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Accountabilities in Schools and School Systems
Bob Lingard, Sam Sellar, and Steven Lewis
This article surveys developments in educational accountabilities over the last three decades. In this time, accountability in schools and schooling systems across Anglo-American nations has undergone considerable change, including a move away from bureaucratic approaches that endorsed teacher professionalism. Educational accountabilities have evolved with the restructuring of the state through new public management and the emergence of network governance. Accountability can be understood in two senses: (1) being held to account; and (2) giving an account. Within the post-bureaucratic state, the former sense has become dominant in the work of schools, principals, and teachers, and has affected curriculum, pedagogy, and student learning. For instance, schooling systems in Anglo-American nations have introduced standardized testing to hold schools and teachers to account. Comparative performance data are now made publicly available through websites and the creation of league tables of school performance. These processes are central to the creation of markets in schooling, where comparative test data are deemed necessary to enable parental choice of schools and, in turn, to raise standards. This top-down, performative mode of accountability also moves the field of judgment away from teachers and the profession. There are now emergent attempts to reconstitute more democratic and educative modes of accountability, which are multilateral and multidirectional in character, and which seek to limit the negative effects of top-down data-driven accountability. These approaches reassert trust in the teaching profession and reconstitute parents and communities as democratic participants in schooling. We argue that accountability is a pharmakon that requires balancing of mechanisms for holding educators to account and opportunities for educators to give accounts of their work. The article reviews relevant literature to provide a brief history of accountability in schooling, with particular emphasis on Anglo-American contexts. Drawing on the work of Ranson, we examine four types of existing educational accountabilities before concluding with a discussion of three alternative approaches.
Asian Americans and Education
Benjamin Chang
The communities that constitute the racialized category of Asian Americans consist of approximately 20 million people in the United States, or about 5% of the total population. About 20% or 4 million are of primary or secondary school age, and over 1.1 million are in higher education. Both in popular and academic discourse, "Asian American" generally refers to people who have ethnic backgrounds in South Asia (e.g., Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka), Southeast Asia (e.g., Cambodia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam), and East Asia (e.g., China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan). As "Asian American" is an umbrella term used to categorize a very diverse, heterogeneous, and transnational set of populations, Asian Americans as a group present various challenges to education and research in and about the United States. These challenges can concern paradigms of achievement, citizenship, family involvement, access (e.g., higher education, bilingual education), language and culture, race and ethnicity, and school community.
In order to address these paradigmatic challenges, a great deal of scholarship has called for a disaggregation of the data on populations that fall under the pan-ethnic "Asian America" umbrella term, to gain a more nuanced and dynamic understanding of the many diverse populations and their historical, cultural, economic, and political experiences. To further address the problematic framing of Asian Americans in education and related fields, scholars have applied critical lenses to key tensions within conceptualization, policy, curriculum, and pedagogy. More recently, the notions of intersectionality and transnationalism have been generative in the study of Asian Americans, within not only educational research but also Asian American studies, which generally falls under the field of ethnic studies in the U.S. context, but has also been categorized under American studies, cultural studies, or Asian studies. While characterizations of Asian Americans as "the Model Minority" or "the Oppressed Minority" persist, the relevance of such static binaries has increasingly been challenged as the Asian American populations and migrations continue to diversify and increase.
Assistive Technology to Enhance Inclusive Education
Dianne Chambers
This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. Please check back later for the full article.
Schools, teachers, and students are increasingly able to access and apply assistive technology to enhance inclusion within mainstream classrooms. The assistive technology may take the form of simple, easy-to-use, low-tech devices, or they may encompass more sophisticated, highly complicated devices that require training and greater levels of support to manage. To ensure that a classroom is truly inclusive, the teacher and other professionals involved in supporting children with disabilities and using assistive technology require appropriate knowledge and skills to bring potential to reality. The knowledge concerning what is available in the field of assistive technology is merely the starting point. Inclusive educators also require expertise in selecting devices and services, including the student in decision making, implementing the assistive technology within an inclusive setting, and assessing the effectiveness of the assistive technology to meet the needs of the student and the classroom.
There are many successful examples of assistive technology being successfully embedded into the practices of inclusive settings, but there is still some way to go to ensure this is a seamless approach and one that is universally informed by practice. While legislation can go some way toward mandating the use of assistive technology, teachers and schools are really at the forefront of implementation. There are many benefits and difficulties associated with adopting assistive technology to support students with disabilities, particularly in developing countries. While the challenges may be great, the potential for assistive technology to impact significantly on the educational, social, and recreational outcomes for students with disabilities in inclusive classrooms is immense.
Chinese Education in Malaysia
Ming Chee Ang
Despite the fact that Mandarin is not accorded official language status in Malaysia, and that ethnic Chinese communities accounted for less than 30% of the country's overall population, Malaysia is the only country outside China and Taiwan with a comprehensive and complete Chinese education system. It is also the only country in Southeast Asia that has perpetuated the Chinese education system established during the colonial era.
The prolonged endurance of the Chinese education system in Malaysia is the result of many factors: heavy brokerage and lobbying efforts by ethnic Chinese political leaders; incorporation of vernacular schools into the Malay-dominated national education system in the backdrop of the Malayan nation formation stage; social mobilization of the Chinese education movement in Malaysia; and the increasing significance of Mandarin proficiency in the world.
In particular, the assimilation policies for nation building by the Malay-dominated regime have threatened the cultural distinctiveness of the Chinese-speaking communities. Resistance from the Chinese speaking minorities is manifested through their support of the Chinese schools. Moreover, the elimination of English schools during the 1970s has unintentionally favored the Chinese primary schools. Despite their standing at that time as the "second-best" option after the English school, Chinese schools that offered the benefit of trilingual education, stricter discipline, and more competitive academic performance enjoyed an accelerated boost in student enrollments. More importantly, many parents who do not speak Chinese began to appreciate the quality of Chinese schools, and the enrollment of non-ethnic Chinese students has continued to rise ever since.
Above all, China's rapid economic ascendancy and growing political influence since the 1990s has enhanced the importance of Mandarin as a global language. This has added value to the importance of Chinese schools as language and cultural learning institutions for Malaysian. Such opportunity has enabled the Chinese school model to become one of the most successful and inclusive educational institutions for multicultural Malaysians.
Democracy and Education in the United States
Kathy Hytten
There is an integral and reciprocal relationship between democracy and education. Democracy is more than a political system or process, it is also a way of life that requires certain habits and dispositions of citizens, including the need to balance individual rights with commitments and responsibilities toward others. Currently, democracy is under threat, in part because of the shallow and reductive ways it has been taken up in practice. Understanding the historical relationship between democracy and education, particularly how democracy was positioned as part of the development of public schools, as well as current approaches to democratic schooling, can help to revitalize the democratic mission of education. Specifically, schools have an important civic role in cultivating in students the habits and dispositions of citizenship, including how to access information, determine the veracity of claims, think critically, research problems, ask questions, collaborate with others, communicate ideas, and act to improve the world. Curriculum, pedagogy, and organizational structures are unique in democratic schools. Developing an active, inquiry-based curriculum; using a problem-posing pedagogy; and organizing schools such that students develop habits of responsibility and social engagement provide our best hope for revitalizing democracy and ensuring that it is not simply an empty slogan but a rich, participatory, justice-oriented way of life.
Dynamics in Education Politics and the Finnish PISA Miracle
Hannu Simola, Jaakko Kauko, Janne Varjo, Mira Kalalahti, and Fritjof Sahlström
The international debate on Finnish educational "success" had made relevant a cultural and historical analysis of Finnish education, with a focus on the effects of the ongoing preoccupation with the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results on basic education. Such international comparisons demand a strong theoretical approach, in part because the contrastive analysis of empirical "facts" and "realities" requires that they be situated in relation to their local and, in this case, national systems and contexts. It may be assumed that the quantitative indicators agreed on in intergovernmental negotiations between senior bureaucrats do indeed provide valid comparisons of education systems, as is the conventional wisdom in the field of economics. Nevertheless, these remain value-loaded collections of indicators of development that offer at best parallel lines of comparative analysis. The Finnish case argues for strong theory-based conceptualizations as the basis for, first, complex comparison and, second, shared models of policy action and intervention.
The comparative education field faces four interlinked challenges. First, there is a lack of theory building and development in the field, where politically and ideologically motivated investigative large-scale assessment practices are defining the state of the art. Second, the focus of the studies tends to be on empirically measurable end products instead of documented processes, which makes it possible to generate competitive rankings but reveals little about specific and shared developmental processes in educational systems. Third, although complexity and contingency are widely accepted in the social world on the general level, they appear to seldom reach empirical studies; the vast majority of standard approaches still advocate simple explanatory models. Finally, and paradoxically enough, there is a form of intellectual nationalism that inhibits the conceptualization and understanding of the relationship between, for example, transnational processes and nation-states. In this regard, comparative education needs a strong and ambitious theory-based framework with the potential to incorporate sociohistorical complexity, cultural relationality, and sociological contingency. Without a strong theory-driven approach, it is hard to go beyond merely listing the similarities and differences that facilitate the rankings but blur the processes.
At the research unit for Sociology and Politics in Education (KUPOLI) at the University of Helsinki, a new conceptualization was formulated in early 2010s and an ambitious research plan, Comparative Analytics of Dynamics in Education Politics (CADEP), was launched. The thesis was that to progress beyond the state of the art and arrive at a comparative understanding of educational systems, it would be necessary to focus on dynamics, with a view to grasping the fluid and mobile nature of the subject. This heuristic starting point echoed relativistic dynamics in physics, characterized as a combination of relativistic and quantum theories to describe the relationships between the principal elements of a relativistic system and the forces acting on it. It is curious that, though on the conceptual level the dynamics of a system are constantly referred to as being among its key attributes, there has been little progress on the analytical level in the social sciences since the seminal work of Pitirim Sorokin in the 1950s. The CADEP develops conceptually the theoretical understanding of dynamics to resubmit a specific social field of education to scrutiny by analyzing the relations between the main actors and institutions and essential discursive formations and practices. It is assumed that given its connection with relations and movement, the concept of dynamics will not reduce a mobile and fluid subject of study to a stagnant and inanimate object. There are four constitutive dynamics that make the Finnish educational success story understandable. Success and failure in basic education seem to be relative, and to reflect intertwined dynamics in policymaking, governance, families' educational strategies, and classroom cultures. The emphasis of the understanding is on the contingent, relational, and complex character of political history.
Ecofeminism and Education
Jennifer Hatten-Flisher and Rebecca A. Martusewicz
Ecofeminism is a theoretical, political, and educational movement that draws specific parallels between the domination of women and other marginalized groups, and the degradation of nature. While much of ecofeminist thought is focused on examining the interconnectivity between social and environmental injustices, ecofeminism is as vast and varied as its feminist and ecological roots. Yet, ecofeminism is not without its critics. After being widely accused of essentializing women's relationship with nature, the term fell out of favor with a lot of scholars in the 1990s. Those who have remained loyal to the term have argued that this was an unfair mischaracterization of the larger foundational ideas within ecofeminist work.
Given the global environmental and social crises currently sweeping the planet, ecofeminism offers important, albeit diverse, theoretical, practical, and pedagogical perspectives for developing effective responses to such interrelated crises. As such, scholars across a variety of disciplines are revisiting (and reclaiming) ecofeminist thought. In the field of education, ecofeminism is influencing the ways that we approach questions of justice by offering an intersectional framework that insists on recognizing the interconnected roots of racism, sexism, poverty, ablism, and other social problems with ecological degradation. An ethics of care is woven throughout to form the basis of a pedagogy of responsibility whereby students learn to both critique these cultural foundations of violence and identify practices and relationships that help to create healthy sustainable communities.
Educational Biopolitics
Gregory Bourassa
Educational biopolitics is a growing field of study that explores the intersections of education, life, and power. A central question this literature has formed is a powerful, albeit familiar one: what types of life do schools validate, and what types of life do schools attempt to negate? Given this focus, the concept of educational life has emerged as one of the key units of analysis that informs inquiries in this field. There are two predominant modes of engagement that characterize studies in educational biopolitics: (a) analytical endeavors that seek to understand the operation of contemporary logics of biopower (a power over life) in schools and (b) affirmative educational endeavors that seek to highlight the potential of life to create power. Each approach begins with an understanding that schools do more than transmit knowledge; they are sites of struggle over the production, reproduction, and management of subjectivity. These approaches have led to unique inquiries that explore a number of tangentially related themes and make use of various concepts, including disposability, extractive schooling, and the common.
Education and Media Discourses
Nicole Mockler
This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. Please check back later for the full article.
Over the past 30 years, a growing field of scholarship has explored the relationship between education and the media. Scholars within this field have explored representations of education, schooling, teachers' work, and students in print and other news media, utilizing approaches that include critical discourse analysis, news framing analysis, and more recently, corpus-assisted discourse analysis. The relationship between these representations, public understandings of education, and education policy has also been explored in the research literature, with a focus on the complex interplay between media discourses and public policy around education. The emergence of social media and the engagement of both educators and members of the general public on social media around issues related to education have seen this relationship shift in recent years. This, along with the growth of computer-assisted research approaches (including corpus-assisted analysis and network analysis, for example), has brought new theoretical and methodological possibilities to bear on the field.
Ethnography and Education
Alpesh Maisuria and Dennis Beach
As described in Beach and Dovemark's 2007 book, Education and the Commodity Problem, critical researchers have identified two fundamental roles for modern-day schools within capitalist states. These are the ideological and material roles and function, where schools produce ideologically compliant workers and consumers for a corporatist economy on the one hand, this is partly through a teaching and a curriculum, which is often hidden and informal; and, on the other form part of a corporate business plan for the accumulation of private capital in the welfare sector through mass outsourcing of welfare-State education provision and the wholesale commodification of education as a public service. This article presents a research method for investigating education in these circumstances. It is a method with a philosophical foundation not only for understanding contemporary educational empirical reality under neoliberal forms of capitalism, but also for developing critical consciousness for the transcendence and transformation of this condition toward a more just form of political economy and human existence.
This research method draws from critical realism and its concept of explanatory critique as a way to forge a scientifically robust Marxist critical ethnography. In relation to this, the description of the method accompanies an overview of some of the basic principles and broadly accepted possibilities of and for ethnography and critical ethnography, followed by a presentation of what Marxist critical ethnography is and how Marxist critical ethnography functions as explanatory critique, respectively. This entails description of what explanatory critique is, and how it can be used to develop a philosophy of social science and an ontological base for ethnography. The aforementioned components together expand on a historical, theoretical, conceptual, and political development of ethnography as part of a Marxist approach to research and practice for social transformation.
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Browsing by Subject "Literature -- History and criticism."
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Subversive pseudo-dialogic: W.B. Yeats's use of the dialogic to present the monologic. (2006-07-25)The application of Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of the dialogic provides unique insight into the poetry and plays of W.B. Yeats. Though this early twentieth century Irish writer favored poetry over the novel form on which ...

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Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 15th Apr 2009 09:54 UTC
Whenever the Conficker worm comes up here on OSNews (or any other site for that matter) there are always a number of people who point their fingers towards Redmond, stating that it's their fault Conifcker got out. While Microsoft has had some pretty lax responses to security threats in the past, it handled the whole Conficker thing perfectly, releasing a patch even before Conficker existed, and pushing it through Windows Update. In any case, this made me wonder about Linux distributions and security. What if a big security hole pops up in a Linux distribution - who will the Redmond-finger-pointing people hold responsible?
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RE: Another car analogy
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RE[2]: Another car analogy
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6 ½ Square Curious Metallics Galvanised Envelopes - Square Flap, 80T
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Shimmer silver 6 1/2 square envelope - Curious Metallics Galvanised: This invitation envelope is made with heavyweight 80lb paper with a metallic, pearlized finish. Envelope has a straight flap. Order blank and print at home with a laser, or take advantage of our envelope printing service. Pair with matching metallic royal blue cards & papers to make your own 6 inch square invitations, stationery, or greeting cards. Great for use as a modern wedding envelope!
Category Description: Curious Metallics Envelopes
Downright stunning, Curious Metallics envelopes feature a double sided metallic shimmer and a deeply saturated color palette. Paper is a thick, heavy 80lb text. Choose from a collection of popular invitation sizes and a rainbow of colors to complement your stylish design. Curious envelopes print best with a laser printer. If uncertain, we recommend you order a sample to rest prior to purchase.
Don't stop here, match your Curious envelopes with a full selection of Curious Metallics papers in a variety of standard sizes.


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Write a Review
Bontrager's AW3 Hard-Case tire offers armor-clad flat protection without sacrificing high-end road feel. Its triple protection reduces pinch flats, sidewall cuts and head-on punctures so you can concentrate on putting in the miles. And the Hard-Case's high-speed tread compound provides optimal traction and low-rolling resistance no matter what the weather, so this tire is equally at home racing or spring training. It even has a unique bead that closes the gap between the tire and rim for improved aerodynamics.
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Jan. 25, 2007
Life on the road continues to be a struggle for the Lipscomb Lady Bisons.
Thursday night, in their first of two games in North Carolina, the Lady Bisons fell 72-56 at Campbell University in an Atlantic Sun game in Buies Creek.
The Lady Bisons opened the game with six unanswered points a jumper by Dana Carrigan that was sandwiched between a pair of lay-ups by Jilian Partin.
Campbell started rolling with their first field goal, a lay-up Adrienne Rieley. That shot sparked a 10-3 run by Campbell which led 10-9 with 12:45 left in the first half.
The Lady Bisons regained the lead at 12:05 when Carrigan connected on a 3-pointer. Campbell then went on an 18-1 run and never looked back.
After trailing twice by as many as 15 points in the first half, the Lady Bisons made a comeback with a 7-0 run to close out the half.
Trailing 31-23 to start the second half Partin struck first with a jumper to cut the lead to six at 31-25 with 18:52 remaining in the game.
Campbell once again pulled away building their biggest lead of the game at 17 points (47-30) with 12:52 on the clock.
The Lady Bisons refused to go away easily, trimming the lead to nine points (61-52) with 2:34 left. But they were unable to sustain that momentum.
Three Lady Bisons finished in double figures. Partin scored a career-and-season-high 15 points. Carrigan and Woods each had 10 points. Woods has scored in double figures in three straight games and five of her last six games.
Partin also grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds for her first ever double-double. It was a career high for Partin on the boards and also tied the season high for the team. Julie Martin went to the boards for a career-high 10 rebounds.
The Lady Bisons were 18-of-47 from the field (38.3 percent) and 5-of-24 3-pointers (20.8 percent). The Lady Bisons hit 15-of-26 free throws (57.7 percent).
Four Campbell players scored in double figures. Letitia Dickson scored a game-high 16 points. Maggie Rich finished with 13. Marlena Murphy tossed in 11 and Taylor Oliver added 10.
Murphy was the top rebounder for Campbell with nine.
Campbell hit 21-of-63 (33.3 percent) from the field. They were 5-of-14 from 3-point range (35.7 percent). Campbell made the difference in the game the line hitting 25-of-32 attempts (78.1 percent). The Lady Bisons slipped to 3-5 in the A-Sun, 5-13 overall. They travel to Gardner-Webb Saturday at 5 p.m.
Campbell is 3-5 in the conference, 5-13 overall.


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AU Wind Symphony Presents Fall Concert
Top HeadlinesDate: October 6, 2006
Contact: email@example.com
Phone: 269-471-3555
The Andrews University Wind Symphony, directed by Allan Mitchell, takes to the stage at the university's Howard Performing Arts Center at 8:00 pm, on Saturday night, October 14, for their annual fall concert.
The concert will feature various selections including: Early Light by Carolyn Bremer, Chant and Jubilo by W. Francis McBeth, a Norwegian march, Valdres, by Johannes Hanssen, Henry Fillmore's march, The Klaxon, Eric Ewazen's Celtic Hymns and Dances, and Vaclav Nelhybel's Festivo.
A special section of the concert will be dedicated to the memory of former Wind Symphony member, Sammy Joseph, who passed away this past spring. This section will include Frank Ticheli's Amazing Grace, Larry Daehn's With Quiet Courage, and the premiere of a new composition by Wind Symphony member, Paul Williams.
Tickets are $5 for general admission and $3 for students and seniors, and can be purchased at the Howard Center Box Office by calling 269-471-3560 or 888-467-6442.


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Madrid: Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema will remain at the Santiago Bernabeu this season, insists his agent.
Benzema has been linked with a move to AC Milan recently amid rumours of his discontent at los Blancos but his agent Karim Djaziri has refuted the claims.
"Benzema is staying with Madrid," Karim Djaziri told Tuttomercatoweb.com.
"There is nothing with Milan and I have nothing further to say."
Djaziri has been vocal in recent months about the former Lyon man`s future.
The 25-year-old is expected to be one of the main attacking options for Madrid this season with speculation continuing to mount over Gonzalo Higuain`s future at the club.
Benzema, whose contract runs out in June 2015, has scored 89 goals in 183 appearances while also contributing 50 assists for the Liga runners up.


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More than 2,000 years ago, the ancient Chinese considered kombucha an immortal health elixir. Some avid drinkers of the fermented tea beverage might say just the same today. In recent years, kombucha has gained widespread popularity among Westerners who drink the brew made from tea, sugar and a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY) to help regulate their digestive flora, detoxify their bodies and boost their immune systems and energy levels.
Although the scientific community has not validated claims that drinking kombucha leads to better health, there is evidence that what is in kombucha — antioxidants, probiotics, Glucaric acids and trace amounts of B vitamins — is beneficial to the body.
"Drinking kombucha is a great way to get balance back into the body," says Steve Dickman, founder and chief operating officer of High Country Kombucha. "The probiotics in it help balance the flora in the gut — kind of like yogurt — but kombucha is more aggressive than yogurt, so it takes everything to the next level and people really feel the benefits."
In addition to helping to regulate gut flora, Dickman also says that kombucha helps to alkalize the body, like a lemon would. Kombucha is detoxifying, beneficial to the immune system and energizing, and it provides an organic alternative to sugary or caffeine-heavy drinks when people are looking for an energy boost, he says.
When choosing a kombucha, it is important to make sure that it is a raw, organic and authentic brew, Dickman says. Because of kombucha's increase in popularity, a lot of companies are now labeling their beverages with the name.
"If it's not raw, beware," says Dickman. "In order to get the benefits, the kombucha must come from an authentic brew — it's only good if it's a living culture."
While many brands of kombucha, High Country included, are available in local grocery stores, buying a $3 bottle of the beverage regularly can get pricey. So some kombucha fans have taken on the task of brewing their own.
"I started brewing kombucha two years ago," says local homebrewer Ryan Danyew. "We were drinking it all the time and, for a family of five, that became costly. So, it made sense to start making it."
The process is pretty straightforward and, as long as you follow a recipe and abide by some simple rules, it takes minimal time and effort to get a brew going, Danyew says. And, since the SCOBY replaces itself, which is why it is often referred to as a "mother," once the process is started, it's easy to make brew after brew as you work on perfecting your process and making a drink that suits your taste.
What you'll need:
A SCOBY. The SCOBY multiplies each time kombucha is made, so there are many of them literally floating around our community. Danyew suggests asking friends or maybe even looking on Craigslist. Make sure that the SCOBY is delivered to you submerged in kombucha and has been kept refrigerated. Dickman also sug gests making a SCOBY from a bottle of kombucha. Follow the process outlined below and then, rather than adding a SCOBY, dump a bottle of kombucha into the tea and sugar mixture and a SCOBY will form during fermentation.
A glass jar (Danyew suggests starting with a gallon, although you can increase the size of the jar and batch as you become more comfortable with the process.)
A wooden spoon (Make sure that no metal is used in the process as metal will kill the live culture.)
A pot for boiling water
Black tea and flavored tea, if desired
Breathable cloth, like cheesecloth (Dickman stresses the importance of bleaching these and rinsing them well to ensure that they are sterile.)
A funnel
Glass bottles (Save your old kombucha bottles and ask friends to save theirs.)
The process (for one gallon):
Boil one gallon of water. Remove from heat. Add 4 bags of black tea and 4 bags of flavored tea, like mango or peach, if desired. Add ½ tbsp. sugar. Cover and let cool to room temperature.
Once cooled, add the SCOBY and 4 to 5 ounces of kombucha (or a bottle of original flavored kombucha). Cover with a cheesecloth and secure with a rubber band. Store in a dark place for one to two weeks, checking after a week for taste. The longer the kom bucha ferments, the more acidic it will become.
Remove the SCOBY, submerge it in kombucha, and refrigerate it. Reuse it quickly, because the longer it sits, the less potent it becomes.
Using a funnel, pour the kombucha into bottles. Danyew suggests adding a small amount of sugar to each bottle of the kombucha to help it carbonate. Dickman, however, suggests bottling the brew a bit earlier (when its natural sugar content is higher) and skipping the extra sugar. Adding more sugar can literally make the brew explosive.
Put the bottles in the refrigerator and let sit for about four days before drinking. Because the kombucha is alive, it will continue to ferment and become more acidic with age. While it will never go bad, the taste will be compromised over time, so it's best consumed within a couple of months.
While black or green tea must always be used because the culture feeds off the caffeine and tannins in those teas, there's room for a little experimentation in the process, like adding a little maple syrup or juice when bottling.
"It's fun," says Danyew. "Just remember to start simple and, once you're comfortable, increase your batch size and experiment. And take notes. Always take notes. You definitely want to be able to recreate a great batch."
Respond: email@example.com


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This is full musical pack for computer game or children holidays. In this pack you get the following tracks in WAV format:
- The Stream (2:34) It's a fun and lively track with good development and a colorful culmination. http://audiojungle.net/item/the-stream/4154612
- The Cave (2:04) @2:34 in preview. It is a mysterious, alarming and frightening music with characteristic bassoon theme. http://audiojungle.net/item/the-cave/4265366
- The Gallop (0:48) @4:38 in preview. It is very fast and playful music. Illustrates well the game of "catch-up". http://audiojungle.net/item/the-gallop/4265405
- The Wonderful Lake (2:06) @5:26 in preview. It is a very calm and serene track, illustrate light swinging on the waves. Bells, harp and tremolo strings create a sense of magic. http://audiojungle.net/item/the-wonderful-lake/4265433
I would be grateful if you send me a link to your work featuring my music – at your own discretion, of course.


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Check out which companies are making headlines after the bell Wednesday:
Constellation Brands - Anheuser-Busch, Grupo Modelo, Constellation Brands, and Crown Imports are in talks with the U.S. Department of Justice seeking to resolve the Department of Justice's litigation challenging Anheuser-Busch's proposed acquisition of the remaining stake in Grupo Modelo it does not already own.
(Read More: S&P Logs Worst Day of 2013, Dow Below 14,000)
Tesla Motors - The manufacturer of electric cars posted a loss of 65 cents a share, excluding one-time items, on revenue of $306 million, beating expectations for a loss of 53 cents a share on sales of $298 million. The company added that it expects to be "slightly profitable" in the first quarter. Shares initially rose in extended-hours trading, but reversed their gains to trade lower.
Verifone Systems - The electronic payment solutions company reported weak first-quarter and second-quarter guidance, sending shares down nearly 30 percent in extended-hours trading.


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|System: PS3, Xbox 360
|Dev: Capcom
|Pub: Capcom
|Release: February 15, 2011
|Players: 1-2 (2-8 Online)
|Screen Resolution: 720p-1080p
|Mild Language, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Violence
Add to that the fact that there are only four unlockable characters, and you've got a game that doesn't give the average gamer much reason to come back. Sister game Tatsunoko vs. Capcom featured plenty of extra modes, content and unlockables, and the fact that it was a Wii-exclusive almost puts Marvel vs. Capcom 3's lack of content to shame. The fact that the roster was also cut by more than twenty is also a bone of contention. I know that the DLC pay model is lucrative, but I really wish that more would have been included with my initial purchase, as I don't know how I'm going to rationalize paying additional money just to get the same amount of characters I would have gotten in Marvel vs. Capcom 2.
Still, even though I was disappointed in the lack of overall content, I can't deny that Marvel vs. Capcom 3 has some excellent production values. The game looks great, and even though many fans were a little wary of the game's new visual style before it was released, I think the new visual style fits in well with the new, modern theme that Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is going for. Character models are all detailed, and animations are seamless. Special commendation also has to be given to the stage design, which represents the different universes in great detail. Everything from the quasi-zombies in Resident Evil's Tri-Cell labs to the rainbow bridge to Asgard in Thor's stage is rendered in loving detail, and give an extra bit of credibility to the game among longtime fans.
The sound is also produced well, but hearing the same catchphrases over and over gets old fast. I don't care how much affection you have for Nolan North, hearing Dante tell you about his style over and over and over again grates on your nerves. Each character only has a few lines of dialogue (even in the game's quasi-story Arcade mode), and if you are taking your game online, it's best to mentally prepare yourself to hear the same old cheesy one-liner again and again. The background music isn't as annoyingly repetitive as the voiceover, but you will definitely tire of it soon enough, as it is not all that varied between stages.
Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds is certainly a departure for the MvC series at-large, and if you are not open to change within the franchise, then there is no way that you will enjoy this title. In fact, you'll probably hate it. However, if you can accept that the franchise needed to modernize, and are willing to learn the new battle system, you'll find a game that is accessible, fun to play, and will be a sure-fire crowd pleaser at local gatherings. Just don't expect the experience to last too long. Even though there is a lot to love about Marvel vs. Capcom 3, there just isn't enough content to put it in the same league with the upper echelon of fighting games. And no, potential for future DLC doesn't count.
Amanda L. Kondolojy
CCC Senior Contributing Writer
Game Features:


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|Santa Barbara > Attractions > Santa Barbara Waterfront
Condor Express Whale Watching Tours is the premier
Whale Watching and Party/Dinner Cruise venue in California. Located in the
beautiful city of Santa Barbara we offer the most comfortable, advanced
vessel on the west coast. Each of our crew members are trained and
experienced naturalist with 30+ years of service. You will be impressed with
just how well our captains know these waters and love the incredible animals
we spend so much time with. When you ride on the CONDOR EXPRESS, you are
riding with the experts!
|Santa Barbara Waterfront Shuttle - Running from noon until sunset every half hour, the Waterfront Shuttle cycles continuously between two hugely popular local destinations - the Santa Barbara Harbor and Stearns Wharf. Santa Barbara Waterfront Shuttle puts you in touch with everything the Harbor and Wharf has to offer. Junior Captains: Under the watchful eye of Capt. Fred, children are encouraged to steer the boat and sound the "Lil Toot" steam whistle. Your child at the wheel of "Lil Toot" is a great photo opportunity!
|Celebration Cruises Santa Barbara - Located at Stearns Wharf, Celebration Cruises Santa Barbara is a luxury 42-Passenger yacht. Running daily, our schedule offers a variety of fun and romantic cruises to fit everyone's needs including, whale watching, sunset cruises, brunch and dinner cruises, seasonal tours. Private charter the Celebration Cruises yacht as the perfect venue for your special event: weddings, memorials, birthday parties, party and holiday cruises, corporate events, dinners, engagements and more!
Waterfront ranges from Leadbetter
Beach, past the Harbor, West
Beach, Stearns Wharf, Chase
Palm Park, the Zoological Gardens
and to East Beach.
Along this stretch of incredible coastline you will find restaurants,
shops, artists, and a bike trail. The waterfront is an important
meeting place for locals during the Forth of July and First Night
Stearns Wharf is the center of all this activity. The structure is over 130 years old and has been the home of much of Santa Barbara's early history when immigrants and supplies had to come primarily from the sea. A popular attraction is the Ty Warner Sea Center - a fun, engaging, interactive marine education facility located on Stearns Wharf. Owned and operated by the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, the Ty Warner Sea Center fulfills the mission of the Museum to inspire a passion for the natural world.
The Harbor
The Harbor began almost a hundred years ago when a wealthy Santa Barbara resident wanted to keep his yacht closer to home - or so the story goes. He created the breakwater and harbor that keeps the considerable fishing and pleasure boat population of Santa Barbara safe and moored. The Harbor and Stearns Wharf are connected by the Waterfront Shuttle "Lil Toot".
Today, the Harbor features the Maritime Museum and one of Santa Barbara's landmark restaurants, Brophy Bros. The breakwater is paved and you can take a stroll out to the end.
Chase Palm Park
You will find a wonderful park to the east of the Wharf, Chase Palm Park, that features the weekly Arts & Crafts Show. Each Sunday local artisans gather to share their latest wares.
Chase Palm Park is also a mecca for the younger crowd as they try their skill at Skater's Point, Santa Barbara's gift to skateboarders and inline skaters.
Directions: Take the 101 to Cabrillo or Garden. Turn away from the mountains. Cabrillo Blvd. Will bring you to the East Beach edge of the Waterfront. Garden will bring you closer to the Wharf. The parking is along the south side of Cabrillo, in the lot near East Beach, on one of the side streets off State Street, in the parking lot near the harbor and in the lot near Leadbetter Beach. If there is a major event going on, park in one of the main city lots up State Street and take the Waterfront Shuttle.


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Historians as Information Managers
Experience with new technologies will be useful also in the field of information management--the acquisition, organization, storage, retrieval, and dissemination of information. Traditionally many aspects of information management--archival and records management, for instance--have been related to the practice of history. More recently, however, information management has become more specialized, and some areas of information management now require the skills of a computer specialist as well. Nevertheless, students of history are still important as archivists and can use their history education as a valuable supplement to courses in library science or database management.
Archivists constitute an important segment of the information management community. Archives are repositories for noncurrent records (in a variety of media) generated by individuals, institutions, groups, and governments and that are preserved because they contain information of historical value. Archivists are responsible for the establishment and maintenance of physical and intellectual control over the records in their care. As part of their work, they appraise documentation to determine its value, arrange and describe the material, refer for repair and preservation of the records as needed, and make the material available for users.
Archivists can be found in government offices; educational, cultural and religious institutions; businesses; labor unions; hospitals; and community organizations. Each state has some type of official archives. In addition to the well-known National Archives, many federal agencies maintain archives for their own use.
Entry-level positions generally require at least a B.A., more often an M.A. in history or a related social science, and a basic knowledge of archival skills.
Records Managers
Records management is distinct from archival management. Records managers are concerned with the economical and efficient creation, use, and maintenance of the records of organizations as well as the disposition of these records.
Some entry-level positions (such as records clerks) may be available to high-school graduates, but most require at least a BA and the more advanced positions will need a master's degree in library science or other field with specialized coursework in records management.
Librarians comprise perhaps the most visible component of the information management community. They can be found in educational institutions, public libraries, historical societies, museums, state government, and business. In their different positions, librarians catalog and classify the different materials that enter the library; maintain a catalog (electronic or paper); prepare finding aids for the collection such as checklists and bibliographies; and generally assist users. Almost without exception, professional library positions demand a Master of Library Science degree (M.L.S.) from an institution accredited by the American Library Association. But several organizations and libraries do recruit persons holding high school diplomas and college degrees as library assistants and aides. A historical society, history museum, or research library undergraduate or graduate degree in history holds no particular advantage without an M.L.S. For those interested in both history and the library profession, a few graduate schools offer students the opportunity to complete both an M.A. and an M.L.S. degree.
Information Managers
Historians can make a significant contribution in this area, particularly when the information is historical. They can create and manage databases, verify documents, edit and publish, oversee public information, and undertake document research. The various positions in this field include: Library systems analysts who focus their attention on the development of both manual and mechanized library systems. Documentation specialists who are concerned with the flow of information, data field definitions, and the preparation of narrative descriptions for materials associated with databases. Business analysts who evaluate information systems with financial applications, develop appropriate systems, and focus on user needs and services. Online search specialists who concentrate primarily on user needs. Information researchers who conduct research in the field of information science and analyze the generation, storage, and transference of information. Such positions will require at the minimum a BA and some experience with automated library facilities.


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October 3, 2003
The Honorable Susan A. Gendron
Commissioner of Education
Maine Department of Education
23 State House Station
August, ME 04333-0023
Dear Commissioner Gendron:
I am writing to follow up on your letter of August 21st in which you submitted several amendments to the Maine accountability plan.
With respect to the amendments related to Elements 1.1 (accountability for schools without tested grades) and 7.1 (graduation rate definition), Maine may make these changes. With respect to Element 5.5, Maine wishes to apply a confidence interval to safe harbor determinations. Maine may use this statistical test (limited to a 75% confidence interval) for making adequate yearly progress (AYP) determinations this school year. We request, however, that Maine provide impact data from the 2002-2003 AYP data regarding the use of this statistical test for "safe harbor," as soon as it is available, for further review and consideration by the Department. Please update your accountability plan with these amendments and submit it to your state contact so that the most up-to-date plan is available and on the Department's website.
Maine also provided information about moving the assessment system from a grade span system to a system that administers assessments in grades 3-8 and high school. The U.S. Department has issued regulations that would allow Maine to use its local assessments within a statewide assessment system to meet the Title I requirements. At this point, Maine has indicated that they will pursue a state-based assessment system. As you continue developing your statewide assessment system, please refer to the guidance we have issued about standards and assessments:
NCLB: Standards and Assessments; Non-Regulatory Draft Guidance; March 10, 2003.
With respect to Element 5.3, you have submitted a question about the use of alternate assessments aligned to alternate achievement standards (i.e., PAAP). As indicated in previous communication, students taking the PAAP must be included in the accountability system. We will work with you on how best to include these results, but Maine may not amend its plan to exclude these students from the accountability system.
We will continue to work with Maine to implement these accountability provisions and ensure that all students reach proficiency.
Ronald J. Tomalis
Acting Assistant Secretary


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As most of you will know, Windows 7 made me switch full-time to Windows again, and ever since last Christmas, when the beta got out, it's been my main operating system. As much as I "like" using Windows 7 (I hate all operating systems except BeOS), there's still a few features from other operating systems that I would like to see in Windows 7.
First and foremost, I am a big proponent of Mac OS X's Exposé. While I really like the new features Aero Snap brings to Windows when it comes to window management, there is simply no replacement for Exposé. I wish Microsoft would just suck it up and implement it alright. Sometimes it's simply better to admit that your competitor has a really good feature than to come up with a lame rip-off that doesn't work as well (Flip 3D). Exposé + Aero Snap = window management nirvana.
There are a number of third party tools that bring Exposé to Windows, but none of them work as smoothly and effectively as Exposé. Obviously, I'm open to suggestions.
Sticking to the area of window management, there are two things in this field I miss from BeOS. First, double-clicking on the titlebar to minimise a window. I find this a very natural way of minimising windows, and I personally find it a more logical result of double-clicking a titlebar than maximising. Mac OS X inherited the feature from Be engineers who joined Apple, and KDE and Compiz have the ability too. The second one is the ability to "send a window to back".
Another issue I have with Windows is that clicking an inactive window will make said window actually register that click. I prefer it when my clicks in an inactive window do not get processed by that window so you don't accidentally click a button or something similar. It also prevents you from having to search for a "safe" area to click.
Those are the main things I'm missing in my main operating system. What are yours?


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Fireplaces have long been the heart of the home. Traditionally the centre piece of the living room, the fireplace creates a physical and emotional cosy glow, adding a sense of comfort and closeness as well as keeping you warm in the winter. Throughout civilisation, fires have been the cornerstone for communities, serving as a place for sharing, storytelling and coming together.
Although fireplaces have changed little in concept over the years, the materials and styles available now are vast. Here's how to find a fireplace that fits in seamlessly with your home's interior.
Traditional log-burning fireplaces are perfect for a rustic living room. Brick, stone or wooden structures, perhaps with a mantelpiece, bookshelves or log storage built in, are a simple yet cosy addition. An exposed brick chimney is an effective way to introduce an industrial element to a warm, soft living room.
When it comes to modern fireplace design options, the sky's the limit. To match your contemporary home interior, look for glass, metal or marble fireplaces. Designs with sharp, clean lines will blend in perfectly to a modern or minimalist room. You could also try a floating design as a quirky focal piece – modern innovation means fireplaces no longer need be restricted to one wall.
The original essence of the fireplace is, of course, as a means of warmth. Make the most of your hearth in the cold weather with new technologies, like fireplace inserts, which minimise heat loss. You can opt for modern electric or ethanol-utilising designs, rather than traditional logs and coal. You may also wish to have your fire linked up to your heating system for maximum efficiency.
A fireplace and chimney can provide a bonus function too. Your new addition can act as a room separator in an open-plan living space, creating a comfortable corner or some extra privacy.
In other rooms
There's a tendency in home interior design to assume fireplaces belong in the living room, but that's not the only place they can work wonders. In homes pre-dating modern heating, fireplaces were often found in bedrooms too. Although you're likely have alternative heating, a bedroom fire can be the ultimate indulgence, especially if your winters are very cold. A bathroom fireplace is also truly luxurious. These are typically much smaller than the living room styles but add a relaxing and atmospheric effect to make a relaxing soak even more special.
If you have an outdoor space you adore in the summer, don't let the onset of cold weather stop the fun. Make your garden, porch or patio available 365 days a year with an outdoor fireplace that's perfect for big get-togethers or romantic evenings. Brick structures are most common, with a large log pile to keep you going. Designate some 'outdoor blankets' and you're ready for cosy living outdoors.
At Engel & Völkers, we're experts in luxury property and know all the latest interior design trends. For an insider look at our portfolio of beautifully furnished homes, visit our website today or pop into your local Engel & Völkers shop.


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Pets, Pets, Pets
We all know that timing, even seconds, can be the difference between life and death. This Good Samaritan was already late for work. If she had been on time, chances are she would never have noticed the tiny white kitten stepping off the curb into the busy Wy andan ch street; and chances are I wouldn't be typing this story.
In last week's "Pets," you may have seen the photo of the adorable kitten found with the deep puncture wound. Or you might have read the shared Babylon Shelter Facebook post defining "munificence" as cooperative generosity, or the Last Hope comment on the Babylon Facebook post, adding a plea for people to pray for "Maggie," a longhaired white kitten with baby blue eyes, both written before she even had a name. At that time we weren't sure this cutie was going to survive her injury. Now, we just KNOW she will.
On June 14 while on her way to work in Melville, Regina, a kind lady, noticed a six-week-old puffball stepping away from a sump into traffic on Little East Neck Road at the intersection of Patton Avenue. She turned her car around and drove back to try to grab the kitten before she was hit by a car.This kitten wouldfit in the palm of your hand.
Regina saw the kitten dart under a tarp, and then she saw all the blood. Aghast and frustrated, she called her husband (a policeman) and then 911. A squad car arrived with two young officers who told her they would take over because it wasn't safe for her to be searching on such a busy road.
The policemen caught the kitten and took her to nearby Babylon Shelter where it was discovered the kitten had a gaping wound covered with maggots in her hind quarters. It was hard to fathom how she was alive. Despite her old injury, the kitten was friendly, spunky and hungry, wolfing down two thirds of a can of Fancy Feast. When you picked her up, all you could feel were bones.
The shelter rushed the kitten to their vet, but the usual doctor wasn't there. The vet on duty said her injury was too complex, and that the kitten should be euthanized. Kristin the animal control officer couldn't let that happen, so she called Last Hope. Her graphic phone photos (as well as the cute one in last week's column) clinched the deal.
Last Hope made arrangements for the kitten to go to Grady Animal Hospital in Sayville. Kristin delivered her and stayed while the staff began to rid her of the infestation. Kristin realized the wound was even more invasive than she thought. Dr. Mark Caporaso felt the injury was an abscess that had ruptured and thenfilled with maggots, perhaps deepening the injury. Luckily the location of the puncture didn't interfere with any bodily functions. Once cleaned, the wound would stay open to the air - no stitches or packing. Dr. Mark admitted her to his hospital, and said the tissue would take time to heal.
The kitten was a favorite of his caring staff who named her "Maggie" for obvious reasons.They suspected a dog may have attacked her. Two days later she weakened after becoming hypothermic. She was placed on a heating pad. Her condition was guarded.
By the end of the week "Maggie" had improved, tested FeLV/FIV negative and regained her hearty appetite. She was ready to leave the hospital. She was no longer on IV.The only precaution was to use "Yesterday's News," the recycled newspaper pellet litter, rather than clay or flushable litter that could stick to her open wound.
Meanwhile Regina, Maggie's rescuer, checked with the shelter to see how the kitten was doing. She was delighted to learn that Last Hope had taken her. Since she coincidentally lives in Sayville, she asked if she could visit Maggie at the hospital so she could actually meet her.
Regina visited Grady shortly before the Last Hope foster Mom arrived to take her home. "My husband and I got to meet Maggie yesterday!Thanks so much for arranging our visit with the vet. She is so precious and adorable! I can't believe how bad her wound is and that she has such a strong, determined spirit. I feel so fortunate that I was able to help with her rescue and get her the help that she so desperately needed," said Regina who also mentioned that she and her husband were considering fostering or perhaps adopting Maggie if they could integrate her into their household with a nine-year-old cat and a three-year-old dog.
Well, we can certainly try integrating Maggie. Rescue organizations' interactions with animal hospitals and town shelters often become "package deals." Regina doesn't know yet that when Linda the Last Hope president went to visit Maggie at Grady, she took three younger kittens convalescing there to Last Hope in Wantagh.
One person's act of caring can set off a chain of compassion. Because one person cared enough to stop to help a defenseless creature and another cared enough to try to save her, "Maggie" now has a chance at having a wonderful, full life, as do the kittens in a younger feline family, riding on her coattails.
Babylon Town Shelter Adoptables (631-643-9270): Available at 51 Lamar Street, W. Babylon- Now that it's summer, "Holly" #13-327 goes out into the shelter yard with a blanket and dreams of being at the beach. If only someone would take her home and make her dream come true. "Louie" #3-269, a delightful declaw, was turned into the shelter because of serious family illness.
Dogs: f. Pomeranian #13-356; "Ebony" #13-309 f. black Shepherd; f. Jack Russell #13-367 found in Amityville; "Elmer" #13-297- older Pit found lying in the road in Wyandanch. Elmer talks and tells you his tale of woe.


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Never mind the switch, feel the fabric
Vendors take up weaving
It is not clear who started it but it is all-out war in the systems business and the battleground is convergence.…
It is not clear who started it but it is all-out war in the systems business and the battleground is convergence.
Networking giant Cisco Systems has moved forcefully into the server racket, IBM is buying its way back into the networking business, Dell is buying into it for the first time and Hewlett-Packard is expanding the business it already has while also doing acquisitions.
Servers and storage arrays are being virtualised and sharing networks, which provides operational efficiencies and lower capital expenses (in theory anyway). The network is at the centre of it all – and is quickly becoming a management hairball.
In an ideal world, you would have a single tool that spans the switches, servers and storage, and virtualisation hypervisors on servers with their integrated virtual switches would be the command-and-control system for the whole enchilada.
But we don't live in an ideal world. A cross-platform, cross-vendor network fabric management tool that hooks into all of this physical and virtual iron does not yet exist.
Some networking vendors do, however, have fabric management tools for their own products, and at least one player is working on a set of tools that will span a wide variety of products, not just its own.
Let's explore the approaches of three vendors: Mellanox, Cisco and IBM.
Tapestry work
Mellanox Technologies, the maker of InfiniBand switch and network interface chips, hybrid InfiniBand/Ethernet host adapter cards and InfiniBand switches, shelled out $218m in November to keep an ASIC partner from slipping into enemy hands. It wanted to give itself a head start in moving into the 10 Gigabit Ethernet switch market, but also to get its hands on the Unified Fabric Manager (UFM) software created by Voltaire to span its InfiniBand and Ethernet switches.
UFM can provide some basic management functions for any switch supporting a standard management information base, which is part of the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).
Because Hewlett-Packard and Blade Network Technologies were partners of Voltaire, UFM also had extensive integration with HP's ProCurve 6600 and BNT's RackSwitch 8124G switches.
But following the acquisition of Voltaire by Mellanox, of 3Com by HP and of BNT by IBM, UFM has been more tightly focused on Mellanox's InfiniBand and Ethernet switches and adapters. This parallels what happened with blade servers, with every vendor offering its own in-chassis management tool to make the hardware run applications more efficiently.
Gilad Shainer, senior director of high-performance and technical computing at Mellanox, says the fabric manager is the last missing piece in the cloud stack, which includes virtual machine managers, service orchestrators, job schedulers and storage managers.
Through the keyhole
Being a networking vendor, Mellanox naturally puts the fabric manager at the centre of it all, providing a window into all aspects of the network and the systems that use it.
Its job involves monitoring the performance of devices on the network and aggregating statistics on applications and jobs running on systems; detecting problems and correlating them with particular jobs or applications; providing detailed alert information for each job and node; and changing network fabric policies on the fly in response to changing resource needs to optimise performance.
UFM monitors the physical, logical and application layers of the network, and can push fabric policies back down to the switches, hypervisors and servers in the network. This includes provisioning virtual networks for virtual machines and letting network settings travel with the virtual machines as they are migrated around the network.
"It's like Google Maps for your network. You can see where your traffic jams are"
As far as Mellanox is concerned, large systems with thousands of server nodes absolutely require something like UFM to make the networks support the needs of applications more efficiently.
"Even when you are talking about a few hundred servers, without a view into the fabric, your setup could be dead wrong and you wouldn't even know it," says Shainer.
"It's like Google Maps for your network. You can see where your traffic jams are."
UFM includes quality-of-service (QoS) features that allow network admins to set policies for the performance of switches and NICs, interfacing with job schedulers to make sure the right work gets done on a cluster (whether it is running commercial software or a high-performance workload) in the right order and at the right speed.
How UFM fits into a dynamic server cluster
In one benchmark test run by Mellanox, a single job running in a cluster has an average latency for transactions of 2.1 microseconds (the kind of thing Wall Street hedge funds need to make a living). When a second job is added to the cluster, the latency jumps to 4.5 microseconds. Kicking on UFM's QoS features and letting it optimise the networks reduces the overall latency on both jobs to 2.2 microseconds.
Mellanox charges for UFM on a per-node basis: the Standard Edition costs $139 per node and the Advanced Edition, which has optimisations specifically for high-performance computing libraries, costs about twice that. Enterprise licences for customers building machines with thousands of nodes are available at a discounted price.
In the end, UFM adds a few per cent to the overall cost – not a big deal, says Shainer. "But it can increase the productivity of the clusters in the tens of per cents, if not more," he adds.
Storage warp and server weft
Cisco Systems deals with two levels of fabric management. One is inside the "California" Unified Computing System blade servers and related rack servers, which feature an integrated network and server management tool called UCS Manager.
At a higher level, Cisco peddles Data Center Network Manager, a converging set of server and storage network management tools that span its director, top-of-rack and edge switches.
The company also needs to integrate the two products so Unified Computing System looks like any other kind of network device and can be managed from Data Center Network Manager.
"We have a lot of cool technology out there but you need fabric management," says Omar Sultan, Cisco's solution manager for data centre switching.
This means not only putting in hooks for automation between Data Center Network Manager and Unified Computing System, but also integrating with existing enterprise management frameworks.
"There are no greenfield management accounts," says Sultan. "Everyone already has some sort of management framework in place and you can't disrupt that.
"Our fabric view is beyond the Layer 2 and Layer 3 fabric – it includes servers, security and Layers 4 through 7 on the network."
Cisco has been hard at work expanding the Fabric Manager software for managing the Fibre Channel storage switches that it inherited from its $700m acquisition of Andiamo in 2004.
Andiamo is the source for much of the technology in the Nexus family of converged switches, as well as the networking at the heart of the UCS blade servers. Fabric Manager came out in 2002 and was updated in 2005.
In 2008, Cisco rolled out Data Center Network Manager as an Ethernet companion to Fabric Manager. This software can be used to manage Catalyst and Nexus switches, including the Nexus 1000V virtual switch that tucks up inside VMware's ESXi hypervisor and replaces its own integrated distributed virtual switch. (The Nexus 1000V is a key component of Unified Computing System but can run on any x86 server sporting ESXi.)
Data Center Network Manager does configuration through templates and wizards, as well as command line interfaces, event monitoring and performance trending, and event forwarding and impact analysis for troubleshooting. Not all features are available for all Nexus, Catalyst, MDS 9XX, and UCS 6XXX switches, but Cisco is working on it.
To make things easier, in July Cisco also rebranded these storage and network fabric managers and gave them a common management console. the Data Center Network Manager Web Client. This has dashboards for looking into the fabrics written in Adobe Flex.
Fabric Manager is now Data Center Network Manager for SAN, and the original Data Center Network Manager is now called Data Center Network Manager for LAN. Now, Cisco has a single, integrated product that spans Fibre Channel, Ethernet and Fibre Channel over Ethernet switches – so long as the gear has the Cisco name on it, of course.
Sultan says that while Data Center Network Manager can discover and interface with any switch on the network, the company would have to expand its engineering and quality assurance teams by a factor of three or four to get it to work properly with other vendors' gear.
The Essentials Edition of Data Center Network Manager is free and can do simple SAN and LAN provisioning and monitoring. If you want more complex SAN and LAN provisioning, monitoring and management, then you need to pay for the Advanced Edition.
Sultan says that generally speaking, Data Center Network Manager has an incremental cost above the hardware price that works out to between five and 10 per cent of the cost of the switching gear.
Big Blue has open mind
In September 2010 IBM bought Blade Network Technologies, a maker of rack-based Ethernet switches (rebranded Voltaire gear), as well as blade switches for IBM, HP and NEC blade servers, for a rumored $400m.
Three months later, before its acquisition by Mellanox, Voltaire signed a global licensing deal for Unified Fabric Manager, and a joint development agreement between Voltaire and IBM with a combined value of $17m over two years.
IBM has not disclosed the nature of the agreement between itself and Mellanox but Tom Parker, the company's senior product manager for systems networking management software, confirms that a new tool combining the functionality of various networking tools does not include any Unified Fabric Manager code.
But clearly something is in the works. The acquisitions of BNT and Intelliden back in February 2010, as well as IBM's Systems Director multi-platform systems management tools, could be the foundation of an interesting management framework that extends the fabric beyond the network and all the way up to applications.
"We think we are in a great position to bring together a lot of different assets," says Dan Tuchler, vice-president of product management for IBM's system networking division.
As far as IBM is concerned, you need to integrate the management of networks, servers, storage, middleware and applications because customers are tired of getting stuck down in the weeds of device management.
"What they want is to load their applications and make them work," says Tuchler.
He adds that it is not safe to assume that IBM will support this future network-application management software only on its own iron. "I think we will support many vendors," he says.
And, of course, thanks to the vast Global Services behemoth which manages lots of servers, storage and networks on behalf of IBM's customers, the vendor has to take a broader view than, say, Mellanox or Cisco.
Follow my leader
In the meantime, at the end of November IBM announced the foundation of what could be a new switch-system-application fabric, System Networking Element Manager v6.1.
According to Parker it includes what would have been BNT's BladeHarmony v6.1 switch manager, including an upgrade to the important VMReady feature, which allows virtual machines to migrate from server to server without having to reconfigure the network settings This is the kind of thing IBM wants to do across many kinds of devices.
"People don't want to get bogged down in MAC addresses and QoS settings. We think we have a lead here and we are going to extend it," says Tuchler.
The new System Networking Element Manager v6.1 tool also wraps in the Tivoli Netcool Configuration Manager from the Intelliden acquisition, and a subset of Tivoli Network Manager for System Networking Element Manager, which does network discovery and topology-based root-cause analysis.
The System Networking Element Manager stack also includes the functionality from Intelliden's Netcool Omnibus, an event manager that can de-duplicate alerts as switches keep pinging for help. ®
Sponsored: How do you pick the right cloud for the right job?
Rojenx is a leading concept artist who work appears in games and publications
Check out his personal gallery here


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Monitoring adenocarcinoma in situ of the cervix
Dear OncoLink "Ask The Experts,"
I was wondering what is generally considered to be the most effective way to follow-up and monitor adenocarcinoma in situ of the cervix after a cone biopsy with negative margins. My doctor is going to schedule me for quarterly Pap smears. I have read conflicting information that Pap smears are ineffective for detecting adenocarcinoma. In fact, neither a Pap smear nor a colposcopy revealed this. It was detected after a LEEP (loop electrocautery excision procedure) in my case. My doctor is not an oncologist, and I just want to make sure that she will be using the most effective diagnostic tools.
Thank you for your time!
Christina S. Chu, MD, Assistant Professor of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania Health System, responds:
You are correct that Pap smears may be negative sometimes when adenocarcinoma is present. However, the good news is that more and more studies suggest that a cone biopsy with negative margins may be adequate therapy for adenocarcinoma in situ. About 8% of women with negative margins may have persistent lesions compared to about 60% of women who have positive margins on their cone biopsies. Some studies suggest that a cone biopsy by the cold knife technique is more effective than LEEP because the latter tends to have more positive margins and a higher recurrence rate. No screening technique is perfect, and the best technique we have is Pap tests with follow-up colposcopy and endocervical curettage for abnormal findings. Even though you said that your Pap and colposcopy did not pick up your adenocarcinoma in situ, I suspect there were some abnormal findings that were concerning enough for your physician to perform a LEEP. Remember that a Pap test is a screening test, meant to detect abnormalities that should lead to further investigation.
Once you are no longer interested in childbearing, you may want to discuss a hysterectomy with your physician as a definitive way to treat the adenocarcinoma in situ.


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Current Law Students / Re: 1L Summer« on: July 23, 2004, 07:39:29 AM »
Just curious... what school do you have in miond? I think (personally) if you can make it happen financially then you should di it. What stage of the law school game are you in? Are you applying, or are you starting soon? B/c you might have some time to ponder this, and talk to some people at your school that have participated in the program.
Richmond. I plan to attend this fall, but I am still in a bit of waitlist limbo. One thing I do know about the program is that it fills up ridiculously quickly, as in, I plan to submit my app at orientation! I haven't talked directly to people who have participated, but from what I have read and heard second- and third- hand is that it is a fun way to spend your 1L summer. Not that "fun" should be a top priority, but the classes offered are geared toward comparative and international law, which I figure wouldn't hurt if I hope to gear my career toward GB in some fashion.


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Of the Office for Civil Rights
Fiscal Year 2006
On March 24, 2006, OCR published final regulations implementing the Boy Scouts of America Equal Access Act (the Boy Scouts Act ) in the Federal Register. The Boy Scouts Act, part of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, applies to any public elementary school, public secondary school, LEA or SEA that has a designated open forum or limited public forum and that receives funds made available through ED. Under the Boy Scouts Act, these entities may not deny equal access or a fair opportunity to meet to, or discriminate against, any group officially affiliated with the Boy Scouts of America or any other youth group listed in Title 36 of the United States Code (as a patriotic society) that wishes to conduct a meeting within the covered entity's designated forum. The law gives ED, through OCR, responsibility for ensuring that the Boy Scouts and other covered youth groups have equal access to public school facilities.
On Oct. 19, 2004, the secretary of education published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), requesting public comment on proposed regulations for the Boy Scouts Act. The 45-day period for public comment closed on Dec. 3, 2004. OCR received over 3,000 comments. After extensive review by DOJ and OMB of ED's draft of the final regulations based on its review of the comments, ED issued the final Boy Scouts Act regulations on March 24, 2006.
One of the Boy Scouts Act's regulatory provisions, at 34 CFR §108.8, concerns assurances of compliance with the act. An applicant for funds made available through ED to which the Boy Scouts Act applies must submit an assurance that the applicant will comply with the act and its regulations. In order to collect these assurances of compliance with the Boy Scouts Act, OCR amended the form OCR uses to collect assurances of compliance with other laws enforced by OCR. That form (now called "Assurance of Compliance—Civil Rights Certificate") includes language by which the applicant assures that it will comply with Title VI, Title IX, Section 504, the Age Discrimination Act, and the Boy Scouts Act, as well as all regulations, guidelines and standards adopted under these statutes. In FY 2006, OCR secured OMB approval to collect the revised Assurance of Compliance—Civil Rights Certificate. On July 21, 2006, OCR issued a "Dear Colleague" letter to more than 17,000 SEAs and LEAs providing information about the Boy Scouts Act and the requirement to provide new signed assurances of compliance with all the civil rights laws, regulations, guidelines and standards as a condition of continued receipt of funding from ED. OCR began collecting and documenting the receipt of newly signed assurances of compliance from these 17,000 recipients in August 2006, and will take action to follow-up with recipients that do not complete and return them.
A. Complaint Resolution
In FY 2006, OCR received seven complaints containing allegations of violations of the Boy Scouts Act. In FY 2006, OCR resolved eight complaints that contained allegations involving the Boy Scouts Act. Several of the Boy Scouts Act complaints received prior to issuance of the regulations did not present factual situations covered by the act. OCR expects that its issuance of the Boy Scouts Act regulations in March 2006 will assist the public in better understanding the provisions of the Boy Scouts Act.


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How to apply for a licence to operate as a bovine semen collection centre and to use bovine animals and boars for artificial breeding and semen trade.
The use of bovine animals for domestic or EU semen trade must be approved and licensed by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) in line with the bovine semen regulations. Quarantine, collection and storage centres must also be approved and licensed.
The forms are for premises wanting to apply for approval to:
- use boars in artificial insemination
- use bovine animals for semen collection
- operate as a centre for animal semen collection
The guidance documents provide details on:
- the approval process and the different types of licences available
- how to complete the forms
- fees charged for the approval and inspection process
Some of these documents are available in Welsh.
For further information, contact the Centre for International Trade - Carlisle on 01228 403600.
Published 1 January 2013
Last updated 19 July 2018 + show all updates
Last updated 19 July 2018 + show all updates
- Application for Permission to use Boar/Boars in Artificial Insemination (AI35) updated.
- Updated fee documents
- Updated forms AI01, AI01a, AI35 and AI38
- First published.


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Normal anatomy
The knee is a complex joint made up of the distal end of the femur (femoral condyles) and the proximal end of the tibia (tibial plateau). A number of ligaments run between the femur and the tibia in the knee joint. The anterior cruciate ligament, the posterior cruciate ligament, and the meniscal ligaments are among the ligaments of the knee joint.
Injury to the ligaments of the knee are common sports-related injuries.
Arthroscopy, which involves the use of a small camera and small instruments on the end of long narrow tubes, introduced into the knee through small incisions, may be recommended for knee problems such as:
- a torn knee disc (meniscus)
- a damaged knee bone (patella)
- a damaged ligament
- inflamed or damaged lining of the joint (synovium)
Procedure, part 1
While the patient is deep asleep and pain-free (general anesthesia) or sleepy (sedated) and pain-free (regional anesthesia or spinal anesthesia), several small punctures are made into the knee joint.
Procedure, part 2
The viewing scope (arthroscope) and other instruments are inserted into the knee joint. The surgeon can see the ligaments, the knee disc (meniscus), the knee bone (patella), the lining of the joint (synovium), and the rest of the joint. Damaged tissues can be removed. Arthroscopy can also be used to help view the inside of the knee while ligaments or tendons are repaired from the outside.
Patients are usually able to leave the hospital after arthroscopic knee surgery within 24 hours of surgery. The recovery time, and the need for physical therapy after surgery are determined by the injury treated and the procedure performed.
Review Date:
Reviewed By:
C. Benjamin Ma, MD, Assistant Professor, Chief, Sports Medicine and Shoulder Service, UCSF Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. Also reviewed by A.D.A.M. Health Solutions, Ebix, Inc., Editorial Team: David Zieve, MD, MHA, David R. Eltz, Stephanie Slon, and Nissi Wang.


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Panasonic PV-GS39 Charger - Quick charger will charge standard capacity battery in 2-3 hours. Includes a DC adapter so that you can charge your Panasonic PV-GS39's battery in your car. We guarantee this Battery Charger will work with the Panasonic PV-GS39 Camcorder.
For more accessories please see Panasonic PV-GS39 Accessories page.
Price Each


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Views: 334
I'm looking for more followers.
I do giveaways and have 3 going on right now.
Hi there! We are new here and hoping to find some great new blogging friends and people with similar interests to follow. Please leave your details and I will follow you back too!
We take the "ugh" out of your overflowing Pinterest boards by testing out the pins and telling you if its a winner or a loser. We also share our little secrets from our side of the mommy world. We post crafts, recipes, ideas for kiddos and lots of freebies! We would love for you to stop by, read and support us!
Love to have new followers - let me know, you came from Blogger Moms Club please. I don't want to miss anyone.
Thanks! <3
Wow there's so many to follow already! *love* I'll try to follow all of you, please follow back :)
My URL is
Thank you
Still a brand new blog but coming alone but,...
I need some followers!! lol
Following you!
am now following. check out my blog at http://secondchancesgirl.blogspot.com
Sarah Baker said:
Glad to be part of this group. Looking forward to some new blogs to follow! I'm at http://www.raisedinraleigh.com/ Sarah


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5 Caddies for Children's Books
We've all heard a thousand times that books are best for kids in places where they can be accessed with ease. But this doesn't have to mean overflowing from the bottoms of your bookshelves, or in a messy pile beside the bed. What about storing books for the kids in one of these incredible book caddies? Easy on the eye...and easy for tidy-up time!
1. Land of Nod's Walnut Open Book Bin would be a welcome piece of furniture in or out of the kids' room. $179.
2. These wonderfully designed, hand crafted book caddies from Book/Shop are $129 for natural birch ply/$149 for natural walnut ply.
3. Bigger than you'd think, and complete with a play clock, this book caddy from Tidy Books is irresistably cute and comes in three color-ways. $110.
4. For something a little different, what about this X Marks the Book Caddy, also from Land of Nod? $99.
5. Last, but not least, I agree this is exhorbitantly expensive for a kids' room at £427.50, but the Penguin Donkey 2 is a book caddy with history, so I couldn't bear to leave it out. The original Penguin Donkey was beloved by Allen Lane, the original publisher of the New Penguin paperback, and was slated for sale (and fame) in 1939, but after the Second World War broke out, only 100 were sold! The Donkey 2 is a 1960s redesign of the original, with a flat top to allow the piece to be used as a side table. Availble from Nest.


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From VDR Wiki
Revision as of 16:48, 3 September 2006 by 220.127.116.11 (Talk)
The streamplayer plugin allows VDR to receive and display video streams over the network.
Streamplayer is a plugin to receive and display network video streams on VDR, turning VDR into a streaming client. The plugin is intentionally limited to DVB compatible MPEG1/2 streams that can be displayed without high CPU usage. One possible stream server is the VLC media player, another one is the HTTP server of the streamdev plugin. Streamplayer supports UDP streaming and HTTP streaming, based on the MPEG Transport Stream (TS) protocol.
|Plugin homepage


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A Buxton man has been jailed for punching a chef who made his nachos in the wrong way, a court heard.
Stewart Burningham also received a prison sentence for stealing his ex-girlfriend's car and crashing it, at High Peak Magistrates' Court last Wednesday.
The court heard that on December 12, the 32-year-old, finished his shift as a chef at the Old Club House pub, on Water Street, Buxton, at 8pm.
He went into the bar area and ordered a plate of pulled pork nachos. When it was brought out to him, Burningham, of Church View, Harpur Hill, complained that it was served incorrectly and should have been over two plates.
The dish was sent back, but after 15 minutes, he cancelled his order and went into the kitchen. The defendant approached chef Ian Scobbie and swore at him.
Mr Scobbie responded: "What's your problem?" Burningham replied: "Have you ever seen the spec book?" and picked it up and threw it in his face.
He then grabbed the victim by the throat pushing him back into the dish wash area, shouting: "Who do you think you are?" Burningham proceeded to punch Mr Scobbie twice against the door of the fridge, leaving him with a fractured wrist.
The second incident, which occurred on August 23, involved taking his ex-girlfriend's Hayley Robins' Hyundai, driving it without insurance or a licence, and crashing into a Suzuki Swift on Nunsfield Road, Buxton, at about 12.45am.
He caused £1,446.40 worth of damage by smashing a wing mirror and scratching the bodywork and an alloy. The victim had to spend £150 on a hire car. Burningham also caused £200 of damage to Miss Robins' car.
Prosecutor John Cooper said the defendant had previous convictions including 28 offences and had been in prison before for six weeks.
Kirsten Collings, defending, said he client was hoping for a custodial sentence as he openly admitted that he would not comply with a community order and he didn't want a suspended sentence "hanging over him".
Addressing Burningham, chairmen of the bench Robert Whatmough, said: "You've showed a complete lack of remorse, which is aggravated by your previous convictions. We have very little option but to sentence you to prison."
He was given a 9-week jail sentence for using threatening behaviour, a 12-week jail sentence for aggravated vehicle taking, a concurrent 12 weeks for failing to stop after a road accident and was disqualified from driving for three years.


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Microsoft Patents Adding 'www.' And '.com' To Text
from the just-as-Thomas-Jefferson-intended dept
The specifics of the patent show it to be for easier data entry on mobile devices, but it's difficult to see how this qualifies as either new or non-obvious. Basically, the concept is pretty straightforward and has been done on desktop browsers for some time. To simply add "and on mobile devices" doesn't seem deserving of a patent. Does anyone really believe this functionality wouldn't have been developed without a patent?


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Image: wemidji (Jacques Marcoux).
Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est (And thus knowledge itself is power)
-- Sir Francis Bacon.
Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) blog carnival was just published! The "Scientia Pro Publica 14" of Scientia Pro Publica is hosted by Luke at Genetic Interference. This blog carnival celebrates the best science, nature and medical writing published in the blogosphere within the past 60 days.
To send your science, nature or medical writing to Scientia Pro Publica, either use this automated submission form or use the cute little widget on the right. Be sure to include the URL or "permalink", the essay title and, to make life easier for the host, please include a 2-3 sentence summary. Remember, this blog carnival focuses on communicating to the public, so your essays must be understandable to non-specialists. Further, this blog carnival is not a vehicle for transmitting pseudoscience or advertising to the public -- there are plenty of venues available for that.
The next edition of this blog carnival will be published on 2 November 2009 and will be hosted by Christie at Observations of a Nerd. If you are interested in hosting this carnival on your blog, please contact me as soon as possible or notify the current host (please note that I prefer hosts who have had their writing included in one or more editions of this carnival). I need hosts for 7 & 21 December and all editions that will publish in 2010. Scientia Pro Publica is published on the first and third Monday of each month, so feel free to choose a particular date, or I'll assign you the first available date.


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The following commentary does not necessarily reflect the views of AgWeb or Farm Journal Media. The opinions expressed below are the author's own.
As a farm machinery mechanic and writer, Dan brings a hands-on approach that only a pro can muster. Along with his In the Shop blog, Dan writes a column by the same name as well as the Shop Series for Farm Journal magazine. Always providing practical information, he is a master at tackling technical topics and making them easy for all of our readers to understand. He and his wife, Becky, live near Bouton, Iowa.
I'm as shocked as everyone else at the price of new tractors, combines and farm equipment. $500,000 for a new combine? $100,000 for a corn head or small grain platform? Sheesh.
BUT. Before I start sounding like an old farmer at the local coffee shop, decrying anything new or different, let's look at what that extra money provides, compared to "the good ol' days."
In my youth, it was common practice to overhaul tractor engines ever couple of years if you used them hard. Valve jobs were part of winter maintenance. "How long since the last transmission rebuild?" was part of any negotiation when trading tractors.
Today, a lot of tractors go for decades without having a cylinder head or transmission bolt loosened. (Some have to have those bolts loosened multiple times, but that's a different blog...) Yes, some combine components seem to need to be replaced more frequently than they did 20 or 30 years ago, but...those were 4- and 6-row combines harvesting 120-bushel corn planted at 24,000 plants per acre. When you consider how many bushels get crammed through modern combines in six short weeks each year, it's no wonder there's some wear on many of the components.
There's also the fact that modern equipment provides far more "stuff" than the old equipment did. An old 806 International or 4020 John Deere was basically a seat and steering wheel to control an engine, transmission, differential and hydraulic system. A new tractor has those basic components PLUS an air conditioned/heated cab with am/fm/stereo/CD player, air-ride seat, auto-steer/GPS system, and don't forget the heated mirrors and windshield washer. The tractor itself has electric-over-hydraulics, front-wheel-assist if not four-wheel-drive, automatic transmission, EPA-approved electronic fuel injection, and enough sensors and controls to monitor the Space Shuttle.
Yes, prices for new machinery and replacement parts are high. But I'd like to think we're getting more for that money because (a) the parts and pieces are more durable due to improved technology, and (b) we're demanding a lot more high-tech parts and features that by nature are just plain expensive.
I'm as guilty as anybody else, complaining about high prices and the escalation of material possessions. My first car had 43,000 miles on it when I bought it, cost me $1200, and was worn out at 120,000 miles. (Being owned by a teenager was probably a contributing factor to its early demise.) Today, I cringe at what it will cost to replace my wife's car. We bought it used, and I was embarrassed by all the fancy bells and whistles it had, stuff that I thought was borderline ridiculous to have on a car. Why would anyone pay to have remote-control mirrors? Are we now too lazy to roll down a window and adjust a mirror? Sheesh.
But,even though I think they're one of many expensive, unnecessary and borderline ludicrous luxuries on that car, my fanny enjoys having heated seats when we go to town on a cold winter night. That's part of the problem---what once were options or luxuries become "necessities," whether you're talking about farm equipment or the family car.
Why would anyone want to pay for equipment built by personnel who are often paid $80,000/Yr to use a screw gun to put nuts on a bolt on new equipment? We have few choices. Thank your powerful Unions.


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A wave of tablets is beginning to sweep across the tech world. The most-talked about devices will be high-end units, such as the Apple iPad and Motorola XOOM. But among the crowd will also be low-price, bare-bones machines, such as the LY-706 that I cracked open this week.
At $100 the LY-706 (also know as the MID 706) is roughly 20 percent the price of an iPad or Samsung Galaxy tab (sans contract). But even with such a low price, do you get enough bang for your buck? Neither TechRepublic's Mark Kaelin nor I think you do.
The LY-706 is underpowered, uses old technology, and the build quality is sub-par. Read Mark's full review for his complete opinion of the LY-706. Perhaps we expect too much for a device that costs about the same as a nice dinner for two. What do you think?
Bill Detwiler has nothing to disclose. He doesn't hold investments in the technology companies he covers.
Full Bio
Bill Detwiler is Managing Editor of TechRepublic and Tech Pro Research and the host of Cracking Open, CNET and TechRepublic's popular online show. Prior to joining TechRepublic in 2000, Bill was an IT manager, database administrator, and desktop support specialist in the social research and energy industries. He has bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Louisville, where he has also lectured on computer crime and crime prevention.