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Pursuing one's goals…..a worthy pursuit, right?Hard work and determination….giving each and every move careful consideration…..making a plan……following the steps….changing course when necessary……
Yes, all of these are strategies to pursue one's goals, but all too often we get tired of the time it takes to reach our goals.That's when short-cuts come into play.
Take the following words. They represent a short cut……"The most direct path would be to leave the Oregon route, about two hundred miles east of Fort Hall; thence bearing west south-west, to the Salt Lake; and thence continuing down to the bay of San Francisco."
It was with those few words the George Donner party made the fateful decision to take a short-cut they found highlighted in the book The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California.The book was written by Lansford Hastings and even though he never met any member of the Donner party, and even though Hastings didn't exactly promote the short-cut he is forever linked to the disastrous end the Donner party faced. Some sources state Hastings who had explored the West extensively had never even traveled on the trail. Other sources mention he had gone down the trail with no incident a few weeks ahead of the Donner party.
Lansford Hastings had written his book in 1844 to entice settlers to California which at that time was held by Mexico. Hastings' goal was to set up an independent republic and as a result be able to take some sort of office in governance.Yes, that was Lansford Hastings' goal to hold a high public office……
The Republic of California or the Bear Republic did exist for a time in 1846, but just for a few days before U.S. soldiers arrived and the annexation process began.Yes, that's why the state flag of California has a bear on it even to this day.
Lansford Hastings still had to meet his goal, however….hence the Hastings Plot.Ever hear of it?
During the Civil War Lansford Hastings sided with the Confederacy. Even though he had been living in Arizona for some time he traveled to Richmond late in the war and met with President Jefferson Davis. He tried to convince President Davis to allow him….on behalf of the Confederate States of America to wrestle California away from the Union and make it part of the Confederacy. The war was over in a year so the plot never amounted to much.Still……..Lansford Hastings continued to be a man in search of a kingdom…..er…..republic of his own.
It does seem like he had a plan and just kept working those same steps over and over. Doesn't it?In the years following the war Hastings became involved with a group of ex-Confederates who wanted to move to Brazil. Lansford Hastings traveled to South America, and met with the government there to set up arrangements for the Americans to settle. He also wrote a guide for those wishing to move there.
Lansford Hastings died while traveling to Brazil accompanying a group of settlers in 1870, and while he never did achieve his goal of a high governmental office Hastings did achieve one thing….Over 10,000 Confederados. as they are known in Brazil remain there and are descended from the ex-Confederates. Every year they have festivals complete with Confederate flags, Confederate uniforms, hoop skirts, food of the American South infused with that of Brazil. They also have dances and music their ancestors brought with them….styles from the antebellum period.
Former First Lady Rosalyn Carter's great uncle was one of the first Confederados in Brazil. The Carters traveled to Brazil in 1972.
Getting back to Lansford Hastings...He finally got that kingdom, of sorts. He just didn't get to govern over it.
Getting back to Lansford Hastings...He finally got that kingdom, of sorts. He just didn't get to govern over it.


text:
Whether in the biggest cities, or the smallest communities, we provide turnkey fixed route transit service to customers across North America. We are responsible for all equipment, facilities, staffing, management and maintenance. First Transit delivers service your passengers will be proud to ride.
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First Transit has delivered on its promises to provide high-quality, efficient and cost-effective transportation solutions,

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Theology on the Go: Perseverance of the Saints
Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals with Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Inc
Recent Broadcasts
April 9
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Featured Offer from Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Inc
Trinity: The Two Natures of Christ
If Christians confuse what is true of Jesus Christ as a human being with what is true of the Eternally Divine Son, they make very serious errors indeed. The most obvious is to conflate the exaltation of the Son of God from all eternity with the welcome given by the Father to the God-Man Christ Jesus, who redeemed God's elect through a sacrificial death. So, in these great teachings, a course correction is long overdue, lest we run out of fuel over water. We must adore Jesus Christ our Lord, both fully Son of Man and fully Son of God.


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text:
In Our Community Corner: Meet Paul Maki (aka: Meat Guy)
Each week we talk to a member of the Serious Eats community. This week we chatted with Paul Maki, aka Meat Guy.
Name: Paul Maki
Location: Chicago suburbs
Occupation: Manager of Culinary Development and Meat Technology for Saratoga Specialties
So, you work in the food industry?
I do, as a product development specialist for a seasoning company that specializes in industrial and food service seasonings. I work primarily with the meat industry. Being in product development is the most humbling and amazing job. My opinion is worthless—the client's is everything.
Do you consider yourself an adventurous eater?
Yes and no. I'll try anything anywhere I go, but my wife has serious allergies to onions, so dining with the family can sometimes mean boring food.
What is one of your earliest food memories?
The most vivid is sitting in my Finish grandmother's kitchen in Northern Minnesota, eating cardamom-laced cinnamon rolls. They're sweet, sticky buns made from pulla dough with a brown sugar glaze, hand churned butter, and walnuts.
When people come to visit Chicago, where do you take them to eat or recommend they visit?
It depends on what they like. I know a few good places for ethnic eats, but I stay out of the Loop, as there's so much great food around the suburban commuter lines and you don't have to pay a fortune to get there and park.
When you leave Chicago where will your last meal be?
My kitchen. I love cooking and would rather cook all day than eat out somewhere.
What is your favorite region/city/country to eat in?
Chicago! Home is where the heart is, and every type of food you can ask for is within five miles of my house. I can go Kosher, halal, Japanese, Thai, Korean, Mexican, Bohemian roast duck with sauerkraut and dumplings etc.
What do you love to cook most?
I am a baker and a sausage maker. It's a tossup.
Is there a special dish that you would consider your signature?
Another tossup. I make a wicked foccacia-based pizza, but my friends rave about my paella. People kill for my white chip mango and cocoanut cookies at work. My old neighbor keeps begging me for my homemade brats and Polish food.
What is the most disastrous dish you've ever attempted to cook?
Well, in the picture (above), the lady and I were doing a market basket cook at a seminar on smoked foods. We drew dessert and ended up making a smoked French toast with strawberries and figs, then topped it with a crème anglaise. We thought it was a half-assed attempt, but the chefs at the event loved it and the dish ended up being published in Plate Magazine. So disasters are relative. I guess I have never really crashed and burned on anything yet.
What is your guiltiest pleasure?
A good burger, but I don't feel guilty about any food!
What is your least favorite kitchen task?
I love it all. The more mindless the task, the better the stress relief. Shredding cabbage to steam for egg rolls is a hoot as long as you're careful with the mandolin.
What is your favorite aroma in the kitchen?
Coffee, preferably with baking bread or cookies.
If you could eat or cook a meal with anyone who would it be and why?
Mel Brooks or Simon Pegg. Conversation and laughs make any job light and I think their stories would be really interesting. Working with an awesome chef would be great though too. Being around someone with greater skills than you really ups your game.
If you have do give up cheese or bread, which one would you?
Cheese. Bread is much deeper in my memories and more fun to make at home.
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


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We've been anxious to share with you all our compound bow. It's hard creating minifigure sized weapons, but we are particularly fond of how this one turned out. Hope you like it and feel free to make your own! We would love to see these catch on.
The compound bow is made from six separate pieces and matches the size of the new elven bow produced by Lego. AND if you tweak it just right it can even FIRE the loaded arrows!!
Here several Forestmen Sharpshooters ambush a scouting party sent by the tyrannical Lion Kingdom. We tried to show the different uses of the bow as well as a close up comparison. Minifigs can sling the bows across their backs, draw them back to fire, and more. Hope you all enjoy
And like most everything we do we like making lots of them! I think its the Brikwars in us...


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Makes 12
175g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
175g caster sugar
3 medium eggs
225g plain flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp mixed spice
350g luxury mixed dried fruit
100g chopped walnuts or almonds
Grated zest and juice of 1 orange
50g natural almond paste, cubed
Icing sugar, to dust
250g natural almond paste
Small sugar flowers
Preheat the oven to 160°C/fan140°C/gas 3 and lightly grease a 12 x 125ml muffin tin or mould. Beat the butter, sugar, eggs and flour in a mixing bowl until smooth. Add the baking powder, spice, fruit and nuts, orange zest and juice, and mix well. Divide between the muffin holes and push in the almond paste pieces. Bake for 40 minutes or until golden and firm. Cool for 20 minutes, then remove from the tin and set aside on a wire rack.
To decorate, dust a work top with icing sugar. Thinly roll out 250g almond paste. Press out 12 rounds with a 7cm fluted cutter (re-roll the trimmings). Press on each cake and decorate with sugar flowers.


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Anyone who knows me, knows I am prone to
accidents stupidity that often results in physical pain.
I am not by any stretch of the imagination a 'sporty' or coordinated person. Put simply, the ongoing joke is that when God was handing out coordination and talent I was hiding behind the door.
That said, a few months back a friend whose husband plays pro football here in Australia, gave us a match game ball… we decided to throw it around the yard as family (something we haven't done before) and my husband was apparently impressed enough to comment, 'you have a pretty good arm on you!' I can assure you, no one was more surprised than me. It just may have been my finest moment. Ever.
I digress.
often sometimes occasionally during red moons, walk to pick up my son from school. I had walked so often over the past weeks along with my daily jalk that I felt I might possibly have graduated to being able to jog the whole way, without causing myself serious bodily harm.
On this particular afternoon I had dressed in my cute Lorna Jane outfit, tightened my sneakers, attached my ipod in its handy little silicone pouch, and found my sporty Oakley sunglasses…I was ready to go become a jogging machine!
I closed the door behind me as I took of at the speed of an Olympic athlete. On stride two I slightly misjudged where the garden bed actually met the driveway, and in a swift motion went down like a sack of (well-coordinated and fashionably attired) potatoes. Stride two, people, stride two!!
The pain was excruciating and I was sure I had broken my ankle. Unfortunately my elderly neighbor was outside at the time and saw me go down. He yelled out asking if I was OK. In my desperate need not to be humiliated further, I forced myself to my feet and plastered a smile on my face and yelled out "FINE!"as I gave what I hoped looked like a cheery wave. I suspect my 'wave' looked more like a drowning victim giving his last desperate signal for help before never being seen from again, but I did what I could.
I waited for him to walk indoors before I collapsed to the porch and bum-crawled my way into my home. I continued the bum-crawl until I got to the couch and called hubby in a fit of crying.
"You have to drop whatever you are doing RIGHT NOW and go pick up our son from school. School lets out in 10 minutes and there's no way I can get off the couch, to the car and use my foot to drive."
In typical fashion, he did what he usually does when there is work to be done in life he's not too fond of doing – he delegated. Deciding he couldn't possibly make it on time, he called a friends husband who was picking up their kids that day, and asked him to collect ours too.
Turned out this poor guy was already carpooling a zillion other kids and our kid would put him over the car-safety threshold. If only he had asked, my husband would have told him it would be no problem to strap our kid to the hood (he's liberal like that).
After a while I heard the sounds of children's voices from outside the house. It turned out this poor man (Thanks Ray, we still owe you for that one!) had to walk all 7 or 8 or whatever number it was, children to our house to drop our kid off, and then walk them all back to school where his car was parked, before driving them all home. To say he was gracious is an understatement. I suspect we aren't his favorite people of the year.
My kiddo walked in the door and saw me and my ankle and realized things were not good. He (sweetly) asked me if he could get me anything. "Ice, towel and nail polish," was my reply.
He didn't question me, but my husband was incredulous when he arrived home and saw me stretching over in serious pain, in a valiant effort to paint my toenails.
"What are you doing?" he asked, "I know, I know, don't answer that. You're painting your toenails even though you are in obvious pain, because you don't want to go to the hospital and have people looking at your foot un-manicured. I'm right aren't I?"
My face was the only answer he needed. "You're insane," he responded, "completely insane. I can't believe I married someone as crazy as you, frankly it speaks volumes about my mental health…." he sighed... "Let's get you to the hospital."
Having yet to visit an Australian hospital to test the system out, he was quite excited to see what 'free' healthcare looked like (especially given he wasn't the guinea pig).
I think he quietly suspected there would be sick and dying people lying in the hallways, bright yellow warning tape across various rooms and a severe shortage of painkillers along with people screaming in agony and a mild infestation of roaches. With that expectation, he was destined to be pleasantly surprised.
Here's how it went:
5:15pm. Hubby goes into emergency and is followed out by a nurse with a wheelchair. I am taken straight into a private room where they took all my details, level of pain, how it happened, given pain meds etc.
5:25pm. Sent to X-ray. Told they were waiting for me there and given directions for how to navigate our way around the hospital to find it.
5:30pm: Arrive at X-ray. Hubby left me to get a snack for our son since we figured I'd be waiting a while.
5:40pm: I call hubby to rush back, they are ready to take me in
5:45pm: X-ray completed. We are told to wait right where we are. The X-rays would be developed and digitals emailed through to the orthopedic surgeon.
5:52pm: Radiologist comes out with our X-rays, tells us to go back to the original check in area, and the orthopedic surgeon would call my name. We head back but are intercepted in the hallway by the surgeon who is waiting for us, and taken to a private room to talk.
5:55pm: Surgeon shows me the X-rays and talks about what happened. I have torn ligaments in my ankle, it would have been better if I had broken it he tells me. Ligaments take as long to heal – often longer…blah, blah, blah. (It's all sucky news.)
6:05pm He goes to get crutches for me and fits me for them and wraps my foot. Gives me extra wraps and bandages and pain killers and tells me to rest, ice, elevate etc and come back if I have anymore trouble.
6:12pm: As we are leaving the doctor tells me if the pain is really bad, to 'swig a couple of pain pills down with a scotch or something.' (I think he was joking, but later in the evening, I briefly consider taking his advice.)
6:18pm: we walk out of the hospital with my husband actually asking the lady at the front desk where the billing department is. She looks at him like he's a little slow in the head. "There is no billing department" she answers "There is no payment for these services."
He's giddy with joy, like a kid in a candy store. It was almost amusing.
6:25pm: We are in the car and on our way home with me having narrowly missed losing my life in front of an ambulance pulling in, due to my lack of co-ordination with the crutches. I suspect another accident in the near future if my crutch ability is anything to go by. (No one warns you just how much coordination is required to use those things!)
6:26pm: My husband excitedly announces that its "awesome" we got crutches for free and when I am done with them he's selling them on eBay -declaring that this 'accident' of mine will end up being a profitable venture for our family.
6:27pm: I witheringly explain to him that no one in Australia will actually buy the crutches, because we can all get the for free from the medical community anytime we need them.
6:28pm: He seems visibly disappointed and wonders out loud about the shipping costs of sending crutches to the USA to sell to the poor sods there – where nothing in medicine is free.
Later that evening: "Do me a favor honey," (he looked at me lovingly) "leave that jogging stuff to the professionals from now on…eh? Sometimes we just need to know our limitations in life, and this is clearly one of yours."
I didn't cook him dinner for a week.


text:
gcc-4.6-armhf-cross package in Ubuntu
This package has 2 new bugs and 0 open questions.
Package information
- Maintainer:
- Marcin Juszkiewicz
- Urgency:*
- Low Urgency
- Architectures:*
- all amd64 i386
- Latest upload:
- 1.63
*actual publishing details may vary in this distribution, these are just the package defaults.
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The Precise Pangolin
|release (universe)


text:
The St. Charles Homestead is our Personal Care Home facility. If your parent or another senior you care for can no longer safely live at home, St. Charles Community can help.
Northern Kentucky and Greater Cincinnati area seniors looking to maintain their independence without sacrificing their security will enjoy life at The Lodge, Independent Living Apartments at St. Charles Community.
The Village at St. Charles offers active adults, ages 62 and older, in Northern Kentucky a senior living option with all of the benefits of home ownership and none of the worries. Our spacious one or two-bedroom independent living cottages are nestled in a peaceful, wooded setting.
Charlie's Club is an adult day health program located on the campus of St. Charles Community. Northern Kentucky and Greater Cincinnati caregivers will find Charlie's Club to be a caring solution for daytime respite needs.
Older adults in Northern Kentucky who need to regain strength and mobility after an illness or injury will find the Outpatient Licensed Rehabilitation Therapy services at St. Charles Community designed to meet their unique needs. Our speech, occupational and physical therapy programs offer residents,


text: It's great that the indie-rock scene has finally accrued some measure of mainstream credibility, but there's still something to be said for the old late-'80s-SST/early-'90s-Matador aesthetic of lo-fi, low-rent, catchy-but-noisy, guitar-driven rock 'n' roll. One minute into Ghost Fits, the debut album from Brooklyn duo Sisters, guitarist Aaron Pfannebecker launches into the record's first solo: an eruptive, distorted blast that interrupts the proceedings, as though it couldn't bear to wait patiently through another chorus. Or maybe it's that the song itself—"The Curse"—was never meant to be any more than a guitar-delivery device, in the manner of so much of the best Dinosaur Jr. and Sonic Youth tracks. Sisters' drummer-organist Matt Conboy adds plenty of volume and drive, and Pfannebecker's voice has an unpolished affability that recalls Stephen Malkmus and Robert Pollard, but Ghost Fits is mainly built for people who like roaring, clanging guitars that start loud and get louder with each verse. It's an album that revels in that age-old tension between ear-bending sound and one scruffy dude's small, strong voice muttering against the crashing tide.


text:
Asbestos is the name of a group of minerals that are made up of bundles of tiny fibers composed of hydrated magnesium silicates. It is mined from the ground. Asbestos has been widely used in building and manufacturing industries because it is not affected by heat or chemicals.
Asbestosis is a lung condition caused by breathing in asbestos fibers. Usually, when particles in the air are breathed in, they are filtered out by the nose or the upper airways of the lungs. But asbestos particles are very thin and light, and sometimes are not filtered out before they reach the lungs. After years of exposure, asbestos can damage lung tissue and is responsible for causing several serious diseases, including cancer. Mesothelioma is a specific type of cancer that is caused by inhaling asbestos particles.
Asbestosis is caused when the fibers are inhaled deep into the lungs. Here, they are trapped in tiny airways where they cause scarring, called fibrosis, to the lung tissue. Repeated or continuous exposure over a long time can cause scarring over large areas of the lungs. When this happens, lungs lose their elasticity. When lungs can't expand and contract normally, a person will experience shortness of breath. Scarring also decreases the ability of the lungs to do their work of exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide.
Risk Factors
Asbestosis primarily affects people who are regularly exposed to asbestos. The more a person is exposed, the greater the risk of developing an asbestos-related disease. However, most people who have had prolonged exposure to asbestos do not develop asbestosis. Those at highest risk are:
People who handle asbestos material at their workplace:
- Workers who mine or process asbestos
- Construction workers
- Shipyard workers
- Vehicle mechanics
- Family members of people who work with asbestos and bring the fibers home on their hair or clothing
- People who work at sites where asbestos is found
- Smoking
Asbestosis takes a long time to develop. The earliest symptoms usually show up 10-40 years after first exposure. The disease can develop even when exposure to asbestos ended years before. The severity of the disease depends on the amount and length of time of exposure to asbestos. Symptoms get worse as the disease progresses and may include:
- Shortness of breath—this is the first noticeable symptom and occurs with exercise or heavy effort
- Cough—the cough is persistent and does not produce mucus
Other symptoms may include:
- Wheezing
- Chest pain or tightness
- Feeling generally unwell
- Loss of appetite
- Finger clubbing, in some cases, caused by a build-up of fluid
- Weight loss
Your doctor will ask about your symptoms and medical history. You will be asked about your history of exposure to asbestos. A physical exam will be done.
Images may be taken of your bodily structures. This may be done with:
Your bodily fluids may be tested. This can be done with:
- A lung biopsy
- Sputum cultures
- Oximetry to assess oxygen status
A pulmonary function test may also be done to measure how well the lungs take in and exhale air.
There is no treatment to cure asbestosis. The disease slowly worsens. The first and most important changes a person can make are the following:
- Prevent further exposure to asbestos
- Stop smoking—people who have asbestosis and smoke cigarettes greatly increase their risk of developing lung cancer .
After the condition is diagnosed, treatment involves staying healthy and treating the symptoms. These measures include:
- Getting immediate treatment for colds and other respiratory infections
- Staying updated with vaccinations, especially for flu and pneumococcus
- Avoiding crowds, where infections might be spread
- Having regular chest x-rays or CT scans to watch for signs of cancers associated with asbestos, especially mesothelioma
- Having oxygen therapy and other respiratory therapies that can make breathing easier
- Improving the nutritional state
- Encouraging breathing and physical exercises
- Home oxygen, if necessary
- Treating any complications, such as pulmonary artery hypertension or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Since the 1970s, asbestos use and handling has been increasingly controlled by the government. Asbestosis can be prevented by controlling the asbestos dust and fibers in the workplace. In addition, people who handle asbestos at work must shower and change their clothes before leaving work. As a result of these measures, fewer people develop the disease.
People who need to have asbestos removed from their house should seek help from professionals trained in asbestos removal.
It is also important to note that smoking increases the attack and/or progression rate of asbestosis.
Revision Information
- Reviewer: Michael Woods, MD
- Review Date: 05/2018 -
- Update Date: 02/10/2014 -


text:
I am new to this. Here is the situation and I'm wondering if someone can suggest the best solution to it:
I have a domain
www.mydomain.com where I have a Magento website running, we are in development stage so I did URL forwarding
www.mydomain.com to
www.mydomain.net and we have an under-construction page on
www.mydomain.net because we do not want to show development.
I also have a sub domain
beta.mydomain.com which I pointed to
www.mydomain.com/index.php which works fine.
But how can I show this without changing the URL in a browser from
beta.mydomain.com to
www.mydomain.com/index.php? This is in order to show our development to management.


text:
With new general manager Ray Farmer entrenched in Cleveland, the Browns are seeing Alex Mack through a new lens.
NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport first noted last week that the two-time Pro Bowl center had a "better chance" of landing a new deal with the team after general manager Michael Lombardi and CEO Joe Banner were swept out the door in a stunning front-office shakeup.
On Monday, ESPNCleveland.com's Tony Grossi threw another log on that fire, reporting that Farmer and new coach Mike Pettine have decided to pursue re-signing Mack.
We still expect the center to test the open market, but it's an indication that the Browns would rather not slap the lineman with the franchise tag. That makes sense, considering centers, guards and tackles are bunched together in figuring tag numbers -- meaning Mack would net the same one-year earnings, around $11.2 million, as a top-flight offensive tackle.
Gregg Rosenthal pegged Browns safety T.J. Ward as a more likely target for the tag, unless Pettine and Farmer opt to pursue Jairus Byrd, the Buffalo Bills safety with experience in the coach's multiple, attacking defensive scheme.
It should be a comfort to Browns fans that Pettine and Farmer -- unlike Lombardi and Banner -- value Mack. The two-time Pro Bowl pick is coming off his finest season and has never missed an NFL start. Last we checked, Cleveland can use more of these players, not less.
On the latest edition of the "Around The League Podcast," the guys debate Joe Philbin's future in Miami before playing another round of "Win Wess' Toaster."


text:
Tales Of The Industry With Fredro Starr Pt. 5: Tells Story Of When He Hooked Off On ODB For Puttin His Finger On Fredro's Face! (Where The Onyx & Wu-Tang Beef Started)
Fredro Starr's Tales Of The Industry - Ep. 5 - "Rest In Paradise, ODB"
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text:
Vast fields of sunflowers, sprawling pine trees and slim cypresses, as well as vineyards as far as the eye can see - these are typical memories of Tuscany for all those who have been there. By contrast, Professor Dr. Beate Michalzik from the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena and her colleagues are interested in the more barren aspects of the region in Central Italy: In a study the Jena geographers analyzed the condition of the soil in the region known as 'Crete Senesi' between Florence and Grosseto, whose hills are typically characterized by erosion - for the moment at least, because the so-called badlands of Tuscany are acutely endangered.
"Erosion is threatening the many small peaks known as biancane' due to their whitish color. They are marked by a bleak, strongly declining south side and a less declining north side, overgrown by herbs", Prof. Michalzik explains. Every year one to two centimeters of the loose bare ground on the south side of the slope are being eaten away by wind and weather. But why, asked the chair of Soil Science, is there a protective blanket of sage brush, orchard grass, wild rye and curry plant only on one side of the hill and not on the other one? Michalzik and two former students from Jena tried to literally unearth the answer to this question. As Peggy Bierbaß, Michael Wündsch and Beate Michalzik write in the science magazine 'Catena': this typically Tuscan landscape is the result of an intense interplay of the condition of the soil, the vegetation and the land-use (DOI: 10.1016/j.catena.2013.08.003).
Sodium lowers the coagulation of clay layers
In the Val d'Orcia, about 30 kilometers south of Siena, the Jena students and their supervisors took 12 samples of the soil of a biancana hill within the context of fieldwork. In the laboratory they analyzed their chemical, physical and hydrological qualities and discovered that the concentration of sodium in the soil is crucial for its stability. "In the barren part of the hills the concentration of sodium is distinctly higher than on the vegetated side," Michael Wündsch explains the central finding. The high concentration of sodium lowers the coagulation of the individual layers of clay and therefore they are more easily affected by the rain. The result: less stability and more erosion.
An additional reason can be found in the vegetation itself. "In places where something once grew, organic material finds its way into the ground and serves as a kind of intercellular cement and protects the ground from erosion," Peggy Bierbaß says. Moreover, the vegetation leads to a better overall wetting mesh, which adds to the greening and also protects the ground.
A targeted greening of the barren surfaces of the biancane hills could possibly stabilize them. However, Beate Michalzik explains, this wouldn't stop the gradual disappearance of this landscape either, as can be seen by the growing agricultural use of the region. "In the last decades bigger and bigger stretches of land have been used for wheat growing, which takes away the unique character of this landscape," states Michalzik. According to today's estimates, the badlands of Tuscany will have disappeared completely in 35 to 40 years.
Original Publication:
Bierbaß P et al. The impact of vegetation on the stability of dispersive material forming biancane badlands in Val d'Orcia, Tuscany, Central Italy, Catena 2014, Catena 113 (2014) 260-266, DOI: 10.1016/j.catena.2013.08.003
Prof. Dr. Beate Michalzik, Michael Wündsch
Institute of Geography
Friedrich Schiller University of Jena
Löbdergraben 32, 07743 Jena
Phone: ++49 3641 948820, ++49 3641 948807
Email: ,
Meldung vom: 2014-03-10 11:30


text:
MySQL 5.5 Reference Manual Including MySQL NDB Cluster 7.2 Reference Guide
The MySQL query optimizer uses estimated
statistics about key
distributions to choose the indexes for an execution plan, based
on the relative
selectivity of the index.
Certain operations cause InnoDB to sample random pages from each
index on a table to estimate the
cardinality of the index.
(This technique is known as
random dives.) These
operations include the
TABLE statement, the
STATUS statement, and accessing the table for the first
time after a restart.
To give you control over the quality of the statistics estimate
(and thus better information for the query optimizer), you can now
change the number of sampled pages using the parameter
Previously, the number of sampled pages was always 8, which could
be insufficient to produce an accurate estimate, leading to poor
index choices by the query optimizer. This technique is especially
important for large tables and tables used in
joins. Unnecessary
full table scans for
such tables can be a substantial performance issue.
You can set the global parameter
innodb_stats_sample_pages, at
runtime. The default value for this parameter is 8, preserving the
same behavior as in past releases.
The value of
affects the index sampling for all tables
and indexes. There are the following potentially significant
impacts when you change the index sample size:
Small values like 1 or 2 can result in very inaccurate estimates of cardinality.
Increasing the
value might require more disk reads. Values much larger
than 8 (say, 100), can cause a big slowdown in the time it
takes to open a table or execute
The optimizer might choose very different query plans based on different estimates of index selectivity.
To disable the cardinality estimation for metadata statements such
SHOW TABLE STATUS or
SHOW INDEX, or when accessing the
INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES or
INFORMATION_SCHEMA.STATISTICS tables,
execute the statement
innodb_stats_on_metadata=OFF. The ability to set this
option dynamically is also relatively new.
InnoDB tables are opened, and the
statistics are re-estimated for all associated indexes, when the
mysql client starts with the
--auto-rehash setting on (the
default). To improve the start up time of the
mysql client, you can turn auto-rehash off
using the
option. The
auto-rehash feature enables
automatic name completion of database, table, and column names for
interactive users.
Whatever value of
innodb_stats_sample_pages works
best for a system, set the option and leave it at that value.
Choose a value that results in reasonably accurate estimates for
all tables in your database without requiring excessive I/O.
Because the statistics are automatically recalculated at various
times other than on execution of
TABLE, it does not make sense to increase the index
sample size, run
then decrease sample size again. The more accurate statistics
calculated by
ANALYZE running with a high value
innodb_stats_sample_pages can
be wiped away later.
Although it is not possible to specify the sample size on a
per-table basis, smaller tables generally require fewer index
samples than larger tables do. If your database has many large
tables, consider using a higher value for
innodb_stats_sample_pages than if
you have mostly smaller tables.


text:
Secure and fast CICS transactions
IBM® CICS® Transaction Gateway is a connector for enterprise modernization of CICS assets. It empowers various application platforms to incorporate CICS, including Java® servlets, applets, Microsoft™ .NET framework based applications, C and COBOL applications. CICS Transaction Gateway furnishes application programmers with APIs and offers the best characteristics of administration with JEE application servers. The in-service releases of CICS TG are v9.0 v9.1 and v9.2.
IBM CICS Transaction Gateway (CICS TG) includes these three offerings:
- CICS TG Desktop Edition
- CICS TG for Multiplatforms
- CICS TG for z/OS®
Reduce mobile enablement costs
Use JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) web services without modifying existing environments to minimize risk and cost and retain high availability and scalability.
Connect valuable CICS assets
Connect virtually everything to CICS applications and servers with programming and deployment features for distributed platforms, including Java, Microsoft .NET, C/C++, C#, Visual Basic and COBOL.
Security and availability
Exploit CICS high availability infrastructure and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), identity propagation and user authentication security mechanisms.
Optimize performance
Gain insight into active workloads, isolate problems, improve planning and monitor performance with transaction tracking, monitoring and statistical capabilities.
Match today's skills
Bridge the skill gap between UNIX/Linux, Microsoft Windows, Java-based application development platforms and IBM Z® systems.
Non-invasive connectivity
No changes to CICS applications and minimal CICS definitions are needed to achieve greater CICS connectivity.


text:
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is aiming for a leadership position in mobile technology with the launch on Thursday of its latest research center, Wireless@MIT.
Also known more formally as the MIT Center for Wireless Networks and Mobile Computing, the new organization pulls together more than a dozen MIT professors and their research groups to work on next-generation wireless networks and mobile computing.
The work done at the center is designed to make an impact on technology users: Wireless@MIT trumpets a "strong industrial partnership" with Microsoft, Cisco, Intel, Telefonica, Amazon, STMicroelectronics and MediaTek -- and says it aims to influence standards and products.
Among the biggest challenges facing mobile technology today -- and which the center aims to address -- are the spectrum crunch and the massive scale created by a burgeoning population of mobile devices, said Hari Balakrishnan, the center's co-director, at a launch event at MIT in Cambridge. Another problem is that the Internet was designed in a world that was largely static; "mobility is an afterthought," he said.
One of the center's first projects will be a prototype wireless network deployed campus-wide at MIT. The plan is for the network to provide functional network service to users while also serving to demonstrate innovations developed by center researchers.
Co-director Dina Katabi won recognition earlier this year (along with colleagues Haitham Hassanieh, Piotr Indyk, and Eric Price) for work on a speeded-up Fourier transform, which revs up this commonly used signal processing algorithm by a factor of ten and allows streams of data to be processed more quickly.
At the center's launch on Thursday, Katabi emphasized the holistic approach that the multidisciplinary organization will take to bringing mobile technologies forward. Currently, each of the components that make up mobile systems were designed separately; "each on its own is good, but the system is suboptimal," she said. For example, video codecs now in use were designed for static use in DVDs and CDs, but mobile channels introduce errors and packet loss -- "so of course the video is going to glitch and stall." A better approach, she said, is to take a holistic view and optimize the whole system.
Research at Wireless@MIT is currently focused on four areas: spectrum and connectivity, mobile applications, security and privacy, and low-power systems. The center today launched a website detailing the projects that are now ongoing under its umbrella.
Many of the projects under way are solving today's problems: for example, Katabi presented MegaMIMO, which scales wireless capacity by allowing multiple individual senders of data to transmit concurrently to multiple receivers on the same band.
But others are meeting needs still some years in the future. CarSpeak is billed as a communication system for autonomous driving, as in Google's driverless car project. CarSpeak lets multiple self-driving cars share information about objects that are hidden from one vehicle but visible to the sensors of another nearby. And given the promised improvements in mobile technology more broadly, chances are we'll be more absorbed in our devices 10 years from now -- so the safer choice may be to leave the driving duties to the car.


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Red and Green Recipe: Green Penne with Basil-Spinach Pistou, Roasted Cherry Tomatoes, and Filet
Put some holiday color on your plate, too, with Red and Green Recipes.
This recipe is a mess of contradictions. Of course, there is the red of the burst roasted cherry tomatoes and the medium rare seared steak, and its color-wheel-opposite green of the spinach penne and the basil-spinach pistou. It is also enormously comforting, but the cream and the filet render it quite refined. It fills you up with heartiness in the winter, and yet the hint of basil and the tomatoes are a wistful reminder of sun-bathed summer.
Pistou is a French version, not surprisingly, of pesto. Usually, the nuts are omitted, but sometimes tomatoes are added, and all different variations occur. This one omits the cheese and is an amalgamation of garlic, spinach, basil, pine nuts, and olive oil. Combined with the steak, this dinner is so packed with iron that I would serve it at an intimate holiday dinner with Popeye at the head of the table. The green of the pasta and the pistou is studded with the red of the tomatoes and the steak—just like a Christmas tree. All you have to do at the table is shower Pecorino Romano all over the top, and you'll be serving a white Christmas for dinner.
- 1 pint of cherry tomatoes
- 3/4 pound of beef filet
- 1 pound of spinach penne rigate
- 2 cups of baby spinach, plus 1 cup, packed
- 1 cup of basil, packed
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1/2 cup of toasted pine nuts
- 1/2 cup of olive oil, plus 2 tablespoons, separated
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- Pecorino Romano to taste
Preheat the oven to 425°F and bring a large pot of water to boil.
Toss the tomatoes on a baking sheet with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast for 20 minutes at 425°F.
Season the filet with salt and pepper, liberally, on both sides. Heat a sauté pan on high until it is very hot, quickly add 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and sear the steak, 6 minutes on each side. Put it aside to rest.
When the water is boiling, salt the water, and cook the green penne to al dente.
Meanwhile, make the pesto. Put the 1 cup of basil, 2 cups of spinach, pine nuts, garlic, salt, and pepper into the food processor and pulse to break it down. Run the machine, and stream in 1/2 cup of olive oil.
Slice the steak into 1-inch cubes. Julienne 1 cup of spinach. Put the tomatoes, steak, spinach, pesto, and cream in the bottom of large bowl. Drain the pasta from the water, and toss, adding a couple of spoonfuls of pasta water if the sauce needs thinning.
Grate Pecorino Romano down over the top of the hot pasta.
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A persona is a user archetype you can use to help guide decisions about product features, navigation, interactions, and even visual design. By designing for the archetype—whose goals and behavior patterns are well understood—you can satisfy the broader group of people represented by that archetype. In most cases, personas are synthesized from a series of ethnographic interviews with real people, then captured in 1-2 page descriptions that include behavior patterns, goals, skills, attitudes, and environment, with a few fictional personal details to bring the persona to life. For each product, or sometimes for each set of tools within a product, there is a small set of personas, one of whom is the primary focus for the design.
It's easy to assemble a set of user characteristics and call it a persona, but it's not so easy to create personas that are truly effective design and communication tools. If you have begun to create your own personas, here are some tips to help you perfect them.
Personas represent behavior patterns, not job descriptions
A good persona description is not a list of tasks or duties; it's a narrative that describes the flow of someone's day, as well as their skills, attitudes, environment, and goals. A persona answers critical questions that a job description or task list doesn't, such as: Which pieces of information are required at what points in the day? Do users focus on one thing at a time, carrying it through to completion, or are there a lot of interruptions? Why are they using this product in the first place?
There is seldom a one-to-one correlation between personas and job descriptions. In some cases there will be multiple personas with the same job description; in others, a single persona can represent people with a wide range of jobs. If you were creating software used by call center agents, for example, you might have an experienced agent persona who is very familiar with the product, as well as an inexperienced agent who needs more prompts and written information. If, on the other hand, you were designing an e-mail application, one persona could represent people with hundreds of very different job descriptions, as long as they all shared similar goals and behavior patterns related to communication.
Keep your persona set small
If you've ever read a book or watched a movie with an enormous cast of characters, you may have found it hard to remember who was related to whom, who said what, and so on. You probably didn't feel like you knew any of the characters very well. If you were designing a product for such a large cast of characters, could you predict how so-and-so's cousin (whose name you forget) would behave in a certain situation? Probably not. That's why a large set of personas is problematic—the personas all blur together.
Ideally, you should have only the minimum number of personas required to illustrate key goals and behavior patterns. There's no magic number, but if you're designing a consumer product and you have a dozen personas, then you may be making distinctions that aren't very important. For example, if you were creating an electronic family calendar, your persona set might include a career mom, a stay-at-home mom, a career dad, and a teenager. If the career mom has the same needs as the career dad, and also does all the family management the stay-at-home mom does, you may be able to eliminate both the dad and stay-at-home mom personas.
Your marketing and sales targets may not be your design targets
Many product managers and executives are surprised when there isn't a direct correlation between market segments and personas. The people who bring in the most revenue may not be the best design target. If you were designing an in-flight entertainment system, a frequent business traveler—every airline's most valued customer—would be a tempting design target. A business traveler would actually make a poor design target, though, because he would be too familiar with flying and with using computers and other gadgets. If you design for the business traveler, the retired bricklayer going to see his grandchildren won't be able to use the system. If you design for the bricklayer, the business traveler will also be happy.
Add life to the personas, but remember they're design tools first
Sometimes it's easy to focus too much on a persona's biography. Personal details can be the fun part, but if there are too many of them they just get in the way. To avoid this problem, focus first on the workflow and behavior patterns, goals, environment, and attitudes of the persona—the information that's critical for design—without adding any personality.
Once you have the critical design information, add just one or two personal details, such as what your persona does after work (she goes home to watch old movies with Claude, her cat), or what personal touches there are in her workspace. You can also add life to the persona by using environmental details to reinforce important characteristics. For example, if someone tends to be incredibly busy at work, don't just say he's incredibly busy; instead, say there's a sandwich on his desk that he's been trying to find time to eat for three hours. Without a little bit of personality, personas can easily turn into generic users instead of precise design targets.
Use the right goals
Each persona should have three or four important goals that help focus the design. Keep in mind that goals and tasks are different: tasks are not ends in themselves, but are merely things we do to accomplish goals. Not just any goals will do, though, so it's important to understand which types will help you make design decisions.
Life goals are only occasionally useful in design. For example, "Retire by age 45" would be of little use if you were designing a word processor, mobile phone, or PDA, but it may offer valuable insight when you're designing a financial planning tool.
Experience goals describe how the persona wants to feel when using a product; having fun and not feeling stupid are experience goals. Not every persona needs an experience goal; in most persona sets, there is one persona who represents people with a lot of anxiety about technology. One of this person's goals is to avoid feeling stupid. Other experience goals might center on the product domain. A persona using an online banking site, for example, might want to feel confident that his transactions are secure.
Most persona goals should be end goals that focus on what the persona could get out of using a well-designed product or service. End goals may involve the work product that results from using the tool. For example, a graphic designer using a layout tool might want to create an award-winning ad. End goals can also involve indirect benefits from using a product. If a manager wants to be more proactive, a better spreadsheet tool can help her achieve this goal if it makes her more efficient.
Personas must be specific to the design problem
Organizations with more than one product often want to use the same personas over and over ("We have a salesperson persona already—why can't we use her for the spreadsheet as well as the contact management software?"). Unfortunately, this doesn't work because effective personas must be context-specific—they should be focused on the behaviors and goals related to the specific domain of a product. A persona's behaviors and goals related to contact management have very little to do with those related to manipulating financial data. You could keep the same name and personal details, but you'd have to throw away the rest of the persona and start over. It's better to start with a new set of personas for each product.
Want to learn more?
Hopefully, these tips will help you refine your personas so you can get the most out of them. Look for more on personas, principles, and other aspects of interaction design in future issues of the Cooper Journal, and keep up the good work!
Related reading:


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President Giuliani? It's a good bet
By Vincent Fiore
By now, most people around politics know that former New York Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani would be seeking the nomination for president of the United States.
A recent Gallup Poll asked the question of its participants: Who they would opt for as the Republican front runner in the 2008 presidential election? At the end of day, Gallup had Giuliani at 29%, while Senator John McCain, R-Ariz, came in at 24%.
What's worth noting here is that the battle for the 2008 presidency will be fought by two well-known political figures who both share the non-too-complimentary appellation of "RINO," or "Republican in name only."
Though Giuliani is considered by conservative GOP insiders as too socially liberal to capture the support of the hard-core right of the party, this writer believes otherwise.
Giuliani made his mark in political circles by joining the office of U.S. Attorney, eventually rising to U. S. Executive Attorney. In 1975, Giuliani went on to Washington to eventually become the third-highest ranking member -- Associate Attorney General -- in Ronald Reagan's Justice Department.
Giuliani was then appointed U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where he gained national standing by indicting such notables as Bill and Hillary Clinton pal Marc Rich and Mafia crime boss Paul Castellano. Giuliani first became mayor of New York City in 1994 until the close of 2001, and is now the CEO of Giuliani Partners LLC.
The primary contest that will eventually come down between Sen. John McCain and Giuliani will be fought on a number of fronts.
On the basis of name recognition, Giuliani bests John McCain by a considerable degree. Known as "America's Mayor" after the catastrophic events of 9/11, Giuliani was Time magazine's "Person of the Year" in 2001, and since has appeared all around the country, campaigning for GOP local and national candidates across the country.
McCain, though popular, is not as much the household name as Rudy Giuliani is, instead garnering an inordinate amount of attention through the mainstream media. While Giuliani is certainly noticed by the press, McCain is constantly feted by the press. Labeled in some circles as the "media candidate," most notably by radio personality Rush Limbaugh, McCain has become recognized primarily for his willingness to buck his Republican Party, and specifically, President Bush.
It is this distinction that will probably get McCain plenty of air time and space among the liberal press. However, he will pay a price, and the price will be the abandonment of nearly the entire conservative base come the presidential primary.
By contrast, Giuliani, though politically moderate-to-left on some social issues, will be more palatable than McCain to the voters for the simple reason that he is viewed as a man of courage, conviction, and leadership. To many, McCain comes across as the mainstream media has dubbed him -- a "maverick" or "courageous" Republican willing to dare the wrath of the "intractable hard-right of the party" in order to defy the George W. Bush led GOP.
On the issues themselves, McCain and Giuliani will both have their problems.
But McCain's positions and past votes within the Senate -- of which Giuliani has none to worry over -- will make it harder for him to claim solid platform-Republican credentials, much less conservative ones. McCain authored the Campaign Finance Reform bill, which to many in the GOP is a travesty against free speech. McCain has consistently voted against nearly all tax reform or tax cut programs proffered by the Bush administration.
McCain has also embraced the president's ill-advised immigration reform plan, or as most call it, "amnesty-lite." Amusingly, you now see McCain shifting his positions on some of these issues -- like the immigration bill -- as the campaign for 2008 draws ever near. But that is what a voting record is for; it never lets the advancement of time or events forget those votes.
Giuliani, though better positioned for lack of a Washington paper trail, has problems of his own. While iron-jawed and conservative on crime, taxes, and national defense, Giuliani has work to do on gay rights, gun control, and a linchpin of the GOP base, abortion.
I believe that Giuliani will modify his position on all these issues. He will do what so many have done before him regarding these issues, and that is to stress the commonality that he shares with the base -- like being against gay marriage—a maybe even reverse on a key issue, like partial-birth abortion.
In all, I think the Republican base will be more forgiving and receptive of a Washington outsider who turned who turned out to be a living icon of strength and purpose after America suffered its most egregious loss of life on American soil since World War II.
McCain, by contrast, has worn out his welcome by his continuous attacks against Bush, and his willingness to relegate his GOP loyalty to a back seat for the sake of a Sunday morning spot on Meet The Press. McCain has done much to cultivate this image.
Giuliani will campaign on the events of 9/11 and showcase his well-documented leadership, the same thing that has sustained Bush through nearly all else in his presidency. McCain will claim that he has stood fast with Bush since 9/11, and so he has.
But at the end of the day, the GOP elephant never forgets. The party faithful will find it difficult to elect the maverick senator from Arizona, instead opting for the stalwart and iron-willed mayor from New York, who helped show a nation the way back into the light of a new day when the chaotic and nightmarish darkness of 9/11 threatened to bring America to its knees.
Vincent Fiore is a freelance political writer who lives in New York City. His work can be seen on a host of sites, including the American Conservative Union, GOPUSA, Human Events, and theconservativevoice. Vincent is a staff writer for the New Media Alliance and a contributing writer for NewsBusters.org. He receives e-mail at email@example.com.
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What does a landscape contractor do?
Landscape contractors work from outdoor architectural or design plans to build and install hardscaping or softscaping for the client, much as a general contractor uses architectural designs to build a house. Landscape contractors are experts in soil drainage, grading, hardscaping (installing concrete paths and retaining wall, building ponds, etc.), and planting. They have heavy equipment such as excavators and tractors to prepare the land as needed.
Some landscape contractors are also landscape architects or landscape designers. The titles can be compared with those in home construction: A building or landscape architect must earn a specialized architecture degree and pass an exam to have a license. A designer — whether an interior designer or a landscape designer — does not usually require a license to work. Landscape contractors are not required by law to work from plans designed by a landscape architect, so you may work directly with the landscape contractor to specify the work you'd like done. The national average cost for large-scale landscaping projects is $10,160. Pricing can vary greatly depending on the project scope, materials and design.
How do you find a good landscape architect?
Hiring a landscape architect is an investment in your home. Landscaping can reduce water bills, improve your home resale value, add to your daily living experience and significantly boost curb appeal. A landscape architect will draw the designs for your new landscape; you'll want to hire a landscape contractor to carry out the plans. Many companies provide design-build landscaping services, with a company architect creating plans for your vision and the landscape contractor executing the vision. With the proper academic background and licensing, a person can be both landscape architect and landscape contractor. Here are a few tips for finding a great landscape architect:
- Research online portfolios and find several landscape architects whose work interests you.
- Read online reviews of client experiences.
- Research whether the landscape architects you are interested in are currently licensed and in good standing with the licensing board, and check whether any complaints have been issued against them. Each state will have their own searchable database. For example, you can search for California landscape architects via the state's Department of Consumer Affairs.
- Request bids from your selected landscape architects.
- Hire the one you like the most, taking care to have a clearly written contract outlining scope of work.
For more, check out our tips for smart hiring on Thumbtack.
How much does it cost to have landscaping done?
Professional landscaping can help reinvent your outdoor space, boost your curb appeal and get a major return on investment with. Landscaping can encompass anything from adding new plants, trees and shrubs, to leveling the ground and laying sod for a lawn, to building in hardscaping such as sidewalks, water features or retaining walls. The national average landscaping price is $10,160. Landscaping prices can be far lower (with hourly rates ranging from $50 to $150) if you're only seeking professional help with softscaping or seeking consultation on landscape design. Softscaping means adding or changing horticultural elements, such as planting a garden or adding a hedge. Hardscaping is where costs can really start to rise. Hardscaping requires labor and heavy equipment to excavate the earth; you may need to pour concrete, or you may need a pro who can transport and place gravel and other inorganic elements. Your total landscaping cost will vary based on the amount of work you want done, how much labor is required, and the cost of the materials you are using. A good rule of thumb for a major landscaping project, according to the American Society of Landscape Architects, is to budget 5 percent to 10 percent of the value of your home.
How much does it cost to landscape your front yard?
Prices for landscaping your front yard can range from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, depending on the scale of your front yard project. Your landscaping price will reflect how much change you implement, how much labor is required, and the cost of materials.
Landscaping is typically made up of softscaping and hardscaping. Softscaping refers to selecting trees, bushes, flowers and plants to achieve a desired aesthetic and to meet goals such as having a drought-tolerant yard. Hardscaping refers to moving earth, installing structures, and putting in decorative stonework, sidewalks or lighting. For softscaping, you may want to hire a landscape designer to consult on your plants and layout, and then do the digging and planting yourself or hire a gardner to handle the heavy lifting. A landscape designer's hourly rate may range from $50 to $150 or more. If you want a turnkey approach, meaning someone who works with you to create the vision and then executes all the work, landscaping pricing will typically come down to a cost per square foot rather than an hourly rate. It's a solid investment: Great landscaping can add up to 28 percent value to your home.
What should you look for when hiring a landscaper?
Landscaping can be costly — though it usually pays off in curb appeal and home resale value — so finding a landscaper who is worth the investment is important. When hiring a landscaper, look for proven success with the type of results you want. For example, if you know you want a drought-tolerant yard, research websites, reviews and portfolios that showcase beautiful drought-tolerant yards that the landscaper has installed. In addition to relevant experience, you'll want to find a landscape contractor who has good client reviews. Good communication skills are another important quality in a landscape contractor, since everything from plant selection to hardscape installation needs to be discussed and agreed upon. A landscape contractor who is reliable, easy to understand and able to listen to what you want will help make the process seamless and enjoyable.


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A Esquadrilha da Fumaça, also known as Smoke Squadron, is the Brazilian Air Force's air demonstration squadron. Its history began in 1952 when four instructors from the Air Academy established an unofficial aerobatic team with four North American T-6 Texan training airplanes. Team was re-established on October 21, 1982. Now known as the Official Aerobatic Squadron of the Brazilian Air Force. The team was equipped with new Brazilian-made Embraer EMB-312 turboprop trainers painted in red-and-white color scheme.
credit: Joao Carlos Medau


text:
Patagonia Men's Houdini Jacket
The 100% recycled nylon, take-it-anywhere jacket with weather-resistant protection for high-output endeavors. Fair Trade Certified™ sewn.
- Featherweight 100% recycled nylon ripstop with a DWR (durable water repellent) finish
- Zippered chest pocket converts to stuffsack with a reinforced carabiner clip-in loop
- Slim fit with a slight drop tail for better fit during movement
- Hood adjusts in one pull, won't block peripheral vision
- Durable half-elastic cuffs; drawcord hem
- Reflective P-6 logo on left chest
- Can be worn over baselayers and light midlayers; Fair Trade Certified™ sewn
- 105 g (3.7 oz)
1.2-oz 100% recycled nylon ripstop with a DWR (durable water repellent) finish.
Fair Trade Certified™ sewn
Fair Trade Certified™
We pay a premium for every Fair Trade Certified item that carries our label. That extra money goes directly to the workers at the factory, and they decide how to spend it. The program also promotes worker health and safety and social and environmental compliance, and encourages dialog between workers and management.
Water Resistant
DWR (durable water repellent) fabric finish repels light rain and snow and decreases dry times. When DWR is used in conjunction with a waterproof/breathable barrier, the DWR finish keeps the outer fabric from becoming saturated so that the breathable barrier can do its job.
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KDE Desktop Usability Survey
The HASE (Human Aspects of Software Engineering) group at the University of Maryland Baltimore County is conducting two online surveys for KDE users. They expect to obtain results that will lead to useful discussions about the overall usability of KDE. The results of this research will be shared with the KDE community. The surveys take about 15 minutes to complete.
Re: skim them posts
"People who get confused because they see three text editors in KMenu"
So, that is your definition of "typical end-user"? If that is the case, then shouldn'tt there only be one editor? I mean, the term "typical end-user" points to majority of users (since they are "typical" users"), then it means that most users find KDE to be confusing in that regard. Solution: remove reduntant editors. Or are you saying that KDE is not aimed at "typical end-users"?
Vanilla-KDE is meant for ALL users. you seem to think that vanilla-KDE is meant for some uber-leet powerusers, whereas "lusers" can use the distributors dumbed-down version. I don't want that. I want vanilla-KDE to be kick-ass on all levels. I want KDE (as shipped by the KDE-team) to be the shining beacon of kick-assness, I don't want to see distros holding KDE's hand so they could "get it right".
"Well then the vanilla KDE can't be as bad as you try to make it."
By default, there are flaws in KDE. And the distribution-versions are 98% identical. They might have different windecs, different styles and different icons and the like, but mostly they are the same. They haven't really tweaked KDE that much. So expecting distros to fix KDE simply does not work, since most of them don't do anything major to it! And when they do, people complain (Red Hat & Bluecurve, Xandros and their filemanager, Lindows with just about everything etc. etc.). So, instead of expecting distros to fix the problem (which they aren't going to do), why not fix the problem right at the source? that way ALL users would benefits, instead of just users of some particular distro.
"Well where is your prove that many people complain about KDE's abundane of options?"
That seems to be the nr.1 complaint KDE seems to receive (together with general clutterness, but they both tell about the same problem), from KDE-users and non-users alike. I'm sorry, but I haven't documented, counted and graphed them all, so I don't have any studies or diagrams to show you.
"So you want a minimalistic KDE and I don't. So how should vanilla KDE solve this "conflict"?"
"minimalistic" might be a wrong word, but I didn't have better one at hand. What would I like my KDE to be like? Like this:
1. A set of core utilities that get the job done, and tyey get the job done well. Yes, that means only one text-editor, and not full-featured editor and criplled editor. Instead of thinking "someone somewhere MIGHT use this particular app once or twice, so we better ship it alongside KDE", we should think "do we REALLY need this app? Is it really essential? Couldn't the same thing be done with this other app here? Or maybe we could merge this app with this other app?".
This change would mean that KDE would be smaller, it would take less time to download/compile/install and it wouldn't be as cluttered with apps as it is.
2. Configuration-options that don't scare users away. I have seen new users try to configure KDE. I show them where they do it (Control Center), they open it... And their jaws drop. They are overwhelmed. They click around, look around... And close Control Center. There is simply too much stuff there! they don't know what to do with all of it! It scares them.
Before you say "but those options empower the user to tweak the desktop to his exact liking!"... No. those options bury the relevant options under hundreds of other options. It doesn't empower the user, it drowns them.
As folks at OpenUsability.org said about Kmail:
"The first step is to reduce the amount of settings that a normal user is confronted with in the properties dialog. Issues that either require deep technical insight or that is relevant only in 1% of cases should be kept out of sight, but still accessible, or put to another place. Reducing (required) information to the relevant makes the user feel safer that he can control his Actions (because he only must set what he understands)."
That could be applied elsewhere as well, besides Kmail. And that is what I have been advocating. Having multitude of options thrown at the user does not "empower" him, it confuses him and drowns him in clutter. No, I do not suggest that we remove features from KDE, if that's what you are thinking.
When the user tweaks his desktop (or some app for that matter), he should feel that he's in command. But if there are loads of options, the user will feel that he not in command. That he can only scratch the surface. If he changes one setting, there are still 347 settings waiting for him, each with several different choices. With smaller set of default options, that would not happen. But if the user REALLY feels the need to change some exotic setting, he could still do it. I think GNOME-folks were on the right track when they introduced Gconf, but I think their implementation sucks.
What would this KDE be in reality? It would be welcoming towards new users. It would look smooth and uncluttered. User would feel that they REALLY are in charge of their desktop (right now they aren't, due to multitude of options). The desktop would grow with the user. If he wants to change some less-used option, he would still have the tools to do so. But they wouldn't be thrown at him the moment he decides to change something. If the user thinks "I think I would like to change my icons...", KDE replies to him "Good idea! You can also add menubar on top, change launch-feedback, edit keyboard-shortcuts, configure file-sharing, tweak your taskbar, change your splashscreen, configure login-manager, change the spacing between icons in Konqueror...". At that point the user would say "enough!". that should not happen.
The configuration-tools (Control Center) would contain only about 10-20% of what they contain today. They would be easily accessible and the user would know just about all of them. He wouldn't have to look around for the thing he wants to change. He would be in control. The other options would be available through different set of tools (no, not necessarily through Windows Registry-clone like in GNOME).
In short: nothing would be taken away from the user, quite the contrary. By limiting the number of options that the user sees by default, we would empower the user to tweak the UI. If we drown him with options, we do not empower him, we drown him. We confuse him, and we will scare him away.
Sorry for lengthy post.
By Janne at Wed, 2005/03/30 - 6:00am
Re: skim them posts
> > "Well where is your prove that many people complain about KDE's
> That seems to be the nr.1 complaint KDE seems to receive (together with
I got the impression that a *lot* of those complaints are from trolls (not the Norwegian tribe) and GNOME zealots trying to bash KDE.
But I agree, simple and smart defaults and easier config dialogs would be nice. But at the same time the features should stay. The challenging question would then be how to make those apps and options accessible to the user, and how to introduce the cool apps and features to him (how can he learn about them if they're hidden or not installed).
Could this be solved by
- Starting off with a bare-bone KDE that contains
This functionality would border on the one that has traditionally been provided by the distributors. The app would have to play nicely with the platform's package management.
Another question would be how the user can be introduced to new or hidden KDE features like IOSlaves, web shortcuts, desktop-wide mouse gestures (KHotKeys), app plugins...
By cm at Wed, 2005/03/30 - 6:00am
Re: skim them posts
"I got the impression that a *lot* of those complaints are from trolls (not the Norwegian tribe) and GNOME zealots trying to bash KDE."
I think that most of them are not some zealots that are out to bash KDE. Besides, openusability have also made similar comments, and I don't think they are trolls or zealots.
"But at the same time the features should stay."
Absolutely! I do not advocate removal of features! But they shouldn't be thrown at the user either (same as with options). The app should have a defined purpose, and it fulfills that purpose perfectly by default. But it could also have more advanced features, that could be enabled if the user so desires. But by default, it should be a straighforward app intented for some well-defined purpose. But if the user is overwhelmed by in-your-face features, even the more simple tasks could e more awkward that they should be.
Allow me to present an example from my KDE-installation: Konqueror. Konqueror is a multipurpose-app that has two functions at it's core: filemanagement and web-browsing. I defined those two as it's main uses. Then I started to think what is the common thing with those two: browsing. Konqueror is not a spatial filemanager (thank god!), it's a "filebrowser". And you browse the net as well. So I proceeded by removing all buttons from the toolbar that does not relate to that task. So I have only buttons that enable browsing on the toolbar (Back, Forward, Up, Reload, Home and Stop, not necessarily in that order). I also have the location-textbox so I can type in urls/filepaths. Sure, some of those buttons have limited use when doing filemanagement (like "stop"), but I dislike toolbars that change, so it was an acceptable compromise. Almost all of those buttons are needed in both of those tasks, whereas by default Konqueror has buttons that are not needed in all it's inteded tasks.
I did that as an experiment in order to see would it limit my usage of Konqueror. It did not. In fact, it made it more pleasant to use, because the UI was so clean!
You might think that that is an overly simplified approach to the issue, but it worked for me, and it worked very well!
"Could this be solved by...."
You are definitely on the right track there :).
"Another question would be how the user can be introduced to new or hidden KDE features like IOSlaves, web shortcuts, desktop-wide mouse gestures (KHotKeys), app plugins..."
We have that problem even today. Many times users are astonished when they find out some cool feature KDE has to offer. Hell, just few weeks ago I told few users about the audiocd-kioslave and how you can encode oggs/mp3's with it. They weren't exactly newbies and that feature has been in KDE since 2.0 (IIRC)! yet they didn't know about it!
I think the key here is user-guides and documentation. And we need a way to actually make the users read them! Unfortunately I have no silver-bullet for this. Interactive guides? Or guides with demo's? Or maybe a comprehensive "Introduction to the K Desktop Environment"-section in kde.org/KDE? That way non-users could check what KDE actually can do. And when the user logs in to KDE for the first time, that presentation would automatically launch. It would contain "What's new"-section, explanation of the basic-concepts, introduction to the features and the like.
By Janne at Wed, 2005/03/30 - 6:00am
I just finished taking both surveys and for most questions related to GNOME I answered 'N/A', since I hadn't used that function in GNOME enough (most likely I've never done it once, or only a couple times) to be confident in answering the questions. I never do any searching in KDE so I answered N/A for all those questions (if I ever search for ANYTHING, I'm normally already in Konsole so I just use locate because I know where all _my_ stuff is).
I probably need to try out GNOME, but funny timing since when I upgraded to FC3 most of the GNOME packages were uninstalled :-| (I had been trying to remove them a while ago to save disk space but had no clue what was required to keep GTK apps working). I don't really feel like installing GNOME in either Fedora or Gentoo... I'm probably going to install a GNOME based distro into VMware (or wait till Xen is supported better than just use that), except the last 2 distros I tried to install into VMware failed to install (SuSE and Ubuntu, my god theres so much spam for 'OMFG USE UBUNTU!!!!111!11oneoneoneone' on so many sites).
Wow, a post about a survey ended up talking about ubuntu... I'm scared now... :-(
By Corbin at Tue, 2005/03/29 - 6:00am
Their site is not usable
1. when starting the survey it opens a popup window!
By Flavio at Tue, 2005/03/29 - 6:00am
Re: Their site is not usable
Their survey is not "readable" in 1152x864,
The window is NOT resizable on my machine.
While some people complain about the black on blue.
The survey only covers some of the common task,
For instance, some of the following task needs LOTS of improvement too:
- Modify regional settings
- Browsing files/web pages (Konqui, Firefox, Mozilla),
Finally, playing Windows or 3D games (Wine/CrossOver, TransGaming),
That's mostly what Windows user do with their computers.
For instance, currently, we would need some custom apps from Novell,
That makes no sense at all.
By KDE user tasklist at Tue, 2005/03/29 - 6:00am
Re: Their site is not usable
Most of what you listed has nothing to do with KDE, but rather Linux, or a specific distribution. I hope you don't expect every application available to be ported over to KDE style.
By Billy J. West Jr. at Wed, 2005/03/30 - 6:00am
If you REALLY care about usability in KDE
1) please subscribe to the KDE Usability mailing list
This is real contribution to the KDE project! This is real USABILITY work!
By Anne-Marie Mahfouf at Tue, 2005/03/29 - 6:00am
Re: If you REALLY care about usability in KDE
"1) please subscribe to the KDE Usability mailing list
Thanks annma. After a long and fruitless discussion on that very same KDE usability mailing list, getting my head down, learning about KDE and coding is exactly what I'm going to do over the next three or four weeks. Trying to argue your case can often be totally fruitless.
If nobody wants usability thinking (as I'm getting the general impression of that - not from everyone mind you), everybody wants incomprehensible settings that non-programmers cannot use and nobody wants a default desktop that you can put infront of an ordinary non-programmer non-KDE experienced person (why KDE was started in the first place) then I'm just going to start small and do it myself.
With the right technology, which KDE has, and the right default presentation to an end user it could blow anything else out there away. We can also get distributors doing less customisation and using more default KDE technology, which is something I think should be aimed for.
As for the KDE HIG, I'm sceptical about most developers wanting anything to do with it but I'm willing to be hopeful.
By David at Tue, 2005/03/29 - 6:00am
Thanks to the KDE Community
We would like to thank everybody who took the survey and especially to the KDE project for posting a link to it in the Latest News section. We noted that, immediately after that, some individuals tried to mislead the others about the motives and the scientific basis of the survey. We prefer not to answer them because such discussions are not productive. The survey is being conducted by a research group at UMBC, HASE, and as noted before HASE has no vested interest in its research and findings. We think that any contribution is valuable.
The survey is still open. We would like to encourage you to take it if you haven't done so.
By HASE at Tue, 2005/03/29 - 6:00am
Re: Thanks to the KDE Community
while i respect your research efforts, i must say that i'm completely unclear as to your goals with this survey.
it certainly isn't the sort of study that can lead to _any_ useful usability related conclusions whatsoever. it will be able to tell us what a self-selected audience thinks about their satisfactions levels with KDE, but from a usability perspective that's not particularly useful data.
so assuming you haven't simply bungled this survey, i'd be interested in knowing what you really are trying to measure here or how you see it fitting into efforts to improve usability on the Open Source desktop.
By Aaron J. Seigo at Tue, 2005/03/29 - 6:00am
Finding Files in KDE
It is really very unsatisfactory to find my files, which are scattered at many places.
If I want to find my file which has a substring "ate"
1. I have to add 2 extra characters '*' before and after ate to get that thing done. KFind must by default consider the search string to be substring with '*' before and after the string.
2. The Interface of Kfind is somewhat not useful. like the Results are displayed in 'list' format only, which is not a good integration with Konqueror which has multicolumn, icon, detailed view.
3. The KFind window in Konqueror simply takes too much window space. A KFind Sidbar Search panel would be great like in Windows.
4. And there is no Default key assigned in Konqueror to find files (like CTRL+F) as in Windows. Yes, a user can assign a shortcut to that action but that's too much of a work for thousands of users. Plz assign default 'Ctrl+F' to find files in konqueror.
By Asif Ali Rizwaan at Tue, 2005/03/29 - 6:00am
Re: Finding Files in KDE
Known problem, it is being worked on.
By aleXXX at Tue, 2005/03/29 - 6:00am
Re: Thanks to the KDE Community
I'm all for taking surveys, and I would have completed this one, had it been even reasonably easy to complete.
By Leo Spalteholz at Tue, 2005/03/29 - 6:00am
Re: Thanks to the KDE Community
I expect the DOT to publish the results from these 'surveys' within 6 months. Surely a high quality and detailed report will be freely available for KDE to make use of your findings based on scientific expertise.
By Anne-Marie Mahfouf at Wed, 2005/03/30 - 6:00am
Re: Thanks to the KDE Community
"..your findings based on scientific expertise"
Reducing everything to numbers is not scientific. A scientific theory must be testable. In what way will the results from this survey be testable? I filled in the forms, but I haven't the faintest idea about the difference between 'I agree' and 'I strongly agree' over the issue of whether I use the right mouse button a lot.
Usability is more like art, someone with a good sense of aesthetics must make judgements on what is best.
Re: Thanks to the KDE Community
> Usability is more like art
so was science when it was just "natural philosophy". and then some people Got It(tm) and start up this whole "scientific principle" thing. most usability is testable and it is verifiable.
usability is not "art" (as opposed to "science"). esthetics can help create interfaces that are more approachable and enjoyable, but that's not what "usability" is about.
By Aaron J. Seigo at Wed, 2005/03/30 - 6:00am
Re: Thanks to the KDE Community
I'm thinking of Karl Popper's definition of science. If a theory isn't testable, then it isn't a theory and it isn't scientific. That's roughly what Isaac Newton invented - ie the scientific method. In what way is usability a testable scientific theory? Some users might hate the right mouse button, and want to remove all the options from it. Other users, such as myself like using the right mouse button. How do you make the compromise between users with different requirements? How could you ever have a 'theory of right mouse buttons'?
The important thing is to have peer reviews about the options, so that the opinions of people who have been shown to have good judgement in the past will be given more say in any current discussions. For instance, people like annma and yourself. I don't think the results of this sort of survey should be given much weight.
On the other hand, I believe (unscientifically) that peer review is much more scientific than this sort of survey by numbers, even if there is no underlying testable theory.
Re: Thanks to the KDE Community
yes, from a usability perspective this survey is thoroughly useless and unscientific. that much we certainly agree on =)
but you most certainly can measure usability related issues, such as "how do people tend to group these specific options?" and "how many levels of depth can an individual manage to deal with?" and "what sort of context menus are easy for people to use and which aren't?"
there is no single answer to many of these questions that cover every user perfectly, but there are statistically significant answers especially when you target particular audiences.
i personally consider usability to be like architecture: there are certainly esthetic principles involved, but there is also a lot of hard science in it too. these scientific principle range from studies of human psychology ("how do people prefer to or naturally occupy a space?") to physics ("how strong do these beams need to be?" or "what are the aerodynamics of a building 80 stories high?") to matters of practicality ("how many bathrooms are necessary on each floor to ensure they are convenient enough that people aren't inconvenienced beyond a certain point?") ...
By Aaron J. Seigo at Wed, 2005/03/30 - 6:00am
Re: Thanks to the KDE Community
Yes, I agree with you here, and think this survey is useless.
I did a degree in 'Philosophy with Cognitive Studies' 30 years ago, and have been fascinated with this sort of thing ever since.
Re: Thanks to the KDE Community
Thinking about this more, I think your comparison with usability and architecture is spot on.
The trouble is that we make artificial distictions between art, science and technology/engineering.
I'm not a painter, but from what I've read about how painters go about painting it does involve significant amounts of science/technology. For instance, Carravagio did very clever things with mirrors to implement his very realistic style of painting. Without state of the art technology for the time, he couldn't have done that. When a 'non-painter' just looks at a picture, they assume 'it just happened'. But a painter has to work hard thinking about the techniques needed to implement the painting to achieve that 'suspension of belief', and that mechanism must be carefully hidden, in order to communicate their message.
A good user interface is one you don't actually notice. When I'm editing in vi, I'm aware of it the whole time, and I hate the thing. On the other hand with an editor like Kate, all I'm thinking of is the program code I'm working on. I don't care if I need a few more keystrokes to do something, as long as I can be thinking about my program at the same time, instead of whether mistyping 'J' instead of 'j' is suddenly going to ruin my edit.
By Richard Dale at Thu, 2005/03/31 - 6:00am
Re: Thanks to the KDE Community
hmm, are you challenging what I say or going in the same way? I don't follow you. For me a survey should be conducted with a scientific base, for example the fact that I can take it twice from the same machine is, hmm, non scientific. The fact that the user is not asked how many desktops he use/used is also non-scientific considering the first survey questions. The scientific expertise someone would expect is facts about people who took the survey. When you are polled in real life, you have to agree to be asked lately to certify you indeed were polled and in what conditions. Scientific did not apply to usability in general in my sentence but how from the questions usability facts are extracted.
And your usability view, well, implies that we can have different usability behaviors just as we have different forms of art. Not quite what we want to achieve in KDE.
By Anne-Marie Mahfouf at Wed, 2005/03/30 - 6:00am


text:
Fact: googly eyes make everything better. Heck, even Christopher Walken can tell you that. So why aren't there googly eyes in every game? Yes, I understand that they may be narratively inappropriate (some might say silly!), but given the option, I would gladly buy a googly eyes DLC pack for every single game I have ever and will ever own.
With that in mind here are some of the most popular games of last year, vastly improved using googly eyes. You're welcome, internet.
Far Cry 3
Halo 4
Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Borderlands 2
Sleeping Dogs
Papo & Yo
Max Payne 3
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
Got some games you want to add googly eyes to? Feel free to leave them in the comments.