text:
Get your IDC XIV Tier 1 paper here - http://tinyurl.com/6mkmxrr
Data Center 7.0
IDC finds favor w/ XIV Gen 3 = Tier 1 Storage
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW email@example.com Tags:  tier ibm xiv 3 idc gen3 storage 1 gen 1,540 Visits
A freshly printed IDC White Paper shows how the recent XIV Gen 3 changes have pushed it from Tier 1.5 into the Full Tier 1 space.
Prior to now XIV was a disruptive technology.... well yet another Storage Inflection point has been breached.
Hang onto your legacy vendors no more... prepare for XIV Gen 3 (GA March '12)
Get your IDC XIV Tier 1 paper here - http://tinyurl.com/6mkmxrr
Let's talk @ your IBM Storage today!
Solid State Drive (SSD) Workloads
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW firstname.lastname@example.com Tags:  state ssd performance drive sizing solid 1,416 Visits
As a follow on to my September 13 2010 BLOG entry about SSD I felt it important to uncover what type of workload is best suited for SSD in your Enterprise.
Smaller workloads (packets) are better suited to be serviced by SSD. What is small workload you ask? Anywhere between 4K - 64K is the sweet spot, although that is NOT to say that you can't service 128K and 256K workloads please don't expect a huge increase in performance with those workloads.
Throw in a very random workload which is another good service characteristic for SSD.
Then add in a read workload and you have a great need for SSDs.
Please recall SSD's do very little to the write performance of an SSD offering.
Well-suited for environments that need:
– High IO/sec
– Small capacity IBM through extensive research has concluded that the proper mix of SSD to disk ratio in a Disk Subsystem is between 5-13% of total capacity.
You should fully evaluate your workload before just throwing SSD at a problem in hopes that SSD can solve it.
In summary, random read requests in small packet sizes are a perfect fir for your SSD workloads
What is Big Data
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW firstname.lastname@example.com Tags:  hadoop sets data processing no-sql big real-time ibm analytics 1,260 Visits
At this point in 2011 we have all heard the term Big Data, but what is Big Data really?
There are still a lot of fragmented ideas for Big Data, best I can tell here is a nice definition.
Big Data can be defined simply as multi-terabyte datasets, typically ten or more. But Big Data also involves big complexity, namely many diverse data sources (both internal and external), data types (structured, unstructured, semi-structured), and indexing schemes (relational, distributed file systems, no-SQL). Plus, Big Data requires big processing to achieve useful analytic results.
Summary: Data + Analytics
What are the characteristics of Big Data?
· Very large data sets
· Distributed Aggregation
· Loosely Structured
· Often incomplete
Solve data issues with collaboration of Algorithms to process all the data not just subsets of data.
What are the Big Data components?
· Data at Rest
· Fast Data
Some food for thought in your enterprise:
Does Big Data mean more irrelevant data or does it require better BI tools?
Will Big Data arrive in waves?
If so, how will you accommodate the sudden spikes in requirements?
Are you feeling out of touch with the coming onslaught of Big Data even if you work in IT? No need to worry, this is just the next phase in IT expanding the IT role in an enterprise. You might explore adding some skills or adding deeper skills in / around analytics.
All the solution components are not yet in place to monetize Big Data results, will you be the next startup to exploit these results and help change IT?
In my mind Big Data will change industries and the world! Watch World here comes the next IT Wave!
IT Automation and Clouds
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW firstname.lastname@example.com Tags:  computing provisioning cloud it automation 1,183 Visits
Everyone knows that Cloud building (regardless of type Private, Public, Hybrid) has many facets to be successful. Let's jump into one of the tools / utils of Clouds today, IT Automation.
You know that automation requires a full understanding of IT assets (new and old).
So, are enterprises large and small doing a good job of managing IT assets today? Most would admit they are not doing a good job of managing assets (on-site or off).
The asset management concept sounds easy enough, but think about how assets have changed in just the last 2 years (tablets, Mobile doc readers, etc…) these devices have to be counted too as they contribute to the creation and use of corporate assets.
With the proliferation of assets of all types and the ever expanding network boundaries the device count keep ticking up.
Where to start?
Service catalog seems to be the most pressing issue deployment today.
What products do you use?
Have you found any good open source tools for asset management?
IT Automation was once banished due to restricted budgets, now it's a necessity as it's a fundamental IT building block (agility).
What is the state of IT automation today?
How can IT Automation help your environment? When front ended by a service catalog your end users can hit the service portal and request a new system or service. Your provisioning tools then get work setting up the requested environment.
How far can you take IT Automation in your environment; the possibilities are limited only by time, technology and of course money.
Are you tying asset management into your BI infrastructure if no, why?
Are you tying asset management into your Sales Force automation if no, why?
Are you tying asset management into your consolidated I/O environments?
You should be spending time to see how IT automation can reduce your IT spend.
IBM Ships Storwize V7000 V6.2 code set = lots of new features
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW firstname.lastname@example.com Tags:  v6.2 clustering out scale storwize 10g v7000 1,052 Visits
IBM shipped the next release of Storwize V7000 V6.2
Some of the cool features include (but, not limited to)
Plus plenty of others check out the official announcement letter:
IBM Ships Storwize V7000 15K Drives
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW firstname.lastname@example.com Tags:  storwize drives v7000 15k 1,036 Visits
How many enterprises have been waiting to buy their own Storwize V7000 once IBM shipped 15K drives?
Wait no more!
As of Friday April 15th 2011 we are shipping 146GB 15K SAS drives for the IBM Storwize V7000.
Great size drive for performance with out having to spend a lot of $$$ just to end up creating
your own short stroked drive.
Check out the announcement below.
Look for more 15K drives during the summer!!!!
IBM Ships 1000 Storwize V7000 since Oct Announcement
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW email@example.com Tags:  ibm storwize v7000 announcement storage 1 Comment 1,960 Visits
IBM has shipped 1000 Storwize V7000 units since the Oct announcement.
Talk about a fast start.
Don't take my word for it check it out.
SAN Encyprtion Technology - Part I
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW firstname.lastname@example.com Tags:  encryption san pki tklm kmip 1,208 Visits
There seems to be a perception in the storage arena that IT Security is for all facets other than storage. However, if you have been monitoring the SAN product announcements in the storage space (which I know you are) you have seen the end-to-end security offerings in the SAN are now available. Sure there are several ways to accomplish security in the Storage Arena (Disk Subsystem based, SAN Based, Host based).
Ever wonder what is going on under the covers of the SAN security offerings? What does SAN based security offering do and what are the components? Let's dig into the SAN security offerings from a standards perspective.
Keep in mind I am not going to cover all IT security offerings such as LTPA, OpenPGP, GOST, SEED, or even Elliptical Curve Crypto, just what you will encounter in the SAN based offerings. Neither will we cover how security impacts your compliance needs or how to devise security domains or help identify threat levels for your data. We are going to focus on securing enterprise data while keeping it available for use (no time to cover how encryption will impact RTO & RPO values). This topic will also be limited to the Fibre channel SAN and not cover FICON environments.
Let's lay the security foundation by understanding the important terms.
Industry Standard Security Terms: A.K.A the Security Alphabet Soup!
AES = Advanced Encryption Standard (IEEE 1619, 1619.3) Available in 128-, 192- & 256-bit key lengths
AES-256-XTS for Disk
AES-256-GCM for Tape
CC EAL-3 = Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level 3
CHAP = Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol RFC 1334 & 1994 – 3-way handshake using MD-5 hash
In our instance it will be used by iSCSI (or should be used)
FIPS = Published based on 128-bit
FIPS Subcomponents
FIPS 140-2 L3 (Tamper Proof)
MD-5 = RFC 1321 (128-bit one way hash, never sent over the link), typically found in SMB v1.0 type environments
PKCS = Public Key Crypto Stands (RFC 2898)
PKCS Subcomponents
PKI = Public Key Infrastructure (A.K.A x.509 PKI (Public Key Infrastructure))
PKI Subcomponents
PKIX = PKI CA / Registration Agent
RPKI = Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RFC 5280) expect to see this in ISP offerings (huge environments)
IKE = Internet Key Encryption (RFC 2408-2410)
IKEv2 (RFC 4306, RFC4595)
KMIP (Key Mgr Inter Operability Protocol) which is part of OASIS offering and way to get to IEEE P1619.3
Other Terms to be familiar with:
DAR = Data at Rest
DIF = Data in Flight
RPO = Recovery Point Objective
RTO = Recovery Time
The key to all IT security offerings rests in proper Key Management (you do NOT want to have to manually manage keys and worry about key lifecycles, key retention, etc).
The central role of a key manager offering is to manage security keys across all device types across your enterprise (just think about all the keys in / around the VPN). Key Managers also present the ability to work with Certificate Authority (CA) all while being easy to utilize. Do not overlook the need for Role Based Access Control (RBAC) and auditing capabilities (who polices the police)?
Here are just a few products (listed in no certain order) IBM Tivoli Key Lifecycle Manager (TKLM), RSA RKM, HP Storageworks Key Mgr (HKM), NetApp Lifetime Key Mgt (LKM).
KMIP is seen as one way to replace the hodgepodge of different encryption-key management products out there. Put another way it solves BIG issue within Enterprise security realm.
Key Size (128, 256 are the most common while 512, 1024 bit are offered with not a lot of adoption (as I have seen). Keep in mind that cracking the 256 bit code takes 2128 more computational power than the 128-bit version
Key Choice – select the
version that makes the most sense for your environment (keep in mind delay for
creating the key and unpacking the data) is a 8-10% performance hit acceptable? What are the acceptable guidelines for your enterprise?
Symmetric or Asymmetric keys
The Symmetric key is used for both read and writes for SAN encryption. Symmetric key encryption algorithms are significantly faster than asymmetric encryption algorithms, which makes symmetric encryption an ideal candidate for encrypting large amounts of data. Speed and short key length are advantages of symmetric encryption.
While Asymmetric keys are require two pairs for encrypting and decrypting data a typical usage is for VPN type of enterprise offerings and the king of the Asymmetric offering is RSA.
I have learned over the years that hardware is the way to go with security due to the load that software places on CPU's. Having a dedicated component to tackle that one job ensures that all other processes are handled in a timely manner and not creating another issue.
I also like SAN encryption due to the flexibility it brings to an enterprise security offering (all data passes thru the SAN)
Another aspect of security to keep in mind is data classification. You might ask why? Do you really want or need all your data encrypted? What is the corporate directive state?
I have to leave our security discussion at this
point let's call this Part I, keep watching this space for Part II (How to roll out SAN Encryption)
ESG releases Mixed workload benchmark for Storwize V7000
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW firstname.lastname@example.com Tags:  benchmark esg v7000 workload storwize mixed 1,211 Visits
ESG (Enterprise Server Group) released a great benchmark on the IBM Storwize V7000.
The ESG benchmark was for mixed workloads.
Please review the ESG benchmark data here:
Global Name Space (GNS)
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW email@example.com Tags:  dfs cifs federation gns windows name mapping nfs policies unix global space 1,356 Visits
Everyone knows that storage growth has been at growing exponential levels for a few years now within enterprises, and as a subset of data unstructured data is growing faster than structured (tabular) data.
How are you handling the unstructured data growth?
One option is via Global Name space (GNS) (Please don't confuse that with the old Novell IPX GNS ((Get Nearest Server)) yes acronym reuse is fun.)
What is GNS?
Put in simple terms it will do to file storage what DNS did for IP networking.
Or put another way GNS enables your clients to access files w/ out knowing the exact location Or put yet another way it's federation of a File System (F/S).
The official industry definition goes like this… A Global Namespace (GNS) has the unique ability to aggregate disparate and remote network based file systems, providing a consolidated view that can greatly reduce complexities of localized file management and administration.
Global Namespace technology can virtualize file server protocols such as Common Internet File System protocol (CIFS) and the Network File System (NFS) protocols.
So, you might be asking
yourself how does global namespace help my enterprise? How many mapped drives to you have (UNIX
& Windows)? How many more mapped
drives do you need to add?
How much time do you spend just managing mapped drives? How much time do you spend managing file locations? How much time do you spend performing cross mapping searches?
Now multiply that number by the number of admins and users who perform similar work in your enterprise.
How much time do you spend working policies and access rights to these files?
Another benefit of GNS is the ability to tie GNS into Microsoft's DFS to ease your administration load there too.
You will find lots of competitive global namespace products out there in the market for you to select from such as (IBM SONAS, Brocade StorageX, F5 Networks, etc, just to name a few)
Happy Productivity Increase!
LTFS – Linear Tape File System
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW firstname.lastname@example.com Tags:  tape ltfs drag ilm drop hsm 2 Comments 2,451 Visits
Enterprise Data protection is not a new topic (it's actually a core IT principal = protecting data) and we continue to see a growing investment in data protection methodologies in enterprises across the globe. While some of our competition want you to believe that all data needs can be satisfied by placing all data on spinning disk; doesn't seem very economical to me. Tape is the greenest IT offering to date across the market. We are not going to discuss tape offerings, let us discuss what IBM helped write and released early in 2010. The product offering is called LTFS which stands for Linear Tape File System. This new offering allows admins drag and drop capabilities for files making the tape F/S system appear to be a removable media format (Flash Drive, DVD etc,) to the Operating System. So drag and drop to / from tape seems like an inexpensive solution for Video Surveillance files.
How does LTFS work?
LTFS is a physical media portioning technology and LTFS creates 2 partitions on LTO5 tapes while the schema is stored in XML format.
What Operating Systems are supported?
RHEL 5.4, 5.5, MAC OS X 10.5, Windows 7, and others are getting their stamp of approval.
What Backup Software is supported?
No dedicated backup program such as TSM, NetBackup etc are required as the OS can write directly to the tape itself.
What Hardware is supported?
LTFS V1 supports LTO5 tape drives while the Tape Libraries are gaining their stamp of approval look for that in future releases.LTFS Defaults: Block size is 1MB
Best of all LTFS is FREE, yes that is not a typo it's free.
Learn more about the IBM LTFS offering http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/storage/tape/ltfs/
IBM Easy Tier
We have kicked around the term Easy Tier for a few weeks now and thought it was time to dissect the technology in detail.
What is IBM Easy Tier? It is an easy tool (setup in 15-30 minutes) that was designed to optimize data placement in a hybrid extent pool (Mix of SSD & HDD). Understand that it is a 2-tier architecture for data (hot & cold data sets) and that all candidate data is reviewed at the extent level (sub-volume level) for movement with-in the hybrid pool. The two tiers can be either SSD+FC or SSD+SATA drive types.
IBM Easy Tier is a free tool available on the DS8700, DS8800 (LIC code level requirements etc) & Storwize V7000 subsystems (Soon to be available on SVC via code set v6.1. Under the covers Easy Tier is a continuous learning algorithm that should have 24 hours (A.K.A Workload learning) of data prior to making recommendations. The algorithm can bring benefits to day-to-day workloads as well as the end of the quarter and year end workloads can
There are currently two modes to Easy Tier (Automatic & Manual Modes).
Easy Tier Automatic Mode enables facilities to autonomically optimize data placement among physical resources with different granularity, performance (and cost) characteristics.
In manual mode allows you to manually merge extent pools and relocate volumes
Other Easy Tier features – is fully aware of Copy Services (FlashCopy, MM/GM)
Oh, did I mention the price? It is FREE!
Reference Materials:
IBM Redbook
Get out there and learn more about IBM Easy Tier
IBM Storage Mgt Pack for Microsoft Systems Center Operations Manager (SCOM) is now available
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW firstname.lastname@example.com Tags:  xiv svc ds8000 v7000 scom storwize 1,453 Visits
The IBM Storage Management Pack for Microsoft Systems Center Operations Manager (SCOM) is now available! This plugin enables customers to monitor and report the health state of their IBM storage products, using their native operations management tool and processes. The plugin operates with IBM DS8000, Storwize V7000, SVC, and XIV systems.
The plugin and documentation are available now via
CDMI Tutorial Now Available from SNIA
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW firstname.lastname@example.com Tags:  snia cdmi tutorial 802 Visits
On Dec 16th I posted info about the new draft paper for CDMI v1.0.1f
SNIA recently released tutorial about CDMI
Learn about CDMI here ---> http://tinyurl.com/3a93hjq
FCC's New Internet Rules: Transparency, No Blocking, "Reasonable" Net Management
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW email@example.com Tags:  rules fcc net nuetrality 832 Visits
Yesterday the FCC passed new rules governing the management of Internet Traffic.
Key Elements you should understand:
Rule 1: Transparency -- A person engaged in the provision of broadband Internet access service shall publicly disclose accurate information regarding the network management practices, performance, and commercial terms of its broadband Internet access services sufficient for consumers to make informed choices regarding use of such services and for content, application, service, and device providers to develop, market, and maintain Internet offerings.
Rule 2: No Blocking -- A person engaged in the provision of fixed broadband Internet access service, insofar as such person is so engaged, shall not block lawful content, applications, services, or non-harmful devices, subject to reasonable network management. A person engaged in the provision of mobile broadband Internet access service, insofar as such person is so engaged, shall not block consumers from accessing lawful websites, subject to reasonable network management; nor shall such person block applications that compete with the provider's voice or video telephony services, subject to reasonable network
Rule 3: No Unreasonable Discrimination -- A person engaged in the provision of fixed broadband Internet access service, insofar as such person is so engaged, shall not unreasonably discriminate in transmitting lawful network traffic over a consumer's broadband Internet access service. Reasonable network management shall not constitute unreasonable discrimination.
The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) has launched a revision of the Cloud Controls Matrix (CCM)
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW email@example.com Tags:  cloud matrix security 1,031 Visits
The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) has launched a revision of the Cloud Controls Matrix (CCM)
The CSA CCM provides control frameworks which provide detailed understanding of security concepts and principles that are aligned to the Cloud Security Alliance guidance in 13 domains.
Get your copy here --> http://tinyurl.com/y9jtkfw
NPIV for ESX on Storwize V7000
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW firstname.lastname@example.com Tags:  v7000 storwize npiv esx 1,164 Visits
Fresh off the virtual presses is the release of the NPIV for ESX guide for IBM Storwize V7000.
Get your copy here ---> http://tinyurl.com/29fft2v
IBM Easy Tier Analysis Tool for Storwize V7000 & SVC
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW email@example.com Tags:  automated tiering tier v7000 storwize svc easy 1,180 Visits
The IBM Storage Tier Advisor Tool predicts whether the addition of Solid State Drive (SSD) capacity in conjunction with the Easy Tier function could benefit system performance.
The IBM Storage Tier Advisor Tool is a Windows console application that analyzes heat data files produced by Easy Tier and produces a graphical display of the amount of "hot" data per volume and predictions of how additional Solid State Drive (SSD) capacity could benefit performance for the system and by storage pool. This version of the Storage Tier Advisor Tool supports heat data files produced by Easy Tier on SAN Volume Controller 6.1, Storwize V7000 and DS8000 5.1, 5.1.5.
Heat data files are produced approximately once a day when Easy Tier is active on one or more storage pools and summarize the activity per volume since the prior heat data file was produced. On SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 the heat data file is in /dumps on the configuration node and is named "dpa_heat.node_name.time_stamp.data". Any existing heat data file is erased whenever a new heat data file is produced. The file must be off-loaded by the user and Storage Tier Advisor Tool invoked from a Windows command prompt console with the file specified as a parameter. The user can also specify the output directory. The Storage Tier Advisor Tool creates a set of html files and the user can then open the resulting "index.html" in a browser to view the results.
Usage information can be found in a readme supplied with the Tool.
SNIA CDMI v1.0.1f draft released
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW email@example.com Tags:  cdmi draft snia 534 Visits
We talked a few weeks back about Cloud Management / tools.
On April 12, 2010 SNIA formerly released V1.0 of CDMI (Cloud Data Management Interface) ((Can be found here http://tinyurl.com/2ukfo5t))
Which allows Enterprises to manage (create, change & delete) Meta Data placed into clouds.
SNIA recently released a draft for CDMI v1.0.1f
Looks like the standards are shaping up well for Cloud Management.
Until next time....
IBM Storwize V7000 SPC-2 benchmark are available
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW firstname.lastname@example.com Tags:  storwize benchmark spc-2 v7000 995 Visits
IBM Storwize V7000 SPC-2 benchmark data are available.
SPC-2 benchmark results came in at 3,132 MBps
IEEE Forms 100G Backplane and Twinax Cabling Study Group
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW firstname.lastname@example.com Tags:  backplane ieee twinax 100g 695 Visits
IEEE Forms 100G Backplane and Twinax Cabling Study Group
IEEE 802.3 Working Group has formed a 100Gbps Ethernet Electrical Backplane and Twinax Copper Cable Assemblies Study Group.
Supporters of the initiative see a need to develop an electrical solution for 100GbE backplanes and short reach twinax cabling that operates at greater than 10Gbps per lane.
The study group will have its first meeting as part of the IEEE 802.3 Working Group interim meeting.
IBM Systems Director Storage Control
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW firstname.lastname@example.com Tags:  discovery monitoring storwize smi-s ds5000 san ds6000 director svc storage ibm alerting systems ds4000 ds8000 ds3000 control v7000 1,487 Visits
IBM Systems Director Storage Control a plug-in for IBM Systems Director was announced on Nov 7th, 2010.
IBM Systems Director Storage Control has been designed & optimized for mid-range storage offerings to increase IT productivity, typically these tool sets are lacking in mid-range space.
The Director plug-in provides support for DS3/4/5/6/8K disk subsystems, as well as Storage virtualization engines Storwize V7000, SVC, to round out the portfolio support we include N series, Fibre Channel Switches, IBM Servers (x, p & z) and SMI-S providers (proxy).
IBM Systems Director Storage Control also extends VMcontrol support (another IBM Systems Director Plug-in) to broaden storage systems support from this perspective too.
A few more features of the IBM Systems Director Storage Control are its Integrated support for Discovery, Inventory, Alerts, Monitoring, Configuration, Provisioning of storage offerings. In addition to automated monitoring and event notification thresholds. Sound like a tool that can enhance your storage environment?
IBM Systems Director Storage Control is available for 60-day free trial. Try it now http://tinyurl.com/24ocuel
IBM announced new CMOS Integrated Silicon Nanophotonics
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW firstname.lastname@example.com Tags:  nanophotonics cmos ibm silicon 702 Visits
IBM announced
significant advances in its path to integrate electrical and optical devices on
the same piece of silicon. The new CMOS Integrated Silicon Nanophotonics, which
is the result of a decade of development at IBM's global Research laboratories,
promises over 10X improvement in integration density than is feasible with
current manufacturing techniques.
IBM said it anticipates
that Silicon Nanophotonics will dramatically increase the speed and performance
between chips. In addition to combining electrical and optical devices on a
single chip, the new IBM technology can be produced on the front-end of a standard
CMOS manufacturing line. Transistors can share the same silicon layer with
silicon nanophotonics devices. To make this approach possible, IBM researchers
have developed a suite of integrated ultra-compact active and passive silicon
nanophotonics devices that are all scaled down to the diffraction limit – the
smallest size that dielectric optics can afford. This makes possible the
integration of modulators, germanium photodetectors and ultra-compact
wavelength-division multiplexers with high-performance analog and digital CMOS
· In March 2010, IBM announced a Germanium Avalanche Photodetector working at 40 Gbps with CMOS compatible voltages as low as 1.5V. This was the last piece of the puzzle that completes the prior development of the "nanophotonics toolbox" of devices necessary to build the on-chip interconnects.
· In March 2008, IBM scientists announced the world's tiniest nanophotonic switch for "directing traffic" in on-chip optical communications, ensuring that optical messages can be efficiently routed.
· December 2007, IBM scientists announced the development of an ultra-compact silicon electro-optic modulator, which converts electrical signals into the light pulses, a prerequisite for enabling on-chip optical communications.
December 2006, IBM scientists demonstrated silicon nanophotonic delay line that was used to buffer over a byte of information encoded in optical pulses - a requirement for building optical buffers for on-chip optical communications.
Scripting for Storwize V7000 & SVC
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW firstname.lastname@example.com Tags:  svc storwize perl v7000 scripting alphaworks 1,065 Visits
Ever wonder how to gain more efficiency from an already super easy to use disk subsystem?
Scripting is the key; of course!
IBM makes it easy by releasing a ready to use package via IBM alphaWorks which uses Perl under
the covers.
Best of all the alphaWorks tool is FREE
Happy Efficiency gains!
Near line SAS (NLSAS)
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW firstname.lastname@example.com Tags:  near sas nlsas line 1,444 Visits
We have referenced NLSAS quite a bit in the past few weeks and felt it was time to get into the nuts and bolts of what NLSAS is exactly.
A SATA drive has only one port so in the event of a network failure the SATA drive is not reachable. To add a level of HA to the SATA environment
interposers are utilized to add a second connectivity port while allowing conversion to another interface (i.e. Fibre Channel).
Switching the interposer to support NLSAS natively allows dual paths to your SAS environment.
What is gained by moving to NLSAS in your enterprise?
One drive type can be utilized across your enterprise; SAS.
Another is improved RAS (Reliability, Availability, Survivability)((In my mind this is minor since this RAS was also added to SATA offering).
The slight improvement in performance gain from native protocol exchange is really not worth mentioning as net gain.
Hope that helps clear the muddy water in / around NLSAS
Supercomputing Smackdown
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW firstname.lastname@example.com Tags:  hpc supoercomputing 553 Visits
Earlier this week I was stunned to see China took #1 & #3 spots at the 2H2010 supercomputing event.
Trying not to be dismayed I wondered how US companies would respond?
Did I question our abilities? Certainly not, however, 2.36PF is order and magnitude larger than #2 slot.
A short time ago I saw that some students have built their own supercomputer which placed 3rd in the NCSA
Green 500. So my optimisium for the US future has been restored by our youth. I will continue to watch
that space for other great news.
See for yourself: http://tinyurl.com/2dss6uz
PCIe v3.0
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW firstname.lastname@example.com Tags:  pcie encoding 818 Visits
PCI-SIG released the latest PCIe Base 3.0 specification.Check it out: http://preview.tinyurl.com/2869qhp
The new PCIe 3.0 architecture is a low-cost, high-performance I/O technology that includes a new 128b/130b encoding scheme and a data rate of 8 gigatransfers per second (GT/s), doubling the interconnect bandwidth over the PCIe 2.0 specification.
PCIe 3.0 technology also maintains backward compatibility with previous PCIe architectures and provides the optimum design point for high-volume platform I/O implementations across a wide range of topologies. Possible topologies include servers, workstations, desktop and mobile personal computers, embedded systems, peripheral devices, etc.
Third Generation Converged Network Adapter (3GCNA)
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW email@example.com Tags:  cna iscsi muilti-protocol fcoe convergence qlogic ethernet 3gcna 1 Comment 1,530 Visits
As the IT industry continues to push commoditization across the enterprise, its next target appears to be the Ethernet switching realm. How so you ask? Network Convergence and the newest CNA offering from QLogic is the 3GCNA a valiant effort into full commoditization of Ethernet switches.
3GCNA's provide support for multi-protocol
(iSCSI, FCoE) and QLogic's newest 3GCNA allows VM's to switch protocols on the
fly. Can you leverage this in your enterprise? You bet you can,
direct benefit day one by adding this into your Tiering strategy (tier by disk
and protocol) to lower your operational expenses. QLogic then takes the
offering up one level further by allowing direct VM to VM communication. I
envision this having direct impact in your environment from an admin
standpoint can you envision a larger impact?
The dual trends of network convergence and server consolidation are driving major changes aimed directly at server I/O. This drives home one of my favorite points for 2010 flexibility within your IT infrastructure and the 3GCNA brings this flexibility in a big way.
Looking forward to the competition leap frogging this CNA offering and how it can benefit enterprises.
Ethernet Fabirc (Etherfabric)
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW firstname.lastname@example.com Tags:  etherfabric fabric ethernet 748 Visits
Ever wonder where the whole network convergence movement is going?
Wonder no more.
IBM Storwize V7000 mid-range offering
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW firstname.lastname@example.com Tags:  tier async replication raid provisioning svc sync mid-range snapshot easy storwize mirror v7000 ssd ibm thin 1,297 Visits
IBM's new mid-range Scalable Storage Storwize V7000 was designed from the ground up offering ease of use for product install, Admin & Maintenance. Take notice the product is new, however, the code set it runs on is stable it is based on IBM's SVC which is > than 6.5 years young. The subsystem also brings enterprise caliber technology into the mid-range market. Such as, Disk Virtualization (based on SVC technology) RAID technology brought out of our DS8000 family and ease of use GUI from the XIV family. All features available to help your enterprise become successful with out worrying about watered down feature sets.
Let's run through some of the Enterprise Offerings:
1) SVC + Disk Virtualization, 2) RAID technology from DS8K including Atomic Update, 3) Ease of use from XIV 4) Easy Tier
5) Directed
Maintenance Procedures (DMP) to help in maintenance & recovery tasks 6) Embedded e-learning video's 7) Presets (AKA
Templates) helps in ease of use and simplify repetitive tasks
8) Replication (Async or Sync) over IP or Fibre Channel or 9) Mirroring via (MM/GM) 10) Thin Provisioning, 11) SnapShots w/ plug-in capabilities for FlashCopy Manager (FCM) and the last item I will cover is DR Automation (FO, FO back, Full site switching) – true mature enterprise technologies not watered down solutions
But, know that as you dig into this extensive product offering you will see many more options.
Oh, I just can't help myself, I need to let you know about the 45 days of free disk migration to help get you off that other gear!
Isn't it time to discuss your mid-range disk business with IBM?
Data Warehouse & ROI
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW firstname.lastname@example.com Tags:  data enterprise value sets warehouse creation bi roi 1,159 Visits
Most sizable, if not all enterprises have already invested in a Data Warehouse (of some order and magnitude). Not only is it a business best practice, but it helps to uncover new business opportunities if used properly. I wonder how many enterprises that have invested in a Data Warehouse are getting ROI from that Data Warehouse? I ask since, the Business Intelligence (BI) market seems to be growing faster than any other segment in the IT market.
Which leads me to the conclusion that either there hasn't
been a whole lot of value derived from their Data Warehouse investment to this
point? Or that, I draw another conclusion
that the Data Warehouse tools are adapting to new data sets and being able to
analyze new data sets? Which is it in your enterprise?
How is your enterprise using the data retrieved out of the Data Warehouse? How has it impacted your enterprises bottom line? In this Age of Analytics you need every leg up on your competition. Which is why, I don't anticipate many responses as most want to keep this info under wraps. Does your Data Warehouse provide a headlight view or a tail light view of your customers?
How is your enterprise going to leverage BI to lead to new business changes? Can't you envision a time when BI is used to help make tactical and strategic decisions?
Is your enterprise getting the most out of your Data Warehouse? Isn't it time to discuss your BI business with IBM?
How Many VDI IOPS Plan for? How Many Using?
Wonder what IOP value you utilized for planning your VDI thin client environment?
Was it 4 IOPS,Was it 8 IOPS, Was it 12 IOPS / thin client?
How many IOPS are you driving in your environment?
Is the VMware standard of 20 IOPS / thin client your norm or the exception?
VMware vSphere 4.0 Earns Common Criteria EAL4+ Certification
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW email@example.com Tags:  certification security vsphere eal 761 Visits
Heads Up Security Teams - VMware vSphere 4.0 Earns Common Criteria EAL4+ Certification
IBM Storwize V7000 SPC benchmarks available
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW email@example.com Tags:  virtualizing v7000 storwize oltp benchmarks 964 Visits
The IBM Storwize V7000 SPC-1 benchmark (OLTP-style workload) for IBM Storwize V7000 is now available at http://www.storageperformance.org/results/benchmark_results_spc1/#spc1Review the executive summary at http://www.storageperformance.org/benchmark_results_files/SPC-1/IBM/A00097_IBM_Storwize-V7000/a00097_IBM_Storwize-V7000_2-node_SPC1_executive-summary.pdf
SPC benchmark system info:
This measurement is of an IBM Storwize V7000 system with 120 internal disk drives and also 80 external drives that are being virtualized. Although we cannot measure a system with 240 drives at this point, this configuration provides a good perspective of the expected performance of a system with close to the maximum number of internal drives and also shows that the Storwize V7000 system performs very well when virtualizing external disk systems.
Looking for FREE IBM Deep Dive information?
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW firstname.lastname@example.com Tags:  proectier tape ds8000 ds3000 tklm 1 Comment 1,438 Visits
Are you seeking some FREE IBM Deep Dive information (DS8000, ProtecTIER, Tape, TKLM or DS3000 and more).
Please sign up for some ATS Accelerate sessions:
Registration Link: www.tinyurl.com/ATSAccelerate
IBM Storwize V7000 URL's Consolidated
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW email@example.com Tags:  flashcopy storage ssd v7000 storwize mid-range enterprise 1,159 Visits
Tired of looking everywhere of URLs associated w/ the IBM Storwize V7000?
Look no further....
Main IBM Storwize V7000 URL:
Info Center:
YouTube Resources:
Storwize V7000 GUI Video
Storwize V7000 Flashcopy Video
When does Data Center Virtualization turn into a Private Cloud
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW email@example.com Tags:  cloud center computing virtualization data storage 868 Visits
I seem to be stuck in the clouds lately, I am serious I have spent a great deal of time thinking about Cloud Computing.
For instance, with the in-depth push into virtualization across all layers in the Data Center (Storage, Networking, Servers etc….) I have gotten hung up on, at what point in the virtualization process does an enterprise cross over from a virtualized Data Center to having a Private Cloud? Do we have metrics to let us know and are there points of diminishing returns?
Another sticking point is Cloud management tools…. Where are we in the development and roll-out of these tools?
Anyone else stuck on these issues?
IBM Delivers Storwize V7000 mid-range strogage
Today IBM took the covers off a revolutionary way to not only deploy but to run mid-range storage.
The new offering is called IBM Storwize V7000
Some of the features:
One day until IBM revolutionizes the storage industry
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW email@example.com Tags:  storage ibm revolution 717 Visits
Revolutionize your enterprise storage solution, start by registering for the Oct 7th IBM storage announcement.
Cloud Computing / Cloud Storage
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW email@example.com Tags:  storage architect cloud 866 Visits
Cloud Computing
When Cloud Computing is mentioned does that thought conjure up?
As you are aware there are 3 current offerings:
· Private
· Public
· Hybrid
What is your enterprises driving factor?
Is it Business Productivity?
Is it ease of use?
Is it more virtualization?
Is it to drive more service management into the Enterprise?
Is it to drive more methodology use into the Enterprise?
How do the offerings fit into your existing enterprise?
How much of what is in your data center is cloud ready?
What type of impact do you project for your LAN/WAN?
How much has to be re-architected?
How will it impact your provisioning?
How will it impact your change management structure?
How will it impact your in-house ITIL standards? Will you require more?
How do you seeing it impact your workload & workload patterns?
How will it impact your VPNs?
How will it impact your DR/BC plans?
How does moving to a Cloud Computing model impact your compliance gear?
How will it impact your existing skill base?
How much of your data will ever be in the cloud?
What will have to change to support such an offering (in-house)?
What are the security ramifications?
How will you manage your data in the Cloud?
Will you allow your data in a multi-tenancy offering?
Do you have a multi-year plan to get to Cloud Computing (I.E. Start small and get there over time)?
Don't you think it's time to start
the Cloud discussion so you can lay down the proper foundation?
Secure Disk Wiping
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW firstname.lastname@example.com Tags:  audit erasure secure wiping disk dlp 1 Comment 1,426 Visits
Secure Disk Wiping
a.k.a. Disk Erasure has been around for a good while in terms of IT life cycles.
Wondering how pervasive you utilize it in your Enterprise environment?
It is well understood that most IT breaches occur after data has left the premises (DLP)
Some well known options available:
shred -vfz -n 100/deve/hda
dd=if/deve/zero then run a pass w/ ones etc...
dd /dev/random (perhaps several times)
Or Does your enterprise perform a combination of them?
Wondering does a combination of a few inexpensive solutions provide the same type of protection (or nearly the same) as a more expensive complete offering?
Does your enterprise wipe each desktop / laptop disk before it leaves the building for good?
Does your enterprise wipe each server disk (after failure or after its aged out)?
Does your enterprise wipe each disk subsystem disk?
Does your enterprise take it a step further and retain the disks and fully destroy them say running them through Disk Shredders?
Are these types of events plugged into your change management systems?
Are these types of events plugged into your DLP Policies do they trigger audit events?
How much FTE or PTE time is allocated to attend to use duties?
Wondering how Secure Disk erasure impacts the IT budget and IT Audit cycles?
Would enjoy seeing how you might be performing Secure Disk Wiping, please provide some insight w/ out giving away to much info.
Solid State Drives (SSD)
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW email@example.com Tags:  disk ilm ssd performance solid drives subsystem tier state utilization 1,235 Visits
Solid State Drives (SSD)
We all are aware of the hundreds of articles at blogs raving about how the performance in / around SSD is going to transform the storage industry. I am not going down that rabbit hole; I am however, going to present another angle all together. Have you considered how many SSD's your disk subsystem can support without bringing it (disk subsystem) to its virtual knee's? You must understand, it is one thing to support SSD's (say as a RFP checklist response and it is quite another to have them operate in your Tiered ILM with out negatively impacting disk subsystem performance).
Have you considered how did the disk subsystem architecture changed to support the SSD's? Was the disk subsystem powerful enough to support SSD's before their implementation? What is an optimal utilization to run a disk subsystem at with SSD's? What is an optimal SSD utilization rate (is it 30%, is it 50% or >)? What application will you run on SSD? What business unit will want to run their application on SSD's (besides all of them)?
What critical thinking have you been through to get to the nuts and bolts of how this technology will impact your enterprise?
What does it take for a successful VDI implementation?
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW email@example.com Tags:  i/o security disks flexible storage fcoe lan man vdi 1 Comment 1,898 Visits
What does it take for a successful VDI implementation?
Let's think about a few integral steps in getting your VDI project from the whiteboard into production (we don't have enough space to cover all aspects such as project management, change management, Thin Client selection, etc.)
VDI aka Virtual Desktop Infrastructure relies on your disk subsystem being a stable foundation
in which you can build and grow your VDI environment.
Yet it needs to be flexible enough that it can meet the demands of this environment moving forward too.
Properly sized: How did you size your subsystem prior to rollout?
How many I/O's did you allocate for each thin client?
How many more I/O's did you allocate for each application?
How will you handle the 'exception application' which is not supported by VDI today?
Do not overlook some applications which require higher uptime than others.
What type of disk drive did you select to achieve this performance metric?
How large are the disk pools you are going to utilize to keep your performance consistent (Proof of Concept, Pilot, Initial rollout, full rollout)?
Did your sizing meet your performance expectorations in your lab?
Protocol selection: What protocol did you select for the backend connectivity (Fibre Channel, FCoE, iSCSI, NFS)?
What protocol does it use to the desktop (I.E. PCoIP or RDP)?
How agile is the protocol you selected? Was it designed for WAN use?
What are the cost implications if other network gear must be ordered?
Are you working w/ the Network team to ensure all aspects of the project are getting the proper attention?
For instance, How did VDI impact your LAN traffic (if applicable)?
How did VDI impact your WAN traffic (if applicable)?
Management: How are you going to keep control over your VDI environment (Roles/Responsibilities)?
Can you quickly integrate management into a directory structure and push out policies to manage all these new devices?
How flexible is your storage offering in assisting with desktop provisioning / creation?
How many golden images will you create & maintain (these might be worlds apart by the time you complete your pilot)?
How will you maintain these images? How much time has been allocated to maintain these images?
Security: Sure, you have locked down the selected OS but what about security at the physical layer have you disabled the USB ports too?
How are your existing security practices today going to be impacted? Will your VDI selection work across a VPN tunnel?
These questions might help get you on your way to VDI success!
Net Neutrality
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW email@example.com Tags:  ipv6 neutrality net 726 Visits
Anyone care to share their thoughts and concerns on the Net Neutrality issue swirling the globe?
DNSSEC & IPv6?
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW email@example.com Tags:  ipv6 migration data center dnssec 1,180 Visits
Wondering how many enterprises have made the switch to IPv6? Are you willing to share some of your 'gotchas'?
Also wondering how many have migrated over to DNSSEC? Are you willing to share some of your 'gotchas'?
Edge Technology Transition
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW email@example.com Tags:  edge transition low jitter 10gb 950 Visits
Today's enterprise edge is evolving not just at the NIU, broadband entry but, at the mobile backhaul too. So, your network core needs to be able to handle the faster bandwidths but also the transition technologies for instance are you ready for low jitter SONET? How are you planning on making the transition in your data center?
Flexible storage
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW firstname.lastname@example.com Tags:  security compliance enterprise storage data center 1,038 Visits
Flexible storage
The new data everywhere enterprise is about flexibility, which enables task savings freeing up resources to focus other critical enterprise events such as Risk, Security & Compliance.
What type of disk subsystem are we referring to that is flexible allow one to accomplish more?
Are you wondering how can it impact your enterprise?
80 / 20 Rule
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW firstname.lastname@example.com Tags:  data unstructured structured storage 1,262 Visits
Everyone in IT is familiar w/ the 80 / 20 "rule".
For networking it used for be 80% of traffic would remain local and then 20% would / could go offsite. Then the Internet Age came about and flipped that paradigm.
The data everywhere revolution is flipping the data storage model from an 80 / 20 rule. Where 80% WAS structured data and 20% was unstructured data. In the past few years, the rule has been creeping toward an equilibrium and it seems w/ the requirement to store video in-house the paradigm has shifted where 80% of the data is now unstructured (email, digital media, medical imaging, digital surveillance video, engineering / scientific data, etc) and 20% of data is structured. Are you locked into a storage offering which is built for the old paradigm? How is this going to benefit your enterprise moving forward?
How flexible is your new storage offering?
Flexible Infrastructure
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW firstname.lastname@example.com Tags:  center fcoe data 1 Comment 1,652 Visits
A flexible infrastructure is paramount in the new data center which enables an enterprise to quickly adapt to the changing course of the enterprise and technology while working within the realm of shrinking IT budgets.
From a networking perspective an enabler of flexibility is based around the recent 40 & 100GB (802.3ba) Ethernet ratification. This advancement is very important for the new data center not just from a speeds and feeds perspective but from the technology that will follow such as TRILL (RFC 5556) will change the game not just on the network edge (Metro Ethernet) but in emulating Ethernet services in all kinds of new connectivity offerings. From a storage perspective how does an enterprise properly move into the Petabyte age? Your business needs should dictate your storage needs not the other way around.
Or put another way how to tame the data explosion issue?
How is your enterprise preparing for this?
Re: Data Center 7.0 & Storage
Keith Thuerk 110000F2GW email@example.com Tags:  enterprise fcoe security policies center convergence data 5 Comments 1,825 Visits
In response to: Data Center 7.0 & StorageI am surprised that nobody questioned the business model I referenced; questioning its validity? I believe it is NOT valid, as business is constantly adapting to the new trends and directions (successful enterprises are not rigid). I believe, in order for the new flexible business model to be followed the IT organization must be more flexible. Another component is that IT leaders need to push further into businesses to allow enterprises the ability for them continue to grow through increased productivity and automation. We also need longer term goals instead of quarter to quarter we need to take the time to plan out strategy and roll it out and being integrated tighter into an enterprise is just one way to achieve this.


text: Branch: HeadquartersAge Level: AdultsDetailsDescription: Academy Awards Best Pictures and the Nominees: The Vietnam War Years - 1965-1969. Highlights and lively commentary on the films nominated for Best Picture during the years the United States was most heavily involved in the Southeast Asian war. Clips from movies such as Doctor Zhivago, The Graduate, and 2001: A Space Odyssey will be viewed. Full ScheduleTime: Thursday, February 6, 2014 - 6:30pm to 8:30pm

subset: commoncrawl


text:
See All Contributors »
So unfortunately I will not be able to go to the ISU game this weekend. I'm actually going to be in Alabama this weekend and while there I've decided to get tickets to the Bama/LSU game, picked up a couple on ebay already. Has anyone else ever been to a game in Tuscaloosa? I've never been to an SEC game and am really looking forward to going to this game and tailgating down there.
Last edited by jberryma; 11-03-2009 at 09:04 PM.
Alabama-LSU could feature more future NFL players on one field than in any regular-season college football game this season. So says NFL.com analyst Gil Brandt, the former director of player personnel for the Dallas Cowboys. Brandt estimates Saturday's game in Tuscaloosa will feature 25 seniors who will be in an NFL camp next season, 11 for Alabama and 14 for LSU. And that's not counting underclassmen, such as Alabama linebacker Rolando McClain. "Twenty-five is a very high number," said Brandt, who believes Alabama nose guard Terrence Cody will be a first-round pick and LSU running back Charles Scott and LSU wide receiver Brandon LaFell could be, too. -- Birmingham News
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April 22, 2014
New Social Location App Ideal For Dating (Or Stalking)
When you're making plans with friends, or looking for a place to go on a date, how do you decide the location? A new app can help you find a place you both (or all) want to go. Or maybe it can help you track your crush while the target is out on a date.
Superb, an iTunes app developed by Grubwithus, Inc., is somewhat of a Facebook for locations. You and your friends "swipe" locations, and then you can look at the restaurants, bars and other hangouts that your friends like to go or want to go to. The description promises "Learn about must-try places around you from friends and people in the know." So you can follow people that you don't even know, and see the places they like to go get a drink.
The idea is that you can found out the "really cool" places, not just reviews from an app, that Superb would have you believe are all astroturf. Reuters reports that this app will help you hang out where the cool kids are.
"It's all about hanging out in the real world and getting offline, and the best way to do that is to know where people want to go," said Eddy Lu, co-founder and chief executive of Venice, California-based Superb, in the Reuters article.
There is a benefit in that you can use the app to decide on a restaurant that you and all of your friends want to go to, by looking to see the restaurants that pops up in the app as being swiped by everyone, or most of the people, invited on an evening out. Of course that means all of your friends have to sign up and use the app as well.
Superb may have some attributes, which is making a restaurant or bar choice easier. It may help people find that popular hotspot. It might help tip the odds in your favor on a date by selecting a restaurant that your date has swiped. But it might also make it possible for a stalker to get some valuable information. It could be possible to use the app to determine where your crush will go to have a few drinks one evening.
It is possible that Superb could be the next big dating app. Users could look to see where the cool kids hang out, and go there to find a match. It might help people determine if they are compatible if their swiped locations all line up.
Two other apps mentioned in the Reuters article, Sosh and Klutch, also help people find local hangouts. Sosh curates a list of events in cities so you can browse the events to find one to attend. So far it's available in San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Washington and New York.
Klutch helps users scan calendars to determine when and where everyone is meeting. When plans are finalized the app adds the event to everyone's calendar.
Sosh and Klutch can more easily be locked down to friends with permission to view your input. Superb, however, might be a more open book. Sure it's fun to see what restaurants and bars people are swarming to. But it quickly approaches that line where privacy goes away and people are also looking at your preferences.
Image Credit: Thinkstock


text:
Architecture Studio 2
This course is the last of the three course introductory sequence to architectural design. It includes a more advanced series and history. While reinforcing and building upon the already introduced ideas of context and intention, this semester begins in earnest a comprehensive navigation through the architectural design process of focused-objective design projects that articulate coherent sets of architectural intentions and develop the spatial, structural and organizational tools of the beginning designer. Analysis continues to broaden the students' awareness of formal/spatial principles.


text:
thyme, rue, sage4 Comments
Sage Francis – Slow Down Gandhi
Sage Francis – Escape Artist
something happens to white kids when they become emcees. they either end up doing lighthearted (but catchy!) self-mocking raps that highlight their production skills (or complete lack thereof; remember this shit?), or they get hunched over, pissed as hell, and scare the shit out of everyone with bitingly political raps, incredible production and a towering, bear-like flow. in the former corner, we've got Mocky, Edan and so on. in the latter, we've got artistic monsters like El-P, Food for Animals, and Sage Francis.
make no mistake, this is a HIGHLY political album, so if you like hip-hop for the booty twitch it gives you or because you like pointless blingy narratives, skip this one. however. if you're still here, listen to these tracks and put Sage's upcoming release, A Healthy Distrust, on your to-buy list [pre-order from Amazon]. the LP features a slew of serious production cred, with the likes of Dangermouse, Sixtoo, Reanimator, and Alias contributing heavily to this album. the whole thing plays from start to finish without giving you a chance to catch your breath – I hadn't even noticed the track had changed at several points. the production styles are varied, but overall the album sounds a great deal like it could be released on Anticon, with a fast mix of samples old and new, dusty samples and electronic loops alike rolling up and down your face like an hour of rhythmic punches that keep your head nodding like a speedbag. if you like Lateef the truthspeaker, El-P, or almost any other hip-hopper that gives a concious edge to their message, get this album. if you're indifferent lyrically, but want to get your goddamn face rocked off, GET THIS ALBUM. seriously. it was really, really tough picking tracks from this CD, they're all diamond-solid.


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The Advanced Ceramics Market in the USA
Ceramics in Application
Ceramic Joining Techniques
Ceramic Brazing
Methods to Increase Wettability
The 'Moly-Manganese Method'
Metallising Ceramic Surfaces
Metal Hydrides
The 'Active Metal Process'
Active Braze Alloys
How the Active Metal Process Works
Brazing Alloys
Ceramic Particulate Reinforced Braze Alloys
High temperature Active Metal Brazes
Joint Design
Joint Modelling
Finite Element Analysis
Ceramics, and in particular, engineering ceramics, are becoming increasingly important in today's society. They offer a huge array of mechanical, thermal and electrical properties. These range from low thermal conduction in ceramics such as alumina, to high thermal conduction, e.g. diamond, and from low density electrical insulators to superconducting ceramics. Piezo-ceramics offer the almost unique ability to convert electrical energy into mechanical movement and vice versa, and materials such as beta-alumina and zirconia, which exhibit ionic conduction, are used as sensors. These materials have found application in a wide range of industries, but their exploitation has been concentrated mainly in the automotive, power generation and electronics sectors.
A recent study of the advanced ceramic market in the USA shows that the use of advanced ceramic materials is increasing, and will continue to increase. The dominant market sector is electronics, with 65% of the market. This segment, which contains mature technologies such as integrated circuits and capacitors, alongside relatively new areas such as piezo-ceramics and superconductivity, is forecast to continue to grow steadily well into the next century. The second highest growth rate is in structural ceramics, where materials such as silicon carbide, silicon nitride, zirconia, diamond and ceramic matrix composites are being exploited as cutting tools, wear parts, sensors and biomaterials.
It should be remembered that, in general, ceramics should be used only where their specific properties are required. A common thread amongst all of the above applications is that, at some point, the ceramic component interfaces with something else - another part of the machine/device made from another material, or perhaps a casing. At this point some kind of attachment or joint is required.
Ceramics are inherently difficult to join either to themselves or metal structures - a consequence of their strong ionic and covalent bonding. However, there are several well-established technologies available, including mechanical attachment, adhesives, soldering/brazing and glass-metal sealing. These are often chosen on the basis of temperature requirement of the joint, ease of implementation, functionality etc. There are also other more unusual or application-specific processes, such as microwave bonding, ultrasonic welding and friction welding. Of the many joining processes available, probably the main and most adaptable technique used to join ceramics is brazing.
Brazing is a liquid phase process that is particularly well suited to preparing joints and seals, and is an established technique for the joining of ceramics. The brazing process can be readily adapted to the mass production of components, such as those used in the electronics and automotive industries.
The dictionary definition of brazing is stated a 'the joining of two pieces of metal by fusing layer of brass or spelter between the adjoining surfaces', and is probably a derivation of a 16th century French word meaning 'to burn'. The process basically involves a braze melting and flowing between the two pieces of material. This is commonly referred to as 'wetting' and is absolutely critical - particularly when brazing ceramics. Nowadays there are many materials that can be fused to produce joints between materials - those that melt above ~450 °C are classed a, brazes, materials melting below ~450 °C are called solders.
If a braze alloy is melted between two ceramics, a poor joint is likely to result, because of poor wetting. Wetting is measured in terms of the con tact angle between the braze and substrate after melting. For good wetting, the contact angle (θ) is less than 90°; for poor wetting, the angle is greater than 90°. Examples of good and bad we ting are shown in figure 1.
Figure 1. Two wetting trials showing poor (left) and good (right) wetting.
To encourage wetting there are two basic philosophies - apply something to the surface of the ceramics so that the braze will wet, or, put something in the braze that will induce wetting. Surface treatments include metallisation, metal coating and metal hydride treatment, while braze modification involves a process known as active metal brazing. In either case the actual brazing operation takes place either in a controlled atmosphere, such as nitrogen or argon, or a vacuum better than 10-4 N.m-2.
One of the most widely used methods of metallisation is the so-called 'moly-manganese' process, which is particularly well suited to the brazing of alumina. It is used extensively in the electronic and electrical industries to produce ceramic-to-metal seals for ultra-high vacuum equipment, such as isolators and power semiconductor housings.
In its simplest form, a powder mixture of glass, molybdenum and manganese is applied by painting or screen-printing to the alumina surface. The alumina component is then heated in a wet hydrogen atmosphere to a temperature of ~1500°C. Prior to brazing, the metallised surface is nickel coated to improve wetting. The component is brazed using a conventional braze, such as 72wt%Ag-28%Cu eutectic alloy, chosen for its moderate melting temperature (780°C) and good ductility. Other higher melting temperature braze alloys can be used, such as 82Au-18Ni, and for even higher temperature requirements, Ni-Cr-based and palladium-based alloys, figure 2.
Figure 2. Principal braze alloy families, including common active braze alloys and their melting range.
Despite the numerous steps required, the moly-manganese process can be automated. The process is dependent on the presence of an intergranular 'glassy' phase, which is found in several ceramics, notably alumina and silicon nitride, where the glass acts as a binding agent. Where such glass is not present, i.e. zirconia and silicon carbide, a different approach to metallisation is required.
A number of approaches can be used to directly metallise a ceramic surface. The simplest method is by electroplating the ceramic surface to be brazed with Ni or Cu. However, this is not always possible as not all ceramics are electrically conductive. Other methods include vapour deposition and sputter coating, allowing the deposition of a metal which adheres to the ceramic and is wetted by the molten braze. A third approach is to use an 'active' metal hydride to form a reaction layer between the ceramic and braze alloy.
Certain metal hydrides possess the ability to wet ceramic surfaces that have not been previously metallised. The hydrides - usually of Ti, or sometimes Zr - are reduced, and brazed simultaneously in a controlled atmosphere (vacuum or inert gas), at relatively low temperatures, permitting a fast brazing cycle. Typically Ag, Cu or Ag-Cu eutectic braze alloys are then used.
The 'active metal' process is similar to the metal hydride process. For both these processes to work they require an `active' element that will react with the ceramic, forming a reaction layer between the ceramic and the molten braze that will reduce the interfacial energy to such a level that wetting of the ceramic takes place. The active elements used for this process include Ti, Zr, Hf, V and Al. The best known of these active elements is Ti, which is used in many commercially available braze alloys.
The active metal process has superseded the hydride process, and is a one-step operation. In comparison, the moly-manganese process typically has five steps. Brazing can be undertaken at a range of temperatures in controlled atmosphere, depending on the alloy used.
Active braze alloys are constantly undergoing changes and modification in composition to meet the increasing requirements to permit metals to be joined to ceramics without the need for metallisation of the ceramic surface. Commercial active braze alloys are mainly based on the Ag, Cu or Ag-Cu eutectic systems with added titanium. These and other available families of braze alloys are shown as a function of melting point in figure 2.
Many studies have been conducted to understand the wetting characteristics, reaction kinetics and joint behaviour of ceramics joined using these active metal alloys. Figure 3 shows a scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of a Ag-Cu-Ti alloy brazed to a silicon nitride substrate.
Figure 3. Scanning electron micrograph of the reaction layer between an active metal braze and silicon nitride.
The reaction layer is clearly visible and many studies have shown that excessive growth of this reaction layer can be detrimental to the strength of the brazed joint. Although many reaction products are possible, thermodynamic analysis can determine which products are favourable. Table 1 shows that TiN, Ti5Si3 and TiSi are the main reaction products for silicon nitride.
A number of brazing alloys have recently entered the market designed for specific needs, i.e. the high temperature brazing of SiC. These are based on transition metal-Si eutectic alloys, producing joints capable of surviving temperatures in excess of 1200°C. Another alloy that is of interest is a low temperature active braze (or solder) that melts at ~420 °C, which can join ceramics (and metals) in air, as opposed to a protective atmosphere.
Another innovation has a ceramic incorporated in the braze alloy, to both increase its strength and reduce its coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE). One example is the modification of a common active metal braze which on cooling forms an in-situ metal matrix composite. It has been shown that the joint strength increases with the introduction of as little as 5% by volume of ceramic particulates, when compared with the unreinforced braze alloy, figure 4. Future work on this concept will be extended to higher temperature braze alloys.
Figure 4. Scanning electron micrograph of a 20vol% SiC reinforced active metal alloy, and a comparison of the strength of the unreinforced and 5vol% reinforced SiC brazed joints.
The majority of the commercial active metal brazes have been developed for moderate temperature use up to ~450 °C. However, one of the many attractive properties of ceramics is their ability to survive high temperatures - for example, alumina typically has an upper use temperature of 1700°C. The braze alloys used therefore need to have higher temperature capability than is currently available. One method is to coat the ceramic with either a reactive or refractory metal (W Mo, Ta, Cr) then braze using high temperature braze alloys, such as palladium and platinium-based systems. This is similar to the method described in metal coating, and has been used successfully for joining many high temperature ceramics.
An alternative that is being investigated is a range of high temperature active braze alloys, capable of extended use at temperatures in excess of 650°C. Although these alloys are not currently available commercially, they are of great interest, with the potential of being commercialised in the future. Ideally these alloys will retain their strength and ductility at temperature, as well as having good oxidation resistance. Alloys with such properties include Pt-Cu-Ti, Pd-Ni-Ti and Co-Ti. It has been shown that one active braze alloy, 60Ta-30W-Zr, can be used to join graphite, for use in excess of 2700°C.
When brazing ceramics, particularly to materials with a dissimilar CTE, careful consideration must be given to the design of the joint. Typically, the CTEs of ceramics are less than most metals (and braze alloys) which means, on cooling from the brazing temperature, the braze alloy and metal component will contract more than the ceramic component. This will introduce residual stresses into the joint. As ceramics perform better in compression, the joint should be designed, if possible, to keep the ceramic component in compression.
A further factor that must be considered is the brittle nature of ceramics and the avoidance of sharp edges/changes in section in the joint. These points can act as stress concentrators, potentially acting as initiation sites for the fracture and failure of the ceramic or joint. The best practice of joint design, braze alloy choice and brazing temperature will help reduce the residual stresses that develop in the joint.
Modelling can be used to predict failure of brazed joints and compare many different joint designs, therefore reducing the number of brazing trials required. For simple component shapes and joint design then analytical methods may be used. However, in the majority of cases the component or joint is too complex and so numerical methods are required, such as finite element analysis (FEA).
For FEA a complex component is usually modelled by considering it as an assembly of small simple parts, called elements. The element assembly (or mesh) gives a geometric representation of the component. The use of the computer allows a 'virtual laboratory' to be set-up to test different joint configurations, braze alloys and brazing conditions prior to any actual brazing. This technique is very powerful and is being used more in development work, not only for brazing, but other joining technologies.
Primary author: Dr. John A Fernie and Dr. Kane I Ironside
Source: Materials World, Vol. 7, no. 11, pp. 686-88 November 1999.
For more information on Materials World please visit The Institute of Materials.
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text:
Patio's moving 'Diary' is a must-see
About once each year, the classic stage drama "The Diary of Anne Frank" gets trotted out somewhere around San Diego County, and audiences -- particularly schoolchildren on assignment -- turn out in healthy numbers to see it. But almost invariably the productions fail to live up to the true heartwrenching drama of this very real tragedy.
Until now, that is.
Patio Playhouse's moving production of the Holocaust drama is so well-cast and -directed that it should be required viewing for study on this dark chapter of human history. From the luminous performance of its young leading lady, to the edgy, fierce performances of its adults, and from the exquisite detail of its vast set to its evocative sound design, this is one of the best productions I've seen staged at the Escondido community theater.
Patio is presenting Wendy Kesselman's 1997 updating of the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1955 script by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. Kesselman's adaptation is more faithful to the original diaries kept by the 15-year-old German-born Jewish girl who hid with her family and four other Jews in a secret Amsterdam annex during the Nazi occupation of Holland. After two years in hiding, the annex was discovered by the Nazis in August 1944, and all but Anne's father, Otto, eventually perished in the concentration camps.
Otto Frank published a sanitized version of Anne's diaries in 1947, and it served as the basis for the feel-good, not-very-Jewish stage play that debuted in New York eight years later. Frank died in 1980 and Anne's unedited diary was republished in 1995 with more personal details included, such as Anne's sexual awakening and her animosity toward her mother and sister. Kesselman's adaptation includes these darker revelations, it embraces Anne's Jewish heritage, and its new ending includes the harsher details of how the attic occupants died in the Nazi camps. It's a far more satisfying and honest version of the play, and its emotional punch lands harder in the end.
But director Jay Mower did more than just choose Kesselman's version of the script. His creative staging ideas bring a realistic, cinematic feel to the production. Many of the characters' lines are delivered in prerecorded voice-overs; David Farlow's spine-chilling sound design includes wailing siren, lightning, air raid and marching stormtrooper effects; Kat Perhach and George Daye's stark lighting reflects the harsh realities of the situation; and Judy Conlon's expansive, multilevel set (with hallway, three bedrooms, a kitchen and an attic) has the look and claustrophobic feel of the original two-story apartment where the families hid.
The cast is one of the most solid ever assembled at Patio. These actors not only know their parts, they live them.
Fifteen-year-old actress Allison Finn has a bright, warm, charismatic stage presence as Anne, and she believably matures through the course of the evening from bratty, energetic girl to mature, sensitive young woman. Jim Clevenger is tender and sympathetic as Anne's adored father, Otto, and Shari Lyon is serious and brittle as Anne's mother, Edith. Jeff Laurence has the right aloof selfishness as Frank's business partner, Mr. Van Daan, whose family shares the annex. And Deborah Zimmer is outstanding as the bold, flirtatious Mrs. Van Daan (her hope-fueled scene recalling their first date is one of the best-acted moments in the play). Cassi Jerkins and Tommy Blanton intentionally underplay their roles as Anne's bookish sister Margot and Peter Van Daan, the pathologically shy teen who first detests and then grows to love Anne. Dirk Jasperse is prickly and impatient as Mr. Dussel, the Jewish dentist who joins the Franks and Van Daans in the annex, and Erin Elizabeth Peck has a noble, serene dignity as Miep Gies, the factory office manager who protected and provided for the families in hiding.


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What difference do we make?
By Jan Richman Schulman 11/23/2011
I have a friend. She is my dearest, most cherished, loved friend. We met in an orphanage where we lived as teenagers. Not a day goes by that I do not think of her at least once. We talk numerous times during the week on the phone. We see each other once a month. (She lives in Marina del Rey.) We e-mail constantly. We are like chocolate and vanilla, night and day, matzos and bagels, opposites. But … I filter so much of my day through her. What would she think of this? Would she like that? How would she handle this situation? Oops, she wouldn't approve of that. It doesn't change what I do, or affect my decisions. It just gives me a clear objective way to look at what I am doing at any given time.
There is a man. He's about 60 years old. He speaks only Spanish. He is very dirty and is dressed always in the same torn, layered clothing, some men's, some women's. He just piles on what he can find to keep warm. He is lame and missing several teeth. His skin is dark and pitted, and I do not know if some of the spots on his face are dirt or growths. He sits outside the market on some mornings, under the cover of the market's rain shield. When he is there, I invite him into the doughnut shop next door, where I buy my morning drink on Thursdays. We cannot speak to each other, but he manages to communicate that he wants a large coffee with half and half and lots of sugar, and a fat, hot cheese croissant. I pay for him and he thanks me ("gracias … gracias…") and takes his breakfast outside, where he sits back down at his little table, surrounded by his plastic sacks of personal belongings. He smiles and waves at me when I leave. I wonder about him for the rest of the week, and I feel glad that he is eating something warm right then and it is giving him pleasure. Sometimes, when I'm flush, I will also slip him five dollars. (He never asks.)
I go on my way and I think: Is that making any difference to him? How does it affect his life? Where does he sleep at night? I can't afford to pay for a hotel room for him, or do much more than I do on Thursday mornings. And then I think, does anything we do make any difference? Does a dollar here, five dollars there, influence anything on this earth?
A few years ago, after giving some money to a homeless person, I turned to go away and suddenly turned back, put my hand on his shoulder and said: "Please take care of yourself." He looked at me, his face lit up, his eyes teared a little, and he said "Thank you. God bless you." That's when I decided that, even though I don't have the money to remove even one person from the street, I can at least let one person at a time know that there is someone on this planet who really does care. I always speak and touch now. Sometimes I can see that the person is shy, embarrassed, uncomfortable, and slipping them a few dollars, I merely touch a sleeve and wish them well. Respect is essential.
I have been "warned" by friends and acquaintances that giving money to homeless individuals on the street is a fool's errand. "… They are alcoholics; they are drug addicts; they are criminals; they are too lazy to work; they are scam artists …," ad infinitum. My response: "I don't care. If they use my money to buy themselves a drink, I don't care. If they use it to buy drugs, I don't care. The fact is, if I can offer one moment — just one — where they can feel a connection to another single human being who gives a damn about them, then I will have accomplished my purpose; that being, to let them know that I care. They are not just a walking mass of humanity; they are single, important, human individuals, and for at least that moment, they matter, as one, to one.
My friend and I do things differently. She always looks at the big picture and is an organizer of groups and functions. She wants to reach out to numerous people, offering insights on how we live, and why, and what we can do to make it better. She has been able to see objective, far-reaching results of her efforts. She is very effective. She reaches many.
Me … I just reach out on a one-on-one basis. I don't like committees and meetings. I like looking into a person's eyes, seeing a momentary connection, a fleeting bit of joy, if it can be called that. I always hope that that moment will have made its little bit of difference, not as far-reaching as my friend's, but perhaps as important.
So this morning, driving to FOOD Share, an organization where I volunteer every week, and which I strongly believe in, I was thinking about our lives, how we move through the world and through time, touching others — or not. I think that my friend accomplishes so much for so many. I hope that I accomplish for just one. I think that maybe our purpose here may be different for each one of us, but that each one of us matters, no matter how we do it.
Sometimes, it is just a word. Sometimes it is foundations. Sometimes it is a dollar. Sometimes it is hundreds of thousands of dollars. But it does always start with one, doesn't it? And maybe that is our purpose: To be the best possible single person we can be and to never forget that the person we pass on the street is also human and deserves our compassion and the knowledge that he/she truly does matter. God, I just hope I make a difference.
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May 31, 2016
East Lansing's Klarissa Bell led all scorers with 19 points and paced Michigan State's women's basketball team to a 67-35 win at the Breslin Center Wednesday night over Albany. The Spartans led 46-26 at halftime and were never headed. MSU is now 4-0 and hosts Robert Morris at 4pm Sunday.
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text:
TriBeCa Film Festival
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Since the TriBeCa Film Festival began in 2002, 1,300 films and 80 countries have participated in this cinematic celebration. This year, the craze sets in from April 17 to 28 at various downtown locations. Here's a list of the top 10 events not to miss.
Already a festival favorite, this film is the last of a trilogy starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Romance, the streets of Greece—what more could you ask for?
Monday, April 22, 6p.m.; Wednesday, April 24, 6:45p.m. Various Locations. Watch the trailer.
Ever since she hit the Nickelodeon scene, Emma Roberts has been expected to do big things. This might just be one of them. Here she plays Amy, a wannabe-poet working at the local sex shop, who ends up under the tutelage of writer Rat Billings (John Cusack).
Thursday, April 18, 6p.m.; Saturday, April 20, 2:30p.m.; Friday, April 26, 9:30p.m. Various locations.
Laurel (Zoe Kazan) has always wanted to be more like her stylish twin sister. When the latter dies, she gets her chance. What ensues is part absurd, part poignant.
Saturday, April 20, 9:30p.m., Monday, April 22, 3p.m.; Thursday, April 25, 9p.m. Various locations.
How To Make Money Selling Drugs
Director Matthew Cooke sold 50 Cent, Eminem, Susan Sarandon, and Woody Harrelson, among others, on this documentary project. Those names combined with that title—need we say more?
Thursday, April 25, 6p.m., School of the Visual Arts, 333 West 23rd Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues. Watch the trailer.
Funnyman Paul Rudd co-stars with Emile Hirsch in this road-movie-comedy based off a 2011 film from Iceland.
Tuesday, April 23, 9:30p.m.; Friday, April 26, 5:30p.m.; Sunday, April 28, 6:30p.m. Various locations.
This restored version of Martin Scorsese's 1983 comedy-thriller, starring Jerry Lewis and Robert DeNiro, will close the festival. Watch it for the first time, or watch it again—either way, you're bound to laugh.
Saturday, April 27. BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center, 199 Chambers Street, between West and Greenwich. Watch the trailer.
Dig into a vintage California far before Rebecca's time with the fiftieth anniversary "drive-in" showing of this romance-turned-thriller classic.
Thursday, April 18, 8:15 p.m. Outdoor screening at Brookfield Place (World Financial Center Plaza). Tickets: Free. Watch the trailer.
For anyone still holding a grudge against the Madoff events of 2008, this is the film for you. Victor Kubicek and Derek Anderson's documentary tells the story of Eleanor Squillari, the secretary of Bernie Madoff, who is hungry for justice.
Friday, April 19, 9:30p.m.; Sunday, April 21, 9:45p.m.; Thursday, April 25, 3p.m. Various locations. Watch the trailer.
TriBeCa Talks Directors Series: Clint Eastwood with Darren Aronofsky
It promises to be just as entertaining but more, er, relevant than Eastwood's appearance at the Republican Convention.
Saturday, April 27, 2:30 p.m. BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center, 199 Chambers Street, between West and Greenwich. Tickets: $25
Though Sandy may not be something you exactly want to revisit, this collaborative documentary is a testament to the way New Yorkers can still get together to tell stories.
Thursday, April 18, 7:30p.m.; Friday, April 19, 1:00p.m.; Saturday, April 20, 12:00p.m.; Sunday, April 21, 9:00p.m. Bombay Sapphire House of Imagination. Walk-ins only.
Tickets and ticket packages are available online at tribecafilm.com and by phone 646.502.5296.
By Allison Malecha


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text:
|Plainsmen unable to catch Dundy County-Stratton Eagles in weekend game
By Pastor Vince Carrig
Sports Writer
Dundy County-Stratton forward Tyler Freeland sandwiched two three pointers around the third quarter buzzer to extend his Eagles past the Plainsmen 49-41 in Grant Saturday night.
Freeland's fourth quarter shot rattled between the sides of the rim before going down. Going for the win, the 6-foot-3 senior swingman missed on another attempt minutes later.
Perkins County came close to catching the Eagles twice in the second half, but never quite got there. Quinton Hite took a kick-out pass from fellow guard Jake Sexson and buried a three-pointer to shrink the Dundy County lead to one at 33-32 in the fourth quarter, but Freeland promptly countered.
Jordan Faimon returned from a third quarter head injury that left him prone on the court for several minutes to pull Dundy County away with an interception, three-quarter-court drive and a spin move to roll the score to 41-32, Eagles.
Faimon would hit the deck again later but recovered to hit two free throws toward ensuring the win.
Big 6-foot-5 sophomore center Joe Rettele added a three-point play, getting fouled because he faked moving right and then came up toward the left of the basket for a lay-in.
Hite had reached from the right side ofthe arc to pull his Plainsmen to within four at 29-25. The sophomore guard also scored an amazing basket from just outside the arc—the arc on the Perkins County side of center (roughly 55 feet away) at the final buzzer.
Hite added a first quarter bucket to three three-pointers and led the Plainsmen with 11 points.
Rettele fed the hoop three first quarter shots, scoring in every quarter to lead the game with 14 points. Freeland shot three-for-four from the line along with his two bombs in collecting nine points.
Perkins County center Tyler Brott crammed in two close-range shots and stuck a "j" from eight away for six second-half points. Brott also kept close watch on Rettele, denying entry passes and creating Eagles turnovers for his team.
Next Action
The 1-5 Plainsmen tried to avenge last year's heartbreaking road loss to the 2-3 Ogallala Indians on Tuesday in Grant, with results not available at press time.
They also look forward to hosting their annual Holiday Tournament on Tuesday, Dec. 28 and Wednesday, Dec. 29.


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Anyone who thinks a rendezvous at a seedy hotel for an evening of sultry fun sounds intriguing may want to check out "Love Hotel," a documentary feature by British filmmaker Phil Cox ("The Bengali Detective") and co-directed by Japanese filmmaker Hikaru Toda. In advance of its world premiere at the 2014 Hot Docs Film Festival, which starts today, the film has just been acquired by FilmBuff for theatrical and VOD release with a television release to follow.
"Love Hotel" gives an intimate look into the goings-on of the Japanese "love hotel" industry which consists of underground private establishments where people can escape their lives and delve into the sexual fantasies that would be deemed inappropriate by an increasingly conservative society that attempts to shut these establishments down.
"We are thrilled to be partnering with the filmmakers and their producers to release 'Love Hotel' throughout the world," said FilmBuff's Head of Content Steven Beckman. "The film provides a fascinating lens into a highly provocative and unique facet of Japanese society, yet manages to do so in a way that is relatable, compelling and engaging for audiences everywhere."
"Love Hotel" is in the Love, Factually section at the 2014 Hot Docs Film Festival and will be screening on the following dates:
Saturday, April 26 at 6:00PM at TIFF Bell Lightbox 2
Monday, April 28 at 6:30PM at ROM Theatre
Saturday, May 3 at 6:00PM at TIFF Bell Lightbox 3


text:
Muscle and Hate - 'A Tribute to Nitzer Ebb'
"Muscle and Hate" is the new project comprised of Sebastian R. Komor (of Icon of Coil, Monofader, Moonitor fame), one of the best electro producers to date, and Doulas McCarthy-esque vocalist Paul Toohill (of XP8). An outstanding collection of cover versions of one of the most popular Industrial/Electro bands off all time: NITZER EBB.Now, you can hear the most popular Nitzer Ebb tracks with a modern yet powerful twist. This album is so infectious, it's almost as if Nitzer Ebb has resurged... (11 tracks)


text:
Im planning on installing rafter ties in my 1952 cinder block home. It has no rafter ties at all. Every time Im in the attic and look around, I wonder what holds up my roof. The ceiling joists run parallel to the roof ridge. Im also going to install collar ties. Currently there are only two. The roof does not have much sag and the walls have no apparent bow. However, Im adding hurricane straps, supports for the gable ends, and extra fasteners to hold the roof planking to the rafters. Vertical rafter supports and then a new roof cover too. So, I decided to add the rafter and collar ties too.
In my research, I have discovered the idea of using cable instead of wood for the rafter ties. Cable is stronger and will allow me to remove some of the pressure on the side walls, using a turn buckle I can pull up the roof slightly. I have a string pulled straight across the ridge inside the attic. I do not plan on trying to take out all the sag (3'), just a little to remove some existing pressure on the side walls. Cable will be easier to install too.
I have two unresolved questions concerning using cable. One is what size. I have found several formulas on the net on figuring side thrust, but each i use gives different results. Its most likely because I am using the formulas incorrectly. I have spent many hours trying to figure this out. Now i just want answers. Can someone help?
Also, many sites discuss the number of nails/screws/bolts that are needed to fasten wood rafter ties. Using enough fasteners to hold it secure. Now, Im not sure how many that i need to connect the cable to the rafters. One would be easy, more requires a special designed fastener.
Another reason for not using wood rafter ties is that I would need to cut each rafter into three pieces to get them thur the attic access hole. I have a bad back and cable is so much lighter too.
This site formula gave me thrust of 1250 http://www.timbertoolbox.com/Calcs/RafterThrust.htm
this one gave me 18000 http://www.timbertoolbox.com/Calcs/raisedtiethrust.htm
I have used other sites too. I just don't understand all this math.
So, I want to know how strong a cable to buy and if a single attachment point to the rafters is adequate.
14 rafters (not including the gable rafters), 24" oc 2x6
4/12 pitch
room measurement eve to eve 205"
shingle roof
tks much,
- Forum >
- Roofing & Siding >
- rafter ties
caqble rafter ties
rafter ties
rafter ties
rafter ties
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- 10 Killproof Plants for a No-Effort Landscape
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text:
I've been riding my bike for the past two years with the following configuration, and am planning on changing the bike to single speed. My current setup is as follows:
- Wheels: Mavic Elipse (2010)
- Brakes: Shimano 105
- Cog: EAI Black
- Crankset: Sugino 75
- BB: Sugino 75
- 42mm chainline up-front.
My goals with the conversion are as follows:
- Use wheels intended for brakes, with a freewheel hub. This likely means building up new wheels from the ground up.
- Ensure I have a correct chain-line after the conversion, without deltas.
I'm leaning towards the following part exchanges:
- New wheels: Mavic OpenPro rims. PhilWood hubs (free/fixed), 32T. DT swiss spokes.
- New cog: PhilWood cog
- New bottom bracket: PhilWood, or White Industries BB designed specifically for 75s.
The open questions on my mind are as follows:
- What's the minimum set of items I need to swap to achieve my goals? Can I achieve my goals with only a new wheel set? It would be great if I could build up wheels with a 42mm chainline, and not need to swap my BB.
- What is the chain-line for a PW hub, with PW cog? I can't seem to find this online.
Threads I read before posting:


text:
It remained unclear Saturday night if a woman jumped or fell from the ferry Wenatchee headed toward Bainbridge Island.
A woman who jumped or fell from a Washington state ferry Saturday night was rescued by crew of the Wenatchee and turned over to emergency medical personnel when the vessel docked at Bainbridge Island.
Susan Harris, spokeswoman for the ferry system, said the 9 p.m. sailing of the Wenatchee was about halfway across Puget Sound when crew members were alerted that a woman was overboard. Ferry workers lowered a rescue boat, and passengers spotted the woman in the water shouting and waving her arms.
The Wenatchee crew pulled the woman from the water and returned her to the ferry, which completed its sailing to Bainbridge Island. Harris said she didn't know if the woman sustained any injuries or how she ended up in the water.


text: On 3/12/11 7:59 PM, Fernando Perez wrote: > On Fri, Mar 11, 2011 at 11:18 AM, Robert Kern<firstname.lastname@example.com> wrote: >> >> Not in the 0.10 series. That branch's history only records by line, not by >> block, so that information is simply lost. In 0.11, we do record history by >> block, but we currently add it back to readline by line. I'm not sure why we do >> this; it may be unintentional. I would agree that I would prefer it to be by >> block. Perhaps that could be configurable. > > I think I wrote that code... I decided to make it line-by-line because > I find editing multiline blocks in readline so incredibly annoying as > to be more or less useless. But I can see others preferring the > alternative, so making it configurable would probably be a good idea. > The alternative implementation isn't particularly difficult, pull > requests welcome :) It's just a matter of: > > - feeding the blocks instead of the individual lines in > populate_readline_history(): > > https://github.com/ipython/ipython/blob/221c7c68700927d5704a9584424c3c6e76ad5305/IPython/core/history.py#L130 > > - making the above choice based on a configuration flag, that needs to > be added to the config system (that's actually more work than the > functional change above). Ideally, the behavior would be consistent between in-session and previous-session history, and could be configured for both to either setting. I don't see any place in the code that adds the in-session inputs to the history, but I do remember the behavior changing from by-line to by-block a couple of years ago. -- Robert Kern "I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth." -- Umberto Eco


text:
Images: USS Roosevelt activity [Image 1 of 15]
Photo by Samantha Thorpe
U.S. sailors use a davit to pull a rigid-hull inflatable boat aboard the guided missile destroyer USS Roosevelt (DDG 80) Aug. 3, 2013, after conducting small boat operations in the Atlantic Ocean. The Roosevelt was training with other ships in the George H.W. Bush Carrier Strike Group to improve strike group interoperability in preparation for a deployment. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Samantha Thorpe/Released)
This work, USS Roosevelt activity [Image 1 of 15], by Samantha Thorpe, identified by DVIDS, is free of known copyright restrictions under U.S. copyright law.
Date Taken:08.03.2013
Date Posted:08.13.2013 05:28
Photo ID:994227
Size:2.67 MB
Location:ATLANTIC OCEAN