
(1997)As a high school teacher in Brooklyn, NY he got stabbed and suffered some serious injuries. He switched coast, became a teacher in LA and found himself in a school essentially run by gangs. You know what? He's going to get through to them one way or another. He's hired.
Star Student
Autumn Haley
The Program
(1993)It's easy. She's a great student who makes a little extra cash by tutoring the football players. What more could you want. Again, my shallowness is peaking through, but it helps that she bears an uncanny resemblance to Halle Berry.
Napoleon Dynamite
Napoleon Dynamite
(2004)Has there ever been a bigger nerd than Napoleon Dynamite. Calling him socially awkward is an understatement on the level of saying outer space is kinda big. All is not completely lost, though. He practices hard on his dancing and does sweet jumps on his bike.
Scott Howard
Teen Wolf
(1985)He's pretty far from being your typical jock. In fact, until he discovers that he's literally a beast on the basketball court he's a very nice, if somewhat anonymous guy. Once he takes over the hardwood, yeah, he becomes a jerk. (click here my Teen Wolf experience)
Popular Girl
Raven Darkholme/Mystique
X-Men: First Class
(2011)Part of the first class at Xavier's School for the Gifted, she's the linchpin that holds it all together. Besides that, she can literally be whoever you want her to be and has no problem injecting herself into any situation. (click here for my full review)
Invisible Girl
Lilly Onakuramara
Pitch Perfect
(2012)Who could be more invisible than a girl who literally whispers every word out of her mouth? If you can manage to hear it, though, she says some hilariously nonsensical stuff. For instance, did you know she was born with gills like a fish? (click here for my full review)
Class Clown
Jeff Spicoli
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
(1982)Spicoli usually shows up to class, but doesn't do anything when he gets there. Well, that's not quite true. He's generally high on pot, says the most ridiculous things, daydreams about winning surfing competitions and has his pizza delivered right to class. (click here for my full review)
Class Bullies
The Heathers
(1988)They could probably be slid into the "popular" slot because everyone knows who they are. However, they aren't actually popular. They are really feared and hated since they rule the school with iron fists. Everyone must bend to their will, or else.
Troubled Youth
Kim Bentley
Malibu High
(1979)Kim is the quintessential troubled teen. She's flunking out of school and has lost her boyfriend. To turn things around she starts sleeping with her teachers. To start making some money, she takes up prostitution. So, as you might imagine, she's a busy girl. And her exploits don't stop there. (click here for my full review)
Well, there's Class Two. Click here to check out Class One. And come by tomorrow to see the links to the classes others have put together for the Back to School Blogathon.
Posted by Wendell Ottley at 12:00 AM 12 comments: Links to this post
Labels: Back to School, Blogathons, Class Two
Saturday, September 20, 2014
The 10 Best Superhero Movies of All Time Blog Relay
Boys and girls, it's finally happened. At long last, I've been bitten by a radioactive spider, overexposed to gamma rays, had my skeleton fused with adamantium, and jettisoned from my home planet as it exploded only to have my parents killed in an alley right in front of my eyes.
Wait, what? That doesn't make any sense.
Sorry, I'm just geeking out because I've finally been tagged in Bubbawheat's "The 10 Best Superhero Movies of All Time Blog Relay." And let me tell you, I've been itching to get my superhuman hands on this thing since the beginning. Now that I've got it, let's do something with it.
Hold up a sec.
There's some rules to contend with that makes this a bit different than the ordinary relay. This list was created with a definite end in mind. Instead of bloggers endlessly replacing one movie at a time, Bubbawheat set it up so that it will end at some point. The quick and dirty is that once a movie makes it through five consecutive rounds it is locked in and cannot be removed from the list. There are some other rules dictating how many movies each blogger is to replace. Suffice it to say that we're at the stage where two movies need to be dropped and two new ones put in their places. If you want the full rundown, just click the link above to his site to check out the rules and see the path of the relay so far.
While you're there, stay a while. Silly me, I didn't even mention the name of his blog. It's Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights and as the name suggests, it's all about superhero movies. Personally, I love the place. I especially like when he writes about some obscure superhero flick that I've never even heard of.
Okay...that's enough brown-nosing. We have a world to save.
Let's start by checking out the list as it stands
The Avengers
The Dark Knight
Spider-Man 2
Iron Man
The Rocketeer
I'll say just a few quick words about the movies that are locked in. If we were ranking them, and all superhero flicks for that matter, I'd put The Dark Knight number one. No hesitation. And it's not even close. In fact, I might rank the next movie number three. I'm most surprised and most thrilled by the inclusion of Unbreakable. It's certainly unique for the genre. For me, it is the very best movie that M. Night Shyamalan has ever made. And it's not even close. In fact, I might rank...oh, sorry. I also love The Avengers, Spider-Man 2, and Iron Man. I don't know what to feel about The Rocketeer because I've never seen it. The rest of the movies are...
The IncrediblesThe Incredibles easily gives me the most intriguing dilemma of the remaining movies. It has made the cut, four times in a row. If I keep it, it gets locked in. I do love it, but would I rank it in my all time top ten of superhero movies? I'd probably have it right on the fringe, somewhere between nine and fifteen. I haven't written that out in a while. Maybe I'll do that after this list gets all locked up. Without question it is superior to some of the other remainders. However, do I sacrifice it in hopes that something I think is more deserving will earn a spot? Hmmm...
Captain America: The Winter SoldierThe newest of the remainders is Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I absolutely love this movie. Right now, I'll tell you that it's better than The Avengers which is already locked in. However, that newness scares me. It's only been out a few months. I'd like to think I'll still feel that way in a year or ten, but who knows. How we feel about movies changes all the time, both personally and collectively. After all, Crash received mostly glowing reviews and won Best Picture. Now, it's hard to find a person to own up to even liking it. Except me. I still like it. I wouldn't have given it Best Pic, nor would I have given to Brokeback Mountain, but I digress. Point is, Winter Soldier might be too new to be on this list. (click here for my full review)
Batman (1989)The movie I have the most personal connection with is Tim Burton's Batman from 1989. For me, it stands up as a great superhero flick. I rank it as the second best of all the movies based on The Caped Crusader, behind The Dark Knight, of course, and ever so slightly ahead of Batman Begins. Jack Nicholson was great as The Joker, and helped the whole thing be a fun affair. However, this was no goofy superhero movie. It took its cues from the darker roots of the character and from what Frank Miller had done in print earlier in the decade. This re-energized Batman as a whole and let Hollywood know that the genre could indeed be lucrative beyond Superman. On the other hand, there is already a Batman movie locked in. This isn't the best, so the question is do we need two on the same list? (click here to see those Batman rankings)
X-Men: First ClassIt so happens I just re-watched this a couple weeks ago. Thankfully, it stands up to the praise I gave it when I saw it in the theater. McAvoy and Fassbender are nearly as good together as Prof. Xavier and Magneto as Stewart and McKellen. Just to get an idea of how high that praise is, I think the older gentlemen are the absolute most perfect choices possible for those roles. Aside from that the story is wonderful. The message of self-acceptance, in addition to the Civil Rights metaphor always present in X-Men movies, is spot-on. That said, is it even the best movie in the franchise? I'd argue that it's not. (click here for my full review)
Superman IIThe sequel to Superman: The Movie does things much bigger than its predecessor. For starters, the three people pictured are an actual physical threat to The Man of Steel. Supes' seems to always be more intriguing when this is the case. Additionally, Christopher Reeves turns in another great performance as our hero. He's clearly the best Kal-el in cinematic history. Mix in another excellent turn by Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor and shift the focus from telling the origin story to showing Supes in action and the excitement factor is taken up a notch. Then again, having more action and being a bigger spectacle does not necessarily mean that a movie is better. Those things might be hiding some flaws.
Kick-AssA lot of us have wondered what a superhero would like in the real world. Kick-Ass answers that question in marvelous fashion. In addition, it perfectly spoofs the entire superhero world. Superman, Spider-Man, and a number of other heroes are targeted and hit. The way it parodies the old Batman TV series, the one that starred Adam West, is just perfect. Best of all, it does all of this while clearly being big fans of the comic books and the movies (and TV shows) that they spawned. On top of all that it was graphically violent and Chloe Grace Moretz absolutely walked away the movie. There's a flip-side to all these positive things, though. Because of its desire to poke fun at the rest of the comic world, it's not as original as it could be. Our hero is essentially Peter Parker deciding to don a costume even though he hadn't been bitten by a spider. Big Daddy and Hit Girl are merely Batman and Robin. Do we really need a movie that pieced itself together with shards of other films? (click here for my full review)
Someone's got to go. What to do?
Well, first I lured this movie into a crystal chamber and depowered it so I can kill it off...
Superman III have an interesting relationship with this one. As a kid, I actually went to see this and its predecessor in theaters. I immediately declared this one to be far better. After all, it had more action, it was funny, and it had Terrence Stamp doing a now iconic version of General Zod. I saw it a number of times during the next ten or fifteen years and still thought the same thing. I hadn't watched it all in the last ten or fifteen. Then right before Man of Steel came out, I decided to watch all of the Superman movies and review them for what I called My "Week of Steel." Much to my surprise, Superman II didn't age nearly as well as the original. Probably, a more accurate statement is that I've become a different viewer than I was years ago. I still liked it, but all the cracks in its armor from the Richard Donner fiasco were clearly visible to me. I know lots and lots of you consider this the best Superman movie of them all. For me, it was clear that this is the movie that must go.
Deciding on what else to cut was much tougher. Eventually, I settled on stripping someone of his shield and re-submerging him in ice.
Captain America: The Winter SoldierThe truth of the matter is that I love this movie. Right now. It hasn't aged enough to earn its stars and stripes. I just can't place something among the greatest of all time anything after just a few months and one viewing. If it holds up to repeated viewings over the next year or two, I'd be more than happy to give it a spot on the list. Right now, I just can't do it.
So what movies do I invite to use their powers for good?
I figured we needed someone to keep the creatures of the night at bay. So I gave our new hero a shot of serum and let him loose in the city...
Blade IIThis entry into the Blade canon improved upon the first movie in every way. Director Guillermo del Toro, took the superhero flick and infused with a heavy dose of horror to create the creepiest superhero flick ever made. He also told a great story and, of course, imbued it with his normal visual splendor. Not only does it belong on this list, but it's one of the Best Vampire Movies Since 2000.
Next, I felt bad about stripping The Big Blue Boy Scout of his powers so I restored him, as he was orignally...
Superman: The MovieSure, the sequel has more action and possibly a better villain. What it lacks is the pure magical feeling this one gives the viewer. Everything about it is iconic. Christopher Reeves is just perfect. The way scenes are shot are wonderful. Watching our hero grow up feels important. His love story with Lois Lane is expertly portrayed. Finally, the score by John Williams is unbelievably good. In fact, it's probably one of the best scored films of all time. This is truly the class of Superman's cinematic lifetime.
Yes folks, that means that The Incredibles are now...
Now that I'm done, I'm going to pass it to a guy who spends lots of time blogging about superhero flicks, so I know he'll do a great job. That lucky blogger is none other than Jeffrey at Jeffrey K. Lyles' Movie Files. He has great power. Now I'm giving him great responsibility.
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ST OSYTH footballer Aidan Austin is in dreamland after signing a professional contract with Nottingham Forest.
The 16-year-old, a protege of Brightlingsea's Colne Football Academy, has been snapped up by the East Midlands club after he caught their eye while playing for the Nike Academy.
He passed his medical last week and has now penned a two-year contract.
"It's a dream come true and overwhelming," said former Clacton schoolboy Austin.
For the full story, see this week's Gazette.


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Gallery Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 12 to 6 pm or by appointment
EMILY BIONDO & BRADFORD BARR: Touch Me
Flashpoint Gallery | 916 G Street NW
Emily Biondo and Bradford Barr will create an interactive light environment that is generated by the physical interactions of two people. Individual viewers will have an immediate and dynamic effect on their surroundings by simply touching another person. From that interaction, the installation will begin to glow, change and flash, immersing viewers in a lit geometric space built by their own touch.
There will be an opening reception on Friday, April 4 from 6-8PM.
2 responses to "EMILY BIONDO & BRADFORD BARR: Touch Me"
congrats Emily! looking forward to seeing your installation!
How exciting, Em! I'll be there in spirit.


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Downbelow team in Another Conservation Project in Borneo
Barely a week after removing an illegally dumped fishing net near our PADI 5 Star IDC Dive Centre, the environment-loving heroes from Downbelow held another clean-up event.
Resident PADI Platinum Course Director Richard Swann together with his professional-level interns who are completing their PADI Instructor Development Course (IDC) with Downbelow grouped together again and removed a series of small fishing nets that were found in one of the dive sites called "Ribbon Reef".
This dive site is within the protected area of Tunku Abdul Rahman Park, Borneo close to our dive centre. Once one of our team spot a trecherous fishing net such as this, the team are quick to react and clear it up to support the local authorities in preserving the protection status of the park.
For our interns, they gained priceless experience and hopefully they will enjoy the satisfaction of giving something back to nature, we are sure they will be among the first to step forward next time - sadly there will be a next time !


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A US judge has turned down a request by an internet media company to broadcast the execution of the Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh, live online.
Entertainment Network Inc has vowed to appeal the ruling - by district court judge John Tinder - that its intention to show the execution is not supported by first amendment rights to free speech. Mr Tinder ruled that Bureau of Prisons was within its rights to prohibit any recording or broadcast of McVeigh's death.
US courts have traditionally allowed prisons greater leeway over questions of public access, and no execution has ever been publicly broadcast in the US.
ENI had requested permission to place a webcam in the execution chamber and had planned to use credit card payments of $1.95 (£1.25) per viewing in order to prevent children from watching. The company had promised all proceeds would be given to charities that benefit the families of victims.
The chief executive of ENI, David Marshlack, said: "As I read Judge Tinder's decision the primary reason he is denying our request is that there is no precedent for what we propose to do. With due respect to the judge, that is the whole point - the internet is a new medium and clearly we are asking for something that is unprecedented. But just because it has never been done before is not a sufficient reason to deny us the right to transmit this momentous event in a way didn't exist when the laws were written."
When McVeigh is executed by lethal injection on May 16, relatives of the victims will be able to watch the proceedings on closed circuit television feed to Oklahoma City. McVeigh killed 168 people when he placed a bomb in a federal building there in 1995.
Officials in the US fear that tapes of the CCTV broadcast will be almost impossible to keep off the internet as countless numbers of would-be internet broadcasters seek to get hold of the footage. "The constitution does not require that those who wish to record courts or executions be allowed to do so," the assistant US attorney, Gerald Coraz, said. "Executions should not be public spectacles."
Related articles
Comment from Washington by Martin Kettle
20.04.2001: The circus moves in
Useful links
Entertainment Network
Oklahoma City national memorial
Oklahoma City victims memorial site
Oklahoma City bombing archive
Court TV


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Before the season started, many questioned whether James Harden could thrive without Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. Three months later, he looks like a lock for the All-Star Game. After several years of wandering in the wake of Yao Ming's retirement, the Houston Rockets have a new franchise player, a 23-year-old already in the discussion for best shooting guard in the NBA. The next step is building a team around him that maximizes his strengths and minimizes his weaknesses.
Harden has prototypical size (6'5, 220) and shooting ability (career 36 percent from beyond the arc) for a shooting guard, but what separates him from his peers is his uncommon feel for the game. Unlike most great players, Harden isn't a plus athlete for his position, he just does an incredible job of maximizing his physical abilities. He's a young player with the game of a 40-year-old man. If he can attack a defense in space, he will almost always make the right decision. LeBron James is the only non-traditional point guard in the NBA who averages more assists a game than Harden (5.3).
What Harden does have is exceptional length (6'11 wingspan) and timing. Very few guards can be efficient when they start playing amongst the trees in the lane. Harden's ability to extend the ball in front of him and create contact with defenders allows him to draw fouls at an absurd rate. Dwight Howard is the only player in the NBA who averages more free-throw attempts a game than Harden at 9.8. And since he's rarely jumping very high off the ground, Harden isn't as likely to get injured as guys like Dwyane Wade.
He is one of the rare players who can knock down three-pointers, draw free throws and distribute the ball at an elite level. Not only is that an unbelievably efficient combination of skills to have, stars with his skill-set make the game so much easier for their teammates. He creates shots for them with the ball in his hands and creates space for them just by spotting up off the ball. And by drawing fouls at the rim, he puts his team in the penalty earlier in the game and forces opposing team to go to their bench.
There isn't a position in the NBA as thin as the SG; Harden's success with Houston has moved him near the top of that very short list. Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Joe Johnson and Manu Ginobili are all in their 30's while Brandon Roy's comeback looks headed for a premature end. Eric Gordon is the only under-25 shooting guard in the NBA with Harden's skill-set and he hasn't been healthy in years. Even after a recent shooting slump that has coincided with a seven-game losing streak for Houston, Harden trails only Wade and Kobe in PER among two-guards. I'm going to give a shout-out to Ben McLemore of Kansas right here; he could be Harden's greatest competition down the road.
However, as good as he is offensively, his lack of athleticism means he'll never impact the game defensively as much as guys like Durant or Westbrook. On top of that, he has to spend most of his energy on the offensive end, where he's responsible for an inordinate load of the Rockets offense. He's their only player with a usage rating above 21. That's where the rest of their roster becomes so important. Harden needs to be protected defensively, in much the same way Phoenix protected Steve Nash in the mid-2000's. Jeremy Lin and Chandler Parsons are going to have a hard time guarding Westbrook and Durant in a seven-game series.
When Nash was winning MVP's, his weakness on defense was never a big deal because he was protected by Shawn Marion and Raja Bell. Conversely, Nash made those guys better on offense by creating high-quality looks at the basket. You want players who complement your best player's games, not replicate it. Harden, for example, was somewhat redundant in Oklahoma City, who are actually better offensively now that Durant has the ball in his hands more often.
The fit of Lin and Harden, playmaking guards who need the ball in their hands to be effective, has been problematic from the start. Defenses don't need to respect Lin's three-point shot (28 percent), which limits the space Harden has to work with in the half-court. The Rockets have made up for that by starting Patrick Patterson (36 percent) and Parsons (36 percent), but that creates a domino effect in terms of the number of athletes they have on the floor. Ideally, they would have an elite shooter at the point guard position, allowing them to start at least one defensive-minded forward without compromising their floor spacing.
Lin is a credible NBA point guard with the ball in his hands, but he isn't the playmaker or finisher Harden is. That's why many have suggested that he be moved to the bench, where he could serve as the primary ball-handler on their second unit. It's no coincidence his best game of the season, a 38-point 7-assist effort against San Antonio in December, came when Harden was out and he could dominate the basketball. The Rockets should sell Lin on the idea of being a sixth man, especially now that they may have found the ideal fit next to Harden.
Patrick Beverley, a 24-year-old PG whom they signed out of Europe in late December, has had an impressive NBA debut. He's always had the physical talent to be an NBA player; he just kind of slipped through the cracks as a second-round pick who declared out of school too early. A hyper-athletic 6'1, 185 guard with a 6'6 wingspan, Beverley has the tools to be an excellent defensive player. If he can knock down shots and not turn it over, he could end up becoming a combination of Mario Chalmers and Norris Cole. He's only played in four games, but his lengthy experience in Europe suggests he's capable of stepping into a role in an NBA rotation immediately.
Even if Beverley doesn't work out, since Harden can essentially run the point himself, it won't be hard to find an athletic guard who can shoot to put next to him. Just as important is upgrading at the forward position next to Parsons. Last year's second-round pick from Florida is a very nice passer at shooter at 6'10, 215, but he'll be more effective defending the weaker defensive player upfront in a seven-game series. Patterson and Marcus Morris, the two 6'8+ combo forwards they play at the 4, don't have the physical tools to be an elite defensive player. The good news for Houston is that, much like with Beverley, their front office's eye for talent may have already found them an answer.
Terrence Jones, their rookie power forward from Kentucky, has been overshadowed by the soap opera surrounding Royce White. Nevertheless, his skill-set fits better with what the Rockets need. At 6'9 250 with a 7'2 wingspan, he's bigger than Patterson and Morris and far more athletic. As a sophomore at Kentucky, he averaged 7.2 rebounds, 1.8 blocks and 1.3 steals a game while also displaying the ability to create his own shot out of the high post. He slipped in the draft because he was overshadowed by Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, but he was a key component of the Wildcats NCAA championship season. I think his best-case scenario is somewhere around Josh Smith.
In the long-term, the Rockets recent struggles may end up being for the best. Their current ceiling is a first-round exit; they can't afford to ignore upside plays like integrating Jones and Beverley into the starting line-up. Daryl Morey is a big picture guy. Even if Jones doesn't have the upside to allow them to compete with the Thunder and the Clippers down the road, he could help them get in on the seemingly inevitable Kevin Love sweepstakes two years from now. Harden may be the best SG in the NBA by that time, but as Wade and Kobe's careers have shown, he'll still need a lot of help to make the Rockets a legitimate championship contender.
Jonathan Tjarks wrote on the NBA for RealGM from 2011-2016 before joining The Ringer.
Follow @JonathanTjarks on Twitter.


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This is the third in the series The Tapestry. I had not read book 1 or book 2 and still liked this book a lot and had no problem figuring out what was going on. In fact, it just made me want to read books 1 and 2.
Twelve-year-old Max McDaniels is a student of mystical and magical combat at the Rowan Academy. In this third adventure Rowan has risen from ruin after a mighty war in book 2 that left Rowan mostly rubble and Max the reluctant warrior hero who was only able to save the people he cares about by letting a powerful magic book fall into enemy hands.
The Academy buildings have been rebuilt but life has not really returned to normal. The Academy has been allowed to re-build but now sits within the kingdom of the demon Astaroth. Six laws have been issued that govern the life of the people living in Rowan. Max is outraged that the demons have set foot in Rowan and isn't interested in following the demon's laws either.
Max's roommate David, a talented and powerful sorcerer, is busy also doing something secret, something secret and very, very dangerous. It's so secret, David won't even tell Max about it.
When Max leaves Rowan in an effort to find out more about the outside world since the demon's have taken over, he finds himself caught in another epic battle. Max and David team up to outwit the demons. These boys might be young, impulsive, inexperienced…but these boys are smart and unafraid, even when demons seem to have the upper hand. If you like heroes who are brave enough to say "Enough!" and take action, you'll really like Max and David.
I loved Max and his action-oriented approach to problem solving. I loved David and the way his mind understands his enemies and used strategies based on that understanding. These two are a powerful team. Book #4 The Maelstorm, will come out in 2012. Can't wait for that one.
- Google Preview: The Fiend and the Forge
- Amazon Look Inside: The Fiend and the Forge
- GoodReads The Fiend and the Forge
- KidsReads The Fiend and the Forge
- The Tapestry Series Official Website
- Henry H. Neff Official Website
- Henry H. Neff Blog
- Facebook: Henry H. Neff
The Tapestry Series:
#1: The Hound of Rowan Available on CD
#2: The Second Siege
#3: The Fiend and the Forge Available on CD
#4: The Maelstrom
#5: The Red Winter Available Fall 2013
|Here are the first two Tapestry books plus two more adventures in worlds where monsters, trolls & demons are alive and well:


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The 2013 Canadian EquiTrend® Study
Your brand is one of the most important assets you have. But how successful is your brand in capturing the attention of new customers? Equally important, is it successful in leveraging the equity it has built over time into an ongoing, engaged relationship?
EquiTrend® is an annual tracking study that measures and compares the brand health of 500 unique brands in more than 40 categories.
It evaluates consumers' engagement and offers a complete diagnostic of a brand's position within and outside of its industry.
Brand Equity, Consumer Connection, and Brand Momentum are the "big picture" measures of consumer engagement. To fully understand the brand/consumer relationship, we ask 10,000 Canadians to rate brands' performances on a series of important, equity-influencing metrics. Those metrics combine to give us a brand's overall Equity score.
In this constantly shifting business environment, it is more important than ever to keep a pulse on the power of your brand. With increasing demand to get "more for less", EquiTrend® is a cost-effective way for you to measure your brand's strength today and to understand its potential in the future.
©2017 Harris/Decima


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Model Mayhem Admin
Natalie DriscollWardrobe Stylist Female
Mayhem # 362554
About Me
I am a confident stylist looking to meet make-up artists, hair stylists, models and photographers for test shoots and hopefully submissions. I am more experienced with male styling but have experience with female, children and still life shoots also both on location and in studio. Most importantly I am not afraid of a challenge or trying something new. I am willing to travel and would consider most projects.
Feel free to contact me at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Have you worked with Natalie Driscoll? Add Credits for Natalie Driscoll! >>
Credit Notes
Styled for Coppernob in store point of sale. Styled for a variety of catwalk shows during London Fashion Week. Styled for Hello magazine. Assisted for Oasis high summer campaign.
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Oktoberfest Spinach Strudel
Recipe by Julesong
A delicious appetizer or side dish. Good for Oktoberfest!
Top Review by Krista Roes
I made this for the Revised Bargain Basement Game because it had never been reviewed and it sounded delish. I really wanted to like this because Julesong always makes such good stuff. I'm sorry to say that it didn't turn out so good. Although the spinach mix was good, with a cup of breadcrumbs it wasn't a bold enough taste to carry the dough surrounding it. I did make some adjustments: pumped up the parmesan and slightly decreased the breadcrumbs. My husband and son turned up their noses as the nutmeg, though I thought it was an interesting addition. It did make a great picture.
See Discussion:1 Review
Ingredients Nutrition
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 29.58 ml parsley, minced
- 236.59 ml chicken stock, defatted
- 283.49 g package frozen spinach, chopped
- 236.59 ml plain breadcrumbs
- 1 egg white, beaten
- 14.79 ml fat free parmesan, grated
- 4.92 ml nutmeg, grated
- 4.92 ml black pepper
- 4 sheet phyllo dough
- 29.58 ml skim milk
Directions See How It's Made
- Simmer onion and parsley in stock until tender; set aside.
- Cook spinach according to package directions. Drain, squeezing out excess liquid.
- Add onion mixture, bread crumbs, egg white, Parmesan, nutmeg and pepper; mix well.
- Place two phyllo sheets on a damp towel on work surface.
- Work quickly so that phyllo does not dry out.
- Spread half of spinach mixture along (about 1-inch inside) narrow edge of phyllo and roll up jelly-roll-style.
- Brush top and sides with skim milk.
- With sharp knife, cut several slits on top to vent steam.
- Place on baking sheet prepared with nonstick spray.
- Cover with another damp towel while repeating process with last two phyllo sheets and remaining spinach mixture.
- Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 25 to 30 minutes until golden brown.
- Cut each roll into six pieces.


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Sending mail to Lotus Notes database version 5.06a processed as a document
This Article Covers
Domino Resources - Part 7
I want to send a mail to Lotus Notes database version 5.06a and want it to process it as an document.
What code need to write and at what place?
How can I mail enable a database?
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Description: Mail in database that stores my blah-blah-blah docs. Database FileName /data/maildbs/mail_db_1.nsf
When you then address a document to MyMailDB/MyDomain, the Name & Address book will treat your DB (mail_db_1.nsf) like a user's mail file and deposit the document into that database. How the document is structured is up to you.
PS. Don't forget to give all the necessary ACL Entries at least depositor access. Mail routers, etc.
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