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Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: an island off the jersey coast
Posts: 781
Masters of Doom: the impact on pop culture
Masters of Doom by David Kushner (hes written for nytimes, rolling stone, wired and egm) has recently come out with a book on the social history of romero and carmack, talking about Doom in specific and video games in general.
The copy summary is:
"Masters of Doom is the amazing true story of the Lennon and McCartney of video games: John Carmack and John Romero. Together, they ruled big business. They transformed popular culture. And they provoked a national controversy. More than anything, they lived a unique and rollicking American Dream, escaping the broken homes of their youth to co-create the most notoriously successful game franchises in history?Doom and Quake?until the games they made tore them apart.
Americans spend more money on video games than on movie tickets. Masters of Doom is the first book to chronicle this industry?s greatest story, written by one of the medium?s leading observers. David Kushner takes readers inside the rags-to-riches adventure of two rebellious entrepreneurs who came of age to shape a generation. The vivid portrait reveals why their games are so violent and why their immersion in their brilliantly designed fantasy worlds offered them solace. And it shows how they channeled their fury and imagination into products that are a formative influence on our culture, from MTV to the Internet to Columbine. This is a story of friendship and betrayal, commerce and artistry?a powerful and compassionate account of what it?s like to be young, driven, and wildly creative."
I havent had a chance to read it, but what interested me was the claim that doom has had a large and "formulative impact on our culture"
So what do people think, has the impact of Doom been felt not just in the video/computer game world, but beyond that as well?
now with infinite less hyperbole!
Wise Fool.
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: live free or die
Posts: 409
I think the attention doom got by non-gamers was what gave it potential to be a "formulative impact on our culture".
The pinacle of that attention was when they played doom on an episode of ER (then was a top 5 tv show). That was the first time I ever remember seeing such a mainstream show (and mainstream audience) actually discuss and play video games.
I can see the whole connection with doom and the sex/drugs/rock and roll with doom as well (well probably without the drugs/rock and roll connection ahah). Like how Romero married Stevie Case, and got a lambourgini. Gaming had never seen that kind of money or "coolness" before.
Romero also follows the classic rock and roll symptom of fame, by crashing long and hard (daikitana, near bankrupsy).
Molder of today's tomorrow.
"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us." - Bill Watterson
Love can sweep you off your feet and carry you along in a way you've never known before. But the ride always ends, and you end up feeling lonely and bitter. Wait. It's not love I'm describing. I'm thinking of a monorail.
Last edited by mackensie; 05-05-2003 at 11:21 AM.
64-bit Interactive Multimedia System
Join Date: May 2002
Location: So. Cal, USA
Posts: 3,258
I just ordered this book on Amazon earlier today. Kushner just wrote the, "Meet Thy Doom" article in Wired. Loved the article and hope that the book is more of the same. Carmack and Romero have definately lived some interesting lives. Masters of Doom and Return to Castle Wolfenstein(XB, PS2) both come out tommorow(May 7th). Hmmm...wonder if it was planned that way?
Doom and Mortal Kombat got politicians talking about video games. Now we have the ESRB because of censorship jerks like Joe Liberman. Thank your lucky gaming stars that Liberman and Tipper Gore, the censorship king and queen, didn't get into the Oval Office. If it was up to those two jerks, the gov't. would control gaming content.
Posts: n/a
I can only think of one other designer I loathe more than Romero, and that is Mr. Derek "I have a PhD" Smart of the buggy Battlecruiser fame.
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This is probably the wrong place to post and ask this. Sorry.
I was wondering if anyone does custom installs of Coranto and hacks. Ive been using newspro for years on a few sites, I tried to install coranto but failed.
My version of newspro and hacks broke, which places me in need of a new News Engine.
This probably is not something to discuss, so if anyone would like to talk to me, email at email@example.com
"YES! I really am a Newb."

subset: commoncrawl


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Wilhelm Arcturus's Top Five Problems With EvE Online
Wilhelm Arcturus's most excellent blog The Ancient Gaming Noob had a nice post today on the Top Five Problems With EvE Online. On the whole, I agreed with his analysis, and I thought he made some points that should be more widely understood.
Of course, being me, I can't leave it there. So this post is a response to that one. Hopefully I'll have something interesting to add.
Let's review Arcturus's
five six (including a bonus) issues:
- The Name is confusing and unattractive.
- The Age is high. Old games have their own special problems.
- The Player Reputation is terrible.
- The User Interface is bad.
- The Ship and Module Complexity is high.
- The Jargon Level is off the charts.
I agree with three of the five of these pretty wholeheartedly, and am neutral on one. Let's take them in order of agreement…
The User Interface is bad… Not really. It would have to improve a lot to be bad.
I rediscovered a forgotten piece of lore a few months ago. I found that you could slow down your ship to an arbitrary speed while the Micro Warp Drive is running. The controls don't make it obvious, and it never occurred to me to try it. I'm always making "discoveries" like this. It took me two hours the other day to find the Planetary Interaction tab in the controls (buried in a submenu with a funny name). I used to do PI regularly, so this was pretty discouraging.
Maybe it's just me? Naw, because when I have told friends and corpmates some of the things, they have professed astonishment as well. Even after a couple of years, for example, I wonder how many capsuleers know that you don't actually need any rigging skills to fit rigs?
It goes beyond user interface and user experience. The game is just full of Usability issues, and that's how I would describe what we see here. Are these issues fixable? Not without an enormous financial commitment on the part of CCP. In my fantasy universe, CCP starts with Valkyrie as a base and builds a from-scratch EvE client with VR capability. That's probably a $50M project, but honestly it might be worth it going forward.
The Name is confusing and unattractive… Yes, and combined with CCP's often strange marketing plans and practices, it means that a lot of folks who would really like the game won't even try it as "free-to-play".
CCP really needs to take a chill pill on the Cyberpunk Grimdark. There's an Iron Law of Games that says no cyberpunk-themed game will ever go mainstream. EvE doesn't need to be cyberpunk, but damned if CCP isn't determined to keep representing it that way. There's a recurring comical moment seen for example in the most recent SCOPE video: a deadly serious war newsreel pauses while we talk to attacking leader Killahbee and his opponent Progodlegend. To an outsider, that just sounds stupid, and it is stupid. Not because the 'nyms are stupid, but because the grimdark contrast is stupid. People can be lighthearted in space too—especially if they are immortals with no particular needs except fun.
So yeah, the Theming needs a ton of work. It doesn't require changing much, not even in the lore. Just give in to the pressure to let the players make the game fun. When we are having fun, outsiders want to come have fun too, and we want to stay around. Don't grunge up the Lawn Gnome.
Oh, and the name is somewhat fixable too. CCP obviously can't change it from "EvE" or "EvE Online" (how 1990s does "Online" sound in a name?), but they could subtitle it. I learned a while back the inspiration for the name "EvE". Calling the game "EvE: Everybody vs Everybody" would at least let people know what is going on in general. Or just go with "Spaceships/EvE" for an expansion name going forward. (The Alpha Clone introduction would have been a perfect place to do this, sadly.)
The Player Reputation is terrible… I rank this one so low only because I think it's easy to overestimate how much the general public even is aware of the player reputation these days. As Arcturus noted, I'm not even sure how many folks know it's a spaceship game. Certainly the general press in the last few years has mostly been about giant expensive space battles, which certainly doesn't paint us in too bad a light.
On the other hand, CCP has struck again with their recent
#MyEVEStoryseries, the first two episodes of which explicitly highlight how awful the player base is. What are the folks in Iceland drinking? A good rule of marketing is to not put one of your biggest weaknesses front-and-center in your campaign.
How to fix it? Fly more friendships. Camaraderie is a strength of this MMO that makes others pale in comparison. No one cares how terrible those "other" players are if they have friends watching their backs. You're way less likely to get scammed or ganked while in a solid newbie corp because you will get help and advice. If it happens anyway, you'll have the support and sympathy of your buddies to help you get through it. That's half the fun of EvE.
The Age of EvE is both a weakness and a strength. The problems Arcturus highlights are real, but consider the upside. The 13-year history of the game gives it a richness and depth that is just hard to match in newer titles. There's a huge player-driven history now. The game is full of obsolete and semi-broken gameplay elements that are used only by a small minority of players, but which constitute discoveries available to new players. (COSMOS missions, anyone?) In what other game are whole features of play just not known by most of the playerbase?
This goes hand-in-hand with the Jargon Level of the game. Much of the EvE jargon is not CCP's fault, but was developed directly by the players. Almost all of it adds richness and depth to the game. A game in which players "speak their own language" can be intimidating to outsiders, but it can also create a sense of community and draw new players in as they start to "crack the code". I was a vocal opponent of the re-iconification of the Damage Control module, for exactly this reason. Many experienced players referred to the module as "the suitcase" because of its distinctive icon (which was obviously a medical briefcase). Losing that little bit of jargon and lore made the game less rich to me.
I think the Ship and Module Complexity of EvE is a feature, not a bug. Yes, it is part of the horrible steepness of the huge learning curve, and there are things that CCP could do to help new players manage it better. But, like the jargon, it also makes for a rich experience that encourages learning and community. Three years into the game, I think it's fascinating to still occasionally come across a ship I hadn't heard of or paid attention to. I think it's interesting to look at some of the weird, broken and perhaps rarely-used modules or whole classes of modules and think about what they were supposed to do, whether there's a way to use them for a special purpose after all, look at how other people have been using them. For me this is part of the unique fun of EvE.
I've suggested removing about two items from top six status. It is only proper that I give something back. Here's a couple of my candidates:
The actual Outer Space and Ship Modeling is simplistic, unintuitive and kind of painful. We all get used to it, but it never gets good.
"Space friction" is kind of terribad. Gravity isn't a thing. Planets don't move. There are mysterious points that are the sole viable locations for space structures.
Steering a spaceship on one-second ticks by clicking out the window is kind of terribad. The whole concept of "orbiting" is not what it says on the tin, and this "circling" should be supported by having your ship's guns be able to face inward while doing it rather than incurring stupid tracking penalties. There should be more automated maneuvers than "circle" and "keep at range": "spiral in" is an obvious starting point.
Why can I only warp to certain fixed distances from a target? Why in all the world can't the autopilot land my ship on a gate?
I've watched new players try to deal with all this stuff, and it just ticks them off. After three years, it still ticks me off too. If EvE is going to compete with some hypothetical version of Star Citizen or Elite Dangerous getting popular, it needs to be the definitive space-and-spaceships game. Hard to fix, but worth trying on at least some of it.
The weird Player Economic Model is a constant threat to the game. EvE is the only game I've ever seen that can be legitimately described as Pay-not-to-Play. For $15/month, I can guarantee that my character will keep advancing at full rate and the game will be available to me in full whenever I feel like sitting down. My alternative is to spend about 20 hours a month playing to make the ISK to play for free: the game has been called "Second Job" for a reason. That's just strange and counterintuitive to most players, and it encourages a large inactive playerbase that's just paying while they "wait for their skill to train".
CCP's recent history of PvE-centric events designed to encourage players to regularly log in and do something is promising here. I certainly logged in at least every couple of days last month, to get and use the Blood Raider Cerebral Accelerators that were dramatically speeding my training time. While I was on, I grabbed a couple of hundred million in explo loot while getting ganked once, flew with my cousin and had a PvP match over an Accelerator, and started to rebuild some of my other money sources. It was one of my most active months in a long time—the game needs more of them.
EvE Online is a fantastic and awful game, and I am genuinely afraid of what will happen to it if the rumored CCP sale happens. EvE occupies a unique niche in the gaming ecosystem, and if it were to go it would be sorely missed. Let's hope enough can be fixed that this won't happen. I'm looking forward to flying for another decade or two. Hope to see you there.


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Aurifil 50wt Cotton Mako Thread 1422 Yard Spool
This is a fun soft toy for babies and toddlers. Later on it moves to the dressing-up box and becomes a hat or a crown. It is also an ideal 'stress-buster' toy for grown-ups to fidget with. It's quick and easy to make, step by step photos will help you. Different effects can be gained depending on the fabrics you choose and whether or not you 'fussy cut'. It's not obvious from the photos but the toy twists and turns, seemingly on its own, when you hold it in one hand.


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What is Biological/pre-medical illustraion?
Combine your interests and aptitudes in science and art.
Iowa State University's intercollegiate undergraduate major in Biological/Pre-Medical Illustration (BPMI) is a shared program of the ISU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) and the College of Design. The program is housed in LAS and administered by an advisory board of faculty members from both colleges.
Students take a mix of courses concentrated on the natural sciences and studio art. Learn the latest artistic techniques, visual design skills, and the business of being a visual communicator. You'll become proficient in producing a broad range of scientifically accurate artwork, including:
Award-winning faculty members with years of professional and academic experience and an advisory board of scientists and artists help direct, advise and mentor students through their academic career.
Fewer than a dozen such programs or opportunities exist for undergraduates studies in the U.S. and Iowa State has one of the country's longest-running and most respected programs. The ISU BPMI program specializes in preparing students for graduate degree programs in medical and scientific illustration. Graduate schools often recommend that students receive their bachelor's degree from Iowa State because of the strength of the combined science and art components of our program.


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Read this tip to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Travel Nursing Careers and other Nursing Jobs topics.
Travel nursing offers attractive compensation and the ability to travel all over the country. But to land one of these positions, it's important to invest time in your resume. Read on to learn a few tips for creating a recruiter-friendly resume.
Make your credentials easy to read. When creating a travel nurse resume, it's important that licensure information is located with the resume header. This will allow recruiters to easily see what states you are licensed to work in before diving into the rest of your resume.
Include a summary statement that highlights your most impressive accomplishments. Stay away from phrases like "duties include..."; they are generic and won't set you apart from other candidates. Instead, focus on accomplishments that produced results.
Get a second opinion. If you haven't already, consider partnering with a staffing firm such as Clinical One that specializes in travel nurse jobs. They can review your travel nurse resume, and give you feedback for making it more attractive to prospective employers.
|Guru Spotlight
|George Sayour


text: Breadcrumb Home > Dictionary Cite Meaning of Damon and Pythias Find definitions for: Da'mon and Pyth'ias Pronunciation: [key] — Gk. Legend. Gk. Legend. two friends whose mutual loyalty was shown by Damon's offer of his life as pledge that Pythias would return from settling his affairs to be executed for rebelling against Dionysius: Pythias returned, and Dionysius relented and pardoned them both. Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease. Damon damp Related Content Daily Word Quiz: geoduck Analogy of the Day: Today's Analogy Spelling Bee: Today's Spelling Bee Frequently Misspelled Words Frequently Mispronounced Words Easily Confused Words Writing & Language


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Gateway OMS can pass print jobs directly to the Kornit Hot Folder System to allow you to manage your DTG production via our Order & Workflow Manager
Files can be added to the Hot Folder in 2 ways - more details
- Scan barcode to auto download
- Set up hot folder supplier integration to send to hot folder automatically
Kornit printers support automatic file loading from a predefined Hot Folder.
The Hot Folder triggers the Kornit RIP software to "pull" the artwork file created by OMS. The file is then erased from the hot folder and loaded to the printer job queue.
Files that have been sent are loaded automatically and will be ripped according to the parameters in the file name created by OMS - Setup & Table
Kornit RIP samples the folder every few seconds and are loaded in FIFO order (First In First Out). If Kornit RIP fails to load a specific file due to a problem the file is moved to an error folder (C:\Program Files\Kornit Digital\QuickP\Error).
For details on how to configure your Kornit Hot Folder please take a look at https://custom-gateway.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/235809268


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Conversations with Industry - Southern Queensland Country
Followed by Christmas celebrations and networking
Date: Thursday 7th December 2017
Time: 12:30pm arrival for 12:45pm - 4:30pm Conversations Forum
Christmas celebrations and networking: 4:30pm - 6:30pm
Venue: Preston Peak Wines, 31 Preston Peak Lane
Tourism and Events Queensland (TEQ), in partnership with Southern Queensland Country Tourism (SQCT), invite you to attend Conversations with Industry - Southern Queensland Country on Thursday 7th December from 12:30pm-6:30pm at Preston Peak Wines.
This forum is part of a series held throughout the state and provides a great opportunity to connect with representatives from TEQ and SQCT to gain industry insights and discuss the key business areas of marketing, digital, experience development, events and international markets. Please join us for Christmas celebrations and networking from 4:30pm at the venue.
SQCT will be holding their Tourism Advisory Group meeting (TAG) prior to the Conversations forum at the same venue. The TAG meeting is due to commence at 10:00am. Please contact Cherie to RSVP for this meeting. email@example.com
For more information, please contact Tourism and Events Queensland's Destination Specialist, Liana Jones:
Phone: 3535 5325
Email: email@example.com


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Although men are less likely to suffer from depression than women, three to four million men in the United States are affected by the illness.
Men are less likely to admit to or seek help for depression, and doctors are less likely to suspect it. Depression in men is often masked by alcohol or drugs, or by the socially acceptable habit of working excessively long hours. Depression typically shows up in men not as feeling hopeless and helpless, but as being irritable, angry, and discouraged. Even if a man believes he may be depressed, he may be less willing than a woman to seek help. Support and encouragement from family and friends can make a difference. For more information, visit NIMH's Men and Depression Web site.
DBSA provides hope, help, support, and education to improve the lives of people who have mood disorders.24 HOUR HOTLINE!


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30 Teams, 30 Nail Designs; Blackhawks and Senators
Blackhawks/Germany nail art
Bases: Sinful Colors Snow Me White and Wet N Wild MegaLast Red Tape
Detail work: So Easy Yellow, Green, white, black, orange.
For the C and mallets I used a detail brush and outlined the C using a toothpick
The french manicure Chicago stripes was made using a white base and paingint on black stripes
The feathers did take a couple of tries, but a simple way to make them is by making two crescent shapes per feather. The next step is to colour in the feather and then use a toothpick to draw in the details within the feather.
When I did these nails for the playoffs, it coincided with Wake the Line (wakeboard) competition in Germany, so I was able to use that to my benefit as it was the same as the Blackhawk colours. Other things that can be drawn in it's place would be a Stanley cup or the word 'Chicago.'
Ottawa Senators
I'm going to flat out say these weren't my favourite, and it was kind of a rush job for that night's game.
Regardless I used their third jersey 'O' for my thumb since their real logo is difficult to draw, and the jersey stripe on the rest of my fingers.
Bases: Wet N Wild Red Tape, Essie Sand Tropez (taupe on thumb) and Avon Licorice (black).
Gold Stripe was a mix of So Easy gold and Sinful Colors Flower Girl.
For the 'O' (which can be done by drawing a 'C' and a backwards 'C' was done with Ornaments nail art black' pen and the red and gold outlines were of course So Easy Red and Gold
Sens was written in Ornaments white nail art pen.
If you don't have a nail art pen or detail brushes, paint brushes that you buy at any craft store can be used in it's place. The thinner the brush the better.


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Marianne Allen Manchester - Photographer unidentified, [ca 1865]
Reference Number: PAColl-7858
Marianne Allen Manchester, photographed circa 1865 (probably in England) by an unidentified photographer. She sits in a chair with her hands in her lap. She wears a crinoline frock, a shawl around her shoulders, a cross around her neck, and a ribbon and flower in her hair.
Key terms:
1 image, categorised under Portraits, related to Marianne Allen Tasker, Girls and Girls' clothing.
Part of:
Marianne Allen Manchester - Photographer unidentified, Reference Number PAColl-7858 (1 digitised items)
Extent: 1 b&w original photographic print(s)Silver gelatin print 14 x 8.8 cm. Vertical imageSingle photograph
Conditions governing access to original: Not restricted
Inscriptions: Inscribed - Verso - ; Marrianne [sic] Allen Manchester. Born Brighton 13 Nov 1853 [sic]. Left London for NZ in the "Excelsior" 23 April 1879 (aged 16 yrs, 5 months). Arrived Auck 3 Aug, 1870. Married John Tasker, Gisborne, 11 May 1874. Died 4 Feb 1911 Wgton. John Tasker B 4 Oct 1847 Liverpool. D 25 Nov 1906 Wgton. Eldest son - James Manchester Tasker B 9 July 1880 Wfton. Had 5 girls and 2 boys, 29 grandchildren and at 11 July 1948 - 27 great grandchildren.
Usage: You can search, browse, print and download items from this website for research and personal study. You are welcome to reproduce the above image(s) on your blog or another website, but please maintain the integrity of the image (i.e. don't crop, recolour or overprint it), reproduce the image's caption information and link back to here (http://mp.natlib.govt.nz/detail/?id=27894). If you would like to use the above image(s) in a different way (e.g. in a print publication), or use the transcription or translation, permission must be obtained. More information about copyright and usage can be found on the Copyright and Usage page of the NLNZ web site.
External Links:
View Full Descriptive Record in TAPUHI
View and/or order a copy of this image from Timeframes
View Archived Image on NDHA


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Web Development :: Flash Tools
Flash Slideshow DW Extension 1.0.2Demo $34.90
The Flash Slideshow is an extension that will transform your digital photo collection for your web site!
Flash Media Gallery DW Extension 1.0.2Demo $44.90
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Flash Horizontal Menu DW Extension 1.0.2Demo $24.90
The Flash Horizontal Menu is an ideal combination of flash design effectiveness and web usability..
Flash Fusion Gallery DW Extension 1.0.0Demo $29.90
Make your site more popular and attractive: decorate it with your favorite photos by means of Flash Fusion Gallery!
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Advanced Vertical Menu for Adobe Dreamweaver - just what is needed for your site!
Flash Accordion DW Extension 1.0.1Demo $29.90
This amazing, elegant extension can be used to create a banner, news scroller, gallery, one-level menu or just a beautiful flash element for your webpage.
Show.Kit 2.1Shareware $69.95 (EUR 53.95)
Show.kit has developed into a multi-template authoring tool, which makes it so easy to build Flash and HTML websites, Flash presentations, intros and preloaders. You can create an amazing and professional output with various Show.kit templates.
Advanced Effect Maker Free Edition Mac 2.02Freeware
Create Flash and JavaScript effects such as slide shows, messengers, scrollers, games, menus and much more with the click of a button. It contains 40 customizable effects which can be created in less than 4 minutes.
Reallusion WidgetCast 2Shareware $199.95
WidgetCast is a Flash authoring tool and media content service designed to build world class widgets for personal and professional rich-media web content.
aSkysoft Video to Flash Converter 1.5Shareware $24.00
Convert all popular video and audio to SWF flash and FLV. It can convert video ASF, AVI, DVD, VOB, FLV, Quick Time (MOV), MP4, VCD, MPEG 1, MPEG 2, Real Video (RM), SWF, WMV, 3GP and audio AAC, AIFF, M4A, MP2, MP3, WAV, WMA to SWF flash and FLV.
SWF Decompiler Trillix 4.1Shareware $79.95 (EUR 59.95)
SWF Decompiler converts SWF files into their source code FLA, extracts sounds, images, shapes, frames, morphs, fonts, texts, buttons, sprites and ActionScripts from SWF file and allows to edit it without Flash Studio installed.
Sothink SWF Decompiler fuer Mac 6.0Shareware $79.99
The most stable and feature-rich Flash Decompiler Mac. Converts SWF to FLA or FLEX precisely. Extract SWF elements like images, videos, ActionScript, etc. Supports Flash CS3/CS4/CS5 and ActionScript 3.0. The first SWF Decompiler Mac to get XFL file.
Flash Menu Labs Pro Edition 2.083Shareware $109.99
Flash Menu Labs is a powerful tool for creating Flash menus for your website instantly. Even non-professionals with zero Flash and ActionScript skills can successfully use it. Flash Menu Labs adds some zest to your website navigation.
SWF Decompiler Trillix 4.1Shareware $79.95 (EUR 59.95)
SWF Decompiler converts SWF files into their source code FLA, extracts sounds, images, shapes, frames, morphs, fonts, texts, buttons, sprites and ActionScripts from SWF file and allows to edit it without Flash Studio installed.
Flash news ticker 1.0Freeware
Free flash news ticker with xml and css support
Power XML Template v2- 2.0Commercial $30
Power XML template 2.0 is the ultimate solution for creating, editing and launching your website in Adobe Flash even if you do not know anything about the actionscript language
Rounded FREE XML Gallery AS3 1.1Freeware
Description: Rounded free XML Photogallery is a powerful and stylish gallery of images written in as3.With RXP you can simply add images in gallery folder, and write (cut and paste) few lines in a XML file to make photogallery works.
Box Flash Gallery 1.2.1Shareware $39.00 (EUR 29)
Box Flash Gallery implements a natural and compact way to present your photos online. Use a table structure of thumbnails for navigating through your online flash album.
SilverX 1.5.0Shareware $199.00
Convert Flash/SWF to Silverlight/WPF/XAML. SilverX supports all basic Flash features: vector primitives, images, texts and animations, so almost all Flash movie resources get accurately converted to Silverlight.
Moyea PlayerBox 22.214.171.1244Shareware $59.95
Moyea PlayerBox is a fantastic web FLV player creator to realize your thoughts with the control on Flash video playback with your brand and advertisement. You can easily add play button, full screen button and change skin with preferred images.


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Question Paper Code: 16/2017/OL
Category Code: 356/2016
Exam: HSST Statistics SR For SC/ST
Date of Test 13-03-2017
Department: Higher Secondary Education
Alphacode A
1. Quorum of Rajyasabha?
Answer: A
2. State which offers highest wages for unskilled workers under MGNREG Scheme?
(A) Kerala
(B) Karnataka
(C) West Bengal
(D) Haryana
Answer: D
3. National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development was founded in:
Answer: C
4. Spiritual leader who inspired the Channar Rebellion?
(A) Sri Narayana Guru
(B) Chattambi Swami
(C) Vaikunda Swami
(D) Ayyavu Swami
Answer: C
5. Social reformer who founded Kerala Kaumudi?
(A) Sahodaran Ayyappan
(B) Dr. Palpu
(C) Kumaran Asan
(D) C.V. Kunhiraman
Answer: D
6. Vayalar Garjjikkunnu is a poem by:
(A) Vayalar Ramavarma
(B) P. Bhaskaran
(C) T.S. Thirumunpu
(D) O.N.V. Kurup
Answer: B
7. District Collector of Malabar who was murdered in connection with Mappila Rebellion?
(A) William Logan
(B) H.V. Conolly
(C) William Mclyod
(D) Thomas Warden
Answer: B
8. Akkamma Cheriyan was hailed "Jhansi Rani of Travancore" by:
(A) Mahatma Gandhi
(B) Jawaharlal Nehru
(C) G.P. Pillai
(D) Pattam Thanu Pillai
Answer: A
9. Mukul Mudgal Committee looked into:
(A) IPL Spot Fixing
(B) 2G Scam
(C) Coal Scam
(D) Common Wealth Games Scam
Answer: A
10. Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana was launched in:
(A) January 2014
(B) April 2014
(C) August 2014
(D) January 2015
Answer: C
11. The best method of teaching is:
(A) Lecturing
(B) Demonstrating
(C) Discussing
(D) All of the above
Answer: D
12. Classroom learning becomes lively when the teacher:
(A) Allows a short break
(B) Entertains students
(C) Allows discussion
(D) None of the above
Answer: C
13. A teacher should be:
(A) Friendly
(B) Humorous
(C) Approachable
(D) All of the above
Answer: D
14. Students with problems should be:
(A) Ignored
(B) Guided
(C) Exposed
(D) Avoided
Answer: B
15. Most educational research is:
(A) Fundamental Research
(B) Applied Research
(C) Action Research
(D) None of the above
Answer: B
16. In Experimental research, variables are controlled or manipulated so as to:
(A) ensure validity of results
(B) arrive at sound conclusions
(C) enable predictions
(D) all of the above
Answer: D
17. Qualitative Research describes:
(A) 'what was'
(B) 'what is'
(C) 'what could be'
(D) 'what will be'
Answer: B
18. Which is a criterion of a good Case Study?
(A) Validity of data
(B) Reliability of data
(C) Objectivity of data
(D) None of the above
Answer: A
19. When the investigator takes effort to preserve the dignity of the subjects during research, it implies that the researcher has:
(A) Credibility
(B) Integrity
(C) Ethics
(D) All of the above
Answer: C
20. A publication manual that is generally adhered to in the preparation of a research report in Education is:
(A) Indian Research Publication Manual
(B) British Publication Manual
(C) American Psychological Association Manual
(D) Research Publication Manual
Answer: C


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Inspiration Board: Kids Science Room
With back to school underway, we thought it might be fun to round up some inspiration for a science-themed kids' room. Maybe mom and dad will learn something, too!
1. Multi Color Terrestrial Stripes Dhurrie Rug, Orange/Taupe, 5' x 8', $310 at Shades of Light.
2. Brass Molecule Lamp, $309 at Clayton Gray Home.
3. Pythagorus Wallpaper by Andrew Martin, Taupe, $79 at Wallpaper Direct.
4. da Vinci Catapult Kit, $19.95 at Edmund Scientifics.
5. Mini Flatiron Desk, $549 at RH Baby & Child.
6. Chemistry Pillows, set of 4, $320 at Y Living.
7. Night Sky Duvet Cover, twin, $139 from RH Baby & Child.
8. Biology Art Print, $20 from Etsy shop johnwgolden.
(Images: as linked above; composite: Beth Callaghan)
Apartment Therapy supports our readers with carefully chosen product recommendations to improve life at home. You support us through our independently chosen links, many of which earn us a commission.


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Lol I know, I know. Its new year's and you obviously guessed that this is one of my new year's resolutions, to SAY I'll blog like a retard again and then after a week or two, get lazy again hence being back to square one. And you know what I think about that? I think you're absolutely wrong and you should go fuck yourself :K This is my blog and I know how to keep new year's resolutions! So limme alone.
Now now, its been a while since I've blogged and to be honest, it feels great to be blogging again. I'm still not sure what I wanna talk about today, so I think we'll just look at last year in bits, then new year's resolutions in general and this year. However, when I mean last year, I'm talking about MY life, NOT prominent events in the outside world. I don't give a damn about that. You have google if you want to know what happened at some point in the year and why its important. You came to Useful Information About Nothing not Google, so enjoy the highlights of my Usefully useless life ^_^
January: I remember making new years resolutions to go to the gym more often, eat more, be nicer, be a good boy and be outside more often. Be more popular and shii. As usual, 2 days after making the new year's resolution, I found myself going dissing people more, eating once a day, while playing video games all day -_- However, I did go to the gym more frequently…….just so I could get to the vending machine to get Fanta and Skittles ._. All in all, this was just a lazy month.
February: I'll be honest with you, this was the saddest month of my life. Nothing much happened till Valentine's day. Valentine's day came, and I ended up taking two tests in school, coming back home to see a Teddy Bear, a letter with another thing package attached to it in front of my door when I got home. My heart raced so much and I thought I had a secret admirer in the apartment or around, and when I got inside, locked the door, ran to the bathroom, turned off all the lights and then used my phone as a flashlight just to read the message, I discovered that it was my mum who sent me a Teddy Bear for the Valentine she "Believed" I had and the thin package was an Adele CD just in case I was alone. It was then it dawned on me that I had a sad life. I called two of my friends phone's and they said they were "busy". Leaving only me alone, with my new teddy, ice cream, and Adele playing in the background. All that was missing was a cat, and I'd seriously look like a loner. Even my brother's didn't come home that day. Nothing new was on Pornhub and xnxx. It was like the whole world was busy but me L
March: Can't even remember anything prominent in this month except in school, even after 3 months, I was still writing 2011 on anything I did. And even after I told them otherwise, people still kept on asking me to speak "Nigerian" to them and how come my English is so fluent. I have a feeling I'll start wearing a shirt which says "I'm from Nigeria! And there's no language like "Nigerian" Then on the back "We speak English!" Cus I'm seriously tired of telling people there's nothing like Nigerian. Maybe I'll wear the shirt, or just use a thick Yoruba accent to curse them while smiling and tell them I'm saying "Hello *insert name of retard who asked me to speak Nigerian here* how are you?"
April: Okay, so I actually loved this month. Well, maybe not the month, but the prank we played on my mum. So my brother and I decided to prank my mum and tell her I "Mistakenly" impregnated a girl and I didn't want the baby, so I've been dating a guy for a week now and I think I'm gay. Chimo! I've never ever EVER heard my dad or mum soo furious. I also didn't know they knew soo many Bible verses! It was even that day, I knew some jokes shouldn't be told, but it was worth it in a way sha. So anyways, the prank was simple. My brother calls my parents and sounds all distressed and then he tells them that he was snooping thru my phone when he saw some texts of mine telling a girl to abort the baby and that I have a boyfriend. He put it on speakerphone. It was just too priceless.
Bro: Yeah mum, I think Oise is seriously gay and he impregnated a girl.
Mum & Dad: WHAT?! Where is he? *sleeping* Wake him up! Wake him up now!!
Me: Hello?
Mum: WHY OISE? WHY? After all I taught you. After all the years you've spent with us. You go and impregnate a girl?! And what's this I'm hearing about you being gay?
Me: Mum, I didn't mean to impregnate her. And I…
Mum: SHUT UP! Whaddya mean by "I didn't mean to impregnate her" ?
Me: It was a mistake mum. And yes, I'm gay. I like this guy. He's really nice to me. He's 22 tho.
Mum: SHUT UP! ARE YOU MAD? **********************************
Lol, The rest of the things she said, are Rated R.
Dad(talking to my bro): When's the next, earliest and cheapest flight to LA? Start booking the flight immediately. I don't care about the cost. I can see we need to to come and talk sense to you guys.
Then the rest of the convo was muffled as I could hear hisses (from mum obviously) and dad literally grinding his teeth and the joke had to stop after we thought we heard someone (Still mum probably) sobbing in the background, saying something we believed was "God, where did I go wrong?" Even after we told them it was a joke, they were still fuming, and it took them a while to get over it. Dad refused to send me money for the month and mum refused to talk to me for the month too. I was broke and hungry for the whole of this month, but trust me, it was worth it!
May: Nothing really crazy happened this month except the fact that I got money from my dad again and my mum started talking to me, and like any normal Nigerian boy would do, I started doing shakara for her too. Fronting like I didn't want to talk to her. She sha sent me some money too and for this month, I was at my richest. So rich, I still had money to spend after booking a ticket to see my uncle in Sacramento during my finals and even after my finals! It was pretty amazing tho! But nothing special.
June: The major thing that happened this time was the end of school and my preparation for summer! This wasn't even the weird/crazy part. That part happened when I boarded the train to Sacramento to see my uncle and when I boarded it to come back.
So, I boarded this train to go to Sacramento yh, and its about 6 hours long, so I was looking for a position to plant my ass with a fine girl, but every fine one either had one fat friend (who obviously took all the space) or had one friend who looked like a lesbian, or were flanked by their parents. Luckily, I spotted two fine young girls and sat down beside them. Thankfully, they were friendly, and we started talking and the P setting looked like it was in motion……until their mother came and sat down beside me and started cockblocking me very very well. I dunno whether to say she was being an ass, or she just didn't like black people K Anyhoo, the fine girls sha added me on Facebook and after I got to my uncles place, I was thinking the P setting would continue. That's how I checked my Facebook friends and discovered that I had been unfriended…. It took a while to sink in and when it did, I was pissed, but oh well.
Coming back was even weirder. After spending a week and a half with my annoying cousins and my uncle, I was back on the train again, searching for the fine babes but still faced with the same problem. Anyways I managed to find this seat, and all was well… Up until this black girl came and sat in front of me. Now, you might have heard various stereotypes about black girls, but this girl in front of me seemed to epitomize EVERY single one of them. The girl sitting in front of me had this weave she kept on scratching her head and checking her mirror every single time. She kept on chewing this piece of gum so freaking loud it was giving me a migraine. I could have sworn her name was Shanaynay or Shaniqua or something like that. The climax came when she went over to the food cart and came back with only chips and when I asked her why she didn't get a drink, she told me "I dint get nun cus they din hav no Koolaid" K
July: This was one of the months where I found out that my folks were either getting back at me for the April Fool's joke, or they just didn't love me much. So, here I am, thinking that I'm going to Nigeria for summer, after going to London to maybe enjoy a bit of the Olympics, and then days to my flight, my father calls me to tell me that I'm no more going to Nigeria. Its expensive. Expensive to LEAVE Nigeria cus now, the people to bribe have multiplied. My happiness meter went down by 40% but I was still okay and still happy. I was going to London to see some friends and see the Olympics. While in London, the final elah came as my dad told me that I'm to return to USA the day prior to the start of the Olympics. There was no explanation for such an action like his to me except revenge, or just pure joy from seeing me unhappy K So I literally left London when all my friends from Manchester, Liverpool and other places were coming in. #SadLife.
August: School's resumed again. That is all.
September: My bro's birthday! And the best part about this was, I was actually gonna partake innnit!!! J The last birthday he celebrated, all his friends I knew came over and the house was super full, CHICKENS prepared and ready in the kitchen, house full of bubbling people, and just when I think I'm gonna have fun, my mum tells me I had to go to school the next day. I formed sickness and you know what my "Loving" parents did? They took me to the clinic…. The SCHOOL clinic. Anyways, I was no longer in Nigeria and unfortunately, all the bubbling people weren't around, but we had fun at my uncle's place in San Francisco, food, money, and family.
October: Oh yeah, this was the month where nothing really prominent happened except for my donut craving which led me to……… Bro, I've done this story before, here's the link. There you go à https://usefulinformationaboutnothing.wordpress.com/2012/10/20/all-because-of-donuts/
November: Man, this was actually a great month. Everything seemed to go right for me. Even on my birthday, I was shown so much love. It was awesome. But, since I've already made a blog post about it, I really don't have much to say about this except à https://usefulinformationaboutnothing.wordpress.com/2012/11/11/the-best-day/
December: SCHOOLS FINALLY OVER! However, some other key things happened this month tho. So my exams are over, and I should finally be returning back to all Social Networks and just before I do so, I'm called for a video shoot over a freestyle I did in my friend's dad's studio. So weirdly, a simple freestyle got me on someone's song. The guy's name is Lambo, I think. He just looks a bit like Vic O, but with better grammar and partially better dressing. I had no idea what I was doing, but the video shoot and the babes were fine as hell. Plus, I got $30 bucks off it, so I really didn't care, I was getting paid! Also, my parents came over from Nigeria, commented on the hair and surprisingly, they didn't tell me to cut it. They dissed it, laughed at it, but didn't tell me to cut it. I think that's the next greatest miracle after Jesus walking on water. Thankfully afterwards, we went to see my uncles in San Francisco, had fun with a big Christmas dinner, and went snowboarding in Lake Tahoe! All in all, a perfect way to end the year 2012!
January: January 2013, after watching the New Year's Eve program on CNN and it became 12 o'clock here, and we (Family) prayed and just when I was thinking I'd see numerous "Happy New Year" texts, I see only one text from T-Mobile telling me that my phone bill is due and they've cut me off. Seriously. They couldn't even give me a New Year's bonus. Just a day off. Thanks T-Mobile. What a way to start 2013.
Happy New Year everyone! So I'm hoping I'll be blogging a lot more this year. More sexual, more cool, and more retarded stories, brought to you by @TheOiz. And my name is Oise, seriously. Don't call me Oiz. I'm not my Twitter name. That being said, Merry New Year!


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July 23, 2014
What it takes to succeed as a leader has been redefined by changes in the workforce and mega trends. Gen Y is more motivated by identity, mastery and purpose than they are by money, power and stability. Tech-Globalism accelerates the rate of change, be it in consumer attitudes, retail habits and government regulatory actions. As the world gets faster and deeper, leaders will face unique challenges, requiring a retooling of the traditional hierarchical models of yesteryear.
Leadership development needs to change, adjusting to these trends. According to a paper published by the Center for Creative Leadership, the required skills for leaders have changed – requiring more adaptive thinking abilities. They summed up the challenge, "There is a transition occurring from the old paradigm in which leadership resided in a person or a role, to a new one in which leadership is a collective process that is spread throughout networks of people."
Here are five areas of leadership development for the future:
1. Influence – Leaders must move their charges to action by aligning them with the company's values. Influence is the key to building strong culture, which is quickly becoming as important as strategy to global organizations. Command and control are outdated tools in this regard, and instead new skills must be attained such as empathy, story telling and system wide mentorship. To be competitive, power and innovation must be dispersed throughout the organization. Leaders today must ask the right questions, encourage the right people and move the conversation forward. Resource – Influence: The Essence of Leadership
2. Finesse – Napoleon Bonaparte often said that the leader's role is to "define reality, then give hope." His point was that there is a precarious balance that must be struck between the challenges of the day, and the promise of tomorrow. This requires a sense of emotional talent or finesse. Leaders need to feed their mind the right stuff, so they can respond to adversity with innovative thinking. They need to possess clear communications channels with managers, to understand assets that can quickly be brought to bear when adversity strikes. When they implement them, they need to balance the emotional and financial impacts it will have on the enterprise. Resource: Fall of the Alpha Leaders by Dana Ardi
3. Agility – Business cycles has compressed from decades into years. Technology driven industry changes require legacy companies to radically shift their strategies, adopt emerging technologies and kill off out-of-date models. Consumers are empowered with information now, changing how they buy and influence others. Not only does the leader need to be agile, she must effectively hire for it and make it the linchpin of employee development practices. Sticking with your guns is a recipe for defeat. Resource: Learning Agility by the Creative Center of Leadership
4. Creativity – In an IBM study 1500 CEOs named the most important skill of the future leader as creativity. It is one's ability to produce original work that is appropriate to the situation. Today's leader must expand her level of curiosity to uncover patterns of behavior that reveal new routes to value or innovations. She must develop a tolerance for ambiguity – the hallmark of the creative thinker. Moreover, she must manage a culture that encourages innovation, along with candor. She must neutralize the naysayers. Resource: Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmul
5. Higher Purpose – Nothing motivates tomorrow's talent more than a sense of purpose and the belief that one's work makes a difference to the world. While a company needs to make a profit to keep the doors open, it's not going to motivate the entire company to take chances, finish tasks in the face of adversity and serve as brand ambassadors on social media and in the real world. Leaders must constantly look for a higher purpose that the business serves, and empower their entire company to participate to that end. Resource – Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates People by Dan Pink
(From my upcoming keynote address at the Womens Foodservice Forum New Orleans.)Tweet
May 29, 2014
The concept of mentor first appeared in Homer's Odyssey, and since then has grown into a widely talked about concept. Many of us seek mentors, especially during the beginning of our career. Many of us act as mentors, helping others on their journey to greatness.
What I've learned through my mentorship practice is that not all engagements are the same. There are three distinct flavors:
Pick your mentees wisely. Don't promise what you can't deliver. The best time to deliver Flash Mentorship is when the opportunity presents itself. Carpe Diem! In many cases, you start out as a Flash Mentor and over time, you take on either Program or Life Long mentees.
All of us should practice one flavor of mentorship every single week. If you haven't found the opportunity, you either aren't looking hard enough OR you aren't feeding your mind enough to share.Tweet
February 28, 2014
For many of you, the last recession put you into survival mode. This is especially true if you are in banking, financial services, construction, retail or automotive. Those industries were hit so hard, all growth plans had to take a back seat.
Shrinking expenses was the order of the day.
As long as we continue to watch cable news (CNBC, etc.) or let the doomsdayers continue to beat the drums of double dip or next-bubble, we'll stay in neutral, letting our competitors pass us by.
Here's my analogy: A downturn is like a car crash during a NASCAR race. The yellow caution flag comes out, we all coast in the same position. At some point the green flag is waved and everyone scrambles for the lead.
Here's where business turns out differently: The "game on" flag is invisible, just like the hand of the market that Adam Smith wrote about. Some leaders see it early and others see it too late. In 2009, a New Yorker article (Hanging Tough) isolated some of the great leaps in history that were made by companies that got back to growth, innovation and employee development before their competitors. When they saw the green flag, just as the worst of the crash was over, they hit the gas. Kraft, Kellogg's, Hyundai and Apple are all examples of this phenomenon.
Here's a news flash for you: The recession is over. The run up is on. If you wait for any more of a clear sign, the next downturn may be upon you and there's nothing left in your tank. It's time for you to think about growing your business, buying companies and investing heavily in your talent.
As one leader recently told me, "By the time you realize you should have been focusing on growth, it's too late. Your competitors have been doing it long enough to build up not only a lead, but barriers to you being able to draft on their success."Tweet
February 12, 2014
Recently, I was booked to give the closing keynote at an annual corporate meeting for an industry leader. Their CEO had a vision for the meeting: Create A Mindset Where Winning Is the Only Acceptable Outcome. She picked me because I'd worked at a company (Yahoo) that famously developed this outlook, then lost it over time.
I was intrigued by this assignment, and immediately thought of lessons learned from studying Paul Galvin of Motorola (video clip from one of my talks about him). Researching post-Galvin case studies led me to A.G. Lafley's days at Procter and Gamble and ultimately his book, Playing To Win: How Strategy Really Works.
Lafley believes that strategy is "an integrated set of choices about how to win in the marketplace." In other words, strategy is not about accomplishing a certain task or reaching a certain goal. Those are tactics. Being strategic is about making the hard choices to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage in the eyes of customers.
He's got an attitude about leaders that see it any other way. He picks on companies like Saturn, a GM division, that was 'Playing for the sake of playing.' They never intended on beating the Japanese at their game. They just wanted to sell cars in 'the low end of the market,' so Saturn was created. They were not resourced to outperform Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Kia or Hyundai, and eventually, the division was shuttered.
He's even harder on leaders that Play To Survive. In his view, "a company must seek to win in a particular place and in a particular way. If it doesn't seek to win, it is wasting the time of its and the investments of its capital providers." He's right too. Around 2003, I witnessed the Yahoo culture shift from winning to "hanging in there". This was the beginning of the sideways years for the company. We watched competitors like Google leapfrog us with moonshots (Google Earth), while we played it safe by incrementally improving products (Click To Print Map).
Over and over again, Lafley stresses the choices leaders must make in their strategy. The first choice is 'What is our winning aspiration?' which leads to a cascade of choices which build on each other.
I like this cascade (based on the work of Michael Porter, one of Lafley's mentors). It starts with our aspiration or purpose, which according to Jim Collins, should be audacious. Lafley points out that "too many companies eventually die a death of modest aspirations." They made modest choices that the beginning of the strategy cascade, which then led to market-mediocrity.
Then, the second strategic choice is location - where are we going to win? This narrows the market, sometimes to a specific niche where a true winning opportunity lies. Narrowing the market is a hard choice for many, making it even more strategic. But to narrow the market is to narrow the scope of competition as well - making it easier to win.
The next difficult choice has to do with our weapons in the market, the sources of our competitive advantage. In Lafley's view, they need to relate to the perceived value the company delivers to its most important customers. Then, the next choice is about which resources need to be marshaled to deliver that competitive advantage over time. Finally, choices about management systems are made to ensure a high degree of operating excellence. This is a great exercise for any business leader or entrepreneur thinking through their strategy. Each choice is limiting, and serves to give the company a true sense of focus.
One of his stinging points is that "Too many leaders define strategy as the optimization of the status quo." In his view, this leads to sameness, which is not a strategy but "a recipe for mediocrity."
To Lafley's cascade, I added a six element: How Do We Close Value Gaps? This is based on the work of Sandra Vandermerwe in her book Customer Capitalism. Stanley Marcus Jr. told me about this book back in 1999 when he was sharing a case study about the Mercedes Smart Car launch in Europe.
The idea is that you can't lock in a customer anymore with contracts or proprietary technology. Your efforts to do so have decreasing returns over time. The key to winning over time is to get the customer to lock on to your company that solving all their problems in the activity space. For Mercedes' Smart car launch, the activity space they focused on was short haul mobility. The car was designed for trips up to about 100 kilometers at most. For such a specific activity focus, there are obviously value gaps that they need to close: Repair, Renting a bigger car, Insurance, Maintenance and so on.
Here's the idea: Each value gap is an opportunity for a competitor to enter your customer's life and steal them. If you've rented a car at Avis, for example, you likely drove a GM product such as a Malibu or an Impala. If you drive another brand, that's an example of a value gap they didn't close, which might lead you to switch later. Mercedes anticipated this in their strategy, so they provided rental car services to close that gap.
For my keynote, I used a more contemporary example from the medical care industry. For Baxter Healthcare's Renal Bag product line, they built a strategy around the activity space of maintaining kidney health. As they built a wining strategy, they realized that the customer has pre-during-post needs. Up until then, they only played in the 'during' phase, where their bags were part of treatment.
From pre-treatment advice to post-treatment therapy, Baxter had value gaps a competitor could drive a truck through - dropping off samples of a competitive core product. So the team built or partnered their way into an airtight approach to the market, which served the activity space with their product serving as a piece of the puzzle and not a commodity.
My audience was intrigued and provoked into action at the same time. Several focused on choice #2 (where do we win?) and #6 (how do we close value gaps?) as key questions to answer quickly in order to protect their winning hand.
My closing words echoed Lafley's perspective: If you are not playing to win, at best case, you are losing a little more each day. It's a matter of tough choices about the things that matter ... to the customer.
November 15, 2013
Often, we are told to dismiss or ignore fear. Or, we are admonished to overcome it … whip it down! In reality, those tonics almost always fail to quell that worry that eats away at us.
Fear is often cast as a bad thing, never to be fed or encouraged. But that is an oversimplification. Fear comes in many flavors, driven by its source. Some sources are healthy, some are illusionary and others are destructive. That's right, some fears are quite healthy for your sense of balance.
Fear is the acknowledgement of a formidable threat and substantial stakes. If you don't really think it can hurt you, you aren't afraid. If it doesn't matter, you can sluff it off as a casual concern. If you lack ANY fear, in many situations, you aren't dealing with reality or you are overconfident. By recognizing the constructive fears, you'll find proper direction.
For example, when consultants or journalists asked former Yahoo CEO Tim Koogle 'what kept him up at night' in 1999, he would reply, 'two college kids in an apartment, tapping out code that will disrupt the industry.' In other words, he feared irrelevance. It was a legitimate fear too, as Google was being hatched on the Stanford campus at that exact time.
On the other hand, I've worked for several CEOs that put more of their energy against the fear of failure. They worried that the proposed product might not sell well, giving them a black eye to investors. They worried that shifting to the new technology platform might lead to downtime, alienating legacy customers. Were these fears legit? In all situations, the greatest risk wasn't a botched release or a short outage in services. It was competitive innovation.
The best way to manage fear in your life is to prioritize them by their legitimacy and urgency. The healthiest fear for a modern day business leader is obsolescence. As Koogle pointed out to me, "for every company that goes down due to a few bad product SKUs or sloppy accounting, there are nineteen that die a sudden death because their customers flee to the new-new thing."
Takeaway: Your fear of getting lapped in the marketplace should be the one you pay attention to and lose sleep over. If you want to be a modern day innovator, your fear of obsolescence should be greater than your fear of failure.
What do you do with these fears? Face the worst case, and resolve to do better than it. Deploy resources to overcome its source (competitive innovation). Talk about it as a burning platform to your colleagues.
For more, watch this video clip from 2005 where I share Tim Koogle's insights and the Paul Galvin story. "Do not fear mistakes. Wisdom comes from them!"Tweet
September 27, 2013
Earlier this year, I was sitting around a table of successful entrepreneurs, listening to them talk about lessons learned in startup world. One founder would soon sell his company for almost two hundred million dollars and the person sitting across from him had just successfully raised one hundred million bucks from Silicon Valley VCs. These two cats knew their stuff.
"If you could change anything about how you built your business, what would it be?" the recently funded CEO asked.
"I would have built culture from day one," replied the soon-to-be-swimming in dollars CEO. "Just like Tony did at Zappos, start with culture then layer on a strategy. If you wait until 20 people, it's probably too late. If you wait until 100 people, you'll need to clean house unless you've been very lucky in recruiting people that are naturally tuned into your values." Deep.
Last week, I gave a keynote at Foundercon, an annual leadership event for Tech Stars alumns. (If you haven't read Do More Faster, you should grab it right away.) Along with sharing my perspective from Love Is the Killer App, I talked to them about the critical importance of prioritizing the building of culture. My message was that when culture builds itself, the buildings look like silos - not a collaborative web.
I believe that culture is a conversation about "how we do things here." Most culture is centered on how team members relate to each other as well as the outside world. The leaders initiate the conversation, then punctuate it with action. They don't hire people that don't fit the culture and they reward the ones that do in succession planning. It's all done very publicly, often talked about and frequently marketing at a visual level. (Signs of "Done Is Better Than Perfect" were everywhere at young facebook.)
Whether you are starting a company, church or a team, if you want to lead, be on top of the conversation. The value of culture building lies in Henry Chesbrough's definition of the concept: "A set of values, properly expressed and enforced, that creates a system of social control." If the culture is strong, every team member knows exactly what to do, even when the leaders aren't there to tell them. If the culture is about transparency, information is disclosed when asked for. If it's about putting the customer first, then refunds with no questions asked are given by associates, even before it becomes a codified policy.
Here's the three keys to building culture, even with a small group:
1. Choose a few values that define the purpose of your business. Make sure they are based on helping people or solving their problems. Choose values you can get a teenager and a grand parent excited about. HINT: "Maximizing shareholder returns" is a really lame value statement. Sounds like a corporate conglomorate, which is fine for investors...but they are gone after they write the check...you need talent, partners and fans.
2. Adopt rituals to promote your values, and integrate them into the fabric of your group. Not just signs or placards, you need to plan events or choreograph group behavior around values. If you value collaboration, have a Friday beer bust and be mindful of messaging. If you value customer experience, host an annual gathering of them to open your ears and iterate. Saturn automobile used this ritual to build relationships with customers, and at the same time, to cement their values around creating a wow experience for customers.
3. Use these values to make hiring, budgetary, firing and rewards decision. If you are working at an established company, but fear that you need to re-build culture -- you'll likely need to let a few people go that don't fit. Words may resonate, but actions motivate others to buy-in.
What are your organization's values? How are you driving them into the conversation? Would love to hear about it in comments.Tweet
August 28, 2013
A few weeks ago, I retweeted this Mark Cuban Twitter update:
Challenge conventional wisdom. There is almost always a better way— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) August 10, 2013
I connected with what he was saying, and how important it is for us to progress past "what's been working so far." Too many leaders (and their manager minions) challenge new ideas, where offering up a new way is like playing whack-a-mole...where the creative thinker is the mole!
One editor at a highly prestigious publication responded to Mark, of course, with an edit: "Sometimes." His point, I guess, was that conventional wisdom is usually tried-and-true to the situation since it is, ahem, convention. But his response also echoes the sentiments of leaders everywhere. The Status Quo doesn't have an image problem. It believes that only rarely is "the new way" the best solution.
These are the new battle lines: Almost Always VS Sometimes. The Almost Always leader (a new way is Almost Always better) believes that we should constantly question how things are done and what's worked up until now. They are vigilant when it comes to being ahead of the curve. They like to hire (younger) smart people, who've shown that they can think outside the lines when stuck pursuing a worthy goal. The Almost Always leader creates a culture where innovation is king, and agility is a habit and not just a response to crisis.
The Sometimes leader (a new way is Sometimes better) believes that there should be a presumption against change. They are quick to trot out historical turkeys when faced with a challenge to convention--especially if it comes in the form of a novel idea, which requires a change in the rules. They like to hire people with quotable resumes, a willingness to fit in and a tendency to support the system above all else. The Sometimes leader creates a culture where process is king, and the top goal is to "not blow it" or to "let the cowboys take over."
Guess which company is RIM/Blackberry VS which company is Google? Guess which company is Tesla VS which company is GM? Guess which company is Facebook VS which company is Kodak?
The cycle of disruption is getting tighter every year, where conventional wisdom transmutes into head-in-the-sand thinking. What worked like a charm a few years ago, clunks along in last place today where the consumer is more mobile, agile and hostile to his grandfather's solution.
Even if you have an Almost Always leadership style, that doesn't mean you are creating an anything goes culture. In the case of Google, it's mantra was "Do Epic Shit". There are still many steps that a new way must take to get from the whiteboard to the field. It has to find a tribe. Then it needs legal or the department of comportment to sign off. Then it usually needs money, and often, cannibalization of an existing cash calf (which used to be the cash cow). Those "gates" often shut down new ideas even in the most innovative cultures.
But at least, if the presumption was in favor of a new way, your leadership style just might create a climate where your talents bring their ideas to work, and fight for the company to stay relevant. If you have a Sometimes leadership style, that's one gate too many for almost any new idea to get through. If your presumption is for the Status Quo, your company doesn't have a chance ... barring throwing out its leadership ... to compete for the future.
This jives with what I've learned from author Bill Jensen (Disrupt!): "Your company isn't disrupted. Your eco-system is disrupted by a more agile culture." And when the culture smells stale, that fish stinks from the head!Tweet
August 02, 2013
Show me a ball player who injured most of the time and I'll show you someone either on the trading block or moving towards retirement. When someone develops a reputation for being injury prone, their stock plummets...along with their playing time.
Why? After a few injuries, people begin to wonder whether you really want to play the game for better or for worse. So many injuries are latent, and too often players take their time coming back from them. While they are out, the seaons gruels on and other players covered for the injured reserve. And that doesn't build up trust.
Now apply this to your worklife. If you get your feelings hurt a lot at work, causing you to withdraw from projects or to give up on the task at hand, you'll eventually be the last person picked for a team. If you are too easily exhausted by hard work, having to take off time to recoup, you won't be seen as a finisher that your colleagues can depend on. And when times get tough, they'll only keep the strong.
In my career, I've prided myself on concealing injury and playing on. This was instilled in me by my grandmother Billye, when she talked about succumbing to an emotional or phsycial injury as a public sign of weakness...and one step backwards.
"A winner never quits, and a quitter never wins," she'd quote me, from the pages of Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich. Then she'd apply it to my situation: "If you can't play through pain, how can you ever finish the season of life? Why are are going to let your feelings get in the way of doing your job? Why would you quit on your friends that work by your side? Why does being sensitive make you management material?"
Now, mind you, I'm an echo-boomer and she came from the GI Generation. It's pretty natural that she would give me advice to buck up, never let 'em see me out of breath and play through the pain -- and I'd follow that prescription. For our current generation(s) of workers, that conversation is not as easy. X'rs and Y'rs grew up in a world where they were raised to protect their self-esteem and get out of a bad situation ... even if means quitting.
I believe there is a middle ground when it comes to the intangible injuries we often face at work. After all, it can be a contact sport as we deal with: Overbearing customers. Relentless managers. Prima Donnas. Bullies. It's how we decide to respond to them that defines our sense of toughness.
If we elect to take them personally, cop to an injury and reduce our engagement level, we are letting them put us on the sideline. We are shrinking to the situation.
While I am a ferverent proponent of standing up for youself, I recommend you do it from a position of strength, not pain. Instead of letting your negative feelings (Sick & Tired Of This!) be expressed by your actions (dialing out), push back, then resume your efforts with an even keel. If you need to, rely on your closest friends and family to hear you out, give you comfort, and keep it behind the firewall.
Leaders are often picked because of their uncanny ability to recognize reality, but maintain hope. Where others melt down or shrink in the face of ignoble treatment and aggressive adversity, they stand tall, if not bruised. Now you know their secret sauce. They are winners.Tweet
July 18, 2013
Last week, I had a chance to catch up with a friend who just moved to LA to work in the music production industry. He's read Love Is the Killer App several times, and put several of the ideas into practice. He's mentored several up and coming engineers as well as lending his network to those seeking a new gig.
"But here I am, still living check to check," he said to me. "Few if any of the people I've helped have done squat for me. How can your system work in the real world?" This is a question I've struggled with while writing the book, touring to promote it and mentoring dozens of people over the last decade. It's very hard for a human to give to a taker, and then be OK with being took.
In my experience, however, I've learned something critical: Nice Smart People Succeed. Note I didn't say Nice People Succeed. The big difference lies in being smart about whom you help out and what to look for before you help out a second time. So here's the advice I gave him:
Only Give To Fellow Givers - Too often, we get sucked into helping out users, because they are very good at conning us out of resources. Screen people first for their generosity by asking them who they've helped out recently, and how it made them feel. If they fumble for an answer, reconsider whether this is a good person to promote or mentor. If you give to a generous person, at the very least, they'll pay it forward. (I know that it sounds harsh for me to say that we should deny selfish people our talents and gifts, but the Takers are well organized and constantly stealing what they can. The Givers need to circle their wagons accordingly.)
Don't Give Away The Scarce Or Non-Replenishable - You have intangible gifts that actually grow when you give them away. Take knowledge sharing. When you give wisdom or advice to others, often you get feedback from them later about how it worked, which only sharpens your saw. When you intelligently share your network of relationships, your total circle usually expands due to reciprocity and goodwill. If you give away too much time, money or permissions (letting others break the rules), you'll run out eventually, and then be VERY senstive to the ROI of giving.
Take The Long View - Don't expect to see results immediately. By suspending your expectation for immediate reciprocity, you send a powerful message to your recipients that empowers them: I expect nothing in return. This usually gives them a feeling that they too should be as generous and helpful as you, and that you truly gave them a gift...and did not look at them as an investment.
Photo/Drawing by Joy Martin
June 14, 2013
This week, I've been tweeting and writing about innovation. We all know it's the prescription for sustainable success in a constantly changing world. But what exactly is innovation? I've played around with several definitions over my consulting and speaking career - and each one is helpful to those trying to harness it's power.
So, I've created a Facebook Page contest, inviting all my friends and followers to submit their definition of innovation. Next week, I'll pick the most helpful submission and mail the winner a nifty Intel titanium removable drive (8 gigs). It's my way of saying "Thanks" for contributing to the conversation.Take a minute to check out the video I made that explains the rules, the prize and my motivation for launching it. Make sure your submissions are in the comments to the video on the Facebook Page and not here.Tweet


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Debra Arko Novotny, L.Ac., D.Hom., MNP, CHC
Debra Arko is a licensed practitioner of Chinese Medicine holding degrees and certifications in Acupuncture/Chinese Medicine, Homeopathy, Naturopathy, and Integrative Nutrition. She works as a health coach with your unique Bio-individuality. Balancing the 'Primary Areas' of life – Relationships, Career, Activity, and Spirituality along with nutrition to help you have the best health and life possible. Deb's mission is to help people by being part of the ripple effect of health and wellness. Through her online cooking classes, webinars, workshops, and 1-1 mentoring, she empowers clients to live the life they want. She's a published author and speaker with 27 years of practice. She offers a complementary consultation. Dr. Deb provides local or virtual coaching. She is a health provider with insurance. Her focus is on the 12 Step Cycle Of A Healthy Life to assist with allergies, women's issues, weight loss, pain management, and more.


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Faith Assurance
"Now faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen [the conviction of their reality—faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses]" (Hebrews 11.1 AMP).
Everything hinges on faith. We cannot have one plausible thought about heaven, salvation or victory in Christ without faith being the core of all that we believe and think. So much of our Christian walk is based on things we cannot comprehend with our fives senses. God beautifully gives us physical symbols and metaphors to help us with the abstract truths of our faith. He gives us the Wine (God's essence mixed with flesh, the Blood of Jesus poured out to reconcile the earth), He gives us the Bread (the container that was broken to pour out the Wine, the Body of Jesus broken on the Cross), He gives us the Last Supper (the act of God's Children breaking the Body of Jesus and consuming His redemptive Blood), and He gives us so many more metaphors of spiritual truths that activate our faith: Tree of Life (Jesus), Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (Free Will), Garden of Eden (heaven and the presence of God) serpent (Lucifer or Satan), and so on. God relates to us in ways that we can understand, and our faith in these things gives us hope in realities we cannot see. God and heaven will become a reality to us if faith supersedes sight. We simply need to believe the unseen more than the seen, and work our faith into all areas of our lives, making our trust in God a concrete fixture in all we believe, say and do.
"For we live by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5.7 NIV).


text: Like many restaurant-themed time management titles, Yummy Burger is all about arranging food just the way your customer like's it. In a simplified game style, Yummy Burger breaks it all down one customer at a time. Customers approach your stand (or restaurant if you've progressed on to the next level of game play) ask for their burger or meal and it's your job to deliver it, just the way they want it. Mess up and it's back to the drawing board.


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Michael Day
Michael Day is the Chief Executive of Historic Royal Palaces, the education and conservation charity responsible for the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, Kew Palace and the Banqueting House in Whitehall. Under Michael's leadership, the organization has achieved financial success through a strong focus on income generation, including establishing a fundraising program. At the same time, HRP has become known for the clarity of its mission and its ability to attract wide audiences. Michael received his degree from the University of Leeds and attended the Getty Leadership Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. He has been a faculty member of the University of East Anglia Museum Leadership Programme and co-directed the Nordic Museum Leadership Programme in Denmark. He lectures extensively on cultural leadership issues throughout the world and has been honoured for his service in the heritage and museum sector.


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Writing immutable code in C#
Do you write business application, where change requests are on daily basis? Do you write software, which musts be reliable and robust? Do you write components, which could be easily extensible or/and scalable? You can find some interesting thoughts in that article. And following described approach could save your time when maintaining the code.
During last few years there was written quite a lot about immutability, and functional programming as well. Although C# is object oriented programming language, writing the code in immutable approach is not so difficult. Parallel programming is become popular of today. Speeding up processors is no more efficient, and so manufactures produce processors with more and more cores. Therefore when making software faster one way is to split task into subtasks and process them on all accessible cores at the same time. Writing parallel code is not simple and rewrite existing sequential code into parallel is even worse. Immutable data objects well fit in parallel programming, since such objects can be easily share between threads without some kind of concurrency issue (like dirty read).
In classic OOP object has state and methods manipulating with them together in one class. There are five basic principles of object oriented programming and design. In SOLID acronym the S means Single responsibility principle. This principle looks broken in classic OOP object implementation, since there are 2 reasons why to change object. First you can modify data i.e. add new property of the object, second you can modify interface i.e. add new method to update the object. I very like the approach to implement 2 types of classes, strict data objects and strict state-less objects with methods only. Then the project has:
1. plain old CLR objects (POCO), which are pure data objects. Making all these objects true immutable is a little hard in C#.
2. functional state-less objects, which implement only the methods. The principal idea (how to achieve immutability) here is that all methods taking input objects as parameters and never change their state. In cases the input object and output object are the same type, methods will always return a new data object.
There are more benefits when implementing these 2 types of classes as unit-testability (same inputs will always generate same outputs), extensibility (usually you can modify workflow without concern, that some object needs to be in exact state before calling the method), maintainability (changing the code is easier, since your algorithm behaves only on inputs), readability and understandability, and last but not least performance (with DI container we can create just single functional object and inject it everywhere it is needed).
We have an application for managing relationship with customer (CRM). One of the scenario is Support Cases, or management customer issues with our product. To keep it simple, let our scenario is defined:
– As a Customer Support I create new Support Case when customer calls me a new issue.
– As a Customer Support I can modify Support Case with more additional information.
– As a Customer Support I can change status of Support Case.
– As a Customer I want to be notify when my Support Case changes the status.
Let us define simple object SupportCase
public class SupportCase
public string Title { get; set; }
public Customer Customer { get; set; }
public SupportCaseStatus Status { get; set; }
public IList<string> Descriptions { get; set; }
Now let us define interface for working with support case. Note: for this example and simplicity all methods are defined in one interface. In real application we will probably split methods into several interfaces.
public interface ISupportCaseManager
SupportCase New(string title, Customer customer, string description);
SupportCase AddDescription(SupportCase supportCase, string newDescription);
SupportCase Open(SupportCase supportCase);
SupportCase Close(SupportCase supportCase);
SupportCase Cancel(SupportCase supportCase);
And finally let us implement Support Case manager class. Note: I have used IClonable<T> interface for cloning the SupportCase objects. And ISupportCaseNotifier for notifying customers about changing the status.
public class SupportCaseManager : ISupportCaseManager
private readonly IClonable<SupportCase> _cloner;
private readonly ISupportCaseNotifier _notifier;
public SupportCaseManager(IClonable<SupportCase> cloner, ISupportCaseNotifier notifier)
if (cloner == null)
throw ArgumentNullException("Argument cannot be null.", "cloner");
if (notifier == null)
throw ArgumentNullException("Argument cannot be null.", "notifier");
_cloner = cloner;
_notifier = notifier
public SupportCase New(string title, Customer customer, string description)
// validation of inputs
// creating new support case object
SupportCase sc = new SupportCase
Title = title,
Customer = customer,
Status = SupportCaseStatus.New,
Description = new List<string>(new string[] { description })
return sc;
public SupportCase AddDescription(SupportCase supportCase, string newDescription)
// validation of inputs
SupportCase sc = _cloner.Clone(supportCase);
// we can modify new support case object in this method
return sc;
private SupportCase ChangeStatus(SupportCase supportCase, SupportCaseStatus status)
// validation of inputs
SupportCase sc = _cloner.Clone(supportCase);
// we can modify new support case object in this method
sc.Status = status;
return sc;
public SupportCase Open(SupportCase supportCase)
return ChangeStatus(supportCase, SupportCaseStatus.Open);
public SupportCase Close(SupportCase supportCase)
return ChangeStatus(supportCase, SupportCaseStatus.Close);
public SupportCase Cancel(SupportCase supportCase)
return ChangeStatus(supportCase, SupportCaseStatus.Cancel);
The immutability and proof of concurrency issue is not evident for first look. Let me extend information about notifier implementation. It is done by creating new long time running thread. It takes 5s to generate the email before it sends using SMTP server. Now let me describe what happening. Customer Support creates new support case and immediately after starts working on them by clicking on Open button. What happen in the system? It creates a new support case in New method and sends notification to customer via notifier by passing object of SupportCase. New notification thread starts generating the email using this object (remember this takes 5s). In the same second system updates the support case in Open method and sends next notification via notifier by passing object of SupportCase. New thread also starts generating the email. Now 2 threads are generating the emails of the same SupportCase, however they have different object with same data except of Status property, so emails are generated well. Note: Sending emails in right order is not described here.
In next article I will describe how to obtain immutability across the projects and system. In my applications I tried several approaches and there is not the best one. All has some pros and cons.
That's all, now go write some code.


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In the Netherlands, in the school children learn using the IPad !
The Steve Jobs program already has seven primary schools active . The children of the " New Era " carry out the tasks and lessons on iPad with the help of dedicated educational and creative apps . Not only. There is a system called iDesk Learning Tracker that allows parents to monitor homework , grades and progress of their children 24 hours a 24. When will it arrive in Italy?