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[Jachin] sent in his network port tester built from a network card, wake on lan cable and a battery holder. Three AAs supply 4.5v DC just like the motherboard would to the card via the WOL cable. Nice trick, I'd consider adding a static bag at the least to keep the card from getting zapped.
38 thoughts on "Wake On Lan Network Tester"
good stuff, interesting. great idea
Okay, I don't get it. The instructions differ from the picture quite a bit.
Looks like he is giving the card the 4.5v it expects from the motherboard, then you plug a WOL cable into that modded card and a regular one? Why not just hook the 4.5v directly to the WOL card? What exactly is this even going to tell you? I don't get it…
dosn't look too "finished", but seems handy
when I said "why not just hook up the 4.5v to the WOL card" I meant "why not just hook up the 4.5v to the WOL cable"..
Still don't get this…
n3ldan – It's a network connectivity tester. You plug a patch cable into this gadget, and the other end into a jack, and if there is connectivity, the project card will light up. He mentions this in the "why" section of the project.
Anyway, this is a great idea, and I'll definitely be making one for work. I can't count the times I've had to test jacks that haven't been used in years, and needed to lug a laptop around to do it.
re: what it will tell you…
If you plug this into a network port, you can immediately tell if the port is 'live', e.g. is connected all the way back to another network device, such as a switch. Not so much of a interest to home users, but useful in a building with 1000+ network drops. We bough a $500+ LanFluke and this ability (testing network connectivity) was the most used on the device.
Also, he is only plugging the 4.5V into the WOL power plug that is on the card because that is where the card expects power to come from when the PCI bus is not providing power. He is just simulating what state the card is in when the the computer is turned off.
"4. when I said "why not just hook up the 4.5v to the WOL card" I meant "why not just hook up the 4.5v to the WOL cable".."
…thats what he is doing.
Oh, I get it now. For some reason I thought he was plugging it into another computer's nic…
although i would have liked it if the author of the article said what kind of card ended up working for him, since he said that 3com and d-link didn't work.
It seems like there would be a much more elegant way to detect if the cable is properly connected…
Plus, all this is going to tell you is if the cable is connected to a switch somewhere upstream. It can't tell you if there is actually any TCP/IP connectivity. You would need a laptop or PDA with Ethernet (like the Zaurus) to test that, so you might as well just use the laptop/PDA in the first place.
Isn't this exactly what cable testers like this one do?
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=SS35407-TEST&cpc=SCH -
My first guess was that it was an intel 10/100 pro ….
I looked up the OID of the MAC and it is an intel.
I looked up the FCC ID (go here for more info https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/cf/eas/reports/ViewExhibitReport.cfm?mode=Exhibits&RequestTimeout=500&calledFromFrame=N&application_id=92736&fcc_id='EJMNPDALBANY')
and it is an intel 100+ pro.
I guess I pretty close …. lol, its kinda sad I could tell what family it was from with just that pic. -
@ Triikan
No. that thingy only checks if the cable is assembled correctly.
What this does:
Say you are in an office where there are 40 PCs and 100 RJ-45 wall jacks, and a router with 50 ports on it. You need to find one of the 10 wall jacks out of 60 that are both unused AND connected to the office network already.
Now you could lug around a laptop, but this is a much lighter solution. When you plug the other end of the cable into the walljack and the little LED lights up, you know that the other end is connected to the network already.
Good hack.
Network FCC# EJMNPDALBANY
Intel 100 Pro Plus Network Interface Card
[url]http://www.etech4sale.com/Intel_100_Pro_Plus_Network_Interface/EJMNPDALBANY/partinfo-id-1951.html%5B/url] -
nice hack, but a bit overkill for a link tester. i bet you could whip up something similar with some transistors and an led. that is, unless there is a more sophisticated protocol for establishing an ethernet link (i doubt it)
it sure seams like overkill. let's figure out an easier way (or find a link). the upstream device is sending power on the send pair, so the downstream port should have a voltage on the receive pair. shouldn't a resister and led work?
this is a still a great hack !!!
putting it in an anti-static bag or on conductive foam would be a bad idea. anti-static bags are conductors on the inside, and insulators on the outside iirc, so that static doesnt accumulate or if it does, the whole card is coupled to it, so it can't do any damage. (Like how utility line workers are brought up to the voltage of the line they are working on when it doesnt make sense to turn the line off) as long as theres no difference of voltage between pins on any given chip theres no problems.
A better thing would be a project case. Wood, Plastic, or metal with standoffs. -
Wow! I didn't think of doing that!
Admittedly this particular project is possibly a little overkill. (as #14 and #15 said) drawing out the power on the patch cables and driving a LED(did I say LED?) would be far simpler.
What facinates me more, is that WOL signal wire!! :-)
I can record the MAC address of the NIC and use it for starting or stopping things. Even through my VPN to home, from work!!! -
An inspiring project: Why not use the functionality of the card to turn on some device? I assume that sending the magic WOL signal to the cards MAC address would make it pusle the motherboard to wake up the computer.
I somewhat doubt that a simple resistor and led would work. I'm trying to find the standards myself, but the line voltages are either 3.3 or 5 volts. While standard voltages, the pulse duration is very small, even compared to RS232. So, the net effect is that if you see anything on the led at all it will be very dim. Very fast pulses followed by relatively long spaces will not yield any visible light. To make matters worse, its likely even too fast for a cheap logic probe.
Finnally, I am not sure if the physical layer requires an announcement before the hub/switch up stream passes anything back or not. So, you may not get any data until something intelligent says "hello, Im here!" in such case, the card does in fact do that.
And a p.s. – a cheap nic is like.. $10. which, when you think about it, you could spend close to that on discrete parts if you go to radio shack, and opt for a socket rather than a hard wired cable.
eep.. it looks like the voltage swings are 3 volts for old school low speed ethernet, and down to the milivolot p-p for Gigabit.
and before anyone says "Yeah, but the card link lights do it…" those are simulated by the ethernet processor and at best are synched to the frame, not individual bits. Precisely why the card is not such a bad choice for such a project.
Regarding the link in #11 to geeks.com and the continuity tester:
We use one of these at work. The continuity tester is nicer in the fact that it tests for shorts and cuts along all 4 pairs, but it can't do that unless there is a "transmitter" at the other end. The device is simple, just some resistors and LEDs at the receiving end, and a battery with some logic to charge the pairs in order. (and ours has LEDs at that end too). We spent $99 on ours, but it looks very similar to the one on the geeks page. If you plug in the transmitter at the drop, it will light if there is some network device at the other end.
The best part is you can get an inductive wand, plug your transmitter in at the drop, and go back to your wiring closet/server room with the wand, and wave it over the cable bundles. It will sound a tone the closer you get to the cable, or you can stick it in an empty RJ45 jack and it will sound really loud. Makes it easy to map your wiring or find a specific jack if you are unlucky enough to be in a place that wasn't properly mapped to begin with. The wand will set you back about $180 (probably less, we paid more out of convenience in a large order). Both the continuity tester and the inductive probe were made by Tempo. The wand is a 200GX Inductive Amplifier with a LAN Toner 2 AT8L, the continuity tester is a 468R and 468T.
Cool hack though. It will just tell you the active drops, it doesn't tell you WHICH drop it is. Just that it is live. And it doesn't tell you if the wires are all correctly set. This only tests the send and receive pair, not the extra 2 (used for Power over Ethernet and I believe gigabit ethernet, maybe CDDI too)
any more thoughts on how to use this for remote control of other things than pc's?
my dad's a tech freak and our house has rj-45 wall plugs, so it would be really nice if i could WOL my TV or some other device. :D
so id played a little bit around whith the wol function and hey guess what EVERYTHING! could be turned on whith this funktin.
After the magic packet is sended the signalline(pin3)is up to 3,3V.
To reset these 3,3V the card has to be disconnected from power.
So if the card is disconnected everytime the WOL packed is sended it would be makeable to make some kind of a "serial" protocol so more devices could be controlled over just one card/mac all over the world ;)If there is a interest on that i try to make a litte project out of that
So if anyone is interested just mail meAtlantis
by itself, this hack is a bit of an inelegant solution. however, by utilising the WoL pin it suddenly becomes uber-useful. I will definitely be using this and writing it up.
the comment about the anti static back was quite correct, so hows about an inside out antistatic bag? insulates the NIC's bits from itself, throws a conductive/protective sheath over the whole lot.
shouldnt be too hard to turn on just one device via a normal and a bistable relais and a normal one. just wire it up so the WOL 3.3v triggers the normal relais which then gives the bistable one a jolt and resets the NIC to 0v. the bipolar relais would be switched everytime a magic packet is arriving.
no need for a serial protocol. theres no way of sending back things to the pc in an easy fashion anyway.
>> via a normal and a bistable relais and a normal one.
i meant just a bistable and a normal one. sorry
Wonderful idea, beats the hell out of Fluke testers, mainly because of cost. Spent about a dollar at radio shack to make one, works awesome, defeats bringing laptop and is small enough to fit most anywhere, even those tight behind the desk spaces!!!!
BEHOLD! a cable tester is 10 bucks on ebay, and works thru a LAN as well.
I would like to ask a question about the possibility of creating just an active port tester. This project got really close to the mark in regards to downsizing the original hack but then got diverted into the WOL project. I need to come up with a small LED (light/no light) port tester. I don't have the luxury of putting a tone or pulse on the opposite end, besides if I could do that I would just look at the switch lights. I know the RX pair has insignificant power to light an LED but I was thinking a battery hooked to an LED with a in-line circuit that could be closed by the small voltage present on the RX pair. I am not very knowledgeable about any of this but I am trying to learn. The original project would work but for my requirement I do not want or need the presence of a MAC. Although I guess I could use a read-only patch cable between the tester and the wall port… I would still like to cut the unnecessary components in order to make a smaller and sleaker tester.
We bought these linkchecks from smartronix for $20, tells you if the drop is active and the speed. They are tiny and work well. http://www.amazon.com/Smartronix-Linkcheck-Ethernet-Tester/dp/B000RGI6R6
What I really want is something that will pull an IP to see what VLan the drop is connected to without a laptop.
What is the link to the guide building the ethernet card tester, the link is not working.
Could someone please tell me which wire of the WOL to connect where?
Cable tester traces the continuity of cable to ensure high speed in a network.
Does anyone have the link, or the instructions for this project? Because, it seems that the links given are not working anymore and I cannot find it anywhere else. Any help, would be appreciated.
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Arduino is certainly the most popular method of getting info electronics, or at least embedded electronics. My BlueStamp Engineering students seem to gravitate to them when selecting their projects. But what about after the first few projects have been created with the Arduino? What if the designer wants to add a relay, or another LED to the board? Most people create a shield which allows them to plug in, but for simple projects I believe there is a better way: creating their own Arduino clone (AKA Derivative). This is where the designer modifies the public Arduino EAGLE PCB files to add their extra parts, and then makes their own board! It can save cost, space, and connectors! I go into more detail on my latest Element14 post:
Derivatives enjoy some significant design benefits over a shield. First, a single board is less than half the size and more robust than stacking an additional PCB on top of the purchased Arduino via headers. Second, it will be a cheaper solution than buying a stock Arduino and the custom shield PCB/parts. Finally, there is a lot to learn from starting with an existing PCB design and tweaking it. Not to mention the pride one would get from creating their own stand-alone design, even if it is attained by standing on the shoulders of giants.

subset: commoncrawl


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BERLIN – The expansion of Berlin's historic district will go back before the Berlin Town Council soon after the Berlin Planning Commission finally made a recommendation to approve the larger district.
The planning commission has discussed the expansion several times in recent months, concluding this week that the maps of the areas to be added are ready to go to the Berlin Town Council.
The commission also revisited its decision to remove the Purnell Crossing project site from the expanded historic area. At the February planning commission meeting, the commission voted to remove that property from the district, but several smaller pieces of property adjacent to the project site, most owned by Troy Purnell, were not excluded at that time.
Purnell objected to inclusion in the historic district because the Purnell Crossing site was just a field, with no historic structures on it. He did not want any future changes to the project, which has been given site plan approval already, to be subject to review by the Historic District Commission.
The Historic District Commission does not have written guidelines, relying instead on a common sense approach determining whether building or changes to structures fit with the character of the neighborhood.
"There's not a lot of standards but they're trying to keep things in keeping with the neighborhood," said Berlin planning consultant Tim Bourcier.
"The historic commission has standards for color and conformity with the neighborhood," said planning commission member Pete Cosby. "The commission has that authority. That's the best tool in this town to preserve whatever we've got."
Cosby said he did not want to homes at Purnell Crossing along Libertytown Rd. to face away from the street, which is contrary to the historic approach where houses face the road. If the property is not in the historic district, the town has no control over that, he said.
There will be a landscaping buffer, already approved by the planning commission, along the road, Purnell said.
"If we don't recommend this in the historic district, we're going to end up with exactly what we don't want to have," Cosby said.
Purnell said he'd spent hundreds of thousands of dollars getting the site plan and other approvals for the project.
"I don't want it to be an arbitrary decision of some board member to say we don't like your house, you can't build it," he said.
The town needs standards said planning commission member Joe Hill. "If the expectations are too low, the system is broken," said planning commission member Joe Hill.
The Purnell Crossing property has already been removed from the historic district expansion, planning commission chair Newt Chandler pointed out. "It's out. It's already site planned," he said.
Cosby made a motion to remove the other small lots on Libertytown Rd. from the expansion maps, and to recommend that Berlin's Town Council approve the expansion. The commission voted 5-1 to approve the motion.
"I just don't agree with expanding the historic district," said dissenting commission member John Barrett.
Others pointed out the property's importance from a visual standpoint. "It's unfortunate in my humble opinion," said Cosby of the exclusion of that area. "It's an important entrance to the town."
Berlin needs to establish design standards for new architecture in town, Cosby said, suggesting that the town establish a committee to review architecture and advise the planning commission once those standards are in place.
"I think the commission doesn't have the expertise to deal with these issues. It's a constant headache," Cosby said.


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Woods Bagot has won the international competition to design China Southern Airport City, a 988-acre, mixed-use development set on the Liuxi River in Guangzhou, China. The design, which totals 41 million square feet, expands the traditional corporate headquarters to an urban scale, blending business and manufacturing uses with lifestyle and residential components. This new active district will support China Southern Airlines' brand and continued leadership as Asia's largest airline.
The design establishes a sweeping physical form that unifies the Airport City site-comprising two wing-shaped parcels bisected by a major highway-and presents a legible identity that is visible from arriving and departing planes. Within this landscape, landmark buildings, parks, lakes and other features define a series of programmatic "neighborhoods" that provide a sense of order and wayfinding at the human scale.
The master plan organizes the neighborhoods into three precincts. Business, cultural, and entertainment uses as well as Southern Airlines University define the central precinct, creating a distinct heart that bridges the highway. Here, a bend in the Liuxi River naturally highlights the project's centerpiece: an executive complex including offices, a five-star hotel and VIP club overlooking an expansive lake. Manufacturing, operations and research facilities form a second precinct to the northwest while residential and lifestyle neighborhoods compose the third precinct along the riverfront.
The landscape architectural and ecological concept - designed in close collaboration with Hargreaves Associates and Sherwood Design Engineers - overlays bold sculptural landforms with a series of contemporary urban, academic and residential landscapes. Each landscape is rendered with a unique indigenous flowering tree to further distinguish the Airport City neighborhoods and celebrate the rich Chinese garden palette. The landforms buffer the freeway and enhance views to the riverfront, while restoration zones, including a new freshwater wetlands and necklace of lakes, serve to cleanse stormwater and repair the site ecology.
"This has been a tremendously rewarding process bringing together the best talent from our London, San Francisco, Hong Kong and Beijing studios and our partners at Hargreaves Associates and Sherwood Design Engineers," commented Richard Marshall, Joint CEO/Director of Urban Design at Woods Bagot. "China Southern Airlines' vision for a new district that embodies its global leadership and supports ongoing innovation afforded an opportunity to really advance our thinking about the connections between economy, ecology and culture. We look forward to our continued collaboration."


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For days now, the twittersphere and even the mainstream media have been agog at the anti-Semitism spewing in a now-viral video by Mohammed Morsi in 2010 when he was head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. He called President Obama a liar as well, but the administration will do its best not to let it matter.
It's not as if they didn't know. The Muslim Brotherhood is more than 80 years old and is organized around anti-Israel, anti-Christian and anti-Semitic claptrap. It also does not hide its anti-Western, anti-imperialist rhetoric that shares the stage with an interpretation of Islam that is homophobic and misogynistic. Last summer, the Brotherhood's leader, Mohammed Badie, accused Jews of corrupting the world and slaughtering Palestinians. Essem al Erian, Vice President of the Brotherhood's political party, last month invited Jews to return to Egypt -- not because he likes them, but, as he said, "Why stay in a racist entity, an occupation, and be tainted with war crimes that will be punished? All occupation leaders will be punished." The "Zionist project," he added, will end.
It is unimaginable that President Obama thought Morsi would dump the Brotherhood and become a small-d democrat at precisely the moment his party took power in Egypt and he had the opportunity to implement the agenda to which he has devoted his entire adult life: the Muslim Brotherhood. Just as President Obama did not win the American presidency with the intention of governing the way George W. Bush did before him, Morsi did not win to govern as a liberal democrat. His goal, like that of any electoral victor, is to enshrine his views in law and ensure their continuance.
The Obama administration placed a very heavy bet on its ability to manage relations with Morsi, and the world's discovery of his virulent anti-Semitism will not change it. Key to "managing relations" with Morsi is ignoring almost everything related to the Muslim Brotherhood and everything Morsi does that defies democratic norms. This includes ignoring the Brotherhood's lie that it would not run candidates for all the seats in Parliament and would not run a presidential candidate. It includes ignoring massacres against the Coptic Christian community; the hasty construction of the constitution; the dismissal of judges; the quick-and-dirty "referendum" that claims 63% of the vote without noting that less than 25% of Egyptians voted; and the December protests. It requires, then, allowing Morsi to run roughshod over the Egyptian people, much as his predecessor did.
The White House stepped gingerly at first. In an interview with Telemundo in September, President Obama hedged: "I don't think that we would consider (Egypt) an ally, but we don't consider them an enemy. They are a new government that's trying to find its way." But by November, Morsi was a star. National Public Radio (NPR) reported, "Analysts say Morsi has proved himself and his organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, to be major political players on the world stage, and if the cease-fire agreement between Hamas and Israel holds, it will be a shining achievement." According to The New York Times, "Mr. Obama told aides he was impressed with the Egyptian leader's pragmatic confidence. He sensed an engineer's precision with surprisingly little ideology."
"Surprisingly little ideology" is a strange turn of phrase for an organization that is defined by little else, and a man defined by his organization.
Following the video, Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center denounced Islamic anti-Semitism. "The mainstreaming of Jew hatred in the Arab and Muslim world will not only end hopes for any Middle East peace deal, but puts Jews in jeopardy around the world." He added, "America must not signal that it will be business as usual with the government of the Arab world's largest and most powerful nation."
That last bit will fall on deaf ears. Between "business as usual" with Egypt and words coming out of Morsi's mouth, the words take a distant back seat.
The administration has simply returned language for language. Morsi's words were met by words from White House press secretary Jay Carney and the State Department's Victoria Neuland. Carney called the language "deeply offensive." Neuland said the Egyptian President's first attempt at an apology wasn't quite good enough, adding, "(We expect) President Morsi and Egyptian leaders to demonstrate in both word and in deed their commitment to religious tolerance and to upholding all of Egypt's international obligations."
But the F-16s will be delivered and aid will go forward.
Discussing the recently finalized U.S. decision to deliver the advanced aircraft to the Egyptian military, retired Brigadier General Safwat Al-Zayat told Al-Ahram Weekly, "It is obvious that the finalisation of the deal on 11 December, which happened to be at the height of the mass demonstrations in Tahrir Square against Morsi, conveyed a political message. Between the lines, Washington was sending a message to three parties. The first was to Morsi and it stated, 'We support you. Move ahead.' The second was to the army and it said, 'We are encouraging this man,' meaning Morsi. The third was to the opposition forces and it said the same thing."
In this you have President Obama indeed governing as George W. Bush -- and Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, in fact.
Domestic Egyptian politics -- including Morsi's anti-Semitism, which President Obama has no reason to believe is in the past -- have been and will remain a distant second priority, to the chagrin of those who thought change in Cairo and change in Washington would produce something better for the Egyptian people.
Shoshana Bryen is Senior Director of The Jewish Policy Center.


text:
- Home
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Suspension of Service
Misusing the Greenville Area Paratransit (GAP) system can result in suspension of your service. The following are misuses of the paratransit services that could lead to suspension.
False Qualification
Obtaining or using paratransit services under false pretenses. The Americans with Disabilities Act reserves paratransit services for certified eligible individuals. Your service may be suspended if:
- You have made false or misleading statements on your eligibility application.
- You allow other non-eligible individuals such as friends or family members to ride using your name.
No Shows
No-shows delay vehicles and use resources that other riders can use. Greenlink defines a No-show as someone who schedules a trip, then does not show up for that trip rather than calling to cancel the trip. Greenlink's suspension policy for No-shows takes into consideration Greenlink's overall No-show rate and whether you are a 'frequent' rider or an 'occasional' rider.
If you no-show five times or more in a rolling 30-day period and the number of
no-shows represent more than 10% of your scheduled trips during a 30-day
rolling period you can be suspended. The following process will occur:
- 1st No-show: A Notice is sent.
- 3rd No-Show: A Final Warning is sent.
- 5th No-Show and Reach Threshold of 10% of Trips are No-Shows: A Suspension Notice is sent.
If you have multiple "No-shows" over a six-month period requiring more than one suspension, the following will apply:
- One suspension in a 6-month period: One week suspension and you will lose your subscription privilege.
- Two suspensions in a 6-month period: Two weeks suspension and you will lose your subscription privilege.
- Three suspensions in a 6-month period: 30 days suspension and you will lose your subscription privilege.
Suspension for abusive or disruptive behavior. Disruptive or abusive behavior endangers passengers, drivers, and the GAP staff. Disruptive behavior includes, but is not limited to:
- Intimidation or threats of physical harm to drivers or other riders.
- Verbal abuse of drivers, staff, and/or other passengers.
- Unlawful harassment, including unwelcome verbal, non-verbal or physical behavior having sexual, violent, or racial connotations.
- Unauthorized use of vehicle equipment.
- Voluntary and repeated violation of riding rules, including:
- Smoking, eating, and drinking on vehicles
- Refusing to remain seated with seat belt on
- Defacing equipment
Innocent Incidents
Circumstances that are beyond your control. Examples of situations not within the passengers control may include, but are not limited to:
- A sudden personal emergency.
- Sudden or worsening illness.
- Late arrival of the paratransit vehicle.
- A driver does not provide appropriate assistance.
If an investigation reveals your disruptive behavior is due to a disability and is beyond your control, your service may not be suspended. However, Greenlink may require you to travel with a Personal Care Assistant (PCA). If your PCA cannot help you to control your behavior, and/or a safety problem continues to exist, your service may be disallowed.


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Claudia Lawrence: Murder suspect re-bailed as police enquiries continue
The 59-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murdering Claudia Lawrence has today been re-bailed while further police enquiries are made (Thursday, June 12).
The man, from York, was originally arrested on May 14 and bailed shortly afterwards.
Officers with North Yorkshire Police carried out searches at a property in York and a second property in North Shields.
Claudia Lawrence, a chef at the University of York, went missing in York in March, 2009.


text:
Video conferencing systems
Communicate and collaborate on the move with Ricoh's compact, highly portable video conferencing systems. Ultra light and Wi-Fi enabled, our conferencing systems let you take the meeting out of the meeting room and connect with clients and co-workers anywhere, at any time.
Didn't find what you were looking for?
If you didn't find what you were looking for then contact Ricoh and we can help you.


text:
I know this was a few weeks ago but I wanted to get it down before I forgot!
We had Alex's birthday party at my mom and dad's house on his actual birthday the 11th. We had a school field trip that morning, so we just decided to make a day of it and celebrate Alex turning 2!
A huge thank you to my parents and sister for helping get things ready for the party!
We had a blast with family and friends!!
Alex's shirt was from PersonalizedDesigns1 from Etsy. Love this shirt and super cute!
Birthday invitations were from SewSweet808
These were 1 of Alex's gifts from Mike and I. I love the wooden pegs and the boys love playing with them. These are from KrissiesKrafts on Etsy.
Some of the printables, food labels, and games were from Funtastic Parties on Etsy and also Nick Jr.
The look alike Alex sticker was from Aloquin. Love it :)
The Ocean water is just blue gatorade :)
Alex's cake was from a high school friend...Catherine's Cakery. Catherine did amazing on the cake and was so delicious. I told her what theme we were doing and sent her a couple of pictures of ideas and she ran with it. LOVE it!! Also, love that she made it egg free for my boys. :)
Inside the sand pail for our friends was a bookmark, mask, bubbles, a bag of goldfish, a bubble guppy coloring book and a magnetic fishing game. :)
Nick Jr. has a ton of games, printables, and ideas for almost anything :)


text:
US Labor Department announces availability of $12 million in grants to provide employment services for formerly incarcerated females
WASHINGTON, March 22, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the availability of approximately $12 million in grants to provide workforce development and support services for formerly incarcerated adult and youth females as they make the transition from justice facilities back to their communities.
"Communities benefit when formerly incarcerated individuals are able to smoothly and effectively reintegrate into their neighborhoods," said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. "The programs funded through today's grant announcement will make this transition easier, resulting in more stable families and brighter futures."
Grantees must provide participants with services including job training that will lead to credentials in high-demand industries; employment preparation; mentoring and assistance in connecting to supportive services such as housing, and treatment for substance abuse and mental health issues; and assistance with parenting and child reunification. While designed to expand opportunities for formerly incarcerated females, services funded by the grants also must be open to eligible formerly incarcerated males.
Reintegrating formerly incarcerated individuals is a government-wide effort supported by the Federal Interagency Re-entry Council. Co-chaired by the U.S. Departments of Justice and Labor, the council brings together numerous federal agencies to develop plans to make communities safer, assist individuals returning to communities from prison or jail in becoming productive taxpaying citizens, and save taxpayer dollars by lowering the direct and collateral costs of incarceration.
"The Re-entry Council is making important progress in ensuring public safety and advancing community well-being," said Attorney General Eric Holder. "We applaud this Department of Labor investment in women who have been formerly incarcerated and are working to rebuild their lives. This is an opportunity to make a difference — not only for these women, but also for their families, neighborhoods and communities."
Each grant applicant may submit one proposal for up to $1.5 million, with the amount requested depending on the number of participants to be served. This competition is open to any nonprofit organization with Internal Revenue Service 501(c)(3) status, unit of state or local government and Indian or Native American entity eligible for grants under Section 166 of the Workforce Investment Act.
Full eligibility information is included in the solicitation for grant applications, which will be published in the March 23 edition of the Federal Register and also can be viewed online at http://www.doleta.gov/grants/find_grants.cfm. Information about this and other Labor Department employment and training programs is available at http://www.doleta.gov.
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text:
UnBooks:Johnny Foreigner's Guide to British Humour
"British Humour should be rammed down the throat, twice nightly"
"It is clear that humour is far superior to humor."
"Like hell."
British humour (American insubordinates: note the spelling) is the greatest of all forms of entertainment. No foreign person ever invented has truly understood this, especially not inhabitants of the good nation of America. This handy, helpful guide will let you, Johnny Foreigner, get to grips with this important part of British culture.
Before we start, two extremely important ground rules should be brought to the attention of the non-British.
- We (the British) don't like you. We're either scared of you or we laugh at you, and I'm talking the horrible, cynical, soul-crushing, ego-destroying laughter.
- We (the British) don't like ourselves. We're socially inept, we've pissed our Empire up the wall, we've pissed off everyone in our own continent of Europe and the rest of the world and our only friends are the United States.
Collectively, the way we disguise these two loathings is called our humour.
The History of Humour[edit]
"The very words on the page make my nipples stride forth with purpose"
Humour was invented in Britain in 1066 by John Cleese when he was heard to quip, "Those Normans will be making a carpet about this!" Unfortunately, he was correct, but who can guess what the French will do next?!
The development of humour was slow during the Dark Ages that followed, mostly because French people ruled the country and as everyone knows French people have a rubbish sense of humour. Lousy cheese eating surrender monkeys.
The next jump in humour was the development of actors, invented in 1584 by William Shakespeare. The use of actors allowed the spreading of humour further than ever before as their main job was to ram humour down the throats of those who came to watch them. Shakespeare has been credited with the invention of innumerable hilarious one-liners such as "Out, out damned spot", "To be or not to be, that is the question", "God, I want to die", and "I bite my thumb at thee".
True British humour only really came to the fore after the invention of the radio in 1910 by then top comedian King George V. This allowed the much more subtle play on words style of humour associated with the British today.
The current state of British humour is one of disarray. Monty Python, the famous snake-charmer and fortune-teller, has often been quoted as the biggest influence of current surreal comedy in the UK, with his own cult following. Current devotees of the Cult of Python are Queen Elizabeth II, Harold Shipman, The Mighty Boosh and Tony Blair, amongst other famous comedians.
The Essential Components of British Humour[edit]
Oxford English Dictionary definition of Sarcasm: "If I could say this and roll my eyes it would be funny."
Sarcasm is the "use" of "quotation marks" around any "word" to "make" it "funnier". You will know when "Johnny Foreigner" does this because he will actually use his "fingers" to make little "speech mark things" in the "air". The thing about British "people" is that they don't always do this so it can be "hard" to tell when they are being "sarcastic". An example of "sarcasm" is "Johnny Foreigner now understands British humour completely!"
Foreigners can safely assume that any time a British man compliments another British person they are using sarcasm; the only exception is for beautiful women, whom they may actually be complimenting in an attempt to sleep with them. This is a common occurrence, as the British have a lot of suppressed emotion. This explains the almost universal unattractiveness of British men to foreign women, except of course for American women, who love British men. This could be yet another sign of a complete lack of humour, or possibly the best joke ever — who knows?
Irony is the use of iron in humour. For example many people feel that the "iron lady" (note the speech marks), Margaret Thatcher was the biggest joke of her time. The person who is funny, or the comedian, will pull out an iron bar or similar and beat the listener over the head with it repeatedly. This is incredibly funny for those people watching.
An example of verbal irony would be saying "I haven't had a comedian batter me over the head with an iron bar recently", just as a comedian is approaching you from behind with an iron bar.
Self-deprecation is a form of humour unknown to the American. It is when a person says something about themselves that is nearly always true and horrible. It only works well when combined with sarcasm. For example, "I am a stupid moron" is self-deprecating but not funny, whereas the phrase "I am a genius", combined with the power of sarcasm, becomes hilarious (or not).
The Piss-Take[edit]
All British people are great fans of the piss-take. This is when one person makes fun of another in front of their mutual friends without the second person knowing they are. This is often the start of a fight; traditionally the phrase "are you taking the piss?" is said and then the two people go at it Marquis of Queensbury style, as this is how all British people fight.
The phrase 'Piss-Take' came from the Elizabethan era, where an Elizabethan equivalent of a chav would attempt to convince an Elizabethan girl that he had a respectable job, when in fact he worked for a tanner, shipping urine down the river to the tannery. The conversation would go something like this:
- Elizabethan Chav: Verily, fair wench, thou art more beautiful than all the women in all of Christendom!
- Elizabethan Girl: Your words do flatter me, good sir, but before we are engaged unto holy matrimony, I must know, how is it that you make enough gold to put bread upon your table?
- Elizabethan Chav: Ah, well, um, I...I partake of the running of a large house in the country while my esteemed master is away in one of his other many dwellings.
- Elizabethan Girl: Nay, sirrah, thou art taking the piss.
- Elizabethan Chav: Woe is me! I am undone!
If you suspect a British person of making fun of you in this way, the best thing to do is to pretend to be genuinely offended. The British do not know how to respond to actual emotion as they have spent countless years hiding theirs behind "humour".
This is where a group of people tie bells to their ankles, wear white clothes and trousers with braces, dance round in a circle and slap each other senseless with sticks (Hence the name). It is a traditional folk-style humorous dance and can be seen in many small villages in the springtime. The beating of wooden sticks is a potent symbol of fertility, as British women just love a funny guy.
Playground Humour[edit]
Playground Humour is the type of humour practised in Britain only in the playground by small children below the age of 6, but in America is the dominant form of humour and is called Humor. It involves words like poo and wee and oblique reference to body parts normally hidden from view even when bathing. In playground humour adding the word 'bum' to any sentence makes it funny; in America, yo ass is substituted for the word bum. For instance, the joke "Knock-knock. Who's there? Yo ass!" is, I am told, considered a stonking good one across the Pond.
Rule one of the Humor handbook states that a kick in the balls is the worlds funniest thing and therefore any joke or comic sketch that lacks a punchline can be ended with a kick in the balls and will always be funny. For examples of this see any Hollywood comedy billed as 'hilarious' or which the film reviewer from The Sun calls 'laugh-a-minute'. Some "interesting" facts about playground Humour:
- In the state of California any heavy or fast moving flying object must land squarely in the groin of a hapless antihero, who must then cross his eyes in extreme close up. This is the law. As above, see any Hollywood-produced comedy for confirmation of this.
- A joke that contains reference to poo but does not end with a kick in the balls is known as toilet humour.
- The film reviewer of The Sun is contracted to say that all comedies are laugh-a-minute and that all thrillers are thrill-a-minute in order to get quotes in every film advertisment ever created, including on the back of the Queen's crown, and on the last page of the King James Bible.[1]
Potty Humour[edit]
Toilet humour is at once the best and the worst of British humour. Seen as the realm of the child and the moron, toilet humour is often despised. It is also just about the funniest kind of humour there is. Unfortunately many foreigners can also make toilet humour, or indeed construct devices for harvesting it from toilets. This means that the world is full of toilet humour so for the cultivated British expert it just doesn't come up to scratch. There isn't much of an abundance of it in the United Kingdom, mainly due to the Nickelodeon Famine (2003-2105) of Ireland.
Words that constitute toilet humour, in alphabetical order, along with the literal American-English translation, are:
- Arse: Your ass
- Bum: Your ass
- Cock: Male chicken
- Chelsea: Old Age Pensioner
- France: Garlic-eating Sartre lovers
- Pooh: Bear excrement
- Shit: Victoria Beckham
- Tit: Type of bird
- Uncyclopedia: Infantile waste of time
Another example of toilet humour is its use in songs. If you make a song, there are two things you can do to make it funny. The first is take the piss out of fat people (see "The Piss-Take"), and the second is to fart in the most loud and disgusting way possible (only the Irish do this as a result of said crisis above). Both of these methods will instantly make even the most unfunny song sound more humorous than your mum.
Britons have always used their powers of humour for good, as such they direct their awesome ability to crush opponents beneath a heap of laughing people against politicians and famous people in general. This is called Satire, and is done mostly in the form of cartoons wrapped around bricks and thrown through windows.
Other techniques are egg throwing and dressing as fictional characters and climbing buildings.
Recent technological inventions like TV have increased the average satire output of the country, making the UK the largest exporter of satire in the world today. Famous satirists such as Rory Bremner get their laughs by dressing up as other people and committing crimes so the other person gets arrested. This kind of behaviour is greatly encouraged, as it keeps the police from shooting immigrants in the street.
A recent example of the successful use of satire was in the removal of the Tory party from government. In 1979 Margaret Thatcher swept into power and the nation's satirists arose as one to defeat her; 18 short years later they were successful. Now the joke's on them.
The Pun[edit]
"The greatest monarch on the proudest throne, is oblig'd to sit upon his own arse."
The pun is a rare and elusive creature outside of the UK. Spawned in a passionate lovemaking session between rhyme and tastelessness, the pun is often used in newspaper headlines, as a punishment and by physicists who know no other form of humour. It was used with devastating effect during the Cold War, when Hungarian physicists incorporated puns into newspaper headlines to punish Russia for invading their homeland and not being sufficiently funny.
The basic principle is to take a known and loved everyday phrase and turn it into something awful by changing the spelling or pronunciation. For example: "Pun for your life", "Be careful, he's got a pun", or "I'll punish you for that, you puny person".
It is also a cute little animal (see image).
Great British Humour Today[edit]
- Cancelled by BBC3 for another repeat of Two Pints of Lager and Packet of Crisps
Geographical Location of British Humour[edit]
The funniest part of the UK is Wales, closely followed by Ireland. These are the funniest parts of the country because they have the most jokes about them. For example, any sentence containing the words "Welsh" and "sheep" is considered extremely funny, as everyone knows Welsh people harbour deep amorous desires for our woolly little friends. They also suffer from an extremely dangerous accent that has been known to kill people through pure oratory power.
Irish people are stupid and drink too much, and it is always funny to make jokes about retards and boozers, especially jokes that sound really funny after you've had a round or two.
Cornwall comes in a close third due to the number of old people and ugly tourists, and another stupid accent. Being 99.994% inbred (and proud), they cannot understand what you are saying about them, or even see how many people are there due to their swivel eyes, in fact they are so warped and twisted that tourism guides use the slogan, "Come to Cornwall where Bob's your Uncle, AND your Dad!" Scotland is the least funny part of the country, as the people there are scary and no one wants to fight them (or do child labour harvesting heroin in high-rises), and their accent is so scary no-one can understand them anyway (Well actually, Americans consider Scottish people funny, but we're not really talking about them now, are we?). Within England itself, the North is considered funny by southerners and the South is considered funny by northerners. Hence the terms "Northern Monkeys" and "Southern Fairies".
Places that everyone can make fun of include Liverpool, Burnley, Cumbria, Birmingham, Dudley, Milton Keynes, France, and America.
The Science of British Humour[edit]
Scientists have long been trying to determine what makes the British so great at being funny. In 1986 Murray-Gellmann proposed a new particle to add to the Standard Model of particle physics for just this purpose. Regarding it as a fundamental building block of nature, he called it the 'funny quark' or FQ and hypothesised that it was caused when a strange-matter quark swaps out one dum for a dee.
In response, Codlington (1992) published his own study declaring that the fundamental particle of humour was of a much higher order, and proposed the designation 'ironion'. The scientific debate rapidly deteriorated after Murray-Gellman was seen following Codlington around in public bellowing "FQ!" at every opportunity.
Also unresolved, and currently unstudied, is any theory explaining how British people end up with more of the fundamental particles of humour than other nationalities. Current consensus favours the hypothesis that there is something in the water in the UK. In fact, the government of the UK has been tampering with the water supply since 1924, when they began adding fluorine to help with dental care after every single dentist in the country had been killed in the First World War.
International Enemies[edit]
The Germans, for one. They were our enemies in WWII and, as a result, are the only nation that the British people detest more our former allies, the French. Italians are generally seen as too greasy for their own good, owing to their lack of shower facilities. Argentina is the prime nemesis of the People's Princess, Margaret Thatcher, who had them exterminated in a bloody and brutal war when she was middle-aged. As exploration reveals new lands for the British to colonise and subsequently ruin, our list of potential enemies grows by the day. Perhaps YOU could be next....
Domestic Enemies[edit]
Many Pikeys and/or Chavs are thicker even than Johnny Foreigner, when it comes to understanding British humour. Consider the following choice bit of Pikey-based humour:
- Q. Why is a cigarette like a Pikey?
- A. They both smell, they both come in packs of 10 or 20, and they're both banned from pubs the whole nation over.
This is a simultaneous example of Satire, Sarcasm, Simile, Irony, and Mild Bigotry — beat that, if you can. While the joke may be, in fact, nearly pointless except as an excuse to shoehorn a mediocre joke in somewhere it doesn't belong, it does at least illustrate this guide's prime point, which was made at the very start: we the British hate everybody, including ourselves. To be honest, we are equally irritated by all humanity of any description — excepting Pikeys, who are clearly from another planet, and thus not part of humanity at all.
- ↑ The clause that stated all Romances should be dubbed shag-a-minute was written out as it didn't work. A team of highly-paid script writers have been working on a universal review quote for Hollywood romances for a number of years, but has yet to present a definitive answer. The current front runner is really crap. Tangentially, "really crap" would do yeoman's work as a review quote for any Hollywood romance, without straining itself in the least.
- ↑ A classical example by one of the greatest British humourists in recorded history, who coincidentally was a member of the last generation of British to be born in the American Colonies. Notice the use of the word arse and the high levels of irony. Unfortunately, the other American Colonists didn't get the joke, and used it as an excuse to throw a bit of an insurrection.
Note there is one person born in America that understands British humour, He lives in a small flat in Texas where he plays his cello annoying all the residents around him.


text:
Developers working in Production. Of course! Maybe, sometimes. What, are you nuts?
Join the DZone community and get the full member experience.
Join For FreeOne of the basic ideas in DevOps is that developers and operations should share responsibility for designing systems, for implementing them and keeping them running. Developers should be on call in case something goes wrong, and be the one to fix whatever breaks. Because the person who wrote the code is often the only one who knows how it really works. And because of the moral hazard argument: if programmers are held fully accountable for the work that they do, they will be incented to do a better job, instead of writing garbage and handing it off to somebody else.
But this means that developers need some kind of access to production. How much access developers need, how often, and how this can be made safe, are important questions that have to be answered.
Hire wicked smart people and give them all access to root.
Unnamed devops evangelist, Is Devops Subversive?
If you ask whether developers should have access to production you'll find that people fall into one of 3 camps:
Yeah, sure, of course – who else is going to support the system?
This is a simple decision for online startups, where there's often nobody else to install, configure and support the application any ways.
As these organizations grow, developers often continue to stay closely involved in deployment, support and application operations, and in some cases, still play a primary role, especially in shops that heavily leverage cloud infrastructure (think Netflix).
Read my lips: Never Ever! Are you out of your freakin' mind?
Question: Should developers have access to production?
Answer: Not only no, but hell no.
kperrier, Slashdot: Should Developers Have Access to Production
The situation is much different in large enterprises and government organizations, where walls have been built up between development and operations for many different reasons. It's not just mergers and acquisitions and inertia and internal politics and protectionism that made this happen. It's also SOX and PCI and HIPAA and GLBA and other overlapping regulations and privacy rules, and ITIL and COBIT and ISOxxx and CMMI and other IT governance frameworks, and internal and external auditors enforcing separation of duties and need-to-know access limitations in order to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of system data.
The same rules also apply to leaner-and-meaner Devops shops. For example, at Etsy (a Devops leader), PCI DSS compliant functions are managed and supported by a different team in a different way from the rest of their online systems: while developers have R/O access to a lot of production "data porn" (metrics and graphs and logs), they do not have access to production databases; there are more requirements for activity logging; a push to QA is handled in a clearly different way than a push to production; and all changes to production must be tracked and approved through a ticketing system.
And there's also the problem of shared infrastructure: the same networks and servers and databases and other parts of the stack may be used by many different applications and different business units. Developers of course only understand the applications that they are working on and are only familiar with the simplified test configurations that they use day-to-day – they may not know about other systems and their shared dependencies, and could easily make changes that break these systems without being aware of the risks.
In case of emergency, break glass
Most organizations fall somewhere in between a Noops web startup in the cloud and a legacy-bound enterprise weighted down by too much governance and management politics. Operations is usually run separately, management is still accountable to regulators and auditors, but most people understand and recognize the need for developers to help out, especially when something goes wrong.
When the shit has indeed and truly hit the fan, developers – although usually only senior developers or team leads – are brought in to help troubleshoot and recover. Their access is temporary, maybe using a "fire id" extracted from a vault, then locked down again as soon as they are done. Developers are often paired up with an operations buddy who does most of the driving, or at least watches them carefully when the developer has to take the wheel.
Question: Should developers have access to production?
Answer: Everyone agrees that developers should never have access to production… Unless they're the developer, in which case it's different.
SatanicPuppy, Slashdot: Should Developers Have Access to Production
Problems in production can be fixed much faster if developers can see the logs, stack traces and core dumps and look at production data when something goes wrong. Giving at least some developers read access to production logs and alerts and monitors – enough to recognize that something has gone wrong and to figure out what needs to be fixed – makes sense.
Sometimes really bad things happen and all that matters is getting the system back and up and running as quickly as possible. You want the best people you can find working on the problem, and this includes developers. You'll need their help with diagnosis and deciding what options are safest to take for roll back or roll forward, putting in an emergency fix or workaround, and data repair and reconciliation. Everyone will need to check later to make sure that any temporary fixes or workarounds are implemented properly, checked-in and redeployed.
When you run incident management fire drills, make sure that developers are included. And developers should also be included in incident postmortem reviews, even if they weren't part of the incident management team, because this is an important opportunity to learn more about the system and to improve it. But if you have developers firefighting in production more than almost never, then you're doing almost everything wrong.
Debugging in production?
Some problems, intermittent failures and timing-related problems and heisenbugs, only happen in production and can't be reproduced in test – or at least not without a lot of time, expense and luck. To debug these problems a developer may need to examine the run-time state of the system when the problem happens. But these problems should be the exception, not the rule. Debugging in production opens up security problems (exposing private data in memory) and run-time risks that developers and Ops both need to be aware of.
Question: Should developers have access to production?
Answer: Whenever an error occurs that I can't replicate in a dev environment, I'm always SO tempted to hop into prod and start adding in some output statements... Yeah, it's probably a good thing I don't have access to prod.
Enderjsy, Slashdot: Should Developers Have Access to Production
Deploying to production?
Auditors will tell you that the people who write the code cannot be the same people who deploy it in production. But some developers will tell you that they need to take care of deployment, because Ops won't understand all the steps involved, or at least that they need to manually check that all of the config changes were made correctly, and to run the data conversion and check that it worked, and to make sure that the right code was installed in the right places. If this is how your deployment is done, you're doing it wrong.
And you're doing a lot of things wrong if Ops won't trust development enough to push changes out at all:
Most times, when I see devs screwing with production it's either a "hero" coder who is way too good to use best practices, or a situation in which the environment is so hostile that the "best" solution seems to be breaking the rules.
I once did some contract work for a company where the QA and testing process took a minimum of two weeks for the most trivial changes, and where the admins on the production servers refused to deploy things like security patches without a testing period that ran close to a month. The devs there had a hundred tricks for sneaking their code into production, and linking production code to the development servers in an attempt to meet their productivity goals.
SatanicPuppy, Slashdot: Should Developers Have Access to Production
Testing in production?
The only testing that has to be done in production is A/B split testing to see what features customers like or don't like. You should not need to test in production to see if something works – that's what test environments are for – except maybe when you are deploying and launching a system for the first time, or some limited integration test cases with other systems that can't be reached from a test environment. Or load testing done with Ops – a lot of shops can't afford to have a test environment sized big enough for real load testing.
Making Production Safe for (and from) Developers
Whether developers should have production access (and how much access you can allow them) also depends on how much developers can be trusted to be careful and responsible with the systems and with customer data. It's inconsistent that while organizations will trust developers to write the software that runs in production, they won't trust them with the production system. But development and production are different worlds.
Most developers lack the necessary situational awareness. They are used to experimenting and trying things to see what happens. I've seen smart, experienced developers do dangerous things in production without realizing it while they are deep into problem solving. Developers should be scared of working in production. Not too scared to think, but scared enough to think before they act. They need to understand the risks, and be held to the same duties of care as anyone in Ops.
You can spend a lot of time breaking down the wall between development and Ops, only to see it built back up overnight (much thicker and higher too) the first time that a developer blows away a production database when they thought they were in test, or kills the wrong process or hot deploys the wrong version of code or deletes the wrong config file and causes a widespread outage. Make sure that test and development environments are firewalled from production so that it isn't possible for anything running in test to touch production through hard-wired links. Make it clear to developers when they are in production. Force them to make a jump: open a tunnel, sign on with a different id and password, see a different prompt.
With great power comes great responsibility
Nobody supporting an app should need – or even want – root access for day-to-day support and troubleshooting. Developers should only be granted the access that they need and no more, so that they can't do things they shouldn't do, they can't see things that they shouldn't see, and so that they can't cause more damage than you can afford.
At the Velocity Conference in 2009, John Allspaw and Paul Hammond explained how important and useful it is for developers to have access to production - but that most of this access can be and should be limited:
Allspaw: "I believe that ops people should make sure that developers can see what's happening on the systems without going through operations… There's nothing worse than playing phone tag with shell commands. It's just dumb."
"Giving someone [i.e., a developer] a read-only shell account on production hardware is really low risk. Solving problems without it is too difficult."
Hammond: "We're not saying that every developer should have root access on every production box."
Developers who need access to the system should be given a read-only account that allows them to monitor the run-time – logs and metrics. Then force them to make another jump to gain whatever command or write access they need to do admin functions or help with repair and recovery.
One problem is that a lot of systems aren't designed with fine grained access control at the admin level: there's an admin user (that owns the application and can see and do everything needed to setup and run the system) and there's everybody else. It can be painful to break out the application and the environment ownership structure and permissioning scheme and separate read-only monitoring access from support and control functions, to setup sudo privilege escalation rules, and to track and manage all of the user accounts properly.
And none of this works if you aren't properly protecting confidential and private data or other data that somebody could use for their own benefit. Tokenizing or masking or encrypting data so it can't be read, hashing critical data to make sure that it hasn't been tampered with; making sure that confidential data isn't written to logs or temporary files.
You also have to make sure that you can track what everyone in production does, what they looked at and what they changed through auditing in the application, database and OS; and track changes to important files (including the code) using a detective change control tool like OSSEC.
All of these checks and safeties also make it safer for developers, as well as for Ops, and will hopefully be enough to keep the auditors satisfied.
Try to make it work
There are advantages to having developers working in production besides getting their help with support and troubleshooting.
The more time that developers spend working in production on operations issues with operations staff, the more that they will learn about what it takes to design and build a real-world system. Hopefully they will take this and design better, more resilient systems with more transparency and more consideration for support and admin requirements.
And having developers share responsibility for making the software work and support it, proving that they care and helping out, will go a long way to breaking down the wall of confusion between operations and development.
It's not a simple thing to do. It might not even be possible in your organization – at least not in your lifetime. You need to understand and balance the risks and advantages. You need to understand the political and governance constraints and how to deal with them. You need to put in the proper safeguards. And you need to make sure that you stay onside of compliance and regulations. But you're leaving too much on the table if you don't try.
Published at DZone with permission of Jim Bird, DZone MVB. See the original article here.
Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.


text: Amai Liu was born on February 8th, 1990 in Hawaii. She is most well known for her innocent look and is very popular in teen or barely legal porn videos. Amai is tiny, standing at only 4'11" and weighing just 74 pounds. She has natural breasts and her full measurements are 30A-33-23. When she's not fucking on film Amai likes trance music, cats, and watching Japanese TV.


text:
Come winter and there is an influx of "Avarekai" in the vegetable markets of Bangalore. Extremely popular and a universal favorite, Avarekai is almost the soul food of south Bangalore during the months of November to February. The avarekai season is much awaited and most Benglureans look forward to the arrival of their favorite vegetable year after year.
Known as Hyacinth Bean or Broad beans in English, these magical green flat beans find their way into almost anything and everything that is prepared. Whether it is upma, akki rotti, any other sweet or savoury, the bean is added to enhance the flavor of just about everything.
Keeping with the tradition, the "avarekai mela" is held each year in the much famed Thindi street in V V Puram. The area well known for its street food, adorns a festive look during this time and various specialities of avarekai are served. Organized by Vasavi condiments since 2003, this year the festival has just got bigger and better with the dishes setting new standards in creativity and innovation.
The grand entrance leads to a sea of stalls decked up in green with the staff 'dishing' out delectable preparations at a furious pace.
While the fare at the festival includes the usual favorites like averakai dosa, upma, akki and ragi roti, holige and idli, there are some indigenous creations like avrekai jamoon, jalebi, avrekai chaat and even avarekai gobi manchurian.
My favourites were the avrekai halwa and avarekai chikki.
The beans per se are also available fresh with the beans peeled. The "hittikidu" variety which is peeled beans with the husk removed is also available aplenty and there are various varieties of savouries prepared from the latter on sale.
The place is teeming with vendors selling all sort of bags, bangles and various knick knacks. The mela is on till 24-Jan between 10am-11.30pm.


text:
Following Cruz talkathon, the vote will go on
It was precisely eight o'clock Tuesday night and the Senate chamber was nearly empty when Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz started reading "Green Eggs and Ham," aloud.
Sure, it was a filibuster, sort of. And the Princeton and Harvard Law School graduate had been talking for five hours, with many more promised as part of an effort to block funding for President Barack Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.
But it was his kids' bedtime, Cruz explained. They were watching him on TV and needed their bedtime story.
Hopefully, they weren't counting on it too much. Less than two stanzas into the famed Dr. Seuss rhyme - just about where "Sam I am" declares "I do not like green eggs and ham" - Cruz changed the subject to Obamacare.
"Green eggs and ham," Cruz explained, "has some applicability to the Obamacare bill."
Just how it applied to Obamacare was never made very clear.
But clarity fades in a filibuster, and the talker has to keep on talking or reading.
Strom Thurmond, the late Senator from South Carolina, had read the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and President George Washington's Farewell address during his fabled 1957 filibuster to block civil rights legislation. That one lasted 24 hours and 18 minutes, still the record.
Alfonse D'Amato, then Senator from New York, resorted to the phone book during his filibuster, an attempt to delay a 1986 military spending bill.
Filibusters are experiencing a revival. Rand Paul of Kentucky staged one earlier this year. Wendy Davis filibustered in the Texas State Senate for 11 hours to block an abortion bill.
Technically, the Cruz talkathon was not a filibuster. While the legislation at issue was a Republican measure to keep the government open and Obamacare closed, the Senate was actually adjourned and the members had already decided not to let Cruz or anyone else block a vote.
His talking would have no impact on the outcome of the debate and would not go down in history as a filibuster.
It did have some history-making possibilities, however.
Three potential 2016 Republican presidential contenders assisted in the talkathon, Senators Marco Rubio of Florida, Paul of Kentucky and Cruz.
"Senators don't always ask for advice," said Paul. "I thought I'd come down and make sure you have comfortable shoes on."
Paul and Rubio played crucial roles, asking Cruz lengthy questions, which under Senate rules allowed him to take short breaks without "yielding the floor" that would end the filibuster.
Thanks to Paul and Rubio and a few other colleagues, Cruz was briefly free to move about the Senate, with his hands in his pockets, sometimes with his arms folded at his chest.
Cruz may also be unpopular among his colleagues in the Senate, a distinction he acknowledged repeatedly Tuesday night, with references to the "withering criticisms" he had received from members of his own party, and to "mean" things said about him by "Senate staffers running to newspapers.
"A little bit of grief for breaking party discipline," Cruz said, was a "small price" to pay.
(Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle, Richard Cowan and David Lawder; Editing by Ken Wills)


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Updated as of 2009
American College of Medical Genetics
Association for Molecular Pathology
American Society for Clinical Pathology
Breast Cancer Action
College of American Pathologists
Lisbeth Ceriani
Wendy Chung, M.D., Ph.D.
College of Amercian Pathologists
Arupa Ganguly, Ph.D.
Genae Girard
Haig H. Kazazian, Jr., M.D.
David H. Ledbetter, Ph.D.
Runi Limary
Ellen T. Matloff, M.S.
Our Bodies Ourselves (Boston Women's Health Book Collective)
Harry Ostrer, M.D.
Kathleen Raker
Elsa Reich, M.S.
Vicky J. Thomason
Stephen T. Warren, Ph.D.
American College of Medical Genetics
Founded in 1991, the American College of Medical Genetics (www.acmg.net) is a national non-profit professional organization that advances the practice of medical genetics by providing education, resources and a voice for more than 1,400 biochemical, clinical, cytogenetic, medical and molecular geneticists, genetic counselors and other health care professionals committed to the practice of medical genetics.
Michael S. Watson, PhD
Executive Director
ACMG Statement »
ACMG's activities include the development of laboratory and practice standards and guidelines, advocating for quality genetic services in health care and in public health, and promoting the development of methods to diagnose, treat and prevent genetic disease. Genetics in Medicine, published monthly, is the official ACMG peer-reviewed journal. ACMG's website (www.acmg.net) offers a variety of resources including Policy Statements, Practice Guidelines, Educational Resources, and a Medical Geneticist Locator. The educational and public health programs of the American College of Medical Genetics are dependent upon grants and contracts and charitable gifts from corporations, foundations, and individuals. The American College of Medical Genetics Foundation (www.acmgfoundation.org) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization dedicated to funding the College's diverse efforts to translate genes into health.
Association for Molecular Pathology
The Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) is an international not-for-profit professional association representing over 1,500 physicians, doctoral scientists and medical technologists who perform laboratory testing based on knowledge derived from molecular biology, genetics and genomics.
Jan Nowak, MD, PhD
AMP Statement »
Since its founding in 1995, AMP members have dedicated themselves to the development and implementation of molecular diagnostic testing, which includes genetic testing in all its definitions, in a manner consistent with the highest standards established by the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act (CLIA), the College of American Pathologists (CAP), the American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG) and the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
AMP members practice their specialty in widely diverse settings, including academic medical centers, independent medical laboratories, community hospitals, federal and state health laboratories, and the in vitro diagnostic industry. In this capacity, AMP members are involved in every aspect of molecular diagnostic testing: administration and interpretation of molecular diagnostic tests, research and development, and education.
As the only professional association dedicated solely to molecular pathology, AMP provides national leadership for the advancement of safe and effective practice and education for molecular diagnostic testing in the health care industry.
American Society for Clinical Pathology
Founded in 1922, the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) is the largest and oldest organization representing the medical specialty of pathology and laboratory medicine. ASCP has 130,000 members working as pathologists and laboratory professionals.
Barbara McKenna, MD
ASCP Statement »
ASCP members design and interpret the tests that detect disease, predict outcome, and determine the appropriate therapy for the patient. ASCP is recognized for its excellence in continuing professional education, certification of laboratory professionals, and advocacy – championing causes at the state and federal levels. ASCP is a not-for-profit entity organized for scientific and educational purposes and dedicated to patient safety, public health, and the practice of pathology and laboratory medicine.
Breast Cancer Action
Karuna Jaggar
Executive Director
BCA Statement »
Breast Cancer Action (BCA) is the advocacy and educational watchdog of the breast cancer movement. A not-for-profit, national organization, it receives no funding from any corporation that manufactures any products linked to breast cancer including pharmaceutical and medical companies.
BCA's mission is to carry the voices of people affected by breast cancer to inspire and compel the changes necessary to end the breast cancer epidemic. It seeks to fulfill that mission by carrying out a three-part program of breast cancer activism:
- work to ensure more effective and less toxic treatments both at the FDA and drug companies,
- protect everyone's health by removing environmental toxins that are linked to breast cancer, and
- eliminate inequities in breast cancer incidence and mortality.
College of American Pathologists
Debra Leonard
MD, PhD, FCAP
CAP Statement »
The College of American Pathologist (CAP) was moved to participate as a plaintiff in the Myriad suit because of its longstanding policy on gene patents that these patents used to prevent physicians and clinical laboratories from providing gene-based diagnostic test services limit access to medical care, jeopardize its quality, and raise its cost. CAP also has long believed that limiting gene-sequence based test services to a single provider is not in the public interest as it interferes with medical training, practice, and research, the advancement of medical knowledge, and enhancement of the public's health.
The College also believes that genomic medicine will be the cornerstone of diagnostic testing and treatment and that pathologists are the key to genomic test selection, interpretation and clinical integration. Gene patents interfere with pathologists' practice of medicine and hurt patients.
"Invalidating Myriad Genetics' patents on BRCA1 and BRCA2, would be a huge victory for patients," said Debra Leonard, MD, PhD, FCAP, Chair of the College of American Pathologist's Personalized Health Care Committee. "It would allow women to receive life saving, state-of-the-art genetic tests without being forced to trust one provider or one laboratory performing a single test to secure a diagnosis or inform treatment," Dr. Leonard said.
Lisbeth Ceriani
Lisbeth Ceriani
Personal Statement »
Lisbeth Ceriani is a single mother of one daughter. She lives in Newton, Massachusetts. She was diagnosed with bilateral stage IIA breast cancer in May 2008.
Wendy Chung, M.D., Ph.D.
Wendy Chung, M.D., Ph.D. is a clinical and molecular geneticist and director of Clinical Genetics at Columbia University. She is the director of the fellowship program in molecular genetics and cytogenetics at Columbia and directs both a clinical and research molecular genetics laboratory.
Wendy Chung, MD, PhD
Personal Statement »
She has been conducting research in human genetics for the last 17 years in the areas of obesity, diabetes, breast cancer, pulmonary hypertension, inherited arrhythmias, congenital heart disease and spinal muscular atrophy.
In her work, Dr. Chung works to identify new genes for susceptibility to complex genetic traits to develop individualized risk assessment, prevention and therapeutic interventions for a wide variety of disorders.
Dr. Chung is a recipient of the American Academy of Pediatrics Young Investigator Award and is currently the Herbert Irving assistant professor of pediatrics and medicine at Columbia. She received her Ph.D. from Rockefeller University and her M.D. from Cornell University Medical College.
College of Amercian Pathologists
The College of Amercian Pathologists (CAP) is a national medical society representing more than 17,000 pathologists who practice anatomic pathology and laboratory medicine in laboratories worldwide. It is the world's largest association composed exclusively of board-certified pathologists and pathologists in training worldwide, and is widely considered the leader in laboratory quality assurance. The College's Commission on Laboratory Accreditation is responsible for accrediting more than 6,000 laboratories domestically and abroad and approximately 23,000 laboratories are enrolled in CAP's proficiency testing programs. CAP is an advocate for high-quality and cost-effective medical care.
Arupa Ganguly, Ph.D.
Arupa Ganguly, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Genetics at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and co-director of the Penn Medicine Genetic Diagnostic laboratory. Dr. Ganguly provides clinical molecular genetic testing services for hereditary diseases such as certain forms of colon cancer and hemophilia.
Arupa Ganguly, PhD
Personal Statement »
Dr. Ganguly also works with Dr. Charles Stanley of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in an effort to understand the molecular genetics of a congenital disorder in which the body produces abnormally high levels of insulin.
Dr. Ganguly received her Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of Calcutta. She is a fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics.
Genae Girard
Genae Girard
Personal Statement »
Genae Girard is a business owner, artist and writer who lives in Austin, Texas. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in July 2006 at age 36.
Haig H. Kazazian, Jr., M.D.
Haig H. Kazazian, Jr. is the Seymour Gray Professor of Molecular Medicine in Genetics in the Department of Genetics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Dr. Kazazian received an A.B. in Biology from Dartmouth College in 1959 and a medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1962. He also had a post-doctoral fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Haig Kazazian, MD
Personal Statement »
Throughout his career as a genetic scientist, Dr. Kazazian has made numerous seminal contributions in understanding and deciphering mechanisms that cause mutations leading to human disease. One such mechanism that he discovered is called a transposable element, or "jumping gene," which is a segment of DNA that can move around to different positions in the genome of a single cell and cause mutations.
In his lifetime of scientific discoveries, Dr. Kazazian's revolutionary research has had a significant impact on unraveling the genetic causes of human disease. His discoveries have benefited the public health by informing the creation of new and improved methods for diagnosing and treating genetic conditions.
David H. Ledbetter, Ph.D.
David H. Ledbetter, Ph.D., is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Human Genetics and Director, Division of Medical Genetics at Emory University in Atlanta. He previously served as Chief of the Diagnostic Development Branch at the National Center for Human Genome Research of the National Institutes for Health, and as the Marjorie I. and Bernard A. Mitchell Professor and Founding Chair of the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Chicago.
David Ledbetter, PhD
Personal Statement »
After identifying the genetic mutations that cause Prader-Willi syndrome and Miller-Dieker lissencephaly syndrome, Dr. Ledbetter has devoted his career to developing and improving genetics diagnostic technology and improving access to genetic testing for families affected by genetic disease. He oversees a large, comprehensive genetics diagnostic program at Emory. He and his faculty colleagues have played major roles in the organization and leadership of national and international projects for quality improvement in genetic testing, including a National Laboratory Network for Rare Genetic Disease Testing, the Collaboration, Education and Test Translation (CETT) Program, and the International Standard Cytogenomic Array (ISCA) Consortium and Public Database.
Runi Limary
Runi Limary
Personal Statement »
Runi Limary is 32 years old, Asian-American and lives in Austin, Texas. She was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was only 28.
Ellen T. Matloff, M.S.
Ellen T. Matloff, M.S., is a certified genetic counselor specializing in cancer genetics. Ms. Matloff received a Bachelor of Science degree cum laude from Union College, and a Master's in Genetic Counseling from Northwestern University.
Ms. Matloff currently serves as the Director of Cancer Genetic Counseling at a major cancer center in Connecticut and previously worked at SUNY Health Sciences Center in Syracuse, NY.
Ellen Matloff, MS
Personal Statement »
She specializes in hereditary breast and ovarian cancer and BRCA1 and BRCA2 testing, has written dozens of articles and book chapters on this topic, and lectures on cancer genetics nationally and internationally. She is board certified by the American Board of Genetic Counseling and is a member of the National Society of Genetic Counselors, the American Society of Human Genetics and the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
Our Bodies Ourselves (Boston Women's Health Book Collective)
Judy Norsigian
Executive Director
OBOS Statement »
Our Bodies Ourselves (OBOS), also known as the Boston Women's Health Book Collective, is a nonprofit, public interest women's health education, advocacy, and consulting organization. OBOS produces books with accessible, research-based information about health, sexuality, and reproduction so that they can make informed decisions.
As an international education organization, OBOS advances women's health and human rights within a framework of values shaped by women's voices and commitments to self-determination and equality. OBOS accepts no funding from pharmaceutical companies and tries to be scrupulous about conflict of interest.
Harry Ostrer, M.D.
Dr. Harry Ostrer is Professor of Pediatrics, Pathology and Genetics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Montefiore. He previously served as Professor of Pediatrics, Pathology, and Medicine and Director of the Human Genetics Program at New York University School of Medicine. He practices medical genetics, investigates the genetic basis of human diseases and disabilities and, in the diagnostic laboratory, translates the findings of genetic discoveries into tests that can be used to identify people's risks for having a disease prior to its occurrence. With support from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, the Jewish Women's Foundation and private donors, he studies the genetic basis of prostate and breast cancer and adverse outcomes associated with their treatment.
Harry Ostrer, MD
Personal Statement »
Dr. Ostrer has sought to promote fairness in the use of genetic information by acting as an adviser to the National Institutes of Health, the National Action Plan for Breast Cancer, the Jewish Leadership Council, the Council of Insurance Legislators, the American Academy of Actuaries, the Society of Actuaries and the New York State Task Force on Life and the Law. As a member of the New York State Bar Association's Committee on Biotechnology and the Law, he aided in the drafting and review of all pending and enacted legislation on genetic testing, reproductive technologies and human cloning.
He received his undergraduate degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his M.D. degree from Columbia University. He subsequently trained in pediatrics and in medical genetics at Johns Hopkins University and in molecular genetics at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Ostrer has received awards from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, Skin Cancer Foundation and Weizmann Institute of Science.
Kathleen Raker
Kathleen Raker is a 41-year-old mother of two who lives with her family in North Central Pennsylvania. Both her mother and maternal grandmother died from breast cancer.
Kathleen Raker
Personal Statement »
Elsa Reich, M.S.
Elsa Reich is a genetic counselor, certified by the American Board of Medical Genetics since 1982 and the American Board of Genetic Counseling since 1993. She has been at the New York University School of Medicine since 1974, where she is a Professor of Pediatrics. After attending Radcliffe College for three years, she graduated with a major in philosophy and biology from the University of Chicago. Subsequently, she received her master's degree in genetic counseling from Sarah Lawrence College in 1974. While at NYUSM she has provided genetic consultation and counseling to thousands of patients including prenatal, pediatric and adult patients as well as contributing her expertise in specialty clinics, most particularly in the Institute of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery's Craniofacial Program. Since 1996 she has provided counseling and testing to individuals and families concerned about a hereditary predisposition to cancer and currently spends a significant fraction of her clinical activities providing this care. In this role, she has provided care to almost 2000 individuals and families.
Elsa Reich, MS
Personal Statement »
She has been active in several professional groups, serving on the boards of the National Society of Genetic Counselors, the American Board of Genetic Counseling, the Advisory Board of the Prenatal Diagnosis Laboratory of New York, the New York Genetics Task Force, and the Treacher Collins Foundation and currently serves on the Medical Advisory Board of Sharsheret. She has been active in New York State in the effort to establish licensure for genetic counselors and has taught medical students and residents at NYU and its affiliates and since 1978 has taught graduate students in genetic counseling at Sarah Lawrence and more recently at Mt. Sinai Hospital. She has lectured widely to professional and lay groups both nationally and internationally.
She was awarded the Kaplun "Art of Listening Award" from the Alliance of Genetic Support Groups, the Regional Leadership Award, Region 2, from the National Society of Genetic Counselors, and the Natalie Weissberger Paul National Achievement Award from the National Society of Genetic Counselors.
Vicky J. Thomason
Vicky Thomason
Personal Statement »
Vicky Thomason is in her early '50's and lives near Lexington, Kentucky. She works as a midwife for horses. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer three years ago.
Stephen T. Warren, Ph.D.
Dr. Stephen T. Warren is the William Patterson Timmie Professor of Human Genetics and the founder and chair of the Department of Human Genetics at Emory University. He also holds appointments as Professor of Biochemistry and Professor of Pediatrics.
Dr. Warren is a founding fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics and a diplomat of the American Board of Medical Genetics with specialty certification in both clinical cytogenetics and clinical molecular genetics. He was elected to the Board of Directors of the American Society of Human Genetics in 1997, where he served as president for 2006. In 1984, Dr. Warren was a visiting scientist at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory. From 1991 until 2002, he was an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He was editor-in-chief of The American Journal of Human Genetics from 1999 until 2005.
Stephen Warren, PhD
Personal Statement »
Among Dr. Warren's awards are the Albert E. Levy Faculty Award from Emory University, a MERIT award from the National Institute of Health, the William Allan Award from the American Society of Human Genetics, and the Frontiers in Clinical Neuroscience Award from the American Academy of Neurology. In 1996, he was awarded the inaugural William Rosen Research Award from the National Fragile X Foundation and, in 2006, was given this award an unprecedented second time. In 2003, he was an inaugural inductee of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development's Hall of Honor for the "identification of triplet repeat expansion as the cause of fragile X syndrome and as an entirely new inherited mechanism of genetic disease." In 2004, Dr. Warren was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies and in 2007 was presented the Outstanding Alumni Award from Michigan State University.
Dr. Warren received his Ph.D. in Human Genetics from Michigan State University in 1981 and from 1981 to 1985 was a fellow at the University of Illinois College of Medicine.
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