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The purpose of this Policy is to describe the information captured by Kerry Group when you visit this website and how we use this information to enhance the utility and performance of website for you and all visitors.
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As used in this Privacy Policy, the term "Kerry Group" refers to Kerry Group plc, a public liability company registered in Ireland under company number 111471 and having its registered office at Prince's Street, Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland and subsidiaries of Kerry Group plc within the meaning of Section 7 of the Irish Companies Act 2014.
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text:
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subset: commoncrawl


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The Patent Reform Act of 2010: A substitute S. 515
May 2010
Here comes the Patent Reform Act of 2010 in the form of an amendment to S. 515. The amendment seems to meet the goal of establishing a simpler, objectively based, transparent patent system that can eliminate patents that should not have been issued and speed the processing of patents that should be issued. The new patent law includes a number of improvements to the patent laws, such as provisions to update and improve the patent marking statute.
By eliminating the arcane and subjective rules associated with the current first-to-invent system, the amendment will make it easier and less costly to obtain patent protection in the United States, which will stimulate investment in new technologies. Moreover, while all inventors will continue to benefit from a one-year grace period in which to file a U.S. patent application after publicly disclosing their inventions, the incentive of the first-inventor-to-file system to file applications promptly will redound to their benefit in obtaining patents in our major trading partners. Inventors who delay filing their U.S. applications (on the tenuous assumption that they will be able to obtain a U.S. patent by proving that they were first to make the invention) run the risk of being second-to-file in the rest of the world where patents are awarded to the first inventor to file. Facilitating patent protection outside the United States for American technology will stimulate the export of American products produced by American workers.
The amendment will strengthen patents granted in the United States by allowing the public to participate in the patent granting process and by strengthening the administrative procedures in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for reviewing patents after grant. The bill will expand the opportunity for the public to submit information to patent examiners working on individual patent applications, together with concise descriptions of its relevance. This will help ensure that all relevant information will be considered during the examination process, allowing the USPTO to conduct a quality examination before a patent is granted, reducing the need to rely on post-grant clean-up procedures.
The amendment will provide a robust, post-grant review that must be requested within nine months after patent grant and, if initiated, be completed within one year. Patents could be challenged on all issues of patentability. While both the initial post-grant review and the revised inter partes re-examination proceedings will contribute to ensuring that only valid patents will survive, both procedures also contain safeguards to prevent harassment of patent owners. Both procedures will be handled by a panel of administrative law judges. Importantly, patent owners who promptly file suit after patent grant will be assured that the court will not automatically stay its consideration of the patent owner's motion for a preliminary injunction on the basis that a petition requesting a post-grant review has been filed or that such a proceeding has been instituted.
The amendment would address a number of litigation reforms, some initially recommended by the National Academies of Sciences (NAS) , and others, some quite controversial, urged by various special interests. The amendment addresses the recommendation of the NAS to modify or remove the subjective elements of patent infringement litigation that depend on the assessment of a party's state of mind and increase the cost and decrease the predictability of such litigation. Under the bill, "failure to disclose the best mode shall not be a basis on which any claim of a patent may be canceled or held invalid or otherwise unenforceable."
Another of the subjective elements of patent infringement litigation that unnecessarily increases the costs for both obtaining patents and litigating them is the doctrine of "inequitable conduct"whether an inventor or patent attorney intentionally misled the USPTO in prosecuting the original patent. While the amendment does not go as far as modifying or removing the doctrine as recommended by the NAS, it does provide a remedial avenue for patent owners to bring to the attention of the office information which might affect the scope of their patents. The bill allows patent owners to request, prior to the institution of litigation, "supplemental examination" to consider any information believed to be relevant to the patent. Any patent surviving such reexamination will not be held unenforceable on the basis that such information had not been considered or was incorrect in the initial examination process.
Importantly, supplemental reexamination would not allow a patent owner to avoid sanctions based upon violations of criminal or antitrust laws nor would it allow those responsible for any misconduct in proceedings before the office to avoid disciplinary sanctions.
The amendment maintains the compromise reached in the Senate Judiciary Committee that fully responds to the allegations of inconsistency and unfairness in awards of reasonable royalty patent damages. It rejects the proposals calculated to reduce inventors' recoveries by narrowing claimed inventions through the use of definitional devices by limiting the claimed invention for damages purposes to "its inventive contribution," its "patentable features" or "the patent's specific contribution over the prior art." Instead, the bill sets forth a "gatekeeper" approach which ensures that courts or juries consider only those damages contentions that are cognizable at law and supported by substantial evidence. This approach ensures that patentees will receive appropriate compensatory damages for the unauthorized use of their patented inventions, while at the same time fully responding to the allegations of runaway jury awards.
The third subjective element in patent litigation addressed by the NAS is "willful infringement," under which a court may increase damages up to three times if the court or jury determines that the accused infringer willfully infringed a patent. During the period when the NAS reviewed this doctrine, there was no effective threshold test for alleging willful infringement, therefore the required level of pre-filing investigation by the plaintiff was relatively modest and willfulness was asserted in most cases.
In response to a growing number of patent infringement cases filed by patentees in perceived pro-plaintiff venues with little or no connection to the parties in the case or the locations of their operations, witnesses or documents, proposals were made to essentially restrict patent suits to the jurisdiction where the infringer had its principal operation. This draconian rule would have denied manufacturing patentees the opportunity of bringing suit against infringers in the district where the patentee was located and had its witnesses and evidence.
The amendment to S. 515 provides a very measured and salutary approach to reigning in undesirable forum shopping. It requires the court to transfer a patent infringement action "upon a showing that the transferee venue is clearly more convenient than the venue in which the civil action is pending."
Stephen Albainy-Jenei is a patent attorney at Frost Brown Todd LLC, serving up chat at PatentBaristas.com. Further analysis of the amendment to S. 515 can be found on that Web site. Write albainy-Jenei with comments or questions at firstname.lastname@example.com.
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text: Movies 'March of the Penguins' a Box Office Surprise October 31, 2005 March of the Penguins is -- by far -- the surprise hit movie of the year. The film about the Emperor Penguins' extraordinary breeding cycle is now the second-highest-grossing documentary ever, just behind Fahrenheit 9/11. It's also the highest grossing French film ever released in the United States. 'March of the Penguins' a Box Office Surprise Listen Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/4982232/4982252" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript


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- [Instructor] What we're going to do in this next couple of weeks, is to create a tranquil, serene landscape. Landscape with some trees and a little path going through the woods and a lake in the background, a nice little scene. Now the first thing we need to do is establish what the scene looks like. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to create a new layer right here and I'm going to call that layer sketch. There we go. And using black and a nice hard edge brush, let's get this nice and hard and really small, a little tiny brush, I'm going to go in here and start to sketch out my scene.
So I'm going to have a little landscape area right here. I'm going to draw a little shape. Ah, maybe we'll just come a little wider, there we go, and then suddenly dip and come back up into here. Let's close this up. There we go. And there's going to be a little path coming off right off in here, it's going to come in 'about like that, come towards us. Ah, little path is just getting little wider and goes off like that. Then there'll be a big tree right here.
There's going to be a big tree right in this area here. Big tree. And then there'll be some shrubs visible in back through here, some nice shrubs. This is just a rough sketch to give us an idea of where things are going to go. There's going to be another tree right here, it's going to be kind of leaning in a little bit. Leaning right into the air like that. And then put a tree in the background right say back here. Just a little further back, a little tree right back there. Alright, there's the tree.
Now there's going to be a shoreline back here. We're going to have another shoreline right through there with some shrubs on top and maybe a tree way off in the background like that, just like that, and this is going to be a lake. This area right here will be a lake, in fact, we'll even call it that. Lake. Alright. So now that we got our basic structure in place and we can kind of refine this if we want, bring this up a little bit, the land, and so on, we can now start working on our actual elements.
Now I'm going to bring down the opacity for this layer considerably 'cause it's just our sketch layer, so I'm going to bring down it's opacity. Just bring it down, bring it down, way down, so there's just this little hint of where things are going to go. And it's its own layer so it doesn't matter, it's not going to print. It's just a rough guide of where things going to happen. Now the first thing we're going to do is the trees themselves. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to create my first layer. I'm going to call this tree1. Okay, and that's going to be the guy over here.
So now to create my tree I'm going to go into my filters, come down here to Render, and choose Tree. Now tree is going to come up and there it is. There's our tree. But we don't want that kind of a tree. So we'll go over to the base type and we look and we see we have a lot of different kinds of trees. So I'm going to pick something like this pine tree right here, Pine Tree 1, I like that. And there you can see that it's going to create our little pine tree, there it is. That's what it looks like.
We can bring the height of the branches down a little bit, so it comes down a little further like that, or we can bring them way up here, just see how it looks. Bring way up and there's big trunk down below. But now we'd want to bring it way down so there's just a little bit a hint of a little trunk down there. There we go. So we have this tree and everything's looking pretty good. Light direction, let's have the light coming from say the other direction here, there we go, so it's more like almost straight on with us, right there. And maybe bring it little more centered, there we go, little centered light there, and the leaves amount we can use that many leaves, that's good.
Leaves size, we can maybe make 'em a little bit smaller just so we have smaller leaves there right in there like that. And we go ahead and say do it. And it creates a tree right there. Then I'm going to create another layer behind it and we'll call this one tree2. And I'm going to hit command, option, F, to bring up the dialog box. Now I'm going to set this up right here, randomize the shapes. See? See how it just changed the shape? Then I'm going to click OK and we'll have tree number two and then one more for three number three.
Command F this time and it'll automatically create that third tree. Now they're all on the exact same spot, so we need them to be in these particular areas, so I'm going to take tree number one and I'm going to move him over, let's bring him over into here. Now let's pull back a little bit, 'cause that's the tree that's really closest to us and it's going to be pretty big. So what I'm going to do is put it down and then enlarge it. I hit command T to bring up the controls for the transform controls and I'm going to go in there and let's make it larger and put it right into this area here and let's bring it so it's just about coming off the image, but like that.
There's our first tree right there. Kind of nestles into that corner. Okay, tree number two, that's this guy in the background there. So we're going to go in there and take that guy and bring him in there and take number three and put him in place right there for now. Tree number two, we're going to go in there and let's just shrink this one down. Command T to bring up the transform and I'm going to shrink him down a little bit like that and put him right back in there, right in there like that. There's our other little tree back there.
Shrink a little more, that gives a little bit of trunk over that little landmass there. Click OK and then this last one here, well he's tilting in a little bit. Let's go, tree number three, hit command T, and I'm going to rotate it a little bit and make it a little bigger and kind of put him into position right about there like that. In fact, we might even... Yeah, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to do a little flip, horizontal line like that. Just going to drag it over so that that nice branch that's coming out there will kind of cut across this area here.
There we go, there's our third tree. Okay. So now that we have all that in place, what we're going to do next is to start to create the ground cover. So let's go see what this ground cover's going to look like. That's this area right in here, right? So, I'm going to get my paint brush, there's my paint brush, and I'm going to choose a brush like one of these guys, the spatter brushes, I'm going to go with this one right here 'cause he's got a couple little clusters in his center, which right now is going to give us that, okay? So, let's go in here and create a new layer and we're going to put it in front of two and three because layer one, this first tree, is in front, right? And possibly this guy too, so let's put it right in front of layer, let's put it in front of two.
Right there, in front of two. Okay? And we're going to modify our brush so it gives us what we want 'cause right now it does that. So I'm going to go into our brush engine right here and I'm going to increase the spacing for that brush just to give us a little space in there so now we can see each distinct tip as it applies, see? There they are. Now I'm going to close it up a little bit, 'about like that, maybe a little tighter, and I'm going to go into Shape Dynamics where I want to see jitter to size. Randomize the size of those tips as they get laid down.
Then I'm going to go way down here to angle and completely push it to 100% percent. Now you can see how each tip is spinning around so now we have a totally random looking stroke. Then I go into Color Dynamics where I'm going to see the foreground and background give me a jitter between the two. Each tip, Apply Per Tip, each tip is going to have a different color based on the foreground and background. Then I say give it a little bit of a jitter shift and we'll give it a lot of saturation shift and brightness shift.
Again, this is going to randomize each tip is going to have different parameters set. So now we pick out colors. So we can close this guy down and let's go in here and pick up a nice green. Let's say we pick up a green 'about like that. And then for the background color, I'll pick a similar green but much darker, say down into this area here. There we have the foreground and background. So now in a new layer, we'll call this layer ground cover, and I start to draw.
And I'm just going to go in here and start to cover up all these little areas and you can see how it's shifting between the different tones. And we can just very quickly fill this all up. Right in there like that. There we go. It's got a very random kind of a look to it. We come back here and let's make the brush a little smaller, little bit smaller, and we'll kind of start to draw a little shoreline area back in here, right in there.
Just kind of fill that all up, right in there, and we can start to make our brush a little bigger and we start to finish off this area, just like that. And we fill it in. Now that third tree, kind of like to have that inside the foreground, so we're going to just change its position. It is in its own layer so it's real easy to do that. There we go. Okay, nice and full. So we're going to take that tree number three and put it in front of the ground cover, there it is, it just came up.
So now the next thing we're going to do is we're going to go in here and add us some flowers. So I'm going to change my colors. Let's go to a nice red, a nice bright red like that, go to a darker version of that same red, say about like that, and in the layer, on top of the ground cover, we'll say flowers. And we'll just kind of throw a couple in there. I'm going to bring down the size of my brush a little bit and just kind of throw a couple in there in a couple of spots. Now let's get closer 'til we see what's going on here.
And we're just going to fill up a couple little areas with these little flowers. Kind of like a Bob Ross scene, so these are happy little flowers there, moving along here. Just throw a couple in the foreground and a couple on this side too. And we got a couple of different flowers. So what we're going to do is change our colors to a nice bright yellow, that's a good one, and let's say a slightly deeper yellow, there we go, and we'll throw some more flowers but this time some yellows and I'm going to bring the opacity down to about say 50, so they're not going to be too strong.
And we're just kind of throw in a couple of little hints of these other colored flowers right through there. Okay. It's adding a lot of variety to our little bushes too as you can see. So I go over here and we start to throw all these guys into these areas like so. Alright, so there's our ground cover starting to get there. So now, these two trees. Let's go in there and look at these trees. I'm going to take this first tree here, tree number one, and I'm going to go into my hue saturation and kind of darken 'em a little bit and bring up it's saturation just a little, like that, just to make him a little darker and the one back here, I'm going to just take my burn tool.
Let's go to tree number three and I'm going to just kind of darken, that's a little too strong. Let's set to 50 and the Shadows I'll set it to Midtones and bring it down to about a 20 and just kind of slightly darken the sides of it like that, just in there like that. Now get in closer and we need to have a I'm going to hit F to give me full screen here, I'm going to move it over, and we're going to get a little closer. Tree number three right there, I'm going to give it a mask. Give it a mask. And then using black which will hide and my brush with that same tip, I'm going to go in there and make that brush real smaller and kind of just dab it in a couple spots at a 100%, dab it and you can see that now we're kind of making the tree look like it's just coming out of the bushes there.
Yes, keep that up there, there we go. Same thing for tree number one. We give it a mask and using black we would just kind of let some of those little flowers and stuff kind of show through and you get the feel that that tree is now coming out of the brush as well. See? So there. Now that we have this, what we're going to do is next week we're going to start adding some shrubs and the ground. So I'll see ya next week.
Skill Level Intermediate
Q: Why can't I earn a Certificate of Completion for this course?
A: We publish a new tutorial or tutorials for this course on a regular basis. We are unable to offer a Certificate of Completion because it is an ever-evolving course that is not designed to be completed. Check back often for new movies.
Q: Why are some of the 3D menu items grayed out when I try to follow along?
A: The 3D features in Photoshop CC require a computer with at least 512MB VRAM. If your computer doesn't meet this criterion, the 3D menu features will be greyed out.


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Created some logos for two of our Monobanda projects and one for a friend. iWhisper is a location based audio experiences app for the iPhone. The Lowlands 2010 logo was used for Monobanda's playground competitions. The last one I made for hairdresser Carolien de Buck.
I'm still working on a new Monobanda logo in between work, so keep you posted on that one :)
"iWhisper pictorial marks"
"iWhisper logo"
"Lowlands 2010: Wanna pllay?"
"Buck is back"


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• Engage in a non-linear story to rescue an abducted princess.
• Experience non-traditional platforming where each puzzle shows you something new in the game's environment.
• Travel through a series of worlds rewinding time, creating parallel universes and setting up pockets of dilated time to succeed.
1 Players
Network Features
Network Play
See it in action


text: Our family has the tradition to heart attack the kitchen or other room in our house for Valentines. We have been doing this for the past two years and the kids love it. We get a packet of foam hearts from the crafe store and then they write down something/somebody they love, and appreciate their thankfulness for that person, thing, place, etc. They love to hang them up all over the kitchen, their favorite place. And yes, even though Valentines is well over, I did warn you that I'd be showering you with really late posts because of our computer problem.


text: Watch Wowowin October 13 2020 Replay HD Video. Your favrit Pinoy Tambayan and older Pinoy Teleserye Channel Providing Tv Replay show Online Free. Dear Pinoy Tv Replay watching Tambayan Or Lambingan updates hourly and will always be the first drama site to release the latest episodes of Wowowin. . Wowowin October 13 2020 enjoy That on Pinoy Tv Replay Filipino Dramas.


text:
There's no doubt that the Kindle Fire HDX is the best Kindle tablet yet, but it enters a market crowded with high quality competition. Whether this device's Amazon-centric user experience is a benefit or a curse is a matter of personal preference, of course. But your opinion on this central matter will also drive any decision around buying the HDX.
On paper, the HDX is an impressive mini-tablet that holds up quite well against its Nexus 7 and iPad mini with Retina Display contemporaries. So let's see how they really stack up.
Starting at just $229 for the 16 GB version, it is certainly a tremendous value, again on paper, and far below the $299 starting price for a non-Retina iPad mini or the more technologically comparable iPad mini with Retina Display, which will cost an astonishingly expensive $399 (and up) when it debuts later this month. No brainer, right?
Not exactly. That $229 Nexus 7 has some important advantages over the Kindle Fire HDX, as I'll highlight throughout this review. But since we're focused on the price for the moment, I'll remind you that the $229 HDX comes with "Special Offers"—i.e. advertisements. You can of course buy a non-ad-based Kindle Fire HDX, but the starting price jumps to $244. So the Nexus 7 is in fact less expensive.
(One final wrinkle on the price: Kindle Fire HDX buyers in the United States get 500 "Amazon Coins"—an Amazon-specific micro-currency that can be used to purchase apps and games from the firm's online store. This is a $5 value, so one might argue that the price differential is only $10 for US customers. Fair enough.)
Overall, the Nexus 7 is a marginally better deal, on paper, than the HDX. Both Android-based devices are a considerable value compared to any iPad, as you might expect.
Amazon is delivering a very powerful tablet for the price. It's outfitted with quad-core 2.2 GHz processor and a 1920 x 1200 screen that delivers 323 pixels per inch and stunning, gorgeous quality. By comparison, the Nexus 7 offers a slower quad core processor running at 1.5 GHz, but the same resolution screen with the same pixels per inch. The screens are both gorgeous. In fact, looked at side-by-side, they may very well be identical.
The iPad mini with Retina provides an Apple-specific A7 processor that is hard to compare to the Android offerings. The iPad's bigger 8-inch screen provides a resolution of 2048 x 1536 resolution, which is obviously higher than that of the Nexus 7 or HDX. But it also provides basically the exact same pixel density, 326 vs. 323 for the Nexus 7/HDX, because of the bigger screen size.
Given the high quality of Apple gear, I think we can call this one a rough draw across the devices. More to the point, there is nothing about the HDX specs list that puts it over the top or eliminates it from consideration.
Form factor
While the iPad mini(s), Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HDX are all mini-tablets and ostensibly similar sizes, the HDX comes up short in some important areas. It is heavier than the Google device, weighing about 307 grams, compared to 290 grams for the Nexus 7. (The bigger iPad mini is 331 grams.) And it's thicker, at 9mm vs. 8.6 for the Nexus 7.
These may not seem like big differences. But they are indeed big in the real world, and there's something about the HDX's squatter form factor—the Nexus 7 is taller and less wide across the front—that makes it seem denser. The thinner Nexus 7 is also easier to hold, and the screen bezels are smaller on the sides, but bigger on the top and bottom, than the HDX's.
That said, the HDX does feature a beveled back that is strange looking but hand-friendly. And the power and volume buttons, which initially seem curiously placed on back bevels, are easy to reach and use after just a few uses. It's got a nice grippy back too, which I really like.
Overall, I think anyone could get used to any of these devices. Another draw.
Ecosystem: Apps and games
When Amazon started selling its Kindle Fire tablets, the firm also launched its Appstore for Android, an alternative to what is now called the Google Play Store. At the time, I lauded Amazon for this move because Google's store was so awful, with no quality or reliability oversight at all, and it seemed like Amazon was bringing the benefits of Apple's closed App Store model to Android devices. (Users of other Android-based devices can install AppStore for Android on their handsets and tablets too.)
Today, the reverse is true. Google has dramatically improved its Play Store and I now prefer it over Appstore for Android by a wide margin. Google offers more apps—it's not even close—and more of the apps that I want to use. For example, only three Microsoft apps are available on Amazon's devices—Bing, Wordament, and Xbox Smart Glass—while all 22 Microsoft apps for Android are available through the Play store, including SkyDrive, Microsoft Remote Desktop, OneNote, Outlook.com, Office Mobile, and more.
So Appstore for Android is now the worst of both worlds, with a locked-down app store like Apple's, with no (easy) way to get Google Play Store installed, and a tiny selection of apps.
Ecosystem: Content
One of the big draws of the Kindle tablets for Amazon users is that they tie so neatly into Amazon's content services. These include Kindle e-books (books, comic books/graphic novels, newspapers, and magazines), Audible audiobooks, Amazon MP3 (music with cloud-based locker support) and Amazon Instant Video (movies and TV shows, with a Prime Video Netflix-like subscription service). And while it's still fair to say that you receive a somewhat better Amazon experience on a Kindle Fire HDX than you will elsewhere, it's also fair to point out that most of this stuff is also available on Android generally (including the Nexus 7) and on iOS (including the iPad minis).
What this means in practice is that you don't need to buy a Kindle Fire of any kind to access most of this stuff. Android/Nexus 7 users have access to excellent Amazon, Kindle, Audible, and Amazon MP3 apps, and while Amazon Instant Video is not available, the Play Store is a great source of TV show and movie content and, let's face it, Netflix is better than Amazon Instant Video anyway. But iPad users get even more Amazon apps, including Amazon Instant Video, and the experience in some of those other Amazon apps—like Kindle—is as good as it is on the HDX.
So why would you pick an HDX?
From an Amazon content perspective, it may simply come down to familiarity. If you really are deeply invested in the whole Amazon experience, you're going to get it in droves—and right up front, as described below—on the HDX. The problem is that you'll get this in lieu of, or without the benefit of, the content ecosystems that are available elsewhere. So if you choose an HDX, you can't access Play Store or App Store/iTunes content. But on the other devices, you can do both (that is, access the device maker's stuff as well as the Amazon stuff.)
Frankly, despite my regular use of Amazon's services, I'm starting to find the whole Kindle device experience to be a bit much.
User experience
Like its predecessors, the Kindle Fire HDX uses Amazon's loathsome carousel-based user interface for its home screen, though it switches to a nicer looking grid of content if you jump into a content area. This carousel is perhaps the most tiring aspect of using a Kindle tablet, and though Amazon is now marketing its Android fork as "Fire OS 3.0" and touting the advances of this "content-first" UI, I think it's a waste of onscreen space.
More important, perhaps, the carousel places too much emphasis on the content you just accessed, hiding everything else. One of the nice things about a list or grid of on-device content (as opposed to just icons, please don't be confused by this) is that you can look elsewhere on the screen and be reminded of a book, game, or whatever that you purchased a while ago but have been inadvertently neglecting. The carousel hides such content.
As noted, the individual content views—Games, Apps, Books, Music, Videos and so on—are both nicer looking and more functional. But again, what you're seeing here is just a handheld version of the stuff Amazon sells online. So you can "Shop," but only at Amazon. The Games and Apps sections drop you into the lackluster Appstore for Android only. Books are Kindle. And so on. Some—mostly less technical Amazon-centric users—will of course appreciate and even prefer this kind of interface. But it's stifling if you can think for yourself.
Other stuff
I'm not going to insult your intelligence by describing some silly episode in which I use the HDX's MayDay "button" (really just a hidden menu choice, and not a physical device button) to see how quickly and well Amazon's sweatshop support staff could answer a ridiculous made-up question. "Duhhhh. I can't find a video I just bought. Can you help me?") If you're reading this site, you're not that dumb. That feature is made for the non-technical norms who Amazon sees as their typical customers. I'm increasingly uncomfortable even considering such an audience. I'm honestly not sure it even exists.
Amazon is also touting, bizarrely, and for the first time, the HDX's prowess as a productivity machine that you might actually use for work. Folks, that is even dumber than MayDay, and while it's certainly true that the device comes with Email, Calendar, Contacts, and other productivity apps, this is no work machine. It's a front-end to the Amazon ecosystem. Period.
On that note, the Kindle FreeTime app looks like a great parental control option, making this device an ideal choice for children. But this is Amazon, so of course there's also a Kindle FreeTime Unlimited subscription service that provides unlimited access to content from Disney, Nickelodeon, Sesame Street, PBS, and more, for just the low, low, low payment of $2.99 per month. At least it's optional.
Final thoughts
If it sounds like I'm souring on the whole Kindle tablet thing, well, maybe I have. I see the quality and value of it. But with so many of the Kindle services I use available elsewhere, the cloying and Amazon-centric restrictions on this device can no longer be forgiven. This is awkward for me as I've always used and recommended Amazon's devices, and I still use and prefer the Kindle Paperwhite for reading newspapers and books. But there it is.
You'll note that I've not made any comparisons to a Windows-based mini-tablet in this review. That's by design. As you'll see in my coming Dell Venue 8 Pro review, I'm not sure the first crop of Windows mini-tablets is completely comparable to the HDX, Nexus 7 or iPad mini, for a variety of reasons. But we'll get to that soon enough.
The Kindle Fire HDX is a nicely-made device and a great value at a starting price of just $229. It's also the nicest Kindle tablet that Amazon has ever sold. But discerning users—and most readers of this site, really—would be better off with a Google Nexus 7. (And anyone who would mortgage their house to buy an iPad mini with Retina Display isn't listening to my advice anyway.)
The Kindle Fire HDX is recommended for those who prefer or can look past the heavily Amazon-centric nature of the device's user experience. But if Amazon allowed users to install the Google Play Store, I would recommend this device with much less reservation.


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Fine hair that lacks volume and looks limp is not a good look. It's usually genetically predetermined, but you can try a few ways to make your hair get the extra thickness and volume.
Diet supplements like liquid lecithin and protein-based combinations for your hair work differently on each person with fine hair, but the fundamentals of caring for fine hair are the same.
How to Thicken Fine Hair: Cutting and Styling
Getting the right hairstyle for fine hair can thicken it indirectly, by giving it volume and a neater appearance. Try to avoid layers and choose a haircut with the same length done by a professional with fine hair experience and keep your ends trimmed every six weeks.
You should only use products specifically formulated for fine hair, thickening products that have the best effects for your hair type. Always blow-dry fine hair while you bend over with a low heat setting. Drying it from the underside also allows you to use your fingers to give it more texture as it dries.
Besides using the right thickening products, sleeping on a silk pillowcase and regularly massaging your scalp can prevent breakage and slow growth. Neither will thicken fine hair, but they help with maintaining your hair looking good.
How to Thicken Fine Hair: Nourishing
You can try different hair treatments for fine hair, but you should also know what the most and least effective natural options are. Use a nourishing and volumizing treatment 2 tablespoons of Aloe Vera gel, 1 teaspoon of honey, 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 ounce of water. Coat your entire hair with the mixture and let it sit for 30 minutes before shampooing.
Don't use oat flour treatments for fine hair. While it's packed with protein, it doesn't penetrate through the outer layers of the hair strands, making it a waste of time.
Best Hair Thickening Products
If you have a favorite brand of cosmetics, try their line of products for fine hair first. Not pleased? The best thickening products are shampoo and conditioner that work together. Pantene Pro-V Full & Thick Collection gets many great reviews, along with Bumble and bumble thickening shampoo and cconditioner, which make hair more manageable.
Nexxus Diametress Thickening Shampoo and Sublime Volume conditioner seems to actually increase the diameter of the hair the most, adding volume and making hair softer and more manageable.
See also:Best Bob Hairstyles for Thin HairPixie Haircuts for Fine Hair


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You ever feel like you're faking it till you make it? You ever feel like changing your name and doing whatever you can to get a job? Do you feel like you're about to be called out as a fake at any moment? Do you like to get drunk and jump out of airplanes into war zones? If you answered yes to any of this then Robert Capa is your new hero.
Capa recalls his time covering WWII and creating some of the most memorable images of that war. He talks about his loves, his fears, and his drink. Every now and then he mentions what camera he had with him. It's a fast and fantastic read. Pick it up. You'll enjoy it. If I ever do a book club here at DEDPXL this will probably be the first one we read.
Buy this book now at Amazon. Your purchase through this link helps buy me a Ferrari or two. Thank you for your support of DEDPXL!
- Final'ish Thoughts On Unsplash - February 5, 2018
- Unsplash :: Interview With Mikael Cho - January 29, 2018
- My New Website - August 7, 2017
- Bag of Cameras - June 28, 2017
- Bag of Lights - June 27, 2017
- 2017 Goal :: Simplify My Gear - January 22, 2017


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Authorize.net has a user base of over 200k merchants making it the largest payment gateway service provider. Most e-commerce solutions already integrate with Authorize.net, including our favorite e-commerce store Satchmo, developed in django, that we have covered earlier.
However, many shopping portals still require custom development. The robust REST API Authorize.net offers (AIM and SIM) allows for integration with e-commerce merchants' websites.
The AIM API allows for the check out of the customer within the merchant's site, it requires SSL certificate for the merchants site and data is to be transferred in an 128-bit encrypted format.
The SIM API on the other hand allows for a hosted check out from Authorize.net's site. The appearance, look and feel, CSS, logos, header and footer of their site can be customised, so that users experience a similar interface.
Thus a merchant can perform, based on his business need, one of the following:
- Using the SIM API, perform the checkout and display the receipt on Authorize.net
- Using the SIM API perform the checkout on Authorize.net and display the receipt on merchant's site, by using relay response
- Using the SIM API obtain Authorization confirmation on Authorize.net and perform the checkout and display the recipt on the merchant's site
- Using AIM API, perform the entire checkout process on merchant's site
The third option above is interesting. The Authorize.net's SIM provides the flexibility to checkout on merchant's site for transactions, even without SSL, for the cost of a round trip of http handshakes, just like the Paypal's Express Checkout API.
Typically, users return back to the merchant site and where the receipt is displayed (case 2) or confirm at the merchant site (case 3). Lets examine the workflow for such a scenario.
- Find the total amount payable by user, all inclusive. (incl taxes, shipping)
- Generate the fingerprint of transaction, based on merchant login-id, invoice-number, time-stamp and amount using the MD5 hashing library.
- Pre-populate all the hidden input form fields for the transaction on the template. (covered in detail, below)
- Send the user to Authorize.net when they submit the form, with pre-populated values
- After the authentication, the response is posted to merchant site
- Verify for success in the response.
- If you opted for payment on the authorize.net site itself, display the receipt.
- If you have opted for check out at your site, Confirm payment from the user and submit a new request of `x_type = 'PRIOR_AUTH_CAPTURE'`, also include the `x_trans_id` obtained in the response. (preferably as an AJAX request)
- If error occurs or if customer cancels, submit a void request.
The integration essentially involves, sending a list of hidden fields in a form to the specified url:
- Include the following Required fields in the form, set to appropriate values.
x_fp_hash The fingerprint
UTC time in seconds since epoch
Invoice number, or a random number
x_login Login ID of merchant, provided by Authorize.net
TRUE, to show form
x_amount Total Amount of the transaction
- Set the response type, `x_relay_response` to TRUE, and `url_response` to the url that to which POST has to be posted- We prefer to use the same url which is submitting the request.
- Set the `x_type` to `Auth_only` for a checkout at your site, or `Auth_capture` for a checkout at Authorize.net
- Include Additional fields, where appropriate. Entire list of fields
- Set the form submit to the Authorize.net specified url. Submissions go to: https://secure.authorize.net/gateway/transact.dll
The following view code should indicate how you should go about doing it:
import hmac,time,urllib,urllib2
def payment1(req):
if (req.method == 'GET'):
#Use these values in the template to pre-populate a form that submits
#these hidded fields to url http://secure.authorize.net/gateway/transact.dll
payload = {
'x_login' : 'login-id',
'x_amount' : '100.00',
'x_show_form' : 'PAYMENT_FORM',
'x_type' : 'AUTH_CAPTURE',
'x_method' : 'CC',
'x_fp_sequence' : '101',
'x_version' : '3.1',
'x_relay_response' : 'TRUE',
'x_fp_timestamp' : str(int(time.time())),
#The same Url as the current one, whatever it is.
'x_relay_url' : reverse("payment_url")
msg = '^'.join([params['x_login'],
fingerprint = hmac.new('9LyEU8t87h9Hj49Y',msg).hexdigest()
payload['x_fp_hash'] = fingerprint
return render_to_response('template1.html', payload, RequestContext(request))
else if (req.method == 'POST'):
#Handle the response, Verify POST dictionary
if(req.post[x_response_code] == 1) :
#Display the receipt or
#Confirm from the user
Looking to develop an e-commerce website? We offer services. Get in touch.
Thank you for reading the Agiliq blog. This article was written by lakshman on Mar 31, 2009 in ecommerce .
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Java surpasses Adobe Reader as most exploited software
ACCORDING to the recently published Kaspersky Security Bulletin 2012, Oracle Java was the most frequently exploited software by cyber-criminals during the year.
Adobe Reader and Adobe Flash Player ranking in the second and third places, respectively.
Exploiting vulnerabilities is one of the primary methods used by cybercriminals to install malware on victims' computers.
Cybercriminals exploit applications or software that have un-patched security vulnerabilities, which exist because either the individual or business have failed to patch their vulnerable applications with the latest security updates from vendors.
Exploit packs - or malicious programs that try to infect a computer utilizing various vulnerabilities in popular software - are the main tool behind web-based attacks.
Read more at Kaspersky Labs


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What does Cinderella and an E! news reporter have in common? Secrets to success.
Keke Palmer and E! News' Alicia Quarles (who got Raven-Symone to admit she's from every continent in Africa, 'memba that?) talked to 60 handpicked NYC high school kids at MTV.
The kick it with Keke session was part of an on-going cycle of celeb talks from Get Schooled, a non-profit org motivating students to stay in school by recruiting "influencers" aka our fave celebs to instruct them to keep their heads in the books.
Keke was no different. She told the teens–awarded the event for motivating their younger classmates to stay on the academic fast track–to stay focused on their goals just as much as they do their Instagram pages.
"You're reality is what's around you. We get so caught up in Instagram and social media you forget about life around you."
No one will forget Keke's breakout solo.
Or, her demonstration on the evolution of twerking. Don't take notes on that one kiddies.
But, you can quote red-carpet maven Alicia Quarles when she advised networking as the method to get ahead.
"One piece I learned was to network and to keep in contact with the people you meet."
I hope you guys got business cards. I would…


text:
Different year. Same mistakes.
Stories from the Road: Joni
One of the first people that I met on the road was a woman who I rented a room from for about a week in Boulder (check out her Air BnB here). Her home was essentially a half-way house for wanders and, naturally, I felt right at home. I mostly chose her place because it was inexpensive and pet-friendly, however, she did say that she doesn't accept all pets, just the ones that she feels good about. Little did I know that I would get to know everyone in the house who came and went during my stay and find surprising connections with each one. It felt a lot like my life growing up living overseas where people came and went pretty quickly, but everyone had an interesting story.
When I first walked up to her door and knocked, a young man who looked like a college student and spoke in broken English opened the door. I asked if Joni was there and she yelled from the other room that I should come in. She was a short, fit and fiery woman in her mid-thirties with incredibly beautiful curly hair that dropped to her shoulders. I learned that she did jujitsu and could have probably thrown me on my ass if she wanted to. She was very blunt and particular. Take your shoes off at the door, no shoes in the house. Keep the cat in my room. Clean up after yourself in the kitchen. Clean up after your dog in the yard. If it's yellow, let it mellow. This was clearly not her first rodeo. I then learned that she was a relator and just moved into that house, but also owns multiple properties around Boulder. She was one of those business savvy Jewish women who knows what she wants and kicks butt when it comes to getting things done. Needless to say, we had an instant connection.
Several of the mornings I was there we shared breakfast together. I also made a quinoa salad one day for lunch and without hesitation she asked if she could have some. I loved her bluntness and she was a hoot to talk to. Of course, as with anywhere I go, I enjoy grilling people on the place that they live and to learn why they love it. One of the things that she kept telling me was that she loved Boulder because the men all stayed 21 with awesome abs and they were always so grateful for a women who knew what she was doing.
Thank you, Joni. Noted.
Joni liked to get things done. During my one week stay with her, I helped her bring a load of stuff to GoodWill, did a few sewing projects since my machine was already out, and helped cook dinner for her and her friends one night at the house. She had suggested that we all do a group meal one of the evenings I was there and of course I was all about it. Goodness knows that I needed the company after several weeks of solitude, so we grilled ribs, I made vegetable kabobs and it was one of the best evenings I've had on the road to date.
Two of her friends had just bought a house together in the mountains and had also met on OK Cupid. The woman had just quit her corporate job and was finally really following her dreams. She also happened to be into pet psychics and we got talking about how Simone didn't particularly love the van. I explained that she loved our apartment because it had a deck and she could be outside at any time and now I have to often leave her in the van by herself when I am working or running errands. What I didn't tell her was that I also had not yet secured all of the things in the back of the van and sometimes stuff fell on her… I'm sure that didn't help. Regardless, she gave me advice for how to talk to Simone to help her like the van better. She suggested that I talk to Simone every time we are going somewhere so that she knew what was going on and shouldn't be worried, but also explain to her why we live in a van and what we are doing. She was adamant that dogs understand what we are telling them through our tone of voice and manner when we talk and it helps calm them. I can't say I disagree, it was certainly a fascinating conversation.
Another one of Joni's friends, who was also staying at the house, was Lee. He had been staying there a few months and was on his way to Hawaii to set up sustainable energy projects on the islands. He was essentially going to be a caretaker for a state-wide sustainable energy initiative. Sounded pretty awesome. He had noticed the solar panels I had installed on the van and we ended up talking about the process to install them, how many I had and then got into a long discussion about the amount of energy that is required to make solar panels and if it is so much that it's not worth it to make them. I learned a ton from him and was definitely envious of his next adventure to tropical paradise.
One of my favorite moments of that night was when the Chinese student, Ying, was FaceTiming another one of his friends in China, speaking Mandarin and explaining the whole evening over the phone. He didn't know I spoke Chinese, but he was sweet and grateful in his conversation and told his friend he was having a lot of fun with his "Mei Guo peng you".
That night I felt so at home. I honestly didn't really want to leave there. I can't put my finger on why exactly I felt that way, but it probably had to do with the eclectic mix of people who were all there to enjoy the moment, but were also off to their next adventures. There were people from all over the world, and each person was following their dreams. It was refreshing. I cherish that night. I am inspired by those stories. It was a pinnacle moment in time for me where I felt encouraged that I was doing the right thing and simultaneously invigorated by all of the other amazing things I could do if I put my mind to it. Here I was, seeing it all first hand.
Thank you Joni. I can't wait to have my own wanders' commune like you do someday.
10 Things I Couldn't Live Without on the Road
Blog post originally posted on Van Life Explorers.
One of the most difficult parts of beginning van life was figuring out what exactly I needed. I got rid of so much stuff, but am constantly haunted by this feeling that I still have too much. I enjoy a tidy space, so van life has been particularly challenging to find the balance between tidy and still fitting everything I need in the space. Most of the time my conclusion is that I don't actually need that thing and would rather get rid of it than make my space too crowded. Yet, I also wanted to be careful not to get rid of something that I would need further down the line. In addition, there were definitely things that I needed to buy along the way that I had not expected to need. So as you prepare for your life on the road, I've compiled a checklist of my must-haves:
- Propane Stove $40
I use this stove every single day. Even if I am eating cold or raw foods for meals, I cannot go a day without my coffee. I use an aluminum espresso maker, which does not require filters, so all I need is water and coffee grounds. I also have a hand grinder to grind my beans. The hand grinder takes a while to get the quantity that I need to fill the pot, but it makes for an excellent cup of coffee. I have to say that I have grown to enjoy my mornings staring into the mountains, grinding my coffee to start off my day. It is quite peaceful. Then just put it on the propane stove and in ten minutes, you have fresh brewed espresso! You do need to keep your propane tanks stalked as well.
- Cooler $45
I have solar panels that are bolted to the roof and I started off my journey with a small mini fridge that I used to keep my food fresh. However, I quickly learned that if I did not have a full day of sun, the two 100-watt panels were not enough to power that little sucker. Sometimes in the middle of the night my inverter would start beeping at me because the battery ran out of juice. This was (clearly) super annoying and I did not want to drop the $800 bucks on an energy-efficient fridge, so I decided to go old school and use a small cooler. I do have to spend money on getting ice every day, which ranges from $1.50-$3.00 depending on where in the country you are located (pro tip: don't buy ice in Aspen, CO), but it was worth saving the solar energy for other more important things.
- Cosmetics + Toiletries
I am not a high maintenance girl, but I do like to stay clean and take good care of my skin. This could apply to men or women – these are the main items that I use every day:
- Cleansing towelettes: disposable face cleansing cloths for when you don't have water to wash your face. After driving or hiking all day, there is not much better than having a clean face.
- Sunscreen: Summer, winter, it doesn't really matter; when you are in high altitude, you need sunscreen. Your 80 year old self will thank you.
- Bug spray: I cannot tell you how many times I've stopped at a state park for an evening run and quickly realized I would need about a gallon of bug spray for the woods I was about to embark on. This is a no-brainer for any vanner since we spend most of our time outside.
- Dry shampoo: I often go 3-4 days without showering and I have both thin hair and bangs, so dry shampoo is a life-saver for what would be a grease ball on top of my head. I mostly use it on my bangs and it at least keeps me looking somewhat like a normal productive member of society.
- Chapstick: I am a particularly dry-skinned person, so I have chapstick in every bag and every compartment around the van. I probably have a dozen different ones, but I use them ALL the time. When you're hiking in the desert, you'll thank me.
- Biodegradable shampoo: You can buy this a REI or any outdoor store, but biodegradable shampoo is incredible to have on hand when you are hiking. I bathe in rivers and lakes more than I do showers, so this gives me peace-of-mind that I am protecting the environment while still able to stay clean. I use it for everything — my hair, soap for my body, to shave my legs and wash my face. I prefer to have separate products for each of those things, but when you are in the woods, beggars can't be choosers.
- Ceiling Fan $124
When I first got on the road I did not have a fan in the ceiling. It got so hot when I was sleeping because I wasn't able to keep the doors open for safety reasons. I also worried about leaving my pets in the van without a fan, so this was an imperative addition. Especially when you are in the mountains, this is all you really need to stay cool at night. Open a few windows, turn on the fan and the cool mountain air will keep you comfortable. I have it hooked up directly to my solar panels and am able to track which speed settings will use what amount of power.
- Portable Speaker $65
This little portable speaker is my best friend. I prefer to use it when I am driving rather than the crappy speakers that came with the '96 Chevy. All I have to do is hook up my phone up to the Bluetooth and we are off to the races. The sound quality is great and the size is perfect for what I need. Each battery charge lasts me about 8 hours of driving and it uses a micro-USB, which I can plug right into my adapter to charge while I am driving. I take this with me when I am working at a park, hanging out in the van, camping, etc. It's small enough that you really can bring it with you anywhere. Music is a huge part of my life, so good speakers are a must.
- 120-Watt Power Inverter with USB Outlet $20
I spend so much time on the road, that I mind as well make use of the car battery when I am not using it for the van, hence the power inverted that I plug into the cigarette liter. It's been great to be able to save power from the solar panels and plug into the cigarette lighters from time to time. I can charge my computer, phone, speakers, lamps, headphones, etc. Almost all of my accessories need to be charged, so before I hit the road, I'll plan out what all needs to be powered up and make sure those things are on hand near me during the drive.
- Camel Back $77
I went on several hikes the first month or so where I used just an old backpack that I had on hand. After a few 5-6 hour hikes several days in a row, my shoulders were killing me, so it was time to invest into something better. I started to think about how much water I drank on a long hike per day and decided that the 70 oz Camelbak would be good for me. I could always fill up extra water bottles to pack in the side pockets if I needed them. If there is anything I've learned, it's that I drink a ton of water on my hikes, so I wanted to make sure to have enough for a day, but not over do it with weight. I liked that there were also several other compartments in the pack for things I would need on a day trip: Rain jacket, flashlight, snacks, change of socks, bug spray, sunscreen, battery pack charger for my phone, Polaroid camera, etc. It is incredibly comfortable and I have no regrets with this purchase.
- Bike Rack $199
This was another purchase that I did not make right away, but knew early on that I would need it. At the beginning, I was storing my bike on my bed and had to pull it off, lock it up somewhere while I slept and haul it back into the van in the morning before leaving. This was a huge pain in the ass. The bike rack I chose has been awesome to have, it hooks into my hitch, it super stable, but also folds down so that I can open up the back doors and easily access my kitchen area. It has space for two bikes, which is all I really need, but you can buy ones that are 3 or 4 bike if you need that.
- Kitchen Supplies
I have never been much of a chef, but I do like to cook at home rather than eating out, so I had to think strategically about which kitchen utensils I would need on the road. I have a full drawer compartment of cooking accessories, but here are the essentials:
- Medium Pot with lid for cooking rice, heating up water.
- Cast iron skillet for eggs, meat, stir fry. I actually have two, one small one for eggs and a medium sized one.
- Small pot for heating up milk – this might just be specific to me since I like milk in my coffee.
- Wooden spatula for cooking in the cast iron.
- Bowls – I prefer to eat out of bowls, so I keep 4 of these on hand.
- Silverware
- Coffee mug – Splurge on one you love because you will be using it a lot.
- Nalgene – this is a no brainer, but I use this instead of a cup.
- Medium bowl for mixing salads or peanut butter balls
- Hand coffee grinder
- Coffee pot (or in my case, espresso pot)
- Tupperware for leftovers
- MiFi Wireless Hotspot $100 + monthly data
This proved to be imperative for me to do my job on the road. I work in marketing and need to have access to the Internet at all times. There have even been cases where I am at a coffee shop and the WiFi sucks, so I turn on my MiFi instead. I pay for 24G of data per month, which is enough for me to use this on a part-time basis. It's great when I'm in small towns or somewhere where the WiFi is not reliable. It's definitely saved my ass when it comes to client calls and getting projects done on time. If you have a remote job, this is worth the investment. Think of it as job security.
Interview Podcast on Tiny House, Tiny Footprint [PODCAST]
I am so honored to have been featured on Tiny House, Tiny Footprint! Check out the podcast below or on their site.
Things that Go Through My Head on Any Given Day
Van life brings a wide variety of emotions and thoughts on any given day. Here is a bit of flavor into some of the things that run through my head:
- I love waking up to the sunshine.
- That is the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen. I feel like the luckiest person in the world.
- I love mornings. I love coffee. I love my dog. I love my life.
- Why are libraries so hard to find?
- Why is everyone at this park staring at me?
- Oh Simone, you are the best travel buddy. So chill. Go with the flow.
- It's so awesome that my office can be outside.
- I'm so glad that I can have my dog with me when I work.
- No Simone! Don't attack that dog!
- I can't take you anywhere.
- I should never work outside, I can't see my computer through the sweat running down my face.
- Dang it. My MiFi is almost out of data. I need to find WiFi.
- Simone, don't bark at that nice old lady. What did she ever do to you.
- I'm so hungry. Crackers and turkey it is. (again…)
- I have to pee so bad. I hope no one sees me.
- Client call. Dear God/universe/higher-power/Allah/whoever, pleaaaaase let the WiFi hold out.
- I need a quad espresso. STAT.
- It's so fun to run somewhere different every day.
- I wonder if people think I'm homeless.
- If someone did think I was homeless and offered me food, I'd probably take it.
- I'm so hungry. Where the hell are the crackers??
- I miss motorcycles. It would be way more fun to drive into the mountains on motorcycle.
- Why am I so exhausted, it's only 8pm.
- I should write a blog.
- I am so hungry but too lazy to make anything. Canned baked beans will do.
- I need to stay awake until it's dark before I find somewhere to park for the night.
- Did you hear that?
- Is that someone trying to break in?
- Is that someone walking past the van? Why are they walking past the van?
- Did that car just stop near me?
- Did that light just flicker?
- Did someone just come out of that house?
- Am I going to get kicked out of here?
- Is it too late to move and park somewhere else?
- Is it better to stay here because I'm so tired or leave because now I'm paranoid and won't be able to sleep?
- Simone would bark if someone was trying to break in.
- No one cares that I am here, calm down.
- I just look like someone's weird cousin parked outside their house.
- Wait, wasn't there a weird cousin in Full House who lived in a van?
- Maybe I should watch Netflix. But the light of the phone might attract attention.
- I'm always the loneliest at night.
- I wish it were darker here.
- No one on the east coast is awake for me to call.
- Did I remember to plug in my computer?
- Dang it, my light isn't charged.
- I forgot to put ice in the cooler.
- Shhhh…. go to sleep… you can deal with it in the morning.
Dating Advice for Women
A few months ago, I wrote a blog post about dating tips for men, so I thought it would only be fair to write a follow up post of advice for women. Some of this advice is based on my own personal experience and some is based on things I have heard from my male friends. Enjoy.
#1. Don't Talk Politics on the First Date
I typically don't like to talk about controversial topics until at least the 3rd or 4th date when I'm sure that I really like someone. Well, I broke that rule once. I went out on a date with this guy who I knew was trouble even before we met. There was just something about him where I knew that we wouldn't get along, but he was attractive and liked outdoorsy things, so I thought, why not give it a shot. Is nothing else, it could be a good story, right? Well, it was.
We met for tea because he didn't drink alcohol and we made small talk about our hobbies and swapped stories about our dogs. He told me about his Snapchat account where he gives little fun facts about history every day and has a pretty big following. I like when someone has a passion project, so that was a plus. I honestly am not sure what happened from there, but before I knew it, everything went downhill. He made some passing comment about how we need more money to invest into our military and I stopped him dead in his tracks. "Pardon me? More money for our military? The organization that we spend trillions of dollars on? Do you know what would happen if we even took a fraction of that money and invested into something like our school system?"
After that, he tried to be polite for about another 15 minutes of the conversation. Then all hell broke loose. We went back and forth about the role of government and how money should be spent. He kept arguing for bigger military so that we can patrol the world, because apparently someone has to do it, he thought it should be the U.S. — at the expense of the quality of life of our children and thus our future as a nation. Then finally at some point I made the statement, "Well, maybe we should just raise taxes. We have the lowest taxes of any developed country, so it's about time we caught up with the rest of the world, right? Then we'll have enough money for everything."
He looked me straight in the face and had an expression like I just killed his dog. He literally got up from his chair and walked out of the cafe.
I think that means I won, right?
#2. Initiate the First Kiss
Listen up, ladies. It's a sign of a confident woman when you initiate the first kiss. And any time I've done this, I'm always met with surprise and delight. I think I can safely say that as women, we know when the date is going well. We've got some pretty solid intuition in our brains, so when you know he's into you and you're into him — keep him on his toes, do the unexpected.
#3. Give Him Grace
I've had more than one man tell me that I should try to give every date a second date, no matter what. The rationale is that men get nervous and often times aren't really themselves on the first date. Although I don't always follow that policy, I do like the sentiment of giving the man some grace every now and again. Especially as we get older, I think women can start to formulate this long list of deal breakers and may be ruling out some pretty great guys. Especially when you are first getting to know someone, give the poor man some slack.
For example, he might not always say the right things. I've been told that my teeth are crooked, the hair too short or too long, my legs are "thick" or that I'm fat, that I'm too crass for a woman, or too abrasive, or how I've ranked in attractiveness compared to other women he's dated… the list goes on and for completely inappropriate comments that I've gotten from men. As much as it doesn't feel good to be told something like that (and this is not an excuse for men to keep doing it), but I try to give them the benefit of the doubt that they aren't trying to be malicious. So I guess this point is advice for both women and men – ladies, try to be patient and recognize that he might mess up sometimes and men – lay off the insults. Yes, they are insults and just don't do it.
#4. Don't Make the Date an Interview
I've heard this time and time again from both male friends and men I have been on dates with: don't sit down on the first date and just start interviewing the poor man. I know that your time is limited and you probably don't want to bullshit around. But you're talking to a human, not an applicant. Even if he's not your future partner, treat him with a little bit of respect. No matter what his interests are or baggage or job status, I bet that if you just decided to listen like you would listen to any of your close friends, you'll learn something.
I used to get really nervous when I would go on first dates because I worried that I wouldn't like him or he wouldn't like me. Or what if it was awkward, what if I just wanted to leave. But the thing that I would always say to myself is that, everyone has an interesting story. And every person is different than me and could have something to share that I might learn from. So even if we don't have a lot in common, chances are that if I just view him as another person and not as a potential partner, I will enjoy hearing about whatever experiences he has had.
#5. Be Spontaneous
Men have a tough job – they have to come up with ways to impress you without even really knowing you. Men are usually the ones to plan the first few dates and the woman gets to decide if he's worth her time. So if something pops up out of the blue that would be super fun to do with that person — take the chance and do it!
One of my (few) actual relationships was with a guy who had been planning a month long trip to southeast Asia, which happens to be one of my favorite places on earth. We hadn't been dating that long and I knew that I wouldn't be able to take off much time from work, but I figured, when will be the next time that I am going to have an opportunity to travel with someone else to southeast Asia? It's hard enough as it is to find people to travel with, let alone across the world with, so I jumped on the opportunity. Within a few weeks, I had a plane ticket to Indonesia and swung my work schedule so that most of my time away was over Christmas and News Years and was able to take just a few days off of work. And let me tell you, it was the trip of a lifetime. I had no idea how beautiful that country is and was blown away at every turn. And since he planned everything, every new adventure was a grand surprise (I love surprises). It was definitely a stretch financially and I had to sacrifice being with my family over the holidays, but truly the adventure of a life time and something that I will never ever forget.
So go ahead, say yes to that crazy adventure. You won't regret it.
#6. Challenge Him to Try New Things
One of my biggest complaints about men is when they have nothing that they are passionate about. If I ask you what you do with your free time and your response is, "I don't know, I watch Netflix and sports," I can guarantee you that you will need to move along. Or worse, if you list off a bunch of hobbies that you did five years ago and it I later find out that all you do is Netflix and sports… you'll have hell to pay.
There's little that is more attractive than when a man gets super geeked out over something and pours his heart and soul into it. I'll speak for myself, but I think a lot of women can relate to the idea that yes, we want to be adored, but we also don't want to be the center of your universe. Something besides your woman should make you light up in life.
I've heard from a lot of men that the same goes for women; sometimes women are just boring. So in order to curb that potential danger, challenge your man to do something new. It doesn't have to be something crazy like traveling to a different country, but surely you have parts of your life that he hasn't experienced that you can share with him. Take him to an art museum. Or make him a traditional family meal that you grew up on. Or find a secret spot for a perfect little picnic. Or find the most beautiful location in the city to watch a sunset.
#7. Say Thank You
Even though I believe men and women are equal, I do still like good old fashioned chivalry. But this is a two-sided coin, ladies. When he picks up the tab, say thank you. When he opens the door, say thank you. When he offers to pick you up, before accusing him of being creepy, just take it as a kind gesture (even if you don't end up taking him up on it). If you're going to expect to be treated in old fashioned ways, then you better respond with old fashioned politeness. I think as women we sometimes believe we deserve or are owed something from men. Don't be a pretentious diva. If you want him to be a gentleman, then be a lady.


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It was funny at the time, but to the NBA, a superstar player kicking an opposing player in the groin on national TV is no laughing matter.
The incident occurred during the 4th quarter of the Miami Heat vs Charlotte Bobcats game on Wednesday. Miami was ahead 83-79 with 8:12 left in the 4th quarter, when Wade dribbled the basketball down the court and was fouled by sessions. As the ref blew the whistle, Wade lifted his left leg impacting Sessions' nether regions.
It was difficult to believe that the kick was not intentional, as Sessions rolled around on the floor in obvious distress.


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Tether Speed BoatsA pair of carved wooden speed boats powered by miniature internal combustion engines. On newly made metal display stands.Enquire
In the early days of powered models, boats were either straight running or tethered. Competition between tether boats took place where, each boat in turn, was fixed by a steel cable to a central point in the middle of a pond or lake and completed circuits against the clock, typically at high speed, until the fuel was expended. The winner was determined based on the average speed of several laps. Straight running craft were launched from one side of the lake and aimed, across the lake, at a number of marked posts forming gates. One or more catchers would would be positioned at the far side of the lake and would receive the craft, and return it. Scores were accumulated according to accuracy of passing through the gates.
Early engines (prior to the 1950s) had spark ignition systems. Later engines use glow plug ignition. A Glow Plug engine, or Glow engine uses a special fuel that mostly consists of methanol with varying degrees of nitromethane content.
Dimensions: 32 cm12½ inches (length) x 14 cm/5½ inches (width)#Price £3,250.00 inc. VAT
Outside the EU £2,708.33
Vintage Models
Recently viewed


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TAIPEI, TAIWAN - Taiwan's voters gave Tsai Ing-wen and her pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party or DPP a new mandate Saturday, helping it seize control of both the legislature and presidency for the first time ever. Dealing with the island's neighbor and political rival China will be one of her biggest challenges and concerns.
Tsai Ing-wen won a landslide victory over the Nationalist Party (KMT) Saturday. The KMT spent the last eight years growing ties with Beijing and Tsai ran on a platform that calls for diversifying the island's economic ties.
New chapter
The victory will open a new chapter in Taiwan's history, but the China that the island faces today, is much different from the first time Tsai's DPP won the presidency in 2000.
"The People's Republic of China geopolitically, militarily and economically is far more powerful than it was 16 years ago and second of all there is an authoritarian leader in charge in the PRC who I think is in many ways more ominous," says Larry Diamond, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and close watcher of Taiwan's democratic development.
Diamond says that there is no democracy in the world that faces the same kind of intimidation and pressure that Taiwan does in the shadow of China. And that, he says, underscores, president-elect Tsai's need for caution in managing relations with China.
China Model
How Beijing treats Taiwan will also be key.
As China markets itself as an alternative global power, its actions in the South China Sea, crackdown on dissent on the mainland and Hong Kong are increasingly a source of concern.
"Hong Kong demonstrates that the vision that China has is one that the people who would be subject to it are unhappy with. People in Hong Kong are very unhappy with the attempts by China to put more and more controls on the place," says Bruce Jacobs, a Taiwan specialist.
He says that how the relationship develops is really up to Beijing.
"Actually everyone in Taiwan wants good relations with China and it's the Chinese that control whether the relationship is good or bad."
Democratic identity
Following the elections, China reasserted its view that the self-ruled island is part of its territory, arguing that the democratic vote would not change as it put it, that "basic fact" or "international opinion."
The comments were in sharp contrast to Tsai's remarks following the elections, who called for respect of Taiwan's "democracy, national identity and international space." She also warned that any form of suppression would harm the stability of cross-strait relations.
"What I think that they sometimes fail to understand — the leaders in Beijing — is that for Taiwanese, democracy is their identity and this political system is definitive of Taiwan," says Shelley Rigger, a Taiwan scholar at Davidson College in the eastern state of North Carolina.
For now, analysts say, China will give Tsai some breathing room and wait at least until she delivers her inaugural address. Tsai was elected Saturday, but does not take office until May 20.


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Mr. Peter awakened at half past three in the morning due to severe pain and saw the message of Mr. Rahul. The message hit his home with such a force showing how important it was to consult a doctor. Deciding not to disturb his friend in the early hours, Mr. Ball went to his general practitioner and from there he was referred to Macclesfield General Hospital. The doctors found that the appendix had got ruptured and was advised to undergo surgery immediately. He got his appendix removed that night 7.30.
Mr. Peter Ball felt relieved and after coming back home, he didn't forget to phone his friend and thanked him for giving him the right advice on time. He had no words to show his gratitude towards him except for a few words of owing his friend some drinks for this. Mr. Rahul also was happy that he could save his friend by diagnosing his update status on Facebook. He remained humble and modest by telling that the doctors in the operation theatre had saved his friend's life.


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Machine screws are fully threaded screws that are specifically designed to be used in pre-tapped holes or used with conforming nuts and washers in through holes. Machine screws are available in an array of configurations, materials, driver head types and sizes.
As their name implies, machine screws are used to fasten various components together in appliances, tools, machines, electronic devices, vehicles amongst a whole host of other objects. Machine screws are similar to a bolt but have a socket in the head which allows it to be turned with a screwdriver.
Our cross pan head machine screws have been designed to give the user an easy assembling experience.
Bright zinc finish gives an excellent corrosion resistance as it is a sacrificial coating
Clear passivated
Moisture resistant
Versatile in the number of joints they can fasten
Aesthetically pleasing finish
A machine screw is similar to a bolt but has a socket or a slot in its head that allows it to be turned by a screwdriver. The shank on a machine screw is straight rather than tapered with a full thread which is uniform along the entire length. Machine screws do not tap their own thread into materials like wood screws do but are designed to be fastened into pre-tapped holes in the parts they are fastening together. Having a threaded hole creates a stronger joint and results in a higher quality product.
Machine parts
Pan head machine screws, as the name suggests, have a head that looks like an inverted frying pan. The heads are flat on the top and rounded on the sides. When driven into material pan head machine screws protrude rather than sit flush. These screw head types are used when a flat bearing surface is needed but a countersunk screw is not required.
Pozidriv, sometimes shortened to Pozi, stands for positive drive. This head type has a cross recess in the centre with four small indentations around it creating 8 points of contact. This design provides improved engagement and contact with the screwdriver and prevents ejection force when tightening or loosening the machine screw.
BZP is a shiny coating is applied to the steel, this process prevents corrosion and rusting. If the application is situated within a harsh environment, BZP will provide much-needed longevity and reliability. Although it may not be as effective as stainless steel, the added benefit would be the price. As stainless steel is completely rustproof but expensive, BZP Steel offers a great solution and is massively cost-effective.
Pozidriv head type for improved screwdriver grip
Pan head design for a flat bearing surface
Bright Zinc Plated steel for resistance to corrosion
Economical and hard wearing
Meets ANSI/ASME B18.6.3 Standards
Machine screws are designed to hold separate components together in a wide range of applications such as industrial machinery and vehicle engines. They are screwed through pre-drilled tapped holes in 2 components and can be fastened at the rear with a nut. This bright zinc plated steel pan head machine screw is ideal for domestic and commercial use. Applications include.
Electrical panel building
PCB Prototyping
Circuit board mounting
General production engineering
General maintenance and repair.
Light fastening applications
Damage to the machine screw threads can prevent parts from fitting together properly, therefore care has to be taken when cutting them and the correct tools used.
Cutting a small machine screw (up to standard size #10 or metric size M5 (5mm)
Use a pair of multipurpose wire strippers or electricians pliers that feature M2.5, M3, M3.5, M4, M5 threaded holes. These holes are designed for cutting bolts without damaging the thread. Open the jaws and thread the machine screw into the correct size hole to the distance required. Squeeze the tool handles closed and the screw will be cut at the point where the two halves of the jaws come together. You will have a clean cut without any thread damage.
Cutting a large machine screw (larger than size #10 or metric size M5 (5mm)
This is best done using a hacksaw. Thread the nut on the screw until it reaches the desired point on the head side of the cutting line. Place the screw in a vice or clamp to keep it secure when cutting and cut the screw as straight as you can. When you unthread the nut it will repair and realign any threads that may have been damaged by the saw blade.
To see the range of our cross pan head machine screws please refer to the datasheet and fasteners selection guide. Through these two documents you will also find the various thread sizes and lengths that we have to offer.
To ANSI/ASME B18.6.
|Head Shape
|Drive Type
|Length Imperial
|Thread Size BA
|No 4
|Bright Zinc Plated
|Thread Pitch