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Working as a contractor opened my eyes to the developer food chain. Even though I had similar experiences earlier in my career, the challenges seemed much more vivid this time through. I thought I'd share a couple of experiences with you, and the lessons that can be taken from them.
Lesson 1: Beware of the "funnel" guy. The funnel guy is the one who wants you to funnel all thoughts, ideas and code changes through him. He may say it's because he wants to avoid conflicts in source control, but the real reason is likely that he wants to hide your contributions. Here's an example. When I finally got access to the code on one of my projects, I was told by the developer that I had to funnel all of my changes through him. There were 4 of us coding on the project, but only 2 of us working on the UI. The other 2 were working on a separate application, but part of the overall project. So I figured, I'll check it into SVN, he reviews and accepts then merges in. Not even close. I didn't even have checkin rights to SVN, I had to email my changes to the developer so he could check those changes in.
Lesson 2: If you point out flaws in code to someone supposedly 'higher' than you in the developer chain, they're going to get defensive. My first task on this project was to review the code, familiarize myself with it. So of course, that's what I did. And in familiarizing myself with it, I saw so many bad practices and code smells that I immediately started coming up with solutions to fix it. Of course, when I reviewed these changes with the developer (guy who originally wrote the code), he smiled and nodded and said, we can't make those changes now, it's too destabilizing. I recommended we create a new branch and start working on refactoring, but branching was a new concept for this guy and he was worried we would somehow break SVN.
How about some concrete examples?
I started out by recommending we remove NUnit dependency and tests from the application project, and create a separate Unit testing project. This was met with a little bit of resistance because - "How do I access the private methods?" As it turned out there weren't really any private methods that weren't exposed by public methods, so I quickly calmed this fear.
Win 1 Loss 0
Next, I recommended that all of the File IO access be wrapped in Using clauses, or at least properly wrapped in try catch finally. This recommendation was accepted.. but never implemented.
Win 2 Loss 1
Next recommendation was to refactor the command pattern implementation. The command pattern was implemented, but it wasn't really necessary for the application. More over, the fact that we had 100 different command classes, each with it's own specific command parameters class, made maintenance a huge hassle. The same code repeated over and over and over. This recommendation was declined, the code was too fragile and this change would destabilize it. I couldn't disagree, though it was the commands themselves in many cases that were fragile.
Win 2 Loss 2
Next recommendation was to aid performance (and responsiveness) of the application by using asynchronous service calls. This on was accepted.
Win 2 Loss 3
If you're paying any attention, you're wondering why the async service calls was scored as a loss.. Let me explain. The service call was made using the async pattern. Followed by a thread.sleep <facepalm>.
Now it's easy to be harsh on this kind of code, especially if you're an experienced developer. But I understood how most of this happened. One junior guy, working as hard as he can to build his first real world application, with little or no guidance from anyone else. He had his pattern book and theory of programming to help him, but no real world experience. He didn't know how difficult it would be to trace the crashes to the coding issues above, but he will one day.
The part that amazed me was the management position that "this guy should be a team lead, because he's worked so hard". I'm all for rewarding hard work, but when you reward someone by promoting them past the point of their competence, you're setting yourself and them up for failure. And that's lesson 3. Just because you've got a hard worker, doesn't mean he should be leading a development project.
If you're a junior guy busting your ass, keep at it. I encourage you to try new things, but most importantly to learn from your mistakes. And correct your mistakes. And if someone else looks at your code and shows you a laundry list of things that should be done differently, don't take it personally – they're really trying to help you.
And if you're a senior guy, working with a junior guy, it's your duty to point out the flaws in the code. Even if it does make you the bad guy. And while I've used "guy" above, I mean both men and women. And in some cases mutant dinosaurs.
If you've built a web application in ASP.NET chances are you've also consumed or even created your own web service. Web services are an easy way to share data, and even commit actions across technology lines. I recently ran into an application that used a web service that captured my curiosity – enough so that I thought I would share my experience.
The app was a game, and at the end of the game a message popped up that said - "reporting information". Interesting, I though. It was a Silverlight application, which meant the xap file could be downloaded and dissected, which is precisely what I did. A quick look at the .xap file and I had a config file which gave me a service location. In other words, I now had the endpoint of the web service.
Microsoft makes web services cake (yellow cake with chocolate frosting to be precise), and web services by default have an auto-documentation feature enabled which will show usage scenarios and parameter information when viewed through a web browser (HTTP GET). This is also an easy way for a curious mind to find out just exactly what a web service can do. So my next step was to navigate my browser to the web service URL. And BINGO! I had a list of all actions the web service could support, including the HTTP POST stubs for calling the web service.
BTW, if you don't want ASP.NET to automatically generate this documentation (including the more formal WSDL), you need to remove the "documentation" protocol from the webSerivces section of your web.config. Code below, simply paste it into your web.config or machine.config file.
1: <webServices>
2: <protocols>
3: <remove name="Documentation"/>
4: </protocols>
5: </webServices>
If you're building a public SDK and encourage others to call your web service, you'll want to leave this documentation feature up. But if you've built a web service for your LOB application, and don't really want others to know about it.. turn off the auto documentation.
Once I knew the service URL, I could have gone into Visual Studio and wrote a quick app that consumed the web service (add web reference…) but I decided to go the more fun route – Telnet. It had been a while since I used Telnet, and I quickly found out that Telnet isn't installed by default on a Windows 7 or Windows Vista machine. But that's quickly solved by going into add/remove programs, and choosing windows components –> Telnet.
Why did I choose Telnet? Well, because the web service documentation so kindly provided me with the exact HTTP POST information that I needed to call the service. If you've never done a manual HTTP POST through Telnet, it's time you tried. It's relatively easy, and a rewarding experience.
Telnet is a command line application, that connects to any port you tell it to. In my case, I wanted to connect to port 80 (http). I've also used Telnet in the past to send SMTP messages (yes, email...) When running Telnet, you specify the port after the domain. Remember, you have to use the domain when connecting, not the entire URL. For example, if you wanted to go to http://mydomain.com/services/myservice.asmx you would do something like
telnet mydomain.com 80
You'll use the rest of the URL when you execute your POST command. This is low level HTTP right here, and it's a great way to better understand what's happening behind the scenes when you click buttons and fill out checkboxes in your favorite web browser.
Here's what you would see from the auto documentatoin on the fake myservice.asmx web service (http://mydomain.com/myservice.asmx):
1: POST /services/myservice.asmx HTTP/1.1
2: Host: mydomain.com
3: Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8
4: Content-Length: length
5: SOAPAction: "http://mydomain.com/services/HelloWorld"
7: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
8: <soap:Envelope xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
9: <soap:Body>
10: <HelloWorld xmlns="http://mydomain.com/services/">
11: <name>string</name>
12: </HelloWorld>
13: </soap:Body>
14: </soap:Envelope>
There are a couple of things you'll need to change in the text above to successfully call this service. First, you'll want to set the value for the parameter (<name>string</name>). By default the documentation will put values in there that don't make sense, in this case "string". Once you have the soap:Body information completed, you need to calculate the size of the data portion, which is the length of the entire XML fragment (lines 7-14 above). You can either count the characters by hand, or you can paste the XML into MS Word, and use the Word Count feature to show how many characters (including spaces) you have. Once you have the length, update your Content-Length value (line 4 above).
Calling this web service from a command line using Telnet is pretty basic once you have the text all ready. You'll want to paste in the top portion of the text (lines 1-5 above) then hit the return key 2 times. The first time is to end the SOAPAction header, the second is to end the headers section of the POST (and begin the data section). At this point, it's time to enter the POST data, which is lines 7-14 above, followed by another enter key. Once you hit the enter key you'll receive the response from the web service. If it's an HTTP 200, you know it was successful, otherwise there was a problem with your post. I was unsuccessful the first few times I tried, because I pasted in the complete text you see above (lines 1-14). It seems that Telnet doesn't like the way this text is formatted. I'm guessing it's a difference in the new line character that's used. Anyway, the trick (if you're using copy/paste) is to paste in the headers, hit return twice, and then paste in the body.
Aside from feeling cool because you just called a web service from about the lowest practical level, this exercise should open up your mind about web services and security. For starters, if you put a web service out there, you should expect that others are going to call it, and not necessarily the way you intended. In the case that started all of this, data was being stored that I had created through the application. But I didn't like the data that was created through the application, I wanted to send my own data. Much like securing a web application, you should not expect that your web service call will always be coming from your application! This is a classic example of why client-side validation in a web page is not a security feature, though it is certainly a usability feature. You can't prevent a user from submitting data on the client side. If they really wanted to post values that you're UI is preventing, they can always turn to Telnet, other another HTTP utility.
Here's one last trick for you. Open up an HTTP Listener like Fiddler2, and run the application that's calling a web service. If you take a look at the activity that Fiddler has captured, you'll see an HTTP POST to the web service URL. Fiddler even has a 'RAW' view, where you can get the precise data to post, just like we pulled out of the web service documentation earlier. In this case, you're seeing exactly what was posted to the server. I mention this because you may think, "well if I don't store my web service URL in the config, no one will ever know where it is and I'll be safe!", and you would be wrong. It also highlights that when you're not using a secure web service, or SSL on a web application, the data is TRANSPARENT! Anyone plugged in downstream from you with an ethernet sniffer can see exactly what is being transmitted, in clear text. Luckily, there are secure ways of calling web services. If your service is capable of making changes to data, or gives the caller access to potentially private data, you should certainly secure your web service.
If you want to learn more about securing your web services, you can read about this topic on MSDN http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa529262.aspx
Touch seems to be the latest craze in software, but astonishingly, it's nothing new. Most applications out there will work perfectly well in a single touch emulated environment. Basically, a hardware device turns your finger touch into a mouse action. Yet, even though those interfaces and devices have been around for years, it really wasn't until the iPhone, that people got reacquainted with touch. Here's the reason why.
Touch vs. Multi-Touch
Touch in and of itself is pretty basic. Take a finger or a stylus, and use it to drive the mouse subsystem. While this type of touch is better than no touch at all, it didn't do anything special enough to get a user to go from using a mouse, to using their finger. Then multi-touch came around. Suddenly, you could do things that would have been difficult or impossible with a classic mouse device.
Zooming with two fingers is now a classic example, and sadly one of the only examples out there. The reason for the lack of multi-touch interfaces is actually quite simple. Multi-touch isn't easy to do, and more importantly, coming up with scenarios where multi-touch is beneficial in an application is a challenging task that requires more of a designer's brain, than a developers brain.
And here's where it always gets disappointing. Lack of applications that use the hardware mean the hardware isn't in demand, which means the price of the hardware will remain high, which then curbs the demand for applications that use multi-touch. And the cycle continues. But the numbers are growing, and we're getting closer to critical mass. Businesses are starting to understand the value of an extremely usable, fluid interface with multi-touch. As businesses start to invest in these technologies, hardware prices will drop, and everything else will hopefully fall in line.
In the meantime, developers need to start getting used to the idea of building a touch interface. If you're a Silverlight developer, and want to get a quick start – take a look at Tim Heuer's blog http://timheuer.com/blog/archive/2009/07/30/silverlight-3-multi-touch-introduction-fundamentals-basics.aspx
Start playing around with the idea of using Touch events, and adding an extra layer of functionality to your application. I'm tired of not having touch capabilities on my computer, and I'm ready to do something about it! I'm not sure if Windows 7 will be the catalyst that ignites the multi-touch fire, but I sure hope it is.
When talking about Silverlight, it is only natural to compare it to standard web based applications (ASP.NET, PHP, JSF, etc.). Silverlight has some clear advantages when dealing with large quantities of data, or speed and performance in say grid operations, but there's another aspect of Silverlight that may be hard to notice at first. It's the 'little' things. I call them little, because alone, each of these features isn't something that will shock or amaze you. But combined, these features create a User Experience that is specific to Silverlight. Let's take a look at a few examples.
Above is the Infragistics XamWebGrid in GroupBy mode. The part to notice is the small x that shows up when you mouse over the Group indicator. It makes it easy for a user to figure out how to ungroup the data, and that's just the start. Notice the shape of the Group indicator? When you group by multiple columns, these fit together like puzzle pieces. Again, indicating to the user exactly what's happening as shown below.
The differences are very subtle, like a glow animation when you mouse over a button; the same type of differences you see between Windows Forms and WPF. But these subtle differences can create a totally different experience for a user. The application feels more alive, and when these features are put to good use, like in the example above, the UX of the application can be improved. And here I thought storyboards and animations were only used for 3D rotating textboxes with movies playing in the background..
I'm not sure there's ever been quite as much activity in the world of Web development as in the past couple of years. The browser 'wars' have been re-ignited, and technology is advancing at a frantic pace. It's almost too much to keep up with. Right now as a web developer you have Silverlight 2 at your disposal, and a beta of Silverlight 3, with talks of Silverlight 4 already taking place. Then there's the CSS 3 specs, HTML 5 specs.. it's almost too much to comprehend. I guess we're lucky in a way, that there are currently significant barriers keeping us from these technologies.
Let's take a look at Silverlight first. With clear advantages in performance and usability over standard HTML/JavaScript, Silverlight looked like a definite winner for many web applications. But Silverlight suffers from one big disadvantage – the plugin that needs to be installed. That simple plugin which only takes a minute to install, is preventing widespread adoption of Silverlight across corporate America. As with any new software, IT must first test Silverlight on their systems, and then come up with a rollout plan which as many of you know, is not something that happens overnight. So even with 3 versions of Silverlight in 1 year, many developers are just now getting the nod from corporate to start discussing the option of using Silverlight.
CSS3 and HTML5 promise to change web development (in a good way), but are both being held back by standards committees and browser support (or lack there of). In all likelihood browsers will implement the features of these specs before the specs are actually complete. But even the implementation will likely happen at different rates for each browser. The reason most of us write web applications in the first place is so that one page can be viewed in any browser on any computer by any user. Which brings us back to IT, the guys who will inevitably be forced to hold back the latest versions of these browsers from being installed, so that they can be properly tested and a deployment strategy can be planned.
While all of these new technologies promise to revolutionize web development, it's unlikely the revolution will happen as quickly as any of us would like to see. IE6 is still the corporate standard browser in many organizations. The good news for developers is that it gives you extra time to learn the new technologies. And if there's one thing I know, it's that you can accelerate rollouts if you prove a valid business case. Show the IT director a prototype of the app you just put together using Silverlight 3 that took you half the time to write and solved the UX and Performance problems of the current html based application, and a Silverlight rollout is likely to be around the corner.
Developers are often cast into a group and stereotyped as "visual design challenged". The fact is, a true Visual Designer picks colors and creates designs for applications that make my attempts look like grade school arts and crafts project. But that doesn't mean developer's don't care about design. Actually, I think most developers put a tremendous effort into trying to make their applications look good. It's just that the results aren't always award winning..
I used to get insulted when people would mention that developers weren't good at styling applications. From the first day I started coding, I was the only one working on my applications. The application was my creation, and I was responsible for every aspect of it, including the design. By hearing generalized statements about how developers are bad at visual design, it was like telling me that I don't have the entire skills I need to build a successful application.
Luckily, I've grown up a little since then. While I still don't like hearing I'm not good at something, I can certainly respect that there are professionals in the visual design world who can do a much better job of making my applications look good. I can spend 2 years writing the most beautiful code, but at the end of the day, the user only sees the User Interface. UX is perhaps the most important aspect of an application, because it encompasses all aspects of the application. If the code was buggy, the UX will be poor. But more importantly, if the code was perfect and the UI design was not, the UX will be sub-par. Want proof of just how important the UI/UX is? Take a look at Facebook vs. MySpace.
MySpace was the clear favorite two years ago, so what happened? The MySpace page was ugly by default, and users could do anything they wanted to make it even uglier. Sure, customizing your page sounds like a good idea, until you realize that you're not that good at it. Facebook took a different approach – a fixed UI that looked good out of the box. Facebook users didn't need to spend time making their page look good, and more importantly, you didn't have to look at hundreds of other bad looking sites. Take another example, the iPhone. Apple cares about it's image so much, that all iPhone applications need to follow design guidelines, and must be approved before they can be made available to iPhone customers. Still not sold on the importance of UI? Remember geocities? How could you not. An entire domain of horrendous designs. The negative experience associated with those bad designs is something that sticks with you. I don't remember if I ever found anything functional on geocities, I'm sure I did. But that's not what I remember. I remember the horrible color choices, images with choppy edges (that of course weren't transparent), and JavaScript errors.
There's a point in here somewhere. Oh yeah – designers are a developers best friend. Designers make developers look better. After I spent 2 years on a project, of course I want people to think it's the coolest thing they ever saw. But my late nights of coding are essentially going to be judged on how good the application looks, not how well I wrote the code. I remember the days of getting beta feedback like, "It's not colorful enough, can you add some color to it?" I would go back to my desk, bummed that no one shared the same excitement as I did that the project was complete. But in actuality, it wasn't complete. It was functional, but that doesn't make an application "done". So, I'd go back to my desk and throw a few different colors around the application (usually different shades of blue) and try again. I spent weeks just experimenting with different colors to see if I could produce something a *slightly* more visually appealing. Weeks that I could have spent on my next project. I certainly don't miss those days. Today, visual designers take the code that I wrote, and bring it to life, and they do it in far less time than I ever could have, with far better results. They might hand me back a wireframe or a mock-up that I need to convert to code, or if I'm lucky, they're just modifying the XAML or CSS directly for me. And when I hear comments about how cool an application is, I know that without my code, that would have been nothing more than a static image. I bring designs to life, designers bring my code to life. It's amazing that I ever did both the design and development. And it's even more amazing that I resisted change at first.
Working with WebControls and WebForms for the past 8 years has taught me a lot about web development. The one thing that I learned above everything is that the onus is on the developer to write good code. Now that may not sound like something revolutionary, but the fact is that ASP.NET WebForms makes building web applications easy by abstracting away some of the difficulties of a stateless protocol. And it also makes it easy to forget about what's actually happening behind the scenes to make everything possible. Does that mean WebForms is flawed? No.
MVC offers a fix for some of the problems that WebForms has been plagued with. Problems like bloated ViewState, and that 'pesky postback model.' On the surface, this looks like an attractive solution for every web developer out there. A promise to get rid of ViewState – a web application's mortal enemy? It has to be good. That is until the application your building needs some sort of state mechanism, and you begin re-inventing the wheel. I think it would have been much easier just to go back to you WebForms application and disable ViewState.
The problem right now is that there is so much focus over why MVC is better than WebForms, that everyone is forgetting a basic rule of software development: use the right tool for the job. I've said it dozens of times, MVC has a set of scenarios that it first very nicely, as does WebForms. One platform does not need to be declared a winner – they're two equals that should be placed into your metaphorical toolbox. So who is actually losing right now? The developer community that is caught in the middle of this faux war. Developers who think that they have to move to MVC out of pride or fear that WebForms will be replaced by MVC. Developers who are only hearing one side of the story right now at local community events and tradeshows because let's face it.. WebForms isn't sexy anymore at 8 years old. Ironically, this same issue of "sexy talks" was discussed last week at NDC with Scott Hanselman behind the camera.
Conferences aren't picking talks about "the old stuff", because they'd rather focus on what's new. New is sexier, and conferences are all about attendance numbers. But here's what these conferences don't seem to understand – every day there's a new developer joining the community who needs to start from zero. Developers gauge what's important by what's being talked about, it's why we have trends and tag clouds. It's human nature. If I hear 100 people talking about a subject, it must be important. Right now I hear 100 people talking about MVC, and no one talking about WebForms, so I guess MVC is more important, right? That's the type of thinking happening right now, and it's nothing new.
I read a blog post today that talked about how you should dump WebForms and go with MVC as soon as possible, so you can get back to web development roots. The argument just didn't make sense to me. It's like asking me to stop coding in C# and move to C++ because C# developers just don't understand pointers and memory allocation.
So here's my call to action. Rather than talking about why one framework or platform is better than the other, start discussing when one is better than the other. What scenarios is MVC geared for? When would you use WebForms (MVP) instead?
The best advice I've seen so far is that WebForms is the platform of choice for building web applications, where MVC is more suited to building web sites. This is still a bit abstract since there's no clear definition of web applications, but I think it's safe to say that if you're building a web version of a win client application, you're building a web application. If you have a 'grid' in your page for purposes above that of just layout, you're building a web application.
I hear a lot of overused and overloaded terms these days like "leaky abstraction" when talking about WebForms. As people repeat these items like robot drones, I wonder if they truly understand what it means, and more importantly how it affects a developers ability to build software. But whether it's a group of robot drones, or an increasing number of well educated software engineers, we'll leave for the subject of another debate. Back to the matter at hand. Of all of the WebForms complaints, it usually boils down to a few key issues – ViewState, ID generation and HTML Markup & Postbacks; each of which is undergoing changes in ASP.NET 4.0.
To understand the first issue of ViewState, you have to understand the ViewState model. It works recursively in nature, with each control responsible for initiating the loading and saving of ViewState from it's child controls. The problem comes when you turn off ViewState at a root level. Since the parent control is no longer storing ViewState, it's child controls get ignored. Basically, you can turn ViewState off selectively for children, but you can't turn it on selectively if it's disabled for the parent control. The solution? ASP.NET 4.0 introduces the ViewStateMode pattern which is separate from the EnableViewState property. ViewStateMode has 3 values, Enabled, Disabled and Inherit (the default). When ViewStateMode is set to disabled, any child control that is set to Disabled or Inherit will have it's ViewState turned off. If a parent control has ViewStateMode=Disabled, and the child control has ViewStateMode=Enabled (the important new scenario), the child control will still have it's ViewState saved. This in essence, is what the feature is all about. The net gain for a Web developer is a lighter weight page, because you now have the ability to turn off ViewState in places that you didn't really need it on in the first place.
Have you ever taken a look at the html markup produced by an ASP.NET WebForms application? I have. Actually, I spend a good portion of my time examining html markup and discerning how a page can be made lighter or faster based on what I see. One of the big offenders happens to be ID strings. If you want to address an element, you need to give it an ID. If you want to address it uniquely, you need to come up with a mechanism to make that ID unique. In ASP.NET WebForms this was done by pre-pending the parent control's id to the ID string of a control. The problem is that as applications became more complex, so did the control hierarchies, which then caused UniqueID and ClientID strings to become unmanageable. Looking at an application today, it's not out of the question to see something like "contentPlaceHolder1:ctl0:ctl0:UpdatePanel1:Panel1:GridView1" Now if you use that string a few times to address id's or create css class names, you're bloating your HTML. Even worse, you're creating a recipe for cascading failures if you ever change the containership or the ID of one of the parent controls. Suddenly, your element's ClientID has changed, and you need to go through and update your code.
In ASP.NET 4.0, you'll have the ability to set the ClientIdMode to "Static" which solves most of these problems. With a Static ClientIdMode, the ID string you set for the control, is the same string that will be used for the ClientID. This has the benefit of being less fragile, and gives you the ability to clean up your markup by shortening ID's considerably. The drawback to using ClientIdMode=Static is that ID's will not be ensured to be Unique by the framework, making this a manual task for the developer. Not sure about you, but if that's the biggest challenge of my day, I'll be smiling.
Postbacks were the bread and butter of ASP.NET 1.0. Luckily ASP.NET has come a long way since then, and developers today understand that creating a good User Experience means limiting postbacks. The amount of HTML rendered to the client also has a direct correlation on User Experience. The more HTML/Markup, the longer a page will take to load. ASP.NET 4.0 improves this key scenario by adding Client-Side DataBinding and templating. Think of client-side templates as a repeater that get's populated by JavaScript. Why populate the repeater on the client-side rather than the server-side? It's a matter of multiplication. Take the same 4 lines of HTML in a repeater template and multiply it by the number of items in your datasource. Now push all of that HTML down over the wire to the client. Make matters even more interesting, use the same datasource to populate a grid. In a typical scenario, you're pushing the same data down two times, once for the repeater, once for the grid. If you had that data available as a client-side DataSource, you only send the data down once, and re-use it on multiple controls. At the price of a little extra processing power to create the dom elements through JavaScript, you get the benefit of possibly drastically reduced HTML markup, and free yourself from relying on Postbacks in order to populate a list.
The three features listed above are just a short list taken from the ASP.NET 4.0 features whitepaper. Even in this short list, it's easy to see that ASP.NET 4.0 is changing the face of WebForms. Many of the concerns that developers have expressed and many of the advantages that MVC touts over WebForms are being addressed. The point is, WebForms isn't dead, it's quite the opposite.
I've never been a big fan of surveys or polls. Not because I don't like them, but because I always disagree with their validity and the conclusions that are drawn from the results. Lets take a look at a couple of examples. Readers Choice awards were recently handed out. I received an email from a customer who wanted to let me know that he was contacted by a component vendor to go out and vote for them, and he didn't even own their product. To my surprise, he wanted to know where the Infragistics email was. My answer – we make a very conscious effort to limit the number of emails we send out to our customer base. At the end of the day, our decision to keep spam out of our customer's inboxes also meant that we were at a disadvantage in the survey/poll/award. Does the poll actually show which product is the best? Or does it show who spent more time and energy on campaigning for votes?
Now let's look at case #2. There's a survey out right now asking questions about AJAX tools and frameworks, and which ones developers are using. I don't know exactly what the results of this survey look like, but here were my first impressions. The survey is hosted on a personal blog, where most readers likely share similar interests. Simone Chiaretta (the blogger) respectfully acknowledges that this blog has a limited audience and is likely biased toward the ALT.NET kind of developer. I'm sure Simone has the best intentions about publishing the survey, but it will be very difficult to not get a skewed response. In addition, what does the response actually mean?
A current snapshot of results shows that 76% of developers are using jQuery, compared with 48% using ASP.NET AJAX and 58% using AJAX Toolkit. Does that really mean that there are more jQuery developers than WebForms/ASP.NET AJAX developers? To confuse matters, AJAX Control Toolkit is built ONTOP of ASP.NET AJAX. Yet these results show that there are more people using the toolkit than ASP.NET AJAX (which is actually impossible). I know from experience that there is a huge portion of web developers out there who never want to hear the word "Javascript". Does that mean they're not doing AJAX? No, they're simply relying on the tools that were handed to them. Microsoft created the Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX stack and made doing things like partial rendering a breeze. It's all part of ASP.NET 3.5. I don't even call it "AJAX Extensions" anymore, it's just ASP.NET 3.5, or Visual Studio 2008. It's actually so easy to do Partial Updates at this point, that a developer can 'do AJAX' with out even knowing how to write a line of JavaScript. It's very unlikely that those developers are or will be represented in this survey. How many web developers still use the term DHTML? That usually only shows up on resumes. But in actuality, most web developers today are doing DHTML, and aren't even aware of it. I expect the same will be true of AJAX. It's so commonplace that there's no reason to differentiate it from web development in the first place.
So what spawned all of this? Well, I saw a post from Betrand Le Roy on Twitter about this survey. He immediately got a response asking "will the results of this survey be used to finally convince Microsoft to dump ASP.NET AJAX, and go with jQuery instead". I can only hope not. jQuery is an awesome Javascript framework, but it absolutely abandons the web developer who doesn't want to spend his days writing custom Javascript. Microsoft created the idea of a server-side webcontrol for this very reason. If I'm given the choice to drop an UpdatePanel on a form and have a label update on a button click via AJAX, or hand code it myself using a Javascript framework, I'm going to go with the UpdatePanel just about every time. Will I get more satisfaction out of building it from scratch? Certainly. But personal satisfaction doesn't pay the bills. And I'd be much more satisfied spending the two weeks time I saved, on the beach fishing. The Infragistics ASP.NET controls try to find a comfortable balance between these two worlds. They abstract away the client-side javascript for developers who don't want to or have the time to deal with it, and they provide a client-side object model for developers who want to dive in and play. We call it our CSOM (Client-Side Object Model) and it's been around for years. I think this is the path Microsoft needs to continue to take, supporting both of these key scenarios.
But back to the topic at hand. Polls and surveys are just that. They represent a a sentiment of a select audience. Was the audience wide enough to capture multiple views (usually not). Was the survey done by an impartial third party (usually not). Did others have a chance to influence the results (unfortunately yes most of the time). And even when you get past all of that, it's most important to look at what the questions were actually asking in the first place. Each time I see the results of a poll, I argue that the answer that was being deduced was not actually the question that was being asked.
My question to you – do you participate in these polls? How much weight/validity do you give the to results? And better yet, what do you think about "lobbying for votes" in readers choice type polls/awards? Is that something you would be happy to hear about, or would you prefer not to hear at all?
Perhaps I'm too analytical, but I generally tear apart survey results and the conclusions that are drawn from them.
If you've been following me on Twitter (igtony), you've probably heard me grumbling about Visual Studio crashing, services not working, or various other gremlins I've been fighting with for the past few days. Well, I've finally got something to show for all of my pain!
My goal when I started building this application was to build a POC Silverlight Application which dynamically loaded sub-applications. In essence, I wanted to build a Silverlight shell that could load N applications unknown at compile time. I started out by choosing from the new Navigation project template in Silverlight 3. This gives a MasterPage scenario that works as a good starting point for an application which may have multiple distinct Views. I tweaked the base appearance of the template around just to make it look a little more presentable. The White background used in the <Frame> element and the big 10px borders reminded me of Windows 3.1, and IE4. I used a Border element to create the rounded edges which wrapped around my Frame, and I set my Frame background to be transparent. With some of the UI tweaks out of the way, it was down to business.
The first task I needed to tackle was loading a XAML page (UserControl) dynamically. It turns out this is a pretty simple task as long as that user control is in the same XAP file. The Frame element has a Navigate method which takes a URI and will fill the Frame's Content with the UserControl specified via the URI. Unfortunately, the solution I was looking for places my UserControl in a separate XAP file, which meant I couldn't use the simple Frame.Navigate(URI) method. Instead I needed to dynamically load the UserControl in question. Luckily, this is a pretty straight forward task with the help of the WebClient.OpenReadAsync method, and AssemblyPart class. Here's the code I used:
private void NavButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
Button navigationButton = sender as Button;
//Create a WebClient instance to download our separate XAP file
WebClient client=new WebClient();
client.OpenReadCompleted+=new OpenReadCompletedEventHandler(client_OpenReadCompleted);
//Download the XAP file
client.OpenReadAsync(new Uri("CompositeApp.xap",UriKind.Relative));
void client_OpenReadCompleted(object sender, OpenReadCompletedEventArgs e)
//Create a StreamResourceInfo object out of our XAP stream
StreamResourceInfo sri = new StreamResourceInfo(e.Result, null);
//Get a StreamResourceInfo for the Application's DLL
//The one that houses our main XAML UserControl
StreamResourceInfo mainAppSRI = Application.GetResourceStream(sri, new Uri("CompositeApp.dll", UriKind.Relative));
//Load the Assembly using AssemblyPart.Load
AssemblyPart loader = new AssemblyPart();
Assembly assembly = loader.Load(mainAppSRI.Stream);
//Now that the Assembly is loaded, create an instance of our UserControl
this.Frame.Content = assembly.CreateInstance("CompositeApp.MainPage");
There's one drawback to using this method to dynamically load a UserControl – dependencies are not automatically loaded for you. If your UserControl in the separate XAP has a dependency on 4 assemblies you must manually load those 4 assemblies before loading your UserControl or CreateInstance will fail. The hack solution I used was to include the assembly references in the main shell application. This doesn't scale well though, since ideally you want the additional dependencies to be loaded dynamically as necessary. There's no way you'll know today every assembly reference each sub app will need for the entire life of the shell. It's actually impossible since you'll likely need a 'new' assembly at some point down the road. I saw some code fragments while looking for a solution which read the manifest in the XAP to determine what assemblies need to be loaded out of the (external) XAP. If I were building this as a real world app, I would go that route. If you know of a better way to handle this, I encourage you to share in the comments! In a perfect world Frame.Navigate would allow you to specify a XAML file in a separate XAP and do all of this work for you. Are you listening Silverlight team? ;)
Ok, main hurdle down (dynamic loading of UserControl from separate XAP), it was time for the next challenge – creating content! I started out with a grid, because you can't have a good application without a grid in there somewhere, right? I used the XamWebGrid, and used it in a couple of places. One on the main page which showed hierarchical data (Accounts and Transactions)
Next I created another 'page' or View which Visualized data in a Map. In this scenario the map shapes came from my "Shapefile" and the data came from a SQL Database via WCF and LinqToSQL. I think this probably mirrors the major use case out there, where the data is kept separate from the Shapefile.
On the final Screen, I went with 'live' updating data (Image 1). Since this was just a demo, I used a DispatcherTimer to change my underlying datasource every second. Since my underlying datasource was an ObservableCollection of INotifyPropertyChanged objects, my grid immediately showed any changes made to the underlying datasource. The Grid does 2-way databinding by default. Since my View still looked empty, I dropped a chart in there as well, and added a new datapoint to the chart's DataPoints collection each second (representing the history of changes made to the grid). The end result was a chart and grid showing updates every second, with the Chart "always in motion". It was a pretty impressive experience. My next step is to see what this would look like with a real data feed. I'm guessing with proper queuing in place, the experience should mirror my mock up almost exactly.


text:
(WMC-TV) – Two people are hurt following a crash along Interstate 55 near Third Street in Memphis.
One person was transported to the MED and another to Methodist Hospital.
Their condition is not known and it is unclear what caused the crash.
Copyright 2013 WMC-TV. All rights reserved.
1960 Union Ave.
Memphis, TN 38104
(901) 726-0555
FCC Public File
EEO Report
Closed Captioning

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Summit Feature: Small cairn
Classification: Sub-donald-dewey.
OS Grid Ref: NS668100 (10 figure Grid Ref: NS6682710066).
UK Area: 27 - The Glenkens to Annandale (OS Maps 1:50k 71. 1:25k 328N.)
Latitude: 55.366475, Longitude: -4.102689, Height: 556 metres (1824 feet)
Prominence: 21 metres (69 feet)
Unique Waypoint POI Name: 0556.- (DoBIH Hill ID: 7219)
External Links for McCrierick's Cairn:
-GeoHack link... -OS Map Bing link... -Google Map link... -Geograph link... -McCrierick's Cairn on hill-bagging.co.uk...
Data courtesy of the Database of British and Irish Hills v13.3
You can use this list of Hills & Map as your personal McCrierick's Cairn Baggers' Tick-list to keep track of your hill climbing progress
Just register as a member and Log-in to access this feature!
Climbed McCrierick's Cairn? Log in to tick it off...
Hare Hill (1.4km)Dun Rig Head (2.0km)Laglass Hill (2.4km)Well Hill (3.6km)Magheuchan Rig (3.6km)Mid Hill (3.9km)Blackcraig Hill (4.2km)Bank Hill (4.6km)Cruffel (5.7km)Craigbraneoch Hill (5.8km)
Total = 1 McCrierick's Cairn hills
Data courtesy of the Database of British and Irish Hills v13.3


text:
Technology Transfer at New York University
The mission of the NYU Office of Industrial Liaison is to promote the commercial development of NYU technologies from its Medical Center and Washington Square campuses into products to benefit the public, while providing resources to the University to support its research, education, and patient care missions. The Office also facilitates research collaborations between NYU researchers and industry on projects of mutual interest.
The Office actively seeks commercial partners to develop NYU technologies, and works to establish mutually beneficial long-term relationships. Almost 60% of NYU patents have been licensed to companies for development and commercialization. Over the past five years, NYU has ranked first among all U.S. universities in income from technology licensing, which is plowed back into further research. NYU actively promotes entrepreneurship with more than 70 companies created based on NYU technologies. In the most recent published comparative data on technology commercialization activity at U.S. universities, NYU created 87% more new start-up companies per research dollars expended than the national average.
We look forward to working with you.


text:
FREE SHIPPING ON THOUSANDS OF STYLES. EVERY DAY.*more info
Style: J99232 BBY
Reebok RealFlex Optimal VTS Men's Running Shoes
The Reebok RealFlex Optimal TS Men's Running Shoes are much cooler than they first appear. Plus they're exclusive to Finish Line! The Reebok shoes feature U-FORM, which is a heat activated, custom-fit technology built into the lining of the shoes. What's it mean for you? You mold the lining to your foot for the perfect fit, which gives you supreme comfort and performance. There are two simple steps: heat the shoe for 2 minutes, and then put it on (don't forget to lace it tight) for 2 minutes. You're good to go! The process only takes 4 minutes but detailed instructions are included.
- Heat it. Put a hair dryer on high, about 4 inches away from the top of the shoe, and hold it there for 2 minutes or until the U-FORM logo turns red.
- Form it. Put your foot in the shoe and lace it tight (even tighter than normal). Don't worry the shoe won't be hot. Sit still, and leave the shoe on for 2 minutes or until the U-FORM logo is black.
- Go for it. You're done. Now you have a custom fit pair of Reebok shoes!
You may also like
Finish Line Women's 6 Pack Quarter SocksBuy one get one free!$12.99
Finish Line Men's Performance No Show 3-pack SockBuy one get one free!$9.99
Customer Reviews


text:
Two men were arrested for shoplifting at a Lancaster County retail store after officers caught them trying to make off with more than $1,200 in merchandise, according to police.
Northern Lancaster County Regional police identified the men as 27-year-old David Disciullo, of Northumberland County, and 38-year-old Charles Cairns, of Chester County.
Disciullo had more than $1,240 worth of merchandise with altered or removed sales tags and security devices when he was taken into custody Monday afternoon at the Target at 960 Lititz Pike in Warwick Township, police said.
In addition, police said a 2012 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck in the parking lot was filled with assorted items, and had camouflage tape on the license plate to hinder identification.
Disciullo was charged with retail theft and possessing an instrument of crime. Cairns was taken into custody on outstanding arrest warrants for retail theft and other offenses.


text:
Modesto >General Merchandise Stores > JCPenney Salon
3401 Dale Rd, Modesto, CA | Directions 9535637.689879 -121.050352
Best Cut & Color I've Ever Gotten – I am very particular about my hair. I had been recommended to several places by girlfriends (George Backus, Innovations, Mosaic - which are very pricey) but was most pleased with the JC Penney Salon at Vintage Faire.
I've been going to NADIA V. (remember the V - apparently there's two). She always takes her time placing the foils and coloring, then does my cut. After she cuts and blow drys, she trims and "touches-up" the hair dry so it's PERFECT.
I ALWAYS get compliments when I go to her. I have a short, a-line bob that's stacked in the back. I was never commited to a stylist til her.
***She's the short one with LONG GORGEOUS hair.
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text:
The World's Quirkiest Adult Camps
Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp
New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and London, but look for one-day camps coming to 25 U.S. cities in 2008
Why it's fun: Campers learn the ropes from their rock 'n roll idols including Joe Walsh, Slash, and Max Weinberg. You can bring your own instruments or use the camp's; small bands allow you to write and rehearse a song with a celebrity musician/counselor. There are daily jam sessions and a finale Battle of the Bands performance where you play at a sold-out venue with guest stars like Roger Daltrey and Brian Wilson.
Who goes: Doctors, marketing execs, corporate titans, lawyers, and anyone who has pretended to play guitar à la Jimi Hendrix.
Great add-on: Everyone stays at the hotel, even the celebrities, so hang out with them at the hotel bar.
Price: $2,000 for one-day camps, $8,000–$12,000 for four- to five-day camps
Contact: www.rockcamp.com


text:
Resources Help File
Testing and Education Reference Center
To link to this resource use:
Database available to authorized IU Bloomington users (on or off campus)
An online guide to test preparation in basic skills and career advancement. Includes practice tests for: academic, advanced placement, basic skills success, civil service, college preparation, improvment courses, firefighter, GED, graduate school entrance, law enforment, military, skills improvment courses, teacher certification, technical and career college, and US citizenship. Online resume builder for college applications and careers.
IUB Library Subjects:
- Linguistics
- Career Information
- Law
Library of Congress Subjects:
Examinations -- United States -- Study Guides -- Computer network resources.
Career development -- United States -- Computer network resources.
Career education -- United States -- Computer network resources.


text:
Animal Birthday Party! www.zoolabuk.com
The UK's No.1 provider
of fun animal handling
workshops. Click here
Starting school brings about big changes for all the family. You might be feeling excited about your child's first day at school, a little nervous perhaps, but no doubt you have a few specific worries too...
The links to the right can help you get to grips with that big transition to school or you can chat about your concerns with other mums here
Whether it's getting to the classroom on time or ensuring our child eats all their lunch, it seems that us mums share many similar concerns about sending our precious cargo to school. Top worries include:-
It seems that we're a bit of a mixed bunch when it comes to deciding how we'll fill our days when our kids start school. Out of the 1,800 mums who answered our first day mums survey, 41% (and quite clearly the most house proud!) are planning to do more cleaning at home, 22% of us will commit more hours to work whilst 33.5% of us want to use the time to get fit and regain some of that lost identity. Others have decided to donate more time to friends, sorting out the garden or studying for a new qualification.
It's likely that the initial few days will be hard (as illustrated by the mums below) but with a bit of time, positive planning and ambition from you, life will soon start to feel comfortably normal again.
Here's what some mum's said about the change in their life...
"I feel lost, and sad at the end of an era. Have loads to do including people to see and have just completed an application to return to work (after 7.5 years, eek!)" Nicola L
"My daughter started on Thursday at the age of 4, my last child. I miss her but am looking forward to a new chapter in my life." Claire H
"My son doesn't start for another week but already I am a whole mixed bag of emotions! We had difficult time at nursery with him and we don't want school to turn out the same. I am proud, happy and sad all at the same time and I will miss him." Sarah S
"My Little man starts school on wednesday. He's going full time from day one...we were going to put him part time but noticed everyone else on the list said full time so didnt want him to be left behind!! The thing is he is one of the young ones and still falls asleep everyday at home! I'm so worried how he'll cope...my emotions are all over the place!" Natalie M
"I have really struggled with my daughter starting school. There are lots of issues wrapped up in it but I just love being a Mum at home (I also have a job which I do from home and run my own small business so I don't sit and watch This Morning!) and I will really miss her and all the things we do together." Angela D
Starting school is a big change for mums so it's natural to feel concerned about how you'll cope, especially if you're a stay at home mum who's spent the majority of your time at home with your child. Our recent first day mums survey revealed that 55% of mums are primarily concerned about making friends with the other mums at the school gates whilst 54.5% are worried that they won't be as organised or look as glam as other mums.
It also seems that many of us have got so curled up in the world of mummy-hood that we've lost our sense of identity with over 33% expressing concerns about getting back into the workplace.
All of these types of pressures are extremely common amongst new school mummies but it's important to realise that they'll eventually pass - especially once you get into the school routine and have got to know some of the other mums.
"I find being organised helps. get up early if need be and pack lunches and PE kits etc the night before. Even laying the children's clothes out ready can knock minutes off!" Delyth J
"I would suggest making one friend at a time - say hello to a mum who is on their own - they will be feeling just the same. Smile and say hello, ask which class their child is in / their childs name / their name - how they got to school - anything just to break the ice." Angela M
"Something I did to meet new mums was to join the PTA at school. It's just a group of parents trying to raise funds for the school. I have met many mums and it's been a real help in boosting my confidence and finding out what other stay at home mums do." Claire H
"The one tip I would give you, is don't forget yourself!! You need a drink, food and a rest beforehand too..." Louisa G
"As term goes on, try to get to know another mum near by who could take your child to school if you're having a really bad morning. Lots of mums will be glad of someone who can return the favour. Even if they don't have a baby it's useful for when a sibling is ill." Karen D
© 2013 Netmums Ltd. | Sitemap | Forum archive


text:
Updated: 02/14/2012 - Candye Smith with Give it 4ward is back to spread the love. She took more than $400 in prizes to the young people at May Park. Parents say the timing was perfect.
Updated: 11/23/2011 - Candye Smith is back to Give it 4Ward. She is a local woman on a mission to make a big difference in the CSRA.
Updated: 05/25/2011 - Oprah has inspired millions of people across the world. That includes a local mother of two who is on a mission to Give It 4ward.
Updated: 05/15/2011 - Senior citizens at one local church got quite the surprise. They got thousands of dollars in unexpected cash. High gas prices drove Macedonia Baptist Church to act.
Updated: 02/15/2011 - Give it 4Ward has a surprise for a pretty dynamic couple this Valentine's Day. They have spent the last 8 years bringing young kids the gift of music. Candye has a surprise gift that is music to the ears.
Updated: 12/22/2010 - More kids than normal will spend Christmas in a hospital bed at MCG Children's Medical Center this year. The Give it 4Ward crew is playing Santa, and so can you.
Posted: 11/24/2010 - When was the last time someone gave you cash with no strings attached? That's exactly what happened to unsuspecting local shoppers Wednesday.
Updated: 08/09/2010 - News 12 is Giving it 4Ward just in time for the new school year. Candye Smith takes you along for one of the biggest surprises yet.
Updated: 05/10/2010 - Two quick-thinking elementary students who saved an ill bus driver were honored with the latest installment of Candye Smith's Give it 4ward.
Updated: 04/04/2010 - Candye Smith is back. This time she has an Easter surprise for a local church youth group.
Updated: 12/25/2009 - How many gifts can you buy with more than $2000? One Augusta family found out when Candye Smith showed up on a mission to Give it 4Ward.
Updated: 11/27/2009 - Thanksgiving is a day to Give it 4Ward. One local woman's quest to bring smiles to faces took her to the James Brown Arena with free tickets to the Cirque Du Soleil show.
Updated: 09/05/2009 - A local woman's quest to Give it 4Ward takes her to an Augusta gas station looking to help people fill up. What she found was priceless.
Updated: 08/16/2009 - A local woman's mission to Give it 4Ward takes News 12 to the Family Y.
Updated: 08/13/2009 - Walmart Gives it 4Ward with free school supplies. A recent murder-suicide left six children without their mother. News 12's Chris Thomas shows you how one Augusta woman's goal to help is becoming contagious.
Posted: 08/03/2009 - One local woman has made it her mission to Give it 4Ward. First Arby's, now Chick-fil-A is getting in on the action. News 12's Chris Thomas has the story you'll see Only on 12.
Posted: 08/03/2009 - How does a free meal sound? You may remember a local woman who has made it her goal to Give it 4Ward. Candye Smith has the folks at Arby's doing just that.
Updated: 08/03/2009 - School is challenging enough with tests and peer pressure, but what happens when tragedy strikes? A 7 year old girl is the sole survivor of a fatal fire that killed her mother, sister, and cousin. She started her first full week back to school Monday. Give it 4Ward was there with a big surprise.
Updated: 08/03/2009 - It's another gift from the Give it 4Ward organization. They're helping an 8-year old leukemia patient have a fun evening with his family as local lawmakers in Atlanta fight for cancer research funding.


text:
Not right?
Results 1-3of 3 Reviews
by fizzytom
Newcastle upon Tyne, England, United Kingdom
July 26, 2012
From journal Cosmopolitan Geneva - the Melting Pot of Europe?
by koshkha
Northampton, United Kingdom
May 10, 2009
From journal Geneva on the Cheap - May 2009
by xine
Santa Monica, California
July 22, 2001
I spent about 2 hours at the museum, but you could easily spend more time if you watch every single video. There was also a concert right outside the entrance the day I was there.
The museum is divided into eleven areas which I've summarized from the museum's guide:
1 - Preserving life by the written word: Founded by Henry Dunant, the Red Cross is concerned with preserving human life. Six panels with text from the Bible, Koran, Islam, etc. represent the need to preserve human life.
2 - Preserving life by acts of mercy: Background on Florence Nightingale and Nikolai Pirogov who tended to those wounded in the Crimean War. Background on Clara Barton who cared for those wounded in the Civil War.
3 - The Battle of Solferino (24 June 1859): A panoramic slide show/film that reconstructs the Battle of Solferino. After the show ends, the screen lifts up and takes you into Area 4, the Foundation of the Red Cross: Background on Henry Dunant and drafting of the First Geneva Convention.
5 - Towards universality (1864-1914) - Film to show the Red Cross' involvement in armed conflicts.
6 - The First World War and prisoners of war (1914-1918) - Files of over 2 million prisoners of war are housed in the museum. They are still referred to today.
7 - The First World War (1914-1918) - Video depicting Red Cross assistance during WWI.
8 - Between the wars (1919-1939) - Film showing the Red Cross' activities in providing social assistance and disaster relief during peacetime.
9 - The Second World War (1939-1945) - Film clips showing Red Cross assistance during WWII.
10 - From 1945 to the 1980s
11 - Today: Displays of the latest news from the field and more films and interviews.
There are computers in the main entrance near the Cafe Dunant which allow you to learn more about the Red Cross through their interactive program.
The museum is every day except Tuesday from 10:00 to 5:00 pm. Free for children under 12. To get there from Cornavin (the main train station), take the 8 or F bus to Appia or the V or Z to Ariana.
From journal Living in Geneva


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This was our second time at the Cobblestone inn, we were on island for a wedding and the location was perfect, 5 minutes to town, 3 minutes to the Yacht Club, yet on a quiet side st. Room was nice and Airy, central AC is key and they have it. Spacious shower . Robin was very friendly and I think... More
- Also Known As:
- Cobblestone Hotel Nantucket
- Cobblestone Hotel
- Official Description (provided by the hotel):
- The Cobblestone Inn is a cozy, 18th century bed and breakfast. Built in 1725, last renovated in 1997, the centuries blend walking the two blocks from Steamship Wharf to our quiet cobblestoned side street in the heart of historic Nantucket Town. Miles of beaches and misty moors take you far from jangling phones and the stresses of everyday life. Revel in sedentary solitude, or indulge yourself with long walks and ocean sunsets. Nantucket is waiting...Robin and Keith look forward to welcoming you to their home, the Cobblestone Inn, and Nantucket. ... more less


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I'm a Democrat…I think regulation of some industries is a good thing. But even I think that a call for government regulation of salt is just downright silly.
The big three components when it comes down to stuff-in-food-that-may-be-bad-for-you-if-you-over-indulge include salt, fat, and sugar. Of those three, sugar is the one that may actually cause the most damage over time. Ironically, sugar is the one product which is relatively new to our diet, becoming a staple sometime in the 1500′s if memory serves correctly. Both salt and fat have been part of our diets since…well…since we started getting fish out of the oceans.
Another issue here is that salt may not be the end all be all problem that the Center for Science in the Public Interest think it is. As an article in the Guardian notes, it's quite possible that some of us can eat above average amounts of salt without living dangerously. There are as many studies showing a relationship (not a causality, which is something entirely different) between high sodium intake and hypertension as there are studies that show that hypertension is based off of appetite, genetic inheritance and environment.
In short, the results on salt aren't in yet.
Besides, even if it were shown conclusively that salt was responsible for high-blood pressure, should I, as an informed consumer, be willing to subject myself to the risk that it may cause, instead of an advocacy group telling me that I can't?


text:
'Anything Goes'
ALL ABOARD for this saucy and splendid production of Roundabout Theatre Company's ANYTHING GOES, winner of three 2011 Tony Awards including Best Musical Revival and Choreography! One of the greatest musicals in theater history, Cole Porter's first-class musical comedy is sailing Las Vegas, while it continues a triumphant run on Broadway where The New York Times calls it "MUSICAL-COMEDY JOY" and USA Today hails it as "GLORIOUS and EXUBERANT!"
When the S.S. American heads out to sea, etiquette and convention get tossed out the portholes as two unlikely pairs set off on the course to true love… proving that sometimes destiny needs a little help from a crew of singing sailors, an exotic disguise and some good old-fashioned blackmail. Peppering this timeless classic are some of musical theater's most memorable standards, including "I Get a Kick Out of You," "You're the Top," and of course, "Anything Goes." Don't miss what the AP exclaims as, "So DELIGHTFUL, So DELICIOUS, So DE-LOVELY!"
When: Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013
Where: Smith Center for the Performing Arts, 361 Symphony Park Ave Las Vegas, NV, Las Vegas
Cost: Not available
Age limit: Not available
Categories: Activities-Smith Center
Event posted Jan. 31, 2013
Last updated Jan. 31, 2013
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Editor's Picks
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- The Lounge at Palms | 10:30 p.m.
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- Boulevard Pool at the Cosmopolitan | 8 p.m.
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- Bastille
- House of Blues | 6 p.m.
- Viva Las Vegas: Rockabilly Weekend
- Orleans Hotel-Casino
- Diplo
- Surrender Nightclub | 10:30 p.m.
- Tiesto
- Hakkasan
- Forever Motor City
- The Riviera | 9 p.m.
- Human Experience at The Beat
- The Beat Coffeehouse
- Monday Night Karaoke
- The Beauty Bar
- Lorde
- Boulevard Pool at the Cosmopolitan
- Forever Doo Wop
- The Riviera | 7 p.m.
- The Tempest
- Smith Center for the Performing Arts
- The Tempest
- Smith Center for the Performing Arts
- Lorde
- Boulevard Pool at the Cosmopolitan
- Future Islands
- The Beauty Bar | 9 p.m.


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Capturing That Holiday Glow: Noodle & Boo Pregnancy and Newborn Gift Set
When you're pregnant, everyone always talks about that healthy glow that magically appears. But I'm pretty sure they weren't talking about me. As someone who suffers from dry skin on a regular basis, being pregnant actually made things worse (was it all those crazy hormones or was that growing babe of mine already draining me?). No matter the culprit, these days when I see a pregnant mom during these cold-weather months, I truly feel for her...and will gladly offer up my moisturizer. If you've got a gal pal who's expecting soon, what better way to indulge her than with a skin-centric gift set? Noodle & Boo's Pregnancy and Newborn Gift Set is the ultimate in prenatal pampering. From an invigorating hand and foot balm, to an amazing elasticity oil specially formulated to protect against stretch marks, this box of goodies lets moms-to-be treat themselves to some much-needed TLC. And after their little bundle of joy arrives, they can take advantage on the shampoo, ointment and body wash designed for sensitive newborn skin. Our favorite treat? The Love Light Candle to calm and relax new moms while in the tub or just catching a few moments of alone time. And of course, that warm glow doesn't hurt either.
In a Nutshell: It's the perfect season to show a pregnant pal you know just what she's in need of. No, not free babysitting...but a little lotion goes a long way.


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You don't pay
for tutoring unless
you find a good fit!
You don't pay for tutoring unless you find a good fit!
I'm a graduate of the University of Maryland at College Park, where I completed a physics and math double major. My experience with tutoring goes back several years when I started offering help to my friends and colleagues with any difficulties they would have with physics, math, and programming. My personal favorite and likely strongest aspect of my physics and math knowledge is when the two come together in the form of mathematical methods for physics, and ordinary/partial differential equations (ODEs/PDEs). Moreover, since the previously mentioned subjects rely on more fundamental concepts that stem from algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus, I am quite proficient in these subjects as well.I am currently still at the University of Maryland, now pursuing a PhD in physics. During my time as a graduate student, I have completed several graduate courses in physics and applied mathematics, while at the same time doing my PhD thesis research in the field of space plasma physics.It is one of my hobbies to pass down my understanding of a subject that I am passionate about. My experiences with tutoring have been only enjoyable and effective. It is commonly accepted that the most important part of tutoring is to make sure the student's feet are firmly planted on the fundamentals, and this is what I aim for as well. A solid foundation is the only way for a student to climb higher.
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I took my first calculus class when I took AP Calculus BC in high school, and received a score of 5 on the AP exam. Ever since then, I have completed several calculus related courses during my college career, such as Differential Equations, Multivariable Calculus, Advanced Calculus I & II, and Partial Differential Equations. In addition to course work, I use much of the above mathematics on a daily basis in my research.
I took my first physics class when I took AP Physics in high school, and received a score of 5 on the AP exam. Ever since then I have completed a Bachelor of Science degree in physics and taken several graduate physics courses as well. I am currently in my 4th year of graduate school working to get a PhD in physics, specializing in space plasma physics.
I took my first Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs) class as a freshman in college, following introductions to the subject in high school through AP Calculus and AP Physics classes. Ever since then I have completed mathematical methods courses in the physics department and Partial Differential Equations (PDEs) from the math department. In addition to course work, I use ODE and PDE theory on a daily basis since my research in plasma physics is formulated entirely in terms of differential equations...
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As the global leader in domain names, Verisign powers the invisible navigation that takes people to where they want to go on the Internet.
Verisign's infrastructure services help to ensure that your organization's websites are reliable and always available.
Verisign provides in-depth analysis, insight and response recommendations to help keep businesses and government organizations ahead of new and evolving cyber threats and vulnerabilities.
As the Internet continues to expand, Verisign is committed to creating and driving advancements that keep the Internet fast, safe, and reliable for all users.
The FreeBSD Project's FreeBSD Ports and Packages Collection offers a simple way for users and administrators to install applications. More information about it is available at http://www.freebsd.org/ports/.
The FreeBSD ports asmon, ascpu, bubblemon, wmmon, and wmnet2 can be locally manipulated to take advantage of open file descriptors /dev/mem and /dev/kmem to gain root privileges on a target host. These five programs are installed setgid kmem by default. They will drop kmem privileges before executing user specified commands but file descriptors to /dev/mem and /dev/kmem will remain open. This can lead to a local root compromise in various ways (e.g. if an attacker chooses to scan for the master password file in the Linux kernel memory).
The following examples illustrate the vulnerabilities:
bash-2.05a$ ascpu -exe "dummy&/usr/local/sbin/lsof|grep
dummy|grep mem"
dummy 650 dim 4r VCHR 2,0 0t0 21146 /dev/mem
dummy 650 dim 5r VCHR 2,1 0xc040f54c 21145 /dev/kmem
bash-2.05a$ bubblemon "dummy&/usr/local/sbin/lsof|grep
dummy|grep mem"
dummy 688 dim 4r VCHR 2,0 0t0 21146 /dev/mem
dummy 688 dim 5r VCHR 2,1 0xc040f54c 21145 /dev/kmem
bash-2.05a$ cat .wmmonrc
left "/home/dim/dummy"
bash-2.05a$ wmmon &
[1] 793
bash-2.05a$ Monitoring 5 devices for activity.
current stat is :1
bash-2.05a$ /usr/local/sbin/lsof |grep dummy|grep mem
dummy 797 dim 3r VCHR 2,0 0t0 21146 /dev/mem
dummy 797 dim 4r VCHR 2,1 0xc040f54c 21145 /dev/kmem
bash-2.05a$ wmnet2 -e "dummy&/usr/local/sbin/lsof|grep
dummy|grep mem"
wmnet: using kmem driver to monitor ec0
dummy 584 dim 3r VCHR 2,0 0t0 21146 /dev/mem
dummy 584 dim 4r VCHR 2,1 0xc037cb8f 21145 /dev/kmem
One possible exploit for these vulnerabilities is to replace getch() in strings(1) with:
int getch()
char buf[4];
return buf[0];
or a similar, less CPU-expensive function that reads a character from the /dev/mem file descriptor and execute the following:
wmnet2 -e exploit|grep root|grep Charlie
The latest copies of asmon, ascpu, bubblemon, wmmon, and wmnet2 from the FreeBSD ports collection are vulnerable and were tested on 4.6-RELEASE of FreeBSD. According to FreeBSD, all FreeBSD ports that use libkvm before and including 4.6.2-RELEASE may be vulnerable.
Remove the setgid bit on the affected applications via the command chmod g-s /path.to/wmnet2.
FreeBSD advisory FreeBSD-SA-02:39.libkvm, which is available at ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/CERT/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-
02:39.libkvm.asc, provides the following patch details:
"Upgrade your vulnerable system to 4.6-STABLE; or to the
RELENG_4_6, RELENG_4_5, or RELENG_4_4 security branch
dated after the correction date (4.6.2-RELEASE-p2, 4.5-
RELEASE-p20, or 4.4-RELEASE-p27)."
The Mitre Corp.'s Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) Project assigned the identification number CAN-2002-1125 for these issues.
08/12/2002 Issue disclosed to iDEFENSE
09/06/2002 FreeBSD Security notified
09/06/2002 iDEFENSE clients notified
09/16/2002 Coordinated public disclosure by FreeBSD and iDEFENSE
badc0ded (firstname.lastname@example.com) is credited with discovering these vulnerabilities.


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TODAY I offer you a Great POST that I repost in it's entirety from my Wonderful friend & Mentor Tony Teegarden.
For those of us in any Business, this open Letter from a PROSPECT says it all!
Please read it with an open Mind & Heart!
I'm having a problem and I desperately need your help.
It sucks.
It's painful.
And it's filling me with anxiety everyday.
I even feel humiliated on a deep level which is why I don't really talk about it with anyone.
At night I try to fall asleep and it's the last thing on my mind. When I wake up in the morning, it's the first thing on my mind.
The cost is more than I feel I can continue to bear. The price of a solution at this point weighs light compared to the cost of avoidance. I've got to remove this pain I'm experiencing.
Can you help me?
- I'm not interested in your 7 Steps to The Ultimate Law of Attractions Gifts From the Universe Abundance Soul Feeding program.
- Your cute phrases that rhyme don't make me want to buy from you.
- I don't care about what you've done in the past.
- I could totally care less how awesome you say you are.
- I don't care about the letters behind your name or the plaques on your wall.
- I really could give a rats ass about how many courses and books you've gone through.
- And I honestly don't even care how many people you say you've helped before me.
All I really care about is can you really solve my problem and deliver me from my pain.
Can you help me get my desired outcome as quickly as possible without a bunch of hoops to jump through and ladders to climb?
Don't tell me you understand.
All you have to do to prove it is to explain my problem to me better than I can say it to myself.
You won't have to tell me you understand, I'll feel understood.
It's only then that I will consider surrendering to your solution.
Is that too much to ask?
Your Prospect
This has been an open letter addressed to your marketing efforts. How much are you listening to your audiences fears, frustrations, wants and desires lately?


text:
Localization of Classical Waves I: Acoustic Waves. (1996)
Download Links
|Commun. Math. Phys
|37 - 0 self
author = {Alexander Figotin and Abel Klein},
title = {Localization of Classical Waves I: Acoustic Waves.},
journal = {Commun. Math. Phys},
year = {1996},
volume = {180},
pages = {439--482}
Years of Citing Articles
We consider classical acoustic waves in a medium described by a position dependent mass density %(x). We assume that %(x) is a random perturbation of a periodic function % 0 (x) and that the periodic acoustic operator A 0 = \Gammar \Delta 1 %0 (x) r has a gap in the spectrum. We prove the existence of localized waves, i.e., finite energy solutions of the acoustic equations with the property that almost all of the wave's energy remains in a fixed bounded region of space at all times, with probability one. Localization of acoustic waves is a consequence of Anderson localization for the self-adjoint operators A = \Gammar \Delta 1 %(x) r on L 2 (R d ). We prove that, in the random medium described by %(x), the random operator A exhibits Anderson localization inside the gap in the spectrum of A 0 . This is shown even in situations when the gap is totally filled by the spectrum of the random operator; we can prescribe random environments that ensure localization in almost the wh...


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Fundraiser Banquet 2006
|Labor Center Director Kent Wong, Rev. James Lawson Jr., AFTRA President John Connolly, L.A. County Federation of Labor Executive Secretary-Treasurer María Elena Durazo, SEIU Local 434B President Tyrone Freeman, Senator Gilbert Cedillo, and Assemblymember Paul Koretz at the 2006 Labor Center Banquet.
On June 10, 2006, five hundred people attended the third annual fund-raiser banquet for the UCLA Labor Center at the Center at Cathedral Plaza in downtown Los Angeles. The fund-raiser was held at a crucial time, during the final deliberations on the California state budget, which impacted the future of the UCLA and UC Berkeley Labor Centers. More than $100,000 was raised.
This year's honorees were Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, L.A. County Federation of Labor Executive Secretary-Treasurer María Elena Durazo, AFTRA President John Connally, and SEIU Local 434B President Tyrone Freeman. Other speakers during the evening included Rev. James Lawson Jr., Senator Richard Alarcon, Senator Gilbert Cedillo, and Assemblymember Paul Koretz.
The spirited event also included a slide show highlighting major UCLA Labor Center projects during the past year. As in previous years, a special poster was commissioned for the evening and distributed to all of the participants. This year's poster depicted the May Day march for Immigrant Rights, the largest immigrant rights demonstration in history, attended by more than one million people.


text:
Bee Cave Games grabs $1.4 million in funding
Ex Zynga employees, Erik Bethke, Jeremy Strauser, and Nimai Malle, have raised $1.4 million for their new startup Bee Cave Games. The casino game company will use the funding for further development. The round was funded by both employees and Glu Mobile. [Source: AllThingsD]


text:
Thursday April 24, 2014
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Including updates on capital shortfalls, internal audit functions and guidelines on CRD III
Capital, capital, capital
Assessing the effectiveness of internal audit functions
EBA consults on technical amendments to CRD III
Capital, capital, capital
The capital shortfall at EU banks is 8% higher than originally thought, according to the latest assessment from the European Banking Authority (EBA) released on 8 December. In aggregate, European banks need to raise 114.7 billion euros as an exceptional and temporary capital buffer against sovereign debt exposures and to ensure Core Tier 1 capital ratio reaches 9% of risk weighted assets by the end of June 2012.
The EBA tests indicate that approximately one-third of banks sampled need stronger capital reserves to meet the June 2012 deadline. Banks in Italy and Spain will need to raise significantly more capital, while French banks have already built-up sufficient reserves to buffer against potential sovereign bond write-downs according to the EBA. German banks have a capital shortfall of 13.1 billion euros which is three times originally estimated in October, although is still small relative to the size of its banking system. In contrast, banks in the Ireland, Luxembourg, Sweden, UK and six other countries require no additional capital.
Some investors may be relieved that the overall recapitalisation figure isn't higher in light of growing concerns about the eurozone, but others may be surprised that the gap hasn't been reduced. In the last two months banks have taken a number of steps to bridge their capital shortfall, such as buying back their debt securities, hoarding profits, limiting bonuses and dividend payments, converting some debt to equity-like instruments and deleveraging. However, write-downs of sovereign debt have largely off-set those efforts.
In a press statement accompanying the publication of its capital assessment, the EBA stated that deleveraging could only be used in part to achieve a firm's capital targets and only in cases where assets had been transferred to a third party (and not just dumped), to ensure the flow of lending was kept constant in the real economy. While difficult to enforce, this intent is sound; wholesale deleveraging could trigger a vicious spiral with a reduction in lending decreasing economic activity, which would in turn, damage banks' balance sheets and result in a need for additional capital.
The deleveraging process has already begun in earnest. Banks in France, the UK, Ireland, Germany and Spain have already unveiled plans to slash a total of 775 billion euros of assets in the next year, according to data collected by Bloomberg. Specifically, the bank with the biggest single gap to close according to the EBA, Santander, has taken a number of steps to address its capital shortfall, including selling a number of its profitable businesses in Latin America.
Morgan Stanley analysts believe that this is just a start, and European banks will have to reduce their balance sheets by 1.5 trillion- 2.5 trillion euros over the course of the next 18 months to meet capital requirements. Many private equity firms and hedge fund managers are eying up opportunities for bargains in 2012 on the back of anticipated deleveraging. Others believe the correction will be more protracted, probably drawn-out over a ten year period similar to Japan's financial woes during the 1990s.
However, so far most assets have been sold at close to market value and it seems unlikely that banks (or governments) will let assets go at any price in an effort to raise capital. This stand-off raises the probability of public bail-outs in 2012 for a number of weaker eurozone banks.
The European Commission is planning for this eventuality and has recently updated and extended its state-aid rules and accompanying support framework for banks in the context of the financial crisis. As a result, the Commission's Banking Communication, Recapitalisation Communication, Restructuring Communication and Impaired Assets Communication will all remain in place during 2012, due to the increased financial tensions caused by the sovereign debt crisis. Moreover, in view of the changing regulatory and market landscape, the Commission anticipates that in the future capital injections by member states are more likely to take the form of shares bearing a variable remuneration, and has provided some clarification on the pricing rules for capital injections.
While this gives greater freedom for governments to support their banking sector next year (relative to other industries), supported entities will still be subjected to pretty stringent conditions. In March 2011, following negotiations between the Commission and the Irish government, state-supported Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Bank were required to sell-off 53 billion euros of assets by 2013 to comply with state-aid rules. In the UK, following the injection of public funds into its banking system in 2008-2009, Royal Bank of Scotland had to divest 251 billion pounds of assets from its balance sheet and engage in a significant restructuring programme. Similarly, Lloyds Banking Group is required to dispose over 600 branches to limit the distortions of competition brought followings its state-sponsored acquisition of Halifax Bank of Scotland in 2008.
Banks which are vulnerable will note these cases and push hard to raise capital in the year ahead, to avoid ending up in state-aid scenarios. A forced public bail-out would have serious ramifications for a bank's long-term strategy, remuneration policy and underlying profitability. Public sentiment has turned against government bail-outs in the past two years, and as a result politicians may be more inclined to let institutions fail rather than shoring them up with public money than they were a couple years ago.
The current patchwork framework on state-aid rules for the banking system will not remain in place in the longer-term. The Commission will keep the situation in the financial markets under review and will take steps towards more permanent rules for State aid used for rescue and restructuring of banks, as soon as market conditions permit. All this means EU banks would be well advised to address any capital shortfalls now.
Assessing the effectiveness of internal audit functions
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (the Committee) has issued revised supervisory guidance for assessing the effectiveness of internal audit functions at banks. The proposed guidance is intended to promote stronger internal audit functions in banks and incorporates lessons learnt from the 2008 financial crisis.
It is based on 20 principles, split into three sections:
supervisory expectations
the relationship between the supervisory authority and the internal audit function
supervisory assessment.
The Committee has outlined some high-level principles underpinning expectations of internal audit functions at banks. Independence, competence, integrity and sufficient experience are all necessary conditions for effective internal audits. An effective audit is where the internal audit team can 'objectively evaluate the quality and effectiveness of banks' internal controls, risk management systems and governance structures'.
For operational matters, the Committee recommends that each bank should have an
internal audit charter
which sets out the 'purpose, standing and authority' of the internal audit function. In particular, the scope of the internal audit needs to be sufficiently wide to ensure that all activities, including those outsourced, are captured. It should also outline the governance structures associated with the internal audit, clearly delineating the role and functions of the various actors involved, such as the board of directors, the audit committee and the head of the internal audit department.
The Committee also recommends that supervisors interact regularly with banks' internal auditors to discuss the risks highlighted by both parties, understand the mitigation measures taken by management to address perceived weaknesses, and monitor the effectiveness of these corrective actions. As such, banking supervisors must not only ensure that effective policies and practices are in place on the internal audit side but also that management are taking appropriate remedial actions.
The final principles relate to the supervisor's role in assessing the internal audit function. The Committee proposes that supervisors regularly assess the quality of the internal audit and be prepared to take informal or formal supervisory action to remedy any identified deficiencies.
The Committee's work on the principles represents welcome progress towards finding ways to rebuild trust in our financial institutions. Banks need to put in place mechanisms which neutralise risks in a transparent and robust fashion, to try to keep their investors satisfied with lower returns as banks profitability falls as the costs of implementing Basel III and other regulations hits them. Internal audits provide vital assurance to a bank's board of directors and senior management team, and bank supervisors, about the quality of a firm's internal control system. In doing so, the function helps reduce the risk of loss and/or reputational damage to the bank which, in turn, can lower funding costs.
EBA consults on technical amendments to CRD III
The European Banking Authority (EBA) has released two consultation documents in response to amendments made to the Capital Requirements Directive (CRD) III, which will come into force at the end of the year. Both consultations relate to various mathematical modelling approaches used by banks to measure and estimate the impact on capital of future losses in the trading book — with the view to assisting banks and regulators to manage and assess risk. The new guidelines would apply to institutions using the Internal Model Approach for purposes of calculating their capital requirements for market risk in the trading book.
The CRD III/Basel 2.5 amendments regarding the value-at-risk-based trading book framework cover amongst others an incremental risk capital charge (IRC), which includes default risk as well as migration risk for unsecuritised credit products and a stressed value-at-risk (VaR) requirement . The EBA's guidelines should not be viewed as a comprehensive set of rules but rather an additional guidance on compliance of IRC modelling approaches.
The first consultation relates to guidance on Stressed Value at Risk (VaR) modelling, and attempts to rectify the failings of the 'normal' VaR model which was found not to be a good measure of tail risk. CRD requires banks to measure historical data over a continuous 12-month period. The proposed guidelines elaborate on how to carry out the calibration of the Stressed VaR measure, including the number of stressed periods to be used and how to identify the appropriate historical period. The consultation also provides guidance on the frequency and monitoring of a stressed period, the methodology associated with Stressed VaR, how to document their justifications for their chosen approach and the requirements for 'Use test'. The objective of the additional stressed VaR requirement is to reduce the pro-cyclicality of the minimum capital requirements for market risk.
The second consultation provides guidance on modelling approaches for the incremental risk capital charge (IRC) to determine the level of capital required for market risk in the trading book. Among other things, the guidance addresses the positions that are subject to IRC modelling, the permanent partial use of IRC models and the use and sources of individual parameters and ratings in IRC modelling. With the implementation of the incremental risk charge to the value-at-risk modelling framework in the trading book a more robust financial system should be achieved.
These proposals are aimed at harmonising how risk is calculated by EU banks, and is expected to contribute to achieving a level playing field, and enhancing convergence of supervisory practices amongst the competent EU authorities. Neither of these models is a panacea, and firms should always explore supplementary techniques to buttress standard methods to get a more accurate reflection of potential losses to their trading book. For example, research from JP Morgan has shown that stressed VaR does not measure the maximum potential loss, and does not capture liquidity and systemic risks.
The consultation period on these guidelines closes on 15 January 2012. We expect national competent authorities in the EU to implement both sets of guidelines by incorporating them within their supervisory procedures within six months of publication of the final guidelines. Thereafter, the competent authorities will have to ensure that firms comply with the guidelines effectively.
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