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One of the most valuable, yet unheralded, tools in the agency's operational inventory is its Reserve Unit. Reserve deputies are fully sworn law enforcement officers, with either Florida Basic Law Enforcement (BLE) or Florida Auxiliary Law Enforcement certifications, who volunteer their time and expertise to the Sheriff's Office.
Reserve deputies can work independently or with a partner, depending on their certification, designation, experience, and training. Many of the deputies who serve within the Reserve Unit are retired law enforcement officers who bring years of real-world experience to the unit, and want to continue "making a difference" in Orange County.
The Orange County Sheriff's Office has a very active and productive Reserve Deputy program, at times, running an entire patrol squad, providing deputies much needed assistance. A Reserve Deputy has the same "police power" as a full-time Orange County Deputy Sheriff, except they volunteer their services. Their uniforms are identical to an Orange County Deputy Sheriff and all necessary uniforms and equipment are provided. The Sheriff's Office also provides workers compensation insurance for Reserve Deputies acting in an official capacity.
"The Orange County Sheriff's Office Reserve Unit is one of the most professional, well-trained volunteer policing units in the country. We are proud to call central Florida home, and to provide law enforcement services to the citizens and visitors of Orange County. If you would like information on becoming a reserve, please visit the employment section of our website." – Ross Wolf, Reserve Chief Deputy
The Orange County Sheriff's Office Reserve Unit was recognized with the 2018 IACP Leadership in Volunteer Policing Award. The OCSO Reserve Unit is made up entirely of volunteer deputy sheriffs, men and women who have undergone extensive amounts of initial police training and annual retraining, to serve their community as police officers. The OCSO Reserve Unit was recognized because of the integration of reserves within the agency, progressive leadership and innovation, and a record of service above self. Congratulations OCSO Reserve Unit!
All Reserve Deputy candidates are required to go through the same stringent background checks and training as a full-time deputy sheriff. The extensive background process and drug screening assures that the agency's volunteer deputies are of good moral character and reputation. Prospective reserve candidates also undergo medical, psychological, and polygraph examinations.
Reserve deputies in training must complete their mandatory field training program within two years from the date they are sworn in as a Deputy Sheriff. This extensive training and evaluation program is the same one that the agency requires its full-time deputies complete. It is carefully designed to ensure that all of the agency's sworn personnel have a thorough understanding of local ordinances, agency policy, and law enforcement procedures.
In addition to academy training and required field training, Reserve Deputies must attend the same annual agency retraining and state certification retraining that is required of all deputies with the sheriff's office. They must also attend monthly Reserve Unit training meetings, and are required to undergo regular firearms proficiency training.
Department policy mandates that Reserve Deputies perform a minimum of 16 hours of duty assignments each month, 12 of which must be in patrol. However most of the agency's Reserve Deputies volunteer much more than this minimum requirement. Reserve deputies are also subject to call outs for special assignments and emergencies.
During 2019 the Reserve Unit volunteered over 22,500 hours of time to the Orange County Sheriff's Office and to the citizens of Orange County. This included 9,000 hours working in road patrol functions and over 1,600 hours handling special details. In addition, the unit made 270 Arrests, issued 1,440 Traffic Citations and answered 6,515 calls for service. By utilizing an hourly rate of $30.00 an hour, the units' volunteer hours resulted in a savings of $675,390 to the Orange County Sheriff's Office.


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UBS ordered to pay $903,000 for firing mortgage market analyst
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UBS Group owes $903,300 to a former senior strategist who claimed he was fired for refusing to sugarcoat his reports for clients.
A Manhattan federal court jury on Thursday sided with former top commercial mortgage-backed securities strategist Trevor Murray, who accused the Swiss lender of illegally firing him in 2012 for blowing the whistle on attempts by CMBS traders to influence his independent research reports. But the panel rejected Murray's request for at least $3 million in damages and ordered the bank to pay less than one-third of that.
After the verdict was read, U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla told the two sides to try settle the case before filing further motions, warning of lengthy delays from appeals and a possible retrial.
"See if this jury's verdict offers you a third-party perspective," Failla said.
Murray, 46, accused UBS of violating the whistle-blower protections enacted as part of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley law. He described a "concerted, extended effort" by managers and colleagues to get him to write bullish assessments during his roughly one year of employment.
"This jury found that UBS mistreated Mr. Murray when they terminated him, and that is the most important thing about this verdict," his lawyer, Robert Herbst, said. "This bank committed misconduct and should be ashamed for what they did to Mr. Murray."
UBS argued that Murray was never a whistle-blower, and that his termination was part of a broader reduction in staffing caused by the bank's poor finances. The bank repeatedly stressed the impact of a $2 billion loss by a rogue trader at UBS's London office five months before the firing.
Jurors deliberated for two days.
"We are disappointed in the jury's verdict and believe that the record in this trial clearly shows that Mr. Murray was not a whistle-blower or retaliated against in any way," UBS said in a statement. "We are reviewing our next steps."
The bank may ask for the judge to reject the verdict. Last month, a jury in the same Manhattan courthouse found that a former JPMorgan Chase wealth manager had been fired illegally and awarded her $1.13 million in damages. A judge then called the verdict flawed and threatened to toss out the decision unless the parties settle.
Murray blamed David McNamara, a UBS managing director and head of CMBS trading, saying he demanded to "preclear" drafts of Murray's reports in violation of UBS policy. Murray also accused his ex-boss, Kenneth Cohen, a well-known figure in the CMBS market, of complaining that his reports were "off-message" and setting the alleged preclearance process in motion.
Murray testified that Cohen told him in a hallway of UBS's Manhattan office not to "write anything negative about the hotel sector" because the bank was working on financing for the Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel. He said he wrote the report anyway, alerting clients to his concerns.
UBS denied the allegations, with its attorneys telling jurors that Murray had a "shocking" lack of evidence backing his claim, such as emails or text messages in which he complained to friends or colleagues about the alleged interference.
McNamara took the stand, recounting how UBS's CMBS business struggled as a result of the bank's broader financial problems, including a $2 billion loss by a rogue trader at its London office in September 2011.
While Murray was on the stand, UBS's lawyers pressed him about why he certified each of his reports as independent if he'd been influenced by his colleagues. Murray said he'd lied by certifying the reports — something the bank highlighted in a bid to undermine his testimony.
The case is Murray v. UBS Securities, 14-cv-00927, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

subset: commoncrawl


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Moral Theology out of East Asia
Bretzke, James T., Theological Studies
KARL RAHNER'S LAST MAJOR ARTICLE on the Second Vatican Council spoke of the watershed that the council represented in marking the beginning of the Church as a truly world Church and the challenge this presented especially for the integration of non-Western cultures: "either the Church sees and recognizes these essential differences of other cultures for which she should become a world Church and with a Pauline boldness draws the necessary consequences from this recognition, or she remains a Western Church and so in the final analysis betrays the meaning of Vatican II."(1) One ramification of Rahner's interpretation involves paying greater attention not only to how ethics is approached in various parts of the world, but also to change within Roman Catholic moral theology in places such as Asia. "Asia" is largely a Western construct. Depending on the context, the term can include countries and cultures from the Indian sub-continent through Indonesia, the Philippines, and even Australia. Rather than attempt an overview of such a large and diverse area, my contribution to these Notes on Moral Theology focuses on China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan since these countries share definite similarities in several important elements in their religious, philosophical, cultural, and historical background. The Church in this region has a particular challenge of being both a relative newcomer and a minority. Thus, interreligious dialogue is woven into its ethical reflection with a tradition that includes Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, while at the same time each region is also marked by an individual indigenous religiosity as well (such as Shintoism and shamanism). These cultures are also deeply touched by the contemporary forces of globalization and westernization and a variety of issues these forces helped to generate and/or complicate.
The special Synod of Asia held in Rome in 1998 provides a good spectrum of many of the issues, approaches, and conflicts that mark these efforts at intercultural and intracultural dialogue.(2) While at first glance, "moral theology" was not a major theme of the synod, upon closer analysis it is amazing how virtually every issue touched upon comes back in some fashion or another to ethics in East Asia in the sense of Rahner's moral challenges posed by the "essential differences of other cultures." At the Synod of Bishops on Evangelization, a quarter-century earlier, much stress was placed on careful dialogue with and respect for indigenous cultures. As the preparatory documents for the recent Asian Synod were circulated, however, many bishops felt the mandate of the 1974 synod and the charge of Evangelii nuntiandi (1975) to go to the very root and depths of the culture(3) still had not been adequately met in the Asian context, and this led to a frank expression of tensions uncharacteristic of traditional Asian etiquette. The Japanese Catholic Bishops' Conference, rather than give the requested "response" to the preparatory Lineamenta for the synod issued by the Vatican, submitted their own document which addressed some perceived deficiencies in the Vatican text, and proposed alternative approaches that differed markedly in key areas from the Vatican document. The Japanese Bishops observed that inasmuch "the questions of the Lineamenta were composed in the context of Western Christianity they are not suitable.... From the way the questions are proposed, one feels that the holding of the Synod is like an occasion for the central office to evaluate the performance of the branch offices. That kind of Synod would not be worthwhile for the Church in Asia. The judgment should not be made from a European framework but must be seen on the spiritual level of the people who live in Asia."(4) The bishops went on to warn against overstressing the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the "One and Only Savior," for that would render impossible "dialogue, common living, or solidarity with other religions. …


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Geithner's plan is now out of the bag, and you've no doubt heard what's in it: nothing new. It's simply a rehashed version of Paulson's old bad bank plan dressed up in drag with a lot of lipstick. Admittedly, it's a con.
Paulson's plan actually repackages the infamous Master Shafter original plan, which goes like this: we broke it, you bought it, we'll fix it. Regardless of the the tagging, we must give William Shakespeare his due and state outrightly that a rose by any other name is still a rose. This rose smells like Goldman Sachs all the way from Washington to the Street. It was Goldman's men in Treasury who worked earnestly to create another wealth conduit to siphon prosperity from the poor and the middle class to Wall Street.
Indeed, Treasury chief of staff Mark Patterson was a Goldman lobbyist who fought Mr. Obama's attempt to curb executive compensation abuse, first when Senator Obama attempted to curb executive compensation and now as an insider within the administration.
"This will help banks clean up their balance sheets and make it easier for them to raise private capital," Mr. Geithner said.
The plan calls for the federal government to work with private investors to try to restart the market for the troubled mortgage loans and securities, which in turn officials hope improves the financial condition of banks that have received billions in capital injections from the government already. The federal government will pair as much as $100 billion with private capital to generate $500 billion in purchasing power to buy the assets, and Mr. Geithner told reporters the plan could reach $1 trillion in size over time.
"We have to complement this program with a range of approaches to help get these securities markets back to a point where they're working again," Mr. Geithner told reporters Monday morning.
The new program will address both the legacy loans banks are holding on their balance sheets and the legacy securities backed by mortgage-related debt clogging the balance sheets of financial firms.
Under the legacy loan program, investment funds will be created to purchase pools of assets. Treasury will provide 50% of the equity capital for each fund while private managers retain control of asset management subject to FDIC oversight. Treasury said it will approve up to five asset managers "with a demonstrated track record of purchasing legacy assets," but it might consider adding more managers depending on the quality of applications received.
This means means taxpayers will be defenseless while financing the transfer of all the piles of junk from all the balance sheets of every bad bank and underhanded hedge fund on this side of the universe to Uncle Sam's balance sheet. It's another page from Thain's playbook at Merill Lynch. This scam didn't save Merrill and it definitely is not intended to help the US economy.
Of course the whole notion of repairing bank balance sheet is a lie and misdirection. The balance sheets we should want to see repaired are household balance sheets. Banks have failed us profoundly. We want them reorganized, not repaired. A world in which the banks are all fixed but households are still broken is worse than what we have right now. Too-big-to-fail banks restored to health are too-big-to-fail banks restored to power. The idea that fixing legacy banks is prerequisite to fixing the broad economy is a lie perpetrated by legacy bankers.
The plan as advertised goes beyond Paulson's plan in that it creates a market where one does not exist.
"Over time, by providing a market for these assets that does not now exist, this program will help improve asset values, increase lending capacity by banks, and reduce uncertainty about the scale of losses on bank balance sheets," Mr. Geithner wrote. "The ability to sell assets to this fund will make it easier for banks to raise private capital, which will accelerate their ability to replace the capital investments provided by the Treasury."
Pardon our disobedience, but a market does already exist. The problem is it may be some 50% lower than than Geithner's bankster buddies would prefer, so Timothy The Terrific sticks it to the taxpayer while cynically proposing to save the economy.
Under the legacy securities program, non-recourse loans will be made available to investors to fund purchases of legacy securitization assets. Eligible assets are expected to include certain non-agency residential mortgage-backed securities that were originally rated triple-A and outstanding commercial mortgage-backed securities and asset-backed securities that are rated triple-A.
Originally rated Triple-A, whether they should have been are not, they are clearly junk or they would not be on the banks' balance sheets. Providing financing for non recourse junk bonds is not intended to help the economy. It's the classic example of the slave who builds and then pays for his own imprisonment. Gotta love it.
The Government has agreed to finance 93% of the loan, and it is a no recourse loan. This provision is in place for one reason only: To insure that investors overpay for bad bank assets, at taxpayer expense.
Unfortunately, taxpayers are the slaves in this case. The balance sheet we want repaired is the one that Goldman Sachs' golden boy wants to take a wrecking ball to by providing a conduit to let the losses flow to the taxpayer while profits flow to the elites. It is the finest form of socialism.
The elites have finished gouging the public, so when the lowly taxpayer turns to his servant government to right the wrong, he finds no one there who cares. They have all been bought. Then this administration as the last raises confidence in a system in which there should be none, and cynically holds out false hope knowing full well that if the banks have their way, there is no hope for anyone else.
President Barack Obama expressed confidence in the plan, but he cautioned that a financial recovery won't happen overnight. "You are starting to see glimmers of hope in the housing market," helped by historically low interest rates, Mr. Obama told reporters Monday after meeting with his financial advisers at the White House.
The president need not be so cautious, the plan won't work.
Nobel-prize winning economist Paul Krugman said in remarks published on Monday that the latest U.S. Treasury bailout program is nearly certain to fail, triggering a sense of personal despair.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Monday unveiled a plan aimed at persuading private investors to help rid banks up to $1 trillion in toxic assets that that are seen as a roadblock to economic recovery.
"This is more than disappointing," Krugman wrote in The New York Times. ""In fact it fills me with a sense of despair."
"The Geithner scheme would offer a one-way bet: if asset values go up, the investors profit, but if they go down, the investors can walk away from their debt," the Princeton University economist said, citing weekend reports outlining the plan.
"This isn't really about letting markets work. It's just an indirect, disguised way to subsidize purchases of bad assets," he added.
"This isn't really about letting markets work. It's just an indirect, disguised way to subsidize purchases of bad assets." See how that conduit keeps popping up? But the worst is yet to come.
My guess is that behind the scenes, Geithner has arranged a kind of J.P. Morgan moment. You know the story. During the Panic of 1907, J.P. Morgan locked a bunch of bankers in a room and insisted they lend to stave a panic. We've already seen one twisted parody of this event, when Henry Paulson locked a bunch of bankers in a room and insisted they borrow money from the Treasury. This second one is more clever. I don't think the scandal of the Geithner plan is going to turn out to be the subsidy to well-connected investors embedded in the non-recourse loan put option. On the contrary, I think that Treasury has already lined up participants for the "Legacy Loans Public-Private Investment Fund" and persuaded them to offer prices so high that despite the put, investors will expect to take a major loss. My little conspiracy theory is that the Blackrocks and PIMCOs of the world, the asset managers who do well by "shaking hands with the government", will agree to take a hit on relatively small investments in order first to help make banks smell solvent, and then to compel and provide "good optics" for a maximal transfer from government to key financial institutions.
Consider a hypothetical asset manager, PIMROCK. PIMROCK reviews a pool of loans held by the bank J.P. Citi of America, and its analysts determine they are worth 30¢ of par value. The bank holds them at 80¢ on its book. PIMROCK agrees to put down $10B to purchase loans from the pool at 82¢ thrilling stock markets everywhere. It was all just a bad dream!Under Geithner's plan, PIMROCK's $10B permits a $10B equity investment from the Treasury. Then the FDIC levers the whole thing up, providing $6 of debt for every one dollar of equity. So, $140B of bad loans are lifted from J.P. Citi of America, nearly $90B of which is sheer overpayment to the bank.Of course, as cash flows evolve, PIMROCK's $10B is wiped out entirely, as is the Treasury's investment. The FDIC gets repaid in a bunch of securities worth about $50B, taking a $70B loss. But, as Calculated Risk, likes to say "Hoocoodanode?" These were real market prices, Geithner or his successor will argue. Our private partners lost everything. There was no subsidy here.Meanwhile, taxpayers will be out around $80B.Why would PIMROCK go along with this? Because they feel it is their patriotic duty to work with the government for the good of the financial system, even if that involves accepting some sacrifices. And because they hold $100B in J.P. Citi of America bonds, and they've received assurances that if we can get the nation out of the financial pickle it's in, there will be no haircuts on those bonds. "Shaking hands with the government" means that nothing ever has to be put in writing.
Yeah, shaking hands with the government means there is a conduit to siphon wealth from the taxpayer to the parasitic elites, as well as carry the waste water filled with regurgitated assets from Goldman and its golden ones, to splash on the backs the serfs. It flows downstream, you see. And who are we little ones to complain, we don't even need to eat anyway.


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"Hadoop ecosystem" entries
The problem of managing schemas
Schemas inevitably will change — Apache Avro offers an elegant solution.
When a team first starts to consider using Hadoop for data storage and processing, one of the first questions that comes up is: which file format should we use?
This is a reasonable question. HDFS, Hadoop's data storage, is different from relational databases in that it does not impose any data format or schema. You can write any type of file to HDFS, and it's up to you to process it later.
The usual first choice of file formats is either comma delimited text files, since these are easy to dump from many databases, or JSON format, often used for event data or data arriving from a REST API.
There are many benefits to this approach — text files are readable by humans and therefore easy to debug and troubleshoot. In addition, it is very easy to generate them from existing data sources and all applications in the Hadoop ecosystem will be able to process them. Read more…
Cloudera Impala: Bringing the SQL and Hadoop Worlds Together
By John Russell
When I came to work on the Cloudera Impala project, I found many things that were familiar from my previous experience with relational databases, UNIX systems, and the open source world. Yet other aspects were all new to me. I know from documenting both enterprise software and open source projects that it's a special challenge when those two aspects converge. A lot of new users come in with 95% of the information they need, but they don't know where the missing or outdated 5% is. One mistaken assumption or unfamiliar buzzword can make someone feel like a complete beginner. That's why I was happy to have the opportunity to write this overview article, with room to explore how users from all kinds of backgrounds can understand and start using the Cloudera Impala product.
For database users, the Apache Hadoop ecosystem can feel like a new world:
- Sysadmins don't bat an eye when you say you want to work on terabytes or petabytes of data.
- A networked cluster of machines isn't a complicated or scary proposition. Instead, it's the standard environment you ask an intern to set up on their first day as a training exercise.
- All the related open source projects aren't an either-or proposition. You work with a dozen components that all interoperate, stringing them together like a UNIX toolchain.
Near realtime, streaming, and perpetual analytics
Hadoop moves from batch to near realtime: next up, placing streaming data in context
Simple example of a near realtime app built with Hadoop and HBase
Over the past year Hadoop emerged from its batch processing roots and began to take on interactive and near realtime applications. There are numerous examples that fall under these categories, but one that caught my eye recently is a system jointly developed by China Mobile Guangdong (CMG) and Intel1. It's an online system that lets CMG's over 100 million subscribers2 access and pay their bills, and examine their CDR's (call detail records) in near realtime.
A service for providing detailed billing information is an important customer touch point. Repeated/extended downtimes and data errors could seriously tarnish CMG's image. CMG needed a system that could scale to their current (and future) data volumes, while providing the low-latency responses consumers have come to expect from online services. Scalability, price and open source3 were important criteria in persuading the company to choose a Hadoop-based solution over4 MPP data warehouses.
In the system it co-developed with Intel, CMG stores detailed subscriber billing records in HBase. This amounts to roughly 30 TB/month, but since the service lets users browse up to six months of billing data it provides near realtime query results on much larger amounts of data. There are other near realtime applications built from Hadoop components (notably the continuous compute system at Yahoo!), that handle much larger data sets. But what I like about the CMG example is that it's an application that most people understand right away (a detailed billing lookup system), and it illustrates that the Hadoop ecosystem has grown beyond batch processing.
Besides powering their online billing lookup service, CMG uses its Hadoop platform for analytics. Data from multiple sources (including phone device preferences, usage patterns, and cell tower performance) are used to compute customer segments and targeted promotions. Over time, Hadoop's ability to handle large amounts of unstructured data opens up other data sources that can potentially improve CMG's current analytic models.
Contextualize: Streaming and Perpetual Analytics
This leads me to something "realtime" systems are beginning to do: placing streaming data in context. Streaming analytics operates over fixed time windows and is used to identify "top k" trending items, heavy-hitters, and distinct items. Perpetual analytics takes what you're observing now and places it in the context of what you already know. As much as companies appreciate metrics produced by streaming engines, they also want to understand how "realtime observations" affect their existing knowledge base.
HBase looks more appealing to data scientists
New open source tools for interactive SQL analysis, model development and deployment
When Hadoop users need to develop apps that are "latency sensitive", many of them turn to HBase1. Its tight integration with Hadoop makes it a popular data store for real-time applications. When I attended the first HBase conference last year, I was pleasantly surprised by the diversity of companies and applications that rely on HBase. This year's conference was even bigger and I ran into attendees from a wide range of companies. Another set of interesting real-world case studies were showcased, along with sessions highlighting work of the HBase team aimed at improving usability, reliability, and availability (bringing down mean time to recovery has been a recent area of focus).
HBase has had a reputation of being a bit difficult to use – its core users have been data engineers, not data scientists. The good news is that as HBase gets adopted by more companies, tools are being developed to open it up to more users. Let me highlight some tools that will appeal to data scientists.
It's getting easier to build Big Data applications
Analytic engines on top of Hadoop simplify the creation of interesting, low-cost, scalable applications
Hadoop's low-cost, scale-out architecture has made it a new platform for data storage. With a storage system in place, the Hadoop community is slowly building a collection of open source, analytic engines. Beginning with batch processing (MapReduce, Pig, Hive), Cloudera has added interactive SQL (Impala), analytics (Cloudera ML + a partnership with SAS), and as of early this week, real-time search. The economics that led to Hadoop dominating batch processing is permeating other types of analytics.
Another collection of open source, Hadoop-compatible analytic engines, the Berkeley Data Analytics Stack (BDAS), is being built just across the San Francisco Bay. Starting with a batch-processing framework that's faster than MapReduce (Spark), it now includes interactive SQL (Shark), and real-time analytics (Spark Streaming). Sometime this summer, frameworks for machine-learning (MLbase) and graph analytics (GraphX) will be released. A cluster manager (Mesos) and an in-memory file system (Tachyon) allow users of other analytic frameworks to leverage the BDAS platform. (The Python data community is looking at Tachyon closely.)
Strata Week: AWS and Rackspace, compared
How Amazon Web Services and Rackspace measure up; IBM's Watson goes to school; Google researches data; and what will we call really, really big data?
Here are a few stories from the data space that caught my attention this week.
Rackspace vs Amazon
As Rackspace continues to ramp up its services to compete with Amazon Web Services (AWS) — this week, announcing a partnership with Hortonworks to develop a cloud-based enterprise-ready Hadoop platform to compete against Amazon's Elastic MapReduce — Derrick Harris at GigaOm compared apples to apples.
John Engates, CTO of Rackspace, told Harris the most fundamental difference between the two services is the level of control given to the customer. Harris writes that Rackspace's new Hadoop services aims to give the customer "granular control over how their systems are configured and how their jobs run," providing "the experience of owning a Hadoop cluster without actually owning any of the hardware." Engates pointed out, "It's not MapReduce as a service; it's more Hadoop as a service."
Harris also points out that Rackspace is considering making moves into NoSQL and looks at AWS' DynamoDB service. He notes that Amazon and Rackspace aren't the only players on any of these fields, pointing to the likes of Microsoft's HDInsight, IBM's BigInsights, Qubole, Infochimps, MongoDB, Cassandra and CouchDB-based services.
In related news, Rackspace announced its new Cloud Networks feature this week that allows customers to design their own networks on Rackspace's Cloud Servers. In an interview with Jack McCarthy at CRN, Engates explained the background:
"When we went from dedicated physical networks to our public cloud, we lost the ability to segment these networks. We used to have a vLAN. As we moved to OpenStack, we wanted to give our customers the ability to enable segmented networks in the cloud. Cloud Networks gives customers a degree of control over how they build networks in the cloud, whether it's building networks application servers or for Web servers or databases."
Engates also points out the networks are software-defined, "so customers can program their network on the fly." You can read more about the new feature on the Rackspace blog.
Strata Week: Big problems in the age of big data
Big data and big problems, open data monetization, Hortonworks' first year, and a new Hadoop Partner Ecosystem launches
Here are a few stories that caught my attention in the data space this week.
Big data, Big Brother, big problems
Adam Frank took a look at some of the big problems with big data this week over at NPR. Franks addresses issues in analyzing the sheer volume of complex information inherent in big data. Learning to sort through and mine vasts amounts of data to extrapolate meaning will be a "trick," he writes, but it turns out the big problems with big data go deeper than volume.
Creating computer models to simulate complex systems with big data, Franks notes, ultimately creates something a bit different from reality: "the very act of bringing the equations over to digital form means you have changed them in subtle ways and that means you are solving a slightly different problem than the real-world version." Analysis, therefore, "requires trained skepticism, sophistication and, remarkably, some level of intuition about the systems we study," he writes.
Franks also raises the problem of big data becoming a threat to individuals within society:
"Everyday we are scattering 'digital breadcrumbs' into the data-verse. Credit card purchases, cell phone calls, Internet searches: Big Data means memory storage has become so cheap that all data about all those aspects of our lives can be harvested and put to use. And it's exactly the use of all that harvested data that can pose a threat to society."
The threat comes from the Big Brother aspect of being constantly monitored in ways we've never before imagined, and Franks writes, "It may also allows levels of manipulation that are new and truly unimaginable." You can read more of Franks thoughts on what it means to live in the age of big data here. (We've covered related ethics issues with big data here on Strata.)


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With more than 13 years of experience of providing high quality valuation services in the Wenatchee Valley, the Appraisal Office of Kelly Appraisal & Consulting offers Certified Residential appraisal solutions. We represent a wide variety of clients, from individuals to corporations. Approaching each appraisal with our full attention and dedication, we aim to protect your interests and exceed your expectations.
Areas of practice: Chelan County, Douglas County, Leavenworth, Lake Wenatchee, Plain, Peshastin, Dryden, Cashmere, Wenatchee, East Wenatchee.


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Phuket Police search for jet-ski operator after anchor attack on German tourist1 min read
PHUKET: Karon Police are looking for a jet-ski rental operator at Kata Beach who yesterday allegedly swung an anchor at the head of a German tourist.
When contacted by the Phuket Gazette, Karon Police Superintendent Sirisak Wasasiri today said he had yet to be informed of the incident.
Read more: The Phuket Gazette


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The Ouya, an Android-powered video game console, was unveiled last year to the kind of hype product developers dream of – tons of press, $3.7 million in Kickstarter funds in just a couple of days (the drive eventually went on to rake in far more than that), a rousing reception on Twitter and Facebook. This week, the Ouya finally hits shelves in the US and the UK. Is the console, which will sell here for $99.99, worth the cash? Let's dive into the reviews and find out.
The console
"The entire device is plastic, but it actually looks and feels fairly nice, not that you'll spend a lot of time fondling the console itself," notes Ryan Whitwam of Android Police. "I have noticed that the Ouya gets extremely hot while in use. It's so toasty that it becomes uncomfortable to touch just idling. The upshot, it's completely silent. Most real consoles sound like a small aircraft taking off next to your TV. I have some concerns that this does not bode well for long-term durability, though."
The controller
"The controller sounds nice on paper, but it's sadly close to being outright junk," writes Will Greenwald of PC Mag. "The touchpad is the worst touchpad I've ever used. It's over-sensitive but unresponsive, making the cursor fly around the screen with only little concern for what my finger is doing. It doesn't click, and it takes patience to tap the touchpad just right to make it register as a tap and not a swipe."
The controller, part two
"I can say unequivocally that the number one problem I experienced with the Ouya was controller lag," says Mo Mozuch of iDigital Times. "BAD controller lag... This is no small thing for a console trying to pull gamers away from one of three virtually flawless machines. I mean, you might have a preference for an Xbox or a PS3 or a Wii U but you can at least play a different console with a reasonable expectation for its performance."
The games
The Ouya launches with an array of games – some of them ports, like a Sonic game and a Final Fantasy title, and some of them originals, like Rival Threads: Last Class Heroes.
"As we sat there punching, jumping, running and shooting our way through the handful of oddball titles, we had to wonder what would become Ouya's killer app," says Alex Roth of TechRadar. "Still, every game we tried controlled very well, and looked great on an HDTV. Even the purposely blocky, eight-bit-esque Fist of Awesome benefited by a 720p presentation."
The innards
"The Ouya has an Nvidia Tegra 3 processor running at 1.7GHz. When we benchmarked it, it didn't do badly at all on measures of CPU power," writes Mr. Greenwald of PC Mag. "Its Antutu score of 13443 and Basemark OS score of 270 match or beat the Nexus 7 tablet, although it fell short of devices like the LG Optimus G and Samsung Galaxy Note II on Basemark OS. What really disturbed us, though, was the graphics test results. The Ouya scored only 38.6 [frames per second] on the relatively low-stress Nenamark 2 graphics benchmark. On GLBenchmark 2.5 HQ, which comes closer to console-quality graphics, it crawled along at 11 [frames per second]."
The final word
"Everything about it screams its desire to be the noble champion of indie games," laments Rus McLaughlin of VentureBeat. "Instead, the console I played with – which Ouya's PR reps now tell us is not the final, retail hardware – comes across more as the noble champion that some dirty, no-name mercenary humiliates in 10 seconds flat. These early-backer units are made with love but not with care. As such, I worry the Ouya might do a disservice to the very things it wants to lift up."
For more tech news, follow us on Twitter @venturenaut.


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Trials is now live, and will be active until the next weekly reset. The map is Eternity, which has a mysterious otherworldly vibe to it. To access Trials, simply go to the Crucible section in the Director and select it. Pre-made teams of 4 will be able to play in this mode as long as they've completed the Campaign, Call to Arms Crucible Milestone at least once, and have 260 or more Power. You will not start gaining losses on your ticket until your first win. If you rack up 3 losses on a single ticket, the ticket will automatically
Category: Guides and Reviews
Leviathan Raid Guide
Important to note: During no-respawn encounters, everyone will have a revive token that you can see at the bottom right of the screen. This means you will only be able to revive someone else 1 time. Most chests will only reward tokens, which can be turned in to Benedict 99-40 in the Tower. Standard Bearers A few times during the raid, you'll need to defeat the Standard Bearers to unlock the next room. Killing a Stand Bearer will allow one of your team members to pick up a Relic that needs to be placed in the center of the room.
World Quest Exotic Weapon Guides
There are three Exotic weapons awaiting Guardians in the Destiny 2 endgame and they're all rewarded from doing a World Quest. In order to access these World Quests you must have completed the main campaign. Each World Quest has their own suggested power level you should be at before tackling them, with the highest being 260 for the EDZ quest. As noted in this article, it's best to complete these when your Power level is at least 260, since Exotics are an easy way to increase your power level. Rat King Let's start with what's quite possibly the most difficult
How to Activate Heroic Public Events
Every public event in Destiny 2 features a hidden requirement that, once met, will trigger a more difficult heroic version. Many of these will spawn an additional boss or spawn more powerful enemies, and it's always worth it to do the heroic version, as they increase your chances at greater rewards, including Exotic engrams. Here's how to activate 8 different types of Heroic Events: Ether Resupply In order to trigger the heroic version of the battle against the giant Servitor, you must kill all of the smaller Servitors that spawn. There is usually one that initially spawns, followed by a
11 Tips For New Destiny 2 Players
Quickly Opening the Map The addition of an in-game map is one of the better qualify of life changes that Bungie has added to Destiny 2. Being able to pull up the map no matter where you are or what you're doing to check for incoming public events, Lost Sector locations, or the next available Adventure is incredibly convenient. That's not to mention no more going to orbit, even when changing planet locations. However, did you know there's an even quicker way to open your map up? Instead of spending a few seconds holding down Select to open it, if
How to Reach Max Power Level
Destiny 2 has two level types: character level and Power level, maxing out at 20 and 300 respectively. Reaching the max character level is very straightforward: just play through the game normally and you're likely to be level 20 shortly after the campaign ends. As for Power level, the only way to increase it is through your gear. Armor and weapons will determine your Power, and that level will be limited once you reach 260. After 260, you'll only get 'sidegrades' from the normal loot sources. However, you will be able to progress past 260 with the help of specific
Iron Banner Weapon Reviews
The Distant Star Pros – Very high reload speed. High aim assist. Cons – Low range. Below average stability and mag size. Recommended PvP Perks: Any Perfect Balance, Smallbore, Braced Frame, Hammer Forged, Injection Mold, Hand-laid Stock Full Auto, High Caliber Rounds Zen Moment, Hidden Hand, Life Support, Crowd Control, Eye of the Storm, Icarus, Firefly, Triple Tap Recommended PvE Perks: Any Perfect Balance, Smallbore, Braced Frame, Hammer Forged, Injection Mold, Hand-laid Stock Full Auto, High Caliber Rounds Firefly, Triple Tap, Life Support, Zen Moment, Crowd Control, Eye of the Storm A member of the MIDA-archetype, that unfortunately doesn't posses


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Caleb Ewan (Orica-Scott) took his first win since the Giro d'Italia in May as he out-sprinted Danny Van Poppel (Team Sky) and Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) on stage four of the Tour of Poland.
Orica-Scott were nowhere to be seen for much of the final five kilometres, but Ewan was brought to the front at the perfect time thanks to hard work by Luka Mezgec with 800m to go.
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The Slovenian rider set a searing pace for a few hundred metres, before Ewan jumped out of his wheel, accelerating away from Van Poppel and Sagan, the latter holding on to his yellow jersey and extending his overall lead courtesy of bonus seconds on the line.
>>> Cycling transfers 2018: All the ins and outs from the WorldTour
By far the longest stage in this year's Tour of Poland, the 238km stage from Zawiercie to Zabrze saw six brave riders get in the break: Remi Cavagna (Quick-Step Floors), Bert-Jan Lindeman (LottoNL-Jumbo), Tom Skujins (Cannondale-Drapac), Nick Dougall (Dimension Data), Jan Tratnik (CCC Sprandi Polkowice) and Pawel Bernas (Poland).
They enjoyed a maximum lead of around six minutes as they made their way along the rolling roads that characterised much of the stage, with the gap starting to drop with around 100km to go.
The break's lead steadily came down, before it really started to tumble in the final 30km. With 15km remaining the gap fell below a minute for the first time, even as Cavagna set off on a brave but futile solo effort.
Behind the chase was led by Orica-Scott, Bora-Hansgrohe, and Astana, bringing Cavagna back within five kilometres of the finish line.
The pace really started to ram up with two kilometres to go as Team Sky moved to the front, Diego Rosa working hard in the service of Danny Van Poppel.
>>> Pro bikes: Peter Sagan's Specialized S-Works Venge Vias (video)
Van Poppel was positioned in second wheel with 800m to go, but was passed by Luka Mezgec with Caleb Ewan locked in his wheel.
With 250m to go Ewan popped out of the wheel, holding off Sagan and the fast-approaching Van Poppel to take his first win since the Giro d'Italia, while Sagan held on to the overall lead, picking up bonus seconds in the process.
Tour of Poland 2017, stage four: Zawiercie to Zabrze, 238km
1. Caleb Ewan (Aus) Orica-Scott, in 5-38-49
2. Danny Van Poppel (Ned) Team Sky
3. Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe
4. Boy van Poppel (Ned) Trek-Segafredo
5. Sacha Modolo (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
6. Lorenzo Manzin (Fra) FDJ
7. Tom Van Asbroeck (Bel) Cannondale-Drapac
8. Enrico Battaglin (Ita) LottoNl-Jumbo
9. Alan Banaszek (Pol) CCC Sprandi Polkowice
10. Roberto Ferrari (Ita) UAE Team Emirates, all at same time
General classification after stage four
1. Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe, in 15-41-47
2. Dylan Teuns (Bel) BMC Racing, at 10 secs
3. Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe, at 16 secs
4. Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb, at 20 secs
5. Tom-Jelte Slagter (Ned) Cannondale-Drapac, at 25 secs
6. Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Ag2r La Mondiale, at 28 secs
7. Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky, at 29 secs
8. Adam Yates (GBr) Orica-Scott, at 29 secs
9. Nathan Haas (Aus) Dimension Data, at 34 secs
10. Sam Oomen (Ned) Team Sunweb, at 34 secs


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Antonio MyriePersonal Trainer, Nutritionist, Group Fitness Instructor, Martial Arts Instructor, Boxing CoachEven after over 20 years in the fitness industry, I pride myself in constantly enhancing my knowledge and improving my skills. I don't offer a 'cookie cutter' approach with my clients but instead personalize every program with a strong base that has proven successful. Most important to me is being able to say that I have clients I've been training consistently for 5-10 years.
An 8th degree black belt in jujutsu, I started training at 5 years old and continue to this day. I have extensive training in American, Muay Thai and Japanese kickboxing as well as western boxing. I've been a self defense instructor for several years with a specialization on bladed weapons defense.
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Experience & CertificationPayment & ComplementaryMy Training styleMotivational SpeakerI work with people who areNew to fitnessAlready exercising regularlyReturning after a long layoff from regular exerciseMy training environmentResidential Building GymOutdoors (Park/Track)Office Building GymCorporate EventsMy Private StudioFitness/ Nutrition SeminarsTrainer's only GymGroup FitnessClient Home (client's equipment)Client Home (trainer's equipment)Will TravelYoga style I practice (for yoga instructors only)I have experience with injuries to the following areasBackKneesHipsI have experience with the following medical conditionsObesityI have experience with the following special populationsElderlyFirst TimersUnmotivated IndividualsChildrenProfessional AthletesObeseTeenagersI have special certifications inCardio KickboxingBoxingI have experience with the following sports/ training specific goalsMartial ArtsBoot CampWeight LossBoxingPlyometric TrainingSession lengths available30 min45 min60 min90 min120minPayment method preferenceCashPaypalSquareNeighborhoodTrainers Gift CertificateCheckVenmoI offer a complimentary first meeting of anFitness AssessmentInitial Workout
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How do variables in Configuration Manager 2012 work? – Part 1
Using Variables in SCCM 2012
While working with Configuration Manager 2012 you most likely also came across collections and Task Sequences. You deploy a Task Sequence to a collection which has machines as members and then those machines execute the deployed Task Sequence.
Maybe you have one generic Task Sequence and want to deploy it to many different collections, e.g. you have one Client OSD Task Sequence and three Collections, WinXP, Win7 and Win8.
The easiest way to achieve something like that is by variables.
How to define variables?
How and where do I set a variable you might ask. Quite easy. Open up the collection properties and look at "Collection variables":
Here you can add new variables to the collection.
You need to give the new variable a name and a value (although the value is optional). You can also mask a value (e.g. a password) by ticking the box "Do not display this value in the Configuration Manager console".
Of course the same is also possible directly on the machine. Machine variables always take higher priority than collection variables. This way it's possible to set certain default values on the collection and overwrite them per machine.
Collection sets the variable "ServerFeatures" to "AS-NET-Framework", because I want this feature to be installed on every machine in this collection and I wrote a script which is executed in the task sequence which queries this variable.
I also added a machine to my example collection where I want another feature installed, but only on this machine, in my case this is "WDS" (Windows Deployment Services). I add the variable "ServerFeatures" to this machine and set it to "AS-NET-Framework,WDS".
I must not forget "AS-NET-Framework", because otherwise only "WDS" would be the content of the variable. Sadly the process is not additive, but destructive, so the machine variable overwrites the collection variable.
Variables read during Task Sequence
The variable we just set will only be available during a task sequence, for that matter, in any task sequence. An example for that can be seen in this article I wrote: Easy versioning of Images–Configuration Manager and Powershell
If you want to know which other variables are available during a Task Sequence, have a look at this site: Technet: Task Sequence variables (Action and Built-In)
You can also run this code in a script during a Task Sequence to write all the variables into for example your registry.
New-Item -Path "HKLM:\Software\David\Variables" -Force
$MS_ConfigMgr_Env = New-Object -ComObject Microsoft.SMS.TSEnvironment
foreach ($MS_ConfigMgr_Var in $MS_ConfigMgr_Env.GetVariables())
New-Itemproperty -Path "HKLM:\Software\David\Variables" -Name "$($MS_ConfigMgr_Var)" -Value "$($MS_ConfigMgr_Env.Value($MS_ConfigMgr_Var))" -Force
You'll be surprised how many internal variables ConfigMgr uses.
In the next part I'll be talking about another way of setting variables to simulate different scenarios like deploying multiple OSs or just configuring machines differently.
Part 2: How do variables in Configuration Manager 2012 work?


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Four RNLI lifeboats respond to mayday call in Cardigan Bay
Four RNLI lifeboats from four lifeboat stations launched overnight to respond to a mayday call 30 miles off Cardigan Bay.
The mayday call was very weak and as the location of the vessel was unclear so Abersoch, Barmouth, New Quay and Aberystwyth RNLI volunteers were all launched over the course of the night to respond to the mayday call.
HM Coastguard received a mayday call on the evening of Sunday 8 September from a 30-foot yacht suffering from mechanical failure in Cardigan Bay but communications were lost with the vessel before a location was provided. Abersoch Atlantic 85 inshore lifeboat and Barmouth all-weather lifeboat were both tasked at 11:10pm to search an area south of Enlli (Bardsey Island) for the vessel. New Quay RNLI volunteers were also requested to prepare the all-weather lifeboat in case the search area was extended.
As the search took place a fishing trawler located the yacht 30 miles off Cardigan Bay and was able to provide clearer information to the Coastguard. New Quay all-weather lifeboat launched at 12:35am and Barmouth and Abersoch lifeboats were both stood down.
New Quay RNLI volunteers arrived on scene and established a tow. As New Quay all-weather lifeboat made their way back to the coast, Aberystwyth RNLI volunteers were paged at 8:30am and were requested to take over the tow – over nine hours after the service call first began.
Aberystwyth Atlantic 85 inshore lifeboat launched at 8:45am and took over the tow from New Quay all-weather lifeboat. The yacht was safely towed into Aberystwyth Marina.
New Quay RNLI volunteers were finally able to return to station and recovered the lifeboat at 10:30am – ten hours after the all-weather lifeboat was first paged.
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Energy Efficiency scheme to come to Cardigan
If you live in a cold home in the town of Cardigan, your home may be eligible for a heating upgrade, wall or loft insulation or solar panels all free of charge under Welsh Government's Arbed scheme.
Ceredigion County Council are working in partnership with Arbed am Byth, who manage the scheme on behalf of Welsh Government, to address fuel poverty in the County by improving the energy efficiency and reducing the Carbon Dioxide emissions from our homes. Cardigan has been identified as an area for a potential scheme. This scheme is funded by Welsh Government and European Union ERDF funds.
A cold home can have a negative impact on a person's everyday health and wellbeing. Living in an energy inefficient home tends to have higher fuel costs due to heat loss as a result of a lack of insulation. The aim of the scheme is to make homes warmer, more comfortable and more affordable to heat. This will be achieved through installing a range of appropriate energy efficiency measures.
Homes in Cardigan are currently being assessed to see if they are eligible for free energy saving measures. If your home is located within the designated boundary of the scheme and is either owner occupied or rented from a private landlord the property qualifies for a home assessment. Every home within the designated area is eligible to apply regardless of the financial situation of the residents living in the home.
During the assessment visit the surveyor will establish whether the home qualifies for energy efficiency measures and which measures may be appropriate. The assessment is free and the home owner is not under any obligation to proceed with the scheme. Following the assessment, Arbed and Byth can advise what specific measures are applicable your home.
Councillor Dafydd Edwards is the Cabinet member with responsibility for Housing. He said, "We are pleased to work in partnership with Arbed am Byth to ensure that our county's residents live in comfortable homes. This ensures better health and wellbeing for our people. This is a good opportunity for the people of Cardigan town to take advantage of improving their homes."
Working with Ceredigion County Council, Arbed am Byth hope to support around 150 homes through the scheme. The Managing Director of Arbed am Byth, informs us that "the Cardigan Arbed scheme is a fully funded scheme which will help residents reduce their heating bills and improve the efficiency of their homes. It is a great opportunity to get much needed help at no cost, but the scheme can only address 150 homes, so I urge residents to apply quickly."
Delivering a home energy efficiency scheme while the coronavirus pandemic is still with us is challenging. Arbed am Byth's Service Excellence Manager, Jordan Price said, "We have introduced very robust measures to ensure we can work safely in your home through the Covid-19 pandemic. Our assessors and installers complete daily symptom checkers, work in bubbles, wear gloves and masks at all times and sanitise regularly. They always call ahead to check nobody has symptoms before they come to your home. While in the house, they will ensure social distancing."
For further information on the scheme contact Arbed am Byth at email@example.com or call them 03300414647.
Connect to Kindness Calendar launch
Showing acts of kindness is now more important than ever, and this is why a kindness calendar has been launched as part of the Connect to Kindness campaign in Ceredigion.
Connect to Kindness is a regional campaign that was launched in July 2020 across Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion. The campaign aims to create more understanding about the benefit and impact of kindness to ourselves and others in our community.
As part of the kindness calendar, members of the public are asked to send in their photographs, artwork, or even prose of poetry, or anything that represents kindness and its power. The chosen piece will then be included in the calendar for a particular month in 2021.
Entries can be sent in via post or e-mail and must be submitted by noon on 22 November 2020. Full details can be found at: https://connecttokindness.wales/calendar/.
Cyra Shimell, "We hope the calendar will bring some fun at this unprecedented time. It will be interesting to see peoples various interpretations of what kindness means to them. Get as creative at you like!"
If you would like more information about this campaign, visit https://www.connecttokindness.wales/. You can also take a look at the Facebook page 'Cysylltu â Charedigrwydd Ceredigion – Connect to Kindness Ceredigion' to see some stories of random acts of kindness.
For more details contact Cyra Shimell, Community Connector Plus Development Ceredigion on email@example.com.
Share the message, as it all starts with one person, YOU!
Business offer WG help in 'non-essential' shopping row
- To limit the spread of the virus and allow for individual discretion, retailers will prominently display Welsh Government approved signage in front of known non-essential items and in communal areas. The signage will make clear the government's regulation and the need to abide by it.
- This message will be reinforced through in-store announcements and social media messaging. Advising customers to put off non-essential purchases
- We recommend the individual customer is trusted to make their own decision as to whether a product is non-essential or not, taking into account the notices displayed throughout the store and their immediate needs
- If the customer goes ahead with the purchase of the item the final liability ought to rest with the customer
- Retailers will remove special in-store promotional displays of non-essential items in order to minimise browsing and avoid triggering a non-essential purchase.
- These recommendations would mean non-essential items are not removed from shelves – or cordoned off in stores – but large notices are placed in front of the products and in communal spaces informing customers of the Welsh Government's regulations and the Welsh public are trusted to make the right decision.
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Massive landslide slams into Eastern Highlands mining camp
PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (PGN Post-Courier, Dec. 8, 2008) – Further search for survivors or bodies of those trapped under the mud and debris at the Kainantu mine, Eastern Highlands, have been called off.
Five members of the Queensland Fire and Rescue Services and their two sniffer dogs, flown into the mine site and into the disaster area yesterday could not locate any survivors or bodies in the mud and debris and the search was called off at about 12 midday yesterday..
Reports at about midday yesterday from the mine put the death toll at the Kora exploration camp at 10, including three children who were staying at the camp that night.
The reports say three geologists and some security guards were among those who were killed in the massive landslide that smashed into the camp – the biggest of Barrick Gold's three exploration camp in the special mining lease area.
The Minister for Inter Government Relations, Job Pomat and government officials are going into the disaster site to see for themselves the destruction and restoration efforts.
"The minister has flown in from Port Moresby and is here in Lae. We leave for the mine site early in the morning," Secretary and Chairman of the National Disaster and Emergency Service Manasupe Zurenuoc said. He said the minister wanted to see the destruction and the impact on the lives of the people there "because they are our people and he wants to find out what the Government can do in the situation".
At about 8.30 last Thursday evening, the ground above the Kora camp site moved and came down on the camp at the bottom of the cone shaped gorge.
"Barrick Gold Corporation confirms that its remote Kora exploration accommodation camp was impacted by a mudslide, triggered by extreme rainfall that occurred at about 5.45pm (EST) on December 4," the company said in the statement released on Friday afternoon. "Sadly Barrick advises there have been 10 fatalities, all local villagers – five of whom worked for the company and five who may have been travelling through the area from a nearby village food gardens.
"The next-of-kin are being notified, and support and counselling is being provided.
"We are dearly saddened by this tragic event and the loss of life that has directly affected our employees and the local community.
"Our thoughts are with the families of the people who lost their lives as a result of the natural disaster," president of Barrick Australia Pacific business unit, Joe O'Rourke said in the press statement.
He said "although our employees have been accounted for and evacuated from the incident site, we will continue with our search activities".
When news of the landslip reached Mr Zurenuoc, he quickly asked the Australian High Commission for help to determine whether there were any survivors or bodies trapped under the mud and debris.ON Friday evening the news had reached Lae that the Australians were coming on Saturday with the sniffer dogs and would be landing at the Gusap airstrip, next to the Kainantu mine.
All relevant government agencies such as the quarantine service, customs, civil aviation went to work to give clearance for the dogs to came into the country and over to the disaster site.
The land where the slip occurred is under dispute between two groups of people, who are claiming ownership.
The conflict led to a tribal fight and some people were killed recently and relations between the two groups were hostile.
"This is not the last. More problems will occur there ... there are dark forces at work here," one man was heard explaining the disaster to people at Waterise on Saturday.
Papua New Guinea Post-Courier


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It is one thing to read articles about hypothyroidism symptoms online but quite another to hear the symptoms straight from real people. These are real people, like you and me, struggling with a collection of symptoms so hard to pinpoint that they baffle doctors in every country of the world. While we don't know one another personally, the truth is that we are connected, just the same, in a particularly powerful way. We are living in the trenches together fighting a battle against this thing called hypothyroidism.
The number of potential symptoms that can accompany hypothyroidism is not surprising, frankly, but rather obvious given the sheer power of thyroid hormone over the entire body.
What is your worst hypothyroidism symptom? That's the question I asked my one million followers on the Hypothyroid Mom Facebook page. It was in the form of a poll and the results may very well surprise you. A simple, 6-word question uncovered the truth about what lurks behind this wretched disease.
And here are the results, in the order of the highest to lowest number of votes. Most people responded that it was impossible to list only one symptom and that several were equally devastating. Some of the categories, like skin problems, were broad and many mentioned specific conditions in those categories which I included below. They are quite telling, really.
418 C. Hair loss


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Regardless of whether you have just opened your very first private healthcare practice or if you've been in the same practice for many years and desire change in your space and your business, this first step is vital in helping you create a nurturing, healing environment you and your clients, patients and everyone else loves.
In other words, do this before moving a single piece of furniture or painting a wall:
By answering the following two questions you will understand more about:
- Who your patients really are… and…
- What's really bugging you about your space (right now.)
First, who are your patients?
Let's take a closer look.
Before you start setting up or changing your work environment, I always recommend getting clear about who you are serving so you can create a space where your clients and patients feel deeply nurtured by you. You are designing the space as much for them as for you and your staff/colleagues.
This also happens to be one of the first tools I use with all my clients when we meet for the first time.
So sit down, grab a pen or your laptop and jot down the answers to these questions. I'll guide you through it.
Let's begin:
1. What age group and gender are the majority of your clients?
Okay so don't make this part a big deal. It doesn't have to be perfect.
Simply try to learn, either from client records, or simply from memory (based on your daily work experience), if your clients are mostly older women (around what age group) or a range of men and women and children.
Write down who the majority is right now, their age range or… if you have an intention of changing your clientele to a different demographic, write down who you want your perfect clients to be. If that's the case, who would you rather be healing with your expertise?
With this information you can now ask yourself, "What can I offer here in the space that my clients would really love and benefit from?"
For example, if you serve children, you can envision an area in your treatment room or in your reception area that is specific for that age range of kids, filled with things they truly enjoy, like reading, coloring in beautiful books, and playing with toys.
Please make sure this activity somehow connects to the healing work you are offering and that it is a cozy spot (tiny or large) where your little patients or clients feel safe.
What if your clients, for example, are overworked middle age women that suffer from some kind of mental and/or physical illness due to stress?
With this information, you can begin to envision a calming space with comfortable seating, table and floor lighting vs. overhead bright lights and softer surfaces.
You know your patients better than anyone.
They oftentimes share personal information with you about their life challenges.
Look around your space with your clients in mind. What would make them feel completely at ease and receptive to your healing?
Everything starts with a vision. What is yours?
2. What's bugging you about your space?
In my thirteen and a half years of experience of doing this work, I've found that not everybody knows how or what to put in their practice to make it feel the way they want, but everyone certainly knows what they don't like.
And this knowledge of "what's really bothering you about your space" is your ally in change. By writing down the first most important thing that bothers you everyday about the environment you work in, you empower yourself to make a change.
Examples of bothersome issues in your space might be:
- The overhead lighting is too bright
- The space feels too cluttered
- Can't seem to get organized
- It's a challenge to stay focused
- The space feels too dark
- The furniture is simply outdated
- You feel tired pretty regularly (or sad or depressed or ___________)
- The wall colors bother me
- It's too noisy
- The energy feels heavy
The first step towards change is awareness.
This is your time to be aware of both the obvious things that bug you and the subtleties of what's challenging about the space.
Again, write it down now.
And even though it may seem a bit tedious, it's fairly simply and straight forward.
In other words, don't skip it. You'll be referring back to this information in the near future when you start moving things around and arranging your space to how it will benefit everyone the most.
Last word of advice. If suddenly you start getting in the flow with creative ideas, I encourage you to listen to your inner voice.
Write down your flow and pretty soon you'll see it start to feel the desire to express that in your space.
Yours in heart and health,


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Africa's first 4G wireless network has been set up in Cameroon by a Swiss company.
Swiss company 4G Africa AG announced yesterday that it will deploy the first Mobile WiMAX network in Cameroon.
The deployment in the cities of Douala and Yaoundé, two of Cameroon's largest metropolitan areas with a total population 5 million people, will provide coverage using Alvarion's end-to-end Mobile WiMAX 4Motion solution at the 2.5 GHz frequency band.
4G Africa has chosen Alvarion, a global provider of 4G networks in the Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) market, for this deployment, which is expected to provide connectivity to over 10,000 users within the first year.
4G WiMAX presents an ideal business case for enabling mobile broadband to mass consumers. By building a network based on Alvarion's leading platform, 4G Africa can cost-effectively offer a wide range of data services to consumers in Cameroon.
Dov Bar-Gera, CEO, 4G Africa, said: "4G Africa is focused on establishing WiMAX networks in emerging Sub-Saharan countries, such as Cameroon with the overall aim to reduce the digital divide.
"Leveraging Alvarion's technology and expertise allows us to provide a high-performance quality network, offering valuable broadband services to the residents in this market."
He added: "We are excited to work with Alvarion on the first 4G network deployment in Cameroon and introduce a new era of communications to the residents of Douala and Yaoundé.
"Sub-Saharan Africa is considered to be one of the world's fastest growing economies, yet lacks the proper infrastructure. We recognise the impressive track record Alvarion holds in Africa in regard to providing operators excellent WiMAX solutions and early deployment capabilities.
Eran Gorev, president and CEO, Alvarion, said: "Bringing Mobile WiMAX services to Cameroon will enable 4G Africa to provide residents with the benefits of a complete wireless broadband experience.
"Our advanced technology will provide complete network connectivity and allow 4G Africa to be one step closer to their goal of reducing the digital divide in Sub-Sahara Africa."
Based in Zurich, 4G Africa was founded by a team of telecom entrepreneurs who were actively involved in emerging markets for the last decade.
4G Africa aspires to provide affordable, reliable and state-of-the-art broadband wireless internet access services in chosen countries in sub-Saharan Africa, in order to help close the digital divide. In 2011 the company will start offering wireless and different value added services in Cameroon.
The reality is every major carrier in the country is going to move to 4G at some point in time. While the mobile phone market was maturing it was all about the voice network. Carriers competed on coverage, voice quality, network reliability etc.
Those battles will still exist however the value is moving from the voice network to the data network. This is because of the rise of smart phones and smart devices where data becomes a more central part of the device experience.
The battlefield going forward will be which carriers have the fastest data network and that is where LTE comes into play. 3G networks had a fundamental problem and it wasn't the speed. 3G networks were built for faster data but failed at handling a lot of concurrent consumers consuming data per network node. In essence if a lot of people in a particular city or area were on the 3G data network at the same time the network slowed down drastically.
4g looks to solve this problem by not only being faster with download speeds ranging from 6-12 MBS realistically but also to handle more data consumers per network node. This is the part that is a big deal. If it proves true then the carriers will start being more aggressive with their pricing for data plans. They will want to recoup those costs of the new network and since data is where the new value is I expect very aggressive data plans as the networks get established.
These faster data networks will be key to future consumer experiences with mobile devices. Sharing video, capturing and sharing live video, multiple party video conferencing, playing multiplayer graphically rich games in real time, etc all require faster bandwidth and networks that can handle millions of people consuming that data at the same time. The Qik application for iPhone and Android, for example demonstrates all the things that 4G will make better.
This move is good news for consumers and for the industry. Faster data speeds add value to the innovations we want to crank out over the next few years. Having cheaper access to these faster data networks lowers the barrier for consumers to begin using these new innovations.


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Encouraging Jobs Report and Earnings Boost Wall Street on Thursday (LNKD, AIG)
On Thursday the European Central Bank decided to cut its refinancing rate and subsequently caused the euro to fall and government bond prices to rise. Along with this decision Mario Draghi commented on the ECB's readiness to act further if necessary. In the US the markets rallied after an encouraging report was released saying that jobless claims dropped to a five-year low. The S&P 500 once again reached a record high on Thursday. In corporate news, Intel (INTC) picked their new CEO and saw shares rise and LinkedIn (LNKD) saw an increase in profit but its yearly outlook remains weak.AIG (AIG) reported a drop in Q1 income but still beat expectations on Wall Street. It was also shared on Thursday that the US trade deficit fell to $38.8 billion in March.
Word on the Street
- ECB cut causes the euro to decline sharply against the dollar.
- Jobs market sees encouraging news with a drop in unemployment claims.
- Tech stocks including Intel (INTC) advance on earnings and announcements.
- LinkedIn (LNKD) posts a disappointing revenue forecast and shares fall after hours.
- The US Government Declares War on Novartis AG (NVS).
- Kraft Foods (KRFT) beats expectations from the Street with quarterly earnings.
Interesting Tidbits
- There are only four jobs in the whole world - are you in the right one?
- Do you believe the biggest retirement myth ever told?
Published on May 2, 2013By InvestorGuide Staff
Posted in ...Market Commentary Daily Market Commentary


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Stained Glass
Great Malvern Priory has a larger display of 15th century stained glass than any other Parish Church in England. The 15th and 16th centuries were said to be the zenith of English stained glass. But there is a great variety to be seen as well. Although the largest windows are glazed with medieval glass, there is Victorian glass in the North aisle and modern glass in The Friends' Millennium windows.
To take full advantage of this display you must visit Malvern Priory and walk round with the "Tour of the Stained Glass of Malvern Priory" in your hand. This guide is available from the Priory bookshop for £5.00.
When you walk into the Priory you cannot help but be impressed by the East window, the largest in any parish church in England. The effect can be seen in the picture on the right. Behind you and not properly visible, until you walk forward and turn round, is the West window given by Richard of Gloucester in the 1480s. Originally called the 'doom' window, it depicted the day of Judgement.
Imagine worshipping in the Priory with the passion, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ depicted in front of you on the great East window and the day of judgement lit up behind you in the West window!
All of the medieval windows suffered terribly over the course of time and the West window was reglazed with pictures of angels, saints and bishops using glass from other windows in the Priory. The picture (right) shows, from left ro right, St Laurence, St George and St Christopher under the image of the Lord above.
The other 'royal' donation was the so called 'Magnificat' window in the North transept. This was given in 1501 by Henry VII and besides depicting scenes from Mary's life, it contains the words (from Luke ch 1) in which she praises God for making her the mother of Jesus. The picture (right) shows the central figure of Mary enclosed with a vesica of blue cloud studded with stars.
St Anne's Chapel has three South facing medieval windows depicting a chronological sequence of events from the Old Testament. At the East end is a window which commemorates Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, executed by the well known Victorian glass painter Kempe. The crucifixion of Christ is depicted and either side are figures of Mary and St Michael. These are used on the Patronal page.
Queen Victoria herself appears in a window in the North aisle, given to celebrate her Golden Jubilee. She can be seen in the panel (right) with her grandson, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany in a scarlet uniform standing behind her.
The two millennium windows at the East end of the North aisle are shown in the Photo gallery page. The windows, designed and made by Thomas Denny, were given to the Priory in 2003 by The Friends and are based upon themes taken from Psalm 36.
| Printable Version


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Finally. After months of struggle, Michigan's state senate passed legislation last week to accept Washington's offer to extend Medicaid to nearly half a million of our state's working poor.
The vote was close – 20 to 18 -- and the run-up to it was complicated, intense and very partisan. But when crunch time came, eight (out of 26) Republicans joined with all 12 Senate Democrats to ratify one of Gov. Rick Snyder's main policy priorities.
At first glance, it looks as if the day was won by solid bipartisanship, fostered by a decision by the lawmakers to govern like adults. And that is true, up to a point -- at least when it comes to last week's vote.
Those who argue the state has both a moral responsibility to 470,000 poor and uninsured Michiganders and a financial incentive to glom onto billions in federal support for expanded Medicaid should now give big pats on the back to at least four adults in the room, all Republicans: Gov. Rick Snyder, who persisted in fighting for this for months; House Speaker Jase Bolger, who constructed a similar bipartisan coalition in the House; Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, who worked hard to persuade a minority of fellow Republicans to go along; and Sen. Roger Kahn, a doctor from Saginaw, who led the work group that thrashed out the final compromise.
But underneath, the main political dynamics in Lansing remain much the same as they've been for the past two and a half years: An uneasy mixture of ideological Republican opposition to anything that smacks of support for President Obama, heightened by even more intense snarls from the Tea Party. That group is playing an outsize role in Michigan politics by threatening insufficiently intransigent GOP officeholders with primary election opposition from the right.
Senators opposed to Medicaid expansion cited concerns about increasing the size, cost and intrusiveness of the federal government. Some questioned whether Michigan could really believe the feds would keep their end of the deal.
Others worried that future generations might be saddled with costs of another entitlement. However, I'm inclined to think these arguments are only semi-plausible smoke screens masking the real basis of opposition: Intensely hostile feelings toward President Obama and anything connected with his Administration, especially "Obamacare" – otherwise known as the Affordable Care Act.
Time after time, opponents railed that any – any – version of Medicaid expansion in Michigan reeked of the hated Obamacare, possibly because the folks it would add would otherwise be obliged to buy health insurance. Sometimes I wonder if some Republican lawmakers would even vote against something called "Obamataxcut"!
One main factor in the difficult road to passage was opposition from vocal Tea Partiers like GOP chair wannabee Todd Courser, who threatened incumbent state senators with opposition in primary elections next year, adding the motive of self-preservation to ordinary partisan ideology. Already, three sitting Republican senators representing normally Democratic districts are in the Tea Party's cross hairs. All are considered "toss-up" races by Inside Michigan Politics.
Nick Sundquist, an announced primary opponent of Sen. Geoff Hansen (R-Hart) demanded Hansen "explain his support for Obanacare-supporting legislation." Sen. Tom Casperson (R-Escanaba) who cast the key vote for passage was called on the carpet for "Betrayal." Meanwhile, former state rep Leon Drolet, once known for parking "Mr. Perks," an enormous pink pig, in front of the Capitol, may go after Sen. Tory Rocca (R-Sterling Heights.)
There's an added sub-plot going forward that will certainly crystallize concerns about opposition to Medicaid expansion. After the expansion was approved, 14 GOP Senators voted against giving the bill "immediate effect", i.e. instead of taking place on New Years' Day, Michigan will have to wait until April. That'll cost Michigan $7 million a day in money the feds otherwise would have made available to states to get people to sign up for Medicaid coverage.
That would mean $630 million down the drain. Taxpayers ought to encourage the senate to reconsider, pronto.
Besides, those same senators are not only in danger of being called sore losers, they are also at risk of being branded hypocrites. As Brian Dickerson of thevDetroit Free Press noted last week, every one of the 18 GOP senators who voted against Medicaid expansion also voted two years ago for giving all but one of their ranks lifetime health care at taxpayer expense. (The exception, Patrick Colbeck of Canton, didn't qualify because of a technicality.)
Michigan citizens deserve better.
Editor's Note: Former newspaper publisher and University of Michigan Regent Phil Power is a longtime observer of Michigan politics and economics. He is also the founder and chairman of The Center for Michigan, a nonprofit, bipartisan centrist think-and-do tank, designed to cure Michigan's dysfunctional political culture. He is also on the board of the Center's Business Leaders for Early Education. The opinions expressed here are Power's own and do not represent the official views of The Center. He welcomes your comments at firstname.lastname@example.com


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"The Camarilla and the Sabbat are stagnant sects favoring the privileged. Elders claim domain over rights that belong to all vampires. Princes and archbishops both abuse the social contract that gives them the powers they wield. The Anarchs preach open revolution against these injustices. They scream at the top of their lungs to destroy this archaic structure and free Kindred of all generations and clans. Tear down the system!"
Twilight Rebellion (TR) is the fourteenth expansion of White Wolf's trading card game Vampire: The Eternal Struggle, and was released on May 31, 2008. The expansion's theme is the Anarch movement within the vampire society. The expansion continues the support for the Anarchs started in the expansion with the same name, and has be continued in other expansions to a lesser extent.
This expansion consists only of booster packs with 11 cards each (7 common, 3 uncommon, and 1 rare). There is a total of 60 new cards, i.e. 20 new common, 20 uncommon (= vampires) and 20 rare cards.
Notable cards
- Anarch Convert — a Caitiff vampire that can make any vampire an Anarch when moved to the ready region.
- Monkey Wrench — an action modifier that can damage the opposing player's pool significantly, but does not require a discipline, but only an Anarch vampire.
External References
- Twilight Rebellion Expansion on VEKN.net
- Twilight Rebellion Card Checklist on Secret Library (defunct)
Commercial Information
|Price (MSRP)
|Booster Display
|36 boosters
|11 cards


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5 Uses For Businesses
The Important Roles of Roofing Contractors in Society Our roof is very important as it serves as the prime protection against weather vicissitudes like snow, rain and wind. There are some situations where property owners and homeowners where they experienced problems associated with their malfunctioning and damaged roofing system. For these reasons, you need the services of roofing contractors. Should you be in the same predicament, then you are advised to read this article further so as to obtain more insights and ideas about roofing service providers as well as their services. Why Roofing Maintenance Is Very Significant? It is vital for property owners and homeowners to carry out forehand repair and maintenance of their roofing systems so as to create reliable roofing as well as to support its proper condition all throughout its entire operation. You can achieve this thing by getting the services of dependable roofing contractor. You can also call dependable roofing contractor for other roofing jobs such as slating, ridging, installing and remounting. Instill in your mind that you need to hire only expert roofing system whenever you need special roofing materials and devices. You need to regularly maintain your roofing system to ensure the integrity of your home. For this reason, property owners and homeowners should do it twice a year. It is particularly true property owners and homeowners living in countries and states with different weather conditions. Similar to your hair, your roofing system is deemed as your property's crowning glory. Your roofing system is considered as your ultimate defense against the harsh weather as well as the other outside forces. Should you consider your hair as your crowning glory, then the roofing of your house is the crowning glory of your home also. For these reasons, you should ensure that your roofing system is installed properly and effectively. Make sure that you will not disregard this aspect to ensure that your property will be appealing while the roofing system will last for quite some time. This can only be done with the recruitment of dependable and licensed contractor. Actually, these tradesmen are the sole service providers who can furnish you with this kind of topnotch quality roofing system installation services. The only way to get hold of these reputable service providers is by researching and investigating first.
Learning The Secrets About Options
The Perks of Getting Their Services
Learning The Secrets About Options
1. These professionals are the only tradesmen in the marketplace who have the skills in choosing the appropriate roofing model and style for your property. 2. These service providers also know what kinds and quality of roofing system that can best protect your home from the diverse harmful weather elements. 3. Since these service providers know numerous suppliers and retailers, they can buy different types of roofing system at much lower prices, thereby helping you save money on this particular project. 4. They are the sole ones who know how to install roofing system in accordance and in compliance with the local and national building codes of the government. Hire the most dependable, legit, licensed and dependable roofing system contractors only if you want to reap the perks showcased beforehand.


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AVG TuneUp Utilities 2020 now available for PC und Android
TuneUp Utilities Special Offer!
Buy now for only € 29.99 instead € 69.98
Available now – the latest version of the most popular tuning software in Germany: AVG TuneUp Utilities Unlimited 2020
In addition to the numerous optimized and enhanced tuning functions, this version also comes with a completely new feature: the Software Updater. Software that you use more regularly will be automatically updated by the tuning suite. A boost for your security and performance.
You can download the software from us immediately after placing your order. In just a couple of minutes you can start tuning, tidying up, and cleaning your computer (Windows 10, 8.1, and 7) and mobile devices (Android 2.2. or higher).
AVG PC TuneUp Utilities 20120 Unlimited
This means:
- more speed
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AVG TuneUp Utilities 2020 Unlimited enables you to unleash your PC's full potential. Active applications are given priority and the hard disk is thoroughly cleaned up – removing abandoned junk data from more than 230 applications and annoying duplicate files.
One license for all devices in your household!
You'll find the clue immediately in the product name: AVG PC TuneUp Utilities Unlimited 2020. This software is for an unlimited number of devices used by yourself or your family – for Windows 10, 8 and 7 and Android.
And: Strictly speaking, TuneUp Utilities always comes with just one license for a year. But we're adding an extra year on top for free. So, now you will also be entitled to use AVG PC TuneUp Utilities 2021 for free.
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- You can clean your browser
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- You can speed up active programs by switching off power-hungry applications running in the background, which you don't need
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- You can restore data that you have accidentally deleted
>> Suitable for smartphones and tablets too
You can use AVG TuneUp Utilities Unlimited 2020 to optimize, speed up, and clean not only PCs, but also the operating systems running on your Android smartphones and tablets.
- For Windows 10, 8.1 and 7. AVG PC TuneUp Utilities 2020 cleans, speeds up, and boosts your PC in next to no time.
- For Android ab 2.2: AVG Cleaner PRO for Android speeds up your phone, increases battery life, removes junk data (e.g. corrupted photos), and frees up space.
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Take advantage of this offer and enjoy the benefits of what is no doubt the most successful tuning tool in Germany.
AVG PC TuneUp Utilities 2020 Unlimited unleashes your Windows PC's entire potential by giving priority to active applications. This means that processes are speeded up and problems resolved. The smartest hard disk-cleaning process yet thoroughly cleans up your hard disk to ensure that junk data from more than 230 applications are removed, duplicate files are got rid of, and your browser can operate without any problems.
You can use Economy or Flight mode with the press of a button to extend your Windows notebook's battery life. As a result, your devices will always be charged when you're on your travels. The software also includes the Cleaner for Android.
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AVG PC TuneUp Utilities Unlimited 2020 is available via download for just EUR 29.99 instead of EUR 69.98.
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- Any PC problems resolved in a couple of clicks
- Rapid program shutdown
- Extends battery life and removes junk data, as well as poor, blurred, and duplicate photos, to free up more storage space
- Removes junk data (e.g. old downloads)
- Protects and optimizes all your devices via a single screen
- Protects all your family's devices, no matter how many of them there are
This is what Tuning-Tools AVG PC TuneUp Utilities Unlimited 2020 offers you, along with lots of further advanced and enhanced optimization tools.
Optimize Windows, as well as Android of course, securely and reliably.
Exclusive benefit of a license for AVG PC TuneUp Utilities Unlimited 2020 via download through us.
If you purchase AVG PC TuneUp Utilities Unlimited 2020 via the link mentioned below, the license is valid not just for one year, but for a full 2 years. During this period, your license will include all upcoming software updates. This will ensure that you will already receive the features for the future generation. The period of use starts from the date you install the program.
A link with two-fold added value: you can save on the price and get to use AVG PC TuneUp Unlimited for twice as long. An extra year as a free bonus!
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AVG PC TuneUp Utilities 2020 Unlimted
Why use Tuning Utilities?
Lots of remnants that aren't used anymore accumulate over time on a computer (e.g. under Windows 10). This includes data in the registry, abandoned data that are generated while using programs, downloads, remnants of programs previously installed, etc. It basically mirrors what happens in our own house. So, every now and then, we need to clean it up… TuneUp Utilities is about "Optimizing Windows made simple". Optimizing it for anyone and everyone.
How do I launch the download process for PC TuneUp Utilities 2020?
If you buy the software from us, you will be given access to an AVG members area via the Internet. This is where you register the serial number that you have received from us and you will then receive a download link straightaway, giving you access to the full version for all operating systems.
How reliable is TuneUp Utilities 2020?
TuneUp Utilities has been around since 1997 and has been continually further developed. The 2013, 2014, and 2015 versions of the program, as well as TuneUp 2017, were other milestones in its development. So, this software has been developed on the back of more than 20 years' experience. The 2018 version might be the best-selling version of TuneUp ever yet. The new version, AVG PC TuneUp Utilities 2020, is well on its way to surpassing the 2018 version!
Are there any alternatives to TuneUp?
We think that there aren't any. We have tested lots of tuning programs, and AVG TuneUp Utilities is clearly the best software in terms of optimization. TuneUp Utilities is the test winner in our in-house test lab.
What is TuneUp Utilities 2020?
The TuneUp Utilities program first appeared on the market as TuneUp 97 for Windows, and was developed by Tibor Schiemann and Christoph Laumann. In those days, just as now, optimizing Windows was a topical issue. S.A.D in Germany was chosen at that time as a sales partner, and TuneUp has become over time the benchmark for tuning utilities. TuneUp has won over the years quite a few benchmarking tests, including some carried out in the Chip or ComputerBild magazine, and has regularly featured among the top 3 best-selling products, not only for optimization. Since 2011, the software has belonged to AVG Technologies. The 2020 version is now the successor to AVG PC TuneUp Utilities 2018 and AVG PC TuneUp Utilities 2019. And as was already mentioned, we're offering two years' updates as a free give-away. Optimization made simple! You can find out more information on Wikipedia.
Buy now! Only 29.99 EUR instead of 69.98 EUR!
To which operating systems is TuneUp Utilities 2020 compatible?
TuneUp Utilities 2020 is compatible with Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 – both as 32- and 64-bit versions. In addition, there are also tools that are offered starting with Android 2.2.
Version 2018 was also compatible with Windows XP and Windows Vista. However, support for these outdated operating systems has been removed since TuneUp Utilities 2019. Unfortunately, the tools for MacOS are also no longer available.