text:
Getting the most out of your data takes more than an investment in technology. We can help you put the right processes, people, and tools in place to support analytics and make efficient, informed decisions.
In a volatile and competitive business environment, companies must operate to bring their products to the market quickly, more smartly and cost effectively than ever before. Accenture Operations Analytics can help to meet their challenges in:
Demand forecasting: analytical capabilities and tools to segment and assign the best forecasting profile to improve predictions of future sales by as much as 10-20 percent.
Inventory optimization: reduce inventory by up to 20 percent and provide dynamic safety stock and replenishment order sizes, while ensuring customer service levels.
Spare parts optimization: helps inventory reduction by 20-40 percent.
In warranty management: analytics can help reduce warranty costs by 10-25 percent.
Predictive asset maintenance: improves the up-times, performance and availability of assets by understanding equipment reliability and predicting early warning signals.
Data-Driven and Analytics-Powered
Helps make strategic and operational decisions by considering various constraints and uncertainties of the business.
Minimizes total supply chain costs. Clients can achieve lowest cost network to meet projected demand patterns.
Enables cost reductions by addressing product quality, dealer and supplier issues.
Improve forecast accuracy, predict the appropriate load requirements.
Balances inventory within the supply chain to achieve targeted customer service levels while minimizing supply chain total cost.
Provides overall spend analysis, category profiling, category analysis, spend cube refresh and report generation.
Automates cash flow forecasting and improve forecast performance using existing transactional data.
Bridges the gap between descriptive and predictive analytics by translating complex data into meaningful insights, supporting decision making.
Learn how advanced analytics capabilities helped a global apparel manufacturer achieve its growth strategy.
The footwear and apparel company found that its existing organization lacked the clear structure, alignment and accountability needed to put its analytics roadmap in motion at the pace required. Accenture helped to create an integrated analytics operating model and talent strategy that could scale advanced analytics effectively and efficiently across the company.
Exploring the potential of inventory working capital optimization and increased efficiency in inventory management processes by overcoming the current limitations of the operating model.
Big Data Analytics in Supply Chain: Hype or Here to Stay?
Recent Accenture research reveals that while most companies have high expectations for big data analytics in their supply chain, many have had difficulty adopting it. In fact, 97 percent of executives report having an understanding of how big data analytics can benefit their supply chain, but only 17 percent report having already implemented analytics in one or more supply chain functions.
High performance operations hinges on the ability to gain insights from data. Informed executives can make more insightful decisions that deliver improved business outcomes across the enterprise. Every organization, regardless of its current capability, can benefit by becoming more analytical over time. From strategy to execution, Accenture Applied Intelligence works with businesses across the globe to deliver predictive capabilities and operations insights needed to outperform the competition.
Analytic capabilities underpin the most important imperatives operations executives face today:
Driving growth—from new markets.
Enhancing cost and cash advantage.
Improving operational excellence.
Restructuring the business at scale.
Winning the war for talent.
From strategy to execution, Accenture Applied Intelligence delivers the insights to excel in manufacturing and operations.


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On Truehoop.com I was (correctly) quoted as saying the Bulls should not have let Ben Gordon go, especially to a bitter divisional rival (Detroit). Gordon's performance has been erratic but last year was 18th in the league in our Adjusted +/- and he was 4th in Impact, which measure how you change the chance that your team wins. If you saw the Celtics-Bulls series you saw how his clutch shooting can change a game. In 2007-2008 Gordon had a negative impact, but this could be because the team was poor and many players mail it in when the games have no meaning. His offense held up in 2007-2008 but his defense was very poor, leading me to believe he might have mailed it in near the end of the season, In 2004-2005 Gordon had the the league's 2nd best impact!. He plays over 30 minutes a game. While below average on defense, he is always an above average offensive player. The Bulls were at their best against the Celtics with Miller, Gordon, Hinrich and Rose on the court. They won by around a point a minute with these guys on the court. This 4 man combo cannot be used anymore. Is Ben a bad influence off the court? I have no idea. But on the court he will be missed.
Looking at his 2007-2008 season Hinrich began the season in a really bad shooting slump (he shot 33% in November) and Gordon's offensive rating was poor(Gordon shot 37%), probably because the defense could lay off Hinrich. Gordon's defensive rating was horrible after January 1, indicating that he may have mailed it in. If he is healthy and wants to play I believe he is worth $10 million a season.

subset: commoncrawl


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GENESEO — Rockford Lutheran has shown it can win without star running back James Robinson.
But without Robinson and the team's offensive general, quarterback Kendall Lawson? Well, they were at least no match in the Class 4A state semifinals, and not against tradition-rich Geneseo during Saturday's 35-7 loss.
"It's a real downer. Just a bunch of bad things kept happening to us. After awhile it was like a domino effect," Rockford Lutheran coach Bruce Bazsali said after his team bowed out in its first state semifinal appearance. "And those guys on the other side of the field from us were pretty good. They were like sharks in a feeding frenzy when things started going wrong for us."
That started early. Robinson, who came in with 2,469 yards and 43 touchdowns on the ground this season, had already missed parts of four games this season with cramping issues and with a sprained ankle. On Saturday, Bazsali and his staff knew he would be touch-and-go on the ankle, but Robinson gained six yards on his first touch of the game.
After that, however, whenever he had to make a cut, he would hobble, and one of the state's best backs went to the sidelines with just over nine minutes left in the second quarter, and he only returned for one series early in the third. Robinson had five carries for six yards in the semifinal game.
"It's a tough way to go out," the sophomore said. "We're fighters, though, we'll be back."
Even without Robinson, the Crusaders battled through a scoreless first quarter, and trailed just 7-0 late in the first half. But then the team's all-conference wide receiver from a year ago, Nate Wieting, who missed most of the regular season with an ankle injury, had to be helped off the field with an apparent knee issue.
He eventually returned, but quarterback Kendall Lawson was stopped short on a fourth-down try shortly after, and Geneseo's workhorse for the day, Lane Akre (22 carries for 171 yards and four touchdowns) took it 58 yards up the middle for the score on the next play.
Geneseo, playing in its 15th state semifinal game, didn't wait long after that to pounce.
It was still 14-0 when Lawson, who was 10-for-16 for 136 yards with an interception in the cold weather and heavy winds, was knocked out of the game with concussion symptoms. Three plays later, Geneseo made it 21-0 midway through the third on a 42-yard TD run by Ryan Pitra.
"They just jumped on us every chance they got," said Lawson, metaphorically speaking and literally. "They were tough and physical, and they took advantage when we kept getting hurt. We just couldn't overcome it all."
Back-to-back Lutheran fumbles on the next possessions turned into the daggers when Akre powered in after both, and Geneseo (12-1) outscored Lutheran (11-2) 21-0 in the third quarter.
The Crusaders, who rushed for 13 yards on 26 carries, eventually settled on freshman quarterback Nick Brigham, who was 5-for-10 for 89 yards and led the team on its lone scoring drive. He hit Austin Sikora for a 7-yard touchdown pass with 3:53 left to play to at least erase the shutout.
But, it wasn't nearly enough to lift Lutheran to its first state final. Instead, Geneseo, which finished with 309 yards rushing, poured it on and bolted into the ninth state championship game in its school history.
"We knew it was going to be some kind of battle with those guys. We got a break with Robinson slowed down," Akre said. "Our whole thing was to keep our offense out there, and keep Robinson, and their passing game, on the sidelines. We didn't know they'd both be on the sidelines even when their offense was out there."
They were, and Lutheran will now regroup for next year.
Jay Taft: 815-987-1384; email@example.com; @jaytaft


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RALEIGH � Attorneys for those who challenged North Carolina's boundaries for General Assembly and congressional seats began making arguments over the heart of the litigation Monday, accusing out-of-state mapmakers of creating lines that diminished the influence of black voters.
Democratic voters and civil rights and election advocates want a three-judge panel hearing the case to declare the maps unconstitutional � even while the maps increased black representation in the legislature. Their attorneys argued Republican lawmakers illegally packed black voters into sprawling districts, split voting precincts and failed to keep whole counties within districts.
The latest once-a-decade rewrite of the boundaries, done by legislators based on U.S. census, data turns back "substantial but incomplete progress" in eliminating racial animosity in North Carolina, said Anita Earls, a Durham attorney representing the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other groups.
Republicans have argued in court documents and the 2011 redistricting debate that federal laws and recent court cases require majority-black districts whenever feasible and protect against legal challenges. But Earls said mapmakers broke the law by making race the predominant factor in their decision-making, segregating voters on a block-by-block basis.
"The overwhelming and uncontested evidence in this case demonstrates that race did predominate the decision about where to draw the district lines," Earls said.
Earls and another attorney spent the first few hours of the hearing showing multicolored maps of jaggedly-shaped districts on a computer screen to judges, saying they show evidence of racial gerrymandering. Black voters were pulled into districts only because of the "color of their skin," not due to their political leanings, as data on that were not available to mapmakers, said Allison Riggs, another attorney.
Attorneys for GOP legislative leaders and the state want the 2011 lawsuits thrown out and were expected to argue their case later in the two-day hearing. The U.S. Department of Justice signed off on the maps based on a portion of the Voting Rights Act, which is designed to protect voters from discrimination.
The political stakes on the outcome of the litigation are huge.
The Republican-penned boundaries are supposed to be in place through the 2020 elections, giving the GOP a leg up on keeping hold of the legislature. Republicans were able to draw the maps more to their liking after winning majorities in both chambers after the 2010 elections, the first time they had done so since 1870.
The new maps helped Republicans pick up nine seats in the House and two in the Senate in the November elections. Republicans also now hold nine of North Carolina's 13 U.S. House districts, compared with six before the new maps took effect. Democrats hope to force the Republicans to redraw districts that may also allow them to push back GOP gains.
Earls and other attorneys cited in court written comments made by Sen. Bob Rucho, R-Mecklenburg, and Rep. David Lewis, R-Harnett � chairmen of their respective chambers' redistricting committees � in July 2011 to make their case.
The two wrote that census figures showing "proportionality for the African-American citizens in North Carolina," or their overall population required the creation of 24 black-majority state House districts and 10 black-majority Senate districts. The previous maps contained 10 black-majority House and zero Senate districts based on 2000 census figures.
Maps drawn by Democrats in recent years formed districts with black voting-age populations between 40 and 50 percent � so-called "influence districts" that advocates argued put black and white voters together to form coalitions and elect favored candidates. In written arguments, attorneys for Republican legislators and the state point to an updated version of the Voting Rights Act and a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling demand majority-black districts.
The same panel of three Superior Court judges decided last year to allow the 2011 maps to be used during the 2012 elections. Rulings by the panel likely will end up at the state Supreme Court, where a majority of justices are Republican by voter registration.
Eddie Speas, an attorney representing the Democratic voters, said the chief architect of the maps was Thomas Hoefeller, redistricting coordinator for the Republican National Committee for the 1990, 2000 and 2010 map cycles. Speas said Hoefeller mostly worked on the maps in Washington or at his home in Virginia � suggesting out-of-state influences.


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HTTP Scoop 1.4.3
HTTP Scoop is an HTTP protocol analyser, a.k.a. "HTTP sniffer". It passively captures HTTP conversations and presents their details in real-time.
- Use to debug Web scripts/applications
- View responses as hex, text (syntax-highlighted for XML/HTML) or as images
- Any browser or server technology - no proxy needed
- View headers, parameters and POST data
- Save responses to disk
- Fully decodes HTTP (handles GZIP compression, request pipelining etc.)
Version 1.4.3:
- HTTP performance analysis
- Easier navigation
- Faster, less memory hungry, more stable
- Slicker updates
- Title: HTTP Scoop 1.4.3
- Developer: Tuffcode Ltd
- Compatibility: OS X 10.4 or later
- Language: English
- Includes: Pre-K'ed
- Size: 2.49 MB
- visit official website


text:
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Explore all that Austin has to offer in the best way possible--by bike! Whether you want to casually tour around town, get technical on the trails in one of Austin's parks, or go for a long ride out to Lockhart for some BBQ, we have the right ride to enhance the perfect day.
Check Out Our Fleet
Rental bikes are available at the Lamar shop.
Cookies are short pieces of data that are sent to your computer when you visit a website.
On later visits, this data is then returned to that website. Cookies allow us to recognize you automatically
whenever you visit our site so that we can personalize your experience and provide you with better service.
We also use cookies (and similar browser data, such as Flash cookies) for fraud prevention and other purposes.
If your web browser is set to refuse cookies from our website, you will not be able to complete a purchase
or take advantage of certain features of our website, such as storing items in your Shopping Cart or
receiving personalized recommendations. As a result, we strongly encourage you to configure your web
browser to accept cookies from our website.
Start Internet Explorer
Under the Tools menu, click Internet Options
Click the Privacy tab
Click the Advanced button
Put a check mark in the box for Override Automatic Cookie Handling,
put another check mark in the Always accept session cookies box
Click OK
Restart Internet Explore
Back to Top
Select Internet Options from the Tools menu
Click on the Privacy tab
Click the Default button (or manually slide the bar down to Medium)
under Settings. Click OK
Click on the Tools-menu in Mozilla
Click on the Options... item in the menu - a new window open
Click on the Privacy selection in the left part of the window. (See image below)
Expand the Cookies section
Check the Enable cookies and Accept cookies normally checkboxes
Save changes by clicking Ok.
Click on the Tools menu in Opera
Click on the Preferences... item in the menu - a new window open
Click on the Privacy selection near the bottom left of the window. (See image below)
The Enable cookies checkbox must be checked, and Accept all cookies
should be selected in the "Normal cookies" drop-down
Save changes by clicking Ok


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Comic books browse by: Shop category:
Artist Kim Deitch Jerry Moriarty/ Gary Panter/ RegeAvailable series in store category "Comic books"
Kim Deitch (AKA Fowlton Means) in the COMICLOPEDIA
" Kim Deitch is generally held to be one of the greatest influences in American underground comix. As sixties comics were popular and under-exploited from an artistic point of view, they were the perfect medium for Kim Deitch, the son of illustrator/animator Gene Deitch. He..." [ Read more ]


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Preheat the oven to 350°. Combine the two flours, salt and baking powder in a mixing bowl and mix. Place the oil and Edensoy in a blender and pulse for 1 minute. Combine the blended oil and Edensoy with the flour mixture. Form into a ball of dough. Lightly flour a counter top or pastry board and roll out the dough, as you would if making a pie crust. Sprinkle the cinnamon over the rolled dough. Pour the maple syrup on the dough and spread evenly over the dough with a spoon or spatula. Sprinkle the nuts over the syrup and cinnamon. Roll up in a jelly roll fashion. Seal the ends of the roll closed by pressing with the back of a fork. Poke shallow holes in the top of the roll about 1 1/2 inches apart for the entire length of the roll with a fork. Place the roll on a baking sheet and bake for about 25 to 30 minutes until golden. Slice into 1 inch rounds and place on a serving platter.
This is a great way to use up leftover pastry dough when making pies.
Per serving - 104 calories, 5 g fat (44% calories from fat), 2 g protein, 14 g carbohydrate, 2 g fiber, 0 mg cholesterol, 78 mg sodium


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Steelcut Trio 2 is yarn-dyed and made from 3 differently coloured yarns, often with very bright tones on the warp and lighter tones on the weft.
90% new wool, worsted. 10% nylon
Approximately 80.000 rubs acc. to the Martindale rubs, EN ISO 12947
Cleaning: Dry clean or clean with foam detergents.Stain removal: See special guide.
EN 1021-1/2 ignition source 0-1. BS 5852 ignition source 2-3. DIN 4102 B2. ÖNORM B1 / Q1. NF D 60 013. UNI 9175 1IM. US Cal. Tech. Bull. 117. NFPA 260. AS/NZS 3837 Class 2. IMO A.652(16). Crib 5 when flame protected (copy of test report available).
Environmental benefits: Complies with EU Ecolabel. No use of AZO dyes, which may split off carcinogenic acrylamines. No use of dyes containing heavy metals/complies with ETAD norm. No content of formaldehyde. No use of brominated flame retardants. Not bleached. Biodegradable spinning oil. We adhere to the limits set by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency's "List of undesirable substances". Reduced emission: Greenguard and Greenguard Gold certified www.greenguard.org


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A few weeks ago, I learned that one of my co-founders at Business Insider, Dwight Merriman, had gone into the restaurant business.
Dwight's also the founder of DoubleClick, Gilt Grouple, 10gen, and a bunch of other companies. So he's no stranger to startups.
I didn't know anything about Dwight's restaurant.
All I'd heard was that the food was unusual.
Specifically, our third co-founder at Business Insider, Kevin Ryan, had joked that eating at Dwight's restaurant was "like eating moss."
Well, "moss" sounded cool, and I like to support my friends' startup efforts. So I asked Dwight if he could squeeze my wife and me in.
Dwight pinged his wife Jodi, who it turns out is the boss.
Jodi squeezed us in.
I was envisioning eating a quick meal of "moss" (perhaps followed by a supplementary bowl of cereal) and making a minor contribution to Dwight and Jodi's local startup.
Much to my surprise, it turns out that Dwight and Jodi's little restaurant, Atera, is one of the most amazing restaurants in the world.


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matsutton necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 77 diseños de 21 diseñadores freelance.
We are launching a SEO/SEM agency in Italy which will differentiate from a "standard" (aka old school) SEO agency by its:
- scientific approach and rigorous methodology (we want to differentiate ourselves from the agencies that still convey a magician/non professional image)
- strong and collaborative online presence: we will be active on all social medias to raise the awareness of our new brand and to share the evidence of our empiric findings with the online community
Our website will target:
- project leaders of big traditional brands whom we will reach initially offline
- small medium businesses which have just heard about the importance of online marketing and search engine marketing and are looking for a SEO agency to contact
- tech savvy small medium businesses which are looking for educational information on SEO and might become as well our clients on a later stage
- search marketers which are looking for educational information and will contribute to our online presence
We want a Logo for our website that will convey the image of a company which is both:
- Professional and Reliable
- Innovative and unique
Some specifics:
- We want our logo to be fresh/innovative but not cheap or childlike (we are still a consulting firm :) --> no cartoons please
- we would prefer a minimal/essential style
- we would like to have a magnifying glass as a logotype representing both search engines and scientific research
- a logo we like is http://bit.ly/34yMhz
- the WP theme we will have is this one
http://www.neoseo.it/ -> the logo has to be coherent with it
- the logo must be readable when lowered in image size
- the files required are Web file format --> .jpg and layered .psd (RGB)
Thank you !!!
we promise quick feedback and money guarantee
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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The Toyota NS4 concept isn't too bad looking, if a bit tame for a concept. It has some striking lighting approaches, a very appealing interior and glassed roof treatment, and pleasing proportions. I wish I could unread what I read in Toyota's marketing materials so I could try and appreciate the vehicle, but, sadly, that's just not possible.
"NS4 demonstrates Toyota's take on the human connection to the car with technology that considers both emotional and rational relationships, person-to-car and car-to-society."
Readers may wish to take a moment to vomit now.
The fundamental concept of the car was built around a smartphone-type interface metaphor, and much of what the concept aims to demonstrate are the usual buzzwords of connectivity and social networking, though some novel ideas are employed to this end, like special glass more transparent to radio waves.
The exterior's reasonably sleek, but also not that different from many current sleek sedans currently available, like the Aston Martin Rapide or the Volkswagen Passat CC. The front end treatment, aside from the novel headlight treatment, looks pretty unpleasant, resembling a proboscis monkey with its very flaccid and droopy nose. The interior does seem very well thought out, airy and open, with some very appealing ceiling flush-mounted lighting panels.
Aside from scrutiny of the design, there's very little else to go on here, as Toyota's pretty mum on what's making this alleged plug-in hybrid go. Without any better information, I'm going to spread a rumor that it's going to use a 475cc air cooled flat-twin that's based on the old 2CV motor, coupled to a potent electric motor sourced from Otis, the elevator company. That sounds about right to me. There's also no mention of what sort of batteries, so let's assume 3000 AAs.
The concept does have a vast suite of driver assist aids, including sub-millimeter wave radar to help the presumably Facebook-distracted driver avoid swerving into other lanes or running into anybody.
Toyota suggests a global introduction by 2015, but I'd counsel against anyone holding their breath.


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Question: Several times in the last year I've been forced to run the repair option of CHECKDB because of corruption affecting a database and backups being unavailable. In one case the database was a replication publication database and I followed the Books Online guidelines to reinitialize it's subscribers after running repair. Can you explain why this is necessary?
Answer: Any time that the REPAIR_ALLOW_DATA_LOSS option of DBCC CHECKDB (hereafter just called 'repair') is used, you need to consider the effect on replication if the database being repaired is a publication database.
There are two cases to consider – if the repairs affected the replication metadata tables or not. The simplest is when they did not affect the replication metadata tables.
When using merge replication, changes to the publication database are captured using DML triggers. When using transactional replication, changes to the publication database are captured by analyzing the database's transaction log and converting the logged operations into logical operations on the database. In both cases the logical operations are then applied to the replication subscribers.
Neither of these mechanisms allows the capture of operations performed by repair. Repair operations are always direct physical changes to the database structures to fix inconsistencies in the structures (e.g. a database page, table record, or a linkage between two pages), as opposed to physical changes because of queries performing inserts, updates, or deletes on tables.
These repair operations cannot translate into logical operations that can be applied to replication subscribers because there are no logical operations than can be expressed using Transact-SQL for the equivalent of the direct structural changes that repair is performing. This means that if any table that is part of a replication publication is changed by a repair operation, the replication subscription is no longer valid and must be reinitialized.
As an example, imagine a repair operation is forced to remove a data page from a unique clustered index (essentially deleting some table records), and the subscription is NOT reinitialized. Those records would still exist on the replicated copy of the table. If a subsequent insert operation inserted records with cluster key values corresponding to the records deleted by the repair operation, the Distribution Agent would fail when trying to apply the inserts to the replicated copy – because the repair operation was not applied to the subscription database and a duplicate key violation error will occur when attempting to apply the insert to the replicated table.
A replication subscription must always be reinitialized if any table in the publication is affected by a repair operation.
If the repair operation affects any of the replication metadata tables, the entire replication publication is in an inconsistent state and replication must be removed completely and reconfigured. This is a much more invasive process than just reinitializing a subscription, obviously.
You can read a little more about when you should do this in the SQL Server Books Online for DBCC CHECKDB.


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Proper use of high quality files, burrs and grinding pin sets can dramatically improve the final appearance and feel of your work, leaving you with a far more professional-looking and user-friendly finished product.
What types of deburring tools are best for which jobs?
- Engineers files are the generic name for most types of hand file, typically consisting of a sturdy length of metal with teeth cut into one or both sides.
- Theyre typically used wherever excess material or rough edges needs to be removed from a wide range of materials, including both wood and metal.
- Theyre good for a range of crafting techniques, including deburring, shaping and smoothing
- Theyre available in a very broad range of tool types and specific uses, including mill files, taper saw files, crosscut files, can saw files, auger bit files, flat files and warding files
- Choose a full file set for the easiest way to get all the essential file types in one handy package
- Needle files are a smaller file type used for shaping, smoothing and finishing materials such as metal, wood, plastic, ceramic, glass, stone, and polymer clay.
- They come in numerous different profiles: Round, Half Round, Barrette, Pillar (Flat), Warding, Knife, Crossing, Square, Oval, Slitting, Crochet and Three Square (Triangle)
- See also thread files (also known as thread restoring files) for a tool specifically designed with teeth that fit inside screw, nut or bolt threading to clean them out or cut away any blockages
- Burrs (also known as rotary files) and burr sets are small cutting tools that usually consist of a rounded cylindrical piece of metal, again with teeth cut into one end.
- Theyre most commonly used to neaten and smooth the rough ridges (burrs) of a worked object/material, or to grind down any sharp edges left after drilling, welding or pipework - his is known as deburring
- Burrs and burr sets are available for use on most materials, including steel, aluminium, stone, ceramics, hardwood, and plastic
... Read more


text:
Source: The Weekly Chronicle (Elyria, Ohio), July 5, 1902, page 5.
A happy banker was stepping high Monday afternoon. A little son came to the home of W.C. LeMaster and wife.
This is the birth announcement of Ralph Morgan LeMaster (1902-1977), son of William Clifford and Lella Edith (LEWIS) LeMASTER.
A photo of Ralph in his Marine uniform was posted earlier.


text:
Saturday, March 2 – Monday, March 4
Celebrate Chicago's Birthday at Eli's Cheesecake Bakery Café
Visit our bakery on Chicago's northwest side for a FREE slice of Eli's Original Plain Cheesecake (one per person, please).
Eli's Cheesecake Bakery Café
6701 W. Forest Preserve Drive
Chicago, IL 60634
Chicago's Official 176th Birthday Celebration
See Eli's giant birthday cheesecake created by Executive Pastry Chef Laurel Boger, which will be served free to all guests while supplies last.
Monday, March 4, 11:30am-1pm
Chicago History Museum
1601 N. Clark St.
Chicago, IL 60614
Virtual Celebration
For those who can't join in the fun in Chicago, our online celebration features 40% off our Original Plain or Chocolate Chip Cheesecakes, Monday-Tuesday at 11am CT.


text:
need help with laws regarding withdrawing dd from high schoo
Find or post information on the legal aspects of homeschooling in your state.
Moderators: Theodore, elliemaejune
3 posts • Page 1 of 1
need help with laws regarding withdrawing dd from high schoo
I am new to homeschooling and am taking my daughter out of 9th grade to homeschool. She is currently 16.5 years old. It was my understanding that in MA she is passed the compulsory age and I shouldn't have to submit a curriculum plan or have anything to do with them. Not that I'm totally opposed but I would like to stick to the state guidelines. I'm under the impression that they are not totally familiar with the laws. The guidance counsellor has informed me that I will have to fill out papers and submit her work for review to them and they would grant her a diploma at the end of her senior year. I thought I didn't have to do that and would be free to teach her at her own pace and own way while still fulfilling state requirements. If anyone has had similliar situations any advice would be greatly appreciated. Also, if anyone knows any websites where I could find the law for MA so I could bring a copy with me when I go to the school that would be great. Thanks
http://www.doe.mass.edu/lawsregs/603cmr ... section=02 specifies minimum age, but I can't seem to find the exact location of the law for maximum age. However, the age of consent in MA is 16 (search for "Massachusetts" and "16 years of age" in Google), and HSLDA says the law can be found in: Mass. Regs. Code tit. 603, § 8.02. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 76, § 1.
Yes, you can just pull her out and finish the high school requirements for MA on your own to your own satisfaction.
Yes, you can just pull her out and finish the high school requirements for MA on your own to your own satisfaction.
withdrawing 16 y.o from high school
thanks so much!
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We present a list of some of the toughest words to spell, pulled straight from the collections
This week, we have a lot of really smart kids in town here to compete in the 2011 Scripps National Spelling Bee. The preliminaries began this morning at 8 AM EST and while we're sure we couldn't beat the 275 spellers in competition this year, the ATM blog team has come up with a list of words from around the Smithsonian, likely to stump even the savviest speller.
1. The P-Horse. It's so hard to spell and pronounce that even the Zoo resorts to this nickname for the Przewalski's Horse. Pronounced sheh-val-skee, the horse is named after 19th-century Polish naturalist Colonel Nikolai Przewalski, who found a skull of the horse and studied it in St. Petersburg. The brown-coated equine is native to eastern Europe and the Great Steppe crossing into Asia.
2. Artists—While math is the subject most commonly cited as a favorite among the spelling bee competitors this year, it doesn't really require a lot of complicated spelling. Art or artists, rather, frequently do. The ATM staff has to be extra careful when writing about Georgia O'Keeffe (two e's, two f's), James McNeill Whistler (two l's, no a) or Charles Willson (two l's) Peale. The worst one is Eadweard Muybridge, who has way too many vowels in his first name. Check out their work at the American Art Museum and see if their art is any easier to understand than their names are to spell.
3. Volcanoes—Last year, a volcano erupted in Iceland, shutting down air traffic across Europe for days and affecting millions of passengers. Its name, the impossible to decipher Eyjafjallajökull. Considering that the bee contestants hail from around the United States, its territories and Department of Defense schools around the world, some might perchance live near one of the tough volcano names studied by the scientists at the Global Volcanism Program.
4. History—To help prepare for a spelling bee, many competitors study the origins of words. Learning about the origins of man, dinosaurs, civilizations and ancient life forms might be just as daunting. Walk around the halls of the Natural History Museum and learn more about ornithology, ichthyology, Ardipithecus ramidus, Australopithecus afarensis and Paranthropus boisei, including how to spell them. Over at American History, there's Evel Knievel's motorcycle and the Stephen Colbert portrait. Why is it pronounced like he's French? Is he hiding something from us?
5. Airplanes—Some of this year's competitors traveled long distances to arrive at the bee, including 94 who are on their very first visit to the nation's capital. But none probably rode on airplanes with names as complicated as: De Havilland, Mikoyan-Gurevich or Messerschmitt. See what other aeronautical tongue twisters you can find at the Air and Space Museum.
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ACLU To Sue If Kansas Fails to Comply With Federal Voting Law
Kris Kobach: One man, one vote--but not every man?
The American Civil Liberties Union today put Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach on notice that it will take legal action if the state does not comply with federal voting law.
ACLU national and the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri sent a letter to Kobach saying the state's failure to adhere to the National Voting Rights Act has prevented thousands of Kansans from registering to vote.
More than one-third of voter registration applications submitted in Kansas this year – approximately 14,000 – are being held in "suspense," essentially in limbo, by the state.
Kansas has a documentary proof-of-citizenship law essentially identical to an Arizona law struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in June. That Arizona measure required those registering to vote to show documentary proof of citizenship beyond what is required by federal voter registration forms.
In Kansas, however, many of those who are seeking to register have complied with the state's proof-of-citizenship requirement, but have still ended up in suspense. "Kansans are simply trying to exercise their constitutional right to vote. This is the most fundamental freedom we have as Americans, yet Secretary of State Kobach is blocking thousands upon thousands of Kansans from their rightful participation in the political process. This is un-American, unconstitutional and must end immediately," said Dale Ho, director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project.
Among the violations cited by the ACLU: Kansas has failed to register to vote thousands of applicants for driver's licenses due to a faulty computer system. These are people who have fully complied with all legal requirements for both driver's licenses and voter registration. Kansas has also defied the Supreme Court's ruling in the Arizona case by continuing to demand documentary proof of citizenship from individuals applying to register with the federal voter registration form.
These unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles have deprived thousands of Kansans of their right to register to vote. "The right to vote is the fundamental building block for all other American freedoms, and Kansas' unconstitutional proof-of-citizenship requirement is preventing thousands of Kansas citizens from completing the registration process for no good purpose. This notice is the first shot across the bow in our fight to protect the right to vote in Kansas," said Doug Bonney, legal director of the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri.
The state has 90 days to comply with federal law before facing legal action. The letter was sent by the ACLU on behalf of several individuals and the NAACP Kansas State Conference, the Lawrence and Douglas County League of Women Voters, and Equality Kansas, Inc.
Read the full letter here
Latest comments
Ann GarrisonFebruary 22,2018 @ 08:03 PM
I think you have "Filtered HTML" turned on here. If you switch to "Full HTML," it will probably...


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Kevin Burk, a former professional player, enters his seventh season as assistant coach for the men's NCAA Division I program at Lipscomb University.
Burk, a native of Serverna Park, Md., played professionally five years in both indoor and outdoor leagues in the Division I USL and MISL.
Burk is a 2001 graduate of Belmont Abbey College, a prominent Division II soccer program located in Belmont, N.C. While at the Abbey, Burk captained the team for three seasons and in the process earned Team MVP in 2000, All-Tournament Team in 2001 and 1st- Team All Conference honors from 1999-2001. In 2001 Burk was the first Abbey player to earn 1st-Team All South Region honors.
As a professional Burk has played in more than 100 games as a midfielder and forward earning numerous Player-of-the-Week honors. Burk played outdoors in the USL for the Carolina Dynamo, Greenville Lions, and Milwaukee Wave United. Indoors, Burk competed in the MISL. After an expansion draft, Burk was acquired from the Harrisburg Heat and chosen in the first round by Milwaukee Wave and two seasons later was a part of winning the league.
Burk has been a frequent guest speaker at banquets, schools, organizations and soccer clubs on the dangers of drugs and alcohol. Since 2006, Burk has been to more than 25 Elementary and Middle schools in Sumner, Rutherford and Davidson county encouraging students to set goals, pursue their dreams and stay in school.
Burk arrived on the Lipscomb campus in 2005 and was instrumental in helping Lipscomb earn a Top 10 Division I Most Improved Team in 2006. In 2007 Burk was part of helping the men's program qualify for the Conference Tournament (first time ever) and advance to the second round. Burk has been coaching club soccer for over 10 years with various boys and girls teams. Burk is training NPSA, a local club team in Nashville.
Kevin is the co-founder and Coaching Director of St. Bartholomew's Soccer Academy, a local recreational soccer league in Nashville.
He holds a USSF National "A" License, NSCAA Regional GK Diploma and is a U.S .Club Soccer ID2 scout.
Burk earned his MBA at Lipscomb, graduating in 2007.
He is married to the former Laura Aylsworth. Their first child, a daughter, Isabella, was born in August 2008. They live in Nashville.


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|Zoom In
In theory, triathlon apparel should work as a system of derivatives. Compression should lead to support, support should lead to comfort, and this harmonious trifecta should deliver podium results. However, it's all too common that one piece only delivers one attribute. Thankfully, though, the 2XU Compression Tri Women's Singlet has been masterfully engineered in order to provide the ultimate in race-day singlets. With the benefits of innovative compression technology, a cutting-edge fabric selection, and a fit that's second-to-none, the Compression Tri Singlet delivers an unrivaled competitive edge, whether on land or in the water.
Starting with the Tri Singlet's fabric composition, 2XU constructed the main body from its 70D/CK fabric. We know, we're not fans of titles filled with seemingly arbitrary numbers and letters, either. So, let's make some sense of this fabric. Basically, the '70D' stands for 70 denier. What's a denier? Simply put, a denier is a unit of measure for the weight of a fabric. Technically speaking, it measures a fabric's grams-per-9000-meters. And while a typical recovery compression piece features a material choice around 200 deniers and up, the Tri Singlet uses a lighter, less constricting 70 denier fabric. This means, that you still receive a focused, graduated compression, but the most direct gains are made through limiting muscle oscillation. So, whether you're getting slapped by wakes, getting rattled in the saddle, or pummeled by your pounding on the pavement, the 70D/CK fabric provides an enhanced level of muscle support that will minimize fatigue.
And on the subject of fatigue, we'll jump into the main draw of the Tri Singlet, its compressive qualities. You hear the term 'compression' thrown out there often. However, its true meaning, especially for race-day applications, is typically shrouded in ubiquity. So, forget what you've heard about lactic acid suppression, and enter into the world of enhanced blood circulation. Without getting too scientific, 2XU designed the Tri Singlet to have different strengths of compression in accordance to a position's distance from the heart. So, the further from the heart, the stronger the fabric compression, and the closer to the heart, the lower the compression. Basically, this design places a pressure on the veins and arteries that forces the circulatory system to work faster. Accordingly, your muscles receive more oxygen, and thus muscle fatigue is thoroughly reduced, while power outputs and thresholds are increased.
Not surprisingly, while the aforementioned attributes would be enough for most to call it a day, 2XU was just getting started. For the actual fit of the Tri Singlet, 2XU approached the cut with an anatomic, multi-paneled, and contoured designed. This means that the panels are meant to support specific muscle groups, while the shape perfectly conforms to the female body throughout the various motions of a triathlon. Additionally, 2XU placed an engineering focus on limiting the detrimental fatigue caused by the heat of the sun. What it came up with is its ICE X fabric. This material is capable of reducing body temperatures by around five degrees Fahrenheit, while maintaining a dark color. So, in difficult conditions, your core temperature will remain cooler, and your perspiration will quickly evaporate.
For storage of race-day essentials, the Tri Singlet features a rear pocket.
The 2XU Compression Women's Tri Singlet is available in five sizes from X-Small to X-Large and in the colors Black/black, Indigo/cloudy blue, and White/gray.


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Toll Free Support
Odds are if we sell a product, we have a holiday themed equivalent. Halloween is no exception. This is a great starting point for personalizing Halloween themed items, but, if you want to dig a little deeper, we have tons of costume items including wigs, masks, and fun hats. Don't forget about our customized glow in the dark products, which fit in with a creepy atmosphere like a tree fits in a forest. For more product ideas, try the search bar or asking us in the chat below!


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Shape Studio
Viewer Comments
I have all the "crockpots", now I want to purchase more charms...how do I do that? I don't see them in the on line catalog...Hope we can...!! Thanks!
Reply from Paper Wishes Customer Service:
Yes you can order them separately, here are the numbers:
heart charm 4004764
square (it's also double sided) 4004762
1" round 4004763
Why can I not watch these newer videos on low band width. I do not have high speed internet.
Reply from Paper Wishes Customer Service:
We did go to high definition processing and I bet that is what is happening. I've talked to our IT guys and this week they will place a slow bandwidth option for this week and last week's webisodes. They will offer that option from now on. Each week they will go back and put it on a previous webisode working from most current back. I'm very grateful you took the time to place the comment.
Haven't tried these yet, looks like a lot of fun and so many applications!
I always love your webisodes. But I wish you would of shown more how to make the charms.
Reply from Paper Wishes Customer Service:
I'm sorry we didn't make that clear. After you use the Shape Studio to create the shape, just glue it into the matching charm shape. That's it!
i heard the word 'new' used several times in this video. also a winter 2012 catalog was mentioned-is this new? have i missed somethings??
Reply from Paper Wishes Customer Service:
You haven't missed anything. We've just sent the Jan. Winter Paper Wishes catalog to the printer but we wanted to share some of the newest items like these Shape Studios. The catalog will be coming to you the week of Jan. 9.
The Shape Studio will have to be the next thing I'll have to get to help me with my cards. These are awesome shapes.
I have one of the Shape Studios and I love using it. The new shapes are wonderful and the jewelry tags, Wow! I think I'll have to grow my collection of Shape Studios!
Paper Wishes Weekly Webisodes feature free scrapbooking video classes and card making video classes! Every week Paulette and LeNae bring you new online scrapbooking or card making classes demonstrating the very latest paper craft and scrapbooking techniques. Each of our free card making and scrapbooking classes also gives you unique project ideas and tips from Paper Wishes' Design Team. Come back often so you don't miss any of the fun in our card making and scrapbooking classes! You are sure to be inspired! Also watch for our "Week of Webisodes" events where we feature new scrapbooking video classes daily!


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Years before he rose to become the U.S. Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop was an innovative physician who, though serious about his profession, remained intensely humble, said an Oceanside health care leader who once worked with him.
Tri-City Healthcare District board member RoseMarie Reno said she worked with Koop from 1958 to 1960 when she was a nurse at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Koop, who later served as surgeon general from 1982 to 1989, died Monday at age 96.
Reno said Tuesday that at The Children's Hospital, Koop was chief surgeon who performed delicate surgery on infants born with heart defects.
"His demeanor was very calm, very professional, even in the operating room," said Reno, "Sometimes in the operating room today, you get a lot of joking, kidding around. We didn't find that too much. It was all seriousness."
She recalled that Koop and two of his colleagues developed a treatment for helping babies recover from surgery — a crib with a special tent over the top.
"At the end of the crib, they had a unit with oxygen flowing over ice," Reno said. "It was like a mist flowing over the crib."
The purpose of the contraption was to keep a baby's temperature down "to heal more quickly," Reno said.
"He was ahead of his time, indeed, he was certainly ahead of his time," she said.
Out of the operating room, Koop took a personal interest in his patients.
"Every case to him was individualized and he took care of every child as though it were his own," Reno said.
She said Koop also had a close affinity with those he worked with.
At the annual Christmas party "he would joke and join us and just be one of us," Reno said. "He was a humble man at heart the way I knew him, very humble."
Well respected by his colleagues, Koop did not brag of his accomplishments, Reno said.
"The man was a very well educated man. He was not a boastful man. When he was talking, he was not boastful. He spoke with an eloquence that was based on fact and research," she said. "I looked on him as a professor who based his opinions on fact and knowledge."
When Koop was appointed surgeon general, Reno said "I thought he deserved it."
"He took his medical education to heart and he did something with it, he made things happen," Reno said.
Although she lost touch with Koop, Reno said she ran into him several years ago at a medical gathering in San Diego and much to her surprise, he remembered her by name.
"I consider myself fortunate to have known him, to have worked with him and to have the experience in my lifetime to be associated with Dr. Koop," Reno said. "To me, this was such an honor."


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I'm not about to express surprise at the fact that it's cold in winter. By the standards of a LOT of people I can think of, the temperatures we're facing this week – an average of about -7°C during the day – are temperate, mild, even balmy by comparison with quite extensive other parts of the world.
But what never ceases to amaze me in Southern Germany is just how dry cold can be. Having spent my formative years in the insular climate of lowland areas of the UK, especially on the coast, I'm used to cold being accompanied by wet. I expect a daytime thaw even when there's snow on the ground, and so the fact of the snow just staying the same for days on end, simply because it remains frozen and can't go anywhere or change its consistency, is quite weird. It strikes me as eerily Groundhog-Day-like, so maybe it's appropriate that I'm writing this post today of all days!
What's struck me particularly today is that even though there is absolutely no snow or visible patches of ice on the streets here in the middle of the city (the picture above is of the North-facing roof of the house), the street surfaces nevertheless have an odd look to them, a pale, dusty, almost mildewed-looking grey. It's like a thin salt crust or sprinkling of talcum, very dull and matte, and not in the least slippery. I'm guessing the tiny moisture droplets in the air are simply freezing on contact with the frozen ground and causing this strange effect. It's definitely not salt as it darkens and then disappears if you warm it.
It's odd how little details of a place's climate can astonish you even after many years of living there, but at the same time it's pleasing to be able to marvel at something that must strike many other people as ordinary or insignificant.
Postscript: Following on from a discussion of this with Rolf on Twitter, I have now been reminded that this phenomenon is called deposition or desublimation – in this case the direct transformation of water vapour (i.e. gas, not droplets) into ice in sub-freezing conditions. Thanks Rolf!


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[ cross posted from Whirlpool so apologies if you see this twice ]
Is anyone else in the Epping / Carlingford / Eastwood / Marsfield area experiencing 30% packet loss on first hop?
In practical terms it means painfully slow browsing.
I've logged a ticket and booked a technician appointment (nothing available until 21st Jan!) and part of the support process was downloading something from bigpond.com which went at 8kB/s.
Just wondering if the issue is local to me/my street or if there is a wider issue that the Bigpond tools have not picked up.
Relevant details I can think of:
If any Bigpond techs want to poke into this further please reply or email me — happy to provide more details to help resolve this.
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Hey Goosmurf,
I've checked the national and NSW network report and i could not see any major issues reported for those suburbs. Not to say there may not be something up, but the current fault report and planned outages report are not showing up too much
Might have to wait and see what the Tech says as it could very well be a localised or hardware issue. I might see if I can get someone to push an earlier appointment date for you though if you'd like?
Hey Josh,
Thanks for following up
An earlier appointment would be really appreciated as I work from home so rely heavily on my cable access.
I'll PM you my details.
I too have also had problems with my Cable in Epping, NSW. We have never had a problem before but starting on wednesday we have been getting constant drop outs and our modem is not showing a connection to the internet present. Ever now and then we will get access for about 10-15 minutes then it drops out for another couple of hours.
I have also been told that the 21st of Jan is the earliest time for a technician to come out which I believe is completely unacceptable, especially since our household relies on the internet for business and study.
Hey DX101,
My cable is back to normal this morning - no packet loss & speedy. Is yours ok now?
I'll give it a few more days before cancelling the appointment in case the problem recurs though.
Just to add that I have also experienced the same issues as the OP (I'm in Marsfield), so I think we can safely rule out hardware or a problem localised to a single property. It had been rock-solid stable at 30Mbps before Wednesday evening.
I'm at work a the moment so I cannot comment on the current state of connectivity, but during the last two evenings I have been suffering from packet loss resulting in webpages loading at a crawl, or requiring a refresh or two.
Hey guys,
I've already started making enquiries today to get the issue looked into further, starting to sound like there may be a problem in the area for sure. Will keep you posted
Hey guys,
The local Customer Service Manager for Sydney North is having a look into things with the local Network crew to see if something's up now. I'll be back with another update as more information comes though.
My net is out again and has been so for about an hour. Typing this from my phone. Phone support is denying that there is any problem at all and even had the nerve to tell me that my best solution was to buy a telstra wireless device. My faith in Telstra has never been sky high but at this point after all the frustration I am considering other carriers.
Hey DX101,
In my earlier post I identified that there aren't any confirmed reported faults at the moment which have shown up on our network reports. Unfortunately that would be why the guys over the phone would not have been able to confirm any known issues at the moment.
I've got the local crew looking into it now though so hopefully we should have some news for you soon. In the mean time, so that our network guys can get as much info on who's being affected and what the problems are in the surrounding area, I could recommend to lodge a fault report with Bigpond Tech Support on 133 933. The network crews can use these incoming fault reports to assess the situation better and get a fix on it
Done that. Apperently they need to send a technician on the 21st which is the earliest time. Poor form ... very poor form. It seems like Telstra is content with their level of customer service (or lack there of) and tell people that their priority technicall issue doesn't warrant immediate support or at the bare minimum a 24hour turn around.
And for people like me who have had this problem now for 3 days... that is a very unacceptable answer.
I totally understand, it can be a bit hard when an emerging issue like this is still in the investigation stage.
Just to clarify with you though, the technical appointment will assess your individual premises for any fault that may be occuring due to faults on site. However, if we have just stumbled upon a wider scale issue, the fault may not necessarily be able to be resolved with an appointment. If something like an equipment or hardware failure in the network is generating these issues, the network teams which are investigating will need to work their magic on the infrastructure that may be struggling.
From a personal point of view, i've been here before. I've got cable at home up in brissy here and only a few months ago we had rolling issues for about a week and there was nothing a technical visit or any of my own troubleshooting could achieve because of what was going on behind the scenes. It was almost exactly what you have described, dropping in and out randomly (and constantly), slow speed when it was actually working, I found it frustrating as hell! however if it does turn into a network level issue like mine was, it's the waiting game for all of us
My frustration is no longer at the situation but at the level of respect customer service is showing me a paying customer.
I know a technician may or may not be able to solve the issue but to have a technician scheduled for 11 days (which is apperently the earliest) after the initial fault was reported is beyond bad customer service. Especially since I have made it clear that my income relies on having an active connection and I have people living with me that need the net for study.
Also to be told that there was no issue with the service which is absolute bull and that there is no current outages, when clearly looking on whirlpool forums and these forums there is.
It just seems Telstra is covering their eyes. What they don't see isn't really there right?
I'm really at breaking point. I have never been treated with such disrespect from any company.
Of course that has no bearing on you JCKH. I appreciate your help. At least you have been helpful to the process.
I really do think that Telstra has lost touch with it's customers.
*Very* patchy here again this evening in Marsfield
It was fine all day here (Epping) but this evening a bit of loss has appeared.
Packets Pings Host Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev 1. 10.204.32.1 4.0% 200 7.8 8.4 6.0 24.5 2.4 2. 188.8.131.52 6.5% 200 8.6 9.0 6.6 32.4 2.9 3. 184.108.40.206 6.5% 200 12.5 9.6 6.9 21.8 2.6 4. 172.18.239.38 6.5% 200 8.0 9.3 6.6 25.1 2.9 5. 172.18.117.33 8.5% 200 8.0 8.8 6.9 20.9 2.1 6. 172.18.117.44 7.5% 200 13.1 9.4 6.6 27.3 2.8 7. 172.18.239.9 7.0% 200 12.2 11.9 8.0 30.8 3.0 8. Bundle-Ether10.ken39.Sydney.tels 7.5% 200 10.2 12.0 8.1 27.9 2.9 9. Bundle-Ether6.ken-core4.Sydney.t 8.0% 200 13.4 15.1 7.5 26.3 3.8 10. TenGigabitEthernet8-1.pit1.Sydne 9.5% 200 8.9 10.4 7.1 100.7 8.5 11. pitt-tcom-r01 10.0% 200 7.7 9.3 6.9 28.5 2.7 12. 220.127.116.11 11.0% 200 8.3 9.3 6.9 26.3 2.8 13. 126.96.36.199 4.5% 200 9.2 22.4 7.1 102.8 24.7
Varies dramatically here, but currently >50% packet loss when pinging google.com. Doesn't make for a fun surfing experience...
Lots of packet loss here again yesterday evening and this morning. I am tired of having no internet for 3+ hours and then when it does come on the packet loss is so huge it takes ages to load a single webpage.
Way to go Telstra. Simply denying you have a problem doesn't mean you don't.
Anyone else still experiencing issues this morning?
Yes, there is still significant packet loss here.
Yeah called Telstra again. It doesn't seem like they want to do anything to help their paying customers.
So I've had constant packet loss around 5% for all of today, spiking up to 50% this evening. The connection dropped out completely (as in the Cisco's status went from "Operational" back to "Scanning") about 5 times between 9pm and midnight. Very annoying
hi Guys,
I live in Marsfield, just realised that my issue is same. Came back from vacation two days ago and connection have been playing up since that.
Here are my pings to google.com (which is located in Syd):
Ping statistics for 22.214.171.124:
Packets: Sent = 918, Received = 853, Lost = 65 (7% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 8ms, Maximum = 552ms, Average = 64ms
Currently waiting to speak to the operator.
Could someone from Telstra please chase this up? I am away in Melbourne until the end of the week, but I hope very much that this issue is resolved by the time I return to Sydney. There is clearly a network issue which is affecting a number of people (we are likely to be a small subset!) that is not being picked up by the normal diagnostics tools.
Hey guys,
I've just checked the Network report this morning and the issue has been logged and a fix is currently underway. Unfortunately I don't have access to the nitty gritty details of the actual case, I just get a general overview so I don't have an ETA for a fix, but I'm going to make a couple enquiries and see what I can find out.
In the mean time hold tight guys, the ball is definately rolling on this one!
Thanks for the update JCKH, much appreciated. Fingers crossed for a speedy fix.
*Touching wood* - all good this evening in Marsfield
Ping statistics for 126.96.36.199: Packets: Sent = 429, Received = 429, Lost = 0 (0% loss), Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 6ms, Maximum = 245ms, Average = 13ms
Ditto -- I've been sampling the packet loss every 5 minutes and since about 4:30pm there's been no loss. Fingers crossed it stays like that!
They've closed off the fault case as well so it all looks good from here too
I started to get packet loss around 3pm today, and then a dropout. Modem was able to reconnect but packet loss was really high so I eventually rebooted the cable modem in the hope that might help things. The (Cisco) modem hasn't been able to connect since -- stuck in "Scanning".
Called Bigpond tech support and diagnostics suggest there is something wrong with my modem. The consultant said something about "two of your lines are green, but one is red", not sure what that means. Booked technician for 4th Feb and she told me even if the service becomes operational again I should not cancel the tech because my modem is somehow faulty.
The timing is a little too coincidental though.
I also notice that Telstra Next G data performance atm is pretty woeful, makes me wonder if there is a general connectivity issue affecting the northern suburbs...
Yep I just got back home and ran some tests on my net because I was getting huge ping spikes on my remote server.
12-42% packet loss running a 50 ping test to google.
C'mon Telstra pick up your game!
Having just fixed the issue it is unacceptable to have it happen again so soon.
Seems to have stabalized. Although for how long?
How is it today guys?
The problem went away around 7pm last night.
Is it possible to find out what happened?
I'm dubious that there is a problem with my modem as diagnosed by tech support but without any other explanation I'm inclined to keep my technician appointment even though I suspect it will be a waste of time for all involved. It's all around sad as both a customer & shareholder of Telstra.
I think you're right there, given the situation surrounding the original fault i would highly doubt it's a modem issue too.
Just see how it pans out over the next few days until the tech appointment and just make sure to make a good note on time/date/impact if it does occur again as it will be good information for the tech to have. As well, if it does happen more often between now and then let me know and i'll send some requests out from my end here and see what I can work up with the Sydney crews
Problems again this morning. It dropped out around 11:30am.
<timestamp> <packet loss %age>
2012-01-30 11:21:50 36
2012-01-30 11:27:07 90
2012-01-30 11:31:50 60
2012-01-30 11:36:45 54
2012-01-30 11:41:50 22
2012-01-30 11:46:46 16
Hey guys,
I've just sent fired off a couple of emails to get some clarification about whats happening around the area there and get some sort of resolution. Keep making a note of any service disruptions in case we need to provide some specifics about the more recent issues. Will keep you guys in the loop as I hear back.
The problem is happening again now.
North Ryde here. My UBR is 10.204.96.1 and I'm currently seeing approx 8% packet loss.
Hey guys,
Good news! I've been contacted by a network engineer in the local area down there and i'm getting the ball rolling now to find out whats going on and what we need to do to fix it. More to come!
Thanks for keeping an eye out for us Josh. Fingers crossed
This morning at North Ryde I'm seeing 20% packet loss and some high (>900ms) pings.
Hey guys,
We got technicians out having a look at the Epping Hub right now and it looks like they've identified the issue. Shouldn't be too far off a fix now
With direct debit there's no need to give paying your bill another thought.
Avoid queuing up and never worry about late fees again.Setup direct debit


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After playing catch-up for several years, LG Mobiles is finally in a position to take charge. Samsung is still the market leader by a huge margin, but the Nexus 4 succeeded in instilling the belief among consumers that LG can also make good smartphones. Last week, LG Electronics India (LGEI) launched its latest flagship Android smartphone – the LG G2. The G2 has a lot riding in it. LGEI expects to pick up 10% of the Indian market share by the end of the year, and it's targeting Rs. 200 crore in revenue from the G2. On paper the G2 is a monster; however, how does it stack in real life? Read on to find out.
Appearance, Display and Battery
Unlike in the Nexus 4 or the Optimus G, the G2 is made entirely out of plastic. There's no metal or glass to be found anywhere in the construction. Personally, I don't mind the absence of glass. There's no denying that the aluminium bodied Xperia Z1 exudes a more premium feel, but avoiding metal often helps in bringing down the cost and reducing weight, and glass is way too fragile to be practical in a device that you're going to use day in and day out. However, what I'm disappointed about is the return to the cheap glossy exterior that LG had done so well to avoid in its 2012 line-up. The rear cover has a reflective pattern that's mildly interesting, but the glossy finishing means that it's a smudge magnet. The battery in the Indian version of the G2 isn't user replaceable, but that has allowed LG to fit in a giant 3000 mAh battery in the relatively compact dimensions (138.5 x 70.9 x 8.9 mm) of the G2. However, even with a plastic body, the G2 is fairly heavy, weighing about 143g.
The most distinctive feature of the G2 is its button placement. All the buttons in the G2 are placed at the back, just underneath the camera. This seems counter-intuitive and definitely takes some getting used to. In fact, this is probably the single most debated aspect of G2. When I began using the G2, I wasn't entirely convinced about the idea. In theory, the button placement made sense. Single handed operation isn't exactly a joy in most recent top-of-the-line droids, and the reason for that is that reaching buttons placed on the top or on the sides is difficult for anyone with normal sized palms. The G2's rear buttons should be a lot more convenient to use since they are placed just where your index finger should reside while normally gripping the phone. In practice, things didn't start so well. For the first couple of days, I had to repeatedly turn my phone to see where the buttons were. However, things improved quickly as muscle memory kicked in. After just a week of regular usage, I instinctively knew exactly where the home and the volume buttons were . In fact, the rear-buttons are now among my favourite things about the G2. LG deserves to be applauded for coming up with the concept and being brave enough to use it in their flagship.
The gorgeous edge-to-edge full-HD display that we saw in the G Pro has gotten even better in the G2. The G2 features a 5.2'' full-HD (1920×1080) IPS display with a 424 ppi pixel density. This is a good two inches more than the Sony Z1 and the Samsung Galaxy S4. However, the G2 is actually smaller than the Z1 and about the same size as the S4, thanks to its extremely slim bezels, which almost vanishes when the display is off. As far as quality is concerned, there isn't a single thing that I could find to criticize. The colour reproduction is brilliant, viewing angles are great, and outdoor visibility is never an issue.
As I mentioned earlier, the battery in the Indian version of G2 is non-user replaceable. However, this has allowed LG to use a special step design to pack in more power. I didn't run any benchmarks, but the G2's battery backup is among the best I've seen in high-end smartphones. It'll easily last through a day and a half of normal usage on 3G, and will probably keep on ticking for well over two days on 2G. LG claims a talktime of 21 hours on 3G and 31 hours on 2G.
The LG G2 is powered by the mighty Snapdragon 800 chipset, which includes a quad-core Krait 400 processor clocked at 2.26 GHz, and an Adreno 330 GPU. In terms of performance, the G2 is in the same league as the Note 3, Xperia Z1, and Xperia Z Ultra, and ahead of pretty much everything else. No matter what you do, performance is never an issue with this phone. It maxed out the normal 3D Mark benchmark, maxed out a few of the tests in the 3D Mark Extreme benchmark, and was in the top 3 in the 3D Mark Ultra benchmark. The G2 has crazy amounts of processing power, which allows it to do stuff like zoom into full-HD videos and play them in windowed mode with adjustable transparency.
Quadrant Benchmark Score
3D Mark Ultra Benchmark Results
My review unit has 16 GB internal storage; however, a 32 GB model is also available. I'd recommend going for the latter since it's only a couple of thousand rupees more expensive and the absence of any expandable memory support makes the extra storage crucial. The LG G2 has all sorts of connectivity options that you can imagine. Some of them are Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi direct, DLNA, Bluetooth 4.0 with Low Energy mode support, and USB on-the-go. The chipset that LG is using is LTE enabled; however, the units being sold in India are 3G only. I suspect that LG might have disabled the LTE chip to conserve power. LG didn't elaborate if it's possible to later enable the LTE functionality through an update.
I'm not an Android puritan, and don't by default hate all software customizations. With that being said, it's worth nothing that my main complaints with the G2 are all software related. There are a bunch of unique features in the G2. The first one that you're going to encounter is the Knock-on feature. One of the disadvantages of having the power button at the back is that you've to lift up to phone to unlock it. Knock-on attempts to alleviate this issue by allowing you to unlock the G2 by simply tapping on the screen twice. The concept is deceptively simple and brilliant. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work. It works most of the time, but it also fails enough times to make me prefer the physical button over Knock-on.
The G2's built-in launcher is among the better ones, and is capable enough to not make me miss any of the third-party launchers. It has all the essential features including folders and dock, and even throws in a few fancy features like multiple transition effects.
The G2 runs on Android 4.2.2, which is recent enough, but is still a version older than what Samsung Note 3 ships with. This isn't as big a deal as it used to be, since Google has decoupled a lot of functionality from Android updates. Sure, I'd love to have Android 4.3 on-board, but I don't feel like missing out on anything significant even with Android 4.2.
Somewhat disappointingly, LG hasn't opted to leverage the Quick Settings feature introduced in Android 4.2. Instead, it has retained its old Notification pane with scrollable power buttons, Q-slide apps, brightness control, and volume control. With the exception of the volume control, all of these are handy additions that you'd find yourself using every now and then. However, packing all of them into a single screen is a bad idea, as it makes the notification pane look horribly cluttered. In the G2 only about half of the notification pane is actually available for displaying notifications.
Some of the other unique features in the G2 are:
– Guest Mode: You can protect your privacy by setting up a limited environment for your friends or kids while lending the phone. In guest mode only pre-configured apps are accessible.
– Clip Tray: Just like the Microsoft Office Clipboard, the Clip Tray provides you access to stuff you have copied in the past. The Clip Tray in G2 can store as many as 20 texts or images.
– Text Link: This is another really neat productivity enhancer. The G2 is capable of understanding certain phrases and sentences in your message. If it detects an address in an SMS, it'll offer to open up maps. If it detects an appointment, then it'll offer to add the event to your calendar or to your Memo.
– Audio Zoom: This feature was first introduced in the G Pro, but is featured more prominently in the G2. While recording in landscape mode you can tap on a particular subject and the G2 will attempt to amplify the sound from only that subject in the recording.
– Slide Aside: A three-finger swipe from right to left dismisses the currently open app and saves it in a container. A three-finger swipe from left to right restores it. You can save up to three apps using Slide Aside and quickly switch between them. LG claims that it radically improves multi-tasking, but it seemed more like a gimmick to me. The default Android Task Switcher can be used to do the same thing with a lot more ease.
– Shot and Clear: This is similar to the context aware fill feature in Photoshop. In theory this allows you to fix photo bombs, and get rid of other artefacts in an image. However, this feature obviously has limitations, and doesn't always work.
– Life Square: Life Square is an automated journal that logs pretty much everything you do. This includes events in your calendar, updates you post on Facebook, links you share on Twitter, pictures you take on the camera, and people you text and talk with on the phone.
– QuickRemote: Like most of its competitors, the G2 features an IR blaster, which allows it to act like a customizable universal remote.
– QuickMemo: The trusty old QuickMemo feature is retained in the G2. Quick Memo is the quickest way to capture, annotate, and share a screenshot.
– QSlide: QSlide is like the Pop out feature in Samsung, which allows apps to run in a part of the screen, while freeing up the rest of the space for other tasks. So, you can run the YouTube app in a corner of the screen, while working away on your email. LG has also thrown in the ability to adjust the transparency of apps in QSlide mode. There are a bunch of QSlide enabled apps including the Video player, SMS app, and Calendar.
– Capture Plus: Capture Plus option in the Browser takes full page screenshots of websites.
– Answer Me: To receive a call, simply hold up the phone next to your ear.
– Voice Mate: Voice Mate is LG's own attempt at creating a voice assistant. The app has pretty decent speech detection, but can't really do much. Google Now is miles ahead of Voice Mate, and I don't understand why Samsung and LG are even trying to compete with Google in this arena.
– Smart Screen and Smart Video: These are two more gimmicky features, which were undoubtedly inspired by the Samsung Galaxy S4. Smart Screen allows the G2's display to stay on when the phone detects your face, and Smart Video automatically pauses the video when the phone cannot detect your face. LG obviously realizes that both of these features are far too inaccurate to be of significant use, and hence has disabled them by default.
There are a bunch of other features including a Translator, and a Task Manager. Traditionally, one of the strong points of the LG Optimus UI has been its customizability, and G2 continues that tradition. There are a massive number of things you can change without ever having to install custom ROMs. This includes customizing the touch navigation buttons, changing the lock-screen swipe effect, changing font type and size, and tweaking notification LED behaviour.
Cameras are back in the spotlight, and the Nokia's Lumia series has really set the cat among the pigeons. Everyone including Apple and Sony are trying to beef up their camera. LG has fitted the G2 with a 13-megapixel camera that's at least mighty on paper thanks to its optical image stabilization and muti-focus capability. The good news is that the camera is truly among the best we have seen in a smartphone, and delivers on its promises. The Xperia Z1 will probably outdo the G2's shooting capability, but that's nothing to be ashamed of. The G2 features manual focus, which allows it to take some stunning macro pics. In fact, the automatic Macro focusing mode is also among the best I've seen in a phone camera. The G2 supports ISO levels up to 800, and beats the S4 as well as the HTC One hands down, as far as low-light photography is concerned. The optical stabilization mode also makes its effect felt while recording from a bus or an auto. The G2 captures full-HD (1080p) videos at 60 fps with stereo sound. HDR mode has also been thrown in for good measure. However, when it came to audio zooming, that feature just didn't work for me. For now, I'm chalking it up as a gimmick rather a real enhancement.
Low light shot with Manual Focus
Outdoor photo in Night mode
Outdoor photo in Normal mode with high ISO
I've always been a fan of LG's Video player, and it has retained its strengths in the G2. You can pinch to zoom into any part of the video, or zoom and track a particular subject. With YouTube like seek preview, you can preview exactly where you're about to jump to in the video. And with Q-slide you can continue to playback the video while doing your work.
Like the Note 3, the LG G2 can output 24 bit 192 KHz Hi-Fidelity audio. LG has paired its flagship with the new Quadbeat 2 earphones, which are surprisingly good. They're not as bass heavy as Sony's stunning MH 1c, but the soundstage is equally wide, and the IEMs sound really balanced. In fact, if you are looking for a budget IEM, the Quadbeat 2 is something you should definitely look at. Although, LG has done a great job with the bundled earphones, the phone's speaker is bit of a disappointment. The speaker isn't bad by any means, but it sticks out as a sore point because pretty much every other aspect of the G2 is superb.
LG has gotten a lot of things right with the G2, including the display, the SoC, the physical button placement, and the camera. As a result, the G2 is an absolute joy to use. The downers are the lack of expandable storage, the average speaker quality, the slightly old Android version, and some poor design choices in the Optimus UI. The 16 GB model of G2 is selling for about Rs. 40,000. The 32 GB model costs a couple of thousand bucks more. This makes it about ten percent cheaper than the Note 3, which is also significantly bigger than the G2. In my opinion, the biggest competition to the G2 is the Xperia Z1, which has the advantage of a better build quality, dust and water resistance, superior camera, and slightly better benchmark scores. Where the G2 outshines the Z1 is display quality and ergonomics. The G2 is a better phone than the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC One. However, the Galaxy S4 is now available for about Rs. 36,000. I suspect that within a couple of months the G2's price will also come down to similar levels. However, until then the price difference also makes the Galaxy SIV an alternative worth considering.
LG's biggest achievement is that it has gone from competing solely on price to competing on performance and quality. Until a year or two back, you brought LG phones because they offered good value for money, not because they were the best phones in the market. With the G2, LG has succeeded in raising the bar and changing the game.


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|System: PS3, X360, PSP
|Review Rating Legend
|Dev: Krome Studios
|1.0 - 1.9 = Avoid
|4.0 - 4.4 = Great
|Pub: Konami
|2.0 - 2.4 = Poor
|4.5 - 4.9 = Must Buy
|Release: June 24, 2008
|2.5 - 2.9 = Average
|5.0 = The Best
|Players: 1-2
|3.0 - 3.4 = Fair
|ESRB Rating: Teen
|3.5 - 3.9 = Good
by Amanda L. Kondolojy
Since I am a considerably crazed Hellboy fan girl, you could say I was pretty darn excited for the new Hellboy game, Hellboy: Science of Evil. Sure, it was coming out right before the new Hellboy movie, but I figured since the two were basically unrelated in terms of storyline, Hellboy: Science of Evil would not fall prey to the dreaded curse of the movie inspired game. I mean, this was a game inspired by a comic book, which also shares its name with a movie, right?
Well, that's how I thought of it until I actually played the thing. Unfortunately, I was quite disappointed with how poor of a title this turned out to be. I almost wished it was a movie inspired title.
One of the first issues you will have with Hellboy: The Science of Evil is the story, or lack thereof., You begin the game by walking though a graveyard and hunting down a witch and then free a trapped spirit. Then you're suddenly in Japan and are fighting robotic gorillas. Somehow this is all tied together by the presence of Nazis. Cinematic scenes really don't make sense, even if you're a fan of the comic book series, and you'll find yourself wondering if there really is a story to this game at all. The back of the box says series creator Mike Mignola as well as movie director Guillermo Del Toro were on staff for this title, but it is painfully clear neither of them had anything to do with the actual storyline of the game.
Another huge issue I have with Hellboy: Science of Evil is the game's level design. Levels are completely linear and feel almost like an old Crash Bandicoot title. You'll frequently find yourself following a path to nowhere, unsure of where you're going, armed only with the knowledge that if you try to deviate from the path, you'll find yourself boxed in by an invisible wall. Many times however, the game attempts to break from its linear nature, and the paths will disappear. However, this attempt largely fails, as the invisible walls will remain in place and you'll just end up walking around banging your head against an invisible wall until you find your way. The level design really is nerve-racking and is a source of countless time spent in painful frustration.
Those of you unwilling to believe that this game could be all bad might look for solace in the battle system. Sure, it may be a real clunker in the story department, and the level design is extremely frustrating, but the brawling has to be okay, right? Well the fighting aspect of this game, while not fundamentally broken, is quite repetitive and a little less than intuitive. For basic attacks you will use two of the face buttons and one button dedicated to finishing moves. However, the complication comes in with the introduction of the grapple button, which occupies the right trigger.


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Price: $139.00 to $279.00


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I'm honestly worried about him. I think he's gonna retire around 30/31 because of health issues, I don't think it's normal for someone to puke before almost every game. It could be stress, or it could be due to a lack of stamina but I don't think it's any of that.
There's something else.


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