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Reaching Critical MASS: Promoting and Leveraging a Diverse Learning Ecosystem in Foundation Art and Design
As part of our Foundation Art and Design program review—initiated in the Fall of 2013—we have been considering the status of each of our course offerings and ensuring compliance with provinical ministry program guidelines and addressing gaps identified in the programming through student feedback questionnaires (SFQs). We are also undergoing a process of rationalization to the provincial government in order to help them identify areas of excellence and/or duplication. It is important that our program stand over and above the other foundation programs offered in and around the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in order to ensure our place in the mix of offerings.
As part of that process of defining just how our foundation programming is different, I have been striving to create a student experience that sets itself apart from offerings at other schools. The vision looks at promoting and developing a set of essential qualities in the teaching and learning experience and the systems that we engage our faculty and students with.
I can't understate the importance of drawing on timeless and essential soft skills to ensure a positive student experience. There is no technology solution that can even approximate the worth of an enthusiastic, caring and engaged faculty member. One aspect of what we will be promoting in the teaching and learning experience will be engagement with new digital tools and environments that will prepare both faculty and students for the emerging workplace of the 21st Century. In no way do I wish to suggest that the integration of technologies into the teaching and learning mix will supplant the soft skills that were alluded to earlier, rather, they should augment and enhance that experience in some meaningful and substantial way.
The recommendations that are being proposed here are the product of testing and consultation with third year design students in our Knowledge Design-I elective course. These students engaged with a variety of emerging technologies and were asked to envision and weigh in on their potential for enhancing the teaching and learning experience.
In addition to the specific skills developed within each course and the Essential Employability Skills (EES) stated in the course outlines, we are striving to transform this experience in ways that recognize the shifting and emerging competency requirements for the 21st Century workplace.
Above: The turbulence caused by rapid advances and declines in technologies are not only posing significant challenges for large institutions like schools, they are rapidly imposing new relationships on us. Being agile enough to bend and sway with these changes will be a significant predicate for success. On much reflection, I am convinced that the only way to effectively deal with this turbulence is to develop much deeper relationships with innovation drivers like software and hardware development companies. We should seek to deepen relationships with these companies such that the culture and processes that define these agile development communities are inculcated in an institution's own culture and workflows. This, of course, will require a radical re-configuration of that institution's conception of its own organizational structure and culture.
Collaborative organizational, methodological and economic models that define the innovation economy are antithetical to the traditional, linear, hierarchal and authoritative models that define most institutions today. Deeper, strategic alignment with innovation companies will help to strengthen an institution's understanding of the structural and procedural transformations required to inhabit the innovation space. In this way, institutions can move from being relatively slow and unresponsive "reactors" to change to becoming proactive "drivers" of change. Much like a software or hardware company, an educational institution becomes a "lifeware" or "peopleware" commited to providing meaningful, relevant and powerful "upgrade" paths for their client base.
For more on my background views on innovation in the applied learning space you can access my related posts by CLICKING on the blue links below:
Perpetual Beta: 21st Centrury Course Structure Rationale
RISK eBusiness: Moving to a Just In Time Model of Teaching
Worth vs. Work: Transforming People and Organizations for the Knowledge Economy
On Demand Amnesia at the Self-serve Window of Education
Deck the Halls with Boughs of Knowledge: Exploring the use of Augmented Reality in Education
Goin' Down the Road: My Teaching Philosophy
I am confident that an emphasis on engaging our students with a blend of solid, traditional pedagogy with a new ecosystem of technologies and their related protocols will help to nurture the following qualities:
Our Learners will be:
Reflexive, collaborative, agile, knowledge producers and knowledge sharers. They will be effective and responsible digital citizens with the skills and knowledge to build and promote a strong personal, digital brand in a global context.
Our faculty will be:
Creative, caring, sharing, professionals who are current, collaborative, reflexive, agile, and committed to life-long learning and the success of all our students and fellow faculty members.
Our School/Program will:
Offer flexible delivery of information and learning (Blackboard, ON, HARVEST for supporting student online experience)
Offer content that is universally accessible. Provide an opportunity to experience a variety of digital environments and tools and to develop an agility and facility in their use. Teach the skills necessary for successful student collaboration with their peers.
The "thing" that will set us apart from other similar program hinges on developing AGILITY, ADAPTABILITY, COLLABORATIVE CAPACITY, SHARING, STORYTELLING, PERSONAL DIGITAL BRANDING and DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP in both our students and our faculty.
I am in the process of developing a plan called Critical MASS that is aimed at ensuring that all of our students will have had the benefit of coaching on team-building and collaboration strategies (not only an Essential Employ-ability Skill but also a requirement of being effective in virtual work environments too).
Once students know how to function as a team, this team will serve as an ongoing peer-resource not only explicitly for group projects but as a support and mentoring mechanism aimed at Mutually Assured Student Success (hence, Critical MASS). This will serve to promote a stronger sense of community while ensuring higher levels of engagement and retention. Forming students into effective groups is determined in accordance with a skills and infrastructure readiness survey that I have developed in order to identify the distribution of competency and access to technology for our students. Data is used to build balanced teams. Other data, from Diana McIntyre at Student Success, shows that the nature of student commuting, hours of work and other life commitments are such that it is exceedingly difficult for student groups to physically meet before or after classes. To that end, with our Dean's encouragement, We have built prototype infrastructure to support virtual/remote teaching, learning and collaboration capacity here at the school. The infrastructure forms an ecosystem with many overlapping parts some of which have particular strengths and limitations. There are plenty of options available to faculty and students from using a mixed bag of technologies to using a one-top-shopping approach. Each of which offers particular advantages.
Much has been made over the confusion of having so many systems and, on the face of it, I feel that this is a valid consideration; however I also strongly feel that it is necessary to acknowledge the fact that the technology ecosystem outside of our doors is infinitely more complex and confusing. It is ever-changing and expanding at an exponential rate: software titles become more complex and feature rich, more titles are published, we are now into tablet computing and mobile data, the app universe is nearing 1 Million apps and growing, browsers are becoming increasingly modular, programmable and complex, and the list goes on. We are all affected by the consequences of this turbulence and I am sure we have entertained the fantasy of being free of technology altogether but I don't think that it is going to happen in our lifetime. The point being that we cannot avoid it and we ignore it at our own peril.
It behooves us, then, to help both ourselves AND our students negotiate this chaos in some meaningful and effective manner.
Yes. It is chaotic and complex but I feel that the technology infrastructure that we currently have in place is considerably pared down by comparison. The idea is to get all of the stakeholders to develop a degree of comfort and agility—an understanding for why and how to inhabit and move through these environments and to do so in a more purposeful fashion. In my estimation, the benefits outweigh the risks, and, if we can make this ecosystem an integral part of of how we do business here at the School of Design, this will provide a value added experience for our graduates that goes beyond the pale of a standard design curriculum. THIS is what will set us apart.
The biggest challenge, of course, will be developing an understanding, fluency and ease of use for faculty. It has been my experience, that my students use these environments very effectively for the most part—so much so that, where faculty have not been using virtual environments, they simply create their own Facebook pages. The issue with this, of course, is that if there is a systemic issue with the students, you remain blissfully unaware until it shows up in your SFQ several weeks after your class is finished! Being able to monitor the pulse of your class at a glance is a very powerful way of ensuring quality and consistency in the student experience and provides invaluable data for informing iterative designs of your course.
Of course it is never quite as simple as throwing a switch. Using this ecosystem, combined with the power of the internet, requires new protocols and new forms of pedagogy that allow us to leverage its full potential. For example, having access to thousands of authoritative resources on a subject via an instant internet search shifts the balance of authoritative power away from the traditional professor in the traditional classroom setting—the roles in the classroom change dramatically. At worst, the instructor's authority is undermined as students seek alternative sources for their information. At best, professors are valued, knowledgeable guides who can help the student leverage the maximum potential of the resources that they have at their fingertips.
Currently, we are in a situation where it is reasonable to expect students to research and present on a topic that, traditionally, might have been covered by their professor—that they should access knowledge outside of class and come to class for an experience other than information dissemination. The natural outcome of the fact that students have 24/7 instantaneous access to knowledge that we have traditionally dispensed has created a gradual drift towards "flipped" models of teaching where the students are actively encouraged to be researchers, presenters and content creators instead of content consumers. In this scenario, they need to develop a crucial set of ancillary skills in research, writing, documentation, presentation, visualization, storytelling, etc.
Digital storytelling of one's know-how on a global stage forms the new basis on which students and professionals are starting to build their value. For example, trillions of images are searchable and available on the internet for free. Few people are willing to pay for them—even designers! So, the value proposition does not lie in the production of yet another image, rather, the value inheres in building a following in a social media platform by sharing know-how. It is no longer good enough to simply show one's work, it is critical that they be able to tell cogent stories about how said work came to fruition—sharing insights into creative processes as well as technical how-to-s. THIS is the new currency that will help to build a person's brand. This brand building and story-telling is an important dimension of how faculty add worth to the teaching and learning experience and build and promote their own personal brand by sharing their own know-how, not only with their immediate students but with the world at large. Both students and teachers are increasingly becoming active participants in this expanding circle. Some examples of how these stories can be curated and shared are shown below (This very BLOG is one such mechanism whereby a student or faculty member can share their insights):
Faculty Reflections
History of Game Design Student Research Project Summary
Faculty Curated Student Work (by Program—Course—Project, respectively)
Foundation Art and Design Homepage (Generic, program landing page)
ART1029: Digital Art and Design Homepage (Course Specific Landing Page)
Digital Art and Design Gallery (Project Specific Landing Page)
Student Profile:
Public Profile Page
Student Reflections:
Student Learning Narrative: BLOG
Student Portfolios:
BEHANCE Portfolio
Of course, none of this would be possible without a very powerful, interoperable infrastructure. Some of this infrastructure is a college resource and others lie outside of the college domain. Some of the elements are large enterprise level systems and others are small, niche apps. My personal preference is to cobble together an aggregation of technologies in a way that allows for greater independence, flexibility and agility. The fact that many commercial level tools offer freebie versions makes it very enticing. Also, the use of social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Vine, Snapchat, Twitter, etc. as output conduits allows most, if not all of these resources to be interoperable on some level. This allows for an unprecedented level of freedom of choice in configuring a network of enabling technologies.
Let me introduce you some of the tools and spaces that comprise our ecosystem and explain what their core strengths/use case scenarios are (Keep in mind that there is a significant amount of overlap and that not all of these tools are used all of the time but they have all been introduced at one point or another over the past several years in an attempt to gauge their roles and impact for later integration).
Above: This is the college standard default for online/blended online learning delivery. You can fully expect a greater push to utilize this resource. It is feature dense and the user interface is far from being comprehensible and user-friendly. It is like the COSCO of online. It has everything and you can wear yourself out trying to find it! It is a bit like taking someone up in a Jumbo Jet to teach them how to fly a plane.
Fully supported by Blackboard under contract; We have a small team of experts over in ELTI, Rubrics allow for quick, automated marking; Tests are automated and marked, Grades are calculated automatically; Grades instantly available to students if you want. Mobile compatible.
We have a small team of experts; Tries to do too much. Non-intuitive—Not a very friendly User Interface. Low adoption rate by faculty. Low function use by faculty if they are using it. Difficult to learn for both faculty and students and requires dedication of scarce time and resources to train for use.
I am fully committed to mentoring each and every one of you through this process of getting to know and acclimatizing to these environments and will gladly make time to assist you with the transition. Perceived as "extra work." Limited mobile functionality. Online collaborative environments (collaborate) are difficult to use and prone to gltiching (Fall of 2013). Very costly.
WIKIS (Click BLUE LINK to view page)
Above: This is a WIKI/BLOG/VIDEO server that we have here at the SOD. This VERY simple and stable platform can be used for making course materials available online. Each course is identified with unique branding and icons that are part of a cohesive branding program. Permission levels can allow for private, semi-private or public levels of access.
You can explore some of this infrastructure by clcking on the BLUE LINKS to view additional content such as the Digital Art and Design course. It also allows students to create profiles and to BLOG on their weekly learning. It is also great for curating work and for telling the stories of what you did with your class in any given semester (this reflexive practice is very prevalent in US schools and US educators are establishing clear leadership roles and setting the agenda for online education. Some examples of how we are using the environment are accessible below:
Student BLOG
Art of Wine and Cheese
Hawaiian Shirt Project
Director's Design Competition (Daniel's Spectrum, SPRING 2013)
Extremely simple and easy to learn (takes about 10 minutes and works pretty much like a simplified word processor); Faculty can create/post content there; Secure (Only registered faculty and students can author in it). Students and faculty can create profiles and post blogs about what they are learning; Unlike Blackboard, the material posted there is persistent and is always accessible (don't have to worry about content importing every semester as in an LMS); Great resource for holding and presenting video; No ads or ownership issues as with Facebook and YouTube.
Limited layout potential (uses basic templates). Does not allow simultaneous co-authoring of pages. People outside of the college system can be allowed to SEE the material but they cannot author with it. Perceived as "extra work."
Above: This is an Open Source version of Facebook. It has all of the same functionality: Create Special Interest, Group or Course pages and set membership privileges for them. You can create and promote events. You can Poll users, send public or private messages, post video, audio, create threaded discussions, blogs and more.
Leverages student familiarity with Facebook so no training is required. It is a popular social media platform with most students. Very secure environment hosted behind the college firewall. There is no data collection as there is in Facebook and other Social Media Tools. Can monitor and track user engagement data and feature student leaders within the community in order to promote greater participation and development of knowledge sharing, storytelling skills in the service of building a strong personal brand and good digital citizenship. Has potential for introducing "badging" to recognize student accomplishments.
Lower level of uptake than anticipated. There is a need to promote the benefits of the environment to key faculty and students. Perceived as "extra work." The environment is "by invitation only" and requires professors to have students input their email to generate an invite. There are some bugs but they don't impare usability they are just minor annoyances. We are upgrading this by the end of January, 2014 to address this issue.
Adobe provides a wide range of collaborative tools for virtual collaboration that includes application and screen sharing and video conferencing (Connect) as well as document co-authoring, document signing and security and file sharing (acrobat.com, work spaces) that integrate with their universal PDF workflow. This is an important workflow for the 21st century skillset. The creative cloud brings together creative tools and collaborative spaces that duplicates some of the functionality such as file sharing and collaboration that is found in Acrobat.com.
Above: The workspaces interface allows for the creation of teams and the sharing of files with its members.
Above: The Creative Cloud interface allows for file storage and sharing as well as a mobile workflow and social media capacity. This is an important environment for anyone using 21st Century digital authoring tools and, particularly, for creative industry workers and teaching professionals.
BEHANCE: Professional Creative Community and Portfolio Site
Above: This is an online community of professional creatives that allows for portfolio curating, sharing, commenting, collecting, collaborating as well as a job market board. It is useful to follow influential creative types for the industry or field that you may be interested in becoming a part of in the future.
Industry leading. Global community. Connected to industry professionals and leaders. Costs the college nothing. Powerful curating tools. Can socialize and promote work or follow community professionals. Can create feedback groups. Easy to organize and catalog student work. Helps promote the notion of building a global professional brand and participating in a community of practice. Owned by industry leader Adobe Systems.WEAKNESSES:
Currently follows the two-tiered membership model of most social spaces. Free membership for a limited array of functionality and a pro-level (could revert to entirely subscription based in future). Perceived as "extra work."
This cloud-based note-taking software allows for the creation of custom notebooks (for each course, project, etc.) and can record text, images, web pages, audio and video. Notebooks or individual notes can be socialized or shared with individuals via email or via a public URL.
Go to EVERNOTE by CLICKING on the BLUE link and download Evernote, Skitch and Web Clipper. (Feel free to try others) these are great tools for capturing, representing and organizing information.
Above: In order are icons for Evernote (note-taking), Skitch (annotating web pages or screen captures) and Web Clipper (Capturing web pages). If you are a visual thinker CLICKING on the BLUE MohioMap link to download this visual notes organizer for Evernote.
Promotes a group-based, collective strategy to capturing information. Two students per class are assigned to take notes on an iPad or laptop or workstation (one at the first half and another after the break). The link to the notebook is shared in common so all students can draw on it. It eliminates duplication of effort and spreads the workload out across the entire class. It costs the college nothing (no note-takers required). It is available on any browser on any platform including mobile. Accessible from anywhere with an internet connection. Notes can be downloaded and printed if desired.
Not all students are adept at this and the focus, style and veracity may vary considerably. Perceived as "extra work."
I have my students follow my Twitter handle @prof2go. Not all students use Twitter and even fewer faculty do. This form of instantaneous communication platform is variously used and abused and, for many, it represents the most invasive form of communications tools—commanding a great deal of moment-to-moment attention. It demands brevity and clarity in messaging and allows for deep socialization.
(Tufts VUE, SimpleMind MapWebspiration, Inspiration, ):
These tools are for visualizing complex concepts such as processes, workflows, ideas, etc. and making connections between them. Webspiration and Inspiration are cloud-based and desktop mapping software, respectively and come from the same company. These tools were sponsored by the distributor. They aid in making complexity less intractable by visualizing and simplifying. Elements in these maps can be connected to rich media assets such as video, audio, PDF and text documents as well as URLs and other maps. The tool from TUFTS University is a research-based tool that is capable of powerful data modelling and semantic analysis.
This is a handy little tool for shortening incredibly long and difficult to recall URLs. There is no downside to this. You can curate collections of your URLs too.
This plug-in gives your browsers the ability to access the Zotero collaborative Research cloud to form research teams, collect, catalogue, cite and share every sort of media source imaginable.
Provides a structured approach to research. Allows sharing and socializing. Provides collaborative research infrastructure. Works inside the browser. Accessible on both your computer and in the cloud. Well documented.
Could use a live social function. Not entirely self-evident use. Potential for browser upgrade issues. Too much horsepower for what a Foundaton program would need. Focused more on academic research at the university. Perceived as "extra work."
Above: One of a few publications that Professor Jim Kinney compiles on Augmented Reality.
Socialization capacity. Global reach. Great research tool. Great for personal brand building.
Everyone can do it It will be difficult to stand out as a truly original piece. Little original content connected to the syndication publisher. Perceived as "extra work."
This lets you manage your social media for information blitzes, campaigns and promotions and tracks the recognition of your personal brand in social media circles. You can monitor trending and use analytics to understand traffic patterns and trends.
Robust and deep functionality. Allows you to aggressively promote your message and monitor its effectiveness. A pretty good free trial version. Great tool for faculty who are active members making contributions to professional discussions and events.WEAKNESSES:
Limited user base for free. More horsepower than is necessary for student needs unless they are focused on advertizing and social media design. Perceived as "extra work."
This is a very simple, free polling tool that is useful for determining meeting schedules.
Simplicity. Free. Aids group collaboration efforts.
No additional project management functions. Perceived as "extra work."
This survey tool has a free version that allows students and faculty to gather data from a broad range of sources on a broad range of topics.
Simplicity, unlimited global reach potential. Great research tool for gathering user experience data. Great for getting timely student feedback on issues.
Need to pay to expand sample size and analytics. User should be knowledgeable in asking the right sorts of questions to avoid inherent biases and leading questions. Perceived as "extra work."
These environments were explored in the winter term of 2013 for their ability to augment the teaching and learning environment by delivering access to on-demand knowledge in situ. My students and I built a permanent installation in our new game design school on the history of game design. Students can now access short documentaries and interviews by designers that relate to seminal digital video games simply by pointing a smart phone or tablet at trigger images throughout the school. Later experiments were done with select faculty on using AR to deliver tutorials, room greetings and schedule and web site access from one's smart device. For more on this follow the blue links below:
The Virtual Academy Emerges
Research Synopsis
Faculty Knowledge Transfer
Here we look at how classroom culture and rolls can be transformed in order to promote a more profound use of the ecosystem and how to prepare the learners of tomorrow with 21st century skill sets.
Working collaboratively is an essential skill. Organizing students into groups and arming them with the tools and techniques to work effectively in groups will be the key to ensuring their success not only in project work but throughout their tenure at the school. We will develop a shared sense of responsibility for the success of one another that will build a more cohesive and caring learning community. Peer groups will act like a family support mechanism throughout the year.
We will promote the notion of the student as a capable researcher, scribe, presenter/storyteller, teacher and allow them to directly participate in unearthing and presenting subject knowledge. They will construct and share knowledge with their groups, their class, the school and the broader global community through participation in professional online communities of practice.
We are moving, in some instances, towards a flipped model of learning where students participate in knowledge creation and sharing as above. Faculty, will make content available prior to class and predicate class activity on prior engagement with any posted materials in order to reserve face time for deeper levels of interaction that transcend mere information dispensing.
I recall a time in my undergraduate years at the University of Waterloo where I sat in the Engineering Lecture Hall at 8am alongside 200 other very groggy students only to watch our professor put acetate copies of the textbook on an overhead and read from it verbatim. It was by far the worst experience that I ever had as a student and it stuck with me. In light of unprecedented access to information on the internet, standing in front of a class and dispensing facts is somewhat akin to the professor reading from a textbook. It is incumbent upon us to create more engaging experiences with important content and having the students researching and presenting is one such way that provides the added benefit of learning how to work as a group and present.
I have been introducing Evenote to classes and rotating the responsibility through the student body. This is just another example of working smarter in a collective and collaborative manner. Each day two students take responsibility for recording audio, video and text and for sharing public URLs that connect everyone to the notes. Each student is responsible for taking notes for only one half of a class all semester (provided there is a class of at least 30 students). This also has the potential of saving the college considerable expense for note-taking.
Students are expected to participate directly in the life of their learning community and can do so by reading, liking, commenting, posting in the Open Network community on a regular and ongoing basis. Highly active students who are showing leadership can be promoted and potentially rewarded (praise and recognition from their professors, recommendations for student awards, being featured in the blogs/social platforms, etc.
Faculty, too, will be encouraged to leverage these community forums to ensure direct participation in the development of programming. Like our students, our faculty have diverse interests that make face-to-face contact difficult most of the time and this reduces opportunities for part-time and sessional faculty to add their voices and ideas to the conversation. This underscores the need for leveraging these environments to allow everyone to participate.
Students (and faculty too) are encouraged to reflect on their learning in the Harvest network personal blogs (blogs are also available in the Open Network too) This promotes meta-cognition and promotes awareness of what one is learning by incorporating weekly reviews of learning.
At the midterm break and at the end of the semester indiividuals and the groups to which they belong will be evaluated on the level and quality of their participation. This will be directly reflected by a grade that measures aspects of this participation. They will be evaluated by the professor as well as by their group members.
Faculty and students will work to build their online presence through direct participation in key online communities of practice. Through sharing their work, know-how, creative insights, commentary and critiques both faculty and students will build personal brand recognition in key online communities like BEHANCE.NET Building a strong brand of leadership will be the cornerstone of what sets us and our students apart from our competitors.
Through the Critical MASS initiative and participation in online communities we will continue to promote mentoring between students and faculty alike and will develop opportunities for sharing best practices with one another through online training, discussion forums and face-to-face meetings where possible.
There is a considerable amount of information put forward here and it may be difficult to understand all or parts of it and how it impacts both the faculty and your students. I have created discussion groups within the Open Network, Foundation Faculty Page where faculty can contribute ideas, voice opinions, etc. Discussion boards are created for each course and are used to share best practices and ideas for course changes with the faculty members who share courses. There are also pages dedicated to the technologies introduced above that allow technology-specific Q and As.
Participants accept their invitations to join the Open Network and create a profile (including head shot) . All future communication regarding our programming will happen inside of that community resource. Ultimately, the success of this venture will hinge on faculty participation and, already, I am starting to see a real community of learning and practice emerge and stakeholders, that were initially overwhelmed, navigate the ecosystem like ducks in water.

subset: commoncrawl


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Welcome to Liverpool Public Library
1986 Library HistoryDuring the renovation and construction of the addition the staff had relocated to the Carman Community Room. Circulation staff reported to work on a regular basis so that items could be returned on the computer. Librarians reported to work so that journals could be read and selections made. Staff meetings were held so that everyone could remain informed. On January 16 the LPL Staff Association was officially begun. Finally there was an organized plan for recognizing happy and sad events and for honoring employees who left.
Record albums and books lined the floor of the Children's room as it was the only area unaffected by the construction. There was scarcely room to walk!
Plastic sheets were hung from the ceiling to block entrances to the library and to form walls until the real wall was built. Windows of the existing building were removed and then reinstalled in the new wall. Despite the signs and obvious appearance of the building the public continued to try to enter to return items or use the photocopier.
On February 3, 1986 the library reopened to the public.
On March 19 and April 3 tours were held for the public. Among the sights were an expanded children's room with a separate area that housed picture books for the very young, a separate computer lab funded by a New York State grant of $25,000 obtained through the efforts of Assemblyman Michael Bragman, a new meeting room, a periodicals storage area and, best of all, more space for patrons!
A new telephone system was put into place and John Ryan was hired as the first Information Aide. His desk was across from the main entrance to the library. He greeted patrons as they entered and answered the hundreds of daily telephone calls.
Library expansion meant greater financial need and the proposed budget exceeded one million dollars for the first time in the library's history. On May 7 the voters approved an amount of $1,200,476 for the 1986-87 budget year. 1086 votes were in favor of the budget; 859 were opposed.
The newly expanded library required more staff and many new people were signed on. Jeanne Biggins began as the Fiction librarian. Judy Sibio became a full time clerk in July. Susan Smith started as the first Outreach Librarian and she initiated the Books by Delivery service. Sue selected and delivered books to homebound patrons residing in the Liverpool Central School District. Chester Macklin was hired as a full time Audio Visual librarian. Barbara Wood joined the staff as the second Information Aide in May. Other changes were the return of Vicky Gaworecki from maternity leave, the resignation of Betty Matiskella (Pamphlet File librarian) whose husband had been transferred to Connecticut and a maternity leave granted to Jean Polly. Regina Fredericks joined the staff as the Pamphlet File Librarian in August.
On June 14th ( Flag Day) the library entered a float in the Liverpool community sponsored parade. Fay Golden dressed up as Wilbur the Pig from "Charlotte's Web." Yvette Hewitt portrayed Mother Goose. Merritt Lennox was the Cat in the Hat. Several children staff members were the children of the Old Lady in the Shoe. Other staff members walked in a group as characters from Frank L. Baum's The Wizard of Oz.. Dorothy Morgan dressed up as the young Dorothy, Renee Romance as the Wicked Witch, Joe Slater, and Ed Mack portrayed the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Wizard.
The Fifteenth Annual Art in the Park was held on June 28 and 29 in Washington Park.
July 7 through August 1 marked the return of the Summerbus! program. In addition to book selection children were able to participate in creative craft projects, view films, and hear a presentation by someone from the Discovery Center.
In September the Friends of the Library purchased a rocking chair for use in the Children's area.
According to the September monthly report of Susan Mills, Head of the AV Department, twenty one compact disks were purchased and put on display. They began to circulate among library patrons the week of October 6. The CD cases were displayed in special hanging bags while the actual compact disk was held in a metal cabinet behind the AV Circulation desk. The loan period was seven days.
In October a change occurred in the reservation policy. Previously adults had been charged the price of the postage paid ( fifteen cents) to notify them that their reserve was in. Students were not charged at all and they were notified by telephone. It was decided to offer free reservations to all. With notifications reaching one thousand per month it was decided to use post card notification for all so that staff could spend their time assisting patrons here.
In October Laurel Sharp signed on as a librarian.
We received a grant from New York State to purchase System 80 equipment and materials. It was used to tutor people who were learning English as a Second Language and as a remedial reading tutorial with children. Elaine (Heller) Goldberg authored the grant.
In October the Board received a letter from F. Robert Kolch, School District Clerk, stating that absentee ballots could be used in future library budget and trustee elections.
November marked the publication of her first book "The Essential Guide to Apple Computers in Libraries " by Assistant Director Jean Armour Polly.
November 19th marked the first session of the "Four Star Book Revue" a series planned by Fiction librarian, Jeanne Biggins. Linda Loomis, reporter from the Liverpool Salina Review, discussed the Anne Sperber biography on Edward R. Murrow.
In December the first Macintosh computers and laser printer arrived at LPL.
No Merit Awards were given in 1986 ( for the year 1985) due to the lengthy construction project.


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Topic: The Olympic Torch
Hi everyone,
The Olympic torch passed through Dundee yesterday as it winds it's way down to London for this years games and I thought I would share a few galleries of pics from yesterday that were in our local paper today.
Scenes from Dundee and the city centre as it makes its way up to Baxter Park -
http://www.thecourier.co.uk/Photos/Our- … undee.html
Scenes from Baxter Park where they had a concert in the evening to welcome the relay torch and they lit some type of Olympic beacon as well.
http://www.thecourier.co.uk/Photos/Our- … -park.html
Baxter Park is about 100 yards or so from my mums house and it was chaos round there yesterday. I practically grew up in that park and spent much of my childhood and teen years in it!!
Hope you like the pics.


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A PRECIOUS 1-0 win at Walsall on Saturday lifted City seven points clear of the League One drop zone, pretty much guaranteeing safety this season.
Given City's superior goal difference to their rivals, the gap is effectively eight points with just four games remaining and I can still see us picking up another win or two before the season ends at Crawley Town on May 3.
In any case, 50 points is surely already enough to survive considering the form of teams near the bottom of the table.
Despite spending most of the season in the bottom four, City now lie 14th in the table and a finish as high as 12th is still achievable.
Before the season started I anticipated a mid-table finish given the upheaval of last summer following relegation after six seasons in The Championship.
Saturday's win came with a rare clean sheet which was pleasing to see.
Goalkeeper Simon Moore played a big part in this happening after saving a second half penalty.
Sam Baldock made no mistake from the spot in the first half for City, converting down the middle as he usually does, to score his 21st league goal of the season.
Baldock is a player who will surely attract interest from other clubs in the summer and City may have a battle on their hands to keep him, with just a year left on his contract.
City have two games over the Easter weekend starting at home to Notts County on Good Friday (3pm) before a trip to Stevenage on Easter Monday (3pm).
Both teams are under a significant threat of relegation, Stevenage in particular. They are currently bottom and look favourites to go down.
Notts County on the other hand are fifth bottom but have won four out of their last five games. Their only defeat came at Brentford, who look set to win automatic promotion.
County have been scoring plenty of goals and so Friday's game could be entertaining as both teams go for the win.


text:
Callaway Golf missed sales and earnings targets for the first quarter as the Carlsbad company aims to turnaround its struggling business under new Chief Executive Chip Brewer.
Revenue for the quarter hit $285 million and earnings reached $15 million, or 18 cents a share excluding certain charges.
Wall Street analysts expected sales of $310.4 million and earnings of 22 cents a share.
Brewer, hired from Adams Golf in February, inherited a firm hobbled by weak global economy and intense competition from rivals such as Taylor Made-adidas Golf, which is also based in Carlsbad.
His early moves include simplifying Callaway's business by selling the Ben Hogan and Top Flite brands, which the company acquired in 2003 for $174 million.
Callaway said it would post a gain of $6.6 million from on the sale during the first quarter.
Callaway also settled a long running golf ball patent dispute with Titleist and re-worked its apparel licensing arrangement with Perry Ellis to reduce costs over the long term.
"While the actions we have taken recently to reduce costs and provide renewed focus on the company's core brands were important initiatives, there is more work to be done to maximize the company's full potential," said Brewer.
In a conference call with analysts, Brewer said it was too early to discuss his overall strategy for improving Callaway. But he did say the company must boost market share and improve financial performance.
"We need to regain momentum in our core brands -- Callaway and Odyssey – and our core products – golf clubs and golf balls," he said.
Callaway deeply cut its January forecast for the first half of the year, which is typically the strongest for golf equipment sales thanks to warmer weather.
The company now expects sales of $560 million to $575 million through June 30. Previously, it had forecast sales of $610 million to $630 million.
Earnings per share are now expected to range from 20 cents to 25 cents for the first six months, compared with earlier estimates of 40 cents to 45 cents. The company stopped providing full-year guidance for now as it develops a turnaround strategy.
Callaway released results Thursday after markets closed. Its shares ended the day at $6.98 on the New York Stock Exchange. They dipped 8 cents to $6.90 in early after hours trading.


text:
Valory loved being a vampire. Her dad had invented a special blender allowing them to use strawberry juice as a healthy alternative to a vampire's usual diet. All was good until some vile vampire cursed their home, their blender lay smashed on the floor, her dad nowhere to be found.Join Valory as she embarks on her quest to find her kidnapped father in Vampire Venture! Travel through five vast lands, defeating vampire traps and battling with various foes, including skeleton lords, vampire vapours and slimy squalps in this enchanting Match 3 game!
Follow Vampire Val on her adventure
Collect talismans to aid you on your quest
Relaxed, timed or tricky game modes


text:
Sep 4, 2012:
- 9:34 PM Changeset [11936] by
- tagsplugin/trunk/COPYING
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All the files in this plugin referred to a non-existent file before.
BSD, let's assume Trac license as intended by
the authors by now.
- 9:26 PM Changeset [11935] by
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- 9:05 PM nelsonlima created by
- New user nelsonlima registered
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Japanese translations have been adapted and filled from Trac core, but Jun
Omae still needs to add new strings for administration and round some edges.
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and template structure significantly simplified as well.
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on msgid extraction.
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TagCloudwithout arguments.
This is the code change I suggested in an email response before, that has
already been confirmed to fix this issue: In new code
kwis always defined.
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Added unit test to ensure this works expectedly, and added a more intuitive
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because of wrong syntax in


text:
You're familiar with fro-yo. This is fro-ho*. Or more formally, Frozen Hoagies. The ice cream sandwich truck shuttles between the Charlestown Naval Yard and Cleveland Circle, making several downtown stops in between where it sells homemade cookies (available large or small, called "sliders") packed around thick scoops of Chilly Cow frozen custard. A home run concept, to say the least.
Chilly Cow is great stuff: dense, satiny, with clean, true dairy flavor. I think the Arlington-based creamery gives the local ice cream joints a run for their money, and that's saying a lot for a shop that shares its local clientele with Toscanini's and Christina's. Frozen Hoagies stocks about a dozen flavors. Chocolate caramel is pretty great; black raspberry is exceptionally good.
I wasn't as impressed with the chocolate chip cookies, but that's because to me, cookies built for sandwiches should be wide and flat and provide some good crunch. These are on the squatter side with a cakey center that I don't prefer when I've got a thick, creamy filling. (Admittedly, I'm generally just a crunchy, not chewy cookie kinda girl, so take my assessment with a grain of salt.) And yet, they taste pretty good and capably serve their purpose of acting like edible bookends. Bottom line: Frozen Hoagies is a keeper. Maybe next time I'll try the Heath Bar cookies; where there's toffee, there's usually good crunch.
*Wish I'd come up with the cheeky nickname, but I gratefully borrowed it from a Yelper.
Frozen Hoagies
Locations vary; check the website for details frozenhoagies.com
About the author: Liz Bomze lives in Brookline, MA, and works as the Senior Features Editor for Cook's Illustrated Magazine. In her free time, she freelances regularly for the Boston Globe, Boston Magazine, the Improper Bostonian, and Martha's Vineyard Magazine; practices bread-baking and canning; takes photos; reads; and watches baseball. Top 5 foods: fresh noodles, gravlax, sour cherry pie, burrata, ma po tofu.


text:
Box Score (PDF)
PHILADELPHIA - The early part of the University of Pennsylvania's 2012-13 men's basketball season can be measured in wins and losses. However, it can also be measured in progress.
Progress doesn't always mean a win, mind you, only growth and lessons learned. On Wednesday night, however, progress DID mean a win -- a 65-54 decision over Binghamton at The Palestra.
As Head Coach Jerome Allen noted in the press conference afterward, the youthful Quakers have been in a position to win a few of the games that they lost. They simply did not make the plays needed to get the W.
On Wednesday, Penn made it harder than maybe it needed to be -- the Quakers threatened to blow this game open at least five times -- but the Red and Blue never allowed Binghamton to hold a lead as they went wire-to-wire for this win.
The usual suspects led the way. Junior Miles Cartwright had a team-high 15 points, knocking down 3-of-6 three-pointers. Fran Dougherty had yet another double-double, with 11 points and a career-high 13 rebounds. They were aided by yet another notable performance from their fellow captain, junior Dau Jok; he buried a pair of treys on his way to a career-best eight points. In all, ten of the 11 Penn players who got into the game found the scoring column.
The early part of the game followed a pattern -- Penn would hit a few buckets to go up, and Binghamton would get all (or most) of them back. The Quakers led by as many as nine in the first half, and it was a seven-point lead in the final minute of the stanza before Jordan Reed hit two free throws to get the Bearcats within 39-34 at the break.
The scoring was fairly even for a good part of the second half, as well. In fact, when Roland Brown knocked down a jumper with 8:25 to play, the score was 54-48, Penn. However, Jok knocked down his second three-pointer, and then nearly three minutes went by before anyone scored as Henry Brooks hit a free throw to push Penn's lead to 58-48, its first double-digit lead of the game.
It would never get below that. Cartwright hit a pair of foul shots, before Rayner Moquete ended Binghamton's lengthy drought (almost exactly four minutes) with a trey. As it turned out, that would be the Bearcats' final field goal until the waning seconds. In the meantime, Dougherty hit a layup to get to his double-double, and Cartwright and Camryn Crocker hit free throws.
Was this game a classic? Hardly. The teams shot a combined 37-of-116 from the field (31.9 percent) and committed 36 turnovers. It looks a lot prettier when you win.
Reed -- who hails from Philadelphia -- has been outstanding in his freshman campaign for Binghamton, and he had a double-double on Wednesday with 17 points and 11 boards. Moquete had 10 points.
Penn returns to action on Saturday, traveling to Penn State to meet the Nittany Lions at 2 p.m. Fans can watch that game for free on their computers, as it will be televised live on ESPN3.com.
Game Notes: Penn improved to 10-2 all-time against programs currently in America East, including 2-0 this season ... The win was Penn's 1,699th as a program ... It was also Penn's 805th win at The Palestra ... The win snapped a five-game losing streak ... Penn never trailed in the game, and was tied by Binghamton once (4-4) ... Penn hit 10 three-pointers in the game, a season high, as six different players found the mark from beyond the arc ... Penn shot better from beyond the three-point line (10-25) than inside it (10-33) ... Penn shot 15-of-19 from the foul line; the .789 percentage is a season high ... Binghamton had 49 rebounds, an opponent high in the Jerome Allen coaching era ... Junior forward Fran Dougherty had his fourth double-double in the last five games, with 11 points and 13 rebounds ... The 13 rebounds were a career high for Dougherty, who has led Penn in that category in every game this season ... Dougherty has scored in double figures in six straight games (20.2 ppg in that stretch) ... For the first time in his career, Penn won a game when Dougherty scored in double figures; previously the Quakers were 0-8 in such games ... Junior guard Miles Cartwright had 15 points, his fifth double-figure scoring game this season and the 38th of his career ... Cartwright went 4-of-4 from the foul line; in the last five games he is a combined 29-of-32 at the charity stripe ... For the second straight game, junior guard Dau Jok set a career high for points (8) ... In the last two games, Jok has scored 14 points; prior to that, he had scored 11 for his career ... Sophomore Camryn Crocker set a new career high with seven points ... Freshman center Darien Nelson-Henry set season/career highs for points (7) and rebounds (5).
Download: Penn-Binghamton.pdf


text:
A roundup of trading on major world markets:
NEW YORK - US stocks opened higher but bank shares were lower following Bank of America's quarterly earnings report, which came in close to expectations.
Five minutes into trade on Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 41.31 points, or 0.30 per cent, at 13,552.54.
The broad-based S&P 500 gained 5.51 points, or 0.37 per cent, to 1,478.14.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 14.43 points, or 0.46 per cent, to 3,131.97.
LONDON - European stocks advanced on positive US economic data although the mining sector suffered after Rio Tinto announced a shock $US14 billion ($A13.3 billion) write-down that sparked the resignation of its boss.
London's FTSE 100 index of leading companies rose 0.46 per cent to 6,132.36 points on Thursday and Frankfurt's DAX 30 gained 0.58 per cent to 7,735.46 points.
In Paris, the CAC 40 jumped 0.96 per cent to 3,744.11 points, winning a boost from strong earnings from supermarket giant Carrefour and European airliner group Airbus.
The euro advanced to $US1.3355 from $US1.3286 late in New York on Wednesday.
HONG KONG - Asian markets were mixed, with Tokyo ending flat after a seesaw session that saw parts suppliers hit after global aviation agencies grounded Boeing's Dreamliner.
Tokyo edged up 9.20 points to 10,609.64, after heavy losses in the previous session on the back of a strengthening yen.
Seoul lost 0.16 per cent, or 3.18 points, to 1974.27 but Sydney added 0.38 per cent, or 18.2 points, to 4756.6.
Shanghai fell 1.06 per cent, or 24.59 points, to 2284.91, while Hong Kong was flat in the afternoon.
The yen strengthened after Amari on Tuesday was quoted as saying that the currency's rapid decline in recent weeks was putting Japan's fragile recovery at risk by making imports more expensive.
WELLINGTON - The NZX 50 index rose 27.57 points, or 0.66 per cent, to 4196.81, closing on a 1,000 point gain in the last 12 months.


text:
Jackson Hole, the nearest thing on the central banking calendar to Davos, is upon us again, with some of the world's most senior monetary officials set to head out to the upmarket Wyoming resort over the next few days.
Unlike the annual bash in the Swiss Alps, however, Jackson Hole, which kicks off on Thursday evening and closes on Saturday night, is usually a bit more than a talking shop. Of late, it has been the venue of choice for Fed chair Ben Bernanke to offer clues on where policy is heading.
But, while tapering looks like it is almost upon us, those hoping for more detail on the pace at which the US central bank will slow its asset purchases will not get it from Bernanke this weekend. Read more


text:
by: Glu • 8.5K
All Android applications categories
by: Glu • 8.5K
Published: 2013-06-26, by Peter Warrior.
This is the French version of B&G2. For your convenience, here's our original review on the English one:
Glad...I...at...or... they seem random muttered words, but when are put together, well, you have a word game then, and a nice way to start this bloody review and catch your attention, I hope.
As usual in Glu's games, be prepared for a 250Mb extra package to run, plus extra time to unzip it. When it's finished, you'll directly jump onto the fight tutorial, where you will face a huge cyclops. By huge I mean huge, suggesting that this new edition of Blood & Glory will bring more fantasy elements than its predecessor. It's also new the comic-like scenes between combats, giving a Frank Miller's aura to the whole.
Graphics and sounds are bloody beautiful, making the most of nearly every device known. The freemium system works rather well, though game isn't easy once you are on yourself beyond the starting stages. There will be a point where you will have to choose between getting stuck or release the dough. The daily bonus formula is an incentive to play for a while every day, though.
Gameplay has been honed and it's more spectacular than ever. Anyway, it still keeps that round based touch that leaves it away what we could call a soulcaliburish experience and takes it closer to something more strategical, where timing isn't as important as paying enough attention and don't let you be fooled by feints or over extended attacks.
The story is appreciated, even when it's a walking cliche. Overall, it's a great game that makes mobile gaming greater.
Tags: legend blog and glory health , comment battre sura blood and glory , how to take health in blood and glory , od of , legend and glory nr , return for blood , blood and glory legend francai , blood and glory legend 9999999 pieces d or
by Peter , Appszoom
Jun 26, 2013
from 8.459 reviews
by Adrian Rosu Savinoiu
Aug 14, 2017 | "Poor"
It doesn't start on an OP5
by nazgool azime
Aug 07, 2016 | "Awesome"
by The_ Original
Jul 13, 2016 | "Awesome"
by mustafa tariq
Apr 04, 2015 | "Awesome"
by Nathanael Boston
Feb 28, 2015 | "Awesome"
Loved it
by Emmanuel REUFFLET
Jan 23, 2015 | "Poor"
Dont work on lollypop
Download BLOOD & GLORY: LEGEND (FR)
Free - V2.0.2 - 336M
Share this app


text:
ATI Mobility Radeon 9800: Notebooks Get Next Generation Graphicsby Derek Wilson on 8/19/2004 12:05 AM EST
- Posted in
- GPUs
31 Comments
Back to Article
nserra - Monday, August 23, 2004 - linkThanks for the reply and it's really impressive that a 256bit memory interface is going into the mobile market so soon.
I also don't understand the problem about the driver? Is it about the time taken to release a new one (validation)? What i do is to force the last catalyst to install, it have worked just fine with me. Reply
ATIMobileGuy - Friday, August 20, 2004 - link#28 nserra
Keep in mind the development cycle for mobile designs is longer than desktop development - when the design was started there were still questions on GDDR3 power and availability at the time, so we felt DDR was the ideal solution for the initial mobile introduction of this type of product. Plus, running at 300MHz and using the full 256-bit memory interface we felt the memory bandwidth was pretty good for a mobile design.
This is not to say GDDR3 is not going to show up in Mobile soon - as I said in post #26, there are a lot of surprises coming your way in the future. ;-) Reply
nserra - Friday, August 20, 2004 - linkTo DerekWilson and/or ATIMobileGuy:
On you nvidia Geforce5800 review about ati Anisotropic Filtering: http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=1779...
"Since there is virtually no difference between ATI's Performance and Quality modes, ….."
Does this still hold true in today's games?
Since I could get some nice performance boost according to these charts
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=1779... Reply
nserra - Friday, August 20, 2004 - linkTo ATIMobileGuy:
-If this is for the mobile market, why not use the new GDDR3 memory, since it would lower the power consuming and heat and deliver higher speed.
-Isn't these chip a "little" waste of time if taken into desktop, since you guys already have a very similar chip but at .15, or we will only will see it on notebooks for the time. Reply
DerekWilson - Thursday, August 19, 2004 - link#22 suryad
We actually had the XPS in early July IIRC. We used ATI's latest drivers at that point. I'm not sure what driver the current Dell release is based on, but maybe Darren (ATIMobileGuy) can help us out there ;-) Reply
ATIMobileGuy - Thursday, August 19, 2004 - linkComment 5 [I](Posted by Anemone)[/I]
Anemone, thanks for the comments. Without saying too much, I can tell you that this was really our first attempt at a new class of product, and once we move into PCI Express we'll have a few more surprises for you that should make you happy! Reply
ATIMobileGuy - Thursday, August 19, 2004 - linkRe: Comment 20 (the esteemed Mr. Baumann)
This is true Dave - unlike the desktop side, every Mobile driver is customized for each notebook for things like power management, hot keys, panel support - all kinds of things. If ATI were to provide "generic" drivers the user would run the risk of losing a lot of features or would experience potential instability.
The OEM has to do a lot of qualification to test all these unique aspects of their driver before feeling comfortable releasing it. Dell has been very good in understanding the need for fresh drivers, expecially for this segment, so I think it won't be too long before you see a new driver release for this system from them. Reply
ATIMobileGuy - Thursday, August 19, 2004 - linkHi Everyone - I'm Darren from ATI Mobile group. Just finished reading the review, and wanted to read the comments and see if there was anything I could answer from the comments that were posted; will be checking in sporadically and will give some responses to some of the things that have already been posted if possible. Reply
jediknight - Thursday, August 19, 2004 - linkDoom 3 benchmarks, please!! Reply
suryad - Thursday, August 19, 2004 - linkI have a similar specced Dell XPS and I was initially getting a 5440 with 3dmark but then I used Dells release of the 4.8 Catalyst drivers and that alone pushed me to a 6600 on 3dmark and over 43.1k in Aquamark3 all stock settings. Now I am not saying that the benchmark is the tell all in this situation but where these benches performed using the latest driverset? I am curious since I have yet to install any new games on it and wanted to know if I would get a performance boost sorta similar to what I got in 3dmark. Reply
DerekWilson - Thursday, August 19, 2004 - linkThanks Dave, I've tweaked the conclusion a little to reflect this fact.
As for the comparison systems, the only way to have a true and fair comparison would have been to grab an AGP version of the mr9800 and dropped it in our desktop system. Since we couldn't do that (or shove other GPUs in the notebook) we went with our standard graphics testbed.
This isn't a direct comparison, and we mentioned that we only used other ATI cards because of that fact. Numbers other than the MR9800 are just for reference. Reply
DaveBaumann - Thursday, August 19, 2004 - linkDerek,
Its up to the notebook vendors to qualify the drivers, not ATI. ATI can supply the drivers to the vendors, but its up to the vendors to qualify and release them. Reply
plewis00 - Thursday, August 19, 2004 - linkIf the graphics drivers are lagging behind, can't you use a driver which works with all cards - like the Omega ones? The same driver works with the Mobility series and the desktop ones, would that help out? I don't think it disables Powerplay either.
Does anyone know what the power drain of the laptop is during a heavy gaming session? Or how long it lasts on batteries? Reply
devonz - Thursday, August 19, 2004 - linkI have to reiterate what #13 said. Why did you compare a P4 notebook against an Athlon 64 desktop!?!?!? And why the differing memory configurations!?!?!? Since you are comparing the video cards, it would SEEM like a good idea to get the configurations as close as possible. Certainly you could get closer to parity than THIS choice!
My $.02 Reply
Johnmcl7 - Thursday, August 19, 2004 - linkI agree, I keep my laptop graphics cards at stock, it's not worth overclocking for a small performance increase, especially when it is usually difficult to replace the graphics card.
John Reply
nserra - Thursday, August 19, 2004 - link#14 Maybe Powerstrip will do, but not recommended....
Besides overclock just to get from 200 to 220, 100 to 110, 50 to 55, 25 to 27 in some games.....
Just to say that when you already have a lot of fps you will get even more (not needed) and when you have low fps, you will continue to have low fps….
In very resuming words OVERCLOCK does not compensate. Reply
Johnmcl7 - Thursday, August 19, 2004 - linkUsually it's just the same as overclocking a desktop graphics card although obviously you have far less headroom.
John Reply
skunkbuster - Thursday, August 19, 2004 - linkjust out of curiosity, anyone know if it's possible to overclock a video card in a laptop? Reply
reboos - Thursday, August 19, 2004 - linkcomparing a Athlon64 3200+ w/ 1 gig of RAM to a Northwood 3.2 with 2gb of RAM. I don't get it. :\ Reply
Shalmanese - Thursday, August 19, 2004 - linkNo Doom 3 benchmarks? :o :( Reply
ianwhthse - Thursday, August 19, 2004 - linkYou know, I think I read it wrong. 256-bit bus width, but no mention of the memory.
I think I'm just confusing myself now, so I'll leave it to the experts to tell me off. Reply
ianwhthse - Thursday, August 19, 2004 - link7 & 8: Dell is currently selling the X800 SE in their Dimension 8400 series (And possibly elsewhere).
Looks like the X800 SE is a system-vendor only thing. But it does supposedly have a 256-bit memory.
Xbit labs talks about it. Futuremark (Yeah, yeah, 3dMark sucks. Blah, blah) doesn't currently even have the option to view X800 SEs on their ORB so I would assume they're not out in significant numbers yet. Reply
jcwagers - Thursday, August 19, 2004 - linkIs it just me or does it seem like the UT2k4 benchies are slighly low? I know that it is a tweaked and slightly more demanding version than UT2k3 but surely not by that much. The 3400+ with Radeon 9800XT scores a 51.6fps at 1280x1204? A similar config in earlier reviews ran UT2k3 at 98fps on a 9800 Pro. I know that 1280x1024 is more stressful than 1024x768 and that UT2k4 is more demanding...but should there be THAT much performance loss? I know it was a notebook review but it just seems strange to not see higher fps on the game. Again....maybe it's just me........
Johnmcl7 - Thursday, August 19, 2004 - linkIt is .13 low-k
As far as I'm aware, ATi did have plans to release this card as the X800SE, but with 128-bit memory rather than 256, but I've not seen any sign of it.
John Reply
nserra - Thursday, August 19, 2004 - linkWhy don't they use GDDR3? It would lower the power consuming, that's important for mobile. Maybe GDDR3 memory banks are bigger?
Is this chip .13 lowk, right?
I will wait for the desktop version of this chip. If its 9800 nr on mobile, I bet will do 500Mhz on desktop.
And if it's 256bit it will out do nvidia 6600 since this card is 128bit only.
What will ati call it? X700? Reply
Johnmcl7 - Thursday, August 19, 2004 - linkDell do not only sell 4,200rpm hard drives in their notebooks, they sell 7,200rpm 60GB hard drives and 5,400 rpm 80GB hard drives as options.
Very impressive results from a notebook though, performed better than I expected.
John Reply
Anemone - Thursday, August 19, 2004 - linkWell, I might be a bit too demanding from a poor notebook but, imo, one more generation and probably they will have finally gotten notebook gaming to an ok level. 9800 is pretty good, but I'd prefer to see closer to X800 pro #'s and pci-express changeable interfaces before taking the leap into notebooks.
DerekWilson - Thursday, August 19, 2004 - linkWe've updated the article with clock speeds: core 350, mem 300.
Most game test are not affected by harddrive speed (except for loading time between levels). None of our tests are significantly affected by harddrive speed (especially with all the system and video ram in the box).
For more info on our farcry tests, see here: http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2102 ... we used the airstrip_mp demo as we have been doing since we started testing farcry. We also always test with sound disabled.
Derek Wilson
unuselessj - Thursday, August 19, 2004 - linkI did some looking into the Dell Inspiron XPS specs. Dell's "help me choose" specs say that it does have 256mb ram and a 256-bit bus. On NotebookForums, someone who had tested the XPS with the MR9800 said it comes set to 350mhz core and 300mhz ram.
I also noticed that in the specs for the laptop used, the harddrive was an 80gb. Dell only sells 4200rpm drives. Although I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have much of a difference, I'm curious as to what the benchmark results would be if the laptop had a 60gb 7200rpm drive that would be more similar to the desktop's harddrive speed and buffer. Reply
l3ored - Thursday, August 19, 2004 - linkwhat far cry benchmark is that? i have an athlon 64 3000, 9800 pro, and a gig of memory, and theres no way i would score 40fps average at those settings. Reply
TrogdorJW - Thursday, August 19, 2004 - linkWhat are teh actual specifications of the MR9800 as configured in the Dell XPS laptop? I assume it had 256 MB of RAM with a 256-bit bus, but what was the clockspeed of the RAM and the GPU core? I'm betting lower clocked RAM is a major reason that the MR9800 sometimes falters in performance. Reply


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How I finish thrown pots
The title has the intention to emphasize on how I finish pots. Perhaps it implies that not all what is described follows the orthodoxy of common knowledge.
Since I leave the thrown pot on the bat for drying, I need a lot of bats.
· No risk of deformation or finger marks like can occur while cutting with a wire.
· When almost leather-hard, the pot can be trimmed while still firmly fixed on the bat.
· When leather-hard, the pot releases by itself and the bottom is still moist enough for further trimming.
· There is a very slight risk of cracking of the bottom. In my experience, I very rarely had that problem: only with extremely thin bottoms.
· The drying occurs from top to bottom, whereas in the wire-cutting, the drying is more uniform. In my experience, it never caused a problem.
I made bats from very durable. resin impregnated plywood used for concrete casting. This type of plywood can easily be found in DIY stores.
My wheel is designed to accept notched bats. My bats are cut out using a jig-saw and a standard panel provides many bats. A corresponding notch is filed out to secure the bat on the wheel.
My drying shelves are wall mounted. This is not ideal as the air-circulation at the room side is different than at the wall side and thus, the pot may dry unevenly. To remediate that, I regularly give the bat (with pot) a quarter of a turn. Movable drying racks are preferable, but my studio is small.
As mentioned, I sometimes trim the pot on the bat in the early leather-hard stage. But, where possible, I finish the wet pot just after throwing by removing the slip layer with a flexible rubber or thin stainless-steel rib. When I do it with care, I get an excellent finish making further trimming unnecessary.
For the bottom part however, I pay special attention.
Once it is releases from the bat, I trim the pot. Here I use the Giffin Grip™.
I have different trimming tools, some commercial but several home-made.
I try to keep my trimming tools sharp. I like Tungsten Carbide for trimming tools, but is (very) expensive ( http://www.bisonstudios.com/).
My home made trimming tools are cut out of thin, bluish, blade steel ribbons that are used for securing heavy-duty packaging. The cut-out blade is bent into the desired form and glued into a wooden handle with epoxy glue.
Near to the bottom part of the pot, I often trim a small 'gutter'. This helps to avoid runny glaze dripping on the kiln shelf. For very runny glazes such as crystal glazes, this is not effective.
At the bottom itself, I always trim a recess. This forms a 'bottom ring'. The ring makes my pots be more stable. This detail improves the general 'feel of finish' of the pot. For larger bottoms like large dishes or platters, I leave an 'island' in the middle. This strengthens the platter if excessive force is put on it during its daily use (e.g. cutting food).
I sign my pots with my full name and add an acronym for the clay type and an unique number. The latter is used for the full description of the pot in my database.
Smoothing-up the dry pot
If the pot still shows some unwanted marks, I smooth it with a scouring pad, middle-fine sanding cloth, or steel wool. I often use a Scotch Brite™ scouring pad. It gives good results especially when it is already a bit worn-out. In DIY stores they have pads for wood or metal. I have used both with good results.
Post-bisque finishing (Before glazing)
Sometimes I find bisque fired pots still not smooth enough. Particularly for crystal glazing, the smoother the pot the better the results. I also use it to obtain an egg-shell finish. When I use grog free clay, I use fine waterproof sanding paper in water where I have added a drop of dish-washing detergent. Of course, I let the pot dry thoroughly before applying the glaze.
My pages on Ceramics can be found at:
http://users.telenet...amics menu.html
How I finish thrown pots
Started by Hermes, Jan 06 2013 09:14 AM
1 reply to this topic
Posted 06 January 2013 - 09:14 AM
Posted 06 January 2013 - 11:38 AM
these are great ideas, thanks for taking the time to share them!
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Young performers trod the boards in an internationally-cast performance of a musical inspired by Dr Seuss.
Members of Stagecoach Walton played to an audience of family and friends at the Leatherhead Theatre on Friday, August 15, and Saturday, August 16.
Taking up the roles of a Wickersham Brother, Mazie le Bird and the Creature from the Jungle of Noole, Sebastian Calver, 12, Max Mcnulty, 16, and Sasha Ward Smith, 17, joined 76 students from the UK, Malta, USA, South Africa and Spain for the show.
Sebastian said: "It was such an amazing opportunity to perform at the Leatherhead Theatre and everyone loved the performance.
"Being able to meet so many people from all over the world and work together to make a show was an amazing experience.
"We all had a fantastic time, and now we can't wait to prepare for future shows."


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The Office of Student Engagement hosts monthly volunteer opportunities for students. These events typically take place on a Saturday, and partner with one or more student organizations and a local non-profit agency in need of volunteers. Students who participate in these service projects can include their hours on their Leadership Transcript, scholarship applications, graduate school applications, resumes... the possibilities are endless.
Two projects are part of annual, nation-wide movements of service among college students: Make a Difference Day in October and Martin Luther King Day of Service in January.
Fall 2016
More information coming soon!
How to Get Involved
Are you a student who is interested in volunteering? Or a member of a student organization that wants to host an upcoming project? Or a community agency that wants to collaborate? If so, contact:
Office of Student Engagement
Taubman, c404
Past Project Highlights
January 18, 2016
MLK Day of Service
September 20, 2014
Earthworks Urban Farm
Homecoming Service Event
October 4, 2014
the Greening of Detroit
Make A Difference Day
October 25, 2014
Beyond Basics
November 22, 2014
Vista Maria
Decorate for the holidays.
November 22, 2014
Packing food boxes for those in need.
December 6, 2014
Vista Maria
Organize holiday donations.
December 6, 2014
Stop the Violence
Assist with Prayer Breakfast photography, set/take down, serve food, & interact with children.
December 2013
Civic Engagement with Vista Maria
November 2013
Hunger and Homelessness with Gleaner's Community Food Bank
October 2013
Environmental Sustainability with the Greening of Detroit
Hunger and Homelessness with Forgotten Harvest
September 2013
Hunger and Homelessness with Forgotten Harvest
April 2013
Environmental Sustainability with the Greening of Detroit and Earthworks Urban Farm
Civic Engagement with HAVEN and Vista Maria.
March 2013
Student Org vs Student Org Food Drive for Gleaners Food Bank
Alternative Spring Break to New York
February 2013
Hunger and Homelessness with Forgotten Harvest
January 2013
Martin Luther King Jr. Day- 28th Annual Peace Walk and Celebration in Southfield
February 2012
Community outreach with Motown Winterblast
January 2012
South Oakland Shelter and KICK for MLK Service Project


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A luxurious three strands of Kidsilk Haze and a mercerised cotton with 3 mm Swarovski CREATE YOUR STYLE crystals in matching shades. ca. 100 Swarovski CREATE YOUR STYLE crystals per ball (1 crystal per 10 cm distance). Each ball individually packaged and presented in a transparent box including patterns for four designs using kidsilk haze Shine as edging detail, as well as accessories.
Rowan yarns & Swarovski CREATE YOUR STYLE crystals … a uniquely luxurious, contemporary combination that literally empowers your creativity to shine.
100% Wool made with high quality extra fine merino. Merino has a natural elastic quality allowing for movement when wearing. It is also 'breathable' so warm when the weather is cold, and cool when the weather is hot. The knitted fabric is soft and smooth and is a great core yarn with.
A versatile thread available in a variety of shimmering colours, Anchor Artiste Metallic is soft and easy to work with, perfect for adding a touch of shimmer to any garment.


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Available ebook formats: epub mobi pdf rtf lrf pdb txt html
Tony Abbott is a Spiritual Writer, Hypnotherapist, Life Coach, Healer, Writer, Counsellor and Teacher who has conducted Spiritual Development Groups for both beginners and advanced students of the paranormal, over many years.
A near death experience at 18 years of age, sent him on a world wide voyage of discovery, throughout Britain, Europe, USA, Canada and Australia and New Zealand. He now lives with his Twin Flame Partner, Robyn, in New South Wales, Australia.
He has personally developed many new and exciting spiritual and psychic techniques such as Star Master Readings, The Abbotts Angel Cards, Gem Readings, Hermetic Healing and many more. His hypnotherapy sessions help people to find their true potential, discover Past Lives and overcome health blocks and problems.
Tony feels that there is a need for books, courses and general information that an individual or small group, can follow at their own pace, to encourage their psychic/spiritual gifts, teach them about Spiritual matters on an easily understandable level and also be lots of FUN!
Robyn Abbott is a well-known retired Australian channeller who is a trained hypnotherapist, social welfare worker and has been a Spiritualist Minister. She has over 40 published books on psychic phenomena to her credit. Robyn has been on a life-long quest to understand the meaning of life, give encouragement and caring to others and share her huge resource of spiritual knowledge.


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A primary school teacher from Tooting has made the final of the Kukri Adventure Scholarship for the chance to win £20,000.
Will Hodson, 35, aims to continue a cycling adventure which began in 2011, when he cycled 4,000km from his home in Tooting to Turkey, raising over £5,000 for charity under the moniker Super Cycling Man.
Under his alias, Mr Hodson hopes to spend every summer holiday from 2013 to 2018, cycling to a different country, with the eventual aim of cycling around the world. If he were to win the Kukri Adventure Scholarship, Mr Hodson would win £20,000 to put towards his goal.
He aims to raise £100,000 towards the World Cancer Research Fund and Parkinson's UK.
Mr Hodson, who teaches year one children at Brandlehow Primary School in Putney, is also the Healthy Schools Coordinator for his school. He said: "I've got my own super cycling club that I run after school.
"It's great to see the kids get excited about cycling; one girl said that she wants to cycle to Egypt when she's older so I'm hoping to inspire them to go on their own adventure."
The Scholarship has been organised by a number of big names in adventure sport, including world record breaking adventurer Mark Beaumont and Television Presenter Ben Shepherd.
Mr Hodson submitted a video entry explaining the adventure he will go on if he were to win the scholarship.
The winner of the scholarship will be announced this Friday February 8 at 6pm after the seven finalists present their plan to a panel of judges.
To find out more about Mr Hodson's adventure, visit www.supercyclingman.com


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Suspects still at large; Officer involved shooting in Hoopa
HOOPA- The two suspects connected to an officer involved shooting in Hoopa have not been located. Law enforcement agencies have searching for the two suspects since Monday after the passenger of the vehicle allegedly pointed an assault rifle at two tribal police officers.
According to Lt. Edward Guyer of the Hoopa Tribal Police Department the Chevy truck that the suspects were riding in was allegedly stolen and had a stolen license plate. Guyer said investigators are no longer searching the mountain side for the suspects and were pursuing leads to find them. "I'm not positive if they have left the mountainside," said Guyer.
Guyer said investigators found evidence that the officers did fire their weapons. The Humboldt County Sheriff's Department has taken over the investigation for the Hoopa Tribal Police Department.
Hoopa Tribal Police attempted to pull over the truck Monday, but the driver continued up Telescope Point Road from Hwy 96. The two suspects attempted to stop the officers on the narrow, one-lane dirt road by throwing items from the car at them. Guyer said the Chevy experienced vehicle problems and stopped. It was then that the suspects allegedly got out of the car and the passenger pointed an assault rifle at the two officers. The officers responded by shooting at the passenger and both suspects fled down the mountain.


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First there was the battle of the bands. Then the dance off. Now there's Creative Jam.
As part of our Create Now: New Creative Meet Up in London later this month, we're recruiting graphic designers and motion designers to (metaphorically) fight it out over two hours to create the most inspirational, original and unique piece of design work they possibly can.
We're looking for ambitious creatives to join us on Thursday 27th March at Fabric in Central London to take part in, what we're calling, a 'Creative Jam.' We're looking for entries from the very best motion and graphics specialists, who are ready to do battle, collaborate and show off their boundless originality amongst their peers.
We'll task our participating designers with creating a piece of content around a particular theme, giving them two hours during the event (which will be live streamed) to interpret the theme and create a fantastic piece of work. You've got creative licence to interpret the brief however you wish, so long as any graphics used are royalty free.
First things first, you need to enter – and we're accepting entries for both individuals and teams (of two) across two categories; motion and graphics. All entrants are required to have a Behance portfolio as this will be used to show your work throughout the 'Creative Jam.' If you think you've got what it takes, then you have until Friday 7 March to enter. The winning designers will walk away with membership to Creative Cloud and a Wacom Cintiq on the night.
Be part of choosing the creative theme
We're also giving you, the creative community, the chance to decide exactly what the theme of the Creative Jam is. It could be anything from a current news story, to a line from a poem, song or well-known saying. We'll be revealing all on the night, but if you have a flash of inspiration or a theme you think it would be interesting to bring to life in our Creative Jam, and then submit your suggestion here by Monday 17 March.
What is Create Now: New Creative Meet Up?
It's an exclusive, invite only affair, and a great way for you to meet some top industry movers and shakers, and show them your creativity at the same time. There'll be luminary sessions from illustrator and graphic designer Gavin Campbell, designer and artist Chris LaBrooy, in addition to the live Creative Jam.
For full FAQ about the Creative Jam, click here.


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Obese, resilient, lethargic, and often self-righteous women who work in an office environment that make daily life annoying for all they encounter. Office cows are generally very chatty and love to gossip with fellow bovine. They are commonly found in workplaces with cubicles, or long counters with multiple serving lines such as the DMV. No matter what one's goal is when trying to resolve an issue with an office cow, the insolent heifer will obfuscate things to the point of insanity.
The receptionist in the movie "Office Space" who repeatedly answers the phone saying "Corporate accounts this is Lanina speaking... just a moment" is a PRIME example of an office cow. So are the despicable gluttons found at the DMV who always contest your knowledge despite how thoroughly you've researched any given material simply because they've spent half their miserable lives behind that counter and, I quote "have been doing this since before you were born"... And you still can't get it right you ignorant slob!!!!
by dreamsindigital October 20, 2010
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