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Beat the Streak Report: Weekend, April 1-3
And we're off to a rollicking start!
Yesterday's three most popular choices — Derek Jeter, Martin Prado and Albert Pujols — combined for a fat 0-for-11 and killed over 35 percent of your streaks before they even got started.
Come on, Streakers. We'll take responsibility for Prado's shenanigans against Livan "On a Prayer" Hernandez, but the rest of you have no excuse. While reaching 57 games is going to be tough, summiting Mount One should be relatively doable.
On the bright side, we won't see Clayton Kershaw again for another four days. Did you see the stuff that dude was working with last night? We recommend steering clear of all Giants hitters this weekend, just because they'll be in the same building as The Claw.
Without further Freddy Adu …
Friday's picks:
Oh, hello there …
• Shin-Soo Choo: .385 AVG (10-for-26) lifetime vs. White Sox starter Mark Buehrle
• Omar Infante: .533 AVG (8-for-15) lifetime vs. Mets starter Mike Pelfrey
• David DeJesus: .444 AVG (8-for-18) lifetime vs. Mariners starter Felix Hernandez
Go ahead and take DeJesus against King Felix. C'mon, you know you want to. What's your streak at right now anyway, like one game?
Feeling kinda spicy?
• Greg Dobbs: .412 AVG (7-for-17) lifetime vs. Mets starter Mike Pelfrey
Marlins fans: go directly to Minor League BTS (coming soon!) — do not pass go — and select Matt Dominguez instead.
You'll thank me later …
• Pablo Sandoval: .148 AVG (4-for-27) lifetime vs. Dodgers starter Chad Billingsley
• Andre Ethier: .167 AVG (4-for-24) lifetime vs. Giants starter Jonathan Sanchez
Saturday's picks:
Oh, hello there …
• Andre Ethier: .488 AVG (20-for-41) lifetime vs. Giants starter Matt Cain
• Adam Jones: .440 AVG (11-for-25) lifetime vs. Rays starter James Shields
• Ian Kinsler: .435 AVG (10-for-23) lifetime vs. Royals starter Kyle Davies
So to review: Ethier on Friday: Na-na. Ethier on Saturday: Yes, please.
Feeling kinda spicy?
• Ryan Doumit: .533 AVG (8-for-15) lifetime vs. Cubs starter Carlos Zambrano
You'll thank me later …
• Adrian Beltre: .143 AVG (5-for-25) lifetime vs. Red Sox starter John Lackey
• Asdrubal Cabrera: .174 AVG (4-for-23) lifetime vs. White Sox starter Edwin Jackson
Sunday's picks:
Oh, hello there …
• Hanley Ramirez: .500 AVG (6-for-12) lifetime vs. Mets starter R.A. Dickey
• Jay Bruce: .438 AVG (7-for-16) lifetime vs. Brewers starter Randy Wolf
• Bobby Abreu: .500 AVG (5-for-10) lifetime vs. Royals starter Bruce Chen
Feeling kinda spicy?
• Jonny Gomes: .625 AVG (10-for-16) lifetime vs. Brewers starter Randy Wolf
You'll thank me later …
• Rickie Weeks: .120 AVG (3-for-25) lifetime vs. Reds starter Bronson Arroyo
• Nick Markakis: .125 AVG (2-for-16) lifetime vs. Rays starter Wade Davis
Leaderboard time!
Yeah, we get it — it was all a big misunderstanding. You rolled into Five Guys with four of your boys, got all those toppings on the house and then told the cashier you're good for the bill in 56 days. She became agitated, your boys became agitated, the police became involved and now the judge is throwing around big words like "shoplifting" and "disturbing the peace." And worst of all, he's refusing to accept a printout of your Mark Teixeira BTS pick from yesterday with the words "plus 56 more days" scrawled on it as a substitute for bail money.
Top MLB streakers
• Mark Ellis: 13 games
• Mike Stanton: 11 games
• Justin Smoak: 10 games
• Drew Stubbs: 9 games
The BTS Report's official position of not recognizing multiseason streaks remains in place. Get to the back of the line, Ellis — no cutsies here.
53 Comments
Glad to see Dave's humor is back in full force!
If you want weather forecasts for upcoming games, bookmark this link:
Hey guys I'm back this year too with hopes and aspirations of big bucks. Unfortunatly I had Prado yesterday so I'm still square. Going with Josh Hamilton today. Beckett has looked quite ordinary thru the spring, so here's hoping. GL to all the returning bloggers and new ones.
Good to see some of the bloggers back again! I had A-Rod yesterday so I am at 1, wo-hoo, haha. Anyway, I am going with Tulowitzki tonight to get me to 2. I am really hoping someone wins this year. Obviously it would be awesome if I could do it but with this kind of money being offered, it would be sweet to see them finally pay out.
Good to see a new season starting at last! I missed yesterdays pick and the deadline for today's, but it automatically picked Josh Hamilton for me, so here's hoping. Time to finally pay my bill.
I started off with Joey Votto yesterday so I am at 1 and I'm taking Ichiro tonight to get me to 2.
Highest no selections: A bunch including 2 on the first page with a streak of 1. Back to 0 for them.
Probably many of the no-selections are the result of "jumpstart picks" not playing today. BTS carries over the jumpstart picks from last year evidently.
Hey once the streaks get a little higher I'll restart LaV's Legacy (top2500) if the program works this year, I haven't tried it yet for this season.
@00liber. You may want to wait a couple weeks until the last page is a tad respectible to get on, say around 5?
It usually takes until about 20 before the first page dilutes out, although 35% eliminated in the 1st day is quite a large amount.
Hooray! My comment went through!
Earlier, it was saying it needed to be approved, but now it went right through!
As for what I said earlier, I mentioned that I will be keeping track of my batting average throughout the season.
So, through today:
March 31st: Rickie Weeks: 2 for 5
April 1st: Marlon Byrd: 1 for 5
Overall: 3 for 10, .300, 2 for 2
Phew. I'm on the board with Josh blasting me a double in the bottom of the 8th. On to tomorrow. GL to those waiting on night games.
And yes I'm going to wait till at the very least 10, probably closer to 20.
@00Liber. I was talking about the last page, not the first. Though it's up to you of course. Congrats on breaking the ice with J.Hamilton. I think some bloggers are using up their good luck charms early with Tulo — hitless but extra innings at the moment.
Just checking this out.
I'm back on the blog thanks to 00liber. Thank you buddy. I am now 2 for 2. I have my picks on my blog every day. It will be updated every day and if you want to read it be my guest. Here is the link. Let me know what you all think. I said to stay away from Tulo today as he doesn't hit in April and sure enough he went 0-5.
Hmmm, April Fools on me, shame on me. Melky, hottest batter in Spring and great game yesterday, with 385 avg vs. Haren, goes 0-4. At least I'll only be 2 games behind the leader tomorrow 😉
There are 3 users on the front page that are called 0jvairo_2, 0jvairo_21 and 0jvairo_2. It seems suspicious that the same person might be playing on 3 different accounts.
hey Everyone, welcome back for another fun season.
if anyone is new and wants to join the group of bloggers that we started last year, look up the bloggers in Group and join us
Hey all, I hope everyone is off to good starts for the new year. I went hit less yesterday (Prado) but Ryan Howard got me two hits today so I am on the board in 2011, only 56 more to go. Anyway, I look forward to this new season and sharing some insight with all of you again, GL!!
Going with Starlin today. Last season I picked against pit 14 times and got hits in 12 of those games. 7 of which were cubbies. Starlin has great numbers vs lefties, only thing that worries me are his road numbers but I'll take my chances.
Side note anyone see the soon to be NL rookie of the year, brandon belt jack a 3 run bomb last night.
YanksGiantsDevils. That person also has an account named jvairo_7. They are automatically disqualified just for the multiple accounts.
@00Liber. Stats I see show Starlin kinda bad vs. Lefties @ 218 avg vs. 412 against righties. I've also went back and looked at his 0-fers during Mar spring games: The 0-fers were vs. lefties. But we all know stats are a general guide & picking based off of stats along is akin to flipping a coin. For me, here's hoping Chipper gets me back on the board; all of last year, my highest negative streak was just 2.
^^ 281 not 218, typo
@LaV 339 vs lefties over all of last season. That 281 is this season, yesterdays game.
@00Liber: You are correct sir. Helps if I pull down the right year :). He got his hit in the 4th. Good on you
@Vinny1979 I guess that person would either rather have multiple streaks the potential prizes or doesn't know the rules. BTW I meant to say that 3rd account is 0jvairo_22.
I'm taking Jose Reyes to get to 3.
THANKS official scorer!
Thought Byrd pulled it out in the 8th, only to be scored as an error!
And then of course the Pirates bullpen couldn't bother keeping it tied since Byrd would have gotten up again in the 9th, had it stayed tied.
I am glad to have days like I had today now than when I have a 20 or 30 game streak. Back to the drawing board.
I got my first miracle of the season the Mets went ahead 3-2 in the Top 9th, the Marlins tied it in the Bottom and then Jose Reyes lead off the 10th with a single (the Mets went on to win 6-3). Up to 3!
A small quibble.
They actually went on to win 6-4.
Of course, the Mets knew how to bear down once the game was tied for you.
Unfortunately, the Pirates could not pull together for me.
@Yanks… Enjoy it. Miracles don't come that often. If anyone wins this game, they'll need luck like that, more than once, during the long streak.
I'm sorry about the result your pick.
@LaVolpe I'm very lucky since I initially had Vladimir Guerrero and switched and it almost cost me, I will take it though!
Good luck to all!
so where is the homerun BTS and Survivor in picking the team to win on a given day? will we have those later on
Many benched today for various reasons: Longoria, Victorino, Mauer, Maggs, Stanton, Rajai Davis, Luke Scott, Ian Stewart and more. Source: Rotoworld. I'm riding Chipper again for today's game
In reality you could probably pick any white sox player today but, After looking a little closer at numbers, I'm leaning towards Pierre as Masterson's BAA vs lefties is .291 as opposed to .228 vs righties. Both Pierre amd Beckham have excellent numbers against him but ima go with Juan. Only issue is it's supposed to be rainy all day. I'll take my chances.
GL today.
@00Liber. Check this site out (http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/). Great stats for nearly everything. Want to know how hot someone is in May? 1st time up vs 2nd time up? Against starters vs. pen? Current year, any year, lifetime? Wow! Too much to digest at once, but may be worthwhile to diddle with.
Longoria has an injured oblique so he may be out for a while. Cabrera will suffer with Maggs out. They can pitch around him and pitch to Victor.
Vinny, wish my picks would suffer so badly: HR 1st AB for Cabrerra
I hear ya Lav. Cabrera has killed the Yanks the first 3 games. Hit each game and HR today. I wonder why they haven't opened HR BTS and Odyssey yet. There is no Survivor this year.
Pitch-arounds, intentional walks and other mind-games are pretty much not a player in 1st month or so of baseball, except possibly in late innings. This timeframe is used by managers/players to test scenario-type hitting/pitching and is more or less an extension of spring training. I think if this contest is won, it will be with someone that built 90% or more of their streak before the all-star break. After the all-star break, strategy plays a huge role as does injuries.
I wonder if odyssey is like survivor but the name is changed?
But with the season underway why has odyssey and HR bTS not opened?
I'm taking Hanley Ramirez for 4.
CHISOX hits into 1st Triple Play of the year.
Back on the board with Ben Francisco's 1st-Inning HR!
I wonder how many people used him?
Seems like a sleeper pick!
@lav- that was a nice play by the Indians first basemen, especially to have the presence of mind to get up and throw to first. Anyway, I went with Tulo today to get me to three even though he is hitless this year. I feel he has to get his first hit sometime and it might as well be today. GL to everyone else!
Well, Tulo won't get his first hit today
Barring a triple play and Chipper pulled in the 9th, looks like I'll get one more shot to up my lowly streak 😉
Tulo won't get a hit is right. He sucks in April in his career.
That wasn't the reason I based my prediction on: game is PPD. Chipper came thru on his last AB.
Yeah I didn't check the weather today and since it's only the beginning of the year and we are still figuring out who is hot I figured what the heck. Congrats on Chipper getting a hit for you though!
Well I had Longo today but he was out so I guess I am off to tomorrow. I am still stuck at 1, so pathetic, haha. I am going with Kinsler tomorrow as he is off to a good start. For all of you waiting for a game still in play, good luck!
Overall line right now is 6/19, .316 batting average, 3 for 4, current hitting streak: 1
Only 4 days into the contest and bloggers group reduced to just 4 tied for the lead. Top2500 last page has all 4-gamers on it. Kinda interesting how things kinda get spread out a bit by first of May. But until then, a couple of heavy picks going down will thin out the bottlenecks; maybe even the days with few games like tomorrow with only 6 games being played. We'll see. Off to contemplate tomorrow's pick.


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Vt. college's oxen-slaughter plan riles activists
- School opened discussion up to students, staff
- Decision to slaughter animals was nearly unanimous
- University under attack by those who want oxen spared
POULTNEY, Vt. (AP) — Bill and Lou have plied the fields of Green Mountain College's farm in Vermont for most of their lives — about 10 years.
Students have learned to drive the oxen team for haying and tilling, creating bonds with the giant animals. They're a campus fixture. But a leg injury to Lou this summer turned the now 11-year-old animals into retirees — and a cause celebre among animal rights activists.
Bill won't work with another animal, school officials said. So the 825-student private liberal arts school, which promotes sustainable agriculture and strives to serve locally raised foods, has decided to slaughter the animals and serve the meat in the dining hall, just as it has done with other livestock.
In a tradition of giving students real-life experiences, the school opened the discussion up to students and staff at a school meeting in October that about 80 students, faculty and staff members attended. The decision to slaughter the animals was nearly unanimous, even among a student body that the school says is 30 percent vegetarian or vegan.
But now, the school is under attack by those who want the oxen spared and have found a sanctuary for them. Opponents have signed online petitions and sent thousands of emails to staff members. The school received more than 3 million emails from Oct. 13 to Oct. 18 from one Internet domain, and got 200 emails from Spain, officials said.
Some emails threatened to shut the college down and hurt donations, the school said; the head of the farm and food project said he has gotten death threats and someone urinated on his car. School officials were not specific about the origin of the threatening emails.
Even area slaughterhouses have been threatened, the school said, to prevent the school from finding a place to butcher them.
"These people are at war, and they don't take prisoners," said Bill Throop, provost of the school, a pastoral campus in a mountain valley.
The college and the oxen have become a pawn for the groups' causes, Throop said.
"I don't believe that the two animals are the issue," he said. "The issue is whether small-scale sustainable animal agriculture is an important part of the future in Vermont. We think it is. They think it isn't."
Green Mountain Animal Defenders circulated a petition to save the animals. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has suggested that if the animals are slaughtered, the students and the public should watch "so that they can see the terror in Bill's and Lou's eyes right before a bolt is shot into their foreheads and they are strung upside down and bled to death," PETA said.
The uproar began after VINE Sanctuary, which stands for veganism is the next evolution, was contacted by students and alumni who opposed the decision. It then posted an action alert on its blog asking readers to "please contact the folks at Green Mountain College and urge them to reconsider." It provided a form letter, free of threats, that readers could send to Throop.
"This took off far beyond what we anticipated, not that we're unhappy," said Miriam Jones, VINE's coordinator.
VINE, based in Springfield, has offered a space for the animals, which typically live 10 to 12 years but can survive up to 20 years. The group itself has been threatened, Jones said, and has never endorsed violent language.
Many Vermonters raise their own animals for meat or join a CSA — community-supported agriculture — in which they pay ahead of season for locally raised meat, said state Agriculture Secretary Chuck Ross.
"Green Mountain College has reached their decision after careful contemplation and input from the campus community," Ross said. "They have raised these animals humanely, and have made a responsible choice. We encourage others to respect their decision, even if their own personal philosophy includes abstaining from eating meat."
Meiko Lunetta, a 21-year-old vegetarian from Francistown, N.H., majoring in sustainable agriculture and environmental education, said she supports the college's decision. The one ton of beef that Bill and Lou would provide can serve the dining hall for about a month.
"It's funny that it's blown up in such a way, because on any other farm anywhere, this isn't even a conversation that you would begin to have," she said. "It's something that animals get to a certain point in their lives and they become food. And that's just how it's been for years, you know, decades."
The oxen have already been replaced by a new team, and it would be costly for the school to keep the retired animals. Plus, Lou is in pain and being given medication, officials said.
But activists say that the decision doesn't take into account what the animals want.
"An environmental ethic must consider our world's flora and fauna as inherently valuable, rather than as simply a means to human ends," wrote Bruce G. Friedrich, senior director for strategy for the advocacy group Farm Sanctuary, to the college president last month.
"These are two animals who have served your college well for a decade, and for whom death and consumption would be a tragic betrayal," he wrote.
Lunetta sees the controversy as a learning experience that has sparked discussions about reducing the amount of meat consumed on campus.
"Nobody wants to see Bill and Lou die," Lunetta said. "Everyone loves Bill and Lou.
"It's not like we're condemning them. ... They've reached this time in their lives. Many farmers have to; they raise an animal, they name it and they love it, and then you slaughter it."

subset: commoncrawl


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| 6.7°C Belfast
The Duchess of Cambridge "wears too much eyeliner", according to former Made in Chelsea star Millie Mackintosh.
The reality TV star, who also appeared in Celebrity MasterChef, said she would love to give Kate a makeover.
Speaking to the Mail on Sunday's You magazine, she said her re-styling would look "less middle-aged".
Mackintosh, who is launching a clothing line and is married to musician Professor Green, said: "As a trained make-up artist and a fashion designer I would love to give the Duchess of Cambridge a makeover. I think Kate wears too much eyeliner.
"She would look great if she toned down the eyes, wore some bright lipstick and mixed up her hairstyle - a scraped-back high pony would look fantastic.
"She'd look great in one of my little wrap dresses as she has such a gorgeous body and I think it would look fun - less middle-aged - and a bit sexier without being too revealing."
Mackintosh, who has drawn criticism for her slender frame, also said "women should support each other more and be less judgmental".
She told the magazine: "There is so much criticism about women's body shape and looks and most of it comes from women themselves.
"Some women are just waiting to hate other women because of their appearance. It is so negative.
"If we bad-mouth each other it allows, and maybe even encourages, men to do it too."


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AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 5, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Luminex Corporation (NASDAQ: LMNX) today announced that management will present at the 2015 Wedbush PacGrow Healthcare Conference to be held August 11 - 12, 2015, in New York City, NY.
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ABOUT LUMINEX CORPORATION Luminex is committed to applying its passion for innovation toward advancing healthcare and research worldwide. The Company is transforming global healthcare and life-science research through the development, manufacturing and marketing of proprietary instruments and assays utilizing xMAP® open-architecture, multi-analyte platform and MultiCode® real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and multiplex PCR-based technologies, that deliver cost-effective and rapid results to clinicians and researchers. Luminex's technology is commercially available worldwide and in use in leading clinical laboratories as well as major pharmaceutical, diagnostic, biotechnology and life-science companies. The Company is meeting the needs of customers in markets as diverse as clinical diagnostics, pharmaceutical drug discovery, biomedical research including genomic and proteomic research, personalized medicine, bio-defense research and food safety. For further information on Luminex Corporation and the latest advances in multiplexing using award winning technology, please visit http://www.luminexcorp.com.Contacts:
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|SOURCE Luminex Corporation
Copyright©2015 PR Newswire.
All rights reserved


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Go Ratner!
This could be a big honkin' residential building.
Hopefully with some design flare.
NY Post...
By STEVE CUOZZO
December 2, 2003 -- NEW York Times headquarters developer Bruce Ratner is poised to snatch up one of Manhattan's prime building sites.
His Brooklyn-based Forest City Ratner just beat out a brace of bidders for NYU Downtown Hospital's coveted parking lot - where a huge tower can be built without zoning changes.
The lot, across from Pace University and City Hall Park, can accommodate a tower of up to 818,000 square feet.
It's an opportunity in a thriving downtown residential market for a building with stupendous harbor and skyline views, but the project would likely combine apartments with what sources called "institutional" uses.
Terms of the prospective sale were not available but said to be "well north" of $100 per square foot - what one insider termed "a very, very good deal" for the hospital. Another source pegged the price at around $100 million.
Ratner has not yet bought the property. Sources said his selection by the hospital kicks off an exclusive negotiating period of "longer than one month but less than two," which, if successful, will lead to a sale contract.
Issues to be resolved include certain amenities Ratner would provide for NYU Downtown, including a new ambulatory care unit. The hospital may also have a say in the new building's design because "it's right at their doorstep," a source noted.
Although the deal is far from done, a source said that Ratner "had to put up an irrecoverable, not insubstantial down payment - this is not a fishing expedition for him."
The Post's Lois Weiss first reported last July that NYU Downtown was taking offers on the lot, bounded by the hospital on the east end and by Beekman, Spruce, and William streets.
The hospital was represented by a Cushman & Wakefield team of Scott Latham, John Caplan and Richard Kennedy. Calls to the brokers were not immediately returned.
One disappointed runner-up in the auction was Pace University and its development partner, the Brodsky Organization, whose head, Daniel Brodsky, could not immediately be reached. Newmark & Co. CEO Barry Gosin, who is also a Pace trustee and was involved in the bidding process, declined to comment.
The parking lot site has been in play for a long time. National developer Avalon Bay had an option before 9/11, but it was never exercised.
More recently, the Albanese Development Corp., Jules Demchick, Rose Associates and Rockrose are known to have taken a good look, although it was unclear which firms made it into the final round of bidding.
More than 2,000 apartments are already under construction in six new or converted buildings downtown, and 4,000 more new units are in the pipeline.
Much-in-the-news Ratner is trying to lure the New Jersey Nets to a new arena he hopes to build as part of major complex near Brooklyn's Atlantic Terminal. He's also trying to coax Liberty Bond financing from the state and city to bankroll his upper portion of the planned Times tower, which has yet to sign a tenant.
NYU Downtown Hospital played a crucial role in treating those injured on Sept. 11, 2001. Last week it announced plans to double the size of its emergency room by building a new two-story structure inside its courtyard.
Calls to hospital CEO Dr. Bruce Logan and to reps for Ratner were not returned.
Downtown guy.
Last edited by BrooklynRider; November 3rd, 2007 at 07:31 PM. Reason: added building address for easy search
Go Ratner!
This could be a big honkin' residential building.
Hopefully with some design flare.
Well, he is trying to build the NYT Tower - a true gem.
Not sure what "institutial" use means - maybe Pace, NYU hospital? 6000 apts in the pipeline/being built is amazing.
NYU will build a research lab and have some classroom space and condo's on top. The forget tomention that the new apartments are mainly luxury condo's that most people cant touch
They didn't forget, that's just always understood of new construction in NYC now. :evil:Originally Posted by kliq6
Originally Posted by kliq6
You were expecting different?
Isn't TWT around 800,000 square feet?
What are the dimensions of the lot?
I don't know how big that lot is, but judging from a map I have, it can't be that big...
This map shows a rather large parking lot (left of the hospital). Is that the lot?
Good for Ratner. Now if we can only get him to stop trying to siphon away downtown 9/11 bonds for use in already-crowded midtown.
Yes, that's the lot. I have a fairly accurate map program, and the lot dimensions are about 250' x 500'. I think the building on Nassau St is being converted to residential.
That's a big lot...
Tall, Modern, and Attention-Grabbing.
I can only hope.
Predictions on Height Anyone?


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Joint first prize! Exposure won £100 for the Group.
The other winning anthologies were: Pot Hooks for Ladles from the Salford-based Words in Edgeways, Along the Lines from Ross-Shire Writers Group, and And Having Writ... from the Carmarthenshire-based ScribesRus.
The overall winner was Along the Lines, which received the trophy, but joint first prize is the official designation. We're delighted with the result, and our thanks go to all who participated in the creation of Exposure.
Background for those interested: David St John Thomas was one of the co-founders of the Devon-based publisher David & Charles, since 2000 an imprint of F+W Publications. The Trust, founded to foster good writing, was established with the proceeds of the sale.


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Why, what a nice ad this is for Palm's webOS! Let's see, you've got the clearly communicated feature set, the driving soundtrack and no creepy lady heads talking at you. If only it'd been made by Palm.
Instead, it was produced by Heiko Thies as a submission for the palmSpot video contest over at webOSroundup. It highlights all of webOS's many strengths much better than Palm's own creeptastic Pre ads ever did:
The contest is running through to April 16; hopefully the Palm marketing team will pay close attention to the winners. [YouTube via Wired]


text:
Free Audio Tools
Below is a collection of free audio teachings. They may be shared and distributed freely.These teachings come from our "Godly Living" series of studies. The key scripture for these teachings is found in Hebrews 12:1. "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us".
General Teachings
Free Audio Tools - Select a CategorySee All Prayer Series Godly Living Series Grazing Galatians Series Study of 1 John Series Study of James Series General Teachings
About the Godly Living Series of TeachingsDuring this wonderful journey we find ourselves on as we seek to follow the Lord Jesus Christ there are times of joy - and times of sorrow. Sometimes we're on a mountain top, and sometimes we're walking through the valley of the shadow of death. However, the one constant that runs through it all is the faithfulness of God. We soon find that this race that's set before us isn't a sprint, but rather a long distance relay race. We are required not only to run with endurance, and finish strong personally, but we are to pass on the baton to the next generation.
How do we handle the multitude of situations and circumstances we are going to face on this race? How can we not only endure, but equip the next generation to run their leg of the race successfully? How do we fulfill the scriptural command to overcome evil with good?
It's in the spirit of humility that we present these teachings, seeking to play a part in the equipping of the saints for the work of their ministries.
"Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen." Hebrews 13:20-21


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Many Happy Returns. Thousands of unhappy satellite TV customers around the country will get refunds in the New Year, courtesy of DIRECTV, the nation's largest satellite TV service.
DIRECTV also promises to change the way it does business. It took a lot of prodding for this to happen: A DIRECTV lawsuit filed by Washington State and a multi-state investigation led by the Attorney General in Tennessee.
Two weeks ago, DIRECTV settled allegations (made by all 50 states and the District of Columbia) that since 2007 it used "deceptive and unfair" marketing practices.
"At a time when people are trying to cut back on expenses, it is important that businesses clearly explain the terms of their service contracts," said Tennessee Attorney General Robert Cooper in a statement.
DIRECTV holds the dubious honor of having more consumer complaints (about 2,000) filed with the Washington State Attorney General's office than any other company between 2006 and 2010. In its lawsuit, the state accused DIRECTV of "unconscionable" sales practices.
"We believe that acting in ways that we found to be unfair and deceptive was part of their business model," Washington AG Rob McKenna tells me.
His lawsuit claimed pricing information "was not adequately disclosed" in the company's ads or by its telephone sales representatives.
For example, DIRECTV would advertise a monthly price of just $29.99, but didn't always make it clear that this low price was based on a rebate. Also, while the deal required a 2-year contract, the promotional price was good for only 12 months, something else that was often hidden in the fine print.
"We had people complaining that they'd get bills for $50, $60 or $70 when they thought they were only going to be charged $29.99," says Paula Selis, Washington State's senior assistant attorney general, who handled the case. "And the company was pretty unwilling to work with people to straighten that out."
Major allegations
Here are some of the major allegations of unlawful behavior listed in court papers.
- DIRECTV did not clearly disclose the true cost of the service and that the initial contract was for two years.
- It did not make it clear that a sizeable early termination fee would be charged if the service was canceled before the two-year period ended.
- It extended customers' contracts without authorization when defective equipment was replaced. Misrepresented the availability of sports programming and did not clearly disclose that seasonal sports packages would automatically renew unless canceled.
- It advertised "free" HD or DVR equipment, but charged $6 to $8 a month for this "upgraded" service.
New way of doing business
DIRECTV has promised the courts it will change its business practices – institute new procedures and stop some previous practices – to ensure potential customers are well-informed about the terms of service and any promotional price or offer.
In an email to msnbc.com, company spokesman Darris Gringeri downplayed the significance of these settlements.
"The fact is, we were implementing the majority of these improvements long before the AGs even brought this to our attention," he writes. "When our customers let us know there are issues, we decide on our own to fix them, we don't wait for the AGs to come to us. So while some AGs are grandstanding, we'd rather focus on the customer and move forward with giving them the best service possible."
While DIRECTV did not admit any wrongdoing, under the settlements it is legally bound to do a number of things. From now on, material terms such as the cost of service, contract length and cancelation penalties must be clearly disclosed next to the price in every advertisement
DIRECTV's ads are also required to clearly disclose whether a rebate is required to get the promotional price. If the first bill does not reflect the price agreed at the time of sale, DIRECTV must adjust the price or cancel the contract, if requested, without any penalty. If the price difference is because the customer did not properly apply for the rebate, DIRECTV must help with that.
But the agreement covers much more than advertising. From now on DIRECTV:
- Will not charge a cancelation fee if a customer ends services because of a recurring problem that cannot be fixed.
- Cannot require a customer to enter into a new or extended contract when simply repairing or replacing defective equipment. A customer must knowingly agree to any contracts extension.
- Will disclose any limitations to the availability of sports programming or local channels.
- Give customers 30 days notice before any seasonal sports package is automatically renewed.
Ad-itude adjustment
DIRECT TV says it is already adjusting its ads to give more prominent placement to specific details on offers. This includes placing phrases in direct proximity to the offer such as "after rebate," "with 24 month agreement" and "fees apply" when applicable.
Millions could be refunded to unhappy customers
The settlement is good news for Jessica Twardzik of Seattle, who filed a complaint with the Washington State Attorney General's office. She tells me she switched from cable to DIRECTV because their advertised prices were better.
But after the satellite dish was installed, the signal kept going out and the repair people who came to her house could not fix the problem. After six weeks of intermittent TV service, she called the company to cancel. Twardzik says she was never told she had agreed to a two-year contract and that she would be hit with a whopping cancelation fee of $458. She refused to pay and was sent to collection.
"It was the worst customer service I ever received in my life," Twardzik says, "and I've worked in customer service my whole life."
DIRECTV has agreed to resolve complaints already filed about problems that took place after January 1, 2007. Unhappy customers are eligible for a refund or other relief. Those who have not formally complained have until June 9, 2011 to do so with their state attorney general or consumer protection office. For Washington state residents the deadline is May 31, 2011. If the company cannot resolve the complaint, the consumer can take their case to a claims administrator who will issue a decision.


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Firewood Logs in Needham Market
Here at Firewood Logs we supply traditional split dried Swedish hardwood to residential and commercial customers in Needham Market daily. This type of hardwood provides a carbon neutral heating source from sustainable forest resources.
Our hard wood logs for sale in Needham Market are produced principally from birch which is the traditional wood burning fuel in Sweden. Birch provides excellent wood burning qualities and dry logs are essential to provide heat, which also helps the environment.
Logs are delivered in a safe and convenient way to your premises in Needham Market in builder's bulk bags. Each bag contains approx 220 pieces and each piece is approx 24 to 28 cm with an average diameter of 12 cm approximately.
Other services we provide in Needham Market are;
- Agricultural Fencing
- Carcassing
- Construction Timber & Roofing Batons
- Oak & Softwood Sleepers
- Onsite Wood Treatments Available
- Suppliers of Featheredged & Wavey Edged Slats
- Timber Importers
- Wooden 8 Seater Picnic Tables Available
Here at Firewood Logs we offer free prompt delivery in Needham Market. See below for our latest pricing. Delivery remains the same regardless of load size – so why not buy in bulk and save yourself money!
Delivery remains the same regardless of load size – so why not buy in bulk and save yourself money!
Standard Load (1 Bulk Bag)
Double Load (2 Bulk Bags)
Triple Load (3 Bulk Bags)
Quad Load (4 Bulk Bags)
Notice of price increase
All orders taking after the 1st of January 2013 there will be an increase of £5 per bag.
Contact Us Today
We look forward to assisting you with your enquiries about Firewood Logs in Needham Market. Please call us today on: 01473 680 021 to find out more.


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Free Mobile Online Games
From Paris with Love
Cute dressing game! Dress your french girl as your wishes and share it with your friends! Choose from hundrets of different dresses, glasses, shoes and more and let your fantasy come true!
New Games, TOP Games, Games for Girls
Asteroid Blast
The apocalypse has begun! Defend the earth from falling asteroids with your phaser guns! Don't let them hit the planet or you will be lost!
Action Games, New Games, Skill


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In the Middle of the Night, Weiner Announces His Bid for...
Anthony Weiner, the congressman who was forced to resign in 2011 after his sexually explicit activity online surfaced, put the swirling rumors and speculation to rest as he announced his candidacy for mayor of New York City in a video that was released early Wednesday morning.
The video begins with Weiner at home with his wife, Huma Abedin, and his infant son, Jordan. The theme of family runs through the video as he talks about his childhood in Brooklyn and then transitions to his parents. His mother was a public school teacher for over 30 years and his father went to law school on the G.I. Bill and then became a practicing lawyer.
"Their's is the classic New York story: You work hard, you make it into the middle class and you make life a little bit better for your kids," Weiner says. "That's how this city was built, but it's getting harder and harder everyday."
He then transitions to discuss the importance of focusing on affordability, education and public safety. While the video mostly centers on his accomplishments in Congress and his determination to help New Yorkers, Weiner did make mention of his past.
"Look, I made some big mistakes, and I know I let a lot of people down," he said in the video. "But I've also learned some tough lessons. I'm running for mayor because I've been fighting for the middle class and those struggling to make it my entire life, and I hope I get a second chance to work for you."
Weiner is currently the second leading Democratic candidate for mayor with 15 percent of the vote (behind only Christine Quinn who has 25 percent), according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday.
The campaign video, which was published very early Wednesday morning, was "apparently posted prematurely," according to The New York Times.


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$4 billion BP oil spill criminal settlement approved
Updated 7:00 PM ET
NEW ORLEANS A federal judge on Tuesday approved an agreement for BP PLC to plead guilty to manslaughter and other charges and pay a record $4 billion in criminal penalties for the company's role in the 2010 oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
U.S. District Judge Sarah Vance also heard testimony from relatives of 11 workers who died when BP's blown-out Macondo well triggered an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and started the spill.
BP agreed in November to plead guilty to charges involving the workers' deaths and for lying to Congress about the size of the spill from its broken well, which spewed more than 200 million gallons of oil. Much of it ended up in the Gulf and soiled the shorelines of several states. The company could have withdrawn from the agreement if Vance had rejected it.
Neither the Justice Department nor BP presented arguments to the judge before her decision in New Orleans.
The deal doesn't resolve the federal government's civil claims against BP. The company could pay billions more in penalties for environmental damage.
BP separately agreed to a settlement with lawyers for Gulf Coast residents and businesses who claim the spill cost them money. BP estimates the deal with private attorneys will cost the company roughly $7.8 billion.
For the criminal settlement, BP agreed to pay nearly $1.3 billion in fines. The largest previous corporate criminal penalty assessed by the Justice Department was a $1.2 billion fine against drug maker Pfizer in 2009.
The criminal settlement also includes payments of nearly $2.4 billion to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and $350 million to the National Academy of Sciences.
- Study: "Dirty bathtub" buried oil from BP spill
- Transocean admits criminal conduct before oil spill
- Judge approves settlement in BP class action suit
- Critics blast "miniscule" BP settlement
In a court filing before the hearing, attorneys for BP and the Justice Department argued that the plea agreement imposes "severe corporate punishment" and will deter BP and other deep-water drilling companies from allowing another disaster to occur.
The Justice Department has reached a separate settlement with rig owner Transocean Ltd. that resolves the government's civil and criminal claims over the Swiss-based company's role in the disaster.
Transocean agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of violating the Clean Water Act and pay $1.4 billion in civil and criminal penalties. U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo has scheduled a Feb. 14 hearing to decide whether to accept that criminal settlement. A different judge will decide whether to accept Transocean's civil settlement.
CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann spoke with widowed Shelley Anderson. She appeared in court Tuesday to speak on behalf herself, her daughter Lacy and son River -- now seven and four respectively -- because her husband, Jason, was killed in the explosion while working as a rig supervisor.
"When I told my son, River, that I had to be here and I had to go and do this for daddy, he got very excited," Anderson told Strassmann outside the court. "His face lit up; 'I want to go see Daddy, too. I want to go see my daddy.' And I had to explain to him that I was coming here to do something for Daddy, but that daddy wasn't going to actually be here and that we would never, ever see him again."
Many relatives of rig workers who died in the blast submitted written statements that were critical of BP's deal. Twenty-eight-year-old Gordon Jones' family members said BP's sentence should include a personal, face-to-face apology to his widow and children by BP executives. A brother of Jones also had urged Vance to consider stiffer penalties that prohibit or limit the company's ability to operate in U.S. waters.
Vance, however, said she couldn't get involved in plea negotiations and only could impose a sentence that adheres to the agreed-upon terms if she accepted it.
Also killed were Jason Anderson, 35, of Midfield, Texas; Aaron Dale "Bubba" Burkeen, 37, of Philadelphia, Miss.; Donald Clark, 49, of Newellton, La.; Stephen Ray Curtis, 40, of Georgetown, La.; Roy Wyatt Kemp, 27, Jonesville, La.; Karl Kleppinger Jr., 38, of Natchez, Miss.; Keith Blair Manuel, 56, of Gonzales, La.; Dewey A. Revette, 48, of State Line, Miss.; Shane M. Roshto, 22, of Liberty, Miss.; and Adam Weise, 24, Yorktown, Texas.
While in general the penalty is being touted as a record amount, environmental advocates and many others felt it does little to dissuade companies such as BP from taking outsized risks to land outsized profits.
"This is a miniscule settlement, " said Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen's energy program. "It's a cost of doing business. If this were an individual, the keys would be thrown away. But we give enormous leniency to corporate defendants."
Slocum cited another unhappy result of the settlement: The government went to huge expense gathering evidence in the course of preparing its criminal case, and typically in a result such as this one that information is sealed from the public.
He thinks that in such cases there should be criminal penalties for high-level executives, not just mid-level managers, an argument like the one made about top level bank executives who caused the financial crisis. And, he said, such companies should be barred from getting government oil leases for at least five years.
"There need to be real sanctions," he said.
Four current or former BP employees have been indicted on separate criminal charges. BP rig supervisors Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine are charged with manslaughter, accused of repeatedly disregarding abnormal high-pressure readings that should have been glaring indications of trouble just before the blowout.
David Rainey, BP's former vice president of exploration for the Gulf of Mexico, was charged with withholding information from Congress about the amount of oil that was gushing from the well.
Former BP engineer Kurt Mix was charged with deleting text messages about the company's spill response.
A series of government investigations have blamed the April 20, 2010, blowout on time-saving, cost-cutting decisions by BP and its partners on the drilling project.
The oil spill itself was the largest U.S. history. Nearly three years after oil began gushing from the sea floor of the Gulf of Mexico, a large percent of the crude remains unaccounted for. New research suggests that as much as one-third of the oil released is still in the Gulf and is mixed with deep ocean sediments through a phenomenon known as the "dirty bathtub."


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Mundo Maya
Official Web Site
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It is characterized by a pattern where the lower parts of the hills are used for building great plazas, and the natural walls of these plazas are encased in architectural barriers that form terraces. Inside, temples, palaces and altars were built. Stonewalls are usually decorated with stuccowork and polychrome. The terrace system and the bases are inclined ledges. The height of this period was between 400 and 900 AD.
Different from the Bec River style, in the Chenes style the towers are functional. The facades are also decorated with figureheads and occasionally there are exempt towers that are used as solar markers. The style is very similar to Bec River and Puuc, since all three were developed during the same period.
Its zenith was during the late Pre-Classic period, although in some areas it remained until de Classic period. Pyramidal bases at ground level, with very inclined slopes, characterize it. During the Classical period the bases began to be encased in stone. The sites in this style usually present complex hydraulic systems and roads and plazas also covered with stones.
This was the architectural style developed in the cities and settlements on the Eastern coast of the Yucatan peninsula during the Post-Classic period. It is characterized by flat roofs and small lintels tucked into the temples, with porches or main entrances supported by columns. Another characteristic is the presence of altars and small sanctuaries.
This style corresponds to the style developed in the Northern region of the Yucatan Peninsula in the Post-Classic period (1000 – 1450 AD) and inclined bases with extracted moldings characterize it. The staircases present fringes of stone with serpent heads. The palaces had rooms with flat roofs sustained by a plethora of columns. Speaking of columns, the ones used for porches were presented in the form of serpents, with the head at the base and the rattle on the capital. Occasionally, the columns on the porches were "atlantes" or human figure statues sustaining the roof.
This architectural style is defined by the use of slopes in "apron" form that rest upon a short incline. The corners of the bases or plinths are rounded, tucked-in or inverted, which gives the floor the form of a star. These bases are crowned with temples with thick openings and heavy crests. Likewise, the staircases, commonly without ridges, are monolithic and they are flanked by stucco figureheads that are either anthropomorphic or zoomorphic. It is a style characteristic of the sites of the late Pre-Classic period (300 BC – 250 AD) and the early Classic period (250 – 600 AD).
The Puuc style is characterized by the use of buildings with many stories and rooms, with facades decorated with columns and pilasters finished off with capitals. The supporting walls are decorated with friezes made of well carved stone, arranged in geometrical forms, like figureheads of the god Chaac, that also decorate the corners of the temples.
This style was developed during the late Classic period (550 – 1050 AD.) as a modification of the Peten style. It is characterized by the use of decorative towers with unfeasible staircases that lead to simulated temples. The facades are decorated with checkered boards and with figurehead representations on the arcades.
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Dell ranges:
If you are disappointed by the battery life you are getting out of your Dell laptop battery , then the Laptop Power UK team will be able to help. We stock a comprehensive range of OEM original cell replacement laptop batteries including
Dell Inspiron battery replacements.
Dell have released some of the most popular mainstream laptops of the most recent years for which replacement Dell laptop batteries are in strong demand. Dell classes the laptop battery as a consumable product, so it is often only covered with a six month warranty. As a result, two of the most popular laptop batteries we sell are
the Dell Inspiron 1545 battery and the Dell Inspiron 1525 battery replacement.
Laptop Power UK only sells batteries with original cells inside them. We understand that having a great laptop with a poor battery life can be a highly frustrating and limits your ability to use your asset effectively. Purchasing a premium quality Dell Laptop
Battery replacement can be a really economic and cost effective solution to prolonging the useful economic life of your machine.
We are experts when it comes to delivering quality power solutions for laptops, netbooks and notebooks. For customers who are uncompromising when it comes to product quality, but insist on long-term value and price competitiveness, Laptop Power UK are the first choice for the UK consumer.
All trademarks shown above are solely for identification purposes. All trademarks are acknowledged.
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This Maxum 3700SCR has been owned by the same family for many years. It is a BIG 37' measuring almost 40' overall. The boat is mechanically sound with engine services and bottom paint July 2020. Several recent updates include:
The current owners are retiring from boating and this boat needs to go. Slip in desirable Three Mile Harbor is paid for the remainder of 2020 season. Bring all offers!
KYLE BOOTH @ 845-519-7756 OR EMAIL firstname.lastname@example.com
VESSEL IS LOCATED IN: East Hampton, NY
Engine hours are as of the date of the original listing and are a representation of what the listing broker is told by the owner and/or actual reading of the engine hour meters. The broker cannot guarantee the true hours. It is the responsibility of the purchaser and/or his agent to verify engine hours, warranties implied or otherwise and major overhauls as well as all other representations noted on the listing brochure.
The Company offers the details of this vessel in good faith but cannot guarantee or warrant the accuracy of this information nor warrant the condition of the vessel. A buyer should instruct his agents, or his surveyors, to investigate such details as the buyer desires validated. This vessel is offered subject to prior sale, price change, or withdrawal without notice.
110 SW Atlanta Avenue
Stuart, FL 34994
United States


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RAISING TALENTS: Faced with a dearth of qualified craftsmen, French purveyors of high-end goods are renewing their partnership with Paris education officials to inform young people about career prospects in the luxury industry.
Michel Bernardaud, president of French luxury trade association Comité Colbert, will ink the new agreement with François Weil, chancellor of the Universities of Paris, in a ceremony at the Arts Décoratifs on Jan. 31.
To mark the occasion, 20 school classes will receive a tour of the "Van Cleef & Arpels — The Art of Fine Jewelry" exhibition, on show at the museum until Feb. 10. A craftsman from the Place Vendôme jeweler and students of the Ecole Boulle applied arts school will be on hand to provide information about training to be a jeweler.
Since the luxury industry and the academic institution joined forces in 2007, some 1,000 students have visited luxury workshops or heard industry representatives in the classroom, Comité Colbert said.


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A leading market research firm Facts & Factors (FnF) added a research report on "Data Center Colocation Market Size Research 2019: Industry Trends, Share, Market Growth Analysis and Forecast to 2027" to its research database. This Data Center Colocation Market report analyzes the comprehensive overview of the market comprising an executive summary that covers core trends evolving in the market.
The global Data Center Colocation market report is a systematic study of the Data Center Colocation market introducing the advanced state of affairs in the market as well as schemes that aid in its enlargement in the coming years. The report evaluates several factors determining market expansion as well as the volume of the whole Data Center Colocation industry. The report states the aggressive vendor scenery of the market together with the profiles of some of the leading market players. The most important players in the Data Center Colocation market are also discussed in the report.
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The report covers the product contributions, revenue generated, segmentation, and business summarization of the foremost players. The report provides data taking into consideration the latest improvements in the global Data Center Colocation market size while estimating the contribution in the market of the most important players in the near future. The report estimates the limitation and power of the leading players via SWOT analysis and assesses their growth in the market. Additionally, the key product categories and segments, as well as the sub-segments of the global market, are clarified in the report.
The market assessment is also estimated throughout the research as well as concludes the data using Porter's five analysis on the market enlargement. The study evaluates the global share of Data Center Colocation market in terms of quantity [k MT] and revenue [USD Million]. Further, the report also scrutinizes the Data Center Colocation market based on the manufactured goods categories and customer segments as well as the development of each segment is calculated over the predicted time.
The report hands in-depth segmentation of the worldwide market based on supported technology, product type, application, and numerous processes and systems. The report attains economical competitive analysis, business trends within the market, and an alternative key characteristic of the worldwide Data Center Colocation market. Our experts have genuinely concatenated the Data Center Colocation industry report by alluding the lists and figures, primary sources, with an intention to boost the understanding of the associated procedural terms and conditions.
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Major Company Profiles Covered in This Report:
Atlantech Online, Coreix Limited, Digital Realty Trust, Equinix, First Colo, H5 DATA CENTERS, Interoute Communications, Linxdatacenter, NextraOne, NTT Corporation, North Shore, RACKSPACE US, Sentinel Data Centers, Viettel, Red Level Networks, IBSCY Ltd., Sabey Data Center Properties, CYRUSONE, CE Colo, and ANEXIO
The major region covered in this report:
- North America
- Europe
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The Middle East and Africa
Some of the major objectives of this report:
1) To provide a detailed analysis of the market structure along with the forecast of the various segments and sub-segments of the global Data Center Colocation Market.
2. To provide insights about factors affecting market growth. To analyze the Data Center Colocation Market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porter five force analysis, etc.
3. To provide historically and forecast revenue of the Data Center Colocation Market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, Asia, and the Rest of the World.
4. Country-level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective.
5. To provide country-level analysis of the market for segment by application, product type, and sub-segments.
6. To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market.
7. Track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the global Data Center Colocation Market.
For Urgent Enquiry, Mail Us At email@example.com
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Facts & Factors is a leading market research company and offers customized research reports and consulting services. Facts & Factors aims at management consulting, industry chain research, and advanced research to assist our clients by providing planned revenue model for their business. Our report and services are used by prestigious academic institutions, start-ups, and companies globally to understand the international and regional business background. Our wide-ranging database offers statistics and detailed analysis of different industries worldwide that help the clients in achieving sustainable progress. The well-organized reports help clients in developing strategies and making informed business decisions.
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Web: www.fnfresearch.com


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Our line of leather 5-ring straps are a tough looking and comfortable way to complete your watch. The leather is a hefty 2mm thick (4mm at the doubled-section underneath the watch). These straps feature the large hardware from our HD NATO straps, but with the 5-ring "double layer" NATO type construction. They are perfect for modern sports watches.
This strap features a rough brown leather, and brushed stainless steel hardware. This leather has a rough/rocky surface texture, with a nice medium brown tone.
If you prefer the single layered 3-ring style, it is easy to trim the second layer off these straps. They can also be shortened to length. Click here to watch the informative video on trimming and installing these straps.
Please note: the thickness of these straps may not fit watches with tight lug clearance.
Status: Discontinued
Privacy / Terms / Legal
Crown and Buckle LLC
of International Watchman, Inc.


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Completing the following survey will put you in touch with your Personal Wellness Coach. Your coach will then contact you to answer your questions, discuss your wellness goals and arrange a detailed personal consultation and recommendations.
We pride ourselves on providing a personal and efficient service. The more information you provide us with the quicker and more effectively we can deal with your request.
We look forward to working with you to achieve your health and wellness goals.
Please ensure that you complete the mandatory fields, marked with " * "
Which of the following statements applies to you?
"Thanks to the Herbalife Weight Management Programme I have lost over 70 pounds* of body fat, my waist had reduced from 43 inches to 34 inches this was an amazing result, I felt energised and re-discovered interest in life and in myself that had been absent for a long time."
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*All weight loss claims refer to the Herbalife Weight Management Programme which includes, amongst other things, a balanced diet, regular exercise, an adequate daily fluid intake and appropriate rest. The Herbalife products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
These materials were prepared by and are the responsibility of independent Herbalife distributors:
Buy Herbalife Online: Buy Herbalife Online - Weight Loss
Independent Herbalife Distributor: Customer Services, , , , , firstname.lastname@example.com


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The Annual Giving and Alumni Engagement offices are located on the third floor of the William C. Ferguson Student, Technology, and Administrative Services Building.
The Office of Alumni Engagement welcomes your comments! Please use the form below to submit your comments or questions.
Mailing Address:
Office of Annual Giving and Alumni Engagement
Albion College
611 E. Porter St.
Albion, MI 49224
Phone: 517/629-0448


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Message In A Bottle
I saw a cool video in which a guy used Photoshop to put a scene inside of a bottle that was floating in water. I know how to use Photoshop, though not as skillfully as that guy. I decided that I would try it with my Ipad apps.
I searched for an appropriate photo of a bottle in water. Here is one that I found in a random search.
Then I searched for a scene that would go inside. I thought a lighthouse would be apropos. Sorry, I don't remember the site where I found it. Then I merged the two using my Procreate app, layering one on top of the other, erasing the parts I didn't want, and painting in details. Not quite as slick as his, but I thought it turned out pretty well.
No picture of mine escapes having filters and textures added. I tried several iterations using my DistressedFX app. These are a couple of the 10 or so that I saved.
This kind of reminds me of a storybook illustration. Hmmm…if I fancied myself a writer I might try to come up with a story. A tiny world captured in a bottle…


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Flagship Journals
Resources For
Usage Policy
Due to limited resources, request for classroom use and faculty/staff equipment loans have first priority. For planning purposes, all requests should be made at least one week in advance. Multiple media needs for any major event should be made two or more weeks in advance. And there must be a commitment to take full responsibility for the safe operation, storage, and security of equipment belonging to Media Services.
Student organizations requesting multi-media equipment for a program or event must follow the guidelines listed in our Media Services Policy for Multi-media Equipment Request by Student Organizations. The guidelines includes having an advisor, faculty, or staff member contact Media Services to verify that a student or organization is using equipment for an event before a request is met. A copy of the policies is given to the Office of Campus Involvement to distribute to the clubs and organizations on campus.
Multi-media equipment is provided if available
- LCD projector
- Laptop Computer
- Presentation remote control (for PowerPoint presentations)
- DVD/VHS combination or separate players
- Tripod Screens & AV Carts
- Digital and VHS Camcorders & Tripod
- TV Monitors
Sound equipment that Media Services can provide for Campus Events:
- Portable PA System (Mixer/Amplifier with up to 2 speakers)
- can use up to 5 microphones
- contains CD player and inputs for additional media
- can use for small tent or outdoor setups
- Compact Portable Sound System
- can use 1 microphone for each system (up to 4 microphones with mixer)
- contains CD player and inputs for additional media
- Portable Lectern (Gray) w/ Microphone
- 1 - 4 microphones and Microphone Stands(standing & table) for each event
- our microphones are used primarily for speaking.
- Wireless Hand-Held Microphone(s), Wireless Lavalier Microphone(s)
- wireless microphone use depends on time and location of event
- Small 4-input Mixer
- Mobile sound equipment (Amplifier, Mixer, 2 Speakers)
- currently used in Kennedy Center
Media Services does not have the equipment, staff, or other capabilities necessary for music concerts. Some sound request can be met through the campus organization KCPB's(Kennedy Center Performance Board) Hi-Tech department.
Any department requesting equipment for an event must take full responsibility for any equipment that is left on-site overnight.
Research Toolkit


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Users sometimes enter sensitive information such as credit card numbers in tickets when they shouldn't. In addition to being visible to anybody with access to the ticket, the credit card number automatically gets stored in a database with the rest of the ticket.
If you're on the Professional or Enterprise plan, you can use a feature called Automatic Redaction to redact, or remove, digits from credit card numbers found in ticket comments or custom fields so that the numbers are no longer useful. The data is redacted when the ticket is incoming, and on future comments and internal notes, to prevent the full credit card number from being stored with Zendesk. This helps keep confidential information out of Zendesk.
Credit card numbers are identified in incoming tickets and comments/internal notes by using the Luhn algorithm and by looking for the prefixes and lengths of common credit card types. The checks don't guarantee that all credit card numbers will be identified. They also don't guarantee that some numbers that aren't credit card numbers will be skipped. The system does check for phone number and URL patterns and skips them. For example, some international phone numbers may pass the Luhn check -- though if the numbers start with a +, they won't be redacted.
Numbers that appear to be valid credit card numbers are redacted by replacing some digits with a replacement character, leaving the first 6 digits and the last 4 digits intact. Example:
- String in incoming ticket: "I want a refund. My card number is 12 345123 451234 8."
- String stored in Zendesk: "I want a refund. My card number is 12345 1▇▇▇▇ ▇2348."
In this example, the string of numbers shown above would not be redacted. To be redacted, the number you use must be in a valid credit card format.
Numbers are redacted if they're between 12 and 19 digits long. Most bank card numbers are within this range.
The original credit card number isn't simply masked in the UI but completely redacted from logs and database entries. It's kept in memory only long enough to check it. The only exceptions to this are MIME-encoded emails and custom ticket fields in suspended tickets, but these two exceptions will be removed in the near future.
A tag is automatically added to tickets with redacted credit card numbers. You can create a view to see all tickets with this tag in one place.
To start redacting credit card numbers
- In Zendesk Support, click the Admin icon () in the sidebar, then select Settings > Security.
- On the Zendesk Support tab, select the Enabled checkbox in the Automatic Redaction section.
- Save your changes.
To list the tickets with redacted credit card numbers
- Create a view of tickets that contain the tag '"system_credit_card_redaction."
For information about creating views, see Adding views.


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Fed should try to break boom-bust cycle, says ex-RBNZ chair
By David Milliken
LONDON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve should try to stop a damaging cycle of booms and busts by breaking investors' expectations that it will mop up after future asset price bubbles, one of the pioneers of inflation-targeting said.
Arthur Grimes, who developed inflation-targeting at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand in the late 1980s, said the Fed had inadvertently made bubbles more likely by promising to help the economy after they burst.
"The largest economy in the world is leading policies that lead to asset booms. It makes it incredibly difficult for other central banks to have a credible policy," he told Reuters in his first interview with international media since stepping down last month after 10 years as the RBNZ's chairman.
New Zealand was the first country to adopt an inflation target as its main central bank policy goal, and in the late 1980s and 1990s undertook other reforms that later found favour elsewhere around the world - including forward guidance on monetary policy.
Grimes said investors were still likely to pile into asset price bubbles because they expected that even if they burst, central bank action to support the economy would soon cause asset prices to return to their previous levels.
The U.S. Federal Reserve was particularly at fault after repeatedly supporting markets following brief episodes of financial market turmoil from the 1980s onwards, Grimes said.
"In my view it was a big mistake by the Federal Reserve," he said, adding that the underlying cause was the Fed's dual mandate of targeting unemployment as well as inflation.
"They are stuck between a rock and a hard place, in terms of the Fed officials themselves. You would have to have a big bang to say: 'We are targeting price stability. We are targeting stable asset prices as well as stable goods prices.'"
Grimes praised Janet Yellen, the newly announced nominee to succeed Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, as "a terrific academic economist", but declined to speculate on whether she would lead the U.S. central bank in the direction he would prefer.
Such a change would need new legislation and potentially require the United States to tolerate high unemployment after a future asset price bubble burst - something Grimes likened to the battle many countries faced to bring down high consumer price inflation in the 1980s and 1990s.
Grimes also had words of caution for central banks adopting forward guidance on their future interest rates, saying it needed to be consistent and should not be a mask for changing inflation goals.
"If you revise based on new information, that is fine. If (the public) think you are going to revise your criteria for where you are going, then you lose your credibility," he said.
The Fed and the Bank of England have both adopted guidance which links rises in interest rates to unemployment falling to a certain level - a different model to the RBNZ's, which produces a forecast for the level of its interest rates.
The BoE has said it will not raise interest rates before unemployment falls to 7 percent, unless inflation threatens to get out of control.
But it has said the 7 percent level will not be a trigger for higher rates, leaving open the possibility that this threshold could be revised lower if there seems to be greater slack in Britain's economy.
(Editing by Hugh Lawson)


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While the cover art appears to be predictably awful, there's little disputing the quality of the contents of this compilation of Rockstar games that's turned up on retail sites.
Called "Rockstar Games Collection: Edition 1", it bundles Red Dead Redemption, LA Noire, Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City and Midnight Club Los Angeles: Complete Edition.
It's listed at around $60, and is slated for release on 360 and PS3 on November 13.
Rockstar Games Collection: Edition 1 Playstation 3 [CD Universe]
Rockstar Games Collection Coming Soon, 4 games for the price of 1 [thekonamicode @ NeoGAF]


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On this page:
Documentation for XSLT-elements and predefined XPath-functions
The plugin comes with bundled documentation for XSLT elements and functions that is accessible via the Quick Documentation Lookup (Ctrl-Q) action. This documentation is extracted from the respective sections in the official W3C XSLT and XPath documents.
Custom documentation
It's also possible to annotate elements in an XSLT stylesheet with some documentation fragments. This can be looked up by the Quick Documentation Lookup function for variables, parameters and templates
Last modified: 17 July 2017


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Columbia College (CA) Stats, Info and Facts
|Institution Type:
|Campus Setting:
|Far West Rural area, on fringe of an urban area
|Highest Degree Offered:
|Associate's degree
|Level of Institution:
|At least 2 but less than 4 years
Very helpful in all your academic needs. Counselors are interested in helping you make the right decisions for your longterm career desires. Great instructors who make the classes interesting and…
it has a beautiful campus, though there are a lot of stairs. the teachers i've had so far are passionate about their job, and are very accommodating if you need…
I love the campus and the people that are involved in keeping it maintained. I love the staff, they have all been amazing help to me.I love that i have…
Columbia college is a place where you can get a head start on your general education and lavish in the trees, sunshine, water and wildlife that surrounds this gorgeous campus.…
Went on a school trip to tour the campus and fell in love. This school has a peaceful and accepting air about it and many things to offer. Especially like…
Columbia College is a dynamic institution of learners and creative thinkers dedicated to high standards of student success. We prepare students to be fully engaged in an evolving world by offering comprehensive and high quality programs and services. Columbia College is committed to a culture of improvement through measuring student learning across the institution. We strive for excellence, foster a spirit of professionalism and celebrate diversity.
they have my majorRead More
I love the environment! You always see animals on campus, and really, where else can you find this?!Read More
100%Read More


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Well, since my blog got a new summer face lift today I thought I would post some flowers from around my yard that have either been in bloom the last few weeks or are now in bloom. I really do love to garden. Not only do I enjoy the time to do it, but I love seeing and enjoying the fruits of my labor too. This first picture is a poppy and actually it is not in my yard, but it is my next door neighbor's Bea's flower. They were gone for a week and it popped out in bloom and I thought I should take a picture of it for her so she could enjoy it. Well, needless to say I still am enjoying the picture too, it was an amazingly beautiful flower!
Now these are my flowers. I love my clematis, in fact this one someone usually breaks and then it just dies on me, but so far so good this year and isn't it just the best in color? Wow so vibrant and velvety!!
and my Hibiscus rock the oranges with a touch of pinkish in the middle. I just love the exotic feel to these! I have three of these in pots and I just love them and they bloom all summer long!
and what about my gerber daisies, I know that same orange, but they are in different areas, but I do love vibrant colors!
These next pictures are of the Robins that made a nest on top of a wreath right next to the door. It was a wreath I was going to take down, but when I went to do that I realized a bird was nesting on top of it so we kept it up. We all enjoyed watching the birds grow and being feed daily on a regular schedule. All I can say is that those robins work hard to feed their babies. I believe that is all they ever did and then they got to rest come evening.
This first picture is one of the adult robins one gloomy morning. She/he was hunting for worms and I just happen to snap this picture when they landed on my stone figure. I think the colors are very rich and it feels so springy athough this was just a few weeks ago.
This is a pic that same morning right after she found the worm and brought it back to feed them...
This picture is soo sweet I think, they were just relaxing while dad and mom were out working their hinies off to find worms for them, but now doesn't this little birdie look soo content in that snuggly little nest!?! If you look really hard you can actually see all three of them.
This picture is about a little over a week later, they grew soo fast and so big that I was amazed that all three at this point were still in the nest. I think if I would have been a sibling I would have shoved that one in the front right out for more room!! LOL...
This was the last picture snapped of these little wonders. The next morning when we got up the nest was empty! It was really quite a joy to have these right next to the porch for all of us to witness the small wonders that surround us everyday and to actually take joy in them and to truly be in tune with "it's the small things that matter"! So, take time this week to enjoy the small things around you that you might otherwise just notice, but never have really taken the time to look at closely and enjoy! Have a GREAT day!
Alright alright, I know these next two pictures are not summer pics, but they crack me up and since I am uploading and sharing... LOL.. guess you are the lucky recipents of these! This first pic is a picture of our newest addition to our family, Storm the cat. Well, just before Storm we got Easter rats! LOL.. yes, you heard me right, Easter rats! Well, needless to say Storm finds these rats quite interesting. I walked into Avery's room the other day and there Storm was fast asleep on top of their cage. If you look closely you can see Athena and Louise checking him out!
Well, it has also been like 17 years since I have owned a cat and I have forgotten about all the silly stuff they do. This was the night before Rachel's open house and that warmer was sitting on the floor while I was running around crazy. It almost looks like he is not alive and I am going to serve him up for dinner!! YIKES! But really he is just asleep! and I PROMISE I washed it before I used it!! LOL... my guess was that it was nice and cool and felt good and he fit real nice in there. I wondered later what he would have done had I placed the lid on? LOL.... but of course I did not, I just grabbed my camera and took his pic and went on about my business!! Hope you enjoyed these!
hope you get a cat nap in today!!
June 4, 2009
It's starting to look like summer....
Posted by Nina at 8:28 PM
Labels: baby birds, birds, flowers, garden, nesting birds, photo, pictures of birds, robin's nest, robins
5 comments:
- Anonymous said...
Lovely pics Nina!
I have given you a blog award, so hop over to my blog and see it!:)
- June 4, 2009 at 9:22 PM
- Nilla said...
Fantastic photos, well done! Hugs Nilla
- June 4, 2009 at 9:29 PM
- MindyRadio said...
Nina, the flowers are gorgeous! I have never tried planting anything that pretty. Mostly just hardy plants that I can't kill...LOL
- June 5, 2009 at 9:45 AM
- Unknown said...
Wow those pictures are awesome! Love your new blog background :)
- June 5, 2009 at 10:56 AM
- Ami said...
Gorgeous pics and I am way jealous of your beautiful yard!! My yard wants to be your yard when it grows up, LOL!! And look at Storm sleeping in that pan!! Cats will sleep practically anywhere. You have to scrap these; they are just too great!!
- June 5, 2009 at 7:05 PM
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In case an Asus laptop that caught your eye has the letter G in the name, it means it's aimed at gamers. To make sure that the series is as diverse as possible, Asus offers 15.6'', 16'' and 17.3'' devices. We tested the fastest model – the G74SX, which comes with Nvidia GTX 560M graphics and Core i7 2630QM processor.
Asus' Republic of Gamers G74SX laptop comes with a large 17.3'' display. If however you think it is too large or pricey, you can get the same CPU and GPU in a 15.6'' package, going by the name of G53SX.
Enthusiasts probably know this by now, but we'll repeat it for our readers just in case. Nvidia launched GTX 570M and GTX 580M graphics cards a few days ago. While they are faster than the GTX 560M, you'll see that the latter holds its own quite nicely.
The Intel Core i7-2630M quad core processor runs at up to 2.9GHz in turbo and it complements Nvidia's GTX 560M (3GB of GDDR5) graphics well.
This 17 incher additionally has 12GB of DDR3 and it's pretty much evident that it will handle multimedia. The real question of course is whether it will allow for smooth gaming at its native resolution of 1920x1080.
The G74SX' monitor boasts refresh rate of 120Hz, meaning it supports 3D and Asus gifts users Nvidia's Shutter glasses as well. The displays has quality backlighting, which is a must since the Shutter glasses tend to make the picture a tad darker.
Of course, 3D is not everyone's cup of tea and we'd advise you to try it out first before choosing a laptop with a 3D display. In case viewing 3D causes fatigue or discomfort, Asus offers a G74SX with a classic display, which as you can imagine is a bit cheaper.
Asus G74SX comes with two 750GB hard drives. The battery is an 8-cell, but it goes without saying that longer gaming sessions will require an outlet. Naturally, it's to be expected with such devices.
The Asus G74SX configuration we tested is priced at about €1900, but it may end up cheaper depending on the configuration. You can find it listed here.
With its G74SX, Asus bundles a nice backpack with the ROG logo, a GX800 gaming mouse (3200dpi) and Nvidia Shutter glasses.
Specification for Asus G74S
Asus G74SX measures 32.5 x 42.0 x 2.09 ~ 6.20 cm (WxDxH). It is 2.09cm thick on the front and 6.20cm at the back. It weighs in at 4.28kg which really speaks volumes about its mobility. Thankfully, the backpack should take care of that.
As far as looks go, we really liked the G74SX. Top of the laptop is coated with a soft-touch matte surface, which copes well with fingerprints and helps the laptop feel more robust.
Front side and back side
The only thing of interest on the front is the Power Indicator. Once the laptop is closed, the blinking LED shows it's in Sleep mode.
Unlike the front, back of the laptop looks as mean as it gets. The back of the laptop is about 4cm thicker than the front.
If you look closer in the outlet, you'll notice that the heatsink is mainly positioned on the right side of the device. We noticed that the right side of the laptop gets much hotter, meaning that CPU and GPU are probably on the right.
Bottom and the Battery
The bottom of fashined from rugged black plastics and it is possible to replace hard drives or memory, which is probably a good idea since the laptop is aimed at the enthusiast crowd. Unlike classic batteries, Asus G74SX uses a square one.
We're talking about a Li-Ion A42-G74 eight-cell battery with 5200mAh, 74W. Of course, if you're planning long gaming sessions, you should make sure you're near an electricity outlet because the battery won't last longer than an hour when under full load. Classic operation with WLAN on may last up to 2.5 hours whereas turning off WLAN and decreasing brightness will result in 3.5 hours of endurance.
G74SX comes with two Seagate hard disks (ST9750420AS) each with 750GB. As you can see, they're easily acessible by removing the plastic cover.
G74SX has four memory slots. Three are populated by three Samsung 4GB memory modules (PC3 - 10600S; M471B5273DH0-CH9) while one was left free for future upgrades.
The GTX 560M is located top right, whereas the Core i7 2630QM is just around the center, above the memory. GPU and CPU heatsinks have two heatpipes each. The picture below shows where the GPU cooler's heatsink starts.
The following picture shows that the laptop has two fans.
Display and 3D Vision
If you're used to 13'' or 15'' laptops, the G74SX will seem like a monster. However, we must admit that we enjoyed the 17.3'' 1920x1080 display and we really didn't miss our desktop rigs.
Asus offers a few diplays to choose from with the G74SX. However, we could not have wished for a better one as our model had a 120Hz matte display with quality backlighting. There were almost no reflections on this display when we were playing games outside, on sunny day. The picture below says enough.
Strong lighting is a must for 3D displays with Nvidia 3D shutter glasses, since the shutter glasses come with dark lens. G74SX' picture quality is pretty good. Viewing angles are good as well.
Nvidia 3D Vision requires an IR emitter that transmits the signal from the laptop to the glasses. The emitter is integrated into Asus G74SX's display frame. You can actually see it on the picture above – just a few centimeters to the left from the camera.
Of course, the shutter glasses require power, which is supplied by the integrated battery. The glasses are charged via the mini-USB cable, which can be performed while you're using them. One charge can take days.
When you put the shutter glasses on, 3D Vision will make sure that the user gets a feeling of depth, i.e. the third dimension. 3D Vision will run fine with most games – all you need to do is turn on stereoscopic 3D in the driver. Nvidia 3D Vision works only in full screen mode.
The driver also has a list of compatible games.
Since this is a 17.3'' device, Asus had more than 30x40cm to weave its magic. The keyboard and touchpad placement is good and definitely pleasing to the eye. Gamers will feel at home in no time, WASD keys, as well as others used for gaming, are quite responsive while the arrow keys are thankfully not smaller than the rest.
The keyboard is really tough and will not bend during operation. All the keys are quiet at a press, except for the spacebar. The keyboard is angled at 5 degrees, which makes typing pretty comfortable and should help with posture as well.
The palm rest is made of soft-touch (rubber coated surface) that won't attract dust and definitely feels good.
The keyboard is backlit, which gets in very handy when gaming in the dark with 3D glasses. The On/Off key is above the keyboard to the right.
The Sentelic Sensing Pad touchpad is large but doesn't feature multi touch support. As you can see, it looks pretty nice. Left and right buttons are physically separate parts and we had to get used to the fact that they go in pretty deep at a press. The buttons are quiet.
LED lamps (power indicator, battery charge indicator, drive activity indicator i bluetooth / wireless indicator) are placed to the left of the touchpad.
Connectivity and Ports
As you can see from the picture below, the power-in (DC) connector is on the right side of the laptop. The same side holds one HDMI and one VGA out, Realtek Gigabit LAN port (RJ-45), one USB 2 and one USB 3.0 port. The G74SX comes with a 4-in-one card reader (SD/ MS/ MS Pro/ MMC).
Of course, G74SX comes with Bluetooth 3.0 and WLAN a/b/g/n. Atheros AR9002WB-1NGB mini card takes care of wireless.
The second and third USB 2.0 connectors are on the opposite side.
Asus G74SX comes with Blu-ray Disc/Super-Multi DL combo drive. Let's not forget the microphone, headphone and Kensington lock port.
Intel's Core i7-2630QM is a quad core Sandy Bridge based CPU that can handle 8 threads, delifering more performance in threaded applications. Turbo Boost can dynamically change clocks from base 2GHz to 2.6GHz (full load on all four cores), 2.8GHz (full load on two cores) or 2.9GHz (one core).
The QM moniker with Sandy Bridge series means it's a quad core CPU, whereas the seventh letter/number, which is '0' in this case (i7-2630QM), denotes TDP. Namely, '0' means 45W or 35W CPUs, '9' is 25W TDP whereas '7' stands for 17W models. The exception for now is the 2635QM, which also comes with 45W TDP.
Sandy Bridge architecture came after Arrandale and, along with many other optimizations, comes with integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000.
Turbo Boost 2.0 handles integrated graphics as well. In the case of 2630QM, graphics card can overclock from 650MHz to 1100MHz. The Core i7-2635QM is very similar in this respect, although it can boost graphics up to 1200MHz. Of course, Intel's new graphics cards' performance is much better than the HD Graphics from Arrandale.
However, the G74SX does not use Intel's integrated graphics. It comes with Nvidia's GTX 560M. Nvidia Optimus is not included, which means the GTX 560M runs all the time.
As CPUZ shows, the 2630QM is placed in rPGA socket, while the 2635QM uses BGA QC socket.
The following screenshot shows that the Core i7-2630QM has 4 cores and 8 threads. This 17 incher additionally has 12GB of DDR3 memory.
CPU Performance
We had to repeat the tests several times because results varied. Namely, Turbo Boost didn't always overclock the cores to same values. We only had the laptop for two days so we couldn't figure out why this was so, but gaming tests revealed that all four cores run at 2.6GHz so we didn't worry much about Cinebench.
HDD Performance
Asus G74SX has two 750GB HDDS, although we'd rather have seen an SSD drive running the system. That's not to say that the drives are slow and HD Tune results rate read speeds at almost 100MB/s.
The GTX 560M with 3GB GDDR5 of memory is a high-end laptop graphics card that will offer similar performance to that of the older GTX 480. The GTX 560M is based on the GF116, which is in fact an optimized GF100 (Geforce GTX 480M).
The G74SX does not use Intel's integrated graphics. It comes with Nvidia's GTX 560M. Nvidia Optimus is not included, which means the GTX 560M runs all the time.
Having a 120Hz monitor is a shame to waste but note that 3D gaming is not possible with all games in 1920x1080, simply because 3D tends to double graphics requirements.
Gaming in classic 2D mode will not be a problem, not even at 1920x1080. However, some more demanding games will require turning off effects and antialiasing.
Dirt 2
Asus G74SX instantly got ahead of the pack of slower laptops we included in the table. With graphics settings at 'High', G74SX outran Alienware's Mx14, which has Nvidia GT 555M graphics.
Metro 2033
Metro 2033 allowed for gaming at native 1920x1080 with settings at 'Normal Quality', although we did turn off tessellation and DOF.
Crysis 2 / DirectX 9
Crysis 2 was easily playable in DX9 version.
Crysis 2 / DirectX 11
We downloaded the DX 11 patch and high res textures, which decreased the result you see in the table abowe by only a few frames. The real work for GTX 560M begins when Crysis 2 is ran in 3D.
'High' setttings at 1920x1080 coupled with 3D resulted in only 24-27fps. Once we turned on DX11 and high resolution textures, we saw that about 1.6GB was used in the graphics card's memory (DirectX 9 took up 1.23GB). All in all, memory was not a bottleneck as the GTX 560M we had on our tests boasts 3GB.
Crysis 2 / DirectX 9 in 3D
Crysis 2 / DirectX 11 in 3D
Asus G74SX is a gaming laptop with Nvidia's GTX 560M and Intel's Core i7-2630QM, so this means that the device needs quality cooling and Asus did quite well in this department.
The two fans are not exactly quiet in idle mode, which isn't great. You'll hear the airflow, constantly. On the other hand, temperatures are kept in check quite nicely. The hard drive crackle is only occasional and unobtrusive.
The part around WASD keys is quite the coolest region on the upper part of the laptop – it can go up to 31°C. The right palm rest will go up to 30 °C whereas the left side is always much cooler. The hottest part is from the arrow keys upwards, towards the display, up to 35 °C.
It almost goes without saying that you will not use Asus G74S from your lap, be it because you'll need a mouse or the heat on the right side. In fact, on the right-top part temperatures can hit up to 45°C.
The highest temperature we measured from the large air outlet was 66°C. Note however that this was during long gaming tests.
The following screenshots show that components are pretty cool in idle, but that temperatures rise under load.
The masses may like playing casual games on their cellphones but real enthusiasts and gamers will definitely know how to appreciate the G74SX. We're talking about Asus' latest gaming laptop that boasts 17.3'' non-reflective display with a 120Hz refresh rate. Thanks to the display and Nvidia's GTX 560M 3GB graphics card, gaming in 3D is possible as well.
As far as the design goes, the G74SX has some really nice looks, although it is a rather bukly beast. While we're aware it is a matter of personal taste, we thought that its looks complement the purpose quite well.
The laptop has a large cooler with two fans and while cooling is good, the fans are pretty loud in idle mode. Furthermore, it doesn't come with Optimus technology, which means that Nvidia's discrete graphics core is running all the time. As you would expect, it takes a toll on battery life so the battery will provide a bit more than 2 hours for surfing.
Gaming performance is pretty good considering the display's native resolution of 1920x1080. This is definitely the fastest laptop we've tested so far. In case you're not keen on rushing purchase, it may be wise to wait a bit and see whether Asus straps the G74S with the GTX 570M or GTX 580M, which should definitely boost 3D gaming performance at 1920x1080.
The Asus G74SX configuration we tested is priced at about €1900, but it may end up cheaper depending on the configuration. You can find it listed here.