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Box Score (PDF)
PHILADELPHIA – Redemption. Revenge. Resiliency.
Penn served up all three on Friday night, knocking Dartmouth from the ranks of the Ivy unbeatens with an 8-7 win at Dunning-Cohen Champions Field. The win keeps the Quakers unblemished in Ancient Eight play at 5-0, while Dartmouth slips to 4-1. The Red and Blue will host the other team undefeated in conference play – Princeton – on Wednesday night.
As is usually the case when the Quakers and Big Green meet, goals were at a premium as the two goalkeepers made save after save. The Quakers didn't score their first goal of the game until 16:48 had been played – but that goal was good enough to tie as Dartmouth had managed just one score of its own.
The Red and Blue wouldn't take a lead until Caroline Bunting scored with 1:01 to play in the first half to give the Quakers a 4-3 lead, but Penn would never relinquish that lead, fighting to the finish in a physical, grueling contest which came down the last second.
Caroline Bunting's third goal of the game came with 7:16 to play and provided Penn with an 8-6 lead. Dartmouth would win the draw control and give itself four chances to quickly get within one goal. The Big Green drew a pair of free positions with just under six minutes to play, but the angles were not good enough for a shot attempt. After cycling the ball around, Liz Calby came up with two shots in a span of 16 seconds – each denied by Lucy Ferguson from point-blank range.
The Red and Blue were unable to drain the clock, coughing the ball up just inside the restraining line with 31 seconds to play. The Big Green moved the ball up field and Jaclyn Leto scored her second of the game with 22 seconds left to cut Penn's lead to one and allow a chance at a miracle for the Big Green.
Leto won the ensuing draw control, but the Quakers spaced themselves on defense and matched up physically to deny a fast break. Dartmouth would try one last pass behind the net to look for an open cutter, but time expired to give Penn its third one-goal win of the season.
Penn did everything except score in the first 15 minutes of the game, taking six shots before Maddie Poplawski would tie the game at 1-1. Over that opening stretch, the Quakers would be denied on three free positions and hit a post.
The Red and Blue never trailed by more than a goal in the game, answering each time the Big Green would score. After Sarah Byrne scored on a free position with 8:26 left in the first half, it was Shannon Mangini who would counter for the Quakers. She took a pass out wide to the left side and dodged through traffic to score a lunging goal with 4:43 left in the opening frame.
Dartmouth took its third – and final – lead of the game on a Leto fee position with 2:51 to play, but would strike on an eight-meter of her own with 1:32 left in the half. Bunting would then give Penn the lead 31 seconds later on a strong drive to the middle of the attack zone for the first of her three goals.
The second half was again slow to develop, both keepers trading saves early before Meredith Cain scored on a free position with 23:10 left in the game. The two-goal lead was short-lived as Christine Lushefski scored 25 seconds later off a feed from Hana Bowers who had won the draw. Just 20 seconds after that goal, the Big Green tied the game with a goal from Liz Calby after Sarah Byrne forced a turnover and fed the open player.
Bunting made sure her team would not be denied by Dartmouth again at Penn Park, scoring twice in the final 17 minutes. Her second of the game came with 17:01 to play, sniping a low blazing shot five-hole on the run. The Big Green would counter, though, Byrne connecting unassisted with 13:45 to play.
Penn would make the Big Green pay for a run of fouls, Iris Williamson scoring on a free position with 11:22 remaining after four consecutive fouls from Dartmouth. Four minutes later, Tory Bensen picked up a ground ball and hit a streaking Bunting for the hat trick – and game-winner.
The win is redemption of sorts after the Big Green defeated the Quakers twice last season – including a 6-4 win in the Ivy League Tournament title game at Dunning-Cohen Champions Field. The win guarantees that the Quakers will finish with at least five Ivy League wins in a season for the seventh consecutive year. Prior to 2007, Penn had reached five Ivy wins in a season just twice in 27 years of Ancient Eight play.
The Class of 2013 was vital in Penn's win – their 42nd as a group and 12 home Ivy League win (12-1 home Ivy record). Caroline Bunting had a caused turnover and two ground balls to go with her hat trick. Maddie Poplawski had two goals and seven draw controls, while Meredith Cain had one goal and a draw control. Kelly McCallion, in her first start of the season was a catalyst early with a big ground ball off a scrum at midfield and two free position attempts earned.
The draw control game – just like the final score – was close and decided by one goal. Penn won nine the game to eight for Dartmouth, the Quakers single-handedly led by Poplawski. Penn's all-time leader in draw controls added to her record with seven, closing in on the Ivy League's all-time standard for success on the circle. She currently sits at 162 draw controls, one behind the Ivy's career record holder – Dartmouth's Taylor Gattinella (2009-12).
Lucy Ferguson made seven saves in the win, including five in the second half. She was bolstered on the defensive side by Meg Markham who had two caused turnovers and four ground balls as well as Courtney Tomchik who had three caused turnovers and two ground balls.
The Quakers will play for seventh consecutive Ivy League championship against Princeton on Wednesday night at Franklin Field with a 7 p.m. start.
Download: Dartmouth.pdf


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HOUSTON - Two of a family's sextuplets have made the move from the hospital to home.
- SLIDESHOW: Pictures of sextuplets
Lauren Perkins, 28, and David Perkins, 29, had trouble conceiving, which led to fertility treatment and the surprise of expecting six babies.
The sextuplets were born to the Pearland couple on April 23 at the Texas Children's Pavilion for Women. The three boys and three girls weighed between 1.10 pounds to 2.15 pounds at birth. A total of 35 people were in the operating room when the babies were delivered by C-section in just under 4 minutes.
Two of the babies, Benjamin and Caroline, went home at the end of May.
The other four babies are still being cared for at the neonatal intensive care unit. Hospital officials said that all of the babies are growing stronger every day.
Andrew is in an open-air crib and on full bottle feeds. Allison is off breathing support and is learning how to take a bottle. If their progress continues as it has been, they will be able to go home in the next week and a half.
Levi and Leah are still receiving breathing support and need to keep growing before they can go home. They are both doing well and have not had any major setbacks in the past few weeks, doctors said.
The couple wants to live a private life with their new family. The Perkins have been married for four years.
Copyright 2012 by Click2Houston.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

subset: commoncrawl


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Cats $65.00 Kittens $100.00
Dogs $115.00 Puppies $150.00
Senior Animal Discount
Small Mammals Vary
The Adoption Cost of our Pets Include:
Initial canine or feline distemper combination vaccination.
First deworming or stool check
Rabies vaccination (Age over 3 months)
Spaying or neutering
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Identification tag
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Not Included in the Cost of Your Adoption, But Available at Your Request:
Heartworm Testing for Dogs
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Your message has been sent to Beaver County Humane Society.
You'll receive a copy, too, at to help you keep track of which pets you've inquired about, and which shelters and rescues you've emailed.
NOTE: Some shelters have physical locations you can visit; some of these shelters may only have pets for a limited time, so please do not wait for a reply—just go visit the shelter! Other organizations are rescue groups run by busy volunteers who may take a while to reply. You can find information about the shelter or rescue group caring for this pet, and their adoption procedures, on the pet's details page on Adopt-a-Pet.com.


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The Croton Falls Road bridge repair project over the Croton River will result in a full closure of Croton Falls Road in both the eastbound and westbound directions between Route 100/202 and Route 22 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursday and Friday.
A detour will be posted using Route 100/202 and Route 22. Police will direct drivers, who are advised to seek alternate routes.
For additional information, contact Westchester County Department of Public Works and Transportation at 914-995-2555.


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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Sophomores Tom Awad and Kelsey Hay each advanced for the University of Pennsylvania track and field teams during the NCAA East Preliminary Round on Thursday at Hodges Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla.
On the track, the top five from each heat automatically advance to the NCAA quarterfinals. Awad finished fifth in his heat at 3:49.64 to reach Saturday's quarterfinal in the men's 1,500 meters (6:30 p.m.). He made a dramatic push in the last 200 meters to move past the first round. Running around 10th place until that mark, the East Norwich, N.Y., native used a final kick to pass five competitors and earn a spot in the next round of the NCAA Championships.
In each field event, the top 12 finishers advance to compete in the finals of the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Ore., June 11-14. Hay finished 12th overall with a tossof 48.89 meters (160-04 ft.). That was Hay's second throw of the day and placed her eighth in her flight and 10th overall at the meet heading into the flight finals. Through the final three rounds of throws, that mark remained her best and Hay moved down to 12th overall, but clinched the her spot in Oregon.
Sophomore Tom Pitt, who qualified for the NCAA Championships in two events, was the first to compete for the Red and Blue. He was 44th in the first round of the long jump. His best leap measured 6.85 meters (22-05.75 ft.). Pitt's meet will continue on Saturday as he also qualified for the NCAA's in the high jump.
The first Quaker on the track was junior Tom Timmins in the men's 400-meter hurdles. It also marked the first track event of the NCAA meet. Timmins, who ranks 10th all-time in the event at Penn, just missed on improving that mark. He finished in 52.46 which placed him 32nd overall and just three-tenths of a second from one of the 24 qualifying spots for the NCAA quarterfinals.
Shortly after Awad advanced, freshman Ashley Montgomery competed in the NCAA first round of the women's 1,500 meters. She was 11th in her heat and 43rd overall with a finish of 4:32.18. She finished her rookie season fourth in the Penn record book in the event and was also a part of the fifth-fastest distance medley relay in school history.
There were two Red and Blue striped jerseys in the men's 800 meters. Junior Mato Bekelja was 41st overall with a finish of 1:50.14, while sophomore Drew Magaha was 48th at 1:55.00.
In Penn's final event of the day, freshman Brendan Shearn finished 20th in the men's 10,000 meters. He was just a few seconds off his career-best mark of 29:49.04 which also ranks fourth all-time at Penn. He crossed the finish line on Thursday night in 30:32.61.
In all, Penn has sent a modern-day school record of 14 athletes to the NCAA Championships. The Quakers will be busy during the final two days of competition as well.
On Friday, sophomoreBen Bowerswill compete in the first round of the 110-meter hurdles at 5 p.m., andGabrielle Piperwill run in the opening round of the 100-meter hurdles at 5:30 p.m. Later, sophomoreBrendan Smithand freshmanNick Tuckwill race for a spot in the NCAA Finals in the men's steeplechase at 8:50 p.m.
Penn athletes competing on the final day in Jacksonville will be sophomoreSam Mattisin the men's discus (noon), Pitt and senior All-AmericanMaalik Reynoldsin the men's high jump (5 p.m.), and Awad in the 5,000 meters (8:05 p.m.).
A full recap of the East Preliminary rounds of the NCAA Championships will be available at PennAthletics.com shortly after the conclusion of each day's events.


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New Ultra High End Price Point With GeForce 8800 Ultraby Derek Wilson on 5/2/2007 9:00 AM EST
- Posted in
- GPUs
67 Comments
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BloodAgent - Wednesday, January 02, 2008 - linkIt is worth it, that is all that needs to be said. If you wanna be cheap and get the lesser computer equipment that will fall short sooner then go with the GTX. I have a Intel Quad Core cpu and two EVGA-8800 Ultra's in SLI, and there is not a game out there that weakens my system. The price is a bit much, but you get what you pay for. My 8800 Ultra's are great. My buddy has a rig running two 8800 GTX's and we benchmarked them using the same version of 3DMARK and my system chewed up the benchmarks while his suffered and choked a bit across the finish line. Go with the Ultra 8800. Reply
derubermensch1 - Friday, May 04, 2007 - linkThe ONLY reason to step-up to this card is if you utilise EVERY one of your expansion slots. The reason being the EVGA card has a backplate which, in most cases, blocks the adjacent slot so it is essentially a 3 slot cooler for all intents and purposes.
The Ultra will undoubtedly overclock better but then you void that nice EVGA lifetime warranty :(
So youre basically banking on some magic driver to come along that may take advantage of the new bios on the card, but that's a big "if"
I was on the fence for awhile until I saw that my EVGA card does better in 1600x1200 (I use 1680x1050) so that cemented my decision to stay away. It would be cool to own such a card, just because I can, but then I realized that step-up cost would pay for an HD-DVD add-on for my 360 :)
derubermensch1 - Friday, May 04, 2007 - linkI forgot to mention, don't get an Ultra or hold out on stepping up in the hopes you will be able to step-up to one of those pre-overclocked Ultras that seem to be around the corner. As anyone who tried to step-up to an ACS3 edition 8800 GTX knows, EVGA will not allow it, the program applies to reference spec'd cards ONLY, no exceptions. Reply
masa77 - Thursday, May 03, 2007 - linkI have a pair of 8800 GTXs already and both can be overclocked to 650MHz on the core and 2.1GHz on the memory, but for a boost of three frames per second or so in 2560x1600 it's pointless.
These cards are only ideal for those who don't have an 8800GTX and even then, you might consider the 8800 GTS because it can basically run anything in 1920x1200 and below quite well. I can often game in 2560x1600 with SLi disabled and all settings maxed. The 8800GTX is a very powerful card. Reply
adaofer - Thursday, May 03, 2007 - linkThere are 2 reasons why nvidia produced this card:
1. Ati new flag ship - this card is supposed to keep the crown on nvidia side and give
nvidia the upper hand VS Ati , it's the same story as 7800 GTX 512 it's a stepping
stone in the road map between 8800 --> 8900
2. price fixing between nvidia and ati : if nvidia ultra costs 830$ and Ati's new flag
ship has the same performance why sould it cost less , this those company's are
creating a new price level for ultra/premium cards Reply
Stele - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkAlmost everything significant to be said about the 8800 Ultra has already be said; it looks very much like this card's more for the clueless but loaded folks who want it as much as they'd want a Bugatti Veyron to show off to their pals.
Even with the supposedly enhanced overclocking headroom, it's unlikely that it'd be able to justify the massive premium - it can only reach 684 MHz core while remaining stable, which is certainly not $300's worth more than the Foxconn's 630 or EVA's 626. That it can reach even higher (702/1728 as Anandtech found) is not much use since, to maintain stability, one would have to spend even more on top of the large premium to replace the stock HSF with a better one - it would have been a little different if, for example, the extra money gives us a superb cooler that allows us to reach 700 (and stay there) out of the box.
Right now there's the 8500, 8600 and 8800. There's a very conspicuous and inviting hole for an 8700 with 64 SPs, 12/16 ROPs and maybe 550/1190/1000 MHz clocks at the $250 mark. A pretty sweet spot, imho. Nvidia really ought to have something there... or perhaps that's an ace in the hole to be pulled out depending on how AMD's lineup performs. Besides that, hopefully Nvidia manages to iron out any kinks in the transition to 65nm fast, as these GPUs could sure use the lower TDPs. On the other side of the fence, hope AMD bucks up soon... they've dropped the ball quite a bit lately and R600's already a whole 6 months behind the 8800. Reply
cornfedone - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkNvidia is no doubt just trolling to find gullible fools with more money than technical knowledge. Only a fool would cough up this kind of money for a video card. Don't be surprised if these outrageously over-priced cards become symbols of cluelessness for the well healed but technically challenged fanboys. There's a sucker born every second.
Mumrik - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkI don't get it... it's not April 1st... Reply
TA152H - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkWhy is everyone whining about this card? I mean, you realize that NVIDIA is in the business of making money, right? You also realize that no one from NVIDIA will come to your home and hold a gun to your head and make you buy it, right? Wow, a company that wants to make money is greedy! Too funny.
In actuality, they are probably just looking for an identity and want to go more upscale. Is it worth it? Maybe to someone, and now they have the choice. High end CPUs have always been a bargain for some uses, even though they cost a lot more and offer only a few percentages more performance. The reason is simple, for some companies the cost for employees is so much higher than the cost of equipment, even a $1000 is trivial if it makes people more productive or gets answers faster. I have been in these situations before, and they aren't willing to overclock so they buy the best and don't really care about the cost. I'm just not sure if a video card applies to many of these situations, since shooting space aliens isn't a viable business strategy. But there are probably some pursuits that benefit from this besides kiddies and their games. For them, this might make sense.
Comparing an overclocked card with a stock, pre-production card is kind of silly too. I mean, it's fine for the review, but when people extrapolate from this that they should get other card and overclock it, they ignore that this new card might overclock better, so again, it's not a matter of getting the same thing for less, but of getting less performance for less.
AMD probably realizes the kiddie market is too small like Intel has and prefer to go with better mainstream products. They don't need to be in that business anymore, since it's a much bigger company and they can expand in different, more meaningful ways (like Fusion). NVIDIA has big problems, the merger between AMD and ATI has made their life a whole lot more difficult in that chipset market, and I don't know anyone with an IQ over 70 that buys a chipset from a penny-ante company like NVIDIA when they can buy a real Intel chipset for their Intel processors. Intel chipsets have always been the best, if not in performance then in reliability and support.
So, NVIDIA is looking like the odd man out, especially with IGPs slowly creeping up. Maybe they need to reinvent themselves as a high end company, as ATI goes a bit more mainstream. Good luck to them, I'll be surprised if they're not belly up in a few years, or really bought by another company, especially if processors continue to gain GPU functions as seems the current path.
Does anyone else think it's a little funny how everything goes back to the way things were? I mean, there are math coprocessors again! Now, it seems like all the graphical stuff will be done by the processor again pretty soonb (as in the days of the dumb frame buffer video cards). I wonder when the DOS prompt will be the interface for the next generation operating system. Google isn't that far from it, although it's not an OS. Reply
DerekWilson - Saturday, May 05, 2007 - linkJust one issue with what you said.
quote:You can look at it like an overclocked card, but the fact is that the EVGA card we tested and stock 8800 Ultra cards compete on the same level. This isn't a card we bought and then overclocked, this is a retail product that EVGA sells at higher performance than stock 8800 GTX hardware. It's got a lifetime warranty at the clock speeds they set at the factory. As will their stock 8800 Ultra card which won't perform any better.
Comparing an overclocked card with a stock, pre-production card is kind of silly too. I mean, it's fine for the review, but when people extrapolate from this that they should get other card and overclock it, they ignore that this new card might overclock better, so again, it's not a matter of getting the same thing for less, but of getting less performance for less.
I understand the argument that comparing the 8800 Ultra to an 8800 GTX that we overclocked ourselves is silly. But people that don't want to overclock their hardware who are in the market for a high end graphics card will only see a negligible performance difference with a huge price gap between EVGA's 8800 GTX KO ACS3 and any stock 8800 Ultra. It absolutely is a matter of getting the same thing for less.
Overclockers may see some value in the 8800 Ultra, but even the businesses you mentioned should look at the EVGA 8800 GTX KO ACS3 and the 8800 Ultra as competitors on equal ground. Sure a company might not mind paying more money for more performance, but it is hard to understand why a company would needlessly pay more money for somethign that offers the same performance as a competing part.
I do agree that a lot of people are making a bigger deal out of this than they need to. The market is still driven by supply and demand afterall. If people are smart enough to realize that NVIDIA has priced their hardware too high, the price will come down. We certainly won't pass up the opportunity to educate people about the fact that the 8800 Ultra is an incredibly bad value with other retail graphics cards performing the same and costing much less.
strikeback03 - Thursday, May 03, 2007 - linkSince you always seem to think good graphics cards are for shooting aliens, are you aware that there are cards that sell for over $5000 for business applications? Reply
gigahertz20 - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkWell I was excited when I woke up this morning to find reviews on the 8800 Ultra but after reading this I'm very disappointed. All Nvidia did was overclock a 8800 GTX and are now calling it a 8800 Ultra while trying to sell it for $200-$300 more. It performs a few percent better but not enough to be noticeable in a game.
I guess they decided a few people would buy it and it's not like Nvidia is losing money making them, the 8800 Ultras are the same as the 8800GTX just factory clocked a little higher. I guess as a business move it makes sense, make a little extra money while not having to change your product around at all except for a clock increase.
8800GTS 320MB is still the best deal, come on AMD/ATI I hope their benchmarks for the R600 won't be as disappointing as this, what I've seen from DailyTech on the R600 it looks like Nvidia could be holding the crown for quite some time.
Zefram0911 - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkguess what though... there are still going to be people who buy two of theses bad boys for Sli...... my goodness. Reply
DigitalFreak - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkYeah, well... "A fool and his money are soon parted". Reply
johnsonx - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkFoxconn's 8800GTX OC runs at 630/2000 and is only $550 at NewEgg:
This new GeForce 8800 Ultra really seems pointless, when almost identical performance can be had for $550. It just doesn't seem Ultra enough for an extra $300.
DigitalFreak - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkNo kidding. Nearly $300 less than the 8800 Ultra. No wonder Nvidia wasn't too keen on letting their board partners overclock the 8800 GTX.... Reply
JarredWalton - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkI'll make a note of this in the article, as the Foxconn should perform equal to the EVGA card. Reply
Sunrise089 - Thursday, May 03, 2007 - linkTheres also a similar spec'd BFG card at a lower price than the quoted eVGA. I'm all for reccomending eVGA in a buyers guide, but this article actually appears biased by leaving out other (cheaper) cards in favor of a single eVGA. Reply
munky - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkNice job on the review, including an overclocked gtx really shows just what a joke the 8800u is. However, I suggest that in your future articles you keep the colors consistent between the cards in your resolution scaling graph. It's confusing if a card is shown in yellow on one graph, and then the same card is blue in the next graph. Reply
DerekWilson - Thursday, May 03, 2007 - linksorry, it ended up that way because we had trouble enabling 4xAA on r6v with the ati x1950xtx. excel automatically picked the colors -- everything else is consistent though. Reply
kalrith - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - link...because you can't purchase an E6600 that's overclocked to 2.9GHz out of the box, with the warranty intact. The extreme CPUs are actually marketable to people who want the overclocked performance without doing it on their own and voiding the warranty.
We can already do that with EVGA's overclocked 8800GTX that performs at about 2% less than the Ultra and costs 22% less. It does that right out of the box and keeps its warranty at that performance level. Reply
ADDAvenger - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - link
would give NVIDIA the ability to sell a card and treat it like a Ferrari. It would turn high end graphics into a status symbol rather than a commodity.
Like they aren't already more of a status symbol than commodity!? Reply
DerekWilson - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkperhaps to some ... and the ferrari analogy isn't quite right there either -- ferrari's actually have something to offer on the road/track, and they can be a good investment as well ... perhaps I need to rework that sentence.
the thing is, there are enthusiasts out there who will buy the 8800 GTX for it's performance. but with cards more like the ultra, we will see fewer people buy the card for any quality/performance advantage. a higher ratio of status seekers will buy it as opposed to real enthusiasts.
certainly the hardcore overclockers will be interested. and it'll be interesting to see what A3 G80 silicon can do when strapped to a phase change cooling system. but that market isn't very large. Reply
sxr7171 - Thursday, May 03, 2007 - linkWell the market for any $830 card isn't large as it stands, but the likelihood users adding some crazy cooling to it is pretty high among those who would pay $830 for a video card. Reply
Den - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkI would like to see the power usage numbers on this card since part of the A3 revision was supposed to help reduce power consumption.
I agree this is a big step in price for a small step in performance, but that is just like high end CPU's. The interesting question is, when EVGA and others come out with overclocked Ultra cards, how much faster will those be than their overclocked GTX's? If they can get a 10% lead for $200 more, I bet they will get some takers. Reply
DerekWilson - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkwe don't usually test power with reference boards. we'll certainly look at it when we get our hands on a retail product though.
nvidia is reporting lower power usage with the 8800 Ultra that ammounts to just a couple watts less than the 8800 GTX. While this is good for a higher performance part, it's nothing to write home about. Reply
Chadder007 - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkHoly Not worth the price of admission Batman!! That much more for an overclocked GTX? Reply
Fluppeteer - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkI completely understand this review's conclusions, but I can't help but notice...
If the reviewers have agreed that the only point of this card is its ability to be overclocked, and given that they overclocked it (and proved that it has more headroom than the GTX), why are there no performance results for the overclocked card? Just because retail cards may behave differently? Surely they'd overclock *somewhat*, so the extra sample point (even with a "YMMV" by it) would be useful.
Fine, overclocking ability varies on a card-by-card basis, but if the sole point of this card (whether nVidia market it as such or not) is to be ramped up from the default clock, it seems strange not to have shown how much performance this might have provided.
Clearly the Ultra at default clock isn't economical compared with an overclocked GTX (no news there - a lot of overclocked devices are more economical than slower "higher end" parts), but if this card is really capable of running at higher speeds, that still makes it the fastest card available - and it would be nice to know by how much. Maybe nVidia will change their minds about the default clock (and remove a few Ultras from the production line) if the 2900XTX turns out to be faster than expected.
I'll reserve judgement until the consumer cards appear.
sxr7171 - Thursday, May 03, 2007 - linkYes that is the real question. The whole reason all the revisions were done was to enable better O/Cing. Anyway, I can't afford it, but I hope it O/Cs well for those who can. Reply
ss284 - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkThis is a really good point. Some OCed results would help, although the card is still overpriced. Reply
nefariouscaine - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkthats is way over priced for the gain (or loss) in performance I see here. I just hope that the test bed (which I doubt) is bottlenecking the speeds. But the cost for a BFG water cooled (pre-installed) 8800GTX is high 750-900 so this isn't that far out of the ball park for what some people will pay (I'm not one of em). I'm excited to see what ATI(AMD) is going to step up with as I'm not too impressed with the new parts we've seen from Nvidia this past month. I'm not a brand fan boy but a performance fan boy - someone please release something to wow the living $#!* outta me again Reply
yyrkoon - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - link
We are all for higher performance, and we don't mind higher prices. But it is ridiculous to charge an exorbitant amount of money for something that doesn't offer any benefit over a product already on the market. $830 isn't the issue. In fact, we would love to see a graphics card worth $830. The 8800 Ultra just isn't it.
Look guys, $830 for a graphics card is F'n WAY too much. I do not care what you say, how you try and justify the cost, whatever, the cost is too much, even if the card performed much better. This just goes to show, how greedy these people are, much like the memory comcpanies who have finaly comes down to a semi reasonable price.
We the people, and you the reviewers, need to let these greedy a-holes know that these prices are way too much, and that we will not except them. Until then, you, myself, and everyone else can exspect to pay out the rear for crappy stuff, such as this. Reply
coldpower27 - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkWell, if people don't feel it is acceptable they don't buy it, I mean these are luxury products they aren't critical to survival so the sky's the limit on the price of these things. Reply
strikeback03 - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkThere are people who buy 2 8800GTX cards to run SLI, so some are willing to spend that much on video. This card just doesn't offer the performance to go with the price.
I know in the past Anandtech has not been big fans of SLI, but assuming the price on the 8800 Ultra does stay at $830+, it would be interesting to see tests of it vs 2 8800GTS cards in SLI, as price would be similar. Reply
coldpower27 - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkUnfortunately due to some issues of SLI scaling or driver immaturity according to the TechReport 8800 GTS 640 SLI is for the most part inferior to 8800 Ultra. :( The only thing SLI is better at is Oblivion. Reply
yyrkoon - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkyou mean, there are some people out there with more money, than brains, right ? I am not putting you, or anyone else down on this subject (well maybe the manufactuers for trying to pull a fast one), but this is so freeking obvious, I figured I better say something before someone else does. I also understand that any company out there, is in business to make money, first and foremost, but come on . . .this is blatantly obvious greed.
Anyhow, appearantly, my father teaching me, when I was young, to always try and respect everyone, and not to cheat,steal from anyone (especially a customer), was wrong, because obviously, everyone now days just seems to be interrested in money only, a screw the morals attitude. Lie, cheat, steal your way into becomming a big business, and if these three methods do not work, what next ? These common tactics practiced by the PC markets big OEMs is no better than the average theif on the street mugging you. As a matter of a fact, I say it is worse, because at least everyone should be able to figure out the theifs true intentions are, and call them what they really are.
Ask yourself why, not two months ago, you were paying $250 usd + for an average 2GB DDR2 6400 kit. Take a look at the currect prices, and wonder again(a hint: it is hovering right around ~$100 usd right now).
Anyhow, prices like these, and higher are to be expected if we never see another ATI(AMD), and nVidia, has shown me their true colors. Reply
sxr7171 - Thursday, May 03, 2007 - linkYeah because they are twisting your arm really hard so that you buy this and it hurts badly. There is a big difference between a mugging and an offer to buy something, it's called coercion. Look it up sometime. Reply
yyrkoon - Sunday, May 06, 2007 - linkThere is another word, it is called 'monopoly', look it up sometime, and hope it does not come into play here any time soon, because we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg.
Ask yourself why this year, prices have jumped roughly 250%-300%, when years past, prices for graphics cards climbed gradualy. There is something called 'fair market value', and then there is blatant robbery. Maybe the cards are actually worth this much ? Given the benchmark results, they are not.
Yeah, whatever . . . right ? Anyhow, this kind of 'tactics' on nVidias behalf has made me re-think my potition on who to buy graphics cards from, and nVidia better hope ATI does not come out with anything near what they have, because they will lose market share, the way I see things. Reply
strikeback03 - Thursday, May 03, 2007 - linkWell, personally, I wouldn't consider spending any more than $150 on a video card. I don't play games, so the only reason I bought something as good as the 7600GT I have is that a) it was $90 after rebate, b) I wanted to be sure I had enough power to drive my 1920x1200 display without any issues, and c) i didn't want a card stealing from my system memory. Now I understand people who are into gaming and want to spend their money on it, after all some would probably say I'm crazy to spend $1400 on a lens for my camera. So if nVidia (or AMD, or whoever) released a $830 video card that was 25% better than anything else out there, I'd be fine with it. I wouldn't buy it, but wouldn't consider it a dumb move for those who want one.
Also, I don't think they are stealing from their customers. Assuming you are buying based on the specs as-delivered (and not based on possible overclocking headroom) then you know what you are getting, and are willing to pay more for it. It's not like they took preorders promising something much better and then delivered the current configuration.
I have no idea why RAM jumped up to the high of around Christmastime (maybe high demand, maybe another factory fire, who knows), but now that a second 2GB kit to match what is in my system is $102, I'm highly tempted to get more. Reply
yyrkoon - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - link'companies' / 'expect' . . . Reply
redbone75 - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkYou meant we will not "accept" them;) Reply
redbone75 - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkBut anywho, I completely agree with you. I just built a complete rig for a buddy of mine for barely more than that. And I mean, complete, he needed everything from monitor (Samsung 941BW) to keyboard and mouse and speakers(7.1). Core 2 Duo based (E6320 on a Gigabyte DS3, 2 gigs of Corsair DDR2 800, 320GB hdd, X1900 GT). All for under $1100 USD after rebates. Not a gaming rig for sure, but a respectable system nonetheless. Even if I had the money I wouldn't see any justification in buying an $830 card that offered only marginal gains over it's less expensive sibling. Reply
kmmatney - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkWhat do you mean not a gaming rig? You can game fine on that, the video card can handle native resolution for most games. I game with a slightly lesser system than that. Reply
strikeback03 - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkIf you buy a Ferrari and don't crash it, you can probably resell in 5 years for 80% or more of the cost new. Try that with a video card. Reply
Sunrise089 - Thursday, May 03, 2007 - linkPlease look up exotic car prices. You will find you do NOT get an 80% return on anything other than a few tiny examples of cars that were generally unavailable at the time of their initial offerings. Also note that when you take advantage of the gouging to non-established customers of exotic cars, the depreciation will often be even more than adds would appear to indicate, as the orginal paid-for price may have been much higher than MSRP. Reply
strikeback03 - Thursday, May 03, 2007 - linkthe "few tiny examples" are the ones that appreciate, such as the Enzo. If you were one of the 399 that bought one from the factory for around $650k, you now have a car worth over a million, and likely to keep heading up as dumb comedians crash them. Something relatively common though, such as a 355 from 10 years ago, is still worth over 50% of new (assuming you bought one through a dealer, not paid extra to get one immediately). Even NSXs from the early 90s are still worth $25-35k. And judging by the current market, even in 20-30 years, the Ferrari will still have some value because it is a Ferrari, independant of actual performance relative to current models. Any computer hardware, unless extremely limited production so that it is a collectors item, will be essentially worthless by the time it is 3 or 4 generations old. Reply
coldpower27 - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkThere is a difference in the pace of advancement between these 2 industries a new Ferrari from 2003 is not so much inferior compared to the Ferrari from 2008 perse.
You can barely compare video cards that are 5 years apart. If the pace of advancement was slower video cards would hold their value longer as well.
ss284 - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkVoodoo 5 6000 Reply
swaaye - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkExcept that V5 6000 was never released to consumer retail and thus it's incredibly rare. So its value is just due to obscurity. Reply
Samus - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linklooks like teh sux0rs.
unfortunately, ATI still doesn't have anything that can touch any of the 8800's :( Reply
ssidbroadcast - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - link$300-$200 more for an overclock? That's it?
For that much more money, buy a GTX, take off the stupid heatsink that takes up a whole slot, and spend the extra 200-300 on a decent water cooler.
nVidia is getting just plain arrogant now. C'mon, AMTi... pull it together! Reply
MadBoris - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkObviously it's the best nvidia could do with the time they had to compete with the R600. They came out with something to maintain perfromance crown, better than nothing.
Obviously not worth the price...
Question is...HOW DOES THIS CARD OVERCLOCK?
How fast can this card really go with core and mem? Reply
sxr7171 - Thursday, May 03, 2007 - linkYeah it is a trophy card. They had to do it for good PR. Now if anyone actually buys it, I guess that's a bonus for Nvidia. There are a good number of people in the world with more money than they know what to do with. This is for those people who buy $300 shirts regularly or don't think twice before dropping $20,000 on a sofa. Reply
bob4432 - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkthis kind of b.s. from a company will mean i will probably never buy another nvidia gpu, and after my next build another m/b based on their chipset. this is a complete joke and i can't wait for amd/ati to put out something soon. the x1950x is a good card but needs a big brother that is dx10.
this has got to be the dumbest thing i have seen since the killernic...this move should even make the fanboys question their allegiance. Reply
sxr7171 - Thursday, May 03, 2007 - linkYou are the fanboy for getting so riled up over this and thinking that you shouldn't buy Nvidia's currently superior products because of it. If you have $300 to spend on a video card, there is nothing that beats an 8800GTS now. What does Nvidia releasing a BS $830 card have to do with the excellent price/performance you have been able to get from their other products since late last year.
The dumbest thing I have seen is people who will wait to buy something only from a specific company to get poorer performance for their dollar. It is the same kind of sucker who would buy the 8800GTX Ultra. Reply
ss284 - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkThis kind of BS happens because ATI can't come out with anything to beat the 8800gtx, even 6+ months after it was released. Nvidia is price gouging because they really have no competition. The R600 is a complete joke, hopefully the coming reviews will shed some light on why. Reply
defter - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkCan you tell me what is the difference between $999 Q6700 and $530 Q6600? The price difference is huge, $470... Reply
coldpower27 - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkUnlocked Multiplier and 266MHZ more. Reply
mlambert890 - Friday, May 04, 2007 - linkAlso, the 266 Mhz more and the "Extreme" branding means that the silicon tested higher. People seem to not want to place value on that, but then they get pissed if they're the one that buys the cheap part that will NOT o'clock. If you opt for the budget version, just realize that its a gamble. The "Extreme" parts are essentially geared towards o'clocking and should oclock.
For example, getting my QX6700 to 3.2 was effortless and 3.46 required only a minor voltage bump. On water and with a bit more voltage I can do 3.7 but it gets hotter than I would like so I keep it at 3.46. Many people do better than I with the QX6700. This is ALL just multiplier also... NO FSB o'clock so NO need for better RAM and a mobo that isnt picky with FSB o'clocking.
personally, I think there is a LOT of value in all of that. People who dont can buy the cheaper part and feel the Extreme is a "ripoff".
The QX6700 vs. Q6600 is NOT analgous to this situation with the 8800GTX Ultra. NVidia is being ridiculous. Reply
Staples - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkThis is just like CPUs the past few years which are 10% faster, the price is usually 50% or more. This is getting crazy without ATI in the market. Reply
dsumanik - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkLet this be a lesson kids, buy an ATI card, and an AMD processor or two.
Even the low end stuff, for your mom or your kids machine.
The reason why the CPU market is so awesome right now is because intel felt real pressure from amd and they had to respond with a superior product at lower prices or face a continual market share loss.
We now see nvidia's true colors, the sky's the limit on the prices, and they quite surely, could have released a product with far more performance, at a lower price point, had AMD been simply been putting pressure on them.
If anyone buys this card, you are wholeheartedly supporting $1000 dollar retail graphics cards, that will increase in performance incrementally over the years instead of quantum leaps, at a fair, and still profitable cost...
Mise well just buy a wii im thinking... Reply
sxr7171 - Thursday, May 03, 2007 - linkI'm not buying an AMD processor or graphics card simply because they offer competition to Intel or Nvidia. I will buy an AMD product when they offer simple superior performance to the competition again. At the $300 I paid for my 8800GTS, there is nothing that comes close in performance for the money.
Don't tell me that ATI didn't try some insane pricing when they had the lead. Reply
DerekWilson - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkAMD would love to join NVIDIA on this. Don't forget about the FX series of processors or the 4x4 program.
Rather than pressure companies to build hardware that doesn't cost much, let's encourage them to build hardware that's worth the price they put on it.
There is a market for high end hardware. There is no reason NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel shouldn't satisfy that market. But there's no point in charging $830 for performance we can get for $650 just because people will buy it. Reply
mlambert890 - Friday, May 04, 2007 - linkGreat point. Yeah, lets be a charity for AMD. Come on. Where are these people coming from??? When AMD offers a competitive part again for a decent price, I will buy from them again. If Intel starts offering parts I feel are not worth it, I wont buy from them.
I have 8800GTX in SLI and am running at 629/1000 and these are just plain old air cooled GTX parts. NVidia is nuts on this Ultra. It wont sell well at this price and they will either have to put more value or drop this down to regular GTX pricing.
THe market adjusts itself and doesnt need political statements from ideological consumers to drive it. Of course if you choose to spend your money that way, more power to you! One could argue that it keeps AMD weak though. If they know they have a comfortable revenue stream for substandard parts, the can rest. Remember... they rose to challenge Intel from NOTHING, not from a flow of "charity" revenue. Reply
strikeback03 - Thursday, May 03, 2007 - linkI think they are following Murphy's Law: It is morally wrong to allow suckers to keep their money. They made changes at minimal cost to a product, slap a high price on it, and see if anyone is dumb enough to bite. When sales numbers drop off, they cut the price, and probably end up closer to $700 where the performance should leave it.
I don't blame nVidia for making it, I just laugh at anyone who buys it. Reply
Speedo - Wednesday, May 02, 2007 - linkYeah, I don't think its worth that much more $$ just for that little extra edge in performance. Reply
FIXX719 - Monday, December 05, 2016 - linkHELLOOO... I CAME FROM THE FUTURE :v ...... YOU CANT RUN 4K IN THIS CARD :v .... bye Reply


text:
THE West Somerset Advice Bureau is looking to recruit new volunteer advisors to provide advice to residents of West Somerset.
The bureau is an independent charity that provides advice on a full range of issues.
The advice service is provided by a team of trained volunteers and the bureau is now seeking to recruit new advisors to join a training course starting in February.
In the last 12months, the bureau has helped 1,500 West Somerset residents.
Not only do they help people cope with issues such as debt and fuel poverty, but they help people with advice on employment issues, property disputes and housing.
Bureau manager Georgie Reynolds said: "Our volunteer advisors provide a critical support for people who are experiencing difficulty in their lives.
"We provided impartial free advice and help people find the best solution to the issues that are confronting them. confronting them.
"Our clients can be experiencing difficulty with employment, consumer issues, as a carer, with a disability or any one of a number of other issues.
"In many cases, one issue can create additional problems for a client, for example redundancy will often impact on the client's ability to meet household expenses."
Advisors come from a wide variety of backgrounds and no formal qualifications are required as full training will be given.
A willingness to learn, be nonjudgmental and treat all information in the strictest confidence are the only requirements.
William Wake, volunteer coordinator at the Bureau added: "Our volunteers are the lifeblood of the bureau and we do need to recruit more advisors in order to be able to continue to prvide this critical service.
I would love to hear from anyone who can help." The training course starts on February 5 and lasts ten weeks.
Once training is complete, each advisor is asked to volunteer for at least one six-hour session per week.
For more information, contact William Wake on 01643-704624 or email WilliamW@westsomerset advice.org.uk


text:
Here is screenshot of both pdf as well as html form for comparison.
Then there are things that matters in pdf world doesn't have same importance in html/mobile world, e.x. barcodes. Barcodes are more relevant in printed documents so we decided to do away with this barcode object purely from UI level. We still keep it at model level so one can always generate pdf with barcode using the data exported from the html form. If required, one can always insert custom widgets to show barcodes on html form. That is the beauty of Mobile Form architecture. It is way more open than the pdf form where all the widgets are locked down. In Mobile Forms world, one can customize the widgets to enhance the user experience on Mobile devices. For example, one can replace the xfa numeric field with the slider object to capture number information from users.
Signature field is another component that can be interestingly done using the html world solutions like e-sign. So we decided to de-prioritize it for Mobile Forms. On the other hand, we provide a scribble object, using that one can scribble his signature on the form and it will be saved as an image on the form. More detail on the scribble form can be found here.
As I mentioned, Mobile Form will look like almost same as Pdf form. Time has come to explain the almost part here. Mobile Form, because of its html nature has lot of advantages, for example easier to customize, faster opening time, availability on mobile etc. But it has its own set of inherent issues also like support for very thin lines thinner than 1 px.
We use data uri scheme to show images in the Mobile Form. This is supported by all the modern versions of the browsers but you cannot help but notice the differences in the range of image formats that these browsers support. So one should test the images across all the browser matrix before deploying the forms.
In mobile form, pagination, the ability to generate pages due to content changes like adding enough text in the text box to go beyond page boundaries, doesn't matter. But keeping all the content cluttered would not look nice either. Mobile Form, that is why, chooses a hybrid approach where it generates panels, a box to give feel of pages, as many as there is in the template but it doesn't increase or reduce panels by data content merged or by user content.


text:
Construction workers labour on the roof of a building in the Fort Bonifacio district of Manila, the Philippines. The Philippines beat Indonesia to win an investment grade from Standard & Poor's last week as President Benigno Aquino outshines Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in improving government finances and spurring growth.
© The Financial Times Ltd 2016 FT and 'Financial Times' are trademarks of The Financial Times Ltd.


text:
Find the best Garages and Car Repairs in Doncaster with Who Can Fix My Car.
Enter your registration to compare prices and reviews and find a great garage today.
Find the best Garages and Car Repairs in Doncaster with Who Can Fix My Car.
Job well done
Fantastic service and even got a valet for free. Would recommend
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very helpful - fixed one fault and recommended another garage for the other because the could not fix. Did not charge me a penny for inspection. 5 stars all the way.
Unfortunately.i was unable to get to have service.but there print replies and advice was very good
Excellent service will return for all future work
guys looked at car and figured out what my problem was,they ordered part and fitted it in about an hour.I was very happy with the service and would recommend.
(Saturday) Apparently the wrong part had been ordered,, my partner is going back again tomorrow and the price might be different !
Good experience.
The work was done as requested...again a good price for main dealer work. Communication good throughout.
Did the job quickly, have to give them 10/10!
As usual, a good experience and good value
Did a great job, I'm very happy and I would use them again.
Price was the best, free courtesy car for a couple of days, job was done brilliant and they even cleaned and hoovered the car, can't fault it!
Service & MOT. Fantastic Customer Service, car needed a couple of extra jobs carrying out. Was kept informed throughout , despite the fact they were short staffed on the day. Simon was a really nice guy and clearly had great experience and enthusiasm for his work. I will be returning here for any other work doing on the car, should the need arise. Would recommend with out doubt.
Easy to deal with I've booked my car in for repair service and engine flush so fingers crossed all OK. Thanks.
5 Stars for sure! Overall it was a very good service and Simon kept me informed in great detail. I definitely recommend Auto P-fect!
good friendly people did a good job very satisfied
Fantastic service..time and date agreed and kept. Well recommend this garage
No, They broke off my wheel locking nut and then never contacted to complete the job
Very good and efficient service. No hassle at all will shall recommend and use again. Cheers thanks a lot Appreciate it loads
Did not turn up so very poor experience with this company.
Prompt, efficient and friendly.
Friendly staff very helpful and informative. Dealt with in a timely manner. Would recommend using this garage. I will certainly be going back if needed
Needed a new clutch and as it turned out needed gearbox bearings too. Really good service as I didn't know who to go to
Smooth transaction, no issues at all.
Very fast repair, phone call to say car was ready took me by surprise. Clutch repair at short notice was a lifesaver as car was needed next day. Courteous and professional service. They also cleaned my car! Can recommend without hesitation.


text:
Detectives investigating the murder of university graduate Melanie Hall, who vanished in Bath nearly 20 years ago, are encouraged by the public response to a new appeal for information.
On BBC Crimewatch last night, Avon and Somerset Police revealed they want to talk to anyone who owned or knew of a particular white VW Golf GTi hardtop during the summer of 1996.
They believe the owner of the car, with the registration C752 CYE, may have vital information that could help the inquiry into the 25-year-old's murder.
Det Supt Mike Courtiour, who is leading the murder hunt, said: "We had a reasonable number of calls that are of interest to us and which warrant further investigation."
Miss Hall, from Bradford Leigh, who worked at the Royal United Hospital in Bath, vanished after a night out at Cadillacs nightclub in Walcot Street, Bath, in June 1996.
In 2009 her remains were found by the side of the M5 by a workman who was clearing vegetation on the slip road at junction 14, near Thornbury, south Gloucestershire.
Detectives said they wanted information about the car, which they believe has links to Cardiff and the Pentwyn area of the Welsh capital, from the beginning of April 1996 to August 7 1996.
During that period the Golf was not registered with the DVLA.
"We are still keen to reach as many people as possible who may have information about the white VW Golf GTi between April and August 1996, particularly people from the Pentwyn area of Cardiff," Mr Courtiour said.
Last October - on the fourth anniversary of the discovery of Miss Hall's body - detectives said they had found another white VW Golf GTi, a soft-top cabriolet, which they described as a "significant line of inquiry".
Officers also said they had received "significant information" about a blue rope used to tie up Miss Hall's body.
Mr Courtiour said his team was still investigating whether that car was relevant to the inquiry and are still carrying out forensic tests on some blue rope, which is similar to that used to bind her body.
Miss Hall's father Steve spoke last year of his hope that his daughter's killer would be brought to justice.
"Gradually the pieces of the jigsaw are being put together to bring Melanie's killer or killers to justice," he said.
"We always knew it would take a long time, but these new developments appear very encouraging.
"It's time for whoever has information about Melanie's murder to come forward and bring this to an end - because it will come to an end eventually.
"The police won't give up until they get a result."
A 44-year-old man, from Bath, who was arrested last year on suspicion of Miss Hall's murder, remains on police bail.


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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 6/2/2010 (2754 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
MARCH is often the cruellest month on the Canadian weather calendar and this March also promises a shift in fiscal climate as Ottawa moves to bring a $56-billion deficit under control.
To understand why Ottawa must move quickly to restore fiscal balance to its finances, one need only look back over the economic history of the last half-century. If we are to avoid a repeat of the fiscal crisis that engulfed Canada during the period 1973-1996, we need to take steps now to ensure that the recent deficit does not become the thin edge of a new debt wedge.
From 1961 to 1973, Canada enjoyed robust economic growth, rising tax revenues and rising expenditures, and put in place the last bricks of a comprehensive welfare state: namely, medicare, unemployment insurance and the Canada Pension Plan. Real per capita revenues grew at an astounding seven per cent a year while real per capita spending grew at only a slightly less astounding rate of six per cent.
During this autumn period of the post-war boom, program spending accounted for nearly 90 per cent of total federal government spending, while the debt-to-GDP ratio fell to 20 per cent.
All of this came to an end with the oil price shock and the 1973-74 recession, which ushered in an era of slower economic growth, stagflation and budget deficits.
The slowdown of the 1970s at first seemed like a temporary phenomenon. The Keynesian prescription of fiscal stimulus combined with the regional development inclinations of the era resulted in seemingly modest deficits done with the good intentions of mitigating the downturn.
Unfortunately, the road to fiscal crisis runs parallel to the road to hell, which is also paved with good intentions.
What started out as deficits of $1 billion to $3 billion in the early 1970s reached $29 billion by 1982 and then continued to grow, peaking at nearly $40 billion by the early 1990s.
The early deficits rapidly took on a life of their own as the high interest rates of the 1980s compounded the accumulated deficits into a debt leviathan.
During the period from 1973 to 1996, real per capita revenue grew at about one per cent while real per capita expenditures grew at two per cent, resulting in a growing fiscal gap.
Debt service costs crowded out program spending and the share of total expenditures devoted to government programs fell to 70 per cent by 1991. Whereas the accumulated federal deficit in 1961 was just under $15 billion, it had grown to $108 billion by 1982 and then soared to $563 billion by 1996.
The concerted expenditure restraint of the mid-1990s, combined with a booming economy, brought the federal deficit and debt situation under control as deficits were converted to surpluses and both the absolute level of debt and the debt-to-GDP ratio fell. The fiscal pain felt in the area of federal health and education transfers to the provinces was substantial.
By 2007, the federal debt had fallen to well below $500 billion, the debt-to-GDP ratio had declined to 30 per cent and the budget had seen nearly a decade of consecutive surpluses.
In many respects the period from 2000 to 2007 had come to resemble the golden autumn of the post-war boom.
While the growth rates of real per capita revenues and expenditures were lower than the 1960s, the real fiscal driver became the dividend from falling debt service costs, which allowed program spending to rise faster than per capita tax revenues, tax rates to be lowered and still generate surpluses.
However, every boom must end -- the question is never if but when -- and the onset of the Great Recession saw the return of deficits.
With the rediscovery of Keynesian stimulus spending and declining government revenues, surpluses ended and a deficit of about $6 billion in 2008-09 has been followed by an estimated $56-billion deficit in 2009-2010.
Once again, we are on the verge of a giant gap between revenues and expenditures continuing.
To date, we have been spared the full onslaught of the debt leviathan because it is early on and interest rates have remained at historically low rates.
A drop in debt service costs fuelled by falling interest rates is unlikely to repeat itself. Interest rates cannot remain at historic lows forever and if deficits are not converted to surpluses by some combination of revenue increases and expenditure reductions, then the power of compound interest will eventually kick in and undo all the work that was done to restore the country's fiscal health since the mid-1990s.
We may wish to debate whether the deficit is structural or cyclical but the solution remains the same in either case. Our fiscal history suggests that the best remedy to restore fiscal health is to ensure that expenditures don't rise faster than revenues.
Livio Di Matteo is professor of economics at Lakehead University.


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Popcorn Key
One Popcorn: Flop
Two Popcorns: Wait till it's on video
Three Popcorns: Go see it
Four Popcorns: Standing ovation
"Hyde Park On Hudson"
Two Popcorns
Genre: Drama
Cast: Bill Murray, Laura Linney, Samuel West, Olicia Colman, Elizabeth Marvel, Olivia Williams
Director: Roger Michell
Rating: R
Comment: Somewhat disappointing. Though there are some funny scenes, a bit dark. Bill Murray is Bill Murray, is Bill Murray. Hard to see him as Roosevelt. Some equate this movie in the same breath as "Lincoln" ... NOT!
"Les Miserables"
Four Popcorns
Genre: Musical Drama
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Sacha Baron Cohen, Helena Bonham Carter
Director: Tom Hooper
Rating: PG-13
Comment: Superb performance by Jackman and Hathaway, sure to earn oscar nominations. A stunning adaptation of the classic musical. Cohen was perfectly cast and hilarious given the dark French Revolution setting.
"Jack Reacher"
Three Popcorns
Genre: Drama
Cast Tom Cruise, Rosamund Pike, Robert Duvall, Werner Herzog, Richard Jenkins, David Oyelowo
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Rating: PG-13
Comment: Cruise's best effort to date. A real "page turner"! Cruise and Duvall fans must see.
"Django Unchained"
Three Popcorns
Genre: Action Adventure/Drama
Cast: Jamie Fox, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson, Walton Goggins
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Rating: R
Comment: A real surprise! Despite Tarantino's signature blood fetish, a very entertaining, exciting, funny, well directed and acted experience.
"Parental Guidance"
Two Popcorns
Genre: Comedy
Cast: Billy Crystal, Bette Midler, Marisa Tomei, Tom Everett Scott, Bailee Madison
Director: Andy Fickman
Rating: PG
Comment: The usually funny Billy Crystal was flat and forced. The trailer had the funniest stuff. A disappointment.
"The Guilt Trip"
One Popcorn
Genre: Comedy
Cast: Barbara Streisand, Seth Rogan, Kathy Najimy, Colin hanks, Bret Cullen
Director: Anne Fletcher
Rating: PG-13
Comment: UGH! Streisand plays the doting mother to the hilt. An annoying 1 hour and 35 minutes periodically interrupted by a laugh usually generated by Rogan!
"This Is 40"
Two Popcorns
Genre: Comedy
Cast: Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Megan Fox, Albert Brooks, Chris O'Dowd
Director: Judd Apatow
Rating: R
Comment: An immature 40 at that. Apatow writes realistically, accept he verbalizes thoughts that shouldn't be. This makes for uncomfortable dialogue throughout, though funny in a painful kind of way. The words family dysfunction come to mind, often ... not funny.
"The Impossible"
Three Popcorns
Genre: Drama
Cast: Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland, Samuel Joslin, Oaklee Pendergast, Marta Etura
Director: Juan Antonio Bayona
Rating: PG-13
Comment: A true story of a tourist family who survived the Thailand Tsunami in 2004. Hard to watch but well done given the difficult circumstances to portray. Very sensitive and highlights the very best in humanity.


text:
Covering tech these days can be a lot like watching an episode of "The Walking Dead." Zombie companies stagger around, taking bites out of panicked shareholders and about-to-be fired employees. In the cases of Dell and BlackBerry, it wasn't an unexplained burst of interstellar radiation that's responsible, of course -- it was the iPhone and the subsequent mobile revolution that neither company grasped in time.
This week, a company that's been a zombie for years finally admitted it. BlackBerry fired nearly half its staff and moved to go private, echoing a tactic that another victim of the mobile revolution made this month after a long fight: Dell.
[ How they got in this mess: BlackBerry's stubborn denial of reality and Dell's dependence on a tired PC-centric business. | For quick, smart takes on the news you'll be talking about, check out InfoWorld TechBrief -- subscribe today. ]
Sorry to say, chances are neither company will return to the land of the corporate living, though Dell has the better shot. Going private is a slick trick that makes a few people really rich and buys some time, but does little to solve the fundamental problems that turned their companies into flesh eaters.
Going private solves little
Why do companies go private? What everyone always says is that "it will get Wall Street off their backs." There's some truth do that.
The relentless pressure of quarterly earnings reports and conference calls with analysts foster a shortsighted fixation on short-term results. Going private removes that short-term pressure. If the company has not taken on too much debt when it buys out its shareholders, the new investors "typically have a longer-term time horizon," says Rajeev Chand, head of research at Rutberg & Co., a boutique investment house focused on the wireless industry. In theory, that means it can undertake radical moves that exact a short-term price without suffering a beating from Wall Street.
But the longer horizon is only meaningful if the company has a reasonable market position and strategy to implement. BlackBerry probably doesn't, says Chand. And Dell's plan to reinvent itself as some sort of enterprise service provider seems difficult at best, especially because it took on a mountain of debt in its buyout, reducing its ability to hang on during a comeback effort.
There's a larger point here: Going private simply doesn't work. Leveraged buyouts, or LBOs, make some people very rich, but they historically do not improve the performance of the companies in question, according to a recent study from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.
Using tax data from the IRS, the Texas profs looked at the performance of 300 large and medium-sized companies that went public between 1997 and 2005. They found "little evidence" that their performance improved after an LBO. When performance did improve, the better results were not rooted in the ownership shift. What's more, the companies remained highly leveraged, which means they had lots of debt dragging them down.
The researchers also looked at the performance of comparable companies that stayed public. They found no significant difference between the two groups.
There was one bright spot in the study from the point of view of the bankers who profit from the LBOs: The authors did not find evidence to support the widely held notion that LBOs strip the value out of companies, the way the fictional Gordon "Greed Is Good" Gekko did in the movie "Wall Street."


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First Impressions: the TECK Ergonomic Mechanical Keyboardby Jarred Walton on 1/19/2013 4:48 AM EST
42 Comments
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mikelanding - Saturday, January 19, 2013 - link" I've long heard the benefits for touch typists of mechanical keys, but until now I haven't seen anyone doing a curved/natural/ergonomic keyboard with mechanical keys."
Hmm.. You should then check out below few site:
1) www.maltron.com - a UK based company that pioneer Mechanical Split Keyboard
2) http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/ - a US based company that made and sell Split, Concave, Mechanical Keyboard
3) http://ergodox.org/ - An Open source Split, Flat, Mechanical Keyboard project that is now under Group buy stage at https://www.massdrop.com/buy/ergodox. Highly customised. DIY.
Do check them out .. Reply
krazyderek - Saturday, January 19, 2013 - link+1 for kinesis-ergo.com they've been around for a number of years, i've owned they're "Contour" after seeing it featured on the movie "Flubber" with Robin Williams as a scientist. I've also recently used the "Maxim" keyboard which is VERY similar to this keyboard with integrated palm rests, and two way angle (split and tilt) adjustment.
What i'd really like to see anadtech dig up is news on a laptop with an ergonomic keyboard, or some type of mechanical ergonomic keyboard adjustment settings in a laptop. (like in robocop 3 http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2415/2215634966_d1ba... ) Reply
JarredWalton - Saturday, January 19, 2013 - linkGranted I'm only one man, but I don't ever recall seeing an ergonomic laptop keyboard in the wild. In fact, they often seem to be going the opposite direction and are becoming increasingly non-ergonomic. If anyone else has see one, though, let me know.
And for the other mechanical ergo keyboards, thanks for the links -- I might have to see about contacting them to try one out. The last link seems to be dead, though, and if people think $222 is a lot, those Maltron keyboards will give them a different reference point! Anyway, let me see how it goes with this keyboard for a while before trying others. :-) Reply
DanNeely - Saturday, January 19, 2013 - linkMike's last link will work if you delete a stray period off the end. You can't see what level of deal the group buy is without either creating a site account or giving them your facebook info. Reply
Atta Peep - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - linkHmm, probably find with the use of virtual kbs you wll be able to softload any style you want. Reply
Chapbass - Saturday, January 19, 2013 - linkTheir Advantage keyboard is amazing as well. See my post a few below this one for notes on it. Reply
ricardoduarte - Saturday, January 19, 2013 - linkIt would be interesting to get a review on the kinesis contoure advantage
There is also more weird styled keyboards like:
- safetype (which is just weird): http://www.safetype.com/
- datahand keyboard (quite weird but kinda makes sense): DataHand Ergonomic Keyboard Reply
Chapbass - Saturday, January 19, 2013 - linkI use an advantage both at work and at home (I'm typing on one right now). Short version: Its the best keyboard I've ever used, I can type incredibly fast on it, and the keys are very long throw which makes the impact on your hands and wrists much less. There is a speaker inside which clicks when the key is pressed about 1/2 way down, so that you instinctively release the key, further reducing shock.
Took a while to get used to, but I LOVE the alternate placement of the enter, delete spacebar, and backspace keys.
Only downside is that I have to rebind EVERY key when going to play a video game, but its a small price to pay.
Let me know if you have any questions, or if anyone wants to PM me on the forums, I'll gladly answer anything you need. Reply
ricardoduarte - Saturday, January 19, 2013 - linkThanks for your reply, i really have been looking at one of those, i like the idea of the datahand one also, i just find the price quite steep.
Hopefully sometime this year i might get a kinesis.
thanks Reply
Chapbass - Saturday, January 19, 2013 - linkI would definitely recommend it to anyone. But especially those with any sort of hand issues. It was recommended to me by my friend who has very bad carpal tunnel (he had to have surgery on it). He swears by it, as a programmer he would've had to change professions had he not found the kinesis. While he can only type for about an hour at most on a laptop, he can easily type all day every day on the kinesis.
I'm pretty much teh same, way. Started having some hand problems and immediately ordered 2 of them, never looked back. My hands are great, and the keyboard feels great.
Oh, and it can do dvorak too, if thats your thing. Reply
Pete Magsig - Monday, January 21, 2013 - linkAnother +1 vote the for Kinesis. I saw the original papers that drove the design of the Kinesis presented at SIGCHI many years ago, so TECK's claim isn't exactly true. But more importantly, I've been using Kinesis for over a decade, with great results. I started having wrist and hand issues back in the late 90's. I bought a Kinesis, spent the time adapting to it, and haven't had a problem since. I'm a programmer, and spend a lot of time behind a keyboard.
Another great side effect of the Kinesis is that once you've become familiar with the keyboard your typing speed will increase noticeably if you're writing prose. Reply
Exirtis - Thursday, January 24, 2013 - linkThanks for mentioning Massdrop. I'd never heard of it before, but I'm glad I have now.
It's a nice concept, and so belatedly obvious that I'm surprised that the site is so new (the domain registration isn't even two years old) and that the open crowdsourcing of group buying hasn't been done before, that I'm aware of. Reply
piroroadkill - Saturday, January 19, 2013 - linkShe came from a standard, flat, Danish keyboard to a standard QWERTY TECK"109" key, and had little problem adjusting - her job is mostly to type English every day though - technical documents mainly. She loves it, has it with Cherry MX Blues, yet she still uses a normal, flat, Danish keyboard at home.
So there is certainly a good chance some people will find it easy to adapt.
The Truly Ergonomic to me looks great, but I wish they would actually listen to feedback. I'd probably buy one if they allowed me to customise my keycaps like WASD does! (I use a fully custom layout, based on Dvorak, at home and at work, at work on a normal QWERTY keyboard..) Reply
twoscomplement - Saturday, January 19, 2013 - linkI stumbled upon and purchased this keyboard about 8 months ago. It took me a good week or two using it at work to become accustomed to the layout, but afterwards I absolutely would swear by it. As a developer I find its relocating of CTRL, SHIFT, and ENTER as one of the most important changes. On a typical QWERTY layout the typical emacs shortcuts require a lot of pinky stretching which would always cramp up my hands after a long day of programming. On a QWERTY I usually remap Caps Lock to CTRL to alleviate the strain some, but TREK's moving of more used keys to more dominant fingers/positions does create a more comfortable typing position.
Some other minor details: It's quite solidly built with dip switches that allow remapping keys in hardware. The relocation of HOME, END, PGUP, and PGDWN as a second dpad encouraged me to use them quite a bit more. And the small the width of the keyboard keeps mouse hand travel to a minimum. Just keep at it and it'll become second nature in no time. I often find myself reaching for tab, and enter when coming home to my desktop. Reply
BedfordTim - Saturday, January 19, 2013 - linkSomewhat similarly I found that Dell's relocation of the PGUP and PGDwn keys a revelation. As a programmer I make a lot of use of these, and grouping all the movement keys into one area works very well for me. Oddly others here hate Dell's arrangement, so I guess it remains a very personal thing, and probably related to usage patterns. Reply
Azethoth - Saturday, January 19, 2013 - linkWith this amount of futzing they should have just gone full Dvorak.
I do like the idea of redesigning the keyboard though. the standard one has so many dumb features. NumLock needs to be shot in the head for example.
It is also time for dedicated cut copy paste undo keys.
Their arrow key layout sucks coconuts. The down arrow should be in line with the left rights. Moving it back is NOT ergonomic. Your middle finger is long and already reaches the standard configuration. Moving it back means its already curled to reach up, and super curled to reach down. Yuck. Reply
UpSpin - Saturday, January 19, 2013 - linkThat keyboard looks nice and fixes a lot of issues I currently have with my QWERTY keyboard. The middle column is a great idea (finally return accesible with both left and right hand) and also the other button placements (control keys, navigation keys) seem well optimized.
But I think the name is too much. It's definitely not a truly ergonomic keyboard, because it still uses QWERTY layout which is, on purpose, not ergonomic. There are alternative layouts, better suited for modern computers, sadly they aren't the standard and adoption will take much longer. Luckily you can change to an alternative layout, you'll just miss the correct key labels.
The overall button placement (especially numbers and symbols) of the TECK isn't that much different either, so I doubt that it's much more comfortable to type symbols or numbers with it than with a normal keyboard without a number block.
I still use QWERTY on the normal sized keyboard, because every other computer / every available keyboard has QWERTY.
However, I learned a new layout for a one handed keyboard I primarily use. Its physical layout is totally different and also the way you input text. Thus typing on it was difficult the first days/weeks, but here's how I managed to learn it quite fast. (good speed after a month) Because the majority of buttons remain in the old place in TECK, just some control buttons got moved, it shouldn't be take too long to adopt the TECK.
- if you have huge difficulties, use some typing tutor software to train specific keys/combos.
- train daily at least an hour with the keyboard and type as much as possible with it.
- test your words per minute with some software which gives you long texts. Repeat this test daily with the same text. You will advance pretty fast with this text, but on others you'll be slower. Still, it makes more fun to see larger progress, thus the same text.
- It takes time, at least a week. After a month of daily usage you should be more than familiar with the keyboard.
It's nice to see that you really try to use this new keyboard. Lots of other keyboard reviewers testing strange keyboards try the keyboard one day and conclude, it's awkward. Reply
coffeetable - Saturday, January 19, 2013 - linkI switched to DVORAK a few years back, and my typing went from maybe 70WPM to 85WPM over the course of , which was nowhere near enough to be worth the hassle. What was worth it though is the way my typing pains vanished inside a month, but I've no idea whether to attribute that to the new layout or simply to new, better typing habits - fingers on the home row, etc - instead of the hodgepodge of seek'n'peck that I picked up as a teenager.
I upgraded to a MS Natural Ergonomic recently, and while I don't think it's improved my typing speed, though the reverse-incline and split design do seem to reduce stress on my wrists. That said, I'll be surprised if you manage any measurable, statistically significant gains on the TECK.
The numpad elimination is an interesting idea, though I would've preferred if it'd been moved to the LHS, as it does come in useful sometimes. Rather than decrease the time taken to switch, using the mouse is something that should be avoided in general, and stuff like
has helped me a lot towards that end. Reply
Nihility - Saturday, January 19, 2013 - link"I switched to DVORAK a few years back, and my typing went from maybe 70WPM to 85WPM over the course of "
You missed an important word there.
I'm interested in switching. I tried colmack but the OS support was so terrible that I gave up on it after wasting a month of learning.
How long did it take you to get back to QWERTY typing speeds? Reply
Skidmarks - Saturday, January 19, 2013 - linkI can't blame him for not wanting to do the review. Reply
PetriW - Saturday, January 19, 2013 - linkI've used the blank model 109 since launch and I really like it. I'd like to make a few notes though.
- The new shift/ctrl placement makes sense, it's just a pain to get used to. Alt can be hard to hit on the 109/209.
- Unless you actually use both thumbs for space I'd recommend remapping backspace to the left space bar.
- The width of the keyboard lets you move the mouse a lot closer, this really really helps.
- Don't buy the TECK expecting the "Reprogrammable" feature to be released any time soon. It was promised to be there on launch (and the delayed launches...) and it's still not here over a year later. Mail them about it and you get no reply.
- TECK support is pretty bad, I suspect it's just one guy with way too much to do.
- Switching between laptop/pc is not really a big issue outside the whole shift/ctrl placement thing and you could always remap those on your laptop too (caps lock is a waste of a key anyway).
- Shipping to Europe is way too expensive, even when ordering multiple keyboards. Reply
JarredWalton - Saturday, January 19, 2013 - linkRemapping keys is extremely easy to do, actually. Here's one utility you can try that should do the trick: http://www.randyrants.com/sharpkeys/
Why it would take TE that long to create a similar utility is beyond me, but SharpKeys can remap most keys without issue. Being fully mechanical, you can also move most of the keys around on the TECK, so going Dvorak wouldn't be hard at all. Or you can get the blank model and just map it how you see fit. As an added benefit, if anyone comes to try your PC, the lack of labels will drive them away! Reply
santeana - Saturday, January 19, 2013 - linkYeah, do stick with it! I can't wait to see a follow up review in a few weeks when you have gotten used to the new layout! :) Reply
SilthDraeth - Saturday, January 19, 2013 - linkSince this seems to be the only company that makes this keyboard and the layout is so different from every other keyboard, and the design will likely never make it into a laptop...
I really don't see the point of spending two months learning it, as it will just slow down your ability to use other keyboards.
Now if you where to switch to it 100% and didn't type on any other layouts, then I could see changing. Reply
piroroadkill - Saturday, January 19, 2013 - linkNah, I can type QWERTY, Dvorak, and my custom layout based on Dvorak although to be fair, I haven't typed on normal Dvorak for some months now.
It's almost like languages - people who learn many languages don't necessarily forget their previous languages.. Reply
Chapbass - Saturday, January 19, 2013 - linkNo, changing back and forth is easy. If its anything like my Kinesis Advantage, then basically it goes like this:
a few weeks to get used to the new keyboard, then a few weeks to learn how to adjust back and forth. Then its easy peasy. I switch back and forth between my Kinesis and a laptop standard keyboard flawlessly (though my kinesis is much more comfortable). Reply
IanCutress - Saturday, January 19, 2013 - linkI tried switching to Dvorak, but dropped below 10 WPM and got too frustrated I couldn't respond to IMs or emails that quickly. I couldn't change the keyboard layout at work, and after a couple of days of struggling going back and forth, I just switched back and saved the hassle. I don't get any typing pains, writers block is perhaps more prevalent. Reply
Jammrock - Saturday, January 19, 2013 - linkI would try it if it wasn't a flat keyboard. I don't ever use flat keyboards if I can avoid them. Far to uncomfortable for long term typing. Reply
piroroadkill - Saturday, January 19, 2013 - linkTruly Ergonomic isn't flat, try looking it up. Reply
boli - Monday, January 21, 2013 - linkThe keyboard itself is flat (flat PCB, unlike say Kinesis Advantage).
The profile of the key caps however is different in each row, so that the surface forms some sort of bowl:
Personally I'd rather recommend trying a Kinesis Advantage (I own both). Reply
xrror - Sunday, January 20, 2013 - linkSadly, TECK must fail in that the vast majority of keyboard users, John/Jane Q. PublicBook would give up after 5 minutes, IGNORING the fact they'd ever buy anything over $200.
BUT! It is pretty brave of TECK to try and release a... "radical" redesign of a keyboard, but still with the QWERTY layout!
It's seems... optimistic? of TECK to bet on the "middle ground" where "nobody" is happy. For the "purists" (which I quote in a NON-condescending way) QWERTY was pretty much perfected by the IBM Model M ages ago, and ergonomic buckling-spring was IBM model M15 (ergonomic) (13H6689) which is unobtainium now =(
And like many others say, even though QWERTY is fundamentally broken for modern input, it is what the vast vast majority of computer users these days "know" to interact with their glowing internet/facebook "device."
But, if there is innovation in the "broken" QWERTY layout that we are all ingrained too, be our canary and find it! =D Reply
Beenthere - Sunday, January 20, 2013 - linkThis allegedly ergonomicl keyboards may or may not actually be ergo at all. The errors are likely due to years of typing on a traditional keyboard vs. this ergo layout being slightly skewed. If we all learned and used an ergo for years then the result may be they same but the real question is if this keyboard is really any better than a qwerty keyboard. I doubt most people would be willing to swap let alone pay for a new ergo like this. Reply
JarredWalton - Monday, January 21, 2013 - linkIf you type a significant amount on a keyboard, numerous studies have been done over the years that prove standard QWERTY is not only suboptimal but also causes more issues with RSI than alternative layouts. And why is it we all still use QWERTY then? Simple momentum -- the path has been set and changing course is far more difficult than continuing down the road, even if the direction we're going is poorly chosen.
Did you know that QWERTY was actually designed way back when specifically to limit speed of typing? The early typewriters would lock up with their levered mechanisms if you typed too quickly, so in order to reduce the occurrence of issues, letters were arranged such that people would type a bit slower than what they might do with a better layout. With computers, typing speed is no longer a concern -- that's where stuff like the Dvorak layout comes from.
As for whether the TECK layout and design is better or not, that's the intent of me spending more than a few days typing on it. I'm intentionally not going with a modified layout from the default, even though I think I'd adapt more quickly if I moved backspace and a few other keys around. After I've come to grips with the default arrangement, I might have to give Dvorak a try...depending interest and whether I think it will improve my discomfort from lengthy amounts of typing. Reply
Azethoth - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - linkWell I for one am interested in how it fares doing Dvorak. I usually have a Corsair K90 attached to my laptop so I have no issue having to switch typing styles. I just need to know if it enhances Dvorak.
Also, does the non T style for the arrow keys work or is it a hassle? Reply
JarredWalton - Friday, January 25, 2013 - linkI'd have to do a completely separate evaluation on Dvorak once I've adapted to the initial layout -- which I've mostly done now. I can't say for certain that this layout is ideal, but it works fine for me and the arrangement of the keys does feel more natural than a standard keyboard. Getting mechanical switches in the process is also nice, and that's something that's missing from nearly all of the mainstream ergonomic keyboards.
Dvorak is basically going to be a bit of a mess when you first switch, and I've heard it can take several weeks to truly get the new layout, particularly if you've been using QWERTY for a long time. My plan is to review this TECK, then the Kinesis, and then we'll see about trying out Dvorak. To be honest, I'm dreading the switch to Dvorak a bit -- I figure another week or so of typing chaos will ensue. Will it be worthwhile long-term, or have most of the issues with QWERTY been addressed with the altered layouts in the TECK and Kinesis? I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it!
And just for kicks, if anyone is still paying attention here: my latest typing test results for the TECK (after six days of use) are 71/1=70, 67/0=67, and 64/1=63. I'm now basically back to full speed; the only thing that trips me up are occasional errors where I fall apart for a few seconds, but that can happen on a regular keyboard as well. When I'm on, it's good and feels more comfortable. When I make a mistake, it's still a bit slower. Note that it's also no faster at this point -- same speed, different feel. Give me another week, though! Reply
boli - Monday, January 21, 2013 - linkThe TrulyErgonomic is quite a nice keyboard, but in my opinion (I do own both) the Kinesis Advantage beats it hands down. I wrote about them about a year ago at geekhack, if anyone is interested.
A Kinesis Advantage fan tries the TrulyErgonomic keyboard
http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=27089.0 Reply
j5c - Monday, January 21, 2013 - linkSorry, I don't understand your figures! In the tables, it looks like you are using "Gross WPM - Errors = Net WPM" but the article says you are using "Gross WPM / Errors = Net WPM". e.g you have equations like 62/4=58. I'll forgive you if it is purely a feature of the keyboard layout with '/' where the '-' key should be ;-). Reply
JarredWalton - Monday, January 21, 2013 - linkIgnore the / as an operation and consider it merely how the data is represented in the table. Technically it's a minus operation as you suggest, but I wasn't even thinking about that. Reply
milleron - Saturday, January 26, 2013 - linkSomewhere in the article or comments, it's said that the narrow keyboard gets the mouse closer.
1 -- Probably the least ergonomic thing that 95% of computer keyboardists do is reach for the mouse every 3 seconds. I work in health care where more than half of people who spend ALL day at keyboards switch between fields with the mouse rather than the TAB key. Overcoming this extremely widespread foolishness would do more to increase productivity that the most ergonomic keyboard. I don't think getting the mouse closer is a valid objective for the unwashed masses, but I understand that for people who are ergonomically-minded enough to pay for the TECK, it might make sense.
2 -- I wouldn't (couldn't) have a keyboard without a numeric keypad, although I realize that there are many applications, jobs, and users that don't employ it much. That's sort of a deal-breaker for me.
I'll continue to get by with the MS Ergonomic keyboard that's raised at the palms rather than at the fingers. I have to use keyboards at a variety of stations during the average workday, and the first thing I do at each is collapse those infernal feet at the rear of the keyboard that raise it into the ghastly ANTIergonomic position of an old mechanical typerwriter. I make it a point to leave each station with the keyboard flat, hoping that some day, someone might discover that flat is better. Having the keyboard slanted upward is the other remnant of the original typewriter, in addition to the QWERTY arrangement, that contributes mightily to RSI.
Ron Reply
drumhellar - Sunday, January 27, 2013 - linkYou should have used Sega's "Typing of the Dead" for your speed tests, if for no other reason than how awesome that game is.
And, it actually tracks which keys are slowest for you, and which keys you have the most trouble hitting accurately, because, you know, with all those zombies after you, your life kinda depends on it. Reply
JeBarr - Sunday, January 27, 2013 - linkI very much like the choice for blank keys but would have to purchase both models to make a switch from das. Reply
ntbone - Friday, December 06, 2013 - linkI got one of these keyboards for work and then loved it enough to get one for home. I started getting problems with double letters and contacted support. Weeks went by and nothing. Finally I reviewed there support sight and tried the firmware fix. That was worse. Letters would not work randomly. An unreliable keyboard for someone with hand pain is not a good thing.
The keyboards are nice and I currently have a fix that seems to be working. I have contacted support 8 times now from 3 different addresses and all I have ever gotten back is there auto reply. They provide no phone number.
IT IS EXTREMELY CONCERNING THAT THERE IS ESSENTIALLY NO SUPPORT. If you have troubles, you will either have to return, which I have not tried yet, or figure it out on your own. Honestly if I could do it over again I would just find another keyboard instead of going with them. No phone # to reach them by and no responses to support via email makes this a NO GO. Reply