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As the trees lose their leaves, the air turns cold, and frost can be found gathering on the ground in the morning, I'm reminded that winter is once again upon us (Ok, so winter may look different in Seattle than other places). This necessarily leads to a period of reflection and retrospection as I think about what we've achieved as a studio over the past year and what we have planned for the year to come. So, in accordance with my annual "Look Back", let's take some time to revisit the many foundations laid in 2017, and the progress we'll be making in 2018.
I'm often overheard at home and around the office using analogies to communicate sometimes complex concepts to my kids, coworkers, and friends. In truth, I'm almost as famous for my analogies as I am for my puns. Sometimes I borrow from existing analogies and frequently I come up with my own. When preparing for this blog post I was thinking not only about what we had achieved in 2017 and what we will be achieving in 2018, but also how 2017 was different from 2016. As I was thinking, the frequently used construction analogy that is frequently utilized in software engineering came to mind.
The idea is that software engineering is akin to civil engineering, and that the process of building a house or a skyscraper can provide lessons toward the construction of software. The analogy usually draws parallels between the different phases of construction such as the requirements gathering, drawing up blueprints, laying a foundation, creating a frame, etc. There are also many reusable terms such as architecture, scaffolding, building, and more. Of course, there are some key differences as well which leads people to argue the validity of the construction analogy, but that's irrelevant for this conversation.
If I continue the construction analogy, then the primary focus of 2016 was on the concepting phase of development. We worked on prototypes, proofs of concepts, and small demos to validate the ideas we had. This would be a lot like an architect creating 2D or 3D models of their building to pitch the design and project to others. It's not throw-away work, as the concepts and designs serve to guide the vision of the project, but clearly a sketch, render, or even blueprints won't keep you warm in the winter.
If the clear majority of 2016 was on concepting and drawing up blueprints, then November of 2016, just over 13 months ago, was when we finally broke ground on the construction of Chronicles of Elyria. It's when we took the vision and concepts we'd created and really started to build something out of it. It stands to reason then that 2017 was about building the foundation and infrastructure of the project. Much like a skyscraper must have a solid, deep foundation, and reinforcements to handle the weight, so too does an MMO like Chronicles of Elyria. A game like this requires a high-level architecture, a deep set of foundational work on the client and server, a strong support system, and infrastructure with which to see the project to completion. With that in mind, let's take a closer look at some of the foundational work that happened in 2017.
When talking about an MMORPG - or as we like to call games like Chronicles of Elyria, a Multiplayer Evolving Online World (Meow!) - there's nothing more foundational than the back-end server. The back-end server is responsible for managing the entire state of the game, performing all the necessary computations for systems like AI, physics, pathfinding, and combat, and for receiving and processing all the input for, in the case of CoE, hundreds of thousands of connected clients. In January of 2017 we began the long process of taking what was mostly an offline, single-player game – designed primarily to validate user experience and gameplay feel – and turn it into a MEOW (what can I say, the Internet loves cats).
The process of building a scalable, reliable back-end server with all the gameplay mechanics for a game like Chronicles of Elyria can be divided up into two primary components. There's the platform, necessary for providing infrastructure such as entity and state management, fault tolerance, load balancing, and a method of cross-process communication, and then there are the services or workers that are responsible for performing all the actual gameplay logic and processing the user input of all the clients.
Shortly after we announced development of Chronicles of Elyria we started looking around for ways to solve the typical problems associated with building a large, distributed simulation. In short, we were looking for ways to speed up development of the platform. As part of our research we got in contact with Improbable and as a first effort at bringing our game online, we began integrating SpatialOS in January of 2017. As a test, we built our own PhysX simulation in SpatialOS which, when integrated with our Unreal Engine 4 (UE4) client, allowed us to move around the world using our own custom physics engine in a way that provided all the benefits SpatialOS has to offer.
Of course, SpatialOS isn't a game engine, so while it provided a platform on which we could build our game, we were still responsible for writing all the systems of CoE.
But, then we started encountering some issues. First, while SpatialOS provided load-balancing and fault tolerance for all our spatial workers, there were still many workers that were not spatial in nature. Workers such as our authentication and login server, our AI system, and our Procedural Story Engine. For these, we still needed our own load balancer, fault-tolerance, and cross-process communication.
Second, we started to have some concerns about the financial viability of SpatialOS for our needs. Whenever you use SpatialOS you're also signing up to have your game hosted by Improbable. That has the benefit of lowering operations costs, but has the drawback of passing all the hosting fees they pay to their cloud partner onto us. It also means we don't have the ability to choose a hosting partner - whether cloud, bare metal, or dedicated servers that meet our performance needs. And CoE has some very specific needs! In specific, our use of Offline Player Characters (OPCs), the extremely large size of our world, the vast number of entities in the world, and the way we divide our game server up into dozens of different worker types made it difficult to estimate how expensive using SpatialOS would ultimately be.
Of course, we brought our concerns to Improbable and they were quite receptive. SpatialOS is still a product in development, and Improbable is still finding ways to optimize the platform and find ways to use compute more efficiently. This is pushing down the cost for all developers on the platform.
Unfortunately, Chronicles of Elyria is a unique game with very specific requirements. Although the final pricing for running Chronicles of Elyria as a retail game was not final, we believed that the specific game design could run more affordably using a stack based entirely on the Soulborn Engine.
As we had already started leveraging Docker Swarm, a Container technology for load balancing and fault tolerance of our non-spatial services, we knew we could transition to a full Docker stack if necessary for our spatial services as well. When we realized we were going to need to communicate between our spatial services and non-spatial services, we integrated RabbitMQ into our back-end, a super fast routing and message protocol used to serve 10's of millions of requests by banks and other high-traffic websites across the internet each day. And because we needed persistent storage for all our non-spatial data, we integrated PostgreSQL into our backend. Fortunately, PostgreSQL supports SQL, NoSQL, and even spatial queries, enabling it to act as a backend and persistent storage for both our spatial and non-spatial data.
All of the above technologies were integrated into our backend to solve non-spatial related problems, but we made those choices because we knew we could lean on them if worst-came-to-worse. And then we encountered our third and final roadblock. In the most recent release of SpatialOS Improbable deprecated their JavaScript SDK and marked it as unsupported. This left us with our biggest challenge yet - we no longer had a good way to interact with the SpatialOS backend.
As you can see, our non-spatial services required a large part of 2017 to be spent getting our core stack set up and creating the necessary components to have our own, proprietary platform. And because we were concerned about how things would end up with SpatialOS, we continued to make progress on these areas within the Soulborn Engine throughout 2017. In fact, we went to PAX West this year and showed off our jousting demo. This was the first time we'd taken a multiplayer demo to PAX since our combat demo back in 2016, but unknown to many, the Joust Demo was running on a locally deployed version of the Soulborn Engine. This means that everyone who played the jousting demo at PAX West has already played on our new server stack.
And finally, in December 2017, we released Version 0.1.0 of Chronicles of Elyria to our "Friends and Family". This was the first time offsite users were able to play Chronicles of Elyria. Again, the milestone was completed using an entirely Soulborn-based game engine. So, what does this all mean in a nutshell? It means that in 2017 we began by using SpatialOS, and ended with something that, while not a single solution, does everything SpatialOS did - ultimately providing us all the same functionality as SpatialOS, while allowing us to keep our operating costs low and providing us more control over our server performance. With the transition complete, we're now ready to move forward with more core gameplay mechanics in 2018.
Another key piece of foundational work done in 2017 was on our client. We spent a lot of time perfecting our animation systems, materials & shaders, world streaming and loading, and client-side prediction for our physics engine. The result is a game client that looks amazing, and performs smoothly.
Image 1 - The Joust Experience from PAX West 2017
The latest look of the game can be seen in our recent environment screenshots and the PAX West 2017 Jousting Demo. What do you think? Sexy huh? And for those that went to PAX West and got hands-on with Jousting, the animations were clean, clear, and felt extremely visceral.
There's also been a ton of work in 2017 on the materials and shader systems. This can be seen with the overall improvement to how the characters look, including the in-engine renders we released of the Janoa and Dras tribes.
Oh, speaking of PAX West, the Jousting Demo, which attracted people from all over the show floor, was nominated by Marooner's Rock for Best PC Game at PAX West 2017. We lost to Elder Scrolls Online. We consider that a win.
As a final note, while we've done a lot of work on the client this year, our focus in Q1 of 2018 will mostly be on back-end gameplay mechanics, and specifically how they're exposed via our VoxElyria Client. We're excited to get our Alpha 1 backers into CoE as quickly as possible, and that's going to be our primary focus in Q1. As a result, for the first time in three years, we won't be at PAX East. Our attention will be elsewhere, and we don't want to split our resources on preparing a PAX Demo. But have no fear, we'll still be giving players something to chew on this spring.
While not part of the game engine, the lore and history of the world is just as much a part of the game. In 2017, we made huge advances in the lore and mythology, with the primary focus being on establishing more of the history and traditions of the various religions, as well as on establishing the cultures and ceremonies of the various tribes.
With respect to the religions, we'd already talked a great deal about the Qindred and Virtori, but we'd been mostly quiet about the Al'tifali (The Children of The Two-Fold Queen), the Faedin, and The Faithless. With the introduction of the tribes and their religions came more discovery and information about how the followers of the Faedin view and interpret their religion differently, as well as more information on the Al'tifali. We've added further details such as the priests, practices, and key tenants of the various religions, and it's been exciting to see the community come out as identifying with one or more of the religions.
Of course, not all that we discovered and wrote about the various religions this year has been shared. Over the last twelve months we have delved deep into the role the Neran and especially the Hrothi play in the Virtorian Faith and we're excited to see what happens as the players discover the deep connection between those tribes and the larger story. In fact, while not a lot will be revealed, hints of the relationship between the Virtori and the larger story will begin to make itself known during Prologue: The Awakening. And, if we can't contain our excitement more information may be leaked in the form of short webcomics or animatics. Stay tuned in 2018 to learn more about the different religions.
In addition to more information about the religions, we also released a ton of information on the Tribes of Elyria. As we have explored and explained the differences in culture between the different tribes, players in Discord have already begun identifying with the various tribes. While there's still iteration that needs to be done, it's been great seeing the interaction of the players. The memes that have arisen from the tribes and the general feeling of "tribalism" has added a lot to the interactions of players and we honestly can't wait to see how members of the different tribes interact with one-another after getting into the world. If you haven't seen some of the memes in our official Discord server, here's some of our favorites
We also built a lot more of the lore this year revolving around the celestial bodies of Elyria (pun intended). Some of the seasonal holidays we talked about in 2017 were Queen's Gaze, as well as the Longest Night. Of course, we've only revealed a couple. We'll be revealing even more seasonal events in Elyria in 2018, some of which are related to the solstices and equinoxes of Earth. And, after launch, players will experience many more unique events tied to the alignments of the celestial bodies that float in the distant space beyond Elyria. But there will be no warning, err... write-ups on those. Those are for The Seer to know, and you to discover.
Image 4 - The outer planets and celestial bodies of Elyria
Another area that we made significant progress on in 2017 was World Building. If you've been keeping up with our production blog posts than you've already seen the recent screenshots of our environment. If not, here's a few that haven't been seen before.
Image 7 - Tropical Rain Forest
These are all coming from our terrariums - maps created as experimental targets using our procedural world generation system. These are intended to validate we're accurately generating the correct terrain topology, soil types, ground cover, trees, etc. Once we've got the biomes generating correctly, the finer detail world generation systems will be combined with the higher-level world generation system for creating the continents and determining where the biomes will be located.
Of course, we're also making strides on the higher-level system. In fact, we're now starting to generate world maps. Like our terrariums, this is being done by iterating on the world generation tools to make sure they match a set of visual targets and can create the types of continents we want to be able to create. One such visual target can be seen here.
Image 9 - Sample Starting Continent
This shows one potential output the world generation system might create. While this isn't the starting continent for any particular server, it does provide a good sense of the size and distribution of biomes as existed a couple months ago.
If you've been involved in the Discord discussions recently you know that we're also making a few changes to the Kingdom Generation component. In specific, while the intention has always been for Kingdoms to be made up of multiple biomes and tribes, we're now being explicit about the fact that each of the six starting kingdoms will be made up of a well-defined set of tribes. This should help the Aristocracy and Nobility with planning. It should also largely mitigate the concern people have about being last pick in Domain and Settlement Selection. Ultimately, no matter where in Domain / Settlement selection you end up there will be a diversity of tribes to play with.
The proposed kingdom-tribe distribution is as follows:
Kingdom 1:
Kingdom 2:
Kingdom 3:
The Waerd
Kingdom 4:
The Waerd
Kingdom 5:
Kingdom 6:
There's also been additional work on world generation in 2017, with the final size of the starting continents being set to 96 km x 192 km for the NA and EU servers. If you're counting, that's greater than 18,000 km^2! To put that in perspective, compare the 18,000 km^2 to the 40 km^2 of Skyrim! This size was set to ensure population density is high enough that the world feels full, while still providing plenty of space on the starting continent for players to explore and develop.
With each kingdom being over three thousand square kilometers, it'll take about 10 hours to cross the kingdom by foot. This also means the average county has around 2,300 parcels of land - more than enough to support the number of settlements most people would be interested in hosting within their county.
Also, while this information has never been shared before, the 96 km x 192 km accounts for just 28% of the total landmass of Elyria! Not coincidentally, 28% is the same percentage of landmass of North America and South America combined on Earth. What's that mean? It means somewhere beyond the oceans of the starting continent remains enough land to explore to account for what would be Europe, Asia, Africa, and Oceania on Earth, when compared to North/South America. Explorers rejoice! More than 60% of the world is still unexplored!
The Oceanus server is a bit different. Due to the smaller population of Oceania, we've set the starting continent size to 96 km x 144 km. However, it should be noted that the overall size of the world is the same on Oceanus as it is on the other servers. The difference in starting continent size is to account for the waterways that exist between the different pieces of landmass on the Oceanus server. You see, Oceanus is unique and interesting in that it's the only server to have a starting continent which is an archipelago. This should be familiar to the inhabitants of the region, as the separation of land into navigable waterways should be reminiscent of their own Earthly continent, but larger in size and with a wider array of biomes.
To account for the smaller continent, the Oceanus server also begins with four Kingdoms rather than six, the Kings of which have already been locked in. Like the other servers, the proposed tribal distribution across the different Kingdoms would be as follows:
Kingdom 1:
Kingdom 2:
The Waerd
Kingdom 3:
The Waerd
Kingdom 4:
Just as a building needs strong support pillars in addition to a strong foundation, so too does an MMO like Chronicles of Elyria. Fortunately, we have THE strongest supports a studio could ask for - our community. While we've continued to see steady growth in the size of our community in 2017, the real accomplishments of this year revolve around the establishment of new programs and roles that has turned our community into the closest, friendliest, most inviting community I've ever been a part of.
To begin with, 2017 saw the addition of several new moderators with coverage around the globe. The moderators are frequently in Discord as well as on our forums, answering community questions and keeping the peace. In addition, one of the first acts of our new Community & Support Lead, Serpentius, was the creation of the Ambassador Program. The Ambassador Program was created to recognize those in the community that are the best example of the community we want to create. They're exemplary individuals whose knowledge of the game, and interest in sharing the Word of Elyria causes them to stand out against the crowd. While the Ambassadors currently have no special recognition on the forums, their green names on Discord identify them for what they are. If you see someone in Discord with a green name, you should pay special attention because they represent what we hope all our community members strive to be.
Speaking of Discord. The engagement rate of our community increased dramatically in 2017 and the community is extremely active! At times, our concurrent user count on Discord has jumped to over 1,800 people with almost 5,500 total members. A couple times we've had over 100 people in a single voice channel! And, although our community is just over 200k people, our Discord server numbers are approaching 30% of the numbers of the World of Warcraft server. Talk about an active and engaged community! If you want to get to know what CoE is about, it's about the people. And the best way interact with those people is directly through our Discord server.
In addition to the every-day engagement that exists on the forums and Discord, 2017 saw the ground-breaking Free Kingdom of Elyria event, which showed what kind of excitement and engagement can be achieved when a community and studio work together toward a common goal. In the Free Kingdom of Elyria event, Soulbound worked with the server leaders on the Luna (NA-East) Server, to establish lore directly around the player-created kingdoms. That led to the introduction of a new cinematic, and a competition for who the 6th and final King or Queen would be for the server.
The announcement of the Free Kingdom of Elyria event led to player-run debates, interviews, Q&As, and other activities as members of the community rallied together, supporting one another both socially as well as financially to elect the final monarch on the server. At the end of the event, we had established around 140 new nobility; including 1 monarch, 6 dukes/duchesses, and over 130 new counts/countesses.
Taking inspiration from the success of developing the lore for NA-East side-by-side with the players, we've created a set of private lore channels on our Discord server where committees made up of the monarchs, dukes/duchesses, and appointed loremasters of the server are working side-by-side to establish hundreds of years of history in advance of Kingdoms of Elyria. With us monitoring and answering questions, these channels and the work we're doing will hopefully pave the way for a new style of world building, where players and studios work together to write the backstory and history of their worlds.
If 2017 was all about building the foundation and support beams, then 2018 is all about the framing and siding. 2018 is all about realizing the shape of Chronicles of Elyria. Over the course of the next 12 months we'll be seeing rapid development of the various game mechanics. As we're building this game, floor by floor, our Alpha 1 backers will have an opportunity to walk around in the game and experience it even while we're still running the wires and plumbing.
Aside from the game itself, and the onset of Alpha 1 phases on the horizon, there are other places where we'll be adding structure and shape to the game in 2018. Let's look at each of them in a bit more detail.
While the website may be less exciting than the game for most, 2018 is going to see several new features being added to the website. To begin with, in the very near future we'll be rolling out Account Merging.
For those that don't have multiple accounts, this won't affect you. For those who do, this means you'll be able to combine the Influence, EP, packages, and titles of all your multiple accounts into a single account. That's right, you'll finally be able to see your double and triple settlements, counties, and duchies. Once accounts have been merged, we'll also be able to award the bonus Gift Packages people received during the anniversary event last year. Hopefully those Gift Packages will result in further growth of the community, as you invite your friends to join just in time for the pre-Alpha releases. More specific details on Account Merging will be coming next week. Stay tuned!
But Account Merging is also a prerequisite for more interesting features. With all accounts combined and reconciled we can finally determine just who the most influential members of the community are. This will be useful for determining the order of fun events in the first 6 months of the year such as Surname reservation coming up in February.
As we mentioned at the end of 2017, early this year we'll be opening Surname Reservation for those people who have a strong sense of identity already. This will come with a random tribal surname generator so you can get a feel for, or suggestion of, an appropriate tribal surname. Once Surname Reservation opens people can snag their family names right away, or hold off until they have a firmer idea of what tribe they want to play.
But even Surname Reservation is a pre-requisite on the road to bigger things. A bit later this year we'll be rolling out Character Personas. Character Personas is a feature of the website that allows players to interact with one another as actual characters in Elyria. Players will be able to interact in the forums and in other events as their historic ancestors. But why would you want to be able to interact as a character instead of a player? Well, the unique nature of CoE is to separate the players from the characters. Things like guilds, schools, domains, and settlements are really systems related to characters, not players. So, with Character Personas live, we can finally set up pages on the website so players can advertise and recruit for their domains, settlements, and organizations as their characters!
Speaking of recruiting for your domains and organizations, we've got a couple events planned for this year, much like we did for the Free Kingdom of Elyria Event for Luna (which will be replicated in some shape or form for the other servers in 2018). Here's a couple of the exciting events coming up over the next six months.
Organization Faire
The Organization faire is an event allowing characters to recruit other members of the community to join their settlement / domain or organization. We'll be working with players to provide them the tools they need to tell people about their player-run organizations to really get the community growing.
Map Selection
Each of the servers in CoE are truly unique - both in history, lore, and even geography. Early in 2018, players with packages will be given the opportunity to vote on the starting continents for the different servers. We'll provide a single pool of maybe twenty five continents from which all servers will be chosen from, and players will have an opportunity to state which server a map should be on, with a maximum number of votes equal to the number of Sparks of Life associated with the account. For example, if you've got a Bloodline Package with two Sparks of Life, then you can vote on up to two maps, indicating which realm you believe the map should be on. The votes will be weighted by influence, and the map with the highest score for each server will become the official map! Note that a single map can only be on a single server, so in the unlikely event that a single map is the top vote of multiple servers, the server with the fewer votes will move on to their second favorite map.
Why is this cool? No other game has given the players so much control over the history and creation of their worlds. Also - it means getting to see the maps sooner rather than later!
Domain / Settlement Selection
While certainly not least, one of the last events of the next several months will be Domain/Settlement Selection. With the maps finally declared, Domain / Settlement selection is when the Nobility and Aristocracy of Elyria get to select which domains and settlements they'll govern. This has huge impact on the game, as players will finally have solid information about which biome they'll be in, what size settlement they'll have, what tribes will be available to their players, and who their liege and vassals are. Then, the Dance of Dynasties can advance in unique and interesting ways - beyond ways the dance is already being danced by the players.
But what about the game? Oh, my dear reader, this is going to be a fantastic six months for the game.
The team here at Soulbound Studios is currently working on CoE Alpha 1 (version 1.0.0-Alpha.1 of Chronicles of Elyria). The path to Alpha 1 is broken up into seven releases, the first of which was completed in December and, dubbed the "Friends and Family" release, was the first opportunity for our friends and family to connect to CoE from outside of the office using the VoxElyria client. We are currently in development of Version 0.2.0, which you can learn more about in Adventure Introduction: Sense of Identity.
The remaining six releases of Alpha 1 explore a wide range of game mechanics necessary for us to call our Alpha 1 complete. These features cover a range of Feature Areas which are written in our Wiki as:
Release 2
Release 3
Release 4
Release 5
Release 6
Release 7
In total, these account for about 65% of the Features related to CoE, with the rest being added as part of the development of Alpha 2, which will be worked on during the second half of 2018. And we keep saying, beginning with the completion of Release 3, our Alpha 1 backers will be IN Chronicles of Elyria using our VoxElyria client. How's that for early access? What an exciting time to be an Elyrian!
Previous years had us presenting playable demos of CoE to the relatively small percentage of our community who were fortunate enough to make it to either PAX East or PAX West. But 2018 is going to see a far greater audience of players getting their hands on Chronicles of Elyria. This is primarily being done through three major releases that will happen throughout the year. Let's look at each.
Character Creation & Your Akashic Record - NEW!!
As we've been making progress on Character Creation we've observed that it's quite fun just to see what kind of characters can be created. Given the range of values allowed by the different bloodlines it's both interesting and exciting to see what types of characters are possible within the different tribes, and what happens when breeding members of the different tribes together.
We've also recognized that many people in the community want to see the stuff they've received in the game that isn't playable yet - things such as their Phoenix pet or other animals. As a result, we're going to be releasing a simple client to the players at some point during the year that we call "My Akashic Record." The client has the single purpose of being both a character creator, so you can experiment with the various tribes and bloodlines that are possible to create, and a virtual space for showing off in-game items you've acquired and will be usable during exposition or after launch. After we release the Exposition Store (EP Store), many items purchased will be viewable here. Items such as furniture, buildings, animals, siege equipment, and other things you've acquired. There's no timeline for the release of this tool yet, but we're working on Character Creation right now.
Pre-Alpha with VoxElyria
Beginning around April, and the completion of Release 0.3.0, players with Alpha 1 access will able to log into a pre-Alpha version of Chronicles of Elyria using the VoxElyria client. For those unfamiliar, VoxElyria is a voxel-based web client that we've created to quickly iterate on gameplay mechanics. It still connects to the Chronicles of Elyria backend, but doesn't use the Unreal Engine as a client. This separation means that we're able to get CoE into the hands of players even while we continue to iterate on systems which are heavily dependent on the UE4 client; systems such as crafting and combat, which require a full 3D user-experience.
As this is a Pre-Alpha release, it'll be under NDA and will be put into the hands of our Alpha 1 backers first. Anyone who has a pledge package with Alpha 1 access, or who has purchased Alpha 1 Access from the a la carte store will be among the first to step foot into Elyria.
After that, we'll continue to increase the size of the pre-Alpha audience at irregular intervals, depending on how the pre-Alpha testing is going. We'll first move onto backers with Alpha 2 access, then Beta 1 access, then Beta 2 access, and finally we'll open up access to all community members who have purchased a package and will lift the NDA. In the meantime, we wanted to show you some Work-In-Progress characters. Here you can see what a couple of the tribes look like in VoxElyria.
Image 10 - Voxel Model of Dras
Image 11 - Voxel Model of Janoa
Image 12 - Voxel Model of Kypiq
We're super excited to get players into CoE this early because the feedback we'll be receiving will allow us to make changes to the gameplay mechanics even before we complete Alpha 1. This is earlier in development than has ever been done before, and gives players the opportunity to provide real, meaningful, actionable feedback.
Alpha 1
Later in the year we'll be completing Version 1.0.0-Alpha.1 and releasing it to our Alpha 1 backers. This release will have all the same features that players in the Alpha 1 and 2 cohorts will have come to enjoy while using the VoxElyria client, but will be using the UE4 client. This will be the first opportunity players will have had to play a functional version of the game outside of a PAX Event and it will have all the necessary features of the above Feature Area list.
Last year, 2017, was undoubtedly a year dedicated to the laying of a strong foundation and the building of a solid support system. New architecture was written, new systems were created, and the game overall has improved radically in visual fidelity and performance. Looking back at the PAX East Parkour demo, the PAX West jousting demo, the release of the v3 Website backend and homepage, the various screenshots, etc. it's easy to see the progress that was made, but it's also relatively easy to see the absence of many core gameplay mechanics. That was 2017.
This year, 2018, is all about building the framing and the siding. It's that most exciting time in the development of a game when the core systems have been built, and attention is turned toward the rapid development of new gameplay mechanics. It's that period where a game really starts to take shape and become recognizably different from the other options that are available.
In short, while 2017 was about foundation, and 2019 will be about the trimmings and interior decoration, 2018 really is the most important year in the development of CoE. And more than anything, we're excited we get to continue to share the journey and process with you, our community. We hope to see as many of you as possible in the pre-Alpha VoxElyria client in the spring, and then in Alpha 1 later this year. If you haven't taken the plunge yet, and are still sitting on the fence, remember the Dance of Dynasties has already begun. The Kingdoms, Duchies, and Counties are already largely established on the servers, and now is the time to start meeting the Nobility and Aristocracy so you'll know who to play with during testing, and who to ally with during Kingdoms of Elyria later this year.
Pledged to The Continued Development of the Soulborn Engine and the Chronicles of Elyria,
Adventure Introduction: Sense of Identity
Production Update: Sense of Identity
2017 was the year of "foundations", 2018 was "Progress"
Posted By Vigorish at 1:49 PM - Sat Jan 05 2019
2017 was the year of "foundations", 2018 was "Progress"
Technically, a very good point. The foundations were supposed to be done in 2017, with the framework being done in 2018.
Now, whether that is actually the case may be an issue of semantics (what they actually consider "foundation" vs "framework").
Either way, it's largely irrelevant. We are at where we are at. Can't redo the last 2 years.
Judge them on this year. Frankly, I personally feel that 2019 is the year where complaints about progress begin being justified.
Granted, that is assuming we don't see progress. We are supposed to be seeing a whole lot of exactly that in the next couple months (i.e. February and March).
I admit, this is a bit disheartening to read, but I also know there were a lot of unforeseen issues that came up in 2018.
Things didn't go the way they expected, plans went awry, etc, etc.
Even I, as cynical and hard on SBS as I am, understand this.
In other words, shit happens.
That being said, and understanding aside, I don't know that they will be able to "get away with this" again in 2019. I think this is it. If there isn't SIGNIFICANT, and TANGIBLE (as in, I can put my hands on it and play it in some form) progress, like, ricky-effing-tick...problems.
There will always be the core group that will be committed to SBS no matter what. However, too much longer - and I am not just talking about the time it takes to make the game, I am talking about the number of times they say they are going to do something, and fail - the rep is going to start taking a real public beating.
an underlying basis or principle for something.
"this idea is the foundation of all modern economics"
synonyms: basis, starting point, base, point of departure, beginning, premise; principles, fundamentals, rudiments; cornerstone, core, heart, thrust, essence, kernel
"the report has a scientific foundation"
In case there was some confusion surrounding the word 'foundation'. I think 2018 saw a lot of the foundation's put in place for CoE. I agree with Marovec though, 2019 cannot be just another year of foundations.
Reading this makes me laugh, anyone here in 2019?
Posted By Higuy333 at 07:29 AM - Sat Jan 05 2019
Reading this makes me laugh, anyone here in 2019?
hahaha how did you even find this lol, I thought it would have been buried by now.
Poor SBS may have been a bit optimistic. oh well maybe 2019 will be the year.
Seeing as how the Searing Plague is coming to a close this week and there was mention above of a "My Akashic Records" client... Is anyone at SBS able to provide an idea of when that will be released? I think it would be nice to keep everyone busy and entertained by the release of this client until we get to map & land selection and the pre-alpha. Just a thought...
Funny though, I was just speaking with Serpentius this morning about if SBS would go for releasing the Character Creator as a stand alone kind of like The Sims 4 did with theirs before the game actually launched. You create the household and save it, then when the game comes out you get to upload it into the game. It was fun to make the families and see what the characters would look like. Anywho... I found out that SBS was on the same mental path AND expanded upon it to include a viewer for the in-game goodies we have already received and will purchase in the EP Store.
Great job SBS!!!! Can we have it now??? LOL
Posted By Miyah at 4:52 PM - Sun Sep 09 2018
Seeing as how the Searing Plague is coming to a close this week and there was mention above of a "My Akashic Records" client... Is anyone at SBS able to provide an idea of when that will be released? I think it would be nice to keep everyone busy and entertained by the release of this client until we get to map & land selection and the pre-alpha. Just a thought...
Funny though, I was just speaking with Serpentius this morning about if SBS would go for releasing the Character Creator as a stand alone kind of like The Sims 4 did with theirs before the game actually launched. You create the household and save it, then when the game comes out you get to upload it into the game. It was fun to make the families and see what the characters would look like. Anywho... I found out that SBS was on the same mental path AND expanded upon it to include a viewer for the in-game goodies we have already received and will purchase in the EP Store.
Great job SBS!!!! Can we have it now??? LOL
I'm not sure if it's the Akashic Records that will be coming next month, however they do have something planned as far as they will tell us!
Can't wait for the character creator client!!!
This game looks like it'll be amazing. I really hope you can pull everything off.
"but unknown to many, the Joust Demo was running on a locally deployed version of the Soulborn Engine." Neat. What about those map sizes?!
Too many good infos to comment on all of them.. The studio is doing an amazing job, keep on the great work!
Finally catching up, slowly ;)
Wow, the breadth and depth of the project and its shown to us. Thanks a bunch SBS!
Always considered this a highly ambitious project with improbable (pun intended) dates - backing a hope and a dream really. But even from that starting point, my confidence went through the floor with this update.
When this game is released, it will blow up the game industry, the developers will not fail. I'm very proud of this project, and I really want to participate in the earliest versions.
Really proud of the progress so far, keep up the good work !
This is why I upgraded package to alpha I Settlement of Puranda Alfred Augustine the Explorer founded the settlement Puranda, located in the County of Arzawa in the Kingdom of Alesia. Puranda is comprised of farmers and animal breders. We will need settlers that will support this type of settlement.
I'm super curious how they'll do the animal breeding industry. I'd love to give a shot at being a champion horse breeder of some type. Sound's like an interesting job in the real world, and I bet it will be an important one on here.
After careful thought, I'm feeling optimistic. Great update.
looking good
The progress you've made in just a couple of years is nothing short of astounding!
Love it!
Wow...The more and more I read on this game, the more I am just totally blown away! If all this is pulled off and works, you will truly be reshaping the genre itself in ways beyond belief!! I cannot wait to try it out;)
Been following this game consistently since Kickstarter and I am quite pleased to see it finally getting to this point in development. I don't think I have ever allowed myself to get this excited about a game. =)
Also, looking forward to having all those that have doubted this game would ever reach this point be wrong.
I love all the information. This post got me excited enough that I had to go upgrade from Beta 1 access to Alpha 1. Looking forward to it!
I am so excited!!! Thank you for this and all updates!
Thanks for the detailed status update and review of 2017!
But I'm slightly concerned: Wasn't SpatialOS supposed to be the core tech this game is built on and supposed to run on and to enable all the awesome features planned?
It was SpatialOS that drew me to this game and I was worried about the business model back in May. I'm not worried now though, I have total confidence the team can pull it off.
There's no concern that the scale needs to be pared back even a litle?
Love Docker though, I dabble with it. I use containers to host my forum images, a ghost blog, FTP and a ahem seedbox. For helping distribute Ubuntu iso's obviously!
CASPIO, I am loving all this information and updates, I am looking forward to this wonderful game, I would like to know if there will be a server for South America and if possible translations into Portuguese language (Brazil) in future and other languages. I love everything I've seen so far, and I'm grateful for the work of all of you. I can not wait to be in the world of Chronicles of Elyria and dedicate many hours of my day to this marvelous MMO.
I love you all. Welcome to my life Chronicles of Elyria.
As always, superb depth and attention to detail. The visuals are coming in right on the mark too. Beautiful.
Inter-tribal breeding confirmed. SHWEEeeet.
The switch away from SpatialOS worries me slightly, as a player whose initial concerns regarding the viability of the game were assauged by the news that it would be part of the core infrastructure of the game. Mostly due to not knowing enough about the replacement tech (or the tech in general).
Nonetheless, despite the rescheduling of the game's release earlier in the year, the game is progressing faster than I had anticipated, and it very much feels like it's gaining momentum. Between now and next year we will see the game beginning to take form, to become tangible not just as a visual asset, but as a playable one. That's pretty exciting. I look forward to seeing the game - and the community - continue to grow and evolve, and I very much anticipate the increase in momentum as the game moves toward the conclusion of its pre-alpha phase and people start to see the EA footage. Keep up the good work!
That is the single greatest Hearthstone card of all time. I suspect it will make the banlist before the second quarter.
Good stuff continues to flow from good ideas. As long as the alpha 1 backers don't start asking for damage floaters and more menus, I think we'll be in good shape.
Seriously, SBS, don't let the menus take over the gameplay. I'm sure many of us are quite weary of screens full of numbers and windows.
it's been really nice getting so much detail of the development process through these various updates. the game is looking and sounding great i.m.o.
the virtual item showroom seems a clever way to gain some capital; the risk being greater shame if the game doesn't reach launch. i'm looking forward to it myself, but more so to the character generator(which will please a great many players i'm sure.)
i really dislike the meow acronym, though i think my opinion won't stop the train. i've been playing mmorpgs since risk your life 2 and conquer online. to me, rather than being beyond the genre, or something other than, i see CoE as the highest form of mmorpg.
thank you for the update!
So, if we go by the existing timeline projection from the last State of Elyria, to account for VoxElyria possibly dropping in April, that means it's possible Alpha 1 could drop as early as June. I'll keep my fingers crossed. Even if it does take longer, I'm very happy to see how this game has progressed since I read about it in an article probably 2 years ago now. This game is going to be monumental!
Great update. From the sound of it Caspian should be up for a Project Manager of the Year award, or something.
Did anyone else notice that the kingdom assignments in the prototype continent map didn't quite line up with the race assignments to kingdoms?
Let me understand: around november 2017 the javascript SDK support was gone from SpatialOS. Wow. If I were you, I would be EXTREMELY disappointed. Though one.
Can't really wait for you guys to show the Crafting system. Thank you guys and you will always have my support!
Am I the only one who, on the apac server, has decided to go dedicated explorer from the very start, and after finding out we're gonna be an archipeligo is thinking 'CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!'.
Side note, also kinda want to play a hrothi raised by dras and head out in search of 'my' people. That'd get me a good chunk of exploring straight up. If the first one doesn't survive, I'll just have to make sure to have lots of kids along the way.
Kind of basing my first character on discworld's Casanunda. Stepladders repaired. Ahem.
That's such a cool concept!!
Nice read! Thanks for taking time away from the PAX East to focus on the game. Hope to get something before summer. Looking forward to more information on the in-game mechanics.
The "My Akashic Record" character creation tool sounds like fun...cant wait to play around with it!!
The announcement of working with SpatialOS had me hyped, sad to see the split but hopefully everything ends up working alright. It is understandable why the split was made. Thanks for thinking about our wallets.
I'm so excited <3
This is one of the better updates I've seen from a dev team! This is awesome. Keep them coming!
Thanks for the information, it has been very interesting to know what has happened during this time and what is to come, I encourage you to work hard so that we have this great game that promises to be, thanks!
Nice, i like how progress is made and you tell us about it.
Thank you for the elegant update. Press on with the faith and support of the community - and be not daunted by the capricious gaming gods, nor their incessant chant: "The Lighting Needs to be Rebuilt."
Standing ovation
This is some of the clearest and most transparent communication I have seen from a developer.
Well done.
Can't wait to get my hands on some Voxels in April(ish)!
Surprisingly, you are no longer in partnership with Spatial OS. While their costs are high, the service provided was also high.
In the near future, how will you be able to provide for CoE the advanced AI evoked in the game description?
Solid update! Loving what's happening and how it's all being laid out. Thanks for keeping everything transparent and moving in the right direction.
Awesome update Caspain, and thank you SBS for all your hard work. :) It does sadden me that you had to leave SpatialOS though, but I understand.
This information is exactly what was needed to entice new people to join. How wonderful to have such a supportive community. If this is a prediction of what communities will be like in-game; more than impressive! Thank you, so very much. In Tenebris Nos!
Oooooh! Shiny!
Seriously, if we can get something to do around Aprilish for us Alpha 1 people that'll be nice.
Thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed Update.
Thanks for answering all my questions on the discord. :)
It's so exciting seeing what has been achieved already and what's in store for this year! Thank you all at SBS for all the wonderful work you are doing to make this game and our dreams a reality! It's going to be a very exciting year!!
Nice! I can't wait to see all you have in store ^_^
Can we at some point be given a historical timeline of Elyria? What does the Elyrian calendar look like? We know the world we are entering into will have existed prior to our entry at launch so how did Elyria as we discover it on day 1 come to be?
Even a brief timeline with just major events noted would be helpful in giving us context for use with our own characters.
Thanks Caspian, this is really such an insane post! I'm super excited now for the upcoming months!! The planned uniqueness of each server and letting the players vote for maps is such an incredible idea! You, Sirs, take really care of your community :)
OMG, my first Developer Journal since i "discovered" CoE! Sound amazing, Think i need to get my handa on one of those Alpha 1 Acess thingys.
Wow, I think I understood one word in ten of Caspain's post. LOL. But to be honest, this is exactly one of the reasons I pledged to this game from the beginning. While I don't know what the difference between JavaScript/TypeScript and C# is. And is RabbitMQ another type of Cannis rabbit? Who knows. But I really enjoy how he took the time and explained the entire situation, sort of, in layman's terms that I could understand.
What i am saying is I really enjoy watching the games development process, warts and all from scratch. I love seeing how problems are handled on the fly and contingencies for things that could never possibly happen yet somehow do, are dealt with because they had that back up plan that didn't allow them to be boxed in a corner.
We're getting a unique view into all the trial and tribulations that go into making a game that most of us never suspected went on. it's amazing how they were doing all this in the background and non of us really suspected.
Hey, the game may still never be released but any one that puts this much effort into a project when road blocks are thrown their way deserves all the credit in the world. I for one feel i am getting my money's worth every time I am kept informed of the development process. My pledge was at least as much for watching the game being made before my eyes as actually playing it. Now of course I still want more updates. Never can have too many of them in my book. Warts and all but I am quit satisfied how they usually keep us informed on things.
I got way too excited reading this! Triggered my heart pains but it was so worth it! Keep up the good work!
Have to say I enjoyed reading a year of foundation and I enjoy looking at that map.
Awesome update.
Cant wait! This year is going to be awesome! :D
We are all expecting great things from you and your team Caspian! Great job so far, keep up the good work and take care of your community and we will take care of you! :)
Thank you for the work!
Boy this sounds great....I'm so excited!!! Sadly I'll mary my fiance in April...probably should rethink the date :D
Wow. I am so looking forward to April now. It is just around the corner!
This is so amazing! There are so many things I'm excited for; My Akashic Record, map selection, everything! Thanks for the transparency and for all the hard work you all put in!
I can't wait to get tinkering with the character creation. If Skyrim and Fallout 4 have taught us anything, it's that most of our time is spent in the realm of slides and nose options.
2018 is going to be so exciting! I can't wait to see what else is in store! What kind of DJ's we'll get, videos, screenshots, and other tidbits of info!
Super excited. Time to get Alpha 1 access for my Birthday :D
happy dance
Sucks that you guys couldn't make it work with SpatialOS but if it would've been more difficult and time consuming in the end I it's understamdable. There can surely be some benefits to having complete control over the server end and tha spatials. In any case this has been a great update with lots of cool content and it has been a great ride with you guys! Happy to support this game :)
Oh and what I loved most was the concept for the starting continent. Can't wait to see the real map for my server.
Brilliant update, great to see the map!
This is way more than what I was expecting.
Praise the caspian! :)
I can't wait to tinker around in the Character Creator!


text:
The Challenger 1 SCM 100 Tractor Front Mount Sweeper has been used in the construction industry for many years due to its robust design. Regardless of its application, such as use on a construction site, asphalt plant, runway, raceway, warehouse, parking lot or beyond this sweeper is built to last. Its hydraulic Quick-Change Brush System allows for the brush to be changed on site in approx 2 minutes. Engineered with innovative prowess, this sweeper requires minimal replacement parts and often outlasts the very tractor it is mounted on.
Special Features
• Proven reliability and durability for many years in the construction industry
• Commonly outlasting the tractor that it is mounted on
• History of minimal replacement parts
Challenger 1 – SCM 100 – Tractor Front Mount Sweeper Details
Weighing in at approximately 1400 Ibs, the Challenger 1 SCM 100 Tractor Front Mount Sweeper has a sweeping angle of 40 degrees right and left (HYD), a tractor with 40 – 60 Horsepower is the ideal size. The sweeper has an oil capacity of approx. 24 gallons, a self-cooling oil reservoir, hydraulic brush drive, a brush frame lift of (approx.) 36 inches, dirt deflector and more. This tractor front mount sweeper includes a variety of options as well, such as a water mist system and custom tires and wheels. At Smith Challenger Mfg., we can outfit a tractor to meet any customer's individual specifications, call us today—let us know your industrial sweeping needs and we will accommodate you accordingly.
- Heavy Duty Construction for Long Life and Less Maintenance
- Horsepower Requirements: 40 to 60 HP
- Brush Drive: Hydraulic
- Sweeping Angle: 40 Degrees Right -0- 40 Degrees Left (HYD)
- Weight: Approximately 1400 lbs
- Oil Capacity: 24 Gallons (varies slightly per tank design)
- Brush Frame Lift: Approximately 36"
- Brush Length: 77.5" (100% Poly or Poly Wire Combo)
- 35″ Diameter Tube Style Brush
- Grease Fittings and Replaceable Bushings/Bearings
- Self Cooling Oil Reservoir
- PTO Driven Pump – 3000 psi rated PTO Pump / Gear Box
- Dirt Deflector
Challenger 1 – SCM 100 – Tractor Front Mount Sweeper Options
- Water Mist System
- Brush Hood Extension
- 89.5″ Brush Length
- Custom Tires and Wheels
- Customized Engine Air Filtration
- Rear Mount Scrape Blade
- Customized A/C Inlet Filter
- Variable speed brush rpm
- Tractor can be outfitted to meet your specifications

subset: commoncrawl


text:
From 1st Dec to 31st March 2008 the new Stampin' Up! Summer Mini will be on sale. There are some really great sets & designer series paper available & I have been having lots of fun playing with a couple of them. I also really love the new WIDE grosgrain ribbon, it is lovely.
These two cards use Au Chocolat DSP & Carte Postale stamp set.
This next card uses an image from a main catalogue stamp set, Sassy Stems, but I have used some of the new Enchante DSP. Theses papers are gorgeous & also match with the Carte Postale stamp set.
If you would like a new Summer mini catalogue, send me an email - firstname.lastname@example.com & I will pop one in the post.


text:
Crash causes major tailbacks on A92 near Aberdeen
A two-car smash has caused tailbacks on a major north-east road.
Police Scotland was called to the scene, on the A92 southbound at the Denmore roundabout.
The cars are currently blocking the road, which has resulted in tailbacks beyond the Blackdog junction.
No injuries were reported, and the drivers have exchanged details.
Police are currently waiting for the vehicles to be recovered.


text:
All site content is copyright Go Forth Goods and may not be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of Go Forth Goods. For concerns, please contact us at: nathan @ goforthgoods.com
Your privacy is important to us. We do not collect personally identifiable information about you on this site without your knowledge, and all such information is collected directly from you. We may utilize your email address to send communications to you, but you may opt out at any time. If there are any questions you have that aren't covered here, please email us at nathan @ goforthgoods.com and we'll reply to your inquiry as soon as possible.
Sales codes are only valid for the dates the sale is running. If you purchase the day before or a week before we cannot give you the discount off. Also sales codes can not be used on returns or exchanges. Thanks so much for your understanding. To keep up to date with new products and sales, we recommend signing up for our email newsletter.
All domestic products ship USPS Priority (2-3 days). International shipments go out with USPS International and take 7-10 days. For international, the duty fees are not included in the shipping and you will need to pay for the duty fees at the time of claiming and collecting the package. PLEASE NOTE: Go Forth Goods is not responsible for the U.S. Postal Service. Since we have no control over their service, If your shipment gets lost or damaged in transit we are not liable for replacing your product or providing a refund on it. Thanks for your understanding.
Depending on the product and whether it is in stock or not, will depend on how fast the product ships out. If the product is in Stock, the product will ship with in 1-2 business days. If its a wallet, mug, key fob or belt that is not in stock then it will typically ship within 3-5 business days. Our duffles, totes, messenger bag, rucksack and dopp kits all ship with in 3-5 business days as well. The Cooper Satchel being all hand stitched is a 2-3 week turn around. These are all our standard shipping times. From Black Friday to Christmas these times do not apply. PLEASE NOTE: If you are in need of one of our products faster than our standard turn around please just let us know and in most cases we can usually accommodate those requests. Thanks so much for your patience as you wait for your quality American made product.
If you are interested in becoming a Go Forth Goods stockist, please contact nathan @ goforthgoods.com for more information.


text:
Research Project
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
1) halo formation n beam transport systemOne of my graduate students, M.Ikegami studied halo formation from mismatched axisymmetric beams in a periodic channel with Dr. H.Okamoto (Jpn. Appl. Phys., Vol. 36, 7028, 1997). The computer simulation was made by particle-in-cell method with one dimensional approximation. The result shows that a matched beam to the transport system does not cause beam halo but a mismatched beam causes halo by space charge effect. But in this case the halo is created from the peripheral region of the phase space distribution at the starting position. And after the halo is once scraped by a beam collimator it is not created thereafter. This is a hopeful result for a high intensity beam acceleration though it is not realistic three dimensional simulation.2) Space charge effect in a cyclotronThe space charge effect in the cyclotron was estimated to be compared with a linac for an accelerator driven system. The intensity of l0mA at 500MeV may be attainable with third harmonic RF field though the non-linear effect is ambiguous.3) Multi-rod RFQ linac and accelerator driven system (ADS)A unique structure multi-rod RFQ linac in which beams slalomed was designed. The beam transmission of each channel of the linac is less than 50%, but total beam intensity of the linac can be very much than a usual single channel RFQ linac.An ADS was proposed for the future project of Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute.
Published: 1997-03-31
Modified: 2016-04-21
User Guide
Terms of Use
Attribution of KAKENHI


text:
Snack Review
Taste test: I kept seeing this advertised as one of the sponsors of The Price is Right, but could never find it. Finally, some local stores started carrying it.
Normally we don't review microwave popcorn, because of the backbreaking work involved in cooking it. However, we bend the rules a bit when we find flavors that are unique or ones that I just have to try.
Mallow Magic comes in a box with two pouches of microwave popcorn and two pouches of marshmallow "sauce" that gets poured (or drizzled) on the popcorn after you've popped it. I'm pretty sure the popcorn pops up regular (there's no flavor on the popcorn itself when you pop it). After you've poured the popped corn into a bowl, you pour on the marshmallow sauce and smell the marshmallow goodness on the hot popcorn. My wife insists that it stinks up the whole house, but I disagree.
The popcorn is very, very sticky when you eat it, worse than regular buttered popcorn, so have napkins ready. The marshmallow sauce gives the popcorn a very sweet taste (almost like eating a Rice Krispie treat), so if you don't like sweet popcorn, avoid this. Overall, this is a great treat if you're into marshmallow and popcorn and want to try the two tastes together.
Shop: Buy popcorn on Amazon #ad
Smell test: Smells a little bit like marshmallow before you pop it. Smells a lot like marshmallow after you pop it.
From the package: "Yummy Marshmallow Flavor"
Online store: Buy popcorn on Amazon #ad
Company: American Pop Corn Company
Reviews of similar snacks:
This snack was discovered by Keith at Stop & Shop. Review published .
Most popular in previous months
Still hungry? Check out the 100 latest reviews


text:
Ferries from 3325 routes and 764 ports worldwide
Trusted by over 2.5 million customers
We arrange over 1.2 million ferry crossings / year
We check up to 1 million prices for our customers daily
The Karlovassi Limnos ferry route connects Samos with Aegean Islands. Currently there is just the 1 ferry company operating this ferry service, Hellenic Seaways. The crossing operates up to 1 times each week with sailing durations from around 9 hours 35 minutes.
Karlovassi Limnos sailing durations and frequency may vary from season to season so we'd advise doing a live check to get the most up to date information.
The Greek town of Karlovassi is located on the island of Samos which lies in the North Aegean Sea. Located on the north side of the island, the town has a long history in business and culture. In fact, the town was well known for its tannery and tobacco manufacturing up until the early 20th century. The town's Tannery Museum contains displays that shows the town's long history in tannery which dates back to ancient times. Visitors will see in the museum displays showing the tools and methods of leather processing and the location of many tanneries on the island during the 20th century. For visitors interested in architecture, the town has many neoclassical mansions which can be seen along with the remains of the large stone factories at the "Ormos" seaside.
From the town's port there are many ferry services operating to other islands and also to the Greek mainland. Destinations include Piraeus, Chios, Fournoi, Agios Kirikos, Evdilos, Syros and Kavala.
The Greek island of Limnos is located in the northern part of the Aegean Sea.
Limnos features one of the prettiest harbours in Greece. With its beautiful beaches and picturesque, traditional villages untouched by modern-day tourism, Limnos hardly fits with any Greek Island stereotype. It lies low with gently rolling hills, a lush green carpet in the spring that becomes a yellow-brown in the summer.


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Happy Friday! It's going to be a lovely fall weekend. And I'm not going to lie, it's kind of nice to have some cooler weather!
This week's digital world updates include a controversial ad campaign from Subway, Apple Music's new search feature, the resignation of BOTH of Instagram's co-founders, Twitter event pages and of course, Friday Fun!
Let's dive right in!
Subway's New Ads Roasting McDonald's Flat Lines
This week, Subway released their latest ad campaign, and it's not going as well as they'd planned.
Reliably, social media pundits are skewering the anti-McDonald's commercial, which is making people either hate Subway sandwiches or crave a McDouble! Naturally neither outcome is putting a smile (something you always get for free at your local golden arches) on the company's marketing team's faces.
Brenden and I just saw a McDonald's commercial and decided to order I on Uber Eats then realized the commercial was actually a Subway commercial mocking McDonalds. Either way we are minutes away from some burgers.
— hello miss hail mary (@hello_misssarah) September 17, 2018
Sorry Matt, please love sandwiches again
— SUBWAY® (@SUBWAY) September 20, 2018
What are your thoughts on this commercial? Would you grab a footlong cold cut combo over a Junior Chicken meal?
Apple Music Adds "Search by Lyrics" Feature
We noticed something new while poking around Apple Music this week – an option to search by lyrics. The time spent sourcing the mystery song playing on repeat in your head has just been dramatically reduced.
Instagram's Co-Founders Resign
After selling their popular photo-sharing app to Facebook over six years ago, co-founders Mike Krieder and Kevin Systrom have resigned after reports of ongoing tension with Facebook's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.
Krieder and Systrom are the second and third high profile departure from a Facebook acquired company. WhatsApp's Jan Koum resigned in April, touting the app's lack of security protection as his reason.
Although there is said tension around the table, Zuckerberg played nice in his statement addressing their resignation, "Kevin and Mike are extraordinary product leaders and Instagram reflects their combined creative talents. I've learned a lot working with them for the past six years and have really enjoyed it. I wish them all the best and I'm looking forward to seeing what they build next."
Attention Fellow Binge Watchers!!
Just in time for the fall TV season, Twitter is introducing episode by episode event pages to help Twitter users see related tweets. The pages go live 30 minutes before episodes air and host a forum in which all related conversations can take place.
"For example, instead of just following along with the hashtag #TheBachelor, this page will pull in tweets relating to things like #TheBachelor, #Bachelor, Chris Harrison, #GroceryStoreJoe, etc.. For Game of Thrones, you no longer have to worry about refreshing #GameofThrones or #GoT – these pages will pull tweets around both," said a Twitter spokesperson.
Twitter pages will also feature episode specific hashtag prompts to make it easier for users to quickly join the conversation, and there's a mute option if you're not interested in joining the chat.
Social platforms just keep getting more and more ingrained in our lives. This is why as a business, you need to participate and develop a social strategy that supports your brand.
Article: Twitter Is Welcoming the Fall TV Season With Event Pages… https://t.co/28USaIpjYf
— WPF Creatives (@WPFcreatives) September 26, 2018
Friday Fun
This one is a MUST WATCH! Get ready to be absolutely blown away by this seven-year-old's killer vocals!


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DIY WOODEN COASTERS ARE a quick, easy & super cheap project that could double as a cute homemade gift for someone special!
Lately, I've been on a black, white, and dark wood kick the our decor. I've been drawn to simple, minimal, natural elements around the house and have been incorporating lots of dark, stained wood. These DIY coasters fit in perfectly, are functional, and add a little interest to our coffee table!
They're simple to make, too! Just a couple supplies from the craft store or hardware store are all you need!
- A small sheet of thin plywood. They sell this at most craft stores. I used 1/8″ thick birch plywood and it measured 12″ x 12″. This was plenty for my 6 coasters (could actually make 9 coasters out of this one sheet).
- Wood stain (ideally, a stain with poly like the one pictured above will also protect your coasters from liquid spills).
- White craft paint
- Foam brushes
- Number stencils
- Upholstery tacks (sometimes called furniture nails)
- Black felt
- Spray adhesive
And here's how you make 'em:
- Cut your plywood into 4″ squares.
- Stain your wood and allow it to dry.
- Using white craft paint, stencil on your numbers and allow paint to dry.
- Next, hammer in upholstery tacks to each corner (for some added interest). The tacks will probably stick through the wood … see next step.
- I simply bent the tacks on the bottom side using a hammer as shown.
- Next, cut 4″ squares out of your felt. Using spray adhesive, glue the felt squares to bottom of coasters (this will also cover up any sharp edges of the upholstery tacks).
That's it! A simple project that you can complete in an afternoon!
They are useful AND add some interest to our table:
If you're in need of a homemade gift idea, you could wrap these up with some ribbon and give to someone special. Maybe a cute housewarming gift? Or a Valentine's Day present?
And if you're looking for more DIY coaster ideas, you can check out these Love Quote Coasters (Just in time for Valentine's Day!):
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text: "Keep Calm and Carry On" was a poster spread in the beginning of WWII (1939) by the British government to raise the morale of the British public How Do You Think, Is This factE True or False? True False Hit True or False and SHARE Your Answer With Friends! FB 0 Tumblr 1 Pin 1 Google+ 0 Twitter 0 Reddit 0 Similar factE Cards Leave a Comment (0)


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As the political and economic pressure on Nicolás Maduro mounts, Venezuela's president believes there is one person he can rely on – Vladimir Putin.
The Kremlin has accused the opposition leader Juan Guaidó of an "illegal attempt to seize power", backed by the United States. Moscow says it will do "everything required" to support Nicolás Maduro as Venezuela's "legitimate president".
But Russia's appetite for protecting relations with Caracas may be more limited than its rhetoric suggests.
Years of close alliance
Moscow has long been a key ally of President Maduro, and Hugo Chávez before him – as fierce critics of Washington, right in America's backyard.
"The relationship is symbolically important. It's about saying 'we're not alone, there are others who are very critical of the US and Western policy'," explains Andrei Kortunov of the Russian International Affairs Council.
That's partly why Moscow has expanded co-operation with Caracas in recent years – increasing arms sales, extending credit and even flying in two bombers last December in a show of support.
Its backing for Nicolás Maduro in the current crisis is also fuelled by a horror of popular uprisings, particularly those supported openly by the West.
More on the Venezuela crisis:
"Unpopular social policies, an impoverished population and economic crisis – against a background of battling the whole world and corrupt… politicians. Guess which country this refers to?" independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta wondered this week.
It was drawing the parallels with Russia that it believes the Kremlin sees – and fears – in Caracas.
Moscow also has money at stake. It has sunk significant amounts into backing Nicolás Maduro, much of that in loans it stands to lose if he is forced from office.
The full extent of Russia's exposure isn't clear.
Analysts talk of $17bn (£13bn), mostly dished out in credit to the Maduro government. But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to put a figure on it when questioned by journalists earlier this week.
He was even more tight-lipped on whether Russia worried about losing that investment. "I won't respond to that," Mr Peskov said.
Then there's the oil
Venezuela sits on the largest proven oil reserves in the world.
"When we sent weapons, no-one thought of collecting the debt. What was really in mind, I think, was access to the oil wells, to production," argues Carnegie Centre economist Andrei Movchan.
Russia's state-owned firm, Rosneft, now has stakes in multiple projects in Venezuela and has issued significant loans to the country's oil giant, PDVSA.
"Venezuela was in a bad shape, so it was easy to agree terms," Mr Movchan says.
'A black hole for Russia'
But whilst state television programmes here have been blasting headlines, slamming the US "intervening in the affairs of a sovereign state", others have been questioning the wisdom of Russia's own Venezuela policy.
"Venezuela is a black hole for Russia, where billions of dollars have been sunk… and the effect is zero," analyst Mikhail Krutikin told Kommersant newspaper. He talked of "utter incompetence and squandering."
"It's a very unfortunate situation," Andrei Kortunov says. "We knew this was coming, so I wonder what the fall-back position is of those who invested there, but I don't see it."
Russia is now advocating political negotiations in Venezuela, with international mediation. It presents the opposition, and the US, as intransigent for continuing to call for fresh elections.
What is Moscow doing?
Meanwhile, with no sign of imminent mass defection by the military, reports have emerged suggesting Moscow may be upping its support for Nicolás Maduro.
As fresh US sanctions were imposed on Caracas this week, Novaya Gazeta suggested that Russia had helped fly Venezuelan gold from storage in the Russian Central Bank for sale in Dubai.
The paper's sources claimed over $1bn in cash was then taken on to Caracas. The Central Bank chairwoman said that did not "correspond to reality".
There have also been reports that Moscow has deployed private military contractors, possibly as protection for President Maduro.
The Kremlin has rebutted that, too, though Mr Maduro himself was simply evasive. "I'm not making any comment," he told Russian reporters this week.
How far will it go?
The foreign ministry pledge to do "everything" to back Nicolás Maduro does seem to have limits.
"I don't think Russia would defend Maduro militarily. We are for a political settlement," argues retired Lieutenant-General Evgeny Buzhinsky. He describes those bombers sent to Caracas last year as simply "symbolic".
"It would be madness for Russia to try to intervene with force," Andrei Movchan agrees. "Venezuela is not Syria. The Chinese are there and the Americans are much closer."
At least in public, Russia has settled for condemning US pressure, calling for dialogue – and waiting. Perhaps it is hoping its ally can weather the storm.
As one tabloid newspaper here argued, opposition rallies on Wednesday were smaller than expected.
"They held the decisive protest – and then they called the next one," Komsomolskaya Pravda joked, suggesting "something went wrong".
Another paper, though, is convinced President Maduro's days in office are numbered, suggesting the Kremlin should simply offer "its friend" political asylum.
"The long, cold Moscow winter is not ideal of course for Maduro, used to palm trees and a year-round average of 25C," Moskovsky Komsomolets reasoned.
"But it's still better than a warm prison cell in Caracas."
Source: Read Full Article


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17 November 2009, 23:00
Week in the Caucasus: review of main events of November 9-15
Disfavoured Major Dymovskiy reports threats against him and continues exposing militia bosses; during the week, conflict in the Caucasus took away dozens of lives, - look up these and other events in the review of the week of November 2-8 in the Caucasian regions prepared by the "Caucasian Knot".
Kremlin to appoint "Boss for Caucasus"
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev stated in his Address to the Federal Assembly on November 12 a need to appoint a federal-level official in charge of the republics of Northern Caucasus. According to Mr Medvedev, the level of corruption and clannish rule in these republics is "unprecedented"; therefore, having a person in Russian government with sufficient powers and personally responsible for the state of affairs in the region is a must.
Alvi Karimov, press secretary of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, said that the Chechen leader supports Dmitri Medvedev's initiative. President of Karachai-Circassia Boris Ebzeev reminded that the Caucasus is more than several republics. In his opinion, the new special representative will face plenty of serious work.
Possible candidates to the post are Vice-Premier Dmitri Kozak, Deputy Interior Minister Arkadiy Edelev, former head of "Russneft" Mikhail Gutseriev and businessman from Dagestan Suleiman Kerimov.
Let us remind you that Gutseriev's name reappeared in front pages of Russian media in late October, when London County Court cancelled his arrest order and the Interpol stopped searching the "Russneft" boss.
The authorities of Ingushetia are ready to meet Mikhail Gutseriev halfway, should he decide to come back to the republic, as reported on November 12 by Kaloy Akhilgov, press secretary of the Ingush President. However, on November 13, General-Lieutenant of Justice Alexei Anichin, head of the Investigatory Committee at the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of the Russian Federation, clarified that the criminal case against the "Russneft" boss Mikhail Gutseriev was not stopped. The investigatory bodies continue suspecting him of illegal entrepreneurship; and should the charges be confirmed, the businessman can be punished without deprivation of liberty.
Meanwhile, Medvedev's suggestion caused discrepant estimates both in Moscow and in the Caucasus.
"It's just impossible to work there normally," said Alexei Malashenko, an expert of the Carnegie Centre for Northern Caucasus. "I see no normal mechanism; maybe some genius will invent one." Stanislav Belkovskiy, president of the Institute for National Strategy, believes that a vice-premier or federal minister will be in charge of the region. He thinks that a "not very strong and dependent" from President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov person will be appointed.
Yulia Latynina, an observer at the "Echo Moskvy" Radio, thinks that the person in charge of the state of affairs in Northern Caucasus is needed; however, the point is in the person to be appointed. In her opinion, to be able to address regional problems, this person should be a North-Caucasian native.
In Dagestan, some experts, Nadira Isaeva, editor-in-chief of the "Chernovik" weekly, among them, believe that appointment of "North-Caucasian boss" will change nothing. At the same time, another opinion is also expressed. Thus, according to the political scientist Dengi Khalidov, various North-Caucasian NGOs had repeatedly offered the country leadership to introduce such post; moreover, ranked as vice-premier.
Georgia's conflict with Abkhazia and South Ossetia continues at diplomatic level
Last week, the contradictions between Tbilisi and Tskhinvali and Sukhumi re-entered the international arena.
On November 11, in Abkhazian waters, near Anaklia village, Russian frontier guards detained Georgian seamen. According to Georgia's MIA, five Georgian seamen accused of illegal crossing the marine border and illegal fishing, were placed into the Sukhumi investigatory isolation facility. However, Andrei Nesterenko, official spokesman of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), said about nine detainees.
According to Mr Nesterenko, frontier guards detained the fishermen in the territorial waters of Abkhazia, not Georgia, which corresponds to Moscow-Sukhumi arrangements. On its part, the Georgia's MFA treated the incident as "a dirty Russia's provocation" and demanded immediate release of Georgian citizens.
On November 13, a Moscow delegation headed by Mayor Yuri Luzhkov visited Abkhazia. Within the meeting, the "Cooperation Agreements in Trade and Economic, Scientific and Technical, and Humanitarian and Cultural Areas" between Abkhazia and Moscow was signed by Messrs. Luzhkov and Bagapsh.
In this context, the Georgia's MFA served a protest note to Russian counterpart through the ambassador of the Swiss Confederation.
Last week, the most acute issue in Georgian-Ossetian was the fate of the four detained Georgian teenagers detained in South Ossetia on November 4. On November 9, their trial was to begin in South Ossetia; however, it was indefinitely postponed.
On November 12, the EU mission of observers in Georgia expressed its concern with the arrest. The observers said that it was inadmissible to keep teenagers at the pre-trial facility together with criminals. "Treatment of minors should meet the International Convention on Children's Rights," runs the statement of the EU Mission.
The issue of detained teenagers was discussed on November 11 in Geneva at the 8th round of debates on security and stability in the Caucasus.
According to Giga Bokeriya, Foreign Minister and head of the Georgian delegation, the official Tbilisi will continue exerting "pressure from all possible tribunes, first of all, on Russia to force them release these kids." However, Boris Chochiev, plenipotentiary envoy of President of South Ossetia for post-conflict settlement, reiterated that the Georgian teenagers had grenades and explosives. "They were twice visited by representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross; soon their relatives will be able to do the same," said Mr Chochiev.
He has emphasized that the Georgian party keeps five residents of South Ossetia since autumn 2008, calling them missing. The South-Ossetian party promised to suspend its participation in the mechanism for prevention and timely reaction to incidents, if Tskhinvali should not receive information about the kidnapped persons from Tbilisi.
The main issue in debates on safety and stability in the Caucasus was drafting agreements on non-application of force. The participants of the meeting could not agree any future documents to this end. Actually, prior to the meeting, the parties had expressed their hard lines.
On November 10, the "Izvestia" newspaper published an article by Gregory Karassin, deputy head of Russia's MFA, entitled "Transcaucasia. In Geneva Format", where the author wrote that the main priority in Geneva has to do with the legal fixation in the form of official document Tbilisi's obligations not to use force, to be approved by "direct representatives of Georgia, on the one hand, and Abkhazia and South Ossetia, on the other."
"The Georgian party is ready to consider a force non-application agreement; however, only provided that the parties to such agreement are Russia as the country-aggressor and Georgia as the victim of the aggression, whose 20 percent of the territory is today occupied," the department for press and information of Georgia's MFA stated on November 11. It is desirable that "the Russian party takes a legal obligation of non-application of force."
European politicians were highly active in the diplomatic front of the conflict in the Caucasus.
On November 12, in the course of the visit to Georgia of 27 EU ambassadors, Hans Jorg-Haber, head of the Mission of EU observers, said that the European Union will not recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Moreover, the EU plans to use satellites for tracking military activities in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as the observers have no access to this territory. "As a result, we'll be able to document any essential troop dislocations or civil works," said Mr Haber.
Scandalous denunciations of corruption in the MIA by Novorossisk Major Dymovskiy
Last week, a broad resonance was given to the initiative of the recently dismissed senior operative officer of the UVD (City Interior Department) of Novorossisk Alexei Dymovskiy, who placed in his own website two video appeals to Vladimir Putin telling about numerous malversations of militia bosses.
On November 10 in Moscow, Mr Dymovskiy held a press conference, where he said that he possesses some secret information to be reported only in private to Russian Premier Vladimir Putin. Also, the militiaman wants to address President Dmitri Medvedev with his proposals on changing the structure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA). Alexei Dymovskiy named the person against whom he was forced to initiate an illegal criminal case. This was the son of the militia lieutenant colonel from Novorossisk Slyshik by name who had a conflict with Dymovskiy's boss. Besides, Dymovskiy said that he managed to make 150 hours of audio records incriminating Novorossisk militiamen of corruption.
On that very day, Militia Lieutenant General Sergey Kucheruk, head of the GUVD (Chief Interior Department) of the Krasnodar Territory held his own press conference. He said that information "was actively checked" that the major could have been used by "certain third parties backed by western special agencies." A check in the context of Alexei Dymovskiy's video appeal was also launched by the Investigatory Department for the Krasnodar Territory. Also, a certain source from the Department of Internal Security of Russian MIA said that the major's public revelations were backed by the NGOs funded from abroad, in particular, the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
Dymovskiy himself had categorically refuted these accusations.
According to Vadim Karastelyov, an expert of the public organization named "Novorossisk Committee on Human Rights", Major Dymovskiy's supporters in Novorossisk are persecuted by the militia. Alexei told about his plans to "evacuate his family", since local law enforcers undertake illegal attempts to bring his son "to certain responsibility", and his mother-in-law was summoned to the prosecutor's office as someone filed a claim accusing her of extortion. However, after publication of these facts in the media, the militia pressure on Dymovskiy's family stopped, as he has reported.
On November 14, Dymovskiy also said that he had a chance to meet top MIA bosses, but he refused, as he believes that "generals are also involved in violations."
Meanwhile, as reported by Mr Karastelyov, actions in support of Militia Major Alexei Dymovskiy are prepared all over Russia; debates are on in social networks and Internet forums about the forms and methods of the planned all-Russian support campaign.
Count of daily victims in Northern Caucasus goes in dozens
On November 13, in the Chechen village of Shalazhi, a truck that transported several supposed militants from the grouping of field commander Islam Uspakhadzhiev, also known as "Imam", was shelled by missiles from helicopters. The authorities then reported that about ten militants were liquidated.
"Doku Umarov can be among the casualties," Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov said later. However, so far, the power agencies of Chechnya cannot confirm the fact of liquidation of the North-Caucasian militants' leader, since the bodies were so severely damaged by the shelling that it is even hard to count them.
On November 12, in Chechnya between Elistanzhi and Eshelkhatoy villages, Ahmad Pashaev, 20, a member of the armed underground was killed.
On November 11, power agents reported that they had liquidated five members of armed underground formations in the Shali District of Chechnya. Four casualties were identified; but it was asserted that the remaining militants managed to take away the fifth body and the wounded Arabian mercenary known as Yasir.
However, an activist of one of local NGOs, who preferred not to name himself, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that two out of four casualties of the armed clash had been law enforcers, liquidated on suspicion of complicity with militants. In his opinion, these were, most likely, Ilyas Khatsuev, 27, and Mokhdan Isaev, 26, as, under the official data, the other two militants murdered in the vicinity of Serzhen-Yurt village - Hussein Aliev and Abu Umarov, - had long been in search as members of illegal armed formations.
On November 9, the CTO (counterterrorist operation) regime was lifted in the Urus-Martan District of Chechnya, after the power agencies had reported liquidation of a supposed militant in the southern suburb of Tanga-Chu village.
The neighbouring Ingushetia also saw no decrease in the intensity of the conflict.
On November 15, unidentified persons shelled a militia post in the Sunzha District of Ingushetia, and then blew up the cars with the operative group, which hurried to the place of the incident.
On November 14, in one of the construction in the vicinity of the Nazran City Interior Department (GOVD) five bombardment missiles were detected installed by unidentified persons, with a self-made explosive attached to them. One of the missiles blew up at night and three more - in the morning on Saturday, November 14. One of the triggered missiles got into the GOVD building, where it blew up in the second level, contusing three law enforcers. Local sappers managed to neutralize the fifth missile.
On November 13, an explosion took place along the course of the column with servicemen in the area of Nazran. Nobody suffered; the circumstances of the incident are now studied.
On that very day, the FSB (Federal Security Bureau) reported liquidation in Ingushetia of Vakha Bekov, organizer of a series of terror acts. Together with him power agents shot dead two more persons.
On November 12 in Ingushetia, and unidentified bomb blew up under the car of Kosum Meiriev, Imam of the Sunzha District. The churchman was wounded and hospitalized.
Last week, a series of terror acts and diversions was committed in Dagestan.
On November 13, two bombs were planted into the cemetery of the Gubden village, Karabudakhkent District. One of them blew up and killed Elena Triftonidi, the widow of Abdulmalik Magomedov, former commander of the territorial militia unit, their daughter Gulbariyat Magomedova and Abdulmalik's sister Umukhanum Khizrieva. The second bomb was destroyed by bomb-disposal experts.
On the same day, two bombs were planted under the railway track. When sappers were surveying the territory, a trap mine got triggered. Nobody suffered; and sappers managed to neutralize both devices.
On November 11, two explosions were committed in the Mozdok-Kazimagomed gas line, which supplies gas from Russia to Azerbaijan. The gas supply was interrupted for 545,000 residents of Makhachkala and over 1000 more in Talgi village.
The situation in Karachai-Circassia also got radically worse.
On November 10, as a result of shelling a road-sentry unit in Karachaevsk, two road patrollers and a former employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were wounded.
On November 9, in the vicinity of Indysh village, in the course of the special operation aimed at detaining Ruslan Khubiev, suspected of attacking several militiamen, four supposed militants were liquidated, including Khubiev, and one militiaman was wounded.


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Over Committing of Storage SpacePosted by praveenmanohar in Geek Speak on Apr 14, 2015 8:25:39 AM
In my previous blogs, I provided an overview of thin provisioning and discussed moving from fat to thin with thin provisioning. Now, I'd like to talk about over allocation or over committing of storage space. When you over commit storage it helps enhance application uptime. Further, it makes storage capacity management simple.
What is the over committing of storage?
When VM's are assigned with storage more than what is actually available, it is known as over-allocation. By this mechanism, applications start their operation viewing more storage than what was actually assigned. For example, say 3 applications need 50 GB each to start operation. With over committing, all 3 can start their operation with just a total 50 GB of physical storage. The remaining 100 GB or more can be added to the storage array when the existing 50 GB's utilization is increasing. This way available storage arrays are utilized appropriately.
Some advantages of over committing storage are:
- It cuts down capital expenditures (capex): Capex will be cut down since storage space that goes unused is very minimal.
- It allows you to dedicate more storage to VM's than the actual available storage.
- Flexibility of storage: there is no storage limit, more volume can be added as and when needed.
- No trouble of forecasting storage growth: Helps you avoid the trouble of having to predict the accurate growth of volume.
Some disadvantages include:
- Applications halt or crash: When the disk group/groups run into overcommit state (when the physical storage gets utilized 100%), applications will not have free disk to store the processed/collected data, causing the application to crash.
- Adding free capacity can be time consuming: Manual interventions, like adding disk drives are needed to increase free capacity in the disk group/groups. And manual interventions are time consuming.
- Chances for errors: There is a high chance for errors—like when freeing storage by deleting unwanted files or VM's that are no longer needed, which can cause the loss of a file that had required data.
- Rogue application: A rogue application can completely bring down the storage as it might rapidly consume the free storage. Just imagine the rouge application sharing the same disk group as a business critical application, such as CRM, ERP, etc.
To get the best out of over committing in thin provisioning and avoid any risk, it's important to be readily prepared. So always remember to keep a close eye on your storage. By monitoring your storage, it makes over committing and thin provisioning much easier. Furthermore, you should manage your storage or datastore by setting alerts for over allocation, so you quickly receive an SMS or email before something goes wrong. Finally, be sure to set your alerts at a decent %, so you have the necessary time to add more disk to existing storage volume.
I hope this 3 piece blog series provided you with some helpful tips and information. If anyone has questions regarding thin provisioning, feel free to ask me in the comments section.


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◼ The blaugrana team routed their way to the semifinals with the 4-1 at the Camp Nou and this Tuesday will seek to close their task before the cast of the Italian capital.
Rome suffered in the first leg the rigor of powerful Barcelona, despite having nullified Lionel Messi tactically. Although he did not participate in the goals of his team, the Argentine enjoyed the 4-1 of the Blaugrana team, result that allows him to direct his access to the semifinals of the UEFA Champions League in the absence of 90 minutes.
The group of Eusebio Di Francesco, 4th in the Serie A, arrived at this instance of the continental contest after leaving on the road to Shakhtar Donetsk; in the group stage he had led the area he shared with Chelsea and Atlético de Madrid.
But Barça showed them the reality at the Camp Nou and made a clear difference on the scoreboard, which he will seek to defend on Tuesday at the Olympic Stadium in the Italian capital. The physical discomfort suffered by Messi a couple of weeks ago seems to have been left behind, Luis Suarez managed to break a 13-month streak without scoring in the competition while Sergio Busquets is doubtful in the initial XI when carrying an injury.


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Lemaire x Uniqlo
The french brand Lemaire is coming out with another collaboration with Uniqlo on September 13th. These are some of the pieces I'm looking out for (clockwise from top left).
Mini Shoulder Bag $19.90, Ponte Pullover $29.90, Cotton Satin Shirt Dress $49.90, Denim Work Jacket $59.90, High Rise Jeans $39.90, Baseball Cap $19.90, Sweat Turtleneck Dress $49.90, Lambswool Sweater $49.90, Ponte Pants $39.90.


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BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- Panacos Pharmaceuticals Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Samuel Ackerman has died, the company said early Thursday.
In a release, Panacos PANC, +9,900.00% said Ackerman, 58, died Wednesday after suffering a heart attack during an investment conference in New York.
In accordance with the company's succession plan, Panacos's chief financial officer, Peyton Marshall, will serve as interim CEO until a successor is found. Jeremy Hayward-Surry has been named non-executive acting chairman.
Shares of the HIV drug developer were up 1.5%, 8 cents, at $5.60 in recent action.