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The hotel specializes in extended-stay itineraries and thus provides on-site laundry facilities and provides dry cleaning service . Housekeeping service is provided on a twice-weekly basis for guests staying seven nights or more . Guests staying more than four nights (but less than a week) receive the mid-week refresh only . One pet is accepted per guestroom . The general manager has the authority to allow additional pets per room, based on his or her own discretion . Fees and deposits apply .
All guestrooms have full kitchens with refrigerators, microwaves, stovetops, and dining and cooking utensils . Other room amenities include workspaces with computer dataports, one dollar per stay unlimited local phone calls, personalized voicemail, and irons and full-size ironing boards . Pet Policy- One pet per room is allowed . A $25 USD cleaning fee will be charged per night, not to exceed $150 USD . This charge will be applied at check-in . Extended Stay Hotels now offers complimentary high speed Internet .
|Check-in Policy
|Check-out Policy
|# Of Rooms
|# Of Floors
Residence Inn Birmingham Downtown @ Uab
Birmingham, Alabama Hotels & Resorts
The Residence Inn by Marriott Birmingham Downtown is conveniently located in the prestigious Five Points entertainment district and within walking distance ...
$119 Per Night
Springhill Suites Marriott Birmin
Birmingham, Alabama Hotels & Resorts
SpringHill Suites by Marriott Birmingham Colonnade hotel is located along beautiful Colonnade Parkway, just 14 miles from the Birmingham International ...
$95 Per Night
Comfort Inn Birmingham
Birmingham, Alabama Hotels & Resorts
This Comfort Inn is situated approximately 11 miles from Birmingham International Airport. ...
$80 Per Night
Comfort Inn Airport
Birmingham, Alabama Hotels & Resorts
This Comfort Inn is located approximately nine miles from the Alabama State Fairgrounds and three miles from Birmingham International Airport. ...
$80 Per Night
Courtyard By Marriott Birmingham Downtown At Uab
Birmingham, Alabama Hotels & Resorts
This Courtyard by Marriott is located on the campus of UAB in the heart of the medical district. ...
$129 Per Night
Hampton Inn Birmingham/trussville
Birmingham, Alabama Hotels & Resorts
Hampton Inn Birmingham-Trussville is NEWLY RENOVATED and located in the rapidly growing Trussville area of Birmingham with easy access to all areas via ...
$68 Per Night
Courtyard By Marriott South Colonnade
Birmingham, Alabama Hotels & Resorts
The Courtyard Birmingham Colonnade hotel is proud to share the newly renovated state-of-the-art lobby and stylish new guest rooms. ...
$84 Per Night
Hilton Garden Inn Birmingham/trussville
Birmingham, Alabama Hotels & Resorts
The Hilton Garden Inn Birmingham/Trussville Alabama is conveniently located around three major highways, I-59, I-459, and US Highway 11. The hotel is also ...
$117 Per Night
Marriott Birmingham Hotel
Birmingham, Alabama Hotels & Resorts
The Marriott Birmingham Hotel is located in the I-280 Corridor of Southeast Birmingham, eight miles from the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame and the Birmingham ...
$130 Per Night
Quality Inn Birmingham
Birmingham, Alabama Hotels & Resorts
The Days Inn Birmingham hotel takes pride in fast, friendly service and clean rooms. The hotel is one of the largest in Birmingham and provides many superior ...
$70 Per Night
Scenic Horseback Lessons
Huntsville, Alabama Horseback Riding
See the Beautiful Alabama Mountains from Horseback ! Come spend the day with us on horseback on a private ranch. Ride well mannered, gentle spirited, cow horses along peaceful trails. Beginners & Children Welcome!...
Starting at $30 Per Person
Full Tours To Cracow-incl. Auschwitz&salt Mine
Abbeville, Alabama Sight-Seeing Tours
FULL TOURS TO CRACOW-accommodation booking, airport transfers, local tours to Auschwitz & Salt Mine, Guided city tour including Wawel Castle with private guide, ceremonial dinner in a traditional restaurant+concert....
Bella Terra RV Resort
Foley, Alabama Campgrounds & RV Parks
Bella Terra is a luxury RV resort that is designed for Class A motor coaches at least 32' in length and no older then 15 years. Nightly, weekly & monthly rates are available. Open year-round. Bella Terra is family & pet-friendly....
Rates from $55 Per Night
Night Shift Charter Service
Gulf Shores, Alabama Fishing Trips
Night time flounder gigging and sunset cruises. See what is under the surface of the water as we ease along the back Bay shore line! Awesome trip for kids!...
Great Rates & Specials! $350 Per Trip
USS ALABAMA Battleship Memorial Park
Mobile, Alabama Museums
Relive America's military history when you visit USS ALABAMA Battleship Memorial Park. America's most unique military attraction....
Starting at $15 Per Person
Parnell Creek RV Park
Huntsville, Alabama Campgrounds & RV Parks
We have added a pool,club house,propane,mini golf,pull thrus,FREE WIFI. Our RV Park is located at mile marker 125 on Hwy 72 between Huntsville & ScottsboroAL. Check us out on the web. Give us a chance to show you some southern hospitality. Have fun....
$27 Per Night
University Station RV Resort
Auburn, Alabama Campgrounds & RV Parks
Two miles from Auburn University campus. Free shuttle service to and from AU football games. Full Hook-up for 450 lots located in quaint communities. Storage available, recreation trails, pets allowed, convenience store, bath & laundry, WiFi, & more...
Starting at $30 Per Night
Capt Mike's Deep Sea Fishing
Dauphin Island, Alabama Fishing Trips
Deep Sea Fishing or Inshore / Bay Fishing. Per Person prices or private charters. We leave from Dauphin Island Marina on beautiful Dauphin Island, AL. Nice a/c boats. Licensed, experienced and courteous crews....
Rates from $130 Per Person
Alabama Inshore Fishing Charters
Dauphin Island, Alabama Fishing Trips
Fishing trips on Mobile Bay Mississippi Sound and surrounding waters...
Rates from $450 Per Trip
Inshore Saltwater Fishing Charters
Dauphin Island, Alabama Fishing Trips
Inshore fishing charters from Dauphin Island Fort Morgan and Mobile Bay area of Coastal Alabama; we target inshore species Speckled Trout (Spotted Sea Trout) Redfish (Red Drum) and Triple Tail and other species; we offer 4 and 6 hour trips...
|Link Code


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HOME MLB Boston Red Sox Gear Boston Red Sox Blankets, Bed & Bath over $60 (5 items) Product ID: 893771
Main Content
Order today, receive no later than
Order today, receive no later than
Friday, September 19th
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$4.99 3-day shipping. Need it faster?
Yesterday something amazing happened – you were drafted to play for the Boston Red Sox! Now, you can round the bases at Fenway Park and play alongside your favorite players. You can smell the ballpark hot dogs sizzling and hear the roaring cheers from the fans as you knock one right out of the park. Just as you head for home plate, you hear an annoying beeping sound. What is it? It's called reality. It's time to wake up, you dreaming fanatic! Hit the snooze button and slide into home with this super comfy Boston Red Sox 5-piece bedding set. This team-spirited set features a comforter with an embroidered plush Red Sox logo applique and cool baseball stitching graphics. It also includes a matching team logo pillow sham and an MLB logo pillowcase with matching sheets, so you can make every night a grand slam. Work can wait another 15 minutes; close your eyes and hit another home run for Boston. World Series, here you come!
- (1) 20" x 26" Sham
- (1) 30" x 20" Pillowcase
- 100% Polyester fabric
- Imported
- Officially licensed Red Sox set
- Pillow sham color may vary from pictured, but will still be a team color
- Quality embroidery
- Team logo and colors
- Twin comforter measures 64" x 86"
- Twin fitted sheet fits mattress size 39" x 75" + 12" drop
- Twin flat sheet measures 66" x 96"
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Special event items are produced by manufacturers only after the outcome of a game or event. These are advanced sale items and will ship immediately after they are received in our warehouse.
Manufacturer direct items are shipped directly from the manufacturer. These items are not available for international or expedited shipping.
Customized items can be personalized with options such as your name, your favorite number, and/or designs. Some options may be limited by league rules.

subset: commoncrawl


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Subscribe to our newsletter and receive exclusive lingerie coupons & deals about bras, panties, corsets, underwear and other lingerie related items directly in to your mailbox.
" I had absolutely no problems at all with selection or delivery. It was very easy and fast from ordering to receiving "Nina


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In what might be the most awesome battle on the interweb, versions of the Super Mario Bros Theme are surfacing everywhere . The newest one is this finger snapping guy, who gets cool points for the ability to pop it off anytime, anywhere.
Here's the original for comparison:
h/t brobible.com


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Narrow your search
CNET's favorite speakers, including sound bars, Bluetooth speakers, and full surround sound systems.
CNET's Donald Bell looks at the value proposition of Apple's latest 16GB iPod Touch -- and doesn't like what he sees.
The latest iPod Touch is the best iPod ever, and as close to a phoneless iPhone 5 as you can get -- but its high price makes it a tough call versus cheaper tablets with larger screens.
The seventh-generation iPod Nano is an incredibly compact portable media player with gym-friendly features, but it's overshadowed by the superior value of Apple's iPod Shuffle and fourth-generation iPod Touch.
Scan your iPhone at nearly any credit card reader and pay for what you want: magic, or just weird? We tried LoopPay around town, and it really worked.
Adobe ports its iPad app to the iPhone. It's cramped, as you might imagine, but functional.
Pricing not available
The iPod Classic refines the formula that put the iPod on the map. None can match its combination of storage capacity, battery life, and intuitive user interface.
If your iPhone 5/5S has become your go-to video camera, the iOgrapher case helps make your results so much better.
The Apple iPod Shuffle is an adorable way to take your favorite songs on the go, but sometimes it's too small for its own good.
The fourth-gen iPod Touch is Apple's second-best portable media player, with a price that will help you forget about No. 1.
If you just want an easy way to create a slideshow with neat zooming effects, PhotoMotion is a great choice, but music limitations and a lack of extras leave you wanting more.
Pricing not available


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I've played tennis since I was old enough to hold a racquet. We had great rec. dept. tennis classes when I
was kid that prepared me well to play in high school and collegiately. It's a great sport – one that can be played
well into an individual's twilight years, even by oneself against the ol'
garage door or school wall. Does anyone
still play against the school wall? Just
wondering if that's even allowed anymore.
Anyway, my love for tennis, both playing and watching, created in me a
fascination with all sports racquet related.
Badminton was one of my favorite units in gym class. And when the summer Olympics roll around every four years, I am one of those who will seek out the badminton coverage. It's freakin' insane what those dudes can do – the reaction time alone is unfathomable. A friend of mine who shares in my fascination, sent me this video over the weekend. Check it out:
That's just incredible. Of course, we were never able to get the shuttlecock to dance off the strings in that manner in high school gym class. There's good reason. Mary Carillo explains in one of the best on-air pieces of sports filibustering ever:


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S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky Delayed Again, Recalled from North American RetailersThe North American release of GSC Game World's S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky (PC) has been delayed "a few days" past the promised September 5 date, a representative from publisher Deep Silver confirmed with Shacknews today.
The slip stems from a manufacturing issue specific to the North American edition, with Deep Silver forced to recall all copies that have already shipped to stores. The issue is apparently a printing error that saw the game distributed without CD keys, according to Bluesnews.
This delay will "probably" push back the shooter prequel's impending release on Valve's digital distribution platform Steam, though direct confirmation has yet to arrive.
The game's European release on September 5 is not affected.
A new release date for North America is not yet available, though several online retailers have the title tentatively slated for September 15.
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Replacement seat fabric, including harness and padded buckle system, for your vibe double kit.
Not currently available in this region.
This part does not include the double kit frame and cushy ride liner . The vibe double kit comes complete .
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By Henning Fog, Hollywood Staff
Is Revolution a) a show full of potential still trying to find its footing or b) a boring show that will disappointingly never live up to its cool premise? More than half a season in now, it's still sort of hard to tell. Allusions to a world outside the Monroe Republic made at PaleyFest and in the first new 2013 episode suggested a show that was about to expand in scope, really explore the many ways people live without power. But if our trip to Atlanta last night is any indication? Minus a few visual keys and some stray lines of dialogue - we're still getting more of the same. And that's a real bummer for a show with this much talent involved.
Okay, okay - ''The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia'' wasn't bad, per se. There was sword fighting, as you might expect, and Elizabeth Mitchell got to do some decent acting as she wrestled with thoughts of her son's death. But in failing once again to really explore the effects of the Blackout and instead zeroing in on reunions with characters we probably/definitely won't see again, Revolution demonstrated that it's maybe got less on its mind than producers have time and again suggested.
Miles and Charlie (and Nora, but come on) made their way however many miles, in the span of however long, to ATLANTA - home of steam engines, and a rumored trading partner to Europe. Some people in crowd scenes were even wearing suits. Fancy! But the gang wasn't there to sip mint juleps - they traveled as far as they did to disarm a rumored nuclear bomb, one of Monroe's plays to win the feuding (former) United States with advanced weaponry. And it would have been so easy, too, if it weren't for the return of someone from Miles' past.
Oh shoot, I realize I wrote that like he's someone we'd seen before and were invested in. LOL no way! In scattered flashbacks we met Alec, one of Miles' top guys in the Monroe Militia. He was a keen soldier who clearly thought the world of Miles, his mentor. But then - betrayal. After some bungled military operation left the Texas faction POed, Miles basically sold him out. ''This is about the job,'' said Miles. ''I hate you, dad!'' cried Alec, traded off to Texas. So when they met x number of years later in Atlanta, with the latter on nuclear bomb duty - well, it didn't go great. Or let me clarify that to say it didn't go great for Alec, who Miles eventually (regrettably) put down. Miles seemed upset, perhaps, to have lost this Militia member who was once like a son to him. But on the other hand, nuclear annihilation averted? And Atlanta's ''President,'' who clearly had some sort of romantic past with Miles, took the thwarted attack as a sign to prepare her territory for war with Monroe. With no other Han Solo-ish characters in sight, she asked Miles if he'd be like to be general.
At some unspecified location far, far away Rachel and Aaron found an old doctor friend of Rachel's, Jane - someone who could theoretically get power up and running again at the mysterious Tower. One problem: the same Blackout that sent ''nannites'' screaming into the atmosphere also somehow controls the terminal cancer afflicting Jane's girlfriend. Turn on the power and turn off this human being, permanently. Luckily that human being turned out to be the most altruistic person in the world. After overhearing Rachel and Jane's argument about heading for the Tower, girlfriend told Jane she'd kill herself if the doctor didn't help Rachel find and understand the Tower. So despite some teeth-gnashing and name-calling, everything worked out.
I don't mean to rag on this show. It's clearly trying, and hey - any one of the last four episodes was better than all ten of the fall's entries, minus the pilot. But when you consider how potentially rich a story tapestry Revolution could unfold and explore, the number of different perspectives and experiences they could include in any given 42 minutes you just want to take these characters by the lapels and shake them until something new and unexpected happens. You can be so much better!
Follow Henning on Twitter @HenningFog
MORE:'Revolution' Star Tracy Spiradakos Reveals an Uphill Battle for the Rebels 'Revolution' Recap: Neville Gets Punched a Whole Lot'Revolution' Recap: We (Finally) Learn Something About the Blackout
From Our Partners50 Worst Celeb Mugshot Fails (vh1)33 Child Stars: Where Are They Now? (Celebuzz)


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A lot of people nowadays are becoming crafty and smart when it comes to reusing or using something other than the purpose that it was meant for. Most of them uses the internal contents of Dell PowerEdge recovery and use it for something else. Many people say instead of buying expensive anti-virus for your computer, you can simply back up your files in this Dell PowerEdge recovery so it can be protected against any other kinds of file corruption no matter what the circumstances are. Other times they try to hack the system and make Dell's recovery system usable for other brands of computers. That is how smart and clever people are nowadays. The reason why they do this is because they want to save more on protecting their computers. Instead of buying generic brands, they buy these branded recovery systems and hack it and they use it for their device. In this way, they can be sure that they will be protected and their files as well.
A lot of people are convinced that other than using this system for retrieving your files, you can also use this as a safe lock for your very important files or the files you want to keep safe and maintain for a long time.
What Makes RAID 5 Recovery Better Than Other Recovery Systems?
Like other recovery systems, RAID 5 recovery is very useful when it comes to retrieving files. What makes it more special than the others, though? Aside from it is very easy to use, they have evolved from RAID one to RAID five. With the number added in the end, you can see the numbers of how many times they have tried to improve it. Who knows? There might be more improvements to come in the near future that will be very helpful to all users and it will be easier for people to use it no matter what their age is. Recovery systems are designed to help users retrieve whatever they might have lost or accidentally deleted. What are the things that make it very special?
One of the reasons why it is very special is because it has an automatic backup system that does not need you to manually choose if you want to start the back up now or some other time. It automatically does that every single time that is on. Without your consent, ruse but true, it saves the current files while your computer is turned on. This is what makes RAID 5 recovery a better system than the others.
Java, one of the most exciting technical developments of recent years, has been credited with everything from saving the Internet to reviving the concept of client-server computing. But does it really mean much to the UNIX world? Is it just another programming language (as Microsoft claims), or is there more to the story? In this article we'll examine the UNIX industry's view of Java.
In a nutshell, Java's primary promise is to "write once, run anywhere." The goal is to be truly system-independent (of both hardware and operating systems). Whether this is happening today is another matter. Java has made the World Wide Web more than just a medium for the delivery of static multimedia documents. The Web would have been popular anyway, but with Java, it excites the imagination. Finally, since Java initially was created to power set-top boxes, it has a design center that enables consistent programming from small non-PC computers to large enterprise servers.
Why Microsoft Is Scared
If these features were all that Java offered, it would not be the threat to Microsoft (and the potential friend to UNIX) that it is. To understand Microsoft's reaction, we first must look at its basic business strategy.
Microsoft's strategy has two major parts: leverage strong positions in one market (that has the potential to branch into new areas), and tie products together so users prefer to buy them both. For example, there is a strong synergy between Microsoft's dominant position in desktop operating systems and its client-side productivity applications. In fact, these applications only became dominant when Microsoft took advantage of Windows' popularity while Microsoft's competitors, Lotus and WordPerfect, did not have a similar application-OS relationship.
The synergy between Microsoft's client-side operating system and applications and its server-side operating system (Windows NT) has contributed to NT's popularity. And there is the fit between the server OS and Microsoft's BackOffice (database, messaging, systems management) tools. Underlying everything are the APIs that hold it all together, making it difficult to build portable applications that are not tied to the operating system. And once a volume market (a consistent hardware base, an execution environment, or a dominant, extensible application package) emerges, there is an incentive for customers to buy the OS and for other companies to develop more products for it. This strategy has made Microsoft one of the most powerful companies on the planet.
Java Breaks This Strategy
Java is both a development and an application-execution environment. It also is portable, standardized, flexible, and already has a huge and growing installed base.
Portability and standardization (despite Microsoft's efforts) result from both the design and history of the language, and Sun's de facto control of it. It also stems from Sun's desire to collaborate with companies having a genuine interest in furthering Java's potential.
The installed base is the result of early integration with an underlying environment, Netscape (Mountain View, CA) Navigator, that dominated the new, rapidly growing Internet market. This brilliant maneuver was so successful that all other browsers had to follow or be left behind. It means that as the Internet expands, so does Java. This potentially undermines Windows' volume advantage.
Java stretches from very small computers to very large ones. Java in some form is programmed into smart cards, telephones, single-purpose information appliances, PCs, and a variety of servers. In fact, the Internet can be used to build globally distributed systems.
The Heterogeneous World
We all know that the computing world is not homogeneous, but the increasing complexity of information environments leads many to wish it were. Java's story emphasizes computing heterogeneity. Even further, it reminds us that the current PC is not the end of our computing devices' evolution, that we are entering a period of increasing diversity.
One good example of dealing with diversity is how IBM is solving the problem. For years it has struggled with its incompatible computing families and the difficulty to program for all of them. Now, Java is on IBM systems, including OS390, AS1400, AIX, OS/2, and network computers. While it is not the right environment for all applications, one can program once and run on all these disparate IBM systems.
It's The Applications, Stupid!
People buy computers to get applications, and Java has several implications that favor UNIX. Java's current uses emphasize servers, which are central to networked computing. And UNIX excels in servers, especially scalable ones.
Scalability is particularly important in the future phases of the Internet and electronic-commerce era. Java server-side applications will be popular because they are portable and can be made to scale as needed. UNIX will be the preferred server for Java servlets because it embraces Java and Java's preferred distributed-component Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) and it has proven robustness.
On the client side, Java applications will exist in UNIX, but one major effect will be the existence of quality office-productivity applications. Word processing, for example, is not a typical use of powerful UNIX workstations, but is needed occasionally. If the rest of an enterprise is using a standardized office suite but one is not available for UNIX, this becomes yet another reason to switch. The coming Java-based office suites will eliminate this particular problem.
It is believed that Java creates robust software better than C/C++. Although an arguable point, it does draw attention to the issue of robustness, a UNIX strength.
Solving UNIX Problems
Among the problems plaguing UNIX are incompatibilities among UNIX variants, lack of volume markets for applications, an image of being too complex (especially in user interface and system management), and cost.
Java can't fundamentally solve the incompatibility problem but does hide it effectively. For the applications that fit Java, subtle system differences are irrelevant, user interfaces are identical, and if the Java Virtual Machines are built correctly, the applications behave the same.
Volume markets are more attractive for software developers, and this relationship is self-reinforcing. This problem is solved by Java's portability so applications can run on both clients (Windows, UNIX, and others) and servers. Thus, volume-based arguments against UNIX also become irrelevant.
In the application-development process, Java is the same no matter where the application runs. The development environments can be the same (both professional object-oriented environments and 4GL-like visual-component assembly environments). User-interface design is, however, a style choice.
The cost issue is more complex. Hardware costs center around design goals, volume, and a host of other considerations. UNIX vendors have moved to more commodity peripherals and, for like capability, have hardware that costs as little or even less than the PC vendors'. But Java doesn't really affect these hardware trends other than in the newest small portable devices.
Software costs are determined primarily by history and volume. UNIX software vendors are moving to compete with PC prices (witness the database vendors' "same price on UNIX and NT" movement). Java's run-anywhere capability means prices of Java software must be based on some criteria other than OS. The more Java software there is in the world, the less this can be used as an argument against UNIX.
If Java really flowers, and it looks like it will, UNIX will continue to compete against alternatives on its merits of performance, stability, and scalability. And we know that is a game at which UNIX excels. If you have any reason to advocate Java, do so–it will help foster a world where fair competition is the norm. This can only open opportunities everywhere, including in UNIX.
For a long time, Unix looked to be the most fertile ground for seeding Hydro-Agri North America's extensive ERP applications. Installed at the agricultural chemical and fertilizer distributor were two high-powered Hewlett-Packard Co. Unix servers running SAP AG's R/3, with a third off-site for disaster recovery purposes. Systems analyst Jim Wiedrich, who ran the operation, was a self-described Unix fan, dubbing the "backslash" mark in Windows/DOS "backwards." His preference? Leave Windows to the desktops and other non-mission-critical applications.
Wiedrich began to consider plowing new fields, however. With information systems dollars scarce and a low crop yield of Unix programmers, Hydro-Agri last year decided to root its future enterprise resource planning applications in Windows NT. The Tampa Bay, Fla., company pulled out its Unix servers, save for the database server, and replanted six Compaq Computer Corp. ProLiant servers with SAP R/3 applications on NT.
Why the shift? As Wiedrich admits, conventional wisdom would dictate choosing the more scalable Unix platform, given that Hydro-Agri is on a rapid expansion path. The $900 million North American subsidiary of Norsk Hydro, of Oslo, Norway, is farming new terrain in chemical and fertilizer manufacturing as well as in distribution. But it was that very growth that precipitated the move to Windows NT. "As we grew, we needed to upgrade the performance of our systems," Wiedrich explains. "With the HP systems, we had to have an HP guy come out and upgrade them after-hours. With the Compaq [Windows NT] platform … we can go in and add components without bringing the system down. And we can do it ourselves."
Hydro-Agri's shift to Windows NT is emblematic of what's happening with ERP in general. At ERP leader SAP, more than half of all new licenses are for NT platforms. Even last year, with NT versions of R/3 modules only first available, 22 percent of SAP's new customers chose that platform. The trend is expected to continue this year–particularly among small and mid-size organizations (from $200 million to $2.5 billion in revenues annually) implementing ERP, according to Scott Lundstrom, director of research and enabling technologies at Advanced Manufacturing Research, a Boston-based consulting group.
One major reason is Microsoft Corp.'s dead aim at the enterprise market. "Microsoft is a much more focused application platform than Unix," Lundstrom says. Despite many attempts to unify the "Heinz 57 varieties" of Unix flavors, each provider adds its own mix. And "backwards" slash or not, Microsoft has given application vendors a focused product, he says.
There are other reasons users are migrating from Unix into NT territory, Lundstrom says. "Windows NT is simply lower-cost than Unix solutions," he says. A PC server capable of running an ERP application typically starts at around $10,000–about half the cost of a Unix server. Add to that some aggressive pricing by Microsoft Corp. on the operating system side, and the Unix system may be out of reach for most small to medium-size businesses, Lundstrom says.
But it's not a perfect growing season for Windows NT. Performance and scalability issues need to be addressed, and some changes to the NT file structure are required before the fruits of the platform can be fully realized with ERP. Also, the fact that Unix is a mature operating system with a large contingent of ERP add-on software gives it an advantage.
For Hydro-Agri, Unix definitely had a leg up two years ago when the company sent out an RFP to 25 ERP vendors. A user panel from the company chose SAP, however, partly because Hydro-Agri liked its aggressive plans for NT, along with the software's data accessibility and configuration flexibility. Hydro-Agri implemented Phase 1 of its ERP deployment in eight months, running initially on the HP 9000 Unix platform with an Oracle Corp. database. The company estimates that the installation of back-office functions, such as accounting, finance and cash management, has saved the company more than $1 million by better managing and controlling inventory flow and costs.
In Phase 2 of the installation, Hydro-Agri added profitability analysis and reporting applications to the system, giving managers real-time cost and revenue information online. Then, last year, the company began plans to migrate its SAP applications to NT from Unix, leaving the Oracle database on a single remaining Unix server. "It worked better than expected. On Friday, we were running on the Unix boxes, and on Monday morning, we had the applications running on Windows," Wiedrich says. By the end of this year, the Oracle database will be transplanted as well, moving onto a new Compaq ProLiant 7000 server running under NT.
Widespread migration
It's not just users that are finding NT to be fertile ERP ground. The operating system has become the testbed platform of choice for leading ERP vendors SAP and Baan Co. "You'll see all of our newest versions of our applications show up first on NT," says Allen Brault, director of NT business development at SAP's Waltham, Mass., office.
While SAP has led the way among ERP vendors pushing the NT platform, other vendors are catching up. Baan's NT products have only been available for eight months and they already comprise more than 10 percent of new shipments, says Anil Gupta, vice president of industry marketing at the Menlo Park, Calif., company.
The ERP vendors are finding that moving to NT opens up new markets among smaller, non-Fortune 500 companies. "Our growth market is now from the sub-$200 million- up to the $2.5 billion-size company," says Steve Rietzke, head of SAP's Microsoft partnership, based in Bellevue, Wash. "That's where NT is making the most impact."
Driving ERP's success in that market is price. "Windows NT hardware and software are cheaper than the Unix versions," Lundstrom says. That lower price comes from both prices for the software licenses and the cost of the hardware platform, he adds.
And even if Unix vendors lower hardware prices, as Sun Microsystems Inc. has done at times to counter Intel Corp. servers, PC servers still have an advantage, notes Hydro-Agri's Wiedrich. "When I'm finished with a Unix server, it doesn't go anywhere else for use. With a Compaq server, I can use it as a Notes server or, if worst comes to worst, I can cannibalize the parts for other servers and even desktops," he explains.
That lower price also attracts customers who couldn't afford ERP software on a Unix platform. That was the case at $47 million Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc., in Waterbury, Vt. "We wanted a solid ERP system, but it would have been nearly impossible to justify if we had chosen a Unix system," notes Jim Prevo, CIO at the coffee retailer and wholesaler. Green Mountain opted for a three-tier client/server system after attempting to brew its own ERP system. Already a Compaq shop, the company decided the high-end servers would be more than adequate to meet its ERP needs. In early 1997, Green Mountain purchased 17 modules from PeopleSoft Inc., and by early June, seven were percolating: general ledger, accounts payable, purchasing, production management, bill of materials and routing, cost management, and inventory management.
Scaling new heights
The momentum behind NT doesn't mean the combination of Unix and ERP is going away, however. "Among our large customers with large deployments, Unix remains their primary platform," SAP's Brault admits. NT is simply not ready for those large deployments, explains Lundstrom, because it lacks the fault tolerance and redundancy of Unix systems. Former Unix devotee Wiedrich agrees. "We run an 8 a.m.-to-8 p.m. shop. If we were 7-by-24, I don't know if we could have chosen Windows NT at the time we did," he says.
Others acknowledge that NT's areas of vulnerability include its scalability. That may be remedied soon in NT 5.0 when Microsoft, of Redmond, Wash., includes an LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) directory structure. Without the LDAP directory, converting files from the database to the NT front end is sluggish.
NT 5.0 will also include a single-sign-on feature that will allow users to log in to NT and get rights to SAP R/3 at the same time, says Edmund Yee, manager of network operations at Chevron Canada, a user of SAP on NT. Chevron Canada is beta testing NT 5.0. "Currently, you have to log on twice, so the single sign-on will make things a bit easier for the users," Yee says.
Adding to NT's limitations is its close ties to Microsoft's own SQL Server database, which doesn't scale as well as others, according to AMR's Lundstrom. Coming soon, however, is a new release of SQL Server with improved scalability.
But perhaps one of the biggest hurdles to running ERP applications on NT is the relatively limited crop of add-on tools–for example, performance enhancement and application management software–that have been ported to the platform. "There are a number of those types of tools that simply aren't available to Windows NT users," Lundstrom says. Prevo at Green Mountain agrees, although he notes that many of those tools may not be of much use to a company of his size. "Even if we had those tools, it would have taken way too long to learn how to use them. That's why we used an integrator and some PeopleSoft contractors–people with experience there–for our project," he says.
However, notes Baan's Gupta, many of those tools are being built into NT because it is application-oriented, which he sees as a plus for the operating system. "Backup and file copying are fully integrated into NT," he says. "With a mainframe environment, you'd have to go buy a Tivoli [Systems Inc.] product or a [Computer Associates International Inc.] Unicenter product to do that."
Further down the line, there are other technology improvements under way on the hardware side to strengthen NT's roots in ERP. Compaq, in Houston, has made ERP a priority on its systems and has established several SAP Competency centers to provide a testing environment for companies interested in SAP on an Intel platform. (See story, left.) Compaq is also bundling Baan software along with Microsoft's BackOffice on its servers. And recently, Intel has announced that it will begin working with SAP to ensure that the Intel platform is well-suited for ERP applications.
A close fit with the hardware will be key when the Intel platform moves to 64-bit microprocessing next year with Merced, making it roughly equivalent to Unix microprocessors. Realistically, though, it may be another year or so before NT servers are robust enough to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with large, entrenched Unix servers.
For one thing, apart from a few vendors, such as Sequent Computer Systems Inc., NCR Corp. and HP, large eight-way servers are not generally available on the Intel platform running NT. That will change with Merced, but it won't happen overnight, analysts say. And even if it does, it would take some time and a compelling reason to dislodge bulletproof Unix installations. "You'd have to have a pretty compelling case to toss a system that's working, just to replace it with new technology," AMR's Lundstrom says.
And Unix vendors themselves aren't standing still. "As Windows NT is moving more towards 7-by-24 operations, Unix systems are moving to five 9′s [99.999 percent uptime] in reliability. So the bar is moving in both areas," says James McDonnell, group marketing manager for personal information products at HP, in Palo Alto, Calif.
Dual approach
Vendors' strong backing of NT has given some large companies the confidence to move at least some of their ERP applications to the platform. For example, Chevron Corp., in the United States, has standardized on SAP running on Unix, but the company's smaller Canadian branch chose NT, says Yee, manager of network operations for the company, based in Vancouver, British Columbia. While the U.S. operation has more than 7,000 users, the group in Canada counts only about 180 active users. Because SAP has provided ways to migrate between the two platforms, the groups are able to share information. "We grab information from their servers when we need it," Yee says.
R/3 can be configured to have the database and application running on Unix, while the presentation appears on Windows. In Chevron's case, the Canadian database is run on NT, while the U.S. database runs on Unix. While the two systems don't interact on a constant basis, Yee says there is no problem in converting the Unix database information into NT.
And while Unix has been appropriately advertised as a more stable platform than NT, Hydro-Agri's Wiedrich has found a hidden advantage to moving to the more desktop-oriented platform. "When the Unix server went down, we had to either call me in or call someone from HP in to fix it. With the Compaq servers, about half the time, the desktop guys can make any adjustments. It's nice not having your beeper go off every weekend," he says. Even if that backslash does look "backwards" to him.
Who says last rites need to be administered to Unix? The Dealer Services Group of Automatic Data Processing Inc. is among the many faithful keeping the operating system alive and well. Last month, the $750 million technology division of ADP signed a $100 million deal with Digital Equipment Corp., committing to Digital's 64-bit AlphaServer Unix system to drive enterprise applications across its 18,000 car and truck dealerships.
DSG is part of a much larger flock of followers that believe in the virtues of Unix for mission-critical and enterprise applications. Officials at companies across all industries who run some flavor of the operating system say its scalability, reliability and management capabilities still make it the most logical environment to host large applications, including SAP AG's R/3 and Oracle Corp.'s Financials, along with data warehouses and all the back-office operations that make their organizations run.
While a Windows NT setup can cost significantly less, these Unix devotees maintain that Microsoft Corp. still has significant work to do before NT can compete with the traditional strengths of Unix. But these believers are by no means blind followers. They acknowledge that in some cases, platform preference will be dictated by the availability of appropriate third-party applications. Therefore, many are keeping a watchful eye on Microsoft's progress to decide if–and when–the time is ripe to convert.
"In the enterprise area, we feel Unix today is the right place to be … and [that it] offers the best performance and reliability, although we're carefully watching NT," says Miles Lewitt, vice president of DSG's Global Product Development, in Portland, Ore. "We intend to be pragmatists. It's not a religious thing for us."
The principal issue for Unix remains unchanged: If the operating system is to maintain its position in the market, vendors need to accelerate their progress in developing standard extensions as well as pare down the number of versions available. "ISVs are having to port to 20 different Unix systems, and that makes life very difficult," says David Floyer, an analyst at International Data Corp., in Framingham, Mass. "The … Unixes have to consolidate … and that's happening." Floyer says there's still work to be done to enhance Unix standards for clustering (an architecture that provides continuous, uninterrupted service), high availability (24-by-7) and administration.
Clearly, there is a market for NT, primarily in the desktop and workgroup arenas, analysts say. IDC forecasts NT spending to increase from $6.9 billion to $27 billion between 1997 and 2000. By contrast, sales of Unix systems will experience slower growth, from $24.7 billion to $39.5 billion in total worldwide sales in the same period for hardware spending.
Seamless Web integration
Internet Shopping Network Inc. counts itself among the disciples of Unix. Although the online computer superstore evaluated both NT and Sun Microsystems Inc. Unix systems in 1994, it chose the latter's Sun SPARC and Solaris UltraSPARC servers as the platform to host its first Web site (www.isn.com). While NT admittedly didn't have a strong presence in 1994, it did last year. It was then, once again, that ISN opted for Sun over NT to roll out its second site (www.firstauction.com), this time using 64-bit Solaris UltraSPARC servers.
With page views for both sites running slightly over 1 million per day and daily order transactions for both just under 1,000 per day, ISN needed a platform that could accommodate its rapid growth. "Unix has been great for us, and we've stuck with it for three reasons: scalability, manageability and flexibility," says Brett Colbert, director of quality assurance and IS for ISN, in Sunnyvale, Calif.
Unix also excels from a systems administration perspective, says Colbert, who cites the availability of tools compared with what's out there for NT. For example, if an IS administrator wants to pinpoint a directory on a loaded hard drive to free up space, it requires only a simple command in Unix, Colbert explains. On NT, however, the administrator must go into the NT Explorer utility to view the system's entire configuration as the first route for figuring out which directories are most full.
Similarly, says Colbert, the operating systems offer striking differences in their approaches to remote access. The Telnet protocol built into Unix allows an administrator to easily tap into clients via remote dial-up, while NT requires a third-party program such as Symantec Corp.'s pcAnywhere or Compaq Computer Corp.'s Carbon Copy to control the system remotely, he says. "That's important if you get paged at 3 a.m. and you want to just log in, take care of the problem and go back to sleep," says Colbert. "It's much more complicated with NT."
Scaling new heights
The ability of Unix to scale reliably as business needs grow is also unmatched by NT, users say. For running SAP R/3 alone, Chevron Corp. is using about 150 HP-UX servers from Hewlett-Packard Co. Granted, Chevron is more of an ardent Unix believer than most. It has been running other large applications on Unix for several years, specifically for engineering and processing geologic data, says Bob Washa, technical manager for SAP R/3 implementation at Chevron, in San Ramon, Calif.
"We did not consider NT a viable option at that time. … HP [Unix] met all of Chevron's requirements, and it's continued to get stronger each year in functionality, scalability and performance," he says. "We feel today it's the only viable choice" for handling Chevron's needs, he adds. At Chevron, that's no small task. The company's SAP installation has 7,000 users connected to three HP 9000 servers with one 350GB database, Washa says. In that configuration, R/3 produces an average of 12 million online transactions per month, covering all aspects of corporate finance.
For now, Skyway Freight Systems Inc. also views Unix as the platform of choice to run its mission-critical business applications, including Oracle Financials. The $160 million logistics and supply chain management company does, however, deploy a number of NT servers to operate desktop applications, according to Tom Duck, vice president of IS at Skyway, in Watsonville, Calif. "Today we wouldn't be able to run our systems on NT–it's not big enough," says Duck. "We have applications that need to have high-end, fast servers," and Unix systems can handle that need, he adds.
Skyway's Unix spread includes HP 9000 systems used for distributed processing, which can be expanded from a single machine with less than 1GB of memory to systems containing six processors and 4GB of memory, Duck explains. "We can move our processes from one [Unix] server to another fairly easily and upgrade boxes easily," says Duck, who says Skyway is committed to Unix for the foreseeable future.
"Five years from now we may have a different opinion, but I don't think things will change radically," Duck says. The mix of desktop and PC application servers deployed on NT 4.0, along with database servers and large-scale application servers standardized on HP-UX, "seems to be a good combination," he adds.
Skyway maintains an electronic data interchange server that processes 5,000 files a day and Concerto, its desktop-based supply chain management suite of applications, processes around 4,000 new shipments every day on HP-UX. "There has not been a circumstance where we could not upgrade to cover the growth," says Duck. "As the business grows, we add CPUs. … We cluster Unix boxes together so if there is a hardware failure, the other box in a cluster can pick up processes and run with it so you don't have an interruption." Skyway will add several more HP-UX servers this year, primarily for expanding Concerto's functionality, he says.
With the expected roll-out of the 64-bit Intel Merced Unix architecture late next year, loyal followers say they're covered for any kind of growth. Nokia Mobile Phones, which has used primarily HP servers for the last 15 years, is one company that is very interested in Merced. "That will be a consideration in sticking with Unix," says Bob Schultz, an IT manager at Nokia, in San Diego. Nokia is running about 200 Unix servers (including some Solaris) for research and development, mechanical design, and engineering applications. The company also has about a half-dozen NT servers in play. But, says Schultz, "a lot of high-end tools are not available on NT," specifically office automation applications.
"While some other operating systems are spending their time fixing bugs and problems, Unix has been working well and has been improved upon for over 25 years," observes Mike Dotson, program manager for professional development programs at Florida Institute of Technology, in Orlando, which is running SCO Unix on Intel processors. Longevity has given Unix vendors "the luxury of spending their time making improvements," Dotson says. "The Unix [community] will be the first to come out with the 64-bit operating system," and that will allow for even greater scalability, speed and functionality, he says.
In many cases, companies are dependent on application availability to dictate their choice of operating system platform. Take SSM Health Care, in St. Louis, which owns and manages 24 entities, including 19 acute-care hospitals. SSM has approximately 40 HP-UX and Sun SPARC servers running its back-end applications for all clinical day-to-day patient care functions, including lab, radiology, admissions, discharge, census information and patient accounting. The company also uses some NT and Novell Inc. NetWare servers.
If given the choice, SSM officials say they'd probably stick with Unix. However, that will not be an option, since the health care provider is committed to rolling out Pathways Care Manager, software from HBO & Co., of Atlanta, which will only be available on NT 4.0. PCM allows SSM's member hospitals to manage multiple contracts with different health care providers.
"It is being rolled out on NT simply because it was only available on NT," says Jack Adams, director of operations for SSM. "I think we'd standardize on Unix if we had a choice, but unfortunately we don't." PCM will, however, interface to the HBOC Unix system, Adams adds.
Striving for diversity
With many ISVs strengthening their commitment to NT, some Unix shops are hedging their bets and picking vendors that embrace both disciplines. Magnet Interactive Communications has chosen Silicon Graphics Inc.'s Origin system as the primary platform for its Web site, application development and hosting environment. However, the multimedia company also maintains a heterogeneous operations center that includes Unix systems from Sun, along with PC-based Unix and NT servers. Like others, Magnet's IT officials maintain that NT is limited in the amount of processors it can support and in bus speeds. But they have "some doubts as to our vendors' commitment to the Unix way of things," admits David Brookshire, director of IT at Magnet, in Washington.
"SGI is making a major play into the NT market later this year," Brookshire says. With the price of high-end graphics PCs coming down, "SGI is having to focus on NT-based systems to compete with the likes of Intergraph. … We're a little insecure along these avenues for obvious reasons, but that is why we remain a diverse environment."
Microsoft is "doing a great job of convincing software vendors to port to NT–sometimes exclusively," agrees Mike Prince, CIO of Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Inc., in Burlington, N.J. "So I think more and more, you'll find an increase in the use of NT in the application server space."
Before that can happen, though, NT will have to be weighed in the balance alongside Unix and prove its equal in all features–not just continue to excel in price/performance. And that may be a tough challenge, given the strategy of many Unix loyalists that "fewer is better."
For example, Chevron's Washa maintains it is ultimately less expensive to run fewer big Unix servers that can be integrated rather than lots of small, isolated NT machines. "Fewer is better in our book–they're easier to manage and there's a lower total cost of ownership associated with that [approach] in software maintenance and repairs," he says.
Burlington Coat Factory's Prince agrees. "Spreading enterprise processing to lots of little systems makes an administrative nightmare. You wind up with cross-dependencies in boxes," he says. For example, one Unix box that provides file server capabilities might depend on another server for other functions, and they get to be interdependent. "Then it becomes hard to unravel the two when there is a problem," Prince explains.
With an industry shift back to centralized computing, Microsoft faces the issue of being unable to build an NT system that's big enough, says Prince. To compensate, you get into "racks of NT [servers], and administration of those racks is undesirable," he explains. "We're going back to a more centralized model."
ISN's Colbert also buys into the fewer-is-better model, noting that when ISN's load grew significantly on the first auction site, "the beauty of the [Sun] box was we could pop in" six additional processors to double capacity.
Given NT's limitations, Unix-based systems will remain the primary high-end server of choice for Magnet Interactive for the next few years, "but we're not wearing blinders," Brookfield says. With responsibility for managing more than 8,000 Unix servers in North America, DSP's Lewitt is inclined to agree: "When [Unix] ceases to be the best product, it will be time for us to do something different."
For that reason, DSP has also hedged its bets by committing to Digital, which offers both platforms. Leavitt says the company's belief that both Unix and NT systems have a role to play means preserving his customers' investments over the long term. "We're committed [to Unix] for as long as being committed is the right thing to do in the market," he says.
So, for the foreseeable future, many users are remaining faithful, but the message is clear: No one is such a Unix zealot that they can't be tempted to convert. Burlington Coat Factory's Prince says it won't be a problem for him if the market changes and NT gains momentum for enterprise applications.
"The truth of the matter is, what everybody ought to be concerned about is what's the best way to deploy computing power," Prince says. "Today, that answer is clearly Unix. That's not a Unix bigot's opinion. That's the opinion of a lot of CIOs. … It's what works best that counts."
Real time is all about providing a result in a bounded amount of time. It is about juggling multiple inputs from the outside world and supplying outputs back to it exactly when needed. An example of a real-time application is the antilock brakes on your car (they must be accurately pulsed tens of times per second). To satisfy the needs of real-time systems, APIs must be available to support accurate timing, fast communications and I/O, and precise, priority-driven scheduling. Conventional wisdom held that without proprietary APIs and OSes, it was impossible to achieve the level of performance required to solve real-time problems. However, there are significant costs associated with coding solutions to a proprietary product.
Recognizing this, OS vendors, researchers, and users participated in an IEEE working group known as Posix.4. The group's goal was to refine existing Posix APIs and develop new APIs to address the needs of the real-time environment. The result of this effort was the Posix 1003.1b-1993 standard, or Posix.4. To address the need for efficient communications, the group added APIs that support memory mapping, message queues, semaphores, signals, and asynchronous I/O, or it extended existing calls. It also added timers, memory locking, and programmable scheduling capabilities to support the accurate timing and scheduling necessary for time-critical tasks. Many legacy OSes offered one or more of these features, but often as a clumsy, heavyweight, kernel-based implementation, rather than the simple and fast implementation necessary for real-time applications.
Real-Time Additions
Posix specifies an OS environment where multiple processes operate independently, each with its own protected address space. While the protected address space ensures that processes do not affect a system's integrity or that of other processes, this environment is confining for real-time communications. This is because programs must perform time-consuming OS calls to communicate with each other and with the outside world. The fastest form of communication is through memory itself. Therefore, for processes to interoperate at the highest possible speed with each other or with devices, they must be able to share physical memory. Posix.4 defines a sophisticated yet elegant function called mmap() that uses a file descriptor to establish shared-memory mapping. Here's how it works.
First, the shm_open() call provides an easy means to obtain a file descriptor corresponding to a supplied path. If multiple processes call shm_open() with the same path argument, and each process supplies this returned file descriptor to mmap(), this effects a mapping to the same physical memory. That is, all the processes access the same block of memory, as shown in the figure "Client/Server Application of Shared Memory." Mmap() is extremely powerful. It maps memory among processes. Also, you can use it to map a disk file into memory. You can read or alter data in the file through fast memory operations, rather than through the traditional set of open/read/write/close calls. To ensure safe operation, mmap() provides control over which processes are allowed to read or write given shared-memory areas. Traditional synchronous I/O (e.g., writing to a disk file) puts an application to sleep while the I/O operation is pending (an unbounded time). Clearly, this action is not suitable for a real-time application that must always be ready to handle an event. To satisfy this requirement, Posix.4 provides asynchronous I/O (e.g., aio_read()), so that the application can continue executing and be notified (via a signal) when the operation completes. A list I/O (lio_listio()) function can execute many synchronous or asynchronous I/O operations via a single command.
When a real-time process executes on a demand-paged OS, it must ensure that any memory it uses stays locked in physical RAM. If it does not, the OS might page that memory out to disk. When the process next accesses this memory, the system's memory management unit (MMU) must schedule a synchronous I/O operation to reload the memory page into RAM. Meanwhile, the process is put to sleep, leaving it vulnerable to missing time-critical events. Posix.4 provides the mlock() and mlockall() calls to accomplish the desired memory locking.
Control and Access Shared memory is great for fast interprocess communications (IPC), but some means must be provided to manage access to it. Confusion will result if a process attempts to read or write to shared memory that is being updated by another process. The Posix.4 solution to this problem is the semaphore. Both named and unnamed semaphores are provided. You create and access named semaphores via a path name. Access to named semaphores is through the sem_open() call. Unnamed semaphores are created directly in shared memory and managed by the user. Through the use of shared memory and unnamed semaphores, it is possible to build elaborate shared data structures with fine-grained locking. Event notification is vital to real-time applications, because processes must react quickly to outside events–such as releasing the brake on a wheel just about to lock up. Posix.4 provides an extension to traditional Posix signals called real-time signals. Posix signals simply set a bit, so it is impossible to know how many signals were actually sent to a process, or why. In contrast, real-time signals are queued so that none are lost. They have also been extended to contain additional information. If a signal is sent by sigqueue(), an integer or pointer value can be passed to the recipient. This result provides some indication of the actual event to be processed.
Messaging is a staple of real-time applications. Posix.4 provides an elegant set of APIs to implement message queues. To address real-time requirements, Posix.4 message queues support at least 32 levels of priority and can use real-time signals to notify a recipient of delivery. Message queues are efficient: Tests show that they are two to four times faster than traditional communications mechanisms such as sockets. Message queues are accessed via mq_open(), which uses a path name to identify the message queue to access. Real-time applications must ensure that operations occur on schedule. To meet these requirements, Posix.4 provides real-time clocks (clock_gettime()) with up to nanosecond resolution and real-time timers (timer_create()). Unlike traditional Unix timers, many real-time timers can coexist in one process. Posix.4 timers use real-time signals to notify the process when an interval has expired. If all that is needed is a simple time delay, the nanosleep() call can delay the current thread of execution for a precise amount of time. In addition, Posix.4 provides a set of scheduling APIs that let a process define, query, and alter the scheduling policies and characteristics that apply to that process.
Anecdotal evidence suggests Lotus Notes expertise is still very much in demand, so maybe this has just been an abnormal quarter (last time its growth rate was 33%). None the less, it has fallen six places in the table as a result.
The biggest growth was shown by Java, with the jobs on offer up nearly threefold to 2,800, raising it 12 places in the table. This is testimony to the continuing rise in interest in Web-based applications, as shown also by a 72% increase in demand for generic Internet-related skills (now 27th) and a doubling in demand for HTML expertise (now 34th).
Only one other skill in the top 25 featured in more than twice as many ads as a year ago, and that was SQL, up from 2,800 to 5,700 posts. It remains firmly esconsed in the top 10 in eighth place. Two other skills that just failed to reach 100% growth were Windows NT-up from 4,900 to 9,700 posts – and, one place outside the top 25, SAP, which appeared in just under 1,500 advertisements this time.
The others that showed more than average growth in demand were, in descending order, Visual Basic, object-oriented programming, Access, Delphi, Oracle, RPG400, Ingres and Cics.
Apart from the last three, all the skills listed as growing in popularity in 1998 are new wave products. This suggests the boom in IT recruitment is being fuelled by a combination of a flourishing UK. economy and a chronic shortage of skilled IT personnel, rather than short-term factors such as the year 2000 issue.
RPG400 owes its return to the top 10 to a resurgence in recruitment by AS/400 sites – this sector showed the biggest increase in demand over the quarter. Cics, similarly, is showing a growth rate almost identical to that of IBM mainframe recruitment overall.
Curiously, DB2 has not shared in this growth – demand here was up just 28%, compared to 55% for IBM mainframe staff generally and 57% for Cics expertise.
Two older IBM mainframe database products, IMS and IDMS, showed much bigger growth. IMS appeared in twice the number of ads as a year ago (620) and IDMS in nearly three times as many (500, 75% of which were in IBM sites), and these two skills are now in 40th and 44th places respectively.
Other IBM mainframe legacy skills to appear in more than twice as many ads as a year ago were PL/I (850 posts, now 33rd in the fist, its highest position since 1993), DL1 (490, 46th) and JCL (450, 50th). There is perhaps a year 2000 factor here – IBM mainframe sites are clearly looking for a greater proportion of staff with legacy skills than in early 1997.
But the numbers are so small in the context of 65,000 jobs on offer in total, that this does not materially affect the overall picture
Cobol, the epitome of legacy skills, has shown growth of 52%, which is very much in line with the overall market growth and of the rise in IBM mainframe recruitment (more than four out of five Cobol jobs are in these sites). As a result it has actually fallen a place in the table, as demand for Visual Basic has risen at a significantly faster rate.
Taking a long-term view, it is instructive to look back four years to that first quarter of 1994, when Unix moved into the first place it has held till now. The changes in the skills most in demand then and now are remarkably few, and most of these were not widely forecast in 1994.
Of the 10 skills most in demand four years ago. eight remain in the top 10 today.
Those that have dropped out are Ingres and Lan, and their replacements are Windows NT (which was down in 43rd place in the first quarter of 1994) and Visual Basic.
Apart from Ingres. only four others dropped out of the top 20 MS-Dos, VMS, graphical user interface (GUI) and Informix. Their replacements are Java, Powerbuilder, Office and object programming.
So, comparing the two tables, we can see the rise of Windows NT. and the growth in interest in the Internet (as represented by Java), in object-oriented programming (both as a generic skill and in terms of the displacement of C by C++), and in more modern application development methods (as represented by Visual Basic and Powerbuilder).
Offsetting that, MS-Dos and Vax VMS have fallen from favour, while all the open systems databases apart from Oracle have lost significant popularity.
The biggest surprises, though, are what have not happened. Cobol and RPG400, far from disappearing, are today in more or less the same places as they were then.
The mainframe, which many in 1994 thought would be extinct by now, is still represented by DB2 (in exactly the same place) and by Cics (actually five places higher), as well as by Cobol.


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SOURCE Universal Technical Institute, Inc.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Sept. 4, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Universal Technical Institute, Inc. (NYSE: UTI), the leading provider of automotive technician training, announced today that its board of directors approved a quarterly cash dividend on UTI common stock of $0.10 per share, payable on September 30, 2014, to common stockholders of record as of September 19, 2014.
About Universal Technical Institute, Inc.
Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, Universal Technical Institute, Inc. (NYSE: UTI) is the leading provider of post-secondary education for students seeking careers as professional automotive, diesel, collision repair, motorcycle and marine technicians. With more than 180,000 graduates in its 49-year history, UTI offers undergraduate degree and diploma programs at 11 campuses across the United States, as well as manufacturer-specific training programs at dedicated training centers. Through its campus-based school system, UTI provides specialized post-secondary education programs under the banner of several well-known brands, including Universal Technical Institute (UTI), Motorcycle Mechanics Institute and Marine Mechanics Institute (MMI) and NASCAR Technical Institute (NASCAR Tech). For more information visit www.uti.edu.
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Each participant brought a bottle, all wines were served blind.
We started off with a Tio Pepe Fino in Rama sherry. Outstanding: so rich and fresh some thought it Manzanilla. Turns out to be a special anniversary bottling. Per the back label: This year we celebrate the anniversary of the birth of Manuel Maria Gonzales, the founder of Gonzales Byass, in 1812. He and his uncle Tio Pepe laid down several Fino soleras and to commemorate...this year's Fino in Rama comes from the finest cask of each of the four soleras...Tio Pepe Fino en Rama is unclarified, unfiltered Tio Pepe inspired by the days when fino was enjoyed straight from the cask...best enjoyed within three months of bottling...." Per the retailer who brought the bottle, this fino was airshipped to the U.S. recently and he was lucky to get a six pack. I had him set aside two bottles for me. If you love dry sherry, hunt this down.
Next up, with a peach gazpacho (recipe recently posted on FLDG) a la Eleven Madison Park, was a 2001 Lopez de Heredia blanco (my bottle). I must have been busy with kitchen stuff, because I took absolutely no notes on the wine, which I remember to have been everything we hope for from a (non-Reservea) LdH white.
The reds were served at random. It was known that one non-qualifying red wine was in the queue.
Crayola, black licorice, modern, no obvious American oak, concentrated sweetness on the palate, plush and full bodied, very youthful, very attractive and clearly very high quality even if rather international in style. On the palate, not obviously Rioja but then not obviously anything else. Most thought Priorat, but indeed it was Rioja, a 2001 San Vicente (my bottle).
Ripe, new world nose and palate. No complexity and no varietal typicity. Tastes like a $12 wine. Can't call it a ringer, but more like an interloper, and indeed this was that bottle. It's a 2009 CHC 'The Garage' wine made by a popular local DJ who hopes to go commercial with this project. Hope he has enough fans to get him started, but he's not going to get any love from anyone with even moderately higher end tastes.
Rare roast beef, huckleberry, dirt and dust, good spice, more Rioja-ish in spite of the black fruit than Ribera del Duero, though it was the latter. Not as youthful as the San Vicente above, but more pleasantly middle-aged in terms of secondary nuances, tannins and acidity. Drinks very well now. 2001 Flor de Pingus (my bottle).
Now this one's weird. Herbaceous with a sharp nasturtium kind of sharp attack on the raspberry fruit, very cab franc-like without the tea spices and mineral core. More acidity than tannins. so a near-term drinker. We can't make sense of it within the context of Spanish wine. Turns out it IS a Spanish Cab Franc, the first one any of us had ever had or known about. 2008 Aljibes Cabernet Franc, from some inland high plains north of Alicante per its owner. Interesting academically, but I would not buy it.
OLD! Mature nose, canned tomato, slightly pruney, short mid-palate, overweight on acid, stewed fruit. In a word, cooked. And that's too bad because it's a 2001 Lopez de Heredia Tondonia. What's especially alarming is that the wine was brought by a distributor of the brand, and this was from a just-received shipment (into the state from a warehouse in L.A., not sure of its actual arrival on our shores).
Good nose of minerals with plenty of sea salt, toast and strawberries, soft acids, barely medium weight. I presume it's grenache, and it's owner agrees that it sure seems more like grenache than what it is, a 2008 Marques de Caceras Rioja. Eh.
Next day, retastes of the only wines left, the CHC, Aljibes and Marques de Caceras all confirmed handily that the previous night's lack of enthusiasm for them was justified.


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Lynn's Q & A
Favorite Sport/Team
Favorite Movie/Actor
Shooter with Mark Wahlberg
Go-to karaoke song
Pistol Annies- Hell On Heels
My first job
Restaurant Slave
Piercings/Tattoos (How many? Where?)
One strategically placed Tattoo, lets just say its in a place where the sun don't shine.
Mac or PC?
PC, but only because I feel like an idiot on a Mac... I haven't figured out how to work them yet.
Nintendo, Xbox 360, PS3, or don't game?
Xbox 360 with Buck Hunter attachments:)
What fun fact, talent or superpower of yours should guys know about?
WORLDS BEST COOK! I mean it.
What's the most memorable pick up line you've ever heard?
" Can I hang out with you over here while my fart clears over there?" The man who said that is now my husband haha.
What's the craziest thing you've ever done?
I'm a country girl through and through and crazy's my middle name! I drank A LOT of rum on a deserted island in Haiti and I just shot a big 5X6 bull elk in Idaho.
What's the most unusual place you've ever hooked up? How'd it go?
I'll never kiss & tell but... it went well;)
What's in your purse or pocket right now?
What do you feel most comfortable wearing?
My swimmies in the sunshine!
Would you rather have boring sex all the time or an amazing romp once a year?
I'm combining both answers: amazing romp all the time.
If you could do a shot of Jose Cuervo with anyone -- dead or alive -- who would it be?
John Wayne


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I also hope you will have your baby Jennifer!!
And I forgot to welcome you Briana!! Welcome! I remember seeing you here as well before. I always liked your DDs name, very classic and not heard as often anymore. Stay safe in the hurricane.
Oddly enough, I enjoy when hurricanes come by Atlanta, we actually don't get the hurricane of course, which is probably why I enjoy them. They really make us have wonderful weather, not baking hot and the humidity goes away. I remember when Hurricane Katrina came and all those other hurricanes that year, it was a great summer for us weather wise.
And Myles I also wouldn't worry about comparing on swings. I also do comparisons. I was playing basketball with Ky once at the park trying to teach him to shoot correctly but he wasn't getting it. A little boy asked if he could play too so I let him shoot our ball and he was like mini-Michael Jordan so I told Ky to watch how he shot since they were around the same size and maybe he could pick up some pointers. The boy even showed Ky how to hold his hands and everything and by the time we left Ky could shoot very well and had made a new friend. We still see him at the park when we go sometimes and they play together.
And I understand what you feel Ash with the money situation. We were there as well a few years ago. We had enough but it was VERY tight. I kind of feel bad right now because we are planning a Disney trip for Ky's birthday in February and I invited my aunt to go. At first she was like "heck yeah" but she called me and told me that she wouldn't be able to do it so close after Christmas. She even asked me (which I thought was rather strange) if we could go in August for Ky's half birthday so she and her sons could come and I told her no that I had promised Ky that we were going to go for his birthday, not his half birthday. I also think she had ulterior motives in that request since August is her youngest son's birthday. But I still feel bad that she cannot come and wish that she could and I know she is upset about it because she is not used to not having the money to do what she wants to do. She lost her job a couple years ago and even though she got another one, it is not as much as she was making before.


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Salida, on the other hand, I've narrowed down to two hotels, both of which are very excited at the prospect of having a large motorcycling group to give them money
Next variable is which weekend? I didn't want to get into September as that can start to get dicey in the Colorado Mountains and some fall snow storms. The two "missing" weekends from the poll question are missing for good reason. The first is Gold Rush days, the second would fall during the US Pro Cycling Challenge.
What say you?
The votes are in!
SW-FOG 2012 will be held from July 19-22. The only thing that remains is to double check with the motel(s) to ensure they will have availability (I've already contacted both of them, waiting to hear back), and make a final decision on which motel to choose!
I'll be creating a new "official" thread once I get this final confirmation, and of course will update the website as well.


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Jen's Q & A
Who's your favorite sports team, and why?
San Antonio Spurs bc they are freaking awesome, and from my home state :D
What's your favorite movie quote?
"So join now, 'cause at the Derek Zoolander Center For Kids Who Can't Read Good And Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too, we teach you that there's more to life than just being really, really, really good looking."
What's your favorite video game, and could you kick our butts at it?
It's a toss up between Resident Evil, and World of Warcraft. I have to admit I'm pretty nerdy, and could totally kick some serious booty haha.
Piercings/Tattoos (How many? Where?)
Clean canvas.
What's the most embarrassing song on your iPod?
Sinéad O'Connor ~ Nothing Compares 2 U
What's your best party trick?
I'm hella good at beer pong :)
What's the most memorable pick-up line you've ever heard?
"Most people like to watch the Olympics, because they only happen once every 4 years, but I'd rather talk to you cause the chance of meeting someone so special only happens once in a lifetime."
What's the worst job you've ever had?
Bakery, the hours were awful...and I kept burning myself :(
What's the most dangerous thing you've ever done?
Couple of friends, and I used to sit/lay on the hood of a car while driving really fast down the highway. Dangerously stupid lol.
It's 4AM after a crazy night out – what are we eating?
Pepperoni, mushroom, garlic, black olive, and onion pizza, Yum!
What's the strangest thing in your fridge right now?
My high school prom corsage is still in the freezer lol.
What's the naughtiest thing you've ever done in public?
Hot naked fun in the hot springs
What do you feel sexiest wearing?
Lacy panties, and a tight semi see-through racerback tank top <3


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We start the show discussing entertainment news articles. Donner and Spielberg wanting to make Goonies 2 , a Flash Gordon resurrection by FOX studios, the Friday the 13th TV show that was just announced and the MST3K reboot .
Our core discussion is 80's 'children movies' that were incredibly dark and may have warped our minds. Neverending Story , The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth .
Joining us this episode are:
Host: Mark Krawczyk of Special Mark Productions
Dawn S. of intheaudience.net
Derrick Carey independent film editor
Glenn Buettner of bmoviebunker
Scott Davis of movieoctrity
By istolethetv from Hong Kong, China [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
The Spoiler Room is a Special Mark Production
Check out more at http://www.specialmarkproductions.com/


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By Lindsey DiMattina, Hollywood.com Staff
Finally, someone has topped Jessica Simpson in the category of cheesy baby announcements. If you thought Simpson's ""Yes, I'm going to be a mummy"" tweet on Halloween of 2011 - accompanied, of course, by Simpson in a mummy costume was the apex of so-adorable-you-could-puke pregnancy revelations, you thought wrong. Leave it to Frank Sinatra wannabe Michael Buble, 37, to topple Simpson's reign as the Queen of Cheese. On Thursday, Bublé and his wife, Luisana Lopilato, 25, announced that they are expecting their first child, and they did so by creating a corny mini-music video.
The video begins with the text, ""Mike, LU and... Mini Buble!!!"" and then cuts to video of an ultrasound. Then, a sound graph of little kids cheering is layered on top. In case you didn't quite get it, the couple writes, ""We're having a baby Buble!!!"" in both English and Spanish (Lopilato is Argentine). The pièce de résistance: a snippet of Bublé's song ""Haven't Met You Yet"" plays in the background. Oy. We're happy for you guys, but... oy.
Bublé and Lopilato, who have been married since March 2011, have openly spoken about wanting to have kids. ""I've said to her a million times I'd love to have kids," Bublé told ET Canada in 2011. "But I always say to her, 'When you're ready when you feel like you've lived and you've partied and done all the things you want to do. When you've worked your butt off, then tell me.'"
Apparently, the time has come.
Follow Lindsey on Twitter @LDiMat.
[Photo Credit: WENN]
Megan Fox serenades son with Michael Buble tunes
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Reese Witherspoon to duet with Michael Buble
From Our Partners:
Celebs as Kids: Guess Who? (Celebuzz)
Craziest Celebrity Swimsuits Ever (Celebuzz)


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35 year old treated for Upper eyelid hollowing
Was this photo helpful? 6 others found this helpful
35 year old woman presented with upper eyelid hollowing. She showed a younger photo of herself around age 30, which showed more fullness below her eyebrows, but above her eyelid crease. Upper eyelid fillers (Restylane) were used to replenish the volume without performing a browlift or upper blepharoplasty skin removal, since this would further hollow her eyes. The immediate result does show improvement in the fullness, but the upper eyelid filler can be bumpy and irregular for the first few days to a week until it smooths out nicely. The before and after photo on the upper right is immediately after the procedure. Minimal swelling and minimal bruising is not uncommon. The photo at the bottom left is a more than 1 year photo, and the upper eyelid crease is nicely shaped and still improved despite that the upper eyelid filler has been a full year and no additional fillers were needed at 1 year. The last photo on the bottom right is after a full 3 years from the initial injection. She did have a very small amount of filler on the 3 year follow up to maintain her appearance at the 3 year mark, but not to add any noticeable volume. The goal of her treatment is to maintain the current results with follow up visits every 1 to 2 years.
By uploading this photo, George Yang, MD has agreed with RealSelf.com policy that they've secured proper patient consent.


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Exploring Virtual Reality in Doom 3 BFG
I really wasn't sure what to expect when I entered John Carmack's virtual reality demo suite this weekend at QuakeCon. I had missed his VR presentation at E3, so in my head, the only experience I could pull from was in my teenage days, strapping on a huge heavy headset and shooting at wire-frame monsters and vehicles.
I had heard Carmack's keynote where he talked about his attempts with VR and I had watched Palmer Luckey's Oculus Rift Kickstarter blow through its goal. But, neither prepared me for what I saw on the table next to the computer running Doom 3 BFG. Held together with hot glue and duct tape was a device with numerous thick wires running from it, reminding me of high school science project. It was indeed a lot smaller, and it was a Carmack science project, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't skeptical about what I was about to see.
Carmack and I talked a bit about VR and what I was about to experience. "One thing that people will try to do if they are experimenting with the experience is they will get up to a corner and they'll try to actually lean over the corner and that just doesn't work because [the unit] doesn't have a position tracker," he said. "If you bend at the waist or lean your head forward, the orientation will be accurate, but the position will be an approximation."
He said that in the near future, he expects that people will be able to look around corners or reach down and touch the floor, but the technology as it stands now is worth getting out to developers right now because "it crosses the threshold of useful coolness" that its important for developers to be playing around with.
With that, he picked up the device and placed it on my head. It felt like a snorkel mask, with that slight pinch around the nose, but any feelings of discomfort quickly dissolved as I realized I was inside Doom 3 BFG. I could turn my head and see the walls, ceiling and floor. I could even look behind. I did notice a slight bit of lag, but nothing to the extent that dampened the experience.
What did make me nervous was that the demo was set up to use an Xbox controller, and I suck at the dual sticks and all the extra buttons. I am a keyboard and mouse guy, but I soon found that I was actually more functional with a controller than I ever had been because of the headset. The inherent nature of the game pad makes the dual sticks a bit less accurate when aiming and moving, but the headset allowed me to refine those movements with almost mouse-like accuracy just by slightly turning my head to look at what I wanted to attack. The targeting reticule had been replaced by a laser sight, making the head motions for lining up a shot a needed refinement for my clumsiness with a controller.
Carmack actually made the experience a bit easier as he held all the various cables coming out of the unit to keep me from getting tangled as I bobbed and weaved trying to dodge fireballs ("I'm an expensive coat hanger," he joked). He said Luckey is working on using some very lightweight HDMI cables to lighten the headset a bit. Carmack also said he has toyed with the idea of adding some small speakers to the headset to play up positional sound to increase the level of immersion.
Carmack said that programming for VR is only a slight step up from programming in 3D, which he had already done for Doom 3 BFG, so adding a VR component to the a game is not that much extra work. He told The Verge that, already having programmed Doom 3 for VR, it would be a logical step to do the same for Doom 4. He said people who have experienced the headset have already said how cool it is in Doom 3, so it would be something he could easily justify working on and adding to Doom 4 since it is id's next huge release.
One thing that both Luckey and Carmack cautioned later on in the day at their Virtual Insanity panel (see video below) is that the Kickstarter project is really for developers. "It would be great if the all of the 5,000 people who donated were developers, but I suspect that the number is really more in the high hundreds to low thousands," Luckey said. People can pay $300 for a set of the VR goggles, but there is only support for one game right now.
"Either people are confused about what it is--I hope not because we tried to be really clear--or they just wanted to experience what developers are making early," he added. Carmack agreed, saying that there will probably be a better time for gamers to jump into VR down the road, but now is really not that time.
There are definitely some bugs to iron out, such as latency and better positional sensors, but Carmack said that we are only a few years away from making an even better, more immersive gaming experience.
I know its a level of coolness I'm looking forward to.
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The IRS has issued final regulations regarding the proper tax treatment of dispositions of tangible depreciable property under the Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS). Read more.
Just a reminder to anyone that engages in apportionable activities in the state of Washington: any business that remits Washington Business & Occupation (B&O) Tax... Read more.
The IRS recently issued a warning for the public to be on alert for phone calls from bogus "IRS Agents".Generally, these calls claim that the taxpayer has unpaid taxes which must be paid immediately. Read more.
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Overseeing a nonprofit's endowment fund is one of the most important roles for the board of directors. A strong investment committee, made up of board members and staff, will not only ensure the continued health of the endowment and the organization... Read more.
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Weekend Top 10
By Sarah Story, Citizen Events Editor 09/21/12
The 54th annual Armenian Food Festival will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sept. 21-22 and from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sept. 23 at St. James Armenian Church, 834 Pepper Ave. Authentic Armenian dishes like stuffed grape leaves, bulghur salad and Armenian green beans, and signature pastries such as simit (tea cookie), bourma (rolled philo filled with walnuts) and khourabia (sweet cookie) will be available for purchase. There will also be Armenian beer and wine, music and dancing. Admission is free. For details and to view the menu, visit http://www.armenianfoodfestival.com.
Crossroads Art Center, 2016 Staples Mill Rd., will hold its September Indoor Artwalk and Artist Reception from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Visitors will learn from the artists what inspires them to create their works of art. Featured artists include Kate McConnell and Duane Cregger, as well as artists participating in the Virginia Collage Society Show. Casey McCue and Steve Duncan will provide music. The exhibition runs through Nov. 5. Admission is free. For details, call 278-8950 or visit http://www.crossroadsartcenter.com .
The Chrysalis Group will hold its Autumnal Equinox Labyrinth Walk from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Chrysalis Outdoor Labyrinth, located on the grounds of Union Theological Seminary. An ancient, mystical tool, the labyrinth is used by many cultures and religious traditions. Participants should allow 45-60 minutes for the experience. Admission is free but donations are welcome. For details, visit http://www.thechrysalisgroup.com .
The Modlin Center for the Arts at the University of Richmond will show an encore presentation of National Theatre Live's "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" at 7:30 p.m. This new production offers a richly theatrical exploration of the touching and bleakly humorous novel by Mark Haddon and will be broadcast from the National's smallest theatre, the Cottesloe. NT Live brings the best of British theatre direct from the stages of London to movie theatres around the world. Tickets are $14. For details, call 289-8980 or visit http://www.modlin.richmond.edu .
The Children's Museum of Richmond and HCA Virginia will host Family Fun Fest from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the HCA VA West Creek Emergency Center, 12720 Tuckahoe Creek Ct. Visit with Sesame Street's Elmo, tour a fire truck, helicopter and ambulance, and meet with local EMS and fire fighters. There will also be magic with Mysteriosos Magicians, Nutzy of the Richmond Flying Squirrels, arts and crafts, music from Radio Disney, healthy snacks and more. Admission is free. CMOR members are eligible to see The Avengers perform live. For details, visit http://www.c-mor.org .
The J.R. Tucker High School Marching Tigers will host the Free-For-All 8 High School Marching Band Demonstration from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Tucker, 2910 N. Parham Rd. More than 20 high school marching bands will perform in front of judges and the community. The event is free to all bands and the public. Concessions are available. For details, visit http://www.jrtuckerband.org/freeforall8.htm .
Virginia Center Commons Mall, 10101 Brook Rd., and the Simon Kidgits Club will host a fall festival from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Sears Court. Activities include pumpkin decorating, a bounce house, games, treats, prizes and more. Admission is free for Kidgit members and $5 for nonmembers. For details, call 266-9000 or visit http://www.simonkidgitclub.com .
The Professional Singles Association will host an All American Square Dance Party from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the West End Community Center, 8102 Ridge Rd. No experience or partner is necessary. Cost is $8 for members and $10 for nonmembers and guests. The group will head to Flinn's, 403 N. Ridge Rd., for dinner following the event. To register, call Sue at 536-1695 or visit http://www.psaofrichmond.com
Glen Allen student to perform at Carnegie Hall
Thanks to a first-place win in The American Protege International Vocal Competition 2014, Glen Allen High School student Matija Tomas will travel to New York City to perform at Carnegie Hall in December.
At the first-place winners recital in Weill Hall, Matija will perform Giacomo Puccini's opera aria, "Chi il bel sogna di doretta." She will perform with other vocalists from around the world and have the opportunity to win other awards and scholarships.
Locally, Thomas has performed with Richmond's renowned Glorious Christmas Nights, Christian Youth Theatre, and WEAG's Urban Gospel Youth Choir. > Read more.
Gayton Baptist Church dedicates new outreach center
The John Rolfe YMCA and Gayton Baptist Church have partnered in an effort to bring greater health and wellness opportunities to the community.
Through this partnership, the John Rolfe Y will run Youth Winter Sports programs, including basketball and indoor soccer, in Gayton's newly renovated $5.5 million outreach center that features a new gymnasium, youth and teen space, social space with café, meeting space and full service commercial kitchen. > Read more.
Henricus Historical Park to host Publick Day Sept. 20
Citizen Staff Reports 09/15/2014
Henricus Historical Park will commemorate its anniversary during Publick Day, a signature annual event that celebrates the establishment of the second successful English settlement in the New World. In September 1611, Sir Thomas Dale, along with soldiers, tradesmen and farmers, ventured from Jamestown to create the Citie of Henricus. Leaders of Henricus developed the first English hospital, chartered the first college in North America, established tobacco as the first cash crop in Virginia, and created a place where Pocahontas lived and met John Rolfe.
Publick Day will take place Saturday, Sept. 20, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free and parking is $5 per vehicle. > Read more.
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Extras sought for AMC's 'TURN'
Paid extras are being sought to appear in the AMC television series TURN: Washington's Spies, which will begin filming its second season in the Richmond area at the end of September and continue through February.
No experience is required, but producers say that extras must have flexible availability, reliable transportation and a positive attitude.
Arvold Casting is holding an open call on Sunday, Sept. 21 and is seeking men, women and children who are Caucasian, African American and Native American, with thin to average builds and who can realistically portray people living in Revolutionary War times. Long hair is a plus but not a must. > Read more.
Weekend Top 10
TGIF! Celebrate the weekend at Oak Hall Baptist Church's Community Block Party on Saturday. Learn more about ballroom dancing, art and Colonial times. Or take the kids to Generation Z Games for water play or Southern Season to cook up a Disney-theme meal. For all our top picks this weekend, click here! > Read more.
Weekend Top 10
Check out these three B's in Henrico this weekend: books, bluegrass and "Born Yesterday." Other activities to participate in – and feel good about – are the 15th annual James River Regional Cleanup and the 5th annual Richmond Out of the Darkness Community Walk. For all our top picks this weekend, click here! > Read more.
Glen Allen Day scheduled for Saturday
Business in brief
NBC News' Sara James to speak at Tucker HS convocation
Highland Springs HS wins Keep Virginia Beautiful grant
Henrico Police investigating suspicious death
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Print Edition
Sep. 18, 2014Click here to read the print edition.
Extras sought for AMC's 'TURN'
Weekend Top 10
Weekend Top 10
When the cliche stands tall
Weekend Top 10
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Obituary – Susie Ann Walker
Obituary – Philip "Al" Cebulski
Obituary – Cecelia Davis Stevens
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Glen Allen student to perform at Carnegie Hall
Gayton Baptist Church dedicates new outreach center
Henricus Historical Park to host Publick Day Sept. 20
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The Citizen at 13
Peeling off the labels
A messy food fight
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Hermitage to host Monday night football events
Down to the wire
Babe Ruth 13U World Series arrives in Glen Allen
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