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Questions for Someone Who Recently Rented a Private Island
Last weekend, to celebrate my 40th birthday, some friends and I rented a house on Pot Island, a tiny and humorously named land mass in Connecticut's Thimble Islands. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
You did what? Exactly who the hell do you think you are?
No seriously, I'm just some guy. But you discover, when embarking on this sort of project, that if you combine a large group of people, the result is some serious purchasing power! We each threw in somewhere around three hundred bucks. (They haven't told me what the exact figure was, because, well, it was my birthday.) We stayed from Friday to Monday. We cooked all of our own meals and mixed all of our own drinks.
You cooked for that many people? Were the logistics a drag?
A few of my friends are so good at this stuff that they should consider doing it for a living. There were a lot of spreadsheets and grocery lists involved. On the drive up we went to Costco, and then to a normal grocery, and then to a liquor store. From the island we ended up calling a Connecticut package store that, amazingly, delivered directly to our dock, for the sundries that we had forgotten to buy, and for ice, which one can never have quite enough of.
Is Pot Island the headquarters for NORML or something?
While we did get quite a few good laughs out of the name of the place, as well as nearby Stony Creek and Weed Beach (seriously) I can assure you that we didn't rent this place to get stoned on the porch. I looked on VRBO and selected Connecticut and "more than 12 persons" from the dropdown box. Pot Island was the first result. It's about a two-hour drive from Manhattan, traffic permitting. It is a lovely place that I don't think a lot of New Yorkers know about. Most of us are still grinning a few days later.
All that being said, the majority of Pot Island is currently for sale, and if NORML or High Times were to purchase it for their corporate retreats, I think that would make a good deal of sense.
So what does a person do on Pot Island?
Not a whole lot, frankly. If you're the sort of active vacationer who prefers to learn a language or ride horses or play a lot of tennis, then god love you but pick a different destination. I'm not that sort of person, and neither are most of my overworked and child-rearing friends. There were two big decks, a field, rocks for scrambling upon, a beach, and four kayaks. There was a dock to leap from, and there was the ocean, salty enough that you could lie on your back and float without waves knocking you in the sinuses. There was a literal knotty-pine rec room, complete with ping pong and pool tables. There was scrabble and poker. There was nautical bric-a-brac everywhere, ship's wheels, maps and charts, and a library of books about seafaring. There was no Wi-Fi, but our cell phones worked, for the most part. There was a beautiful two-story kitchen full of Le Creuset enamelware and a gas stove with eight burners, and also multiple barbecue grills. We made burgers and dogs, steaks and chimichurri, a bolognese, some half-assed stuff for the vegetarians among us, some fabulous breakfasts, and a birthday cake. There was a bar, which we stocked with an embarrassment of liquors.
There was a lot of staring at a fixed point on the horizon. There was also a lot of laughing. There was a lot of deejaying for one another with an iPhone dock. And there was a whole lot of bullshitting late at night, which was great because I don't get to see the people who came nearly as often as I would like.
Did you say ping pong? Are you any good at that game?
You guys, as it turns out, I am so good at that game.
Also a pool table?
I'd prefer not to discuss the pool table. I'm pretty sure it was warped or something.
And kayaks? How did that turn out?
They can be intimidating at first. Trying to get into the damn thing with a beer belly leads to a lot of unintended physical comedy. Then you push yourself away from the beach with a gentle shove of the paddle, and it's like you're levitating. The craft just barely breaks the surface of the water. Paddling can be a little tough on the upper body, but when you get tired of rotating your shoulders you can just lay the paddle down on your beer belly and stare up at the clouds. We would hop around from island to island, just breezily checking stuff out. There was one bizarre little island, which we christened Zombie Island (the whole area is ripe for a setting as a teenage sex-horror film) and when I paddled out there with my ladyfriend we both got thoroughly creeped out. Why would someone build this, we wondered, just a house, up on stilts, on about 1000 square feet of rock jutting from the sea. We argued about what could be inside, and my guess was a big stack of dirty magazines and a dartboard. As we were turning away I noticed a black crane, or egret or something that was about three feet of elegant neck and long graceful legs, just gorgeous. I turned to mention it to my ladyfriend, just as she tilted at the wrong angle and suddenly dropped face first into the water. I paddled furiously to reach her, but it turned out that she was standing on a rock and was only waist-high in the water. I collected her paddle, she did an elegant maneuver to get back into the boat, and off we went.
How many bedrooms are we talking about?
The house that we rented, a nineteenth-century former bed and breakfast, had eleven. There are three stories in total, and the second floor has the master bedroom, which we took to calling the Presidential Suite, and which had three rooms, one with bed, one with tub, and one with shower and toilet. Several other large bedrooms were on the second floor as well. The third floor had most of the sleeping space, with smaller rooms, where we mostly put the single people. We imagined that there would be some wacky erotic hijinks between our friends creeping from room to room in the night, but I'm not sure if that actually happened because, as the birthday boy, I was happily snoring in the shameful and enormous master.
Did you look into the history of the place at all?
We did. After the trip, one guest sent the group an email titled "Pot Island: From Captain Kidd to the Fat Men's Drinking Club." There are amazing stories of adventures and waspy drama: Captain Kidd supposedly buried some treasure in a cave on the island, which we were too lazy to look for. Even better, in the 1880s the island was occupied by a fat man's club, which I'm pretty sure I would be invited to join if it existed today. They would fill a natural cistern in the rock with thirty-five feet of boozy punch, and wouldn't leave until it was gone.
Yeah yeah, but something must have sucked about all of this. What sucked?
Hmm. There were bugs. For that we had spray. There was heat. For that we had breezes. There was some occasional ennui and hurt feelings, as there are in all places on the Earth. There was no air conditioning, which I would normally be the first person to complain about, but it didn't bother me on Pot Island.
But uh yeah, it wasn't all gin and tonics and lazy games of Frisbee. Electricity came from a propane-powered generator which the owner assured us was whisper quiet, but which actually sounded like a lawnmower turned upside down. The genny was only for use a few hours a day, so we would run it for an hour or two in the morning and then for a few more hours after the sun went down. This was actually kind of a revelation to me: how much, in good times, one actually does not need power. In the coming global-warming apocalypse, I imagine we will all be quite familiar with this. But I guess we will also become familiar with the pleasures of lighting via candles, which makes everyone look more attractive than they actually are.
There was also the matter of getting that many people, and their provisions and gear, out to the house. Our ferry captain was visibly annoyed at the amount of shit that we brought with us, and then we were annoyed when we realized how far we had to hump all of that stuff from the dock to the house. I was sweating, swearing, and wearing flip flops as I carted potatoes, pancake mix, and cases of beer in a hand-trolley up a massive rock to reach the porch.
But into every perfect weekend, a little nonsense must fall, I suppose. And really, there is no way you came here to listen to me complaining about any of this.
So what's the takeaway from all of this leisure?
It was one of those experiences that doesn't make you sad to think about, even on those slightly melancholy final few hours when you're packing and hauling hard-carts back to the dock, and if you're like me, you're obsessing about whether you'll ever see the view from the porch again.
Forty years old. How many left? Impossible to say. But I know that my friends and I spent at least one weekend correctly.
Brian Pritchett is a writer and a web producer in Brooklyn.
Photos by Noel Proffitt, Melinda Fought, Todd Eaton, and Carrie Noteboom.


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|Tuesday, 17 September 2002
Tapped phones:Soviet-era scourge rears ugly head in modern Russia
MOSCOW, (AFP) It's a Soviet-era scourge that seems to have never let up: phone tapping. And more and more Russian politicians are finding themselves on the receiving end of scandals sparked by their secret talks being suddenly aired in public.
The practice of compiling "kompromat" - a Communist-era slang term for information secretly collected to slander a powerful political opponent - was well documented in the days when the KGB ruled supreme. For decades, people's tapped phones made funny clicks and odd voices inexplicably joined a person's conversation.
But these days the phones also seem to be making those clicks in Russia's State Duma lower house of parliament - where more than half a dozen of the most senior lawmakers apparently had sensitive discussions taped and then put up for sale.
"These cases have become more frequent over the past five years," observes top Moscow city prosecutor Mikhail Avdyukov.
"The problem is that the most serious penalty for a phone-tapping conviction is two to four months in jail or a minor fine," Avdyukov said.
"Most often, the culprits are young entrepreneurs who are just trying to make some money by selling a taped conversation to the press." One such entrepreneur recently walked into the offices of Zavtra - an ultra-nationalist paper famous for its anti-Semitic views - and opened up a briefcase full of tapes.
"We thought he was peddling pirated music tapes," Zavtra's editor wrote in a recent account.
Instead the tapes contained alleged conversations of lawmakers like Communist Party boss Gennady Zyuganov, the maverick Vladimir Zhirinovsky of the LDPR party, and liberals Irina Khakamada and Boris Nemtsov, among several others.
Zavtra settled on publishing the conversations of its political nemesis Nemtsov - who later confirmed that the published conversation was real and appealed to Russian prosecutors to launch an investigation. His conversation revolved around an alleged plot by Nemtsov and close aides to President Vladimir Putin to torpedo the long-discussed union between Russia and its impoverished neighbor Belarus.
"Russian citizens, who are counting on a union between the two brotherly people, must know who is sinking the Russia-Belarus dream," wrote Zavtra in explanation to why it published Nemtsov's conversation with a Belarus lawmaker.
Nemtsov later told a newspaper in Minsk "that even though my conversation was confidential, I have repeatedly expressed similar views in public."
Some of the most famous "kompromat wars" happened in the mid-1990s when powerful Russian oligarchs slugged it out against each other in lucrative battles for the privatization of the last prized Soviet assets.
Many of those business barons also held media companies that splashed ugly allegations against their opponents at will.
The slander wars also touched former president Boris Yeltsin's 1996 re-election campaign.
News | Business | Features
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text:
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Deschutes National Forest
Contact Information
Deschutes National Forest
63095 Deschutes Market Road
Bend, OR 97701
(541) 383-5300
Contact Us
Paulina Lake is located within the caldera of Newberry Volcano. This collapsed crater or caldera is the result of more than 500,000 years of volcanic activity. This lake relies on rain, snowmelt, and hot springs for water.
This boat ramp is on the southeast side of Paulina Lake and is adjacent to a campground and also offers picnicking opportunities, trailhead access to the Little Crater Trail and a shallow boat launch (no docks).
From Bend, OR: Travel 23 miles south on Highway 97 then turn left onto County Road 21 and head east for 15 miles.
Map showing recreational areas.
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Ochoco NF & Crooked River NG Recreation Info
Forest Service Home | USDA.gov | recreation.gov | USA.gov | Whitehouse.gov
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I'm very interested in Zimbra and would like to deploy it on my own server. The problem is: it has only 256MiB ram, which is very limited. I'm checking with my 'server-provider' if they can put some extra ram (it's a rented server), but am not sure if they can or will do this.
Now I was wondering if Zimbra can work with 256MiB ram? The number of users will be very limited (just me to start with, probably not more than 5 in the near future).


text: A strong cold front moved through Eastern North Carolina on Wednesday evening finally clearing the skies and ending the stormy conditions. Much of area had thunderstorms on Wednesday afternoon with several counties having severe thunderstorm warnings. There were 24 reports of hail with gusty winds. There have been two unconfirmed reports of tornadoes, one in Beaufort County and the other in Martin County but no damage has been reported by late evening. By Thursday morning, today's stormy conditions will be a faded memory. Sunny skies and dry air will make for a comfortable afternoon with highs in the 70s. The dry air, clear skies and light winds will make way for several chilly nights. Lows will drop into the upper 40s well inland while coastal locations will remain in the upper 50s. Sunny skies should last through the weekend and it may be a good time to get some of those outdoor chores completed, especially those activities that you dreaded during the hot summer. Welcome to fall in Eastern North Carolina.


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|Please Help Sponsor A Delta Pilot... posted Thu Apr 13 2006 22:01:10 by B777-700
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Degree Requirements: M.S. Engineering & Technology Management
The M.S. Degree in Engineering and Technology Management involves 30 credit hours of course work. There is a set of core courses that is required of all students in the ETM Program. Each student then can tailor his or her studies by selecting an area of focus or by completing courses in any focus group.
Non-Thesis Option Course work
12 credits (4 classes) of core courses
18 credits (6 classes) courses in the areas of focus listed below
Thesis Option Course work
12 credits (4 classes) of core courses
12 credits (4 classes) courses in the areas of focus listed below
6 thesis research credits
Additional Co-curriculum Requirements
All thesis and non-thesis ETM Program students have three additional degree requirements:
1. Leadership and Team Building Ropes Course: All students participate in a one day off campus Leadership and Team Building retreat in their first Fall semester of study in the ETM Program. This program focuses on developing team and leadership skills through a program of rope exercises.
2. Communications Seminar: All students are required to attend a two-day Communications Seminar in their first Fall semester of study in the ETM Program. The seminar will provide students a comprehensive approach to good quality communication skills, including presentation proficiency, organizational skills, professional writing skills, meeting management, as well as other professional communication abilities. The Communications Seminar is designed to better prepare students for the ETM learning experience, as well as their careers in industry.
3. Executive-in-Residence Program: Each Spring we invite a senior industry executive to conduct a series of seminars related to leadership and strategy in the engineering and technology sectors. These seminars provide insights and knowledge to graduate students preparing for positions in industry. The Executive-in-Residence also actively engages with students in a variety of ways including personal mentoring, small group meetings, and career planning. For detailed information click here.
Undergraduate Degree, preferably a Bachelor of Science in Engineering or Applied Science.
Curriculum: MS ETM
Core Courses (12 credits)
EBGN525 Operation Research Deterministic Optimization
EBGN540 Accounting & Corporate Finance
EBGN563 Management of Technology
EBGN585 ETM Capstone (take in final semester only)
Areas of Focus Courses - (18 credits non-thesis or 12 credits thesis)
Students can tailor their studies by selecting a set of courses from the following areas of focus.
List A: Engineering Management and Optimization
EBGN526 Operation Research Stochastic Modeling
EBGN528 Industrial Systems Simulation*
EBGN555 Linear Programming
EBGN559 Supply Chain Management*
EBGN560 Decision Analysis
List B: Technology Management and Innovation
EBGN515 Economics and Decision Making
EBGN553 Project Management
EBGN565 Marketing for Technology-Based Companies*
EBGN566 Technology Entrepreneurship
EBGN567B Business Law and Ethics
EBGN572 International Business Strategy
EBGN576 Managing and Marketing New Products
* Not offered every year


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Can ID3 tag data for MP3 file be displayed (while playing)?
I give up. Can't find out if this is possible in the user manual, and experimentally I'm also not achieving success.
Does anybody know if it is either possible or not possible to somehow display the ID3 tag data for the currently playing MP3 file? I'm asking for the same stuff you would be able to see from any computer MP3 player or organizer program as "file info", like artist, title, album, genre, year, bitrate, track number, etc.
Obviously the J3 supports the ID3 tag data, and organizes all of the files and folders accordingly, so that you can browse by these items.
But I can't figure out how that detail information for a given MP3 file which is playing can be displayed.
Anybody help? Possible? Impossible?
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Can't find a way to display information other than track title and Artist while the album cover is showing. But one tap on the album cover gives bitrate, album name, track number and number of tracks on the album, type of file and equalizer. The only info missing seems to be genre. I suppose if all this info was shown alongside the album cover, it would reduce the size of the cover which on this player is really nice as it stretches out the full width.
Tapping on the album cover gives the track name and artist up in the blue title bar and then album name in the first row of "information".
But the additional information shown in additional rows is only file type (e.g. MP3), bitrate (average, if VBR), sampling frequency (e.g. 44hz), equalizer setting, and then file number within the folder (not track number within the album).
So it's not showing (a) genre, (b) year, (c) true track number from the ID3 tag... e.g. 5/14, and potentially comment or other information if present (although I don't really care a log about those extra items, even if it's available through other computer utilities).
Are you actually seeing "track number within album", or did you not realize that it was actually "file number within folder"?
And actually, I'm baffled by the whole sort sequence of the files shown for an album. It is generally but not necessarily "alphabetical"! I don't know what it is, but it certainly isn't always 100% alphabetical. For folders with a modest number of files this is tolerable, but for folders with 15-30 files in it if they're not in pure alphabetical order then it's just an irritation.
So the item being shown as "file number within folder" isn't really that at all (if it were even something meaningful worth displaying)... since the order of files is not necessarily alphabetical. It's actually the "display number" of that file on the list as presented, even if the list is not alphabetical.
Really... this is just a useless and worthless piece of information (especially since that number isn't shown on the master file list anyway, but only on this tap of cover art... so it really has no value whatsoever).
I think they messed up, and probably intended to be displaying the track number value from within the true ID3 tag (which looks the same... e.g. 5/11... but represents track 5 out of 11 tracks on the album). If this were the only MP3 file you'd created from this album when you built this folder, tapping on the cover art would show "1/1"... which is worthless, pointless and ridiculous. What you want to see is the ID3 track number value of 5/11.
The info you want to see is not displayed anywhere on the stock firmware/UI. It may be displayed by using another UCI.
Incidentally, I went and checked my iPod and my wife's iPod Nano and they both show much less info.
Can you give an example of a mp3 player--not computer program on a PC/mac--which shows all the metadata you'd like to see?
What I really want displayed is the size of the file being played. It's annoying to me not being able to see the size, but I don't personally care about the year or genre. I would also like to see the true track # as well.
Black Cowon J3 16GB (Firmware 2.21) + 16GB SanDisk microSDHC
Panasonic RP-HJE900
F/K/A Need Balance Control
I don't object to displaying other fields that I really don't have much interest in, but "year" is something I honestly feel SHOULD be shown and is not. "Genre" would be nice, and "track# within album" is certainly just basic info which is of general interest. Who cares about "file# within folder" (and by the way, it's really "file# from whatever the odd sequence of file names presented is", so if it's not in alphabetical order this file# confirms that odd order, having nothing to do with the true alphabetical sequence of file names in the folder)?
Anyway, if it doesn't it doesn't. I just think it's odd to look at what they decided to display and also decided what not to display. They certainly didn't ask my opinion.
So my reactions are truly from a "child", with no pre-biases or expectations other than what I've gotten used to on the PC with players and organizers. I guess I thought "file info" showing ALL of the ID3 fields was "standard procedure"... especially when they clearly extract all of these fields for purposes of facilitating searching on them. It's not like they didn't know those items existed, so why consciously decide NOT to present them in a "file info" dialog that is specifically intended to show "file details" which everyone would assume means the entire ID3 tag data?
Still, I do hear your frustrations as I have my own gripes with how Cowon designs its UIs.
From these threads, I can see that different people really want/need/require/demand different feature sets and info displays on their players. My most critical need/requirement (balance control/PAN) isn't discussed much on here at all, but it's still my #1 requirement and if Cowon were to discontinue this feature in future models, I'd be the first one to leave Cowon.
Black Cowon J3 16GB (Firmware 2.21) + 16GB SanDisk microSDHC
Panasonic RP-HJE900
F/K/A Need Balance Control
Hope this helps.
edit: oh and i might add, if you download mp3tag, you can use it to do a bulk rename of all your music files, where it will rename each file based on its id3 tag. You can customise this process so that it places the track number at the start of the file name.
Last edited by MattJCL; 07-08-2010 at 04:20 AM.
(1) Come in via "Artists" for example (which was developed by an ID3 tag scan), pick an artist, and it then shows [All tracks] followed by a list of each album for that artist.
(2) Select [All tracks], and the presentation is then in true alphabetical order by internal track name (from the ID3 tag), having gathered all of the files from all of the album folders and then sorted them alphabetically.
(3) If instead of [all tracks] you select any of the individual albums shown, the presentation of tracks now shown is absolutely NOT in alphabetical sequence by the internal track name (from the ID3 tag). It actually is in "track number" sequence (from the track number field in the ID3 tag), regardless of whether or not the external file name begins with the usual track number syntax.
In my case, I do not create my MP3 files with track number at the front, as I want my displays to be in alphabetical sequence by track name, not in track number sequence from that album. To each his own.
Anyway, it is apparently absolutely true when an individual album is selected for an artist, the J3 seems to arrange things for display AS IF THE TRACK NUMBER PREFIX WERE PRESENT (even though it is not)!!! Hence why it seems not to be in alphabetical sequence at all. In fact it's not... it's in track number sequence (based on the track number value in the ID3 tags of each file), with the track name shown coming from the internal track name field in the ID3 tag (and not from the external file name).
(4) If instead of coming through the ID3 tag method (e.g. "artists") you use the Browser (or select [Folders]), you are now presented with a 100% alphabetical display based on the full external file name (including extension), so that you can see MP3 vs. WAV, etc. As I have noted previously, WAV files do not have ID3 tags and so do not appear when you're using ID3 tags to browse/search/display.
Using this Browser method, the absence of a leading track number prefix to my external file names ends up producing a display in exactly the alphabetical sequence (by external file name) I would expect to see.
===> So this mysterious "non-alphabetical" presentation is now understood. If you pick an album under artist, the presentation is actually sequenced by track number as obtained from the ID3 tag. If instead you select [All tracks], the presentation is now sequenced alphabetically by track name as obtained from the ID3 tag.
I actually use both MP3TAG as well as MP3/Tag Studio for my tagging services, depending on particular need and which user interface I prefer for that particular need. They're both very competent and easy-to-use utilities, but I've been using MP3/Tag Studio for many more years so I'm comfortable with it. The only real difference is that MP3TAG supports imbedded album art (APIC frame) in ID3 tags, whereas MP3/Tag Studio does not (at the moment).
Having now decided to use the "cover.jpg" approach to album art in each album's folder (and not imbed it in each MP3 file), I will likely just stick with MP3/Tag Studio for 100% of my needs since it's got every other function I've ever wanted (both individual and mass).
I too do not use track number in front of the track title. Since I usually play albums or genres at random, I have never found any use for it. There have only been a few concept albums made which if listened to in its entirety, would be better if track follows track as meant by the artist. But they are rare. I name all my tracks by putting the name of the artist first, in capital letters, followed by the track title in lower case. I have found this a better way to do things as it is easier to remember the artist who sang a particular song than to remember the title itself, in case I am looking for a particular song. But as you say, each to his own.
By the way I emailed Cowon about Genre and they have replied saying the J3 cannot show the genre while a track is playing. So that's that!
Any player program I use would display the standard main ID3 information... artist, album, track title... along with the external file name being played, which is why I do not duplicate anything or structure my track names to be composites of multiple ID3 fields.
Any organizer that I use can search, sort, handle and present data in the usual ways, again encouraging me to "just keep my names simple", but therefore have a desire and need to be able to "display file info" to show ALL imbedded data field values... especially when one pushes the "display file info" button to see these fields which are not otherwise always displayed during playback.
Still no explanation (other than a bug?) for why display sequence of tracks in an album (selected via [Artist], meaning by use of ID3 tag data) would be in "track number" order, which is only an imbedded and "invisible" (never displayed anywhere) ID3 tag field which has somehow been implied to be the proper way to display tracks from a folder which corresponds to an album of its tracks.
Shouldn't they also then maybe provide at least a "SORT" push button dialog or maybe even a Setup option, to allow us to get tracks shown alphabetically within a folder? Doesn't "always alphabetical" seem more consistent with "finger scrolling" to vertically pass through large lists of rows?
One more comment...
Within a selected album from under [Artists], as I've stated the displayed order of the tracks is specifically that of the ID3-provided track number of those tracks (from the originating album). Of course this is not necessarily alphabetical, having nothing to do with it.
Now not only is that the display sequence of the tracks, but it also is the play sequence of the tracks if you start from the first track shown for that album. So if you let the album play through from that first track (or even if you skip forward one track at a time), the sequence in which tracks will be played matches the original album-defined track sequence based on that internal ID3 track number value.
Nevertheless, the internal ID3 track number is nowhere to be displayed or seen... even though it is used to determine both the display and play sequence of the files within that album folder. It does not appear next to the track name anywhere, and does not display when you tap on cover art to reveal the "file details". And yet, it is significant enough to be the entire basis for ordering the display and playing for the tracks of an album.
At the same time, the displayed tracks which were sequenced by ID3 track number on the album, are conceptually assigned a "relative track number in the displayed tracks of that folder" by the J3. And if you tap on the cover art to see "file details", you'll see that "relative track number" of that track's position on the displayed list of tracks (which was ordered to match the original track sequence on the CD).
This "relative track number" is a useless and worthless piece of arbitrary non-permanent assigned data item (e.g. if you delete a track from a folder, the relative track numbers for all later tracks get decremented by 1 for the next display of tracks from that folder). Plus, it's only shown when you tap on the cover art and see it. But it's never otherwise displayed anywhere and has no value in any direct addressing or selection dialog.
I'm going to write Cowon about this mysterious sequencing subject, including a request to add the few but important missing ID3 items to "file details" shown when you tap on cover art.
I think there might have been some confusion, I was originally suggesting that you have track numbers at the start of files so that the "relative track number" that is displayed when you tap the album art would give you an indication of the real track number for that song. However, I realise now that this doesn't work, as you pointed out that that piece of information is referring to the tracks position based on the path you navigated to the song on the J3 (and not the tracks position in the actual folder it is stored in, as I originally thought).
If I understand correctly that you want songs to be displayed alphabetically when you view an individual album, one thing you could try:
From the root folder of the browser, navigate: folders > J3 > music > ...
That will take you to your music collection as you organised it on your computer, everything sorted alphabetically. Although you will see .mp3 next to all your tracks, and the cover.jpg files... which looks a bit messy .
Cowon J3 32gb - Audio-Technica ATH-ES7
In contrast, browsing by other ID3-derived fields presents the index of files in order by ID3-specified track number (i.e. track number from the original CD album, inserted into the ID3 tag by ripper/encoder functionality when the MP3 was built). This is distinctly NOT alphabetical sequence.
I've decided that while this latter arrangement is obviously not (a) alphabetical by external file name, nor is it (b) alphabetical by internal ID3 track name, it does certainly duplicate the experience you'd get if you inserted the original CD into a player... where the tracks would be played sequentially starting from track #1 to track #n, unless you manually requested some other individual track(s). You don't really have an "alphabetical option" on a mechanical player. So maybe this is what was behind Cowon's thinking when they designed this particular feature of the user interface and how it works... though it would be nice if they told you that was how it works.
My only comment really is that (a) it should be documented and described somewhere, perhaps, in the User Guide (good luck!) since it completely unexpected and non-alphabetical as everything else is, or (b) perhaps there should be a Setting option asking me to choose which order I want by default, or (c) how about a button on the interface that allows me to switch between album-in-track-order or album-in-alphabetical-order, based on internal ID3 tag data (when not in [Folders] mode which is always pure external file name alphabetical just like on a computer].
Well, certainly none of these options exist today, and it simply reproduces [though never documented anywhere] the original actual track sequence of the original CD album (assuming only if you've got ID3 track numbers present, I'm guessing). I'll have to live with that unless Cowon changes this in a future firmware release.
And it still seems totally reasonable that this crucial internal ID3 track number should be visible somehow, somewhere... like on "file details". It is really what needs to be displayed, instead of the completely worthless, useless, irrelevant, non-functional, non-constant "relative row number in the current display".
Yes, I'm hoping that the next firmware will include the id3 track number on the id3 screen as well. Personally I don't mind the fact that the player displays tracks by order of track number as I tend to listen to full albums at a time (and before my j3 I used an ipod which did the same thing, so its what I'm used to). Either way it seems strange, because Cowon haven't really catered properly for either of our preferences here .
I suppose, seeing as the J3 doesn't display the track number anyway, you could just remove track numbers from your entire library's id3 tags...
Cowon J3 32gb - Audio-Technica ATH-ES7
So for me preserving the original CD track sequence during list display or playback isn't really important or meaningful.
So I'm sure I will just let this item remain as-is. Perhaps Cowon will display it some day, as interesting "file detail".
In the meantime at least I now understand the role it plays in causing the album track list to appear in the order in which it appears (duplicating the track sequence on the source CD), and playback to match that.
What happens when you delete--or not include--the internal track number? In what sequence does the J3 then display the order?
Black Cowon J3 16GB (Firmware 2.21) + 16GB SanDisk microSDHC
Panasonic RP-HJE900
F/K/A Need Balance Control
I assume that was because of some previously developed cache storage for that folder.
So I then deleted the folder, restarted the J3 (to presumably rebuild the cache to NOT have that folder), and double-checked to ensure that the folder was gone (it was, of course).
Then I re-copied the folder again, and again used my tagger to erase the track numbers. then I restarted the J3 (presumably to rebuild the cache to now once again have the folder but this time without track numbers).
And this time, the folder is back and the tracks within that album are now displayed alphabetically (by ID3 track name), rather than by ID3 track number as before.
So we must conclude it's really a 2-level sort when looking at an album: ID3 track number major, and then ID3 track title minor. In the complete absence of ID3 track numbers it will effectively be 1-level alphabetical by ID3 track title.
So if "alphabetical by title, within an album" is what you want, erase the ID3 track numbers in the MP3 files. Otherwise, your J3 search and playback for tracks on that album will reflect the physical track number sequence of the original source CD as reflected in the ID3 track number values in the MP3 files since ID3 track number is really the major sort key used by the J3 when looking at an album folder.
Good to know.
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The tale of the Firebird is told in many different cultures. Perhaps, the one we are most familiar with is the one portrayed in the Russian ballet with music by Igor Stravinsky. The excellent retelling in this oversized picture book follows an age old folktale tradition. Ivan, the youngest son is considered the one who is least likely to capture the Firebird that is eating his father's golden apples. Yet it is Ivan who persists where his older brothers fail. He does so despite his own greediness and inability to follow rules set forth. So, he faces failures as well, along the way. The paintings in the advanced copy we reviewed are rather dark and lack what we assume will be a golden glow in the final bound books with gold and copper leaf images. 5-8.
Age: Early School Years. Award Year: 2010. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.
Inspired by the classic folktale, The Bremen Town Musicians, this version is told with a twang of the Southland as the animals make their way toward the bright lights of New Orleans. This will be a long but fun read-aloud with opportunities to ham it up. Henri Sorensen's paintings are juxtaposed with black and white silhouettes that are full of action.
Age: Early School Years. Award Year: 2010.
Dingo Dog is a bully and all the other animals are fed up with his nasty ways. Together they come up with a plan to trick the nasty Dingo and manage to teach him a lesson in this lively retelling of a traditional Australian folktale. A fun way to introduce young listeners to trickster tales that are found in almost all cultures. 4-7.
Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2010. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.
In a breezy play on The Princess and the Pea, a young princess goes searching for a prince who will perhaps mend her palace that looks like a pigsty. She finds a prince who tests her royal sensibilities with the proverbial pea under a stack of mattresses. The Princess has a restless night, but rejects the prince for playing such a nasty trick. Instead she marries the pizza guy who knows how to fix up her peeling palace and make her happy. Both the story and art are cartoonish.
Age: Early School Years. Award Year: 2010. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.
If you are expecting the usual mild toddler style tales from Lucy Cousins � this is not it! These are not watered down versions of Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Pigs, or Henny Penny, among others. As in many Grimm tales the Hungry Wolves and foxes do their grim deeds and Cousins paints it all in her usual bright palette. So, look closely before you bring this home to the usual Cousins' audience. This is a better choice for kids from 7 & up.
Age: Early School Years. Award Year: 2009. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.
An abbreviated version of the classic, Snow White, is told on the fold out flaps of this stunning, 3-D book. Paper engineered to resemble a theater set, the delicate cut-outs are intricately layered and are worth a thousand words. This is not your Disney version of Snow White, nor is it exactly the classic version. Indeed, it is notably different as it ends with a bi-racial prince waking Snow White, an image that probably would not have been marketed five years ago.
Age: Early School Years. Award Year: 2009. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.
Six of the best known Princess stories are in this lovely collection. Each story opens with an enchanting pop-up and is illustrated with dreamy impressionistic paintings. This is one of those books that will be enjoyed first as a read aloud and again as a read alone. It includes: The Princess and the Pea, The Wild Swans, Snow White, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, and the Frog Prince.
Age: Early School Years, Later School Years. Award Year: 2009. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.
A 20th Anniversary edition of a classic Ukranian folktale. Nickie wants his grandmother to make him mittens that are white as snow. She fears they will get lost, but makes them anyway. Sure enough, Nickie loses a mitten and it becomes a cozy place for one creature after another...until a small mouse arrives and upsets the balance. Another version of this tale was released this season with charming illustrations by Barbara McClintock and a slightly different telling by Jim Aylesworth. It might be fun to share both tellings with young listeners, asking them to tell what is different and what is the same. Comparing the same story helps children understand how folktales have a way of evolving...and even gives them the idea that they too can retell famiiar stories in their own words and way.
Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2009.
A classic Aesop fable told without words by a master painter! You really do not need words, as Jerry Pinkney's paintings in this oversized book are just waiting for parents and children to "read" together. A wonderful way to encourage children to interpret and tell their own stories from the images on the pages. Pinkney's lush illustrations are full of details that will invite looking at again and again. A stunning picture book that takes you to the African Serengeti of Tanzania and Kenya while it says much about mutual respect between the biggest and smallest of us and how we need to depend on each other.
Age: Early School Years. Award Year: 2009. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.
An old Ukrainian folktale is retold in lively fashion that just begs to be read outloud! The charming wintery scenes and the ever expanding lost mitten with all the creatures who inhabit it make for an 'Oh, no!' moment. A classic tale refreshed for another generation. This version is somewhat different from the familiar Jan Brett telling. The creatures in this telling are more familiar. Also the lost mitten in the new telling is red, not white and when the little mouse arrives on the scene the mitten does more than expand. But not to worry. As in the Brett telling, grandmother is a kindly soul. It might really be fun to read both versions to children and talk about how they are the same and how they differ.
Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2009. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.
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November 16, 2012
Alas, Poor Twinkies… I Knew Thee Well
Hostess, the makers of the famous cream-filled yellow pastry tube (and many other fine, funny sounding delectables) has filed for a motion in bankruptcy court to shut down their entire operation. Should this motion go through, no more Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Ho Hos, Sno Balls or even the more wholesome sounding Wonder Bread.
One of America's favorite treats will go the way of the pastry buffalo.
Our collective response to this news is somewhat interesting though, isn't it? Already reports are rolling in about a run on the cakes, with some stores saying they sold out of Twinkies within an hour of opening their doors today. When Hostess followed up on their threat to shut down operations after striking employees didn't show up to work today, they also said they'd continue selling through their existing stock, making the snack cakes nearly worth their weight in gold. Many enterprising individuals went straight to the Internet with their Twinkies, placing them up for bids on eBay. Most of these 10-count boxes of vanilla cream sponge cake are going for less than $10, of course (and many don't have any bids yet) but as you'd expect there's one person trying to pass off a single box of Hostess Twinkies for $200,000.
You can also Buy it Now for $250,000.
Had you asked anyone their thoughts on Twinkies one month ago, you might have received a mixture of disgusted expressions and fond, warm memories. At this point in our society, we pretty well know what's good for us and what's bad for us.
Salmon: Good.
Smoking: Bad.
Coconut Water: Good
CocaCola: Bad
Tangerines: Good
Twinkies: Oh so very bad.
And yet, it's usually the not-so-good for us foods that make us the happiest. Twinkies weren't just sugary, possibly indestructible desserts; They became a sort of comfort food in their 75+ year existence. We knew they were horrible for us, knew they were probably made of several substances we could never pronounce if our lives depended on it…but dammit they were just so good.
Few people (few healthy people) would ever venture to make a Twinkie a part of their everyday diet, but on occasion, few treats could ever beat a Twinkie.
And our relationship with the Hostess with the Mostess became strained somewhere along the way. We tried to give up the Ding Dongs and Ho Hos. We knew they were bad for us and Hostess (bless their souls) never tried to lie to us. They followed the trend for a while and released those Low Fat Twinkies, but who was that fooling?
We largely turned our backs on the foodstuffs and now we're mourning the possible loss.
Forgive the obvious pun, but we want to have our cake and eat it, too.
Rather, we want to have the option of the Twinkie, want it to be there and readily available for us to reject it.
It's likely, however, that the Twinkie will be around for many years to follow, and not just because of their alleged 100+ year shelf life.
The bankruptcy court has yet to grant their request to liquidate everything, and if they do, it's likely some company will pick up the Twinkie trademark.
It's Twinkie, after all. It just can't die like this.
It must go on forever, and while I have hope that Twinkie the Kid will be able to survive this stampede and live to rope in the deliciousness once more, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't halfway out the door to buy as many boxes of Twinkies as I can.
Image Credit: Rena Schild / Shutterstock


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12/11/2009 | The K7RA Solar Update
Finally! A sunspot appeared on Wednesday, December 9, giving us a daily sunspot number of 13, following 16 days of no sunspots. And on December 10, the sunspot number was 13. The new group is number 1034, and it is a Solar Cycle 24 spot, as all sunspots h
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12/04/2009 | The K7RA Solar Update
Recent sunspot activity -- which ended on November 22 -- pushed up the moving average we've been tracking for several years. Because we have all the data for November, we now have the most recent 3-month average of daily sunspot numbers, which centers on
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09/25/2009 | The K7RA Solar Update
This week we had a double-dose of good news: Right at the time of the autumnal equinox on Tuesday, September 22, sunspot 1026 -- a new Solar Cycle 24 sunspot -- came into view over the Sun's eastern horizon. We watched this emerge a week ago on the Sun's
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09/11/2009 | The K7RA Solar Update
No new sunspot activity this week, and no emerging sunspots are visible on the far side of the Sun. Sunspot region 1025 (or 11025) that appeared over August 31 and September 1 faded more than a week ago, and the area in which it appeared has just rotated
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07/24/2009 | The K7RA Solar Update
No new sunspots yet, but a big surprise this week with aurora and a geomagnetic storm: Sunspot activity peaked around 0300-0900 UTC on Wednesday July 22, with K index as high as 6. The planetary A index for the day was 24. You can see the K index variatio
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06/26/2009 | The K7RA Solar Update
Two new sunspots appeared last week, numbered 1022 and 1023, and both were Solar Cycle 24 spots, with 1022 lasting through June 23 and 1023 until June 24. On June 24, geomagnetic indices were unsettled. Sunspot numbers for June 18-24 were 0, 0, 0, 12, 24,
Learn More
Feature06/25/2009 | Surfin': Finding Missing Sunspots
This week's Surfin' discovers why the Sun's spots are in hiding.
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06/12/2009 | The K7RA Solar Update
Sunspot numbers from May 31-June 5 ranged from 13 to 23, then the Sun was blank for two days, followed by sunspot numbers of 12 for both June 8 and 9. This fleeting sunspot was number 1020, and like last week's spot, 1020 had the magnetic signature of a n
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XC Globe
By Viktor Kaderabek
Open iTunes to buy and download apps.
● Professional level GPS based track monitor and recorder.
● Suitable for all kind of activities based on motion. .... hiking, running, climbing, kayaking, biking, cycling, paragliding, diving, sailing, driving, traveling, horse riding, flying, skiing .... and many others activities that you like.
● iOS map set and Google map set provided.
● Breaks can be monitored to obtain more accurate data of your activity.
● Special Distance Measure Tool with options.
● Navigating to points and finding the border filed of points.
● Basic unit converter.
● Setting the characteristic of transport that suits your needs.
● Delivering information by voice with sophisticated setting options.
● Inserting your own points of interest.
● Trip time and distance counter.
● Tracking can begin and end with no rush.
● Help screens provided to get familiar with the system.
● The system is very flexible and user friendly to be adjusted to user requirements and expectations.
● Data of recorded track showed in detail for deep analysis.
● The recorded track can be replayed (animation of progress) with all the data in detail to analyse the progress of activity or just for enjoying the track experience again.
● The track editor allows to remove from either ends unwanted part of track. Did you forget to turn the tracking off ?
● The track can be transferred to .gpx file so it can be used for later review in desktop software such as Google Earth Pro. Also it can be used as an official documentation for competitors.
● Recorded tracks can be shared with others via GPX Simulator app which can be used to work with any gpx file.
● Intuitive navigation through the system
● Theme graphic and sound background
● Tested on iPhone and iPad
● The app uses GPS hardware. Be aware that continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life. For that reason you can check the battery life remaining with the extra tool provided, known as Battery Meter.
What's New in Version 1.4
● In the monthly track list the "Total:" displays total tracks, total duration of tracks, and total distance of tracks respectively.
● Now if you select (in the Administrator Tools >> Settings) the "Average speed from the last break:" to be ON. The voice info will provide information about distance and time from the last break instead of actual distance and time of entire tracking.
● Performance improvement.
● Issues related to iOS 7 fixed.
iPhone Screenshot
- $16.99
- Category: Navigation
- Updated: Nov 12, 2013
- Version: 1.4
- Size: 43.0 MB
- Language: English
- Seller: Viktor Kaderabek
- © Viktor Kaderabek
Compatibility: Requires iOS 6.1 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.


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As we move away from physical media such as DVDs and CDs, what can be done with all those discs? How about repurposing that plastic into new laptops? Fujitsu today announced that they are developing a recycling program to collect those discs of old to incorporate into their Lifebook line.
The first laptop model to partially use this new plastic is the LIFEBOOK P772/E for the enterprise market coming out in summer 2012. With this recycling program Fujitsu aims to reduce "annual plastic usage by more than 10 tons and CO2 emissions by 15%."
While the recycled plastic will only be a part of the front panel, hopefully this will be a great way to make use of those old Aol discs and coasters.
Via »Engadget


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ECS has decided on a mini-ATX board configuration for the AMD690GM-M2 V1.0A. The mini-ATX form factor is designed to fit into smaller cases while also being able to be used in a regular-sized ATX case. One of the consequences of using the smaller form factor is the decisions on what to cut, in the form of expansion, memory amounts, SATA controllers and more.
AMD's 690G chipset supports the Socket AM2 platform, meaning that every current Socket AM2 CPU including the 5200+, the 5000+, the 6000+ and the FX-62 is supported by the new chipset. HyperTransport speeds up to 2000MHz are supported. With the mini-ATX form factor, only two DIMM slots are on the board. There are two spots marked for more memory modules but they aren't installed on the board as it is. ECS states the board can take up to 16GB of memory, but there aren't any 8GB sticks of memory so the practical limit at the moment is 8GB if you buy 4GB sticks.
Hard disk drives have almost completely moved to the SATA standard, which replaced the IDE standard. One of the interesting things about this board is the placement of the SATA connector's right under the PCI Express x16 video card slot. What this means is that at least two of the connections are blocked if a long video card like the 8800GTX is installed on the board. In fact three SATA ports are almost covered, making this board not an excellent choice to use a long two-slot video card. Other expansion on the board includes a PCI Express x1 slot and two PCI slots.
Integrated audio is important to the user who wants to have high-quality audio without paying for an external sound card. Virtually every motherboard chipset on the market today supports High Definition Audio which is the replacement for AC'97 audio that has been the standard since 1997. The ECS board has a Realtek ALC883 HDA CODEC onboard. HDA compatible chips support Dolby Digital Live, 7.1 Surround Sound and multiple simultaneous audio streams.
The 690G chipset was the first AMD integrated video chipset to support the HDMI connection standard. HDMI is not supported by the ECS motherboard. The rear IO of the AMD690GM-M2 board contains a standard DVI-D connector, a D-sub connector, 4 USB 2.0 ports, a PS/2 Mouse, a PS/2 Keyboard port, 6 jacks for the onboard audio and a RJ-45 jack for the integrated Gigabit Ethernet port. There is a Realtek RTL8110S PHY chip for the Gigabit Ethernet.


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Seeing that the KC-390 is supposed to replace old and compete with new C-130s, I wounder, are the KC-390 wing large enough to do the job that a C-130 could? A C-130 wing has a span of around 132 ft, where a KC-390 wing span, is around 118 ft, that a big difference.
Please check your spelling (press "Check Spelling" above)
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Click the button below to add the Magnetic Bra-Back Extender to your wish list.
Magnetic snap provides easier opening and closing of bra back.
Ideal for arthritic or stiff hands.
3-Hook - 1-5/8".
Choose Beige or White.
We promise to never spam you, and just use your email address to identify you as a valid customer.
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Complete Release in PDF Format
STATE HOUSE: Butler will close out its current four-game homestand against a very familiar foe when unbeaten Evansville invades Hinkle Fieldhouse for a non-league test on Saturday, Nov. 29. The two Indiana opponents will square off for the 114th time in a game scheduled for 2 p.m. (ET). The Purple Aces (3-0) are the second consecutive team to bring and undefeated record to Hinkle Fieldhouse. Butler successfully dispatched the first, Northwestern, by four points in a hard-fought contest the night before Thanksgiving. Evansville has been idle since defeating Buffalo, 64-49, at home on Saturday, Nov. 22. The Aces, playing on the road for the first time this season, have beaten their first three opponents by an average of 15.7 points. Evansville is the fourth unbeaten team the Bulldogs have faced in the first five games this season. The game against the Aces if Butler's final test before beginning Horizon League play at league preseason favorite Cleveland State on Thursday, Dec. 4.
Butler has won nine straight games against Indiana opponents.
LAST TIME OUT: The Bulldogs came back from a 12-point deficit and used a big second half performance to hand Big Ten foe Northwestern its first defeat of the young season, 57-53. The visiting Wildcats shot 68% in the first half, including 67% from beyond the three-point arc, while racing out to a 33-21 advantage. Butler trimmed the margin to nine points, 36-27, by halftime and then out-scored the visitors, 30-17, in the final 20 minutes. The Bulldogs held Northwestern to 27% shooting in the second half, including just 25% from the three-point arc.
The Bulldogs have won seven straight games in Hinkle Fieldhouse, dating back to last year.
COMEBACK TRAIL: The 12-point deficit Butler erased against Northwestern was the biggest overcome by the Bulldogs since last February, when the Indiana squad defeated Milwaukee after trailing, 15-3. The last time Butler overcame a bigger deficit was against Ohio State last December. The Buckeyes had a 14-point lead in the first half and a 12-point lead in the second period.
EARLY SUCCESS: The Bulldogs have won 19 consecutive games in November, dating back to 2005. Butler's last November loss came at Big Ten foe Michigan, 78-74, on Nov. 26, 2005.
HOMELAND DEFENSE: Butler limited Northwestern to just 17 points in the second half of the pre-Thanksgiving win. It was the fourth time this season that the Bulldogs have held an opponent under 20 points for a half. The Bulldogs have held their first four opponents this season under 60 points for the game and are yielding 47.0 points in Hinkle Fieldhouse. Butler has led the Horizon League in team scoring defense for three straight years.
INSIDE APPROACH: Sophomore Matt Howard turned in two big plays in the final minutes of the game to help Butler overcome visiting Northwestern. With Butler clinging to a 50-47 lead, Howard stole the ball in mid-court and raced to the opposite end for a lay-up and five-point advantage at 2:08. Ninety seconds later, he rebounded a missed three-point field goal attempt by teammate Gordon Hayward and scored to give Butler a 54-51 margin. Howard finished with a game-high 17 points, and he shared team rebounding honors with six. The 6-8 forward also matched his career-high with three steals in the contest, and he was a perfect seven of seven at the free throw line.
Matt Howard is shooting .667 (14-21) from the field in Hinkle Fieldhouse this season.
FEELING DEFENSIVE: Junior Willie Veasley and freshman Ronald Nored drew big defensive challenges in Butler's game against Northwestern. Veasley was assigned to guard 6-8 honorable mention All-Big Ten forward and two-year scoring leader Kevin Coble, while Nored was asked to chase the Wildcats' current scoring leader and reigning Big Ten Co-Player of the Week Craig Moore, who was coming off a 31-point performance at Brown. Both Butler players stepped up to the challenge. Coble finished with just three points, including none in the final 20 minutes of the contest, while Moore posted 11 points, including just two after intermission.
FIRST LOOK: Butler freshman Gordon Hayward, who was recruited by a couple Big Ten teams, played a career-high 37 minutes against Northwestern and finished with 13 points, six rebounds and two assists. He also matched his career-high with two steals and he recorded his first career blocked shot in the game. Hayward hit two of Butler's four three-point field goals in the game, including one that gave the Bulldogs their first lead of the second half at 43-42 with 7:10 left. The 6-8 forward has scored in double-figures in three of his first four collegiate games.
Gordon Hayward leads Butler's starters in points per minute played (0.5).
CHARITABLE WORK: After shooting 52% (13-25) from the free throw line in their home-opener against Ball State, the Bulldogs have shown significant improvement at the charity stripe over the past two outings. Butler hit 16 of 20 (80%) free throw attempts in a victory over IU-South Bend and then cashed 17 of 24 (71%) shots from the charity stripe against Northwestern. Butler ranked second in the Horizon League in free throw shooting with a .737 team free throw percentage last year.
STEPPING UP: Butler is 11-2 in its last 13 games against schools from the BCS conferences. The two losses were to Tennessee in overtime in the second round of the 2008 NCAA Tournament and national champ Florida in the 2007 national tournament. During that stretch, the Bulldogs have wins over Northwestern, Ohio State, Michigan, Indiana, Purdue, Notre Dame, Maryland, Florida State, Tennessee, Texas Tech and Virginia Tech.
HOME WORK: The Bulldogs were 14-1 in Hinkle Fieldhouse last season, with the lone setback coming to #16/18 Drake in the ESPNU BracketBusters game. Butler boasts wins in 45 of its last 49 contests at the Fieldhouse, including 17 of its last 20 non-league games. The Bulldogs are 113-15 (.883) at home since 1999-2000.
Butler is 48-4 in non-league games at Hinkle Fieldhouse since 1999-00.
PRESEASON HONOR: Butler's Matt Howard was named to the Preseason Mid-Major All-America Team by CollegeInsider.com and chosen Mid-Major All-America by CollegeHoops.net. Last season, Howard was named to the CollegeInsider.com Freshman All-America Team.
•Butler has started with a 4-0 record for the third straight year. The Bulldogs won ten straight games to open the 2006-07 season and eight straight a year ago.
•Butler coach Brad Stevens has posted a 5-1 record against teams from the Missouri Valley Conference in his brief tenure as the Bulldogs' head coach. The lone setback came to nationally-ranked Drake in last year's BracketBusters game.
•The Bulldogs hit a season-low four three-point field goals in their win over Northwestern. It was the fewest three-pointers by Butler since the Bulldogs cashed just three long-range shots in a victory over Green Bay last January.
•Freshman Ronald Nored matched his career-high with six point against Northwestern, including the basket that put Butler in front for good, 49-47, with three minutes to play.
•Junior Willie Veasley has scored in double-figures in back-to-back games for the first time in his Butler career. Veasley had a season-high 11 points in Butler's victory over IU-South Bend, and then he posted 10 points in the Bulldogs victory over Northwestern.
•Butler is ranked No. 1 in this week's RPI, published by RealTimeRPI.com. The Bulldogs have a strength of schedule rank of No. 6. Butler is 27th in this week's Sagarin College Basketball rankings.
•Butler head coach Brad Stevens announced that freshmen Chase Stigall and Emerson Kampen will redshirt this season. Stigall is a 6-3 guard from New Castle Chrysler High School, while Kampen is a 6-9 forward from Yorktown High School.
•Last season, Butler coach Brad Stevens became the third-youngest NCAA Division I coach to guide his team to 30 wins, and the youngest in more than half a century! The 32-year-old Stevens is one of just 11 Division I coaches to have recorded a 30-win season before age 40.
•Butler had the most wins of any Division I team in Indiana for the third straight year last season.
•Butler head coach Brad Stevens used
the first day of the NCAA Fall Signing Period to land local recruit
Andrew Smith of Covenant Christian High School. The 6-10 center
averaged 14.5 points, 10.6 rebounds and 2.8 blocked shots, while
shooting 63% from the field last year. He helped lead Covenant
Christian to a 15-7 record.


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I start university in a few weeks (software engineering degree) and know that one of the modules I'll be studying in the first year is 'fundamentals of architecture' or something similar; basically it's learning to program in 'assembly'.
I'm wanting to do some background learning so I'm prepared for it (I've done the same on some other units), but don't know if there is more than one 'assembly language'. How many are there? Is it one per manufacturer, a 32-bit and 64-bit language, or just one standard?
If there is more than one type, what is the most 'popular' or likely to be taught at university level?


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Images: Teaching IA First Responders [Image 2 of 4]
Photo by Sgt. Alun Thomas
Staff Sgt. Matthew Kolakowski (center) from Lakewood, Wis., the brigade's surgeon noncommissioned officer in charge, 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, displays how to correctly wrap a bandage on an abdominal wound to Soldiers from the 34th Iraqi Army Armored Brigade during basic first aid training, Oct. 12.
This work, Teaching IA First Responders [Image 1 of 4], by Alun Thomas, identified by DVIDS, is free of known copyright restrictions under U.S. copyright law.
Date Taken:09.12.2009
Date Posted:10.14.2009 08:40
Photo ID:212500
Size:404.96 KB
Location:CAMP TAJI, IQ


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Upload Photo
PHOTOS: Fatal Webster Ave. car accident
Police say there was a fatal accident on Webster Avenue just south of Fordham Road on Wednesday.
Newsday.com now uses Facebook for our comment boards. Please read our guidelines and connect your Facebook account to comment.
Long Island goes to the prom 11 secrets of the Bethpage Air Show Promotions, new hires and jobs on LI Nassau Class B semifinals: Garden City vs. South Side Rocky Point-Mount Sinai Suffolk Class A final photos Unforgettable faces of LI proms Suffolk Class A final: Islip vs. Mount Sinai Suffolk Class B final: Center Moriches vs. Babylon Nassau Class A semifinals: Massapequa vs. Farmingdale Suffolk boys golf state qualifier photos Only in the Hamptons: Your best bets for 2016 LI valedictorians 2016: Plainedge to Wyandanch


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Strong Language
There's a new blog in town, one aimed at "language geeks to talk about things they can't talk about in more polite contexts." Specifically, the blog Strong Language is all about vulgarities.
Strong Language is the brainchild of linguist James Harbeck and editor Stan Carey, who each have their own excellent language blogs. The blog also features contributions from other writers about language.
Posts in the first week of the blog's existence have included a discussion of some of Francis Grose's more salacious notes that never made it into any of the print editions of his eighteenth-century slang dictionary, a piece by Ben Zimmer on the shit-ins of the 1960s, and a post on dog excrement in medieval Ireland.
So if you like words and aren't easily offended, check it out.
English 3.0
Joe Gilbert has created English 3.0, a twenty-minute documentary on the state of the English language, featuring the likes of Tom Chatfield, David Crystal, Robert McCrum, Fiona McPherson and Simon Horobin.
English 3.0 from Joe Gilbert on Vimeo.
It's quite good. One comment mentioned by several of those interviewed that I have my doubts about concerns the "revolution" in language due to the internet. The claim is that the language is changing faster than ever. I'm not so sure that is true. Rather, we may simply be noticing the change more. People are coining (and abandoning) new words at the same rate they always have. But now with the internet, we see them, where before the new coinage was confined to a small coterie of the coiner's friends and acquaintances. The impact on lexicography is the danger that these words will be ephemeral and the dictionary will become filled with obsolescent coinages that had a brief flash of existence—words that never would have risen to the attention of lexicographer fifty years ago because they died too quickly.
(Tip o' the Hat to Stan Carey over at the Sentence First blog.
reeve, sheriff
I've lived in Toronto for over four years now, and still differences between how English is spoken here and how it is spoken down south in the States keep surprising me. Today I was reading one of my favorite blogs (Lowering the Bar, a blog on legal humor) and saw a reference to the reeve of Hanover, Manitoba. The blog helpfully defined reeve as "mayor."
Now I'm a medievalist, and I'm familiar with the word—one that is primarily known from Chaucer's "The Reeve's Tale" in his Canterbury Tales—but I had no idea the term was still in use other than in historical contexts. But I shouldn't have been surprised. The Canadian political lexicon has several such fossilized terms; another being riding, or a Canadian voting district. Reeve is just another example.
The word comes from the Old English gerefa, a title for a local official or magistrate, often one who supervises the financial affairs of a shire, county, or estate. The -ref root is of unknown origin. The phonological shift from /f/ to /v/ is a common one and in this word can be seen as early as the late Old English/early Middle English period.
In modern use, reeve is mainly a historical term, used to reference medieval officials, but it still survives up here in parts of Canada and in certain pockets of England as a title for modern officials. But the modern use that is probably most familiar is the word sheriff , which comes from the Old English scirgerefa, or shire-reeve.
"reeve, n.1," Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, September 2009.
"sheriff, n.," Oxford English Dictionary, second edition, 1989.
Best Animal Name Ever
Meet Osedax mucofloris, the bone-eating snot-flower worm.
Women in The Guardian
Maddie York, an editor at The Guardian, has penned an article for that paper's "Mind Your Language Blog" in which she objects to the use of woman as an adjective, as in woman doctor or woman writer. The subheading for the blog post—which York may not have written, as headlines are often not written by the reporter—reads:
'Woman' is not an acceptable adjective, any more than 'lady' once was. Let's eradicate this misuse and give language a nudge in the right direction.
But this general proscription is just wrong. There is nothing, and never has been anything, wrong with using woman as an adjective.Read the rest of the article...
I was listening to a podcast in which the astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson stated that he was under the impression that the discipline of ergonomics arose when the baby boomers started growing old and began feeling aches and pains. Of course, I had to immediately research the origin of the term, and it turns out Tyson's impression is incorrect. (To be fair, Tyson wasn't stating it as fact and expressed his own skepticism as to whether or not it was true.)
It seems the term ergonomics was coined in 1949 by British psychologist K. F. Hywel Murrell (1908–84). That same year Murrell as several colleagues founded the Ergonomics Research Society. The Oxford English Dictionary's first citation of the term in a published work is from the 1 April 1950 issue of the medical journal The Lancet, when that journal made mention of the society that Murrell had founded. The word is modeled after economics, but uses the Greek ἔργον, or ergon, meaning work, as the root.
So the term comes much too early to be the result of aging baby boomers, the first of whom were only toddlers when the term and the discipline came into existence.
"ergonomics, n." The Oxford English Dictionary, second edition, 1989.
Footnotes in the Digital Age
Last week Tim Parks posted in the New York Review of Books Blog on the need, or rather lack thereof, for formal reference citations in scholarly literature. Parks contends that with the advent of the internet and databases like Project Gutenberg, there is no longer a need for footnotes that give the source of information. Everything is simply a few key or mouse clicks away, and it's easier for all concerned just to Google something rather than follow a footnoted reference.
Parks couldn't be more wrong, and his argument betrays the biases in his work. His scholarly work is focused on contemporary literature and on translation. While it may, in many cases, be easier for him to Google something than look for a footnote, that is not necessarily the case in other fields.Read the rest of the article...
ASL Poetry
Gretchen McCulloch has a nice post on how to rhyme in sign language over at Slate's Lexicon Valley blog. Of particular note is this video:
More generally, this falls under the category of "how to translate poetry." Whether the target language is spoken or signed, the same basic issue arises: How do you translate verse while remaining true to the source?
The Problem of Defining Genocide
Stéphanie Giry has an article in the New York Review of Books, The Genocide That Wasn't, discussing the application of the term genocide to the case of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Giry outlines the problem that occurs when the generally accepted definition of a term clashes with the legal one and points out that genocide has become the ultimate crime in the eyes of the world public.
In this case, the Cambodian people, and most others around the world, consider what the Khmer Rouge did to the Cambodian people as genocide. But because the actions of the Khmer Rouge were not directed against an ethnic or national minority, the crime doesn't fit the legal definition of genocide. Instead, the Khmer Rouge leaders have been convicted of crimes against humanity, which is perceived as a lesser crime. (Even though the penalty is the same, life in prison.)
Analogous cases where popular definitions of terms conflict with technical ones are common, but the moral stakes here make this case a special one.
Copyright 1997-2016, by David Wilton


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Been having internet connection problems since Saturday evening, the ADSL line keeps going dead every few minutes. Called my ISP today, and they promised to fix it during this week. Websites won't be updated until they do.
Category Archives: My Sites
What The Hell Is Glipho?! And Why Do I Suddenly Have An Account There?!
Just got an "Welcome to Glipho!" e-mail. What the hell?! I had never heard of it, much less registered an account. So apparently someone took the freedom to do what for me?! What the fuck?! What makes them think they have to right to do that, what makes them think I want yet another account I'll never use????
Gave Up Game Of Thrones Fan
I have given up Game Of Thrones Fan http://www.gameofthronesfan.org and put it up for adoption. I love the series as much as ever, and I can't wait for season 2. BUT, I find myself avoiding spoilers and wanting to go totally fresh and not knowing anything in advance into the new season (so much so that I decided to not even read the other books after reading the first one in the series).
This makes updating the site impossible, so I'm gave it up.
In other news, this problem with crystalfires.net, dreams.crystalfires.net and morenab.com has been cropping up intermitedly ever since the first time and is back today too 🙁 It seems to be happening on weekends.
Reading Failure
In the past two weeks, I've gotten about a dozen e-mails/wp comments/ twitter messages from people thinking that the site or the twitter account is run and maintained by the celebrity themselves :< These sort of messages come in every once in a while, it's been fleeding these lately.
Why do so many people fail at reading??!! On most of my fansites I have something like "this is an unofficial fansite for [Insert Celebrity Name]" tagged on the header and also "This is a completely unofficial fansite – the owner is in no contact with neither [Insert Celebrity Name], their management or family in any way what-so-ever." spelled out in the footer or the sidebar. But judging by the e-mails I get, a number of people read it mean exactly the opposite and send me e-mails and questions thinking they'll get to speak with the celebrity her/himself *head desk*
Feels like I should start saying "official" instead because the way it's going, it's like they're automatically interpret it to mean the opposite and that no, I really don't have any contact with [Insert Celebrity Name] :/
Same goes for fansite twitters. Don't people read the site name or account name and the description at all, or do they see only the letters forming the name of [Insert Celebrity Name], and never ever even accidentally see anythingat all that is screaming at them from the page that it's not the [Insert Celebrity Name]'s own offical site or official twitter account???????!!!! Like the words unofficial and fansite and I'm not [Insert Celebrity Name]???????
I'm tired of explaining the same thing over and over and over, but I think it's rude not to reply legimate comments and questions (by which I mean those that are not clearly spam) so if I don't, I feel bad.
Health Update
So I've now had all the tests ordered by the infections specialist; nothing was found and no reason for the chronic diarrhea. Removing the two bad teeth has had no effect at all on the CRP levels which continue to be slightly elevated. They decided to refer me to Gastro in case they think they should check me. I was checked by the Gastro but that was about 5 months before the chronic diarrhea started, and was because of the bad hemoglobin.
So now I'm in line for the MRI of the small intestine in October. Yay fun. I guess I should hope they'll find someting that explains the chronic diarrhea and that can be treated, no matter what it is. I'm pretty sure I've this particular thing done already once, but I can't remember whether it was for the hemoglobin or the diarrhea. But if they want to keep examining me, let them… it'd be nice to have a real explanation.
Huh. I just noticed that categories on the right don't work. I'll look into that. EDIT: and now they have disappeared???
Fanfic, Shippers & The Whistleblower
I know I've ranted about this before but it keeps coming up every once in a while so…
Is it so damn hard to crasp that people actually exist who don't give a flying fuck about shipping and pairings and OTPs – and to consider that just maybe not all wallpapers featuring two characters in it mean that I, the maker, must ship that pairing? Oh, and better yet, then get apoplectic because I have dared to make wallpapers pairing – your word, not mine – Character A not only with Character B but also with other people????????? Stupid shippers. Oh, and while we're at it… no, "Todd smut" doesn't automatically mean it's Todd/Sheppard. There are other characters than Sheppard (and McKay), you know, or I can even make up !GASP! an OC or two if I want to. I don't like Sheppard (yes !GASP! that is possible!) You don't want me to write Sheppard; you would not like the result. And nor would I.
On other news. Watched Rachel Weisz's The Whistleblower today. A very good, but hard movie to watch. But also a very necessary one.
Amazing Rachel Weisz was closed by its owner a few days ago due to personal reasons. She first gave me the chance to download everything I wanted. Which I did, and have uploaded to my Rachel site. It was a fabulous RW site,and I'm so glad Natalie didn't just close it – it'd been a huge loss to fandom.
But it made me feel like a Borg – AMR was the fifth fansite (although 1st RW fansite) I have taken over when the original owner could not maintain it anymore. I'm very glad to be trusted and able to do that, but at the same time I'm feeling like I'm the Borg and take over all my favorite fansites/subjects. Sometimes it would be great to just be one of many, not the only, fan producing content (by which I mean photos, video clips, wallpapers, screencaps, icons etc. things that require actually making or scanning content). Luckily there is at least one still more or less up-to-date fansite for Rachel. So at least I'm not literally the only one this time. But yeah.
Jewel Staite Network
I have opened another tribute fansite 🙂
Latest news, media and more on actress Jewel Staite, best know for her work on scifi tv series Firefly and Stargate: Atlantis.
http://www.crystalfires.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/18/jewel-staite-network/JewelStaiteNetwork-150x99.png 150w, http://www.crystalfires.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/18/jewel-staite-network/JewelStaiteNetwork-300x199.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" />
Mom + Fansites + Internet Connection
Mom's operation went well and she got back home yesterday as planned. So far she hasn't had much pain, and she's feeling alright. The arm pit things were clean and they didn't have to remove any of them so that's awesome 😀 but there are other biopsies that we'll get the results of three weeks from now before we know for sure whether it had spread or not. But so far so good and we're taking it one step at a time 🙂 But I am very relieved 😀
In other news…
A couple of weeks ago, I adopted a fansite for Game Of Thrones, the HBO tv series. Didn't announce it until Gertie bought a domain for it: Game Of Thrones Fan. Game Of Thrones is currently the tv series I most look forward to each week 😀
Also, it took a few days, but Gertie finally renewed the domain v-fans.net so the site is back and working again!
I've ordered a dedicated ADSL to my appartment because my current one, which is a free one offered by my appartment building, has slowed down unbearably. The new ADSL should be installed on June 7, and it all should happen in such a way that I don't loose internet accessibility at any point, I'll believe it when I see it. So I might disappear for a bit if something goes wrong with it.
Domain Renewal/Transfer Problems
So two of my domains, http://www.crystalfires.net and http://www.wraithfans.com, need to be renewed now and I've run into a problem – I want to move their registration away from Netfirms (because they're expensive, and also charge me for VAT now although by the law of my country, I don't have to pay it for such small fees because I'm not a companyt/organization but they charge it automatically when one lives in the EU area instead of in the US. And the VAT they would charge if I renew them on netfirms, makes it way too expensive for me) and have done that with other domains before without any problems before, including Netfirms -> elsewhere transfer.
But this time I'm having trouble – I believe it's because of Netfirms changed their control panel to a new platform/version, and for some reasons the domain transfer authorization e-mails aren't always getting through to me. Both domains failed to transfer to name.com and at the same time I discovered something off about name.com so I'm not going to try with them again.
I've ordered transfer of both domains to namecheap.com and so far, both domains seem to process the transfer ok – at least I got all the authorization e-mails (although after a delay), and as I write this, at least wraithfans.com has proceeded to the actual transfer of the domain information from Netfirms to Namecheap step, and the next step is that Netfirms need to release it – but if that process doesn't work as it should because of a bug in the new control panel/platform, it'll propably fail again.
Keeping fingers crossed it all goes well, but in case it doesn't – I'll renew them at Netfirms if I absolutely have to but I won't be happy about it, at all.
Anyway, this is to tell you that these two domains might expire for a bit, depending on how the transfers to Namecheap go or not go, as the case may be. If they go as they should, no problems and no expiry. But because on crystalfires.net there's only 11 days left before expiration, and on wraithfans.com 16 days when I'm writing this, and domain transfers take several days to complete – especially because I'm not getting the necessary e-mails as quickly as I should so there's some delay because of that – so while all the transfering is attempted, it might take enough days to complete all the required steps that if it doesn't work in the end, the domains might expire before I'm able to renew them at their old home Netfirms.
Wish I'd had started the process a month ago, with more days left before expiry, but I'd never had any problems transfering from one registrar to another, and so didn't anticipate to have problems this time either 🙁
Livejournal, Hiatus, Flu
It's that time of year again – weather turns to spring and summer, and I whine about it. It's been very springy the last two weeks or so, weather is almost hot in the sun but still cold in the shade, and I got the flu to prove it 🙁 And as always in the spring and summer when the sun shines, the inside temperature of my appartment goes up unbearably – it's already gone up to 27 degrees Celcius… I fucking HATE spring and summer.
Anyway, I I said I got the flu and that pushes my end of hiatus a bit – I had planned to officially come ouf of hiatus in the beginning of May, but now I'm officially pushing it at least mid-May. I'm not going to do anything except script updates (if there are any) until this stupid flu is completely over.
And the last bit of news… I renamed today my LJ account nekhbet_ariane to my original account name ariane179254 – after the first rush of excitment I never really liked the other name, and what I should've done when I quit LJ as personal site was delete all posts & everything on ariane179254 and just keep that name. I kept all the connections/posts/whatever between the new name and the old name, so the change should be seamless and nothing gets lost/deleted etc.


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Review By: Andrew Joy
|Extreme Sports
|# Of Players:
|1-2 (8 online)
|Online Play:
|Xbox Live (online play)
|Buy Now:
If someone had told me a few years ago that the next generation of consoles from Nintendo and Sony would primarily feature motion controls, I probably would have laughed them back into whatever loony bin (or time machine) they escaped from. The idea, while often mused about (and only occasionally attempted, to somewhat hokey and mixed results), just seemed stranger than fiction and, at the very least, a long ways off. And yet, here we are – we haven't just knocked on the next generation's door, but we've crossed the threshold, taken off our shoes, and are asking for a cup of coffee – and motion sensing controllers are just the path the Wii and PlayStation 3 have taken (albeit in different fashions) with the pointer-like Wii remote and tilt-sensitive SIXAXIS, respectively. While it remains to be seen how well they will fare in the long term, so far, things are looking promising (especially for the Wii), but taking note of that also urges us to look at the Xbox 360. Though the benefits are of arriving on the console market a year before anyone else are clear, one of the pitfalls of it (and with development starting well before that) is that Microsoft could have designed itself right out of the market. Since peripherals do not generally sell nearly as well as the console they are designed for, and with all three "next-gen" systems squaring off against one another on an even playing field, the Xbox 360 must find new ways to compete using what it's got. And, though I never thought these words would pass from my lips, Tony Hawk's Project 8 is the perfect example of such innovation.
Over the years, innovation hasn't exactly been the calling card of the Tony Hawk series. In fact, if anything, the series has grown so stagnant that each following version has seemed less and less worth purchasing. Activision has started to experiment in recent years, trying to recapture the spirit of the franchise with Tony Hawk's American Sk8land on the Nintendo DS and going in a completely different direction with Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam on the Wii (which was more of a racing title), but main installments in the series have remained relatively unchanged. Though the series features the Birdman's name and face, recent versions have seemed more about promoting the fresher faces in the industry, the ones that can bring in the new money. But with this new roster comes a new style, and the games have become more and more convoluted as a result. I won't say Tony Hawk's Project 8 completely fixes this problem, and I ran into a few people I didn't expect, like actor Jason Lee, but for the most part you will meet a lot more truly professional skaters during the course of the game. As it is in every game (hey, some things never change), interaction with these pros is not only key to progressing through the game (as they stand as some of the many challenges you'll have to complete sooner or later), but also developing your skill. Not unlike a lot of gamers who pick up the game, most of these skaters have found themselves specializing in one skill or another, and for their tests you usually must perform some sort of feat along those lines. While it is possible to progress with a specialty, if you are able to tackle each objective as it becomes available, you'll likely find it much easier to advance in rank.
The setup of the game is that Tony Hawk has come to town looking for the eight best skaters (hence the name), and in order to join his troupe, you must beat out some 200 other hopefuls. The road to the top can be a long one, though it really all depends on the skill of the player as I've mentioned. So, if you've been a loyal fan of these games, steadily playing them throughout the years, chances are it won't take you very long at all to get back into the swing of things...or, if you're anything like me, you can at least wing it through a good portion. A lot of what you're tasked to do should also seem familiar, with, in addition to the pros, lots of various townsfolk, photographers, and the like popping up all over the place asking for your help. Some of the tasks are pretty straightforward, like being asked to perform a specific stunt for a photo shoot - with varying degrees of complexity earning you a score of Amateur, Pro, or Sick - while others actually give you a short but welcome story, like having to break into a building undetected, steal some blueprints, disable the alarms, and tamper with the clock tower in order to free all the children from school. Some of those, like that last one, are actually the only way to open new areas on the map. Though I'm not familiar enough with the series to make a direct comparison to other games, Tony Hawk's Project 8 plunks you down in the middle of a fairly large map. Unfortunately, you don't have run of the entire thing right from the get-go, and it is broken down into several sections – including Suburbia, the Skate Park, the Capitol, the School, the Slums, the Factory and the Fun Park – which you unlock over the course of the game, much like a Grand Theft Auto game.
Posted: 2007-03-03 11:55:25 PST


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@Article {export:76077, abstract = {
Online game modes are gradually becoming the standard for console games, rather than an added bonus. But how do you get the right players playing against the right people, close enough in skill to be challenging, but not so difficult as to be frustrating?}, author = {Thore Graepel and Ralf Herbrich}, journal = {Game Developer Magazine}, month = {October}, title = {Ranking and Matchmaking}, url = {http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/default.aspx?id=76077}, year = {2006}, }