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Difference between revisions of "LSB F2F Spring 2010"
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These spilled over from Mon/Tue:
These spilled over from Mon/Tue:
* Modularization of the LSB components: the "big gulp" approach is claimed to be problematic, particularly when an app ends up pulling in lots of stuff that depends on lots of other stuff. Is there a sane way we can address?
* Modularization of the LSB components: the "big gulp" approach is claimed to be problematic, particularly when an app ends up pulling in lots of stuff that depends on lots of other stuff. Is there a sane way we can address?
* Upstream relations. Are we doing better? Why or why not? How can it be improved?
* Upstream relations. Are we doing better? Why or why not? How can it be improved?
** Sub-topic: getting upstreams to adopt conformance testing.
** Sub-topic: getting upstreams to adopt conformance testing.
Revision as of 20:36, 16 April 2010
The Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit is planned for April 14-16, 2009, in San Francisco. Details on the summit are available.
Because of limited opportunities for travel, the LSB workgroup is planning its Face-to-Face meeting to co-locate with the LF Collab Summit, starting Monday, April 12, and going into Tuesday, April 13. These two days will be focused more on internal LSB business and activities. We will also have a session on the LSB during the Summit itself. This is not a private meeting: everyone who can carve off the time is welcome to participate and help influence the future direction of the LSB.
We intend to make the F2F more informal, with topics and schedules decided in more of an "unconference" format. Topics are listed below; additional topics may be added during the F2F.
The LSB session during the Summit itself will be focused on interaction with the community and with vendors. A schedule for the Summit session follows.
Days one and two (Monday, April 12, and Tuesday, April 13)
|9:00am - 12:00pm
|Morning session.
|12:00pm - 1:00pm
|1:00pm - 5:00pm
|Afternoon session.
Here's a bullet-level summary of the discussion, as the topics flowed out:
- How do we do releases
- hung up on "it's not done until all the distros certify"
- has impacted dev't effort, may be partly our own fault (that is, is tech WG "channeling" extra issues they think might be brought up)?
- what does WG feel it should do? overall objective may change that, but should have a plan
- Proposal:
- Pick date and freeze for release
- Give four-six weeks for distros to certify to be in release announcement (we'll have been working with them earlier)
- Ship it
- hung up on "it's not done until all the distros certify"
- "lsb" package seems to be a hangup for some
- can we reach the goal of "a way to insure the full environment is present" without effectively requiring the package (spec doesn't specifically require it now, just the "Provide")
- could we provide? not really, chain of responsibility is wrong
- relates to modularization question (more on this Tuesday)
- modularization means more dependency complexity on surface - what to depend on?
- is it simpler for distros to manage? at least can manage dependencies on a smaller scale
- a data-driven tool on LSB end may be able to identify app dependencies better, including "new app on old distro" problem
- Version-independent components, one year later
- we're happy with the concept, but not with the bottleneck: too dependent on the release manager (Jeff) to push entire process through; missed several intended time-based releases
- tools still being improved
- this is getting considerably better, but want to get to where RM is gate (does sign-and-release), rather than bottleneck (block everything)
- also autobuild production-level stuff regularly, not just devel
- time-based is okay, but should be able to do demand-based if needed (key bugfix shouldn't take months to deploy)
- need to get better on testing, some former tests not run now (appchk/pkgchk on appbat), and some regression tests would be good (don't let old bugs come back)
- important to improve handling of ispras releases, which we rebuild, run different tests on, and release - too slowly at the moment
- "Easy Button" -- turn the crank to build/prepare release
- Website and other communication methods
- we have a mess of at least four "websites" - entry under LF workgroups, old LSB wiki, LDN, ispras.linuxfoundation.org
- navigation too hard, stale data, etc.
- LSB "homepage" is a bunch of text before you get to real links
- how about the classic first-page navpage style of one intro paragraph, then 2-4 buttons that quickly redirect you to functional area
- Focus: homepage (wireframe), navigation plan, downloads (filtering by version/architecture/distribution method aka tarball vs. rpms vs noninstall bundle)
- LDN as developer site vs. news aggregator - at least aggregate from better sources (linuxjournal?), some of current news is not interesting developer content
- Identify overlap between LDN and linux.com
- LDN classification/presentation
- Drupal OpenSearch plugin for better search, integrate with Navigator, so search on interface returns something
- experimental Facebook/Twitter "social" presence seems okay, but should not become primary. Announce more widely? (at least links on homepage to these)
- LSB SI: switched to rPath-based si, but never released formally, what to do (that is, no 4.0 si)?
- nobody here knows rPath well without Antonio; old LFS-based build suffered rot in that nALFS tool and associated profiles not used/maintained, so effectively no upstream
- SI use cases: clean LSB-only environment for testing; proof of concept for conforming distro; early access to new LSB version before distros come out; selected toolchain w/o lsbcc
- Of those, the LSB-only is the most valuable, but could be implemented in other ways. dyncheck actually meets need, but stale code / no time to work on. A simple tool could be enough:
- App checker would instruct to run app under "lsb_test" only if it detected use of untestable interface (like dlopen), wrapper uses LD_PRELOAD to trap on such usage
- Pain to use lsbsi for app developer: one more thing to set up, with weird conditions, needs root, etc. - barrier
- Conclusion for now is to give no effort to lsbsi but don't kill outright; see where cert docs need revising to not require it; explore writing the small tool; confirm that the appchk warning is still appropriate
- Appbat
- Builds require patches, are issues tracked? We try to pick apps that build w/o patches, but it's unavoidable sometimes
- Also use apps as ways to exercise LSB features, e.g. at least one app touches each lib - there might be many patches needed for some of those
- Claims that apps just not useful as porting example
- Decision: detach lsb-python from appbat at 4.1, move to test tools (solves specific problem caused by dual nature of lsb-python)
- Decision: select "exemplar apps" and make sure those have any patches documented, bugs filed on needs, etc.
- What issues are outstanding regarding the certification of library-only components?
- amend cert document with procedure for library cert
- developer run customary QA procedure on two LSB-certified distros, test program does not need to be conforming itself
- libraries pass appchk
- some questions on the installation side, maybe don't need to say anything here, and depend on ISVs to behave sanely and do the right stuff from a QA viewpoint, not LSB's
- should document intention of lib cert: certified lib can be included in an app without worrying about further conformance issues
- Moblin and MeeGo: what do we have to do to continue supporting that project?
- Desire to keep a line drawn between LSB and other projects such as MeeGo: keep clear on LSB's focus without letting it bleed into others, yet depend on participants as individuals to make sure areas of commonality are fully exploited
- Sub-topic: possible ARM profile for the LSB - LSB can advise; whether such should go into LSB remains an unanswered question:
- are there distros interested in certifying?
- are there apps which would be interested
- Summer of Code 2010: act on proposal(s)
- discussed topics put up from ispras and student proposals. Project prio ranked thus: Test Generation; LSB Test Analysis; Dependency Translator; Upstream Tracker; Driver Quality
- Java status: 2009 Summer of Code project, status of the standard in LSB.
- Pushing GSoC patches to openjdk: not upstream now, apparently weren't of sufficient quality
- would like to have clearer view from upstream what would be needed
- even setting up to build is tough, no owner for patches now
- patches to LSB tracked in bug 2674
- status of standard remains uncertain - has to remain trial use for now (esp. in light of ownership change: need to reopen dialogue)
- Pushing GSoC patches to openjdk: not upstream now, apparently weren't of sufficient quality
- LSB tools "case study": Scott Baeder's report
- performance was poor with the app checker version used (old, but where our website pointed)
- see some interesting usage of libraries by libraries local to the project (good info for developer organization)
- libgmp (plus tls considerations), libelf have high importance for this app
- LSB 4.1 status. Are we ready to freeze and prepare for release? If not, what is needed?
- Goals: new symbols, infrastructure, alsa tests
- symbols take page writing; other tasks relatively easy (db adds generate out to checkers, sdk)
- alsa tests: markup done, but tests for all is 1-2 man-years total, so can only do some key interfaces: identify and proceed: top 15 interfaces
- build/release infrastructure completion: we think 4-6 weeks work
- based on this set of concepts, we'd end up with a feature freeze Oct 1 - need to write this up and get closure with workgroup, poss target release Dec 1
- State of the LSB (moved from Mon, waiting for more people - which we didn't get)
- Are we spending our time wisely?
- Feeling we're hamstrung by non-participation by multiple parties who should be stakeholders, may not be able to fix
- There are several aspects to LSB - spec, distro testing, application development, docs/tutorials ("LDN") and other website/info delivery stuff, plus less visible things like build/release infrastructure, support of old releases, certifications, etc.; should the relative priorities of those be adjusted based on the current impact areas of LSB?
- for now we think mostly okay, subject to bugfixing most serious web breaks and the value discussion
- WG requests this prio: infrastructure, web work, 4.0 update, continued distro testing, 4.1 work (items listed above)
- Should we be looking at expanding the footprint (more libs for developers) or is more of a maintenance mode more appropriate?
- 4.0: we didn't get the release done right (no announcement); how do we fix to launch 4.1 correctly
- Problem showing success/values to stakeholders, including both internal (LF, board, members) and external (ISVs, distros, projects) esp. vs what has been promised
- PR problem (external) is because no "steering committee" (perhaps not right term): need to reactivate - someone who can drive this level
- How can we drive into new value areas, "LSB lite" model for example?
- Quality improvement: we're always trying to improve tools, build processes, ease of contribution, collaboration with other groups. Are we making progress? What should go on the plan for the next year?
- ease of contribution too hard: e.g. we could use help testing 4.0 updates, but it's hard for someone other than core team to spend a few minutes testing
- Decision: project plan/status review will happen at beginning of alternating weekly confcalls, we haven't been staying on top of progress clearly enough
- Sub-topic: what have we learned from the T2C ALSA test project? How easy is it to collaborate with that framework? Can we make it easier?
- No strategic vision today
- Too many open bugs
- In the case of devel-level distros, can we run tests less often? Conflicts with getting the feedback into the loop quickly
- SI bugs become "wontfix"
- LSB WG plans a meeting for final 4.1 wrapup plus delivery of PR plan (LinuxCon Boston)
Day three (Wednesday, April 14)
This day will be spent taking part in the keynotes and panel discussions of the LF Collaboration Summit. See the main agenda for this day's schedule.
Day four (Thursday, April 15)
|9:00am - 9:15am
|Welcome, introductions, overview. (Jeff Licquia, Linux Foundation)
|9:15am - 10:15am
|State of the LSB. (Jeff Licquia) A summary of where we are and where we're going. Results from Monday and Tuesday's sessions will also be discussed.
|10:15am - 10:45am
|10:45am - 12:00pm
|Using the LSB in Application Development. (Robert Schweikert, Novell)
|12:00pm - 1:00pm
|1:00pm - 2:00pm
|Beyond unit tests: an introduction to conformance testing. (Jeff Licquia)
|2:00pm - 3:00pm
|Why should you worry about conformance testing? (Alan Clark, Novell)
|3:00pm - 3:30pm
|3:30pm - 4:30pm
|Demonstration of writing conformance tests with the T2C framework. (Alexey Khoroshilov and Vladimir Rubanov, ISPRAS)
|4:30pm - 5:00pm
|What obstacles exist to widespread adoption of conformance tests? (Jeff Licquia)
Day five (Friday, April 16)
We will have a joint session with the OpenPrinting workgroup in the morning sessions. The afternoon sessions will be a wrap-up of the discussions from the beginning of the week, and will be scheduled in an "unconference" format, with the agenda and schedule set as the first item of the agenda in the afternoon.
- Epson has released the first LSB-conforming print driver package
These spilled over from Mon/Tue:
- Modularization of the LSB components: the "big gulp" approach is claimed to be problematic, particularly when an app ends up pulling in lots of stuff that depends on lots of other stuff. Is there a sane way we can address?
- when instantiating an app in a conforming environment: "I need X" and the only choice for X is "all of LSB". How about if we leave distros needing to certify to "LSB" but apps can describe their dependency in a more granular form
- the ISV boundary: if there are too many choices, it gets too confusing - with above, we can fix this at the App Checker level
- Upstream relations. Are we doing better? Why or why not? How can it be improved?
- Sub-topic: getting upstreams to adopt conformance testing.
- Library uplifts? Start planning 4.2, maybe a shorter cycle?
- OpenGL, Cairo, Qt, Gtk ???
- Dropping Qt3 as required - when?
Conference call information
During our sessions, we will maintain a conference call line for those who wish to dial in and participate. The conference call line will be the same as that used for the weekly conference calls:
Conference Dial-in Number: (605) 715-4920 Participant Access Code: 512468
In the event of technical difficulties, please check with IRC (irc.linuxfoundation.org, #lsb) or reload this page for updates or alternate arrangements.


text:
The Force is strong with these minifigures!
BriansToys.com announces that they have just received Medicom of Japan's latest Deluxe Star Wars Kubricks. Series 2 is available as select singles or as a complete set with cute minature AT-ST! Collect:
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* AT-ST Driver (Chase Figure)
* AT-AT on Hoth Diorama
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subset: commoncrawl


text: Billie demi-boot crop jean in Surrey wash Item E7696 Color: SURREY WASH Size: 29 All sizes are US sizes. 29 Size Charts Quantity: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Prices do not include taxes. Add to Bag Wishlist Add to Bag Add To Wishlist share: size & fit Sits above hip. Front rise: 10 3/4". 26" inseam. 14 3/4" leg opening (based on size 28). Product Details Our newest jeans are made in our comfort stretch denim and feature a high rise with a cropped, kicky hem that you can wear with heels and flats alike. It's the one pair your closet's been missing. Cotton with stretch. Traditional 5-pocket styling. Machine wash. Import. Item E7696.


text:
BRADFORD on Avon RFC has launched a new initiative to develop girls' rugby at the club.
The Bradford Bobcats programme will provide additional coaching and mentoring for girls aged 8-12, especially those sampling the game for the first time.
The girls and women's game is one of the fastest growing areas of rugby, with more than 20,000 playing in England but with girls not allowed to play alongside boys beyond the age of 12, many drop out of the sport, or travel further afield to find a club supporting girls' rugby for U13s or U15s.
Chris Eke, whose daughter Bethy plays for the U12s having come up through the club's younger age groups, said: "There is a desperate need for the RFU and clubs to create more pathways for girls such as Bethy to stay in the sport.
"She is passionate about her rugby but is upset that next season she will have to leave the squad she has grown up with.
"This initiative by the club to bring more girls into rugby to drive more sustainable all-girl squads within the wider area is really important."
The scheme has been backed by 1980 Olympic swimming silver medallist and Bradford resident Sharron Davies, who said: "The perception of girls in sports like rugby can be a little out of date.
"Girls get the same benefits of fitness, mental strength and lifelong camaraderie as the boys, if only parents and clubs know how to give the right support at critical ages.
"England is ranked number two in the world in women's rugby, we need to keep and recruit more young girls into the sport to sustain this level in the future.''
Girls aged 8-12 can join the Bradford Bobcats programme, with no previous rugby experience necessary.
The programme will be starting in September. Email email@example.com or call Chris Eke on 07774 170002.
FOR MORE SPORTS NEWS, REPORTS & PICTURES SEE FRIDAY'S WILTSHIRE TIMES AND FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @WTSport


text:
2 U.S. Code § 117j–1 - Regulations for safe handling of mail matter
prev | next
(a) In general
Subject to the approval of the Committee on House Administration, the Chief Administrative Officer of the House of Representatives shall implement regulations under which the Chief Administrative Officer shall be authorized to handle any mail matter delivered by the United States Postal Service or any other carrier to the House of Representatives, or to any other entity with whom the Chief Administrative Officer has entered into an agreement to receive mail matter delivered to the entity, in such manner as the Chief Administrative Officer deems necessary to ensure the safety of any individuals who may come into contact with, or otherwise be exposed to, such mail matter.
(b) Civil or criminal liability
No action taken under the regulations implemented pursuant to this section may serve as a basis for civil or criminal liability of any individual or entity.
(c) Definition
As used in this section, the term "handle" includes but is not limited to collecting, isolating, testing, opening, disposing, and destroying.
Source(Pub. L. 108–447, div. G, title I, § 108,Dec. 8, 2004, 118 Stat. 3177.)
Section is from the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2005, which is div. G of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005.
LII has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references LII.


text:
Noonan's hit among Giants' notable firsts
SAN FRANCISCO -- Bad as it was facing a double-digit deficit in the ninth inning Sunday, the Giants had a positive -- three positives, actually -- to take away.
First, Brandon Belt broke out of an 0-for-13 slump with a clean single to right. After that, pinch-hitter Nick Noonan followed with his first Major League hit, a single to center off Joe Kelly. Then pinch-hitter Guillermo Quiroz scored Belt with a line-drive single to center -- his first hit and RBI with the Giants -- for the final run in a 14-3 loss.
Noonan, a 23-year-old rookie on his first Opening Day roster, made his debut Wednesday and had gone 0-for-2 pinch-hitting this season.
"Big sigh of relief," Noonan said, adding, "The anticipation builds at-bat after at-bat."
Willie Bans is a contributor to MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


text:
Scientific Name: Pinus longaeva
Description: Great Basin bristlecone pines have one or many trunks. At low elevations, the trees grow straight, but at high elevations, the trunks become twisted. The root system is very shallow to allow maximum water uptake in arid environments. The female pine cones are dark purple in color and have bristle-like prickles on the scales, hence the tree's name.
Size: At low elevations, bristlecone pines grow to 60 feet tall and 5 feet in diameter. Bristlecone pines at higher elevations may be half this height.
Typical Lifespan: The bristlecone pine is the longest lived species in the world—a few are known to have lived for over 5,000 years! However, growth is extremely slow. A 40 year old bristlecone pine may not reach 6 inches. In harsh conditions, bristlecone pines stop growing in height, but their trunk diameter continues to increase throughout their lives.
Habitat: Great Basin bristlecone pines are well-adapted to high elevation habitats in areas with rocky soil, low rainfall, and long winters. At high elevations, there are fewer insect pests and disease-causing fungi, so living high in the mountains may contribute to the pines' long lifespan.
Range: Found in California, Nevada, and Utah across a range of altitudes. At higher elevations, it can be found in pure stands.
Life History and Reproduction: The Great Basin bristlecone pine is a conifer, which means that it produces seeds in cones rather than in flowers. Pines are monoecious, meaning that each tree has both male and female pine cones. The male cones produce pollen and the female cones produce ovules which, when fertilized with pollen, become seeds. Pollination occurs by wind. Bristlecone pines produce seeds for thousands of years, but they produce fewer as they age.
Fun Fact: This species is highly drought tolerant. One tree was found with 35 year old pine needles (modified leaves) that were still functional and photosynthesizing, despite periods of drought. Compare that to how quickly a house plant dies if you forget to water it for a week!
Conservation Status: Because of its small, fragmented distribution, this species is considered to be vulnerable, although it does occur in protected areas. It is susceptible to disease and severe fires. Scientists are uncertain about what effects climate change may have on bristlecone pine.
United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service
NatureServe Explorer
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
The Ancient Bristlecone Pine


text:
On September 14th, 2017, we published revised versions of our Privacy Policy, Terms of Service and Website Use Policy and published a Cookie Policy. Your continued use of Lynda.com means you agree to these revised documents, so please take a few minutes to read and understand them.
By Megan O. Read | Thursday, August 13, 2009
Top group dinner shot, left to right: Some of the lynda.com production team, Andy Ta, Roon Tamuli, Nick Brazzi, Samara Iodice, Max Smith, and Andrew Geibel. Then it's Ian Robinson (author), Megan Read (me), Nigel French (author), and Nigel's friend. Center unicycle shots: the first and second photos are the multitalented author Ian Robinson, third photo is our own Nick Brazzi. Bottom group shot, left to right: Max, Nick, Deke McClelland (author), me, Robbie Carman (author).
Over the last two weeks, we've had authors from all over the place in our recording booths. Ian Robinson from Virginia was in-house recording some eye-catching new Motion 4 training, Nigel French was here all the way from the UK recording an interesting new InDesign typography course, and Michael Ninness was here from Seattle recording the must-see InDesign Power Shortcuts.
This week is another busy one at lynda.com! We've got Robbie Carman also from Virginia recording some brand spankin' new Color 1.5 training, Anne-Marie Concepción in from Illinois recording a cool new course about marketing your business with Twitter and Facebook, and of course, Deke McClelland from Colorado recording handfuls of must-see Photoshop training.
Our authors are all hard-working professionals, but occasionally, they get to let their hair down at a nice dinner with their lynda-peeps, or let off some steam with a fun Friday lunch playing on unicycles in the parking lot. Yes, there are actually quite a few unicyclers here at lynda.com!
Enjoy the pix, and as always, the training!
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text:
Dear Crabby,
My kids keep begging me for a puppy. Problem is they go to school all day, my husband works, and I'll be the one to take care of it full-time. That means I'll be the one taking it outside in the wet dreary weather, drying muddy paws, and cleaning up after it. I need a creative solution. Do you have any advice?
Tina Tucker-Dout
Dear Mrs. Tucker-Dout,
If your solutions are anything like Mrs. Crabby's, it will involve you putting the dog in the garage or someplace else until your husband gets home to handle the dirty work! We have had quite a few dogs through the years.
Some were good and some were not. I think every family should sit down and talk about the roles and responsibilities of each person as it pertains to a pet. After all opinions are expressed and the pros and cons are weighed, the man of the house should make the final decision.
That's right - that is how it goes in my house! No if's, and's, or but's about it. What I say, goes, and that's final. Unless of course Mrs. Crabby decides otherwise.
But with something like a pet, I think the kids should play an active role. They should be scooping the droppings, bathing the mutt, and remembering to feed the poor thing.� I say if they miss a chore, then they lose a finger - I mean, a privilege!
These kids today have it too easy. They play their Xbox and text their buddies when they should be learning how to contribute to the household. When I was half their age, I was only half as old as them, but probably twice as smart! At least that's what my grandfather always used to claim!
We walked to school and back, uphill both ways! We ate our veggies, and we spoke audible words to our friends and parents! I know my daughter tells me to back off, but if we are allowing these kids to grow up this way,
I get concerned for our future. So I say, get the puppy, make some rules, and have some predetermined penalties for violations.
No soft kids! Just reality checks in the safety of their own homes!� You asked my opinion, so there you have it. Good luck, and let me know how it works out.
Sincerely, Dear Crabby
Stuck in a rut? Need some biased advice from a crabby old baby-boomer? Ask at www.DearCrabby.org.


text:
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text:
SPENCER Close has the second fastest broadband speed in the country, it has been revealed, following a survey of two million connection speeds nationwide.
The results of the study, by USwitch, released yesterday, showed that on average, residents in the street, in The Prinnels, experienced speeds of 50mbps when using the internet compared to the national average of 17.8mbps. Spencer Close came second to a street in Derbyshire in the survey.
The Adver put the figures to the test and visited residents in the street to check the quality of their internet connection on a smartphone app.
John Cornock, a retail manager, who works from his home, uses Talk Talk and his wi-fi got a score of 38.8mbps when we carried out our test.
John, who lives with wife Elizabeth, said: "This reading is a little bit lower than the figures released but I've got the app myself and I've been doing readings and we've been getting between 50mbps and 70mbps which is very good. We both work from home so a good quality internet connection is essential."
Residents living in Haydon Wick can only dream of internet speeds that those living in the Prinnels enjoy. For months, residents have been campaigning for an improved service after an administrative error, by service providers, left them without the option of having fibre-optic broadband.
Janet Lewis, who lives in Avonmead, tested her BT wi-fi on the smartphone app and the speed of her connection came back at 3.77mbps.
She said: "We do sometimes struggle for internet speeds and it would be nice to enjoy the quality available to those in Spencer Close. The positive thing for me is that if theirs' is at such a high level hopefully ours will improve in the near future."
David Renard, the leader of Swindon Council, who also represents Haydon Wick, said the organisation is working with service providers to offer a better quality of internet coverage in the town.
He said: "I'm pleased to hear that parts of Swindon receive such a high quality service but there are still many who have a poor one and the council is working with the internet providers and the Government to improve that situation.
"We seem to experience poor internet speeds in very old properties and quite new ones.
"I think one of the lessons that developers need to learn is that these days when people are buying a house the quality of internet is high up there with main considerations and developers should cater their plans to this."


text:
Power Management--Making Every Electron Count
Software Considerations to Manage and Optimize System Power
Modern CPUs have rich facilities for power management. The combination of a power-aware RTOS with application-level strategies can enable designers to greatly optimize system-level power consumption.
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A pervasive trend in the embedded space today is the constant and unrelenting demand for end-device functionality. The advent of 32-bit micro-controllers (MCUs) such as those based on ARM Cortex M series, MIPS MIPS32 4K-class cores, etc., have drastically increased the processing power and functionality available to MCU-based system designs. In addition, today's MCUs offer a rich set of peripherals that enable enhanced features such as network connectivity and advanced human-machine interfaces (HMI). These developments have enabled system designers to create new and exciting applications with increased functionality and improved end-user experience.
While all of this is good news, developers still face challenges when it comes to managing system-wide power consumption and optimizing designs for power efficiency. Heat dissipation constraints and battery life requirements impose tight power budgets on portable device designs. In addition, "green thinking" and the environmental impact of a device's power consumption have become important considerations across the industry. It's imperative that system developers have a good understanding of the power management capabilities of the underlying MCU and the facilities available to them in order to effectively manage and optimize device power consumption.
Silicon vendors have made significant improvements in semiconductor design and fabrication processes to reduce MCU power consumption. Component miniaturization (i.e., shrinking a design) and lowering of the internal operating voltage levels have resulted in significant power savings. Innovative IC design techniques provide various architectural facilities that enable a system designer to effectively manage/optimize MCU power consumption. Modern day MCUs, such as the Texas Instruments Stellaris family of micro-controllers, provide distinct power domains within the MCU to enable low-power operating modes.
The availability of multiple power modes allows developers to switch the system to lower power during periods of inactivity. Some architectures even integrate hibernate blocks with a voltage domain that is completely independent from the rest of the microcontroller. These hibernate blocks enable very low power consumption by including only the minimum number of gates required to keep the system "breathing" on a back-up battery. These include a low frequency oscillator, a real-time clock, a small amount of RAM to save state, and a wake-up mechanism to exit from hibernate mode.
In order to realize further power savings, MCU designs provide the infrastructure required for software control of power and clock to system peripherals and memory. This allows system designers to make run-time decisions to shut down sections of the MCU and memory when they are not required. In addition, MCUs also allow for software control of operating frequency and sometimes voltage. This enables developers to leverage dynamic frequency and voltage scaling techniques (DVFS) to realize power savings.
With the increased CPU performance, and enhanced network connectivity and HMI features offered by MCUs today, even simple applications have become multi-threaded systems. To coordinate operation, as well as maximize use of an MCU's low-power architectural capabilities, systems need a power-aware, real-time operating system.
The Power-Aware RTOS
An RTOS-based system design provides two key advantages for developing power-efficient applications. First, the multi-threaded application model provides an enabling framework to switch the system to low-power operating modes during system idle time. System idle time is defined as periods of inactivity when there are no tasks/threads ready to run. Second, a power-aware RTOS equips developers with proven, well abstracted, ready-to-use APIs that enable application-level control of peripheral power states, system power states and operating voltage and frequency.
Real-time operating systems, such as the Nucleus RTOS from Mentor Graphics, provide built-in power management facilities that automatically utilize the discovered hardware power management capabilities while enabling developers to effectively manage system power consumption from the application level. Using these facilities, a system developer can effectively optimize an application's static and dynamic power consumption.
Static power consumption in a system can be directly attributed to the number of peripheral blocks that are active—clocked and powered ON—at a given point in time. Substantial power savings can be achieved by powering OFF peripherals that are not being used. Although this sounds fairly simple, the implementation details of safely switching between peripheral power states during run-time in a multi-threaded environment can become rather complicated.
Power-aware RTOSs abstract the implementation details and enable developers to make high-level decisions on peripheral power states. For example, Nucleus provides the concept of system power states to optimize the static power consumed by a device. A system power state is a user-defined set of CPU and peripheral power states. Depending on the device usage model, the developer can define various system power states and make application level decisions to transition between them at run-time. Figure 1 shows static power measurements at various system power states (SS0—Standby, SS1—playback, SS2—User idle, and SS3—User active) for an MP3 player implementation.
Figure 1
Illustration of power savings achieved by system power state control.
Optimizing Dynamic Power Consumption
An application's dynamic power consumption can be directly attributed to system activity. Many embedded applications spend most of their operating time waiting for an external event to occur, for example, waiting for a user key pad press event, waiting for idle timed-delay to expire, waiting for receipt of a data packet, etc. During such periods of low or no system activity, the low-power modes provided by the underlying MCU can be effectively utilized by the operating system to achieve run-time power savings. In addition to switching the MCU to low-power mode, other power hungry blocks present in the system can also be transitioned to low-power operating states to maximize power savings. For example, SDRAM modules can be transitioned to self-refresh mode during long periods of inactivity. Figure 2a illustrates the power savings achieved by placing CPU in idle mode and SDRAM in self-refresh mode during system idle-time.
Figure 2a
Power savings achieved by transitioning to low-power states during CPU idle time.
Transitioning to a low-power mode has associated costs in terms of power and time to enter and exit the desired low-power mode. An OS scheduler can make intelligent decisions on the most optimal low-power mode transition based on the expected system idle time, and power cost of switching in and out of the low-power mode as compared to the expected power savings. For example, when an expected idle-time is detected in the RTOS, the scheduler invokes platform-specific CPU idle functionality, which determines if the expected idle time is greater than an empirically determined threshold. The value of this threshold is experimentally determined by performing measurements of the cost and benefits and only making the decision to go to the lower power mode if there are expected overall system power savings. Figure 2b illustrates the principle behind this determination. For longer periods of system inactivity such as when a device is in hibernation, real-time operating systems should effectively use any hibernate facilities provided by hardware to save and restore system state.
Figure 2b
Heuristic to determine the threshold value to switch to low-power mode.
Advanced techniques, such as OS tick suppression can be used to prolong the duration of CPU idle-time, thereby multiplying the idle-time power savings that can be achieved. Typical real-time kernels use a periodic OS tick timer interrupt to evaluate the internal state and to make scheduling decisions. Tick suppression enables the kernel to dynamically change the time period of the OS tick timer interrupt based on the expected idle time. This enables the system to stay in low-power modes for longer periods of system inactivity. It is to be noted that the calculated power savings may not be fully realized if the CPU is frequently interrupted by asynchronous breaks during idle time. Figure 3 illustrates OS tick profiles with and without tick suppression enabled.
Figure 3
A 50x reduction in OS tick frequency during periods of system inactivity with tick suppression enabled.
Most applications require the peak processing capability of the underlying CPU for only a small percentage of its operational time. Considerable power savings can be obtained using dynamic frequency and voltage scaling (DVFS) techniques. That means scaling down the CPUs operating voltage and frequency at the cost of performance. The system developer can make application-level decisions to pick an optimal operating point, i.e., a frequency and voltage setting, depending on the device functionality required. A switch from one operating point to another requires doing the following: notify all concerned peripherals of the operating point change request, stop peripheral activity, change CPU clock, bus clocks and peripheral clocks for the new operating point, and resume CPU and peripheral activity. A power- aware RTOS should abstract these details and enable the user to make application-level DVFS decisions.
Silicon vendors are constantly developing and integrating innovative new mechanisms to optimize device power consumption. Increasing complexity and functionality of end applications, aggressive low power budgets, quality of service and performance requirements, and aggressive time-to-market pressures have made a power-aware RTOS-based design a table stake requirement for feature-rich MCU applications.
Mentor Graphics
Wilsonville, OR
(800) 547-3000


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US Open Tennis Championship Tickets
Formally known as the United States Open Tennis Championships the US open in the modern era is based on one of the oldest tennis championships in the world, The US National Championship which started in 1881. The US Open became the fourth and final grand slam of the ATP and WTA tours in 1987. The Main tournament has 5 different events Men and Women's singles, Men and Women's doubles and mixed doubles. The biggest matches of the tournament are played on the famous Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City. Former winners of the tournament include some of the greatest players of all time like Pat Rafter, Roger Federer, Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras. Get your US Open tickets here to see the best tennis players on the planet compete for the US open Grand slam championship.
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If you love to meet authors and anything related to the Civil War, you won't want to miss any of the events during the 2011 Missouri Literary Festival: The Civil War, Sept. 23-25 at the Creamery Arts Center in downtown Springfield.
The library is partnering with others in staging this special Civil War Sesquicentennial event. The festival is a project of the Springfield Regional Arts Council.
Events run 10 a.m.- 8:30 p.m. Sept. 23; 9 a.m.- 10 p.m. Sept. 24; and noon- 5 p.m. Sept. 25. Admission for the weekend is $5; free for children age 10 and under.
Buy festival tickets at the Creamery, 411 N. Sherman Parkway, and at all branches of the library district.
The festival includes national and regional authors and historians, children's writers, music, storytelling, poetry and art activities for kids. Experience cannon and musket firings, learn about Civil War medicine and soldier life.
Featured authors include Jeff Shaara, of "Gods and Generals;" historian William C. Davis, of "The Battle of Bull Run;" Janis Cooke Newman, of "Mary: Mrs. A. Lincoln;" Adam I. Arenson, of "The Great Heart of the Republic: St. Louis and the Cultural Civil War;" David Wilson Atwood, "Where The Mockingbird Sang – A Novel of the Civil War;" Randall Fuller, "From Battlefields Rising: How the Civil War Transformed American Literature;" William Garrett Piston, "Wilson's Creek: The Second Battle of the Civil War and the Men Who Fought It;" Steve Yates, "Morkan's Quarry;" Chris Stuckenschneider, "Twist of Fate;" storyteller Chris Sutton, and more.
Catch these extra ticketed events:
For tickets or details call 865-0450 or see missouriliteraryfestival.org.
_ _ _
Now through Oct. 3, the library has an online survey to collect information about how our patrons use the Library's computers and Internet connection. It is sponsored by the University of Washington with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
You must be at least 14 years old to take the survey, and it's available in English and Spanish. Link to the survey from thelibrary.org home page footer, or go to http://impactsurvey.org/libselect/index.php?fscs=MO0020.
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KEXP Reviews
|Browse by one of the following:
- (Hardly Art)
Formerly the solo project of The Fresh & Onlys frontman Tim Cohen, Magic Trick has morphed into a full band, with the new additions including members of Aislers Set and Kelley Stoltz's band. They provide him with a more sturdy framework to flesh out a variety of dark, psych-tinged folk-pop songs reminiscent at times of Seattle's Mark Pickerel, with a haunting, atmospheric sound combining acoustic and electric guitars, cheap synths and assorted other instrumentation with smoky, reverbed lead vocals and ethereal female harmonies. 6/15/2012 - Don Yates


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NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- Much to my surprise, my brother in California has become a rabid Manchester United fan. He and his friends pile into Killarney's, a pub by the Huntington Beach pier, whenever the team plays on TV -- even if it's the early game, which starts there at 4 a.m. They huddle around coffee, eggs and TVs until 6 a.m., when a bell rings telling them the bar is open. When the team wins, everyone gets a "victory shot," which frankly tastes nasty. Then they stagger into the California sunshine at 7 a.m. to start their day, usually secure in the knowledge that "SAF" has done it again. SAF is Sir Alex Ferguson, manager of the team since 1986, who announced his retirement last week. The closest thing I can come up with in this country is the late Paul "Bear" Bryant of Alabama, only on a global scale. Or, perhaps, the Boston Celtics' Red Auerbach, only with more titles. Ferguson doesn't just coach the team. He picks the players, recruits them, signs them to contracts and decides when to let them go. He dominates the city, dominates the country and dominates "football" across Europe. That's why he was knighted, back in 1999, for services to football.
His designated successor, David Moyes, is the best available choice. He's a Scot, like Ferguson, the manager of Everton, about 30 miles away by car, in Liverpool. Moyes is known for getting the most out of a thin budget, often signing ManU retreads like defender Phil Neville and American goalie Tim Howard. He's also the man who sold Manchester United star Wayne Rooney to SAF a decade ago, Fergie's favorite player, a scorer who does the hard work, or "graft," all across the field or "pitch." The controlling shareholder is Malcolm Glazer, an American who also owns the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the NFL. When Glazer bought the team, in 2005, for 800 million pounds, he took out the cash and loaded it with debt, essentially buying it with its own money. Then he brought it to the New York Stock Exchange, where it's worth nearly $3 billion, by far the richest club in world sport.
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Indians edge Rangers to get back above .500
Masterson allows two runs; Tribe pulls ahead for good in the sixth
ARLINGTON -- Baseball's long season seemed like it was going to feel a lot longer for the Indians only a few weeks ago. Cleveland was staring at a considerable deficit in the American League Central standings and struggling in multiple facets of its brand of play.
On Sunday afternoon in Arlington, the Indians issued a reminder of baseball's ebbs and flows with a 3-2 victory over the Rangers at Globe Life Park. Behind a solid effort from starter Justin Masterson, who successfully fought his way through some command issues, Cleveland moved a game above the break-even mark for the first time since April 9.
That stepping stone seemed a lot further away.
"The way we've been playing has been a lot better," Masterson said. "We haven't been making too many errors. We're pitching better. Guys are competing at the plate. They're scoring a lot of runs. Especially on this road trip right now, we've actually won two games on the road. Two out of three. That in itself is showing us we're doing great things.
"You're seeing some of the fruits of the labor we're putting out there."
Masterson was referring to the fact that Cleveland had just a 9-19 record away from home prior to winning two of the first three tilts in the current four-game set with Texas. The win on Sunday marked the eighth in the past nine games and the 13th in the past 19 for the Indians (32-31), who now reside in second place in the AL Central.
On May 18, Cleveland was six games below .500, in last place and staring at a 10 1/2-game deficit behind the first-place Tigers. With a sweep of Detroit at home, the Tribe embarked on its 19-game run that has helped the club steadily climb the standings, pulling to withing 3 1/2 games of its rivals from the Motor City.
"Fortunately, it was early," Indians infielder Lonnie Chisenhall said. "We knew we weren't playing our best baseball. Now, we're playing better baseball -- not even our best. It's just encouraging to know that we were able to come back from that deficit and now we're going to continue to push forward."
The recent success has looked more like the style of baseball Cleveland offered in 2013.
The rotation has been performing better, the defense has shown improvement and the offense has been doing enough to help the Tribe find the win column more often than not. That formula helped the Indians claim the AL's top Wild Card spot last summer. Everyone remembers the champagne, making it easier to forget the early-season streakiness that club endured, too.
In fact, last season's Indians had a worse record (30-33) through the same point of the season.
"We did the same thing last year and then we got hot," Indians reliever Cody Allen said. "We were OK in April and we got hot in May. We were a streaky club. I don't think anybody was panicked in here. Everybody knows it's a long season and it takes a lot throughout the season to put together a quality record to go to the playoffs. That's all we were thinking about."
Against the Rangers (31-32), Masterson was strong out of his windup, but inconsistent pitching out of the stretch. The big sinkerballer was one pitch away from an escape act with the bases loaded in the fourth inning, but he yanked a slider too far outside the strike zone, leading to a wild pitch that allowed Alex Rios to score from third base for Texas' first run.
"It really went wild. It really, really got out there," Masterson said. "[Catcher Yan Gomes] had no chance to knock it down."
Facing lefty Joe Saunders, the Indians did enough damage to overcome Masterson's few hiccups, which included an RBI triple from Rios in the sixth inning. Asdrubal Cabrera chipped in a run-scoring single for the Tribe in the fifth. One frame later, Ryan Raburn connected for an RBI single and David Murphy added a sacrifice fly against Rangers reliever Shawn Tolleson.
Chisenhall had a pair of singles and came around to score each time, bumping his average to.365.
"He's been a big part of about everything we've done," Indians manager Terry Francona said. "He's been in the middle, it seems like, all our rallies."
Masterson gave the Indians 5 2/3 innings in which he struck out six, scattered five hits, walked two and hit one batter, but he was pulled in favor of lefty Marc Rzepczynski.
Rzepczynski retired the only batter he faced, setup man Bryan Shaw held the Rangers in check for two innings and Allen handled the ninth for his sixth save.
For Allen, it marked his fifth consecutive outing with a save and no hits allowed, marking the second-longest streak of its kind in Indians history. Joe Mesa holds the record with six such appearances in a row in September 1995.
"Zep came in and did exactly what he's supposed to do," Francona said. "And then Shaw, having some rest, we could allow him to come in in the seventh and, if he had a quick seventh, go back out, which he did. And Cody came in and did a great job."
It was a recipe that pushed Cleveland back above the break-even mark for the first time in 60 days.
"We have a lot of baseball left," Francona said. "We've been up, we've been down, we've been kind of in the middle. That's why you just try to win tomorrow and then [the standings] take care of themselves."
Jordan Bastian is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Major League Bastian, and follow him on Twitter @MLBastian. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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And then he came back in.
"I was really surprised," Colts quarterback Andrew Luck said, speaking for everyone.
Hilton, who had earlier returned a punt 75 yards for score, came back and caught the game-sealing touchdown pass in the Colts' 20-13 win over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Explain that one. It sure feels like it has something to do with divine intervention or at least destiny as the team fights to build a memorable season for coach Chuck Pagano. Pagano, who's fighting leukemia and winning as his cancer is in remission, attended the game and was shown with owner Jim Irsay on the big screen, tapping his heart and thanking the fans. The fans' ovation was heartfelt in return.
"Whether or not it's divine intervention, I don't think so," Colts interim coach Bruce Arians said. "I would hate to think that he wore our colors and not their colors."
Fair enough. We'll call Hilton's return from a head shot, and the Colts' continued relevance in Pagano's absence, a heart-warming coincidence then.
The Colts are 7-4 and in the lead for the AFC's top wild-card playoff spot. They bounced back from a bad loss at New England with a sputtering but ultimately satisfying win at home.
They won on a day when Luck was not All-Pro caliber, although his final scoring drive was pretty darn close. Now they enter their final five games, starting at Detroit next Sunday, with everything in their control.
The Colts are a game up in the AFC wild-card race on the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals. Reggie Wayne, who might be the team's Most Valuable Player for helping Luck and mentoring Hilton, says he's not looking at the standings nor are they pondering their remaining schedule and those of their main wild-card competition.
"We don't pay any attention to none of that," Wayne said. "If we keep winning, we know where we'll be."
Of their remaining five games, two should be wins (at home vs. the Titans and at Kansas City, although the Chiefs gave the Broncos fits Sunday). It'll be tougher to win at Detroit and either on the road or at home against the AFC South-leading Houston Texans.
They'll clearly need some moments like the 15-play, 87-yard, eight-minute epic drive that put the Colts up 20-6 with the margin they needed to control the game Sunday.
Luck started the game playing like a quarterback still shell-shocked by the Patriots. He completed only three of his first nine passes and threw an interception. Even late in the first half, on a nice half-minute field goal drive, his pass to Wayne was a yard short of the end zone.
In the third quarter, however, he found his touch.
Luck completed third-down passes to Wayne (15 yards), Donnie Avery (10 yards), Wayne again (25 yards) and finally Hilton (eight yards for the touchdown). The second third-down completion to Wayne came on 3rd-and-17 and Luck stood under pressure, double-pumped and delivered.
The best sight of the day for Colts fans was Pagano on the big screen. Second-best: Hilton with the ball in the back of the end zone.
"We need more of those drives," Luck said. "When we needed it most, we got that drive and ended it with a four-minute drive or whatever you want to call it. We need more of those types of drives."
Luck finished with 20 of 37 passes for 240 yards and joined Peyton Manning as the only players in Colts history to throw for more than 3,000 yards in their rookie season. Wayne broke Cris Carter's obscure record with his 59th straight game of three or more receptions.
It's clear these Colts are not destined to blow teams out. Even when it looks like they're ready to ice a game, as they were on safety Tom Zbikowski's late interception, an obstacle arises. Zbikowski attempted to stiff arm Bills receiver Stevie Johnson, but Johnson stripped the ball and recovered the fumble.
So the Colts needed defensive plays by linebacker Jerrell Freeman (16 tackles, one sack) and cornerback Cassius Vaughn to stop the Bills again. Luck and the offense then ran out the clock.
We'll assume Pagano, who goes in for his third-and-final chemotherapy treatment this week, was smiling.
"We have a group of young men and older men who have a cause," Arians said. "When you play for a cause, you play together. It's all 53 guys for one common cause and that's to extend this season for Chuck."
I'm not sure how they're doing it sometimes. It's not supernatural. After all, it's just football. But it sure is looking like something super.


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Bethesda's epic fantasy series to receive massively multiplayer online...
If you thought spending months playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was bad (or is that good?), prepare to hand over your life. Developer Bethesda has just announced that they are working on The Elder Scrolls Online, a massively multiplayer interpretation of their popular fantasy video game franchise. The June issue of Game Informer (cover pictured above) promises more details, but the MMO is reported to be set a thousand years before the events of Skyrim. The game, scheduled to come out in 2013 for both PC and Macintosh, is being developed by Bethesda's sister company Zenimax Online Studios.
Like my plea for Call of Duty collectibles yesterday (see HERE), Bethesda's immersive games also demand toys; not just based on Elder Scrolls, but for my all-time favorite, Fallout, as well (read my story "Where's My Figures of FALLOUT 3?" HERE). Toy companies... make it so!
To insure your action figure collection, get in touch with Collectibles Insurance, the official insurance company of the Figures.com network. Say "Figures.com" to get 5% off your first term premiums.
To buy action figures, take a look at BigBadToyStore.com, RedfordFilms.com, Toynk.com, PastGenerationToys.com, BriansToys.com, ToyWiz.com, and MonkeyDepot.com.


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Press Center
The world's first and only dual GPU graphics solution—powered by 2 TAHITI XT GPUs
Taipei, Taiwan –August 24, 2012 -- TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphic cards, today reveals the 1st and only dual TAHITI XT GPU solution: the PowerColor Devil 13 HD7990. Designed to tackle the demanding HD titles, the Devil 13 HD7990 has default settings at 925MHz engine clocks and 1375MHz memory clocks. Furthermore, it's equipped with dual BIOS switch button, boosting up the engine frequencies to 1GHz, breaking out the limitation of extremely gaming performance.
Solidly-Built Design
The Devil 13 HD7990 is built with high efficiency thermal solution and solid components onboard. With trio fans and 10pcs U-shape heat pipes, maximizing the heat dissipated ability to cool down the Devil 13 board. Also, it includes 12+2+2 phases, digital PWM, super cap, UHB and PowerIRstage—all these platinum power kit enhances stability and reliability voltage for GPU with minimum conduction losses and lower temperatures at load, delivering the steadiest and most secure power to boost for performance.
Devil13 Deluxe Pack
The Devil 13 HD7990 includes industry leading brand, Wiha Tool Kit; with Wiha multiple reversible blades set, gamers can easily utilize different blades to fix every machine. Also, it packs with PowerColor PowerJack, the professional graphics card supporter which provides the powerful force to support the weight of the card from the back, avoiding card bending in the case.
Devil 13 HD7990
Core Speed
925MHz (Default Mode)
1000MHz (Overclocked Mode)
Memory Speed
1375MHz (5.5Gbps)
Memory Interface
384bit x2
DL DVI-I / SL DVI-D/ HDMI/2x mini DisplayPort
Superb Combo
> PowerColor PowerJack
About TUL Corporation
TUL is a leading supplier of AMD graphics cards under the PowerColor brand. We offer award-winning products based on our technology leading components, quality design and superb engineering. TUL employs more than 150 talents worldwide, with offices in China, Europe, Russia and USA to support over 300 channel partners and distributors in 50 plus countries. For further information, visit: http://www.tul.com.tw/global/
For more product information, visit: www.powercolor.com.
Or contact: firstname.lastname@example.com


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AP – The chartered bus chugged down Airport Road on Saturday morning, with fans walking next to it on both sides and empty Lane Stadium looming across a parking lot.
Virginia Tech sophomore quarterback Logan Thomas looked out the bus windows and thought this had to be the best view in the world.
"It's just a beautiful scene, seeing all those people and knowing they're there for you," he said later.
And the 66,000-plus people who crammed into Lane a couple hours later saw an idyllic start to a new era of Tech football. On a muggy, rain-free day when the school celebrated the beginning of head coach Frank Beamer's 25th season and welcomed Thomas and junior tailback David Wilson to starting roles, the Hokies dominated from the get-go and beat Appalachian State 66-13.
The last time these fans saw this team, it embarrassed itself in the Orange Bowl, losing 40-12 to Stanford. Eight months later to the day, the 13th-ranked Hokies quickly made sure there would be no repeat of last year's stunning loss to James Madison, which conjured memories of Appalachian State's 2007 win at Michigan.
Coach C.P. Miles and the 1905 Hokies can still rest easy, since Saturday wasn't as lopsided as their 86-0 season opener against Roanoke College. But the 66 points the Hokies hung on the Mountaineers – a well-regarded Football Championship Subdivision team, like James Madison – were their second-most since 1920.
Thomas' day was done with 5:22 left in the third quarter, when Tech led 52-0. He completed 9 of 19 passes for 149 yards and two touchdowns. Wilson already had his last carry by then. He finished with 16 rushes for 162 and three touchdowns, including a 20-yarder on Tech's first play after Appalachian State quarterback DeAndre Presley fumbled away a handoff on his second play.
"That was a perfect way to start," Beamer said.
Wilson learned earlier in the week that he'd get the opening carry, when running backs coach Shane Beamer reviewed the script with him for the first series.
"I told him I didn't have to hear the second play because I was going to take it to the crib," Wilson said.
After scoring, Wilson bounced to the sideline and smiled at Shane. "You called it," Shane said. Then they both laughed. Afterward, Wilson said he wants to break Tech's single-season rushing record this fall and score 20 touchdowns without fumbling.
"Hopefully, this is just the beginning," he said.
He and Thomas were the two top recruits in Tech's Class of 2009. Ever since Thomas picked the Hokies, everybody has been eager to witness his rare blend of athleticism and size. And there he was, on the first quarter's final play, running up the middle, lowering his shoulder and flattening free safety Patrick Blalock for a 12-yard gain. Blalock is a mere 6 feet and 200 pounds – six inches shorter and 54 pounds lighter than Thomas.
Thomas said he "felt like I got into a groove after my first hit." Not that he was overly nervous. He sat in the locker room before the game, listening to Jay-Z on his headphones. None of his teammates talked to him, but he said he wouldn't have minded if they did.
When he walked out of the locker room and toward Lane's tunnel, he looked into the gaping stadium and saw a sea of orange and maroon. "This is what I've been waiting on the past two years," he thought.
He exploited his team's obvious talent advantage in the first half and helped Tech outgain Appalachian State 291-61 and lead 38-0. Tech finished with 518 yards, and Thomas earned rave reviews from his position coach and play caller, Mike O'Cain.
"I don't remember [a throw] where you'd say, 'Good gosh, what was that?' " O'Cain said.
This was Tech's first opening game win since 2007, and if the Hokies continue to play like they did Saturday, they could be on their way to a 4-0 start, with a less-than-daunting non-conference schedule. Hiccups are inevitable, though there were few in Blacksburg on Saturday.
"I've got a long way to develop to be the quarterback I want to be," Thomas said. "But today was a great first step."
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Adult Hydrocephalus
Brain & Spine Institute
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Cardiovascular Institute
Children's Hospital
CyberKnife® Center
ER-7 Emergency Center
Geriatric Surgery
Joint Preservation and Replacement
Krieger Eye Institute
Limb Lengthening
Rubin Institute for Advanced Orthopedics
Sleep Center
Stroke Center
Vascular Institute
Women's Services
Additional Services
Bariatric & Minimally Invasive Surgery
Brain & Spine Institute
Breast Care Center
Cancer Institute
Cardiovascular Institute
Center for Diabetic Limb Preservation
Cosmetic Surgery
ER-7 Emergency Center
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LifeBridge Health & Fitness is one of the Greater Baltimore area's premier health and fitness centers and ranks in the top 1 percent of all health clubs in the United States. Its members and guests consider the center a facility of choice because of the enormous variety of equipment and exercise programming options. In addition to having more than 125 pieces of cardiovascular equipment, the center also offers more than 100 weekly group exercise classes in three studios. Education programs, wellness programs and medical screenings are also offered.
To learn more click here.
The outpatient pharmacies at Northwest Hospital and Sinai Hospital serve individual prescription needs, including patients, employees, physicians and the surrounding community. They have competitive pricing and offer access to prescription and over-the-counter medicine, as well as a variety of other health care products. In addition to high quality products, the pharmacies also offer expert advice from an experienced pharmacy team. They are happy to answer your prescription questions and have your prescription ready at your convenience.
ExpressCare Urgent Care Centers offer immediate and convenient care when you can't get to your nearest hospital or clinic. They are open until 9 p.m. seven days a week, 365 days per year. Services offered cover colds, infections, earaches, broken bones, cuts, fractures and any other non-life threatening condition. Pre-employment physicals exams, X-ray services and vaccines are also available. Stop by any of the Maryland locations in Baltimore, Harford, Cecil, Carroll, Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties.
Subway is the largest submarine sandwich chain in the world, offering a variety of healthy food options such as sandwiches, salads and soups. Located at Sinai Hospital in the main corridor, it is the perfect place to grab breakfast or lunch on-the-go.
To learn more about Subway at Sinai Hospital click here.
Homecare Maryland, LLC provides health care and health-related services to people living in their home in the Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Harford County and Cecil County areas. A Medicare-certified and Maryland State Department of Health-licensed organization, it provides services of the following trained professionals: nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech pathologists, home health aides, medical social workers and dietitians. Nurses are on-call twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Medicare, Bravo and other insurances are welcome.
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LifeBridge Health Physical Therapy offers a continuum of sports medicine and rehabilitation for elite athletes, orthopedic outpatients and those with chronic pain. Patients have access to expert care in sports medicine and performance, back and neck care, orthopedic physical therapy, postoperative rehabilitation, aquatic physical therapy, neurological rehabilitation, work injury rehabilitation, and many other specialty services. There are currently over 11 Baltimore-area locations.
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National Respiratory Care, LLC is a medical supplier located in Owings Mills, Maryland. Medical supplies sold include: Tracheostomy Supplies, Invasive Mechanical Ventilations, Nebulizer Equipment, Oxygen Equipment, Respiratory Suction Pumps and Ventilators, Positive Pressure Breathing Machines. National Respiratory Care works primarily with LifeBridge Health facilities and physician practices, and has built business relationships with top-line manufacturers.
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The Shops at Sinai Hospital, located next to the Pharmacy on the main hospital corridor, offers a wide variety of merchandise for all guests, including cards, candy, flowers, stuffed animals, jewelry, handbags and more. Orders can be called directly to the shop by calling the main number below.
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The Krieger Eye Institute Optical Shops, which include the Optical Shop at Quarry Lake and the new Krieger Eye Institute at Northwest Hospital, offer a wide selection of high-quality eyewear to fit every budget, including frames that range in price from $60 and up. The shop features frames from top designers such as Tumi, Calvin Klein, Caviar, Fendi, Jaguar, Gucci, Silhouette, 2.5 and many others. In addition to frames, the shop also carries specialty lenses that are priced competitively with other retailers.
To learn more about the Optical Shop at Quarry Lake click here.
To learn more about the Krieger Eye Institute at Northwest Hospital click here.
Pulse Medical Transportation is one of only five transportation companies in Maryland that provides all levels of care to patients. The company offers medical transportation for LifeBridge Health using fleet ambulances 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This includes basic wheelchair and stretcher transportation to and from LifeBridge Health facilities. The staff includes advanced life support providers, all of whom are ready to help get the most critical patients into Sinai's Cath Lab, PICU, ER and other designated destinations.
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text:
Mike Conley is really good at point. I think he is not getting credit from the media.
It cannot be all zach randolph.
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Mike Conley is really good at point. I think he is not getting credit from the media.
It cannot be all zach randolph.
@WhatTheFFacts: Studies show that sarcasm enhances the ability of the human mind to solve complex problems!
A 15th pick in this coming draft isn't worth s***, I am sorry but this comment sounds ignorant to me, go ahead and compare his numbers to those of Mayo for the same amount of minutes and they are pretty close, not only that but Vasquez is a rookie when Mayo is a 3 years veteran.
@WhatTheFFacts: Studies show that sarcasm enhances the ability of the human mind to solve complex problems!
Gotta give credit where it is due to Zbo, I thought he was toast when he went to Memphis, instead he is playing like an absolute superstar and there's no telling how far the Grizzlies will make it this postseason.
ummm y?
he lead his team to the playoffs after missing it fir a couple of years...and rudy gay was hurt for the last month.....10 games above .500....hes a perfect candidate.
It is a regular season award. If COY is based on playoff performance of the team then Hollins deserves consideration. But COY is based on regular season performance of the team so Thibs deserves the award.
Vogel got a vote for coach of the year.
Well, he had a winning record in the regular season with 20-18, plus he made the Pacers advance to the playoffs after a long drought. That fact alone gives him some consideration for COY. Same is also true for Hollins.
Not that I diminish Hollins' efforts to be considered a strong COY candidate, but Tom really deserved the award for vastly improving the Bulls record-wise in the regular season.
Well Cleveland flamed out because Lebron left. Durant and Westbrook aren't going anywhere. And Portland never had two players as talented as Durant and Westbrook.
Anybody think Z-Bo has the title for best PF in the game right now, at least for a little bit?
Everybody was talking about the Perkins trade @ the deadline nobody was mentioning the Batier deal. Batier w/ Tony Allen gives Memphis a great defensive tandom. Z Bo > JO in their prime. D Arthur has leaped in talent this year.
O J Mayo can play. He would have helped the Pacers in the series against Chicago. Him and PG would have been fun to watch on the court. I think the deal is dead. We have already heard about it happening.
Many believe that small market teams cannot get good ratings especially if they are playing each other.
Earlier in the day, Game 1 between the Grizzlies and Thunder earned a 4.1 overnight rating, up 52% from last year (MIL/ATL G7: 2.7), and up 24% from 2009 (MIA/ATL G7: 3.3).
Grizzlies/Thunder actually drew a higher overnight than Heat/76ers Game 4 in the same timeslot a week earlier (4.0).
Keep in mind the Grizzlies/Thunder series features the second-and-third smallest TV markets in the NBA, Memphis (#48) and Oklahoma City (#45).
Memphis and OKC also makes everyone on here that says we can't compete in this NBA because of our city size look silly.
Jumping the gun with Memphis. Let's see how they look not just in two weeks, but two years, before we declare them the next "See? Look at them!"
As for OKC, it does not apply. Why? Two words: Kevin Durant. Unless Paul George becomes similarly talented, no one like that is walking through our doors.
A few years ago, everyone was drooling over this super bright future Portland had, too.
A hyped star trumps market size, which is why teams that win the lottery (see: Cleveland) become relevant until something happens (see: The Decision).
No one ever said market size was a buzzkill for any possible positive. The issue is that the only way a small market can compete or get attention is if they get the hype via a marquee player.
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Or throw in a first-round pick and flip it for a max-level point guard...
Yeah, because that's exactly what I meant.
their 2 stars were top 5 picks they rebulit the right way. Unlike someone.
Sure, we've competed before and it's likely that we'll compete again in the future.
Doesn't mean that big markets don't have some very significant advantages over small markets though.
How do you explain Memphis though? No one would have called their way of rebuilding "the right way" before this year.
I could also come up with several counter examples where teams with several top 5 picks have failed.
To be honest I think there's a lot of luck involved in building a team. Following the tried and true formula doesn't always give the expected result. But once in a while someone's mad experiment actually works. Heck, a couple of years back everyone thought Danny Ainge was crazy too.


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text:
Posted 6 years ago
(574 items)
One more sample of the rare red glass items designed by Lütken for Holmegaard.
This series was also made in cobalt blue and opal -at least the vase on the left. The series has three more designs: a huge hourglass shaped vase, a bigger "bulb vase" and a simple cylinder vase.


text:
Judges from the official Computex committee conferred MSI's newly launched Z87-GD65 Gaming their "Best Choice Award".
Developed in collaboration with global eSports gaming powerhouse Fnatic, the MSI Z87-GD65 is the latest entrant to the company's line of dragon-themed gaming products. The motherboard is equipped with a Killer E2205 Gigabit NIC for latency-optimized networking and Audio Boost technology (proper shielding, headamp and high quality caps) for pin-point enemy positioning awareness. Military Class 4 components and onboard assistants such as OC Genie 4 also help to automatically overclock the CPU and graphics card within stable limits to get every advantage possible over opponents.


text:
Nike Air Max 180 ID Fun Pack sitelet
R/GA, New York, New York, 2004
We set out to create a fun, interactive experience that would celebrate Nike's first artist collaboration in 1991, when famous artists teamed up to develop the marketing for the original Air Max 180 shoe. Since a limited amount of shoes were available for purchase each day, the site's design needed to entice users back every day. The experience also needed to balance usability with a fun, playful experience.
The sitelet provided Air Max fans and sneaker enthusiasts with an exclusive 20-day offering of a "Fun Pack," which consisted of a pair of Air Max 180s and one of four limited-edition T-shirts by featured artists.
The sitelet takes personalization to new levels. For each of the promotion's 20 days, consumers were greeted with a different featured item to customize—from decorating a house and van to dressing a pizza and poodle. Users could click and drag colors and icons to create this customized world. These items all represented things that people associate with customization in their everyday lives. In personalizing the Air Max 180, consumers could create from preexisting designs by the artist collaborators or develop their own from scratch. The site also features fun, upbeat music that flows perfectly with the experience.
- Design firm
- Art director
- Jerome Austria
- Designers
- Elena Sakevich, Gui Borchert, Phil Lubliner
- Copywriter
- Thomas Pettus
- Content strategists
- Christine Reindl, Noel Billig
- Producers
- Jennifer Allen, Suzanne Cort
- Production manager
- Matt Howell
- Information architect
- Carlos Gomes De Llarena
- Client
- Nike


text: +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | TPWD News Release 20050919a | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | This page contains only plain text, no HTML formatting codes. | | It is not designed for display in a browser but for copying | | and editing in whatever software you use to lay out pages. | | To copy the text into an editing program: | | --Display this page in your browser. | | --Select all. | | --Copy. | | --Paste in a document in your editing program. | | If you have any suggestions for improving these pages, send | | an e-mail to email@example.com and mention Plain Text Pages. | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ [ Note: This item is more than 12 years old. Please take the publication date into consideration for any date references. ] [ Media Contact: TPWD News, email@example.com, 512-389-8030 ] [RM] Sept. 19, 2005 Government Canyon State Natural Area Opens Oct. 15 SAN ANTONIO -- The much-anticipated opening of the newest member of the Texas State Parks family -- Government Canyon State Natural Area -- will take place Saturday, Oct. 15, on the northwestern fringes of the state's third most populous city. Government Canyon SNA, which sits only 16 miles from downtown San Antonio, has been 12 years in the making. The 8,622-acre state natural area at the edge of the Edwards Plateau represents one of Texas' most significant conservation stories resulting from a public-private partnership involving municipal, state and federal government agencies, as well as a host of community and environmental organizations. Up until now, it has been accessible on a limited basis for volunteers and special guided tours. What started out in 1993 as 4,717 acres of ecologically critical habitat overlaying San Antonio's sole source of drinking water has almost doubled since then as adjacent ranch lands were acquired. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, which manages the state natural area, has spent about $5.7 million for archeological surveys, design, construction, signs and other infrastructure to get the natural area open for day use. Initially, visitors will be able to picnic, bird watch, shop for souvenirs, view exhibits explaining the natural area's unique geology and natural and cultural resources, and explore roughly 40 miles of trails available to hikers and cyclists. For now, Government Canyon will be open for day use only, but Superintendent Deirdre Hisler expects to be ready to accommodate overnight guests at primitive tent camping sites sometime next year. "The community has been waiting -- and waiting patiently -- for a long time for Government Canyon to open," Hisler said. "We are a work in progress. Our primary concern as a state natural area is protecting valuable cultural and natural resources in the sensitive Edwards Aquifer recharge zone." Government Canyon SNA sits at the confluence of three distinctly different eco-regions, where the blackland prairie and the mostly flat, mesquite-dominated savanna south of the Balcones Escarpment meets the rugged oak- and ashe juniper-covered hills and rugged canyonlands of the uplifted Edwards Plateau along the Balcones Fault Zone. Along this fault zone lies the primary recharge zone where water enters the Edward Aquifer that serves as the source of drinking water for millions of central Texas residents. For the purpose of natural area management, Hisler explained, Government Canyon SNA has been divided into two sections: the "backcountry" and "frontcountry." The much larger environmentally sensitive "backcountry" is accessible to the public only by foot or bicycle. Multiuse trails for hikers, cyclists and equestrians are located off the recharge zone in the relatively flat "frontcountry" where natural area facilities for the visiting public are located. Some 7,500 acres of the state natural area's backcountry make up one of the nation's largest and most unusual karst preserves where water "recharges," or enters the Edwards Aquifer through sinkholes, caves and fractures in the porous limestone surface that predominates in the more rugged part of Government Canyon. The Tim and Karen Hixon Visitor Center, which includes offices, a gift shop, interpretive exhibit hall, restrooms and two classrooms, is located in the minimally developed southern portion of the natural area where ranching operations once took place under prior ownership. Here too, is a group picnic pavilion with fireplace, 20 picnic sites, a maintenance facility and composting toilets. The state natural area derives its name from the canyon used as the Joe Johnston Route, a westward route up and across the Edwards Plateau blazed in the 1850s by a U.S. military survey crew stationed at Fort Government Hill, known today as Fort Sam Houston. It is via this historic route that hikers and cyclists can readily access backcountry trails leading to scenic vistas and other points of interest. Government Canyon SNA's diverse habitats harbor seven creatures which are on the federal endangered species list, including the six of Bexar County's nine protected karst invertebrates -- cave spiders and beetles -- as well as the golden-cheeked warbler. The warbler's critical habitat in the backcountry will be off limits to visitors during the breeding and nesting season from March 1 to Sept. 1. The October opening of Government Canyon fulfills several major goals of TPWD's strategic 10-year initiative set forth in its Land and Water Resources Conservation and Recreation Plan in that it: 1) protects significant water and wildlife resources, 2) establishes a recreation area easily accessible by an urban population, and 3) embodies a partnership of state agencies, city government and other public entities, and the private sector. Because 88 percent of the state natural area sits atop the Edward Aquifer recharge zone, the City of San Antonio, San Antonio Water System and Edwards Aquifer Authority are ensured that a crucial watershed remains undeveloped. Government Canyon also conserves a large parcel of the rapidly disappearing wild and scenic Texas Hill Country for recreational and educational pursuits. Government Canyon serves, too, as a model for future public land acquisition. The purchase and preservation of the various tracts comprising the natural area resulted from a unique collaboration of dozens of community organizations, government agencies, corporations and individuals. Their efforts preserved thousands of acres once slated for residential development, thus protecting the Edwards Aquifer from environmental degradation, conserving habitat for endangered songbirds and cave invertebrates, and preserving precious pieces of Texas' prehistoric and historic past. Equally significant is Government Canyon's role as an outdoor classroom. Interpretive programs will help educate school groups and others about the importance of land conservation and stewardship, biodiversity, endangered species, sustainable building practices, alternative energy and the vulnerability of local aquifers to contamination in the face of Texas' unprecedented growth and resulting pressures on its natural resources. Visitors also will be able to learn about the area's ranching heritage and prehistoric and historic importance. They will discover, for example, that Government Canyon SNA has 100-plus recorded archeological sites. Furthermore, history records that from 1860 to 1967, the ranch land that makes up the core of the state natural area belonged to only two families -- the Hoffmans and Lytles. It was during the Hoffman's tenure that Government Canyon's iconic Zizelmann House, dating from 1882, was built. It still stands in the backcountry. In the 1970s, a development company bought the property with the intent of turning the former ranch into a mixed-use community for 80,000 people. But the property was foreclosed on during the Texas real estate bust and was acquired by the Resolution Trust Corporation, which put it up for auction. In a move to protect the important watershed, a grassroots community organization called the Government Canyon Coalition, now known as the Friends of Government Canyon, joined forces with the Trust for Public Land, SAWS and the Edwards Underground Water District (today, the Edwards Aquifer Authority), to facilitate the purchase of 4,717 acres by TPWD. In the coming months, Hisler said, Government Canyon and its partners will be employing brush removal and prescribed fire to restore the front country to pre-agricultural conditions and emphasizing the "Leave No Trace" ethic that teaches visitors how to minimize their impact on the outdoors. Government Canyon SNA is located 3.5 miles northwest of Loop 1604 on Culebra Road (also known as FM 471), then 1.6 miles north on Galm Road. The entry fee for persons age 13 and older is $6. For more information about Government Canyon, call the park at (210) 688-9055. --- On the Net: http://tpwd.texas.gov/exptexas/promos/government_canyon/ -30-


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By Imad Khan
The rumor mill has been spinning with ferocity as recent reports have stated that the successors to the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3, possibly codenamed Durango and Orbis respectively, will not support used games. If these rumors come to fruition, the average gamer may feel threatened that their dollar will not be able to stretch as far as it once did. This is based on the assumption that new games will continue to retail for sixty dollars. I, on the other hand, feel that the end of used sales could be the advent of cheaper game.
To understand this, we must break down the current situation. Most people feel that in the console race there are three actors, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony. What some fail to realize is that there's a fourth actor also competing for our dollars, used retailers. Silicone Knights head of development, Denis Dyack, stated in an interview with GameIndustry that "'used games increase the cost of games,'" because the used market has reached a level of maturity in which games cannot generate revenue in the long term as they once did before.
Console manufacturers created the current pricing model to compensate for potential sales lost to used games. For example, Co-founder of French studio Quantic Dream, Guillaume de Fondaumiere, stated in an interview with GameIndustry that Heavy Rain sold "approximately two million units," but based on trophy data, three million people had played the game. The loss of those one million in sales prevented Quantic Dream from receiving €5 to €10 million in royalties.
Precedent for a drop in price from one generation to another does exist, but to a minor extent. During the NES era, games did retail for fifty dollars on average with a few outliers like Donkey Kong Country or Final Fantasy. If you account for inflation, the fact that the last generation of games were set at fifty dollars does technically entail that prices were cheaper compared to those of the late eighties and early nineties.
It's important to realize that fair competition brings prices down. Assuming that the three major console manufacturers aren't caught in a price fixing scheme, competition should drive prices lower. No longer would manufacturers have to worry about potential loss of sales and could fully concentrate on beating the other company out.
Could the next generation be a call back to the fifty dollar price point, nay, even forty? Sound off in the comments section below.


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